Experts in the Industry: Lisa Dilg (8 of 45)

I first met Lisa Dilg two summers ago when the company I used to work for, Mzinga, hired Perkett PR as their agency of record. While Lisa didn't immediately join us on our account, I immediately knew that I liked her style by following her updates on Twitter. What I found out about Lisa as we worked together over the next several months was that she is as smart and hard working as she is funny.

Here's how she answered my five questions from the Experts in the Industry: 45 Interviews in 45 Days series:

In one sentence, please describe what you do and why you’re good at it.

I am an account director at PerkettPR – I lead account teams that help my clients get publicity. Why am I good at it?   I suppose I’m good at it because I do not like NOT being good at things.

How did you get into the world of online community, social media or social marketing?

In PR, you have to adapt to how the preferences of the media change. PerkettPR is a smart company and our CEO was adamant about making sure we were changing with the times and not holding onto “the way we’ve always done things.”  This allowed us to get into blogging, video casting, online communities, and more as individuals and as a company early on – we waded in first so that we could figure out how to help our clients use these tools effectively.  We took to heart something that Jeremiah Owyang said: “The agency of the future is a ‘connected’ one I can’t imagine ever advising a client to deal with an advertising, PR, or interactive team that doesn’t get social media. But with the power shifting to the participants, agencies must demonstrate they can participate before they can ever help clients with it” – being open to this has been fruitful for our company, our clients and to me personally.

If you had $10 million to invest in one company and one company only based on their use of “social,” which company would it be and why?

I decline to answer on the grounds that I might incriminate myself. Well, that’s a little dramatic, but I can’t answer this question - we have too many clients who have boilerplates with the word “social” in them – I cannot choose between them or pick someone else because ALL of our clients are worth investing in.  I will say this – I would invest in a company that has a business model from the beginning, not just a pipe dream – I’m not the biggest risk taker and the current state of my 401K has me being even more conservative with investments.

Which business leader, politician or public figure do you most respect?

I have amazing respect and admiration for Colin Powell.  He is a courageous, strong, honest leader. I would campaign for him if he were to run for President and I was disappointed that he said he never would. His cross-party endorsement of Barack Obama and the interview he gave stating his reasoning for doing so made me respect him even more.  If all of our leaders could strive to conduct themselves like Colin Powell, I think we’d all be better off.

Would you join a toothpaste community? Why?

I would not join a toothpaste community. This is where “community” gets tough – if there are communities for every product you use, you’d never get anything done. Some are important and necessary, but I don’t need to get involved in a discussion forum about my use of Crest.  That’s why I support companies joining general communities like Twitter. Join in where we already are – if we are talking about you or to you, listen, respond, and help.  If were not, just get involved and talk, and we’ll like that you’re there if we need you.  I follow Popeye’s Chicken and ComcastCares and I don’t use either – but I like how they are engaging people.  Its great brand recognition for them, and if I do decide to change my internet provider, I know where I’m going to go and why. 

Freeform – here’s where you can riff on anyone or anything – good or bad. Or just share a pearl of wisdom.

I will use this space to give you my social media annoyances:

1. We need to stop using social media to talk about social media.  For example, stop blogging about blogging and stop talking about using Twitter when you are on Twitter – it’s like talking about a date while you’re on the date – kind of ruins the genuine experience and makes you feel like you are being constantly analyzed to see if you are doing it right. I have a better analogy than that, but its not appropriate, but I am sure you get where I am going with this ;)
2. Also, enough with the SM “guru”, “expert”, “maven”- ing….if you ARE that, you don’t have to say it, and it’s off putting to “regular folk.”  Too many people in social media are so busy patting themselves and the other “experts” on the back for their work in social media, that they don’t realize how alienating, arrogant and annoying this is.  I think this has the potential to backfire and ruin the whole experience because people are either too intimidated or turned off to join in.
3. Words we could stand to see a lot less of: Monetize, transparency, rockstar (or any form of rock, rawk, etc…), dialogue, “the conversation”, etc…