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Social Media is about "conversation." It's about people conversing amongst themselves; people conversing with --- and about --- brands of all sizes.

Marketing is about "selling stuff."

And there's the rub.

Marketers' motives in this dawning era of the "consumer voice" may be as pure as snow. They may very sincerely see Social Media's rise as an exciting opportunity to engage in a dynamic, mutually-beneficial dialogue with their customers and prospects. They may see Social Media as a means to gain instant and actionable feedback on their offerings. They may genuinely wish to hear the good, bad & ugly aspects of their image and products.

But ultimately marketers are always, always, always trying to "sell more stuff." Which is why bleeding-edgers will always, always, always suggest that marketers "just don't get it." These hard-liners may not readily admit that "commercialism" is at the heart of their beef with marketeers, but my humble opinion is that the evangelists can confuse "profit-taking" (good) with "profiteering" (bad).

Here's my question: Is selling stuff bad? Is making money bad? As long as the corporation is not exploiting its workers or cheaping-out on product quality and service, isn't it OK to cheer for good ol' Capitalism?

When people buy stuff, companies make money. Companies that make money employ people. People who have jobs also tend to have healthcare, savings, homes, puppy dogs, etc. It's also usually the people with jobs who purchase computers and broadband Internet access and digi-cams and camera-phones: the gear that makes Social Media so fun & funky-fresh.

Marketing motivates Sales. Sales create Profits. Profits = puppy dogs. Remember that, the next time you're inclined to scoff at the intentions of a marketer making a sincere attempt to "get it." After all, who doesn't love a puppy?

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

It's a great thing, in PR, to be able to latch on to a high-profile news event. When our clients can add relevant information to a news meme, it typically results in a burst of terrific coverage. Accordingly, watching, analyzing & responding to the news-of-the-day is an important aspect of most on-going client programs.

(There's a dark side to this type of activity, though: for example, at least one PR agency was rightfully lambasted for using the 9/11 tragedy as fodder for a pitch about their client. Even 5+ years later, that one still rankles.)

In addition to watching the news each day, of course there are also "known" events that many companies tend to circle 'round. The upcoming SuperBowl is one such extravaganza. As a big-time national event, there are many ways that all sorts of companies try to latch on to the game: Marketing-related companies will want to comment on the commercials; on the technology behind the commercials; on the creative trends that led to the making-of the commercials. Internet infrastructure vendors will want to discuss the growing trends of streaming media; surfing-while-watching; spikes in traffic patterns based on in-game and commercial events. Food-related vendors will want to offer-up recipe and party ideas. Big-box retailers will chat-up sales stats for their souped-up TVs.

Water-cooler chat is dead. In an age when our passions have been micro-niched thanks to Tivo, satellite radio, iPods, blogs, etc., each event that truly ties us together as a nation is an especially big deal.

In fact the SuperBowl (and Valentine's Day, and Mother's Day, etc.) is SUCH a big deal that I am increasingly suggesting that --- unless they have a truly compelling angle --- clients should "just enjoy the game." The flood of PR pitches that flood the newsrooms means that journalists are increasingly less inclined to suss 'em all out. Can ya blame them?

Which leads to today's PR tip o' the day: sometimes your PR approach will be much more successful by ignoring the Big News. Provide information and content (whether related to clients or not) in the quieter times, when the media could really use a helping hand, and they'll not only reward you with more in-depth coverage when things are quiet --- they'll also remember you more fondly when you come up with a "touchdown!"-level pitch about the Big Game.

Tags: marketing, superbowl, public+relations

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

For as long as I've been doing this PR thing, I've heard marketers gasp in horror whenever an idea was presented that might (MIGHT!) motivate a website visitor to click away from their website. Ever notice that the vast majority of links found on a website tend to link to inbound pages within that same site? "Once the beast is ensnared, do nothing to let it out!!"

Of course, none of us could ever do anything truly special (or devious) to keep an unmotivated visitor at the website. Great content = longer visits, longer engagements. Period. I'd often suggest to clients that if the content was good enough, the marketer should be confident that the visitor would return for more. (That whole, "If you love someone, set them free" mentality.) More often than not, that kind of hippy-dippy thinking got me an eye-roll for my troubles.

In Ye Olden Dayes when a click could, indeed, lead to a lost customer, I had some sympathy for the marketer. But, I wonder if tabbed browsing will alleviate some of those primal fears?

When the superior user interface of the "Open in New Tab" function becomes commonplace, can we presume that the visitor who clicks away may merely be doing some related research; perhaps to augment their knowledge about the brand found in "Tab #1?"

If this becomes an accepted point of view, might marketers take-on the additional responsibility of ensuring that the links on their sites lead to the very-best external content? Might their website (or del.icio.us account) become a content aggregation portal, instead of just a nest of self-referential links?

Posted by Todd Defren at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

In light of the recent hubbub, in which some of the same old issues cropped up as were raised when we first debuted the first Social Media News Release template, I thought it might make sense to re-post a relevant post from last Summer. From July 17, 2006:

A frequent question raised by the debut of the Social Media News Release was, "Who is the audience for these newfangled releases?" The immediate follow-up to that question typically ran like this: "Many journalists are barely versed in email, much less Social Media tools --- the Social Media Press Release is too bleeding edge for these folks."

Fair enough, but...

The intent was never to cater exclusively to the journalist community.

Why not? Two reasons:

The democratization of media means that your dear Aunt Franny & kid brother Joe are the media, too. According to the Pew Center, over 35% of current Web users have created Web content, in the form of a video, a blog post, a comment on a user-board (e.g., TripAdvisor), etc. In terms of their potential influence on the fate of a company, these Web authors can be as important as any mainstream news reporter. The Social Media News Release provides these authors with Web-based content that they can readily find, cut & paste into their own content efforts. Just like the traditional reporter can.

Secondly, the Social Media Release can be viewed as a self-contained content source, optimized to be readily "found" via a typical Google search. As has been noted, press releases have eclipsed industry articles as a source of information for consumers. The Web is not made up of SITES, it is made up of search-optimized PAGES. The New Media Release can BE the story, even if it is never "picked up" by a traditional news outlet. It can be "digged" instead. Or not. Won't matter. It will be found.

Thus, the AUDIENCE for the Social Media Release is ANYONE who may find, view and/or "re-mix" the content it contains.

The Social Media Release is not intended to be all things to all people.

It is meant to provide whatever you need for whoever you are.

Tags: social+media+news+release

Posted by Todd Defren at 04:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Stowememe --- in which a Web2.0 evangelist railed against the PR industry in general and the Social Media News Release in particular (even though "some of [his] best friends are PR people") --- seems to finally be running its course. I tracked it all (and commented briefly) at this spot in del.icio.us.

Obviously, as one of the earliest proponents of the SMR I tend to side with the SMR advocates, but I certainly see and acknowledge some important points made by Stowe Boyd and his supporters. In particular, like Stowe, I think we can all disdain crappy PR practices, including our profession's all-too-eager embrace of Social Media tools, which to a die-hard like Mr. Boyd must come across as smarmy, self-serving, clueless careerism (at best). We must do our best to embrace the concepts first, the tools second. Having said that, it'd be nice if PR pros occasionally received the benefit of the doubt: it just happens that it can be hard to know where to start --- sometimes exploring the tools leads to an epiphany about the concepts, eh?

Throughout this meme, I mostly kept my powder dry. As noted earlier, good folks like Shel Holtz, Brian Solis, Chris Heuer, et al. not only did a great job "playing defense" on their own blogs, but more importantly they assiduously monitored and responded in the "Comments" sections of pretty much any blog that piled-on. (Special kudos to Solis, in particular, whose tireless efforts also paid-off with some well-deserved, sweet-as-nectar Google juice for his PR2.0 blog from Chris Anderson's Long Tail site.) Still, I'd be lying if I said I didn't WANT to jump into the fray, fists flailing. "Didjoo call my baby ugly?? How dare you!"

So, today, I resolved to give my final thoughts. "Just one more T'rati search, to make sure I am up-to-date," I promised myself, "Then, I'll go nuts." And that's when I saw the post that I very much wanted to write --- except I hadn't written it. Phil Gomes of Edelman wrote it. Phil, get outta my head!

In his post from Monday (I missed it the first time around, sorry Phil!) --- go read it, please, I'll wait --- Phil not only captured all the main points I planned to make (with just the right degree of snarkasm), but at the same time tipped his hat to the many people and ideas that deserve recognition. If you're a regular reader of PR-Squared, if you are curious about how most SMR advocates really feel about the Stowememe, please check out Phil's site.

While I can't declare the Stowememe to be dead (actually, we can be thankful that it drew more attention and constructive debate to our efforts), now that I know that my own thoughts about it have been so clearly articulated, I can at least stop obsessing!

UPDATE: Ironically, Stowe Boyd also just picked up on Phil's post, and calls it out as the best example of PR people "not getting it." ALL of this is starting to feel like self-important blather to me, I gotta say. I didn't realize we all had to "get it" to the same degree as the bleeding-edgers in order to dare touch the ball, much less try to move it downfield. Let's just agree to disagree and move on!?

UPDATE 2: A nice summary, and salient points raised, by Jeremiah Owyang.

Tags: stowememe, stowe+boyd, shel+holtz, brian+solis, social+media, social+media+news+release, chris+heuer, phil+gomes, edelman, shift+communications, pr+2.0, public+relations, long+tail, chris+anderson, smr, hrelease

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (14)

Among the many OTHER debates that bounce around the echo-chamber on occassion is the debate on disintermediation. Specifically: As Social Media becomes more mainstream; as companies enable more direct communications with their end-customers (through blogs, SMNRs, RSS, etc.), will the PR industry suffer a level of disintermediation? Will the middleman role fade away?

To date, that has certainly NOT been the case. Social Media faux pas notwithstanding, the PR industry business has been booming. There's been a headlong rush, among client companies large & small, into the arms of PR agencies --- specifically agencies who (supposedly) "get it" when it comes to Social Media.

Of course, that gold-rush won't last, as knowledge (mistakes, best-practices, daily use) spreads amongst marketers of all stripes. So, disintermediation could still occur within the next 3 to 5 years, if you believe the cynics. If PR agencies are becoming dinosaurs, we need to scan the skies for asteroids.

I was discussing these concepts with some colleagues and clients recently. One of them said something off-the-cuff that struck me as (potentially) profound. He said, "One of the reasons companies hire PR agencies is so that they have someone to blame when something gets FUBAR. Despite all of the OTHER value that agencies offer, they ALSO serve as job insurance for the marketer. The agency is the neck that the marketing v.p. gets to choke, if they ever need to protect their own necks."

Talk about cynical! And yet, he makes a good point.

As marketers (and their agencies) struggle to keep pace with high-scaling volumes of "traditional" and "new era" communications and communities, mistakes are bound to happen. Because an agency has several clients, they'll make (or witness) more mistakes. They'll learn more, and faster. So, it's better that the agency catches those bullets than the clients' marketers. What could be more human --- or humane --- than that? At most agencies, losing a client does not mean losing a job --- and that's not the case for the in-house contact, for whom "making a mistake" could result in "missing a mortgage payment."

Thus, for now, the PR Agency serves at least two distinct & important purposes in the Social Media era:

1. Faster learning curve across multiple clients = more sophisticated counsel re: Social Media do's & don't's.
2. "FUBAR insurance" for the corporate marketer.

Combined, these dual benefits should ward off a few asteroids.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

If you are a hardcore fan of the Social Media News Release, you are probably aware of a firememe that got ginned-up over the weekend.

Stowe Boyd and Scoble poked fingers in the PR industry and SMNR advocates' eyes, which led to responses of all kinds --- many of which were nuanced and comprehensive (also, blunt and brilliant). You might think that I'd want to weigh in, too, given that I've been pimping our (otherwise well-received) SMNR template for almost a year now. But honestly, I've got nothing substantive to add. Pros like Chris Heuer, Brian Solis and Shel Holtz are amply qualified to defend our fair lady's honor.

Instead, I am going to take my own advice: over the course of this week, I am going to track this debate (retroactively and moving forward) at my del.icio.us page, and will add my two-cents to each post. I'll tag them "stowememe" --- if you are interested in this meme (and my response) you can hit this del.icio.us/stowememe page or subscribe to the posts. (Just gimme a couple of days to catch up! --- I missed this over the weekend.)

Tags: stowememe, stowe+boyd, scoble, shel+holtz, chris+heuer, brian+solis, social+media+news+release, pr+2.0, public+relations, marketing, social+media

Posted by Todd Defren at 02:16 PM | Permalink

Random scenes from my RSS reader fill me with excitement about how Consumer Generated Media is promising to change the world.

The excitement stems from the sense of anarchy. Have you ever had a bizarre desire to live in a post-nuclear disaster zone, battling brain-eating undead zombies? Sounds like fun, right? That sense of anarchic glee is evident when you see how bloggers (also known as "reg'lar folks") are able to play watchdog on national brands. Check this out. (Hat-tip to John Wagner and Mike Driehorst.)

How can a large brand possibly deal with any & all disgruntled consumers, when every dang one of 'em is armed with camera-phones and free blogging software? I wonder how many blogs will be started-up in 2007, purely due to "disgruntlement?" From now on, anytime a retailer or manufacturer or service provider pisses off a customer, you can bet that a "spite blog" may be the result. In fact, I bet there's a Math Genius out there who could figure out the formula: for every person who gets pissed off by a FORTUNE 1000 company, there's probably an exponentially-scaling chance that a "spite blog" will be created.

The excitement also comes from seeing "the human side" of large brands. Specifically, it's exciting to see big brands' WILLINGNESS to be more human. That's a softer kind of anarchy, but it's evidence of a loss of control that more brands must embrace. Kodak has seen a sympathetic spike for its decade-long bungles thanks to this clever video on YouTube. This is a stellar example of how GREAT CONTENT leads to GREAT RESULTS. Supposedly this video was created for INTERNAL audiences at Kodak, and the excited response led to the YouTube post.

I wonder how much that video might have SUCKED if it had been generated by some marketing flack's desire to "do a viral video?" Hat-tip to Paul Gillin.

Of course, there's a flip-side to all this. I've mused before about the scalability challenge that marketers and PR pros will face in addressing quajillions of empowered consumers. In those previous posts I was wondering about how to do a GOOD JOB. Now I am growing equally concerned about Marketing's ability to simply KEEP UP! We must not only find all these posts, we must not only respond, but we must also respond promptly & well!?

Yikes. Bring on the zombie horde.

Tags: blogs, blogging, spite+blogs, public+relations, pr+2.0, marketing, kohls, kodak, youtube

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Earlier this week, Technorati and PRNewswire announced a deal that "for the first time (allows) readers of press releases (to) track online conversations in the blogosphere directly from press releases." In other words, the "Technorati This" button will be integrated within the press release.

This is both Big News and Not-So-Big News.

It's Not-So-Big News in that it's Not A Big Deal --- not "technically," anyway. Anyone savvy enough to pull down a press release directly from the PRNewswire site is likely more than capable of also running a quick T'rati search on the news. This integration simply saves a step.

It may also be considered Not-So-Big News if the rumors are true that that this collaboration will "scrub" the results of the integrated T'rati search. But I harbor serious doubts about that rumor. Although I could see why it might be attractive for PRN to offer corporate clients a "scrubbed" Technorati search, I really doubt that that's even possible. I also doubt that Sifry would agree to such a thing. The rumor is further disproven when you see that the T'rati search about the news already includes at least one negative reaction.

But, it's also true that there are some negative posts about the deal that do not show up in the T'rati search (like this one). "Misses" beg the question, "What else went missing?" If the T'rati search about the T'rati/PRN integration is itself flawed, I am concerned about suggesting this feature to clients. My guess is that these are unintentional search flaws that will be remedied in due course.

In any event, I am a PRN fan; I know Dave Armon; he's serious about Social Media. Which leads to the Big News:

"This marks the first time Technorati has entered into a partnership with a commercial news distribution company, and will help establish a strong link between two of the most important tools in the communications mix --- announcements via press releases and reactions from bloggers."

Ultimately it doesn't matter how "easy" it is to enable this technical functionality. What this deal represents is the growing respectability of Social Media. PRN is the grandaddy of Establishment newswires. This deal sends one more, strong and clarion signal to Corporate America that the voice of the people cannot be ignored.

Tags: technorati, prnewswire, businesswire, prweb, marketwire, dave+armon, david+sifry

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Via Gary Goldhammer we learn of Barack Obama's announcement of his (much awaited/hyped) presidential candidacy, which was announced via a video on his website. Gary notes, "The first candidate for the You Tube era has arrived."

This led me to wonder. Obama's already had a lot of buzz; certainly he is appealing and youthful. Do these telegenic qualities translate to popularity on YouTube? More interestingly: How does Obama stack up to his potential competitors in terms of YouTube postings? Would an outsized lead on YouTube translate to an early indication that Obama's got "the Youth Vote" locked up?

I did a quick, non-scientific search on YouTube of the major candidates. In each case I tried to use the single tag that gave the biggest ### of results (e.g., there are 533 "Obama" videos and 374 "Barack" videos; assuming built-in redundancy, I erred on the side of only counting the "Obama" video tags).

• There are 553 YouTube videos tagged "Obama."
• There are 195 YouTube videos tagged "Hilary Clinton."
• There are 613 YouTube videos tagged "John Edwards."
• There are 27 YouTube videos tagged "Tom Vilsack."
• There are 136 YouTube videos tagged "Romney." (Note: there are over 1000 videos tagged "mitt;" given the word's more common meaning, "Romney" appears to be more appropriate.)
• There are 808 YouTube videos tagged "McCain."

BTW I can make no comment as to the relevance of these videos (nor to this exercise, for that matter). I also did not make any effort to gauge tonality (I leave that kind of "share of voice" research to vendors like Cymfony, a client).

These stats are interesting in-and-of-themselves, but before you hand the YouTube Prize to McCain (whose victory leads me to question whether YouTube popularity = "winning the Youth Vote"), please note that the Tonality Question is the big challenge. For example, the Obama videos seem to be largely positive, whereas the McCain videos are more of a mixed bag (they range from policy speeches to "McCain Sings Streisand"). This is not surprising, given the Arizona senator's far longer tenure in national politics: there's simply more fodder for the videophiles to play with.

I guess you could argue, though, that "volume" is almost as important as "tone" --- at least "people are posting," which, in the YouTube age, is the important thing.

Tags: youtube, politics, barack+obama, john+mccain, john+edwards, hilary+clinton, tom+vilsack, mitt+romney, vlog, social+media

Posted by Todd Defren at 03:30 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

In a great article in AdAge last week, columnist Scott Donaton warns readers to beware of the tendency among marketers to pile-on to any and all cool new trends. Donaton calls this the "Get Me One Of Those" (GMOOT) syndrome:

"[Too] many of these sponsored viral-video (and fake-blog and social-networking) thingies really, really suck, and there's a reason for that: They are not the end result of an actual idea or strategy but are born of a desperate desire to do something, anything, in the new-media space ...

"It's the dreaded 'GMOOT' syndrome, short for 'Get me one of those,' the basic command from CEOs to CMOs or CMOs to their agencies ... It sounds oversimplistic, but if you get a few drinks into a marketing exec, he'll admit that at some point he's been directed to do something because his boss read about it in Ad Age or saw that a rival company was doing it or was told by his neighbor ... that he had to get in the game."

Brilliant. I know that it's not just advertising agencies that face the GMOOT monster. It certainly happens in PR, too --- and more and more often, in the Social Media era. There has been more than one occasion when I've reviewed a PR program proposal, and felt compelled to challenge one of our own execs about, "Why are we pitching a 'viral' video concept to a B2B company?"

That's not to say it's automatically a goofy idea to consider cheeky video storytelling for B2B applications --- in fact, I think one of our clients, BigFix, did a good job of it with their "Software Truth Hearings" campaign (pictured) ... In fact, I would love to see additional examples of video storytelling --- whether via staged pieces or authentic vlogging --- that humanized a big corporation. That's what Scoble did for Microsoft, back in the day, as a blogger.

But, it's harder and less obvious to come up with reasons to shoot a video for the relatively staid B2B market, and thus, "Let's Do a Viral Video" should never, ever be a check-box element in a B2B PR program (or any PR program, for that matter). Whenever a client or employee pipes up with "Let's do 'One Of Those'" ("those" being a fill-in-the-blank tactic that "everyone is doing"), it's usually time to run in the other direction.

UPDATE: Shel Holtz also approached this topic from a worthy angle, a week or so ago. Noting the rise of specialized social networks, e.g., Toyota's network for hybrid owners, Shel asks, "How many of these [social] networks do you think you could belong to before your participation became an occasional diversion instead of a consuming passion?"

Posted by Todd Defren at 02:03 PM | Permalink

The SMNR continues to gather steam. Here's some of the cool stuff that I know about.

50,000+ downloads of the SHIFT template from our website (my webmaster refuses to count 'em anymore; 50,000 is where we left off a few months ago.) Many people have told us that the template was forwarded to them, or they were handed a hardcopy, so my guess is that it's in the hands of an exponentially larger group of folks.

Some of the companies that have reached out re: their plans to adopt the SMNR (or to tell me about their results) include: Belkin, SAP, Walt Disney's Buena Vista Pictures, Novell, Cymfony, Blue Cross/Blue Shield of California, and "one of the world's largest organic food wholesalers," etc. (Disclosure: Novell and Cymfony are clients.)

At least four PR professors are teaching their students about the SMNR, including Professor Soon Yeap of Seattle University, Professor Kelli Matthews of the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication, Boston University's Professor Edward Downes, and of course Robert French of Auburn University (and the terrific infOpinions? blog). "They're teaching it to our children!"

Each of the major news-wires has made excellent strides since last Summer toward supporting SMNRs from a technical perspective. Edelman --- love 'em or hate 'em, they're big & important bellwethers --- came out with a tool to create SMNRs for their clients. A new company, PRX Builder, was founded on the technical tenets of the SMNR template.

The Social Media Club --- spawned, like SHIFT's template, by blogger Tom Foremski's anti-PR rants --- is going gangbusters. Shepherded by Chris Heuer and Kristi Wells, it's now a global organization!

All of this amazing progress has been made since Foremski's late-February 2006 post. The tipping point has sent us careening down a path that --- hopefully --- makes the news release a fresh and relevant resource, to new-age and old-school media, all over again.

Tags: social+media, social+media+news+release, smnr, hrelease, smc, social+media+club, chris+heuer, tom+foremski, siliconvalleywatcher, shift+communications, prx+builder

Posted by Todd Defren at 04:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

"Never rest on your laurels. Better to burn down the laurel tree."

That's not something anyone ever told me, but I wish they had. Maybe if they had, I would not have been smacked upside the head this month.

December 2006 was mostly a very good month. The year-end numbers looked great. I'd had a great time in our San Francisco office, where all was humming, and returned to our Boston office last week to find everything running smoothly. Clients & staff were happy. Meanwhile, our pipeline has been swelling up with high-quality prospects, many of whom went out of their way to tell us about "all the great things we've heard about you guys." It's been the type of month where you DON'T want to pinch yourself, for fear that the dream will end!

So, of course, some guy pinched me. He's a prospect; came to us through a mutual friend. But when we happened to ask him whether SHIFT would have been on his agency short-list in spite of the mutual friend, he said, "Actually, I'd never heard of you guys." Ouch.

Andy Grove was right. Ya gotta stay paranoid. We could dismiss this fella's lack of awareness as an outlier, but we're better off thinking that he's in the majority.

You can be the best at what you do, but if no one knows it --- or if they forget --- that's your problem. It is your responsibility to remind them, respectfully and repeatedly. Marketing never, ever ends.

Tags: public+relations, pr, marketing

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:09 AM | Permalink

Look, I have no idea if this is cool or noteworthy or not. Likely, it ain't neither cool nor noteworthy. But here I am, noting it.

According to Strumpette, PR Squared is Numero Uno when it comes to the Alexa rankings from a select group of kick-ass PR blogs. #1 baby! So what if it's by a whisker. And what would I know about the HUNDREDS of PR blogs out there (630 as of YE 2006, to be exact)? Maybe there's a score of 'em that rank higher. It's Strumpette's research, after all. Lord knows Rubel slaughters me. (Strumpette explains why he's not part of her rankings, in the Comments section of her post.)

C'mon now, don't scoff. Don't be a buzzkill. My wife thought it was cool. My mom did, too!

(Lucky for me, I'll be at an offsite meeting all day tomorrow, so your flaming rejoinders will languish, unposted and unanswered --- at least until I can dig out my asbestos underwear.)

Anyway, seriously, thanks for visiting.

Posted by Todd Defren at 08:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Before we are all too far along into the New Year to consider New Year Resolutions, I wanted to point to an article in the October 2006 edition of the NY TIMES, in which renowned columnist Thomas Friedman pointed out (subscription required) that:

"The jihadists follow [American] politics much more closely than people realize...[A recent post on a jihadist website said,] 'The people of jihad need to carry out a media war that is parallel to the military war' ... [F]or jihadist videos of attacks on Americans to have the biggest impact, 'Some persons will be needed who are proficient in the use of computer graphics including Photoshop, 3D Studio Max ... to design ... video clips about the operations.' 

[T]he website suggests that jihadists flood e-mail and video of their operations to 'chat rooms,' television channels,' and to 'famous U.S. authors.'"

Friedman went on to suggest that this PR campaign --- combined with the ever-fragmenting situation in Iraq --- is working.  The PR work of the jihadists rouses their supporters to continue the fight, while sapping the will of the U.S.

It's amazing how any interest group can use basic PR tactics to sway public opinion --- and thus affect the fate of the world, for good or ill.  We like to think we're cleverer-by-half but it just ain't so.  The jihadists know about YouTube, too.

Articles like Friedman's (which was subtitled, "The Jihadist P.R. War") and the exposure that our industry received in 2006 from astroturfing campaigns, etc., point clearly to the need for Public Relations professionals to rise to unparalleled levels of honor and authenticity.  We must become, each of us, as Untouchable as Elliot Ness.

Maybe we can't do much about Iraq.  Maybe we can't deny evildoers the techniques of our craft.  Maybe we don't have Richard Edelman's ear.  Maybe we can't get WOMMA or the PRSA to so much as wrist-slap ethical offenders.  But if you read this blog --- and others like it --- chances are that you're a PR pro or marketer of some sort. 

If so, I exhort you to make every day one in which you are unabashedly proud of your strategies, tactics, and accomplishments... Social Media has given all of PR an opportunity to re-think our role.  Let's not look this gift horse in the mouth.

Tags: thomas+friedman, public+relations, proud+of+pr, astroturfing, flog

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:47 PM | Permalink

I am kinda' sorta' back in the saddle; still foggy-brained and too swamped to be very effective. But then again, "foggy, swamped, and ineffective" doesn't sound too outrageous on the first day back --- it's almost to be expected!

Here are some of my lessons and musings from 2 weeks off...

#1 - Take a vacation. Anyone reading this blog lives in a 24/7 bubble of insanity. Two weeks off provides some much-needed perspective and by Day 10 or so you'll actually start to relax and breathe in the air.

#2 - Take a REAL vacation. Don't do what I just did, i.e., stay home. We all went to hang out at "our other house" in California for the break (believe me, being bi-coastal sounds more glamorous than it is in reality), but that kind of so-called "break" pales in comparison to, say, "hiking and surfing in Belize," as one of my colleagues just did. A REAL vacation takes you out of your normal contexts, and THAT'S worthwhile.

#3 - A good marriage is priceless. Almost 20 years since I met her, and after 10+ full days at her side, I am still enthralled by my gorgeous wife (and she claims to still dig me, too). When times are tough --- at work or on the home front --- having a partner to cling to can make all the difference. "Happy wife, happy life" is a worthy mantra, regardless of what your snickering buddies at the pool hall might say.

#4 - Before you set "Big Hairy Audacious Goals," think up some "Big Scary Audacious Thoughts." Part of the time spent away from SHIFT was spent wondering things like...

• "Could we pitch reporters via industry-, agency- or client-specific RSS feeds? Would reporters sign up for these feeds, to reduce the amount of so-called 'PR spam' in their in-boxes?"
• "What does it mean that the Rest of the World is quickly catching up to the U.S. in terms of Internet usage; how will that change things?"
• "If 70% of all online surfing starts with a search query, what are the ramifications for getting real about SEO's role in PR?"
• "What can we make of the opportunities to 'humanize' enterprise B2B clients via social media and video?"
• "How can we better evangelize the Social Media News Release?"

These are just some of the big, scary thoughts that I'll want to ponder in 2007.

#5 - I just got back from vacation --- "5" lessons is too many for my "foggy, swamped, and ineffective" brain!

Happy New Year, everybody!

Posted by Todd Defren at 12:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)