Today AOL announced that it has acquired TechCrunch, the popular technology blog created by Michael Arrington. The funny thing, is that the announcement (which was posted on TechCrunch) was the last thing you’d ever expect to appear on TechCrunch.
Instead of a blog post about the acquisition or a video about the announcement, TechCrunch posted…a press release.
“Emphasizing the strengths of the company you’re pitching is obviously a good thing. But does anyone realize how meaningless these terms become when they are followed up by something so blatantly untrue or tied to a small niche that it’s just painful to read? I’m specifically thinking about press releases that commence with something like “Initech, the largest manufacturer of red staplers engraved with our company logo, has just won the Buzo Award for the most uncreative use of the word ‘largest’ in the history of mankind.” Handle these words with care.”
Part of the first paragraph in the acquisition release reads,
“TechCrunch and its associated properties and conferences will join the AOL Technology Network while retaining their editorial independence, further bolstering AOL’s position as one of the world’s leading providers of high-quality, tech-oriented content. The announcement will be made on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, CA.”
If you read through the entire press release, you’ll see that it is filled with words and terms that Wauters would like to see banned from releases.
While I’m tempted to think that AOL insisted on issuing a press release, I’m shocked that TechCrunch would go along with this, instead of writing an actual blog post or posting a video. Posting a press release verbatim is against the very nature of TechCrunch’s approach and it shows that TechCrunch and AOL are clearly not on the same page when it comes to media.
If this is a sign of things to come for TechCrunch, then it’s going to lose a lot of readers.
If you haven’t used or heard about Zappos, it’s all about the customer experience and their fabulous customer service. How Zappos achieves this is through hiring people who fit with their culture and by committing to a set of core values that are more than just a poster on a wall.
The 10 core values Hsieh discussed were:
Deliver WOW through Service
Embrace and Drive Change
Create Fun and a Little Weirdness
Be an Adventurous Creature and Open-Minded
Pursue Growth & Learning
Build Open and Honest Relationships with Communication
Build a Positive Team and Family Spirit
Do More with Less
Be Passionate and Determined
Be Humble
Hsieh is passionate about the linkage between culture and brand. He said, “Your culture is your brand.” You have to hire and fire people according to your core values.
Also, Hsieh believes that companies will be truly successful when their vision inspires, not just motivates, people. The Vision should have a higher purpose than just making money.
Social media is just another tool for fostering communications. Hsieh uses email, all-hands meetings and 5-week new hire training period to build the culture.
All in all, Hsieh made some excellent points about the importance of building a customer-oriented, service-oriented culture. To read more about the event and Hsieh’s take on company culture, customer service and brand building, you can view tweets posted under the hashtag #amabzap.
Early this week Universal Pictures invited RaceTalk to attend a private screening of the documentary “Catfish.” Given our extensive coverage of social media, and particularly Facebook, the studio felt we were the perfect viewers.
The film follows a young, New York City based photographer, Yaniv “Nev” Shulman as he forms relationships with a family in Michigan. After seeing one of Nev’s photographs in the New York Sun, this Michigan family sends him a painting of his photograph, done by their eight year old daughter Abby.
Nev winds up “friending” Abby’s mother, father, sister, brother and more via Facebook and communicates with them regularly. Over the coming months they share countless emails, Facebook messages, phone calls, photos, videos, song recordings, and of course, more paintings. Eventually, Nev begins to form a romantic bond with Abby’s older sister Megan. He talks to her every day on the phone, via text, email and she sends photos and recordings of her singing songs she wrote for him.
One evening Nev discovers via the power of Google and YouTube, that Megan has been sending music recordings that are in fact stolen from an artist named Amy Karney. When he confronts her about it, she becomes frazzled and overly emotional. From this conversation on, things with Megan and the entire family begin to unravel. In an attempt to get some closure on what now feels like a mountain of lies, Nev and the two film makers (his older brother Ariel and their friend Henry) decide to drive to Ipsheming, Michigan to meet the family in person and uncover the truth.
Without spoiling the ending, because if you are an active user of Facebook you must see this movie, I will say that “Catfish” caused me to rethink my personal approach to Facebook. As a PR professional, we counsel our clients on the use of social media and the real-time web, and encourage them to share, share often, and share with complete transparency. We position social media as an easy, low cost way to reach your target audience on the websites and applications they are already using. Personally, we do the same. We use our Facebook profiles to share photos, videos, articles we enjoy, blog posts we write and more. Facebook has become so ubiquitous; we behave this way without question.
In David Kirkpatrick’s book “The Facebook Effect” he chronicles the early days of Facebook when a user was required to have a college, .edu email address to join. Mark Zuckerberg felt the university email address provided a level of authenticity that you are who you say you are. Once Facebook was opened broadly, and that requirement disappeared, you could use any email address to sign up, even a fake one.
“Catfish” demonstrates that the internet and in this case Facebook, allows users to not only share content, but to also steal content; to poach photos, videos, music and more and re-purpose it for their own use. The current explosion of content on the internet and social networks provides users with the ability to pluck content off the web and create an entire identity with stolen information.
Nev is still an active user of Facebook. His experiences have not diminished his use of the network. However, “Catfish” will force you to re-think the way you use Facebook and exactly how open you want to be with your personal information and the people you allow into your network. This film is a haunting, brutally real look at the power of social media.
Back in April I wrote about Jeff Pulver’s 140 Character Conference that was taking place in New York City. I praised the conference and its attendees for providing advice on social media best practices live from the event. The live tweeting was so impressive I felt like I was there in the auditorium.
Yesterday, I actually was in the auditorium as Pulver brought his traveling conference to Boston for the first time. The conference began at 9:00 am and went until 6:00 pm with over 61 speakers on the roster. Each group that took the stage had 10 minutes to share how Twitter and/or the real-time web have impacted their goals professionally and personally. Below, a few highlights from the day:
Jeff Pulver, @jeffpulver – Check out Pulver’s opening remarks to kick off the day:
John Daley, @Boston_Police – Daley, deputy superintendent for the Boston Police, shared that the department is using Twitter to broadcast vital, public safety information to the city of Boston and their broader Twitter followers. The police see Twitter as an effective way to disseminate critical information in real-time. Daley also noted that citizens have begun reporting crimes to the police via Twitter. They tweet updates and photos, typically of crimes they consider “too small” to dial 911. Who knew!
C.C. Chapman, @cc_chapman – C.C. is on a mission. A mission to give dads who blog as much power and recognition as the infamous “mommy bloggers.” During what was by far the most animated speech of the day, C.C. shared his personal quest to force consumer brands to recognize fathers as a key sales demographic. Marketers, pay attention. The dads have wallets too.
Patrick Larkin, @bhsprincipal – Larkin is the principal of Burlington High School where he is trying to bring the school into the digital revolution. In addition to teaching a Web 2.0 class to his students, Larkin is working to educate families on the importance of digital education for students. During his panel, Larkin said, “We need to teach our children to use social media. Without that, the diploma doesn’t mean much.”
Amanda Palmer, @amandapalmer – Palmer, best known as part of the musical group the Dresden Dolls, shared with the audience that, “I was able to ditch my management and my record label to launch an album all via the internet.” She went on to say how her Twitter followers have been incredibly supportive and a resource she didn’t realize would be so critical. She said, “Life is becoming easier, faster and cheaper as we harness the power of social media.” Rock on, Amanda!
Georgy Cohen, @radiofreegeorgy – Cohen is the managing editor of web communications for Tufts University and has one of the best understandings of the power of social media that I have encountered. Not only does she see the value in active social media platforms for the university, but she is consistently engaging with students, staff and alumni to build meaningful relationships. Cohen hit the nail on the head when she said, “We have to be in the ‘now’ because our brands already are, whether we are or not.” I was also impressed by Cohen’s decision to harness the strength of content creation and launch a Tufts website called Jumble (their mascot is the Jumbo) to aggregate all of the best content created by students, staff and alumni. For colleges and university seeking social media best practices, look no further than Tufts.
Chris Brogan, @chrisbrogan – Brogan, a high profile social media player, author and the president of New Marketing Labs, spoke to the group about Twitter and other web applications simply serving as a platform for larger goals. In one of the best quotes of the day he quipped, “No one ever asked Hemmingway what kind of pencil he wrote with. Don’t ask me what blog platform I use! That’s not the point.” View Brogan’s entire talk here:
For more information on the speakers at the Boston 140 Characters Conference, check out my live updates @MollyGaller on Twitter or the #140conf hashtag.
At the close of the event, Pulver said, “This conference is not a tech event, it’s a life event.” Thank you, Jeff Pulver, for a superb day that reminds us all that the next big thing could be just a tweet away.
Steve Lohr of the New York Times took an interesting look over the weekend at the unique role that start-ups can play in helping the economic recovery. While many people believe small businesses are the key to stabilizing the economy and creating jobs, new research indicates that the age of a business (rather than the size) may be a better indicator of creating jobs and strengthening the overall market. Therefore, many folks are arguing, to generate jobs we must put a focus on seeding new ventures.
The article took me back to a conversation I had with Michael Gaiss of Highland Capital Partners earlier this summer (embedded above). During the conversation we touched on the current state of entrepreneurship and innovation in the U.S. and he had some interesting insight into how we can create ecosystems and environments for start-ups to thrive.
Boston, for example, has been trending in a positive direction in terms of enhancing the environment for innovation and entrepreneurship to thrive. Michael pointed to Mayor Menino’s creation of the Innovation District and the new incubators popping up around the greater Boston area with ties to angel and venture investors.
He also pointed to corporate efforts like PepsiCo10, which partnered his venture firm with PepsiCo and Mashable to form an innovation incubator that will offer free consulting, mentoring and digital opportunities to chosen start-ups.
In a post by Matthew Ingram for GigaOm, Twitter CEO Ev Williams shares that mobile use of the free, micro-blogging service has grown 60 percent since April. Williams also announced that Twitter has 145 million registered users, a 40 percent growth in overall users since April.
Given Twitter’s immense popularity it is no surprise that the company has seen a steady rise in user numbers, however what is interesting is the number of users who first activate the service on a mobile device. Presently, 16 percent of all Twitter users activate via mobile.
For that reason, Twitter has its own iPhone application and recently launched an application for the iPad. Several outside vendors have also launched mobile applications for Twitter.
Williams said on the Twitter corporate blog, “We quickly understood that we were doing users a disservice by not having a great client on each of the major mobile platforms.”
He went on to say, “As we had hoped in April, these clients are bringing more people into Twitter, and, even better, they are attracting and retaining active users. Indeed, 46 percent of active users make mobile a regular part of their Twitter experience.”
For businesses considering putting resources behind a mobile application, let Twitter’s success be a reinforcing pat on the back that you’re headed in the right direction.
This is a guest post by Gemma Griffiths, Client Director, Racepoint Group London
There has been lots of talk this summer about the death of Advertising Equivalent (AVE), much of which has been spurred on by the European summit on measurement and the release of the hotly debated ‘Barcelona Principles’. For those of you who are not familiar with these principles, and where they have come from, allow me to do a quick recap of this summer’s event and outcome.
In June this year, leaders of global professional measurement and evaluation bodies – AMEC, Global Alliance, IPR Measurement Commission, PRSA and ICCO – and over 190 of the top PR measurement experts got together in the sunny city of Barcelona to finally bury AVE and discuss potential new ways of measuring the impact of PR.
Following the summit the Barcelona Declaration of Research Principles was released:
Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any PR programme
Measuring the effect on outcomes is preferred to measuring outputs
The effect on business results can and should be measured where possible
Media measurement requires quality and quantity
AVEs are not the value of PR
Social media can and should be measured
Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement.
It is worth noting that these principles are very broad and apply to measurement, which includes social media measurement.
Critics say that these principles are vague and don’t add much to the debate. I’d agree, but also add that Rome wasn’t built in a day. These principles look like a good foundation and it appears that there are a few experts and organisations committed to the cause and keen to drive this forward – AMEC’s Executive Director Barry Leggetter and Katie Delahaye Paine of KD Paine & Partners are two that spring to mind.
To hear more from these experts, check out an interview with Barry Leggetter and Katie Delahaye Paine on Jay O’Connor’s CIPR blog post. Jay is the President of the CIPR – the professional body for PR in the UK – and former European MD of Racepoint.
More thoughts / updates on measurement and the principles to come soon.
