Fortune 500 Adoption of Social Media is Growing -- Slow & Steady

A study just released by The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth reinforces how rapidly social media continues to make its way into companies of all types (B2B as well as B2C) and markets. This study is an update on some initial research completed in 2009 looking at the adoption of corporate blogs. The updated research reports on the growing use of Twitter, podcasting and video in addition to blogs. Some of the 2009 study’s key...

Educate, educate, educate re: RegFD rules, or else

In its 40th year of existence, Boston's chapter of the National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) is a great group of professionals who offer helpful and interesting sessions and education for local investor relations officers and communications professionals who work with public companies. Yesterday, David P. Bergers, Director of the SEC's Boston Regional Office, gave his annual update to a crowded room. He had a number of interesting points to make, discussing how the agency is flatter than it was a...

How Google works: Why knowing this is half the battle to social media success

One of the most important aspects to approaching communications strategy in the "new normal" marketing environment (is it time to start calling social media, "media?") is understanding as much as possible how Google works. Why? For as much as the growth of Facebook and Twitter has been important enough that having Fan pages and branded channels are table stakes, it is still Google that is by far the biggest referrer to just about every company website. All the social media...

As PR people, how could we NOT watch Tiger?

Even the non-golfers in our office were buzzing about Tiger Woods statement to the select group of media -- three wire service reporters, one camera man, and close friends and colleagues. The announcement he planned to do this has drawn incredible attention and a great deal of criticism. Some of the most prevalent critiques have surrounded the timing of the statement (in the middle of a tournament sponsored by Accenture, which was the first of Tiger's sponsors to drop him,...

Should you give up Facebook for Lent?

I chuckled when a colleague told me her 20-year-old niece announced to her online friends yesterday that she was giving up Facebook for Lent so they won't see her online updates until Easter Sunday. You know social media truly has arrived when it's something to give up during Lent. I'm sure it will be a bigger sacrifice for this young person than me giving up coffee, as Facebook is a primary communication tool for many people who provide updates on...

Why Google represents another social media outpost

It's been funny watching the reaction to Google Buzz the last couple of days. Yesterday, when it was turned on for a critical mass of Gmail power users, there was overwhelming disapproval. Today, I see more of those people start to figure it out. TechCrunch obviously thinks it's important enough to hack a "Buzz it" button next to the Reweet and Facebook Share button at the top of every post. I was fortunate enough to get access to it yesterday...

How Toyota Used Social Media to Stop Playing "Rope-a-dope"

Toyota's death by a thousand cuts crisis has been an interesting study in crisis communications. It felt like the company was standing by mute and helpless -- or worse, clueless -- as one bad piece of news after another was being revealed about recalls of popular cars, suspension of sales of some models, and speculation about the next shoe dropping regarding a recall of the popular Prius hybrid. Throughout this painful period, Toyota has been relatively quiet except for the...

BrandBowl 2010 is nice, but what about Facebook?

Our Patriots disappointed us this year, so I realize how spoiled we were during the glory years when thinking about Sunday's big game. Despite my team not being in it, I'll be interested for two reasons. One is the Saints (Who Dat!). Do it for all those paper bag-headed fans of old! The second is the ads. What will make them more fun is something cooked up by Mullen and our friends at Radian6 -- BrandBowl 2010. It is a...

How well do you know your Twitter followers and Facebook fans?

At yesterday's Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council (MassTLC) event, Katie Paine gave her latest presentation on social media measurement. I've seen her talk many times, but she does a nice job keeping her pitch very current, so I always walk away with something new. Yesterday, it was the inclusion of number of Twitter followers/Facebook fans on her list of "Old School Metrics." It was great to see this. The basis of this is the fact that what matters the most is...

Conan Understood "Less is More"

From the earliest moments in the ridiculous PR mess NBC got itself into when its prime-time "Jay Leno Show" was canceled and it started messing with the time slot of the venerable "Tonight Show" and its not-ready-to-go-gently-into-that-good-night current host Conan O'Brien, the latter has shown mastery of one of the best communications skills you can have -- understanding that "less is more." His initial statement rejecting NBC's offer to bump his time slot to 12:05 was clear, heartfelt, and focused...