A Social Media Conversation with Chris Abraham

chrisAbraham Chris Abraham’s a pretty well known guy in DC and blogging circles, and we wanted to get him on the Bin for an interview. Chris not only blogs with a punchy, strong recognized voice (Because the Medium is the Message and Marketing Conversation), but he also gives back to the community by teaching blogging classes. He recently started a new company with Mark Harrison (see this quirky interview in German). The most poignant thing Chris said (paraphrased), “Social media’s hard on big business… Read on for more of Chris’s insights.

BB: Why did you begin the Marketing Conversation blog?

CA: I started the Marketing Conversation blog for two reasons: first, my personal blog, Chris Abraham ? Because the Medium is the Message, http://www.chrisabraham.com, is too general. While it is a rich resource of new media, new marketing, and buzz marketing content, the blog never focused on a single topic.

“Vertical blogs,” blogs that focus on particular topics of expertise, are much better showcases for personal and professional insights and I wanted to use Marketing Conversation as an online resource for new marketing. Second, I wanted to give my staff an open forum for blogging about new marketing, new media, social media, remote working, virtual teams, corporate blogging, web strategy, Internet strategy, and web 2.0.

My only restriction is that staff should avoid discussing our clients or campaigns without their express permission. Otherwise, I am not much of a gatekeeper ? quite the opposite, I tend to shove them through the gate then pay little mind in which direction they wander with their writings. Fortunately, all my people are extraordinarily intelligent, so invariably, great stuff comes out.

Additionally, I have been starting up so many WordPress blogs in the course of my work that I wanted the practice of using an installation of WordPress with all the bells and whistles. So, that’s what I did with Marketing Conversation — turned on all the bells and whistles.

When I finished building the WordPress blog, I shoehorned all of the “old” content from Because the Medium is the Message into Marketing Conversation, then all the content from my company site, Abraham Harrison LLC, http://www.ahllc.eu, and from my personal website, Chris Abraham Online, http://www.cabraham.com, and when I was done, I opened it up to my staff.

BB: How many blogs do you manage?

CA: I only manage two real blogs, Because the Medium is the Message and Marketing Conversation. The Chris Abraham Online and Abraham Harrison LLC websites are more CMS-like, based on Drupal, an Open Source ?LAMP? Content Management System. I love Drupal a lot and think I will be doing a lot more client work with it.

I pretty much exclusively use WordPress and Drupal in my client development. Why? Because they simply work.

BB: Who do you read daily?

CA: Wow. I can?t keep up with my feeds. I try my hardest to keep up with the 1,277 feeds I have on Google Reader, http://reader.google.com. I read them via my Blackberry, my Nokia n800 tablet, and the web. Can?t keep up so what I do now is rely on my social networks, including Twitter, Pownce, Facebook, IM, and email. In many ways, I think these referrals and links are probably more valuable. I also have lots of Google Alerts, http://www.google.com/alerts, set up for me for vanity, staff, relevant topics (new marketing), competitors, and clients. I don?t actually go to any sites. Going to sites, blogs, and newspapers is too inefficient for me; however, I do read the real-live Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and the Financial Times off real-live paper every morning.

BB: Why are there so many businesses now running toward social media?

CA: There are indeed many businesses now running towards social media; however, I don?t think many of them are doing it smartly. I give a lot of credit to the firms and companies who are willing to take the plunge. I am lucky because I made all of my mistakes while working for boutique firms and clients ? when you make mistakes they never get close to the front page of the New York Times.

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Facebook: An East Coast Network

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From LComm client FortiusOne: Facebook’s primarily an east coast thing. Please forgive me for sharing, but I thought it was fascinating to see this statistical analysis. It’s amazing when you look at the map and see where the top ten individual metro network memberships:

1. New York, NY = 273530

2. Chicago, IL = 246759

3. Washington, DC = 210160

4. Boston, MA = 171837

5. Atlanta, GA = 156643

6. Los Angeles, CA = 144718

7. Dallas / Fort Worth, TX = 120602

8. Minneapolis / St. Paul, MN =114404

9. Philadelphia, PA = 112495

10, Detroit, MI = 110704

The fascinating bit of this is how few west coast cities there are on the top ten list – only Los Angeles.

More posted here!

 

Brand Failures and Why We Love To Laugh at Them

Brand Expectations + Brand Perception = Brand Success/Failure

As pointed out by Rich Becker over at Copywrite, Ink. in a case study of Tom Cruise’s fallen brand (The plane crash pic was icing on the cake for this post)… “A brand is the net sum of all positive and negative impressions of the subject,” which, Becker defines as the “Fragile Brand Theory”.

Using Cruise as an example, Becker notes how “the 1995 off-screen Cruise brand came close to mirroring the image of the much-loved character Jerry Maguire (and most characters Cruise portrayed before that). He was a somewhat private but daring actor who, despite being overconfident at times (the classic pride comes before a fall syndrome so many of his characters endure), always managed to better himself and triumph in the face of insurmountable odds.

“That is a very different brand than the post-2005 Cruise brand we see today. Now, most of his impressions seem to suggest an arrogant and impulsive actor who frequently uses his fame to argue controversial topics if not create controversy while promoting beliefs grounded in Scientology. Actor first? We think not.”

Brands from any company, product or service can fall into this realm of ridicule. Miss Cellania from Mental Floss lists her picks for the 5 Cars That Became Metaphors – The Edsel, Corvair, Pinto, DeLorean, and Yugo – all of which have been the butt of many, many jokes.

And we just may see Second Life added to the mix sometime in the near future according to the recent article in Advertising Age – Second Life Losing Lock on Virtual Site Marketing. As the Brand Experience Lab points out, “I do lots of presentations for college students and most of the students I poll barely know what Second Life is, let alone spend much time playing on it.”

Brand failures are easy targets for ridicule because they are generally well-known, which allows us to share in a common experience. In addition, we tend to think of business as emotionless, allowing us to enjoy a guilt-free laugh since there are no feelings to be hurt.

So go ahead, laugh away at some of the brand failures of the past:

  • Crystal Pepsi
  • Smokeless Cigarettes
  • EuroDisney
  • Arthur Andersen
  • Sony Betamax

And any others you want to add to the list.

 

Goodness Gracious, Great Blogs of Fire!

blogoffirelarger.jpgThis week we’re focusing on New Media Nouveaux (NMN) bloggers. Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of the event was interacting with my peers. There’s definitely a sense of companionship, and some of these folks have incredible things to say. In the past, I’ve written-up NMN participants Toby Bloomberg, Aaron Brazell, Alice Marshall (guest blogging on for me on July 30) and Andrea Morris, so this time I’m going to focus on some new faces.

The first NMN blogger I’d like to highlight is Qui Diaz, from Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team. Super impressive, and really has some unique insights into blogging. You can check her out at Evange.LIST. Her write up of the event was really quite funny, “You + social media = passionate entanglement. Rowr!” I’d love to see what Qui could do in a WordPress environment.

One of the more pleasurable contacts there was Ken Yarmosh of Technosight. Ken is irreverent in all the right ways, blogs when he wants to, and doesn’t really care if you come back. Currently, he’s featuring a great write up on whether Virtual Goods are here to stay.

Ken was there for his day job, Viget Labs (which built Squidoo for Seth Godin, as well as numerous pop stars’ web sites). He did a nice write up of NMN on the Viget blog, Four Labs. We’ve got an initiative underway with Viget, which we’ll blog about at a later date.

Pamela Sorensen was also there. This socialite knows how to blog, driving her business consultancy and branding herself as an elite Washington Insider. Read Pamela’s Punch if you ever want to get a feel for what the real DC is like… Networking and social events, of course!

Kim Hart’s a technology writer with the Washington Post, but also one of the better journalist bloggers out there. Check out her stuff on the Post. One thing about the Post’s blogs… They need to allow you to tag your URL when you comment. Otherwise, why bother?

 

The Federal Blogging Revolution Podcast

Last week, FCW’s Trends in Government Technology radio show on Tuesday featured blogging and social media trends in the public sector. Chris Dorobek, myself and David Wyld, the director of the strategic e-commerce/e-government initiative at Southeastern Louisiana University’s Department of Management.

Wyld authored the IBM Center for The Business of Government’s new report, “The Blogging Revolution: Government in the Age of Web 2.0″ [Read the full report here in PDF form]. This important report is worthy of significant attention so we asked IBMer John Kamensky to guest blog (coming soon). In the interim, you can hear the show for yourself here in podcast form.

 

Think Liquid

Now that the book Now Is Gone is completed and speaking engagements have begun, I am often asked what the future of social media will look like. Even though my Mom’s a nationally syndicated astrologer, forecasting the future seems to be dangerous ground. Perhaps science fiction would be the right genre. However, if there was one take-away from Rich Becker’s Thursday post, it was to step outside the box a little and provide more insights. So here we go.

The future of social media will be dictated by the community’s rapid adoption of new media forms. As we know, change occurs dynamically in online communities as new applications develop. And marketers are a twitter, but only because their communities behavior has changed. Relationships must be maintained. Currently, there’s several hot, hot social media networks and technologies, including Facebook, Linked-In (again), Second Life and microblogging formats.

3845-w520Things are going to get even more dramatic as telecoms move to deliver 2GBPs of throughput to consumers in diverse environments. If video’s possible now at 500 Kbps (give or take), what’s going to happen when we can access massive amounts of bandwidth anywhere?

It’s going to be amazing. Second Life and other virtual worlds won’t be clunky, and new social applications will develop. Virtual reality environments will become a serious concern (for those that can tolerate the media form). Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash vision may be realized in full. At the same time other media forms may remain static… and popular. It depends on what the community wants.

However, as “webolution” continues, it will be increasingly important for marketers to avoid getting bedazzled by hot media forms. We’ve seen them come and go. Excite, Prodigy, AOL, Friendster, MySpace (fading, but still relevant) and increasingly Yahoo! are brands of the past. Therefore, professionally we cannot get too focused on specific technologies. Why? Because they will evolve, change and in some cases disappear. Instead, marketers need liquid fluidity in their thought processes and approaches.

Thinking Liquid in a Dynamic Environment

Social media continues it’s march forward (Kyle Flaherty had a great piece on social media evolution last week). As this process continues to unfold and communities evolve, their information needs and consumption of media will evolve, too. To remain relevant, marketers will be forced into a constant adaptation process. They will need to be liquid, moving with their community.

Change will continue, and it will likely maintain its current brisk pace, if it doesn’t move even faster. So blogging may go micro, podcasts may change form, video may go 3D, social networks may rise and fall, RSS subscriptions will become more or less important…

With increasingly diverse and changing marketing environments, successful marketers will focus on social media principles rather than tactics. In turn, those who cannot or won’t change risk irrelevance. Basic social media principles can serve as guidance no matter the environment. By relying on principles and thinking liquid in tactics/approach to meet the media form, marketers can best serve their communities of interest over time.

Basic Social Media Marketing Principles

These principles have been well discussed on this and other blogs. Nevertheless, collectively they are the basic rules for successful social media marketing and PR. Comments and additions are welcome. Here we go:

  1. Do not try to control the message
  2. Honesty, ethics and transparencies are musts
  3. Participation within the community is marketing (Heuer)
  4. Communication to audiences is an out-dated 20th century concept (Rosen) Marketers must take a community approach to social media
  5. Use social media to build value for the community
  6. Inspire your community with real, exciting information, not corporate propaganda
  7. Intelligently manage your media forms (RSS, frequency, etc.) to build a stronger, loyal community

If marketers and PR line managers approach social media change in this fashion, I believe they will be able to evolve with ebb and flow of webolution. However, if we get stuck on a certain social media form or a way of doing things, change will likely be a tumultuous experience.

P.S. Yes, I know BEA’s current ad slogan is Think Liquid. Similar concept, different market and application. In that sense, it was meant to break IT silos and leverage APIs. In the marketing sense, Think Liquid means remain flexible to embrace the constant change cycle of social media.

P.S.S. “Military tactics are like water. As water shapes its flow according to the ground, an army wins by relating to the enemy it faces and adapts to the conditions of the environment and modify his tactics according to the enemy’s situation.” – Sun Tzu

 

New Media Nouveaux Conference Exceeds Expectations

The New Media Nouveaux Conference has been a magnificent catalyst for conversation.nmn-toby-bloomberg-and-geoff-livingston.jpgGeoff Livingston gave an insightful introduction to new media – citing case studies from his upcoming book, Now Is Gone.He started by mentioning the impact that social media has on today’s society.

Being in the Northern Virginia area, the audience is intimately aware of the change that viral video had on the fall Senatorial campaign. George Allen was literally the front runner for the US presidential seat – however, after the “Macacaâ€? disaster, his career is over, the Virginia senatorial race was radically changed (I know I changed my vote because of the incident), and ultimately the shift of power in Congress changed from Republican to Democrat. So yes, this stuff matters.

The main focus of Geoff’s talk was how pervasive social media is on our society and how it enforces a culture of transparency and honesty. It is an opportunity to engage your “community� (Geoff doesn’t believe in the word “audience� because it gives the perception of a one sided conversation), get immediate feedback and implement innovative business strategies immediately.

He referenced GM as the first fortune 500 blog and how the CEO responds in video format to comments posted on the blog.

Southwest airlines also demonstrates how the comments of a corporate blog can change the course of a business plan. After Southwest posted a blog about how they were planning on changing their strategy and move to assigned seating, they received over 700 comments against this change. Southwest listened to their consumers, took them seriously and created more brand loyalty because of their response.

Businesses Who Are Using New Media

new-media-nouveaux-jen-sterling.jpgThe first panel, led by Jen Sterling from Hinge (an award winning professional services branding firm) focused on the business impact of using new media.

Jill Stelfox, CEO and Cofounder of Defywire told the story of how her 13 year old son has had an influence on how her company uses new media. Defywire focuses on software and technology to keep children safe in school crises. After producing several videos on how to keep children safe (ex: how to prepare your kindergardener for their first day of school). The initial marketing strategy was to produce these videos to DVDs and distribute via mail. Instead, at the suggestion of Jill’s son, the videos were put on YouTube and as a result, Defywire has built a strong viral message that has spun new product lines and increased business.

Kim Hart from The Washington Post gave insight on how the traditional media relies on new media. Let it be known – this is straight from the horse’s mouth – the press release is dead. It does not work. Journalists are so busy, they do not have time to read a story with spin. Instead, a quick e-mail (literally a sentence or so long) with a link to a new story is the best new-media-nouveaux-business-panel.jpgway to peak this journalist’s interest. She also gave insight as to how the success of a story may not be a “traditional article on page D4 in the business section.â€? Now that more people are on blogs and the participation level is increasing exponentially, a company may very well have more success with a short blog post that can create viral buzz than they would in print.

Pamela Sorrensen, an active blogger on DC’s social scene showed how you can turn your passion into a profitable platform. Her blog was created after friends requested updates of her intense social life. She constantly attends parties and events, rubbing shoulders with the who’s who in the area. Her blog allows her to share her pithy posts without sending individual e-mails. Now her fans come to her and her readership is such that she can earn money from advertisements.

Strategists – How to Use Social Media

new-media-nouveaux-andrea-morris1.jpgOk, so I wasn’t able to live blog this portion because I was the moderator. The panel consisted of Alice Marshall from Presto Vivace, Qui Diaz from Ogilvy PR, and Jennifer Cortner from EFX Media.

This was an interactive discussion of not only the panel, but the audience (wait – I mean community) as well. We discussed strategies for how to blog, whether or not to use Facebook or Myspace, how the government is using wikis, why del.icio.us is a great tool, how you can use videos and podcasts to promote your business, and the all important question – how to avoid burnout.

new-media-nouveaux-specialists-panel.jpgAt the end of the fast paced discussion, Success in the City founder Cynthia De Lorenzi came up with the brilliant idea of creating a regional networking event digging deeper into each social media initiative. Be sure to check the calendar at successinthecity.org to learn when these events are happening.

What’s coming Next?

So this is the big question – what’s going to happen in the future. Although no one has a crystal ball, New Media Nouveaux featured the next best thing – a panel of experts who have their collective fingers on the pulses of the social media industry.

Sean Gorman from FortiusOne is the innovator of GeoCommons, a Web 2.o tool that allows users to create interactive visual maps.

Here are his definitions of the evolution of the Web:

  • Web 1.o – Read – Brochure like websites with a one-sided point of view
  • Web 2.0 – Read & Write – People can respond to information through comments and links.
  • Web 3.0 – Read, Write & Execute – Driven by massive amounts of data. Most of this data is housed in the government level. Governments are notoriously slow in investing in technology – so this is a large roadblock to overcome. One example is how you can househunt. In web 1.0 you would view pictures online and research crime statistics, schools, and community resources on individual websites. Web 2.0 allows you to blog with individuals who live in communities and get feedback on their lifestyle. In web 3.0, Sean predicts applications that will allow you to enter all of your preferences for a community in one location. Then, the program will go out, automatically aggregate your requests and arrange the data in an intuitive manner.

new-media-nouveaux-futurists-panel.jpgHe referenced the movie Minority Report is an example of where we can look to. For example, if you walk in front of a billboard, it will create a customized campaign based on your past purchase history. Technology will be more than mobile, it will be an integral part of every person’s daily life (even more so than today).

Aaron Brazell is the Director of Technology at B5 Media and his professional blog, Technosailor is highly regarded in the industry. Aaron referenced an experience that demonstrates the influence bloggers have.

A friend ordered a laptop and realized that he made a mistake on which shipping option he chose. HP gave him the run-around and pointed him into walls and dead ends. Aaron took matters into his own hands and wrote a blog post called “HP Gives Consumer Middle Finger“. The post ended up on the front page of Digg, the negative comments from the community flooded in and as a result, Aaron’s friends issues were suddenly resolved.

In Aaron’s opinion, Web 3.0 is “becoming untethered from your computer. Right now I’m tied to a 17″ monitor. With the introduction of the iPhone (although I will never own one) it will force competitors to innovate and create new mobile devices.� He also referenced smart homes, where you can walk into a room, say “it’s cold in here� and the smart network automatically interprets and executes the function of turning up the heat.

Place your bets now – Aaron gave predictions of Sink & Swim companies to watch for.

Companies that will sink:

  • Yahoo! – especially because of their recent corporate challenges (losing their CEO)
  • Myspace – the developers are growing up and becoming more mature. The application is also too widespread with little niche value.
  • Mahalo – A search engine that harnesses the power of humans. Aaron believes this technology is “very 1998″.

Companies that will swim:

  • Facebook – especially since they just opened their application to development – new plugins are going to create an ultrarich content.
  • Concept Share – allows you to put graphic images, videos, etc. that allow you make comments and collaborate. Estimates this company will be acquired by Google.
  • Twitter – While I agree that the concept of “micro-bloggingâ€? is a new wave, I think Pounce will outpace Twitter – especially since Pounce allows you to upload files, links, images, etc.

Brian Williams is the CEO of Viget Labs, a full-service web consulting, design and consulting firm who touts clients like Brittney Spears and Kenny Chesney.

Brian pointed out how younger audiences are less concerned about privacy issues as older generations. As more data is collected on individual users (ex: Amazon.com and their recommendation system) more customization will occur.

One member of the audience (damnit – I mean community – I’ll get it eventually) posed this question – What advantage does the US have in this industry, are we a leader? Brian’s response: “We are a country built around innovation and entrepreneurship. Look at YouTube – this is a new age of kids in their garages and new applications can be built with the collaborative brainpower of few individuals. You’re not limited by resources – people who we have yet to hear from are going to be the superstars.â€?

new-media-nouveaux.jpgLessons Learned

One of the biggest lessons I learned from this conference is how varied social media strategies can be. While a blog may be the best strategy for one company, a viral video initiative may be what works for another. It was also apparent just how new all this new media is. Even the experts are on their toes trying to keep up with the constantly changing technology.

I can’t wait for the next event, which closing keynoter Toby Bloomberg called, “one of the best social media events I’ve attended.�

I’d agree. Cheers to a great event and all the excellent panel experts.

 

Burying Negative News Stories & Posts

This actually came up twice in the past 24 hours at New Media Nouveaux and again online via an internal friend’s post at Pownce. Personally, trying to bury the news or negative posts by following up with a flurry of “good” news , posts or other BS is a mistake. Online brand management doesn’t really work like that.

In the words of my more technical friend Technosailor, “Burying stories ignores the concept of metadata and that info on the net never goes away.” Further, even if you get away with it, the past will eventually catch up with you. Burying news is dirty, and once a community figures out a co/person is dirty, it’s over (think Halliburton).

Instead of burying news, companies and individuals should address issues very publicly and make amends. Online management is about transparency and honesty, including making mistakes and listening to the feedback, and then addressing those mistakes. Then use good news to rebuild trust.

People underestimate the good will people extend to companies or folks who make mistakes, admit them, and clean up their errors in a prompt, discreet fashion. This is a basic tenant of crisis PR (Tylenol, folks).

If companies/people are going to be very active online, they should just operate out of crisis PR principles all of the time instead of trying to control their image so much. Every time a company tries to control the message it blows up in their face. Nikon, Coke, jetBlue, Whole Foods, on and on. Control is a 20th century mass communications theory that’s out-dated. Transparency, participation and sharing valuable information is the 21st century model for PR, social media and marketing.

What do you and friends Eric, Ike, Kevin and Rich think? Going dark for the next 36 hours, so if anyone comments, please bear with the approval cycle.

 

DC Madam Scandal to Get Worse

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FortiusOne’ just posted a heat map displaying the locations of all the “DC Madam” calls in 2001 and 2005 (full disclosure: F1 is a Livingston Communications client). Bloggers who think searchable phone numbers can yield some interesting analysis are correct.

What’s interesting to me — and hopefully to other DC-centric and political bloggers — is the migration of the calls from MD suburbs in 2001 (Democrat-centric) to downtown DC and the Occoquan portion of Prince William County, a republican bastion of power. That tells me that whatever party is in power, there’s an element that’s somewhat naughty. It’s also clear to me that there are many more names that will come out. And it’s inevitable that my hometown and the nation will be shocked.

 

The Pros of Micropitching Reporters

Engage PR had a post this week about using microblogging as a PR pitch tool. My background is in narrative feature writing, so initially micropitching seems kind of foreign to me.

But I to admit – there’s something there. Kyle Flaherty says he’s been using the Twitter model to craft successful story ideas. The 140 character limit forces you to get your point across quickly and succinctly.

The post mentions a Forbes editor discussing his ‘five-line pitch rule,’ and based on that, Engage PR started constructing pitches that were only five lines total, but each line no longer than 140 characters. The pitch becomes roughly less than 200 words.

Copyblogger’s recent post tends to back this up. He points out that on Nov. 19th, 1863, popular orator Edward Everett gave a two-hour speech no one remembers. Following him, President Abraham Lincoln gave a 269-word speech and sat down. It’s now known as the Gettysburg Address, one of the greatest speeches in American history. Copyblogger’s point – omit needless words.

When editing copy that’s easy, but micropitching may be a different story. And it may not work in every situation. Sometimes it’s necessary to use quotes and statistics to back up your point. But top organizations like Newsweek and Forbes are beginning to accept micropitches. And I can see why. It’s easier for the reporter, it’s a quick and dirty they can decide on right then and there.

So on my next pitch – I will micropitch. But first, I’m going to fly fish, hike and horseback ride in Whitefish, Montana. I won’t be posting next week, but I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.