Business Storytelling

Don’t Wait for Someone Else to Take Action

Several times over the last few weeks I’ve been witness to a debate about the role of trade associations. Is it the trade association’s role to educate communities or set standards, or do companies have an equal obligation to take a stand?

One of my clients, Mercury Computer Systems, is facing this issue right now.  After years of finding one of its trade associations slow to develop an interoperability specification for a computing technology standard, it decided to put a stake in the ground to move the industry forward.  Given that this standard is said to represent the future of some of the most complex military systems, Mercury was quickly joined by dozens of industry leaders including Boeing and GE Fanuc, all of whom recognized that a lack of movement by the trade association could impact billion dollar defense programs.

Most recently, this debate about trade groups also took shape at Babson University’s Entrepreneurial Energy Expo.  I was one of more than 600 people who attended this event last Thursday to discuss issues related to the green tech community.  As a sponsor (Greenough helped promote the event for Babson), I spent the day meeting with a number of interesting folks – from students to those starting their own businesses to clean tech leaders.  I also attended a panel on Marketing and Selling in the Environmental Industry.  It was a hot topic.  Not just “standing-room-only,” but a full house with dozens of people leaning against walls and sitting on the floor. 

One question during the panel caught my attention – not so much for the question, but the answer.  A gentleman asked how to best market renewable energy projects, like Cape Wind, to communities who “in theory” support environmental issues but argue NIMBY (Not in My Backyard).  I was expecting a discussion around thought leadership, social media and grassroots approaches, but instead was surprised when the discussion got sidetracked by an audience member who said it’s typically the trade association’s role to “brand the need.”

Lessons on Blogging Etiquette from Obama’s Teleprompter

Obama’s teleprompter was launched into stardom last week, after Rush Limbaugh addressed him rhetorically on the air. Rush poked fun at the president’s recent gaffes at speaking events, which were the result of incorrect teleprompts, asking:  

"Teleprompter, in your opinion, how is President Obama doing so far?  Did he convey the level of anger you hoped for regarding what you told him to say about AIG?  Teleprompter, is the president ever argumentative with you, or is he compliant with your instructions?” 

The teleprompter threw back the punches on his blog, in which he wittily answers a few of Limbaugh’s questions. The post is amusing – and was piquant enough to get coverage in the Miami Herald and the Christian Science Monitor.

Looking beyond the repartee, though, the Obama Teleprompter blog is interesting in another way: it’s a work-related blog whose content frequently borders on the inappropriate. To keep your company’s image clean, here are a few tips for what not to do on a work-related blog:

• Don’t call your boss by funny names. If your boss is the president, you might consider finding ways to refer to him besides “Big O,” “Big Boy,” and “Big Guy.”
• Don’t divulge company secrets. If you have to begin a sentence with, “I don't think I'm breaking my operational top secret clearance by telling you X,” you might want to reconsider whether it’s really something you want everyone on the information superhighway to read.
• Understand the boundaries between public and private. Here I need only cite this passage: “Publicly, we're saying this is OMB chief Pete Orszag's idea, but everyone here knows that it was the Big Guy's brainstorm, because Big Guy's hobby is tax policy.”
• Don’t talk about your love life. It’s just a bad idea to talk about the “hot reporter from Latin America” that you think you have a date with.

The bottom line: when employees take the initiative to do their own blogging, it can be a great way to engage people in your brand. With the wrong content, it can backfire and make you look bad. For sample guidelines on how to encourage employees to blog responsibly, check out IBM’s “Social Computing Guidelines.”

- Contributed by Katherine Leahey

The Power of the Spoken Word

Recently I crossed over to the "other side" and played the role of journalist on evenings and weekends while keeping up with my PR life during the day.  Suddenly I was the person looking for just the right resources to contribute to my article so I could tell the story in just the right way.  If I were to name one major thing that I learned during the whole process it would be this: we must never underestimate the power of the spoken word.

While writing my article, no matter how much information I had already received over email, it was not until I spoke with each source over the phone that their stories really came to life.  It was their spoken words -- hearing their stories and engaging in an interview process by speaking, not typing -- that allowed me to tell their stories in the most compelling way.

So now my question is, how do we make sure the spoken word is not overlooked as email, text messaging and social networks become ever more pervasive? And further, how do we use online communication to foster more face-face interaction?  One of the companies I'm working with now, Eventbrite, is helping people use online communication to organize in-person events.  Social media is the tool, while the ultimate goal is face-to-face interaction.  Brian Solis talks about this convergence of offline and online as well. He writes the following:

"We’re forging new and relevant links online. It’s the metamorphosis from online to offline that validates and certifies connections and symbolizes true opportunity to develop genuine relationships."

Social media makes it SO easy to collaborate via keyboard, but everything we type is a slightly diluted version of what is said, seen and experienced.  We need to use writing to tell our stories, but we should also look to that writing, or written correspondence, as a means of bringing people together to talk about the stories and keep the conversation going.  Whether it's through events, phone conversations, radio, or good-old-fashioned house calls, we should build on our online communication by taking it offline.  And then keep the cycle going: online, to offline, to online, and back again.  That's called a relationship, and if your story creates a relationship, that's good storytelling.

I welcome your thoughts, and feel free to pick up the phone; "it's that black thing on your desk," as my boss would say.

- Contributed by Susan Wise.  Call her at 650.646.3268.

It's all about ME

Last week, Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times published an insightful column in which he linked the epidemic of newspaper deaths to a phenomenon known as "The Daily Me," in which each of us selects and reads only the news we want, and none of what we don't want.  (Read the column for yourself here.)  Kristof then dives deeper, citing studies that show the human tendency seek out information that confirms our existing beliefs and suggesting that this kind of self-imposed, isolationist protection of our opinions creates an increasingly segregated and polarized society.  He writes:

The decline of traditional news media will accelerate the rise of "The Daily Me," and we’ll be irritated less by what we read and find our wisdom confirmed more often. The danger is that this self-selected “news” acts as a narcotic, lulling us into a self-confident stupor through which we will perceive in blacks and whites a world that typically unfolds in grays.

 

I'm a first-class offender.  My iGoogle homepage shows me the top headlines from my favorite sections of my favorite papers; if I find myself constantly disagreeing with someone's twitter stream, I simply stop following them.  Certainly, no one is advocating that we stop reading news we agree with; we just need to be aware of and acknowledge our predilection for "news" that mirrors our opinions.  The column raises two questions for me though:

1. What is the role of social media?  Technology and instantaneous communication undoubtedly enable, and probably encourage, "The Daily Me," but blogs, Twitter and the like also allow us to meet new people and start new conversations.  Are we successfully tapping that potential for truly deep, multi-dimensional conversations or are we using social media like a personalized echo chamber?

2. As public relations professionals, we're all about telling stories and starting conversations.  How does "The Daily Me" change how we interact with both traditional media and social media?  How can we use contrary opinions to ultimately sharpen and strengthen the stories we tell? 

I haven't worked out an answer I'm satisfied with for either of these questions yet, which is why our thoughts are more than welcome -- especially if they're contentious...

- Contributed by Catharine Morgan.  Follow her @c_morgan.

Obama: Using the Social in Social Media

A few weeks ago I went to a great talk called "How Obama Put Digital Technology and Social Media to Work for Him – and How You Can Too." As a huge fan of the entire Obama family (hi Michelle!), and someone that works in PR and interactive marketing, this seemed right up my ally.

The facts presented were astounding. Over a billion emails went out over the course of the democratic campaign. Over a million people signed up to receive texts.  The Democratic Party collected over 750 million pieces of data about its supporters. 20,000 events were held over the Internet alone.

What's more impressive than these numbers is how Democratic Party was able to use this data for their benefit. One of the most interesting points of the talk was about the "messy ways of self-organization" during the campaign. Multiple groups started campaign offices that were unbeknown to the official campaign! With new media like Twitter things are happening very, very fast. The campaign began to understand they couldn't response to everything that was happening and so they created lots of ways for people to easily get the information they needed. Check out this Fast Company article on what businesses can learn from Obama's use of social media.

Despite hype, advertisers still reluctant to adopt social media

Social media is a hot topic right now and marketers have been scrambling to establish a foothold in the social media sphere – often without really putting in the time and effort to make their campaigns successful. A recent blog post from Jeremiah Owyang, senior analyst for Forrester Research, took a more critical look at all the buzz around the social media craze and asked the question, “Are marketers really investing in social media or are they just paying lip service?” Jeremiah’s post outlined recent research he and fellow Forrester analysts (John Bernoff, Thomas Cummings, Emily Bowen) conducted in a report called,  “Social Media Playtime Is Over.” The report suggests that despite the hype, advertisers are still spending a limited amount of their budgets on social media marketing.

According to the report, 75 percent of marketers have budgeted less than $100,000 for social media efforts over the next year, illustrating that while social media has become a regular part of social interaction, it hasn’t entered the marketing mainstream.

One of the underlying causes for hesitation is that the impact of social media efforts can be difficult to measure, making it challenging to determine just how effective those campaigns have been or will be in the near future. As a result, many marketers avoid engaging in these campaigns and, according to Forrester, 45 percent of survey respondents said their social media budgets are determined on an “as-needed” basis.

We’ve encountered this problem with some of our clients’ social media campaigns, as they try to measure the effectiveness of their social networking efforts; and we’re continuing to look for the best methods to measure what’s driving customers to their sites and generating sales leads. Measurement isn’t perfect, of course, but using tools like Google Analytics and Compete.com to monitor your click-through rate or monthly site traffic at least offers a snapshot of what’s working, and what’s not.

Trade Policy’s PR Problem

I’m not sure when international trade got such a bad rap.  Maybe it was Lou Dobbs’ inaugural appearance on cable news?  Or was it when our favorite anti-trade Congressman from Ohio – Sherrod Brown - joined the Senate in 2006?  Or maybe it happened when Wal-mart started crushing sales of cheap imports across the country?  Whatever it was, trade has become the scapegoat for much that people believe is ‘wrong’ with our economy.  In fact, according to a survey commissioned by a think tank in 2007, 57% of Americans believe that free trade costs more jobs than it creates.  People are rightfully concerned about U.S. jobs going overseas to developing countries like India and China, which has intensified long-standing fears about the effects of trade.  But we need to remember that jobs created through the production of U.S. exports often offset the jobs being lost to imports and imports also allow us to buy goods more cheaply than we otherwise could.  And we ALL know how much Americans rely on imports (um, hello? Can you say Ikea?  How about Target?  Walmart?).  Trade improves standard of living by providing Americans with lower cost goods and developing countries with a chance to put their skills and their people to work.   

In a recent New York Times Editorial, the author went so far as to say that “Trade will play an important role in the world’s eventual recovery, transmitting economic growth from one country to the next.”  So, if trade could ultimately become a ticket out of this economic mess, why has it become such a despised policy?  Why do thousands of people protest on the streets of Seattle or Doha during the WTO ministerial?  How do the workers on the factory floors of Caterpillar or John Deere not understand that the health and security of their jobs are directly affected by the shipment of machinery to Columbia or Chile?  And how does a nation that has literally been built on free trade, open borders and two-way commerce not understand how terribly damaging the current shift toward protectionist policies could be?  It’s simple….Bad PR.   

Those on the winning side of the argument, such as the unions, have done a much better job of telling their story.  Theirs is a story of job-loss, disappearing health care and destroyed lives, and one that resonates with everyday people.  And it should.  But the actual story about everyday Americans emerging from this recession through a robust trade policy that creates jobs and a higher standard of living should also resonate.  So, next time you hear Lou Dobbs spouting off some populist garbage, go ahead and turn off that beautiful flat-screen that you purchased at Best Buy, put on your Jimmy Choo’s and your Chanel shades, get in your Acura SUV, pick up some Chilean apples, some Italian wine and some French cheese and do a little research into how trade impacts you.  You might actually be surprised by what you find.   

- Contributed by Sarah Ellis.  Follow her @sakerellis

What We Want Out of News

Yesterday, the two-newspaper town of Seattle sadly realized they too were not immune to the dwindling newspaper market, and like an increasing number of other cities, saw its beloved Seattle Post-Intelligencer fall victim to the downturn.

Beloved? If people aren’t reading them, are print newspapers really so dear to Americans? More and more research shows that newspapers have folded without attention, uproar or fanfare other than a few clinking glasses in somber newsrooms. Readers switch to (or stay with) online versions of newspapers and magazines as if nothing ever changed. One place print newspapers are thriving is in rural areas where people still depend on them to hear about local happenings, events and social news.

As more people get their news from a mix of outlets – perhaps a potion of Twitter, Jon Stewart, Gawker, Facebook and online newspapers – there are some common denominators between those small town newspapers and what the growing majority of Americans want out of the media.

People want to be connected. We want to know about major news, but we also want opinions. We want to know what the celebrities are doing, but also what our friends are doing. Audiences need to feel close to the source of their information, which isn’t so different from why rural communities still cling to their uniting newspapers. The very first newspaper printed in 1690 in the great city of Boston was called "Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick." People wanted to know what was going on.

Somewhere along the way perhaps newspapers got too big, expensive or disconnected from its readers. The Internet and social media has changed the game and for some newspapers, given them a second life. As more and more outlets go online and reach back out to its audience, the media will reinvent itself. We can’t ever go back to the bundle of news on our door step, but I hope we find something that keeps the news… special.

- Contributed by Jen Fauteux.  Follow her @jfauteux

Zappos Aims High With Social Media - Should You?

Zappos, a brand I admire along with many others I'm sure, just announced a partnership with Magnify to build a video community around customers (here, TechCrunch can tell that story better than me http://tinyurl.com/cjtr9z).

As the TC story points out, the challenge to attempting engagement at this level is always getting customers to actually commit to do something (recording themselves as they break open a box from Zappos in this case) and then actually follow through.  But, unlike many similar efforts, Zappos also kicks in a $100 gift certificate to winning video each month as an incentive.

But $100 incentives are not what's going to make this contest take off initially (that's more likely to be a celebrity kick-off at SXSW with the likes of Guy Kawasaki, Kevin Rose, and Chris Brogan).  So that leads me to my question - is content co-creation (or whatever you call it) really as populist as we make it out to be?  Do the creative buzz-generating ideas we read about in Ad Age, Brandweek and across the blogosphere gain traction because of the ideas and a deep connection to consumers or is something else also at work such as celebrity or just plain having enough money to get the momentum going?

I'm not questioning Zappos or anyone involved with this initiative. I like it for what it is, but back in the real world, where we're asked every day to develop new ideas that "go viral" or "tap the power of consumers," it's important to understand that success may hinge on more than a creative idea or engaged customers. More often than not, success leads to more success (the payment of dues) and brands on the rise should set expectations accordingly.  They must pay their dues before they can hope to strike it rich online.  That means starting small conversations - perhaps doing something basic through Twitter or getting that blog up and runnning - before swinging for the fences.

I guess what I'm saying is that you have to walk before you can run.  Keep that in mind as you plan, execute and set measurement goals for your next big creative initiative.  Aim high, yes, but you may have to pay some dues before you're ready to walk in Zappos shoes.

- Posted by Scott Bauman

"Recession" - Fading from the Headlines?

The "R-word," as I've seen and heard our current economic situation called a number of times, has moved from prescient prediction to headline news to an unavoidable and grudgingly accepted status quo.  The recession touches all of us, of all walks of life, in all industries.  It dominates conversation so much that the word sometimes seems to have become the adult version of the teenage "like" affliction, losing its meaning with every progressive utterance. I'd be willing to bet that many of our journalist friends feel similarly, and the news is beginning to reflect this, particularly in the IT media.  As the stock market continues to drop, so too does the novelty, newsworthiness and value of the recession story.

 

Back in the last few months of 2008, the recession permeated not only finance-focused Wall Street Journal, but the trade press as well.  In IT for example, we had classic recession-themed stories like Network World's "Gartner recommends 20 ways to cut IT costs" or this eWeek podcast with Greenough client Quest Software on how to automate labor-intensive IT processes to save in the downturn.  Of course, these stories are still published every day; cash-strapped businesses are still hungry for penny-pinching tips. However, each day it gets harder and harder to sort out one sources 10 tips from another's, and I think a closer look reveals that, when it comes to IT media story subject matter, the ratio of recession-to-other is changing.  We could all use a little comfort right now, and the media seems to have found a fresh interest in stories that bring a human touch to technology. 

 

While many early cost-savings stories focused on why businesses needed to cut costs, I've seen a lot more lately that are aimed directly at CIOs and IT managers who are nearing their wits' end as the recession drags on: how to keep jobs, where the jobs are, salaries they can expect, and how to communicate their value to executives.  What's more, there's great opportunity for stories that can get a stressed-out IT pro to crack a smile, or at least think about something besides dollar signs.  Check out a few of Computerworld's reader favorites of the moment: Google Earth: Five Fun Ways to Waste Time and Aboard the Navy's high-tech pioneer, the USS Freedom.  CIO's homepage features an article on people search engines that reveal everything from buying habits to musical preferences, adding a personal touch to security issues, and Network World leads today with the feel-good headline 10 Gigabit Ethernet is the one bright spot. 

 

The final question, of course, is when will the story shift to coming out of the recession in a strong position?  My theory is: only when we can see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel.  Readers and businesses today are so preoccupied with trying to survive that any story about how to thrive is completely irrelevant.

- Contributed by Catharine Morgan.  Follow her @c_morgan