Communicating Sense

Facebook on 'Social by Design'

2011-10-22T02:45:00.000-07:00

Social isn't new. It's been around now for years, and yet, I still find myself in scenarios in which colleagues and clients want me to 'make something go viral.' This happens all the time!

Facebook recently hosted a Creative Garage at Ogilvy Hong Kong, providing us the opportunity to 'hack' multiple live client briefs with the best and brightest. The preface was simple: before coming up with a big idea or creative concept, think of what user behaviors you might leverage. In other words, what are people already doing online in a social context that might work for your brand or campaign?

Simple, right? Makes perfect sense, doesn't it? You'd be surprised. All too often, marketers think in a traditional, linear fashion that begins with 'awesome idea.' Then, when we get to the social aspect, we think about everything we want our audience to do. What about what our audience is already doing? For example, sharing photos. Each month, more than 2.5 BILLION photos are shared on Facebook (source: Facebook blog). Why not put photo sharing at the heart of your campaign?

That's exactly what we did with Huggies Hong Kong through the Babies on the Go campaign. We leveraged parents' love for sharing and viewing baby photos as an entry point for bringing parents into a community with the brand. But don't just take my word for it - Facebook just published their own case study on our Huggies social campaign.

How Huggies won the hearts of more than 100,000 parents in Hong Kong

Does this mean everything should be a photo contest? Of course not. But, if you're thinking about dipping your toe into social, take a step back and think first about putting social at the core. If you simply take a traditional ad campaign and throw it online, don't expect it to drive obscene levels of engagement if you haven't first made it social by design. Thank you, Facebook, for reminding us that social must truly be at the heart of everything we do.

Ogilvy PR APAC Named Top Digital Consultancy of the Year!

2011-04-18T18:14:00.000-07:00

Working at an agency is not about fame or glory; we're always behind the scenes. When fantastic work is recognized, however, it's nice to celebrate our accomplishments.

On Sunday, The Holmes Report named Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide "Digital Consultancy of the Year." From the report:

With 1,000 people across 38 offices in 16 countries, Ogilvy remains by far the dominant player in the Asia-Pacific market, by most measures twice the size of its closest competitors. That makes it difficult to maintain the same rate of growth as smaller agencies, but one reason Ogilvy continues to expand is a commitment to innovation, underscored by the rapid development of its digital influence business, which more than doubled in size last year.

Top quality digital and social media work is supplemented by a commitment to thought leadership. Regional practice leader Thomas Crampton maintains one of the best blogs in the region, and is a frequent speaker at local events, and the firm has produced Asia-specific content focused on the growing importance of digital and social media in the region

Key additions in 2010 included a trio of digital leaders—Tim Ho, Xie Qing, and Andrea Fenn—in markets across the region, ensuring that digital and social media elements are seamless integrated into local programming.

Congratulations to the Asia-Pacific 360 Digital Influence team! This is an award well-deserved.

I'm Moving to Hong Kong!

2011-03-10T18:42:00.000-08:00

It's official - my husband and I are moving to Hong Kong! I'm excited to embark on a new phase of my career in which I will take on the role of Regional Strategy Director, 360 Digital Influence, Asia-Pacific. What a mouthful!

The demand for digital continues to grow at an amazing rate, in nearly every region of the world. I am honored to join Thomas Crampton, Scott McBride and John Stauffer in APAC and can't wait to meet the rest of my new colleagues from halfway around the world. Here's a glimpse of the social media equivalents I'll be working with in China (thank you, Thomas!).

To all of the wonderful colleagues, bloggers, companies and clients I've worked with in the U.S. - please keep in touch! Though I am sad to leave San Francisco, I look forward to the challenges and learning opportunities that lie ahead :)

The above photo is from Goway.

2011 CES: Is It Still a Man's Show?

2011-01-21T18:21:00.000-08:00

I had the pleasure of attending the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) on behalf of a client this year and was both excited and scared to face an onslaught of crowded spaces and long cab lines. Despite the worry, I have to admit: I had a blast at CES!

Though I wasn't able to see as many celebrities or play with as many gadgets as I had hoped, I did enjoy spending some time with real women in tech (like the awesome mom and tech bloggers you see in the above photo). Read my take over at Ogilvy PR's Womenology blog on "CES 2011: Where are the Women". I share my conversations with Mia Kim, founder of Popgadget, and Beth Blecherman, founder of Silicon Valley Moms Group, TechMamas and co-founder of CoolMomTech.

Why I Liked The Social Network

2010-10-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

After 'boycotting' The Social Network for months, I finally allowed myself to be dragged to see the movie along with my friends from Ogilvy PR. I'm not the biggest fan of Mark Zuckerberg, so I wasn't keen on supporting a movie about the guy. I'm SO glad I put my biases aside!

The truth is, it's amazing to watch just how quickly Facebook grew and how it was nearly impossible for the founders to keep up with it. One day, there was no Facebook, the next day, there is one. Months later, there are a million users on Facebook in multiple countries. It's incredible.

Having been in college when Facebook was created (I actually 'boycotted' it then, but was finally swayed to join by friends who couldn't stop using it) to now working as a digital strategist who uses Facebook daily to reach and connect with people - you have to hand it to Mark and team. They've changed the world. Plus, the movie trailer has a great soundtrack!

I encourage you to check out the movie while it's still in theaters. It's very well done, the characters are pretty well developed (I don't know if they're portrayed truthfully, though), and I found myself wanting more at the end.

When Birds of a Feather Flock Together - #360DI Summit

2010-04-18T22:35:00.000-07:00

Great things happen. At this weekend's 360 Digital Influence Black Belt Summit in Washington, D.C., 50+ strategists from N. America, the UK and France convened to discuss the latest trends shaping social media marketing and communications.

After two intense days of brainstorming, redstorming and thunderstorming, we all left a bit pooped. Chris Graves, Ogilvy PR global CEO, helped uplift the crowd with a thought piece on influence.

As a social media marketer, I spend day and night thinking about influence. How to inspire a group of consumers to learn about a product? Share a post with a friend? Write a positive review? Conducting business is contingent on the ability to influence potential customers. It's no surprise influence lies at the center of any social media program.

Graves touched on several interesting theories behind influence and human behavior:

1. The Strength of Weak Ties
"Individuals with few weak ties will be deprived of information from distant parts of the social system and will be confined to the provincial news and views of their close friends," (The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited, by Mark Granovetter; download the full paper to read more).

In other words, while having the ability to influence a group with strong ties (picture Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Ross and Rachel) can result in Word of Mouth among the group, only the existence of weak ties will beget viral spread of content.

2. The Impact of Moral Self-Licensing on Green Living and Sustainability
"In the past few decades, consumers have become increasingly attentive to social and ethical considerations in areas such as energy consumption, animal husbandry, and trade,"(Do Green Products Make Us Better People? by Nina Mazar and Cheng-Bo Zhong; full article).

"Building on recent research on behavioral priming and moral regulation, we found that mere exposure to green products and the purchase of such products lead to markedly different behavioral consequences. In line with the halo associated with green consumerism, results showed that people act more altruistically after mere exposure to green products than after mere exposure to conventional products. However, people act less altruistically and are more likely to cheat and steal after purchasing green products than after purchasing conventional products."

3. Six Drivers of Influence
Cialdini's six "weapons" of influence have become a staple for our social media engagement planning. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, is currently at the top of my book list!

Thanks to Chris Graves for the inspiring talk and thank you to my fellow strategists for reinvigorating my love for what we do.

Pope Jumps on Blogging Bandwagon

2010-01-23T11:57:00.000-08:00

This just in: The Pope is encouraging priests to leverage digital media to spread the Gospel. The rest of the story is available on Yahoo! New s via Associated Press.

I think this is a really cool move, particularly given the conservative nature of the papacy. Given how successful President Obama's campaign has been in creating a movement via social media, it is not that surprising that the Pope would encourage Catholic practitioners to connect with their followers online, too.

Josh Sternberg says: "Religion has always been at the forefront of new communication technologies; think Martin Luther and his 95 Theses that were printed with the newfangled printing press; think Jerry Falwell and his use of the newly-launched cable satellite system."

For more on religion and social media, check out:
Social Media & Religion: Even The Pope's Online! (by Josh Sternberg)

Paying It Forward - How Do You Build Community?

2010-01-13T06:28:00.000-08:00

I was surprised by my co-workers yesterday with an office celebration for my birthday (which was technically Monday, but I worked from home that day to edit some videos and therefore wasn't in the office to receive cake, flowers and singing on my actual birthday).

Though I promise not to prolong my birthday too much longer by blogging about it repeatedly, when yesterday's offline surprise turned into tweets, Twitpics and Facebook posts, it made me want to blog about community and how companies go about building them.

This weekend, I blogged about how Anthropologie builds community by bringing customers into the Anthro lifestyle. Along similar lines, Catch Up Lady recently blogged about how Patagonia builds community for the eco-conscious outdoor enthusiast. I was also privileged enough to hear Kristian Bush from Sugarland talk about building community in a declining music industry through homegrown YouTube videos and authentic fan interactions. I think it's also safe to say that Apple has not only built a community, but a whole culture around its brand.

Yesterday's unexpected birthday celebration showed me that Ogilvy builds community by valuing its employees and celebrating them (the birthday surprise is only one example of many nice gestures). The company doesn't have to, but it does.

This gesture reminded me that community building goes beyond creative ideas and clever campaigns. Building community is about paying it forward and remaining loyal to your audiences. It's also about recognizing that your target audiences are real people who should be treated as such.

For companies that follow these principles (like the companies and band I mentioned above), marketing and PR become vehicles by which brand enthusiasts can discover, explore and glean inspiration.

For Rob BonDurant, VP of Marketing at Patagonia, building community is about creating a tribe and selling a story. The story, however, also inspires intent to purchase. Does this mean a company's goals can be reached by building good karma?

Marketers often approach me asking how to best use social media tools. They don't often ask how to build and cultivate a good community. They focus more on one-off campaigns and less on relationships built over time, an ROI which is tough to measure. And yet, I'm fascinated by the relationship of offline activities over time to online word of mouth and community building (see my blog post on how American Express builds authentic customer communities with Meetup).

As a result, I'm now inspired to explore this topic more, perhaps via a series of interviews and blog posts. Stay tuned and, in the meantime, tell me: how do you build community?

2010 Ford Fusion Launches with American Idol Houseparty

2010-01-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

Ford Motor Company* has been receiving some really good press about about My Ford Touch (video demo here), which was shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show last week. Ford has been leading the automobile industry in building intelligence into automotive systems, but it's also pretty progressive when it comes to social marketing.

For example, I attended an interesting presentation by HouseParty during the WOMMA Summit last November that covered how Ford leveraged an existing sponsorship with American Idol to drive customer conversations and brand immersion across the social Web. The HouseParty case study made me think of a tupperware party on steroids, but the results were quite intriguing.

Ford's marketing challenge
Launch the 2010 Ford Fusion beyond using only traditional methods of TV, print, radio and out-of-home advertising and marketing campaigns. Go beyond dealerships, but ignite interest at a grassroots level, in consumer homes.

Ford's marketing goals

Generate mass awareness, interest and excitement around the all-new 2010 Ford Fusion and Fusion Hybrid
Provide opportunities for consumers to experience the product
Deliver test drives to the doorsteps of interested consumers (versus relying solely on dealership traffic)
Cultivate intent to purchase before the car is generally available
Generate hand-raisers and opt-ins for Ford to contact in the future
Activate online word of mouth (WoM) buzz

Ford American Idol House Party

Ford already had plans to broadcast branded in-show segments throughout the season. Partnering with HouseParty enabled the company to engineer in-home parties with an online activation component in conjunction with the season finale of American Idol. Family and friends could not only gather to watch the first night of the 2-day TV show finale, but would also get a first-hand look at the Ford Fusion.

Here's how it worked:

HouseParty helped Ford create a custom, Ford-branded micro-site with full disclosure and rules for the Ford/American Idol house party
2-3 months before the event, party planners applied via the micro-site (also know as "Party Central") to host a Fusion-centered party
1000 party planners were selected across the country (9000 applied); those selected tended to be viral "super fans" of Ford and American Idol, females in their late twenties with a high social profile, online viral propensity
Each party planner was asked to invite 10+ friends to their in-home Ford Fusion party
Each party planner had access to the Ford micro-site, where they could connect with other party planners, share tips, view a map of all house party locations and receive other Ford-branded content
Each party planner was entered into the "Idol Rocks. Ford Rolls" sweepstakes where guests could vote for their hosts to win an extra entry into the sweepstakes (I forget the prize, sorry!)
Each party planner received a custom party pack of branded materials, including a tote bag, 50 napkins, 15 plates, 15 coasters, 15 cups, etc., and Ford Fusion info sheets
2/3 of all party planners received a DVD with exclusive Ford and American Idol content featuring a day in the life of Ace Young (an American Idol contestant), during which he drove around the Fusion Hybrid and pointed out his favorite features of the vehicle
1/3 of all party planners were given a 2010 Ford Fusion delivered to their doorstep for an entire weekend so they could truly experience the car in person without a car salesperson around

Ford's metrics
Among total social media impressions and consumer-generated media generated by the campaign in the form of tweets, photos, videos, blogs and more, Ford tracked and measured (in hours) time spent with the brand, including all party planning time, party duration, test drives and DVD views. For example, (1,000 hosts x # of hours spent planning the party) + (16,000 guests x 3-4 hours per party) = # of hours spent with the product as well as viral WoM spread offline and across the Web.

Specific campaign results included:

Reach:

Over 79,000 hours of brand exposure
Over 2.6 million Web and social media impressions, including 69% of hosts and 39% of guests mentioning the party on Facebook, 29% of hosts and 14% of guests mentioning the party on MySpace
Approximately 80,000 hours of brand exposure (offline = 60K party hours, 9K planning hours)
380,000 page views on the micro-site

Awareness & Attitude:

Awareness lift: 29-30 points
Favorability lift: 10-24 points
Advocacy (likelihood to recommend) lift: 19-25 points
Purchase Intent Lift: 12 points (and apparently, 3 people purchased the car from their respective parties)

Activation:

Over 10,000 opt-ions to be contacted by Ford
Free Trials: over 5,700 free trials (test drives in this case)
Over 8,900 DVD views

Overall:

More than 6,300 people experienced a Ford Fusion in person
Total of 2M+ impressions for the brand
Lots of blogs posts, Flickr photos, YouTube videos, micro-site downloads and more

I found this case study impressive because of the radical change Ford brought to the experience of test driving a new car. Perhaps even more impressive, Ford was able to target and interact with women through this campaign! Car dealerships do not have the best reputation with women, but Ford was able to get around that by bringing the products to them in a social setting. Pretty cool, huh?

*Note: Ford Motor Company is a client of Ogilvy Public Relations. This blog post in no way represents the views or opinions of Ford.

My Birthday Tag Cloud Card

2010-01-11T18:04:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, you've got an email folder labeled "NICE!" in your inbox where you store personal and professional notes of praise and appreciation that can be easily accessed in the event of a rainy-day-major-disaster-freak-out.

Photo by @photo and posted on Flickr

As a birthday present, I received something even better from my friend and former colleague, Bret Clement.

He sent me a tag cloud e-card that incorporates nice comments about me from old emails that is pasted over one of my favorite recent party photos (me pictured with Christine Ngo and a cardboard cutout of an Intel bunnyman*.)

What a nice DIY treat to brighten my day! Bret's birthday tag cloud reminded me how effective this medium can be for highlighting major topical trends in any given piece of content. I often use the tag cloud feature of Radian6 to help decipher what words are most commonly associated with a specific topic, brand or service.

If you have specific articles or text sources you'd like to analyze via tag clouds, here are a couple online tools you can use to create your own:

Wordle
Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

TagCrowd
TagCrowd is a Web application for visualizing word frequencies in any user-supplied text by creating what is popularly known as a tag cloud or text cloud. It was created by Daniel Steinbock, a doctoral student in Design and Education at Stanford University.

For blog plug-ins and more technical tag cloud generators, Technacular has listed a pretty good round up of resources.

What tag clouds are you creating?

*NOTE: Intel is a client of Ogilvy Public Relations, but this blog in no way represents the opinions of Intel Corporation.

Living the Anthropologie Life

2010-01-09T09:07:00.000-08:00

This is the second year I've received my Happy Birthday coupon in the mail from Anthropologie, except it's way more than a coupon. It's a necklace with a birthday candle charm (see left) PLUS a coupon.

The moment I opened the padded envelope from Anthropologie, I was both excited and touched - how sweet of them to think of me on my special day!

The back of the card has the following message:

This little gift is for you and only you and cannot be turned into chocolate, flowers or cash. It's a one time treat, gladly accepted in our retail stores (not online), so bring this note, along with your Anthro card, and enjoy!

Heck, yeah, I'm going to use this! Why? Because Anthropologie sells me more than clothing and accessories. It sells me an experience and I want to live the Anthropologie life.

Just think of how many coupons, offers and discount opportunities you receive on a daily basis. Particularly in this economy, it's not uncommon to get overloaded with sales and customer loyalty programs no matter what time of year it is.

What I love about Anthropologie is that everything about the company, from its catalogs to window displays to its Web site, breathes inspiration, beauty and sentimentality.

Photo by Elena777 posted to Flickr

What's better, the company has a sincerity about it as Anthro products stand up to its character. Sure, the company has a good following on Facebook and Twitter, but it's the embodiment of specific ideals and emotions that create Anthro's strong customer loyalties.

So, despite the multiple discount emails, letters and phone calls I receive (and usually delete or discard) each day, I fully plan to head over to Anthropologie and make good use of my 15% birthday coupon. Of course, who doesn't enjoy a celebratory shopping spree?!

What companies do you admire? What life are you living?

Weddings and WoM: 5 Wedding Planning Tips From a Soon to Be Bride

2010-01-05T23:31:00.002-08:00

Ooh, this cake looks yummy! I'm thinking of getting a similar one myself (though it will be square).

Oh, right... I'm getting married for those who weren't already aware!

Though the wedding industry has seen a decline in the past year or so, word of mouth (WoM) marketing must be peaking. I can tell you this first hand - who else would you trust to help you plan one of the biggest events in your life other than your most trusted family and friends?

Well, perhaps a wedding planner, but not all of us have the funds to hire a professional! Plus, I like handling the details myself.

So, for those ladies and gents steeped in wedding blogs, DIY books and online wedding communities, here are my WoM recommendations for planning your special day. Please feel free to comment with additional tips and tricks as I'm still in the planning process, myself!

1. Google Docs
Google Docs are by far my preferred method for document sharing and collaborative editing. I've created wedding guest lists, shower lists, budgets, song lists, sample programs and more using Google Docs. I share everything with my fiance to avoid version control issues and we access our library of documents virtually everywhere since they're linked to our Google accounts. It's great!

2. Etsy.com
Etsy.com is an online community and marketplace that provides artisans and craftspeople an intimate but effective platform to market and sell their goods. Etsy has a pretty good selection of wedding items for sale. What I LOVE about the site is the ability to customize your items. Most sellers enable you to specify the colors, font or other requirements you need to personalize them for your wedding. Whether you're looking for wedding stationery, ceremony decor, scrapbooks, accessories or a dress, Etsy.com has a wide array of choices for a unique, and often vintage, feel.

If you want to add your own crafty touches to your wedding, Michael's has a great selection of DIY ideas, recipes and supplies. I spent three hours there just last week sorting through everything from guest books to wedding program materials to ribbons and glue guns!

3. Honeyfund
Rules on registries are becoming more and more lax (thank goodness!), so for those folks not enamored with the prospect of receiving china and crystal, why not consider asking guests and loved ones to gift you your honeymoon? Honeyfund.com is one of many Web sites that allows you to do just that. After you create your honeymoon registry (e.g., poolside massages for 2 = $200, romantic dinner for 2 = $150, elevator ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower for 2 = $170), you choose how you'd like to receive your "gifts," which can come in the form of checks in the mail, cash at the wedding or even direct deposits via PayPal. My fiance and I have registered with Honeyfund because the site doesn't take a percentage of our gifts - we get 100% of all honeymoon donations!

4. Costco
Honestly, Costco has A LOT of great options for wedding planning! For example, my fiance and I ordered our wedding invitations from Costco's partner, eInvite, and they turned out really well (look under the "Office Products" category, Costco members receive a 25% discount). In addition, the timing of our Save the Date mailing coincided with the holidays, so we created a photo card that doubled as a holiday card and Save the Date notice. We considered ordering our flowers from Costco, too, though we went with a wholesale flower mart in the end.

Costco is also a great place to pick up desserts if you're planning to have a dessert table or, if the cake of your dreams exceeds your budget, why not consider cutting out a layer and grabbing some sheet cakes from Costco to hide in the back? Chances are, your guests won't notice the difference! You might as well pick up paper plates, plastic forks and paper napkins while you're there, too!

Of course, Costco is a great place to pick up wine, sparkling wine, beer and other alcoholic delights, and don't forget all of the great travel deals available to Costco members that could serve as viable honeymoon options! I even bought "thank you" gifts from Costco for my bridal party since they had $125 worth of Spa Finder gift certificates for only $100 around the holidays (yes, I kept the free $25 gift certificates for myself!). As you can tell, I heart Costco big time!

5. TheKnot.com
Last but not least, I recommend joining an online community for additional wedding tips, color and style ideas and free wedding planning tools. Though I prefer the budget tools at OurWeddingDay.com, I am an avid fan of TheKnot.com (thank you for the original suggestion, Jasmine!). You can also try TheWeddingChannel.com. In addition to offering free customizable wedding websites, budgeting tools and wedding checklists, these sites have extensive photo galleries from real couples and real weddings. Personally, I love perusing weddings by color!

Of course, after you register with any of these Web sites, be prepared for a barrage of emails from their business partners (often targeting you by location) and daily emails reminding you that "90 items are overdue on your wedding checklist!" (or maybe those just come to me). Nevertheless, these online communities are great wedding planning resources and much better than any one book or bridal magazine I've seen so far. Without TheKnot.com, I wouldn't have an awesome escort card display and super cute wedding favors in mind. That's all I'm going to reveal for now!

These tips don't even begin to approach the amount of WoM referrals I've had for wedding cakes, florists, bands/DJs, dresses, venues, photographers, restaurants, destinations and more, but I hope to give back a little into the big pool of people seeking wedding planning information online. Best of luck to you and, remember: your wedding is only ONE DAY - it's your marriage that lasts forever!

Happy wedding planning!

Building Authentic Customer Communities: American Express & Meetup

2009-11-19T15:19:00.001-08:00

During the WOMMA Summit in Las Vegas last week, I attended a session with American Express OPEN to learn about their nation-wide Meetups geared toward bringing small business owners together to learn, share and grow.

With over 7 million registered users, American Express OPEN Forum is an online "trading post" bringing together small business owners to share advice, insights and ideas to facilitate the types of connections needed to re-energize the economy. Of course, the more small businesses grow, the better American Express fares, too.

Despite featuring content by Guy Kawasaki, Anita Campbell and Mashable, OPEN Forum wasn't seeing large adoption among its target audience, so American Express partnered with Meetup to provide 30 local small business Meetup groups across the country with curriculum and financial support to help them perform better in a down economy.

Program Goals:
1. Pair OPEN with local small business Meetups to leverage their reach and develop a scalable program
2. Generate lift in OPEN brand attitudinal metric, showing it resonates among participants
3. Increase OPEN brand sentiment, ensuring small business owners understand OPEN is committed to serving their interests
4. Increase Meetup group organizer activity and morale

How It Worked:
1. New York City Retreat - Discerning What Meetup Organizers Need
OPEN flew 30 Meetup organizers to New York City to better understand their needs as community organizers and small business owners, their members' needs and how OPEN could add value.

OPEN invited influential guest speakers and ultimately found that Meetup organizers wanted to increase the value and credibility of their groups and add more members.

2. Curriculum Development - Empowering Meetup Organizers
OPEN developed a 6-month curriculum for Meetup organizers delivered as a monthly "Meetup in a Box" and leveraged its existing partnerships to provide special offers and exclusive webinars to Meetups. OPEN also periodically brought Meetup organizers together in between sessions as a focus group, enabling OPEN to continuously evaluate and evolve the program.

3. The Results
Meetups provided OPEN with a nation-wide presence it wouldn't have otherwise achieved.

82% of Meetup organizers responded that OPEN sponsorship improved their Meetups
Pilot program was a success - OPEN has now grown to 80 sponsored groups

Lessons Learned:

Organizers are a valuable resource to each other
Each group has different needs
Need better scale - can't always fly organizers to NYC, sending Meetup packs got expensive

Improvements for Round Two:

Mailed Welcome Kit to kick off 6-month curriculum, then create and provide digital content via Meetup.com and OPENForum.com
Provide direct financial support to Meetups so organizers can support their groups the best way possible

Unfortunately, I didn't get the statistics for percentage increase in use of AMEX OPEN Forum among Meetup participants, but the overall case study reminded me: social media are a set of tools, not a community. AMEX seems to have learned this when its state-of-the-art online forum didn't perform well out of the box. How do you build community?

My first week at OgilvyPR

2009-09-05T17:48:00.000-07:00

As I look at the calendar, my first week at Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide is long gone. I've already been with the firm for just over two weeks, and it already feels like I've worked there for six months. Here's why:

1. The people at Ogilvy are really amazing. I've received an incredibly warm welcome that has helped me ramp up fast. (In particular, I especially have to thank @rachelpolish and @christinengo for their guidance and mentorship.)

2. I've been thrown right into the mix, and I love it. From Day 1, it's been go, go, go!

3. Between multiple in depth trainings, dinner with @jbell99 last week and lots of creative brainstorms, I feel like I've been a Digital Strategist for much longer than 12 days.

This seems to be the story of my life at the moment. Since the beginning of the summer, I celebrated my third year anniversary at Page One PR, got engaged, moved out of the city (sniff), started planning my wedding and, most recently, joined the 360º Digital Influence Practice at Ogilvy. Talk about embracing change!

So far, I'm still loving life. After cutting my teeth in the land of enterprise technology start ups, it's both super cool and incredibly different to be working with Fortune 50 companies both within and outside of tech. Working fast and being smart are still just as applicable to being a Digital Strategist as they were to keeping up with start ups. In addition, the global network of 360º Digital Influence resources is truly awesome.

What does this mean for Communicating Sense?

For starters, I'll be writing a lot more about using social media for PR and marketing! Other than that, I don't anticipate many changes.

In the meantime, if you're interested in learning more about Ogilvy's 360º Digital Influence Practice, I invite you to check out our blog. You can also read over a few case studies to see how Ogilvy has launched campaigns across the social Web, such as Lenovo's Voices of the Summer Games, Tropicana's Trop50 featuring The Juice (co-created with BlogHer), and much, much more.

7 Ways to Live Better Online

2009-06-09T10:18:00.000-07:00

No matter how organized and put together I feel in my professional life, managing my personal life can be a real struggle. I'm talking about staying on top of finances, exercising, eating right, sleeping well, running errands, etc., etc. There’s always more to be done and it’s hard to reach 100% productivity when you just want to relax after work and on weekend.

There is plenty of advice out there about how to manage or share things like photos, videos, and hobby lists with friends and family and how to catalogue your life with a blog or vlog, but what about all of that normal day-to-day "stuff" that can easily fall off the radar and out of order? If you're one of those 76% of Americans with Internet access, here are seven ways you can live better online:

1) Groove to music with DropPlay – Self-acclaimed as the free online equivalent to iTunes, DropPlay lets you stream music from YouTube and share songs and playlists with your friends through Facebook. Although YouTube audio quality isn't always the best (particularly with regards to live performance recordings), Drop Play can help make recommendations based on other recent selections and you don't have to download a desktop client to use it. Even better, it's completely free!

For active musicians and fans, check out WorldSings, a new alternative to MySpace that invites artists to upload music, videos and concert lists, feature live events and compete for the "world's best song." Fans can follow their favorite artists and interact via chat, direct messages and wall posts.

2) Manage your finances with Mint.com – With the economy being so unsteady, experts say now is a great time to become intimate with your balance sheet and to manage personal finances as if you were a CPA managing a small business. Seriously? If you’re one of those people who need a copy of Finance for Dummies before you can get started, there no need to panic. Try something like Mint.com to manage your money. Mint.com makes it a lot easier to keep track of finances, spending, saving, investing and financial planning because it pulls your financial information from banks, credit cards, stock portfolios and retirement accounts so you can manage everything centrally (instead of having to log in to each institution separately). The budgeting tools help users set goals for saving and reducing debt.

Some financial institutions, like Bank of America, offer free online financial management tools for customers – all you need is a bank or credit card account. Another good online resource for general financial advice is Kiplinger.com. Check out their free financial tools and calculators, too.

3) Get in shape with LiveStrong.com – Whether you're a fan of Lance Armstrong or not, LiveStrong.com is a really easy-to-use website with health, nutrition and fitness tips. The site has a "Top Dares" section with advice for how to stop smoking, lose weight, exercise more and even drink more water. You can join the community, post your own blogs, upload photos and find, or make, new friends.

If you want to keep your fitness details private, check out FitnessJournal.org. Though you do have to pay to join, the website provides extensive journals for weekly workouts, strength training, nutrition, goals, and even a journal for keeping track of your shoes! This is probably too intense for the casual gym-goer, but for fitness pros, people training for that upcoming 5K charity walk, or someone who just needs an extra push to stick with a workout routine, FitnessJournal has everything you need.

4) Start or join a campaign for social change with The Point – Whether you're raising money to send someone to college or boycotting eBay, The Point lets any person start a campaign and rally support for ideas with the potential to initiate change. The Point taps into Facebook and encourages people with a cause to make something happen - no matter what. Passionate about cancer awareness, getting Starbucks to recycle or stopping Ticketmaster's monopoly on ticket sales? Consider joining an ongoing campaign or starting your own with The Point.

For additional places to donate time or money, check out Network for Good and Virgance. Network for Good has an extensive database of non-profit organizations and handles all of the tax information when you donate. Virgance is marketing Activism 2.0 by promoting projects that offer incentives and social recognition for environmentally-conscious businesses.

5) Get organized with Remember The Milk – I LOVE this app. If you're a big list maker like me, Remember The Milk can help you get rid of those post-it notes stuck everywhere by centralizing your "To Do" items online. It's also available for Google Calendar, Twitter, BlackBerry and Gmail Gadget, and sends task reminders via email, SMS and a variety of IM clients. You can also share, send and publish tasks to your co-workers and family. Such a great tool! If you're looking to compare different apps, check out Toodledo and Ta-da Lists.

Another organizational tool to try out is Evernote. Evernote is like combining your scrapbook with notes or research and tasks. The app essentially allows you to store anything you want - photos, screen grabs, text and audio files - in the cloud and to sync that with your computer and mobile phone. The search function can find virtually any text, even if hand-written, in the files you store, and you can view a time line to help navigate the various "notes" you take.

6) Stay in sync with Funambol – The amount of content you can keep on a mobile phone is increasing at an alarming rate. With contacts, calendars, multiple email inboxes, SMS/picture/video messages, tasks, notes, videos, pictures, custom apps and more, keeping your mobile phone in sync with your computer and online is really a non-trivial convenience to have. If you're not an iPhone user (or even if you are!), you can use a free service from Funambol called MobileWe, which is similar to the paid MobileMe service from Apple. It works on smartphones as well as feature phones, so if you change devices or mobile carriers, you can take your content with you. AOL also offers a free contact and calendar sync called AOL Sync. To use the service, you have to create an AOL account and push email is yet to come, but if you just want to back up your contacts and calendar, you can with AOL Sync.

For the more business savvy mobile fanatics, check out DubMeNow, also known as DUB, which lets you text or email contact info from any mobile phone directly to another mobile address book. Besides replacing the need for business cards, DUB integrates with a bunch of CRM systems, so you can manage customer contacts on your phone. You can even integrate with Google Maps to see where your contacts are and where you first met them.

7) Track your sleep with Yawnlog – Feeling tired? Yawnlog is exactly like the sleep journal I kept for my "Sleep and Dreams" class in college, but online and open to your friends. I'm sure most people underestimate the importance of sleep, but it's really the key to feeling happy when you're awake and for staying healthy (not to mention smart and productive). Keeping track of your sleep patterns and the average amount of time you sleep each night can help you make small changes in sleeping patterns that will make a big difference in how you feel, act and live. I kept a sleep journal for three months and have never felt better.

If you're really in need of a good night's sleep and you love gadgets, you might even check out the Sleeptracker watch, which doubles as an alarm clock by waking you up at the most opportune moment to help you get the most out of your sleep cycles and avoid drowsiness.

That's it! By now, I hope you’re on your way to living better online. But, just in case, here are some additional ways to live better online that didn't make the top 7 list:

-Keep your best recipes with We Gotta Eat
-Get book recommendations, start a book club and keep track of your reading list with Goodreads
-Discover fine wine with OpenBottles or Snooth, though who are we kidding? There are a ton of wine-related social networks out there!
-Manage your time with Toggl
-Get answers and advice fast with Aardvark

Will Social Media Enable the Digital Panopticon?

2009-06-04T18:58:00.000-07:00

I attended a webcast, "Reconsidering Social Media," last week hosted by the O'Reilly media team and found myself pleasantly surprised at the philosophical turn of the conversation. I bet the Enlightenment philosophes turned over in their graves as we had a webcast "salon."

How did I get from social media to the Age of Enlightment? Trust me, the parallel is there. For starters, Joshua-Michele Ross brought up how the Enlightenment movement advocated freedom, liberty and progress at the very same time as the birth of prisons and asylums. In other words, the Enlightenment championed progressive ideals while institutions began to lockdown individuals and develop ways to control and manipulate society.

The panopticon is a prison 'in the round,' where the guard tower is at the center of a circle of cells (see above image). The idea is that prisoners can't tell when they're being watched and will therefore self-regulate their behavior to avoid additional punishment.

The webcast compared social media to panoptical prisons, but equated society to the guard tower. Using Twitter as a classic example, communicating your status to a group of semi-anonymous people can be a great channel for communication, but how honest will you be in front of that crowd? Will you really talk about how bad your day was or how much you can't stand sitting next to a certain colleague?

Another poignant issue raised: knowledge is almost always being produced in service of power - not as a liberating force. Cynical, huh?

The point is, right now, the social media movement seems liberating. As consumers find their voice online, businesses are beginning to listen. At the same time, as consumers become accustomed to sharing more information, privacy will become a hot commodity – potentially quite costly. After all, if a business doesn't know where you are and what you want, will you miss out on certain promotions? If everyone else has a voice, will you lose out for keeping quiet?

At the same time, companies and governments will continue to get more sophisticated about collecting, mining and harvesting information about what we do, what we like, what we eat, where we go, who we associate with and more. In other words, corporations will progress towards refined and effective means of manipulating our behavior online and in the cloud.

Is that bad? I'm not sure. After all, we still have free will, right? I definitely appreciated the focus on social media philosophical and cultural implications. These changes are inevitable. If you don't believe me, check out "25 Surprising Things That Google Knows About You."

Marketing to your loved ones: The Ultimate Women's Hormone Guide

2009-05-19T13:50:00.001-07:00

I found this really funny and decided it had to be shared! Of course, I would vote to replace "Here, have some wine," with "Please, thank you, sorry!" Let me know what you think.

The Hormone Guide
Women will understand this!
Men should memorize it!

Every woman knows that there are days in the month when all a man has to do is open his mouth and he takes his life in his hands! This is a handy guide that should be as common as a driver's license in the wallet of every husband, boyfriend, co-worker or significant other!

DANGEROUS	SAFER	SAFEST	ULTRA SAFE
What's for dinner?	Can I help you with dinner?	Where would you like to go for dinner?	Here, have some wine.
Are you wearing that?	You sure look good in brown!	WOW! Look at you!	Here, have some wine
What are you so worked up about?	Could we be overreacting?	Here's my paycheck.	Here, have some wine.
Should you be eating that?	You know, there are a lot of apples left.	Can I get you a piece of chocolate with that?	Here, have some wine.
What did you DO all day?	I hope you didn't over-do it today.	I've always loved you in that robe!	Here, have some wine.

Blogging Air Force Style

2009-04-23T16:58:00.001-07:00

I recently contributed a post to The Page Wonders blog called "5 Things You Need to Know About Social Media Marketing and PR," which discusses the "underbelly" of social media and offers some humble tips for how to prepare yourself (and your company) for stepping into social media.

One point I make is that using social media for PR and marketing can easily take 2.5x the time a traditional PR campaign would along. If you're wondering how social media can possibly be so time-consuming, take a glance at the diagram at the left (thank you to Jerry Owyang for publicly posting this). This elegant flowchart outlines how the Air Force conducts blog monitoring and response (one of the social media programs we also run at Page One PR on behalf of many clients).

Case in point, just as you might monitor print and online news publications for coverage of your business or organization, when you delve into the realm of blogs and blog comments, the gloves come off. Not only do you have to determine whether to respond, but you have to determine how and consider the consequences.

Lisa Hoover at Computerworld wrote about "The newcomer's guide to social networking" today and also discussed the various intricacies that come along with social media for business. One of her takeaways: not every business needs to use social networking tools to communicate and/or promote itself effectively. I don't know that I agree with this, but I think it is less about the tools you use and more about whether you want to conduct business transparently or not.

One thing I will say - social media requires a lot of content. When I say this, I mean both producing and digesting content. Of course, you don't have to monitor social media channels to see what others out there are saying about you, your industry or other things that will pertain to your business. But then, why invest time in social media if you're not going to at least dedicate some time and resources to being social?

The Summer (or Spring) of Link Love

2009-04-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

Ahhh, I haven't blogged in a while! Shame on me, but I promise, I've been off learning some really great things. What, you ask? Well, for one, I now know how to snowboard. I've been twice already and will venture up to Tahoe for a day this weekend. Hopefully I'll come back fully about to carve.

And, while the other stuff I've been learning has been mostly for work, it's really mind-blowing overall. I'm talking about the huge mount of link love going on around me. It's like the summer of love, but for links and it's actually spring.

Despite the corny joke, I'm serious. When I started out in PR, I was a little skeptical about online news articles. At least, with regards to valuing any placed for clients. After all, isn't a tangible article in print much more legit?

I now know the answer: no. It's not more legit, it's more antiquated. Everything is online - that's where people get there information and the trends will only increase. But, along with the death of the print media industry comes new ways to consume and share information and, along with that, comes new ways to think about PR, marketing and sales.

You might think I'm stating the obvious here and, if so, fine, I am. What I'm really trying to get at is that in shifting focus to publicizing a company online, you have to value your website. Not in the way where you try to make it spiffy and attractive, but in a way where you focus on driving traffic to it. If you don't, then you're wasting money designing your website. As I've gotten more looped into various social media campaigns, it's become apparent that beyond wanting to have more followers on Twitter, more fans on Facebook and more corporate mentions in the blogosphere, it's increasingly important to drive and measure traffic back to your website. If you're not doing this, then you're not on the right path.

Yes, it is still good to shoot for getting into what you might have normally considered a "tier one" publication, but at least consider looking at your Google Analytics to see what impact that publicity has on your website. If not much, maybe consider taking your news elsewhere, or at least putting some resources into finding and influencing other outlets.

Okay - that's my tirade for now. My excuse for not blogging is learning about how to turn interesting and useful information into content and how to distribute that content across the Web in a way that will increase a company's public relations awareness and drive people back to their website, or rather, their sales funnel. The economy will no doubt speed up the pace at which more people learn the lessons I'm in the midst of learning, but what I can say for now is that this is very strategic and exciting and I look forward to learning more!

Royal Families play on YouTube

2009-02-28T12:11:00.000-08:00

I was surprised to read that a few days ago, the news of Swedish crown princess Victoria's engagement to entrepreneur Daniel Westling was broadcast over YouTube by the Royal Family.

I've already blogged about the Obama campaign's level of sophistication with social media tools and our ability to watch Obama's weekly address on YouTube, but after reading about the Swedish Royal Family, I decided to take a look at the Brits. Sure enough, they have their own YouTube channel, The Royal Channel.

The channel has 26,409 subscribers today and more than two million views. It was started in October 2007. Talk about being ahead of the game! The British monarchy has long been the center of gossip and tabloids in the UK, but to actually launch their own channel is really quite open and progressive. You can check out royal visits to various schools, interviews with different royal family members and historic looks at the nation's treasures.

By contrast, the White House YouTube channel seems to verge on a new form of propaganda as it's almost 100% focused on matters of state, with a presidential spin. It's drier. For example, I was surprised this week's Stevie Wonder concert at the White House wasn't available through the White House channel. I guess the fundamental difference in public image as conveyed "officially" through YouTube might hinge on the fact that the British Royal Family is more often the subject of celebrity gossip rather than governance.

In a recent interview, Macon Phillips, the White House's new media director and the man behind WhiteHouse.gov, admitted he has spent more time managing the daily flow of news from the White House during a challenging economic environment than considering the big picture of how to build the administration's new media message since Obama's inauguration on January 20.

Still, the Obama administration's emphasis on interactivity and transparency is much more advanced than what we would have seen from the competition. Speaking of interactivity, here's this week's address from President Obama:

How public relations helps steer opinion and the news

2009-02-24T07:31:00.000-08:00

I'm one of those lucky young adults that still receives periodic care packages from her parents containing the latest mail still arriving at their house for me, a health tips newsletter (my Dad is a hospital chaplain, so he's very keyed in to these things), cookies or brownies, Trident chewing gum and newspaper clippings my Dad has read and saved for me.

The clippings usually fall into one of two categories: news about my high school or PR/Social Media/Marketing. (Dad sent me t he article about Doritos and the Super Bowl, too.)

Yesterday's care package contained a clipping from last Monday's USA Today, "How public relations helps steer opinion and the news."

The article by Seth Brown also ran online – it's introducing a new book by PR industry veterans, Trevor Morris and Simon Goldsworthy, who just published, PR: A Persuasive Industry? Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media.

According to Seth Brown, the book calls PR amoral, a tool for good or evil purposes (I guess government propaganda might fall on the "evil" side). I like this quote from the article:

"A group that often derides PR professionals is journalists, who often see themselves as truth-seekers forced to deal with flacks in order to get information. Yet without the PR industry, Morris and Goldsworthy argue, there would be little news."

Yep, definitely run into that quite a bit... the love-hate relationship PR pro's face with journalists overwhelmed with emails, text messages, IM's, Twitter DM's, phone calls, Facebook pokes and more.

I haven't read the book, which has been called an "intelligent guidebook" to PR, rather than a textbook, but I'll definitely add it to my reading list.

What I find interesting is the insight Morris and Goldsworthy have provided with regards to how PR actually affects news cycles. For example, they cite a study which found that more than half of the stories in an edition of The Wall Street Journal were based on press releases. They also argue that PR is essential for a free press to function. Interesting, huh?

And, last but not least, one more thought to digest for anyone working in public relations, interested in good PR or looking for PR services:

"Perhaps the most alluring thing about being a PR consultant is that no formal training is required: no certification, no universally acknowledged test, no courses offered at many prestigious universities (although some colleges offer PR studies). Essentially, there are no barriers to entry... PR [is] 'a wholly legitimate aid to the exchange of information and ideas in society.'"

Of course, they are clearly biased, but so am I. As a Stanford graduate holding a degree in History, Literature and the Arts, I appreciate the recognition that PR is less about the trade and more about strategy and the ability to create an interesting, relevant and timely story that is newsworthy, informative and supportive of real business goals for the client company.

If you're short on time or money and can't get to the book, at least read the article in USA Today. Thanks again for the great find, Dad!

SEO and PR – A Happy Marriage?

2009-02-19T07:23:00.000-08:00

I attended a free webinar, "SEO + Public Relations = Your Secret Marketing Weapon in 2009," put on by the team at Webmarketing123.com yesterday hoping to find the proof in the pudding that SEO and PR should by joined at the hip.

I have to say, I'm still not convinced.

CEO, Paul Taylor, did a great job of walking us through the benefits of SEO-izing your PR and marketing collateral and results, but I've had experiences where that just doesn't work.

Example 1: Optimizing a press release for SEO and PR

I've tried this two ways:

1) Write a release, then look at a list of key words to insert.

2) Look at the key words, then write a press release with them in mind (try to use each 1-4 times and space them out).

The latter worked better for me, but if you're supposed to insert your URL and keywords ~3 times each for near optimal SEO, it gets rough and the news starts to sound like giberrish. If the release then needs to go through legal approval and potentially partner or customer approval, you're in trouble.

That's only one example, but I do think there's more beyond just blending SEO with PR and, voilà, you're on page one of wherever you want to be. The challenge often seems to be a classic case of having too many cooks in the kitchen. You've got the remote teams, such as the PR firm, the SEO firm, potentially the SEM consultant, and then all of the internal constituents, such as the corporate marketing/advertising team, sales, product marketing, etc., and each is focused on maximizing content value for his or her benefit.

BusinessWeek ran an insightful article by B.L. Ochman this morning, "Debunking Six Social Media Myths." Though I appreciated every myth debunked, I feel her pain with Myth #4: You can do it all in-house.

With regards to effective and viral social media campaigns, she writes:

"It is rare indeed to find an in-house team that can not only conceive and execute a social media campaign but also drive traffic to it with effective e-mail segmentation, search optimization, blogger outreach, blog advertising, Google ads, and more."

I do believe things like SEO and PR should work together – of course it's good to have a well-oiled machine running on all cylinders – but I don't think it's as easy as simply "working together." Further, given that both PR and SEO are often outsourced strategic services, is it reasonable to expect both sides to come together without the forcing factor of the client company embarking on a holistic marcomm campaign which takes months of pre-planning and coordination? That's hard to come by when you're working with startups, particularly high tech startups.

I remain optimistic, however, that there are definitely lessons both PR and SEO can learn from each other. Throw social media in there, and you've got a party!

I'd appreciate any wisdom out there about the evolution of these siloed services and think I will continue to attend free webinars on the topic to at least keep me engaged in thinking about the right combo of SEO + PR.

Doritos top Super Bowl ad meter, VCAMs you can bank

2009-02-18T20:21:00.000-08:00

Who says you can't have 15 seconds of fame and a million dollars? For Dave and Joe Herbert, two amateur film makers from Batesville, Indiana, a bag of chips and a snow globe was all they needed to gain prime time coverage during this year's Super Bowl. Well, almost.

The Super Bowl is notorious for mega half-time shows and tier one commercials which live online long after the game is over.

This year, Frito-Lay invited amateur Doritos junkies to "Crash the Super Bowl" by submitting their own ads, with the winner featured during the Super Bowl commercial breaks. The contest ran online January 5-24, with a grand prize of $1,000,000. By voting, you were entered to win tickets to the Super Bowl.

This isn't the first community-driven online ad contest, and it won't be the last. While the Herbert brothers' ad was rated best Super Bowl commercial by USA Today's Ad Meter real-time consumer rating, the buck doesn't stop there.

For example, Current TV features up-to-date contest listings for VCAMs - Viewer-Created Ad Messages. Past contests included HP, L'Oreal, Nikon, and there are still 23 days left to enter T-Mobile's G1 ad contest.

Of course, don't think that good old fashioned marketing and PR aren't involved here. The PR and marketing that goes into publicizing these contests and getting communities excited about the payoff (filming, fame and fortune) only add to the hype around your product, service or brand. Smart, huh?

It's the age of DIY commercials and the economy is bad, so get your camcorder, get creative and go.

Social Media 101: Know your community

2009-01-28T21:07:00.000-08:00

Last week, a Page One PR colleague forwarded me a blog post by David Henderson, "How Not to be a Key Online Influencer." The post talks about a PR executive, James Andrews, from Ketchum who flew out to Memphis, TN to visit FedEx, one of the agency's biggest clients. Upon landing, the exec tweeted: “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here."

The comment was caught by a FedEx employee who follows Andrews on Twitter. The reaction was NOT pleasant. The employee took great offense and even questioned FedEx's need to retain Ketchum.

I'm sure Andrews would give his two front teeth to take back that tweet, but it's too late – it's gone viral and he can't. I'm sure he learned an important lesson, like don't use open public forums to openly insult your business partners or share overly personal information. But beyond that, it's important to know your community. Why are you there? Who do you want to reach? What do you want to communicate?

That was this PR guy's first mistake: not knowing his audience.

Muhammed Saleem contributed a post to Mashable today outlining how to "Survive a Social Media Revolt." The key takeaways for dealing with large community backlashes:

1) Communicate even if you have nothing to say.

2) Be forthright.

3) Make it clear that you're listening.

4) Acknowledge your mistakes.

5) Promise to learn and improve – then deliver.

In other words, build a decent relationship with your community and show how you value that relationship. Don't put on your "best friends forever" hat one day, then take it off the next. Sounds fair, right?

Enjoying the Wonderful World of Disney

2009-01-25T17:32:00.000-08:00

It's no wonder that Disneyland is often called the "happiest place on Earth." Visiting the park yesterday reminded me that, besides its affable characters, one of Disney's strongest assets is customer service.

Disneyland is full of cheerful employees whose purpose is to perpetuate fairy tales and make your dreams come true. Why? Disney knows that satisfied customers will spend money and come back.

I realized yesterday what an ingenious idea the "FastPass" was a couple years ago. The premise: give people a ticket to the most popular rides that essentially holds their place in line. The ticket specifies a 60-minute time slot during which the holder has access to the front of the line for that attraction.

The FastPass is great – instead of spending 2 hours in line for the best rides, you can get a FastPass and wait no more than 10 minutes. The marketing behind the magic: now customers have an extra hour and fifty minutes to wander the park and spend money.

It's an easy gesture that makes a big of difference. The Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in San Francisco and many Los Angeles movie theaters give customers a break by assigning seats when you purchase a ticket. Rather than encouraging customers to waste time saving seats in the theater, they offer Zen-like concessions where customers can lounge around until it's time for their movie to start.

In the world of apparel, Nordstrom and Anthropologie are quick to start dressing rooms for customers. They initiate a relationship with customers and take clothing off your browsing hands so you can shop comfortably.

Give customers a break. Offer them a peaceful atmosphere and an enjoyable experience, and they'll be happy. It's a formula that Disney has almost perfected, but it's not magic – it's just common sense.

The Importance of Internal Marketing

2009-01-14T07:47:00.000-08:00

I attended a client sales conference yesterday and was really impressed with their strategy and outlook for 2009. One of the top messages that stood out was, "play together and play nicely... the competition is outside these walls, not in the room."

(That's right - time for a *group hug* just like these puppies.)

As a PR person, I know what it's like to bug people to get what you want, but I hadn't thought about the increasing challenges to staying unified and well-oiled during a recession. After all, if you're worried about potential layoffs, why not start watching your neighbor or competing with that person across the hall?

I think humans are prone to competition – it's called Social Darwinism – but still, sitting in my first sales conference yesterday helped me realize just how important internal marketing can be.

Internal marketing is defined by Wikipedia as: an ongoing process that occurs strictly within a company or organization whereby the functional process aligns, motivates and empowers employees at all management levels to consistently deliver a satisfying customer experience.

I think of internal marketing as creating an enabling culture in which creativity and innovation are encouraged along with responsibility and accountability. It's a very communal approach to organizational management, but I think it's going to be key for companies that want to survive the recession.

I'm not saying grab hands and sing Kumbaya around a campfire, but everyone likes to be valued and given a voice., don't you?

Yelp user sued for bad review

2009-01-06T16:31:00.000-08:00

What better way to ring in the new year than with a court mediation for a super juicy lawsuit served almost a year ago for expressing your opinion on Yelp? That's how a 26-year-old custom furniture builder and San Francisco resident, Christopher Norberg, found himself after writing a negative review for chiropractor, Steven Biegel.

Interestingly enough, though Biegel is on record for having said Norberg's review "unjustly characterizes me as unethical and dishonest," his referral traffic from Yelp remained steady after the review was posted. It decreased, however, after he filed the lawsuit. Sounds like poor marketing and PR to me.

Regardless of how this dispute unfolds, it does promise to set new legal precedent for Yelp users who may have to censor their content in the future. Let's hope that's not the case.

Norberg has started his own vigilante website to protect free speech on Yelp. Elinor Mills reported additional details for CNET News:

The lawsuit, filed February 25, 2008, alleges that Biegel has suffered loss of reputation and business as a result of the review and seeks punitive damages. According to the lawsuit, the review allegedly contained false statements and inaccuracies that suggested Biegel was dishonest and accused him of fraudulent billing practices.

Norberg was treated twice by Biegel before a friend of his told him he had had billing problems with Biegel's office, he wrote in his review. Norberg, who said he did not have medical insurance, was not asked to pay for the visits because Biegel's office said it would try to bill his auto insurance company instead, the review said. Even though the insurance company refused to pay, Norberg did not initially receive a bill from Biegel, he said.

In the meantime, Norberg began getting treatment from another chiropractor who suggested he sue the driver of the car that hit him, Norberg's review said. Norberg eventually settled the case, the review said.

After learning that Biegel's bill to the auto insurer was $550 instead of $125, which was the amount quoted for two visits, Norberg called Biegel, his Yelp review said. Norberg said that Biegel demanded he pay $550 during that phone call, but then said he would waive the fee entirely, according to the review. Biegel later called Norberg and explained that his office bills insurers at a higher rate than patients who pay for service directly because of the higher office costs in dealing with the paperwork and delays in receiving payment, court documents said.

Biegel's office then made a call to Norberg's auto insurance company and learned about the settlement and then called Norberg and demanded he pay $125, the lawyers said. Norberg paid the bill and posted a review of Biegel with a one-star rating on Yelp on November 16, 2007.

Straight No Chaser lands Atlantic Record deal thanks to YouTube

2008-12-22T08:06:00.000-08:00

Adolescent international singing sensations, Charice Pempengco and Nikki Yanofsky, have no doubt had their careers boosted by YouTube. Though they've been compared to celebrities like Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Etta James, the counts on their video views don't even approach those of male a cappella group, Straight No Chaser.

The group from Indiana University posted a ten-year-old video of their rendition of "The 12 Days of Christmas" on YouTube, which has received more than 9.7 million views in just over two and a half years. Amongst the viewers was chairman and chief executive of Atlantic Records, Craig Kallman, who arranged a five album record deal with the group.

CNN interviewed two of the guys this weekend. About their careers outside of singing as a hobby, member, Jerome Collins said: "I was doing a festival of 'The Lion King,' and I was Simba. We have one guy selling medical devices, another guy a reporter for ABC, one guy working at a bank, another guy a teacher. ... You name it, we have it."

My college a cappella group, Talisman, was invited to sing for George Lucas and toured South Africa, but we never went viral. I doubt Page One PR's Christmas caroling video will, either. Talk about a big break for Straight No Chaser – the whole story is yet another iteration of the American dream, really. You can learn more about the group here.

Freak out: Twitter infested by PR

2008-12-18T17:47:00.000-08:00

When I first saw that headline from BusinessWeek blogger, Stephen Baker, I prepared myself for the attack PR people often endure from journalists and bloggers who think we're mindless drones trying to sell our souls to get clients into headline news.

On Friday, BusinessWeek online editor, John Byrne, posted all of the BusinessWeek Twitter addresses on his blog. He wrote, "As part of our effort to deeply engage our readers, a good many of us at BusinessWeek have been having great success and fun with Twitter, the hot micro-blogging site that allows users to blog in 140 characters or less... if you are on Twitter, I invite you into our newsroom via my Tweets."

As the crew at BusinessWeek began feeling an uncomfortable number of new followers join their feeds, it wasn't long before they began wondering who was following them and who was stalking. Thank goodness Stephen's post wasn't focused on kicking the already low PR flack.

The social experiment Byrne is running is quite interesting - it's not wholly unlike how outlets like Mashable, ReadWriteWeb and other prominent blogs get their news. With Digg still gaining popularity (no, it's not dead) and the New York Times syndicating like crazy, it's pretty smart for BusinessWeek to move in this direction and open up, too.

I noticed one reader commented on November 22: "John, I love that you're on Twitter and Facebook, and all over the Web. It keeps BW fresh and relevant for digital kids like me:)"

It's fascinating to see what's happening in journalism right now and how our media relations are constantly changing as a result. It's not uncommon for me to pitch journalists based on their tweets – but what's wrong with that? Doesn't that make my content all the more relevant?

By the same token, if I see a journalist is busy or having an off day, I can tell thanks to Twitter. Also, there are actually quite a few bloggers who can't stop tweeting and spamming my TweetDeck. So, everyone benefits by pushing out their content in 140 characters or less, driving traffic to their sites and getting a piece of the pie. Will be interesting to see what happens as the walls of traditional journalism keep tumbling down.

Holiday Cheer Rings through Page One PR

2008-12-08T19:10:00.000-08:00

I think you know your employer is cool when they ask you to sing on their behalf. At Page One PR, business isn't just about the press releases, the speaking abstracts or the contributed articles – but yes, we work hard on these. Our inspiration comes from engaging with clients, working to support real business goals and enjoying what we do.

We've been behind-the-scenes to build social media campaigns for our clients this year, but decided to turn the camera on ourselves this holiday season. Get ready for our 15 seconds of fame – lights, camera, action!

Rather than design and print our usual satirical holiday cards, we decided to save a few trees by dusting off our singing voices for your viewing pleasure.

I hope you'll check out our hi-res video – yes, that is a penguin in the photo! – and maybe even smile. I had a lot of fun filming, enjoyed singing and loved being merry. Hope you like the video. Here's to warm wishes for the holidays and to a happy new year. Cheers!

P.S.– If you like crazy reindeer, don't forget to check out this special feature from the Page One PR Santa Barbara office. Boy, that guy can deck the halls!

Oprah Online Community Strong

2008-11-29T17:51:00.000-08:00

Oprah Winfrey has touched millions of women and families through her talk show, book club and magazine. It's no surprise she's built a strong online community as well. I don't tend to watch Oprah but caught the tail end of a show over Thanksgiving break. I was amazed to see how well she's translated her show online.

For example, Oprah explores Food online by featuring chef Cristina Ferrare. Food is a natural vertical for Oprah as she has been upfront about her various diets for almost forever. Visitors can access recipes, menus and videos of Cristina "cooking class" online. Check out turkey 101 here.

Oprah.com fans benefit from a wide variety of arts, culture, health, fitness, religious and psychology experts via Oprah & Friends Radio. Online podcasts are attached to each expert. You can listen to advice for home design on a budget here or hear Dr. Maya Angelou talk about women in country music here.

For those fans looking to connect with each other, you can join Oprah's online community to participate in message board discussions or register your blog. Currently, over 5,800 blogs are linked to Oprah's online community.

The site still has a long way to go – it doesn't seem quite as well mashed and video-oriented as the web site for the Rachael Ray show. Nevertheless, Oprah's online community is alive and strong. I'm sure it will only get better.

Redefine Christmas – Social Media Meets Charitable Giving

2008-11-28T23:16:00.001-08:00

Charitable giving is no doubt a natural target for social media. I've blogged about this before with regards to the Obama campaign, the American Express Members Project, and the San Diego Zoo.

As budgets tighten this season, why not experiment with philanthropic presents? Of course, I can't imagine parents foregoing toys for charity, but for those people who exchange presents with close friends, colleagues and extended family, giving the gift of good is certainly easier than before.

For example, The Point allows anyone to start or join a campaign that asks for people to donate money or take action as a group. The Point focuses on enabling people to act, influence and accomplish. Success stories include raising money to help someone rebuild her house after a fire. Campaigns don't have to be large.

By contrast, Network for Good is an online resource for people looking to donate to a good cause or volunteer. In addition, Network for Good provides services for registered non-profits, such as processing online donations, marketing email blasts, donor databases (through Salesforce.com) and "Nonprofit 911" fundraising training calls.

Last for this post, but not least, is Redefine Christmas, a site dedicated to funneling online charitable donations to JustGive.org and Changing the Present. It also allows users to request charitable gifts via e-cards. From Redefine Christmas:

It's about changing the way we look at gift giving and receiving. It's taking money we usually spend on obligatory gifts with little meaning, and creating gifts of charity that give in multiple ways, to the receiver, the giver, and people who truly need.

Obviously, giving gifts to charity isn't new. Enabling donations through technology and online is just the most convenient iteration of philanthropic campaigns building online communities. Will you join in this holiday season?

Obama Delivers Weekly Address on YouTube

2008-11-15T14:46:00.000-08:00

During the presidential race, I blogged about McCain and Obama's use of social media tools. Now that Obama is President-elect, he's continuing to leverage social media with his transition website: Change.gov.

For example, Obama delivered the Democratic weekly address from his transition office in Chicago for the first time ever via YouTube (video embedded below). He hopes to continue when in the White House, though all weekly speeches will also be broadcast on the radio.

CNET reported yesterday that the Obama campaign uploaded more than 1,800 videos to its YouTube channel.

The Obama campaign relied heavily on reaching out and inciting people to get involved – particularly online. Obama's transition office continues to invite widespread participation by asking Americans to share both their personal stories and their hopes for America online.

I haven't owned a radio since I went to college so, for me, watching Obama address Americans each week will be a much more convenient way of digesting his agenda. I'm guessing millions of Americans – Obama fan or not – will tune in online from home, from work, from public libraries and from their mobile phones. Will you?

Gap Inc's Merry Mix It Campaign – Social Media, Celebrities and Fun

2008-11-13T23:22:00.000-08:00

Gap Inc. is ushering in the holiday season with some re-mixed celebrity Christmas carols and mix-able holiday separates, such as scarves, gloves and sweaters. The company has used a variety of social media tools and celebrity models in the past, but this is the first time I've seen them combined and acting goofy.
Check out the "Merry Mix It" campaign and see for yourself. You can choose from:

Selma Blair and Rainn Wilson singing "Baby It's Cold Outside"
Jon Heder and Janelle Monáe performing a unique version of "Winter Wonderland"
Jason Biggs, Romany Malco and Freddy Rodriguez sounding bells to "We 3 Kingz"
The Dixie Chicks and Sandra Bernhard belting out "Deck the Halls"
Flo Rida and Trey Songz remixing "Jingle Bells"
Special performance of the entire holiday cast performing a never-before seen remix of "Jingle Bells" led by Flo Rida and Trey Songz

The latter is by far my favorite (also embedded below), but that's not why this marketing campaign is brilliant. Continuing on the theme of "mix it," Gap encourages viewers to share these videos with friends and embed in social networking pages like Facebook and MySpace. iPhone users can download Gap's iTunes application to watch the videos on the go. You can even "mix" (or customize) your own version of Jingle Bells using various clips of the celebrity cast and send it to your family.

Gap's clever plan to virally spread their holiday collection gets even better because with a subtle call to action: if you like what you see, you can follow a link back to gap.com and purchase each celebrity's wardrobe.

I'm an off and on fan of Gap. And, though I had already planned to participate in Gap's friends and family "Give and Get Program" this weekend for 30% off clothes, with 5% going to a local charity of my choice, I'll probably come away with at least one more sweater or scarf than I had originally expected.

What holiday marketing campaigns have caught your eye?

Do Marketers Care About SWOT Analyses?

2008-11-10T07:13:00.000-08:00

On the first day of class, Intro to Marketing teacher and Scalent VP of Marketing, Kevin Epstein, taught me an old Stanford Business School trick: how to conduct a SWOT analysis. In short, analyze key strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) before building any marketing plan.

Over the last few months, I've been working with various clients who are currently preparing for major product launches. As a result, we've been constructing messaging platforms – this exercise isn't easy!

Surprisingly, I haven't seen a SWOT analysis in action, yet. Are they too basic and cliché, or perhaps simply irrelevant? I beg to differ. Clients often get caught up in how exciting and wonderful new products or services are and assume customers or prospective customers will understand by osmosis. Even worse, they believe words like ROI, TCO, best-of-blank, easy-to-blank and speed-to-blank will bowl over the competition.

That's when PR people like me ask questions like: Why is this exciting, important or relevant? How are you different from and better than your competitors? Who is your target audience?

Again, this exercise isn't easy, but it is absolutely essential, especially if expect press, blogger or analyst coverage. And while being honest about your product and/or company's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats may seem mundane, remember that customers, partners, investors and other target audiences are unlikely to understand the niche details of your product or service. In other words, if you're Target, you don't want to be confused with Kmart. Highlight strengths, such as local, faster, easier, largest community, and quantify them if you can. Pursue opportunities, such as "first to X" or "burgeoning need for Y." Next, devise a plan to bolster your weaknesses and mitigate (or try to avoid) threats. From there, you'll be in a good position to construct your messaging platform. Believe me, your PR people will love you for it.

Customer Always Wrong at PetSmart

2008-11-08T16:47:00.000-08:00

I finally joined Yelp today, but only to make sure I spread the word about the extremely poor customer service at the PetSmart in Mountain View, Calif. I've speculated it might be possible to cheat the social media system but, today, I am grateful for online word-of-mouth channels.

Remember that famous adage, "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned"? William Congreve may have been referring to a woman rejected in love, but if you're lacking customer love: Watch out!

It's no secret you can expect poor customer service at stores like Walmart, but the trade-off is fabulously low prices. You prepare yourself to be shoved around, to sort through disheveled merchandise and to wait in painfully long lines. Then, you smile at how much money you've saved on your shopping trip and chalk it all up to sacrificing comfort for your pocketbook. Unfortunately, at PetSmart, there is no bright side. If you want the gory details, feel free to check out my scathing review here.

I've used Yelp various times to search for a new restaurant or beauty salon. I'm starting to think I might try avoiding heartache by checking Yelp first every time I want to try a new business. I promise, my next review will be a positive happy one.

As it turns out, multiple people have given PetSmart poor reviews. I wish I had the advance warning. I'm not typically an angry person, but a little customer service – doesn't even have to be good, excellent or stellar service – is not too much to expect from any self-respecting business, right?

Building a Website Ain't Easy

2008-11-04T07:13:00.001-08:00

When I joined the Winters Health team at Page One PR to help rebuild the foundation's website, I thought I was in for some fun and games. NOT the case!

Building a website takes an inordinate amount of time, attention to detail, and the ability to communicate clearly and manage meticulously while also inspiring the troops and keeping that "light" at the end of the tunnel within reach.

Working with the Winters Healthcare Foundation (WHF) was not my first experience with building a new website, but I did learn some key lessons:

1) Don't boil an ocean
Although we imagined a variety of "cool" elements to incorporate into our website, we had to focus on core marketing goals. For example, who do we want to attract? Who do we want to reach? How do we want to reach them? These are the questions that drove the design and content of the site.

2) Delegating less is more
The logistics of the site became complicated as we had we developers, a graphic designer, our PR team and several constituents from WHF involved. Although it seems intuitive "if you want something done, do it yourself," I learned that going the extra mile is even more important when working with vast groups of people with various specialties.

3) Pick your battles
Despite trying to tightly manage the process of creating a new web site, there are definitely times when you must surrender to outside forces. Content, design, artwork – these may turn out different than you pictured but, hang in there and everything will turn out fine.

My "lessons learned" are fairly vague, but trust me, they apply. I think any project that combines so many different talents will encounter the same challenges, but doesn't that make the finished product that much better?

Nordstrom Uses Online Videos; Size Doesn't Matter

2008-10-27T07:54:00.000-07:00

If you thought diamonds were a girl's best friend, it's time to consider denim. Nordstrom has taken this to a new level for online shoppers with its Denim ID Experience.

As denim becomes acceptable lady attire for most occasions, designer jeans flank the racks at department stores such as Nordstrom and Macy's. But, which brand and what size?

If you're faced with choosing amongst Seven For All Mankind, Citizens of Humanity, True Religion, Paige Premium, Hudson and more, deciding on a pair of jeans that are guaranteed to cost more than $150 each can be daunting.

So, when you're in the dressing room, how do you know if a pair of jeans that is too tight and too long will be the right $185 buy? Nordstrom's Denim ID Experience offers various online videos to teach women about how to shop for the right pair of designer jeans. The site emphasizes "size doesn't matter," and offers guides for fitting your hips and assessing each brand's "stretch factor."

The brilliance behind Nordstrom's Denim ID
Ladies may only need a little extra confidence to spend two to three times the price of household jeans for a designer pair. Nordstrom addresses the insecurities and concerns women have around denim shopping head on, and thereby empowers them.

By comparison, Bloomingdale's online Denim Shop isn't quite as user friendly as Nordstrom, but is leagues better than Macy's. Check out the video embedded below and see for yourself. After all, why be caught dead in Gap jeans when you've got a killer pair of Sevens or Citizens?

Online Reviews are Second to Word of Mouth Marketing

2008-10-25T23:05:00.000-07:00

According to a study published Wednesday by Rubicon Consulting, word of mouth marketing is still the #1 driver of purchase decisions. Among web users, online content has moved into second place, ahead of advice from salespeople and printed reviews.

The study upholds that roughly 10 percent of users create 90 percent of user-generated content on any given social media site. The report argues, however: "Web discussion is a performance in which a small group of people interact with each other, and with companies, for the benefit, education, and amusement of everyone else."

What this really means: even though a company might only interact with 10 percent of users online, you can bet your end-of-year bonus that a much larger percentage of customers will judge the company based on its online interactions.

When I've talked to various clients at Page One PR about incorporating social media campaigns into their existing marketing and PR plans, they're often unsure if target customers are receptive to social media tools. Interestingly, a recent poll by Forrester Research indicates 75 percent of Internet users participate in some form of social media in 2008 versus 56 percent in 2007.

Analyst Josh Bernoff argues this may just be a fad: "The novelty of today's social technologies will eventually wear off, and consumer adoption will plateau as all new media eventually do." Don't think that means social media's effectiveness will fade away, however, as Bernoff continues: "But consumers will expect marketers to continue the relationship they've formed over time and still listen to what they have to say."

Still skeptical about social media marketing? When was the last time you used online user-generated content to decide which book to buy or choose a new restaurant to try?

Need a Job? Why Not Invest in an Alpaca?

2008-10-24T15:41:00.001-07:00

When I first saw a TV commercial from the Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association entreating me to invest in an alpaca as a "great source" of income, I thought some clever person must be offering a whiff of levity in the midst of our current economic crisis. Was I watching an SNL skit, perhaps?

Expecting to find a joke along the lines of the Pomegranate phone, I went to check out the Alpaca Info website and, yes, there is an Alpaca Owners and Breeders Association! Don't believe me? Check out the "just released" video and see for yourself. When I think about it, the timing of these commercials is prime to catch thousands of Americans disgruntled with Corporate America - why not turn to Alpaca farming?

Apparently, there are two kinds of Alpacas: Huacaya and Suri. Their fur fibers are silky and therefore quite fashionable when woven into fleece for coats and outerwear. There's a whole web site dedicated to Alpaca Fashion, too!

Former Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns financiers - have you considered investing in Alpacas?

Social Media Phones Fueled by Open Source?

2008-10-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Earlier this month, I read about a study reporting that 93 percent of online Americans believe companies should have a presence among social media tools, with 85 percent of respondents saying companies should interact with consumers through social media.

As businesses figure out how to leverage social media tools online, it's probably not too early to start thinking about reaching customers on their mobile devices, too.

Though I hardly access Twitter or Facebook from my Blackberry at the moment, Silicon.com reported today that smartphones may outsell mobile phones in five years thanks to social media integration. According to John Ellis, director of carrier market development in Motorola's software ecosystem team, "Texting and voice of today are slowly evaporating and slowly diminishing in our rear view mirror as we move into social media, rich user experiences."

BusinessWeek ran the story as well, which points to open source as a key driver for the development of mobile social media. The Google Android phone will no doubt raise the bar. Funambol, provider of open source push email and mobile sync, is also seeing a surge of interest in open source mobile development. The company announced today that 1500 new developers have joined the company's registered open source developer community in the last month alone. Funambol is now sponsoring mobile developers who can integrate its portal with Google Docs and social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace - the company's open source software runs on 1.5 billion mobile devices, including smartphones.

Even more futuristic for mobile enthusiasts is the Samsung concept wrist watch phone pictured above that will evaluate your vitals, such as blood pressure and heart rate.

As the mobile opportunity seizes opportunities to delve into new fields, we are sure to see more advertising, marketing and customer service on mobile phones – will social media become the key conduit?

Social Media Classroom introduces "participative pedagogy"

2008-10-19T21:51:00.000-07:00

This weekend I came across the Social Media Classroom, a free online service packaging Web 2.0 and social media tools for students and teachers.

The Social Media Classroom is an open source Drupal-based web service including online forums, blogs, wikis, chat, social bookmarking, RSS, microblogging, video, and more. For a video preview of SMC, check out this post on ReadWriteWeb.

According to founder, Howard Rheingold, SMC includes curriculum and training materials to help students learn "the rhetoric of social media."

Rheingold advises: "Today, alphabetic literacy and visual literacy are not enough... The co-evolution of technology, media and collective action hasn't stopped, it's gone into hyper-drive."

With initial funding from HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Advanced Collaboratory) and the MacArthur Foundation, SMC offers its web service to anyone, including businesses and non-profits.

While SMC will enable students to blog about class, share photos from a field trip and "tweet" questions in real-time, its potential is much greater.

For example, one SMC sponsor commented, "Imagine a mixed reality game in which high school students from Los Angeles and Cairo learn about real-time impacts of air pollution in their neighborhoods."

Super cool! Will SMC prove Disney right? Is it really that small a world after all?

Video Your Vote; Dance for a Toyota

2008-10-15T07:01:00.000-07:00

Two social media video and online voting campaigns caught my eye last night: Video Your Vote and Dance for Toyotas.

First up, Video Your Vote, a non-partisan channel launched by YouTube in partnership with PBS to encourage American voters to sound off at the polls. The site entreats: "It's Your Democracy... Shoot a video of your experience at the polls on Election Day..."

The buck doesn't stop there. Mashable's Paul Glazowski noted again yesterday that this year may indeed be a "YouTube election." CNET reports that select uploads from Video Your Vote will be shown on Jim Lehrer's The NewsHour on PBS during Election Day coverage. The YouTube channel also touts an educational component with "Voting 101" and a look at historical footage from the PBS archives reviewing voting through the years.

After you've learned the in's and out's of how to share your vote, dust off your dancing shoes and get ready to win a new car. Well, maybe it's not that easy, but Toyota announced yesterday Dancing for Toyotas, a ballroom dance competition to take place in February 2009 at the Washington Auto Show.

Though the theme of the competition reminds me of a contest hosted by GroundWork Open Source at LinuxWorld Conference and Expo, San Francisco, called "Who's The Next Open Source Idol?", Toyota isn't messing around with this brilliant PR stunt.

Winners will walk away with one of three cars! Enter by November 14 and you could win a Toyota Camry Hybrid or Prius. Even easier, vote online and you might win car #3: a Toyota Yaris.

Not a bad bounty for today's high oil prices and our bad economy.

Forget striking it rich with game shows like The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune. Why bother when you can just dance?

Who Says You Need a Press Release? MokaFive's iPhone Sentinel Blog Launch

2008-10-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Tired of drafting those pesky press releases? Why not use your blog to break news?

That's what we did with MokaFive last month for the company's iPhone Sentinel prototype. The News: Vinod Khosla-backed desktop virtualization vendor launches plug-in for iPhone users to carry a full desktop on the iPhone.

The Challenge: Drive prototype downloads during VMworld – one of the biggest virtualization industry events of the year. With Microsoft's own virtualization event the week prior and only seven days to prepare, we can generate buzz in the middle of this loud press circus, right?

Right! We skipped the formal press release and hit the blogosphere directly via the MokaFive corporate blog. Why? Rather than reach typical press release outlets, MokaFive wanted to target a very specific audience – cream-of-the-crop tech enthusiasts who would download and test the prototype, then offer helpful feedback on the product.

During VMworld, our news hit T he New York Times, CNET, TechRepublic, jkOnTheRun, Life Hacker, Mobile Devices Today, DaniWeb, LinuxStreet and more. Many of the blogs were syndicated, too.

MokaFive's web traffic quadrupled on the day of the announcement. Life Hacker alone referred more than 2,800 people to MokaFive's web site. According to Radian6, there were 85 total blogs talking about MokaFive 15-29 Sept; 35 of these were posted the day of our blog announcement. There were also 50 blogs that mentioned "iPhone Sentinel" 15-29 Sept; 30 of which ran the same day as our blog announcement.

MokaFive saw an increase of 273% in visitors to their downloads page. In addition, the MokaFive Player page went from fewer than 50 visits the week before VMworld to more than 8,000 visits during the week of our blog announcement. In addition, downloads from MokaFive's community site increased by 50%.

Key takeaways:
1) Consider strategies to build up your blog readership so your first blog-only launch is sure to reach your target audience.

2) Messaging and important talking points can easily get lost in the fast-paced start-up environment. While the exercise of writing a press release often helps distill key takeaways you want to communicate, it's not the only tool for grooming spokespeople. Make sure you always carefully prep spokespeople – with or without a press release – or they may look sloppy in interviews.

3) Don't expect your blog to do all the work. Consider ways to market your blog to make it visible within the communities you want to reach. Then, get your PR team to pitch like crazy. For example, our top blog hits (NYT, CNET) came from personal relationships and hardcore pitching.

4) Make sure the "news" is worthy. Although Microsoft, Sun, VMware, Citrix, HP, Dell, Red Hat and a variety of startups were making desktop virtualization product and customer announcements last month, MokaFive is the first to move virtual desktops to mobile phones.

If you're considering using your corporate blog as a platform for breaking news, go for it! If you're a seasoned PR pro with the right relationships in place, what's to lose?

Check out this post at the Page Wonder blog.

Presidential Race Leverages Social Media

2008-10-07T18:28:00.000-07:00

During tonight's presidential debate, I paused my DVR to check out live blog coverage as well as each candidate's website. I've been curious to learn how social media tools are leveraged by both presidential candidates.

Obama's website with the heading "The Change We Need" features on the homepage both Barack TV and the latest Obama Blog post. Visitors can also access state-specific Obama sites, make a donation, register to vote and volunteer to support the campaign.

Right hand widgets welcome Hillary Clinton supporters and allow visitors to create a password-protected account to personalize their experience. Visitors can also sign up for mobile updates and join the Obama conversation on various social networks. News updates, an interactive map and apparel store complete the home page.

McCain's website implores visitors to donate today, join an online phone bank and "speak out" on the debate. Another feature allows campaign volunteers to earn points when they join the McCain team, contribute time or money and recruit friends. There are "Photos of the Week," news updates and upcoming events listed as well.

My favorite feature is the Debate Central component. If you click through, there are already YouTube videos, or "Debate Moments," featuring McCain's best sound bytes from tonight's debate. You'll also find quotes supporting McCain from various bloggers who covered tonight's debate live.

Overall, I prefer Obama's home page to McCain's. If I had more time to scour through, I might reach a different verdict. The wow factor at www.barackobama.com was Barack TV and the Obama Blog featured on the home page. Aside from that, mobile updates, the interactive map and the call to create a personal page were icing and a cherry on top. The site is warm and welcoming.

By contrast, I think McCain's Debate Central is pretty clever. Monitoring the blogosphere and posting snippets from nine prominent blogs in real-time – that's impressive. I also like McCain's Volunteer HQ "Campaign Action Center" enticing volunteers to earn points by supporting McCain, but the strong call to donate and recruit others started to verge on cult behavior.

No matter what political party you're backing this year, it's worth monitoring what tools each candidate is using to interface with constituents. After all, with our country's future at stake, couldn't we all afford to tune in?

American Express Do-Gooder Campaign Leverages Customer Community with Social Media Tools

2008-09-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

Claiming its the first company to launch a cause-related marketing campaign via a program benefiting the Statue of Liberty in 1983, American Express has been leveraging its customer community to support important causes for twenty-five years now.

This year's Members Project is yet another socially-minded campaign. American Express will split up $2.5 million amongst five different projects that "make a positive impact on the world." The online-only initiative allows any American to join the conversation and nominate their favorite do-gooder project.

American Express kicked off the Members Project by announcing results from a survey that showed 96 percent of Americans feel now, more than ever, the world needs "great ideas" to make a positive difference. In addition, 92 percent of respondents said they believe in the "power of ideas to help change the world."

So why is a credit card company bringing people together to share their ideas, passions and beliefs in order to help change the world?

The answer is offered by Jud Linville, president and CEO of Consumer Services at American Express: "... it's not just about ideas; it's about all participants galvanizing their own personal networks - friends, family members, colleagues - to get behind the causes that are meaningful to them." This should also read: and to encourage our customers to spend more money with American Express while they're at it.

Tapping the power of human networks - what a brilliant case of good marketing and PR. Inspire customers, enable them, make them heroes. It's not a new tactic.

This year, American Express is making good use of social media tools such as Facebook and MySpace to help people spread the word. They encourage customers to use photos, audio and video to enhance their nominations and promote their projects. The campaign will announce the Top Five projects at midnight tonight. From there, anyone can vote for their favorite project - the winners will be announced October 14.

To date, there are 1190 projects nominated by 213,522 nominations. There are 7651 comments on the discussion board.

I have to admit, I haven't voted, yet, but the Members Project has won my support as an American Express customer - I'm happy to align spending power with a company that prides itself on being a global "good citizen" by supporting worthy causes. After all, if I'm going to be spending money these days, I might as well help save the world, right?

My Dad is Starting a Blog!

2008-09-26T18:33:00.000-07:00

As a full time chaplain at Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, my dad's job is to reach out to patients and their families, help them find comfort, and support them during their hospital stay.

Whether you visit for a sprained ankle or something more serious, Rady Children's Hospital seeks to provide the best care in the country. Because of this mission, the hospital attracts families from all over the country. During his career as a chaplain, my dad has met with families from San Diego to Hawaii.

Rady Children's Hospital has built a strong network of community volunteers and maintains connections with former patients and their families. The hospital has a strong online presence, but I couldn't find any blogs associated. For this reason, I recommended my dad start a blog to offer security and comfort to anyone in need.

The excellence of Rady Children's Hospital largely depends on support from volunteers and donors. I'm hoping my dad's blog will prove an effective marketing and PR tool. I've noticed there are already several forward-thinking pastors and naval chaplains blogging.

In addition, Rady Children's Hospital actively cultivates community. For example, my dad's department, pastoral care, hosts various events for families who have lost a child. These events are often held near San Diego Bay in public parks. Families can come and grieve openly with each other - they can share their experiences, celebrate the children they've lost, and figure out how to cope. Families will return for years after they've lost a child.

I hope my dad's blog will reach out to families and individuals with non-denominational insight and inspiration. Of course, I'm a biased believer that my dad's intellect and empathy will attract a wide following. After all, while doctors and nurses must maintain a professional and detached demeanor, my dad has a unique role to reach out and touch people.

Plus, you might be surprised at the variety of adventures a children's hospital chaplain faces. Whether he's chasing Sea World's penguins around the halls or sitting in as Santa Claus for a playroom party, my dad never settles for a dull moment. And, despite all the sorrow you might imagine surrounds my dad's profession, he amazingly witnesses a lot of miracles, too.

So, I'm going to raise my hand and edit my dad's blog - it's just one more excuse to chat with my him weekly. I look forward to dad's blog launch next month and hope you might check it out, too. At the end of the day, we can all use some introspective inspiration, right?

From SlideShare to CNET - Popular Presentations Make News

2008-09-24T17:33:00.001-07:00

Tired of sending around your presentation as a PDF email attachment? Check out SlideShare, a free online repository for PowerPoint presentations. It's a fast and easy way to share your presentations - chances are you'll get more eyes on it than you think.

For example, Funambol CEO, Fabrizio Capobianco, posted his keynote presentation from the World Computer Congress a week ago. Since then, the presentation has 409 views, 39 downloads, 3 embeds, 3 favorites and 1 comment. Even better, the slide deck caught the attention of CNET News open source blogger, Matt Asay, who wrote about Fabrizio's presentation yesterday.

This is what we PR types like to call "making our job easy." In the high tech startup space, you don't often get clients who make their own news. It's great when it happens.

OpenLogic, another Page One client, turned to SlideShare last month to post the results of its Open Source Census. That presentation got over 1300 views and was featured on SlideShare's homepage the same week.

The above numbers might not seem impressive, even after you consider the narrowed open source enthusiast audience both presentations target. In both cases, however, the presentations reached a greater audience than they would have otherwise. OpenLogic also saw some inbound leads and enthusiasm from the SlideShare community.

Using a social media tool like SlideShare not only immortalizes your content and brand in an easy-to-search-and-share environment, but also helps communicate key messages in a stripped down, no fluff way.

When I conduct research, I rely most heavily on the Internet to find any free information or data points I can use. SlideShare is great for providing this type of information - just search for "Forrester Research" or any top analyst firm and see what you find.

Especially if you're a small company exploring new marketing channels and avenues, I say go for it - you never know where you'll presentation will turn up or who will point right back at you.

Celebrity Chefs Are Everywhere!

2008-09-23T08:09:00.000-07:00

What do M&Ms and wild Alaskan salmon have in common? Celebrity chefs as spokespeople, of course.

When I first saw this M&M ad, I chuckled and thought, "What the heck are M&Ms up to now?" I then realized the M&M "shell-ebrity" I was staring at (pictured left) is Bobby Flay - one of the Food Network's celebrity chefs.

You can check out more M&M "shell-ebrities" here.

Food Network chefs are popping up all over the place these days. Even the Rachael Ray Dunkin' Donuts terrorist scarf fiasco hasn't curbed corporate America's appetite to hire Food Network celebrity chefs as spokespeople. Some of these campaigns are more well-received than others - sorry Rachael Ray.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium has been fairly successful in partnering with all-star chefs. In 1999, the aquarium embarked on a Seafood Watch campaign encouraging visitors to make sustainable seafood choices. It built up various promotional channels for its sustainable seafood campaign, including an enticing program of chic food, wine and cooking events that appeals to the sort of high-brow crowd that grassroots campaigns and "save the world" petitions might not reach.

This year, Food Network's Alton Brown hosted the "Food for Solutions" gala and 55 local restaurants participated. Talk about cultivating community. In fact, forget about snuggly sea otters and terrifying great white sharks - Monterey Bay Aquarium now markets to any "foodie" or "wino" on the planet. It was even named a Tastemaker by Bon Appétit magazine this month.

Using famous chefs to talk about sustainable seafood to drooling crowds is a brilliant way to drive buzz around the aquarium's core message. It probably doesn't hurt fund raising campaigns, either. What an ingenious PR and Marketing plan! Just last week I read in an e-mail (btw, I'm an MBA member):

Thanks to you and other Seafood Watch supporters, we’ve succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. Major buyers, from Wal-Mart to Compass Group and ARAMARK, are shifting to sustainable seafood. We’ve distributed more than 24 million consumer pocket guides, created a Seafood Watch Mobile service, and won the allegiance of noted chefs across North America.

Lessons learned? Food brings people together. If you're looking to promote your next product or service, consider bringing in a Food Network celebrity chef, even if they don't belong. After all, they're fun, talented and family-friendly - what more could you need?

Penguins, Foxes, Cows, Oh My! "Open Source Idol" Exceeds Client Business Goals

2008-09-22T07:30:00.000-07:00

If you went to LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in San Francisco this summer, you might have noticed a herd of young ladies dressed up as open source mascots. Tux the penguin, the GNU, Mozilla's Firefox and BSD's Beastie devil roamed the show floor asking "Who's The Next Open Source Idol?" and searching for willing souls to sing and dance on behalf of their favorite OSS mascot. Don't worry if you didn't make it to LinuxWorld this year, we were caught on tape. You can check out the outlandish fun here.

You might wonder what spurred this madness. Well, it wasn't all fun and games. We had concrete goals to accomplish on behalf of our client, GroundWork Open Source. First, demonstrate that GroundWork is a dedicated member of the open source developer community. Second, attract over 1000 views to GroundWork's YouTube channel over two months.

We needed to produce videos that would appeal to any open source enthusiast around the world. So, why not go straight for the patriotic spirit mascots have been known to inspire?

At this point, various forces in the universe collided: I was addicted to the popular reality show "So You Think You Can Dance?" which kept dancing on my mind. In addition, I had just learned about Cisco's first social media product launch, which helped me understand ways to integrate various social media tools for PR and marketing.

Lying in bed at 3 am the morning before we were to brainstorm fun ideas for GroundWork, the first flash of "Who's The Next Open Source Idol?" popped into my head. I immediately jumped up and started researching iconic open source animals. Before dawn, I had begun brainstorming various traditional marketing and social media tools we could use to promote the contest. Of course, this all hinged on my confidence that we could convince a bunch of open source developers to sing and dance on camera. No problem, right?

The rest of the project is almost a blur as we proposed the idea to GroundWork only two days before the start of LinuxWorld. There was a lot to prepare and the Page One PR social media team worked hard to turn a crazy idea into reality. Our fearless leader, Craig Oda, and social media guru, Shelly Milam, led the charge while Kim Terca, Ariana Parasco and I were eager to dive in.

Here are some stats for what the social media team was able to produce in about a week's time:

Campaign Promotion and Social Media Integration

First, we needed to figure out creative ways to promote open source idol. We didn't have the luxury of building up momentum before the show because we only had a couple days to throw this project together. The videos for GroundWork's YouTube channel were required for the project, but we used them as "teasers" to drive traffic to an online polling widget posted on GroundWork's open source community site. We put out a social media release and used Twitter and Facebook to help promote our videos and online voting. We also took votes from people at LinuxWorld and offered them "I Voted" stickers. We gave out free "Who's The Next Open Source Idol?" t-shirts to people for singing and dancing on camera. GroundWork blogged about the contest while we appealed to Mitchell Baker, Chairperson of Mozilla Foundation, and blasted open source community mailing lists encouraging developers to vote.

Outstanding Results

GroundWork's corporate website traffic increased by 43% during the first three days of the contest. 1,113 people went to GroundWork's open source community site to vote online. Combined, all four videos received 5000 views in one week (our goal was 1000 views over two months). GroundWork received a lot of chatter in the Twittersphere and also gained new followers. "Who's The Next Open Source Idol?" was posted to Fark.com and was covered by Wired.com, Network World, and bounced around the blogosphere as well.

Highs and Lows
The amount of energy and adrenaline that went into "Who's The Next Open Source Idol?" was amazing. I guess there weren't any lows here. Though the project was time-intensive and exhausting, it was really fun. If you watch the fourth video, you'll even see GroundWork's VP of Marketing hopping in on the open source idol conga line.

By the conclusion of this project, GroundWork had received remarkable attention from open source enthusiasts around the world. I am also proud to say that Firefox was the official contest winner! There are at least three different Firefox character throughout the four videos we produced. I wonder if you can recognize which one was me?

Is There Truth to the Twitter Song?

2008-09-20T13:13:00.000-07:00

"If you haven't been bookmarked, re-tweeted and blogged - you might as well not have existed..."

This line comes from Ben Walker's Twitter song, "You're No One If You're Not On Twitter." With over 200K views in just 3 weeks, Walker's song pokes fun at Twitter fanatics who publicly announce their every sneeze on Twitter.

I picked up the video yesterday from VentureBeat and found the song pretty hilarious. As far as I've seen, there is a lot of truth to the lyrics.

I've been holding off from blogging about Twitter because it seems almost cliche by now. Surprisingly, some of my high tech clients are NOT on Twitter. Those who are avoiding it have reactions that are similar to my college friends who boycotted Facebook four years ago - they don't want to share dull moments like "I'm having a hot dog for dinner" in a public forum.

I admit I had the same "I'm too cool for Twitter" reaction at first. Since the tool is becoming essential for PR pros, I joined and now find it pretty useful for business. For example, I have arranged client interviews based on blogger "tweets." In addition, following analysts, journalists and other outlets helps me catch breaking news faster than Google Alerts. For rapid response pitching, Twitter has been great.

At the same time, Twitter can be incredibly distracting. The New York Times elaborated today on how Google and Twitter ultimately expand our minds while also limiting our attention spans. I enjoy following my friends' updates, but there are definitely characters on Twitter who are just too noisy. I sometimes wonder if people like Tim O'Reilly have hired someone else to tweet for them. I mean, how can you tweet every ten minutes - or more - while still functioning as a normal person?

If you aren't on Twitter, I recommend you check it out. When used correctly, Twitter can be an effective marketing and customer service tool. For this reason, as you search for friends and family to follow, you might look for retailers, service providers, magazines, newspapers and non-profits, too. You'll probably be surprised by the number of feeds you want to follow.

Twitter keeps people, organizations, causes and companies that I care about high on my radar. Do remember that standard rules of social etiquette may apply. For example, please don't use Twitter for shameless self-promotion. As you get connected to more people, it's easy to get into the "tweeting" groove, but don't forget that distance can sometimes make the heart grow fonder. In other words, you don't have to tweet more than a few times a day to stay connected. Pick a few tweets and save everything else for conversations with real people.

Concerned you'll be overwhelmed if you sign up? Don't let Walker's song scare you off. One of the best things about Twitter: you can always tune it out. Just start small by checking Twitter a couple times a day and go from there. After all, what is there to lose?

Can You Cheat The Social Media System?

2008-09-19T08:03:00.000-07:00

Word of mouth has long been a good marketing tool. In the social media world, however, the stakes change. Online, one person can influence thousands, even millions of people. Traditional word of mouth embodies a viral, yet transient spirit. By contrast, comments made online can live forever.

So, what's to stop people from cheating the "social media system"?

Yesterday, my friend and colleague blogged about how SourceForge, a premier online media site targeting techies, monitors the Web for negative customer comments. Using tools like Twitter and Facebook, Sourceforge will pursue disgruntled customers and users. The process has yielded positive feedback and provides Sourceforge with key product management and marketing feedback - a healthy example of customer service instigated by online feedback.

By contrast, other sites like Yelp, the popular review site, seem to be easily manipulated. Some of my friends have used Yelp to voice their anger over poor food service. In one case, a friend complained after going to a restaurant's Grand Opening and waiting for more than an hour for her meal. She wrote a negative review, posted it to Yelp, and the restaurant immediately contacted her offering a free meal.

Couldn't I choose a random restaurant I've been wanting to try, do the same thing and reap the benefits?

What about online competitor bashing? If I were AT&T, what would stop me from asking my employees to throttle ComcastCares on Twitter under the guise of an online alias?

Robin Stavinsky, high tech PR and online communications specialist, has assured me that online fraud in the form of competitor bashing would never work because there are too many ways to track down the source.

I remain skeptical. No matter how altruistic I'd like to be, why not test out being a professional online whiner to see what benefits (or punishments) I might reap? Wouldn't you?

San Diego Zoo Creates Panda-monium With Social Media Tools

2008-09-18T07:38:00.000-07:00

As a San Diego native, I've been a card-carrying member of the "World Famous" San Diego Zoo my whole life. The 100-acre park is home to more than 4,000 rare and endangered animals and more than 700,000 exotic plants. The Zoological Society of San Diego is actually the largest zoological membership association in the world.

If you've visited the San Diego Zoo, you probably understand the international allure. I have to believe the zoo owes part of its success to its communications department.

Take the pandas, for example. Pandas are not easy to get a hold of. U.S. zoos must "rent" pandas from the Chinese government - they typically go for $1M a year and at least $500K more if they breed. This is not including food and shelter. All pandas remain property of China and must return eventually.

Fifteen years ago, the San Diego Zoo built a $1M panda facility only to have their import permit denied. What could have been a PR nightmare ($1M burned for nothing) was instead turned into a story of national struggle and unconditional hope.

When San Diego finally welcomed two pandas (female Bai Yun, male Shi Shi) to the zoo, it went to town with PR. The zoo played up Shi Shi's "old man" impotency and the urgency for him to mate before the "contract" expired. The birth of baby cub Hua Mei (means "China, USA") in August 1999 spurred even more public interest. At that point, the zoo made a brilliant decision and launched the "Panda Cam," a live online video feed capturing 24/7 panda activity.

The Panda Cam was an instant hit. If you watch the Panda Cam today, however, you'll notice pandas, for the most part, don't do much.

From a San Diego Union Tribune article (Dec. 15, 2001):

The debut of the Panda Cam in effect "made" the zoo's Web site, acknowledged spokesman Ted Molter.

"There were more people online than ever before, always looking for new things to see," he said.

... The fact that the pandas don't do much but eat and sleep in no way diminished their online popularity. If anything, it was a blessing from a public relations and marketing perspective, Molter conceded.

Since Panda Cam went online in September 1999, about a month after Hua Mei was born, more than 78 million people ... have visited the zoo's Web site, said Inigo Figuracion, the zoo's webmaster. Of those, more than 21 million people -- about 27 percent overall -- clicked onto the Panda Cam.

Today, while other U.S. zoos struggle to attract visitors and financially support their $1M/year pandas, the San Diego Zoo's Giant Panda Research Station is saturated with visitors. Even better, their website is now rich with social media tools, offering podcasts, zoo keeper blogs, animal videos and virtual tours of the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

In 1999, the San Diego Zoo earned its status as a "virtual zoo" basically overnight. In December 2001, the zoo introduced the Polar Cam for two cubs at Polar Bear Plunge.

I'd be interested to research how attendance and online traffic have fared since 2001. Also, how have the Panda and Polar Cams affected corporate and private donations made to the San Diego Zoological Society? What about sales of plush pandas and polar bear t-shirts? I'm sure revenues skyrocketed - they probably haven't tapered, either.

If you're in the San Diego area, I absolutely recommend you visit the San Diego Zoo. They're working on a new exhibit to house elephants recently rescued from Africa.

Who knows, maybe we'll have an "Elephant Cam" soon, too. Stay tuned...

Poor Marketing for Dale Chihuly at the De Young?

2008-09-17T08:11:00.000-07:00

If you're in San Francisco this month and looking for an awesome art exhibit, I recommend heading over to Golden Gate Park to check out the Dale Chihuly show at the De Young Museum through Sept. 28.

As you walk through the exhibition, be prepared to experience the awesome dynamism Chihuly creates with static glass and vibrant color. Oh, but don't expect to learn anything useful – I would pretend its a minimalist exhibit. Focus on the art itself, don't read the wall placards.

I've reviewed, designed and installed art shows in the past, so I understand techniques for presenting art to the public. As I walked through the Chihuly show, I couldn't help but lament how the curatorial staff chose NOT to fully address and draw in the general public. Is this a case of curatorial license or bad marketing?

I say bad marketing, and I'm not referring to poor advertising or marketing collateral. I'm talking about an opportunity to use a blockbuster exhibition to market the De Young as a leading institution in its field, and the failure to do so.

A few things I would have liked to see:

Interactive analysis of glass as a medium
When people think about art, they don't often think about glass. What other artists have influenced Chihuly (ahem - Venetian glass blowers) and how has this medium changed over time? Add video touch-screens for additional exploration.

Educational video demonstrating how Chihuly creates glass art
Link the dynamism of each Chihuly glass piece to the motions his body enacts in order to create grand masterpieces from such a fragile and volatile medium.

Comprehensive view of Chihuly's life linking paintings to glass work
When you walk through the exhibition, two different walls are covered by Chihuly paintings. In both cases, the surrounding placards hardly elaborate. Even worse, wall placards supposedly providing context for Chihuly's life left me confused - more than one bad analogy to volcanic lava and Persians.

In Art History 1 class at Stanford, we learned to look at the art museum as a scientific institution dedicated to the preservation, analysis and dissection of art. In my opinion, the De Young's Chihuly show didn't do justice to glass as an artform, nor did it serve its scientific and educational purpose for society.

I think the curators missed an incredible marketing opportunity to reach new audiences and get people excited about art, color and glass. The De Young fell short of making a lasting impression on me as a museum - I wanted to see an institution enveloping contemporary modes of communication and transcending art itself.

Despite bad marketing, Chihuly's work remains astounding and the show is worth the $15. If you're hoping for anything more than pretty glass, though, you might be disappointed.

Everyone Needs a Publicist - Why I Have a Real Job

2008-09-15T13:26:00.000-07:00

Since beginning my career in high tech PR, I have come to strongly believe that everyone needs a publicist. PR Agent, PR Chick, PR Specialist - titles are negotiable. Of course, not everyone will support my thesis. In fact, many wouldn't. Last Friday, ReadWriteWeb questioned the need for Tech PR in a post, "Does Good Tech Need PR?" The argument for tech bloggers is they prefer to discover new technologies on their own. Steve Rubel testifies: "If I didn't find it on my own or stumble upon it early myself, I don't bother. I actually like the thrill of the chase and serendipity. I want to be first."

Robert Scoble is even more vehement against PR.

Okay guys, we get it. You want to write about news that strokes your ego. Something you've hunted and killed. Bloggers by nature DO NOT have to be objective, so you have a free pass to write about whatever you deem newsworthy.

But why, then, does Marshall Kirkpatrick at RWW land on YES, good tech can benefit from good PR?

Let me get personal for a second. When people ask about my job the tagline I offer is: "I work for a high tech public relations firm with a client base of early stage high tech startups." Straightforward, right? Heh. Nine times out of then, I've lost people at the mention of "high tech" (even in Silicon Valley!). Then, in my urge to clarify, I make the common mistake of jumping into far more detail than necessary only to catch myself minutes later entertaining blank stares and an audience politely nodding heads while exclaiming, "Wow, that's interesting!" Yeah right...

That's when I realize yet again - everyone needs a PR person. Why? Well, for starters, we're all too close to what we do to step back and present it clearly. Terms we use everyday and think common might sound like gibberish (at best) to a fresh ear. When I try to explain PR I forget that no one actually wants to hear the nitty gritty details of what I (or my clients) do day-to-day, and how each moment fits under the umbrella term of "public relations," "log management," or "desktop virtualization." In fact, I believe my friends want to hear exactly the opposite - only the minimum amount of detail required to categorize, understand and/or evaluate the person, product or service in question before moving on.

People don't have time to listen for hours about a product, service or offering. That's why we watch movie trailers before going to the theater, read the backs of novels before buying, and listen to the free iTunes sample before downloading the whole album. You can't expect a full investment without a demo and, when it comes to high tech companies, a demo isn't always a bad thing. What might be an awesome bug fix for a developer may mean nothing to a customer. By contrast, what was easy to hack, might be the best new feature ever. A good PR person will help you find that interesting anecdote for your audience.

The fact that many of the companies I work with are not easily discovered or understood at first glance doesn't mean they aren't newsworthy, innovative or disruptive. It often means they are complex with too many possible directions to pursue. And thus, they need help figuring out how to talk about themselves in a compelling and easy-to-follow way.

So, I feel vindicated - everyone needs a publicist, but not only good tech. Good PR people are the guys and gals who "step back" and identify the top themes that might help people (reporters, analysts, customers, partners, the "public") understand what they are hearing. Good PR people engage intellectually, then surface the story or attainable vision above the syslog stream. And, sure, there are bad PR people. There are bad every kind of people. Just think of the difference between McDonald's and Ruth's Chris Steak House with regards to quality of food and service. Then, apply that to any industry, including PR.

At the end of the day, bloggers clearly reserve the right to disdain the whole food service industry, but they still need to eat. And, beyond just one cool product or technology, when a group of people want to build a sustainable business, they incorporate PR real fast.