Strategic Public Relations

"Updating Your Status" | A Twitter Parody Tune ♫ ♪

I like Cake -- the food that's spawned a ton of TV shows and, more importantly, the band.

I like Twitter too. So why did I take the Cake song "Going the Distance" and create this Twitter parody?

If we can't laugh at ourselves, what's the point? Just be thankful I didn't pick "Tweet It" and I'm not into karaoke.

Is it funny? You tell me. But it's definitely a parody. So here's one of my favorite earworms -- dedicated to the social plaform, and cottage industry, that's grown up around it.

"Updating Your Status"
140 characters, a parting line
Fingers nimble and dancing in time
The fail wail flashes, No tweets go out
So Mashable and Techcrunch begin to shout

We talk amongst ourselves and post cool links
But does it do any good or cause you to think?
Shallow and brief it adds to the chatter
And we follow people who seem to matter

As we speed read old tweets, Twitter’s still down
More nerds up in arms, a worldwide frown
The site is free, unless you promote content
Hoping and praying Twitter’s a silver bullet

Google Wave’s coming down as Facebook grows up
Yet YouTube’s showing two girls, one cup?
So we’re surfing, and skimming and watching news spread
Life streaming is Hard. “That’s what she said.”

Refrain
Updating your status
Polluting the stream
It’s TMI. TMI. Needy and kind of boring

We use hashtags, DMs and retweets too
Drinking coffee, Redbull or Mt. Dew
We’re updating our status

Yeah!

No tweetups no twitpics, no memes, no doubt
How would we function, whine or pout?
When bowel shaking earthquakes and other events
Take place in the world, Twitter informs. People still vent.

We tell all it’s essential, a most important site.
But would we pay for it? Pfft, yeah, right.
We keep surfing and linking and watching news spread
Did you hear the latest? Abe Vigoda’s still. not. dead.

As Foursquare gets down Facebook Places goes up
Half a billion users? All your base are belong to us.
Now you’re going geo-loco with your Twitter gang.
I’m headed out for some coffee, do you wanna hang?

Refrain

Fail Whale uploaded by Mariana Pugliese

1984 - not an instruction manual

Preparing for an upcoming presentation, I was considering the documentation vs. experience trend and its impact on consumer consumption habits.

As Ricky Van Veen notes, people are more into recording the trip to Disney World than the trip itself. A socially-inclined, smartphone-toting park guest could check in on Foursquare, record their mouse-inspired lunch on Foodspotting and brag about their Phineas and Ferb t-shirt on Barcode Hero.

This is a nice change of pace because normally they're just logging in their Phineas and Ferb TV time on Tunerfish. And it doesn't have to stop there, with apps like Stickybits and Layar the park guest has even more opps to record actions deemed private by most of us.

Even one of the most private actions of all can now be recorded thanks to Sit or Squat (an inductee into the brand utility hall of fame, imho).

Overshare Begets Groupthink?
This is not to say Facebook is Skynet or the classic book 1984 has come true. Orwell's tome was written during a much different time and is not a comment on consumer use of technology.

But it amazes me that:

We've gone from a society that fears the documentation of our actions by an organization to one that willingly records and shares them with social media sites.

I'm obviously comfortable doing so. But even I have limits as to what I share online. Surprised?

I'm not suggesting we rethink this, jump off the grid and start lining our hats with aluminum foil. But as consumers we need to think about our information sharing in the big picture. Consumers get a sense of entitlement with free sites like Facebook and Twitter. But your privacy is a participation sport. And this is bigger than game mechanics. Spend some time with the terms of service around the sites with which you share information.

Thankfully there are people much smarter than me dedicated to following the topic of privacy. They can help. Belly up to this site and spend some quality time.

The Ultimate Social Media Site is Onsite

The final stop on Day One of the #140conf found @jeffpulver and team in Cincinnati for a Sunday evening RoadTrip TweetUp.

The attendees, the stories and the entire experience remind me that no social media platform can replicate the original social network – meeting live and in person.

Putting faces to names and Twitter handles is part of it. But you obviously learn so much more than you can from even the most well-crafted 140 character missive.  We should all do it more often.

With more than 20 people in attendance, there were plenty of stories to tell and document about Cincinnati’s social media community. From something as simple as trading tips about the iPhone and iPad with @elliotcampbell and @JoeyWessels to learning about the latest social media efforts at Union Terminal with @Doug4Cincy. Catching up with folks like @danieljohnsonjr @kristaneher and meeting folks for like @AmelahG and @jamieboyle for the first time reminds me of how essential these events really are.

Perhaps it was the dose of inspiration from Jeff as he explained his mission for #140conf. All of the scheduled events look like they have enormous potential. In a format that forces value from the speaker and optimizes every attendee’s investment of time and money, October’s event in Detroit is definitely worth attending.

Thanks to all who attended. Here are some links to Cincinnati Tweet Up Video and Pics. Below are the Twitter handles I recorded. I know I missed a few so let me know who’s not on the list. 

#conf140 Team
@jeffpulver @AlanWeinkrantz @Krochmal @geogeller

Attendees:
@prblog @milanmike @gozapit @ncyp23 @jamieboyle @AmelahG @knrose @checkin_cincy @mbdunnusa @daveknox @Girlfriendology @elliotcampbell @JoeyWessels @Doug4Cincy. @danieljohnsonjr @kristaneher

Sponsors:
@kodak @smartwater @buick @doubletreehtls

Cross-Posted to my work blog Social Study
A Call to #140conf posted by @prblog

Influence, huh, yeah, what is it good for...

With apologies to Edwin Starr, when did the word influence join the commoditized dictionary with experience, integrated, solutions and the like?

Was it when the word was first used (incorrectly) as a synonym to popularity? I'm not sure. And I don't really care. But popularity is not the same as influence and ever since Fast Company's much-discussed "Influence Project" debuted, I've become interested in defining influence once and for all.

The Importance of Influence
At Empower, we use influence as a guide to our blogger relations efforts. It's an important metric. We know it makes more sense to talk to the people that count than simply count the people that talk about you. If you think influence is popularity, you'd assume a tweet from me was more influential than a tweet from Pete Blackshaw. And anyone that follows the marketing and advertising industries understands how flawed that thinking is.

All Eyes on SXSWi 2011
Instead of just blogging about it, I've connected with three other industry professionals to focus on the topic and present our findings at SXSWi. But we need your help. Please vote for our panel and leave a comment at the panel picker adding your thoughts to this conversation.

Please vote for Influencer Throwdown: Proving Influence Once & For All. Helping me clarify this important concept are David Binkowski, Krista Neher and Saul Colt. It's important concept. It's important to note this panel will NOT be the usual death by PowerPoint. We'll also have some constructive conclusions in addition to our strong opinions and energized group discussion. You'll have to register to vote and comment.

Our panel is one of more than 2,300 vying for a spot on the packed schedule for Austin next year. There are several ideas worth considering just from the Cincinnati area alone. Once you're registered, consider the following panels:

* Branded! Grocery Store Insights in the Digital Age: The team from LPK will be pouring some hard-earned insights into their presentation. You can't walk through a grocery store in North America without seeing some of LPK's branding and packaging work.

* Are We Not Men? Reaching New American Dads: Craig Heimbuch from Man of the House is spearheading this panel. Cincinnati Social Media had Man of the House at a recent event on community management. It's a great community sponsored by P&G with a lot of important things to say. I for one am hoping they can get dads portrayed as something other than out of touch buffoons in today's advertising.

* The Future of Nonprofits: Building Change-able Organizations: Randall Moss and David Neff will provide practical tools to create a culture of innovation within any non-profit organization.

* Rapid Prototyping a new model for Higher Education: Glenn Platt, one of two presenters from Miami University's Interactive Studies puts it best: "The destructive creation that entrepreneurs have embraced has put the traditional university into a tailspin. The presenters will present an explicit model for the future of higher education. We will examine the entire higher education eco-system and there are no sacred cows. The well-designed higher education experience involves theory, practice, collaboration, cooperative authorship, distribution & re-construction of knowledge, and radical re-thinking of credentials."

A diverse, world-class group bringing serious ideas to bear just from my home town. Be sure to rock the vote and I really appreciate your time and consideration. Voting ends this week. So I'll resume regular programming shortly. ;-)

Cross-posted to my work blog, Social Study.

The Press Release (a rant. for immediate release.)

Should the press release die? Or should it just become a social media press release? Hey, a press release and social media are like peanut butter and chocolate folks. Are you going to pass on a Reese's?! 

Um, who cares?!

OK, I understand there's a sh!t ton of money tied up in the distribution of press releases --from the agencies writing them and the blogs, conferences, workshops, e-books and teleseminars offering tips on how to write better press releases to the wire services and media databases helping to push them out (more than 2,000 each day on average I'm told).

The press release represents its own ecosystem of content and some of that content might even be newsworthy. Even the Bad Pitch blog recommends the topic as part of a balanced diet. But when the topic eclipses the industry discussion, is that balanced? 

There are plenty of times the press release is a worthy topic of discussion. I'm not overlooking the obvious need to teach, practice and hone our craft. But the current and steady level of discussion around the press release I'm seeing in the industry is comparable to a group of world famous artists constantly talking about which type of frame is best for their paintings. It's well-intended, but it misses the point. 

Rant, Party of One?
At the end of the day, if it's newsworthy, it doesn't matter what format it's in. Serve it up on toast...there are more than enough creative options. But the more the public relations industry talks about the press release, the more we have an answer as to why PR doesn't have a seat at the table.

The public relations industry needs to spend as much time on critical thinking, where we provide more value, as it does on the nitty gritty of the tactics. Maybe this rant is telling me the industry needs to spend more time on critical thinking. Perhaps it's the challenge of a discipline that must scale between thoughtful strategy and detail-oriented execution. But that's more of an opportunity than anything else.

The Impossible Dream uploaded by Sagesnow
Cross-Posted to the Bad Pitch blog

Yep. I Was Hacked.

Looks like I was hacked. Email, blog and, thanks to the interconnectedness of the Web, Twitter by default.

Cleaning things up now. Thanks to everyone for the heads up. And sorry for the inconvenience.

Five Twitter Tips

People sometimes ask me how they can enjoy Twitter more. Here are five tips I’ve employed to make the most of this now iconic social utility.

1) Use TweepML: TweepML is a great resource for finding lists of like-minded Twitter folk. It also makes it dead simple to follow a group of people. Be sure to create some of your own lists. By being included on TweepML lists, the site has generated more than 1,100 followers for me over time.

2) Be Current Eventful: We counsel clients to have a social media editorial calendar so they’re not stuck without relevant conversation starters. Another thing to consider is tapping into current events, popular TV shows or sporting events and participating in the discussion. It’s a great way to become part of the community and to truly connect more with folks on Twitter. Also consider Twitter Chats – these are live virtual events held on Twitter. There are chats held for just about any topic. Find one of interest to you or create your own – just be sure to use a tool like Tweetchat to make the event easier to follow and participate in.

3) Tap Into OneForty: OneForty’s goal is “to give you access to the very best tools that make Twitter valuable.” Their site provides an easy way to find tools and other sites that help you get even more from Twitter. You can rate the sites you find and also create your own toolkits to collect and share your favorite sites with other users.

4) Follow the Law of Thirds: Ever go to someone’s Twitter page and see that every tweet is almost identical and usually self-promotional? How likely are you to return to those profiles much less follow them? The Law of Thirds is a general guideline designed to help you provide a good mix of content. You’ll want to tweet value content, conversation as well as some self-promotional information. Value content includes POV thoughts, live tweets from a conference and/or links to things you think are cool and useful -- but that have nothing to do with you. Mixing in some self-promotion can be done. Just try not to offer too much of it -- or any of the other thirds for that matter.

5) Put Style in the Profile: Twitter is all about making personal connections. Filling our your profile with your personal information, adding a picture of yourself and even customizing your background goes a long way in giving your profile a personal feel. It shows people you’re serious about participating, helps them make a connection with you and encourages them to follow you. It’s understandable that some folks would rather protect their tweets or minimize the amount of information they provide in their profile. But their amount of followers will be impacted as a result.

Twitter is a lot like life in that you get out of it what you put into it. These sites and tips make it easier to work smart with Twitter and get even more out of it. They’ve definitely helped me appreciate the little blue bird more.

Time Cover Story: How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live (in 140 characters of less) uploaded by stevegarfield
Cross-posted to my work blog, Social Study

What do you want on your tombstone?

This is not a pizza ad. It's a question I pondered during a long, 11 hour drive back from my vacation. It's not intended to be morbid.

Asking, and answering, the question can help you focus on what really matters to you in your personal and your professional life.

And in today's world of microblogging, status updates and elevator speeches, this exercise is warranted.

Only half-jokingly, I have to wonder how soon we'll start to see text abbreviations used on a headstone?

It's not something I'm looking forward to. But it will bring a whole new meaning to OMG. And you know someone would use FML. I'd consider TTYL or an unrelated option: pwnd it.

None of these options will make the final cut. I'm more focused on the question than the above humor may lead you to believe.

Hopefully you'll consider the question, and your answer, as well.