I recently experienced my first day of jury duty. After carefully being scrutinized during a question and answer session, I was one of the few still left in their chairs. Those standing were instructed to leave the courtroom. As the rest of the crowd walked past me towards the swinging doors of freedom, I daydreamed about what the rest of the day had filled for them. But I decided that I’d pay attention, do my duty and hopefully learn something. To my surprise, I did learn a few things:

• How to discretely take a nap while appearing to be paying attention. (I could have really used this lesson in college).
• A room for six hours without a window is in fact a cage.
• You fit a stereotype whether or not you like it.
• Tell the story like it’s your own.

Aside from the amazing napping talents of the sheriffs, the one lesson I connected with was telling the story like it’s your own. It was not new advice. I heard it from the master of presenting himself, Peter Coughter at a recent BrandCenter training session. But I had never really seen it make such and impact as it did that day. This is a lesson that should be integrated into the fabric of every agency. It should apply to both the work we produce as well as giving presentations.

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Social Marketing! Blogs! Facebook! Twitter! Last year, in a sort of symphonic convergence, most of the world’s clients and agencies arrived at the same conclusion, at about the same time, expressing the same question -  “How can we make social marketing/media work for us?”

Agencies tried to wrap around specifics of revenues, billing, staffing, and what kinds of projects could provide value.

Clients struggled to see how Social Marketing would serve their brand, their culture, their org chart, and their customers.

As 2010 begins some of the answers, for both, are clear, or at least clearer. Follow me as I detail a favorite project of 2009, social implementation for a regional health care client.

A year ago, the client had a thriving website, a plan for email marketing, and no social presence or plan.
Today, the client has created a social presence that includes:

• a constant stream of new content to their primary web site
• a blog
• a dynamic calendar of events
• Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts

The creation of social marketing began in February 2009.

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