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Playboy gets a Second Life and Delta Tweets

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About 2 months ago I posted about how I had been having some difficulty putting my head around whether or how virtual worlds like Second Life would develop commercial value, but then I noticed two things.

First, my  7-year old son’s complete engagement in the virtual world of Nicktropolis. In other words, digital natives aren’t going to have nearly the trouble navigating and using the new worlds as the digital immigrants do.

And second, the porn industry was in Second Life. On every street corner, you might say. The porn industry is really good at spotting new distribution opportunities, so I saw this as a sign that real business models might eventually emerge in virtual worlds.  🙂  In the comments to the original post, Adam Zand mentioned that he hadn’t seen any of the big porn players in Second Life.

Well, not anymore. Playboy has announced that it is opening up shop in Second Life (AdRants via Spin Thicket).

Guaranteed: Playboy will figure out how to make real dollars from Second Life. Folks who are interested in the potential value of virtual worlds as marketing spaces should pay attention to what they do. We may lag by a number of years in terms of our audiences being in Second Life and other worlds, but by the time my son is a potential (legal) visitor to Playboy’s virtual mansion, I’m pretty certain just about everybody will be. Start paying attention now.

And in other social media news, Delta is apparently twittering. And with a human, not robotic corporate-speak, voice. Joe Jaffe has a great recap of the conversation so far. He closes his post with a series of questions, the most important of which is:

Is this (or should this be considered as) the voice of "the brand"? Does it speak as an "official agent" of the company? And if not, does it matter?

If not, does it matter? That’s the most interesting bit of all. I don’t think it matters at all.

Marketers the world over may wish that the brand equaled the construct we create with official communications, but we do know that isn’t the case.

A brand is the sum of our experiences with a product, with a company. The official communications, like advertising, product manuals, packaging and customer service,  and the quasi- or unofficial ones, like interactions with company employees, on and off the clock. If you personally know or have a positive exchange with someone, you are going to add that interaction into your measurement of that brand. The same is true if you have a bad experience. Even if the negative interaction is not in the work context. It is one of the reasons that people who wear recognizable work uniforms are expected to adhere to  codes of conduct while in uniform, even when not on duty.

So it doesn’t matter whether "deltaairlines" on Twitter is official or not. What matters is that the persona is engaging with other Twits in a meaningful, positive way. More than likely, those folks will add these good twitting experiences into their calculation of the Delta brand. The product delivery — air travel — still has to live up to the promise, but if it does, this tweeting might accelerate a shift in overall brand perceptions among a key audience for the airline (Twits tend to be travelers).

This is actually a useful way for companies to use Twitter. Beyond seeing who is around for lunch or tapping into the collective expertise on an issue.

Twitter is a more informal channel of communication. If we accept that it doesn’t have to be an "official spokesperson" speaking from on high (in fact, it is much better if it isn’t), then companies can use this conversation to have that quasi-official interaction with their customers. Find out what they care about. Make them feel good about the company. Put a more human "face" on the company.

But it only works this way if we are willing to let it be an informal conversation. You can’t switch back and forth from informal voice to official statement. It would be too confusing. 

Personally, I’d prefer that companies not use Twitter and other short form spaces for official announcements. Let Twitter et al be informal, public backchannels where we can chat with brand ambassadors without expectation. Let the long form spaces like blogs and Web sites and news releases do the heavy lifting on official statements.

Then we can be pleased surprised and flattered when our informal conversation changes or improves something in a product or company we love.

Wow. If this works, Twitter might be useful after all.

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More Blogger Relations

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"A stranger is a friend you haven’t met yet." — Irish proverb

Blogger relations has been a hot topic in the PR/marketing blogosphere over the past few days, starting with a post by customer marketing evangelist Ben McConnell that advised companies to stick with the folks, the customers, they already know rather than to reach out to bloggers they don’t know. Ouch. I definitely agree with Shel Holtz and Chip Griffin, both of whom disagreed with this notion.

Certainly, we should pay tremendous attention to our customer, and nurture that relationship, whether she has a blog or not. And absolutely, many companies have made an absolute hash of blogger relations. More on that in a minute.

But I cannot think of anything more valuable than making a new friend. Of introducing something of interest to a blogger, who is this strange meld of influencer and participant that makes for unique, and valuable, engagement.

You have to do it right, as Elise Bauer, Michelle Madhok and I discussed at our recent panel at BlogHer: read the blogs, understand what the bloggers are interested in, ask permission, give the bloggers something unique or exclusive, let them know they are important, don’t send press releases. And so on. Read our Do’s and Don’ts here.  {Note: McConnell subsequently updated his post, which brought his position pretty much in-line with the rest of us,  that establishing a relationship before "pitching" was the key.}

When companies do it right, they can make new friends. Some good blogger relations campaigns: GreenStone Media’s outreach in September 06 with Gloria Steinem, and the current Nikon DS80 campaign.

And when they don’t, it’s ugly. Microsoft’s Vista launch comes to mind. Ben McConnell and B.L. Ochman share some other examples.

When they don’t, they give everyone a bad name.

Somehow, somewhen, I ended up on a LIST. I think it is a list from Vocus, but haven’t confirmed that with them. And being on the list isn’t the problem per se. It’s the blog spam I’ve been getting. And I’m not even in the top marketing/PR blogs.

  • Mass mailed pitches
  • Press releases without pitches or cover notes of any kind. With buttons that lead me to… email links. Sometimes 3-4 in one day. From the same company. That never bothered to ascertain my interest. Umm?
  • Regular updates from a NY PR agency on their client’s activities, when I’ve never been asked if I was interested or even blogged about the client. And the kicker, when I extended the courtesy of emailing to ask how and why I was in their database, no reply.
  • Pitches about products, even though I rarely write about products. Web 2.0 services and silliness, yes, but I don’t review products. Perhaps the occasional book, but that’s pretty much it.
  • Pitches telling me so and so is available to interview. I don’t do many interviews, although if I can get my podcast going, I’d do more. But see previous point, I rarely do product stuff.

Now, it is pretty clear that none of the senders of the above crap actually read this blog, or they wouldn’t have sent me the garbage they did. They’d know that I have high standards for the practice of blogger relations, which their "pitches" just don’t meet.

I am  tired of getting this stuff, and tired of these poor practices giving those who practice ethical blogger relations a bad name.

But, I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Which is why I  haven’t named any names…yet.

However, starting May 1st, when I’ve been spammed three times by the same person, I plan to write about it. Naming names.

Fair warning, I think.

UPDATE: Going through my notes, I found one more comment I wanted to link to — Tom Murphy. Fitting I think, that I open the post with an Irish proverb and end with an Irish blogger.

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New Comm Forum: The Social Media Press Release, Solution in search of a problem?

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I attended the New Comm Forum session on the Social Media Press Release, but lucky for you,  I am not going to report on it.  Others have already done so, and quite frankly, not much new was said. Read this blog, read Chris Heuer‘s stuff, read Todd Defren’s blog PR Squared, read Brian Solis, Kami Huyse and Robert French. You’ll have the gist. Of both the session and some of the questions raised.

I’m still of the mind that this new format is a solution in search of a problem. Not that there isn’t value in providing links to additional information. Or del.icio.us pages for background. Or images without requiring the writer — journalist or blogger — to navigate multiple levels of security just for the privilege to access the "stuff." All of this is terrific… for the reporter who wants it. For a story that merits it.

But it just seems so complex. Unnecessarily complex.

The fundamental problem with public relations is a content problem. Bad, poorly targeted pitches. Poorly written press releases. Worse, content-free, news-free, jargon laden releases. I want to know how this new format will help solve this problem.

When I asked this of the panel at New Comm — how does this format make a better pitch, help the journalist write a better story, I got two answers. One which I am about to reject, full stop, in this post. And the other edging toward a real response.

First, the answer I do not accept. The gist:

Absolutely, content is an issue. But we are separating format from content in this discussion, they say. Focusing on format, and how this new format benefits companies, bloggers and journalists by making releases more accessible, easier to find in search engines, easier to parse.

To which I politely say, bull. Search engine optimization is in NO WAY a sufficient answer. I cannot count how many odd sounding Web sites I’ve stumbled across in the last few years because folks were "optimizing" instead of focusing on telling a good compelling story on their Web site that would drive someone to, umm, buy something. And we want the press release to follow suit? Why? The current format is causing enough problems, with companies shoehorning non-news into releases with a big TA-DUH. I really don’t see why we need a new format that can be just as content-free as the old. But with links.

Now, the better answer.

It was an example of a pharmaceutical company which issued an important release, but in the usual fashion. Images and so forth were reserved to credentialed members of the press who contacted the company. However, the topic was of vast interest to many, many bloggers who had to resort to whatever clip art and images they could find to illustrate their posts. The story would have been far better served if the company had made their materials widely available.

YES!! This tells me how the new format helps tell a better story. Let’s stay here for a minute.

With all my skepticism, I actually do think the proposed new formats could help us solve the press release content problem. They make us chunk up the story, so if you are looking, you can clearly see if there is no there, there. But only if we are looking. Willing to let it help us tell a better story. If all we are worried about is SEO and whether we have a del.icio.us page, we will not get there. And quite frankly, if we make this a "big thing," corporate PR departments are going to run for the hills. I know. I managed one for years.

We have to embrace this in baby steps. Instead of presenting this as THE social media press release, we have to think about it as a toolkit, a process.

First, let’s open up the corporate media room. Understand that releasing a few images without authentication won’t kill the story for the more exclusive media outlets. Hold those back for the top targets, by all means. The bloggers and third tier media won’t care. They’ll just be happy that they got what they needed without standing on their heads.

Now, let’s keep the baby and the bathwater, and deep six all the jargon. Stop "leveraging synergies" and start "working together." Convince our clients and our companies to communicate in human language. Preferably with a minimum of BS, but yeah, I know….

Everybody benefits from clearer writing. Make sure there is some real news, and tell me WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN WHY and maybe HOW.

And if in all this, a different, "social media formatted" press release makes sense for your audience, whether journalists, bloggers or both, by all means, go for it. But let’s not leave corporate communicators with the impression that they have to go all the way to the (all caps) SOCIAL MEDIA NEWS RELEASE in order to get this right.

They don’t. All they really have to do is understand that the world now contains a whole new class of reporters, bloggers, and that all their reporters, whether bloggers or professional journalists, appreciate open, clear, honest and hassle free communications.

With links <VBG>

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New Comm Forum: Hummers, High Rollers and Second Life

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Just back from a great three days at New Comm Forum in Las Vegas. I’ll leave it to my high-rolling PR and communications colleagues to give you the recaps of the conference:  Josh Hallet, Shel Israel, Katie Paine, John Cass, Shel Holtz, Shel Israel, Todd Defren,  David Parmet and pictures on Flickr.  A special shout out to Kami Watson Huyse, who did a nice write-up of the Viral Marketing session I moderated.

Instead, I am going to focus on a couple of topics, starting with virtual worlds like Second Life. I do have an avatar, and have wandered around a bit, but Second Life didn’t personally grab me the way it has so many of my colleagues. My 6-1/2 year old son was more enthralled than I was.

So when it came to discussions about the viability of virtual worlds as an environment for marketing, as  you can imagine, I was a bit of a skeptic. While I’m not crazy about the versioning terms Web 1.0 and Web 2.0,  the best way to explain it is that virtual worlds are Web 5.0. We just aren’t there yet.

However, I now believe, more than I did before New Comm Forum, that we will get there. Two things combined to get me there: my son and the New Comm Forum session on Second Life presented by Kami and Linda Zimmer.

First, last weekend, my son discovered Nicktropolis, a virtual world hosted on the Nickleodeon Web site. In Nicktropolis, he can engage with other children and the Nick characters like SpongeBob, Patrick and the Avatar, play games and earn currency which he can then use in various shops throughout the world to furnish his own room. He played on this for hours, and it made up for his previous disappointment that he was too young for Second Life.

More importantly though: he is actively engaging with the Nickleodeon brands in the course of the play. These familiar characters are a large part of the attraction of the world. For him, and this new generation of "digital natives," engaging with brands will be an accepted part of his virtual experience. Now, I certainly hope commercial engagement won’t be all there is, but it will be an integrated and integral part of the experience, not the "sore thumb" that it often appears right now. Because the people playing will expect and understand it, and the companies marketing in the virtual worlds will do a better, more organic job.

Companies will do a better job in large part due to the effort of pioneers like Linda and Kami, who will help us understand how to fit in and "play by the rules" in this new community, this new culture. In their session, they did a great job presenting both the current realities of Second Life as well as the longer term potential  for marketers.

One of the things they covered was how useful Second Life is proving to be for education,and particularly distance learning, allowing students to experience the personal interaction with the professor and fellow students that they otherwise miss. And then someone asked about porn. Because porn is pretty rampant in Second Life. You can certainly avoid it, but it is there. That’s one of the reasons Second Life is an adult world.

And I had an AHA moment.

The porn industry is an early adopter of new technologies. First to video, first to the Web. And now among the first to virtual worlds. In part of course, because it keeps getting kicked out. Pushed out of movie theaters onto video. Filtered out on the Web by products like Cyber Patrol.. But also because it is pretty good at following the money. If the commercial pornographers are there — if they think the audience will turn up —  virtual worlds absolutely have the potential to deliver  returns for more conventional marketers.  In fact, I’d bet on it.

AHA:

  • We’ve got a "leading indicator"  in the porn industry.
  • Virtual worlds like Second Life will be second nature to the new digital natives like my son, at home and at school.
  • Engaging with companies and their brands in these worlds will be no big deal. Provided of course that the engagement is actually engaging, ie entertaining.

It won’t happen tomorrow. Or even next year. But someday, and probably sooner than we think.

Finally, a real highlight of Thursday night’s New Comm Forum dinner at Roy’s, along with the excellent company and wonderful food, was our transportation — the longest, most tricked out Hummer limo I have ever seen. Damn thing was so big, it fit pretty much our entire group of 20 or so people. Hopefully someone will post some pix.

Next post: more thoughts on 21st century press releases.

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More JetBlue Blues and some good advice from Strive

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The past few days I’ve been thinking about the mini-blogstorm that erupted toward the end of last week about some comments made by JetBlue’s Director of Communications Jenny Dervin. Interviewed in PR Week, she seemed to imply that advice and comments on how to handle the PR around the Valentine’s Day disaster were not at all welcome by JetBlue CorpComm. In later comments, she clarified that it was "ambulance chasers" looking for the JetBlue business that were not welcome. Sincere comments and advice were valuable; she just didn’t appreciate people pitching the business while she was in the midst of a crisis.

Putting myself in her shoes, I definitely understand the reaction. Trying to do the best one can in the midst of a serious crisis, you don’t want to hear — even remotely — from people implying that they could do it better. Or looking for your job. That doesn’t mean you don’t want advice, or that you ignore well meaning advice because it’s NIH. And the advice I read in many blogs, from many folks that I greatly respect, was in no way "ambulance chasing." Which I am sure Ms. Dervin realizes.

But she didn’t say it very well. And that’s what I’ve been thinking about. As communicators, we have to guard against becoming the story. It is our clients, our companies that should be the story, not us. In this age of constant and relatively shameless, and necessary, self promotion, this is hard. But imperative.

When how we do our jobs, or who we are,  becomes more important than the result we achieve for a client or our company, we’ve failed the client, the company.

Now, I certainly don’t think that Ms. Dervin has failed her company. She and her team have done a good job dealing with a real mess. However, I do know that personally, should something similar ever happen to me in future, I’ll be very careful to not become the story myself.

Shifting gears, Sherrilynne Starkie has some great advice about writing leads. Check it out.

And of course, don’t miss Battlestar Galactica, SciFi Channel, Sunday 10pm EST.

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Filed Under: PR