360DigitalInfluence

One of the key things our client’s look to us for is a knowledge of the latest industry trends and best practices.   My philosophy, having worked in an agency for most of my career is that a key part of all of our jobs is to read and digest everything we can and share the most relevant knowledge with our clients.   The only challenge is how to share that knowledge.   Of course, email is the most consistent method for sharing online knowledge, by forwarding links or documents … but we all know where most of these emails end up.   The main problem is that at a point when a reader is ready to spend some time reading or learning, all of those forwarded emails are hard to find and aggregate.   And the chances someone is ready to look at a great link right when you send it are remote.

A method that we have been using for some time now to combat this challenge is aggregating knowledge into social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us.   For many of our clients, we pull relevant links into a del.icio.us account, share this account with them, and use it as a communications tool to allow our team to have a dynamically updating archive of knowledge.   Recently, we have been extending it to other uses, like aggregating news coverage of client product launches, or creating topical lists of blogs we recommend for clients to read.   For us, there are several reasons why del.icio.us has emerged as such as useful tool:

1. No competing messages - Unlike most other free sites, del.icio.us has no advertising or graphics to interfere with the list of links, which makes it an easier tool for us to use for business to business efforts such as creating lists to share with clients.   If only there were a white label version we could brand with a client’s logo and password protect - it would be the ultimate PR tool.
2. Speed and efficiency - We can set up a new account in seconds, and most of our team has downloaded tagging buttons into Firefox or IE to make our process of adding links a one-click effort.   This allows us to create an aggregation page with links and tags within an hour (and sometimes less).   For product launches and crisis situations in particular, this has been an amazing help.
3. Built-in popularity index - For any link we post, it is immediately obvious how many other people have found that link to be useful and have also saved it.   In an instant, this provides a useful metric for popularity and credibility on any link we have saved into an account.   Not only does this let clients see pockets of influence, but it also allows us to create new lists of sites to note or even sites we may recommend adding to a client’s current media or blog monitoring efforts.
4. Predict future discussions - It is a well proven fact that many blog posts or sites that start to gain popularity in del.icio.us often fuel more blog posts or discussion online and offline.   In many cases, it can even be a predicter of mainstream media coverage days, weeks, or even months before it occurs.   For crisis management, as well as ongoing discussion monitoring, del.icio.us has many applications we are only now starting to discover.

As more PR firms start to see smart examples of others using del.icio.us for client efforts and industry best practices, the site will continue to grow in popularity in our industry.   There are already many great ways some of our peers are using the site to serve clients, as well as provide a useful resource for journalists.   At Ogilvy PR, del.icio.us has helped us to bridge the gap between “traditional” public relations and new ways of thinking in the age of personal media and co-creation.   That alone makes it a tool worth talking about.