Shankman's 4 things: Shankman in Richmond

Wow.  This has been a pretty incredible morning.  We at THP would like to once again thank everyone who braved nasty weather to hear HARO's Peter Shankman speak this morning.  We raised about $3000 and all had our social marketing consciences raised as well.

Thanks also to Jen Pounders who sent over the yummy Two Sweet Cupcakes (shameless plug for more in the future) after the event.  He ate one and was bummed he couldn't take the rest on the plane.

Now for the good stuff.  Some of my takeaways are:

• He doesn't think newspapers as we know them will end
• He thinks the lines between business and personal on social marketing platforms will merge into one persona

• He thinks the news release as we know it will be dead in 36 months (some of you have heard this before)

• His affliction is ADOS or Attention Deficit....Oooooh Shiny.....

• No industries are inappropriate for social marketing, it's people who are sometimes using it inappropriately

• He singled out Hardees and the Florida Aquarium as example of companies who are doing it right

I know I'm missing a lot here (the dangers of live tweeting from the conference) but he did talk about his four "rules" or suggestions that folks doing this should live by:

1. Transparency:  As younger folks are running more companies they have seen the danger of what happened to the older generation and companies like Enron which withheld the truth and that let to its downfall.  In order to gain trust you have to be transparent with your audiences.  He's a great promoter of the idea that every CEO should write a blog for this very reason.
2. Relevance:  You need to provide good solid information that people will likely care about.  Ranging from tips of the day or discount coupons that people can quickly thank advantage of your message needs to hit people as pertaining to them and not out of left field.
3. Brevity:  In this Text-n-Tivo world you have the equivalent of ten seconds to get someone's attention or on places like Twitter, 140 characters.  Whether its the media or a mom you have that long to convince them to do your story or buy your product.  That's also why he thinks that great writing will be just as important in the future as it had been.
4. Top of Mind:  In my mind this means be consistent with all of the above.  A perfect example of this is looking for opportunities to stay in touch like Facebook birthdays.  You know when each of your friends are celebrating so send them a birthday wish.  You are doing something nice and staying top of mind.

The consistent theme of questions sent to me by folks like Jen Stringer and Mary Framer on Twitter was "how can small business take advantage of SM?" and "how we meld our business and personal personas?"  I think I answered some of that above and Peter's four rules are at least a good place to start to answer those questions.

I welcome those who were there or those who followed on Twitter to add things or comment in the comment section below.  I also want to invite my other social media mentors to comment as well, it will be interesting to see your thoughts.

Here's well-known Richmond blogger and now business owner, John Sarvay's take on the morning event.

Thanks one more time to the folks here at THP and for the everyone who supported us today. 

Comments

[Adam Gainer]

First and foremost I want to thank you and the team at Hodges. This morning was a wonderful event and really good that we could help out such a great cause.

It was nice meeting in person finally. He was a great speaker and I learned a lot. I think he brought up a lot of fantastic points that a lot of us will take to our respective clients and organizations. His ideas on the "life streaming" ticker seems pretty fascinating. He made an excellent point also about not being active in social media.

It was good to finally meet in person and I'm glad the weather held off. Again, Kudos to you and the team for throwing together an awesome event. I look forward to any you will be holding in the future.

[Jennifer Pounders]

This was the spark that Richmond, Va's public relations and marketing community needed as we collectively hope for the best in 2009! Thank you for bringing us all together!

[Caroline]

Great post, Jon. (the whole blog looks great,btw) I found myself rethinking pitches and how to use press releases in pitches I was working on today. Even if we don't put a release on the wire, I imagine we'll be writing them for a long time to come. The "Press Release Graveyard" isn't going anywhere.

[steve leonard]

Hey Jon! Really enjoyed Peter! As a person who
hardly knows how to send an email..its going to
be a challenge to get up to speed on this..
but i am going to get peter's book and get in
the groove!
warm regards,
steve leonard