Bernaisesource

Let me get back to you.

Last night I attended a meeting of the Atlanta chapter of the Social Media Club led by Peter Fasano and Tessa Horehled at Manuel’s tavern. It’s been a little over a month since I had been there standing among screaming Democrats watching the presidential election results.

As I have written before, the Social Media Club was co-founded by Chris Heuer and Kristie Wells and has chapters across the country. As they say, “Social Media Club is being organized for the purpose of sharing best practices, establishing ethics and standards, and promoting media literacy around the emerging area of Social Media.”

Tessa’s motivation for helping to bring the Social Media Club back to Atlanta was that she wanted to build community and “dispel some false, inauthentic notions of what social media is.” Peter has spent considerable time in San Francisco and wants to bring some of that passion for social media and new ideas to Atlanta.

Roughly 30 people were at hand for the chapter’s second meeting. The event was sponsored by Regator, which is urging people to vote for their site for the Open Web Awards.

The topic was social media and retail. The conversation initially centered on customer service, but candidly came alive when Jason Brett talked about his newly founded company called Jumbis. The company generates single product sales websites that turn buyers into evangelists.

The idea is that a customer gets discounts for sending out messages via Twitter, email, etc telling his or her friends that he or she bought something.

Some call it leveraging your social network; others call it spam. Peter said it reminded him of the pay for post efforts of a few years ago. Jason was soliciting feedback from the group because he wants to make money, but he also wants to do it ethically.

Needless to say, the commercial aspect of the notification turned some people off. Others worried about the relevancy and frequency of the notifications.

As Amber Rhea co-founder of Georgia Podcast Network said, I have no problem reading a random posting about an awesome donut you just had at a particular donut shop; it’s another thing to be paid for doing it.

Ultimately, what I found most interesting was that we were having a discussion about Jumbis in the first place. Jumbis was founded at Atlanta’s Startup Weekend 2 last month where fellow entrepreneurs rightly praised its founders for developing the idea so quickly. Then last night the idea was filtered through a social media sieve. In other words, the startup community and the social media community came together to share ideas and help make Jumbis more successful.

In light of the new Administration coming in, hopefully this sharing of ideas at a bar in Atlanta is a sign of new things to come in the City’s technology community.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Jumbis; SMCATL; Social Media Club Atlanta; Social Media;

Save to del.icio.us

Big Three Automakers CEOs before Congress

If there ever was a case to be made that image matters, it was back in November, when the CEOs of Detroit’s Big Three flew on their corporate jets to Washington, DC asking for billions of dollars in bailouts for their troubled companies. Talk about an industry black eye.

That Ford, Chrysler and General Motors made a PR blunder of the highest magnitude goes without saying. What is less clear is how many of us PR professionals would have anticipated Congressional reaction and advised our management before hand to do the following:

Do a “Capraesque” Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Be an everyman Jimmy Stewart character and drive to Congress in our experimental hybrid car to demonstrate our concern for the little guy and our commitment to frugality and innovation. Along the way we can stop and meet with car dealers and customers to hear their concerns. We will show our understanding about new communications by blogging or Twittering and chronicling our trip on YouTube to reach younger audiences.

I am a big advocate of new media with a political background, and I am not sure I would have made the recommendation — after the fact yes definitely, in a PR vacuum for sure, but in an office of a GM, Ford and Chrysler CEO, maybe not.  But can you imagine the PR benefit if you had?

Old habits die hard. I can recall listening to a displeased CEO who had to wait an extra half hour at Dulles Airport even though our flight actually arrived earlier than the one from National. So I can only imagine the response if I had made the suggestion in a company with multiple corporate jets.

Given that BIg Three CEOs are 1) fighting for their companies’ survival, 2) stretched for time, and 3) accustomed to big time perks, it seems unlikely they would willingly, for example, drive a Chevrolet Volt hybrid protoype that GM CEO Rick Wagoner used for his second trip before the Senate Banking Committee.

[I understand that two of the CEOs did drive to Washington, but only when they had already squandered all their PR capital.]

So let’s put aside individual personalities. Forget scheduling for a moment.. It comes down to corporate culture. If the underlying DNA does not embrace change, it is unlikely that PR can make up the difference.

This past Friday the Wall Street Journal reported that the Big Three are using YouTube, blogs, Twitter and Google search to make their cases to the public.

It is interesting to note that many companies turn to new media when they are in crisis as a way to signal that they are listening, that they get it. If you are willing to invest in social media in a time of crisis, it certainly makes sense to invest in social media in calmer times when the stakes are not as high and when credibility can be banked, not spent.

In all fairness, however, new media is not new to the auto makers.

General Motors employs Christopher Barger, Director Global Communications Technology while over at Ford Scott Monty heads up its global digital and multimedia communications. GM’s corporate FastLane blog is one of the first successful corporate blogs.

In a recent speech to the Public Relations Society of America in Detroit, GM Vice Chairman and FastLane blogger said of new media:

“But it’s so much more than that, I’ve come to realize. It’s an opportunity to have a real dialogue with our customers and potential customers. It’s an opportunity to put our message out there, unfiltered.”

As I have long maintained, social media is at one level a series of tactics to deliver your message. At another it reflects a deeper commitment to your customers and a willingness to see them as partners in your business.

Putting aside the Big Three, all the blogs and social networks in the world are not going to improve a company’s image if management really doesn’t want to or is unable to tap the power conversations and engagement to deliver better products and services.

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Big Three; Big Three Bailout; Detroit Bailout; Bob Lutz; FastLane; Chevrolet Volt Hybrid; Christoper Barger; Scott Monty;

Save to del.icio.us

Two interesting stories in the New York Times this past weekend featured Twitter.

One talked about how politicians like Benjamin Netanyahu and sports stars like Shaquille O’Neal were using Twitter to give the public a glimpse into their personal lives.

The other talked about how witnesses to the Mumbai attacks were using Twitter to report on the news.

As the Times reported: “The attacks in India served as another case study in how technology is transforming people into potential reporters, adding a new dimension to the news media.”

But in the hierarchy of minute-by-minute personal observations, some observations clearly take on more relevance if not gravity.

Or stated in the language of “tweets,” it’s the difference between:

Friends brother was killed with five bullets; 8:44 PM Nov 26th
Arun Shanbhag who saw the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower Hotel burn

ABOUT TO EAT DINNER, I PASSED UP 20 MCDONALDS TODAY. I COULDN’T DO IT I’M ON A DIET, BUT MCDONALDS FRIES R THE BEST UM UM UM
Shaq

If both are considered news, how do we process the information?

Let me get back to you.

Technorati Tags: Twitter;

Save to del.icio.us

• Companies must grapple with both their corporate and consumer brands, which are often served by different social media strategies.

• Each product may differ in emphasis and focus, but they all should fit into one overall marketing strategy.

• Social media is one part of that strategy; traditional marketing efforts still dominate.

Companies have multiple brand identities. There is the corporate brand relevant for investors, regulators, and job applicants. And then there are individual product brands, which customers care about. Unless you need to highlight your corporate agenda, your social media strategy will typically support your brands.

Take Atlanta based Newell Rubbermaid. I venture to say that few have heard of the Newell Rubbermaid corporate entity even if they know many of its products including Sharpie pens, Graco baby seats and Rubbermaid containers.

I had a chance to reconnect with the keeper of its social media strategy, Bert Dumars (blog) at Technology Association of Georgia  where we both sat on a social media panel.

Bert mentioned that Newell Rubbermaid had just launched a product blog for its Sharpie pens. Along with its Graco and Rubbermaid blogs, Newell Rubbermaid now has three blogs. There is no Newell Rubbermaid corporate blog.

Its blogging strategy is consistent with a company that is successfully shifting from a B2B to B2C marketing strategy that highlights individual product brands.

So how do these blogs reach their users?

• For the Rubbermaid blog, its purpose is not brand awareness. Most people have heard of Rubbermaid. The goal is to increase awareness of its products. Most people don’t know the extent of the product line. The blog therefore targets influencers, like professional organizers to help validate the products and spread the word.

• For the Graco Baby blog, the issue was brand awareness. The goal is to “humanize” the brand by targeting mommy bloggers and highlighting the real people behind what was perceived as a corporate brand. The blog has helped increase Graco’s positive awareness from 65 percent to 83 percent.

• Sharpie has a hugely loyal user base. The purpose of this blog is to create a platform that opens the brand to conversation and what Newell Rubbermaid believes is a pent up desire to engage with them. It is intended to play up the cool factor and will feature artists and creative outlets for Sharpie pens.

Three brands, three blogs, three approaches but one overall strategy. Blogs managed individually by different brand managers. Newell Rubbermaid’s Dumas understands that conversations are critical to a brand’s future, but that they take a long time to develop. That is why their focus is on cultivating relationships and slowly reaching out to their respective communities.

While Bert is pleased with the success of the blogs, they don’t draw the same amount of traffic as the Graco, Rubbermaid and Sharpie websites. As Bert freely admits, they aren’t meant to draw the same number of visitors. They are intended to complement, not compete. They are vehicles to engage their biggest fans. They are part of an overall social media strategy based on long-term conversations and not hard sell traditional advertising.

And herein lies Newell Rubbermaid’s success. Their social media strategy reflects the unique nature of their individual users, even while adhering to a consistent broader marketing strategy. It is a delicate balance, but based on customer feedback, it appears to be a formula that is working.