Time Out

If I could have anything, I think it would be the ability to call a time out – a la Zach Morris.  Keeping up with activity around Sponsored Blogging, FTC regulations, Sponsored Tweets, and all things in between has been a job unto itself lately.  I’m writing a post on this but I feel like every time I reach a coda – a new symphony of news appears to get in my way.

August Social Media Reading List

I really enjoy reading books on Social Media – even if many of them contain redundant information or easily wrapped catch-all philosophies that are easy to write but a bit harder to practice in the real world of business.  There are a few books that have come out and/or are coming out in the near future that I am excited for because I think it will take Social Media from the 101 stage and bring it to the more advance discussions that many of us are craving.  Here’s my list:

Trust Agents – Chris Brogan/Julien Smith
The New Community Rules – Tamar Weinberg
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations – Brian Solis/Dierdre Breckenridge
Sticks and Stones – Larry Weber

Now, I’m not sure if these will be good books but most of these authors are people that I know or admire greatly – so I’m expecting great things.  I often wonder what kind of lessons and knowledge I could spread about my experiences in a book, but it’s probably far too early in my career to look into that.  Anyway – I already have Putting the Public Back in Public Relations, so I am reading that now.  I’ll update with any nuggets and opinions that I find in the book.

I’m also reading “Pride and Prejudice and Zombies” – which is a hilarious adaptation of the famous Jane Austen novel.  For a great review, check out my friend Nate’s website Gas Lantern – Putting the Gore in Victorian

#Hyatt4Good Mashable Tweetup

Tonight, I’m heading to the #Hyatt4Good Mashable Tweetup in Denver.  I’ll be posting pictures and whatnot on my Whrrl account – you can check it out here: GeorgeGSmithJr’s Whrrl Account.

The Deuce: ESPN’s Memo and my Reaction

I wanted to reserve my right to an opinion until the memo came out and the guidelines were recently posted on an NBCSports.com blog (which I found via Mashable, of course).  I read them a few times and they seem very similar to many corporations Social Media guidelines.  What a lot of people aren’t realizing is that every business has rules governing the behavior of their employees.  Whether it’s a call-center person, outside sales representative, Public Relations professional or executive – there are written and unwritten rules on what can and can not be said.  Developing a social media policy is one of the first steps that many corporations take before entering the realm.  This is a control thing because, while many employees are trust-worthy, you have to protect the company from those that are not.

The guidelines that I feel are completely fair and standard are as follows:

• Prior to engaging in any form of social networking dealing with sports, you must receive permission from the supervisor as appointed by your department head
• ESPN.COM may choose to post sports related social media content
• Assume at all times you are representing ESPN
• If you wouldn’t say it on the air or write it in your column, don’t tweet it
• Exercise discretion, thoughtfulness and respect for your colleagues, business associates and our fans
• Avoid discussing internal policies or detailing how a story or feature was reported, written, edited or produced and discussing stories or features in progress, those that haven’t been posted or produced, interviews you’ve conducted, or any future coverage plans.
• Steer clear of engaging in dialogue that defends your work against those who challenge it and do not engage in media criticism or disparage colleagues or competitors
• Be mindful that all posted content is subject to review in accordance with ESPN’s employee policies and editorial guidelines
• Confidential or proprietary company information or similar information of third parties who have shared such information with ESPN, should not be shared

I feel that all these guidelines are fair.  These are in place to protect ESPN as a company which, as I said above, is a necessity.  The two most important ones there are “Assume at all times that you are representing ESPN” and “If you wouldn’t say it on air, don’t tweet it.”   These should be at the basis of every corporations social media policy.  The others are also there to protect the content and intellectual property that ESPN generates it’s revenue from.  That is easily understandable as well – even the most liberal social media policies would frown about giving away the kitchen sink for free (with apologies to Chris Anderson, of course).  And finally, there are a few in there that are designed to protect the tweeter – who could easily get caught in a maelstorm of negative publicity by engaging a troll over a controversial topic.  All in all, these are fair and common.

The ones that I don’t like though are pretty big ones.  I’ll address those individually.

(more…)

ESPN is doing it wrong…Maybe

Based on a recent tweet by ESPN anchor Ric Bucher, the interwebs exploded with cries that “ESPN is doing it wrong” when it comes to their approach with Twitter. (BTW – thanks Chris for the positive shout out!) I had the same initial reaction to the news, and started to read all the various responses to it. After doing so, I’ve come to conclusion that ESPN is doing it wrong…maybe.

Let’s look at SportsCenter. It was almost a ritual for me to watch that every morning before school and every night before bed. The anchors developed their own unique persona with catch phrases, inside jokes, and various cat and mouse play with their co-anchors. It was what separated the show from its contemporaries – it had personality. SportsCenter is the Saturday Night Live of Broadcast Media. It produces unique talents that, once they graduate from the show, go on to pursue other career interests.

Which is why I say that ESPN is doing it wrong. Their distinction is their personality. The ability for their anchors to develop cult followings via social networking is completely in line to their marketing efforts (After all – do things like Mayne Street really have any “sports” or “journalism” merit?).

Yet, the corporate brand in me can’t help but agree with the fact that ESPN would want to constrain some of the conversation. Bucher’s tweet says, “prohibits tweeting info unless it serves ESPN.” That can be open for interpretation. After all, I tweet a lot daily – having conversations about anything and I am a firm believer that those conversations actually due serve my brand. Is ESPN putting the shut down on all tweets – or simply sending a friendly reminder to those employees on twitter that, at the end of the day – they represent ESPN and their actions should reflect that. It’s their responsibility to do that – to make sure that, at the end of the day – they are being protected. There is nothing wrong with that and most brands do that in some form or another.

So, I’m going to reserve judgment on everything until we see what this memo really says. If ESPN is truly shutting down their personality on Twitter, then yes – they are doing it wrong. If they are trying to control misinformation, rumors, and various things that could damage themselves as a brand – then they aren’t in the wrong, they are just developing a social media policy on the fly. Which, after all, we all are doing anyway…

Id and Ego: My Posterous Blog and No Sense of Time

I have recently decided that my Posterous blog – georgegsmithjr.posterous.com – and this blog are my Id and my Ego, respectively.  All it takes is really one look at the content on each to come to that conclusion.  Let’s take a look:

My Posterous blog reveals that I probably have more in common with teenage girls than I’d care to admit…

My Posterous blog is full of pictures of Hollywood starlets, fashion articles, YouTube videos and random bits of humor – those base, instinctual drives that probably power most of my online consumption.  After all, Posterous caters to that “one-click” and you’re done posting that makes it so simple to share whatever shiny thing catches my eye.  While my Posterous blog reveals that I probably have more in common with teenage girls than I’d care to admit, it also illustrates my personality more in full – as the lack of editorial constraints opens up the postings to a wider variety of interests than this blog does.

This blog is simply the ego – a depiction of things how I would like others to perceive it.  I write mostly about work and illustrate my passion for the social web.  On here, I rationalize my love of fashion and design with articulate, well-thought out (hopefully) musings on those subject, when appropriate.  The subject matters aren’t that diverse on this blog – as my tag cloud clearly illustrates.  Instead, they are mostly related to what I do for a living, where I live, or the occasional review of a song or two.  There is no tag for Fashion – which drives a lot of my content on Posterous.  While I have used this blog to spark larger, more developed thoughts – it’s obviously victim of a personal filter that my Posterous blog is not.

And that’s a good thing.

Many people have written about Posterous and how it could change blogging – Steve Rubel’s post comes to mind.  What I’m realizing is that it’s helping me develop a fuller personality on the web by allowing me to share a larger subset of my interests.  I’m not using Posterous as a full blogging platform, nor do I ever really expect to.  In the end, it doesn’t seem to have the allure that a full-fledged blogging platform like wordpress holds for me.  I never feel like I can type more than one paragraph and, while I know some people do, it just doesn’t have that same feeling for me.  Posterous is simply what whim I am on at the current moment, which is why it will always be more active that this site.  I don’t think Posterous will effect my blog out put at all.  In fact, the social web real estate that I actually see it invading is more along the lines of my Google Reader, Friendfeed, and Twitter conversations.  It will be interesting to see where it goes, but I like that I have discovered the Id and Ego of my blogging life.

I Don’t Pitch Bloggers

With all the discussion on blogger’s relationships with brands, I wanted to talk about how I go about crafting relationships with bloggers. And, to start things out simply – I don’t pitch bloggers.

The reason is simple: why? I just don’t see the reason to ask someone to write about my product. To me, it seems somewhat counter-intuitive. Instead, I simply decided to do the first step that is always recommended in social media: I listened to find the people that were already talking about it.

Out there, I found our true believers – people who loved our products and were already acting on our behalf whether they knew it or not. We read their blog posts, saw their Flickr streams, and watched their videos as they extolled all the virtues that they found in the products we made. So instead of pitching bloggers – I simply just said “Hello” to our fans.

Not all brands can do that easily, obviously. Established brands have the luxury of being able to pluck from a large pool of their fans, who are constantly spreading their love of their products. But if you’re a company making revenue, you probably have fans out there. And when you do find your true fans – reward them. It’s an age-old marketing ploy – the fan club. Social media allows you to develop real relationships with your fans without spending that much effort or money. These free communication tools open up a world that allows any and all brands to empower their community to work for them.

So I don’t pitch bloggers – I empower fans.

The not-so-surprising thing is that your fans will start pitching people for you. They’ll tell their friend, who tells their friend, etc. etc. Social media is, after all, just word of mouth marketing. And it spreads easily – maybe you work with one of your hardcore fans to run a giveaway on their blog, and all of a sudden your inbox and DM’s are full of people who want to do something with their blogs. All of a sudden, you’ve turned the tables and your brand is getting pitched because you’re providing people with something they want. Now, your only task is that you have to manage your growing community. You have to work with the people that want you but also in ways that work on your terms. You’re creating true ambassadors of the brand while weeding out the people that are just there for a quick hit and run. Slowly, you’ll end up working with the bloggers that PR companies target to pitch – except you do it in an organic way. They’ll come to you to be a part of your community, which will only make it stronger because you’re not playing favorites or succumbing to any hierarchy. You’re merely empowering fans.

So, for everyone that is worried about pitching bloggers, my simple advice is: don’t. The best marketers will focus on their community, on their fans, and trust that the rest will fall in line. That’s what has worked for me, and it’s the best advice I can pass along.

The Real BlogHer

While my anecdote created a lot of press in the last 24 hours, I wanted to highlight what I thought was far more representative of the time I spent in Chicago. The real BlogHer is about a community of women who come together to learn from each other, support each other, and become friends regardless of the miles that may separate them. If you were at BlogHer – add your posts and photo albums in the comments section. This is what people should be writing about – not the .0000000001% of the population there.

Check out these posts:

Gwen Bell’s 10 Things that made her smile

The Best Part of BlogHer ’09

Threatened at BlogHer

Someone tried to blackmail me at BlogHer. Seriously – I don’t even know how to summarize the story in complete detail as the past few days in Chicago have been quite the whirlwind. I understand that, as brands, we bring the “grabby” nature of swag bags out in people. I understand that people can feel cheated by paying for things and not receiving them. I get that – and while I don’t condone that behavior, I at least understand why it happens. What I don’t get is why someone would attempt to hold me hostage for a pair of shoes…

I’m sitting in the lobby of the Sheraton – where I spent much of my time. I was just hanging out, doing some work, and talking to the people who were coming up to me. Okay – I’ll be honest, I was talking to people and playing the “Tiles” game on Microsoft Surface because, (expletive deleted), that is possibly the most addicting game ever. Anyway, it was about mid-afternoon when someone came up to me. I’ll call her generic mommyblogger because I couldn’t pick her out of a lineup if I tried.

“Are you the Crocs guy?” she asks, timidly.

I look up and smile. After all, it’s nice to be recognize and it’s a sign that I’m doing my job right.

“Yes, I am.”

We continue with small talk. She says her name but, while I probably caught it at the time, it slipped out of my memory as the events of the next couple moments transpired. She asked how I was doing at BlogHer. If I was having fun. How it felt to be one of the only men there – all those typical questions that were being asked of me. Then her demeanor changed completely. She mentioned how she didn’t get any shoes at the SocialLuxe lounge. I apologized, saying that we provided what we could but it’s hard because we didn’t know everyone’s shoe size. She nodded but I could tell that wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear. Then she says something that I couldn’t believe.

“Ya know, if you don’t give me shoes – I could totally write something bad about you on my blog.”

“Excuse me?” I asked – hoping she would laugh or give me some indication that she was just joking around. Nope…

“It’s just a pair of shoes. It’s a lot easier to give them to me than deal with the negative press I could make.”

After hearing that, I start to laugh. First of all, I don’t recognize this woman at all. When she mentioned who she was at the beginning of the conversation, it didn’t ring a bell and I do a fairly good job at making sure I pay attention to the “players” in the sphere. Beyond that, I connect with hundreds of bloggers of all sizes and I am very good at treating them with the respect that they deserve as writers, photographers, artists, and people. This person was a nobody. So, I reacted in the only way that I saw fit.

“I could pick up my phone here and get in contact with so many people and tell them what just happened that you would be afraid to go near your computer, let alone attempt to blog again.”

She looked shocked – like she really thought her sad attempt to blackmail me would work. In a second, she walked away and, before I could really gather myself, disappeared into a sea of bloggers. I never saw her again and, if it didn’t effect me so much, I would have doubted as to whether it happened or not. Sadly, it did. I really hope it was an isolated incident but it’s something to watch out for. Brands aren’t the only people that have to learn how to work in this sphere. Bloggers do too. I know the BlogHer community would police behavior like that – so I just wish I could have remembered her name or grabbed a business card….

My whole experience at BlogHer was a positive one. I feel like Crocs nailed it, I got to meet some of my favorite people in person, and connected with a whole group of people I never met before. This incident was small and isolated. It was someone I never saw before and never saw again – the personification of an anomaly. I debated on whether I should even bring it up but then I realized that, while I may know enough people that I probably could have lived up to my response to her – other brands may not. I guess this is just a public service announcement that there are people out there that would do this, so as a community, we all need to watch out for it…

(Editor’s Note: Never thought this would become this big of a thing (I blame @jowyang haha) but, I did want to reinforce that this is NOT in any way indicative of behavior that I commonly see from Bloggers. BlogHer reinforced the fact that the bloggers I work with every day are some of the most intelligent, professional, and caring people in the world. As a man in a conference of women, I felt included and I am proud to call many people my friend. This incident was something I wanted to share with the 10 people that read my blog and a few people in the twitterverse. 7/27/09 6:16pm MT ~GS)

(Editor’s Note 2: The “nobody” comment was meant to be that she was a nobody because she threatened me. Not because she has no audience. My favorite bloggers to work with are the amazing writers that haven’t had a chance to be read. Most of the people that commented below would back me up with that, but I did want to clear it up 7/27/09 8:11pm MT ~GS)

Building Community

I am lucky because I have a really great job.  Among my many tasks, I serve as a community manager for Crocs fans.  Using Twitter, blogging, and the other social networking realms – I seek to organize and empassion our core consumer.  There are many marketing seminars, books, webinars, and blogs dedicated to just this purpose.  While I read them and seek them out, I’m lucky because my job has come down to one specific philosophy: Have Fun

.

Here’s a personal case study.  The other day on Twitter, Allison Worthington of Mrs. Fussypants and Blissfullydomestic sent out a tweet saying “It is official.  Twitter has killed my ability to blog on my site, Ican’tquityou,Twitter!”

Being the pop culture connoseuir that I am, I immediately recalled the famous scene from Brokeback Mountain – “I just can’t quit you” (Is that how the real quote goes?)  I quickly responded with a tweet requesting that SOMEONE make a photoshopped poster as soon as possible spoofing that Tweet.

Within minutes, Monica aka @Mommybrain responds and volunteers for the task.  About an hour later, Monica’s masterpiece was unveiled:  Tweetdeck Mountain!

So, what does this have to do with my work at Crocs?  Well – nothing really and everything.  I would have tweeted the same thing if I wasn’t working at Crocs.  I would follow both Alli and Monica even if my job had nothing to do with “mommy bloggers” or bloggers in general.  I did it because it was funny, it felt good, and it’s how my personality works.  Yet, when Alli told the story on her blog – the picture of my tweet included the Crocs logo.  It was branding.  More importantly, it was a relationship – a real relationship based on having fun and communicating that doesn’t have anything to do with pushing personal agendas.  The beauty of the social web is that relationships breed success.  And the fact that I can spend my Thursday morning, in between my other job tasks, just having a laugh and being able to call that work – is priceless.