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

Practice Random Acts of Twitter | Friday Flickr Fix | 05.09.08

Admit it. At some point, in some form or another…Twitter pisses you off. I’ve been there and back.

That’s from a post detailing why I think Marketing and PR people should try Twitter. Rather than cross-posting it here, I’ll build on it.

People are time-starved and don’t want to spend more time online than they have to. In the wake of an endless stream of shiny new sites we simply HAVE to check out, the magic question becomes: What value does Twitter add to your life?

For me it’s the higher level of interaction, online and offline, with other professionals. I was running out of steam with this blog. Twitter connected me with several people and got me engaged in a variety of industry conversations. The offline meet ups in particular gave me a second wind as they "complete the circuit that social networking communities establish virtually." Via Angelo Mandato.

In addition to meeting new people via Twitter, it turns out you can also win contests. Billy Fairchild was running a contest as a way to connect with more folks online. I was unaware of the contest, but was automatically entered when I began following him on Twitter. It turns out I won the grand prize. How cool is that? I’d been meaning to replace my old web cam so it will be a lot of fun playing with this “random act of Twitter.”

If you haven’t already, check out Twitter. It’s a handy utility and one example of how professional communicators are getting more directly involved in the conversation.

so happy together uploaded by Mr. Mark
tags | public relations | PR | marketing | social media | Twitter

Social Media Breakfast(s)

Last week I was reminded of Twitter’s utility and the importance of breakfast. In addition to the meal’s obvious nutritional benefits, two breakfast meetings helped feed my social media POV.

No one blinked when Albert Maruggi held the first Cincinnati Social Media Breakfast across the river in Kentucky. Perhaps this is because Cincinnati’s airport is also located in Northern Kentucky?

The Tuesday morning meeting was well-attended – even bringing a few folks up from Louisville. As a result, Jason Falls and I finally met. I need to reciprocate the road trip at some point.

Twitter was the hot topic of conversation due to its current novelty (more on that later). Twitter is how I learned about both breakfasts – the night before each one.

The group also discussed social media’s impact on the news. News tends to break on Twitter a few minutes before it hits mainstream media. A few people at the breakfast from the media and with media backgrounds reminded everyone that the media want accuracy first, then speed.

Social media geeks, including myself, often mention that giving up control online means gaining permission to make mistakes. However the media aren't given this luxury.

Think about this as we evolve into the newsroom of the future – are mainstream media held to a double standard?

A huge thank you to Albert for organizing the event and for suggesting I continue Cincinnati Social Media Breakfasts. As it’s complementary to the New Media Cincinnati meetups, I’m planning another event.

Friday morning I met up with David Armano, Krista Neher and Andrew Paradies from Photrade.

The smaller group allowed for some more great conversation. Twitter was still a topic, but we also talked about social media's impact on business.

The best part of these meetings of course is simply connecting in person. This quote from Angelo Mandato says it all: “The physical meetups complete the circuit that social networking communities establish virtually.”

So to all you coasties...if you ever have a lay over in "fly over country," get local and look up your industry online to connect offline. You'll get more than a free drink out of it.

tags | public relations | marketing | Twitter | Social Media Breakfast

Getting Social Means Getting Uncomfortable – At First

In the aftermath of a blessed event, Jason Falls asks the question how personal is too much?

We in the social media space offer our professional lives up as open books. Some of us disclose minimal personal information. Others put up boundaries and clearly separate what is social currency and what is not. So long as our level of comfort is supported by our family and friends, I see little concern.

But how much is too much? >SNIP< All of these questions beckon to be answered as we all grow into this still new dimension of the greater media mix. Personal publishing and the social web give us unprecedented opportunity but with equally as unprecedented exposure. Where will the line be drawn to determine what is and is not for the offing?

As I commented on Jason’s blog, I think this is one of the ways communications is changing. As we evolve from broadcasting our clients’ messages to participating more in the communication process, the walls between business and personal begin to blur. How much personal detail marketers disclose will vary from person to person and culture to culture. When doing business in China, for example, you’ll get much more personally involved.

"Enough About Me. Let’s Talk About You. What Do You Think About Me?"
By the nature of our jobs, most of us don’t want to be the center of attention. It makes us nervous and we have to be careful not to make it all about us. So how much is too much? It will vary from person to person. But as Jason Falls shows us the key to figuring it out is based on personal experience.

Image007 uploaded by wallofhair
tags | public relations | PR | social media | marketing | Jason Falls

Is Your Brand Sticky or Slippery Online?

As information disperses wildly/widely through personal channels, marketers must revert from “sticky” mentality to “slippery.” Sticky websites require lures and hooks to get people to our sites and then lock them in. Slippery ideas enable wide distribution of our brand into daily life (Originally articulated by Mark Earls via Fallon’s Aki Spicer).

A client, er, someone might ask -- why create profiles on video/photo sharing sites and social networks when you have a perfectly good website?

The answer to this question is the Jeep Experience site. The Jeep brand planted its flag on Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Flickr over time. Rather than a heavy-handed approach, Jeep merely facilitates online fan gatherings and consumer-generated Jeep content.

Jeep now aggregates all of this content at the Jeep Experience. It brilliantly illustrates the slippery over sticky approach. Back in the (dot com) day, a brand would try and build the Jeep Experience site and spend tons of money attracting eyeballs. It would cost you twice as much and be half as effective. This is generous math if you consider Bud.TV as a more recent example of a sticky content play.

Even more recently, Tommy Hilfiger launched TommyTV. Music is being used to sell everything from coffee to deodorant, so why not clothes as well?

TommyTV has the right goal -- to make an emotional connection with its customers. But the execution still feels like a brand hoping the sticky approach works instead of giving up control. TommyTV has a YouTube presence, but it’s downplayed on the site.

So clean up your act online and go from sticky to slippery like Jeep (who gets the Gallant). For trying to have its cake and eat it too/2.0, TommyTV gets the Goofus.

Bubble Rain uploaded by jurvetson
tags | Jeep | TommyTV | Bud.TV | advertising | marketing | consumer-generated media | brand

Biting Hands That Build Feeds

No, it’s not about you.

Props to the ringmaster of reality checks, Jeremy Pepper, for inspiring this cartoon.

Comic via Build Your Own Meat

Going Local: New Media Cincinnati Meet Up

My online network began when Tom Murphy found my then freshly-minted blog, introduced himself and pointed me to Phil Gomes.

Nearly six years later, I’ve meet a lot of people from the marketing industry – online and in real time. But the past week has reminded me that there’s such a thing as too much focus.

At this month’s New Media Cincinnati Meet Up, I connected with several folks I‘d met online through Twitter, Facebook and blogging. And there were even more people there who I’m looking forward to getting to know.

Hometown Proud
So while I was building an industry network that “spans the globe” (that unintentionally sounds dramatic), I was missing a lot going on in my own backyard. By adding Twitter and Facebook to my online habits, I've connected with a much larger circle of Cincinnati social media.

In addition to the more well-known companies like P&G and personalities like Nielsen Buzzmetrics’ Pete Blackshaw, we have startups like Pimp My News and Photrade. I’m not surprised, just happy to officially join the fray.

On the blog front I’ve added several to my Cincinnati folder in my RSS reader. From research and wine to podcasters, vloggers and local development, there’s a lot of content being created.

What's my point? Just because social media allows you to go deep on micro-niche content, don't forget to blend in some breadth.

tags | New Media Cincinnati

Get Social | Friday Flickr Fix | 03.04.08

One of the things I (sometimes) miss from my agency days is writing case histories. It was getting tough to spin the problem/solution/results formula after several years, but it gave me first-hand access to my clients’ customers. That access always made it easier to find an interesting angle to the story.

In a recent post at the other blog, I noted that the toys are fun, but social media is more about conversations than technology.

We have to move from being broadcasters, pushing out carefully scripted messages, to being brokers. This means participating more directly than we’re used to, in plain view of our clients’ customers and giving up control of the messages.

Not everyone, or every client, can handle that.

Shake hands, Mo'Fo'! uploaded by nietsdoener/

Got Personality? Interview with Author Rohit Bhargava

Ogilvy PR Guru and blogger Rohit Bhargava just published his first book, "Personality Not Included."

Instead of resorting to cheap stunts to artificially raise awareness (and impose on his network), he’s rolled up his sleeves and is conducting 55 blogger interviews.

1) You've been immersed in your book and now have to tell the world about it. What's your elevator speech?

Great question, and something I've been thinking about. Here's the pitch:

Faceless companies don't work anymore. In the social media era, personality matters. This book is about how to find and use your organizations personality to delight your customers.

In case that's not short enough for you, my core pitch is just two words: personality matters. That's the core concept for my marketing campaign, and will also be the name of my book blog I'll be launching this week.

2) There are lots of business books out there. Complete this sentence. "You should read my book over other business books because:"

Personality Not Included brings together some of the hottest trends in business right now (social media, WOM and authenticity) and offers more than 100 case studies, as well as a unique action guide to put all the theories of the book into action immediately.

3) Some very smart, pragmatic folks suspect the economy will bring a social media wake up call and the conversation will revert to more conventional marketing efforts. What do you think the recession will do to the conversation?

The recession will make personality even more important because the premise of the book is that it can help your brand become more than just something people buy from. Brands that have not connected with their customers will be the first to suffer in a recession. The ones that have built strong relationships will continue to find new customers, enjoy word of mouth, be shared between people.

4) The industry is filled with passionate evangelists and skeptics alike. But the majority of marketers are not "conversing in transparent bliss." Some might be playing wait and see and others might be overwhelmed by all if it. But what are some ways you recommend people get involved to understand the benefits of social media?

The first natural step is to find a way to listen. That's pretty obvious. What people don't realize is that there are now two stages of listening. The first is listening as in monitoring. The second is active listening where you are acting on the listening by tagging information, saving it, posting a comment, or other interaction. Once you focus on that, you can determine the right way to proceed.

The answer for everyone is not to create a blog or slap together a Facebook group. Listening enables you to choose the right thing, instead of starting lots of social media efforts that sound great but ultimately fail.

5) This is your first book. What are the biggest things you learned in this process and are you cooking an idea for a second book?

The main thing I learned was just how much of everything you need to do yourself. I went with a big publisher (McGraw-Hill), but rapidly realized that you need to kickstart all the efforts and essentially serve the role of project manager for all the moving marketing pieces.

The other surprising thing I learned was that I was not able to reuse much blog content. I thought I would be able to do more than that and probably used a max of 2 paragraphs I had already written. The rest was written for the book from scratch. In terms of an idea for a second book, I have a few. I shared in a previous interview that I think it would be great to write a dating book all about how the concepts of marketing can help you find your soul mate. Basically, something a bit more mainstream and less business focused so I can head out to a wider readership.

Congratulations Rohit on the book and on a fresh approach to book promotion.

tags | public relations | PR | social media | marketing | Rohit Bhargava | Personality Not Included

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