Dos and Don'ts for Spokespeople

A great post from the team at Bad Pitch Blog about the dos and don'ts of spokespeople. My favorite? Number 8: Don’t make one group look good at the expense of another. What a great tip to keep in mind whenever you're speaking! All of the tips in this post can be used whether you're speaking to reporters or presenting to a group, making it all the more valuable.

Three Questions to Ask Before Launching a Social Marketing Campaign

I have a confession to make. I’m a slacker blogger. That’s right, c21’s VP of Interactive Services has a three-year-old personal blog about a topic I’m quite passionate about, yet I can go for months at a time without uploading a single post. This fact was formerly my shameful secret, but when I work with clients who want to launch innovate social media marketing initiatives that impact the bottom line, it’s my very public example of the importance of proper planning before diving into the deep end of social media marketing. Yes, anybody can start a blog or Twitter feed, but without a strategic approach, a schedule and measurable goals, the effort and expense are unlikely to achieve the desired results.

Below are what I consider the top three key questions to ask on the front-end of any social media marketing effort:
1. What’s the primary objective?
Sometimes our clients don’t know what their objective is for social media marketing –and that’s ok. We figure that as the marketing experts, it’s our job to help them uncover those objectives and determine the best course of action to meet and exceed them. Your needs will impact the mix of social media tools best suited for you – whether you need to drive sales, build brand awareness or change public perceptions.

2. How will effectiveness be measured?
This can’t be over-stated: measurement in social media is KEY. Of course, what you measure may run the gamut from engagement, to site traffic to direct sales, but the point is the marketing team must establish the key metrics on the front-end. Check out Jeremiah Owyang’s article about measuring ROI.

3. What are your available staff and budget resources?
Ok, here’s the deal: Social media is not 100% free. Sure, there are tons of awesome free tools available that allow you to participate and monitor the social media space, but there are time costs associated with that participation and monitoring. You must have an estimate of the people and hours can you devote. Comcast and Zappos are prime examples of the human capital required for true social media interaction.

And the list goes on. Actually, there are at least 10 more questions we work through with our clients looking for social media marketing solutions. Click here if you’d like a copy of the complete list. And leave a comment here to let us know what you think are the top three questions.

Me, Myself and I. Common Grammatical Mistake Plagues President Obama

those of us who write for a living know firsthand the constant questioning and checking required to achieve proper grammar, punctuation and sentence construction. Thank goodness for talented editors. The New York Times has a great piece today about President Obama's grammatical flubs. He's not the first to use these words incorrectly - and he certainly won't be the last, but hopefully the little tip provided at the end of the article will help him and maybe me. Or is it I?

When I think of the Super Bowl, even though I'm a marketer, my mind drifts more to food, drink, fun with friends and ranking the commercials. I'm into the game if it's a grid iron battle - and would be a fanatic if my Dolphins were there, but sadly we haven't been to the show in sometime.

Regardless, what I don't think about is the Super Bowl's logo. Brands are likely one of the most argued over in terms of importance and impact on consumers. For example, my colleagues and I have been wondering why time honored brands like Pepsi and Gatorade have changed their brand marks to now look like a beachball and the single letter "G". I'm assuming some marketer convinced them it was time to 'modernize.' In truth, I am less motivated to buy Gatorade because now it seems trendy instead of effective.

But when I read the following from Reveries magazine's Cool News of the Day, it made me realize the logo for the Super Bowl just hasn't been that much to look at - and for a day that is one of the most watched events every year, it's kind of surprising.

From Reveries... "The 43 Super Bowl logos 'draw a line through the league's growth, the trends of graphic design, even the vagaries of one nation's popular culture,' reports John Branch in the New York Times (1/28/09). John observes: "Flourishes arrive in the disco era, leading to a decade-long phase of red-white and blue badges. They look more like corporate logos, tinged with cold-war-era patriotism ... As designers moved to computers, their logos became more complicated, their palettes more varied" (gallery). Design critic Stephen Heller has a more brutal assessment: "I'll go out on a limb and say that all the logos starting with XVII are based on beer labels." However, he thinks this year's logo (designed by Landor Associates) marks a departure, suggesting it "looks like the Bank of America logo." The current logo is also the first to use the color green, in a nod to "the surf and turf of Tampa," where the Big Game will be held on Sunday. That's part of the design spec, as each logo, in addition to including those Roman Numerals, is meant to convey something of its host city or stadium.That's a tradition that started with Super Bowl XXI, with a rose representing the Rose Bowl. Only once was the logo changed, and that was post 9/11, when it was switched from a "festive" New Orleans motif to a more "patriotic" theme (images). Among other uses, each logo "is reproduced on $100 million worth of licensed merchandise."

If however you'd like to see new options, or create one of your own, the New York Times is inviting its readers to submit their own designs via email (link) with the best ones published on its blog, The Fifth Down.

If the game turns out to be a blow out - maybe creating a new logo will make you feel better. If not, have another beer.

Catching a Bzz

c21 recently moderated an American Marketing Association panel focusing on viral marketing and social media. Experts from Bzz Agent, a word of mouth marketing company, Facebook and CNN’s interactive marketing division offered numerous takeaways for companies that are planning or executing a social media strategy. Download the tips and resources here.

What Crisis?

Between the misallocations of bailout money and the fleecing of investors, we’ve seen our share of crises in the news. As public relations practitioners, we know a crisis can arise at any time, and a well-laid plan inclusive of appropriate spokespersons, an escalation chart, messaging and media training best practices can be the difference between success and failure when it comes to the ever-critical (and rightly so) public eye. While your company may not be under the public microscope, you still have important audiences to consider if a crisis arises.

There are basic tenants of executing a good crisis communications strategy:
1) Take responsibility. Be accountable – immediately. Do not transfer blame. Highlight your company’s positive track record, which will help establish credibility in a time that it might be questioned.
2) Express empathy. Be genuine in demonstrating that you understand the frustration or loss that resulted from the crisis. This will help make you and the company human.
3) Offer a solution. It’s not enough to say “I’m sorry.” Be specific in steps your company will take to fix the situation and ensure it doesn’t occur again. This will help create or rebuild confidence.
4) Deliver. Follow through on your promises. Be prepared to illustrate your company’s progress to the media, key stakeholders and affected individuals. This will help rebuild trust.

Kudos to AirTran for prompt communication to the public after the airline removed Muslim passengers from flight 175 to Orlando, Fla. Which company deserves a slap on the wrist for its crisis handling? Post a comment and let us know your thoughts.

Interactive Marketing When You Don’t Know Your Twitter from Your Ning

As communications professionals, every member of the c21 team understands the power of the Internet – as both a sales and a communication channel. Some of us might even be considered cyber geeks (but I won’t name any names). Like many integrated marketing professionals, we’re comfortable tweeting away on Twitter, friending on Facebook, using LinkedIn to build our personal and professional networks and debating the merits of iGoogle vs. Netvibes. But we also realize that our clients may not have the same level of expertise in interactive marketing that we have. And frankly, we know how annoying it is to feel like the subject-matter expert you’ve hired to help you is speaking a completely foreign language.

That’s why we take a very measured approach to developing interactive strategies with our clients – starting with getting an understanding of each client’s level of readiness and capacity for the work. Recently, our team led a Social Media 101 webinar for non-profit professionals, in which we explained pros and cons of various applications, showed examples of best practices in their industry and gave participants an opportunity to ask questions they otherwise may never have gotten answered. Sure, we love “exotic” projects like building social media promotions and creative pay-per-click campaigns, but we’re just as amped to help a client monitor their online reputation or to analyze and improve the effectiveness of their existing Web site and search results.

It’s easy to get excited by the bells and whistles associated with Internet marketing, but in the end it’s all about finding the tools that generate results.