Microsoft needs a new chief cheerleader

• • No Tags

Punting on the CamRobert Scoble is leaving Microsoft. That’s big news for the company.

Scoble’s impact on the Microsoft’s image has been profound. He reminded us all that the company isn’t just a few aggressively competitive and astonishingly successful businessmen, but it is also thousands of individual employees who are probably a bit like you and me. This was an important accomplishment for Microsoft.

The 2006 Edelman Trust Barometer found that “in six of the 11 countries surveyed, the ‘person like yourself or your peer’ is seen as the most credible spokesperson about a company and among the top three spokespeople in every country.” And Scoble has been tremendously successful in becoming “the person most like me” for most bloggers.

Without doubt, he put a great face on Microsoft. And he continued to do this even in his post about leaving the company. Complimentary all the way through. A class act.

So what now? In his post about his decision to leave, Scoble himself observed:

I’m not the only blogger at Microsoft. There are about 3,000 of them here. They are not having the plug pulled on them. They changed the world. I just was the cheerleader.

Microsoft desperately needs a chief cheerleader to follow in Scoble’s footsteps. But none of the 3,000 bloggers in the company currently come anywhere near his profile.

Are any of the current bloggers capable of stepping into his shoes? Or will Microsoft have to reach outside the company to bring in another outsider with Scoble’s combination of skills as a communicator, cheerleader, networker and all round nice guy?

IABC International Conference – Tom Keefe

• • No Tags

UPDATE: Tom Keefe has posted his slides for this presentation at the IABC Cafe.

Tom Keefe

Tom Keefe tackled the subject Building and online community: New medium, new challenges?

He cited the June 2006 Fast Company cover story, observing that social media sites are growing up and technical barriers are going away.

Most importantly, people are interacting with other people, not just with computers.

Keefe identies three key elements that must be present for community: people with common interests, common location and interaction.

  • Traits that build online community include:
  • Trust: Trust is necessary in both a living and a virtual community. In an online community, trust is built through taking a person’s word that they are who they are.
  • Support: In an online community, one of the biggest things that we give to one another is support. Technical. Practical. Intellectual.
  • Commitment: People must have commitment to post and maintain their content as fresh.

The common element to all communities is communication – communication which spans social, emotional and intellectual dimensions.

He pointed to tagworld, friendster, linkedin as examples of online communities. In particular, ebay has been particularly successful in creating a community with a high trust quotient.

He pointed to the RSA (Royal Society of the Arts) as an example of a successful small-world network.” The small-world network has many advantages over hierarchy:

  • better connected
  • faster responding
  • more fault-tolerant

Social media are being integrated into companies. However, not all forms make sense in all situations. “Walk before you run (or you’ll risk chasing your management away from the idea.)”

He illustrated the challenge of introducting social media into companies by referencing his employer Volkswagen Credit. Externally, Volkswagen Credit is podcasting and has a MySpace presence. Internally, they have RSS availability and some Sharepoint services.

Volkswagen introduced podcasting at the 2006 Detroit Auto Show. Results? They saw a 31.6% click-thru rate for an emil to owners announcing our podcast project. Interveiw podcasts received 13th rank in A&E category

The company produced another podcast for the April 2006 New York AutoShow.

Volkswagen’s presence on MySpace was used for the GTI campaign. They also created MySpace profiles for fast and Helga.

The IT Department has not been enthusiastic about social media. It is important for communicators to work with IT to explain to them how social media can be a benefit to the company.

At present, Volkswagen does not encourage employees or managers to blog. There continues to be a concern about confidentiality within the company. Tom’s own blog is a personal blog.

Peek behind the scenes of the launch of a web 2.0 company – Riya

• • No Tags

Munjal ShahMunjal Shah, the CEO of Web 2.0 start-up Riya, is writing a series of posts recounting the first two months following the launch of the company’s public beta.  Riya offers “face recognition technology [that] automatically tags people in photos so you can search for just
the photo you want. In your albums. In your friends’ albums. In our public albums.”

In his introductory post, Munjal provides a taste of what is to come:

The last 60 days has been just a whirlwind. In the next eight/nine blog posts I’m going to recount the last sixty days of Riya in detail. Each blog post will cover a week.

I will recount the days following our launch, the cocaine like high and subsequent crash of the Techcrunch effect, the final analysis on whether Riya’s technology worked, the feedback we recieved from users, the competitors we beat (at least in traffic), the flaw in the Riya business strategy we uncovered, the crisis it precipitated, the concern I developed for the entire Web 2.0 industry as the numbers rolled in, the search for a new strategy as Azhar, Burak, and I sat in a conference room for almost 10 days straight, the customer data that lead us to a counter-web 2.0 and counter intuitive strategy, the board meeting and debate about it, and the first execution around it.

They say consumer Internet companies are all about launching, getting feedback, and iterating. Well, welcome to Riya Iteration 1.

Today, Munjal posted Episode 1: March 21 6am PST to March 28 6am.

Thanks to Tara Hunt for pointing to Munjal’s posts.

Ted Demopoulos wants you for his next book!

• • No Tags

Ted DemopoulosTed Demopoulos is looking for people to interview for his next book, What No One Ever Tells You about Blogging and Podcasting: Real-Life Advice from 101 People Who Successfully Leverage the Power of the Blogosphere.

He’s looking for people who will talk to him about about “issues/topics in podcasting, making money from blogs, promoting your blog, blog planning, and more – ANYTHING is open.” He’s already published an initial set of interviewees and topics.

Interested in being in Ted’s book? Email him (ted[AT]demop.com) or blog your own idea with a link to his post.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, maybe I could suggest an idea….

Blogging shines light on PR

• • No Tags

Zoey's got her eye on youFree-lance writer Zoey Castelino has been following my blog and those of David Jones and Chris Clarke and she offers some observations on the growing number of PR blogs:

I think this idea of public relations practitioners blogging is a great idea and a smart step in the direction of new and social media. It not only gives their clients a fresh outlook and an idea of what they can do, but also it gives anyone not familiar with the industry a better insight into what goes on behind closed doors.

From my experience, Zoe is absolutely dead-on in her assessment.

Since I started blogging, I have been delighted by the range of people commenting on my blog – not only other pr practitioners, but journalists, clients of our firm and students and teachers of public relations. I have learned a great deal from this conversation and sharpened my own thinking on several issues.

And while there is a certain feeling of vulnerability associated with posting my views on my blog (i.e. Do I reveal my naivete? Are my views unsophisticated or uninformed?), there is real satisfaction in having others respond sincerely and seriously to a post and to realize that I have indeed benefitted from the thinking and experience of people whom I might never have known otherwise .

I can only hope that my blog postings continue to throw light on the business of PR, best practices and life in a consulting firm.

Blogger relations & transparency: A must-listen/read for PR practitioners

• • No Tags

PR practitioners should not miss Shel Holtz’s and Neville Hobson’s discussion of the issues raised in the Edelman/Wal-Mart blogger relations controversy.

Shel and Neville kicked off a spirited discussion in the For Immediate Release Podcast 118. Many listeners (including me) kept the conversation going with comments on the FIR blog.

Shel Holtz posted on his own blog, a shel of my former self, a response to those who question the legitimacy of companies presenting their viewpoint to bloggers. In fact, Shel asserts, “Organizations have every right to engage in the conversation.”

For his part, Neville posted several times , arguing for full disclosure and transparency. One of Neville’s posts drew 29 comments.

Finally, Neville and Shel closed the circle with an update on For Immediate Release 119.

Shel and Neville, thanks for the great discussion. You’ve provided a gathering point for many of us to come together to consider the important underlying issues. This is what social media is supposed to be about!

Lesson from Edelman Wal-Mart – Have your own voice

• • No Tags

It’s fair game to deliver information directly to bloggers. But … and it’s a big but, true transparency requires that you should be prepared to publish for all to see anything you’re prepared to send to a selected blogger.

Blogger relations. Yes, it’s every bit as legitimate as media relations. However, the rules and conventions are not the same.

The news media are competitive. They thrive on exclusives and being first to market with news.

Blogs are about building a community. The point of this community is opinion and exchange. And the tactics and approaches of media relations are not strictly transferable to this community. It requires rules and practices that respect its particular nature.

So, a company wants to influence the views of opinion-leading bloggers. That’s a legitimate objective.

And emailing information directly to opinion leaders is an effective way to get it in front of them. They might not see it on your own blog. But, that brings us back to the big but: true transparency requires that you should be prepared to publish for all to see anything you’re prepared to send to a selected blogger. And to be able to do this in the blogosphere requires that you have your own blog. A place where you can post your point of view, your information, for all to see.

That’s where Wal-Mart came up short. They used their PR firm’s bloggers and the credibility those bloggers had built up to speak directly to other bloggers. But for the rest of us, people outside of their carefully targeted direct blogger pitch, we could not see what the company was up to. The fact that their activity was discovered resulted from the slipshod practices of a few bloggers who quoted verbatim from the material Edelman/Wal-Mart provided to them, without attribution.

So, true transparency was not achieved. And the resultant uproar should prove a cautionary tale for all.

The bottom line: Avoid shortcuts. If you conclude that the blogosphere is important to you, establish your own voice first. Go ahead, contact the bloggers who you think are the most influential. But let the rest of the world see that you are prepared to say in public what you private encourage an intermediary to talk about.

Social Marketing: Toronto AIMS Seminar with Shel Israel

• • No Tags

AIMS (Association of Internet Marketing and Sales) took advantage of Shel Israel’s presence in Toronto to organize a session on social marketing.

In addition to Shel Israel, the other featured speakers were:

  • Mark Evans, a senior technology reporter with the National Post. His principal blogs are Mark Evans,a Canadian take on telecom and technology and All Nortel, All the Time, a blog about all things Nortel.
  • Amber MacArthur, co-producer and co-host of Call for Help,a daily one-hour TV show on G4TechTV. She also produces commandN, a weekly web/tech news video show online and Inside the Net, a weekly podcast ; and
  • Jon Husband, visionary and evangelist for Vancouver blogging software company Qumana Inc.. He contributes to Qumana’s blog as well as his personal blog, Wirearchy.

    • Some takeaways:

    Mark Evans:

  • Why do I blog? First and foremost, it’s a branding exercise for me and what I do. I have bigger plans beyond the National Post. Unfortunately, the National Post has a backward approach to blogging. They are just getting into it now. And I’ve felt the need to lead them. … Networking. I’m a small fish in a big pond. Blogging allows me to get my thoughts out there, maybe get some credibility and maybe the New York Times will hire me sometime.
  • Revenue: I’m not in it for the money. Although I have Adsense, I make about a dollar a day.
  • Newspapers and blogging: Canadian papers are way behind the U.S. The Toronto Star is most advanced in blogging. The Globe and Mail is a close second and the National Post is way behind.
  • Advice for PR/Marketing practitioners: Jump into Blogging. You don’t have to write one, but read them every day. Engage them. Talk to them. Ask them to talk to you.
  • Corporate Blogs: I have an issue with CEO blogs. In the era of Sarbanes Oxley, most CEO’s cannot say what they feel. Legal and IR filter them and they seem stale.

    • Evans also reminded the audience of the Web 2.0 conference May 8/9 in Toronto. Check out Mark’s blog for more info on this.

    Amber MacArthur

  • Podcasting has expanded my audience internationally whereas previously on television it was only national.
  • Why would I waste time making a podcast if I can’t make money from it? Eventually, there will be opportunities to make money from advertising. I have an advertiser. It doesn’t give me much money, maybe enough to go out to dinner once in a while.
  • 12 to 20 minutes is a good time to get into a topic without going too long. I tune out of the hour long podcast.

    • Jon Husband

  • Pleasantville is the best movie about the effects of the internet and it doesn’t have a single computer in it.
  • First they will ignore you (was done). Then they will ridicule you (was done). Then they will fight you (in process). Then they will lose.

    • Shel Israel

  • Most C-level people just can’t do it. Their primary obligation is to shareholders. They may be constrained in what they can do.
  • The best bloggers are the people, like Robert Scoble, who are able to express themselves, have knowledge and have a lot of heart.
  • We trust people who are like we are.
  • Human nature is to want to have a conversation. Now for the first time, we can have conversations on a global level with people who care about what we want to talk about.
  • Perhaps we can call this “Mass micro-marketing.”
  • Web 2.0 companies in their early stages don’t need PR. They should blog. The blogosphere can capture the imagination of people; word of mouth will get the message out.

    • Thanks to AIMS Toronto for organizing this session.