I wrote a post yesterday about politicians using social media wrong. I received a ton of DMs via Twitter and more than my share of emails. Most of the messages agreed with me but some of the messages (you know who you are) slammed me for simply mocking politicians for their faults.

One particular email asked me what I would do if I was working a campaign and I have to admit I didn’t know at first. What I did come up with was this: Hire me as your Social Media Advisor. Well for that matter hire anyone to be your advisor and let them focus on social media.

I then set myself to outline how certain social media tools could be used by politicians to inform the public. Of course a Myspace, Facebook and the other giants should be used but some of the other social media tools allow politicians really to connect with potential voters.

I first thought Utterz should be used to help the politician really speak to the people. Utterz offers a chance for a politician to grab his or her phone, speak their mind, and let people hear it. No need to deal with radios or timing, the politician can share his or her ideas as they happen with people who really want to hear them.

Next comes PocketCasting (video from your phone) as a tool to show the people who a politician really is. I have a Windows Mobile so I use Comvu and Zannel but there are other services out there for other phones.

The politician should be PocketCasting meetings, events, brainstorming sessions and even lunch. If the politician can’t do it personally someone should be doing it for him or her. Sharing ideas live through video not only lets you reach the people but shows the people how you act and interact with people around you; not canned video or T.V. press.

Twitter, I can’t say enough on why a politician should be tweeting during the day. I am not talking the canned tweets the current politicians are using now, “so and so raises 50 million dollars” or that the politician is about to go live on CNN. I am talking about really using twitter.

The politician should twitter what they are doing at just about every moment, meeting with senators, kissing babies, having a lunch with veterans. Those are the types of things that turn a politician’s action into voice. He or she should also be engaging question and answer sessions to see what people are thinking at a giving moment.

Now politicians out there have blogs, but to be honest I can’t stand reading them. I understand that politicians have to be handled and prepped before they deal with the public, but that really undermines the value of a blog.

magine if you read a politician’s blog and it was personal, I am not talking about dreams or any of that, but personal enough where you could tell the politician actually wrote their own blog. A blog that really got me into what that person was thinking, not just what their press secretary was thinking.

All of these tools I outlined could be used off the campaign trail too. After the politician is elected he or she could keep using these direct channels to the public to help inform the public and create a truly representative government.

These were just some of the many ideas I came up with. If you have any tools out there that you think a politician should use let me know, I love hearing about them. I would also like to see some examples of politicians you think have nailed the social media thing.

I come from the world of PR. My goal in PR is to create third party creditability and help shape public opinion by building relationships with opinion makers. For years these relationships were with journalist and industry analyst.

With the rise of bloggers and social media the PR practitioner’s goal has changed. Now the PR world is focused on reaching bloggers and consumers through social media. This makes the PR pro’s job much harder, but ultimately more successful and more fulfilling for the public.

There has always been and interesting relationship with PR people and journalist. Typically journalists have to write stories to fill up column space that resides between advertisements. These ads are what pay the bills and keep traditional media running. PR pros pitch stories because we know journalist have a ton of space to fill and we think they story would be a good fit for them.

Journalists are like your mercenary writers. They write to pay the bills and may or may not have a passion for what they write about. I am not saying all journalists simply work for the highest bidder, but I know plenty of journalists who work at a publication because it’s their job not their passion.

Bloggers are more like volunteer soldiers. They do the work and write because it is there passion. If I reach out to a blogger who writes about cars I can be pretty sure that he or she has a passion for automotive excellence. This passion is what makes working with bloggers a sheer joy and gives credibility to what they have to say.

This is also why PR pros find bloggers so attractive. The public doesn’t trust journalists as much as they used to. The world is filled with stories of professional writers taking bribes and making up stories to fill papers. This might happen in the blogger world but it isn’t as prevalent yet.

When a blogger post something the public generally trust it because they understand that the blogger wants to write about when he or she is covering. This also brings up an interesting question. Should bloggers get paid for their posts?

Right now the public trust blogs because the blogs are untouched by the almighty dollar. If you look at the blogosphere right now you can see a change on the horizon. More and more bloggers are monetizing their sites to form supplementary income. Will this money ultimately ruin the blogging world?

You can look around and see the bloggers who write for a living. Do you trust these bloggers less because they are getting paid for their posts? Do you see the blogger as journalist 2.0 or do you think that they are something different? Can we trust blogs in the future? Let me know.

Lena West over at InfoWorld is preaching to the choir when it comes to widget applications in the world of social media. For as long as I have been looking into the world of social media I have tried to find the utility in programs instead of just adding application to add them.

Knowing a thing or two about social media application development, Lena’s words struck a chord with me that not only helped me smile, but proved that I wasn’t the only one out there who had these thoughts on social media applications:

1. Refine your social media strategy.
2. Visit and post comments to other, complimentary blogs.
3. Examine your social media metrics.
4. Develop an editorial calendar for your social media efforts.
5. Work with a social media expert to make sure you’re getting it right.
6. Just take a deep breath and chill.

Point 5 is by far the most important point; speak with an expert on how best to use a social media tool. I have worked in PR/Marketing for years and I can’t think of a company that would enter any kind of media/marketing campaign without consulting an expert, social media is no different.

Don’t think for one second that just because and application you create is going on Facebook that the item you create isn’t a direct extension of your brand and your public voice.

I also agree with point 6, chill. Social media is here to stay, it is not some flash in the pants fad that you are going to miss the boat on. Relax, take a deep breath, drink some coffee (if you’re the coder) and develop a widget that people will like to use.

Many of you out there have your own opinions on social media widgets and I would love to hear them. Let me know what you think.

I grew up in NY and PA, my father was a NYC police officer and when he retired we moved to PA. Living in this area I was exposed to skiing, something I never actually did, but saw plenty of cool guys do it. Ever winter all the cool kids would break out there cool skiing jackets that happened to have years of lift tickets attached to the zipper of the coat. One look at the coat and you knew two things, this kid was cool and they skied.

You might be asking why is this important for networking and marketing, well the answer is simple… Where is your lift pass? At a recent launch event I picked up a small key chain from a company called Utterz. The key chain was a small cow that had ‘be heard’ written on it, genius, almost.

The Utterz cow is a great lift pass, I gave it to my girl friend who promptly put it on her keys where it will die I am sure. It will have a great life, a few people might even ask what it is for, but it still isn’t as effective as the lift pass. Why you might ask, because it still isn’t attached to her phone. The lift pass worked at saying someone was cool because it was directly associated with an object that was needed to conduct a cool activity.

What is your lift pass, well that really depends on what you do. Most people have a generic lift pass that they hand out at networking events, their card, but the successful lift passes are ones that separates you from the herd. Maybe its your twitter account, maybe its a custom ring tone that you can send to people, or maybe its your blog. The point is what ever you decided to make your calling card it has to say, “here is my lift pass and you are cool if you have it.”

If you have a cool lift pass let me know, I love hearing about neat things people do to market themselves.

I got my start in this business working in Public Relations. I attended a fine school for PR and worked several jobs in PR ranging from PR Firms to a stint at the Pentagon as a Communications Specialist. One thing I learned about PR is that many start-ups have some ill conceived notions of why and when to use PR.

I recently had a conversation over the phone with a friend of mine in NY about a start up he was launching and I offered him some free advice.

1) PR is not free marketing:

Many times start ups envision PR as a way to get free marketing. In fact PR is more expensive than marketing and offers no guarantees about exposure. A TEAM of PR profesionals can work for weeks with little to no results. Nine times out of ten a start up is better off purchasing some very targeted ads instead of spending thousands of dollars trying to get one newspaper placement.

2) Do you even need PR:

PR builds public awareness through 3rd party creditability; this can be accomplished through Analysts or Media Relations. If you are not trying to sell the world about how great you are don’t worry about the media as much as the public. Targeting the public can often generate more ROI in the first few years of a company than any review in a paper can.

3) If the press is a must, KNOW YOUR PRESS:

When I worked in PR everyone one in DC wanted to get in the Washington Post. I often said asked why and came to this conclusion, narcissism. Everyone wants to boast that they got the Post and show it around the office. Who cares, sure the Post reaches everyone and there grandmother, but if you’re not selling to my grandmother why waste the time and target her. Trade publications and target media can give you much great ROI than the carpet bomb that is the major print media.

4) Manage your expectations:

One thing I love about start ups is the passion. The men and women who work in start ups give there all and believe more than anything that their product or service is the best in the world. Realistically you are not selling sliced bread or reinventing the wheel. If you reach out to a journalist or an analyst and they say your service is junk, don’t fly off the handle and think they have no idea what they are talking about. The reason you reached out to a journalist is because you wanted their opinion, why ignore it because you don’t agree with it. Reliaze you will have to win people over and SHOW them why you are great.

5) Choose a firm with care:

Realize that no two PR firms are the same, if you choose to hire an outside PR firm do your research. Some PR firms just push press releases, which is a fine service if that is what you want, others that are more expensive offer costly advice and council; great if you intend to use that advice. Look for past clients of a PR firm, talk to them and really understand the PR firm before you sign the dotted line.

While none of this advice is set in stone they are some simple things to consider before launching into the world of Public Relations.