A Night of Firsts and What Did You Just Call Me?

Wednesday night was a red letter day for me, and a fun one for CHEN PR. Chris Carleton and I attended our first Mass Innovation Night at the very cool Charles River Museum of Industry & Innovation and had the distinct pleasure of buying everyone a drink at Biagio afterward.

It’s a fun and interesting venue for many people to get a first look at some local innovations – with huge thanks to the event founders Bobbie Carlton, Carlton PR & Marketing, and Dan Englander, High Rock Media. The MassInno site has a great recap with video, which also includes some great links to other recaps of the night.

Another first was that the MassInno folks introduced a new feature, the “Expert’s Corner.” When I first heard of it, I thought what a great idea. They set aside a corner of the venue for one-on-one conversations with a group of volunteer experts on a range of topics of interest to both exhibiting entrepreneurs and hopefully soon-to-be exhibiting entrepreneurs. The experts included Accounting, Law, Entrepreneurism, Funding, and PR/Strategic Comms.

Then I thought, cool, wonder who the generous, brave and hardy soul was who they got on the PR front. Yeeaaaa, THAT’s where the last first of the night emerged…

As you’ll see from the pic (taken and Tweeted by Chris Carleton) someone failed to look behind the curtain and decided that I would be the PR Wizard du jour. Chris got the easier role -- chatting up the presenting companies, checking out their products and hanging out with the other Mass Inno-ites.

All kidding aside, it was a really great night with a lot of energy and active discussion. And while I may not feel worthy to wear an Expert badge, I got an extra opportunity to chat with some very interesting people, making some very interesting things in the areas of enterprise software and social networking, and whom I hope to see rocking the Massachusetts, US and ultimately global innovation scene soon. Until next time…

WebInno and Bootstrapping PR

The Web Innovators Group events are always fun and eye opening. If you still need affirmation that innovation is alive and kickin' in the greater Boston area, stop by the Cambridge Royal Sonesta on Sept. 29 at 6:30 p.m.

Chef David Beisel has whipped up another interesting menu featuring the following companies as main dishes:

Book of Odds - When we're watching the Sox, we often marvel at how Remy and Orsillo have all those arcane stats at their fingertips. It sounds like this new website will come in handy, answering questions like, "What are the odds that a major league team will hit four homers in a single game?
Epernicus - Looks like LinkedIn - for scientists!
BatchBlue Software (BatchBook) - CRM for small business. Looks useful.

This meeting also features a a special breakout session at 8 p.m. -- "An Entrepreneur’s Guide to Bootstrapping PR.” Mike Troiano will host a discussion with a media panel including Scott Kirsner of the Boston Globe, Wade Roush from Xconomy, Peter Kafka from AllThingsD, and Bob Brown of Network World.

You can check out the side dishes at the WebInno site.

A Rant - in 30 min or less

“With great power comes great responsibility.” Uncle Ben’s words ring loudly in my ears today as I watch the video of a Domino’s executive reading a statement about how horrified the company is about the “prank” committed by two idiots and the tweets heard round the business world.  The New York Times reported brand damage…I feel like the whole issue is borne of brain damage.  

“The independent owner of that store is reeling from the damage that this is caused and it’s not a surprise that this has caused a lot of damage to our brand.” 

I am not going to write a long treatise condemning or defending the social discussion around business brand issues.  I’m sure this rant adds to a long list of conversations had by others with experiences and expertise in this area.   But maybe you haven’t seen, remember the fury of the Motrin Moms?  Surveys done later found that most (gasp) MOMs weren’t offended by the ads.  45% liked the video and 15% didn't like it. 8%, said it negatively affected their feelings of the brand, 32% said it made them like the brand MORE.

Businesses NEED to be a part of the social discussion, but they don’t deserve to be BULLIED by it.  Dominos responded well, and had to.  There will likely be no long term band damage, and in fact they may ultimately benefit from their response to this event. But I guess it just continues to baffle me why these things are given so much weight in the public discourse.

As many have learned all too painfully and personally in the social world online, your actions have ramifications in the “real world” on yourself and others.  To steal a page from the mom’s handbook – treat people as you would want to be treated, or even better, if your best friend wants to jump off a bridge, does that mean you will too?  Social media is about facilitating discussion and conversation – which may lead to valid criticism and action, but we have to be careful of rapid overreaction, condemnation and crucifixion.

We love to ridicule celebrities and sports figures that use their visibility to air their politics or personal issues as if they are of a higher authority.  Well guess what.  As Twitter prepares to get a big red O sticker today, we all have been given that megaphone to some degree.  It comes with some assembly required, but the one critical piece we need – is a filter.  Decide what you want to be, understand the power you wield, and use it responsibly.  

My point?  I dunno.  I guess with an unprecedented ability to inform and affect change, why can’t the new social reality work harder to avoid the bad things about the old one?

Social Media PR: Market Innovation or Market Correction?

I’ve been meaning to put this question and associated thoughts to a screen for some time now, but something always seems to take precedence. 

As I read the Twitter streams and blogs of PR, press and other experts about what works, what doesn’t and what is the essence of social media, I can’t help but feel a little nostalgic.  I’ve done tech PR for the better part of 17 years at this point, and in my activities with social media – both for clients and for myself – I have often wondered if in PR industry terms, it is a mystical power or lost art?

“Social business” expert, Jennifer Leggio in particular penned a relatively recent post based on a panel conversation about what social media has done for, and to, the PR industry.  She also wrote an earlier piece on the area in which I have lived much of my professional career – enterprise IT.  These are great pieces which served to support my belief that one of the best things social media is doing for the PR industry is forcing many to actually get back to public RELATIONS.  It is also hopefully driving the end of public carpet bombing that was the result of an industry that used technology as an excuse to be lazy and undisciplined.

When I started in PR, relationships where critical, and the social media tool of the day was the phone.  Sure there was voicemail and (gasp) fax machines, but to sell a reporter on a story or a piece of news required you to have a real, live, bi-directional conversation – and build a relationship based on continuous value add.  That forced you to understand not only your client’s product, but made you understand their business and the larger context in which it operated.  You understood competitors and you had to anticipate direct questions, because you couldn’t hide behind an email.

I won’t bore you with a “I had to walk both ways to school uphill and get up from the couch to change the channel”-style history lesson, but suffice to say that an initial run through an editorial calendar back then took about 8-10 hours.

But with technology came disintermediation.  Thousands of emails could be sent at once, press release pitches gave a cliff notes version of what many thought was relevant – FOR EVERYONE, not for the one.  Sure, good firms still taught people how to do it right, but one look at all the bad pitch blogs show how far things had fallen in some cases – no targeting, no understanding, no conversation. 

Social media in my experience at its best is another outlet for creative energies, and a place that enables a different class of necessary conversation.  And whether on my own Facebook page or Twitter stream, or in counseling my clients around theirs, almost every interaction I have benefits my business and my clients.  Apart from direct pitching or communicating issues for my clients, my own interactions continue to challenge me in the way I think.  They make me think differently, think individually, and have more focused conversations than I have before – and in some cases likely wouldn’t have had otherwise. 

Jennifer is a great resource for understanding the value of social media, especially for those in B2B tech sectors, and I’d recommend for those who are not following her, you do so immediately.  She’s on Twitter as @mediaphyter.  As the risk of paraphrasing, she also cautions against the herd mentality that many PR people trying to understand social media are taking, which is being too quick to ask tactical questions about “how” to use certain tools, instead of first trying to understand why those tools are or aren’t appropriate in support of a client’s business objectives. 

Interestingly, right around the time that Jennifer posted her blog entries, the legendary Guy Kawasaki posted a blog on how to build a Twitter network.  I have to say, I was a little disappointed in that blog because of the cynical, methodical, “perception is reality” approach it seems to advocate.  Is that the essence of social media?  I hope not. 

Finally, Jennifer makes the great point that social media is a platform on which PR people can step up as business consultants.  I’d echo that sentiment wholeheartedly, and expand on that to say that social media should be an extension of PR’s role as business consultants.  When we opened CHEN PR’s doors 12 years ago, we defined a business model based not just on being a communicator for our clients, but also on being a strategic colleague, a confidant and in some cases even an extra conscience.  It’s a model that has served us extremely well through good times and bad, and one that I see in greater demand today and moving forward.  Social media isn’t the ultimate tool to fix everything, it’s the place to start a discussion – between two people, or 2 million, that can drive a business in the right direction.

For those interested, you can find me on LinkedIn, Facebook or on Twitter @kidko92