Cedar Mill Communications

As we all know, the only constant in the world is change.  During periods of change we all go through natural cycles of resistance, denial and ultimately everyone moves on and accepts the new reality.

Maybe it has something to do with the speed that news travels via the Web and social media, but class in the face of pressure and change seems to be something that has gone missing in action of late.

The latest example is the scathing letter from Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert about LeBron James’ decision to join the Miami Heat.  In a display of absolutely zero class, Gilbert called LeBron’s decision “a shameful display of selfishness and betrayal by one of our very own.”

What Gilbert fails to mention is that LeBron’s presence in Cleveland for the last several years has increased the value of his franchise by over $100 million and led to a sold out arena night in and night out. Gilbert should have been thanking LeBron for the contribution to his personal net worth and wished him the best in his new endeavor.

That would be the classy thing to do.  Sure Gilbert is in denial, but perhaps he should he should have just kept it to himself.

A similar example of classless behavior is the cast of Kin characters busily bashing Microsoft over the decision to pull the plug on the much-hyped, but weak-selling social media phones.  No doubt this was mismanaged from the get go. Still, the problem was more that the gap Microsoft was targeting between smart phones and regular phones ended up getting squeezed by low-cost smartphones and high-priced data plans.  The Kin was a non-starter from the get go.

But instead of moving on, disgruntled employees are publicly airing their beefs for the world to read.  What’s the point of this?  No one really cares about your complaints – which only tell one side of the story – and make us think less of you.  Certainly, I would not want someone who’s willing to bash their employer on the Web as a part of my team.

I remember back when email first became accepted in business. We learned quickly never to send emails that you write when you’re angry.  Similarly, it’s time for a bit more restraint before angry letters and blog posts go live. Nothing good ever comes from removing all doubt that you’re a putz.

To quote Ron Burgundy, “You stay classy San Diego.”

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One of the best things about having an annual subscription to the Associated Press Stylebook is its regular updates. I learned how the Christmas Day bomber spells his name, for instance, and how it’s pronounced. It’s Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab (OO’-mahr fah-ROOK’ ahb-DOOL’-moo-TAH’-lahb). In my line of work, I don’t deal with terrorist suspects, but I appreciate knowing the info’s there anyway.

Just this week I got another update that made me realize I’m not too technologically challenged – at least in knowing the terms for fast-changing technology. AP has listed nearly 50 terms or words with new definitions that are associated with social media. In fact, the editors have created a whole section called Social Media Guidelines in which the umbrella term is defined: “tools that allow the sharing of information and creating online communities.” I applaud the conciseness. While you could argue you’d have to have been under a rock the past few years not to know about Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, it’s also clear that traditional media reporters have a lot to learn about their online cohorts, whom they do they quote. AP points out (to those gullible few) that “phony accounts are rampant in the social media world.” You don’t say.

The fact that AP just now chose to recognize – and in its way legitimize – social media, says to me that the editors were like most conservative institutions and dismissed friending and tweeting as passing fads, but now have decided, like most of us, to just go with it. Why not get a Facebook page? It’s a great way to keep up with folks and reconnect with old, nearly forgotten friends.

By the way, I ran through the terms just to make sure I knew them all. I did pretty well; only hashtag threw me.

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Committing to buying a spot in the Super Bowl is always a big risk due to the vast sums of money at stake. For those with the wherewithal to pull it off, a big splash around the Super Bowl may generate more buzz than a year’s worth of mediocrity.

The year’s game, featuring one of football’s biggest stars in Peyton Manning and the feel good story of the past year in the New Orleans Saints, was the most watched TV show in the United States ever with 106.5 million viewers. With all the entertainment options people have now compared to when the previous record was set by the MASH finale in 1983, this is an amazing accomplishment.

Even more astonishing, people don’t DVR the Super Bowl and zip past the ads; instead they sit in groups and watch the ads intently hoping for a big laugh. In my case, I printed out a list of the expected ads from adbowl.com and had the people at the party help me decide on the rankings. (Next year, I’ll be doing this in realtime with the aid of my iPad).

More than just the massive, rapt audience, marketers also get the benefit of all the hype and exposure surrounding the Super Bowl.

And, now, it has caught on with social media.

BtoB magazine reports that of the 38 brands that ran TV spots during the Super Bowl, 75% saw the number of blog posts about their brands double, compared with the average number of blog posts on Sunday evenings over the past six months. Overall, blog posts about the Super Bowl increased to 25,725 this year, up from 15,702 last year. Of these, more than 3,600 posts were specifically related to advertising. Twitter also saw increased Super Bowl-related activity, with more than 720,000 tweets about the game.

Seriously, if you’re a marketer and you’re considering this brand-building extravaganza, do it. But do it right.

Here are a few basic observations on what “right” looks like. It still boggles the mind that companies can get this wrong. I’m not going to bash anyone, but there were some real stinkers in the mix, as there have been in the past.

1. Be clever and funny. David Letterman nailed this with his 10 second spot with Oprah and Leno. Did it help Leno? Who cares, it was funny and led to gobs of media coverage. Learn from this folks. We’re watching the Super Bowl at a party and we want to be amused.
2. Don’t get old and worn out. Hey is anyone home at eTrade and GoDaddy? The baby thing isn’t funny anymore (loved it first time out) and GoDaddy, it’s time to move on. Come up with something new.
3. Big names doing funny things work. The consensus #1 ad this year was Snicker’s with Betty White and Abe Vigoda. Hyunda’s ancient Brett Farve and VW’s Punch Dub with Stevie Wonder and Tracy Morgan also were hits with the audience.
4. If you can’t be funny, sentimental works too. Google’s surprise ad – which had been on YouTube for a few months – about using search for Paris love was fantastic. Our crowd thought that it was the winner.
5. Keep coming back – but with new stuff. Audi’s brand is quickly moving to the top of the charts. The German automaker has been on the Super Bowl roster for a couple of years and had a clever entry this year.
6. Maximize your PR and social media outreach. Be sure to wrap lots of marketing, PR and social media activities around your investment in the Super Bowl.
7. Give stuff away. As was humorously portrayed by terrified chickens, Denny’s used the Super Bowl to promote free Grand Slams on Tuesday. Well it worked. At least one of my neighbors braved the crowds to get her eggs and hash browns.

If you missed out on the Super Bowl, you still have some big sporting events on tap. In particular you might want to think about real football, as in Futbol or Fußball, like what’s played everywhere else on the planet. If the US team makes the World Cup quarterfinals or semifinals it will be huge. Or not. Like it or not, the Super Bowl is the biggest and best brand building machine in the US today.

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The extent to which we depend on the Web was brought home to me over the weekend — as well as the risk of counting too much on the Web for reliable information. Ginny, our youngest daughter, needed to find her way through a convoluted section of Portland near Lewis & Clark college for a babysitting assignment. Inexplicably, Mapquest sent her down a narrow road directly into someone’s yard and up a very steep hill. It seems that this happens quite frequently and despite repeated attempts to get this mapping error fixed — the road does NOT go through — it’s still happening. This wouldn’t be that bad expect that hill is really steep and doesn’t have anywhere to turn around. In the course of backing down, Ginny managed to roll over a small retaining wall and get the car stuck on a boulder she dislodged.  While everyone was very helpful, it took Mary and me going over there — instead of a barbeque — and crawling around in the dirt shoving boulders around. Despite the frustration, it was a useful reminder not to believe everything you see, hear or read on the Web. Unfortunately, even established services still have a ways to go. It does seem that mapping services should have some built-in way to allow people to update and comment on bad directions. Now that would be a good direction.

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My how time flies. It certainly has been a while since I written anything for this blog. Now that I’m seriously helping companies with their blogging strategies, it may be time to get back into the swing wam poker comboite de jeu pokerjeu poker onlinedes r�gles jeu pokerpoker online 3djouer au poker sur mactexas holdem francetelecharger partie pokerles regles de poker,regles poker hold hem,regles pokero� jouer au poker en lignejeu poker casinopoker sur internetregle de pokerregle pokerregles poker ouvertjeu poker freewarejeu de carte pokerpoker online francestrip poker online gratuitesjeu poker tour en lignetelecharger jeu poker texaspoker en ligne gratuites macjouer video pokersalle poker en lignejouer poker tourjeu poker lignejeux world poker,world class poker,world pokertelechargement gratuites jeu de pokerpoker en ligne,jeux poker en ligne,telecharger poker en ligneinternet texas holdemregles poker casinojouer poker sans argentjeu gratuites poker holdjeux 7 card stud gratuitestelechargement jeu de pokerhigh stakes pokerpoker gratuites d�butantjeu de poker francaistapis de jeu pokerpoker tour reglespoker pc gratuitesyahoo jeuxjeux de poker virtuelpoker texas holdem gratuitesune r�gle du jeu pokerla r�gle du poker texas holdemun jeu de poker � t�l�chargerfull tilt pokerpoker enligne gratuitesdes r�gles du jeu du poker of things. Besides it’s a great outlet.

Needless to say, as publications fail or consolidate almost daily, it’s safe to say that blogging is here to stay. Should we stick with blogging?  Yes, might not be a bad idea.

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According to a still in progress Kent State/BurrellsLuce study some 3 out of 4 PR professionals don’t monitor blogs. That’s pretty consistent with the finding that only 18.5 percent say they work for organizations that use their own blogs to facilitate communication with key stakeholders.

Given this state of affairs, the question I’d like to pose is what will become of blogs? To be sure there are a lot of blogs, and there are some that are doing very well. But given this study, blogs are not yet mainstream. If we look at the Geoffry Moore “Crossing the Chasm” model, it’s not a given that blogging in general will cross the chasm. While it’s perhaps in the tornado, it has not yet made it to mainstreet USA. Will it?

Along a similar vein, what shape will blogging take? Sure it’s fun to “talk amongst ourselves” or write a journal about visits to Aunt Marge. In that sense, blogging is nice way to use the Web. But the bigger question for those of us in the PR/marketing/communication biz, is will blogging someday usurp traditional or mainstream media (I’m trying to avoid using the somewhat derogatory MSM label).

What I find interesting is how some of the bigger blogs are becoming pretty much like any other media outlet. They have multiple reporters, they certainly have some technical help behind the scenes, and most likely some sales and marketing folks helping to bring in those sponsor dollars. Hmm, sounds pretty mainstream to me. From a PR perspective, I think we all know how to work with these type of outfits.

All of which brings me to my final thought: If blogging does succeed in crossing the chasm, does anything change?

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Northeastern University together with backbone media published a thorough study (must be nice to have many willing arms and legs) on what makes a corporate blog successful. Presented in blog format with comments and trackback of course, the study provides lots of tips from a cross section of corporate bloggers on what worked and what didn’t. It’s a virtual recipe on how to make a corporate blog really work.

Althought there is much that goes into making a corporate blog a successful addition to the business communications mix, here are the five factors the successful bloggers identified. No real surprises, but worth bearing in mind:

1. Culture
2. Transparency
3. Time
4. Dialogue
5. Entertaining Writing Style and Personalization

Assuming a level of success — and who doesn’t want to be successful — corporate blogs are a powerful way to change public perception about your company, to bring the company culture to life, and to keep a finger on how your company is doing. Given that, you would think that every company would have a thriving blog strategy by now. But from what I can gather that simply isn’t the case. The true blogging success stories are limited.

Why?

In my experience, there are three main factors.

First, is time. The CEO is supposed to be the one blogging, but rarely will blogging take precedence over closing big deals or keeping the board happy. So even if a blog gets going, posts are few and far between. As a result, the blog gradually fades from existance, leaving the vague impression that blogs may not be viable.

Second, companies aren’t convinced that blogs are a good idea and will be effective. Sending out press releases is tried and true. Fear of the unknown is a major obstacle. Often lawyers raise the red flag. Are blogs a fad or a truly something the company has to embrace? Who knows? Maybe, maybe not.

Third, the blogging and social media skill set is non-existant at most companies. Most people in marketing, PR and Web development are so busy trying to meet business demands that they don’t have the time to develop new skills sets. As the Northeastern University study indicates, blogging is becoming part of the curriculum and these students will start flooding into the workplace soon. So the skill shortage is likely to end soon.

Many of the skills that make for good blogs are those of good reporters and journalists. Over time, I think we’ll see reporters and editors finding jobs within company as the official blogger or podcaster inside companies. Those will be fun jobs to have. With a daughter in J-school at U of O, I feel good about her job prospects and writing/journalism in general.

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