Saturday, October 20, 2007

Session 1 Open Thread.

Welcome to the first session on Saturday! Here is an open thread where you can start posting your comments on the lectures.

Speakers this morning include Josh Hallett creator of the Hyku blog, Constantine Basturea of Converseon a leading Web 2.0 Internet marketing communications agency and Katie Delahaye Paine founder of KDPaine & Partners an agency that specializes in research.

Enjoy and let the conference begin!

19 comments:

Putnam said...

I find it interesting how Josh claims "there isn't an expert in social media."

How does this fit into today's internet strata?

If no one can be considered an expert, how can anyone be credible?

Geoff said...

RE: Credibility online...

I think KD has touched on how you gain credibility in the blogging/internet community. You simply have to be up front and engaging. If you initiate genuine conversations with whoever your audience is, you'll have the credibility you want. Perhaps no one is really an "expert" because the technology is there at everyone's fingertips. But not everyone is an expert communicator. That's the key to credibility...

Putnam said...

In regards to Ms. Paine's view on transparency, I think she's dead on. To increase trust, one must increase transparency.

100% transparency is virtually impossible to obtain, but how can a company or agency achieve this?

Mihaela V (@mihaela_v) said...

C. Basturea said: "we're in the I WANT ONE OF THESE phase of social media" - so true. So many join SL, for example just because is COOL. No understanding of SL as a communication environment - just to "have a presence" - hate that phrase.

Tim Anderson said...

Constantine has made some excellent points about using social media tools from a business standpoint.
I really like that he pointed out the training aspects of using social media. Being able to "use" these tools is more than just knowing how to operate them. Users must be knowledgeable about best practices, ethical use, and the norms within these sorts of communities.

Alicin Hendricks said...

Constantine Basturea commented that too many PR professionals are still writing for paper. You can't, however, link to people via paper and if you're not linking to others, they won't be linking to you.

I think this makes the case for social media as a whole. This is all about being connected and communicating with others in ways that were not options for our parent's parents.

Mihaela V (@mihaela_v) said...

C. Basturea talks about Dell IdeaStorm - an example of a company actually doing something with the social media conversation. Better later than never, but they used the feedback - many PR clients are SCARED of hearing it in the first place. How do we help them get over this fear?

Geoff said...

Constantine Basturea's point about how most people don't know the how to write for the Web - especially when it comes to following the set ethical guidelines - is very true. Company honchos are beginning to understand just how useful social media tools can be; but if they just barge into it without learning the "rules," it could turn out worse for their business than if they'd just abstained from these practices altogether.

In a world of immediate gratification, will companies new to SM take their time to learn before jumping in?

Putnam said...

Revisiting transparency, Josh is on point, again.

Why would a company claim to be transparent?

Their products and ethics should clarify their transparency accurately not promises of trust.

Ashley BBZ said...

Link to Dell situation -

http://tinyurl.com/3e3rld

Alicin Hendricks said...

Per Josh's story...You don't reply to bloggers!? What are they thinking?

Putnam said...

On the Twitter page there is a dicussion about how companies should allocate more resources towards social media instead of adversiting.

In my opinion, to an extent, how are these different?

When a company posts pictures on flickr or updates their blog, isn't this advertising?

These various ways diffuse information throughout the web just as an advertisment on the radio and television.

Your thoughts?

Mihaela V (@mihaela_v) said...

some basic differences btw social media and advertising: pull vs. push communication, conversing vs. pushing a one-way message out, building a relationship vs. bombarding with key messaging; authentic, meaningful communication vs. jingles

Ashley BBZ said...

Sounds like advertising isn't going anywhere in the future, but I'm not sure that's true; it's assuming that the two (ad/pr) aren't either growing or maybe growing together.

LEL said...

Loved Hallet's example of the Zing Web site. Interesting to see if class and UGA connect updates will appear on this search engine in the next few days...

Alicin Hendricks said...

Citizen journalists - the loyal.

Putnam said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Putnam said...

When discussing conversing vs. one-way message:

While a blog serves as a two-way communication, it doesn't necessarily have to be this way. The company can create a market for ideas through their blog, but it doesn't gurantee two-way communication.

As the company generates a market place of ideas about their product, word of mouth through user comments becomes extremely powerful. Probably more so than any actual advertising.

I'll stipulate that blogs are created to host two-way communication, but I do not think its accurate to obfuscate that this isn't a "social" form of advertising.

The point of building a relationship vs. bombarding a message.

Isn't bombarding a message speaking in generalities?

An effective advertisment wouldn't "bombard" the public. Instead, it should build a relationship with their target audience.

I think it's unfair to say that social media can't be utilized as an advertisement tool.

Mihaela V (@mihaela_v) said...

yes, social media can be used as advertising, but that's different form it being advertising. Can't remember the source right now, but I read an argument that the brevity of advertising messages shortcircuits rational discourse. Maybe social media can rescue advertising from creating positive associations and help it move into engaging in meaningful conversations?