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Rolling Stone PR Faux Pas

07/18/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Today, the sentiment by many an American is to Boycott Rolling Stone. Is that the same reaction by its 20-something readership?

That publication put the Boston Bomber on its cover looking sultry and sexy. Why?

It’s said the editors/publishers put that teenager in the demographic of its readership and thus the publication owed it to (whom?) to cover the topic. In its defense, the magazine did say the kid became a monster on its cover albeit in small print.

The Rolling Stone PR Faux Pas

What exactly is the faux pas of Rolling Stone? It’s abiding by rights granted by the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights; freedom of speech in this regard.

What then did Rolling Stone do to piss of America?

It took an emotional issue oriented to terrorism against this country and portrayed it unerringly on the cover of its well- read and highly subscribed to-popular magazine.

Sure enough, Rolling Stone created a global PR crisis for itself. Prior to Rolling Stone publishing its cover, editors and publishers had weeks to prepare for the backlash that would and did inevitably result.

They developed messaging; they consulted lawyers; they trained; they wrote statements for public consumption; they readied the flood gates. They knew it; they ignored it; they welcomed it.

Now, media the likes of Dayton Daily News, a small community paper catering to less than 1 million, are running the story and cover to capitalize on the debacle. Of course, that’s how the gravy train works. Blood sells, after all.

How many Facebook posts did you read yesterday that are anti-Rolling Stone? Did traffic increase exponentially to its website to the point of busting the server?

The magazine didn’t care; it wanted this attention knowing full well the emotional upheaval would come and pass. Knowing full well the teens and 20-something readers and potential subscribers would devour the coverage and buzz about it on their social channels, too.

The outcry against the choice Rolling Stone made to exonerate a soon-to-be-convicted terrorist against the United States of America is just.

What’s unjust are the lives and limbs lost and horrific emotional upheaval as a result of the crimes perpetuated against the Boston marathoners, spectators and this country’s citizens.

In this case, Rolling Stone went too damn far. No act of terrorism should be regarded as opportunistic by media pushing the envelope of public dissent to see just how far it can go.

I customarily applaud corporations for testing waters and planning a publicity stunt for 10 minutes of fame. In this case, that magazine disgusts me for its obvious lack of sensitivity. Please, corporate America, withdraw your advertising spend and put it toward funds for victims of the Boston Marathon. They need help to regain a semblance of normalcy in a life disrupted. Please, corporate America, your customers will thank you.

(Jayme Note: This piece is not for me to capitalize; I rarely write about such things when they occur, e.g. Paula Deen. In this situation, I couldn’t rest.)

Social Media, Girls And Corporate America

07/17/2013 By Jayme Soulati

Look out corporate America, the girls are coming to a social media channel near you. Little girls, some as young as 9-years-old, have taken to activism with online petitions by Change.org against multi-national corporations the likes of McDonalds, PepsiCo, Coca Cola, Hasbro, Jamba Juice, and other unsuspecting entities.

This Crain’s Chicago Business story June 17, 2013, Girl Power; Big Business Faces A Formidable New Force: They’re under 18 and All Over Social Media, provides the scoop:

Pre-teens and teens with evolving female emotions (high-touch/high-care) about right and wrong, healthy eating, food toxicity, the Earth, animals, and more are taking issues to heart and attacking corporations via social media channels, online petitions, at corporate events, and in tandem with activist groups.

And, the floodgates are nearly breached. This generation (what label does it have as they are younger than Millennials?), was born with social media engagement. They watch their parents take snapshots on Instagram, tweet, Facebook, and basically live and breathe every social media channel.

When something goes awry in customer service, what’s the first thing an adult does? Complains on social media and takes images of the entire experience. Where are the kiddies? Watching, clicking buttons, hitting send, and reacting to their parents’ social media zeal.

Look at some of these young people and what they’ve done under 10 and 20 years of age:

Hannah, 9, of British Columbia attacked McDonalds in Oak Brook, Ill. In May 2013 at its annual meeting. She accused CEO in person of “trying to trick kids into wanting to eat your food all the time.” Hannah was backed by Boston activists Corporate Accountability International.
Sarah Kavanagh, 16, Hattiesburg, Miss. used Facebook and Twitter to get brominated vegetable oil out of Gatorade and Powerade sports beverages. (Hey, Pepsi and Coca Cola, she’s now of age; hire her!)
McKenna Pope, 13, Garfield, NJ lobbied Hasbro to make a gender neutral Easy-Bake Oven.

Yesterday’s Kids v. Today’s Kids

As said, the floodgates are nearly breached. How many pre-teens and teens are there watching people use social media to get what they want? Back in the day, my brother and his friends used to hit McDonalds, order cheeseburgers, eat half, take it the counter and tell them they found a hair or it was overcooked. They’d get another one and then turn around and ask for fresh fries because the ones they bought were dried out.

No more.

Teens are smarter than adults in the online world, and schools are teaching students to think differently, use online tools and take action sooner.

Corporate America is what the kids target; it is ripe for the pickins’.

What’s A Company To Do

Corporations need to listen!
Never attack a kid anywhere – in writing, in person, or via a third party.
Don’t use corporate speak, but don’t treat these kids as if they were adolescent.
Make the girls into ambassadors; invite them to company functions, ask opinions, hire them, give then a scholarship, recognize their maturity – especially the kids acting alone without help from the activist organizations.
Respond on social channels…graciously.
Social media teams who answer posts must be trained to be fully aware that children may be responding. There’s no way to determine age of a consumer especially if the avatar is an animal or shape.

No one said it was easy being on the frontline as a multi-national corporation. Smaller companies need to sit up and take notice from example, too.

One Chicago girl took on the municipality of Grayslake to ban single-use plastic bags. She is 13-years-old.

When any company believes they can ignore social media; think again. When you don’t engage, you cannot respond. When a pre-teen girl gets a brick wall in answer to a smart social media attack, look out…you’ll be on the defensive for years from not just one girl but all her friends across every single social channel.

That train? It left four years ago. If you are not taking social media seriously by now, then hop into your horse and cart and enjoy the ride.

Is A Blogger A Writer?

06/05/2013 By Jayme Soulati

What kind of merry-go-round are we on, folks?

The questions keep flying in circles:

Is a blogger a writer?
Is a blogger an author?
Is a blogger bona fide?
Should a journalist become a blogger?
Is a blogger a reporter?
Is a freelancer a consultant?
Should I write in the first person or third person if I’m one person?

OHMYGOSH, already!

Let’s set the record straight so everyone knows the following:

Bloggers are writers. They write every day they post an article. Sometimes the piece is short, sometimes it’s personal, sometimes it’s in-depth investigative journalism like this piece by Amy Tobin on Sunday Social Justice.

Would bloggers be able to pass muster every day writing by journalistic standards? Nope, but they’re not trying. On occasion a piece comes along the likes of squarely on the rump, and that piece deserves high praise and slotting into a publication the likes of Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Oh, did I already mention Amy Tobin’s work? I’ve never given double link love in a blog post before and I’m gifting Amy with that first…and, she knows why!

Bloggers as Authors

Photo Credit: Jayme Soulati via iPhone 4S on AA flight to LA

Are bloggers authors if they write books? Many a blogger has written a book; I’m not the first to re-purpose a treasure of archived content into a useful and educational business book.

In case you didn’t know, I recently self published, . So, bloggers can write books; have you? Does that make a blogger any less of an author? NOPE! But, some do believe so; and, that’s OK. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion.

Journos as Bloggers

For sure a journalist ought to blog, but I bet the topic of the blog would not be akin to their daily beat. That would be a bit strange. Perhaps a journo could blog about a hobby or something; that way, the blog would not interfere with daily writings for the online or offline publication.

Is a freelancer a consultant? Well, you can read on that topic right here and see if you can come up with an answer any better than we could!

First Person or Third Person

Should you write in the first person or third person if you’re one person? A subscriber suggested my newsletters should be written in the first person. That shows I’m writing the content about myself.

Why?

Doesn’t everyone want to give the impression their practice is larger than one person? If you write in first person, it’s too personal and seems full of braggadocio. I can’t, and public relations professionals rarely if ever write in the first person as we’re writing for others.

I’m all about ghost writing for myself; the ones who really know me under the cover will know who’s minding the store. What about you? First person or third?

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The Happy Friday Series: Amazing Online Friends

05/24/2013 By Jayme Soulati

When I started my social media marketing agency 5 years ago, I did it for a variety of reasons.

I didn’t have a job. I had just been laid off from the magazine that I worked for when a larger publishing company bought it out. They were in OH, I was in NC, we didn’t know each other, and I was easy to cut.
I have always been ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. In early 2000s, I made President’s Club when I was in sales because I was the first to do email blasts. A few years later, I started the concept of selling Webinars to my advertisers at the magazine.
I started my blog in 2003 – I was a “mom” blogger before most moms even had email. I was on LinkedIn the first year; I was on Facebook when there were less than 800,000 people and so on.
I’m BIG on customer service and helping people succeed.
I’m very social. I like to meet people.

One of the BEST parts of social media is getting to know people. I have met some amazing people that I would never have had the opportunity to meet were it not for social media. I met my friend and mentor, Mark Schaefer because of Twitter. I don’t know what tweet it was that he saw, but he reached out to me and offered a half hour of his time to “mentor” me. I was floored and giddy all at the same time. Whether he liked it or not, he had a follower for life. I wouldn’t meet him in real life for at least another year and that was when he came to be the keynote speaker for me at ConvergeSouth. He came to speak because of our relationship that we had built online.

Meet Whom You Tweet

You can build amazing relationships with people online but at some point, you REALLY want to meet them in person. To put a face to a Twitter handle or avatar is the best feeling in the world. That’s why I go to conferences.. it’s not to learn (added bonus if I do!) but rather to MEET WHO I TWEET!

I think it’s so important to find these opportunities to connect in person that I started a group affectionately called the #BWTs.. Broads Who Tweet. My point is getting to meet my online friends makes me happy for days. The energy I get from our BWT weekends will feed my soul for weeks. I just love taking those online relationships to the next level.

BWT is a group of tech-savvy women who I had gotten to know over the course of time and we had built such great online relationships that we wanted to get together in person. We have a hoot when we’re together.. we laugh, we support each other and we talk non-stop. After a few lunches, I thought…Hey! Why don’t we go on a retreat! We can get away from the family for a few days, drink copious amounts of coffee and wine and learn from each other.

And just like that, the #BWT Beach ReTweet was born.

We’ve done two of these retreats, and I’m in the process of planning the third. These relationships began on social media. We’ve carried them into real life and formed real friendships. I know that I can call on any one of these women to help me with something and they will be there in a flash. And they know that they can ask the same of me. It was because of this group that I joined forces with my friend Adrienne and together we created a new, bigger and better social media agency. It doesn’t get much better than that, friends.

You never know where you will find your next friend or your next tribe. Some last, some don’t. I’m grateful that I have them and all of you. Every chance I get to grow my social media circle, I do it because you never know where it may lead.

About The Author

Kristen Daukas is the Director of Social Media for Atlantic Webworks. When she’s not creating magic for clients, she’s busy trying to keep her sanity as she navigates the water of raising three teen and tween daughters. She also enjoys long walks on the beach in the moonlight with her husband. And she thinks she’s really funny. Come share a tweet and circle her at Google+!