I just read an interesting study from the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) that said, “80% of businesses plan to boost investment in social networking.” I can’t say this surprises me too much and don’t know what their definition of “boost” might be going into 2010 budgets:). I do think that as communicators and advocates of social media we need to be cognizant that social media isn’t our savior.

Okay, I won’t go as far to say that social media isn’t right for business – I actually do think there is a place in social for every type of business. What gets me the most excited is what the practice of social media has now uncovered in business communications. For example, I believe that businesses are now smarter about how they are distributing their stories to the audieneces that matter most…through social and traditional means.

As a result, here are 3 ways your organization can benefit from implementing a formal Story Distribution process:

1 – Leveraging Existing Communications – One of the biggest mysteries in the world of corporate communications is why so many useful and amazing studies, stories and facts are bottled up internally as if it were a map to the Holy Grail. Instead, look at each of these valuable communications tools, wrap your company messaging around it in an email and send it off to your employees, clients, investors and prospects.

2 – Actually Deliver an ROI – There is nothing more frustrating as a communications professional than having to quantify how awareness and branding effect a company’s bottom line. You know why? It doesn’t! Before you jump all over me…give me a chance to explain. There is significant value in landing a media story, having bloggers buzzing about your brand and unbelievable engagement across your social platforms. It may even result in a sale or two or several for your company. But it isn’t and shouldn’t be a direct tie into sales…until your Story Distribution process came along. Now imagine all of the validity, awareness and branding that you’re helping establish for your company is repurposed throughout the organization and among your targeted audience by the sales team, HR, investor relations, customer service, etc. In essence, you would be hedging your bet by doing so and allowing your communications to actually tie into your company’s bottom line – a true ROI.

3 – Because It Already Exists – What I mean here is the communications tools and channels already exist within your organization. Your sales, HR, investor relations, customer service and marketing teams already exist. You just need some real time communications tools developed around each story being distributed in a way that is complimentary to the platform and process that already exists. If Sales need it in a PowerPoint slide – it happens. If HR needs it in a 500-word article for their weekly newsletter – it happens. If Customer Service needs it in scripted bullet points – it happens.

I’ve always been a big believer in Story Distribution processes although I have also been caught up in the traditions of clip reports and focusing on the results. Today, I’m happy to say that I believe my job begins when the story takes place because now it is time to share that story with others…through social media, through additional media coverage, and through hand-delivering the story to your key audiences.

Do you use Story Distribution in your communications strategy? If so, how is it working and what makes it happen? If not, why not?

I’m sure by now you’ve learned or heard that YouTube is currently the third largest search engine with 85 million unique visitors in November alone…

Compared to Google and Yahoo, YouTube is growing three times as fast with a yearly growth rate of 35% compared to 11% (Google) and 6% (Yahoo). I’d say Google has a lot to be thankful for here in 2009 as reported by the WSJ yesterday.

As PR and media relations professionals, I believe we have a lot to learn from this reality – people (including the media) crave video.

We’ve been incorporating video into our Awareness Campaigns for clients for well over a year now. One way has been creating vlogs which are part of an online library of video content for their websites  and even “vitches”…yes, you heard me right a vitch, a video pitch:).

Learning from YouTube’s popularity, we’ve come up with 3 reasons you and others should strongly consider doing vitches:

1 – Direct Contact to the Resource - The media’s needs continue to evolve and change. Traditional press releases are more for SEO today than for influencing a reporter to write about your company or client. An email pitch gives you limited time and words to make an impression. You might have great success picking up the phone…but time is even more of a crunch as newsrooms get cut and beats begin to pile up. Try capturing your next pitch on a Flip Video of your resource (not you), send the link to the video quickly outlining what the media contact will see in the video and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

2 – Entertain Don’t Educate – Don’t get me wrong, it’s valuable and necessary to educate the media, but in today’s environment you might consider taking more of a lighthearted approach to convincing them of your story or resource. You don’t need to be “funny” but just by doing a video vs. written pitch you will allow them to sit back in their cubicle and give them a fresh change of pace to trying to figure out where their story is in your pitch or release.

3 – Broadcast Requires Video Footage – The vitch is especially influential when pitching broadcast including TV and radio. If they’re going to have your resource on as a guest they need to be sure they have someone who is going to be of value and is ready for a “live” interview. If they see your resource can carry the conversation for 60-90 seconds (the longest these should be) they’ll certainly feel much better about booking them as a guest.

Curious to hear if you’re vitching. If so, how’s it going? If not, why?! Looking forward to this conversation!

I chuckled as I read today’s USA Today cover story, “Could this finally be the season for Web TV?“.

The story quotes ABI Research saying that, “In 2014, consumers in North America will buy 45 million of these sets, representing 69% of all TV sales, ABI Research says. That’s up from 6 million and 14% of sales in 2009.”

I know for a lot of geeks have been leveraging such technology for quite sometime. For example, my good friends at Neuros Technology can attest to having created the Neuros LINK – an awesome device that connects you to the web for your own little jukebox of shows & movies. This came out over a year ago.

3 questions to each of you to think about & discuss with me here about this new technology:

1. Do you want to integrate your Internet & TV experience?
2. Won’t this mean we have to consider buying a new TV as often as a new laptop due to new features?
3. Since Yahoo appears to be the big player with this TV technology, will this level the playing field at all vs. Google?

Looking forward to our conversation about this…thanks!

Should it be of any surprise that consumers think of themselves and their personal needs before the brand they’re buying from?! Not to me…

I just read today’s SmartBrief on Social Media - if you haven’t subscribed to this newsletter, please do so ASAP – it’s great! Below is a link to my video response/reaction to a study that recently came out from The Razorfish Digital Brand Experience Report 2009.

Take a look at the report yourself as I’d love your thoughts on the findings! Thanks!

Despite leading workshops entitled “Twitter 101″ I can’t help but get concerned that too many businesses are getting caught up in the tools of social media. Instead shouldn’t we be focusing on developing the right mentalities enabling us to effectively communicate across the social communities that exist today and are yet to come?

Nonetheless, there is still a need to advise businesses on the platforms necessary to help them best connect with their targeted audiences. As a result, we’re asking you this poll question:

We realize that every business has different needs so we know we are generalizing with this question. It really depends on what your social strategy is and who you are looking to reach. In general, we’re curious to know which platform you recommend the most to businesses looking to get involved. Anxious to hear your thoughts on this topic!

Yes, I now have a Flip Video camera and I think that gives me the right to be on camera…right? Not really. I just did my first (unedited) video from my office on Friday making a brief introduction to each of you. I promised to get better with your feedback, tips and guidance:) Enjoy!

Even though that was pretty bad, I am so passionate about what I do for a living and feel like doing more video will truly show that passion…I hope:).

Again, I look forward to receiving your comments, tips and feedback!

I’m always amazed when I meet with “search engine marketing” firms and they tell me how they always recommend their clients start a blog. I typically follow-up that conversation with, “how do you guide them around producing an effective blog?” Unfortunately, the answer is usually, “nothing, that isn’t our area of expertise.”

Don’t get me wrong, there is plenty of advocacy taking place around blogging – I remember this post from SocialMedia.biz , there is even a site called BloggingTips.com which I’ve found very helpful.

Over the years I’ve come up with my 4 L’s of Blogging summarizing some effective blogging tips:

Lead the Conversation -  It’s always important to show some degree of thought-leadership in your blog – besides, that’s why you have one right? – but you also have to remember that you are starting a conversation. Don’t get up on your soapbox…people don’t follow blogs to be spoken to but instead to be spoken with.

Link, Link, Link - Blogs have always fought the credibility battle and it is my belief that like a traditional news story, a blog should always contain links to other sources including reports, studies, traditional media, influential bloggers, websites, etc. Although I’m sure anyone with a blog is credible , you have to gain respect by linking out to other credible resources. Plus this spreads your conversation out…which is another great idea.

Less is Always More – I would keep your blog post to 250-500 words (tops) and always try and utilize lists (i.e., Top 10 Reasons, 5 Ways To, etc.). The bottom line is folks that are reading blogs just don’t have time to sift through stories and chapters so follow the old K.I.S.S. method – Keep It Simple Stupid.

Let Others Contribute – This isn’t just about “letting” it’s about encouraging others to contribute to your blog. Remember this is your conversation starter and you can’t (I suppose you can) have a conversation by yourself. This means always asking others for their thoughts or advice about the topic you’re discussing.

What are your best practices around blogging? Do you agree/disagree with my 4 L’s? I’d be curious if others have a simple strategy…I’m always game to steal great advice and give credit of course.

I chuckled after reading Ben Parr’s story yesterday on Mashable entitled, “AP and News Corp: Facebook, YouTube, Google Are Exploiting Us.” Within Ben’s story he quoted the shared frustrations coming from Tom Curley (AP) and Rupert Murdoch (News Corp):

Tom Curley: “Crowd-sourcing Web services such as Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook have become preferred customer destinations for breaking news, displacing Web sites of traditional news publishers. We content creators must quickly and decisively act to take back control of our content.”

Tom Curley: “We will no longer tolerate the disconnect between people who devote themselves – at great human and economic cost, to gathering news of public interest and those who profit from it without supporting it,”

Rupert Murdoch: “The aggregators and plagiarists will soon have to pay a price for the co-opting of our content. But if we do not take advantage of the current movement toward paid content, it will be the content creators, the people in this hall, who will pay the ultimate price and the content kleptomaniacs who triumph.”

When on earth are traditional media outlets going to understand that consumers aren’t out to get them but rather would prefer their news faster and throughout a variety of different mediums (social media included)?

Here are my 3 Reasons Traditional Media Will (Has) Fail Online:

1 – It’s All About Your Reader…Not You! Case and point from the quotes above from Curley and Murdoch, folks aren’t trying to take anything away from anyone, we’re just listening and responding to the needs of news consumers.

2 – Its Almost Too Late – Traditional media outlets have seen this coming for some time and for whatever reason never put any value into the fact that consumers demanded their information throughout such mediums. With the exception of a select few (WSJ & USA Today…in my opinion) most are trying to play catch-up when so many of their audience has already left seeking other means for their news fix.

3 – People Don’t Want to Pay $ For Free News – Until traditional media outlets realize that in today’s world access to news is free (and will be for good) they will continue to fail and subscription numbers will plummet even faster. Don’t get me wrong, they should provide paid content but only after they begin offering what the consumers want to see such as video, transparency, consumer feedback, etc.

Do you think traditional media still has a shot within the online world? I’d love to continue this conversation:)

Sifting through my email this morning I read my regular blogs including Chris Brogan’s. I was fortunate enough to see that Run Level Media captured a recent talk he gave at New Media Atlanta last week. I’ve been fortunate enough to see Chris talk a few different times on the topic of social media, but this one seemed a whole lot different (see video below).

Throughout the talk, Chris hits on several points that I believe are so relevant for businesses participating or looking to participate in social media. After hearing Chris talk I was inspired to put together the Top  3 Ways Businesses Must Embrace Social Media:

1 – Listen & Learn: How often do we forget as marketers that our organization’s biggest fans aren’t fans because of the product, service, upgrade, enhancement or features that we offer & often promote through our various communications platforms. The reason your organization has fans, advocates and perhaps even a growing Tribe is because you make them feel special. I believe part of triggering such feelings and emotions with your audiences are to spend some time on these various social media platforms listening & learning.

2 – Solve a problem: Once we have observed our audiences through listening and learning about their problems, we must do whatever we can to begin answering these questions, solving their problem or referring them to others who can. This act is so incredibly humbling and selfless and should be done in a way that may not immediately feel so comfortable…but in its essence is so incredibly natural.

3 – Give others a voice: You can be a large Fortune 100 company or a small business with very few customers and perhaps no other employees. Regardless, your end result across all of these social media platforms should be to empower and educate others to be the voice of your organization. You should view social media as your organization’s opportunity to create a tribe, army, nation of individuals that will do one of your hardest jobs for you – promote the value of your organization to others.

I’ve been blessed over the past two years of diving in head first into social media. I’ve learned so much from folks like Allan Schoenberg, Kelly Olexa, Sarah Evans, Chris Brogan, Arik Hanson, David Mullen, and literally hundreds of others. If for nothing else, I hope that you can add to this list in your comments below and pass along to others that might add to these “best practices” and/or perhaps learn from them.

Thank you & have a wonderful day!

I’ve had the great fortune over the past two weeks to speak with some of the top government agencies throughout North America at the Social Media for Government Conference (with the top federal U.S. government agencies in attendance) and then in front of some top local municipal governments in Canada via a webinar last Thursday.

I find it a bit ironic that for the first time – ever – our governments are now trying to be transparent and sharing the vast amount of information they possess. In fact, Computerworld wrote a nice piece from the SM for Government conference talking about this subject.

For those of you that aren’t aware, President Obama signed a bill on January 21, 2009 that called for “openness, transparency and engagement” among the U.S. government.

Here we are nine months later and what has changed? Surprisingly, I have found many great examples of social media being used in the government sector – some of which I’ve shared in my presentation from SM for Government. Overall however I found that many of these large federal government agencies face the same issues of the private sector. One head of communications for a large federal agency was telling me how they have to roll out engagement on Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. – yet most of these sites are blocked:).

It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out within the public sector. I’d be curious to hear what your thoughts are on this subject…do you think our government should be sharing everything with the public? When does this approach a security breech? For those agencies that are utilizing SM…are they empowering the people within these platforms?

Is it possible that social media is bringing our great nation back to its roots?

I’ll leave you with the concluding paragraph from President Lincoln at the Gettysburg Address in 1863, “…that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”