Becoming a big fan of Starbucks…not for its coffee, but for its bold approach to PR. Traditional PR strategy would advise the CEO to avoid conflict at all costs; their modern approach is one of take a point of view – if even unpopular – and say what needs to be said and what others are afraid to say. Huge brand cred, IMHO. And lessons to learn for other organizations and PR pros. Having a strong position on an issue and doing the right thing is not the sole domain of national politics.
Tag: PR
-
Marketing != Manipulation
“The more authentic you are, the more authentic you can be with others. It has to come from an intention not to manipulate.” – National Geographic photographer Lynn Johnson.
Great advice for modern marketers. The best marketing is not marketing.
-
Stop Selling
Last week, I had the pleasure of being the opening keynote speaker at the second annual Social Media Business Life Conference produced by Chuck Hall. I’m usually the guy writing speeches for others, so it was an interesting role reversal to be the guy in front of the audience for a change.
Chuck does a great job organizing this conference and putting together a full-slate of content that is, refreshingly, vendor-free. Too often, those of us who have been involved in social media for years forget that many people are still ramping up. There were nearly 250 people drawn to learning about how they could use social media to improve their organizations. In a suburb of Philadelphia. As my friend, John Patrick, often said when the web was first molten hot: “We’re only 10% of the way there.”
My talk focused on the need to look beyond the tools of social media and see the humans behind those tools. I also challenged the audience to stop using social media to sell…which I think forced Chuck and several members of the audience to wonder if I’d started the conference-ending happy hour a bit early.
(My keynote starts at ~9:30 into the video.)
Because Face Time is as Important as FacebookView more presentations from Mike Maney -
Know What Makes Influencers Tick
If you work with influencers – be they traditional media, analysts, bloggers or something in between – you need to know what makes them tick. In my “Influencing the Influencers” presentation, I somewhat flippantly called this stalking (of which I meant the non-creepy, from afar kind).
This thread between the BBC’s Dave Lee & online journalism lecturer Andy Dickinson is but one example of how just doing something simple, like monitoring Twitter, can make you smarter about the influencers you work with…and, in turn, make their lives a bit easier.
What looks like a fun exchange about headline character count is, to the insightful PR pro, a deeper education in how the BBC and Dave work. Armed with this newfound knowledge, a smart flack will tailor any story idea he pitches to Dave (or other BBC journalist) to the BBC’s 30-4-16-40 rule.
So, sure, some may call me a professional influencer stalker. I’m okay with that, especially when it means I’m giving myself a leg up on my competition and doing my part to stop the spread of PR spam still running rampant in the industry.
-
A Face for Podcasts
Last week, Redmonk’s Michael Cote interviewed me on the topic of how I stay on top of what’s happening in the tech industry. We discussed the tools I use, some of the ways I use those tools, and a number of other topics that address the shifting role of the PR pro (listen to the podcast).
-
What’s Old is New Again (Or is It?)
I just read a great post by Ustrategy’s Ravit Lichtenberg on ReadWriteWeb highlighting the 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010. It’s a great read and worthy of being carried under the ReadWriteWeb banner (I have no shame in being an unabashed fanboy of good tech reporting).
However (isn’t there always a “however”?), here’s where I disagree with Ravit. He posits that “Many ‘Old’ Skills Will Be Needed Again.”
An economic downturn coupled with the surge of social media eliminated many traditional marketing and PR roles. But this year, we’ll see the return of professionals to the field. Enterprises will turn back to marketers who specialize in understanding customer psychology and who are experienced in addressing these both offline and online. Research and development divisions will turn to customer experience professionals to draw on user needs and ideation as part of their product improvement and innovation process, and sales and support will continue to deliver services online. Expect to see job postings for social media managers, social media psychologists and social media executive administrators to help manage the infinite tasks involved with communities and social media campaigns.”
The reality is that the good shops, the smart companies, never lost sight of the core functions; they didn’t get blinded by the bright shiny lights. No, they saw the lights and worked them into larger, less tactical strategies.
As marketers, the new tools we have at our disposal couldn’t be greater. But they mean nothing/nada/zip/zero if they aren’t tied into a larger/boring/old school/smart/proven strategy.
-
High honors for a PR pro
Know what’s cool? Scrolling through your Twitter feed and seeing a post like this from a reporter you have an amazing amount of respect for:
Know what’s also cool? Seeing your first accepted submission on Slashdot for a great client (if you are a geek, you’ll understand how unbelievably cool this is):
-
Defrag 2009: Day .5
It was arrival day for one of the tech industry’s most brain-straining conferences, Defrag 2009, in Denver. Lots of catching up with old friends like Graeme Thickins and meeting new ones like PostRank CTO/founder Ilya Grigorik. Here’s a quick shot from our table at the John Minnihan/Freepository-sponsored pre-conference dinner hanging with Infectious Greed’s Paul Kedrosky, Foundry Group’s Brad Feld, and the man himself, Robert Scoble.
-
My How Time Flies in Technology
How long have I been doing PR in the technology industry? How about 1997 when buying things on the Internet was a novel, really big deal. The things I’ve seen…
(Click here for a larger version.)
Mike Maney 
