Utterz for Digital Resumes, Portfolios, Spot News and Crisis Comms

Offered up a demo of Utterz in class tonight. Students may incorporate it into their final projects - digital resumes & portfolios - for the PRProspects.com site.

During the chat, we talked about how Utterz might be used for a client. Read more

Zombie Causes Teenage Boy To Face Prison Time For Viewing Porn?

At first glance, this story may be unseemly, bizarre, whatever … to some. It is, however, an ongoing crisis management plan that we may watch unfold. The idea here is to see what, if any, uptake there is online regarding the campaign and what tactics one may employ in an attempt to gain attention for the cause.

Zombie, in this instance, is a “zombie computer” that has been hacked into by some nefarious character.

This is a story about porn, hackers, trojan viruses, zombie machines and more.

For the PR practitioner, it is a story about crisis management, Web site choices, video, media relations and more.

Crisisblogger Gerald Baron covers the story of a real-time crisis management campaign underway today.

…the story about Matt Bandy. Matt is a 16 year old from Phoenix falsely accused and prosecuted of child porn because a few images of the nasty stuff was found on his computer at home. Despite the compelling evidence to the contrary, the prosecutor continued to push the accusations until the family accepted a plea bargain for a much lower charge–the equivalent of taking a Playboy to school. Still, he was branded a sex offender with the draconian restrictions applied to those who are thus convicted. (Source)

Jonathan Bernstein, of Bernstein Crisis Management (BCM), is leading the campaign for his client - the parents of Matthew Bandy. Already his work has led to a Web site, media placements and a feature on ABC’s 20/20 news magazine.

Beyond the existing tactics in this campaign, Bernstein is seeking to:

…get the word about this ongoing “cause” talked about rapidly on the “blogosphere”, the cause being preventing another person’s life being trashed like this, modifying laws accordingly, warning computer users that they could go to jail for illegal material placed on their computer without their knowledge. We’re doing a series of free press releases over the holiday weekend and PR Newswire on Tuesday, what else might we do?

So, I’ve posted the story in NewPR.CrispyNews.com and it is already in Digg. We’ll see if there is any uptake on the story.

The Web site Bernstein created is www.justice4matt.com.

You may view the complete interview/story from the January 12, 2007 episode of ABC’s 20/20 about Matt Bandy.

As of now, I can find only one blog that has picked up the story - Blogcritics.org.

Pluto Seeks AOR :: Specializing in Crisis Management

Ouch. When your world changes … literally.

Poor Pluto. “Controversy has dogged Pluto since its discovery in 1930.” CNN just reported the fate of Pluto. “The International Astronomical Union has stripped Pluto of the planetary status it has held since its discovery in 1930.” The union represents approximately 2,500 astronomers. Meeting in Prague, Czechoslavakia today, they have come down on the side of - size matters.

CNN does offer a video on “why some think planet size doesn’t matter,” but as of today Pluto is now just one more large object in the Kuiper Belt. Still, don’t lose all hope. There is another initiative underway that may give us “12 planets instead of nine under a proposed ‘Big Bang’ expansion by leading astronomers.”

So, what is the definition of a planet:

“A planet is a celestial body that (a) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (b) is in orbit around a star, and is neither a star nor a satellite of a planet.” (Source)

Yeah, I don’t know what that means either.

Beyond the devastation this brings to Pluto, the announcement today makes the search for Planet X seem so much more futile.

So, what do you think will receive more time on cable news today? Pluto or JonBenet? I think we all know the answer to that question. Our world of cable news is run by small minded people. So, JonBenet will be the lead.

Kayak Satirical Ads :: CGM and Ads May Sting

When I first saw the new Kayak.com TV ads, my first thought was how different they were from other launch ads. They were intended, I believe, to be funny - sort of like the “Roaming Gnome” ads from Travelocity. However, as I saw more and more of them, it became apparent that these are more edgy than anything anyone has done recenlty.

The Kayak site introduces the ads with this: “We hope you’ll agree that we are equal opportunity satirists and will enjoy the ads in the humorous tone in which they were created.” Well, it hasn’t quite gone that way - for everyone.

Paul English, a co-founder of the site/company, has posted some of the more angry anti-Kayak.com emails they’ve received about the ads. (Danger, Will Robinson! Some pretty vulgar angry stuff in there.) The Alaska / Big Oil ad seems to have touched a nerve. OK, more like jumped up and down on it - with an ice pick.

Another aspect that interested me, even more, is how Kayak is incorporating consumer generated ads / media (CGM) in the mix via YouTube. David Weinberger, one of the authors of the Cluetrain Manifesto, has even joined in the fray with a Joho post about the ads and developing his own Joho Kayak ad.

You may see all of the Kayak produced ads here and all of the consumer generated Kayak ads here. As of this post, there are 132 CGM ads in there. That’s impressive. The viewing numbers are impressive, too. Many ads have more than 100 views.

My thoughts? It is a crap shoot. Be edgy, but risk hacking off a lot of people. So, contingency planning is key if this plan is going to be implemented. This is a perfect example of how a company might want to involve PR in their advertising campaign planning. Hey, if you’re going to run ads that will inevitably make people mad, then be ready with a planned response strategy and implement it real-time.

I searched Technorati for posts about the ads, but didn’t find any - other than Joho. The rest were about - gee, kayaking. There are not any posts tagged kayak.com. So, I don’t know if Kayak has such a planned response in action. The meme hasn’t developed (and may not), but better to be prepared than caught flat-footed.

Paul English’s transparent post of the email flames is a refreshing touch, in a way. He writes, “Our goal was to be funny, and controversial. We wanted to take some risks, we knew some people would be offended. The response has been huge with overall positive comments.” Well, where are the positive ones, Paul. I don’t doubt you have them - and some are available in YouTube - but how about sharing those, too. Some are posted to the CGM ads available in YouTube.

One of the comments on the YouTube Kayak Alaska / Big Oil ad actually claims that the Kayak site and ads are part of an astroturfing campaign. (That will fit nicely into my next post.) The comment, from TheOrioleGuy, claims:

Desire: I want to promote my liberal agenda about the environment, plus vilify the Bush administration and oil companies. Problem: I need to bypass the laws and limits that restrain political action committees. Solution: set up a simplistic “travel search site” as a front business, and use the television advertising for it to accomplish my goals… thus bypassing PAC guidelines. Pathetic.

So, do we really want our new company / site to be dragged into some wild “George Soros / Al Gore (kind of) conspiracy theory” meme online? Hey, stranger things have happened. And, TheOrioleGuy has just started it for Kayak.

This will be interesting to watch. I’ve written to Paul English to ask about the campaign. Something tells me the guy is getting tons of email, so I won’t hold my breath for a reply.

Buzz-o-phone Word of Mouth

Matt Galloway, by all respects, seems to be a very nice guy. He is an independent blogger trying something different in his online activities.

Someone sent me a link to Steve Rubel’s blog where he posted a notice about Matt’s site - Buzz-o-phone. So, I thought I’d go look at what she was talking about.

Since Steve and Edelman have recently announced he “will be charged with helping the team win new word of mouth business as well as in developing/executing client programs” in his new role as a Senior Vice President for Edelman Worldwide, I thought he would be the perfect person to speak about the good and bad of these types of sites.

I thought an SVP would likely have some opinions about this kind of tactic. So, I commented on the post with some questions.

No commentary on the value of this? Good or bad?

How will businesses deal with the WOM this may generate? How would you counsel businesses to approach this new feed of consumer backlash for their product(s), service(s), brand(s) or company?

I would like to hear your counsel on these issues. I bet others would, too.

Richard Edelman believes Steve knows about WOM. He wrote, “I have always been impressed with his honesty, his passion for his craft and his commitment to changing the public relations business.” Even more important, in relation to this post - Edelman wrote, “What do we hope to achieve together? In short, we want to persuade our corporate clients to commit to the blogosphere.”

Well, I think this discovery of yet another WOM site is worthy of Rubel’s commentary - as a leader online. It deserves more than just a mention … a link. As of today, no response from Rubel.

But, I did hear from the site’s creator - Matt Galloway. His site is getting attention. Today Matt made it to RocketBoom with Buzz-o-phone.

Matt saw my comment and contacted me. Matt wrote, “I saw your comments on Buzz-o-phone over on Steve Rubel’s blog. You ask some great questions. It will be interesting to see if Buzz-o-phone gets enough momentum to be taken seriously by marketers. If you write about this in the future, please let me know. I’d love to read your thoughts.”

So, I wrote back with some questions. The questions, and Matt’s responses are below. I appreciate and respect his open and honest sharing of information. I have only edited for some stray characters that were created by the email transmission. His responses, and my questions, are in their original form.

A Note: There are some references in here that might offend the truly faint of heart, but they are - compared to some of the things I hear students say - quite tame by comparison. Nonetheless, I offer that warning. Some might say, “Robert, that’s silly.” However, I think about audience a lot. And the audience for this post could be anyone in the world. So, there ya’ go.

Danger, Will Robinson. This is long.

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When Are Blogs Not Enough For Crisis Communication?

This is not a pile-on aimed at Typepad and Six Apart. You may think it is, but that is not my intention. They are a company operating out in public. Their recent problems are common knowledge and there are lessons to be learned.

So, this most recent incident with their customer service failures offers an excellent opportunity to discuss the use of social media in crisis communication.

When will blogs not work?

Well, first of all - they won’t work if you don’t use them. In the October failure, Six Apart didn’t use their support blog - hardly at all. People were mad. They did do some emails to ’select’ customers. That just made some users even angrier. Then, it took them quite awhile to get around to addressing grievances. Certainly, their offer of refunds - and allowing users to choose how much they received - was a good move. It was just late in coming.

In the second episode, they did post a bit more in their “Everything Typepad” blog. They use that for support. As of today, they have not stated if they will be giving refunds again. One would think they will, but - just how much is all of this costing them? Will they be bold enough to this time give everyone the two days of service (plus a little more) off on their next bill?

However, that isn’t enough. The word “sorry” - as in apology - did not appear on their support blog until yesterday. That should be the first thing you say to your customers when you make a mistake. It was a nice apology, just too late. (See pull quote to your right.) Thdy did cause the mistake, even if they claim hardware failure as the cause. Among the steps they could have taken are (1) having redundant hardware on hand in case of a failure and (2) sufficiently testing the upgrade before implementing it. Sure, the cost may have been high for a redundant server(s), but what value do they place on their reputation and the best interests of their customers?

A simple first rule to remember? When the problem is one ‘you’ cause, then it is your responsibility to be proactive and go to the customers. Now, in a way they did do that with a message in their login area. If you wanted to get into your blog, apparently you were redirected to the support area - or, were given a brief message about the outage. I don’t know which (or if both) were applied.

Still, not enough. Why not have an email waiting - in advance - before someone goes to their blog? Seems like a simple and quick form of communication. They certainly have email addresses - probably ready to go (think billing) - for their customer base.

Is email the total answer? No. But it does show your customers that you are making all of the available efforts to reach out to them.

Is it really that hard? No. Can you tell me any other single tactic / strategy they have at their disposal to immediately contact all of their Typepad users? No. Or, maybe you can tell me yes on either (or both) of those options. I’d love to hear it.

They could even use SMS + RSS. And do it, for free! Again, make it opt-in/opt-out. The latest Yahoo! announcment (their new partners) makes it possible.

Further, in the time between October and the recent server crash, Six Apart could have instituted an opt-in/opt-out traditional email subscription process for any user that ‘does’ want to be warned - immediately - when the entire blog service goes down. Now, how hard would that be to implement? Really?

I posted a comment at JEremy Pepper’s Pop-PR Jots blog. It covers, what I think are some key failures in the Six Apart handling of the events. I honestly do not think they had any strategy in place.

That is strange considering they just had a similar problem in October. They had plenty of time to prepare a crisis communication plan in the interim. The comment points to specific instances of company leadership either sitting silent, posting places - other than at Typepad - and the most bizarre one … writing about music and other goofiness while it all happened.

When people praise some new tactic as a powerful tool, and pitch their services to business (as Six Apart has been doing) for all the great things it can accomplish for them - then, fail to utilize the great tool…. well, it is just mind-boggling. If you can’t put the products you pitch into useful practice, what kind of credibility do you have?

The following goes a bit deeper into specific examples of Six Apart’s failures. (Update: Just found where the comment was quoted at association inc. in a post by Kevin Holland entitled: Email Still Matters.) Read more

Action Alley :: A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room - New York Times

This is an interesting read. WalMart has been stepping up their PR activities a great deal over the past year. This is their latest effort - a rapid response war room:

A New Weapon for Wal-Mart: A War Room - New York Times

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Oct. 26 - Inside a stuffy, windowless room here, veterans of the 2004 Bush and Kerry presidential campaigns sit, stand and pace around six plastic folding tables. Open containers of pistachio nuts and tropical trail mix compete for space with laptops and BlackBerries. CNN flickers on a television in the corner.

Two of the players are “Michael K. Deaver, who was Ronald Reagan’s image-meister, and Leslie Dach, one of Bill Clinton’s media consultants…”

How to help the Katrina ravaged area?

Beyond the needed donations to charities aiding the vicitims of Katrina in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama - what else can you do?

I’m posting a suggestion passed along from Victoria at The Depot about how to help.

A firm down there is setting up “a Tourism Communication and Media Center for the ‘1500 journalists roaming the city looking for news.’”

How You Can Help

Up there with “how are you,” the most common question I hear is “what can I do to help.”

There are several outstanding charities managed by wonderful people and organization, but there is another crucial, desperately needed part you can play in rebuilding Louisiana better than ever:

Visit Louisiana.

Explore the state. North and Central Louisiana, Cajun Country and Southwest Louisiana were completely spared, and are ready to host you today. New Orleans will be ready to greet you again soon.

Bring a business meeting or conference here.

Plan your next vacation here. Bring the family.

Visiting will be a concrete and appreciated way to help the region rebound.

And, (to close with a Cajun phrase) we’ll pass a good time too, cher.

Now, to help all of the afflicted areas, I’d just insert visit Mississippi and Alabama, too.

A good idea from the firm in NO. Don’t know their name, but they deserve credit for the idea and effort. If I find it, I’ll post it here. Update: And here it is …. John Deveney, ABC, APR at Deveney Communication - Top 5 Boutique PR Firm in the U.S. — PRWeek, 2004

A Very Angry Times Picayune Editorial

This deserves to be read. A very pointed editorial. As Al Tompkins of PoynterOnline termed it, “A Blistering Editorial”.

EDITORIAL FROM NOLA.COM

NOLA.com: T-P Orleans Parish Breaking News Weblog
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Kaye Trammell, LSU Professor Blogging Through Katrina

The Washington Post has an op-ed article by Kaye Trammell, LSU professor of Mass Communications. Slogging, and Blogging, Through Katrina. Visit her blog, too.

On August 28th, Kaye started her Hurricane Update Blog:

you asked for a hurricane blog

So now you get it.

I’m in Baton Rouge, La., & watching the hurricane warnings swirl around me (no pun intended). Since Dave Winer & others seem to be interested in people blogging the event from a local perspective I decided to start up a new blog & post as long as I have power.

If you’re interested in my little citizen journalism dispatches about Hurricane Kristina, then check out http://hurricaneupdate.blogspot.com/.

There, Kaye writes about immunizations & medical concerns and the effect the storm has had on LSU’s students and faculty.

Kaye kept going right through the storm, too.

Within hours my readership expanded from my family in Florida, Kansas and Texas to people in Israel, Germany and across the United States. With A-list blogs (whose audiences rival those of small weeklies) linking to my site, the word that I was blogging the storm spread quickly.

As the storm approached, it was never a question of whether power would go out but when and for how long. I knew that silence would cause concern. I soon discovered that I could continue my humble dispatches from my BlackBerry, which could transfer data, though no calls could come in.

Our blogging friend and contributor Josh Hallett, who participates in MarcomBlog is mentioned, too.

Great work by Kaye Trammell. My Dad and Mom, both LSU grads, will applaud.

Hurricane Relief :: Blog Searches

Google News Search

Yahoo! News Search

Technorati Searches for: Katrina | “new orleans” | “hurricane katrina”

Blogdigger Search: “hurricane katrina” | new orleans | Biloxi | Even a search for something broad like Alabama is showing the majority of posts being about the hurricane.

Blogpulse Search: hurricane katrina | Red Cross | Blogpulse Trend Report on Hurricane, Katrina and Red Cross

Ice Rocket Blog Search: Katrina | Red Cross | Alabama Katrina

DayPop Search: Katrina

Feedster Search: Katrina

Bloogz World Wide Blog Search: Katrina

Yahoo! Mindset Search: Katrina

Findory News & Blogs Search: Katrina

BlogMap Search: New Orleans bloggers are still blogging.

Finally, in the PR blogging community, a look at the Headlines from PR Weblogs group shows that the majority of posts (at this snaphot in time) are not actually about the hurricane.

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