You, Me and the FTC

In response to a new mandate on bloggers imposed by the FTC, MediaPost’s Max Kalhoff wrote in his Online Spin column,” I don't like government meddling in my personal speech….I look to the court of public opinion and trusted communities as a more viable arbiter of truth, deception and reputation -- not ambiguous government guidelines.”

He’s not alone.

There’s a lot of uproar about the FTC tracking the blogosphere and the transparency of the blogger/content provider relationship. Why? Because the FTC’s new rules state that any blogger who offers an endorsement in their postings must disclose any payments received for the acknowledgement. Failure to do so could lead to a penalty of up to $11,000.

Hhhmmm. That’s quite a dilemma, for bloggers and for the companies who’ve been courting an increasingly powerful “new media” channel. We’ve all been trying to monetize the internet since its inception, and now that bloggers have seemingly found a way, the FTC steps in to re-write the rules.

So while the bloggers and bloggees are sweating it out, I see a positive angle emerging here – for journalism. That, versus the gazillion content producers who offer varying qualities of data on any topic imaginable. This mandate will separate the hobby bloggers from the serious writers who offer value - an informed opinion.

Delineating these lines could actually save us countless hours of research, seeking out real information that we can trust and use in our lives, and our work. Life is too short to follow up on every advocacy piece to ensure its accuracy and bias. Some form of regulation to define a “gift” from a company seeking positive spin and PR from an unbiased consumer review is something from which we will all benefit. And being in the PR profession, I am confronted by this “dilemma” on a daily basis. I don’t pay journalists to review - or criticize - my clients’ services or products, so why should I pay bloggers?

Having a set of standards will help bring credibility back to traditional journalism, and accountability for bloggers. There simply needs to be.

Living in a pocket

A new survey by Synovate reveals that 82% of Americans never leave home without their cell phones. Once upon a time, it was the American Express card. But it’s not just us in North America – half of Russian mobile users would rather lose their wallets than their phones, and 32% of people across the world surveyed said that they “couldn’t live without it.” By the end of 2010, 70% of all people will own one. Carriers everywhere rejoice!

Seems not so long ago we were carting around “mobile” devices the size of bricks – I used to own one.

But we’re no longer using our mobile phones solely for conversations and texts. These have become pocket-sized assistants, and are the thread that keeps our business and personal lives sewn together. Banking, dining, shopping, research, etc. I’ve written lengthy articles and submitted to editors from mine. So there’s no denying the importance of mobile in our daily lives, and the growing impact that mobile is having on the way businesses communicate and connect with their audiences.

Marketing research firm The Kelsey Group expects an increase in the mobile advertising market from $160 million in 2008, to $3.1 billion in 2013. That’s a HUGE increase. And in the next few years, millions of us (who haven’t already) will be opting for smartphones over PC’s – for both cost and convenience.

Smartphones have already forged ahead into the social media arena. According to USA today, about 65 million of Facebook's 300 million members are mobile users – that’s more than triple the amount of just eight months ago.

These numbers more than suggest that mobile marketing has moved far beyond the experimental stage – this is fantastic news for marketers in just about every industry. The limitations to mobile’s use and capabilities are really only limited by our inability to imagine the future.

Mobile is giving businesses and brands the ability to live in their customers’ pocket. What’s so bad about that? To me, this is an exciting moment. Despite the very challenging environment we’re in, mobile - like social media – is proving that it’s a powerful communication tool that is here to stay.

The Boy Who Twittered Wolf

Last week, I read a blog which mentioned a website - http://www.hsbcreviews.com/ - created solely to whine and gripe about HSBC Bank. 95% of the comments were complaints and most likely a reflection of the quality (or lack thereof) of HSBC’s customer service. Feeling the love for HSBC? Clearly, the blog’s creator and community are not, and have gone to considerable lengths to share their dissatisfaction with the rest of us. Cheers!

Blogs like HSBC reviews and social media in general have become a modern day soapbox, giving a voice to anyone and everyone with a gripe to air. That’s a great thing, isn’t it? Isn’t it? But then I ask myself, how much attention should we pay to the online rants of the companies vilified? I’ve read some absolutely diabolical posts on Yelp talking about companies with whom I’ve had great experiences. And then again, I’ve had horrid experiences with a number of airlines that my friends have raved about.

Who is right, and who is wrong in the social media equation? And who do we listen to do make an informed decision, really?

Right now, there are a gazillion or more negative content producers using social media to churn out their messages of dissatisfaction. Can’t get satisfaction from customer service reps? Sure, go post some comments. But the unfortunate result to this will be like the boy who cried wolf: using social media as the forum to post scathing comments (already in the millions) will eventually lead to this having no credibility at all.

It’s in our human nature to seek out a scapegoat, but the boy who cried wolf came to a rather tragic ending over a similar practice.

Social media is in relative infancy. As it grows up, we need to find a balance over how much weight we give personal experiences and opinions, and what we choose to do with that information. In time, businesses too will learn to use this data in the most efficient and effective way, to adjust and correct their misdoings and misdeeds.

But until then, our experience with social media is on an upward learning curve. Let’s not abuse it before reaches its peak.

Great Expectations - we all have them!

The following excerpt is taken from an article that appears in MediaPost's Marketing Daily on October 19, 2009

According to the Random House dictionary, we've been having expectations since around 1540, give or take a few years.

The noun, ex•pec•ta•tion [ek-spek-tey-shuhn], has a number of meanings -- but I'm most partial to the following, especially when used in reference to the start of a new agency/client relationship:

Often, expectations. a prospect of future good or profit: to have great expectations.

Ahhhh...

Being responsible for new business retention, I can spend several months courting and cajoling a prospective client. During that time, I'll have to prove to the CEO and CMO that my agency is capable of representing Brand X, that we truly get their message and value proposition, and can launch impactful PR campaigns that produce great outcomes -- not just "outputs" -- on ever-shrinking budgets. We'll have to jump through countless hoops and hold conference calls until the contract is signed, and then we're expected to be off and pitching posthaste!

Except there's one important thing missing from the above. An outline of expectations. Not from the client, but from us.

I've actually given it a name: "Statement of Expectations". It sounds rather arrogant at first, but it's become absolutely necessary when taking on new clients in our age of "great expectations."

Why? Because clients expect a great many things from our agencies -- PR, ad, creative, we're all in the same boat -- but in many cases they can't or don't communicate precisely what their expectations and needs are. And left to chance, in an economic climate that's so highly strung, the smallest mistake or misunderstanding can become the impetus for losing a client.

So rather than taking that chance, why not spell it out for our clients beforehand? If we did that more often, perhaps we'd have more fulfilling agency/client relationships -- more clients for longer, as well as staff who felt more respected and appreciated, and overall, a stronger agency brand.

Sounds pretty good to me.

So next time you're about to jump into bed with a new client, ask yourself if you're ready to wake up next to them every day. On second thought, don't. But you should be asking a great many things....

Like what? Read the entire article at MediaPost

Paul Krugman thinks we’re uneducated. I happen to agree.

An article appeared in the NYT today that really raised my ire. Not because I disagreed with it, but because every word rang true.

Paul Krugman’s piece, The Uneducated American, hit the nail on the head on every count - leaving behind a very bent and rusty nail indeed.

In a nutshell: “... The rise of American education was, overwhelmingly, the rise of public education — and for the past 30 years our political scene has been dominated by the view that any and all government spending is a waste of taxpayer dollars. Education, as one of the largest components of public spending, has inevitably suffered.

Until now, the results of educational neglect have been gradual — a slow-motion erosion of America’s relative position. But things are about to get much worse, as the economic crisis — its effects exacerbated by the penny-wise, pound-foolish behavior that passes for “fiscal responsibility” in Washington — deals a severe blow to education across the board.”

The cost of education is prohibiting many of the finer young thinkers in our culture from obtaining a degree, being forced back into the full-time workforce before they are able to complete their education - and still end up in debt, liable for daunting school loans as they begin their path into the adult world.

“According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the United States economy lost 273,000 jobs last month. Of those lost jobs, 29,000 were in state and local education, bringing the total losses in that category over the past five months to 143,000.”

This - at a time when we claim to be dedicating to change? We’re losing educators by the thousands? A sagging economy is no excuse to stop teaching our children. They are our future people!

Krugman’s recommendation to alleviate the problem is that congress should offer aid to the state governments, and: “Beyond that, we need to wake up and realize that one of the keys to our nation’s historic success is now a wasting asset. Education made America great; neglect of education can reverse the process.”

Thank heavens for organizations like the Kauffman Foundation and NFTE (The Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship) who are devoted to educating kids who otherwise would “be left behind”. While NFTE teaches important business and entrepreneurship skills, it also encourages continued education and believes that every child should be given the opportunity to fulfill his or her potential.

Life should be about choices – not just alternatives, compromises or settling for less than we have.

Education provides a solid pathway to being able to make choices in life – not having them made for us.

Isn’t that the change we are looking for?

We have seen annus horribilis ad finem. Now what?

Originally published in Mobile Markter, October 5 2009

A couple of weeks ago I had a great email exchange with someone I met online. Not that kind of online exchange, but in response to one of my opinion pieces.

Ten months later, Dave (who is also a contributor to Mobile Marketer) and I still have not met in person, but we have developed a lovely rapport – exchanging ideas on everything from how to fix the world, to writing a book on self-sufficiency to what is wrong with our industry (he is a marketer too). A lot, we have agreed.

Let us start with resounding cop-out of the past annus horribilis – the recession.

It seems that anyone and everyone is, has or was using this as an excuse for their company's ills – poor sales, fewer customers, loss of clarity. Take your pick.

To be sure, as an agency owner I have been affected too, but the truth of the matter is that marketing has imploded at the very time when “disruptive technology,” “forced innovation” and “reinvention” have become the catchphrases of the day.

Isn’t this cyclical? We grow, we learn, we stumble, we rise, we fail and then we start over, but with new visions and ideas about doing what we were doing in a far better and stronger way than before.

Creative destruction, right?

Click here to finish reading the entire post in Mobile Marketer

Storytelling Is An Art, Especially In PR

If a picture paints a thousand words, then how much is a tweet worth? Ten words, a dozen?

When embracing Twitter, have you struggled to write something profound or worthwhile within the confines of 140 characters? I have. Don't get me wrong, tweet speak has its place in our digital world, but with every process that strips away the need to construct coherent and meaningful prose, not just blurts with links, we will in turn think less about what and how we write. It's already happening.

Good stories don't need to be packaged in special kits or on glossy paper to be effective. They just need to tell and ultimately sell our clients' stories very well – especially in PR.

Stories have been around for thousands of years, influencing people and their decisions. My goal is for my stories to have that kind of power, whether I’m writing for myself or about my clients.

There's an article in today's MediaPost(disclosure - written by me)“Storytelling Is An Art” , that discusses this topic.

Do you think the art of storytelling is waning? How important is it to you?