Where Do You Stand?

An apologetic J. Crew e-mail to customers and newsletter subscribers hit inboxes this morning. The company has been having some internal issues that resulted in the mistreatment of online and catalog shoppers over the past few weeks. Sometimes it’s best for a company to own up to its own shortcomings. Rather than exacerbating a negative reputation, by acknowledging fault and sincerely expressing regret, a company can manage their reputation in hopes of earning back a client’s trust. J. Crew’s simple (yet sincere) note is moving them back in the right direction after some sort of breakdown.

Yesterday, one of my Standing colleagues called me into her office to explain trackbacks as one of her contacts was insisting it was THE tool for engaging in and monitoring online conversation (as if there is one tool that trumps all others – social media is an amalgamation).

I might be stating the obvious, but here’s where I state my claim that trackbacks (and other linkbacks) are not the be-all, end-all in blog networking and monitoring (in fact, when I try to explain them, they sound prehistoric – if anyone has a nice video they can share that helps explain linkbacks, I’d be grateful).

I will say that trackbacks and pingbacks have been a great tool in establishing a blogging community network, by creating an interconnected blogging network full of acknowledgement and camaraderie; however, in the time-saving and cost-cutting world that we live in, let the people who desire to know the conversation going on about them find it – through Technorati and other blog search engines that monitor simple keywords and hyperlinking  – rather than insisting that the trackback notify them of any conversation.

Monitoring the conversation is important for any business or brand (and it is an essential part of what we, as communications practitioners, practice each day). While trackbacks (and the other forms of linkbacks) allow blogger A to notify blogger B that blogger B’s content is being referenced, it should not be the only method for acknowledgement or monitoring.

The last time I was an editor was as a high school senior. I was one of four editors-in-chief of the Cranbrook Kingswood Crane-Clarion, and now I fully understand why there were four of us: in order to quadruple our chances of catching copy errors.

A piece written by Gene Weingarten published in Sunday’s Washington Post has been making the rounds at Standing. Titled “Yanks Thump Sox,” the piece is a satirical look at the reasons why copy editors are no longer “necessary” in a world where newspapers are having to cut corners to make ends meet.

“If you are like I, you are pretty sick of reading articles about how the financially-troubled newspaper industry is making desperation budget cutting moves,” Weingarten writes. “One frequent newsroom complaint is that they are cutting back drastically in the use of copyeditors. The era of the copy editor is gone. Copyeditors were once an important part of the journalism process, back when journalists weren’t as educated as they are now… Copy editors were fine-tuners, fixing basic but important things that a first line of editing might’nt catch.”

You get Weingarten’s point; copy editors are essential and without them, the written word is less effective (and more annoying) than it’s potentially able to be.

The public relations profession, just like journalistic professions, relies extensively on the written word. I’m doubtful the public relations industry would have the ability to maintain long-term client relationships if editors and administrative team members were eliminated; what makes publications believe they’ll maintain the loyalty of their “clients” (readers) without their copy editors?

Read the rest of Gene Weingarten’s piece and try to spot all of the “errors in fact, grammar, syntax and style that a good copy editor would have caught.”

St. Louis blogger Dana Loesch (aka Mamalogues) was contacted by Nintendo to host a party for friends introducing them to the Wii and the Wii Fit. Dana wrote, “I got to invite eight close friends to my house and Nintendo would bring the food, drinks, and the games. In exchange, I’d write about what it was like on my site - good or bad, just what my experience was.” It’s fairly easy to see that Nintendo’s intention for offering this opportunity to Dana was to gain coverage by an influential blogger while also introducing Wii products to a new audience.

In addition to the party, Dana was given a Wii and a Wii Fit to give away to anyone she chose. “I would like to give it to a family, a person, someone in need,” she wrote. “I want you guys to nominate a deserving party … there are no restrictions on who can win except that I’d like for it to go to a person who normally wouldn’t have the means or opportunity to obtain a Wii.”

Recently I had the privilege of escorting media during prom at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Specialty Hospital, a Standing Partnership client. The pediatric hospital is one of only five in the country that cares for both sick and seriously injured kids regardless of their ability to pay. I was able to see the patients in formalwear, dance, socialize and just be kids regardless of their conditions. The teenage patients were able to participate in a “normal” high school event and reach an important milestone toward physical and emotional healing. Due to income and insurance limitations, many children, however, cannot receive the ongoing therapy and medical treatment that is necessary to make a full recovery. My colleague Justin and I nominated Ranken Jordan to receive the Wii and Wii fit as it was apparent that the kids could benefit from the gaming system not only as a social outlet but also for rehabilitation and physical therapy.

Well … Ranken Jordan WON the Wii and Wii fit, and Nintendo has shipped them off to the pediatric hospital.

Way to go, Nintendo: not only did you receive coverage from Dana, but you are gaining traction online through this blog, and “in the real world” by indirectly providing a great tool to children in need.

I grew up with the St. Louis Rams (am I dating myself?) and I was broken hearted to hear from Yahoo! Sports that at least three groups have had talks about purchasing the Rams franchise. Luckily, my sadness was short-lived as Rams Managing Owner Chip Rosenbloom announced he has every intention of keeping the Rams in St. Louis.

His statement read:

“It has only been four months since my mom passed away. Her passing immediately caused speculation that we were selling the team. When a team is passed from one generation to another it becomes to some a calling card that the team must be for sale. So to reply to this article: Nothing has changed since my mom’s passing. We’ve been approached by several people. We plan on using the season to show that the performance on the field will be exciting and to honor my mom. And while we deal with her estate I can assure you we have every intention of keeping the Rams in St. Louis and will have no further comment on this article.”

Every time we provide our clients with message training, we insist that telling the truth is the most important tip to remember, followed by not speculating on the situation. Mr. Rosenbloom (or his publicist), in a very matter-of-factual way responded by stating the facts and nothing else. It is because of Mr. Rosenbloom’s clear and concise message, and by dismissing the Yahoo! Sports article’s accuracy, St. Louis Rams fans across the country slept better last night.

Twitter has been the discussion EVERYWHERE as of late, including the Standing Partnership lunch room. One of my colleagues who shall remain nameless challenged me to provide him with thoughts about Twitter’s usefulness.

BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker is currently writing a story on the growth of Twitter as a business tool … in 140 character chunks ON TWITTER! Why is this useful? For PR professionals, it proves that the media is accessible beyond our old school media lists and telephone books. With over 600 people following Baker’s story, it illustrates the fairly-accepted notion that journalism is moving beyond the print methods of yesteryear.

Industry-based conversation takes place at all hours on Twitter, from searching for an SEO expert to social media best practices. Many prominent bloggers, who are often inappropriately pitched via their blog, also use Twitter and often report when they’re spammed (because truly, 90 percent of “blogger outreach” is spam) by a public relations person trying to get them to peddle products unrelated to their blogs’ content. A group of public relations practitioners (myself included) have taken it upon ourselves to debunk the myth that all of us are spin-doctors reaching out to anyone and everyone for a hit. By putting ourselves out there, and allowing our personalities to be known, we can show that we are people too, and we may be more relatable than just another nameless product pusher.

Personally, I have been using Twitter for nearly a year now; hardly a first adopter but not exactly a new adopter. I have 158 followers and I follow 138 others. Yesterday, one of my Twitter followers, DtotheK told me that I was the top St. Louis area Tweeter according to TwitterLocal. Recently I had some concert tickets stolen, and upon learning of it, one of my followers told me that through his connections, he could help me replace them should I not be able to replace them using traditional channels. Twitter connected me to someone who made my life just that much easier.

What’s next? I’m betting my skeptical coworker will be on Twitter within the month. With Twitter-based love connections, business deals virtually inked in 140 words or less and at least one marriage proposal occurring via the microblogging site, anything is possible.

If you’d like to follow me on Twitter, look for me as one of the top Tweeters from TwitterLocal’s St. Louis feed.

After work yesterday, I went to the Trader Joe’s in the St. Louis suburb of Brentwood to buy some ingredients for a stir-fry dinner: onions, tofu, snap peas and green and red peppers. I got home, broke into the cellophane that contained my peppers, and went to chopping. Before I could cut the pepper in half, some nasty, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle-like ooze started seeping out of the green pepper. Disgusted, mad, but most of all, hungry, I packed up the pepper (and the other veggies) and trekked back to Trader Joe’s (in rush hour traffic, mind you) to report my grievance.

“This can go one of two ways,” I said to myself. “Trader Joe’s can acknowledge my situation and remedy it, in which case I may write about it on Where Do You Stand. Or, they can simply refund my money, doing nothing to fix the fact that not only was my food spoiled but I drove to their store twice during rush hour traffic amidst a time with high gas prices.” In the second scenario, I was planning to write a negative testimonial on my personal blog.

I took my bag of ooze-like vegetables to the customer service counter where the supervisor told me to go wait in one of the massive checkout lines to obtain my refund. After patiently waiting for the gentleman in front of me to pay, I was refunded my money. The cashier said, “Sorry about that,” I shook my head, and off I went.

I was formulating the complaint-ridden blog post for my personal blog, when out of the corner of my right eye, I spotted the supervisor who was rushing toward me.

“For ruining your dinner,” she said.

The supervisor handed me a bouquet of their nicest (and most fragrant) flowers … and gave me a sincere smile.

I immediately switched my train of thought from negative to positive blog post – and here I am.

Sometimes it’s little things, like flowers, that help manage a brand’s reputation.

Friend of Standing, John Cass encouraged me to write a review for the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki. Reviewers evaluate a Fortune 500 company’s blogging efforts for how the company deals with customer issues and gaining product feedback.

Easton Ellsworth began the project in 2006 and in early 2008, John and he agreed to resurrect the project and began inviting corporate bloggers (like us) and personal bloggers to review Fortune 500 blogs and post them on their Web sites and link to them on the Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki.

The primary objective of this project, according to Easton, is to “talk about the strengths and weaknesses of each corporate blog and glean lessons for our own business blogging efforts.”

Without further ado, here is my take on the Graco Blog:

“The Graco blog is a place where you can read some of the latest news from Graco and engage in respectful dialogue with the team at Graco, fellow Graco customers and parents interested in the Graco brand.” The Graco Blog is one of the best Fortune 500 blogs we’ve viewed. Many blogs are too “busy” and take away from the actual content. The Graco Blog’s simplistic WordPress template doesn’t overwhelm the intention of the blog, to help parents perfect the “art” of parenting.

The blog is easy to access with such a simple URL and a dummy-proof subscription link allows every reader to be notified of updates, whether or not they use the aggregators that are still catching on with some folks who are just beginning to read and comment on blogs.

“Mommy Bloggers” (as much as the term makes mothers who blog cringe) are all the rage these days and the Graco Blog provides a professional companion in the form of a collaborative blog run by employees who are their target audience – parents. The biographies of each contributor can be found in the sidebar and each includes a photograph of the contributor and their child or children, and really establishes an understanding between contributor and reader that what the reader is reading is authentic.

Unlike many other Fortune 500 blogs, the bloggers come from all departments within Graco: branding, commercialization, public relations, marketing and strollers and travel systems.

The Graco Blog is great because of what it doesn’t do: it doesn’t speak down to its readers like many of the more technology-focused industry blogs. It is written in a conscientious and inviting manner and although the blog was founded under four months ago (in December 2007), it’s easy to tell (with readers’ comments and input into the content of Graco employees’ posts) that a community is being formed – and isn’t the purpose of a blog to engage with and perhaps create a targeted community? The Graco blog has thrown out pretense in favor of a simple product that delivers to the customers that keep it in the Fortune 500.

Cathy isn’t the only Standing team member who participates in speaking engagements (although she definitely dominates the speaking scene). Tomorrow, April 8, Standing’s resident southern belle and Senior Counselor Mistie Thompson will participate in the Community Service Public Relations Council’s panel on “Gauging the Effectiveness of Your Annual Report/Newsletters.”

To be held at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza, the panel, composed of Mistie; Mary Lewis, resource development director for the School Sisters of Notre Dame; Mallory Rusch, associate development director for the Center for Women in Transition; and Laura Jones, vice president of Messenger Printing, will explore such issues as:

Keep an eye on Where Do You Stand for Mistie’s wrap up of the panel in the next few days.

Therese Poletti at MarketWatch has posed an interesting question: Will America Online’s $850 million deal to buy social networking company Bebo alter the valuations of social networking firms, specifically Facebook? Bebo, the second largest social networking site in the United Kingdom (and the fourth in the USA), receives around one third of the traffic of Facebook.

Facebook has been valued at $15 billion, but with Bebo’s price of $850 million, will Facebook’s valuation be lowered?

I have heard people talk about how they’ve “quit Facebook,” because of the clutter of user-created applications and lack of substance. Personally, I prefer the look and simple features of 2004’s Facebook (from when I first joined) with the contacts I have on today’s Facebook (four years ago, I could have never imagined having my dad and my boss as “friends”). The benefits Facebook provides me are so large at the moment (networking, keeping up with old friends, client outreach), I can’t imagine “quitting.”

Social networking is becoming the traditional method of networking, and even if the survivors of the space will be less than 10 (according to Harry Wang, a senior analyst at Parks Associates), and even if “advertising standards have not yet been set that could help determine valuations,” I think the value to a potential buyer will be based off of the benefits users find in the service; and for Facebook, at least for the foreseeable future, the benefits are gargantuan.