More than a year ago, I came across Chiristopher Allen’s solid analysis of several social networking sites and bookmarked it; I re-read it today while cleaning out my bookmarks (a singularly post-modern, 21st century drudgery) and pretty much everything he wrote still holds true.

I use LinkedIn (profile here, although I doubt you can view it unless you’re a member), and the basic Cocktail Party Rule applies: If you are polite and know how to gently work a room, you can make some spectacularly useful contacts; if you wander around like a bull in a china shop wondering how many people you can “sell,” then you’re not going to get too far.

On LinkedIn, as with online dating sites and every AOL chatroom ever created, it might be the meek who inherit the earth, but the communicators are going to end up owning the internet.

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I sometimes think I shouldn’t have original thoughts in this forum at all (and, yes, there are those who argue that I don’t!), but, rather, should just point people to the wisdom over at Crossroads Dispatches.

Evelyn makes a big, big point about sales and marketing with a simple analogy:

I have noted time and time again that most marketing and sales professionals take on the role of a beggar more often than not.It’s a pitiful sight. They are frantically running up and down the beach jumping up and down waving dim-bulbed flashlights hoping beyond hope that any passing ship will notice them and take refuge.

Meanwhile the lighthouse around the bend on the point isn’t killing itself (not to mention not embarrassing itself) to attract ships whatsoever. The ships are proactively seeking the lighthouse of their own accord. If there is a new lighthouse, the sailors spread the word. It’s on their maps. They knew where they are.

Read more …

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Rob Thrasher has an interesting take on using Google to reverse-engineer a brand. Good stuff, although it’s certainly just part of any larger branding effort.

One thing that’s usually an eye-opener — particularly with smaller clients — is the concept of branding forward vs. backward:

• Branding forward: You start with a brand that reflects back to customers things you know the they want, and then build a product around that brand.
• Branding backward: You can start with a product, and refine from its characteristics (both existing ones any any additional ones the branding team may imbue it with) a successful brand.

Both work. Both have their uses.

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Jennifer Rice brings up some stats — and their importance — in such a direct way that all I can do is quote (emphasis mine):

The Conference Board found that the top four chief executive challenges for 2004 were top-line growth (52%), corporate agility (42%), customer loyalty and retention (41%), and innovation (31%). By contrast, Booz Allen Hamilton found that marketing executives were focused on branding guidelines (83%), counseling divisions (52%), best-practice sharing (52%), and developing capabilities (47%). No wonder the ANA concluded: “Marketing is disconnected from the CEO agenda.”…

Read more …

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One question we’re increasingly asking clients up front — particularly in the public sector — is a very basic one indeed: How serious are you?

In public involvement, there’s a large continuum between “window-dressing” projects (those designed more to publicize a predetermined program than to gather input) and the intense engagements that can really affect policy and planning. We’ve done both types of projects (although we prefer the latter), but the biggest key to executing without missteps is the same: Figure out the project owner’s level of commitment up front.

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Tim Oren takes a macroeconomic look at the challenges legacy media faces these days, and every ad manager, newsroom editor and executive news producer should take a long, hard look. Are you a smart communications pro? Then consider this piece a strategic glimpse into the future and start planning on how you’ll deal with it.

(Surgeon General’s warning: If you’re not up to some economic theory —well written but still not exactly a Dick and Jane Reader — then this link could pose a risk of brain aneurysm.)

Jeff Jarvis did such a fabulous job of summing up that I’ll quote him here:

What’s so fascinating about Tim’s post is that he takes a social issue — news and trust — and measures it through a business perspective. I have always said that in the news business, our only asset is credibility. Tim is now measuring the declining value of that asset in the midst of scandal and in the face of new, trusted competition.

Go read it; this is important stuff if you want to understand where PR and broad-reach marketing will be in a few years.

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