Communications

An offensive video nails it

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

OK, bad pun. You’ll know when you watch this. But have to admit I have never laughed so hard at an offensive video. Usually, I have to do the ‘what were they thinking’ thing. Many come to mind, but the GoDaddy ads were the icing on the cake.

It’s not just Alanis Morissette who’s brilliant. It’s the guy next to her. He’s so good, to the point of distracting from the real message, I had to watch it again. And pay attention, right to the end.

The video is for Earth Hour. on Sat March 28th. (Last year on Earth Day, some of you may recall how Google went ‘dark.’) Many organizations are getting creative in how they participate. The Coke sign at Picadilly Circus will be switched off. HSBC will be doing so as well. IKEA will let customers shop by candlelight.

Just kidding. But they will turn off their air conditioning.

The pitfalls of ‘oversharing’ even before the Semantic Web arrives

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I never heard of the word ‘oversharing’ until I read Sue Khodarami’s article in Communication World (CW, March-April 09) where she talked about the new words that enter the dictionary faster than you can say “Wassup?’

Apparently to overshare is to reveal way too much information about your your self/life in a blog or interview. I may be accused of this as I look back at the number of profiles I have created in many online venues. Not that I am the kind of person who will tell you exactly what my children are doing on a day-to-day basis, or tweet what’s for dinner, but even those vague references embedded in comments and opinion pieces could make me succumb to the very thing I advice people not to do: I tell people not to take their Facebook of Twitter status indicator literally. No one really wants to know what you are doing right now, unless you give it some relevance! Your mother may be an exception, however.

And yet we overshare! Here are a few dilemmas of sharing with a community vs oversharing:

  • Joining an online book network where you post a review of a book and get constant updates of the books being read by people in the network. Oversharing or feeding the semantic Web?
  • Telling an audience about an out-of-town event you plan to attend, posting that idea on a blog. Oversharing and making your home a crime target, or just another harmless tidbit of info?
  • Uploading pictures of a family event to an online photo-sharing site, with detailed captions about a person’s life and location, and letting anyone post a comment beneath the photos . Oversharing or another dimension of social networking?
  • Uploading everything one does to a Facebook album –you probably know what a contentious issue this is right now. Oversharing or Ok because FB is a sort of a gated community?
  • Tweeting about the restaurant you are in, the plane you are about to board, something your boss just said at a meeting… Oversharing or staying connected with your following?

There are dozens of more examples. This is probably not a black-and-white issue. Just this week,  Tim-Berners-Lee –he the father of the Web, mind you — warned us that the so-called semantic web is upon us, and when that becomes a reality, it creates a dangerous capacity for information to be stitched together.

So while we all tend to cheer on social media because of its huge benefits, it’s time to step back occasionally and take a critical look at why we share, with whom we think we may be sharing, and finally, before spitting out another few characters of drivel, ask ourselves if it really contributes to anything.

By the way, I came across a similar question by a listener called Denise of For Immediate Release, (Show #429)who made the distinction between people who use Twitter for sharing useful information, and those who generate what she called ‘brain noise!’

HootSuite’s owlish message

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment
Have you ever got a schedules maintenance message as interesting –meaning not half as geeky or annoying– as this?
I’ve been using HootSuite in the past few weeks and it is one amazing time management tool for Twitter. But on Friday I got this message:
  • Owls are raptors. (‘Raptors’ are birds of prey). So it is fair to assume
  • that an owl would win in a fight against a Triceratops.
  • Owls’ eyes are about the size of a human eyes.
  • Owls are night hunters.
  • Owls are awesome.

At least they are communicating. Very funny, Hoot!

Quotes for the week ending 14 March, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Stewart’s attack on CNBC is not some cable cockfight. At the heart of this spectacle is a lesson that reporters, anchors, editors, news directors and anyone with a stake in a vital American fourth estate should heed.”

Joe Vince, blogging about the Jon Stewart – Jim Kramer fight, where Stewartwho has a popular Comedy Central show, attacked Cramer of CNBC for failing to warn people about the risky Wall Street conduct.

“lot of people will actually get to see the Internet”

Tim Berners-Lee, the farther of the World Wide Web, talking about how mobile devices will be the main access points for the web in much of the developed world. He however warned of the vulnerability of being able to be snooped on.

“Guava threw together this spot in which a Blackberry literally shoots through Apple.”

A fruity quote by AdRants about a story about a new TV spot by Blackberry taking aim at the iPhone, without mentioning the latter.

“So is advertising really adding value to our brands or not? I am sure agencies fail their clients from time to time … But the difference is that civilians don’t attempt to do the job of a military man. That is why they are set apart and called civilians and military.”

Udara, a blogger at JWT Sri Lanka, commenting on the eternal problem of how anyone with a Mac and a designer may not be in the ideas business.

“So far “McCain” in gothic letters on the back of my neck is winning my unofficial survey.”

Meghan McCain, commenting on her latest media tour and writing stint.

“We’re going to attempt to conduct a full interview exclusively on Twitter — complete with the 140-character limit!”

George Stephanopoulos of ABC News announcing his attempt to ‘twinterview’ John McCain on twitter next Tuesday

“Some of the communications I see haven’t changed since the 1960s. Same bad photos, same jargon (we need to leverage our core competencies and strive for World Class synergy), same platitudes … same spin.”

Steve Crescenzo, in an interview with ValleyPRBlog, on why he he speaks out against corpoorate-speak. Crescenzo will hold a full-day seminar for IABC-Phoenix on Thursday 19 March.

“You don’t have to have your fingers in every social media pie. All these channels are grouped under one category but … If a chat forum works best then stick to that.”

Sona Hathi, Assistant Editor, Melcru, on the ROI and reasons for using social media.

“The more we can do to open the process to the public, the greater the public understanding – the more legitimacy the public system will have in the eyes of the public”

A Kansas Judge J. Thomas Marten, who allowed a court reporter to use Twitter slthough jurors are told to avout newspaper, broadcasts and online media.

What we could learn from the Rush Limbaugh spat

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

If you haven’t been following the heated exchange between the Democratic Party, the Republican leadership and Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh, it’s worth going back and looking at the he-said, he un-said, he didn’t mean to say back and forth.

It’s like an ongoing tutorial (check this, this and this) on why it’s important to pay attention to the medium not just the person you are engaging before foot is inserted in mouth. Here is an example:

Loose Lips: “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh’s whole thing is entertainment … “Yes, it is incendiary. Yes, it is ugly.”

Who Said That: Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee

Oops, I take that back: “Words that I said weren’t what I was thinking. It was one of those things where I thinking I was saying one thing, and it came out differently.”

What??? Steele was attempting to take back his sharp criticism on Limbaugh

You cannot take anything back. Any media relations rookie will tell you that. In fact any SEO rookie will tell you that also. Just Google the words “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer” or just “Limbaugh Steele” and see. So what can we learn from this –besides never trying to engage nuclear talk-show hosts?

  • Understand that radio is still a powerful medium. The host always, always has the last word. If you don’t believe me, tune in and see how cleverly any show host cuts off a caller with a few simple words:  “I’m coming up on a hard break.” Click!
  • If you have to challenge someone, make sure you have full access to the media platform, or be pretty damn sure you have a stronger one beneath you. I remember Sun CEO/blogger Jonathan Schwartz once said “while a journalist is writing about my blog, I am blogging about his journalism.”
  • Stick to some talking points if you tend to improvise, or your mouth tends to go extremely left field without informing your brain first. Here’s Steele, again.

PS: I have nothing against Steele or Limbaugh –the above may contain “words that I said weren’t what I was thinking…”

Text-Hillary needs to switch to Tweet-Hillary

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Having followed and reported on the State Department for years, I was glad to see Hillary dive into interactive mode on her recent trips to Asia and the Middle East.

Particularly on the openness to respond to text messages from anyone. These were her responses that have just been published online.

However I have two problems and a suggestion:

  • The questions may be legitimate, but there’s just no way of knowing who’s sending them, and when. In this transparency era that the administration is rightly talking up, we the people like to see who’s txt-ing.
  • Clinton’s responses are way too long. One ran into 200+ words. No, I am not suggesting 140 characters or nothing. I love long form answers, but it seems out of sync to respond to a 24-word question with a minor speech.  I know, I know, you didn’t text back those replies. By the way, who in their right  minds uses words like “to end the Gaza blockade and allow humanitarian aid to enter (based on UN Security Council Resolution 1860).” in a text message, with proper spelling, to boot?
  • My suggestion to the Secretary: It’s about time you started responding to people via Twitter as well. @ClintonNews account would be fine to start with. Don’t give up accepting SMS, because we all know that’s what most of the world still uses. But also remember, 60 percent of Twitter traffic comes from international users. Convinced?

Branding Phoenix runs into same old issues

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Pity the folks entrusted with coming up with a city brand. It’s one of the hardest nuts to crack for a variety of reasons:

  • Too many stakeholders and interested parties
  • Past failures make everyone pessimistic, itch for a fight
  • Money spent on what seems like a few words is always seen as a ridiculous waste of taxpayer resources

If you don’t believe me, Google ‘London Olympic logo” and you’ll see what an identity brouhaha it created for Londoners, and all those experts out there. Even I couldn’t relate…

So to get back to the branding or Phoenix that has drawn fire, one comment from a reader of the Arizona Republic typifies what I am saying.

No money for education, senior citizens, no decent jobs, the housing market crashed …we have a crazy sheriff who uses our light rail for prisoner transport and a bunch of cameras on the freeway for government finances. Does the advertising agency know what a financial risk our state is?

The writer blames everything he is upset about in the state or county, on Phoenix. It’s too easy! Others have called it ‘too aspirational.’ I think much of this ire misses the point. A brand has to be a bit of a stretch, or a bit of reductionism.

No one blames Vegas for NOT coming outright and branding itself as “fake architecture, losers welcome!” now that “What happens in Vegas” has caught on so well to define ‘adult playground.’ If you analyze it to death, as those who slam all forms of branding tend to do, then ‘adult playground’ is a only half the story. But it resonates with what  Vegas visitors accept and expect.

Branding agencies may be expensive, the concept may seem one that an eighth grader could have come up with, and you can’t blame a city for what it is not –not Seattle, not New York, not (who knows) Helsinki.

So my point is, let’s not analyze this new Phoenix branding to death. It sorely needed a refreshing new identity with so much going on there in the past few years, recession or not. As most branding experts say, a brand is what you invest into it. Not the slogan (anyone knows the slogan of ebay?) but the emotional experience.

Will your next job find you?

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I am getting closer to getting together a small team of people to help me launch a series of workshops to help job seekers. I wrote about it a few weeks back.

It’s about how to work on your social media resume, but also about how it has to connect with the other pieces of your brand value. I’ve got some great advice and support, but still need someone who can do a one-hour session on personal branding.

What’s in it for you? If you like mentoring people, you will get some experience for starters. You will also get a chance to help a few people who never thought this could happen to them. If you’re in the Phoenix, Scottsdale, Tempe or Mesa area, send me an email if you need more details.

In a timely post, Rohit Bhargava  today wrote how this is a good time, as any,to not just look out for a new job but to look out for your new role.  Sometimes it’s not what you put into finding that job. It’s what you invest in making sure that that new job finds you.

Quotes for the week ending 27 February, 2009

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“Orbiting swarms of junk careen into each other like billiard balls, creating unpredictable sprays of debris, which in turn meld with other space garbage to weave a moving net around the atmosphere.”

The Wall Street Journal‘s Robert Lee Hotz, on the debris of space junk caused by colliding satellites.

“My love of TweetDeck just keeps growing …Love, love, love it.”

IABC Chair, Barbara Gibson, on the new features of Tweetdeck.

“Twitter users may donate their avatar and replace it with an image of the red female sign.”

“NCMFathom, which is asking Twitter users to micro-blog to raise 0.10 a tweet from March 2 – 5 this year.

“After getting a lot of angry calls at my office from frustrated customers, I realized we could do a better job of listening to and supporting you.”

Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz, on her blog, Yodel Anecdotal, about her first one and a half months on the job, and the changes being made.

“Sometimes the face of a brand is a fictional character.”

Chris Brogan, on the Bigelow Tea company’s project, Constant Comments. The company’s president Cindi Bigelow is a prominent figure in its communication.

“There is a differance (sic) between op/eds and news.”

Reader comment on the Rocky Mountain News web site, in response to the last story of the newspaper, “Goodbye, Colorado.” The paper began in 1859. The reader suggested that it demonstrated market forces were doing the right thing.

My Twitter spelling lesson

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Some IABC members have probably received your copy of CW. I know a few of you have already read my article, “You’re no one if you’re not on Twitter” because you sent me a tweet to say so. Thanks!

But I came across two terrible mistakes which I have to take responsibility for. The first is getting the name of a person I cited wrong. I misspelled the last name of Brendan Hodgson, the Canadian PR practitioner. Sorry Brendan! As bad as that, was my suggesting that a good way to send a direct tweet to someone was by using the @ sign in front of the name. Anyone using Twitter for a few seconds will tell you the @sign works like a trackback in blogs, alerting the person that you referred to him/her. You could only send a direct message to someone you are following if that person is nuts enough tp follow you back.

As many people I have been checking with have told me, there’s always something to learn when using Twitter. Not only does it force you not to ramble, but it makes you learn the difference between public and private conversations. Just because someone is following you does not mean they understand your general tweet, or understand the context.

I know some hard-core texters in Asia who use such cryptic language, it takes sm cnctrtng 2 fgr wht thyr syng. Twitter hard-core users have their own jargon, too. (I don’t follow those tweeps.) If by chance you do and need 2 fgr wht thyr syng, check this Twittonary. Have you heard of words like ‘tweegosearching’ and ‘twead?’ head over there now. I feel tweepish even suggesting that!