Euroblog 2008 - reflections on day 2

Day 2 of EuroBlog 2008 was a day of ins and outs for me. I saw the opening session this morning, and I was in the final session, twice to do some live blogging - see all live blogging of this day here.

But for most of the time, I was out of the room, doing some actual work and following Philippe’s live blogging stories. It is addicting and fun to see the reactions of other readers intervening in the live blog.

Today 

Looking back on today, I saw quite a lot of references to conversations and relationships. For me, these are the words to remember from today. PROs see themselves as masters in relations with the public. These relations are build up by conversations. As social media provide tools to facilitate that conversation, PROs should embrace social media tools to enhance their relationship with the public.

In the end, Neville Hobson mentioned “that PROs should not let the opportunity pass by to implement social media. If PROs don’t, then someone else in the organisation will.” Where will that leave us, experts in conversations and relationships?

In five years

In the final panel, the seven panelists got to answer the question where they thought PR & social media would be in five years. Here are some answers:

• Thomas: I will continue to trust people in my network
• Philippe: We will still need to know the media we are publishing on, so we need to test them. Also, I have this feeling that in 5 years I will still be explaining social media at C-levels
• Chris: I don’t know. We don’t know if social media will be around in five years. And if newspapers will still be around. And we don’t  know if PR will still be around…
• Amanda: We have to have a more holistic approach to campaigns. It’s gonna take more people to respond
• Kris: I just want to give an example of a South-African start-up guy that blogged that driving an Aston Martin was one of the three things he wanted to do before he died, and AM saw that and soon after provided him with a 24h entree. Proves AM has learned that everybody can be a customer.
• Ansgar: Trust in new media channels might decline
• Neville: It is going to be worse - Twitter is not the end…

Reflections on live blogging 

Woow, live blogging is challenging. Not only do you need a good internet connection (ahum, Ihecs?), but you also need to keep your focus on all the time. You’re listening, writing, synthesizing, editing and moderating at the same time. Some tips: preparation of images, slides, movies… (where possible), and make it a two-mens-job. Don’t try this for a whole day yourself.

Another tip: go over the information once again, and try to see the connections. While live blogging, you tend to focus on short stories you can post, and you lose track of the big picture. A good way to work your way through the valuable info, is to create a blog post later that evening ;-).

More live blogging tomorrow - now off for a drink. 

- Mental note to myself : question Steve Rubel tomorrow on his quote that “you can achieve economies of scale by using social media to create relationships“. Not that I can’t think of a story to go with it, but I’d love to hear Steve’s side !

Categorie: EuroBlog2008