ManeyDigital

January 26, 2009 • 12:46 pm 0

Sir, your reputation precedes you

Rafe NeedlemanImage by jdlasica via FlickrFirst, if you’re an up-and-coming communications pro (or even a weathered old geezer), you’d do well to subscribe to Rafe Needleman’s “Pro PR Tips.” The C|NET vet has posted more than 100 rules from inside the head of one of the tech industry’s most-read journalists.

Take, for example, this one from the other day:

Tip #103: Agency, Shmagency: “I don’t care that much what agency you work for. What I care about is the company you represent.”

Now, you can argue that the calling cards of a small number of agencies will open otherwise hard-to-crack editorial doors (a reflection on consistently great hiring and training than on size and perceived power). However, even though the card might be able to open the door, it’s the story and personal relationship that gets your foot inside.

I’ve heard a lot lately about the power of personal brands. It’s a discussion good PR pros should heed. It doesn’t matter whether you work for IBM or Joe’s PR Shop, it’s your personal brand that makes you stand out.

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Filed under: News, Public Relations, Rafe Needleman

January 5, 2009 • 11:50 am 0

Yeah, you. You talking about my brand?

Ford Motor CompanyImage via WikipediaFor those who still think what happens on blogs, Twitter and other social media networks is nothing more than a marketing echo chamber, think again.

I posted an entry to this blog yesterday that included links to the great online video work Ford and GM are doing. I also included a line about “the ever-present knock of death” at the auto industry’s door. While I’m no fan of the bailout — and recognize that Ford didn’t stick its hand out for public funds — the work Scott Monty and Christopher Barger (and their respective teams) are doing is worth noting.

Now, I don’t pretend that this blog gets a ton of traffic. Scoble I am not. However, no sooner did I hit post when a comment from Scott appeared to clarify Ford’s position on my death-knell comment. Again, in the wide realm of blogs out there, I’m quite sure Maney|Digital is somewhat low on the totem pole of authority and impact for the automakers.

Which is why I wanted to highlight Scott’s actions. Somewhere in his toolbox, Scott has a trigger to alert him to any time Ford is mentioned on the web. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a Scoble-sized mention or a lowly Maney|Digital-sized one. What matters is that Scott didn’t let a potentially (and unintentional) negative comment about his company sit idle for others to see.

Companies which aren’t monitoring what’s being said about them online do so at their own peril. While the overall impact of a single negative post on a site the size of Maney|Digital probably won’t make much of a difference, the cumulative effect of others seeing it, posting on it, linking to it, will.

Do you know what they are saying about your brand?

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Filed under: Automotive industry, Blog, Ford Motor Company, General Motors, Public Relations, Robert Scoble, Twitter, social media

January 4, 2009 • 7:04 pm 2

Blog Graffiti: 2009 Kickoff Edition

Random thoughts to get 2009 off to a blogging good start:

Will this be the year RSS sees wide mainstream consumer adoption? Check out Louis Gray’s post on the death of the bookmark for more.

Look for more widespread use of video in corporate communications efforts this year. Despite the ever-present knock of death at their door, GM’s Christopher Barger and Ford’s Scott Monty seem to be leading the way.

Talk about air cover: Dell’s Andy Lark uncovers a flow chart of how the U.S. Air Force responds to posts and comments in the blogosphere.

According to The Peronsal Branding Blog’s Dan Schwabel, who you know will be as — if not more — important than what you know in 2009.

Will our children know what a newspaper was? Not if the trends found in a recent study by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press continue. According to the Pew study, 59% of Americans under the age of 30 say they get the majority of their news from the Internet, up from 34% in 2007.

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Filed under: Pew Research Center, RSS, United States Air Force

TWITTERING FOOL

WHAT I'M READING

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THE OLD STUFF

CONTACT ME

You can email me, reach me on IM or Skype (I'm mikemaney on most services), follow me on Twitter, see my photos on Flickr, watch my videos on YouTube or check out my professional background on Linkedin. Whew.

ABOUT ME

My Twitter profile says I’m a former Calvin Klein underwear model, father/husband, and stimulator of developer influencers. Well, I guess two out of three isn’t bad.

First, the personal me: I’m a father to two of the smartest, funniest, most talented and most beautiful girls on the planet (they get most of that from their mother). Speaking of, I’m married to a saint. I look a little like Andre Agassi if he got stung by a swarm of bees. I think Buffett and Springsteen are musical gods. I’ve run a 4:30 mile, a 1:19:00 half marathon and two full marathons (Chicago and New York City). I don't run as much as I used to, instead channeling my inner Lance Armstrong on the back roads of Bucks County, Pa. I’ve skied Tuckerman’s Ravine and survived. Despite being years out of practice, I can still climb a respectable 5.9. I once hung out with Chris Farley on the set of Saturday Night Live.

Some of the things I like (in no particular order): road biking, skiing, photography, travel (the non-tour, no-agenda kind), wine, Jimmy Buffett, Bruce Springsteen, Bill Bryson, The West Wing, and great comedy.

Now, the professional stuff: I’m a media junkie. Despite (or perhaps, because of) being in the PR business for roughly the past two decades, I think the Fourth Estate is one of the most important components of society. I’ve worked with big, global corporations (IBM, AT&T, Unisys), big honking agencies (Ogilvy, Grey, Saatchi) and exciting startups (MindTouch, Krugle, Mashery). I’m a believer in open source and an unabashed Mac fanboy. In my current role, I’m the Director of Influencer Management at Alcatel-Lucent. And if I can ever track down the last of those Polaroids, I'd someday like to run for President.

A respected mentor and former colleague once said I have an uncanny ability to help executives hone their messages and craft compelling, creative stories (that colleague also said I liked to kick the snot out of the competition). I've written a number of well-received speeches for executives, but I'm no Peggy Noonan. I've placed stories in outlets big and small. I'm a geek. I've crippled enough devices with alpha and beta software to be dangerous at a keyboard. That inquisitiveness makes me an early tech adopter (if you think Twitter is buggy today, you should have seen it when I was first using it in 2007).

I attended and (Yay!)graduated from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications and a concentration in professional writing and organizational communications. I grew up in a small town in northwestern New Jersey where I attended and (Yay again!) graduated from Hackettstown High School and lived out my Al Bundy'esque dreams as an all-state soccer star.

FLICK ME? FLICK YOU!

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