Social Media and the Meltdown - Jonathan Trenn Joins the Roundtable

It's time for another episode of Media Bullseye's Radio Roundtable!

Our special guest on the show this week is Jonathan Trenn, Jonathan is a director at Abraham Harrison, a PR firm with employees worldwide. He is also a blogger at the firm's blog, Marketing Conversation. Jonathan joined us to discuss rogue employee bloggers, online complaining, and social media's role int he economic downturn.

Click here to download our 30-minute conversation.

Rogue Employee Bloggers - This article raises some interesting questions for us in regards to when a company "should" be blogging. I argue that in the midst of a crisis, a blog or other social media channel can certainly help get the word out to stakeholders. Jen points out that a "rogue" employee could set up a blog anytime, and that companies shouldn't make communication strategy based on that.

Online Complaining - We discuss the results of a study that Mitch Joel posted about earlier this week indicating that only between 7 and 16 percent of complaints about customer service are done online (via message boards, social media and blogs). We agree that while Mitch found the numbers rather low, they are actually rather high. Not everyone complains, and those who do are more likely to do it verbally.

Social Media and the Recession - There were posts from Todd Defren and Jeremiah Owyang this week regarding social media's place in business now that the country is entering a likely recession. I try for the "social media is more cost effective" argument but Jen and Jonathan rightly point out all the ways that it actually isn't necessarily a cheap alternative to PR.

Click here to download our 30-minute discussion.