Media Guerrilla

New Skills For Young PR Pros

So last Friday, half a dozen students from Chico State's journalism program (my alma mater), came to Voce's Palo Alto office and spent the day observing and discussing agency life.

As part of this visit, I spent some time talking about the web and its impact on the PR industry. It was one of those discussions where unfortunately you just end up having to go a mile wide and an inch deep on things, however, one question shook out of this talk that I thought other students and new grads might find interesting and helpful, I'll elaborate on it here. The question was pretty simple:

What *new* skills are important to PR?

It's a great question, one I could chew on for a while here, but if I had to pick three things, I'd say:

Learn Another Language
Seriously, as communicators, if you really want to be successful using your first language, consider learning a second — HTML. It's a universal language that's becoming critically important in PR, especially as the reach and influence of the web continues to shape and inform market opinions and perceptions. I think having some basic knowledge of HTML gives you a small leg up when, for example, you're using a tool, such as a blog in business. It also provides you with a better understanding of how metadata, markup and the like all quietly work together behind the scenes to aid in the discovery and distribution of what you're ultimately communicating via the web.

Learn Conversational Communication
This is admittedly harder than it sounds, and dangerous too, but it's about learning a different style of communication, one that separates things like AP style and institutionalized standards of "business talk,' from more informal and colloquial forms of writing and discourse. It's important because the vehicles for communication are changing. We're no longer confined to emails, or press releases or static corporate web pages. Yes, we're still using these mediums, but we're also communicating via blog posts, in comment threads, on IM and through other forms of media. The dangerous part of all this, particularly for those new to the workplace, is just learning to determine when this style of communication is advantageous, and, well, when it's not.

Learn Media Production
Understanding how to plot, plan and produce media, particularly video, is important. It's another communications tool, one that more companies are adopting as the cost and labor barriers to production continue to lower. Having some basic knowledge of composition, sound, lighting, and editing, is a skill set that has a lot of utility — be it an agency or inside a company. I'll also add, understanding basic distribution techniques and services, like RSS enclosures, aspect ratios, iTunes directory submissions, etc., is helpful.

Again, there's much more I and I'm sure others in the industry would say are important skills. Ultimately, however, it's about getting the fundamentals right, first. It's about learning to dribble, pass and shoot before you worry about learning how to dunk, but hopefully this helps.

pr, socialmedia, students

The Press Release Page A New Approach To An Old Problem

So I've never really considered the whole 'press release vs. social media release' debate an either/or situation. The way I see it, there's arguably utility and merit in both formats, as there are gaps and drawbacks. Frankly, I'm not convinced either approach is really the best way to think about news distribution on the web, and well, maybe for that reason alone, I think there's still room for experimentation.

With this in mind, the Voce team did an experiment of our own recently, something we've been calling the "press release page."

Conceptually, it's pretty simple: We "announced" a partnership two weeks ago. There was a press release which we distributed over the wire, as well as an accompanying web page (i.e., the press release page) we created to augment and contextualize this news. I'll explain both things here...

The Press Release
It was 175 words (less than this blog post). It captured the top-level news and highlighted the type of info the reader might find helpful on the accompanying press release page. It was a functional teaser of sorts, that's it. The goal was to pique interest and pull attention to the press release page for more information — and, well, looking at our stats among other things, it more than accomplished that.

Now, did the format of the release really matter here? Not really. Did we encounter any wire distribution headaches? No, none whatsoever. If it had been a "true" SMR, by all the standards, would it have spread further across the web? I don't know, maybe. Was it expensive? Nah, it was less than $100 bucks, although your milage will vary, depending on the wire service and the distribution circuit you pick.

The Press Release Page
It was a simple web page we created with WordPress, the same platform that runs our company blog. We did some minor CSS and HTML customization, but nothing radical by any means. Again, the whole purpose of the press release page was to augment, color and contextualize this announcement with copy and content – basically, the very same stuff that would have torpedoed the attention and economic gains of our press release had we tried to shoehorn a fraction of this into what went across the wire.

Now, could we have made this press release page a little more dynamic? Could we have enabled comments? Yeah, and we should have, because *this page* is where the value of conversation bears real fruit, longer term, for us and those that trip across it with future web searches, it's not, however, the press release, which will steadily and inevitably disappear online.

And therein lies one of my biggest gripes with focusing so much energy on the release format.

There's been too much fuss over the wrapper, not enough focus on the package.

Again, I make no claim to this being anything other than an experimental approach, an experimental alternative to news distribution on the web. One that that I think has real practical potential for an increasing number of companies that are already deploying corporate blogs and could very easily squeeze more PR value out of those platforms, by extending their scope and purpose a bit.

pr, socialmedia, pressrelease, smr, media

The Three O'sof Social Media Measurement

"How do you measure social media programs?"

You know, I try not to, it's a buzz kill. I'm kidding...

This question surfaces all the time. It's hands down one of the biggest challenges we marketers face, but come on, it's not impossible. Yeah, we need better weights and measuring sticks for new media — they will come — but don't let that stop you from adapting and customizing an approach that works for your business.

There are three things you should think about when it comes to measurement, each I'd argue are equally important:

Outputs

Pretty self explanatory, right. Is content being created? It could be a blog post or a forum topic or a video, you get the gist. Try not to get too hung up on the "how much" part of the output. Focus instead on the quality and relevancy of what's being produced and the utility of the medium for you and your customers.

Outgrowths

Again, pretty simple. What stems or grows from the content that was created? It could be comments, links, tags, diggs, votes, etc. How people choose to participate with the content will vary so try to think about the value and weight you place on certain actions — and how you might better enable them.

Outcomes

Basically, the net result or response to the first two things. It could be attention (influencers, media), amplification (memes), engagement (quality/quantity of comments), sentiment (positive/negative), this is where you have to simply interpret and weigh the shake out. And then compare your analysis to whatever the hell your goals were to begin with. Oh, and then pray they line up.

Keep in mind, all of this is just one approach to measurement — an admittedly simple one for an increasingly complex web. I tend to think social media measurement will always be half science/half art, and maybe for that reason, always be a headache too, but hopefully this gives folks a framework to pivot and build on.

Related Post:

Social Media Measurement Deconstructed

Also Read:

PR Measurement Blog (Katie Paine)

Like Nailing Down a Shadow (Brian Oberkirch)

Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang)

[Cross published on Voce Nation]

Online Response Tactics 101

"So, how do you know when to talk back?"

Yeah, I get this question a lot...

The upside of companies recognizing the importance of online conversations is that they're, well, increasingly listening. And with listening comes the inevitable urge to act and respond to a whole bunch of things, but when do you do this? And how? Do you leave a comment? Do you send an email? It's not like you have a field manual to reference for on-the-fly tact, so calculating what action to take (if any) is a challenge and unfortunately, a determination you have to make fairly quickly.

Here's the thing: there's no formula for how or when to talkback. You have to take each instance on a case-by-case, however, there are three baseline questions you should try to ask — and answer — before you do anything:

1. Is the post factually inaccurate?

If yes, congrats, you're dealing with the top 10% of blogs. Kidding. Proceed to question two.

If no, okay then, a response may be necessary. I tend to weight the response tactics according to the severity of the inaccuracy. If it's a simple mistake (e.g., a misspelling, a misquote, etc) then try contacting the author privately and directly. State your case and request the change, that's all you can do. It's no guarantee of a timely fix, but I think most folks will make an honest effort to correct their mistakes.

For those that don't or who make more severe, err egregious errors, you have a reasonable case for leaving a public comment. Again, it's no guarantee that the problem will be fixed or that the author will even allow your comment to be posted. In this instance, you may also want to consider contacting the author privately and directly too. And if you really want to escalate things, consider dragging the link out with your own blog post, bookmarks, tags and annotations - this is a response 202 tactic, proceed with caution.

2. Is the post a fair expression of opinion?

If yes, proceed to question three.

If not, you could consider talking back, but be careful, this is where most companies get tripped up because the only fair point-of-view is, well, the corporate one. I think this where you just have to be *really* honest about your company's strengths and weaknesses. If, for example, a post is recounting a terrible experience with your product, there is very little you can do to change that person's experience. Think about what purpose talking back with serve and what outcome you're really looking for. Are you trying to appeal to the author or future readers who stumble on this post?

3. Is a relationship with the author important?

If yes, then you have to go one step further and ask yourself if talking back via comments or the back channel will augment and extend the relationship. Only you can answer that question.

If no, then you still have to go one step further and ask whether or not the blog post itself can impact and influence people's perceptions. In most cases, if a relationship with the blog author isn't a priority, neither is the blog's readership, and therefor there's no need to talkback. Case closed.

This is admittedly an incomplete post, there are nuances to all of this that I'm not digging into here, it's response tactics 101, get off my back, but seriously, hopefully this provides some good starting points for reference for companies that want to talk back.

Also Read

The Purposeful Conversation

When it Comes to Social Media, Ask The Hard Questions

In my world, this time of year is always crunchy, it's an endurance race to the holidays. It means unfortunately that I don't get to read as much, blog as much, breathe as much, etc., but oh well, so be it. I figure I can either put my head down to cover ground and get some creative stuff in the works for '08 or stand still debating the finer points of bad PR vs. ugly PR vs. fugly PR. It's a pretty easy decision, right?

One observation I will share as I've been scooting about, is that I'm increasingly seeing this me-too mentality surface inside companies that want to do more with social media. My hunch is that this stems from a mix of places, but mostly, it stems from fear. Fear that companies that are embracing new tools and new practices online are gaining "all sorts of business advantages" — and that other companies somehow, sadly are falling behind because they are not.

Truthfully, this is a healthy fear to have, but please don't kid yourself or let it blind you.

If you're considering social media projects, don't be afraid to ask the hard questions first.

Can your company tell its story with a blog? How will a presence on MyFaceSpace augment communications? Does a SMPR have any utility? Can a widget add value? Do your customers watch online videos? Does a mention on a blog really get you anything? Do you have the time to invest to do this right?

The list goes on, the important thing is that you ask the questions - both internally if you're on the corporate side and externally, if you're talking to a consultant. Oh, and for all of these questions, there's the big, fat inevitable one, right, which is "where has this been successful?" I mean, if you're gonn'a try and replicate something that's been done, know that it worked, right?

Fear is one of those classic business motivators, and at times it's a healthy one, but don't let it cloud your judgement or get in the way of what you're company is trying to accomplish. Social tools, social strategies might be be able to help your business in a number of ways, but they might also be a terrible distraction.

The only way you'll know which is to be uncomfortable with the easy answers and always ask the hard questions.

Technorati Tags: business, marketing, pr, socialmedia

Hello [NAME], I Want to Pitch You.

It's odd, after so many fits of anger and bouts of frustration by bloggers over PR tactics, particularly pitching, my own recent anecdotal evidence indicates there's a growing air of surrender - or maybe it's collective ambivalence - toward the very tactics that were once so illicit. I can't decide if this is just my own random observation or if there's really some sort of shift afoot.

I think there's a group of pro bloggers that long ago sought the privilege of corporate access and when they got it, smartly used it to amplify their own credibility and influence.

I can't help but think that there's a growing pool of bloggers, vloggers, podcasters, and the like, out there today, each having witnessed the meteoric rise of these first movers, and each hoping in their own way to achieve the same levels of success. Because of this, maybe the desire for company access and info is beginning to outweigh the cost of all the PR cruft that comes with this - be it the industry-leading press releases, the auto-personalized emails or the super valuable pseudo-executive briefing invites.

Sadly, if this is really the case, it also means the incentive for change in the PR industry is diminishing. Why adapt to new tactics of engagement when you can simply force people into submission with the old ones?

Technorati Tags: pr, puppy, socialmedia

Social Media Bandwagoning

"If you see a bandwagon, it's too late."

A great quote from James Goldsmith and something every marketer ought to keep in the back of their head, especially those of us mixing it up in the mess. It's easy to see the bandwagons for Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and the like, and it's even easier to jump on them, but it's much harder to pick a path of your own - one that forces you to look past the rhetoric and hype and consider new products like these as the tools that they ultimately are.

Only then can you really decide where the real returns and risks exist for your brand, your client, etc...

Technorati Tags: socialmedia, bandwagon, james+goldsmith

Making Sense of the "Messy Middle"

It's funny, after several years, countless projects, big successes and humbling failures, I still to this day stumble and stutter when casually asked: "so what do you do?"

It's pathetic, I know and a bit ironic too, because I actually have a very clear understanding of what I do, and maybe more important, an appreciation for why I do it. The problem with explaining it is that, well, it's just kind'a messy.

You see, I work in and out of this place that goes by so many different names: PR 2.0, Web Strategy, Edgework, Social Media Marketing, and countless others. To me, all of these concepts are equally right in both their spirit and definition, and have each grown from the same kernel, the same source -- what I'll simply call the "messy middle."

The messy middle is where several historically disparate business disciplines are intersecting; it's the place where marketers, communicators, product developers, customer support folks, and arguably other arms of an organization all meet and mix to maximize their efforts, thanks to the social web.

I used to think the messy middle was this franken-field, built from the best parts of other disciplines, that would in time evolve and displace all the tired modes and models of business, particularly PR and marketing. You know, the "one ring" school of world domination. The longer I stay in this, however, doing what I do, the less confidence I have that this will ever really happen.

The truth is, a lot of folks visit, pick and pull from the messy middle as they see fit, based on how best it applies to what they do - the funny thing is, fundamentally, they each keep doing what they've always done.

Case in point, the customer support folks continue to look for ways to improve the customer experience. Today, among other things, this includes monitoring and responding to customer blogs. Likewise, the product dev folks continue to seek and understand what their customers want, and again, today, among other things, this includes reading tons of comments and reviews, and encouraging opinion and feedback. And the communication and marketing folks, well, what can I say, read the last 3+ years of blog posts here, that ought'a cover things.

All this being said, I suppose the answer to the "what do you do question" gets a whole lot easier when you consider the "what" part hasn't really changed that much. Now, just pray they don't ask how...

Technorati Tags: edgework, marketing, pr, pr2.0, socialmedia, web strategy

Social Media Measurement Deconstructed

I know a lot of folks (myself included) have been slamming their heads against the wall for a while now, trying to grok an approach that really captures and measures the impact and value of social media. For many PR folks, the headache that is “social media measurement” arguably boils down to three things - influence, engagement and reach - and how you qualify each.

Influence
Fairly simple, right: who has it, who doesn't? I've seen this problem reasonably solved in 60 minutes with a search engine and some Excel-fu. I've also seen this problem solved with proprietary indexes and ridiculous six figure contracts. You do the math, but trust me, it's a solve-able problem that has little to do with the size of your wallet, and more to do with your ability to track outputs and analyze outcomes.

Engagement
A little tricky, yes. Neuroscience? No. For communications folks, engagement is about qualifying and quantifying participation. How you calculate and weigh various participation factors (e.g., a conversation, a blog post, comment, tweet), err gestures (e.g., a link, tag, photo), is ultimately up to you to define, but assuming you can successfully identify your influencers, agreeing on the participation criteria is fairly simple and will likely be a combination of things that in aggregate (over time) indicate just how engaged - or not - folks are with what you're doing. The scorecard model works well for this.

Reach
Reach is a lame duck carry over metric that we just can't shake. I think influence and engagement are far better measures for social media work, but if you get stuck with factoring reach into the measurement mix (like so many of us do), concentrate on two things - links and size of networks. Both are direct measures of reach/amplification, just remember to bake in a multiplier for the net effect of the web.

Taken as parts, deconstructing these three things really isn't that difficult, the bitch of it - historically speaking - has been tying them together into a meaningful macro measurement. Again, not to over-simply the challenge here, but assuming you can identify your influencers, assign weight to their engagement levels and calculate their reach, you've got yourself a fairly strong macro measurement fix. Don't worry about the lack of a big fancy bow, you already have the package....

Also Read
Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang)
Web Metrics Guru (Marshall Sponder)

Technorati Tags: measurement, socialmedia

Monitoring vs. Mining Conversations

Earlier this morning I had the chance to speak on a PRW panel about corporate web strategies, and one of the topics that surfaced (err, re-surfaced) was the ol' conversation monitoring vs. mining debate...

If you don't know what I'm referring to, I wrote about this a while back, but essentially it has to do with the competing (and sometimes conflicting) need companies have to monitor and react to online chatter with the need to measure and weigh the value and impact of conversational efforts over time.

Oddly enough (or is it, sadly enough?) we were talking about this issue *two years* ago, yet it continues to frustrate and divide the way that communicators and marketers approach online conversations today.

In the end, like everything these days, it's about finding a balance between these two things, but you have to understand the difference before you can bridge the divide.

Technorati Tags: conversation, measurement, mining, monitoring, PRWeek

Passion Rarely Equals Influence

I think as more marketers dig into customer advocacy projects there's this tendency to assume a loyal customer (a "passionate customer") is also an influential one. That's a very dangerous assumption, tread carefully.

Loyalty and influence are two separate things and more often than not, unrelated.

Is a loyal customer likely to give you feedback on your product? Sure. Will this customer recommend your product to others? Maybe. Will this customer's recommendation have an impact and influence on others' decisions? Who knows...to assume, however, that someone's passion and loyalty is somehow proportional to their influence is a formula that's problematic to say the least.

Technorati Tags: customer+advocacy, marketing, influence

New Media Edumacation

New media training and education is a big part of what I do inside Voce and truthfully, like any form of teaching, it's a mixed bag of headaches and rewards. Through my own experiences, I've really developed a heightened appreciation for teachers - their patience, their perseverance and mostly their ability to motivate people to learn - qualities that far too often go under-appreciated.

One of the things I've learned over the last few years, perhaps the hard way, is that you can literally spend days educating, training and couching folks on new media concepts and tools, but without a reciprocated willingness to learn and an eagerness to work, it's frankly a waste of time. I think there's some sort of analogy here that involves a horse...

Anyway, someone asked me a while back if new media would "kill off" the PR industry. My answer: No, but laziness and ignorance certainly will.

Technorati Tags: education, newmedia, training

New Media Projects: Pick A Good Partner

Okay, so I'm continuing with some thoughts here shaking out of my recent RFP posts....

Here's the situation: you want to starting folding social media strategies, tactics and tools into your company's PR program, but you're not sure how exactly you want to approach things and because of that, you're leaning toward bringing in some outside help. Maybe you're thinking about a consultant or a small group of specialists or even a large services firm, the tough question is this:

How do you pick a good partner?

I think the market has reached a point now where it's fairly easy to find knowledgeable people and more often than not, initial talks and meetings can give you surface-level insight into someone's experience and know how. Often, if the price is right too, well, for some folks that's enough. Decision made.

But let's say you're the crazy type that wants to get past surface-level questions and responses, and really dig into someone's skill set - to ensure that they can really be the trusted adviser that you and your company are seeking. In this case, what sort of questions do you ask? And more important, what sort of responses should you expect?

Here are just a few questions, in no particular order, that you might want to consider:

How are they using new media in their business?
It's a fairly straight-forward question, right. Is the company or the consultant you're talking to eating their own dog food? What you want to hear is of course yes, but I think what you also want to see is a degree of variety in how they're active across the web. Having a personal blog, for example, is great, but at this point in the game, it's practically a must-have. How else are they immersed?

How are they using new media with their clients?
Again, a simple question, but the thing to zero in on is diversification. Are you seeing the replication of essentially the same project (e.g., a blog) or are you seeing a variety of projects? IMO, the broader spectrum of projects you see, the better. You want a partner that can advise you on the best strategies, tactics and tools, not just the ones they've done before. And remember, it doesn't have to be a public-facing thing, some of the best usage of new media happens behind the firewall.

Have they ever worked through an online crisis?
Yeah, a crisis is a crisis, whether it be online or not, I know, the point here is that the web can amplify and socialize news quickly, and you need to know your partner has experience dealing with this sort of thing. They don't have to be crisis management experts, per se, but knowing how they've navigated these situations in the past is very helpful. If their response sounds something like blah, blah, blah, Kryptonite Locks, blah, blah, blah, Dell Hell, well then, that's only an indication that they know what an online crisis is, not exactly how they handled one....

Who will do the work and what is their experience?
This is more specific to service firms. It's the bait and switch BS you've seen in the business, sadly, for years now. It's great to have the internet sage present in the meetings quoting cluetrain and flaunting his in-depth understanding of A-lister eating habits, but here's the thing: the success of most of these programs does not rest on this guy, it rests on those behind him, the ones who will likely do all the edgework. I mean, unless you're cool spending $200/hour for this dude to do Technorati searches. Make an effort to meet all the people who will be on your team and make sure you're comfortable and confident with their background and experience too.

Are they leading or following the industry?
This is a tricky one, but essentially this question is about trying to determine how much authority and credibility your partner has within the industry. What you want to see, I believe, is a healthy mix of external sources that are supporting and justifying new ideas and new thinking that's originating from your partner. Oh yeah, and you want your partner to be able to point you to things that they're doing that substantiates all this. It's tricky because some of the smartest consultants and firms out there have made some mistakes, some of them pretty messy, but the good stuff will usually outweigh the bad if you just take the time to look.

There are of course many other questions to ask, measurement comes to mind as one, training and education capabilities is another, but hopefully this provides you with a reference point for ways to dig a little deeper. Good luck.

Technorati Tags: marketing, new media, pr, RFP, socialmedia

The Purposeful Conversation

The con in conversation is that it often means conversion, at least when marketers say it.

Conversion of opinion and perception, conversion of loyalty and trust and in many cases, hopefully, conversion of dollars and cents.

There's nothing new here really, conversion through conversation has been around for, well, centuries. It's the stuff of philosophy, religion, politics, education, and yes, business too.

Conversion through conversation is a powerful thing, especially within the larger context of a social web. The challenge many marketers struggle with today, however, is how best to filter, weigh and prioritize conversations. To the extent that it maximizes your efforts and returns. Put another way:

How do you separate the purposeless conversation from the purposeful one?

I think there's a tendency among some marketers right now to consider all conversations, particularly online ones, as inherently good and valuable, and such, a justified use of time and resources. It's just not true and it's certainly not practical. Listening is important, no doubt, but when it comes to response and engagement, you really need to pick and choose which conversation will have the best returns and outcomes - i.e., which conversation will serve a/your purpose best.

There's a place here for metrics and measurements and consulting too, but conversational marketing is an art, not a science. It requires a mix of ingredients for success, but more often then not, the thing it requires most is focus. Lose it and what was purposful conversation quickly turns into idle blabber.

Technorati Tags: communication, marketing, purposeful conversation

24-Hour News Cycle (R.I.P)

I got suckered recently (a subject for another post) into a cheesemo teleseminar on media trends. In it, one of the brilliant speakers proclaimed with confidence that the world's media still operate within a 24-hour news cycle. Heh? What world is that? It ain't mine jack....in mine, the news cycle takes 90 seconds:

+1 second to hit publish

+2 seconds for a blog to refresh

+3 seconds for feed readers to update

+4 seconds to email, link, tag, rank, or rate a blog post

+5 seconds for readers to form an opinion and/or leave a comment

+1 minute for Technorati to register a server ping, crawl and index a blog post

+8 seconds for alerts, watchlists and saved searches to propagate

+4 seconds for a blog post to plateau, amplify or disappear

+2 seconds for this cycle to repeat from the beginning

+1 second to realize the world's changing...

Update: via Josh Hallett - "In a 24-hour news cycle there are a total of 960 unique, 90-second news cycles."

Technorati Tags: blogs, communication, media, news cycle, pr

Is PR Really About Driving Sales?

"The best comms programs are those that have nothing to do with customer acquisition."

WTF? I heard this the other day, dismissed it completely. Traditionally, in my world, crafting messages, securing attention and influencing perception has always been — and will always be — about one thing: driving sales. The best comms programs are in fact those with a sick concentration on customer acquisition. Period.

My mistake. I dismissed this statement too quickly....

There's a twisted sort of genius in this notion, especially if you think about how broadcast models of marketing and public relations are losing their effectiveness, while brand advocacy and community evangelist programs continue to gain momentum. Where the old models concentrate heavily on things like reach, attention and acquisition, it comes at the cost of an oft-neglected audience - your existing customers.

New models of communication flip things around. It's not about the message, it's not about the new sale, it's about the Godin-esq "customer experience." Make it great for your existing customers and everything else falls into place. Your primary audience is no longer WSJ readers, it's no longer TwIT listeners, it's Bill, a frustrated dad in Des Moines who keeps reporting your product's bugs and emailing customer support, but never hears anything back.

Maybe the best comms programs are indeed those that talk to Bill first.

Now, sadly, there's a whole other issue here. It's a bureaucratic one. Who owns the relationship with Bill? More often than not, it's not PR.

A subject for another post...

Technorati Tags: advocacy, bill, evangelism, marketing, pr, customer, unmarketing

"Yes, of Course We Do That!"

So you can argue that the ugly side of industry change and transition is that it has many service firms and consultants scrambling to redefine what the hell they do. Yesterday it was public relations, today it's social media, tomorrow it's word of mouth marketing.

Out of a desperation to remain relevant and competitive I think some companies and consultants are losing their brands, their identities - and conveniently promising to be all things to all clients. As a result, you have a PR shop saying it does viral marketing and you've got an Ad shop saying it does advocacy programs and you've got a Design shop saying they do social media marketing. And somewhere in between you have the marketing consultant saying she'll do it all....

A client looking for help these days has it tough. It's a little like going into the local Chinese place and finding pizza and burritos on the menu.

You really have to know what you want otherwise there's no telling what you'll get.

Technorati Tags: humor, marketing, pr

Marketing Literacy Desperately Needed v2

Alright, so to avoid being that guy that just points out problems (see my previous post), here's how you could *potentially* define certain marketing disciplines. WOMMA, btw, was a very helpful resource:

Buzz Marketing
Using high-profile entertainment or news to get people to talk about your brand.

Viral Marketing
Creating entertaining or informative messages that are designed to be passed along in an exponential fashion, often electronically or by email.

Influencer Marketing
Identifying key communities and opinion leaders who are likely to talk about products and have the ability to influence the opinions of others.

Evangelist Marketing
Cultivating evangelists, advocates, or volunteers who are encouraged to take a leadership role in actively spreading the word on your behalf.

Grassroots Marketing
Organizing and motivating volunteers to engage in personal or local outreach.

Community Marketing
Forming or supporting niche communities that are likely to share interests in an industry or a brand.

Social Media Marketing
Using social tools to engage audiences online.

I think WOMMA gets it right in the way that it incapsulates all the above under word of mouth marketing. I guess this explains why every PR and Ad firm on the plant now says they do word of mouth marketing. A subject for another post...

Related Read
WOM is DMZ for PR, Ad Folks

Technorati Tags: buzz marketing, community marketing, evangelist marketing, grassroots marketing, influencer marketing, social media marketing, womma, word of mouth

Marketing Literacy Desperately Needed

Okay, a quick observation: we (the marketing industry) desperately need better marketing literacy efforts. At very least, we need to reach some sort of consensus on how we collectively define certain marketing disciplines.

Buzz marketing is not viral marketing. Influencer marketing is not evangelist marketing. Grassroots marketing is not community marketing. And social media marketing is not word of mouth marketing. You get the gist.

At times, yes, these disciplines overlap, but they each have their own definitions too and we absolutely perpetuate confusion when we lazily refer to one as the other....or, worst yet, fail to understand the differences.

Technorati Tags: buzz marketing, community marketing, evangelist marketing, grassroots marketing, influencer marketing, marketing, marketing literacy, social media marketing, viral marketing, word of mouth

Small Biz Folks, Forget Blogging, Get Local

Small business owners, a tip:

Some blowhard bloggers will have you believe that blogging is the best way to buddy up with the search engines and boost your business on the web.

Please-don't-buy-it.

The ratio of time invested to return in awareness and sales just doesn't net out in your favor, at least not for most owners.

Instead, invest your energy and effort in local search services and recommendation engines. These will have an immediate and measurable return for your business online. To do this, simply encourage your customers to share their experiences with your business with local search engines like Yahoo! Local or Google Local.

Customer comments, ratings, reviews, and recommendations are increasingly the first results people see when they do location-based searches. They're also, arguably, the most influential...

[Disclosure: Yahoo! is a client of mine]

Technorati Tags: business blogging, google, local, search, yahoo

WOM is DMZ For PR, Ad Folks

I'm about half way through "Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking," by Andy Sernovitz. I'm not ready to post a review just yet, look to Chris Thilk for that.

What's clear to me reading this is that word of mouth marketing is without a doubt the DMZ for the public relations and advertising industries.

Right now, each side is aggressively trying to determine where they fit in a conversation-driven economy. My better senses tell me neither side will ever wholly lay claim.....

Technorati Tags: advertising, books, pr, andy+sernovitz, wom

Bloggers: How To Approach Companies

Alright, timeout, we need to fix something....

For all the enthusiasm and energy that I and so many other PR folks have put into blabbering about social media these last few years, especially blogs, our zeal for participation may very well be our undoing — or at very least, the cause of many gray hairs.

This undoing comes at the hands of an emerging crop of "citizen journalists" that have developed an unrealistic sense of entitlement and have ceased asking and are now demanding, at least in some cases, the same level of access and information from companies that has long been the exclusive privilege of mainstream journalists.

Now let's be clear, what's broken here has little to do with *who* should have access and information, rather it's *how* people, especially bloggers, exercise this new privilege. Frankly, I'm finding that some bloggers just don't know how to ask for what they want from companies — and that's frustrating for the blogger, for the company too.

So, in the interest of alleviating some headaches, I'm throwing out a few simple tips to keep in mind when initiating contact, especially if it's through corporate PR:

Who are you?
While most companies are getting better about following blogs, there are still, you know, 50 million or so. Introducing yourself never hurts.

What's your schtick?
What's your blog called? What's the link? Some basic info to help us understand what "Bob's Musings" is about would really help.

Whaddaya want?
Are you doing a science experiment with our product? Do you want to have lunch with the CEO? What's on your mind?

Also, why?
Just a basic explanation will suffice, but make your case, don't assume a request without justification will fly.

When can I get back to you?
Yeah, I know you want to post *right now* but it's 1:30AM and I'm pretty certain we'll need a few hours to respond. Give us a practical timeframe for getting back to you.

How do I reach you?
Email's great but we may have to actually talk, so give me a phone number too (and note my fellow geeks, Skype doesn't count).

Now, there's a final tip here, it's my own really, but it goes a little something like this: Don't be a dick.

PR people in general have pretty thick skins and I think most will make a concerted effort to address an incoming request, but man, I've heard some horror stories lately of bloggers with just zero tact or respect, trying to use strong arm tactics to bully and manipulate (and blackmail) companies for info and access, and that's just ridiculous — and totally unnecessary.

There's a middle ground here, it's obtainable too, it just requires a little patience, understanding and communication from everyone involved.

Technorati Tags: blogging, Journalism, participation, PR, sausage making

The Art of the Unlaunch

Man, product development cycles are brutal these days, they're so long and so iterative, it presents some significant PR challenges....

First you have your alpha testing, then the closed beta, then the open beta, then finally general availability (unless you're Google). And in between each phase you have a mixed bag of feature "updates," "enhancements" and my personal favorite, "tweaks," all of which demand media attention and all of which are arguably undeserving of it.

To complicate matters, development cycles can take months, sometimes years, so you can understand why some news-starved PR teams end up, unfortunately, inflating each phase into a bigger deal than perhaps it warrants.

Iterative product dev begets iterative product PR.

The challenge with iterative product PR is that if executed poorly, each phase chips away at your core product story, to the extent that by the time general availability is announced, well, their just ain't that much more to say.

Disappearing are the days of big product stories and flashy launches (unless you're Apple), instead the PR challenge is increasingly how you create an intelligent trail of iterative news crumbs that over time, in aggregate, tell your product story for you. It's the art of the unlaunch.

A typical product launch usually consists of a crescendo of activities and announcements that culminate in the introduction of a new product at a pre-determined point in time. An unlaunch is different: a product exists. Period. How you share the various iterations of the product and spur adoption is where the PR strategy resides, but there is no press release, there is no exclusive review, there is no tradeshow stage demo, and there is no flashy ad that "unveils" the product — at least not all at once.

Most important, there is no magical point in time where the product turns into a beautiful butterfly, it remains in a perpetual state of steady and stable iteration, as does the PR communications strategy.

It sounds weird, I know, but it's already happening. More to be said about the unlaunch in the coming weeks....

Also Read:
Thoughts on unmarketing (Brian Oberkirch)

Technorati Tags: PR, product dev, unlaunch, unmarketing

Lipstick 2.0 on a Pig

I'll admit I do little to dilute the concentrate of social media kool-aid, I'm a big believer in its power and potential, but there seems to be a disproportionate level of attention and posturing around content discovery these days -- specifically, how you use social tools to help with content discovery.

It's the "tag-it-and-they-will-come-mentality" that's bugging me.

Should you be thinking of new ways to attract eyeballs and attention? Yeah, of course, that's an important component of any social media strategy, but earn those eyeballs and reward that attention by concentrating on the content. For PR folks, that means using good communication fundamentals to ensure what you're saying is, well, interesting. Equally important, it means using good judgement to determine what is -- and is not -- appropriate content for new info channels.

Tagging your new hire media alert, Digging your 50-page white paper and uploading obscure corporate b-roll to YouTube ain't exactly providing much value -- nor will it provide much return.

Technorati Tags: PR, lipstick+on+a+pig, socialmedia

Newswires, Press Releases & Problemos

I needed a day or so to grok the launch of TheWeblogWire, for the unacquainted, it basically a newswire service for the blogosphere. While conceptually speaking I like the idea of a newswire for bloggers, practically speaking, the value of this sort of service seems, well, marginal -- if for no other reason than a gut belief that very few bloggers actually *want* to read press releases. Call me crazy.

But even with that said, you could argue that the newswire model, be it for bloggers or otherwise, has some serious problems, one's a content problem, the other's bigger IMO, it has to do with distribution.

The content problem is pretty obvious. The market value of a press release is diminishing. Journalists say this. Customers say this. Investors say this. Companies hear this. Newswire services are dependent on a commodity that has a steadily decreasing value. I think Todd Deferen's efforts around the social media press release has the potential to restore some value, but it's only one of a series of steps required to rehabilitate the press release. And then there's the issue of distribution.

When you're competing with, say, the in-ter-net, for information dissemination, that's a problem.

The number of competing outlets for news dissemination, be it text, video, audio, or otherwise, is just growing too quickly. For now, Reg FD is a *huge* driving force (cough, shackle) for the continuing use of existing newswire services, but as the definition of fair disclosure evolves (and it has to), you can see how fast things might change.

Also, throw into the mix some of the thinking that's going on right now around microformats like hrelease (thank you Chris Heuer), and its potential to disintermediate newswires, and there're just cause to question the longer-term health of the newswire business.

Things won't change overnight, but they'll change....

Related Posts:
Social Media Press Release (NewPRWiki)
Old Wine, New Vessels (Brian Oberkirch)
The press release is dead! Long live the press release! (Shel Holtz)
The beleaguered press release...(Susan Getgood)

Technorati Tags: hrelease, newswires, press release, socialmediapressrelease, theweblogwire

Real Men of Genius

There are so few ads I actually pay attention to these days, with the exception of one: Bud Light's "Real Men of Genius" radio spots. Don't ask me why, they just crack me up. Anyway, I've attend a tear of blogger conferences the past several weeks, so my head starting mashing the two things together and I wrote this ad copy a while back, just for fun, thought I'd share. All the humor in this is lost if you haven't sampled the ads, but regardless, I think we can all relate to this in some small way. Enjoy.

Mr. A-List Blogger Keynote Speaker

Today we solute you, Mr. A-List Blogger Keynote Speaker.

Blogging may have made you famous, but speaking will make you infamous.

You, bastion of the unkeynote, take to the stage, projecting to everyone in attendance that you're fully prepared to waste their time.

[chorus: you're in the Technorati 100!!]

Yes indeed you're smart, smart enough to know you're in over your head, and that's exactly when you retreat, master of deflection.

After all, why waste time preparing a speech when you could simply waste time asking and entertaining random off-topic questions from the audience.

[chorus: substance is overrated!!]

So go ahead, make the attendees carry your keynote, while you skillfully wield the microphone across the bewildered room.

[chorus: it's time to check our email!!]

It takes guts to do what you don't do, veteran of the ego surf, but it takes even more guts to charge for it. You put the con back in conference. Thank you.

This one's for you, Mr. A-List Blogger Keynote Speaker.

Update: glad to see people can laugh at the spirit of this thing. If you want serious laughs, listen to the audio rendition that Brian Oberkirch created. Pure genius. If the folks at A-B are listening, we're on to something here....

Technorati Tags: Blogging, bud light, genius, Humor

Synthesizing Social Media

Making sense of online conversations is a tough, tough business.

Yeah, there are tons of tools and tactics to streamline the process of discovery and tracking but *synthesizing* all this information and determining what's actionable vs. insightful vs. plain wasteful is a time-intensive task -- something that in time machine-based analytics will fix, but until then, unless you've got budget to burn on over-priced services, your best bet is human analysis.

Which brings me back to the service and billing gap meme. Some firms think the task of synthesizing online chatter can and should be relegated to the lower ranks, if for nothing else but economic reasons. The theory being that time-intensive tasks like this should be billed at a lower hourly rate to maximize the client's budget, the challenge to this is that when you're engaged in conversation at the network edge, you rarely have the time to entertain processes and protocols.

More often than not, you need to find, synthesize, strategize, then react. And you need to do this relatively fast.

When that's the case, it really messes with agency account structures, because you need quick thinking strategists on the front lines who are fast acting tacticians too -- a skill set typically found in the senior ranks, all of whom, unfortunately, bill at a higher hourly rate.

There is no easy answer here, a lot of folks are working on this one, in the short-term this will continue to be a challenge for firms offering social media services. It's also a warning flag for companies: in the same way you should always know who on your team is managing media conversations, you should know who on your team is managing edge conversations too.

Technorati Tags: ConversationalMarketing, PR, socialmedia

DIY PR, The Challenge

Garrett French with Search Engine Lowdown asked me, nay, he challenged me in a post today to analyze the PR efforts of a stealthy startup called Jellyfish that has attracted his attention, and a few others too:

"Challenge for Mike Manuel of Media Guerrilla: read this article + check out what Mark McGuire's been doing for himself thus far (his industry participation thus far... ping me or him for more details). If he hired you what could you do for him that he's not already doing for himself? What would you add or do differently? What does his strong DIY execution (in my opinion) mean about the value of PR in the new media era? Why was I - and Ed Batista and Brian Smith - inspired to write about his project?"

Alright, I'll bite Garrett, but only for you big guy....

It's not enough to have features and services anymore, as a company you have to have a point of view too.

And you need to be diligently sharing that point of view with a cross section of people -- customers, reporters, partners, investors, influencers -- all of which individually and collectively shape and impact your business.

For a startup this is a critical thing, especially for one that's entering a crowded marketplace, like internet shopping, so my hat's off to Mark and his team for recognizing this and investing the time and energy into sharing their point of view and market approach. Clearly, it's beginning to pay off, but is this tactic sustainable?

With time and success (I hope) come the realities and resource strains of maintaining (and growing) your company's mind share, and that's where I think young companies need to do an honest cost/benefit analysis of the DIY PR approach. Or put another way....

At what point is an executive's time best spent in other areas of the business?

I wouldn't even try to convince the Jellyfish folks to enlist PR help until they were willing to concede that they simply needed help, it's not my place to make that call. Competitive pressures, investor stress, lost revenue and market share will more often than not force that call for young companies, and by then, for many, it's too late.

So, if hired, what would I do that's not already being done? Nothing, frankly. I think Mark and his team are taking the right approach at this stage in the game, they're focusing on having the smartest conversations with the best people in their market, over time that strategy *will* pay dividends, it's just a question of how much time and energy he's willing to invest into this part of the overall business.

The corollary here is that hiring PR help gives a company something very important -- time. Time to build a better product. Time to hire. Time to develop partnerships and deals. Time to grow the business. Maybe even a little time for themselves;) Let the PR team spend the time tracking conversations, synthesizing trends and facilitating relationships with opinion drivers and company leaders.

You know, on second thought, there is one additional thing I might suggest -- nail your messaging. When you're entering a market that has Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, and a host of other players already touching it, man, your point of view better be really compelling.

Just some initial thoughts here, I'm selfishly using the Jellyfish folks as a metaphor for bigger trends among startups and their attitudes toward PR, which is admittedly unfair and totally unsubstantiated, I wish these guys nothing but good things.

But Garrett started this....

Related Posts:
DIY PR in a 'Cheap' Economy
DIY PR Revisited

Technorati Tags: DIY, Garrett French, jellyfish, PR, socialmedia, Socialtext

Blogger Relations, Two Tips

Okay, this one gets filed under no-brainer new media tactics, but I'm going to post something on it anyway.

Assuming for a minute you've done some research and homework, you've identified who you consider to be the influencers, err bloggers, in your market and now you're preparing to contact, err pitch, them with your news, err announcement. Before you click send, pause and ask yourself this:

Does this person know me? Have we corresponded in the past?

If yes, game on. If no, game over.

Alright, that's a bit extreme, it's not game over, but you're shooting yourself in the foot by missing a critical first step -- introduce yourself. And I don't mean "Hi, may name's dick, I work for acme, I wanted to tell you about blah, blah, blah." Take the time to make a genuine introduction *outside* the context of your announcement. That's how relationships start. It's also how trust forms. Anything short of this and you're treating people as a means to an end, don't kid yourself into thinking otherwise. I'll leave it at that.

Also, offer the bloggers you're approaching the choice to simply opt-out. This is important.

You could argue that 99% of blog pitches gone bad are because too many PR people subscribe to the universal opt-in philosophy, where the audience is presumed interested until they state otherwise.

By making a genuine effort to introduce yourself first and offering your audience the chance to opt-out of hearing more about "what acme has cooking" you demonstrate some tact and respect for those you're approaching, plus it dramatically improves and informs your future outreach efforts. A big payoff for a little extra legwork.

Update: In the comments thread here, Garrett French with Search Engine Lowdown shares some personal insights/tips on the role of PR in the news making process. Thanks for this, Garrett, good stuff.

Technorati Tags: Blogger Relations, Blogs, Pitching, PR

Good PR, It Ain't About the Tools

It's funny sometimes to watch the awkward two-step between the technology and public relations industries. Look no further than the frenzy that currently surrounds PR and social media, and you'll see what I mean.

We're all trying to navigate industry change, as best we can, based on what limited experience and reason tells us, and as a result, it's easy to rely on technology