Strategic Public Relations

Mobile Photo Apps Get Serious

Smart phone photography offers users a set of near professional grade tools thanks to the continual "bigger/better/faster/more power at less cost" evolution of technology. In this post, I'm singling out iPhone apps as that's my mobile device (don't be a h8r). And I'm not even touching on Instagram as it merits its own post.

A slew of low- to no-cost apps to help your pics look their best are introduced on a near daily basis. While there are a ton of novelty apps, most offer multiple options allowing you to take pictures, edit and share within the app. This seemingly basic capability has helped photo sharing become as common as placing calls on many mobile devices.

Here are just three mobile photo apps that have made the biggest impact on my picture taking:

• Camera+   A colleague introduced me to Camera+ after I'd been using CamerBag (which is a fine filter app). But if I had only one app, it would be Camera+. It allows you to easily edit and apply a ton of filters to your pictures. And combined with iPhone's HDR capabilities, it's made my Instagram pics look better than amatuer at times.
• Diptic   Diptic lets you combine images. Think of "before and after" shots or a series of shots that tell a story. It's flexible and dead simple to use. There's also a Flickr group dedicated to this app.
• PhotoShop Express   It's a basic version of Photoshop that lets you shoot/edit and share. It's the only free app in my top three. But it's connected to Photoshop's online tools and makes for a very handy companion if you're using those tools.

There are a ton of niche apps I use from time to time that complement the above apps.

• Halftone   A fun app that turns your pics into comic strip panels.
• Panorama 360   The simplest, most social panorama app I've ever used.
• Labelbox   Scrapbook-inspired, it lets you put captions on your images.
• ToonPAINT   Turn your pics into somewhat abstract drawings. You can paint them afterwards as well.
• Slow Shutter Cam   For anyone that's been dying to create streaming light pics, this is your app.
• mogophoto   From slow shutter to fast, mogophoto takes 20 pictures in 1-2 seconds for stop-motion photography. It's great for sporting events and live action shots.

All off these apps are good at what they do. But they're just the tip of the app store. I've also played with picfx, Picture Effect Magic, Color Splash, Photo Mess, myPhotoBooth, LEGO Photo and even The Threadless Threadcam.

These apps have impacted the quality of my pictures and even how I use sites like Flickr and most recently Instagram. They're fun to use and have inspired my creativity. What are your favorite photo apps?

Lessons from “The Future of Non-Profits” | BOOK REPORT | 05.17.11

Open publication - Free publishing - More authors

Randall Moss asked me to review “The Future of Non-Profits” and I’m glad he did. While it’s specific to non-profits, some of the content can be applied to other organizations. In fact, the book is a practical guide with several resources to get readers started with innovation in their own organizations.

My abbreviated review for his promotional efforts:

It’s a must-read for anyone looking to go beyond the status quo and instigate sustainable change in an organization. Randall Moss and David Neff translate decades of hard-earned experience into an action-oriented book. The rapid rate of change brought by digital technology has rendered the word innovation a broadly-defined cliché. “The Future of Non-Profits” reclaims meaning for this word.

The book is organized into three sections to help readers build out a process around innovation within their own organizations:

• definitions and strategies,
• the three pillars of innovation (awareness, structure and staffing) and
• implementation and future considerations, including the future of fundraising and communications.

Throughout these sections it reinforces some important points that apply to more than just non-profits.

Innovation’s Not Just for R&D Labs: This isn’t news, but it’s important. Innovation doesn’t need to be cordoned off in a special location, away from the rest of the company. And it doesn’t have to equate to inventing the next QR Code or writing music that hasn’t been invented.

The Process of Innovation: Following a well-defined process can lead to more incremental innovations. This can have a greater impact on an organization over time and this approach can make innovation a sustainable process.

Entrepreneurs & Selling In To Your Organization: To me this is what gives the book some sharp teeth. It’s a realistic review of who you’ll need on your team to succeed, how to recruit them and how to innovate within the organization vs. innovating despite the organization.

Lead with Examples: The book serves up several cases throughout to show how much fundraising has changed. With Goodwill International on Twitter, American Cancer Society fundraising on Second Life and Susan G. Komen’s “Race For the Cure” attracting half a million “likes” on Facebook, even well-known non-profits are regularly changing their approach.

Advocacy, Action, Donation
While the above examples lend themselves to fundraising, organizations should evaluate whether or not social gaming, Twitter, Flickr, geotagging and even mobile apps might help their cause.

Change? Her Name is Constant
“Change is a constant” was first uttered in 535 BC by Heraclitus. Nearly 1,500 years later, this snowball keeps rolling down the slope, seemingly gaining speed.

As a result, innovation is no longer a nice to have. To live in a state of constant iteration and still GTD, books like “The Future of Non-Profits” need to rise to the top of your to do list.

Engagement: Getting Brands and Consumers to Commit

We talk a lot about creating engagement between brands and consumers. And that's because social platforms are an engagement tool, not a broadcast tool.

But after awhile, it can start to sound like we're trying to arrange marriages. Perhaps it's the fact that several of my coworkers were recently married or are preparing to walk down the aisle. Either way, we can over complicate consumer engagement as much as we can over simplify it.

Too Complicated?
When we ask consumers to vote, generate content, watch a video or otherwise, we need to ask if we're merely creating a transaction to generate a metric. And if the answer is not clear, well, it probably is clear.

Social efforts like voting campaigns can do a lot over the long term. They can also do nothing more than preserve one-way communication between a brand and a consumer. We tend to over think this to achieve an easily-generated quantitative metric. This example from TED shows a simple, powerful way to engage consumers and achieve qualitative metrics.

And while this New Orleans-based example might be considered a bit esoteric, it is from TED after all, there are just as many examples online from brands including Starbucks and P&G.

Empower MediaMarketing, my employer, has detailed more than a few simple ways to engage with consumers. There are any number of ways to bring online efforts into the age of participation. and still be able to measure the end result.

Too Simple?
In preparing for an upcoming conference focused on blogging, a fellow blogger remarked that she's "tired of brands puking swag all over bloggers and expecting them to clean it up." She means she's tired of brands taking a one-size fits all approach -- pushing products and logo-laden tchotkes at bloggers and expecting a glowing post in response.

Per usual, whether it's the customer, a blogger or a member of the media, it takes an approach customized to the individual. 


Cross-posted to my work blog. 

Social Media: More than Twitter and Facebook? Uh, yeah.

The following post is based on a discussion at the Cincinnati Social Media LinkedIn Group.

In what seems to be a race to oversimplify EVERYTHING, we're creating misdefinitions. In many cases there's simply (a lot) more to the story.

Social media provides the latest example. Do you know anyone with "T&F Tunnel Vision?" This unfortunate condition involves the assumption that the social media landscape starts and ends with Twitter and Facebook.

I've ranted about this before -- more than a few times. And I'm taking this well-worn soapbox with me down to SXSW for a panel discussion I'm on with David Binkowski and Krista Neher about influencers. Simple math shows the folly in T&F Tunnel Vision and Geoff Livingston deconstructs Twitter in a recent post.

Recently I was reminded about an uber-important site for any local strategy -- Yelp.  

Think Local, Act Social (with Yelp)
Alex Shebar and I connected recently so I could get up to speed on his role as Yelp's Cincinnati community manager as well as some functionality to the site of which I was unaware. I've used Yelp before. But until recently I had not visited frequently/regularly.

It's safe to say I'm a minority in Cincinnati. Ohio has community managers in three cities: Cincinnati, Columbus and Cleveland. That's rare and speaks to our level of activity on the site. States larger than ours have only one manager in one city.

Yelp became a bigger focus for me when looking at how small businesses are using social media. In a recent presentation, I spent more time discussing Yelp than I did Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. It's because small businesses stand to benefit by focusing their time and effort on Yelp.

Word of Mouth "is the primary factor behind 20 to 50 percent of all purchasing decisions" per NM Incite. And Yelp's community is just that. It's tagline is "real people. real reviews." Search is the place to start to determine where your customers are talking about your brand. And these reviews can impact search results in a big way. So even if your customers aren't hitting Yelp, they might be reading the reviews via search results.

Yelp 101
So what can businesses do to step up their Yelp presence? Alex gave me two links as the perfect examples.

** Business Owner's Guide to Yelp: This section of the site shows you how to claim your page, respond to reviews and even buy ads. It lays it out step by step. 

** Check-In Offers: This is similar to checking in on Foursquare, but focused more on easily-customized customer incentives. "It provides a measurable way to reward your most loyal customers while attracting new ones."

Based on the type of business, Yelp can be a valuable tool for building word of mouth. You should check and see where your company/your clients shake out. And if you have a great experience retail, food, drink or otherwise? Spread the word on Yelp.

As Alex noted in our conversation, "if you find yourself sitting at home complaining that there's nothing to do, you have no excuse. There's plenty to do. You just need a site to help you find it." 

Driving Miss Social Media
Everyone wants a dependable car that gives them no problems, performs well and gets the job done. But everyone wants to be seen in the sports car that's getting a tune up as much as it's parking a mile from the building so no one scratches the paint job. 

Did I just call Twitter a Ferrari and Yelp a Honda Accord? I'm being dramatic to make a point. But, yeah, there are popular sites and their are relevant sites. Relevant sites are different for every brand and for every customer segment. Relevance wins. 

I think I just named a new line of cars. Make check payable to...

---
Full disclosure: I decided to create this post after the discussion with Alex and due to my recent focus on the site. I did not "unlock any offers" by doing so. In fact, I had to bug Alex to send me the links.

Pic for Strange Facts post - Yelp Fingerless Glove uploaded by Terre

 

 

Phineas & Ferb's Social Media Policy

Are we over-complicating our social media policies? 

We've got wikis and tips and more walking us through the creation of this document. Yet I just watched Phineas and Ferb nail the essence of a good social media policy. You should watch their Cyberspace Rules of the Road (embedded above).

Child's Play?
No, it's not as simple as the Disney Public Service Announcement (PSA). The policy needs to be included in the employment manual. As a result they need to mesh with existing human resources policy. And since there are legal implications, the legal team better walk through it and make sure the company is not liable.

But this video is also a reminder to not over think it. I tell people that, at its core, a social media policy is "if you can say it to your competitor and your Mom. it's probably ok to post." No, it's not that simple either. It is a good starting point.

We need to make sure social media policies don't simply tell employees what they can't do. Or what are the odds employees will use it at all? If that's your goal? IT can simply block the Internet. And once again, no, it's not that simple either.

Related: Common Sense Media worked with Disney on the PSA and has a great site for parents and their kids around a variety of online topics. And of course there's a healthy YouTube Channel to boot. The more accessible content might be helpful for training inspiration. Just pull the cartoon references.

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

 

Defining Paid, Earned and Owned Media

At SummitUp yesterday, I discussed integrating paid, owned, earned and, as a result, social media.

Media Mash Up: Integrating Chaos** -- became a fitting title for my presentation as I've realized how much change is threading through media. Classifying media types by silos, buckets or Venn diagrams is no longer possible. Even AdAge refers to it as "whatever it is that we're defining as media these days."

To integrate across media, marketers must be more flexible about how content, consumers and technology connect with a brand.

Serious karma found Pete Blackshaw laying groundwork for my presentation when he presented the following slide in his keynote presentation earlier that day. "His We Can No Longer Silo Media" slide details how a brand can drive earned media through paid or earned channels. This is something we've been discussing for awhile and it's interesting to see how it's evolved in just a year's time.

Clear as Mud
Social Media can be triggered by paid, earned or owned media. And social media can also be paid, earned or earned media. It's clear that social media is messy. It disrupts silos -- media silos as well as operational silos in a company. Social media is not linear. It is a paradox. Is it shared media? Yes. Spreadable media? Yes. But it's not something a PowerPoint slide can capture with some Smart Art. Not yet. 

As consumers, content and technology continue to change, we need to spend more time studying our audience as well as their online and offline behaviors. Mapping this against the sales funnel makes it easier to consider how various media can connect with customers through this cycle.

Iteration or Irrelevancy?
To better integrate something seemingly amorphous, we must plan for ongoing change. We must set aside resources, time and talent that can test and learn from the shiny new. If something new impacts business goals, it gets further consideration. Otherwise we risk losing focus on sites and technology that are getting a lot of industry attention. Planning for a constant of change is not second nature. It's not easy. But it's also the going premium for irrelevancy insurance.

** I kicked off the presentation with a mash up of Aerosmith and Alicia Keys to underscore how content and technology are meshing together to create some emotional connections with consumers. And I ended the presentation giving out examples of the first mash up we experience growing up. Music and candy go a long way to impact your speaker feedback forms.

Cross-posted to my work blog, Social Study.



 

PRSA International Conference Gets Us All Atwitter – Over a Hashtag?!

Twitter does many things, but not *every*thing. IMHO, Twitter earns its reputation during live events as they unfold. From extreme but historic events like Iran’s Presidential Election Protests and the death of Michael Jackson to less substantive events like World Cup and just about every conference I’ve attended since early 2007, they all show in real time how useful and impactful Twitter can be.

The common discussion just before and at the beginning of an event is “What’s the Hashtag?” It’s the common thread that turns Twitter into an event communication channel, promotion tool, recording device and more for attendees, organizers and folks following from afar.

Just this post finds us spending more time than we’d ever imaging discussing event hashtags. It’s not rocket science. Is it an art form? I’ll argue it’s more of a detail than anything else.

“Hashtag Confusion”
It has also become a topic of conversation for the Public Relations Society of America this year as their annual, international conference gets underway. Why? Their hashtag is less than intuitive with an _underscore_ (one of the more dreaded characters to hit the Internet): #prsa_ic.

It has 2.0 practitioners like Kami Huyse asking valid questions while most folks are adding #prsa_ic and #prsa10 and others are just wondering wtf instead of wth. According to What the Hashtag, the official hashtag is gaining more traction. But I have to believe they’d benefit from an easier, more intuitive and shorter hashtag.

In fact, why not just use #PRSA? Twitter generates 12 terabytes of data – every day. 12TB! So Google telling me that Twitter search keeps tweets about a week starts to make sense. My point is, by the time PRSA11 rolls around, the only trace of PRSA10 tweets will be in a dusty stack at the Library of Congress.

This post is not intended to to be a Saturday morning, snark-injected rant towards PRSA – far from it. It’s inspired by a quote from the legendary basketball coach John Wooden:"It's the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen."

Wooden is right. The simplest answer is usually the best one, per usual. Now get the tweet out of here! No hashtag for you!


Hashtag Nazi taken by Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

3 Ways to Fall in Love with PowerPoint

 

PowerPoint. This single word has fueled a cottage industry of blogs, training seminars and books on how to use the software more efficiently and more effectively. This is mainly because of how much PowerPoint is abused as a presentation tool. "Death by PowerPoint" is the tip of the pop/business culture iceberg when it comes to the snark and the angst this software's inspired.

Adding to the noise are my three tips designed to help you fall in love with PowerPoint -- all over again or for the first time.

PowerPoint Improv
People over think things when it comes to presentations and as a result use PowerPoint as a crutch. PowerPoint Improv is more like PowerPoint without a net. It's Toastmasters meets a comedy improvisation with a happy hour thrown in for fun. If you haven't seen or participated in a PowerPoint Improv like Battledecks or Ignite's PowerPoint Karaoke, you're missing out.

>>Battledecks is a fast-paced, fun, laugh riot where "contestants" have to put together a presentation on the fly as slides are randomly projected for their confusion and the delight of the audience.

>>For PowerPoint Karaoke we randomized the speakers and PowerPoints and each presenter gave a random 10 minute presentation on the slides. It is a fun and enjoyable practice that was first started in 2005 by a group of German artists. Now, the practice and experience of PowerPoint Karaoke is ubiquitous across many geek gatherings, and often best played with a slightly inebriated group of 6-8 interesting people.

The end result of PowerPoint Improv is a lot of fun as you become more relaxed with the medium.

Rapid Fire Slides
Pecha Kucha and Ignite bring elements of a pep rally, foot race and Twitter to PowerPoint. Both give presenters restrictions on the number of slides and the amount of time they get to present each slide. The best examples are when presenters get creative on a topic they're passionate about to energize the audience into action. Its become more of a movement as Pecha Kucha and Ignite have spread around the world.

Cincinnati's Pecha Kucha and Ignite are energizing events and I even presented at the most recent Ignite. It was a rush, exhausting and an inspirational learning experience as it relates to how I build slides.

PowerPoint...the Musical
I've created presentation kick off videos to set the tone and get attendees excited, but this is different. Save out one of your presentations as jpgs, pick a song and use the free movie making software that comes with your computer to make a PowerPoint music video. An example of the end result is embedded in this post. It's not as crazy as synchronizing Dark Side of the Moon with The Wizard of Oz. But it could expand your mind just a little.

In fact, any one of these exercises will give you a second wind with PowerPoint. Pick one and try it out.