As I’ve mentioned before, it’s pretty safe to say that as of the past couple months, and for the next six months to come, I have been and will remain in a constant state of semi-panic about entering the real world of public relations. Will I ever get a job? Will it be something I actually enjoy? Will I be behind in the social media aspects of the public relations industry? After talking myself down from the ledge (metaphorically speaking, come on people) on more than one occassion, I have realized that I just need to start (it’s never too late to start, right?) honing my skills I’ve already acquired, and also working on new skills. I came across this article from Dave Fleet’s webpage about 14 skills and attributes desired for new public relations professionals.

Of course, there were the typical skills that I have learned about since Communications 101 like writing skills, communication skills, attention to detail, and a good work ethic (all of these taken verbatim from his post of course), but there is also a semi-surprising (maybe not surprising to social media experts like our generation, but perhaps to an older generation of public relations professionals) list of other skills and attributes that are extremely desirable:
- Blogging
- Microblogging
- Social Networking tools
- SEO
- Coding
- Blogger Relations
- Social Media Ethics

Interesting how three out of these seven skills involved some kind of blogging, eh? How can it be that a simple knowledge of how to blog, and how to blog successfully by reaching an audience, is such a desirable trait in public relations professionals these days? This is simply the direction public relations has taken. I can’t stress it enough that although I may not always be quite on board, social media is the new word of mouth, even though word of mouth is still considered to be the most effective form of communication. I now say this to all of you (but mostly to myself): Embrace the future. Take advantage of social media and force yourself to become an avid part of it. Because if you don’t? Well, you’re pretty much screwed.

It’s that time of year again. Cold weather, gift shopping, twinkling lights and… “holiday” trees? What happened to Christmas trees?

At a Lowe’s store in Austin, Texas, there is a banner advertising fresh-cut “holiday trees.” This caused quite an uproar in the community, and it brings about a valid point: are we trying to be too politically correct about the holiday season?

It turns out that most studies find that people don’t mind the word “Christmas.” They simply want other holidays to be recognized also. A recent PRWeek article by Rob Webb mentioned that according to the last census, 72 percent of Americans consider themselves to be Christians. So why are people trying so hard to snuff out words that might exclude people?

The problem rests in poor communication. Most policies are well-meaning. A town near my home in Pennsylvania recently mandated that the traditional nativity scene be moved from the town square and placed in front of the church. They did this not because they did not want people to enjoy the scene, but because other groups then began petitioning the town for permits to place displays in the square. There were too many groups who wanted to be included, with not enough room for all. Therefore, better none than some. Unfortunately, due to lack of good external communication, some people saw it as an attempt to “ban Christmas.”

The Lowe’s “holiday” tree incident falls in this same category. The store was not trying to ban Christmas, but was rather trying to include others. But as Lee Odden questioned in his Media Relations Blog, “Are people really more likely to buy a tree if it is labeled ‘holiday tree’ instead of ‘Christmas tree’? While ‘holiday tree’ is certainly more inclusive, ‘Christmas tree’ follows centuries of tradition. Furthermore, does a Christmas tree cease to be a Christmas tree just because it has a different name?”

The current holiday campaign for the Gap, a international clothing manufacturer, focuses on including Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Winter Solstice and any other holiday consumers could want to celebrate. According to the Gap corporate Web site, “The campaign offers a fresh voice featuring choreographed dancers and models belting catchy holiday cheers about defying convention, and captures the essence of the Gap’s roots but also looks forward with an optimistic eye on America.” However, the commercials caused controversy because some groups felt that the ads were making fun of religion, and some groups are even planning to boycott the Gap.

The Gap practiced effective communication when dealing with this, stating that the Gap “is and has always been an inclusive, accessible brand in which everyone can participate and we embrace diversity across all of our customers, and more importantly respect their beliefs as individuals… We focus our marketing on the joys of the holiday season as a whole.” The Gap and its sister companies, Old Navy and Banana Republic, are standing by the ads.

A recent Dave Fleet blog post entitled “If I Were Santa’s Public Relations Guy” took a more lighthearted approach to the holiday. Fleet jokes that “the merchandising is pretty neat but there’s a lot more potential there” and goes on to discuss how Santa could capitalize on his abilities and improve communication. But his amusing insights could be taken seriously when viewing the holiday as a whole. Christmas is an important part of American tradition, and in order to prevent people from feeling that they need to ban it to include everyone, communication needs to improve.

So let’s stop worrying about being all-inclusive in our language. It’s okay to talk about Christmas – it’s been around for as long as public relations itself! Let’s just make sure that we’re talking about every other view, religion and holiday also. Everyone should get their little piece of the publicity, without having to worry about using the “C” word (Christmas), the “H” word (Hanukkah) or the “W” word (winter solstice). You get my point.

by Jaclyn White

This bullet hole gown from the Viktor & Rolf Spring 2010 show in Paris recently gave me the opportunity to link together two interests of my own: fashion and of the world of public relations. This purposely destroyed number left me and the fashion world questioning the value of creativity vs. that of content. If a creatively destroyed dress does not leave a positive lasting message on the runway then does it when it comes to a company’s media efforts?

The solution: shift efforts towards creating something content based. In Eric Souder’s recent entry entitled Content Is Not Only King, It’s The Key To Conversions on searchengine.com he touches on this subject. Souder stresses the importance of content to a company’s web site and advertising tactics versus an informative site that is inconsistent with advertising efforts.

With the priceless value of each interaction the content posted on a company’s web site or social media network must provide the public with a complete idea of what a company stands for.The one  glance that the public may get with your company’s page could be the last if the information they are looking for is not presented to them clearly.

Dave Fleet addresses the important of content on the popular social media tool Twitter in his blog entry: http://davefleet.com/?s=presence.

“Just having a Twitter presence isn’t enough to make you interesting, either. Thousands of companies do nowadays. It doesn’t set you apart. You need substance to your presence, rather than just style.” says Fleet.

Regardless of the  media tool a company chooses to utilize, the content and substance must  take priority. If this is true then  the value of creativity and style could eventually be placed on the back-burner.

Like the bullet hole gown which is missing vital chunks, sometimes the missing information is what consumers are in search of when visiting your site or your Twitter page. Why take this risk misinforming your consumer when you can just as easily provide a content based web page or even a hole-less dress?

By: Jimmy Six Bellies

The social Web took another giant leap forward last week with Facebook’s launch of their real-time search tool.

For PR/Marketing peeps, this is big news as the site now provides another conversation and content tracking tool on the world’s largest social network. Status updates, photos, links, notes, videos and pages which you’re a fan of are now searchable up to 30 days prior. The search tool will certainly improve with Facebook’s purchase of Friendfeed and I echo Steve Rubel’s thoughts about the overwhelming potential brewing here (keep an eye out as I would anticipate that Facebook will soon be making their public content sharing tool available to everyone).

Sally Falkow also recently touched on the topic of social search, harping the importance of relevancy within social media and it’s overall impact on search results. Google is amazing and they’re only going to get better. No longer can a company rely on tricking out keywords to impact search results. As Sally notes, “It’s about the relationship, not the technology.” That degree of relevancy and focus on human behaviors and user intent is only going to continue to shine through.

As an example, I want to point out a tidbit of work-related research that some colleagues from CA conducted. Long story short, they created a “Donors Are Sexy” campaign in an attempt to see if they could use particular keywords and “sexy” marketing to try and motivate people to register as organ donors. One of their videos has generated over 32k views, but overall results have shown a lack of registration action prompted by the campaign. In addition, searches around mainstay issue keywords such as “organ donor” and “organ donation” show the videos buried in the results. Why? Relevancy.

From a PR/Marketing perspective, it’s going to continue to be key to develop and craft authentic messages that effectively connect with our target audience and are as relevant as possible to their interests. Progressive search tools will of course help us to continue to seek out key influencers and niche audiences to deliver our messages.

What’s your take? What’s the next step for social search?

-Scott

*Note, I’ll be back in early September. Similar to Dave Fleet, I’m completely unplugging for a bit to take in the sights, sounds and culture of Sweden, Norway and Denmark! Open to any travel tips and must see recos. Cheers.

Great presentation from Dave Fleet on social media policies and ethics.

Last week a college friend posted a question about Twitter as his Facebook status.  He’d just signed up, he said, and was having trouble finding friends who use Twitter.  Several of his friends — Facebook veterans, obviously — said they’d tried Twitter but “didn’t get it” or couldn’t find anyone.  (Although Oprah, who finally got on the bandwagon and started tweeting, picked up almost 500,000 followers in less than a week.)

Just in time, Wendy Kaufman of NPR’s Morning Edition explored, earlier this week, how businesses are using Twitter as a marketing tool and how individuals use it to keep up with the news in Thumbs To The News: Public Turns To Twitter.  Yesterday, New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd debated — in her typical sardonic fashion — To Tweet or not to Tweet.

The dirty, little secret of Twitter is that it’s really basic: it lacks the bells and whistles of Facebook or LinkedIn, no photos, no audio or video, no groups, just 140-character status updates.  The Twitter website isn’t pretty.  It crashes all the time (displaying the much hated “fail whale”).  Still, it works well enough that fire departments use Twitter — among other tools — to track wildfires, doctors use it to share information and L.A. foodies use it to hunt down mobile taco trucks.  (Not to mention it’s a handy tool for those of us in book publicity, allowing us to follow the news and network with authors and others in the industry.)

Guy Kawasaki, Internet guru and How to Change the World blogger, showed How to Demo Twitter earlier this week, covering why one would want to use Twitter, how to find people to follow and what desktop applications can run Twitter.  (That’s the summarized version; for more, check the Twitter section of his news aggregation site Alltop.)

For more Twitter basics, I’ve posted about how to get started on Twitter and how to figure out the Following / Follower lists.

And for a glossary of Twitter terms, try this recent post from Phenix & Phenix Literary Publicists.

Lastly, for those of you inclined to regurgitate at another mention of Twitter but who understand that one must nevertheless adapt to change, Dave Fleet suggests (non-Twitter) Social Media Baby Steps.

***

For those of you in the publishing industry, don’t forget that Jennifer Tribe of Highspot maintains a directory of bookish tweeps.

Kris Reyes of Toronto’s CityNews interviews blogger Dave Fleet and 12for12k founder Danny Brown about the popularity and usefulness of Twitter.

What do you think? Is twitter a fad? How will social media tools impact our future? How do you use social media?

Dave Fleet’s interview with Guy Kawasaki on the by now infamous ghost-written Twitter feed has gotten me thinking. How does this effects our clients.

Social media consultants love to bang on wax lyrical about how new tools are changing the face of communications forever. Fair enough. But when someone doesn’t play by their ill-defined and never codified “rules” they herd up and attack – making it very scary for clients to actually, you know, change their communications habits. Even when talking to clients, I can’t ever pretend to have the right answers. There is a best practice you can follow or a way that get’s you raked over the coals. The third way is even worse – you get ignored and it doesn’t matter!

The exact same thing happened with blogging. A company would start a blog and then the social media experts would shoot it down – “no rss feed”, “comments aren’t published in real time”, “no interaction with readers” – and so on and so on ad infinitum. Never about the content. Always about the mechanics.

The more things change, the more things stay the same.

For instance – let’s say I wanted to start a Twitter stream for a client. We’ve determined that the core demographic is going to be on Twitter and we want to reach them. We work out that we want to engage with users and share cool links – just like any other Twitter user – and we want to provide some updates on what is happening with the product and maybe some updates on a campaign that’s running. Whatever it is, the hard part is done – the client is happy to be on Twitter, engaging the core customer and getting involved. But the client doesn’t have the time to actually source those cool links and to update frequently. Plus, as the social media agency, we know our way around Twitter pretty well so why not just have us handle it?

But how do we do that?

Do we set up an account as the brand and link to a Web page to detail how we’re using the account? “This account is run by XYZ people from ABC agency who will be doing HIJK”? Would that help or hinder adoption and followership? Probably the latter.

Do we say that XYZ people are updating and identify their updates by appending each update with their initials (this works for Britney Spears) but not disclose they are agency folk? Technically they work for the brand but aren’t really part of it.

Do we tell the brand team – here’s the account details, go for it? What if the brand team/client doesn’t have the bandwidth to keep up with the volume of updates needed to work up a decent following? The same applies if we set up accounts like MolsonFerg on Twitter – will the team be able to keep it up if they are busy executives for global brands? I think not.

If we do go down that route, it is pretty distracting. After all, we want people to engage with the brand based on its attributes, not the actually brand manager and his/her personality.

Thoughts?

All which is a long winded way to say that there must be a balance to be struck between serving the community, serving the brand and making sure the social media marketing folk don’t get worked up about the mechanics and distract from the core objective. Like Dave, I am a pragmatist and a consultant. I want my clients to be able to take advantage of these powerful new tools but I don’t want to the reason their brand suffers when it can be easily avoided.

What do you think? What is acceptable for the client-agency dynamic?

Today is Earth Hour, where at 8:30pm buildings will have their lights switched off totally for an hour to “make a statement to the world’s governments for more urgent and effective action on climate change”. I want to echo Neil Perkin’s sentiments that although it’s a worthwhile cause and i’ll be taking part, it’s hard tio tell how much of an impact the WWF’s campaign has.

Interesting survey conducted by Stephen Davies on PR Blogger which looked at where PRs prefer to work. The result was that 55% of the 186 participants said that they’d like to work at the office, but with the option to work elsewhere if necessary. Sometimes good work is easier at home.

Great post by Dave Fleet looking at pitching, using the analogy that it is like throwing a stick for a dog to chase:

In an ideal world, you throw a stick for a dog and the dog immediately runs after the stick. Mission accomplished.

Sometimes, the dog won’t get it immediately and you’ll need to point them in the right direction.

Sometimes that works.

Other times you’ll stand there pointing at the stick, but the dog has no idea what you pointing means.

I was interested to read about Hunch, a new decision making website from Flickr’s co-founder Caterina Fake on Read Write Web. The idea is that decisions are made through shared experieces and answers provided by the community. Could this replace Twitter for crowd sourcing?

Finally, Google wil be letting 200 of its staff go, as the credit crunch hits the biggest online brand in the world. Google said:

“Making changes of this kind is never easy—and we recognize that the recession makes the timing even more difficult for the Googlers concerned. We did look at a number of different options but ultimately concluded that we had to restructure our organizations in order to improve our effectiveness and efficiency as a business.”

As we all know, the only way to survive bad economic climates is to hit the wave head on, something that many larger ofline institutions seem to have neglected.

So the big stink of late is Guy Kawasaki and his sudden called on the carpet transparency in Dave Fleets blog.  Real quickly, Guy Kawasaki admitted that he has a few people that help him Tweet out his Alltop spam Tweets, and he only admitted it after being asked.

On the one hand, Guy is free to do what he wants. He even admits as much. I think the outrage stems as much from a sense that a lot of people thought that Guy was coming down from the castle to be with the common folk.

Well he does and he has. It just turns out, we don’t know when.

Case in point. Guy was in my town, Naples, Florida. Relatively small town by most standards. I sent a few tweets that we should meet up. Then I DM’d him a number of times, to cover my bases. I’m guessing or thought he never got them; give the volume he may receive. Now I have to think  perhaps his other “tweeters” got the tweets? I don’t know.

However, it turns out he  hosted a little Tweetup (4 people) and I missed it. There were some other issues involved in me missing it, not the least being if he @’s me and doesn’t DM me, I’m not going to get that on my phone.

So He didn’t DM back but I did get an apology 2 days later about missing each other. Fair enough!

I think in essence, more (or is it most?) people are just dissapointed that “Guy” isn’t tweeting as much as they thought. Look, I have a hard enough time managing 800/1500 let alone 101,000/93,000 so expecting an A lister to hit you back might be unrealistic but…

This is not a my friend is better than your friend example, but Rober Scoble whose numbers are 82,000/75,000 regularly tweets me back at the times I have tweeted him. This is both DM and regular @’s. As I’ll tell you if asked, there are good, bad and indifferent ways to use Twitter. It’s up to you to figure it out. So there you go. Run with it

Dave Fleet posted his own thoughts (and a semi-response) on his blog this morning:

http://davefleet.com/2009/03/guy-kawasaki-discloses-ghost-writers-defuses-issue/

For Dave this is largely a matter of ethics. I see the ethical question as well – personally if Guy wants to HAVE a lot of posts on Twitter then he should WRITE a lot of posts on Twitter. If he finds something that another person has posted to be interesting, then he should re-tweet that person’s post… not post it under his name. (That said, this is a bit clearer now that Guy has changed his Biography to include the names of his ghost writers.)

Jesse Collins (www.jessecollins.com) summed up a thought that had crossed my mind (but I’d been too bashful to blog) “I think that this breaks the spirit of an implicit contract amongst Twitter users.” Twitter is open to all – anyone and everyone can share their ideas. I believe that a contract exists that states: Thou Shalt Not Take Credit For Another Person’s Posts (even with their permission). It’s just not authentic.

Guy is Guy and that’s not gonna change. But I find it disappointing that he dismissed Dave’s question about ethics. For a man who has so much riding on his personal brand it’s a really confusing that Guy responds to a question about integrity with the quip ”Surely, there are more important things to think about.”

Ghostwriting has been a common practice in PR since its inception, but it has no place in a blog. I started thinking about this a lot recently after reading Beth Harte’s post on the subject and a subsequent conversation on Twitter with Dave Fleet.

Ghostwriting — letters, announcements, speeches, memoirs, presentations became a way of life simply because these were all statements on behalf of the company. The letterhead, logo or boilerplate gave the statements all the credibility people demanded and the PR team stayed in the shadows. The world has changed.

For the record, I don’t necessarily have a problem with ghostwriting in general when it pertains to traditional media channels.

I’ve been a ghostwriter for several articles and even editorials for people with a wide variety of expertise — from engineers to lawyers and CEOs. Each time these articles were edited by many people before ever going to print. On top of that, it’s no secret most quotes in press releases are written for the person who then signs off on them without ever having actually said them.

This is precisely the sort of thing that social media should not attempt to do; not because it’s wrong, but because it’s ineffective at achieving the goals and objectives of business blogs, and puts the person (not the writer) at risk for a PR fiasco. Some social media purists may equate ghostwriting with deception, but this approach doesn’t really get to the heart of the issue and it can polarize a room of communications pros pretty quickly.

What is a blog?
At the heart of the ghostwriting issue as it pertains to blogging lies with the misunderstanding of what a blog actually is, or has the potential to be.

Forget the arguments that rest on cliche notions of deception and transparency and all that other stuff that smacks of a simple knee-jerk reaction. If someone signs off on a quote in a press release, to me they’re agreeing that the statement is in line with his/her position. Agreement is good enough for a static document. Blogs are not static documents.

Ghostwriting for blogs doesn’t work because, for businesses, a blog is not a publication and a blog is not a product. A blog at its best is a community strategy.  Valeria Maltoni wrote a great post back in January about how the traditional media got the move to Web 2.0 wrong and what we can all learn from that mistake:

The Web is not a way to re-purpose content from other platforms – it’s a way to engage, a completely different way of understanding what people think about, what they want to say and do. One that moves to exponential results when the context is built with the community that wants to participate in mind.

Blogs that do well at garnering traffic, engagement and conversation are those that recognize their content as part of a larger conversation through links, bookmarking, sharing, comments and discussion.

With the old sort of print publications, the content was the product. Signing off on a quality product is sufficient, signing off on a conversation is absurd. Content is no longer a product, but a means of participation in a larger online community.

I’m not saying that help with editing, or taking down the content of a conversation and transcribing cannot ever work, but some level of participation when it comes to responding to comments and linking to other content should also take place. Recognition of the blog as part of a larger dialogue needs to be in place as well.

Why this matters
In David Meerman Scott’s new book, World Wide Rave, he notes that people want to do business with other people. This statement couldn’t be more true. The person doesn’t have to necessarily be the traditional front-man, rockstar or chairman.

If your CEO is too busy to blog, find some other interested and engaged person inside your organization. Most people prefer a passionate amateur to a bored professional any day of the week. They’re far more interesting.

Blogs written by ghostbloggers are either approaching their content as a product or posing as another person when they respond to comments and link to other blogs. Approaching the content as a product will produce a blog that doesn’t inspire very much engagement (ineffective). If the blogger is doing well with the blog — using it to build relationships through content — then that becomes unethical and extremely risky to the person’s reputation.

Now you
I know this discussion can get pretty heated and sometimes people get upset when I try to define what a blog is, but definitions can also be helpful.

For the record I think a blog can be a lot of things and does not always have to be a community strategy, however through the process of elimination, I know that a blog is not a product. Or, at least it’s not a product anyone seems interested in buying. Please note that I am not talking about personal blogs, but ones aimed at building relationships and community around a business.

It’s been awhile since my last post and I am so eager for feedback you wouldn’t believe it! I can’t wait to see where you all take this idea.

P.S. I promise Bill Sledzik that I’m not going to put my hands over my ears and scream until he agrees.

Photo by House Of Sims

Clients say it. Your co-workers say it. You utter it to yourself now and again.

Whether you’re a seasoned social media vet or just diving in, social media can definitely be a whirlwind to tackle. Heck, just finding a consistent, agreed upon definition of “social media” can be quite the challenge in and of itself.

It certainly would be nice if there was an established methodology and single handbook to teach a newbie everything you need to know about social media. As humans, we find comfort in routine and knowing that there is a start, finish and ultimate sense of accomplishment. BUT, luckily, we also thrive heavily on creativity, challenge and the unknown.

Social media lends itself to the latter mindset. It’s important to remember that the foundation of social media revolves around basic principals of human communication and interaction. Once you have a solid understanding of tool functionality, your success in using social media becomes highly dependent on developing strategic, creative methods of outreach.

But, where does one even start?

Don’t Think You Need to Eat the Whole Pie

Social media is best served up in slices. You’re not going to learn everything in one day, one week or one year. Learning social media is a neverending process. As the Web grows and technology changes, so will our online communication patterns. Thus, don’t expect to “learn social media” and be done.

If you are just trying to find a starting point with social media there is plenty you can do to increase your social media savvy. Here are three possible ideas:

1) Read Social Media Marketing: An Hour a Day, Groundswell and Social Media is a Cocktail Party. All three books will provide a solid foundation for understanding the social media landscape.

2) Find 5 blogs (3 professional/client interest, 2 personal interest) and study these blogs for 20 minutes each morning (SMUG, David Mullen and Dave Fleet would be a good start for your professional blogs). Watch how the comment flow impacts the dialogue of each post. Introduce yourself to the author and eventually begin commenting yourself. If you can’t learn to effectively listen and monitor, you don’t stand a chance in fully grasping social media.

3) Pick two tools and tackle them hard. My recommendation would be to choose between LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Don’t just set up profiles but study the wealth of published knowledge about how to use these tools strategically. Research, research, research. Once you feel you have  a solid grasp on one tool, try a new one. It’s not until you are actively engaged on these platforms that you will come to understand how they can used as key channels of communication for your business or client.

It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Step back and enjoy each slice of the pie. Be warned, before you know it, social media addiction will take over.

-Scott

Fritt etter Drew Benvies bloggpost for noen dager siden, der han tar for seg ti gode tips og grunner for å bruke twitter som kommunikatør.

1. Research/forskning
   Finn relevante saker, mennesker, diskusjoner etc. ved å bruke http://search.twitter.com aktivt. Her kan du også sette opp faste søk i din RSS-leser. Vil du følge med litt mer aktivt er en egen twitterapplikasjon et godt verktøy. Jeg vil anbefale TweetDeck som gir deg full oversikt og som kan settes opp slik du liker.
2. Nettverksbygging
   Finn en drøss med interessante mennesker som deler faglig snacks, og mener sterke meninger. Snakk med dem, tips dem, videreformidle deres standpunkter og linker. Hjelp en journalist med innspill til en sak, se hvem som skal delta på neste arrangement som du skal på og avtal møter der. Mulighetene for netteverksbygging er enorme. Jeg bruker twitter aktivt selv, og med over 1.000 som følger meg og vice versa er twitter faktisk viktigere for meg enn Facebook og LinkedIn på dette området.
3. Markedsføring/salg
   Dersom du klarer å finne balansen mellom spamming og nyttig markedsføring og salg kan twitter være stedet. I hvert fall i forhold til å forsterke andre aktiviterer. Selger du reiser, hvorfor ikke legge ut “i-siste-liten-tilbud”? Selger du PCer, gjør som Dell og bruk twitter til å selge renoverte PCer (http://twitter.com/delloutlet). Et godt verktøy her er TwitterFeed, som konverterer RSS til twittermeldinger for deg. Dette er nyttig for automatistere twittertjenester/brukere.
4. Lagarbeid/teamwork
   Inviter hele teamet, avdeling eller firmaet ditt til twitter, bruk det aktivt og se hvordan det endrer måten dere kommuniserer på. Det er vesentlig mer sosialt enn epost, og det forenkler en god del da man må holde seg til korte direkte eller åpne meldinger.
5. Nyhetsformidling
   Twitter er ikke bare et sted man fyrer av egne enveis meldinger, men en LIVE toveis nyhetskanal. Alle de store nyhetskanalene og mediehusene bruker Twitter til å spre nyheter og få feedback på dem. Finn ut hvordan du kan gjøre det samme. Flere og flere bruker twitter for å få med seg det viktigste som skjer. Gjør det samme for ditt firma eller din kunde.
6. Utprøving/testing
   Twitter er vel den raskest voksende “crowdsourcing”-plattformen, eller såkalt nettflokk. Bruk din nettflokk til å teste ut tjenester og produkter, få feedback med en gang, og utvikle det fortløpende. Har du en idé, test det ut på dine “nærmeste” på twitter før du kunngjør det til hele verden. Spør gode spørsmål og få mange gode svar.
7. Søkemotoroptimalisering
   Google elsker twitter! Ikke spør meg hvorfor, men det har antagelig noe med at kanalen oppdateres hele tiden. Av den grunn vil stort sett alltid relevante twitterkontoer havne høyt oppe på Google-søk. Så hvis ditt firma, merkevare, kunde eller talsperson er på twitter, få dem på!
8. Krisehåndtering
   Når det som ikke skulle skje skjer, når du har sagt noe dumt, når produktet ditt ikke er så bra som du trodde, når noe uventet skjer, bruk twitter aktivt. Følg med på hva andre mener om saken, del nyheter fortløpende (manuelt eller automatisk), og inkluder twitter i din kriseplan. Det vil lønne seg!
9. Tipse journalister om nyhetssaker
   Veldig mange norsk journalister er på twitter, og er aktive også. Se NRKbetas oversikt her. Stadig vekk kommer det tweets som spør om noen har tips til saker. Tips da vel! Bruk da gjerne direkte-tweets ved å skrive d, mellomrom, brukernavn og meldingen din.
10. Rekruttering
    Trenger du flere folk eller kanskje bare litt hjelp til et prosjekt? Twitter et bra sted å finne folk som er oppegående på området. Vi gjorde dette nylig da vi skulle finne folk til Sermo.

Og Dave Fleet har laget en liste over 40 kommunikasjonsrelaterte twitterfolk man bør følge for å lære litt.

1. Shannon Paul – @shannonpaul – New media creative content consultant at the Detroit Red Wings
2. Chris Brogan – @chrisbrogan – President, New Marketing Labs, co-founder of PodCamp
3. Jeremiah Owyang – @jowyang – Senior Analyst, Social Computing at Forrester Research
4. Laura Fitton – @pistachio – Principal and Founder, Pistachio Consulting
5. Jennifer Leggio – @mediaphyter – ZDNet social business blogger.
6. Julien Smith – @julien – Uber-smart, uber-friendly new media consultant from Montreal
7. David Alston – @davidalston – Vice President of Marketing at Radian6
8. Aaron Newman – @aaronnewman – Founder of Techrigy
9. Scott Stratten – @unmarketing – Ottawa
10. Melanie Baker – @melle – Community Manager at AideRSS
11. Joseph Thornley – @thornley – CEO of Thornley Fallis Communications, Canada’s leading PR blogger
12. Todd Defren – @tdefren – Principal at SHIFT Communications
13. Brian Solis – @briansolis – Principal at Futureworks
14. Dave Jones – @doctorjones – VP of Digital Communications at Hill & Knowlton Canada
15. KD Paine – @kdpaine – Measurement guru
16. Danny Brown – @dannybrown – Owner of boutique agency Press Release PR
17. Doug Haslam – @dough – PR pro with SHIFT Communications
18. Michael O’Connor Clarke – @michaelocc – VP at Thornley Fallis Communications, blogger since 2001 and general wise guy
19. Mike Kujawski – @mikekujawski – Ottawa-based marketing and social media consultant focused on the government sector
20. Shel Holtz – @shel – Co-host of For Immediate Release, communicator and co-author of Tactical Transparency
21. Colin McKay – @canuckflack – Director of Research, Education and Outreach at Canada’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner
22. Neville Hobson – @jangles – UK-based PR pro and co-host of the FIR podcast with Shel Holtz
23. Beth Harte – @BethHarte – Adjunct professor at Immaculata University
24. Karen Russell – @KarenRussell – PR professor at the University of Georgia
25. Christine Smith – @ProfChristineS – PR Educator at Centennial College, Toronto
26. Robert French – @rdfrench – PR teacher at Auburn University. Founder of PROpenMic and founding fellow of SNCR
27. Chip Griffin – @chipgriffin – CEO of, among other things, CustomScoop and Media Bullseye
28. Guy Kawasaki – @guykawasaki – Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures and founder of Alltop
29. Gary Vaynerchuk – @garyvee – Host of winelibrarytv.com
30. Peter Shankman – @skydiver – Founder of Help A Reporter Out
31. Marcel Lebrun – @lebrun – CEO of Radian6
32. Richard Binhammer – @richardatdell – Face of Dell’s digital media team
33. Keith Burtis – @KeithBurtis – Community Manager for @bestbuyremix
34. Ferg Devins – @molsonferg – VP of Public Affairs at Molson
35. Ike Pigott – @ikepigott – Like Chip, Ike questions everything I say
36. Shannon Whitley – @swhitley – Developed the Chat Catcher plugin
37. Mathew Ingram – @mathewi – Journalist at the Globe and Mail; blogger and co-founder of Canada’s Mesh Conference
38. Christopher Penn – @cspenn – Chief Technology Officer of the Student Loan Network, co-founder of PodCamp and social media ninja
39. Eden Spodek – @edenspodek – The Bargainista – pension fund communicator, shopping blogger, passionate about communities
40. Connie Crosby – @conniecrosby – Law librarian, social networking “diva” and co-host of the Community Divas podcast with Eden Spodek

Jeg vil følge opp med en “hvilke norske twitrere er verdt å følge” ila uken.

Og skulle dere være i tvil, Sermo Consulting er på twitter. Det samme er vi som jobber der. Følg gjerne @thomastangen, @frjohnsen og @meriksen (undertegnede).

In Dave Fleet’s post about the top 40 PR-related people to follow on Twitter, he categorizes the list into social media folks, communicators, educators, entrepreneurs, corporate Twitterers, and miscellaneous professions.  Surprisingly, I am already following a few of them on Twitter already.  Since it only takes a few seconds to start following someone on Twitter, I plan on trying to start following these PR pros as soon as possible.  I left a comment about a couple of people that I thought should be added to Dave’s list. Check it out.

There has been alot of talk recently about companies and brands using Twitter to connect with their audience. Jeremiah Owyang has written a brilliant piece reflecting on the stages a brand should go through before getting themselves onto Twitter. There’s been alot of talk about whether brands should in fact be on Twitter at all.

According to research by Emergence Marketing, around 60% of companies are not ready to engage with social media, letalone Twitter. The article estimates that somewhere between 60-75% of companies are spying on their employee’s use of the internet whilst at work, and makes the point:

If you cannot trust your employees to do the right surfing, then how can you trust them to engage in social media on your behalf?

Simply, you can’t. And this is one of the hurdles businesses need to overcome if they are looking to enter the realms of social media. You must trust your employees to know how your business needs to position itself, the tone of voice that suits and how you want people that you’re approaching to perceive you.

Much of this perception can be derived from the brand’s name, be it in your local high street, or globally. You tend to want to stick with it on business cards, shop fronts and websites because it says alot about you. So you want to extend this out to Twitter, or LinkedIn, or Xing. What though, if you can’t and you become the victim of Twittersquatting (this is someone taking your comany’s name purely because you haven’t already)?

Erik Heels points out in a blog post, that 93 of the top 100 companies in the world, don’t own thier Twitter names. It might be advisable to check that yours hasn’t already been taken – go on, do it now, i’ll put a brew on.

So was it taken? No? Good, sign up and have a think. Do you really need to use Twitter? Remember, this isn’t a case of getting your Twitter name and using it for the sake of it.

Dave Fleet makes a compelling case that sometimes, social media just isn’t for you or your brand and asks us to question several things:

If you’re not ready to engage yet, my advice would likely be (all other things being equal) to listen and learn from what your customers are saying:

* Who is talking about you?
* Where are they talking about you?
* What do they like?
* What do they hate?

And Dave makes it clear that:

Social media isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution to your problems. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you it is.

And he’s right.

But just because you’re not ready to step into the social media pond right now, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t protect your brand from being harmed by those who are. It’s the same as if someone started trading under a name similar to yours. If you are Joe Bloggs Ltd, but your competitor registers as Jo Blogs Ltd and starts doing a bad job, it can give your company, purely as an accidental consequence, a bad name. This is why many big companies buy up all of the website domains that are closely linked to their name, so that if somebody wanted to, they couldn’t buy BBC.com and use it to be nasty to BBC.co.uk.

Protection of a brand should be a main priority for any company, and that goes across Google to an ad in the local Post Office window. Social media is just one of the many tools that are at our disposal to do this, and used correctly, there are many benefits. Have a read of the articles cited above and (now you’ve got Twitter covered) you can make the first tentative steps to keeping your brand safe online.

Although many people think that editing is unnecessary, there’s another end of that spectrum: people who don’t know when to stop editing. Deadlines serve to govern that tendency, but in environments where deadlines are flexible or nonexistent, folks who don’t know when to stop editing can get into trouble. Dave Fleet at davefleet.com offers signs that that you should stop editing already. Key quote:

There’s no hard and fast rule, but these are useful indicators:

• When you see the piece beginning to revert to previous versions
• When you see changes that could be produced with a thesaurus
• When you see people tinkering with minor wording deep in the release
• When you see the work increasing in length unnecessarily
• When you see information irrelevant to the topic being added

Editing is an art and a science. Knowing when to stop is part of the art of editing.

Since so many blogs have called for the death of everything from press releases to the PR industry-at-large and embargoes, I would like to jump on the bandwagon and begin 2009 by calling for the death of social media tools.

Allow me to clarify: I am NOT calling for the death of social networks, or any kind of communication on the social web, but what I AM specifically calling for the death of the use of the word “tool” as it pertains to social media outreach for business.

I began thinking about this awhile back and included it in a comment on Dave Fleet’s very smart post: Social Media Outreach Won’t Work for Everyone.

From my comment to Dave:

More than a tool, lately I’ve begun using the “instrument” analogy to describe social media communication. In the right hands, social media outreach is beautiful music… in others it’s a painful cacophony of noise.

If we need a metaphor, doesn’t it seem more appropriate to think of social media outreach as a musical instrument as opposed to just another tool?

Monkeys can use tools, but it takes an artist to be able to appreciate the subtle nuance of bringing humanity into our communication to encourage the growth of real relationships without the luxury of a face-to-face introduction.

My question to marketers is this: Are you adding to the beauty or the value of a social network when you represent the company you work for, or are you simply clamoring for attention?

I headed to Philly this weekend to watch several people in my running group run the marathon and half marathon.  With eight people to watch, I figured the most efficient way to spectate would be on wheels, so I brought my rollerblades and as it turned out, I saw almost everyone at several points in the race.  Rolling back into my hotel room after nearly five hours (somehow I didn’t get back until almost an hour after the last runner in my group finished — don’t ask me how that happened) I was really looking forward to taking off my skates and wiggling my toes.  Whereupon I discovered that, having not ridden in quite a while, I had … forgotten how to take off my skates.  After a good five minutes of tugging and yanking and pressing and pulling and only succeeding in tightening the laces, I finally decided to use the Force.  (Okay, so maybe it was muscle memory.)  So I stopped thinking and let my fingers do the work and lo and behold … snap!  The catch released and the skate slipped off.

***

Dave Fleet compares various methods of communicating (face-to-face, phone, email, social networking, etc.) in a conflict.  The larger issue isn’t simply how to communicate in a conflict — it’s how to communicate.  I’ve gotten email messages from people when a phone call would be much simpler; I’ve gotten many phone calls when receiving information in an email message would be far more productive.  As publicists, our jobs are to communicate not just the what and why and to whom, but also when and how.

***

Between my vacation and everyone else’s, I may or may not be posting for the next couple weeks.  Regular posting will resume Wednesday, December 10.

There’s nothing unethical about ghost blogging.

Before I explain, let me emphasize that I’ve never done it, I probably never will and we at com.motion recommend that clients not do it. But not because of ethics.

“Ghost blogging” refers to the practice of a professional writer or PR type writing a blog on behalf of an executive or celebrity. This is very much frowned on by most of the social media fishbowl. This point was underscored in a recent session on ethics at the Talk is Cheap unconference at Centennial College and a followup post by panelist Dave Fleet.

After labeling ghost blogging as unethical, the panelists were put on the hotseat by Centennial College public relations students and other participants. Why is it okay to write speeches for clients but not to write blog posts? Dave and Michael O’Connor Clarke said the difference is that when a CEO reads a speech, he takes ownership of the words, even if he didn’t write them. Which makes it ethical. But this differentiator doesn’t apply to quotes PR people write for executives in press releases, the president’s statement in a monthly newsletter or op-eds (newspaper columns) written on their behalf.

The ethical divide isn’t disclosure since ghost-writing is rarely acknowledged offline except when it comes to books. And its not expectations, since most newspaper readers probably assume that columns attributed to executives were actually written by them.

So either all this stuff – from ghost quotes to ghost messages to ghost op-eds – is ethical or none of it is. And I lean towards the latter former (kind of changes the meaning of my post, but yes, I meant to say I think it’s all ethical).

There is one important difference, but it’s not ethical. The difference is consequences. Even if most readers aren’t aware that op-eds aren’t always written by the “writer,” the repercussions of getting found out are almost non-existent. But ghost blogging comes with a motrinmoms-esque public relations risk.

And that’s the real reason why – ethics aside – we don’t recommend it.

It’s nice being able to type with my left forefinger again — I accidentally smashed it so hard in a door late last week I almost threw up.  (You figure if you have to endure that much pain, you at least want a black fingernail to show for it.  No dice.)

***

I could talk about social networking until I’m blue in the face (actually, I do talk about social networking until I’m blue in the face), but there’s only so much you can say without using examples.  Booksquare lists several publishing / publisher blogs in this post about social networking.  One important point Kassia Krozser makes is that you can’t control what people say about your book / brand — much like you can’t control whether a book garners good or bad reviews — but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t contribute to the conversation.

***

Speaking of social networking, some of you may have heard of (one of) the latest additions to the literary social networking world: Red Room.  (Authors can join by invitation only.  Oooh.)  I poked around a bit when one of my authors was invited to join, but haven’t been back since then because I don’t have enough time and / or don’t care enough.  Fortunately, others do.  Mark Athitakis of American Fiction Notes posts some of his thoughts about Red Room.

***

For anyone curious about the microblogging site Twitter, Dave Fleet posts some of the most basic, i.e., useful, tips I’ve seen for the Twitter novice.  He briefly explains what Twitter is and how to sign up for an account and then walks you through using the site.  To see what others are doing on Twitter, you can check this Buzz Bin post that links to various journalist / company profiles.

Being Social (sharing e-books!) about Social Media

Chris Brogan’s original list/post (thanks Chris!) is here.

I’ve added others below.

• We Media – Chris Willis & Shane Bowman
• Journalism 2.0: How to Survive and Thrive – Mark Briggs
• Learning 2.0 (for Associations) – Jeff Cobb
• Strategic Communications Planning – Dave Fleet
• PR 2.0 – Brian Solis (the link goes to Brian’s blog, from which you can access several of his books – but you might also check out the recent posts and visuals on the Conversation Prism).

Happy treasure hunting!

Inden for de sidste 24 timer er jeg blevet gjort opmærksom på to gode blogposts om, hvordan man øger sit besøgstal på ens blog. Jeg kan desværre ikke nå at omskrive dem til en lang dansk post i aften, men i det mindste kan jeg da dele dem med jer.

Det første link fik jeg fra Morten Saxnæs via FriendFeed. Det er Chris Brogans blogpost “Growing your audience – some basics“. Det næste link var “Building Blog Readership” af Dave Fleet, som jeg fik tilsendt som Twitter link fra Thomas Tangen, en kollega i GCI Communique i Norge.

Det kunne være spændende at høre, om I er enige i betragtningerne i de to blogposts, synes der er noget der mangler, eller har helt andre erfaringer med at opbygge en læserskare?

Illustration: Tumultmedia.dk

I’ve turned to the power of social media to help support a wonderful Malawi orphanage. We’ll be volunteering with the Friends of Mulanje Orphans this summer during our three month journey through Africa. But more important, we want to raise funds so they can afford the food, medication and clean drinking water the kids need to survive and thrive.

To donate to my Malawi orphanage campaign, visit http://www.givemeaning.com/project/project42

The campaign is called Project 42. Before I run 42km in the Ottawa marathon (May 25), we’re searching for 100 people to donate $42. That adds up to $4,200. My wife and I will also be volunteering at least 42 hours of labour at the orphanage. To add a strange twist, I just discovered that ‘42′ is the meaning of life according to Douglas Adams.

The first online tool I selected was www.givemeaning.com. It allows you to set up a webpage, covers all credit card charges (so 100 percent of donations go to the charity) and helps you ’spread the word’ and bookmarks/tag. The founder is Canadian Tom Williams, a teenage computer genius who became a philanthropic millionaire. Check out his interview with Strombo on the CBC’s The Hour.

Second, I started a Facebook group. In only 48 hours, we have 25 members already.

Third, I’m posting about my charity drive on my blog (obviously cause you are reading this).

Fourth, I’m not sure. I’m not yet up and running on Twitter. Any suggestions out there??

Web 2.0 hasn’t been the only route to raising awareness and funds. Emails have proven to be critical to reaching many friends and family who are still living in Web 1.0 land. And certainly talking it up with coworkers and friends has helped.

Thanks to Dave Fleet, a fellow runner and blogger, who planted the seed for this idea in a similar campaign he did to support cancer research.

UPDATE: We’ve raised our first $1,000 within a week. A good start.

You didn’t think I’d spend a whole weekend at PodCamp without sharing, did you?

If you’ve been following the adventures of After a Fashion, you’ll be pleased to know Jenny Bullough aka Chloe Barbosa and Paradise Wunderland (that’s me) gave a presentation: “Everything You Need To Know About Second Life”.

Of course we talked about shopping. Jenny also shared her wonderful case study about eHarlequin’s book launches in Second Life. I’m leaving a copy of the slides here so you can have a look:

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There were many fascinating sessions at PodCamp. Check out the media archive you can catch up on the latest in social media and podcasting. See, sometimes the best things in life are free! Thanks to all our sponsors.

Personal note: You may know I was on the PodCamp Toronto 2008 organizing team. I want to give a big shout out the other team members: Connie Crosby, Dave Fleet, Rob Lee, Katherine Matthews, Sean McGaughey, Jay Moonah, and Tommy Vallier. You’re amazing!