Balloon Boy + Berlin 1936 – media coverage through the years

This past week I’ve been considering (again) how media is changing and whether or not it’s working for us. One of my clients has just opening an exhibit – More Than just Games; Canada and the 1936 Olympics. (www.vhec.org) It is a fascinating look at Canada’s part in the Olympics held in Nazi Germany during the rise of the Third Reich. Of course in 1936 there were few media voices. So even when a reporter had a strong warning – as then Toronto Star’s Matthew Halton did about Hilter’s activities – this voice was not widely heard.

In striking contrast we have last week’s balloon boy brouhaha. Anyone who wanted to had a voice. And video. And 140 characters to update, pray, comment, update, worry and wonder. For hours we were subjected to minute-by-minute musings. Meantime new media pundits were doing high fives about how technology meant social media had streaked past traditional media in getting us the scoop.

All I’m saying is, like the silver balloon, maybe we need to come down softly somewhere in the middle. The paucity of voices at the 1936 Olympics limited debate but thousands of comments on YouTube videos and tweets zipping through the ether for hours don’t tell a story well either. Let’s blend the best of old with the best of new – and just get along.

Flu warnings gotcha down? A call to use surprize in our promos.

“Tired of apocalyptic health warnings? Is washing your hands 30 times a day damaging your skin? Are you feeling stigmatized any time you cough or sneeze? If you answer “yes” to any of the above, you need to be at the Boulevard Casino in Coquitlam Friday and Saturday night…”

That’s a post on Facebook for a gig by a local rock ‘n’ soul revue – the Fabulous DYNAM!CS.

I say we need more fun promotional blurbs these days. The unexpected, a little laugh at ourselves – why not?

After seeing that, we had to go. The DYNAM!CS were, well, fabulous.
http://the-dynamics.com

“There I was, sitting by the pickle barrel” – how Twitter helped Ford avert a crisis

Wonderful to meet Shel Israel last night at Third Tuesday here in Vancouver. I spoke to him and found him unassuming, funny and helpful.

Shel was in town to promote his book Twitterville. www.twitterville.com I like his approach – he’s not telling readers how to use Twitter. Instead it it’s about what Twitter can do for you – illustrated through examples of Twitter in action – taken from 400 interviews with users in 38 countries.

I always like the PR examples. The book profiles @scottmonty – the social media guy for Ford. Monty used his knowledge about how Twitter works and the trust he’d earned with his 5,500 followers to slow, then avert what could have been a huge reputation crisis for Ford.

It seems Ford’s legal department had sent a cease and desist letter to a Ford Ranger fan site and the fans were mad. Word was spreading to other fan sites, usually loyal customers were mad, Ford was being labelled a bully and the whole things was online and burgeoning – fast.

Twitterville tells the story of how Monty jumped on Twitter to handle this growing crisis in an intelligent, if labour-intensive way.

He asked his own followers on Twitter to hold off and give him more time to gather information. He then spend hours on Twitter search finding every incensed tweet about the Ford Ranger issue and responded to each one – confirming something was happening, saying there was more to the story and requesting time to get more information.

In the end he he was able to post Ford’s version and appease the unhappy fans to everyone’s satisfaction. I like his quote,

“Would this have worked for Ford if we didn’t have a Twitter presence? It would have been far slower, and the response would have had a much smaller impact. Searching Twitter throughout the day kept me in the loop with what was being posted and where – it was the Country Store, where people came in and out and shared their gossip, and there I was, sitting by the pickle barrel.”

We in PR always like being there by the pickle barrel. I’m excited to let social media help me do that.

1 800 I AM VEXD

I guess they were a Good Idea At The Time – but last week I ran afoul of a phone number expressed as a word. It must have been the heat.

It strikes me that smart phones and speed dial have made these mnemonics into communication tools well past their prime.

There I was in downtown Vancouver, late and hoping to pay for parking with my cell phone. The number to dial: 604 662-PARK. As with most smart phones the number pad on my Blackberry Curve does not include corresponding letters.

Again with the heat, I emailed Verrus, the service-provider, to inform them they’d just missed out on my 30 cent user fee and to rant a bit. Their customer care man was right on it. He called my concern “valid” and said he would be informing their parking vendors and sign-makers. A small victory.

On the other hand, if you take the can’t-beat-’em-join-’em approach go to www.phonepeople.com/spell and turn your existing phone number into a word. Call me at PEAR 035 if you get a good one!

Oil companies must communicate more clearly to leave cell in your vehicle when gassing up

Using a cell phone and pumping gas can be a lethal combination. I get the feeling many people don’t know this. I thought it was an urban myth when I first heard it. But my husband, who works for a Major Oil Company, explained why this is indeed dangerous.

A cell phone that’s powered up gives off an electrical charge. Pumping gas into your tank displaces vapours. If you are having a cell phone conversation or if your phone rings with those vapours in the air, you’re at risk. Electrical charge plus gas vapours can be explosive.

Bad accidents have happened. (Google cell phones in gas stations for some compelling videos.) Best advice – leave your cell phone inside the vehicle.

So that’s interesting but here’s my point – a few days ago we explained this danger to a young man who was having a cell conversation while filling a jerry can. He was genuinely surprised – and quite grateful. We looked around the pumps for the warning sign to bolster our credibility – nothing.

As a communications professional I ask – why don’t the oil companies make a bigger deal of this? I’ve noticed that some (not all, as we saw) stations have little graphic of a cell phone with a red line through it – but they are small and blend into the background – along with the info about how much of the price of gas goes to taxes. The warning must be prominently displayed.

Apparently some phone companies include a warning in the manual – they are trying (though ever read your cell phone manual?) I think it’s up to Big Oil to be clearer about the potential danger.

Did you know it’s dangerous to talk on your cell while gassing up?

Tour Coverage – Fact or Fable?

We’re on vacation with our bicycles, so with cycling on the brain and some down time, my husband and I have been watching the Tour de France. I’ve discovered some fun stuff about how the Tour is covered.

I know of two versions of the Tour’s origin – that it was started by newspapers in the early 1900s to sell papers and that it was “invented” by bike companies as a PR stunt. Being in the media relations biz, both intrigue me.

As I watch, I am struck by the challenges for the media covering this gargantuan affair. It’s moving – and fast- every day for over three weeks. And there aren’t just two teams to watch, but many.

This month’s issue of Velo News includes a fascinating piece on other media challenges I hadn’t thought of. www.velonews.com Race strategies can be decided on the fly among cyclists in the peloton (the pack of cyclists who ride close together to preserve energy), some so byzantine those at the front have a different version than those at the back. There’s loyalty to sponsors and riders who have been tightly media-trained to spout the party line. There’s apparently a historical code of silence among bike racers about shady behaviour. Team and sponsor collusion crops up – and no one will discuss that. On occasion, the winner of a “stage” (one day’s race) will “gift” the victory to another racer. It takes experience and understanding to report your way through all this.

Reporters get the results right, but for what led up to that they pool pieces of info – gleaned from hurriedly extracted cyclist interviews, tweets from teams directors in the race caravan and presumably some first hand observation – then thrash out what must have happened in the peloton and produce the agreed-upon version.

All this surprises me. I wonder if an “embedded” reporter would do a better job or if the whole thing is too big, complex and established to be messed with.

Does the cycling community know this and accept it? Is this good enough? Does it matter?

Tales the Dragons Told

This is my 10th year as Communications Manager for Vancouver’s Dragon Boat Festival. www.dragonboatbc.ca This gig is tons of work and tons of fun.

Ours is the largest dragon boat festival outside Hong Kong. More than 4,000 paddlers take part along with about 100,000 visitors. Dozens of media – print, radio, TV and online – cover the story before and during the two-day event.

Media like this event for many reasons – visuals, sounds, people stories, multiculturalism, teamwork, links with the ancient traditions that we maintain, competition – you get the idea. It’s great stuff.

Despite all that there is competition to get coverage on a summer weekend in Vancouver. Other events, festivals and also news desire and deserve media attention too.

Here’s what I do to encourage media to stop by the dragon boat festival:
- provide parking that’s free, easy to get to and close to the action
- stay riveted on what their desk wants and their deadline
- once the camera’s rolling, as the spokesperson I talk as if I’ve downed three Red Bulls.

It’s about making it easy for the media. When it works for them it works for us.

Congratulations to everyone who took part this year – and thanks to our friends in the media for great coverage.

Paddles up!

Intimations on the Information Age – What Would Google Do?

I really could not put this book down. Loved it. Jeff Jarvis, in What Would Google Do? writes with a conversational, almost intimate style that kept me engaged – at times laughing – as he portrayed the admiration he has for Google without being cloying.

The book’s about more than just Google – it’s a kind of new media tell-all that drops interesting tidbits about the geeks behind Craigslist and Facebook, among others. Jarvis lays out the company’s approach, the thinking and innovation behind Google and the world-changing approach to doing business that Google set in motion.

Google is known for its tenet Don’t be Evil. Jarvis thinks the corporate world would benefit from following other Google-isms:
- do what you do best and link to the rest
- free is a business model
- there is an inverse relationship between control and trust.

As a media relations professional I love this musing: “Advertising is your last priority, your last resort, an unfortunate byproduct of not having enough friends … yet.”

Also worth considering:

“I wonder whether, some day, companies will come to be valued not only on revenues, marketshare, EBITDA and profit but also on the Googlejuice.”

Where would we be without Google? Microsoft went live with its search engine Bing earlier this month. I don’t know what Google-the-search-engine lacks that would make me switch. What do you think?

Bike blog blows up in la Belle Province

It’s a bike – it’s a taxi – it’s a Bixi. I was in Montreal visiting my sister and her family a week ago and they couldn’t wait to show us their city’s newest feature – Bixi bikes. Not only was the system fun to learn about and try, but to add to the merriment, the launch included a blogging brouhaha.

Bixis are public commuter bicycles you pick up at a central stand, ride – usually a short distance – and deposit at another stand. Part bike, part taxi – all eco-consciousness and healthy too.

To my husband, a bicycle snob whose new bike weighs less than my Blackberry, these uncannily clunky contraptions barely deserve the label bicycle.

To the rest of us gathered at the solar-powered stand, they looked splendid. Sturdy and upright with wide-seated comfort, they looked to me like the perfect way to get from home to work, or from lunch to bank … times when you don’t want to deal with a car or wait for a bus and a bit of a leg-stretch is welcome.

Montrealers were excited about the Bixi’s pending arrival and the system had great green cred – a PR slam dunk. You’d think.

So why did a Montreal marketing communications company decide to create a bogus blog about it? Apparently someone at Morrow Communications concocted three cycling fans who, in the lead up to the launch, blogged amiably about bikes, promoted riding and then started talking up the coming Bixis. They all had Facebook profiles and lots of friends. Life was good in the land of Web 2.0.

And then they got caught. In the PR biz we call it astro-turfing – the firm had created a fake grassroots “movement” – in this case three people and their online presence – to pursue an agenda.

The whole idea is inexcusable. There are a robust range of social networking techniques they could have used – legitimately – to peddle (!) this positive program. I have to wonder – what were they thinking?

This Crowd is Not a Madding Crowd

Continuing my theme of great books on social media – or on the state of things in general – recently I found Clay Shirky’s treatise on crowdsourcing called Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations.

I found this book engaging and easy to read. It opens with an entertaining story about a women losing her cell phone in a New York City cab – and the process that gets it back to her. It’s a great example of crowdsourcing in action.

I became intrigued by Shirky when I listened to a full-length interview with him on CBC Radio’s Spark. The professor in him makes him a great story teller and he had some solid theories on how we as a society deal with new tools.

One of his trademark ideas is the “cognitive surplus” – this is what we used to call “spare time” (Remember that?) Here’s a quick version – in centuries past we devoted all our time to survival, then as life got a bit easier television arrived and in the past 50 years – according to his theory – our cognitive surplus has been “soaked up” by watching television.

So, the question many people ask about Wikipedia and the like – how do people find the time – has its answer in the cognitive surplus. He says we dip into our cognitive surplus to create Wikipedia entries. And he sees this as a Good Thing – interacting, researching, engaging online is better than the “pure consumption” which is tv-watching. It’s a value-judgement I suppose, but I have to agree with him!

Shirky takes a wide-angle view of the ways current communications tools support group conversation – and what that means to the way we now operate. For example, the photo-sharing site Flickr creates the kind of interaction no corporation would have wanted to create. But it works because we have the technology and it’s hugely popular so obviously fills a niche.

Another thought I found intriguing was his idea that it’s not when a new technology is introduced that we see big change – but rather it’s when you can count on the majority of people using it that it really has an effect. The introduction of email wasn’t a big deal, but now that a huge percentage of the population uses it to communicate – it’s achieved “social density” – it affects our lives. Well it certainly affects mine.

Here Come Everybody is a good read. I think Shirky’s a guy to watch.