Marketing Roadmaps

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Privileged and Confidential… Pitches?

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We interrupt our current Johnson & Johnson analysis programming to bring you my latest pet peeve. I mean, I know you were waiting for it, right?

Why, please tell me, why are PR agencies  including "privileged and confidential" footers on their pitches?

Like this one:

—– This email is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential or otherwise protected from disclosure. Dissemination, distribution or copying of this e-mail or the information herein by anyone other than the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering the message to the intended recipient, is prohibited. If you have received this e-mail in error or would like not to receive future emails from AGENCY please immediately notify us by forwarding this email to PostMaster@AGENCY.com.

And this one:

Privileged and confidential information may be contained in this e-mail and any files transmitted with it are intended only for the use of the addressee. If you are not the addressee, or not the person responsible for delivering it to the person addressed, you may not copy or deliver this to anyone else. If you receive this e-mail by mistake, please notify us immediately by telephone or e-mail and delete it from your system immediately. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted with this email. Thank you.

 I do understand that these footers are added globally at the email server level, but it is beyond me why PUBLIC RELATIONS agencies, whose job it is to spread the word, would do this. Don’t you want people to tell other people?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to train staff to add this information to their email signature when something really IS privileged?

It just looks stupid to see such a disclaimer on what is clearly a generic pitch.

Unless of course they have some faint hope that this disclaimer will prevent bloggers from passing the pitches around amongst themselves.

That would really be stupid.

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PR people: do your homework BEFORE you reach out to bloggers

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As we’ve seen this week alone, from the Camp Baby blogstorm and other incidents (like inviting Jewish moms to Disney over Passover), it is painfully apparent that many PR firms and reps reaching out to bloggers don’t do their homework. This is probably the root cause of the most egregious blogger relations SNAFUs. A poorly written pitch makes you chuckle. A poorly targeted one pisses you off.

Some of you may recall my 4Ps of social media:   

  • Prepare   
  • Participate   
  • Then and only then Pitch or Publish.

Companies and agencies spend far more time analyzing every word to create the perfect pitch and putting together spectacular events designed to wow bloggers and customers, than they do on the research — on getting to know bloggers, reading the blogs, figuring out who would be most interested in a particular product or program.

They still play the numbers game — build as big a list as possible, focus on the "top" blogs and bloggers, blast the pitch and see what falls out.  I, on the other hand, am convinced that if you spend the time to narrow your list and reach out to a smaller number of bloggers who will be very interested, you’ll get better results. 

I’ll give you an example. I created a small program for HP last year for the launch of the HP Photo Books. I’ve written about it here before, and we’ll be presenting a case study that includes it at BlogHer Business in April. I’ll publish the full case study here after the presentation, but for now, I want to focus on how we decided who to reach out to with the Photographic Memories component of the program.

You could make an assumption that most moms take pictures of their kids. Pretty safe bet. But the Photographic Memories project involved a time intensive component of writing interviews with the moms for HP.com. We also had a limited supply of the compact photo printers we were offering to make it easier for the moms to try out the books.

Twenty interviews. Something in that vicinity felt right.  With 20, we felt we’d have a nice cross section of women from all over the US with different personal and professional backgrounds. We also wanted moms who were really into their photos, but that didn’t just mean women who were actively engaged with it as a hobby. We wanted a mix of moms that simply liked to take and share snapshots, dedicated hobbyists and professional photographers. Why? Because when other women came to read the interviews, we wanted everyone to be able to find someone they could identify with.

Homework time. I combed through my blogroll of mommy blogs. And trust me, that is a lot of mommy blogs. Looking for moms who wrote about their pictures, often included pictures in posts, and had a Flickr badge on their home page or a special photo album for family pics. I also contacted a friend who is a professional photographer and blogger for her recommendations.

In the end, I had a balanced list of 40 mommy bloggers. Some of them have lots of readers, but most are in what has been termed the "magic middle" – blogs with 20-1000 other people linking to them.

Only 40? I can hear you all now. That’s not a lot. Well no, it isn’t. And that’s the point. If you do your preparation properly, you don’t have to cast a wide wide net. Twenty-two –22 — from that initial list of 40 participated in the project. Even math-challenged me can do that math — more than 50 percent.

Do your homework. Build relationships. Develop programs that offer strong value to both sides. Narrow cast. As narrow as possible. Your program will benefit, and by the way, your selection criteria are much more defensible. One of the things J&J got tagged with this week was reaction from the many mommy bloggers who weren’t invited. The more focus you have, the better off you will be.

Friend and colleague David Wescott of APCO Worldwide has been working on a project for the past year or so with the Council of PR Firms to understand the perspectives of both PR agencies and bloggers. There’s a lot of good information in the study, as well as an opportunity to contribute to future research, so I urge you to check it out. What I found the most interesting was that it clearly proves the biggest disconnect between agencies and bloggers. Agencies think they are doing a good job identifying the interests of bloggers and sending them relevant information. Bloggers resoundingly disagree.

(source: The State of Blog Relations)

Uhmm. Yeah. That would be my experience. And that of many bloggers I know.

We have got to get this right, folks. Bloggers are your customers. How do you want to talk with your customers? Think about it, and think hard.

I’ve said it before, and I guess I’ll say it until we get it right. Bloggers are your customers. It’s about the relationship over time, not overnight. Do you want a one night stand or a commitment?

If you want a commitment, figure out what matters to your customers.

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Bloggers & Customer Service: Do blog complaints make a difference?

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"Conventional" social media wisdom would have it that companies need to pay attention to the blogosphere, or risk their brands. For proof, out trots the example of Jeff Jarvis and Dell Hell. Jarvis’ complaints about Dell customer service percolated up to mainstream media and are oft-cited as the impetus behind Dell’s *big* move into social media about a year ago.

Now, you may sense a certain cynical undertone in the above paragraph, and you would be right. While I absolutely believe that companies should be listening to what bloggers — their customers — say, I am regularly provided with proof that either companies aren’t listening or they are, and have no bloody idea what to say, or how to say it, when faced with blogosphere complaints, or compliments, about products and services.

My most recent proof:

Ike Pigott has been tracking the response, or lack thereof, to a post on his blog complimenting Blockbuster on its customer service. He also divined that Canon saw, but did not respond to positive comments about its products.

While I haven’t made quite such a science of it, I have written about customer service on this blog on more than one occasion. Most recently about AAA’s piss-poor performance with my flat tire before Christmas. Any word from AAA? Nope. And I’ve also mentioned my general, and unexepected,  pleasure with Verizon’s support of its cellular customers. On every occasion that I’ve had to call, I’ve been treated well. Most recently by a lovely young lady named Amy who offered a credit on something that had gone wrong before I asked. Any response from Verizon? Nope.

Not to mention my friend Mary Schmidt, whose interactions with American Airlines prove without a shadow of a doubt that the airline just doesn’t get it.

This is by far a scientific survey, which is why I am so pleased that the Society for New Communications Research is working with corporate partner Nuance to understand the extent to which bloggers think their opinions are, or are not, impacting companies. Please take the survey and let us know whether you think Corporate America is listening. SNCR is offering a special discounted registration to New Comm Forum in April for those that complete the survey. Direct link to survey here.

And that, my friends, is well worth it. There’s a great roster of speakers and opportunities to network with other communicators at New Comm Forum. I’m moderating the luncheon keynote on the first day, a panel of conference alumni coming back to tell how they applied what they learned at the conference at their organizations. More on that next week.

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Client News: Maxwell Street Documentary is doing a T-shirt giveaway at the blog Notes of the Urban Blues. It is a very cool shirt. Just tell us about your favorite Blues artist and you can be entered to win.

And please check out the new podcast Business Forward, strategic advice for small and medium businesses, that I am producing for client GuideMark.

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Thanks-meme for Thanksgiving

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Kami Huyse tagged me in her Thanksgiving meme: "Who had a big influence on you and how did that affect the direction of your life or career?"

Like some of my fellow "taggees," a few of the major influences on my career weren’t terribly positive. Rather, it was my response to a negative or messy situation that moved me forward or helped me make an important decision.

Let’s get these out of the way first, shall we. No names. If you are reading this and think it might be you, it probably is.

Thanks to the editor in my first job out of college who told me I couldn’t write. Gave me the kick in the pants to evaluate what I really wanted to do. I got a new job and embarked on a career in marketing. And here I am writing. Nearly every day. Hmmm.

Thanks to the various managers in various corporate jobs who suffered from varying degrees of sexism and found it hard to promote me to the next level. No matter how good the performance or results. Especially the one who hired a super-duper idiot to take over a job I had been doing for years. Each and every time, I moved on to something better.

Now for the positive influences.

First and foremost my family, and most especially my mom Sandra Getgood. From her, I learned that there was nothing I couldn’t do if I set my mind to it.

I had lots of wonderful teachers in high school, college and my MBA program, but three stand out: Jean St. Pierre (Andover), Jill Morawski (Wesleyan) and Cornelia Eschborn (Rivier).

Thanks to all the printers, advertising, marketing and PR folk who shared their expertise with me as I learned on the job, especially in the early years of my career.

Thanks to everyone who has ever worked for me for the privilege of working with you, learning from you and hopefully teaching you a few things as well.

Thanks to Gene Mehr, now a client, who years ago recognized that I had some talent and treated me like an equal when I was just a twenty-something who thought she knew more than she did. I still have the four-star "marketing general" helmet.

Thanks to Scott Murray, former CFO at The Learning Company, for re-assigning me to the Cyber Patrol unit in January 1999. And thanks to Greg Bestick, who worked with me to sell the Cyber Patrol business in 2000 for nearly 10x what TLC had paid for it in 1997. Managing the business unit and my involvement in the whole sales process, from road show to due diligence, was one of the highlights of my career. Maybe I’ll do it again someday.

And finally, thanks to you, the readers of Marketing Roadmaps, for reading, for commenting, for making me part of your online conversation. You inspire me to be better.

Kami didn’t specify how many others we were supposed to tag, so I’ll just wing it. I’m tagging David Wescott, Christina/A Mommy Story, Kelly/Mocha Momma, Julie Marsh, Tom Murphy and Katie Paine.

Happy Thanksgiving!

UPDATE:

David Wescott writes about campaigning for Steven Tolman for state rep nearly 20 years ago and how that influenced the way he approaches his work.

Julie Marsh says she "learned the most from those who played the part of supporters when
times were good, but were nowhere to be found when times were bad."

Katie Paine, back from Thanksgiving in Islamabad, writes about how she became a "genetically unemployable serial entrepreneur."

Kelly (Mocha Momma) tells us what led her down the path to becoming a high school dean.

Christina (A Mommy Story) tells about women who have been positive role models for her: her aunts, mother and grandmother.

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The Discipline of Social Media Marketing

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Over the past few weeks, a number of people have posted about where social marketing "fits" in the organizational structure of a company, what sort of outside service agency is best positioned to help companies with their social media marketing efforts and how do we define expertise in this new field. Among them, and apologies if I leave anyone off: Todd Defren, Dave Fleet, Susan Getgood (that’s me), Josh Hallet, Kami Huyse, Geoff Livingston, and Jeremy Pepper.

Is PR the rightful functional "owner" of social media? Or should it be marketing or advertising that gets the ball? Perhaps social media marketing is just a subset of word-of-mouth marketing? With everybody and his brother now hanging out their shingles as blogging experts and social media gurus, how does a company determine who has the expertise and experience to help it navigate these waters? 

My opinion:

The functional lines between our marketing disciplines of PR, direct marketing and advertising are blurring. Social media marketing requires a blending of marketing and PR/communications skills. BTW, this line is blurring everywhere but it is more readily and immediately apparent in the social media world than offline. But it is offline too. Remember that online social networks are reflections of the interests and affiliations we have "in real life." Computer networks simply speed up the effect.

The other line that is blurring beyond recognition is the line between seller and buyer, journalist and audience. Now more than ever, we have multiple roles, sometimes almost simultaneously. A mommy blogger is a customer of a consumer products company, but at the same time, she might be a mompreneur with her own small or medium sized business. Journalists are bloggers; bloggers are journalists. Again, a reflection of similar real-world shifts, amplified by the Internet. We all gets lots of spam.

Whether social media marketing is a new marketing discipline, or simply a tectonic shift in Marketing with a capital M, I do not know. What I do know is that in order for it to thrive, for companies to be able to detect the real experts from the sham, for individuals to develop their skills to meet the new imperatives, we need to understand that it is a discipline. Not a project. Not an extension of PR or advertising or web marketing. Not something you can learn in a week from reading Naked Conversations and Boing-Boing.

You need a solid grounding in marketing and public relations. The social media component isn’t separable from the marketing plan. Everything still needs to track back to the plan, the objectives, the business goals. It isn’t enough to know HOW to do something. You need to know WHY. Real experience in the field helps. Extensive coursework or an undergraduate degree in psychology or sociology is very useful. Some philosophy too. A soupcon of "renaissance person" such as a second language and familiarity with great literature doesn’t hurt.

Most of all, we need credibility for this new discipline. Provided in part surely by our ongoing practice. The good examples. But that alone isn’t enough.

We need the supporting academic research. That is what gives any discipline its "legs." Without it, social media marketing is tactics. Campaigns. Maybe strategies. But not a legitimate discipline or profession in the long term. 

Which is why I encourage you to support the Society for New Communications Research, and specifically the  upcoming Annual Gala and Research Symposium to be held in Boston December 5th and 6th.

As practitioners, we need the information and insights from the research that will be presented at the Symposium, and that is reason enough to attend.  More importantly, we need to support  research organizations like SNCR because they provide part of the academic base. Can’t attend, but wish you could? Send someone in your stead — a junior colleague, a friend. No one to send? Make a supplemental donation to SNCR in support of the Symposium.

It can’t happen without you.

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