2 posts tagged “social media”

Today has been an interesting day for me; a colleague of mine, albiet one who lives all the way on the other side of the hemmisphere to me in San Fran, Luca Penati - Managing Director, Global Technology Practice at Ogilvy PR  - pointed me in the direction of a blog post annoucing that traditional PR is running on thin air.   Wow, haven't i heard that before.. and sure enough, traipsing though a few old blog posts, i certainly had.

Luca and even one of my very own account directors, Emilio Robles, had a bit to say in the comment part of Tom Foremski's post and it struck me that while so many people were constantly saying.. PR is dead... most PR firms aren't approaching new media in a new way... it seemed like all ancient history to me. Not just history - like something i had been through and could relate to - but ancient histroy, in that i couldn't relate to it.

I have been in PR for over six years and during my time, i have always had to think about how to reach out to new media. Media that doesn't necessarily think of themselves as media and don't react to things like the dreaded 'press release.' How often do i write a press release? Less than once every three to four months and i work for the second most recognised brand in the world. There is certainly a time and place for a press release, but i would surprised to meet a PR professional today who thinks they are the end all and be all.

Is this a Gen Y thing? Are we more open to new ways to engage our audiences? Is it just engrained into us because of our Gen Y 'mindset' that enaging with online communities is just expected? (side note, my favourite quote of the week about Gen Yers that we are "spoilt by wealthy parents, stuck in a vacuous "I want it now" mindset and unprepared to make the sacrifices that their parents did" of course we are... and would i change it?)

As one of my previous posts said - the internet is always the first thing i turn to when i have an issue/question that needs solving. Why would what i do at work be any different? 

So who are these PR professionals stuck in issuing out hundreds of press releases each day and bothering journalists with the dreaded 'did you recieve my press release' call that Tom discusses? As for his comment on PR thriving... we bill our time in increments of less than 3 minutes.. clients obsess over all agency spend... PR is no different. 

PR is dead... yeah right. What is dead is journo hacks finding yet another reason to rag on PR professionals

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It is less than 24 hours since my first baby blog and already I am ready for another... who knew!

This morning I was notoriously late for yet another meeting (a very bad habit of mine that I must kick) but I managed to make it in time to hear an absolute gem of knowledge. The discussion was around 'Digital Influence' and was being held by Ogilvy's own John Bell.

One of my clients has decided to not only dip their toe... but to dive head first into the pool that is digital media. The discussion was around how you get clients who can't see the value in interacting with social media to understand the growing importance. And Mr. Bell had this to say:

Social media is turning up in the first two search engine results for any company. If you ignore social media, you are in effect (did I use the right effect/affect here?) losing control of the search engine results for your brand…. (Well something along those lines… but you get my point).

And apart from getting me thinking about how this helps/wounds my clients…. I thought by effectively starting my own blog I am taking control of my own online brand… the Anne Flanagan brand… and I like that.

Technology: 1 Anne Flanagan: 0

Looks to be an interesting joust between tech and I…