While brand backlash (one example of a Groundswell) from social media tools are certainly an impact to the reputation of companies and how their consumers react, there are many different levels of severity from each.

First, see this list of brands that were punk’d from social media, I’ll add some categorization to each of them as I can best gauge in coming days.

To help gauge the differences, I’ve constructed these categories of brand backlash storms (leaning on the Hurricane categorization)

Category 1: Consumer revolt and use social media tools (Twitter, Blogs, YouTube) to tell their story, the brand doesn’t flinch, and there is no mainstream media coverage. Examples: A weekly, if not a daily occurance.

Category 2: The backlash extends beyond just social media tools (Twitter, blogs, YouTube), the brand makes changes based on consumer feedback, and coverage extends to mainstream media and press. Examples: Louis Vuitton brandjacked, Exxon Mobile’s Twitter experience.

Category 3: Consumers use social media tools to spread backlash and there is considerable mentions from mainstream press. the backlash is more severe resulting in significant changes from the brand (hiring, firing, processes, policies or new teams put in place). This becomes a case study for social media books and is often discussed in social media culture. Examples: Dell Hell, Comcast Cares, Kryptonite Locks, Wholefoods CEO.

Category 4: Number three plus short term financial impacts to the brand resulting in reduction of sales, revenue, increased costs, or impact to stock price less than 30 days. Examples: Apple Stock temporarily sinks from blog rumors.

Category 5: Number three plus brand backlash from social media tools resulting in long term financial impacts to the brand including reduction in sales, revenue, increased costs, and most importantly, stock price lasting over 30 days. In the most extreme cases, it causes closure of the business or bankruptcy. Examples: None.

I hope this puts things into context when we see brand backlash incidents occur.

by Josh Bernoff

By now you may already have heard about the Motrin Moms saga. In a nutshell:

• Motrin put the ad you see above on its Web site. First mistake -- the ad is wrong. Since my wife is affiliated with La Leche League, an organization that supports breastfeeding, I can tell you that if wearing your baby hurts your back or neck, you need positioning help, not Motrin. And moms who care about parenting are exactly the wrong people to offend in your ad -- they talk!
• Pissed off moms start a firestorm on Twitter (#motrinmoms is trending), followed by hundreds of blog posts. Notable ones include David Armano at Logic & Emotion, with a very complete early analysis, and Sarah Evans on Mashable, with advice on what to do next. Jeremiah runs down the numbers. And this satirical view is amusing.
• A Facebook group attracts hundreds (in one day) requesting a Motrin boycott.
• Johnson & Johnson takes Motrin.com down. Unfortunately, this stuff lives on the Internet forever.
• Inevitably, the controversy pokes its way into the traditional media, in this case Forbes. And the parenting blog of the New York Times.

It's Monday morning, but even though this broke on Saturday, it's already well-trod ground. J&J has months of PR work to (un)do and hours to do it in.

In the Introduction to Groundswell we said that in situations like these, "traditional PR tools were as useless as a broadsword against a rain of poison darts." And it's true. J&J is basically powerless against this, because Motrin has no presence in the social world. I find it notable that the "Motrin blog" near the top of Google's blogsearch for Motrin is a flog for an online generic ibuprofen sales site. (I'll spare you the link.) I'm sure they're loving the traffic right now.

Briefly:

1. You need a community about your brand -- private or public -- so you can test how these things will play. This is essential market research.
2. You need a Twitter account and/or a blog to be able to respond quickly when these things happen. They do happen. They could and will happen to you. (They have certainly happened to me, and it's a good thing I had a place to respond.) Otherwise you have no voice.
3. Viral has two sides. Never forget that.
4. Immunize your marketing and brand staff by educating them. Show them what happened here, and ask them, "Does this scare you? Do you see the power of this stuff?" Then invest $20 and buy them a copy of Groundswell or Secrets of Social Media Marketing to help them get a clue, and use this incident to get them started. (If they don't like to read, I'll even read it to them.)

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If you weren’t following what was happening online this weekend (yes, yes, ok you’ve got a life) there was a Groundswell against Motrin’s latest viral advertisement that was rejected by mothers in Twitter, spread to blogs, and YouTube. I’m not a mom, so at first glance I didn’t understand the offense, but apparently, it was condescending to moms who perceived wearing babies in a sling as ‘fashionable’ accessory, and who didn’t wanted to be labeled as an ‘official mom’. The original video, which was trying to lean on the light side, took to many generalizations with mothers and resulted in a revolt capped by thisbacklash video.

To learn more about the story, read Laura Fitton’s summary, Dave Knox of P&G is taking note, has made it to the NY Times Parenting Blog, and the VP of Marketing representing Motrin has apparently responded (I can’t confirm this).

As much as I’m interested in what folks are saying, allow me to provide an aspect that most others aren’t: short term numerical numbers. (it’s the analyst in me)

The Motrin Moms Backlash by the Numbers
I watch the twitter storm start on Saturday (thanks zsazsa), and watched it carry on through the weekend, I’ve taken snapshots of various analytics and social media tools now on Monday morning.

Above Screentshot: Twitter stats indicate bump in mentions of “motrin” and “motrinmoms”

Above Screentshot: Twitscoop’s Twitter Analytics shows peak for “motrin” notice there’s no mention before the ad.

Above Screentshot: Twitscoop’s Twitter Analytics shows peak for “motrinmoms”

Above Screentshot: 6,000 views on Youtube Video: Motrin Ad Makes Moms Mad

Above Screentshot: As a result, 3rd result for “Motrin” in Youtube is to the mother video

Above Screentshot: Although there are only a few tags for “motrin” on delicious, most point to brand backlash

Above Screentshot: The Motrin.com website is down, likely they are removing the ad and reverting to a previous website

Above Screentshot: Google search results for “Motrin Mother” (I found an adjacent term to measure the impacts) are mainly to brand backlash

Above Screentshot: Brand backlash has not impacted Google search results for “motrin”

Conclusion: It’s not as bad as it looks…yet
In summary, there were some major blips in social networking tools like Twitter, (it was the top trending topic over the weekend, meaning many saw it that weren’t directly involved) however it’s not likely to cause enough of impact search engine results for “motrin”, be a mainstream press story, or cause damage to stock price.

Overtime, these search results may fade away, depending on how Motrin reacts, and how mothers decide to press the situation.

Although brand backlash certainly wasn’t intention, I’m sure that some at advertising firm who created the campaign will chalk this up as a success (it got influencers talking about the brand –who previously weren’t), although the PR group certainly has been dealing with this firestorm all weekend.

Lessons Learned

Always test your campaign with a small segment first

Always have staff on hand to be prepared to respond during the weekend

Don’t launch a campaign right before the weekend unless you’re prepared to respond

The participants have the power, so participate

For better or for worse, more influencers are talking about Motrin than ever before

I’d love to hear your comments on the fiasco, what short term and long term impacts does this have to the brand?

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Your boss thinks you “play on Facebook,” all day. Your co-worker who is jonesing for the same promotion is monitoring the time of day you post to Twitter. The guy from across the hall sips black coffee through his brown teeth and laughs, “Met the man of your dreams on Ebay, yet?”

What a nimrod.

Take it from someone who knows. It’s not easy being the social media champion in the building. If very few people in the business world understand social media, it’s only logical very few at your place of work would, too. So how do you help make them understand social media isn’t just about posting personal journals on MySpace or blowing 30 minute chunks of your day watching the skateboarding dog on YouTube? Some thoughts:

Six Steps To Becoming The Social Media Champion At Work

1. Illustrate The Benefits

The first time you discovered RSS feeds it changed your life, right? Or at least it saved you scads of time you used to spend surfing the web looking for the news of the day. You could try to get more done with that extra time each day and allude to the fact you’re getting more done because you surf the web smarter using RSS. This might arouse some curiosity from your higher ups. What will be more beneficial and immediate, however, is if to start following websites and blogs that feature your industry or even your competition. When you find items of interest, forward the links to your bosses or to the PR team at your company. Start bookmarking the items on Delicious with tags for each competitor or topic. Then take the time to show your boss the collective intelligence you’ve gathered for him or her to read. My bet is the first thing they’ll ask is, “How’d you do that?”

2. Make Yourself Available

No one in the office is going to understand how to capitalize on social media tools and sites unless you teach them. Pay a visit to each person in the office over the course of a week or so. Ask them if they’re using productivity-enhancing web tools like RSS, bookmarking or even Twitter. Ask them if they read any good blogs about the industry. Offer to show them some sites or some tools that might help make their day more productive or effective. (For more, see No. 6 below.)

3. Target The Right Co-Workers

You can help Jed the mailroom guy figure out what a Super Poke is until people stop inviting you to stupid apps on Facebook, but it won’t get you promoted. Since social media at its core is a communications mechanism, make sure the company PR department knows what it’s all about. Also, the way to every CEOs heart (or at least attention) is through his or her secretary. Show the administrative assistant how to search for company mentions and print them off for the boss and you’ll find yourself getting recommendations from the most influential person in the C-Suite.

4. Get To The Professional Through The Personal

Take pictures at the company picnic? Post them on Flickr and send the link to everyone. Get a video of your kids’ first soccer goal? Put it on YouTube then share it with the co-workers that might like to see it. Your boss is a little strangely in love with his Irish Setter? Suggest he check out Dogster.com where he can make a vanity page for his pet. Once people start seeing how your personal experiences are enhanced by social media, they’ll start asking questions. Kinda like they do about your boss.

5. Operate Within The Rules

The worst thing you can do to prove the value of social media to your company is violate the company policy and speak on behalf of it on a Facebook group or message board. It’s better to bring the conversation to the attention of the communications team and let them handle it, even if they handle it wrong. You can offer your suggestions to them, but going off on your own and posting a, “I work for this company and happen to know you’re wrong,” message, especially when there’s a policy in place prohibiting it, will only get you reprimanded and possibly leave your company with one less social media champion.

6. Solve Business Problems With Social Media Tools

Nothing convinces nay-sayers like solid, solutions-driven proof. Have a client in another city? Expand your weekly conference call to a video conference featuring text chat and large file sharing by showing everyone ooVoo.com. The first time I recommended that to a client, I thought he was going to kiss me. Seriously. I was kinda frightened.

Having internal communications and work flow problems? Show the project manager BaseCamp. Frustrated with the 14-person approval chain, and accompanying 30-day turnaround, for press releases or company communications pieces? Put the document on Google Docs and make everyone go there to offer suggestions on the same day. Some manager says, “I wonder if this would be a good idea?” Twitter it and ask you followers in as specific or generic terms as need be, then show the manager the responses. (This is assuming smart people follow you and will respond.) Or, if you have a nice network built up in social media, take the next piece of news or interest on the company’s website and ask your friends to give you some feedback on it. You can A) Provide management with the feeback and B) Ask the web guys to tell you how many people visited the page from Twitter or Facebook or wherever you posted the link.

The point is, you know the tools. Find solutions using them and show rather than tell how social media can help.

These are, of course, just the six I’ve thought of in one sitting at the computer. How do you champion social media in your office? What success stories can you share that will help the rest of us. The comments are yours.

NOTE: A tip of the cap to Heather Rast of Insights and Ingenuity for the topic suggestion yesterday on Twitter. Heather has a great blog and has some good social media smarts. For those of you in or around Cedar Rapids, Iowa, you should connect with her.

IMAGE: UEFA Champions Trophy by Edwin11 on Flickr.

by Josh Bernoff

Obama's march forward with social technology continues. Since we've never had a President-elect go so far with social technology before, there are no standards. So it's hard to know how to react.

For example:

There's a blog on change.gov . . .

. . . but it has no author. And of course, no comments.

The weekly "radio address" is on YouTube (and on the change.gov blog) and has over 300,000 views on its first day . . .

. . . but of course it has comments disabled, as well.

As we suggested, some of the "vision" ideas people have suggested are now visible on change.gov . . .

. . . but the other 99% are hidden.

We're pleased to see that Brian Solis at TechCrunch extending our idea of moving the President into the social world where he can hear from the people (he calls for Obama to become a "Two-way President").

This isn't at the top of Obama's list of priorities. Fixing the economy is. But you just have to wonder what it could do for a government that is supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people, to actually listen to the people.

The problem is a scale problem. How do you deal with 10,000 suggestions? How do you learn from them? How do you manage them?

Step one: Hire a community manager of the United States. Jake McKee has already applied for the job.

Step two: Develop ways for the community to mostly manage itself, as Wikipedia does. Luckily, there are no shortage of social media experts ready to set that up. As all communities scale up, these problems solve themselves. But in this case, given the speed with which the community will grow and the contentiousness of politics, it will be a little trickier. (Jake, are you sure you want this job?)

Step three: Find ways to derive real insight from all the commentary. And here, we have solutions. Brand monitoring companies like Cymfony, MotiveQuest (which called the election), and Umbria should be doing this now and vying to offer their solutions to the Obama administration. Networked Insights mines ideas from community commentary -- this opportunity is ready made for them.

We'd also like to see some communities from Communispace or Passenger set up for a more civil, more responsive way to gather  intelligence. Give me 500 moms, 500 small business people, 500 republicans, and 500 millenials. When you need to know which way the world is going, ask 'em. Cheaper and better than polls.

The only part I worry about is this: is the social technology vendor community ready to become government contractors? Save a little staff for your corporate clients, ok?

To end this, just because I can, I'm going to put the president-elect's speech right here. Next I'm looking forward to the Obama Widget.

by Josh Bernoff

(My remarks on receiving the Visionary of the Year Award from SNCR, the Society for New Communications Research. As you can see, I bought "Charlene" with me, although she was feeling a bit "flat" last night.)

Let me start by saying I'm very sad that Charlene Li can't be here for real, since everything we did on Groundswell, we did together.

We were flabbergasted to get this honor and here's why: when we set out to write Groundswell, we explicity gave up on the idea of being visionary. Looking at the visionaries that came before us, notably the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto and Shel Israel and Robert Scoble, who wrote Naked Conversations, we decided early on that it would be tough to stake out a startling new area. Instead we decided to focus on how to make this concept of social technologies practical and useful. That's where the vision was needed.

So the first thing to learn about being a visionary is, don't start out trying to be a visionary.

The second thing I can share with you is that ignorance is vitally important. That's right, ignorance. I started out in 2007 with a very limited knowledge of the social world, and I think that naivete led me to see some things nobody else could see. Charlene was hardly naive about social technologies, but her own ideas needed to evolve to get us to the point where we could write a good book about it. The greatest advances in any field often come from people who are looking at it for the first time from a new perspective.

Third is testing your ideas. Everything in Groundswell was batted back and forth between the two of before it ever saw the light of day, and many of the ideas were tested as well on our blog and with clients. The weak ones were weeded out. The strong ones became stronger. That was essential to going further with these ideas.

Fourth is research. Everything in Groundswell is based on data we collected at Forrester, real world stories, and interactions with clients. Without that you're just makin' stuff up. It rings true because it is true.

Finally, vision doesn't mean a thing unless you can apply it. We've been all over the world talking about Groundswell, and people are using it. When I went to Wal-Mart and delivered it to their top management, they were creative in their reception of these ideas. That was encouraging. But the next day, they hosted some bloggers, and the bloggers have told me that they were still buzzing about the ideas and receptive to the new way of thinking. That means we changed minds in a place that matters. If you call that vision, I'll accept your judgment.

Thank you.

Photo by Shashi Bellamkonda. Charlene Li standup from photo by Thomas Hawk.

Obama has declared he’ll be using YouTube to provide weekly addresses to the nation and the world, I want to start taking snapshots of the analytics in order to understand the changes that are happening to our world. Each generation has it’s medium, and this one is the web –let’s see how our leadership grasps this.

The following is the most subscribed channels of all time. I use this as a primary measure as if someone subscribes it means they’re asking for updates whenever new content is published, preference. The following is a snapshot of numbers of the most Subscribed (All Time) YouTube Channels.

YouTube’s Top 5 Most Subscribed Channels of all Time:

#1 Fred

This skit act from a very hyperactive spaz who had too many moutain dew and twizzlers publishes ‘burst’ style videos featuring non stop high-pitched clips stringed along designed to keep the attention of pre-teens, teens, and the occasional web strategist. Fred is now the star of the New TV conference. Notice the few amount of videos Fred has produced and high viewership.
Type: Comedian
Videos: 35
Joined: October 01, 2005
Videos Watched: 16,203
Subscribers: 647,697
Channel Views: 19,314,418

#2 Nigahiga

This Hawaiian comedy group does satires, interviews and slapstick style stunts.
Type: Comedian
Videos: 57
Joined: July 20, 2006
Videos Watched: 11,693
Subscribers: 632,891
Channel Views: 17,116,311

#3 Smosh

Two college age guys produce skit comedy.
Type: Comedian
Videos: 60
Joined: November 19, 2005
Videos Watched: 20,161
Subscribers: 597,161
Channel Views: 21,898,415

#4 Universal Music Group

The only ‘mainstream’ media channel to make it to the list, this shows TV clips and shows as a secondary medium to the TV screen. They’ve published a whopping 8k videos, a scattershot strategy, far beyond any of the other top 5.
Type: Director
Videos: 8,905
Joined: August 23, 2006
Subscribers: 499,766
Channel Views: 18,214,102

#5 Jonas Brothers Music

The only mainstream music group to make the top 5, the Jonas Brothers Music publish vids, behind the scenes videos and tour updates.
Type: Musician
Videos: 72
Joined: May 11, 2007
Videos Watched: 1,474
Subscribers: 385,888
Channel Views: 18,845,718

The reason I’m posting these channel numbers is because I’m watching carefully the changes that will happen from Obama’s promise to be a YouTube president. He plans on publishing weekly videos from the white house to provide a human face as well as accepting feedback in a conversational way. Let’s stop and think about mediums used by past Presidents. Franklin D Roosevelt understood the power of the radio (during an economic crises), and was able to reach millions of Americans in ear shot, John F Kennedy harnessed TV, used makeup to keep his cool over his sweaty opponent and beat out and reached millions of American homes to beat out Nixon by 100,000 votes. Now, Obama is using the internet to reach millions around the globe, all at no additional cost of publishing than Fred. Here’s Obama’s stats on his official channel:

#34 Barack Obama’s YouTube Channel

Obama used social media tools for awareness, fundraising and word of mouth marketing. He has committed to doing weekly YouTube videos and publishing on Youtube and Change.gov to the nation and the world, here’s the first video.
Type: Political
Videos: 1,823
Joined: September 05, 2006
Subscribers: 137,570
Channel Views: 19,705,785

Change Dot Gov
Also, this channel has just been created this past week, and is just getting started…

Type: Political
Videos: 4
Joined: November 05, 2008
Subscribers: 4,550
Channel Views: 29,779

Fred vs Obama
Although Fred has almost the same number of Channel Views (both 19million) as the next president, Fred has 640k subscribers, 4.6 times more than Obama’s 137k subscribers. Of course, Fred’s preteen target audience is more likely to be regular YouTube users with registered accounts, they’ve all opted in for his videos.

I’ll be tracking Obama’s YouTube stats as we move through the next four years, in the meantime, here’s the first of his weekly YouTube video.


Saturday, November 15, 2008 06:00am EST, at the time of this embed, there are only 3,858 views.

This blog is focused on web professionals, and to be that, I’d like for you all to have jobs. Given the state of the economy there are three tips I want you to start on immediately, regardless of your rank, industry, or location.

There are actually great opportunities for those during a recession for professionals, restrained resources and competition will force you to become excellent in whatever you do. You’ll be forced to learn new skills and be more efficient than you’ve ever before. Some layoffs will leave opportunities for vertical growth and leadership opportunities.

You’re going to need a leg up in the market whether it be in your company, outside of your company, or to win new clients. You should start this process now, a simple three letter acronym that you should repeat during your day to yourself. Ready?

Growing your Career: Do at GUT Check:

G: Grow Your Network Before You Need Them
Nothing is more sad that seeing someone getting layed off and groveling to their non-qualified friends and family the need for a job. After this, they’ll go to their professional network to help and network with others, but the look of desperation is evident –no one wants to be hired out of pity. Be prepared.

Therefore you should always be building your professional network, espicially when your job feels secured. There’s really no excuse as many real world networking events are free, but if you’re in Juno, err Juneau Alaska, you can heavily lean on the digital tools, they’re also free. You should start by building your online profile in social network sites, finding the communities most tied to your industry, then reading, then answering some of the questions in forums. The trick here is to add value, not just ask for help, demonstrate your expertise by answering questions in an intelligent way and helping others. If you’re a web professional, start with my Facebook group, or if you’re a social media professional, I created this one for you. I’m not scalable –but networks are– so you’ll have to connect with others around us to grow.

U: Uncomfortness Leads to Growth
When you look at a candidates resume, and you see (esp in web industry) they’ve not grown in the last 3-5 years with their skillsets (not skillets), you ought to be worried. In a tough market, employers and clients want self-starters, those that go beyond the regular call of just doing the minimum requirements. Being Uncomfortable means trying something new, and eventually growing.

When I was an intern right out of college, I made a promise to myself to bug everyone in the IT department to teach me a new skill or task. You’d be surprised how thankful they were that someone so young wanted to learn from them. Each day, you should do the same, find someone and ask them to show you something or teach you something new in your career. What am I doing? I spend two hours each morning reading and blogging before I look at email, and I just started Guy’s latest book, Reality Check.

T: Tout Your Successes
Getting found online is part of the game, recruiters are going to do web searches before they purchase time on my job board, so you want to easily make yourself found. By this time if you’re a web professional and you don’t have your own personal domain I’m concerned for you, what are you waiting for, it’s only 10 dollars to register and 5 a month to host at some places.

If you’re worried about looking like you’re trying to find a new job, you can use your initials and just list the industry that you’re working in to protect your identity. If you’re still concerned, rather than post your resume on your own website, keep your LinkedIn profile updated with the higlights.

At industry parties and events I always ask folks: “What do you do” it’s surprising how folks are unable to articulate what they do, they beat around the bush, are self-deprecating, or try to avoid the topic all together. Instead, develop a single sentence describing what you do, practice your delivery, and learn how to ask an open ended question to trigger a conversation.

One caveat, this does not give you the right to be a raging egomaniac on your blog or website (sorta how I fear I come off sometimes) but is the chance for you to list what you’re capable of doing, what you’ve done, and what you can do for others.

Everyday I want you to do a GUT check, practice these skills, build your arsenal, don’t hesitate but do it now. Are you an HR professional, career development expert, or just learned a helpful tip along the way?? Now’s your time to leave a comment here with some other tips to demonstrate your own tips. Leave a comment or suggestion to help others.

Greetings, Social Media Explorers, from sunny Las Vegas on the last day of Pubcon 2008.

For those not familiar with it, Pubcon is an internet marketing conference created by Webmaster World and sponsored this year by Microsoft.  It’s one of the oldest and most well-attended conferences for those in search marketing (SEM), which includes both SEO and paid search.  

Over the years, Pubcon has expanded their content to include sessions on other topics of interest to webmasters, including affiliate marketing, usability, and yes, now social media marketing and online community management (hence my attendance).  Pubcon 2008 was well-attended despite the uncertain economy, and I got the opportunity to meet and talk at least briefly with some of the top minds in internet marketing.  I also got the opportunity to drink and gamble with some of the top minds in internet marketing (it is Vegas, after all).

I spoke with the guys from WetPaint, who are doing some amazing stuff with social publishing software (video to follow next week).  I also met the good folks from SEOmoz.org, who are building increasingly sophisticated tools to analyze your website (their latest tool, Linkscape, looks amazing.)  I also attended sessions covering topics as diverse as Understanding the Complex Social Media Landscape, Video Search Engine Optimization, Podcasting and Podcast Optimization, Linkbaiting, and Enterprise-Level SEO.  

While some of the sessions were at a beginner level, all of them I attended had great, actionable content.  Clearly, the sessions at Pubcon are designed to equip Webmasters at all levels to better perform their jobs.  That said, I did think that all of the social media sessions focused a little too heavily on Digg.  I think that’s a reflection of the fact that as a primarily-SEO conference, big traffic is still a big deal.  

Rather than detail all the things I learned, I’d like to just quickly run down a few of my key thoughts and impressions from the conference in general.  (If you want session details, get your own conference pass next year!)

 

In the Conference Introduction, Brett Tabke said that only 30% of the sessions in this year’s Pubcon covered search engine marketing.  Despite the fact that it was an entirely different crowd, I heard the same idea repeated frequently that I heard at ad:tech Chicago this summer:  the social web is becoming the mainstream web, and a mastery of social media is becoming critical for success.  

In the opening keynote, Shawn Rorick of Cirque de Soleil talked about how all the different disciplines of marketing and advertising, both online and offline, traditional and interactive, are merging.  We’ve seen that recently in the fact that interactive agencies are now going after Agency of Record status, and also in a number of traditional agencies acquiring smaller web shops to expand their line of service.  

One thing became clear to me over the course of the conference.  In the same way that online and offline marketing are merging on the common ground of social media, the communities that encompass advertising agencies, public relations firms, and internet marketing agencies are merging, or at least learning from each other.  

This cross-pollination, while uncomfortable for everyone, makes the professionals willing to learn from a different mindset better, stronger, and faster.  A former PR guy who presented to our local Louisville ad-fed on social media last year said “PR firms conceded measurement to advertising years ago,” and he was right–Public Relations folks need to develop some of the analytics and measurement savvy of internet marketers.  

Many people in the crowd here at Pubcon are still getting used to the idea of using social media to build relationships, and not to focus so aggressively on getting links.  And we’ve already discussed the fact that traditional advertising creatives need to become more conversant in the web, and in how people interact with it.  

In evolutionary terms, the fittest, most-likely-to-survive marketer is the one who understands messaging and relationship-building like a PR person, branding and creative like an ad geek, and the technology, tools and measurement that power the web like an SEO.  

And what does Social Media bring to the mix?  The humanity to see your audience not as an “audience” (like a PR person would), not as a “demographic” (like an ad geek would), and not like a “visitor” (like an SEO would), but as a person, and possibly, a friend.

We’re seeing more news stories of layoffs hitting many industries –esp tech. I encourage you to build your network before you need it.

First start by connecting with folks in the Web Strategy Facebook group there are 8688 members that are web decision makers, join in the discussions, read the topics, or post questions. If you’re a Community Manager, or trying to become one, this Community Manager Facebook group has 2050 members to network with. I noticed that Community Managers are in demand, as on the web strategy job board, I was able to check the admin panel and see there were far more submissions to community manager roles than all others.

I’m not scalable in helping people find jobs (getting more and more request) so do try to use these resources as a first source. I suspect we’re going to need to connect more than every before in the coming months and years.

Update: Message to SUN
I was around when the first round of layoffs happened in 2000, yet I don’t recall seeing so much spin from a press release like this one from Sun Microsystems burying in the copy the 5,000-6,000 layoffs that are coming. It’s just condescending to your loyal employees and no one is fooled, as all the headlines from media clearly say ‘layoffs’ in the lead copy and headlines.

I know the Sun AR, PR, Corp Comm, and Agency read my blog, I think there’s really a chance to show your human/open side –after all, that’s what your CEO and mission statement preach to the market.

This post is a response to last night’s event at the Horn Group called Is Social Media Killing PR? Sam Whitmore moderated Kara Swisher (media), and Susan Etlinger (PR) and me (analyst) for a lively debate, which resulted in the crowd chiming into the issues. I don’t think the conversation evolved as far enough as I wanted to see it go, so here’s what I wanted to share.

For years the Public Relations industry has ironically one of the worst reputations –esp since they are hired to look after the reputations of their own clients. Things only got worse as some brands got punk’d; the introduction of self-publishing tools that allowed anyone to connect to each other using social technologies, causing a shift in power. We’ve already talked to death about the risks and the changes that are happening to this industry, yet I’m hoping to elevate the viewpoint out of the gutter and focus on the larger opportunities –and risks at the industry level.

Four Business Opportunities for the Evolved PR Agency:

1) Enhance Existing Functions
First of all, some things that are already in place need more focus, for example, it was discussed last night that now that influencers (press, media, bloggers, analysts, customers) can directly be reached by clients –PR professionals can be bypassed. In fact, when you look closely, everyone’s doing press, analysis and media.

A) Be a filter for clients: There’s a tremendous amount of noise now being created, creating an opportunity for PR folks to filter, sort, and prioritize what matters. You’ll need both access and understanding of brand monitoring tools as well as the ability to see patterns in the noise.
B) Council rather than conduit: Although strategic council has been happening for many years, now that clients and influencers can connect directly, this could result in a business shift resulting in more focus on coaching, less on pitching. Mary Trigiani suggests the same.
C) Extend Social Strategy: Most firms don’t have a strategic response to social media across the whole firm. While the young digital natives may use these pervasive tools, they lack strategic insight, yet the immigrant executives don’t fully understand how these tools change the communication lines.

2) Differentiate
Two potential customers were at the event, and both lamented that they can’t tell the difference between one firm to another –they all offer similar promises and relationships. The opportunity for PR firms to be more vocal in the areas of expertise they provide are at hand. PR firms should become part of the community they serve –regardless of the client they have on the accounts receivable. Instead, be known as the expert firm in your industry, not just pitching, but also serving and helping beyond your clients needs. There’s a business opportunity here for some smart entrepreneur to create a VRM system that allows clients to recommend PR firms to other brands.

3) Extend to the Entire Customer Lifecycle
I alluded to this yesterday in the panel, but this is perhaps the single largest opportunity for the evolved PR firm. As we know “Public” relations involves prospects and customers, social technologies mush up the lines between when this starts and stops. As a result, PR firms how learn how to offer value to other areas of the organization beyond corporate communications can find new revenue buckets in product marketing, product management, product support, and beyond.

4) Fix Your Own Damn Reputation
I’ll hit this again: it’s very ironic that an industry so focused on keeping the image of their clients reputation pristine is unable to shine their own shingle. Use these social tools to tell your story –and to get your clients to tell your story –on your behalf. Although the HORN group was the only firm to take this challenge head on, the industry as a whole needs to fix this, but it can’t be insular within the PR community, but looking outside the circle of pros.

Related Resources (I’m updating this list)
Nov 14th, the next day: There’s really a tremendous amount of different voices, angles and perspectives on Wed’s discussion, read below.

Do read the responses from the attendees in twitter (the audience has the control), they tagged it with #prblog.

Ravit Lichtenberg Live blog: Is Social Media Killing PR? Live blogging from girls in tech and Horn Group.

Kara Swisher was taking video, and posts her thoughts, although she can make execs shake in their boots, she really makes me smile. Find out what the CEO of Yahoo and I have in common.

Cece (a marketing stakeholder) said we were taking on baby step topics and missed focusing on how PR should meet the need of marketing –and the business. She’s right.

Susan Etlinger, our host and panel mate gives her thoughts

Sam Whitmore the moderator poses some additional questions, I think we’ve all concluded last night’s event really just opened up far more discussions, this is all healthy.

Jennifer Leggio was covering this for ZDnet, and has published why PR is not dead, but shows it’s weaknesses.

There are photos coming in tagged Horn Group, it’s a thrill to see how all this feedback and media comes in real-time.

Charles Cooper from Cnet says that PR is killing PR, and that I focus to heavily on Social Media (which is my primary focus, yet he has a point)

Charles Cooper from Cnet says that PR is killing PR, and that I focus to heavily on Social Media (which is my primary focus, yet he has a point)

Kenneth suggests that Marketing and PR still has a core strategy –social should be left to the side

Adrian Chan publishes an email he had with a PR pro at Edelman discussing what we did and didn’t get.

Leave a comment below if I’ve missed anyone, sometimes trackbacks don’t show up

Photos from last night’s event:

Left Image: Blake Commagere of Ohai tells of the success he’s had porting his popular apps from FaceBook to Bebo at AOL’s Mountain View campus.

Last night, I was invited to AOL’s offices in Mountain View to learn of Bebo’s Dev Nite, a public courtship to startups and developers who make web applications on social networks like Facebook, MySpace and Hi5 (Examples: Vampires, Scrabulous, Superwall). For anyone that didn’t get the association (it slipped my mind for a sec) that Bebo was acquired by AOL, they keep the branding very loosely separated –likely on purpose.

Bebo, a unique Social Network
Bebo’s community segment focuses on user sharing and media, and is somewhat in between the experiences of the wild ’self expression’ MySpace and more refined Facebook ‘communication’ experience. They claim to have over 40 million users, and has strong traction in UK, and other English speaking countries.

Bebo Reaches for Application Developers, and sets some parameters
While there were several things announced, Bebo’s has launched a 10 point based system that rates and ranks quality applications, defined by ‘engagement’. I asked, and they define engagement as repeat visitors and time on site. Developers are rewarded in this ‘game-like’ type of scenario so the top applications (scoring 10) will have the ability for some of their applications to appear on newsfeeds of users that do not install their apps. Translation: the opportunity for viral growth.
Bebo should also reward developers that attract new members to the Bebo sites. T

Porting applications from Facebook to Bebo and beyond
he first presentation from Blake Commagere of Ohai who created some of the more popular (but useless?) applications shared his case study of how he was easily able to port over Facebook apps to Bebo. It was discussed that OpenSocial, which is coming up on it’s 1st aniv still has a ways to go, as developers still have to cater to different protocols with each social network. Learn more at the Bebo blog –which transparently admits to having some issues with the platform.

Enterprise Companies reach for Startups
Why would Sun or Microsoft care about some scrappy vampire developer? With the rapid growth of social network adoption from consumers and businesses, some (most will not) of these garage startups will have needs to fill up their data center, (or cloud) with servers, storage, software and professional services.

As a result the Sun Startup Essentials team was there, (I’ve been tracking them for years, since I was at HDS) and offered developers free hosting with their partner Joyent (learn about the developer program), as well as access to Sun hardware, open source software, professional services, and connections with VCS. Sun should create an online community for startups, or build one inside of existing social networks to further extend their cause.

Microsoft, (who was not involved with this event) recently launched BizSpark, has far to go, and must truly join the community they want to serve. In my pre briefing meeting with them a few weeks ago, I recommended they reach and join this community, much like how Scoble did in 2005-2006. I expect them to work with existing social media stars, and to aggressively reach for this space.

The Bottom Line:

The culture of each social network is unique, don’t expect applications to easily be ported and successfully run on different social networks –customization is always required.

Expect to see more applications on Facebook to also appear on Bebo and other sites, due to the catering of developers, as well as technologies such as OpenSocial.

Brands should explore relationships with these application developers who have success on more than one social network, this makes marketing more effective. Brands should first leverage existing sucess rather than build their own –this space is highly fast moving and specialized.

Bebo’s measurement index (although extremely limited in attributes) will not only encourage good behavior by those rascally developers, but also helps brands identify who they will want to work with.

Expect to see more enterprise companies catering to startups, in order to plan architectural seeds. Although most startups won’t bloom, some will turn into lush tropical forests, bringing ROI full circle.