High-Tech PR Blog >> Beyond the Hype

LP&P's top 10 blog posts of 2009

The week before Christmas for most people is the time to reflect back on the year, while the time between Christmas and New Year's Day is for looking ahead.  We're doing that here as well, as we had our list of the best and worst PR moments of 2009 yesterday.  Next week, we'll share our New Year's resolutions with you.

In that vein, I'd like to use this post to reflect on what we've brought to you on this blog over the past year by sharing the five entries that drove the most interest based purely upon page views.  I hope you enjoy them again, because many are still very pertinent and give you a lot to think about heading into the New Year.

These are in reverse order based upon page view count.  Enjoy!  As always, please let us know what you think.

10. Why social media no longer can be underestimated or ignored

This was the most recent blog on the topic I revisited consistently throughout the year -- how and why B2B technology companies need to think about social media.  My approach has always been to discuss this in very pragmatic terms, and not merely responding to the hype of the topic du jour.  This post offers perspective of the impact of Google becoming a real-time search engine.

9. Craiglist CEO "feels terribly" but tells CNN no real changes planned

Lois is the best in the business at executive media training, so it's no surprise that her report cards of high-profile interviews have become among our most popular posts. This one is her critique of Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster's interview with CNN regarding the site's stance on erotic service listings following the apprehension of the "Craigslist killer" in April.

8. No one under the age of 25 was involved in this post

Suzanne Moran reacts to the story that came out in October about how Edelman senior team members are being reverse mentored -- or "rotnemed" as they call it -- in the ways of social networks by millennial staffers.  She then suggests clients and prospects ask any senior PR person about their presence on socnets.

7. What's up with virtual desktops?

Our storage guru, Don Jennings, chats with analyst Tim Stammers of Ovum for one of his signature tech and market trends podcasts.

6. Why social media matters

This is a self-explanatory post that I wrote in January based upon something written by Shannon Paul on the "non-linear" flow of information and the fact that more and more get their news from peers than siloed news channels.

5. How to work with top technology bloggers

Everyone loves a good how-to piece and this one is no exception.  Lois shows that she still has good journalistic instinct by catching up with Michael Krigsman, one of the most influential bloggers on the ZDNet network, getting his perspective on how he believes vendors should work with him and his peers.  Lois offers a great prescription in the process.

4. Going from "are you kidding" to "could this be great PR?"

Christine Simeone is always one for offering a critique or two of Cisco.  But she also gives credit where it's due, as was the case in this post from July after the company published a video on YouTube of John Chambers giving an inpromtu office lesson on duck calls.  The video was its way of promoting its Flip cameras, but Christine says how this demonstrates the importance of executive commitment to PR.

3. A-Rod didn't need PR help. He needed the actor's studio.

Lois arguably is the company's most passionate Red Sox fan, so she doesn't pull any punches in this report card of Alex Rodriguez's performance at his February press conference following the news of his positive steroid tests in 2003.

2. Another simple answer to "why social media?"

Another one of my posts from May to help answer the question above for the benefit of our clients and prospects.

1. Say it ain't so, Rupert

The closing of the Wall Street Journal's Boston bureau hit home to us here, and Lois reflects on it in this post that poses questions about what business model will save journalism.

Best and Worst PR Moves of 2009 - Part I

I don't know about you, but I love "Best and Worst" lists.  I'll even read a Best and Worst list in a category I don't care about just because they are usually fun.  We want this blog to be fun and entertaining as well as informative, so I challenged our agency to compile their suggestions for the best and worst PR moves of 2009 (of course excluding our own programs).  The emails started to come flying at me immediately.  It clearly has been an interesting year in the PR realm.

Best PR Moves of 2009 (as always, there are more minuses than pluses, especially when the judges are communications pros)

Mine:

Oprah's well orchestrated announcement regarding her decision to end her show after its 25th season. I blogged about this recently Oprah Winfrey knows how to control the message and create, rather than react to news.

The rehabilitation of A-Rod's image, post steroids and divorce/philandering scandal.  As a Red Sox fan, I have to point out that figuring out how to hit in the post season and winning a World Series ring didn't hurt this process.

Bill McLaughlin's:

Steve Jobs comeback/recovery and its positive impact on Apple He was named CEO of the Decade by Fortune, which is not bad for a guy who had been written off as being on his death bed.

Ford Motor Company not taking any bailout money and then seeing the benefit in sales and increase in brand perception.

Jenny Gardynski's:

Even though Kanye’s interruption of Taylor Swift's award acceptance at the Video Music Award's was one of the worst PR moves of the year, Beyonce Knowles' response to the incident, sharing her limelight later during the ceremony to let Swift finish her acceptance speech, was one of the best moves.

Suzanne Moran's:

Meredith Baxter did well announcing on the Today Show that she was gay before she was outed by the National Enquirer.  The spin was very positive and she controlled the story.

Lucie Mann's:

New England Patriots' Teddy Bruschi’s illness/comeback/retirement.  He was not only completely open about all phases of this, even to the point of becoming the face for life insurance in SBLI commercials. When he came back during the interim period, he was fully engaged.  When he decided it was time to hang up his cleats, he did it with great dignity and candor.  

As Lois referenced in a blog post in the Spring, public persona but intensely private man Jerry Remy was open about the depression he faced during his cancer treatment.  He used social media during his leave of absence from his Red Sox color commentator duties to stay engaged with the Red Sox nation.

Worst PR Moves of 2009:

Mine:

The federal Preventive Services Task Force's misfired recommendation that women under the age of 50 don't need mammograms every year, which infuriated women and seemed like an open invitation to health insurers to make it harder for women to get these screening tests covered for younger women.

Mike Parker's:

To me, the worst is what has become of the great American pastime: The building up of ordinary people and/or sports and entertainment personalities to royalty status so that we can then tear them down one piece at a time.  Witness: Jon and Kate, Michael Phelps, David Letterman, and, of course, Tiger Woods.

Sue McCarron's:

Whole Foods CEO John Mackey riling up his largely liberal customer base by writing an Op Ed for the WSJ that criticized President Obama's health care reform initiative and suggested a list of conservative alternatives.  There was a lot of flap about boycotting the store, although others commended him for being willing to speak his mind even if it offended his customer base.  It got people talking, but it may have helped his nickname from his last PR debacle when he criticized a competitor online using an alias -- Wacky Mackey -- stick.

Lucie Mann's:

Those Climate Summit delegates who used almost 150 private jets and 1,200 limousines to attend the conference talking about carbon-dioxide emissions in Copenhagen. It was reported that there were so many planes expected that some would have to fly to nearby airports to wait for the delegates after dropping them off, and that they would be creating a total of 41,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.  And we thought that auto industry CEOs looking for bailouts used poor form flying to Washington on their private jets . . .

Nicole Franklin's:

Airforce One's flyover of New York City for a photo opportunity, which understandably panicked residents.

Suzanne Moran's:

Caroline Kennedy’s exploration of running for Hillary Clinton’s U.S. Senate seat. A lot of this took place in 2008 but she pulled out in January of 2009, after those awful middle of the night “I’m in, I’m out” calls to Gov. David Paterson. Instead of controlling the message, her camp used “well-placed” sources to spin the story.  At one point, the Kennedy family was split when one of the sources said she pulled out because of her uncle Teddy Kennedy’s poor health. The whole thing really tarnished her image.

Rick McLaughlin's:

The use of the word "trick" in emails (that were eventually uncovered) being exchanged by scientists  talking about global warming.  One of the leaked emails from the director of The University of East Anglia, Climatic Research Unit showed climate statistics over the last millennium and referenced a technique used by a fellow scientist to "hide the decline" in recent global temperatures.

Some evidence appears to show a halt in a rise of global temperatures from about 1960, but is contradicted by other evidence which appears to show a rise in temperatures is continuing.

Jones wrote that, in compiling new data, he had "just completed Mike's Nature trick of adding in the real temps to each series for the last 20 years (i.e., from 1981 onwards) and from 1961 for Keith's to hide the decline," according to a leaked e-mail, which the author confirmed was genuine.

The use of the word "trick" by Jones has been seized on by skeptics - who say his e-mail offers proof of collusion between scientists to distort evidence to support their assertion that human activity is influencing climate change.

However, Jones denied manipulating evidence and insisted his comment had been taken out of context. "The word 'trick' was used here colloquially, as in a clever thing to do. It is ludicrous to suggest that it refers to anything untoward," he said in a statement Saturday."

Bill McLaughlin's:

Those crazy parents with the balloon boy!

Lucie Mann's:

Patrick Kennedy’s decision to take on the local Bishop, in public, for asking him to refrain from receiving Holy Communion at Mass due to his pro-choice stance.  It was a silly, embarrassing incident on both sides, really, as Kennedy isn't alone as a pro-choice practicing Catholic.  Maybe Bishop Thomas Tobin should make the list too!

Yes, it was a wild and wacky year from a communications perspective.  Perhaps some of the craziness reflected the stresses of the economy.  Perhaps they are examples of the new norm of self-promotion and exhibitionism engendered in reality TV.  Regardless, they help us draw to a close, with a chuckle or two, some eye-rolling and polite applause 2009.  We look to 2010 for a longer Best PR Moves list than Worst PR Moves list.

What media -- social or otherwise -- do you respond to first?

What will you respond to first?
- A call to your home land line
- A call to your business land line
- A call to your mobile phone
- A text to your mobile phone
- An email to your business address
- An email to your personal address
- A Facebook message
- A LinkedIn message from one of your connections, or through one of your connections

I'm betting some of this is age-related and my young twenty-something children would respond first to the texts to their mobile phones, as they know these are from close friends.  Second for them would be their mobile phones.

In my case, it depends on the situation.  Since I spend a lot of time online at work, my business mailbox is the best way to get to me.  I check it much more frequently than my personal mailbox.  My business phone is a great way to reach me, but it is screened.  I personally screen my mobile phone and if I don't know the number, I let it go to voice mail.  I will pay attention to requests from friends via Facebook or LinkedIn.  A message to my home phone is at the mercy of whatever forgetful young person decides to pass on the message -- or not.

I recently did an experiment testing both the strength of my network and the responsiveness factor of various social media and traditional communication channels.   Last week, one of our clients asked us to help them locate some CXO level executive speechwriters and I jumped in to help our team leader who was buried with another project. 

I had three colleagues whom I thought would be good sources of information.  I emailed the first one, a friend and business colleague, as I knew he lives on his business email account and got a response immediately.  For the other two, who are former clients,  I used Facebook to send them my request for information even though I have email addresses for both.  I knew from past experience that the Facebook notification might get their attention faster than an email from me that could fall under a pile of other work-related email.  I was correct and within a few hours, I received a detailed Facebook email response with recommendations and contact information from one and a phone call from the other contact offering an additional suggestion.

Now came the tricky part.  Since I knew I would be a moving target for most of the day, these folks would be trying to return calls and I was going to be out of the office the following Monday, my preference was to connect with people over email. 

I used traditional email with one contact and received the information I needed within a few hours. This is a consultant who clearly pays close attention to her email.

I only had a mobile phone number for a second speechwriter whose background looked excellent for the assignment.  Taking a deep breath (I hate calling people I don't know on their cells phones -- it seems rude, somehow), I called the number and reached the person immediately.  We then exchanged email addresses and within an hour I had what I needed from this person.

The next one on the list was another whose only method of contact was a phone number.  I was getting ready to run to an off-site meeting, so I found him on LinkedIn and sent him the request for information via LinkedIn, using the fact that he is connected to my own LinkedIn connection who had recommended him.  Three days later, I still have not heard from this person so I called his business telephone number and got him immediately.  We exchanged email addresses and now I hope to have everything I need from him shortly in a format I can forward to my internal colleague.  When I asked him if he had received my LinkedIn message, he said he hadn't been in LinkedIn for a few days.  Clearly the LinkedIn notification was not pinging him, as I would have expected. 

The first part of this experiment -- testing the network -- worked brilliantly.  The network is available and alive and I am very grateful to have such a wonderful group of smart people available to me as needed to answer questions like this. 

The second part -- how to connect most efficiently with people you don't already have a relationship with -- taught me that in the crush of communications we all are dealing with daily, it's important to use the right channel to get the quickest response.  It seems like those of us who have agreed to "friend" one another extends the friendship by responding quickly to requests for help.  Being "LinkedIn" clearly is not as powerful an incentive to respond to someone as being "friended," it seems.  Or perhaps that person isn't constantly checking their email, as some of us are, to see the LinkedIn network updates.  The telephone and email work great if you have a responsive person on the other end who keeps up with their messages and doesn't screen out people they don't know.

I was pleased with the power of the network and the ways I could leverage it.  It also made me pause about making sure I keep up my own responsiveness to requests for information over all of the social media and traditional channels, as I don't want the next good assignment to pass me by because someone found me unreachable.

Why social media no longer can be underestimated or ignored

A mere six weeks ago, a significant tremor hit the disciplines of marketing and communications.  Microsoft and Google both announced it would be licensing the Twitter data feed and integrating results in its search engines.  Microsoft rolled out Twitter integration with Bing as a separate beta feature.  Google said it was going to take some time to roll it out, presumably to get it right the first time.

It didn't take it long, as it made its integration live this week, and in my opinion it met expectations.  When the initial announcements were made, I blogged about them, stating:

Whether or not businesses and marketers believe social media is important and should be deeply integrated into what they are doing, one thing most will agree is the importance of being prominent in search results. Most often, they care about Google results (but can't ignore Bing). It's one thing to use SEO to make sure their company web site comes up on the first page of results, but now what will appear underneath that result are the opinions of people about those companies as expressed on Twitter, Facebook or others. To me, this completely changes the game.

Based upon the how Google delivered on its integration, social media no longer can be underestimated or ignored.  Unlike Bing and Yahoo, Google brings real-time social media-based mentions of any search term right to the main site.  They appear in a frame that feeds in mentions on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and other social networks.  It also feeds newly published web pages from Google News.

This is a game changer because Google is now a real-time search engine that is bringing the opinions that people express online about products, services and brands directly to the top information source on the web.  I still hear from marketers the despair about how social media means less control over messaging and brand perception.  This further erodes that control, as they could until now reasonably manipulate where a web site comes up in search results.  Search engine optimization now is completely different and requires any marketer to leverage social media channels as part of their programs.

Have you checked how the search results for your company or brand have changed?

MIT Wins Social Media Scavenger Hunt

Leave it to MIT to analyze and figure out the best way to leverage social media and incent its huge network of contacts to win a nationwide contest designed to test the power of social media.  As reported on CNN this weekend:

A team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology won $40,000 in a high-tech scavenger hunt on Saturday by discovering the location of 10 red weather balloons.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced that the MIT team was the first group in the contest to report the latitude and longitude coordinates of all 10 balloons, which were scattered across the United States.

DARPA is the U.S. military's research arm. Saturday's challenge is the latest in a series that the agency has hosted since 2004.

This contest was designed to test the way social networking and lesser-known Web-based techniques can help accomplish a large-scale, time-critical task.

DARPA said in a written statement that the MIT team discovered the locations of the 8-foot-wide balloons less than nine hours after they launched, around 10 a.m. ET.

The MIT team posted an invitation to participate in the race to locate the weather balloons on the MIT web site, noting the rewards of helping with the search:

"We're giving $2,000 per balloon to the first person to send us the correct coordinates, but that's not all -- we're also giving $1,000 to the person who invited them. Then we're giving $500 whoever invited the inviter, and $250 to whoever invited them, and so on..." it said.

Although the initial report did not have the final tally of how many participated -- and were rewarded -- it was fascinating to see how the university's team put its social media prowess to the test and came up, well, as smart as you'd expect for a team from MIT.  Nice work!

Remembering Dick McGlinchey

Last night I learned that my former partner, Dick McGlinchey, who co-founded my agency (then called McGlinchey & Paul) in 1986 has passed away after bravely battling a tough illness for a number of years.  This is a sad day for all of us who had the great privilege of working with Dick and knowing him as one of the smartest, funniest and most unique individuals many of us will ever know. 

Dick was on my "short list" of the best PR people in the business when I was the software editor at ComputerWorld in the early 80s.  He was at McCormack & Dodge at the time and always knew what was a good news story and what would be just wasting my time.  He connected me with people like John Landry and Bob Weiler who were great sources and newsmakers and cut to the chase rather than offering marketing fluff.  When M&D was acquired by Dun & Bradstreet years later, after I had moved from CW to PC Week (now eWEEK), Dick decided to go out on his own and asked me if I wanted to join him.  He felt we could do PR differently, bringing both sides of the marketing and journalism desk to the tech industry.  Although we were about as different as individuals as you can get, we complemented each other well and I learned a great deal about how to do PR right from this smart man with one of the sharpest sense of humor I've ever encountered.  When we parted ways after seven years, we did it amicably because that's who Dick was.  He was ready to move on and I wasn't and he respected my decision to keep the original agency going, albeit under a new name.  I had to become more of the "outside person" than in the past, but I had learned from the best and I appreciate what he taught me. 

Ever an entrepreneur, Dick built several businesses after he left McGlinchey & Paul, which are described in a nice tribute Allison Moore posted on Saturday.   

When we learned a few years ago that Dick was struggling with a debilitating disease that was affecting him physically, those of us who knew his love for playing hockey and racing cars understood intuitively how difficult this had to be for this brave, proud, strong man.  The last time I saw him, his humor was intact and his unwillingness to wallow in self pity was very evident.  I guess I always thought that Dick McGlinchey would figure a way out of this one.  He was always brilliant at solving problems.

It's a sad day for all of us to lose this friend, teacher and colleague.  Facebook messages are starting to come in from people who are hearing the news.  Please know that we will be sure to spread the word of the future memorial service (not right away) that his family is planning and any information we learn about a memorial fund or anything we can do for his loved ones.

A prediction for 2010: Portable identities take social media's impact to another level

I have been playing close attention of late to the rapid proliferation of the various portable identity services. I now look to see if it's implemented on any site I visit, and if so, which ones it uses and how it uses them.

Examples of these portable identity services include Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect. These allow a visitor to log-in to the site using his/her Facebook or Google credentials and identity. Any activity or interaction on that site gets associated with this identity (name and avatar mostly), and with an opt-in by the visitor, that activity shows up back on Facebook or other social networks.  The images below illustrate this.

In addition to Facebook Connect and Google Friend Connect, there is Twitter-based login using the OAuth API. This movement is taking a big leap forward now based upon LinkedIn's new platform and two dueling announcements yesterday.

LinkedIn now offers a similar portable identity service using its own implementation of OAuth. Since it became available last Monday, I've been seeking examples of sites that have implemented it, and found one today. NutshellMail, a nice service that aggregates summaries of activities among various social graphs in one e-mail, seems to use this to allow connection with a LinkedIn network.

Yesterday, Facebook and Yahoo rolled out the ability for visitors to Yahoo to login using Facebook Connect. An impact of this is for people in my social graph on Facebook to know what I'm searching for using Yahoo (if I choose to let them know) -- adding another dimension to social search. On the same day, Google added the ability for users of its Friend Connect service to login using Twitter OAuth, the first time I've seen two portable identity services mashed together.

I'm not one for predictions, but I believe this is going to explode in 2010 and take the impact of social media to another level.  In particular, I think we'll start to see more B2B company sites implement these services, as they make it much easier to build communities, particularly leveraging the LinkedIn platform, integrating together activity on company sites with the "outposts" companies have set up through LinkedIn Groups, etc.

How are you thinking about this?

Seeking the Limelight -- or Not

 In 1995 Gus Van Sant's ironic film "To Die For" was loosely based on the case of Pamela Smart, who is in prison for conspiring with teen students to murder her husband in New Hampshire.  Played by Nicole Kidman, the lead character is obsessed with the idea of becoming a famous TV broadcaster.  At the end of the film, the young female teenager who blew the whistle on the murder plot, talks about how she has been on all of the morning and afternoon talk shows being interviewed about what happened -- something the Nicole Kidman character would have "died for." 

We are absolutely living in that instant celebrity era now and there is no irony involved.  Real news can seem less relevant many days than interviews with people who allegedly crashed a White House dinner or for a fame-hungry father who fakes a dangerous stunt involving his child. What these people are seeking is reality TV stints so they can extend their 15 minutes of fame or use them to create a new lifestyle or launch a new career.  Being discovered like Lana Turner was, at Schwab's Drugstore in Hollywood, has been replaced by pulling some outrageous stunt that gets you on the next edition of whatever "Expose Yourself, America" reality TV program that suits the fancy of these narcissists. It's a frightening phenomenon that all of us are falling victim to by keeping the stories alive in verbal and on-line discussions.  Twitter, in many ways, is one of the worst offenders.  With their zeal to be the first to spot or report or comment on the news of the day, many Twitter users jump onto these gossippy stories immediately and give them far more attention than they deserve. 

Meanwhile, true newsmakers who don't want their every thought exposed are trying to be less of a story than the gossip-hungry consumers of "news" are demanding.  Earlier this week I heard a snippet about Tiger Woods on a sports radio talk show I listen to during my drive time, but wasn't sure what was going on with him.  Later that day, I saw the media frenzy about his car accident and have watched Tiger Woods try to deprive the story of oxygen by posting a statement on his web site, canceling some appearances and not responding to  requests for more lurid details. 

Woods' silent strategy has been criticized and a communications professor cited by a Washington Post sports columnist said "Woods needs to share his version of the events, if for no other reason than to provide something to compete with the stories the tabloids are spinning." Perhaps he should have acted more quickly to provide his statement or he should have made the statement live and then posted it to the web site.  His statement could have been better and less whiney, in my humble opinion, but I respect his right to say that this is all he intends to discuss about the matter.  He really needs to keep mum now until the next wanna-be celebrity decides to climb up the Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center in hopes of earning  a spot on the Today Show.  The paparazzi that often pass for reporters in our society will start following that story immediately and will forget all about Tiger.

Oprah Winfrey taught all of these people a great lesson by the way she handled the announcement she made recently about her decision to end her show after the conclusion of its 25th season.  She told her staff and the people closest to her privately first.  She told her fans and the world personally on her show in a direct, concise, clear and heartfelt way.  She stated she  was not discussing what she was going to do next and instead was going to focus on making the remainder of her shows the best she could for her faithful viewers.  The coverage of her announcement has been about what an impact she has made, how she will be missed and whether anyone could possibly be positioned to replace her in daytime talk television.  That is what you call controlling the message.

How do we all resist the urge to "tweet" the latest hot piece of gossip about these non-news stories? It's hard to look away, but we need to figure out how to focus our limited time on the real news, don't we?

There's always plenty for which to be thankful

In addition to figuring out how to simplify the Thanksgiving Day preparations -- which never really happens -- I always try to use this annual event to consider what I need to be thankful for this year.

I'm thankful for the great people at our agency who have pulled together during a tough economic year and worked as a team to deliver great work for their clients.  This amazing group even voted for us as one of the best places to work both in Austin and in Boston during a year in which we could not do as much financially for our employees as they deserved.

I'm thankful for the clients who really have worked with us and been respectful of us during this economic downturn.  These are the ones who have stayed the course and made PR a priority when others in their organizations have tried to co-opt or cut their budgets.  The clients who could have taken advantage of tough times to be unreasonable, but instead treated us like valued partners.  The ones who recognized that it was the agency's great work on their behalf that helped them achieve the kind of value that attracted strategic acquisitions at large multiples and worked hard to make us part of their continued success.

I'm thankful for the fun and creativity that the advances in social media are bringing to our industry.

I'm thankful for the advances in mobile technology and connectivity that truly are making it irrelevant where you are doing your work.

I'm thankful that the economy seems to be stabilizing and that real improvements seem to be just ahead a piece for all of us, if we can all just hang on.

I'm particularly thankful that this upcoming holiday weekend gives all of us a great opportunity to relax, enjoy ourselves and recharge before the race to year-end and a much brighter New Year.

Happy Thanksgiving to our U.S. friends!  If you would like to share what you are thankful for, I'd love to hear it.

What Elf on the Shelf Can Teach Us About Social Media

  Okay, first the disclosure and then a word of caution. I do not work for Santa Claus. Nor did I consult any of my clients in the writing of this blog. Oh, and I have no affiliation with the authors of the popular book, The Elf on the Shelf: A Christmas Tradition. The caution is that I will do my best to keep from spoiling the surprise for those boys and girls out there keeping track of where Elf is each and every day as we head into December.

As Black Friday approaches, conceivably the most consumer-focused shopping day of the year, I was intrigued not by just how much the tradition has meant to some families (and now mine) but how there's a social media moral buried within. And, I'm not talking about the obvious marketing methods used to get us all to register our elf, connect to the Website or partake in the community building aspect by naming him/her and adopting one and passing him/her down through the years to the kids, their kids and their kids' kids (wonder what computing will look like then, but I digress.)

In a nutshell, and thankfully I don't have to Tweet this, the premise is you adopt an elf, register him/her, name him/her, then let him/her work his/her magic. The elf sits and monitors the comings and goings of the household, captures all the good behavior and, from time-to-time, the not so good behavior of the kids in the house and reports said behavior to Santa at the end of each day. The elf then flies back home and continues the monitoring until Santa arrives the night before Christmas.  Elf then goes back home with Santa only to reappear in time for the holidays the following year to continue his monitoring for another holiday season.

Good stuff. And, beats having to run the kids to the window and point to some distant light saying Santa is watching. Which brings me to what this has to do with social media, or as I like to call them the "Four B's."

Be monitoring:  As much as we all want to believe that there is an elf monitoring our behavior and reporting back to Santa so we can reap the benefits of the toys he brings on Christmas morning, social media is as much about tracking and monitoring as it is about engagement.  Are you looking at the right blogs?  Who on Twitter is worth following?  Who in your customer base is active on LinkedIn? It's as much about knowing who to track and monitor as it is how best to engage. It may seem like a silly point but if you're not currently tracking customer, partner and peer conversations through social media channels, you'll be sure to make it to Santa's Naughty List in the not too distant future.

Be consistent:  Elf's mission is clear. He does one thing and one thing primarily. He monitors. He then reports and returns to keep the cycle going. Much the same can be said to those who handle social media relations well. Start with a clear purpose in mind and establish a cadence. Greg Kneierman and Storage Monkeys have done a good job with this with their InfoSmack podcast. Taped on Sundays, many of us who "Heart Storage" look for it each and every Sunday/Monday morning once the latest taping is available. The same is true of our own client CaseCentral that contributes a great cartoon each and every Monday as part of their social media engagement efforts. 

Be reporting:  Elf is consistent. Again, Elf monitors, but also important, Elf reports. Tracking and monitoring are good but mean nothing if you aren't reporting what is being said, especially to those that need to know. It's not just good practice, it makes good business sense as my colleague Ted Weismann has noted in one of his most recent posts.

Be timely:  While Elf asks that no one touch him, for fear of removing his magic dust, Elf needs to transport himself to Santa each night. He is actively monitoring household activities each and every day.  selects what comments make it on to the nice and naughty list. Most important, he comes out when it means the most to the families who have accepted Elf as a holiday tradition, at the time when we think about them most (which may vary but used to be around U.S. Thanksgiving each and every year). If Elf were to be at home each and every day of the year, his impact would be diminished. Elf would lose his luster and he would be just another holiday tradition passed by.   

So tell us what you think?  Any reason to bring Elf to monitor your social media efforts?