Gregarious

Facebook IPO: Why I am a Believer

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Thu, 17 May 2012 07:32:40 PDT

I've got to admit, I am a business idea killjoy. You know the kind of guy who always tells you why a business idea you came up with won't work or how it was tried before and failed. I blame it on having been around the block a few times, and having seen the winners and losers. And I am right a whole lot more than I am wrong.

When my friend told me about a new patented square cup that allowed advertisers to market squarely on all four sides of a soft drink cup, I told him to pass. When another one approached me touting Groupon, I urged him to Google "Groupon hate" and see the scores of small businesses seething with venom against the online coupon business. How's Groupon's stock price holding up?

So it's with great interest that I watch the naysayers line up to take shots at Facebook, now that the company's IPO is imminent. Just days before the IPO, GM de-friended Facebook, withdrawing its $10 million ad spend, claiming that Facebook ads simply do not sell cars. Strange timing, indeed. And then there are the pundits who claim that at a $90 billion or more valuation, Facebook is at its zenith, with nowhere to go with its stock price but down.

Well, get this. I can't kill the joy over the future of Facebook -- and I am eating some crow to say so. A year and a half ago, in my 2011 prognosis of PR trends, I predicted Facebook fatigue would plague Mr. Zuckerberg's social network, as hipsters and college kids came to see Facebook as their parents' social network and search for the new, new thing in online venting and viewing.

I was wrong. And anyone who is betting against Facebook is mistaken. Here's why: Facebook is the Internet for many people. They search, get their news, catch up with family and friends, engage, and play games without ever wondering further. Remember how that was the big dream of AOL back in the day? Didn't really work out for them. It has for Facebook.

It works not just as a personal tool, but also as a business weapon. OK, so GM didn't have luck with Facebook ads, but I can tell you from personal experience that many of my clients are retooling their entire business proposition based on Facebook. And guess what? It's working. For them, engagement is translating into revenue.

You killed Kenny? Stop for a moment, and contemplate turning off your Facebook page. Who would you forget? Who would forget about you? How long before you would be superfluous? Believe me, I know those who have turned off their Facebook pages, only to start a new one again, from scratch, because they quickly learned that when their page went dark, they too faded into obscurity.

It's now my Rolodex. It's out-dueled Outlook. It's won over LinkedIn. Sure, I still use both. But when I want to reach someone, someone from the depth of my past, or the son I just spoke to last week, I message on Facebook. I do so because it's convenient. Always on. Easy to use on the fly.

So for those who point to GM's disappointment, I push back and remind them that maybe for Facebook to work, you have to rethink the notion of an offer and response. And to those who believe the stock price is overvalued, I'd like to ask whether 910 million users could ever be wrong?

Hyperink wants to pull your blog off the web

noreply@blogger.com (Janelle Kozyra) — Fri, 04 May 2012 08:49:58 PDT

Today's topic on GThink: "Next-Generation Publishing Platform Hyperink Wants To Transform Blogs Into Books," covered by TechCrunch.

HYPER BLOG: Publishing the web

Abstract: Hyperink, a next-generation digital book publishing platform, is debuting a service which helps bloggers create short books from their existing content. The startup will help any aspiring author write, design, publish, market, and sell a book without any up-front fees. A staff editor curates a blogger’s posts, structures them into a narrative format, and creates a book in PDF, epub, and mobi formats. The book is then published to Hyperink’s marketplace, Amazon Kindle, B&N Nook, and Kobo. (iBooks is coming soon). Hyperink CEO Kevin Goa says that not every blog will have enough compelling content for a short book, but he believes there's an opportunity for thought leaders to package their blog posts into offline formats.

The takeaway: The debut of Hyperink’s “Blog to Books” offering is part of a next wave of services to help companies make digital content work better for them. Blogging is not one and done. It should be done and then leveraged across multiple communications channels to extract maximum value from it. The mark of great content is like the incredible, edible egg -- it can be repurposed in a thousand ways.

That's what G thinks. What do you think?

The reality of women's issues

noreply@blogger.com (Robyn Ungar) — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:18:52 PDT

BABY ON THE WAY: Rancic has become
a spokeswoman for women's issues

Today's topic on GThink: "Giuliana Rancic: Baby On The Way Via Surrogate For E! Host, Husband," covered by The Huffington Post.

Abstract: Giuliana Rancic, host of E! News and reality TV star, and her husband announced that they're having a baby via a gestational carrier on Monday. Rancic was diagnosed with breast cancer after undergoing two unsuccessful rounds of IVF in an attempt to get pregnant, and chose to have a double mastectomy after receiving the cancer diagnosis. The Rancics have chosen to live their lives in the public eye, and this news comes as a big and happy surprise to their supporters.

The takeaway: Companies' traditional approach of using celebrity endorsements to create a face for their brand is being turned on its head. Strong women journalists are increasingly sharing their personal stories on air, and as a result, raising awareness for issues and causes close to them. This is creating new opportunities for companies to save their pay-for-play dollars and instead form marketing partnerships with journalists and other media personalities who are organically aligning themselves with companies' narratives.

That's what G thinks. What do you think?

On races run long ago and lessons learned at Penn

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 04:32:57 PDT

RACES REMEMBERED: Penn Relays
of the past come into view this week

I don't often wander off the topic of public relations and communications on Gregarious. But hey, it's been a long winter, and here in Philadelphia it's a special week. Penn Relay week, a time when the track nation comes together to renew old acquaintances, lie about times long since run, and celebrate the magic of young muscles still supple and twitching with speed.

In high school, I ran Penn every year, among seas of young kids, all anxious and eager, naive in our belief that our race held some greater meaning than that of the 20,000 other contestants. We readied ourselves in long lines that stretched out marathon doors onto Philly's busy city streets. Stressing, hoping, praying that our run would end quickly and the pain would be lessened by the eyes upon us. It never was.

I ran just fast enough that the school itself took pity on me. Penn recruited me to run against the ancient brick walls of Franklin Field. And while I never competed as strongly or valiantly as I could or should have, I never forgot those races. And I trail back every April to reconvene. At the relays. On sun-drenched, brilliant days. Along with some 45,000 frothy track fans who obsess over the simplest of sports, where victory comes to someone whose only talent is placing one foot in front of the other.

Such pacing benchmarks my life. In April 1989, my son was born on Penn Relay Saturday. As a master, I once embarrassed myself, rupturing an Achilles during a silly corporate event at Penn, something I should have known not to contest.

And then, there are my daughters, fine runners in their own right. They gave me what Bruce Springsteen contends was his greatest solace in life: to see his kids walk the same streets as he had as a young person in Asbury Park after he moved back to New Jersey from L.A.

So this week, I will look out over the paddock at Penn. And I will watch as my child fights the doubts and uncertainties of Penn. They are the same monsters that haunt many of us over a lifetime. Am I fast enough? Am I good enough? Will I persevere? And ultimately once the race is run, will I have achieved all that was possible?

Somehow, they all get answered in that 400-meter oval, touched by the greats, the goods, and those just pulled from history class to fill out a 4X400 relay. It's all good training for life's deeper questions.

So the trees on 33th Street in Philadelphia have greened again. The boys and girls of the relays are off and running. Most races will finish in less time than it takes to text a friend. But the lessons? They will forever linger.

I swear, it's now back to PR and communications.

On fake indignation and how the media fall prey

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 07:14:37 PDT

Or how to funnel indignation for the good of a company, crisis, or cause

BAITED: Media are hooked by Nugent
and Rosen's political polo play

The Secret Service needs to visit Ted Nugent, file charges, and lock him up for suggesting that a second term Obama Administration will either get him killed or put him in jail. Hilary Rosen has defamed every woman in America by saying that Ann Romney “never worked a day in her life” for choosing to be a stay-at-home mom.

The season of indignation is upon us, and the media are once again falling prey to the feigned outrage and hyperbolic horse hockey bred during the political season. Let’s face it. Nothing that Ted Nugent has ever said or done has ever deserved a download on Spotify, let alone front page coverage in The Washington Post. But Wango Tango, he spouts off his big mouth at the NRA convention and suddenly Ted becomes a dangerous man and symbol of right wing ignorance.

Let me share a little secret. Ted has always been a symbol of ignorance. I mean, it’s not like “Yank Me, Crank Me” or “Cat Scratch Fever” was “Blood on the Tracks.” Ted was a joke in the 70s, a joke when he fronted Damn Yankees, and a joke on every one of his cancelled TV reality shows, all based on Ted’s love for fresh kills.

Hilary Rosen relishes fresh kills, too. For years, she has served as a fake news commentator, daily working in her indignation on CNN while parroting the DNC talking point of the day. The woman hasn’t had an original thought since picking her prom dress in the 80s. So why take her seriously, one way or the other? Why the indignation? Certainly, the political class is welcome to counter-punch, but Ted’s no heavyweight and Hilary, well she’s about as significant as a WWF referee.

What can PR people learn from the game of indignation?

1. Save it, and only invoke it when it’s real and called for. Responding to Ted only serves to elevate his Motor City Madness to a national status. He doesn’t deserve it.

2. Build your case on facts and reason. Sure, it’s not as salacious. But Hilary’s comment will come and go as a momentary flash of ignorance based on decades of brain dead babble. In the end, it’s not about Ann Romney, it’s about the direction of the country. Attacking Hilary just diverts the conversation.

3. Don’t tell your opponent’s story. By responding to Hilary, her opponents are forced to repeat her thesis, that Republicans are mounting a war on woman. Extending that conversation just keeps ingraining the message in the electorate’s psyche.

4. Share your indignation privately, directly with the media. If the opponent is outrageous, prove it, privately, to the media, and then let them expose it. Criticism is better served up by third parties, not directly by the feigned and faked, like some Sidney Crosby flop of a missed cross check.

Indignation is the stuff of political theater. But in the real world of public relations, it rarely wins friends and persuades others. And an outraged response by a company or client is all too often seen as simple whining or jealousy. Better to stay off the low road and assent higher when it’s your turn to tell your story.

JOBS Act leads the way for hedge fund managers to speak out on strategy and structure

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Anthony) — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 14:45:09 PDT

Today's topic on GThink: "Sidebar Measure in JOBS Act Opens Door for Hedge Funds to Tell Their Story to the Masses," covered by Reuters.

Abstract: On Thursday of last week, President Obama signed into law the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act, a measure largely touted as a sign of support for small businesses and innovative companies. Tucked into the legislation is a change in the law governing how hedge funds can advertise and promote themselves. The Securities Act of 1933 made it impermissible for hedge funds to advertise, and now, nearly 80 years later, that barrier has been lifted.

HEDGE FUNDS: Coming to an ad near you

The takeaway: The JOBS Act opens the door for hedge fund firms to explicitly publicize their funds. As a result, we expect to see more managers capitalize on this opportunity and engage the press. Household names like David Einhorn, Steven A. Cohen, and John Paulson will see more of their peers competing for face time with CNBC, Bloomberg TV, and The Wall Street Journal. Managers will be communicating their value and articulating their strategies, which can help hedge funds overcome the stigma of operating in the shadows of the investment business.

That's what G thinks. What do you think?

JOBS Act raises money, raises risk for IR pros

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Hassett) — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 14:18:35 PDT

THE JOBS ACT: Good for crooks or good for you?

Today's topic on GThink: "JOBS Act Jeopardizes Safety Net for Investors," covered by The New York Times.

Abstract: On Thursday, President Obama will sign into law the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act that is intended to help startups raise money and go public. However, Andrew Sorkin at The New York Times thinks the legislation does not go far enough to protect would-be investors from fraudulent startups. He points to Groupon's recent IPO, which saw success on its opening day, but has since slumped as the company revised its revenue numbers and failed to prove how they create value.

The takeaway: Over the past two decades, we’ve seen a fragmentation of the traditional investor market for startups. This ranges from large, professional investment firms to angel investor groups, and now to the man-on-the-street investor, as proposed in the JOBS Act. This is both good and bad for investor relations professionals. We find ourselves faced with a tremendous new audience looking for interesting investment stories, but who might have limited investment experience. As IR professionals, it’s our job to find ways to communicate with these individuals. Done with full disclosure and transparency, you’ll establish trust and credibility, which would provide some of the protection Mr. Sorkin rails about. The challenge: How do we do that? It’s a question that IR continues to wrestle with in this age of social media and, now, crowd funding investments and investors.

That's what G thinks. What do you think?

Blogger versus WordPress: Which blog platform is best?

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Levin) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:12:02 PDT

BLOGGERIFFIC: Google setting
a higher standard for blog design

There are a few topics I avoid talking about. Politics. Religion. And which blog platform you should use.

But I couldn't avoid the latter topic last week. That's because Google launched its latest salvo in the "best blog platform" war, when its Blogger team introduced some significant enhancements in its UI. That sparked a flurry of praise from many Blogger users, while other commenters remarked how these changes enable Blogger to better compete with WordPress. The can of worms was opened.

From where I sit, it's good to see Google continuing to improve Blogger, and working to keep the feature set relevant. There were lots of enhancements last year, including the new Blogger UI, and there's no end in sight. This tells us the platform is still strategic to Google. The company has been cutting the dead weight, and investing in the platforms that work for it. Clearly Blogger is working for Google.

I still think Blogger is superior from deployment and usability perspectives. I run dozens of B2B and B2C blogs on both Blogger and WordPress. The only advantages I find with WordPress are (A) more designers support it, so you can do more with it, visually; (B) there's no end to the number of plugins you can use to customize it; and (C) it's easier to post on WordPress under multiple bylines.

I've heard the SEO arguments that SEO "experts" and web designers make regarding Blogger versus WordPress. The arguments are so much hot air. I can show you Blogger blogs performing as well in search as WordPress blogs. I can show you WordPress blogs that don't rank well. And vice versa. SEO and design peeps simply prefer WordPress because it's what they know, and they use the specious SEO argument to sway clients.

SEO isn't rocket science. And the requirements needed to rank well are met by both Blogger and WordPress. What no platform can do is generate the influence that drives good SERPs. That requires high-value, sharable content, and inbound links from influential external sites (not affiliates and blog farms). So, anyone who tells you that "WordPress is better for SEO" is either lying or doesn't know what he's talking about.

Moreover, when's the last time you heard bloggers complain that their Blogger site had been hacked, and was spitting out spam or malware? Answer: never. But it happens all the time with WordPress. That's one of the benefits of using a true SaaS platform as opposed to having to install, configure, and manage your own application, database, and web servers.

But again, SEOs and designers like that level of control. It's called job security. Me, I don't need it, I don't want it, and I prefer not to have to invest all the extra time required to care and feed it. I prefer to let Google worry about security, scalability, availability, managability, hosting, etc. Then I, and my team, can focus on writing great content for clients and their readers. (And yes, I know about WordPress.com. Good counter-argument, but WordPress as an application remains far more complex, which puts the focus on software management, not writing.)

Those arguments in favor of Blogger aside, Google does need to open Blogger up so that any developer can generate a theme using Photoshop, as they now do for WordPress. And they also need to invest in developers by making Blogger more programmable, so that more widgets become available and more capabilities are possible.

At the end of the day, it's like the old Mac vs. PC argument. There are exponentially more apps available for the PC, but the apps you need are all available on the Mac. Same with Blogger. Every widget I need is available, and you can easily add capabilities using HTML5, JavaScript, Flash, etc. But there are many more available for WordPress.

For blogging, WordPress is great. Blogger is potentially greater, if Google would make just a few more significant tweaks to its capabilities. The #1 feature I wish the Blogger team would add is the ability to define custom permalink URIs. Right now we have to use a work-around to specify the URI. It's a pain. But if you don't do it, you end up with automatically generated URIs that can be suboptimal for search. #Blogger team, are you listening?

That said, here's the most important commandment to observe when getting involved in a religious debate about which blog platform is right for you: Start with your business requirements and work your way backwards to the platform. I've created a simple cheat sheet for that, below, to help in your decision making.

Use Blogger if:

Your requirements are focused on producing a blog
Your emphasis will be on developing great content that engages readers and shares your knowledge and expertise with them
You won't need sophisticated design capabilities
You want to keep it easy for your team to blog and be successful

Use WordPress if:

You have sophisticated design requirements
You expect there will be many visual changes over time
Your blog will require interactivity on its pages
You will need to create more than 10 static pages (i.e., custom pages that are not blog posts)

If we anticipate a client will have advanced design requirements, we opt for WordPress because it has those technical capabilities. But in no case do we choose WordPress over Blogger to achieve better SEO or to have a superior effect on readership, readability, shareability, and so forth.

Blogger, WordPress, and many other blogging platforms are equal on these fronts, provided you observe best practices for developing great content and ensuring your site is crawlable and understandable by search engines.

That said, Blogger's design capabilities continue to improve. Take a look at the Official Google Blog, which recently revamped its design to take advantage of Blogger's new (and still being enhanced) Dynamic Views capabilities. Hover and move your mouse over the various blog design elements. Read a few posts and interact with the blog. How's that for a clean, interactive, innovative, and most important, readable skin?

I'm inspired by it. Frankly, it's better than anything I have seen on WordPress or any other blogging platform lately. I've instructed our designers to study it and give me some design treatments to consider for our present and future client blogs -- and it doesn't matter whether they're on Blogger or WordPress. Great design is great design regardless of what platform is hosting.

Our PR pros support the ABC requirement to break out sales by platform

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:38:56 PDT

Today's topic on GThink: "ABC Expands Digital Magazine Circ Reporting," covered by MediaPost.

METRICS MATTER: The ABC is pushing
pubs to come clean on their digital circs

Abstract: MediaPost this week reports that the ABC (Audit Bureau of Circulation) is pushing to add a requirement that major consumer magazines start reporting circulation by platform. And that includes online, mobile, and tablet, as well as hard-copy subscribers and newsstand sales. At a time when hard copy circs are plummeting, online readership and viewership for many media -- Forbes being a notable example -- are skyrocketing.

The takeaway: It's as if they have been mining our emails here at Gregory FCA. In the new digital world, where analytics now define campaign success, how we as professionals identify and communicate our impact to clients is vital to explaining our value and justifying a client's investment in PR. Opens, downloads, views, traffic, and the echo effect across the digital domain all count -- all increase visibility and all amplify our storytelling. Unlike any other time in the history of PR, we are now accountable.

That's what G thinks. What do you think?

No reputation is too big to fail: Lessons learned from Greg Smith's New York Times op-ed on Goldman Sachs

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Anthony) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 07:36:41 PDT

When your business is built on providing investment services or financial advice, your primary currency is trust. When a competitor questions your ethics or trustworthiness, the strike can sting. When an employee or client calls your ethics into question, the blow can be crippling, if not fatal.

TARNISHED GOLD: Goldman Sachs'
reputation takes a hit

Word spread quickly last week The New York Times published a scathing op-ed by Greg Smith, a significantly accomplished employee who himself was still on the payroll with Goldman Sachs. Needless to say, the op-ed sent ripples through the investment industry as well as a wide swath of social media channels.

Some viewed the op-ed as "career suicide" for the author. Others saw this as a public rebuke of the inherent conflict of interests that exist whenever a business profits from the control it has over another's money. For investment management firms and wealth management professionals, there are some lessons to be learned -- particularly as it applies to protecting your reputation and controlling your business's image.

1. No firm is immune. In fact, the firms with the greatest satisfaction (read: complacency) with their self-image are most vulnerable.

2. Reputation management starts before the crisis hits. How you treat every client relationship, every employee relationship, and every vendor relationship can and will be held against you in the court of public opinion, if you don't act with integrity.

3. Tell your story before someone else does. Goldman Sachs has espoused an ivory tower approach to media relations. This has left the outside world, media included, to wonder what is happening inside the operation. Is there a real reason to be secretive and limit access to the professionals driving key business lines? Perhaps this lack of recognition by the non-Goldman world drove Greg Smith to tell his story?

4. Be proactive in introducing your client-facing personnel to the outside world via social media, blogs, media interviews, etc. Very few people are authorized to speak on Goldman Sachs' behalf, and rarely were those spokespeople the actual people that worked hand-in-hand with clients. This disconnect between the voice of Goldman Sachs and the customer experience has crippled the company's ability to communicate an effective response to this op-ed, which it posted on its website.

Goldman Sachs' response to Greg Smith's op-ed shows that the firm is protective of its reputation. But rather than being on the defense, the firm could serve itself better by remaining proactive in reminding its customers and the industry why it had been regarded as a standard-bearer firm. Why not let the world see the good that you are doing?

The formal letter of response, articulated by the voices of CEO Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn, buried the most important point in the last paragraph: "Our response is best demonstrated in how we really work with and help our clients through our commitment to their long-term interests."

Goldman Sachs underestimated the possibility that some employees -- and quite plausibly, some clients -- were dissatisfied and disappointed. Generally, the company has failed to let the stories of its good work be told, and cited an internal employee survey as a means of self-defense in this case.

For investment firms, during this time of consternation about Wall Street's role in the overall financial welfare of America, there is a need to do as Goldman said in its response letter: Demonstrate a commitment to your clients' long-term interests. But, don't forget to tell people about it.

The Fed is tweeting. How about you?

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Anthony) — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:39:17 PDT

Today's topic on GThink: "The Fed Is Now On Twitter," covered by All Twitter.

Abstract: The Federal Reserve has joined the social media revolution. It began using Twitter last Wednesday to share news and links related to the Fed's activity. It plans on tweeting frequently asked questions and educational content. Since debuting its account, the Fed has tweeted a video of Chairman Ben Bernanke, a speech on community banking, a report on mobile financial services, a schedule of Bernanke's upcoming speaking dates, and a press release.

SMALL GOVERNMENT: The Fed is reducing
monetary policy to 140 characters or less

The takeaway: This gives the Fed a way to communicate that fits the contemporary market environment. It comes on the heels of last year's move where quarterly press conferences were introduced as a way to create more transparency into Fed policy decisions. For those who find the Fed's role and language opaque, the Fed's tweets should make its policy decisions and the language around them digestible to the average man, as well as media and analysts. More importantly, for those in the financial community that have resisted engagement on Twitter, the participation of one of the oldest, stodgiest institutions in the nation should tell you that it's time to get on board.

That's what G thinks. What do you think?

Google plans to overhaul search. So what?

noreply@blogger.com (Kwan Morrow) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 16:10:47 PDT

Today's topic on GThink: "Google Plans to Overhaul Search," covered by Computerworld.

Abstract: Google is making changes to its search engine algorithm by giving the engines a better understanding of the words used in queries. By using a free database of information (aptly called Freebase) on people, places, and things, Google's search engines will have a better understanding of more search terms, and thus, deliver more accurate results. The issue at hand is whether these changes will result in SEO that focuses more on actual human questions, rather than the traditional model of keyword matches.

GOOGLE THIS: Search algorithm to change,
search marketers panic

The takeaway: This is not an overhaul of search. If you're Google, this is probably the next obvious enhancement if your fundamental baseline goal is to help users find the highest quality content as a result of their query. You'll hear a lot of grousing from SEO people who are more about the mechanics of search, rather than the quality of content. Fundamentally, if you do nothing around SEO but focus on producing the highest quality content that your audience would want to read and will benefit from, you will outperform the greatest SEO magicians. No matter how Google's algorithm changes, you will be immune to those changes. Just ask the people who were unaffected by the Panda update.

That's what G thinks. What do you think?

All Facebook features our Facebook Timeline e-book

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Levin) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 13:54:30 PDT

Since Facebook announced it was replacing brand pages with the Timeline, a veritable bumper crop of e-books have appeared, all with the aim of helping brand marketers capitalize on this new social user experience. But only one was selected by the pre-eminent publication covering Facebook for brand marketers.

All Facebook prominently featured Gregory FCA's e-book, "It's Time to Tell Your Story: The Opportunities and Challenges of Facebook's Timeline for Brand Pages," on its homepage exclusively for its readers today.

In the late 19th century, Ralph Waldo Emerson is reported to have said, "Build a better mouse trap and the world will beat a path to your door." Given the fact that All Facebook could have taken its pick of one of the dozens of Facebook Timeline e-books out there, and chose Gregory FCA's, clearly our e-book is the better mouse trap for you.

We encourage you to grab it, read it, and capitalize on Facebook's latest and greatest social technology.

A BETTER MOUSE TRAP: Gregory FCA's e-book on
Facebook Timeline for brands

Study: Women trust blogs, Pinterest most

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Levin) — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 14:38:08 PDT

This should sound familiar if you're a marketer: Every day your inbox gets peppered with news articles sent by your colleagues, each signaling something that should be on your radar. Some grab your attention immediately. Others you drop into the "read later" bin.

It's no different on our teams. We circulate interesting stories we find every day. But just as we shared our recent Facebook Timeline internal briefing document with you, we also wanted to start posting some other things we lob around internally that keep us plugged in to our industry.

We're bringing you the first post in our new GThink series today. We'll be doing our best to update the series regularly (you can follow it by bookmarking the GThink tag), but we promise we won't overwhelm you with 50 posts a day. Rather we'll publish what we feel is the most noteworthy, relevant, and interesting for PR, social media, and marketing folks like you.

With that, here's today's tidbit:

PINING FOR PINTEREST: BlogHer women
have made up their minds

"Survey: Women Trust Pinterest More Than Facebook, Twitter," covered by Adweek

The takeaway: Consider the source. The survey was conducted at a women's blogging conference where nearly all the attendees are female bloggers. It's no wonder they would trust blogging platforms. However, what is noteworthy is that they prefer Pinterest. Since women in the BlogHer community are among the movers and shakers in the mommy blogger movement, it's conceivable that their endorsement of Pinterest could further establish it as one of the preferred social platforms for women.

What do you think? If you have a story you'd like to share, send it to us at GThink@GregoryFCA.com. Welcome to the water cooler!

Top PR firm offers e-book on managing Facebook Timeline for brands

noreply@blogger.com (Kwan Morrow) — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 12:37:07 PDT

Just when you thought you had Facebook figured out, Zuckerberg goes and upends it all. By March 30, all Facebook brand pages will have to use the new Facebook Timeline. That's a huge disruption with little advance notice for companies that have invested years cultivating their brand pages, networks, and engagement strategies.

TIME'S UP: E-book will help you capitalize on new Facebook Timeline

But don't fret. Top PR agencies around the planet are briefing their clients on the new Facebook Timeline. We're no exception, with one big difference: We're sharing our internal briefing document with you. The same document we're using to brief clients has been transformed into a fast-reading e-book.

Download the e-book, It's Time to Tell Your Story: The Opportunities and Challenges of Facebook's Timeline for Brand Pages, to get a complete, yet succinct guide to understanding and transitioning quickly to the new Timeline. You'll learn how to use Timeline to tell your brand's complete story on Facebook, from its founding to the present day.

Briefing guides like this typically remain bottled up inside big PR agencies, and are shared only with paying clients. But that didn't seem too social to us. So hit this form to get a copy of Gregory FCA's Facebook Timeline e-book for yourself. And then let us know what you think, and your ideas for capitalizing on the new Timeline.

Post a comment; write to me at Kwan@GregoryFCA.com; or connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+.

Confessions from inside a top PR firm

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 12:42:29 PST

This past week, I was filling out PRWeek's annual ranking for PR firms and thought to myself, if there were a couple of things I would love the world to know about public relations, what would they be? So I determined to share with the world the five confessions from inside a top national public relations firm.

1. PR is lots of boozy lunches with media types and dinners schmoozing with clients. The truth is, I start every day at 7:10 a.m., a couple hours before the regular world just to catch up and prepare for the day ahead. Three times a week I am out through the evening for events or meetings. An average workday is 11 hours. Sunday mornings are reserved for homework, writing, or editing media materials. An average workweek: 55 hours.

2. The real skill of PR is people skills. Yeah, they are important. But still, the single most important skill that separates the good from the bad in our industry is writing. Just this week, we landed a new account and negotiated a premium for our talent, because we can deliver national-magazine-quality writing for the company's press kit, website, and investor presentation. I spent my early career writing, intensely, hourly, daily, amassing the 10,000 hours needed to attain competency in four short years.

3. Things are easier today in a virtual world. All you have to do is start a Facebook page or create a viral video, right? Nothing is further from the truth. The splintering of media has made media placement -- especially the old-school, long-form feature article placement -- rarer and more difficult than ever to secure. Too many PR people are selling social media simply because they can't do the tough stuff, the New York media tour or wedging open an opportunity in The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times. It ain't the easiest of times, even though it's the most exciting.

4. I could start a PR business today and make it go. I don't think so. Today's top agencies have such an installed infrastructure that it makes it impossible for small agencies to give the full range of service needed to succeed. Today, great agencies know as much about Google as they do about the nightly news. They have remarkable areas of specialization -- everything from investor relations to digital communications, in-house studios and media training, media monitoring, social media, and crisis communications, as well as an embedded network of media contacts dating back decades. The costs alone are staggering. We just had our social media policy reviewed and vetted by outside counsel to make sure our client advice reflects the latest SEC, FTC, and FDA standards. The cost? $40,000 for a client value-add, simply to protect client interests. Or how about the $2 million of errors and omissions insurance often required in major RFPs? And the continuity plan needed to do business with global 1,000 companies? The list goes on and on, creating a significant barrier to entry that simply didn't exist when I started Gregory FCA 20 years ago.

5. PR is a young person's game. Being young has its advantages, and personally, I thrive off the energy and enthusiasm young people bring to the table. But along with gray hair comes tremendous wisdom and confidence in how to structure a story, construct a message, and confront or compliment the media when necessary. I value the arms and legs a young, energized team brings to projects. But the best coaches have the experience to outfox the opponent regardless of his team's strengths or weaknesses. So age has value.

Last year, when the national PR rankings were published, Gregory FCA and its 50 employees ranked the 44th largest PR firm in America. That's pretty much in line with our positioning as a firm that sticks to its knitting -- media relations, social media, and investor relations -- but oh, there's always so much more to the story when you're on the inside of a top PR firm.

Could I? Should I? Cut the cable?

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 12:56:47 PST

Frank Shorter once said he ran marathons so that he could eat mayonnaise straight from the jar and not worry about the calories. Sometimes I feel like I do PR so that I can watch TV, anytime, anywhere, and classify it as research when my wife complains that I might as well be practicing the luge, laying flat on my back, perfectly still for hours on end.

And this weekend, during endless marathons of "Intervention," "Swamp People," and "Gold Rush" (man, I can't believe the Hoffman clan was right on the gold before their sluice box broke down again), I realized just how close I am to cutting the cable and never again paying a cable bill. With streaming TV, I am almost there.

For every flat screen in my home, I now have the option of watching streaming content instead of buying cable TV. In my bedroom, Google TV lets me enjoy Netflix, Amazon, HBO GO, the NBA, MLB packages, and a host of other streaming apps. Downstairs, a $99 Internet-enabled Blu-ray player lets me time shift "30 Rock" and "Modern Family" utterly instantaneously, thanks to Hulu Plus. In the family room, an HDMI cord to a laptop provides the porthole into mindless YouTube prattle and recent episodes of virtually any show from its network website.

I am king of this new streaming domain ... allowing me to relive the slacker life of the 1990s through "Portlandia" or pull for Junior over Senior in an OCC biker build-off that leaves no reason in your mind why Sandra Bullock left Jessie James (this guy is a jerk!). Even catch up on "The Increasingly Poor Decisions of Todd Margaret."

Obviously, mind-numbing drugs come with a price. I pay for Netflix, Hulu, and the sports packages. With VUDU, it's pay as I go. But all in all, it tallies no more than $30 a month, compared to maybe $120 when you factor out FiOS phone and Internet. And I am not alone in living the untethered life. Cable TV lost 300,000 subscribers in 2011. Many of them are just like me, consumers who look at their monthly cable bill and wonder if it really holds the same value as a car lease.

And we're just the tip of the iceberg. Behind us is an entirely new generation of TV consumers, brought to age on free YouTube and P2P networks. Now college age, they have never paid a cable bill. And from the size of my son and daughters' viewing habits, they don't plan to start making payments in the future. Rather, they'll probably still do what they do now -- have Dad pay the Netflix bill while they share the logins.

So I am close. Real close. Sure, maybe I'll miss some things, like watching Brian Williams' "Nightly News" casts or the Grammys in real time. I mean there still is a ton of content unavailable through the WiFi box that sits in my home office. But the time is coming. Soon. Real soon, when I will live free of cable's reign, a liberated man, no less intoxicated by the "television light shining through a hundred bedroom windows" -- as Marshall Crenshaw once sang. But I might be a little less poor for it.

The role of emotion in public relations

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 11:59:17 PST

And how to use it to change public opinion

Last week, I had the opportunity to stand before hundreds of oil and gas professionals and explain to them that while they have the facts and truth on their side, they are losing the battle for public opinion regarding American's most important new energy source. The topic was one near and dear to my heart -- the vast shale field that stretches from West Virginia to western New York state.

Using tried and true technologies, this group has been among the pioneers in engineering new ways to release this cleaner burning fuel, make it available to heat American hearths and homes, and help resuscitate America's struggling economy.

All the facts are there. Marcellus Shale generates high-paying American jobs in places that have been economically deprived for generations. The fuel -- natural gas -- is by far the cleanest burning carbon-based fuel, capable of replacing coal-fired power plants and reducing all of our carbon footprints.

As a domestic energy source, shale gas takes American men and woman out of harm's way by eliminating the need to protect oil supply lines that start in the Middle East. And shale gas provides for a more stable, peaceful world by stopping our massive payments to foreign countries, many of which are hostile to the United States, all for the love of oil.

And while there are admittedly environmental issues with any kind of economic activity, compared to other energy sources (foreign oil and nuclear), shale gas brings with it much lower environmental consequences.

Yet, as I shared with the audience, the public and the media see things vastly different from what the facts show. At the meeting, I shared with the group just-published public opinion research, which was produced by my company along with Nielsen.

The research clearly shows that contrary to common sense, we are losing the public opinion war over Marcellus Shale, and that's a shame of epic proportions, considering that Marcellus Shale development is a rare bipartisan topic that President Obama voiced his support for in his 2012 State of the Union address.

So why, if the facts are on industry's side, and our president stands among natural gas' supporters, has the reputation of Marcellus Shale taken such a hit? The rationale I presented at the conference is that while facts are important, emotion is what wins the hearts and souls, and public opinion. I explained that while many in the room had philosophical differences with the ways in which so-called "fractivists" have dominated the story, there is still much to learn from their techniques.

At the meeting, I provided six out-of-the-box ideas for humanizing the face of the natural gas industry, along with the precise tactics, terminology, and language that needs to be used, alongside fact, to tilt public opinion in the favor of smart, respectful development that will tap an estimated 100-year supply of cleaner burning, domestically produced energy -- one that requires no risk to human life to develop and one that can and is being produced with limited environmental impact.

Feeling bad that you missed it? Don't fret. The response was so positive that we plan to sponsor a live webinar event bringing this and even more data to the industry. If you would like to sign up for the webinar, just hit this form and give us your contact information, and you will be the first to know.

Why the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show stinks

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:32:03 PST

And a plea to bring back Up With People ;-)

In a country best known as the entertainment capital of the world, our Super Bowl halftime shows stink and it's time to rework the old, tired format of hauling out an aging singer or band and putting on a fake concert, complete with paid fans swaying listlessly while holding up phony cigarette lighters.

America is the land of ingenuity. The people who brought you the iPhone, 3-D TV, and entertainment streamed directly to the palm of your hand. But when it comes to Super Bowl halftime shows, we go blank, resorting to the same old been-there-done-that.

A monkey could stage this year's Super Bowl halftime show. Just contract a staging company and lighting company. Buy some canned fireworks. (My favorite site is www.BigFireworks.com). Do a deal with a fading star desperate to restart her career, and have her lip sync her way through two songs we've all heard too many times before -- usually while on elevators or treadmills -- along with an awful new one from her upcoming CD. (Wow, CDs. How quaint!)

America deserves better and so too does the world. Today, entertainment is one of America's largest exports, a $100 billion international business that sells, licenses, and distributes everything from reruns of "Three's Company" to the Lana Del Rey hype machine.

We might struggle to build good cars, and don't even try to manufacture TVs, computers, or cellphones. But when it comes to exporting the Kardashians, we are the undeniable global leaders. Heck, while our political system is gridlocked, our economic interest in entertainment allowed us to reach across the ocean, throw Kim Dotcom in prison, and close down MegaUpload -- all to protect that interest.

So you would think such talent would embrace a worldwide platform like the Super Bowl halftime show, the most watched TV event in the history of mankind, where our creative class can showcase our collective talent and tattoo our preeminence on the global consciousness each and every February.

Nah, let's call Madonna.

She hasn't been up to much in the past 15 years. And hey, she's bound to do it for free just for the exposure. When I caught wind Friday that Madonna's hamstring injury might prevent her from lip syncing this weekend, I thought, finally, the curse is broken.

Surely they will have to do something different. A new idea. Something bold. Maybe 10,000 Chinese playing drums. Or CGI fireworks. A few hundred baby grand piano players. Monkeys riding dogs or anything with elephants. The Geico cavemen for Christ's sake. Please. Something. Anything. But not another aging singer or band forcing us to yearn for lingerie bowl.

But alas, Madonna recovered. Her return is our loss, setting the stage for another disappointing Super Bowl halftime show. Next year? Neil Diamond!

Why I'm not worried about Google Search Plus Your World ... and why you shouldn't be, either

noreply@blogger.com (Rich Levin) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:52:11 PST

So Google is on the hot seat today over changes to its privacy policy, terms of service, and user data mining. Users, privacy watchdogs, and politicians alike are screaming because Google revealed it is going to intensify its aggregation of your personal data in its databases, and you can't opt-out of the process.

Never mind that Google's been collecting your data for years and using it to personalize your search and advertising results. Never mind that Google reads every email message you send or receive in Gmail. Never mind it scans every document you put in Google Docs. Never mind it knows about every appointment you put in Google Calendar. Never mind it has a record of every single query you ever entered on Google search. And never mind that, now, Google also indexes your social network if you're one of the 90 million people using Google+.

These changes come on the heels of Google integrating Google+ data with Google Web search results. That move, dubbed Google Search Plus Your World (or Google SPYW for short, ironically just a few characters short of SPYWARE) also caused an uproar among search and privacy watchers, as well as freaking out competing social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. Worse, Google SPYW might just be the straw that breaks the trust busters' backs.

Now, I'm the first guy to cry "foul" when Facebook or other services change their systems and expose my private data without my permission. But Google's changes don't fall into that category. Here's why Google is NOT being evil, why I'm not worried about these changes at Google, and why you, and regulators, should climb down off the ledge.

Firstly, Google is not doing anything with your data that it wasn't doing already. It's just going to do it more efficiently and effectively. As any data modeler knows, the better your data is structured, the deeper and more accurate the data mining, the better the search results will be. That, and the better (more relevant) the ad targeting will be. That, and the better (more relevant) your social results will be.

That's good news for users as well as marketers. Your data is still private and anonymous. It's just being indexed, sliced, and diced with more speed and precision. You can still download and archive much of your Google data using Takeout (and one day, hopefully, all of your data). And you can still delete your Google profile if you're paranoid.

Google has been vilified because it is not letting users opt-out of these changes. Excuse me? That's a key deficiency (or attribute, depending on your point of view) of all SaaS platforms. Users are always at the mercy of the platform provider's design whims. Get ready for more squealing like this when Facebook makes its Timeline mandatory in a few weeks.

The fact is, every time you use Google, you agree to let the company use your personal data to personalize your experience. The mere act of signing up for the service by establishing a name and a password is, in effect, the same as signing a contract on Google's terms. And part of that contract gives Google the right to change the contract as it sees fit. Here's the Faustian deal: You give Google access to your data, and Google gives you some amazing free software and services -- and in several cases, it's the best software and services available on the web.

Which brings me to the antitrust charges. Some people and politicians are pointing to Google SPYW and its "tying" of Google+ into Google Web search as analogous to Microsoft's integration of Internet Explorer with Windows 95. For anyone who has been living in a cave, that was the move that triggered the historic U.S. vs. Microsoft antitrust case.

Here are some key distinctions that I believe negate that argument.

Internet Explorer was the default browser in Windows. If you clicked a hyperlink, Explorer opened. In those days, the average user required a certain level of sophistication to seek out and install a third-party web browser. And even then, Internet Explorer would open as the default browser in many situations. Conversely, Google is not the default search engine on all PCs. And on those where it is, users today can easily bookmark or otherwise define another search engine as their default.
Microsoft was the gatekeeper for what apps were pre-installed on Windows. That represented a significant barrier to entry that Netscape and other browser developers were not able to overcome. Google, on the other hand, is not the gatekeeper for what apps are available on the web. Google has not erected -- indeed, could not erect -- barriers preventing smart developers from building and marketing better search engines or social networks.
Twitter and Facebook choose not to allow Google to crawl and index their social data. My guess is that Google would jump at the chance to index both social networks, and further improve our search results. There's no exclusion here.
Internet Explorer could not be uninstalled from Windows. But users can easily switch to any other search engine. Not only that, but they can easily disable Google SPYW with a single click on their Google search results. See this Google+ post I wrote which documents how easily you can disable Google SPYW.

Lastly, these unwarrented but understandable fears fundamentally advocate against better search results for users. Google has figured out how to blend social and search to give users both highly personalized and utterly generic results, in a single platform experience that's almost entirely supported by advertising (and largely unobtrusive ads to boot). We should be applauding, not cringing.

For PR and social media types, Google SPYW is a significant advance with profound implications. If Google+ gains critical mass and ends up with hundreds of millions of users, your prospects and customers will be far more likely to see your content in their page one SERPs. You want that, right? That's why you spend so much money and time on SEO.

And if you're a consumer, you want your vendors to see your rants or kudos in their search results, right? That's why you tweet them when you're angry or fire off an angry blog post.

In the end, the uproar over Google+ integration into Google SERPs and Google's privacy, data mining, and TOS changes is a tempest in a teapot. Chill out, everybody. Let's see how this plays out and if our search results do improve. And if they don't improve, well, you can always kill your Google account and switch to Alta Vista.

The roles of skepticism and persuasion in PR

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:21:29 PST

Years ago, before the era of all things digital, an entrepreneur came to me with an enchanting idea. At the time, CD drives were rare and exotic extravagances. As is often the case with new technologies, few of us realized how omnipotent, and eventually antiquated the CD-ROM would become.

But his dream was to make CD-ROM gaming available to the masses by opening walk-in gaming centers where consumers would buy time to play on massive CD-ROM servers.

Oh, how naïve were we, now that gaming is streamed in real time to your iPad and available on cable TV. But back then, CD-ROMs cost thousands of dollars, games hundreds, and playing Freddie Fish was the rarest of treats for young children. To bring his idea to fruition, he partnered with Intel, built a beta store, and turned to us for media coverage of the idea in advance of franchising.

The media loved the story -- a way to bridge the digital divide and allow anyone with a few dollars to rent time to play CD-ROM games, a luxury out of the reach of most families at the time. We intrigued Inc. magazine to do a profile. It gushed in every way, until the second to last paragraph when an analyst suggested that someday CD-ROMs would come pre-installed on personal computers, a threat to any business model that defies Moore's Law.

The client was furious. How dare I allow the media to include even a whiff of negativity? he attacked me. I explained all that is controllable and uncontrollable once you enter the arena of media relations. But then, I let him in on the real power of public relations.

I explained that the reporter's single, short, skeptical paragraph was more valuable to our cause than the article's pages of glowing hyperbole. By presenting a negative, the reporter revealed himself to be an objective third party, thereby strengthening and validating his positive review of the concept.

And that served as the real power of persuasion. No one believes an advertisement. But most of us believe an article that is written by someone willing to do the optics and see the full spectrum of positives and negatives, and then fall clearly on our side of the argument.

No use. The client argued that one paragraph overwhelmed pages of positives. The relationship lasted about as long as the pay-to-play CD-ROM gaming industry.

Yet, I often think back on the experience as a seminal realization of the value in what we do as public relations professionals. The dance we do relies on the skills and steps of our partners. They must lead, and when they do, and dance well, presenting the balanced and fair, we see our greatest triumph as PR professionals.

New employees answer, "What did you learn during your first year at Gregory FCA?"

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:57:39 PST

One of our 2011 goals was to formalize our commitment to ongoing training of our employees. To that end, we've grown our culture of knowledge sharing among our teams and ramped up our focus on mentoring and hands-on training, especially with our new employees.

We've also developed and instituted a training workshop program we call Gregory FCA University. Leaders in the firm present an interactive session every month about a given topic in public relations, social media, or investor relations.

The sessions are followed by quizzes to test employees' absorption of the information. We also video record all the sessions, and make them available in our digital library for employees to watch anytime they're looking for insight or advice from their peers on a particular subject.

A year now on the books, we wanted to see what our 12 new employees have learned so far from being embedded in the industry and engaging in our training initiatives. So we asked them, "What did you learn during your first year at Gregory FCA?" Here's some of what we heard.

Kate Ritinski

Kate Ritinski, Account Coordinator

It's hard to believe that less than a year ago, I was still a college student, enjoying my last semester of senior year and figuring out how to tackle the "real world." Now here I am, eight months later, as an Account Coordinator at Gregory FCA. Needless to say, these past several months have been quite a whirlwind.

Before I started, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what PR involved: having good time management, keeping clients happy, and securing media coverage. As I began my work at Gregory FCA, however, I quickly learned PR was much more than I ever thought it could be. Here's a sampling of what the last eight months have taught me:

1. Strong writing skills are essential. If you can't write, you won't make it in public relations. Knowing AP Style, using proper grammar, and having a keen eye for editing will make or break your public relations success. I've learned that when work leaves my desk and is passed on to my colleagues, it always has to be "client ready" with no errors or typos.

2. Social media is king. If you're keeping pace with the curve, you're already behind. Staying on top of current social media trends is imperative to building and maintaining key relationships in PR. I've learned to always be on the lookout to see who I can follow on Twitter, connect with on LinkedIn, and add to my Google+ circles.

3. Keep up with current events. It's crucial to stay on top of what's going on in the news, in my clients' industries, and in general. The news is on as I get ready in the morning and during my commute to work. I frequently check all the major news outlets throughout the day. You never know when you can relate a current news story to one of your clients or use it in a pitch.

4. Ask questions and take initiative. Without a doubt I can say I learn something new every day at Gregory FCA, whether it is industry-related, client-related, or a tidbit about life in general. My colleagues continually encourage and challenge me to ask questions, to help me grow as a person and PR professional. In doing so, I've learned to take initiative and take on new responsibilities.

5. Public relations is all about teamwork. If you don't enjoy working closely with others, you're probably not going to enjoy public relations. Without my coworkers, I wouldn't have any success in PR. We work as a team on a daily basis, bouncing ideas off each other, working together to secure media placements, and offering insight from past experiences.

Sara Nugent

Sara Nugent, Staff Writer

Quick: How long does it take to receive a Social Security claim? How do you code for a web application? How do you enable the automatic update button on your WordPress blog? You'd probably never find these questions next to each other on a college PR exam, but since working at Gregory FCA, I've been tested on each of them.

When I first walked into Gregory FCA, I quickly realized my new coworkers knew the ins and outs of what each client did, and I became worried that I had missed out on an important PR class in college. I had learned how to craft a press release, tactics for pitching the media, and the steps to plan events. But had I missed Mastering Your Clients' Industry 101?

In my first few weeks, I wondered how I'd learn about topics I'd never encountered before. But I soon discovered that whatever you need to know is out there. If you don't know it, you just haven't found it. And for me, it was right here in the building. My coworkers were not only experts in what they did, they were experts in communicating it. Between meetings, social networking, and the osmosis approach of just listening, I caught up.

Eight months later, I'm always ready to speak on a client's behalf, and it's because of a simple lesson I've learned here: PR isn't about doing what you have a knack for. It's about having a knack for whatever you do.

Hannah Messinger

Hannah Messinger, Account Coordinator

I started working at Gregory FCA as a Junior Associate the summer between my junior and senior year. I left taking the priceless experience of my internship back with me to Syracuse University, thinking about the year ahead and where it would take me. It wasn't until after I packed away my cap and gown that I came back to Gregory FCA to start what I had once only known as "life after graduation" -- the most terrifying concept for students leaving the education bubble.

I'm now six months into my career at Gregory FCA, and I couldn't be happier. It's a challenge to look back and think of everything I've learned. But two simple lessons do stand out: Take initiative and ask questions. The initiative not only propels you to be better at your job, but it's more valued than I thought it would be. It doesn't matter if this is your first or 10th job, taking initiative lets great ideas be heard.

And we've all heard the saying, "the stupid questions are the ones you don't ask." At Gregory FCA, creative tasks and questions motivate the way we work. It's through asking questions that I've been able to learn the most important and memorable details. As a Junior Associate and now an Account Coordinator, I've found that asking every question that pops into my head has helped me transition from an undergraduate to a PR practitioner.

Justin Lehmann

Justin Lehmann, Staff Writer

Who am I going to be today? Maybe I'll be a venture capitalist predicting the growth trends of smart devices in the workplace. Or maybe I'll be an intrepid explorer discovering the hidden beauty of the Far East. Or I could even be an expert in enterprise cloud computing, offering my opinion on Microsoft's latest innovation. No, I am not planning to crash the next White House party or scam a Las Vegas casino. I get to ask myself this question every day when I walk into Gregory FCA.

While I'm there I learn how to understand and influence established and emerging media channels, collaborate and brainstorm with colleagues who've poured over every nuance of their client's industry, and integrate myself into a family of professionals like no other.

Amanda Chun

Amanda Chun, Account Coordinator

Working at Gregory FCA for the past six months has taught me a lot about the worlds of public relations and finance. On the public relations side, I discovered that perseverance and persistence go a long way when reaching out to the media.

Moreover, I realized that as a PR professional, writing and client interaction are two skills that you can always build on, even 10 or 20 years down the road. Even though PR is known to be a competitive field, I have noticed that collaboration and consideration are what make our team so successful.

Working in financial communications with all sorts of clients in the financial industry has kept my everyday responsibilities exciting and challenging. I have learned a lot about investing strategies, retirement planning, and especially the importance of contributing to your 401(k).

Aside from the challenges of being new to public relations and finance, one thing I can say for sure is that taking initiative and staying curious will help anyone succeed in his or her profession!

There are many valuable lessons here that show the best way to learn public relations is to practice it alongside experienced professionals in the industry. Building and mastering the skills of PR takes time, dedication to the craft, a constant willingness to learn, and a desire to solve challenges in new and creative ways. Keep up the great work, guys.

5 key PR takeaways from the 2012 CES

noreply@blogger.com (Mike Lizun) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:03:57 PST

The real news from last week's 2012 CES in Las Vegas had less to do with the gadgets, devices, and shiny new things being introduced by the world's leading technology companies and more to do with the way those companies told their stories during the four-day extravaganza of all things technology. The convergence of social media and hand-held devices has created an entirely new way of gaining notice, interfacing with the media, building traffic, and leveraging the costs of attending any show, let alone the world's largest consumer technology show.

This year, four of us made the trip, some to support, some to sell, and some to simply learn more about what's new and hot. And no matter how exciting the technology, what really caught our eye is how companies are using digital communications and building their own channels of content to win, persuade, enlighten, and engage on the showroom floor. Here's the new bible of how it's being done:

1. Be the media. Texas Instruments helped show the way with a video team that traveled from booth to booth, interviewing partners and demonstrating how TI technologies power the coolest products. B2B customers throughout the show snapped to when TI showed up, a great way to build buzz and relationships, and celebrate their common ground.

2. Virtual brand ambassadors meet reality. This year, for the first time, we saw real, live customers in company booths, talking to the media, buyers, and even consumers about their real life experiences. We were fortunate enough to source and find our own such ambassador for Mitsubshi. Carlos brought real life credibility to what all too often is simple sales hyperbole. Thanks, Carlos. We expect to see a lot more of this strategy in the future.

3. Adapt or die -- in real time, as stories unfold. CES is all a game of buzz and emerging trends. Many times this year, we jumped on stories as they were unfolding. One big story, OLED technologies, grabbed attention with the unveiling of a 55-inch OLED TV by LG and Samsung. OLEDs are nothing new to CES, but this was their year, and it was smart to jump on the story as show floor buzz swelled.

4. Twitter as the medium for real-time CES coverage. Immediacy. Impact. Influence. Twitter enabled real-time conversations from CES about the technologies we represent. In some cases, the reporters weren't even at the convention. Rather, they were following in real time back at their offices. But by providing instantaneous, valuable commentary, anyone was able to credibly become part of the conversation -- driving traffic and media interest.

5. The Facebook effect. And then there were the fans, watching CES from a distance on Facebook. Networks built in advance provided an extended platform for bringing even more loyalists into the conversation, exciting and educating them to what's hot and new, and preconditioning them to buy now and in the future -- sharing with them an insider's view from the world's leading consumer technology show.

While the shiny tech provides the eye candy, it's still all about marketing and exposure when it comes to CES. This year, the best and brightest marketers in the world shared their secrets, opening eyes, minds, and pocketbooks at the greatest show on Earth for those of us who love technology, electronics, and all the things digital.

Still can't ignore the basics in investor relations

noreply@blogger.com (Joe Crivelli) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 10:23:08 PST

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to speak with a member of the board of directors of a troubled company. This company had once been a high-flyer, but has since fallen on hard times as a result of the financial and real estate meltdown. The company is losing money and under intense competitive and regulatory pressure. As you can imagine, the stock has been pummeled and is trading at multi-year lows.

During our conversation, the director shared some of the company's investor relations challenges with me, and expressed frustration that Wall Street did not recognize the intrinsic value of the company. But as we chatted, I realized that the company had lost sight of some fundamental principles of investor relations:

Guidance matters

In this age of transparency and accountability, it's essential that public companies provide guidance. When public companies don't give guidance, it signals one of three things to Wall Street, and none are of them good: first, that management has no visibility into the business; second, that the business is in free fall; or third, that management just has no desire to be shareholder-friendly or accountable.

In this case, both #1 and #2 apply, and the company has long ago given up the notion of providing guidance to the street. Wall Street analyst estimates are all over the map, indicating that the street has no idea where the business is heading either.

World-class management teams are able to predict where revenue and net income will be. They can do this within a 10 percent margin of error, over the next 12 months, and have the internal fortitude to make a call and hold themselves accountable. Those that don't, don't get a premium valuation. Ironically, most C-suite executives would bristle if an employee didn't want to set goals for the coming year -- in fact, the employee probably wouldn't make it to his or her next annual review.

The game is played one quarter at a time, one year at a time

As long as I can remember, IR types and C-level executives alike have bemoaned the quarterly earnings cycle. There have been rumblings of a move to real-time disclosure, and efforts to get investors to look at the longer term.

It was clear from our conversation that this gentleman was casting about for some other way to measure the company's progress. "Can't we just give the street insight into how we think we will fare over a broader economic cycle?" he pleaded.

But here's the thing: Investors like to be able to keep score. They like a periodic checkpoint and a gauge to see how their investments are performing. And the way they keep score is four quarters per year, one year at a time. It mirrors the seasons. It mirrors our currency system. And of course, it mirrors a football game. It's simple and easy, and you can rail against it, but the quarterly reporting convention is not going away. And we'll get punished when we miss expectations for a quarter, and rewarded when we exceed them.

GAAP is king

He also shared his company's struggles to find a financial metric that was a reliable and consistent measure of the company's progress. The company was providing a non-GAAP financial metric to give investors some sense of financial momentum, but it was a veritable alphabet soup of exclusions and addbacks and financial alchemy.

These non-GAAP metrics make sense in some cases, when companies have to incur extraordinary CAPEX and have heavy depreciation expenses right after project completion. But in this case, the company was relying on these non-GAAP metrics simply because the core operation was losing money and had been year after year.

At the end of the day, this is a capitalistic society, folks. It's about profits. And profits are measured by net income. A shareholder's share of net income is measured by EPS. And that's the metric that matters. Get that going in the right direction, and everything else will take care of itself.

Social media trends in 2012: Orchestrate this!

noreply@blogger.com (Greg Matusky) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 13:56:55 PST

Over the past few days, we've been sharing our predictions for what we think will be the trends to watch in public relations and social media in 2012. Yesterday, we featured our Social Networking Manager, Kwan Morrow. The day before that, we heard from Mike Lizun, Senior Vice President of Public Relations.

Today, I'd like to share the thoughts of our Editor-in-Chief and Senior Vice President, Rich Levin. Rich has been in the content game since the mid-80s and he's been involved in social media for just as long -- long before the term social media became de rigueur.

Our crazy Editor-in-Chief
mugging for the camera

Here are his thoughts on what will be the important trends in content-driven social strategies in 2012. And although we promised 15 trends to watch, we always go above and beyond for our clients and readers. So in all, we are sharing 17 PR and social trends to be on the lookout for in 2012.

1. Orchestration will be the big challenge in 2012 for companies that got started with social within the past two years. They have built their basic platforms and skill sets, and are now realizing that, in order to scale and be fully engaged, they need to orchestrate their activities in real-time, yet remain authentic and transparent in their engagement with customers. This is a big challenge, and there are no easy answers. Companies will try and fail, but they must get back up and keep trying until they figure out the orchestration model that works best for their organization. PR agencies that have developed best practices in this area are the ones to lean on. Agencies that promise the moon via outsourcing should be avoided. Social media cannot be outsourced. Social media must be integrated with all communications activities. Orchestration will be the issue that breaks many client-agency relationships, because it demands a highly integrated relationship. The outsourced model won't fly.

2. The Google+ effect will continue to reshape social media. While Google+ itself might not become the leading social network, remaining the domain of a passionate band of users, the model that Google introduced and continues to refine is sending shock waves through the industry. Make no mistake about it: The massive and ongoing changes to Facebook and the recent introduction of Twitter brand pages are direct reactions to Google's innovations. Google might not end up with the leading network, but it's already the leading innovator in social media. Moreover, as Google continues to integrate Google+ technology into its vast ecosystem of applications and platforms (Search, Gmail, Android, etc.), the nature of social networking itself could shift from the current siloed model to one where social is truly a layer atop the web for millions of users.

3. The new formal brand pages from Google+, Twitter, and Facebook will present richer opportunities for brands to engage customers online. That's obvious. What isn't obvious is that this isn't limited to B2C companies. Now companies that tended to focus on LinkedIn for B2B can start considering Google+, Twitter, and even Facebook for brand marketing engagement. This is thanks to the richer design and interaction capabilities aimed at the needs of brand marketers (as opposed to being aimed at the needs consumers' social networking). Lastly, Google's decision to allow up to 50 brand managers to run a Google+ brand page supports trend #1: the need to foster orchestration of social media by brand managers. Expect Facebook and Twitter to follow.

4. Blogs will continue their rise as the mission-critical hubs of digital communications and engagement campaigns. Another public relations trend in 2012 will likely see B2B and B2C bloggers top 30 percent of the content in the blogosphere, continuing steady growth of recent years (corporate bloggers and entrepreneurs now comprise 21 percent of the blogosphere, according to the latest Technorati State of the Blogosphere 2011 report). Among the Fortune 500, 23 percent (114 companies) now have active public blogs, according to the annual study by The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. The number is even higher among SMEs, with some 50 percent of the companies on the Inc 500 now blogging, according to University of Massachusetts study. Strong blogging adoption trends are also evident among educational, non-profit, and government institutions. Organizations will continue to discover that blogging remains the single most effective way to build and reach audience, support organic SEO, drive inbound traffic to the corporate website and other properties, provide resources to prospects and customers, maintain thought leadership, open the kimono into the company's inner workings, and maintain a dynamic dialog with the marketplace. Make no mistake: Blogging remains the most crucial component of an authentic social media strategy.

That's how we see it. How do you see it? What are the big public relations and social media trends you'll be paying attention to in 2012?