San Francisco – March 3, 2008 – On a recent stop on the social media campaign trail, new media PR/Marketing blogger Chris Lynn succumbed to the pressure of an industry full of Luddites and curmudgeons. In the following video, Lynn, editor of socialTNT, can be seen crying as he makes an emotional plea to the PR and Marketing industries to embrace change. Many are calling this a desperate attempt to appear more human, but sources close to Lynn say he was truly moved to tears after reading another puffy press release for an over-hyped product.

Launched six months ago, socialTNT educates the public relations and marketing communities about strategies and practices that use emerging technologies to engage audiences. The blog attracts a diverse readership that includes novices like college students and small business owners, as well as seasoned professionals and social media enthusiasts. Lynn and contributing writer Marie Williams evaluate social media campaigns, review the latest new media tools, and offer tips and tricks into social media strategy.

socialTNT recently announced iTunes distribution for their most popular feature, “3Q’s in 3Min,” a weekly video interview with top reporters, analysts, social media experts, industry leaders and anyone else using the new media tools to promote or market their business.

UPDATED: Mike Keliher over at Unjournalism recorded this response, entitled “Leave socialTNT alone!”

Also, don’t miss a post: Please add socialTNT to your RSS reader [what’s that?]. Better yet, subscribe to socialTNT by email!

[UPDATED INFORMATION BELOW]

On Tuesday, Facebook took the hardest bashing of its short history, with FORTUNE’s Josh Quittner echoing the rest of the blogosphere in a post ruefully titled “RIP Facebook?” This follows Monday’s news that Facebook confirmed a finding by security firm Computer Associates that Beacon still sends information back to Facebook even when you are not logged in. (For a complete history of the last few weeks, check this New York Times article by Louise Story.) Subtract a few key advertisers, add a lawsuit questioning the allegedly shady history of Facebook’s founding and an attempt by Facebook to block First Ammendment rights, and Facebook seems to be embroiled in a PR quagmire.

The question on everyone’s mind is: Where is Mark Zuckerberg?

He’s playing Jetman, of course. Take a look at the below screen cap I grabbed from his Facebook profile (click to enlarge):

WOW! A score of 1942! Congrats, Mark!

Was he working off a little stress while in between Crisis Control sessions with his PR team? The blogosphere doesn’t think so. Just look at this post by Robert Scoble advising Zuckerberg to say something (this is just the nice stuff):

Facebook’s PR machinery is hiding its head in the sand and hoping this story goes away.

Hint: it’s not.

Do the press conference. Admit you screwed up. Take your shots. Look into the camera and say you’re sorry.

Crisis PR hint: don’t answer company bashing with text messages. Do it in video and with live events. Have the CEO do it.

Henry Blodgett, Todd Defren (satirically blogging as Fake Mark Zuckerberg), Brian Solis, and several other key PR bloggers all offered similar advice: Fess Up.

So what exactly can Facebook do to pull themselves out of the muck:

1. Zuckerberg–not a PR spokesperson–needs to admit to the community and advertisers he made a mistake.

• Explain that FB learned the hard way that privacy is important.
• As a result, FB wil allow a members to Opt-In (as opposed to currently being forced to Opt-Out) to Beacon.
• FB apologizes profusely and promises to make the selling and use of member data a transparent process.

2. Utilize the social media upon which FB is built.

• Eat the loss of prime Ad real estate and post the video apology in a banner over the newsfeed, not in the New Features” group.
• No blog posts since mid-November. Fix that.
• If you are feeling a little more hip: Create a live videocast (to be archived) with live questions being submitted through the community and Twitter.

3. Send an open letter to blogs and top-tier publications. Reach out to the reporters and bloggers who feel used and lied to.

• Better yet, do a video blog tour with top bloggers (ala Don Imus, et al.)

4. Appoint a User Privacy Guru to launch an educational program on how member data is handled and what members can do to protect their privacy.

• Create a Privacy Rights/User Data partnership with other social networks.
• This transparency and education will regain user trust.

5. Community Managers address bloggers concerns as they come up.

• Don’t hide behind your PR spokesperson. Get involved!

Don’t forget your community (and your financial success) is based on the users. You have to listen to them and respect them. If they aren’t happy, they’ll easily move on to the next big thing. Part of me hopes that FB really thought users would see the value in Beacon. The other part thinks that FB only saw the dollar value it could gain from Beacon.

Social networks are trusted spaces. Facebook differentiated itself as the social network where members could control privacy settings, thereby allowing only some friends to see certain things. We felt like Facebook was a safe place where we could share our lives with our friends. Beacon violated that trust. It’s sad and I feel completely used.

A quick Twitter poll asking what Facebook could do to regain trust yielded several responses, all easily summed up by Kyle Flaherty‘s Tweet:

What can Facebook do to regain your trust? Or do you feel Facebook has done nothing wrong?

[UPDATE: This morning, Mark Zuckerberg posted an apology on Facebook's Blog. Is that enough? Do you trust them again?]

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Last Friday and Saturday, Robert Scoble wrote two posts that remind me (and others) of Jeff Jarvis’ Dell Hell rants. When Scoble installed last weeks updates, his computer got stuck in reboot. Here’s what he has to say:

So I restart. And get the same message. I do it five times just to make sure.

And so, now I’m back on my Windows machine.

Screw you Apple and your ads saying you’re better than Microsoft. Screw you. Screw you. Screw you.

His second post discusses the brand promise that Apple makes through advertising and how he sees it flawed. You can read his full list of grievances in the post. While I don’t necessarily agree with everything he writes, I agree that Apple will need to change soon if it wants to keep up in the Post-Dell Hell era.

In its current state, Apple has a strong community of devoted users. Do an online search and you’ll find plenty of mac forums and mac blogs. There’s even a fake Steve Jobs blog. The company itself is surprisingly lacking in engagement with this community. In fact, it has actively sued bloggers in the past. In the last few weeks, Apple has even sent a cease and desist letter to a nine year old.

As Apple computers (not just iPods) are purchased by more mainstream consumers, Apple will find itself slowly being pushed into the conversation. Andy Beal at Marketing Pilgrim sees two situations that will force this change:

1. It will reach customers that aren’t capable of tinkering and tweaking with their own stuff. Even Scoble didn’t know he could fix his computer by a “start in Safe Boot (press and hold the Shift key at the startup chime)? Starting in Safe Boot forces a directory check, so will verify if there is a problem with your startup disk.”
2. The Apple evangelists–the ones that have always come to Apple’s defense–will be stretched too thin. They simply can’t jump in to every conversation and defend every forum comment and blog complaint.

So what can Apple do to increase it’s social media marketing and PR efforts:

1. Create a Community Evangelist position to monitor the Apple dialog on Blogs for negative conversation threads and comment as a human. This helps consumers feel like they are being listened to, while simultaneously allowing Apple to more-or-less steer the conversation.
2. Be honest. So I said they could steer the conversation…within reason. The users will be able to smell PR spin, so don’t try to incorporate too much messaging. If there is a problem, acknowledge it. Right now the Leopard install has caused crazy bugs that people are talking about in forums. Mac continues to deny it. I’m getting PO-d.
3. Create a blog. Steve Rubel said it in 2004. Apple is the only large tech company to not have one. I understand corporate secrecy in product development, but come on. Dell’s is a great example. They talk about OpenWorld, Word of Mouth Marketing, Green issues, geeky consumer tech, servers, etc. They also have videos!
4. Close the feedback loop. Wait, first create a feedback loop! Back to Dell: they have a created the IdeaStorm community to allow users to submit ideas and then other users vote on the ideas. The whole process is tracked with transparency and also shows results at the end. This is key: It lets consumers know they have a voice and that someone is not just listening but also acting as a result.
5. Instead of suing bloggers for leaking things, show videos of products as they are being developed. Transparency and openness. Of course, you need to wait until you are close to release. If others are going to do it, owning it makes Apple cool again.

Oh, and putting out ads that show this:

When this is the reality:

Is really, really bad. It makes Apple look removed from reality, disengaged with the consumer and, frankly, a little arrogant.

What are your suggestions to Apple? Or are they doing ok? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Any Mac Marketing or PR folks wanna speak to socialTNT’s readers? Tell us what’s up!

Before I get flamed: My whole house is full of Mac equipment from desktops, laptops, network gear, etc.

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Related Posts:

“PR to Enterprise: Beam Me Up”

“Dell Hell Freezes Over: A Great Example of Turning Lemons into Lemonade”

“3sday’s 3Q’s in 3 Min: Mario Sundar, LinkedIn”

This evening, Read/Write Web posted an account of their trials and tribulations of dealing with Amazon’s PR. Here’s what happened:

• A week ago, Amazon approaches RWW with a draft of the release under embargo until November 15.
• RWW writes post covering Amazon’s news up after 12 AM EST.
• RWW woke up next day to see emails from Amazon at 11:59 PM EST–one minute before release time–saying the news was on hold.
• More emails from Amazon saying news was not true and was under embargo.
• RWW and Amazon PR in discussion throughout the day with Amazon requesting post be taken down.
• RWW says they will change the post if Amazon sends statement.
• Amazon sends statement written in first person for the blogger to post. Check it out:

“Since the publication of this post, an Amazon spokesperson contacted me to clarify that no announcement was made in regards to support for Open Social. The Amazon spokesperson went on to say that Social network developers have been using the Amazon Associates Web Service to merchandise Amazon products (and earn Associates commissions) for some time. She indicated that Amazon would continue to provide developers with tools that allow them to choose the platform that makes the most sense for them regardless of the Social networking site they are building on. She pointed out…”

• RWW blogger Marshall Kirkpatrick (appropriately) reacts with the follow disgust:

I cannot believe they’d send me text written in the first person and expect me to post it under my own name! Not to mention the really uptight language they’ve got that puppet named Marshall using!

Ok, so what went wrong here? Is it really a case of bad blogger relations? Let’s break it down and see what we can learn.

Here are my Amazon Recommendations:

1. Drafts should never go out. If they absolutely must, then follow-up with the final when it’s available. If you aren’t sure you want it to go out, don’t send it out.
2. The news cycle has changed–and not just with bloggers. Even traditional pubs will post news online before the print version hits. You can’t pull news by sending an email at 11:59PM and expect compliance. I believe most people will respect an extended embargo, if you make a reasonable effort at timely notification.
3. Come clean. You made a mistake. It happens. Maybe some miscommunication happened btwn biz dev and marketing or it’s just not ready. Whatever, send a statement or, better yet, post a human comment on the “offending” blog. Don’t hound the blogger to take it off.
4. (Most important): DONT WRITE A STATEMENT IN THE BLOGGERS VOICE FOR THEM TO POST. Sorry for shouting, but, seriously, you just don’t get it. That assumes SOOO much. And you know what happens when you assume? You make an ass out of u and Jeff Bezos. PR pros should never ever ever tell someone what to write, especially not a blogger!

So, yeah, Amazon will probably cancel my Prime account and I may end up with a horse head in my next order, but if it helps people understand good public relations, then it’s worth it!

Anyone else have any other advice to give to Amazon or aspiring PR folks? Have you ever had to pull news? How did you execute that task and how did it turn out? Love to hear your thoughts.

The new code bars top executives and directors from posting messages about Whole Foods, its competitors or vendors on Internet forums that aren’t sponsored by the natural-foods chain.

Apparently, this is a response to all the messes (read un-ethical practices) that got Whole Foods in to trouble this summer. (Check out Paull Young’s Twitter “Fake John Mackey” profile)

The move comes amid an informal Securities and Exchange Commission inquiry into anonymous postings by Chief Executive John Mackey on Yahoo Finance stock-market forums from 1999 through 2006. Mr. Mackey touted Whole Foods shares, blasted rivals and sparred with other users in more than 1,000 messages.

To me, Whole Foods could have taken different steps to ensure the board, share-holders and consumers that they were changing their image and increasing transparency. They already have a few corporate blogs, a podcast, and video–it doesn’t seem like social media is new to them.

First off, have Mr Mackey write a personal apology on the corporate blog in a post that outlines Whole Foods commitment to ethics. He already has a blog. The last post is from July 18 saying that, due to investigation, the blog is on hold. That’s what people see when they explore the Whole Foods’ blog–not pretty. The post before that is an apology statement from July 17th in quotes with PR contact info and in traditional apology statement form. Once again, not a good thing for consumers to see. Wouldn’t it be great to hear something real? That’s what the blog is there for!

A blog shouldn’t be a feeder for corporate messaging, but HEY, if you can incorporate some messages appropriately, then do it. Some core values from Whole Foods’ site: Extraordinary Customer Service; Education; Self-Responsibility; and Open and Timely Information. All of these can be crafted in to a pro-active post on WF’s new, transparent ethics practices. This can also lead to an announcement of a community launch.

Yes, community launch. The social media features currently on the site are informative and pretty cool, but ultimately they seem one sided. As a consumer, I’m not engaged in an open exchange of ideas, I’m getting marketed to. WF should take a page from Dell and really get the consumer discussing things Whole Foods thinks is important.

(There are great videos of Mr Mackey speaking about World Farming, but what about forums? Anyway, I digress, I have tons of other ideas to help Whole Foods spruce up their site, but they are not “Crisis Management” related.)

For me, transparency is important with food. I want to know how my food gets to my table. I think Whole Foods would agree in the importance of that. Banning your top execs from online sites is a bold step–but a step towards silence and stifling. Take a big leap and open up your corporate side. It will increase trust in the whole business.

What do you guys think? Could WF have handled things differently? Am I completely off target?

(Hat tip to Mike Keliher for his Tweet linking to the original article.)

[I am emailing Whole Foods' spokesperson for comment. Stay tuned!]

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