This is a very old saying, and, like many marketing folks, I have fallen victim to it's meaning. You see, the cobbler was so busy making shoes for everyone else, his own kids didn't even have them. I have been busy working on other people's (clients') blogs, websites and marketing efforts that I have neglected my own. I admit it - I talk to clients all the time about their blog strategy (I even help develop content) and yet my blog has three posts. 

So, the first step is admitting I have a problem. I'm blogging about my lack of blogging in hopes that it will inspire (near) future blogging. And if you work in marketing, perhaps you have been neglecting your own as well, so my reminder might also serve as yours. I've always been a firm believer in "practice what you preach," so I am going to make a more concerted effort starting now. 

Here is some of what I preach:

- Schedule time to update: I need to dedicate a specific time every week to blog so I keep the commitment. Putting it on the calendar makes it stick.

- Keep an editorial calendar: The best ideas for blog posts often come at the most oddly inappropriate times (driving, showering, trying to fall asleep). I try to keep pen/paper (or my iPhone) handy whenever possible and jot down seeds of ideas, then transfer them into an overall editorial calendar - or at least a content list - to pull from later. 

- Share it! Spread blog posts across the Web through social media channels. 

Stay tuned - today is the first day of the rest of my blogging life. 

I had the pleasure of attending Monday's Social Fresh social media marketing conference at the Millennium Hotel downtown along with some of the top minds in social media and marketing here in St. Louis and across the country. I was also lucky enough to have won my ticket through a Twitter trivia giveaway by the organizers (and I never win anything, so thanks to them for the experience).

Social Fresh was very informative and fun and, in addition to hearing some great speakers and networking with some great people, I got to meet some of my favorite "Tweeps" in real life. I love it when connections in cyberspace turn into valuable connections in real life. Though I learned so much from everyone at Social Fresh, I wanted to keep the key learnings - the real "ah-has" (at least for me) - top of mind; so I decided to do this blog post of the Top 10 Key Learnings I got out of the conference. Maybe they were yours, or maybe you had others - feel free to share. That's what it's all about.

SOCIAL FRESH KEY LEARNINGS:

1. It's Not Just for Marketing: We're all highly focused on how social media channels can help us market ourselves and our services to potential customers; but what about how it can be used to help the customers we already have? Social media is not just for marketing - it's also a powerful customer service tool. One of the panel speakers, a gentleman who does social media for AT&T stated that the communications provider resolved 5,000 customer issues this year alone through social media channels - direct resolution of customer service problems through  social media. Every company should be doing this. When a customer reaches out to your business on Twitter and your business responds - especially to solve a problem - you have just made a valuable connection and increased loyalty. 
2. "PR Does Not Stand for Press Release": Jason Falls said this in the blogging panel and it was just a really great reminder for me of something that I already know but often have a hard time convincing clients of. PR is not about blasting a blanket press release to a list of reporters or bloggers - it's PUBLIC RELATIONS, relating to your public, your customers, your stakeholders. Bloggers don't want to receive press releases - they want you to build relationships with them and share valuable information. Build the relationship first, then when your client has something of value to talk to them about, you have their ear.
3. "B2B Purchasers Are Actually MORE Active on Social Media Than Consumers": Jay Baer gave some great ammo to combat the push-back of B2B clients against social media. He said you just have to show them that their customers are there. Find the outlets that are best for the particular client. Baer indicated that video is probably the most useful social media tool for B2B companies because it comes up 52% higher in Google searches and is a great way to demo products.  
4. "People Don't Want to Interact with Logos, They Want to Interact With People": Social media gives a real "personality" or face to your brand that cannot be achieved with traditional advertising or marketing. They want to feel like they're talking to a real person.
5. Use Social Media to Draw People to Your Website: Stephen Linn, Director of Music Programming and Promotion for CMT/MTV Networks noted that "Your social media channels shouldn't mimic your organization's website, but rather draw people to it. It's a complementary conversation." Make your website your hub and use your social media channels as the spokes that draw people to its valuable content. 
6. ROI Is Not Everything: Amber Naslund of Radian6 reminded us that the ever-talked-about ROI is not the end-all be-all for social media. ROI is just ONE success metric, based solely on the financial. The relationships built in social media can be measured in other ways (customer issues resolved, connections made, etc.). Ask yourself what, to you, constitutes success. Companies don't try to justify the ROI of relationship building on the golf course or over dinner and a few bottles of wine - why do they have to justify the ROI of Twitter?
7. "Social Media Did Not Invent Criticism": Amber Naslund said this as well. So many companies are afraid to delve into social media because they might actually hear negative things about their business/services from customers online. Well guess what - they're saying it anyway, whether you're listening or not. Might as well be part of the conversation and be able, when necessary, to redirect or dispel inaccurate information.
8. "Find the People Who Already Love You and Start with Them": Blogger Danielle Smith said this regarding building relationships and developing your following online. Go for the low-hanging fruit first. Use the people who are already your "brand ambassadors" to spread the word and get you more followers. 
9. E-Mail Still Reigns in Digital Marketing: Social Fresh founder Jason Keith, in his opening, while spotlighting social media, said he still believes it comes third in importance in the digital marketing space to e-mail marketing and SEO efforts. He says email marketing campaigns are still effective and still the top method of marketing online, particularly for companies who still aren't ready for social media. 
10. Content is Still King: Social media channels are simply that, channels - a new outlet for us to push content to our stakeholders; but the focus still needs to be on the content. Provide something of value to your customers/readers and they will come back for more. Blast them with endless, impersonal sales messages, and you will lose them.

As we sit at the dawn of a new decade, I can't help but think back to what I was doing 10 years ago. The beginning of the millennium was also the beginning of my career in public relations. In 1999, I was working a well-paying but not altogether stimulating job as an executive assistant at an Ameritech Cellular customer service call center. I had majored in English in college (creative writing), but had yet to find the right job to let me use my writing and relationship building skills at the same time. I could type well and was very organized, so being an executive assistant provided me with a good living and solid benefits. But it just wasn't what I was meant to do. Then I found what I thought might finally be my calling. 

I got a job at Weber Shandwick (then just called Shandwick) as an account team assistant and literally learned the ropes of PR by working in the "trenches" of major accounts for a global agency every day. It was like PR Boot Camp. My mentors there are still my mentors today (you know who you are). While I was there, I also went back to school and got my master's in Media Communication, so I'd have the educational background to go with the real-world experience I was building at the agency - and a career was born. 

I have had the pleasure of working for some amazing clients and amazing companies in the last decade and am so very happy and proud of the journey I have made over the past ten years to finally reach a place where I am truly doing exactly what I want to do - what I've always wanted to do. Write, for a living, and help organizations express themselves better through better communications. 

I'd like to thank each and every person who had a hand in that somewhere along the way. If I have learned one thing in this business, it is that it's all about relationships. If you do one thing to help further your career, network and network well. It's a new age. PR is such a different animal than when I started ten years ago. Embrace the change. Here's to a great 2010 and a new and prosperous decade. Happy New Year all. 

After more than ten years doing PR and helping other companies get their messages out through media, web sites, blogs and social media, I've finally made the investment in my own "online presence." When I started my own freelancing business two and half years ago, I had a very talented designer friend create a logo for me and another very talented friend use that logo to create a very basic portfolio web site for me as a way to share my information and samples with prospective clients. At the time, it was exactly what was needed.

Fast-forward to 2009, where social media dominates the landscape, and it became clear to me that it was time for amyburger.com to get an upgrade. Using the very same logo designed by my friend (the incredibly talented Jason Potter - www.imadethisstuff.com), Scorch Agency www.twitter.com/scorchagency has developed an interactive new site for me, which incorporates all of my social media channels, including this - my very first blog. I write for several publications in St. Louis and various corporate web sites and blogs, so you would think blogging would just come naturally. Yet it's always been something I've just helped other people do. So now it's my turn. I hope this new site and this blog will provide helpful tips and insights to those wanting to build their brands, and open up some discussions about best practices in public relations, strategic communications and social media.