Community Management How-To (and Other PR Blog Jots)

Guidelines for Community Management
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
The role of community manager is spreading rapidly through industries that value online communications and networks; but what does a community manager really do? That’s the question Jeremiah Owyang put to his Twitter followers recently, and he has boiled down the responses to four specific guidelines to the community manager position. They are: community advocacy, brand evangelism, excellent communication skills and research for product development. “In this evangelistic role (it goes both ways) the community manager will promote events, products and upgrades to customers by using traditional marketing tactics and conversational discussions. As proven as a trusted member of the community (tenet 1) the individual has a higher degree of trust and will offer good products.”

MSM Losing Credibility to Bloggers?
Six Pixels of Separation
While bloggers take a lot of online heat for posting reviews or other posts that they have been compensated for in some way (known as “blogola” or “pay-per-post”), we don’t often think the mainstream media engages very often in the same behavior. Mitch Joel posts about an experience with a very well-respected mainstream publication, which rejected a pitch from his firm on the basis that they are not subscribers to the publication. Are MSM publications in the habit of requiring PR pros to subscribe before they will accept their pitches, and is that not the definition of pay-per-post? “Bloggers go at it tooth and nail on the topic of pay-per-post and can get evil on the innocuous topic of running ads on a Blog, and here is a trusted traditional print media outlet that is prioritizing news based on whether you are paying them or not. If that's not pay-per-post... what is?”

Speaking of Pay-Per-Post...
Mike’s Points
The idea of accepting payment for blog posts is a hotly debated topic in the blogosphere, particularly Pay-Per-Post, which compensates bloggers for product reviews or other opinions. Mike Driehorst points out that that while he doesn’t have a big problem with PPP so long as the blogger discloses their compensation, these types of posts fall into a category of their own. A “real” blog post, he argues, is more organic, honest and transparent. “As a public relations/marketing communications professional, I will not ask a blogger for a published review. I figure that, if a person blogs, he or she is naturally opinionated and will (postiviely or negatively) blog about the product, if he or she wants to. The only thing I will ask for is for feedback — privately. That is one of the greatest values: objective subjective feedback. Granted, however, I do tend to expect, or hope bloggers to blog about the product (because, as I stated, they’re opinionated). So, while not asking for a post, I have stated that, if a blogger does, then we’d try to work out a system where any of his or her readers who order a product and reference the blog, receives a small discount.”

Yep, Something Else is Now "Dead"
PR 2.0
Many bloggers are calling for a “death to death memes,” noting that there is a new post seemingly every other day pointing to something else in the PR business that is now “dead.” While I tend to agree, Brian Solis’ post declaring the traditional PR pitch dead is compelling. He argues that the PR industry went off the rails at some point and forgot that while we stress the importance of real relationships in the era of social media, we should have been stressing them all along—if we had, then maybe there would be fewer angry posts from bloggers and journalists complaining about PR spam. “At the end of the day, PR is about people. Yes, it's about Public Relations and not about spam, mass marketing, and impersonal, blind pitches that only dig the entire industry into a deeper hole. How do we as PR shift from pitching to engaging in conversations? Let's start by burying the generic "pitch" and everything it represents.”

Strategies for Viral are a Little Sketchy
Twopointouch
Most would argue that there is no real strategy for creating a popular viral video. Some of the best virals making the rounds on YouTube weren’t designed to reach such huge audiences, but were just something that clicked with the right audience at the right time. But a recent TechCrunch post has caused quite a stir recently, as viral marketers reveal some arguably shady practices for getting eyeballs on their videos. Ian Delaney wonders what all the fuss is about, pointing out that the techniques they recommend actually make a lot of sense. “Personally, I thought the article offered some really useful information for anyone submitting a video to get it noticed among the other 19,999 videos submitted to YouTube on any given day. The initial tips for creating videos that appeal should be written on the bedroom walls of some of the aspiring ‘film-makers’ that appear on the site.”