Her appearances — Naslund’s first-ever in Colorado — are being hosted by the Mile High Social Media Club (MHSMC), Metzger Associates, Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)/Colorado Chapter and Redhead Writing.

Click here to register for the Denver event or here for the Boulder appearance.

At each event, Naslund will address the “Seven Shifts To Make Businesses Faster, Smarter & More Social.” Attendees will learn how to:

• Strip away silos and overgrown business processes and create a culture of NOW;
• Hire and empower a new type of employee who is adept at pattern recognition, human relations, and immediate analysis;
• Organize internal teams for maximum external impact, and empower every employee as a marketer, even if they aren’t;
• Listen at the point of need and answer the social telephone;
• Travel the “Humanization Highway” and respond effectively and persuasively to customer inquiries;
• Plan for, find and manage real-time crises; and,
• Redesign success metrics in a business world that’s increasingly instantaneous.

When & Where:

• Thursday, May 12, 6 p.m. (Old Chicago, 1415 Market Street, Denver, cash bar/food available)
• Friday, May 13, 8 a.m. (Metzger Associates, 5733 Central Ave., Boulder)

Cost:

• $25 ($20 for PRSA members and students with valid student ID). All participants will receive a copy of Naslund’s book The Now Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter and More Social

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For years, Google (and most other search engines) favored the big guys that could afford plenty of SEO. It was hard for the little guy to get into Google’s search results.

But that’s changed. Google, Bing and the others are working to deliver local results when the searcher is looking for something available from a business in their area.

To help you take advantage of this change, the Metzger Digital Marketing Team will give you practical tips and tricks that you can use today to boost your local business in search results.

We will conclude with a short presentation on Google’s latest update (called “Farmer” or “Panda”) and how it knocked a whopping 11% of sites down in the searches (and what this means for you and the future of Search).

Want to learn more? Register to attend the event, or follow the live stream below.

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Are you going to CTIA on March 21? This week we are pleased to announce that our client Radish Systems’ new ChoiceView technology has been selected as a finalist in the Enterprise and Vertical Market category of CTIA’s annual Emerging Technology (E-Tech) Awards competition. The CTIA E-Tech Awards honor the most innovative new products in 14 categories spanning the areas of mobile apps, consumer electronics, enterprise, and infrastructure. Winners will be announced March 23 at 2 pm EST at International CTIA WIRELESS^® 2011 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, FL.

Metzger Associates works with Radish Systems to support their tradeshow and media relations activities and so far it’s been a busy year. Recently at CES 2011, Radish Systems debuted the Radish ChoiceView software which allows callers to talk on a smartphone with a ChoiceView-enabled business while seeing visual information delivered by that business, either from a representative or an interactive voice response (IVR) system.

Help Radish win at International CTIA WIRELESS with your vote! Go to http://tinyurl.com/4qd6gte and vote for ChoiceView (by March 21st at 12 p.m. EST) as best emerging technology at show!



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I had a professional fit done on my road bike last summer. They did not change any single thing by more than one inch, but in the end, it was like getting a new bike.

That’s what the iPad 2 is like. No major changes, but the little things add up to something big.

I picked up my iPad 2 around 7:30 last night, and because I have about 50 GB of data, the transfer took a little while. After that, the experience was outstanding.

When I got the iPad 1 last year, I was very impressed. Honestly, I almost held off on this one, since none of the changes were revolutionary. Taken as a whole, however, the changes made a great device even better.

Specifically:

• iPad 1 was by no means bloated, but iPad 2 is noticeably thinner and lighter. When you use the device, it makes a big difference.
• It’s really fast. I never really complained about the speed of iPad 1, but iPad 2 smokes. I’m not sure if the better browsing speed is from the improved Safari in iOS 4.3, or the hardware, or both, but it’s great.
• The Smart Cover is one of the best pieces of industrial design I’ve ever seen. Enough said.

They added a couple of cameras and some new programs (really having fun with Garage Band for the iPad) but overall, it’s pretty much the same device. But just like my road bike was exactly the same device, a few well-placed tweaks can make a huge difference.

That’s what happened with the iPad 2.

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Join PitchEngine Founder and CEO Jason Kintzler at the next Social Media Breakfast, presented by Metzger Associates, Denver PR Blog and Mile High Social Media Club. Learn how PitchEngine can help businesses expand the traditional news release to a true Social Media Release (and learn what that is if you’re not sure!).

This is a change in communication for businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, and we’re excited to have Jason share his product.

Join us on Feb. 25 from 7:45am-9am. More information and registration here. Can’t make it? Watch the presentation live, ask questions and engage with us below.

Video streaming by Ustream

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posted by Doyle

Even without Valentine’s Day, February is stacking up to be a busy month. If you can, join me at one of these events:

This coming Wednesday, Feb. 16, I’ll be at the Boulder County Media Professionals’ “after hours” event. It’s being held at Carelli’s of Boulder, 645 30^th Street (corner of 30^th & Baseline), at 5 p.m., where I’ll give a brief presentation and Q & A on PR, social media, car repair (probably not that) or whatever the group wants to discuss. RSVP to rbrown@ball.com or call 303-533-6059 if you’d like to attend.

Next week, I’m Denver for the Software Club panel on PR in the New Media Era. Nadine Pyter, marketing director of Confio, will moderate a panel covering the impact of Social Media on PR, balancing traditional PR practices (trying to get analyst quotes, trade articles, etc) with Social Media, selling Social Media internally and linking it to corporate goals, guerilla Social Media (finding online communities and identifying bloggers, tweeters, etc) and measuring success. I’ll be on the panel along with Greg Davoll, product marketing director, Quest Software (bio here) and Terri Douglas, co-founder and principal, Catapult PR-IR (bio here). For more information or to sign up, send an email to sms@dim.com.  

Finally, I’ll be spending breakfast at Start Up Weekend 5 in Boulder on Feb. 27 chatting about free things startups can do to grab some publicity when you’re on a shoestring budget (like startups tend to be!). You can find more informaiton here about this great event.

Like most months, February in Boulder offers many chances to get out, learn something and catch up with the amazing people we have in our community. I hope to see you at one of these events.

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I think the Kenneth Cole Twitter comment this morning is a great example of how fast social media can damage a brand and how a quick response is key to effective damage control. This blog was posted about eight hours after the original @KennethCole Tweet and it will be interesting to see how things evolve in the next few days. Below is a timeline on how fast the whole thing unraveled. It was like watching a train wreck in slow motion…

*Some of the times may not be exact, I was working with some things being posted eastern time and some at mountain time…but, regardless of timezone, the fury was fast and the backlash intense.

7:56am: This tweet is posted:

9:36am: The @KennethColePR Twitter account is created aimed to mock the brand with inappropriate references to world events.

9:51am: The first apology from the real Kenneth Cole Tweeter account is issued:

11:47am: The Huff Post Story breaks

Kenneth Cole Tweet Uses #Cairo to Promote Spring Collection

11:51am: CNBC Story is posted

Kenneth Cole Puts Well-Heeled Foot in Mouth

12:47: NY Daily News story comes out

Kenneth Cole sparks online furor with joke tweet that Egypt protests spurred by fashion frenzy

1:00pm: @KennethColePR has over 1,500 followers (in just about four hours!)

1:07: Mashable Story

Kenneth Cole’s #Cairo Tweet Angers the Internet

1:15pm: 22 very angry posts have been made to the Kenneth Cole Facebook page. The brand does not respond.

1:20pm: TechCrunch Story

@KennethCole Sets New Bar For Social Media Stupidity

1:23: AOL Story

Kenneth Cole’s Egypt Tweet Offends Just About Everyone on Twitter

1:27pm: This apology is posted on Facebook and referred to on Twitter.

Really, it took you 6 hours to come up with this?

Also, instead of responding individually to the very angry, passionate comments on Facebook, Kenneth Cole just copied and pasted the same thing that they tweeted. Don’t you think that something you did that really offended people deserves a personal response to your followers?

2:15pm: @KennethColePR has 2,409 followers and continues to post inappropriate (but hilarious!) Tweets. (If you’re counting, that almost 1,000 new followers in one hour!)

2:34pm: Kenneth Cole posted the apology on a discussion forum. There are now 86 comments on his apology and no response – no discussion – from the brand. I don’t see the reason in him posting his statement in a discussion forum unless he had the intension to discuss this with people.

2:34pm: 2,989 followers of @KennethColePR

3:45pm: @KennethColePR has 3,934 followers

There are many more articles about the subject and many more angry comments on Twitter and Facbook about the situation than are on this timeline ( I could have waited and gone through all of them, but with social media, timing is important, a-hem). As of 3:35pm MST, there were 146 news articles on the topic in Google.

There are three lessons we can all learn from this.

1. Nothing can ever be undone anymore—even if you delete that Tweet, it is still out there on thousands of people’s Tweetdecks.
2. Information is spreading faster and faster. In a mind bogglingly short time frame – from about 8am ET this morning to 5pm ET – there have been over 140 news articles, 35 comments on Facebook and too many negative Twitter mentions to count.
3. Quick and thoughtful response to situations like this is key- everyone says and does stupid things and people and brands are remembered more for how they respond to those actions rather than for the fact that you made them. Kenneth Cole’s very short response copied and pasted to everyone doesn’t show compassion or real remorse for his actions.  It’s disingenuous and insincere.

I believe in individual attention on social media. If people are so offended that they write a note on your wall, they deserve an individual response.

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Presented by Micah Baldwin, Co-founder, CEO and Chief Community Caretaker of Graphic.ly.

Boulder Digital Arts
January 28, 2011
7:30am- 9:15am

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posted by Doyle

I found this NPR story interesting—how many of us have a plan for dealing with our ever-growing online footprint after we’ve logged in for the last time?

Just as social media is changing so many elements of business, this story—and the book it covers, called Your Digital Afterlife—reminds us about the changes affecting us personally as more and more of our world goes online.

The book recommends a “digital executor.” This is simply someone that has access to your online accounts so your profiles, emails, etc., can be handled according to your wishes after you’re gone.

While I’ve not read the book yet (just downloaded a copy via the Kindle app to my iPad!), here are a few things I’ve encountered that you may wish to consider:

• Turning off email accounts. I recently received an email from a close friend of mine that passed away last spring. It wasn’t a message from the great beyond, but a digital spoof of his Hotmail address. It was unnerving to see his name pop up in my email inbox, and I can only imagine how his wife and kids must have felt. Shutting down accounts can help stop actions that were once just annoying, but can become heart-wrenching. (And, I’ll say it again: there needs to be a special place in Hell for spammers.)
• Capturing kind words. In more and more cases, social networks are becoming the place where friends and loved ones leave their final kind words and thoughts. Without capturing and downloading, dormant accounts may get turned off by some social networks, causing you to lose those memories forever.
• Making sure your financial accounts are safe and accessible. So many financial relationship now live exclusively online. In my case, there is no broker my wife can visit because everything is with an online brokerage. The account is our money, but happens to be in my name. I need to make sure she can access that (probably sooner than later!). For security reasons, many companies such access very difficult (which is good) but it’s not the thing a family member going through a loss wants to deal with.
• Communicate. I have a number of business acquaintances that, while not close friends, I’d like to be informed about if something happened to one of them. Social media networks can be an efficient way to accomplish this and also reach people that family may not know.

Just like other planning for our own passing, like writing your will, this isn’t the most pleasant of tasks, but it’s fast becoming an important part of that list.

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