I've been thinking about this post for several weeks and was inspired by Mack Collier's post on Daily Fix to finally put thoughts to virtual paper.
First a little background: I'm a marketer who blogs. I have never been a journalist nor have I ever worked in a PR firm. I was once a director for a non profit and with that came many hats including media relations. My deep dark secrets are I would have loved to have been a foreign correspondence wearing those cute jackets with zillions of pockets, drinking Scotch and yes, an occasional puff on a cigar. And I covet a real press badge that will get me into concerts and events for free. But I digress ..
With blogging has come many new opportunities, as well as a few surprising new identities. A couple of weeks ago I received a press release that referred to me as part of Atlanta's prestigious media. Maybe I do have a press badge but I just forgot where I put. But I can tell you that some of my best friends are in the PR biz. And I've met people who are true professionals in every sense of the word. What do they do that is right?
1. They
know who I am. 2. They tell me who they are. 3. They know what I focus on. 4. They offer background
information. 5. They help me provide valued content for Diva Marketing's
community. 6. Sometimes they even ask what I would like to make the
post more compelling. 7. They offer me more than a vaguely clocked sales pitch. 8. They say "thank you."
For all of you a toss of a
pink boa!
Girlfriend, since we're talking among friends, here are a few pet peeves ..
1. Emails from people who at first glance seem to be my long, lost, best friend. 2. People who start their emails in the middle of a conversation and it takes me a second to realize I've never met the person in online or offline. 3. Emails that are so much like spam that they never get a glance. Off topic. 4. People who say lovely things about Diva Marketing and then ask for me to be their best friend and write about their stuff. 5. People who forget to tell who they are or who they work for or why I should take my time to promote their product. 6. People who forget to say "thank you."'
That has me wondering why:
1. Some PR people seem to get it while others do not have a clue. 2. Some PR people seem to understand that bloggers are not representatives of a media outlet that is paying them to write about "news worthy" events. 3. Some PR people treat bloggers with the respect that they would give to an influential journalist from a publication like the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times or even The Star 4. While others do not.
Recently I received an email from a brand manager type who works at a very large company. She had hired a PR agency to conduct a Blogger Relations strategy and wrote ..
"We've discussed the fact that bloggers, by publishing their opinions and inviting readers to comment or contact them, basically agree to open themselves to unsolicited information." The ah ha light bulb moment flashed on. My response back -
If you take that approach you'll open yourself to firestorms. What we tell clients is that the blogoshere is comprised of many "villages" and each village e.g., the cat pet village, the business village, the golf village, has a unique culture.
Within that culture each blogger has her own sense of what she will post .. how she deals with unsolicited "pitches" and so forth. That means more than identifying a bunch of bloggers who talk about a subject it means understanding the blogger. This post from Diva Marketing might shed some understanding.
The ah ha: People just don't know and some agencies dive into this space with
little or no experience positioning themselves as experts .. getting their clients and themselves in Big Trouble. Blogger
relations is different from traditional media relations. As BBF Paul Chaney indicated in the comments on Mack's post it seems to be a training challenge .. or opportunity.
The friction between bloggers and public relations people reminds me of the song from the musical Oklahoma - "Farmer and the Cowhand .. Should Be Friends." So I'd like to propose ..
Social media folks should stick together. Social media folks should all be friends.
Thinking about more blogger relations I was curious if reaching out to bloggers was in anyway in violation of the CAN SPAM Act. My pal Simms Jenkins, CEO of BrightWave Marketing & EmailStatCenter kindly shed some light.
To begin to work together .. Bloggers and PR People .. this is for all of us. Thanks to Simms who agreed to let me post our email volley.
Simms Jenkins: The CAN SPAM act only requires some key elements, none related to permission. Best practices of email campaigns are related to the subscriber proving an opt in. So spammers follow neither which means the law is powerless, for the most part.
Regarding the outreach, I think a one to one email provides more flexibility - after all we all send some unsolicted emails hoping to get press, leads, friends :) ..once it becomes an email campaign, you should be more cautious as that is the brand not just an email sent to an individual.
Toby/Diva Marketing: So if I'm hearing you right .. if the email from the, call it agency/person, includes a "if you don't want to hear from us again we won't bother you again" statement it would be okay and not fall into the CAN SPAM act? Simms Jenkins: I am defining campaign as an email from BrightWave Marketing promoting my book/website The Truth About Email Marketing - I need to follow the letter of can spam...however, if I send you an email from my personal account promoting the book, it allows a bit more flexibility but that is a general grey area and why I include an opt out note at the bottom of all of my emails to people
Social media folks should stick together. Social media folks should all be friends.
In prep for writing my Age of Conversation book II page, I reached out to
Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos, for his insights about social media. Not only does Tony blog but he actively tweets (on Twitter the 140 character micro blogging platform).
In fact, that's where I "met" Tony. I sent him a Twitter DM (direct message). With Tony following 4658 people I
wondered if he would respond. He did indeed .. within minutes (!) providing me with his off Twitter email so we could continue the conversation without the 140 character limitation.
Sidebar: Not to digress but .. where else .. how else could a little ol' diva in Atlanta connect with the CEO of billion dollar corporation based in Las Vegas? I tell you girl friend, that alone boggles the mind. One more testimony to how social media and in this case, Twitter, can open the doors and windows a little wider to develop relationships.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What influence has social media had on how you conduct business? Does Zappos have a system or process in place to respond to the concerns/complements from consumer generated mentions about the company? And to respond back to the blogger, tweeter, etc?
Tony Hsieh: We haven't really changed any of our internal processes yet. Right now the stuff I am doing on Twitter is just me... if someone Twitters me then I personally respond.
We now have close to 300 employees on Twitter, but
our main motivation for getting our employees to join Twitter was to help improve our company culture.
Company culture is our #1 priority. We believe that if we get the company culture right, most of the other stuff (including great customer service) will happen on its own.
Toby/Diva Marketing: What advice would you give to a CEO on how to incorporate social media and the feedback from social media into an organization?
Tony Hsieh:
I think if the CEO starts using Twitter on his/her own and is actually passionate about it, then that passion will eventually rub off on the rest of the organization.
You can't fake or mandate passion, you actually have to be passionate. On Twitter, people can tell whether you are actually passionate about connecting with other Twitterers, whether they are your customers or employees.
About Zappos - Founded in 1999, Zappos is an online commerce
company that got its start selling shoes. Since then their product line
has morphed to include: handbags, clothing, electronics and more.
According to Marketing Sherpa, Zappos anticipates to top $1 Billion in sales in 2008. With a focus on superior customer service Zappos is game to try innovative strategies that bring them closer to their customers. Zappos BlogsZappo Tweets. Sounds like a match made in Social Media Heaven!
Yesterday I had the most fun teaming with two amazing divos - Dan Greenfield. media consultant Bernaise Sauce (former vp Earthlink) and Michael Pranikoff (del.icio.us) director Emerging Media PR Newswire. We were Conversation Guides for a session on social media for a great group of folks. The convo went from micro blogging to how to develop a strategy to the difference between an audio file and a podcast. Answer: RSS
As promised, we're happy to share the deck. For those who didn't attend the session there are some great resources including Twitter search engines complements of Michael and an easy to follow 10 Step Social Media how-to get started Process from Dan. Enjoy! Download the_social_media_10_step_process.pdf
From the lunch key note panel .. a few snippets
To celebrate GM's 100th anniversary an employees wiki has been established. As employees add their memories a unique view of the company's history will be created. For Mary Heinge, APR communications director, GM Corp., the added benefits include a viral element, a way to involve many people and no book printing costs.
Debra Neuman, svp external relations for Care told the group that social media gives people the ability to respond immediately and especially for a non profit ".. your content better be right."
Question: Who owns social media? Debra Neuman - "No one and everyone." Love that one.
Most controversial statement was from Jack Leslie. When the panel was asked about the skills they were looking for in new hires, Jack told us he leans toward people half his age when considering employees with social media skills since .. young people have this built into their DNA. Now perhaps Jack was trying to be funny but the buzz in the ladies loo (Girlfriend you know exactly what I mean.) was outrage that only the Millenniums are perceived to "get it." As one women said to me - Anyone can learn how to put together a MySpace or Facebook page but it takes experience to understand how to incorporate social media into a PR plan or campaign.
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to
Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be
sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
Today's Friday Fun is for the Divas. The girlfriends - Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda - are back in a Sex In The City film. For me SITC means shoes shoes and more shoes. Well okay throw in Mr. Big, some great fashion, cosmos, friendship and fun in NYC too.
Meghan Cleary, aka Miss Meghan, The Shoe Therapist, is running a Sex In The City Designer Shoe Contest. Once a week, from now until the SITC opening (May 30th), Miss Megan will be giving away a pair of designer shoes. Very special is that all are women-owned luxury shoe designer brands who are taking the footwear industry by storm: Tashkent, Diana Broussard, Goldenbleu and Eileen Shields.
"Things don't always turn out to be your fantasy that's why you need friendships that are real to get you through it all." - Carrie Bradshaw. Divas, life can find a way of getting in the way of life. So take out your calendars or blackberries and schedule a GNO with your best girlfriends. Maybe, as suggested by Mary one of my dear GNO friends, a SITC movie and beverage night. Perhaps you'll even be wearing
designer shoes ;-)
Last week I followed a link I found in Diva Marketing's stat referrals. It led to an amazon.com powered site ..
Expert Choice. Have you ever wondered what books influential bloggers read? We did too. So we asked them.
Lo and behold I was included in this list of experts.
But wait a sec .. I had no recollection of reviewing these books. Even though it seemed to be associated with a not for profit, Kiva, I assumed it was a rather clever spam site. I noticed that Drew McLellan was one of the bloggers listed. Drew was on Twitter so .. yes, girlfriend, I tweeted. He had not a clue either.
A few days later I received an email from Jeff Greenfield thanking me for participating in the project that he and his classmates, from the MBA class at Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, had put together .. Expert Choice book store. Ahh .. lightbulb went off.
"We have created this webstore for our group project in EDGE, a course that explores how technology and globalization are transforming the business landscape – opening markets, redefining industries, and erasing boundaries. Our project’s specific goal is to connect readers with business-related books that are recommended by industry experts.
One hundred percent of the proceeds from the sale of all books through our Expert's Choice webstore will be donated to the Kiva, a charity that lets you lend to specific entrepreneurs in the developing world – empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.
To ensure that there was no doubt that this was not only a legit initiative but one developed by a group of MBA students, I suggested a more prominent placement of About Us. TheTeam Edge from UC Irvine: Jinu Choi, Erin Cueto, Jeff Greenfield and Chris Ting presents their project May 27th. Take a moment to visit the Expert Choice book store and help them out with a few clicks and it would also be swell if you bought a book too .. it's for a good cause. Maybe you can send it to the Masiguy to help him pass the time as he mends.
Lessons Learned People are cynical. Ensure that your credibility information is front and center. Need a fast response? Tweet. Bloggers are kind and generous people. A 50% response rate is great.
What Does Social Media Mean To You? is a continuing video series of Little Sound Bites of thoughts and insights. Perhaps you'll be on the little Flip video next time we meet!
This post is in honor of Tim Jackson who is recouping from a very serious bicycle accident. Tim hope when you hop back into the virtual world this brings a smile. It with pleasure that I present to you the Masiguy's views on social media.
Tim Jackson, Masiguy, is the Brand Manager for Masi Bicycles
Sound Bite Social Media means to me .. All about the relationship Extending the brand forward Connecting with people
When I asked BBF Tim Jackson, the Masiguy, (who termed BBF - best blogging friend) what social media meant to him, his first words were, "Social media is all about relationships .." Now that should come as no surprise for anyone who has dropped by the Masiguy blog.
Tim is a cyclist. Earlier this week he was in a pretty bad accident - post and photos from Kathleen King. From his friend Jim at Racer Blue Squirrel -
someone slowed down in front of him at the SD velodrome last night and tim tried to go high and ended up hitting the boards at 30mph +. he sustained a concussion [he was out for 5 minutes], broken ribs, a few fractured neck bones and a mangled thumb that will have surgery.
When I spoke with Tim yesterday he was a bit groggy but optimistic that all would be fine. He was hoping to be released from the hospital today.
Tim's friends are proving him right. It is all about the relationships as friends, from many blogosphere villages from bikes to marketing, reach out to him across continents to ensure that all is okay.
Jim's post has organically morphed into the MasiGuy Get Well Wish Blog. Drop Tim a note on Racer Blue Squirrel. Jim also set up a Paypal Get Well Fund for peeps who want to help out. Seems that insurance will not cover all expenses and Tim's recoop time will be awhile. He can't put any pressure on his knee for 12-weeks. So Tim .. well 12 weeks off the bike .. sounds like a nice time to begin that book ;-)
Sending you virtual hugs Tim .. you are right. It is all about the relationships!
What Does Social Media Mean To You? is a continuing video series of Little Sound Bites of thoughts and insights. Perhaps you'll be on the little Flip video next time we meet!
Today's tapa-bits are complements of four people, from Texas, Belgium, Australia and Iowa, who came together to celebrate a global community of friendships with 80+ others at Blogger Social.
Sound Bite Social Media is ... The media is the tools and technology that allows everyone to be a publisher. The social part is it's all about the relationships.
Luc Debaisieux, Mind Blob, is Head of TV for JWT Group Belgium. Luc's finger puppet metaphor explanation of social media is a must see. Sorry for the lighting.
Sound Bite Social Media is .. Listening to each other where ever we are and connecting to each other. Just humans talking to each other.
Gavin Heaton, Servant of Chaos, came from down under, Australia, to see "the friends I never met." Gavin is the Education Business Development Manager at SAP America Inc.
Sound Bite Social Media is ..
Social media is all about people. I have a lot of friends who I never met. When we come together face-to-face we don't need to worry about if we're going to get along, we know we are and it's beautiful.
Friday Fun is Diva Marketing's virtual happy hour from cosmos to
Jack to lemonade. A waiting for the weekend 'playground' time to be
sophisticated-silly. Or sometimes just plain silly.
CK said I had to go. But it would be taking time and $ from the budget. Marianne said I had to go. But I might have a project due. Drew said I had to go. CB and Ann and Lori said so too. But what about if .. if.. if..
It was the most amazing, magical weekend with conversations starting in the middle of paragraphs, as you would expect would happen with "old friends." Take a look at the fun ..
I felt the vintage vixens' feedback was valuable, in-depth, research for wowOwow and I wanted to help these women reach the founders. So .. I dropped an email, via the site's contact us form, with hope that it would make its way and wowOwow might benefit from their community members' insights.
Joni Evans, CEO of wowOwow, responded to me. Athough she declined an interview for Diva Marketing she graciously agreed to let me post our email volley where she tells a bit about her vision of for wowOwow and how she is listening to the convo. Thanks Joni .. next step is to encourage your peeps to really engage with the wow women. Btw .. still don't get why they don't oh well ..
Sidebar: Click to expand the graphics
Read more in the NYT interview with Joni Evans, Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl and Whoopi Goldberg conducted by Joan Juliet Buck who is a contributor of wowOwow.
Earth Day was once a quaint little holiday. Almost four decades later April 22nd has become a day that combines education with celebration. From the Association of Zoos and Aquariums' week long Party for the Planet, complete with marketing sponsorship opportunities to a benefit Shred-a-Thon for the Farmington River Watershed Association in Connecticut to hundreds of events in almost every city, town and school Earth Day sometimes has the feel of a Hallmark Holiday. From a marketer's view point that type of exposure certainly creates grass root awareness. Earth Day 2008 Event Calendar
As my friend Mary Clare Hunt preaches it will be Wall Street, not government, that will turn the tides when it comes to impacting "eco friendly" behavior. Business, including venture capital firms, are beginning to put a lot of green lettuce, and we're not talking salad stuff, in support of environmental initiatives. WSJ reports that VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, is devoting about one-third of its $700 million investment portfolio to green technology e.g., alternative fuels, fuel-efficient devices.
Mike Italiano, MTS CEO, in a detailed post on MTS' Smart Solutions For Sustainable Business blog, tells us that Green
Building Investment Underwriting Standards are expected to add an
estimated $1 trillion/year to the global economy after five years.
Mike's post includes a comprehensive list of companies that are involved in the Capital Markets Partnership program. Major cities such as Chicago, New York and Dallas are working along side of high profiled financial institutions JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and JPMorgan Chase CitiGroup Smith Barney. Bloggy disclaimer: I've worked with MTS on the blog.
In the direct to consumer side, grocery stores like Publix and Whole Foods Market are getting into the act with extensive green initiatives. Dell's regeneration goes a step further and incorporates social media involving customers by giving them a platform to express their vision and ideas of how to "clean it up." These type of programs can't help but influence purchase behavior.
Social media is making an impact too. According to research from Nielsen Online protecting the environment has become increasingly important to consumers, with online buzz around sustainability growing 50 percent in 2007."...consumers are becoming increasingly vocal online about the issue of sustainability... Blogger attention to... issues like pollution, toxins and sustainable agriculture reveal an important intersection between personal health and environmental wellness." Jessica Hogue, research director, Nielsen Online.
As we're seeing "Green" has morphed into a cool marketing strategy. However, Nielsen's research cautions businesses to be careful how products/ are positioned and promoted.
"Consumers expect consistency in action and authentic and transparent messaging."
pink boa! 
