Here’s the one I found most interesting by Jennifer Van Grove: “40 of the Best Twitter Brands and the People Behind Them” on how these brands use Twitter to their best advantage.

Funny, the only two identities Mashable didn’t unravel were of the people behind the Burger King and Popeyes Chicken accounts. See Abbey Klaassen’s great blog.

Conclusion: “Brands Absolutely do Belong on Twitter” blog by Lon Cohen.

If you’re not following Mashable on Twitter, you should be: @mashable

I thought it was a great gathering: The keynote speaker was Ray Kerins, VP Worldwide Communications, Pfizer. The panel that followed was moderated by Melanie Milstein, author of Twitter and the Micro-Messaging Revolution with Dave Armon, President PR Newswire, David Sacks, Founder of Yammer, Paul Gennaro, Chief Communication Officer, AECOM, Morgan Johnston, Corporate Communications Manager, JetBlue, and Marc Monseau, Director, Media Relations, Johnson & Johnson

The forum then broke out into roundtable sessions moderated by professionals in PR and Marketing who are involved and active in social media and real-time communications.

It was exciting to actually meet and talk to all of these good people that are the front-runners in embracing and using social media and real-time communications to strengthen their brand and connect and communicate with their customers.

I must say, it was mostly in a B2C context, but the forum tried to cover B2B as well.

Everyone was fired up; the room was abuzz with talk, questions, and networking. All the social media buzzwords you could find were flying around: Twitter, YouTube, FaceBook, MySpace, Flickr, blogging, tweeting, video, RSS, IM, email, wikis and on and on…

I felt that people could not get enough information. Everybody was thirsty to learn more.

The questions seemed to be unanimous and ubiquitous:
How do I start?
What does it take from a tactical point of view? One person or a team of 10?
What are the risks?
What are the benefits?
Can I calculate ROI?
How do I get executive management on board?
How do I manage a crisis?
What is a fast response? Two days, two hours, 2 minutes or 2 seconds?
How do I control what’s out there?
How do I manage and aggregate all the different platforms for RTC?
What about traditional media?
How do I get buzz going for a small company that’s not a JetBlue or J&J?

Some questions were tackled and answered, some were not, some got an honest “we don’t know the answer to that yet”.

My key takeaways – and I hope this helps all of us – were:
- Start by discovering what conversations are going on in the social media space like Twitter, YouTube and blogs
- Monitor these everyday by getting RSS feeds through Google RSS or Google Alerts
- Make sure you understand and define your goals and what your communications strategy is
- Don’t be afraid to dip your toe into this fast-flowing social media river.
- Conversations are happening about your company anyway, so get involved
- Depending on your corporation or business, you should decide how to become part of these conversations and who should be answering
- Key: BE HONEST, BE TRANSPARENT
- Employees are spokespeople for the company – they are out there using Twitter and the likes, so they should be brought up to speed
- To do this, and do this right, in a big corporation, there needs to be a mind shift from the top down. Changes in the organization need to be made. Processes need to be streamlined. The social media spokespeople need to be empowered to reply quickly
- To quote Morgan Jonston from JefBlue, “This is about humanization of the brand!”
- Be careful not to seem like the overbearing “big brother”, don’t be intimidating
- Open up, LISTEN to your customers, be committed to change
- Remember and be aware: The line is thinning between traditional media and social media – many journalists have left traditional media and are now influential bloggers/tweeters

Lots of *stuff* to take in…

I look forward to a follow up event, which, in my opinion, could be a full day event, instead of half a day.

If you’d like to hear the two main sessions they are available here.

*Please* add your comments – I would love to hear your opinion and additions!

So you can tell? Yeah, I’m a Seth Godin fan.

If you’re not subscribed to Seth’s blog, you really should be.

Here’s are links to last few blogs:
How to send a personal email
What to do when the new thing doesn’t work
Teaching people a lesson
Do ads work?

1. Create a great product - if bloggers like it, they’ll write about it
2. Cite and link – the sincerest form of flattery
3. Stroke them [his words, not mine] – basically, build a relationship, join the conversation
4. Give swag – everyone likes a freebie, but this can backfire if it seems like a bribe
5. Make connections before you need them
6. Be responsive – get back to them asap, meet deadlines
7. Use a rifle not a shotgun – target, personalize
8. Be a foul-weather friend – keep communication open even when the news is not good
9. Be a source – give bloggers story ideas, sources, info etc. even when its not for you or your client

Guy has written more than 8 books and has had an interesting career himself. I think I am going to go pick one up….

It was a great event by all accounts with more than 80+ PR professionals and bloggers enjoying a combination of good conversation and premium liquor. The event was organized by Heather DiRubba, Laurie Shulman and myself on behalf of PRSA-NY’s New Professionals Group and New Media and Technology Committee. The ladies did an amazing job bringing in the crowd, organizing the venue and making everyone feel welcome.

We plan to have more in the future. If you’re not on the mailing list, drop me a line and I’ll add you. If you’d like to help join one/both of these committees and plan future events, we’d love to hear from you.

Before Gina became a full-time blogger and I became a full-time marketing & PR flack, our paths crossed on the Web team at Bolt. It’s still difficult for me to think of myself as a “PR person.” I feel and behave like a Web geek, which is why it’s strange being on the receiving end of her anger, even if it’s just by association.

My thoughts on the latest flare-up? I think it’s fitting that Gina has identified, and shared, a “hack” for eliminating annoying PR emails from her life. However, I don’t think it’s a long-term solution to establishing cordial relations between PR folk and bloggers. I realize that probably wasn’t her goal, but I think we eventually need to move beyond the finger-pointing and look at the reality of what we both have to offer one another. Neither PR, nor blogging, is going away.

I hope to chat up as many bloggers as I can about this issue tonight at PRSA’s Blogger Social, which couldn’t have come at a better time!

Further reading:
Matt Haughey on how to pitch bloggers
Dueling Blacklists: Bloggers v. PR Firms