Shel Holtz take-aways from yesterday's IABC conference

Went to see Shel Holtz speak yesterday at the IABC seminar on blogging and social media. I wish everyone here at OMA would go to one of these sometime, as they are a great primmer for blogs and social media, and why they're important and how they work and how they DON'T work. One of the important bits I went away with, though, is the concept that there isn't a quantifiable benefit from social. There's a definite benefit, mind you - it just isn't as easily counted up as a natural or paid search campaign is. Blogs and Facebook forums and the like have more to do with Perception Management - and Perception Management is really all about Public Relations. If you wanted to start doing social media, I would advise you to look at it that way: Creating a positive perception of your company It makes me think that with all of this talk of "Web 2.0" in business trades, a lot of people are running around saying they NEED a blog. When they do, a lot of other companies are likely taking these people for a ride. I mean, these social media toys are just tactics. They don't spin hay into gold just because you have one. They have to be part of a larger strategy. If you find yourself thinking, "wow, I want to jump on this whole Facebook bandwagon thing," back it up and ask yourself, "what am I trying to achieve?" If you're trying to get a lot of sales, natural search is better for you. If you're trying to get a lot of sales today, you're better off with a paid search campaign. But if you want people to know who you are and what you stand for and be open to everyone - which is great, because people will buy more easily from a friend - that's what you should consider a social campaign for. Which brings me to the other great message from yesterday's presentation: Using an informal, personal voice. This is so tough for many people to grasp. People don't trust pasteurized, safe PR speak. Frankly, that tone doesn't work to communicate anything. Conversely, someone talking straight to you, like a peer, creates that connection. That's why this is really in the domain of public relations, but public relations people need to learn to NOT use it like a press release or over-control the language. Don't try to sound like you're writing a Business Week article, don't turn off the comments because someone might say something bad... just be open and honest. If you can't hack that, you really don't want to be doing this kind of stuff. It's the part of yesterday's presentation I liked the most, even though, frankly, I've been saying it for some time. A quick bit of honesty, though - the comments section of this very blog are just deluged with spam every day, and it's tough to separate out the garbage and the good stuff. We welcome your comments, and really want to hear from you. If you want to be sure I see it (for the time being until we get some working filters in place) PLEASE feel free to drop me a line on Twitter, another great, free, social media toy. Find us at

http://twitter.com/OffMadison

...and let me know you're commenting. I'll be sure you get through. (Unless you're one of these comment spam people, in which case I'll just pray for your death.)

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)

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