Digital Marketing, Media, PR Analysis And Insight – The Future Buzz

Kendall Winstanley, a North Hastings High School student in Bancroft Ontario asks:

I am a student in grade 12 who is interested in a career in public relations. I am planning on going to Durham College in the fall for PR. Currently, I am doing a report on public relations professionals and how social media is affecting how their job is performed. I read your blog and was hoping that you could give me some more insight into the topic, so I can fully understand it and give the correct information.

I’m nervous for book publishers. I’m not talking about the pricing of ebooks on the iPad or kindle. There’s a reason authors really like publishers other than the best-in-class editors and the advances. Authors adore it when someone else does the herculean task of selling their books.

Beware those obsessed with time normalization and comparing time efforts to others. There is no blanket right or wrong answer to how much time you should spend for your digital PR and marketing. Those attempting to normalize numbers or seek blanket answers really don’t get it and are looking at the wrong things.

This is a classic bit from From Kevin Kelly’s New Rules for the New Economy:

The prestandard phase is the most exciting. This period is marked by tremendous innovation, high hopes, and grand ambition. “Aha!” ideas flow readily. Since there are no experts, everyone can compete, and it seems as if everyone does.

Today I’m going to share a story of how not to handle the sales process. This post is not so much about my negative experience, but more of a lesson for your business.

Many reading this may not know it, but in my free time I am an electronic music artist. A lot of people I meet have trouble believing I keep a blog, write music and work for one of the top marketing firms globally, but I do all of those things. No, I don’t have time for TV. I frequently sacrifice my social life. I’m usually working on one of my projects in free time. But I wouldn’t give any of it up and I’m irrationally committed to all my interests.

I’ve attended, liveblogged and presented at a plethora of marketing and technology conferences in the last year. After attending enough, you start to notice common trends in questions, presentations and even personalities. One of the most common, recurring questions asked is: “what’s one thing I can do right now?” Or perhaps a variation, “What’s one thing I can start doing today?”

Popular bloggers, smart companies and even media have designs on creating and then seeding viral content. Seeding is part of the process – great content marketing itself is a myth.

Eric Friedman (analyst at Union Square Ventures) and I have been having a great dialog offline the past few weeks. We’ve been discussing the idea that throughout life, you need to be on an accelerated learning curve. I’ve been thinking about this and realized why it’s such a great idea: it’s the opposite of how most people live.

Hey readers. Have ideas you want to share with this community? Some of you have asked over the years but I haven’t allowed it. Now you have your shot. I’ve allowed two other smart people to guest post in the last several months as a test and have been pleased with the results (and gotten positive feedback from the community). So I’m opening the same opportunity to you.