By Kami Huyse and Geoff Livingston

Jointly posted on Communication Overtones and the Buzz Bin

Yesterday, our friends Todd Defren and Brian Solis posted a challenge to the industry to better define the social media release (SMR). Let us preface our remarks that both Todd and Brian have driven the SMR from concept to reality, and should receive kudos for constructively contributing this idea to the public relations industry and to the age-old debate about the value of the press release.

At the heart of their discussion was a conversation about what a SMR is and what it isn’t:

“Social Media Releases may look similar to today’s multimedia releases in format, structure and design, but depending on a series of factors, they have the ability to open up dialog in a way not possible with traditional or multimedia releases.�?

Brian and Todd argue that sharing quality information is not enough, but that the SMR should also be fully “socialized.�? Socialized is defined as hosting conversations, providing trackbacks, enabling links to social networks and bookmarking sites and using links and tags that drive all of the images, video, and audio posted to social networks back to the SMR.

Storyboarding the SMR

The reality is that more and more people are becoming content creators. The purview of content creation extends beyond professional journalists and to the everyday person. The SMR should facilitate breaking out information for all content creators including the media, citizen journalist and enthusiast.

This emerging SMR method uses a story boarding approach to make the content both appealing and portable, ala podcasts, RSS feeds, YouTube videos, Flickr photos, social media tags, and bulleted formats. This storyboard is intentionally not fully conversational, but instead assumes that it is itself an “a la carte�? catalyst for exporting the conversation. Last week’s Ford social media release was a great example of this conversational catalyst form.

Enabling Conversation Rather than Hosting It

This approach takes a more word-of-mouth approach, rather than leaving “breadcrumbs that ultimately aggregate the resulting conversations in one convenient spot.�? Ultimately, an SMR needs to be about who will read and use it: an organization’s stakeholders.

Do we need another standalone social media enabled form? Or is this conversation better held in other pre-existing forums, like social networks, podcasts and blogs.

An SMR is candy for content creators to generate their own content pieces, a ready made format to facilitate word-of-mouth and distributed conversation rather than forcing it occur around the content elements. And that’s why storyboarding with social media elements is so fun. And smart.

The Train Has Left the Station

Back to Brian and Todd’s points, we know they could be right. The point is that the train may have already left the station. There are so many folks experimenting with this format that the final resting place could be far from anyone’s current concepts. The movement forward needs to be inclusive of all of these voices… and their experiences.

To create a cohesive view of an SMR, all parties need to gather behind a standard. There are several needs:

· A clear list of components needs to be developed.

· Wire services need to be better equipped for distribution at affordable rates

· Major agencies need to support the SMR in its standardized form

· Stewardship needs to be passed gracefully to bodies like the Working Group

Currently the very talented Shannon Whitley, chair of the Social Media Release Working Group, is dedicated to creating technology standards for creating and distributing SMRs. We’d like to see the SMR Working Group get more support from the wire services or some of the larger agencies to help standardize SMRs. Or we’d like to see the Working Group team with PRSA or another organization to achieve these goals. It’s time for the industry to work together on this important, emerging form, and one organization or another needs to drive the bus.

Also, we would like to leave on the note (as did Brian and Todd) that the SMR is a tool, a new powerful one, but only meant to serve the community. Great PR is about building goodwill between an organization and its stakeholders. That means delivering great, honest and meaningful content that matters to your community.

In a bonus interview, Ray Hopewood, Internet phenomenon for President, discusses the issues that matter here in DC. This openly fake, social media-generated presidential campaign is sponsored by BigFix. And it has generated national media Using social media, our pseudo-candidate is capable of answering all issues. Now he took some time to answer our questions regarding politics and more…

BB: What’s it like when you and the other big Silicon Valley CEOs like Jobs and Ellison get together?

RH: Well, I’ve learned not to play board games with them. They don’t like to lose. Jobs usually ‘reinvents the rules’ as he calls it. If you’re beating Ellison, he usually screams “Earthquake!� and then tips the table over so the pieces go flying. Mostly we race our Lamborghinis, or our 100-foot yachts, or our private jets. You know, we just do regular-guy stuff. But in general, you have to think of activities that don’t require sharing.

BB: Ray, Washington, D.C. is a political city. How should established politicians consider your campaign?

RH: Established politicians should consider Ray Hopewood the Candidate of Opportunity and Prosperity. Everyone has an opportunity to have their voice heard, provided, of course, their constituents buy obscenely large amounts of software from a certain company. I believe in government of the people who spend a lot of money, for the people who sell expensive things, and by the people who sell those expensive things and take that money.

BB: You say technology is the big issue for 2008. How can technology improve the situation in Iraq?

RH: Well Iraq is a difficult subject. Now I’m a music fan, and I rap a little on the side, but I rock as well. But the state of music is definitely a supply and demand economy – we can’t force the people to have more rock and less rap. So I rock, I rap, you country, you techno, it’s really up to the people.

BB: How can technology reform Congress?

RH: I believe the answer to that is simple: Congress needs to install a lot of software. And when I say ‘a lot,’ I’m talking ‘A LOT,’ as in trillions of dollars ‘a lot.’ Now you may think that will drive up the national debt, but investment in incredibly expensive software has a major trickle down effect. Because if you buy from my company, that money trickles down to Ray Hopewood.

BB: You are using social media as a primary communications form. What do you think of other candidates’ use of these social technologies?

RH: I won’t mince words here, I won’t beat around the bush. Hillary Clinton’s quest for a theme song was a disaster. She really looked silly, because the people who use social technologies knew that she didn’t understand who she was talking to. However, her faux pas wasn’t nearly as bad as Barack Obama’s use of Ask a Ninja for ‘promise me your vote or you’ll be looking at the business end of my friends’ “throwing star� campaign, or Fred Thompson’s ‘Pimp Thompson’s Grille’ site where he took bids on sponsoring his new gold teeth.

Now a lot of people say Ron Paul is the ‘social media candidate,’ but we all know his supporters are lonely, chubby guys who arrange their calendars around Star Trek conventions. Besides, he’s worth less than $20 million so in America that makes him a non-person – we all know that in this country there are laws against the non-rich being elected president.

BB: What’s your favorite technology?

RH: The Wii hand controller is really cool. I’ve connected one to the ERP system at Hopewood Technologies. Ever see 25,000 employees doing jumping jacks in unison? Awesome!

BB: We recently had nationally syndicated astrologer Jacqueline Bigar on the Buzz Bin to predict the election. She chose Hillary. What’s your opinion of the stars aligning for Hilary?

RH: I think the Honorable Senator from Arkansas has a great shot. I’m sure the people of Arkansas are behind her all the way, as she’s lived there for so long. Wait, I’m getting a note from my staff … sorry, the Honorable Senator from Washington D.C., the people there are behind her, because she lived there for eight years.

One second … wait, New York? Seriously, New York? How long did she live there before she ran? Two weeks? You’re kidding. Is that even legal? Hmm. You learn something new every day. Sorry about the interruption … the Honorable Senator from New York already claims the stars align for her, which is totally false.

Ray Hopewood heard a radio ad several years ago where you could pay to re-name a star, and Ray Hopewood bought every last one. Boy, was Ellison pissed when he found out. They are named ‘Hopewood 1’ through Hopewood ‘29,346,213,003.’ So I’m sorry, Ms. Senator from New Arkanashington D.C., but the stars align only for their master, Ray Hopewood.

Jane Sweat is the author of Jericho Monster, one of many blogs that helped an otherwise failing network show to become an internet sensation. With a dedicated fanbase and savvy social media use, Jericho became the fastest show cancellation reversal in history, thanks to YouTube, blogs, Ning communities, and MySpace and Facebook group support. In fact, Nielsen media has now chosen to monitor DVR usage and viewing habits to add to their metrics.

BB: CBS was going to cancel Jericho…why?

JS: Jericho premiered and received excellent ratings, around 11 million, until CBS put it on hiatus from November until February. Viewership dropped to 8-9 million when the show returned, due in part to the midseason break and going up against American Idol.

What CBS also did not consider until after the cancellation was the number of viewers who were watching Jericho online or using alternative methods of viewing (DVR, TiVo), which was largely ignored by Nielsen until after the cancellation.

BB: What was you role in the save Jericho campaign?

JS: I fell in love with Jericho as soon as I watched the pilot episode so I went to whodroppedthebombs.com, which was a message board for Jericho fans. This was how I learned Jericho had been canceled.

Once the campaign to save Jericho began I joined other fans in writing, calling, and emailing CBS to bring back Jericho. As time went on, I started my first blog called Jericho Monster, which was a name used by a corporate blogger in reference to the fans. He publishes under the name BoonDoggie.

BB: Why did you send nuts?

JS: It originated with character Jake Green (Skeet Ulrich) borrowing the historic phrase in response to a final offer of surrender from New Bern, who was going to take over their town. Green remembered it from a story his grandfather told him about WWII. During the Battle of the Bulge, General Anthony C. McAuliffe gave that answer to a German demand for surrender in World War II.

It fit the show because that is how the town Jericho felt. It fit the fans because that is how we felt. Outnumbered and outgunned with very little chance to win.

So we used it and it started to have many meanings. CBS was nuts to cancel Jericho and because they continue to rely on Nielsen numbers. The nuts, for me, basically said we, the viewers, not only want Jericho back but we want you to see that Nielsen is not counting every person who watched the show. The numbers were there. They were nuts not to know it.

BB: How did you get the word out about the nuts?

JS: Fans wrote CNN, all the entertainment sites, and other news outlets. Most of us, at that time, didn’t realize that bloggers would be our greatest allies.

Once Michelle Malkin wrote about us the story began to spread like wildfire. (Thanks Boondoggie.) SciFy Michael joined in as did Rich Becker of Copywrite Ink. We thank all of them.

As these bloggers picked it up and Nuts Online organized nut shipping, the media started to listen. We had many efforts going all at once: a petition, nuts shipments, YouTube videos, forums to organizing people, Web sites, T-shirts, bumper stickers, a BlogTalkRadio show, paid advertising, and more. Almost too much to remember. It worked. We were covered by every major news outlet from Entertainment Weekly to The New York Times and Wall Street Journal.

BB: What was the end result of this effort?

JS: The end result was twofold:

1) CBS renewed Jericho and

2) CBS and Nielsen realized fans were watching online as well as saving shows on their DVRs.

They already knew this, but it made them move faster.

CBS is now expanding into the Internet at a faster pace and Nielsen now measures DVR usage and is trying to include more People Meters in more households.

The Jericho campaign was possibly the largest, absolutely the fastest show cancellation reversal in history.

BB: How did social media blogs, community groups, etc. help?

JS: They were a tremendous help at keeping people connected. As time went on, several forums were developed with different types of fan attracted to each. Originally, we considered the CBS forums … yes, CBS’s own forums … the front lines and Jericho Rally Point was our fall back position if we were kicked off CBS.

Every day, we would use the forums to launch operations. People who belonged to different groups, whether it was another forum, IMDB, or MySpace would post the daily orders so everyone could stay on the same page. Some fans converted their MySpace pages so they became Jericho fansites. Others started blogs or added forums like RadioFreeJericho. Ning was a helpful resource and BlogCatalog has been very effective in bringing more visitors/fans to all the Jericho blogs.

Since all of this was done in public, bloggers like Boondoggie at Find-The-Boots and Rich at Copywrite Ink could find content, make contact, and write about us. Those too even offered business and marketing ideas. Michael Hinman (SciFyPortal) and Maureen Ryan (Chicago Tribune) also helped spread the word by covering our efforts frequently.

BB: There are some serious Facebook groups dedicated to Jericho. What do you think about social networking and the shows fan base?

JS: I think social networking has been crucial in our efforts to find new viewers. Facebook is one of the many social networks we use. Many new fans have also been found on Hey!Nielsen. These are fans who may not use message boards or may prefer not to post.

Fans knew CBS gave us the responsibility of finding new viewers for Season 2 so we knew we had to reach as many people as possible on and off the Internet. Social networks are great because different people are interested in different things. Some only want to talk about the show and some want to jump in and help promote it. Others write fan fiction stories about it. There are whole sites dedicated to that.

BB: What’s next for Jane Sweat?

JS: What’s next for me is continuing to promote the Season 1 DVD, Season 2, and using all the tools available on the Internet (social networking, blogs, forums, etc.) to spread the word that Jericho has something for everyone to enjoy.

Conversation Group Co-Founder Chris Heuer and I discussed our roles before yesterday’s CEA Industry Forum panel on social media. We started with the need for social media consultants to get out of the echo chamber and talk to businesses. Our discussion revolved around and progressed over several points:

• Businesses approach towards managing the brand, and their generally initial approach of exploiting social media as a sales channel
• Measurement and case studies
• The shift in business ethos/perspective
• Ford’s social media release
• The greatness of Jeremiah
• The Ray Hopewood Campaign
• Dell’s Complete 180 from Jarvis Hell
• New Media Jim

Total length is 20:30. You can download directly via libsyn, or listen to the podcast here.

When I graduated from college we didn’t have Facebook. It was slowly entering other schools, yet hadn’t quite made it to my small university yet. The next year, Facebook was opened up to my school (myself included since I still had a .edu email address) and suddenly the word network(ing) took on a whole new meaning.

My Facebook Relationship

Through my own experience, I have found a love/hate relationship with Facebook. At first, I thought it was light years ahead of Friendster (although poor Friendster just missed the bubble on that development), yet seemed to be more calm and tame than MySpace (actually, more professional). Now though, I realize Facebook takes a lot of time and effort to maintain, particularly if you’re using it for business networking. It can also be annoying now with all of the added applications. The newsfeed that is supposed to bring new ideas and share your updates with your network, can be both informative and invasive.

Over time, I found I was logging in to Facebook less and less. I was annoyed by the changes in privacy settings, newsfeeds, and then the addition of applications and finally opening it up to the general public. I think that what made Facebook special and intriguing from the beginning was the fact that it was exclusive to college students, to their own university. At the core, it was set up to really look at social networks, develop communities, and share relationships and common interests, and that’s what I liked about it.

I’ve found that now that I am becoming more visible through the Buzz Bin and working at Livingston, I feel a need to go through my tagged photos and carefully proof my interests and groups to make sure nothing embarrassing pops up (although I haven’t, mostly because I’m too lazy). We all know of too many stories of sudden media frenzies over Facebook photos, whether it’s something provocative or just plain offensive. Maybe I’ve also grown up a little bit, and just don’t want that many people knowing everything about me, or feeling like they do from my Facebook profile.

Facebook and the Corporate World

As everyone knows by now, Facebook is also a useful tool for the 30+ and 40+ crowd, to be used not only for social fun but for business and marketing through the newsfeed and group memberships. In fact, even those over 40 have found Facebook. However, as more and more younger people are entering the workforce, and businesses either choose to embrace Facebook use, or reject it; how do these people who have essentially “grown up” with Facebook approach the professional use?

While more companies are turning to Facebook for internal use (some requiring employees to be a part of it) and recruiting purposes, others are using it to look up potential employees to make sure that there is nothing “distasteful” shown on their profile - whether it’s a picture or something else.

Personally, I think it’s kind of hypocritical that the same companies who are advocating Facebook use for recruiting and networking, may also be using it to judge potential candidates for jobs. How can you fully believe in something without accepting it for what it is?

Defining Networks

There is a difference between Facebook and LinkedIn, and MySpace and Facebook. I consider MySpace to be a lot more personal and private, and also annoying in its customization features and spastic pages. Although with Facebook applications now, the pages can become a bit cluttered - but the overall visual effect remains the same.

It seems however, that Facebook is turning into the new LinkedIn for professionals, and vice versa. In fact, LinkedIn announced a couple weeks ago that it would be allowing a photo upload feature. To me, that was the one differentiator between LinkedIn and the other social networking sites, the part that made it “professional.” But now, I think that the line between personal and professional is even more blurred - and I’m not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Jim Louderback at PCMag had a refreshing and witty piece the other day which really defines Facebook, among the other social networks. He points out that “crowds can be fickle” and although everyone is jumping on Facebook right now, we could soon have networks that are no longer updated and cared for with the same aggressive interest as we have now.

Facebook and You

On the Buzz Bin, we have discussed the issue of personal vs. professional life on Facebook, and also the idea that Facebook could just be at its peak through frenzied media coverage and rapid adoption by companies. In the meantime, it seems to be here to stay. Facebook is everywhere, even on your iphone. I have a feeling though, that the love affair will come to an end sooner or later, as the frenzy fizzles out and a new crush is found.

The question is, until (or if) that happens, how do YOU choose to use Facebook? As more businesses adopt Facebook, the lines between personal and professional are going to continue to be crossed and confused. How much you choose to reveal can affect your career. At the same time, are you missing out on forming key relationships and finding common ground with other professionals by not sharing your love of the Nationals or a well made Manhattan?

If anything, Facebook is something that everyone should try out, whether or not you choose to build your page, and relationships with it, is your call. Remember that with the correct audience, Facebook can build a better business tool than just about anything else. You just have to find that audience.

“Public relations is at a crossroads,” declares Jeremy Pepper at POP! PR Jots. With the backup of PR heavy-hitters Jack O’Dwyer and Richard Edelman and balanced by the boutique voives of Matthew Podboy of Voce Communications, Jonathan Zaleski of The PR Collective and Ben Silverman of PR Fuel; Jeremy and other industry leaders examine what exactly is in store for the profession of public relations.

Does the global reach and name brand appeal of larger multinational agencies work for or against the reputation of public relations practitioners? Or is the real hidden gem of PR in the creativity and excitement of the smaller shops, who are able to be less bureaucratic in their rules and regulations about billing, budgets and defining ROI measurement.

In considering how public relations is evolving, PR Squared examines the lifecycle of a social media news release (SMNR). Through a short note to a well known “marketing guru”, SHIFT Communications was able to secure Twitter updates, a blog posting, and finally a Boston Globe article for their client. By developing interesting and accessible content, reaching out to the blogging community and monitoring and participating in the conversations that follow, you have a great recipe for success with SMNRs.

Bloggers may need to take a break from blogging about public relations, to doing a little PR for themselves. However hard we try, bloggers seem to still get a negative reaction (astroturfing, anyone?) when it comes to truth and credibility. According to research from Edelman, bloggers in Australia have a trust/credibility rating of 3%.

Facebook is rapidly becoming not only a place for college (and high school) students to meet, greet and network; but for corporations to do the same. Rohit Bhargava examines Eight Marketing Ideas from Facebook Groups and how groups can grow into marketing influencers.

Our friend Toby Bloomberg at Diva Marketing Blog shows us how building relationships with companies and providing fresh ideas in social media can benefit everyone from the client to their customer. It’s all about engaging in conversation and giving an “untapped community” the opportunity to speak and share ideas.

And finally Technosailor has nicely summarized the “how-to” of Twitter. With more companies coming on board and adopting Twitter, it’s important to not only use it effectively in your marketing and messaging, but also realize that “Twitter’s power is in authenticity and transparency.” Make sure to take as much care in managing the relationships with those who are on your Twitter follower (and following) list as you would your blogroll. Make sure that you are not only engaging in the conversation, but are also participating.

Last Monday we discussed the challenges facing business adoption of social media tools and principles. To get to the other side, social media consultants need to help businesses navigate the sociological challenges of our dynamic new environment.

We must evangelize, and guide them from the command and control era into the participation ethos. Inside the echo chamber this seems obvious, but that’s because we already have savoire faire.

If there’s one thing I’ve gleaned from speaking to many executives and entrepreneurs over the past few weeks, it’s the sure knowledge that the everyday business person still understands very little about social media. The chasm is deep, and it is wide. We are still early in the adoption cycle, and these folks need guides to successfully navigate new media forms.

Many great marketing and PR pros are already out there on the front lines doing it. But most of us are still on the inside, having fun, rallying ourselves. It’s easier to wax poetic about the echo chamber’s meme du jour than going outside the comfort zone to discuss the actual value of participation to unconvinced businesses.

In the past couple of months, I’ve been privileged to interact with Shel Israel. In one instance, I kvetched about speaking before what I perceived to be a hostile crowd, set against social media. Shel called me out, and said it was easy to convince the believers, but the real victories are won by convincing non-engaged organizations.

This was a great favor. Excitement about social media is best channeled where the most impact can be made. For me, that’s through service to the larger business community as it seeks knowledge about social networks and blogs.

Consider some of the possible outcomes:

• More businesses listening to their stakeholders
• More loyal customers who are committed to brands
• By-products include more ethical businesses that have increased sales
• And for us, well there’ll be more social media work instead of old school marketing and PR (think fun)

Now is the time. We are the ones leading the marketing & PR professions into this new era. To make it happen, we must focus.

The industry still needs more case studies with hard quantifiable results. Then we need to get outside the echo chamber, highlight our collective successes, and guide companies through the adoption phase. It’s time to evangelize.

Ford Motor company has introduced the 2008 with Focus with probably the best social media release I have ever seen (Thanks to Jane Quigley for sending me this link.). Incredible images, RSS enabled, YouTube Video, PDF fact sheets, bulleted no BS (or at least less BS) facts, correctly sized Flickr photos and a variety of executive quotes makes for a fantastic story making page.

This new social media news release takes the emerging form to a new level, and demonstrates that companies can reinvigorate, static and boring parenthetical form with dynamic content. The result: a virtual work sheet that any blogger, journalist or analyst can use as starting point for a story.

Kudos to the Ford PR team and their firm, the Social Media Group, for aggressively pursuing a new way of engaging media. Social Media Group blogger Maggie Fox discussed the SMNR on the company blog:

…with this implementation we were aiming for simply a way of sharing content with people who wanted it in formats they could use, all conveniently located in one place. Period.

The release was issued on the Ford web site. One must wonder how they pushed it out to traditional media and bloggers. And it would be great to get a post mortem from Maggie and the Ford SMNR team.

It does not look like wire services were used. In that sense it was more of a web-site only release, and not a true news release. But to be frank, based on my experiences with the wire services, I doubt any of them could have handled this sophisticated document (they still function in a primarily text world due to some of their receiving outlets low tech capabilities).

No pain, no gain. No guts, no glory. The pr profession is screaming those words from the rooftop. It’s deafening to organizations who are trying to hide behind ‘traditional pr.’ Those organizations who are trying to continue on as if change isn’t happening, or for that matter, has happened already.

There are those who say traditional pr is dead. I don’t know if I agree that it’s dead yet, but it’s certainly dying. Six months ago, social media was not a part of my vocabulary. And today, it keeps evolving.

For Alex Koritz, it’s not. He says he recognize the importance of new media to the pr profession but what he’s missing is that new media is the pr profession.

Practioners who are trying to hold on to their old ways of thinking, who are unwilling to change, will be left behind. Clients don’t want a firm who can only solve half of the equation, they want a firm who can build a community.

Kyle Flaherty of Engage PR states it eloquently that true pr beyond 2008, will integrate technology and communication skills to start a conversation. He says those that integrate those skills will dominate the landscape.

I see that landscape and I’m excited to be a part of it. I wonder how many Practioners feel the same.

One of the hardest things about growing a company with a blog as its central marketing vehicle is how to handle new and different voices. This is particularly critical if you actually offer social media services. There’s a need to let others see more than one voice and get a real view of the company, a need to enable people to express themselves and engage in the conversation, and a need to use the blog as a corporate branding and discussion vehicle.

As with all things, when you get more than one person in a room, it is inevitable that you will have disparate views. Sometimes the views are quite different. Now that the company is growing, we are experiencing these differing views. Here’s how we are trying to resolve the need and right of every person to express their views versus the company’s marketing needs…

Social Media Posting and Commenting Policy

Social media enables every person in the world to have a voice. They can say what they, how they want, wherever they want to. And they should. This is the great freedom social media provides the world.

At the same time, Livingston Communications is a corporate entity with a very visible blog and certain views about social media. In many ways the blog markets the company, and positions it as an expert on marketing communications.

This policy seeks to achieve the following:

• Provide every employee freedom to express their views regardless of the company’s position.
• Express dissatisfaction with certain corporate views on the Buzz Bin or in the social media realm, either internally or externally.
• Respect the company’s views on social media and maintain the company’s corporate integrity. The Buzz Bin is a corporate blog — not a personal one — and represents the views of Livingston Communications.

Employees who strongly disagree with a view taken on the Buzz Bin or a comment outside of the company’s own media forms are asked to bring it up internally first (However; if you do not want to bring your issue to the company, feel free to proceed ahead to the section “Respecting the Minority Voice”). This is a small company — not Microsoft — and we should have an “inside the locker room” chat first. And the company values unity in its approach.

If a majority of the company members feel that the post or comment was off-center then a correction or counterpoint post can be created. That means Geoff Livingston, that Schmendrick CEO, can be outvoted. This adheres to the spirit of the group conscience, which is that all voices are correct, but the majority should carry the spirit of the community.

Respecting the Minority Voice

The minority voice should also be respected. In the future, opinions can change and move towards the minority view. Original posts and comments will not be torn down, even if the original party changes their mind. It is important to communicate course corrections, and why. It’s OK to admit your wrong, make amends, and move forward.

If the dissenting voice is in the minority, they still have a right to comment or post about it. However, Livingston Communications ask that this be done in the following ways:

Blog (podcast or vlog) posts: If you are outvoted on a Buzz Bin post, and you still feel compelled to say something, the company strongly encourages you to blog first before commenting. Your post will be linked to as a ping back within the comments section of said Buzz Bin post. Regardless, any related posts can link to the story, but should be published on the individual’s blog, microblog or other publishing format (employees are encouraged to blog!). We ask that if this step is taken, a small disclaimer is added to the blog’s about page, “My views do not represent my employer’s.”

Comment: Outside of the Buzz Bin comment away; just tag it with your own unique URL — not the Buzz Bin — and personal email address.

You can comment as a minority opinion the Buzz Bin. But more importantly, if you have to comment on the Buzz Bin, a couple of things should be acknowledged: 1) Your feel that your view must be stated on the post regardless of the company’s general position and 2) you are doing this in spite of having other communications vehicles at your disposal.

If you do elect to engage in commenting against corporate opinion on the Buzz Bin, you must be respectful of your peers in tone and voice. Respectful dissent will not be penalized.

Personality Attacks: Please refrain from attacking personalities. This is a violation of corporate policy. Since sensitivity can make personality attacks a very subjective determination, let’s examine some possibilities.