Marketing Roadmaps

Blogging

Coming attractions…

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I’m in the final days of the first draft of Professional Blogging for Dummies so no time to post until next week. Here’s what you can look forward to on Marketing Roadmaps when I come back:

Douches, snakes and Brand Ambassadors — my take on some topics that have been swirling around Twitter this week. Preview: These bad pitches are proof positive that the blogger outreach webinar we are doing on April 6th is very much needed.

Why (most) PR and ad agencies (still) don’t get social media — Inspired by a post from good friend Todd Defren. I agree with Todd that most ad agencies don’t get it, but, see previous item, don’t believe many PR agencies are any better. I’ll explain why.

And over on my personal blog Snapshot Chronicles, I’ll be posting Mainstream Media versus Woman, my take on the issues underlying stories like the March 14th New York Times feature on mom blogs.

Schadenfreude, blogger relations and a little fiber

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I am beyond busy trying to wrap up Professional Blogging for Dummies and prepping for some speaking engagements, including the April 6th Bridging Brands and Bloggers session.

But a few things crossed my desk this week that reminded me how far we STILL have to go in creating authentic relationships with our customers. Normally, I’d pull screenshots and stuff, but we’ll have to do without this week. Chalk it up to my overall exhaustion. And trust me, copies of the pitches referred to here ARE in my inbox.

Schadenfreude
That’s taking pleasure in the misfortune of others, and yes, we all do it to some extent. But seriously, issuing press releases and doing blogger outreach on the back of another company’s recall? Ambulance chasing. Gross. Don’t do it. Build your story on your features, not on another’s shortcomings. The saddest thing? The brand in question has a lot going for it. Good PR counsel? Not so much.

Fiber
If you represent a fiber cereal, or related product, you’ve got a tough road. No one really wants to write about bowel movements, not withstanding the stereotype that mom blogs are about pampers and poop. You’ve got to be far more creative than the average bear.

Alas, the pitch that hit mom bloggers this week wasn’t creative. In fact, it was disingenuous. More than one mom blogger I know was confused. Was the company looking for consulting services? Participation in a focus group? Or, as it turned out, simply looking to ship product and get reviews.

Be upfront. Don’t send a pitch asking for “insights” and advice when what you want is a review. Especially to bloggers who do not do reviews. Target appropriately and communicate clearly.

It’s not enough to know who to send the pitch to.

You’ve got to get to know the person.

These are the issues we are going to discuss in the April 6th Bridging Brands & Bloggers webinar. If you work with pr and marketing reps, tell them about it. If you are a pr or marketing person, tell your boss you want to attend.

We’ll give you the inside scoop on what works, and what doesn’t, when reaching out to bloggers.

Blog with Integrity news

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Between the book, travel and work, my blogs have been a bit neglected this year. So, I’m really glad that I can finally take the wraps off the Blog with Integrity projects we’ve been working on since the beginning of the year.

Advisory Board: We are honored to welcome Liza Barry-Kessler, Gwen Bell, Isabel Kallman, Lisa Stone and David Wescott to the team as members of the Blog with Integrity Advisory Board.

New website: We’ve updated the website with more information about the team, our mission and upcoming events. We also added an Organizational Pledge so companies can show their support for the principles of the pledge.

Bridging Brands & Bloggers webinar: We are very excited about this webinar for PR, marketing and advertising professionals to be held on April 6th from noon to 1:30 eastern. We’ll talk about best practices for blogger outreach and the impact of the FTC endorsement guidelines on brands and bloggers. Plus an exclusive panel of influential bloggers will share their experiences working with brands. More details and registration information are on the website. Please spread the word!

Bridging Brands & Bloggers is sponsored by the Council of Public Relations Firms, and we are very grateful for their support.

On the road: We’ve been taking the Blog with Integrity message on the road. In February, I spoke at BlissDom about best practices and disclosure, and at Mom 2.0, my colleagues Liz Gumbinner and Julie Marsh were on a panel about the FTC guidelines. In the coming months, I’ll be on panels at BlogPaws, TBEX and BlogHer talking about disclosure and ethical best practices. I’m also doing a session for for marketing professionals about the impact of the guidelines at New Comm Forum.

I have a discount code for BlogPaws so drop me a note if you are planning to attend. For New Comm Forum, register here using discount code NCF117.

And then there’s the book. Professional Blogging for Dummies (Wiley, July 2010). As my Facebook page says: “I used to have a life. Now I have a book.” If you have a few minutes in the next few days, I would so appreciate it if you would take the blogger survey for the book. I’ll probably close the survey next week. Here’s the link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/8GY3Z2F

Emptying the bit bucket: books, pitches and too fat to fly?

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Heard on Twitter about a big brand: Apparently the brand is using multiple word of mouth agencies on blogger outreach programs for the same company initiative. Some of the agencies are offering compensation for posts, others not. Here’s the kicker though: some bloggers are getting both sorts of pitches. For the same program. Ouch!

And before you ask: yes I know who it is, no I am not telling, and I’d appreciate it if my readers do not “out” the brand in the comments either. I’m telling this story to make a point, not to embarrass anyone.

Here’s the lesson. It’s okay to have different programs for the same initiative. Just make sure the programs are highly differentiated, especially if some include compensation and others do not. And for heaven’s sake, de-dupe the lists, and do your best to make sure that bloggers only get ONE of the pitches.

Too fat to fly? The ‘net was all a-twitter over the weekend and yesterday about the @ThatKevinSmith and Southwest Air incident Saturday. It was all over the mainstream media as well, but just in case you missed it (on vacation at the South Pole, crossing Alaska with a dog team, climbing Mt. Everest, etc.), here’s the short story.

Director Kevin Smith (“Clerks”) was asked to get off a full Southwest flight from Oakland to Burbank last Saturday for “safety reasons.”  He twittered about it as it was happening, and later released a special, very long, very ranty episode of his podcast with the blow by blow.

Smith has 1.6 million Twitter followers, so the whole thing blew up hard and fast. And of course, the whole situation was further fueled by the fat/thin debate.

Eventually,  Southwest apologized, sort of but not really, which further inflamed Smith. They then apologized again, as detailed in both this Nuts about Southwest post and Smith’s final word on the subject in his blog.

I’m not going to do a blow by blow analysis. The pundits have analyzed this thing to death, and it’s pretty clear that this was a customer service snafu that evolved into a full-blown communications crisis due to bad decisions and the power of social networks.

Southwest has learned a hard lesson. What can we learn from it?

First, exercise a little common sense. The entire situation could have been avoided in multiple ways. First, the obvious — just let the man fly. Southwest also could have chosen to NOT clear Smith from the standby list if they were truly already hyper-aware of fliers with “safety issues.” Is that right? No, of course not. It’s awful and stupid and ugly. But, it would have avoided the problem. Putting the man on the flight and then taking him off is the problem, because, truly, he didn’t get any fatter while waiting to board the flight.

Second, and I know others have said this as well: When you apologize to someone, you really should apologize for the thing that actually upset the other party. Otherwise, it isn’t an apology. It’s a justification. The lawyers may not like it, but good  customer relations demands it. When you screw up, own it. All of it.

Enough of this. I may write about this on my travel blog this weekend — after I fly Southwest to Houston for Mom 2.0. The airlines  — all of them — do have a problem. As they try to pack more seats into each plane and then pack each plane to capacity to improve the bottom line, the US population is getting larger. It’s not good. It just is.

Finally, I meant to post this weeks ago, but forgot. The second edition of David Meerman Scott’s book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR (Amazon affiliate link), has just been released. While I don’t agree with all of David’s tactics, it’s a good introductory text on how to use social media in your marketing plan.

What don’t I agree with? I am a profound opponent of using press releases to reach customers. News, yes. The press release form, no. Otherwise, our approaches to integrating marketing and social media are pretty similar.

Blogging Survey for Professional Blogging for Dummies

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This Friday, I will be moderating Got Strategy?,the opening panel of the professional track at Mom 2.0. The panelists — Isabel Kallman, Joanne White and Mir Kamin — will share lessons learned, good and bad, in building their professional blogs.

I’ll also be sharing some of the results to-date of the blogger survey for my book, Professional Blogging for Dummies (Wiley, July 2010).

If you write a personal, small business or independent professional blog (ie not associated with or for a big brand), please take a few minutes to add your experiences with your blog to the survey. Professional Blogging for Dummies Survey.

Thanks!

(Updated 2/17 with new panelist name)