An employee for one of my clients tweeted me yesterday, pointing me to “what happens when you jump into social media unprepared.” He was talking about the launch of a new Twitter account by BCS—the Bowl Championship Series—the much-maligned system that substitutes for a playoff system for college football teams.

The account, @InsideTheBCS, launched on Thursday and has, since then, accumulated nearly 700 followers. There’s no hint about who might be posting the tweets, although one blog suggests the BCS may have farmed the task out to PR agency HDMK, since the first two people to follow the newly-minted account were HDMK staffers, neither of whom returned calls.

One tweet seems to be signed by Bill Hancock, the new BCS executive director.

Regardless of who’s behind the account, it has been savaged in a number of quarters since it first appeared. A Twitter search I conducted moments ago produced several pages of messages, even though @InsideTheBCS itself has tweeted only 30 times as of this writing.

To the credit of whoever’s writing the tweets, several are responses to what others have said, and some are responses to critical comments. But with hundreds of comments ... read more >>

As social media has grown in acceptance within companies over the past few years, one debate never seems to go away – whether agencies should be involved in social media communications, or whether the only way to maintain an “authentic voice” is for companies to undertake it all themselves.

Agencies can help

Not surprisingly (given that I work for a PR agency), I sit in the camp that says that agencies have a significant role to play for many companies. For sure, companies can do some or all of these things themselves, but there’s no reason agencies can’t help without compromising the company’s efforts.

Here are 15 different activities an agency can undertake – legitimately and effectively – to help companies engage in social media.

Getting started

1. Baseline audits

One of the first steps in any communications initiative should be an online audit to both understand the current environment and to set a baseline for measuring results of future activities.

2. Audience research

Alongside an initial audit, learning to understand your target audiences is a foundational piece of a communications strategy, be it online or offline.

3. Corporate policies

Whether your company is ... read more >>

For the next three days the World Bank here in Washington DC is hosting a world changing event that few people know about. Called the Development Marketplace - it is a gathering of organizations behind 100 innovative ideas from 50 different countries on how to save the planet. The ideas can affect everything from a small village of 60 to a large population of millions. The only requirement is that the funding request from organizations participating must be less than $200,000. As I went through the list of projects that are being featured in the marketplace, there were 10 that stood out to me not only for the creativity of their solutions, but also the lessons that anyone might take away from the idea.

The best ideas solve big problems, but also offer a lesson that could apply to much more than just the situation at hand. Reading the stories of all the innovative organizations presenting at the Development Marketplace gives you a sense of hope about the world that can sometimes get lost in our daily lives. Check out the stories below, and the rest of the great projects from Development Marketplace 2009 ... these are stories and ideas worth sharing:

1. Wave Energy Converter to ... read more >>

In a little more than two weeks on November 20, PR Camp™ New York will debut a different way to engage PR and marketing professionals. It will feature an incredible lineup of moderators from top brands and agencies in New York City.  With a carefully planned agenda and a full day of interactive discussions, PR Camp New York seeks social media solutions for the changing communications needs of today’s companies.

PR Camp New York aims to be something more than a traditional conference, which relies on power point presentations and panels. We are not the first to use an “unconference-like” format, and we are not the only PR event in town. But to get a group of hard working, over scheduled New York professionals to take one day to engage with one another, we have to offer something special. We think we do that.

Exploring Tensions in the PR Profession

Throughout the day, we will pair off moderators to explore “tensions” that exist in our industry:

- Clients and Agencies
- Young and Experienced Professionals
- Marketing and PR

on topics about buyin for social media programs, talent management, success measurement and marketing/PR alignment.

The goal is not ... read more >>

The cuts at media publishing houses are now slicing into muscle.

Consider reports this week out of Forbes where 50 editorial positions have been slashed, including the elimination of news bureaus in Los Angeles and London.

This isn’t Toledo and Tacoma being whacked. It is simply stunning that Forbes has pulled out ground resources in two of the largest, most relevant cities in the world.

Wire service Associated Press is feeling the same economic burn. Apparently, management has told employees to prepare for a 10 percent staff reduction in 2010. That translates to more than 400 news reporting jobs set to be scraped.

The free fall of news publishing is not solely a result of the prolonged global financial downturn. There is a bigger and more game-changing factor at play here.

Simply put, the reliance by business customers and consumers on social networks and online communities as sources of high value and trusted content have marginalized the influence of traditional providers of credibility.

You have to fish where the fish are, right? And companies now recognize that their key audiences have shifted to online environments. The advertising-based business model of publishers and . ... read more >>