8 years since I first stepped foot into a PR agency and my parents still can’t put a finger on what exactly I do for a living. They’re smart folks, it’s not their fault. My job and this industry is constantly evolving.

8 years ago, I, like nearly all of my colleagues, drafted messaging frameworks, wrote press releases, pitched stories and created brochures, simple websites or other marketing materials for clients to help tell their story and drive actionable outcomes. These elements are of course still part of the mix, but it’s becoming less of a primary reason that clients are hiring agencies.

In particular, the days of hiring PR agencies to solely serve as “arms and legs” or extra support resources are limited. Clients want your brain power. They want creative ideas. The want innovative ideas that challenge the norm. They want trusted consultation from specialists that live, breathe, study and adopt communications trends. Fast technology advancements are enabling us all to drum up new ways of connecting with target audiences. It’s up to us as an industry to capitalize on effective ways to maximize these connections.

The end impact?

Titles aside, the point is that old PR agency models are changing fast and for good reason. PR agencies now walk into new business pitches against ad agencies, niche social media agencies, marketing shops and everything in between. PR agencies are still often best positioned for integrated communications work as we’ve always been the core behind the message and carrying that message from start to finish. In addition, any good PR agency is chalk full of a mixed bag of specialists these days. People who understand the convergence of owned, earned and paid integrated strategies.

What needs to happen?

You better start pulling the right people into your agency. If you’re hiring junior staff just to fill a perceived “doer” role, you’re doing a disservice to that individual. In today’s world, it’s not enough to just be a “doer”. You better be a doer and a creator. When I look back, I started at an agency where I worked for a senior account executive. From there, I moved on to working for a digital strategy director and my current boss is an executive creative director. Huh? A creative director? Yup, and I love it. I still work at a PR agency but it gives you a sense of how agency models are evolving and diversifying.

Each and every day, I challenge myself and my team to push the learning envelope. To constantly stay ahead of the curve. To not just study PR and marketing trends, but design trends as well. We may not all be graphic designers, but we know the critical importance of building and executing strategies with a keen mindset around user experience and design perception. Together, we work to infuse the same mentality into our colleagues – to always push beyond the status quo and think bigger, better and broader. We don’t just “do”, we create – all the time.

In today’s PR industry, the sky truly is the limit. For any college student looking to crack into PR, I’d encourage you to be prepared for a challenging career that is going to start rewarding proactive thinking and creativity more than ever. Be prepared to do, but know that your ultimate value stems from being able to create. If you think you have what it takes, let’s chat, we may have a seat open for you.

Effective public relations and marketing stems from understanding human psychology. We spend hours, days, months brainstorming unique campaigns and strategies to mobilize people and prompt action based on perception of an audience’s past and future thinking and behavior.

We’re also big idea people. With any new client or project, there is a natural tendency to assume that a campaign or idea needs to be drastically BIG, BOLD and revolutionary. We pride ourselves on paving new ground.

The reality is that many business problems can be solved when a moderate change is made and effectively implemented. In other words, a solution is devised to address the exact problem. Easier said than done but think about the number of times your team has created a big idea to win a piece of business, only to end up implementing the idea on a much smaller scale that focuses in on effective tactical execution.

In short, we don’t always need to create ideas that move mountains. Instead, think in terms of creating a “nudge” – a small change that generates the desired impact on target audience behavior. Huh? Let’s look at a very practical example of a nudge.

I would imagine that when you open the fridge in your office’s kitchen, it is stocked full of sugary liquid goodness ranging from sodas to fruit juices, Rockstar energy drinks and beyond. Not exactly the dream setup for a company HR rep looking to establish a healthy office environment. Now imagine if those eye-level shelves staring back at you were filled with bottled water and the other sugary  drinks were a bit harder to reach. Naturally, people will begin drinking more water because it’s the first option presented and easiest to access. That’s a nudge (see the Nudge blog for plenty of more examples). No drastic cost. No drastic change in methodology. Rather a simple adjustment from what’s deemed the norm.

But how does one figure out how to arrive at what creates a good nudge? Great question.

There are many approaches that can be implemented. One method is to think in terms of negatives. It’s always easier to get a group to think about the ways or reasons something can’t work or reasons why your target audience would not do something.  From there, you can flip your ideas and see which ideas surface as really strong reasons your audience would take a certain action oriented towards your desired goal. So in the example above, an HR rep would start by brainstorming all the reasons someone in your office would not want a bottle of water. From that list, the HR rep would reverse engineer positioning around why water is an excellent first choice.

Think about your client base and the business problems you’re working to help clients solve on a daily basis. What can you do to step back, simplify and start thinking nudges as opposed to revolutionary change?

*Photo courtesy of Ben Terrett.

"Thinker" by J.A.C.K.

So, you’re a digital strategist. But, what exactly do you do?

It’s a question I field at least twice a week and I’ve come to realize that I rarely answer the question in exactly the same way.

In short, I help clients achieve online marketing goals by crafting creative social campaigns and managing a variety of digital projects. I research and dig up communities, brand advocates and other target audiences and think about the best way to reach those audiences. I trendspot and think about new ways of connecting clients and brands to their target audiences and key influencers. I shoot videos, manage website builds, drive brainstorms, analyze design elements, plan blog content and drum up creative marketing and community engagement strategies across a variety of social channels. I help measure, analyze and assess the results of the effort, tweak and do it all over again. Oh yeah, and I drum up new business. That’s just the start…

One thing is for certain – being a digital strategist is never a dull gig. As I’ve specifically focused on digital strategy for the past six years, I’ve naturally had plenty of opportunity to interact with other digital strategists in the industry. In my opinion, there are three key personal qualities that regularly surface among good digital strategists.

1. Flexibility
It’s easy to be impatient in our hyper-connected, million mentions and messages per minute industry. It’s also absolutely critical that a good digital strategist be patient and flexible. A digital strategist at an agency will typically be pulled into five or six completely different projects on any given day. It can be demanding not having 100% background and insight into a project yet still having to deliver input by a set deadline. That’s also what keeps the job exciting and challenging at the same time. My biggest piece of advice for any aspiring digital strategist is to make every effort to get your hands on as many projects as possible. The learnings across different brands and industries will be invaluable down the line.

2. Creativity
Digital strategists are most frequently utilized at agencies to manage particular online marketing projects to support account teams around an integrated communications strategy. Personally, I source creativity from a variety of channels at all points throughout my day and through a LOT of reading and analysis. Oddly enough, most ideas for projects I work on rarely surface during brainstorms or on demand but instead often bubble up while driving, surfing the Web on my own time, working out, or doing something completely non-work related. The end point being that it helps tremendously if you’re rooted in thinking outside the box and good at inspiring and training others on your team to think differently. You will thrive if you are someone that constantly thinks ahead and looks at things from a unique perspective. Proactive creativity is often a distinguishing factor that elevates a digital strategist from good to great.

3. Drive
There is a reason that most digital strategists seem as though they are online or connected at all times. They are.
Some of this certainly stems from the nature of the industry but strong digital strategists have a natural drive and passion to learn about new trends and gather insight well ahead of the curve. We want to be the first ones to apply a new effective creative strategy or tactic that will help our clients achieve their goals. As a result, you often see digital strategists running multiple blogs on their own or actively creating content across the Web to gather, organize and share their thoughts in a coherent format.

BONUS:  Ability to Roll With the Punches
In their book Rework, Jason Fried and David Heinemeier talk about how it’s pointless to waste time creating long-range plans. It’s true. In today’s communications world, plans and priorities change in a moment’s notice and things rarely go exactly how you intend. It is a point I stress repeatedly when speaking with college students that are preparing for graduation. If you want to be successful, you need to move quick, be flexible and learn that success typically occurs when you hit 75% of your intended vision.

These three are certainly a start but what other strong personality traits do you often see in solid digital strategists?

Image courtesy of J.A.C.K.

the3six5

If you’ve never checked out the project, I highly encourage you to click above. Recently, I paired it down to three core elements that I think the Project does well to captivate and maintain attention and community with their approach.

1. Photos First
The era of visual sharing is exploding. With so much to explore and share across the Web, images remain a primary asset that people love to share. By requiring every post to incorporate an image, the3six5 forces authors to present something that captures the creative nature of their post while also serving up a strong point of entry to pique interest from readers.

2. Consistency
Where many blogs fail is on the consistency front. At the beginning of each year, the3six5 recruits editors to manage the ed cal throughout the year and ensure that every single day is covered with a new post and author. It’s beyond impressive and of course the project wouldn’t live up to its name if this wasn’t the case. Regardless, it is this consistent nature of one new post a day that keeps people like me intrigued and reading/engaging with the content on a daily basis.

3. Simple, Digestable Format
I love how the team has kept the site incredibly simple through the use of a Posterous blog. Easy backend management and the chosen layout keeps the posts front and center with quick load times.

4. Spontaneity and Emotion
You didn’t think I would forget the content piece did you?

I’m always impressed by the diverse set of voices the editors recruit for a year’s worth of content. When submitting a post, editors request that you truly use the blog as an opportunity to capture the moment of the day and as a unique reflection point for your post topic. The approach pushes authors to dig deep and serves as a proof point that there is a story behind every person, every action, every encounter that we experience on a daily basis. We’re humans and we love human stories.

For me, it’s a constant reminder that each and every day is an adventure in and of itself and that no matter what, we should all aim to treat the next 24 hours as such.

Go. Get in the mix. Tell your friends. There are still plenty of spots to fill for 2012 authors.

We’ll see you around the 3six5.

I’ve included links to resources below for your own learning and would highly recommend starting by watching Facebook’s video guide here:

http://www.learnfacebookpages.com/

Strategic Planning & Best Practices
10 Tactics for Effective Facebook Pages You Can Implement By March 30 – Smart Insights

Facebook Updates Signal More Changes Ahead for Marketers – Forbes (our Weber Shandwick Digital lead, Chris Perry, authored this post)

Timeline for Brands:  How to Prepare for Your Company’s New Facebook Page- Mashable

20 Facebook Page Covers to Inspire Your Brand – Mashable

Facebook Brand Timelines:  6 Changes Every Marketer Needs to Know – Mashable

Facebook Ads Announcements:  Everything You Need to Know – Mashable

Your Average Facebook Post Only Reaches 16% of Your Friends – Tech Crunch

Facebook Timeline for Pages:  Which Brands Will Win and Lose – Mashable

Feel free to share your own tips and insights below around the new page changes.

We all operate in a fluid, fast-paced world where social engagement with customers is now the norm. While this can seem intimidating for companies at first, developing a strong online customer engagement process doesn’t need to be overly complicated. The payoff? The potential for creating loyalty and quickly transforming customers into powerful online advocates.

Let’s take a look at an example. Recently, a coworker passed along the following exchange he had with car-sharing service @zipcar:

Kudos to Zipcar for their smart engagement and quick move to capitalize on transforming a vocal customer into a loyal customer. An engagement such as this never would have occurred unless Zipcar had taken some preliminary steps to maximize this opportunity.

So, how does a company go about ensuring that they engage and embrace customer advocates through social media? Here are a few tips to get started:

1. Listen & Assess
Obvious – it always starts with careful monitoring. Put your ear to the Web and carefully track conversation/keyword activity across your own social channels as well as overall brand mentions across the Internet. Whether you do this using a free approach with alerts and keyword monitoring in Google Reader or through a paid service such as Radian6, active listening and monitoring is essential. Over time, you’ll quickly see engagement and volume trends surface to help you plan for resource staffing.

2. Put a Process In Place
You need to have a strategy and process in place before you start engaging with customers through social media. This means having both a technical platform in place (e.g. a simple tool such as Get Satisfaction, established a separate support Twitter handle, defined FAQs, etc.) and an established flow chart that clearly outlines how inquiries will be handled as well as who has the necessary knowledge to address those inquiries. “Grow and adapt” is not a sound customer service approach.

Will engaging customers through social channels require more time and resources? Yes. But, I assure you that the investment will far outweigh the cost. Social channels exist and customers expect to be able to engage directly with your company through those channels. Provide the home and structure for them to do so efficiently.

Take a moment to think about how important first impressions are to everything we encounter on a daily basis. The success of your brand or product relies on A) providing value that meets or exceeds customer expectations and B) excellent customer service. Nail both these early on and you’re well on your way to building strong customer loyalty.

3. Move Quick
In most cases, customers just want to know that they are being heard. Think about your own customer service experiences – would you prefer to be left on hold or unanswered for a long period of time or regularly provided updates about your issue being worked on?

Even if an answer to a customer’s issue is not readily available, it is imperative that a company communicate progress and actually work as fast as possible to resolve the issue. As with any social channel, your interaction with one customer is often being viewed by many, many others. Engaging customers quickly in a public forum can set the tone for how your company operates and also be hugely beneficial for setting precedent on how to resolve an issue, thus eliminating need for further similar customer interactions on a specific topic.

4. Reward Customers for No Reason
I can’t harp this one enough. In the case above, Zipcar changed a satisfied customer into a powerful advocate through a simple Twitter exchange and small monetary gift. Companies often only think about rewarding customers following negative experiences. By following Zipcar’s proactive approach of rewarding supportive customers, you are enhancing your credibility and strengthening brand trust for a very nominal cost.

In the end, your customers will be happy when they know they can rely on a consistent, humanized customer service experience.

What other tips would you share to help companies set up for success with online customers?

The Retreat exceeded my expectations on all accounts. Great location, stellar organization throughout the day, knockout food (holy homemade pumpkin bread) and of course most importantly, an all-star lineup made for an excellent trip.

Throughout the course of day one, attendees hear from Rod Brooks, Russell Sparkman, Tim Frick, Jayme Thomason, Chris Baggott, Pawan Deshpande, Mark Jacobs, Jeff Erramouspe, Simon Kelly and Robert Rose.

The crowd was a diverse group from all over with a slant towards those working in smaller organizations. Topics covered a wide range, from top level content marketing strategy to maximizing use of Google Analytics data to improve content optimization. While many conferences can drag at certain points, the short presentation structure followed by panel discussions made for a great format to maintain audience attention throughout.

Below are five key takeaways that stemmed from the Retreat.

1. Content Marketing is Not Rocket Science

Sorry, it’s just not. Does content marketing require smart analysis, technical insight, natural instinct for audience demands and the ability to piece everything together into a solid strategy? You bet, but it takes practice and requires that you are constantly thinking about how best to stay a step ahead of your audience and the competition.

2. Brands That Succeed at Content Marketing Fail…a Lot.

During his presentation on developing a step-by-step content marketing plan, Robert Rose emphasized the importance of establishing an office culture that embraces innovation. You, along with your coworkers or employees, need to feel that it’s okay to fail. In fact, you need to be realistic about the fact that success often stems from a series of smart failures where you’ve progressively learned more and more about how best to achieve your goals. The iPhone and iPad weren’t created overnight and neither will your strategy for how to sell X products or engage with Y number of people. Try and keep trying.

3. Data Is the Hidden Gem Behind All Good Content Marketing

It’s scary to me these days when a company or organization gives you a blank stare when you ask about website or engagement analytics. Data drives strategy. If you don’t have a benchmark and ongoing consistent measurement to track what content is resonating with which audience, you don’t have the fuel necessary to revamp your content marketing plan.

4. Curation is An Art Form

Successful curators have amazing taste. They know their audience’s taste like the back of their hand. They know the value of attribution, the importance of framing and how to deliver content to their target audience in the right format in a consistent fashion.

5. Content Marketers Understand the Difference Between Audience “Needs” and “Wants”

Rod Brooks did a great job putting this point on display. Rod is the CMO for Pemco Insurance. We all need insurance. We know that. Do we all like to talk about insurance on a daily basis? Nope.

What we do love to talk about is our family, friends and community. We love to discuss topics of shared interest that resonate across the board relevant to our safety and well being.

The same applies for your company. Stop trying to shove your audience’s needs down their throat and take a broader look at the shared values and interests of your target community. What type of content does this audience want? What do they care most about? THAT is your point of entry. That is your bridge to building trust and creating robust dialogue.

Thanks again to Russell Sparkman and all of the presenters. Looking forward to another fantastic gathering next year.

As many of my friends in these parts are also Chicago transplants, we shared a collective chuckle around the mesmerizing general reaction to what is typically referred to as “slight snowfall” on an average winter day in Chicago. One of the main issues is that it simply does not snow but a few times each year in Seattle (good thing) but when it does, the city shuts down completely due to a lack of resources and preparation. It had me recalling some messy mornings from my old life in Chicago where I was simply unable to dig my car out.

Snow-filled Seattle last week.

Fittingly, a friend pointed me towards Chicago Shovels last weekend -  a new initiative by the City of Chicago that provides an interactive resource to help residents deal with the city’s typically treacherous winter.

My expectations were low knowing that I was about to visit a city run site – notorious for poor user experience and slow technology adoption. I was wrong. What makes the site strong in my book is the degree of practical social and digital integration. There is a “Plow Tracker” to help residents keep tabs on real-time street clearing activity as well as a number of integrated apps (including a Tow Tracker to help you find where your car has been “relocated” – imperative in a city that loves to tow) and even SMS alerts to stay updated.

While my bet would be that an agency helped the city with some of the marketing content, full kudos to the team for developing useful video content to help users navigate the site.

Though Seattle does not have the frequency of snow to warrant a full on platform like this, Chicago Shovels is a great model for other snow-laden cities to follow in implementing a smart communications platform that fits the baseline communication needs for residents.

Content marketing strategy guess #2…fail.

Content marketing strategy guess #3…

If you want to waste valuable time and resources while taking a shot in the dark at a content marketing plan, then by all means, keep guessing which strategy will work for your clients.

But, if you’d rather pinpoint exact goals and objectives and develop a sound strategy that you know will solve the business issues that need to be addressed, ask every new client the following question:

What keeps you awake at night?

Determine the answer to this one single question and you’ll be well on your way to developing a content marketing plan that delivers the right content,  to the right audiences, at the right time.

In the video below, Joe Pulizzi (@junta42), founder of Content Marketing Institute, serves up a series of excellent insights around building online relationships, developing sound social strategies and creating community. Thanks to Social Media Examiner for conducting the great interview.

For those looking to attend a great upcoming content marketing workshop, be sure to check out details around the 2nd Annual Content Marketing Retreat in Langley, WA on January 26 & 27.