November 17, 2008
In the comments here there and everywhere on the Motrin ad flap, a common theme was that the online moms — momosphere, Twitter moms, whatever — were NOT representative of moms in general.
Which of course got me thinking. How representative IS the momosphere? My gut tells me that it is highly influential and increasingly representative. And when it comes to extremely sensitive issues, like breastfeeding and babywearing, even more so.
But my gut instinct may not be enough for the average Fortune 500 company. While that’s a pity, I get it.
So, let’s prove it. I know it is there. Please send me links to whatever hard data you have about moms and the blogosphere. I’ll pull it all together in a follow-up post. I’ve got bits and pieces, but that’s not enough.
What we really need is a data. And a market research firm willing to support the question. Any takers?
Thanks!
Posted by Susan Getgood
10:43 pm •
Blogging •
I was offline most of the day yesterday at a dog club event so missed the tweetstorm around the Motrin babywearing commercial. If you aren’t familiar with the tale, Amy Gates, Katja Presnal and Robert French have the full story.
Short version: Motrin created what it must have thought was a humourous ad targeted at babywearing moms. Except the target audience didn’t think it was so funny. In fact, it was offended, and in my opinion, rightly so. Among other things, the copy was condescending and rang completely false.
Tweetstorm. Blogstorm. Motrin apologizes and takes video down.
And the analysis begins. While most of the reaction I’ve seen so far understands the fundamental marketing errors, even as I am catching up on the story, Shannon McKarney points out on Twitter, there is a chorus of folks who don’t get it and class the #motrinmoms reaction, and action, as overreacting.
So I thought it would be helpful to the slower students to review some fundamental issues.
The ad was targeted at babywearing moms. Lots of babywearing moms didn’t like it. That’s a FAIL. Full stop. Doesn’t matter whether some babywearing moms didn’t mind it or non-parents thought it was funny. If you fail to connect with a significant portion of your audience, your ad has failed. Extra demerits when, as in this case, you not only fail to engage, you actively piss them off.
Much of the online commentary I’ve seen so far has been on the power of the social networks. That consumer brands should take heed of them. Or not, at their peril. True enough. I agree, but the power here is not simply the network. It’s the community. The technology — the Internet, Twitter, blogs, YouTube etc — just helped the outrage build and spread further faster.
For which McNeil should be grateful. An ad as fundamentally bad as the babywearing one would have offended 20 years ago too. It just would have taken longer for the boycott to spread, and for the company to react, during which time sales might have really suffered. At least here, they can begin damage control sooner rather than later.
The power of the parent-blogging community makes crystal clear the consumer power of moms. The technology simply gives us new tools and new ways to wield it. We don’t just vote with our pocketbooks. We use our voices too.
Some social media consultants probably will use this example as “further proof” that bloggers are “dangerous” and brands must hire them to navigate the dangerous waters. While I agree that it wouldn’t hurt the big brands to get a little expert help (I’m available), especially if they plan to do proactive outreach, it shouldn’t be out of fear or worry that bloggers will attack. That only tends to happen when brands don’t do their homework.
Make sure there’s water in the pool before you jump.
In this case, of course, McNeil wasn’t reaching out to bloggers. And that’s the second important part of the lesson. Why not?
It’s not a big secret that the mom-blogging community is large, active and increasingly powerful. Mainstream media has written stories about it. Johnson’s, another unit of corporate parent J&J, had a much publicized mom blogger event last spring. There are bloggers with babywearing in the blog title so it’s not like it would be really hard to find a few 
It’s always a good idea to put your listening ears on and apply a little common sense. The team behind this ad clearly didn’t do either, or it would have known that babywearing is an issue about which many moms are very very passionate. The ad’s content and tone were quite simply wrong. FAIL.
Why didn’t it ask a few babywearing moms to weigh in on the ad? Or maybe even be in it? I can think of quite a few reasons why moms might want to take a painkiller, and real voices would have rung so much truer than the chipper voiceover in the ad.
It might not have been as funny… but then again, it wasn’t really funny anyway, was it?
Now, McNeil and the Motrin team have an opportunity to turn this around. I hope they take it.
Posted by Susan Getgood
10:40 am •
Blogging •
November 2, 2008
Quite some time ago, my friend David Wescott wrote a post outlining the 3R’s of blogger relations: Respect, Relationship and Relevance, a framework quite similar to my own approach both at the time and still.
Not at all surprising, since a shared conviction about how to engage with bloggers was how we met in the first place.
Since I am more or less relaunching Marketing Roadmaps at this new URL, I thought it would be a good time to revisit these core concepts.
Let’s start with Respect.
What made David’s post so good was the introduction of the word Respect. Most of the thinkers in the space (myself included) had been talking about Relationship and Relevance as well as the ideas he categorized as Respect. But his post was the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone applied the actual word.
And it is such a perfect word to describe the attitude with which you, the pitcher, should approach the blogger, the pitchee. Yes I know that is not a word. Sue me.
With respect. For his time. For the passions that fuel her blog. For the person. For the blog.
Here are some of the things that demonstrate lack of respect for the blogger that have crossed my desk in the last few months, either directly or forwarded from friends.
- Messy emails, with multiple fonts, addressed to Dear Blogger, Name not available or some such. Probably forwarded more than once,
- No actual signature, just a boiler plate email signature. Even worse - an email sent from one account but signed by another person. Really has that personal touch, you know.
- Pitches to review books that want the blogger to flog the book or interview the author but don’t offer a review copy. Why on earth would anyone do that?
- Repeated follow-ups, often through multiple channels. One is acceptable. After that you are stalking. Back off.
- Refusing to provide review product after sending a pitch. Hullo — you got a hit. Assuming you targeted properly (yeah I know, big assumption), you should PLAN on sending review product. Offering a jpeg? Not good enough.
- Pretense. Here’s a recent example. Sara from Suburban Oblivion relates a pitch she received from a product geared to preteen girls. She was somewhat interested and requested review product. The company refused, and not in the most elegant fashion. Bad enough, really, but when Sara blogged the story, someone related to the company left an unattributed positive comment on the blog. Read the denoument on Suburban Oblivion. Remember — pretend is a great game for children, and even has its place in our adult lives, but it is not an appropriate blogger relations tactic.
- Invitations to events the blogger couldn’t possible attend. Even worse, press releases about PAST events to which you did not invite the blogger at all.
If you are going to reach out to bloggers, you must develop a very healthy respect for the the fact that most bloggers have no intrinsic reason to be interested in what you have to say. They may indeed be your customers and interested in your product, but it is not their job to promote your product. That’s your job. If you want their help, you have got to put it in a context that is important to them. That’s the concept of Relevance, which we’ll review later this week
—
In a special hell all its own is the absolutely awful pitch that made the rounds last week following the family tragedy of actress Jennifer Hudson. I won’t link to it here, but here are some commentaries from Twitter pals Katja Presnal, David Parmet and Kevin Dugan.
I wish this was the first time in my life I had seen such a piss poor PR reaction to a tragedy, but it isn’t. People are blinded by the perceived relevance of their product and lose all perspective about the personal nature of tragedies. It’s stupid, tasteless, disrespectful and shows a total lack of common sense. And happens all the time. It’s also easy to avoid. When the temptation strikes to capitalize on tragedy, and it well may, just say no. There is absolutely no way your product is SO RELEVANT that it merits the disgraceful behavior of capitalizing on another person’s tragedy. Full stop.
—
Finally, all practicing PR people should read BL Ochman’s post PR Industry Leaders Put Their Feet in Their Mouths at Critical Issues Forum and ask themselves, is this me? Am I doing better or perpetuating the problem? What can I do better?
One of the things we can most definitely do better is to improve the relevancy of our pitches, and not just to bloggers. To journalists too. More on that later this week.
—
UPDATE, 11/3: This post hadn’t been up a day before a friend, a Massachusetts mom blogger whose home page clearly states her name and state, tweeted about the pitch below. Unfortunately, I couldn’t ask for a better example of the importance of respect for the blogger, especially since the event is for a good cause which is also tarnished by the bad pitch.
Posted by Susan Getgood
10:27 pm •
Blogger relations,
Ethics,
PR •
October 29, 2008
If you are in the Boston-area and either involved with or interested in social media, you should attend the Society for New Communications Research’s Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala.
WHEN: Friday November 14, 2008
WHERE: The Hotel Marlowe in Cambridge
The Research Symposium runs all day, from 8:30 am to 5pm. The Awards Dinner starts at 7:00.
For more information or to register, www.sncr.org/symposium08
Now, if you run a public relations or social media firm in the Boston area, and this year has been good for you, consider sharing the love with the clients that have made it possible. Purchase a table (or two) at the Awards Gala and invite some clients to join you for the evening’s festivities. They’ll hear from and about the companies and individuals being honored at the event. Perhaps they’ll decide they’d like to be on the podium next year and greenlight that social media project you’ve been pitching or increase their social media budget.
If you do it, let me know, and I’ll give you a little love here on the blog for your support of the Society.
On the blog, people. On the blog.
Posted by Susan Getgood
6:04 pm •
SNCR,
Social media •
October 24, 2008
Earlier this week, a friend tweeted from the Marketing2Moms conference in Chicago that one of the panelists had commented that marketers needed to be careful with bloggers because they might bite.
I thought about this. Thought about it some more.
And the more I did, the more the concept irked me. Because it’s not true. Bloggers don’t bite. Not really. We bark. Sometimes very loudly.
But — for the most part – it’s not about hurting you. It’s about being heard.
Now, before I take this analogy any further — and I am going to — let me be clear. I am not saying bloggers are bitches or dogs. They might be… but not generically or collectively. That’s something you have to decide on a case by case basis
I do however find some interesting parallels in canine behavior and figured, let’s have a little fun on a Friday night.
I realize however that not everyone finds such comparisons apt. I remember a former co-worker who took umbrage when I described her hair color, which I thought was lovely, as brindle. Like a Scottish Terrier coat. To me, it was a compliment. To her, not so much.
So, if this sort of parallel bothers you, read no further. Perhaps pop over to Snapshot Chronicles and see the election videos I posted earlier today.
Still with me? Okay, let’s go.
Why did this comment about bloggers biting irritate me so much? In part because it sounds like scare tactics designed to make the assembled marketers so worried about engaging with bloggers that they will hire the consultant who made the comment. Now, perhaps they should hire a consultant with experience reaching out to bloggers but fear creates the wrong atmosphere for authentic engagement.
But what irritated me the most was that it is not true. Most bloggers bark, not bite. Just like most dogs.
Sure, there’s the occasional ranter who goes off on anything and everything with no warning. Just like the dog years and years ago that jumped up and bit me on the upper arm for absolutely no reason and with no warning while I was speaking quietly to the owner during a canvassing effort for NARAL.
But if you pay attention, bloggers tell you what’s important to them. What they care about. How to engage with them. Just like dogs bark to go out, bark when they want dinner, and bark like crazy when the UPS driver pulls up or they sense stranger danger. They warn you off and they defend their territory.
Just like bloggers.
Now, if you don’t listen, maybe you will get bit. But it is rarely without warning. Rarely unavoidable. And quite simply rare. Dogs don’t bite as a matter of course, and neither do bloggers.
There’s no reason to be scared. Approach slowly. Look for the clues. Pay attention. Get to know the other party. Reach out carefully.
And you might just make a friend for life.
October 18, 2008
I was honored to be on two panels at BlogHer Boston on October 11th. I taped them both, with the good intentions of using the tapes to write my posts about the panels, both of which were a blast to do.
But time presses on, and when I gave a quick listen yesterday, I realized the quality was pretty good. So I did a little post-production on the files and here they are!
The first panel, Blogging Basics: I blog therefore I am, was moderated by BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins. My fellow panelists were Candelaria Silva Collins and Christine Koh.
Read the live blog coverage here. Download the mp3 here.
I was the moderator of the second panel, Social Media can save your business, and was joined by Laura Fitton, aka Pistachio on Twitter and Laura Tomasetti from 360 PR.
Read the live blog coverage here. Download the mp3 here.
Posted by Susan Getgood
11:53 pm •
BlogHer,
Blogging •
October 17, 2008
I’ve been on the road since Tuesday morning, travelling first to a Chicago suburb to give my social media 101 presentation to the consumer relations group of an international consumer products company and then to Cincinnati to give a similar talk to the Ohio Conference of AAA Clubs Annual Meeting.
Presenting to mostly newbie audiences stands in stark contrast to my recent panels at Blogworld Expo and BlogHer, where the folks in the audience were active social media users looking to expand their knowledge about specific things, whether it be monetization of the blog, how to balance personal privacy with public blogging or the best way to integrate Twitter and blogger relations into a social media strategy.
The events this week were also convened for entirely different purposes than to talk social media. The first was an offsite for the consumer relations team and the second an annual meeting of AAA affiliate clubs in Ohio. My social media presentations were one very small part of a packed agenda focused on business issues, not blogging.
It was an incredibly refreshing week outside of the social media echo chamber. While both organizations were very interested in learning about blogs and social networks, social media wasn’t the only topic of discussion. As a result, I had an opportunity to hear about the pressing issues driving their businesses.
This perspective is invaluable. We get so caught up in the echo chamber, we sometimes forget that for social media to be relevant, it has to be solving real world business problems.
Which it does. Don’t get me wrong. I absolutely believe that social media participation is a critical component for 21st century customer engagement. It just needs to be grounded in the needs of the business. And its customers.
Not the needs of the companies flogging the latest widget or tool set.
Some thoughts that were validated this week in my time outside the echo chamber.
Large multinationals face a crossroads that smaller companies may never see. Who “owns” the relationship with the customer? Both marketing and customer service/consumer relations have a legitimate “claim” to this relationship, and due to organizational size, they tend to operate in silos of responsibility.
Marketing and consumer relations also have very different reasons for listening to and engaging with customers. Marketing listens to understand what messages motivate purchase. Customer service and consumer relations are charged with resolving customer problems or complaints, and sending the customer feedback up the chain to product marketing.
But the consumer doesn’t see or care about these silos. She does NOT divide the experience with a product into before sale and after sale. She just buys a product. It is going to require executive commitment at the highest levels, cross-functional teams and deep, deep cooperation to get this right in these large multi-nationals.
AAA faces a similar challenge. While the brand is national, the clubs are locally owned, independently operated businesses. It’s a mega-franchise.
It also has more than 50 million users nationwide, which is a helluva base for an online community. The trick will be for the national organization and its clubs to figure out how to divide the responsibility for online customer engagement. Some of it needs to be done nationally. Other elements will be much more successful at the local level. Again, deep cooperation will be required.
The good news is that the organization understands that its members, current and future, are online and has started to ask the right questions.
A brief aside about AAA, since I told my flat tire horror story during the session and I expect that some of my listeners will be reading this post. I forgot to tell this story during the speech and it is one of the times I have been most glad to be an AAA member.
I’ve been a member all my driving life. When I got my license at 19, my mom gave me her used car (so she wouldn’t have to schlep me to college) and an AAA membership.
In the mid-80s, my apartment in Lawrence Mass was robbed. Stereo, tv, jewelry but most sadly, my porcelain doll collection. The responding police officers told me it was a long shot I would ever see my stolen goods again, but if I did happen to see them in a pawn shop, to call the police first and wait for them to go in and claim the goods.
I didn’t have much hope.
A few weeks later, imagine my surprise when, driving back to my office in Methuen after picking up some airline tickets for my brother at AAA in Lawrence, I happened to glance over at a pawn shop window, and saw some of my very unique porcelain dolls in the window. This was before cell phones so I pulled into a parking space, and used a pay phone to call the detectives. They came and we got my stolen property back. All my dolls.
Nothing else was recovered, but we did learn who pawned the goods (and probably stole them in the first place) and they were prosecuted for receiving stolen goods.
All because I was driving back from AAA in Lawrence on my lunch hour.
Back to my week outside the echo chamber.
I’ve decided that I definitely need a better way of introducing Twitter. It needs a demo. A screen shot and description don’t cut it with a truly neophyte audience. They don’t always ask for more explanation. Luckily, in one session where I did have some pretty confused folks, I got an opportunity at the break to show it to them on my BlackBerry and explain things a little better. Enough that I’m expecting some new followers in the near future.
It was a great week, but I am glad to be home. My deepest thanks to both organizations for inviting me into their programs. I hope they got something out of the experience. I certainly did.
–
Next on Marketing Roadmaps: I taped both of my panels at BlogHer Boston, and hope to post some decent sound files over the weekend. Stay tuned! Fair warning, though: this post will only go up on the new site, so change your bookmarks and RSS subscriptions now
NEW SUBSCRIPTION LINKS:
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Posted by Susan Getgood
9:27 pm •
Blogging,
Social media •
October 12, 2008
Since I am still cross-posting to both the old Typepad site and this new Wordpress one, and the blog name hasn’t changed, it isn’t so simple to tell if you’ve successfully subscribed to the new feed.
Hence this post. Which is only being posted on the new site. If you are reading this in your RSS reader, you’ve successfully subscribed to the new feed.
As I mentioned in the earlier post, we are still dusting off the furniture, so if you find something broken, please drop me a note, sgetgood@getgood.com or @sgetgood on Twitter.
Posted by Susan Getgood
9:45 am •
Mathom Room •
October 10, 2008
Marketing Roadmaps has moved!
We’re still dusting off a few things so I probably won’t have any major posts up until next week. I also will cross-post for about a week to give everyone time to update their bookmarks and subscriptions, but around October 20th, all Marketing Roadmaps posts will be here, http://getgood.com/roadmaps
I will keep the Typepad account (getgood.typepad.com) through 2009 (perhaps longer, not sure) so inbound links to the old blog will not break, however, all the posts have been migrated. Thanks Karen!
NEW SUBSCRIPTION LINKS:
Subscribe to Marketing Roadmaps in an RSS Reader
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Technorati Profile
NOTE: A reader reported problems subscribing to the Wordpress blog on a Mac. We’re trying to track it down, but both the original and Feedburner feeds validate, and it appears to be working in Windows with both FF and IE so I am a bit confused as to what the problem could be. Stay tuned, and if you have any thoughts, please do share.
NOTE 2: I think everything is fixed now. Cross fingers.
Posted by Susan Getgood
1:24 pm •
Blogging,
Mathom Room •
