One More Message And Your Brain Might Explode

As you're reading this email/tweet/Facebook post or RSS feed there's every likelihood that your brain may just explode...

Look at the latest numbers released on THE BIG THINK - http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2011/01/by-the-numbers-internet-2010/

* 107 trillion – The number of emails sent on the Internet in 2010.
* 294 billion – Average number of email messages per day.
* 1.88 billion – The number of email users worldwide.
* 480 million – New email users since the year before.
* 89.1% – The share of emails that were spam.
* 262 billion – The number of spam emails per day (assuming 89% are spam).
* 1.97 billion – Internet users worldwide (June 2010).
* 14% – Increase in Internet users since the previous year.
* 152 million – The number of blogs on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse).
* 25 billion – Number of sent tweets on Twitter in 2010
* 175 million – People on Twitter as of September 2010
* 600 million – People on Facebook at the end of 2010.
* 20 million – The number of Facebook apps installed each day.
* 7.7 million – People following @ladygaga (Lady Gaga, Twitter’s most followed user).
Oooooh. That last one was a little sad.

Now, I realize I’m adding to these numbers and the information overload – I'm just curious to see if your brain really would explode.

If so, have the nurse shoot me an email, or you can fill out my brief questionnaire on SurveyMonkey. I'm baking a pie chart.

A Lesson From Julian Assange/ from MediaPost

If 2010 was the year of austerity, 2011 may well be "The Year of Authenticity." After all the crap we've been dealt during the past few years, consumer and media patience is dwindling rapidly for those that present a false front to the world and less-than-sincere motives. Witness last year's outing of the "power" couple that crashed a White House party. And remember Bernie Madoff? Enough said.

These days, it's hard to fake it if you really can't make it.

Perhaps the latest example of a growing distaste for fake motives is Julian Assange. The founder of WikiLeaks has presented himself as a truth-seeking crusader, exposing the wrongs of the world's governments. It's true he has a cult-like following of supporters, but a lot of people are not buying into the white knight shtick anymore -- an encouraging sign that truth, honesty and ethics in media are still very much an expected standard.

Assange didn't publish those thousands of pages of classified diplomatic briefs to illuminate dark secrets and to make the world a better place. He did it to make a pile of money and glorify himself as a "liberator of information." But he's not. He is a thief who has obtained information illegally, jeopardizing global diplomatic relations to grow his business and earn a princely sum for a book about his ho-hum life. There are millions of unrecognized citizens who have done more to help their fellow global citizens than Assange has ever done, and no matter how tightly he wears the coat of righteousness, no matter how much the words "transparency" and "responsibility" are spouted in proximity of his name, the only person that Assange is benefitting is himself.

Think about it.

The flood of secret material released by his organization does nothing to make the world a better place. It does the opposite, risking months -- no, years -- of painstaking diplomatic work and at worst, putting lives in danger. Few cables in the WikiLeaks pile illuminate a shocking, grievous wrong; instead, they are generally thoughtful and considered situational analyses. For the most part, they weren't even particularly revelatory. U.S. diplomats think Russia is essentially a mafia state? Shock, horror. Arab leaders consider the Iranian president a dangerous fool and want him eliminated? Gosh, no one saw that coming either.

And the tiresome claims of righteousness in releasing the cables really start to fall apart in light of Assange's later moves. Soon after his actions made international headlines, the WikiLeaks founder inked a book deal in excess of a$1.3 million to write his autobiography. But this was no sellout: according to Assange, $1 million plus is required because of the "need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."

What for, I ask?

Transparency in Communication

Nobody argues that more transparency, honesty and openness are needed to make the world a better place. That's the noble goal of journalism and, in fact, any type of public communication. The difference, however, between most fair-minded communication efforts and bottom-scrapers like WikiLeaks is authenticity. And while we're at it, we could include BP as part of the latter description.

People have gotten wise to all of this and to the authenticity of WlkiLeaks and Assange's motivations. In a recent BBC World News America/Harris poll, 39% to 47% of respondents disagreed with the statement that "Wikileaks is helping to provide transparency in government." A similar number disagreed with the assertion that "publishing these documents could be embarrassing or hurtful to any given administration, but it's not dangerous."

This runs counter to the initial reaction to Assange and his organization as being good-hearted whistleblowers. But the world, it seems, is coming around to realize what WikiLeaks and its founder really are -- self-serving and destructive entities, not at all the crusaders for truth and transparency they claimed to be.

So what has any of this got to do with PR?

It's very simple. People have no more time for truth-fudging and ulterior motives. We have been done over too many times. Our new decade will demand truth and transparency -- when it's authentic. The same applies for corporate communications and messaging. Global PR machines will become even more despised and mistrusted, and the PR cover-ups will come back to hurt brands a hundred times over. Personal agendas and egos be damned -- there will be revolts and backlashes on scales we've never seen before when people discover the (dishonest) truth and motivations behind certain actions that enter theirs and the media's domain.

We used to joke about truth in advertising. Now the joke, as Julian Assange has taught us, is on transparency.

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=142624&nid=122451

My response to the Giffords shooting

I burst into tears watching TV. Just like that.

I was at the gym on Saturday when I saw the headlines flash across the TV
screens that a congresswoman had been killed in Tuscon, AZ. Gabrielle Giffords.

I stood there, frozen, and cried.

It was a very strange and unexpected reaction because I'm not usually a cry
baby. It takes a lot to push me over the edge, or reduce me to tears. But this
news broadcast did it.

I didn't cry because of the people that were senselessly killed - although that
is an absolute tragedy.

I cried because on Saturday my world changed. And so did America.

Maybe I'm overreacting in that last sentence, but I felt hopeless and violated.
Even though I'd never met Congresswoman Giffords, or anyone from Tuscon, I felt
a deep sense of personal loss.

The day we start shooting our elected officials and instilling fear and terror
upon our fellow citizens, is the day we join the ranks of countries we find
deplorable. We're engaged in two wars and we've lost thousands of soldiers in
the name of fighting terror and yet at home, we have something just as nasty
bubbling away beneath the surface.

A caustic political undercurrent that is dividing the nation, ideologically and
culturally.

While Congresswoman Giffords' shooter may have been off his rocker, the fact
remains that the growing intolerance against the left, or the right, is, well,
intolerable.

We can't allow different views or "values" to turn us into a nation of haters,
or worse, killers.

We can't allow the extreme views of some "politickers" to cloud our judgment,
and we mustn't allow those extreme voices to constantly taint the airwaves and
internet with misinformation and lies.

There's a great piece in Sunday's NYT " In the Shock of the Moment, the
Politicking Stops... Until It Doesn't." Please read it.

Politics is one nasty game, that's very clear. I'm glad to be in PR.. But when
we start killing in "the name of government," it's game over for everyone.

Did anyone else react like I did?

Welcome to 2011, the Year of Awesomeness!

Kicking off my blog this year is a list of the top 15 mobile-related columns from 2010, featured in Mobile Marketer – to which I am a contributor.

* 11 trends for mobile apps in 2011
* Identifying three models for a mobile presence
* Mobile swiftly moves to core of all brand communications
* What should the mobile database record?
* What is the growth trajectory for mobile advertising?
* How to market your mobile application to No. 1
* Make customer care rewarding with SMS
* How to buy mobile media
* Why a piecemeal mobile strategy does not make sense
* Five steps to succeeding in mobile commerce
* 5 arguments on why mobile is indispensable to marketing plans
* How to roadmap your mobile Web development
* Why the iPad signals the convergence tipping point
* Key tips on mobile site design and search engine optimization
* Who owns mobile strategy?

For those of you who didn’t read my article the first time around, 5 arguments on why mobile is indispensable to marketing plans is even more relevant today as CMOs firm up their marketing plans for 2011. Here’s a short excerpt:

As the readers of this column will certainly agree, mobile marketing is no fad. Rather, I believe that mobile marketing will – and must – become a central part of every successful marketing and visibility strategy, and I think it is well on its way to becoming just that. However, the integration of mobile marketing into existing marketing strategies on a large scale will not happen spontaneously. Instead, it will come about through a concerted effort to educate companies and other organizations about the benefits and unique qualities of mobile outreach.

Want more? You can read the entire article (and other great posts) on Mobile Marketer here.

Happy 2011!

Truth in advertising

Expedia, Orbitz, Starwood, Hilton.... They're all the same. Even American
Airlines think that OTAs stink.. Misleading pictures (no one ever gets that
room on the home page), "special" rates that morph into a different deal
when you actually book, the small print that tells you the wi-fi will cost
$18 a pop, homogenized call-center service, and all the other nonsense that
makes booking a hotel stay a rather miserable experience.

Then, of course, there is the location itself. You wouldn't think that a
hotel would intentionally misrepresent its location, would you? Would they?

Well, yes, they did.

The "they" I'm referring to is the Sheraton Skyline in London, at Heathrow
Airport. But not really at Heathrow Airport. Close, sort of. A bit. Not
really.

I arrived at Heathrow. Hotel booking form in hand, I searched for the
Sheraton Skyline, London Heathrow Airport "situated just minutes from the
airport." Was I in the wrong terminal?

I looked, and I asked, and I looked until finally I realised the hotel was
not at the airport. Outside perhaps, just down the street? I read the
booking form again... "Just minutes from the airport" so I hopped into a
Black Cab and off I went, expecting a short cab ride. $55 later I arrived at
said hotel, "just minutes from the airport."

I don't usually blog about personal experiences of this nature, but it was
simply too great an opportunity to talk about the prevalence of misleading
information online. Or, in fact, every medium.

As consumers, we've come to distrust a lot of advertising. We've come to
distrust a lot of media.. To be sure, there's a lot of rubbish and
misinformation out there. Even Apple is in on it, destroying our trust
thanks to its private army of app developers collecting our personal data.
And soon, when our Facebook pages become flooded with social media spam,
we'll come to distrust that space too.

But to mislead customers about your business's location -- so you can
increase the chances of bookings -- that
is the ultimate trust-breaker.

When I complained to the front desk, they told me to ring the corporate
booking centre. When I rang the corporate booking centre, they more or less
told me to go to hell. My hotel "at the airport" turned out to be a false
economy when I added the cab rides and wi-fi charges..

So the moral of this story isn't don't stay at the Sheraton Skyline (well,
perhaps a bit). It's about not believing everything you read. Not even an
address can be counted on as accurate these days. Research, ask questions,
never assume that what you see online is what you'll get, and triple check
the address.

Because there's no truth in advertising anymore.

Goodbye 2010, The Year Of Austerity

And I'll bet you all thought 2009 was a killer.

Initially, I believed that 2010 would be a game-changer year. I was convinced that budgets would creep back up again, clients would become a bit more cheery, gloom would be banished to the South Pole and that the new normal would be, with our newly honed set of values, a well-balanced fabulous.

Well, it delivered in part. Twenty-ten has certainly been a game-changer of a year, but not in the ways that most of us (in our PR world, at least) had expected.

The "new value system" that we were looking forward to never really materialized. Instead, it seems we have collectively created a skewed perspective characterized by fear, hopelessness -- and some would add xenophobia (fear needs a scapegoat, right?) as evidenced by the most divisive political climate this country has seen in decades.

But I digress ...

The transition into austerity this year has proven to be a double-edged sword for our industry. Fiscal concerns have moved us into positions we had not encountered before. Through trial and error, we've redefined our own values and are now managing resources in new and effective ways that are paying off. But it hasn't been easy.

I'd like to share some of what I and my team have learned from a year of austerity.

Never be desperate

Some of the worst client hires -- yes, we hire clients -- were made this year, in the name of billings and cash flow. Forget the saying that cash is king. We found out the hard way that some clients ended up costing us far more than we could have imagined. "I'm Sorry We Hired You" is not a healthy way to view your customers. No price (or client) is worth the sacrifice of your mental health or employee morale!

Focus your efforts on the markets you know best

You can't be all things to everyone. Really. Focus on what you know and improve on that knowledge. Focus on what you love, and your passion and dedication will become contagious. Specialize and own your space. We got rid of practice areas that were either unrelated to our core offerings, or were already too crowded. As a result, we've gained recognition by becoming very focused on several industries -- it was the best move we made.

Which brings me to...

Learn to let go of crap, traditions, and fear-based "playing it safe" actions

We all know that change is hard. Adapting to new ways of doing business and handling clients in a more-for-less climate is difficult for most people. Turning down or letting go of business -- even if it's not good for your agency -- is really hard. But still, we need to find courage to embrace change and evolve with the marketplace. There's no point in wasting time and energy in thoughts of how it used to be. Whatever it was, or will be, it won't be that again.

More lemonade making

The proverbial lemonade stand has grown. We've learned to make do with a whole lot less of everything -- time, money, sleep, holidays, shoes -- the list goes on. But a few things we cannot do with less of are ideas, creativity and motivation. Without more of these in our profession, we are doomed.

Austerity measures are counterproductive 99% of the time

When you limit your thinking or reduce it to "just get by," you will never, ever grow or get out of that place. To become more efficient is one thing, but to operate from a cheapskate stance is another. In 2010, the worst year of our trading, we expanded our staff, locations and client service offerings because we couldn't run our agency in pause mode. Think big, but take responsible risks.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

With clients, staff, stakeholders and, well, everyone you meet. People appreciate honesty and authenticity. They also want to be communicated with, not at. Small gestures of authentic, personalized communication will go a very long way -- especially if you have bad news.

Get off the downbeat bus

We are in the business of image building and shaping perceptions, so liven up, people! No one likes hanging out with a loser. Recognize that there are so many opportunities to be had, or created and carpe diem already. To be sure, the PR industry will go through some significant changes in the coming year, but we are ready.

So goodbye and farewell, austerity, and welcome, 2011, the year of new opportunities and reinvention.

I Still Love You!

Dear Blog,

It’s not you, it’s me.

I just wasn’t feeling the same way about you, so I decided to take a break. Just a little time to think things through. You know, you and I were so close for so long. What was it, a year? I couldn’t throw it all away. I thought that maybe a little distance would do the trick. What’s that saying, absence makes the heart grow fonder?

Well, it worked. I came back to you. I missed you. Did you miss me?

I promise not to disappear again. Really. I’ll be good and post regularly… starting tomorrow, maybe.