Rockstars of Social CRM- in Pictures!:
I blogged about my side impressions from this event early in the week, but Warren Sukernik put together these entertaining slides that give the perspective of someone who joined the event via Webinar:
Are We Setting Up Young PR pros for Failure?
I have wondered aloud– with help of some PR professors about the state of PR education in colleges, and whether students are getting the education in newer communication methods– the answer, I think, is that there has been a lot of progress between now and a few years ago. David Mullen, in his article, takes a different tack; he wonders if young PR pros are being tagged as “social media experts” due to their Gen-Y credentials, and being given the keys to social media programs. Is this really happening? I don;t for example, feel that we do that at SHIFT communications, where I work. Are they being given the experienced management and strategic support they need to help their teams succeed? David seems pessimistic. I’d like to hear more.
*UPDATE* Karen Russell, who teaches PR at the University of Georgia, weighed in with her take.
…And a Partridge in a Pear Tree(?):
While self-brainstorming this week (ok, that sounds wrong somehow), I searched on the phrase “elements of a social media program.” The results I got made me chuckle. They included:
- Five Essential Elements
- Six Successful Elements
- Seven Critical Elements
- Forty Key Elements
- Oh- and Ten tips
There is no shortage of advice, is there?
Something in the Air:
I happened upon friend Colin Browning of New Marketing Labs at a Tweetup (Twitter meetup) during the Enterprise 2.0 conference here in Boston, and he corralled me for this Friday Funnies video now up at his Constructing Social blog. I think I did a good job keeping my composure.
Girl Dies While Tweeting:
No, it’s “Girl Dies While Using an Electrical Appliance in the Bathtub.” I’m sure there are plenty of things we can blame Twitter (or Facebook, or blogs) for. This isn’t one of them.
Thanks for sharing the post and continuing the conversation, Doug.
There are certainly agencies and companies that do a great job of guiding young, social-savvy pros when it comes to goals, strategies, etc. for their social media efforts.
But in the past couple months, I’ve had at least 10-15 young pros tell me that their bosses (agency and corporate) figure they can run the company’s first foray into social media just because they are young and/or are on Facebook. And several of them said they had friends who were experiencing the same thing. Sure, it’s anecdotal, but it still struck me as a problem that should be discussed.
In asking them questions about it, most of them said their bosses didn’t use social media and were uncomfortable with the platforms. That and they were looking at the social media effort as a one-off. “I’m hearing a lot about Facebook. Create a Facebook page for us and run it.” (which is another problem altogether!)
The consensus from these 10 or so was that they were uncomfortable with it. They said stuff like managing a personal page on FB is different than a brand’s. (I agree) Or that they didn’t know what they were supposed to work toward accomplishing – and their bosses didn’t either.
Another interesting take that I hadn’t thought of came from the comments. A young pro said she was put in a digital role right out of school because she had some knowledge of the tools and now that she’s been doing it a couple years, digital campaigns is all she works on. She feels like she’s being pigeon-holed and hasn’t had an opportunity to work on any offline projects that she’d enjoy learning more about managing.
I asked her to write a guest post about that for my blog. I’ll share it with you when it’s up on Monday.
Thanks again! (And sorry for the long-winded comment) :)
There r 2 types of people-social/antisocial.80% r social/20% antisocial.There r 12 antisocial characteristics.I want 2 show u.Do u want 2 c?
David,
not long-winded at all– I love thoughtful comments on my relatively lazy posts. I look forward to your follow-up post.
For your enjoyment check out slide 3…Carla Blumenthal and I take full credit for that ridiculousness.