Strategic Public Relations

Beyond Wikileaks: The U.S. Military & Social Media

A tweet linking to the U.S. Army's Social Media Handbook snowballed into this post. The handbook joins the U.S. Air Force's popular Rules of Engagement for Blogging as a mainstream example of the military's grasp of social media. This made me wonder about the Navy's, Marines' and even the Coast Guard's social media presence.

While Wikileaks might make some assume otherwise, the U.S. military has a forward approach to, and an extensive investment in, social media to help tell its story, connect troops with their families and even to mine military intelligence.

Social Storytelling
The Army's SlideShare presence may seem out of character -- until you examine all of this branch's social media efforts. The Department of Defense links to more than 1,100 individual Army accounts/pages across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and Flickr alone. The Army's online game has become a popular recruitment tool and it offers a variety of mobile apps and downloads.

Family Ties
Connecting soldiers to their families through social media is an obvious win. And consider that the armed forces have had a social media policy in place since World World II. While social media can't replace in-person contact, it can certainly help offset the impact of being away from family and friends.

Military Intelligence -- The Other Side of Wikileaks
According to The New York Times, the military uses "social networking skills to hunt insurgents." Threat surveillance and training are both aspects of social media that help inform and prepare the military.

According to Guy Hagen's Intel 3.0 blog: Just as the USDOD is conscious about having critical information leaked out through the blogs of U.S. military personnel, it sees opportunity for finding clues to future threats and terrorist activities in social media, particularly those relating to particular geographic regions or communities.

With the various social media uses, sites and assets the military claims, it's no surprise WIRED and Gartner point to the U.S. Defense's approach as the new standard -- eliminating its social media office and making it part of everyone's role.

Additional Resources
Click here for a curated list of related links.
For a Twitter list of Military, Government and Related Twitter Accounts, click here.

Cross-Posted to my personal blog, Strategic Public Relations.

3 Storytelling Hacks | Curation Tools

Here are three curation tools I've been using to help tell stories online. I'm still figuring some of them out, but I'm sharing them them here for your feedback and insight.

Make Your Story a Scoop: Scoop It is one of a handful of curation tools to emerge from the Web 2.0 fire hose they're designed to mitigate. Scoop It helps you curate links, and even suggests links for your topic. You can add descriptions to each link for context and Scoop It serves them up nicely on a permalinked page. It's simple, easy and does a great job of serving up the content. Check out this video for an overview.

Here's my work-related example. I'm pulling together specific stories to create an overview of some recent company news. Scoop It can help quickly establish credibility for a topic and it's easy to share the content.

Send a Video Snippet: BlipSnips is a sophisticated option for deep linking to YouTube videos. BlipSnips allows you to tag/link to multiple points of a video from a single page. You can even use it to embed video from a specific starting point. This link takes you to a video project I worked on -- one minute into the video. I used the tag to leave a personal note for someone and, in this work-related example, I'm using BlipSnips to create a very customized pitch.

Crowdsource a Story with Flickr: Flickr allows you to crowdsource your story. Signs of Social Media is a public group I created to illustrate how brands are promoting their social media presence. The group curates images of everything from subtle details at your favorite tavern and CNN's latest TV newcast to package design and even a brand's pimped out office space.

After posting my content to the group, I searched for photos tagged with relevant keywords like “Facebook + sign” and “social media + retail". If I found a good picture, I invited it/that user to the group. This helps tell a much richer story than I could with just my own photos -- twice as many in this instance. A simpler, and much more random, example of this is Hash Albums. This site pulls all images from Twitter and organizes them into albums based on their hash tags. Since it's automated, it's really aggregation vs.curation, but it's worth checking out.

Transmedia Meal vs. Broadcast Buffet
Transmedia Storytelling may sound like shiny new semantics, but it recognizes and encapsulates the various ways we're able to tell a story online. The three options above are more visually focused. Steve Rubel offers up markdown language as a way to ensure even simpler formats can be consumed and spread.

To avoid getting mired in the various tips, tools and hacks designed to help us publish content, even the ones above, use transmedia storytelling to take a more holistic view of your content and how it supports your goals. This will help you avoid the broadcast trap. Just because there are 20+ ways to tell a story doesn't mean you need to use them all.

Less really is more.

Sunday Paper uploaded by Brendan Lynch

Can You Pass the Social Media Relations Quiz?

 

In 2007, I wrote a post called "Ready to Pitch a Blog? Take This Quiz First." Three and a half years later, I'm revisiting it to celebrate the Bad Pitch blog's Fifth Birthday.

While I thought I'd be noting how much has changed since it was written, it still holds up. But I've edited it a bit to better reflect 2011.
---
Everyone wants to know the secret formula to pitching blogs. The secret is it takes more than pitching.

While many approach bloggers and journalists similarly, there's as much different about them as there is similar. From the amount of time needed to pitch and where each group fits in a strategy to the materials and approach taken, there's a difference.

As blog-savvy firms forge ahead, here are six questions you should be able to answer in the affirmative before you start pitching a blog. Have you...

Read more than the most recent post of the blog?

Searched the blog for your client or relevant product/service/industry terms to see if they are even covered?

Subscribed to the blog’s RSS feed or e-mail delivery to make it easier to follow over time and to boost their audience metrics?

Left a comment on the blog that continues the discussion and is unrelated to your pitch?

Looked for posts and links from their home page telling you if/how the blog author likes to receive information?

Sent the blog author an email unrelated to your pitch?

Does this read like a lot of work? Keep in mind you're building a relationship, not "puking swag all over bloggers and expecting them to clean it up."**

If your news doesn’t merit this level of effort, don’t pitch it to a blog. This will eliminate a few of the irrelevant news releases many blogs receive.

If you answered no to any of the above, you may need to ramp up your approach to mainstream media first. Here are four tips.

Send a reporter a relevant story idea or a lead that has nothing to do with your client. It builds the relationship and turns you into a source. This increases the odds you’ll be sought out for a story in the future.

Set up a Google News Alert on a specific reporter to follow their work more closely.

Seek out a reporter on Slideshare, Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn or Twitter to learn more about them and connect with them as relevant. Just make sure it’s in context. Do NOT pitch a reporter using these channels unless they specifically request it. That's just skeevy.

Study up on current events…news is media relations jet fuel.

Does this read like a lot of work? Well as the definition of a media outlet morphs, so must our approach to engaging with them. And as more and more bloggers extend the olive branch, the price of a bad pitch is increasing -- less coverage, whiny bloggers, angry clients and amused competitors.

**This is a paraphrased quote from blogger Andrea Deckard when she noted successful brands and agencies are building relationships. But "many brands still puke swag all over bloggers and expect them to clean it up."

Cross-posted to the Bad Pitch blog

 

2011: The Year of Media Convergence

One trend that’s taking place as you read this, one with big implications for brands in 2011, is media convergence.

Digital technology is dissolving the silos used to organize media types and media channels. Paid, owned and earned media (POEM) are blending together across channels that are much more fluid and flexible than ever before – once again due to digital technology.

Empower MediaMarketing is tracking media convergence throughout the year and we created this video to kick things off.



Join the Conversation
No Channels is armed with the video, infographic, Flickr Group and articles that underscore how digital technology is dissolving traditional media silos. And we also want to hear from you.

There are plenty of examples – from iPad’s impact on print and broadcast (since launching a scant 9 months ago) to game consoles turning TVs into full-blown media centers.

Which ones stand out as a fad, and which ones are significant?

The site will update frequently with the discussion as we study the trend, curate content, provide our POV, discuss it with you and detail how brands are responding to this media blend trend.

We've been discussing this for some time now and I’m looking forward to more. Pete Blackshaw, Brian Solis and Jay Baer are already pointing to 2011 as one of convergence. So check out the site, share the content and weigh in on the trend. We’ll be participating -- via any number of screens of course.

Cross-Posted to my work blog, Thought Leadership 

2011 Trend: Changing State of Work

Gyro:HSR (my former employer) created a video to kick off their study of consumers experiencing the impact of technology as it eliminates the 9-5(ish) walls around their professional lives.

"I'm in @work State of Mind" 
With apologies to Mr. Joel, I think this trend has been brewing since 1997 when Daniel Pink chronicled "Free Agent Nation" in Fast Company magazine. The free agent workforce altered the conventional workplace.

In addition to changing roles, management styles are also changing and employees are responding more positively to intrinsic rewards than the traditional, extrinsic reward model. This topic is covered in Drive, once again by Daniel Pink.

Time Shifting 2.0?
The video above suggests that "despite all our rage we're still just rat's in a cage" -- or perhaps a wifi tether. Instead of having more leisure time, the technology is creating more work for consumers.

But I think there are exceptions to this rule. Some consumers, including many profiled in "Free Agent Nation" and Drive, choose the ability to dive in and out of work as warranted. In return, these consumers have the flexibility in when and where they work. It's a form of time shifting for corporate America. The work simply is no longer kept to a day tight compartment.

I'm not being naive when I use the term 9 to 5 and day tight compartment. But I do think work was already spilling outside of those boundaries before my iPhone brought it to me via its Retina display. 

This is an important distinction. As screenagers get older, an @work state of mind will become a seamless part of the multiscreen experience they're becoming known for now. And there will be give and take so they won't feel like work is increasing at the expense of leisure.

Social Media: It's Messy
This @work state of mind is definitely another facet of the "social media is messy" discussion. Facebook alone is forcing the separation of work and play issue as many consumers see their professional and personal lives overlapping online -- at many levels. Part of that is a privacy discussion perhaps. But it's interesting from a "business anthropology" standpoint.

As GyroHSR's Segal notes, the technology is definitely a primary driver. “The proliferation of network communications and hand-held devices has turned work from a place into a state of mind." It's another
consideration brands must take when engaging with brand participants.

In fact, 2011 will be one big year of convergence. MUCH more on that in my next post. :-)

Four Hairy Weeks & Avatars Saving the World

Geoff Livingston, Richard Laermer and I were in a friendly discussion awhile ago about the Cartoon Avatar campaign on Facebook.

You may recall the campaign wherein everyone was encouraged to swap out their profile picture with their favorite cartoon character* to increase the awareness of the issue of child abuse.

We all agreed to post on the topic. Instead of posting my take on the Bad Pitch blog (in a timely manner), I’m responding here to leave some space for my co-author to do the same.

Geoff makes some great points, including the dark side of lightweight user actions – slacktivism. The first wave of this debate brought the movement’s leader, a volunteer named Jay, under intense scrutiny -- the likes of which is usually quickly (and anonymously) organized online.

As I’m late to the game I’ll make some broader observations as cause awareness raising efforts are fueling a backlash.

Ideas Iterate Online: In March of 2009, P&G brought in a fleet of uber nerds (including myself) to help them sell some t-shirts for a good cause while teaching some of their marketers that social media can move SKUs.

P&G went to great lengths to ensure complete disclosure was made throughout the four hour, Apprentice-like event. Not only was the money going to charity, the person donating got a nostalgic t-shirt in return. It seemed like the perfect scenario to avoid criticism.

Wrong. People complained we didn’t raise enough ($50,000 in 240 minutes which P&G then matched). People complained about a lot of things.To compare the flack P&G received to the attacks made on Jay is more than a bit of a reach. And to be clear, I do feel that there was a wildly unsuitable amount of scrutiny placed on Jay. But some of the more pragmatic voices obviously helped him improve his approach with the addition of a URL to his efforts. Ideas can iterate quickly online.

As Geoff notes: “The great promise of the Fifth Estate [is] the ability to discuss matters when the conventional press and establishment — isn’t doing it well.”

The takeaway is a well-worn phrase I use for internal communications: “give everyone a bar of gold and someone will complain it’s too heavy.” Expect criticism – especially when it can be given from the comfort of an anonymous keyboard. Jay’s critique unfortunately devolved into a mob mentality. But the smaller, quieter and more constructive piece of that critique helped him. Healthy debate can make a healthy impact.

Fewer Silos, More Mustaches: Jay brought a lot of attention to the cause of child abuse. That was his goal and he reached it. Comparing his effort to Movember may seem unfair. But if anyone wants to learn from Jay’s experience, remember when more than awareness is the goal, more than a single effort in a single media silo is required.

Since the concept was dreamed up over beers in 2003, Movember has raised more than $100 million to help find a cure for prostate cancer. That’s a lot of mustache growth in the month of November. Movember’s succeeding because it did not place all of its chips on a single, mass avatar flip. It started offline, it spread and it built out over time.

It Takes an iVillage: Malcom Gladwell noted in the New Yorker "weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism.” Daniel Lally is quick to point out, as Geoff does, that weak ties are a start. These ties just usually shouldn’t be the finish too.

So perhaps before throwing our echo into the chamber next time, we consider the bigger picture and we ask if our “barbaric yawp” adds to the discussion or simply takes away by increasing the noise. It won't stop the real issue, but it can help the healthy debate stand out more easily.

*Is it cheating to list the Super Friends as my favorite cartoon character? In my defense I’ll note that one reason is the Cincinnati connection to their hangout.