Third Tuesday on a Monday, Vancouver, David Jones, September 2008 September 16, 2008
Posted by Raul in Third Tuesday.Tags: Third Tuesday, Vancouver
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It is a rare occurrence that Third Tuesday does not happen on the actual third tuesday of the month, but since David Jones from Hill and Knowlton (Who by the way are running the bloggers campaign for Molson, with Brew 2.0 Vancouver, an event to which I’m invited too) was organizing the Tuesday night event, Tanya and Monica decided that it would be better for him to speak on the Monday. So we had a Third Tuesday on a Monday.
I will let Rebecca’s excellent liveblog give you the 411 of the talk, but just wanted to stress one particular element that I think is key. The bi-directionality of Web 2.0, which should transpire to any PR firm that is doing blogger relations. I think that this is an under-estimated, and often assumed element of social media – the bi-directionality.
I also tweeted this : “Dave Jones is saying almost “darn if we do, if we don’t” re: not being able to pitch EVERY single one of the bloggers.” Well, that’s a problem that probably needs to be addressed in the campaign design. For example, I know that not everybody got an invite to Brew 2.0 (and yes, I’m one of the lucky ones who did). I think that it would be probably a good idea to make it sorta kinda explicit why we were chosen. For example, my blog does do a substantial amount of Vancouver-centric posts, particularly restaurant and bar reviews. I am known for knowing “the local scene”.
Thus, it makes sense for a company that manufactures beer to have me attend an event where social media and beer intersect, even if I’m not a big beer drinker, but I do hang out where beer is served. Probably not the same if your blog is techie (I somehow don’t expect to get invites to EE Road Show). In speaking of transparency, I think it would do wonders for some marketing campaigns to be more explicit about the way in which participants in promotions are chosen.
You can read some of my notes on the Cossette Convergence talk that Darren, Kate and Rebecca gave, although I already had a PR post queued for later this week precisely on the bloggers relations issue. Anyhow, it was lovely to see many of my peeps and I look forward to catching up *slowly* with each and every one of you
Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment 
I really don’t know what the criteria was – I mean Colleen does “Drinks After Dark” and didn’t get an invite at first. Also, I am the #1 ranked Vancouver Blog, (and top ranked for “Beer in Vancouver”) and I didn’t get one either at first, so who knows eh?
Something we stressed in the Blogger Relation Panel at Convergence was finding the right bloggers – don’t just spam everyone and anyone. Find the ones who are most likely to write about your event or product.
ie. if I had an event about mobile technology, I would invite John Biehler since he’s THE blogger in town for iPhone and things
ie. if I have a movie event I’d contact Marina from the Row Three podcast
This is like what Matchstick did at first, and followed up with using their surveys to make sure you were a match for the campaign.
Either way you slice it, bloggers talk – they’re social – so everyone is going to know who is doing what, where, when and how.
Hey Rebecca – Thought we cleared this up back in the day! You WERE on the original invite list, but I didn’t send out all the emails in one batch – remember – I let you know that I was truckin’ out to the ‘burbs & couldn’t fire off all invitations that morning? I also offered to send you our RSVP template w/ date stamps, offer still stands. We run a transparent house at H&K, so don’t hesitate to call or email anytime, but please don’t think that there’s some mysterious ‘criteria’ at play! As for Colleen @ DaDark, I spoke to her last night to clear up the changing of the b5Media blogging guard after Rachel’s departure – this was news to us, as Rachel was a key part of our event invitation crew for the Toronto event.
@ Meegs – I did note in my comment “at first”, I think it’s rather clear that I will be attending the event to those that read Raul’s blog and mine 😛
My comment was more generalized, you never know who will be on what list for what event or product campaign. In my experience companies either select you or they don’t – they don’t usually say “since you have the highest traffic” or “since you get lots of comments” so it’s usually a mixed bag. However the guest lists or recipient lists are formed, as I usually preach and teach, it’s good to engage bloggers as there is great value in social media and we’ve all commended Molson/ H&K for doing so in this case.
Raul, thanks for the great post and kind words. It was a pleasure getting to meet everyone and sharing a little bit of what goes on in the PR world in relation to social media.
If you ever want to know what we’re up to, just ask. I don’t just preach authenticity and transparency to our clients. We follow it, too. If you want to know criteria and see the master list, we’ll share anything you want at any time.
I’m looking forward to being part of the crowd tonight and not under the spotlight at Molson Brew 2.0. See you and Rebecca there!
Ahh boo, well no hard feelings I hope – Bloggers are sometimes a lil’ too hard on us agency-side geeks, though! As much as I’d love to be able to PMP/time-manage event blasts, it’s more important to customize each invite & often with large events, juggling that we all do at work, etc, that just can’t happen uninterrupted-style…See y’all tonight!
Great post, Raul. Getting to the heart of it. Bi-directionality, interactivity, two-way conversation, whatever you want to call it, that’s why we blog. Otherwise, we might as well be writing and commenting in a diary we tuck under our pillows. Cheers.
@ all – Great to see that we all agree on the bi-directionality. The conversation is what makes web 2.0 in my humble opinion!
And it’s true, Molson and Hill and Knowlton should be commended because this was really a great event!