Plan. Pitch. Print.

Behind the Scenes of Presidential Debates

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 11:55:59 -0800

First, off, it really doesn’t get better than Charlie Rose interviewing Jim Lehrer for my money. I love these two gentlemen. But beyond, my nerd obsession, this interview was incredible because they discuss Lehrer’s book “Tension City” which is a behind the scenes of Lehrer moderating the Presidential debates.

In the interview, they discuss some of the biggest debates and the key moments that affected not just the winners of the debate, but the elections. And many of them were based on body language, gestures, or style - not the words they said. Those of us in communications know the importance of these, but how fascinating to see it in play where the stakes couldn’t be any higher. Definitely adding Lehrer’s book to my reading list - right after Steve Jobs biography.

Image Credit: Barnes and Noble

Lessons on creativity from Steven Soderbergh

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:19:17 -0800

Lessons on creativity from Steven Soderbergh:

A few super smart lessons from this interview on Charlie Rose with director Steven Soderbergh, screenwriter Scott Z. Burns and Dr. W. Ian Lipkin of Columbia University.

1) When creating something, make a list of things you DON’T want. Helps you avoid cliche’s.

2) Come prepared, but be present in the moment and be poised to adapt. Dr. Lipkin talks about how interesting Soderbergh’s process is and he shares how Soderbergh is really present on set and adapts scenes as he feels them in the moment. Burns has a great quote about Soderbergh’s style as well, “Make the movie on that day and not before.” That is, don’t go in so scripted that you can actually create in the moment.

This is a major insight into getting real authenticity and high results. Too often we get caught up in the process or the end goal that we can’t see outside the plan to realize we need to change course. (This part of the conversation starts at 16:40 in the interview, but gets into it deeper at 20:50).

Four Super Secret Presentation Tricks - Reposted from Weber Shandwick Seattle

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:35:00 -0700

Four Super Secret Presentation Tricks - Reposted from Weber Shandwick Seattle:

My debut blog on my agency’s local office blog. Useful? Not?

bishopia: WHY SAVE PBS? (Click image to enlarge) On Saturday,...

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 15:24:03 -0800

bishopia:

WHY SAVE PBS?

(Click image to enlarge)

On Saturday, February 19th, the House of Representatives voted 235-189 to pass a continuing resolution that eliminates funding for public broadcasting. I put together this handy chart on why PBS is worth saving. Find out how you can fight back at 170 Million Americans.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I am Creative Director for PBS KIDS but a life-long supporter/watcher of PBS ;)

UPDATE: The infographic is officially on the PBS site now: http://www.pbs.org/about/save-pbs/

"Broken" Washington? Or just more on broken journalism?

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 20:51:00 -0800

"Broken" Washington? Or just more on broken journalism?:

This Vanity Fair article ponders whether Washington is “broken” but I found one of the threads about the “disintegrating media” more interesting and got me thinking (again) about how broken journalism is too.

Todd Purdom, the reporter, cites a few things that seem to stress out the press department.

Pretty green reporters who lack historical perspective which results in things being blown out of proportion in the reporters mind and in how they report on the issues
The web has created lots of issues…the always on, always reporting nature enabled by the web has essentially killed what people used to think of as a news cycle - stories post for a longer time period, all throughout the day and night, and everywhere. It’s created a platform and quickness for rumors and inaccuracies to spread and challenge their ability to correct them. And the increase in blogs and the nature of frequent posting of stories has created a climate where PR is asked for comment on every single little thing - if you think back even 10 years ago, there would only be so many articles and publications that covered the news and only so much space for stories, so there was true editing and editorial oversight to decide which issues to cover - now the president sneezes and there’s a blog post on it.

What struck me about this, isn’t that any of this is new, but how much it applies to most PR and news reporting. We’ve adapted as PR people and manage within this new framework, but I rarely take a step back to think - ahhh ‘back in the old days…’. The principles of media and how I was originally taught PR has completely changed. You just get on board and roll with it and keep evolving.

It got me thinking… as PR people, have we started to comment on things that don’t even warrant a comment? Have we become too reactive to this impulsive, unedited environment? Is that good, bad or no change for consumers a readers? Are they getting more transparency and information or just noise that doesn’t really matter? When you take a step back and think about this, would you advise your clients any differently than you do today on press requests?

When I’m thinking about specific press requests, one of the things I always think about is how that story, or that news cycle, will impact the bigger picture of what people read and think about the company. But how big a picture am I thinking about? What’s been written in the past week? Month? How much perspective are you considering? And does longer term perspective even matter for web companies where the landscape changes fast?

The importance of role models – who are yours?

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 13:12:00 -0800

I’ve been extremely lucky to come across incredibly smart people who I’ve watched and listened to in hopes to be a bit like them one day. They helped shape who I am, helped me develop, helped me work through adversity, enabled me to keep learning, and nudged along my success. I was inspired to write this post from an article by Tom Foremski of Silicon Valley Watcher about Jon Iwata, SVP of Marketing and Communications at IBM. Foremski’s article is a few months old; sorry, but I’m a bit behind on my reading and blogging.

Foremski highlights Iwata as the most forward-thinking person in communications today. You should definitely read his posts on Iwata. From Foremski’s article and the quotes from Iwata included, I’d have to agree that he’s out in front of the pack. One of the things that resonated with me is Iwata believes you need to improve a company from the inside out in order to truly effect perception change. I agree 100% with this. I’ve thought about this at points in my career, but hadn’t put the idea together as completely as Iwata has. Nor had I gotten 1) that PR could impact this issue (silly limitations of others defining what PR is and isn’t) and 2) how to make it actionable on a massive scale, as is needed for IBM.

It makes me think about medicine and doctors. When you are sick, they almost always treat the symptom with medicine: high cholesterol, heart disease, anxiety, etc. Got a problem? We got a pill for that. The problem - as I hope people realize - is you aren’t fixing the root cause so these issues will continue to happen and your body is still being damaged and working overtime. They should instead be prescribing things that actually impact the root cause, which might be diet or exercise. And we need a cultural change so people are as religious about diet changes and exercise as they are about taking a pill. You have to treat the cause.

In effect, treating the symptom is what PR is expected to do. Fix the symptom of negative opinions. How are those caused? Well the list is endless, but the most common are internal dysfunction, poor decisions, bad products, or lateness to market with a me too product. Or my favorite to fix (note the sarcasm) - people think a product that sucks, well, sucks. Hate to pull back the curtain, but we’re not miracle workers or magicians, and people aren’t stupid. You can’t turn shit into a diamonds (that’s different than turning lemons into lemonade). If you want people to like your product, then build a better product. If you want people to think your company has changed for the better, than it needs to really have changed for the better. PR can drive a cycle or two to try to fix the damage, but it won’t be sustained, consistent coverage and therefore genuine perception change unless it’s an authentic change from the inside out. Iwata seems to get that better than a majority of people doing PR. And not only does he get it, but he’s actually coming up with solutions to impact change.

So I’ve added Jon Iwata to my list of role models. Other role models in my life professionally include:

Becky Emmett – Becky was my manager early in my career who is now doing PR at Intel – she’s been a role model and directly mentored me. She taught me how to do PR, how to manage the politics, how to manage my emotions, and how to be an amazing manager. I feel like I owe her a lot for where I am now. She also showed me how to be amazing at your job and balance the demands of a family. She is able to manage her hours at work to make time for her three amazing kids and husband. I’m constantly in awe of how she does it. She still is one of the first people I call when I need guidance on a tough situation.

Heidi Sinclair - Heidi just joined Weber Shandwick as the global tech practice head and she’s incredible. I’ve only begun working with her, but she’s extremely respected, well connected and experienced in technology and social impact PR. She’s kind of a big deal and I’m not timid to say she’s what I want to be when I grow up J

Scott Trepanier – Scott is my peer and we used to work together. He’s now at Columbia Sports doing PR. He is the person who always knows the latest and greatest web technologies and comes up with innovative ideas for his clients/company. And one of my favorite things about him that I’ve learned from is he has the confidence to say what others might be only willing to think and does so unapologetically.

Bill Gates – I am pro Bill Gates. Pro PC. Pro everything he does. I just adore him. It’s not because I work on a Microsoft PR account, it’s WHY I work on a Microsoft PR account. I’m passionate about technology because of what Windows let me do growing up. It got me into writing, spreadsheets, email, the Web, social networking before it was called social networking. It’s what helped me identify my passion for technology and doing PR for technology. That’s a big influence in my life.

I have a relationship with Becky, Heidi and Scott, and they know I look up to them and want to learn from them. But Iwata doesn’t know me and as much as it kills me to say it, neither does my beloved BillG. :P. In today’s world, they don’t need to - that matters less and less as more technology creates and encourages people to share and enables connections. You’ve heard me rave about how important Twitter is as a service to connect people, but another thing it does is lower the barrier and give people like me access to thoughts and ideas from someone like Iwata more consistently and easily than I’d otherwise have a limited opportunity to hear (Tweets can take 15 seconds vs. the hour+ it’s taken me to write this blog post). That’s really important as an equalizer for education and learning.

Iwata can help me expand my mind to the possibilities and positive impact PR can have to help companies not just appear better, but actually be better. And he doesn’t even need to know it.

Who are you role models? Why? The why says a lot about who you are and who you want to be.

P.S. I wrote this over the weekend - I’m against blogging during company hours - but it’s more relevant to post M-F during biz hours. :)

Why the silence on speech recognition in Windows 7?

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 06:07:58 -0800

I’m lying in bed tonight trying to sleep. But there I was, 4:00 AM, wide awake thinking about how long my to-do list is and how I really need a personal assistant. Then I start planning how I can sell my husband on the idea and rationalize the cost. Then it dawned on me, if I can dictate my notes and email responses to my computer, it would be way faster than I could type and I could probably get everything done much more quickly.

So I pulled out my Droid Incredible and Binged ‘speech recognition Windows 7’. I don’t know what I expected to find, but I didn’t expect to find that Windows 7 had speech recognition built in natively. One of the first links was to this YouTube video demoing the capabilities. I’m so blown away by the idea of this that I jump out of bed, turn my computer on, and test it out.

An hour later, here I am, speaking this blog. I even tested it out and replied to an email from a colleague in EMEA.

Now it’s not perfect. It works best if you dictate, they go back and correct on the keyboard, but still, dictating this is so much faster than typing it would be.

I realized, why have press not been talking, no pun intended, about this? It’s groundbreaking and actually works (unlike past efforts). Instead, we are all punch drunk on multi touch and iPads. Multitouch and iPads are amazing, I’m not going to pretend they aren’t, but speech recognition would truly revolutionize the way we interact with computers.

Take this a step further - imagine a mash up of multi-touch and speech recognition. As soon as I thought of this, I realized that’s possible today with the new touch screen monitors and laptops that run Windows 7.

I literally, have wished for decent speech recognition since 1998, when I was in high school. Ask my dad - he tried to explain why the software wasnt’ good enough yet. My future, is now.

Tomorrow, I’m going to give it a test run and use this at work tomorrow. And at the bottom of my emails I’ll say “email spoken through Win7…pardon my language”

Foursquare, Events & Online Experiences

Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:28:04 -0700

There’s a great guest post in TechCrunch Check (In) Yo’ Self Before You Wreck Yo’ Self: Why Foursquare Users Check In “Off The Grid”. Besides the funny headline, it’s a great look at why people check in ‘off the grid’ or checking in without letting your friends see where you’ve checked in. I’ve done it when I go to church or the doctor’s. I just don’t think people need to see that intimately into my life. Plus, for the past 7+ months that’s about all you’d see me checking into. :)

But the article also references another idea related to Foursquare about adding Events. The idea is that when a specific event is going on somewhere people can check in at the venue and be associated with a specific event. I have thought about this from a PR/marketing perspective - it would be a great way for marketers to get create exposure for their branded event through Foursquare. It creates exclusivity and coolness to have badges for going to certain events. It also adds value to users - it’s boring to see your friend checked into the Tacoma Dome, but seeing they checked into Lady Gaga’s concert? I’d find that more interesting. This could also become especially interesting for meet-ups - you may be more willing to go meet up with a friend at an organized event than show up unannounced at a restaurant.

I’ve also thought about the idea of check-ins for virtual experiences - checkins for doing something online. This is a much more complex scenario because you wouldn’t want check-ins for everything. I also think it diverts from the core objective of Foursquare to connect to physical locations. I’m not sure how this scenario would play out, but could see it for something like watching major live events online, or checking in to Gap online to shop. It’s a natural extension to what we already share proactively online and could open up a lot of opportunities for brands and marketers.The naysayer in me says - what normal person would do this? But if the experience was fun and tap into that gaming culture, people might use it - I wouldn’t have thought people would want to show their location constantly either.

What do you think? Would you want event related check-ins available on Foursquare? Is checking in for online experiences going too far?

flash back: press coverage measurement

Sat, 14 Aug 2010 23:59:51 -0700

Some days feel like deja vu. Just cause the 80’s have had a revival doesn’t mean measurement in PR should. I feel like I have the same conversations with clients today that I’ve had five years ago about best practices in measurement. I find it insane that there are companies that still consider press release pick-up as part of a coverage count. I also find it insane to weight original articles the same as pick-ups of original articles. An agency should be measured on original coverage. Period. An internal PR person should also be measured on original coverage. Period. We have no influence or control over syndications of articles so why should we get credit for it?

I think people still count them for two reasons - lack of knowledge or fear. Some companies have just done it the old way and never modified their practices, not realizing or maybe not caring. But most often, I hear fear from internal PR people - it means their numbers go down. If you’re any good at your job - and this goes for internal and agency people - this shouldn’t be a concern. You should be able to manage up to your bosses why counting syndications doesn’t show press value.

Now I don’t mean to be so black and white - I think it’s still worth counting pick-up of original coverage. You should know where coverage is being distributed, but you can’t count them together.

I almost didn’t blog about this because it’s like a ‘duh’ for any modern day PR person, but it came up TWICE this week and from different clients. Just crazy talk.

and I'm back...oh my, apple

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 20:30:00 -0700

Thanks for giving me some time off to deal with my health issues which I can proudly claim are in remission. And now I’m back…and have stuff I can’t wait to blog about.

First up, is Apple. Its iPhone 4 launch…what a PR disaster. oh my, what can we say that hasn’t already been said? Well, if you follow the tech space, you’re aware that the latest iPhone is having some antennae issues which disconnect your phone calls if you hold it a specific way. People are pissed, but not pissed enough to give up their iPhone. I could care less about this. What I care about is how they handled it from a PR perspective. Press asked for comments about the anntenae issue and what did Apple respond with? Steve Jobs just blew it off saying, ‘don’t hold it that way.’ I mean, clearly his PR team didn’t weigh in on that response. It reeks of arrogance. It was just excuse after excuse - and one of my favorite Jobs quotes is that this has been “blown out of proportion.” Really? That’s what you want to tell your customer? ‘You’re pissed and I think you’re being ridiculous?’ There could be a brilliant “Really?!?! with Seth and Amy” on SNL about this. Then he says the bars on iPhones overstate the strengh of service AT&T is actually delivering and that this was a software flaw. I have a hard time believing that no one knew this was happening. It feels like a straight up lie.

What? What does that have to do with the antennae??? Well, folks..it’s a classic case of using a bad PR situation to get out some equally crappy news so it all gets wrapped up into 1-2 news cycles instead of creating a second news cycle at another time. It’s a smart PR move to throw it in there. Offering free cases that minimize calls dropping from the antennae issue is also a smart PR move.

The decision to overstate the service however? Bad PR move. The kind of trust Apple has worked its entire lifetime to build and most companies would love to have. It’s the kind of trust that can’t be bought. And they just crapped all over it. I hope they learn from this and don’t do it again. They may get away with it once, but their bravado and arrogance will push customers away if it continues.

What’s most concerning to me is that Apple customers seem to be oblivious or care less that they were lied to. I would be furious. All I can say is Apple customers… keep your eyes open. You deserve to be treated better even if you believe the iPhone is the best smartphone on the market.

Fate and Twitter: Deeply meaningful Twitter experience

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 20:57:00 -0700

Fate and Twitter? Fate’s a mighty big thing to claim and I rarely use it but that’s the only word I can use to describe this thing that happened last week. Through Twitter, I was connected to two deeply meaningful people/content. Or maybe it’s a higher power - lately things have fallen into place in ways that are just too ironic and right. So you be the judge. And be patient, the story needs set up. It’s also more on the personal side - not business focused, but it seems appropriate given the Twitter angle. Hope you find it as fascinating as I have.

Twitter is useful for a lot of things. I love it and get tremendous value out of it professionally and socially. That said, this is the most powerful experience I’ve had on Twitter, maybe even online ever.

Context: As you know, I’m currently off from work to deal with a cancer health issue. I just finished treatments on Thursday and I am now working on healing from the radiation. So I have some time on my hands which is really hard for me. I’m type-A, over achiever, over scheduler. I like to keep myself very busy. And now I find myself needing to just relax, slow down and heal. Very, very hard for me.

Once I started treatments, I decided after I was doing better I wanted to volunteer for 1:1 support for young adults with cancer because it’s not very common and I’ve had a hard time finding support services out there for people like me - you know, other people who can understand what it’s like to have to deal with this when you’re at the prime of your life, all the worries that someone my age would have getting this, and just someone my age who’s experienced what I have. My kind of cancer is typically with male smokers over 50 - so it’s hard for me to feel like I can relate. I have been researching for a group to get involved with since I made the decision with no luck.

Now on to Twitter…

Mid-last year I was followed on my twitter alias, @ErikaBitzer, by @jeremymeyers. I didn’t know Jeremy. I checked out what his tweets and his blog and saw he did social media for Sony. I thought he seemed like someone I’d be interested in following and so I followed back. A few weeks later, I see he took at job at my former agency, which I’d just left like 6 months before. Since then, we’ve chatted informally over twitter about music and random stuff here and there.

Fast forward to this month. @ScottMeis starts following me. I didn’t know him either. I check out his stuff and see he just took a job at my former agency and he has a blog on social media so I thought I’d follow him back.

Ok, so we get to Thursday last week. I am reading up on Twitter and see @ScottMeis recent blog post on influence and skim it. While reading it I come across a reference to Jonny Imerman and Imerman Angels who pairs cancer patients and survivors up for peer support. I think hmmm, this could be a group to volunteer with.

That same night, Jeremy and I are DMing about random stuff. I mention that I’m off from work right now going through cancer treatments and having a hard time because I’m getting bored sitting at home trying to recover. He suggests I volunteer and suggests I look for the group through change.gov. I go out do a search and the only site that comes up that fits my criteria is a group called I’m too Young for This - i[2]y - or otherwise referred to as Stupid Cancer. I go to the site and check out all the stuff they have. In their other resources section, Imerman Angels (the group @ScottMeis had blogged about) was in there. I think this must be a good fit and go to that site too.

That night, I signed up for Imerman Angels and started following them on Twitter, Facebook etc. I figured it would take a few weeks to get going with them and by then I could start to maybe help someone else. I also started following @stupidcancer and told them how happy I was to find them.

I head off to bed and the Twitter fairies stop by that night…

The next day, the founder of i[2]y, Matthew Zachary through @stupidcancer has DMed me thanking me for the note and we chit chat a bit and we exchange email info so I can get involved once I’m doing a bit better. I want to see how I can help using my PR talents and also at doing stuff for the Seattle area. I also get a call from Imerman Angels - they already paired me up with someone to help me (not what I’d thought would happen given I was just finishing). By that night, the person they’d paired me with, Sarah, had emailed me. She’s a few years older than me and just finished the exact same treatment schedule 2.5 months ago. Our experience was almost identical.

In one day, I went from being completely disconnected and supported from a group perspective to having 1:1 support, non-profit support, and connections for deeper involvement down the road for something that is so important and critical for me right now. I just couldn’t believe how quickly and neatly it all fit together. This is such a powerful experience and I’m so thankful for it.I felt a huge emotional void filled.

So was it fate? I don’t know, but I think if @JeremyMeyers and @ScottMeis hadn’t found me, I don’t know if I ever would have found these groups. And it’s just random that it happened the same day that this came together from their resources.

I’m reading Shel Israel’s Twitterville right now and there’s lots of stories of how Twitter helps people and business and I decided that this is one of those stories that was too weird and interesting to not share.

Blowing my Mind

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 19:58:46 -0700

This is a short post because I’m just blown away at being alive to experience how the Internet is evolving as it is. Facebook’s new integration of the ‘Like’ button across the Internet is changing the online experience as we know it. In some ways this kind of experience has been happening over time - you could start to Digg things, share out with Twitter with your friends - but the new implementation lays the whole internet (or those who choose to implement, which I expect most will) across the largest graph of relationships. It’s like a giant mash up of content and relationships not just in one location but reciprocally. Having that info where you are in the content site is huge and brings relevance and context to things in a much more natural way.

I just think where we were with basic email and web search or linear experiences to one where content and relationships inter-relate. It BLOWS MY MIND. And it gets me excited to get to be watching this and experiencing it as it happens.

I get excited to think where we’ll be in 5 years and even 1 year - the innovation is happening so fast.

Chirp » The Official Twitter Developer Conference

Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:33:30 -0700

Chirp » The Official Twitter Developer Conference:

I just want to say how great I think the naming, logo and presentation of Chirp is for Twitter. I don’t have any reasons to tell you why I like it except it just so neatly fits into their branding package. It feels right.

And it was a super successful event for them. Very excited for all their new endeavors and wish them the best in this big step forward for the company.

I’m currently reading Twitterville, by Shel Isreal and it will be an interesting read coming from when it was published in Jan. 2009 and not yet monetizing to today’s world coming off of Chirp.

A blogger's dilemma

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:49:29 -0700

Some friends and I have talked about doing a broader blog on the focus of this one and one of the dilemma’s that’s come up is that we all work at agency’s and represent major tech clients. So there’s a weird line there becuase at times we’d need to write on stuff our clietns are doing becuae it’s relevant, but we’re biased. And on top of that, we’re biased against our clients main competitors too. AObviously, we’d nee to be transparent in who our clients are when we blog, but does that start to make things difficult for our cleints? We think it does.

So for now, until we solve this conundrum, that’s why you see me not covering Microsoft much, or MySpace, for Facebook, etc. I try to steer clear of the areas that are a conflict of interest for me. Obviously, in that I’m writing about tech I wont’ be able to 100% because with my clients and competitors, it’s essentially everyone. :) But I do commit to being transparent about conflicts or avoiding those that fall really close to the work I do.

Do other bloggers at agencies have similar issues? How do you deal with it? I’d love to hear advice.

"Obama has created an exquisite problem by hiring so many senior executives from Google - some of the..."

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 15:35:33 -0700

“Obama has created an exquisite problem by hiring so many senior executives from Google - some of the Oompa Loompas don’t seem to realise they no longer work for the company. Now a Congressman has called for an enquiry. The issue was made apparent when a trail of correspondence by administration official Andrew McLaughlin was exposed recently. McLaughlin is Obama’s deputy CTO - a freshly minted post, with CTO meaning either Citizens Twitter Overlord, or Chief Technology Officer - we believe it’s the latter. He was previously Google’s chief lobbyist, or ‘Head of Global Public Policy and Government Affairs’.”

- Obama’s got a Google problem • The Register (via techspotlight)

Ummm, hilarious… techspotlight: thedailywhat: Buy This:...

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:18:09 -0700

Ummm, hilarious…

techspotlight:

thedailywhat:

Buy This: “iMaxi” — an iPad case with protective wings — from Etsy seller Hip Handmaids.

Get it?

[glass.]

Naked Conversations - Great read but outdated on PR approach

Sat, 10 Apr 2010 15:02:39 -0700

My final thoughts on Robert Scoble’s and Shel Israel’s “Naked Conversations.” The book is well worth the read and as I noted here and here there is a ton of great content even though the book is a few years old.

My only critique comes right at the end. It’s clear, and maybe the guys thoughts on this have changed since the book came out, that they think public relations is all about command and control. They use this phrase a lot. Sure, we like to be in command and control of the message at all times but that’s not really what PR is or how successful PR programs are run especially today. Blogging for coprorations is a PR tactic or strategy (depending) and a command and control appraoch to PR is just one appraoch. That’s it. All PR teams run differently and some adapt to coroporate blogging really well. It’s the command and control PR teams that will have a hard time with this and have had a hard time with it.

They sort of address that blogging is part of the corp marketing mix and I’d agree with that, but it’s definitely an important role in PR that should be evaluated for every company.

SCOTT TREPANIER: Becoming more aware of the location-aware trade-off

Tue, 06 Apr 2010 20:06:48 -0700

SCOTT TREPANIER: Becoming more aware of the location-aware trade-off:

I just returned from SXSWi and it’s abundantly clear that location aware technologies such as Foursquare and Gowalla have replaced Twitter, Friendfeed and other real-time update services and the hot tech item du’jour. Indeed in the days following the show, anecdotal data tells me that Foursquare…

Comments and more

Sun, 28 Mar 2010 17:21:00 -0700

I think comments still aren’t working on this blog right. And swingaway left a response in the answers and that didn’t show up publically. Hmm. I’ll need to look into this. For now, I’ll post her response here. She commented on good crises managment:

“I think SeaWorld is one recent excellent example, specifically with the trainer who was killed by the whale. Their PR team acted instantly.”

Swingaway, they did act quickly, but they there were a lot of contradictory reports. They didn’t do a very good job of managing the story or influencing it and in general I think SeaWorld came out looking worse than they needed to. I think partially since there were rumors that this whale had attacked some one before. I hate saying that because I grew up going to SeaWorld and want them to succeed, but I think they needed to be more transparent than they were. I didn’t follow that crisis very closely so would love to hear more from people on this.

UPDATE: I fixed comments. I was an idiot and didn’t have the right shortname in Disqus. Please comment away!!!

Blogging not always a 'go' during a crisis

Sat, 27 Mar 2010 18:07:16 -0700

I’m still reading “Naked Conversations” and I’m on the part about how staying out of the “blogosphere” or conversations on blogs about your company when there is a crisis is a huge mistake. This is true in theory, but this chapter makes a blanket approach that you must engage or else.

The problem with this is in reality, shit happens and half the time the company isn’t ready (if they saw it coming, they probably wouldn’t have made the mistake in the first place). The real test is what you do when the company doesn’t have a good response or reason for the problem. You can apologize, but there’s so much more that has to happen in order to help the customer. And sometimes, engaging in it will only open up pandora’s box when the company isn’t yet prepared or capable of handling it. Sometimes really bad stuff happens with companies and blogging and engaging with blogs is the least of your problems - clients and companies are going to have to be prepared to take the lumps. And the blogging approach isn’t black and white - you have to really think about what the right engagement approach is.

PR people deal with this dilemma CONSTANTLY and for me is probably one of the most stressful parts of the job. You know what you need to do, but you are also aware of what’s actually possible based on the circumstances. I have one situtation I can think of now (I can’t disclose for confidentiality reasons), but it weighs on me constantly because the client needs to be engaging on the topic and unfortunately they aren’t ready to. Decisions haven’t been made and therefore progress can’t be made with the partners or customers.

What are some recent “crises” that you’ve seen that were handled good or bad in the blogs? Thoughts?