January 13, 2009
Social Media Leader Series – Chris Brogan
By: David Alston
As many of you already know Chris knows a lot about the power of social media. He’s living proof, as the Chris Brogan brand was built on a solid foundation of online word of mouth. And not only is he infinitely knowledgeable but he’s also a hell of a nice guy. Here’s my interview with Chris at MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer in Arizona.
“Chris, regardless of economic times, why is social media a smart thing to invest in as a marketer?”
Response (54 seconds): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLmCdk9ho_I
“Tell us about the prickly subject [witty repartee 
] of social media and why people are taking it seriously enough?”
Response (1:48 min.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSOWFDeVAog
“Even for those market segments where they don’t yet have a large percentage using social media, Google is still somewhere that they use. It only takes a small handful of influential bloggers in space to say something that lands them on a brand’s Google search results. Everybody searches. Thoughts?”
Response (1:32 min.): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4set_GLDb78
“Finally, what are some of the excuses you hear out there for why executives are not moving forward with social media initiatives and what are some of the comebacks for these excuses?”
Response (1:10 min.) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tSoS_yg0Ok
BTW, Chris recently became president of New Marketing Labs, a new social media agency. He also runs the New Marketing Summit events with CrossTech Media. I was very fortunate to work closely with Chris on the Radian6 Twebinar series last summer using a “Twitter meets video webinar” format that we created together. Thanks Chris.
What do you think of Chris’s advice?
* This interview is one of 15 interviews done with various leaders in social media at the MarketingProf’s Digital Mixer in Arizona at the end of October. The theme of the interviews was around why social media is a smart investment for any marketing, PR or community support professional, regardless of the economic climate. Thank you to all those who agreed to be interviewed. Sorry it took me so long to get the edits done
Chris hits the nail on the head with each of his answers. It’s really not that difficult – it’s being deciding whether or not companies should spend money on social media marketing. The key to all this is bring the horse to water. In most cases, companies see social media as the wild wild west – it’s not regulated, it’s not safe, etc. But if they do what Chris said to do – listen – everything will flow from there. Listen, learn, react and engage. It’s that simple.