RonAmok!

Sometimes I get so wound up with my projects, that I’ll wake up at 3:00 a.m. and can’t fall back to sleep. The good news is that I’ve found an easy road back to dreamland. All I have to do is head to any corporate press room, read the press releases, and five minutes later I’m counting sheep again.

Because the traditional McPress Release looks like this:

COMPANY NAME, a world leader in SOMETHING THAT CAN’T BE DISPUTED, who makes seamlessly integrated, value-added, NAME OF PRODUCT FAMILY here, has just released SOME WIZZ-BANG PRODUCT. ADD FAKE QUOTE FROM EXECUTIVE HERE. If you have any questions, contact NAME HERE.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

And then I read one of the best press releases that I’ve ever seen. Take a peek at the first paragraph of this press release from IBM:

ARMONK, NY & WASHINGTON, DC - 09 Oct 2008: Munir is five years old, and he lives in a ruggedly remote, rural village in Northern Pakistan. For months, he has suffered from an aggressive and worsening skin lesion that, for want of medical care, has gone untreated. But now, his fortunes have changed for the better – as they have for a growing number of Pakistanis in the region. Today, as his relieved father would quickly tell you, Munir is on the road to full recovery.

How’s THAT for a hook? You can’t help but want to read more.

But my delight goes beyond the great writing. Your New Media Evangelist appreciates IBM’s use of online video in the press release.

The video is professionally produced and has a great voiceover — two ingredients that typically lead to disaster in online corporate video. But in this case, it works! The video not only tells a story, but it ties exceptionally well into the text of the press release. It focuses on people USING the technology — doctors diagnosing and treating patients remotely — instead of showing stock shots of flashing lights and graphical user interfaces.

The only nit that I have is related to the last three paragraphs. Paragraphs 7-9 fall back into traditional inane PR blather. It’s almost as if a human wrote the first six paragraphs, and an “Automatic Press Release Machine” wrote the last part. Checkout the first sentence of paragraph 7 to see what I mean:

“The Department of State, through the Pakistan Telemedicine Project, is demonstrating the transformative power of telecommunications technology under the U.S. Government’s Digital Freedom Initiative, which seeks to encourage the spread of technology to the developing world,” said Ferial Saeed, Deputy U.S. Coordinator & Office Director for International Communications & Information Policy.

Umm…who uses “transformative power” in every day language?

Independent of my minor complaint, there is so much to learn from this press release.

• It’s written in a conversational voice
• It uses the power of storytelling
• It integrates video that puts you face-to-face with the people who care.

So what if it falls off the wagon in paragraph 7-9, it’s still infinitely better than the “seamlessly integrated, value-added, NAME OF PRODUCT FAMILY here” version.

I can only see one downside to having more PR departments start producing content like this. My personal cure from insomnia will be severely jeopardized.

UPDATE: For some reason, IBM killed the original video that I embedded and re-posted another. I can’t see a difference, so I don’t understand the switcheroo, but it’s fixed now.

Tags:IBM Pakistan Press Release Press Room Telemedicine Wateen Telecom Motorola Medweb USAID U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Technology Research Center Pakistani Government Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi New Media Evangelist

Last week I took an “academic” approach to the New Media ROI question. Today, Social Media Powerhouse Gary Vaynerchuk takes a much more “energetic” approach.

Here is a link to Gary’s original post with the video embedded in it.

There’s so much to like about this video. The fact that Gary reminds us that ROI cuts both ways, and we must evaluate the old methods as well as the new. The fact that he’s using a free, video-streaming service called UStream to interact with 125 live viewers, who respond INSTANTLY to his question! Can your marketing research firm do that?

My favorite part is where he challenges Macy’s, suggesting that they’d get more ROI hiring 30 interns to interact with customers through Twitter than paying for its full page newspaper ad (that’s probably in some recycling bin by now).

And lastly, let’s not forget about the divide by zero part. All of the tools that Gary used for this little production are available to any company FOR FREE. In these tough economic times, where major financial institutions need cash bailouts, free might help. I may be a simple boy from New England, but the last time I checked, free doesn’t require much cash.

Are companies using these tools yet? Nope. Remember, most of the executives I’ve spoken with recently can’t even identify the RSS symbol. But the day will come when some Tipping Point occurs. Maybe all of the newspapers will have disappeared, or maybe all of the journalists will have become indie or corporate bloggers, but something will happen that makes it impossible for the Traditionals to continue their Zombie-like walk from the parking lot to their offices and back again. And when that day comes, hoards of Traditionals, those who only know how to control messages or spoon feed a skeptical press, will either be seeking new employment or working for who “get it.”

I’m looking forward to hearing Gary speak at the Marketing Profs Digital Marketing Mixer in a few weeks. Maybe I’ll have a chance to ask him some questions for the RonAmok! crowd.

Tags: Gary Vaynerchuk ROI divide by zero New Media Evangelist Ron Ploof

During my two years of New Media Evangelism, I’ve had the opportunity to spend lots of time with Public Relations folks. During these times, I’ve witnessed a common theme — bloggers are viewed as some sort of communications underclass, that can’t hold a candle to a bona fide journalist. To many PR people, bloggers are The Boogeyman.

I first ran into this fear while listening to the PR Director for a Fortune 1000 company explain her reasons why bloggers were evil. She had spent her entire career working with the “legitimate press,” consisting of journalists who played by a well-defined set of rules as opposed to bloggers who had no rules whatsoever. “Bloggers can say anything,” she’d say, and that fact alone kept her up at night, because the Boogeyman could strike at any time.

* * *

I saw him lurking in the back of the room, periodically floating above the crowd of Public Relations professionals. I watched him as I settled into one of three chairs waiting in the front of the room. Sitting next to me was an industry journalist-turned-blogger. On the other side of him sat the owner of a well-known PR Agency. Together, the three of us formed a Social Media panel that forty PR professionals from a Fortune 50 company could question over the next two hours.

As this crowd’s most recognizable panelist, the journalist-turned-blogger fielded the first question, thus setting the tone of the afternoon’s discussion. A gentleman in the back of the room, with the Boogeyman breathing heavily into his ear, asked how PR should deal differently with a journalist and “just a blogger.”

“Just a blogger?” I thought, having a flashback to the PR Director’s “legitimate press” description. The journalist-turned-blogger answered the question, but I had to challenge the term. “Why do you say ‘just a blogger?’”

The answer, straight out of the Traditional’s Handbook, listed journalistic integrity, writing sans opinion, verifying sources, editorial control, etc…I couldn’t argue with the list, but I had a problem with a term designed to marginalize everyone else.

Parents help their children deal with their fears. We teach them not to be afraid of the dark. We show them natural explainations for the things that go bump in the night. We show them that there is no monster under the bed. As active members in New Media, we also have a similar responsibility to help Public Relations folks learn to deal with the Boogeyman.

And that’s exactly what the panel did. We described the different types of bloggers. We taught them methods for determining the relative importance of a blogger. We offered suggestions for when to engage and when to ignore.

Slowly, the panel chipped away at the Boogeyman. By the end of our two hours, while he was lying on the floor and gasping for breath, we were asked to wrap-up our thoughts individually. My goal was to put the final nails in his coffin. I suggested that each person in the room experiment with one or two Social media sites. Read blogs, leave a comment, do something — anything — to participate and get a feel for New Media.

The journalist-turned-blogger agreed. He too gave the audience some power over the Boogeyman, by adding a few more suggestions to help them take control of their fears.

With the Boogeyman flat lining, the owner of the well-known PR Agency spoke. “I disagree with both of them,” he said.

The Boogeyman sprung to his feet.

The owner of the well-known PR Agency explained that you just can’t just try this stuff. You needed to have a strategic plan, one with objectives, goals, and measurable outcomes. The journalist-turned-blogger and I exchanged glances as a rejuvenated Boogeyman soared over the room, re-injecting his doubts into the PR professionals heads.

As the event coordinator thanked us for coming, the Boogeyman winked at me. He had lived to see another day.

* * *

New Media is an odd duck. Because it’s “new,” it challenges “old” ideas. Because it’s “new,” it forces people to do something that they don’t typically like to do — change.

The Director of PR had optimized her job. She knew what the messages were, who to call and how to write her press releases. Since bloggers didn’t fit within the pristine confines of her perfectly tuned PR engine, she cast dispersions — inferring that they were the illegitimate press, much like the Fortune 50 PR professionals with similar preconceptipons about being “just a blogger.”

From a corporate adoption standpoint, the owner of the well-known PR Agency is 100% correct — a strategic plan is vital to New Media success. But there’s a prerequisite. The success of any plan is determined by the quality of the people used to build it. A New Media plan needs employee authors who aren’t afraid of the Boogeyman. Sure your company can hire consultants to bring expert-level opinion into the document (Shameless plug for your New Media Evangelist inserted here!), but without employees who can blend their individual New Media experience with the nuances of your organization, the resulting plan will fail.

Strategic plans cannot be built by people who still believe in the Boogeyman. If an employee has never subscribed to a blog, has never followed someone on Twitter, or has never participated in some Social Media site, then they are the wrong employees to architect the plan.

I just got invited call to sit on another panel and I’m sure he’ll be waiting for me. I’m ready for him. Are you?

Tags: Ronamok new media evangelist ron ploof ron ploof boogeyman Pr Public Relations bloggers blogging fear Fortune 50 New Media Strategic Plan