Mutually Inclusive PR

Bottoms Up! Finally, Truth in (hic) Advertising

Anyone who's been to more than a couple of conferences can tell you the most valuable sessions are in the hallway, or in the bar, chatting and arguing with other participants.

Yet most conference promotions maintain the myth that the keynote speakers and the panel discussions are the reason to pay vast sums of money to attend.

So it was refreshing to read a recent blurb that came across my Inbox from the Momentum Growth Conference, coming up in September. The exclusive conference is for the best of the best of media companies and hot technology firms, venture capitalists and tech journalists.

Conference organizers offer to arrange intimate get-togethers among potential corporate partners. And then there's the promise of lots of alcohol:

"During the two-day conference, we will explore the exploding digital convergence ecosystem from a bottoms-up and top-down perspective as the Momentum companies and market leaders such as Yahoo!, Google, AOL, MSN, News Corporation, Qualcomm, Nokia and others discuss and debate issues such as copyrights, advertising, emerging business models, and the importance of picking the right partners."

Bottoms up:  interjection.  Friendly remark said before starting to drink alcoholic beverages.

Bottom-up:  adjective.  Of an approach to a problem that begins with details and works up to the highest conceptual level.

Now that's my kind of conference!

(Definitions from Word Web Online Dictionary and Thesarurus.)

Tags: tech, momentum growth conference, conferences, humor, bloopers, media

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Tom Murphy - Unsubscribed

I never thought I'd go a week wihout reading Tom Murphy's blog PR Opinions, but something he posted there today made me immediately unsubscribe.

About five seconds later, I subscribed to his new blog Murphy's Law, on which he promises to add some non-PR content (now that he's no longer one of only a handful of PR bloggers holding down the fort).

Tags: blogs, prblogs, tommurphy

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PR Briefs - News Items August 27, 2006

• Word of Mouth Is not Created, Word of Mouth Is Co-created - An independent film director asks Gaping Void's Hugh MacLeod how to generate buzz for the film. He offers six seps to make bloggers smarter advocates for the film.
• Social Media Optimization - Todd Deffren notes that many companies still don't have the basics of Web 1.0 right, but that doesn't have to stop them from using Web 2.0 tools as a way to kickstart their web presence into high gear.
• Photoshop, It’s not about You. It’s about Me - Rob Cottingham discovers Snipshot, a web-based photo tool that lets you pull images from webites and edit them.
• Wanna Be Respected by Executives? Talk Less and Listen More - John Wagner suggests active listening, rather than showing off about what you know, as the best way to deal with clients and/or executives.
• How to Get People Talking about your Product - Software developer Eric Sink talks about how designing products that are perfect for a target group is a prerequisite to word of mouth marketing. Link via Scoble.
• Why Picasa Images Are Indexed Higher in Google Image Search than Flickr - Thomas Hawk takes a look at how the search engines look for images, and why photos on some sites show up better than the same photos on other sites.
• River's Edge - Doc Searls stands up for the River of News idea, that involves making the web readable via portable devices, like cellphones.
• Imagining a CBC-Free Canada - Darren Barefoot attempts to get some discussion going about what Canada would be like without the CBC, and runs into polarized silence. The web doesn't encourage real debate, he says.
• Invasive Radio Advertising on Its Way. Bring It - Tod Maffin suggests that one-to-one advertising isn't that far away on satellite radio.
• Could Industry Analysts Survive Total Transparency? - Todd Deffren would like to see someone push back against the analysts, who weild a lot of power without necessarily earning their credibility.
  
  Tags: marketing, film, word of mouth, social media, web2.0, photoshop, mobile, cbc, debate, blogs

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Should You Leak Stories to Media, A-List Bloggers, or the Little Guys?

At the end of Scoble Week, I point to yet another post from one of my favourite tech bloggers.

Having gained a lot of digital ink by leaking his departure from Microsoft to a bunch of bloggers, Robert Scoble questions the value of holding out the juiciest stories for the top journalists covering your market.  The buzz can build steam if it starts small, he argues.

And, for some announcements, he's right.

(Graphic by Hugh MacLeod.)

There are times when having a slow build ("slow" in blogging circles tends to be pretty fast) works to your advantage when you're trying to get a story out. The pick-up of your story by a cadre of mid-level bloggers can have the effect of lifting your announcement to the attention of other bloggers and media.

But, having seeded the blogosphere with rumours about your big announcement, don't expect the journalists to automatically run with the story. If they perceive that you've left them out of the loop, they may do the passive aggressive thing, and let your story sink to the middle or the bottom of their editorial line-up.  After all, it will be yesterday's news by the time they get the story out.

There's no one magic solution to media relations (or blogger relations).  It's all about working your relationships, maintaining your integrity, and falling over backwards to help everyone cover your story when and if the story makes a big splash.

Update:  Embracing New Media - Chris Thilk talks about the frustration bloggers feel when a company they cover won't talk to them.

Tags: robertscoble, technology, journalism, media, buzz, leaks, blogs

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Without Inherent Excitement, Word of Mouth would Fizzle

When's the last time someone broke into the conversation because they couldn't wait to tell you about a nondescript product or service that met some of their needs in a generic sort of way?

Unless your friends are broke and have found something free that would normally cost hundreds of dollars, it's not likely.  People may be pleased when they find something that sort of meets their needs, but they don't get excited about it.

And excitement lies at the heart of generating word of mouth.

Software developer Eric Sink has an entertaining and enlightening piece about the need to narrow the focus of your product design so that it perfectly meets the needs of a group of people. Then you have potential for generating buzz, if buzz doesn't just bubble up by itself.

Designing something that sort of meets the needs of a huge group of people? Don't even think about word of mouth. And why are you even doing it in the first place?

Since I found the link to Eric's piece on Robert Scoble's blog, I'm officially declaring this Scoble Week on Mutually Inclusive PR.  Next week I promise to look further afield for topics...

Update:  I fixed the headline, which said "fizz' instead of "fizzle."

Tags: robertscoble, buzz, word of mouth, wom, promotion, excitement

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Design Flaw as Brand Experience

The first time I started our Xbox I couldn't believe the incredibly noisy start-up sound that emanated from the TV speakers.

Obviously, the design team never tried to catch a quick video game at 2 a.m., while everyone else is asleep.

It's designed to draw attention to the fact that you're about to play games instead of:

• > sleeping
• > doing chores
• > working, or
• > monitoring the reactor core.

Thanks, Microsoft, for such an annoying experience that I will always associate with your product.

Now, the company is planning to hard-code a start-up sound into the long-delayed Windows Vista operating system. Now even the geeks won't be able to disable that Windows trill, as they boot their laptops during a conference, meeting, phone call, symphony recoding session, or whatever.

On Scoble's blog, the decision is described as part of the Vista "brand experience."

Some design decisions are so anti-customer, it's hard to describe the stupidity behind them.

Tags: microsoft, mistakes, sound, branding, stupidity

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Slow News Day: "Blogs Aren't Blogs Unless I Say they Are"

A surefire way to drive a little traffic to a blog is to manufacture an argument out of nowhere, using an outrageous statement to draw attention.

Hence, Robert Scoble, who (co-)wrote a bestseller about corporate blogs fires off a provocative statement saying that only websites meeting five criteria decided by a committee at Microsoft several years ago are really blogs.  Everything else is just pretending to be a blog.

Oh, and the moon is made of blue cheese.  I have the committee minutes to prove it.. ;-)

Tags: robertscoble, controversy, traffic, blogs, argument

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Publicists and Bloggers Talk about their Roles

The fashion/beauty industry bloggers of New York met with publicists yesterday to talk about expectations, roles and schwag.

Pierce Mattie Public Relations hosted the event, probably partly in response to a recent criticism of its blogger relations.

Video of a discussion between Pierce Mattie and blogging network Coutorture Media's Julie Fredrickson is on the Pierce Mattie site. More audio and transcripts are coming.

Said Fredrickson:

"... I think that there’s so much value to what bloggers do. They’re very authentic, very passionate about what products they choose to talk about. And their audiences know that. And having a chance to really interact with publicists so that they can get information about products and then transfer that knowledge and information on to the audiences who are very much the consumers and love products, just as the bloggers, is an incredibly wonderful opportunity. I can’t imagine a more exciting time really for publicists, because the industry is changing, and for bloggers, because now they have a chance to really get all of the information they deserve."

Fashion or beauty bloggers aren't always sure whether to trust publicists, even though they may want help getting product information, photos and other background materials, she said.

Fredrickson says a lot of beauty bloggers get free samples.  Some mention the source, others don't.  Since most mainstream media editors don't disclose the extent to which they receive freebies, Fredrickson believes it's up to the blogger to disclose or not disclose.

Interestingly, she often won't mention a product if she doesn't have something positive to say about it. She says that, if she has a problem with a product, she reports the problem to the company, but not to her readers.  One reason she cites is the different effect a beauty product can have on an individual (looks great on one person, not great on another person).

Fredrickson's blog Almost Girl.

Tags: fashion, beauty, pierce mattie, bloggers, blogs, blog relations, publicists

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Virtual Public Relations Services

Dubious about the need for professional intervention among the 350,000 denizens of Second Life, Darren Barefoot ran a quickie poll of some Second Life forum members, asking them "How do you feel about PR firms in Second Life?"

Results - 25.9% thinks it's a good idea; 74.1% think it sucks.

Okay, now we need an opinion poll on whether people think PR firms should exist in the real world.

The results will be pretty much the same.

Ad agencies? Ditto.  And human resources consultancies, corporate law firms, lobbying companies, consumer research companies, management consultancies, and just about any other professional services operation you can imagine.

Of course, if people realized that HR firms handle outsourcing, support would rank that even lower. 

And collection agencies -- can their popular support even be measured?

A lot of professional services have a pretty good reputation with their clients, but not with the public.  I suspect the people interacting in Second Life would have no interest in a PR firm.  But the businesses trying to shoehorn their way into the Next Big Thing may just want some PR advice. Whether it's money well spent is yet to be seen.

Tags: second life, services, business, agencies, social media

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Another Sask Bloggers Meetup

  Saskboy 2006 
  Originally uploaded by Mutually Inclusive.

Bloggers are getting together Aug. 19 Sept. 23 in Saskatoon.  Check out the details.  There's also talk of making the trek to Kipling the first weekend in September for the big housewarming party planned by Kyle MacDonald of OneRedPaperclip.com fame.

That's Saskboy on the right, from the last bloggers meetup.

More photos:

Tags: saskatchewan, blogs, bloggers, meetup