Hill & Knowlton

 I came across this piece of animation recently that I thought was worth sharing. It’s from my WPP cousins over at Ogilvy and is a clever ‘Jack & Jill’ story of the evolution of social media.

I thought some people might find it useful to share with colleagues, clients or friends and family who might still not quite ‘get it’ (*smiles and winks*)

I guess my main observation on this clip is that it focuses purely on advertising and its relationship with the consumer. The same could obviously be said for public relations and its engagement with commercial audiences, although of course the growth and development of social media has actually been more substantive than that, fundamentally adding a new spectrum of channels to how we all engage with each other, not just brands with consumers blah, blah, blah..

Anyway, nice piece of film. Enjoy!

Not to get all Freudian, but to understand bloggers, it is good to start with our motivations for blogging. There is such an amazing mountain range of blogs, yet there is a common thread. (Hint: it’s Passion.)

I asked this question at H&K’s recent Demystifying Digital client symposium. Two of my favorite star bloggers, Jory Des Jardins, founder of BlogHer (the largest network of women bloggers), and Mascha, founder BeautyGloss.nl (one of the top blogs in the Netherlands), shared their view.

All this social media madness comes down to the same vital ingredient for any form of human communication. People. Cast the right talent to the task and you will succeed. Our own David Jones shows you how with his star turn five minutes on stage at Demystifying Digital.

We naturally followed his advice. Can you spot these characters on our own H&K London team? Reconnaissance | Mad Scientist | Communications General | Community Manager

Take an insightful 5 minute spin through today’s top trends effecting communication with H&K’s Kati Sulin. (There has never been a more exciting time to be in PR imho.) For Finnish speakers, there’s lots more from Demystifying Digital on the Helsinki office blog.

Here is a five minute case study from one of the top charities in the UK. Dogs Trust makes great use of all the different tools and platforms — from Twitter to Flickr and more — to connect their brand (and their dogs) with their audience. Alex, their Digital Marketing Officer, bravely did her first ever Pecha Kucha / Ignite presentation at Demystifying Digital to rousing applause. Clearly she also had the cutest visuals of the day.

Next up in our series of Pecha Kucha / Ignite presentations from Demystifying Digital is our own Brendan Hodgson. He reminds us that for every action there is often a reaction. And the speed and impact of digital and social media provides both opportunities and challenges for corporate reputation management and crisis comms. Brendan’s advice: Don’t Panic (just be prepared).

Client feedback is showing that one of the most popular sessions at our Demystifying Digital symposium was the rapid fire Pecha Kucha presentations. Often presented under the O’Reilly Media Ignite branding (as we did at Stream) it is a five minute way to get interesting content across in an energetic manner. We will get them all posted here for you, starting with Mikael Jungner, the Managing Director of the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE, and his look at corporations, pop culture, control and the meaning of Social Media. Nautiskella.