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PR Squared

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Scenes from a Social EnterpriseJuly 1

What are Social Media evangelists looking to accomplish?

We talk a whole lot about humanizing the corporation, but when we do so, we tend to think in terms of Customer Service and Marketing.  Is that all there is to it?

These questions came to mind during a recent dinner hosted by Jeff Dachis, former head of Razorfish and now founding father of Dachis Corp., which has attracted stars like Peter Kim and David Armano (whom I sat next to during the meal; the dude is not only smart but fairly hilarious).

Dachis Corp. is talking about “social business design” as its core concept: “the future of business lies in the intentional creation of a dynamic business culture that empowers all of its constituents to better exchange value.”

But this post is not about Dachis Corp. Although we jokingly asked him to, Jeff did not unroll a magic scroll to describe the Dachis Corp. vision or project list.  So these questions are being spurred by my own unsated curiosity about the future of corporate organization.

Think about a corpora

You Scare MeJune 30

Unfortunately I can’t get into specifics, but recently SHIFT has been very lucky on the newbiz front.  We’ve been invited to respond to RFPs that we’d only dreamt about a year ago. And we’ve won a few, against giant & savvy competitors.  All of which still feels unimaginable.

Don’t get me wrong — we’ve been whacked by the recession.  And, more importantly, I am not sharing this cryptic bit of good news in order to brag.  Just the opposite.  I am trying to inspire you.

These victories have made us more bold.  We no longer feel the sense of inferiority that dogged us as a start-up agency.  We now know we’re as good as anyone.  Not necessarily better — but definitely just as good.  We deserve to be in the scrum.

But, so do you.  You see, we are no smarter than thee.  On any given day, we are not more creative, thoughtful, hard-working or more savvy than any other agency.  At meetups, tweetups and on Twitter; in the Comments section of my blog; and of course on other great blogs written by others, I meet folks every day who are brilliant, rigorous thinkers and doers.

They (you!) scare me.  They (you!) can beat me.  If I can win what I’m winning,

Evangelism is a SlogJune 26

I am lucky that my circle of friends includes many of the Social Media industry’s most enduring innovators.  We meet for coffees, dinners, brainstorms, dealmaking, etc. 

Inevitably the talk turns to the state of Social Media in general, and its adoption (or lack thereof) within large corporations.

At this point in the conversations, opinions start to diverge.

Some thought leaders are encouraged to see that Corporate America is no longer ignoring Social Media, and look forward to seeing seismic changes happen – even if they occur incrementally.

Other brainiacs are discouraged because Social Media COULD (and maybe SHOULD) bring earth-shattering changes to the hidebound hierarchical thinking of corporations … but instead, they see Social Media being relegated to silo status: it’s being viewed as “a marketing thing,” akin to a media buy.

Meanwhile, some folks are simply ready to move on all together.  My pal Geoff Livingston exemplifies this thought process.  For Geoff, the shine is off the apple. As a dyed-in

Do You Believe in Second Chances?June 25

Thinking back to, oh, let’s say 1998 … you probably had experience using RealPlayer, the media player from RealNetworks.  Maybe it came bundled with your PC.  Maybe you were needed to download it in order to watch a BBC clip online.  Unfortunately, though it has many happy users, the RealPlayer of yesteryear gained a reputation for bloat that aggravated most users.

What if I told you that our clients at RealNetworks had all the necessary Social Media and User Interface epiphanies a couple of years ago, and worked diligently to make RealPlayer rock?

What if I told you that the new version (now in beta), launched this week, allows you to do some very cool stuff, like:

• download most any web video into a personal media library;
• share the video via social networks like Twitter and Facebook;
• convert the videos for on-the-go viewing on your iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry, etc.

Oh, and what if the “

Let Me Use ItJune 24

This week, our cool clients at Alice.com had their big launch.  Alice is probably best described as a cross between Netflix and Target: it’s a subscription shopping service offering great prices and free delivery on non-perishable items like toilet paper, shampoo, etc.

Yesterday I spent a fair bit of time flogging for Alice on Twitter.  We have over 70 clients, and yet you have rarely seen me throw out more than a single tweet or two about them. 

What made Alice.com different?  They let me use it. 

Alice execs insisted that I sign up for the service as a beta user; asked me to enjoin my bride to take part in building the shopping list; followed-up to see how the sign-up process worked out for us — and then sent along the neatly-packed goodies.  Yea, it was just shampoo and such, but what I saw in my mind?  A professional and friendly service that promised fewer trips to the local Target store.

In my 17+ years in PR, I can count on one hand how many times a client made sure that the agency PR team