Strategic Public Relations

Storytelling’s Link to Social Marketing Success | SummitUp 2009

SummitUp brought together some of the best and brightest in Ohio's social media scene as well as industry luminaries like Chris Brogan and Bob Garfield. Fueled in no small part by the passion and determination of David E. Bowman, the event was a complete success and I was honored to kick it off with my keynote presentation.

"What's Your Story?" details how the craft of storytelling can help us deal with the challenges social media creates. I consider these challenges a bit of a paradox as my slides and video will explain. But the very technology that is bringing us together with people from around the world also prevents us with truly connecting with people.

My presentation serves as a refresher course on storytelling, gives some examples of how it's being used in social media by non-profits and consumer brands in everything from big strategic plays to the littlest of details. It also gives 12 action items to challenge attendees to apply storytelling to their job and improve social marketing efforts.

Some additional resources from the presentation can be found here.

What's Your Story?

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AMP, #PepsiFail and staying on brand

There's been lots of discussion around the iPhone App "AMP UP Before You Score" from Pepsi's AMP Energy Drink. Let me see if I can sum it up.

The Issue: The AMP app profiles 24 types of women, from "Cougar" and "Athlete" to "Out of Your League" and "Married."

Each profile provides unfortunate content including pickup lines and other information to help the user "score." It also has a brag function which allows users to promote and share their efforts via email, Facebook or Twitter. The app states: "Get lucky? Add her to your Brag List. You can include a name, date and whatever details you remember."

The Outrage: Needless to say, the immature, chauvinistic app has Twitter frothing. The vitriol is understandable. It even elicited an apology from AMP.

"Our app tried 2 show the humorous lengths guys go 2 pick up women. We apologize if it’s in bad taste & appreciate your feedback. #pepsifail"

Whether or not it's a genuine apology, it's smart because it:
* acknowledges the issue
* addresses the issue where the conversation is taking place vs. on the company's web site
* uses the #pepsifail tag to ensure the apology reaches the right people on Twitter. While some feel they should distance themselves from Pepsi, I highly doubt that's even remotely possible.

But AMP has done nothing else. And by not removing the app from the iTunes store, the amount of ill will for the AMP brand and for Pepsi has snowballed.

The Brand: It's obvious and understandable why people are offended by this app. I downloaded it to write this post and will be removing it promptly. But it bears noting that, if nothing else, it appears to be on brand. I'm not the target audience. Disclosure: Starbucks is the only energy drink I consume and have been happily married for more than 11 years.

But the site, including the Yo Mamma Slam and extreme sports sponsorships, seems to be geared to the same target audience. While AMP takes a slightly different approach, it reminds me of the positioning around Axe grooming products. 

The Strategy: The brand claims the app is a lighthearted attempt at humor vs. a misogynistic tool. But the concept and a variety of details in the app are a bit over the top. AMP knew it was competing with 76,000 other apps in the iTunes store. It even created a YouTube video riffing off the Apple "There's an app for that" commercials to promote it. AMP knew it needed to push the envelope to stand out. Perhaps they planned for controversy to fuel that promotion. Mission accomplished.

The Hypocrisy: If AMP had pulled the app, I can already see pundits like myself saying that AMP over-reacted to a Twitter mob mentality. Motrin received a similar rap when it responded quickly to a negative response one of its ads received online. AMP acknowledged the situation, something other brands don't always do, and they moved on.

We criticize brands for not responding online. Do we also get to criticize them when we feel they haven't responded to the degree of our expectations or even exceeded those expectations? Every "social media expert" shaking their head to the affirmative as they read this might also want to consider the cost to develop an iPhone app and then shelve it.

The Bottom Line: Does Motrin Moms set up the expectation that brands must instantly go to extremes when negative conversations first pop up? Perhaps, but I think Motrin Moms did so because its target audience was up in arms – the very consumers they’re trying to get buy their product. And, while I agree that the app is in poor taste, this does not appear to be a similar case.

I'm impressed by brands that use Twitter to monitor the conversation and respond as quickly as possible. But at the risk of increasing ire, I'm not sure AMP should remove the app. I think this is a new wrinkle. Brands might not be able to do everything we want. Or they simply might not be willing to do everything we want -- when we're not the target consumer.

We’re certainly reinforcing AMPs stance by drawing even more attention and Google juice to the application. That’s the real energy drink fueling this conversation.

AMP assumed its app would be ignored during the concepting stage. They designed it to get attention. Perhaps the lesson is that the proper response from Twitter, and consumers like me, is to do the exact opposite of our reaction up to this point. We should move from outrage to silence.

Much Ado About Avatars

From the minutia department, I’ve been talking a lot about Twitter avatars lately. I enjoy swapping out my avatar. It’s my version of a t-shirt --expressing my personality in a small way. And, as I have my pic on my Twitter background, people can put a face with the name the first time a person follows me.

This goes against conventional Twitter wisdom. In Trust Agents, Brogan and Smith recommend using your picture across all social site profiles in an effort to be more human online. Even Twitter notes: “A real picture of yourself is encouraged. It adds personableness to your tweets.”

But avatars are very polarizing. The Bob Ross and Big Boy avatars never fail to encourage Twitter love. While the Charlton Heston and Hanson Brother avatars usually wig people out a bit. The end result is that changing out my avatars has become a great conversation starter on Twitter.

At the same time Trust Agents also talks about the benefit of going against conventional wisdom. The book devotes an entire chapter to making your own game. Now I’m not going to try and tell you that swapping out my avatars is a strategy or a game-changing technique on Twitter. Or is it?

Millions of Mad Men
AMC’s MadMen Yourself is the most recent avatar-swapping craze to hit Twitter. It resulted in 1 million visits to AMC’s microsite and 600,000 avatars have been created. This is a great example of everyone wanting to wear the MadMen t-shirt by turning themselves into an early 60’s cartoon. And it successfully flies in the face of Twitter wisdom. Sure I can see a resemblance between people and their avatars, but only if I already know what they look like.

At the end of the day, I guess I’m saying there’s more than one way to skin your profile on Twitter. Whatever approach you take, make sure your tweets, background and profile give potential followers a good idea of who you are as a person.

avatari uploaded by prblog

Selling Ideas with Words, Numbers and Pictures

We're always trying to tell more compelling stories...delivering messages that get our point across credibly and effectively with our target audiences.

It's one of the reason research and hard numbers(regardless of the sample size) tend to make big news.

When creating messaging to tell a story, consider if words, numbers, pictures or a combination of all three get the job done. Let's say you're trying to note that Wal-Mart has far more stores than their nearest competitor.

omg, Wal-Mart has a freakin' buttload of stores.
or
Wal-Mart has over 4100 stores and clubs in the U.S.
or
As you can see above, the biggest retailer in the world covers an area larger than Manhattan.

All Hail the Infographic
Especially in our social world where people pass around good content like a joint at Woodstock, turning a compelling factoid into an infographic gives you the ability to share it and to share it much more easily than in the past.

And while it would behoove you to work with a graphic designer in creating said infographic (to ensure it doesn't look jank), if you have no other option you can jump into Powerpoint, use Smart Art to create your own and save the slide out as a .jpg.

You can see the dramatic impact a visual makes in truly getting a point across. Creating one is time well spent.

Cross-posted to the Bad Pitch Blog

Considering Blended Media

My last few posts detail how the old approach to media outreach isn’t working with bloggers and how blogger relations takes more time compared to traditional media relations.

Add to this recent FTC Guidelines and anyone moving from pitching traditional media to building relationships with bloggers needs to revisit their plans.

One thing that hasn’t changed is client needs. They have to justify their marketing spend – even defend it when investing in social media. A 2.0 world of experimentation and soft metrics has given way to the need for scale and a better idea of expectations -- due in part to the economy.

Paid │ Earned
These factors are evolving my thinking of paid and earned media. As a quick refresher, let’s define terms. Paid media comes with guaranteed placement and total control of the message. Earned media does not pay for placement and, as a result, you don’t know the message until you see it online, in print or elsewhere.

Early in my career, I kept paid media and earned media as separate as church and state. This was in part a reflection of my passion for public relations. As various marketing disciplines were more siloed back then it was easy to do. As the integrated marketing campaigns I worked on grew in size and budget, I saw how much paid media and earned media need each other. In some instances one serves as ground cover for the other as part of the campaign strategy.

Blended Media
Viewing the paradox of blogger relations and client needs, I’ve wondered if there isn’t middle ground that would blend some benefits of paid and earned media without coming off looking like an advertorial, infomercial or worse.

The topic was also  discussed during a recent panel discussion I was on with Pete Blackshaw, Dave Knox and Suzanne Tosolini at Cincinnati's Digital Hub Conference.

According to Blackshaw,

“There is so much evidence across the web that "earned media" -- consumer-generated media, social media, conversation, variants of PR -- is creating meaningful lift and value for brands that we now need to think more critically about resource and spending allocations.

“Here is an attempt to acknowledge that paid media often serves as a critical stimulus or even vitamin for "earned media." Moreover, in a world of crowdsourcing and co-creation, "earned media" is increasingly becoming a core input into the paid equation. Yes, we must always accommodate that fuzzy middle.

Blackshaw created the above diagram as a possible model for paid, earned and blended media. There's potential in blended media that circumvents the old ways of doing things with this new audience.

Collaborating in the Middle
Let’s consider some completely fictitious scenarios as examples. Sharpie does an excellent job of marketing their products from Susan Wassel’s tireless efforts and showing up at Fashion Week to sponsoring NASCAR and encouraging artists to push the limits using their products.

So for their next product launch, instead of bombing bloggers with product samples, what if Sharpie teamed up with Hugh MacLeod and developed a cartoon generator widget?

Sharpie would fully disclose their involvement. It’s not an ad or a sponsorship, but the end result is more predictable than potential blog posts resulting from product mailings. The pitch becomes a collaboration where Hugh is the creative director, Sharpie is the sponsor and the end result is shared across the web.

Some would argue that collaboration is the ultimate connection with a specific audience online. This is just one example of how funding gets to the end result more quickly. But it’s done in an acceptable, fully-disclosed fashion. 

In the Mix
Social media and blogger relations are still a nascent field. We’re applying a few years of experience against projects compared to entire careers in other marketing disciplines. But as we continue to build programs that do more than simply broadcast across social media platforms, I think we'll see more examples of blended media.

A Quick Thought on Mommy Blog (Over)Marketing

Something’s been bugging me about mommy bloggers.

Much more specifically, I have issues with the marketers foisting largess upon mommy bloggers.

Mommy bloggers have become the Robitussin of marketing. Arm broken? Put some ‘tussin on it. New product? Do some mommy blog outreach.

Let me be absolutely clear: mommy bloggers rock. There are a few folks I read regularly and I’ve always been impressed at how much of an impact that many mommy bloggers have in their communities.

But even mommy bloggers are quick to note they’re not a marketing panacea. Neither is the iPhone for that matter.

Participate vs. Pitch
Even the most well-intended blogger outreach with all the right due diligence -- from segmenting their bloggers and targeting their content accordingly -- usually results in sending "stuff." Whether it's product samples for trial, books to review, a USB to hold the electronic press kit or simply a link to a microsite flush with YouTube videos, Flickr images and background information, it all stacks up.

BlogHer offers an extreme example. Enough products are given out at BlogHer that a swag recycling station is set up at the show where attendees can drop off the swag they won't be able to use. This acknowledges that more stuff is handed out than the average attendee can haul home.

This in turn creates another difference between bloggers and journalists. The more stuff a blogger gets, the tougher it becomes to post about it -- if the blogger posts at all.

Less/Different is More
We can keep sending stuff and wondering why bloggers aren't engaging. Or we can accept that swag mail bombs and totchke baths only make sense to the vendors supplying all of the logo-laden goods. I know marketing and PR can get more creative. We can do better than this. To me the most potential lies somewhere in between paid and earned media. But that's a topic for another post.

The Paradox of Social Media

In preparation for an upcoming conference*, I’ve been considering the paradox that social media creates.

The very technology, platforms, communities and widgets being used to bring us all together online can also keep us from truly engaging and connecting with each other.

You start noticing it in small ways. Consider LinkedIn’s invitation to connect. Far too often after I met a person at an event I’ll get the auto-invite and I’m usually glad they reach out and I accept the invitation.

But instead of quickly referencing the context we established a few hours earlier, the person runs with the form letter. Whether or not someone is collecting contacts, the form letter gives off this impression.

This is one of the reasons I tell people to eschew automation like this if they really want to establish a social media presence. The same goes for the automatic direct messages sent to me after following someone on Twitter. It’s meant to say “thank you” or "hi" but all it really says to me is “this is a transaction.”

As you get into larger scale efforts like media relations, databases like Cision can help you quickly pinpoint the people you should be talking to, their contact info and sometimes even their turn-ons and turn offs. Instead it appears far too many PR people simply do a keyword search and send a news release to the search results. It’s the only explanation for some of the pitches I get.

Cheap, Good and Fast: Pick Two
Building a reputation in social media takes time. Using robo-tricks to do this may initially get fast numbers for someone, but it won’t get them influence or a real connection with other members of the site, community or platform they’re gaming.

Impressive social media results do not usually come at impressive rates of speed. True progress with social media usually takes time -- think 401-(k) vs a lottery. But many people don’t want to hear that.

To me the opportunity in social media is knowing when to leverage the art/human aspects of it and when to leverage the science/machine. And yes, that takes time too.


Modern man angle 1 uploaded by GUANOdesign.

* SummitUp is a conference being held in October with a great line up including keynotes from Chris Brogan, Bob Garfield, Artie Isaac and Lewis Howes. I’m geeked out to be kicking off the day with a keynote.

Using Social Media to Engage Voters and Change the Conversation

The Cincinnati Union Terminal is enlisting social media to help preserve its home's past and ensure its future.

 

Cincinnati Union Terminal is an architectural gem in the Queen City’s crown.

 

The art deco-style railroad terminal opened in the early 30s and during World War II it served as a “major transfer point for soldiers,” handling “as many as 34,000 passengers on some days.”

 

Today it’s a cultural and entertainment destination with three museums, the Cincinnati Historical Society Library and an OMNIMAX theatre tucked comfortably into the massive, 10-story building.

 

Standing for more than 75 years, Union Terminal is in need of significant repair to stem damage that threatens its future. Tax dollars will be needed to save the public building.

 

But tax levies are a tough sell to voters who see the dollars coming from their pocket more than they might see the impact of these dollars. Cincinnati Union Terminal has even tougher odds on their upcoming levy -- an economic recession.

 

Connecting Past Memories to Future Need

Already using a few social platforms, the museum team realized social media could help change the conversation around the pending levy.

 

Myunionterminal.orgwas launched to educate taxpayers on the upcoming campaign, but its main feature is to “capture memories from the millions who have passed through Union Terminal's doors.”

“Myunionterminal.org encourages visitors to post personal stories and photos, view other visitors' memories and learn more about Union Terminal and Cincinnati Museum Center.”

Disclaimer: I’m not involved with the campaign site, but have provided input on other components of the campaign.

 

Social Stories

Union Terminal inspiresconsumer generated mediaand was a natural fit for this approach.

 

"Every day we hear about people's wonderful connections to Union Terminal and we're happy that many of these memories will now be located in one place," said Douglass W. McDonald, president and CEO of Museum Center.

 

But in reality, by giving visitors a place to tell their story and enabling sharing of these stories, the site is set up for story distribution as well, ensuring their campaign approach spreads. The site also has plenty of information how visitors can get involved by donating or volunteering their time.

 

While the site opened with stories in place, they continue to come in since the site launched in June. It's a smart approach. And it will be interesting to see its impact as the campaign unfolds.

As a member of the Museum Center, I'll be adding one of many stories the building has helped create for me and my family and I will be supporting the campaign as well.

Bombastic ≠ Strategic

We all know the challenge of standing out at big events like BlogHer, ComicCon and (back in the day) leviathans like Comdex.

Electronic Arts is learning about that challenge right now as their "Sin to Win" promotion is doing more than standing out at ComicCon. It's pissing people off.

I've gotten notes from PRSA and a colleague attending BlogHer wondering "wtf?!"

Evidently the promotion revolved around their new Dante's Inferno game. People were being encouraged to have their pictures taken while committing acts of lust with booth babes. Electronic Arts has since apologized and some are wondering if this was a planned strategy.

Evidently Electronics Arts even faked a protest over the same game earlier this summer. Whenever something stupid like this happens, the media wonder if it was planned to generate more ink.

Bombastic ≠ Strategic
Standing out at trade shows in particular can be tough. More than a decade ago, at a client's trade show, I was impressed when one exhibitor was allowing attendees to make their own tie dye t-shirts with the company's logo on it. There booth had a lot of traffic with long lines as a result of the giveaway. When I told my client about this he asked me what the company sold. It wasn't more than 10 minutes later and I couldn't remember.

Anyone can piss someone off if they try hard enough. I'm even reminded of a quote from Spinal Tap when someone objected to their album cover for Smell the Glove. "That's nothing. You should have seen the cover they wanted to publish."

A fine blend of sizzle and steak is required to stand out for the right reasons. And whether or not the Electronic Arts stunts were planned or spontaneous, fake or real, NONE of this is strategic. It's desperate.

Cross-posted to the Bad Pitch Blog.

Walter Cronkite | Sharing Video on Twitter | Costs of Meetings | Mommy Bloggers | Four Links | 07.19.09

1)

Cronkite's Greatest Hits | Mediaite:  These highlights from Walter Cronkite's career remind us why we want need journalism to survive. Cronkite was so Super Bad he had chunks of guys like Michael Arrington in his stool.

2) 5 Ways to Share Video on Twitter | Mashable:  This post raises my iPhone 3G-S envy. But more importantly it shows one way how videos are being made more shareable.

3) Calculate the True Cost of Meetings | AdLab:  A meeting cost calculator? This tool should be a mandatory Outlook Calendar plugin.

4) Mommy Bloggers Fight Back | PR Newser:  The title of the post sounds like a B-Movie. But PR Newser details the latest dust up in the blogosphere to ignore PR for a week straight. As Susan Getgood notes, the boycott misses the point.

Walter Cronkite, 1916 - 2009uploaded by John McNab