Tag Communications

    Recently I took part as a presenter in a workshop for the PR Network of the Quad Cities, an organization of local public relations professionals. As a digital bridge-builder and conversation starter, I often talk to many people in social media spaces. But how about talking to a room full of people that have come to hear about the new cool tools and how they can be applied to their public relations and marketing challenges? Not so much.

    Beyond the challenges of having one more thing to do in a pile of profile build-outs, campaign launches and meetings, it’s what I got out of participating in this event that made an impression on me.

    Sandwiched between a really engaging keynote speech (Scott Ginsberg – the Nametag Guy. If you don’t know about him, check him out) and a wrap-up Q & A, my colleague Don Farber and I took three breakout groups through the high points of the stuff we work with for our clients every day. You know what? There’s a lot of stuff!

    Website development (desktop and mobile). Content management. Quick Response (QR) codes. Social Media profile tools. Search Engine Optimization. Search Engine Marketing. Pay-Per-Click Advertising. Online Display Advertising (you know, the sexy stuff like retargeting, pre-roll video, dynamic multimedia ads, etc.). Presenting it that way – not through the customized lens of a conversation with a client, but as a collection of tools and options – made me realize how bombarded the average business owner or communications professional is by the dizzying array of new stuff. The ones that attended want to know about all of it…and it was all we could do to try to give some useful information in three 45 - minute sessions.

    Sometimes it takes something you’d never pursue yourself to help pull your head out of your computer monitor. Ask anybody who knows me: I love to be helpful. To Teresa Kurtenbach and all of the people at PR Network that had us over, thank you. I have to say it helped me, too. 

Brian Marshall is the Social Media and Google PPC guy at TAG Communications - or Digital Media Specialist, if you prefer.