Digital Marketing And Social Media PR – The Future Buzz

image credit: here’s kate

As I walked into my loft after work, I couldn’t help but notice the ever-growing stack of books on my coffee table in disarray with sticky notes on pages of ideas I had while reading.

My “project songs” folder in my music studio has close to 1,000 projects started, but unfinished. Some are near completed songs, others are just brief snippets of melodies. I never stop myself from starting a new project when an idea strikes.

There has been some good thinking on PR and its interaction with the blogosphere lately. Specifically a post from Louis Gray: Bloggers and PR Are Not Enemies, But Quality Efforts Are Needed.

Lets start by pulling out something Louis wrote:

Not every public relations firm is an expert in dealing with bloggers. Some are waking up to the blogging phenomenon and, guessing at the influencers, are simply adding blogger e-mail addresses to their distribution lists, without taking the time needed to see what it is each blogger covers, learning their focus areas, or personalizing an angle. Others are aggressively hustling the top two to five names and ignoring the second layer – which creates stress for those pursued, and resentment for those who are ignored.

I would like like to think every PR firm gets it by now, it’s not a big mystery what the blogosphere is. Louis is right though unfortunately, especially when we see things such as the bad pitch blog. Then again, there have been bad pitches since traditional media was the only game in town. Bad PR is bad PR, and simply carries over into the blogosphere.

My original 50 viral images (and how they spread) post turned out to be extremely successful and was read quite a few times to say the least. I was surprised so many people were interested as the images in there had already been passed around social media to death.

With that said, I failed to consider most people don’t spend nearly as much time on the web as I do.

Seeing as the first viral images post was published June 15, 2008 we’re passed due for a fresh one.

Three recent, cautionary tales…

Kmart was slammed by the blogosphere and debated intensely due to unartfully paying popular bloggers for placement through IZEA, a company which Michael Arrington, the most influential blogger says is:

The blogging world’s pariah and are fairly routinely trashed for, as I put it, polluting the blogosphere.

(See my previous thoughts on paid blogging)

Motrin, a brand essentially invisible to the social web previously, sparked massive controversy due to an ad which proved highly offensive and demonstrated their marketing department was out of touch with real moms.

FedEx was recently put front and center stage when an agency person from Ketchum, their PR firm, made a negative remark on Twitter about Memphis (where FedEx is based) on a trip to visit the client. Actually, the drama happened not from the Tweet itself but from FedEx’s response. 140 characters can do a lot.

image credit: un ragazzo chiamato bi

You hear it everywhere: if you want a successful blog – write short, pithy posts. Nonsense.

Length is irrelevant – just craft a strong lede. If your writing is good, smart people will read the whole thing, I promise. But you have to entice them.

image credit: pbo31

Cross electronic music with jazz and you get UK duo Zero 7. Mix abstraction with architecture and you get Frank Gehry. Combine art, anonymous self-expression and a love of postcards and you get Post Secret. Combine an attorney with blogging and Web 2.0 and you get TechCrunch.

So many interesting artists, designers, ideas and entrepreneurs are successful because they find a unique combination of passions at a synergistic intersection.