Strategic Public Relations

A Consumer-Generated, Permission Marketing Mash Up | Friday Flickr Fix | 02.29.08

Flickr has become my alternative to stock photography for three different work projects.

How did I get the one-time usage rights to these photos? I asked the photographers’ permission, described exactly how I would use the photos and I gave them proper credit.

Recently a similar compliment was paid to my rank amateur photo skills by Schmap Dynamic Travel Guides.

This photo of Bloomingdale’s, just off Chicago’s Michigan Avenue, was chosen for inclusion in the fourth edition of the online travel guide.

I was first asked to approve it for consideration and proper credit is given with a link back to my Flickr photo page. Schmap gets a gold star for also offering a widget to promote my inclusion in the guide. Smart.

In this case my photo looks better than the photo on Bloomingdale’s store locater -- albeit I'm a wee bit biased.

Flickr makes it easy to ask for permission. There is no excuse for not taking proper steps as you would when using stock photography.

Perhaps Flickr could make it even easier? Consider a Flickr stock photo service comparable to Corbis or Getty Images. You mark your photos as being eligible when you upload them. If they're used, your Paypal account gets credited accordingly. It would be simple for users and a powerful offering from Flickr.

Temple of Bloomingdale's uploaded by prblog
tags | advertising | marketing | Flickr

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

Xerox, Vaseline, Kleenex, Lego(s) and Q-Tips | Friday Flickr Fix | 02.22.08

Bear with the bad headline as I get to a point.

According to the AP, "Hillary Rodham Clinton accused presidential rival Barack Obama of political plagiarism Thursday night, but drew boos from a Democratic debate audience when she ridiculed him as the candidate of 'change you can Xerox.'"

One of my best client contacts ever trained me to refer to the photocopier as just that. Well-intended patent lawyers drive marketers to preserve their trademarked brand names...with mixed results.

We push marketers to give up control of the message. If this evangelism were a song, might I recommend remaking this 70's ditty?

Put your brand in the hand of the man that buys your product
Put your brand in the hand of the man who spends money
Take a look at yourself and you can look at customers differently
By puttin' your brand in the hand of the man who'll promote for free.

Yeah, I'm going to marketing hell.

My point is that handing over control is not an all or nothing proposition. And before we, er, crucify a company that does not stop, drop and roll over we should stop to consider if that company is driven by legal, engineering or marketing. There is a bigger picture to companies than the pixels marketing pulls together.

Morning Rays uploaded by GR58
tags | advertising | marketing

Message Over Medium Wins 08 Presidential Race

Fresh from a stint at the White House as the Internet and E-Communciations Director, David Almacy is now a VP of Digital Strategies at Waggener Edstrom.

Almacy presented to the Cincinnati Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America earlier this week. I asked him about the allure of social media in the 08 presidential campaigns and that same allure in public relations. His video response is below.

In a world of social media experts, Almacy’s pragmatic views are refreshing. He made several great points in his presentation, and shared stories from his White House tenure that show how fast media (old and new) is moving.

Almacy was getting stories on his Blackberry, pushed from the wire services, a little over two years ago. No news there except that these stories were about the very press conference he was in at that moment. Surreal.

And when numbers for the Bush administration’s annual Barney Cam event decreased at WhiteHouse.gov, Almacy realized that applying mainstream media metrics to online content didn’t make sense. Giving up control of the Barney Cam video and sharing it freely ensured more people saw the footage than ever – albeit tougher to track from one source.

For more of Almacy’s take on politics and social media, check out his CapitalGig blog and a recent interview on The Marketing Edge podcast.

tags | public relations | PRSA | social media | White House | David Almacy | Waggener Edstrom

Top 10 Twitter Hacks

With Twitter gaining momentum everywhere from on the field to in the classroom, I thought some tips might prove helpful.

Call it link bait, call it hypocritical, just don’t call it a comeback.

1) Be a Good Twitter Citizen
If you have a primary ID, name or handle that you use for email or social networks, use the same one on Twitter so you’ll be easily recognized. And in your profile be sure to link back to your Web site, blog or socnet page so folks know who’s following them. The more context you can provide the better – especially if you’re like me and don’t update every single day.

And remember that, while it offers the immediacy of SMS texting, Twitter offers the permanence of blogging. What you say on Twitter stays on Twitter.

2) Send Direct Messages Faster
Sending private messages directly from Twitter’s web interface can be a pain if you have to scroll through a long list of mutual followers. Pressing the first letter of the person’s ID while you are in the DM dropdown allows you to page through names quickly and easily. If you want to spam, er, DM a group of people at once, check out Twitter Groups. Just use it sparingly as we all know how it feels when to get too many group messages. For folks using Twitter via IM, there are even more helpful commands.

3) Twitter Karma
The simplicity of Twitter’s interface can sometimes be its curse. To figure out who’s following whom, check out Twitter Karma. Twitter Karma makes it easy to see your overall follow status and add folks as desired.

4) Gauge Topic Traction
Want to see if the Twitter community is chatting up or linking to a certain topic? You should check out any combination of Twitterverse, Twitterbuzz, Twitstat, and/or Tweetscan.

5) Visualize, Data Mine
There are a couple of ways to quickly visualize your Twitter information. Twitter Blocks allows you to visually navigate your Twitter community of friends and followers. Tweetstats is like Twitter CSI. In a few seconds, it makes it easy to assume that Robert Scoble probably used Twitter via the Web to send a note to Eric Rice early on a Sunday morning in November. Or does that read like the game Clue?

Much like Google, Twitter is always tinkering with its platform so be sure to follow their blog to keep up with the latest tweaks.

6) Fun with Twitter
Most of these “twicks” are thanks to Twitter’s API. Some of them seem to be created purely for the (nerdy) fun of it. Twittertale and Tweetspeak are perfect examples of this. Then there’s the guilty pleasure of Twitter Confessions. Or check out Twitterholic and Tweeterboard to see if you know some folks that might need a Twittervention. Yep, two jokes in one hack. Not my first (or best) attempts at Twitter humor.

More productive fun can be had on Twitter, using it to hone your writing skills.

7) What Does Twitter Look Like?
A Flickr search shows a ton results for Twitter and there is also a Twitter Group on the site. But Photophlow takes this a step further and mashes the two sites together.

8) Save the World
Twitter has potential in helping people get targeted information at a point of need. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office on Women’s Health uses Twitter to broadcast health messages (via Canuckflack).

The American Red Cross has established Safe and Well through the efforts of Ike Pigott. Safe and Well uses Twitter to notify friends and family of your status in the aftermath of a disaster.

A Reuters article points out that “these technologies all have a possible role to play in the aftermath of a natural disaster or human attack, when the danger is over, but not before. Why should anyone trust their lives and those of their families and friends, to systems which they cannot and do not trust even their credit card details to?”

9) Know the News. First
You can subscribe to plenty of news sources on Twitter, including Reuters, The New York Times, Google News and CNN Breaking News. Twitter tends to be an early warning system when it comes to breaking news and you’ll see many stories there before you will on mainstream sites. Reporters are seeing benefits to this.

10) Take Twitter with You
You can push your Twitterstream to Facebook to replace your update and serve it up on your blog as well. This is good as folks are seeing Twitter cut into the volume of blog posts out there.

Twitter by the Ton
There are a metric ton of good Twitter tips, tools and hacks, with new ones being published almost daily. These are just a sample as folks see new uses for Twitter. If you’re on Twitter let me know what your favorite tip is and I’ll add some to this list.

UGAConnect - Athens, GA uploaded by hyku
tags | Twitter | Twitter Hacks

Social Media: Passion Required

Lunch today with some talented friends from a local digital agency yielded a quote that gave me a simple epiphany.

We were pointing out the fallacy in assuming that younger digital natives are social media naturals and how older, er, more mature digital immigrants are not usually tech-savvy.

So if age isn't necessarily relevant, what skills are needed to figure out how all this stuff is supposed to work -- from a bigger, strategic picture to the hands on tactical elements?

"It doesn't matter what you're learning or why (work/school/play/profit). You need passion to figure out social media."

Yeah, this is far from earth-shattering. And it could easily be applied to more than just social media. But it helps explain why you see folks attend social media workshops and sit through presentations and discussions with a blank stare on their face. You assume they're there more because they know they need to learn than because they want to learn.

Social media doesn't come in pill form. Be curious, play with it, apply it. Results will vary.

mosaic0bbac520af2406752265bc85f8425ebd uploaded by opexxx wont pay for censorship
tags | social media

Lasting Impact: Storytelling Makes Messages Memorable

PR Tactics editor John Elsasser tapped me to write an article for their latest issue. At more than 800 words, it’s considered blasphemously long for a blog post. But I'm not sure if it’ll be posted online or not so I posted it below. Check out PR Tactics print edition if you prefer the more nostalgic approach to content consumption.

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We spend countless hours choosing the best message, format and medium to reach our audiences when the most powerful communication device is the one we seem to use the least – storytelling.

Stories make our messages easier to remember and have been used throughout history to help explain concepts more effectively, according to “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink.

Starbucks is built on story. The ubiquitous barista was almost named Pequod Coffee Company after the boat in “Moby Dick.” Starbucks’ founders felt the name would evoke the romance of the high seas.

Thankfully naming consultants were quick to point out that consumers would not stand in line to drink a cup of Pequod. The owners instead settled on Starbuck, the first mate on the Pequod. And today there are more than 13,168 locations in 40 countries worldwide.

A Mix of Fact and Emotion
In "The Elements of Persuasion,"Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman define a story as “a fact, wrapped in an emotion that compels us to take an action that transforms our world.”

The use of fact and emotion in a story is critical – particularly in public relations. A message focusing just on emotion can be easily dismissed. At the same time, isolated facts are not remembered easily by an audience. In a world cluttered with messages competing for audience time and attention, stories and our messages require both elements to be effective.

What’s the Story?
So how do you write a story? Whether it’s three sentences or three volumes in length, stories need to have a basic structure – a beginning, middle and end.

An Appetizing Beginning: Every story must quickly grab reader attention with an interesting hook. This whets their appetite and draws them into the story. And while some basic facts should be established, they should be chosen carefully to slowly reveal the story.

The Meaty Middle: Once the reader is engaged, serve up the story’s main course to keep them satisfied. Any initial problems established or assertions made will play out in full.

End with Dessert, Not Desert: Once a reader is engaged, don’t end the story without the best part. An ending brings resolution to the story. Good or bad the ending leaves the reader with distinct feelings and usually a call to action.

Starting with these basic elements, creativity is the only limit to how you tell your story. And there are some ways to help make storytelling second nature.

Learn by Doing
Telling your own story is great practice for doing it on the job. StoryCorps is an organization that encourages you to tell your story. Considered to be the largest oral history project of its kind, StoryCorps transports sound booths across the country with the goal of recording people’s stories in an audio format. Some of the stories are rebroadcast on NPR and all of them wind up in the Library of Congress.

Stories (Don’t) Write Themselves
Images, audio and video are easier than ever to create and can easily be added to a story to increase audience engagement. But be selective and creative about using these elements to enhance a story.

Before you give an executive some screen time or add a grip and grin photo of the company founder shaking hands with the CEO, ask the question – “does it improve the message?” If audio/visual elements don’t make a message easier to understand, and more memorable, they distract the audience. Even worse, you’re wasting everyone’s time.

Less is More
While images, audio and video can enhance your story; an effective story relies on top-notch writing. Writing more frequently helps improve skills; writing with fewer words makes the end result more efficient and effective.

There are several unconventional online approaches to whittling down the word count. One Word posts one word each day and gives you 60 seconds to write about it. The photo sharing site Flickr is home to The Six Word Story Group where members submit photos with captions no longer than six words. The end result must tell a story.

Make a (Power) Point
Anyone still skeptical about the power of storytelling in business should visit SlideShare. The site is YouTube for PowerPoint presentations and it serves up endless examples of good (and really bad) approaches to storytelling through the de facto software for business presentations. As an example, SlideShare has more than 400 presentations on storytelling alone and the site will inspire your use of PowerPoint.

Taking these steps will make storytelling second nature. And as we are continually challenged to gain the attention of time-starved audiences, this proven device will help us meet this challenge.

In the case of Starbucks, the story of its naming is part of the foundation on which the coffee company has built its success. Not bad for a cup of Pequod.

Going up! uploaded by Todd Huffman
tags | public relations | PR | PRSA | storytelling | Starbucks

Will Twitter Survive the Super Bowl?

Lots of great content leading up to Super Bowl XLII, including urban legends and stock tips.

Super Bowl ad content is more bountiful than ever. Consider that Super Bowl ads from 87-06 account for more than 11 hours of commercial time. This translates into more than 1,400 commercials and as much as $1.72 billion of ad sales. Firebrand alone has a week’s worth of content.

I’ve covered the ads in the past and even sat on a panel of reviewers. If I weigh in during the game this year, it will be via Twitter. Many folks will be doing the same as it's less work. Twitter also allows you to do so quickly and easily while still enjoying the game.

TIP: There are a few ways to gauge an ad’s performance. Don't forget to mine Twitter after the game.

But will Twitter be able to survive the added traffic the game is sure to bring with it? MacWorld and recent service outages suggest no. Guess I’m rooting for two underdogs this year.

Twitter Bought the Farm uploaded by Jestu what?!
Super Bowl XLII | Super Bowl ads | Super Bowl