March 2009

Conficker: Mass Destruction or April Fools' Prank?

Here at Schwartz, security PR's ground zero, we circulate a daily digest of the latest security news stories. Not surprisingly, today's news is all about the Conficker worm. The Conficker worm is either the most vicious assault in the history of cybercrime or the most well-played April Fools' Day joke. Experts suggest 15 million computers could be infected with the virus, which is predicted to strike tomorrow. In the UK, the most newsworthy case of Conficker has been the infection of Parliament.

Reminiscent of New Years' Eve pre-Y2K, we're all holding our collective breath to see what will happen tomorrow. (And, if you're a PR person, you're busily writing comment on behalf of your clients, for whom the Conficker is PR gold.) According to the BBC, "There have been some reports the worm could trigger poisoned machines to access personal files, send spam, clog networks or crash sites."

Yesterday, security experts had a breakthrough in their five-month battle against the virus, reported The Register. It was discovered that the worm leaves a fingerprint on infected computers that can be easily detected with network scanners. Yet despite this progress, doom abounds: The Conficker Working Group, a coalition of anti-virus firms, has already posted an update for April 1: "Conficker.C is Live and well. Sometime today the new version of Conficker will be awake and function. Now one is sure its purpose or mission."

Could it be a prank? A scam to distract security professionals from a much larger crime? Or truly the worst virus attack of all time? Wake up early to find out...

Posted by Annie Klein on March 31, 2009 at 2:29 PM
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Twitter Brands vs. Twitter People

We are having an interesting internal debate at Schwartz about the value of Twitter brands. Specifically, whether Twitter accounts that are identified as a brand are better than Twitter accounts that are identified as a person.

I follow numerous people on Twitter, but I also follow many companies. When a company I am following issues a press release, I receive a tweet with a short note about the news and a link. I follow co-workers and reporters, as well as executives at the companies I represent, who are people. I receive a whole host of assorted posts from them, including industry news, details on in-progress projects, and thoughts about their hobbies.

From a consumer perspective, which is better? Is it better to associate a tweet directly to a brand, or is it better to associate the tweet to a personality, which is then associated with a brand?

I often warn companies that it costs twice as much to promote two brands versus one. It's why I like companies with product names that are similar to their company names (Google, anyone?). However, the Twitter feeds connected to people are far more attractive to me, and I am very likely to associate them to the brands of their companies.

Consider Scott Monty, who directs social media efforts for Ford. He once responded to a tweet of mine about bailout money for the car companies, and he noted that Ford had not asked for federal money. Instantly, I associated his Twitter account to Ford, and I noted that Ford is the car company that doesn't need federal funds. Future tweets from Scott (who I now follow) reinforce my association of his Twitter account to Ford. His tweets make more of an impression because they are coming from him, and not some amorphous Ford brand.

I saw an interview of Scott from the South By Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, conducted by Cambridge, Mass.-based Hubspot. In it, he states, "Be authentic. People don't want to talk to brands. They want to talk to other people." 

At the same time, another Twitter corporate success story represents the opposite approach. A team of Comcast employees monitor Twitter on an ongoing basis, and the Twitter account @comcastcares is well known and well regarded (and well covered by the media). In the case of Comcast, they have created a positive feeling for their Twitter account despite the fact it's branded as Comcast. (To try it out, tweet the next time you have a problem with your cable, and see how quickly @comcastcares responds).

Given both case studies, one can see arguments for either approach. So I am left with personal experience. And I like to follow people more than I like to follow companies.

Perhaps there's some wisdom in a conversation I had earlier today with my colleague Davida Dinerman.

"Social media is about people," she said. In business, people and personal relationships are vital. We're all human and value human interactions, and social media is another conduit for those interactions. The answer to my Twitter branding quandary might be that simple.
 

Posted by Ross Levanto on March 26, 2009 at 12:51 PM
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Come Join us for a Beer

Every once in a while it's nice to get out of the office and head down to the local pub for a beer. It's even better when you can do it with friends.

That's why we'd love our social media peeps to join us at the Skellig in Waltham on April 1st at 6pm for our April Fools Tweetup. Come, hang out, say hi to a few of the Schwartz folks who will be there.

We meet so many people online and don't get a chance to see them in person. Also, if you're not already following a few of us on Twitter cick away. This is by no means a comprehensive list of everyone at Schwartz who is Tweeting, but just a few of us for now.

Bryan Scanlon
Chuck Tanowitz
Helen Shik
Laura Kempke
Mark McClennan
Mike Farber
Jason Morris
John Moran
Ross Levanto

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Posted by Chuck Tanowitz on at 9:27 AM
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Innovation and Risk

This morning, I read an interesting post from Glenbrook Partners on innovation in payments. You can read it here.

I agree with the underlying premise, that risk tolerance is a key factor in innovation success. Or as I would put it more simply:
 

• Fortes fortuna adiuvat - Fortune favors the bold
• He who dares wins

Schwartz has had the pleasure of representing a number of payments innovators, including Peppercoin, Bill Me Later (now a part of eBay) and CheckFree (now Fiserv) - and the willingness to take risks tempered by experience has always been a part of their corporate culture. These companies deal in conservative industries, yet they show that people with a vision, a solid plan and a willingness to take risks can help shape markets and create new markets.

We are seeing this same kind of daring in many markets today - particularly in green tech and healthcare IT. While I am throwing quotes around - let me share another - the perfect is the enemy of the good.

In public relations and in innovation, risks need to be an integral part of what we do. If companies wait for every nut and bolt to be in place - and never question the processes- they will not move rapidly (if at all) and will miss many great opportunities.

Innovation is the center of creating new market opportunities. Forrester Research is very bullish on New Tech innovations in the coming few years and predict that will be the tech area with the greatest growth. I am lucky to work with innovators every day, both at Schwartz and with my clients. With the state of the economy today - investing time and resources in innovation, regardless of your industry, is still one of the best ways to disrupt markets and drive growth.

Posted by Mark McClennan on March 25, 2009 at 10:38 AM
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Attack of the iPhone Apps

Some were disappointed last week when Apple's major iPhone announcement was its 3.0 operating system, which bandaged missing features like copy and paste. However, a closer look revealed an OS that was opened up for developers with 1,000 new APIs, making it much easier for third party developers to create iPhone applications.

Every major blog covered the launch with a nice round-up from Ars Technica here.

The 3.0 OS will result in thousands of new free and pay-for iPhone applications making one of the world's most entertaining devices even more entertaining. No, they won't all be as good as Shazaam or the lightsaber app (my sons love it), but there will be a lot of creative, innovative iPhone add ons for folks to download.

What does this have to do with PR? Well, you can bet that most major corporations will use the iPhone like they use Facebook, launching new applications to market their wares. That means beginning later this year, we will see a major new iPhone application launch per week which will make the world of apps, widgets, plug-ins and toolbars that much noisier.

Posted by Jason Morris on March 23, 2009 at 12:00 AM
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Movable Type: Newspapers in Motion

It wasn’t too long ago that our clients were upset when their stories “didn’t make the print edition.”  Now, right before our eyes, the economics of the traditional print model are collapsing. Yesterday, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published its last print edition, and will move completely online, letting go most of its staff and pumping out the bytes.

Even though Craig’s List did a number on classifieds and it’s clear that newspapers are in serious fiscal trouble, I don’t mean to go all Chicken Little on you. I don’t believe that newspapers will all crumble and go the way of the telegraph. There are still some powerful entities out there. As Paul Gillin points out this week on Newspaper Deathwatch, the P-I is “choosing to focus on the future.” I have to give the P-I a lot of credit for cutting the cord and moving to a future away from static snapshot reports of the news. It’s clear that many papers will not be “news” papers. The news moves too fast to be captured. It’s now organic, localized, changing and dynamic---like a movie vs. a photograph. It’s about clusters, groups of stories, blogs, video and discussions aggregating together to provide a series of lenses. Some lenses are more accurate than others, but a broader perspective of voices gives a more complete view.

I expect newspapers will continue to be staffed by some of the best and brightest. As my Schwartz colleague Mark McClennan often points out, newspapers will also be hyper-localized. They are going to have to provide context and analysis (the why and how vs. the straight up who, what, where, etc.). Look at TIME Magazine or Businessweek, which provide a lot of analysis on any given topic. And like the Seattle-PI, a reporter will deal in far more than words---actually creating all the content and producing it from start to finish. (The P-I describes this change here). Even Businessweek is now interacting directly with its audience prior to writing stories, and all the reporters are Twittering away. The discussion happens continuously, leading up to, through and beyond the publication of the story.

I’ll be the first to admit that I like the physical paper and smudgy fingers. I am a sucker for all types of journalism movies (ranging from The Mean Season to All the President’s Men). The sources, the race to beat the printing, all of it excites me. There is also something to be said for slowing down and folding the pages, much like reading a good book that grabs you and screams:  “Don’t you dare start skimming.” But the electronic world is too loud, too prominent and too important to ignore. Well, at least a paper doesn’t lose its content connection in the middle of the BART tunnel.

Photo courtesy of the Seattle P-I.

Posted by Bryan Scanlon on March 18, 2009 at 12:02 PM
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2009 NCAA Social Media Tip Off! Who Would Win?

Last year, to critical acclaim, we conducted the first ever NCAA Social Media College Basketball Bracket Analysis. As a PR firm that deals with high-tech, healthcare and services companies, we live social media every day and have a love of metrics. Therefore, we asked ourselves what if the schools in the Big Dance had to compete based on their social media prowess, not their hoop skills? I mean, forget guard play, or how the Orangemen may have exhausted themselves with an outstanding Big East Tourney, including a 6OT win.

We carefully evaluated the field of 64 and had the teams face off solely on social media skills and came up with a power ranking for each school. We kept the NCAA seeds and let them face off.

You may question - does this really work? Well last year, the NCAA Social Media Power Rankings were one of the few to predict Davidson's tremendous run deep in the tourney - so mock it at your peril.

How was the power ranking determined? It was determined by (# of facebook users in the School network or fan page (whichever was larger)/number of students at school according to Wikipedia). Note: Yes that includes alumni, but they count as fans in the stands cheering on the team. And if the students didn't join their schools network or the groups were hard to find...we considered that they didn't show up for the game. I recorded it all in a handy notebook and used the Microsoft calculator app to do the math.

Is it mathematically perfect? No. But wait to you see our plans for next year! Do we encourage wagering on games or any other activity which may take this as anything other than entertainment - no.

But now on with the results.

Posted by Mark McClennan on March 17, 2009 at 8:30 AM
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The spark was lit...

Twenty years ago today, (Sir) Tim Berners-Lee authored "Information Management: A proposal" and set the technology world on fire. Charlie Cooper at c/net has an interesting post on this today.

There are so many cliched ways to discuss this, so I just wanted to make a few points.

This has been one of the most fundamentally transformative innovations in human interaction and in technology in the past 100 years. Retail and communications have changed. Hundreds of thousands of new jobs and new industries were created because of his paper and subsequent work. It wasn't always pretty (I remember Gopher and Mosaic), but that is part of the development cycle.

In the services industry the shifts have been staggering. For financial services, the Web took the ATM revolution and put it into high gear. Fewer consumers than ever visit their banks or speak with their brokers in person. Online banking and bill pay (note: I have a client that offers this service) is now the dominant way consumers interact with their financial institutions. This level of functionality would not have been possible with my 300 baud modem and a dial-up connection 20 years ago.

For consulting companies and other services businesses it has changed the way companies interact with customers, cut down on flights, and most importantly, made the process much more collaborative, shortened cycles and reduced costs. Research, which is the essential underpinning of any strategic consulting assignment (or PR campaign), is more readily available and cheaper than ever before.

Architects, Construction design and management companies and coffee shops have all changed the way they work. We now have a coffee shop in Texas CoffeeGroundz Cafe (@coffeegroundz) that is using Twitter to take orders. As a result, business has doubled.

In the information and technology economy, this type of innovation is occurring all the time. Today I am sure there is something under development that has the potential to be just as transformative. The challenge is finding it and having a mind open enough to apply it to our daily lives and our businesses.

What technologies do you think we will be talking about in 20 years?

Posted by Mark McClennan on March 13, 2009 at 12:02 PM
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Look beyond the negative: valuing the customer in a difficult economy

This morning CNN.com reported that the credit card industry, a part of the financial services landscape, was going to have a difficult year (like most industries). Charge off rates exceeded 7.7% in December.

The story quotes Bank of America's CEO stating "Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis warned lawmakers at a high-profile Congressional hearing on the government's $700 billion rescue plan that he had no doubts 2009 would be an "awful year" for the credit card industry."

While this is definitely a serious concern for issuing banks and the payments industry, it is also an opportunity. Customer service and clear communications can play a more strategic role in this economic climate and can help the issuers differentiate themselves and capture a competitive advantage.

The media is going to focus on the negatives. The late fees, the rising interest rates and how they negatively impact consumers. Companies have two options.

1) Let those stories appear, realize they will most likely be criticizing the industry as a whole, take the lumps and move on with business as usual - focusing on mitigating risk while still attracting the high-value customer.

2) The other option, and the one I recommend, is to be more aggressive and clear when it comes to consumer education and customer service. Take the long term view and realize in this climate, if you are shown to work well with customers, the ones you have will remain loyal when the market rebounds, and you will attract valuable new users who are frustrated with competitors' policies.

Make sure the media outlets and bloggers have tips from your company on what consumers can do to mitigate late fees and bring interest rates down. Launch a consumer education campaign. Highlight how you are working with consumers to help them pay off their debts. While some consumers will still be negative - the positive comments will also be out there and will spread. Thanks to the longevity of comments and Google search - both will last for years. You want the good ones out there when the economy rebounds.

This lesson can be applied to more than just services companies. By remembering the customer is the brand ambassador and working with them to build a relationship grounded on clear, positive communications - companies will reap the rewards now and the future, regardless of the business climate.

Posted by Mark McClennan on March 10, 2009 at 11:00 AM
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Last Minute PR Tips for This Year's International CTIA Wireless Show

As we rapidly approach the start of International CTIA Wireless 2009, here are some tips for securing those last minute media and analyst meetings at the show.

• Aggressively contact press attendees on the pre-registered media list. While a standard operating procedure at any tradeshow, aggressive outreach to media and analyst attendees already registered to attend CTIA is a proven method for securing meetings. Most journalists prefer email pitches so make sure you get your point across quickly and concisely.
• Watch the show daily deadlines. While most people assume that news announced at CTIA will often be covered in the show daily, this is not always the case. The media outlets producing the show daily often prefer (and require) to receive news in advance of the show. For this year’s show, RCR Wireless News has a CTIA news deadline of March 23 and the online show daily, Fierce Wireless, has a deadline of March 25.
• Take advantage of the show’s onsite and online press room. At one point or another, journalists and analysts find their way to the CTIA press room. CTIA lets exhibitors place physical press kits in this room and provides an online press room for posting electronic documents. Another bonus of the onsite press room is that it’s a good place to hang around and grab journalists if you have a compelling reason for them to come by your booth (e.g., raffle prizes, free food, etc.)
• Use video at your booth. Flat screen TVs are perfect for trade show booths and most companies are already using them for product demos.  These TVs should also be utilized to show more than just a company logo. Create a quick video that showcases the benefits of your product, run a flashy demo or re-purpose a slide show from a Webinar or similar event.
• Create a media raffle. Is your product interactive? Do you have a compelling demo? Figure out what you want to show media and analysts, and then determine what type of prize (e.g., iPod, TV, etc.) you want to raffle off. Create a media alert about the raffle, hand it out to media at the show, collect their cards when they come to the booth and at the end of each day, raffle off the prize.
• Schedule a media happy hour. Spread the word that the last hour of every show day, media and analysts can come by your booth for free cocktails and finger food. Simply show a press or analyst badge and they can eat and drink for free. (Please be sure to check with show organizers to ensure that they do not have an issue with this strategy.)
• Attend the CTIA social events and parties. Media and analysts like to unwind after long days on the show floor. Pick some of the larger parties (on occasion, publications will throw their own parties) and plan to attend. While there is no guarantee that there will be high media attendance, it’s often a nice venue to casually converse with a journalist and see what they’re planning to cover.
• Grab the folks with the media badges. Dedicate a PR or marketing person at the show to grab media analysts walking by your booth. Most media badges are easily identified and while some journalists don’t like the added attention, most will politely tell you yes or no if their interested in your business.
• Offer a cool tchochkie. Word about fun give-aways gets around the show floor. People with families like free toys to bring home to their kids. Whether it’s a mini-flashlight or a step counter, a cool tchochkie can always help attract media and analysts to your booth, along with other attendees.
• Make your booth photogenic. Media aren't the only people with an audience. Today everyone has followers on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and even on their own blogs. Camera phones give people instant content to feed to their audiences. So think about your booth not just in terms of getting your message across, but how to include something visually interesting that will attract the snap-happy, camera-phone toting hoards.
• Blog from the show floor. While the show floor is the primary source of information for journalists, they also look online to see what other people are writing. By blogging from the floor, or even sending off Tweets, pictures and Facebook updates, you put your company in a position to be seen by both journalists and those outside CTIA who are looking for more information.

Schwartz Communications has lots of experience getting attention at CTIA. For one client, we started work two weeks before the show and garnered coverage that included the Associated Press, BusinessWeek.com, Forbes.com and the CTIA show daily. If you need a hands-on team at CTIA, contact Carol McGarry for more information.

Posted by Chuck Tanowitz on March 9, 2009 at 3:18 PM
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Ranting with Rick Santelli

Media capitalizing on the Web and the broadcast bounce of the Internet

It was hard to avoid Rick Santelli’s rant on a live broadcast of CNBC “Squawk Box” last Thursday. You probably saw it: reporting from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade Santelli launched a broadside on President Obama’s approach to the housing crisis.

When he asked traders on the floor if they wanted to pay for their neighbor’s failed mortgages, the crowd erupted into a chorus of boos and Santelli’s rant became a story in its own right. Other networks covered it, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs issued a response, and Santelli conducted several follow-up interviews on his position.
 
A few hundred thousand viewers actually saw the live broadcast; however, CNBC promptly posted the clip on the CNBC.com homepage greatly expanding its reach. According to The New York Times, by Sunday the clip was viewed 1.7 million times, making it the network’s most viewed Web clip to date.

CNBC execs were quoted saying the Web simply extends the shelf life of a segment, but let’s face it: this isn’t Seymour Hersh uncovering the My Lai Massacre or Woodward and Bernstein breaking Watergate. This is editorial optimized for promotion—CNBC took advantage of the added bounce compelling broadcast coverage can have when properly positioned online.

We can debate the merits of media becoming the news, but that aside, there are a few valuable PR lessons to be learned from Rick’s rant and the way CNBC leveraged online video.

• There’s no gap between mainstream and social media. Type Rick Santelli’s name into the YouTube search bar and you’ll see dozens of clips of the original segment plus other reports of the rant that were viewed by millions. Today, segments that run on the 6:00 a.m. news in Des Moines are archived online immediately—if not on YouTube at the very least on the affiliate’s home page.
• Meltdowns are magnified. Your mother and second grade teacher may not catch your cameo on the late night news, but they’ll see it the next day online. Rick was preening for the cameras, but if you find yourself in a heated discussion with a broadcast journalist, keep your cool. An unfortunate comment muttered out of frustration can take on a life of its own online for months to come. On a related note, be prepared. Winging a live broadcast appearance is never a good idea. Just ask Joaquin Phoenix.
• Leverage the links. When a great piece of online coverage appears, make sure you’re maximizing the exposure. Are you embedding links onto your home page, online news room or blogs? If millions watched that little boy freak out after having some teeth removed, just think how your audience will respond to compelling, on-message broadcast coverage. (OK, so they hopefully won’t laugh as much. What kind of father does that to their kid anyway?)

Do you have thoughts about the bounce broadcast coverage receives when it’s archived online? Opinions on journalists becoming the news? Let us know.
 

Posted by Chris Stamm on March 6, 2009 at 9:35 PM
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