October 27th, 2009

2010 Predictions: Will social media reach ubiquity?

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:19 am

Categories: Blogging Best Practices, Brand Management and Monitoring, Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Enterprise 2.0, Government 2.0, Marketing, Microblogging, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media and Security

Tags: Social Networking, Facebook, Marketing, Network, Twitter Inc., Social Media, Foursquare, Poken Pulse, PR People, Jennifer Leggio

The year 2009 has been a pivotal one in social media. We’ve seen the explosion of a previously misunderstood social network as well as the rampant adoption of social media by major brands. We’ve seen these companies take big chances, some ending in success and others ending with harsh lessons learned. It seems that almost everyone’s brother, sister, mother and grandfather are now on Facebook, and that social media itself is a bubble baby no more. At the same time, it’s important to note that both business users and consumers have barely scratched the surface of opportunity that the tools and strategies around social media can provide.

In order to achieve continued success many things have to happen. Cracks in the echo chamber, widespread communication of proven successes, best practices for return on investment (ROI) are just a few. And as companies embark on their 2010 planning, they are hoping for a glimpse of what is to come.

Rather than create a wish list, I followed Peter Kim’s model and turned to my network to find out what it believes social media will become in 2010. I asked about 40 people to participate and 31 responded with at least a few words on what might happen next year.

The predictions are meant to be thought-provokers more than gospel, and come from a mix of thought leaders, entrepreneurs, and folks who get their hands dirty every day dealing with social media for their companies. Predictions range from general social media to enterprise 2.0, government 2.0, security, public relations and even location-aware social networks. But the over-arching theme of most of the predictions say that 2010 is the year that social media will just be, rather than serving as a shiny new toy.

Without further ado, here are the 2010 social media predictions.

Next: David Armano, Karen Auby, Andrea Baker, Nenshad Bardoliwalla –>

October 20th, 2009

PR + Google Wave: When opportunity meets overkill

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 11:06 am

Categories: Advertising, Branding, Google Wave, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Media, Spam

Tags: Google Inc., Social Media, Jason Perlow, Blogger, Obviously Wave Etiquette, Public Relations, Cyberthreats, Marketing Research, Blogging, Spam

Marketing and public relations professionals are sitting on a bevy of opportunities for outreach: phone, text, email, and, heck, even old-fashioned faxes. Over the last couple of years these professionals have been given cookiespatted on the back for making “good” use of social media and specific social networks to reach their target audiences as well. But when is enough enough? Here are some common offenses:

1. Adding a journalist / blogger on Facebook and entering into a trusted network only to blatantly pitch said journalist / blogger on his or her “wall”
2. Spam @ messaging a journalist / blogger on Twitter multiple times to get them to review / write about your news or technology
3. Commenting on unrelated FriendFeed posts to try and get the writer’s attention

Those are annoying yet pretty controllable by either taking the person out of your network or blocking them. However, my ZDNet colleague Jason Perlow yesterday pointed out a new form of digital marketing spam that’s harder to control — and wickedly invasive: Google Wave spam.

It appears that POM Wonderful, the popular brand of pomegranate juice, was experimenting with Google Wave by adding a group of food bloggers to an unsolicited Wave. Perlow writes:

Well, welcome to the next generation of spam. Commercial, unsolicited Google Waves. As if using and trying to get used to Google Wave was bad enough, the PR agencies and marketing firms of the world have decided to start taking advantage of us, because we’re a captive audience and if they’ve ever contacted us in the past via e-mail on GMail, they now have a full contact database of people to torture by Google Wave if they were able to get an invite onto the system.

But it’s more than just annoying. It’s risky. Perlow points out that since Wave is designed to be collaborative, and people can’t opt out of Waves, by the time you delete an unsolicited Wave the damage is done. “People who have never made acquaintance with each other do not necessarily want to be “Waved in” with other people. There’s no “Blind CC” with Wave. Obviously Wave Etiquette is venturing into the world of the unknown,” he writes.

Is this a time when the PR and marketing industries need to police themselves? I had a colleague once say to me, “If you’re out there, you deserve to be contacted.” However, does that mean that if you have an email address — or a Google Wave account — are you supposed to lie down and just take unsolicited spam and Waves?

“In a perfect world, PR people would have such a great story, tailored so perfectly to the right journalist, that they could deliver it by carrier pigeon and it would still get printed,” said Peter Shankman, founder and CEO of Help A Reporter Out (HARO).  “Sadly, a good number of PR people use technology as a crutch to mask their lack of a good pitch, lack of homework, and lack, in the end, of caring about their craft. And that’s sad. For a lot of PR people, Google Wave is just the next crutch.”

What do you think? Let me know in the TalkBacks.

August 19th, 2009

Public relations fail: A lesson and a rant

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 10:00 am

Categories: Public Relations, Snake Oil, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Social Media, Public Relations, E-mail, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Online Communications, Jennifer Leggio

I try to be supportive of the public relations industry. I spotlight wins. I publicly thank people for their good ideas. I do research reports to help clients, bloggers and agencies better communicate and understand each other. All of that said, I have very little tolerance for basic violations of “PR 101″ best practices. This morning’s violation? I’ll explain in three parts:

1. Mass email
2. Unapproved inclusion on an email list
3. Lack of BCC on said mass email

Who does this? Beth Brody of Brody PR and Michelle Brusyo of Digital Brand Expressions did this today. The dynamic duo created an email list of, I’m guessing, at least 100 social media influencers to promote some social media book. What book? I am not going to tell you because I don’t want to give this book any publicity. But I will say to the author(s): Find new representation.

This PR flop resulted in countless “reply all” emails to the list, and many requests for removal. I heard from a few friends who were subjected to the list that they’d requested removal hours earlier but were still getting spammed. Granted, replying all is a sin in and of itself. I eventually did so only to ask people to shut up and focus their requests to the original sender, which was done in a moment of outrage. Interestingly enough, very few of us read the actual pitch in the email — so if they were trying to annoy us into submission that didn’t work.

I’m sure some people will read this and think, “Why is she blogging about this?” Well, one, I’m annoyed. Hey, at least I am honest. And two, I think there is a lesson here. For those of us who have been good PR people — or are good PR people — it’s seethe-worthy when we see the craft violated in such a way. Many bloggers and journalists believe that PR as an entity sucks but that is not true. There are a lot of amazing PR professionals out there who provide me with a wealth of ideas and support (hint: scroll over for some names). But actions like this make it near impossible for the media to take PR people seriously.

I personally have blocked pitches and emails from the above violators. I am not saying that you should blacklist them. Then again, no apology has yet to be received from either of them in the near four hours that the spam emails have been floating around.

If you’re a PR person reading this, I highly suggest NOT pitching anyone in social media today.

Other takes on the issue from AdAge and SocialMedia.biz.

June 17th, 2009

Building walls between PR, journalists: A worst practice

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 11:32 am

Categories: Marketing, Public Relations, Snake Oil, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media Best Practices

Tags: Journalist, Newsletter, Reporter, Service, Wall, Help A Reporter Out, ProfNet, Source, Public Relations, Corporate Communications

One of the elements I love about social media is the tearing down of walls. I have an incredible network of contacts on multiple social networks to whom I can reach out in mere minutes. Just this morning, even, I put out an inquiry for this very blog post on Twitter and received about 100 emails within an hour. It’s a beautiful thing.

That’s not to say that I don’t need to reach beyond my network at times to find fresh sources. How boring would it be if I consistently quoted or wrote about people only within my network? So I use services like Help A Reporter Out (HARO) and ProfNet when I need a little extra oomph for a story — or even have a fledgling idea and want a sanity check.

Enter my confusion when yesterday, I ran across a new-ish service called Reporter’s Source, which runs off of pretty much the same premise as HARO. Sources subscribe to a newsletter, journalists send in queries, sources respond to queries. Oh, but there is a catch. Respondents don’t get to reach out to the reporter’s directly. They get to submit their responses to the folks at Reporter’s Source who screen and determine which pitches get back to the journalists.

What?

I find this baffling. Why, in the age of breaking down communication barriers, would you think that a service that builds walls is a good idea? As a blogger and a one-time PR person, I don’t want anyone playing god with my content.

One of the things I love about HARO (not so much ProfNet — it’s so daunting), is that I do sometimes get pitches that are left-of-center. I can think of at least three blog posts that have developed from people reaching out with a connected, if not perfect, idea. What’s even better is that if I get pitches that are just ridiculous I forward them over to founder Peter Shankman, who takes action, sometimes even banning PR people from the list for violating HARO’s terms of service. Speaking of Shankman, I asked him his thoughts about the gatekeeper approach.

Next: HARO and Reporter’s Source respond –>

May 22nd, 2009

Nine worst social media fails of 2009... thus far

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:26 am

Categories: Brand Management and Monitoring, Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Customer Loyalty, Marketing, Public Relations, Reputation and Privacy, Snake Oil, Social Business, Social Business Case Studies, Social Media, Social Media Best Practices

Tags: Pizza Hut, Brand, Stunt, Social Media, Twitter, Motrin, Nannerpuss, Jack, Skittles Home Page, Ashton Kutcher

Social media has taken the marketing world by storm. Major agencies and internal divisions are hosting think tank sessions to try and come up with witty ideas to market their products and drive customer loyalty. Some of the ideas they come up with  are great. But others, let’s face it, are serious thuds. Let’s take a look at nine of the worst social media marketing campaigns  so far in 2009 (in no particular order):

House M.D.
When actor Kal Penn decided to leave the popular network dramedy to take a role with the Obama administration, the show needed to find a clever — and quick — way to get rid of the character of Dr. Lawrence Kutner. The show opted to kill him off via suicide and left fans with a lot of questions. What does this have to do with social media? Rather than running from the backlash of offing such a popular character, Fox embraced it by creating an online altar where fans could go leave memorial messages for Kutner. It was their way of trying to maintain viewer loyalty. However, it backfired, with many fans insisting that the altar and flippant social media attempt was insensitive regarding the topic of suicide. Fox has since pulled the altar from its Web site.

Next: Quiznos –>

May 13th, 2009

When the going gets tough, the tough make some noise

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 10:10 am

Categories: Corporate Social Networking, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Social Media, Business, Tiffany Anderson, Communication Program, Media Outlet, Public Relations, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Jennifer Leggio

On Monday, Nicole Jordan and I released the findings of a survey we did of PR agencies. It was the follow-on to a survey I published in February that focused on client satisfaction. The results of both showed significant communication divides between agencies and clients. The other PR issue in the economy? Companies going quiet. The New York Times posted an article back in October in which it showed that smart companies are not cutting their marketing and PR spend in a down economy. My company’s CFO told CFO Magazine that companies should not waste a recession — it’s time to innovate and grow. Yet why are so many going silent to save dollars? I’ve asked Tiffany Anderson of Sterling Communications to share her take from the agency side.

Guest editorial by Tiffany Anderson

It’s tough out there, and most companies are going line by line through marketing and communications programs and services looking to cut anything and everything they can. And it’s not just the companies currently suffering - healthy companies showing profits over the past quarter are doing anticipatory cuts, raising panic and feelings of doom. Worse than that, however, is executives feel that they have cut all the right things and best prepared their companies for the recession. They are wrong.

There’s nothing wrong with running “lean and mean” companies and cutting unnecessary overhead. However, don’t cut the programs and services that are giving you the visibility and brand awareness you need to attract customers and earn revenue. Usually the first line item to go when companies need to cut their expenses is marketing and public relations. After all, executives feel that business can go on and that these programs aren’t a core part of operations. Unfortunately, many executives are removed from these programs and focus on other areas, simply not putting in the needed time to understand these critical functions and how these very activities can help them appear to be heroes to their boards.

Communication programs are the bridge between companies and their customers. Sure, businesses can focus on building a strong sales force, however, sales needs to be armed. They need a communications team to help drive awareness so when they are knocking on doors, there is a sense of familiarity with the company they are pitching. Suddenly ceasing communications and “going dark” may raise eyebrows as to whether a company is still in business or whether it’s on the verge of shutting its doors. There’s never been a more critical time to appear to be thriving. Besides, this is also the time to steal market share from your competitors and there is no better way to do that than through continued brand awareness.

Read more –>

May 11th, 2009

Social PR Survey II: Continued disconnect between clients, agencies

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 8:58 am

Categories: Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media, Social Media Best Practices

Tags: Agency, Social Media, Client, Survey, Advertising & Promotion, Public Relations, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Jennifer Leggio

Back in February I published the results of a social public relations survey that attempted to gauge client satisfaction levels with their current PR agencies. What showed up was dismal - and really showed that client trust in their agencies was low.

Given that data, and several requests, I teamed with Nicole Jordan (read her take on the survey) to issue a follow-on survey to examine the agency side of things and find out what the account folks believe their clients expect. We also tried to determine what sort of training entry level PR people are getting at the start of their careers. Again, this is not a scientific survey. We’re merely trying to jumpstart conversations.

To be frank, we were disappointed. Not so much in the quantity of respondents (though it was lower than the initial survey), but in the types of answers we received. More than 80 percent of PR agency participants believe they received stellar PR training to address business issues of their clients. Almost as many believe their agencies are meeting the needs of their clients in terms of social media programs. As the first survey results indicate, it’s clear that several clients don’t see it this way.

So, we still have a disconnect. However, the upside is that the agencies who did participate in this seem to be willing to close the gap - otherwise they likely would not have participated.

Let’s get into the details:

• 524 total responses
• 386 completed surveys (reported data is based on this number)
• 176 different named PR agencies

Next: The basics –>

May 4th, 2009

PR Survey II Sneak Preview: We still have a disconnect

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 4:28 pm

Categories: Corporate Social Networking, Marketing, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Result, Public Relations, Marketing, Corporate Communications, Jennifer Leggio

The first PR Survey results caused quite the stir in the PR industry. The second set of results are pretty telling, too. Nicole Jordan and I got together a few weeks ago to dig through the answers. We’re pretty disappointed with the amount of information we got, but overall the results were pretty telling: there is still a clear disconnect between clients and agencies.

On Wednesday, May 6, at 9 a.m. PT, Nicole and I will be guests on Al Krueger’s Comet Branding radio show to provide a sneak preview of the results before they are published. We’ll take the gloves off and even provide some comments on the first survey as well.

Will you join us? Get the details here.

May 4th, 2009

Don't be sheep: Follow your peers, not necessarily the 'A-list'

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 11:43 am

Categories: Blogging Best Practices, Branding, Marketing, Personal Branding, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Media Best Practices, Social Media and Security, Social Networks, Twitter

Tags: Security, Social Media, Ryan Naraine, Jennifer Leggio

I was thinking this morning about the two experiences that really sparked my passion for and involvement in social media. It wasn’t following around a bunch of A-listers and going to conference after conference and reading book after book. It was listening to ideas from my peers.

Most of my close friends know that I wince every time I hear the term “A-list.” I’m reacting that way because I fear that a lot of people who are trying to get their feet wet in social media are turning into little rats running after the Pied Piper. Sometimes brainstorming with your cube mate is going to yield you more creative and appropriate ideas fitted to your business better than someone speaking on a high level about social media.

I certainly mean no disrespect to the more popular folks. I am grateful to call some of them close friends. To better explain where I am coming from, let me quickly shed some light on the two people who had the most impact on my growth. Depending on your industry you might not have heard of them, but you should:

Kyle Flaherty: Currently the director of marketing for BreakingPoint Systems, Flaherty was at The Horn Group when I attended a Webinar he was hosting on social media. During the Webinar he recruited a bunch of us to Twitter and I am proud to say he is the first person I followed. To this day, if I could only follow one person, it would be Kyle  (@kyleflaherty). He’s insightful, he’s driven and he understands B2B social media better than anyone I’ve ever met. If it wasn’t for he influence and continue mentorship I wouldn’t know half of what I do today. He is a true innovator and thought leader.

Ryan Naraine: Naraine, a fellow ZDNet blogger, is very well known in the security space but he’s not someone whose considered hot on the radar in social media — yet. I first met Ryan (@ryanaraine) at a security conference in March of 2008, where I was running around trying to recruit every business person and security researcher onto Twitter. I was hell bent on building a security community. He put the idea into my head to build a formal community called the Security Twits and it just exploded. While I don’t manage the community anymore (Zach Lanier does a much better job!) it really helped me get my head around what the security industry needed in terms of social media. Ryan’s big ideas didn’t stop with the Security Twits. He’s one of the brain trusts behind Kaspersky Labs’ Threatpost site, which is now the primary aggregated news source for the industry.

Does success always track back to Twitter? Of course not. Your success can be found anywhere. It could be at SXSW listening to panel upon panel of people who have popularity and success and big ideas. Or it might be the guy you’re having a beer with at a local networking event, who has a vision that you know you can make a reality by working together.

Here are a few suggestions for making some of this happen:

• Don’t only go to networking events when big names are present. Go anyway. Work the room.
• Talk to a few people rather than counting how many cards you get or hand out. Have meaningful conversations. Find folks who have likeminded business interests and ideas.
• Go back to the old-school brown bag sessions at work with your peers. You can even leave the internal ‘A-listers’ (aka executives) out of it. Get ideas from the other people in the trenches like yourself.
• Do not be afraid to take risks. Just because you haven’t seen anyone do it yet doesn’t mean it can’t work. Not all ideas have to be recycled and proven. Granted it’s sometimes harder to get executive support in those cases, but the worst you can hear is no.
• Expand your reading list. I published a blog several months ago that included 10 lesser known bloggers I admire and who help me grow on a daily basis. Create your own list and evaluate who you are really getting your guidance from.

Any other ideas? Please share them in the TalkBacks.

April 24th, 2009

Reasons to reconsider the social media release; tips for getting there

Posted by Jennifer Leggio @ 9:15 am

Categories: Branding, Corporate Social Networking, Public Relations, Social Business, Social Media

Tags: Press Release, Asset, Web, Brand, Social Media, Video, Web Site, Tags, Corporate Communications, Asset Management

* Jennifer Leggio is at RSA Conference

Guest editorial by Serena Ehrlich

Over the last four years, public relations and marketing professionals have been inundated with articles, seminars and products designed to create the perfect “social media release.” But should you really care?

First, let me answer this: What is the social media press release?  It is a press release that includes ALL of the additional elements a reporter or consumer would want to see before they write about your company or buy your product (including multimedia and links to related sites).

Media outlets, bloggers and reporters are wearing multiple hats with less time for research. Of course, if you provide them with the info they need, you automatically increase your chances of being featured. But that’s not really news. And PR people are now having to worry about SEO and site traffic in a way that only marcom people had to worry before. So, here are five reasons why you really should consider using the social media release:

• Free web visibility: If you follow the below plan, every supporting element you include in your release will be placed on free micro search engines that have enough natural “Google juice” to increase your company’s overall natural search engine results (SERPS) helping you develop and grow your company brand and sales online.

• Easy for anyone to access and use your multimedia asset: These asset hosting sites give you the technical codes needed for reporters and consumers to download, link to or embed the element as needed.

• Free measurement: These sites provide measurement including number of views and number of downloads

• The more websites linking to your website, the higher your website appears in Google search results.

• Not time intensive: Once you have all your information together, give yourself about 1-2 hours to set up, 1-2 hours a month to maintain.

So how do you build the social media release that increases your overall brand visibility online?

Read the rest of this entry »