Public Relations

SWOT Analysis for the PR Industry

You're familiar with the SWOT Analysis It's a way to think about the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of your company or project. It's often used in message development as well. Given the high-flux state of the Public Relations industry nowadays , I thought it might be wise to do a little self-reflection, SWOT-style. Please note that in consideration of my readers' need to snack on media, this is not going to be a full-blown analysis. These are my top-level thoughts only.

The Future Of Marketing

I hesitate to say that the Social Network Race is over look at AOL, MySpace and Friendster, all of which used to dominate but let's face it, all of these former giants now pale compared to Facebook and Google (and Twitter, if we're also measuring based on buzz). Unlike those early players, today's winners are holding a much more winning hand. Google and Facebook are shooting arrows in the backs of those original pioneers.

The 7 Elements of “Good” PR

Over this past weekend, dozens of people forwarded the NYTimes article on PR in Silicon Valley (and Arrington's snarly response ) to me in emails freighted with opinons and questions. Is this good PR Is this what you do Do you agree with Hammerling or Arrington This is bullshit This is awesome Would you have ignored the tech bloggers like the PR pro in this example Do you know Larry Ellison, too First off, you should know that a deep and thoughtful response to this latest flap can be found on...

Brand Marketing In Social Media: Friends With Benefits?

Engagement for engagement's sake is good. I think we've established that pretty credibly in the last few years. But, is that enough for the friend fan Is it enough for the brand Certainly I am not going to tell a brand manager that it is unimportant to collect hordes of Facebook Friends, Fans and Likes, nor that they shouldn't try to amass thousands of followers on Twitter, nor that they shouldn't vie for big numbers of views on their YouTube channel.

Facebook: Wrong Way to Engage in a Conversation

I am a bit late to the Facebook Privacy Pity Party, but I've been galvanized into action. This is an issue that the PR social media bloggers need to spend more time sussing out. When the Facebook Beacon system ( social ads ) was announced, Mark Zuckerberg said, It isn't an ad system based on pushing messages out. It's based on getting into the conversations that already happen between people. This is important stuff. But it's also hard to figure out.

Social Media & The Sales Team

Over the course of the last few weeks, I've been privileged to discuss Social Media Marketing issues with some of the country's largest retailers. I was impressed and surprised by the level of congruity between Marketing and Customer Service. Many of these brands have finally embraced the fact that chatter about their brands online is as worthy of attention and response as an article in the mainstream media.

On Dinosaurs & Asteroids

Among the many OTHER debates that bounce around the echo-chamber on occassion is the debate on disintermediation. Specifically As Social Media becomes more mainstream as companies enable more direct communications with their end-customers (through blogs, SMNRs, RSS, etc.), will the PR industry suffer a level of disintermediation Will the middleman role fade away To date, that has certainly NOT been the case. Social Media faux pas notwithstanding, the PR industry business has been booming.

The Future of the Social Media Release is in Your Hands

The Social Media Release (SMR) is gaining traction and visibility and is now looked to by many as the savior of the traditional press release - which may honestly be too great a task for any one tool. But, at the very least, the discussions around the SMR are fueling the evolution and improvement of the press release overall.

Radical Suggestion for the Social Media Release

A radical suggestion for the Social Media Release don't put any Social Media Releases out over the wires. While I sincerely applaud how far the wire services have progressed in all-things-social, I am unconvinced that distribution is the Big Issue for Social Media Release adoption. It's not about distribution, it's about empowerment and conversation.

IABC To Take Leadership Role with Social Media Releases

Today it was announced that the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) will take a leadership role in furthering the development and adoption of Social Media Releases. The existing Social Media Release Working Group was a loose collection of SMR advocates, each of whom found their good intentions stymied by the enormity of the task of furthering the SMR's evolution (i.e., they have day jobs).

Social Media News Releases: Send In Your Case Studies

While participating on the NewComm Forum panel on the Social Media Press Release in Las Vegas, I sensed a palpable desire from the audience to learn more than could be covered in 1 hour. From the packed hall, it was obvious that the interest is rock-solid, but, questions of all types from the simple to the sophisticated - are still numerous.

Introducing: Press Release Grader

From the team at Hubspot that brought you the fabulous WebsiteGrader, now you can apply the same principles to your press releases (including your Social Media Releases, natch). Press Release Grader is a free tool designed to help PR pros and marketers maximize a press release so it can be found more easily by media, bloggers, customers and prospects.

Updated: The Future Of The Social Media Release Is In Your Hands

The Social Media Release (SMR) is gaining traction and visibility and is now looked to by many as the savior of the traditional press release which may honestly be too great a task for any one tool. But, at the very least, the discussions around the SMR are fueling the evolution and improvement of the press release overall.

Blogger Relations Case Study: Mommybloggers

Just when you think that most agencies are starting to get Blogger Relations, a wave of bad examples pop-up. Luckily, many conscientious PR bloggers have had the patience to explain best practices, and as an industry we can only hope for positive change (and or some forbearance from justifiably cranky bloggers). Meanwhile, we all cry out for case studies, eh I can only point to great examples that I've seen published by others, and occasionally post one of our own.

Marketing On Google

Even though there are 19 social networks that are bigger than Google+ and even though traffic to the new socnet is not exactly soaring, something tells me that this is The One, from Google this won't go the way of Google Buzz, or Orkut (big in Brazil ). There has been enough positive traction for Larry Page & Co. to lay down their markers. That means we need to take it seriously.

Cut the PR Agency? Are You *Sure* About That?

The economic angst whacked our agency upside the head. We now have our first example of a client who's asked to terminate our contract strictly as a precaution driven by economic uncertainty. It seems Sequoia Capital's Mandatory All-Hands CEO Meeting last week, with its gloomy slide deck , has tech CEOs skittering for cover.

Social Media Release: Evolution

When I debuted the Social Media Release , moreso than anything else, I intended to stress the concept of a TEMPLATE, i.e., use what you like about it, change it however you like, discard the parts that don't work for you. My intent was not to create the final word on Social Media Releases, but simply to get the conversation started In addition to its adoption by companies as large as Cisco and Ford and as small as Joe's Pizza in addition to its incremental embrace by the wire services I was...

Social Media Shine Off The Apple For Marketers?

Don't get too worked up over that headline. Social Media is still going strong, and will continue to be important as a marketing and cultural force when your grandchildren are zipping around in their flying cars. That said, the good news in this recently published IBM Unica survey is that marketers are coming back to earth in terms of their expectations for Social Media Marketing. I'll do you a favor.

Social Media Agency vs. PR Agency

There's something about a 4 day weekend that makes me think that every weekend ought to be 4 days long. It not only allows for DOWN time, it allows for THINK time. Here's what I thought about There's no question Social Media is having an enormous, life-altering impact on the communications industry. Everything is changing. The free and ubiquitous power of online publishing has created exponential challenges in relationship management.

Of Stars & Schmoes: The Mandate to Synch Social Media & Customer Service

As corporations tentatively embrace the idea of direct-to-consumer marketing techniques via Social Media, they are likely to be encouraged by the warm reception they receive online. Really, it's not as scary as it's made out to be, and as we've noted in the past the Risk Of Ignoring will be inescapable for most Big Brands. But, we've also talked about how Customer Service is the New PR . That was a major theme not that long ago, yet it seems to have receded a bit. Don't be fooled.

When Clients Want Coverage In Your Blog: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas

I'm no Chris Brogan , but if you combine the number of people I have access to via this blog and my Twitter stream, it's fair to suggest that I reach thousands upon thousands of people including some of the best-connected folks in Social and Mainstream Media. So you might think I'd get a lot of pressure from clients to write about them in my blog, and to tweet about their news. And you'd be right. It certainly does come up, as Tom Foremski recently noted .

Social Media: the End of Mediation

I can't write about Social Media Marketing today. The inspiring, unstoppable stream of citizen media coming out of Iran is too inspiring and awful. If you have the heart and stomach to watch it, this video of the death of a girl now popularly known as Neda Farsi for the call will not only haunt you forever, but will also tell you all you need to know about how the world is changing. The filters are off. The collective is self-aware. The masses are the media.

Which Social Media Marketing Agencies Will Thrive In 5 Years?

From WIRED Magazine's controversial article, The Web is Dead, Long Live the Internet came this set of factoids The story of industrial revolutions, after all, is a story of battles over control. A technology is invented, it spreads, a thousand flowers bloom, and then someone finds a way to own it, locking out others. It happens every time. Take railroads.

If You Only Do *One Thing In Social Media

To make up for my overlong absence from the Internets, I've hit on a new series of blog posts, 5 in all, that make the case for the top things your company ought to be doing if it's still babystepping its way into Social Media Marketing. I'm going to be taking a distinctly tactical approach with this series partly because I so often discuss strategy on this blog, and partly cuz I'm still pretty fried from getting settled in California If you only do one thing in Social Media, it ought to be...

Everything In Moderation: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas

Some of our clients have asked us to serve as moderators on their Facebook Fan Pages. I know such pages are a dime-a-dozen on Facebook, but we are talking about some big-league brands in this case. Names you know. Fan clubs of which you may well be a member. Although we strongly adhere to a full-transparency ethic when it comes to Social Media, the clients simply do not want SHIFT's name to be explicitly affiliated with their Facebook sites.

10 Tips for Social Media Marketers

Every brand can be and should be social Conversations about your brand and products are happening everywhere. You need to be part of the conversation and if H&R Block can make taxes social, your product can be social too. 2. Just get started It doesn't take a big budget to get started in social media marketing. In fact, much of social media marketing is human capital. Start by listening. Set up Google Alerts to look for conversations about your brand or product.

Roi Of Social Media Marketing

Last month, Forrester Research's Augie Ray published a report on The ROI of Social Media Marketing that I've recently had a chance to take a highlighter to there are a lot of sensible nuggets in the document it's a must-read for any marketer. For example, in making the case for a Balanced Scorecard approach to Social Media Marketing ROI, Mr. Ray posits that many brands fail to measure true business value.

Why Social Media Is The Future Of Public Relations

The 7 year anniversary of this blog passed by without remark this summer, and well, I want to remark on it. Ya can't blame a fellow for pausing to look in the rear view mirror now and then. This blogging business is a slog. What is this blog about What is the single driving idea that prompts me to continue it It's simply this the future of PR rests on the realization that everyone is an online publisher. Everyone has the power to impact the brand. Look out your window.

The Social Media “Department” & The Law Of Diminishing Returns

Many agencies looking to capitalize on the Social Media wave decided to create specialized groups an agency within the agency to hone in on this area. Don't be fooled. This Social Media stuff looks like a scary hairy mosh-pit to traditional marketers, so devote resources to a separate division. Safer because failure is a less frightening option when confined to a small group. If the Social Media Department fails, it can be shut down or re-tooled without impacting the agency's core business.

If You Only Do *Four Things In Social Media

Now, who's gonna read it Who's going to leave a comment Who is going to retweet those carefully-crafted posts This is where it gets fun. Harken back as I often do in this blog to Forrester's POST method. People, Objectives, Strategies, Tactics. Surely you know WHO you want to reach. Now it's simply a matter of finding out where they're hanging out.

It's Simply My Nature - Part

From Wikipedia The Scorpion and the Frog is a fable attributed to Aesop. The story is about a scorpion asking a frog to carry him across a river. The frog is afraid to be stung, but the scorpion reassures him that they would both die if that happened. The frog then agrees, but in mid-river the scorpion stings him nevertheless, telling him that it is simply his nature to do so. Social Media has changed the practice of Marketing faster than the industry's ability to respond intelligently.

Blogging Breeds Biters

An interesting confluence of events this week highlight the complexities of melding blogging with journalism. First we learn, via Rohit Bhargava, that Business 2.0 editor Josh Quittner intends to mandate blogging by each reporter. Some of the suggested benefits include continually updated content giving journalists a personal stake in building site traffic and, Quittner suggests that releasing some editorial control offers faster turnaround and more cutting edge work.

Top 5 Principles of the Social Media News Release

I've continued to think about the Social Media News Release, and I think I've pinpointed 5 core principles required for these new media versions of the 100-year old document. Democratize Access - The content (words, multimedia, links) need to be available to all comers. We cannot set up artificial barriers (i.e., thou shalt present journalist credentials in order to download official jpegs of our logo ).

ROI for Social Media Marketing: It's Complicated

At a recent Social Media Breakfast in Boston , Harvard Business School associate professor Andy McAfee had this to say about the age-old Return On Investment (ROI) question There is not enough ROI for figuring out ROI. It is an intellectually bankrupt exercise. Got that McAfee is not saying that measurement is not important, he suggests instead that it is simply not worth the trouble To be clear, when McAfee talks about the challenges in determining ROI, he is referring to Info Tech spending,...

The Inconsistent Agency in Social Media

As more and more companies come to realize that Social Media will play an important role in their emerging marketing efforts, they often turn to outside agencies (PR, advertising, interactive marketing, SEO, etc.) to play appropriate roles in strategy and execution. But as noted in my last post, the caliber of these service providers can be spotty to say the least.

General Motors Launches Social Media Newsroom

Well, it's actually GM Europe, but that's still HUGE. Check it out GM got a lot of things right with this effort. The newsroom contains a tagcloud that enables the visitor to re-orient the newsroom content by keyword (e.g., click on the environment tag and all the releases about GM's green initiatives show up instantly, by issue date). There's a sweet Flickr page with a lot of gorgeous photography.

10 Rules of Marketing on User Review Sites

We talk a whole lot about Blogger Relations, and that's a valuable conversation that will continue to be relevant for a long time to come. But, blogs are only one part of the Social Media scene. We hardly ever talk about the opportunity for companies to perform well in user forums, e.g., Amazon.com, Angie's Yelp is a former SHIFT client.

“Hypermicro” Public Relations

More and more agencies have figured out that they need to incorporate Blogger Relations into their bag of tricks. (Whether they are doing a good job is debatable, ok, I know.) But if you've learned nothing else from this blog, you know it's not just about the bloggers. The seismic shift is about the people. The just folks. The average joes & janes. They're not all blogging. In fact, most of em are not blogging. Menawhile, Twitter and Facebook are growing like crazy.

Influencing The Influencers Of The Influencers

You're trying to convince Joe Rockstar to write about your company. When Joe Rockstar blogs, people share. When Joe Rockstar tweets, people re-tweet. If you can convince Joe Rockstar that your company is wicked awesome, the customers, VCs, the mainstream media, etc. will come knocking. But Joe Rockstar is busy, eh Deluged by pitches. You've pinged him umpteen times without success. You're too determined to simply give up.

Social Media In Corporations: Pros & Cons Of Organizational Models

I dove into my Big Thinking folder recently and emerged with a slide from the Social Media Trends for 2010 deck created by Jeremiah Owyang of the Altimeter Group, discussing organizational models for corporate adoption of Social Media. Who is in control of this Social Media stuff What are the best practices These questions come up a lot, particularly amongst large brands.

If You Only Do *Three Things In Social Media

As noted earlier, Social Media Monitoring is the ONE THING every company ought to be doing in Social Media. Setting a Social Media Policy is 2. What's the next biggest priority Blogging. This answer is probably more controversial now than it was in the past, when blogging was all the rage (pre-Twitter, pre-Facebook). After all, success stories like ComcastCares and Zappos might suggest that an active Twitter presence is a short-form, high-speed, perfectly valid alternative to blogging.

“This Blog Post is Not About Skittles”

Nearly everyone defaults to Google when they're looking for stuff. Sometimes, links to your brand will pop up organically. That's why you'll hear the phrase, Google is your new homepage as one of the more popular mantras of Social Media zealots. It's code for You've lost control. Last year, the ad agency Modernista embraced this concept.

Pinterest For Marketers: The Part You're Not Understanding

Let's talk about marketers, people who use Pinterest, and how they all play together in the social media world. And, let's use charts and numbers Wait, come back. There are so many reasons to focus on Pinterest. The growth of the network in the last year was pretty remarkable it became a very visible part of a social marketer's life. However, there is still a ton of confusion and disagreement among the PR, social and marketing community about whether or not it's important.

Seven Principles Of Content Marketing

Now that we've all agreed that Content is King (Again), and Content Marketing is all the rage, maybe it is time to think about some easy-to-follow tenets. Let's keep this simple. Follow a 70 30 Rule 70 of content curated, 30 branded. Why Because the rest-of-the-world is at least 70 more interesting than your brand and, promoting external content builds social capital, makes grateful fans of influencers. All content should be SHAREWORTHY. Don't publish junk.

The Scandal That Will Knock Marketing On Its A$$

While tactics may vary, at the macro level there is only one way for marketers to reap rewards from Social Media via candid & transparent participation with their audiences (customers, prospects, etc.). But there are at least three ways for marketers to utterly screw up their opportunities in Social Media 1. Lack of transparency due to ignorance (as discussed in the post, Blogger Relations Good Intentions, Bad Execution, Lessons Learned ). 2.

The Strategy Paradox: Interview with the Author

I recently had the opportunity to chat with Michael Raynor, author of the newly-published business book, The Strategy Paradox. Paul J. H. Schoemaker of the Wharton Business School called it, A very timely book that penetrates to the core of strategy, namely how to balance commitment and flexibility in a world of increasing uncertainty.

Not All Social Media Fun & Games

Today I was honored to address the Chief Marketing Officer of a FORTUNE 500 corporation. In the course of the presentation, I pulled up some videos from YouTube in which the creators attacked the company by remixing the company's slickly-produced television advertisements. A spirited debate ensued. Why would we dignify this with a response was the CMO's troubled question. The core points of my response (as long-time readers will expect) Control of your brand is an illusion.

Actionable Listening vs. Active Listening

That's what most savvy brands are doing. It's mostly about Social Media Monitoring. Quick Somebody said something about us Say something back I liken it to the excitement one might feel when toying around with an old ham radio. This is a good thing to be doing, for all brands, regardless of size. But you can take it further, into the realm of Actionable Listening.

New Corporate Blogger is Born

A few weeks ago, with the gorgeous Olympic Mountains as a backdrop, I was sitting in a meeting with my client, RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser, along with Bill Hankes, the company's VP of Corp Comms. We were talking about Social Media about the need for engagement about our progress to-date. I pointed to the launch of RealPlayer11 as an example of a pretty good success.

Atomize Your Content: Share In Small Bits

I was talking about Social Media strategies with a big tech client yesterday. In the course of the conversation they rolled out a slick-looking report, chock-full of truly interesting data about their industry. They plan to make it available online. I asked, How What's the plan Can I guess You're going to post it as a PDF on your website, right They confirmed that this was the planned approach.

Must We Be Mad Men?

As part of the continuing series co-written with Steve Farnsworth, Lou Hoffman, and Paul Roberts, I'm tasked with tackling a Big Question about how communications pros must evolve to stay relevant. I wish this were easy to answer. Social Media turned the world inside out. Riffing on Monday's post re the creative destruction of PR, on any given day I might tell you that to stay relevant the communications pro might need to acquire the skills of an advertising agency, an interactive shop, a...

Untangling Claims About Wire Services & Social Media

I sincerely like most of the folks I meet from the major wire services. But untangling their claims with regard to their Social Media capabilities has proven tough. Each service has made huge strides since we first released the Social Media Release template back in 2006, but each service has also taken slightly different routes in terms of functions and pricing. More than one client has asked for our opinion about, Which service is best for SMRs and we've never had a consistent answer.

Content Curation - The Cure For What Ails Pharma Social Media?

It's all about the content. All good social media efforts start and stop with good content. No matter what tired, overused clich you use, the prevailing thought is that without creating killer content, your social media efforts are doomed. It's a valid line of thought content is the currency of social media. At the same time, content is one of the most challenging and time-consuming aspects of an engagement.

Current State Of The Pr Industry Annenberg Study

Do you want to know what corporate PR departments really want from their agencies, and how important agency relationships are in the eyes of chief communicators So did we, and have now published a comprehensive set of findings on the state of the public relations industry. Our research team recently surveyed 620 senior communicators and compiled results of the seventh biennial Communication and Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices (GAP VII) study, intended to provide practitioners...

The Problem With Facebook For Marketers

Maybe 300,000,000 the recently-announced number of Facebook users represents some kind of tipping-point, because in recent weeks I've had more frequent conversations with marketers about what to do about the popular social network. These conversations have evolved from, Oh, Facebook is for college kids, to People 35 and-over are the fastest demographic on Facebook, to Whatever else you wanna say about it 300 million is a big number.

Astroturfing in Political Wars

As noted in the Washington Post last week, the presidential campaign of John McCain has rolled out a new program designed to reward supporters for placing the campaign's official Talking Points in the Comments sections of various blogs. I don't have a problem with the concept of spurring supporters to be active in the blogosphere. The more the merrier I don't have a problem with a campaign pointing subscribers to some of the most influential blogs, either.

Beauty of the Brainstorm

Among the questions I hear all the time is, Why should we hire an agency, versus handle all communications in-house This one comes up more often than usual thanks to the rise of the blogosphere. Smart clients understand that they may need to take a more personal, active role in their communications to the outside world. While that is true, agencies can facilitate that process (big-time), and anyway, there are also other great reasons to consider outside assistance.

How Social Media will Change Marketing

Right now all of Marketing is hip-deep in the assimilation of Social Media principles. While there will be laggards, companies of all sizes are thinking about blogging and microblogging They are reconsidering budgets to emphasize content production They are at the very least starting to listen intently to the voices that discuss their brand they are investing in monitoring tools and discussing techniques for engagement.

Social Media & Crisis Communications

It seems like every week, another major corporate brand suffers a communications fail and it's usually in the digital realm, where instant and irrevocable communications are the norm. Between pure-digital disasters such as rogue tweets and offline PR scenarios that might not become water cooler conversation if not for Facebook, it's easy to see why communicators hit the panic button when it comes to devising a plan for addressing a digital crisis.

How To Mobilize Your Marketing

I read WIRED's Web is Dead article and the very first graph rings true to me. You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad that's one app. During breakfast you browse Facebook, Twitter, and the New York Times three more apps. On the way to the office, you listen to a podcast on your smart phone. Another app (etc.) You've spent the day on the Internet but not the Web.

Predictions For Communications

This is a guest post by Lou Hoffman, CEO of one of our competitors, the Hoffman Agency. Lou blogs at Ishmael's Corner . Why allow a competitor to use my space Why not It's a new world. We can claw & pound away on the battlefield and still be friends in the blogosphere. Also, he asked nicely. In the spirit of Johnny Carson's alter ego Carnac the Magnificent , here's my tongue-in-cheek look into the communications crystal ball for 2010.

Social Media Marketing: No Guarantees

In yesterday's post I looked at Forrester Research's view on the changing role of Advertising. Today, using the same chart from their report as my guide, I'll discuss the Benefits and Challenges of Owned Media. First off owned media whuzzat Well, Ms. Corporate Marketer, that's your stuff. Your blog, your tweets, your Facebook Fan Page. That's the Content Marketing, company-as-publisher model that's turned our world all topsy.

Guess Who's Talking: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas

Continuing our series on Social Media Ethical Dilemmas, this post is about the guidelines related to agencies who help client contacts to identify and engage, via commenting, on industry influencer blogs. The goal is to insert our clients' executives and perspectives into industry conversations to help them build up their credibility, and ultimately to create valuable relationships with influencers.

Social Media Tips For Newbies Yes, Virginia, They Still Exist!

As a communications professional, every week I am faced with someone a friend, prospect or the person next to me on the bus who says something or asks a question about Social Media that begs the rhetorical Why don't they get it Social Media is not that complicated really. Sure it's dynamic, different and constantly evolving, but a basic comprehension how to use it for personal and business purposes, and WHY it's important should not be so difficult.

Dear Linkedin: You're Doing It Wrong

Tell me if this scenario sounds familiar. You receive an email, which you view on your iPhone, inviting you to accept a colleague's LinkedIn invitation. Within the email, it says, ACCEPT or, View invitation from NAME. You press one of these hyperlinked options. Then you see a screen asking if you want to download the LinkedIn iPhone app. No, thank you, I already have it. I JUST WANT THE LINK TO WORK.

Don't Squish the Butterfly

Over the past weeks, we've been called on to discuss opportunities with Social Media by a handful of Fortune 1000 companies. I've written previously about Big Brands who preferred to be the TOPIC of conversation vs. a mere participant. But in these recent meetings if anecdotes can be considered any kind of trend I've noticed a different light in people's eyes. These Big Brands would be absolutely thrilled to simply become a part of the conversation to be welcomed to the community.

Social Media's Generation Gap

An elderly relative recently upbraided me for my use of Social Media. He is scandalized by my tweets. Aghast at my Foursquare check-ins. Dismayed by my blog. Horrified by the updates and pictures in my Facebook profile. And agog to learn that I actually know a mere handful of the thousands of people who have regular access to all of this personal stuff. How'd all this come up Apparently some of his friends' children are tracking me online.

Twitter is a Wonderland

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has. - Margaret Mead In case you hadn't heard, this week's Social Media Breakfast (SMB) in Boston was pretty special. In keeping with the season, the theme was Social Media for Social Change, and indeed, according to my colleague Bob Collins, It was an amazing event and a real-time proof of concept that demonstrated the power of rallying and engaging a networked...

Social Networks Beat Stress

I cannot and should not be cured of my stress, but merely taught to enjoy it. Hans Selye There's no denying it. It is everywhere. Every person I meet is talking about it. I can't seem to avoid it. IT is NOT the economy, stupid. IT is stress. While the economy is one source of stress for many people these days, it is only one of many. When I talk to friends, I hear, I'm not getting enough sleep.

PR Helps Raise Venture Capital

Wanna talk (yet again) about the ROI of Social Media & PR Let's ask the startup companies who rely on the VC community's support. Did PR help them net funding A survey sponsored by BIGfrontier Communications Group asked 300 U.S. startups that had received funding within the past 3 years about the role of PR in their fund-raising efforts.

Googlize Your Press Releases with News Ads

Many pundits have weighed in on the pros and cons of PR firms dabbling in Search Engine Optimization techniques. Most of the Big Guys are buying-up SEO experts, to serve as a resource to their other marcomm shops. Certainly, if nothing else, PR agencies need to be cognizant of SEO principles when writing content for news releases, et al. But there's another mechanism for applying SEO techniques to the PR realm, courtesy of my favorite innovator, Shannon Whitley.

Beware The Blabosphere: 7 Simple Rules for Freelancers Who Blog

Got a call today from a client whose confidential project information was leaked via one of their contractor's blogs. The blogger was crowing about winning the business, with little regard for the proprietary nature of the project. Imagine if a boutique engineering firm had been handed a top-secret project to help Intel or AMD invent a new, killer chipset and then blogged about the new gig, for all to see. Not very smart, to be sure. This is a rarely discussed peril in the Social Media age.

Social Media Impacts - Inside, Outside, Upside-Down

A convergence of factoids and experiences over the past few days Enterprise 2.0 is currently underway I read an interesting article in TechTarget about the rise of Web 2.0 tools within corporations And, today I attended a Thought Leadership Forum in Boston (hosted by VMS), in which some attendees in the Healthcare industry weighed in quite thoughtfully on the perils of the blogosphere. The essence of both the TechTarget article and the Enterprise 2.0 show seems to be that the 2.

Open Letter to CEO Bloggers

It takes a lot of ego to rise to the CEO spot. You need to be confident and charming, smart and articulate. These are excellent qualities in a blogger, too. I can understand why you'd be interested in joining the conversation. It's an interesting conversation after all, it's a conversation about topics of interest to you and to your company , and the people you'll interact with will self-identify themselves as being interested in what you've got to say.

Thoughts on My Oovoo Day

The folks at crayon have been engaged in a fun experiment this week with their client, Oovoo, an online video chat provider. It's called My OovooDay described on the splash page as a week-long experiment in blogger to fan interaction. Notable bloggers from across the 'sphere will host interactive conversations on hot topics, facilitated by the multi-person video chat technology from our friends at ooVoo.

Blogger Relations: Good Intentions, Bad Execution, Lessons Learned

We recently discovered that one of our clients had been paying some bloggers to write about one of their products. (Actually, these bloggers were already writing about the products our client just paid them to continue to do so the client had no say whatsoever in the actual content.

If You Only Do Two Things In Social Media

As noted earlier, Social Media Monitoring is the ONE THING every company ought to be doing in Social Media. What's the next biggest priority Setting a Social Media Policy. When I first set out to write this series, I have to admit, this was definitely NOT the 2 priority. But I got to thinking about the tremendous sea change that Social Media represents it's big, goddammit, it impacts everyone everyone at every level of a company is often getting involved, PERSONALLY if not always...

Public Relations and Facebook

There's been a lot of chatter lately about Facebook and its potential role and impact on PR. Those same conversations have been occuring in the halls and conference rooms of SHIFT. I blogged about it recently, too. In my earlier post I talked about the prospect of Pitching in Public and how that's to be embraced. But in talking to die-hard Facebookers here at the agency, I sensed a wariness to the idea that surprised me.

For Small Companies, Blogger Relations' Double-Edged Sword Bites Deeper

When talking about Blogger Relations, I tend to address my advice toward medium-to-large companies. Most professional marketers have figured out that Social Media can no longer be ignored, thus any good-sized corporation is now expected to have the savvy and wherewithal to listen, learn, respond and engage with the blogosphere. Invariably, those companies that haven't yet figured it out learn pretty quickly, once they fall victim to a blogstorm, as Target did a few months ago.

If I Had A Million Dollars

While at NewComm Forum last month, I attended Rohit Bhargava's session on The Future of Marketing & Advertising. During the Q&A I asked Rohit one of those classic, simple questions that tend to elicit surprising answers. What keeps you up at night What do you fear in this brave new world Rohit's answer and I'm paraphrasing boiled down to, I'm afraid of what happens when a big corporation peels 1M from their advertising budget and hands it to me for a Social Media campaign.

Blogger Relations: Will Personal Branding Change the Game?

One of the central tenets of Blogger Relations is that the PR pro should develop a relationship with their so-called target. Bloggers (and mainstream journalists, for that matter ) generally don't care for cold-calls, particularly if the pitch is irrelevant to their beat. Remember, most bloggers are passionate experts, and that passion leads them to think that you really ought to care about their brilliant musings As I've written before, this relationship-building is both tough to scale and to...

Social Media News Releases: A ReDeclaration of Principles

Edelman's launch of StoryCrafter, a Social Media News Release (SMNR) builder for its clients, seemed to get a mixed reaction. In the course of the conversation, a few pundits used the opportunity to weigh-in on the SMNR concept itself, and raised some good points worthy of a response. The most intriguing and thought-provoking bit of snarkasm came from the inimitable Brian Oberkirch. Brian is one of the most knowledgeable Social Media guys out there, and a damn good writer, to boot.

Red Tape Won't Stop Social Media From Changing Your Website Eventually

On Jeremiah Owyang's Facebook group dedicated to Web Strategy, a forum sprang up to discuss how Social Media will impact the design of traditional corporate websites. A great thread is being created already there's a recurring theme re resistance among big corporations to embrace this New Age stuff.

Is Social Media Too Boring For Advertising Industry?

I've met with several advertising executive honchos in recent weeks, from agencies large and small. The topic No surprise. Social Media. These advertising execs are gung-ho about Social Media it is generating cool, surprising and lucrative new opportunities for their agencies. But as the campaign becomes the commonplace, challenges rear up Here's the gist of our conversations with the Ad Agency executives Advertising Exec Thanks for coming by. We know you guys get' Social Media.

Newshound - New Facebook Application Debuts!

I am obsessed with playing in the busy intersection where Social Media (community ), Public Relations (influence ), & the News (content ) come crashing together. The latest application of this obsession is, literally, an actual application. It's called Newshound , and it's built on the Facebook Platform . If you are a Facebook user, I hope you will give it a try, and invite your friends to do the same.

Announcing PRX Builder -- the Push-Button Social Media News Release Builder

Is there an easy way to do this A way to 'fill in the blanks' to create a Social Media release That was one of the biggest questions I faced from PR pros who were intrigued (but confused) by our Social Media News Release template (pdf). Luckily, a talented programmer named Shannon Whitley took it on himself to build an application that automates the process of creating a Social Media News Release based on the SHIFT template. Introducing PRX Builder.

Why Facebook Marketing Is More Important Than Twitter Marketing

Google, Facebook and Twitter are the overall winners of the Web 2.0 wars and (barring acquisition) will be the players we still talk about several years from now. We will never speak of Twitter or Facebook in the same breath as MySpace or Friendster both have done a far better job of extending their presence beyond their respective destination sites they are embedding themselves in the daily surfing habits of users.

Are Bloggers Media?

Are bloggers members of the media That's a tough question. The blogging trend is still fairly new (in the grand scheme), and bloggers are as often considered snarks in bunnyslippers as they are legitimate information sources. In a recent tweet, Paul Gillin (who has the credentials to know) made a compelling distinction Most bloggers know more about a topic than reporters, who switch beats all the time. Reporters are resourceful bloggers are knowledgeable.

Doth Milady Tweet Too Much? - Finding a Work/Life/Tweet Balance

I like to bust Doug Haslam of Topaz for his hyperactivity on Twitter ( DougH). How can a fella with almost 12,000 updates, 16 on the TweeterBoard Top 100, possibly find time to do justice to his clients Being the outrageously good-natured and justifiably confident man that he is, Doug laughs this off with quips such as, Hold on I'll answer you after I finish clipping this latest hit I got for my client in U.S. News & World Report . Touche, Mr.

The Bastardization of Social Media

This has been an absolutely incredible year. We've been privileged to talk to some household-name companies about PR & Social Media. We've even won more than our fair share of FORTUNE-level engagements. (w00t ) But, as the brand names got bigger, I sometimes caught a whiff of something unsavory in those oaken conference rooms. I was beginning to smell a rat. In some select cases we found our prospective clients more interested in paying lip-service to Social Media ideals than in true change.

How Many Twitter Handles?

A question that comes up quite frequently, from companies of all sizes and stripes, is How many Twitter handles should we have I first answer the question with a question of my own Do you have to Social Media engagement, i.e., is engagement handled by a core group of (typically) marketing folks, or, are a sizable proportion of employees allowed to tweet and blog Because the answer to that question changes my counsel.

Downstream Blues Lead To Latest Social Media Suggestions

As noted in earlier posts, I've been meeting with representatives of the Big Wires to discuss the Social Media News Release's progress at 1 year. Rather than post it all in one big write-up, I'm breaking up some of what I've learned into smaller chunks. (Also, I still have a couple of meetings left to do.) I heard good stuff. I heard from PRNewswire, for example, that they've had literally hundreds of conversations with agencies & corporations about the Social Media Release.

Audience Targeting in Social Media

The folks within Forrester Research's Groundswell team have done an amazing job of describing the social technographic profiles of Internet users, slotting users into categories such as Joiners, Spectators, etc. I frequently turn to their research as a reality check. However, for my purposes in PR, even simpler definitions can often apply. I tend to think of our clients' target audiences in terms of Passionates, Influencers and Ad-Hocs.

Empower & Inspire with Content Marketing

Among your tasks is netting a few juicy speaking opportunities for your client's top executive. You fill out the forms. Follow-up. Nail the gig. A keynote, no less Yay Prior to the event, you draft a Media Advisory about the CEO's upcoming speech. You ping members of the media who will be in attendance want to hook up with the CEO for lunch after his speech You attend the keynote with the CEO.

Marketing To Early Adopters

I recently attended a wonderful session with over 60 high energy entrepreneurs at Goa. About 20-30 of them had recently launched their product or web service and were actively seeking early adopters. The discussions were about how to identify, interact with, engage and nurture early adopters. A big part of the challenge is that most entrepreneurs are not clear and specific in their plan to target early adopters.

Twitter Rule #2: Remember That You're Being Watched

Twitter Rule 1, you might recall, was Team Before Tweet . Here is an excerpt from that original post, which was published almost 1 year ago How much tweeting is too much' while on the clock For me the answer comes down to prioritization and respect. Your priority while on-the-job is to work through your client assignments in an efficient manner quite simply, that's what you're paid to do If your manager is waiting on a document from you before they can head home, or your client is anxious...

How Many Tweets Does It Take To Impress The Ceo?

I'm not about to tell you that you shouldn't bother counting how many times your content was re-tweeted. I'm not going to tell you to ignore the Klout score of the top RT'ers starring in your communications program. I'm not saying that that data is unimportant or uninteresting. I'm just saying that we are years away from the point at which the Board of Directors and the CEO look at your marketing results and say Wow, 700 retweets Awesome or, Oooh We got a tweet from Ashton Kutcher You and I...

The Awareness Scale: How Social Media, Pr & Advertising Now Work Together

Since we've been pitted against all sorts of different marketing agencies lately from PR firms to interactive shops to megalithic advertising agencies I've been thinking about the interplay of these disciplines. How can we help the average corporate marketer distinguish between these puzzle pieces, since Social Media has created such a mash-up of our thinking Thus the Awareness Scale.

B2B and Social Media

I get a lot of questions about the appropriateness of using Social Media techniques for Business to Business (B2B). Arguments against tapping Social Media in B2B circles range from we already know all of our customers to we have a very technical, specialized product to our customers are very conventional, etc. But let's simplify this are your customers online If your customers are online, you should be considering Social Media strategies. And trust me your customers are online.

My Top 5 Social Media Tools

How can I get any work done I'll get you for this, Stuart Bruce. ) My top 5 Social Media tools these days del.icio.us - one way for PR pros to become more valuable to the media do the research for them. Qumana - a decent blog editor. Pretty much any blog editor rocks after 2 years dealing with Blogger. Blogger Web Comments & Technorati This (tie) - I use these all the time to see what's been said about whatever page I am visiting.

Your Personal Brand is Crap!

The other day, one of my clients got a bad write-up in the online edition of a regional newspaper. My instinct as a PR guy, circa 1999, would have been to write to the reporter to see what the client could do to make amends maybe write a Letter to the Editor of that newspaper, etc. Standard stuff. In the end I'd have counseled my client to a.) fix the problem and, b.) remember that this article will be at the bottom of a parakeet cage soon.

Bloggers: Be Proactive in Educating PR Pros Updated

Not even the most rascally of bloggers or journalists expect or even want the PR industry to die really they just want better PR. But while they writhe in pain at the volume of misdirected pitches, few bloggers take action beyond whining. If anything, the PR and marketing pros themselves seem to be the only ones engaged in the slow-drip of Blogger Relations education. If you are a successful blogger, part of the reward for your hard work is that you're gonna get pitched.

In Defense Of Ghostblogging: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas

The last post in our Social Media Ethics Series essentially explored ghost-tweeting . Now let's talk about a far more widespread issue ghostblogging. For the uninitiated, ghostblogging is simply ghostwriting for someone else's blog. It's generally frowned upon. Is it ethical for a PR agency to write an unattributed post for a client's blog First, we need to define what type of blog we're talking about.

Basic Answers to Some Basic Questions re: Social Media News Releases

A fair number of Social Media News Release 101 questions have cropped up lately. That's a good sign It seems every time I turn around, I hear about a new Social Media release. Thankfully, most of these are success stories . But there are many basic questions that still crop up, in the blogosphere and in my in-box . (And some not-so-basic questions, too.) Luckily I am not the only fella with answers , musings , and advice .

Love Affairs Blogger Relations vs. Relationships of Convenience Media Relations

Earlier this year I riffed on How Long Should a Conversation Last in which I asked, How can PR practitioners possibly find the time & energy to create, monitor (and) nurture the hundreds of relationships that might (or might not) aid their clients --- This is worth further exploration for agency types. The premise Conversations require on-going cultivation in the blogosphere, that entails at-least a bi-weekly check-in (a comment, an e-mail, etc.

Pr Measurement Formula Fails?

One of our clients, whom I respect enormously, wanted to run this PR measurement formula by you all. Say the client spends 100,000 on PR, in one year. For the sake of argument, let's say PR is the biggest (or only) marketing vehicle. In that one year time period, the client gets 1M website impressions. Could you not divide 1M impressions by 100K and claim PR is driving leads to the website at a rate of 10 cents per impression I am such a hopeless case when it comes to math.

Will Social Media Help PR Weather the Storm?

When I talk to my PR industry colleagues, there's a fair bit of trepidation about all the economic woes. We've been here before. We've seen the bloodletting. We've seen corporations slash marketing budgets at the exact moment when they should be pushing more of their chips into outbound efforts.

The Social Media Hustle

A lot of the recent Facebook friend requests I've received have been from folks hailing from intergalactic PR agencies but not from the traditional side (they often assure me), but from these firms' newly-formed Social Media Divisions. I think it's a mistake to separate your so-called Social Media specialists from the rest of your PR agency staffers.

Social Media Predictions

Peter Kim , the former Forrester analyst, was kind enough to invite me to join several other smart folks in looking ahead to Social Media's likely evolution. Community and collaboration are wonderful things, he says. And then I realize that the 14 voices Peter's lassoed into ginning up their ideas could've been 15 , if Peter himself had hazarded some predictions Crazy like a fox, that guy.

The End of the Social Media Release

That's my goal to put an end to the Social Media Release. Not because I want to see a return to the days of text-based news releases, but simply because I don't want the Social Media Release to be special anymore. I'd like it to be a standard operating procedure for corporate communicators. What brought this to mind For one, this fantabulous social media release by Cisco Systems. (That's Cisco, the multi-billion dollar tech behemoth, for you non-techies.

Content Marketing: Think Multi Media

One of the benefits of living in a Boston suburb is that you meet smart people wherever you go. Even on the neighborhood soccer field where I share cheering duties with Frank Cutitta , the General Manager of IDG Connect . Our talented daughters are on the same team. IDG Connect is an information technology resource for the latest research and product information in the IT Industry. The library includes technical white papers, webcasts, podcasts, case studies and product information.

Real-world Ethical Dilemmas In Social Media: Upcoming Series

Even as Social Media has quickly become integral to corporate communications strategy, it also presents a very, very new model, with new challenges. As in any new endeavor, questions arise about ethical boundaries. As discussed in the recent Slippery Slopes post, those boundaries are rarely marked by a bright line. Shades of gray need exploration. With this in mind, I asked my senior staff to outline for me the ethical questions they had faced with clients in the past 12 months.

Stop Building Microsites?

Many brands will use a microsite a single-purpose li'l website to serve as a landing page for a new advertising branding marketing social media campaign. This FEELS like it makes sense. Most brands are too big to allow a one-off campaign of any sort to dramatically affect their official corporate website yet, corporations spend enough on such initiatives that they want to maximize the investment and, for fans of the newly rolled-out campaign, a microsite is a handy, utilitarian place to show...

Tweeting Under False Circumstances: Social Media Ethical Dilemmas

I am going to start off with a bang, in this 1st of 7 planned posts about Real-World Ethical Dilemmas in Social Media. What would you do if a client contact who had a pretty solid Twitter following asked you to tweet from his account , as if you were him Crazy Wrong Unethical Let's discuss. The client contact is well-known in his field. He enjoys a loyal following of industry peers on Twitter. He posts regularly, sometimes several times a day.

Our Corporate Brand Is Cramping My Personal Brand

As the Millenial Generation comes online in the business world, corporate leaders will increasingly need to factor how-to deal with personal brands in their thinking. While we've all grown accustomed to the fact that prospective employers will be Googling us and scouring our Facebook profiles for incriminating photos, at some point the reverse will also be true star employees will carefully evaluate the reputation and socialstreams of their would-be employers, to determine whether they want to...

Many Advertising Agencies Still Don't Understand Social Media

Look, I have nothing against advertising agencies. Some of my good friends work at top ad agencies and I admire their creative brilliance and verve. Also, many advertising agencies do a good job with integrating Social Media into their overall work. I also am not in the habit of taking potshots at specific ad campaigns. Generally I figure everyone has good intentions and we can't expect genius-level execution all the time.

Susan G. Komen Pr Disaster: Lessons Learned

It's been nearly two weeks since my last blog post. Sorry about that. I was out sick. And wow, what a crazy time to sit on the sidelines Facebook IPO. Hello More on that in a future post. Susan G. Komen vs. Planned Parenthood. Sheesh Let's talk about that (Caveat I am a Blue State progressive whose mother died of breast cancer who marched on Washington as a college student in support of women's rights and whose dear-departed grandmother spoke with horror of the days prior to Roe v. Wade.

Blogger Relations

The PR people suck meme of this week which whacked several PR firms (ours included, dammit) - got me thinking. I've said before that sunlight is the best disinfectant The public outing of bad PR practices that seems to occur with increasing frequency will, eventually, cow the best among us into doing an ever-better job. I say the best among us because the good agencies do care about doing a good job. The bad agencies don't care and won't change.

Wikipedia For Marketers: The Last Word

The holy waters of neutrality . The feverish protection against marketers. The religious fanaticism for verification . They even acknowledge a history of misbehavior by marketers, something not many are willing to swallow. And it's true that as an industry we've done terrible things to Wikipedia. We've censored content, posted advert and introduced bias.

Your Reputation: Create a Permalink

What do you think of my new About Me idea --- rather than link to a bio page, I'm directing folks to my LinkedIn profile . Why To integrate my dual lives. I run a PR firm that is my professional life --- after my family, the agency is my true passion our work, our staff, our clients, are the lifeblood of my reputation. I am also a blogger. It is my hobby.

Get Into Twitter or Get Outta Public Relations?

Last Monday (4 21), the inimitable Sam Whitmore of MediaSurvey published this handy list of Old- and New-School media types who are active on Twitter. I'll re-publish a condensed version of Sam's list below, but first want to pontificate on the shocking headline of this post am I seriously suggesting that a PR person MUST become an active Twitter user if they want to have a meaningful career Even though Twitter is supposedly still a below-the-radar service Well, yea, kinda.

Social Media Release Template, version 1.5

I didn't think I would ever do this the original Social Media Release (SMR) template took on a life of its own and I assumed that beyond evangelizing for the format, my creative work was done. But, as I've been awestruck by the adoption of the first template by some Big Brands, gratified by the response of the wire services, and energized by the many debates surrounding the SMR, I've learned some lessons that could inspire a fresh look at the original version. Version 1.