Stuart Waterman

A little update on where I am and am not “at” these days.

Along with several other folk, I was laid off by Shiny Media. Boo hoo, etc. We managed to come to an agreement regarding My Chemical Toilet, and I now run it independently. It’s much prettier nowadays (if more irregularly updated) and that’s all thanks to my friend Ben from PowerOn Communications, whose services I would heartily recommend.

More pressingly, from next week I’ll be working as “Web Editor / Social Media Manager” at Lucky Voice, the karaoke folk. The prevailing reaction on informing people of this seems to be one of laughter, so I’ll pause here to allow you to do that.

Obviously I’m very excited by this development – it allows me to combine my passions of music and web geekery, and it’s a brand (sorry) most people seem to be quite affectionate towards. I’ll be editing the company blog, which you can find here, and I imagine I’ll be looking after all the other social media gubbins as well.

I’ll be spreading word of (warning: autoplay video) Lucky Voice Home – which allows you to stream karaoke tracks and video through your computer – while also alerting folk to the fact that you can get your hands on some rather pretty accessories to improve the experience, too.

If you follow me on Twitter at @mychemtoilet I hope you’ll do likewise at @luckyvoice, because I intend to make it a fun and amusing feed to follow. And if you’re reading this and think there’s a way we can work together, feel free to drop me a line.

So there we are; despite asterisking out “S*cial M*dia” on my LinkedIn profile, it’s now my job title. I should probably get used to “affectionate” insults, huh?

CIPR

The other night I went to the CIPR Fifth Estate/Bloggers’ Party, which was an event designed to give PR/marketing folk working in the charity sector some ideas on how to engage with those pesky blogger types. Darika from Grapevine Consulting gave a talk to raise some points on how social media could be harnessed to help charities spread their message, before a Q&A at the end.

At this point I chipped in to help answer a few questions, as did my esteemed colleague Gemma. It was interesting to note the range of knowledge of social media among the PR folk – some literally didn’t know how to start finding blogs related to their area of interest, while others clearly read blogs but were unsure of the best way to contact a blogger with related PR material. On this point Gemma soon made it clear that commenting on a post out of the blue with a related link was definitely not advisable.

It struck me at this point that engaging with bloggers does entail learning a new and foreign set of behaviours. Yes, comment on their posts – but only if you have something to add to the discussion. If you comment with a link and a tone that makes it obvious you’re just there to flog something, you’ll be sniffed out. Yes, email bloggers – but show that you’ve read their site, are interested in what they’re covering, have a little knowledge about the area. Hell, give them a little compliment if you liked something they wrote. But don’t start an email with “Hi guys” and expect a blogger to help you out.

I think the ensuing exchange was useful for a lot of people, although I got the sense that a practical demo of some of the things geeks like me mentioned might be required in order to “prove” to the third sector how easy it is to use free web tools to track brands, follow blogs and so on.

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