MarCom Professional

The State Theater hosted yesterday's first ever BlogPotomac, and judging by the feedback from the sold-out crowd, it will be the first of many of more to come. Sponsored by Livingston Communications, Viget Labs, and WordBiz.com, Inc., BlogPotomac brought together a great lineup of speakers to talk about some of the latest trends in social media marketing. But without question, Frank Gruber's simple but entertaining lunchtime chat about social media tools that make life just a little better was the most entertaining session of the day. He's posted a recap of his talk along with the list of recommended services. More...

Not able to attend BlogPotomac? Not to worry - we've got all the live video goodness of the event you can handle. Sponsored by Livingston Communications, Viget Labs, and WordBiz.com, Inc., BlogPotomac is this year's premiere social media marketing event for the greater Washington DC area. There are some great speakers lined up for today, including Frank Gruber, Maggie Fox and KD Paine. The video feed is being provided by the good folks over at OoVoo. Check it out:

William J. McEwen and Rob Kroenert make the case for brands to think about how they use digital tools to build relationships with customers as the key differentiator between their brand and the competition.

It's crucial for a bank to have a Web site. It's also crucial for a bank to have ATMs, checking accounts, and computers that keep accurate records. But every bank can claim to meet these basic service requirements. What banks really need is some way to show prospects and customers that they are different from their competitors. Differentiation is essential for marketers seeking to establish an enduring bond with their customers.

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Great event last night at Busboys & Poets with Personality Not Included author Rohit Bhargava doing a live show with the one and only Jonny Goldstein of jonnyspartay.com. If you haven't read the book yet, I highly recommend checking it out. I posted an interview with Rohit a few weeks ago during the book launch. He focuses on why companies can no longer exist as the faceless, soul-less corporation - today's social media era simply wont' allow it. As if any further evidence were needed, Starbucks is a living case study today of a company that once had a remarkable personality, then lost it, and is now doing all that it can to get back to their roots to deliver a unique coffee shop experience again. More...

I posted this last night on the Viget Engage blog: It’s easy to spot the advertising and marketing today done by companies who simply don’t care about delivering valuable marketing to their customers – companies too content with interrupting them with annoying, trivial messaging. Some, however, are beginning to see the light. There may be several names for it, but no matter what you call it, there is no doub that brand marketing must deliver value. Some like to think of it as marketing with meaning. Others have dubbed it branded utility (something I’ve written about before.) Still others prefer marketing as service. More...

Joshua Porter breaks down social design into three eras, and suggests a fourth stage - where we find ourselves today:

Additionally, much of the current evolution of social software is in improving the communication between people who provide a service and people who use a service. This is what I think is meant by “social media marketing”. This is somewhat of the fourth wave…when social applications not only improve the conversations between people using the site, but between people who provide the site and those who use it. (Tearing down the firewall isn’t easy) While email has done much of the heavy lifting here for many years, the mere act of putting these conversations public changes further interaction around them, while scaring the wits out of executives who worry that negative conversation will bring down their empire.

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Common Craft has put together yet another dead-simple video - this time creating an elegantly simple explanation of social media. "This video focuses on basics of social media: new technology that makes everyone a producer and tools that give everyone a chance to have a say." As we've come to expect, their visual storytelling with simple paper cut-outs and crystal-clear writing takes complex and ambiguous concepts and makes them easily accessible for anyone. Additionally, their videos explaining RSS and social networking are not to be missed either. More...

DC's own Jim Long was featured in a conversation with Shel Israel on GNTV: "A 15-year veteran NBC cameraman, Jim follows the US President wherever he goes. In recent years that has included all continents except South America and perhaps Antarctica. He's passionate and proud of his old media work, but he understands and accepts the world is changing. "I am quickly becoming a dinosaur," he reflects in our interview, and for that reason he has become immersed in social media. Not only does he believe his social media work benefits him, he talks about how his individual efforts are helping NBC. People see him through social media as a human representation of the network. More...

While the conversation about tomorrow's digital agency will look like (Agency pick-a-number-dot-oh), Mark Kvamme reaffirmed that the creative coming out of their shop needs to at least be equal to the quality of their technical chops. Speaking at the 4A's Digital Conference, Kvamme said:

"You have to have world-class creative but you have to have world-class tech folks who can translate that into conversations," said Kvamme, currently a venture capitalist at Sequoia Capital, one of Silicon Valley's leading VC firms... While the ad world has focused on the reach and frequency of messages, Kvamme believes digital media overload is placing a premium on interactions.

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Brian Solis wrote a lengthy and insightful guest-post on TechCrunch about the top PR secrets for startups. Here's the cliff notes version: "There’s no question, you have to compete for attention and in order to do so effectively and genuinely, you need someone who can help tell your story, the right way, through the people who reach your customers. It’s not an overnight process and it’s not something to “be gamed.” It’s a process of investing in, building and leveraging relationships now and in the long term. And yes, if you do things right, bloggers, reporters, and analysts will want to talk to you about your company and vision along the way. More...