conversations

Some may have scratched their heads a bit when I announced a little over a year ago that I was joining a "PR firm", especially since I've never worked formally in the field. But I think the recent news of Edelman making the Advertising Age "A-List" and specifically some of Richard Edelman's comments both in the video and article do a nice job of articulating why I moved into the direction I did.

Unlike Facebook but very much like Facebook Groups, Quora the social Q&A ecosystem is designed to support individual participants, not companies (for now). In either case, it's increasingly becoming clear that this is a place where people talk about companies and brands. As Altimeter analyst Jeremiah Owyang recommends, this is a domain where a business should "monitor and respond". From Jeremiah's blog:

Guest Post by: Mark Jennings

WaveMetrix have published their review of Q4 2010 social media trends and it highlights some interesting moves for fashion brands using social media, especially Facebook.

Heineken's "The Entrance" is a 90-second movie about a youngish James Bond-type who strolls through a fancy party doing the exactly right, funny, or utterly cool things, replete with consistent panache and high production values. Check it out on YouTube (you have to sign-in due to the content, which makes no sense since I don't remember anything morally objectionable in it).

When brands start social media monitoring, the ability to get real-time alerts whenever your brand is mentioned can be enlightening. Your inbox is suddenly filled, almost in real time, with every mention of your brand. The good, the band, and the ugly. The temptation can be to respond to all of these. To counteract every negative comment. To respond to and then spread every positive experience. To answer and resolve every question. This is only natural for people who care about the brands they work for. But the best approach is often not to respond. In fact, in many if not most instances, a brand should not respond to people talking about it online.