One Reason Nonprofits Should Use Video :: Testimonials :: Two Video Examples

For almost three years, Camp ASCCA has been using blogs, podcasts and now a full blown niche social network - ASCCA Friends - to connect with ASCCA’s campers and their parents.

Danika Kmetz, a great PR intern from Illinois State University (and President of her PRSSA chapter), has created two very fun videos with the best kind of testimonials possible. The first is from Hope, a camper at ASCCA’s Teen Week taking place this week on Lake Martin. The second is a mashup of clips from last week’s Adult Mentally Disabled camp.

There are many ideas at work behind these sites. The most important is to provide a look inside camp that will reach out to our campers, their parents and anyone that has yet to consider a therapeutic recreation opportunity. Read more

Snap.com Screws Up, Fesses Up, and Apologizes

Snap Shots is a nice little plugin for blogs and sites that offers “12 kinds of Snap Shots” or little image previews in rollover popups.

They sent out an email on Feb. 13 that stated, “Unbelievably, 99 of you had nothing better to do with your lives than to create nearly 200 different badges for Snap Shots–and we love you for it.”

Well, apparently they got some mail about that one. Probably not a good idea to belittle your user popoulation, ya’ think?

So, today they send out an email entitled “We screwed up”. Signed by “Team Snap”, the email states:

Last week, we sent out an email which contained two errors and we’d like to apologize for those. The first was a joke that was in at least one case taken to demean the webmasters and bloggers who’ve placed Snap Shots on their sites. Rather than repeat it, rest assured that nothing could be further from the truth than that. We’re deeply appreciative of the fact that we’re invited guests and want to do whatever we can to be invited back.

The lesson in all of this? Snap.com states it fairly well, writing “As one of our mentors at Snap used to always say, ‘Communication delivered is not the same as communication received.’ So, with apologies for any and all confusion caused by or (sic) last email, we’d like to try again.”

Flickr Massage Feels Strange

Flickr is one of my favorite sites. Truly, they have a wonderful interface and hosting service for photos. It is my favorite of all the photo hosting sites - hands down.

Yet, tonight the site went down for one of their maintenance “massages” and that’s cool. Hey, I knew it was coming and wasn’t the least bit miffed. I’m still not miffed. But, I think there is a lesson here.

Flickr always seems to do this maintenance at good times. It is usually about midnight here when they take the site down. OK, no problem. But, still I thought I’d watch how they do the explanation of down time.

It is the little things that matter when dealing with your customers. I have at least two Pro accounts.

Currently, 15 minutes into their 30 minute massage, the site shows this message.

Yet, when you click on their visit the Flickr Blog for updates message, you actually get the top post for Tag-O-Rama. Hmm? Ruh Roh! You see, it is the little things that count.

Let’s mark this up to a little site maintenance and customer service lesson. It is the little things … like pre-posting an explanation to the blog … that makes that little extra special difference to your visitors. After all, if you’re going to send them somewhere for info … have it ready for them.

Once again, Flickr is still the coolest of photo sharing sites. And, the site is back up now. It only took 26 minutes, not 30. Flickr’s still good.

Blogs, Press Releases, and Farmers in Appalachian Valleys

This is the meme that won’t die. I was going to stay away from it, until I received a comment from Stowe Boyd yesterday. His comment was so long that my response (I feel) deserves a post, rather than a simple reply. The funny thing is, today I received an email from a former student (Sarah) who opened her eNewsletter from Lawrence Ragan Communications today and saw my name at the top of Shel Hotz’ post about the post in question. Kinda cool. Oh, and “Hey, Sarah!”

If you aren’t confused, re: Farmers in Appalachian Valleys, then I’ll appreciate your help - ’cause I am confused. You see, I have never written about Appalachain Valley farmers and press releases (have I?), but apparently Stowe Boyd thinks I did.

The title of this post is but part of a comment left by Stowe Boyd on the post, Blogs are Soma to So Many. At least he liked the metaphor - sort of. His comment is in blockquotes below. I respond.

Stowe Boyd: I think the metaphor is pretty, but misleading. You could make the case that anything that any group advocates is like Soma. I don’t buy it. Blogging is not like taking an anti-depressant. It is (at a physical level) a collection of tools for web publilshing, and (at the societal level) a social medium through which we gain understanding of the world. Not a drug.

Actually, my intention re: the use of the metaphor is as follows.

The assertion that blogging will right the wrongs of poor corporate and organizational communication with stakeholders gives blog enthusiasts solace. Enthusiasts hope and believe that social media’s conversational form will bring relief to the distress of poor customer service and customer relationship marketing / management. So, it is the idea of a blog revolution that serves as your soma. You embrace it as something that will make society and corporations, for instance, co-exist in harmony. And, you seem to expect us to get in line - quick.

I agree that blogging is a medium, but I’m a little surprised that you used that term. Isn’t “place” or “space” the blog-speak appropriate term, along with “people” instead of audience? I wouldn’t want you to be drummed out of the Blog Thought Leaders Club. (See David Weinberger’s JOHO the blog, your own reference to Doc Searls, Dan Gillmor’s The Former Audience Joins the Party, and Jay Rosen’s The People Formerly Know as the Audience.)

Those enthusiasts are, after all, creating waffle words or jargon. (See Milton Friedman.) But, wasn’t this supposed to be the movement that did away with required appropriate norms of speech and definitions. Isn’t it the movement that frees all to speak in their own voice? The implication being, if you don’t subscribe to the dogma, “you don’t get it.” I think Stowe Boyd used that phrase.

Stowe Boyd: Your argument boils down to the fact that established mechanisms of PR have been baked into law and other conventions, and therefore blogging — which wasn’t foreseen when those where codified — shouldn’t be used in place of old timey ideas like press releases distributed by newswire services. I have suggested that we could work collectively to get these conventions, or laws, if necessary, changed.

No, my argument is two-fold. But, yes … we can work to change the old laws. However, it will take a lot of time. Read more

Name Change :: Re-branding :: University of Missouri - Rolla

One of my favorite examples for using a blog is where an organization employs them to gain input from their stakeholders. It is particularly rewarding to see dialog, about sometimes sensitive issues, being discussed so openly. I think it shows great transparency - even a bit of bravery - for an institution to follow this path.

In the past, I have written about Cornell.edu Redesign: Why it is a good blog and the student initiative of BuzzFlood :: Dartmouth Blog/CMS PR Tactic.

Andrew Careaga, of higher ed marketing, recently shared news from his university, the University of Missouri-Rolla, about a new “name change” blog. See the release: UMR News and Research: Weblog shares info about potential name change.

Last October, UMR Chancellor John F. Carney III proposed a discussion about changing the university’s name to one that better reflects its role as a technological research university.

“The University of Missouri-Rolla is unique among the four University of Missouri campuses because of our focus as a technological research university,” Carney said. “We believe a more distinctive name would afford UMR several advantages in recruiting students on a national level.”

I’m enjoying watching the conversations. It is new, yet they are already getting traffic.

The most exchanges, thus far, have taken place on a post about Alumni survey results: 70% (of respondents) favor name change. You can tell that the respondents feel ownership of “their” university. It is fun to read.

Go over and check it out. Thanks to Andrew for the tip, too. I love these kinds of blogs.

Related Links:

• Name change conversations - Missouri-Rolla
• Cornell University - cornell.edu Redesign
• BSU.EDU Relaunch
• collegewebeditor.com: web, marketing & PR in higher ed, Karine Joly - the keeper of all things higher ed web.

UAB Web Communications Group Links

Here are the websites representing the topics I was going to discuss Friday with the UAB Web Communications Group at their luncheon in Birmingham, Alabama.

…UAB Web Communications maintain(s) the UAB front door and coordinate(s) UAB’s official Web pages…

The links are divided into six sections. The are: Introductory Sites, Marketing via Social Media, XPRL and Standards, Books, Podcasts and the Loveliest Village class exercises.

This was to be a follow up presentation which grew out my recent visit to the Internet Professionals Society of Alabama at the Saint Vincent’s Bruno’s Center.

I hope I may one day make it up to the UAB Web Communications Group. I offer my apologies for not being able to make it on Friday.

Here are the links:

Read more

Yahoo! Yodel Anecdotal and Paul Stamatiou :: Score! Big Time

Yahoo! and intern Paul Stamatiou unveil Yahoo!’s new official corporate blog - Yodel Anecdotal.

Paul descibes the new blog as:

It’s what Yahoo! is all about - the culture, the traditions and some dabbling of current hot topics in the general tech realm. You don’t have to be a Computational Media major at a top 10 public university to understand what’s going on. User interaction is encouraged on Yodel Anecdotal.

Please note that we’re talking about Yahoo! - a corporate giant - giving this kind of responsibility (and opportunity) to an intern. I think that’s amazing, admirable and to be saluted. Now, Paul doesn’t seem like your average intern, so that may play into this a bit. But, the willingness of a company like Yahoo! to offer this to an intern just blows my mind. Yahoo! has won me over in yet another area.

Sounds like a good idea for a corporate blog, too. Looking forward to reading this one.

Paul’s work (and his group) is quite impressive. Congrats!

A little side story is the choice of the blogging platform used for Yahoo’s corporate blog. MovableType’s ProNet discussion group - mostly developers - are a little bummed that Wordpress was chosen. But, the unique aspect is that Yahoo! let the intern go with a platform he felt comfortable with - instead of one that was suggested (but not demanded) by IT. I think that’s commendable. Also, Yahoo! offers hosting for both platforms. So, either platform would be fine for the blog.

Is it a coup for Wordpress? Sure. Wordpress is now the platform of the Official Yahoo! corporate blog. That’s pretty cool. But, both platforms have gained from acceptance and adoption by Yahoo! over recent years. See Yahoo! Web Hosting and WordPress.

I do think that Wordpress is continuing to erode Movable Type’s market share and if I were Six Apart, I’d be worried. Even the latest version of Movable Type 3.3 is encountering problems. The rebuild function of Movable Type makes it a “clunkier” platform than Wordpress, in some/many instances. We’ll see how Movable Type’s viability plays out in the future.

Links:

The blog and discussion:
Introducing Yodel Anecdotal - PaulStamatiou.com
Yodel Anecdotal
About Yodel Anecdotal
Yet another self-serving corporate blog!

Discussion about the blogging platform chosen (Wordpress):
Photo Matt » Yodel Anecdotal
http://www.sixapart.com/mailman/private/pronet/ - Discussion at ProNet (registration required)

Two Reviews:
IMlog: Corporate blog: Yahoo! vs Google 1 - 0
Yahoo Yodels With New Blog

Customer Relationship Management and Marketing :: Campaign turns into a nightmare

No long post here, this time. Just go read this article from CRMGuru.com. Dick Lee relates a very scary marketing campaign with disasterous results.

Say “Hello” to Your Inner Customer (If No One Answers, You’re in Deep Trouble)

A recipient of the campaign had this reaction:

She noted that “speculation about who could have sent (the campaign’s promotional item) caused tremendous anxiety and fear. (She) had a heightened sense of attention to (her) surroundings at all times, started to carry mace and was looking into purchasing a new phone with caller ID.”

But wait, this wasn’t a Mace marketing strategy or one of their campaigns. Mace wasn’t the intended client to benefit from sales driven by the marketing strategy. They had nothing to do with it. And, I’m betting they wouldn’t want sales driven by this kind of campaign.

This may be the first CRM campaign - or marketing campaign of any kind - that so scared recipients it caused them to actually fear for their lives.

Yep, that’s a pretty bad CRM campaign.

Facebook :: Ten Rules For School Administrators To Live By

I wish I had known of Fred Stutzman prior to HigherEd BlogCon and invited him to present his thoughts on Facebook. Fred “share(s) some suggestions regarding how administrators should approach and understand the Facebook.” It is well worth the read. Visit How University Administrators Should Approach the Facebook: Ten Rules.

Facebook is a bane of my, and other educators, existence. For anyone that deals with computer labs, the site has an addictive quality for students that surpasses crack and heroin. OK, a bit over-stated, but not far from the truth.

Still, all that I can deal with if I have to on a day-to-day basis. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to make a student close the site. My real concern? The potential for harm that may come to one of my students is what really bothers me. Students are too willing to share any and all information about themselves. They do not take the precautions they should by making their portion of the site only available to friends - people they actually know and want to interact with online. They do not always leave off personal information. They too often post photos that may attract undesirable attention.

We have our own little goofy stories of students posting too much personal info and then having it come back to bite them. The one we most often refer to is the student that posted her life’s activity schedule from class to tennis playing online. She also had her phone number, home address and class schedule on her Facebook site. Then, one day she was stunned to be out playing tennis and receive an unwanted visitor. She reported to her friends that this “creepy” guy showed up at the tennis court and said he found her through Facebook.

My point? We have no idea if any assaults may have already occured via this kind of online stalking. I don’t want any to take place and therefore try to educate my students about the potential dangers. Facebook should be doing it, too. Collleges, high schools and parents - all of us - should be doing this, as well. The danger is too real.

I wonder if any actuarial tables already exist in C-suites and venture capital offices when the purchase or support of a social media site is being considered. The risk is high, I’d bet. It is untested in court, I imagine. Can Facebook and MySpace, etc. show that they have (a) provided enough cautionary advice to users and (b) made them go through enough hoops to assure the users have read all that cautionary evidence? I doubt it. Is it encumbent upon them to do so? I think it is. But, they likely won’t do it until forced to by a court case or overwhelming bad publicity. So, until then, the duty must lie with us to help protect the students.

Read Fred’s article and take it to heart.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Education, Risk

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Disclaimer Longer Than Blog Post … Bait for Satire, or Reality Setting In?

So funny, yet so sad. The legalese is longer than the content.

Starwood Hotels is attempting something that is sort of like, well … it is trying to be like … well, it started as faux blogging and now it is …. well, just corporate blogging. In fact, it is corporate blogging that fits many stereotypes of legal and management “interference” - some PR practitioners like to call it.

Starwood launched The Lobby.

The blog states their focus and purpose:

To help keep Starwood Preferred Guests on top of the latest travel trends, Starwood and ElectricArtists have assembled a team of travel writers to contribute to this site. Every weekday this site will be covering the latest and greatest in worldwide travel.

A legitimate idea. However, the authors in the blog seem more like jingle writers than travel writers. Each post is a commercial for some Starwood hotel or amenity.

Still, that’s not too bad of an idea. It is just the way they do it that seems contrived. Too planned. Too dry. Too predictable. The posts range from 100 to 200 words, with a few exceptions - the average is about 150. (This will be important later.) All of the posts are the equivilant to sidebar contextual ads with nice photos. It is one long list of short advertisements.

Starwood is using MovableType (MT). Many sites do. That isn’t uncommon. MT makes a fine CMS, aside from just a blog. But, The Lobby’s posts have links for tagging and bookmarking the site which many/most associate with blogs more than a dynamic site.

At first Starwood’s “The Lobby” did not have comments turned on.

Some people criticized them for that. B. L. Ochman called it a “dud” for more reasons than just the absence of comments. The Inside PR podcast also felt that the absence of comments did not help the blog’s legitimacy with audiences. There was no opportunity for a conversation.

So, Starwood turned comments on for some/most of the posts. However, in this instance they only made things worse.

If one is seeking to lay blame for this, I imagine the place to point is to upper management and the legal team. I doubt it is what the creative people wanted.

When Starwood did turn on comments, they couldn’t help but turn it over to the legal department, first. So, now you have one of the most ridiculous comment sections, on every post offering comments, that you will see on a blog - in blogging’s brief history. The legal disclaimer is actually longer than the posts. Seriously, the post at that link is 194 words, whereas there are 282 words in the disclaimer before you may comment. And, most of the other posts are like this, too.

Need more irony? The title of one post is: Head and Shoulders Above the Rest. Um, no Starwood. This this is more like what happens when you don’t use Head and Shoulders^TM … you appear flakey (or legally anal) - people notice, and you are embarrassed.

Sigh. So, bless their hearts, at least they are trying. How they could not see that their practice will bring snickers is kind of scary, but why am I not surprised?

Admittedly, there is legitimate concern for companies and individuals regarding the comments some people may leave in your blog.

Jeremy Pepper wrote:

Is it worth pushing the boundaries in a blog to get traffic, then end up in a libel suit? Are certain blogs that we all have seen - making fun of ugly people on the Web, making fun of Star Wars fans - worth the potential for a libel lawsuit?

Corporations have traditional boundaries and standards of practice. They are loathe to change them when the fear of legal entanglement may be the result. So, what you sometimes see is this kind of silliness.
I don’t know. Starwood can defend their tactic, of course. But, isn’t it kind of funny? Their fear is worth more text than their travel related content? B. L. was right. The Lobby is a dud.

Honestly, it reminded me of contract management. The rule-of-thumb was always - CYA or CYB. Here is the complete disclaimer you must wade through before getting to the comment forms:

BY CLICKING “I AGREE” AND SUBMITTING A COMMENT YOU AGREE TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS & CONDITIONS:

You agree not to submit any comment that contains unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law.

You agree that all comments submitted by you should be relevant to the article and remain respectful of other authors and commenters.

You authorize Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., its affiliates, properties within the Starwood system and third party service providers (collectively, “Starwood”) to collect, process, use and display the information provided by you (including personally identifiable information) for any lawful, Starwood business related purpose, to store the information at and transmit the information to various locations, either directly or through its third party vendors, throughout the world, whether within your country of residence, the United States, or elsewhere; and to contact you regarding the information you provide.

You assign to Starwood the right, but not the obligation to edit, remove, modify, publish, license, print, transmit, display or otherwise use any comments you submit to Starwood and all accompanying personally identifiable information via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity, without notice to you and without compensation, and you waive any moral rights you may have in having the material altered or changed in a manner not agreeable to you.

You agree to indemnify and hold Starwood and its subsidiaries, affiliates, officers, directors, agents and employees harmless from any claim or demand, including reasonable attorney’s fees, made by any third party due to or arising out of Your breach of these terms and conditions or Your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.

That is on every post where you may leave a comment. Can you believe that? I find it amazing.

Um, and you don’t click on “I AGREE” … you click on Preview or Post.

Do you really want to see and read that every time you want to post a comment?

Perhaps the better path to follow (aside from the obvious “Drop the facade.  Don’t blog.  Make it a static site.”) would be requiring all who wish to comment to simply register for your site. Then, they see the disclaimer once and are bound by the rules. As Starwood is doing it now, the blog is a chuckle on every post, at first. After a few times, it will become - simply - a pain. Are they really going to turn these posts into purchases of services at their hotels? I don’t know, but I doubt it.

Here is an idea. Take the reigns off of the writers. Be bold. Take a chance. Let them write critically about your hotels and services. (I know. I’m dreaming.)

I don’t think Starwood Hotels did any reading or research into the mindset of most bloggers and blog readers. If they get laughed at online, it is their own fault. Of course, their target audience is probably not bloggers. It is business travelers. But, they are online and therefore open to these types of critiques.

What do you think? Is this a good practice by Starwood? Will they succeed? How would you suggest they blog?

Thanks to B. L. Ochman and Inside PR’s David Jones and Terry Fallis for the link.

Ike Pigott Draws RSS Blood and News

Ike Pigott, of Accentuate the Positive, 2.0, shared news of an interesting project at the Birmingham Red Cross.

The campaign includes two blogs and a customized/branded RSS reader that you can download.

The blogs are Red Cross Media Alerts and Jefferson County EMA Media Alerts. Also, check out Ike’s version of a branded RSS reader. That is just one of many ways you could accomplish this neat little freebie. During an emergency situation, I can imagine some news people launching this to keep track of new posts.

I like this for several reasons. First, news outlets always want these Red Cross and EMA alerts. Many news outlets have not engaged in RSS and this is a way to turn them on to it easily.

Second, using Blogger (as Ike has) the sites are free. Any free hosted service will do. Perhaps this will spur other nonprofits into the blogosphere. Later on, they may start a blog from within their ranks - beyond news releases and alerts, after seeing how easy it can be to publish. Blogs are an easy way to tell your organization’s story.

Third - and Ike, this is where my students will love you - the branded RSS reader is so cool I’m going to require they make one as part of their final project.

Yes, I know some will say that RSS readers are everywhere and why would someone want your branded version. Well, if they have not adopted RSS and you are the one that gets them started, they may well keep your branded version for awhile. That means each time they start the reader (which you can add other feeds to, as well) they will see your logo and info. Now what is wrong with that? The effort to make one is so minimal that the real question might be “Why not make one?”

Finally, Ike is helping nonprofits get into new media and that is laudable. His efforts are also in line with the ideals behind Operation Link Love where we are trying to find examples of nonprofit blogging. Ike takes the next step of “paying it forward” and “giving back” by getting the nonprofits involved. Now that is admirable and I appreciate his efforts. Good job, Ike.

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