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Since we suspect that the Pet Food Debacle seriously sickened our cat, I’ve been following this from the sidelines.  Just got this email from P&G Pet Care…

Does it work for you, fellow PR pros?

Update 3/30/2007

March 30, 2007

Dear Consumer:

As promised, we are continuing to keep you updated on the Menu Foods recall.

We know the Menu Foods recall has caused concern, frustration and anger among many pet lovers, including many of our own employees and their families. We want you to know that we care deeply, and we continue to take action on your behalf.

We want to comment on the new announcement today (Friday, March 30, 2007) by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) that they have found a substance called melamine in the wheat gluten of recalled products, and not the aminopterin, as earlier suspected by the New York Foods Laboratory.

We can reassure you:

First, there is no melamine or aminopterin in any of our Iams and Eukanuba dry pet foods on store shelves.

In fact, Iams and Eukanuba dry pet foods to DO NOT contain wheat gluten. Our dry dog and cat foods are made exclusively by P&G Pet Care and not by Menu Foods.

Pet owners can feel safe and confident in feeding all Iams and Eukanuba dry foods, as well as any wet foods that are not on the Menu Foods recall list. Click here to see the specific list of recalled wet pouch and canned products.

http://FriendsForLife.Iams.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eosx0NUAAO0Rcf0BVd70EJ

We want to review the key actions we've taken:

• We immediately worked with retailers to remove from store shelves the small number of our wet pouch and canned products affected by the Menu Foods recall.

• We immediately suspended production of all our foods manufactured at the affected Menu Foods Emporia, Kansas plant.

• We have shared all of our data and continue to cooperate fully with FDA, which is leading this important investigation.

• A task force of prominent North American veterinary health care experts, convened by Iams to review the recall, recently agreed: "Veterinarians and pet owners should feel safe recommending and feeding Iams and Eukanuba dry foods."

We want to stress again that you can confidently feed all of your pets any of our dry foods, as well as the wet foods not affected by the Menu Foods recall. If you have any questions about the recalled products, please click here to see the specific list of recalled wet pouch and canned products. http://FriendsForLife.Iams.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eosx0NUAAO0Rcf0BVd70EJ

P&G Pet Care is deeply committed to pet well-being and our top priority is to help you care for your dog and cat family members. We will continue to provide you with meaningful updates. If you have additional questions, not answered on our Web site FAQs, please call us at 1-800-882-1591.

http://FriendsForLife.Iams.com/cgi-bin3/DM/y/eosx0NUAAO0Rcf0BVeY0Es

P&G Pet Care

Posted by Todd Defren at 05:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (1)

Yesterday I was going to post about how it was the 15^th anniversary of my marriage to the most beautiful, wonderful, smart, gentle, funny, caring woman on the planet.  About how I wake up each morning when the alarm clock sounds, and murmur a word of thanks that she hasn’t figured out what a doofus I am, and slipped away into the night. 

I was going to talk about how we survived some incredibly rough times together (read: piss-poor), and about how those tough times made us a stronger couple.

I was looking forward to hitting “Publish” on that post: it was my way of proclaiming my love “from the rooftops.”

And I was going to include a picture of us.  After all, she’s really pretty.

But I didn’t do any of that, because the Kathy Sierra cyberbullying situation wigged me out, a little.  There are weirdos out there.  Anyone who blogs, from A-list to Z, needs to remember that they are leading public lives, and with such exposure there comes a responsibility to be a li’l circumspect with our personal details.

Reflecting on Kathy’s plight, though, I realized that – as awful as it is – the reason it’s caused such a stir is because such outlandish behavior is blessedly rare. 

The reason that horrible tragedies, murders, etc. are newsworthy is because they are, literally, NEWS, i.e., these events and activities are “outside the norm.”

Most people are nice.  Most days are relatively boring.  Most days, the sun shines.   There are wingnuts out there, no question, and we should avoid and/or punish them, but, thankfully, they make up about 1% of the population.  The empowerment that comes from blogging should overwhelm the sense of vulnerability that comes with it.

(Hey, it’s my anniversary, and I am raising kids in this world: I choose to be optimistic.)

(But I am still not posting that lovely portrait of my wife.)

PLEASE NOTE: Neither this post nor the goofy photo that accompanies it is meant in any way to minimize Kathy Sierra’s personal situation.  The misogynistic venom she’s endured is inexcusable and downright scary.

Posted by Todd Defren at 11:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

I am swamped on a major project, so blogging is on the backburner.  Gotta pay the rent, right?  However, I can’t resist pointing ya’ll towards this open door … right here… step right up … Welcome to the Sausage Factory.

If you follow the trail (which Arrington is already on, via Twitter), you’ll get a rare view of the inner workings of a PR program, orchestrated by the maestros at Microsoft & Waggoner-Edstrom.

I won’t claim to have read the internal PR docs word for word; I skimmed them.  I see similar docs all the time.  It’s pretty standard fare.  But, I was fascinated by WIRED’s Chris Anderson’s response.  He thinks he might have been manipulated, but he is not sure; either way, he is happy with the piece: he got the story he wanted.

Nothing wrong with that.  That’s fundamentally the PR pro’s job: to help create a compelling story that serves the needs of the Company’s reputation as well as the needs of the journalist/blogger, who wants something cool to write about.  These “dueling” objectives do not always need be at odds! 

It bums me out to think that Social Media advocates can sometimes come across as “anti-capitalism.”  Folks, it’s “social” as in “conversational” not “social” as in “socialism.” 

Getting corporate spokespeople to be more casual, conversational, unguarded – these are all fantastic attributes and objectives. 

But at the end of the day, some preparation prior to a Big Journalist Meeting is mandatory: if you screw it up; say something stupid, you could not only lose your own job but could also jeopardize the profits and reputation of the company – which puts other people’s jobs on the line, and does a disservice to investors.

At the end of the day, everyone’s gotta pay the rent.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

For my fellow Bostonians:  ever wish there was more to-do, networking-wise, in Beantown?  Sick of hearing about the San Francisco Bay’s innumerable cool parties, pool parties and unparties? 

Tonight you have a chance to do as the cool kids do: have some brainy fun with like-minded executives, marketers and up-and-comers.

Deloitte Consulting is hosting a Meet-Up for Michael Raynor, author of the recently published The Strategy Paradox (co-author of the bestselling book The Innovator's Solution, with Clayton M. Christensen).

The event is happening tonight from 6-8pm at the Vintage Lounge (map).  More details here.

To give you a sense of Raynor’s stature and smarts, here’s a recent interview conducted by the inimitable Guy Kawasaki.  If Guy thinks this guy is the real deal, you can rest assured that your time will not be wasted tonight.

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

We interrupt our typical Social Media musings, in order to save the planet.

I finally caught Al Gore’s Oscar-winning “Inconvenient Truth” documentary this weekend, and caught Green Fever.  Not that I haven’t been environmentally conscious, but, you know, “building a business” has been the priority.  For those of you who are already rabidly on the Green Team, what follows will be laughably grade-school-level thinking. 

Watching Gore’s slick slideshow, I admit that I was foolishly heartened when I saw that our pad in the East Bay would likely be spared from destruction if sea levels rose 20 feet (as predicted) … Until I realized that that newly-created “beachfront property” would be on a road-to-nowhere.  What’s the point of living 25 miles from San Francisco if you need scuba gear to see the sights?

All kidding aside: one particularly scary learning was about how 40% of the drinking water in large swatches of China come from the fast-melting glaciers.  Forget about rising sea levels: if milions of people are without fresh water, the famine and wars that result will wreck global economies.

Basically, the whole world is on the brink of doom.  And we’re still rushing toward that precipice. 

Before losing all hope, though, you might remember the lesson of the boll weevil.

From a 2002 article published by the Sustainability Institute:

A monument to the boll weevil stands in Enterprise, Alabama’s town square. It is a robed, Statue of Liberty look-alike holding an enormous black bug over its head. The statue’s head is bowed in somber respect.

The boll weevil ravaged 60 percent of the region’s cotton crop in 1915, and even more the next year, decimating livelihoods and towns. Yet, the inscription on the monument’s base says, "In Profound Appreciation of the Boll Weevil and What It Has Done as the Herald of Prosperity." The herald of prosperity? The boll weevil?!

In 1917, with their economy and society almost destroyed, the down-and-out farmers of South Alabama were forced to adjust and innovate. Over the next few years, they began diversifying into peanuts and other crops and no longer depended so heavily on cotton. The region’s swift entry into the agricultural revolution of the times helped it thrive when other areas of the South, primarily dependent on cotton, continued to suffer. So several years after hitting bottom, area leaders erected the monument as "a symbol to man’s willingness and ability to adjust to adversity."

The boll weevil story has a lesson for (us all): sometimes tackling a big problem head-on can yield extensive, surprising improvements in the long-term. (Global warming is our) current big problem — our boll weevil.

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

I am completely, 100% ripping off the following post from Howard Greenstein of Social Media Club.  Sorry, Howard.  I am just a li’l too busy for blogging right now, but, I didn’t want this banner event to pass by without doing my part for the cause (which is a good one):

Today, March 22, 2007, Podcasters, podcast listeners and independent music enthusiasts are going to do something new. They’re all buying one song, for $.99, at the iTunes Music Store. The intent? Show the major labels and main stream media that podcast listeners, netizens, the rest-of-us, are an audience that wants something different than what is being pushed by the major labels. It also is intended to show that podcasting, where primarly independent music is played, has a serious audience.

From their site:
We can match and exceed the reach of big media, corporate media, labels, and the entrenched interests. On March 22nd, we are going to take an indie podsafe music artist to number one on the iTunes singles charts as a demonstration of our reach to Main Street and our purchasing power to Wall Street. The track we’ve chosen is “Mine Again” by the band Black Lab. A band that was dropped from not just one, but two major record labels (Geffen and Sony/Epic) and in the process forced them to fight to get their own music back. We picked them because making them number one, even for just one day, will remind the RIAA record labels of what they turned their backs on - and who they ignore at their peril.

The song is a pretty good tune, and Black Lab is donating 50% of everything they make on this campaign to a scholarship fund. If the song is purchased through this afflilate link at Chris Penn’s Financial Aid Podcast site, the additional iTunes affiliate fees are also being donated to the scholarship.

This is an interesting case study. It will be useful to see how many people purchase the song via the affiliate link, what the band learns about how many people bought the song, and how that relates to their eventual rank on the iTunes music charts. So far the chart hasn’t moved today, but it is unclear when Apple updates it.

So, citizens of the social internet, if this campaign appeals to you, click on the link below and bum rush the charts.

Thanks, all!

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

While participating on the NewComm Forum panel on the Social Media Press Release in Las Vegas, I sensed a palpable desire from the audience to learn more than could be covered in 1 hour. 

From the packed hall, it was obvious that the interest is rock-solid, but, questions of all types – from the simple to the sophisticated - are still numerous.  (In fact, just this week I got an email from a marketer who wondered why they couldn’t “fill in the blanks” on the SHIFT pdf template!)

During the give-and-take with the audience, the call went out for CASE STUDIES.  Granted, the template is less than a year old, and is still “bleeding edge” to many marketers, so I couldn’t expect a flood.  We’re still very much in the evangelism era – at the mind-bending-spoons stage, where everything sounds cool, but is not so easy in reality. 

But, examples of success are out there.

I am currently working on a couple of case studies from SHIFT clients, and a couple of marketers have proactively offered to write-up their own SMPR case studies for me.  Stay tuned. 

Meanwhile, dear readers, maybe you can help?

If you are a marketer or PR pro:  Have y-o-u tried out a Social Media Release?  How did it go?  Can you send it to me?  Why did you try it – what were you trying to accomplish?  Was it worthwhile?  What was good/bad about the experience, and/or the reaction (from your colleagues, bosses, media contacts, bloggers)?

If you are a journalist:  Have you received or seen a Social Media Release?  Did you like it?  Would you want to see them crop up more often?  Why or why not?

If you work at the wire services:  Have you noted an uptick in requests for Social Media Releases?  Can you point to any examples?  Can you cite any stats on SEO, success, etc.?

As they say at the Social Media Club, “If you get it, SHARE it.”   

Posted by Todd Defren at 03:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

For a while now, big brands have been complaining that the rise of Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) like TiVo have made their expensive broadcast advertisements less effective.  If people fast-forward through the commercials, why spend millions on production and placement?

This ominous feeling was allayed a bit last month, when Nielsen reported that “DVR owners watch forty percent of commercials even when they watch recordings later, whether because they do not mind commercials or do not bother to fast-forward through them.”

This finding seemed to give the networks some leverage to defend their rate cards, but, some advertisers have still been pushing for sophisticated metrics – even going so far as to demand ratings figures for individual commercials.  (This raises a dilemma, as the NY TIMES noted: just as a good-or-bad tv show can act as a good-or-bad lead-in to the subsequent broadcast, a good/bad commercial could seal the fate of the follow-on advertisement!)

What’s really cool, though, is watching companies innovate around these old models & problems. 

Take Trimspa: it was reported last week that the diet fadmeisters’ first post-Anna commercial will be “TiVo-proof.”  How??

The advertisement will feature 400+ Before/After photos of Trimspa users.  As a DVR user fast-forwards through the commercial, the “morphing” effect will be as interesting to watch as it would be for “real-time” viewers of the advertisement.

A simple & clever solution to the timeshifting conundrum.  I don’t know a thing about the effectiveness of Trimspa’s products, but I applaud the innovation of their latest advertising approach.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Got a call today from a client whose confidential project information was leaked via one of their contractor’s blogs.  The blogger was crowing about winning the business, with little regard for the proprietary nature of the project. 

Imagine if a boutique engineering firm had been handed a top-secret project to help Intel or AMD invent a new, killer chipset… and then blogged about the new gig, for all to see.  Not very smart, to be sure. 

This is a rarely discussed peril in the Social Media age.  Lots of pundits have discussed policies for Employee Blogging.  Meantime, lots of experts have weighed in on the pros & cons of outsourcing.  But the peril is in the intersection of these two trends: When Contractors Blog. 

When the denizens of Freelance Nation join the ranks of a corporation’s “extended enterprise,” they need to be clearly informed – up-front, and (probably) contractually - about appropriate behaviors in the blogosphere. 

Borrowing from Charlene Li’s seminal 2004 post on Employee Blogging Policies, here’s a way to extend the rules-of-engagement to the freelancers and contractors who work with companies (this could include PR firms, of course):

The 7 Simple Rules of Freelancer Blogging

1. Make it clear that the views expressed in the blog are yours alone and do not represent the views of your client.
2. Respect the client’s confidentiality and proprietary information.
3. Ask your client contact if you have any questions about what is appropriate to include in your blog.  Understand when the client asks that topics not be discussed for confidentiality or legal compliance reasons.  When in doubt, ASK before posting about anything that could be construed to involve the client. 
4. Be respectful to the client company, its employees, customers, partners, and even its competitors.
5. Ensure that your blogging activity does not interfere with your work commitments to the client.
6. When blogging about the client, be respectful and prompt when responding to readers’ comments to that post.
7. If responses to the post about the client (via user comments or in the wider blogosphere) may be of concern to the client – particularly negative reactions – it is your responsibility to inform the client immediately and to consult with the client contact prior to responding.

Posted by Todd Defren at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn (and Godfather of Web 2.0) posted a LinkedIn Question to his network: “What are the next areas for disruption arising from the consumer internet?”

Here was my answer; thought it might make a good blog post:

 

Disruption is all around us.

Advertising: I am not sure that the Consumer-Generated trend in advertising will become a long-term game-changer but for now it's made companies realize that "Great Creative" can come from any Joe Sixpack with some ambition and some genuine appreciation for their brand. The Media Buyer - second banana for so long - may become more important than the Creatives. WE are the Creatives.

Tech Support: Most consumers with a tech issue, whether with their iPod or computer or newfangled toaster, do NOT start off their search for help by checking a warranty card or even going direct to the mfrs' sites. They start with Google. And 9 times out of 10 they get a decent answer from an unpaid user who posted a similar query to any of the umpteen user boards that are just a search-term away. It's happening within corporations, too. WE are the Help Desk.

Portals: Content aggregation and ancillary services (IM, webmail) have been a key monetization opportunity for brands like Yahoo. But content is becoming "disembodied" - microchunked and aggregated from various different sources, for consumption on various different platforms (web, cell, pda, etc.). Don't you foresee a day in the near future when a user gets his email from Gmail, his IM from Jabber, his news and blog faves from any ## of different RSS feeds (directly, with no portal intervention), his friend updates via Twitter, etc.? What does this mean for portals like Yahoo, MSN and Google who rely on selling ads on users' personal landing pages? There may be no more personal portals.

Public Relations: It's been argued that corporations' ability to speak more directly and candidly to their stakeholders will eliminate much of the PR function. I happen to disagree, but it's inescapable that PR's role must change. If nothing else, the role of the News Media is being re-invented.  The regional journalists are going hyperlocal: perhaps burrowing beyond the reach or interest of traditional PR pros; and, the national journalists are being subverted by semi-professional bloggers whose bias has the approbation of their readers … which shrinks the market for traditional journalists on the national beats …

I probably should have also mentioned how Joost will no doubt cause angst for the TV networks, but that seemed all-too-obvious for a guy with Reid’s 2.0 credentials and connections.

How it all pans out is anyone’s guess.  But “disruption” is a creative animal.  While the eating habits of this beast may leave us bloodied, it leaves plenty of opportunity in its wake.

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Tom Foremski came up with (another) brilliant idea this week.  Given the breadth, depth and permanence of the web/blogosphere, Tom suggests that “the right to respond” should become a built-in part of the web’s infrastructure:

“I'm proposing that companies and individuals all should have a level playing field and that a fundamental right of the Internet should be the right to respond to anything that is written, said, or viewed about them.”

“Readers reading a Right to Respond posting will know that it is likely biased but at least they can make up their own minds.

There should be a tiny Right to Respond widget or link next to any content.”

Tom goes on to discuss how/why/when the Right to Respond might be implemented.  It’s a fascinating read.  We took a stab at a Right-To-Respond widget, up top, just for fun.

Already, some consumer-oriented review sites such as Angie’s List, etc. allow service providers to “officially respond” to user’s rants and questions.  It makes perfect sense to extend this to the wider realm of blogs and even mainstream news articles. 

Posted by Todd Defren at 02:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (1)

The bloggerati were all atwitter about Twitter at NewComm Forum.  Seems like more noise to me, in a blogosphere (and Life) that is pretty noisy as it is.  Still, Boston ain’t San Francisco when it comes to the “social” aspects of the Social Media scene, so I am hopeful that Twitter can help me to feel more connected to Bay Area colleagues.  (More likely?  I get depressed when I realize all the cool stuff I am missing out on!)

I subscribed a month ago and promptly forgot all about it.  But certainly willing to try again, given all the chitterchatter about Twittering.  I am at http://twitter.com/TDefren if you wanna link up.

UPDATE:  Steve Rubel thinks Twittering might just overtake blogging.  That’s hardcore.  As time-stricken as we all seem to be, yes, it’s nice to see your friends’ goings-on, but one-liners can’t replace the deep thoughts and debate that make blogging so interesting.  It seems to me that Twitter makes a nice add-on to the blogosphere; it certainly does not provide you with the depth and sense of personality you can perceive by reading someone’s blog.  I think it would be very rare that you read someone’s Twitterings and have that lead you to subscribe to their blog; it will almost always be the other way around. 

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

Wow.  Talk about weird.  To interact on a daily basis with a cadre of smart people, via their blogs, is cool by itself.  But it’s a real mindmelt when you meet most of them, for the first time, in person, on the same day.

Susan Getgood noted, “If someone dropped a bomb on the Venetian today, you could say ‘g’bye’ to the PR blogosphere.” 

I haven’t had a chance to meet everyone yet, but it’s been cool just seeing them walk the halls.  I’ve had the chance to chitchat for the first time with Kami Huyse, K.D. Paine, Phil Gomes, Tom Foremski, Joseph Thornley, etc. (Always good to see Chris Heuer, too, who as always looks like the busiest guy in the room.) 

I was lucky enough to grab lunch with Mike Manuel, David Parmet, Brian Oberkirch, Jen McClure, Shel Israel, Debbie Weil and JD Lasica, among others.  I didn’t even get to talk to ‘em all at the table but it was surreal just sittin’ there. 

It was like someone snapped their fingers and transformed my RSS feed into a lunch meeting.

There’s a Flikr group if you want to see a bunch of these deep thinkers in the surreal environment of Las Vegas.

Apparently the NewComm Forum is growing by leaps and bounds: I heard that attendence was close to 500 today, up from less than 200 last time around.  A good showing for a good show. 

UPDATE:  Following a lively panel discussion on the Social Media Press Release, I had a round of drinks with Adam Zand of Topaz, Tom Foremski, Brian Solis, and a PRNewswire rep.  This was followed by a late-night dinner with Shel Israel, Kami Watson Huyse, David Parmet (and his lovely wife), Joseph Thornley, Michael Sommermeyer and Josh Hallett.  Call it name-dropping, call it linklove; either way, the Social Media movement is full of fun, interesting, enthusiastic people.

Last note… although this was my first NewComm Forum, many of the veteran attendees noted that the crowds were more “corporate” than ever.  This doesn’t mean that the suits want to mess things up; everyone I talked to from the corporate side seemed genuinely eager to learn; to be more open and candid.

Posted by Todd Defren at 04:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

Betcha’ thought that the JetBlue flap was “sooo yesterday,” but, in some of the circles in which I run, it’s still being picked-apart for the lessons-learned.

One of the more interesting notes I’ve received came from David Appelbaum at BigFix (a client, whom I’ve praised before)…

“JetBlue is the classic example of an ‘integrated marketing company,’ trying to use social media as an integrated touch point and NOT as an end in and of itself. Think about it – JetBlue has no message diversity: all of their messages were focused on how they’re a different airline – they’re ‘nice’  - and all of these messages were closely integrated and self-referencing. They did it extraordinarily well – great look & feel, and generally they were able to walk the talk.

“BUT – and here’s the money shot – they had all their eggs in that 1 basket. Everything! There was no other knowledge, relationship, or awareness of JetBlue outside of that one message – ‘we’re different and we’re nice.’  When that turns out to be proven false, you get an inverse negative reaction – all that goodwill goes bad.  ‘You’re not different at all – you suck like the rest of them but you made me believe that you were different – so I hate you more now.’  Context and authenticity are the key. People absorb and retain messages if they feel they’re authentic and are aligned with how they consume media.”

One of the lines from David that most intrigued me was that last one: “People absorb and retain messages if they feel they’re authentic and are aligned with how they consume media.” 

If you agree, it follows, then, (simplistically) that a blogophile will be keen to watch what JetBlue does in the blogosphere; a “typical” consumer may be more engaged by advertisements online and in traditional media (without a thought to what moves JetBlue makes in the blogs); a teen may be engaged by a MySpace– or YouTube-related campaign.  Maybe JetBlue could engage hardcore travelbugs by creating “Travel”-themed social networks for different age/interest groups (i.e., via Ning)?  The trick, I think, is to have a consistent “voice” that can support multiple “channels” of conversation. 

Let’s pretend JetBlue embraced ALL of the ideas in the paragraph above.  Re-play a similar crisis, a year from today:

• The corporate blog would be updated every 2 hours.  They might even set-up a “crisis blog” dedicated to the issues.
• An internal comms person would monitor T’rati and respond as-appropriate to bloggers’ musings thoughout the crisis, answering questions and/or directing readers to the appropriate, official information sources.
• The (soon-to-be-requisite??) YouTube apology would be up within hours, not a week later.  This time, it might be updated once per day, either by the CEO or an official spokesperson (witness the rise of the virtual press conference!)
• A JetBlue MySpace page allows people to post messages of support to friends & family affected by the travel snafus.  JetBlue could monitor these posts and promise to deliver messages from the flight crew to the passengers, either quietly or via the P.A.  (Not that cellphones wouldn’t be working, but this might make the waiting-on-the-runway more entertaining and “connected” to the outside world.)
• Vloggers and bloggers stuck on planes and in airline terminals are invited to post vids and pics to a (moderated) JetBlue-branded MySpace page, via their cameraphones.  Some of this would be ugly, but, it could be moderated (and responded to) and, such an open approach might also allow people to let off steam constructively.
• All official information on latest-developments is posted regularly on the blog, front-and-center on the JetBlue site, and is also pumped through its Social Media channels: everything is updated at the same time with the same info.  RSS feeds do some of this work.
• An SEO campaign on Google ensures that anyone doing a search on JetBlue gets an instant link to official news sources.

I’m just making this up, but, compare this “kaleidoscopic frenzy of transparency” to how the flap was actually handled last month. 

Which approach would you prefer?

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A fascinating memo crafted by Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz, written to the bean-grinder’s CEO, Jim Donald, was leaked late last month.  I just ran across it today (thanks, Mr. Dugan) and found myself surprised that it did not make the rounds of the PR blogosphere.  (Maybe we are all too busy prepping for SXSW and NewComm Forum?!)

In the memo, Schultz anguishes over the coffee giant’s own version of the “Innovators Dilemma.”  By investing in sensible technologies that made the latte-making process run more quickly; kept the beans fresh; etc., Schultz worries that Starbucks also lost something essential: the unique charm that made it popular in the first place.

I was intrigued by how “in the weeds” Schultz dove: 

“For example, when we went to automatic espresso machines, we solved a major problem in terms of speed of service and efficiency. At the same time, we overlooked the fact that we would remove much of the romance and theatre that was in play… This specific decision became even more damaging when the height of the machines, which are now in thousands of stores, blocked the visual sight line the customer previously had to watch the drink being made, and for the intimate experience with the barista.”  (emphasis added)

I think we can all agree that much of the quaintness that marked Starbucks’ early rise disappeared long ago.  But, reading Schultz’s memo, I am truly heartened that the company’s stewards still care enough about the experience to consider re-inventing it.

In other “Back to the Core” related musings:

• I am intrigued and confused about the argument now underway between MarketWire and PRWeb, re: their core capabilities for news distribution in the age of Social Media.  I am not smart enough to figure it all out.  

• My old boss thinks PR people are well within their purview to write blogs for clients, just as we often tend to write op-eds, bylined articles, etc.  In other words, the writings that “come from corporate” are within the “core” responsibilities of PR pros.  For my part, I side with John Cass.  While I think it is totally appropriate for PR people to suggest content for blog posts, track conversations, and even respond (transparently) on behalf of clients (e.g., “I am a PR rep for Widgets, Inc., and I want you to know that we’ll be discussing this topic with them ASAP and will get back to you.”), I also think that a blog is useful for MORE than just PR. 

If a corporate blog is about creating a direct dialogue with your readers (read: customers and prospects), then “there are no substitutes.”  There are plenty of ways to market a company without blogging.  If a company elects to add “blogging” to the marketing mix, then they should commit the time to make it authentic and worthwhile.  Blogging is a choice, not a mandate from the Marketing Gods.

Last bit of ramblings:  my wife and I recently started fostering puppies for Save-A-Dog.  There’s something about waking up to a gaggle of peppy pups that makes you feel all warm-n-fuzzy.  Right on through to your core. 

(If you wanna do something nice for some nice people, and save helpless puppies from kill shelters, do your next Web search from GoodSearch and make “Save-A-Dog” your designated cause.)

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:51 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

A client sent me this deep thought (which I’ve edited for content & length):

“Integrated marketing was valid when you had limited vehicles for interaction but it dies in the internet world. Nowadays to be effective, you need to deliver messages that not only aligns with customers’ needs, aspirations, and desires, but also aligns with the media they're consuming.  

Therefore displaying ‘multiple personalities’ in outbound communications is not a bad thing - as integrated, command-and-control marketing would dictate - but is actually a necessary function of the dawning age.

Social media when used correctly enables companies to display different facets of their corporate personality - thereby enabling consumers to get a complete picture of the company - just like a person.”

Hard to argue with that.  But, it got me to thinking.  What if we took this personal publishing paradigm to the nth degree?  What if every corporation allowed any employee to blog away, showing the “different facets of the company’s personality?” 

That may or may not qualify as “social media, used correctly” (as described by my client, above), but, most evangelists would probably argue that such freedom is going to be a good thing. 

However, without rules, consider what might have happened to JetBlue last week…

How might last month’s flap have gone over if the many JetBlue employees involved in the mess had been blogging away, throughout the kafuffle?

JetBlue’s CEO noted that scores of flight attendants were stranded in their hotel rooms during the crisis, with no way to get in touch with the company.  …What if the flight attendants had blogged about their frustrations, from their hotel rooms?  Would that have motivated faster, more effective change or communication?  Maybe!

What if a JetBlue pilot had vlogged from a stranded plane on the runway, pointing her camera-phone back into the inside of a stuffy, dark, angst-filled cabin?  …Would the resulting outrage and shame have gotten those poor passengers back to the terminals faster?  Probably!

But would the sum total have been better or worse for JetBlue?  

On the one hand, I think that more transparency of this nature would have shortened the duration of the actual crisis.  However, overall, my bet is that JetBlue’s reputation would have fared far worse.  Fairly or not, the damage caused by this level of openness might have been irreparable.  And let’s not forget that that employee-generated content would be cached online forever.

While serving as a co-panelist at a PRSA event with the esteemed Paul Gillin, he noted that Microsoft’s Employee Blogging Policy consists of two words: “Be Smart.”  I kinda like that: I think it would be enough to keep most employees from posting competitive info, for example.  But such a broad policy is also wide open to interpretation: it could well be that the vlogging pilot I dreamt-up above would find it “smart” to post video clips of panicky passengers, to hasten a change in the corporate parent’s policy.  That doesn’t make it “smart” from a long-term reputation standpoint, though.

Ultimately the rise of employee bloggers is inexorable and – per my client’s deep thoughts – it’s a movement that should be embraced.  But corporate marketers must fashion blogging policies with their eyes wide open.  Every touchpoint is a potential landmine.

A “complete picture” is not always a “pretty picture.”

Posted by Todd Defren at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBacks (0)

The PR industry is incredibly thin-skinned.

Think about it. Tom Foremski disses on the "delete-on-receipt" press release, and PR pros (myself included, of course!) start buzzing and re-thinking everything.

Tom is a guy worthy of our respect, no doubt, but still, he's just one journalist among thousands. Nine-hundred ninety-nine "customers," one "noisy malcontent," and lo' the Social Media News Release is born! Granted, those 999 customers --- a.k.a., the media --- may have been just as disgruntled about the State of the Press Release, but the majority were quietly resigned to the status quo. And bloggers? Most were happy to point to press releases that popped up in Yahoo! Finance. There was no clarion call from the bloggerati to make corporate news & multimedia assets more readily accessible to laypeople.

More recently, Stowe Boyd carps on the PR industry; specifically our coming demise at the hands of Social Media trends. Again, in Mr. Boyd we are dealing with an estimable character, but really, he's just one "2.0 pundit" from among hundreds. Yet, with what seems to be little understanding of either the strategic depth or the broad tactical suite that falls within PR's purview, he blithely lobs a firebomb from the back-bench and voila, he's invited to speak at a prestigious PR conference.

("Somebody doesn't like us? But, PR people are so nice! Maybe they know something about us that we don't know?? Let's go ask!")

I sound cranky, right? You think I'm bemoaning the PR industry's thin skin? You expect I'll now defend our craft like a paladin squaring off against dragons?

Wrong. Every day I wake up and thank God for "noisy malcontents."

Ye Olde-Style Press Releases do suck. They're mostly bloviating blasts of blah & blather.

And the PR industry does face enormous new challenges in the Social Media era.

If we didn't have such thin skins, I'd be much more worried about our long-term future. Hubris comes before the fall.

Here's the thing: change takes time. And the Big Changes heralded by Social Media will take far longer than the evangelists think. (For a great discussion on this particular point, visit Robert French's recent post, and be sure to read the superb Comments, as well.)

Meanwhile, given the relative youth of this movement, the PR industry is doing a GREAT job of embracing, researching, mistake-making, etc. We're not in deep denial, not one bit; on the contrary we're in the thick of it: sweaty, drunk, flailing, thinking. There are over 600 PR bloggers worldwide, as I write this. Compare that disproportionately large number to any other industry and I think you'll find it to be pretty impressive.

So, yeah --- keep the criticism coming. Please! It makes us stronger, faster, smarter. It's called survival of the fittest, and we're getting into fighting trim.

Tags: social+media, social+media+press+release, public+relations, tom+foremski, stowe+boyd, robert+french, shel+holtz, jesse+ciccone, pr+2.0

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)