Last night I attended a Social Media Marketing workshop that was put on by Vancouver’s High-Tech Communicators’ Exchange. The presenters were Kris Krug of Raincity Studios and Rob Cottingham of Social Signal. As someone who is really just dipping his toe in social media marketing I found it a very interesting presentation. Some of what they covered wasn’t really news to me but I came away with some good ideas.

One of the great examples they showed was the Social Media Press Room for the Ford Focus 2008. It is a great example of an implementation of the Social Media Press Release pioneered by Shift Communications.

I love going to these events because I always come away charged up about implementing these ideas in my communications practice. At work I am the main contributer on our company blog OutThere. It can sometimes be a challenge to come up with topics but I seem to be able to get a few posts in a week. I am really excited to try implementing one of the social media releases for an upcoming product launch.

And FYI… If you are new to social media marketing there is a great new eBook out there called Getting To First Base: A Social Media Marketing Playbook by Vancouver locals Darren Barefoot and Judy Szabo. I’m about two thirds of the way though it and am already implementing some of the ideas they have. Its a must read!