Andrew Hyde lives in Boulder, Colorado and travels frequently.

Social Media and PR In the Digital Age

This morning I spoke on a panel “Social Media and PR In the Digital Age” at a Boulder Chamber event.  It was a fantastic event, a huge thank you to Laura Love and all those that put it together.

Here was my very hungover view:

Social Media and PR In the Digital Age

Notice the empty coffee cup.

The panel was interesting to be on.  We didn’t all agree, and had different strategies that worked for us.  The audience seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.

Things I remember:

  • The geeks have become the best communicators and are leading the charge.  We were right with FaceBook and Twitter, listen to where we go next, get on the front of that movement before tagging onto a dying one.
  • Saying “you should listen” over and over and over.  Your audience will help guide the way.
  • Suggesting the group use FiltrBox to monitor their brand.
  • Techstars has one cultural rule: underwear on the inside.
  • There was a question “what tools should I use, twitter / facebook / linkedin / flickr?”  My response was “whatever leaves you with childlike wonder.”  If you don’t love it, or have a spark to it, don’t do it.
  • I said twitter was dying to this group, looking to learn about twitter.  I more mean that the early adopters are leaving and the spammers are taking over.  MySpace over again.

Social Media and PR In the Digital Age

Then we had round table discussions that worked out really well.  I did Twitter 201, which I quickly turned into “Your social media strategy with Twitter and beyond.”

My points with that:

  • Look and see what works and see if you can match behaviors to your brand
  • A blog is the best thing you can have
  • Listen to your target
  • Share relevant content
  • You don’t own your brand, the customers do
  • You have to be unique to get the attention
  • There are 65+ storefront shops in Boulder on twitter

Great job to the Boulder Chamber, it was a really fun event!

Social Media and PR In the Digital Age

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15 responses to “Social Media and PR In the Digital Age”

  1. Ef Rodriguez Avatar
    Ef Rodriguez

    Sadly, I agree about Twitter's slow metamorphosis into MySpace with regard to spam. It's distressing but inevitable…?

  2. Shelli Avatar
    Shelli

    Great stuff, Andrew. Thanks for sharing. Learned about this from your Tweet.
    I'm a keynote presenter at a travel conference coming up June 3 and am happy to see your points “Listen to your audience” and “your customers own your brand.”
    This is so true.
    Our Webby award-winning YellowstonePArkcom was pretty much built by our customers. We surveyed them and built our IA and UE and content based on what they told us. We're pretty smart, but at the end of the day, the comfort and confidence we had redesigning our site, knowing we were doing right by our customers, was significant. And it turned out right.
    thanks again
    Greetings from Yellowstone
    Shelli Johnson
    HaveMediaWillTravel.com (blog)
    yellowstoneshel (Tw)

  3. jasoncormier Avatar
    jasoncormier

    Thanks for the summary Andrew. Judging from your picture, quite a turn-out compared to the last time James and I participated in round tables with the Boulder Chamber. Love the new FiltrBox action. “Social media” sure is the magic word these days.

  4. Kate Linehan Avatar
    Kate Linehan

    Great to meet you today, thanks for all the good info! I would have never known how hungover you were if I had not read this-excellent job keeping it together.

  5. charlieok Avatar
    charlieok

    Re: twitter, it seems like the spam that's hard to avoid is the follow notices, since you can avoid the rest by not following the spammers. Do you know if there's a good service out there that can keep follow notices out of sight/mind if they're initiated by a spammy account?

  6. Kevin Makice Avatar
    Kevin Makice

    Sounds like an interesting community conversation, but you are wrong about Twitter. It's possible the size of your network gives you a different view on spam and exposure to problems that most users will never have. The most common personal networks are small and contain highly relevant connections. IMO, that uniqueness and control over one's own experience is what makes it more durable.

    And for all the knocking of MySpace, they still get 55 million visitors each month. There is no longer growth in that community, but it's far from dead or valueless (to the people still using it). Any comparisons between Twitter and MySpace fail because of the rapid response the Twitter ecosystem has to the needs of its community. Twitter may not be innovating much, but they are facilitating a lot of development.

  7. William Avatar
    William

    Brightkite in emarketer…
    http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007104

  8. andrewhyde Avatar
    andrewhyde

    I think some smart UI can make it kick ass.

  9. andrewhyde Avatar
    andrewhyde

    Great turnout and a fantastic event!

  10. andrewhyde Avatar
    andrewhyde

    More of a sick hungover, but was feeling the morning.

  11. andrewhyde Avatar
    andrewhyde

    I hide all, and then go through every few days and click on the names and pics that don't look spammy. Wish there was a better day. http://tweetsum.com/ is pretty cool.

  12. andrewhyde Avatar
    andrewhyde

    I think micorsharing is alive and well.

    My friend joined twitter yesterday, had 3 followers in her first 10 minutes, all three were very pornographic images and names of porn stars. Unchecked and hurtful spam. The unchecked is the big part for me, spam has been a huge problem for over a year with very little action (I've been followed and unfollowed triggering 9 emails from one user, for instance).

    I just hit 17,000 follower emails. I have 7k followers, that means 10,000 pieces of email were sent after a follow, and then an unfollow.

    I hope I am wrong, but don't see any action on the staff's front.

    I speak at a few college classes every year, and I ask who is on MySpace. Over 500 students this year, 2 were on MySpace. I don't see where there numbers are really coming from, I can't find the pockets. An app not being used by those with influence is a problem I see, the future looks dim.

  13. andrewhyde Avatar
    andrewhyde

    Thanks for sharing!

  14. William Avatar
    William

    Andrew-

    Short article from emarketer with some numbers around social media for small business. Might interest you and your audience.

    http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007121

  15. William Avatar
    William

    Andrew-

    Short article from emarketer with some numbers around social media for small business. Might interest you and your audience.

    http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007121

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