Super Cool: "Citizen Marketers" co-author Jackie Huba talks to our class

Today in class we were lucky enough to have Jackie Huba, co-author of "Citizen Marketers: When People Are The Message," visit our class to talk to us about using social media in PR, marketing and in the corporate world. She showed us clips and examples from points brought up in the book then generously took several questions from us students.

We discussed the ethics of companies and bloggers working together, such as when companies send free gadgets to bloggers asking them to write about them - do they keep the gadget? Can the bloggers give an honest review? Will the blogger need to add a disclaimer to the post?
When asked about reasons why a company may be hesitant to have a public blog, she said the concerns she heard most frequently were that they were concerned about consumers using the blog as a soundboard to vent all of their grievances on, or that having a blog would take up to much human power to monitor it. Ms. Huba suggested that while it is true that readers may leave many negative comments on the blog, at least these issues are being told to the company's face. Consumers are already voicing their issues and concerns about products and services anyway, so you as the company might as well hear it straight from them so that you can decide what to do with all of the instant feedback you'll receive, for better or worse.

The hour with Ms. Huba passed quickly - she was engaging and had intelligent, insightful comments and answers for us. I really appreciated her coming to talk to us, as well as for signing a copy of my book. :)