Social media does have new rules, but some of the old rules apply too
Executing Social Media was a good conference. Everyone participated in the sessions, so we got the benefit of some very smart people sharing ideas about what works and what doesn’t.
There were two excellent keynotes:
George Wright from Blendtech spoke about how the Will It Blend campaign came about and why it has been so successful. The videos have had over 40 million views and sales are up 5X.
Peter Shankman woke everyone on day two with his energetic keynote about where all this social media sruff might be going.
Being wired and on the grid is a fact of life. We have no privacy. Someone always has a camera or a laptop switched on and everything you do or say could end up online. What we do have is the ability to control what gets seen or found online.
His prediction is that we are moving towards a world where we have one tool that connects us and it’s more about how we live our lives than the tools we use.
How can this be used to advantage by companies? Create PR stunts people will talk about and share. Since everyone is now a citizen journalist with a camera and the means to publish, give them great content that is worth publishing.
He did this for Harrah’s.
As a way to promote their new Water Tower, the Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City gave away $1 million worth of free hotel rooms in four major East Coast cities, starting in New York.
They had a bevy of beautiful models painted in the Harrah’s logo on Wall Street giving away room keys. And it caused a storm of tweets and images, as well as mainstream media coverage.
LInda Zimmer made a great point in her wrapup – use best principles rather than best practices. What worked for one company may not be the right stunt or content for yours. Use the idea, but keep your target audience and end goal in mind..
Example: If HerRoom.com did a similar stunt to promote the Undie Awards, I am sure they’d get just as much attention and coverage – but a ton of traffic from young Wall Street hot shots would not sell any bras.
The old rule of the right message to the right audience still applies. It’s just a new channel..
