Mesh Day Two: Steve Rubel

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The second day of Mesh opened with an interactive session with Steve Rubel, the A list PR blogger.

Highlights:

  • “On the name of his blog, Micropersuasion, It’s no longer about the largest number of eyeballs. It’s about one person with a voice who can be influential. It’s about one voice and one person being just as persuasive as anybody.”
  • “Public relations has to mean literally what the word says, how to relate to the public. We’ve been dealing for years with the media. … Now it’s totally different. The public relations professional needs to know how to deal with people – as people.”
  • “We have to understand the motivations of the bloggers we deal with. Bloggers have a lot of different motivation. You have to think about how I can help this blogger to succeed and at the same time help me to succeed.”
  • “It’s about befriending a community. It’s about working with a community to further their goals and to further your own. … That’s the new model: Further the conversation.”
    The Edelman Trust barometer this year showed a shift in trust: “A person like myself or a peer is the most trusted person. People want to have a news means to connect and interact with each other.”
  • What’s working? “Advertising is still working. It’s adapting. … Word of Mouth has always worked. PR is working. … Marketing isn’t dying. PR isn’t dying. They’re just spreading out and adapting.”
  • On credibility: “The community will tell us who’s credible and who’s not. … The community does a wonderful job of checking what people are writing.”
  • “Who you should be talking to is a bigger question than who you should believe. There’s a tendency to go to the bigger blogs. … It’s not a numbers game. … You find a small section of an audience that’s interested in a specific thing and you develop a deep relationship with them.”
  • Who will pay for that? “I’ve seen some companies begin to set up budgets for community marketing.” Examples: Microsoft and Lego “Companies will see others do that and then ask themselves why they don’t do that.”
  • Campaigns are moving away from impressions and GRPs to be measured by “How many links did we get? How many conversations did we generate?”
  • “Companies will have to get their minds wrapped around that narrow is good. Niche vs. Reach.”
    About the Edelman Walmart controversy and the crossover of PR from media relations to blogger relations: “We learned from that. There are some things that are going to work and others that won’t. The important thing is to remain transparent and ethical.”
  • Re: MySpace and other social networking sites: “Look for where the relevant community is hanging out. … Whatever you do with social networks needs to be done on the terms of the community. … You need to do it politely and by fitting in.”
  • On Strumpette, the PR gossip blog: “I realize that I sit in the public. And with that, you’ve got to take your lumps.”
  • Pay for Play in the Blogosphere: “I’d advise you not to go there. Unless the rest of the world changes overnight, don’t do it. And the way to know what the world considers acceptable is to read blogs.”
  • On measuring success: “Touch points with influentials. How many times did we generate a conversation with people who are considered influentials. Also look at web traffic. Look at Links.”
  • Several questioners argued that character blogs have a place as an entertainment device. Rubel took an uncompromising position against character blogs.
  • “Character blogs are an example of blogs done wrong. Characters aren’t people. … It’s all fake. … Blogging is about real people, authenticity and conversation. It’s about the people who make the product, not the characters who are used in advertising the product. … If Mickey Mouse were really blogging, he’d be telling us how much he’s sweating in the costume and how long it has been since he went to the bathroom.”
  • “A character blog is a controlled message. It’s putting up a big shield, a barrier between you and the consumer. And consumers see that as the company saying, ‘I don’t want to get down and dirty and be honest with you.'”
  • Where is this going three years from now: “It’s headed toward a shift with advertising dollars coming out of unidirectional and going into two-way media. In three years there will be metrics … and new budgets for generating conversations.”
  • Advice to corporate executives: “Know where your people hang out. … Develop the infrastructure to have conversations. … Engage the audience in dialogue. … Empower the audience. What do they want to achieve and then help them do it.”

    • Mesh Day One

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    The Mesh Conference opened in Toronto yesterday – and it delivered everything that attendees had been hoping for. Thoughtful presentations and discussions by notable speakers. And lots of attendee participation in the discussion and interaction between sessions.

    Noteworthy:

    Om Malik

    • “Reflecting on the abundance of information being added to social media everyday: When information is free, context is more valuiable. People are looking for what it means. People confuse writing opinion with writing for context.”
    • It’s tough to malke a living off adwords. We need a new advertising paradigm. CPM doesn’t make sense on blogs. The advertising is seriously lagging in its approach to blogs.
    • At a certain point, most bloggers will ask, “what am I getting out of this?” And at that point, most will begin to look for a financial return on their efforts.
    • The story never ends. Mainstream Media does not always have the space to update stories; as a blogger, I can always update the story. (Canadian journalist and blogger Mark Evans pointed out that he is able to provide more context in his blog than his is able to do in his newspaper stories.)
    • “Web 2.0 is not a technology; it’s a way of thinking.”

      • Michael Geist

      • Michael opened his presentation with a series of slides showing the cascading effect of his blog postings about a perceived conflict of interest between the Canadian Recording Industry Association, the Canadian Motion Picture Association and other advocates of a Digital Rights Management-based copyright regime and Member of Parliament Sam Bulte, then-Parliamentary Secretary to Canada’s Minister of Canadian Heritage.  These groups hosted a fundraiser for Bulte just four days prior to the 2006 Canadian election. Geist’s posts that the industry’s fundraising for Bulte suggested a too cozy relationship between a senior policy maker and a group advocating a policy position became viral in the blogosphere and broke through into mainstream media coverage. Bulte, running for re-election in a seemingly safe Liberal seat, was defeated. The controversy that enveloped Bulte as a consequence of Geist’s postings played a part in her electoral demise. (I must confess, I don’t totally agree with Michael Geist’s positions on the substance of copyright reform. However, I applaud his integrity and courage in making his point.)
      • Geist expects that the newly-elected Conservative government will introduce new copyright legislation this autumn. Ironically, he thinks that backers of copyright reform may actually look back wistfully at the copyright legislation introduced by Bulte and the then-Liberal government. He believes the Conservatives are tilting toward the DRM-based regime advocated by the recording and movie industries.
      • “DRM-based policies are failing Canadians. … Some of these reforms aren’t about copyright; they’re about market control.”
      • “What is more longtail than Canadian content?”

        Two excellent presentations to kick off Mesh.

      Blogger Relations: The Importance of Transparency Underlined

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      I just had the experience of being checked out by a blogger that one of the consultants I work with had contacted via email. And this definitely underlines the importance of being transparent, truthful and straightforward in any blogger relations initiative.

      Recently, one of my colleagues at Thornley Fallis, Keelan Green, sent an email to the authors of The Torch, a blog he had been reading for the past month. The Torch had featured a number of posts that discussed Canada’s moves to replace its fleet of tactical transport and Search and Rescue aircraft. Keelan identified our firm as the Canadian public relations firm for Alenia and Lockheed Martin, two of the companies whose C-27J and C-130J aircraft are being considered for this purpose. Keelan offered to provide the authors of the Torch with the same information that we provide to mainstream media. He also provided the URLs for www.c-27j.ca and www.c-130j.ca, the Canadian websites that provide information on both aircraft and their suitability to Canada’s needs.

      One of the The Torch bloggers, Paul Synnott, was prompted by Keelan’s email to take a close look at us on his personal Blue Blogging Soapbox blog. He did a pretty thorough job researching our online presence and quoting both from Keelan’s email and relevant passages from some of my earlier blog posts.

      Happily, we seem to have passed his test for transparency and genuine commitment to blogging and the conversation it supports. in fact, he concludes that we are “A savvy firm not afraid to embrace a new and changing landscape.”

      Public relations practitioners should accept that this level of scrutiny of our actions and how they line up with previous statements will become routine in the blogosphere. What we have said and done is not buried in paper files or hard-to-search microfiche. It is in fact easily and readily available to anyone who knows how to use a search engine.

      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.

      Cabinet Minister Promoted, Keeps Blogging

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      Yesterday, Neville Hobson pointed out that David Miliband, the blogging Cabinet Minister, had been promoted in Tony Blair’s Cabinet Shuffle. Miliband posted to his blog that, “I’m now Environment Secretary – so this blog will no longer exist at its current URL and I’m afraid this means we can’t post any more comments on this site. … But I’m very much hoping this won’t be the end of my presence on the blogosphere…please keep an eye out.”

      Well, good news. Within seven hours, Miliband was back in business at his new blog address.

      A politician worth watching. Both for what he does as a Minister and as a blogger who explores the potential for social media to better connect government with its constituents.

      Losing a valued colleague: A Peril of Blogging

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      David JonesDavid Jones is leaving Thornley Fallis. He has been recruited away from us by another firm that wants to upgrade their expertise in social media.

      That’s a bummer for Thornley Fallis. David is a good friend and a very smart guy. We will miss him.

      Dave, Terry Fallis and I have spent the past year exploring the possibilities of social media. We have learned by doing. We have learned a lot from one another. We have learned by meeting and talking to others who are on the leading edge of developing social media. 

      And as we have exchanged views and learned from other practitioners of social media, our own profiles have been raised. We have come to “know” and “be known” to people we have never met in person. This really came home to me when I first approached a fellow blogger at a conference. As I was about to introduce myself, he said, “I know you. I’ve seen your picture on your blog and I read you all the time.” (Nice compliment; totally unexpected)

      So, I should not be surprised that another firm has swooped in and made David an offer he could not refuse (It’s all positive; no severed horse heads involved.) In exploring and engaging in social media, David has raised his profile and engaged in conversations with respected bloggers and podcasters like Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson, Joseph Jaffe, Colin McKay and Robert French. He has acquired a positive reputation beyond our traditional geographic area of operation and, in our small world, an element of celebrity.

      Our experience defines the new normal for PR practitioners who engage in social media. Every time a consulting firm like Thornley Fallis encourages its employees to share their experiences and smarts through a blog, we increase the likelihood that we will lose those people to other opportunities. David’s not the first blogger to be scooped up by a bigger firm. He follows a path that in the past six months has been well trod by other high profile bloggers like Jeremy Pepper and Steve Rubel.

      So, will Thornley Fallis stop encouraging our consulting team to blog and explore social media? Heck no!

      We’ll accept that this increased risk is just part of the entry fee to engage in social media. And we’ll understand that it’s better to spend a year learning and exploring with a guy like David Jones than it is to spend a decade of the safe same old, same old practise of techniques we long ago mastered.

      For PR consultancies, it’s grow or die. And we must learn to grow. We will learn to deal with this aspect of blogging.

      And after all, one of the great things of consulting is that we get to hire or join our friends. And Dave’s a good friend. So, you never know what the future may bring…

      Dave, I and all the gang at Thornley Fallis wish you every success at your new gig!

       

      Linkworthy

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      Blog Tools

      • Darren Rowse has compiled a list of blog tools (he added another 12 on May 1 for a total of 67). A useful reference resource.

      Moneyball Theory of PR

      • Marcel Goldstein makes the case for recruiting outside of narrowly defined PR credentials. Read his post, not for the analysis of impact on compensation trends, but for the pure joy of a person who recognizes human potential. 

       

      I've been blogtipped

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      I’m blushing. We all write hoping that someone finds what we have to say useful, thought provoking or entertaining. Thanks to Chris Clarke for reading and blogtipping me.

      And, yes, Chris, your tip is bang on. I do have to post more often. The past month has been hectic. The clients I work for and the people I work with have taken all my time (which I’ve gladly given) and blogging has suffered. However, things are settling down and I’m hoping to post more frequently.

      Thanks for the blogtip!

      Blogtipping: Canadian Entrepreneur

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      A blog I like: Canadian Entrepreneur by business author, Rick Spence.

      Rick Spence

      Things I like:

      1) Rick posts frequently about marketing, one of the functions that studies tell us entrepreneurs hold for themselves, but do not always understand.

      2) Rick knows his stuff. A former editor of Profit, the Magazine for Small Business, he has been covering business for longer than he likes to admit. And now he is an entrepreneur himself. Living the dream.

      3) A Canadian writing about Canadian small business! The U.S. has a much more vigorous blogging community. Rick is one of the pioneers in Canada. Keep going Rick.

      Tip: Rick please enable Trackbacks. I frequently want to continue the conversation on my own blog, but Canadian Entrepreneur provides no way for me to ping back to your posting.

      Blogtipping

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      Easton Ellsworth has a great suggestion:

      Calling all sentient bloggers: Monday, May 1, 2006 will be Blogtipping Day. (Perhaps the first Monday of each month can be Blogtipping Day – let me know what you think.)

      What’s blogtipping? It’s where you forget yourself for a few minutes and think about another blogger. It’s a win-win. All you do is this: Say three nice things and offer one simple tip.

      Sure appeals to me. So, tomorrow and the first day of every month, I plan to “blogtip.”

      FeedDemon 2.0: PC Magazine Review Gets it Right

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      Nick Bradbury points with justifiable pride to the positive review of FeedDemon 2.0 in PC Mag.

      PC Mag calls FeedDemon 2.0 “simply the most comprehensive, feature-rich, and intuitively organized RSS feed aggregator/reader for Windows.”

      The review concludes by pointing to FeedDemon’s

      amazing combination of simplicity and flexibility that lets you easily organize feeds into folders, sort and share feeds, subscribe to new feeds, and generally manage everything from within a single interface. Keeping track of your feeds (sometimes even seeing them all) is generally much harder in browser-based RSS readers. You’ll save money using them, but you’ll lose time. If you can’t live without your RSS—and a whole lot of it—and you prefer to keep your feeds in a standalone application instead of teasing them out of an Outlook add-in or a browser, the FeedDemon 2.0’s $29.95 price tag is a bargain.

      Amen to that.