Darla Moore takes on Charleston’s local parks
September 29, 2008 by admin
Filed under Media Coverage
Darla Moore is known for her business acumen, Southern charm and philanthropic spirit. Now she’ll be known for helping transform Charleston’s parks and public spaces.
An avid gardener and plant lover, Moore recognized that, though Charleston’s historic buildings were carefully preserved, the same attention wasn’t given to the city’s 120 public parks.
Having lived in New York City, Moore watched as Central Park was transformed from a “rat-infested, fearful” place to a wonderful park. She was certain the same attention could be given to Charleston’s parks.
Moore and her husband, Richard Rainwater, have a home in downtown Charleston near the Battery. Together they run Rainwater Inc., a private investment firm that manages billions of dollars.
Once she started spending more time in downtown Charleston, Moore realized that the city’s parks needed as much attention as the historic buildings and homes.
“There’s the preservation of history, but the parks are not up to the same standard,” she said. “It’s time for Charleston to have a similar organization as the one that rehabbed Central Park.”
From idea to reality
In New York City, the City Parks Foundation is a nonprofit organization that supports hundreds of parks throughout the city. Moore met with representatives from the foundation, who visited Charleston and offered recommendations.
The result is the Charleston Parks Conservancy and an initiative called Park Angels. Six Park Angels have been selected as the face of the CPC. They will work with the conservancy and the city to mobilize residents and organize people who have a passion for parks.
The key, Moore said, is involving not only the city but the local residents. It’s a long-term project with the first step revitalizing Colonial Lake Park on Rutledge Avenue in downtown Charleston.
“The city can’t do it,” she said. “You can sit and complain that somebody needs to do something, but that somebody is you. You can say somebody needs to do something, well, bend over and pull the weeds.
“I don’t get paid for it, but I want to be part of something bigger,” said Moore, who likely will be pulling weeds and pruning plants herself.
Stepping forward
Jim Martin, executive director of the Charleston Parks Conservancy, said it often takes one person to draw attention to a cause.
“In every community, sometimes it takes one person to step forward and do more than just talk about how important this is,” he said. “That’s exactly what she’s (Moore) done with this.”
Moore recognized that all the hallmarks of Charleston’s charm are present in the parks, but not to the same degree, Martin said. In September, the conservancy announced six Park Angels, core volunteers for the conservancy who will give a face to the organization. Next month, the Park Angels will be introduced to city park employees, and Charleston Mayor Joe Riley will be named an honorary Park Angel.
A new way of thinking
Even though six individuals were selected to carry the proverbial banner, anyone with an interest in Charleston’s public parks can get involved. The conservancy gives residents an outlet for volunteering or making donations. Those with ideas or questions can go to the parks conservancy’s Web site and make suggestions.
The Charleston Parks Conservancy is using Greenville identity company Brains on Fire and local marketing firm Step Ahead Web Strategies to employ nontraditional marketing efforts. Web 2.0 concepts, such as creating a Facebook page for the organization and blogging, are emphasized more. Social networking and word-of-mouth will spread the message.
“We’re developing the concept in Charleston that it’s you and me,” Martin said. “It’s not, ‘Oh, the city’s going to do that.’ It ain’t going to happen. The city has limited resources. It’s going to take more involvement on your end. There are obstacles to getting the city of Charleston to do things it couldn’t do because it didn’t have the resources. I’m not saying that we’re the end-all, be-all of parks, but a different way of thinking.”
–Holly Fisher
Your Career: Cleaning up your digital dirt
September 29, 2008 by admin
Filed under Media Coverage
What happens on the Internet tends to stay on the Internet.
Merry Miller, an entertainment reporter, found that out the hard way. She did an interview last year with Holly Hunter on an ABC news show, and she made so many fumbles and gaffes that it ended up on YouTube titled “TV Disaster.” To date, this video has received more than 1.5 million views and nearly 2,000 comments ridiculing the interview.
There’s nothing worse than having unflattering information about you posted on the Web. It’s even happened to me, folks.
Unfortunately, you can’t just sit back and hope it goes away. With hiring managers today checking out prospective employees on the Web, job seekers need to manage their online reputations — or their resumes could end up in the do-not-call pile.
Kirsten Dixson, author of “Career Distinction: Stand Out By Building Your Brand,” calls this type of negative stuff “digital dirt.”
Recruiters are Googling you, she says, and “digital dirt” can quickly take you out of the running.
“We’ve had clients who had digital dirt about them on major news sites, but you can’t just ask to take it down. You have to find ways to sweep the dirt under the rug,” she maintains.
The first thing you need to do is Google yourself right now. Even set up a Google alert with your name so you can track all the new dirt when it first hits.
I’m not talking about defamatory information that may require legal action against the perpetrator. I’m talking about the things that may have a grain of truth in them — like how silly you looked during a television interview, or a blogger’s negative opinion about a research paper you wrote, or a MySpace confession you made when you were 17.
Burying those Internet skeletons
Many of us may want to find ways to erase the negative information about us on the Web, but that may not be the best strategy.
“What to do when you don’t like the impression given by your online persona?” asks C. David Gammel, a corporate technology consultant. “The counterintuitive response is the best: Post even more content about yourself online.”
However, he adds: “The content should be of a nature that is at least neutral, at best positive, for your career prospects. Blog about your professional interests. Discuss research you have conducted yourself on a topic of interest.”
Gammel believes in burying the Internet skeletons in positive cyber dust. “Once the less savory items are pushed off your first page of ego search results on Google, you’ll be fine with most people,” he notes. “That’s why you have to post more, not less, to get rid of the impact of those skeletons.”
If you have a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or LinkedIn, that content eventually goes to the top of Google searches when someone types in your name.
As for burying the negative information, you can politely ask a site owner to remove an item about you, and sometimes that’s works. But don’t engage in tit for tat, says Lyn Mettler, who owns Step Ahead Web Strategies, which helps businesses manage their online reputations.
“It ends up looking defensive and can get ugly very quickly,” Mettler says. “If there is misinformation and you can calmly clarify that in a post, response, comment, etc., do so, so the reader will see both sides.”
She also suggests that you enlist the help of friends. “Third-party endorsements are much more credible than someone talking about themselves,” she says.
Another tactic is to do a traditional public relations blitz, even embracing the dirt. That’s what Merry Miller did, and she ended up on “The View” talking about her notorious Hunter interview.
“Based on my personal experience, the best thing to do is address it immediately, tell the truth, don’t blame anyone and try not to take it personally because most vicious bloggers move to their next target really quickly,” she says.
“Life isn’t easy, but you don’t have to go down with the bad stuff.”
Bringing in the experts
You can also hire a firm that specializes in vacuuming up the digital dirt.
ReputationDefender is an online reputation management company. CEO Michael Fertik says about half of the negative information they find about their customers is self-inflicted, and half is inflicted by someone else. “Maybe someone wrote something about their eating disorder years ago and now it’s among the top 10 results about them on Google,” he says. “Or there’s someone calling you a thief or a jerk, or a bad girlfriend or boyfriend.”
ReputationDefender charges between $100 to $500 for its services, which include publishing so much accurate and positive information about an individual that the bad stuff gets pushed off the first page on Google.
The company also offers a service that provides manual removal of dirt, including asking site owners and bloggers politely to take down information.
None of this stuff is guaranteed, however, because too often the people that run these sites refuse to remove any data.
Indeed, even ReputationDefender has trouble defending even its reputation on the Web.
When the firm first started, it tried to help out one of its clients by asking a blogger to remove dirt about the individual. But the strategy backfired and the blogger ended up blogging yet again about the client’s dirt — and also slamming ReputationDefender.
In a recent Google search on “ReputationDefender,” the negative post appeared as the third result. This proves how difficult it is, even for experts, to keep a cyber reputation untarnished.
Getting out your cyber mop
As I mentioned before, I have also been slammed on the Internet.
I came across a blog post written by Mark Story, a communications expert and adjunct faculty at the School of Continuing Studies at Georgetown University, that blasted a story I had written for msnbc.com about social networking overload.
Story called my reporting “sloppy,” which is probably the worse slam you can make against a journalist.
I decided to write a response on his blog. I’m a blogger at CareerDiva.net and msnbc.com’s YourBiz, after all, and I should be able to take what I sometimes dish out.
I politely disagreed with him on his blog post, and to my surprise, he e-mailed me an apology.
He also blogged about our interchange, saying, “In a moment that was likely based on blogger hubris and too much caffeine, a few weeks ago, I blogged about an MSNBC piece on social media overload and called it ‘sloppy journalism.’ ”
I know, not all these stories will have similar happy endings. But if there’s a chance you can control some of the digital dirt out there, why not take out a cyber mop?
Social Media & Ghostbusters – The Art of Being Prepared
September 26, 2008 by Simon Ashton
Filed under All, social media
Part 2 of the occasional series of overly-gimmicky blog posts that takes an iconic movie of the 1980s and tenuously ties it to a business marketing idea.
Plot Synopsis
In the 28th funniest movie of all time (official!), 3 disgraced parapsychologist professors leave academia and form a private firm providing paranormal investigations – calling themselves Ghostbusters. After some initial set backs the business takes off, they defeat the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and save the world. Obviously.
Business Analysis
When people think about Ghostbusters they think of the big climactic ending, “He slimed me” or Signorney Weaver writhing around on the bed (incidentally, this is very uncomfortable to watch with your six year old), but they tend to forget the first half of the movie is the gang sitting around with no clients, no income and lots of expenses.
After all, nuclear accelerator proton packs don’t come cheap.
But, with the success of their first ‘busting, all of a sudden there are more and more calls for their services, as the Sumerian deity Gozer tries to open an inter-dimensional doorway which will destroy the world.
And this is why businesses should be embracing social media today.
Lessons Learned
We meet a lot of clients who are definitely interested in podcasting/a blog/Facebook page/etc. Just not right now. Not with the economy the way it is. Once things pick up. And so on, and so on.
Did Venkman, Spengler and Co think like that?
No way!
They were prepared. So when Zuul threatened, Ghostbusters were already primed and ready to go. In fact more people were hired to help with the workload. They had their infrastructure in place, TV ads were already promoting their slogan – “We’re Ready to Believe You” – and, most importantly, they had a huge head start over any potential competition.
So, in this increasingly tortuous analogy, their Ghost Containment Grid is your social media involvement and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man is a booming economy. If you’re prepared, and your competition isn’t, you can be a Ghostbuster.
We all know the financial situation is, um, less than perfect right now, and advertising/marketing dollars are tight – but things will pick up sooner or later. The beauty of social media marketing is that it is free-to-cheap. You can find someone to do some of the work for you (ahem), or spend a little time and do it yourself.
Start building your Facebook Group now and by the time Happy Days Are Here Again, you’ll probably find you have a good following of people ready to work with you. Jump into monitoring Twitter before your competition even knows what it is and pinch some business from right underneath them. Just remember that there is no time like the present.
In the truly timeless words or Dr Peter Venkman, “I love this plan! I’m excited to be a part of it! Let’s do it!”
Microsoft Ad Nails It
September 19, 2008 by Lyn Mettler
Filed under All, PR
Well, after all the hullabaloo about the Microsoft Seinfeld ad and my criticisms (see post and Brand Bandits Podcast), it seems that Microsoft got smart and did it right. I’m sure it was after they read my wise comments.
So, the new ad takes a shot at the very successful Mac vs. PC ads and defends those of us who work on a PC as not being the nerds portrayed in the Mac ads. As my colleague Simon Ashton pointed out, compared with the Seinfeld ads, Microsoft came out looking better in the Mac ads! So very smart that they latched on to the success of the Mac campaign.
What they’ve done is given a voice to all the cool people who use a PC and through that, given a personality to the PC that is not nerdy (All the Seinfeld ad did is reinforce that, I thought). It’s people from both political parties; it’s scientists, it’s enviromentalists; it’s teachers, it’s students… You get the point. I have to say it even gave me the warm fuzzies a little. Loved the part of the people who work for both Obama and McCain.
So, two thumbs up Microsoft. Glad you heeded the negative banter and fixed your mistake.
Though I must quickly add that the whole backlash over the Seinfeld ads got so much attention that it really set this second round of ads up to be noticed. Do you think we’d be talking about this ad otherwise? I think not. Think they planned it that way? If so, I have to give them way more credit.
Google Adwords – Tweaking All the Way to the Bank
September 18, 2008 by Simon Ashton
Filed under All, ppc
Google announced on Monday that the Quality Score Improvements would be going live this week, with what they claim are tweaks which will benefit both advertisers and search users.
Well, they would, wouldn’t they!?
The changes, removing the ‘Inactive for Search Status’, real time ‘Quality Score’ and new ‘First Page Bid Estimates’ seem to me to be more about generating extra revenue than improving quality.
Even among those SEMs who work with AdWords for a living there is a lot of confusion about what is going on. A lot of the targeting improvements seem, well, arbitrary at best. For instance, here’s one of the search terms from an account I manage (click the image to enlarge):
It’s not ‘Great’, but a fairly solid 7/10 ‘OK’. Even some nice words of encouragement,
“What should I do?
Keep it up! Your keyword, ad text, and landing page quality are high.”
So, how is the ad performing? Let’s see:
Hmm, the ad is not showing. Must be the bid then, right?
Well, no:
| Estimated bid to show on the first page: | $1.25 | Based on the quality score below |
| Your bid: | $1.75 | Max CPC |
I have an keyword that is rated at 7/10, and I’m bidding 40% more than Google estimates I need to to be on the first page, and yet, “No Ad is Showing”.
No wonder people are confused.
If Google is not showing the ads, then they’ll lose money then. Well, I could be wrong, but I don’t think so.
I’ve been watching my keywords pretty closely this week to see what would happen, and Google’s main suggestion seems to be that I raise my bids. Funny that.
How about this one for instance:
That’s an exact match keyword, which fits the site perfectly, has a historically high click-thru rate and used to average less the $1/click. Google now says “Bid is below first page bid estimate of $25.00″. $25! And yet yesterday, it was in the 1.5 average position.
That’s an extreme one, but we’ve seen maybe 30-40% of our keywords being told they should raise the bid according to the first page bid estimate. If that is happening across other peoples’ accounts, and it appears that it is, then we are going to see the average cost of bids being pushed up. Nobody wants to be on the 2nd or, gasp, 3rd page of results.
I’ve been working with Pay Per Click ads for a good number of years now (hence the GoTo swag shown above), and I think we’ve been down this road before. This is why many people switched to Google AdWords from Goto/Overture in the first place, because the constant battle to be in the top spots drove the cost up and up. Google was a breath of fresh air. They really did reward quality instead of who has the deepest pockets. After all, if Ad1 was paying $1, and Ad2 only $0.50 but had 3 times as many clicks, then Google still made more money. Everyone was happy. That is why I’m worried about the potential bidding wars this may lead to.
Particularly if the Yahoo-Google deal is finalized and approved.
Maybe I’m wrong. It’s still very early days and these may just be some kinks which will have to be worked out. But given Google’s near monopoly and unwillingness to listen recently, I can’t say I’m overly optimistic.
Are you an AdWords Advertisers? Let me know what you’re seeing or what you think.
Pranks as Promos
September 18, 2008 by Lyn Mettler
Filed under All, social media
I was intrigued with an article in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend entitled “The New Pranksters” about young people across the country who are gathering and participating in silly stunts to break out of the daily monotony and enjoy a sense of camaradie. Things like sets of idential twins mirroring each other on each side of a New York City subway car, bursting into song at malls, standing like statues in a public park.
What does this have to do with Web 2.0? Well, it turns out these things make great fodder for YouTube and online video, as well. Which brings me to how it relates to public relations.
It’s always been a standard in public relations to create an event or “stunt” that will get the media’s attention. Well, these are just the kinds of things that do it. It’s almost sad how easy the media is to manipulate if you just know the types of things they are looking for. I mean, shouldn’t they be covering serious news instead of a bunch of people dancing to music no one can hear at a park? But, alas, that makes for good TV, doesn’t it?
So, lesson here, sad though it is, if you can dream up a stunt that’s funny, quirky and ridiculous, yet that underscores your brand or involves it as a key portion — and get it on video — you’re likely to have a media hit and a viral hit online.
Think about something that people would enjoy watching, that fits the old journalistic standard of “man bites dog” instead of “dog bites man”, that’s in a place that’s easy to get to at a time that people and the media are more likely to be available (ie don’t hold it during the first presidential debate).
In the article, they cited as an example Taco Bell, who hired a group to help them perform a stunt to promote their new Fruitista Freeze drink. The group posed as employees and patrons in one location and “froze” in place, much to the surprise of real customers. The video has been viewed more than 500,000 times online. Pretty good exposure for Taco Bell, I’d say. Oh yeah, the twin/subway prank? More than 700,000 views on YouTube.
Post Now, and Forever Wish You Hadn’t
September 15, 2008 by Simon Ashton
Filed under All, social media
It is often pointed out that one of the major problems with social networking is the blurring of lines between the private and public.
Sure, it was funny when you passed out on the floor at the party, and even more so when your friend uploaded the photos to Facebook – but do you also want your boss seeing that? Or your mom?
A CareerBuilder.com survey published last week shows that 20% of employers are now researching social networks when considering job candidates:
“Top areas for concern among these hiring managers included:
- 41% – candidate posted information about them drinking or using drugs
- 40% – candidate posted provocative or inappropriate photographs or information
- 29% – candidate had poor communication skills”
It’s very easy to forget in the ever-connected world that anyone can see what you’re doing – as Lyn found out recently – and it’s more important than ever to watch what is said or posted about you online.
However, even more worrying for me, is when people deliberately publish something which would be better left private.
That is why I was stunned by something I read about the Rocky Mountain News yesterday. A tragic accident in Colorado led to an illegal immigrant killing two women and a toddler. Naturally it was a high-profile incident that generated a lot of public interest, but how clueless did the editor have to be to think that live Twittering the funeral of a three year old would be a good idea!?
“RMN_Berny: family members shovel earth into grave
Wednesday, Sep. 10, 11:40 a.m.
RMN_Berny: rabbi calls end to ceremony
Wednesday, Sep. 10, 11:28 a.m.
RMN_Berny: rabbi chanting final prayer in hebrew
Wednesday, Sep. 10, 11:27 a.m.
RMN_Berny: earth being placed on coffin.
Wednesday, Sep. 10, 11:22 a.m.”
Naturally this has upset many people. Michael Roberts at Denver Westworld Blogs, called it “self-satirizing in the most morbid, inappropriate way possible.” The Guardian (UK) said it was “Going straight to the top of our Inappropriate Use of Technology chart”, while Samuel Freenman, professor of Journalism at Columbia University said, in something of an understatement,
“A memorial service for a murdered, for a slain child is not a fit subject for play-by-play updates”
So, why did they do it? Basically because they could. The same ease which allows you to tell the world how drunk you got last night without thinking of the consequences, allowed the reporters to overlook whether or not what they were doing was actually a good idea.
There is a lesson here for all of us: In an online world, just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
From Bad to Worse at Cuil
September 11, 2008 by Simon Ashton
Filed under All, seo
Cuil, who have seen their traffic tumble into free fall since their much-hyped (but severely botched) launch, have suffered another blow today, as TechCrunch reports that VP Product, Louis Monier, has quit the company:
“Louis Monier, Cuil’s VP Product, quietly resigned from the newly launched search engine last week, we’ve heard from a reliable source. “
Monier was one of the big draws for the simply stunning amount of PR that Cuil generated – he was hired away from Google last year in a major coup for the young start up, but is even more well known as the Father of AltaVista, everyone’s favorite search engine before Google came along. His departure is thought to be related to the path Cuil should take.
With a resume which also includes stints at Xerox PARC, Ebay and Google, Monier is regarded as one of the big names in tech and search, so the blow will be a huge one for Cuil. After all, he left Alta Vista, then the #1 search engine, after a similar disagreement over the move from straight search to becoming a portal (how 1999!)..and look what happened to AV after that.
Who’s Watching You on Twitter?
September 10, 2008 by Lyn Mettler
Filed under All, PR, social media
Although in theory I understand that anyone in the world can see my Twitter posts, I tend to forget that on a day-to-day basis as I reveal my thoughts to the world. Well, my friends, don’t forget. I was reminded today in a very funny, and shocking, way!
Sure, you realize that anyone can “follow” your tweets and read what you say, but did you know that by going to Twitter’s search function (formerly Summize) you can find what anyone is tweeting about? Additionally, tweets now come up in the main search engines. I have a Google alert set up for myself and my companies (something everyone should do), and every day it shows me some of my tweets from the day before.
Well, apparently, a New York Times blogger who was writing about the new game show “Hole in the Wall” searched on Twitter to see what folks were saying about it. He found my tweet about what a crazy concept it is, but how I was still compelled to watch and used it in his blog post.
So not only is Twitter great for business, apparently it can get you media coverage too. Pressure’s on now to say something clever and insightful, huh?
I was also reminded how transparent I am making myself on Twitter the other day after I met someone I follow and who follows me on Twitter at a presentation I was giving. I regularly tweet about a hip hop dance exercise class I go to. He said to me “The whole time you were presenting all I could think about was your hip hop moves.” Which, believe me, is probably not a pretty image. Anyway, I thought that was really funny, as I do forget how much I am putting out there to people, many of whom, I’ve never even met.
Anyone had a similar experience with something you posted on Twitter?
Human Tetris: It’s Time to Face the Hole
September 9, 2008 by admin
Filed under Media Coverage
Reality television has given us all sorts of new cultural touchstones, from the notion of people being voted off an island to the emphatic cry of “You’re fired!”
Fox may have hit upon a new one. In its new game show “Hole in the Wall,” contestants contort themselves into awkward positions and try to squeeze through a wall that approaches them on a conveyer belt. That’s it – it’s just human Tetris, repeated over and over again for TV success or shame.
The first “preview” edition of the show aired on Sunday. A second episode will be shown Tuesday after “Fringe,” ahead of the show’s official premiere on Sept. 11.
The concept comes from Japan by way of YouTube, where some of the greatest hits have scored more than six million views.
Impressively, Fox manages to make the fun last for half an hour. The reaction of Lyn Mettler, a viewer who wrote about the show on Twitter on Sunday, sums up the paradox: “The most ridiculous premise I’ve ever seen for a game show, yet I sat there & laughed hysterically.”
The ratings will reveal whether viewers want to watch the show more than once. Brian Lowry, a TV critic for Variety, concluded Sunday that the show “exhausted its shallow store of ingenuity during the half-hour premiere.” He added: “Everyone involved, in fact, seems to be trying just a little too hard, in what might be the first series to jump the shark before its final act break.”
Regardless of its staying power, “Hole” has already introduced a memorable catch-phrase to the reality TV canon. Alongside “You are the weakest link” (on NBC’s “The Weakest Link”) and “Will you accept this rose?” (on ABC’s “The Bachelor”) comes this gem from the host Mark Thompson: “It’s time” – dramatic pause – “to face” – another pause – “the hole.”
