2012 Should be the Year PR Types, Mad Men and Digital Marketers Come Clean

I've been in the journalism/PR/digital marketing business for 18 years (in that order). If you've ever worked at an agency, you know that the lines between PR, advertising and marketing has become blurred because of online communications, i.e. social media.

The space is become very crowded. Guru's are a plenty. Books are being written at a feverish pace; books on Google+, Facebook, social media in general, location-based stuff, etc.

It's never ending and to be brutally honest, it's tiring.

Here's what I'd like to see from PR, advertising and marketers in 2012:

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The Social Networking Dilemma for Parents

Today the Globe has a story about the dilemma parents face with social networking.

[Social Networking] It’s become one of the most pressing questions for parents of children growing up in the digital age: When should they let their children join Facebook or should they be on the site at all? An estimated 7.5 million preteens - including 5 million under 10 - are part of the social network in violation of Facebook’s terms of service, according to Consumer Reports.

I have nephews and a niece who are under the acceptable age for signing up for Facebook, but are on Facebook. I see the interactions they have with their friends and family. Sometimes I find it strange. Sometimes I find it cool (mostly because I can keep up with how they are doing in school, athletic activities, etc.).

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A Battle for Social Web Traffic: Brand Pages

So Twitter joined Facebook and Google today by launching 'Brand Pages'. So what, right? Well, if you're managing a brand or doing so for a client's brand, you're going to want to jump in on the action.

You see, brand's need social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. They need to connect. They need to fuel the push and pull action that takes place between the people with products and services and the people that want them.

However, brands are very conscious about their image. They want "some" control over their presence on these networks. Brand Pages provide a false sense of brand security in that the social network dictates how your brand will be presented. There are a certain amount of spaces to fill with creative. There are certain places to put in your company info. And of course, there's always a segment of the network where you pump your sausage, i.e. your news.

This isn't control. These aren't "brand pages." They are apartments. Brands are renting these spaces and are generating loads of traffic (and ad revenue) for the social darlings of the web.

My advice is to take advantage of brand pages in order to avoid squatters, but don't forget YOUR website. Remember that thing right? The online face for your brand that you actually have 100% control over? Well, don't forget to use that and in fact, socialize it. Make your website, your SOCIAL website. Make it the center of your social hub for your target audience. Then, all those other brand pages will be just that -- pages -- whereas your website will be a brand experience.

Just sayin'.

QR Code Programs Need Good Brand Execution in Order to Succeed

Updated on May 1, 2011 at 2:59 PM by Don Martelli

For those who follow the social media space and are mobile nuts, QR codes add a cool aspect to both online and offline marketing programs.

In plain English, QR codes are basically bar codes that look like a printer spit ink into a square. Like bar codes, each QR code is unique.

When a mobile user takes a picture of the QR code (with the help of any number of mobile apps) he or she will be directed to something -- a website, app download, coupon, etc.

The biggest issue with QR codes is that your run of the mill consumer doesn't know what the heck they are. The adoption just isn't there yet.

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Managing Your Social Content

I read constantly. News websites, blogs, Facebook, Twitter, etc. When it comes to the social web, I realize that I can'y catch everything, yet it's my job to keep on top of the trends, news, new services, apps, etc.  Some ask, "How the heck do you keep up with it all?"

The answer is simplicity.

I keep things simple  because there are many ways you can slice and dice what's important to you in terms of content. There's content that's important to you personally as well as professionally. And as many of you know, there's LOADS of it.

So how do I keep things simple and keep it organized?

Well, I first break down content into three categories:

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The MSLGROUP Guide to Facebook Updates

Facebook has made a variety of changes to how brand pages are presented on their site; what controls administrators have over content, engagement and measurement; and, even how content is presented on the page itself. If you haven't caught up on all the changes, don't fret, here's a cool resource put together by my agency, the MSLGROUP:

The MSLGROUP Guide to Facebook Updates

Why RSS Isn't Dead

With Facebook and Twitter being primary sources for news these days, are RSS readers still relevant?

That was the question posed in this article and this tweet, which of course, prompted me to write this post.

My answer is no and here's why.

I equate Twitter to a big river. If you've never stood on the banks of a river, big or small, you've at least seen one on TV, the web, etc. Basically Twitter is this massive body of water that keeps flowing no matter if you're on standing on the banks or not. We don't have time to stand on the banks all day long and see what swims by. We can't cast our fishing rods out every second to see what we catch. If you're following a lot of people on Twitter, the river moves faster and it becomes harder and harder to catch the content that's important to you. As a result, you end up building Twitter lists, using columns in programs like Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, etc.

Simply put, you just can't catch it all and anyone that says that do, is lying.

Enter RSS readers.

Services like Google Reader and applications like Reeder and NetNewsWire are not fishing rods, but more like mesh nets that you can stretch across the river of content that's important to you. Yes, you won't catch breaking news this way, but you will stop content that's important to you from slipping by. And with the web littered with blogs and social media services, the content river is getting bigger and bigger. Twitter will eventually become ineffective for catching all the news that's important to you. Yes, you might catch breaking news if you trolling around the service at that particular time, but you still need a fishing net to help catch the other stuff.

Do you think RSS is dead?