Today, the medium is just as important as it was in the past, but the way people consume the message has changed.

A product demo now serves as a conversation starter or a building block for deeper discussions.  A newspaper article may be shared more times on Facebook than it was read in its original format. An advertisement created for TV may have more views online than in prime time. No longer is the consumption of media an isolated experience. Most targets will see multiple impressions of your message across different formats and they need to all build together to tell a cohesive story.

Today an integrated marketing department (or agency) is one that can take the best content and strongest engagement and create multidiscipline experiences.  It’s also an organization that knows what resources it has available and understands how to create efficiencies by reusing and repurposing its content for maximum reach and effectiveness and then measuring it all in one place.

It’s not enough for a Web marketer to be the best Web experience developer; your site is never experienced in isolation. You need to be a storyteller and a demand generator and understand the roles of search, social media and other tactics that can drive traffic to the experiences you create, and leverage that experience throughout the sales cycle. It’s about delivering the right information to the right place at the right time.

Some questions to ask yourself for maximizing an integrated approach:

• Are you looking at customer engagement points as part of a mosaic of activities? Are they unique touch points?
• Who in your organization is producing content? Are there other places you can use that content?
• Is search marketing built into everything you do?
• Are your PR and social media teams actively driving demand for your Web tools, and vice versa?
• Are you spending more time briefing partners than strategizing with them?

Ed. note: Kevin is one of the newest members of the CMD team and specializes in integrating digital campaign approaches to create synergies in content and engagement for the agency’s clients.

It was also about social media with a good helping of marketing thrown in. Most of the panels I attended were valuable and the ones that weren’t had one thing in common—the panelists talked about things that were not on topic. #protip: stay on topic.

I can’t cover every fantastic panel I saw, but I want you to promise me that if you ever have a chance to see Kris Krug speak on photography, you will run, not walk, to whatever room he’s in. Promise me.

The panel I do want to highlight was “Ethics and Social Media.” Brandon Eley, Jason Baer, Jeremy Wright and Patrick O’Keefe rocked this thing. My favorite takeaways involved building relationships with bloggers and the permission bloggers and social media users are granting or not.

The panelists encouraged the audience to be mindful of the power of symmetry of relationships and the social friendship scale. Social media is opt-in and once it’s not, the power becomes asymmetrical and you wind up with an unhappy blogger.

The social friendship scale is a process by which we think connecting is okay. First we @reply someone on Twitter, then connect on LinkedIn, then finally on Facebook. If we leapfrog over these steps, we do so at our own risk.

Forums, message boards and groups were also a hot topic. They seem a bit like shooting fish in a barrel for a PR person. “Look! A whole group of people talking about something my client profits from!” But groups and message boards are essentially a dinner party, not a candle party or Tupperware Party or a Naked Lady Party. They’re places for people to meet up and communicate without being hawked a candle, plastic container or old clothes.

Patrick O’Keefe gave the audience Patrick’s Pyramid of Permission for approaching communities.

Step 1: Observe community norms

Step 2: Read community guidelines

Step 3: Ask staff for permission to post or for clarification

He said that we should always reach out to the community manager before posting. When we do that, we build up social credit with the manager.

The panel wrapped up with the five characteristics of ethical social media marketing.

1)      Always disclose

2)      Be honest

3)      Get permission

4)      Use only the data you need

5)      Respect the space you’re in

We’re in PR because we thrive on the thrill of the kill—grabbing that big hit before the next guy does. And these tips are a great reminder that social media is still about humans talking to other humans. Not humans talking about our clients. Even though we really, really want them to.

Turns out, there was a lot of great stuff that I hadn’t seen on my feeds. Now I’ll share it with you in hopes of widening your news feed view for the week, too!

• A rant from Seth Godin about those of us who are deliberately uninformed. Sherman Andrus, an account director at CMD, thinks Godin should rant more often.
• From Erik Sebellin-Ross: A great article from The Daily Beast about an experiment to determine how Facebook decides what updates you see from friends. Now this is good stuff!
• The interwebs are all abuzz with Sears’ Zombie Halloween promotion and it’s certainly on the radar of Michael Fofrich, a CMD graphic designer.
• A post from TechCrunch on the first Foursquare check-in from outer space caught the attention of Sarah Biedak. For Sarah, this Foursquare example further solidifies the idea that location-based apps can be great tools for both traditional and guerilla marketing tactics.
• Darcie Meihoff shared a New York Times article about the growing popularity of blogging tools like Tumblr and Posterous. I have to say, I’m a pretty big fan of Posterous.

Did I miss anything? Add to my list if something else recently caught your attention.

In case you haven’t heard it, here’s the background: two weeks ago, Gap tried to introduce a new logo to replace its decades-old blue box icon. Customers and designers piled online to heap criticism and venom on the new artwork, and ultimately forced the retailer to bring back the old version in a public show of humiliation (and probably at great expense).

I’m not a graphic professional, but I know where to find some experts in the field. So for a little perspective I asked some of CMD’s design pros for their thoughts and what they would have recommended to Gap. Here’s a little taste:

Jenn Brewer, CMD designer, says brands need to look at their logo and brand history while keeping an eye on their audience when they go through a rebranding exercise. Only then can a redesign campaign (slight modifications or a total overhaul) be determined. Does she think Gap should have given in to the criticism?

“No, it should have been confident enough in its new logo that it could rationally and intelligently deflect the criticism,” she said. “Giving in to the criticism tells me that perhaps the company was not in agreement about the new logo in the first place.”

Thom Marchionna, CMD creative director, said that a logo is only the tip of the spear for a brand evaluation, and other companies could learn from this situation by paying attention to core issues first before introducing a refreshed logo.

“Solve any underlying business problem first, such as product quality, customer service or differentiation,” he said. “Only when you can make a promise to your audience that things are positively better and different, can you introduce the symbolism that reinforces that. To do otherwise is like putting a fresh coat of paint on the hull of the Titanic.”

And what should Gap have done differently?

“Pretty much everything,” he continued. “Forget the lousy logo. Those happen all the time. Entrusting a logo redesign to a traditional ad agency may have been the first mistake. A branding firm would have started with more probing questions, the first three of which might be, ‘how much equity exists in the current logo with our most loyal customers and influencers?’ ‘what is the nature of that equity?’ and ‘what do we risk by changing our symbol?’”

Marchionna said the real failure, in his opinion, was a surprising lack of understanding of the power of the social web.

“It is the most immediate and powerful focus group technology in history,” he said. “And it dictates a code of conduct that one would expect a company such as Gap to be attuned to. Its response to the criticism was disingenuous at best and tragically underestimated the audience’s intelligence to see through ill-conceived efforts to save face. All of which violated the implicit social contracts on which all relationships are based: trust, honesty, and authenticity, to name but a few.”

As this situation showed, indeed every brand change is now open to debate and fair game for backlash by the public and the marketing community. The key to success, in my opinion, is to do the research, answer the tough questions that need clarification internally, and have the confidence to stick to what your gut tells you. I had a basketball coach once who said “you can’t lie to yourself,” so if Gap was lying to itself about its overall business shortcomings and thought a new logo would help distract the public, it was asking for criticism.

What do you think?

Today, of course, marketing is a different environment. Compared to a 1960s ad blitz, a modern campaign can incorporate elements such as traditional print advertising, search engine buys, ongoing two-way conversations on numerous social media channels, a contest, special website landing page, blog, trade show experience, video, and so on.

How does a client today manage all of these activities? The answer is to work with an agency that offers marketing synergy.

The benefit of partnering with a synergistic marketing agency, which offers more than one marketing discipline, is simple: it’s the ability to handle multiple marketing tasks, put strategic thinking behind each initiative, and blend the tactics together to increase the overall value of each component. This saves clients the time and energy of coordinating separate agencies and juggling various budgets with a number of firms.

Working with a one-stop shop is different than with a single-disciplined firm, so here are three tips to keep in mind when looking for a partner that can handle all your marketing needs:

Be open to concept extensions: Sometimes clients come to us with a singular request, such as a website, a video or a special event. Because we are a synergistic agency, we tend to look at how the other components in our toolkit of capabilities could support that singular idea and grow it into a complete campaign. We have found that in many cases, it’s that extension of a concept that the client is really after.

Define success: Before embarking on any campaign, understand what success means to your organization. If you don’t know, we won’t know. Success comes in many different forms. For an integrated campaign, each tactic should have a goal, such as total number of downloads, registrations, purchases, etc. That success definition should always be a point of reference when a tactic is being considered and developed.

Be honest and collaborate: Last year we worked with a new client who had a high-visibility product launch and a short time frame. Sound familiar? While a traditional approach may have worked fine in the past, this job required a constant flow of communication between us and the client in order to fulfill all the various campaign elements. This took the client’s honest feedback and commitment to daily engagement, and it got them what they wanted—a successful project.

At the end of the day, marketing synergy brings simplicity to today’s multifaceted marketing world. Simple. Done. Pass the Scotch.

1)      Take a picture

Pictures really are worth a thousand words. They’re a fast way to create content and a fast way for users to consume content. Be sure to add keywords to the photo to grab SEO juice as well.

2)      Hoard your posts

Most blogging platforms allow you to schedule your posts. Write a few when you have time and inspiration, and schedule them to post later.

3)      Read the news

Industry news, world news, or news from an admired blogger are all great places to find inspiration. Check out the top stories and write a paragraph about your opinion or thoughts on the topic and ask your community for their thoughts as well.

4)      Make a list

Just like a picture, a list is easy for a reader to consume quickly. Some great lists are your industry’s top five blogs, five blogs you like to read at home, or five inspiring Twitter users. Be sure to add links for added SEO benefits.

5)      Keep a notebook handy

I know we’re talking blogging, but we’re not always in front of the computer when ideas for blog posts appear. Keep a small notebook for those moments and return to that notebook when you need inspiration.

Do you have a quick tip on creating killer content? Leave it in the comments!

In the next few months, I plan to interview several department directors at CMD to pick their brains about industry trends, research, and overall marketing experience. I’ll share with you what makes them tick, and what current trends are on the top of their minds.

Click below to hear a coffee conversation with Caryn Herder, director in the Strategies and Solutions Group at CMD.

Julie Ma interviews Caryn Herder

And given the volume of job seekers out there, it must feel like swimming upstream. Our recent job posting at CMD drew many candidates, but only two made the final cut for interviews at the agency. And of course, there can be only one who is hired.

These days, it seems like the planets have to align in order for both parties to find the right fit. Are you feeling that way, too?

This happens to be on my mind because Melissa Lion and I are going to speak to bloggers at Portland’s WordCamp in September about translating their skills into the workplace. It occurred to us that we shouldn’t work from our assumptions about job hunting in this environment. We need help from you—the bloggers and job hunters of Portland—so that we can directly address your very real concerns.

If you’re in job search mode, what’s weighing on your mind? We want your burning questions, especially the ones from bloggers.

• What did you really want to ask that hiring manager, but didn’t bring up for fear of objections?
• Have you been in a situation where you and the hiring manager had very different expectations?
• Have you had a good experience lately? What made it good?

Leave your question in the comments section here, or if you can fit it in 140 characters or less, we’ll take it on Twitter too. The really juicy questions we’ll take with us to the WordCamp discussion this fall. We’ll also let you know where to catch the live stream of our Wordcamp session if you’re not able to attend in person.

OK, let’s have it. We want to hear your top questions for hiring managers.

The amount of product giveaway at BlogHer is somewhat obscene–you should have seen the women vying for the chance to take home the Toy Story Mr. Potato Head toys!

So when 2,000+ women bloggers come together for the annual BlogHer conference, what are brands doing to stand out in the crowd, attract attention and tap into bloggers’ collective online influence? Check out these examples of a few of the brands and event sponsors that stood out to me:

Shine from Yahoo! – The Shine booth was a nice example of gathering user-generated content from an event. They asked women to share their story of reinvention–be it a new career, weight loss, love, etc. Women who had compelling stories were selected to tape video interviews complete with hair and makeup pampering. The videos were not only uploaded to Shine, but also were available to the bloggers to embed on their own blogs. I noticed a few other brands, including Walmart, used similar concepts.

Chevy Volt – Just like at SXSW, Chevy Volt sponsored the event’s Internet Cafe, a place where bloggers could charge up their laptops, netbooks and smart phones in between conference sessions. I thought this was a great example of connecting the brand to its key messaging while also serving as an excellent conversation starter among the spokespersons and bloggers in the room.

Ubisoft Just Dance 2 – Standing out in the crowd can be challenging, but it’s much easier to do when the crowd is at your booth! Ubisoft set up a stage for a dance-off to showcase their new Wii game, Just Dance 2. This served as an excellent product trial experience not only for users, but for the many spectators, too.

White House | Black Market – At an event like this, the value of swag cannot be overlooked. And the swag bags from White House | Black Market were seen everywhere! So much so that event attendees were using these bags more than the tote bags provided by the conference itself. It’s the high school clique mentality here–if the cool kids have the cool stuff, everyone else wants it too.

P&G – The “booth” for P&G was actually a 1500-square-foot house (larger than my apartment!) built on the show floor with each room showcasing a different household product. There was a lot going on in this house … product giveaways, contests and more. Despite the cool factor of this display, the product messaging from each room was lost on me by the time I left the booth.

The relationship protocol between bloggers and brands is still being defined, and questions abound regarding these cultural rules as the relationships between the two evolve. But for now it’s clear that brands are taking full advantage of getting their products in the hands of the stereotyped mommy bloggers.

As @juliey and I gear up for our Wordcamp Portland presentation in September, we’re focusing equally on the quality of our information and the quality of our presentation. Here are some tips we’re keeping in mind as we prepare:

1)      Dump the notes.

Granted, reading notes is a great way to avoid the audience, but it does not make for a dynamic speaker. If you must have notes, just write out a few bullet points and leave that paper on the podium.

2)      Know your ending.

The worst thing a speaker can do is go on too long. Know where you’re going to end, and end it there.

3)      End before the time limit.

See above.

4)      If you mess up, say, “Oh, I messed up.” Or, “I forgot to tell you this.”

The audience wants you to be human. Even though you’re the expert, they still want you to be real. They want a connection. Nothing makes you seem more human than humility.

5)      Listen to the audience.

Pay attention not just to what they’re saying, but also how they’re acting. Are they shifting in their seats? Gathering up papers? Chatting to one another? These are all signs that you’ve lost them. Time to change tacks. Try asking for questions or begin wrapping up.

6)      Have fun.

Smile, relax and enjoy yourself and the audience.

Are you ready to get on the mic? If so, leave a comment and let us know some of your favorite speaking tips or some great speaking opportunities in your community.