23 Social and Digital Services Agencies Should be Selling

I love this quote from Paul Roetzer, author of The Marketing Agency Blueprint (which I highly recommend): Hybrid agencies will come to rule the marketing world. These emerging leaders are tech savvy, offer integrated services, hire and retain versatile talent, and profit from diversified revenue streams. They thrive on change, and continually apply shifts and […]

The Rise of the T-Shaped Agency Model

Daniel Lemin is Strategy & Analytics Lead at Convince & Convert. He also runs the consulting firm Social Studio where he provides analytics, PR and integrated digital marketing strategy to his clients. Agency owners, take note: your traditional team structure – the one that divides your agency into “digital”, “account management” and “creative,” among others – […]

Should Your PR Firm Be Your Social Business Advisor

The folks at Edelman announced today that they have “Launched Social Business Planning to Help Organizations Create Business Value in a Connected World.” Amongst the big thinkers, social business is elbowing out social media as the business cause celebre. I even co-wrote a book called The NOW Revolution that is in part devoted to the […]

The 8 Wrong Questions PR Firms Are Asking About Social Media

The enthusiasm about social media among public relations professionals is rampant, and encouraging. Wanting to be at the center of a new way to communicate to customers and prospects is a worthy objective. But, under pressure from digital and advertising agencies each looking to be the driver of the social media express, PR firms are […]

Why the Digital Divide is Death to Your PR Firm

Guest post by Elizabeth Sosnow, Managing Director of BlissPR, a New York City based public relations firm. She develops and supervises strategic communications programs for major companies in professional and financial services, with a particular emphasis on the legal, consulting and insurance industries. I recently had lunch with an old colleague who now works for […]

Digital and Dollars – Successfully Adding Online Marketing to Your Agency Services

I recently returned from my first-ever trip to beautiful Asheville, North Carolina. I was there speaking at the Counselor’s Academy PRSA annual conference. (Counselor’s Academy is the section of PRSA for owner’s of small and medium independent agencies). One of the highlights of my trip was conducting a breakout session with my good friend and […]

BL Ochman – The Twitter 20 Interview about Social Media and Blogging

BL Ochman, author of the What’s Next blog, and a veteran of digital marketing since 1996 and a public relations powerhouse before that, agreed to withstand the crucible of a Twitter 20 interview (20 questions live on Twitter). Here are BL’s thoughts on blogging, email, social media, and getting the job done right online. 1. […]

Jason Falls – The Twitter 20 Interview about Social Media and Public Relations

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Featuring Jason Falls, the head of social media at branding agency Doe-Anderson, author of the Social Media Explorer blog, and all-around social media nice guy genius. Jason submitted himself to the rigors of the Twitter 20 interview (20 questions live on Twitter) on November 14, 2008. Excellent questions and comments from viewers throughout, too. Thanks to […]

Bloggers: Who Is In Your Fab Five?

Thanks to Jason Falls for the inspiration (okay, it’s a straight rip-off) for this post. Jason pointed out five lesser-known bloggers that he reads regularly (including Convince & Convert). His post seems to have triggered an a-ha moment, as several other excellent social media bloggers including Mack Collier and Amber Naslund have posted similar lists […]

Why the Murder of Old Media is PR’s Best Chance

Since the advent of the printing press, professional opinions have helped shape our own. From Hearst to Murdoch, from Cronkite to Brokaw. Huge companies that employ thousands of trained journalists have helped us understand what’s good and bad, and whom to embrace or fear.  Not for long. This is not a flesh wound. The Internet […]

3 Reasons David Lee Roth is a Bad Internet Marketer

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I am of a vintage that was shaped by Van Halen’s album (actually a cassette for me) 1984. With Jump, Panama, and Hot for Teacher (a video that joins “Hungry Like the Wolf” in my early teen pantheon), this was a truly epic record – highlighted by David Lee Roth’s bad boy caterwauling.   And […]

The 7 Deadly Sins of Social Media

As part of my panel on social media at the Worldcom PR conference in Montreal recently (see post below), I created these “7 Deadly Sins of Social Media.” Are you willing to admit your sins in the comments? 1. Deafness Actively listening to what’s being said about your brand is at the core of social […]

The Social Media Train: Catch It While You Can

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Why, What, When & How to Implement Social Media Campaigns Just finished moderating a rousing panel discussion in Montreal at the Worldcom Americas conference. (Worldcom is the world’s largest collective of independent PR firms) Joined by Mike Corak from Off Madison Ave, Stefan Pollack from the Pollack PR Marketing Group, and Diego Biasi from Business […]

Customized Internet Marketing Training for Agencies

Convince & Convert launches new training program series to help agencies improve their digital capabilities Addressing the needs of ad agencies and PR firms to improve their digital marketing competency, Convince & Convert is now providing a series of customizable, in-person training programs. We are offering 5 intensive, all-day sessions to train ad agencies and […]

The Official Toothpaste of Social Media

Will the Crest Weekly Toothpaste Launch Work? In a sign that the guys who control ad budgets are getting the value of interactive advertising faster than the agencies that place it, P&G announced recently that they are introducing their new Crest Weekly toothpaste almost entirely through the blogosphere. Samples of Crest Weekly were sent to […]

Wake Up Agencies – Digital Shops = Trojan Horse

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It was bound to happen, and now it has. A big-time digital agency (R/GA) has opened up a full-fledged brand development arm. And whom do you think they will be competing against with this new branding department? Other digital agencies? Nope. They are aiming for traditional agencies and the branding, media placement, and creative budgets […]