Rule #2

In my latest new business pitch -more posts on that later - we got into some great discussion regarding viral and social media programs when the prospects began asking questions around one of my favorite words - "authenticity".

I couldn't help but smile.

So often we encounter those who want blogs, want to be "part of the conversation" (is that phrase getting over used these days?), but say hey Marketing/PR - go talk to people about us, we're busy. We at BluePoint got ourselves into a situation with a client exactly like this - the company needed a blog, but there was no one to commit, and we became pseudo ghost writers.

If blogging is a jazz tune, then we were playing air guitar. Air Guitar Champion quality air guitar, but air guitar none the less.

As we had inched closer and closer to blogging FOR them, I sent around my "authenticity" rant to all of those who would listen. Preachy, yes, but true, as anyone following the blogosphere can tell you, blogging is not a fake-it-till-you-make-it endeavor, doing so can really come back to bite you in the ass.

As a disclaimer, this situation happened as we ourselves were in the beginnings of our blogging an social programs (which sounds a bit like when your parents tell you, "Well, it was the 60s, times were different then...", I know) and have subsequently found someone within the company who is more than ready, willing and able to write their blog, and is doing a phenomenal job.

But here was a company who gets it, who wanted to ensure our agency would be able to impliement these strategies in a legitimate manner. Needless to say I was impressed, and after giving our prospects the...ahem...edited version of of our authenticity standards, I think they were too.


This example just reinforces, if Rule #1 is "Don't be that guy", Rule #2 is "Don't be that guy behind the curtain" - your clients (and prospective ones) will thank you for it, even though they may not get it at first.

Spinning Out Of Control

In reading today’s Boston Globe business story on the “high end” Cambridge consulting firm eSapience, Ltd., which was hired by former American Insurance Group (AIG) CEO and chairman Maurice Greenberg to improve his public perception, I am not sure who looks worse – Greenberg, eSapience or the high powered academics from MIT, University of Chicago and University College in London, who lent their time, brainpower, influence and connections to Greenberg’s PR campaign. I can’t admit to being up to speed on all things Maurice Greenberg (who was forced to resign by the AIG board in March 2005, but I highly doubt that whatever work eSapience did on his behalf (for $400 to $1,000 an hour) moved the needle, or at least did so in the right direction. And, adding the proverbial salt in the wounds, Greenberg’s new firm, C.V. Starr & Co. is refusing to pay more than $2 million in fees owed to eSapience. eSapience, according to the Globe piece, is not returning press calls and their web site is down. The article – both through Rob Weisman’s reporting and comments from business ethics experts questions why these prestigious academics would participate in the Greenberg campaign.

Wild guess here but money and political favors might be at play here somewhere.

Blogstars

As a continuation to an earlier post - Blog or Bust - here’s some more info on how the business of blogs continues to rock the future of PR…

Om Malik, senior writer at Business 2.0, and publisher of the wildly successful blog GigaOm, announced at yesterday’s Digital Magazine Forum that he is launching two new blogs. Malik is perhaps one of the first – and most revered – journalists to turn blogging into a legitimate business. He has a considerable staff of writers, collects advertising dollars, and is frequently quoted and referenced as a news source in other articles. Do a Google News search on his name, and you’ll find him quoted or his blog referenced just about everyday. He has arguably become as – if not more – influential as some of the industry analysts out there. As The Deal’s blog reports, “Malik is part of a select group of bloggers who have transcended the outsider image of a blogger to become something more significant, and raised seed money to expand a popular blog into a brand.”

And then there is Michael Arrington. A recent Wall Street Journal article profiles the serial entrepreneur and publisher of the famed TechCrunch blog. Dubbed “Silicon Valley’s newest power broker”, Arrington seems to have the power to turn start-ups to gold simply by writing about them on his blog. Companies mentioned on the blog often report huge bumps in business after they have been featured. Case in point: “ODesk Corp., which brokers jobs between computer programmers and companies, says a September write-up on TechCrunch snared five times as many new customers for the company as a BusinessWeek article earlier in the year.” According to the article, TechCrunch brings in about $120,000 in revenue a month, mostly from ads, sponsorships, an online job-posting service and the parties it holds.

This is all further proof that establishing relationships with blogstars like Malik and Arrington should be part of a tech company’s PR and marketing strategy.

Busy Circuits

Remember when popular reporters would not answer their phones (they still don’t) and told folks that email was the best way to reach them? Well, don’t hold your breath if you are trying to reach the likes of David Pogue of the New York Times. David reports cheerfully on his web site that he gets about 120 emails per day, not including spam. And he is not fan of MailBlocks either!

Google PR: Back To The Future?

Google raised some eyebrows in the national media – both the “traditional” print and their online brethren, which are essentially one and the same since their reporters write for both entities, as well as with bloggers – when its PR department took a decidedly 1992 approach to launching its Google Apps offering this week. The search behemoth bypassed bloggers in favor of traditional outlets like Information Week and the New York Times.

This strategy rankled Robert Scoble and even Rob Hof of BusinessWeek, neither of whom were part of Google’s chosen few for pre-briefings. Scoble theorizes that Google is purposely avoiding bloggers and he and Hof both find the irony in the fact that world’s biggest and most influential Internet company takes a rather old school media strategy approach with this announcement.

If Google’s intent is to become a serious enterprise software/services company and to influence corporate buyers and IT types, then this is all about picking the most appropriate media for an announcement of this type, not giving some outlets preferential treatment, while shafting others.

I say, good move Google

AOL’S Oh-No!

By virtue of the fact that I have never been an AOL customer, I realize that might put me in the minority, but I’m happy to be in this camp based on the embarrassing events of the past few weeks at AOL headquarters in Dulles.

Earlier this month, AOL disclosed it has mistakenly put on a public web page, the results of search queries by nearly a quarter million AOL users. Granted those were anonymous customers but these results were supposed to only be made available to academic researchers who were going to use the data to develop some new search tools. Well, today the Red Herring is reporting that New York Times’ reporters were able to use the search information to track down one user. So maybe not so anonymous.

Other media outlets have predictably gotten involved, most likely fueled by motivations to further embarrass the Web giant. For example, Web site Valleywag published a regular feature, titled “AOL Creepy User Watch.”

Yesterday, AOL’s CTO Maureen Govern fell on her sword and resigned – she was only on the job for eleven months. Joining Govern were two other members of her team. Now, trying to clean up this mess, AOL has created – are you ready for this? a “task force” – ooh boy led by top execs Ted Leonis and Randy Boe to implement some new aka real privacy measures.

It gets better, or worse, depending on your perspective.

How does a world-class organization like AOL respond via its PR department?

How’s this for a professional response? -- “This was a screw-up, and we’re angry and upset about it,” AOL spokesman Andrew Weinstein said shortly after the data was released (see “AOL Leaks Search Data”).

AOL can and must do better from their C-Suite to the privacy gurus in their labs all the way down to their communications department. If not, they can expect users to continue to look for safer, better alternatives for online content and communications tools. I for one, won’t be signing up for an AOL account anytime soon.