A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other
things I find interesting.
Quite a slow week for me blogging, because it was a busy week for everything else. Let's see if I can't do better this week. In the meantime, here's The Spin Cycle:
Infographics are your friend: Why don't PR people embrace infographics more readily, or am I only speaking for myself? Perhaps because many of us started out as writers and are overconfident in our ability to tell stories with words. But we are often surrounded by talented graphic artists. Think outside the paragraph, people.
Google + a minus? Bashing Google + is nearly as trendy as bashing the Facebook IPO, but what struck me about this post was how many Google + users never make a second post. How about Facebook and Twitter? How many dip their toes in the water and then decide not to go for a swim? I'm also perplexed by Google's refusal to share number it claims demonstrate a high degree of engagement among users. Transparency, transparency, transparency.
Goldman Sachs discovers Twitter: Speaking of transparency, Goldman Sachs is giving it a shot in the interest of repairing its battered image. Remember, guys, it's not pulling back the curtain that matters. It's what people see as the curtain falls away that matters. You don't communicate out of a problem you behaved your way into.
Showing posts with label The Spin Cycle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Spin Cycle. Show all posts
Monday, June 4, 2012
Monday, May 28, 2012
The Spin Cycle, 5/28
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other
things I find interesting.
Is Facebook advertising overrated, or is GM dumb? People are still parsing GM's decision to drop advertising from Facebook, and it's an interesting story about the power of brands. Facebook may have a shaky reputation this week, but the fact that many people reflexively dismissed GM's decision demonstrates how strong Facebook's brand is, and how weak GM's continues to be.
Is GM dumb, part 2: I might have grouped this item into the same broad category as the item above, until this jumped out at me: Ford has more than 1.5 million “likes” on its Facebook page, vs. fewer than 400,000 for GM. The problem is that a lot of PR and advertising measurement experts regard a "like" as a poor measure of engagement, and even harder to quantify is how a "like" translates into sales. Everything we do as strategic communicators is supposed to help our organizations or clients meet their business objectives. That's the ultimate measure by which we should judge the efforts of GM, or Ford, or any other company on Facebook or in any other medium.
Google + is down, Pinterest is up: It seems almost too easy to beat up on Google +, but it's too much fun to resist. Google keeps trying to tell people that numbers lie and its dismal user stats don't show the private circle sharing going on beneath the surface. (That sounds dirty.) That's great, but it doesn't diminish my frustration when I go on the network and find the same two people always posting stuff. Pinterest is zooming ahead of it, and maybe it's time for Google, without abandoning Google + as an alternative to Facebook, emphasize its true niche, which is an intra-organizational networking and conferencing tool.
Never forget: What struck me about this collection of letters to and from brothers who fought on separate fronts in World War II was the letter from Bob Dininger's friend to Bob's parents, describing his death at Okinawa:
I won't attempt to say that he died for the American way of life, freedom, etc. and these things that are written about by people who don't do the fighting and thus don't know what they're talking about. What I will say is that he died bravely, and quickly, which is the best way for a soldier to die, if he has to die at all.
Enjoy your day off.
Is Facebook advertising overrated, or is GM dumb? People are still parsing GM's decision to drop advertising from Facebook, and it's an interesting story about the power of brands. Facebook may have a shaky reputation this week, but the fact that many people reflexively dismissed GM's decision demonstrates how strong Facebook's brand is, and how weak GM's continues to be.
Is GM dumb, part 2: I might have grouped this item into the same broad category as the item above, until this jumped out at me: Ford has more than 1.5 million “likes” on its Facebook page, vs. fewer than 400,000 for GM. The problem is that a lot of PR and advertising measurement experts regard a "like" as a poor measure of engagement, and even harder to quantify is how a "like" translates into sales. Everything we do as strategic communicators is supposed to help our organizations or clients meet their business objectives. That's the ultimate measure by which we should judge the efforts of GM, or Ford, or any other company on Facebook or in any other medium.
Google + is down, Pinterest is up: It seems almost too easy to beat up on Google +, but it's too much fun to resist. Google keeps trying to tell people that numbers lie and its dismal user stats don't show the private circle sharing going on beneath the surface. (That sounds dirty.) That's great, but it doesn't diminish my frustration when I go on the network and find the same two people always posting stuff. Pinterest is zooming ahead of it, and maybe it's time for Google, without abandoning Google + as an alternative to Facebook, emphasize its true niche, which is an intra-organizational networking and conferencing tool.
Never forget: What struck me about this collection of letters to and from brothers who fought on separate fronts in World War II was the letter from Bob Dininger's friend to Bob's parents, describing his death at Okinawa:
I won't attempt to say that he died for the American way of life, freedom, etc. and these things that are written about by people who don't do the fighting and thus don't know what they're talking about. What I will say is that he died bravely, and quickly, which is the best way for a soldier to die, if he has to die at all.
Enjoy your day off.
Monday, May 21, 2012
The Spin Cycle, 5/21
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other
things I find interesting.
I apologize to those of you looking for The Spin Cycle yesterday. I've decided to run it on Mondays from now on. Without further adieu...
Guinness QR code: Guiness finds an innovative way to use QR codes (though the promotion appears to have expired, since the code took me to an unused domain) but the question remains: Are QR codes worth the effort? And how many people, by the time they've downed two or three pints, are going to care where the code on the side of the glass takes them?
App Power: New research shows that a substantial number of smartphone users who download a retailer-branded app visit the store more often or buy more products from it. Good news for retailers looking to stand up to Amazon. I'm a frequent Amazon customer who nonetheless is underwhelmed by its mobile app. Maybe instead of whining about Amazon's "unfair" business practices, retailers can figure how to exploit this weakness.
Is Social Media Killing the News Industry? Yes, many people get their news from social media, though often that news originates with a traditional news outlet. Of course, social media and news media need not be mutually exclusive. The traditional media failed to adequately adapt its business model to the web when it was first developed. Will they make the same mistake when it comes to social media? And speaking of business model, the real question is whether social media, which also relies on advertising for its revenues, will leech dwindling ad dollars away from traditional media.
I apologize to those of you looking for The Spin Cycle yesterday. I've decided to run it on Mondays from now on. Without further adieu...
Guinness QR code: Guiness finds an innovative way to use QR codes (though the promotion appears to have expired, since the code took me to an unused domain) but the question remains: Are QR codes worth the effort? And how many people, by the time they've downed two or three pints, are going to care where the code on the side of the glass takes them?
App Power: New research shows that a substantial number of smartphone users who download a retailer-branded app visit the store more often or buy more products from it. Good news for retailers looking to stand up to Amazon. I'm a frequent Amazon customer who nonetheless is underwhelmed by its mobile app. Maybe instead of whining about Amazon's "unfair" business practices, retailers can figure how to exploit this weakness.
Is Social Media Killing the News Industry? Yes, many people get their news from social media, though often that news originates with a traditional news outlet. Of course, social media and news media need not be mutually exclusive. The traditional media failed to adequately adapt its business model to the web when it was first developed. Will they make the same mistake when it comes to social media? And speaking of business model, the real question is whether social media, which also relies on advertising for its revenues, will leech dwindling ad dollars away from traditional media.
Sunday, May 13, 2012
The Spin Cycle, 5/13
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other
things I find interesting.
The Yelpification of Foursquare: Foursquare just may become relevant again -- was it ever truly relevant? -- with its new Explore feature, which gives users personalized recommendations for restaurants and other venues. I've never used explore but I am a heavy user of Foursquare, though it reaps me few benefits. I've redeemed a handful of check-in specials, and we've used it effectively at work to hype events. Foursquare users who cross-post their check-ins to Facebook, Twitter, and, God forbid, LinkedIn probably do the service no favors by friends and followers who find these status updates annoying.
RIM's lame flashmob: The maker of the Blackberry tries to employ another fading relic of the digital age to get some attention and poke a stick at Apple: a flash mob, and a lousy one at that. Really, a flashmob? People are still doing those? It raises the question, what if someone attempts a PR stunt in the forest and no one notices except for PR bloggers? It's always so cute when someone updates their Facebook status with a Blackberry, like people who still use AOL email addresses.
Is Facebook 2012 the same as AOL 2001?: Speaking of the Internet graveyard, my friend and former colleague Dave Copeland wonders if the Facebook juggernaut is headed for the same kind of fall as America Online, which once stood astride the digital world like a colossus. Certainly Facebook can't take its success for granted. It's a service that millions use but, in my experience, few actually love. In that way, it's the Microsoft of social networking, another rather foreboding comparison. One key difference between AOL and Facebook is that while the former tried to offer users a unique way of experiencing the Internet and the web, those are open systems to which numerous competitors, regional and national, offered access. Facebook offers features that, as of now, haven't been replicated all in one place, and is closed to nonmembers. If you want to be part of Facebook, you have to be part of Facebook.
The Chronicle of Higher Education Stands By Its Woman, Until it Doesn't: Higher education's leading trade publication finds itself in a crisis-control mode after ditching a conservative blogger who take a broadside at black studies. I don't offer any comment as to whether the publication was in the right or in the wrong. That would pose a severe conflict of interest for me and my employer. I will say that it is always fascinating to see the tables turned on a news outlet, which is used to asking the questions, not answering them.
The Yelpification of Foursquare: Foursquare just may become relevant again -- was it ever truly relevant? -- with its new Explore feature, which gives users personalized recommendations for restaurants and other venues. I've never used explore but I am a heavy user of Foursquare, though it reaps me few benefits. I've redeemed a handful of check-in specials, and we've used it effectively at work to hype events. Foursquare users who cross-post their check-ins to Facebook, Twitter, and, God forbid, LinkedIn probably do the service no favors by friends and followers who find these status updates annoying.
RIM's lame flashmob: The maker of the Blackberry tries to employ another fading relic of the digital age to get some attention and poke a stick at Apple: a flash mob, and a lousy one at that. Really, a flashmob? People are still doing those? It raises the question, what if someone attempts a PR stunt in the forest and no one notices except for PR bloggers? It's always so cute when someone updates their Facebook status with a Blackberry, like people who still use AOL email addresses.
Is Facebook 2012 the same as AOL 2001?: Speaking of the Internet graveyard, my friend and former colleague Dave Copeland wonders if the Facebook juggernaut is headed for the same kind of fall as America Online, which once stood astride the digital world like a colossus. Certainly Facebook can't take its success for granted. It's a service that millions use but, in my experience, few actually love. In that way, it's the Microsoft of social networking, another rather foreboding comparison. One key difference between AOL and Facebook is that while the former tried to offer users a unique way of experiencing the Internet and the web, those are open systems to which numerous competitors, regional and national, offered access. Facebook offers features that, as of now, haven't been replicated all in one place, and is closed to nonmembers. If you want to be part of Facebook, you have to be part of Facebook.
The Chronicle of Higher Education Stands By Its Woman, Until it Doesn't: Higher education's leading trade publication finds itself in a crisis-control mode after ditching a conservative blogger who take a broadside at black studies. I don't offer any comment as to whether the publication was in the right or in the wrong. That would pose a severe conflict of interest for me and my employer. I will say that it is always fascinating to see the tables turned on a news outlet, which is used to asking the questions, not answering them.
Sunday, May 6, 2012
The Spin Cycle
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other
things I find interesting.
Pepsi Sees Dead Pop Stars: Pepsi's decision to launch a marketing campaign employing the image of the late Michael Jackson provoked a visceral reaction in critics, who observed that you can draw a line from Pepsi to Jackson's demise, given that his dependence on painkillers apparently started with the burns he received while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. I doubt many consumers will take the connection that far, but certainly the incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire remains the strongest association between Pepsi and the King of Pop. To me, it's unseemly because Jackson, despite how much he profited from his talents, and his own responsibility for his behavior, was a man exploited from a young age by people who should have taken care of him, something that continued all his life -- and now unto death.
Apple Pays Less in Taxes than Warren Buffett's Secretary: Well, not really, but the House that Jobs Built has found legal ways to avoid paying ton billions in taxes, and the Flack thinks their response has been rather tone deaf. But unless they plan to change their behavior, or lobby for changes in the tax code -- which the Flack suggests might be in order -- how else are they supposed to respond? It may be time for people to finally come to terms with the fact that Apple, whatever its cultural cachet, is just like any other large corporation, doing what it can to maximize profit. We need to treat them no better, nor any worse, than any other corporation that does the same.
Coke and Pepsi Want to be Your Friend: The cola wars are moving to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, which to me raises a question: Do consumers really want to engage with every brand out there? I just want to drink soda. That's about where my desire for a relationship ends. I realize that if more and more live much of their lives on social media, a brand can't be invisible and survive for long. I find, however, that not long after I like a brand on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter, I end up regretting is soon after. Maybe it's just because no one has done it right yet.
The Purpose-Driven PR Agency: I'm wrapping up with this item about Edelman's new corporate responsibility practice as a follow-up to last week's item about Penn State hiring the PR giant to help it be more transparent in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. Maybe they hired the right guys after all. Time will tell.
Do you have an item for the Spin Cycle? Send me a reply or DM on Twitter to @jepotts.
Pepsi Sees Dead Pop Stars: Pepsi's decision to launch a marketing campaign employing the image of the late Michael Jackson provoked a visceral reaction in critics, who observed that you can draw a line from Pepsi to Jackson's demise, given that his dependence on painkillers apparently started with the burns he received while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. I doubt many consumers will take the connection that far, but certainly the incident in which Jackson's hair caught on fire remains the strongest association between Pepsi and the King of Pop. To me, it's unseemly because Jackson, despite how much he profited from his talents, and his own responsibility for his behavior, was a man exploited from a young age by people who should have taken care of him, something that continued all his life -- and now unto death.
Apple Pays Less in Taxes than Warren Buffett's Secretary: Well, not really, but the House that Jobs Built has found legal ways to avoid paying ton billions in taxes, and the Flack thinks their response has been rather tone deaf. But unless they plan to change their behavior, or lobby for changes in the tax code -- which the Flack suggests might be in order -- how else are they supposed to respond? It may be time for people to finally come to terms with the fact that Apple, whatever its cultural cachet, is just like any other large corporation, doing what it can to maximize profit. We need to treat them no better, nor any worse, than any other corporation that does the same.
Coke and Pepsi Want to be Your Friend: The cola wars are moving to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites, which to me raises a question: Do consumers really want to engage with every brand out there? I just want to drink soda. That's about where my desire for a relationship ends. I realize that if more and more live much of their lives on social media, a brand can't be invisible and survive for long. I find, however, that not long after I like a brand on Facebook, or follow it on Twitter, I end up regretting is soon after. Maybe it's just because no one has done it right yet.
The Purpose-Driven PR Agency: I'm wrapping up with this item about Edelman's new corporate responsibility practice as a follow-up to last week's item about Penn State hiring the PR giant to help it be more transparent in the wake of the Sandusky scandal. Maybe they hired the right guys after all. Time will tell.
Do you have an item for the Spin Cycle? Send me a reply or DM on Twitter to @jepotts.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
The Spin Cycle
A round-up of recent happenings in the world of PR, marketing, and other things I find interesting.
Penn State hires big-name PR firms: In the wake of the Sandusky scandal, Penn State writes a few big checks to fulfill its pledge to be more transparent. Penn State needs to change its culture. Will these firms help with that?
Netflix Stock Takes a Dive: A few weeks ago, after I heralded Netflix's recovery, a Facebook friend noted that its stock was still in the tank. So sue me. Bottom line, though, is that the lessons learned from the whole episode are still relevant.
The Disney Institute: Disney is building up quite a little side business helping companies become, well, become more like Disney. The New York Times, in reporting on The Disney Institute's growth, seems almost apologetic:
Disney, which employs 64,000 people in Orlando alone, has its own employee difficulties, of course. Union spats arise, and some cast members — Disney-speak for employees — chafe at the company’s strict rules, although it recently lifted a facial-hair ban and now allows women to forgo pantyhose. Disney’s sugary customer service can also startle visitors who aren’t used to such uniform cheerfulness.
But vast numbers of consumers love it, and the company is routinely showcased in business books, like “The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company,” for its hospitality and efficiency. For instance, the company has spent so much time studying its park customers — more than 120 million of them globally last year — that it places trash cans every 27 paces, the average distance a visitor carries a candy wrapper before discarding it.
New York City journalists, perhaps you'd like to visit America sometime. It's a lovely place.
Penn State hires big-name PR firms: In the wake of the Sandusky scandal, Penn State writes a few big checks to fulfill its pledge to be more transparent. Penn State needs to change its culture. Will these firms help with that?
Netflix Stock Takes a Dive: A few weeks ago, after I heralded Netflix's recovery, a Facebook friend noted that its stock was still in the tank. So sue me. Bottom line, though, is that the lessons learned from the whole episode are still relevant.
The Disney Institute: Disney is building up quite a little side business helping companies become, well, become more like Disney. The New York Times, in reporting on The Disney Institute's growth, seems almost apologetic:
Disney, which employs 64,000 people in Orlando alone, has its own employee difficulties, of course. Union spats arise, and some cast members — Disney-speak for employees — chafe at the company’s strict rules, although it recently lifted a facial-hair ban and now allows women to forgo pantyhose. Disney’s sugary customer service can also startle visitors who aren’t used to such uniform cheerfulness.
But vast numbers of consumers love it, and the company is routinely showcased in business books, like “The Disney Way: Harnessing the Management Secrets of Disney in Your Company,” for its hospitality and efficiency. For instance, the company has spent so much time studying its park customers — more than 120 million of them globally last year — that it places trash cans every 27 paces, the average distance a visitor carries a candy wrapper before discarding it.
New York City journalists, perhaps you'd like to visit America sometime. It's a lovely place.
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