Sunday, November 16, 2008

Plain Talking In Motown

I have just returned home after three weeks in the USA. And what an exciting time it has been for a communicator to be in the US. Particularly watching the US Presidential Elections unfold at first hand.

But first let me tell you about the International Conference of the Public Relations Society of America, where 3000 communicators from around the world met in Detroit (Motown) to discuss the latest trends in communications.

The conference was dominated by two themes - the dawn of a new communications era brought about by social media and the need for authenticity in communications.

The discussion certainly ran hot about using on-line technologies to connect with audiences. It seems American communicators are far more advanced than their Australian peers in using social media. I estimate about 2/3 of those in Detroit were already using digital platforms like Twitter, Facebook etc both for their personal and corporate communications and the remainder simply know they have to catch up to remain competitive.

Authenticity was the other key theme - speaker after speaker emphasised that effective PR is achieved only through honest, open and two way relationships and the days of organisations telling people what to think are disappearing fast.

Citizens, consumers and communities expect to be listened to, and have their concerns acted upon. Following the collapse of the global economy we are seeing the exit of the 'smart guys'. Those who made a ton of money peddling information about products and services most of us could not understand. Perhaps, and hopefully, we are seeing a return to basic communications values such as respect, plain talking and tolerance for different ideas.

Certainly this was a theme taken up by Conference keynote speaker Craig Newmark founder of Craig's List, a site which gets 12 billion hits each month. Craig talked about the need to get involved, to listen, continuously engage with the community and treat people 'like you want to be treated'.

It all sounds a bit 'down home and folksy' but it's refreshing to see values-based communications back on the agenda.

Monday, October 27, 2008

PR American Style

This week we are in Detroit at the annual conference of the Public Relations Society of America. The conference, attended by around 3000 PR professionals, is a great opportunity to learn about developments in communications around the world.

This year's hot conference topic is social media and in later posts we'll be reporting on how communicators are blending new media into their communications planning.

Friday, October 3, 2008

Online Tools for Not for Profits

Here's some handy ideas for using online technology for awareness-raising and community-building. It's a bit dated but still worthwhile.

From: pbw, 2 years ago





A presentation for a Hepatitis Australia workshop. It gives some examples and ideas of ways not-for-profits can use the web to raise awareness and attract new supporters.


SlideShare Link

The Future of Marketing


What's Next In Marketing & Advertising

From: paulisakson, 6 months ago





A presentation I gave internally at our agency last week (3/21/08) for our monthly "What's Next" lunches.

Quick background on these lunch sessions: Each month, three or four people are called upon to share either what inspires them or what's going on in a specific area. So far, I've seen some of our creatives talk to what motivates them and share trends and up-and-coming names in art and design; some of our tech team talk to emerging technologies, showing off what they can do and how they're relevant to our clients; and finally some of our modern media team share the newest ways we can help people find what they're looking for more easily and get more relevant information in front of them for our clients. Like I said, it has all been very fun to take part in as well as quite inspiring and energizing.

For this one, I was asked to share what's going on in marketing and where things are moving. What you'll see/did see is that I ended up using a little bit of what I've been posting about on my blog and some of what has been getting covered both within the trade pubs and on industry related blogs to give me the outline. If you follow the plannersphere and other social media and marketing blogs, then this probably won't be much new, but it might connect the conversations a little more. Or maybe not.

Mostly just wanted to share it since I did put a bit of time into pulling it together and was inspired by many of you who've been writing about similar subject matter. Also because what limited free time I did have last week went into putting it together instead of writing on my blog.

Note: Most of the examples in it are the more covered ones used to support the topics they're associated with. With limited time, I opted for the easy-to-find examples. Sorry about that. One that isn't as covered across the blogs and in the press yet is the My Vegas site. For more info on it see David Armano's Logic + Emotion blog where he has a detailed post on it.

As always, if you've got any thoughts, questions or comments...


SlideShare Link

Monday, September 22, 2008

Stone Age Campaign in a Wired World

Canberra's political parties have yet to use the Internet strategically as a campaign tool in the 2008 ACT Election.


And compared with internet marketing in the US Election our local parties are stone age when it comes to the on-line age.


The US Election is running at the same time as our local race but the approach is completely different. Obama and McCain are all over the Internet, on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and other on-line platforms. They are cleverly using blogs, video, sound files, downloadable programs, computer games and other social media tools to reach Americans.


As the Canberra Times reported we believe there is a 1998 approach to the Internet in the local 2008 campaign. And the ACT parties are failing to reach voters through their keyboards.


A few parties have ventured into new media territory in an effort to woo younger voters. But they show they just don't get the youth-oriented culture of social media when they disable the comments section on their YouTube videos and their Facebook ads feature candidates in collar and tie.


It's a shame ACT politicians are not fully using the new internet tools. Besides being cheap to use, they would allow more two way conversations between candidates and voters beyond the traditional door knock and mall meetings on Saturday morning.