Web 4.0: R U Ready?

On 24 September, the Los Angeles chapter of the Public Relations Society of American hosted a half-day workshop on social media. It was an informative day, full of creative ways to incorporate digital technology into marketing and public relations campaigns.

Emanuel Rosen gave the first address. He stressed ways that social media helps word-of-mouth campaigns. Serena Ehrlich’s provided participants with a toolbox of resources and tactics for launching an online campaign, and Peter Shankman made it all personal and relevant over a lunch discussion.

Thank you very much to the workshop’s organizers, Keith Pillow and Bianca Dickerson-Williams, as well as to Rita Tateel (PRSA-LA, President) and Barbara Shore (PRSA-LA, Executive Director).

Breakout session: Social media basics & core training

Serena Ehrlich, Social Programs/Viral Weaponry Leader at Startup Army

Serena’s interactive presentation style made this session of the PRSA-LA workshop on social media highly informative, but difficult to document. Thankfully, she uploaded her slides to docstoc.com, so you can see for yourself what she talked about.

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“It’s not web 2.0. It’s not web 3.0. It’s simply life.”

Peter Shankman, Social Media Expert

At the PRSA-LA Social Media Workshop, Peter Shankman returned to themes first introduced by Emanuel Rosen. Throughout his entertaining stories, he repeatedly  illustrated the foothold the individual is gaining over traditional marketing and public relations efforts thanks to the developments in technology. Celebrated reviewers of services, restaurants, media, and other such venues are increasingly  less effective and credible.

Moreover, each our personal networks is fluid and changing. The relevance of connections fluctuates throughout the day. Those seeking to use social media effectively for branding or influencing will need to work within established but changing communities.

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“The anatomy of buzz revisited: Lessons in word-of-mouth marketing”

Emanuel Rosen, Social Media Expert

No matter how many reviews we read, when we make purchasing decisions these are not the resources that tip the balance. More often than not, our friends and family influence our personal choices about what to buy, where to eat, or what to read. Emanuel Rosen believes that stimulating those conversations and using personal, face-to-face referrals to create buzz is the key to successful promotion. During his one-hour presentation, he showed why.

We all like to to be helpful, contribute meaningfully and participate in conversation. The problem is, most of us lack the gift of relevant gab. Buzz, says Rosen, fills this gap by giving us the opportunity to tell stories and be creative.

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BOOK REVIEW

Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business.

By Larry Weber, 2009: John Wiley & Sons

IBSN: 978-0470-41097-4

Take Away Message:

The digital consumer is not content to be a passive receiver of marketing messages. Therefore, marketers need to think about ways to use social media tools to become aggregators of content that serves the immediate information needs of each digital consumer.

REVIEW

Unlike other books on the subject, this one is not saying that the professions of marketing and public relations are undergoing a radical transformation. No. Larry Weber’s objective in his book, Marketing to the Social Web, is to provide a sketch of a specific market segment: the digital consumer.

Marketing: The next generation

In fact, Weber illustrates how the principles that shaped traditional methods for reach potential consumers still hold. Effective marketing speaks directly to the needs of the consumer, solves their problems. Good public relations influences opinions and shapes conversations. The goals have not really changed for marketing or public relations professions.

The only difference is that mass marketing is no longer likely to lead to a sale. More than ever, it is essential for the marketer to understand not just their niche, but the exact position the product offering has taken in that niche.

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Ten years ago, Neal Stephenson published an essay about the evolution of computer operating systems from a cultural perspective. The literati of the computer world consider this treatise, titled In the beginning there was the command line, essential reading. It is also a good starting place to think about the evolution of social media and collaboration tools, which are now as ubiquitous as operating systems. These tools may also be as poorly understood.

Stephenson’s argument: the open-source model to software development generates more reliable products. Why? The collaboration process that drives Linux, for example, is transparent, iterative and immediate.

At the midpoint of the essay, Stephenson compares Windows, Mac OS, and Linux to power drills. While the first two are Black & Decker and Stanley drills that serve most D.I.Y. types, Linux is a professional’s drill that is as ugly as it is stupid. The Linux user needs know the end goal and be skilled enough to maneuver the tool efficiently toward that point. Where we can be sloppy with our Goggle search terms and in our use of Windows or Mac OS, Linux needs precision.

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