Category Archives: Social Media

April 2, 2013 · 8:21 AM

Does Technology Serve You?

I would like to sincerely and publicly thank the men and women who volunteer to run the poling stations in our fair city, especially the one where I’ve voted for the past 14 years. Two and sometimes three times each year, they leave their warm beds to head for the church so that I can exercise my sometimes misguided right to vote. So, thank you.

This year, however, our beloved volunteers had a new challenge…an iPad-based electronic voter registration list that scans the bar code on your driver’s license to find your name in the registry. No longer will the volunteers have to struggle with the old cumbersome binders full of women (and men) to find the registered voter! It’s all electronic now.

Unless the name on your driver’s license is William and you’re registered to vote as Bill.

Now, I personally wasn’t in any particular hurry, and didn’t suffer any inconvenience (they did find my name reasonably quickly), but I did ask myself while watching the volunteers fumble with the iPad whether this was truly a better solution.

Oddly, this is the second time in two days where technology has been a hindrance rather than a help.

Yesterday, my better half suggested that I get reservations lined up for Mother’s Day, and forwarded an e-mail she’d received from one of her favorite restaurants, offering to make said reservations at the click of a link.

Being the world’s greatest husband, I clicked through, only to find that not only could I not get a table for 15 at 11:30, or for the two-hour window before or after 11:30, but there were no open reservations within 30 days of May 12. WTF?

“This can’t be right,” I thought. And it wasn’t. A five-minute telephone call to the restaurant netted a reservation for 15 at 11:15.

Technology is a wonderful thing. It can speed your day, organize your life, enable you to connect with long-lost friends and family, and access the world’s collective knowledge at the click of a button.

But how are you using technology to make the human experience more convenient, enjoyable, productive, joyful?

Sometimes I wonder who serves whom.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Listening, public relations, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , ,

November 19, 2012 · 9:41 AM

When It Comes to Brands, Character Trumps Reputation

“Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.”
— John Wooden

It’s time to examine your “brand character.”

Today, your customers have the ability to see the difference between perception and reality.

Historically, marketers and agencies focused their resources on building reputations for their products and services. At first, mass media advertising was sufficient. Then we saw the era of PR take hold. Ries & Ries correctly noted that brands are built using PR and defended using advertising.

Now we’re into the days of social media. Your brand does not belong to you any longer, it belongs to those who feel passionately about your brand one way or another. And the true nature of your character will always come through.

When it comes to marketing success, your character—who you truly are—will ultimately be exposed, so it’s important to be honest when constructing your reputation—your brand—as you want it to be known by others.

As Bob Garfield correctly points out, you cannot spend your way to marketing success.

In the end, Garfield observes, the person-to-person passion for the President outweighed the Romney-SuperPAC advertising machine. And I suppose that’s true, although roughly 49 percent of Americans have already judged the President’s brand character to be out of synch with his brand reputation, and we have yet to see how the Affordable Care Act and other Obama-driven initiatives will affect the country.

In my opinion, the President’s re-election is less about his reputation matching his character than it is about Romney having his reputation (and character) defined for him early in the election cycle. His “47 percent” speech was likely his undoing, serving as Exhibit A for the opposition’s point that Romney’s character and reputation were aligned against the average American.

Character is how you behave when no one is watching. The trouble today is that people are watching even when you think they’re not.

Reputations take time to build and can be quickly lost, especially when you or your company are resistant to owning your own humanity (assuming corporations are people…or at least managed and staffed by people).

There will come a time when you make a mistake. When you do, own it. Apologize. Seek forgiveness. Learn. And move on.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Issues Management, public relations, Social Media

Tagged as , , , ,

May 21, 2012 · 9:59 AM

Is Facebook Already Dead?

Facebook stock is trading around $33.50 a share as I type this post, down $4.50 from its Friday initial public offering price.

I don’t want to call myself Nostradamus, but the events of the past few weeks, along with this commentary from L. Gordon Crovitz in today’s Wall Street Journal reminded me of an item I posted just over two years ago.

My theory at the time was that Facebook someday would have to sell out its users’ (more than 900 million worldwide) personal data in order to become profitable. While this anticipated move is both logical and predictable, the user backlash will be strong, ugly and likely elicit government action that will slow

Crovitz’s opening joke says it all:

Q: Why did Facebook go public?

A: They couldn’t figure out the privacy settings either.

CNN recently aired/posted a story on “why people are leaving Facebook,” which cited five reasons why a growing number of people are deactivating their accounts:

  1. Maintaining a professional image
  2. Focusing on “real” communication
  3. Shedding an emotional burden
  4. Avoiding a time-waster
  5. Maintaining personal privacy

 

Little wonder a recent Associated Press-CNBC poll indicates Facebook may be a passing fad.

My own prediction is that Facebook will become similar to a television network, attracting a smaller number of heavy users (probably women ages 24-45), and that many other demographic groups will abandon the network in favor of the next big thing.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Issues Management, Social Media

Tagged as , , , , , ,

February 15, 2012 · 10:02 AM

Privacy, Weblining and a Government That Knows Best

I was amused by Scott Canon’s article in yesterday’s edition of The Kansas City Star on his ever-growing dependency on all things Google and concerns about privacy issues. One notable quote:

“I’ve long understood that I have been engaged in a digital disrobing that reveals my digital self click by click, and byte by byte. I dropped almost all my veils, eagerly, in full view of the computer mind of a multinational corporation. It’s just that living in a Google world is so easy.”

Canon’s point is delivered tongue-in-cheek, but raises a broader and more serious concern, expressed on Sunday by  Chicago-Kent School of Law Professor Lori Andrews in her New York Times essay, “Facebook is Using You.”

“Material mined online has been used against people battling for child custody or defending themselves in criminal cases. LexisNexis has a product called Accurint for Law Enforcement, which gives government agents information about what people do on social networks. The Internal Revenue Service searches Facebook and MySpace for evidence of tax evaders’ income and whereabouts, and United States Citizenship and Immigration Services has been known to scrutinize photos and posts to confirm family relationships or weed out sham marriages. Employers sometimes decide whether to hire people based on their online profiles, with one study indicating that 70 percent of recruiters and human resource professionals in the United States have rejected candidates based on data found online. A company called Spokeo gathers online data for employers, the public and anyone else who wants it. The company even posts ads urging ‘HR Recruiters — Click Here Now!’ and asking women to submit their boyfriends’ e-mail addresses for an analysis of their online photos and activities to learn ‘Is He Cheating on You?’”

It’s not all bad, of course. As Jeffrey S. Trachtman points out in this response to Ms. Andrews’ piece, oftentimes, a site’s ability to deliver advertising offers that directly benefit both the site and the user, represents a win-win and is a positive outcome of data aggregation.

But the issue becomes more sinister when data are used to discriminate. More from Andrews:

“Now the map used in redlining is not a geographic map, but the map of your travels across the Web. The term Weblining describes the practice of denying people opportunities based on their digital selves. You might be refused health insurance based on a Google search you did about a medical condition. You might be shown a credit card with a lower credit limit, not because of your credit history, but because of your race, sex or ZIP code or the types of Web sites you visit.”

The key for me is the term “Weblining,” which could become a convenient excuse for greater government regulation of online sales and marketing practices. How many disgruntled consumers will it take before someone makes it his personal mission to ensure that no one is discriminated against due to his or her Web-surfing habits?

Where does efficient direct marketing end and Weblining begin? And is Weblining inherently a bad thing?

Stay tuned, sports fans. This is only the beginning.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Issues Management, Listening, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 4, 2012 · 11:06 AM

Is Social Media Addictive?

Has this ever happened to you?

You would have finished a current work project a long time ago, but you just couldn’t ween yourself away from your Twitter feed long enough to concentrate.

You’re kind of depressed that you don’t feel as happy as all my your Facebook friends seem to be.

If the answer is “yes,” perhaps it’s time to admit powerlessness and get yourself to a meeting of Social Media Addicts Anonymous (SMAA), a new group for folks addicted to all things social and unable to manage their lives, careers and relationships.

If this sounds ridiculous, check out this post from Erik Sass at The Social Graf, or this December 2011 article from Danial Gulati in the Harvard Business Review.

In the former, Sass cites a recent study following 250 social media users (ages 18 to 85) in Wurzburg, Germany. As reported in the journal Psychological Science, when asked to give up all social media, subjects reported:

“…social media was harder to resist than a gamut of other behaviors: ‘In contrast, people were relatively successful at resisting sports inclinations, sexual urges, and spending impulses, which seems surprising given the salience in modern culture of disastrous failures to control sexual impulses and urges to spend money.’ Likewise, the subjects’ reports for alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine marked their desires for these substances at relatively low levels compared to social media.”

Social media more addictive than alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and sex???

Wow.

HBR’s Gulati, author of the book Passion & Purpose, observes three major trends emerging among heavy Facebook users:

  1. A tendency to compare their own personal situation unfavorably to those of their “friends.” In other words, people read the happy posts and see the smiling photos of their online friends and begin to feel that their own happiness and worth are wanting when compared to others’. (I wrote about this Facebook-depression link in a previous post.)
  2. Time fragmentation. We’re so busy checking our Facebook pages or Twitter feeds that we’re not able to fully concentrate on our work or everyday tasks. “Multitasking” has taken on a life of its own, to the point where people are switching back and forth between “real life” and social media on a minute-by-minute basis.
  3. A decline in close personal relationships. Why get together with your girlfriend for lunch when you can get caught up with her via Facebook? Connecting via social media is just like having a real relationship without all the mess. You can share what you want and you can quit listening at any time.

Just as the addict seeks to fill the void in his life with drink or drug, a person addicted to social media crave the “connection” these technologies provide as a way to fill the holes in his life.

As marketers, we talk about using social media as a way to “connect” with consumers and how companies can use Facebook, Twitter, etc., to “humanize” themselves and “become more authentic.”

But are we really accomplishing these goals, or merely contributing to a global addiction that ultimately will leave us all distracted, disconnected and depressed?

At this point, no one knows.

As someone who sits at a desk the majority of the day, I know it’s hard for me to get out and actually have a real conversation with a live human being (which means listening as well as talking) as often as I’d like.

However, I have found through my professional experience that it’s that face-to-face interaction that enables the type of trust and personal connection that makes business work.

If you want your company to behave more humanely, consider the interactions between the humans who work for you and the humans who buy from you. Is technology helping or hurting?

Are you doing all you can to foster true connection? Or are you merely trying to seduce and sedate your audience into an unhealthy relationship?

See you at the coffee shop.

1 Comment

Filed under Listening, Social Media

Tagged as , , , , , ,

January 30, 2012 · 10:58 AM

The Trouble With Kids Today

Does when you were born affect the way you feel about brands?

And do recent economic and demographic trends have an impact on communications crises?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but a recent article got me to thinking about how expectations, recessions, social media and spare time can impact business today.

Rebecca Lindland has a thoughtful piece in Forbes this week about the youth of America, and how generational differences are cropping up in the form of American Idol contestants. Lindland cites research from DYG Research and IHS Consumer Markets on Gen Y (born between 1978 and 1987) and those born in 1988 and after, as two distinct groups:

“Generation Y isn’t what conventional wisdom and demographers alike first thought: it isn’t one big giant mass of 80 million kids. Instead, it is two very different, very unique cohorts—Generation Y and what I call Generation Green—both about the same size but growing up in very different environs.

Currently 24-35 years old, [Generation Y contestants] were brash and self-possessed in their youth, and American Idol provided the ultimate stage, inviting these kids to display their talent in the public eye. Social media was still relatively young, and YouTube wasn’t around yet. It appealed to the sharpest expressions of this young cohort – self-absorbed, obsessed with fun, and chock full of self-confidence (DYG). This was their own personal platform – and they could bring their equally fascinating, blindly (deafly?) supportive helicopter parents along for the ride to riches.

Generation Green, born after 1988 and currently 24 or younger, is the first generation to grow up with hybrid AND electric cars from mainstream brands (Toyota Prius, Chevy Volt, and Nissan Leaf) as part of their buying options, and they recycle religiously…Long before the Occupy movement, DYG research predicted these kids would take ‘part in a demonstration, rally or protest to promote a social or political cause’.”

Combined, the two generations comprise 80 million Americans, roughly a quarter of the population, are the biggest users of social media, and are hardest hit by the recession.

On the one hand, there are 40 million Americans who were raised in a boom economy, whose self-esteem was valued to the point of absurdity (“everybody gets a ribbon!”), who experienced impressive personal and financial success in their early 20s, and whose expectations are perhaps a bit unrealistic.

On the other, 40 million Americans who’ve seen the darker realities of our economy yet retain a Utopian vision for the world.

Add to this mix a boatload of social media savvy and the popularly held belief that their plight is due to the greed and misbehavior of the fortunate few, and you have a recipe for trouble.

Last week’s #McFail may be an example. For those who missed it, as part of its strategy to promote relationships with family farmers and other “good guy” suppliers, McDonald’s launched a Twitter campaign using the hashtag #McDStories. Perhaps predictably, the hashtag elicited all manner of deliciously evil anecdotes, and the Golden Arches quickly killed the campaign.

Domino’s Pizza employees posting YouTube videos of themselves doing yucky things with people’s food could be another. (The two employees charged with crimes were aged 31 and 32, respectively, making them members of Gen Y.)

One could even make a case for the Occupy movement (although these groups count members from all walks of life and age groups) being a natural consequence of these forces. (One could make the same case for the Tea Party movement by viewing the opposite side of this same coin.)

Even if your company’s social justice policies are otherwise beyond reproach, if your corporate commissary dispenses coffee that was picked by child laborers and sold at below-fair-market prices, be prepared to hear about it. The first attack will come via social media, then the MSM, and then social media again as the “news” gets picked up and amplified.

For the record, I’m a member of Generation X, the group that brought you manky flannel, grunge music and Monica Lewinsky…so my peers and I are not without blame. And who knows what we would have done during the 1990-93 recession had we had access to social media.

Crises come from all angles, are perpetrated by all manner of people and recent events could simply be a reflection of the times.

Or, this could be the new normal.

Leave a Comment

Filed under crisis communications, Issues Management, Social Media, Uncategorized

Tagged as , , , , , , , ,

June 27, 2011 · 3:16 PM

Should #Ethics Be Taught in #B-School?

Maybe I’m just anxious because it’s Monday, but a blog post from Dr. David Rock in the Harvard Business Review has me a bit concerned.

“The Business of Values” recounts the discussions from a recent symposium hosted by the Harvard Business School on the “sticky subject of ethics.”

“With the poor standing that business leaders have in society today, there was wide agreement that the grand experiment to leave values out of business education has probably not gone so well, to put it politely,” said Rock, executive director of the NeuroLeadership Institute. Ya think?

Personally, I think teaching ethics at B-school is like teaching celibacy at the Bunny Ranch. If you haven’t bought in by the time you get there, four credit hours (or even two full years) of ethics teaching probably aren’t going to change your ways.

I think many in the business world come from the “Miller’s Crossing” school of ethics.

Regardless, Rock observed three current schools of thought on teaching ethics and values in business schools:

  1. Ethics = values. “These schools were teaching students how to recognize their wider responsibilities — like their deeper legal and fiduciary responsibilities, as well as less obvious responsibilities to their employees, stakeholders and the wider community.”
  2. Universal ethics. There is a universal set of values, which should be taught to all business students, although this approach begs the question of which values should be taught and how.
  3. “Ethics from the inside out.” Helping students to understand their individual values and how to exercise those values when facing ethical dilemmas.

The one phrase in the article that most deeply disturbs me is a quote from one unnamed participant, “[I]t is easier to make headway teaching values if we take the stance that we are all deeply flawed, in deeply complex, chaotic systems.”

I find this sort of thinking defeatist, but I can understand why someone would feel this way. After all, you don’t have to look too far to find stories about leaders from business, government or The Church behaving badly.

I used to promote the Kansas City Business Ethics Awards, which are held annually to celebrate business owners who “did the right thing,” even when it cost their business money or even an important client relationship.

We had a heck of a time getting any attention from the news media (even back in the days when newspapers employed reporters). After all, the media don’t report on airplanes that land safely or on people who obey the laws.

But I disagree with the notion that we’re all deeply flawed. Or that life is terribly chaotic or complex.

We are all imperfect. We all make mistakes. I would argue that most people make the right choices most of the time and that most people genuinely care about their families, their neighbors, their communities and the world.

Further, in the age of social media, it’s tougher for an individual or a company to hide bad behavior or unethical business practices from the public. The truth always gets out, and even a seemingly small decision, such as where you’re sourcing raw materials, can (and will) come back to bite you.

I am optimistic about the future, as I hear more people choosing to take responsibility for their actions and to think twice about the pursuit of material possessions vs. doing what’s right.

I applaud business school educators for making the effort to make ethics an integral part of business. I hope they also will hold the line when it comes to pursuing justice and celebrating fair play.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Issues Management, Social Media

Tagged as , , , , ,

June 22, 2011 · 10:58 AM

#RogerEbert, #SocialMedia and the #FirstAmendment

I kinda figured Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago) wasn’t a fan of the “Jackass” television shows and movies (although I personally find them gut-bustingly hilarious despite my alleged high IQ and fancy college degree), but the famed film critic ruffled feathers when he posted the following tweet after “Jackass” player Ryan Dunn’s death in a car crash early Monday morning:

As one might imagine, response to Mr. Ebert’s missive elicited some angry responses, so much so that Facebook pulled his page from the site. Ebert fired back:

The thumbs and keyboards of Ebert defenders and defamers, as well as Ebert himself, have been working overtime ever since.

Facebook spokeman Andrew Noyes later was quoted as saying that Mr. Ebert’s page “was removed in error.”

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a libertarian when it comes to the First Amendment, and I applaud anyone who chooses to exercise this right and out himself as a jerk or an idiot….it makes life easier for demographers to sort them into target audiences boxes.

But the larger issue here is the impact of social media on the laws of free speech.

For instance, let’s say the leadership at Facebook tomorrow decides they really want to see Barack Obama re-elected next year, and that they’re going to pull the pages of every other candidate. In theory, it’s their bat and ball, and they can make up the rules as they see fit.

Same thing with Twitter. I doubt that’s going to happen, but it could.

I may be wrong here, but unlike the “equal time” rules governing broadcast media (which use the public airwaves to deliver their messages), there are no laws governing what private businesses can and cannot do with their online media properties.

And that means that anything you’re posting to a social media site belongs to someone else, and that they have the power to remove, edit, block or delete your content depending on how they feel on any given morning.

Your freedom of speech is only as free as the owners of social media platforms want it to be.

Leave a Comment

Filed under Issues Management, Social Media

Tagged as , , , ,

June 20, 2011 · 12:57 PM

@FrankEliason’s Four Tips on Using Twitter for #CustomerService

Thanks to PR Daily publisher Mark Ragan for posting his conversation with former @ComcastCares social media guru, Frank Eliason, who’s now a senior vice president with Citi, on how to use Twitter for customer service.

If you’ve got five minutes to spare, check out the video HERE.

Eliason, whose efforts helped reverse negative public perceptions of the cable giant, offers four tips for companies considering Twitter (and other social media) when responding to customer complaints:

  1. Be a person. Eliason suggests using your own name and Twitter handle when responding to a complaint, rather than having a response coming from @BigConglomerateX. “Hello, my name is Frank, and I work for Comcast, what seems to be the problem?” establishes a person-to-person connection that can help speed resolution of the problem.
  2. Invite empathy. Think about the situation from your customer’s perspective. How would you want to be treated? It’s important to acknowledge the problem and it’s okay to say, “I’m sorry.”
  3. Speed matters. Respond in a matter of minutes, if you can. You can be more deliberate with other forms of social media, such as blogs, but Twitter is instant.
  4. Establish trust within your organization. Many corporate communicators worry about how to apply traditional approval processes to Twitter and other social media. Eliason urges teams to meet with senior management and legal to explain the how and why of social media, and then develop simple rules to enable team members to respond quickly and without exposing the company to additional risk.

Great way to start the week. Best of luck in your new job, Frank. And thank you for the wisdom.

Leave a Comment

Filed under crisis communications, Issues Management, Listening, Social Media

Tagged as , , , , ,

June 14, 2011 · 8:39 AM

Good #PR Will Kill a Bad Product

Interesting story from yesterday’s New York Times on the circus known as Comic-Con International.

The annual convention, which is expected to draw 130,000 participants to San Diego this July 21-24, is the place where you’ll see folks dressed up as their favorite Star Trek characters and where fans are truly fanatical.

While most of us gave up Dungeons & Dragons when we hit high school, the Comic-Con set is known for attracting freaks and geeks who are both hardcore and hard-wired, and are widely sought after for their social media savvy and buzz-building power.

Warner Brothers Television Group Chief Marketing Officer Lisa Gregorian calls them “evangelists,” and rightly so.

It makes sense, then, that the big movie studios and television production companies would choose Comic-Con as the launching pad for big-budget projects such as “Tron: Legacy” or “Sucker Punch.”

But not so fast.

Fishing where the fish are makes perfect sense, except that sometimes the fish don’t bite. And worse, they sometimes tell everyone else in the pond that the bait is not worth the bite. Both “Tron” and “Sucker Punch” failed to deliver at the box office.

Fans of the HBO show “Entourage” may fondly remember an episode from Season 2, in which Vince is troubled at Comic-Con when a well-known blogger, portrayed by Rainn Wilson, promises to write a scathing review of Vince’s new movie, “Aquaman.” (Never mind how Vince manages to score a positive review in the end.)

Imagine the power of 130,000 Rainn Wilsons dissing your movie in the months leading up to opening, and the ripple effect these evangelists create via Facebook, Twitter, message boards and chat rooms.

Betting big sometimes means losing big. Hank Aaron hit 755 home runs but he also struck out 1,383 times.

Next time you’re thinking about launching your “next big thing” at the industry’s largest trade show, consider first building buzz among your most loyal and vocal following and allowing them to carry the message to the masses.

2 Comments

Filed under Issues Management, public relations, Social Media

Tagged as , , , , ,