It’s getting hard to keep track of the number of pro-democracy protests going on in the Middle East and North Africa. It started with Tunisia and spread to Egypt. From there, Libya, Iran, Bahrain and elsewhere began to dominate world news for the past several weeks.

While there are many differences between the protests in Libya today and the anti-government rallies in Egypt less than three weeks ago, there are surprising similarities. It many of these countries, the government has either completely or partially shut down Internet access and mobile phone access. In Libya, the Internet was shut down for six hours during violent protests against longtime dictator Muammar al-Gaddafi. When the Internet was restored, users immediately turned to Twitter and Google maps to spread the news to the world of government brutally attacking the protesters.

Most of the protesters in every country are young men under the age of 30. They are gathering by the thousands in city squares and they are wired in.

Tool #1 for Government Overthrow: Smart Phones
There are many stories describing that when Twitter was shut down in Egypt, mobile apps for Twitter were used to get Twitter messages out to the free world. It’s an example of utilizing many channels of communication to share the same message.

Tool #2 for Government Overthrow: YouTube
All day today, dramatic amateur video has emerged on YouTube showing Libya’s security forces apparently firing at crowds in Benghazi and Tripoli. We saw similar videos from Egypt earlier this month, and from Iran earlier this week.

Tool #3 for Government Overthrow: Al Jazeera
We would be remiss to not point out the extensive influence satellite news provider Al Jazeera has over the region. Through their flickering television screens, millions across the region tuned in to see people just like them stand as one against brutal dictators and demand equality and justice. People from Algeria to Yeman began to believe they could do it too.

Al Jazeera’s signal has been repeatedly disrupted across the Middle East. Earlier this month, authorities in Egypt cut Al Jazeera broadcasts and ordered closure of its operations in the country for “biased” coverage of the protests there. The government of Yemen blamed Al Jazeera for inciting “unrest, violence and sabotage in Arab countries.”

It’s no doubt we’re living through the midst of a historic change in the world. I’m constantly asked, “What’s the future of social media?” when I sit on panels or discuss trends in online media. A year ago, I never thought to answer “Facebook will be used as a tool to spread democracy across the Middle East.” Nope. Never once came to my mind. I hope to see more pleasant surprises.

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posted by Doyle

Andrew Worob let me drop by with a guest post on PR at Sunrise. Thanks for having me, Andrew!

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posted by Doyle

Mashable recently covered the story of a 10th grader in California who was suspended after calling his teacher fat on Facebook.

Well, actually, he posted that the teacher was a “fat ass who should stop eating fast food, and is a douche bag.”

Ouch. Tell us how you really feel.

Now, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has sent a letter to he principal saying that the Facebook post is protected speech and that the boy cannot be punished.

OK, done rolling your eyes? Fair response. However, this situation actually raises a number of interesting points.

First, let’s get the obvious out of the way: insulting your teacher (or your boss, or a co-worker, etc.) on Facebook is a bad idea. Without exception. Parents, help your kids get their mind around the difference between complaining to a friend (which we’ve all done) and posting something on a public website—and understand it yourselves. And don’t trust your privacy settings. Just learn where it’s appropriate to vent and where it’s not. Social media has made that more important than ever.

But adults have made the same mistake. This American Life, the fabulous public radio series, recently did a story about a guy named Joe Lipari. Seems that Joe was irritated with the Apple Store and decided to quote a line from Fight Club on his Facebook page. Sadly, his Facebook status was something like, “…is thinking of going to the Apple Store with an Armalite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semi-automatic weapon, pumping round after round into the Geniuses.” The status update seemed funny while he was laying on his couch, watching the movie, smoking pot and updating Facebook.

The FBI disagreed and showed up at his apartment. I think Joe is still fighting a legal battle over the post. Ooops.

Not being stupid seems to be one obvious answer, but we can’t count on that online or anywhere else. Cases like these raise bigger questions about free speech colliding with the right to be free from public insults and threats. For example:

• Let’s say the California student’s bonehead post (sorry, kid, but seriously…) is not protected speech. Does that set a precedent that makes me potentially liable if I post something like “sitting at Restaurant X right now. Haven’t seen my server in 20 minutes. Really bad service.” Could a lawsuit be in my future?
• Let’s say it is protected speech. Is it now open season on teachers? Kids can be cruel, and teachers are people and members of the community as well. Should teachers (or waiters or participants in a community theater production or… ) be forced to put up with personal or profane attacks from anyone with with an Internet connection? That extreme seems wrong as well.
• Today I can pretty much post what I want on sites like Facebook or Twitter, which can lead to situations like I described above. What if the pendulum swings the other way, and I get kicked off Facebook for swearing or criticizing people or businesses? That would be a pretty bland world with limited interest.

Media from just a few years ago was controlled. I couldn’t even get a letter to the editor published that called someone a fat ass or a douche bag, but now I have a pretty big microphone. I can call anyone anything I want. As a business owner, I consider the ramifications of my posts. As a sophomore in high school—or even someone with a lower level of understanding of social media—I might not.

Here’s the bottom line: some people just don’t know how to act in public and we probably can’t expect them to act any better online. Sweeping rules about protected speech or libel are slippery slopes that can lead to unintended consequences like I noted above. Instead, we need to treat social media outlets like the very public conversations that they are are simply adapt some common sense reactions that have worked for decades.

• In the case of the California student: he would have faced suspension of he had used the same words in the hallway and been overheard by a member of the faculty. He would probably have been forced to apologize to the teacher he called names. Applying the same rules, this student should face punishment for inappropriate behavior and perhaps even be forced to post an apology on his page. After all, even though he made the comment on his home computer, it carries back to the school. Honestly, such a comment from one of my kids at that age at the dinner table would have earned that child a talking-to.
• Using the same logic, if I’m overheard complaining about restaurant service, there’s no potential for lawsuit (assuming it’s both reasonable and basically accurate). As such, a post to Facebook, Twitter or Yelp should not put me at risk.
• Although I certainly don’t have all the facts of the Joe Lipari case, it may very well be appropriate for authorities to investigate the source of such a post. What if Joe was an unstable guy and showed up at the Apple Store armed? However, upon finding the post was made by a stand-up comedian with no legal record watching Fight Club and smoking pot, perhaps a stern warning is more appropriate than engaging an already-overloaded legal system for months. I know I’d think twice about what I posted if several armed cops came to my house. I hope Joe thinks things through better. Again, common sense on both sides.
• Putting the management of social media sites in the business of monitoring posts will break the entire system. Much like the Digital Millenium Copyright Act puts the burden on the copyright owner to inform the carrier or website of a violation, we must rely on established chains of authority. Let’s not make Mark Zuckerberg and his staff the parents of a half billion people, some of whom are just plain knuckheads.

Of course, anyone can hire an attorney and sue anyone else for just about anything. But with the continued rise of social media and access to very public forums, such lawsuits can quickly spiral out of control on both sides. With freedom of speech comes responsibility. Let’s hold users accountable and our communities—online and offline—will benefit in the long run.

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posted by Doyle

I still encounter many folks who believe social media is mostly a waste of time. “Why should I be on Twitter? I don’t care what you’re eating for lunch!”

They’re right. And they’re wrong.

Like any medium, there is good and bad, quality and junk. “Mad Men” is a well-written, engaging drama, despite the fact it’s on “TV.” On the same medium, there’s the endless stream of celebrity reality shows–a waste of time, like a worthless tweet. Good use of the medium vs. bad.

Social media is no different.

A good friend of mine, Fred Hobbs, is director of public relations for an organization here in Colorado called Imagine! The mission of Imagine! is to create and offer innovative support to people of all ages with cognitive, developmental, physical and health related needs so they may live fulfilling lives of independence and quality in their homes and communities. The work this organization does is outstanding, touching many people and helping them to lead full lives, despite their challenges.

Fred sent me a link to the video I included above, showing how some Imagine! clients are taking advantage of various technologies, like voice recognition and other special input devices, in order to keep in touch with friends and family via social media. For people that, in some cases, need assistance just to leave their homes, new accessibility options and online communities are opening a new world of friendship and communication that many of us simply take for granted.

And heck, if they want to, they can even tweet about what they had for lunch!

Like any medium, social media can be worthwhile or wasteful. Creative applications like this, however, show the amazing potential these communities can offer when coupled with thoughtful implementation, adaptive technology and, above all, creative thinking.

For more information on Imagine!, please visit their website.

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Many social media agencies are using unethical practices to gain followers and show inflated metrics. As social media evolves and becomes an integral form of marketing and a vital ROI component for companies, agencies participating in these dubious and underhanded tactics are suppressing the social media industry all together.

If you are a company hiring an external agency for social media, I recommend that you quickly become aware of some of the shady tricks that might be used to show misrepresented statistics:

1. Avatar accounts: Some agencies will create fake accounts on Twitter and Facebook to show an immediate spike in fans and followers, demonstrate increased engagement and display an overall growth of the networks.

Why this is bad: The avatar accounts are not using your company’s service, buying your product and (obviously) not interested in what you have to say, so this is a false way of exhibiting that they have the ability to expand a large network quickly. The problem is that they are really not nurturing a network at all, because the avatar accounts are just increasing the spam following to your site.

2. Playing the numbers game: Social media is about numbers, but not the numbers you may think. Many social media agencies gage their performance on fans, followers and impressions online. While these may look good on paper, it all comes down to one number: is this program increasing your bottom line? Are they contributing the ultimate goals of the company?

Why this is bad: It is hard for me to believe that a certain company’s bottom line goal is to reach 5,000 Likes on Facebook or get 10,000 followers on Twitter. They want to see monetary results in their business, queries about their product/services, quality website visits and conversion (from awareness to action).

Also, many social media agencies misleadingly calculate impressions. FOR EXAMPLE: “So, if we have 1,586 followers and XXX who re-Tweeted us has 25,837 followers then the Tweet made a solid impression on 40,977,482 people right?” Uh, wrong. Calculating impressions has always been fraught with misleading information, but Twitter brings a whole new element to the math due to the sheer number of people.

3. Slandering the name of competitors or former clients: How your company deals with negative comments online will significantly influence your followers.

Why this is bad: Honestly, this should be an obvious “no, no,” but you would be surprised on how often this happens. This is actually proven to increase followers of the company you are slandering, make your company look like an asshole and decrease your followers. The hashtag #unfollowing is often used to promote this act. Make sure it is not being used on your company’s page. Ever.

4. Being someone you’re not: While everyone in the social media world inevitably plays multiple roles (See Amy’s post from October “Multiple Personalities: Order and Disorder in the Agency Environment”), it is important as communication professionals doing work on behalf of our clients to be transparent about who we are and who we are not.

Why this is Bad: I cannot pretend to be a doctor, a software engineer or an expert waxer because I can’t give advice as a doctor, an engineer or a waxer. I am a communicator and representative of different companies. If they ask, I am an online voice for the company.

The best way to approach social media is through a transparent and honest program that focuses on the goals of the company. When choosing a social media company, it is important to look for the red flags above.

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posted by Doyle

I recently moderated a panel for CTAM of the Rockies, and our photo ended up in Multichannel News. Thanks again to CTAM for the opportunity, and to my fellow panelists for being so great to work with!

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The Top 5 Most Interesting Hashtags of Mid-December 2010

Has anyone else noticed what has been trending this week on Twitter? I think we all need to take a minute out of our busy day and become aware of what the world is thinking about.

For some odd reason, for two days this week, #textsfromastalker was trending. My question is why and how…oh, yeah, WHO is a big question, too???? (isn’t stalker a stealthy profession? Why tweet to the person you are stalking on Twitter? Doesn’t that defeat the purpose?) Is there someone out there mass texting people creepy messages and then those people all get on Twitter to talk about it?

Here are my top 5 favorites for this week:

1. #textsfromastalker

“PLZ slow down, it’s not easy to keep up while trying to take pictures at the same!” #TextsFromAStalker

2. #somethingaintright

Paying full price before Christmas? #Somethingaintright with that. Comparison shop & save on almost anything @Nextag! http://next.ag/fY04gM

(Promoted tweet by Nextag.com)

He said he gotta get his eyebrows done #somethingaintright!

3. Elephants

WATCH: Robert Pattinson Woos Reese Witherspoon in ‘Water for Elephants’ http://bit.ly/hwDCrL

Most elephants weigh less than the tongue of the blue whale

4. Covered Anything

Yesterday was “anything covered in chocolate day” … today … its “Maple Syrup Day” ! Pancakes anyone ? Barry

5. Finding Nemo

they got the real life finding nemo fish.. i dont know how to twitpic from this phone tho.. theyre cool

I have also noticed that hashtags are getting longer and longer. Remember, there are only 140 characters to say everything you need to say. Soon someone will create the 140 character hashtag. It will go something like this:

#TodayIwentforawalkoutsideinthesunshineitmademydaysomuchbetterbecauselastnightmy       boyfrienddumpedmeandnowiamaloneionlyhavemytwitterfriendsleft

Yes, Twitter trends can keep you up to date on the happening of the world. They tell you all the important news, like nation holidays (December 15^th was National Cupcake Day…who knew? I would never have known that without Twitter). Twitter trends are awesome and entertaining because you never know what you will learn.

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Also keeping with American tradition, we pay platitudes to a beautiful emotion that was at one time important to the holiday but somehow got lost in materialism and excess. For Thanksgiving, that emotion is gratitude.

Gratitude can be a complex emotion requiring reflection, the ability to admit your dependence on others and humility to realize your own limitations. Nevertheless, a growing body of scientific research suggests that adults who frequently feel grateful are generally happier and healthier than those that don’t. They also earn more money and have more social connections.

If you apply this to business, and you can see your referrals increase, your employees become happier and they’ll be more productive. People like to feel appreciated and appreciated customers will come back to you.

Most marketing and sales promotions from now through the end of the year will focus on bringing new customers through the doors. While there is nothing wrong with a holiday promotion, many of these are only focused on new sales, not growing existing sales. A classic example of this is the free January gym membership for new customers, while completely ignoring the long-time gym members that have kept the business afloat during one of the worst economic depressions this country has ever seen. Rather than offer a promotion for new customers, why not send out an email to the ones you already have, saying “Thanks for sticking with us” and offering them – and only them – 20% off on merchandise in your gym’s retail store. They’ll be more likely to recommend their friends if they feel appreciated, and their friends will be more likely to join because a friend they trust recommended the gym to them.

You don’t have to own a gym to understand this concept. We all know that bringing in new business costs 10 times more than to keep an old customer, yet we’re still focused on bringing in new business.

If your business thrives on long-term dependable relationships, all the more reason to stop focusing on cost-per-acquisition and start focusing on retention programs. You can do this by asking your customers how they feel about the job you’re doing, encourage open dialogue through your social media channels like your blog or Twitter, and continually strive to say thank you for specific feedback your customers give. Not just a “thank you for your valuable feedback,” but “thank you for your suggestions on how we can improve our product delivery capabilities. We’ve taken them into consideration, and will implement the following…”

It might surprise you the amount of gratitude you’ll see in return.

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Recently, as I strolled through Boulder’s outdoor 29th Street mall looking for a birthday gift, I passed a window display at Sunglass Hut announcing a contest to hire the company’s full time national blogger.

According to their website promotion, the contest winner will receive a $100,000 salary plus $1000 per month “styling allowance,” as well as a “fully furnished” Manhattan apartment and VIP passes to NYC, Milan and London fashion shows.

Sign me up! I thought as I debated about walking into the store.

The contest kicked-off on October 1, 2010 and ends October 27th. By December the top ten finalists compete in a “blog-off” that runs through December 31st and on January 1, 2011 the lucky winner is announced.

I love my job with Metzger Associates, but I can only imagine how cool it would be to live in Manhattan and blog all day long about fashion and attend the world’s best annual fashion shows. The only thing better would be if the contest also provided a car and driver (it is Manhattan, after all).

Sunglass Hut has just launched one of the most creative national PR campaigns I have seen in a long time (save the Old Spice dude). What’s more, this campaign is an inspired way to hire a pro blogger and score the best of the best. However, if they give the position to that 14 year old fashion-blogging wiz, I will be writing another post on the resulting ridiculousness of their decision. She’s cute and all, but c’mon, she’s no Anna Wintour.

Through their contest entries and PR & marketing campaign, Sunglass Hut will likely get a lot of attention among the nation’s fashion bloggers and wannabes. There’s nothing better than free promotion – especially when multiple bloggers – who have hundreds of thousands of regular readers each – are enthusiastically writing good things about your company. Throwing up a few posters in store windows and generating web landing pages are inexpensive marketing gambles, given the national attention this campaign could (and should) generate. It’s an enterprising use of the exponential value the fashion blogging community offers – especially among women bloggers, who naturally like to share every unique idea in our heads with our readers.

Besides using the otherwise mundane task of hiring as a marketing and PR campaign, Sunglass Hut also signals how hip the company is by directing this campaign at the socially tuned-in blogging community. They aren’t announcing the hire of a corporate copywriter or executive assistant. They are looking for a fashion and social media-savvy expert communicator. It’s brilliant!

Note: Dear Sunglasses Hut, Will it help my entry if I mention that I just purchased a great pair of Dolce & Gabbana shades from your Boulder store?

Kat May
PR & Marketing Specialist
Fashionista & Blogger

shortlink: http://wp.me/pqTP9-j9

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Frito-Lay announced today that “The Loud Sun Chips Bag is Dead” thanks, in part, to a crack-team of investigative journalists at The Wall Street Journal who couldn’t ask a single question nine years ago about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but dedicated 900 words and a two-minute video to a snack bag (that’s right, I said it). The other culprit in the death of the biobag appears to be a Facebook group called “SORRY BUT I CAN’T HEAR YOU OVER THIS SUN CHIPS BAG” with 44,421 members.

Hungry people of the world, there is a lesson to be learned here. On second thought, no. However, if you are lucky enough to not be starving, and you don’t worry about tripping off IED explosions on your way to the market, then you probably have time to think about how loud your snacking is. And there is a marketing and PR lesson to be learned here:

All of the product development, expensive ad campaigns and custom-built websites will not do a thing for you if you don’t listen to your customers.

Frito-Lay made three mistakes here:

1. They assumed everyone cares about the environment.
2. They listened to the wrong people (those who aren’t willing to make any minor sacrifice for the sake of the environment).
3. They tried to make everyone happy.

Frito-Lay saw the negative response building over a month ago before the WSJ article initially ran and that Facebook group only had 20,000 or so fans. Realizing there was no escaping the noise, Frito-Lay featured it in some of their marketing. In stores, the company posted signs that read: “Yes, the bag is loud, that’s what change sounds like.”

Cute a clever though it may be, they weren’t responding to their market in any way that was engaging or meaningful. What they should have said was, “We believe there are more people that care about saving the planet than there are people that are inconvenienced by noise. We’re still working on making the bag better, but we think this is an amazing start.” No, it’s not a poster slogan, but it’s a conversation starter. (Maybe the poster should have read, “GET A BOWL.”) What they did was talk at their customers instead of listen to them. People were complaining. They responded with sarcasm. Sales started declining.

It took four years to develop the compostable bag for Sun Chips.

The key to being successful in social media is not attention or clever one-liners, or even a viral video. It’s engagement. It’s getting people to buy your product and then tell their friends about your product. It’s getting in front of the right people with the right message. They had a pretty good message. They just responded to the wrong people.

Instead of building a presence with the already established hundreds of eco-friendly bloggers who would happily become prophets of the blessing of the Sun Chips bag, Frito-Lay dumped a truckload of money into developing a website about Sun Chips’ compostable packaging and then developed a separate social media community on “Composting 101,” featuring videos from Sophie Uliano, a bestselling green author. This is a tactic that although features a social media method, is still old-school marketing that involves talking to your customers and expecting them to sit quietly and listen. Who did this site attract? I doubt the Sun Chips site got as much traffic as Sophie’s personal site. Apparently, it didn’t get as much traffic as the Facebook group.

Frito-Lay tried to force a conversation by talking at people. When the people responded with criticism, they shut it down because the narrative didn’t fit the construct of their opinion. You can never be everything to everyone and as soon as you try, you will fail, as apparent by today’s announcement. When you begin listening only to your critics, you make the dangerous mistake of making a minority opinion seem like the majority. People will always complain. You shouldn’t ignore them, but by focusing on the people that will actually buy your product, you make your detractors appear to be exactly what they are – the small minority.

When the narrative doesn’t fit, evaluate your narrative. Maybe you’re not saying the wrong things. Maybe you’re just not listening to the right people. Trying to make everyone happy just means wasting four years of product research and a multi-million dollar ad campaign.

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