PR Squared

About

Blogroll

PR 2.0 Tactics

PR Squared

The last two posts weren’t crazy enough for ya?  Let’s get really wacky.  Let’s figure out how to use Twitter to help a Big Pharma company.  That should be an interesting challenge. 

Everybody who uses it tends to fall in love with Twitter, and meanwhile everyone seems to pretty much despise Big Pharma … is there a twitterific way for one of these monolithic drug companies to soften our distaste?

First let’s pick a Big Pharma company.  I’ll choose Pfizer.

Now let’s look at some of the diseases that Pfizer drugs try to tackle.  “Clinical Depression?”  That works.  Depression seems to be on the rise.  Pfizer offers a drug called Sinequan to help manage clinical depression.  A quick Google Blog Search reveals over 12,000 hits mentioning this drug.  That’s enough critical mass to warrant a campaign like the one below.

Now, on to Twitter.  (I need to assume that you are familiar with Twitter.  If not there are many posts out there that can explain it all to you.)

If we’re a marketer from Pfizer, we can create a new Twitter account called “twitter.com/sinequan.” 

Of course we could also choose usernames like “Pfizer” (too broad) or “Depression” (too depressing – who’d want to publicly “follow” a Twitter account with a name like that?)  The username “Sinequan” is kinda mysterious-sounding; only those who have a prescription (or know of friends/family on the drug) will catch on to the import of the name; and besides, we’re not trying to HIDE; we are actively trying to be FOUND – just in an unobtrusive way.

Now we go to Terraminds to conduct some twittersearches on the term “depression.”  (Apparently Twitter will offer this functionality itself, soon.) 

Plenty of the microposts that mention this term via Twitter are inappropriate for our purposes, e.g., “Watching an episode of Scrubs about depression” or “ Looks like that tropical depression (#10) has broken up.”  We can safely ignore those.

But this same basic search quickly turns up tweets like these:

“Online test scores me at 76% for adult ADD - but notes that depression and anxiety must first be discounted as causes.”

“Feeling very down... today has not been a good depression day... Hate being a freak.”

“I'm still not in the mood to write a new sensible post because of my postnatal depression... was I even pregnant?”

(Before you bitch me out for insensitivity for “outing” these posts, please keep in mind that these were written and posted in a public forum!  Clinical depression is horrible & debilitating; using the Social Media techniques described in this post is not intended to exploit but to help these sufferers.)

Ultimately (and sadly), it seems that there are scores of tweets containing the phrase “depression.” 

Now, the Pfizer marketer who manages the “Sinequan” account on Twitter can begin to “follow” any & all of the twitterati who use the word “depression” in an appropriate way in their tweets.  These twitterers will receive an email that “Sinequan is now following your updates on Twitter.  Check out Sinequan's profile here: http://twitter.com/sinequan.” 

Most twitterati I know can hardly resist the urge to check-out the profiles of any new “followers.”  At the “Sinequan” profile page, they’d find a Web link pointing to the official Sinequan webpage maintained by Pfizer.  Actually I’d recommend that Pfizer create a beefed-up landing page for folks who find it via Twitter, e.g., with info on “Why is ‘Sinequan’ following me on Twitter?”, with quizzes (“How can you tell if you are clinically depressed?”) – and, with info on community resources … in other words, a page designed to help sufferers whether they become Sinequan users or not!

And “why is Sinequan following me on Twitter?” – This could be easily explained.  “If you found this page because you saw that ‘Sinequan’ is now following you on Twitter,’ it’s just because you once posted a tweet that used the word ‘depression.’  If you think you might suffer from clinical depression, this site may help you.  If we got it wrong, we’re really sorry: just let us know through this web form and we’ll remove our subscription to your tweets.  (No need to give us any personal info beyond your public Twitter name.)  Thanks!”  Short, sweet, human.

(Speaking of “human” … Ideally there’s a true human personality behind the “Sinequan” account.  It would be nice to introduce them via this beefed-up landing page.)

Now, what should “Sinequan” tweet about?  Because once “Sinequan” has started “following” a few dozen (or few hundred!) twitterers, we can assume that a decent handful will reciprocate and start “following” Sinequan’s tweets.  A community will form.  A community “founded” by Pfizer’s Sinequan rep, sure, yet also a community of people with similar issues who might also start to help each other out.  A virtual support group.

Here’s what Sinequan should NOT tweet about: Sinequan.  If this becomes a Pfizer commercial in execution, it’s a campaign that deserves execution – as in “death.” 

Rather, the Pfizer rep could use the “Sinequan” account to microblog about Clinical Depression.  I envision statistics (“National survey: 25% of the population reported having symptoms severe enough to warranty the diagnosis for an anxiety disorder”), news (“Study: Employers benefit from treating depression”), helpful tidbits (“Pregnant Smokers May Suffer Depression”), etc.  Any one of those tweets could change a sufferer’s life.

Will Sinequan sales soar?  Not likely.  Will more people who may suffer from clinical depression seek out a doctor? – maybe ask their physician about Sinequan?  No doubt. 

More to the point:  would anyone object to this use of Twitter?  If it is handled with sensitivity, I think not. 

And that leads us full circle.  The use of a Social Media tool like Twitter – used with subtlety, grace and in adherence to the idea of contributing to the community – could make a Big Pharma company like Pfizer look downright humane.  Maybe even human.  Whodathunkit??

UPDATE:  GREAT conversations happening in the Comments section of this post, thank you!  To those of you who may be “creeped out” by the Big Pharma example, try thinking of a completely different example before shutting down on this idea. 

What if the twittering marketer was a rep working for Amazon’s new MP3 download service, who wanted to conduct a grassroots campaign by “targeting” people who had tweeted about some cool new indie bands?  The subsequent tweets might be news about upcoming cool concerts, links to free MP3s, factoids about up-and-coming artists, etc.  By creating this community of “followed” folks, the community that might form could also more readily discover and follow each other… 

Again, the marketer would have to focus on being helpful, not exploitive.  Give this happy-friendly-musical example, do you still object…

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (15)

Extending off the ideas presented in the last installment re: using del.icio.us for thought leadership … You can also use social bookmarking for “edgework,” which is a fancy name for direct interaction with end-users.

This is risky.  Proceed at your own risk.  Your mileage may vary.  A lot.

“Traditional” PR/marketing pros tend to deal with a narrow band of professional influencers (i.e., the mainstream media and the better-known bloggers) - with whom there are unstated but well-known “rules of enagement.” 

Operating in this world is like working at a zoo.  Follow the rules and you’ll be okay; but poke the bear and you could lose an arm. 

But, direct contact with “the people” carries all the risks you’d expect.  You’re in the jungle where the Wild Things Are.  In this realm you tread lightly and leave your big stick at home.  This is about subtletly.

Nervous, yet?  Good.  OK, here goes. 

An example of edgework via del.icio.us:

Look here and you see that 120 people used del.icio.us to save the news release we originally issued re: the Social Media News Release template.  Look here and you see that you can add another 88 del.icio.us users who saved the template (pdf) itself.  Likely there’s some overlap, but for now, figure that there are 200–odd people who have expressed genuine interest in the SMNR debut.

Now, look here and you see that just 35 people used del.icio.us to save my blog post about SHIFT’s Social Media Newsroom template (pdf).  And only another 20 folks saved the actual PDF.  That gives us roughly 50 people who expressed an interest in the Newsroom.

The delta between the people interested in the templates for the Release vs. the Newsroom is at least 150.  What to do?

We can use the “for:username” function of del.icio.us to add the relevant Newsroom links to the 150+ del.icio.us accounts that had already saved the News Release template.  The saved link will appear in these end-users’ del.icio.us “in-boxes” as a “Link for You.”

Before talking about what could happen next, a key issue is: how to approach writing the message to these strangers?  Some might appreciate your gesture; some might see it as an intrusion.  (Granted, del.icio.us is a SOCIAL – read: public – bookmarking service, yet some people could still take offense.) 

Remember, you only get 255 character spaces with del.icio.us, so, keep it short & sweet, like so:

“Noticed you’d saved SHIFT’s Social Media News Release template. Thought you might also be interested in this Social Media Newsroom template.  There’s a PPT available, which describes the whole approach, at shiftcomm.com. I’m at todd@shiftcomm.com.”

That’s 247 character spaces, in which we’ve explained HOW we found the person (relevancy), WHY we are “intruding,” and WHERE they can get more info if interested, including how-to write back, for more info (or to kvetch). 

It’s important to note that many people who use del.icio.us for personal reasons draft quick notes (to themselves and/or to the community) about WHY they saved the link.  This allows for a more meticulous approach, i.e., if someone has noted that they dislike the Social Media News Release template, they shouldn’t get the generic note used above!  We could ignore them, or try a softer approach.

Now what?

Once the outreach has been made via the “for:username” function, some folks on the receiving end of our campaign will elect to “accept” this link by actively saving it within their account (a metric you can track).  Some folks will take further action: they might blog about it (measurable); they might download the template (measurable); they might comment at the original Newsroom’s debut blog post (measurable).  They might email you directly (measurable).  They might do nothing (also measurable). 

In any event we can feel pretty confident that we’ve ONLY reached out to people who would likely be genuinely interested, based on their prior, public social bookmarking behavior.  If we’ve kickstarted the conversation about Social Media Newsrooms a-fresh, it’s likely going to be a smooth and productive transition with this crowd.

Now, extend this approach with your own brand. 

What if you are pitching a digital camera?  How about checking out this link to see the most popular del.icio.us posts tagged with the phrase “digitalcamera.”  You see that the top link is to the well-regarded blog, Digital Photography Review, which has been saved by over 10,000 del.icio.us users. 

Maybe that’s too many?  Maybe you want to focus an “edgework”  campaign on the cutting-edge Flickr community?  Cool.  The #2 most-saved link using the “digitalcamera” tag is this one:  “Top 10 cameras on Flickr – Digital camera news – Logicamera.com,” which has been saved by 115 people.  What can you do with this information…?

Example: Perhaps your client is a big camera company, which wants to create a focus group for an upcoming “dummy-proof” dSLR by recruiting people who have publicly saved at least ten “digital photography 101–style” links. 

First off, you could create a microsite containing a special offer to people who volunteer for this focus group, and then “save it for” this newbie group whom you’ve identified via the del.icio.us tag search strategy we’ve outlined here. 

Ninety people have saved this article about “Which lenses for my Digital SLR (Canon)?”  Given the “tutorial” tone of the article, it’s safe to assume that these 90 people are likely getting serious about photography but may still be fairly new to the burgeoning dSLR field.  You could cross-reference these 90 users against the 115 users who saved the “Top 10 cameras on Flickr” link mentioned above and voila:  you’ve identified exactly the types of people who may be happy to serve in a focus group about your client’s new dSLR camera – especially if you offer them a big coupon for your branded goods, or maybe consider gifting them with a Flickr Pro account.  In return you’d get terrific feedback from savvy online consumers about your product and brand… and possibly the beginnings of a buzz campaign about your upcoming product launch.

When you’re living on the edge, the possibilities are endless.

Posted by Todd Defren at 08:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

On occasion I toss out some ideas re: using Social Media tools for PR/marketing purposes.  One of my favorites is using del.icio.us (as described here), but it is still a misunderstood technique. 

I’m going to attempt to describe the idea again below, and use this post as a jumping-off point to start a series of posts on “Social Media Tactics,” in which I’ll lay out some of the wacky ideas that are rolling around my skull. 

I first described “purpose-built” del.icio.us pages when we launched the Social Media News Release (SMNR) template.  The term “purpose-built” is kind of kludgy but… the basic idea was to create a customized del.icio.us account for every MAJOR news release.  In this customized del.icio.us account, the marketers could save a bunch of links that would allow anyone interested in the news to gain more context about the release. 

For example, in your news release or on your webpage you could say: “Today we released MegaWidget.  Go to this del.icio.us page to see 50 links re: our ten prior widget releases; online news coverage about our company and about the widget industry over the past 12 months; a bio on our chief widget officer; etc.” 

Unfortunately, most of the “purpose-built” del.icio.us accounts created to support SMNRs are empty … EXCEPT for the links, i.e., the links are there but, few people take advantage of the fact that del.icio.us allows 255 character spaces to explain WHY each link was saved. 

For example, using the MegaWidget example I’ve invented above, the widget marketer could bookmark a great piece of past coverage and say, “Read this article if you want some good historical background on the widget industry...Note that MegaWidget capabilities are talked about as being in the far-distant future but became available with our next release.” 

That’s 215 character spaces – well within the del.icio.us limit – and yet in that brief note you’ve told the reader that this article not only contains good background info but you’ve also been able to highlight the true innovation of the latest MegaWidget!

It gets better (tags!):  The MegaWidget marketer can use tags to differentiate the different links within the del.icio.us account.  Let’s say that the widget industry is notoriously full of misinformation.  Whereas in the past a marketer might wish that untrue/unfair/unflattering articles would simply “go away,” that’s just not gonna happen in the Google Age.  So, the marketer can tag the “bad” articles with a term like “misinformation” and furthermore can add 255 text characters’ worth of rebuttal.  

For example, “This article about the ‘death of widgets’ got a lot of buzz when it came out but events have proven that the widget industry – and MegaWidget - was more resilient than predicted.”  BANG!  Within 180 character spaces and via the telling 1–word tag, “misinformation,” a naysayer is essentially de-positioned.

It gets better (RSS!): If you like this strategy for news releases, you can extend the power of this approach.  Start saving/commenting on industry news a few times per week, e.g., the MegaWidget marketing exec can save/tag/comment on all news of interest to widget-watchers, and this audience can subscribe via RSS to the entire del.icio.us account and/or to the RSS feeds of individual tags. 

For example, the company’s official spokesperson or CEO might subscribe to “del.icio.us/rss/megawidget/misinformation” to make sure that they were always up-to-date on any negative press in the widget industry (as well as the official response to such news).

Do this right, and you’ll get reporters to subscribe via RSS to your company’s “daily dose of thought leadership.”  Your company will become known for being savvy, opinionated, and available.

Note #1 – For the purposes of this post, the term “widget” is being used in the generic sense, not to describe Web 2.0 software.

Note #2 – If you’re kinda clueless on del.icio.us and social bookmarking, never fear!  Check out this great, quick video.

Note #3 – The “Social Media Tactics Series” will be an ad-hoc series of posts … so, feel free to check back tomorrow (please do!) but it’s just as likely I’ll wait a day, a week, 2 weeks, etc. in-between these types of posts.  Even then, some of these ideas will be half-baked and your constructive criticism will be welcomed. 

Don’t wanna miss any?  Subscribe!

Posted by Todd Defren at 04:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

It’s shocking how many of these snippets already “bring back memories.”

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

For about a week now, I’ve made sure to alert the Twitterati that we’re on the hunt for Social Media savvy PR pros for our Boston & SF offices.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (13)

We recently discovered that one of our clients had been paying some bloggers to write about one of their products.  (Actually, these bloggers were already writing about the products; our client just paid them to continue to do so: the client had no say whatsoever in the actual content.)

While it’s good that the client contact who developed these blogger relationships never tried to influence the blog posts, the problem is that the bloggers had never been required to disclose their financial ties to our client.  If you’re a regular reader of this blog, you know that that’s a no-no.  

Long story short: this is a case of a marketing manager – operating within one of the many vacuums that form in big companies – executing not-so-well on what was essentially a good idea.  They just didn’t fully understand the rules of the road.  It was a sin of omission, not a sin of deception.  A particularly diligent in-house PR manager caught wind of what was happening, and immediately escalated it to the client’s Corp Comms group, and to SHIFT.  Once we all realized what had been going on, rest assured that there was a mad scramble to set things right vis a vis transparency & disclosure.

And here’s the lesson:  this could be happening in ANY big company. 

It’s not hard to imagine the ounce of naivete required for a marketing manager to consider a paid blogger relations campaign.  They might not even think to check-in with the corporate PR department – they may give such a campaign no more weight than if they were crafting a new piece of direct mail. 

To the unsophisticated marketer, this “blogging stuff” may simply represent a new channel to exploit. 

Whether you work in-house or at an agency, please use this gaffe as a reason to double-check whether or not your client is engaged in similar practices.  Here are some questions to get you started in your investigation:

Have official “rules of engagement” re: bloggers been documented and disseminated?

Have all marketing employees reporting to corporate marketing (and/or to a business unit) been educated on the “rules of engagement” re: external blogs?

Is there a chance that any of the business unit marketing groups have engaged in a paid or unpaid blogger relations campaign?

If any of our marketing managers have paid bloggers to write about our products/services, did we require public disclosure of the relationship?

If you dig up unsettling answers, start the process of disclosing any paid blogger relationships ASAP.  You can worry about “what went wrong” from a process perspective once you’ve wiped that slate clean.

Posted by Todd Defren at 08:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

On Jeremiah Owyang’s Facebook group dedicated to Web Strategy, a forum sprang up to discuss how Social Media will impact the design of traditional corporate websites.  A great thread is being created; already there’s a recurring theme re: resistance among big corporations to embrace this New Age stuff.

From an exec at Coca Cola:

“In my experience we can raise the interest enough to make a few changes but it is difficult to get the buy-in that is necessary to change the internal structures and culture enough to continue with these changes.”

From an exec from BofA:

“(C)hanging the corporate ethos in established major institutions is something I certainly find to be a more challenging nut to crack.”

Here’s what I had to say (this is a cross-post from Jeremiah’s group):

The "red tape conundrum" is a real one when it comes to incorporating Social Media into official web presence.  It's a scary prospect to proactively engage with end-users, from both a reputation & legal standpoint, and particularly for firms in regulated industries such as Pharma and Financial Services.

The kicker is that "the conversation" is happening already: around you, and without you.  To ignore an opportunity to create a convenient spot for users to collaborate & discuss the brand is going to be akin to a criminal offense among tomorrow's web strategists.

Consider that external blog posts about major brands (like BofA and Coca-Cola) are increasingly found in the top-10 Google results.  While it's true that that will continue to be the case, it is also true that a company's officially sanctioned social media presence is likely to become the "aggregator of conversations" about the brand.  This is great, because even the negative chatter will be appropriately and promptly responded to in an official and upfront manner (for all to see), and, the main corporate site will also accrue the majority of the SEO benefits.

More to the point: the train's already leaving the station, with or without you.  Smart companies will figure out a way to hop on-board.  At this point in the evolution of Social Media, a brand still gets a lot of credit for being proactive.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A chat on Twitter with Doug Haslam led to a Facebook question (and a blog post, for his part):

“When launching a start-up… TechCrunch40 or DEMO?”

I expected a lot of replies around the theme of “TC40 for web 2.0 companies; DEMO for more ‘traditional’ launches.”  Instead, I heard many sentiments along the lines of this one, by the inimitable David Parmet:

“Neither. Avoid the hype. Build a community of users first and then go to TechCrunch or Demo....”

Sounds like a reasonable opinion.  Seasoned with the salt of experience.  Hard to argue.  Still, I think maybe it’s wrong.

For as much as the technoscenti like to grumble about “hype,” it’s an invaluable way to introduce a company or concept to a broader swath of the population.  And venues like TC40 and DEMO are hotbeds of hype.  Really, it’s as simple as this: hot shows provide a convenient narrative “hook” for the mediasphere.  That’s not a bad thing.  Tradeshows are the progenitor of memes.

For example, partly on the basis of its participation in TC40, one of our clients, Powerset, got oodles of coverage today, such as:

Search Startup Ready to Challenge Google (AP)

Powerset: Move Over, Google (BusinessWeek)

TechCrunch40: It's Hot Seat Time for this Morning's Startups (Wired blog)

And of course, the show itself has generated a ton of buzz, for itself and for other participants.  Just look at the screenshot that accompanies this post, from Techmeme. 

Shows like TC40 and DEMO are the equivalent of the tech industry’s debutante balls.  It’s a place for all of the beautiful & privileged people to gather, gossip, snipe and sashay… which in turn becomes the 24/7 water-cooler talk in our li’l echochamber.  (Heck, there’s even a TC40 mockumentary on Twitter!)

For those who insist – again, quite rightfully – that companies ought to focus on building great products and serving customers (and that success will surely follow), I’d add that “hype” doesn’t ensure a company’s success; it only ensures a reception.  After that, the product/service must stand on its own. 

“Buzz” is not a reward in itself.  Without lasting success, “buzz” is just short for “buzzsaw.”  Few people suffer more scorn than the debutante who trips down the ballroom stairs.

Posted by Todd Defren at 07:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

I was shootin’ the breeze with a good friend the other day; a “been there, done that” kind of conversation about how the PR world has changed in the past 18 months.

On the one hand, the changes have been good:  there are more clients, with more money to spend on PR, than have existed since You-Know-When (a.k.a. The Bubble That Shall Not Be Named). 

Also good: so many more companies are availing themselves of the “tools of conversation.”  The clients are showing a keen interest in engaging with people.  The best of the bunch are less concerned with “creating a viral video” than they are with “what can we learn from these folks, now that the door is open?”

But, there’s always a flip side. 

The clients are more demanding than ever.  I ascribe this to the fact that they are more FEARFUL than ever. 

When you know that EVERYONE could be talking about you (in a trackable way), it’s ever-more important to make sure that EVERYONE is talking about you. 

And everyone needs to be saying nice things, to boot – since any negative chatter is just as likely to be picked up as any “aren’t they lovely” meme.

I compared this challenge to squiring a pretty girl to a HUGE cocktail party, filled with supermodels – while assuring her all the while that before the evening was done, she’d be the belle of the ball.

The “cocktail party” = the blogosphere.  The “supermodels” = every other company vying for buzz.

A tough challenge.

Bu then again, at least it’s a cool party.

Posted by Todd Defren at 11:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Well, it’s actually GM Europe, but that’s still HUGE.

Check it out – GM got a lot of things right with this effort.

The newsroom contains a tagcloud that enables the visitor to re-orient the newsroom content by keyword (e.g., click on the “environment” tag and all the releases about GM’s green initiatives show up instantly, by issue date).

There’s a sweet Flickr page with a lot of gorgeous photography.  Not just brochureware of pretty cars (and pretty girls), but also of behind-the-scenes action and motorway candids like this one:

Importantly, the Company is allowing end-users to comment (and trackback) to each news release as if it were a blog post.  You can also save/share each news release using all the usual-suspects like del.icio.us, digg, et al. 

There’s even a YouTube page that looks like it gets a fair amount of traffic.  For example, this video of the new Saab 9–3 has seen almost 5,000 views.

Lastly, while I give GM Europe kudos for creating a del.icio.us page of their own (with almost 150 entries to-date), I think they are missing a chance to offer up a “daily dose of thought leadership” by leaving these bookmarks essentially blank.  It would be nice to see GM’s official response/opinion about each of these saved stories.

But that’s a minor quibble.  As noted on the Ignite Social Media Blog, “The site does an amazing thing - it welcomes comments and conversation while allowing users to take any of it and republish. It clearly understands that the destination of the conversations will likely be covered elsewhere, and allows the tools to do so.”

Welcome to the future.

SIDENOTE:  For more info, direct from the source, check out Stephen Davies’ interview with GM Europe’s Keith Childs, the social media newsroom’s brainiac.  I also recommend these related posts by Neville Hobson and Drew B.  And of course, if you are now intrigued by this concept, I can’t miss this chance to flog our own Social Media Newsroom template, much of which is reflected in GM’s grand effort.

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:13 PM | Permalink | Comments (9)

	Cathy Summers: Look at salaries and attitudes vs. experience of most PR people today -- especially younger staffers. 1 year of experience = I know a lot and I am dedicated = pay me $50, 60, 100k. Sadly, some firms are doing just that. Subprime meltdown for PR coming soon!

	Tim Shisler: I wonder if PR folks are drinking the Kool-Aid too fast when taking on new startups and then blowing it when pitching the media--who for the most part I don't think really cares about a new party planning site or way to stalk your neighbors.

	Monica Pandolfi: i think companies whose business plans are based entirely on FB and MS widgets are the dotcoms of 07. the firms that choose to represent those companies are taking a risk.

	Kyle F Flaherty: We see less money for PR b/c 2.0 companies aren't always spending like they did during the bubble, so not sure we'll have the chance to make ALL the same mistakes, but most of the mistakes are already being made.

	Jeremy Pepper: Starting to?

	Kami Huyse: Certainly, Web 2.0 companies have less $ than companies in the bubble era had. I have experienced that my 2.0 clients want everything on a shoestring (maybe that is a factor of my agency size though, you have bigger clients).

	Tom Kuhr: Yes, because the VC's are making the same mistakes and PR is just following the money.

	Cathryn Hrudicka: I would agree with the need for ongoing training and mentoring after the hire, especially in view of the rapidly changing social mediascape. I've worked on both sides—in PR, and as an editor/writer/columnist, and what I got from PR often made me cringe.

	David Parmet: Starting?

	Cathy Summers: I think that we are. Taking clients that clearly have no sales, no sustainable revenue plan, just an idea that having a "Web 2.0" site will bring lots of cash via acquisition. Sounds like 1999 to me.

	Kevin Dugan: Training is always an industry challenge from my experience - $ invested and quality of training available. As far as the bubble days, I think business, media and PR need to be reminded of those days of shell games, IPOs and general circus life.

	you: Too little training is a perennial problem (as Lee notes!) ... the "over-paying" for talent is a Bubble issue, I think.

	Doug Haslam: Is that a problem peculiar to a Bubble?

	Lee Odden: Being on the receiving end of media pitches, I would absolutely say there is too little training after the hire. In our SEO we biz we conduct full team training bi-weekly and individual coaching weekly. It should be no different in the PR biz.

	you: I particularly wonder if PR is starting to make mistakes re: too much money for talent and too little training after-the-hire.

	Mandy Mladenoff: I think this time around we're getting more wood on the ball with respect to keeping clients happier longer. We're still aggressive, but humbler in the knowledge that the economy can turn on a dime.

	Doug Haslam: The PR industry? I think Bubble wasn't limited to PR hype, but VC "irrational exuberance," encouraging revenue-free napkin business plans, which the media ate up (aided and abetted by PR, sure). I think we will make the same mistakes, but not there yet.

What do YOU think?  Hit me up here or on my Facebook page!  (Go ahead and friend me; I’m pretty easy-going on the “friending” front, for now.)

Posted by Todd Defren at 07:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s 9/11, the anniversary of a tragedy. 

For the first time, I’ve seen a split between people who want to “move on” and those who want to engage in commemorations of the day.  Up until this year the latter far outweighed the former. 

As for me, I ride along the middle: it’s just another day at work, yet, I can’t go through it without thinking about those lost lives several times a day.  It helps keep things in perspective.  The civilians who lost their lives 6 years ago were engaged in their workaday lives when the terrorists struck: is it disingenuous to suggest that we’re paying our respects to their memory, merely by working through every September 11 with a sad nod to the victims’ lost potential?

Maybe that’s a cop-out.  Maybe we need to show that this tragedy wore a deeper tread into our lives than that.  Maybe working 9–to-5 — in so-called solidarity with those who lost their own chance to do so — is self-indulgent.

Or maybe the tragedy was so unspeakable that to engage in anything BUT “business as usual” would feel even more hollow?

SIDENOTE: Kami Huyse has a great post today in which several of my favorite people and bloggers recount, via Twitter, “where were you on 9/11?”

Posted by Todd Defren at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

That’s my goal: to put an end to the “Social Media Release.”  Not because I want to see a return to the days of text-based news releases, but simply because I don’t want the Social Media Release to be “special” anymore.  I’d like it to be a standard operating procedure for corporate communicators.

What brought this to mind?  For one, this fantabulous “social media release” by Cisco Systems.  (That’s Cisco, the multi-billion dollar tech behemoth, for you non-techies.)  There’s no mistaking their intentions with this news; witness the headline: “Social Media Release: Cisco Connected Life Contest.” 

(They’re sponsoring a contest looking for users’ ideas for “new experience(s) or capabilit(ies) you would like networking and communications technologies to help you do, whether at home, at work, or on the move.”  Sounds cool.  Here’s the official contest page.)

In the body of the release (which largely hews to the SHIFT template – yay!), there’s a link to a “Traditional Press Release.”  And that’s what got me thinking about the “end” of the Social Media Release. 

The Cisco release is great – it’s straightforward, easy to understand, contains lotsa links to additional content (inclusing a video featuring the band members from KISS!), a YouTube community site link, an RSS feed, a Digg This link, etc. 

Why oh why would anyone rather look at a “traditional” release?  Isn’t this what all news releases ought to be like?  Or have I been drinking too much Social Media Kool-Aid?

Either way, yet another big company has jumped on the bandwagon, and that’s one more step in the right direction.  Kudos, Cisco!  (And hat-tip to Shel Holtz.)

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (8)

At our agency we strive to be highly competitive in terms of staff compensation.  We buy the industry reports; we query friends and competitors; we do extensive exit interviews on those rare occassions when people leave for new opportunities.  Overall, we do a good job of it.  Staff churn at our shop is waaay below industry norms.  

Still, it’s hard to keep up.  Because we compete with many larger firms for newbiz, we also compete for talent.  And lately, because this whole Web 2.0 wave has been bubblicious for business, we’re starting to hear the echoes of the talent wars that raged in the Bubble Days: when college graduates insisted on signing bonuses; when 25–year olds with 4 years’ experience wanted VP titles, etc.

An increasing number of the candidates we’ve talked to are demanding outsized salaries.  Salaries that simply don’t make sense, based on their experience (or lack thereof).  In every case, after a good-faith effort to find a reasonable middle-ground, we’ll simply back-out of the negotiation. 

Money is important.  But if ALL someone cares about is money, then we quickly lose interest.  Been there, done that.  We’ve learned that giving in to wrong-headed demands is just wrong for business.

Here’s my plea to job-seekers and agencies, to nip the looming Talent War in the bud…

Job-Seekers – FYI, you can always make more money.  Once you have landed a job, you can assume that you’ll be worth even more money to the guy down the street.  And sure, you can skip around from job to job and B.S. your way into an extra $10K of salary for a few years.  But at some point it’s got to STOP being just about the money, or else your patchwork resume will likely get you labeled as a disloyal careerist by prospective employers.  And, rightly so.

Agencies – Have we learned nothing?  Despite having been badly burned (financially & reputationally) in the past, agencies who are desperate for talent are now all-too-willing to give these job-seeking divas whatever salary they insist on.  It drives costs up all around, for themselves and for the industry.  It rewards careerism versus achievement.  The short-term ability to handle more newbiz will be canceled out by the HR & financial headaches you’ll create by hiring the wrong people, for too much money.

Job-Seekers, if you’re looking for happiness, work at a place that offers true opportunities, a competitive wage and a great culture.  Agencies, if you’re looking for long-term success, create that kind of environment.

p.s. – Despite my rant, we’re attracting lots of eager, reasonable candidates.  Are you one of ‘em?  Cuz we’re hiring.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)