The Flack: April 2012

Friday, April 27, 2012

Fornatale Remembered

Pete Fornatale

Before there was Pandora, Spotify, Last FM or even my latest fave digital music service Songza, I had the good fortune to meet and potentially collaborate with legendary New York City disc jockey Pete Fornatale who sadly and suddenly passed away this week. It was late 2004 or early 2005, and I was fed up with the fact that the music from the seminal artists of my youth was conspicuously absent from New York's terrestrial (and satellite) airwaves.

Granted one could still stumble upon the overplayed anthems of Zeppelin, The Who or The Allman Bros. But gone completely were the timeless (deeper) cuts from music icons like Bob Dylan, the Grateful Dead, James Taylor, The Moody Blues, Jethro Tull, Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, Buffalo Springfield, Neil Young, Laura Nyro, The Who, Seals & Crofts, Fleetwood Mac, Talking Heads, Joni Mitchell, Todd Rundgren, Earth Wind & Fire, Simon & Garfunkel, Cream, Hall & Oates, The Doobies, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Elton John, Billy Joel, The Doors, Loggins & Messina, Steve Miller Band, Michael Franks, Traffic, Frank Zappa, David Bowie, The Allman Bros, Chicago, Blind Faith, The Eagles, Yes, King Crimson, The Kinks, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Poco, Jesse Colin Young, Jackson Browne, Van Morrison, The Beach Boys, The Band, Crosby Stills & Nash or Genesis.

In a nutshell, we were missing WNEW-FM’s album-oriented-rock format that plumbed the depths of the seminal LPs of the day. Who back then listened to just a single track from these discs? We popped “Houses of the Holy” or “Ziggy Stardust” or The Allmans’ “Live at Fillmore East” LPs onto the turntable and let em spin.

As a former DJ on my college's FM station and head of the school's concert committee, I decided that this sad state state of music affairs could not stand. 78 million boomers were being denied. What’s more: those marketing to our increasingly media-splintered demographic were desperate to find ways to efficiently engage us, and in so doing capture our discretionary spending, which was estimated at $2 trillion. Purveyors of wares that included vanity and cholesterol-lowering drugs to luxury automobiles, financial services and vacation resorts would sustain the model I envisioned.

On a whim one evening, I dashed off an email to John Hogan, then U.S. head of Clear Channel, outlining a programming format that would resurrect these lost tracks and be channel agnostic. At the time, broadband penetration was low, so it was terrestrial radio, web-streaming, podcasts and satellite. To my surprise, he wrote me back right away:

"Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. As you might imagine we are always looking for ways to provide better content in our markets, especially New York City. I am forwarding your message to Andy Rosen and Tome [sic] Poleman, our NYC Market Manager and VP of Programming resectively [sic], so they can read your thoughts. They are the ones we charge with the responsibility for determining content in NYC and as such are better suited to respond to your comments. Thanks again for the message and keep listening to Clear Channel New York!"

First of all, I didn't listen to Clear Channel's homogenized music stations. Secondly, Mr. Hogan's underlings never followed up. They obviously didn't the light. I wrote John Sykes, a friend of a friend who at the time headed Infinity Radio. John also graciously wrote me back:

"Very well written. This is a dream station for me too, but it is very hard to reach a lot of people playing less familiar album track from 30 years ago. You'll get the cool crowd, but these stations in NYC need to reach millions of people. This would be a great XM or Sirius channel... and I'd listen too! Now, why does TV suck so much too..."

Undaunted, I decided to take the concept a step further and hooked up with Peter Kauff, one of the pioneers behind the pathbreaking weekly syndicated radio show King Biscuit Flower Hour. Peter got it right away. We soon both acknowledged the need to retain a name-recognizable disc jockey who knew this music genre like no one else. We bounced around some names, but kept coming back to Pete Fornatale.

I dashed a note off to Pete, one of WNEW-FM’s legendary rock DJs, who now spinned his “Mixed Bag” of music tracks at Fordham’s WFUV-FM. Pete instantly responded and agreed to meet. He was looking for a bigger stage to share this rich, but lost treasure trove of music that ushered in an era and defined a generation.

As it turns out, Fornatale lived in the next town, so I invited him to my home. He brought his wife from whom I understand he soon separated. Peer-to-peer music sharing was just ramping up. (Of course, I had to show him my digital collection.) As we sat there reminiscing in my home-office, he was clearly fascinated, if not shocked, by the abundance of freely available music online. I think Napster was on the wane, but Kazaa and Limewire were in full throttle.

Pete said he'd been forever searching for two tracks and asked if could help find them. They were: The Blues Magoos' "Never Goin' Back to Georgia"[audio] and Horst Jankowski's "Walk in the Black Forest" [audio]. Within seconds there they were, playing out on my iMac’s speakers. He was astounded. We listened to those and a few of the other lost tracks I captured from back in the day. We soon shook hands and said our goodbyes, but not without him re-asserting his strong interest in playing a lead role in our music project.

Unknown in CA?

Buoyed by all of this, I decided to take the concept a step further and created a PPT presentation (yes I know) complete with graphics outlining the spending power of the target demographic and including embedded music tracks. Peter Kauff and I visited my friend and another neighbor John McConnell who headed programming at ABC Radio. John invited a colleague who, after after hearing us out and one of the tracks (“Blossom” by James Taylor), claimed that no one in California even knew who James Taylor was. Huh? (What an idiot!) John later added his thoughts:

"couple of thoughts. the concept of "deep cuts" has been tried a couple of times without much luck. wnew did it in the mid 90's...and did not do well. there is also a required level of familiarity necessary, in my opinion, to retain a high enough level of listening to attract advertising. if our business is predicated on a few people making notes in a diary then the goal is to find the largest niche possible in an ever shrinking environment. so...i don't think it has enough legs in terrestrial radio, but perhaps in satellite radio. just one guy's thought. didn't know you were a rock jock."

The three-Petes stayed in touch for a while longer, but it was clear that these lost tracks would stay lost...for the immediate future. As for Pete Fornatale, his passion for the music and personal warmth will stay with me forever. He will surely be missed.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

ExxonMobil's Deflection Campaign

If you haven't noticed, the world's biggest oil company has kicked off what appears to be a rather ambitious (and pricey) advertising campaign extolling the virtues of...school teachers.

I say pricey given that one of the TV spots aired during The Masters and another on "60 Minutes," the priciest network news spot available. One can extrapolate from these buys the overall campaign cost.

The new touchy-feely initiative, a tie-in with the Dallas-based National Math & Science Initiative (on whose board ExxonMobil's public affairs chief sits), hits the airwaves during a perfect storm for ExxonMobil. Prices at the gas pump are at record highs, while the company's continues to enjoy robust profits. Is it a coincidence that this new heartwarming campaign is ratcheting up as a lead-in to the company's quarterly earnings announcement tomorrow?

Most large, publicly-traded companies have corporate social responsibility programs, i.e., CSR as its known to those of us in the biz. The reasons for investing in these programs are manifold, but suffice to say, many companies earnestly want to give back and hopefully by doing so, instill good will with their core constituencies. Doing good increasingly translates to doing well and new positions have sprung up focused solely on this area.

I've had the good fortune to work many large, public companies on their CSR efforts over the years -- from Reebok's Human Rights Award and inner-city court-paving initiatives to Home Depot's environmental efforts. I've also been impressed with the hefty investment companies like GE have made in eco education and environmental stewardship, though many still believe they're a smokescreen for GE's history of environmental shortcomings. I don't.

I do however take particular issue with companies that spend millions to glom onto some noble cause for the sole reason of obtaining that reputational glow, i.e., to gloss over their less-than-noble business practices. Philip Morris Companies, for example, for years served as one of the biggest benefactors of the arts. Its philanthropic strategy purposely avoided anything to do with healthcare.

Today, we see the notorious Koch brothers neutering criticism for their stealth, self-serving and anti-public advocacy and support of the Tea Party by making sizable (i.e., building-naming) donations to the premier cultural institutions in the media capital of the world.

But back to ExxonMobil. The company has produced reams of public-facing marketing and PR material to advance themselves as good corporate citizens. God forbid if the GOP, many of whose members benefit from the company's largess, should point the finger away from our President and toward the company that can effect lower prices at the pump.

Here's an excerpt from SourceWatch, which describes monies spent by Exxon to deflect public outrage:

After enjoying the largest profits of any company ever in recent years, Exxon Mobil has the resources -- and the need -- for expanded PR. The new campaign will "educate consumers and media about the inner workings of the oil industry, and the costs of producing, shipping, and refining crude," reports PR Week. It will include "PR, advertising, and media tours," as well as opinion pieces and meetings with editorial boards, including with regional and local media. Exxon will also give its "Energy Outlook" talk "at college campuses, high schools, and to academics."

According to PR Week, "while Exxon works with a number of PR firms, including Weber Shandwick," the new campaign is "entirely in-house." After earning a record-breaking $36.1 billion last year, Exxon wants to avoid backlash from consumers angry about high gas prices and weaken support for the Windfall Profits Tax proposals before Congress. While no doubt there are many factors involved in the escalating price of gas, Exxon's public relations ploy of deflecting any attention away from Big Oil's role seems to be working.

A recent Gallup Poll suggests that, "Ironically, the intensity with which Americans see oil companies as "gas price villains" may be fading a little, according to opinions respondents volunteered in a new Gallup Poll, conducted May 19-21. Over the past year, the percentage of Americans blaming the oil companies for skyrocketing gas prices fell from 34% to 20%...

At the same time that ExxonMobil accelerates its spending on feel-good advertising and public-speaking events to trumpet its good corporate citizenship, behind the scenes it lobbies vigorously to support or derail any legislation that will have a deleterious affect on its bottom line. OpenSecrets reports it spent $12.7 million in 2011. Even worse, it continues to opaquely fund efforts to debunk global climate change science. Here's another excerpt from Sourcewatch:

"But Exxon continued to fund a further 28 groups which campaigned against climate science. And the Center for Science in the public Interest stated in June 2008, "Each group continued to receive Exxon funding in 2007 after the company’s first announcement that it would discontinue the payments. Exxon did not immediately return calls seeking comment on how serious it was in following through on its plans."

In 2011, the Global Warming Policy Foundation's website ran the headline "900+ Peer-Reviewed Papers Supporting Skepticism Of 'Man-Made' Global Warming (AGW) Alarm," listing more than 900 papers which, according to the GWPF, refute "concern relating to a negative environmental or socio-economic effect of AGW, usually exaggerated as catastrophic."

However, a preliminary data analysis by the Carbon Brief revealed that nine of the ten most prolific authors cited have links to organisations funded by ExxonMobil, and the tenth has co-authored several papers with Exxon-funded contributors. The top ten contributors alone were responsible for 186 of the papers (over 20%) cited by the Global Warming Policy Foundation."

Finally, as ExxonMobil PRomotes the value of school teachers - for whatever reason -- it might instead consider another tack that would actually do more good for education in America...while saving it considerable corporate expense: Pull the millions it spends to prop up the politicians who propose to slash education programs in this country.

A cursory look at The Sunlight Foundation's Influence Explorer site, reveals which political party receives the vast majority of the company's lobbying dollars.

Now this would give real meaning to the phrase "doing good and doing well."

UPDATE (4/27): Quarterly earnings were $9.6 billion (down 11%) while revenue rose 8.8% to $124 billion. Also, Steve Coll's new book on ExxonMobil "Private Empire" reviewed in The New York Times.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The Fake News Release

As the debate over the form and function of the modern news release presses on, today we learn of one news release that actually succeeded in getting fairly prominent pick up -- by the Dow Jones Newswire, no less.

One problem: the release was a hoax perpetrated by a group of as yet unknown mischief-makers attempting to further soil the already sullied reputation of one of America's largest banks on the day before its quarterly earnings announcement.

In its report of the editorial screw-up, WSJ's "Deal Journal" blog wrote:

"This morning a quite realistic-looking press release said the bank has launched a new campaign — “Your Bank of America.” Dressed in BofA’s famed “flagstaff” logos and color–it’s even the right fonts–the “release” says the bank is on a quest to find out how banking should happen and wants America’s help. On a related website, yourbofa.com, a letter purporting to be from CEO Brian Moynihan kicks off with “Today, it’s time to acknowledge that our Bank isn’t working anymore.” Bank of America says the release is a fake."

Apparently the perpetrators of the hoax claimed that the release was issued under the imprimatur of BusinessWire, a Berkshire Hathaway Company, and one of the better-known and highly credible paid wire services. It wasn't, but just the suggestion that a paid wire service might be ensnared in another scandal sends shutters up and down the spines of those toiling in this still-profitable industry.

The last time it happened, BW changed its policy for accepting releases, which was trumpeted in a news release via BusinessWire:

"NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)– In the wake of a fraudulent press release that is now the subject of a Federal criminal investigation, Business Wire will no longer accept client releases submitted via e-mail, effective immediately, Cathy Baron Tamraz, chief executive officer, announced today. The elimination of e-mail was scheduled to be part of a planned security upgrade this August, but this weekend’s incident advanced the timetable for the policy change."

As for the target of this hoax, its communications team had its hands full navigating the less than ebullient news stemming from its earnings announcement, resulting in the bank's fall from the number one slot as the nation's biggest. From The New York Times DealBook:

"Still, its revenue decline stands in contrast to the results at other banks like JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo, which reported increases in revenue and profit. It also underscores a retrenchment that forced Bank of America out of the top spot as the biggest bank in the United States."

For what it's worth, Bank of America's actual earnings release was distributed by Business Wire.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Reading Room

Most industry upheavals arrive with countless experts creating voluminous amounts of prose (and infographics) that seek to provide greater clarity. They come in the form of blog posts, newspaper and magazine articles, white papers, video sizzler reels, animated tutorials, Tweets, industry panels, and of course, longer-form books.

This last category is the subject of today's post, which coincides with the Justice Department's battle with Apple and others to sort out the upheaval in the Amazon-dominated publishing industry's business model.

Below are some new and noteworthy tomes that attempt to make sense of the revolution that has rocked the PR, media and marketing worlds. My #2 son tells me that one can't derive enough cerebral sustenance by simply reading blog posts and short form news articles. Even a cool iPad app like Long Form, while better, doesn't offer the context needed to fully appreciate the subtleties that envelope the big issues of the day.

Here is a random sampling of some new and noteworthy books that may appeal to those plying the communications trades:

Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action by Rohit Bhargava

"People decide who to trust, what advice to heed, and which individuals to forge personal or transactional relationships with based on a simple metric of believability. Success, in turn, comes from understanding one basic principle: how to be more trusted. Likeonomics offers a new vision of a world beyond Facebook where personal relationships, likeability, brutal honesty, extreme simplicity, and basic humanity are behind everything from multi-million dollar mergers to record-breaking product sales. There is a real ROI to likeability, and exactly how big it is will amaze you."

Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live, by Jeff Jarvis.

"In this shibboleth-destroying book, Public Parts argues persuasively and personally that the internet and our new sense of publicness are, in fact, doing the opposite. Jarvis travels back in time to show the amazing parallels of fear and resistance that met the advent of other innovations such as the camera and the printing press. The internet, he argues, will change business, society, and life as profoundly as Gutenberg’s invention, shifting power from old institutions to us all. Based on extensive interviews, Public Parts introduces us to the men and women building a new industry based on sharing. Some of them have become household names—Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Eric Schmidt, and Twitter’s Evan Williams."

The Filter Bubble; What the Internet is Hiding From You, by Eli Pariser.

"In December 2009, Google began customizing its search results for each user. Instead of giving you the most broadly popular result, Google now tries to predict what you are most likely to click on. According to MoveOn.org board president Eli Pariser, Google's change in policy is symptomatic of the most significant shift to take place on the Web in recent years-the rise of personalization. In this groundbreaking investigation of the new hidden Web, Pariser uncovers how this growing trend threatens to control how we consume and share information as a society-and reveals what we can do about it."

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg

In The Power of Habit, award-winning New York Times business reporter Charles Duhigg takes us to the thrilling edge of scientific discoveries that explain why habits exist and how they can be changed. With penetrating intelligence and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into engrossing narratives, Duhigg brings to life a whole new understanding of human nature and its potential for transformation. Along the way we learn why some people and companies struggle to change, despite years of trying, while others seem to remake themselves overnight. As Charles Duhigg shows, by harnessing this new science, we can transform our businesses, our communities, and our lives.

Social Business By Design: Transformative Social Media Strategies for the Connected Company, by Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim

"Social Business By Design is the definitive management book on how to rethink the modern organization in the social media era. Based on their research and work through the Dachis Group, thought leaders Dion Hinchcliffe and Peter Kim deftly explore how the social, cultural, and technological trends provoked by the social media explosion are transforming the business environment. Designed as both a strategic overview and a hands-on resource, Social Business By Design clearly shows how to choose and implement a social business strategy and maximize its impact."

The End of Business as Usual: Rewire the Way You Work to Succeed in the Consumer Revolution, by Brian Solis "

"Today's biggest trends—the mobile web, social media, real-time—have produced a new consumer landscape. The End of Business As Usual explores this complex information revolution, how it has changed the future of business, media, and culture, and what you can do about it."

Rethinking Reputation: How PR Trumps Marketing and Advertising in the New Media World, by Fraser Seitel and John Doorley

"Good public relations is no longer just icing—it’s a strategic imperative more important to your competitive success than even advertising or marketing. This is true whether you’re a century-old multibillion-dollar corporation or a penniless startup. In Rethinking Reputation, public relations guru Fraser Seitel and John Doorley, founder of the Academy for Communication Excellence and Leadership at Johnson & Johnson, examine a fascinating new set of case studies—including the BP oil spill and the launch of CitySlips—to glean the PR dos and don’ts for the new media world, covering both standard reputation maintenance and crisis management."

For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations, by Ronn Torossian

"It is essential that businesses know how to communicate quickly, often preemptively, and effectively to survive--and at a cost that is far lower than comparable marketing and ad campaigns. The first book by the owner of a top 50 PR agency (5WPR), For Immediate Release, Ronn Torossian reveals how public relations can do just that--while also defining brands; helping companies and individuals court the press or avoid it; growing business without alienating loyal customers; resolving crises quickly; and improving first page results on the most powerful search engine in the world (Google)."

The Startup Game: Inside the Partnership between Venture Capitalists and Entrepreneurs, by William H. Draper

"Entrepreneurs drive the future, and the last several decades have been a thrilling ride of astounding, far-reaching innovation. Behind this transformative progress are also the venture capitalists—who are at once the investors, coaches and allies of the entrepreneurs. William H. Draper III knows this story first-hand, because as a venture capitalist, he helped write it. For more than 40 years, Bill Draper has worked with top entrepreneurs in fabled Silicon Valley, where today’s vision is made into tomorrow’s reality. The Startup Game is the first up-close look at how the relationship between venture capitalists and entrepreneurs is critical to enhancing the success of any economy."

The Start-Up of YOU: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform your Career, by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

"How do you survive and thrive in this fiercely competitive economy? You need a whole new entrepreneurial mindset and skill set. Drawing on the best of Silicon Valley, The Start-Up of You helps you accelerate your career and take control of your future–no matter your profession."

The Information Diet, by Clay Johnson

"The modern human animal spends upwards of 11 hours out of every 24 in a state of constant consumption. Not eating, but gorging on information ceaselessly spewed from the screens and speakers we hold dear. Just as we have grown morbidly obese on sugar, fat, and flour—so, too, have we become gluttons for texts, instant messages, emails, RSS feeds, downloads, videos, status updates, and tweets. We're all battling a storm of distractions, buffeted with notifications and tempted by tasty tidbits of information. And just as too much junk food can lead to obesity, too much junk information can lead to cluelessness. The Information Diet shows you how to thrive in this information glut—what to look for, what to avoid, and how to be selective. In the process, author Clay Johnson explains the role information has played throughout history, and why following his prescribed diet is essential for everyone who strives to be smart, productive, and sane."

And finally on the horizon is Nick Bilton's look at Twitter: Twitter, The Book.

He writes: "I’ve signed a deal with Penguin/Portfolio to write a book about Twitter. I’ll keep this short as I don’t want to spoil the ending. The book will chronicle the story of Twitter, from its inception to today, along with the business, societal and human aspects of the company."

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

The Rise of Infographics

PCNY April 4 Luncheon: Infographics

At the urging of my fellow Publicity Club of New York board member Lisa Kovitz of Edelman, last week we convened a panel on the explosion of infographics in news reporting.

The senior news graphics decisionmakers from CNNMoney, Huffington Post, Mashable and The Associated Press walked nearly 100 New York-based PR executives through the ins & outs of this increasingly important dimension of the communications paradigm, which Wikipedia described as follows:

"Today information graphics surround us in the media, in published works both pedestrian and scientific, in road signs and manuals. They illustrate information that would be unwieldy in text form, and act as a visual shorthand for everyday concepts such as stop and go."

I would use this space to recount some of the highlights, but Maria Perez of ProfNet, along with the unedited audio (RT: 77 minutes) from the session, more than adequately captured what every PR pro needs to know.

I will say that nearly all the news orgs repped produce their own infographics in-house, but were amenable to outside recommendations, as long as they're not overly promotional or self-serving. For example, one agency exec asked the panel about the ROI to her client of having the news org create the infographic versus the agency's own graphics department. Huh? Do news executives really give a hoot about the ROI an infographic might deliver to a PR person's client? I think not.

Pachal, Nessa, Bergmann and Spurlock

Below is a sampling of infographics shared during the lunch by our panelists (pictured left to right): Pete Pachal, tech analyst, Mashable; Shazna Nessa, director of Interactive, The AP/NY; Andy Bergmann, creative director, CNNMoney; and Chris Spurlock, infographic design editor, Huffington Post.

Thursday, April 05, 2012

Valley Girl

Did you hear the news yesterday about Bravo's plans for a reality series on Silicon Valley startups? It certainly landed with a thud in the Tweetdeck and Hootsuite Twitter streams of the digital cognoscenti. But who would have expected anything less given that Bravo is the cable net that brought us the high brow "Real Housewives" franchise?

Can you imagine? "The Real Entrepreneurs of Silicon Valley," or, as it's simply called "Silicon Valley" produced by the real sister of the most famous entrepreneur in that very valley. Here's how AllThingsD's Peter Kafka led his piece:

Cue up the righteous anger, Silicon Valley. Here comes a clueless effort by a big, dumb TV channel to portray you world-changers as a bunch of vapid schemers. Even worse, it’s from a cable TV channel — the kind you crazy dreamers won’t even watch because you won’t pay to watch TV! Fail! Etc."

And you don't want to know what Pando Daily's Sarah Lacy had to say. I only hope that Randi and her team do not take their cues from other networks' past attempts to exploitively capture the PR profession. Here's one I found from E! Entertainment called "The Spin Crowd." But I digress.

Following yesterday's news from Bravo, I thought the followers of this space might enjoy reading an email I received overnight that offers a mix of the two subjects referenced above. There was no name attached, only an info@unnameddomain.com return address, so I don't think I'll reply. Here we go in all its unedited glory:

Hellow,

I am an entrepreneur from Spain.

I am going to launch a disruptor company on the internet and I want to reach to all possible journalists all over the world:

- Radio journalists

- TV Journalists

- Magazines and newspapers journalists

- News agencies journalists

- Web journalists: bloggers……

I dont´t know which strategy follow:

- Use a media database like vocus or cision

- Use a wire service company like Business Wire or Market Wire

- Use both

I know these 12 media database companies and these 26 wire service companies, but don´t know which are the bests.

MEDIA DATABASE

1º www.vocus.com

2º http://intl.cision.com/

3º http://www.marketwire.com/communication_solutions/mediahub_media_management

4º http://www.dwpub.com/featuresexec/

5º http://www.dwpub.com/journalistdirectory/

6º http://www.gebbieinc.com/

7º http://www.burrellesluce.com

8º http://www.mediaddress.es

9º http://www.myprgenie.com

10º http://www.gorkana.com/eu/index.php/prs/gorkana-database/

11º www.bulldogreporter.com

12º http://www.lead411.com/

WIRE SERVICES

1º Business Wire

2º PrNewswire

3º MarketWire

4º http://www.globenewswire.com

5º CNW Group Ltd http://www.newswire.ca/en/

6º http://www.prweb.com/

7º http://www.hugingroup.com

8º http://www.sourcewire.com/

9º http://www.realwire.com/

10º http://www.mynewsdesk.com/uk

11º http://prw.kyodonews.jp/open/en/top.do

12º http://www.einpresswire.com/

13º http://www.hoffmanpr.com/

14º http://www.allheadlinenews.com/

15º http://www.bnonews.com/

16º http://www.zumapress.com/

17º http://asianetnews.net/

18º http://www.acnnewswire.com/

19º http://bignews.biz/

20º http://www.indiaprwire.com/

21º http://www.japancorp.net/

22º http://www.knowledgeview.co.uk/

23º http://www.koreanewswire.co.kr/

24º http://www.prnewschannel.com/

25º http://www.livemango.com/

26º http://www.abnnewswire.net/

Best Regards

Tuesday, April 03, 2012

Making a Digital Impact

(Photo: World Economic Forum)

I was able to attend PRSA's annual Digital Impact Conference yesterday in New York City where I had the good fortune to hear former World Economic Forum digital chief Matthias Lufkens present some slides on Davos's adoption of social media during his seven-year tenure.

Matthias started at WEF in media relations, but had been toiling the last five years on the digital side of the PR equation. Two months ago, he left WEF to join Burson-Marsteller as head of digital for Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

It's no longer a matter of driving eyeballs to your company or organization's website, he said in his opening comments. Now it's all about building communities...using the social media channels du jour. He then proceeded to run through WEF's communications strategy -- channel by channel.

In 2008, for example, some 23 WEF attendees were actively tweeting from the Davos. This past year, that number ballooned to 640 - or a quarter of all attendees.

B-M's Matthias Lufkens

I was also impressed by WEF's use of Livestream for open, web-based interactive sessions featuring many of the movers & shakers participating in the conference, and the use of Storify to capture and curate the most engaging "media" emanating from the conference.

WEF Digital PR Goals

His words clearly resonated with more than a few in the audience of PR pros when he reminisced about all those pressers that managed to draw just three journalists. The live web-streaming of a newsmaker lessens the need to explain a low physical turn out. He also outlined the digital goals for the WEF. (See slide at left.)

WEF's Facebook page has some 96,000 "Likes" and Flickr serves as the primary repository of WEF-generated still images. The organization's YouTube site boasts nearly 7 million views, and these are not the 30 or 60-second viral variety. Most of the clips you'll find are unedited and run 60-minutes in length. Following the presentation, I grabbed some sound with Matthias.

Here's the audio clip. (RT: 5:05).

While at #PRSADIConf, I caught up with Gerard Corbett who assumed the chairmanship of the PR industry trade organization in January. I asked him about the results of PRSA's recent open effort to redefine public relations for the modern age. I also asked about the organization's recent stands on transparency, or rather the lack thereof as a result of Citizens United and commensurate rise of Super PACs.

Here's the audio clip (RT: 7:25)

Ciarallo, Isserlis, Himler, Brown & Gleason (l. to r.)

Finally, I had chance to personally preside over a panel of rising PR stars -- all handling communications chores for successful New York startups. Joining me were Adam Brown, PR manager for Etsy, Erin Gleason, PR manager for Foursquare, Joe Ciarallo, VP, Communications for Buddy Media and Adam Isserlis, who just resigned as corporate PR strategy chief at Zynga to join Facebook's communications team in New York. (Adam must like the IPO life.)

It was a fun discussion wherein we learned that Etsy's traffic increased roughly "30 percent" following the addition in January of a "Pin It" Pinterest button to the site. Or that traditional media still drives meaningful results as we learned from Foursquare's Erin Gleason who described the successive bump in downloads of the app as a "Good Morning America" segment hit the airwaves from east to west one day.

Buddy Media's Joe Ciarallo talked about parsing the many media requests that come in over the transom and avoiding those that are seeking ancillary information, especially proprietary information about Facebook. And Adam Isserlis recognized how Zynga is primarily known in the hinterland through its consumer-facing sub-brands like Farmville, Words with Friends, and Castleville (his fave), and the recent purchase of OMGPOP with its hot Pictionary-like game Draw Something.

Here is some of the Twitter chatter from that session: