I’m going to start this week’s Five for Friday re-hashing a hoax that I got caught up in on Monday evening: HOAX: Amber Alert License Plate ‘98B351′ – Now this article is not, new and is actually pretty old. And I am not ashamed to hear that I got caught up in a hoax or feel foolish as some folks tweeted or commented on the article. The fact of the matter is that a hash tag about an Amber Alert is something that can really help a child in need and should be passed along without thinking twice. The folks that make these up should be ashamed of themselves, and are some seriously sick douche bags. So now with that out of the way, here’s to a fun weekend with Christina, Kate & TJ and this week’s edition.
The State of the Twittersphere 2010 – I am always fascinated with these reports as they come out. So please forgive me if you are growing sick of seeing them and skip to the next story. The most interesting stat to me is the graph below that shows the rates of re-tweets during the day.
How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data – The guys at Mashable offer a great case study into some of the things that Rapleaf can do. I would be interested in seeing how this data is presented on a granular level. Is it like age demographics or can we dive into the user X, Y, & Zs stats? No matter how you slice it, you know it was only a matter of time before our breadcrumbs were mined.
Marketing Budgets Spiral Toward Social – While this report may look promising to those looking for a gig straight out of college, I also see them as a sign that companies are panicking. Social media is the new cool buzz word and companies want to toss money towards the space with an almost reckless abandon. I would argue that companies don’t want to be left in the dark and are using their tried and true if you throw money at it, customers will come mentality. I’d look at Gary Vaynerchuck’s patience video below in terms of seeing success in social media. It takes time and effort along with some elbow grease to build up a community that works for your company.
Think Before You Tweet: The Do Not Tweet List – This is an awesome article. While social media has given people from all walks of life an audience. One thing it doesn’t do is grant access to be stupid. Check out this article for some good pointers when letting employees know about using social media right.
Toyota turns to Twitter to repair image – my question for this one is it too little, too late? With all of the recalls coming in, you wonder if Twitter can help repair the brand. I would argue that this should have been done from the start instead of their cheesy commercial, but I guess better late than never.
Last week, a tragedy struck one of America’s most recognizable family establishments – SeaWorld. Trainer Dawn Brancheau was killed towards the tail end of a lunchtime performance in front of a live audience by Tilikum, an orca. While a workplace death typically drives PR into crisis mode, this instance also puts the brand into crisis and identity management.
From a brand point the company is married to the killer whale, take a look at their online pitch for dinner with Shamu as a prime example as noted by the AP, “Be part of an up-close and unforgettable adventure!”
That statement alone will make handling the crisis more difficult. For starters, the park may wind up having to pony up for therapy or counseling for the kids in the audience who witnessed the event or be prepared for a legal battle with the departed’s family. Those instances are something that the teams should be capable of handling. The wild card for this crisis is Tilikum, making for a whale of a problem.
Now SeaWorld has done some great things to help offset the crisis and seems well suited to handle their issues in the immediate future.
Perhaps the two biggest hurdles in the immediate future are dealing with the public opinion and the fate of the whale.
When the story was making its rounds on the social circuit, I was discussing the situation with Aurora Meyer on Twitter and she offered some insight into a strong feeling among many around the country. To put her comments into perspective, she noted that she grew up in Northeast Ohio when SeaWorld was still there and was never a fan of the whale show, and felt bad for the whales.
“As zoos move toward more “natural” habitats for their inhabitants, I often wonder why marine parks aren’t doing the same things. Isn’t viewing the animal in a more realistic habitat a better education than seeing it perform stupid tricks?
Killer whales are called Killer for a reason. They are huge and deadly in the wild where they have whole oceans to swim. I can only imagine how the bathtub sized aquarium felt. Additionally, this whale had issues before. The question I want answered most is why was this whale still forced to perform? If he was “acting like a small child” as some reports indicate before the show, why wasn’t the show cancelled? Furthermore, why if this animal has been involved in other incidents was he even part of a show? If Sea World truthfully answers these questions and apologizes to their fans, people will come back and won’t likely have lasting resentment. But it does bring up larger issues of animals in captivity.”
Aurora makes some great points and I am sure her views are shared by many, some of which will go to extremes to get their point out there. With that said I hope that PETA doesn’t make a brash statement on this saying something like “we told you so” or “saw this coming”. There will also be those that call for the whale to be put down.
Tilikum’s Value to SeaWorld
Seen as alpha-male and is the father of 13 of the 20 calves born in SeaWorld
$10,000-$12,000/month in electric bills to maintain habitat
$35,000 a year for food
Mitchel Kalmanson, a marine mammal appraiser notes, “Without killer whales, the rest are ancillary shows.”
As anyone can tell you, these groups can put a ton of pressure on an organization. The negative press and protests can possibly hurt the gate more than the whale is worth to SeaWorld. One thing that could be a PR win for the company and help remove some of the heat from protesters on both sides of the fence is to let the whale go – free wily style. Given the whale’s history and the potential long legal battles for SeaWorld, this PR stunt could help draw more positive attention than the looming headache. The stories are already starting check out this video where an expert notes the attack was premeditated.
SeaWorld is pretty social media savvy and doing a documentary-styled YouTube campaign on the release could generate ridiculous buzz. They could even run a contest giving 100 school children or researchers the chance to be part of an up-close and unforgettable adventure to re-introduce this behemoth of the deep blue into a natural habitat. Hell a lion reunion garnered over 5M views on YouTube with 1970’s film, imagine what could be done in hi-def. The DVD sales could potentially offset the money lost in Tilikum’s stud fees. Think it’s crazy, here’s a quick plan on how to make it work:
Operation Shamu goes home
June – Announce re-introduction to the wild for following year. Include YouTube channel, live feed address of tank, Twitter handle, Facebook fan page, etc.
July – Announce contest to join team in reintroduction
December – Announce winners; fly to SeaWorld for face to face with Tilikum
February – Reintroduce whale to wild. Livecast event
Throughout the process there would be a constant update of information and some scientific stuff surrounding best time but it can happen. Each one of the announcements should garner attention and buzz as well as multi-media assets. What do you think? Could it work? Do you have a better idea for the whale?
A quick glance at this post’s title might have you thinking that I have lost it; reality is I haven’t, but had an ah ha moment. Anyone that is a practitioner of social media or SMPR, has faced some kind of obstacle on describing what the value of a Tweet, post or plug on a social network is worth. My friend Keith Trivitt wrote up a two-part post (part 1, part 2) on this subject over at the PR Breakfast Club that got me thinking both times. While sitting in a bank conference room over the weekend I was thinking about it some more. While looking for words do verbalize my thoughts, I got a chuckle looking at a fortune that was sitting in my wallet that summed it up for me:
Theories get you thinking. Sweat gets you results.
Now take a minute to look at those words and digest them. When looking at social media and looking for a way to define it for a manager or an executive break it into two separate areas that they can visualize.
Theory – Now there are a number of theories and schools of thought that you can go with, but at the end of the day they are just that. Pick the metric that you want to move the needle whether its sentiment, Retweets, link views (use a shortener to track clicks) or some other metrics – own it and live and die with it. While you might be tempted to look at doing everything, keep it simple and towards a metric that your boss understands very well. Do this even if the metric means little to you; this will help you gain a champion with some weight behind them.
Sweat – This doesn’t mean to break out your headband from high school basketball, but rather showing your manager that the only way to make a dent in social media is by getting your hands dirty. Rome wasn’t built overnight and neither was your company’s brand, so why should your presence in social media? Strong communities are built over time so the toughest battle here is showing your superior that you can’t just throw a bucket of money at it to make it work. For marketers, it is a hard pill to swallow, but as a flack your tool box has some tricks to help the medicine go down smoother. The battle won’t be easy, but its another way that you’ll have to put in the sweat to get the job done.
Have you had a fortune cookie that clicked with you in a similar way?
So this has been a week that all of the world has been waiting for. Not only are the Olympics in full swing, but later today, Tiger Woods will break his silence (click here to read my advice for him). Some pretty exciting stuff, especially since both have the opportunity for PR snafus for us to snark on. Hope ya’ll got some great weekend plans, so with that, here’s this week’s edition of Five for Friday.
P.R. firm spreads the love on Valentine’s Day – This is an interesting concept that might be interesting for a business in any industry. Instead of milking Christmas and New Year’s why not look into V-Day as a way to say I love you to your customers/clients?
My Life as H.J. Heinz: Confessions of a Real-Life Twitter Squatter – I was put onto this story while engaging in the #PR20chat on Tuesday night and was kind of set back at how quick Twitter changed the account. Now don’t take this as saying cyber-squatting is a good thing, but from first-hand experience and talking to some flacks who have the accounts for mega-brands that have not received such treatment. Would love to know what constitutes Twitter’s action strategy.
Social Media Metrics My ASS! – Now this is interesting. Not because it questions metrics, but rather the closing point on brand equity. One of these days the code will be cracked on measuring it.
Video, Customer Interactions, and Getting Seen – I am fascinated by video in social media. This is also interesting for PR & CRM and this post goes into some numbers about how companies and individuals will start to communicate via video. Kind of reminds me of those super cool video phones from the 90’s.
Bonus Video
This is just pretty sweet Shaq may have to relinquish the Superman moniker.
This has been an interesting one to say the least. We were supposed to get a giant snow storm, but it never came and we got less snow than the folks in DC, so my snow angel kind of stunk. It has also been frustrating because my issues with some of the code on this blog are kind of screwed up so the RSS and email feeds are down to some extent and the WP.org forum was no help. So if anyone out there is fluent in coding or WP hacks or fixes, please email me at jeffreyespositoAThotmailDOTcom so we can talk about what’s going on. So without further adieu, here is this week’s Five for Friday.
How To Bounce Back From A PR Disaster – This article comes from NPR and is something that all flacks to take a look at. Not only does it pertain to a PR nightmare that is going on with Toyota. It also goes into some interesting facts on recovery, some I agree with others, I call shenanigans on.
Matrix: Companies Should Factor ‘Social Influence’ Into Total Customer Value– One thing that always fascinates me is metrics in social media. There is no silver bullet and everyone is looking to string together something sticky. This piece is quiet interesting as it pulls in metrics based upon real-time influencer assistance. I would argue that companies need to care for even the smallest of customer (and influencer) but he does make some good points for his side of the fence.
Enough, Google — Just Buy Twitter Already – On Monday evening, I was Tweeting with Brett Peterselon this very issue after Google announced their version of Twitter with social status updates for Gmail. The article states something that many have been proposing for a while, it is not a matter of if, it is a matter of when only difference is the price tag and its inflation. As the article points out, the acquisition may be a game changer in holding off Facebook.
Detroit Red Wings Make Game Programs Interactive With QR Codes – In a league that is desperate for goodwill and publicity, the Red Wings are doing their part. Making their program filled with QR codes is very hip and cool, but what really stands out is their intro video that shows fans how to use it is even cooler. This not only exposes their fans to new technologies, but also includes increased exposure for their partners.
The Pros & Cons of Twitter – Forget Twitter in this title as you could easily substitute any social site into the equation. It offers a number of good points for news organizations as well.
