Strategic Public Relations

The NOW Revolution: Seven Social Imperatives for Business

"The NOW Revolution" written by Jay Baer and Amber Naslund has received reviews from the likes of DuctTape Marketing’s John Jantsch, Chris Brogan and Seth Godin. It outlines how you can retool your organization to make real-time business work for you rather than against you.

"You Say You Want a Revolution..."
I got a copy of the book at SXSW earlier this year and really enjoyed it. It covers seven shifts that will help you make your company faster, smarter, and more social. The book includes a lot of bonus material (videos, pdfs, podcasts and links) accessible through Microsoft Tags located throughout the book.

Full case studies in each of the shifts, chronicle success stories from Moosejaw, ThinkGeek,Autodesk, Sweet Leaf Tea, Taylor Guitars, Boingo and Martell Homebuilders. The book also contains examples from 50 additional companies, most of them small and medium-sized businesses.

That's a lot of content.

Shift Happens
As their web site notes, "the book presents seven shifts that businesses need to make to adapt to the speed, expectations, and immediacy of the social web. It’s the operational guide to building and organizing a socially-equipped business, from people to process."

The shifts discussed in the book include:

1. Engineer a New Bedrock: Without a consistent, powerful corporate culture you can’t win in real-time. -- I'll add that regardless of how we start working with clients on social media, we usually wind up focusing on internal operations before the launch.
2. Find Talent You Can Trust: Moving fast requires empowering employees to make quick, smart decisions. That impacts HR and hiring. A lot. -- This also gets back to culture. If departments like IT, HR, Customer Service, Legal and Marketing can't talk to each other readily and easily, it's going to be a tough road to journey down.
3. Organize Your Armies: How social media and social participation are organized and managed internally. -- Process is critical to ease any issues folks might have in getting started.
4. Answer the New Telephone: The art, methods, and pay-offs of meaningful social listening. -- When passionate customers interact directly with brands for the first time, it has a big impact.
5. Emphasize Response-Ability: Responding to customer inquiries on the social Web, but also moving beyond that to creating your own stories and conversations. -- If a business has identified its Social Brand, it ensures content created will resonate with customers and start conversation.
6. Build a Fire Extinguisher: How to find, judge, and solve a social media crisis. -- As much as things change, they seem to stay the same. Companies still do not prepare proactively for communication crisis...online or offline.
7. Make a Calculator: The many ways you can measure social media, and how to select and utilize the most appropriate metrics for your company. -- This usually starts with the initial planning process. Instead of focusing on what (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or another social platform), focus on why. Why are you engaging in social media? Is it connected to business goals? Success metrics up front make it much easier to measure success once the program is launched.

Jay Baer on "The NOW Revolution"
On August 24th, Jay Baer will be in Cincinnati to discuss "The NOW Revolution" at Cincinnati Social Media's monthly meeting. It'll be great to learn more about his perspective behind the book and what he's learned since it was published. Fifth Third Bank is the event sponsor. If you're interested in attending the event, registration is online at Eventbrite.

Can Facebook Reinvent Vending Machines?

Maybe the Bad Pitch blog has jaded me, but it's rare for a relevant pitch to ping my email. So when it does -- it sings. The latest siren comes from the National Automatic Merchandise Association (NAMA).

Vend Trend
In 2007, I noticed a lot of interesting vending machine concepts in play.** The above is a PSFK-inspired video for a reader-generated trend discussions. I even did a follow up post on the vend trend. Back then I learned Japan is the vending machine capital of the world, with more than 20 machines for every citizen.

Machines once serving up only shelf-stable snacks and cold drinks are now dispensing everything from gold bars to breakfast meat. But in the U.S., vending machines have less ubiquity than Japan and a bit of a perception issue.

Vend. Love. Win.
The NAMA is attacking this issue, in part, with a Facebook contest: Vend. Love. Win. According to the (good) pitch I received: "This online contest is...the beginning of a larger campaign designed to boost awareness and generate excitement among consumers about the vending experience. 

"The program is geared largely to Gen Y consumers due to recent NAMA research indicating that Gen Y prefers vending over convenience stores and grocery or drug stores."

According to Vending Market Watch a key challenge the research found is the need to overcome the perception that vending does not provide a good value for the money, along with not having the products consumers want and not being able to make a transaction without cash.

Mobile Vending Museum
In addition to the Facebook contest is the Gratitude Tour, "a mobile marketing tour of innovative vending machines that will dispense free products in large urban settings" that will kick off in seven cities in September. A mobile app focused on vending and nutrition is under development as well as games and a component targeting other associations -- Vending Vanguard. NAMA is communicating with Gen Y friendly associations focused on various facets of college.

"Will It Vend?"
Check out the Facebook page. I'll wait. What do you think about the contest and the rest of the campaign's components?

Without more context, the campaign feels more like a lot of stuff. But I will dispense with the criticism (see what I did there?) as I want them to succeed. I'm obviously pro-vending machine. And I'm hopeful there's an integrated thread running throughout the above list -- a thread that will make the campaign results sing to the NAMA in the same fashion as their pitch sang to me.

**Prior to 2007, my fondest vending machine memory was in this NSFW clip from the movie Slap Shot.

Content Is Not King

Guess who suggests content is king and who suggests content isn't king? The answer usually depends on the job of whomever is answering the question.

It seems PR people lean towards giving content the crown. Social media professionals give social the monarchy. And so on.

For my entire career, I've focused on content in one way or another. Content's definition has expanded as the roles involved in creating it and publishing it have evolved. In fact, an entire discipline has emerged just to be more strategic about marketing with content.

And while I've been a defender of content's crown in the past, I've come to understand the truth about the so-called marketing monarchy. There is no king. No queen. No monarchy. The relationship between content, technology and consumer is more of an ecosystem, or perhaps it's just more easily explained using organic terms.

Organs, Kingdoms & Content
Saying that content, or social media or search or the latest shiny new object is king, is like arguing over which organ of the body is most important.

It's actually an old joke where the brain, the blood, the stomach, the eyes and the legs all make their case as to why they are most important. And when the anus makes its case, the rest of the organs simply laugh in disagreement. So the anus shuts down and, a few days later, the other organs apologize and the anus wins the argument. But the point is all of the organs are interrelated and therefore important.

Content, Context, Curation
So whether we're considering paid, owned and earned -- remember the ecosystem. It's all the more critical if you consider the noise consumer's are immersed in through our efforts. And to meet consumer needs and expectations we simply add to the noise.

Brands compete online with more than 1.6 billion messages. EVERY. Single. Day. That's Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blog posts and even news releases.

The Business of Content
In Program or be Programmed:10 Commands for a Digital Age, Douglas Rushkoff brings up an even more important point when talking about content's role in capitalism.

Essentially he notes that the internet has helped create a hyper-captialism of sorts wherein the closer you are to value creation the further you are from the money. Just ask anyone writing for Huffington Post (paid or free). There are more examples. But it points us towards the trend of curation.

There are many flavors of curation. And it requires aggregating a good portion of the noise from which to curate the best bits. But it's another part of the ecosystem to keep in mind. We're seeing more examples of media outlets mixing up the ecosystem to provide the best, most relevant product to its readers.

New York Magazine is a great example. It uses original content as a foundation to build upon while curating content and featuring user generated content in the form of web videos.

The King is Dead
Would any media outlet suggest content is king? They'd be ignoring the oxygen paid media brings its brand. And calling it oxygen vs king, queen or court jester is more accurate. So think ecosystem while we dance on the monarchys' respective graves.

__

UPDATE: Facebook's Vadim Lavrusik reinforces my point in a Nieman Journalisim Lab article noting how story structure has changed in five key ways: context, social, participation, mobile and personalization. 

Brands & Blogs: Building Better Relationships at Savvy Blogging Summit

It's been almost two weeks since I attended Savvy Blogging Summit with my Empower MediaMarketing colleague, Jessica George. We were asked to speak on building better relationships between brands and bloggers.

Empower's done more than a dozen different outreach projects for clients -- online and offline. We posted our presentation at the Scoop.It page we created for the event.

We learned as much as we taught at #sbsummit. The attendees had to apply to attend and were focused on improving their blog. This translated into a passionate crowd that helped reinforce a few points during our presentation and conversations with #sbsummit attendees.

Make it Easier:We extol the need for a community relations approach with bloggers over a media relations approach, but we don't identify any direct ways for a blogger to contact a brand.

Bloggers are more than familiar with being pitched. We've even counseled them on creating "About" pages and sporting badges if they're "PR Friendly." But bloggers aren't familiar with seeking out like-minded brands. Perhaps we need a page on brand sites for bloggers -- much in the way we have newsrooms for the media. If we're taking a different approach, we should have a designated way for direct contact to the right people (agency or brand).

Broadcast vs. Engagement: It always seems to come back to this topic. If you understand social media is an engagement tool and not a broadcast tool, it's easy to understand how the best bloggers for an outreach project may not have the biggest audience. We don't need the biggest audience, we need the right audience. With the right audience, brands can gain insight into how they can better meet customer needs. And they'll build loyalty throughout their interactions with these bloggers.

After identifying a handful of #sbsummit attendees my employer has worked with in the past, it was reassuring to see that these bloggers were chosen due to relevant content and a high level of engagement. Of the #sbsummit attendees, none of the bloggers we worked with previously had the highest level of reach.

Need a specific example of the potential of relevance over reach? Kosher on a Budget is a well-differentiated blog written by Mara. And in addition to the obvious kosher brands, Mara also knows which mainstream consumer brands have gone to great lengths to gain kosher status for some of their products. But some of these brands are more focused on other niches, tapping the gluten-free consumer perhaps, without realizing the full benefit of their investment in kosher. If they'd like a group of consumers as fiercely loyal to them as their gluten-free consumers -- they should contact Mara. She's got a relevant blog with a loyal readership. And regardless of audience size, I can't think of anyone better to help a mainstream brand do with their kosher products what they're already doing with their gluten-free products. Disclaimer: we cooked up this idea in a quick conversation after I finished my presentation.

Owned Media Opportunities:Tapping into the right niche of bloggers to help create content owned by the brand is an under utilized opportunity. Who better to create content that will resonate with brands' target audience than its most loyal, well-informed customers? This is not paying for a post or a product review on a blogger's site. This is tapping bloggers to fuel your next content project. It's akin to hiring freelance writers and requires full disclosure. Media outlets are already tapping into this at a local and national level. And as more brands become publishers, this is a bigger deal than brand, blogger or agency yet understands. This is due in part to brands and bloggers defining relationships to date, for the most part, as an exchange of access or free stuff for content. We've watched this approach derail some time ago.

The PR Disconnect: One of the big disconnects between bloggers and agencies can be paid media. Many bloggers are treating their blog as a business. As a result, they'll be discussing paid and owned media opportunities with brands. Most PR people conducting outreach are used to working primarily with earned media. In fact, if they've got a media relations background, odds are good they've only worked on earned and owned media opportunities. Any suggestion of paid media can create confusion and incorrect assumptions between the agency and the blogger. But not only do PR people need to get used to this concept, they need to account for it in the budget when planning outreach projects. This is not a free exchange -- free stuff for free content.

2nd Moment of Truth: A brand and a blogger may be perfectly matched. But a poor initial pitch, or disconnects like the one above, can prevent any relationship from being created. Bloggers and brands should give each other a second chance. One attendee told a story of a bad pitch that turned into a business relationship. So instead of the first moment of truth, perhaps we need to put more weight on the second moment of truth when building relationships between brands and bloggers.

The Hypocrisy of Silos:Many of the #sbsummit attendees focus on saving money in some form of another -- from living more simply and being frugal to tapping into coupons, promotions and other deals from various brands. But to mention TLC's show "Extreme Couponing" was the rough equivalent of saying Voldemort to a Harry Potter fan. Why? The show single-handedly has marketers putting all coupon bloggers, savings bloggers, frugal living bloggers into a single, unseemly bucket.

The week we presented, Ad Age's cover story even warned marketers to "beware the coupon mom." But to make such a general, sweeping statement based on the extreme of one "reality" show is foolish at best. It's akin to journalists letting a few PR people making bad pitches color their view of the entire industry. Looking at the attendee's blogs, I saw a more common theme of home, family and wholesome living. The bottom line being that agencies need to spend more quality time developing a targeted list of bloggers. There are many facets to any blog. And while they may have a primary focus, they cannot always be placed into a single silo.

All of the above are either opportunities or reminders of what's keeping brands, agencies and bloggers from doing something bigger, better and more effective for all involved. Needless to say, Jessica and I really enjoyed being involved with the event.

Google+ First Impressions

Less than 48 hours of field testing Google+ and I’ve got more questions than answers. But here are my first thoughts.

DESIGN: The interface resembles a clean version of Facebook. And, while there’s more breathing room now, you can assume the extra space has been reserved for paid advertising. The home page makes sure you can easily access your profile, circles (contact groups) and photos by displaying these options prominently.

INTEGRATION: One thing Google Buzz did well was integrate with your existing Gmail account. They’ve built on that with Google+ and Gmail power users will enjoy how well they work together. In fact you can access your Google account from Google+ to see what services you’re using and your overall preferences.

PRIVACY: While Google Buzz had its moments, it’s initial privacy issues stopped it from gaining much traction beyond Google’s user base. Google clearly learned from this and it not only makes privacy settings obvious, you can dial them up and down based on your personal preferences. It’s also made a big deal about its Data Liberation capabilities. This section allows users to back up the data they have on the site by downloading Picasa Photo Albums, Profile Data, Stream Data, Buzz and Contact Data as well. You can also easily determine which accounts are connected to your Google+ account.

CIRCLES, SPARKS & HANGOUTS: Circles are simply easy to create groups of users. This allows you to compartmentalize content you share across your network. So if you only want your family to see pictures of the newest addition to your family, you can use Google+ to do this. Similarly, if you only want your colleagues to know you won an award for filing the most TPS Reports, you can do that too. This addresses Facebook user concerns about the difficulty in compartmentalizing your professional and personal lives on the site. But when it comes to the Internet and Privacy remember there are no guarantees.

Sparks is a curation feature that taps into its search capabilities to deliver you content of your choosing. Google+ notes it’s “a feed of just the stuff you’re really into. So when you’re free there’s always something to watch, read or share. The only thing I’m curious about is where it is pulling the content from. It’s unclear if it comes from search, other users’ content streams, Google News or a variation of the three.

Hangouts takes Google’s video chat options and pulls them directly into Google+. This makes it seemingly simple to conduct video chats. Unfortunately, as a field tester, I’ve been unable to align my schedule with my contacts that also have Google+ access. But it appears to be a point of differentiation for Google+. I can imagine it opens an impressive amount of ad opportunities for Google via YouTube alone.

MOBILE: The mobile app is also being touted. Unfortunately for me, it’s only available on Android right now. It’s a refreshing change of pace for iPhone users that are used to have first access. I’m sure Google is enjoying the ability to roll out in this fashion. And while some would argue this is a bad move. Turnabout is fair play, in my opinion. And they score big points with loyal Android users.

So with all of the above positives, there were some issues or questions that came up based on my experience. Google assumed this would be the case. Upon accepting my invitation, I was greeted with a welcome message that included this: “It's very early, so there may be some bumps along the way, but you'll be one of the first to test drive Circles, Hangouts, Sparks, mobile, and more!”

Google+ and -
So with the above in mind, I’m here to offer feedback and not to pick Google+ apart (as the blogosphere is inclined to do with a healthy dose of keyboard courage). As a field tester, the rollout seemed a bit mysterious. And learning the network is a bit self-serve with 11 different videos available to explain the how to and the why behind some of its features.

How many men are known for reading directions? Hopefully video will get more views than a set of instructions. I’m told that making the experience more discovery for the field testers was done on purpose. More features will be rolled out and some might even be rolled back based on our feedback.

As I noted earlier, I like the integration with your Google account. But there could be too much integration. It initially served up all of my Google account’s contacts. I assumed the contacts were all other Google+ users as well. I was wrong. You can still share with these individuals through Google+ and add them to circles. It simply sends your non-field testing friends an email instead. And I can tell you it’s interpreted as less helpful and more “nyah, nyah!” as these contacts cannot comment or engage with you based on what you’re sharing.

It’s obviously similar to Facebook. You can argue whether or not this is a plus or a minus. But keep in mind, all social networks will share common traits. Is it similar to Orkut too? Some may wonder if it’s also similar to Google’s social network launched ahead of its time. Orkut is still wildly popular in Brazil and India and is still actively used today in these countries. But Google+ is more nuanced and less about a walled community and more about sharing across the web – through your Google account of course.

If Google’s Finally Nailed Social, Will It Matter?
Never say never. But the deck is stacked against Google. Any new social networking entrant immediately becomes “yet another social networking service” YASNS. It’s tough to break web users habits and get them to start using a new social network exclusively – even if it is integrated into their Google account.

In fact, Google integration could create a branding issue. Taylor Wiegert, a fellow Word of Mouth team member at Empower MediaMarketing, is quick to point out that Google is known for its utility. It’s more of a tool you use when you need email or search or another of its services. But it’s not known as an engagement platform that you spend an extended period of time using to find and share content with friends.

Time will tell if it breaks its streak of having successful product launches – for everything but its social media products. But Google+ clearly has the best chance of competing with sites like LinkedIn and Facebook. If you extend the paid media opportunities it could bring, it’s worth waiting to see what happens.

The Candy Everybody Wants?
While Google is offering limited access during the launch to finalize the product and improve it, they are also hoping it will create more curiosity and desire to access Google+. Don’t take the bait. While the platform is a clear improvement over Orkut and Buzz, Google+ is essentially a new flavor of Facebook. It’s a worthy opponent because of the sites foundation – an enormous user base using a well-established portfolio of services/products and the potential for paid media. And as of launch, these assets are invisible to the user experience. If you don't have access to Google+ you’re not missing anything. Not yet.

Related Articles from: Wired, Searchengineland, AdAge, Mashable and NYTimes

Cross-posted at my work blog.

Bagging Blogger/Brand Stereotypes at Savvy Blogging Summit

Jessica George and I are hitting the road on behalf of our employer, Empower MediaMarketing, and will be en route to Denver in July as part of the Savvy Blogging Summit.

Our presentation is called “Paper or Plastic? Bag the Blogger/Brand Stereotypes and Get Serious.”

We’re focusing on how bloggers can create and improve relationships with brands based on our own experience doing so for several Empower clients. And, based on our perspectives, we'll also take an irreverent look at the stereotypes on either side of the blog post.

In the meantime, the industry is still having much discussion around the topic of influence. What is it? Who has it? How do you get it? We’ll also discuss this topic with attendees to help them move from a one-time transaction into a full-blown business relationship.

We’re looking forward to connecting with the other #sbsummit attendees and soaking up some of the other content. More to come!

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.



 

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.

Considering Blended Media

My last few posts detail how the old approach to media outreach isn’t working with bloggers and how blogger relations takes more time compared to traditional media relations.

Add to this recent FTC Guidelines and anyone moving from pitching traditional media to building relationships with bloggers needs to revisit their plans.

One thing that hasn’t changed is client needs. They have to justify their marketing spend – even defend it when investing in social media. A 2.0 world of experimentation and soft metrics has given way to the need for scale and a better idea of expectations -- due in part to the economy.

Paid │ Earned
These factors are evolving my thinking of paid and earned media. As a quick refresher, let’s define terms. Paid media comes with guaranteed placement and total control of the message. Earned media does not pay for placement and, as a result, you don’t know the message until you see it online, in print or elsewhere.

Early in my career, I kept paid media and earned media as separate as church and state. This was in part a reflection of my passion for public relations. As various marketing disciplines were more siloed back then it was easy to do. As the integrated marketing campaigns I worked on grew in size and budget, I saw how much paid media and earned media need each other. In some instances one serves as ground cover for the other as part of the campaign strategy.

Blended Media
Viewing the paradox of blogger relations and client needs, I’ve wondered if there isn’t middle ground that would blend some benefits of paid and earned media without coming off looking like an advertorial, infomercial or worse.

The topic was also  discussed during a recent panel discussion I was on with Pete Blackshaw, Dave Knox and Suzanne Tosolini at Cincinnati's Digital Hub Conference.

According to Blackshaw,

“There is so much evidence across the web that "earned media" -- consumer-generated media, social media, conversation, variants of PR -- is creating meaningful lift and value for brands that we now need to think more critically about resource and spending allocations.

“Here is an attempt to acknowledge that paid media often serves as a critical stimulus or even vitamin for "earned media." Moreover, in a world of crowdsourcing and co-creation, "earned media" is increasingly becoming a core input into the paid equation. Yes, we must always accommodate that fuzzy middle.

Blackshaw created the above diagram as a possible model for paid, earned and blended media. There's potential in blended media that circumvents the old ways of doing things with this new audience.

Collaborating in the Middle
Let’s consider some completely fictitious scenarios as examples. Sharpie does an excellent job of marketing their products from Susan Wassel’s tireless efforts and showing up at Fashion Week to sponsoring NASCAR and encouraging artists to push the limits using their products.

So for their next product launch, instead of bombing bloggers with product samples, what if Sharpie teamed up with Hugh MacLeod and developed a cartoon generator widget?

Sharpie would fully disclose their involvement. It’s not an ad or a sponsorship, but the end result is more predictable than potential blog posts resulting from product mailings. The pitch becomes a collaboration where Hugh is the creative director, Sharpie is the sponsor and the end result is shared across the web.

Some would argue that collaboration is the ultimate connection with a specific audience online. This is just one example of how funding gets to the end result more quickly. But it’s done in an acceptable, fully-disclosed fashion. 

In the Mix
Social media and blogger relations are still a nascent field. We’re applying a few years of experience against projects compared to entire careers in other marketing disciplines. But as we continue to build programs that do more than simply broadcast across social media platforms, I think we'll see more examples of blended media.