Doubling Down on Sheer Idiocy

I used to love reading William Safire’s NY Times magazine column On Language. Safire, was, among other
6a00d8341c562c53ef01156f1f0d99970c things, a wordsmith. He loved to examine the hot phrases and words of the day, exploring their origins, usage and relevance.

If Safire was alive today he would probably be writing about the phrase “doubling down”. It has been in the news quite a bit lately and seems to be one of those things that Safire would latch onto (I think most know that it is a phrase from the gambling, meaning to double your bet on a hand, for example when you are dealt a pair of
Aces in BlackJack.

I am not even going to try a Safire-style piece, let’s face it he was a genius. but let me at least make some observations.

The phrase started to get some play recently when Mitt Romney made some unfortunate comments following the attack on our embassy in Libya, and murdering of the ambassador and other U.S. personnel. He was challenged, did not back down and many in the media reported that he had “doubled down” on his position the next day.

Here’s another example: This Sunday on NBC’s Meet the Press show, David Gregory asked Representative Peter King:

DAVID GREGORY:
Do you double down on a comment that this president has thrown Israel under the bus?

REP. PETER KING:
He has not shown– yes, I will. In the context of politics, yes, he has.

DAVID GREGORY:
–the context of politics, it’s either true or it’s not.

REP. PETER KING:
It is true.

And now apparently Romney is doubling down on his idiotic videotaped statement that dismissed most of the electorate as government-dependent.
As the NY Times reported:

Mitt Romney on Tuesday fully embraced the substance of his secretly recorded comments that 47 percent of Americans are too dependent on government, saying that his views helped define the philosophical choice for voters in his campaign against President Obama.

(WSJ reported that the numbers have some validity; OK, but what about the part where Romney said that he didn’t care about almost half the electorate?).

When politicians are asked if they are doubling down, you can interpret the interviewer’s question as: “Did I really hear this correctly?” At this point the spokesperson has two choices: they can either back down or double down.

As you can see, the trend has been to do the latter, accompanied by some spinning and fancy footwork.
I think the better strategy can be to man up, and admit that the statement was just plain dumb.

Romney and company are doubling down on sheer idiocy,

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NY Tech Story Roundup: Invasion of Valley culture, Rise of AlleyCorp

Perhaps I enjoyed the end of the summer too much, and am now overdue for my usual Friday wrap on NY
Beerpong-ontech stories that are in the news.  Without further adieu, I share the latest, below:

The NY Times featured a nice profile of AlleyCorp, and NY tech titan and serial entrepreneur Kevin Ryan.  Here's an excerpt:

Mr. Ryan, chief executive of the Gilt Groupe
and a founder of several prominent Internet companies, is one of the
technology world’s most influential people, with a career trajectory
that mirrors the rise of New York’s tech scene.


Mr. Ryan and Dwight Merriman run a start-up factory called AlleyCorp,
after Silicon Alley, a nickname given to New York’s answer to Silicon
Valley. It has churned out companies that have almost nothing in common,
from e-commerce to publishing to database software.

On a lighter and more fun note, the WSJ wrote that Silicon Valley mainstays such as beer pong are starting to invade the NY tech scene:

New York's recent technology boom is spawning a new cultural phenomenon:
The laid-back, offbeat workplace vibe of Silicon Valley is now becoming
more common in a city known for more traditional industries like
finance, law and publishing. Start-ups are offering everything from free
catered lunches to beer kegs. They're also bringing employees together
for ping-pong games, rock-climbing lessons and laser tag.

What say you, NY tech denizens (or is it techizens)?  Are you seeing some of these things in your many and varied work spaces?

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Attention Story Shoppers: Only 6 Pitching Days Left (NY Times Deconstructs Tech PR in Light of Apple News)

Our clients generally have very busy PR and marketing schedules.
Shopping

To get everything in, we try not to let external events dictate the pace.
There are some obvious exceptions; you don’t want to announce news on a major holiday, or shortly before or after one.
If there is a major industry event, such as a trade show, and you or your client are not there, why compete with the noise of other announcements?

Then, there are the planned and unplanned events and news outside of tech that can steal the thunder from your announcement; You need to use good common sense and look at each situation, in general we are an aggressive shop and don’t like to stand down if we don’t have to (see my post Hypocrisy Rampant in “When not to Pitch a Story”).

To use a real example, if you follow the world of tech or use an iPhone, you by now probably know that next week – September 12, to be exact – is when Apple is expected to announce iPhone 5 details.

The New YorkTimes covered how other vendors of consumer tech have adjusted their PR schedules in light of Apple, which does tend to suck the air out of all other coverage (see Rivals Jostle for Spotlight… and excerpts below).

Back when Apple
was an underdog, it had an easier time shrouding its product
announcements in mystery and perhaps catching its competitors off guard. But now technology companies are watching every one of Apple’s moves — and scrambling to get out in front of them.

Several major tech companies are cramming product announcements into this holiday-shortened workweek…

In past years it was common for technology companies to deliver product news at trade shows like the Consumer Electronics Show
in Las Vegas. Now some major companies have scaled back their presence
at those conventions and followed Apple’s lead in running their own
elaborate news conferences, hoping to grab the news media’s undivided
attention.

Fall product introductions are important to companies seeking to
generate excitement ahead of the holiday shopping season. The fall has
become especially jam-packed with news in recent years as both the
number of companies involved and their product lines have grown, with
the addition of players like Amazon and its Kindle products as well as
all the companies building mobile devices based on Google’s Android operating system.

Posted in In the News, Marketing, PR Tech, Tech, Tech PR | Comments Off on Attention Story Shoppers: Only 6 Pitching Days Left (NY Times Deconstructs Tech PR in Light of Apple News)

Sniping Between Major Tech Blogs Reveals Intensely Competitive Nature of Tech News

A series of blog posts and comments revealed how intensely competitive, and sometimes deeply personal the world of tech news can be.
It started out as a rant about broken embargoes, and devolved into trash talking between players from two major tech blogs.

Ryan Lawler, a TechCrunch blogger who wrote  that an unnamed blog violated an embargo, causing him some angst and jeopardizing his plans to cover the same news.  He apparently took some heat for this post and followed it up with this mea culpa on his own blog: Exclusive – Area blogger Wishes He Had Done Some Things Differently.

I have written about the press embargo (see this post for a definition, and some context).  I’ve had some fun with the topic, after all, this is tech news, not stories about global economic concerns, or ending war or world hunger (it used to be amusing to watch Michael Arrington get so exercised about them when he was running TechCrunch, before the AOL acquisition.  Many incorrectly assumed that what he said back then – basically, that TechCrunch will not do embargoes – is still true; it isn’t)

Yet, I should not (and don’t) take the topic too lightly; our clients rely on our ability to get news out, in a way that satisfies their goals and at the same time helps journalists. The embargo is an important tool in our arsenal.

You can get a sense of the stakes, and how strongly the bloggers feel by reading the comments section of the post that started the whole thing, which shows trash talking between Lawler and GigaOm editor Tom Krazit (as it turns out Lawler used to work for GigaOm – the other blog involved, which was not named at first; this might explain why the exchange seems personal).

The posts give you a glimpse, as Lawler says, into how the tech news “sausage is made.”

Posted in In the News, PR Tech | 2 Comments

Social Media Marketing Insight: Big Data Challenge and Opportunity

My monthly content marketing column today focuses on trend tracking in the social media wild.

It shouldn’t be hard to do this, right? Everywhere you look you see various trending reports, and there are many services which aim to index, organize and take the pulse of online content and interactions.

However my quest to get information in a certain way proved to be very frustrating, and in studying this I came to better understand what is needed to glean useful intelligence from that vast Petri dish we call the social, real-time Web. It is the ultimate big data challenge.

My inquiries gave me the chance to catch up with Jure Leskovec, a Stanford Universtiy researcher whom I spoke with for a series of posts on this blog, and today’s column.
Jure and his team have an impressive workbench and process, as I explained in my post: Study Indentifies Popularity Curves for Online News.

Over a number of projects they have taken a microscope to millions upon millions of archived tweets and blog posts to study cause and effect in the spread of information, and how online influence works.

But how to study trends on live data in real time or almost real time? It is another question altogether.
When I spoke with Jure for my column, he explained some of the obstacles, relevant areas of study and technology, and also took some time to explain his latest paper (which explored how information spreads when it originates within networks vs. topics introduced from outside sources, like mainstream media).

The challenges are not insignificant – they push technologies related to AI, semantic search, storage, processing, cloud and unstructured data analytics past the current limits.

You can read more about what I was trying to accomplish in my column; hopefully, vendors are paying close attention, as I provide a wish list of functionality that I believe most social media marketers would find to be very useful

The opportunities are clear: as more conversations and information migrate online, the prize will go to those who can get there first, in terms of gleaning useful info, and acting on it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Absurd to Call Samsung Customer Service Issue a “Tech PR Fail”

The Twittersphere lit up yesterday over a piece in the NY Times. The Haggler consumer advocate Hatchet-job1column reported a customer service issue involving a Samsung printer. The problem escalated, a PR person somehow got caught in the middle, and before you knew it, people were flagging this as another instance of tech PR gone wild.

I share the link and a few excerpts to illustrate:

Q: In September 2010, I bought a Samsung all-in-one laser printer. It performed well until early 2012, when Samsung changed something… the cartridges have the same name and product number, but they no longer work with my printer… in other words, the change instantly made a relatively new printer obsolete

A: …When the Haggler wrote to Samsung, a woman….who works for the public relations firm… sent an email that said should be attributed to a “spokesperson” for the company…. “We are sorry to hear of the problem… To the best of our knowledge the problem described is an anomaly… we have since offered a courtesy on-site repair” A technician visited the customer at no charge.

The printer was ultimately replaced. No harm no foul, right?

Not so fast, there was not such a happy ending here; getting resolution took some teeth pulling and was very frustrating for the customer; it wasted time and got the Haggler involved in the first place. The Haggler endured some aggravation, too (well, at least he filled some white space with the sad story). And Samsung and its PR firm (named in the column) got unwelcome attention.

The Haggler ended the piece with the swipe:

Less than illuminating… but a fitting end to Samsung’s ham handed approach to public relations

Really?!!! Seems to me that this was a customer service issue turned into a PR issue because a publication and PR person got involved. Is the Haggler advocating better PR or better customer service? Should Samsung have performed differently or better because suddenly the NY Times was involved? Since they implemented their toll-free number, their service response times have significantly improved.

I am not necessarily defending Samsung; shame on them for not jumping on the problem and resolving it more quickly. The hapless PR person was caught in the middle, please Haggler (and people everywhere) don’t shoot the messenger.

And Haggler, why not demand to speak to a customer service manager, surely you have a little clout? Let’s please call a customer service issue for what it is and not take cheap shots at easy targets.

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NY Tech in Numbers Infographic / Thank You, Summer 2012 Interns

At Fusion PR, we've enjoyed watching the growth of the NY tech scene in recent years.  Our home office is here in the city, as are a number of clients, so we have front row seats.  I and others at the agency like to attend the local networking and educational events, and read about the latest developments in the media.

I have wanted, for awhile, to quite literally chart the growth of NY tech, not just with words but images too.  The plan has been to tell the great story that is unfolding via a series of infographics.  I am sharing the first one with this post; it was created by our NY summer interns. The infographic shows the state of NY tech in numbers.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank our summer interns.  The group this year has been nothing short of exceptional.  Each and everyone has helped us in our efforts to deliver the best results possible for our clients.

So, thank you, Carole Bersillon, Hannan Ben Slimane, Laura Baumann, Rachael Barhelmes, and Alyzeh Ashraff.  We hope you stay in touch and come back!

New York Tech Scene Soars is New Heights (2)

Posted in NY Tech | Comments Off on NY Tech in Numbers Infographic / Thank You, Summer 2012 Interns

NY Tech Updates, via NY Daily News

My girlfriend and I stayed at her beach house on Long Island for a few days. It was nice to enjoy time in the sun, on the beautiful beach at Smith Point.  I Rjpd2bpy0s5bhymdinvmgenerally fight wind, sand and ocean spray while trying to read the newspaper there.  After leafing through the NY Times (my favorite), I read the NY Daily News (hers).

During this trip I zeroed in on the following NY tech-related stories in the News. Please see excerpts below in italics; visit the links to get the full articles::

A "Nerd Bus" to Connect High-Tech Hubs 

New York’s senior senator is calling for a “Nerd Bus” that would link up high tech hubs in Brooklyn and Queens with Roosevelt Island — and help some of the city’s brightest bulbs get around town.

“New York is seeing a major tech boom, with Brooklyn and Long Island City leading the way,” Sen. Chuck Schumer said. “And now the new Cornell Tech campus on Roosevelt Island is going to be a game changer that further cements New York’s position as a leader in tech.

In a letter to the MTA, Schumer asked that transit officials consider “connecting these two new proposed bus routes” and looking into extending into Long Island City and Roosevelt Island once the Cornell campus construction is completed.

The city's tech sector employed 120,000 as of 2010, up 30% from 2005, according the New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC).

The Bloomberg administration, which is pushing to pump up the city's tech economy, is working to fill the talent gap. Last week, it gave $15 million in financial help to Columbia University to help expand its engineering school.

That's on top of $100 million awarded to Cornell University and Technion-Israel Institute of Technology to help fund an engineering campus on Roosevelt Island. NYU's also adding a tech outpost in Downtown Brooklyn.

In all, the three projects are expected to more than double the city's existing number of full time graduate engineering students.

Columbia University Joins Movement to Make NY a Center of High Tech Innovation 

It started with Mayor Bloomberg’s plan to offer land on Roosevelt Island and $100 million in infrastructure to whoever had the best idea for a genius-magnet graduate school.

Cornell, with an Israeli partner, won. But the city didn’t give up on the runners-up .

Next came NYU, leading an international consortium to build a Center for Urban Science and Progress in downtown Brooklyn. Then there was the New York Genome Center, which signed a lease on a Tribeca building .

Now, we welcome Columbia to the party. It’s plunking down at least $80 million — along with $15 million in city money — for an institute that will develop groundbreaking social media technologies, design environmentally friendly infrastructure — even think through how to make financial markets work better.


 

Posted in NY Tech, Reading Files | Comments Off on NY Tech Updates, via NY Daily News

Quality Photos are Marketing Money

There have been many stories about the death of PR (see my post Circle of Life in PR). And now it seems SteveLesnickthat SEO is being killed off too (see this Forbes piece). Yet, the last time I looked, the PR field continues to grow; and I don’t get the feeling that good SEO professionals are lacking work.

The same, sadly, cannot be said for the field of professional photography; yet you don’t see many articles about its decline (there was one such piece in the NY Times two years ago; more recent articles about the field focus on the photo retouching controversy).

It is a sad fact that the growth of photo sharing, digital cameras, and cheap stock photo sites are sucking the life out of professional photography.  People are all too willing to sacrifice quality in the name of saving a few bucks.

I know this because I ride the train every day with Steve Lesnick, a commercial advertising photographer.

Steve is extremely talented, and has a great track record and portfolio (see the link and photo on the right); yet his business has suffered, and he is not alone, if you believe the NY Times piece.

I asked him for his comments; this is is what Steve had to say on the topic:

I’ve been living and watching the entire dumbing down of visual arts that has taken place since everyone got Photoshop/Quark/Illustrator and a decent digital camera. They were supposed to be tools, not styles or an end result.

Great images create an emotional connection with the viewer. To me, a company that brands itself with mediocre imagery in their advertising makes it look like an afterthought.

Since when is “it’s good enough” good enough, if you want to stand out from your competitors? Wouldn’t it be cheaper to do something that is more memorable from the beginning?

If a company will only spend a nickel on their advertising/images are they only going to spend a nickel on product development, testing and customer service too?

If you think Steve sounds a little bitter, can you blame him? It is not easy to see your life’s work, and the field around it, become increasingly irrelevant.

But perhaps there is hope for photography. More and more people are speaking out about the power of visual images in marketing, and the importance of high quality (see these examples: You Should be in Pictures, Studies Show that People Ignore Generic Photos, 5 Content Marketing Ideas worth Stealing, The Evocative Visual Approach to Social Media Marketing).

Amidst the online noise and clutter, a compelling image might just be ticket to having your marketing stand out.

Online marketing is growing, as is content marketing – both increasingly benefit by using high quality, professionally produced imagery as an attention getter. Will the rising tide of these forms of marketing lift the boat of professional photography?

Check out Steve Lesnick or other professional photographers. Spend the money to get the high quality images that will deliver top marketing results – you won’t regret it.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

VCs Wake up to the fact that PR Actually Works

In the tech PR field, we have an interesting and sometimes tortured relationship with VCs. Especially for ShowMetheMoneythose of us that work with startups, we value the financial muscle that they bring. We greatly appreciate it when they they introduce us to their portfolio companies.

On the other hand, things can get tricky when VCs try to micromanage PR programs, as I wrote in this post awhile back.

As a group, they have always seemed a bit impenetrable. Sure most of them are scary smart and understand all areas of business including PR. However, many have been reluctant to toot their own horns and use the tools of the PR trade.

This seems to be changing, according to an article in the NY Times yesterday, which highlights the success of Andreesen Horowitz (a firm that has not been shy about using PR), and the trend of VC firms to embrace PR and other forms of marketing.  Here is an excerpt:

It wasn’t so long ago that venture capitalists kept secrets…Self-promotion was shunned [by VCs] as crass.  Now, Sand Hill Road in Silicon Valley is one long parade route. Venture capitalists are hiring full-time public relations experts to tell bloggers and reporters of their investing prowess. They publicize their every doing and thought on Twitter and in blog posts.

The self-promotion, branding and race to build an admiring Twitter following, people here say, is a symptom of the stresses on the consolidating venture capital industry…

But the biggest catalyst for the attention-seeking atmosphere, venture capitalists say, has been the rise of Andreessen Horowitz. The speed with which the venture firm — started by Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape, and Ben Horowitz, a former executive there — has rocketed to the top ranks has served as a case study in successful self-promotion.

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