Start spreading the news.  PR Camp New York is slated for Friday, November 20th at the 92nd Y Street Tribeca.  I will be using this blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin to keep everyone updated.

Based on the success of PR Camp Atlanta, I wanted to bring PR Camp to New York.  I also decided to make it a full day so that we could add more sessions and give attendees more time to come up with solutions to the challenges we identified.  I hope the format and discussions will engage and challenge attendees.

We already have a great lineup of social media executives from agencies and  New York based brands. (I will be announcing many of the names shortly.)   I am still looking to complete the final list of moderators for the four sessions as well as additional sponsors. So I am open to suggestions.

What is PR Camp?

PR Camp is geared for PR and marketing professionals at all levels to share experiences, address problems and find solutions to social media issues that are facing our industry.

Its logo – the campfire – is iconic. Campfires are places to gather, tell stories, forge bonds and share good times.

In much the same way, PR Camp provides a forum to gain insights and build community. Following the unconference format, PR Camp is highly interactive.  Discussions are free flowing and highly energized; we don’t rely on Powerpoints or formal panels.

The camp is divided into 4 sessions – each devoted to a particular issue around a central topic impacting the PR and marketing profession. Each session is divided into four groups or “cabins” led by a “counselor” who facilitates discussion. Counselors then report out their findings to the larger camp to discuss. The goal of each session is to come up with solutions that participants can take back to the office and implement.

Given its structure, PR Camp is limited to 200 attendees and moderators. This size is optimal for 40-45 attendees per group to participate and explore a full range of topics.

Confirmed Moderators and Companies

Stephanie Agresta – EVP, Global Director of Digital Strategy and Social Media, Porter Novelli
Chris Andrew – Vice-President-Group Director Media, Digitas
Erin Byrne – Chief Digital Strategist, Burson-Marsteller
David Berkovitz – Senior Director of Emerging Media & Innovation, 360i
Joe Ciarallo – Editor, PRNewser.com and Manager, PR Initiatives, mediabistro
Stacy Green – Manager, Internal Comms. & Public Relations, New York Times
Janine Gianfredi, Marketing Manager, Google
Howard Greenstein – President and Social Media Strategist, Harbrooke Group
Andrea Harrison – Strategy Director, Razorfish
Peter Himler – Founding Principal, Flatiron Communications
Jim Issokson – VP, Reputation Management, MasterCard Worldwide
Morgan Johnston – Manager, Corporate Communications, JetBlue
Dina Kaplan – Co-Founder, blip.tv Joe Kinsbury – Social Media Lead, North America, Text 100
Jonathan Kopp – Global Director, Ketchum Digital
Peter Lucht – Executive Director, External Affairs, Verizon
Alex Norman – Executive Vice President, Schematic
Corvida Raven – Generation Yer and Blogger/Media Strategist, shegeeks.net
Steve Rubel – SVP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital
Rachelle Spero – Executive Vice President, Digital Media, Cohn & Wolfe
Lloyd P. Trufelman, President & CEO, Trylon SMR, New York
Paull Young – Account Director, Converseon

Schedule

8:00 AM Registration and Breakfast

9:00 AM Session One: Get clients and bosses to extend their interest in new media (In this session, representatives from PR agencies and brands are paired off to discuss how the two can work together to advance social media efforts. Together they will lead group discussions.)

10:30 AM Session Two: Help senior professionals tap the social media experience of junior colleagues. (In this session, a senior professional will be paired off with a very junior counterpart. Together they will lead the group discussions.)

12:00 Lunch: Planned Product Demonstrations

1:15 PM Session Three: With the blurring of PR and marketing, determine the best ways to measure success.

2:45 PM Session Four: Help PR and interactive marketing align practices and objectives (In this session, PR professionals will be paired off with interactive marketing professionals to lead group discussions.)

4:15 PM Wrap Up

I am very excited about the ideas that will be generated by the day’s discussions.  I am open to your suggestions.  Please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions.  My email address is dangreenfield AT Bernaisesource DOT com

Let me get back to you.

This post looks at the gap that still exists between PR and interactive or digital marketing agencies — even as social media continues to blur the boundaries that traditionally divide them.

The disconnect is one of the reasons I wanted to partner with the Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association (AiMA) and asked Definition 6, an independent interactive marketing and eCommerce agency, to become a sponsor of PR Camp Atlanta.  It’s time to bridge the worlds of PR and interactive marketing and foster new ways of thinking.

As Michael Kogon, CEO at Definition 6 said:  ”There couldn’t be a more exciting time to be working in interactive marketing. While Definition 6 has been doing search and social media since long before it was cool like it is today, clients are much more receptive today to trying new things.”

And I was encouraged that half of the attendees to PR Camp Atlanta were marketing professionals. Friends had recommended I change the name. They thought it would be to narrow and discourage marketing professionals from attending.

A Difference in Positioning

At one level, PR and interactive marketing speak the same language and share common goals. We both promote social media.  We use many of the same tools.  Yet most PR and interactive marketing agencies still continue to position themselves differently.

Consider Altanta’s largest public relations firms.  “Social media” and “digital communications” are gaining more prominence, but the most common capabilities listed in the Atlanta Business Chronicle’s Book of Lists (a paid yearly industry summary) were:

Media relations, reputation and brand management, crisis communications, event planning, corporate communications, executive visibility, grassroots advocacy, media and speech training.

Now look at some of the core competencies of the largest web design and development companies:

Website development, interactive marketing, SEO/SEM, application development

It shouldn’t be that way.  SEO is now critical to doing PR.  Reputation and brand management is integral to many applications that interactive marketing firms are tasked to create.

Old habits die hard, but to be fair, our clients need to shoulder some of the responsibility.  In most organizations, each functional area uses a different lens to analyze the same social data.  Little effort is made to coordinate efforts and align results.

Take comments.  My good friend and digital marketer and lead catalyst at mass+logic Peter Fasano summed it up perfectly:

The Social PR Leader will measure comment count to capture share of voice, earned media and sentiment.

The Social Marketer will measure Short URL Click through rates and conversion.

The Social Researcher will measure the number of comments by segments to capture the consumer preference of the red or black car.

The Social Customer Service Representative will measure comments with complaints or questions.

I wanted to share the outline of the discussions from PR Camp Atlanta. It reflects the comments that attendees made during the three sessions.

As a follow-up to PR Camp Atlanta, one of the sponsors – Definition 6 – is allowing me this week to host its TwitterINGO game as a way to make the outline more interactive. I’ll be selecting a mix of keywords pulled from out sessions at PR Camp.

TwitterINGO is a free, downloadable widget that allows you to view real-time tweets while playing the game.

I hope many of you will tune-in for this PR Camp edition of TwitterINGO. The game starts sharply at 3pm today, and you’ll need to download the widget (and follow @definition6) before 3pm. For more information, and to download your game board widget, please visit: www.twitteringo.com.

PR Camp Atlanta Discussion Outline – August 21, 2009

Session I: Get clients and bosses to extend their interest in new media

Why bosses resist:

1. Emotional reactions:

- Fear of change, unknown and unforeseen consequences

- Senior professionals don’t use social media for personal use: lack understanding of layout and function of different features (RT, groups v. pages, connections, referrals, etc)

- Lack of understanding how mass audience uses the tool and which demographics are using and for what purpose

- Rapidly changing technology (are we investing in the right social media tool?)

- Abandoning other methods

- Afraid of negative feedback, executive exposure to negative content

- Lack of understanding of relationship development through social media

- Customers in control

2. Liability:

- Privacy
- Legal issues (what needs to be approved? Who owns it? Intellectual property?)
- Network security

3. Questions concerning strategy:

- Aren’t willing to participate with risk of failure

- Is it consistent with brand strategy (what language is being used to represent the brand?)

- No rules of engagement: what role does the staff play in interacting with the page?

- What is the right social media strategy (mix?)

- B2C, B2constituent, B2B, B2Employee

Where bosses most often won’t allocate:

1. Additional headcount funding, budget, time, commitment, resources

What are they willing to consider:

- Competition (what others are doing)

- Saving money

- Willing to track activity (results/insights)

- Doing it in phases

- Taking small steps

- Info gathering/focus groups

- Test via tactics, try it out

Session II: Help senior professionals tap the social media experience of junior colleagues

Start small (Baby steps are a great way to present an unstable and ever-changing technology and misunderstood social media in a non-threatening way):

- Get your boss involved in a way that’s personal (Get signed up for his/her favorite Meetup group to see how cool social media can be)

- Print it out! Have hard copies, graphs, pie charts, or even make a PowerPoint presentation

- Show them what it is. Immersion (Describe one tool at a time), competitors (audit), encourage personal use, learn how to speak social media (included in brand strategy)

- Engage your boss one tool at a time – blog (with comments), Facebook/Youtube

- Listen, watch and analyze what is going on in social media without interacting.

Reverse mentoring (benefits of):

- Both senior and junior professionals need tools at their level to understand impact of social media

-One-on-one dialogue

- Young people learn business tactics; mix old and new strategies

- Share mistakes

- Meet in the middle. Create a situation where a senior professional creates a solution and junior professional does the same

Which young professionals do we use?

Watch internal activity on intranet and use key influencers to join the social media team as experts.

Session III: With PR and Marketing blurring, determine the best ways to measure success

Get PR and Marketing to align:

1. Have PR, marketing and social media talk before start of project

2. Long-term goals to create a profitable alignment between PR and Marketing departments:

- Communicate
- Admit interdependency
- Compare goals
- Be transparent
- Discuss who owns what
- Discuss success metrics
- Try to avoid technology snobbery

Metrics:

1. Engagement: is the audience interacting? Is it a 2-way conversation?

2. Sales: is social media being used to drive sales

3. What is the market size?

4. Does personal interaction with the brand add to overall customer value?

5. Interim metrics: followers, tweets, fans, positive mentions, click-throughs, link-backs, length of digital trail, site visits

Tools of measurement:

1. Google Analytics,

2. Facebook Insights,

3. Number of followers

4. Retweets (quantity v. quality; how many of them are retweetable?)

Types of Measurement:

1. Surveys

2. FB insights (stats)

3. Comments

4. Reach

5. CTR (click through rate)

6. Benchmarking (e.g. in 6 months we want 50% more fans)

PR + Marketing + Customer Service:

B2B v B2C metrics

Use social media to increase brand awareness or drive sales

What Constitutes Success:

1. Trust (how do you measure trust?)
2. Become beloved brand
3. Find common ground through communication

—-

I hope this was useful.  Please let me know if you have any questions.

Let me get back to you.

Finally recovered from last Friday.  Thanks to everyone who participated in the first ever PR Camp Atlanta. Together, we showed that Atlanta’s PR and marketing community is embracing social media.  The energy and ideas were incredible.  I am still writing up the notes from the conference which I will share with you shortly.

I am interested in your feedback and am hoping you to take a quick survey. Click here to take the survey. It will help me plan for next year’s event.  Here are some pictures from the event.  I have more on Flickr.  I will also shortly post some from Mike Schinkel.

Thanks again to you, the sponsors, moderators and volunteers for making PR Camp Atlanta a success.  Plans are now underway for next year as well as PR Camps in other cities.  Stay tuned.

Let me get back to you.

Managing generational differences in social media will be one of three featured topics at PR Camp Atlanta this Friday, August 21. In what may be one of the more lively discussions of the morning, representatives of Generation Y will pair off with their Generation X and Baby Boomer counterparts to understand how professionals at different levels are approaching their jobs.

It’s all part of the PR Camp Atlanta’s goal to immerse Atlanta’s PR and marketing community in all things social media.  We will avoid discussions on how to use the latest tools. There will be no formal presentations.  Instead the focus will be on helping professionals identify business opportunities, tap resources, and measure success.

In many ways, planned discussions at PR Camp Atlanta parallel the changing roles and responsibilities that are taking place in the workplace.  Increasingly social media is allowing Generation Y to assume leadership roles.  It’s also allowing PR and interactive marketing professionals to work more closely to manage reputations, build relationships and extend brands.

PR Camp Atlanta is a forum to examine social media’s impact on our profession. Changes in our industry are also the reason why I reached out to Definition 6, an independent interactive marketing and eCommerce agency, to be a sponsor.  I want to break down barriers and encourage the PR profession to look at what we do differently.

As Michael Kogon at Definition 6 said, “As we work to help clients adapt to the new challenges and opportunities, created through social media, hands-on experience using these communication platforms is mandatory at all levels. Events like PR Camp Atlanta are a great way for professionals to get started with social media; it also provides them with a great opportunity to meet other professionals in the physical world.”

Final Agenda

Session I: 9:00 AM – 9:55 AM

Get clients and bosses to extend their interest in new media.

• Melanie Babcock, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy & Services, Manning Selvage & Lee
• Bert Dumars, Vice President E-Business & Interactive Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid
• Jenny Schmitt, President and Director of Client Strategy, CloudSpark
• Katie Mingo, Senior Marketing Associate, Delta Airlines

Session II:  10:00 AM – 10:55 AM

Help senior professionals tap the social media experience of junior colleagues.

• Nick Ayres, Interactive Marketing Manager, New Media + Content, The Home Depot/Corvida Raven, Author of SheGeeks.net
• Marilynn Mobley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Counsel, Edelman PR/Matt Epstein, Account Coordinator, Definition 6
• Shirley Powell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Turner Broadcasting System/Tolu Ogbechie, Social Media & Development Associate, Prevent Blindness Georgia
• Carol Flammer, Managing Partner, mRELEVANCE, LLC/ Lauren Culbertson, Communications Assistant for U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson

Session III:  11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

With the blurring of PR and marketing, determine the best ways to measure success.

• Peter Fasano, Principal/Lead Catalyst, mass+logic
• Christopher Jones, Digital Strategist, Ketchum PR 
• Irfan Kamal, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Ogilvy Public Relations
• Debbie Curtis-Magley, Public Relations Manager, UPS

Sponsors

• Definition 6 
• Neighborhood America 
• Georgia Tech Research Institute 
• PR Newswire 
• Atlanta Day Book 
• CBS Atlanta 
• I Send Your Email 
• Social Media Club Atlanta 
• CloudSpark 
• Peachpod Studios 

Registration is now closed.

The next generation of social media experts:  Should we be afraid? 

In the countdown to next Friday, Stephen King’s Children of the Corn seems a fitting ghost story for PR Camp Atlanta’s second session devoted to managing the social media skills of young PR and marketing professionals.

In King’s “adult nightmare,” a town of teenagers terrorizes an unsuspecting adult couple who later fall victim to  a mysterious massive force in the cornfield. Young professionals are not of course demons, but they do seem to be taking over and they’re using the massive power of social media to do it.   

They are a force we can’t ignore.  70 million strong, Generation Y by 2010 will outnumber Baby Boomers, and 96 percent of them have joined a social network.  And the first wave is bringing social media to the workplace.

Threat or opportunity for those over 30?  It depends on your perspective and your willingness to embrace change.  One thing is clear,  Gen Y approaches social media very differently than Boomers and many Gen Xers.  They have skills and a comfort level we don’t have.  And management is left asking: How do we tap their expertise?  How do we teach them to think more strategically?  How much expertise do we need to have ourselves? How much can we rely on them?

Relinquish Authority or Embrace Change?

Increasingly, managers are turning to Generation Y for their social media expertise.  Suzanne Barrett senior brand marketing manager from the World of Coca-Cola tapped a University of Georgia intern this summer to develop and implement their presence on YouTube, Flickr, and Twitter. Suzanne recognized that her intern was exceptional, but it’s a far cry from answering phones and getting coffee that I did as an intern.

Or consider last year, when Jack Leslie, chairman, Weber Shadwick Worldwide stirred a little controversy on a PRSA Georgia panel with the confession that he leans toward people half his age when considering employees with social media skills since .. young people have this built into their DNA.  Mostly said in jest it does go to heart of  the matter.

As Lauren Culberston, a Generation Yer and communications assistant for United States Senator Johnny Isakson told me, “A  lot of senior professionals tell me, ‘I don’t have the time to mess with that stuff. I’m busy, I have a life.’ What they don’t realize is that social media is a tool you can use to make your life easier and save time.”

Thinking Strategically

Launching a Twitter page is one thing; thinking strategically is another. Using Facebook to communicate with friends is very different from speaking as the representative of a company.  Technical prowess no matter how impressive can’t replace a knowledge of how to navigate organizations and mine customer insight. That takes time.  There is a place for all generations in the adoption of social media.

“Simple truth, all use it, but they don’t use it for PR purposes. They are all not equally prepared.” said Karen Russell, associate professor, Grady College of Mass Communications at University of Georgia.

Or as Donna Fleishman president of Cohn & Wolfe’s Altanta office wrote me, “While Generation Y certainly understands how speedily they can get information out, they are learning from Generation X that the rules of accuracy and honesty and news value must still apply.”

Clearly marketing and PR Gen Yer’s understanding of social media is incredibly valuable.  More entrepreneurial and less willing to listen to traditional media, they are perfect conduit to understand how their generation thinks and what tools are needed to reach them.  As Ebuni Tolu Ogbechie, social media & development associate at Prevent Blindness Georgia wrote me, “We can essentially be ‘beta testers’ for new forms of social media.” 

 Restoring a Balance of Power

It’s time to take the mystery and fear out social media and restore a balance of power.  Generation Y brings a great deal to the table, but it is up to more senior managers to integrate technology into the workplace and channel their younger counterpart’s energy and expertise into effective communications strategies. There clearly is a cultural challenge, but we need not be afraid.

Let me get back to you.

PR Camp Atlanta is less than 2 weeks ago so it’s time for a few ghost stories around the virtual campfire to get some conversations going about social media.

Today’s tale is about “ghost” writers. Negative public reaction for companies caught using them is a chilling scenario for any PR professional. (For example, last week, the New York Times reported that drug maker Wyeth paid ghostwriters to author articles in medical journals under the physicians’ names.)  It’s also a relevant topic for the first session of PR Camp Atlanta when we will discuss how to get management’s buy-in for social media.

Ghost stories instill fear, and fear is one reason that reluctant clients and bosses give for taking a pass on social media – fear of negative comments, fear of wasting money, and fear of doing it wrong.

Ghost writing is doing social media wrong.  I know it may seem like a good way to get time strapped CEOs engaged or keep undisciplined CEOs from going too far off message.  At its worse, ghost writing is deceptive. It’s also lazy. It’s a way to avoid the hard work of getting executives to understand how social media works.

Social media thrives on direct personal contact. No one wants to wonder if the author is real or genuine. And honestly, don’t you have a different perception of the tweets of President Obama or Britney Spears if you know a communications team or publicist is writing them?  In my book, if you don’t have the time, talent or temptation, think again.

Ghost Writing and Twitter

By now you may feel ghost writing is familiar territory.  Not true. The discussion about ghost writing has spilled over into Twitter.

Take Guy Kawasaki, noted Silicon Valley venture capitalist and social media though leader.

Earlier this year Guy revealed that he uses ghost writers on Twitter.  Here are  Dennis McDonald’s and Dave Fleet’s reactions.

It’s one thing to use a ghost writer to author a politician’s speech or celebrity tell all autobiography; people expect that. But Twitter like a blog or Facebook profile is different.  Part of its allure is the personal insight it provides.

Guy may be an exception, and the lack of public outrage by his revelation may reflect Guy’s influence or quite possibly reveal how social media has changed.  Purists are being replaced by mainstream marketers.

I still maintain the best social media is personal, but if you are going to enlist ghost writers, I do think full disclosure is critical.  You may not be authentic, but at least be transparent. Regardless of who is writing, the content has to be useful, timely or entertaining. Ultimately, ghost stories are often warnings of behaviors, places and people to avoid.  Approach ghost writing at your own peril.

Let me get back to you.

PR Camp Atlanta is less than 3 weeks away. I am grateful for the support from members of the Atlanta’s PR and marketing community.   To register click here: 

We have a terrific lineup of moderators called counselors from some of the leading brands and top agencies in Atlanta. The discussion counselors are:

- Katie Mingo, Senior Marketing Associate, Delta Airlines

- Marilynn Mobley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Counsel, Edelman PR

- James Andrews, Managing Partner, Everywhere

- Carol Flammer, Managing Partner, mRELEVANCE, LLC 

- Christopher Jones, Digital Strategist, Ketchum PR 

- Melanie Babcock, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy & Services, Manning Selvage & Lee

- Peter Fasano, Principal/Lead Catalyst, mass+logic

- Bert Dumars, Vice President E-Business & Interactive Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid

- Irfan Kamal, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide

- Jenny Schmitt, President and Director of Client Strategy, CloudSpark

- Shirley Powell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Turner Broadcasting System

- Debbie Curtis-Magley, Public Relations Manager, UPS

These counselors will be leading PR, marketing and communications professionals in discussions on issues facing the PR field.  The event is attracting professionals at all levels from business, non-profits, government agencies, associations and educational institutions.  The “unconference” format avoids many of the conventions of a typical conference. There are no powerpoints, panels or keynotes.

 Topics for the three group sessions will be:

- Get clients and bosses to extend their interest in new media.

- Help senior professionals tap the social media experience of junior colleagues.

- With the blurring of PR and marketing, determine the best ways to measure success.

Sponsors

 I also want to thank those that have committed early to sponsor the event:

 - Georgia Tech Research Institute

- PR Newswire

- Atlanta Day Book

- CBS Atlanta Channel 46

- I Send Your Email

- Social Media Club Atlanta

- AiMA

Let me get back to you.

The PR Camp Atlanta camp fire

Friday, August 21 I am launching PR Camp Atlanta - a morning of highly-interactive discussions on social media complete with marshmallows and a virtual campfire.  

I want this social media event to be about community building, and I want it to be different from the conferences we normally attend. Inspired by  Product Camp, MobiCamp and Startup Weekend here in Atlanta, I asked myself why not PR Camp?   The “unconference” format avoids many of the conventions of a typical conference.  There will be no panels or PowerPoint demonstrations. Facilitators (camp counselors) will use scenarios based on case studies to guide attendee discussions.

PR Camp Atlanta will explore key issues facing our industry, helping PR and marketing professionals to identify challenges and take advantage of new opportunities.  PR Camp Atlanta will offer a social media immersion experience for PR, marketing and communications professionals at all levels from business, non-profits, government agencies, associations and educational institutions.

Planned topics for group sessions include:

- Get clients and bosses to extend their interest in new media.

- Help senior professionals tap the social media experience of junior colleagues.

- With the blurring of PR and marketing, determine the best ways to measure success.

PR CAMP ATLANTA

Where:  

Georgia Tech Research Institute Conference Center

250 14th Street, NW 

Atlanta, Georgia 30318 

When:

Friday, August 21

8:00 AM – 9 AM – Continental Breakfast and Registration

9:00 AM – Noon – Sessions

Noon – Wrap Up

Cost:  

$15 (plus $.99 EventBrite fee) before August 1

$20  (plus $.99 EventBrite fee) after August 1

$25 (cash and check only) at the door 

Registration:  Click here to sign up now.  

I hope you can join us for great conversations, a great deal of learning and a lot of fun. Dress is casual.  I want to thank Bill Cutts and GTRI for their generosity in hosting the event.

Please feel free to share your ideas and suggestions and pass on the information to those you think would be interested. I will follow up with updates on the planned agenda in the next few weeks.  You can also follow updates at  @PR_Camp on Twitter or join the PR-Camp group on Linkedin.

We are  looking for moderators, sponsors and volunteers.

Let me get back to you.