Free Press is a leader in the interactive universe.  They cultivate and organically grow their communities.  By utilizing digital tools early and often, the Free Press team has built a machine that can deliver results.  Last year, they took on Comcast, leading an effort to urge the FCC to rebuke Comcast for its network management practices.  They won.

Early this year, Free Press began beating the drum for the FCC to stay the course and open a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on open internet regulations in the wireline and wireless spaces.  This effort mobilized thousands of letters, blogs and tweets on the topic.  Once again, they won.

Free Press has become a juggernaut in the District of Communications.  Although, I don’t always agree with all of their public policy positions – I love the strategies they use to raise public awareness and influence policymaking.

Sprint and Verizon are also leaders.  By actively engaging consumers online, Sprint’s John Taylor gains valuable feedback on everything from policy to gadgets to network launches while consistently promoting the Sprint brand.  He also does a masterful job of interacting with reporters and directing traffic to links and articles he wants the media to see.

Verizon does a great job on the communications front.  The company has developed a “sixth sense” for public opinion and carefully crafts their positions to balance both consumer and corporate interests (think LNP, opposing a wireless directory, or supporting the open conditions on the 700 MHz C block auction).  On the digital side, Verizon’s John “CZ” Czwartacki is omni-present.  He covers a lot of the same ground that John Taylor covers, however, he really takes it to Verizon’s competitors – especially AT&T.  It is no secret that Verizon has a great network and he lets it be known.

In any case, both of these guys have been engaging for years.  They didn’t just start blasting their press releases, creating Facebook Fan Pages, or tweeting links to content that supports their points of view.  On the contrary, they’ve mixed outreach tools and, ultimately, are their for consumers.

The posers online are as obvious as the leaders.  They beg for followers on Twitter.  Their blogs are essentially press releases or just dead.  They rarely offer fresh content or engage their Facebook Fan Pages.  They are always asking instead of listening.  And their companies continue to spend gobs of money doing the same thing over and over again (lobbying) in Washington and getting the same results.  Eventually, they’ll learn the hard way that public perception and consumers are their best advocates.

Dish Disclosure – I spoke at the National Conference for Media Reform, which was sponsored by Free Press, in 2008.

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What are Twitter lists?  Briefly, Twitter now has the functionality to allow its users the ability to segment people they follow on Twitter.  For instance, I follow around 400 people and, with the addition of twitter lists, I can now group people according to “policy”, “mobile”, “digital”; you name it, there is a Twitter list for it.  You can also see other Twitter users’ lists (if they’re public) by looking at their profiles and you can get a sense of how you are seen in the Twitterverse.

This is either another stroke of genius by Ev, Jack, and Biz or just another thing for the social media elite to point to as a way to measure “influence.”  Thus far, it seems to be the latter and I don’t think that’s good for Twitter in the long haul.

We’ve already seen reports that Twitter’s growth is slowing.  The strategy to get to 100 million users seems to be promoting the celebs and hoping all of us will just want to sign up so we can see what Alyssa Milano and Ashton Kutcher are doing.  Contrary to being an awesome two-way communication tool – it becomes a fire-hose of noise.

I’m working on my list now (it is private) to see if it adds additional value.  I enjoy Twitter and the community I have engaged with there for over 2 years.  However, I’m not optimistic about this move and believe it is a step in the wrong direction…

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The letters were handiwork of a DC-based consulting firm, Bonner & Associates, which specializes in “innovative grassroots campaigns.” In case you’ve missed the string of players involved: the letters were manufactured by Bonner & Associates as part of their work for the Hawthorne Group.  It turns out the Hawthorne Group was working for American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE), an opponent of the climate legislation.

Bonner & Associates’ President Jack Bonner has blamed the forged letters on a recently-fired “bad employee” and proclaimed outrage.

He’s not the only one.

More than a dozen “senders,” organizational leaders whose identities were used without their knowledge or consent, are pretty upset, too.  So is Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), co-author of the legislation at the center of the storm.  Markey has launched an investigation into the forged letters. (Though thirteen fraudulent letters have been identified, dozens more await verification.)

However, the most audacious expression of outrage came from a small band of environmental activists known as the “Action Factory.”

These brazen demonstrators stood, nearly naked, outside the Bonner & Associates office building on a recent afternoon. Wearing little more than handmade signs of protest, they took to the street to draw attention to a despicable PR tactic known as “astroturfing.”

What is astroturfing?

It’s a PR tool most commonly employed by the lazy, unskilled, and unconnected. It’s also an underhanded and unethical practice.

According to Wikipedia: “In American politics and advertising, the term astroturfing describes formal public relations projects which deliberately seek to engineer the impression of spontaneous, grassroots behavior. The goal is the appearance of independent public reaction to a politician, political group, product, service, event, or similar entities by centrally orchestrating the behavior of many diverse and geographically distributed individuals.”

The basic idea is to manufacture the appearance that a grassroots movement is taking shape. Some resort to paying troops to generate propaganda. Even more disgraceful, some simply invent these troops or enlist them without asking permission.

Bonner & Associates is not the firm to resort to astroturfing, just the latest to learn the key lesson of this tacit: In an effort to gain ground, astroturfing can result in considerable and devastating loss. In this case, some have lost jobs (the “bad” employee), others have lost their cools (the many “outraged” participants), and a bold few have lost their shirts (the Action Factory team).

Most concerning of all, however, is the loss of credibility that astroturfing inflicts on the entire PR industry — especially when most communications professionals conduct their outreach, grassroots organizing, and coalition building activities with integrity.

As the count of forged letters grows and news about this astroturfing incident continues, Bonner & Associates is not the only firm affected. Ethical communications shops and legitimate grassroots advocacy organizations also suffer.

Winning public relations fight is no easy task, but adhering to the rules of battle is a critical professional responsibility. Astroturfing undermines both the valuable work of the public relations industry and the most vital tenants of our democracy — open and honest pubic debate.

In launching his investigation, Chairman Markey stated,  “Democratic debate has been deceptively debased by fake facts and harsh rhetoric. We must return to an honest discussion of the issues, and ensure that this sort of campaign does not further poison the well of trustworthy debate.”

Let’s hope his words –  not the threat of his investigations — can inspire an end to astroturfing.

This post has been edited.

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The answer is no. And the reason is clear: Twitter doesn’t need a lobbyist!

Twitter continues to be the hottest thing on the social web.  However, let’s not forget that the company is not making any money.  The resources necessary for representation would be better served elsewhere.  For instance, hiring more developers to strengthen the quality of service (think FAIL WHALE) or growing the treasury for more acquisitions (think Summize) to make Twitter more valuable as a service are better investments for the company.

Twitter also has something that many companies (many of which have huge arsenals of lobbyists) are trying to build now — an active community!  Twitter founders Evan Williams (1,129,147 followers), Biz Stone (964,023 followers), and Jack Dorsey (927,253 followers) could easily start a movement in response to a misguided attempt by a lawmaker to cripple the popular social networking website.  On a related note, @Ev, @biz, @Jack already have relationships with lawmakers on twitter.  They already engage in direct conversations with key policymakers without spending a dime at a fundraiser.  Not to mention the attention Ashton “Mr. Twitter” Kutcher (2,858,856 followers) would draw to the legislation.  He is already using his Twitter fame to mobilize around causes.  Let us not forget his talent for publicity – his achievement of 1,000,000 followers before Larry King did and his appearance on Oprah was all over the news!

Companies such as Twitter are changing the world, and the Internet is changing the way business is done in Washington.  Twitter allows us to connect directly with Congress and to build connections with people around the world among common interests.  This is good for our democracy.

Twitter will need to play the traditional Washington game at some point in the future.  It is a fact of life.  However, they can play it differently.  Once again, they have millions of users who can carry (tweet) their messages to Congress.  Ashton will lead their battle and not the lobbyists.

Follow me on Twitter – @mobilediner

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Today, this system – which so many Americans rely on to protect their health and prevent disease – is costly and dysfunctional, providing myriad reasons for concern and rally points for change.

To name a few:
•    Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are the result of medical expenses.
•    Approximately 1.5 million families lost their homes last year due to medical bills.
•    Health care now accounts for $1 in every $6 spent in the United States.
•    As President Obama has pointed out, “The biggest threat to our nation’s balance sheet is the skyrocketing price of health care.”

Despite such bleak statistics, there is good news.

America’s health care crisis is driving innovation and creative thinking. It’s also fostering exciting collaboration between the medical and wireless industries.

Those concerned about rising health care costs and reduced access to quality, affordable care aren’t simply relying on policymakers to tackle these problems. They’re proactively seeking solutions.

This was clear last Wednesday, as dozens of leaders in the medical and wireless technology industries attended CTIA’s “mHealth Solutions and Policy Forum” on Capitol Hill to discuss the latest innovations mobile health.

Dr. Eric Topol, Chief Medical Officer of the West Wireless Foundation, delivered an enthusiastic presentation, highlighting the convergence that’s taking place between medicine and wireless technology. This collaboration has the potential to revolutionize health care delivery, improve millions of lives, and save millions more in tax-payers dollars.

Dr. Topol pointed out that, while many advances have been made over the last few years, the field of wireless health is in its infancy. This burgeoning field includes telemedicine, telehealth, e-health, mHealth, and mobile health. Its players range from small start-up ventures, to Fortune 500 companies, to global health organizations, to leading universities and major foundations, as well as the federal government.

Wireless health includes a broad range of solutions that enable physicians and caregivers to prevent, diagnose, and monitor health conditions in a cost-efficient way.  It can also improve treatment management and communication and help pinpoint when intervention is necessary.

How will the future of wireless health look? Imagine patients wearing small sensors that transmit health and activity information to physicians, caregivers, and fitness coaches. Imagine patients taking ingestible pills with tiny sensors that let doctors determine if they are receiving the proper dosage of medication and monitor their caloric intake. Imagine patients wearing “smart Band-Aids” that allow doctors to remotely monitor vital signs such as heart and respiratory rate, blood pressure and temperature, as well as weight, glucose level, and oxygen saturation.

These are just a few of the innovations that already exist and will continue to improve. Without question, wireless health experiments will lead to more treatments we’ve never before seen or imagined — and we must support and accelerate this work.  Such breakthroughs have the potential to change the world for patients and physicians and, let’s hope, help to make our nation’s ailing health care system well.

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Don’t ge me wrong.  I love the marketing (you got my attention) and the demographic (non-smartphone users) that each company is targeting.  However, you’ve blown it!

What is respekt?

Where are the nearest stores?

Do you really think the consumer is going to remember the website to visit?  Once again, you are not targeting the smartphone community that would be predisposed to check out your website (via mobile).

These are great examples of missed mobile marketing opportunities and leveraging the power of short codes.

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The result is a growing recognition and understanding that, through the internet, a transformational shift in the marketers capacity to reach smaller and smaller audiences is occurring.  Whether the product being marketed is a consumable good or an idea, our ability to reach down to the micro level for targeting is changing what is said about it into a more and more personalized approach.  Increasingly, I believe that those who understand that and can craft those messages effectively will drive the larger communications program of organizations, corporations and campaigns.

On TV and radio, while we may have a target audience, our desire to avoid alienating anyone else that might be listening, leads to a lowest common denominator in the message.  With a greater capacity to reach a micro audience, the value is already shifting from the quantity of the contact to the quality of the contact.

This reality requires that everything we know about advertising changes.  Instead of marketing the end – which is the product – we need to market the community itself that will then support the product. 

The shift has to begin with the research that goes into campaign development to test messages with consumers, activists, voters, etc…  Right now, campaigns and products go to market researchers who test messages and products, and the creative as well as the delivery mechanisms are designed around those results.  In all of this, the people who make the TV ads get to drive the bus because that is where the bulk of the marketing dollars are allocated.  However, as the ROI on online advertising grows and grows, the web ad buyer will increasingly command more attention.  In addition, as web ads become more effective they will create a known constituency for a product which can then have a reciprocal affect on product development and use.  All of this will drive the process accordingly.

The technologies around this are already converging but the message makers and the strategists seem behind the curve everywhere but in politics.  Whether you are selling an idea or a product, getting people to engage while they are watching the ad is the gold ring which stems from a more personalized message. This is exactly what the web offers.  And so with a greater capacity to do that, we can literally create online communities around products, ideas, and organizations in a more effective way then has ever been done before.

David Nassar is a VP for Strategy with Blue State Digital and lives in Washington DC.  These views are his own and do not represent the views of Blue State Digital.

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Mr. Lazaridis started the conversation by reminding us that it was the 10 year anniversary of BlackBerry in coming to America.  Since its debut a decade ago, RIM has come along way attaining the status of #1 smartphone in the States (in terms of market penetration).  If the presentation was any indication, they have no intent of losing that position and their popularity with consumers.

U2 360 TOUR

flickr photo credit mikeybain

Bono and the Edge also chimed in (via video) with a little love for BlackBerry after some of the opening remarks.  For diners that were not aware, BlackBerry is sponsoring the new U2 360 tour and Bono remarked that he looked forward to having a closer relationship with artists and fans via wireless.  U2 in the last tour utilized SMS well.  Specifically, they asked fans to text “ONE” (your name would appear on the jumbotron) and you would get connected with Bono’s charity efforts.  In any case, I’m looking forward to seeing them take the interactive up a notch.

After the guitar serenade from the Edge, Mr. Lazaridis discussed BlackBerry’s efforts as a media gateway and discussed the various music services for consumers to choose (Slacker, Shazam, Pandora, and ClearChannel iHeart Radio).

APPETITE FOR APP WORLD

Everyone I spoke with was waiting to get some 411 on BlackBerry’s response to iPhone’s App Store and Android’s marketplace.  I haven’t had the opportunity to download it yet.  However, the responses that I have seen from other tech bloggers seems to be positive.

Mr. Lazaridis highlighted PrimeTime 2 Go (BlackBerry TV), the growth of social applications by users (10 million downloads of FaceBook and MySpace), as well as the livestrong application for BlackBerry.

Stay tuned for more from the show…

dish disclosure – BlackBerry is a client of Tin Can Communications®

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A smorgasbord of answers to that question:

(1)  Mobile Future Coalition

As some of you know, the Mobile Future Coalition launched last year to raise awareness about all of the innovations occurring in the wireless industry (much of it in the mobile-social space) and to advocate for a regulatory environment that does not look like the legacy wireline one.  In any case, we are doing more blogging and engaging consumers in other forums too (follow mobilefuture on twitter).  After a year of planting seeds, we intend to be more proactive in a number of conferences and in Washington.

(2)  Tin Can Communications®

More companies (post-election) are now interested in blending and augmenting their traditional communications with new media (especially in the tech community).  There has also been an increasing interest in integrating a mobile component to their communication efforts.  Putting our clients first is our first priority – so the food may get stale on occasion (my apologies in advance).

(3)  Folks want snacks not meals these days

One of the reasons for Twitter’s growth is “snack size” content.  Folks do not have time to read or write a bunch of long blog posts (nor do they want to).  How many times have you actually had the time to read all the articles in your RSS reader?  Or when was the last time you checked your RSS reader?

Not only do people want their content in small portions, but they want it from trusted sources – people they know.  That’s why people are flocking to Twitter and Facebook to find out what their friends are watching, reading, and doing.

On that note, much of the posts on twitter are now links to other content.  Accordingly, as a part of the Amplify team, we are creating a solution called “Clogging” that makes it easier for friends, colleagues, consumers, and students to share and discuss what they are reading on the web.  In this information revolution, I can’t think of a more socially productive tool for an organization.  Thus, I’ve been spending more time clogging not blogging (I promise to have more on this in a future post)…

I think I just killed it for everyone with this long post!

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Getting Mobile Right

Whether your campaign objectives are direct response or branding, there are a few important considerations to keep in mind when testing the mobile waters.

1.  Think Beyond The Click

Here’s the scenario, I’m browsing the mobile web and I see an ad for a brand I’m interested in, so I click the banner.  This brings me to a landing page with some brief copy about how wonderful the product is.  Done.  Seriously?  That’s it?  Tell me where to buy, tell me more, show me pictures, let me sign up for coupons or alerts on availability, engage me with a video and sign up for the next installment in this funny series, make it really cool and I’ll send it to a friend.  Maybe even paste it on my Facebook page so all my friends can check it out.

2.  Offer Mobile Content

Give me contact snacks that are relevant to me when I’m on the go and make it easy for me to share with my friends.  Get your spokesperson to record a ringtone or voice-mail message.  Give me a useful tool that is relevant to your product but helps me when I’m mobile like finding the cheapest gas, get a tip calculator, calorie counter, etc.

3.  Don’t Make It A Secret

Have a mobile presence or campaign?  Awesome, tell me about it.  Redirect traffic from mobile devices to a site optimized for mobile consumption with relevant content.  Make sure I know about it when I visit your website.  Let me sign up for coupons via SMS so I don’t have to remember to print something and bring it to the store.  Send me an alert when you have a special offer or something new.  Include your short code in your advertising (and keep it up long enough for me to write it down…remember the early days of the web before search was what it was today?).  Provide a mobile response channel for ALL your out-of-home advertising.

What are YOUR favorite mobile marketing campaigns?

What brands would YOU like to see on your mobile?

Please share your hits and misses!

About the Author – Tamara Gruber is Vice President of Marketing at Crisp Wireless.  She can be reached via email tamara.gruber@crispwireless.com and you can follow her on twitter.

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Putting Mobile in the Marketing and Advertising Mix

Amist the doom and gloom over print and online advertising revenue predictions, there have been some highlights and positive outlooks for mobile advertising.  So if we accept that investment in mobile marketing and advertising will continue to grow in 2009, albeit not necessarily at the level some of us would like, there still remains the debate whether mobile is better suited for branding or direct response marketing campaigns.

Mobile Advertising: Branding or Direct Response?

My answer is both.  The mobile medium is well-suited, with its ubiquity, always-on nature, and relatively uncluttered landscape, to increase your brand recognition.  Mobile advertising has proven to aid in brand awareness and intent to buy.

As appropriate as mobile may be for branding, mobile also inherently offers a direct response given its connected nature.  Whether its click-to-call, click-to-locate, click-to-buy, click-to-video, or click/text-to-subscribe, consumers have multiple avenues of responding to and interacting with your brand.  Recent direct marketing campaigns offering mobile coupons, sweepstakes entries, invitations to VIP clubs, and alerts have generated phenomenal response rates for the likes of Ed Hardy, Little Ceasars, Church’s Chicken, and more.  In fact, research has shown that mobile advertising and mobile SMS campaigns outperform online response rates.

Mobile Marketing Hits and Misses

While so many companies are having success in mobile, you still see very few that integrate mobile into their overall marketing campaigns.  Look at the recent Super Bowl.  It may be the biggest sporting event of the year, but it is also the biggest advertising event with more and more “fans” watching “for the commercials.”  Yet only Monster.com and cars.com integrated mobile in a big way.  Monster.com was a direct response ad, looking for a “Director of Fandemonium,” while cars.com’s “David Abernathy” was a branding ad promoting the use of their mobile website.  Kim Dushinski over at Mobile Marketing Profits did a nice video commentary about the Super Bowl Ads.

Another example was the post-Thanksgiving “Mobile Tuesday” event geared to drive foot-traffic to retailers and restaurants, as well as generate mobile marketing lists for advertisers.  The companies that participated in this campaign did nothing to cross-promote on their websites or marketing campaigns (read more on my blog post at Crisp Voices).

Second Course on the way…

About the Author – Tamara Gruber is Vice President of Marketing at Crisp Wireless.  Please feel free to share your hits and misses with her.  You can drop her a line at tamara.gruber@crispwireless.com or follow her on twitter.

Disclaimer – Crisp Wireless built the cars.com mobile website.

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Lou Lehrman kicked off the conversation with a dish on the rise of mobile technology and its potential for mobile marketing and whether or not self-regulation in that area will be enough to satisfy the concerns of privacy advocates.  Once again, thank you Lou and we look forward to future dishes…

The next Guest Chef in the diner is Tamara Gruber.  Tamara will cover mobile advertising and whether it is more suited for branding or direct response.  She also will walk us through the appropriate thought process when considering a mobile campaign and how to make sure it hits the mark.

Tamara is currently Vice President of Marketing at Crisp Wireless.  She knows her stuff and I’m really excited about her joining us in the kitchen this week!

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It should come then as no surprise that privacy advocates would soon train their sights on the wireless market and the mobile advertisers.  Recently, the Center for Digital Democracy (CDD) and the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) filed petitions with the FTC, urging regulators to investigate mobile advertisers and even consider new rules to protect the privacy of wireless consumers.  The petition cites a raft of new innovative tools – including location-based targeting, user tracking analytics and data mining – now employed by mobile advertisers as threats to consumer privacy.  Mobile Marketers like Admob, Bango, and Marchex, argues CDD and PIRG, collect information from mobile users without sufficient notice. 

The marketing and advertising industry have wasted no time in heading off these calls for strong privacy rules and enforcement by promising to adopt and update a new set of self-regulatory principles for online behavioral advertising.  The American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Association of National Advertisers, the Direct Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, among others, have been quick to point out that there are already effective opt-in and opt-out alternatives for mobile consumers who do not wish to be bothered on their cell phones.  Unsolicited or inappropriate mobile marketing messages, promises the Mobile Marketing Association, will be reported to the Mobile Marketing Association which will in turn recommend remedial action for the alleged offender.

As does technology and innovation, the politics of Washington is undergoing ineluctable change.  By the looks of things self regulatory solutions and personal profiling may no longer be in political favor these days.  And so we will see, yet again, whether the debate over this newest incarnation of mobile advertising might yield more privacy regulation or instead rely on industry best practices and the free market to determine the best outcome for wireless consumers’ welfare.

About the Author – Lou Lehrman is a Vice President at Dutko Worldwide in Washington DC.  If you would like to contact Lou, he can be reached via email at: lou.lehrman(at)dutkoworldwide.com

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I believe we have made a small impact during that time.  Many carriers are now actively utilizing digital tools to listen and augment their customer service departments.  I hope this trend continues.

On a related note, another goal in the diner was for other folks in the wireless space to cook up some dishes.  I have been honored and privileged to work with some very talented people and I have started to ask them to contribute content here.

The first Guest Chef will be Lou Lehrman, a Vice President at Dutko Worldwide.

Lou was a policy counsel to me when I was at AT&T Wireless and I learned a great deal from him.  Lou is tech savvy and really has a handle on all matters pertaining to privacy.  Accordingly, I asked him to give us a taste of what’s cooking in the mobile marketing / privacy arena.

Stay tuned!

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