Strategic Public Relations To Make Your Business Bloom
Friday, May 09, 2008
All the Babes at Quechup Want Me
Have you heard of Quechup?
I didn't think I had, either, but I apparently signed up for it -- when I was tricked into thinking it was a Facebook-like social networking site, and that I'd been invited by one of my blogging friends. For some time now, Quechup has been sending me e-mails saying I'm getting messages -- all from attractive young women.
Needless to say, I didn't bother to click the links back to the site and have allowed the messages to die a slow death in my spam folder. (I promise, honey.)
I don't know who these women are -- but let's just say that way, way back, when I did actually use online dating sites, I didn't get a message from a hot babe on an every-other-day basis.
So I'm assuming they're about as real as those invitations to collect the 10 million pounds that a Nigerian refugee has left in a London bank.
But just in case I'm wrong, I have protected the identities of these lovely young women with some brilliant Photoshop manipulation. Here are the messages I've gotten just since April:
On a not related note, if you didn't see this fall-on-the-floor-laughing TV news report on Spin Thicket, you have to watch it. It's worth it.
PR Minds Attributes Growth to [Insert Reason Here]
Nice press release by eDrugstore.MD on PR Minds. Especially like this excerpt:
"Many consumers simply do not realize they needn't pay exorbitantly for their prescription medications ... they don't know that there's a legitimate choice," notes [insert full name], eDrugstore.MD's [insert title]..."
Explains [insert last name], "We invested in the right people, individuals who are well-versed in all aspects of SEO, and our business has grown considerably because of their commitment to excellence and education."
Where Today's PR and Advertising Students Spend Their Time Online Today
Last month, I published a post in which I shared the favorite Web sites of a group of University of North Texas journalism students.
Since then, I've had the opportunity to speak to a class of Southern Methodist University communication students -- in this case, a group that is mostly on an advertising/PR track. So I asked them the same question: What are the three sites you are most likely to visit on any given day?
As a reminder, here were the top sites of the journalism students:
Now, check out the top vote-getters from the SMU advertising/PR students:
SMU.edu [for e-mail] (13 votes) Facebook (11 votes) CNN (4 votes) Perez Hilton (3 votes) New York Times (3 votes) Weather.com (2 votes) Google (2 votes) Deadspin BBC AOL Yahoo! DallasNews.com Style.com YouTube
I find it interesting that the J-students have been getting their information from local news media Web sites, while the advertising/PR students are more likely to get their information from blogs and other sources.
I don't want to read too much into such a small sample, but it does raise a chicken-and-egg scenario:
Are the J-students attracted to the field of journalism because they like the news as it is presented by local media outlets? Or, are they attracted to local media outlets because they conform to how journalism is taught in their school?
Have you promoted this blog on Fast Pitch!(www.fastpitchnetworking.com)? It's an online business network that has as one of it's features a way to promote your blog to their audience of small business owners. FP was actually just named Website of The Week by MSNBC's 'Your Business' show for small business owners.
If you're already on another network (LinkedIn, etc.) - no problem. Fast Pitch! takes a completely different approach. Compare Networks: http://www.fastpitchnetworking.com/comapre.cfm
Keep up the good work!
Tammy
"Great stuff." I feel so special. Actually, I guess Tammy's probably a bot.
We've got some new wheels. Kick the tires, please. Still working out a few squeaks and squeals; will post more about it later. Please let us know what you think.
Media Orchard Hires Blogging Assistant to Assist with Blogging on Media Orchard
Media Orchard announced today that it has hired precocious toddler Poopypants McGee to write most Media Orchard posts for the foreseeable future.
"After an extensive cost-benefit analysis by Media Orchard's parent company, the Idea Grove, we have determined that Idea Grove President Scott Baradell's time is better spent on billable hours, and that writing blog posts is not a cost-effective utilization of his time," said Slap Forehead, the Idea Grove's chief financial officer. "We have thus undertaken a massive worldwide search (in the form of a Craigslist ad) to identify a CARB (Cheap Ass Replacement Blogger) for Scott Baradell."
Adds Meem Littlegay, director of market research for the Idea Grove: "The hiring of CARBs has been a highly efficient tactic used by some of the most widely read blogs in marketing and across all industry sectors. Our research indicates that once a blog reaches a certain threshold of subscribers, people keep coming back to the blog no matter what kind of SAC (Stupid Ass Content) they're slinging. Of course, Media Orchard isn't really at that threshold -- but screw it."
Said Baradell: "Poopypants McGee, age 3 and three quarters, writes posts for a pat on the head and a french fry. How can I compete with that?"
What's It Like to Work in Public Relations? The Answer Depends on You
Young people who are just starting out in their careers often ask me what it's like to be in public relations. Like so many things in life, the answer depends on the specifics -- of the client or employer, and of you, the PR practitioner.
In the fictional example of Aaron Eckhart's character in Thank You for Smoking, for example, you pair a man without principles with an industry that no principled person can defend. Everybody's happy.
For someone with a conscience doing Big Tobacco PR, however, public relations is undoubtedly a miserable occupation. You do it to pay the bills; there's no higher purpose. Not only that, but since you do have a conscience and presumably care about the well-being of others, you are a hypocrite every time you open your mouth on the job.
You can represent a non-profit whose cause you believe in, for example. In my case, I prefer to work with startups that challenge the status quo -- particularly those I consider to be disruptive innovators. I like to help them get their messages heard over the loud, relentless drone of Fortune 500 PR departments.
There are quite a few companies and industries I choose not to work for, because I disagree with what they do and/or how they do it. These include:
companies or organizations that support any number of political viewpoints or causes I disagree with.
That doesn't mean you have to agree with your client or employer in every instance; you're representing them, not you, after all. (I discuss the importance of distinguishing our opinions from those of our PR clients here.)
I've occasionally called out people who I suspect are hypocrites, sellouts or real-life Aaron Eckharts on this blog. For example:
In fact, I offered that young ad rep, who had gratuitously bashed Michael Moore's Sicko in a transparent bid to please her client base, the same advice I offer to those entering the PR profession: Be true to yourself -- whoever you might be.
To paraphrase how I asked the ad rep to think about this issue:
If you were assigned by Google to build an ad campaign for Michael Moore's movie distributor rather than the big pharmaceutical and health insurance companies, would you be willing to write the same blog post criticizing Sicko?
Would you refuse the Moore account because of your principled viewpoint that his film is unfair? Or would your personal convictions "adapt" to the client?
Even if you don't have a strong opinion on the issue, don't personally take your employer or client's side simply because it's convenient or in your financial interests to do so. This way, you retain who you are -- your personal moral autonomy.
You don't have to sell your principles to anyone to succeed in your career. Don't listen to anybody who tells you that you do.
When I was younger and feeling my way in my career, I made plenty of mistakes -- including many worse than the one I suspect you might have made here. It's only by screwing up again and again that I've come to be able to offer whatever insight I have.
And if in your heart of hearts you truly believe that Michael Moore is being unfair to U.S healthcare companies, and that your advertising clients have the moral high ground, I'm sorry I used your post in my example.
I Almost Forgot My Birthday: Media Orchard is Three
Wow, I was just shutting down the laptop for the week, looked at the calendar and realized it was the third anniversary of my first post.
It's been a pretty wild ride when I think back on it. I started out kind of wishy-washy, not sure whether to use my "corporate voice" or my real voice. Ultimately, I settled on the latter, for good or ill.
I started out as an outsider, then hit it big for a while, then got bored and burned out, then decided to give it another go with a few changes in focus and format.
Now we're back to a respectable Alexa ranking of 150,000, have about 1,100 RSS subscribers, and average about 40,000 unique visitors per month. (Sure, a lot of them are coming to see pictureslikethese, but they all count.)
So I'm glad that I've been able to stick with it. I feel like I've gone through a couple generations of blogging relationships, starting out with Steve and Jeremy and Shel and Todd D., and now interacting more with Geoff and Rich and Ike and Cam. There have been a few true blue types like Kevin and Kami and Alice and Bill and Todd A., too. I count all of you, and others out there, as good friends.
Next week (programmers willing), we expect to launch a full redesign for Spin Thicket. Before too long, you'll see that site dwarf anything that Media Orchard has achieved. So I think the fun is just beginning.
For some time now, I have used the Internet fax service eFax, by j2 Global Communications (Nasdaq: JCOM), rather than an actual fax machine. Today I decided for a variety of reasons to cancel that service and go back to old-school faxing.
Apparently, however, j2 Global Communications doesn't really like the idea of customers cancelling their service.
For starters, they make it difficult to find information on cancelling your account on their Web site. When you do find the instructions buried in some FAQ, you are informed that you must have a live chat with an eFax customer service representative in order to cancel your account.
That's right -- must. No live chat, no cancellation.
So I chatted. Here's the actual transcript of my session this afternoon:
Welcome to chat.
The session has been accepted.
{Fred H.} Hello, Scott. Welcome to j2 Global online support. I am Fred, your Online Live Support Representative. How are you doing today?
{Scott Baradell} Great. I would like to cancel my eFax service immediately.
{Fred H.} I am sorry to hear that you wish to cancel. Could you please provide me with your Fax number and PIN for verification?
{Scott Baradell} The number is XXX XXX XXXX. I don't know the PIN offhand.
{Fred H.} PIN is a 4 digit number mentioned in the Welcome letter which was sent to you at your contact email address at the time of signup.
{Scott Baradell} I don't have that letter. What should I do?
{Fred H.} Could you please provide me with your last four digit of the credit card information for verification?
{Scott Baradell} It's either my Amex or my Visa. The Amex is XXXX. Is that the one?
{Fred H.} Thank you for providing your information. Please give me a moment while I go through your records. In the meantime, please type the number corresponding to your reason for cancellation:
1) Moving to another provider 2) Bought a Fax machine 3) Business or role changed 4) Short term project completed 5) Financial reasons 6) Problems with Faxing or Billing 7) Dissatisfied with Quality of service 8) Too Costly
{Scott Baradell} 2
{Fred H.} Scott, I understand that currently you do not need the service. In the current situation, we will waive off the monthly fee for two months. This way you will be able to keep your account, which will enable you to send and receive faxes. You will also be able to use all of our services and re-evaluate it for your faxing needs. During this period, you will not be charged any monthly fee. We are suggesting this so that you can give it a second thought, as you will not be paying $16.95 for the next 2 billing cycles.
{Fred H.} Your eFax account will be credited with $33.90 so that you may utilize our services without being billed our monthly fee for the next two billing cycles.
{Fred H.} Since you will not be charged any monthly fee for the next two billing cycles you could keep the number till then. If at all you find that you need our services during this period, then you will still have the account. If however, you still feel that you do not have any use for our services by the end of this two months credit period, then you can always contact us back anytime. Would you like that?
{Scott Baradell} NO, I do not want to have to contact you again. I want to cancel now, please.
{Fred H.} I completely understand your wish to discontinue, since you have already paid for the month, we do not want you to lose out on the money. I suggest you to retain this number at least till the end of two months credit offer as you will not be charged any monthly fee for the two months. As a good will gesture to continue our association we will offer you an additional gift balance of $10 along with the monthly credit which will enable to send up to 100 additional fax pages free of cost(per page per minute within US & Canada).
{Fred H.} During this two months credit period, you can keep this service active and if you use it once in these two months we will be more than happy that we were able to serve you.
{Fred H.} If you do not wish to continue beyond this waiver period, then there is no obligation to continue. There are no contracts. All you would need to do is, contact us just once, anytime during this credit period to re-confirm your decision. We are at your service, round the clock, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
{Fred H.} You can have it as your backup number during this period. It could prove useful to you as you never know when the need arises.
{Scott Baradell} NO. I do not want to contact you again.
{Fred H.} All right, I respect your decision and will cancel your number immediately.
{Fred H.} I'm sorry that you are leaving eFax. At eFax, we are continuously improving our products and services. Please do consider us if your faxing needs should change in the future.
{Fred H.} Is there anything else you would like to have assistance with?
{Scott Baradell} No thank you
{Fred H.} You are welcome.
{Fred H.} Thank you for contacting j2 Global Online Support, I hope you found our session helpful.
Health 2.0, eDrugSearch.com and the Future of Healthcare
I attended Matthew Holt's second Health 2.0 conference earlier this week and published some thoughts on the confab at the blog of a client, eDrugSearch.com. ("Health 2.0" equals Web 2.0 plus healthcare, as you might have guessed.)
Here are a few of my observations about the event, which should give you a sense of how far we still have to go in many verticals:
There weren't many doctors there. There were a few -- some of them, like a young visionary named Dr. Jay Parkinson, doing remarkable things. But he was one of a handful in attendance. (Erick and Linda from PharmaSurveyor wore some cool mad-scientist lab coats at Monday's cocktail party -- but they aren't physicians.)
There weren't many big healthcare players there, either. Sure, Johnson & Johnson was a sponsor, but the vibe was a little like GM's interest in the electric car; do they really want to help lead this movement -- or just monitor and contain it? (A side note: A J&J official, addressing attendees at a cocktail party J&J sponsored, announced that alcohol is a social lubricant, "as opposed to KY, which is a different kind of lubricant." A plug's a plug, I guess.)
And yet, despite the sneers and snubs, I now believe more strongly than ever that Health 2.0 is the disruptive innovation that is going to turn the U.S. healthcare system on its head -- and ultimately, save it from itself.
Health 2.0 will give doctors more time with patients. Health 2.0 will give patients control over their own health records. Health 2.0 will eliminate those annoying clipboard moments at the doctor's office. Health 2.0 will make sure we don't mix the wrong drugs. Health 2.0 will give people access to "been-there buddies" who can provide the support they need during the darkest periods of their lives.
A couple of months ago, someone doing media relations for me got screwed over by a TV reporter. Here's how it went:
1. We wanted the reporter to do a preview story on a consumer event that one of our clients was sponsoring. The event was targeted to a particular kind of consumer within this reporter's beat.
2. The reporter expressed interest and said she wanted to interview one of the consumers who would be coming to the show. She laid out a set of criteria for the kind of person she wanted to talk with.
3. Our media relations person said, "No problem, I'm on it!" and set about giving the reporter what she wanted. Since the event hadn't yet occurred, you can imagine how difficult it might be to find a consumer who was planning to come to an event before the event. Particularly given the reporter's criteria, it wasn't easy.
4. Lo and behold, our person scored! She found the perfect candidate for the reporter's story, which obviously would be a great hook for the reporter's preview of our client's event.
5. The reporter was excited to learn that our person had found the perfect interview subject for her. She apparently had been looking for this kind of consumer for some time with no luck. The reporter went to the consumer's home and interviewed her for more than an hour.
6. When our media relations person followed up to find out when the story would run, the reporter said she "wasn't sure" if she would be able to do a preview of the event. "What do you mean?" our person asked. "Didn't the interview go well?"
7. It did go well, the reporter replied. Only she really had wanted the interview for a future story she was planning, and just didn't have time to do something before the show. In fact, when the story did run, it wouldn't be mentioning our client at all.
I want to out this bitch so badly I can't tell you. But I guess I'll settle for sharing this little story in hopes that it will comfort you the next time you get screwed.
What's the Most Important Web Site on Earth? According to Google, It's Google.com
Most of the billions of Web sites out there today have a site map, labeled as such. So if you run a search on the term "site map" in Google, you should get a fairly decent indication of which sites Google thinks are most important, shouldn't you?
Here are the 25 organizations whose Web sites come up first in a "site map" search:
1. Google 2. eBay 3. Apple 4. CNN Money 5. Wikipedia 6. Microsoft 7. The Seattle Times 8. The Chronicle of Higher Education 9. The New York Times 10. Internal Revenue Service 11. FindLaw 12. CNET 13. The White House 14. U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services 15. Austin American-Statesman 16. U.S. Dept. of Defense 17. The Washington Post 18. U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs 19. LiveJournal 20. MapQuest 21. The Arizona Republic 22. MSNBC 23. International Monetary Fund 24. U.S. National Library of Medicine 25. Los Angeles Times
Tip to Blog Experts: Plant a Tree to Reduce Your Hot-Air Footprint
The main reason I went into blogging is because it leaves a very small carbon footprint. Unfortunately, many bloggers have decided to make careers on the speaking circuit as "blogging experts" -- so many, in fact, that the greenhouse gases they emit during their fetid lectures (including carbon dioxide and, in at least some embarrassing cases, methane) have begun to threaten the blogosphere's fragile ecosystem.
We know that pengins would catch fire and the planet would die if everyone in China had a car; that much is obvious. By the same token, can the Blue Marble survive the hot air generated simultaneously by thousands of bloggers who market themselves as experts, polluting the ether with BS-generated carbon?
Maybe we need a version of Todd's Power 150 that awards marketing bloggers a rating representing the number of trees a given blogging expert must plant to compensate for the hot air he or she creates. Ad Age, if you want that idea, it's all yours.
As many of you know, Media Orchard was a Technorati Top 3,000 blog back in the day (Summer 2006). We got distracted with other things (mainly clients) and more or less abandoned the blog for a while, then brought it back in September 2007 with a new approach.
It might not seem coherent enough to be called "an approach" to you -- but it works for me. And you do seem to be enjoying it based on the traffic increases shown here:
StatCounter:
Alexa:
It's cool that at January 25, traffic for Q1 has already exceeded the total for the entire third quarter of 2007. But the most exciting news for me is that Spin Thicket is also becoming a larger community -- which is so important since it depends on your conversations to make it worthwhile.
We're planning a complete overhaul of Spin Thicket that we expect to launch by the end of February. Stay tuned.
There is just one month left to win international acclaim for your communication successes programs of 2007. Act now to showcase Idea Grove, The's best examples of thought leadership, strategic management, and creativity through the Gold Quill Awards. The International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) is accepting entries for the 2008 Gold Quill Awards. The early bird deadline to send in your entries is 5 February 2008 and the final deadline is 12 February 2008.
And NO -- the joke ISN'T that the IABC would actually send me such as request. I won a Gold Quill for this video (with pal Dave Gardner) a couple years ago, if you must know:
Why Anyone Who's Been Blogging as Long as I Have Should Want to Kill Themselves
Why? Because the same people are writing about the same things they were when I started, with the difference being that we're all drunk with consulting work so the writing is shittier (or we've hired a college student to do it for us), and more people are inserting themselves into the "conversation" to make a quick buck every single day.
I don't really have the energy or the inclination for a full rant here, but I stumbled upon (and I don't mean Stumbled Upon) this post by Steve Rubel (who is a friend) and had to at least spew something or other. See, I don't read Micro Persuasion (or a lot of other blogs) regularly like I used to, and though I'm a fan I've never been an avid reader just 'cause I'm not a tech geek. So I just thought I'd check in to see what's doin'.
So we get Steve saying too many bloggers are writing lazy, boring shit, which they are, and then we have Steve promising to try to do better, which in all probability he simply won't have time to do, and then we have a bunch of commenters who might as well have written their posts in 2005. Commenters bitching that Steve is ignoring them; commenters kissing Steve's ass in hopes of some future link love; and even Jeremy Pepper, who still hasn't tired of his little snipes at Steve after all these friggin' years.
Does anyone wonder now why I'd prefer to do blog posts about Paris and Lindsay having vag slips in Africa?
I'm like Jack on the bridge in the season finale of Lost last year, only I don't want to go back to Blog Island. I want to blow up Blog Island.
I think the best thing that could happen to improve the quality of blogging would be to shut down Digg, Techmeme and Twitter; for Google to stop indexing blog content; and for Technorati (even as f'ed up as it already is) to go away,too. Then you'd have people blogging who actually give two shits about what they're writing.
Today finding worthwhile content online is like looking for the best ballet dancer in a mosh pit. Good luck with that.
You may know we've long had ambivalent feelings toward Digg. While we've been a member for a year and a half now, we haven't exactly been an active user. But now that Digg is embroiled in so much controversy, and virtually every client is asking about the site, I decided I should at least play around with it a little bit more. If you'd like to play with me, go to my profile page and add me as a friend.
(And for the three or four of you who actually got the Saturday Night Fever refererence in the headline, I won't tell anybody if you won't.)
Inspired by a post by my friend Bill Green at Black Star Rising, I decided to write my own rant on the limitations of Creative Commons. It obviously struck a nerve, as it hit the Digg homepage and made the social-network rounds.
