In PR, Transparency Should Always be a Policy

On our blog, we clearly state that we represent clients who pay us to help with their marketing communication campaigns. This means we speak highly of them. Luckily for us, it’s easy to do because the companies we work with are companies we can believe in and support.

However, and this surprises me, not everyone in the profession adheres to similar standards. Well, it doesn’t surprise me that their are unethical people out there who are trying to manipulate the system for their own or their clients benefit, but it surprises me that they feel it is an acceptable tactic.

So why is this news? Cisco recently ran into legal problems because they did not have a disclosure policy in effect. How could they and many other companies avoid a potential lawsuit or loss in the trial of public opinion, be transparent. (more…)

Measuring Media Mavens: More Metrics for your Movies

YouTube, a Google property, today announced it launched a statistics/analytics service in conjunction with the online video service.

Makes sense, the name of the game is measurement, so why not set up a way to measure site/video traffic for videos. So my question is this: Why did it take so long to turn this function on?

Don’t tell me this couldn’t have been done some time ago given Google’s advances in technology.

Perserverance, Laser-sharp Focus and a Good Idea = A Winning Combination for Jason Alba, Creator of JibberJobber.com

I love a good story, and to me a good story can become great when it

*  Involves a real person,

*  Who overcomes adversity and/or long odds, and

*  Achieves success.

Jason Alba fits into the great story category.

Without going into all the details, Jason’s a tech guy with an MBA under his belt who found himself out of work in January 2006. After several months of unsuccessfully looking for ajob to meet his skill-sets and needs, he decided to branch out onto his own by launching JibberJobber.com — a Web-based solution to help others out of work manage their job-seeking efforts.

Picking up on repeated questions he heard about the benefits (if any) of LinkedIn, the social networking site, Jason wrote a book entitled simply enough, I’m on LinkedIn. Now What? Recently he published a second book: I’m On Facebook. Now What?

By themselves, these are positive steps in what sounds like a decent personal turnaround story. But Jason’s taken his entrepreneurial efforts beyond the basic “woe is me” story to the “I’m doing pretty okay now” with his fairly tireless self-promotional efforts.

His most recent hit? A very nice 3-25-08 write-up in U.S. News & World Report entitled: “Boosting Your Sales with Social Networking.”

As proven by the USNWR story (as well as by inclusion in stories from The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and others), Jason has now transformed himself into a sought-after expert — in essence, a brand unto himself.

Congrats, Jason. That’s good news for you, and for those seeking your advice/assistance as well.

Blogs Proving Their Mettle in Marketing and on Wall Street

As regular readers of the Betty Factor know, we’ve been involved in a grand experiment since mid-November 2007: an effort to see if “eating our own dog food” worked for us.

Specifically, if we truly believe that simple, direct, to-the-point and uncomplicated marketing communications efforts for our clients will be successful, then shouldn’t we undertake similar efforts for the various POLITIS LLC companies? Ya’d think so, right?

So . . . we officially launched TheBettyFactor.com on 11-11-07 with no fanfare whatsoever. And as reported here on February 18th, I think we’ve made pretty good progress (so far) with this blogging/marketing effort with the Betty Factor. (We have a ways to go yet, but so far, so good.)

Now comes an interesting video report from Yahoo!’s Tech-Ticker about “Media’s MVBs: Most Valuable Blogs.” Driven by a recent article from 24/7 Wall Street that ranked the 25 most valuable blogs or blog media networks, I think Henry Blodgett (the face behind No. 12-ranked Silicon Alley Insider) provides some good insights into the initial transformation of some blogs/blog-networks into professional media companies, companies with real valuations.

Here’s the Blodgett interview:

TIP: 

What does all of this mean for the average marketer considering blogging as a marketing communications tool? In two words: Do it!

I know that it will take lots of time and it will involve real effort, but in the end, blogging is only going to become more and more critical as a vehicle for companies, brands and people to create and sustain a two-way dialogue with current and prospective customers, partners, investors and more.Besides, if you don’t blog, you risk becoming irrelevant, particularly in our hyper-connected, always-on, on-the-go Web 2.0 world.

So what are you waiting for? Get blogging!!!!!

Misrepresenting the Truth - Never do it!

There is a saying that goes: “It’s better to tell the truth poorly than to lie well.”

Recent events have shed light on what this saying truly means; two highly publicized and one not so publicized events show that it does no good to lie about or embellish the truth.

In the first example, Kwame Kilpatrick, the 37-year old mayor of Detroit, has “been booked on charges of lying about steamy text messages with his former chief of staff.” He is accused of “multiple counts of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct” in a scandal that will, in all likelihood, land him behind bars and end his political career. Telling the truth may not have saved his political career, but it certainly would have saved him from being sent to the clink.

In the second example, in an effort to establish her “battle-tested” leadership, Sen. Hillary Clinton said last week during a campaign rally speech that during a visit to war-torn Bosnia in 1996, she had to land “under sniper fire”, “without a welcome ceremony” because she and her party had to run “with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base.” But a CBS correspondent who was with the former First Lady on that trip produced video evidence that what Senator Clinton had said was simply not true. Now, her media relations team is doing some manipulating of the facts themselves, which will probably continue for the next couple of days until the press gets tired of writing about it. But instead of boosting the “battle-tested” leadership image she is so desperately trying to portray, it shoots holes in her claim to any previous leadership experience at all. What stories are embellished, which are fabricated, and which ones are completely imaginary?

The third example comes from a recent job application we received. We had previously worked with the applicant and knew about some of the information on this person’s resume because of our working together. However, the “facts” claimed on the resume for work performed while with us did not mesh with what we knew the applicant did, nor did the facts match what was reported on a client’s Web site. The applicant knowingly embellished information on the resume, probably thinking we would not catch it, or that if we did, we may not recall the exact details. However, when the embellishment was caught, the application process ended. We probably would have progressed further with the application process, but the trust was now exhausted.

We could go on for days; there are many more examples of individuals who flat-out lie, possibly under the impression that they’ll never get caught. But eventually, the truth always comes out. Elliot Spitzer found out the hard way; so too, has Kwame Kilpatrick. The simple fact is, they didn’t have to find out the hard way. They just needed to tell the truth.

It may be hard to do in the moment, but giving the facts is much better in the long run than falsifying information.

ZDNet’s Krigsman is Correct: I.T. DOES Lose Credibility by Speaking in Technical Jargon

Michael Krigsman, driving force behind ZDNet’s IT Project Failures blog, nailed it yesterday when he wrote, “Is IT becoming extinct?”

In one of seven points he makes as to why he believes that the average Information Technology department is headed for death’s door, he writes,

“IT loses credibility by speaking in technical jargon . . .”

Michael Krigsman, “Is IT becoming extinct?” ZDNet, 3-23-08

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Green Marketing, No Really!

I’m a fan of doing right by the environment. In fact, I even believe in green editing. But seriously, taking care of the world and the resources we’ve been given is something that we’re starting to understand.

Now, there’s this new “fad,” we call it ‘green marketing.’ I call it a fad, not because I think it’s going anywhere anytime soon, but because I think that companies are jumping on the bandwagon like this is some new idea.

Honestly, how many companies do you think had some sort of recycling program in place in the last decade? How ’bout a watercooler before all the water bottles? Granted, people are certainly finding more creative ways to go green, but the point is it’s not a new idea, we’re just finding a way to capitalize on it.

I came across a truly green piece of marketing collateral, the folks at Honda actually sent out a mailer that can be planted. That’s right, it is a flower in an envelope. I have to take my hat off that this is quite possibly the most creative ‘green advertising’ I’ve come across.

Add the targeted component that this letter was sent to customers of Honda’s lawn and garden products and I believe you have a real winner here. Honda is putting their money where their mouth is and I don’t believe being ‘green’ is a fad to them.

What do you think? Is Honda doing it’s part or appeasing the activists?

China & the IOC Utilize Spin in an Attempt to Minimize Athletes’ Health Concerns for 2008 Games

The International Olympic Committee and the Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (BOCOG) are doing all they can to minimize the fact that world-class athletes are beginning to pull out of the 2008 Summer Games for health concerns.

The story began nearly two weeks ago when Haile Gebreselassie, the current marathon world-record holder, announced that he would not compete in Beijing this August due to his concerns that air pollution in Beijing would permanently harm his lungs. (Gebreselassie suffers from asthma.)

Previously, gold medal tennis winner and four-time French Open winner, Justine Henin, had proclaimed that she would not defend her gold medal in China since the pollution would aggravate her asthma as well.

The decisions of these athletes notwithstanding (and the threat of other world-class athletes withdrawing from the Games due to health concerns), the IOC distributed on Monday, March 17 with the headline “IOC ANALYSES BEIJING AIR QUALITY DATA.”

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Blogging Can Work for Any Company, Not Just Small Firms

In Monday’s edition of The Wall Street Journal (3-17-08), Shelly Banjo wrote a powerful piece on the benefits of blogging for small businesses entitled “Attention, Bloggers.”

It’s a good read, one that I recommend to anyone connected (even remotely) to any aspect of marketing. I particularly liked this paragraph from her story:

“Businesses of all types and sizes are focusing on the power of bloggers as opinion shapers. But harnessing that power is particularly important for small-business owners who don’t have the money to create name recognition with big marketing campaigns. By connecting with the right blogs, small businesses can generate buzz around their products and services and increase sales dramatically.”

“Attention, Bloggers,” Shelly Banjo, WSJ, March 17, 2008

My one point of contention with Banjo’s article, if any, is that readers might leave her piece and incorrectly believe that blogs are only designed for small businesses.

This is NOT the case, and for the record, I don’t believe this is what she was communicating in the first place.

Rather, I believe it’s becoming quite clear that the ongoing explosive growth of the Internet and the tools/services tied to the World Wide Web have empowered consumers, corporations and organizations in ways never before imagined. One of the most crucial ways that this rising tide of advancing technology has changed our lives forever is the ability it gives individuals to connect directly with corporations and organizations in one-to-one digital dialogues.If such dialogues are conducted in the transparent light of the blogosphere, they can (and in fact, often do) invite expansion into Web-based conversations that can experience exponential viral growth, either the benefit or detriment of the original participants.

Better Media Coverage Requires an Ongoing PR Effort

In a relatively short item posted a few days ago on the Wall Street Journal’s Independent Street blog, Kelly Spors outlines five insights from a small business entrepreneur on “How to Get Killer PR” (see http://blogs.wsj.com/independentstreet/2008/03/13/how-to-get-killer-pr/.)

Specifically, Spors relates how she had “encountered” Sarah Endline several times during a period of a few months, which led Spors to wonder if such encounters were merely the result of a shrinking world or perhaps the workings of “killer PR?”

Although curiosity may have killed the cat, it led Spors to track down Endline, the founder and CEO of Sweetriot (a five-person, NYC-based company) for the story behind Endline’s PR success.

Of the five PR tips that Spors gleans from Endline, I particularly appreciated Tip No. 5:

Devote time. If you think PR will help your company, make time for it. It can’t be just something you try to squeeze into your free time between sales meetings. It takes time, persistence and strategy. 

To me, this is a great insight for any executive, business owner, entrepreneur or marketing type to take to heart.

Politis Pointer: 

I have found that it is VERY RARE INDEED when an organization or individual can come up with that one killer PR, marketing, advertising, promotional, direct response or interactive execution that launches a service, product, person, company or idea into eternal orbit.

Successful marketing communications campaigns are (in my opinion) successful because

• They are campaigns, and
• The people pulling the marcom levers recognize that consistent marketing communications success requires consistent effort.

= = = = = = = = = =

One more thing. Having a topnotch PR agency on Sweetriot’s side doesn’t hurt either, as it’s apparently currently using (or has worked with) NYC-based fashion/celebrity PR  shop Think Public Relations.