Alternatively titled: What I learned in Vegas won’t stay in Vegas.
So, there I sat. On a plane. In a town car. In a drive through at In-n-Out. In the Lobby of the Las Vegas Hilton. And then it started…
Hanging in the speaker room before the session.
I started seeing people. I first saw Gregarious “Greg” Narain and Brett Petersel. I saw Lucretia Pruitt, AKA Geekmommy. I saw Aaron Brazell. And, I saw myself. I saw myself in all the new people I met. I got to see some of the “new media” minds that are going beyond social media 101 and into the Ivy Leagues of “Prove it.”
I’m still not terribly sure how to express the thoughts and ideas from the experience. I think the best way is to highlight a couple of people and have you read their words. For now.
Mark Story. Not enough words can be said about this guy. Mark is the Director of New Media for the SEC and was he savior of our panel. He is a smart guy with a personality as big as I am. Mark, many thanks for helping out with the panel and for your words of wisdom and encouragement.
Doug Haslam. Doug is a PR idol. He works for Boston-based SHIFT Communications.
Jason Falls. Falls made this happen. Thank you for letting the motley crew talk about PR and new communications practices in a federally regulated world.
Aaron Strout. All-around good guy. Glad to meet you. And destroy you in the Fatburger eating contest.
Jennifer Leggio. Jennifer is a super-smart blogger and commenter on many different topics. But her perspective on the security and privacy in social networks is priceless. Cuts a pretty mean rug too.
The Ken Yeung. Aloha, bradda! Thank you for your lens that does not filter out based on standing or celebrity. A-listers or E-listers, they’re all in your pictures.
I could really continue this list for a number of weeks. But I won’t. What I will do, however, is ask you to spotlight somebody you’ve met recently in the comments.
Tags: alist, BlogWorld, bwe09
Well, I’m not really. No, really.
But I liked the title. I’ve just left the BlogWorld and New Media Expo in wonderful Lost Wages and I’ve come to a fun realization.
My life rocks. I got to meet all kinds of rad people this week and learn a few new things on top of it. I’m going to do an “official” summary when my brain recovers, but for now, just accept my thank you to everybody who made the last few days remarkable.
Tags: BlogWorld, bwe09, Thanks, Vegas
As I prep for my presentation at this year’s Blog World Expo, I wanted to visit the topic I’m actually speaking on.
“Social Media and Blogging in Federally Regulated Industries” isn’t a really sexy title for a conference session, but it’s one that is absolutely necessary. Industries such as pharmaceuticals, firearms and liquor are trying to figure out how to not only participate on the conversations that are happening, but also how they can capitalize on them.
The challenge
For some companies, the challenge is the disclosure of certain material information, or Regulation Fair Disclosure. Any publicly traded company is subject to scrutiny by the Securities and Exchange Commission and if a company were to publish a blog post committing to a new product and then not meet that commitment, it could be subjected to not only a costly shareholder law suit, but a costly SEC investigation.
Recently, the SEC relaxed its rules (or modernized them depending on your spin) to allow companies to disclose information through their blogs. This is a major step, but seems to be one companies are afraid of taking. I can not find any questionable uses so far, so it seems not many people are taking the risk. Companies such as Google regularly announce new products and Betas through blogs, but when was the last time a pharmaceutical company announced a new drug through it’s corporate blog?
The challenges aren’t specific to big business. Liquor companies need to check the age of their followers on Twitter, tobacco companies have to reign in their marketing practices. I’ve even had the Investor Relations person at a firearms company say they haven’t begun to use social media because they don’t know what’s allowed.
The solution
The solution is simply to take a risk and do something. I know this is a scary proposition for marketers and public relations companies, but by taking informed risks, you’ll find success.
I have advised companies to issue announcements through the blog only. An average distribution for one company I worked with would be nearly $1,000 based on the inclusion of a safe harbor statement and all the other knowledge. Customer wins, product updates and smaller announcements simply don’t need an expensive press release. A blog post with embedded multimedia provides the same value.
Molson-Coors is able to use Twitter to post stories about alcohol awareness and other positive stories, but the bio explicitly asks followers to be of legal drinking age. Ruger, Smith & Wesson and other firearms companies do not maintain corporate blogs. It looks like Ruger might have control of http://twitter.com/ruger, but it’s protected so it’s hard to tell.
Creative marketing and communications practices are important to the success of any campaign. In federally regulated industries, creativity is even more important. Do you work for a federally regulated company? Share some of your best practices in the comments!
Tags: best practices, BlogWorld, Enterprise, Participate, Tips
Here we go again, the social media guru/expert/master/savant/wizard is under fire again. As they should be.
Yesterday we saw posts issuing a call to action for the self-labeled expert and today, we have the retort. In his post, Jason Falls at socialmediaexplorer.com states that:
… my frustration has turned more toward those whining about the 20-something trying to make his or her way in the social media world, hoping to ride the wave like other digital natives and put food on their table. I don’t fault the uninformed for claiming to be something they aren’t. We’ve all spit-shined our resume a bit much at one point in time, I’d bet. I hope brands and companies are smart enough to see through that.
As one of those 20-somethings trying to make it in the PR/corporate communications world (note that I didn’t say social media), I want to point out that it’s people of all ages that can suck at what they do. If you’re going to call yourself an expert, you had better be able to prove it. And the number of twitter followers YOU have—That’s not proof.
Quantifiable metrics such as unique impressions; engagement such as time on Web site, videos viewed or even retweets; pipeline created (in a B2B world) or sales made are all proof points of the success of a program. Now, this blog is not the place for me to post my resumé, but rest assured that to this 20-something, those are important metrics.
Regardless of your age, social media is but a platform. How you use it is the key. And the results and goals are the locked door. Do good work and you’ll be successful.
The new PR is simply about telling a story well.
Sounds a lot like the old PR, doesn’t it?
I have the opportunity to speak at this year’s BlogWorld and New Media Expo next month. I’ll get to the topic more in another post.
But here I wanted to share a bit about what the opportunity means to me personally. I have the opportunity to sit on a panel alongside Shannon Paul, Mark Story and a special guest I’ll reveal later. For those of you that don’t know, Shannon built and implemented the social media strategy for the Detroit Red Wings and Mark is the Director of new media for the SEC.
I am the unknown on this panel. I am the underdog in this story.
But that’s OK. I get to represent myself, my knowledge and my skills in front of an audience of bloggers, new media professionals and assorted Web celebrities.
The bigger picture
Speaking at conferences is a sort of currency in the new media world. And I am making my first deposit. I like saying that good ideas are not confined to the big names in this industry and this is my opportunity to prove it.
I have a few weeks to get over the nerves and prep my thoughts and get new cards made up. I have a few weeks to ponder what words I will use to describe my ideas facing the public relations industry. As I write this, Don Draper on Mad Men said “Our worst fears lie in anticipation.” I think that is a fitting theme for this post.
If you’re thinking about embarking on a new adventure, there is no time like the present to put your head down and charge into it full steam. Fear of failing is failure. If you are crippled by the possibility of what might happen, then you will never know what is possible. So, now’s the time to submit that proposal or write that post.
See you in Vegas…
Tags: BlogWorld, bwe09, failure, speaking
Sometimes you just need to be quiet. And last week I was. I was out of cell phone reception for eight days. And when I knew I could have reception, I kept it turned off.
It helped me to recharge and refocus on some tasks at hand. Making somethings happen that I’ll blog about here when I have a few free moments. But for now, I just want to encourage you all to take at least a weekend and be quiet. Go explore the woods. Go fishing. Go hunting. Go bowling. Whatever.
Just get off the Internet 
And, if you do go fishing or hunting, take me.
So much goes into building an effective, broad corporate PR program that often times some things are overlooked. This includes the federal rules and regulations that govern how information is disseminated.
I have worked for a public company and have had to work with rules such as Regulatory Fair Disclosure, which determines when material information can be released and the methods a company can use. It was that experience that prompted me to submit a session to the BlogWorld and New Media Expo.
Well, I found out recently that they accepted my proposal! I get to speak on a panel with some great minds that we are still working to confirm. Look for an announcement soon.
So, go register for the event and come watch me speak!
I would like to welcome TechCrunch to the world of actual journalism. Find a story, verify info, interview sources, write story, fact check, publish, repeat.
Here’s the quick background: TechCrunch obtained multiple documents from an alleged hacker who had broken into Twitter employee’s email accounts, Google Documents (There’s a reason it’s not compliant, but that’s a different issue) and other documents and information. TechCrunch verified w/Twitter and its lawyers the accuracy of the documents and even interviewed them. Then they published some of the documents. They were even kind enough to redact personal information.
Journalism 101
From the days of muckraking and yellow journalism, obtained documents have been one of the best sources of great information for reporters. The methods and tactics used to acquire these documents range from the legal (Washington Public Records Act, Federal Freedom of Information Act) to the potentially unethical.
But here’s an important step that separates journalist from sensationalist: The journalist attempts to verify the information before publishing. The Sensationalist does not.
As a holder of an actual, real-life journalism degree, I sat through hours of press law and have filled out my fair share of information requests. I have also obtained information through anonymous sources or obtained information in other ways. And I used those documents. But after verifying on my own.
The right to publish
Now, the debate over whether or not TechCrunch should have published or not is broken into two parts:
- Is the information newsworthy?
- Is the information “off limits?”
The newsworthiness discussion is for another day. I am focused on the ethics involved in publishing the documents. TechCrunch absolutely acted within the boundaries of accepted journalistic ethics in publishing those documents. If it had simply published the entire .zip file without making an attempt to check facts or redact personal information, it would have been very out of line.
Instead, it looked for the information it deemed “newsworthy” and ran with it. To recap, it verified the information with Twitter, attempted to elicit on-the-record comment from Twitter and published the information that was applicable to the story it accompanied. TechCrunch even solicited comment from third-party companies named in the documents.
One could also make the argument that Ev and Biz and some of the Twitter team are “Limited Purpose Public Figures.” This means that some of their information is subject to federal and state open records laws and that their expectations of privacy are a bit different than the average citizen.
In this case, the combination of a good journalist and a good lawyer are difficult to beat.
Should they have published
Well, in my opinion yes and no. If TechCrunch wants to use this as a standard for applying journalistic ethics to its reporting (coverage?), then great. But the fact is that TechCrunch is a blog. Its writers express opinion and insert themselves into the stories they are writing. Independant sources are a rarity, as is interviews with the subjects they’re writing about.
I’ve written about the difference between blogger and journalist before, and I think it is completely applicable here. And this gets right to the heart of the debate. If the New York Times had published those documents, would we have even flinched?
I’m sure my opinion is different than some, so tell me what you think.
Tags: ethics, journalism, journalist ethics, TechCrunch, Twitter
In my last post, I raised the issue of what I call the Twitter Relations Model. Essentially, Companies are putting on events with limited invite lists ant the expectation is that the atendees will tweet about it. The net result is a super-effective word of mouth PR/advertising campaign.
So, I talked about the problem. Now, I’m here to offer a solution. Stowe Boyd is championing something he calls “microsyntax.” Essentially, a couple of characters that denotes a more involved meaning. For example, a forward slash before and after a city or address or location denotes that I am actually there: /Kent, WA/ for example.
So, my solution is a microsyntax for sponsored Tweets. I am proposing a four-character sequence that looks something like this:
My proposal for a sponsored Tweet Microsyntax
Essentially, it’s a $ at the beginning and end of a tweet. An extra step and the loss of four characters, but in the interest of disclosure, I think it might be worth it.
The effect
If you see a tweet with the dollar sign, then assume it is a sponsored tweet and the opinion being expressed has been bought. Omit the symbols and you are claiming the opinion as a true representation of your thoughts and feelings.
Some companies are blatantly sponsoring tweets, but that’s OK. Izea CEO Ted Murphy says that the company has strict disclosure policies and that participants will be disclosing their relationships. To me, this is no different than advertising on any other content broadcasting platform. So long as it is obvious what is a sponsored tweet, then more power to you.
The effect of the dollar sign microsyntax is simple: Force disclosure of what opinions belong to you and what opinions belong to the company paying for them.
What do you think?
Tags: disclosure, Izea, microsyntax, sponsored, tweets