Flack's Revenge

NY Media Bangs the Drum of Local Tech - Alley Now Trumps Boston

For the third week running, a major NY daily has written an article about the NY tech scene, so I figured that it is was about time for me to write something here on the topic.

I was already in a NY tech state of mind, having just attended a NY Tech Meetup last week. The meetup group is a great microcosm (or macrocosm, as it has grown quite large) of the NY tech scene. Each meeting has upwards of 800 attendees, who typically sit spellbound while taking in the evening's demos from hot NY tech startups, and get a chance to mingle and network afterwards.

This one was no different - the demos featured a mind boggling array of tech - everything from enterprise software (e.g. Foretuit which offers a great data visualization add-on to Salesforce.com), to consumer electronics and apps (Kogeto, an iPhone camera add-on which makes it possible to take panoramic videos and share them with your social networks), to the almost-too-cool-for words (e.g.Shapeways, a company that lets users manufacture and sell custom objects on-demand, via its Web site and 3D physical object "printers").

The first article ran in the NY Times: On the Move in NY's thriving Tech Sector.  It caught my attention because of some of the numbers mentioned:

According to city officials, high-tech employment in New York is... shooting up by 30 percent in the last five years, at a time when overall private-sector employment has decreased. New York recently surpassed Boston in the amount of venture capital invested in Internet start-ups, and lags behind only San Francisco.

The article described the city's ecosystem of VCs, entrepreneurs, incubators and networking groups, and moves that the city and state are making to support the growth of the tech sector.

The Wall Street Journal chimed in too, with a story, Silicon Alley Gets a Boost, about software giant Infor's move from Atlanta to NYC.  The article mentioned a shortage of office space in Chelse and Soho that is a result of heightened demand from the techies.

The Daily News wrote a nice piece just yesterday that called the R train NY's tech train (actually, it said "Silicon Subway" which makes a nice headline, but is not entirely accurate, as I am not sure if there are any chip companies here). The train line is apparently the best way to take a tour of NY's tech community. This article also cited some impressive facts and figures, and summarized the array of tech companies in NYC:

Of the 100 startups that have raised the most cash — from about $10 million to upwards of $150 million — 64 are software companies, 20 are e-commerce companies and the rest are a mix of multimedia and other firms, according to the CB Insights data.

Employment has soared. Between 2005 and 2010, the number of high-tech jobs in the city rose 30% to 90,700, up from about 70,000, according to the city’s Economic Development Corp.

And in the last quarter alone, New York-based startups raked in $831 million in 86 deals, blazing past Massachusetts for the No. 2 spot in the nation in overall venture-capital funding, behind only California.

New Post on Windmill Networking blog - Taking Content from King to Ka-ching

I am very pleased to say that I have signed on as contributor to Neal Schaffer's Windmill Networking blog.

Judy Gombita, who also writes for the blog (and at PR Conversations) introduced me to Neal (thanks again, Judy, and thanks, Neal, for the invitiation to write). 

As you may well know, Neal Schaffer is a dynamo, a real pro when it comes to social media; he is an author, noted speaker, etc. The blog is widely read, and it is an honor for me to join the ranks as he has assembled a number of writers.

My first post ran earlier this week.  It is about taking content off its royal pedestal and turning it into an ROI work horse, by combining content marketing with social media. I hope you read and enjoy it, and others there.  My column will appear near the end of each month.

Wall Street Journal says Product News can Counter Bad Buzz and Lift Stocks

The Journal wrote last week about the effects (both good and bad) that social media reviews and other forms of online chatter can have on a company's stock price.

Online reviews can...have an impact on the stock price of the companies offering those products, lowering average returns by nearly 0.1% in as little as three days, according to a new study...

In what should be good news for stock pickers that have a social media analytics bent, the data can apparently predict a stock's performance:

Both positive and negative user-generated chatter seemed to predict market returns a few days ahead of time, the study found.

In what shoulld be good news for tech PR and marketing, the article concludes that issuing a press release can help:

Managers can take steps to combat negative reviews. New product announcements can increase positive buzz about digital products, such as cellphones and computers

It is an interesting time for buzz about social media buzz; Judy Gombita, a friend and co-contributor at Neal Schaffer's Windmill Networking blog (yes, I just signed on to blog there as well), wrote a great post yesterday about what social media buzz can mean for crisis management.  Judy also pointed me to a good article in the Telegraph about online chatter and blunders in social media marketing

PR News Digital Guide: Boosting Social Media & PR with Content Curation

PR News Digital Guidebook is out now, and I am pleased to say that it includes an article I wrote on how to boost PR and social media results with content curation.

Please see below for a brief excerpt

Do you want a better way to generate high-quality social media content and connect with your target audiences? Are you looking to keep your organization’s teams informed about relevant contents, trends and topics? If so, you need to add content curation, an increasingly important skill set for communicators, to your repertoire....

How Content Curation Works

Before embarking on a content curation program, you must understand what will be involved in terms of process, technology and methods... the magnitude of the effort needed to support content curation can vary quite a bit. Tracking down relevant topics in areas where there’s much social media chatter and well-known consumer brands represents a much different challenge than doing the same in niche B2B areas.

The article provides tips and answers the following questions:

• How to use different types of curation
• Which articles should be selected or ignored?
• How to measure your efforts and tell when it is working

The article includes exceprts from an interview with Tom Riddle of CIThread.  CIThread is a hosted content curation platform, and the technology behind our own Tech Marketing Scoop.

I wrote a couple of articles for various PR News guides last year; and was happy to contribute again.  Their guidebooks have lots of useful information; it is always blast around this time of year to get my copy, see how the article came out and read articles from others in the field.

I urge you to visit the link and order the book

It's Green Day here in NY

Fusion painted the company green today. No, not green as in money or green tech, I mean “painting” quite literally – the Fusion PR New York team took a little break to coat the walls of its office in bright green.

I am a terrible painter, but we do have some experts here. I never realized that painting could be so much fun, a.real team building exercise. The color we chose – snow cone green, or chartreuse, depending on whom you ask – is a real eye opener, we may need to try decaf coffee for awhile to adjust. Below are some pictures from the day, enough hands in the mix can mean a mess or a quick and efficient job – good thing it was the latter. 

Are Penn State and other Schools like Teflon when it Comes to Crises?

In the Jewish religion, there is a saying we keep in mind to help us stay strong during tough times: "this too  shall pass."

A story in the New York Times sports section yesterday - Some Lessons in Damage Control - reminded me of this. The main message of that article is that there often is not much long term impact of crises on universities.

Times writer Tamar Lewin took a look at possible long term effects of the Penn State sexual abuse scandal on the school within the context of how others fared, using Texas A & M, Virginia Tech, Duke and Indiana Universities as examples (which involved a bonfire collapse, shooting rampage, false rape accusations, and firing of Coach Bob Knight, respectively).

Lewin writes:

While the turmoil at Penn State has been the academic equivalent of a Category 5 storm, it will probably not have much long-term impact on the university, experts say.... Certainly, it will take years, perhaps a decade, to resolve the fallout from the sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed the football program.... But citing other universities’ experiences with crises, many higher education officials and crisis-management specialists predict that the effects will not last a year.

The statements in the above paragraph sound contradictory, don't they?  If it is true that the effects will not last a year despite the "years, perhaps a decade to resolve the fallout" - what could be the reason for this?

Perhaps the answers can be found in the following quotes from the article regarding crises at Virgina Tech and Penn State:

“It might sound trite, but prospective students and their families saw on TV a united student body and incredibly supportive alumni population working together with strong university leadership,” said Larry Hincker, associate vice president for university relations at Virginia Tech. “It was painful and stressful, but the institution kept moving in the right directions, dealt openly with problems and shared our experiences with others..."

Hartle [of] the American Council on Education, said he thought it was a matter of time before Penn State again deserved its nickname, Happy Valley.

“With some deft outreach and some hard work, even the angry students on the streets this week are likely to become, like their predecessors, happy and loyal supporters,” he said. “Colleges and universities are much bigger than any one individual or scandal. Their crises become part of their history.

Branding and Ad Tech on Display in New York City this Week

I set aside ny usual client and agency activities yesterday, and split the day between Jeff Pulver's BRANDsconf in the morning and Ad:Tech New York in the afternoon.  The latter is a much bigger event, an actual trade show.

BRANDSconf is a Jeff Pulver 140 event.  I found the tagline to be Ironic because it is about humanization of brands via technology, something that is decidedly inhuman.  Yet maybe that is not so strange - as companies strive to use social media and other tech to communicate, the human aspect of brand building is something that must be emphasized and can't be lost.

The event featured a day of rapid fire sessions about brands and social media, hosted by panels and individuals, many from large companies and interactive agencies.  This gave me a glimpse into how the "big boys" do it, and offered a useful perspective, as most of my clients are tech startups.

E.g. Katie Richman, who runs social media for ESPN, spoke about tips for managing typically overloaded social media activities and schedules.

The "Evolution of the Community Manager" session featured a great panel.  At the end, each person offered tips for aspiring and practicing community managers:

• Danya Cheskis - Community Manager, Skillshare: Be ready to "murder your darling" if the concept is not working.  Everyone involved needs to know what is happening on the ground. Prioritize, relentlessly execute.
• Katie Morse - Social Marketing Manager, Billboard: Always remember the top business goal, execute against it.
• Matthew Wurst - Director, Brand Strategy and Emerging Media at 360i: Understand what content engages the consumer to drive the emotional connection (it should not be just about marketing).
• Staci Perkins - NYC Community Manager, Eventbrite: Continue to adapt, the job is not set in stone

 

 

Tablets Lead Way to Power News Consumers, and Apps for PR

More people are using tablets, and in some cases spending more time with them than other devices and media channels. What are the implications of this trend for the PR field?

For starters, tablets can update and improve on many applications and projects. E.g. in my series of posts we explored reinventing the clip book, turning it into a dynamic, electronic magazine (see this post for one solution, devised by team member Kesley Judd). I am sure there are other examples of tablet apps, and potential apps that have relevance for PR.

Further, our jobs have gone beyond simply getting a nice placement to also caring about how the hit is shared and read, and to playing more of an active role in keeping stories alive and increasing exposure through social media channels. If you look at the tablet within this context, and consider the results of recent research, then ideas for PR start to jump out.

Paid Content wrote about a new report from Pew Research that describes news consumption habits of tablet users.

Tablet owners read a lot of news… The Pew study was conducted in conjunction with The Economist Group and found that half of tablet users use their devices to consume the news on a daily basis.. According to the report, 30 percent are spending more time with the news than before they had a tablet, and one-third are seeking out new news organizations on their tablets they didn’t frequent on their computers or televisions.

The article and report revealed that tablet users in large numbers (40%) are reading news via Web browsers, and (sadly, for the news business) paying for news content only in small numbers (14%).

Further, according to Journalism.org:

Eight-in-ten tablet news users say they now get news on their tablet that they used to get online from their laptop or desktop computer... [a majority] say the tablet takes the place of what they used to get from a print newspaper or magazine (59%) or as a substitute for television news (57%).

Also, it is not just about consumption but also WOM and social sharing:

Fully 85% of those who get news on their tablets said they had talked with someone about a long article they had read there. Some 41% of tablet news users say they share news through email or social networking...

The results point to the emrgence of tablet users as power news consumers; PR efforts need to align with this trend. We should be tracking how news gets on tablets, and exploring ways to get through to the tablet news consumer.

When Worlds - and Online Friends - Collide

I was running an educational session on using social media to further media relations objectives here at Fusion PR. Towards the end, we allowed time for people to share their experiences and thoughts.

While most seemed to agree that it is generally a good thing when a journalist friends you, some in the group seemed uncomfortable with the idea of mixing personal and business lives on social networks.

I have never understood this line of thought. It seems to me that your work is part of your identity, your personal brand, so-to-speak. Exactly what are people afraid of? If your Facebook profile shows a side of you that you'd rather not reveal, to your business contacts are anyone, well then, why do you have those details or photos there and why is it public?

Anyway, the debate kind of reminds of me of an amusing Jim Gaffigan bit (yea, I know, they are all amusing, this comedian rocks); one where he talks about funny unintended consequences when you mix groups of friends:

You ever mix two different groups of friends?

That can be stressful

You always feel like you have to prep 'em.

You're like, . These people over here, uh, they don't think I drink.

And don't be thrown by my british accent.

Yes, it is true that we sometimes act and behave differently with different groups of people; yet the above routine illustrates the folly of trying to be too different.

App Against the Wall (Yer Busted, and, Yes, There's an App for That)

It is tempting to think, wouldn't it be great if all of life's problems could be solved with a simple app?

This question occurred to me as I read a NY Times article yesterday; About to be Hauled off in Handcuffs? Press Send. It described an app, inspred by the Occupy Wall Street movement, that can help you if you are getting arrested. 

According to the article, the I'm Getting Arrested app:

... allows users to write a message and identify recipients — friends, family, a lawyer — in advance. Then... they can push a button to send a text message blast.

So, how is this relevant to PR? The rise of smart phones has led to a growth in apps (see my post It's an App, App, App, App, App, App, App World). Apps and tablets are now transforming how people receive, consume and share content. These trends mean big things for PR:

1. If you are in tech PR, you may have an app company for a client one day
2. New ways of computing mean new tools that can support our work
3. People are using these apps and tablets to receive and share news

No, there is not (for better or worse) simple apps that can solve all of our problems, including the challenges that we face every day in PR. However, through this series, I hope to help readers better understand the app and tablet world, and what this means for PR.

Please stay tuned for the next installment (and lots of bad app puns too!).