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Yesterday’s post generated a lot of interesting debate points in the Comments section re: astroturfing.  For your reference, Wikipedia defines “astroturfing” thus:

Astroturfing is a neologism for formal public relations campaigns in politics and advertising that seek to create the impression of being spontaneous, grassroots behavior … The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction …”

While we were building out the (Blair Witch) website and the community, we always knew we were walking a line, but we decided we were not going to try and hoax people outright. The regular members of the Blair Witch community … knew it was a work of fiction … We were not trying to fool anyone …
“(Regarding) the difference between Blair Witch and LonelyGirl15 … The fans of LonelyGirl felt they had a relationship with the character, they communicated to her and she responded back to them. They were all part of a community, so when it was revealed that she was a fiction, people felt betrayed because they were emotionally invested in her.
“If you are going to walk that line, you have to be respectful of your audience and their emotions. People love a good prank, but they don't like to have their emotions manipulated falsely.”

Michael’s comment was much longer and more nuanced than I can suggest via an excerpt, but he makes a fascinating point:

Community investment is the key to understanding community reaction. 

Blair Witch fans were invested in solving a mystery; LG15 fans were invested in a fellow community member (or so they thought).  Likewise, Facebook users are passionate about the service; thus, when FB disrespects the amount of “ownership” that FB users feel for their interactions with the service (as with the original flavor of Beacon), the backlash is intense.

Which leads me to this note from the Comment by Joel Richman:

(Is there) a huge difference between what The Commotion Group is doing with videos, and what every SEO/SEM firm operating on the web is doing with text or links? Gaming organic results, right?
“What about parallels in other mediums? Having ‘fake’ comments and multiple people ‘in’ on getting a controversy started around a video is a little like having a laugh track on a sitcom, don't you think? It's there to infect the audience and get them invested in what they're seeing.”

Ethical SEO is not about gaming the system, it’s about optimizing a website’s design & content such that Google effectively recognizes what the site is truly about.  And those lame-o laugh tracks are more akin to spam.  In both cases, the so-called manipulation is at the surface-level: these are half-assed ways to influence the masses, not abuses against a community.

Other great points were also raised yesterday; I hope that if you have something to contribute to the conversation, you’ll comment either here or on yesterday’s post.

Either way, if you’re getting value from these chitchats, make sure you’re subscribed, ‘kay?  Have a nice weekend!

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Wow, what a difference a day makes.  I felt bad after I stalked out of the blogosphere yesterday, but the real-world subsequently got very interesting.  Among other signal events (that I’ll hopefully be able to reveal soon), I also talked for a solid hour with a Wall Street Journal reporter about “marketing in the social media era.”

In the course of the WSJ chat, the subject of the Comotion Group’s scandalous TechCrunch post came up.  The scandal came from Dan Ackerman Greenberg’s admission of some “clandestine marketing” tactics on YouTube:

Every power user on YouTube has a number of different accounts. So do we. A great way to maximize the number of people who watch our videos is to create some sort of controversy in the comments section below the video. We get a few people in our office to log in throughout the day and post heated comments back and forth (you can definitely have a lot of fun with this)…

Also, we aren’t afraid to delete comments – if someone is saying our video (or your startup) sucks, we just delete their comment. We can’t let one user’s negativity taint everyone else’s opinions.”

Ugh.  Sound familiar?  FWIW, a lot of Greenberg’s OTHER suggestions in the TechCrunch post were pretty darned good (and ethical).  Anyway, it’s been widely covered.  But, here’s what got me scratching my head: when the WSJ reporter asked me…

How were the tactics described by The Comotion Group all that different from the tactics used by The Blair Witch Project producers, in 1999?  Didn’t that campaign generate a lot of positive buzz, ostensibly by duping people online about a fake mystery?”

We agreed that nowadays, the vast number of interconnected online sleuthers would quickly ferret-out the truth about a Blair Witch-style campaign. 

But the question remains:  if someone was clever enough to pull off the same type of stunt, would we applaud as we did back in 1999?  Or would we hiss at the lack of authenticity?

My take: most folks don’t mind going along with a joke; they’ll participate in online scavenger hunts, for example, even if they know they’ll be purposely misdirected at times.  But no one likes to play the fool, especially as our time seems to grow ever more precious. 

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Sometimes – in fact, most of the time – I love what I’m doing, count my blessings, and get mawkishly excited about the future of Marketing & Public Relations.

But sometimes (like today, obviously), I am daunted by the sheer volume of conversations, ideas, petty arguments and silliness that I feel like … well, like this:

I’m taking a Social Media time-out.  For just one day, there’ll be no Twitter, no Facebook, no obsessive scanning of the RSS feeds for me.  I’m staying out of the sandbox.

Meanwhile, though, I don’t expect that ya’ll are also feeling cranky, so I’m going to sign off for the day by pointing you to this most excellent freakin’ post about Social Media Releases, by Brian Solis.

TTFN.

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am a bit late to the Facebook Privacy Pity Party, but I’ve been galvanized into action. This is an issue that the PR/social media bloggers need to spend more time sussing out.

When the Facebook Beacon system (“social ads”) was announced, Mark Zuckerberg said, “It isn't an ad system based on pushing messages out. It's based on getting into the conversations that already happen between people.”

This is important stuff.  But it’s also hard to figure out.

According to Pollara Strategic Insights (as quoted in the Globe and Mail):

26% of business and marketing leaders say they are less familiar with social media marketing than their own customers… (yet this approach is) becoming more important than traditional mass media… 85% said these forums have become an essential component of the communications mix.”

Important!  But hard to figure out.  I think proud young Facebook has yet to get it right.

Using Beacon, for example, advertisers and e-commerce sites can capture and publish your activities to your newsfeed, which in turn advertises your movements to your friends. 

Get it?  Your movements become their advertisements.

As Charlene Li found out, buying a coffee table at Overstock.com is no longer a personal process.  All her Facebook friends now know what she bought, and how much she paid: it was published as part of her newsfeed, without her permission.

“Big deal,” you think.  “It was a coffee table.”

But be sure to read the Comments that accompany Charlene’s post.  THIS ONE in particular.  This poor guy, “Will,” bought his girlfriend an engagement ring at Overstock.com, and soon after:

Imagine my horror when I learned that Overstock had published the details of my purchase (including a link to the item and its price) on my public Facebook newsfeed, as well as notifications to all of my friends. ALL OF MY FRIENDS, including my girlfriend, and all of her friends, etc...

ALL OF THIS WAS WITHOUT MY CONSENT OR KNOWLEDGE.” 

What should have been a life-altering, sweet conversation between two lovebirds became a very public disaster, thanks to Facebook.  (Only Scoble would buy a ring that way!)

There are far smarter people than me discussing these issues, but I think Tony Hung (whom I deeply admire) actually got it wrong on this one.  He suggests that Facebookers are sheep who ultimately won’t care about the data & privacy abuses of the Beacon system.  But I think that when a major news outlet like CNN (or even an aggregator like Google News) catches wind of stories like Will’s, it’s gonna explode – along with Facebook’s current book value.

Starting a conversation that invites others to join in, at their leisure, is okay.  Participating in an ongoing conversation (with transparency) is okay. 

But hijacking a person’s privacy in order to sound informed when entering or starting a conversation is wrong. 

As Danny Sullivan recently said of Facebook’s new advertising system in Advertising Age: “Go. Away.”

UPDATE: This issue continues to smolder.  (And no one smolders like Hugh MacLeod.)  I wonder if Facebook is listening?

Posted by Todd Defren at 11:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I am thankful to the fast-moving, fast-thinking and indefatigable people of SHIFT Communications. 

I am thankful to our clients, who entrust us with their precious reputations. 

I am thankful to my colleagues in the blogosphere, who use their valuable time to inspire and educate us all. 

I am thankful to y-o-u, the readers of this blog: the fact that you take the time to read & participate here still astounds and humbles me.

I am thankful to God, Lady Luck (and her brother, Dumb Luck), for any successes I’ve enjoyed in my work and in raising a family.

I am thankful to my first real boss, Herb Foster, who never hesitated to scrawl a Big Red “X” through my initial press release drafts.  He wouldn’t tell me what I’d done wrong – coulda’ been a typo, coulda’ been anything – he made me figure it out for myself.  The teaching of self-reliance is a gift.

But mostly, I am thankful to Bill Miller. 

Bill was a college buddy of mine.  During those fuzzy, drug-addled days, he was my go-to guy when I needed to confide some doubts and frustrations about my current girlfriend.  We were going through a rough patch and I was seriously considering a break-up.  Or so I thought.

I can still remember every detail of the moment in which Bill exploded my misconceptions. 

“Give me a break,” he grunted.  “You are absolutely crazy about that girl.”

It was the closest I’ve ever come to a sun-through-the-clouds revelation.  With that simple, matter-of-fact declaration, I (finally) knew it; it soaked right into the marrow: she was The One. 

Almost 20 years later, I’m still thankful to Bill for helping me to realize it. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.  I’ll be back to blogging next week.  But now, I’m outta here.  A certain Special Someone is baking her famous apple pie today …

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Yesterday I was honored to discuss Social Media with the all-high mucky-mucks at a FORTUNE 500 company.

It wasn’t a “pitch” in the traditional sense.  There was no RFP to respond to; it wasn’t a case where we needed to displace a competitor.  The execs just wanted to talk about how they might make creative use of their content to engage more directly with people; to make a positive impact on people’s lives. 

This was refreshing.  They didn’t want to discuss how a Social Media program might improve their brand or marketshare.  They wondered how their vast resources might be applied to make people safer & happier.

That’s the way to start a Social Media-inspired campaign!

As we discussed the cool tools & techniques that might be integrated across the online landscape, their enthusiasm for the campaign idea visibly increased.  “Can you guys sleep over?  Maybe we could find some more time tomorrow?  We have to do this, we just have to: this is the future.”

Our li’l corner of the blogosphere tends to get cynical about the exploitive cretins who only see dollar-signs in Social Media.  Maybe it’s partly due to the upcoming holidays, but I got re-energized by the infectious joy on-display in that all-too-corporate conference room yesterday.  These FORTUNE 500 execs were eager to engage, for all the right reasons. 

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

A SHIFT exec recently shared this tidbit of wisdom with me; it’s the 3 Rules he imparts to his staff regarding media/blogger relations:

If you’re not positive that your message will get their attention in a positive way; advance the relationship; or get the appointment, just don’t hit ‘send;’ don’t hit ‘publish.’”

We agreed that of the three objectives, “advancing the relationship” is clearly the most important.  “Getting attention” and “getting appointments” are valuable, sure, but that’s a short-term perspective. 

In today’s mediasphere, moreso than ever before, it’s all about relationships. 

A good relationship has “attention” built-in.  A good relationship can certainly help get an appointment (or at least a fair hearing).

(Feel free to say “Duh!” … and then sheepishly recall all the crap that PR pros have endured in recent weeks.  How soon we forget!)

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

While tactics may vary, at the macro level there is only one way for marketers to reap rewards from Social Media: via candid & transparent participation with their “audiences” (customers, prospects, etc.). 

But there are at least three ways for marketers to utterly screw up their opportunities in Social Media…

1. Lack of transparency due to ignorance (as discussed in the post, “Blogger Relations: Good Intentions, Bad Execution, Lessons Learned”).

2. Overcommitment to techniques they don’t fully understand (as discussed in the post, “Beware the GMOOT!”), which leads to disappointment & premature abandonment of Social Media principles.

3. Cynical exploitation of the Rules of Engagement.

It’s this last that concerns me most.  I can’t name names but I recently saw a proposal from a so-called guerilla marketing agency which included this tactical approach:

After gaining a sense for the community at the blog/user forum, our rep (posing as a typical user) will begin to post up to 10 separate Comments over the course of a week or two, to achieve credibility – leading up to the post that will be of-value to the client. 

“Then, another of our reps (also posing as a typical user), will come in a day later – using a different IP address – to thank the original poster for the ‘great find.’”

It’s GOOD to “gain a sense for the community” and to “achieve credibility” as a user.  The approach highlighted above is a perversion of what’s been discussed, ad nauseum, re: Social Media in general, and Blogger Relations in particular.

Yet such proposals are proliferating, I fear.  Worse, some clients think that this represents a clever approach; a way to “work the system.”

When such deluded and scornful approaches are discovered and outed by the blogosphere, the bad guys will blithely skip away with a smirk … while all the good & wholesome practitioners are gonna stay behind to protest, explain, autopsy, etc. 

And by fighting that good fight, we’ll get smacked upside the head, poked in the eye, punched in the belly and knocked on our collective asses.  Again.

Posted by Todd Defren at 11:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (18)

Today is Veteran’s Day.  It’s a day on which I don some thick leather workman’s boots for a slog down Memory Lane, in tribute to my Grandpa Dave, a WWII vet.

I don’t know many details of his time in the service.  Every now and then he’d open up about his time in the war… then he’d go quiet again for weeks on end.  He never begrudged a question about the war, but the length and depth of his answers were highly variable.  

Because I was a boy, of course my most vivid memories are of his most gruesome tales.  Grandpa Dave exited the service with an abiding hatred for war.  He didn’t try to shield us from its horrors: he told what he could manage to, with thoughtful pauses wedged between the tougher sentences.

Grandpa Dave served in the African Theater, primarily.  Casablanca.  The deserts.  One time he and his buddies were relaxing in a bar in Casablanca.  Once they were liquored up, an entire round of drinks brought to the table was found to be highballs of pure kerosene.  Someone was trying to poison them.  I don’t know exactly what happened next but the bar wound up being shot up.  In a movie, that might look pretty cool.  In real life, it was a memory that haunted him, I think.

Then there was a time when he saw a soldier’s head plucked off his shoulders by stray artillery fire on some dockside.  Then there was the time when a grenade launched into a foxhole blew him into the sky and scarred his legs forever.  That last encounter sent him home… where, for years, the tough Jewish street urchin who had marched off to war spent the next several years ducking under cars or into doorways whenever he heard a plane fly overhead.

Grandpa Dave went on to become a hospital administrator.  His wife, my Grandma Ada – whom he met at 14 and married just before shipping out – was his one, true love.  They raised two fine sons.

People talk about the Greatest Generation.  And it’s true, the Americans who saw us through WWII were great.  But having been so close to my grandfather, I also saw how painful those experiences were; he wasn’t trying to be “great,” he was just trying to get by.

On Veteran’s Day – in-between the self-absorbed blogging, twittering, facebooking, etc. – I try to find time to remember that there are Americans fighting in a war in the Middle East.  Soldiers like my grandfather, battling through sand, blood, hatred and heat, just to get by.  I wish them well.

Posted by Todd Defren at 08:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Been swamped getting ready for my latest trip to Fog City.  I love San Francisco.

I was hoping to pal around with a bunch of my favorite bloggers and twitterbuddies while I was in town, but I have been handed a full slate of meetings this time around… next time, peeps?

Also, due to that aforementioned schedule I doubt I’ll have much blogtime while I am gone.  But according to Feedburner, I lost 400 subscribers in the past 24 hours, so maybe ya’ll are less interested in what I have to say, anyway!  (I keep telling my tender ego – in quiet, soothing tones – that it’s Feedburner that is SNAFU’d.)

I leave you with this bit of fun, courtesy of Scott Monty. 

Most of you have probably seen it already; it’s made the rounds – but it still makes me chuckle.

Have a great weekend!

Posted by Todd Defren at 06:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

We are each a channel of content creation and distribution.  We are all also voracious consumers of content.

We create content in the form of tweets, blog posts, emails, videos, utters.  We distribute content via email, blog posts.  We consume content via RSS, email subscriptions, Facebook. 

But are we guilty of skimping on the SHARING aspects of Social Media?

When you find great content, how often do you …

• Tweet it … ?
• Share on Facebook … ?
• Stumble It … ?
• Digg It … ?
• Save to del.icio.us … ?
• How often are you sharing your reactions via a blog comment?

If you are like me, you probably read a blog post (or skim it, more likely), take from it what you can, and move on.

But each of us is – in theory – an active community participant, eh?  We have created an informal pact with friends & colleagues in our socnets – LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. – and these folks are (in part) depending on us to discover, aggregate, and share our favorite bits of stuff. 

I’ll bet that each of us rely on a small handful of people who always seem to find, save and share “the good stuff.” 

Are we reciprocating?  Are we showing our appreciation to our favorite content creators by posting their best bits to our Facebook newstreams, Stumbling, saving to del.icio.us, and commenting?  Are we adding value to the people in our extended networks by taking an extra 10 seconds to highlight our favorite discoveries for them?

For my part, the answer is “not nearly enough.”  I’m determined to do better.  Consider it an early New Year’s Resolution.  Through my travels in my RSS stream, I’ll try to pop-in to comment more.  I’ll try to “stumble,” save, and share, more.  To show appreciation for my colleagues’ hard work.  To participate.

Will you?

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (12)

Hat-tip to Greg Verdino of crayon.

Posted by Todd Defren at 07:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Blogging (as defined in mainstream terms) is less than 5 years old.

Already there are millions of blogs.  50 million?  70 million?  A lot, anyway.

This grand experiment in self-publishing could have allowed us to break all the conventional rules of human organization.  We might have splintered into a million distinct microchannels.  While you could argue that that “splinterization” is happening at some level, it’s all too easy to point to the echo-chamber effect: a whole lot of our content is being spawned in reaction to posts by A– and B-list bloggers.

Humanity needs leadership.  When a million voices howl into the darkness, they inevitably seek community.  When a community forms, it needs rules.  It needs role models.  Everyone can’t be equally important: we intuit as much, and, the responsibility to prove one’s equality on an ongoing basis is simply too great.  We’re lazier than that. 

It is easier to appoint or default to leaders, and then follow & fawn or react & rebel.

Kudos to our first crop of blogoleaders.  Scoble, Arrington, Kawasaki, Rubel, Calacanis, Winer, et al.  I’d link to them but a) they don’t need the linklove and, b) you can just visit Techmeme; they are well represented there.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (0)

A lot of the recent Facebook “friend requests” I’ve received have been from folks hailing from intergalactic PR agencies … but not from the “traditional” side (they often assure me), but from these firms’ newly-formed “Social Media Divisions.”  

I think it’s a mistake to separate your so-called Social Media specialists from the rest of your PR agency staffers.  If anything it is more critical than ever for our industry to have a holistic perspective on the ever-more-incestuous interplay of Social Media and Mainstream Media.

I think most agency heads know this, by the way … which makes me sad, because it would mean that the so-called separation of disciplines is really a cynical marketing ploy.  (Which would mean that PR pros would deserve the licking we’ve been getting with regard to being exploitive, blockheaded flacks.)

I asked my Twitter pals what they thought about this issue, a couple of weeks ago.  Most tended to agree:  the separation is wrong, and wrong-headed.

That doesn’t mean that there is no room for approaches other than the holistic way.  For our part, we talk about Social Media principles all the time, across the agency.  Additionally, we’ve got a “PR 2.0 Taskforce” comprised of folks who also work within “traditional” teams.  

I see this “separation of powers” issue as a bit of a test for our industry.  You can use the opportunity presented by Social Media to listen and interact and learn, or you can use the opportunity to hustle the uninitiated for more money. 

The long-term winners will open their ears before they open their palms. 

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBacks (0)

Today PR-Squared got a make-over.  I think it looks funky fresh.  We also gave our corporate website a fresh coat of paint.

A few words for the miniscule number of readers who may be interested in the updates & changes.  (Hi Mom & Dad!)

New tagline: “It May Be The Future But You Still Gotta Eat.” 

Whazzat mean?  It means that for all our talk about “participation = marketing” and “conversations are king,” etc., we live in a competitive, capitalist system.  This grand conversation is fun but (by itself) won’t put food on the table for most of us.

In fact, you’re probably reading this blog because you are interested in running more effective PR/marketing/social media campaigns.  For the first time, companies can interact with and learn from their customers – and as a result, take action to improve their products, services, and brand... in order to sell more stuff.  That’s not cynical exploitation, that’s exciting!  “Social” need not mean “socialist,” even if that’s how some extremists would like to interpret it. 

Other details of little or no interest, and in no particular order?

The “Blogroll” tab is a reflection of my current OPML file.  It changes almost daily; this is a snapshot.  BTW, if you read this blog, I want to read your blog, so if you’re not on the list, drop me a note.

The “Jedi Training” section is where I plan to store posts that are pretty tactical in nature.  It’s called “Jedi Training” because I am a geek.  In fact I am so geeky that I dare say things like, “We are all in training in Social Media, young padawan.”

Now you can subscribe by email.

There’s a cool video swicki where you can take a look at the latest videos about social media & marketing.

We finally added a halfway decent “Share This” badge.  If you like a post, I’d count it as a personal favor if you’d Digg or Stumble or Facebook it.  “Validation” is the currency of the blogosphere.

We also added a voting widget which, if it works, will not only record your opinion about a post, but also point you to other posts of-interest. 

Lastly we added a Twitterbox.  You can see my latest tweets there.  But honestly, tweets without context are kinda lame: the value of Twitter comes from the conversations and discoveries that happen in-the-flow.  Hopefully seeing a few clever tweets here will convince you to join Twitter yourself, and “follow” me & my friends in the tweetiesphere.

You like?

Posted by Todd Defren at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

The “PR people suck” meme of this week – which whacked several PR firms (ours included, dammit) - got me thinking.

I’ve said before that “sunlight is the best disinfectant” … The public outing of bad PR practices that seems to occur with increasing frequency will, eventually, cow the best among us into doing an ever-better job.

I say “the best among us” because the good agencies do care about doing a good job.  The bad agencies don’t care and won’t change.  They will continue, as all spammers do, to play the odds via lots & lots of bad pitches.  (“Dear Site Owner…”  Ugh!!)  

However, despite the good agencies’ best intentions and whole-hearted, in-depth training efforts, mistakes will continue to happen. 

The field is filled with young, eager, aggressive people who move too fast sometimes.  They can be trained for weeks on end, but they’ll still make mistakes.  As all parents know, sometimes the only way a kid learns is by falling flat on their face.  It’s too bad that these mistakes increasingly lead to public humiliation and mortally-wounded career prospects.

But, we can guide our industry.  Just as it’s easy to skim a list of bad PR pitches from any reporter’s email log and append them to an angry blog post, it’s now also easier than ever for PR pros to share best practices.  Rather than bemoan our fate, our industry is becoming increasingly proactive (p.s., each link in this paragraph is well worth your time).

If you’re like me, though, you can read (and even bookmark) some good advice you see online, but when you’re rushing to finish an assignment, it’s tough to take the time to dig up those helpful tips online.

So here’s one small contribution (pdf):  it’s a list of “Blogger Relations” tips, published in a handy bookmark size intended for hardcopy printing. 

Print it; grab a pair of scissors; cut along the dotted lines and voila – you’ve got a handy-dandy bookmark on Blogger Relations.  Post it to a cube wall, laminate it into an actual bookmark, etc.  In fact, here at SHIFT we’re going to post them at every workstation, to supplement the lessons that our staffers learn in their on-going training sessions.

As per usual, it’s free, no copyright restrictions, etc.  Slice off our logo, or superimpose your own on top of ours.  Don’t care.  If the distribution of our Blogger Relations Bookmark results in just one young PR pro not humiliating themselves, that’s all the payment we’d need.  Hope you find it useful.

Note: these are just quick tips… you can’t fit a training manual on a bookmark!  Still, following these simple guidelines could ward off the most egregious Blogger Relations errors.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)