A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a Mastering Blogger Relations session as part of Adfero Group’s Get PR Smart series. I found this workshop to be particularly educational since, as an Account Coordinator at CRT/tanaka, one of my main responsibilities has been blogger outreach. Therefore, I’d like to share some of my takeaways from the event.

As the media landscape changes, we are finding more and more that bloggers are the ones to reach. Seventy-seven percent of internet users read blogs, which offers an exciting opportunity for engagement. Although traditional news media continues to be the most trusted source of information about companies, in the past year, new media (which includes blogs) saw a huge rise in trust, jumping by 75 percent since 2011.  Audiences are now looking to bloggers for targeted and trusted content, which is bolstered by the human voice factor associated with blogs. Additionally, we benefit from the SEO increases and the ability to reach out to a niche, targeted network that we already know has interest in our topic.

So how do we develop this simpatico relationship offering value to the bloggers while creating a high ROI for our clients? We frequently discuss how important researching the right media outlets is, and we all nod knowing that if we had all the time in the world, then we would research each pub for tone, themes, content and correct contacts (while also trying to figure out their pet’s name and favorite color.) But, realistically it usually it comes down to pitching an already created master media list that has maybe 200 somewhat-related-to-the-topic bloggers on it. Is this shotgun method the most effective practice? I’m not so sure.

I think it comes down to a few things. First, we need to educate our clients on the time it takes to successfully conduct blogger outreach and build these relationships, while setting realistic expectations. If our clients have the expectation that five hours should be plenty of time for successfully pitching a story to bloggers, then not only are we stressed to the max trying to meet an impossible goal, but they will almost always be disappointed when we either go over our allotted time or don’t garner the desired amount of coverage.

Second, we could make better use of our time by focusing our efforts on a list of 25-50 contacts that we have researched, built relationships with and know are the best bloggers for our audience. This requires making connections with bloggers before we need them. Tweet at them, comment on their blog, send a complimentary email when you see a post you like (who doesn’t love a compliment?) or even link to them in your online content and social networks. Believe it or not, these bloggers can tell when we attempt to make a generic email look personal by using mail merge to insert their names. (I know, shocker, we thought it was a secret.) It’s like dating; they have to feel like they are in an exclusive relationship (even if the reality is you are playing the blogger field) and there has to be a courting process involved before you pop the question. Similarly, bloggers need to be wooed before we make the big ask for coverage. There are people behind those words on your computer screen and they don’t like feeling used, so make the extra effort to establish those relationships. Then, when you call on them in your hour of need, they are much more likely to lend a helping post.

What best practices have you discovered during your ventures into blogger relations?

Images courtesy of Direct Marketing Observations, The Jonathan Rick Group.

In expressing ourselves to others, there might not be anything more important than words. We created them so we could literally voice our thoughts and feelings to one another. In a world of grammar police, 140-character text boxes and posts that only count if others take notice, it is very easy for us to forget the meaning, value and impact of our words.

As communicators, we are in the public eye. Most of the time it doesn’t immediately seem that way, especially in the digital age. We type out what sounds right or funny or buzz-worthy in the moment. We want to get noticed, and most of the time it is our job to do so. Often, our words come through the mouths of our clients or companies, or only live beside the static profile pictures we choose for ourselves; however, we can not and should not escape the fact that, as communicators, hundreds, if not thousands or millions, see what we write and say every day.

Words can inspire or bring joy. Words can motivate and entice. Words can express ideas that have never seen the light of day. But there is a dark side to words. They can really hurt.

Recently, Ann Coulter posted a tweet referring to President Barack Obama as a “retard.” As Coulter is a well-known conservative who is often in the media and, frankly, offensive in her choice of words and social media updates, that she said such a thing wasn’t necessarily a surprise. That’s a shame.

What was a surprise, and a delight, is the eloquent and uplifting response she received from John Franklin Stephens, a Special Olympics athlete and spokesperson. By now, you have most likely had the pleasure of reading his open letter to Coulter. If not, I’d love for you to do so now. It is a humbling read for us all and a wonderful charge to open our hearts and take a stance against those who cast their words and thoughts idly.

In honor of John Franklin Stephens, let’s take a look at a few times words of discrimination or division have been drowned out or challenged by words of inspiration, encouragement or love:

1. It Gets Better Project – This project was created by Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller in response to the suicides of teens who were bullied because they were gay. Through the project, millions of gay adults have bound together to spread the message of hope to LGBT youth that their lives will get better. For a quick overview, visit their YouTube channel or watch this video. The messages are incredibly uplifting.

2. Secret Deodorant’s Mean Stinks – Mean Stinks is a multi-year project by Secret Deodorant to end girl-to-girl bullying. This year’s spokesperson, Demi Lovato, is asking girls to “Gang Up for Good,” and the movement encourages girls to take the Mean Stinks pinky swear to keep bullying out of their group of friends. This is a great effort for a brand that has face time with girls during one of the most vulnerable periods of their lives.

3. Ashley Judd’s statement on the constant conversation about women’s bodies – Back in April, Ashley Judd used the media buzz over her allegedly “puffy” appearance to call out and take a stand against the constant and insidious assault on body image and the hyper-sexualization of girls and women, among other things. Her intelligent and direct statement packs a punch.

5. Jim Henson Company’s response to Chick-fil-A – When Chick-fil-A’s president took a public stance against gay marriage, the Jim Henson Company severed their partnership with the fast food chain. Not only did they put a stop to the selling of their Creature Shop toys at Chick-fil-A, the company posted a statement to their Facebook page in support of gay marriage and donated the payment they’d received from Chick-fil-A to GLAAD, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.

4.Martin Luther King, Jr. – This man’s contribution to our world, through his words and otherwise, needs no description or introduction. He is a shining example of someone who spoke messages of hope and love in response to hatred. If you ever question whether or not your positive words have a great power to drown out negative ones, re-listen to his I Have a Dream speech and change your perspective.

If you’d like to identify your place as one who crafts words in this world, look to examples like these. So often, under the guise of professionalism, we do not use our words, the power we wield, to stand up to those who use their words to cause others harm.

When my colleague, Jennifer Lucado, alerted me and other co-workers to Stephens’ open letter to Coulter, she said this:  “We spend our days working with words; we understand better than anyone the power they hold.”

As those who work in communication, we have the power she talks about. We have the power to spread ideas and the power to choose whether the ideas we propagate are destructive and hurtful, or kind, loving, and encouraging. Recognize the power of your words and use them with wisdom and the utmost care. Your fellow human beings are counting on it.

Images courtesy of Yahoo!, Special Olympics Virginia, LCSC.edu

By Rebekah Polster (@BekInBklyn)

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there, does it make a sound?

If you make a video for a client, post it on YouTube and it doesn’t go viral, did it ever happen?

Sadly, yes. On the bright side though, you’re not alone. Time after time, a client has said, I want a viral video. Great, I want to finish my novel and win a Pulitzer, but that isn’t happening any time soon.

The Proactive Report posted an article about how to make a video go viral. Listing such elements as having a network of influencers to send the video to, a video that will capture attention, and maintaining that video, or keeping an eye on it so that you can Re-tweet as necessary.  That’s great, and many videos around the world have accomplished that, not necessarily from a brand perspective, but from a personal perspective, capturing an audience that is instantly attracted to the newest, latest video craze (Example: Gangnam Style).

But in my industry of wine and spirits, it’s a little harder to get something out there and have people talk and post about it.

I have searched far and wide, and have not come across a video for a wine brand that has one million hits – they don’t even make it into six-figures. Wine brands have message points (also known as baggage); they are all about education, the background, the history… you get the picture. Even the big names in the wine industry, from Sutter Home to Mondavi to Yellow Tail, have only their commercials to get the word out, and because of U.S. regulations in the ad industry for wine, there’s not much umph.

As for videos though, Gary Vaynerchuk of WineLibraryTV has the most hits if you compare him to a wine brand, and that is mostly about education. But Gary Vaunerchuk isn’t talking on behalf of a specific brand; he’s talking on behalf of himself, a different situation when it comes to going viral.

Furthermore, College Humor posted a mock-commercial wine video, Second Cheapest, which received over 262,000 views. But again, this isn’t a brand, it’s a comedy. More important, it’s poking fun at the wine industry. Did this receive all those hits because of how it portrays what is usually conceived as a stuffy industry?

Spirits and beers, however, have found a happy medium. With both promotional and commercial videos, these brands have managed not to get bogged down with the troubles that the wine industry has, and they have gone outside the box to create excitement and entertainment, all while incorporating their brand story.

One that has gone completely commercial, with little to no brand identity in their viral videos, is Heineken: its videos are geared completely towards its consumers in a fun and entertaining manner, gaining traction to receive over 12.5 million views for a commercial that first appeared three years ago. Although, with Heineken’s recent sponsorship of the upcoming James Bond film, whatever videos it has lined up, those numbers will increase for 2012, most likely into 2013.

Spirit brands, too, have found new ways to make their videos become viral. Take for example Absolut, which has gone the music video route in order to gain traction (see Gangnam Style) by partnering with major musicians like Swedish House Mafia. Of course, Absolut and Heineken are brands with millions of dollars behind them, so to create a video that can become viral is turnkey.

One of the best examples is Johnnie Walker – The Man Who Walked Around the World; with 1.7 million views, it was one of the most successful campaigns that premiered at the beginning of “viral videos” in September 2009. Since then, many companies have tried to copy this format, and include their brands in funny and entertaining ways.

Click here to view the embedded video.

When I first began in public relations, making a video go viral was unheard of. In 2007, I worked on a wine brand and tried to incorporate a video contest on YouTube. It was a complete failure. The idea was there, but the execution was lacking, as my colleagues and I had no clue how to position it; promoting it was obviously not enough.

Things have certainly changed since then. It’s a whole new world for videos – everything is being posted and Tweeted and passed around, only to have the next cool thing happen five minutes later. I hope that wine brands will soon jump on the bandwagon to get the word out about their brands, to have people talk, and to be excited about them, even if it means skipping over some identity issues. And once they do, I’m sure there will be another platform that will become the next big thing, and we will hear the brands say, I want my 4D image to go 5D viral.

It’s not news that newsrooms across the country are increasingly challenged to bring the same level of quality reporting with reduced staff and lower budgets. After spending a few days with journalists from across the country at the Society of Professional Journalists’ Annual Conference and listening to their challenges, it’s apparent that this pressure will likely get worse. Reporters, editors and producers are forced to take on more roles and responsibilities as media outlets take drastic steps to stay solvent. Take the Times-Picayune, for example, which has cut its print publication days to three days a week down from seven.

As PR practitioners, we worry about juggling increasing client demands for traditional media coverage and shrinking media real estate. Fear not; here’s how PR can help fill the gaps, form stronger relationships with media and, potentially, capture more coverage for clients.

Make your story multi-platform

All too often our clients ask us to capture media coverage for a new or existing product or service, a new study, a cause, corporate initiative, new leadership, etc. While these stories sometimes have the legs to stand on their own and capture coverage, oftentimes they do not. With our PR hat on, we begin to think of newsworthy angles and trends. We can piggyback on to help capture media interest and subsequent coverage, which is where our PR needs intersect with current newsroom demands. In a land where newsrooms are increasingly challenged to generate print, broadcast and digital stories, PR can help by pitching multi-platform stories, making them translatable to print, TV, radio, and online, including social media and mobile.

1. The pitch. Do your homework and identify journalists that are likely to cover the story. Write a specific pitch for each contact and include why this story is best told in the medium they represent. Note: many media are partnering to maximize their resources and improve their reporting, such as WLRN and the Miami Herald which are located in the same offices and actively creating fresh content. As a result, many reporters now wear multiple hats, writing stories for print and online, as well as broadcast reporting. Know which journalists wear multiple hats, and pitch detailed angles that they can take and run with.
2. Evaluate the story. Step back and assess the different aspects of the story. Ask questions to identify layers of interest or angles. For example, if it’s a new product you’re pitching, ask how it makes life better, what need it meets, why it is important and how it came about. And, how can this information be conveyed with not just words, but sound-bytes, images and graphics.
3. Carve it out. With these different angles identified, carve out the story. A news outlet will not cover the same story that other outlets have covered. Identify which facet of the story is best told in a certain medium and the assets available to help the story in that given outlet. For example, a story about a new art gallery exhibition makes for great visuals but interviewing the artists about their inspiration for the pieces makes for great radio and podcasting.
4. Go the extra mile. Newsrooms are limited, staff have increasing deadlines and demands. PR can make the process easier by anticipating journalist’s needs and making it easier for them to share messages digitally. Offer to write canned tweets and Facebook posts.

As a PR practitioner we’re often charged with capturing coverage for our clients’ stories. Journalists are looking for great stories to tell. Pitching a story that can be told on multiple platforms is attractive, especially when it meets media needs. It’s a win-win for media and for our clients.

Image courtesy of Public Relations Blogger.

Last week, I represented CRT/tanaka at Ragan’s PR Best Practices Summit at the Newseum in D.C. As can be expected from a Ragan event, the venue, the people and the presentations were excellent. (Thanks, @MarkRaganCEO!) Here are just a handful of the best practices as preached at the 2012 PR Best Practices Summit.

Don’t Even Try to Fake Core Values

The digital age has created an entirely new approach to marketing, dictated by relationships. As explained by Bob Garfield of NPR (@bobosphere), the curtain that had years ago obscured corporate activity from public view has been pulled back, leaving little to the imagination. This concept is what Bob calls the Human Element. No smart (or ethical) organization will attempt to fake core values in the era of utmost transparency.

Think Outside the Box for Blog Engagement

Southwest Airlines has done a stellar job of setting the benchmark for social media success with its award-winning corporate blog, Nuts About Southwest and recent employee blog, SWALife, as well as its Twitter, YouTube and Facebook pages. Over three million-strong, Southwest Airlines’ online community is certainly one aspiring social-savvy brands should try to emulate. Brooks Thomas of Southwest Airlines (@brooksethomas) shared one tactic for increasing engagement that Nuts About Southwest fans go, well, nuts about: SWA Stew. In the style of a “chat stew,” the SWA Stew offers a video round-up of the most popular posts of the week, reminding us that while reading a blog post is great, incorporating an interactive element makes it even greater.

Create a Brand Experience Through Advertising

Michael Litchfield of Doremus (@redwoodtiki) fired up the crowd with his bold and beautiful session title, “Advertising sucks and traditional media is dead.” To back it up, he shared with the group his secret for success in building a lasting and memorable brand experience with your advertising efforts: be any combination of provocative, entertaining, relevant, unexpected and remarkable. As explained by Michael, being provocative means only to provoke thought, entertaining to be funny and remarkable to be “remark-worthy.” This can be expanded to apply to not only advertising, but to any aspect of branding, marketing and public relations. His presentation displayed five out of five of these guidelines, leaving the crowd with a clear sense of the Doremus brand experience.

Stick a Gosh Darn Digit in Your Release Headline

The press release is not dead, according to Sarah Skerik of PR Newswire (@sarahskerik). I tend to agree. (Bring it on, Press Release Haters!) This said, far from the traditional release we once knew, today’s release has changed and evolved when it comes to format, structure, intended audience and shareability, thanks to social media. While it was good to hear what Sarah, the Press Release Guru, had to say about the tool, what may have been the most valuable tidbit from her presentation was all about the numbers. She shared with the group that the releases that find the most success include a number in the headline – not a spelled-out number (four, five, six, etc.), but a digit (4, 5, 6, etc.). This, as could Michael’s teachings, can be applied to blog posts and, I’d be willing to bet, award entries.

Be Live, Local, Personal and Social

Last, but not least, Patrick Stiegman of ESPN.com (@ESPN) set the stage for a successful modern day media platform by sharing ESPN’s strategy for engagement. A leading online media platform, ESPN.com is a great example of how to give consumers what they want, when they want it, where they want it. Offering multiple options for receiving sports news and updates, ESPN strives to be live, local, personal and social – a mantra we should all follow with the power of social media and mobile literally at our fingertips. On a somewhat unrelated note, Patrick also threw out a quite impressive statistic: 85 million Americans use TV and Internet simultaneously every day. Way to be ahead of the curve, ESPN.

There you have it – a quick and dirty list of the best practices preached at the 2012 PR Best Practices Summit. Summit attendees: what did you take away as the best practice from this year’s summit? I’d love to hear your thoughts, so tweet me @nikki_parrotte or shoot me an email at nparrotte@crt-tanaka.com.

Images courtesy of Enso Journey and Futurity.

by Mike Mulvihill

According to an IBM Global CEO study companies that outperform peers are 30 percent more likely to identify openness (characterized by greater use of social media) as a key enabler of collaboration and innovation.

What company wouldn’t want to stimulate collaboration and innovation? So why is the list of the top 20 CEOs on social media full of tech company CEOs but devoid of large company CEOs? Because those tech companies get it (after all, many are social media companies) and most large companies spend more time assessing the risks rather than embracing the benefits of social media.

Whether they like it or not, CEOs are a reflection of their organizations. Yet, CEOs at Fortune 500 companies participate in social media channels far less than the general public, according to a new study sponsored by Domo and CEO.com. The study, the 2012 Fortune 500 Social CEO Index, indicates that CEOs lag far behind the general population (and their employees) on Facebook and Twitter at 7.6 percent and 4 percent,respectively, while 50 percent of the U.S. population uses Facebook and 34 percent uses Twitter. Overall, 70 percent of CEOs have no presence on social networks at all (and that number would be higher if one-in-four CEOs weren’t on LinkedIn).

CEO blogs, a serious tool to engage employees, fare no better. Only six Fortune 500 CEOs contribute to blogs.Among this select group are GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt whose On My Mind blog, widely read by GE’s nearly 300,000 employees, was launched in June 2011 as a channel for dialogue between Immelt and staffers. Andres Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, posts Access Andrew, which is read each week by 30 percent of Dow’s 43,000 employees spread across 60 countries. Sixty-eight percent of employees report they regularly visit the blog and 77 percent say it has enhanced employee communications at Dow. And Bill Marriott, the 80 year-old chairman of Marriott International, has been publishing his Marriott on the Move blog for five years!

So what’s in it for a CEO? A recent BRANDfog survey indicates employees at companies with CEOs who use social media feel they are much better positioned for success. In addition to enhancing the brand, employees believe that social CEOs help the company on most every front including recruiting, trustworthiness and sales. So if a CEO’s job is to maximize company profits and stimulate future growth, then Victoria Barret’s Forbes.com article is right on target: CEOs who are afraid of social media are doing shareholders a massive disservice.  Fortunately, that can be changed.

Unless organizations have a thought leadership platform, their social media and media relations efforts are destined to fall on deaf ears.

Shel Israel’s recent Forbes article explored the topic of thought leadership and got me thinking. While not a new concept, thought leadership is important because it helps define why others should care about what you have to say. Israel defines thought leadership as “someone who looks to the future and sets a course for it that others will follow…[they] look at existing best practices then come up with better practices.”

One important way to create thought leadership is through content marketing or brand journalism, which is basically publishing educational material to help promote your organization and its services. Content marketing has long been a mainstay of B2B public relations, in the forms of developing case studies, bylined articles, white papers, fast-tip videos, webinars, etc., but it’s clear that it has real relevance to the healthcare industry as well. By publishing their own content, hospitals have an opportunity to educate people about health issues, new medical procedures, position their physicians as clinical experts and ultimately, help create preference.

A great example of a health system that promotes thought leadership is Virtua, a health system in Marlton, New Jersey. The system created its own broadcasting network and develops videos that focus on news, health treatments and wellness. By publishing their own news, they’re creating thought leadership while promoting its clinicians. Three weeks after the launch, they attracted more than 5,000 viewers to the network site. These videos were then shared via the health system’s social media networks.

Another classic platform to express thought leadership is through a corporate blog. Blogs can give executives and clinicians a platform to discuss the latest healthcare news, post videos about new procedures and talk to the patients about satisfaction and latest medical advancements. Research even shows that 89 percent of journalists source stories from blogs. However, many hospitals do not have a corporate blog. According to Ed Bennett’s blog, Found in Cache, there are 1,229 hospitals engaged in social media, but only 149 have a corporate blog. This means that hospitals are engaging in social media without the benefit of providing original content that will help position them as healthcare leaders.

Hospitals can engage in content marketing, even if they don’t have a corporate blog or broadcasting network – it’s just more difficult. However, hospitals can still establish thought leadership by strategic use of traditional media stories, bylined articles in trade publications, infographics, webinars, videos, eNewsletters and SlideShare. The key, though, is to drive people back to their website – and their blog – rather than other people’s websites.

With the many business and clinical experts on its staff, hospitals have the opportunity to promote industry leaders from within the organization. By creating a thought leadership platform and leveraging a content marketing strategy, they can give their social media efforts a real boost.

One of the best ways to create thought leadership and develop a national reputation is to develop an external blog. Yet only 149 of the nation’s more than 5,700 registered hospitals have a corporate blog.

This is a big issue because some community hospitals are now interested in building national reputation.

Why? Because the healthcare landscape has changed. Today, hospitals are positioning themselves for mergers and acquisitions, joining accountable care organizations (ACOs) and negotiating rates with health insurers. They suddenly care about what people say about them outside their community.

A corporate blog gives hospitals a voice beyond promoting community events and marketing service lines. It also serves as a platform for hospital executives to talk about healthcare issues, discuss what they’re “doing right” and set them apart from other community hospitals.

Hospital blogs will also help drive more traffic to the hospital’s website and improve their website’s search engine optimization (SEO). The same way that hospitals serve as the economic engines of their communities, blogs can serve as the engine for hospital websites. According to the Periodic Table of SEO Ranking Factors, they do this by providing fresh content that draws people to the site and ultimately, engages them.

With all these positive results, why are hospital marketers afraid?

Blogs are time intensive: Probably the biggest reason hospitals shy from launching external blogs is lack of time. Hospital marketing departments are already short on staff, and maintaining and developing blog content is yet one more job on their to-do list.

They require taking risks: Hospitals are historically risk-averse. Writing a blog and putting news into perspective requires hospital executives to be comfortable taking a stand and possibly saying something that can be seen as controversial.

They require executive buy-in: There is a misconception that a corporate blog needs to written by the hospital’s CEO, like the one written by Paul Levy, the former CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Yet hospital blogs don’t all have to look alike. There are successful hospital blogs that step outside of the box and use photos, videos and bold colors to engage the audience, such as Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Seattle Mama Doc or Boston Children’s Hospital’s Thriving blog.

However, even if hospitals are afraid to make the long-term commitment required to develop their own blog, they can still have a blog strategy. For example, they may develop and place content on major health blogs that already have established audiences, such as Hospital Impact, The Healthcare Blog and KevinMD. This way they’re establishing themselves as thought leaders, without the intense work of maintaining their own blog.

With so few hospitals blogging, there’s a real opportunity for your hospital to be ahead of the curve and establish itself as a thought leader.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

With the New Year well rung in and my resolutions still irresolute at best, I thought I’d focus on ways to improve my mind this year. Full disclosure: I am 7½ months pregnant and quickly entering the waddling phase, so delusions of improving my body have flown straight out the window. Plus, given all the at-home time in my near future, I figure when I’m not rocking, changing or gushing over my new little man, I’ll need some good reads to keep my mind from turning (entirely) to mommy mush.

So, on that note, here are my top five go-to wine blogs for staying tuned-in, learning something new, being inspired as a (pseudo)writer and self-proclaimed wine dork, or perhaps just having a good laugh. After getting Tina Fey’s Bossy Pants as a gift, I feel comedic writing is by far the most admirable, so hopefully there will be more than a few good laughs. Given sleepless nights and mom jeans are a foregone conclusion at this point, I’ll likely need it.

1. Dr. Vino

If you’re into wine, you probably already read this blog and for good reason. Tyler’s writing is smart with a dash of dork, and his content teaches me something new almost every time I tune in. From quirky observations and fun facts to juicy exposés with an equally interesting comments section, I read Dr. Vino more than any other and you should, too. Period.  

2. 1WineDude

Now that this dude has made the scary leap and joined the wine biz full-time (congrats Joe!), we can all look forward to more funny, tell-it-like-it-is blog and vlog posts for the intermediate wine lover. Graduated beyond wine 101? Three pieces of good news for you: everything is more interesting from here, it’s more about enjoyment than dissection (i.e., to really “learn” about this stuff, you have to swallow more than you spit) AND there’s a wine blog just for you. 

3. Dave McIntyre’s WineLine

Since moving from the big city to small-town, Virginia wine country a few years ago, I’ve fallen in love with the local movement, especially #eatlocal and #drinklocal. Dave’s blog has served as a good forum, offering deeper insight into local wine news (and beyond) and new bottles to try. Since I prefer to buy chèvre from a local goat cheese producer, beers from a local brewer and, of course, wine from a local vintner, I appreciate a blog with similar interests.  

4. Terroirist

I got into this blog during last year’s Wine Blogger Conference in my hometown. Simply stated, it is good stuff. I love the format (daily and concise), the weekly winemaker interviews and various contributor voices. And since my free time for reading blogs is limited, as I’m sure is yours, the “Daily Wine News” posts offer a succinct summary of interesting discussions on other wine blogs and news.

5. Drink What You Like

Reasons why I like this blog: 1) Frank is a fellow Virginian and through his writing, openly proud of our local juice. 2) He is one of the few people who seems to travel more than me, but makes the best of it through his love of wine and writing. 3) He drinks and writes what he likes, and I tend to like it, too. 4) He has a newborn at home and still seems to find time to enjoy wine, food and time with his family. This gives me hope for the year to come.

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of Wine Travel Media, 1WineDude and Alex Eben Meyer.

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

For me, blogging evokes two emotions in their purest form…stress and satisfaction. It’s a two-step process.

First, I spend a few hours stressing about what to write for the Booze Bin. It’s not that there’s a lack of ideas, but rather a surplus, plus the uncontrollable urge to make each post brilliant. Clearly, I’m shooting for a James Beard Award every time I hit publish (ah, the sweet scent of sarcasm).

A million ideas swirl through my head, I research all of them until my eyes cross, obsess over the details, and then stress some more. When I’m thoroughly exhausted, because I woke up at 5am to start the process having procrastinated all week, I give in to the demons and start to write.

While the actual writing moves at lightning pace, it’s the stressing, editing and finally, satisfaction that takes up the majority of my time. Let me further explain the satisfaction part of this predictable process. It’s an even assemblage of staring at my completed work, waiting for the confetti, balloons and clowns to arrive once published (still waiting for this actually), and buzzing about it on every possible medium (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.). Retweets are like corndogs at a carnival. Comments make me as giddy as my bullmastiff Vinny discovering peanut butter for the first time. Mentions and write-ups about the post? Well, no simile could do this justice.

Taking part in this weekend’s Wine Bloggers Conference made me realize a few things. One, there’s a ton of talented wine writers out there publishing their work every day for free. Some are successful enough and have chosen to accept advertising to try to make a living of it, but all blog for the love of wine and all in attendance strive to improve and grow.

Another solid learning is the best wine bloggers should be treated, and should behave, as colleagues to the best traditional wine writers. Eric Asimov made a good point during his keynote speech: “it’s time to think of ourselves simply as writers.” Whether you are an industry writer or write reviews, cover a single subject or discuss heated wine politics, the rules of good writing and reporting should apply to as much to bloggers as traditional writers.

Here are some of the best wine bloggers out there, from this weekend’s 2011 Wine Blog Awards:

• Best Overall Wine Blog – Fermentation
• Best New Wine Blog – Terroirist
• Best Writing on a Wine Blog – Vinography
• Best Winery Blog – Tablas Creek
• Best Single Subject Wine Blog – New York Cork Report
• Best Wine Reviews on a Wine Blog – Enobytes
• Best Industry/Business Wine Blog – Fermentation
• Best Wine Blog Graphics, Photography, & Presentation – Vino Freakism

For some key learnings from this weekend’s awesome keynote speakers, Eric Asimov of The New York Times and well-known wine author, Jancis Robinson, take a peek at this post-conference write-up on Richmond.com.

Photos courtesy of Creative Copywriter, Crushd and Wine Blogger Awards.

Whoopee! A blog post by Inhabitat – Green Design Will Save the World is celebrating independent consulting firm Ernst & Young’s release of a report yesterday predicting the price of solar energy per watt is expected to fall to $1 by 2013, down from $2 in 2009. The report, prepared for the Solar Trade Association, says the price per watt of solar energy is already down to $1.50 in 2011 and should continue to fall in the near future reflecting reductions in the cost of materials and advancements in efficiency.

First of all, I think we should assume the blog post said watt when they meant kilowatt (KW). At $1,000 a KW, solar would be astronomically expensive. Even at the ballyhooed $1 (insert KW), solar would be almost seven times more expensive that the average price per kilowatt in U.S. of 11.2 cents in February 2011 according to U.S. Energy Information Administration.

Celebrating $1 per KW solar is like celebrating $22 per gallon gasoline assuming the base is the national average price for a gallon of regular gas of $3.33 in February 2011 as reported by motorist group AAA . The fact that it went down from $44 a gallon is notable but neither number refelcts a palatable price for anyone but the uber rich greenie.

Realistically, what level of consumer demand can be expected for $1 per KW solar? Unlike gasoline, most of us have no idea how much we pay per KW of electricity. But if our bills were to double or triple, I can guarantee you that nearly all of us would become capable of quoting our current cost per KW. At 11.2 cents per KW, electricity is just not on people’s mind. Asking consumers to pay seven times more for clean solar energy would be a non-starter. So what exactly are these groups celebrating?

It became really evident this Thanksgiving – my incessant, addictive need to try to keep up with friends and loved ones on Facebook and Twitter. My aging and computer-phobic mother was upset about the preoccupation and predilection my teenage children and I had with our smart phones.  She had a point. (Christmas should be even more interesting!)

Have you thought what it would be like to go without social media access for a week? Well, in September, Pennsylvania’s Harrisburg University of Science and Technology began a weeklong ban of social media.  For days, students had no access to Facebook, Twitter, and other services on campus. (Granted, there was a bevy of off campus WiFi hot spots more han happy to help alleviate this conundrum.)

Results of the weeklong ban were released this past Friday. The study showed that 25 percent of respondents reported better classroom concentration that week, while 23 percent found lectures more interesting and 6 percent reported eating better and exercising more. During the ban, 33 percent of students reported feeling less stressed. Twenty-one percent said they used their normal social networking time to do homework, while 10 percent said they read online news.

Back when the experiment began, there were several posts about how schools should be encouraging more social media use for idea sharing and mental stimulation. I don’t argue with their point. But I am acknowledging the other viewpoint – what would we do if we didn’t have mobile social media to absorb our attention? Would we better or worse off?

Think about how much time we spend on social media. In the line at Starbucks, let’s pull out the phone and connect. What about having a conversation with the barista or someone else in line? Go to any library on any university across the land right now during final exams week, and you’ll find studious students cramming – all while procrastinating on Facebook and Gmail. Watch yourself at family functions, dinner out, the kid’s game, out at the bar – you get the drift. How often do you pull your phone out to check if anyone wants to talk to you, while there are perfectly fine people to talk to standing all around.

The Harrisburg experiment was inspired by the provost’s observations of his teenage daughter using her iPhone. If you search blogs on the topic, you’ll find those that feel the Harrisburg blackout smacks of the oft-repeated view that social media is a time-waster made up of trivial, multi-tasked conversations that distract young people from “real life” (or class).  I don’t think that’s the point. The point is balance.

Danah Boyd (@zephoria), a researcher studying social media, points out the disconnect between reality and the expectations that exist in learning environments. Boyd writes that because many continue to emphasize “push” or “broadcast” methods of information sharing, “we are failing to teach our youth how to evaluate, interpret and assess the information that they pull or that which falls out of the sky.”

 Agreed, but perhaps it would serve us well to re-infuse a little humanity back into our social relationships this holiday season and maintain it for the coming year. I like people. I like them even better when I can see, feel, listen and talk to them.  Try it, then go FB you friends about the experience – they’ll love it!

Photo courtesy pheelfresh

Let’s admit it: Blogs are the ugly stepchild of social media.

Hospitals and brands are going where the action is by embracing Facebook and Twitter. They’re building “apps,” holding Twitter parties and finding ways to integrate video on their website.

But what about blogs, the slow and steady form of social media?

They’re a great way to build thought leadership and many, like Brian Solis and Geoff Livingston, have made a name for themselves by serving as a pundit and providing social (and social media) commentary. The same holds true in the healthcare sector. There are a number of hospitals, such as CHRISTUS Health System and Grinnell Regional Medical Center, whose blogs serve as a forum for the hospital CEO to talk about issues and put news into perspective. The most popular of these is Running a Hospital, the blog written by the CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Paul Levy. These online commentaries provide a great opportunity for thought leadership, but they require a real commitment from executives.

According to Ed Bennett’s Found in Cache, there are less than 100 hospitals that maintain active blogs compared to the more than 600 hospitals that operate Facebook pages and Twitter accounts. In fact, the number of hospital blogs has decreased from 99 to 87, since many haven’t updated their blogs in the past six months.

It’s no surprise that children’s hospitals are well represented in the list of hospitals that maintain blogs. Everyone can relate to a family that’s dealing with the heartache of having a desperately ill child. Check out Children’s Hospital of Boston’s Thrive blog or Seattle Children’s Hospital’s Seattle Mama Doc. These blogs aren’t shy or corporate – they use photos, video and bold colors to engage the audience. 

Traditional hospitals can adopt the same approaches to their blog, so it functions more like a social media newsroom. You can post press releases, videos, links to news stories, informational articles and commentaries. This helps breathe life into your blog and turns it into a living thing, rather than a static page. Some great examples are Barnes Jewish Hospital and MD Anderson’s Cancerwise blog.

Dr. Bryan Vartabedian wrote a great blog post outlining what hospitals should think about before starting a blog. He shares my belief that a hospital blog can serve as the hub (or home base) of your social media efforts. It can also integrate your traditional marketing and social media efforts. You can post stories on your blog that appear in your community newsletter and then post links to the articles on your Facebook page and Twitter accounts. So while the blog provides content for its more “active” social media siblings, they can drive traffic back to the blog.

Blogs aren’t just online columns, they’re the living and breathing part of your website. Their changing nature helps to drive search engine optimization, and ultimately introduce your site to consumers.

Whatever format your blog takes, it’s good to remember that establishing a blog is like training for a marathon – it requires long-term commitment. Hospital marketers realize this, which could be why they haven’t embraced blogs. In doing so, they’re cheating themselves.

It’s time for hospitals to take a second look at blogs.

Photo courtesy of Sebastian Bergmann

There’s been a lot of talk recently about whether websites have outlived their usefulness and are merely dinosaurs left over from 1990s, like grunge music and flannel shirts.

But if you’ve looked in stores recently, baby doll dresses and combat boots are back in style. So too, websites have found new life and have moved beyond serving as online brochures.

Pete Blackshaw wrote a great article in Advertising Age about how websites can help populate your organization’s social networking sites. But I’d like to take this one step further – they can integrate your traditional and social media marketing efforts.

How? The key is to have your blog, the living, changing part of your website, serve as the heart of your marketing activities. Traditional media pumps people to content on the blog, which then pumps the same content to your social media properties.

But for this to work effectively, there are some things you need to keep in mind:

Make Your Newsroom Social: Think outside of the box and don’t stick to the notion that blogs are just a place to post online columns or commentaries. Instead, think of it as a social media newsroom. You can post links to press releases, videos, news stories, informational articles and commentaries.

Don’t Hide Your Light Under a Bushel: The call-to-action for social media efforts (and most ads) is to drive people to your website. So it’s important to make sure that your blog, where you post the most up-to-date information, is located on your home page. Don’t hide it away or make people look for it.

Clean-Up the Marketing Mess: Marketing efforts often operate in silos. But by using your blog differently, you can tie traditional and social media together. For example, if you’re hospital is running ads to promote your orthopedics program, your direct marketing materials or community newsletter should also highlight the program. You can then post these stories on your blog and Facebook page, and use Twitter to post factoids from the articles and link back to your blog. The same is true for videos, which can be posted on your blog, Facebook page and YouTube. Then use Twitter to tell people about the videos and link to the videos.

Timing is Everything: This might seem pretty simple, but it has far-reaching effects. For example, is your hospital promoting your cardiac service line by running ads the local newspaper or TV? Make sure to post articles about the program on your blog and issue posts about the topic on your Twitter feed and Facebook page. If your organization publishes a community newsletter, make sure that cardiac articles appear around the same time. All of a sudden, you’ve got an integrated marketing program.

No Man is An Island: And the Same Holds True for Twitter. Advertising campaigns promote programs and services. Facebook is used to post videos and engage the community. But Twitter is often out on its own, retweeting others and posting interesting news stories. While these are great uses of Twitter, you should also use it to tweet out facts and links to articles that appear on your blog, so you’re directing people to information that supports your marketing efforts.

Go Where the People Are: The goal of marketing efforts is to reach people wherever they are. It’s not enough to post videos on YouTube and on Your Facebook page and Tweet links to these pages. This information should be posted on your blog, too.

Make it Easier for People to Find You: We all know when people have a question, they Google it. The great news about posting regular updates to your blog is that it increases your website’s search engine optimization – so it’s easier for people to find.

So think again the next time someone tells you websites are dead. Instead, think of what you’re doing to breathe life into your blog – and your website.

For the last seven years of my career as a Public Relations professional, I have had the tremendous opportunity to work very closely with CEOs of startup companies. I absolutely enjoy the “die-hard, let’s do it attitude” that epitomizes small businesses and I am very well aware of what a small business marketing budget looks like. So let me share with you some tips on what makes the most sense for you as an entrepreneur to engage in social media.

If you have been reading my blog posts every Mon here on Buzz Bin, you now know that I am a storyteller. So here I go…my journey in social media began at Approva Corporation, a mid-sized enterprise software developer that specializes in automated compliance and business process management. We were a small marketing team entrusted with the BIG responsibility to increase visibility for a company that competes with the 500 pound guerillas in enterprise software: SAP, Oracle and IBM. I clearly remember the brainstorm meeting when we as a team decided to convert almost 80% of our traditional marketing activities (tradeshows, seminars, press releases and the long list) into online engagement and YES we added a blog to the mix. Audit Trail became Approva’s corporate blog where we could sound off on industry hot topics, stir a conversation with our customers and have some fun in an otherwise not so exciting B2B environment. Within three months of the blog launch, our Google Analytics did all the talking for us in terms of justifying ROI for Approva’s blog. Even better, when we did a win/loss call with a new customer and asked him, “How did you hear about Approva?” The answer was, “Audit Trail, your blog. You come across as a company that knows all about business process monitoring and automated compliance, so we thought we would talk to you.” Hurrah! now lead generation through your blog might seem a little far fetched if you are still considering starting a blog but yes it is possible.

The 2009 State of the Blogosphere published by Technorati (via Search Engine Journal) has some interesting stats that pertain to you as a small business owner:

• 77% of Internet users read blogs according to Universal McCann
• 72% say they blog in order to share their expertise.
• 72% of those who are self-employed and blogging are interested in attracting new clients.

You probably have heard this a gazillion times but I need to re-emphasize one more time, a blog makes perfect sense for a growing company for three key reasons:

1. Low investment with High Rewards: Starting a blog on a WordPress or Blogger platform takes more time and effort in planning the look and feel and content than the actual investment in the platform. If you blog right and blog often, I guarantee your SEO rankings will go up. Check out my podcast with Progress DataDirect Software that shares more insight on how their blog got them into Top-10 Google search results. CRT/tanaka helped Progress DataDirect in content creation for their blog Data Connections and within six months of launch we started seeing an increase in site traffic to their main website plus a steady increase in readership for Data Connections.

2.       Launch pad for Thought Leadership: A blog is that informal, two-way street where you can have a meaningful DIALOGUE with your customers, prospects and industry peers. Traditional communication vehicles like press release, website, print ads etc. only push messages out. A blog can be your medium to share your expertise in a much more engaging and interactive way. Gary Vaynerchuk, a New York Times best selling author and American businessman is the poster child of a small business strategically using a blog for thought leadership.

3.       Real-time Feedback Mechanism: If you are a small company without the luxury of trial and error, you could use your blog to get some valuable feedback from your own community. Test try your new product or service on your blog and get instant feedback from your community. This also shows that you are a company that LISTENS and DELIVERS on what its customers truly need versus what you think is right for them.

Here are a few small business blogs that I think you would like to hear from:  

http://www.startupnation.com/blogs/

http://smallbiztrends.com/

http://www.allbusiness.com/business-planning-structures/starting-a-business/3882-1.html

http://blog.entrepreneur.com/

http://growsmartbusiness.com/

If you are free on June 24^th, 1-2:30PM (EST) and would like to hear first hand from top-50 female blogger, Beth Schillaci join us for a tweet chat on “How to effectively blog to market your small business.” You can register for free at http://smallvolution.eventbrite.com.

Do share any tips/success you have had with your small business blog. I heart you for daring to be your own boss!

Image courtesy: 

http://phillymarketing.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/blogosphere.jpg
http://nikkigsblog.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/rainy-days-and-mondays-always-get-me-delayed/

by Geoff Livingston

Lifestreaming’s back (last blogged about on the Buzz Bin in 2007)! From Steve Rubel’s lifestream-only decision to Jane Quigley’s recent BlogPotomac interview, which pointed-out that mobile lifestreaming technology Posterous has become red hot, lifestreams are the all the rage! But why?

Has technology really become that impressive? Or are we that narcissistic to assume that people want to see EVERY aspect of our lives? Or is this simply using a blog platform to intelligently aggregate content in one place for a core stakeholder group?

I would say a combination of all three. Some who say they lifestream — a la Rubel — really aren’t. Instead they are providing multimedia content in one place — a.k.a. blogging — on a mission, like Rubel’s "Daily links, insights, photos, videos and more on emerging technology."

Blogging vs. Lifestreaming

Let’s define lifestream. From Wikipedia: The term "lifestream" was coined by Eric Freeman and David Gelertner at Yale University in the mid-1990s to describe “…a time-ordered stream of documents that functions as a diary of your electronic life; every document you create and every document other people send you is stored in your lifestream.”

Blogging isn’t necessarily text only. Blogs are just publishing mechanisms. They range from traditional platforms to more mobile platforms like Posterous. Using a variety of plug-ins and RSS, you can publish almost anything on a blog, and do so in a strategic manner. Blogging to me is on topic, lifestreaming is every piece of content, regardless of a particular mission or stakeholder group.

I assume that you, dear reader, don’t care about my lifestream. You don’t care about my photos, all of my inane Tweets, my geolocation, what I ate, etc. In fact, if you are reading this post, you likely only care about social media, marketing or PR. That’s why I blog, rather than lifestream.

I’m not so foolish to assume you want more than that. That’s why I manage and separate several online media properties, assuming that they cater to different stakeholders, some of whom may actually want more than one property:

• Communications biz posts on the Buzz Bin
• Photo blog on Flickr
• Personal blog on social cause activity and life views
• Twitter (public schmorgasborg of all the above, plus links)
• Facebook – Twitter, plus less frequent personal updates, socializing & photos
• LinkedIn – Professional socializing
• Foursquare for local geonetworking

To shove all of this down every media users’ throat in one fat pipe — a la lifestreaming — would be a mistake.  My ability to effectively impact multiple stakeholders would be dramatically impacted. I figured that out in 2007 when I first played with the concept. So, lifestreaming isn’t really a good communications strategy. Plus, from a privacy perspective, lifestreaming can mess up your personal life.

It seems in social media, there are always these types of paradoxes: Personal branding versus strategic communications; follower counts versus outcomes; noise versus meaning; and now lifestreaming versus blogging.

As such, it was important to create a new, slightly revised look.  We also tweaked and revamped the editorial mission, too:

The Buzz Bin provides a point of view on integrated communications, including PR, social media, interactive and general marketing topics. We serve our mission – as well as our customers, employees and the general industry – when our point of view stimulates meaningful conversations.

Topics range from strategy and tactics to news commentary and trend analysis. The discussion should be provocative enough to encourage questions, disagreements, and meaningful dialog as to whether we are right or wrong. It’s not about being safe, it’s about pushing the envelope, thinking and, hopefully, learning.

The new Buzz Bin will feature a multitude of new authors, including CRT/tanaka President Mike Mulvihill and Director of Social Media Priya Ramesh. Here’s our new line-up.

• Monday – Geoff Livingston: SM/Comms strategy best practices

• Tuesday – Mike Mulvihill – Industry trends and analysis

• Wednesday a.m. – Priya Ramesh –Social media

• Wednesday p.m. – Timothy “Wyatt” Wood – Interactive or SM

• Thursday — Jenn Riggle – Health Care 2.0

• Friday – Michael Whitlow – PR Beat, Humor

With the new change, as of today I will be blogging once a week on the Buzz Bin, solely on social media and or/communications, as well as managing the blog, in general. Regular nonprofit readers, if you haven’t already migrated to my personal blog, please do so. I’m still writing for you every week, too, just elsewhere! Please excuse the inconvenience.

The main CRT/tanaka whatcanbe blog will also continue as is. It’s main purpose will be to continue serving as a place for the other 60+  CRT/tanaka employees to voice their views on the ever-changing communications marketplace.

As it’s social media, please provide your feedback at will. We want the Buzz Bin to continue serving the industry as a thought provoking blog! Let us know how we can do a better job.

“____________ is dead.”

Go ahead and fill in that blank with the usual suspects; blogging, Twitter, PR, marketing, FriendFeed, the press release, the media, etc.

Admit it, you’ve probably seen, read, or possibly wrote something that fits the above standard claim. It gets repeated, rebroadcast, refuted, and recycled. And that’s ok. That’s how this stuff is supposed to work. It is what happens as people keep entering the house of social web and longtime residents become bored with the decor and want to move on to more interesting things. (Photo credit: matildaben)

The barriers to entry into social media are often easy to overcome with a little planning and commitment. Basically, you have to want to know because by this point, if you are not learning, experimenting, or using social media tools, you are choosing to ignore the significance and potential of the social web.

Natives + Immigrants
In his book Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning, Marc Prensky writes:
“After dealing with Digital Natives for quite a while, I’ve become a kind of digital anthropologist, spending a great deal of time observing the rich digital world and life that the Natives are in the process of creating for themselves. It turns out that for almost every activity in their lives, the Digital Natives are inventing new, online ways of making each activity happen, based on new technologies available to them. Some of these new approaches Digital Immigrants can -and do – use as well. But some are so foreign to the Immigrants that they are almost, or totally, unintelligible.”

Sound familiar? While Prensky is explaining to parents how children are actually getting valuable skills from playing video games, I am interested in how social media natives and immigrants are not adversaries. Instead, we should operate in mentoring relationships.

To the Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, and Late Majority on the adoption bell curve, you are the Social Media Natives. You get it, you’ve shared it, many of you are tired of talking about it.

To the Laggards of the adoption bell curve, you are the Social Media Immigrants. You’re getting it, you’re sharing it and yes, in time, some of you will probably grow tired of the tools.

But we can (and should) still learn from each other.

We have a responsibility to share
In the seminal work for the PR field, Effective Public Relations, the authors write:
“Because professions draw upon a specialized body of knowledge developed through research, practitioners are obligated to support the advancement of professional knowledge.”
(Cutlip, Center, and Broom)

As professional communicators, we should devote time to topics, writings, discussions and brainstorms that keep us sharp and informed. If that means rehashing some old(er) debates, so be it. We’ll all be better for it.

—–

Richie Escovedo (@vedo) is a husband, father of two and communications/PR professional with experience in educational and non-profit settings. He writes over at the Next Communications blog and believes in education and the integral need for effective and open communication. Richie is also focused on helping blossom the social media interest and network within the Dallas/Fort Worth area.

The Washington Post had a great opinion piece on this topic this morning.  Here was the key section that I found compelling:

…there are sharp limits on what Twitter and other Web tools such as Facebook and blogs can do for citizens in authoritarian societies. The 140 characters allowed in a tweet are not the end of politics as we know it — and at times can even play into the hands of hard-line regimes.

Indeed, Twitter and all conversational media tools really are just that: Tools.  They can be used for good or bad purposes, and in the particular case of short forms, they do not equate to in depth information or understanding.  It’s really about people, and how they use these Internet tools to spread information, and what that data causes them to do. 

I had the great honor of appearing on Voice of America’s international broadcast last week to discuss this very topic. Conversational tools spread information in an uncontrolled fashion. Actions create revolutions, not the tools, but the tools have evolved over time to allow for instantaneous, independent movement outside of governments.  Consider the following historical development of communication:

1) The Gutenberg press was invented in 1440: The resulting books triggered the Renaissance and the spread of ideas throughout Europe in roughly 50 years. Information can be spread in weeks on a continent, and months or years depending on location of foreign countries.

2) By the 17th century, we had newspapers thanks to moveable type. Newspapers really took off in the 18th century.  As information spread quicker, we saw Thomas Paine and Ben Franklin create newspapers and documents. The rise of the fourth estate allows American and French revolutionaries to create Democracy. The trend accelerates in the 19th century.

3) The 20th century brought broadcast and mass communications. Propaganda wars take place amongst many political theologies, from Goebels and the Nazis to FDR and Fireside chats to the Stalin and Mao-brands of communism. Democracy spreads further, but autocratic regimes use broadcast to control their citizens.  Information is now spread in hours instead of in days.

4) The Internet also rose in the 20th century, but it is only in this decade that we’ve realized the dream of a Gutenberg press in everyone’s hand. Now because of conversational media anyone can be a citizen journalist.  Information is spread instantaneously, beating out broadcast, and autocratic control is no longer effective for societies enabled with mobile or regular Internet communications.

But in spite of the spread and the break of control we still have a very desperate situation in Iran.  Violent protests have broken out as the now information enabled the Moussavi opposition and supporters refuse to accept the broadcasted message of their government.

Now the real revolution must occur… Or falter.  Autocratic control has lots its grip on information in Iran, but not the military.  The human-powered Internet only serves as a toolset to organize and galvanize the Moussavi opposition in spite of Iran’s best attempts to control its people using conventional media. It’s a time of action, of stones in the street, of bloodshed. May it pass swiftly, successfully, and with minimal loss.

“It might not be intuitively clear to non-participants that a company representative’s consistent high-quality engagement in community is necessary to reap the benefits of community, but for community managers, the relationships they are building make it very clear. Those relationships would go cold without consistent engagement.”

I really enjoyed the ReadWriteWeb Guide to Community Management. Under Marshall Kirkpatrick’s gifted hand, this savvy report delivers the basics for any CxO or CMO considering developing their own social media community. In particular, I love the focus on hiring or appointing a community manager to start.

Most companies want to start with a campaign or an initiative, and that’s the wrong focus. Community Management quickly and aptly points out that social is not about PR per say, more about networking, thus the need for a continued outbound presence. A face of the company, if you would. Without a community manager, companies can fail to harness the many benefits organized social media can offer.

There were several aspects of the report that really seemed to be of service to the marketer trying to figure this out (I assume that most people reading this will be marketers). There’s a heavy focus on the confluence of the many outbound customer functions from PR and marketing to customer service in the report. It’s essential to understand that no one traditional skill set will do the job. Further, social is about engagement versus advertising. There’s a great discussion here on the topic.

There’s a heavy focus on measurement, which is great. I don’t know how many times I hear that you can’t measure social media, and while the report admits to the ambiguity of measurement, I wholeheartedly agree when it says, “Community managers should establish methods to measure their own impact on other departments’ bottom lines.” Frankly, if you can’t determine measurement, then you have no strategy. Strategies are to achieve objectives, and objectives are measurable.

Finally, there’s a great discussion on what makes a good community manager, including statistics and personality type. This is very helpful for organizations trying to hire or identify this role within the company. Guidelines are given for how to participate within and manage the community, too.

I did have a few nitpicks with the report, and for the sake of balance I will offer them. First, the report does say right off the bat that Twitter is a place any company should be and Facebook more than likely could be difficult, but that group pages can work. In the beginning, the report also highlights a blog as a must have, yet we know most blogs fail. Given that, should blogging be so openly embraced?

For the record, I question Twitter’s value sometimes. While I see how Virgin America can be happy with 15K followers, I question whether this kind of reach has any real marketing impact for the company. Straight up truth: Twitter is dynamic and fast, but it’s not a broadcast medium for consumer companies. However, it is a great place to organize and interact with your die hard community members and influencers. Twitter has good uses (See Buzz Bin Twitter primer) and bad uses, so look beyond Shiny Object Syndrome before drinking the Kool Aid in full.

The other nitpick was the personal brand conundrum. While the report acknowledges having a singular voice does not scale, it does not dive in deep on how to handle this issue. It’s a quality problem derived from success, but it would be helpful for companies to see the value of scaling on a team level.

Overall, I highly recommend this report. Any company considering a community management strategy should by the ReadWriteWeb guide as it will give them great insights into this growing professional discipline.

Copyblogger Brian Clark Presents at SOBCon

One of the more controversial sessions at SOBCon was the nice guys finish last [online] conversation, inspired by Brian Clark‘s discussion of classic positioning theory. The point: It’s better to be hated and known for a strong minority opinion than to be liked. One gets you discussed, read and positioned in the marketplace, while the other — especially if you are not already a thought leader in an established space — leaves you behind in the discussion. My experience and core beliefs subscribe to this theory.

Yet, when discussed in the session and online many people struggled with this topic right out of the gate for semantic reasons. As children, we are taught to be “nice” from the moment we enter public settings. But what is nice?

Whether you see nice as being kind, pleasing, agreeable or delightful, no where do the terms opinionated, nonconforming, strong, objectionable, or dissenting get associated with the word. Yet these are things a thought leader must engage in to stay on top. To me, nice means safe. Safe does not mean winning. Winning means doing whatever is necessary to achieve a goal, and removing distractions and unrelated concerns from his/her life even when it hurts others.

A thought leader must actually lead at times, and that means doing what’s uncomfortable and/or unpopular at moments. In such times words like “not nice,” a subjective opinion of tone and stance, are often bantied about. It’s my experience that such moments are when a thought leader is tested on character. Will he/she cave to the need to be popular and “liked,” or do they have the meddle to stand strong?

This is as true online as it is offline. Great blogging and social media means delivering content and opinions that either rises above the pack or is separate and unique. And sometimes people — present company included — achieve that by saying what they truly believe, even when it flies in the face of everything people want to believe. Thus they are considered not “nice.”

I’ve experienced this with my own adamant position that personal branding is a bad strategy for enterprises, and in the long term for individuals. As further examples I submit Jason Calacanis and Michael Arrington and their oft controversial, yet unquestioned market leadership.

Seeing as this is Mother’s Day and this is largely a semantical conversation, I’d like to offer another word out there to consider. That word is good, something or someone who is morally excellent, virtuous, righteous or pious. There’s a noticeable difference between being good and nice. I’d rather win and be good, than be nice. Nice guys finish last.

What do you think?

There’s much crying about the fall of the major metropolitan newspaper, a process hastened by the severe economic recession. There are many reasons cited, from the rise of new media to poor change management. Yet one can see a similar pattern in recent history, when another mass market product — the department store — also succumbed to the pressures of smaller, more nimble competitors (Original Image: Hamburgers 1920 by army.arch).

For department stores, many chains found their death in a trojan horse — the mall. With the rise of the mall, department stores were asked to anchor these megaplexes. But inside the smaller stores were more nimble, better competitors who specialized in deeper lines of products. Electronics, women’s shoes, hardware, whatever it was, from big box to pretzels chains took shoppers away from many department stores.

Ironically, like the mall, the Internet was supposed to be the future of newspapers. But for some reason the 90s passed and the opportunity was never realized. Perhaps that crack known as print advertising was just too good to give up. Or maybe, change was really that hard.

At the same time, technology enabled easy publishing in the form of weblogs and new influentials rose to the fore. The best voices offered new writing styles and ways of thinking about specialized topics. Often these topics were not covered by the mass newspaper or general industry trade. Social networks like Twitter, StumbleUpon and Digg hasten the speed and widespread delivery of these specialized content creators. Within years, social media voices rose to challenge and endanger the traditional news model.

Often the quality of these voices has been called in question when compared to older, more traditional media. The truth about blogs and other forms of new media: The cream of the crop is really good. They have standards of excellence, and the voices are often subject matter experts, even former journalists.

Considering the larger dynamics at play, newspapers that are suffering probably should be. Like their industrial era department store counterparts, they are slow and ineffective. The product is often lacking in relevance.

When was the last time a metropolitan newspaper had a consistently relevant business section for the region day in day out? Or for that matter, when did each individual reader really want all of those sections? On the Internet, we can choose from the best voices in each of our own subject matter interests. Even if it is stamp collecting.

Just like the best department stores, the best newspapers will survive this time. But they will likely need to evolve to some extent and meet the times. And with the economic waters puncturing so many hulls, newspaper veterans may have no choice but to choose a new course.