Was It As Good For You As It Was For Me
Last night, the kind folks from Ogilvy PR’s 360 Digital Influence Team ( or what I would like to call, the trifecta of awesomeness ) hosted an educational event for a group of bloggers.
Brian from the team has written a summary about the night here.
Some quick things I learned from the night of sharing:
1. Toys R Evil. This blogger gave a presentation that totally killed the audience. His wannabe half-passed-six Hokkien Ah Beng persona belied an intelligent and savvy marketer. There was much to learn from this dude. For example, videotaping rain with some emo-prose can score hits. But seriously, much to learn, like the next point.
2. If you want information, go out and ask! One of the things I feel that is lacking in most of us, or rather from most of the people I know, is the ability to roll up our sleeves and do the dirty work. Or in this specific case, to pick up the phone and do cold calling. Like the very act of cold calling is beneath our stature. We tend to have an inflated opinion of ourselves that we think people should look for us first. The blogger behind ‘Toys R Evil’, when recognizing that as a Singaporean blogger about toys he suffered a disadvantage in getting information, went out and made direct contacts with the people who had the information. If you are a blogger covering a niche, don’t just rely on online ( and more often than not, second-hand ) sources. Go out there and draw from the well directly.
3. Blogging can get you a hot girlfriend ( so can knowing how to cook ).
4. Blogging, if done right and last night was about learning how to do it right, can help build an individual’s value which can be parlayed for free stuff, job offers and personal project recognition. Note the last item. For most entrepreneurs, their business, for better or worse, are akin to personal projects. A blogger can use the blog as a platform to build up goodwill that can be beneficial for his or her other endeavors. Which really brings me to the thing I really wanted to say.
What I really want to say about last night. Was it as good for you as it was for me?
To be honest with you, while the presentations last night were interesting and educational, what I really want to talk about is the team behind the event – the trifecta of awesomeness which is Tania, Pat and Brian. Now, I don’t know much about PR or Social Media, but I do know when people are making an effort to build a real relationship, probably even a friendship. It would be presumptuous of me to say that Ogilvy PR’s 360 Digital Influence Team has nailed what it means to do PR in the world of Social Media ( because what would I as a JAVA programmer know? ) but that’s not going to stop me from saying it.
These guys know what they’re doing.
I guess it helps that these guys already maintain their own blogs, read blogs and engage people ( according to principles they advocate ) on blogs. They eat their own dog food. They have built their own personal brand through their blogs that, to me at least, has really aided their job endeavors.
When gurus preach about Social Media, one of the things they like to emphasize is the placing of the bloggers first which is nice in eliciting sentimental group hugs but frankly I don’t think it is sustainable.
I get this sense that when these chaps organize events, they live by a really simple principle, and what might seem like a rather selfish one, which is to ensure the event will benefit them as bloggers which has a somewhat ‘perverse’ effect of guaranteeing the event is as good for us as it is for them.
Oh, wait, much wiser people have already said it better,
Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself.
Thanks again for planning an event that you yourselves would go for.
Thanks to Patlaw for the photos.
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