Strategic Public Relations

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

Consuming the News through Feeds, Rivers and Trees

Prior to Friendfeed, one of the easiest ways to follow a byzantine configuration of blogs and websites was to build a list of feeds in a newsreader like Bloglines or Google Reader.

Friendfeed introduced the “river of news” concept. Some call it lifestreaming. OK, but doesn't life happen offline?

Semantics aside, the river of news makes it easier to scroll through blog posts as they're published. Friendfeed works great for browsing the latest. And while it’s not a pass through, it makes it tougher for me to keep up with an individual blogs' posts.  So from an archival standpoint, a feed reader has always been my mainstay.

Get on the Newsmap
When I saw Newsmap for the first time; I was impressed as it allows you to see a lot of news at once. But unlike news sites like Drudge Report for example, you can immediately discern which stories are getting the most coverage. I’d love to have the browsing functionality of Newsmap for something like Bloglines.

When I first read about Our Signal, I realized that my wish list might not be too unrealistic. According to the site,

Oursignal.com looks at currently popular items on the top social news sites (i.e. Digg, Reddit, del.icio.us, Hacker News) and mashes it all together in an interactive treemap, very similar to the well-known Google Newsmap. The idea is to allow users to get a rapid overview of what the latest breaking headlines are at the frontline of the intermatubes. The bigger the rectangle, the more relative votes a story has. The warmer the color, the quicker the story is on the rise. Cooler colors denote negative velocity.”

Treemaps, Rivers or Feed Readers?
Consuming the news is getting tougher to do. Sites like Newser are helping with big headlines, but a treemap/feed reader combo would make consuming the news a lot easier.

As news continues to flow, it's key to develop a smart approach to staying informed. What's your best tip for staying on top of the news?

Ignore Everybody | BOOK REPORT | 08.25.09

If I had to sum up Hugh MacLeod’s first book as a Twitter post, it would be “to thine own (creative) self be true.”

MacLeod sums it up a bit differently in his final chapter: “Work hard. Keep at it. Live simply and quietly. Remain humble. Stay positive. Create your own luck. Be nice. Be polite.”

Not Your Father’s Business Book
MacLeod’s 40-chapter creative manifesto is a quick, inspiring read -- peppered with salty language.

This is only worth mentioning due to the rare cussing in business books. But in fact it reinforces a point the book makes about “drawing a line between what you are willing to do and what you are not willing to do” and the cost of commercial success.

How do you maintain the authority to draw that line? This answer involves one of my favorite parts of the book, “the sex and cash theory.” Creative folks have a job to pay the bills and a job that is sexy and their true passion.

Another interesting piece from the book discusses how once your creative idea starts to take root and get momentum people join your cause. Do they understand the idea and agree with it or do they just want to share in the momentum? If it’s the latter your cause could derail. I'll note that hangers on like to steer the train.

Ignore Everybody and 39 other Keys to Creativity
Both of the above examples make a point that this book is applicable to a wide swath of folks that are creative, consider themselves creative and want to be (more) creative. There’s some good stuff in this book and worth picking up a copy.

Pay It Forward
This book landed in my hands thanks to the generosity of David E. Bowman. So I thought it only fair to also pass it along in the hopes we can keep it travelling. I’m sending it North to Colin McKay, also known as Canuckflack.

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

Free Agent Nation 2.0

The news media have been making a lot of historic comparisons when serving up various economic statistics. The journalists are simply trying to depict the level of economic turmoil around us. But, more often than not, their readers are already living it.

In fact I started working four-day weeks in January. So I launched a new site promoting my consulting practice. It’s hard to believe I’ve had my vanity URL parked since March 11, 2000. But nine years later, I proudly launched kevindugan.com.

And the timing couldn’t be better for my launch. As of April 1, I became a full-time, free agent. So my silence here has been due to my full frontal consulting efforts. I’m also exploring full-time opportunities.

Powered by Ample
The site was created in Ruby on Rails by the team at Ample. Josh, Rob, Bobby, Kevin and Adam do great work and I enjoyed working with them.

Eating my own Dog Food
The site design is based around the concept of content distribution, something I’ve written about before. The definition of content has changed and, more importantly, how content can be shared and served up in new ways. Kevindugan.com serves up my content from a variety of online properties. I’ve aggregated these content streams into one site to “get credit” for all of it in one spot.

So I appreciate your patience as my reports might be a little spotty until I either settle comfortably into free agent nation or find another full-time gig. In the meantime, there’s plenty more on the concept of slippery content to dig into. Henry Jenkins calls it ”spreadable media.” Check it out, stop by my shiny new site and watch this space for (so. very. much.) more.

Pepsi’s SXSW Mash-Up Creates Content from Twitter Cacophony

Social media continues to morph the definition of content -- the latest example of this evolution comes from Pepsi. Pepsi Zeitgeist, a Twitter Mash-Up, tracks activity at the SXSW festival to serve up content that is equal parts fun, pretty and impressive.

Fun: If you’re reading this blog, odds are good you’ve seen more than a few tweets in your Twitter stream sporting a #sxsw tag. Pepsi categorizes all of these tweets into one of six buckets (arriving, drinking, registering, eating, connecting or partying). The tweets are aggregated into a simple visual so you can keep your finger on the pulse of the event.

It’s a smart way to aggregate the metric ton of #sxsw tweets being dispatched from the army of mobile phones and laptops in Austin, TX for the next few days. It also gives the event’s non-attendees a fun way to easily connect with it (and Pepsi).

Pretty: The interface is dead simple. The content is served up as easy-to-digest visuals and the end result is powerful in its simplicity. If I tried to wade through 500 tweets and create something like this for a tracking report it would not be as easy on the eyes.

Impressive: This is only one facet of Pepsi’s efforts at SXSW this year, including their own Twitter ID, blog posts and their Podcast Playground. But for someone not at the show, the Pepsi Zeitgeist site is their crown jewel. The site is a simple way to make a big impact.

Perhaps the most impressive part of the site is the Swarm page. The Swarm page measures the sentiment of food-related tweets and maps them to eateries around the Austin area. So someone tuning into the site can get a great WOM recommendation to see if it’s worth their time to stand in line at that barbecue joint they’re anxious to check out.

The Zeitgeist site is a smart use of Twitter data and a great example of how even thousands of tweets can become visual content.

Zeitgeist also provides a memorable brand experience for consumers by providing value without requiring anything in exchange.

screen grabs uploaded by prblog
tags | public relations | PR | social media | marketing | Pepsi | SXSW | brand

"...kind of a big deal" | Friday Flickr Fix/Four Links | 01.02.09

When Ron Burgundy said “I don't know how to put this, but I'm kind of a big deal,” he believed it. I on the other hand refuse to believe my own press. But there have been a few self-serving links of note recently that I shamelessly humbly offer up below.

1) The Single Best PR Advice for 2009 – Think Like a News Organization | Marketing Edge Podcast
Albert Maruggi invited me to join him for an episode of the Marketing Edge podcast. We focused on media relations, social media and the Bad Pitch blog.

2) Plugging into social media across Cincinnati | Soapbox Cincinnati
In this article about a recent social media event, Jackie Reau refers to me as the "Godfather of social media in Cincinnati." Despite my urge to segue way into quotes from the Godfather trilogy, I’ll simply note that I appreciate her saying it and I appreciate Soapbox Cincinnati publishing it.

3) Cincinnati Social Media Breakfast 4 - It’s All About Sharing | Kribaby
Bryan Person’s Social Media Breakfast has been a hit in Cincinnati. Krista Neher gives us an overview of the latest event and I also created a quick video recap.

4) Werner-VonderHaar-Bogart Award | PR Visions
This news merits its own post, but I’m trying to downplay my pride in winning it. The Werner-VonderHaar-Bogart Award is the highest honor the Cincinnati PRSA chapter bestows upon a public relations professional. It’s named after three Cincinnati chapter presidents who advanced to national PRSA president. It is a genuine honor and surprise to learn I am this year’s recipient.

i don't know how to put this, but i'm kind of a big deal. uploaded by sevenworlds16
tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | marketing | Kevin Dugan | Cincinnati

Creative Ad FAIL(s)

Maybe I’m reading FAIL blog too much lately. But when this seemingly creative ad execution hit my desk, FAIL quickly became the caption for it.

The picture shows what looks to be your average belly band. This type of ad has been around for years and now is even seen online.

The print version wraps around the outside of a magazine and it might even contain editorial content. The format is expensive as it guarantees exposure and usually comes with a free ad inside the magazine.

What sets this belly band apart is that it doesn’t wrap around the magazine. It wraps around to a spread ad in the magazine -- ensuring the reader sees the ad. Call it intrusive, but it gets your attention.

The belly band copy is short, sweet and sets up the reader. The payoff is in the spread ad which includes the obligatory, drama interior shot.

So how does it FAIL?! There is NO web address on the ad. A quick phone number and email are the only way to follow up if this company intrigued you enough to make you want to learn more.

To be clear, this is not my suddenly snobby nerd side. Consider the purchase decision cycle.

The ad is designed to make an impact so there’s little copy. Shouldn’t the reader have an option to learn more about the company before they are required to phone or e-mail? It feels like a step is missing in between the ad execution and connecting live.

That’s my take. What do you think?

Belly Band 1, Belly Band 2 and Belly Band 3 uploaded by prblog
tags | trade media | advertising | marketing | brand

Twitter Gets (More) Mainstream

Jim Borgman is a great, Cincinnati-based cartoonist…one I've linked to before

His latest effort gives a nod to Twitter.

Fun to see the mainstream weigh in on the shiny new tools.

via Daniel Johynson Jr.