Social Media consultants and ad/marketing/PR firms specializing in Social Media are becoming increasingly common. This week’s issue of PR Week has an article about one such (new) agency.

AdHocnium is particularly notable, as it was started by Chris Heuer, cofounder of the Social Media Club, with the help of other top-tier social media pros, including Brian Solis, Tom Foremski and Neville Hobson.

Many brands have yet to embrace social media, while still others simply have not figured out how to utilize it effectively. Those in the first category will eventually find themselves falling behind if they continue to resist social media. But for those who are trying, firms like AdHocnium may prove the key to staying relevant and current.

“Social media pros form a firm” [PR Week]

Late last week we taped a podcast with Jonah Bloom, editor of Ad Age. Very bright guy. Spent a good 50% of the conversation talking about when and how brands are successfully overlaying social media to a campaign and also he also provided thoughts as to an additional method for bloggers & those in the social media space with a following to monetize their efforts.

I happened upon this and was immediately struck by it…that this is an old school hard core print advertisement. One that David Ogilvy in Ogilvy on Advertising said, “ For some years I used this layout in all of my magazine layouts…long copy makes the cash register ring…and gives the impression that you have something important to say whether people ready the copy or not”

Why haven’t more taken the first step?
Speaking from personal experience and from having interviewed hundreds of executives, the fact is that when we work for someone else, for a company, we pour 100% of the energy that we will dedicate to our profession into doing well and getting ahead in that company.

A question my colleagues and I repeatedly asked ourselves is, “How can I do well enough to be recognized, get ahead, protect my position and, over time, make more money?” In fact, we should have been asking, “If I were trying to develop a product or service that I would actually buy, what would it be?”

And, while the vast majority of marketing and media executives I’ve interviewed say they would one day like to own their own successful business, they go on to say that “someday” is not now. Three primary reasons were given as to why now is not the optimal time. Continue reading…

While many small business’s fail, you will not. Why is now the optimal time for brand marketers and the agencies that serve them to start their own part-time business?

Marketing, the driver of all global business, will change more in the next 10 years than it has in the past 100. During this period of change, the country’s leading marketers will be expected to intelligently test new tools to better influence their target consumer, and will be rewarded for doing so. This will produce an unprecedented opportunity for new ideas to receive funding, which will result in new ventures started during this timeframe enjoying a disproportionately high likelihood of success, as the market is primed for their entrance.

Money is shifting around more now than ever before and the learning that you will amass as you venture down this path will be even more valuable to you than you could possibly know! As a matter of fact, when I told my boss that I was quitting my day job only after operating my company part time for two years he said to me, “Good for you! I don’t know if you know it or not but the current VP of our division quit two years ago to pursue his own venture. He found it wasn’t for him and reached out to me to see if he could get his job back and I told him, ‘Get your job back? I will make you a VP!” He told me that he not only gave him his job back but promoted him because he knew that the courage it took to leave and the lessons he learned would be invaluable to his company. And he has risen through the ranks faster because of it.

Continue reading…