Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Who has time for all these tweets, retweets, invitations to connect, status updates, links and blog posts? I want to keep up with social media, but can't always find time. After an initially flurry of activity, I've settled on five tactics to stay reasonably engaged without losing sleep. Here they are:

Set expectations. I am realistic. I don't expect social media to work miracles but I expect to get something in return for my time. I limit my activity to three networks. I use Facebook almost exclusively for staying in touch with friends. LinkedIn is a professional networking, research and recruiting tool. The jury is still out for me on Twitter.

Listen. I get more out of social media from listening than posting. While I am skeptical about Twitter's value over the long term, I find it is a great source for news and information that I would not otherwise find. I also get to eavesdrop on smart, interesting people like Cord Silverstein, Walker Smith, Audra Marotta and Mark McNeely.

Monitor. Monitoring for me is different than listening I don't like surprises, so I use monitoring to stay a step ahead. I get alerts on news about Capstrat, clients and other groups that are important to me.

Mobile. Social media is yet another reason I love my Blackberry. Downloading the apps makes it easy to check status updates while I'm sitting at a soccer game (but not while one of my daughters is on the field) or retweet an @capstrat post while waiting for takeout.

Sharing versus posting. I don't create much original content. Frankly, I don't think anyone cares what I had for breakfast. I share articles, invitations to events, blog posts, etc. Most Web sites make it easy to share content.

Social media can take as much time as you allow. But with a few tools and boundaries you can stay connected in just a few minutes each day.

I have been toying around with LinkedIn for a year or so now, and it seems to be a valuable networking tool. The value, like all other tools both online or offline, being dependent on the time and energy one puts in to developing and utilizing that avenue. I'm sure that I have yet to unlock the full potential of something like LinkedIn. Aside from listing my job positions and connecting to a reasonably good sized selection of co-workers, business associates, classmates and friends, I haven't done much to expand my network.

Over the past few weeks I have noticed an increase in the number of connection requests I have received. Too bad for me it is not my growing popularity – the requests are not coming from people I know or have ever heard of, and they are seemingly generic requests. My guess is these are mass requests – sent out to entire groups or networks in hopes of simply increasing ones number of contacts. So I have been thinking… is this common practice? My personal philosophy – in terms of social networking – has always been more of a focus on quality rather than quantity. This might be due to my paranoid parents refusing to list our home phone number and address in the local phone book when I was a kid (so the crazy people didn't bother us.) Ultimately, I have seen social networking as a way to remain in touch with people I value in my real life – simply an extension of what goes on offline. Sorry – but if I don't know you, I am not "friending" you on Facebook. I'm not sure I want you to know any of my personal information! I have taken this same approach with LinkedIn.

My question is… am I going about this all wrong? In order to achieve my personal best results with LinkedIn, should I be connecting to everyone and their grandmother in hopes of finding that special person who might help me later on in life? I guess I just see these mass connection invites come across as petty. These people don't really want to know me, they just want my connection. Is this not the same thing as a man climbing up on a table at some networking event and announcing to 300 people, 'my name is John Doe, and I am a valuable person for you to know. Come sign up now to be my friend – don't miss out!'

This panel will be of interest to anyone working for a start-up or preparing to launch a new brand. The title is sensational, but the message is simple - it's about prioritization. You have to prioritize your focus and not put too much emphasis on your brand. Focus on what makes you stand out and make sure you get a good URL!! 

There's one word you should utter to the next client who asks you to design a logo: 'No.' Once the backbone of a brand's identity, logos have moved to the 'relatively unimportant' end of the 'important stuff' spectrum. This panel will explain how and why logos became irrelevant and will discuss how to break this news to your clients...and what the heck you do first on a design project if it isn't the logo.

The three takeaways:

-- The ways that logos limit a brand
-- The fact that sometimes, no logo is better than a logo
-- How to explain this to clients who can't imagine it.

Bryan Zmijewski Chief Instigator, LuckyOliver.com
Jeremy Britton Partner, Zurb Inc
Christina Wodtke LinkedIn
Luke Wroblewski Sr Principal, Yahoo! Inc

Make sure you understand the difference between a Logo and Logotype. Logo creation can distract you when you are trying to get a business started.

The costs of creating a logo:

1. printing/money
2. time
3. momentum

Industrial Revolution (manufactured goods were most important) to Information Age (URL is most important): In the industrial revolution, people started putting logos on things like soap to differentiate the product from another once the wrapper is off.

Now there are companies like LogoWorks.com that will make a logo for $25. Lots of times those logos turn out okay. Right now, people are paying a lot of money for URLs. If you can not get the URL you want, you will consider changing your name. Originally, logos were signature, but now they have been undermined by copycats. URL has been supplanting the quality of truth.

Early on, having a findable site is more important. Consistency is important, but it is a lot easier to be consistent when you start small.

Many times terms are used as identifiers, with variants on spellings (flickr.com) or strange combinations (Lucky Oliver).

You have 1.6 seconds a month with each person to make an impression on your customer online. Many times, it may be easier to remember the query string to get to the site, than remember the logo.

In start-up mode, every hour you spend working on something is an hour you spend not working on something else. The message is more important. Do you have time to work on the logo? When you are trying to build a company in 6 months how important is it to build the mark?

The icon does not come to play as much as it used to. You don't think about the Twitter logo, you think about the number you send messages to (40404). Is having a Yahoo logo on content important? Well-organized visual and structure seem to be more important. Does it seem professional? Is the logomark going to take it to the professional level. If so, you may need it. With phishing the link is more important than the mark.

Brand has overshadowed LOGO. You can't just have a Web site that is brochure-ware. It's about engaging customers and getting them to interact with you, not just about putting up a form.