I've been following some social media movers and shakers (just like everyone else) and trying to figure out where this is all going, and how to ride the wave. One of those who most of you might be familiar with is Brian Solis. He is the publisher of bub.blicio.us and PR 2.0. He has written many ebooks (which are free at PR 2.0) on various topics from social media to blogger relations. Along with Geoff Livingston, he also contributed to Now is Gone, a Social Media primer for businesses.
So the other day I had the pleasure to speak with Brian Solis about social media press releases. We spoke over the phone for a while about how he got into marketing and the current state of the PR industry and where the future lies with social media. First let me speak to how impressed I was with how down to earth this guy is. I was expecting a snooty west coast "too cool for school" attitude, but what I got was the complete opposite. When I asked him if it was okay to write a blog post about our conversation, his reply was a lighthearted "Sure, just don't make me sound like a idiot." The conversation took my respect for his knowledge and love of his industry to a new level. I mean this guy knows his stuff, and loves it. His work and his blogs show this passion.
Parts of our conversation:
Black Type: Mathew Sweezey
Blue Type: Brian Solis (disclaimer, this was a telephone interview, so I did my best to keep up with everything he had to share.)
Why did you choose to be a marketer?
In 1991 I joined a tech PR agency and was hired on as a database manager - I was always a geek. I created and managed databases for clients. I over heard conversations the PR reps were having and it was all wrong. So I asked my boss for the opportunity to join the PR team. I explained that frontline just didn't understand the tech side and were simply pitching and selling and not really demonstrating the helpful side the products and services they represented. Tech and storytelling was something I always had a passion for and enjoy connecting people and also connecting people to killer solutions.
"PR professionals should be an expert in their given field and not just a talking head who's able to speak to a press release or pitch."
-Brian Solis
Books your currently reading:
I just finished reading Groundswell. However I am in the middle of many different books right now, including two that I'm trying to finish up at the moment.
I have seen the comparison made between the Internet and the industrial revolution. Which would mean internet marketing is in its infant stage. Do you see social media being the gold mine for the future of marketing, or a current fad that will fade when consumers loose interest in social sites?
The Social Web is our industrial revolution. It is so much more than just a place to find and buy new things or communicate online, the Social Web takes the dynamics of interaction to an entirely new and more influential level. It gives people a powerful voice that can be as powerful as traditional media. It is empowering, inspiring and at the same time it's educating us on how to build communities together while creating new economic opportunities for a new generation of thought leaders.
Because messages can be much more interactive and effective online do you see a larger push to use offline media to drive online traffic to social media sites and internet campaigns?
The honest answer is that communications professionals are going to have to figure out where the people that they want to reach discover and share information are and how they can compel them to take a desired action. Offline media is just one way to reach your audiences. It's one of many various tools and distribution channels that can inspire action. The real question is why is what do you represent is important to, to whom, and how does it help them do something better or different that they couldn't do before. The rest is just a process of aligning and leveraging tools and technology. It all starts with reverse engineering...
Do you see in large companies the use of traditional large media pushes for branding campaigns being put aside for smaller grass root campaigns where employees and customer expressions are more viral and responsive?
Most of the time I am seeing companies use traditional campaigns for traditional results. The companies I work with are trying to use new ways to complement their existing activities to experiment with, and learn from these new methodologies. At the same
Time, I am also seeing a greater quantity of companies using hands on tactics that combine traditional and social and word of mouth in vertical niches. At the end of the day, companies have to reach their customers where they are directly as well as through the influencers who help them make decisions.
Do you see a difference in Large and small companies in the adoption of social media marketing?
As we all know, there is a bell curve to adoption and it all starts with innovators or as Stowe Boyd calls this elite group of early adopters, edglings. In a recent poll 1 out of 3 enterprise companies were experimenting with or going to experiment with social media strategies. In the meantime, there will be those companies that will experiment with Social Media and some will experience failure and others success - and most likely, both. Eventually there is going to be an adoption rate that will resemble a hockey stick.
In my world, tech has always been on the edge of what's now referred to as "Social." In the mid 90s, we were active in Yahoo Groups and other online forums out of necessity because that is where our target audiences were active in seeking and sharing content. The difference was that we weren't approaching this dialog as PR or marketers, we were truly passionate and knowledgeable about the products and the market we represented. It was an entirely new model for marketing communications and it was, and still is, incredibly effective. Nowadays, I am currently seeing big companies dedicating more time and resources on social media through interactive advertising as well as customer service in addition to PR.
In the startup world, where budgets where highly restrictive, we adopted our motto, that we still live by today, "Constraint forces Creativity."
Different companies have presented their social media releases in different ways. Some choose to post a blog on their site and others choose to have a third party host and distribute the social media press release which do you see currently being more effective, more popular, the future of the social media press release?
There are different reports across the board. I create and share social media press releases that are housed on a blog platform. Currently, when I release news, I issue a traditional press release along with a complementary social media press release. There is value in packaging a story in a way which reaches different people, their way. If you want to see some good examples take a look at Intel and how they are creating press releases that fuse traditional with social.
Some people discount the importance of a social media press release in a marketing campaign, citing that a blog would be better. What do you feel are the main reasons a company should look to using a Social Media Press Release in their campaigns?
Social media releases are special because they have the ability to aggregate on one platform, in one dashboard, the social beacons form across the social web.
Final Thought?
What I am worried about is the attention span of people whom we are trying to reach. The level of engagement required to catch their attention and follow through to action is distributing. You have to be everywhere to reach them.