What Does The Web Say About Your Clients?

A good friend of mine once complained that women - particularly American women - are "schizophrenic" in terms of the many roles they are meant to play in society. Personally, I think that is a load of bunk as I see men playing the same number of roles. But, he does have a point in that who we are in one aspect of our lives (i.e. work) may differ greatly from who we are in another (i.e. with friends).

How does this relate to PR, marketing and social media you ask? Well, our online personas are increasingly impacting our overall images - and that of our clients. Reconciling these different roles in this era of "putting it all out there" can be rather daunting, especially when your gig is image. Do you know what photos your clients have on Facebook? How about on dating sites? What does that Super Poke they just got or that "Which Sex & The City Character Are You" quiz say about them? And, as their professional image-makers, is it any of our business?

The New York Times calls it, "impression management" and it is fast-becoming a hot topic as social media grows more prevalent in our daily lives. We've all heard the stories of college students losing job opportunities and even scholarships because of some illicit images on their MySpace page or an unfortunate video on YouTube. I'm sure many of you remember the kid who told his boss he had a family emergency, only to get busted when a photo of him at a Halloween party appeared on Facebook.

And, really this is nothing new. I remember when I was just a junior exec at Ogilvy, I was tasked with selecting applicants for our internship program. During one call, I got an outgoing answering machine message that was clearly recorded when the kid was very drunk with his friends. I did not ask him to come in for the interview. Now, I know college kids party, and as a junior exec, my own rambunctious college days were not far behind me then. But, considering the job was a PR position, I felt if this kid didn't have enough sense to manage his own image, how could we trust him to manage our clients?

Michael Agger of Slate.com addressed this topic recently in terms of what your online photos say about you. (A fascinating read). As someone who does not want his photo made public, he opted for a manga-tranformation image of himself using the University of St. Andrews' super cool transformer program. Agger asks the question: which version of yourself do you put out there? The "you" your frat brothers know? Or, the version that your boss sees? In other words, which aspect of your schizophrenia, as my pal calls it, should you make available online?

As PR pros, we painstakingly manage our clients' images right down to every detail of a photo shoot. Does a suit-and-tie make him look old-fashioned? Should she sit or stand? What story does each picture tell? Whether that photo is going on the company's web site or in a magazine, it is our duty to help them put forth the best image for themselves and the overall brand. But, how much of that can be undone within one dating site or Facebook survey? And, where is the line in terms of what we can and can't advise our clients to do?

These days, a reporter can easily pull client photos and quotes from every corner of the web. So, with that in mind, it would behoove us to take a careful look at what content they are putting out there and then diplomatically demonstrate how it could be taken in the wrong context. These won't be easy conversations to have. That line between personal life and professional image is an important one to be sure. But, I would rather risk offending my client in a way that demonstrates my thorough concern for their image, than have to play damage control later.

-- my two cents

Toyota Dealership Gets Social - Embraces New Media

Hey folks, I posted something on Franchise Marketing Blog that you may find interesting regarding a local Toyota dealership's social media campaign. It's fairly rare for an individual franchise operator to embrace new media, so I wanted to give these guys some props. Check it out if you get a second.

-- my two cents

Speak Media Blog

Sears Gets Aggressive with Social Media

It seems you can teach an old brand new tricks. Sears has launched a clever social media & product placement campaign that could turn things around for the brand just in time for back to school.

Targeting the 8-to-14 year old market, they started out doing the usual: sponsorships with Facebook, MySpace, Seventeen, Cosmogirl, Nickelodeon and Disney.

They've also developed and posted games on various sites like Addicting Games, FunBrain and Neopets.

What I'm most impressed with, however, are the virtual Sears boutiques, fashion shows and design competitions for avatars within online communities like Zwinky, Meez, WeeMee, The N and Poptropica. This is a very clever way to get their target market to personally interact with the brand. Wildly popular with the tween crowd, these sites allow young girls to play dress up with virtual characters. Clearly Sears hopes that girls will have so much fun shopping at the virtual store, they will ask their moms to let them go to the real thing.

Sears also partnered with High School Musical star, Vanessa Hudgens in the creation of "Arrive Lounge" a site that encourages teen girls to go back to school in style (the tag: "Don't just go back. Arrive.") The site also offers behind-the-scenes footage from Hudgens' Sears ads as well as sweepstakes and downloads.

Finally, the brand has the enviable position as the exclusive retail partner for the MTV movie The American Mall, the story of a group of teens working in their local mall. Scenes for the 87-minute film were shot in a real Sears location and characters not only wear Sears clothes throughout, the actors also appear in advertisements and circulars. I imagine they are hoping to do for their brand what Valley Girl did for Orange Julius in the 80s.

All of this comes on the heels (pun intended) of a campaign targeting teens headed for prom and other end-of-school dances called Prom Premiere 2008. It featured an interactive site that allowed girls to share photos of dresses with family and friends, so they could mix and match the dresses, shoes and accessories to get virtual help in making "the most important decision in a young girl's life." The look of the site was very red carpet, which was a great design choice.

Overall, this total campaign is very aggressive and hits all the sweet spots in terms of connecting with the tween crowd through social media. I will let you know if/when Sears releases any ROI.

-- my two cents

New Tricks for Green Marketers to Go Viral

It's no secret that the Green consumer loves to tell everyone how Green his life is. According to a 2007 Newsweek article, Honda customers left the company in droves, opting instead for the Toyota Prius because the Hondas just "didn't look Hybrid enough." (Honda plans to release a new hybrid in 09 -- as well as a 62 MPG diesel in 2010 -- that "will not be wrapped in the sheet metal of Honda's everyday cars. Instead, it will have the larva styling the Prius pioneered — which now embodies the green-car look.")

Now, I love that it's trendy to boast about small carbon footprints. Given the state of our planet, it's a great thing for the environment. But, let's not forget, it's a great thing for Green marketers too. The more consumers talk about new ways to stay Green, the more likely they'll be talking about our clients.

Recognizing this trend, a few eco-friendly brands, including Origins, North Face and Honest Foods have launched online platforms that reward consumers for engaging in various Green initiatives. These online communities allow people to submit their own content demonstrating their Greenness. Consumers can share their latest uploads through IM and email as well as by reviewing and rating each other's activities. Behaviors are rewarded with prizes for “most popular” or “most viral” entries.

Green marketers should consider employing a platform like this. Not only is it a great way to engage consumers, but the nature of these platforms is to drive viral reach. The company behind this technology is Brickfish, a social media platform that "taps into the power of consumer driven marketing ... providing brands and agencies with a single source solution to leverage the power of social media sites and user-generated content for truly effective online marketing efforts that drive awareness, analytics and action."

What gives Brickfish a leg up on other social media platforms (for the moment) is the reporting. The company provides a visualization of each viral campaign enabling marketers to understand how content is shared between users. And, they claim their "approach has proven to be 5 to 10 times more effective than traditional online marketing methods such as display ads or search optimization.”

Now, as is true with anything Internet - early adopters like Origins, North Face and Honest Foods will have a greater chance of capturing market share. As more and more brands develop their own viral/user-gen-content platforms, the idea will lose impact and, let's face it, there are only so many same-sites people want to visit. Either way, Green products lend themselves perfectly to viral marketing and kudos to Origins, North Face and Honest Foods for embarking on a solid approach.

-- my two cents

Required Reading in Social Media (from Regular Geek)

Hey folks, I wanted to direct your attention to a blog called Regular Geek.

A few days ago, they published a list of Required Reading in Social Media. They identify some great sites and blogs that cover Social Media strategy and the latest news in online communities, blogs and new media in general. Check it out!

Thanks to Regular Geek for putting together this great resource.

Enjoy!


-- my two cents

AP's Battle with Bloggers Continues...

As I reported yesterday, the Associated Press arranged a sit-down with the Media Bloggers Association in response to boycotts over their litigious actions against a small Blogger who quoted and credited an AP story.

Now, the AP wants all Bloggers to pay to quote them. Yep. You read that right. The global press service has announced a Web Use Charge for AP passages as short as 5 words in length. This includes passages that are not stolen; not plagiarized - but fully attributed and quoted directly with links back to the AP source.

The pricing scale for using AP content begins at $12.50 for 5-25 words and goes as high as $100 for 251 words and up. Nonprofit organizations and educational institutions enjoy a discounted rate.

Now, I will always speak out against plagiarism. As a writer myself (and not just of this blog), I truly understand the total violation of someone stealing your work and your words. But, like so many of my colleagues, I can't get my head around how this pricing model will be enforced.

Rather than paraphrase what others are saying, allow me to quote them directly (for free and with all due accreditation).

PoliGazette.com asks: What’s considered quoting the AP? If President Bush says something, and the AP quotes Bush, are we then not allowed to quote Bush anymore because the AP also quotes him?

BetaNews asks: Suppose a news source holds a press conference and makes a statement to several attendees including an AP correspondent. Does the citation of that quote count as an excerpt of an AP story? What if Reuters cited the same quote? Or worse, what if Reuters cited the quote differently, and a Blogger noticed the difference and excerpted both for comparison? If the AP citation turned out to be in error, would the Blogger still owe?

Techachio asks: Should “boilerplate” words count towards the fee? For example, a phrase common among news stories is "XYZ Company had this to say" when prefacing a published statement or quote. If the AP runs a story with this phrase, will it therefore cost anyone else $12.50 to use this 10 cent expression?

Michelle Malkin, in a rather hilarious twist, adds that she found several examples of the Associated Press quoting her Blog directly (without links back or accreditation). Malkin estimates that by the AP's pricing model, she is owed $132,125.

With that in mind, I have most certainly seen leads from The Drudge Report and posts from The HuffingtonPost quoted in AP stories. Perhaps Matt and Arianna were adequately compensated.

And, I'd add to the debate: what about the citizen-journalists who break major stories? Talking Points Memo, for instance, broke the Alberto Gonzalez story - which was picked up by major news channels, including the AP. Was David Kurtz paid by word? TPM was also instrumental in the reporting that led to U.S. Senator Trent Lott’s resignation, which was certainly picked up by major market media. Other Bloggers like GigaOm and TechCrunch have broken major news and have been directly quoted by major media, including the Associated Press, with no Web Use Charge for its online reporting of their stories.

Likewise, if you read my blog, you know The New York Times followed Bloggers' lead in the Target PR blunder. Were those folks compensated when the AP picked up the story? And, what if the AP runs information gathered from Brew Blog, does Miller get paid?

Finally, how about Reporter-Blogs? As we've already seen, 95% of the top 100 newspapers offer Reporter-Blogs. Yet, traditional media are exempt from paying to reprint AP news.

Timothy Wu, a professor at the Columbia Law School said the case is not clear-cut, but he believes that the AP is likely to lose a court case to assert a claim. "One important legal test of whether an excerpt exceeds fair use is if it causes financial harm to the copyright owner. I hardly think a Blogger, especially one who has issued proper accreditation and who links web site traffic back to the Associated Press, can be proven to have caused financial harm."

So...the saga continues. I will keep you informed...

-- my two cents

image courtesy of bizarro.com

AP Responds to Blogger Boycotts with a Sit-Down

Certainly blogger credibility has been a hot topic here and now a new twist has come into play.

Here's the breakdown:

Last week the Associated Press filed takedown notices against the Drudge Retort (a small news community whose name is a parody of the more prominent Drudge Report) for use of its content on the site.

By Saturday, online protests urging bloggers to boycott the AP were set up by the aptly-named UnAssociated Press. The boycott encourages bloggers to make use of other agencies' material in response to the AP's takedown notice.

Meanwhile the blogosphere lit up this weekend with criticism against the AP for going after a small blogger who appears to be in compliance with "fair use" provisions of copyright law. (The Drudge Retort included links back to the AP articles and attributed proper credit to the original authors.)

Yesterday (Monday), in response to the blogger reaction, the Associated Press announced plans to meet with the Media Bloggers Association to help form guidelines under which AP news stories could be quoted online. Jim Kennedy, the AP's director of strategic planning, said that meeting's goal is to "create standards for online use of AP stories by bloggers that would protect AP content without discouraging bloggers from legitimately quoting it."

Today many bloggers are accusing the Associated Press of trying to control the blogosphere. Michael Arrington, a blogger who has boycotted the AP, wrote on his TechCrunch blog that the Associated Press "doesn't get to make its own rules about how its content is used, if those rules are stricter than the law allows ... they are trying to claw their way to a set of property rights that don’t exist today and that they are not legally entitled to."

Arrington goes on to outline his stance on the boycott, stating: "So here’s our new policy on A.P. stories: they don’t exist. We don’t see them, we don’t quote them, we don’t link to them. They’re banned until they abandon this new strategy, and I encourage others to do the same until they back down from these ridiculous attempts to stop the spread of information around the Internet."

Techcrunch hit home on the real issue here: fair use. Are people allowed to take small quotes from the AP stories for the purpose of starting a discussion or reporting news, while giving proper credit and linking back to the original author?

Intellectual property attorneys say the issue falls into murky legal terrain because the original law was drafted pre-web. And, it's isn't just the AP trying to navigate these waters. Last year, Google agreed to a licensing deal with Agence France Presse, which claimed indexing its leads to the wire service's stories amounted to copyright infringement.

Nancy Mertzel, a New York intellectual property attorney with Thelen Reid, explains the danger in any precedent set here, "If there was a court decision that said quoting from a news story was an infringement, then I think a lot of blogs would have to rethink their business model."

Kennedy said the AP had no intention of making such strict rules or setting any kind of legal standard. He also said AP was reconsidering how and when to send legal notices to bloggers in hopes of giving them "a little more leeway."

Meanwhile, some bloggers are upset that the Media Bloggers Association is even involved. According to Bloggers For Change, "...[the] Media Bloggers Association, of course, are walking right into that meeting because they crave nothing more than creating the impression that they, you know, represent bloggers (they don't). But anyone with an inkling of understanding of the law and principles at stake would know that the AP has no ground to stand on, and anything negotiated between them and the MBA will be ignored by the vast majority of bloggers anyway."

I am not a legal scholar, but I certainly recall my college courses in libel law and basic copyright infringement, and from my limited experience, I have to agree with TechCrunch and the others. As long as a blogger uses proper accreditation, there is no infringement. The blog, Copysense has an interesting and legal perspective on the case, which I encourage folks to read. It's rather long, but it outlines the specific codes of conduct that are currently on the books.

In the meantime, it will be very interesting to see how this plays out.

-- my two cents

It's the Internet - Do You Know Where Your Brand Is?

The other day, I was talking with David Allison, editor of the Atlanta Business Chronicle, about consumers discussing brands online. At one point David said, "I bet most Atlanta companies are blissfully unaware of what's being said about them on Technoratti." Now, we've talked about social media creating brand evangelists here, but David got me wondering how many PR pros are looking at what's being said about their clients online? How many are seizing opportunities to turn around dissastisfied customers? And, how many are making hay of their fans' positive comments within social media.

The Stats

According to Nuance Care Solutions, 72% of survey respondents use social media to research a company's reputation for customer care before making a purchase; and 74% choose to do business with companies based on the experiences shared by others online. Meanwhile, 59% said they regularly use social media to "vent" about their customer service frustrations. Only 33% of respondents said they believe companies take online complaints seriously.

Turn The Tide

While it's always risky to engage negative posters, (I would advise you not feed the trolls), monitoring and responding to genuine customer complaints online can be a great way to catch a problem early and turn it around. Demonstrating a desire to solve the problem can ultimately result in positive posts. In fact, most of the time angry customers really just want to vent and a savvy PR pro can turn the tide of negativity by simply showing a genuine interest in solving a customer's dissatisfaction.

Watch Competitor Talk Too

It can be very useful to monitor what customers are saying about the competition (good and bad comments). This way you can ensure your messaging counters competitive claims and/or demonstrates how your product succeeds where their's fails.

Find Good Stories To Tell

There is such a great opportunity for PR professionals to identify brand evangelists and develop campaigns around them. A fan of Lego’s, Mike Stimpson, recently re-created some of the most famous photos in pop culture history using nothing but the colorful building bricks and characters. While the images appeared on blogs and news aggregate sites like Digg.com, I couldn’t help but wonder if The Lego Group’s PR team would promote his work. There is a great story there. (I could see a spot on Ellen, Today or Letterman). What inspired him to do this? How long did it take? Why did he choose certain photos? Why did he choose Lego’s? (The most important question of all).

But, like so many brands, The Lego Group seems to be missing a great opportunity to promote their customer telling the brand’s story. Fact is, those photos depict the fun of Lego’s. That is the message this guy is getting out there and The Lego Group should jump in and grow the story. By identifying and promoting brand evangelists within social media PR Pros can generate new story ideas for press.

How To Monitor

Okay, so, how do you find what people are saying in every corner of the web? There are a lot of great tools to seek these conversations online.

Google and Yahoo Alerts for keywords in search engines.

Google Blog Search to search blogs that don't index on the main or news page.

Yahoo Pipes give you an aggregate and mashup of multiple feeds.

BlogPulse is a great way to identify trends across blogs.

Google Trends measures the level of interest in particular topics.

Compete is a great way to track rivals.

Serph is an all-in-one social media search engine.

Keotag is similar to Serph.

Tweetscan lets you search keywords within Twitter.

Commentful lets you track comments and trackbacks within blogs and some boards.

BoardReader and BoardTracker are great for following board/forum conversations.
Radian6 is a rather newer tracker. They focus more on videos and multimedia.

As I've said many times here before: social media has changed the game. We have more opportunities for story-telling than we’ve ever had before. We just need the opportunistic thinking to go along with it. We need to get out there and to turn negatives to positives while giving a bigger microphone to those who endorse us (or our clients).

-- my two cents

Using Twitter for PR & Marketing Strategy

Ever since BusinessWeek's Twitter test in early May, I've gotten a lot of emails asking how I use Twitter and what I think of it as a PR tool.

I have to admit when I first got on Twitter, I thought it was silly. Like so many people, I just didn't get it. Who cares if I am doing laundry? Do I really need to know that someone I never met before just picked up his kids from school? Then, I started snooping around and reading tweets and following links and I finally got it. Soon, I was tweeting and now, I'm just as addicted as everyone else in the twittersphere.

Some people have asked me about tweeting news releases. I have done this, yes. But, I'd advise you to really consider the news and who is following you. Make sure it is relevant, otherwise, you really won't see any results. You may want to look into Digg, StumbleUpon, Squidoo, Newsvine, Tumblr and many other pure news distribution sites if that is your only goal.

Now, there are many great articles on how to use Twitter and I'd definitely advise newbies to check those out. But, you know I can never resist joining the conversation with my two cents. So, here's my advice on how to use Twitter.

Why Do You Want To Use It?
First, ask yourself what your objective is. Do you want to use Twitter for research? To make connections? To stay on top of specific topics? To drive web site or blog traffic? Job recruiting? Job searching? As with anything, you have to start with your objective and build from there.

Building Your Following.
As someone with only 166 followers, I'm not going to win any popularity contests on Twitter. But, I've only been active for a few months, and my objective was blog traffic. So, 166 PR professionals is more important to me than 1,000 random individuals. Again, it goes back to your goal.

That said, here are my tips to building a following.

Ask questions. Social media is about community, conversation, participation. Don't just tweet your links. Ask questions and tweet conversation-starters that will engage your followers.

Make it a conversation. When someone tweets something I find interesting, I comment on it. It starts a discussion; a debate; anything to create that social interaction beyond just posting links. Be sure to give a proper shout out. If ABC@xyz.com tweets, reply to him with Hey ABC@xyz.com, that was hilarious...or I disagree, or whatever you want to say.

Post your twitter page elsewhere. Just as I have my company's site, my Facebook page, etc. in the contact me section of this blog, I have a twitter link. I do the same on my MySpace page, Facebook, Squidoo, Furl, Digg, etc. The more you connect all of your social media sites together, the more you will create consistency and a broader reach.

In fact, Facebook has a Twitter application that will automatically copy your tweets to your Facebook page. I also use the blog app so every blog post I make here instantly appears on Facebook too. Synchronicity, baby.

Follow those who follow you. If someone starts following you, return the favor. Social media is always a two-way street.

Use Twitter tools.
Twitter has added many tools that make using the site much easier.

Tweetscan - This allows you to search for specific things that people are Tweeting about. It's a great way to tailor your audience to a specific topic and avoid having to look through all those, "I'm eating lunch," "I'm watching TV," "I'm running out to get some groceries" tweets.

Snitter is an application you download to your desktop that keeps you from having to constantly go to the Twitter site, you can just tweet from your desktop. You'll get your friends' tweets too.

Twitter Cal is a calendar app I haven't really started using yet. But, it can be a great way to let others know where you are, something I'm personally not that crazy about doing. (You never know who will show up!) But, if you are on a speaker circuit or have a lot of news articles coming out, it can be very useful to keep people apprised of those events. (I'd definitely recommend this if you are tweeting as a company, not a person.)

Also, there are many other micro-blogging sites emerging that are proving to be pretty cool. I'd recommend checking out: Pownce, Jaiku, Friendfeed for example. Just beware of over-use. I've found if I get on too many sites at once, it can be a real drag trying to keep up with them all and as soon as your voice dwindles, you defeat the whole purpose. So, as is true with everything in life, don't over-extend.

In the meantime, send me your tweets and let's get the conversations going!

-- my two cents

Marketers Increase Social Media Spending

According to the results of a recent survey carried out by the Online Marketing and Media Show (OMMS), marketers are still spending their online budgets on search, email and pay-per-click. However, they are no longer opening their wallets for traditional banner advertising, and instead they're making room for social media and viral marketing.

The survey was targeted at exhibitors and delegates who will be attending the OMMS 2008 event which takes place on June 24th and 25th.

Overall, according to the survey, online marketing spends continue to increase, with over a third of all survey respondents revealing that up to 25% of their marketing budget will be dedicated purely to online marketing and media this year. This is a 15% increase over predicted spend in 2007.

Measuring response, SEO and online campaign planning were identified as the top three priority areas for understanding and education. Certainly this seems right on, in terms of client meetings I've had recently. While folks seem keenly interested in viral/social campaigns, there is still a great deal of education needed to demonstrate method and value. Despite the current lack of understanding in these areas, the study indicates that marketers are reluctant to outsource the development of their online strategy. Less than half of respondents indicated that they plan on working with a digital agency in the next 12 months.

Sally Maltby, Event Director for OMMS 2008 comments "Marketers want to invest their marketing budget where they can get tangible, clear results. Historically, SEO and pay-per-click campaigns have been the leaders for this reason. Now marketers want to engage with their audience beyond the first click. As the industry starts seeing improved measurement tools in place for social media, marketers will begin experimenting and investing more online."

The survey also revealed that 75% of respondents generate more accountable return on investment from their online marketing and media activity than their more traditional marketing tools. In line with the majority of respondents recognizing online and social media as an area for growth, 62% said they would be comfortable advertising their brand on a social networking site.

If you read my blog, you know one of the things I love about new/social media is the immediate ROI that can be measured. Clearly, others are coming around to this notion. But, it seems we still need to do more to educate our clients on the value of these tactics.

Michael Nutley, Editor in chief of New Media Age and OMMS conference producer said, "We've seen from the survey results that marketers want to extend their understanding of new marketing tools before trying them out. Marketers want to engage their audiences more fully, but are unclear of how to do it from tactics to measurement."

As I've said before, we need embrace the convergence of viral marketing and PR and do more to educate our clients - and each other - on the best ways to demonstrate the value of these strategies.

-- my two cents

MarketingSherpa's 08 Viral Hall of Fame

Marketing Sherpa just released their Hall of Fame Viral Marketing Inductees for 2008. A little early to close the book on this year's viral wins, in my view. But, it's a great list nonetheless. Below is a brief look at their top picks, as well as the "common threads" they noticed running through the campaigns.

Common Threads in Winning Viral

Rise of social media - Most of this year’s candidates sent videos to YouTube, created Facebook pages or organized communities on MySpace -- or all of the above.

Peer-to-peer sharing is critical - There were two distinct groups in this year’s entries: fantastically thought-out campaigns and wacky content. Either way, success hinged on peer-to-peer sharing.

All hail mighty content - You’ve heard the adage -- we’re not even going to say it -- but all it took for some campaigns to go wildly viral was great content.

So, without further introduction, here are MarketingSherpa’s Viral Marketing Hall of Fame inductees for 2008:

VIBE Media Group
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: This VIBE contest drove young and hip viewers to an urban music and culture website. Participants in an online rap music contest created and submitted videos to be voted on by the VIBE community. They received MySpace widgets to share their videos with friends and drive voters to http:/ /www.vibe.com where they could interact, view and vote on more entries. VIBE saw an 800% ROI on their efforts and captured 60,000 new registered members.

General Mills’ Pink for the Cure
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Bolstering the battle against breast cancer, General Mills launched this campaign to spread hopeful stories of those touched by the disease. An elaborate MySpace page was created and partnerships were formed with celebrities and a network of breast cancer survivors and activists. Visitors could share their stories, comment and download badges and backgrounds for their own pages. The campaign reached more than 2.7 million people, gained thousands of MySpace friends and received great feedback from participants.

Sporting Portugal
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Sporting Portugal created a website that let users submit their name and telephone number to become part of an interactive ad. A video showing a well-known soccer coach stressing out in a locker room ended with a phone call to the submitted number with the coach encouraging the visitor to come to the stadium because “the team needs you.” The idea attracted plenty of blog coverage and more than 610,000 people to the site in two weeks. The all-time record for season ticket sales was shattered on the first day of the season.

Pazazz’s Printing’s Alive
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Pazazz’s edgy video shows that viral success is possible without breaking the bank. Pazazz wanted to convey its love for printing by making people laugh, and this 3-1/2-minute video does just that on a shoestring budget. Seeding consisted of an email to Pazazz’s house list, a YouTube video, links on Facebook and LinkedIn and press releases to industry publications. The video has received 133,000 views and more than 20 requests for a high-resolution copy to show at conferences and corporate events, plus a speaking gig for the CEO at major conference.

Columbia Sportswear’s Tested Tough
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Columbia Sportswear built its brand in this campaign by asking customers to test just how tough the outdoor-wear firm’s products are. Customers were invited via email, display ads and contest websites to brutalize Columbia’s products, tell the tale and send photos and videos of the action. Visitors to the contest site could view, vote and comment on entries. Columbia received more than 3,000 entries. The projected response rate was surpassed by more than 33%.

VeriSign’s Liberty Fillmore, the Cart Whisperer
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Ask any eretailer: abandoned shopping carts are a challenge. And nobody cares more about that challenge than Liberty Fillmore the Cart Whisperer. Internet infrastructure provider VeriSign created a series of fun videos featuring the fictitious Liberty Fillmore, who teaches that website shopping cart abandonment is preventable. The campaign included submissions to YouTube, a MySpace page, a Facebook page and a website for Fillmore’s poetry, videos and contest. The videos delivered a heap of blog coverage and more than three million views on YouTube.

THQ’s Frontlines: Fuel of War
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Looking to promote a new video game, THQ launched this campaign using a microsite, contest and social media. Participants’ chances to win increased with the number of friends they recruited to enter. PPC promotion mixed with some “shoe leather” work at a gaming conference helped to bring this campaign 70% more registered contestants than hoped for.

StyleFeeder
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Social networks are fertile ground for viral seeds. Facebook users, for instance, love applications and are quick to share them with friends. StyleFeeder had this in mind when it created a product suggestion app for Facebook to expand its user base. Less than a year after launch, the app passed the milestone of 1 million installations.

Northwestern Mutual Insurance’s Letyourworriesgo.com
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: This Northwestern Mutual Insurance campaign encouraged microsite visitors to “let it go.” Visitors to the interactive page could select concerns, such as financial troubles or illness, and dispose of them via catapult, rocket, submarine or hot air balloon. The microsite leveraged a tell-a-friend feature and could be shared on social media sites, such as Digg and Del.icio.us. By the third month of the campaign, the site’s traffic was 213% higher than Northwestern Mutual’s total microsite traffic for 2007.

McKinney’s Snowglobe Boy
Click here to see campaign details
MarketingSherpa Summary: Sometimes elaborate tactics aren’t required to stimulate a viral response; all it takes is one great idea. Ad agency McKinney’s idea was to take holiday ecards to a new level by putting an employee inside a giant inflatable snow globe for four days and broadcasting it on a microsite 24 hours a day. Visitors could receive “season’s greetings” from Snowglobe Boy and chat with him. In a week, a small seed of a Facebook page, a YouTube video and about 1,000 emails to McKinney’s friends attracted about 50,000 unique visitors, network press coverage and lots of search traffic.

(content courtesy of Marketing Sherpa)

CNN's iReport New Channel For Savvy PR Pros

As you may know CNN purchased, revamped and re-launched a citizen journalist site called iReport.com, which is basically YouTube for news where people can submit their videos, photos and even fully-edited news stories, complete with citizen-anchors, fancy graphics and investigative reports. In BETA-form for the past few months, it seems the site is now locked and beginning to pick up some steam with more than 100,000 news stories submitted.

The submissions are uncensored and unverified, unless they are selected to appear on CNN, in which case some fact-checking is done. When a submission is selected, it is stamped with an "On CNN" label so viewers know that it was picked up.

Some have criticized the site as a contradiction of CNN's reputation as a trusted name in news and have suggested that libel and defamation suits could come from harmful submissions. For instance, says the Wichita Eagle, while you're out of town, someone who means you harm goes to your house, posts one of those "Sex Offender Lives Here" signs and does a feature story about the problems neighborhoods run into in such situations. Your enemy puts it -- unverified by anyone -- on iReport.com, where the entire world has access to it courtesy of CNN. And if it's done properly, every time anybody Googles your name, guess what they discover about you.

A rather paranoid assumption in my view, but I suppose I just don't consider myself as someone who has enemies -- especially anyone who would go so far as to create a fake news story about me. Besides, the scenario suggested by the Wichita Eagle could easily occur via YouTube or Google Video without the help of user-gen news sites.

CNN executives acknowledge that iReport.com's openness is something of a departure for a news organization that prides itself on accuracy and editorial judgment. But citizen-reporting has become increasingly popular and in many cases has even proved beneficial in the reporting of breaking news. (Some of the most compelling footage from last April's shootings on the Virginia Tech campus came from the 420 user-gen video clips CNN received, while last year's California wildfires yielded more than 11,000 submissions.)

It's also important to note that iReport is not entirely new. Sites like Fox News' uReport, MSNBC's FirstPerson, ABC's i-Caught have been operating in largely the same way for quite some time now and there haven't been any defamation lawsuits filed to-date.

For PR pros, these kinds of sites are super cool as we now have a new channel through which to distribute news about our clients, including speaking engagement highlights and new product launches/demos, a practice already seen on YouTube and Google video. Although, I would strongly advise you use caution when creating these reports, as deceptive tactics will most assuredly result in flamed comments and damage to the brand. PR-generated reports should be identified as such, just as we would identify ourselves in a video press release. If you approach citizen-news sites with the same creativity and complete transparency as any good news announcement, you should come out strong - and your product demo might even get picked up by the sponsoring media group.

-- my two cents

New Stats on Reporters, Blogs & How They Are Used

Although I still run into people who think bloggers are just guys sitting around in their mother's basements posting their rants in between games of Dungeons and Dragons, studies continue to show that the blogger demographic is more educated, more knowledgeable, and more relevant to our everyday lives than ever before.

As Mark Cuban learned a few months ago, an increasing number of reporters are blogging today. In fact, according to a study by the The Bivings Group, a full 95% of the top 100 US newspapers now offer reporter blogs (up from 80% in 2006), while 58% of the top 100 magazines provide blogs.

And, it's not just blogs helping people voice their opinions, it's the comments on the blogs. I've certainly enjoyed reading debates and discussions in the comments here and have used other Blog's comments sections to drive site traffic.

We all know that bloggers break stories these days -- from Rathergate, which led to Dan Rather's early retirement from CBS to the Albert Gonzales scandal, bloggers are at the forefront. And, certainly in January Target learned that major media follow the lead of bloggers. But, a recent study indicates that reporters use blogs less as a news source and more as a way to connect with readers and check up on competition.

In a survey of US journalists by PR Week, PR Newswire and Millward Brown, 57.7% of respondents said they used blogs to measure sentiment, 51% used them to gauge how their competitors were covering stories, and 38.7% of respondents used blogs as a mechanism to dig up sources.

Nearly 40% of journalists scouring blogs for story ideas is still quite significant. And, based on my conversations with reporters and my study of story timelines (from boards to blogs to major media), I think those numbers are low. Bottom line, blogs, micro-blogging, social bookmarking and really all social media is still in its infancy and I think we are only just beginning to see the total impact this will have on our clients, our audiences and our profession.

-- my two cents

Marketing Daily Asked Me About YouTube's New Metrics Tool

Hey folks, Marketing Daily recently interviewed me about YouTube's new metrics measurement tool. Article is reprinted below.

As New Media Grow As Marketing Tools, So Do Metrics
by Kelly Shermach

This spring, YouTube broke through the social marketing soil with a free metrics program for marketers that place ads on the site.

YouTube Insight's initial metrics provide details on how often videos are viewed, where in the world they achieve the greatest popularity and how they compare to their competitors' shorts. The program, which updates statistics daily, answers a desire that marketers have across media--the ability to test and measure messages and creative toward calculating their impact on brand awareness and consideration, and eventual purchase decisions.

Inch by inch, marketing measurement is expanding. "However, I think YouTube needs to step up Insight a bit more," says Jennifer A. Jones, VP/public relations and social media strategy for Fletcher Martin. "Right now, it offers the same sort of metrics most traffic-monitoring sites deliver--visitor numbers and map locators. I'd like to see more click-from and click-to information to truly measure the reach of a campaign."

Video posting by marketers is "certainly a growing practice," she says. The Atlanta-based Fletcher Martin recently completed a new spot for Arby's and immediately posted it to YouTube in addition to buying media time in select broadcast markets.

"What I love about all new media is the immediate ROI these tactics deliver," Jones says. "Traditional marketing campaigns don't generally yield such instant and exact measurement."

From Fertile Ground To Friendly SkiesDelta Air Lines currently has 28 videos posted to YouTube and linked to Delta Blog (http://blog.delta.com) to supplement content about its services, destinations and staff. The carrier began posting to YouTube in November to engage customers in the travel experience in a new way, as well as to "advertise and build our brand to a global audience, drive viral activity, inform customers of new benefits and reach new demographics in the changing media environment," says Kristen Manion, Delta's general manager of direct marketing. With so many objectives, Insight was a welcome addition to YouTube's direct relationship with Delta. Manion will leverage the tool to understand viewer preferences and trends within each target market.

The ability to track the popularity of videos in comparison with other videos during the same time period across different locations could help tailoring and testing of messages," she says. "It may also be possible to use these metrics to plan promotional campaigns and take advantage of the best time to release new offerings and to target users in specific locations at certain times during the life cycle of the campaign."

The current Insight offering pleases Manion because it enables Delta to analyze the origins of video viewership, track the arc of a video's popularity, enrich internal customer analytics with external data and measure seasonal trends.

Delta is also looking into the potential to use trends, spikes and clusters of geographic viewership from Insight to guide search decisions such as when to bid or optimize more aggressively in search campaigns," she says.

As does Jones, Manion hopes Insight will expand its metrics set, adding the ability to match day/time watched to audience to give a more direct comparison to traditional media.

The more information you have, the better it is," says David Berkowitz, director of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, New York. "It would be even better if you could compare multiple videos side by side, and also view more benchmarks on industry averages--'your video gets 50% of its viewers from YouTube search compared to 30% for all YouTube videos'--and better yet, get benchmarks by the category of the video."

"It's great that YouTube is stepping up with some measurement capabilities," Jones adds. "Insight will definitely help marketers in tracking user-generated content relating to their brand as well as their own content."

But measurement-pressed marketers "don't just want to know who viewed a video and where they live. We also want to know when they clicked out; what they viewed prior to and next; if they sent the videos to others and how many of those people viewed, etc.," she continues. "The whole point of viral campaign measurement is to see how the video is moving online--the total life cycle of a video."

Microsoft Vies for Hipper Image with PR Stunt

Consumers tend to associate “creative” with Mac and “corporate” with Microsoft, a brand position which Apple has brilliantly and consistently fostered since the infamous 1984 commercial. Now, with a new social media PR campaign, Microsoft aims to change that perception.

Here’s the break down:

It’s an online movie-making contest called Ultimate Video Relay aiming to improve Windows Vista’s reputation, particularly for the higher-end version of Vista Ultimate.

Director, Kyle Newman began the story with a six minute clip called "The Cube" that some are calling a cross between The Matrix and The Office.

The clip has an abrupt and incomplete ending. Contestants are supposed to finish the story by creating a second and third act using Vista Ultimate and site visitors will judge the best submissions.

To execute the campaign, Microsoft partnered with TriggerStreet, the online production company owned by Kevin Spacey. TriggerStreet and Microsoft were brought together by Omelet, a Los Angeles advertising company that focuses on entertainment-based campaigns.

Of course, it’s always risky to invite consumers to create content around your brand. Remember Chevy’s 2006 call for consumers to create a new online spot for the Tahoe? Most of the ads people created highlighted the Tahoe's fuel in-efficiency and subsequent damage to the environment.

Clearly Microsoft is hoping by starting the story, consumers will pick up where they left off. I assume they are also counting on the association with Spacey to lend credibility and spark interest from genuine aspiring screenwriters and filmmakers who want their talents noticed. Of course, talents can get noticed in a well-done negative piece too.

“One of the things that makes me feel O.K. about this,” said Barry Goffe, director for Windows client product management at Microsoft, “is that we’re not asking people to write a script that says ‘Windows Vista Ultimate is great’ or romances technology.” Rather, he added, the idea is to create content that in its tone would mirror the lighthearted approach of Act I of "The Cube."

Given the number of complaints and reports about Vista glitches, it’s definitely a risky move. But, at least Microsoft is transparent in their goals and it is a clever way to tell consumers that Windows has movie-making apps too -- something I certainly don't associate with the brand. So, we'll see how it shakes out. I will keep you posted, and if you hear of anything new, please let me know!

-- my two cents

Wanna Reach Women? Blog it!

A new social media benchmark study by BlogHer and Compass Partners shows that 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogsophere every week, with 15.1 million publishing and 21.1 million reading and commenting.

68% of this community is concentrated in the 25 to 41 age group (the GenXr's), compared to 42% for the general blogging population. Together, the “Millienials” and the “Matures” account for only about 10% of this community.

Two thirds of the female blogosphere have completed college, and 46% earn over $75,000 compared to only 25% of the general community.

Additional highlights from the study:

Women are so passionate about blogging, says the report, that large percentages said they would give something up to keep the blogs they read and/or write:

55% would give up alcohol
50% would give up their PDAs
42% would give up their i-Pod
43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines
only 20% would give up chocolate (ummm, yeah, gotta agree with that one!)

Time shift from traditional media is accelerating in the general Internet population:

24% of women surveyed watch less television because of blogging
25% read fewer magazines because they are blogging
22% read fewer newspapers because they're blogging

In addition, more than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of advice and information and half of women surveyed say blogs influence their purchase decisions.

So, if you want to reach women today, blog about it ... and maybe send us some chocolate too!

-- my two cents

Pontiac’s Interactive Scavenger Hunt Falls Flat

It’s a mad mad mad mad mad world for GM Canada as they’ve concluded a three-city interactive campaign for the new Pontiac Vibe called “Catch the Vibe.” But, in my view, this campaign was hardly worth the cost and effort. Here’s the breakdown:

A cross-country scavenger hunt fueled by Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr; plus e-mails, online ads, video clips, blogs, wikis, and text messages.

The campaign consisted of two-person teams, each driving a Vibe.

So far, it’s not unlike past campaigns: Budget’s 2005 16-city treasure hunt or Volvo’s 2007 buried car treasure hunt (a Pirates of the Caribbean tie-in), for example.

What’s so unusual is that each team is made up of journalists, 96 in total, covering their efforts as they raced around town to complete bizarre tasks and search for objects. They were given a Pearl 8130 to help search for clues and complete challenges like taking a picture in front of a church with red doors, or a shot of a participant hugging a cop. Points were given to teams who recruited people to cheer for them on the site.

The Vibe's online campaign site attracted around 4,000 unique visitors and in excess of 2,000 registered online team supporters since the event began on March 24.

Hardly a success, in my book. The math alone speaks volumes: 96 participating journalists and 2,000 registered supporters. Sounds like friends and family to me. Consider that Volvo’s campaign had more than 32,000 participants and over a million site visitors. Budget saw nearly 50,000 participants. And, both of those campaigns were directly linked to increased sales/rentals and dealership traffic.

The thing is most of these reporters automatically test-drive new vehicles. So, GM didn’t really gain anything by limiting the campaign to media. In fact, they may have hurt their launch because instead of writing about the car and its features, participating journalists wrote about the goofy things they were made to do; and – in some cases – reported on how much they love the Pearl (see paragraph 3 under Mathieu Lapointe). Sure, they had fun on GM’s dime, but writing about collecting coins and finding three vibrating objects doesn’t really boost Pontiac’s bottom line. And, nothing better exemplifies this aspect of the blunder than a quote from Chris Chase of Candian Driver, "Unfortunately, I didn't get to drive the Vibe at all (not even around the block), so I haven't a clue how it handles or feels. But, I had a good amount of time in the passenger seat -- which is fairly comfortable."

Some of the journalists invited to participate don’t cover cars at all. I can understand the notion that getting someone like Ellen Mizra, a freelance beauty writer, to post about her scavenger hunt adventures might introduce the car to her readers. But really…if I’m reading about beauty products, I’m not so sure a rep