Mike’s Points

For the most part, traditional communications are centered around projects, campaigns, launches. Sure, there’s the overriding, long-term strategic positioning and messaging, but that is broken up into bits and pieces.

In media relations and in advertising, you can have on-going relationships (professional, not personal) with reporters and ad reps, but that’s mostly with trade and select consumer media. There is little on-going interaction with customers and prospects.

It’s primarily ADD Marcomm. Short-attention-span PR. Hit-and-run advertising.

But, in the evolving world in social media (social marketing, WOM — whatever), you have to commit for the long haul.

Courtesy of MarketingVox is a story in BrandWeek about the disappointment of SecondLife citizens in the lack of staying power of many brands in SecondLife:

“Even more disappointing are shops and outlets set up by brands, subjected to a certain amount of hype - and then all but abandoned. That non-presence presence is leading to frustration among residents looking for a more truly interactive experience.”

And, I don’t buy one wimpy excuse in the story: “Only a small percentage of Second Life’s reported three million players, though, visit regularly and spend any substantial time there. Brands’ realization of that fact may also be what causes some to abandon their Second Life setups.”

Before making any leap like that — especially the time and cost to make a real presence in SecondLife — you do your due diligence to get a good sense the demographics of SecondLife and what you can expect from it. Any good marketing firm or consultant would know that!

Social media ain’t your daddy’s PR. Based on the medium, there are expectations with most social media outlets that you are involved on a continual basis — not continuous — but at least semi-regular. Afterall, it is a relationship that marketers are courting. Not a fling. And, for the recipients, as the story above notes, they want at least some level of commitment.

So, if you’re an agency — or even an in-house professional — are you really in it for the long-haul, or just in for a quickie?
– Mike

While you can make a valid point that “the message is king” (or some other catch phrase) in marketing communications . . . I wouldn’t. The medium dictates how that message is delivered, and what you are trying to accomplish.

The message — the core message — can be said varying ways to get the same affect. And, the medium of delivery dictates how you say it, why you’re saying it and what you’re trying to accomplish. For example, here’s how I view common delivery methods. Let me know if you agree, disagree or __________ (you fill in the blank: consumer-generated blog post!):

Advertising: Short and sweet; more about being seen and generating awareness; obviously and expected to be self-promotional.

Direct mail: Short and sweet; eye-catching; promotional; hoping to provoke a response/the next step.

Media relations: Seeking third-party objectivity; can be either generating awareness or trying to educate and inform by havng others write about you; focus on objective writing .

Website: Informing while connecting, engaging and involving audience; somewhat “relationshipal”*; can be promotional without being salesy; also about “being seen” (findable on search engines).

Online social marketing (blogs, boards, viral, etc.): Seeking to connect with, involve and engage audience (that social science aspect); sincerity and transparency are expected; relationshipal*; can be promotional — but be transparent about it.

The above are generalities, but you get my point. While we can communicate the same message in each of the above media, the message is conveyed differently — depending on the audience and the expectation with each delivery vehicle.

Thoughts? Was this a “duh” post? Anything new?

– Mike

*relationshipal: kind of developing a relationship, but not a close or personal one.

For your learning, thinking and even a bit of laughter pleasure, I offer a few other great points:
Apples, oranges, blogs and boards, David Binkowski. Great overview of why discussion boards are useful and their value.

The value of WOM (it’s a cartoon), Amena/Idegosuperego

Business etiquette pointers for PR students, Karen Miller Russell/Teaching PR. And, those pointers are not just for students.

If you’re learning about something, then you want know about the features and then the benefits.

But, if you’re selling something, shouldn’t you present the benefits . . . and then the features?

I don’t see that as often enough as I think I should.

– Mike

WSJ columnist (and blogger, of course) Jeremy Wagstaff started his own online publication of reviewed technology, Websites and related products and services: tenminut.es.

tenminut.es takes a look at new and old products, services, software, gadgets and people, the only requirement being each is given no more than ten minutes (excluding download and installation times.)

You can read more about it in this announcement.

Oh and, speaking of new media outlets, there’s Social Media Today (pointer to Mike Manuel/Media Guerrilla). (But, why do we need a collection or “media” of bloggers? Isn’t that what feeds are for?)
- Mike

(Clock image from: http://www.sharelibrary.com/Desktop/Screensavers/Mechanical_Clock_3D_Screensaver03060268.htm )

(UPDATED, approx. 12:45 p.m. 3-19-07: See end of post.)
Sunday’s Toledo Blade Business Section has a great story about a cat fight going on at Tecumseh Products, a Fortune 1000 company based in Tecumseh, Mich.

Essentially, the Herrick family (who started Tecumseh Products and still have a good deal of say) doesn’t like what the board and a consulting firm (AlixPartners) are trying to do: take control of the the company. Tecumseh is a old U.S. industrial manufacturer of engines, compressors and related items, and employs 19,000 people (about 70 percent of them outside the U.S., according to the Blade article).

The power struggle is over financial trouble for Tecumseh in recent years, and differing opinions as to who should run the company to try to steer it toward better times.

All in all, it sounds like good corporate drama. But, a couple items caught my eye. According to the article:

“Mr. Herrick has blamed the company’s problems, including financing issues that some feared could push it into bankruptcy, on globalization and competition from cheap foreign imports.”

It sounds as if Mr. Herrick is blaming everyone else for the company’s problems. Wah. Wah. Wah. What U.S. manufacturers need to do is stop complaining about globalization, and compete where we have an advantage: technology and innovation. Keep evolving our products to do more. Help customers improve their productivity by designing and building better machines and products.

A couple quote outs the Blade used (in print) made me laugh and shake my head:

“The record will show that Tecumseh’s financial position - largely as a result of Todd Herrick’s poor leadership - has greatly deteriorated,” lawyers for the board wrote last week in an initial response to the lawsuit.

Todd Herrick, who succeeded his father as CEO in 1986, declined an interview request. But in a written statement, he said, “My actions have always been guided by serving in the best interest of the company.”

Okay, so the board’s lawyers blame former CEO/Chairman Todd Herrick for Tecumseh’s financial problems.

And, does Mr. Herrick directly address the board’s statement with any evidence or comment to refute it? No. He simply states that his actions “have always been . . . in the best interest of the company.”

Though sincere, his actions can still be wrong! That was a pretty piss-poor response.

Now, I don’t want to be taking sides in the Tecumseh Products corporate squabbles as I’ve not explored who is right and who is wrong (though I’m sure there’s blame on both sides, as that’s usually the case). But, I do know the PR counsel for Tecumseh and the attitude of the company — if the blame-game is prevalent — needs to change or the company will continue to see some rocky times ahead.

For good manufacturing comment, see the ShopFloor blog by the National Association of Manufacturers. (No, that’s not a commercial for NAM. Just, if you’ve read this far, you likely have some interest in manufacturing, and you’d do well to check out the NAM blog.)

– Mike

Despite what was noted in the Blade story regarding Tecumseh’s apparent attitude toward media — He (Todd Herrick) rarely granted media interviews. In 1995, the firm’s then-advertising director said of the news media: “We hate them.” — it does seem to somewhat monitor online media as I’ve had five visits from the company’s IP address as of this update.

Now, so it doesn’t appear that I’m bashing Tecumseh Products, the Herrick family, again as the Blade story pointed out (toward middle of story), does a great deal of good through its Herrick Foundation (see #27 in the linked pdf).

Okay, I’ve been dying to try to come up with a clever, catchy Twitter-related blog headline. (How’d I do?)

Anyway, with the Twitter chatter out there among the Twittter haters and Twitter lovers, I’ve thinking about it myself of late.

Twitter is nothing more than another tool. If/How it gets used will determine if it out-lasts its current 15 minutes of fame (though it seems like its fame is pushing 20 minutes). So, I thought of how could Twitter be used for the good of all mankind. And, here’ what I came up with:

• Internal use: For company-wide announements, why not Twitter them, rather than e-mail. Of course, these would be brief announcements (like the Outlook server will be down at noon for a five-minute reset). Though, with internal use, there’d be some licensing involved, which would allow the licensee to expand the dialogue box limit.

• What about integrating a Twitter box into a Wiki-like page or even a service like WebEx when collaborating on a document (presentation, etc.), rather than using a telephone.

• If you have all of your media contacts as friends or followers on Twitter, you can announce when news is posted to your online newsroom. But, isn’t that what an RSS feed would be for? That assumes you have all of your media contacts on Twitter.

• Twitter could be used to broadcast a play-by-play of a game to those who don’t have access to a TV, radio and the game is not Webcasted.

• Bascially, any need one would have to broadcast to an opt-in group a message (an announcement, direction, etc.).

Any others?

– Mike

Oh and yes, I’m on Twitter, too.

Yeah, I know it was an eBay hoax a couple years ago. (Though I just found out while doing a search a few minutes before starting this post.)

But really, wouldn’t that be a great idea: to have a dual-sided screen for a laptop?

That way, you could share with others around a table a particular Web site or other bit of information on your laptop computer (rather than projecting to a screen or crowding behind you to see the monitor).

Chalk this up to as another one of my great technology predictions.

– Mike

One of the early corporate bloggers — and one that doesn’t seem to get as much press as GM and others — is retiring as of the end of April.

Boeing Commercial Airlines Vice President of Marketing Randy Baseler announced his pending retirement on March 9. He is leaving Boeing as of the end of April:

So I’m coming down for a landing, and looking forward to enjoying more time together with my wife, Linda, and our family and friends. Those of you who’ve met me might have guessed that I’m a “country boy”at heart. My plan is to settle into my cowboy boots, blue jeans, and flannel shirts, and stay closer to the ground ….

Of course, I’ll still be sticking around Boeing for the next couple of months, and continuing with the blog until then.

Mr. Baseler started blogging in January 2005 — the same month that GM’s Fastlane blog debuted.

I’ve read Mr. Baseler’s blog periodically, but mostly early on in my own blogging efforts. I’m ashamed to say that I had forgotten about it, until something sparked a memory this evening. Maybe fate, but I’m glad I did check in, and will most definitely do so through April.

And, to see who or if Boeing will have a new corporate blogger.

Doing corporate blogging the right way.

– Mike

The moderator of Image Management, one of the Yahoo! PR groups I belong to, publishes a monthly PR e-zine: PR-e-sence. It’s pretty informative, and gives a good perspective on the PR and related industries in another part of the world.

An upcoming issue will focus on the university/college education of PR professionals and related issues. To gauge how the industry fares on this issue overall, a survey was developed:
http://www.primepointfoundation.org/poll/public/survey.php?name=PReducation

The results will be published in the issue, and the survey will be live March 13. While some questions are specific to India, there are several of the 13 that anyone can answer.

So, please take a few minutes and give ‘em your $0.02 (or, your two rupees, in this case).

– Mike