Good afternoon! Today, we’re live blogging the What’s Next – Your Marketing Communications Roadmap event at George Washington University in DC. The morning session was jammed packed with great speakers and information on issues impacting the future of how we communicate social change.  We will continue live blogging in a few minutes.  Please stay tuned!

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Good afternoon! Today, we’re live blogging the What’s Next – Your Marketing Communications Roadmap event at George Washington University in DC. The morning session was jammed packed with great speakers and information on issues impacting the future of how we communicate social change.  We will continue live blogging in a few minutes.  Please stay tuned!

NOTE: All updates here should be considered notes on the information presented at today’s event, and not direct quotes from the participants.

12:45 pm: Debbie Weil, founder & president of WordBiz.com is up next.

12:47 pm: Tactics to finding your social media sweet spot:  be transparent. The sweet spot is the congruent space between you, your audience and your employees.

12:53 pm: Experiment with social media. Try different tools until you find one that successfully reaches your targeted audience.

1:00 pm: The next speaker is Matt Goddard, co-founder and CEO, R2integrated.

1:03 pm: Rather than using the term “social media,” communities of interest or networks are places we go to make better decisions.

1:05 pm: Social media is nothing new as humans have always been social. The only thing that has changed is “how” we do it. Speed, access, storage and transparency has changed the way we make decisions.

1:15 pm: Audience’s communication journey has two key phases:

1. Discovery journey: audience considers and evaluates.
2. Loyalty loop: audience advocates and bonds.

1:20 pm: To implement a community of interest-based cross-channel marketing plan, communicators can follow these steps:

1. Identify the target communities of interest.
2. Identify access points for content and conversation.
3. Develop content strategy in the context of a network world.
4. Develop programs, outreach and campaigns.
5. Drive them and then optimize your activities.

1:22 pm: Communication resources that we use to have separate are combining now. Public relations, paid media and community management joined forces now for an integrated approach.

1:30 pm: Your social strategy shouldn’t be about social media its about the network world that we live in.  Identify the communities of interest, build your loyalty and advocacy, create a strategy and enter your way in.

1:31 pm: Rand Fiskin, CEO and founder, SEOmoz.org is next up on the mic.

1:35 pm: Share + tweets = rankings on search engines.  The things that get tweeted on Twitter and shared on Facebook impacts the ranking system on search engines, like Google and Bing.

1:40 pm: Search engine optimization (SEO) is still under-invested. Only about 20 percent was used last year.

1:46 pm: Key SEO principles:

1. Be accessible with quality content.
2. Implement keyword research and targeting.
3. Invest in link building.

1:48 pm: Be a link magnet.  Build a platform so users can share on your site.

1:51 pm: Reggie Bradford, CEO & founder of Virtue Inc., speaks next on social media best practices for communicators using Facebook.

1:55 pm: Facebook users are very active. Facebook users interact with over 900 million objects.  In addition, they are connected to 80 community groups, pages and events.

2:00 pm: Facebook users can promote messages on multiple platforms. Facebook provides multiple options (i.e. fan page, like and plug-in discussion board).

2:13 pm: Bradford highlights Amway and State Farm as good examples for effectively using Facebook to promote their brand.

2:15 pm Geo-targeting is a growing tool that many communicators using Facebook can utilize to target their audience.

2:20 pm: The next speaker is Shonali Burke, principal at Shonali Burke Consulting, who will be discussing how digital and social technologies empower and redefine public relations in the 21st century.

2:22 pm: Public relations is still about building relationships. Public relations’ goal is to deliver information to your audience and hopefully empower them to do what you want them to do.

2:27 pm: Burke uses Eidia Lush shoe company as a case study.  After months of waiting for shoes she ordered online, the president of Eidia Lush reached out to Burke personally and apologized for the delay and offered her additional coupons as a token for the delay. The personal outreach was an effective PR tactic and created a personal relationship.  In today’s world of pr, the audience is the media.  In addition to monitoring traditional media, we must monitor our audience.

2:30 pm: AJ Gerritson, founding partner of 452 Marketing, will talk about building a public relations in the digital world.

2:33 pm: Traditional public relations tactics are still key, but they have to be integrated with digital technology, because the communication landscape is changing.

2:40 pm: Essential digital public relations tools today include SEO, Google keyword search optimization, ProfNet, HARO (Help a Reporter Out), Toluna (survey site similar to Survey Monkey, but offers greater number of respondents) and PRWeb.

3:00 pm: Bill Lake, EVP and co-founder, ClicFlic speaks next.  He will touch on intelligent media and how it is engaging audiences.

3:10 pm: Examples of intelligent media:

1. When buttons are added to video clips, there is a 4x increase in video viewership.
2. Viewers like to jump around when watching a video so by simply adding a navigation tab on the side that breaks up the video into snippets, it increases viewership.
3. Viewers like simplicity. If you make videos too complex then you will lose your audience interest quicker.

3:15 pm Goldy Kamali, founder and CEO of FedScoop is up next to talk about strategic government marketing and targeting decision makers.

3:18 pm: Citizen engagement will increase within the government agencies in the coming years.  Government community thrives on technologies and causes.

3:20 pm: Trust, loyalty and tradition are three key components to make note of when dealing with the government IT community.

3:25 pm: Government marketing strategies are similar to what traditional marketing pros use.  They are mainly using traditional media and events, but are gradually using social media.

3:26 pm: Steve Ressler, president & founder, GovLoop, enthusiastically jumps on stage and exclaims his sociology degree was not a complete waste.  He will talk about online communities.

3:27 pm GovLoop is a social network for government employees.  It like any other online community exist because of its usefulness, purpose and trust.

3:32 pm: Reasons why people join online communities:

1. To belong. People want to find people like themselves.
2. To share their story and experiences
3. To be entertained
4. To be leaders, but also to be led
5. To learn

3:36 pm: Tammy Gordon, Senior adviser at AARP, says social media is not just for kids.  The 50+ community is the fastest growing community using social media.

3:45 pm: AARP has established a full platform of social media, including Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.

3:47 pm: AARP’s social vision is not just broadcasting to members.  They are listening and engaging with members daily. AARP has full staff across the country to engage in social media.

Well, that ends the What’s Next: Your Marketing Communications Roadmap conference. We enjoyed the great dialogue and glimpses of what’s next for the communication industry. Check InSites this week for a few more posts discussing some of the bigger ideas shared at the event.

The decision to start up a blog is not one that should be taken lightly. At Vanguard Communications, we had to consider whether our insights and commentary on communications issues would benefit the already robust public relations blog community. Since you’re reading this post on our blog, you know which way we decided, and [...]]]>

The decision to start up a blog is not one that should be taken lightly. At Vanguard Communications, we had to consider whether our insights and commentary on communications issues would benefit the already robust public relations blog community. Since you’re reading this post on our blog, you know which way we decided, and you can read more in Maria Rodriguez’s post about why we chose to launch it. There are many reasons to start a blog and countless benefits to your brand when you do. Here are a few less obvious reasons to consider blogging as a tool to boost your online communications efforts.

1. Blogs are flexible. Blogging give you a platform that allows you to communicate positions, opinions and ideas that may not fit neatly into your existing website.  You can react to news and events with commentary that frames an important issue for your company or organization, while not interrupting the normal flow of information on your website
2. Blogs are personal. Blogs allow members of your organization to write on the topics that they know best and care the most about in a voice that is their own.  This gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your organization’s personal ties and investment in the issues that drive your day to day business.  What’s more, it can show that you’re following ongoing updates in your field.  Giving the public a window into the minds of your employees can ultimately help your messages resonate.
   

   http://www.flickr.com/photos/kpwerker/ / CC BY-SA 2.0

3. Blogging helps with search engine optimization efforts. Search engine optimization (SEO, for you acronym-lovers) is a big, tricky industry that is built entirely on trying to figure out how to maximize returns from the algorithms that drive search results for Google, Yahoo, Bing and others.  Blogging, however, is a simple way to help increase your search standing.  It is basic math – if you have more content related to the core concepts of your website, more people will be able to find your website using search engines.  This can help drive more traffic to your website – not only to your blog, but to your core web properties.
4. Blogging builds communities. Yes, yes, I know – blogging is so 2003.  Shouldn’t I be talking about Twitter or foursquare or Gowalla or Facebook or [insert your favorite social networking outlet here]?  Sure, social networking may be all the rage these days, but don’t underestimate the power of a blog.  If you’re supplying good content, you’re developing a community of loyal readers that will share your message, champion your causes, and react when you ask something of them.  If you’re using social networking platforms, your blog provides valuable content that can help keep conversations going.

Before starting a blog, think strategically.  Like any other communications platform, decide who your audience is and develop materials accordingly.  You’ll need to provide regularly updated content that is valuable and interesting – but if you’re able to make this commitment, blogging can become an important asset in advancing your organization’s online efforts.