Strategic Public Relations

Seeing is Understanding | Eternal Branding | YouTube Timeline | Self-Defense for the Online Brand | Four Links | 05.12.08

1) NewsWare | msnbc
“NewsWare is msnbc.com’s laboratory for news-infused games, tools and other experimentation.”

The games and graphic news visualizers are fun while informing. Game on.

2) Brands on Tombstones | Ad Lab
From the “ads on every inch of humanity” department, it looks like Mercedes is the car of choice amongst the Russian mafia.

Speaking of mafia, I’ll bet a horse head wake up call you’ll find examples of “eternal branding”(tm) here in the United States. Based on this anecdotal evidence, I’m willing to bet the Scarface character is one of those brands.

3) Timetube: The YouTube Video Timeline | Information Aesthetics
Anything you can do to make information easier to understand and digest is a good thing. This YouTube mash up seems to fit in that category. It looks cool too, which doesn’t hurt either. Bonus link: The Top 10 Brands That Own YouTube

4) Manage Your Online Reputation | Lifehacker
Great article that gives hope to every college kid freaked out that a recruiter might Google them and find “those pics.” Also helpful for us whiny, older folk annoyed that someone found and posted “those pics.”

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | advertising | marketing | YouTube | brand

GO. PLAY. | Friday Fun/Flickr Fix | 04.25.08

I’m headed to Keeneland with my firm for our annual employee celebration. So I thought it only fair to send you some Friday Fun/Time-Wasting Links. giddyup

1) Beat Boxing Basset Hound | Too much fun. Via The Lab.

2) Get Out And Play | Creative marketing entertainment. Via n-gage

3) TypeRacer | The most productive of the lot. Via @MattStaggs

Horse Racing #2 uploaded by brianpoulsen

Marketing Turns Me On | LinkedIn Gains Steam | Shankman Helps Out Everyone But Profnet | Print Stays Alive | Four Links | 03.22.08

1) Simple is Good | Pitbulls & Labradors
Dan Lally brings us this Viagra ad via his shiny new blog. If this ad isn’t real, Viagra should steal the idea.

2) LinkedIn Unveils Company Profiles | LinkedIn Blog
Facebook is the best thing to happen to LinkedIn as healthy competition helps push LinkedIn’s evolution.

LinkedIn’s added everything from swag to company profiles lately.

Jeremiah Owyang is already comparing the profiles of Apple, Hitachi, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo.

3) In Helping Journalists, a Publicist Helps Himself | The New York Times’ Shifting Careers Blog
Profnet is not happy with Peter Shankman, the creator of Help a Reporter Out.

By creating a free, e-mail-based service connecting journalists to sources, he’s disrupting Profnet’s business model. It’s also getting industry folks to ask interesting questions. Not surprisingly, the pitches still suck.

4) How All Magazines Should Be Released | Brandflakes for Breakfast
Magazines are getting more creative in general. Consider Bones Magazine. It starts online, but each issue is offered up as a pdf, podcast and video as well. Rohit points us to Everywhere Magazine which looks like a cross between consumer-generated media and democratized publishing.

And if we’re playing buzzword bingo? You just got pwned.

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | LinkedIn | advertising | marketing | Profnet | consumer-generated media | Viagra

Fun with RSS | Less is More | Career Advice from a Comic Book | Twitter for President | Four Links | 02.28.08

1) Fun with RSS | Multiple Sources
Playing around with Aide RSS which instantly tells you the most popular posts on a blog and Friend Feed which looks like it builds on the Tumblr concept. If that made sense, you’ll know I’m oversimplifying. If you still think WTF when you see RSS, click here.

2) Less is More | Murketing
More proof that more bodies calling more reporters at more media outlets is NOT the answer comes to us from Murketing.

Yesterday three publicists at the same PR firm pitched me three different stories in the space of less than four hours. All three were on the same basic theme…it doesn’t suggest a great deal of internal efficiency and coordination, does it?

As I noted at The Bad Pitch Blog, we’re pissing off the media more than we realize.

3) Career Advice from a Comic Book | BusinessWeek
The first business comic book is on its way. In Japan, no subject is too serious or too pedestrian for manga. The >book< arrives at a time when business-book publishers, like many others, are contending with readers who have less time to gather information from the printed page. Already, business books have become smaller, designed to fit in a coat pocket and be read completely during a two-hour plane ride.

4) Twitter for President | TweetVolume
TweetVolume quickly tells you which presidential candidate is generating the most discussion on the trendy little microblogging platform we all I know and love. TweetVolume has interesting potential IF your target audience is using Twitter.

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | bad pitch blog | RSS | manga | Twitter

Social Media Outreach, RSS Feed Speed Reading, Office Politics and Marketing Life Lessons | Four Links | 12.24.07

This Christmas Eve round-up brings us advice based on several bloggers’ hard-earned experiences. Enjoy and add your own opinions in the comments…if only because it’s better to give than receive.

1) 10 Tips for Reaching out to Social Media Influencers | Communication Overtones
Kami Huyse’s tip list for influencer outreach using social media. I’ll add that outreach takes time and it takes participation vs. logging in and pitching.

2) 10 Steps to Manage Your Feed Reading Time | Social Media Explorer
Jason Falls’ hints on how to make it work when you plug 100 feeds into a feed reader. My favorite rule? Just Let Go -- Click “Mark All Read” and start fresh if you get too far behind.

3) The Lazy Office Worker’s Guide to Office Politics | Servant of Chaos
Gavin Heaton reminds us that even staying out of office politics requires understanding office politics. Don’t forget to steer clear of your workplace’s nattering nabobs of negativism. They’re the co-workers who would be upset if they were happy as they're only happy being upset.

4) Thinking of Going into Marketing? | Drew’s Marketing Minute
Drew McLellan closes out our lists of lists with advice for anyone getting into marketing. I think it's also a friendly reminder for folks who are already in the business.

Cube Farm uploaded by DanielN
tags | public relations | PR | social media | marketing

Brand Clouds, Charmin Hacks, Croc’s Kill Buzz and 3Luxe Bests | Four Links | 11.28.07

1) What Do Your Google Search Results Say About You? | Media Orchard
Scott Baradell uses Tag Cloud to show how Google results look to folks searching online. This is smart as your search results are part of your brand. In fact they can be your customer’s "first moment of truth" with your brand…is this moment a good one?

2) Two Admen Claim Credit for Charmin Slogan | Associated Press
Mr. Whipple passes at age 91. What better way to celebrate his life than a pissing match over who wrote his script!

3) Crocs Kill Buzz | Murketing
The NY Times’ Rob Walker updates us on a Consumed story about a Crocs fan that received a cease and desist letter from his favorite brand. It reminds me of the Fed Ex Furniture story. Brands that let legal drive decisions like this need to consider the long-term implications of turning a vocal passionate customer into a vocal brand hater.

4) Top 3 Choices for Shoppers | Springwise
Springwise details 3LUXE, a site that highlights “just three items in each of its many product categories…saving consumers the hassle of endless research.” Visitors can also post reviews and rate products themselves.

When I found this Springwise review I was glad to see word getting out about 3LUXE. Its CEO also runs a local ad agency where several of my friends work….without shoes even.

tags | public relations | PR | Crocs | 3LUXE | advertising | marketing | Charmin | brand

American Red Cross Plugs Social Media Tools into Disaster Communications Efforts – Four Links (x2) – 11.03.07

Now with twice as much link love!

1) Voce Nation Podcast: Ike Pigott/American Red Cross Interview // VoceNation
Ike Pigott details how the ARC uses social media tools "to convey vital information and help people connect during times of crisis — lessons other companies can apply to their own communications programs." An unrelated question: if steel is galvanized and dry cleaning is martinized does that mean Voce’s blog is Hallettized?

2) Utterz Makes Micropodcasting the Shiny New Tool // Utterz
LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, SlideShare, er, I mean Utterz is changing the way I communicate. OK, maybe not. But it’s an interesting site. Listening to Sarah Wurrey on Utterz, I learned about BeFunky. As you can see in this ice cream stand image, it gives photos a “cartoonish” feel to them.

3) The 'Winners' of the Wired News Saddest-Cubicle Contest // Wired
If you’re having a bad day just remember -- it could be worse.

4) Strictly no Photography // Core77
Core77 points us to this site aggregating photos from places where cameras and photography are off limits.

5) iPod touch Ad is Consumer-Generated // TUAW
This takes Tiny Machine to a whole new level.

6) Will Beat Reporters be Boosted by Social Networking? // PressThink
Jay Rosen is helping push journalism forward with NewAssignment.Net experiments. The latest is testing out a social network’s impact on beat reporting. This all reminds me of Steve Rubel’s blog-only news diet from 2004.

7) Orange’s Never-Ending Web Page // PSFK
Got (more than) a few minutes to spare? Check out Orange’s pretty Web site.

8) Dell’s new Investor Relations blog // Andy Lark
Andy Lark’s got a new blog as does his new employer Dell. While I have no experience with IR, an IR blog is an interesting concept. A key discussion started by Jonathan Schwartz is how it might impact disclosure.

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | advertising | marketing | consumer-generated media | Ike Piggott | American Red Cross

Four Links – 10.11.07 – Vote for Pedro, NIN Goes Free Agent, Brand Monitoring and Free Wi-Fi = World Domination

1) People’s Design Award -- Fast Company
The U.S. may have dropped the ball on that whole metric system thing, but democracy is still alive and well. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum is accepting votes for your favorite design. Be sure to vote before 6:00 p.m. est on October 16, 2007. Winners will be announced at the National Design Awards. Power to the people!

2) First Radiohead, Now NIN -- Influx Insights
This trend will pick up steam as more "record" contracts start to expire. Just ask god money.

3) Brand Monitoring on Twitter -- Being Peter Kim
Forrester Analyst Peter Kim updates us on Twitter monitoring and points to a few other things you should be monitoring.

4) McDonald's Launches Free Wi-Fi in UK Restaurants -- Neville Hobson/Twitter
Super Size jokes aside, McDonald’s makes a big/smart move in the race to create The Third Place by offering free Wi-Fi in its 1,200 UK locations. This impacts the coffee wars too.

tags | public relations | PR | design | brand | free wi-fi | marketing

Four Links – 09.25.07 – Firebrand Reinvents the 30-Second Spot, Flickr’s Dark Side, PR Makes Geek Squad Smarter, Swash Sounds Strange

1) Firebrand Reinvents the 30-Second Spot | Firebrand
Billed as “the QVC for the MySpace generation,” the social media press release says that

Firebrand programs the "coolest" TV commercials the way MTV used to program music videos, creating the first multi-platform network to go "live" simultaneously on TV, the web and mobile.

A YouTube for ads might sound odd initially, but this pull technique feels better to me than recent push methods being floated out there. And with content, contests and commerce to offer it will be interesting to see how it unfolds.

2) Flickr’s Dark Side | Various Sources
Holy Fotomat! One picture from Flickr placed into a Virgin Mobile ad is raising some serious questions about Creative Commons licenses and Flickr. Having used a Flickr pic in printed materials before, might I suggest ASKING the photographer and getting a release form signed?

Flickr is playing an interesting role in computer theft too. But it’s not the only photo site having issues. Scott Baradell notes that the rise of sites like iStockPhoto has caused Getty to drop some prices. This price drop has understandably raised photog ire.

3) PR Makes Geek Squad Even Smarter | Minneapolis/ St. Paul Business Journal
Best Buy research shows that “90 percent of Americans don't understand HDTVs.” In response, Best Buy is launching HD Done Right, to provide consumers with information about planning and budgeting for the new sets.

As we settle into football season and the holidays hurtle towards us, this approach is brilliant on so many levels. It makes the Geek Squad look that much smarter, positions Best Buy and Geek Squad as HDTV experts and it generates plenty of media cat nip to get the word out through the research results. Smart.

4) Swash Sounds Strange, er, Too Good to be True | Swash
Tide brings us Swash – a collection of products that eliminate wrinkles, odors and stains so the energy-conscious can stave off the laundry cycle a bit longer. The sloth-centric will appreciate it too. Green is good and P&G gets a gold star for trying something new. But it’s “Fresh It Up” product comes in Free Agent, At Large and Posse scents!? Something tells me I’m not the target audience.

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | Firebrand | Swash | Geek Squad | advertising | marketing | Flickr

Four Links – 09.24.07 – Slideshow Rock Star, A Whole New…Approach to PowerPoint, PRSA Blogs, and Tons of Facebook Links

1) American Girl – The Video  |  Animoto
Animoto is a web application that automatically generates professionally-produced videos. The one above uses pictures from my recent Atlanta trip. My firm helped design the American Girl store there.

You can upload up to 15 images for every 30 second story you want to create and add your music or pick from Animoto’s music lounge. It’s dead simple to use and serves up easily on other sites like Facebook, but it has some limitations. Maybe Scrapblog will buy it and fold it into their site?

2) Pecha Kucha: Get to the PowerPoint in 20 Slides  |  Wired News 
"A Whole New Mind" author Daniel Pink gives an example of Pecha Kucha. It’s a great way to hone your message and avoid death by PowerPoint.

3) PRSA Launches a Conference Blog  |  Communication Overtones
Whether or not you can attend the PRSA national conference this year, subscribe to the event blog. PR Evolution will provide insights from Paul Gillin, Josh Hallett, Peter Himler, Kami Huyse, KD Paine and Eric Schwartzman. PRSA has been taken to task in the past for not diving into social media. So it's great to see this progress. PRSA even invited me to this year's conference through Facebook.

4) Facebook MegaSuperBonus Links  |  Various Sources
Retailers like Threadless and J. Crew are following Wal-Mart and Target into Facebook. Some are wondering if Facebook and business mix. I think it depends on the business.

Bonus Links:
How Social Networks are Disrupting Everything you know about Business  |  MP Daily Fix
Digest of the Social Networking Space  |  Web Strategy by Jeremiah
MySpace Fashion  |  Pronet Advertising

tags | public relations | PR | PRSA | Facebook