Our Austin office is a critical hub of Waggener Edstrom’s technology practice, with a portfolio that includes some of the most innovative, global brands in the world. The office opened more than 11 years ago (2000) and, along with a growing employee base and plans to move into a new office on 6th Street this summer, I am thrilled to announce today that Cheri Winterberg will join this week as the general manager of the Austin office and a vice president within the agency’s Technology Practice. She will help grow and expand the practice and will lead the 3M and Toshiba Storage accounts. She also will bring two clients with her, both of which are industry consortiums with leading enterprise IT members: OpenFabrics Alliance, which develops open source software for high-performance networking applications, and the InfiniBand Trade Association, which is chartered with maintaining and furthering the InfiniBand specification.
Cheri Winterberg, VP and GM of Waggener Edstrom Austin.
Cheri is joining a number of recent hires and relocations to the office of Longhorns. I’ve been traveling to Texas at least two weeks per month for the past year, and I have had the chance to work with the strong group of professionals that she is joining in that office.
Cheri brings a ton of hands-on experience in digital strategic thinking and activity, including building Web pages, writing Web content and producing video series, as well as running major product launches, organizing multivendor events, managing industry consortiums, and regularly working with business and industry trade reporters.
Prior to joining Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, she has also worked for Owen Media and, most recently, owned her own company, winterbergpr.com.
Cheri is a thinker — focused on solving the toughest business problems for her clients — and a roll-up-the-sleeves-and-get–things-done kind of professional. I look forward to working with her in this role and introducing her to all the restaurants and food carts I’ve gotten to know and love over the past year.
Cheri is in the process of relocating from Boston to Austin with her three kids and her husband.
Texas-Based Clients
- 3M Electro Communications Business
- BMC Software
- Siemens PLM
- Silicon Labs Marathon Relay
- Texas Instruments DLP
- Trilogy
I don’t agree with Jonathan Sanchez’s smart post on the ghost of PR’s future that our industry is killing its value by productizing its processes. I think that greater transparency in what agencies do for their clients is always a good thing unless you are doing shady things.
I also read an underlying fear that the way public relations and communications has been done over the last few decades remains unquantifiable. And now that digital communications brings a new set of data points, it will create a greater pressure for quantifiable results. Likely both of these realities are true.
But we are in a time of change in communications. Digital and social media are adding new demands to communicators, and both agencies and clients are working to figure out how to change the way they have done things.
That’s uncomfortable, and often we hear that because new communication methods are unproven or the measure of success remains murky, new tactics are shunned for more trusted and comfortable efforts.
Isn’t that the same as doing nothing and ignoring the changes that have and will happen? Just because we aren’t sure what the measure of success is doesn’t mean new things shouldn’t be attempted. And anything new we do now just speeds adaptation for the future, especially when it comes to digital communications.
The future is going to come whether we’re comfortable with it or not, shouldn’t we be prepared?
In the communications industry, “creativity” carries a wide array of meaning and interpretation. All too often, the word is aligned with designers and marketing specialists who are responsible for creating a fancy brand or dreaming up a viral PR/ad campaign. Dangerous.
For agencies large and small, it’s all too easy to bucket out creativity without recognizing the crucial importance of infusing a creative mindset across an agency setting. In essence, creativity should never be thought of as that “thing” that you focus on only during client brainstorms. Similarly, creative resources should never be aligned with “X person” at your agency that is identified as THE creative head.
The reality is that each and every person at your agency has the potential to be creative. How your agency activates and leverages that potential as an asset to your client base and as an overall competitive threat is a key capability differentiator.
Last week, I had the opportunity to chat with David Mahlmann, VP of Ideation and Creative Insights at Waggener Edstrom to discuss his thoughts on infusing creativity into agency culture.
I couldn’t agree more with David’s thoughts on the topic. Personally, it’s the creative nature of my job and the industry that keeps me excited each and every day. In the world of communications, there are no boundaries to how we craft messages, build narratives and develop compelling prompts to generate action.
Whether it’s the physical environment of your agency, your team’s approach to brainstorming or the unique way you pitch new business and market yourselves online, take a moment to think about the multitude of ways creativity can separate your agency from the pack.
Let’s face it. In the blogosphere, you’re either a spectator, critic or creator.
To put the spectator or critic categories into a visual format, consider the following. Would you rather be:
A) A Statistic …
OR
B) A Connector …
The answer is easy for anyone who has the intent of ever building relationships and engaging with others online.
Let’s be honest — we’re all strained for time. PR people are lucky to sneak in a glance at blogs or social news sites before having to jump back to client work (unless you’re Gatorade and have opted to centralize monitoring with a social media war room … yea, I’m jealous). While most people may be perfectly okay consuming content in a passive manner (option A above), we all know that it takes active participation to actually build dialogue and make connections online.
Too often, blogger outreach is still vastly overlooked on the PR front. Don’t get me wrong, everyone loves a headline story in the NYT or Washington Post. But, why only bank on delivery of the golden ticket when having a vast network of influential bloggers can drastically help boost your outreach? In addition, bloggers are often the starting point for building momentum around a story that will eventually help you leverage outreach to top-tier publications.
So Scott, let me get this right. You’re saying we just need to start commenting like crazy on industry blogs and we’ll be moving right along?
Wrong.
Connecting with bloggers is different from connecting with mainstream media. You don’t pitch bloggers. You build relationships, and as we all know, relationships take time (check out Brian Solis‘ and Arik Hanson’s tips on blogger relations).
Commenting is a solid start to building relationships, but it’s important to remember the following before throwing up any random response:
1. Comment early
If you’re not already, you should be using Google Reader, Feedly or some other aggregator to pull in blogs and news sites that you want to read daily. A quick glance at your reader each morning provides a great opportunity to be one of the first to comment. This shows the blogger that you’re attentive and also gives you more freedom to shape the follow-up discussion.
2. Keep your comment concise and relevant
Deviate too much from the topic of the post or try to be a sly marketer and you’re asking to have your comment blocked or deleted.
3. Add value
Very rarely does a short “Great post!” comment do anything but boost the comment stats for a blogger. Provide some additional insight, share a relevant link to a similar article or useful resource (again, be careful not to appear as though you’re marketing yourself — it’s good to link to content that doesn’t directly benefit you), suggest that the blogger connect with person X — the options are endless.
4. Provide your name and a legit link
There is nothing worse than seeing a comment from someone only to find that it’s a spammer attempting to get you to click over to a bogus site. Keep it personal by linking your comment to your Twitter handle, blog or LinkedIn profile. It’s also not a bad idea to sign off your comment with your Twitter handle for other commenters to connect with you. NOTE: If you’re a PR pro and represent a client, say so. Transparency trumps all.
5. Monitor
Don’t just leave a comment and not return to a post — especially if you are voicing a strong opinion that is likely to generate further conversation. Some blogs do provide the option to be notified when you leave a comment, but if not, be sure to check back one other time that day and the morning after to see if you should respond further.
6. Show respect
Would you walk into someone else’s house and greet them by spitting on their shoes? No … at least I hope not. Same rules apply. It’s absolutely okay to disagree with a blogger (and bloggers will often write posts with the intent of prompting feedback with differing opinions), but don’t come out of the box with a contentious line. Step back, breathe, think about what you want to say, and carefully craft your response in a respectful manner lest you plan on being shunned from the comment board forever.
Bonus — Connect Further!
Comments are great, but you can easily be buried in the mix, especially with popular bloggers or posts. If the blogger provides an e-mail address, try connecting further after you’ve commented on his or her blog a few times. Your name will likely ring a bell as most bloggers receive e-mail notifications when a new comment is posted. That being said, keep your initial outreach simple. Don’t dare use the e-mail as a way to paste in a press release or irrelevant pitch and call it a day simply because this blogger made it onto your target outreach list.
On that same token, do your research: Some bloggers refuse pitches all together. But, remember degrees of influence. A “don’t pitch me” blogger may help you connect with a better resource down the line.
If not by e-mail, try poking around on other social sites to connect further. A few retweets and replies or consistent post bookmarks on Delicious are likely to help draw a blogger’s eye and assist with name recognition down the line.
Finding Time to Comment
Kiesha Easely recently provided a breakdown on her daily blogging schedule. Few people in PR have time to maintain this intense of a schedule, but it’s a good example. At the least, you should be monitoring. It’s too easy to do and way too important. If you’re not, you’re missing out on huge opportunities.
Start by taking 15 minutes after your daily monitoring to comment on three different blogs. Analyze the types of comments on others post, and find ways to fit your voice into the conversation. Over time and if done right, people will respect you as a member of the community.
Now, go get your comment on.
Cheers,
Scott
A recent report from the Pew Internet Project and an announcement on Mashable reinforce an online trend over the past few years — video is hot. As stated on Mashable:
52% of the American population is watching videos online — that’s 69% of all Internet-connected American adults
In addition, a few other key findings stand out in the study (benchmarked from 2007):
- Increased popularity of online video consumption outside of the 18-29 year-old age range
- Comedy or humor videos have risen in viewership from 31% to 50% among adult Internet users (now trumping news video consumption)
- Increase in educational video viewership from 22% to 38% among adult Internet users
On the video creation front, men and women are also now posting videos at a similar rate (used to be more popular among men) and video sharing is most popular on social networks:
As PR/marketing pros continually look to integrate video into contests, digital storytelling efforts and general communications campaigns, the primary challenge is to move people from a “spectator” status to “creator” status. Active participation on the creator front can ramp up the amount of authentic content to engage target audiences — a key asset when budgets are tight or geographic restrictions are in place.
Here are a few steps that can be taken to move your spectator group into action:
- To start, if video does not already play a significant role within your overall communications plans for clients, it’s time to go back and rethink those plans.
- Common Craft has demonstrated great success in the ”how-to” space but given the upswing in educational video popularity, don’t shy away from generating a creative “how-to” video. In other words, make the technical process as simple as possible for your audience to get involved.
- Yes, YouTube and Vimeo are primary video hubs, but don’t forget about pulling people in through social networks and niche communities.
- Keep your ask simple. Visa’s FIFA “Goooal!” campaign is a great example. Clear ask, easy to participate and affords a world of creativity.
As a general takeaway, it’s important to note that as technology advances, video creation will undoubtedly increase. More video creation will result in a general rise in familiarity with video as as a communication medium and eventually drive quality content. All-in-one devices and faster upload times will help prompt this process as we continue to push past the first wave of mainstream adoption.
What role do you see video playing in the next 5-10 years?
Brandjacked.
Though brandjacking is certainly not a new concept, it’s one of those words that can quickly ignite panic in the world of social media.
Unfortunately, brands, people and products are brandjacked every day. With the lightning pace and ease by which online presence can be established and content shared, online reputation management has become more important than ever.
BP has quickly become the latest big brandjacking victim with the launch of @BPGlobalPR — a rogue Twitter account that is claiming to be BP’s PR department pumping out snarky tweets about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
Sample Tweet from @BPGlobalPR:
Negative people view the ocean as half empty of oil. We are dedicated to making it half full. Stay positive America! #IwantmyBPtshirt
about 12 hours ago via web
Tweets such as the one above are pulling in hundreds of followers by the minute. When I started drafting this post, the @BPGlobalPR account displayed 7,925 followers. 15 minutes have elapsed and the account currently has 9,000 followers. The account launched on May 19. Yikes.
One would hope that whoever manages BP’s official Twitter account (@BP_America) has some type of listening and monitoring process in place and is by now well aware of the @BPGlobalPR account. That being said, here are a few immediate steps that BP should consider taking … pronto.
1. Contact Twitter. Though still in beta testing, the announcement of Twitter’s Business Center is proof that Biz and the boys recognize the important role that their platform plays for businesses, and vice versa. This isn’t the first case of brandjacking and certainly won’t be the last. Given the national spotlight on the oil spill, chances are good that they’ll be sympathetic toward helping BP get their ducks in a row and shut down the @BPGlobalPR account.
In the meantime…
2. Acknowledge. Obviously, BP has a bit on its plate at the moment. That being said, someone at BP is updating the official Twitter account. At the least, acknowledge the account to your followers so that they know it is fake. It’s also important to not backlash against the @BPGlobalPR account but rather open up some dialogue and let them know that you’re aware of its existence.
3. Monitor & Respond. It appears that the originator of the @BPGlobalPR account is on a quick mission to sell some BP Cares shirts. They’re managing to build a quick following with witty, clever tweets. Tweeters and bloggers will eat this content up, and a flurry of offshoot posts and other content is sure to emerge. The best BP can do at this point is stay tuned to the conversation, monitor the follower base and respond and comment when possible.
Though it’s a rough position for BP, it’s an opportunity to offer up some quick key reminders to prevent your own brandjacking incident.
Secure Usernames — If you’re heading up social media at your company or in any way in charge of communications, I highly recommend hopping over to http://www.usernamecheck.com/. The site provides a great overall analysis of common and not-so-common social media sites. Simply type in a username at the top, and let the analysis begin to see where a particular username is already being used. Whether you plan to actively use the username or foresee potential use, lock it down on the most popular social media sites.
Think Proactively, Plan Broadly— The endless possibilities of URL and username combinations make it tough to ever create a full protective brand shield. Whether planning for a campaign or updating your crisis-comm plan, think proactively about potential secenarios and the keyword/username slate that could impact your efforts.
Have your own advice for BP or general brandjacking prevention tips to share? Feel free to post below!
You’ve spent endless hours researching your target audience.
Your campaign objectives are in place and you’ve pieced together a fine-tuned strategy and supporting tactics to make your public relations campaign a glowing success.
It’s time to kick things into action, except you realize you’ve forgotten one last ingredient to top off your campaign. What might that be?? A little sprinkle of social media, of course.
How about some Facebook here? A dash of Twitter there? Sure, why not, clients will love that. Heck, let’s even throw in one of those blog things people seem to like. If this approach sounds familiar, it’s time to tear up that old 3×5 recipe card, head back to the kitchen and start putting some more digital oomph behind the foundation for your next PR feast.
Now more than ever, it’s crucial for communications professionals to ensure that overarching digital strategies are integrated into initial project and campaign planning. A social media strategy should not be perceived as a mere “add-on” and only applicable to specific online communications projects.
The way in which we all interact and discover information online is constantly fluctuating but one constant remains – the space between our own social networks continues to decrease. As such, it’s important that you keep online communications at the forefront of your mind as you’re planning your overall strategy.
If you’re struggling to identify items to consider in your planning, here are a few back-to-basics reminders to get you started in making “social” a main ingredient:
1. Audience - Figure out where they are hanging out. If you’re not already actively listening to online conversations, you should be. A solid listening strategy will assist you in determining where and how to connect with your key audience? Are Twitter and Facebook the only important hubs? What about community discussion boards or within Ning communities? Don’t forget the niche online spaces, they’re often the most influential.
2. Objectives – Why do these conversations matter? Can you clearly identify the value of engaging with this audience in helping achieve your campaign objectives? Map it out as it ties in with your offline strategy.
3. Content – Which online channels will be most effective in helping you communicate your message, share content and engage with your target audience in ways you haven’t previously tried? Go ahead, take a risk and expand that palate.
The next time you randomly reach for that social media shaker to satisfy your client’s digital taste buds, step back and reassess the basis of your online efforts and how to integrate communications efforts as a whole.
Note: Kudos to digital chef and Studio D social media strategy guru Tac Anderson for coining the term “sprinkle a little social.” Be sure to check out Tac’s full digital cookbook at NewCommBiz.com.
Image by Muy Yum
While doing some reading recently, I came across a PR industry white paper that addressed some basic concepts important to how we demonstrate PR effectiveness to clients. I was curious to see what the Institute for Public Relations had to say on the matter until I noticed the publication date: 1999.
In my head I started to mock, as quaint, what I imagined might be contained in the paper: advocacy of the dominance of print, the importance of encyclopedias, patronizing mentions of The World Wide Web (chatrooms!), etc. Of course, the internet and email were more than just curiosities 11 years ago, but the degree to which they have become ingrained and vital to our personal and professional lives today was hardly imaginable then.
The real point is that once I began to read through the paper, I almost immediately had a “duh” moment, deflating my smug, snarky attitude, when I recognized that the core principles then are essentially the same as today, regardless of the technologies or methods by which we execute them. The cutting-edge tools we have at our disposal should be (and generally are at WE) operated on a solid foundation of concepts such as “what business problem(s) we are trying to solve” and “how can we show effectiveness and a positive return to our clients?” — just as it was 11 years ago.
As communications professionals, our success is dependent on how we can help our clients succeed — and while existing in a world of constantly evolving communications technologies and channels, we need to stay abreast of change, and ahead of it when possible, and understand what and how we can apply to the PR work we offer our clients. The key is to keep those core principles truly at our core, to always know WHY we’re doing what we’re doing and to build out strategies, methods and use of technologies around that strong center.
Photo by kretyen
Pepsi to Skip Super Bowl Ads in Favor of $20M Social Media Campaign
For the first time in 23 years, Pepsi will not have any ads in the Super Bowl. Instead, the company will be spending $20 million on a social media campaign it’s calling The Pepsi Refresh Project.Such a large move is noteworthy for any company, however Pepsi’s symbiotic relationship with the Super Bowl makes this shift to new media that much more seismic.
The Pepsi Refresh Project
Rather than spending money on a Super Bowl ad, Pepsi will launch the Pepsi Refresh Project on January 13, 2010. At that time, users can submit their ideas to Pepsi for ways to refresh their communities, making the world a better place
This reemphasizes some of the huge shifts we’ve seen in 2009 and highlights even bigger changes coming in 2010. The media landscape over the past several years has shifted and there is a whole new class of non-traditional and digital influentials who have blurred that line between media, enthusiast, consumer and customer.
Disciplines are in an old land grab right now for ownership of social media. That fight just got turned up to 11. Ad agencies and traditional media will be doing their best to make advertising look and act more like social media. As such, the necessary outreach and content PR provides the “new influentials” has shifted. Some PR agencies have done a good job evolving media relations to include branded and unbranded bloggers and to create rich media building block to help them tell their stories in richer and more engaged ways.
Each Marketing discipline has value to add and it’s important that PR pros don’t let themselves get pushed out. Here are a few things to keep top of mind as we continue to redefine what PR means in the social age:
- Stake your claim: PR’s heritage of storytelling, experience in influence and our understanding of nuance is more appropriate for social influentials than the advertising and digital agencies who are usually driven by reach and CPM.
- Be the connector: PR can be that connective tissue that holds the messaging together between all the marketing disciplines and helps campaigns and initiatives work more effectively and efficiently.
- Plan for social and media influentials simultaneously: If we de-prioritize or bolt on social comms it sends the message that it’s not a core competency of ours and we don’t view it as critical.
- Get there early: PR’s perspective is crucial to creating solid creative and strategic plans. But when we get integrated into the all-up campaign strategy late we miss the opportunity to pitch these ideas because the duties have already been assigned.
- Start thinking like an integrated communications marketer: Media relations + direct to customer + content strategy + social engagement. Don’t let marketing deposition or define PR as just media relations.
- Think about the end-to-end journey: We will increasingly be asked to defend our ROI. What are we measuring and what are the stepping stones that get our audience from awareness through consideration to action?
- Own the process: Who is better positioned to own the relationship with the Public than PR? No one. But if we don’t step up and own the process then PR will be relegated to an afterthought.
This was a collaboratively written post by Tac Anderson and Nathan Misner
Jon Silk, EMEA Senior Digital Consultant, WE Studio D
The recent webinar by James Lundy, managing VP of the high-tech and telecoms team at Gartner, had some interesting insights into how analysts are viewing the future of influence.
I made some notes on the advice that stood out to me as key things to consider in 2010:
1. The fight for the social profile is starting.
Social software, externally facing customer communities and public social networks all collide at the ‘social profile’ — the bit the user owns and stores his personal data. That is where the new influence battleground is going to be.
2. Everyone in a company should be media trained.
Social networking and interaction has made everyone in your company a spokesperson. Some people they engage with might be journalists. As a result, everyone in the company should have a basic knowledge of media relations and the messages.
3. Overreaction is a danger.
With so much being said about a brand, and so many ways to monitor every conversation, it’s tough to know when not to get involved. The web fosters overreaction, so companies need to pick battles carefully or they’ll get drawn into conversations that’ll do more harm than good.
4. A next big thing is ‘fourth generation collaboration.’
Aggregation and sharing of content and opinion across networks, firewalls and devices is what Gartner calls ‘fourth generation collaboration.’ Lundy used someone Yammering from within a company, then sharing that content across Twitter as an example.
5. The Fiesta Movement 2011 was a great example of social media marketing.
Lundy cited the Ford campaign (where members of the public were offered not-yet-released cars to borrow and encouraged to document their application via video) as a great example of a big brand reaching out via social channels.
