Mike’s Points

Or, rather, this is the dawning of the Age of Transparency, the Age of Transparency . . . Transparencyyyyyyy . . . . Transpaarreeeencyyyyyy. Come on sing along . . . .

Sorry, I got sidetracked.

Todd Defren’s post about transparency and Shel Holtz helped crystalize a line of thinking that’s been swirling around in my head.

“I am absolutely convinced that ‘transparency’ is the #1 most positive ideal to rise from the Social Media era. . . . (Shel’s well-chosen words), but because ‘transparency’ speaks to a belief in fairness, and to the wisdom of crowds.”

We are at the dawning of an age of transparency. Or, better stated, an age of honesty.

Honesty by choice or by force.

For those who are inherently honest — have no fear. They will continue down that noble and right road.

For those who are not honest — someone out there in the blogosphere or the general public — will find out about it. And, that person or persons will uncover that dishonesty on a blog or a forum. And, it will be picked up and spread like wildfire. If you don’t believe me, ask Sony.

Keeping us honest used to be only journalists’ jobs. They are still good at it — but with dwindling numbers and tight budgets, investigative journalism is becoming a lost art.

Journalists are now joined by you and me. Each of us has a passion or passions that will dig and uncover the veil of deceit. Whether or not that deceit is intentional or by ignorance or sincere poor judgement.

Note that I say dawning. We’re not at the age yet. Blogging, discussion boards and other social media vehicles are still very new. We’re all just babies here. Most of the world, most of the U.S. population, most of the Internet population are not “into” blogs the way many of us are. But, it’ll grow to be substantial enough to keep corporations, politicians, associations and individuals honest.

Or, better stated, transparent.
– Mike

Technorati tags: transparency, Todd Defren, social media, blogging

If you are looking for a new way for a company to blog and/or are a history buff, read on.

Wells Fargo’s blog — Guided by History — is not new, but worth a good look this week. Earlier this week — April 18 — marked the 100th anniversary of the great San Francisco Earthquake & Fire.

Being a financial institution, there are some limitations for a Wells Fargo blog:

The banking/finance industry in the US is among the most heavily regulated in the world, and among the most attacked by hackers. As a bank, there are regulations that prevent us from obtaining your personal information—hence the restrictions in our blog comments that prevent you from submitting your full name.

If you have time, take some to browse the site and learn about the 1906 quake, and learn about being prepared for emergencies and disasters.

Interactive tour: From the Wells Fargo archives, view the effects of the earthquake, path of the fire, and other cool stuff.

Information about events of the week in San Francisco: Earthquake Conference, marketing the time — 5:12 a.m. — when the quake beagn, the day’s parade, among many others.

Topics and information to prepare for today’s disasters.

There are tones of photos and several podcasts, plus first hand accounts and other historical information.

Just goes to show that there is more than one way to corporate blog.
– Mike

Technorati tags: corporate blogging, Wells Fargo, San Francisco Earthquake

Now, don’t go branding me as one who thinks the MSM establishment will be crumbling soon. It won’t. Trust me. Traditional media outlets are still very much needed, and are a valuable outlet for media relations.

But, bloggers — in a growing number of niches — are becoming more prevalent and sought-after.

The other day, Steve Rubel/Micro Persuasion posted about President Bush’s encouragement to read blogs.

For further evidence, see/hear former Green Beret Michael Yon — a blogger who once was embedded with a Marine unit in Iraq — on Anderson Cooper’s 360 in a very interesting discussion of the MSM’s coverage of the war and rebuilding efforts in Iraq. Hugh Hewitt, Time’s Michael Ware and CNN’s Nic Robertson were also guests.

PLEASE keep any comments on the role of bloggers and MSM. Don’t go political on me, or I’ll shut down comments.
– Mike

Technorati tags: bloggers, mainstream media, milbloggers

Courtesy of the Washington Post and Erin Shannon of YoungPRPros on Yahoo! Groups, the U.S. Army is working with Haas MS&L, an Ann Arbor, Mich., firm on a blogging campaign.

“The Army believes that military blogs are a valuable medium for reaching out,” account executive Charlie Kondek has written to a number of pro-military blogs in a January 6 Email.
“To that end, the Army plans to offer you and selected bloggers exclusive editorial content on a few issues you’re likely to be interested in.”

I say, hooray for the U.S. Army. Like any company or organization, if you want to expand your media reach — and even try to publicize information you don’t think is being picked up — look to bloggers and other media.

Now, like columnist William M. Arkin of the Post, I am skeptical of the “news” the U.S. Army will give bloggers. Will they give real insight into what is happening in Iraq?

Like others, I tend to view the news — mostly as reported by the national media outlets — to be negative. But, that is the nature of news. News is what is out of the ordinary. And, most stuff out of the ordinary is negative. You should report the deaths, bombs and debate. However, I think more stories on the rebuilding, day-to-day military and civilian life, etc., would also be interesting to hear.

What I find most interesting about the army’s approach is that it is offering “exclusive” content.

As I asked above, will that content really be news? Or, will it be information that the military feels traditional media won’t use?

Important qualities of successful blogging are original content and transparency or honesty. If the army doesn’t give a sincere effort to provide good content for military bloggers, its efforts will quickly fail. Everyone will see that. These bloggers — many are former or active military personnel, or families of military personnel — don’t want to be perceived as mouthpieces for the army.

This is evidence by this one post, which I assume echos the thoughts of other bloggers:

We got the email too. I suspect a lot of milbloggers did. And I sent back the same response Matt did - “Yeah, okay, send more details, and if it’s just stuff from ARNEWS or CENTCOMs websites, got that covered already, thanks.”

If the army fails, there will be more backlash from military bloggers and bloggers in general, than there ever has been from traditional media.

It’ll definitely be interesting to track the U.S. Army’s blogger relations
– Mike

Technorati tags: blogger relations, military blogs, U.S. Army, Iraq war

Let me first say that, though I’m not a frequent reader of Microsoft’s Robert Scoble’s blog, when I have, it’s been very interesting and informative.

However, he seems to be getting a lot of props — from here and here – about a TV interview posted with Microsoft’s Bill Gates.

Yes, his boss.

I’m sure the video interview is very good, but it seems like a lot is being made that he got an interview. With his own boss.

Shouldn’t Mr. Scoble have, I dunno know, dibs on talking with his boss. I would think so. Both are celebrities in their own right, so an interview would benefit both — and their company.

Am I missing something, or concentrating too much on the back patting Mr. Scoble is getting rather than the interview content?
– Mike

Technorati tags: blogging, blog, Vlog, Microsoft, Scoble, journalism

There’s been a lot of great discussion about Jose Avila’s FedExFurniture.com site. Perhaps you read about it here, or there or even way over there.

Thursday’s “citizen journalism” posting by Jeremy Pepper was a great job, as he talked/chatted both with FedEx PR and Mr. Avila. My hat off to him.

But, while this hopefully will die down, there are a couple important points I’d like to make:

1) Other than if Mr. Avila would’ve tried to profit from his site, would the site really have “result[ed] not only in confusion, but is likely to dilute through tarnishment and/or blurring, the FedEx mark.”? (Taken from a letter sent by FedEx lawyers.)

No. All Mr. Avila was doing was showing how much he likes FedEx, being creative until he could buy real furniture (per his first blog posting), and yes, getting his 15 minutes of fame.

Couldn’t FedEx have had some fun with it? Such as put together a video for Mr. Avila showing the sturdiness of the boxes, and maybe something like: FedEx, for when you are “Absolutely, Positively” in a furniture bind.

And, add a disclaimer about the boxes are not designed for furniture, and video is really a spoof.

Have fun. Create a good will between FedEx and Avila. Kind of like community relations, but via the ‘net.

2) Why do corporations respond with lawyers first in cases of trademark or other infringements?

Per Jeremy’s conversation with Sandra Munoz from FedEx corporate communications:
“I believe that the first contact with Jose Avila - the official contact - was through the attorney. If we go online and see a company using the FedEx name, it goes to legal. That’s not unusual. It’s a legal issue.”

Per Jeremy’s IM’ing with Mr. Avila, it seems like a civil, professional request to stop would have been sufficient.
“Jose Avila: The real issue here is that PR was never involved in the beginning….had they said something like change the domain name…change the colors…etc…on day 1, i would have probably bent over backwards to do such things. Instead being that i felt threatened, I started asking people for advice.”

It’s not tacky that “you attract more bees with honey than vinegar.”

Why don’t corporations first go with a civil, professional approach rather than calling out the lawyers? You can always take that as a second step, right?!

Whatever happened to good old common sense?

Anyway, I’m done with it (very likely), and hope it has a happy ending for all: Mr. Avila gets some real furniture, and FedEx keeps its image from being tarnished.
– Mike