The Day Oprah Tweeted

I'll admit, I'm not a huge fan of Twitter on a personal level. I understand its marketing potential. In fact, one of my clients uses Twitter to keep people updated during races and events to great effect. So it certainly has its purpose.

My issue with the service is that, like every other "hot new trend" in social media, once a few "gurus" start talking about how incredible something is and the masses flock to it, the results are rarely good in the long term for the platform. Need I remind everyone of the original uber-social media site, MySpace, and what happened in the months after Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp purchased it. They sold ad space to any corporation willing to write a check, made the site clunky and slow, and it has now lost the war with Facebook (badly) and just lost its CEO.

So with that in mind, everyone is Tweeting... even people who probably shouldn't be. Ashton Kutcher and CNN had a race to one million followers, and everyone's favorite cougar-bait beat the news network handily. The true winner in that battle, however, was Twitter. The race gave the site major mainstream media coverage - enough that Ms. Oprah Winfrey herself jumped into the Twitter fray.

Oprah's first tweet was less than stellar (in all caps no less... reminds me of a former boss who send every message in all caps, fully knowing it meant he was screaming). It was the Tweet heard 'round the world, and according to HitWise, the site went bonkers. Below is the percentage of internet users on Twitter and what happened the day Oprah logged in.



That's a 24% increase in ONE DAY! Crazy, right? So does this mean Twitter is the next big thing? Sadly, yes... until the general public gets so wrapped up in it that blundering, irresponsible corporate communicators jump in, handle the campaigns poorly (a'la Myspace, see above) and turn off the influencers. Then they'll jump ship for the next thing, and the cycle will repeat.

In the meantime, some advice:

If you decide to sign your company up for a Twitter feed, keep it simple and relevant. No need to send everyone an update every time you get gas or buy a candy bar. Share images. Keep it interesting. Content is always king, especially when you have to compete with Oprah.

Social Networking = Increased Business

This is an interesting article at MediaPost about how the majority of marketers are now using some form of social media to promote their business, but the majority of those people have been at it for less than one year. Some other interesting stats:

Key survey findings about specific application show that:

* Small-business owners are more likely to use LinkedIn than employees working for a corporation

* Men are significantly more likely to use YouTube or other video marketing than women (52.4% of all men compared with 31.7% of women)

* For those just getting under way with social media marketing, LinkedIn is ranked as their number-two choice, pushing blogging down one notch

* Among those who have been using social media for a few months, Facebook is in second place. This group also has more Twitter use

* Twitter is used by 94% of marketers who have been using social media for years, followed closely by blogs. This group also endorses online video significantly more than the other groups

72% of marketers say they have either just started or have been using social media for only a few months.

Ford Tops First-Ever Automotive Social Media Rankings

Virtue is a Social Media Marketing agency that handles some pretty heavy accounts, including AT&T, Pepsi, MTV and more. They're quite fond of lists, and they just released one ranking the car companies by social media activity. The brands were measured by their Q1 '09 "chatter" across social media sites like Facebook and myspace, as well as viral video and photo sharing sites.

Here's the list:

The Vitrue 20 Top Social Auto Brands

1. Ford
2. Lincoln
3. GM
4. Honda
5. BMW
6. Mercedes
7. Dodge
8. Ferrari
9. Toyota
10. Suzuki
11. Jeep
12. Nissan
13. Cadillac
14. Audi
15. Porsche
16. Kia
17. Subaru
18. Chrysler
19. Volvo
20. Chevrolet

Interesting stuff. I have no doubt that a Ford's top spot ranking is due to the conclusion of it's Fiesta Movement viral video contest, where people were asked to submit videos about why they deserve to drive a new Fiesta for six months. Out of 3,000 submissions, 100 were chosen... including our friend Davey Johnson, who submitted this fantastic brown-car-focused, Streets of San Francisco homage:



So Ford is rolling out a tiny economy car, yet by offering creative-types the opportunity to drive one for a six months they get thousands of viral videos posted all over the interwebs tagged with their product name, creating huge buzz.

In the meantime, Chevrolet - which has a hugely important new product hitting showrooms any day (2010 Camaro) is at the bottom of the list. Someone as Ford deserves a bonus.

Dominos Pizza YouTube Fiasco: A Lesson in Online Crisis Management

For those of you who don't follow Digg trends or pay attention to the latest viral videos spreading like wildfire on YouTube, an interesting PR situation developed this week.

Two less than intelligent Domino's Pizza employees shot a handful of videos at work, where they did some pretty disgusting stuff including purposefully sneezing on pizzas, shoving ingredients in their nose before placing them on the pizza and even cleaning the pots and pans with a sponge they used to clean their, well, nether regions. Then they put it on YouTube. Brilliant move. Here's a clip... beware, this is pretty gross:



The video was posted on April 13th. Within 8 hours, it had racked up over 100,000 views, local news stations were running the story and several people reported that franchise to the health department. What did Domino's corporate communications do? Well... nothing. Not at first.

Their initial reaction was to say the video was a result of a few bad employees at one franchise location, and that an official corporate reaction would "be akin to putting out a candle with a fire hose." Translation: They didn't understand how quickly viral video can damage a brand, and sticking to traditional PR tactics they didn't want to legitimize the scandal by recognizing it.

Within 48 hours the video had hundreds of thousands of hits, the franchise was shut down by the health department, and the video was making national headlines. YouTube pulled the original down and the employees were fired (they also fled the area), but the damage was done. Several people re-posted the vid on YouTube, and as the story picked up steam, the google searches and YouTube views for the videos intensified. These are NOT images Dominos corporate wanted in people's heads when they contemplated ordering a pizza.

So... two days later the Pizza PR team posted this video, featuring Dominos President Patrick Doyle:



So let's brake down the video and do a little scoring:

- He's clearly reading off a cue card. Mr. Doyle appears properly briefed about the YouTube process and how this all went down, but by not looking in the camera he doesn't necessarily come off as genuine as he could. -1 point

- One of the first things he does is thank the online community for alerting Dominos to the situation. He doesn't blame bloggers for re-upping the videos, as previous execs have done in times for PR crisis. +2 points

- He explains it was an isolated incident and that the "team members" claim it was a hoax. Doyle goes on to state that they have been dismissed and that the company takes this very seriously. He also claims that there are "felony warrants out for their arrest." Not sure if that's true (sneezing on pizza is a felony?), but it stretched credibility. 0 points

- "There is nothing more important or sacred to us than our customer's trust." - said with sincerity. +2 points

- Admits that this has caused major damage to the brand, and that 125,000 employees will be impacted by a few individuals. Thanks customers for "hanging in there with us." +1 points

Conclusion on the video response: They Domino's PR team could have reacted faster, but all-in-all they got a relatively well-done response piece up on YouTube and began heavily promoting it within days. They also got major news outlets to run a follow-up story on their response, framing the company as the victim and the incident as an isolated one.



Is the damage already done? You bet, but they reacted fairly quickly. So the lesson to be learned:

- If a negative video about your brand makes it's way onto the internet, react SWIFTLY with a genuine response. TRUST the public enough to know that they'll understand that some people are idiots.

- Thank the online community for calling attention to the story, DO NOT blame them.

- Have your PR team focus news coverage on the damage done to the good employees, and brand the perpetrators as the bad guys. Single them out so they take the brunt of the bad PR, not the brand.

- After the initial response, weather the storm. Let the story blow over when the next online story hits. Continued responses will perpetuate the story.

- Don't do what Domino's Australia did and use the scandal as an excuse to make a rambling video about new products and thicker rubber gloves. It totally kills credibility:

Excited

Sorry... I know this isn't directly related to PR or Marketing. But I must share this.

If a PR Flack Tweets and Nobody Listens, Does it Make a Sound?

I have mixed feelings about Twitter. I know its the hottest, latest, greatest rage in social media. Personally, I don't use my account, as I feel like a good ol' fashioned blog (that sounds weird) is the best method of broadcasting my thoughts about this crazy ever-changing industry.

As a professional communicator, I think Twitter can be an incredibly effective PR tool as it allows individuals and companies to broadcast updates to the adoring masses on a regular basis. The mainstream media are no longer gatekeepers, no we can relate directly to the actual public. And that's what scares the hell out of me.

There are some that feel that Twitter is the savior of PR. As newspapers fail, magazines slowly tank and TV becomes more fractioned, this is a direct channel into the mind of the consumer. I agree on some levels. The technology can be incredibly effective in the right hands, but it's not for everyone. I have one client in particular that uses Twitter to keep people updated on race results live from the track, broadcast pictures from cool events, and generally share a random assortment of fun little mini-stories. People like it, and respond well to the updates. I have other clients that have no business using Twitter. Screaming into the void accomplishes nothing if nobody is listening.

Here's my quick checklist to determine whether or not your company should Tweet:
5. Do you have a dedicated in-house marketing maven that can tweet daily?
4. Does that person write clean, compelling emails that leave you wanting more?
3. Do they have a sense of humor?
2. Is your company progressive enough that its day-to-day operations are interesting to the general public or people within your industry?
1. Do you have a social media platform that will support and take advantage of increased branding/traffic from a Twitter campaign?

If you answered no to any of these questions, you should seriously consider building a solid social media foundation before jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

Businessweek: AP to take on Google

According to this story in Businessweek, the Associated Press is taking its fight with search giant Google to an interesting new level. For those not familiar, the AP is suing Google for using its news content without permission. Since that's not going anywhere, not they've decided to build their own search engine that will simultaneously give readers a way to access and search AP content quickly and easily, while also blocking Google spiders from tagging their stories.

I have a feeling this is as much a defensive move in response to lost income from failing newspapers as it is a genuine beef with Google. I love the AP, and some of the most well-written and thoroughly researched international news stories come out of that agency. It makes me a little sad that the prevailing minds at the country's biggest print news agency are taking the same path as many of the papers they serve: fighting against google rather than embracing it.

If they worked out a content sharing program that used adsense to monetize their content rather than blocking the number one aggregator's access to their content, it would probably work better and would certainly deliver more eyeballs to their content.

I'll keep you posted on developments.

The Big Show

I spent the weekend working a show, the Good Guys Del Mar Nationals, for my client Hotchkis Performance. The show was HUGE. Over one thousand cars, several thousand spectators, a full field of enthusiasts thrashing their muscle cars in the Auto Cross, and dozens of vendors peddling their wares.



After speaking with the organizers of the show, several manufacturers with booths at the the event, spectators and members of the media covering the festivities, I was able to draw a few conclusions. My totally unscientific gut reaction to the Del Mar Show, which is considered the first major car show of the season, is thus:

- People are ready to enjoy life again. The Saturday crowd was HUGE. People walking the show, dragging their little kids behind them, smiles beaming and cars rumbling. Every show participant I expressed a said a variant of the same sentiment: "I'm tired of hiding in my house waiting for the recession to end, it's time to enjoy my life, my hobby, and spend a little money doing what I love."

- Business is getting back to normal. Most of the vendors I spoke to from the automotive aftermarket said that after a very lean Winter (particularly November - January) things started picking up again February, and March was actually strong. One manufacturer I spoke to actually told me his business was UP in March compared to the same month last year.

Why? I'm not an economist or a psychologist, but my instincts tell me that:
a) Tax refunds are making an impact
b) People are tired of living in fear and need some relief. For car guys that means working on their car or going to events
c) Those who have been living frugally for the past two years need to splurge on something, and in the case of gearheads that's car-related spending
d) Baby boomers have decided if they're going to put money into an investment, at least you can enjoy a classic car. A mutual fund? Not so much.
e) This whole crisis has bottomed out, and is starting the slow climb back to normal.

- Media has changed. Forever. This has been happening for a while, but the change is now irreversible. Members of the "old media" were out in force at the event, from editors and publishers to ad sales people and more. Many of these folks are my friends. In fact, I used to be one of them. While editors were doing interviews and photographers were shooting feature stories, their messages were universal: the big media companies have cut staff to a bare minimum, advertising revenue is way down, and things are pretty lean.

On the flip side, social media sites were represented in force. I saw dozens of hats and t-shirts emblazoned with the URLs of different popular automotive forums, moderators and admins I spoke with were extremely upbeat and positive, and at the racetrack there were clear rivalries and affiliations based on site loyalties. There were hundreds of people shooting the event with high-end digital still cameras and high-def video cameras, and you know all that content is going to land on the web. People have become their own publishers, and while its empowering for the general public it poses opportunities for the clever marketing maven and huge risks for those who ignore it.




So what does that mean for PR & Marketing? NOW IS THE TIME TO ACT DECISIVELY. Don't get back to the wasteful ways of old spending huge sums of money on advertising. Instead build a lean marketing program that speaks directly to the consumer. Blend traditional media relations to generate ink about how well your company is doing in the face of economic trouble, utilize a social media marketing campaign to speak directly with the most active influencers in your target demographic, and only buy ads in the most effective media outlets to reinforce the messages of the PR and Social Media campaigns.

Act now and capture the hearts and minds of consumers while your competitor is still hiding under his bed waiting for things to blow over, and you'll not only win your old customers back, you'll take his too. And that's the point of a truly excellent campaign, to increase your base and make money.

Interesting Read: Why do people buy?

The Bulldog Reporter posted a thought-provoking story last week titled
"Why do people buy? Emotional Triggers Drive Consumer Behavior and Can Reframe PR Research"

The 'dog has a recap of the article along with an interview with its authors, Michelle Helin & Linda Goodman. While the Bulldog Reporter focuses on the PR trade (and does an excellent job of it) I thought there were some take-away lessons here for anyone who runs a retail business. Here are the highlights:

What was a big surprise for your research that destroyed long-held marketing beliefs?

The big surprise, frankly, is that interviewees are often unaware of their own thoughts and feelings. Very often they are surprised at where the conversation has led them and how emotional they are. This dispels the tradition that customers are able to tell us how they will react to a new product or service. They act instinctively based on emotion but when asked to explain their actions after the fact the answers are often part fact, part re-invention and part wishful thinking.

How important is "storytelling" and narrative in inciting emotional triggers? Why?

Storytelling is important because it allows the "teller" to speak in a deeply personal way, revealing the heart felt feelings or emotions that drive or influence their behavior. While someone might not say, "I was so angry," they will, in telling the story, invariably, allow those angry emotions to show.

Since these responses are neither deliberate nor planned they elude quantifiable explanations. Emotional triggers are important because they strike at a deep-seated chord. They are what connect with at a level that goes beyond reasoning because in our gut it feels right or familiar.

The rest of the story is focused on Emotional Trigger Response, a PR effectiveness testing method. Read the rest of the story here.

Why Online Video Has Forever Changed PR

The top European market Auto viral videos from last year:



From Media Post:

Businesses Embracing Online Video Will Fuel The Web's Revolution
by Dave Dutch

IF VIDEO KILLED THE radio star, online video will surely kill the static Web.

The following are a handful of ways video is impacting corporate Web strategies and business models:

Company news and information. Web video enables organizations to become their own broadcast networks. For example, rather than being greeted by the customary block of text and images on a company's home page, visitors may find a running video news feed. British Sky Broadcasting posts its top news stories as video. Organizations can populate the corporate news room with video news releases. To satisfy investors and meet compliance requirements, companies can populate on-demand libraries with shareholder meetings, annual reports and RSS videocasts on a host of topics.

Product information and how-to. Video can be a key enabler of product support and advice. Avery, the office supply company, offers a library of demos that show how to pull off that pesky mail merge, among other office tasks. Another example, Scott's Miracle-Gro Company, has turned its Web site into a consumer-centric source of advice on lawn care, gardening and related topics. Here, video serves as the primary format for "help" articles.

Branded entertainment. Organizations can deliver original video content directly to customers. Nike.com offers sports-specific channels that, in addition to offering video-based training, feature stories about Nike athletes. A good example is the basketball documentary on Team USA's road to Beijing.



Best practices and knowledge management. If commercials and entertainment can be viral, so can internal company knowledge. A manufacturing company with plants all over the world could enable far-flung employees to record and share best practices. Along those same lines, investment in education and training can be expanded exponentially by giving distributed offices and facilities access to video-based programs, seminars and workshops. IT consulting firm Bluewolf provides an example of how businesses might accomplish this-the firm shares its case studies and testimonials with external audiences on Bluewolf TV.

Community. User-generated content (UGC) can turn customers and fans into a network of content creators who communicate through video. Cult footwear favorite Crocs, for instance, has set up a site that invites lovers and haters of the brand to upload videos about how they feel about the product. And look for more companies to build communities with video as the primary form of content.

UGC offers organizations a significant source of original content and can foster a natural community that keeps a pulse of the brand. This is where two of today's most powerful trends -- online video and the social Web -- combine to form a new capability for business: the power to create and sustain new communities, glued together by our most compelling mass medium.

Turning on the Spigot

So why should corporate America embrace the video-centric Web? Remember the lessons of a certain small appliance maker called Blendtec. This small business came out of nowhere in a crowded and competitive market segment to establish a vibrant business on the back of short, simple video segments. You never know where the best ideas or content will come from. Successful companies will be the ones that engage online communities with video that is compelling and continuous.


And of course I have to throw in client video, just to keep it relevant:

YouTube Going Corporate

This story was just posted on the Bulldog Reporter:

YouTube Absorbed By Corporate Machinery:
The Amateur-Video Pioneer Begins Transition to Hollywood Vehicle

YouTube will soon unveil a redesign that clearly separates its premium and long-form programming from the user-posted videos that account for most of its activity. According to two sources familiar with Google's plans for YouTube, the new design will do away with the current navigation scheme — which funnels users into "videos," "channels," and "community" categories. That layout will be replaced with a tabbed navigation with clearly defined sections for professional content, ClickZ reports.

The new design will offer four tabs: Movies, Music, Shows, and Videos. The first three tabs will display premium shows, clips, and movies from Google's network and studio partners, all of which will be monetized with in-stream advertising. Meanwhile the Videos channel will house amateur and semi-pro content of the sort major brand advertisers have shied away from. "They're putting up walls between all the UGC stuff, which will live within the video channel,...and the brand safe content," said one senior agency exec who was briefed on YouTube's plans, reports ClickZ writer Zachary Rodgers.

The redesign also touches YouTube's video player. The new player interface closely resembles the video experience on Hulu, the video portal that's grown by leaps and bounds since its launch last year. Like Hulu, the new video player displays visual markers in places where ads are scheduled to play. Also like Hulu, the YouTube player allows users to "dim the lights," reducing the brightness of screen real estate outside the video frame. "It's totally a Hulu approach, but that's best practices right now," the exec told ClickZ.

The planned launch date for the overhauled site is April 16. According to sources, the original plan was to roll it out next week, but YouTube pushed the date back for unknown reasons. YouTube has been pitching launch packages to agencies for approximately six weeks.

This does not bode well. Myspace was once a vibrant, booming social media platform. Then Newscorp decided it would be a great outlet to reach young people and bought it, quickly turning the site into one giant flashing banner advertisement for its latest movies and promotions. People fled the site in droves to Facebook, which was still an emerging site growing in popularity amongst high school and college kids. I fear the same will happen with YouTube once Hollywood sinks its incredibly out-of-touch teeth in.

News segment I setup with CBS news on a client's charity "live build" from Las Vegas:

A little positivity doesn't hurt...

I try to keep this blog focused on PR and Marketing, but I've got to make a comment on a media trend that's becoming more and more difficult to deal with. I'm fed up with the non-stop crisis reporting.

September 11th was a terrible event and a true turning point in the trajectory of our nation. However it seems like ever since that horrible day, the cable news networks (and in their wake the local news and papers) have been trying to feed the ratings beast and fill that gaping maw of round-the-clock coverage with a never ending series of scandals and blown-out-of-proportion disasters. Remember Elian Gonzales? How about Terry Schiavo, Drew Petersen, Octomom, etc? Most recently the networks made it sound like the residents of Fargo, ND, needed to build an ark and wait for the end of the world to fall on them. Except... it didn't happen. There was some rain, an some damage, but people did what they had to do and moved on.

I used to be a journalist, actually made a living at it too. I live and breathe media as a PR flack, and I understand how news cycles work. However the combination of "feed the beast" news programming and the war between mediums has created a situation where bad situations get blown up into major catastrophes, which causes panic and perpetuates the problem. I believe that's exactly what happened with this economic downturn. Every seven years or so the economy goes soft. However reporters screaming about "the next great depression" certainly caused some damage to the American psyche and made the situation worse.

I'm seeing very strong signs that this thing is starting to get better. People are spending money again, business is picking up for nearly everyone I speak with. Are we out of the woods? Not quite yet... but things are certainly looking up from my perspective.

So what's next? Smile. Be positive. Go out to dinner. Wax your car and go for a drive. Get back to the important stuff, working hard and having fun. Hopefully one day soon the newsdesk editors I pitch on a regular basis will start doing some positive stories and we can all get back to normal. Save the scary music and crisis graphs for the unfortunate day when they're actually appropriate.

Of course, John Stewart says it best.