2007 July - AgencyNext, Inc. - Social Media Consultants - Proven PR Services for the New Media Era

Archive for July, 2007

Journalist’s Imprint Absent from Candidate Debate

July 25th, 2007 by Sterling Hager

For the first time in the history of modern presidential debates (Q&As these days in reality) the questions were not conjured up and asked by journalists.

I'm not the first one to say this, but I'll add my voice to those around the country who are noting it: the televised presidential candidate debate the other night was a great example of how the mainstream media is becoming less and less relevant. At least in Mainstream America if not Corporate America.

Are you still chasing the mainstream media? Are you spending the bulk of your time, money and energy on polished news releases and other documents tailored for the press? Don't you think it is about time you at least considered bringing ordinary real people (customers, prospects, users, competitors, partners) into a conversation? The media doesn't buy anything from you. In most cases, they don't even "buy" your story… so why are you wasting all that energy talking at them? It's time you start talking with people.

Kentucky Newspaper Kind of Misses the Point

July 24th, 2007 by Sterling Hager

OK, on one hand, I suppose this is positive news. A small town newspaper in Kentucky has gotten the social media bug and is now offering an online community site I guess. Trouble is, when you go there you have to subscribe to see it. I don't know about you, but I'm reluctant these days to sign up for anything. I don't want to be bothered, and I don't want to be bothered if you know what I mean.

No time today to write long (applause being heard in the background). Here's the news item announcing this breakthrough. Thanks to Lauren Bell of DM News.

I thought this was a funny line in the report:

“We wanted the social-networking portion to be there because we wanted to be on the ground floor of what we saw was an emerging trend in the industry,” said Dan Stahl, Web publisher for the Kentucky New Era.

The ground floor of an emerging trend?

Here's a link to the newspaper online.

How are brands performing within social media?

July 24th, 2007 by Sterling Hager

Here’s an interesting study from Immediate Future which attempts to calculate social media rankings for different brands by comparing each brand's "share of voice ranking".

I was intrigued by this study because it further validates that the rise of social media is not only changing the relationship between brand and audience, it is affecting the traditional marketing and PR metrics. As a PR professional, it’s nice to know that social media offers insights and understanding about your audience that has never before been achievable.

Check out this page of the study which shows that seven out of the top ten performing brands are technology companies.

Companies wanting to understand the conversation around their own brand must go further than measure share of voice and sentiment. They must delve deeper and isolate the buzz compared to influence. Influence not only plays an important role as a way of converting buzz to impact, it is also crucial to get a correct impression of the sentiment surrounding a topic or brand…social media conversation is not only about the numbers. Social media in itself has influence.