June 2008
Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
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I'm a fan, Tom's a fan, so is Anil. But the big question now is how much will the rate increase be?
In an e-mail to members, CLEAR CEO Steve Brill broke the news that a price increase will be coming:
This fall, Clear's price will increase. It's a price that reflects the rapidly expanding value (and cost to us) of the Clear network.
However, we do not want current Clear members like you, who supported us from the beginning, to have to bear the brunt of these costs.
Renew now for up to three additional years of Clear at the current price of $128, which is significantly less than we will be charging this fall.
The key line in that snippet is: significantly less than we will be charging this fall.
How much is significant? Double, triple? The service is worth what I pay now and sure it's great that I can lock in three years at a reduced rate, but......how much?
P.S. I also get a bit squirrelly when a service offers the option to pay for large amount of time upfront, i.e. how's your cash-flow?
Late last week I was able to take a brief vacation. Good times, but always too short. Back to work.
Last weekend (or was it the one before that.....) I was in Washington DC for BlogPotomac, here are a few highlight shots from the event. The entire photoset is here.
Of course while in town for BlogPotomac I spent some time snapping some shots of the DC-usuals during my time there. You know the drill....photoset is here.
I was in Washington DC on Friday for BlogPotomac and word spread quickly at the end of the conference that Tim Russert had passed away. Scott Monty was at Reagan National and said everybody was glued to the TVs.
Tim Russert was one of my favorite TV news anchors. He'll be missed.
This past October I saw Tim speak at the PRSA International Conference and was able to get quite a few shots of him.
As usual I'm taking some photos at BlogPotomac. My photoset is here, the group pool is here.
On Friday I'll be attending/MC'ing BlogPotomac in the DC area. This latest un-conference is being organized by Geoff Livingston with some assistance from Debbie Weil. I'm glad to say many of the session leaders are longtime friends and colleagues and I look forward to the discussions.
I feel flattered that the event has followed the BlogOrlando model I started a few years ago. If I have my facts right I think Geoff returned from BlogOrlando this past year and said, "Let's do this in DC!"
A number of other locations/events have sprung up in the past few years: BlogSavannah, SoCon, BlogPhiladelphia and BlogCarolinas to name a few. I'm glad the BlogOrlando concept has spread as it has. However, my original inspiration for BlogOrlando was BlogNashville which took place in 2005...seems like so long ago.
I hope to post some photos from the event and perhaps a recap, but I imagine most of the comments will come on Twitter.
Speaking of BlogOrlando, we're holding our first planning meeting on June 26th.
I promised a bit more on this topic (and Rex asked for it) so here we go....
First off, read Rex Hammock's comment on that last post. Rex was referencing a project his firm did for a client.....a client, not his on firm. Yes there is a great deal of 'learn by doing' going on in agencies everywhere and it's something I've always advocated. Rex's team benefited from their knowledge of not only how to use the tools, but to 'use' them for a client.
That client experience now gives Rex a leg-up on competitors. For the next job that requires those services, Rex can say, "here's what we did for client x". Why is that important? Well first off somebody paid you to do it. Second, as we all know, things can sometimes get sticky in the heat of battle, and that experience always pays off.
Like I said before, referencing your own internal or personal blog is not the standard anymore. Sure it shows you can work with the medium....but can you use the medium to achieve objectives for a client? Can you measure those achievements and then build/evolve the program for the client?
It's a similar adoption/business curve to the early days of the web. At first the teams that could 'do' the work were getting the jobs (remember those awesome web designs from the IT guy). As more firms became savvy with the tools, the work began to go to those that could do the best work.
Got to catch a flight...still a bit more coming....
I've flown Delta almost 80,000 miles so far this year...and all I got was this lousy letter.
Just kidding :-)
Actually since reaching Platinum a few weeks ago it's already paid off big-time. The big question is how many miles will I end up with at the end of the year? That million-mile club isn't looking to far off :-)
At a PR conference a few weeks ago I think I heard the term 'Walking the Walk' a bit too many times. The reference is about PR firms and their social media chops. You know the drill, you have to use the tools yourself to know how to implement them for clients. Tom Foremski recently brought this subject up and there are some good comments on that post.
Let's talk about this a bit more.
Sure it's nice that some agencies and 'consultants' are 'walking the walk' but if your only example of social media experience is your own agency/personal blog, well then...er, sorry.
Let's try running instead of walking, as in what programs have you 'run' for clients?
As Annie pointed out in the comments of Tom's post, most smart folks I know have cut back on blogging, or talk more about personal interests. Longtime colleagues like Phil Gomes, Constantin Basturea and Tom Biro to name a few. My colleague Mike Manuel made a similar observation a few weeks ago. Hell, look at this blog...it's mostly pictures :-)
People can talk all they want at conferences and theorize and strategize, it's the real work that I'm looking for.
An old local friend that's a pretty well-known architect always laments about architecture professors, he says, 'They can talk all they want about theory and design, but most of them have never built anything in their lives....so I just can't trust what they're saying.'
More on this in a bit.
I'll be heading to the DC area on Thursday for BlogPotomac on Friday. Anybody up for a photowalk on Thursday afternoon in DC or at the Air & Space Museum near Dulles?
Last year I wondered what Toyota and Red Bull would mean to NASCAR. Maybe 2007 wasn't the year....but 2008 looks good so far. Toyota has won a few races and Red Bull is doing pretty well for a new team with Brian Vickers 17th in the points and finishing second at Pocono.
That leaves one thing....when will Honda join NASCAR?
Over at VoceNation I talk briefly about measurement. Like I said there, when an organization asks 'How will you measure?' I always ask right back 'How do you measure?'
What's amazing is the number of times a company doesn't have a perfect answer for how they measure things.....so why is a social media project being held to a higher standard?
A few friends in the newspaper industry have always said that the birth/death of online media was the page view. The page view (and related stats) allows online media to sell/display targeting advertising, i.e. monetize their product. The page view also shows them how little interest their is in some of their product.
The same goes for social media measurement, stats will quickly show you if you're doing a good job, or a very bad job.
Mike's supposed to be on vacation, but I think he's doing one of those Bill Gate's-type retreats, i.e. spending some time away to get smarter :-)
During his vacation he posted this entry with two tips about 'corporate engagement' online. It's about finding purpose and relevance in what you do online.
As Mike points out, not every conversation is relevant. Think of the retail world, do you need to have your product in every single store? After all, there are probably plenty of places where your product is not a good fit.
