PR from Brendan

Mamma Mia, I love Sweet Scoops

2009-11-14T16:12:36Z

Warning, if you're only interested in learning more about social media measurement, come back on Monday because today is Saturday, and I'm taking a day off from measurement to just write. I'm staying in a friends gorgeous apartment overlooking the Oyster River (it's for rent by the way if you're looking for a to-die-for place on the Seacoast of NH) . Remnants of Hurricane Ida are making today a classic rainy fall day, and the notion that I have two whole days with nothing on my agenda is inspiring me to write. I've spent the last two weeks on the road at amazing conferences, talking to really smart people and needless to say have a lot to write about. But before I get to that... there's what I'm calling the Mamma Mia post.

This should probably be on the Sweet Scoops blog, but since they haven't started it yet, here goes. First of all SweetScoops is what I call "the No Confession Confection" -- a creamy wonderful frozen yogurt that tastes like really rich premiuim ice cream but has half the calories. So when I'm feeling like I really need to indulge my sweet tooth, I pick up some of their Ginger or Mudslide or Blueberry and feel wonderfully self-indulgent, but not nearly as guilty as I normally would.

Which got me, a wickedly lapsed Catholic, thinking about guilt and indulgence and all those decisions we make every day that seem to be all about achieving some balance between the two. Normally, when I have a bunch of writing to do and I have 5 hours on a cross country flight, I'll whip out my computer and write like crazy until I run out of battery power. That's what the "good" Katie Paine would do. The "bad" Katie Paine would watch Mamma Mia the movie. A movie with no redeeming intellectual value, but with a bunch of music I adore.

So last week I had this conversation with my friend Pam that took place while I was making my annual batch of apple Thyme jelly:

Pam: "Why can't I grow time"

Katie: "That's an incredibly profound question"

Pam: "Not really, I plant it every year and it never comes back"

Katie: "That's even more profound. What would happen if it did? "

What would happen, I wondered if somehow the time you "Spend" could actually be redeposited in your life. You wouldn't have to make nearly as many decisions.

Philosophers and parents might lead you to believe that life is made up of big decisions, but life is really made up of a continuous stream of tiny choices that somehow become the story of your life. I live in a world where, in order to achieve a bit of balance, I am constantly shushing the voices of the Puritans, the Catholics and the other guilt mongers I grew up with, and just take a break. But if you could "grow time" you wouldn't have to make those diminutive decisions. You could actually have a time for everything in the season.

A time to indulge in desert and a time to "eat healthy."
A time to watch a movie on the flight home, AND time to plow thru 300 emails.
A time to read that "bodice ripper" AND time to read a report.
A time to listen to all those podcasts of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me AND a time to return all those phone calls
A time to the green house AND clean the bathroom
A time to feed your funny bone watching all those Jon Stewart episodes you tivoed AND time to feed the cat
A time dream your next garden AND time to weed the one you have
A time to run thru the mountains, or back roads or streets of town you’ve never been to before AND time to run thru spread sheets
A time to sail away AND a time to make sales.
A time to write a friend a hand written note AND time to write up the meeting notes
A time to comfort a friend in trouble AND time to stay up on your contacts on Twitter
A time to walk with a friend AND time to talk to a client.
A time focus on the beauty of an autumn afternoon AND time to focus on the numbers
A time pay attention to wildlife (#NWF) AND time to pay attention to profits
A time to forage for new plants AND time to forage for new clients
A time to make pickles & piccalilli AND a time to make speeches
A time to stop everything and get out and listen to a friend play your favorite music and a time to stop everything and finish the damn report.

This is what my life is made up of, and I thank Sweet Scoops for taking decision #1 off my list.What's your life made up of?

Cracking new Hot Chip song - Take It in ((tag: Hot Chip, Music, Chris Reed's Playlist)

2009-11-14T16:04:00Z

Bumped into this on Hypemachine this morning (via http://popthatshit.wordpress.com/) and am liking it very much.

Hot Chip are a really evocative band - at The Green Man a few years ago I remember dancing wildly with a toddler on my head and another throwing shapes on the dancefloor to Over & Over, which is still a firm favourite. Their last tour worked really well too. I've just got tickets through for February's gigs, and if this is the sort of thing they're playing I reckon I'll enjoy it.

Looking forward to the album dropping, but in the mean time Take It In will have to do...

Take It In by Hot Chip
Download now or listen on posterous

Hot Chip - Take It In.mp3 (3835 KB)

Posted via email from Chris Reed - ginger and proud

What is real news?

2009-11-14T11:33:53Z

“Real news is what somebody is trying to hide from you. All the rest is just advertising.” - Lord Beaverbrook.

FIR Interview: Steve Rubel, Lifestreamer

2009-11-14T07:50:04Z

If there’s one significant voice in the PR profession that attracts attention and influences opinion within the industry and outside of it on a global scale, that voice is Steve Rubel: PR practitioner at Edelman Digital, blogging pioneer, social media early adopter and evangelist, geek, re-inventor and lifestreamer.

In this FIR Interview, co-hosts Neville Hobson and Shel Holtz talk with Steve on a wide range of topics that stimulate his insight and commentary, including lifestreaming – what is it and why Steve’s doing it – the Posterous platform, the Micro Persuasion and Steve Rubel brands, organizations and public relations practice, his experiments with the iPhone as a unique platform, and much more.

Get this podcast:

Download the MP3 file (12.4Mb, 30:56)
Get the show on iTunes
Subscribe to the FIR Interviews RSS feed

About our Conversation Partner

Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital, is responsible for keeping Edelman and its clients in the vanguard. He studies global technology, media and online trends and shapes them into actionable insights and marketing communications strategies.

In his role, Rubel has served as senior strategic advisor to Edelman clients such as Dannon, HP, PepsiCo, Zagat, Unilever, Microsoft and many others.

Rubel supports the account planning processes, intellectual property development and the firm’s innovation and business development efforts. He is a member of the Edelman Digital senior leadership committee.

His writings on emerging technology has been called must-read by the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNET, PC Magazine and Forrester Research. In addition, he is actively followed by more than 28,000 on Twitter, writes a bi-weekly column for Advertising Age and is often sought by the press and as a keynote speaker.

Rubel has been named to several prestigious lists, including: PR Week’s 40 Under 40, The Forbes.com Web Celeb 25, PC Magazine’s 100 Favorite Blogs, Media Magazine’s Media 100, the AlwaysOn/Technorati Open Media 100 and the CNET News.com Blog 100.

Prior to joining Edelman in 2006, Rubel worked for 15 years in a variety of marketing communications positions in corporate, non-profit and small/mid-sized PR firms. Most recently, he spent five years at CooperKatz & Company where he pioneered the use of blogs as a marketing vehicle for clients such as the Association of National Advertisers, simplehuman, and Vespa.

Related FIR Interview podcasts:

FIR Interview: Steve Rubel, Edelman – December 22, 2006
An Open Conversation with Steve Rubel, Micro Persuasion – March 21, 2005.

Share your comments or questions about this podcast, or suggestions for future interviews, in the FIR FriendFeed Room. You can also email us at fircomments@gmail.com; call the Comment Line at +1 206 222 2803 (North America), +44 20 8133 9844 (Europe), or Skype: fircomments; comment at Twitter: twitter.com/FIR or at Jaiku: fir.jaiku.com. You can email your comments, questions and suggestions as MP3 file attachments, if you wish (max. 3 minutes / 5Mb attachment, please!). We’ll be happy to see how we can include your audio contribution in a show.

To receive all For Immediate Release podcasts including the twice-weekly Hobson & Holtz Report, subscribe to the full RSS feed.

This FIR Interview is brought to you with Lawrence Ragan Communications, serving communicators worldwide for 35 years. Information: www.ragan.com.

Podsafe music – On A Podcast Instrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)

links for 2009-11-14

2009-11-14T08:07:22Z

A List of Social Media Marketing Examples (Being Peter Kim)

Totally awesome page, perfect for referencing

(tags: peterkim socialmedia examples)

Posted in socialmedia

Larry King and Carrie Prejean – what a mess of an interview!

2009-11-14T03:54:28Z

Did you see the Larry King interview of Carrie Prejean this week? I squirm for both the interviewer and the interviewee everytime I watch it. Here’s the clip from YouTube. Ouch. Bad ju-ju on both sides.

Didn’t see it? Larry asked Carrie (former Miss USA contestant and Miss California who became famous for her anti- gay marriage comment) about the terms of the settlement. What followed was a truly bizarre example of bad responses on both Larry’s part and Carrie’s part. Carrie was acting like a petulant teenager and taking her mike off, to leave the show, and Larry was doggedly persisting with his line of questioning. Hello?

I asked local media training expert Kathy Kerchner what her opinion was of the clip.

Carrie Prejean went on Larry King’s show simply to push her new book (”Still Standing”). Unfortunately, the man who usually rolls over for celebrities turned into Chris Matthews and began throwing hardballs.

Carrie was right to not answer King’s questions about her settlement, but she did it “inappropriately.” Instead of continuing to label his questions in that wimpy way, after the second or third time he asked, she should have bluntly stated, “Larry, no matter how many times you ask that question I’m not going to answer it and I can’t answer it because of legal issues. If you have any other things you’d like to talk about, that would be great. Otherwise, we might as well end the interview now.”

I read some reports that she also had an agreement that King would not take any phone calls during her interview and that was what she was really upset about. If that was the case, once he took the call, she should have said, “Larry, I apologize to your caller, but as you know we agreed before the show that we wouldn’t have any outside questions so we could focus on the issues I discussed in my book.”

I asked another media training pro his opinion of the incident, and here’s his response, to give the male perspective:

I’m almost speechless. That thing bears no resemblance to any real world scenario to which I can relate. And then my mind jumps quickly to the bottom line of the event; namely, that Carrie Prejean (or maybe it’s her publicist) is far more powerful than Larry King.

Both sides were completely unprofessional from the start. And I can’t imagine advising any client to put him or herself in either situation.

Given his power and worldwide reach, I don’t see why Larry would agree to not take callers. But it’s even worse that his staff did, didn’t tell him, AND THEN allowed a caller to actually get on the air.

Carrie herself would have no way to know any better, but she was trained within an inch of her credibility. On second thought, beyond it. Gracefully decline to answer specific questions under court order? Yes. Use a court order as a nonsensical excuse to dodge any question you don’t like or, as in this case, don’t understand? Never. In fact, avoiding even the appearance of the latter is the whole point of the original media training. And is now more important than ever, with so much of the latter political-style advice out there.

The two ironies are: (1) I’m sure the publicist is high-fiving everyone about how they “showed” Larry, while everyone who saw it actually thinks the publicist’s client is an idiot (not true, but that’s the unmistakable impression which was inexplicably created on purpose), and (2) I suspect Larry and Carrie would have had a far more interesting conversation left to their own devices.

Linda here again. So far this year, I haven’t been real impressed with the ability of any beauty queen to handle herself in interviews. I’m thinking Miss Teen USA 2007/Miss South Carolina (”such as”), Sarah Palin (”you betcha”), and now Carrie “(inappropriate”). Are we asking too much of our “beautiful people” if we want them to handle themselves on air like an experienced politician, in addition to being able to be poised while walking on stilt-like heels? Any beauty queens, current or former, care to enlighten me? I’m no beauty queen, and I have high school pictures to prove it.

FIR Interview: Steve Rubel, Lifestreamer

2009-11-14T01:30:51Z

An interview with Edelman Digital Sr. VP Steve Rubel.

Ogilvy's John Bell: FDA Social Media Guidelines Will "Basically Follow Same Process" As FTC Blogging Guidelines

2009-11-13T22:39:47Z

John Bell, President of the Board of Word of Mouth Marketing Association and Managing Director, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, was one of the last presenters today at the FDA's public hearings on "Promotion of FDA-Regulated Medical Products Using the Internet and Social Media Tools." We caught up with Bell late yesterday to get his take on the proceedings.

Asked about how much of the hearings pertained to advertising and how much pertained to PR, Bell said, "Today's stated focus is about what guidelines should be developed for social media, which is this netherworld in between paid and earned media. Unfortunately it covers all grounds."

Part of the problem, Bell said, is that health-care marketers, "can't jam all the crap you put into a print ad into a tweet." So, what is end game with all of this? "We're spending time today in initial discussions that is as much about how the process should unfold as it is what should be the precise guidelines." PRNewser's takeaway: this is going to take a while.

Bell and WOMMA were heavily involved in the recently issued FTC guidelines around disclosure in social media. Drafts for those guidelines were posted for comment late last year, he said, and the final draft came out in October. "I think what will happen with the FDA, is basically to kind of follow the same process," he said.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Second Life Creator Linden Lab PR Account Goes To...

2009-11-13T22:06:08Z

Exclusive: A source tells PRNewser that Linden Lab, creators of 3D virtual world Second Life, has selected Edelman as the company's agency of record. Reached for comment, Catherine Smith, Director of Marketing and Communications at Linden Lab, said the company "has worked with LEWIS PR in the US and several international markets since 2006. We've recently completed an agency review, but are not ready to announce any changes to our agency of record at this point."

The source said the contract is worth $1 million. Linden Lab declined to comment on the figure. Edelman could not immediately be reached for comment.

On November 4th, Linden Lab launched Second Life Enterprise, "a version of its virtual-world software," which sells for $55,000, reported PC Magazine. The company has approximately 250 employees worldwide, is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Singapore, Virginia, Brighton (UK), Boston, Seattle, Mountain View and Davis, CA. CEO Mark Kingdon joined the company in May 2008. He was previously CEO of digital marketing agency Organic, Inc.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Cloud computing made simple

2009-11-13T19:57:00Z

If you’re trying to understand technical concepts such as cloud computing, a resource like Wikipedia is helpful in explaining what it is.

Yet even Wikipedia’s explanation is difficult for some people to easily grasp. That’s where Lee Lefever enters the picture with the latest in his CommonCraft tech video series – Cloud Computing in Plain English.

Watch this 3-minute video, and you’ll understand the basic concept of what cloud computing can actually do for a business – precisely what most (non tech) people want to know.

While on the CommonCraft site, check the other videos in the “Plain English” series especially those that explain relatively complex tech in, well, plain English. RSS in Plain English, for instance, the granddaddy of CommonCraft videos, made nearly three years ago on a topic that many business people still don’t know what benefits might be.

Excellent content.

The Next Big Trend? It's All About Curation

2009-11-13T21:02:00Z

Fact: Information sources are exploding. More information will be created in 2009 than all prior years.

Fact: Attention is finite. We're becoming media agnostic, but when we're interested in something we dig down into our interests.

This is why I and others like Robert Scoble are really excited about digital curation. Facebook and Twitter lists are one level of curation. However, there are others. Posterous and Tumblr are fantastic platforms for soliciting contributions from groups of people around a shared interest. And they're platforms that will enable all of us to curate together.

Here are a handful of places where you can see curation at work (more in the gallery below as well) ...

My Parents Were Awesome is a group-contributed tumbelog that honors our elders. It has received national recognition.
PopURLs Brown by UPS curates information all around business news (UPS is an Edelman client but we didn't build this site)
Microsoft and Nissan have built entire brandstreaming sites that showcase conversations around their brand (Edelman built the Nissan site)
Sawhorse Media is creating a next generation media company by curating tweets in different topics like pets and now lists too
IBM is using Tumblr to curate ideas for a smarter planet

Do you agree that curation - both automated and human-powered - is the next big thing? This isn't just aggregation. As I wrote in my initial post on the subject it's about separating art from junk online.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Permalink | Leave a comment »

Gucci Director of PR Giulia Masla Resigns

2009-11-13T19:55:56Z

Giulia Masla has resigned as director of worldwide public relations and events for fashion label Gucci, WWD reports. Masla had been with the company since 1990, beginning as PR manager for Italy.

Robert Triefus, Gucci's director of marketing and communications worldwide, told WWD, "Her contribution has been essential in building on the overall image and the positioning for both the Gucci brand and its creative directors on a global level."

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

UnitedHealth Presses its Employees to Oppose Public Option

2009-11-13T20:07:15Z

The country's largest private health insurer, UnitedHealth Group, is urging its 75,000 employees to phone their senators and write letters-to-the-editor to protest the inclusion of a public health insurance option in health reform legislation. California-based consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog obtained a copy of an email that United for Health Reform, UnitedHealth Group's lobbying arm, sent to company employees. The letter contained form letters that employees could use to contact newspapers and senators and, according to Consumer Watchdog, offered the same misleading talking points advanced by the Republican Party, like the claim that health insurance reform will cause millions to lose their coverage. Earlier this year, Consumer Watchdog filed a complaint against UnitedHealth Group and WellPoint, another major U.S. insurer, for allegedly violating California law by pressuring employees to lobby against health reform. Corporate mobilization of employees is a lobbying technique used by Philip Morris in opposing U.S. Food and Drug Administration regulation of tobacco in the 1990s.

Social Media Leaders Build on Momentum

2009-11-13T19:52:48Z

I continue to be startled by the widening gap between companies breaking new ground in social media and others who continue to dither or resist any involvement. Recent campaigns by innovative companies like Best Buy and Coke brings this separation into even more stark contrast.

Best Buy has long been an innovator in the area of communications, so their new holiday campaign should not be a surprise. The most interesting element is perhaps the launch of their Twelpforce Twitter account – which is staffed by 2,500 sales and support folks who are available to respond to consumer questions or comments. The Twitter team/link is being promoted on a new television campaign – replacing the website address of past years. Best But is also leveraging its Facebook page to make it easier for users to ask friends for product advice, or even send email tips to relatives of your interest in certain products. In a cool twist, the company is introducing 25 tiny URLs to encourage users to send select product tips via email and social networks. Check out this New York Times article on the Best Buy holiday campaign here.

Coke is another company trying something new. Never one to do things on a small scale, the company is launching a campaign called Expedition 206, which involves recruiting amateur “Happiness Ambassadors” to travel the world through 2010 and document their quest through videos, Tweets, blog posts and so on. The final selection is being left to consumers. Check out a summary of the campaign here. Coca-Cola is no stranger to social media and already has one of the most popular Facebook pages (which apparently was created by two users) with almost 3.9 million fans. (As a side note on Coke’s bumpy path to social media enlightenment, check out this AdWeek post. )

Gap is another company with a promising holiday campaign. They are partnering with Yahoo to encourage consumers to record and send video greetings via a mobile recording studio in NYC. The clips – complete with options for customized holiday music – can then be posted and forwarded using the full range of digital channels and social networks. Consumers will also be encouraged to rank video greetings, and the most popular will win prizes. I also noticed Sears is launching a holiday-themed networking site and using widgets and text messages to flag holiday promotions. Even a traditional retailer like Kohl’s is jumping into the fray. So this isn’t the usual high-tech cast of characters.

My point here isn’t really to argue whether these campaigns are compelling or even very creative, and we’ll have to see if they deliver on their marketing objectives. But at least these companies are trying to respond to the shift in consumer habits and fitting social media into their marketing mix. True, some of these efforts may be clumsy and even ill-advised, but better to try and fail – and learn along the way – than to stubbornly stick with outdated and dubious tactics. Nobody said progress was pretty.

Clean Up That Resume

2009-11-13T19:05:41Z

Sean DiSimone Casting is looking for smart, attractive spokespeople to represent beauty company Living Proof on TV, web, and in-store

RadMD seeks a pharma/biotech publicist

The Asia Society seeks an Executive Director of Communications

Tamika & Friends is looking for a freelance PR specialist to help raise awareness about cervical cancer and HPV

Into Dutch art? The Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions is hiring a Media Relations Manager for The European Fine Arts and Antiques Fair (TEFAF)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

To be a Writer…

2009-11-13T19:37:09Z

“In recent years, I have had no desire to do anything but work and be with [son] John. I hear people talking about going on a vacation or something and I think, what is that about? I have no desire to go on a trip. My perfect day is sitting in a room with some blank paper. That’s heaven. That’s gold and anything else is just a waste of time.”

“Your busiest day might be watching some ants carrying bread crumbs. Someone asked Flannery O’Connor why she wrote, and she said, “Because I was good at it.” And I think that’s the right answer. If you’re good at something it’s very hard not to do it. In talking to older people who’ve had good lives, inevitably half of them will say, “The most significant thing in my life is that I’ve been extraordinarily lucky.” And when you hear that you know you’re hearing the truth. It doesn’t diminish their talent or industry. You can have all that and fail.”

- Cormac McCarthy in the Wall Street Journal

Image from nasser.gazi on Flickr.

links for 2009-11-13

2009-11-13T18:04:34Z

Measuring the real ROI of social media - slideshow

An interesting presentation about measuring the real ROI of social media thats been doing the rounds this week

PR CEOs Debate Business of PR at Economist Panel

2009-11-13T18:34:44Z

How much of an agency's revenue should come from digital? Did social media win Barack Obama the presidency? How will the financial industry remake itself in the midst of massive scandal and meltdown? These were just some of the questions debated last night at "The Business of PR" panel discussion hosted by The Economist at the 92YTribeca in New York.

The panelists, Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn, Rubenstein Communications President Steven Rubenstein and Ruder Finn CEO Kathy Bloomgarden were joined by moderator Mathew Bishop, American Business Editor and NY Bureau Chief of The Economist.

"Your life is more and more on the record if you're someone of interest, and that's just a fact of life," said Penn, in regards to new media. "There is much more engagement than ever before with bloggers, journalists," he said. In terms of CEOs or politicians who once thought that they could ignore one or two detractors, "that just can't exist in this environment."

Ruder Finn's Bloomgarden disagreed, and stated, "You can ignore people."

Click continued to read the complete recap and view PRNewser's video interview with Burson-Marsteller CEO Mark Penn.

continued...

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Jack O'Dwyer: Web Will "Filter Down To Experts"

2009-11-13T16:42:18Z

The above video of dna13 vice chairman Dave Armon interviewing Jack O'Dwyer, founder of the O'Dwyer PR newsletter has been making the rounds. In the interview, shot at this week's PRSA International Conference, O'Dwyer argues that PR professionals should only deal with press and not the "public."

O'Dwyer cites a speech from John Iwata, Senior Vice President, Marketing and Communications, IBM, and stated that the web will eventually "filter down to experts, people who know what they're talking about. And all these people on Twitter, who are saying they just brushed their teeth, they're not the experts."

It seems, ironically, that some of the communications were mixed up in this reporting. Iwata didn't advise PR professionals to only deal with the press. He did say, "If you show up on the web...You need to be recognized as an expert...both knowledgeable and persuasive," according to O'Dwyer's reporting.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Survey: 88% of Nonprofits "Widely Experimenting" With Social Media

2009-11-13T15:44:35Z

Is there still opportunity for social media and digital consultants in the nonprofit space? Yes, according to a new survey from Weber Shandwick and KRC Research. The agency surveyed 200 nonprofit and foundation executives to gain insight on their social media efforts to date. The highlights:

88% percent of nonprofits are widely experimenting with social media
Only half (51%) are active users

92% of executives said their online presence raises awareness of their organization

86% said it keeps external audiences engaged

77% said it reduces costs relative to traditional media

However, while executives understand there is value, they're not sure how to demonstrate it:

79% are uncertain of how to demonstrate social media's value for their organizations

Budgets and staffing are barriers to implementation, as 70% of executives projected their 2010 communications budgets to remain "the same or decrease compared to last year," and 52% percent of organizations said they "do not have enough staff to manage their current social media outreach."

"This survey validates that there is widespread experimentation, and suggests that, in the future, nonprofits that fully participate in the two-way conversations that make this medium so powerful will reap the greatest benefit," said Paul Massey, co-lead of Weber Shandwick's Social Impact group.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.