prblogs says:

Twitter Comment by @prblogs (prblogs)

PRSquared: Help Your Humble Servant Plan for 2009?: It’s the last day of the year.  It&rsqu.. [link to post]

– http://twitter.com/prblogs/statuses/1088423360

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Bryan Person says:

I’d like you to share more case studies, too — and not only because I like to point to them in my presentations. I think we still need more examples of what’s worked for clients, the roadbacks your agency helped them to overcome, and how social media and your other campaigns have helped them to meet, and surpass, business targets.

I know that many agencies, including the one I work for, often have trouble convincing clients that their results should be shared. So while you’re writing up case studies for the blog, might you also include from time to time just how you made the successful argument for passing along their story to the world (or at least your audience of thousands)!

Happy New Year, Todd!

Bryan | @BryanPerson
LiveWorld

Andrew Meyer says:

Todd,

I love your blog because as an engineer/entrepreneur, I have no background in marketing or public relations. Honestly, I think that is an advantage for me as both fields are changing so much that previous knowledge may well be more damaging than helpful.

There are a couple of things I have strong opinions on that I would love to know your perspective on because my opinions may well be wrong, but that doesn’t mean I’m not giving them up without a fight.

1. What will the face of social media look like. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. are all fun, but none of them have developed a sustainable business model (outside of porn). Facebook is the only social media tool that has crossed the chasm into mainstream use. If FB cannot develop a sustainable business model in 2009, it may well be bought, but more meaningfully it will mean that social media is a niche add on for MSFT or GOOG or someone other viable business. How this evolves should provide meaningful fodder for speculation and blog posts from different perspectives.

2. Will e-commerce actually live up to it’s billing. Over the holiday season e-commerce sales were down 3% and only accounted for $25B. I believe this is about 5% of total retail sales for the season. Those are pretty horrific numbers and certainly not what was promised when the internet first came out. What went wrong? Why were promises not fulfilled? Is this a marketing/PR problem or a deeper structural one?

3. The internet does change somethings. Newspapers, telephones, the recording industry, TV and Hollywood are feeling the effects. How do these industries need to evolve and interact with their customers to be successful going forward?

4. If Marketing/PR changes from a one-way communication to a multi-directional conversation, what is the role of Marketing/PR? There are still very clearly niches where it’s tremendously important. What are they? How does a business realize that they have that need? How does a business or a business person go about finding a way to solve that problem? Right now these are very foggy areas.

5. The global nature of business is changing. You may be sitting in a wintery wonderland talking to people in India. How do you handle PR when defining your target audience is so widespread? When the really scarce resource is attention and there is such a surplus of information, how does one attract attention from the right people at the right time?

6. There are interesting patterns of people with similar interests grouping into clusters. What does this mean for bloggers and more importantly for people reading blogs etc.

7. Newspapers used to fill an interesting niche of publicizing what’s happening in a particular town/city. With the implosion of newspapers, what will take their place publicizing local events? TONY (Time Out New York) and it’s like for other cities don’t seem to be doing this effectively and no other means for doing this seems to be gaining traction. I would think quite a lot of PR is fairly localized. Can it evolve to fill those niches?

Anyways, I’ve babbled on quite long enough, but I hope it’s helpful.

Your loyal reader,

Andy

Elizabeth Sosnow says:

Todd:

First, let me say a sincere thank you for sharing your knowledge. I am a relatively new subscriber, but I truly appreciate the generosity and thoughtfulness of your posts. You are an excellent teacher.

In terms of future posts, I would be interested to hear more about how you spread that impressive “teaching DNA” within your agency’s culture. How do you help new hires learn the rules of the road? How do you help laterals integrate? Teach old dogs new tricks?

I am also very interested in any thoughts you may have about social media for professional service professions such as law, consulting, accounting, etc.

Happy 2009!

@elizabethsosnow