It’s no secret that social media is being used everywhere – from people updating their Facebook profiles from their smart phones to companies creating social media campaigns and engaging with consumers on Twitter.  That’s why at Nuffer, Smith, Tucker, we’re lucky to have Teresa Siles on our team, our firm’s director of social media and recent recipient of the word-of-mouth marketing certificate from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

The Word of Mouth and Social Media Marketing Certificate Program is a six-week Webinar curriculum with courses such as “Word of Mouth & Ethics” and “Requirements for Successful Social Media Tools & What Not To Do.”  All instructors are social media and marketing industry leaders who have become influencers due to their success in the arena – a feat Teresa has truly achieved since joining NST in 2001 as an intern.  Teresa is not only a two-time graduate of WOMM-U or “Word of Mouth Marketing University,” but she has also helped lead our firm’s interactive and social media efforts for many clients.  By incorporating new strategies and best practices that she has learned as part of the certificate program into future campaigns, Teresa will continue to drive NST’s social media capabilities, which range from social media monitoring to strategic outreach on sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

To learn more about Teresa’s “lessons learned” in social media, check out her past posts on the certificate program, including topics on social media strategy, Web design for Web 2.0,  blogger outreach and the effectiveness of social media.

Toyota is curiously sitting at no. 7 in Millward Brown’s top-10 list of most trusted brands as Congress spent the better half of the week giving Toyota a tongue-lashing for its handling and mishandling of the automaker’s quality control crisis.

The study’s authors readily point out that the data was collected over the course of 2009 and doesn’t reflect Toyota’s current dilemma as it unfurled at the beginning of this year.  The authors also note the automaker could learn from Tylenol, which in 1982 recalled 31 million bottles of pills after seven people were killed in the tampering scare.  That brand, which was forced to recall children’s liquid medicine last year, sits at no. 6 in the study.

Tylenol maker Johnson & Johnson has a history of effectively managing crisis situations, though the FDA earlier this year ridiculed the company for being slow to respond in its most recent crisis.  What this goes to show you, however, is a history of doing the right thing and acting aggressively in a crisis situation can maintain and build trust among stakeholders, consumers in particular.  Trust is fragile, and how you respond in a crisis situation can build and maintain trust, the authors state.

Toyota started off this week with public apologies before Congress.  How it fixes its problems, communicates with stakeholders and develops systems to prevent further lapses will determine if the automaker regains or builds trust, and where it will stand in next year’s report.

The Wall Street Journal published an article last month focusing on trends in strategic planning that suggested the tactic is losing favor among today’s executives, who are opting for a more flexible approach to deal with the ever-fluctuating economy.

So, are we witnessing the death of strategic planning? Actually, it’s quite the opposite. Businesses and professionals that effectively use strategic planning to help achieve their future vision and long-term goals are constantly revisiting their plans – quarterly, monthly, sometimes even weekly – to evaluate their performance in the short term. Strategic plans were never designed to sit on a shelf and collect dust, but instead are a tool by which executives can weigh day-to-day decisions to ensure the business stays on track toward achieving it’s vision for the future.

In any industry, there will be variables that impact business – market fluctuations, shifts in industry, consumer perception, crisis situations – but planning for these changes and weighing the organization’s reaction to these variables against a solid strategic plan will help the business come out of volatile times even stronger.

For a blessing-in-disguise view on the situation, one could argue that the panic, which is causing businesses to focus on being flexible and shift to accommodate marketplace changes, is actually helping these organizations get back to the core purpose of their strategic plans – to provide direction in uncertain times.

So rather than predict demise for strategic planning as we know it, I’d like to think the recently economic uncertainty has actually infused the process with a renewed sense of life. Let’s reserve the feelings of bereavement for those organizations without a strategic plan, as they’ll quickly discover that without direction, you’re going nowhere – fast.

Yours truly sans suit, The Donald and my client, John Sawyer

So, more than a year ago, we sat in the lobby of the W hotel in Manhattan, surrounded by lawyers and producers for the 2009 season of Celebrity Apprentice.  Less than 72 hours prior, they had recruited Chicken of the Sea to be on the show – for that matter, a two-hour episode directly leading up to the finale.

A number of ideas swirled about with regard to what the marketing challenge would be and how to tie the brand and its products in the show.  For the record, the lawyers and producers were some of the coolest folks.  They had their minds set on some ideas, but fortunately open and respectful that we (all two of us – yours truly and my client – out-numbered 3 to 1) were passionate about the brand and the story it had to tell.

For two years leading up to that fateful call from Celebrity Apprentice, Chicken of the Sea had been engaging consumers in conversations about health, nutrition and convenience through online and offline mediums.  We learned there is a powerful story to tell not just about the brand and its products, but also in how consumers view and use Chicken of the Sea – what it means to them.  We saw an opportunity to replicate that with the likes of Clint Black, Joan “Cluck Cluck Splash” Rivers et al on Celebrity Apprentice.

With agreement from the lawyers and producers, we laid out a challenge for the celebrities to tell the Chicken of the Sea story in the form of a jingle and a 30-second radio spot.  Moreover, it wasn’t as simple as that.  The celebs and their respective teams needed to invest the time in learning about Chicken of the Sea and its loyal consumers.  They weren’t going to be judged solely on how catchy their tunes would be, but more on telling the story about the consumers behind the brand.

What that led to, in addition to the drama and debate of creating a jingle and radio spot, is two hours worth of unscripted conversations about Chicken of the Sea – precisely what we were shooting for and attempting to replicate, and there was hardly any discussion about getting video footage of the products in the celebs’ hands or on a table near where they sat.  Sacrilege to some, but again it was about the conversations.

So when The New York Times published the iTVX data on the most effective product placement in television for 2009, most would think the initial reaction of Chicken of the Sea being at the top was met with excitement.  But it told us much more.  Real conversations are powerful, more powerful than arranging to have your product sit statically in front of a celebrity, and product integration must reflect the character of the brand.  Alongside that is being a champion for your client, its brand and what it represents.

I just wish I were smart enough to wear a better suit on the show, and, for what it’s worth, my mother hasn’t forgiven me for contributing to Clint’s firing.

Driving any highway or back road, you can barely miss a Toyota.  The brand is an automaker’s version of the six degrees of separation.  Wherever you turn, you see one, or you know someone who has one or know someone who knows someone who drives a Toyota.  Quality was the axis of its brand.  I had a Camry a few years ago; loved it and wish I got another after wrapping my front end around the rear of an F-150 (even the best-made car won’t hold up to a monster truck).

Expectations were high when word got out that Toyota had a problem. Surely, a company that built a brand and a massive following of consumers into the world-leading automaker would do the right thing: Aggressively address the issue head-on, right its wrong, profess mea culpa and produce a solution.

And that’s precisely what Toyota did this week.  Problem is, Toyota’s crisis began to unfold last fall, and when the automaker unfurled its media-mix campaign this week, including plopping U.S. honcho Jim Lentz in network studios, critics attacked – and rightly so.

Toyota succumbed to the growing media and governmental pressure too late.  The automaker, and this isn’t backseat driving, knew well enough and long ago it had a problem that would only get worse.  Instead of being proactive, Toyota chose to stick its head in the sand.  That right there can tarnish any brand.

The very premise of issue and crisis management is prevention – not just stopping the headlines or social media storm, but anticipating internal and external threats or vulnerabilities and shoring up those gaps at the operational level.  It’s spending painstaking hours in the C-level suite agonizing over what gives the CEO insomnia and working with the senior management team on systems and protocols, and collaborating with industry, academia, vendors, suppliers and any other party in the supply chain.  It’s putting procedures in place to minimize the likelihood of disruption in business.

The automaker had to have had a crisis plan in someone’s filing cabinet.  Instead, millions of Toyotas are sitting idle in sales lots; even more consumers are now questioning the company’s mettle.

The first two substantial Twitter updates of the year – the Local Trends feature and updated Suggested Users List – may help make your experience on Twitter a little more personal.  Let’s take a look…

The new Local Trends feature allows you to see what conversational trends are popular near you.  As of last week, however, there are currently 15 cities available for users to select.  Dallas, Houston, San Antonio… Three cities from Texas, but no San Diego?  I’m sure America’s Finest City will be one of the next cities added – they can’t ignore our TwitPower for long – but in the meantime, let’s move on to Twitter’s other big change.

Two weeks ago, the Suggested Users List on Twitter was overhauled to recommend tweeters based on categories of interest, instead of just their perceived popularity.  This is a departure from just having a standard list of people users are encouraged to follow, most of whom are talkative celebrities.  Those lucky few celebrities and others on the list got to appear on every new users screen, and most saw astronomical jumps in the number of users subscribing to their tweets (The Guardian went from having 4,000 followers to 66,000 followers in the one month after being put on the list, according to Twitter Counter.)  Needless to say, folks like Scobleizer and myself were surprised we were not on the list, and began to have feelings of jealousy, anger and self-loathing.  After all, Twitter was giving those tweeters an unfair advantage – free advertising – while we were working hard to build a solid base of followers.

For the most part, that’s changed now, although the feature still has room for improvement.  When I looked through the music category, for instance, I still saw an assortment of artists whom I have no interest in following.  Perhaps my eclectic taste in music messed with Twitter’s complex algorithms.  Perhaps I don’t follow enough people.  Either way, the change does make things more organized, which is good news – especially for new users.  Maybe coupling the two new features together, once they’re launched to everyone, will give me local artists, politicians and sports stars I’ll be interested in following.

For marketers, knowing where people are and what they’re interested in can be very helpful, so do these changes signify Twitter getting more marketing-friendly?  I’d say it’s two small steps for the Twitterverse, not a giant leap.

The annual Edelman Trust Barometer shows modest gains among three-quarters of the industries monitored, and findings point to these institutions doing the right thing and a level of increased transparency amidst a perilous global economy.  What’s more interesting, however, is an expectation that governments and companies will revert back to old habits.  That only tells us these gains are fragile and there’s a likelihood for future Barometer reports to highlight declining trust and expectations.

What better time is there to further build relationships and credibility than when trust is climbing?  Smart institutions will invest emotionally and intellectually by working with their stakeholders in identifying what stakes in the ground their trust is rooted in, tap into those beliefs and build upon them.  Doing so, these institutions could emerge from this recession not only stronger, but also with a competitive advantage – stakeholders in their camps.

The report also lays out a suggested path in building trust – a mosaic.  In short, it’s actively involving and engaging a network of stakeholders, including NGOs, to affect change within your organization and industry.  The concept isn’t so new.  Conceptually, it’s much like the coalition building model many of us toy with, yet primarily in issue and crisis management situations.  What the report is suggesting, and it makes perfect sense, is deploying this model as an everyday, long-term business principal, not for short-term objectives and means.

The report also seems to paint a picture of traditional media being left out of the loop in this mosaic.  Traditional media, unsurprisingly, continues to witness declines in trust, giving organizations more reason to question traditional media’s necessity.  Smart traditional media companies, however, would be wise to heed to the report’s call to get closer to stakeholders.  Even smarter ones will make drastic changes in their business model – and that’s not figuring whether a paywall for online content makes sense.  It’s about delivering upon expectations.  Right now, according to the report, that isn’t much.

I was at a holiday party last weekend talking to a group of strangers in bad turtleneck sweaters about college football and a festive Christmas loaf, when somebody asked what I did for a living.  After explaining that I work in public relations, a slightly intoxicated rube of a man exclaimed, “Traditional PR is dying before our eyes!”

Nearly spitting out my eggnog, I launched into a spirited 30-minute dialogue with the outspoken salesman – discussing public relations, social media and customer service, and how each relate to consumer brand management.  My new holiday friend’s chili was burning white hot over his belief that traditional PR, “for all consumer brands,” is being quickly supplanted by social media and direct-to-consumer engagement and customer service.

My retort was sharp-edged and concise – if PR hasn’t always supported a brand through consumer engagement and customer service, then it was bad PR to begin with.  And, social media – albeit a crucial PR tool – is still just one tool in the PR toolbox.

As we refilled our nog and moved into the kitchen, the conversation locked on the relationship between social media and customer service, and the role or “lack of” for public relations professionals in reputation management for consumer brands.  I agreed that social media is unquestionably changing the way consumers and brands interact in real time, however, if there was ever a time and a platform for PR to fulfill its mandate to improve brand RELATIONS with the PUBLIC…this is it.  I grunted with mild disdain that PR will not be devalued by social media efforts in customer service, but rather act as a planner, facilitator, counselor and tactician across social media efforts in customer service.

As my new friend stuffed his pie hole with meat and cheese from a holiday sausage sampler pack, I did my dandiest to explain that although I understand the excitement and appreciate the fervor associated with the social media Groundswell, it’s a gargantuan misstep to disregard the importance of public relations and a well-rounded communications strategy for consumer brands.   PR is about building and managing relationships among target audiences, and for consumer brands there are a diversity of relevant tools used to do this – social media, experiential marketing, grassroots community outreach, traditional media relations, crisis communication, etc.  All play a critical role in building and managing relationships and reputation.

Yes, I had a bit of bourbon in my nog and probably needed to be knocked off my PR soapbox at this particular holiday soiree.  However, this encounter with the misinformed salesman adversary reinforced my firm belief that all of us working in public relations need to do a better job of educating our employers, co-workers, clients and brand managers that PR and strategic communication means far more than landing a story in the local paper or trade magazine for a job well done.  Word.

SHP December: Them Crooked Vultures

How you approach journalists and bloggers affects your ability to reach key influencers and achieve a positive, measurable outcome.

This was the focus of the webinar held a couple of weeks ago, How to Pitch Journalists in a New Media World, headed by Brian Solis, (@briansolis) principal of the new media and public relations agency FutureWorks, and David Pogue (@Pogue), tech columnist for the New York Times.  NST recently sat down to discuss the information presented in the webinar and our own pitching tactics.

In the world of new media, Solis and Pogue urged that if PR professionals want to reach consumers through journalists, bloggers and other social media platforms, they need to change the way outreach is done.  Connections and relationships with the media cannot be made unless people in PR understand the needs and interests of the people who they are pitching.

Injecting the mentality of “what’s in it for the reader” into the process of writing releases and pitches is more important than ever.  In order to craft a quality news release, it is important to know what information is newsworthy and why it would be newsworthy to a media outlet’s readers or viewers.  Our staff has long adhered to a writing model developed by our founder, Kerry Tucker, that is used in everything created at NST from news releases, to pitch letters, to press kits. The format is all about presenting information in a compelling way to elicit behavioral change. Through this model, we’re able to meet the needs of readers, and relationships with media can be formed while increasing the likelihood of coverage.

It is important to not only reach out to the traditional media sources in broadcast and print but also to search out the trust agents in new media because many of them reside outside of traditional media outlets.  People now look to bloggers and to Twitter to find their news and get real opinions about products, companies and trends.  Reaching out to the right trust agents means that the right consumers are getting the information.  At NST we have discussed the importance of finding these reporters in the new media world and understanding not just the beat of each reporter or blogger, but what topics interest them.  It is important for PR professionals to do their research and to look at some of the most recent articles or blog posts written by a reporter to truly understand if they would cover their client’s news or what about the news would be of interest to the reporter.  Even if your pitch is newsworthy, it won’t get coverage if it lands in the hands of the wrong reporter or blogger.

Outreach to the new media must not only be targeted, but PR professionals need to use new avenues available in social media, such as Twitter, to pitch the message. By researching the current social media trends, NST can confidently pursue alternative forms of media outreach as well as stay on top of who is the current influential in a given market.  The difficulty, of course, is finding these influentials in the new media world of Twitter, blogs and Facebook.  At NST, we find the trust agents listening to conversations on social media platforms and we often share tips for finding groups and for creating meaningful interactions on these outlets.

Crafting targeted releases, reaching out to appropriate media contacts, and using social media to find trust agents is ultimately how PR professionals can spark interest, join the conversation, create meaningful and long-term relationships with the media, and, most importantly, it’s how PR remains relevant.

Next up in the Tiger Woods pandemonium is the privacy debate.  Did a man in the public eye get stripped of his privacy by being forced to reveal his “transgressions?”

Let others take chip shots at that.  Instead, Tiger Woods the brand lost any privacy when he carved an image that personified high family and moral values.  Since his junior golf days, he, his family and his handlers meticulously crafted a brand of integrity, dignity, determination, competitive fire and loyalty.  His charitable endeavors and commercial endorsements further exemplified the Tiger Woods brand.

Successful brands reflect character – who you are and what you stand for, and clarifying that character is paramount.  It’s the centerpiece of an authentic and transparent brand proposition.  The Tiger Woods brand consistently delivered on its expectations on and off the golf course.  The brand experience was highly attractive to be repeated by fans, endorsers, news media and even his competitive foes, all telling of great stories and experiences with anything Tiger Woods.  Like any great brand, it’s more about what people say after you’ve left the room than what you say about yourself, and the Tiger Woods brand was molded perfectly to suit that.

But then the mold began to crack around Thanksgiving. It happens.  No brand will last without error, especially one that is human.  The smart brands, or at least those with smart handlers, realize that and are equipped to address any fissure in the brand – quickly. That’s where the crack in the Tiger Woods brand began to widen.  Rather than address any issues head on – the late, great golf teacher Harvey Penick always extolled “take dead aim” – the Tiger Woods brand went into bunker mode.  Control of the brand was lost – others filled the void while the brand was mum – and it was exacerbated by a refusal to talk with cops on three different occasions and apparent denials about extra-marital affairs.

And then the skeletons started coming out of the closet.  Instead of a New York City nightclub promoter, and we may hear more on that down the road, we’re hearing about hook-ups with a reality TV star and a Las Vegas nightclub marketing manager.

A brand is also your every action and deed, including inaction in a crisis situation.  The Tiger Woods brand ceded control; it can be regained, but it will be the longest tee shot in the man’s career.