Well, I regretted not being able to go to Podcamp Boston this past weekend but because of the capabilities of social media, I got a feel for what went on.  Greg Verdino of Crayon and an Advisor to the Business Smart Tools conference can be watched here as he and the panel speak about smart social media marketing. 

And a note from Christopher Penn, one of the organizers, about the goals for Podcamp Boston:  With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility!  See more here…I agree that community is the foundation of great power.

One of my clients, my contact from Pitney Bowes, came back and was exhilerated by the passion of the speakers and attendees.  Social media does this. 

A few points to consider:  Greg’s panels says you have to give up some control with social media to be effective, but as I say to many present and potential clients, you actually control more by putting out your message in a clear and consise way on a platform where all people can reference forever what you have said (blog, video….).  Each client controls more through social media than they ever would through a press release where a few media types take what you have said and put their own spin on it!!  Social media also allows you to hear from clients immediately which allows you to repsond publicly which shows your consumer base that you care and can react quickly!

I also fully believe that by building community you are building up a foundation for your company which could last for generations.  Bigelow Tea is doing this with their blog, their myspace page, their facebook page and with all of their videos!  My team is about to head into a presentation with a potential client who understands that community is needed, they just don’t know how to make it happen and so we hopefully will have the chance to build something substantial for them.

This is what Creative Concepts does…we quite simply build communities for our clients.  We don’t do viral one time campaigns (because we don’t believe one time efforts will have a profound long standing effect) and we don’t create banner ads and throw them across millions of websites that have nothing to do with the client (banner ads must have very targeted placement to work at all!).  We enter the communities and we listen and share information.  We build online channels where the customer can get top notch expert content in addition to being entertained and we help the client address each comment no matter what the tone or subject matter….this is what social media is about for the corporate sector and for eveyone really, listening, responding, and contributing!

Morgan Brown of The Ad Age Web Video Report talks about the dos and don’ts of video advertising.  Good stuff and makes sense.   Just like any other social media, keep it real, keep out the actual advertising and provide solid useable content.  Also keep it short and don’t over produce. 

We believe in this ourselves…we have Bigelow Tea to prove it and some new clients and their newly shot videos to show you soon!

See more of the article here.

Cindi Bigelow does it again by telling us how to naturally decaf your tea.  Video produced by Creative Concepts.

Check out this article, Andrew Cohen on CBS News Sunday Morning reports on the White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan debacle and ultimately claims in the article that all PR people are liars.  Mr. Cohen says, “show me a PR person who is “accurate” and “truthful” and I will show you a PR person who is unemployed. 

I suppose we could say the same about reporters but I wouldn’t go there because to make a generalization is a sibling to lying and not telling the whole story based on facts.

I don’t believe this anyway.  Social media (blogs, videos, social networks, twitter….) has transformed how we do business and keeps most of the untruths hidden for only a short time.  The consumer now has access to facts and history like never before and with our global community available as fact checkers, “liars” have a short life.

Just for the record, Creative Concepts is far from unemployed.  Ethical behavior, as mentioned in our mission statement, is our first value and our clients love it!

Back in 2005, BusinessWeek changed Creative Concepts forever.  The article “Blogs Will Change Your Business” moved us from a traditional PR and Marketing firm to a PR, Marketing and Social Media Consultancy where we have lots of fun with our clients in creating blogs, videos and communities on the social networks like MySpace and Facebook.

Kudos to Stephen Baker and Heather Green for producing another top notch aricle that is simply an update to the first.  Read “Beyond Blogs, What Business Needs to Know” and understand that social media is not going anywhere…it’s here to stay!

Nothing better than a well done interview! 

Nothing better than a well done interview featuring our client (Bigelow Tea)! 

Nothing better than a well done interview featuring our client who talks about having a ball with social media (where we at Creative Concepts support all of their efforts!)!

Interview here.

Have a great weekend!

On a more personal note, my daugher has been invited by the Presidential Youth Inaugural Conference to attend the 56th Inauguration.  As a fundraiser to help pay for the week of classes and celebrations she has started a blog called TwentEYEighty where she will blog about everything from classroom politics (she is 13 years old) to the campaign of course.  She will blog before, during and after the event in January…it should be great to hear her perspective. 

The power of her blog comes not only in a 13 year old getting her 2 cents out there but also from subscribers supporting her thoughts and people donating through her “donate” button so she can help pay for the week.

Jerelyn’s blog is, as all blogs are, 20% skill, 80% hard work-always with an EYE on the future and hence her tag line and url: www.twentEYEighty.com

Enjoy!

You know I want to like PRSA! I want to support what they do and be proud of being a member but I just can’t do it!! From the local meetings of elders who are unfriendly at the door to the guy (no names) who plans most of the speakers, it is one of the most unfriendly and inflexible groups of people I have ever met…this is “Public Relations?” Crazy!

I have heard many say these kinds of things before. One great speaker who I came to see (kudos for getting a smart well versed PR/Social Media expert) said that he has spoken at thousands of venues around the U.S. (and the world) and that the PRSA members as a whole are lacking zeal, to say the least, in trying to understand how the internet can help them do their jobs better even though social media is a natural extention to what I call traditional PR.

So no news here that PRSA does not comprise creative out of the box thinkers, so why am I writing today? Because of their next speaker, Andrew (first names only), who will be showing up at our local meeting. This is a guy I know well. He claims to love social media and understand it and he was a sponsor of the Business Smart Tools conference where he worked on the website and he was a speaker. Besides the fact that I don’t think he is an ethical person, he has minimal working knowledge of social media but claims to be a “world renown expert” which PRSA is supporting. This is a guy who doesn’t know how to set up blogs for his clients, has no blog of his own, and has a profile on facebook but no friends, no picture and no content….he isn’t even on Linkedin which is barely a social media tool in my mind.

You know that a trend (social media) has made it when “experts” like Andrew are bubbling to the surface and speaking about their “knowledge.” Watch out for people like this but celebrate the fact that the PR industry and business as a whole has a new yet solid communication channel that works for our clients and ourselves!

Here is our latest video featuring Cindi Bigelow of Bigelow Tea on how to make a perfect cup of tea.  Enjoy!

As a citizen in the town of Fairfield, CT., and as a female, mother, wife and daughter, I have a favorite website called SuzySaid. SuzySaid is the essense of where the big web guys (google, yahoo….) and the internet as a whole would like to go. It is geared for women and focused on the town where we live. I believe that SuzySaid started in Fairfield, my town, and has now branched out to other towns nearby and gone as far as Texas.

Content is local. Content is constantly updated. Content updates are shared daily with opt in email blasts. Content is geared for the local woman. Content is created by local women. Advertisers love it!

And you don’t need to be local to use it…what if I want to travel to Austin, Texas? Wouldn’t it be smart to consult SuzySaid?

As a woman living in Fairfield, this is my favorite website. As a business person advising smaller local businesses (and soon larger businesses), I say this is the way to go.

Hats off to SuzySaid!