What’s next for social media? Ask Rohit Bhargava

Rohit Bhargava, who leads the marketing team at Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence, is the author of the new marketing book Personality Not Included, a unique guide for organizations on becoming more authentic. He is frequently featured in media worldwide and speaks internationally on the importance of personality in business. And on June 26, executives throughout the area will have a chance to hear Rohit speak about the latest trends in marketing communications and social media at Digital Media Conference, to be held Thursday, June 26, 2008 at the Ritz-Carlton in Tyson’s Corner, VA.

Tell us a little about your background.

Rohit Bhargava: My background is mostly agency based. I’ve worked for a number of different marketing agencies and I spent five years working in Australia. I have worked across a lot of different industries doing marketing strategy. The focus has usually been on interactive work, and I have experience working at an ad agency as well as a PR agency. Before that I worked in a small business and did the start-up thing as well.

What are some social media or other tools your clients, both in the government space and beyond, are starting to embrace?

Rohit Bhargava: Blogs are certainly the most visible. I think that when it comes to social media what a lot of people don’t think about is that it can take many forms of people sharing opinions online, whether it’s a blog or something as obvious and ubiquitous as an Amazon review. All of that is social media to a sense because people are sharing their thoughts and opinions and ideas with one another and being influenced by that. I think that no matter where you go online, whether you are in government or whether you are just online surfing, you’re exposed to all of these opinions and that is what we’re seeing out there.

Tell us about your book. How long did it take you to envision and write it?

Rohit Bhargava: End to end the book process was about a year. What I ended up focusing on was not so much about social media or blogs or anything as specific as that, but something which I saw as a broader trend in business of all sorts, which is this idea that personality matters. Personality is the way that brands interact with their customers and it’s the way that ideas come to life for people. Whether it is a brand in the traditional sense or whether it’s any sort of organization or entity that people need to have some sort of belief or interaction with.

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