You Can't Do It All

You can't do it all in Social Media so stop trying.

In the Traditional approach to marketing there are only so many communication channels to choose from including TV, Radio, Print, Direct Mail, Magazines, Billboards, etc. so it makes it a little simpler to decide which ones to choose. A big part of the decision comes from what your company can afford to invest in Marketing.

When it comes to using Social Media as part of your company's Digital Communication strategy the decision becomes a little trickier since there are a ton of Social Media communication channels to choose from.

It is impossible to effectively utilize every Social Media communication channel available since there is just not enough time in the day. Start with your consumer! Understand who your consumer is and then you can develop a Digital Communication strategy around them targeting the Social Media channels where they frequent.

Target the most effective Social Media communication channels to Listen, Learn, and Engage with your consumers and invest your time there. Don't spread yourself too thin on Social Media communication channels that don't attract your company's consumers.


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Evolution of Communication

Evolution of Communication Summer Internship Program

Description:

Evolution of Communication is an Interactive Firm that uses the power of Digital Communication to Listen, Learn, and Engage with our Brand's consumers.

Title:

Digital Communication Intern

Summary:

Evolution of Communication is looking for talented individuals who are pursuing careers in SEM, SEO, PR, Coding, Application Development, Graphic Design, Website Development, Communication, Sociology, Data Mining/Analytics, or Social Media for our Summer Internship Program.

If you want to gain real world experience in the Digital Communication space with a startup company then this internship is for you. Your time with Evolution of Communication will not be about getting coffee but learning how to help brand's grow online. This internship is about providing you with valuable skills beyond classroom theory that will potentially lead to a job within Evolution of Communication.

Qualifications:

• Currently enrolled College Junior or Senior pursuing a career in one of the fields mentioned above
• Extrovert
• Live in Atlanta
• Experience with Microsoft Office

Interested Students:

Please email me jeffmello@evolutionofcommunication.com with the following information:

• Brief summary explaining why you want to become an intern at EOC
• LinkedIn info
• Twitter info
• Current school
• Year of expected graduation
• Major
• When you are available to start

Evolution of Communication is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate against any applicant on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, age, gender, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, military/veteran status, or any other status protected by Federal or State law or local ordinance.


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Evolution of Communication

Customer Service is #1 Priority for Business

Customer Service has to be the #1 Priority for Business in this new Communication Era.

In this Digital Communication era with the massive penetration of smart phones one poor customer experience can pose major problems for your business!

Unlike in the past when a poor customer experience traveled slowly by word of mouth from one friend to another. We are now in a new Digital Communication era where consumers have the power and their experiences are shared at light speed through vast networks that can touch others throughout the world.

Make your customer service a priority and avoid your business being sunk by a bad customer experience.


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Evolution of Communication

Response to "Social Media Bubble"

Recently Umair Haque wrote "The Social Media Bubble" where he discredits relationships formed in Social Media.  His theory is wrong.



Let's start with the obvious issue coming from Umair writing such a post about relationships in Social Media...he doesn't create any! Look at the picture above and notice how many followers Umair has compared to how many he follows. Obviously Umair is not trying to develop relationships on Twitter so how can he pretend to write honestly about relationship development on Social Media channels.

My suggestion is to try and press that little Follow Button on Twitter once and a while to open yourself up to building meaningful relationships on Social Media. It is tough to build relationships if you are a 1-way communicator.

I have personally hired someone I met through Twitter and have developed countless longstanding relationships through Social Media.

It is very understandable for people stuck in a Traditional mindset to believe this "Social Media Thing" is a fad but I would be scared if I was a company trying to make sense of the future of Communication with someone leading the charge who cannot see the Revolution of Communication we are in right now!

Umair...I suggest you pick up the book "Engage" by Brian Solis to help you remove the blinders you are wearing and awaken to the reality that the Traditional approach to reaching consumers is going away. One to one to many is the future of Engagement with consumers.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, theories, etc. but they are also open to criticism of their views without being considered hateful. Healthy debate is what learning is about.


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Evolution of Communication

Changing the view of PR

South By Southwest was a cool event to help galvanize my thoughts regarding Interactive and Digital Communication.

One takeaway for me was the reaffirmation that communication is sprinting towards the focus on 1 to 1 engagement. Information is getting too decentralized and it will continue to be difficult for Traditional Media to successfully reach consumers through advertising.

As communication shifts to 1 to 1 engagement I can’t help but believe the power will also shift towards the strengths associated with PR professionals from the Traditional Agencies. PR Professionals are trained early on to realize the value of building relationships over advertising. This relationship based approach over paid advertising is why I believe PR is poised to finally take its rightful position as the leader in any communication plan moving forward.

The evolution of 1 to 1 engagement will continue to accelerate as Digital Communication continues to prove its value over the waning successes of Traditional Advertising.

Here is the wikipedia definition of Public Relations...

Public relations (PR) is a profession that includes the functions of communication, community relations, crisis management, customer relations, employee relations, government affairs, industry relations, investor relations, media relations, mediation, publicity, speech-writing, and visitor relations.

By the PR definition above you can easily see why in a Communication World defined by 1 to 1 engagement Public Relations is the 1st stop to ensuring a successful strategy. The future of communication is engagement so why not update the perception of PR to reflect its new position as the leader in communication strategy by moving away from the name PR and updating the name to Public Engagement reflecting the Communication Evolution we are in.

I am also willing to suggest the new field of Consumer Engagement. Any professional field that puts the consumer at the center of the communication strategy has an advantage over the professionals stuck in the dying Traditional Marketing approach.

How do you see the future of Communication playing out?

Evolution of Communication Community

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Evolution of Communication

Bing and Rupert Murdoch

Rupert Murdoch is a very successful business man when it comes to Traditional Media but he has got it wrong when it comes to the Digital Space. Look at what happened with the MySpace purchase. Old media thinkers are not always right in the new Digital World.

Rupert Murdoch would be making a HUGE mistake to pull all of New Corp's content from Google to be placed exclusively on Bing. Google is the search leader and people do not value New Corp's content enough to change their search habits by searching on Bing for content.


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Evolution of Communication

Hold off hiring a "Social Media Manager"

2010 is the year Social Media becomes mainstream for companies.

Pepsi chose to pull out of the Super Bowl this year to redirect those dollars into Social Media. Companies are realizing consumers no longer want to be screamed at with one-way monologue messages but want to be engaged in a two-way dialogue with their favorite brands.

If 2009 has been the year of companies thinking about using Social Media then 2010 will be the year of Social Media execution for companies.

I do see a pitfall for companies in 2010. As usual with late adopting companies they are now rushing to play catch up with implementing a Social Media program. In their haste they are looking to hire "Social Media Managers" but without really understanding what the job entails.

We all want the greater adoption of Social Media Programs by companies but they need to slow down, understand the what, why, and how of Social Media, develop a Social Media strategy, and then look to hire the right talent to fill those roles.

There is a big difference between tweeting on Twitter and understanding how the Twitter Communication channel can be leveraged by a company to achieve their defined goals.


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Evolution of Communication