Strategic Public Relations

Twitter Search for Business, Digital Branding, Social Media -- in the 90s, Data Visualization | Four Links | 11.28.10

It's been a year since I did my last Four Links post?!

It's not Twitter's fault. In fact, thanks to Delicious, I've been tracking more relevant content in the last 12 months if anything else.

But I've customized the design of my blog enough that TypePad won't let me push my Delicious links here as content. I'm working on a plan B to address this and other issues I have with this well-intended, dusty old blog.

What is Data Visualization? | Information Aesthetics: IA points us to an infographic, of course, that explains good information design. Shown here it's from Information is Beautiful and well worth digging into as infographics have become the candy everybody wants. Content becoming more and more visual is something I've prattled on about for quite some time.

Social Media in the 1990s | Online Reputation Edge: A fun comparison of "prehistoric" social media and today's social media. It's the perfect link for the inevitable "when I was your age" speech we're all destined to give.

Branding in the Digital Age | Harvard Business Review: David Edelman takes a new look at the purchase decision model in "Block that Metaphor." At Empower, we've been looking at it as a brand participant map. Our model acknowledges that this process is not always linear.

Using Twitter Search for Business | Chris Brogan: Another great article from Chris that shows the value in Twitter. A little effort allows you to tap into the largest single database of consumer intent for some serious insight.

Using Visuals to turn Data into Content | Four Links | 11.22.09

My appreciation for all things visual did not peak with my article on why PR needs visual thinking.

My focus on the topic has increased and there are plenty of sites driving this passion. Here are just a few of them.

The Popular Ones: It’s no surprise that Indexed and Post Secret have books stemming from their popular sites. Post Secret tapped into an entire world’s need for expression while Indexed shows us the power of simplicity.

The Smart Ones: Flowing Data and Infosthetics are my two must reads when it comes to the latest in data visualization. They even point to great content like this article outlining how to create an infographic.

The Wild Cards: Logo Design Love is arguably not a wild card, but it has helped me be more appreciative of the subtleties behind brand redesigns. And Strange Maps brings us visuals like the one to the right showing how large the social sites are getting. It's a great site showing the creative potential in combining the old and the new.

The Future: Google Swirl shows us how important visuals will be to navigate the data streams, rivers of news and content flowing all around us. I’ve also created a Twitter list to track many of the leading data geeks as this field continues to unfold.

The above are just a start. They don't include the media outlets that are also pushing visualization mainstream. The New York Times Multimedia section immediately comes to mind. But The LA Times has its Data Desk and, in my own backyard, The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Data Center and WLWT’s Weather Dashboard point to an even bigger picture of data in the future.

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

"...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

Back to School | Marketing’s a Journey vs. a Destination | Social Media is Organic | Four Links | 08.27.08

1) Pros, Profs, Students – Join PR OpenMic | PR Open Mic
With more than 2,000 members, PR Open Mic is focused on “preparing the next generation of PR practitioners by enabling interaction with people from around the world in this community network.” They already have members from 140+ colleges & universities from over 40 countries. Regardless of where you’re at in your career, you should head back to school.

2) How long will it take my marketing to work? | Duct Tape Marketing
”I know you need customers, I know you need more business, but marketing is not an event, it’s a business long practice. >snip< Done properly, it is likely going to take six months to a year for you to see the kind of long term momentum that you want.”

3) Are you expecting too much from your marketing? | Drew’s Marketing Minute
Drew builds on John Jantsch’s riff and adds: “If you're not in it for the long haul, you probably shouldn't do it at all.”

4) Social Media is Organic | The Daily Lark
Dell’s Andy Lark on launching a blog: “success correlates closely with the willingness of the communicators to take risk and embrace the spirit of the medium. And that means letting go.”

Like a motorway. uploaded by CMP73
tags | PR OpenMic | social media | marketing

Nike | Social Media Strategy | Flickr | User-Generated Context | Four Links | 07.17.08

1) Nike 100 – Beijing, China | The Cool Hunter
Nike turns its 100 innovations from the last 50 years into a museum and creates a shock and awe brand experience in the process.

2) Are You Developing a Social Media Monitoring & Engagement Strategy? | Voce Nation
Mike Manuel’s been busy at Voce. This post shows his comprehensive approach to the much sought after conversation.

3) Blow Up Your Flickr | Cool Hunting
Watch you favorite Flickr pics...full-screen. Beautiful.

4) Havas Media Lab on User-Generated Context | Influx Insights
User-generated content can make magic for brands. Just ask Jeep.

But if you’re trying to incentivize users to generate the content (instead of just facilitating their efforts), the incentives should not suck.

More subtleties from Havas Media Lab: “People are using professional media as a springboard to create context. The value of this context lies (at) the mass network level.” Instead of trying to buy the content, Havas encourages brands to “find a way to open up and play with the crowd.”

tags | public relations | PR | advertising | marketing

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

GO. PLAY. | Friday Fun/Flickr Fix | 04.25.08

I’m headed to Keeneland with my firm for our annual employee celebration. So I thought it only fair to send you some Friday Fun/Time-Wasting Links. giddyup

1) Beat Boxing Basset Hound | Too much fun. Via The Lab.

2) Get Out And Play | Creative marketing entertainment. Via n-gage

3) TypeRacer | The most productive of the lot. Via @MattStaggs

Horse Racing #2 uploaded by brianpoulsen

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

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