Inside PR 372: Mesh Conference with Mark Evans

Mark Evans is a co-founder of mesh conference, which is in its ninth year, and will be held in Toronto on May 27-28.

Roving reporter, Martin Waxman, recently caught up with him.

He began the conversation by talking about the biggest surprises Mark has seen since the conference started.

And, as a former journalist, Martin wanted to know what’s been the biggest change in media since he was writing, and why pitches from PR professionals are still terrible.

Mark handles the latter question extremely well, while providing some great feedback on the things PR pros should consider, even with the immense amount of pressure we face from clients.

They talk about the media stream at mesh, which is the brain child and passion of Matthew Ingram, about the trend toward the new media companies introducing newswires to capture citizen journalists, and the y talk about the conference.

What’s most interesting (as I listened to the interview) is Mark’s take on Neil Harbisson, Mark Little, and Stewart Butterfield.

You’ll find what he has to say about each of these speakers really interesting. He talks about how Neil’s cyborg activism will help you think differently about how you live your life and how you do your job because it gives you a different perspective. How Mark, with the help of Storyful – the company he founded – is standing in the social “grayness” to help us determine what is actually news and what is not. And how Stewart salvaged a business from complete failure by doing a strategic pivot.

It’s a good episode you don’t want to miss!

Disclosure: Thornley Fallis is helping out on the PR for this year’s Mesh conference.

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We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the FIR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Thank you to the people behind Inside PR

Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer.

Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.

Inside PR 3.27: The story on content

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This week we feature video interviews we did at meshmarketing conference in Toronto. Our guests are three content marketing strategists – well, two strategists and one creative artist: Kristina Halvorson, Lee Odden and David Usher.

Here are some highlights:

Kristina Halvorson – Brands need to care about content more than ever because that’s what drives their relationships with customers online… Brands should ensure they look at content not at a commodity but as a business asset.

Lee Odden – Content is the perfect medium for storytelling, it’s what helps brands stand out beyond the noise… Think about online marketing as a peanut and jelly sandwich, search is the PB, jelly’s the social media and content is the bread that holds it all together.

David Usher – Content is very important to brands these days because it defines the brand. If you take the word brand and replace it with personality, it’s really the same thing… You need authenticity and originality and those are the two things that make content engaging.

Gini, Joe and Martin talk about the interviews and how each of us thinks about content. We agree you don’t need to have a big budget to create meaningful and sharable social objects. You need a great story to tell to people who are genuinely interested. And that’s where relationships and creativity come in.

What are some of your content marketing ideas secrets? We’d love to hear from you.

And if you liked these interviews, you may want to check out the great lineup of speakers at Mesh 2013 in Toronto in May. And yes, that’s another Inside PR video on the homepage :).

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Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson.

Gini recommends a content audit and talks about things that can be repurposed and optimize it so it reaches. You don’t always have to create something new, you need to use what you already have in other collateral.

Takes pieces of a PDF white paper that isn’t searchable and creates nuggets that are searchable from existing content.

Content as a business asset and spoke that it’s meaningful and engaging and the issue of high quality is interesting with social objects.

What are some of your content secrets? We’d love to hear from you.

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Inside PR 3.22: Looking at the year ahead

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Well, it’s January 2013 and we thought we’d start the year with some upcoming projects and a list of the conferences we’re planning to attend.

Projects:

Gini’s writing her second book, aptly titled Spin Sucks: The Book. It’s about the general perception that PR is made up of a bunch of spin doctors and what we can do to restore the industry’s reputation and perform our jobs ethically and honestly. In other words: how to ‘Fight Against Destructive Spin’.

Joe and the Thornley Fallis team are working on an ebook entitled, The User’s Guide to Social Media Listening and Engagement Tools, a marketing and communications industry resource. Twenty-two platforms will be reviewed and rated and individual sections will be published as blog posts.

Martin mentions he’s gearing up for the new University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Digital Strategy and Communications Management Certificate program. The first class, a Foundations course, starts on January 23 and is almost full. Future plans include offering the Certificate courses online. Stay tuned…

And speaking of online courses, Gini is one of the presenters in the Content Success Summit presented by Social Media Examiner.  And Joe and Shel Holtz are offering an Integrated Social Media Course through IABC beginning on January 17.

Conferences we’re looking forward to/speaking at:

BlogH.O.T., March 25 to 27, Los Angeles

PRSA Western District Conference, April 18 to 20, Phoenix

Ragan 22nd Annual Corporate Communicators Conference, April 29 to May 1, Chicago

Mesh conference, May 15 and 16, Toronto

PRSA Counselors Academy Conference, June 9 to 11, Austin

CPRS National Conference, June 9 to 11, Ottawa

IABC 2013 World Conference, June 23 to 26, New York

PRSA Digital Impact, June 27 and 28, New York

PRSA International Conference, October 26 to 29, Philadelphia

There are lots more places to learn and keep your digital and social media skills finely tuned.  We’d love to hear about what you’re looking forward to.

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Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected], join the Inside PR Google+ Community, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini DietrichJoe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter. Our theme music was created by Damon de SzegheoRoger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR Summer Archives #7 – Wednesday, August 12, 2009

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Comments? Send us an email at [email protected], call us on the comment line on 206-600-4741, visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, or leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog.

This week on Inside PR, Keith McArthur and David Jones review this weeks events and discuss PR agencies and how they need to change.

Show Notes

00:32 Dave introduces the show

01:27 Keith talks about the InfoPresse conference and the launch of influencia.ca

02:43 The debate about social media as a cultural or technological revolution begins. The understanding of the tools or the the understanding of the culture; which is more important?

03:49 Keith gets a dig in at Dave for having issues with last week’s podcast

04:07 Dave references Kate Trgovac

04:53 Dave talks about Joseph Thornley’s  Social Media RoundtableMESH and speaking at MESH about podcasting with Doug Walker. Doug Walker hosts the Shill Podcast with Dave and writes the webwalker blog

08:19 Welcome to the main topic of the show: PR Agencies and How They Need to Change. This topic was brought up in reference to a blog post by Todd Defren – developer of the social media press release.

09:52 Dave and Keith discuss the “5 thoughts on the future of PR“:

  1. Agencies must become comfortable with the personal branding of employees
  2. Agencies need to do a far better job training staff
  3. Agencies have to explain to clients that mistakes will happen
  4. Agencies must help clients move from reactive to proactive to interactive
  5. Agencies must reconsider their core value

40:30 Dave wraps the show

Our theme music is Streetwalker by Cjacks and is courtesy of the Podsafe Music NetworkRoger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Samantha Lovelace.

Inside PR #112 – Wednesday, May 21, 2008

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Comments? Send us an email at [email protected], call us on the comment line on 206-600-4741, visit the Inside PR Blubrry site, or leave us a comment on the Inside PR show blog.

This week on Inside PR, Keith McArthur and David Jones review this weeks events and discuss PR agencies and how they need to change.

Show Notes

00:32 Dave introduces the show

01:27 Keith talks about the InfoPresse conference and the launch of influencia.ca

02:43 The debate about social media as a cultural or technological revolution begins. The understanding of the tools or the the understanding of the culture; which is more important?

03:49 Keith gets a dig in at Dave for having issues with last week’s podcast

04:07 Dave references Kate Trgovac

04:53 Dave talks about Joseph Thornley’s  Social Media Roundtable , MESH and speaking at MESH about podcasting with Doug Walker. Doug Walker hosts the Shill Podcast with Dave and writes the webwalker blog

08:19 Welcome to the main topic of the show: PR Agencies and How They Need to Change. This topic was brought up in reference to a blog post by Todd Defren – developer of the social media press release.

09:52 Dave and Keith discuss the “5 thoughts on the future of PR“:

  1. Agencies must become comfortable with the personal branding of employees
  2. Agencies need to do a far better job training staff
  3. Agencies have to explain to clients that mistakes will happen
  4. Agencies must help clients move from reactive to proactive to interactive
  5. Agencies must reconsider their core value

40:30 Dave wraps the show

Our theme music is Streetwalker by Cjacks and is courtesy of the Podsafe Music Network; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Samantha Lovelace.