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Aaron Strout

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Experts in the Industry: Christine Perkett (71 of 45)

April 14, 2009 By Aaron Strout 4 Comments

We were lucky enough to have one of Christine Perkett‘s colleagues, Lisa Dilg, as the 8th interviewee in the Experts in the Interview series. To this date, Lisa’s interview is still one of the most visited in the series. So what I’m wondering is if we can create a friendly rivalry between two very smart, well-connected and savvy PR women who truly understand how to tap into the power of social…

Before we get started, a little background on Christine. I first met her along with my old boss, Barry Libert, at the California Pizza Kitchen back in the summer of 2007. We were thinking about using Christine’s company, Perkett, as our PR firm (Christine is the founder and president of Perkett). For anyone that’s ever met Barry, he’s a big thinker and can be a little overwhelming in a first interview. Fortunately for Christine, she’s cool and calm under pressure and was able to roll with the punches. Ever since then, I’ve had an appreciation of Christine and how hard she works.
Now onto the questions:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I help people successfully connect and communicate with their core audiences – person-to-person, business to customer, brand to consumer, etc. – and I’m good at it because I listen first.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
I’d say my first foray into online community came through working with clients – as far back as a decade ago – that connected users with other users in more interactive ways. It wasn’t called “online community” then but in essence it was. For example, clients such as Salesnet (now RightNow) – which used SaaS to connect sales executives for sharing best practices and defining methodologies – were the first of their kind to recognize the value in adding community and social aspects to an otherwise anti-social business process.  

I also worked with plenty of start-ups in the 90s that created social and community aspects around everything from online swaps to dating to gift exchange. Unfortunately, most of them were ahead of their time.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
Oh that’s tough. The popular answer would of course be Twitter or Facebook or some other entity already proven to be well accepted and on its way to success. But I thrive on innovation and intelligent risk – it’s why I love working with start ups! I’m close with an entrepreneur who built and sold a successful company in the last boom and who has several other brilliant ideas. Although I can’t share yet, one of those ideas combines community, user-generated content, video and Digg-like voting in a way that no one’s yet delivered. Oh it’s so cool! It’s like those old “choose your own ending” books with video. I’d invest my dollars there, absolutely.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
I found this question particularly difficult, as so many of our public figures have let us down lately. I can’t truly say there is one I most respect – I’ve never been much of a “favorites” type of person. But I have to say I really respect Hillary Clinton. Not from a political standpoint – I’ve never voted for her and I actually hate politics, but from the viewpoint of a strong and resilient, assertive woman. Personally, she’s proud of who she is and doesn’t apologize for it no matter what the naysayers throw at her; she kept her private decisions private during a very painful and public intrusion in her life, and she rebounded. In her career she’s also had disappointments but she didn’t let them stop her from embracing other opportunities – she didn’t win the Oval Office (this time) but she accepted her current position as Secretary of State with grace, poise and commitment. She possesses some admirable qualities that more of us could embrace or learn from: strength, pride, commitment, grace, tenacity, poise, forgiveness, loyalty and resiliency.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
No, but I would follow a toothpaste brand who had interesting or entertaining content to share on Twitter, or perhaps join their Facebook fan page if they delivered compelling reasons to do so. Come meet me – and engage with me – where I already am. Otherwise, I have to track too many communities. Thus, Twitter’s brilliance.

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
Hmmm so many topics…. So little time. Okay here are a few things:

  • The social media Kool-Aid….there are way too many people enamored with the new wave of “social media experts.” Just because someone tells you they can set up a Facebook fan page, capture video or understand Twitter doesn’t mean they are going to help you make the most of these communities. I think “expert” goes way beyond that – do they know how to deliver compelling messages and content through these tools? Are they able to teach you who to engage with and how to create relationships? Do they understand why you want to be a part of communities – is it personal, business, both? Can they clearly and succinctly explain the ROI and value to those they are trying to teach – whether it’s an individual like an author or a jeweler, or a business selling enterprise software? The SME moniker is overused, abused and tiring.
  • PR is not dead. I don’t care how great social media is. Like I said, you can use as many tools as you like. You can record as many videos as the next guy. But unless the messaging is compelling and it’s reaching the right audience – thus making an impact – it’s a moot point. PR will always have a seat at the table – social media is just forcing the good PR up and the bad PR out. And it’s about time!
  • The economy is tough for most everyone right now. So many articles talk about the employees laid off or the bad leaders who got us into this mess. What about the good leaders – small business owners for example – who are forced to make tough decisions to keep their business alive? It’s not easy – or fun – for them either. People tend to overlook that or make it personal.
  • People are very passive/aggressive in social media. Watching
    the behavior – and the underlying messages – is absolutely fascinating. I can’t wait to see the fallout of the madness and where everyone lands.
  • I’m glad I met you, worked with you and that we’ve stayed in touch. Thanks for this opportunity, Aaron. [AWS: Same back atcha Chris!]

If you are looking for Christine on Twitter, her handle is @MissusP.

Experts in the Industry: Lisa Dilg (8 of 45)

February 3, 2009 By Aaron Strout 5 Comments

I first met Lisa Dilg two summers ago when the company I used to work for, Mzinga, hired Perkett PR as their agency of record. While Lisa didn’t immediately join us on our account, I immediately knew that I liked her style by following her updates on Twitter. What I found out about Lisa as we worked together over the next several months was that she is as smart and hard working as she is funny.
Here’s how she answered my five questions from the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days series:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.
I am an account director at PerkettPR – I lead account teams that help my clients get publicity. Why am I good at it?   I suppose I’m good at it because I do not like NOT being good at things.
How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?
In PR, you have to adapt to how the preferences of the media change. PerkettPR is a smart company and our CEO was adamant about making sure we were changing with the times and not holding onto “the way we’ve always done things.”  This allowed us to get into blogging, video casting, online communities, and more as individuals and as a company early on – we waded in first so that we could figure out how to help our clients use these tools effectively.  We took to heart something that Jeremiah Owyang said: “The agency of the future is a ‘connected’ one I can’t imagine ever advising a client to deal with an advertising, PR, or interactive team that doesn’t get social media. But with the power shifting to the participants, agencies must demonstrate they can participate before they can ever help clients with it” – being open to this has been fruitful for our company, our clients and to me personally.
If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?
I decline to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself. Well, that’s a little dramatic, but I can’t answer this question – we have too many clients who have boilerplates with the word “social” in them – I cannot choose between them or pick someone else because ALL of our clients are worth investing in.  I will say this – I would invest in a company that has a business model from the beginning, not just a pipe dream – I’m not the biggest risk taker and the current state of my 401K has me being even more conservative with investments.
Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?
I have amazing respect and admiration for Colin Powell.  He is a courageous, strong, honest leader. I would campaign for him if he were to run for President and I was disappointed that he said he never would. His cross-party endorsement of Barack Obama and the interview he gave stating his reasoning for doing so made me respect him even more.  If all of our leaders could strive to conduct themselves like Colin Powell, I think we’d all be better off.
Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?
I would not join a toothpaste community. This is where “community” gets tough – if there are communities for every product you use, you’d never get anything done. Some are important and necessary, but I don’t need to get involved in a discussion forum about my use of Crest.  That’s why I support companies joining general communities like Twitter. Join in where we already are – if we are talking about you or to you, listen, respond, and help.  If were not, just get involved and talk, and we’ll like that you’re there if we need you.  I follow Popeye’s Chicken and ComcastCares and I don’t use either – but I like how they are engaging people.  Its great brand recognition for them, and if I do decide to change my internet provider, I know where I’m going to go and why. 
Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.
I will use this space to give you my social media annoyances:
  1. We need to stop using social media to talk about social media.  For example, stop blogging about blogging and stop talking about using Twitter when you are on Twitter – it’s like talking about a date while you’re on the date – kind of ruins the genuine experience and makes you feel like you are being constantly analyzed to see if you are doing it right. I have a better analogy than that, but its not appropriate, but I am sure you get where I am going with this 😉
  2. Also, enough with the SM “guru”, “expert”, “maven”- ing….if you ARE that, you don’t have to say it, and it’s off putting to “regular folk.”  Too many people in social media are so busy patting themselves and the other “experts” on the back for their work in social media, that they don’t realize how alienating, arrogant and annoying this is.  I think this has the potential to backfire and ruin the whole experience because people are either too intimidated or turned off to join in.
  3. Words we could stand to see a lot less of: Monetize, transparency, rockstar (or any form of rock, rawk, etc…), dialogue, “the conversation”, etc…

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