Posts Tagged ‘social media’

Managing a PR Crisis in the Age of Social Media

Saturday, February 12th, 2011

Instant News Channels

Posted by Tom Gable

The above title of the CommNexus event in San Diego was intriguing and the syllabus promised to deliver tips and actionable insights to help PR people and others prepare for the unexpected. Is it possible, given the instant news cycle we live in today? Yes, according to members of a panel that represented the news media, a major client and an international PR firm.  And the results are worth sharing.

Liya Sharif, moderator and director of marketing at Qualcomm, outlined the challenges of today’s instant communications and direct attacks on brands, such as Toyota during its recent issues with recalls. It developed a social media strategy after the fact. What should companies thing about and do?

Alex Pham, who’s been with the Los Angeles Times for 11 years and seen it all, outlined her six key tips for being successful in managing crisis in the era of social media.

  1. Have a plan
  2. Be honest
  3. Walk the talk
  4. Respond quickly and aggressively if needed
  5. Hire a pro for an outside point of view
  6. “No comment” doesn’t work

Monte Lutz, senior vice president with Edelman Digital, Los Angeles, said his firm advises clients to first have a plan in place. The pace and cadence of the news cycle has changed to the “24-second news cycle,” so the players need to be ready to move. If an organization doesn’t respond to a crisis almost instantly and accurately, negative information can pop up onto the first page of results generated by any search engine.

“There is a vacuum for content and people are ready to fill it,” Lutz said.

Speed and Persona

He said speed was No. 1, followed by persona. Respondents can’t be “snarky” and should try to adapt a friendly demeanor. Building trust is essential because trust is a major differentiator. He noted that the Edelman Trust Barometer continues to fall as companies and organizations do a poor job connecting authentically with their many target audiences.

As an additional tactic, he suggested buying ads on the search engines with links back to credible background information on the company website.

Rachel Laing, former journalist and now deputy press secretary for Major Jerry Sanders, said to work on trust and relationships early – get people engaged before you need the connections. Be active in Twitter. Follow people in the space, engage new contacts, gain trust and credibility with intelligent Tweets and re-Tweet relevant information for further credibility.

Harnessing Twitter

Laing said government is always in a crisis mode so be prepared. Control the fan page. Never delete comments but you don’t have to respond to “nasty-grams” and perpetuate the madness. If someone is Tweeting badly, follow them back and then direct message (DM) to them with your phone and email to follow up with the facts.

Pham agreed on the use of Twitter and said the tone can differ based on the audience. But “corporate speak” doesn’t work and the responses have to be authentic and friendly in the social media space, to include restating facts since the social media doesn’t operate under the same rules as traditional media.

Traditional media will call, email and conduct extra research to get the facts behind the story. Cooler heads are at work, versus those personally involved and passionate about an issue, or someone who wants to be first with the news, whether totally correct or not. A lot of bloggers aren’t interested in accuracy, she said, so sometimes companies have to go into “hand-to-hand combat.” If you have been engaged and developed loyal followers, they will become your advocates and defend you in times of crisis.

Responding to Traditional Media

The traditional media is also working on the 24-second news cycle. As a result, Pham said companies need to get back to the media faster than ever before, even if it’s to clarify the information that is needed and promise to get back with details as soon as possible. A key: asking “what’s your deadline.”

Have a clear contact on the website so that point person can be found in 10 seconds or less.

Lutz advised companies to anticipate disaster and have dark website pages and dark tabs on Facebook with facts ready to go on a moment’s notice. Planning with the PR firm should include working on the tone and conducting rehearsals. The company can be prepared to be hits own publisher and broadcaster, too, using the different channels (YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, PR, media relations, website, etc.) to get out the word. Embed news releases with pictures, graphs and video if they will help tell the story.

If the opposition has posted a video to YouTube, post your response using the same title and tags as the hit piece. This ensures your quality response shows up immediately.

Organizing the PR Crisis Team

Dan Novak, vice president of global marketing, PR and communications for Qualcomm, said internal plans need to include having a core communications team at the ready and a committee waiting in the wings to be convened that includes legal, government, public relations, investor relations, human resources, IT, and other key units. The plan needs to be based on high values and accountability. The process for launching the plan into action needs to eliminate speed bumps, which can hinder many organizations.

During Q&A, one of the audience asked about how to get clients to commit to a social media program.

The panel’s response: it’s happening whether you participate or not, as evidenced by what happened to BP, Toyota and United Airlines (the guitar incident) when they didn’t respond.

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, Hype Free PR, News and Media, Social Media, Team Play | Comments Off

In Crisis PR, Consider the Half-Life of a Tweet or Comment

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Too sensitive?

Posted by Tom Gable

How quickly to respond to negative blogs and comments? Gable PR had a recent experience with a client that announced progress with a controversial technology for drug discovery. We anticipated feedback and had assembled an extensive array of data, links and citations for outside validation. Unfortunately, we soon found ourselves in an imbroglio that went far beyond questions on the technology

The CEO, we soon learned, had personal and financial issues in a previous business almost two decades ago. The science story drew mostly positive coverage. A science blogger probed into the technology and a skeptic’s manifesto. Worse, a former girlfriend to the CEO soon added to the comments. She wrote under a pseudonym and blasted the CEO for a bad real estate deal, other business transactions that went sour and even previous jobs held by the wife (personal shopper at Nordstrom). Others popped in via Twitter.

The CFO of the company responded with facts and suggested that perhaps the personal attacks weren’t relevant and bordered on defamation, which generated more personal attacks!

Long story short: the company stopped responding and the commentary died a day later. Lesson learned: answer succinctly and factually to correct the record; don’t get caught up in continuing the negative dialogue and personal attacks, which seems to get progressively worse and more personal once the opposition figures out that the facts are against them.

Understand that the half life of a Tweet is two to five minutes, according to a study of an Audi program that used Twitter for branding, and hot blogging topics, particularly on obscure topics, flame out and die in a day or two.

The plan, then, is to set aside ego, which is often difficult, especially when the attacker and his or her motives are known. Stick to the facts, post and move on. You will be amazed how quickly the issue goes away (well, it never totally goes away, since the Internet is forever).

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Crisis PR, News and Media, Social Media | 1 Comment »

Crisis PR — The Lightning Round in Dealing with a Badly Babbling Blogosphere

Sunday, January 2nd, 2011

Disaster Landing!

Posted by Tom Gable

What happens when bad conversations bubble up in the blogosphere and elsewhere about the quality of your client’s product, services, science, people, culture, character and customer service, among other things? For Gable PR, we had two very different experiences recently that indicate a core truth about public relations and issues management when conducted at the speed of light: fast, fact-based, non-emotional but human responses based on intrinsic core values of the organization win; non-rational responses that don’t deal with the issues fail.

I am probably restating the obvious to most PR professionals, but our approach and tools used may provide additional creative resources to some. Read on.

In one instance, a prominent blogger took issue with the scientific foundation of our client’s work, which generated many negative comments about the client. The client chose to take an aggressive stance and question the sources of the blasts, rather than deal solely with the content and trying to change the direction of the conversation with new data on the basis for their science. The debate deteriorated rapidly into dueling comments on the blog about things other than science, nasty tweets and links to previous issues the client had gone through in a previous business 20 years ago! The negative conversations careened along for two weeks when the client stopped responding; it could have ended in two days. And through the wonders of the Internet, it is all searchable, which doesn’t add much to the client’s credibility when it tries to raise money and the analysts start doing their due diligence.

In the other instance, a medical device company set aside ego and took an analytical, clinical look at complaints about one of its products, thanked everyone for the input and promised to move quickly to remedy any shortcoming. The client focused on doing the right thing, in addition to doing things right. The result: a fast end to the negative conversation and a 180-degree switch by some critics to becoming fans.

Gable PR used an emergency issues management check list for both clients. The results varied, as noted above. Each had a Crisis PR Plan, with extensive details. But this “lightning round” list might prove helpful for a PR firm helping its clients or an internal staff putting its organization on the right track – fast!

Speed of Light Crisis PR Check List

  • Source of the communications, legitimacy
  • Issues being raised
  • Internal analysis of accuracy, validity, magnitude of the issues and conversation; duration, desired end-point
  • Analysis of potential impact on reputation of the brand, company, people, technology, etc.
  • Beyond communications, are internal changes needed to the organization, product, service, culture and core values?
  • If analysis indicates the fundamentals of the organization seemingly aren’t lined up with the outside audiences, how to move toward better alignment?
  • Launch issues management and Crisis PR plan if required, to include response strategy, core values, messaging, tools, tactics and timing (in some cases, you don’t have to respond immediately, especially when the attacks are emotional and personal)
  • Set goals for moving the conversation
  • Add resources to the Crisis PR team if needed, including outside experts
  • Respond in a sincere, human voice and work to build trust
  • Conduct minute-by-minute tracking, analysis of trending in tone, content
  • Adjust the response strategy and tactics as facts and circumstances indicate
  • Continue to evolve the internal culture and organization as needed
  • Celebrate success!

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Social Media Usage Grows Up, Just Like We Do

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

Social Evolution

Posted by Lauren Miller

If you sit back and visualize about how you keep current on what your friends are doing or check the latest entertainment, recreation, industry specific or other breaking news, how do you think you spend the majority of your time?

The latest results from eMarketer show the world spends more time on social media than email, browsing or other online activities. Once a novelty, social media has become part of everyday life and has even become a verb (i.e., “Facebooking”). The eMarketer study shows 58.1 percent of Americans manage an online profile, with the worldwide number at 61.8 percent.

How did we get here? From Flicker and YouTube to SlideShare and LiveJournal, there is a social media platform for almost every letter of the alphabet and every Internet user. No matter what your platform of choice, you have probably noticed something interesting: Your use of these sites has evolved and migrated along with your life (think about changing demographics, interests, lifestyle, etc.).

Maybe over the last few years you’ve become a parent, started a new job, relocated or have become a job-seeker. If you look back over time, you can actually trace your personal and professional development based on how your posts have changed.

As an example, for young professionals currently in their 20s, in high school the craze was all about MySpace – the pictures you uploaded, the music on your page and the number of friends you had. Most teenagers posted fun party pictures that sometimes straddled the line of inappropriate. But there was no privacy on MySpace, anyone could join the site and they weren’t always who they said they were.

Moving forward to college we found something new – Facebook. You couldn’t have a Facebook page unless you had a college email account – and not every University had Facebook available to its students. Facebook, when it first launched, not only looked very different than it does today, but the purpose for most was a way to stay connected to your high school friends and new college friends.

Slowly, Facebook began to evolve and anyone with an email account could create a Facebook page. The early adopters of Facebook started seeing their parents and aunts and uncles joining Facebook and wanting to be friends with them. Then, potential employers started looking at Facebook to see if those recent college graduates applying for a job seemed like the kind of person that the company wanted representing them. All of a sudden, you saw seniors in college and recent grads changing their Facebook pictures, their content and their status updates. It went from “Party at Joes!” to “Working Hard.” Facebook no longer was just a fun way to post pictures and chat with friends. It evolved into a community with more depth. It became a way for families to keep in touch and also offered businesses, institutions and organizations the opportunities to create personalities to promote their products and services in new ways.

College grads and young professionals then stumbled upon the next social platform that could be value to their careers – LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows professionals to discuss hot topics in their industry, probe other industry professionals for their ideas or advice and is another source for job listings. With LinkedIn you don’t post crazy pictures or status updates, it’s purely a way to put your resume and qualifications out there for the business and professional world to see. LinkedIn also took on a higher professional aura as organizations and those of like interests formed discussion groups (much like the Internet bulletin boards of old, but with considerable more class).

As with any form of communications and connecting, social media users continue to evolve with their favorite platforms over time. Social media and social network sites can prove to be very effective ways to open new doors. You never know – The new lead singer of Journey landed his gig from a video he posted on YouTube of him belting out the band’s classic “Don’t Stop Believing.” There is more focus and thoughtful content today than ever before as we learn to post content that projects the right image and is something you would be comfortable with your 90 year-old grandmother and potential employer seeing.

(Editor’s Note: Lauren is 24 years old, a 2009 graduate of the University of San Diego and has changed her photos and content significantly in the past few years).

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Posted in Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Hype Free PR, Social Media | 1 Comment »

“I Like It on the What?” — Good PR fun, no payoff?

Tuesday, October 12th, 2010

Posted by Lauren Miller

This week the phrase “I like it on…” has dominated women’s Facebook statuses all over the U.S. and left many men in the dark, wondering “what the heck?” This provocative campaign was launched with the intention of raising breast cancer awareness during October, which is Breast Cancer Awareness month. Organizations around the U.S. that support this cause are getting very creative and some have wondered if they have lost sight of their objectives in driving education and, more importantly, fundraising.

As reported in The Washington Post and elsewhere, women are posting where they like to keep their purses when they come home, but they conveniently leave out the word “purse.”

While we must appreciate the creative techniques and fun “members only” campaigns many organizations pursue, we must also ask tough questions such as are these campaigns relevant or useful? Posting a status such as, “I like it on the floor,” while provocative and no doubt a conversation starter, doesn’t clearly relate to breast cancer or awareness of cancer for that matter. How does writing a provocative, ambiguous message draw attention and awareness to a disease that, according to the American Cancer Society, will claim approximately 38,000 women’s lives in 2010?

Many critics argue that creativity for the sake of creativity campaigns don’t work because they lack relevancy. While people are talking about the messages and the innuendos, they miss the true meaning and point of the campaign. Is there a logical transition to encourage women to sign up for yearly mammograms, encourage individual involvement or donate money? Proponents argue that the causes are being discussed and through these titillating off-the-wall social media campaigns, more people are getting involved in one way or another — joining a team, hosting an event at their office, or as simple as making a donation.

Whenever a company, a charity, or an organization is brainstorming on new ways to raise money for their cause they need to ask “how will this plan and medium help us accomplish our goal? “ The Facebook campaign for breast cancer awareness, while not directly relevant, has garnered lot of attention from the media and the average person who used Facebook on a regular basis. The cause is being talked about and women are participating in the Facebook campaign with their comments, which is easy to do. Whether or not that leads them to get more involved in the cause is another story. At least the main objective of brining awareness to this disease and shedding light on it during this month has been accomplished.

And for the record, I like it on the kitchen table!

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Leverage, News and Media, Social Media | Comments Off

RIP Print Advertising (1704-2010) – and Long Live the Tweet

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

Tweetless

Posted by Tom Gable

This headline is actually a take off on a posting by Simon Dumenco on AdAge.com in September titled “RIP, the Press Release (1906-2010) — and Long Live the Tweet. When It Comes to Pithy Spin, Should Marketers Be Taking Their Cues From the Celebrity-Industrial Complex?”

The piece was about as deep and fact-filled as a Tweet (or maybe two Tweets). One excerpt:

“The long-suffering, much-maligned press release, I’d argue, finally died this summer, thanks particularly to JetBlue and BP, with a little moral support from Kanye West and just about every other celebrity with thumbs. (Of course, press releases will probably continue to stumble along, zombie-like, for years to come, because too many PR folks are still heavily invested in grinding them out.)”

The piece did generate lots of attention and comments in several PR discussion groups on PRSA and LinkedIn. I commented on the AdAge site:

“Perhaps use of the news release will fade in the puff-filled world of the ‘celebrity-industrial complex,’ where fast, furious and fluffy seems to rule the day. For legitimate businesses, organizations, institutions and even individuals with a need to get out a quality message with some depth and detail, the news release will continue to be the primary means of communication. This is particularly true with publicly traded companies, where SEC regulations mandate full and timely disclosure. And blasting out a series of 140-character snippets of facts probably won’t qualify.”

Many others pointed out the shortcomings of the piece and also provided links to excellent research supporting the future of the news release. Here are a few examples:

“Serious news requires more than 140 characters. There’s a time and a place for a mixture of the methods we use, some are more appropriate than others — it depends on the client, the story, the event, timing, audience, etc. A true strategist knows how and when to pull it all together.” — Posted by Marisa Vallbona, APR, Fellow PRSA

“Burson Marsteller just published the findings of its message gap research (link). They make a great point – press releases are no longer written just for the media. Given how often they are posted by different sources across the Web, customers and prospects might be reading them as much as reporters. Nuances granted (e.g. press release don’t generate coverage, good media relations skills do), this is another reason the press release isn’t dead.” — Posted by Jon Bornstein

“The news release is far from dead, it just has a new purpose. Granted, it not be an effective media relations tool, but it has become an important online way to talk directly to consumers through search. The wires aggregate the news wires, and news aggregators are the second most popular source of news, according to Pew Internet (click here). – Posted by Eric Schwartzman

“Total hogwash. If you believe it, you haven’t read David Meerman Scott’s whitepaper on press releases and/or his book “New Rules of PR and Marketing” covering the new mind shift of PR/Marketing strategy…tossing out ANY long standing tool without realistically understanding your market, your media, and seriously considering some of the of the NEW and strategic ways of utilization is not a good idea.” — Posted by Melissa Freye

“Total overstatement…This headline was meant to grab attention without the substance to back it up.” – Posted by Toni Hatch

“I made my comments known in the comments section of that preposterous post. Anybody else tired of “FILL IN THE BLANK is Dead” headlines? So bait-and-switchy and gimmicky. Judging from the comments above, you all see through it. Meanwhile, here at Business Wire (Monika is vice president of new media at BW), and our worthy competitors, we are sending 1000s of press release each work day. That ain’t dead, folks. That’s alive and well. If you’re really interested, here’s a link to our White Paper on The State of the Press Release.” – Posted by Monika Maekle

(On the Ad Age comment section, she wrote about the Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism finding that “As news is posted faster, often with little enterprise reporting added, the official version of events is becoming more important. We found official press releases often appear word for word in first accounts of events, though often not noted as such.”)

The AdAge piece did get lots of attention. There are precedents for hyperbolic claims erupting when tectonic shifts are underway in the media, such as the punditry about the anticipated death of radio with the launch of television or the deaths of traditional print and broadcast advertising when the Internet started taking off after the introduction of the Netscape browser in 1994. The deaths didn’t happen and won’t because of the same reasons the world won’t see the death of the press release any time soon: people get their information from many sources, so communicators need to make strategic use of all the channels, tools and tactics to reach those targets effectively and measure impact.

The press release may see different forms of delivery and packaging, but it will continue to be a potentially powerful communications tool for organizations of all sizes, particularly when the work is fact-filled, content-rich and tells a good story.

And for a few last words about advertising, which AdAge claims started in the U.S. in 1704:

“From any cross section of ads, the general advertiser’s attitude would seem to be: If you are a lousy, smelly, idle, underprivileged and over-sexed status-seeking neurotic moron, give me your money.” — Kenneth Bromfield

Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it. — Stephen Leacock

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Posted in Authentic PR, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Hype Free PR, News and Media, The Light Side | Comments Off

Editors panel: Online journalism standards lacking; no guarantees of accuracy, verification, trust

Sunday, September 19th, 2010

Daily and Sunday

Posted by Tom Gable

The title of the news panel was “It’s Not Your Grandparents’ Newspaper or Newscast Anymore” and although it occurred in San Diego with local media, one can find several lessons learned with broader implications:

        • - The ability to self-publish on the Internet has created a world where journalistic principles most likely don’t exist and readers now have the burden of determining what is journalism and what is not
        • - Evolving newspaper business models, with 24/7 reporting and fewer copy editors, has resulted in more errors
        • - The competitive nature of the broadcast media can creating feeding frenzies, such as the one experienced when the loon preacher in Florida threatened to burn a copy of the Koran on Sept. 11
        • - Viewers need to distinguish between entertainment shows and news shows
        • - Journalistic standards are lower with online media (or nonexistent)

The panel was held Sept. 17 at a biweekly luncheon meeting of the Catfish Club, founded by the Reverend George Walker Smith in 1970 to spur dialogue and understanding among different segments of the community. More than 70 attended, including community leaders, elected officials, retired Sheriff Bill Kolender and a couple of gadflies.

The moderator was Michael Grant, former columnist for the San Diego Union-Tribune and now journalism and media instructor at Grossmont College. He was joined by: Jeff Light, editor of the U-T (www.uniontrib.com); J.W. August, managing editor of KGTV (ABC affiliate, owned by McGraw Hill); Andrew Donohue, editor, Voice of San Diego, 100 percent online newspaper; and Leon Williams, now retired, the first black elected to the San Diego City Council and also the county Board of Supervisors, who has a long history of promoting positive deeds in minority communities.

Grant set the stage by noting that with the evolving world of self-publishing, there are no guarantees online news is journalism – accurate, verified and worthy of trust. He said in pre-Internet days, the news media acted as gateways to screen out the questionable, objectionable, unverifiable and other non-news. Now, with everyone being self published, journalistic principles may simply not exist. (I had one former editor hand back a daily business column written on deadline saying it wasn’t writing, it was typing; glad he was around to make it right.)

Grant, a droll former Texan, said the authors of websites, blogs and other self published information and mostly never been to journalism schools. As a result, it is now up to the citizens to have the burden of determining what is journalism and what is not.

Donohue said he sees “churnalism not journalism” because of the 24/7 news cycle being chased by media with smaller staffs and more pressure. He said if gatekeepers of old had been at work, the preacher who threatened to burn the Koran on Sept. 11 might never have been covered.

August, of Channel 10, said cable beats things to death. He also used the Koran story as an example. The cable news networks picked it up and it turned into a feeding frenzy. If they had just dropped it at the outset, August said, the story would have gone away. He noted the growth of fake news programs and the challenge of confusing real news with entertainment.

Williams said the media has a duty to be accurate. He told the audience that the reporters often ask leading questions (“Don’t you think it’s the end of the earth?”) and complained about reporters twisting things to create conflict. He said the media need to keep their feelings and prejudices out of the news and present the news as fairly and objectively as they know how (in whatever the format).

Light, recruited from the Orange County Register where had driven web-based initiatives, said the new owners of the U-T bought into a losing operation and now wanted to find a way to “improve lives and build a stronger community.” When the new owners arrived, they found an aging, shrinking and dissatisfied audience, Light said. They did research and people were interested in values and improved community coverage. Rather than do incremental changes, the U-T made major changes to give a strong signal to the community. This included a complete design overhaul and making website news coverage the driving force, with section editors later determining what should make the print edition.

On accuracy, Light said the time-honored process within the news business was to have reporters arrive at a different level of trust, based on experience. They would turn in their stories, which would go through the editing process. Does it ring true? Have the facts been checked? Then the story would print. He said news media hear quickly if the are wrong, or if not all sources have been used.

In answers to questions from the audience, he said they have reduced the number of copy editors at the U-T. It was a financial necessity. He said he was given a certain budget for reporting. Under the old news model, 40 percent of the staff covered the news and the rest was infrastructure, including copy editors and editors. Now, they’ve reduced the number of copy editors to increase the number of reporters in the field and improve community coverage.

There will be a spike in errors, he noted, but they will be cosmetic. The reporters are getting closer to each community they serve, which he believes will be well received. He said he likes the online comments to stories because they help the media learn. But he hopes to eliminate anonymous postings.

The panel agreed that online comments are great, but need attribution. Light said the blogs and the various voices with anonymous comments get into demagoguery. Donohue said online platforms can generate ranting. Since the Voice of San Diego changed to eliminate anonymous postings, the quality of the comments has gone up considerably. They also moderate the comments.

Grant noted that with anonymous comments, most of the harangues turn into people ragging the comments of others rather than the story.

Donohue said Voice of San Diego, the online paper, has a tight editing procedure. The reporter prints the first copy of the story and gives to Andrew to edit with a red pencil in the old-fashioned way. The reporter is then challenged to prove the accuracy of the story. As a third step, copy editors conduct fact checking. They also require that reporters to footnote their stories. The footnotes are hidden, but give the editors of the opportunity to research and learn more. On big stories, the material is sent to their lawyers. This diligence hasn’t prevented Voice from breaking some big stories in politics and education and winning awards. Its processes could provide a model for any legitimate media outlet, online or otherwise.

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Print Media Rising in 2011 or Gone in 2022?

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Maybe Not

Posted by Tom Gable

Will print media make a comeback starting in 2011 or will newspapers be gone by 2022?

Two recent postings questioned the future of newspapers and print media. Joe Pulizzi, writing in Folio, noted that print can and should play a vital role in an overall content marketing mix. He offered seven reasons why he envisioned good news for print in the coming year (summarized here; see his post for more detail):

1. Getting Attention: There are fewer publications in most niches, so each gets more attention.

2. Print Media Help with Customer Retention

3. No Audience Development Costs; marketers can distribute a magazine to their customers using existing lists.

4. What’s Old Is New Again; marketers are leveraging print in their marketing mix.

5. Customers Still Need to Ask Questions. He noted that you can ask yourself tough questions based on what you read.

6. Print Still Excites People: He talked to a journalist who said it’s harder to get people to agree to an interview for an online story than print; people will reschedule for that.

7. Unplug: Joe opined that people are disconnecting themselves from digital media in increasing numbers. (Recent studies show that digital overload actually hurts cognition).

I agree wholeheartedly on No. 6 on the excitement of print, plus its credibility. Coverage in a real, non-electronic publication with a history of competence and integrity has significantly more value than coverage in most online media and blogs (the latter being, of course, fairly low on the credibility scale). Seeing your story in the print edition of the NYT, WSJ, Economist or even your home town daily paper generates a great sense of accomplishment. PR professionals almost expect coverage to land in on-line media, so the so-called earned media isn’t as dear online as in print. Of course the print media have a website, RSS feed, Twitter feed, etc., so you can have the best of both worlds. And it’s a world I surely want to continue in perpetuity.

On the other side of the debate, Ross Dawson, a futurist, was speaking to Newspaper Publishers’ Association in Australia and predicted that within 10 years, mobile reading devices would allow people to consume news on the run and be the “primary news interface”.

He predicted the costs would fall from the $600 iPad level to under $10. “More sophisticated news readers will be foldable, or rollable, gesture-controlled and fully interactive,” he said.

He predicted journalism would be “increasingly crowdsourced” to “hordes of amateurs overseen by professionals.” (We now have that on the web, mostly with no adult supervision)

He did predict expert journalists would still be employed in Australia. Audiences would be guided to trusted journalists by some form of public reputation measures (probably recorded from electronics sensors implanted in our skins and transmitted wirelessly to the Media Measurement Algorithm Monitor in the sky).

Bottom line: this former printer journalist and long-time PR practitioner believes the printed word will continue to be valued by many, most notably those with a sense of the weight of non-electronic media. I read four papers every morning with breakfast and love to see how the news is played, the relationships of stories, news judgment in context and find new discoveries on every page. Sure, you can get a little serendipity online, but I don’t think the medium works that way. I find the printed variety better for scanning and quickly absorbing the flow of news and trends. I can turn a page and scan it faster for information than I can scrolling through a website screen or agonizing as I view 14 lines of news at a time on my Blackberry.

Joe, thanks for the post. I second the motion: print is rebounding — in 2011 and beyond.

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Getting a Grip on the Ghost Blogger

Thursday, August 19th, 2010

Channeling the CEO

Posted by Tom Gable

Your favorite CEO wants to get social and start blogging, but: a) doesn’t want to commit much time; b) isn’t sure why but his peers are doing it; c) isn’t clear on what he wants to say; and, d) wants you or your firm to be ghost blogger.

How to approach this challenge strategically and diplomatically? Here are six steps to get started.

Six Steps to Ghost Blogging Glory

  1. Brainstorm with the CEO on what he or she hopes to accomplish (boost image, gain guru status, position the organization versus the competition, promote an industry cause, support company marketing, connect with investors, counter negative blogs, etc.)
  2. What is the CEO’s voice, the personality? How much to show or not show?
  3. Can the blog be differentiated to support organizational image and reputation
  4. What about frequency? Will there be a steady flow of facts, insights and other content to support a daily, weekly or biweekly blog? Or will it be tied to events, breaking news, industry trends and commentary? Or all of the above?
  5. How to measure success?
  6. And the final tough question (or maybe the first): so what and who cares?

Venture forth if it appears anyone beyond family and friends might care, if the work will add value to the conversations and if the collective impressions will contribute to building the image of the organization. If not, cease and desist and recommend other approaches (authoring white papers, speaking at conferences, etc.).

For process, ghost blogging can work if you have a plan and adopt protocols and procedures.

For example, to speed development of copy and ensure you keep to your desired frequency, have the busy CEO provide his idea on the perfect headline, directions on copy, bullet points, links or other guidance on what he or she wants to talk about, the target audiences, the important points to be made and impressions to leave. This brain dump can be done via email, voice mail, and one-on-one or group brainstorming sessions with others involved in reaching out to your different audiences.

With directions in hand on topics, the ghost blogger can then draft copy for CEO approval and post only after approved. Should the post generate comments, the ghost blogger shouldn’t assume the persona of the CEO and reply directly. The ghost blogger needs to get the CEO involved in responding as fast as possible within the guidelines established earlier for tone, personality, theme and overall positioning. Then, even ghost blogging can fit neatly into your overall investment in image and reputation as a part of corporate strategy, with consistency across all channels.

(??? Tom, did you approve this? Let me know as soon as possible. Thanks! – KR)

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Hype Free PR, Social Media | Comments Off

The Future of PR and Social Media – Strategic, Integrated, Coordinated, Human

Monday, May 24th, 2010

No Magic Beans

Posted by Tom Gable

In listening to several gurus of social media at the Counselors Academy Spring Conference May 21 through 23 in Ashville, NC, a key theme emerged: there are no magic beans from social media to plant and instantly grow attention, engagement and business success for any organization. New technologies and applications will continue to emerge almost daily. The challenge still becomes to be smart in setting standards, goals and objectives, then integrating all the tools for precise execution over the long term.

The stage was set with the May 21 keynote by Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks. A few key points lifted from his talk included:

  • Adopt the new KISS – keep it simple and share.
  • The is new measurement on the way: resonance. How long a message stays alive – the long tail.
  • Social media is the slot machine for attention. Become like a journalist. Be relevant.
  • What you share is important. There are no official audiences anymore.
  • Be creative. It increases your influence.
  • Social media is all about sociology and psychology. Social media is an emotional experience.
  • Measure. Work backward from what you are trying to make happen.
  • Integrate the tools into your strategic plan. There is no single tool or tactic.
  • Bottom line: engage.

A breakfast panel the next day delved into “Listening and Brand Monitoring in the Social Space.” Moderator was Carrie Kandes, vice president Marcus Thomas. The panelists: Eric Israel, Attensity; Ken Miner, Spiral 16; and Amber Naslund, director of community, Radian6 Technologies

Each stressed the importance of listening before doing. This included monitoring the depth and breadth of the conversations. Amber proposed that social media is the new phone. She said technology will continue to change so told counselors to avoid having obsessions with the “tool thing.” How do the tools fit?

Business is becoming more like politics. Every consumer has a voice to be considered. Companies need to position themselves to be able to react internally and externally to conflicting voices and outside complaints.

Ken said that like any other business tool, social media monitoring needs to be part of a process. Set standards. Define goals and objectives before you begin, he urged.

Once you start monitoring, how to use the data? Being strategic is not just an automated process with algorithms. Smart analysis and interpretation requires human brain power. Look at things in context and connect the dots in your process of brand monitoring, tracking trends and looking for blue water opportunities.

But attention not enough. What is needed to compel people to do something?

The panelists warned that brand monitoring can be a time sink. Decide what you want to achieve and how much time to invest before you launch a full scale listening program. Be strategic – consistent advice from the days Edward Bernays first launched integrated plans to change reputations and drive new behaviors.

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Posted in Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Horizon Management, In the Beginning, Leverage, Social Media | 4 Comments »

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