“I am not a crook.” President Nixon

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman” President Clinton

“We promise not to screw it up.” Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer

Well, you can’t fault Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer for being honest and upfront. Earlier today Yahoo! announced that it had paid $1.1 billion for microblogging service Tumblr. Nice acquisition, big headlines and all that. However, when I read a number of articles about the announcement the thing that jumped out at me was Mayer’s comment. While CEO’s, especially in the tech sector, are known for hyperbole and hype, I found it refreshing to see such candor from Mayer. But I’m curious to know what led her to issue such an off-the-cuff remark? Could it be that social media has become such a big part of our world?

Her comment appeared in numerous articles but it seemed to first appear on her Twitter account. I realize that we live in a 24 hour news cycle world full of sound bites and infographics, but her self-deprecating humor felt to me as one of those “what have I got to lose” moments. More important, I feel that this is a perfect example of how social media has changed the game. In the past an acquisition like this would have a press release (politically correct language approved by corporate lawyers) and a series of interviews for the leaders of the two companies. But now, with social media, news and comments are out there for public consumption immediately.

To me this is an example of the PR tactic of shifting the story. I believe that people will be talking about Ms. Mayer’s comment more than about the news itself. Yes, Yahoo! has had its fair share of screw-ups and has made some poor decisions, but by making fun of itself, Yahoo! has bought time to make the acquisition work and has helped to shape its image. The question is…is this an image that the company wants?

I don’t know about you, but I find it overwhelming to channel surf on my cable system. As I tell me son, “hundreds of channels, nothing to watch.” But when we’re talking about marketing and we say “channel”, it’s a whole different ballgame. Traditionally the channel refers the various outlets you use to share your product or message with potential customers such as the retail channel, reseller channel, or mail order channel, just to name a few. But in today’s world, thanks in part to social media, the channel has grown.

It used to be that you could get a story published in a magazine or newspaper about your company or product, but now there’s the world of online media, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. For marketing and PR pros it can be overwhelming.

If you want to learn more about how to manage all of your marketing channels, take a few minutes to read an article that one of our clients, Oliver Jaeger at e-Spirit, recently published. The article recently appeared in Marketing Executives and it’s titled Six Ways to Improve Multichannel Marketing.

Marketing and PR pros often wear many hats and, at times, managing so many channels can feel like you’re drinking from the fire hose. The key is having a strong Web Content Management system in place to not only manage all of your online marketing materials, but to help improve your customer’s experience.

One of the tactics we often recommend to clients is to create infographics. These graphic images pull together a lot of information on a particular topic and present it in an attractive way that can be easily shared. Editors and bloggers love them because they drive click throughs to stories, while the infographic sponsors get their names and logos splashed across the Web.

A problem for vendors is that publications might see their infographics as overly self-serving. An effective way around that, as in the example below, is for vendors and industry organizations to work together to create the infographic. In this case, Hyland Software/OnBase worked with the government community site GovLoop to build a nice infographic on how governments are using enterprise content management software. Naturally, given how much publications dig infographics, it landed on Government Technology’s site as a news item. (Full disclosure: we did not work on this one, it’s just an example of some good work.)

At McKenzie Worldwide we enjoy turning on the creative juices and brainstorming concepts for infographics that help build your brand. Hope to hear from you.

Over the weekend I was shopping at the grocery store and something caught my eye that made me laugh. A mother was pushing her cart and adding groceries with her three teenage kids in tow. All three were looking down at their phones and texting furiously. Not a care in the world nor any realization that people with carts were moving out of the way.

While I completely understand the benefits and enjoyment we all get using handheld devices and the importance of staying connected to family and friends, the image of these three kids made me stop and wonder. When is it too much? Business Insider CEO Henry Blodget recently commented that “Second screen is a big opportunity,” noting that more 80 percent of young TV viewers (ages 18 to 24) simultaneously use a phone or tablet while watching the big screen. I mean, how many screens/devices does a person need? Talk about stimulation overload.

The digital revolution has created so many opportunities for PR and marketing folks, but have we gone overboard? Has digital technology taken over our lives? I’m beginning to wonder if it’s gone too far. In fact, this weekend I read about the new Barbie Makeover Mirror that allows kids to apply makeup on the iPad screen using facial tracking technology. Creative…yes. Ingenious…yes. But, wow, isn’t this a little much? 

The bigger question (at least for those of us in PR and marketing) I began to ask myself is, with all of these channels available and the continual advances in bandwidth technology, what is this doing to the marketing landscape?

Customer segmentation and target marketing used to be the backbone of marketing and PR activities. Tailor your message for your customer. But in today’s world, with so many channels available to connect with customers, how can marketers decide which areas to focus on? Does this mean that you can abandon the old channels like TV and radio advertising? Can you sideline your website for social media sites or mobile apps?  In most cases, the new channels are one more thing to worry about. One thing is certain – capturing our increasingly short attention spans is getting harder and more complex than ever.

One of the companies we work with, e-Spirit, recently discussed the challenges with content consistency and localization on a global level. With information and channel overload creating more opportunities – and more opportunities for missteps — to reach target customers, how can marketers manage everything?

My question to you, the reader, is how does your company manage so many channel opportunities? How can your company maintain brand consistency using so many channels?

As I look through various publications and websites I continually see articles about the importance of companies being customer-centric, or that the customer is the center of the universe, or that your company needs to funnel activities towards customer needs. While I find these articles interesting, I’m still amazed to find that many companies simply don’t get it.  

Look at companies like Nordstrom or Amazon that focus a tremendous amount of effort on providing excellent customer service. They treat me well and I become a regular customer. As everyone knows repeat customers cost much less than having to go out and find new customers. There are many thoughts behind ways to build customer loyalty or to strengthen customer loyalty, but most of these should really be obvious—use common sense and your customer will usually be happy.

Here’s an example of two companies that just don’t get it.

Last week I had an issue between my bank and my mortgage company regarding an error with my mortgage payment. The long-and-short of it is that I was charged a $35 fee (twice!) for something that wasn’t my fault, yet neither institution would refund me the charge. In the grand scheme of things, $70 is nothing for these large financial institutions, but to me it’s a lot of money. More to the point is the principle of the issue—both companies pointed the finger at the other, neither company was willing to step up and admit error, and both companies now have an unhappy customer. It just goes to show you that many companies still don’t understand how to be customer-centric.

From a marketing or PR perspective, I guess these companies don’t care about annoying a single customer. But with the growth of social media, I can get my message out to the masses much easier than ever before. If either of these companies was smart, they’d realize that refunding me the money would go a long way to securing a happy customer.

It reinforces my thinking that customer service, marketing and PR folks need to keep a finger on the pulse of the social media comments about their company, 24×7, so they can gauge sentiment and react quickly as needed. Better yet, be preventative up front by offering amazing customer service at all times.

Do you have examples like this where you’ve taken to social media channels to let the masses know how you were treated?

We had fun shooting, editing and producing this video for our client BETTERY. Check it out and learn how to use their BETTERY Swap Station kiosk. We can all do our part to help the environment and this idea makes it SO easy!

BETTERY Founder Charlie Kawasaki Demonstrates Nation’s First Kiosk for Exchange of Reusable Batteries from McKenzie Worldwide on Vimeo.

Growing up in Silicon Valley and working in the high tech space for over 20 years gives me a somewhat unique perspective on technology. On the one hand, the advances that have come from the world of high tech, such as cell phones, personal computers, and the mouse on a computer, have greatly enhanced productivity and changed the world around us, and I usually embrace them whole heartedly. It’s amazing to me that my house can monitor and adjust my thermostat to save on energy costs, and that I can be automatically alerted when there’s a bad traffic accident on the road that I can avoid.

Yet when technology has progressed so far that big brother can snoop around and find out almost anything about me and my habits (hello General Petraeus) or Google can share my web history or Amazon my purchasing history, I get a little freaked out. What is considered public and what is considered private? It’s worth noting the startling increase in government requests globally for data to Google. And needless to say, Google is turning it over. Could you or I be next?

Advances in technology, for such markets as medical or environmental, have done wonders for all of us. But how much progress should be considered to be too much progress? Am I an early adopter or am I a Luddite who is scared of the shadow my laptop gives off. With that in mind here is my ode to what most consider to be the birth of the high tech industry, Silicon Valley.

(sung to the tune of “The Beverly Hillbillies”)

Come and listen to a story about the mi-cro-chip,
Was quite a breakthrough, but not seen as very hip.
Then came the IC which gave us a voice,
All to the efforts of Mr. Bob Noyce.

Integrated circuit that is, Fairchild Semiconductor, silicon gold.

Well the first things to go were the orchards and the trees,
Then the buildings went up with relevant ease.
Engineers worldwide said “San Jose is where we outta be.”
So they loaded up their trucks and moved to the Valleeeeey.

Silicon that is, ridiculously priced homes, stock options.

Fifty years later technology rules all,
Weather updates on my phone, but rarely a phone call.
I like digital cameras and a blazing fast PC,
All because of a place called Silicon Valley.

Bottom line is, tech is great, cut the check.

Buy a house, move on in, y’hear?

Putting aside personal beliefs and party preferences, the presidential debate on October 16 night was a real yawner for someone like me who actually wanted to hear some substance. While a good “he said/she said” argument is always entertaining, the funniest parts of the evening didn’t come from the campus of Hofstra University, but instead came from the blog-o-sphere. While the first debate brought us discussions about the importance and cost of Big Bird in our society, the second debate put binders at the forefront of Wednesday morning water cooler talk. Personally I was disgusted by the focus on attacking each other and the lack of quality answers to the questions, but that’s fodder for the political blogs to hash out.

Today’s topic is about the extensive reach and the impact of social media. We’ve seen the impact that social media can have on sharing images and issues that can bring about change – see the Arab Spring. But social media can also give us a pulse check on what voters are thinking at any moment as well as put into perspective the sheer volume of participants. Let’s take a look at some numbers circulating around the Web about the debate:

• By the time the debate was even over, Romney’s description had spawned a Facebook page (which had more than 275,000 “Likes” by mid-morning on Wednesday), a Twitter handle and, perhaps best of all, the website bindersfullofwomen.tumblr.com…” KFMB TV
• Twitter said the conversation peaked at 109,560 tweets per minute when Romney was asked about immigration. In an hour-by-hour count, the site’s “cheermeter” recorded 116,000 tweets favoring Romney to 94,000 for Obama and the Republican leading 111,000 to 101,000 in the second hour. Phys.org
• The 90-minute nationally televised exchange between President Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney generated 12.24 million comments on Twitter and Facebook according to Blue Fin Labs, an analytics firm that studies social media’s reaction to televised events. Politico

But social media isn’t just about tossing around opinions and mocking opponents. The idea of micro-targeting specific groups is a very powerful idea. Attensity, a social analytics firm stated that “the most revealing insights related to viewer sentiment and voter intentions came from the swing states: Ohio, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Virginia, and Wisconsin.”

So what can we in the corporate communications world learn from all of this? When you design a campaign for a product launch or corporate event, do your homework and determine the best way to not only reach but to actively engage your audience which. When used correctly, social media can help establish a multi-way dialogue with your target audience rather than simply using one-way communication techniques that hinder a company’s ability to engage in a more meaningful way with their audience.

That said, I leave you with one of the funnier Tweets that I read from the debate courtesy of CNN – “I feel like Obama’s staff stabbed him in the chest w/ the adrenaline needle from Pulp Fiction.”

Plan ahead for social media results

So how big has social media become? Check out these numbers.

• As of March 2012 Facebook had over 901 million users worldwide.
• As of February 2012 Twitter has over 500 million users worldwide.
• As of April 2012 Google + has over 170 million users worldwide.
• Out of the 6 billion people on the planet, 4.8 billion have a mobile phone and only 4.2 billion own a toothbrush. (Just threw that in there for fun)

To put it in perspective, Russia has a population of over 142 million (census 2010), Brazil has 190 million (census 2010), and the United States has of over 313 million.

The growth of social media has been unstoppable. How many times do you walk down the street or stroll through the airport and see people staring at their smartphones or iPads? More often than not, they are posting photos via Instagram to Facebook or glancing at their Twitter feeds to keep tabs on what’s going on. To be sure, these technologies are having at least some impact on the way we conduct business.

The cynic in me says that social media is just another diversion and a way to occupy time. But in reality, social media is having a significant impact on the business world:

• 56 percent of consumers say that they are more likely recommend a brand after becoming a fan
• 34 percent of marketers have generated leads using Twitter
• 30 percent of B2B marketers are spending millions of dollars each year on social media marketing

But simply arranging for your company to have a Twitter account or a Facebook page doesn’t cut it. Before jumping on the bandwagon companies need to ask themselves, “what are we trying to accomplish by leveraging social media tools?” Is it a lead generation tool or a customer service portal? Are the lines of communication within the company designed to troubleshoot customer problems immediately before they snowball into a PR nightmare? Does customer feedback get routed to the product development team? Does any of the information bubble up to the executive team?

If you don’t think these issues are real, go ahead and ask United Airlines how they felt about the “United Breaks Guitar” fiasco. Better yet, read this brief article titled “Why Social Media Means Customer Service can Make or Break your Brand” to get a better understanding of the impact that customer feedback can have. Better yet, work with a strategic communications firm to develop and implement a well thought out social media strategy instead of simply opening a Twitter account. Remember, just like the man said, “Question: When did Noah build the ark? Answer: Before the flood.”

Remember back in the 1960’s and 1970’s during the height of the Cold War? While we knew a little bit about the top American stars such as Mark Spitz and Dorothy Hamill, there was really no way of knowing anything about the Eastern European athletes. Secrecy, and to a certain extent, government-mandated rules prevented the Eastern Block athletes from being exposed to the West.

But oh how things have changed. Or should I say technology has changed. Sure, the tearing down of the Berlin Wall and the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe has, for the most part, eliminated the East vs. West mentality. But now, thanks to social media, fans and athletes can communicate in a free and open environment. The upcoming London Olympics has jumped on the social media bandwagon and has launched The Hub. This social media portal gives fans a way to connect with their favorite sports and athletes. And it gives the Olympians themselves a way to build their social profiles in the months before the event.

Communicating directly with world-class athletes on The Hub, via Facebook and Twitter, as well as getting event results, will make fans very happy. But think about what this technological advancement will mean for building a personal brand. Back in the 1970’s Bruce Jenner appeared on the iconic Wheaties box following his gold medal win in the decathlon.  In the 1980’s Carl Lewis seemed to be on advertisements everywhere following his multiple gold medal performances in track & field. Advertisement dollars were about the only thing available for athletes back then. And those dollars were only limited to a few select athletes.

How great it is that today’s Olympic athletes have the opportunity to develop their own brand, engage fans, and drive their own marketing activities. And what if they don’t win any medals? They still can use The Hub (as well as many other social media tools) as a way to market themselves to the world.

I think this is a great way for fans to get an inside look at what it’s like to be an Olympic athlete, but I’m more than a little concerned about the blurring lines between athlete and celebrity. Have we gone so far that the athletes and fans will lose sight of the games themselves? Will the winners be the athletes with the best social media profile not the ones with the most medals? Shouldn’t the Olympics be about competition first? How will social media impact the games this summer in London? What’s your opinion?