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This post is not about PR or Social Media.

But it is about Participation.

Are you planning to participate in this Tuesday’s primaries?  Are you planning to participate in the process of democracy?

Democracy does not ask much of us.  In fact, except for the honorable service of our all-volunteer army, Democracy clearly does not ask enough of us.  Democracy says, “Go about your daily life; good luck to you; let me know if you need a hand.” 

This benign neglect has led us to too often disregard the original sacrifices made to create our nation.  A relative handful of patriots decided to take on the world’s #1 super-power.  These farmers and ragtag frontiersmen were willing to tackle a professional and formidable army in the cause of Liberty. 

I know that, had I been alive at the time, my wife and kids would have begged me to stay indoors, head tucked down, just to keep me safe ... I don’t doubt that those brave souls faced similar pressures.  But they took up arms, anyway.

In my opinion, to disregard the opportunity to vote is a slap in the face to those who were willing to make that sacrifice, then & now.  It’s also an abdication of the right to complain when things don’t break your way. 

Democracy asks that you add 15 minutes to your commute, to stop by the polling station.  Not so hard to do.

This is the note I just sent to all 100 employees of SHIFT Communications:

Hi all –

 

I’ve always believed strongly in encouraging people to vote.  I’m one of those wonks raised to vote for the local dog-catcher, if there’s an election for the post. 

 

It’s an all-too-rare privilege in this world to have the opportunity to make our voices heard through the pulling of a lever.   

 

So I hope you plan to make the time to vote this Tuesday in the primaries - certainly your managers will support you in this, if it requires coming in a bit late or leaving a bit early. 

 

It doesn’t matter who you’re voting for, please, just be sure to vote!!  It’s your country, folks: the participation of young people ensures that it’s not just retirees and extremists (of either party) who get to decide who’s in the Oval Office.

 

See you at the polls!

Posted by Todd Defren at 02:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Several thoughtful bloggers (including Seth Godin Himself) have made note of the controversial Clive Thomspon article in Fast Company that pits Malcom Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” ideas (in which our tastes are the pawns of select Influentials) against Duncan Watt’s suggestion that the Influentials (while important, and pretty cool) have less impact than has been attributed to them.

Jason Falls paraphrases the Fast Company article nicely: “Watts says companies should harness the pass-along power of everyday people, not just the well-connected, and do so by continuing to rely on some mass media methods.”  He goes on to enthuse (rightfully) about the “pass-along passion” of everyday people who have been enthralled by a product, brand or idea. 

But in the article, Watts hits on another concept that is worth exploration.  Assuming that an Influential wields “40 times the reach of a normal person,” Watts found through his computer models that the Influentials were not infallible; they couldn’t “kick-start a trend every time.”  From the article:

“Watts believes this is because a trend’s success depends not on the person who starts it, but on how susceptible the society is overall to the trend.”

This rings true for me.  I might revere a guy like … well, like Guy.  But if Guy Kawasaki told me that I simply must read the latest bodice-ripping romance novel, I’d completely ignore him.  I am not “susceptible” to that type of entreaty, regardless of my respect for Mr. Kawasaki.

As Thompson noted, this conundrum represents a pain-in-the-rear to the Marketing industry, including (especially) Public Relations.  It’s not enough to get an Arrington or Scoble or Malik hit and call it a day.  That’s a Nice To Have, sure, but the Need To Have successes will increasingly come from harnassing Social Media (not just Mainstream Media) to discover, engage and empower our clients’ passionate users.  They’ll tell the friends on their list whom they know are “susceptible” to our client’s message; they’ll target their own A-list, the friends that they think might be helped by the product/service. 

And they’ll tell two friends.  And so on, and so on, and so on …

UPDATED: More awesome posts on this concept at Scott Monty’s blog, at Logic + Emotion and (irony of ironies) at Guy Kawasaki’s spot.

Posted by Todd Defren at 05:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)

I once wrote an e-book about PR measurement.  I never released it; it’s still tucked away on my hard drive; the world changed around us and the content felt less relevant. 

Still, “measurement” is a topic that’s been close to my heart for a long time.

One of the ways that “the measurement question” has evolved recently struck me as I discussed metrics with a client last week.  Among the objectives that they wanted on-the-table was this one:

“At least 5 articles about (CLIENT) – with a link – on mainstream media and/or blog sites with a Google PageRank of 4 or higher.”

Heady stuff, eh?  The dawn of Google Relations is at hand. 

I can’t say that I was surprised, distressed or even nonplussed.  Even though I am a big believer in Quality vs. Quantity when it comes to media coverage, frankly, my gut reaction to this suggestion was:

“Of course.  Makes sense.  Everything is migrating online; online coverage lives forever; and, Google is the arbiter of relevancy (for now).  Relevant content that is easily discovered via a popular site is likely going to do more for the client’s sales funnel than a brilliant hit in a 3^rd tier hardcopy channel publication.  Thus… why not?”

Meanwhile, as the brilliant measurement guru KD Paine noted (hat-tip to blogger Chris Abraham), the move to all-things-online has been a boon to PR practitioners who have historically struggled with The Measurement Question.

“I have PR clients that can absolutely tell you the impact that THEIR efforts have on consumer behavior.  Facebook can track specific PR initiatives to increased user signups -- their most recent sponsorship of the pre-NH primary debate resulted in 1,000,000 sign ups. Similarly, the ASPCA knows exactly which type of news generates the most new members and on-line donations.  Never mind the work that Procter & Gamble has done to tie its PR efforts to increased sales.”

This is all headed somewhere.  I think – and hope – that it’s headed toward a consistent standard.  I abhor the apple:oranges ratios enforced by the red-headed stepchild of measurement, the “ad-sales equivalency model.”  Yet this metric continues to be debated and asked-for by some clients.  Perhaps the online migration of PR results will lead to a fitting standard that we can all measure up against.

Now, as much as I want you to subcribe to this blog, if you’re into “the Measurement stuff” you’ll be far better served at KD Paine’s spot or by Kami Huyse’s consistently high-quality Communications Overtones blog.

Posted by Todd Defren at 04:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

It’s been a bizarre week.  Been traveling and in meetings – A LOT – which has meant less blogging than usual.  But, ‘lo!  The RSS subscribers went from 1,600 to almost 2,000 (at least as-of this writing), and we’re getting within spitting distance of a return to the Top-10,000 on Technorati. 

So, maybe next week, no blog posts from me?  I foresee a fourfold leap in PR-Squared’s popularity resulting from a week-long furlough.  That’ll give Rubel, et al., a run for their money!  (Naw, won’t happen; a man’s gotta contribute: damn the statistics!)

Today’s entry is about “The State of the PR Industry.”  In preparing for my bi-annual employee presentation on “The State of SHIFT,” I try to take industry trends into consideration.  This year I had the benefit of input from the Twitterati:

•      JasonFalls @TDefren PR Industry: Finding themselves in need of social media aptitude. Furiously searching for own asses.

•      JohnAtkinson @TDefren -PR Industry:Traditional media tactics - no trust, filtered out. Social media: signs of trust w/ early adopter targets - IMHO.

•      mediaphyter @TDefren I think that if the majority of PR people out there don't learn quickly how blogs can work for and against them, the answer is trouble.

•      lrivers @TDefren Like anything, there's a huge delta between the best and everyone else. Really good PR is expensive and worth it...

•      kbodnar32 @tdefren in transition... major transition.

•      jenzings @TDefren: Under fire – for spinning, the rep as being obfuscators. Redeemable, but need to listen more and learn more.

•      briguyblock @TDefren we're sitting pretty at the moment, but we're branching out. I'd like to think most PR folk are expanding their minds.

•      tombiro @tdefren - still full of echo-chamber line followers who do things because they heard it was the new thing to do rather than the right thing.

•      mjkeliher @TDefren FUN! Constant change, new tools and toys (and the related challenges) keep us interested and on our toes. FUN!

•      mediaphyter @TDefren Confused.

What do you think?

For my part, I wasn’t surprised to see that most of the responses were negative.  As the old chestnut goes, “The cobbler’s children have no shoes.”  Despite the best efforts of industry organizations like the PRSA, we’ve historically (and oh-so-ironically) fared poorly in the court of public opinion.

But, count me as one of the optimists, along with good ol’ Mike (“FUN!”) Keliher.  I think that the PR industry had been in the doledrums for many years, but that the rise of Social Media has energized the field.  While the advertising agencies will always find a way to make things sexier, Social Media is ultimately about authenticity; about maintaining a respectful, attentive, running dialogue with stakeholders: this is PR’s bailiwick.  There’s plenty to improve on but I think we’ve found our new groove.

Hey – before ya go, some shameless appeals: put us over the top!  Are you subscribed?  See any posts here that might be worth linking to, to help nudge us into the T’rati 10,000 zone?  Either way, thanks for stopping by.  Have a great weekend!

Posted by Todd Defren at 03:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (5)

It’s one thing to come up with a Social Media Release template and offer it up to the community for free.  It’s quite another to spend hundreds of hours researching, writing, editing and agonizing over a polished work of intellectual property – and then give it away.

There are benefits to this, of course: it boosts one’s reputation, SEO, etc., which can lead to more lucrative business opportunities and speaking gigs.  I get that.  Still, my mind boggles and I feel such gratitude to really smart people when they proffer their labors to the world with such generosity.

Thanks, David Meerman Scott, for your recent e-book on Viral Marketing.

Thanks, Ted Demopoulous, for your e-book on Effective Internet Presence.

Thanks, Brian Solis, for your e-books on Social Media & Community Relations; on Blogger Relations and on PR Tips for Start-Ups.

Thanks, Brainstorm, for your e-book on the Mediasphere.

Thanks, Contagious, for all the best case studies from 2007.

Thanks, Greg Verdino, for the cool slides about Social Media.

Thanks, John Moore, for all the great recipes.

Thanks to Edelman’s Jonny Brentwood for the white paper on Social Media Measurement.

Thanks, Patrick Hanlon, for the thought-provoking slides on Branding.

This is just a sample of the cool stuff I’ve downloaded to my “personal ponderings” folder.  The generosity is stupefying. 

(I hope all the links work; most all open PDFs that will inspire, provoke and/or baffle.  Take advantage.) 

Posted by Todd Defren at 05:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

In this age of Social Media, there are generally two themes comprising the “PR is dead” meme.

The first is, “Blogs allows corporations to speak directly to media and stakeholders: there’s no need for the control (of message or relationship) exerted by a PR middleman.”

The other is, “The work of ‘reputation management’ is increasingly all-about-relationships.  Can we outsource an important relationship?” 

This post is about the latter.  This post asks, tongue-in-cheek, “Who owns Scoble?”

On the face of it, of course, the corporate spokespeople should have a relationship with any-and-all top-tier media, be they “mainstream” or “blogosphere.”  In a perfect world, they’d have the time, creativity, connections and sticktoitiveness required to forge these personal links.

In my experience, however, few execs can pull it off.  Heck, forget about “creativity” and “connections” – there’s simply too much to do to run a winning company; the “time” and “sticktoitiveness” factors are critical issues. 

This is true both in start-ups and in larger companies. 

Start-ups require everyone to wear 12 hats, so the PR person is generally frantic.  But let’s say she is fully capable of creating and sustaining these all-important relationships on her own.  Awesome.  But if your start-up is like every other start-up I’ve worked with, this A-player is an Army of One.  What happens when she leaves for a better opportunity, as so often happens, taking her relationships with her?  Will the CEO or Marketing VP be able to invest nearly as much time in cultivating those so-called “friends” in the mediasphere? 

Not likely.  More often than not, these execs have spoken just a handful of times with their top-tier media contacts; to reach out directly at this point would ring hollow: the first words out of the journalist/blogger will likely be, “Oh, umm, hi.  What happened to ______?”  (At which point, having to admit “she left for another opportunity” just calls your company’s own grandiose ambitions into question, eh?)

Larger companies fall into this same fix, of course, but more often than not these corporations have forged “corporate ties” to their top mediasphere contacts: the “loyalty” of the media contact is to the brand, not to any one in-house PR rep.  The company is part of the media’s “beat.” 

Thus, many large companies decide that it’s easier to outsource the relatively simplistic task of “fielding media inquiries,” since this approach offers the added benefits of a) gaining access to a swath of eager-beaver young creative types (without having to pay their healthcare benefits), and, b) potentially opening the company up to additional media relationships, cultivated over the years by the external firm. 

Circling back to the original question:  “Is it okay to outsource relationships?”  The answer is NO.  You can’t hire a third-party to dance with your wife, drink a beer with your best friend or teach your kid how to ride a bike. 

But Mr. Scoble (my proxy for any A-lister in the mediasphere; thanks, Robert!) already has enough friends: he is not necessarily looking to forge a “relationship” with you.  If your company is doing something cool, Scoble understands that a good PR person can light his path to your door.  Happens all the time; it’s part of the system he happily works within.

In fact, just as many journalists & bloggers have relationships, loyalties and/or editorial obligations to certain corporate brands, they often also get a good feel for the various external PR agencies that pitch them, and likewise develop symbiotic relationships with the people at the good firms. 

What matters most, in any case, is THE STORY.  Whomever has the best relationship with the media contact – whether in-house or agency – really only gets an extra 30 seconds to tell it.  If the story sucks, the story doesn’t get written – and the relationship suffers because you’ve wasted their time.  Do that enough times as an in-house PR contact and you’ve burned a bridge, for yourself and your company.  At least the Agency rep can switch things up and ensure that the ratio of good:bad pitches (across all clients) favors the good, and thus keeps the overall relationship strong.

Because “forging good relationships” with the media is a huge component of a PR agency’s raison d’etre, we make the time to creatively forge and sustain these connections.  For every bad pitch that one agency person might send out, a good agency is crafting many more neatly-honed pitches.  We take the knowledge gained from these processes (including the cock-ups) to ensure that our clients’ messages come through in ways that are palatable to each of our contacts.  Done well, it works well for the client, for the media, and yeah, for us. 

One less thing for you to do.

Posted by Todd Defren at 06:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

This was a tough week to be a Big Brand.  This was a week in which it was all-too-easy to rile up the blogosphere.  This was a week in which the tenets of copyright and fair use and monetization and fandom and PR got all tangled up.

I am going to tread lightly with my commentary about the specific issues.  As Jeremy Pepper recently pointed out (pointedly), it’s too easy for bloggers to point fingers and make broad claims, without having done the proper research.  But the larger themes are worth exploring.

Ford vs. the Black Mustang Club – CafePress initially blocked the BMC from publishing a club calendar featuring members’ own cars, for fear of legal reprisals from Ford’s legal team (discussed here).  According to a Ford rep, the company “has no problem with (Ford) owners taking pictures of their vehicles for use in club materials like calendars…We do have an issue with … individuals using Ford’s logo and other trademarks for products they intend to sell.” 

My take: Understandable but a little short-sighted in cases like this (one-off, short-money, and enthusiast-based), in my opinion.

Mattel vs. Scrabulous – Scrabulous was a wildly-popular take-off on Mattel’s iconic board game, for Facebook.  Mattel got wise to the lost opportunity and issued a cease&desist (discussed here and here). 

My take:  Totally understandable on Mattel’s part; but, probably a missed opportunity in that Scrabulous was likely as much a revenue driver as drainer, as noted by at least one angry user.  Based on the known facts (hat-tip to Mr. Pepper), it seems to me that a compromise could have been found.

Target vs. the Blogosphere – The flap du jour concerns Target’s blatantly suggestive new billboard campaign and, more importantly, the retail giant’s newly-revealed official policy regarding bloggers:  “Ignore them.” 

I am not joking, this came direct from a Target PR representative, in response to a blogger’s complaint: 

Thank you for contacting Target; unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with non-traditional media outlets.  This practice is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest.  Once again thank you for your interest, and have a nice day.”

My take:  Honestly this is a stupid policy.  It’s already drawing fire.  I understand that it can be hard to scale a communications program to account for the 24/7 and unpredictable nature of blog chatter, but it’s certainly possible for a corporation of Target’s size. 

Sadly, Target is not the only Big Brand that I know of that’s shying away from the woolly blogosphere, due to either scalability or legal concerns, but it represents a lost opportunity to engage with online word-of-mouth experts.

If it weren’t hard, it wouldn’t be worth doing.

Posted by Todd Defren at 03:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBacks (1)

How many times have you made a purchase, and subsequently felt so good about the store, the product, etc., that you wanted to tell your friends about your discovery? 

When you’ve started a relationship with a product/service/brand on a high note, you’re more likely to forgive small transgressions in the future.  You’re more apt to work with the vendor to solve those problems rather than point fingers right away.

That’s why one of the major tenets of our Agency’s account services philosophy is “Impress ‘em early.”  We like to surprise our new clients with our responsiveness, with our ideas, with some early successes, with the quality & depth of our reporting.  One of my all-time-favorite compliments from a new client is, “Wow, you guys are off to a fast start.”

Of course, there’s a big challenge inherent in this approach.  By setting a high bar so early in the game, we set an expectation that we’ll always sustain that level of service.  You can’t be a hero every day.  Naturally, we try to keep it up, but invariably something will be off-the-mark.  We’re human. 

Some clients are sensitive to this and look for that first mis-step as evidence that we were never as good as we came across in the early days.  However, the majority of clients are so pleased with our early zeal that they see that first mis-step for what it is: a mis-step; a recoverable offense.

“Underpromise, Overdeliver.”  It’s a worthy mantra.

Posted by Todd Defren at 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

As noted this week in BoingBoing, a gaggle of overzealous lawyers representing Ford Motor Company recently stomped all over their brand’s biggest enthusiasts.

The folks at (the) Black Mustang Club automotive forum wanted to put together a calendar featuring members' cars, and print it through CafePress. Photos were submitted, the layout was set, and... (BMC was notified) that pictures of Ford cars cannot be printed. Not just Ford logos, not just Mustang logos, the car – as a whole – is a Ford trademark and its image can't be reproduced without permission. So even though Ford has a lineup of enthusiasts who want to show off their Ford cars, the company is bent on alienating them.

Again and again and again and again we’ve learned that in the Social Media era, the CUSTOMERS ARE IN CONTROL of the brand. 

Smart brands empower & applaud their customers’ content creation efforts, especially when those efforts are based on enthusiasm.  With its pursuit of the BMC folks, Ford pulled the spark-plug right outta their hearts.  How stupid.  What a loss.  It’s not as if the BMC effort was draining revenue from Ford’s coffers; if anything, any revenues resulting from calendar sales would help sustain a Ford Fan Club!

It’s sadly ironic that Ford won some well-deserved praise for their embrace of the Social Media Release: a genuine attempt to provide multimedia assets to anyone interested in participating in a conversation about the Ford Focus.  Now I can’t help but wonder if that release slipped out the backdoor, without the Legal Department’s vetting?

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

It’s been 19–odd months since we released the Social Media News Release template.  As has been exhaustively discussed, adoption of the SMNR across both corporations & the wire services – while not without hiccups and slow spots – has been pretty awesome overall.

The SMNR template took on a life of its own and for a long time we didn’t see any need to consider a Version 2.0.  But we’ve got some new ideas to share that will soon result in a new PDF to pin to the wall.   

Before we publish the new template, though, I want to ask for your final bits of feedback on version 1.0. 

If you could change just one thing about the current SMNR template, what would it be? 

Please leave it in the comments of this post, or reach out to me directly.  If you’re a PR/marketing blogger, I’d love it if you asked your own readers, too. 

If we get any input that results in a change to the 2.0 template that’s already mocked-up on my hard-drive, I’ll be sure to give that person credit!

P.S. – Please don’t bother to use this opportunity to snarkily dismiss the whole concept of the SMNR.  I know there are doubters.  I also know that there are plenty of folks who embrace the idea of updating the 101–year old news release for the wired age.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Keying off of Chris Brogan’s seminal list of “100 Blog Topics I Hope YOU Write,” the University of Georgia’s Karen Russell recently used her excellent “Teaching PR” blog to suggest “A dozen things I wish PR pros would blog about.”

On Karen’s list was this question:  “What I Wish My New Employee Knew.”   Since I’ve often insisted that our firm is “a talent agency, not a PR agency,” this topic resonated with me.  The thing about hiring motivated, smart, creative young people is that motivated, smart, creative young people – while invaluable – can also be hard to manage sometimes.

I wish my new employee knew that we were genuinely psyched that they found us; that we were flattered by their interest and thrilled by their acceptance of our offer.  (We tell them that, sure, but I worry it rings hollow sometimes.)

I wish my new employee knew that some clients are a-holes, and some clients are incredibly appreciative, but they must all be treated equally.  That means that the level of effort can’t flag for the prickly client.  That means that you shouldn’t use your water-cooler time to gossip or kvetch about the tough cases; it’s unhelpful and nothing good comes of it.  (Along with this, it helps to know that the nice clients far outweigh the jerks, over time.  Never let the turkeys get ya down.)

I wish my new employee knew that Quality Counts.  A typo in an email might not seem like a big deal.  But it doesn’t take long for the client to wonder if that sloppiness extends to the way the agency is cultivating their image to the outside world.

I wish my new employee knew that we absolutely and gladly fire clients who are truly abusive.  We’re vigilant about this, but most new employees assume that the client is always right and stay quiet for too long.

I wish my new employee knew that when I say I’ve got an open-door policy, it means swing by anytime you have a question about anything.  I don’t bite.  It’s not hard for me to offer two cents: it’s my job.  And I love my job.

I wish my new employee knew that the beginning part of a career is usually a slog.  It’s not all Social Media fun & games, sorry.  To be effective & accountable strategists, we need databases, research, detailed reports.  That’s how everybody starts out, even the rockstars. 

I wish my new employee knew that “eagerness is everything.”  If you’re eager; if you’re leaning forward; motivated, I’ll lie on the train tracks for you.  If you’ve got a dark cloud over your head, its shadow casts a pall over the entire office.  That includes my office. 

I wish my new employee knew that it’s all fun and games til you complain about working til 8 o’clock every night.  Barring a huge project or crisis, we don’t want you working that late; it doesn’t impress us, it makes us question your efficiency.  Following a string of late nights in our SF office, we began to require written permission from a manager if someone felt the need to work past 6:30pm.  People began to leave on time.  Productivity soared.  So did morale.

I wish my new employee knew that it’s okay to screw-up sometimes.  The sooner you tell your manager, the smaller the screw-up will look in retrospect.  If you never fall down, how can you learn to pick yourself back up?

I could go on forever.  Hopefully this is a good starting point.  Meanwhile, other good responses to Karen Russell’s clarion call include:

• 5 Ways Not To Get An Entry-Level PR Job – David Reich
• The Cover Letter Pitch – Kevin Dugan
• Reasons a Student Should Get Involved in Social Media – Joe Thornley & Chris Clarke
• 3 Things Never to Say to Your Boss – Lauren Vargas
• Office Politics 101 – Colin McKay
• How to Get Promoted – Judy Gombita
• If I Knew Then What I Know Now – Donna Papacosta
• 5 Things All PR Students Should Know About Their Career Choice – Steven Silvers

Learning something?  Like this post?  Great!  Are you subscribed?  Are you sharing, using that li’l universal widget below?  Thanks!!

Posted by Todd Defren at 01:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (17) | TrackBacks (1)

Prepping for my imminent departure to Las Vegas to catch the tail-end of the Consumer Electronics Show, I was bedazzled by all the toys & promises that have already been widely covered.

A vision of the future came to me in a flash.  Yesterday I was reading about Comcast’s wideband strategy, enabling hi-speed downloads of thousands of HD movies to our PCs and computers, and within moments also came across news of a “Google tv” making its way through the development cycle.

This all happened within a day of watching videos on Metacafe … a video-uploading site which has cleanly embedded contextual advertisements within each video, and of course features all the latest & greatest modes for sharing the content.  

Clearly we’re headed towards a world in which all content becomes widely available across numerous different media channels and devices.  Online.  Offline.  Web.  TV.  Mobile device.  Storage not a problem.  Transmission not a problem.  Monetization streamlined.  (Not to gratuitously tout a client, but it sounds a lot like Rob Glaser’s “jukebox in the sky” vision.)

Before you say, “duh!” – since that’s an age-old convergeance story – the vision that came to me added the all-important Social Media element to that Media Convergeance tale.

There may come a day when we can give our personal Thumb’s Up or Thumb’s Down to all content, regardless of how it’s displayed to us.  Today we can rate a YouTube video.  Tomorrow we’ll use our remote control to rate the latest episode of Law & Order, and that rating will become part of that episode’s aggregate score throughout its umpteen re-runs.

There may come a day when we see a cool program or even a commercial on the tv, and be able to email it directly from our tv to our friends’ in-box or even remotely download it to their DVR.  (I presume our friends’ prior permission to do so would be a built-in safeguard against “DVR spam!”)

There may come a day when we can press a button on our tv remote to append a verbal comment to a program or commercial; this comment could become either an audio file or be displayed via speech-to-text, depending on how it was later accessed. 

Remember Mystery Science Theater 3000 (in which you’d watch a B-movie alongside a wisecracking chorus?)  There may come a day when all tv shows and movies can be accompanied by a running commentary track – not by the director, but by your friends, or by some rising wise-acre emerged from the blogosphere.  

We’ve all been enthralled by the vision – as espoused in the famous Qwest commercial (circa 2000) – of a world in which we can access “every movie ever made, in any language, any time, day or night.” 

Imagine how much more fun that world would be with the ability to share, score, re-purpose and react to that content together.

As “visions of the future” go, that one’s pretty fun.

(Note that you can download the Qwest commercial by clicking on the screencap above.)

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

How often do you look at your RSS feeds and groan to realize that you’ve got 300 unread posts to scroll through?  Don’t you sometimes wish that you could passively listen to those text feeds - say, in your car, as if each blog post was a podcast?

Now you can.  The name of this new service is kind of goofy – PimpMyNews – but the concept is cool.  PMN automatically converts the blog posts of your choice to an audio format that you can listen to online, or, on-the-go via your iPod, iPhone or any MP3 player.  You can listen to your personal blog faves or choose from any number of the 3,000+ news stories and blog posts that are added to the PMN site daily.  You can even listen to PR-Squared!

The only real downside to the service is that the Text-To-Speech, while pretty darned good as far as these TTS apps go, is still pretty robotic, a la Stephen Hawking.  You can lose some of the nuance of a post because you wind up focused on an off-the-mark pronunciation or by the alien tone of voice. 

Then again, Stephen Hawking is pretty freakin’ brilliant, eh?  If you met him in-person, you’d probably make the effort to comprehend him.

PMN founder, John Atkinson, is counting on that kind of commitment.  In a recent conversation he noted that most PMN beta testers got used to the “robot voice” within 10 minutes or so.  He likened it to meeting someone with a thick foreign accent: at first you despair of understanding them, but with time your ears train themselves to the person’s speech patterns, and comprehension grows.

Sounds like somebody’s listening.  Since PMN’s early December launch, users from 87 different countries have stopped by to check it out, and it was recently named Cool Site of the Day.  

Posted by Todd Defren at 10:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (4)

I rarely discuss politics here but I am thrilled to see the insurgent success of Barack Obama’s campaign. 

The guy makes me proud to be American again.  After the travesties of the Bush administration, and the viscious partisanship fed for 15 years by the Bush/Clinton tug-of-war, I am ready for a gust of fresh air - and Obama fits the bill.

This weekend I spent a little bit of time sniffing around the outer edges of the Web, to see what the right-wing zealots are brewing up for Obama.  It wasn’t pretty.

Here, then, are The Six Trials of Obama: the most-likely challenges he’ll face in the nastiness of the General Election…

Readiness – This line of attack is already on display in the primaries, as the Clintons strive to portray Obama as “all talk no action.”  The question of experience is probably the single biggest question mark for Obama …

As Obama justifiably points out, our current president was the former governor of a large state, and surrounded himself with the most experienced Washington players available, and look where that got us. 

Still, the way in which this question will be raised, hauntingly and yes, exploitatively, will likely be:  “Imagine there’s another major terrorist attack on American soil.  Whose hand do you want on the tiller?  The untested Obama, or (fill in the blank: McCain, Guliani, etc.)”

It’s been suggested that Obama start making noise about potential Cabinet positions (Biden for Sect’y of State?), to give folks a sense that he’d surround himself with some steady gray beards.  For my part, I trust the fella’s judgment; I feel sure he’d react without over-reacting (or over-reaching).

Questions re: Patriotism – The Red Staters are apoplectic over this picture …  I am sure it will make the rounds more heavily, along with the “news” that Obama stopped wearing the ubiquitous American flag lapel pin.

Obama has noted – rightfully, I think – that those pins have become empty political fashion statements.  By “pinning” this issue as a red-herring of the Republican cronies who wore the lapel pins even as they did nothing to keep America’s power or reputation from fraying under the Bush Administration seems a neat sidestep.

Drug Use – Obama has admitted to teenage drug use.  Hopefully the country that elected a self-professed alcoholic to the Oval Office will realize that “when (Obama) was young and foolish, he was young, and foolish.”

Muslim Misinformation – From seedy Republican phone banks, the largely uninformed electorate will hear about the fact that Obama attended a Muslim school in Indonesia (they’ll call it an extremist madrassa: it wasn’t); and, no doubt his middle name alone (“Hussein”) will stir up some ignorant and intolerant people.

This one’s tough.  The Republican PR machine was able to convince broad swaths of the electorate that Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks, and that John Kerry’s heroism during the Swift Boat incident in Viet Nam was actually a mark of cowardice.  The same evil geniuses will no doubt find a way to enflame the masses with misinformation about Obama’s heritage and religion.

Frankly a few high-profile photo opps of the Obama family praying in churches would be a good way to start combatting this early misconception.

The Guy’s Black – So far, Obama’s been able to sway lily-white states like Iowa and New Hampshire (fingers crossed) to vote for a black man.  But pundits fear a “voting booth conversion” on Election Day, in which white people who profess support for Obama decide – in the privacy of the voting booth – that they just can’t pull the lever for a black man. 

I hope the pundits are wrong.  Imagine the soaring hope that a disadvantaged, disenfranchised kid might feel, seeing a black man ascend to the presidency.  It’s the embodiment of the American Dream, which has seemed beyond reach for too long.

“Liberal” – Any Democratic nominee will face this old chestnut.  If he can sew up the Democratic nomination, Obama can tack rightward, to the centrist positions that seem more his style.

Seems to me that all of these challenges can be overcome, with some judicious forward planning.  I presume that the Obama team includes some smart folks who are already strategizing for how to deal with the nastiness ahead.  Hopefully they are fired up & ready to go – the distance.

Posted by Todd Defren at 12:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (10)

Almost everyone hates a meme, yet they persist.  Some day we’ll view these memes as li’l more than chain letters, and will summarily ignore them (or respond half-heartedly).  But until that day comes, I can’t help but respect the amount of personal investment that so many bloggers put into their memeographies.

So, to my taggers, Kate Trgovac and Dave Fleet, this one’s for you; my response to the “8 Things You (Probably) Don’t Know About Me” meme started by Social Media Group’s Maggie Fox.  (And my apologies in advance to those I will subseqently tag.)

1.  Happily married for 15+ years to a gorgeous California blonde.  I often wish I could send a photo of my bride back in time – to myself, circa 1985.  I think it would make a certain 16–year-old very happy.

2.  We started out married life preggers and with (*ahem*) government assitance.  Everyone justifiably assumed we’d veered way off-course at a young age.  They were right.  On the plus side, having a kid at age 22 was a terrifying way to clarify our priorities. 

3.  In my spare time I often pore over the Geographic Expeditions catalog.  It’s a gorgeous, glossy book of international adventure itineraries.  I aspire to ride horseback through the plains of Mongolia, en route to the Golden Eagle Festival.  Weird, I know.

4.  Best investment ever: buying our daughter the “Chicken Soup for the Pre-Teen Soul” book, which details the hard knocks of several kids her age.  Ever since, we never walk out the front door without hearing, “I love you, Mom & Dad.”  She insists that it be the last phrase we hear from her, whenever we’re going to be apart. 

5.  Born on an American Army base in Germany, raised in a distinctively middle class Connecticut suburb. 

6.  I’ve had the same two best friends since I was a little kid.  Talk about paths diverging: one is an officer in the Navy, the other is a personal trainer.  I still talk to each of them at least once a month.

7.  I was a male cheerleader in High School – in the program’s first year, so I took a lot of ribbing.  For the record, I wasn’t a pom-pom type; I was the guy lifting up the pretty girls.  It was a very good gig.

8.  Among our prospective clients it’s probably a too-little-known fact that on the eve of our 5^th anniversary, our agency now employs 100 of the coolest, smartest, ablest PR pros I’ve ever met.  I am delighted – but not surprised – that we’ve been able to work with companies like Shimano, Oakley, Akamai, Novell, RSA Conference, Yelp, RealNetworks and Travelocity.  (And those are just the cool names I’m currently allowed to mention.)  To rise from “boutique” status to a spot where we often compete against The Big Boys of PR has been stunning and gratifying.  Dare I say “Obama-esque”?

ENOUGH about me.  It was weird and exhausting and even a little icky, writing this utterly self-absorbed post.  Can we hear from Scott Monty, Doug Haslam, Brian Solis, Geoff Livingston, Susan Getgood (got ya back, Susan!), Kami Huyse, Chris Brogan and Shel Holtz?

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)

As championed in earlier posts, Social Media is forcing marketers to embrace the concept of brand deconstruction: to cede control of their brand – whether to their impartial advocates, passionate adherents, or even to their enemies. 

Why?  Because they don’t have much choice.  Word-of-Mouth, chatter, buzz – what’s being said about the brand is being captured, discussed, and most importantly, found online.  Might as well help things along, rather than try to fruitlessly fight the power.

Witness:  Our beloved clients at UGOBE, makers of the superb Pleo life form, spent countless months and not inconsiderable amounts of money to create a robotic creature that’s truly engaging.  And on the PR side, it’s been a textbook example of how great products get great coverage: this li’l dino’s been on most major network morning shows, in TIME Magazine, BusinessWeek, countless blogs, etc.  If we still printed out clip books, Pleo’s coverage would de-forest a Third World nation.

Imagine the horror, then, when the Sci-Fi Channel’s online gadget site, DVICE, posted a video depicting the torture of Pleo.  Imagine the consternation when someone subsequently posted a 23–minute video called “Pleo Surgery,” in which the poor fella literally falls to a scalpel-wielding fan.  Even the Twitterati took notice.

Now, I’m sure our clients were less than thrilled at first.  But ultimately they knew that the best course of action was to bow to the will of the mediasphere. 

A less confident brand might have protested, or even thrown up legal challenges!  But the executives at UGOBE ultimately realized that these “gruesome” videos were actually a tribute to their hard work.  They’d created something that was worth deconstructing.  (Ever see someone videotape the “torture” of a Transformer or Robosapien?  Didn’t think so.)

Let go.  Then reap the whirlwind.

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The inaugural post of 2008 seems like a good opportunity to speak about the importance of Passion. 

What is Passion?  Why is it important?  What does it do for us? … Passion is enthusiasm!  Passion is grit!  Passion is infectious!  Passion is the exclamation point!!  

Think back across your career.  It’s likely that the most seminal events in your history sprang from Passion… either because you organically became passionate about a subject or career choice, or, because you were inspired to action by the Passion of another. 

In the world of Public Relations, we unofficially use Passion as a barometer for the likely success of a client program.  Are the members of the C-suite energized, gleeful, determined, convincing?  If so, the PR team is eager to set-up appointments with media influencers; we know that these clients will pass the Spouse Test.

How many times have you come home – late – from a meeting, and grunted noncommitally to your spouse when they asked about your day? 

Now imagine how many times a Wall Street Journal business reporter meets with some nondescript executive spokesperson and subsequently shrugs impassively when their own spouse asks about their slate of meetings.

What if you were in one of those meetings?  Is that how you want to be remembered? – as just another empty suit?

I’ve been known to tell clients in advance of a “Big Meeting” to be prepared for a kick under the table if I sense that their energy levels are waning.  I urge them to clench a pencil between their teeth during conference calls with the media, to get those “happy-face endorphins” pumping.

A thoroughly researched presentation about your company’s magnificent market opportunity means nothing if you don’t have the passion to convince your audience that Y-O-U are just the person to exploit that opportunity.

It’s 2008!  Are you ready to conquer the world?

Posted by Todd Defren at 09:20 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)