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Can personal branding take a backseat to corporate branding?
2008-08-13 06:07:00
(UPDATED 8/13/08 approx. 7:20 a.m.: Revised the headline to reflect new thoughts on the subject had this morning. Original headline was: “When should personal branding take a backseat to corporate branding?” and added some additional points at the bottom.) Paul Chaney has a great post with even better comments on personal branding. Go over there and read it, if you haven’t already. I’ll wait… Okay, welcome back! In your reading, you probably saw what I think is a great summary of the benefits of personal branding — and the problem with personal branding. It was a comment by Chris Brogan: “[P]ersonal brands are best when used in synergy with an organization that understands them…. I think that Jason Falls is a god amongst men, and if he quits his job tomorrow and joins Jaiku, I’ll leave Twitter in support. “ Personal branding has tremondous benefits to the employer of the person. Robert Scoble was almost as synonymous wit...
More About: Branding , Corporate

Don’t forget the tried and true basics
2008-08-12 06:54:00
My oldest son turned 10 last weekend. It was an Indiana Jones theme party (my wife throws great kids’ parties), and he received Indiana Jones toys, plus Star Wars and other commercialized toys. He’s already enjoyed playing with them and will in the future. He (and his siblings) have also enjoyed playing with two airplanes one friend bought him (one pictured here). They’re not tied to any movie or TV show. They’re what I would call traditional, tried and true toys. Airplanes. Just like it’s easy to get caught up with toys that echo the hotest new movie and forget about the fun you can have with such non-commercial toys, it’s also easy to get caught up in the latest trend in our professions. But, let’s not forget about some tried and true basics: Know what goal(s) you want to accomplish, and set objectives to achieve the goal(s). Then, develop supporting strategies and tactics to achieve those objectives. Don’t do just do what you di...
More About: True , Basics

You can’t change history…or, can you?
2008-08-07 18:44:00
Recently, I received a request to remove an old blog post because one of the people in it didn’t like the fact that I blogged about the person making a mistake. (I’m keeping it vague because the subject of that particular post doesn’t really matter for this post.) I didn’t remove the post, but did update it, and changed the headline to tone it down some. (Even that wasn’t needed, but I was trying to be nice.) On Twitter, I posed the question if there’s any reason to remove a blog post. I didn’t get any public response (yay or nay and why), but did get some private messages. One person said he’d remove the post. Yes, I know blogging and the stuff I write about isn’t earth shattering. And, removing an old post won’t cause WWIII. Still — and maybe it’s the former journalist in me — I just don’t like changing history. (Though, every once in a great while, I will delete a tweet.) The Internet is filled wi...
More About: History , Change

Is this how you promote public health?
2008-07-31 05:20:00
My company had an outing at the Toledo Mud Hens game the other day. I parked in a parking garage near 5/3 Field, saw the game, had a good time, left and went home. A day later, I happened to look at the ticket and noticed what looked like a PSA. But it wasn’t. Half the front (right) and all of the back of the ticket dealt with how you should prepare if the bird flu broke out locally. And, it was developed by the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department “funded by a grant from the Ohio Dept. of Health.” First, did the Ohio Dept. of Health pay for that information to be printed on the ticket? (Ohio tax dollars at work?) Secondly — and more importantly from a marketing perspective — is a parking ticket really the best way to reach people with that information? I mean, who really reads a parking stub? I happened to be because I was in my minivan the next day, waiting for a minute to pick up a friend. Otherwise, I don’t read parking stubs. Is this reall...
More About: Promote , Public , Public Health

Green will only grow if it makes green
2008-07-30 05:57:00
Joel Bittle over at Green BuildingElements makes several good points about how builders should consider the reality of building green. That it can be less costly — at least the same as — traditional building. While the energy part of being or building green can be easily seen — if you can save a few bucks to be green, do it — his points on health (the long-term health affects) and sustainability wouldn’t inspire me to focus on green. (Maybe health, but it depends on the issue. For many health issues, it depends on what it is and if/how close it hits home. Bittle made a good comment about it.) The more conversation and debates there are around green, I think the more it’ll become more mainstream. But, only if it makes personal or business economic sense. Bottomline, I’m not going to be green just to be green unless it affects my bottomline. And, the bottomline for business is one that can steer business into awash of green washing. Companies &...
More About: Grow

The Entertainment Age?
2008-07-18 14:15:00
Are we no longer in the Information Age? What about the Age of Transparency? (Well, guess it can coinside.) Okay, online and mobile video usage is on the rise. And, as more people watch video online, their online devices are being more and more used for entertainment purposes — not news and stuff like that, according to a June 28, 2008, eMarketer story: “Key research from Deloitte Development signifies the shift away from TV to the Internet, with 69% of respondents in the firm’s second annual ‘The State of the Media Democracy’ survey saying their computer has become more of an entertainment device than their TV.” That same Deloitte study also found that 36% of all respondents use their “cellphone as an entertainment device.” And, according to MediaPost’s Research Brief blog (July 16, 2008): “Total hours with video-based entertainment on all platforms is forecasted to expand nearly 35% to about 8 hours (in 2013) on average, as consumers use ...
More About: Entertainment

Gone fishin’
2008-06-28 04:42:00
…and relaxing with the family. Started another post Thursday, but guess it’ll have to wait. Hope everyone has an enjoyable, productive and — overall — a great week! –Mike                

It’s about relationships, stupid
2008-06-22 11:45:00
Holy Toledo: Oh-for-May and more than half of June? Oh well, busy stretches (busier than usual) of life and work means little time for blogging fun. While I’ve not been physically blogging, a number of posts have swirled around in my head. One is about the shareability measure: “The Shareability Measure: What Makes Consumers Share Viral Marketing Communications.” (Courtesy of MarketingVox from April 15.) The study is available free until the end of June. The study was conducted by MedTrackAlert and CNET, and presented at the Advertising Research Foundation convention. The study sought to find out “what leads consumers to talk about and spread advertising and marketing messages.” What the study showed and reinforced to me is applicable to all of social media — heck, all types of relationships. To be successful in building relationships, appeal to the egos or self-importance of others: People want to be known as or perceived as experts; the autho...
More About: Relationships , Stupid

Two for one post: Free has a price & teaching tactics
2008-05-01 05:43:00
Maybe it’s USA Today’s fault, maybe blogging is to blame or maybe I have Twitteritis. But, my attention span and getting around to putting together a post of any length is lacking of late. (Good thing there’s a monthly TalentZoo column and the periodic free-lance gig to keep me honest. See page 10.) Regardless, here’s one post with a couple points for your digestion and review: A lot on the Internet is free — but there’s still a price There’s a lot of “things” free about social media. Blogging is free. Social networking is free. Sharing pictures and video is free. Outside of social media, a lot on the Internet is free. Email is free. Job searching is free. And, a lot of information is free. And, some of that information is questionably accurate. As an example, Sandeep Krishnamurthy  has a very interesting article at iMediaConnection: Beware: the search advertising sky is falling. There’s good food for thought in Professor...
More About: Tactics , Post , Teaching , Free , Price

Newspaper ads drive Web research; ad revenues dropping. Huh?
2008-04-21 19:45:00
No matter how effective a particular tactic is, if it doesn’t reach a large enough audience, how effective is it really? From MarketingCharts: Print newspapers ads reach people at all stages of the buying cycle - inspiring web research at the beginning and prompting in-store/web purchase at the end, said the Newspaper Association of America (NAA), citing a Google study. Clark, Martire & Bartolomeo conducted the study for Google. “Newspaper advertisements drive readers to the web, where they search, find and obtain products,” said Spencer Spinnell, head of the Google Print Ads program. On the other hand, according to Editor & Publisher, the Newspaper Association of America (same group involved with the above), reported its “worst drop in advertising revenue in more than 50 years.“ According to new data released by the Newspaper Association of America, total print advertising revenue in 2007 plunged 9.4% to $42 billion compared to 2006 — the most s...
More About: Research , Drive

Playing favorites….
2008-04-18 04:38:00
I try not to be an extreme person. I tend to be leary of people who “just love everything.” (Reminds me of the law of diminishing returns.) And, I hate to be around those who seemingly are negative about most everything and everyone. While that approach tends to make me wishy-washy at times — I think — it does help me to keep things in perspective. On Twitter, I don’t “favorite” other tweets too often. But, I thought it be worth highlighting some of the 16 great quotes, lessons and pointers I’ve been fortunate to have seen. Not that my opinion necessarily counts more than others, so for what it’s worth, here are some of my Twittered favorites: Chris Heuer: Blogger relations programs are really more about leveraging personal relations and the reputations we have established in the online world 11:12 AM September 21, 2007 Chris Thilk: More discussion of B2B and social media: It all comes back to knowing the audience and finding t...
More About: Favorites

Everything I needed to know for public relations, I learned being a parent*
2008-04-01 05:35:00
(*First, if you are reading into the headline that I or PR communicators should treat their target audiences like children, you’re reading too much into the headline, taking it literally or trying to start something. That’s not the point of this post. If you still believe it is, please leave. Otherwise, I would most appreciate it if you continued reading and left your $0.02 with a comment.) During some email back and forth a couple weeks ago with Ann Handley regarding a comment I left on her blog, I was reminded how much my children teach me. Then it hit me — that much of what I’ve learned being a parent is very relevant to public relations and marketing communications. Each child is different, so you can’t parent them each the same way. Different temperaments, different personalities, different abilities, different ways they react to me (and my wife. From here on out, whenever I say me, I mean us). The same goes with the audiences we are trying to mar...
More About: Public Relations , Public , Relations , Learned , Parent

Offline v Online: Know thy audience
2008-03-26 06:05:00
Whether you work predominantly in offline marketing (like I used to) or work predominantely in online marketing (like I do now), knowing your audience and where you can find them is invaluable. Blogs, boards and social media in general have been around for many years. However, like most product lifecycles, they’re still in their infancy, still in the growth mode. Being so new, many people and companies are trying to carve out a social media expertise for themselves. That’s fine and good, but don’t get myopic. The United States population now is about 303+ million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Okay, but really, most of us are not marketing to youth. As of July 2003, there were 217.8 million people age 18 and older, with a total U.S. population of about 291 million people. So about 75% of the U.S. population were adults (18+ yoa) in 2003. Let’s assume that’s consistent with 2008. According to eMarketer, nearly 194 million people in the U.S....
More About: Offline , Online , Audience

The need to clearly communicate differentiation
2008-03-19 04:48:00
Often, one of the best results from reading blogs is that it spurs other, related thoughts. The judgement and weight given to how you differentiate your brand and the need for clarity in communication came to mind after reading the Mark Cuban/BlogMaverick post on Branding and Newspapers, a Lesson in How Not to Brand and Market. He makes several noteworthy points about the value of differentiation in branding. For example: Never, ever, ever consider something that any literate human being with Internet access can create in under 5 minutes to be a product or service that can in any way differentiate your business. If you feel that you must offer this product or service as a means of “keeping up” or as a checklist item that you must have for competitive reasons, then do everything possible to brand the product or service in a manner that segregates it from the masses. Perception is reality. If you can leverage your existing brand to create the perception that yours is diffe...
More About: Communicate

See a need, fill a need: Online tools finally coming of age
2008-03-05 06:00:00
See a need, fill a need: It’s a philosophy that is one of the primary themes of Robots (and what inspired Rodney). You could also say it’s the driving force in a free market, and why many businesses are started. While social media is still in its infancy — it’ll have a long life, so many years is still an “infancy” — many who’ve been involved have several years experience. Some of us, even have a couple! However, while the social media populus has been and continues to grow, the tools available to public relations professionals have been lacking, compared to what we’re used to offline. Offline, there’s media tracking services like Luce (okay, BurrellsLuce) and Bacon’s (okay, Cision), as well as newer online and less costly services like Factiva (via the WSJ) and NewsLibrary.com. If you’re tasked with keeping track of clients’/your employer’s media coverage, it’s great knowing you have other p...
More About: Tools , Online , Finally , Fill

Other great points . . . .
2008-02-28 19:12:00
For your browsing, reading and thinking pleasure, may I direct you to: I’m Done With Social Media, Dave Fleet/davefleet.com The Golden Rule of Media Relations, Kami Huyse, APR/Communications Overtones Demystifying “Above the Fold,” FluidDesign blog The Social Medium is the Message, Marcel LeBrun/Media Philosopher The Press Release Page: A New Approach to an Old Problem, Mike Manuel/MediaGuerrilla And, finally, some co-workers recently started a cigar blog. So, if you are a cigar connoisseur of any kind, check out El Cigarro Maximo. –Mike
More About: Great , Points

Writing — good writing — is very much lacking
2008-02-27 18:45:00
The basic purpose of any writing/typing is to accurately and succinctly communicate information that is clearly understood by the recipient(s). For some types of writing, maybe being succinct is not as high a focus (such in novel and other writing), and you can have double meanings to play on words. But, the basic premise is to be accurate and understood. Good , quality writing is a skill that is underappreciated and very much lacking across all media. Here’s an example from today on the front page of Yahoo! Taken a glance — which is what we often do on pages: glance or scan — it sounds like that Bobby Brown is not buying cocaine with money, but getting it in exchange for community service. He gives his time to help the community, and gets some drugs in return. Ain’t that nice! Of course, even though we know what it reads, we likely really know what it means. Is it just me being picky? I hope not. Simply, say what you mean and ensure that what you say and ...
More About: Writing

Does social networking bring us together … or ultimately separate us
2008-02-21 05:33:00
I’m not social scientist (though I like to think I play one in my job), but I wonder if there are any studies that show the natural evolution of socialization. And, if that natural evoluation of socialization actually builds up walls rather than bringing the larger community together. Let me explain more of what I think could happen regarding online social networking…. Through blogs, discussion boards, social networks, communities and even virtual worlds, we have opportunities to “meet” and “know” more people than we can via face to face networking. Through my own professional interest, I have way more than 50 blogs in my Bloglines account. Sure, I have other categories for my other, usually personal interests, but none that compare in quantity. Sure, for various work projects and other activities related to work, I explore other topics and niche blogs and communities in social media. But, while they are interesting and I love to learn, if it...
More About: Social , Social Networking , Networking

I have the power — Part II
2008-02-01 06:04:00
Control of branding and “the message” or word-of-mouth talk about a company, product, service, issue, etc., is a common theme in social media. It’s been written about in many books, on many blogs and, heck, even in person I’m sure. And, it came up in a brief back and forth Twitter conversation I had with Geoff Livingston Thursday. Maybe we’re talking about the same thing, but taking a different approach. Maybe it’s just semantics. Or, maybe we disagree. As I’ve said in the past, businesses ultimately have control. Or, at least, the most influence. Let’s start at the beginning: Essentially a company forms when someone sees a need in the marketplace and tries to fill it. (Yes, there are variances, like when a someone makes a product and then tries to find a need, but let’s stick with the basic premise.) Before that company starts, there is no conversation, reputation or perception about it. It didn’t exist. That company marke...
More About: Power , Part

Green is growing
2008-01-17 19:22:00
Throughout my career (gosh that sounds so old), I’ve regularly worked with building materials suppliers and manufacturers who make products for residential and commercial/architectural building use. So, I know things like SHGC, how passive solar heat gain is a good thing in northern climates, R-values/factors, ENERGY STAR and LEED. I’ve also worked in other industries where products are designed to reduce fuel consumption and/or eliminate unneeded emissions by reducing idling (along with other features/benefits). One thing that has always struck me is that, no matter how much of a warm fuzzy feeling you can invoke by talking about the green benefits of your company, products or services, if it doesn’t have a positive affect on your company’s bottomline, it doesn’t really matter. I pointed that out in a post about Wal-Mart some time ago. In other words, a company is only going to be green, if it can get more green or spend less green to run its business...
More About: Green , Growing

All we do in life is personal…
2007-12-27 18:56:00
especially social media. Today, the Center for Media Research has a must-read report: “Emotional Business Bonding on Social Networks,” based on research from Communispace: “New research from Communispace, supporting the hypothesis that people are looking to fulfill six essential social needs online, and drawing on the Maslow hierarchy of human needs, concludes that businesses that help facilitate those needs are more likely to create deeper emotional bonds than usually exist between companies and customers.” The key point that, while consumers don’t necessarily want a relationship with companies, they do want their needs met. You market by meeting needs. And, in the online world, you need to meet personal, social needs to be successful. You don’t “hook” people. It’s much more subtle. I don’t mean deceptive tactics, but play into human nature. This is an approach I bring up every so often via Twitter (in reply to Chris ...
More About: Personal , Life

Numbers don’t lie . . . or do they?
2007-12-19 04:55:00
Numbers are parodoxical. On one hand, they are black or white. Wrong or right. Inarguable. On the other hand, they can be manipulated to result in a conclusion you desire. But, if you have enough numbers, you are able to see the truth. Or, at least, enough of the situation than just one statistic. A Ford Motor Company ad (”Both coasts have spoken.”) on the back page of the September 2007 issue of Motor Trend caught my eye recently. The ad boasts that, after 400 people test drove the Ford Fusion, Toyota Camry and the Honda Accord, Ford rated higher than its competitors in terms of being “attractive,” “fun to drive,” “performs well” and “handling.” Each time a participant scored the Ford, Toyota or Honda in one of the categories, that car received a point. Okay, comparisons versus competitors is good advertising. Head to head. But, if you look at the numbers, there are other ways to look at the survey. In the “attrative...
More About: Numbers , Number

Apple isn’t playing fair; boo-hoo on the PC industry
2007-12-12 05:38:00
Let me give Dell, Gateway, HP/Compaq, IBM, Sony and even Microsoft some free advice: Team up, co-op and go after Apple . (While there’s still enough of you left.) It’s eating your lunch and it’ll be the worm that eats into a sizeable amount of your profits, unless you do something about it. International Herald Tribune, Oct. 22, 2007: Driven in part by what analysts call a halo effect from the iPod and the iPhone, the market share of the company’s personal computers is surging. Two research firms that track the computer market said last week that Apple would move into third place in the United States behind Hewlett-Packard and Dell on Monday, when it reports product shipments in the fiscal fourth quarter as part of its earnings announcement. PC World, Dec. 3, 2007: Apple has jumped to 6.81 percent market share of the OS market, according to the latest research from Net Applications. The figures confirm a slowdown in market share in October, which quickly becam...
More About: Industry , Fair

In PR We Trust?
2007-12-06 14:22:00
Though it’s a never-ending battle, I try to make things simple. That’s why part of me finds this transparency issue — a fancy way of saying honesty — puzzling. Yes, in public relations, you represent your employer’s/client’s side of an issue or news story. You may not write or talk about every angle, but you do not mislead or lie. You tell one side of a story. Just as you would hear anyone talking about an event he/she witnessed. If you’re doing your job correctly, you put yourself in the mindset of a news reporter to write a news release as a journalist would. Or, close to it. As noted, you may not include all angles, but you’d better be able to honestly, accurately and fairly answer any question that comes afterward. It’s pretty simple. In general, don’t you always expect honesty? If you always doubt what someone tells you, how awful that would be! But, apparently, that’s how people perceive PR professionals. Why el...
More About: Trust

Mob rule?
2007-11-30 04:34:00
What makes social media and related tools great — making it possible for a single voice heard everywhere with just a bit of momentum – is also their greatest opportunity for mob rule. We all can applaud the sleuthing, okay fisking that goes into shedding light on someone that wishes to remain anonymous. But, sometimes, the light being shed comes from the torches of an angry mob. Case in point is the mother and family that played a harmful, deadly prank on a young girl, and is being blamed for pushing her over the edge to hang herself. Legally, the family posing as the “friend” have done nothing wrong. You know, innocent until proven guilty. And, rightfully, traditional, trained, professional media kept the family out of print. But, then, there’s online rule. The St. Charles Journal decided not to identify the neighbor in the absence of criminal charges or a civil complaint — even though her name is in a police report on a related incident. Columni...
More About: Rule

Which is better: paid or unpaid product reviews?
2007-11-24 05:59:00
I don’t have a big problem with services like PayPerPost (mostly because it encourages its bloggers to disclose a PPP post). And, really, if a blogger does paid reviews, it’s part of living in a free market society. For the most part, blogging doesn’t pay (much), and if you can make a buck or three, I can understand the enticement. But, it’s . . . just . . . not . . . right. David Binkowski often enough writes about PayPerPost and his opinions are pretty clear. Sara of Suburban Oblivion, while not giving her opinion, recently asked her readers about paid reviews. (She and others do product reviews, but I saw no indication if they’re paid or not.) It seemed that most of the commenters have no problem with paid reviews. If you’re being paid to review and blog about a product, there always will be a veil of bias hanging over the post. I don’t think I’m being utopian by stating that blog posts are viewed as being honest. Forthright. Upfro...
More About: Reviews , Product , Paid

If you’re not hiding anything, why mind the light?
2007-11-11 06:36:00
Social media, I think more than anything else, is shining a bright light on public relations. And, that’s a good thing. Because, rarely does anything good in business happen in the dark (figuratively speaking, of course). So,  goes the argument, if you’ve got nothing to hide, then you won’t mind answering a few questions for us. Ultimately, good public relations is about achieveing good business results — whether that’s promoting a product, educating the market or pointing out a company’s true good aspects. It seems like advertising doesn’t have any issues regarding if it’s honest or not. That’s because we know it’s advertising and, of course, it’s slanted. But, public relations — media relations, social media, and other activities to influence people — is generally more tactful. Traditionally, more “behind the scenes.” More indirect in reaching consumers. And, it’s more personal. (That&...
More About: Mind , Light

Quotable Quotes: M&Ms
2007-10-12 19:22:00
“If the message is king, then the medium is queen.” -Mike Driehorst (yeah, that’s me!) Inspired by Chris Thilk’s Forrester’s Consumer Forum Twitter. For references and information to related message-medium posts, see here and here. – Mike
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Other great points . . . .
2007-10-11 14:52:00
(UPDATED: 3:30 p.m. Oct. 11, 2007, with another great point, added at the top.) For your amusement and awareness (in no particular order), I offer: Amanda’s Backstory Reveals Ugly Character: Did you Know?, infOpinions/Robert French What can happen when you push the PR pitch too far, Corporate Engagement/Trevor Cook (courtesy of Paull Young via Twitter) Global PR Blog Week 3.0 needs your ideas, PR meets the WWW/Constantin Basturea To respond or not to respond, Airfoil Public Relations/Tonja Deegan Flickr Famous, BlogWorks/Laurie Mayers On the American Cult of Individuality, History Mike/Michael Brooks Signal to Noise, Occam’s RazR/Ike Pigott
More About: Great , Points

Is the medium or the message the more trusted?
2007-10-05 06:46:00
I guess it depends. Earlier this week, MarketingVox reported that BrandWeek reported that mobile and banner ads were the least trusted sources of media. Here’s a rundown: Newspaper ads: 63% of media consumers surveyed said they trusted newspapers ads. TV ads: 56% Search ads: 34% Banner ads: 26% Mobile ads: 18% Sites focusing on one brand, built by brand marketers: 60%. (Also called microsites. See my previous post.) Contrast those trust percentages for ads with blogs: Consumer-created blogs were trusted by 61 percent of global respondents, a figure that shot up to 66 percent for US-only respondents. That, combined with the 78 percent who trust word-of-mouth recommendations, suggests people put far more stock in the opinions of other “real” people. So, for advertising, is it a person’s level of comfort and familiarity with the medium that impacts trust? Why are newspaper ads more trusted than banner ads? And, funny how, even if a person is familiar with a co...
More About: Message , Medium , The Message , Mess