Colleen Coplick presents to CPRS on "Beyond Blogs", but someone didn’t get the point
April 15, 2008 by Tris Hussey
Filed under Business
Last Friday my friend Colleen Coplick presented to the Vancouver chapter of CPRS (PR people group) on blogs and social media. I got a sneak peak at her slides Thursday night (she asked for feedback). I think she was right on the mark and didn’t have too many (26, about right for an hour).
However it seems that not everyone enjoyed it:
You have to be honest. You have to be transparent. You have to join the conversation. Hang out on facebook.” After a half hour of this it was clear that she couldn’t really fill the rest of the half hour she was contracted to speak for. And really, even people with a nominal knowledge of social media most likely already have the “transparency schtick” down. Source: CPRS Talk on Social Media with Guest Speaker Colleen Coplick « Condofire
Now, here’s irony for you, the person complaining about getting the “transparency schtick” … doesn’t have his/her name on the blog or even an about page. Not very transparent!
Speaking about blogs and social to a group like this is really freakin’ hard. The audience is likely all over the map at both social media and computer levels. I wasn’t there, so I can’t comment on how she did, but since I did have an advance look at the slides, I know she covered her bases.
Blogs and PR folks, it’s tough. I launched (officially) my new b5media blog Manscaping 101 and I’m getting more and more emails from PR folks. Let me tell you, they have come a long way since I started blogging four years ago (yes it really has been only four years). What I’m getting now show’s they’s read the blog and want to suggest things that I really would be interested in.
Kudos to Colleen for doing it. And for your viewing enjoyment, her slides via SlideShare:
Photo by Lisa Thomas-Tench
Hey Tris — Interesting post. I agree that PR folks (of which I’m one) are struggling to know how to respond to social media as part of their mix. But that’s not unlike most other innovations that have come forward in the tech biz. We have early adopters and those who are happy with status quo. But I’d say the sands are shifting and I’m seeing a lot more interest from my colleagues in learning how to join in the conversation.
I totally agree — its hard to create a presentation that’s appropriate for a group with diversified backgrounds and levels of experience.
In the next post, said critic waxes poetic about the things he or she learned in SEO in a subsequent talk that others may have found (as I put it in condofire’s comments) basic and mundane.
I think its hard to criticize a talk fairly if its *goal* had been to address people who don’t know very much about social media in the first place.
Cheers
t @ dji
I didn’t even subscribe to the blog…now I’m just going to have to read now.
Great points Tony!
I agree with Tony. Some people attending these are starting from a baseline of no knowledge while others are social media peers, and some are somewhere in between with advanced knowledge of some aspects and little knowledge of others.
They say “know your audience” but maybe social media presentations…at least for now…are unique in that these audiences are so diverse?
You’re bang on Michael. People just have to be patient, IMHO. Unless it’s SM for newbies … you’re got to really do a shotgun approach to the presentation and put a little in for everyone.
I have heard from people who attended the social media presentation on April 11 and I think that the issue here is not about how to present to a diverse crowd with varying levels of familiarity. The comments I have heard address the speaker’s apparent lack of preparedness and the value of her content to a professional audience who was looking for more depth and substance. I have heard from university students and seasoned professionals alike about the presentation and the feedback was the same – they were disappointed at the quality of the information shared as it is a very interesting topic to many of us who work in the field.