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If Santa Were More Social

Posted on December 22, 2011May 23, 2020 by Briana

Nowadays everyone is using social and digital media. And with so much to do before Christmas, I’m thinking that Santa could ease some stress and reinforce his personal brand by embracing digital technology. Here are a few ways for him to start:

Live Tweeting. Wouldn’t it be great to follow Santa’s every move on Twitter? Actually, there is a @santaclaus account, courtesy of NORAD. It has only about 5700 followers, so maybe Santa should start using the “list” feature a bit more shrewdly….naughty, nice, not sure, etc.

Foursquare Check-ins. Santa can create a virtual North Pole or Holiday Spirit check-in for the rest of us to log good deeds. Or, S.C. might launch a holiday decorations photo contest among followers, seeing as he’s holding a pretty impressive prize package.

Facebook Polls. A quick Facebook survey can help pinpoint top gifts among the deserving, the better to guide his production plans.

GPS. Naturally, satellite technology has a role here. Avoiding storms can probably slice the Big Guy’s travel time in half.

Live blogging. Of course a platform like Tumblr would enable Santa to integrate the visual aspects of his big trip and share them in real time. I’m sure he could put his hands on the right smartphone for the job.

Email still works. We could use more regular holiday updates on the year’s news, or maybe a sneak peek on how Santa will spend a post-Christmas vacation. And there are so many story ideas that can be pitched via email, like, like a New Year’s resolution to slim down, or becoming more eco-friendly with a solar-powered sleigh.

Online Shopping. Can’t leave this one out. A cross-promotion with Amazon can save the elves a lot of work!

Happy Holidays!

8 Ways To Make Your PR Program More Social

Posted on September 14, 2011May 24, 2020 by Dorothy Crenshaw

Social media is like a “secret sauce” for marketing communications. It isn’t always strong enough on its own, but it adds flavor and power to a traditional program. The key is integration. Here are some simple steps for “socializing” a PR campaign, even if it’s a DIY (do it yourself) variety.

Set clear goals. Many companies feel pressure to make a deeper commitment to social media, yet they haven’t defined their objectives. Do you want to drive traffic to a commerce site? Enhance reputation? Target influencers? Change sentiment? Each will, of course, inform a different set of metrics, as detailed by measurement expert K.D. Paine.

Start by listening. If your brand or business is being discussed online, you’re probably already using tools to monitor the conversation. But, even if you’re off the social radar, there are relevant industry issues, trends or competitive activity that can help inform a strategy. Sometimes what you learn can even translate into quick visibility. A simple Google Alerts for your industry’s hot topics can help identify bloggers and media who cover those subjects. It might also let you jump on breaking news with your own commentary or content.

Use social platforms to build relationships. Twitter, with its liberal follow model, is unbeatable as a social tool for reaching influential media and analysts. This is particularly valuable when more and more reporters hide behind voicemail or email. Check out Muck Rack, which organizes all journalists on Twitter into “beats,” build your own lists, or join relevant Twibes to engage users. You can also check out relevant LinkedIn discussion groups, or start your own.

Take advantage of socialized PR tools. ProfNet, or its free counterpart, HARO, are powerful ways to match media needs and interests with experts. And there’s an entire online world of press release distribution sites and engines for announcements. Check out PR Web, pitchengine, and mynewsdesk, to name just a few.

Create content. Of course, creating content is where many programs stall. If a corporate opinion blog is too much to take on, consider aggregating industry trends or issues once a week, linking and giving credit to other sources. Or, set a goal of commenting weekly on industry blogs. If that’s too much, arrange to guest blog for a trade publication or content site on a regular basis.

Reuse, recycle, repurpose. Remember that an industry speech can be easily converted to a bylined article for a trade or business publication, which can then be republished as a blog post. In some cases, all you need do is shorten or reformat, and add a topical lead.

Optimize your PR content. Don’t forget to enhance press releases. Consider using multimedia; it serves two needs by being more searchable and more compelling to journalists and bloggers.

Anticipate feedback. Clearly, the “command and control” messaging days are gone. Socialized news announcements and content will seek – and in many cases provide response mechanisms for – public feedback. Have a plan for responding to engaged users, and be ready with a fully “socialized” issues and crisis plan if your brand is vulnerable.

This post recently appeared on the Marketing Executives Networking Group’s MENGBlend blog.

PR By Another Name: Public Relations and the "New" Competition

Posted on March 15, 2011November 15, 2022 by Dorothy Crenshaw

The chemistry was great, our experience perfect, and they loved the proposal. But, in a twist, the account went to a “digital brand management” shop whose website touts its ability to drive visibility and engagement.

PR by another name? The “creative destruction of PR”? It’s true that social media has changed the game for our business, and mostly in a good way. The blurring of the PR/marketing line is a gift for firms who understand the social Web.

But there’s a flipside. Just as we’re hungry for more of the social marketing pie, digital marketing firms, branding agencies, social media consultants, and others are eyeing it, too. Last year, a prospect told me he was placing funds earmarked for PR into SEO. He needs a quick fix, and he doesn’t think PR can provide it. And he’s right.

So, how can we benefit from the blurry line? Expansion is one way. Late last year Edelman announced Ruth, an in-house integrated marketing unit offering a laundry list of marketing services, from branding to mobile marketing. In my view, it’s tough for a company whose core business is PR to attract top talent in all non-core areas. But, a mega-firm needs to tap all budgets, and it’s probably a defensive move, too.

But short of being all things to all clients, we should look at how the need is articulated…or how we can frame it. As a marketing PR person for so many years, I fall squarely into that camp in the debate over where PR belongs. But for marketing issues, PR is rarely the sole answer, and our strategy has to fit into the larger picture. The typical PR program isn’t designed for quick (and often, temporary) demand generation.

But where reputation is an issue, we tend to come out on top. Last month, we won an online assignment as the sole PR contender in a field of digital marketing firms. One reason was in how we sized up the issue together. Not as a purely online threat subject to SEO “dark arts” or social media magic. We discussed it as a critical and long-term reputation issue, best addressed through “education” (read: PR.) The client agreed.

So, maybe it’s a wash. But, I’m convinced that PR remains the most flexible, credible, and powerful tool for most communications issues, so I’m keeping tabs on the one that got away.

Does Social Media Cause Groupthink?

Posted on December 14, 2010November 15, 2022 by Dorothy Crenshaw

I used to consider “groupthink” mostly as the enemy of new ideas. You know, where members of the team are more motivated to agree with one another and get along than to question the status quo or break new ground. Then there’s the too-homogeneous mindset that can result from an entrenched corporate culture. Tech blogger Steve Tobak wrote a great post about the potential perils of a “monoculture” in “When Groupthink Trumps Smarthink.”

But, lately I worry about a different kind of bandwagoning. One related to our increasingly selective and inch-deep consumption of media, and fostered by like-minded online friends and fans. It’s why I began to switch from my favorite news channels when following the midterm elections. (I knew what those who agreed with me thought; I wanted to find out what the other side was thinking.) It’s the reason I’ve resolved to question some of my assumptions about PR, ethics, and social media as 2011 looms. (Hence, the “boiling frog” analogy in a previous post.) And, it was my motivation for engaging a Tea Party member on the topic of healthcare reform at a recent business reception.

Okay, that last one was a bad idea, as it turned out. But I think the risk is there. When the Web first exploded, it seemed like the perfect antidote to any kind of homogeneity of thought or ideas – after all, there’s nothing you can’t find online. But, you do have to find it first. Today, the content we consume, and the social networks that we find it in, are increasingly curated, recycled, and aggregated. Newsfeeds, LinkedIn discussion groups, Twitter circles, Facebook clubs – it can contribute to a cloistered media diet and narrow point of view.

So, how to fight against the subtle pressure to think like the crowd?

Branch out. Try to read one blog post or column each day from a site or group you don’t agree with. I can’t bring myself to become fans or subscribers of these groups, but I think it’s enough to read and subscribe to different types of blogs and feeds, particularly around a hot-button political, social, or industry issue.

Similarly,it helps to add a few fresh friends/followers every day. Sure, it’s great to be focused, and it’s essential for most bloggers, but list functions and tagging make it easy to wander beyond your professional turf without losing that focus.

Avoid the rockstars. Some of the most popular social media figures are truly original, or at least, they started out that way. But, up-and-coming bloggers and columnists are nearly always more interesting, and they try harder.

Be critical of what you like. And “like.” As Robert Pagliarini points out, we’re unguarded among those we trust, but we should hold the familiar to a higher standard when it comes to spewing opinions or speculating about reasons for things. And there’s no safer place to disagree than among friends and peers.

Look for original content. We get enough recycled news every day. Seek out those resources with original content, where the author’s professional interests and biases are obvious.

Play devil’s advocate. With your own assumptions, that is. It’s a useful exercise in which you nearly always learn something.

Solicit other opinions. Especially from those who are silent. I like to do this in business meetings, because the quiet ones often have interesting opinions.

Look for diversity, even within a topic. This is why I find it useful to read posts and byliners about PR from those who head up mega-agencies as well as solo practitioners. Everyone has something specific to add to the conversation, so looking up and down the food chain keeps my mind open.

Question authority. It sounds like teenage rebellion, but it’s relevant to all of us. And it certainly applies to what we read and retweet from self-anointed experts every day. Having common opinions and experiences is a comfortable basis for an online relationship, but the average blogger or commentator will appreciate an alternative point of view, if well expressed, even more. The social Web should be about discussion, after all.

When Social Media Goes Too Far

Posted on December 7, 2010November 15, 2022 by Dorothy Crenshaw

The social web can be a wonderful thing. But what happens when social content goes too far as a substitute for actual journalism? In an age when “everyone is the media,” the credibility bar drops fairly low, revealing biases, errors, and rumors that pass as fact. I’m grateful for the traditional press, battered, but unbowed, when it comes to sorting out what’s really happening.

Except when it isn’t. Occasionally the mainstream media is suckered by what they read on blogs and social media platforms. David Carr’s New York Times story on the TSA furor has me thinking about how things go haywire when social and traditional media, rather than complementing one another, join to fan a brushfire. It’s the worst of both worlds.

Carr recaps how the reaction to new TSA security procedures, including high-tech scans and thorough body pat-downs, blew up on Twitter, then mushroomed into a traditional news story, and spawned an opt-out movement…all turning out to be much ado about very little. The TSA struggled to respond to the furor. But, when the mainstream outlets went out to report the story of the airport protests, apparently there wasn’t one.

It reminded me of a larger news story. Remember the Iranian Twitter revolution that never happened? And, at the other end of the spectrum, a favorite recent blog topic, about the outcry around Gap’s new logo? The social media revolt was such that newspapers and other jumped on the story, and Gap was forced to backpedal and return to its original iconic look. Yet, afterwards, a customer survey showed that only 17 percent of Gap customers were even aware of the initial logo change. It was branding and social media insiders, and PR people like me, whose comments multiplied exponentially on the social web.

These examples raise “echo chamber” accusations about the social web and its so-called influencers. Who’s really out there? Is it twelve people with mirrors? Is what seems like digital “grassroots” just a a few plants treated with media miracle-gro?

Maybe it’s no surprise that those who tweet the loudest are heard. After all, social content sharers are prey to all the pitfalls of traditional press – wanting to be first with interesting items, needing news during a slow time (like a holiday week), wanting to stoke reader interest, retweets, and discussion.

To be fair, many readers of Carr’s TSA story hotly dispute his premise – that, in fact, there were few protests and little of note at major airports over Thanksgiving week. That’s a good thing. When controversy rages online, it’s a reminder of the diversity of opinion on the web, and an antidote to groupthink.

When we bother to look for it, that is. Maybe it’s a reminder for us to break out of our digital cliques and to try harder to avoid falling into a social/digital news feed of recycled ideas and commentary about commentary. The next post will explore ways to do that. Until then, enjoy this video about “old” media’s newfound fascination with it.

Shirley Sherrod And The Death Of Context

Posted on July 27, 2010May 26, 2020 by Dorothy Crenshaw

It’s practically a given that privacy is dead. Just ask Mel Gibson. His creepy rantings (and pantings), as recorded by his girlfriend, have probably ended his career. In a different way, General Stanley McChrystal was also brought down by a breach in the traditional discretion granted to subjects of his ilk, greatly amplified by digital media. All it took was a couple of careless remarks made by aides when they mistakenly counted on a wall of privacy. The general was no match for the social web.

Just last month, Helen Thomas was caught on tape blasting Israel and advising that Jews should “go back to Germany,” precipitating a sad end to a long career. Of course she knew she was being recorded, but she somehow never thought her remarks would be on YouTube within a day.

I wouldn’t put those three in the same category, and in each case, the consequences were probably deserved. But social media helped hasten a harsh denouement and ensure that no second chances were granted. When stories are retweeted and shared within minutes, there’s no room to deny, delay, or clarify. You can die by your own hand within hours.

There’s another reputation that was recently shredded, that of USDA officer Shirley Sherrod. Social media was at work here, too. Sherrod was unfairly branded as racist and lost her job in the time it took to say “viral video.”

Should we blame the digital age – with its privacy-destroying technologies and 24-hour news cycle – for the Sherrod mess, too? The speed of the web was a factor, sure. Even more, it was the “gotcha” approach of the race-baiting Andrew Breitbart, who has tried, and briefly succeeded, in actually delegitimizing real journalism.

What happened to Sherrod is about racism, the knee-jerk response of the White House, and, yes, digital culture. But when the video snippet was released, and the early media pounced on the story, something else was sacrificed. Not privacy. Context.

Context is what journalists are supposed to create and provide. They’re meant to vet material, its source, and seek comment, at minimum. McChrystal, Thomas, even Mel Gibson all had that opportunity. Breitbart didn’t do that when he posted the video, proving he’s not a journalist. But, what’s even more disturbing, for too long a while, neither did some of the so-called legitimate press.

Should PR Own Social Media?

Posted on July 21, 2010May 26, 2020 by Dorothy Crenshaw

This week’s news that ad and PR behemoth Interpublic Group has launched Rally, a social media unit, has the industry buzzing. The launch gave fresh fodder to the old turf debate, spiced with speculation about infighting under a single corporate roof. EVP Heidi Browning says Rally won’t mean new competition for IPG-owned PR firms. Insiders say that’s hard to believe.

And it is. With marketing budgets under scrutiny, everyone wants a piece of the social media pie. And not just crumbs…we’re after the juicy, buzz-generating campaigns that require fat budgets and make reputations rise. In fact, we’ve spent huge portions of time and energy arguing that the whole pie should belong to us, by dint of experience, natural inclination, or sheer talent.

Ad agencies are the traditional marketing stewards, so the case they make starts there. They have the key ingredients – brand strategy chops, consumer insights, and creative flair. Some fault PR pros for lacking the necessary skills to own the new landscape. They claim we’re not savvy about tech tools or sophisticated about metrics, which in some cases is quite true.

The PR response is often that social media belongs with us because we’re natural storytellers. We’ve always been the content generators, we know how to build buzz, and, besides, we’re the relationship guys. (It says so in our name, right?)

Then there are the digital marketing experts, social media consultants, refashioned web gurus, and so-called strategists rushing to claim a seat at the social media banquet. Everyone wants to be master chef in the marketing mix.

It takes a village…and a new mindset for PR

But, the truth is, none of us has the full spread to satisfy every need – or even the mindset. Traditional advertising types tend to default to the old, control-the-message approach. Like a cook who tweaks a favorite recipe, they think social media’s about getting your ad campaign to go viral. (While that can be a wonderful thing – just ask Old Spice – it’s beyond myopic as a point of view.) But just as many PR pros cling to their familiar formula. They’ve replaced media relations with blogger outreach, without embracing the new world of consumer engagement.

The answer to who owns social media, of course, is that it’s the wrong question. It’s like asking who should own traditional media. It’s a tool, of course. A customer service program on Twitter and a Foursquare frequent-visitor promotion are both social media-driven. Yet, the goals, strategies, and execution teams are likely to be drastically different.

I know what they say about too many cooks….and it’s true that every campaign needs a leader. Some will be PR-centric while others involve paid media. But, maybe – just maybe – we should stop arguing over the dessert that none of us owns and try to figure out how to work together to serve our clients.

Ford Leads The Way For Influencer Marketing

Posted on March 20, 2010May 27, 2020 by Dorothy Crenshaw

As I’ve previously blogged, I get a charge out of the Fiesta Movement, Ford’s nontraditional campaign to promote its new subcompact car. Not because it’s innovative, although it’s undoubtedly a departure for the automotive category. I admire it precisely because it’s not groundbreaking in the truest sense. It’s something better.

The Fiesta Movement is a great example of a simple idea and a classic public relations strategy – influencer marketing – adapted to the age of the social Web. And, it’s a template for how a multi-platform social media campaign should be done. By offering cars to 100 carefully selected heavy users of social media, and letting their “agents” market the car for them, Ford has proven that social media can sell cars.

The company’s been very forthcoming about the results of the first six months of the movement. It’s already racked up 6000 pre-orders well in advance of the subcompact’s US launch. What’s more, it’s ignited interest among 100,000 more prospective customers. Those may not be huge numbers, but for a category like this one, in a year like the one we’ve just had, it’s pretty powerful. And it’s proof that social media can drive brand engagement as well as actual sales.

As Ford’s Scott Monty reminds us, this is all without a car in the showroom, and without spending on conventional advertising. “Social media can mean more than just Facebook and Twitter, if it’s done in an integrated way.” The PR mileage, as measured in traditional media coverage, has been pretty impressive as well.

The next leg of the campaign doesn’t sound quite as simple as the first one, which was part of its beauty. Apparently Ford will enlist 20 additional “agents,” who will engage in competitions in local markets that bring to mind “Amazing Race”-style antics. Except that the local contests are meant to “immerse them in cultural movements, allowing them to ignite passion into their communities through social media while opening the discussion about Fiesta.”

Hmmm. I’m not sure what that’s about. But, given the grassroots groundswell surrounding the first Fiesta campaign, we can probably count on more milestones in the near future. At this juncture, the Movement’s about more than just Ford or its subcompact; it’s become a symbol of marketers getting the customer religion. What’s wonderfully ironic is that it took an uncool, utilitarian brand from a tired and crumbling industry to show us the way.