PR Fear and Loving of Social Media
Matthew DeBord writing on Slate’s dear departed The Big Money site offers an insightful perspective on how the Internet and social media challenge both traditional PR and its “evil twin,” crisis PR. With the DVR fragmentation of advertising, DeBord writes, PR “has arguably never been more influential.” Social media, however, has exploded and shaken the profession to its foundations.
Public Relations, often called “earned media,” thrived during the 20th Century on the trinity of press releases, media relationships and the ability to manage the flow of information. For those of us that could quickly craft a killer news release lead, summarize the entire story in a page and a half, and add pithy quotes sure to make it into print or on air, life was great. We prided ourselves on being able to do the work for reporters, or at least to make their lives easier. Call us “spin doctors” if you will, but the label often felt both apt and rewarding.
Arguably, former Senator George Allen’s “Macaca Moment” on YouTube in 2006 must be seen as the coming of age for social media, the “canary in the coal mine” alarm for the entire PR industry, both pro-active and crisis focused. In the few years since, it’s hard to find a PR crisis not involving social media in the forefront of creating or at least fanning the flames of furor and fan reaction. BP, anyone? Apple’s Antennagate, the Toyota recall, Tiger Woods, Jet Blue’s flight attendant folk hero, on and on.
The incredible debacle over Shirley Sherrod and the NAACP speech is the new high-water mark for the inability of both the traditional media and PR machinery to cope with the rules of engagement presented by a 24/7 world, the Internet and all thing related to social media. Who needs, or wants, PR professionals to communicate and traditional media to report when millions of people have constant access to print, audio and video tools that can spread the word, create an impression, demolish a reputation?
In this environment, the old tools cannot keep up. News releases? As Dan Beyers, editor of the Washington Posts’ new Capital Business, remarked to a gathering of business reporters and marketing/PR folks a few months back, “I don’t read releases any more.” If you want to reach him, Beyers added, put it in an email with a quick subject and 1-2 sentence summary, or perhaps post a Tweet if your company is one that is already being followed. The fact that his statements surprised many marketing/PR people in the audience, as noted in many Tweets, is evidence of the fear and loving of social media by communications professionals.
The 2010 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey discovered a 39% increase in journalists being pitched by social media compared with 2009. The eyebrow raising finding that follows suggests that social network pitching resulted in coverage 70% of the time. Conversely, most survey respondents believe the “standard pitch” methods are likely to result in coverage less than 20% of the time.
The new tools of the trade are found social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs, YouTube, flickr, et al. For those in the profession that grew up in the press release days, this often is exceedingly uncomfortable. Perhaps it is my East Coast location, but far too often I hear executives of marketing/PR/advertising agencies tell me that they don’t get and/or want to learn how to use the new media tools. That is simply unfortunate. No wonder there is a move to let younger employees, regardless of title, take control over the story and manage the essential PR functions.
Advertising is a Waste of Money … in a Social World
In the mid 90′s, I published a series of class notes as Advertising is a Waste of Money. Humorously provocative for someone making his living in the advertising field. No, it did not reach best-seller status, thanks for asking. But, the joke may have been on me since someone now is offering a copy of my $12.95 book for $100 on the Internet. Sadly, I only have three copies on my shelf.
After learning from a friend about the outrageous online offer for my dated words of semi-wisdom, I pulled out one of the three personal copies and started reading. Oddly, most of the words and thoughts were far from dated both in the original context of advertising as well as in today’s world substituting social media for advertising.
The first few pages deal with the concept that the only guarantee that comes with spending more on advertising is that you are spending more on advertising. If people really do not want your product, service or idea then no amount of money spent on advertising is going to change that. The ensuing years post publication, with all the boom-and-bust dot.coms, give ample evidence to well support the original claim.
Today the truth of the only guarantee on more spending is that you spend more remains valid for traditional advertising as well as for the new media world of blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube et al. The difference being the cost of social media essentially lies in the hours of staff time to set up and kept the sites fresh.
Without question, the right advertising for the right reasons can lead to increased sales just as increased time with social apps and networks can boost the bottom line. The underlying premise for the book and the principles within is that all too often advertising is done badly and for the wrong reasons. And those wrong reasons? First and foremost, advertising because everyone else does it. There are very few Mad Men (and women) out there who have not: a) used that line on clients, or b) been told by clients to advertise just like their competitors. Regardless of who says it, too often it is mistake.
The same holds true for Facebook and other social media. As Facebook blows past the incredible milestone of 500 million users, there are very companies or organizations that are not now or soon will be using Mark Zuckerberg’s platform for promotion. But, in doing so, how many are doing so just because everyone else is doing it, or out of a strategic and integrated approach that is as distinctive as the brand itself? Most and very few.
Is the social media expense a strategic use of resources? Is it fully integrated with every other marketing effort throughout the organization? Doubtful and very doubtful.
I cannot count how many times I have heard a presentation or read an article by corporate executives who describe a roomful of 20-somethings doing their thing isolated from the older marketing, advertising and PR executives. I have yet to hear one of them present a logical argument for this all-too-common separation.
Social media apps and networks are fantastic tools, as is advertising done well and for the right reasons. But, as we all jump into the world of social media, let’s remember to assess the reasons why and manage the resources going in with the expectations coming out. In the absence of such, disillusionment and waste are the only things likely to occur.
Drop Everything (into the cloud)
Daniel Lyons, writing in Newsweek, aptly lays out the emerging landscape for the future of computing: Apple vs. Google with Microsoft relegated to the sidelines. The immediate battle, though, is not over the operating system in your computer, but rather the system that operates your cell phone.
On one side is the iPhone with the just released and much touted iOS 4, a closed system controlled by Steve Jobs and his tightly managed team in Cupertino. Opposing them is Google’s Android, an “open” system available to smart phone manufacturers for tailoring to specific needs. A polished Apple up against a Google mash. A controlled environment vs. multi-company collaboration. Windows redux.
Regardless of how the battle unfolds in the years ahead, the reason for the battle being fought on cell phones is simple: mobility. Led by the Millennial Generation, we are breaking the ties that bind us to our desktops, even our portable “desks” in the form of laptops. More and more we expect our phones to do the work of a desktop computer or laptop.
Breaking the ties to our desks, however, comes with tradeoffs. Going through the frequent gyrations of a syncing key data with multiple devices or consigning data to the cloud, an uncomfortable environment for those that believe “if I can see the computer I control the security.” Plus, there exists the “what do I do?” when a WiFi or cell signal is not available to tether to the data in the cloud?
Without doubt the mega-minds of Apple, Google and their allies are staining whiteboards by the score reaching for the most elegant solution to these issues: seamless, transparent synching of multiple devices with each other and with the cloud. Amazon provided an early look at this approach with the launch of its Kindle eReader. Books ordered download to my Kindle, MacBook and iPhone. A copy is always kept in Kindle’s cloud if I delete local copies accidentally or I just need the space locally. It’s not seamless and “gets stuck” now and then, but it works reasonably well.
A star player to watch and for others to follow/surpass in the clouds is Dropbox. As with Apple’s MobileMe, Google Mail/Docs and dozens of other services, you get a core amount of cloud storage. In the case of Dropbox, 2GB free, $120 per year for 50GB. Apple’s MobileMe (iDisk) does not have a free option, $99 per year for 20GB, $148 for 40GB. Google is the bargain basement in the sky with a free core of 7.5GB, $20 for 80GB. Note, there are generally two types of online storage: document-based and computer backup oriented. Dropbox, Apple and Google are document-based, but can work as a system backup with some twists. Carbonite, a well-promoted back-up service offers unlimited storage for $55 per year per computer. You can use Carbonite to manage individual files, but it is not as flexible as the document-based systems.
In managing documents in the cloud and on multiple devices, Dropbox excels brilliantly. Once you sign up for an account, Dropbox sends along an app for installation on your Mac, Windows or Linux system. The app creates a separate Dropbox folder within which you save to and store as many files, documents and folders as you want. Each time that you update a file in your Dropbox folder, the app knows to sync with the cloud. Not online? The next time you connect, Drop box automatically syncs all changed files. Unless you are peering inside the Dropbox, you will be unaware that anything is happening. Make a mistake and want last week’s version back? Dropbox maintains 30 days of “undo” history. Not many home or small business computers can perform that near-miracle.
The beauty of the service is that you can have Dropbox on your home computer, office computer and your laptop and all stay in sync. You just learn to open and save files within the Dropbox folder and not your computer’s local documents folder. All of the files are accessible without being online on each computer. Plus, you can access all the files from the Dropbox website if you are on another computer.
Returning to the starting point of breaking the ties with desktops and laptops, Dropbox allows access via an app on the iPhone and Android phones. A slightly less flexible browser-based option is available for Blackberry and other internet-capable devices. The one drawback, at this point, for all smart phone users is that all of your Dropbox files are not locally synced and stored on the smart phone, for obvious storage limitation reasons. You select the file you want to view or edit and then save back to Dropbox. As smart phone storage increases, I suspect the manual sync will give way to a more seamless integration. Assuming, though, that your iPhone or Android almost always has cell service, all of your files are available from the cloud.
Dropbox plays well with both giants battling for the future of computing. Dozens of apps are here now with more arriving each month offering the same and even greater user experience and flexibility in accessing your data without ties to the desk. The future of computing pivots on where you access your data and where/who stores that data for you. Google and Apple have very different business models, but the basic goal is the same: dominate the access to data. Data equals money in terms of searches and apps to access and turn data into information. The victors in this battle will be the ones that offer the most access with the greatest flexibility and mobility. The real winners, though, are small business, organizations and their staffs who can significantly improve productivity with minimal expense.
The False Fear of Social Media in the Workplace
Those arguing against social media in the work environment contend that its use will decrease overall productivity. Anecdotal observations and limited statistical surveys are often cited as the basis for supporting this contention of lost productivity. Yet, other surveys run counter to these assertions. Rather than relying on one study or another, managers would do well to consider how social media means can positively impact their specific organizations.
Last year, a study produced by Nucleus Research in Boston claimed that “companies effectively lose an average of 1.5 percent of total office productivity when employees can access Facebook during the work day.” Researchers at the University of Melbourne, however, concluded that “Workers [are] more productive if allowed to use the internet for leisure.” Noted the authors, “People who surf … within a reasonable limit of less than 20% of their total time in the office – are more productive by about 9% than those who don’t.”
The team at Melbourne invite managers to recall being back in class and listening to a lecture. “After about 20 minutes your concentration probably went right down, yet after a break your concentration was restored.” A quick surf of the Internet, they argue, enables the mind to rest itself, leading to a higher total net concentration and thus increased productivity.
An inherent issue with both studies is the focus on the use of the leisure use of social media rather than the use of such as intrinsic aspects of a work place. Do offices ban the use of telephones simply because nearly all employees occasionally use the device for personal reasons and some on the staff spend hours each day on the phone padding what could be short business calls with lengthy discussions on football or golf, last night’s American Idol or Desperate Housewives?
It’s not the technology, it’s the people, the office environment, expectations and management styles.
Of far greater importance, in the long run, is to look past the discussion of leisurely use and focus on how social media can improve business functions, optimize resources and maximize success in achieving organizational goals.
Wikis can be used to quickly and consistently capture knowledge. Blogs can streamline project management. Facebook-style personal pages have a place in developing communities of interest and function within an organization, pooling talents and sharing ideas. YouTube can be an invaluable training medium. LinkedIn has become a key tool for HR professionals and business development teams seeking proposal partners.
Bottom line: it’s OK to take a quick break and surf the Internet for a posting on Facebook from a daughter or son away at college. Then get back to business and use the same to promote your products, services and ideas. Social media should be viewed as a place of convergence not a point of contention and dichotomy.
Bridging The Generational Digital Divide: Managers vs. Workers
At a government IT conference, one senior federal manager summed up the workplace digital divide: [What scares me is] the fact that every time I walk by their cubicles they’re on their personal Facebook account…not because I think they are putting up stuff that’s inappropriate or classified, or shouldn’t be out there. It’s the fact that they are not working.”
As quoted in Federal Computer by Richard W, Walker, the comments of Lt. Col. Charlotte Herring, chief of the information technology division of the U.S. Army’s Judge Advocate General Corps, echo the thoughts if not the words of many/most private sector, nonprofit and government agency management level personnel. We vs. They. We, the managers, focus on what we are doing without distraction and get the job done. They, the young employees, we assume, can’t be working with all that clutter and activity on their screens. Where is the focus?
The willingness of younger workers to share information using social media tools, in the vernacular of the Baby Boomers, “blows the mind” of the older generation. Noted another IT manager at the same Open Government Innovations Conference, [The older managers] “who are really used to hierarchy and structure in organizations have great difficulty dealing with people who have no respect for the organizational hierarchy.”
The need to bridge the gap is obvious; the methods less so.
Don Tapscott’s wonderfully insightful book, Grown Up Digital: How the Net Generation is Changing Your World, is a guidebook for the Boomer and Gen X managers coping with the digital generational divide. Based on studies of over 11,000 members of the “Net Generation” or “Millennials.” (born after 1980 or so).
Tapscott addresses the fears of managers and the negative stereotypes that surrounds a generation that, in the author’s opinion, actually processes information differently from their parents and older siblings. In line with other, albeit still controversial, research emerging in recent years, Tapscott argues that the Net Gen grew up in an immersive computer-based society that altered how data and information process in the brain. Just as a native English speaker dropped into a Spanish-only environment will eventually speak and even think en español, the Net Gen/Milliennials, think best with others in an ever-connected collaboratively style. They processes faster and form a consensus far quicker than their parents.
Tapscott describes this emerging workforce with respect to differences from their boomer parents: “They prize freedom and freedom of choice. They want to customize things, make them their own. They’re natural collaborators, who enjoy a conversation not a lecture. they’ll scrutinize you and your organization. They insist on integrity. They want to have fun, even at work and at school. Speed is normal. Innovation is part of life.”
In a content-rich and yet very approachable book, Tapscott provides many tips for managers including: seven ways to attract and engage young talent in the workplace, seven guidelines for educators to tap the Net Gen potential, Parenting 2.0 – there’s no place like the new home, and Citizen Net: How young people and the Internet are transforming democracy.
Tapscott’s work has changed how I teach and manage/mentor members of this new generation. I am far better for what I have learned from this and related work. I understand and embrace what the Net Gen/Millennials can offer, but yet still appreciate the advantages that those of us in the older generations bring to the conference room table and our desktops.
Mickey, Monsters and Social Media
The fact that the Mouse House (Disney) embraces social media should surprise no one given its marketing clout and ownership of media giant ABC. Consider that there are over 3.5 million fans of just one of Mickey’s corporate Facebook pages. It was one of the offbeat uses of social media, however, that struck me on a summer Saturday night after a hot & humid Orlando day in the Magic Kingdom.
For no other reason than being a huge fans of all things Pixar, several of us stood in line at Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor for a chance to chill out (literally) while a digital Mike Wazowski entertained us with bad jokes (one of my guilty pleasures). So, who writes all the bad one-liners for the Monsters show? Well, perhaps a lot of people like me. (Sorry Writers Guild.)
Prominently and constantly displayed on video screens while you wait in the pre-show corral was the suggestion to text your favorite monster-related joke to “FANG” at 42319. The implication is that the “best” ones might end up in the show you will soon see. True or not, it changes the dynamic with the audience. I noticed more than a few people taking advantage of the suggestion to text their humor. No doubt, those folks probably were more focused on getting in and listening to the entire show than the average adult.
Alas, mine was not chosen for the show I watched. “What do they call evil creatures on the moon? Moonsters.”
With over 5 billion messages a day in the U.S. (according to CTIA), texting continues soaring pushed even higher with the growing number of photo and video capable phones. It is the #1 social media tool for broad segments of the population, especially within the Millennial Generation. For those that don’t know, Twitter was built around the concept of using SMS (texting) to send a message from one to many.
Texting, though, is more than casting votes for the next American Idol. Certainly Disney is not the first to find clever, entertaining ways to use this simple yet powerful tool. Deliberative democracy advocates are using texting as one of many tools to engage the public in building consensus governance. And, within that latter concept lies enormous potential for organizations of any size or focus creatively using texting to build a rapid consensus around a hot-button issue.
Add to that snap polls on a consensus approach to a crisis, firing off questions to be addressed at a meeting, making comments on a presentation or just offering suggestions for the after work happy hour. Communications, collaboration and cooperation. Engage your employees, your coworkers, your colleagues for better results.
Texting is one of the monsters of social media. Have fun and enjoy the show.
Hot Summer, Google, Kool-Aid and Fizzies
For many, hot summers and Kool-Aid just go together — whether you drink it now or simply retain fond memories of times gone by with less concerns about additives in what we drink and eat. Life was easier.
My son reminded me of such talking about this blog. “Dad, you really have drunk the Google Kool-Aid.” Being old enough to have the joyful summer memories mixed with the knowledge of the Jonestown tragedy, I prefer to dwell on the upbeat. Handling a crisis, human and brand, on level of the 1978 horror is for other posts.
“Well, yes. I am a huge fan of Google, though, with, limitations,” I responded making note of the fact that he was texting on his Android to my iPhone. There are limits in brand preferences and the Kool-Aid you drink.
Life for most is not so easy this summer with record-breaking heat waves, unemployment and miseries from an oil-soaked Gulf. Few remain untouched.
Just before July 4th, the search giant broke the”Hire Google” ad campaign in the Washington Post and local news radio station. An interesting juxtaposition to the most recent unemployment numbers, I look forward to debating merits of the campaign with marketing colleagues and students. The call to action targets small business owners in need of a marketing and sales boost in down times. The implication is that in “hiring” the free Google Places and click-for-a-fee AdWords, small businesses can succeed where others are not. It’s worth noting that Google reportedly hired 500 advertising people this spring following last year’s first-ever company layoffs.
Will the target audience see those ads in a positive light or be left with the thought of “why ‘hire’ an incredibly rich entity to help out while people are losing jobs each day and so many remain underemployed?”
Small businesses and nonprofits continue to be slammed by the Great Recession. To survive, let alone thrive, owners and executives need to find new solutions. Perhaps turning to Google and other cloud app providers will let small organizations discover new ways to find customers and manage resource expenditures while keeping as many people as possible on payroll.
I can drink to that.
Fizzies? Just a related memory of a flavored sparkling soft drink tablet once manufactured by Bromo-Seltzer; a concept newly introduced as Kool-Aid Fun Fizz. I am not so sure about the success of the brand extension, but the thought of drinking a Bromo-Seltzer to soothe the headache and upset stomach each day does have its appeal.
Why Business Should Celebrate YouTube’s Birthday
In commemorating the fifth anniversary last week of the first video to be posted on YouTube, worthy appreciation should be given to the immense value of this social media giant to businesses, nonprofits and government agencies. The value, however, is often obscured by the sheer volume of incredible, inane and insane videos that regularly entertain hundreds of millions throughout the world.
In the workplace, YouTube is all too often feared and blocked out of fears for the video bandwidth demands, distraction potential and negative impact some YouTube moments have had on well-established corporate and political brands. As with most social media, and media in general, YouTube is neither good nor bad. It is just a tool, an outlet. How it is used depends entirely on those that produce and those that consume the content.
That YouTube can make or break a reputation in mere minutes is without question and new examples of such appear daily. Rather than focusing on the sudden fame or shame, managers should consider the budget savings in personnel training and support made possible by willingness of hundreds of thousands to share often well-produced videos on nearly any subject without a fee.
Looking to train staff in desktop apps from Word, Excel to PowerPoint, Photoshop to QuickBooks? For fee classes are available from a vast array of colleges, businesses an online course sites. Or, you could assemble several hours of video for free on YouTube and distribute this information on a constantly updated basis throughout your organization. Sure, the quality will vary and it will take a bit of time and attention to review and select videos, but with tight budgets training is often among the first line items to be slashed or trashed. Regrettably.
Language classes, HR skill development, finance, accounting content abounds. Take advantage of this free opportunity. Create a corporate user account on YouTube, search for the desired videos, mark them as favorites and share the information throughout the organization. And, then as is a best practice with social media, invite those that consume to share that which they discover to the benefit of colleagues and friends.
Doubtful training was on the mind of cofounders Yakov Lapitsky and Lawed Karim when they shot and uploaded the first video, “Me at the zoo.” The first lasted only 19 seconds. Today, more than 900 hours of video are uploaded every hour; 21,600 hours of video every day. And the number of videos and hours continues to expand seemingly without limitation.
Indeed, there are an abundance of moments from Diet Coke and Mentos to Susan Boyle, broken guitars on United to gross out moments at Domino’s. But, take a minute and search on YouTube for “microsoft word training.” You just might smile and be thankful for YouTube’s birthday.
Facebook and Microsoft Collaborate on Docs.com
The announcement on April 21 by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg that his mega-social network was teaming up with the king of office documents on collaboration in the cloud holds promise of an immensely interesting battle with Google Docs. As noted in previous post, Google just unveiled its revamped and revved up Google Docs app last week aimed at pulling increasing numbers of people away from desktop use of Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
The bottom line? It’s all about the three stepping stones of Social Ops: communications, cooperation, collaboration.
Considering Microsoft’s $240 million 2007 investment in Facebook, there is little surprise in the the decision of the two giants to team together on this project to encourage collaboration through social networks. As Zuckerberg noted: Having Microsoft’s Docs.com on Facebook offers, “all of the power of Microsoft Office – but with a built-in social experience.”
The respective Facebook/Microsoft fans will match up quickly with the wave of Google Docs supporters in terms of ease of use, functionality, versatility, etc. Questions have already surfaced about whether companies and nonprofits would feel comfortable having internal docs shared through Facebook as opposed to Google. Likely that is true initially. But, in the end, all win as people in Facebook groups begin to discover the immense benefits of online social document collaboration. At first it may be a youth team newsletter, neighborhood garage sale flyer or church program. Once people get the taste and enjoy the experience, it will come to the work place naturally.
Other contenders will also emerge. In fact, right now LinkedIn users can take advantage of Huddle.net workspaces to create, edit and share documents. If you use LinkedIn on a regular basis, it’s worth the test. Try it, you might like it. 
Google Ups Collaboration Potential
The principal of Social Ops is that integrating social media and apps throughout core functions of an organization will improve communications, collaboration and cooperation. Increase productivity, optimize resources, maximize results. Google’s mid-April announcement of a rebuilt, revamped and revved up Google Docs aptly validates this principal.
The buzz abounds that Google believes “collaboration” is broken in most work environments. Countless times a day, people create word processing and spreadsheet documents and share them with others through email. People end up making revisions to individual copies of the same document. But, one bad revision or missed email update, and the collaboration process breaks down. And, that happens all too often.
The Google approach is to move basic business functions (creating word, number and presentation documents) away from the desktop, place them “in the cloud” and access these docs through a browser. To the search engine king, Docs and other other Google Apps are examples of cloud & browser software that are the key to better collaboration and quicker innovation. This growing realization is not lost on Microsoft whose MS Office Web Apps are an obvious effort to slow the migration from Word and SharePoint to the Google cloud.
In the recent announcement, Google makes a case that Google Docs provide improved productivity, increased security and better reliability than the familiar desktop equivalents from Microsoft, Apple and others.
Productivity comes in the form of fixing the “broken collaboration.” Security is the result of only one copy of the document in use, on Google’s secure servers, not dozens of different versions sitting on unprotected laptops and thumb drives. Reliability is delivered through the “somewhat” large Google IT staff maintaining and constantly improving the apps rather than requiring the same of an overburdened tech staffer at each organization who has to purchase, install, monitor, train and support personnel on each traditional app upgrade.
If you have yet to see Google Docs in action or you want a look at this new version, check out YouTube video at the top. I have yet to present Google Docs to a class or client and not have most in the crowd express a “wow.” See for yourself. Judge for yourself the potential of improved collaboration.
