Comments on: Social Media Top 5: Buffering Obama, Lazy Readers, & PR No-Brainers

By: Doug Haslam

Doug Haslam — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:57:30 +0000

Narciso– yes, there are more people coming into this– “101s” will not go away soon.

Shava — I would agree it’s not a top priority — see the link I added to the Media Bullseye piece– there are too many levels of secrecy and bureaucracy in federal government to make social media easy.

Jen– Thud factor is an old fave in PR. You can always print out the online clips, right?

By: Jen Zingsheim

Jen Zingsheim — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:48:54 +0000

Great topics all–as you know (thanks for the RT on the article) I’m highly skeptical of the White House’s ability to do much in the realm of social media. The lawyers won’t even let the staff have IM.

And, I *so* wish the obsession with print would die. Hard to overcome the “thud” value (I saw that term on LinkedIn)of a clip book though. Client sees big book of paper–>PR firm must be doing its job.

Have a great weekend!

Jen

By: Shava Nerad

Shava Nerad — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 22:14:18 +0000

On the Obama thang — and I said the same to Dave Winer on his blog and twitter — the Obama transition team had two months and US$12M and 450 people to set everything up. Blue State Digital is pretty savvy about the web, and did fine with some social media (iphone app?).

But the whitehouse.gov site launched pretty much the moment it could. And I wouldn’t consider it a final product, or the limit of the administration’s investment in social media.

Let’s face it, “echo chamber,” with the mess we’re in globally, it might be that a fully implemented social media strategy on day one of 100 wasn’t the proper top priority for the transition team.

Y’think?

By: Narciso Tovar

Narciso Tovar — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:19:52 +0000

We’re still having to educate folks about some of the most basic things in PR. The one GREAT thing about this is that they are so much more open to new ideas, methods, etc. The one BAD thing about this is that we’re having to take the time to educate them on this kinda stuff.

HOWEVER, at the end of the day, I’d rather have a blank sponge soaking up everything we tell em’ vs. a person that thinks they ‘get it’ when it comes to PR & external communications and starts throwing out unrealistic demands.