I’m currently in the middle of reading two good books – Chris Brogan and Julien Smith’s Trust Agents and Chuck Klosterman’s latest, Eating the Dinosaur.

I’ll likely do a video review of Trust Agents when I’m done but there is a reason I mention both. Chuck Klosterman happens to be one of my favorite authors. Early on in this latest book, he talks about the art of interviewing and picks apart the actual interview process, noting preconceived expectations that arise from both interviewers and interviewees. At one point, he interviews NPR’s Ira Glass (I’m also a huge, huge fan of Ira and This American Life), to dig deeper on Glass’ extraordinary ability to take seemingly minor details and moments in people’s lives and transform them to make an audience fully realize the profound impact of such moments.

Glass notes:

“Sometimes I will be talking to journalism students and they will ask how I get people to open up to me, and the answer is that I’m legitimately curious about what those people are saying, I honestly care about the stories they are telling.”

In one word – TRUST.

Or as Brogan/Smith harp in their book, you need to be a trust agent to be an effective communicator.

For PR pros, trust is the foundation of our industry. Our clients trust our strategies and tactics. They trust us to be exceptional brand stewards and to represent their company or organization with complete honesty and transparency. On the same token, traditional journalists and bloggers alike trust the information we provide for public consumption. Social networks thrive because of trust.

Where Does Trust Originate?

To echo Mr. Glass, you have to honestly care. You have to have a legitimate interest in the client or issue you represent. Does this become difficult in PR world? Absolutely. When times are tight, firms begin to reach outside their sweet spot to soak up new business. The problem is that clients will inevitably be cheated if they are not assigned an account team that actually cares about their project. It’s one of the main reasons I love where I work. As a firm, we review new business opportunities together and make sure everyone is onboard and excited about a new client opportunity as opposed to just submitting for any RFP that comes our way.

My current primary clients include the Illinois Bureau of Tourism, Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network and Rush University Medical Center. I love travel and am passionate about organ/tissue donation as well as healthcare marketing. If my job entailed promoting a new soap product, I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t last a day and it would show in a heartbeat.

As we all know, the social Web is amazingly good at picking apart legitimate interests and sussing out those that are simply attempting to plant PR seeds. Do yourself and your clients the service of digging deep to make sure there is legitimate care and interest in a project. It’s the only way to ensure that you’re establishing the necessary foundation for trust.

-Scott

Photo by Spadix

“We recognize the importance and value of being engaged online, BUT, our IT team has a lot of concerns about providing access to social media.”

Ouch.

Unfortunately, IT concerns continue to be a major social media roadblock for many businesses and organizations that have to maintain complicated Web infrastructures. To date, I have yet to hear of any social media site being solely responsible for taking down a company’s IT system. The reality is that the use of social media sites is no more of an IT threat than general employee use of email and the Internet.

Most social networking sites do capture some degree of personal information which is of course always riskier than capturing no information at all. That is why companies are now regularly supplementing existing email/Internet policies with social media policies that guide employee use of sites in the workplace. An IT supporting boss may counter by arguing that providing access to social media is simply flipping a green light for employees to waste time.

Let’s put the obvious aside for a moment (social media’s overall value for relationship building, brand extension and direct engagement) to directly address the concern of social media as a “time suck.”

What’s the Primary Threat to IT Blocking Access to Social Media?

Creativity.

Last week, I was reading Clive Thompson’s “Why an idling mind is the mother of invention” article in the latest issue of Wired (seriously, read this article). Clive struck a chord with a topic that’s been on my mind for some time. He notes that our current work culture is obviously heavily concerned with employee focus  and productivity. He then goes on to question whether we might all be more productive if employees were encouraged to allow our minds to drift throughout the day.

Wait a minute…

I know what you’re thinking. We’re not talking about hour-long work naps (though I have heard stories…luckies…) or complete disengagement from work during the day. Rather, Clive poses a strong argument around the notion that allowing employees to escape Word and Excel documents to sift through Facebook, post some tweets or take in a couple YouTube videos can actually be quite beneficial.

I for one, could not agree more – and not just because of my job title. If you’re like me, I’m a creative dweller as opposed to a creative firecracker. Rarely do I roll into a brainstorm session and churn up a final concept within an hour. Rather, to Clive’s point, I drift. My best ideas come when I least expect them. On the train ride to work, scrolling my Twitter stream, out on a run, surfing around the Onion, strolling the city on a photo shoot or mindlessly strumming the guitar. That’s when lightning strikes.

It certainly would be amazing to generate killer creative on demand. Luckily, I have a boss that realizes this is not the case. We’re regularly encouraged to get out of the office for a stroll, take breaks to bounce around and are encouraged to keep tabs on online marketing trends and social media. The result? A workplace opens the doors to a creative firestorm.

Gone are the days of process in/process out. If you want to start seeing some new ideas, a twist on the old model, a step forward for your company, open up those IT roadblocks and encourage employees to get active online. I guarantee you’ll start hearing a lot more brainstorms kick off with the following statement:

“Ooohh, did you all see the {website, video, tweet, etc.} that was kind of like this?”

-Scott

I’ve posted about my active involvement with the organ/tissue donation community before and also about the community’s use of social media to encourage donor registrations.

I’m always keeping an eye out for other states and countries that are trying new tactics to draw attention and educate the public about the issue. Recently,  Donate Life Minnesota launched a fun social media campaign called “Half the Men” that targets men ages 45-65. This demographic is always a struggle to reach for the donation community and the campaign does a really nice job of presenting a clear call to action. Be sure to check out the short video spots and you can also follow their campaign updates via  Facebook and Twitter.

In the U.S., cultural constraints tend to keep the donation community from getting quite as edgy as some countries when it comes to marketing and advertising.  Awhile ago, I came across some videos created by Trillium Gift of Life Network in Ontario that I thought struck a nice balance between being kitschy and still driving home the need for registrations. A fun play off cheesy local commercials, these spots are funny and yet still make the point that ultimately, the lives of transplant patients are only saved as a result of registered donors.

Effectively captivating public attention and driving actionable results is of course a struggle that all marketers face. Kudos to Donate Life MN and Trillium for stepping outside the comfort zone and attempting a new approach to educating others about the issue.

Be sure to check out the spots I’ve included below from Trillium’s YouTube channel.

-Scott

Yesterday I attended the Publicity Club of Chicago’s monthly luncheon where the topic of discussion was Are Bloggers Journalists? Dealing with the Legal Implications of Today’s Media.

The event panel included Esther J. Cepeda – columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times and blogger for The Huffington Post, Toure Muhammad – chief creative strategist for Bean Soup Times and Daliah Saper – principal attorney for Saper Law. The event was very timely with the Federal Trade Commission’s recent announcement of new guidelines requiring bloggers to disclose relationships around any promoted products or brands.

Esther wrote a nice article in the Sun-Times on the topic earlier this week, noting that the new guidelines create a foundation for legitimizing the blogosphere. Do these guidelines completely resolve all existing issues of blogger distrust and ensure that all bloggers will undoubtedly be held to the same standards as journalists? Of course not. The fact of the matter is that we don’t live in a perfect world. We are all aware that just as some bloggers engage in “pay-to-play,” so do some traditional journalists. It happens.

Is this a step in the right direction? Definitely.

Will there ever be a perfect solution? Probably not but we can only hope that these guidelines will help to put standards in place for ensuring that bloggers are open, honest and transparent about whether or not they are being paid to promote a product or brand.

What Does This Mean for PR Agencies?

Most importantly, there needs to be recognition of bloggers as legitimate, influential channels for outreach. Unfortunately, there are still major brands and companies that refuse to acknowledge the significant influence and impact of bloggers and social media in general. In addition, it is up to PR folks to train all agency staff on how to properly engage and build professional relationships with bloggers. PR folks are also responsible for continuing to closely monitor bloggers we work with to ensure proper disclosure and accurate information is being published (to the extent that this is possible as you would with a traditional journalist).

At the end of the event, I asked Esther to provide her quick insight with some tips that she would offer PR folks as well. Check out the video below (apologies for the background sound and yes, I’m a board member for PCC, no I do not get paid to promote PCC). Thanks Esther.

-Scott

It’s fall. Back to school time. Ready for some new homework? I promise, this won’t feel like homework at all.

Here’s my video review of Tamar Weinberg’s book, The New Community Rules:  Marketing on the Social Web. Thanks Tamar!

-Scott

On Tuesday, I have the honor of hosting a social media strategy Webinar for Ragan Communications. For those that may not be familiar, Ragan is a site that offers up a variety of communications insight. Aside from some great free content, they also have a solid membership program that provides access to in-depth articles along with job listings, research reports and discounts on Webinars, conferences and workshops.

It’s not to late to sign up for Tuesday’s Webinar, which you can register for here. I’m also including the presentation below off of my Slideshare space.

-Scott

A couple weeks ago, Facebook officially launched a status update reply feature that mirrors @replies on Twitter. Now typing the “@” symbol into your Facebook status box followed by typing a friend, group or page name will prompt a drop down menu that allows you to select who you would like to tag in your update.

Why is This Feature Important?

Similar to how you would tag a friend in a posted photo or video on Facebook as a way of notifying that person’s network, the new tagging feature allows you to do the same with status updates. Note that when you do tag someone in an update,  the update will also post directly to the wall of your friend, group or page that is tagged.

Given that there are now 300 million users on Facebook versus about 20 million on Twitter, this feature will likely take some time for the majority of users to adopt and use regularly. From a listening standpoint, this means that brands will need to continue to carefully monitor any groups and fan pages for tagged updates. The benefit to this feature for brands is that it now provides an easy way to streamline advocate support and conversation for those that may use Facebook for customer response.

How Can a Marketer Take Advantage of @mentions?

This feature certainly opens up some new doors for creative marketing. One option would be for a brand to use the Static FBML application to design a custom landing page on their fan page. This landing page can house some type of giveaway that prompts users to take the following action:

1. Become a fan of the page

2. Take some type of desired action (vote, register, submit information for a giveaway, etc.)

3. Post a status update tagging the brand’s page (note, a user has to first be a fan to be able to tag a page) to enter some type of prize giveaway. Since all tagged updates will post to the brand’s wall, a brand can easily track who is participating.

Having the brand provide sample copy for a user to post would also help facilitate the status update step. Example:

@verizon I just took part in Verizon’s free phone Friday giveaway. Check it out yourself – www.budurl.com/FreeVerizonPhone

The other benefit of using this feature on Facebook is that it allows you to have a longer status update than on Twitter.

Overall, using this simple outreach tactic will help build your fan base and also enable you to capitalize on word of mouth outreach to a user’s network.

Are you planning to take advantage of @mentions for your PR or marketing efforts? Feel free to share some ideas below.

-Scott

Next to relationship building and networking, one aspect of social media that I greatly appreciate is the way that it helps facilitate content creation regardless of skill level.

Whether we’re talking about blogging platforms, social networks, photo or video sharing sites, the foundation for hosting and distributing content has been the anchor to engaging millions in the social Web.

Technological advancements have of course played a huge role in this process as well. For example, at the turn of the Millennium, creating, editing and distributing video was still a fairly complicated process. Jump ahead to 2009 where a $250-$300 investment in a Flip or Powershot camera (my new weapon of choice) allows anyone to capture HD video footage. Beyond just capturing footage, the editing and distribution portions of video creation have been simplified through easy-to-use programs such as iMovie and free video sharing sites such as YouTube.

You should feel confident in your own content creation skills, seeing that I threw together this little recap of my trip with friends to Scandinavia in just over an hour.

Where does this leave us as PR/Marketing pros?

Creativity.

When you remove the technological barriers, the key to strong Web content relies on creativity. Anyone can go out and start a blog, develop a Facebook page, tweet or buy a nice camera and learn to shoot photos or video. The difference is how you use these tools creatively and effectively to accomplish your strategic goals.

Having thorough knowledge of tool capability is important as tools and technology have limitations. But remember, your ideas don’t have limitations. Start with ideas and find a way to make it work. I promise, there is a way.

-Scott

Melanie

If you happened to flip on the TV, poke around the news or surf the Web this past weekend, chances are you came across the name Melanie Oudin. The 17-year-old tennis phenom from Marietta, Georgia has turned the U.S. Open into a motivational firestorm as she continues to upset seeded opponents and crank her way through the Tournament.

A quick glance at any social media site shows a groundswell of support forming for Melanie. Assuming Melanie has a publicist (that is likely jumping for joy and receiving quite the test in reporter response time) I thought it would be fun to throw out a few PR/social media steps I’d be considering to help capitalize and effectively manage this swell of attention.

1. Provide a Protective Media Umbrella

At 17, Melanie is one of the most composed athletes around and reminds me of a young Venus Williams or Tiger Woods. She doesn’t get flustered and she fights back with a tenacious spirit. She’s got a 15-year-old boyfriend. She wears the word “believe” on her shoes. She talks candidly during interviews just like you’d expect of any other teenager. In other words, she’s a tee up Cinderella story made for media attention.

As a publicist, it’s your job to protect this experience by formulating a media barrier and allowing Melanie to stay focused on the prize at hand, channeling media attention at appropriate times.

2. Contact Twitter & Get Engaged

Melanie remained a trending topic on Twitter throughout the weekend. Currently, it appears that Melanie Oudin is a brandjacked handle on the site. Certainly Biz and the boys would be willing to reset the account for a budding tennis star. Melanie’s publicist could certainly take care of building up followers on her account and though one would not expect Melanie to tweet, posting a few updates/replies before and after matches or on off days would be huge for fan engagement.

3. Shoot Some Video

Similar to the tweets, capturing a bit of behind-the-scenes footage with a Flip or other handheld HD camera would be another great fan engagement tool. The secondary benefit of course being content that can be easily distributed for bloggers and journalists alike with the messaging in your hands.

4. Beef Up Her Facebook Page

Not that it’s bad, but much more could be done to improve Melanie’s Facebook page. The page of course also provides a good opportunity to feature behind-the-scenes video and photo footage along with content-rich status updates. Post U.S. Open, Melanie could host regular one-hour fan chats on her page as well.

5. Provide Your Fans With Their Own Platform

As far as I can tell, Melanie currently does not have a Website set up. Now is the time to get a site up and running and provide fans with a forum for interacting and sharing content with one another. Another easy solution would be to tailor a Ning site for fan interaction.

6. Get Ready for Brand Explosion

Regardless of what happens, Melanie is about to aggressively build her brand. Sponsors and advertisers are undoubtedly already knocking at her door (check out this Times Square media blitz). No one knows for sure what the future holds or how Melanie will develop as a pro, but things certainly look strong at the moment.

Now is the time to be proactive and ensure as many steps as possible are taken to protect Melanie’s online reputation as her popularity blossoms.

What other PR/social media items would you be considering?

-Scott

By: Jimmy Six Bellies

The social Web took another giant leap forward last week with Facebook’s launch of their real-time search tool.

For PR/Marketing peeps, this is big news as the site now provides another conversation and content tracking tool on the world’s largest social network. Status updates, photos, links, notes, videos and pages which you’re a fan of are now searchable up to 30 days prior. The search tool will certainly improve with Facebook’s purchase of Friendfeed and I echo Steve Rubel’s thoughts about the overwhelming potential brewing here (keep an eye out as I would anticipate that Facebook will soon be making their public content sharing tool available to everyone).

Sally Falkow also recently touched on the topic of social search, harping the importance of relevancy within social media and it’s overall impact on search results. Google is amazing and they’re only going to get better. No longer can a company rely on tricking out keywords to impact search results. As Sally notes, “It’s about the relationship, not the technology.” That degree of relevancy and focus on human behaviors and user intent is only going to continue to shine through.

As an example, I want to point out a tidbit of work-related research that some colleagues from CA conducted. Long story short, they created a “Donors Are Sexy” campaign in an attempt to see if they could use particular keywords and “sexy” marketing to try and motivate people to register as organ donors. One of their videos has generated over 32k views, but overall results have shown a lack of registration action prompted by the campaign. In addition, searches around mainstay issue keywords such as “organ donor” and “organ donation” show the videos buried in the results. Why? Relevancy.

From a PR/Marketing perspective, it’s going to continue to be key to develop and craft authentic messages that effectively connect with our target audience and are as relevant as possible to their interests. Progressive search tools will of course help us to continue to seek out key influencers and niche audiences to deliver our messages.

What’s your take? What’s the next step for social search?

-Scott

*Note, I’ll be back in early September. Similar to Dave Fleet, I’m completely unplugging for a bit to take in the sights, sounds and culture of Sweden, Norway and Denmark! Open to any travel tips and must see recos. Cheers.