As usually happens on these types of panels, there are some who like to take the discussion toward a debate of whether or not online engagement can fully replace traditional engagement tools (TV, radio, direct mail, “on the ground” grassroots, etc.)

While I think there are some cases in which online engagement can replace some of the traditional tools (especially in small or under-funded campaigns), the fact is that the media “pie” hasn’t gotten smaller — it’s just being divided up into smaller pieces.

There are more people watching video and getting their news online, and less people getting it off the television. Television viewership itself has become more fragmented, as broadcast news has taken a dip while cable news has risen. Radio is struggling in several markets, and I’ve heard some consultants tell me it’s harder to reach voters cost-effectively through direct mail.

Let me be clear: I think broadcast media and direct mail are effective.

But … putting all your eggs in one media basket in this age of increasing media fragmentation is a mistake.

Can campaigns win solely focusing on broadcast media and/or direct mail? Yes (for now.)

They are, however, missing a huge opportunity to truly engage voters online. Perhaps by engaging them online (more cost-effectively) they can actually spend less money on the traditional tools, with greater results.

Following is the PowerPoint I utilized during my presentation to the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo on February 18, 2010.

The most recent issue of Hilton Head Monthly previewed my upcoming address to the Hilton Head-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo:

More than 2,000 people are expected to attend the expo, a face-to-face marketing opportunity that can be extremely valuable to entrepreneurs and other small business operations.

The chamber has arranged a special seminar this year on social media. Curt Mercadante, principal of Merc Strategy Group, LLC, will present “The Press Release is Dead: Using New Communications Tools to Build Your Business, Non-Profit or Campaign.” From Twitter to Facebook to blogs, social media is being touted as the new tool for marketing to consumers who are increasingly online and mobile.

I’m excited for the address, and honored that the Hilton Head Chamber has invited me to present at this great event.

This is Part II of a series of answers I provided to the Hilton Head-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce in advance of my keynote address at their February Hilton Head-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo.  You can view Part One here.  Following is my answer to the question, “How much time or resources does a strong “social media” presence require?

I get the time and resources question a lot — and it’s a question I love to answer.

In terms of resources, social media can be free … or, if you’re willing to spend money, it can be nearly free.

Today’s online tools are free, and you just need to engage. Certainly, you can hire someone to build your Web site, or you can purchase inexpensive, pay-per-click ads on Facebook or Google, but we’re talking pennies on the dollar.

In terms of time, I would say that time spent on communication (or what is known as “social media”) is not “extra” time spent by business owners — it’s necessary time that should replace other things you’re doing that don’t help build your brand.

For example, I’m the member of a monthly wine club at a small, local wine shop in my town. The owner of this shop — who is very busy with inventory, purchasing, accounting, and running her brick-and-mortar store — is very good about communicating with regular emails and even keeping us updated on Twitter.

It’s that “extra” time she is spending using social media tools? No — it’s necessary time she is spending engaging with her customers to generate a return on investment. And, I will tell you that her emails and Tweets are much more cost-effective than any full-page ad she could take out in our local daily newspaper.

I work with one political candidate who first groaned when I wanted to get him started on Facebook. He saw it as “extra” time spent on a passing fad. But now, as he sees over 4,000 people engaging with his campaign, providing feedback and volunteering — he realizes that this isn’t “extra” time spent, it’s necessary time spent communicating with voters.

On Feburary 18, 2010, I will be the keynote speaker at the Hilton Head-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce Business Expo, delivering a presentation, entitled, “The Press Release is Dead: Using New Communications Tools to Build Your Business, Non-Profit or Campaign.”  As part of the pre-promotion of this event, the Chamber asked me to participate in a brief Q&A that they’re sending to their members.  Over the next week, we’ll share my responses to this Q&A, the first of which is below to the question: “How would you define ‘new’ or ‘social’ media?”

I actually don’t believe in using those terms, because I think there’s no such thing as “social media” — it’s all just media.

In the 1930′s, Franklin Delano Roosevelt utilized the radio to deliver his messages, and people around the country gathered around each week to listen to his “fireside chats.”  Talk about “social media” …

In the 1960′s, the first televised presidential debate occurred between Nixon and Kennedy.  They utilized this “new media” to get their messages to the voters …

When I first started out in corporate public relations, my tool was a phone and a fax machine (and sometimes even the U.S. Postal Service.)

My point is that media is media.  Twitter, Facebook, and email are simply the communications tools we use today.

Every generation has a new set of tools that makes it easier and more effective to communicate.  In past generations, the tools evolved once a decade (or longer).  These days, the tools change and evolve every day.

The big difference with today’s tools (what many call “social media”) is that they have transformed communication from a one-way street to a two-way street.  It’s no longer about just broadcasting and trying to attract “eyeballs” to your brand  — it’s about interacting with your customers and getting them to actually engage and evangelize your brand to their friends, family and networks.

Todd will be providing live updates on Twitter and Facebook — and stay tuned for some updates here, as well.

At the San Francisco Conference, I also participated in a panel discussion in which Jocelyn McCabe, APR, vice president of communications as the Association of Washington Business presented the following PowerPoint.  It’s a great presentation, and I strongly urge you to review it and share your comments on SlideShare or with Jocelyn directly on Twitter:

Today I delivered a presentation and participated in a panel, entitled, “Social Media: New Tools for Government Affairs” at the U.S. Chamber Regional Government Affairs Conference in San Francisco. Above you can view some quick thoughts I recorded after the session. I also hope to have some video later today of my fellow panelists.

The greatest compliment I received was from one chamber executive who said my presentation motivated him to “kick up” his online communications efforts.  Just the type of response I was hoping to get!

As promised, below is a copy of the PowerPoint that accompanied my presentation (it differs in several places from the one I gave in Philadelphia a few weeks ago).  Thanks again for the U.S. Chamber for the opportunity to speak at these forums.  I’ll be back at it again at their regional meeting in San Francisco, and I greatly look forward to it.

Louis C. Williams, ABC, APR, a leader in applying social sciences research to the practice of public relations, was awarded the Jackson Jackson & Wagner Behavioral Science Prize by the PRSA Foundation at the Public Relations Society of America ( PRSA) 2009 International Conference.

Lou was a great boss, and is a renowned pioneer in the public relations industry — namely in using qualitative research to drive strategic PR campaigns.  I treasured the time I spent while working for Lou (and the entire team) at L.C. Williams & Associates — learning skills I still utilize in my work today.

Thorough research.  Smart, strategic campaigns.  That’s the hallmark of Lou Williams.

Congrats, Lou.

The first thing I recognize — just by looking at the agenda — is that the industry has realized that it must embrace online tools — and is ideally suited to be the driver of the online communications efforts within the organizations it serves.  There are numerous panels (I’m attending most of them) on social media tools, as well as the changing face of the “journalists” traditionally pitched by PR professionals.

I’ve written and spoken extensively about how I believe the PR departments within organizations need to be the owners of online communications programs — simply because it is absolutely, 100% within their job description.  140-character Tweets of today are akin to the 400-word press release of yesterday.  Sometimes a short Facebook status update is as powerful as a 5-minute media call.

That being said, I can certainly tell (from some audience questions) that there are some public relations professionals who are stuck in the PR mold of yesteryear.  You know — the old press release-and-pitch-the-traditional-media mold.

I also have been troubled (although not surprised) that, in all the discussions of social media tools — email (the first and largest social media tool) — was never mentioned.  Twitter and Facebook may be hot — by email is the solid, steady tool.  Embrace it.

In addition, the keynote speaker on the first day was Arianna Huffington — publisher of the successful online publication The Huffington Post.  Her politics aside, Huffington provided a great discussion about the changing face of the media — taking a few overt swipes at the MSM — and how PR professionals need to adapt to the changing environment.  My favorite quote from her presentation:

“You consume old media sitting on the couch.  You consume new media galloping on the horse.  You engage.”

That quote about sums up the challenges — and opportunities — facing the PR industry in the changing media climate.

How do we engage the media — and, more important, how can we use new tools to actually become the media and engage consumers directly?

Get on the horse…

More updates tomorrow.

You can follow our tweets in the right column of this site — or directly by clicking here.

Photo by Ian Wagreich / © 2009 U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Rather than “Social Media 101″ — my presentation focused more on case studies of how advocacy organizations (many of whom are our clients) are using various social media tools to communicate their message, empower their network to take action, and make real change happen in their state capitols.

I also shared a number of lessons from various posts we’ve had here on this Web site, including:

• Twitter Strategy?  Facebook Strategy?  No — You Need a Content Strategy
• Is the Press Release Dead?
• Would Somebody Please Kill the E-Newsletter

Also presenting during the session was Will Burns, communications director at the Maryland Chamber of Commerce, who is leading that organization’s successful effort to engage in a comprehensive, successful online content campaign.

You can view my PowerPoint presentation here (although without context and the accompanying discussion it might not make much sense to you), and I’d like to share some of Q&A that occurred during the session:

Q:  I’m a Chamber executive who’s been told I should spend an hour a day engaging with social media tools.  That’s a big time commitment — how can I justify it?

Engaging with social media tools is no more an extra time commitment than writing a press release, meeting with your members, or engaging in any other activity that fulfills the core mission of your organization.  If you (or your communications staffer) took a half hour to write a press release — would you question that expenditure of time?  If you spent an hour on the phone calling through your media list, would that be an extra time commitment?  Of course not.  Communications departments need to hit the “reset” button on how they do business — embracing the new tools that allow them to do their jobs more efficiently and effectively. Social media tools are no different than a cell phone, email, or even a typewriter.  They are simply communications tools.  How you use them will ultimately determine if you are wasting your time — or getting a return on your investment of that time.

Q.  I’m from a small chamber of commerce — do you suggest we hire an outside consultant, or hire a “Gen Y” expert to help spearhead our online efforts?

As a consultant, I am certainly a proponent of hiring a consultant to help you with your communications needs!  That being said, I am a strong believer that your existing communications staff either has to embrace these online tools — or find new jobs.  The days of a public relations professional simply relying on a phone and and a fax machine are long gone.  Your communications executive needs to become your chief content producer — producing regular, compelling content that tells your organization’s unique story and then using a variety of communications tools to help disseminate that story.  If a PR flak can produce a 400-word press release, he or she can certainly produce a 140-character tweet and a status update on Facebook.  If you can work a video camera, you can certainly post short, simple video interviews to post on YouTube.  Remember — it’s about the content, not the tools and technology.  And content is (or should be) the responsibility of your communications department (just because it involves the “Interwebz” does not make it the responsibility of your IT department.)

Q.  I agree with your statement about “killing the e-newsletter.”  Our chamber sends out a weekly e-newsletter and has seen declining open rates.  What do you suggest we try instead?

E-newsletters may look nice, allow you to stick to a weekly schedule, and provide a ready-made template for you to use — but that doesn’t mean they are effective.  Instead of building your program around a regular schedule, build it around your content.

In short — send emails to your network when you have something compelling to say.  This goes back to the first step of developing your content strategy.

Further, rather than simply providing a rundown of news and updates, the emails you send to your network should be personalized, short, and include a clear call to action.

We’ve written about this topic here and here — but think of it in these terms:  when you want to communicate with your friends or family, do you send them an e-newsletter?  Of course not, you write them a personal note.  Do the very same thing with emails you send your network.  Remember, the Obama campaign (one of the most high-profile recent success stories of online communications) had a very successful email program built not around weekly e-news compendiums, but short, personalized action alerts from the campaign.

Futher, one of the most important keys to a successful email program is the management and constant analysis of your database.  Keep close track of who is opening your emails, who is clicking links in your emails, and who isn’t opening your emails.  For an advocacy organization, see what issues are motivating certain members of your network to engage and take action. Segment out your lists by issue and intensity, sending people emails only on those issues in which they are interested.

Treat email as a conversation with your network, and your open rates and engagement will greatly improve.

Q.  Thanks for your presentation.  I agree that we, as chamber executives, need to start using these online tools if we want to be effective.  For example, this week, I traveled around the state of Pennsylvania, and met with numerous elected officials and even the state Attorney General.  These are all activities I could have — and should have — tweeted or put as Facebook updates.

I agree 100%.  Providing simple updates about important meetings and activities shows your members (or customers) about the great work you’re doing on their behalf.  It helps portray you as an expert who making good things happen.  In addition, as a chamber of commerce executive, you get a lot of firsthand “breaking” news about legislative developments — use these updates to break real news on Twitter, Facebook our your blog.  This compelling, unique, timely content will build your audience, provide value to your members, and even position you as a primary source for the mainstream media.

Thanks again to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce for allowing me to address this highly-engaged audience.  I will also be addressing their regional conferences in Chicago and San Francisco in November, and will be sure to provide updates on those sessions soon after they occur.

This was an online-focused rollout, with outreach to bloggers; distribution to our email list of several-thousand allies, reporters and supporters; and a social media push on Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter.  We even picked up a story by LegalNewsline.com and a post in the Wall Street Journal Law Blog.

The Searle Center has made an important commitment to a serious online communications program in order to effectively reach academics, media and policymakers — and we are having great results.

First, I will point you to Charlotte Observer columnist Jeff Elder’s posts on the conference here and here.  (And some great photos of the conference by Armando Bellmas.)

As with any conference, there were a lot of obvious and/or less useful sessions — so what I like to do is pull out the gems and review the overall theme of the day.  As someone who attends quite a few industry conferences, it’s always interesting to see industry “thinking shifts” based on the content of these events from year-to-year.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, last year saw a heavy premium on tech, as we saw an explosion of new communication tools.

This year, I’ve seen a shift from a focus on tech (although there certainly is plenty of discussion of new tools) to a discussion of strategy and content.

This conference was no different.

In fact, the discussions about technology now are related less to how new tools can help us communicate and more to how they can help us scale, analyze and report on the data from the communications tools we are already using.

This “scalability” issue was the subject of much discussion at May’s TWTRCON conference — and even more so at Social Fresh.

For a company using social media as a customer service feedback tool, how can you possibly sift through the dozens (or hundreds or thousands) of comments in a reasonable amount of time?

And, how can you gather the data from the flurry of activity on all your online networks into a report that makes sense, shows return-on-investment (ROI) and justifies your efforts to your bosses or clients?

These seem to be the major issues of the day — and rightfully so.  As companies and organizations put more time and resources into the social media space, they are expecting more evidence of ROI.

So there was a general discussion that a mini-industrial revolution involving the development of new analytical tools will spin-off from this need for easy, simple, data-crunching and scalability help.

Another major theme of the day (which I particularly liked) was the destruction of the notion that Twitter and Facebook are communities unto themselves.

No, no, no.  They are communications tools.  Just as email is a communication tool.

How you utilize that tool to build and engage your community around your compelling content is the strategy that is key to your success.  Please see our earlier blog post on this very topic.

The big difference, of course, is that these new tools allow real-time updates from you — and real-time feedback from your followers.  This provides a valuable market research tool for you to find out what your audience likes … and what it doesn’t like.

By founding out what they’re passionate about, you can provide them with the content they want and need — empowering them to advocate on behalf of your brand, cause or organization.

Unlike the broadcast, interruption-based marketing tools of the past (TV ads and blast emails), these new tools provide you the opportunity to build your community one person at a time.

True word-of-mouth marketing by people passionate about your “stuff.”

That’s marketing at it’s best — and most basic.

And that’s what I took away from Social Fresh.

I’ll post some thoughts on the conference later today, but you can click here to view my live tweets of the conference.