Seeking PR Influence? Read. Share. Think. And Make Your Own Rules.

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This past week I participated in our Founder, Christine Perkett’s (@missusP) ReadyTalk (@RTWebSem) webinar titled “PR Experts as Influencers: How social media has changed the PR landscape forever – and what it means for you.” She discussed the importance of PR professionals using their connections, relationships and influences to help positively influence others or drive awareness (or directly drive customers) for their clients. Also, she shared the ins and outs of how any brand—personal or company– can adopt and achieve value in social media effectively. In Christine’s words: Successful PR is all about you.

Some insightful points I noted from her webinar:

  • We’re tastemakers — we’re all consumers who help dictate styles and trends. It’s important to share your brand experiences (positive and negative) in a way in which you can also share insights for other brands or clients. Turning your experiences into a helpful marketing or PR lesson helps raise your profile as a smart marketer and brand influencer.
  • Read every single day. Then use social media (ie: Twitter, Facebook, etc) to show your community what you’re thinking. This will help elevate your expertise in the areas in which you specialize. Don’t just share links – provide commentary on each piece.
  • Don’t ignore the opportunity to build your personal brand because it lasts forever — it’s like a live resume.
  • Be authentic — there’s tremendous opportunity via social media to “do what you do and do it well” – that is, showing reporters, clients, prospects that you are paying attention, engaging, and have valuable insights so share.
  • Speaking of sharing — make sure to tie in business marketing or PR lessons to elevate content and position yourself as a smart marketer. You want to be an influencer not just a participant.
  • Make your own rules — social media provides a great testing ground because everyone is exploring. Encourage your company or clients to try some innovative new marketing or PR ideas by testing the waters yourself. Post a thought provoking question that you know will spark debate. Write an unexpected blog post. Involve customers in a marketing campaign. Take some chances and share what you’ve learned to encourage your marketing team to innovate.

After the webinar, I started really thinking about Christine’s thoughts — about how convoluted PR and social media have become (and how much it doesn’t have to be). PR isn’t changing — it’s already changed. And will continue to change. Social media has the power to drive authenticity and build brand loyalty, but you need to fully understand how to effectively use social media as a PR tool — a communications tool. Bottom line: PR and social media need to be giving a lot of strategic thought. They don’t just “happen,” at least happen well, by signing up on a popular network. And a PR agency with the know-how, skills, and proven success is just the thing to assist a brand in doing so.

And then I made a connection.

I immediately thought of a company I “liked” and have been following on Facebook for the last few months after reading a feature article on Boston.com. This brand has not only enthused me daily, but has been one of the most creative fashion brands I’ve seen on Facebook — EmersonMade. As stated on her Facebook page’s company overview: EmersonMade offers a one-of-a-kind and compelling shopping experience that believes in celebrating the uniqueness of the individual, the joy of being alive and all the smallness that makes up the Big Beautiful.

And the brand delivers just that.

 

If social media is an opportunity for a company to break the mold and create unique content (content being the key) — EmersonMade achieves this. She makes her own rules. Her updates are interesting, fresh, and relevant. She has tapped into what her followers want and keeps doing it. From Facebook to Twitter to her company blog—she not only leaves me wanting her beautiful products, but I always find myself marveling her creativeness, thinking, how did she come up with that?

And there is absolutely no comparison with big fashion brands like Zara, BCBG, Madewell (to name a few). Their approach is, well, boring. They seem to not understand that social media is not about how many fans you have or just showcasing your products — it’s engaging your target audience. Not in an average way — but in an ingenious way. A way we have never been afforded until now.

Christine’s final words of her webinar have stuck with me: Be an innovator. Thinking outside the PR box. Adopting social media in ways to support innovation. Trying new ideas. Taking a chance and making it pay off because as Christine stated, this will lead to greatness.

So my fellow tastemakers — what are your secrets to influencing your social communities? Do you have a favorite brand that nails it? Or is there a brand that you wished could give you more? Please share your thoughts in the comments below. And thanks for reading!

The Almighty, The All Powerful…The Tweet

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This past week, Twitter revealed 2010’s “Twitter Trends”—a snapshot of the top overall topics that have dominated the 95 million tweets a day* sent this past year from across the world. Twitter released the top trends overall—splitting up the top tweets into categories including news events, people, movies, television, technology, world cup, sports, and hashtags.

According to a recent blog post, Twitter explains the “Twitter Trends” process as “automatically generated by an algorithm that attempts to identify topics that are being talked about more right now than they were previously. The Trends list is designed to help people discover the ‘most breaking’ breaking news from across the world, in real-time. The Trends list captures the hottest emerging topics, not just what’s most popular.”

Further, Jodi Olsen (@jodiolson), in charge of Twitter’s Corporate Communications, in a separate Twitter blog post added in, “These Trends indicate the things that are most meaningful in our lives. Each day on Twitter, people tweet about news, sports, entertainment and cool new technology–and everything else in between. The list of 2010 Twitter Trends reflects what’s happening in our world, demonstrates the power of turning any event or story into a shared experience, and underscores Twitter’s value as a real-time information network.”

The overall Top 10 Twitter Trends of 2010 are as follows:

  1. Gulf Oil Spill
  2. FIFA World Cup
  3. Inception
  4. Haiti Earthquake
  5. Vuvuzela
  6. Apple iPad
  7. Google Android
  8. Justin Bieber
  9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
  10. Pulpo Paul

In addition to the top overall trends, Twitter compiled a list of the “10 Most Powerful Tweets.” Examining Twitter’s list of powerful tweets proved thought-provoking. It represents the various ways people use Twitter from the political world to disaster relief.

are as follows:

  1. Ann Curry: “@usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti: http://bit.ly/8hYZOK THE most effective at this.” (http://twitter.com/AnnCurry)
  2. The White House: “Welcome to @twitter President Medvedev! RT @KremlinRussia_E: Hello everyone! I’m on Twitter, and this is my first tweet.” (http://twitter.com/whitehouse/)
  3. Cyclist Leigh Fazzina: “I’ve had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can somone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I’m stuck bike crash in woods.” (http://twitter.com/LeighFazzina/)
  4. BP’s Fake PR Account: “Catastrophe is a strong word, let’s all agree to call it a whoopsie daisy.” (http://twitter.com/BPGlobalPR)
  5. Ecuador’s President: “Gobierno declara estado de Excepción #Ecuador #30S” (http://twitter.com/Presidencia_Ec)
  6. Clarence House, the office of the Prince of Wales: “The Prince of Wales is delighted to announce the engagement of Prince William to Miss Catherine Middleton – www.princeofwales.gov.uk” (http://twitter.com/ClarenceHouse)
  7. Sun’s CEO: “Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more” (http://twitter.com/OpenJonathan/)
  8. Idaho’s John Foster: “Congratulations to Raul Labrador on a hard-earned win, and best of luck as Idaho’s next Congressman.” (http://twitter.com/foster208)
  9. Spain’s defender Carles Puyol: “Gran ambiente en la rua!!orgulloso de ver a tanta gente feliz. http://twitpic.com/24qkg5″ (http://twitter.com/Carles5puyol/)
  10. Conan O’Brien: “Hey Internet: I’m headed to your town on a half-a–ed comedy & music tour. Go to http://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It’s half-a–ed.” (http://twitter.com/ConanOBrien/)

While the list may appear simple: 10 tweets; the 140-character statements prove the real power of Twitter as a social medium. Twitter isn’t about easy mass-marketing or how many times you can tweet at your followers– the real power of Twitter is creating conversation, building authentic relationships, and most importantly tweeting to your followers. Not to mention, Twitter is the essence of viral marketing—no other social network can match Twitter’s effectiveness and speed in getting a message across to millions of people. In fact, according to a recent study by Pew Research Center about  8% of American adults who use the Internet are Twitter users. Twitter just may be the communication tool of the coming age.

So my fellow Tweeps— how’s your buzz level? What did you tweet about this year? Do you have a powerful tweet that’s missing from the list above to share with us? What was your breakthrough tweet this year? Please share your thoughts and top tweets of the year with us in the comments below.

*Twitter Blog, 12/8/2010

Yes, Content Rules… With a Clear Strategy

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We’re proud sponsors of tomorrow’s launch party for the new book Content Rules by Ann Handley (Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs), and C.C. Chapman (founder of DigitalDads). We’re big fans of both authors and know their ongoing content quite well – so I know the book will become a social media business bible of sorts.

Content has been on my mind quite a lot this week as we’ve been working with clients to create marketing and sales content. One thing I’ve noticed is that many businesses are getting caught up in creating content but have no strategy behind it. They want us to create a custom Facebook tab or an event microsite or a video to tell a story. But what I’ve found is that they aren’t always thinking about who they want to tell the story to, or what they want the story to accomplish – or even what action or return they are expecting from issuing their content. And, they’re usually not sure where they want the content to live – or why they want it in a certain place over another.

Jumping into content development without a strategy in mind is indicative of some of the social media hype. Brands just want to get “something cool” out there and they aren’t thinking about the RRR – resource to return ratio. At the same time, many complain that involvement in social media takes too much time and the ROI isn’t yet clear. That’s what happens when you don’t have a strategy!

Creating content for content’s sake is not a good use of your resources: time, money or people. It’s one of the reasons that I believe PR and marketing should be involved in the social media process for businesses. Sure, the marketing department doesn’t have to create the content necessarily, but they should have a hand in helping to shape the messages within it, as well as where it should live and how it should be promoted. Marketers are experts at messaging – and if your content has an empty or off-kilter message, it’s just noise.

Here are a few simple things businesses should be thinking about before they jump into creating social media content:

  • What do we want to share?
  • In what form do we want to share it?
  • Who do we we want sharing it? (CEO? Customers? Partners? Spokesperson?)
  • Who do we want to say it to?
  • Why will they listen/watch/read/care?
  • What do we want them to do as a result? (If anything)
  • What will we consider a success as a result of creating this content?
  • How will we track and measure that success?
  • What resources do we need?
  • Do we expect people to interact with this content? Share it? Write about it? How do we make that happen?
  • Where do we want it to live?
  • How will we share and promote it?

It sounds simple, but you would be surprised at how many brands jump into content development without asking these basic questions. They see something that worked for another brand (ex: Old Spice) and they say, “Hey, we can do that!” – without thinking about how it applies to their customers, their business and their goals.

Don’t create noise. Create content with a purpose. A purpose comes from defining a clear strategy before you begin.

Got more tips for businesses looking to create social content? We’d love for you to share them in the comments. Thanks for reading!

Charitable Giving Goes Social This Holiday Season

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‘Tis the season for bell ringers with red buckets asking for your donation in the name of charity – but giving-on-the-go this year is no longer limited to just the change in your pocket. At the forefront of this “social giving” movement is Keep a Child Alive (KCA), an organization dedicated to providing life-saving AIDS treatment, care and support services to children and families affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India.

Singer and new mom, Alicia Keys, is heading up the effort and hopes to raise $1 million for the charity with a campaign initiative called Digital Life Sacrifice. How? By staging a “digital death” for some well-known celebrities, including Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Hudson, Ryan Seacrest, Kim Kardashian, Serena Williams and Usher, to name a few. They’re quitting Twitter and Facebook cold turkey in the hopes that their sign-off (in effect until the $1M donation goal is hit) will incite action.

In addition to going dark digitally, several of the celebrities have filmed a “last tweet and testament” and will appear lying in coffins for ads. Other ads feature famous faces posing in “Buy Life” t-shirts that are printed with unique bar codes that users can scan on their cell phones (using Stickybits or WiMO) to donate money in the name of their chosen celebrity.

Pedestrians who’d like to get in on a piece of the action can purchase their own ‘Buy Life’ t-shirts with bar codes to become a walking billboard for the charity as well. Friends and family (and even strangers!) can simply scan the shirts to donate. And there’s still a text campaign (text “BUYLIFE” to 90999 to give $10) in effect for the non-smartphone crowd.

The campaign is a brilliant twist on the convergence of popularity contests, impulse buying and mob mentality that we’ve seen on such shows as American Idol – where Keys first realized her influence when a plea for donations raised $500K in four minutes. Plus, it’s refreshing to see the power of celebrity on social media being harnessed for a positive effect; the famous get that they’re a commodity, so they’re starting to realize that they can capitalize on that for the greater good – and quickly, thanks to this fresh and fun take with bar-code technology. The digitally-dead celebrities may not be talking, but the rest of us sure will!

Is this the kind of holiday giving campaign social media and mobile addicts will rally around? Love it? Hate it? We want to hear your thoughts.

Four Loko Divorces Social Media

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Four Loko – aka Black-Out-In-A-Can – aka Liquid Cocaine – is causing quite a splash nationwide. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s the alcoholic energy drink – already been banned in Michigan, California, Washington, Utah, and now Massachusetts – the most recent state to jump on the “anti Four Loko” bandwagon. For the economical price of $2.50, college students (its target audience) can buy a twenty-four ounce can that is equivalent to four beers, a red bull and a shot of espresso. Four Loko is owned by Chicago-based manufacturer Phusion Projects – founded in 2005 by three Ohio State University friends who were looking for an alternative to Red Bull and vodka. In fact, Four Loko is blamed for causing severe alcohol poisoning for nine students at a college party in Central Washington University—one female student nearly died*. Now, the Food and Drug Administration is getting involved by issuing a warning to all manufacturers of caffeinated alcoholic beverages that they need to either pull product – or prove their products are safe.

However, the real buzz involves the egregious PR blunder by Phusion Projects issuing a press release regarding being unfairly blamed for the Central Washington University incident. The company clearly states that they have “taken a unique position and made a conscious effort to reject the social media marketing tactics that other companies embrace – including many of our competitors. There is no company-sponsored “Four Loko” Facebook page or YouTube channel.”

BrandChannel didn’t buy this statement. The brand guru resource launched an investigation into Phusion Projects bold statement and after some sleuth work— revealed some interesting social media marketing campaigns involving Phusion Projects. The article uncovers how the brand tried scrubbing its former marketing messaging on Fourdrinks.com and then points to a former “Four Shots” gallery screenshot (below) where drinkers were asked to show their “happy-face” by uploading photos with Four Loko. When questioned, the manufacturer blamed its interns for the creation of such highly professional sites.

The article continues to find more contradictions in Phusion Projects statement—finding several dedicated Facebook pages— while not technically “company sponsored,” some were issued by paid marketing representatives (aka college students) of the manufacturer. Some of these pages have since mysteriously vanished.

As much as Phusion Projects would like us to believe it has consciously distanced itself from social media and marketing to minors (hmm, bright colored cans in a variety of fruity flavors), it’s clear from BrandChannel’s thorough research that the company was involved in an orchestrated “viral” campaign. In fact, on YouTube a general keyword search returns over 5,000 results—many of them showcasing people chugging or shotgunning the drink. Four Loko music videos are incredibly popular– one by Gwop Gang has racked up over 1 million views.

In a digital age where businesses are desperately trying catch social media marketing fever, yearning to connect with their consumers through Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—Phusion Projects found success; however, this brand’s apparent social media denial—perhaps an attempt to clean its image—is perplexing. Maybe to help counteract its negative perception, it’s time for the brand to create its own “official” Facebook page and YouTube channel. The power of social media could be valuable to Phusion Projects. It could allow them to take accountability for their out-of-control, harmful product and help prove they uphold responsible business practices.

So fellow social media hounds– what do you think about Phusion Projects social media marketing decisions? What could they have done better? Do you think there’s anything left to salvage from the Four Loko brand? Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

* Source: The Daily Record, 10/26/2010

Brand Haiku for You

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I was invited by my industry colleague and friend, Aaron Strout of Powered Inc., to participate in a fun experiment this morning. He asked me and a handful of other amazing marketing folks to share a brand haiku based on a recent experience we’ve had – good or bad. (Remember, a haiku is: 5 syllables, 7 syllables 5 syllables.)

Well, if you follow me on Twitter and were on this weekend, you likely heard about my recent experience with Toyota and specifically, McGee Toyota in Hanover, MA. It wasn’t pretty. So here’s my haiku for you based on my weekend – if you’d like the full story, read my blog post about the experience – and why it’s crucial for your sales team to understand that customer relationships are way more valuable than customer deals.

Toyota was wrong
Happy customers tell friends
Angry ones tell all

Now that the negative one is out of the way, here are two positive ones – because happy customers should share loudly, too.

Jet Blue I love you
Thanks for TVs and smiles
You get customers

Ideeli is cool
They sell lovely things to me
And they engage me

Follow the brand haiku to Bryan Person and his tribute to Nike, and see more haikus from those amazing marketers by watching Twitter for the hashtag #brandhaiku.

Thanks for the fun, creative and great idea – and invitation – Aaron! Readers, if you have a brand haiku, please play along in the comment section and on Twitter.

 

Getting Social—Social Media’s Boost for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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Pink—it’s everywhere this month. My local newspaper is dyed pink. NFL Football players are sporting pink sneakers and wristbands. Niagara Falls and the Georgia Aquarium are showing their support for breast cancer by lighting up in pink for the entire month. And even Microsoft issued a pink mouse to celebrate the cause. It’s Breast Cancer Awareness month— a time for women and men to learn, to remember, and to survive.

Nearly everyone knows someone, has a story, or has been affected by this disease somehow, someway. My Grandmother survived — she had a double mastectomy in her seventies. My Aunt died. She was in her forties and had two kids in high school. It’s a cause that nearly everyone can put a human face behind and, as sad as that is, this could be the reason breast cancer is such a well-recognized and widely supported cause.

In fact, breast cancer is now a brand in itself. It has a logo. Sponsored events. Spokespeople and celebrity endorsements. A trademark color. It has an elected month. It’s a successful brand in part because of its ability to create an emotional link with its audience; however, with the ever-changing social media landscape, this brand (along with many other brands) is challenged. Brands need to engage their audience by sharing content – they need to speak and listen—ultimately developing a valuable rapport with its target audience. Interestingly, over the past few years, and gaining momentum each passing year, breast cancer awareness is being touted through various social networks and social media campaigns. It’s clear that breast cancer awareness has an active voice within the social network community.

Social media has the power to be a huge platform for advocating awareness and spreading the word. The YouTube “Pink Glove Dance” video by the Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Oregon proved to be an online sensation. The dance is meant to raise awareness for early detection, pump up hospital employees, and encourage those in the fight against breast cancer. With over 1.8 million hits on YouTube, this social media campaign demonstrated such huge success that Medline, the Chicago-area company that makes the pink gloves and produced the video, decided to create a sequel—with more than 4,000 healthcare workers and breast cancer survivors.

On the other hand, some Facebook campaigns for breast cancer awareness month are quite curious. For example, last year the women of Facebook wrote the color of their bra— and nothing else– as their Facebook statuses. This year, women are using their statuses to fill in the statement about their handbags or pocketbooks: “I like it on the…” Ultimately, they’re trying to sound scandalous, but it’s the lack of correlation between the disease and these campaigns that are confusing. The campaigns seem to be completely irrelevant to anything having to do with breast cancer; however, there’s no denying that the effects of successful campaigning for breast cancer have led to a remarkable decline in the disease. Surprisingly, the campaigns do work. Susan G. Komen for the Cure and The American Cancer Society stated they received a significant increase of Facebook fans and inquires for more information about the disease. The power of social media.

So fellow pink-branding observers—what do you think about the success of breast cancer awareness month thus far? Please share your thoughts of what you noticed most about this campaign. What did you choose to promote or share with friends on your various social networks? What didn’t you want to share (either too sad or too personal)? And for those of you who donated to the cause—what got you to reach into your wallet and donate? Do you see other causes learning from this success and building out their brands? If so we’d love to know who they are. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

A Week of (Soggy) Marketing & Social Media Learning in Boston – Join us online or at IMS at 1 today!

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If you’re in or around the Boston area this week, you already know that it’s a big week for new marketing, social media and business professionals. A flurry of events are taking place as IMS 2010 and FutureM are in full swing. If you can’t join live, be sure to watch the numerous sessions on livestream via The Pulse Network, catch the chatter on Twitter (hashtags: #futureM and #IMS10) or the many blog posts being written by attendees.

Today, you can catch PerkettPR’s Claire Russell presenting “The Power of Reel” at 1 p.m. EST at IMS. She’ll be partnering with Bettina Hein, Founder & CEO of Pixability, to showcase how easy and powerful video is – and how it can help you to not only tell your story but create stronger relationships and impact in your social marketing efforts. Case studies will include work and campaigns from businesses such as Old Spice, Livestrong, St. Louis Children’s Hospital and more.

Not in Boston at IMS today? Then considering joining me at 1 p.m., along with the American Marketing Association, Conduit (a PerkettPR client), John Jantsch, Author of Duct Tape Marketing and Sally Falkow, as we present “5 Must Dos for Social Media Holiday Marketing.” Focused mainly on how SMBs can use social media to successfully – and easily – expand their holiday marketing efforts. Not convinced social marketing is for you? Check out these facts from the press release:

  • More than 50% of the 500 million Facebook users log on to Facebook every day.  In total, they spend over 700 billion minutes per month on the service.
  • People are watching 2 billion videos a day on YouTube; every minute, 24 hours of video is uploaded to the service.
  • Users spend 22.7% of their time online on social networking sites.

I hope we’ll see you either at IMS, FutureM or on the webinar today. Looking forward to sharing insights, learning from others and continuing to merge our online and offline relationships.

Happy marketing!

 

Can Second Life get a Second Life?

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I read Mitch Wagner’s Computerworld blog post last week, “Fast, Easy, Fun” with Second Life founder Philip Rosedale –  and it made me wonder – what would it take for me to try Second Life again. My first experience with using Second Life was not positive to say the least and I don’t think just hearing that it had new functionality would be enough to entice me to change my mind. What I didn’t hear in this article is what Rosedale has planned for changing the way people think of Second Life.

In my opinion, Second Life’s problem is twofold –

  1. Technology: Yes, they HAVE to make it fast, easy and fun because when I tried it, it was slow, difficult and boring.  For all of the press and promise Second Life had, it did not appeal to me in the least. In fact it was kind of creepy. I do recall liking the name I came up with and my outfit, but beyond that, it just seemed like a bad trip. I REALLY wanted to like it but in the end, it did nothing for me but crash my computer and waste my time.
  2. Public Perception: Aside from Mitch, I do not know ONE person who is on Second Life. Obviously someone is, but it’s no Facebook. They are going to have to really work hard to make people think its “cool” and be willing to try it again as it seems to me that the world has moved on.  No one is there, not much is going on.  I’m not sure people would even admit trying it – like going to a lame party and then hoping no one found out you were there.

So, what would make me try Second Life again? How can they revive their brand?

What would make me try any service or product again that is not only dated but that is often ridiculed by the general public?  Would I say I just started a new Plurk account?  Would I tell a friend that I just cut my hair with a Flow-bee? Would I say I just bought my boyfriend some Old Spice…..well…I wouldn’t have a year ago because I’d be afraid to hear, “Hey Lisa, 1975 called, they want their cologne back.”

So why would I now?  How did they revive their brand?

As we know, Old Spice did something brilliant but simple – they made people talk about their product again.  They made it seem cool to use their product, they made it seem like cool people were already using their product, and they made people laugh.

It sounds like high school, but honestly, people want to know that other people are doing something before they will do it, especially if they fear being mocked for doing it. They really want to know that the cool people are doing it. And they want the promise that they will get something out of it – fun or learning, they have to believe there is good reason to try again.

Second Life has to invest just as much in PR, marketing  and advertising as they do in the technology.  People say that PR & marketing are now irrelevant – but think about how many times you’ve said Old Spice in the last ten years, and then think about how many times you’ve said it in the last two months. Old Spice didn’t change their product, they just changed how people thought about their product. Of course the quality of technology, product, or service matters, but how it’s packaged up and sold matters almost as much.

For me, its going to take a better experience and some very cool promotions. My friend even suggested setting up a Sterling, Cooper, Draper Pryce and letting people interact with the characters – now that would get me back there.

So, what would make YOU try Second Life again?

Disclosure: Mitch Wagner is currently a client of PerkettPR

Help for those “Vote for my SXSWi Panel” headaches

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If you’re in technology, business or entertainment (music, film), you’ve certainly been exposed by now to a steady stream of “Vote for my SXSW panel” messages, blog posts and Tweets. With thousands of entries, not only is the noise deafening from your social buddies, but the time it takes to truly read the panels and give them the “thumbs up” is nearly impossible. (Bless the panel – they are certainly going to be doing a lot of reading.)

Why is everyone asking for your vote? Well, because votes – the community’s opinions – account for about 30% of the decision of who gets the much-coveted speaking slots. The Advisory Board (40%) and Staff (30%) make up the other percentages. SXSW is held every March in Austin, TX and is THE place to be to create new relationships, learn and share with the social media, business, tech, and entertainment crowd. It lasts a week, with a divide between interactive, music and film. You can read all about it, here.

With the deluge of panels and all the posts about them, you’re likely just to vote for your pals and they’ll vote for you and once again, popularity – not necessarily quality – will prevail. But one thing we’ve noticed that’s missing from a lot of the recommendations is the WHY. Why vote for these panels other than a friend asks you to do so? Seems a lot of the promotion is leaving out that crucial detail. So, we’ve chosen a few of our favorites so far, below, and a reason why we believe each is worthy of you clicking that “thumbs up” button. We kept our focus on the interactive side, FYI.

We’ll try to add more as we find them but feel free to leave your favorites – don’t forget the why – in the comments. There are so many, we’d love to learn about more great ones that we haven’t yet heard of, and from people we might not yet know (isn’t that what’s great about social networks?!).

  • Because we’re “inspired women who want to inspire other women,” we vote for Breaking Glass Ceiling(s) – Fearless Women Entrepreneur by Amita Paul, ObjectiveMarketer. We’re not crazy about the title but get past that and read the content – are there really only 13 women at the top?!
  • Turns out Carla Thompson of Sharp Skirts sees women everywhere – in startups, that is. We’re always interested in the gender gaps in business and again, empowering women. So we give a “thumbs up” to Where are the Women in Startups? Um, everywhere! and hope you will, too.
  • Noticing a theme here? Yes, we are all about supporting the ladies. But, this one is truly unique – focused on African American women and their use of the Internet for activism. Cybercrusading for Women by Gina McCauley, Blogging While Brown.
  • Speaking of powerful young women on the Internet, we’ve got to give a shout out to our industry colleagues at Sevans Strategy. They’ve got a PR panel – and as big proponents of ensuring a brighter, smarter PR industry – we highly recommend it for any PR executive. Spin Doctors: PR Best Practices for Social Media includes founder Sarah Evans, Jason Kintzler of Pitch Engine and Ryan Osborn of NBC News.
  • Sarah is also a part of this panel – which intrigued us as we continue to research the impact of social media globally ourselves. The Global Online Community – Improving Cross-Cultural Relations also includes Andrew Kneale, of the British Council.
  • Another woman we’re proud to know is Alicia Staley of The Staley Foundation. Alicia’s got an amazing story to share and we love her panel because it combines her personal experiences with cancer and the timely topic of crowd sourcing. Crowd Sourcing Cancer deserves a thumbs up because it’s got a higher purpose and can truly help many people above and beyond this event.
  • As PR executives, our daily work revolves around story telling – and story shaping. So we were interested when we read Storytelling in an Age of Industrialized Content by Upendra Shardanand of Daylife. We’re all story tellers now – do you know how to keep ’em human?
  • And finally, we wouldn’t be very good PR professionals if we didn’t also ask you to give our panels a thumbs up. In The Networking Conundrum, I’ll analyze how people and businesses are building communities online and off – and whether or not both are important. Are they inclusive of one another? Why or why not? What if you live in a rural area – can you still build influence online as successfully as your city-dwelling competitors? And what behaviors are most effective in each? We think this is an important topic as social networks continue to grow and thus the world seems to simultaneously get smaller.
  • Our EVP Heather Mosley will take a look at who’s already done well in this vein – and what you can learn from them – in Dissecting What Really Works in Social Marketing Campaigns. What companies are doing it right and what have the results been? Is it possible to take elements of their successes to build your own – why or why not? She’ll help you understand what’s worked, why, if it can work for you – and maybe more importantly, what doesn’t.

We’ll continue reading through the panels and let you know what else catches our eye. What have been your faves so far?

See you in Austin!