Join Steve Radick and Steve Ressler for their online training session, When a Star Leaves: How to Sustain Social Media Efforts Over the Long Term, on Tuesday, March 27, 2012.

I talk a lot about the need to do a better job of integrating social media into the world of higher education. That’s why when my alma mater asked me to speak at their annual Communication Week this year, I jumped at the opportunity. Because these students are already learning the basics of social media in their core communication classes, I didn’t want to do yet another Social Media 101 type presentation. Instead, I wanted to help them understand that even though they may learn what Twitter is, how to use it, and some case studies, there’s nothing like doing it in the real world. That’s why I gave a presentation titled “The 7 Things About Social Media That You’re Not Going to Learn in College.”

Here’s the presentation I gave, with the key takeaways below:

Continue reading " 7 Things About Social Media That College Won’t Teach You "

Join Geno Church for his workshop, Bringing Sexy Back to Offline Marketing, on Sunday, October 16, 2011 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. at the PRSA 2011 International Conference, Oct. 15–18 in Orlando, Fla.!

During my session, I’ll help you refocus your public relations efforts and evaluate the power of offline word of mouth for your brand.

With all the social media buzz floating around the public relations industry, let’s look at a few statistics:

• 90% of word of mouth happens offline (face-to- face or voice-to-voice) – Keller Faye Group
• 10% of word of mouth happens online (social media, email, texting) – Keller Faye Group
• 93% of retail sales happens offline – Forrester Research report

So why all this focus and attention on online word of mouth? It’s because offline Word of Mouth is very difficult to do. It’s because marketers treat word of mouth as an output (sustaining the conversation) and not as an input (starting the conversation).

It’s time to talk about The 5th P… PEOPLE

Continue reading " Bringing SEXY Back to Offline Word of Mouth "

Spike Jones and I have had a running joke about circles after I posted the cycle of the fan diagram. This became a company-wide joke when I tried unsuccessfully to turn a financial graph into a circle on a recent project. Several good things came out of my sharing of a cycle of how a brand can interact with and move people along the steps of fandom. I have to admit I had many reservations about putting a visual thought process out in the blogosphere. But as David Armano told me, “Geno, posting your thoughts to the world in the form of a visual is daunting, but feedback you get in return that helps shape thinking is worth it all.”

So I’ve decided to open the kimono and post about sustainability and the cycle model we use for our not-for-profit client Rage Against The Haze (South Carolina’s teen-led anti-tobacco use movement). When BOF was awarded the contract for RAGE five years ago we made a decision to build a sustainable movement, not another anti-tobacco industry campaign. I don’t know if this was a case of brilliant thinking more than the fact that funding was limited and also limited in terms of commitment of funding. Believe it or not, our mantra for RAGE was “if BOF got hit by a bus tomorrow, RAGE will need to continue to live. ”

As we traveled around the state talking to adults and teens, one thing became obvious — the teenagers needed to lead the movement. What I mean by lead is with their words and actions, so they have true ownership. The major problem we faced with RAGE is similar to a college or high school coach. You only have your current players for a limited amount of time; they grow older, and leave high school for college or the next step in their lives. The RAGE demo is 13–18; this rather wide demo was really a blessing. It forced us to think in terms of a continuous evolution.

Continue reading " Sustainability Cycles Create Sustainable Word-of-Mouth Movements "

The 2008 PRSA International Conference got off to a swinging start today—literally—with a gospel choir (befitting a Sunday) energizing the attendees before Craig Newmark’s keynote session began. Yes, “that” Craig, i.e. Craig of Craig’s List. Suitably revved up, I then moved on to Jeffrey Graham’s Word-of-Mouth Online and Off session this afternoon. It was packed—no surprise, given the resurgence that WOM is enjoying, and the increasing attention being paid to results-based, influential communications.

In fact, there seemed to be a common thread running through many of the sessions I attended today: from Craig Newmark’s emphasis on “continuous engagement,” to Katie Paine’s emphasis on measuring relationships in the session I co-presented with her. As a discipline, we seem to be remembering the importance of the “relations” part of “public relations.” You might say attending Jeff’s session was a natural progression for me.

Jeff had enough data to satisfy the biggest quant-geeks among us, beginning his presentation with a brief history of WOM (no, it’s not new) and the fact that it is the single-most influential contact point one can incorporate in communications planning. So why is it, then, that it receives the least investment when putting a marketing plan together?

True to the title of his presentation, Jeff went through the differences between On- and Offline WOM Marketing, illustrating that most WOM occurs offline (about 73%). Online WOM occurs most among the young, and is most important for the entertainment, sports, telecom and technology sectors. In addition, most online WOM is fueled by marketing; 70% of online chatter comprises bloggers reacting to what they have read or seen in the media and marketing. At the end of the day, offline WOM tends to be more positive than online, and it’s also offline WOM that is perceived as more credible, leading to a purchase intent (and that, at the end of the day, is what marketers are concerned with, right?).

Continue reading " From Word-of-Mouth to Word-of-Mouse "