Who is going to "own" social media in 2009?

Doing a little social media reading this morning and I came across a post that outlines who is going to take control of social media in 2009.

The four groups that are said to have an opportunity to control social are (grossly going to summarize here):

Advertising - they create tons of content that is viewed by millions and can have a huge impact on brand awareness, ad reps should control social media.

Digital - because social media is ALL online, the gear heads should control social media.

Public Relations - PRs help clients yap to their audiences so the PRs should control social media because it's all about the "conversation."

Client - in the end, the other three are working on behalf of the client, the client should own the conversation. consumers want to interact with the brand, not the Ad/Digital/PR hacks.

All great thinking here. However, there's one group that's missing and is THE most important - the audience.

At the end of the day, content is created for consumers. At the end of the day, if you're a mommy blogger, a hard working dad, an entrepreneur or a c-suite type, you're a consumer. Social media content IS created for the consumer. Consumers drive brand loyalty. Consumers can smash the marketing dreams of a client with a popular blog post. Consumers create and maintain the "buzz." Consumers are in the drivers seat and will be in control of social media in 2009.

The question is, however, how to ad/digital/pr/clients plug into the consumer control?

Well, here's my two-cent opinion:

Advertising: Consumers know what they want and don't want to be talked to. Advertising will have to plug into this mentality and reinforce what consumers want - an affirmation or reinforcement. Rarely will consumers make a purchase decision based on advertising alone.

Digital: These are the gear heads creating all the cool content on the web. They will be creating and launching the tools for which the message will be delivered - widgets, blogs, micro-sites, video, etc.

PR: Us PRs will help develop what the key messages are. We will continue to evaluate the message and if it's resonating with consumers and help clients stay above the curve, driving the conversation.

Clients: Clients will control the other three groups because they have the budget. They will rely on the other three groups for guidance, but will have some good opinions as to execution because they are starting to get more in-tune with the entire social media scene. They will also remain hesitant because social media is still the wild wild west. They will need good advice and real case studies to help them make purchasing decisions.

At the end of the day, the four groups will have to work in-sync in order to meet the content needs of consumers. Additionally, these groups will band together to propose new ideas, new products and new "conversations" that will be tested against needs of consumers. It'll be like a rolling focus group, but instead of 50 people in two groups, it'll be billions of people, everyday, all day...always changing, always being tweaked.

There will be more FAIL concepts in 2009 than WIN concepts. However, those that WIN, will be big because they will rise to the top of the convo clutter and really engage consumers and activate them. They will take off like the popularity of Facebook in the last half of 2008.

It will be an exciting year for consumers on the social media scene. The four groups mentioned above will be at the mercy of consumers, a group that can crush a brand in 140 characters or less.

Just my $.02. What do you think? Read more!

If you're in PR, marketing, communications...

...do yourself a favor a read PR Pro Tips. It (my job) really IS that simple.

For example:

Tip #83: Where’s the fire?

The flag on your email says, “Urgent.” My brain says, “Meh.”

Tip #82: Nag

90% of the phonecalls I get are people asking if I got the press release they emailed. Yes, I got it. Did I read it? Maybe. Do I care? You’d know already.

Oh, wait. Here’s something new and even more annoying: A phonecall from a PR person telling me she will be emailing me a press release later. Argh! Just send it!

(Bonus tip: Actually, following up on an email pitch is ok. But do it on email, ok?)

Tip #80: Brevity

If your demo tells the story in 10 minutes, don’t drag it out to 30. If your new feature can be described in a one-paragraph e-mail, don’t send two pages of fluff.

What I do really isn't that hard (I think). Yes, you have to be smart, have common sense, listen, read and be able to communicate well, but reading these tips make me laugh. Do people actually try and pitch reporters in the press room? That's a big no no. That's just as bad as calling a daily beat reporter at about 3pm to find out if he/she has received your pitch. Hello, McFly...ever hear of deadlines? Read more!

D&D and Green

So D&D opened up a green store in Florida. It's funny how the company thinks that this is a great move when folks posting to the comments section see right through it.

How can the store really call itself green when they pump out foam cups faster than drug dealers and crack on street corners? Oh yea, don't forget about all the plastic cups that aren't recycled.

Overall, I think the idea is great and more businesses and companies should operate in an environmentally conscious way, but don't a store a green store if it's not green all the way through.

This is a classic case of green washing. Read more!

Am I a Mad Man?

A colleague of mine hit me off about a show called "Mad Men." Yes, that show. The one that everyone seems to be talking about - well at least those in the PR/ad business. I caught a glimpse of the first episode of season two on Sunday and was instantly hooked. I decided download the entire season 1 to catch up. I mostly found it interesting because I'm in the same line of business. So I thought to myself, am I a Mad Man?

I plan on blogging my thoughts on the episodes and how they relate to the PR business. Here are my first reactions of season 1, episode 1.

Lung Cancer Anyone?
MAN, do the smoke a lot. I'm surprised the actors haven't gotten lung cancer already.

Male Domination
It amazes me how male dominated the business was back then. When I say dominate, I mean dominate. I couldn't believe what the male characters (and even the female characters) were saying to the ladies in the office. There's NO WAY that stuff would fly in the current working environment. These days, the PR business is dominated by women. At each of the agencies I've worked for, women far out numbered the men. And in terms of the environment being PC...for the most part it is. There tends to be a bit more openness to wise cracks, off-color remarks, etc. in the PR business than on the client side (I've worked both). So that really hasn't changed since the time frame of Mad Men, but it's most definitely NOT the same.

Race Card
At one point, the team needed a Jewish person to chum up the cigarette exec who was coming in for a meeting (apparently the exec was Jewish). They ended up pulling a kid up from the mail room. Imagine pulling a stunt like that these days? Hey, let's grab Martelli. He's an Italian. He likes pasta. He'd be perfect for this Barilla pitch. Maybe this has turned into the best practices approach where you find the best person for the team based on experience and obviously NOT on ethnicity or religious background.

Positioning
- The first episode deals with a mental block Don, the main character, is having around a campaign for Lucky Strikes cigarettes. Basically, all the health concerns are legit and are hurting the business. He can't figure out a way around the road block. This happens often in PR where you're faced with a stumbling block that is irrefutable, but has to be defeated because that's what your clients are paying you to do. There's always a way to spin something. Don the genius, as I'll call him, gets around the health issues by realizing that hey, all of the cigarette makers are up against the same problem. Let's move in another direction. He then comes up with the concept, "Lucky Strikes: It's Toasted." The idea here is that Lucky had to own something in order to get their customers to continue to buy the brand. What were they going to own? If all cigarettes are the same, what can we say that sets us apart? While other cigarettes are poisonous, Lucky's are toasted.

We do this all the time in PR. We find a way around tough points as they relate to a brand and develop talking points that resonate with audiences. I realize that most of the time we're dealing with non-life threatening products/services/campaigns, but the idea generation concept and messaging exercise is the same regardless of the client.

All in all, I'm find the show to be entertaining, insightful (as to the early days of our business) and captivating. I'm sure it'll get smutty at times, but I'm looking forward to all the PR/Advertising concept talk, crisis stuff (if there is any), positioning discussions, banter between co-workers, etc. It's similar to the movie "The Paper" with Michael Keaton. As a former reporter, I was dying to see that movie, especially if it depicted the journo life accurately (IMO it did).

This closes the Mad Men, Season 1, Episode 1 recap.
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Don't place bylined articles...or else.

One of the tactics you typically use in PR is the placement of bylined articles. Bylines are simply thought leadership pieces about any newsworthy topic. It doesn't promote a company, a solution, a piece of technology, but more so outlines and issues and brings up some thought provoking solution ideas, comments, etc.

Now that I've read this, I might pull that strategy out of all my client's programs. Read more!

Pats OL Kaczur: Poppin' Pills, Getting Busted, DEA Informant?

So the crap keeps hitting the fan for the Patriots. Globe breaks a story in this mornings paper about Starting New England Patriots offensive lineman Nicholas Kaczur being arrested in April on a charge of illegal possession of prescription painkillers. Then apparently, big boy secretly cooperated with the federal Drug Enforcement Administration in a sting operation that resulted in the indictment of his alleged drug supplier.

Great. Let's add this to the pile of cow dung that's starting to stink up the organization.

In no random order, the Pats seemingly invincible has been pierced with stories such as spy gate, HGH and Cheech and Chong. Oh yea, don't forget about that almost 19-0 thing.

If any organization needs a little PR love in terms of its reputation, it might just be the Pats. Read more!

I agree with Stephen Baker of Bizweek: Embargoed news? Fahgeddabowdit

I'm in agreement with Stephen Baker at Businessweek on the embargoed news tactic by PR folks. Yes, I've done it before, but only because it was at the request of the client.

The media is overly sensitive to the embargoed/on or off the record/background thing. In my book, you either give them the news as an exclusive straight up or you pitch it to those contacts that are relevant. The minute you start playing games is right about the same time you'll get burned. Read more!

Social Network preferences tied to ethnicity

Read this story this morning about a recent study on online behaviors. It talks about the online habits of males vs. females, Hispanics and African-Americans. The cross section of data is interesting to me as a PR professional and one who looks to infuse digital PR into all our client programs.

Data like this is critical to hacks like me because the PR/marketing/communication game has become so one-to-one or very granular. Shotgun approaches are dead. The tough thing is to get our hands on real data like this. It's becoming harder and harder to track online usage patterns and even harder to marketing to specific groups without that data.

Wish there were more resources out there that we, as PRs, can use to help with client programs. If we're really embracing a free Internet, such data should also be free.

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My Joe Burgantino story

Rumor has it investigative reporter Joe Burgantino is yet another veteran TV reporter who is departing from WBZ-TV. See ya later Joe. The Boston TV landscape is better off with out you.

Why am I hating on Joe?

I had an incident where I was working a crisis assignment for a client. It was a high profile case and the media was all over my client like white on rice. After repeated calls from Joe and other journalists, the media started to get frustrated because they weren't given access to anyone within the organization to conduct interviews.

Joe, being the pompus a-hole he is, called the office one morning and made a comment to me that attacked me personally, my character, and my profession. I can't get into all the details because of the sensitivity of the case, but needless to say I was shocked as to what he said to me. I wanted to reach through the phone and strangle him. It was probably the rudest I've ever been treated on the job or just in general. I've dealt with some rude people before - lots of them being TV "journalists." Joe was by far the worst.

Every time he'd call the office to request an interview, he got ruder and ruder. My tolerance for his lack of professionalism brought me to the point where I was extremely close to confronting him in person. Cooler heads prevailed and I let his childish antics go.

So Joe, if you're reading this, I hope that McDonalds or Burger King will hire you because as an investigative reporter, you were horrible. You never broke any real news. You often got beat by your competitors. And you looked like Beavis on camera.

The Boston media landscape is better off without you. Read more!

How photography is like PR

I have my first wedding of the season today. I'm honored that Lindsey and Billy selected me to part of their special day. As I was cleaning my equipment last night and mentally prepping for the shoot, I started to think about how both of my careers (photography and PR) are very similar.

With photography, you have to do a good deal of preparation before the shoot. You have to make sure your equipment is clean. Your memory cards are formatted. Camera settings are ready. Your shot list is finalized. Finally, you communicate often with the client to ensure their needs are met.

In PR, all you do is prepare. You prepare for client crisis', upcoming news and announcements, events, etc. It's critical in PR to ensure that your messaging is fine tuned (like equipment). Additionally, you want to make sure that all your marketing materials and external communication vehicles are well written and on-message (shot list). Lastly, PR is all about client service. Make sure the client is happy. Do what they need you do to and do what they don't expect you to do. Keep 'em happy and get results. Read more!

PR Finish Line rips Scott McClellan's book and rightfully so

My boss, a former Boston Herald grunt, has a great knack for seeing through the BS as it relates to the media and PR. Case in point, check out his post over at the PR Finish Line about Scott McClellan's book about his time at the White House under George W.

The post is dead on. How can Scottie boy provide insight into a White House that has been discredited, trashed, brow-beaten, etc. His book is a little late to the game and really just throws more fuel on to the fire while discrediting his own reputation.

File this under FUBAR. Read more!

Inside the Kennedy brain tumor media circus

Great post over at the PR Finish Line about the Kennedy brain tumor media frenzy

I have the pleasure of working with Ed. He's a smart guy and knows the PR/journo biz like the back of his hand. He's dead on with his analysis of the media in relation to the Kennedy situation.

I wish the Senator and his family all the best, but it'll be very interesting to see how this all plays out. Who will get the first exclusive with Kennedy? Who will break any "new" news? My guess is that he'll do a print interview as to not come across looking and sounding weak on TV.

Regardless, it's an historical time and interesting to watch it unfold from a media perspective. Read more!

Analytics aren't just for big corporations, thanks to Google

Measurement. Measurement. Measurement.

Being in the PR business, all I hear is how important it is to "measure" what we do. It's important. We don't sell widgets so we need to be able to show our clients what they are getting for their money. It's also important for clients to measure their PR campaigns in addition to the measurement their PR firms do. This goes for big corporations as well as non-profits.

Google is doing their best to help those world savers out there with analytics. Read more!

Listing of PR/Journo Blacklist coverage

Meryl has a done a great job in culling all the coverage online about the relationships between hacks like myself and journalists.
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Publish Post
Still this this matter comes down to kids being able to play nicely in the sandbox. Read more!

More on the new Apple Store...features

Got my hands on the Apple press release regarding the new Apple story on Boylston Street. Here are some of the details of the new building.

- It's the largest Apple store in the US
- Has two floors of Macs, iPhones and iPods for customers to "experience hands-on"
- Third and top floor is dedicated to "innovative services including the Genius Bar and personal training through Apple's popular One to One program."
- The store also "introduces Pro Labs to Boston, offering free, in-depth training on Apple's industry leading pro applications including Final Cut Pro"

This isn't on the release, but apparently the building has some sort of rain catch-basin that can recycle water. It also has a number of "green" features apparently. I got this second hand, BTW.

Regardless, pretty cool to have an Apple store a block down the street from the office. This will help me in my quest to rid my household of PC's and go strictly Mac.


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Blacklisting PR firms

To those outside of the PR/journalism/social media realm, you're going to be bored with this post. Don't both reading more. For those of you who are, please continue to read. Believe me, it won't be a waste of your time. I have some pretty poignant comments to make to both PR hacks like myself and scribes.

Sorry, maybe this isn't a ground breaking post, but rather my simple-minded thoughts on something being discussed in the blog/pr/social media world these days.

A massive part of the existence of PR hacks is to get media coverage for clients (and sometimes avoid it). Selling ground breaking widgets? Hired a new controversial CEO? Think you've created the best bread slicer in history? Whatever the "story" is, clients want to get media lovin'. They want heaps of it. They want it now, not later. They want it above the fold, read by millions, in front of customers/potential business partners...it makes them look like king tut. The point? They want coverage and it's our - PR hacks - job to get it.

Sounds like a pretty fun gig, right? Should be pretty easy to do, right? Just pop over an email, come up with a catchy subject line, slap together a few witty graphs, stitch in a press release and you're good to go, right?

Maybe this is true for the dot-com, www.4realmen.com, days. Not anymore. The media landscape has changed dramatically. There are no clear lines as to who is a journalist and who is a hack. Some hacks ARE journalists. If you're reading this, then I guess you could call me a SMS - social media scribe (you heard the term here first).

The changes in the media landscape have fueled the scribe/PR battle. The social media world is now is now blazing with talk about blacklists and using gmail filters to give hacks the heisman.

Now, by no means and I sticking up for my fellow hacks or slapping the hands of scribes. Here's my point to this waste of cyber space: can't we just all get along?

Kidding.

Seriously though, here's the deal as I see it.

SMS's are being bombarded with bullcrap pitches from everyone and anyone. I can understand their frustration and the move to blacklist or filter out hacks. At the same time, I know where the hacks are coming from. They have real pressures coming in the form of clients who want coverage and no excuses. Pressures that in some cases, mean employment with benefits or flipping burgers at McDonalds.

There needs to be balance in the force. Here's how we can make it happen - "we" as in SMS's and hacks. It'll be like the good and bad sides of the force coming together to make a better galaxy. So, without further delay, here are my three key steps that should help SMS's and hacks play together nicely in the sandbox:

To SMS's:
1. Respond - I know you can't respond to each hack email, but for those that are on target in terms of the focus of the pitch, yet you're not interested, reply back to the hack and politely say, "Thanks for the pitch. I'm not interested at this time. Keep the ideas coming. Thanks!"

2. Educate - To those that bark up the wrong tree, give them a second chance, but tell them that they f-ed up. If it happens twice or three times, put them in the filter bin.

3. Share - give us hacks a bit of insight as to what you need from us. It's all a guessing game, but if you take a bit more guessing out of the game, then we can be more in tune as to help. Maybe post a "here's how to pitch me" item - a road map or sorts, so we will be on target (or at least be in position to).

I know, this is asking a lot because once you bend over for one person, you gotta do it a million times a day. In the long run though, don't you think you'll get better pitches and smarter sources?

To hacks:

1. Think - Think about what you're pitching and who you are pitching it to. Think sniper, not shotgun. Be smart about what you're pitching and ensure that it is right in the wheel house of the person you're pitching it to. These folks don't have the time to read BS pitches. Think before you hit the send button. Think as a journalist. Are you giving them everything they need to make an intelligent decision about your story? Is it even a story? Just think. For the love of Pete, think before you hit the send button.

2. Communicate - To be part of the conversation, you need to engage. You need to be part of the conversation. SMS's will take you more seriously if you're blogging, are on twitter, understand their world. Don't always pitch. Ask about their family. What they drive. Where they grew up. Went to school. Anything, nothing, everything...just communicate. Be a human and communicate. Stop being a PR robot. Build a relationship with your contacts by communicating and coming to them with something of substance and be reliable. Clear communication is the building block to a fruitful SMS/hack relationship.

3. Share - Hacks need to do a better job at sharing their wealth of resources. It shouldn't all be about your clients media coverage. Provide sources to scribes even if it's not a client source. Share you expertise even if it means you'll get no kudo's for it. Help a reporter out, is what I'm trying to say. Be helpful and it will come back to you. Trust me. I've been doing this long enough to learn that it does pay to play.

So there you have it, words of wisdom from the big guy. It's not brain surgery. It's really just common sense when you think about it.
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Boston Apple store unwrapping

Heading to lunch and a grabbed this pic as they were talking off the "wrapper" off the new Apple store on boylston street in Boston. It features a big white apple logo in 3D on the top floor. As they unwrapped the cover, employees were inside cheering. Video crews and a photographer were outside capturing the moment for the PR hacks. Ah, consumer PR. Read more!

Mayor Menino bike path PR stunt brings memories of Dukakis in tank

Mayor Menino did an inaugural half mile bike ride to pump up the impending bike lanes throughout the city of Boston. That's cool and all, but didn't his flunkies tell him that he looks like a tool in the helmet? Hello, Mike Dukakis? You there?

Remember this pic?


Now, I know that the Menino pic is no where as damaging as the Dukakis tank pic, but come on. It's pretty damn close IMHO.



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BostonNOW ain't so much now anymore is it?

*playing in the background* Another One Bites the dust. Yes, that's right people, another paper goes under. The second free daily rag, the BostonNOW, isn't now anymore. It's bye byes.

I never really cared for BostonNOW. It was one of those papers I would read if I was bored or the iPod wasn't charged. Even then, I could get through it in about two minutes so it really wasn't that entertaining nor informative to be honest with you. It ran lots of AP briefs - not a ton of original thought.

No tears shed on my end. Just one less outlet I have to pitch for clients. RIP BostonNOW.

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The thrill of the chase

No matter how long I've been in the PR business, the blood flows a lot faster when I've nailed a media opp for a client.

Today I landed an opp with the Associated Press for the YMCA of Greater Boston. The story is about teens and summer jobs. The Y does a fantastic job at getting kids off the street and getting them in constructive, life-lesson type programs as well as jobs. Mission driven orgs like the Y are a sore sight in a world that's filled with teen violence. Props to the Y and other orgs like it for doing their part. Read more!