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It’s Springtime, Must be Showtime

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It’s a rite of passage — that moment when you realize that the bulk of industry conferences and trade shows are scheduled in the Spring and early Autumn. Not all, mind you. There are trade shows going on all year long in the USA. But the concentration in May June September and October, at least in the US, is amazing. You could literally go from conference to conference, just returning home to get clean shirts and underwear. I suppose some people do…. At least I hope they are getting clean undies….

Anyway, here are a few conferences and events coming up over the next few months that marketing and PR folk should check out.

Next week in NYC, Syndicate (May 16-17). Everything you always wanted to know about syndication. I will be live-blogging the conference for Corante. Posts will appear here and on the Corante Marketing Hub for sure, maybe some other places too. PubSub is aggregating the blogs from speakers, sponsors and attendees.

Next month:

NYC, June 8-9, the 2006 Innovative Marketing Conference, sponsored by Corante and the Center on Global Brand Leadership of Columbia Business School. It is a two-day event. The first day is a "CMO Summit" for CMOs and VPs of Marketing. The second day is a "Marketer’s Forum"  open to the public. I’m not attending this one, as I have a conflict, but the speaker list is fantastic, so I urge you to check it out. Somewhere in my pile of email is a note that my readers can get a discount, so if anyone is interested, drop me a note and I’ll dig it out.

Interested in bank marketing? I certainly am, thanks to my client who sells CRM systems for banks! The Boston Chapter of the AMA is getting an exclusive first look at TD Banknorth’s new marketing campaign from Tom Dyck, TD Banknorth EVP and Director of Marketing. The presentation will be held Friday June 9 from 11 am – 1:30 pm at Banners Restaurant at the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston. Plus we get a special behind-the-scenes tour of the Garden, including areas not usually accessible to the public.

July:

San Jose, CA July 28-29. BlogHer. Day One is sold out, but last I heard, there was still space at the cocktail party and  for Day Two. Come be part of the Business Blogging unpanel on Day Two that I am doing with Yvonne DiVita and Toby Bloomberg. We want you to come share your stories!! The whole concept of the unpanel is that everyone participates and together we build a collective deliverable. In this case, we’ll call it best practices for business blogging. More background on the unpanel in this post. And more to come late May, early June.

Disclosures: I am a member of the Corante Marketing Hub and the Boston Chapter of the AMA, and a speaker at (and longtime fan of) BlogHer.

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Defying Gravity: Women Bloggers

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"I’m through accepting limits

‘cuz someone says they’re so

Some things I cannot change

But till I try I’ll never know"

– Defying Gravity, from Wicked

Last night, my husband and I saw Wicked at Boston’s Opera House. The play (and the book it is based on) are wonderful, but the theme that really resonated for me was the friendship between the Wicked Witch and Glinda.

This is a busy week, so the blog will be pretty quiet. But tonight, I want to tell you about some "wicked" women bloggers who I truly value. In no particular order:

Toby Bloomberg, Diva Marketing. Toby was one of the first bloggers to welcome me into the blogosphere, and I continue to value her business and marketing blog perspective.

Yvonne DiVita, Lip-sticking. Yvonne is a pioneer in the field of marketing to women online. She is also one of the most delightful and genuine people I have ever met.

Toby,Yvonne and I will be facilitating a business blogging "unpanel" at BlogHer this July. Come and share your blog marketing experiences.

Elisa Camahort. I met Elisa when I submitted a speaking proposal for the first BlogHer conference last year. I was, and still am, totally impressed what she and her BlogHer partners Lisa Stone and Jory Des Jardins have achieved with the BlogHer conference.

Kami Huyse. I virtually met Kami (and Andrea Weckerle) as a result of a notorious PR character blog. Kami is passionate about the practice of public relations, and her blog is full of information that helps us all be better communicators and professionals.

Andrea Weckerle. Andrea is one of the "quiet ones." You know, the folks who you think/know are totally serious and then they surprise you with another side of their personality. I’m still laughing at some of the content she and Bill Green came up with when they subbed for Scott Baradell at the Media Orchard. Andrea cares, and she uses her blog to make a difference.

Elizabeth Albrycht. Elizabeth is a fellow Corante blogger. Her background is strong and rich in PR practice, but currently she is working toward her Masters. As a result, her blog tends to have a more intellectual/theoretical bent. And we all benefit from her perspective. Down in the dog eat dog trenches, it is nice to spend a few moments every now and then on why.

Mary Schmidt. There are no words sufficient to describe Mary. Seriously. Mary is also a Corante blogger, and her perspective on marketing (and particularly customer service) is spot on. Even if you are already reading tons of marketing blogs. Frank. Honest. On your side. Friday Martinis. That is Mary. I’m glad she’s on my side.

In fact, I am glad that all of these wicked, wonderful women bloggers are on my side, and am glad to call them friends. As my regular readers know, the label "friend" means a lot to me.

"Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better?

I do believe I have been changed for the better

And because I knew you…

Because I knew you…

Because I knew you… I have been changed for good."

– For Good, from Wicked

PS: There are a lot of great male bloggers on my reading list too. But tonight it is all about the wicked women bloggers. Take no offense!

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It’s not about blogs

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“I sent the club a wire stating, PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON’T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.” – Groucho Marx

Okay, here goes nothing. I think Daniel Bernstein from Bite PR is a good writer. It’s swell that he included me with Jeremy Pepper and Steve Rubel in his post. Yeah he called us  “fanatical” — but maybe it was a compliment, so I am taking it as such. Hey, I’ve been called worse things this week, by far lesser “people.”

But… the idea that any group, no matter how it is constructed, should take over “management” of the PR blogosphere is wrong. So wrong.

Here’s why.

It’s not about blogs. Or link rank. Or any other rating system you can dig up. The reason blogs have traction is that they deliver on the promise of the World Wide Web. Everybody *can* be a publisher. That completely changes the equation — the “printing press” is no longer scarce, limited to those with deep pockets. Companies really have to give a shit about their customer.

Is that killing PR? Some think so. I don’t. Or at least, it is not killing PR as I know and practice it. PR is about telling the story. Yes to the media, but also to other publics. And no matter what, it has to be a good story. Bloggers like a good story as much as, if not more than, anyone.

The mushroom mentality (keep ’em in the dark and cover them with shit) doesn’t work anymore. About time.

If you want to succeed in the new world, it really is all about the customer. And not lip service. Really about the customer. As a marketer, that is a state of affairs I have strived for most of my career. Blogs facilitate this, but truly, it doesn’t matter if a company EVER does a blog. If it engages more fully with its customers, we’ve got a win.

Tell the truth. If it ain’t pretty, fix it. If you can’t fix it, do something else.

So, I don’t want to regulate anything. It is the Wild Wild West, and that is as it should be. At least for a little while longer. Command and control. No way. Engage and educate. Ethics. You bet. PR and marketing practitioners that take that approach will be successful.

But let’s not repeat our mistakes.

Try to stuff the genie back in the bottle.Um. No.

Try to impose old style agency models. Um. No.

Identify the leaders and tell everyone else they are in charge. Um. Really No.

Focus on helping our clients (and ourselves) figure this all out and do the level best we can in this new world. You bet. Will we get it right every time? Probably not. But that is okay.

Is blogging the “killer app?” Some say yes. I say not really. The “killer app” isn’t the tool we use. It is the change in attitude that blogging represents. We no longer tell the customer the story. We let him be part of it, for good or ill. Whether he or she does that through a blog or a podcast or a wiki or even a regular old Web site, it doesn’t matter. The killer app is the customer.

And blogs give her a voice whether the company ever blogs a word. Yup.

Now, some measure success by the Fortune 500 and what they adopt. More power to you. I do not, because that isn’t where change starts. In fact, it takes a good long while. Big companies are slow to move and risk averse.

Change usually happens in small to mid-size companies. And guess what, there are way more of those than there are big guys.

And I do see change. Companies (large and small) are looking at social media as part of the marketing mix. Customers are valued, not just counted. And you know, even some of the Fortune 500 are paying attention. Bonus points.

But it’s not just about blogs, folks, so expand your vision.

It’s about people.

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The power of language

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I’ve been thinking quite a bit about words lately — and please read until the end, there will be some choice ones. Promise.

A few things kicked off this rumination. First, Mack Collier and Nellie Lide  posted some thoughts about the word "consumer." And then my son asked me about the International Association of Nobodies— he was initially concerned about being one 🙂 and I had to explain why being one was a good thing.

That got me started on words. What do they mean, really? Isn’t the meaning delivered by your context and your own filters? For example, the word consumer. For me, it is nothing more than a word to distinguish people as individuals versus people in their business roles. Ie business media, consumer media. It is the aggregrate. I appreciate Mack and Nellie’s comments about the word consumer, but I wonder — isn’t the real problem HOW we market, not the label we use, whether it be consumer or customer or whatever. Changing the label doesn’t change the behavior, much as we wish it might. If you are a change agent, and I do consider myself one, you need to focus on the behaviors first. Don’t worry so much about the words. Make the customer the focus, and he won’t give a damn WHAT you call him 🙂

Which brings me to nobodies. I was on vacation last week, so apparently missed the bulk of the contretemps (thank god, my testosterone meter clearly would have gotten a workout). But nonetheless, it is worth revisiting. For me, the whole point of the nobodies wasn’t the insult to any one person; it was a collective reaction to "rankism." The idea that one has to be a SOMEBODY for one’s opinion to matter.

I have always believed that everybody’s opinion has value. When you stop learning from others, you stop living. The wonder of blogs is that they give so many the opportunity to speak. Even if only to one other. As I posted in a nobody’s blog comment, everybody is a somebody to someone. All you need is one reader to make a difference.

Translation: you are f***** the minute you start believing your own press 😉 It is really about what you do. With your words, with your life, with whatever influence you have. Not about how many stripes you perceive you have on your sleeve. Not about what you write or your Technorati ranking. Not about whether you have the status conveyed by the print press.

Whoever you are, make your words matter.

Utopian. Probably. Oh well. C’est dingue mais on y va.

Which brings me to the promised choice words. I made the decision yesterday to leave a comment on Shel Holtz’s blog relative to a nasty comment made by a blog troll about Shel. I made the comments knowing that said troll would probably use them to insult me again. Yes, l’il old me has been a target of this troll’s bile more than once. And predictably, (she he it) disparages me once again in the comments on Shel’s post.

Why am I bothering to mention it again? Not because I think it will make a bit of difference to this troll, hiding under her (?) bridge, sniping and spewing venom at the PR industry. She’ll probably show up in my comments with the usual bile, since I will not link to her. Or not. Catch-22.

The reason I commented, and the reason I am posting this now, is that this troll is just about the worst example of  elitism that I have ever seen. Obnoxious. Condescending. Insulting. Devoid of any positive contribution — in fact, I sense a real ax to grind. The troll’s blog ain’t about making PR better, it’s about spewing bile and venom. And with bad spelling to boot.

The list goes on. I really don’t care what (she he it) has to say. The words don’t matter.

J’en ai marre. Nous en avons marre. Allez-vous en.

Doesn’t it sound nicer en francais?

UPDATE 4:30pm EDT: I’ve been told that the online translation services have a bit of trouble with slang, so here’s the rough meaning (not literal translation) of the phrases I used above.

C’est dingue mais on y va –  It’s crazy but we’ll do it anyway. Also the name of a French comedy released in 1979.

J’en ai marre. Nous en avons marre – I’ve had it. We’ve had it.

Allez-vous en – Go away permanently, get lost, drop dead are all reasonable approximations.

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Nobody and “just me”

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I’ve been beyond busy this week with my client Bid4Assets’ special auction next week, so this is the first time I’ve had to say for the record, I am more than happy to proclaim myself  a nobody. As Ike Pigott said, the company is stellar.

Once again (as I often am,  it’s amazing how many situations lend themselves to this),  I am reminded of Alice’s Restaurant (Arlo Guthrie):

"You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both faggots and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and walking out. And friends, they may think it’s a movement."

And to some degree, that IS what blogging is. It is a movement, and it makes all of us nobodies, somebodies. I am both proud and humbled to be part of it.

Speaking of nobodies who are really somebodies, somebody I’m pleased to have gotten to know better in the past week is Robert French from the  University of Auburn. Robert invited Andrea Weckerle, Kami Huyse and me to speak with two of his classes earlier this week. Conversation ranged from the unfortunate PR character blogs to what it is like being a professional businesswoman to the issues/ills of the PR business to career planning.

 It was absolutely terrific to speak with the students. And we were all honored when Robert asked us to become contributors to Marcom Blog, a blog in which PR and MarCom professionals mentor his students. Robert, your students may have had momentary angst when you assigned their final projects, but I am sure they know how lucky they are to have you as a professor.

On a semi-serious note, to end this post:

When I phone my mum, I often self-identify as "just me." The other day, she called me on it and told me that "just me" was a pretty important person. Now, she’s my mum and she’s supposed to say things like that. But…. all joking about nobodies and somebodies and fake characters with delusions of grandeur (if you follow this blog you know who I mean), one of the things that I like most about blogging is that even a nobody is somebody to someone. All you need is one reader and you can make a difference.

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