The Gong Blog

Growth and culture change

An old friend, client and former RVAer Steve Isaac once told me as it relates to business, “you either grow or die.”  But he never told me what happens when you grow and run out of room. So it goes at THP.  Our latest hire Tony Scida (great additional already and he’s been with us for two days), has forced as past the tipping point.  You see until now most of us (10 out of 11, Stacey is in Seattle…long story) have been within shouting…

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My lessons learned at Blog Potomac

I bought my tickets for Blog Potomac many months ago when we at THP just started to learn about social media and marketing.  In the months since then we have begun to counsel some clients and have some others about to start. Also during those months I have Tweeted and forged online relationships with a number of people who I knew would be coming to Northern Virginia to the event, So I had two goals for my day at the State Theater (see photo for…

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Richmond Social Media Club post mortum

They all survived.  Maybe there was a little blood spilled, but at the end of the day the panelists at Tuesday’s Richmond Social Media Clob program dig a bang up job addressing the issue of how social media is changing or in some cases, not changing their lives as reporters, editors and members of the media. There were moments.  Like RichmondBizSense’sAaron Kremer admitting to the crowd that he didn’t use Twitter and didn’t see it as a news tool (Aaron, not the right crowd to…

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The Richmond media market: The shrinkage has stopped

I am one of the many (about 250 people) very much looking forward to Tuesday’s meeting of the Richmond Social Media Club where some of Richmond’s journalists will discuss and debate how social media has changed how they do their jobs. Instead of addressing that directly now, I find myself thinking about how Richmond as a media market has changed in such a short period of time.  The drivers in that change have been economics and technology. The economics has forced the stalwarts of the…

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Do booze, tobacco and Twitter mix???

In recent days I’ve had reason to do some research into the social marketing efforts of some tobacco brands.  Then today I ran across this article in Ad Age about how Michelob is entering the Twittersphere.  So it got me thinking how deep should brands which historically have seen their marketing activities limited by the government because of health issues be allowed to trend in this brave new social world. Many of the issues relate to the products and how they are marketed to minors. …

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The “blogging nun” and others in Richmond’s social media scene

Bill Lohmann is back where he should be.  Bounced around the Times-Dispatch because of the well-document “churn” at the paper, Bill is back writing the long-form stories that best showcase his reporting and writing talents. Leave it to Bill to find Sister Vicky Ix, or as I like to call her, “the blogging nun,”who showcases her social media and culinary talents on YouTube.   Sister Vicky is just one of the many Richmond-area folks included in Bill social media roundup in today’s Lifestyle section.  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1l4NHZKIy5c] Bill…

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Google Wave…the next big thing?

There was a mini-buzz at THP late on Friday as Caroline and I discussed the possibilities for Google Wave. This is Google’s next attempt at a category killer.  It’s next step to bring all of social media into the Googlesphere. Here’s a great article from Mashable that shows and explains. At the very least Google Wave seems to marry just about all the social media tools and almost all the platforms in one place.  It also is very Google, as it encourages APP creation that could tie…

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The four types of social media clients

This will likely be my most challenging post to date and one I have been debating about actually writing for a long time. For more than six months now, we have been working with clients and non-clients who have expressed some level of interest in either learning more about or executing social media as part of their marketing mix.  In that time we have found that most people (clients, potential clients, interested parties) usually fall into one of four categories.  This post will identify those…

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Staying aggressive in a poor economy…

It is only natural in a poor economy, you tend to let things happen to you and your business instead of letting “you” happen to your business world. As clients cut back or new business slows or the media shrinks in the case of PR firms like ours, you tend to play defense instead of offense and just hold onto to what you have instead of building on it and going for more.  This stance obvious leads to a murky middle ground that is not…

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The stark realities of 21st century journalism

There was a time when being a journalist was cool.  When it was honorable.  When you could introduce yourself as one at a gathering and people would think, “Gee, that’s a pretty important job…that guy/gal reports the news and watches our backs.” These days when I see journalists out and about they have this blank stare of resignation and they are met by others with a look usually reserved for people who have lost a loved one. The layoffs and severance packages keep lining up. …

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The truths about baseball in Shockoe Bottom

Every once in a while you have to go a little “off-brand” in your blog posts and sprinkle in some of your other passions.  For a number of years as some of you know, one of those passions has been the quest to see an economic development project including a ballpark built in Shockoe Bottom.  This quest began before my business partner and I purchased a minority stake in a building that would literally stand across the street from the right field line.  Our involvement,…

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A social marketer’s worst enemy may be….

So for those who Tweet, the last day or so has been interesting. For about a day the ability to follow conversations between those you follow and third parties was temporarly removed…you follow? These third-party conversations are sort of integral to the Twitter experience since they can help Twitterers decide who else they want to follow….still following? It wasn’t removed by a glitch or a virus, it was removed by the folks who RUN Twitter.  They said, following those third-party conversations, was likely annoying to…

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