Blogging Remarkability

by Jayme Soulati on 05/27/2010 in Blogging 101

Last evening, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a group chat in real time on Tweet Chat  captured by #SBT10. It was an esteemed bunch of experts from the Start Blogging Today  online course, in which I’ve recently enrolled.

The cadre of folks on board last night offered fabulous tips for bloggers concerned with traffic, finding a voice, consistency, partnerships, content, and more. I want to share what was pertinent to me and see if it resonates with you, too:

  • Bloggers need to be remarkable, said John Haydon, and Dr. MacNamara defined that as Seth Godin’s Purple Cow.
  • Play the edges, added John, and present content in a way that’s 1000% you.
  • Dr. MacNamara asked for unique content that has “your personality intertwined.” Readers want to connect with an authentic person.
  • Grant Griffiths, the ring leader, said to talk with your audience, give them answers to questions and solutions to problems.
  • Grant suggested bloggers should network with other bloggers you regard not as competitors but as potential partners in the future. Networking should be done with bloggers you can grow with and not just the “big boys.”
  • Grant mentioned bloggers should not stand in the crowd, but stand out from the crowd. Set yourself apart from others in your niche.
  • Bloggers should write content about their particular area of service or business and write about what they know and their expertise will show and you’ll get noticed.
  • A blogger will be sought out if s/he remains laser focused on the purpose of the blog, added Dr. MacNamara.
  • And, this point is particularly appealing – Grant suggested bloggers listen to their audience and give them what they want and not what you think they need.

It’s an intricate statement. What do you want, dear Friends?

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Un-Social Media

by Jayme Soulati on 05/25/2010 in Social Media, Thinking

 

Here’s a quickie; just a rumination, really.

At the crux of “social” media are “un-social” people. Our dependence on the next generation device, new gadget, emerging application, competition to befriend the highest number of peeps, linkedins, FB’ers, and the like is causing detrimentally the weakening of social skills.

  • I watch it with the Wii generation of <10-year-olds.
  • We can see it in the very young teens with texting.
  • We learn about it from the high schoolers with sexting (something they’d NEVER have considered doing with a 35mm lens or Polaroid).
  • I watch the Kindlers and soon-to-be iPadders stick a nose in a device (rather than a book) and ignore the socialization happening around them. (Not sure why I think sticking a nose in a device is less acceptable than a book?)
  • I interact with college students who lack the social graces to interview and communicate without technology or e-mail.
  • And, then there are you and I. For at least 15-hours-a-day, we’re plugged in to social media, email, crackberries and i-devices addicted to who’s saying what and when it’s being delivered.  

I do pick up the phone; I do send a “what’s up?” e-mail to friends not in touch; I do send Skype messages to connect with friends in Mexico and Hong Kong; I do (gasp) write letters!

Alas, the rate of return on these efforts to connect when combined en masse is perhaps 2 percent. A sad state of affairs, isn’t it?

We’re smack in the era of mobile tech, WiFi, MiFi, gigs, and RAM, and there’s no telling when it might right itself. Those of us who pre-date the fax machine (yes, I’m seasoned) know of what I speak. Heck, all of us pre-date social media, and I bet you understand what I’m talking about?

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Media Relations and P&G’s What-If Plan

by Jayme Soulati on 05/21/2010 in Branding, Media Relations, Social Media Strategy, Word of Mouth

Today’s post is a compendium of news about Fortune 100 crises. If you’ve watched this space, you’ll recognize these names – Nestle, BP, and Proctor & Gamble. Don’t know the crisis each is managing? Then perhaps you’ve not been consuming social and traditional media, for these corporations are in the news several times a day of late due to rain forests, oil and diapers.

To bring you up to speed, here’s the Soulati-’TUDE! Nestle post. This week, my “Got a What If Plan?” oriented to the oil debacle paved the way for the next day’s post on diapers, rash and Procter & Gamble.

So great to see a sequential flow, and the only reason I re-introduced this content here is as a foreword to this article in Advertising Age “Inside P&G’s PR playbook: How Pampers Battled Diaper Debacle” about a behind-the-scenes look at the public relations machine for Proctor & Gamble. The internal team and its agency kicked into high gear at the onset of mommy complaints that the new Pampers Dry Max caused diaper rash and “chemical burns” on babies’ behinds.

For anyone in corporate or agency public relations, I strongly encourage you read this piece. It is a fascinating unfolding of a public relations machine in synch with product marketing, corporate strategy, and internal response to a brewing external crisis.

The story was written by Jack Neff after Advertising Age was granted an insider view of the marketing public relations team in action. He followed them for half a day to watch strategy and execution. I’ve not seen a story of this nature delivered smack in the middle of a crisis. If I were a stakeholder, you can bet my concerns would be alleviated after reading this piece.

In companies the world over, there is crisis. Social media has elevated these issues beyond comprehension and presented them to the consuming public on a silver platter. This trifecta is a textbook case for students, and I hope academicians and volunteer public relations professors are watching these three situations closely. There’s no better way to teach than by real-world example, and none of us are too old to keep learning.

Only one word of counsel for today:

It’s more critical than ever to shore up external messaging. When social media comes calling, one word gone awry can upset the entire apple cart.

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Today: A Tradeshow From the Desk

by Jayme Soulati on 05/20/2010 in Advertising/Selling

When I first saw the demo by American Lawyer Media (ALM) for Virtual Legal Tech , the free-to-anyone-attend-from-your-desk tradeshow, I was duly impressed.

Two exhibit halls staffed with live people in actual booths today, May 20, 2010 (the second live day this year), a networking lounge, resource center, and auditorium complete with live Webcasts and CLE credit await conference goers for a sum of $0.00 to attend. Be sure and listen to the 2 p.m. ET Webcast by Darryl Cross of LexisNexis and Kris Satkunas of Redwood Think Tank about Nurturing Clients (you can log in free by registering for the event today).

Marketers can lead gen galore with a list of those who downloaded articles, case studies, brochures, scheduled demos, and vied for prizes. Some 10,000 people are registered to attend today’s live show. The age of virtual is truly upon us. And, when you visit both auditoriums, the company of companies is impressive – LexisNexis, Los Angeles County Bar Association, IBM, Integreon, and many more.

This event is social networking at its finest. Staffers of booths can conduct a live meeting with video, email visitors to the booth using the technology’s email system, speak on a group chat, send a V-card to attendees along with an attachment for their virtual briefcase, and eveat Virtual Legal Tech Shown interact in the networking room.

Was told “security” is tight; if booth stalkers decide not to leave or are downloading all the goods like a spy, then all an exhibitor has to do is phone or email for help. The offender will be promptly banned electronically from the shindig.

Why am I so enamored of this affair today? I spent about 20 hours making one of these booths come alive. What tripped me up were the flash files required to launch the final step of the way. Everything else was done by yours truly. (Hey, whose mug is that over there?)

I’ll be inside the booth today, welcoming folks to partake and get acquainted with the portfolio of products by LexisNexis Business of Law Software Solutions – InterAction, Redwood Analytics, atVantage, Juris, Time Matters, and PCLaw.

If you promise not to stalk me, I’ll promise not to stalk you! Stop by and say hello. This is a perfect example of the blurring of public relations and the blending of marketing, public relations and social media, don’t you think?

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Got a What-If Plan?

by Jayme Soulati on 05/19/2010 in Planning & Strategy

As I read and shake my head, sigh and get absolutely frustrated about the oil spill calamity/crisis/disaster, I know the entire world feels as I do.

Heck, this crosses party lines, and if there is a defense team, they better have thick skin when asking for reduced culpability. The cascading effects of this event will affect marine life and industry for decades.

I digress.

More the shock to me is the alleged lack of disaster planning by all the oceanic companies playing in the deep sea. Just prior to the rig explosion, folks tussled about the final step; people disagreed about the what if. Admittedly, it’s been said BP was not readily prepared with a crisis plan in the event of the what if.

I do not allow the what-if game in my house. Children are notorious for, “Mom, what if…” In this case, that’s prescience.

Every company needs a what-if plan. In public relations we call it a crisis plan. In theory, crisis plans sit on a shelf awaiting a dust-off day. Crisis plans are meant to be revisited annually; updated to flow in sequence and aligned with changes in the life stream of a company.

Got a what-if plan?

Better get one…just in case.

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What’s In Your Name?

by Jayme Soulati on 05/18/2010 in Branding

Apparently, formerly Computer Associates now CA Inc. and becoming CA Technologies as a brand (not legally) found out the hard way that CA Inc. was non-descript and too much like California and Cocaine Anonymous to be worthy.  So says a Wall Street Journal article May 17, 2010 in Corporate News (I would’ve thought that a story for the Marketing & Media section) and in Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

To escape some accounting scandal, Computer Associates dashed to alter its identity to CA Inc. Seriously? I’m sure I heard about it and yawned. Now, a mere five years later (not long enough in the timeline of a corporation) with a looming gazillion dollar budget, the company is changing branding everywhere on products and marketing. Yet, it’s keeping its legal name CA Inc.

Why? Because CA Inc. didn’t describe what the company does.

So, I thought it fitting to tell you my name change story. Let’s call this storytelling or my company back story. I’m told by a dear colleague who shall remain nameless, Gregg, that storytelling is what makes the whirl funnel …

In 1991, I launched my first company – Soulati Media Relations, Inc. For seven years, I hired kids out of school, paid salaries and benefits and was president of the Publicity Club of Chicago. I did exactly that – media relations. I was such a youngster. It was the pre Internet era, although in those days the first email addresses were from Compuserve, and they were digits!

In 2002, I came back out for the third time and named my company Marketing, Media & More, Inc. This was the early Internet era and still pre-social media. The company name was long, but it was what I offered. And, it added “marketing” to the mix because you know as public relations people the quest is always to be more marketing driven.

INTRODUCING SOULATI MEDIA, INC.

In May 2010, a name change to Soulati Media, Inc. With the age of social media upon us and the branding of Soulati nearly a decade old with a Web site (www.soulati.com) a blog (Soulati-‘TUDE!) and my email jayme@soulati.com it was time to pull the branded family together. (Now, if you visit, you’ll see I’m still working on the presentation as this is a new deal.)

Thanks to CA Technologies, CA or Computer Associates whatever your name is for providing the platform to introduce the new me — branded and all.

Now, what’s your brand?

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Word of Mouth Marketing and Diapers

by Jayme Soulati on 05/17/2010 in Word of Mouth

My diaper-buying days are over (until 100 years from now when I’m a grandma, perhaps). But, when I did buy dipes, I bought Pampers, just like a gazillion moms today and tomorrow. And, that’s why Proctor & Gamble is having such a hard time convincing moms there’s nothing wrong with its latest innovation in diapers called Swaddlers Dry Max.

Irate mothers launched a Facebook page, “Bring Back the Pampers Cruisers, Dump Dry Max” claiming the new diapers cause chemical burns. They very well may in spite of the 50 mommy bloggers who tested the product prior to launch. If my beloved newborn had heat rash beyond normal, I’d point a finger at the diaper, too.

On May 16, the Facebook page had 1,052 “likes.” In the scheme of things, that’s a paltry figure compared to the population of diaper-buying families. But it’s enough to warrant positioning in a front-page story in the Wall Street Journal’s “Marketplace” section, on blogs across the country, and in conversation from mommies’ mouths to other mommies’ ears. In a quick run through the blogosphere, the story is growing with a thousand+ views at this post on Gather, for example. 

So, what gives?

It’s the power of word of mouth marketing and the influence mommies have on product success. This is another fascinating study (marketing classes are very busy watching corporate America struggle with negative case studies in word of mouth marketing) about the influence of viral social media.

An extremely tiny proportion of customers have taken action against a behemoth, and they’re being heard. Could there be a diaper recall? Some are suggesting so.  If I were a diaper-buying mom, I’d be watching my kid’s behind closer than usual, too.

The question becomes…why do companies believe they must fix something that’s not broken in the name of innovation? If you’ve got a good thing going, don’t mess with what works…no complaints are a really good thing P&G.

Moms and Dads, care to weigh in?

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When Are You You?

by Jayme Soulati on 05/14/2010 in Social Media Strategy, Thinking

Was combing Google Reader last night for content to help me with today’s topic. I really had nothing to write about, or so I thought.I zeroed in on Charlene Li, co-author of the best-selling Groundswell, and her free webinar series on open leadership.You can register for number three happening TODAY at 10 a.m. PDT on Finding and Supporting Your Open Leaders.

But, that’s not what I want to write about…

I noticed Charlene had launched a new personal Web site that is home to her blogs, calendar of travels, book info and more. While she did not leave Altimeter Group, she said her company is her work. She wanted a chance to speak about her children  without compromising her work content or professionalism. I can vouch for that.

Also tonight, I had a discussion with a colleague about Twitter IDs and whether to keep it professional or personal. When I tweet now, I think twice before posting about whether the content is professional enough. There are too many opportunities to be regarded offensive with an off-hand remark.

Does your professional life control your social media identity? Are you finding it challenging to always be “on” and to carefully and thoughtfuly craft the message? Yes, yes, yes.

Social media, social networking and SEM have made the world open. Just like Charlene suggests – open leadership requires transparency. It’s a push-me/pull-you sort of thing. If you want to play ball in the majors, we all need to let go of a little privacy and adopt a bit of celebrity.

So, when are you you?
 
 

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Good Plans Don’t Break

by Jayme Soulati on 05/13/2010 in Blogging 101

Yesterday, my contractor tore through old dry wall in the family room and removed plumbing in a closet to cap off a wet bar. The plan was to make this room, built on a slab adjacent to a garage and two outside walls, livable during cold weather. With insulation to code and new dry wall, we’d be able to do our thing and not freeze (the heat never reached that room from the lower-level furnace about 800 feet away).

Good plan, eh?

Yes, until the first signs of termites showed up, and then the infestation of live ones, along with the fresh mouse droppings just under the bar countertop being removed IN the family room.

Good plan broken? Nope, “just” a derailment.

 A need for squeamish flexibility on my part to alter this and that, add some steps that require my immediate education about termites, a call to several experts, including the current service provider who apparently has not been delivering great service, and stop-gap measures (literally) to plug some holes. And, perhaps some solid wishful thinking that this, too, shall pass.

Segue to the blog and the trials and tribulations to launch. Those who read my tweets of pain during those horrid IT nights attempting to do what I didn’t know I didn’t know but eventually got a feel for appreciate what I’m talking about.

A good plan starts with the end result. It’s accented with steps required to reach and attain that goal and outcome. To blog:

  1. Get a Web host of your own and publish your blog on your own server. (That requires a lot of ancillary steps to make happen.)
  2. Select a foundational blogging platform. In my case WordPress (a fabulous content management system one can even use for a Web site).
  3. Choose a theme of the 1,194 available (I went with Headway and crashed; now am running Thesis). That was another obstacle with tech issues galore, and I had no idea without help to solve that issue.
  4. Design the blog with colors that match (easy, you think?), branding that flows, and a bunch of widgets that ensure a reputable image at first blush.
  5. Find a voice. Write daily. Fuel controversy. Feed commentary. Market the blog. Do SEO.

Within each of these steps are little land mines that cause derailment for any number of days, weeks, and even months. Currently, I’m on step four trying to solve branding issues.

The moral to these true and happening-now stories is about planning. No one attains a goal without a good plan and steps from A to B to get there. Success is about flexibility and permission (from self) to explore other options and avenues which may take you down a rickety path until you get righted and back on track.

No matter how established you are, know that good plans don’t break, they just take longer to make happen. Exploration is education.

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How Does PR Happen?

by Jayme Soulati on 05/12/2010 in Public Relations, Thinking

Excellence is defined by the ability to deliver one’s craft with leading-edge knowledge. It’s the ability to strategize a program quickly based on current events. Problem solving is part of the equation; as a strategist one needs to know the steps to make things right, improved, and fail-safe (in a perfect world). High-quality public relations is knowledge gleaned and tapped that adds to credibility and reliability as a counselor.

So, how does this happen…the attainment of public relations excellence?

The Public Relations Society of America has a rigorous certification course that puts a nice little acronym after your name – the APR designation (accredited in public relations). If I dug deeply, I’d be able to find the number of folks who’ve elected to join the group locally and nationally, apply for and be accepted into the course, pay, study and receive the deserved commendation.

As for me, PR happens because I have a thirst for knowledge about everything. The periodicals that arrive at my house are as varied as my college education (anthropology to zoology). I receive Scientific American, Legal Technology News, B to B, Advertising Age, Bloomberg Businessweek, U.S. News & World Report, The Wall Street Journal, Vegetarian Times, Body & Soul, More, Health, Food & Wine, Cooking Light, Fresh Home, and (no wonder I supply second-hand zines to every school, waiting room and salon in town!).

Beyond reading (including the blogosphere I attempt to get to 3x/week in my Google Reader and fail), I also self-educate. When I first began hearing “PR is dead” from bloggers, I knew I wasn’t. By then, I had already enrolled in several Dreamweaver (Web design) classes, a Photoshop course, and one on HTML.

More than a year ago, I began to tweet. Twitter was the best thing that ever happened to me. Beyond meeting some of the most fab people I now can ring at any time for counsel or to say hello, my learning rate increased five-fold. I am serious when I say this. There’s no way to immerse in social media faster than on Twitter.

You learn early on whose links to click, and when a learning pot of gold greets you at the other end, every minute of time is worth it.

I also buy access to communities like Marketing Sherpa, and I’ve joined Social Media Today on which my blog gets posted, too. I listen, I engage, I learn.

My favorite learning environment right now is Lynda.com. It is a wealth of tutorials on the illusive knowledge we in public relations do not have – it’s tech and software oriented to the Internet. If you never spend a dime on your education, I recommend you stop the bleeding and rush to Lynda.com.  I’m not even an affiliate! I just value what I’m learning off this site so much, everyone else in integrated marketing should know about it, too.

How does public relations happen for you? What rich resource am I missing to enhance my intelligence quotient?

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