Nov 26 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

November 26, 2008 – 4:22 am

At least we can be grateful for one thing this year: No more turkey from this guy!

 

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See you next week!

 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Livingston Communications | Comments (1)
Nov 13 2008

The Now Is Gone Bookiversary

November 13, 2008 – 11:04 am
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Yesterday marked the one year anniversary of Now Is Gone’s release! So much has happened since then, it’s been amazing and humbling at the same time. Thank you to everyone who supported Now Is Gone (image by lunaweb).

I know Brian Solis also was humbled by the reception towards the book. For me, it was a life changing event (may write more about this on Off Hours), and the culmination of a 15 year dream of becoming an author.

Consider some of the milestones:

  • Thousands of people have read the book
  • We’ve received hundreds of thank yous from folks who said it changed their business life
  • Ike Pigott, Lauren Vargas and I wrote 200 accompanying blog posts on the Now Is Gone blog
  • Now Is Gone received more than 50 positive reviews
  • It was cited by the Wall Street Journal as a resource for small businesses (thank you, Scott Monty)
  • and, it won a silver Axiom Business Book Award

    • Perhaps the most exciting news is that we are approximately 2/3 of the way through the first print edition, and are starting to weigh edits/changes to the original manuscript. The second edition will provide an update, as well as the lessons learned. Some likely changes include more on influencer relations, more on social networks, less on blogs, more on the media’s use of social media, and fewer typos

    A Final Bow for First Edition Sources

    The following bloggers had either blog posts cited in and/or were interviewed for the first edition of Now Is Gone. Some of them won’t make it to the second edition as the book will change quite a bit.

    These sources will remain listed permanently on the Now Is Gone blog to honor them and provide business readers additional source material. If you have questions about marketing the book, or the use of bloggers as sources, I refer you to the previous post, “Marketing Now Is Gone.” To the bloggers, thank you for creating great content in the new media world. The book’s sources are:

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Geoff, Livingston Communications, social media | Tagged , , , , | Comments (11)
    Nov 5 2008

    The Communicators’ Election Breakdown

    November 5, 2008 – 1:29 pm
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    Now that Obama has officially won, post mortems can begin. Ragan Communications ran a great story about what the election taught communicators. All in all the article had 15 tips for communicators.

    I was interviewed and offered a couple of tips for Michael Sebastian’s piece:

    1) Social media is here to stay.

    You know the executives that balk at implementing social media campaigns, well Barack Obama and John McCain showed that social media is no passing fad. Both candidates embraced blogs, social networks and Web video.

    “These presidential campaigns are always trying to innovate and try the latest, greatest and best ways to activate their grassroots constituencies,” explained Washington D.C.-based PR pro Geoff Livingston. “And so for them to use social media tools as heavily as they have is to legitimize it.”

    2) Tap into social networks.

    The Obama campaign created a social network, MyBarackObama, on its official Web site. Members of that network at times criticized the candidate over his various positions. Livingston called this an ideal model for large corporate organizations.

    “If you can’t control your local people or your retail chain (for instance, a large charity or an automobile manufacturer with dealerships all over the place) who might be communicating or blogging on social networks then give them the tools to communicate. Enable them with the brand; don’t control them,” he explained.

    The article offers some substantive points. I hope you’ll check it out. I’d also like to add a couple more reflection points.

    McCain’s attempts to play into his personal brand — “maverick” — backfired on him. At first Palin bulwarked the claims and the race was neck and neck. But then the economy tanked, and McCain pulled out of the first debate to save the country vis a vis our 700 billion dollar bail-out. Whoops. All of the sudden the Palin choice came underfire. Note for communicators: A personality oriented brand does not necessarily equate to successful results.

    Here’s what some Twitterers thought of the maverick personal branding:

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    And secondly, TV still matters. I think Obama handed McCain his hat in the debates, not by being wittier, but simply coming across as younger and more vibrant. It was a rerun of Kennedy versus Nixon in that sense.

    What do you think were the key communications lessons from the 2008 election?

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Livingston Communications, PR | Comments (8)
    Oct 31 2008

    Richard Edelman Gets His Cluetrain On

    October 31, 2008 – 12:03 am

    Last night was the first ever Grunig lecture at the University of Maryland, and Richard Edelman was the keynote. His presentation is here. What I found to be so uncanny about the speech was his hard hitting start, dismissing conventional mass media advertising approaches and demanding that PR become an engagement model with real influencers, all the way to the family level.

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    Maybe it really is Halloween. Listening to Edeleman was kind of like watching a post mortem on the Cluetrain Manifesto’s impact. Or maybe like watching a historian dissect a recent, rather bloody revolution (image from Gagglescape).

    Now, I am sure Doc Searls et al did not envision the world’s largest private PR agency embracing the impact online has made (“There is no market for messages”), but it goes to show you how far the social web has come. Consider in our new fractured media environment the importance of Twitter in CNN broadcasts. The entire communications business has been turned upside down.

    And yes, while many of us have been beating this drum for quite some time, it’s now beyond question. Edelman’s adoption as an ethos marks the true rapid adoption point for the business. Now for communicators it’s about who can adapt quickest and with the best quality.

    Edelman went on to discuss how the new influencers impact PR, and how the business needs to move towards an engagement model that embraces a wide, diverse group of stakeholders (See Rich Becker’s discussion of the Edelman firm’s over-reliance on influencers to launch the new Pepsi can). During the question and answer phase, Edelman was quick to say that media relations will not disappear, but that all components — traditional and social — need to be integrated. He also spoke towards a topic near and dear to our hearts here at LComm, the need to embrace social good and incorporate it into business strategy.

    All in all, I thought it was a pretty darn good speech, and I am sure the students got a lot from the event. Find below my tweet stream from Edelman’s Grunig Lecture

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    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Livingston Communications, PR | Comments (2)
    Oct 20 2008

    Original Buzz Bin Flavor

    October 20, 2008 – 2:39 pm

    We’ve grown quite a bit as of late, and you’ve seen several new voices added to the blog over the past months.  Well, we’ve also got more clients and a new structure with Andrea Weckerle running our account services. We’ve decided that given how busy we are, it’s best if the account team leads are freed from their eight hour a month Buzz Bin blogging requirement.

    Larissa Fair, Qui Diaz and Andrea will no longer be blogging during their week.  At the same time, I’m focusing more on the outward face of the company. In their wake, I will blog on the Buzz Bin 3-4 times a week, like I used to back before Now Is Gone was getting set for release in September of 2007. I guess you can say we’re returning to the original Buzz Bin flavor.

    Mike Nelson will continue writing Blogs of Fire on Tuesdays, and Marinel Mones will write Buzz Meter on Thursdays.  Every business day we will publish a new post.

    Larissa Fair can be found on Twitter. You can continue to read Qui Diaz at the Evange.List. And Andrea Weckerle’s personal site can be found here. If you feel so inclined, please join me in thanking them for their contributions to this blog.

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Livingston Communications | Comments (4)
    Oct 14 2008

    Attitude and Actions

    October 14, 2008 – 3:03 pm

    Much to do about the economic times. Rumors of layoffs at the big agencies are percolating in the DC area. Accounts are starting to get cut. Many folks are waiting for the other shoe to drop. But this fear creates more issues than one can imagine, and in some cases can be a self fulfilling prophecy.

    I remember the last recession, we had so many telecom clients it required my agency at that time to lay off people in four or five different waves. It was like someone dropped a bomb in the office. Those of us left were shell-shocked, but we pulled out of it.

    Though we were disturbed, we kept focused and continued to work. In fact, we worked smarter, focusing our actions on intelligent activities that would make our time valuable.

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    “Twin” Greg Verdino (right) and I demonstrate positive attitudes. Earlier that day the stock market crashed.

    The big secret was that by getting results we felt better about our own futures and contributions. Attitude — feelings — followed action. Feelings and attitudes, while very powerful, are not facts. Business facts and results get determined by actions. Therefore, in a time like this with headlines like these, it’s even more important to keep moving forward.

    In an email to my team this week, I wrote:

    This kind of fear can be contagious. Empathy and sympathy are obvious reactions, but we need to guard ourselves from letting this fear into our hearts. We cannot afford it… we need to focus on taking small, actionable steps in the right direction. These right steps will keep our minds focused, deliver results, and maintain positive attitudes.

    It’s easy to get fancy with theory and wild campaigns in a time like this, but really survival success is based on executing on the little things. Basic fundamentals make the difference.

    Another key aspect of success lies in eliminating busy work, and focusing on actions that deliver meaningful results. Anyone can fill a time sheet with junk, but sooner or later it comes back to the results. And if the results are lacking in a down economy, it’s likely they will be called into question sooner rather than later. That’s why making sure actions are geared towards producing results is even more important now.

    For example, if you are a sales executive does it make sense to worry about the next generation brochure or a new contact manager right now? Should you be reinventing the sales PPT template? Or would it make more sense to make some phone calls, attend an events, and schedule meetings with old clients?

    Just an old tip for this recession: Mood follows action.

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Geoff, Livingston Communications | Comments (2)
    Oct 10 2008

    Recession Brass Tacks

    October 10, 2008 – 1:26 am

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    It shouldn’t surprise anyone to see posts titled "The Role of Ethical Brands in a Down Economy," "The Four Social Media Questions You Must Answer During an Economic Downturn," "In A Down Economy, Tomorrow’s Leaders Are Born Today," "Will Social Media Help PR Weather the Storm," and "25 Ways Social Media Prepares You for a Social Media Downturn." All of these respected marketers have the recession in mind (image by collective nouns).

    There were some great insights in these articles, most of which I liked Todd Defren’s statistical based analysis showing online marketing will be the bright spot in communications. I disagreed w/ some of Chris Brogan’s 25 ways (though I love Chris), but mostly because no one knows how social media functions and works in a recession. I think reliance on brass tacks, on hard core value building and ROI is what matters now.

    What is clear: This new media world will see an even stronger focus from corporate as big ad spends get cut and marketers seek guerilla oriented tactics. But things will change, and online communicators are going to be forced to act differently.  

    I’ve been through one of these before, in the telecom industry which suffered an industry specific depression from 2000-2. During that time I actually excelled and grew a book of business, keeping more than a dozen of my fellows employed. So while I will be deploying social media for the first time in a  recession, I’ve got a few experiences that are guiding my thoughts during this particular time:

    Here are five ways I anticipate this recession will affect us:

    1) ROI must become the song. If you can’t measure or you think page impressions represents an accurate measurement for marketing communications initiatives, mail it in. No company will engage in that anymore. Integration with calls to action must be used to produce tangible results.

    2) Similarly, social media consultants will be forced to produce or they will bomb. Now more than ever it’s about ROI, not Facebook friends.  

    3) Independent, positive thinkers will do better. They will not be susceptible to media driven BS and fear mongering. Consider this ridiculous CCN story that liberally uses poll terms to claim 60% of Americans say depression is likely. Talk about tabloid journalism. Yet, these stories can inspire panic and that is the great challenge.

    Rich Becker makes a good point, "When economic times seem tough, you tend to want to work with those who seem largely unaffected." In his post, he was speaking about the newspaper industry, but it may as well be your company. Executives and individuals will need to wield a sober, pragmatic approach to the market, and provide actionable ways to grow their business. More than anything people and cultures that win will be the positive ones with real value to offer their employers, their clients and the world in general.

    4) It’s time for millenials to grow up in the workplace. This is Gen Y’s first recession, and to date they have shown heavy demands for senior executive access and mentorship, lifestyle choices, collaboration, high salaries, plush bennies, transitory career paths, and steady, significant pay increases. More than anything it has been incumbent on employers to attract and retain them with these many cultural aspects. Well, the coin has flipped.  In tough times, it’s incumbent on the employee to prove value, not the employer. I sense that many over-privileged divas are heading for a rude awakening.

    5) More noise.  As companies abandon traditional, costly tactics and crowd the marketplace with their new social media initiatives we will likely see a new nightmare of corporate crud. Social media initiatives must offer immediate, clear strong value to communities, or they will click and flee. Substance is paramount! Tolerance for BS gimmicks will evaporate. Last recession, a similar noise level occurred with email marketing, that time’s cheap marketing elixir.

    A Time of Pain

    Regardless of how social media fares as a sub sector, I believe from a societal perspective that this will be a widespread recession that will take a good long time to get better.  Poor fiduciary lending has affected our entire financial industry and in ways that we’ve not seen in modern times before under the Federal Reserve. This will impact all businesses and all sectors, from credit to actual sales. My prayers and thoughts are with those who will be affected.

    Further, more than any economic downturn in my life, this will hurt the lower middle income and low income classes.  Consider the impact high heating costs, transportation costs, lost jobs from construction, cut state spending, etc., will make on blue collar America.

    There will be great challenges ahead that supersede "making money," and I encourage readers to think about what we can do to help as individuals. It is a time for charity, a time for helping brothers and sisters regardless of race, creed, class, religion. Economic pain affects all, and no American should go hungry.

    Related posts:

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Blogs of Fire, Buzz Meter, Geoff, Internet Marketing, Interviews, Livingston Communications, PR | Tagged , , , , | Comments (15)
    Sep 15 2008

    Build Heroes

    September 15, 2008 – 6:46 am

    It’s a time for the individual. Social media has unleashed personality, and delivered the power of opinion and voice. We can each become individual superstars in our own right. But great leaders will see social media as an opportunity to do more than become well known.

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    Frank Gruber, Aaron Brazell, Brian Solis, myself, Nick O’Neill, and Rohit Bhargava. Image taken by our own Qui Diaz.

    See, it’s somewhat difficult to be well known in the community, but in reality, many people are doing it. That person — the influential — can be found within two to three percent in any given market segment. Some can just be considered internet famous, others are true thought leaders.

    But how many of those leaders are creating the next generation of thought leaders? Or do they prefer to shine on their own?

    Lee Iacocca was a man who turned around Chrysler. But once his fame distracted him and he eventually left the company, Chrysler collapsed. There was a leadership void. Lou Gerstner turned around IBM, and groomed another generation of leaders to supersede him. Like him or hate him, Jack Welch also developed a corps of leaders at GE.

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    Bill Walsh not only coached the 49ers to three Super Bowl victories, he mentored ten head coaches who won or led their teams to Super Bowls (totaling 7 additional victories, collectively).

    I believe that you have to pass on your skills. Nothing that I have, nothing that is in my head is really, truly mine. Mentors, influencers, and authors have all directly or indirectly passed their wisdom on to me, giving me the tools that I needed to succeed.

    It’s my personal belief that I am obligated to give away what was so freely given to me. Great leaders know they are a product of others, that they are there to be of service to their organization, and as such, act as trusted servants.

    At Livingston Communications and publicly on the Buzz Bin we live this ethos. That’s why you see other people like Qui (recently featured on BlogHer) and Larissa Fair delivering quality content on the blog, and making a name for themselves in social media. Newer bloggers Marinel Mones and Mike Nelson are learning how to deliver quality content to you every week.

    In my opinion, the greatest result of this company can achieve is not the societal change we can affect for our social cause clients. Nor will it be the results-oriented marketing campaigns we create for companies. These — while worthy results — cannot compare to enabling the next generation of great communicators.

    It’s hard to make it, and then make a difference in your profession. But it’s even harder and more worthwhile to build heroes who can affect more change. There is great satisfaction in helping others succeed and achieve results that benefit society. It’s my great hope that we can deliver meaningful growth and actionable experiences to our team members.

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Geoff, Livingston Communications, social media | Comments (7)
    Aug 27 2008

    Changes to the Buzz Bin?

    August 27, 2008 – 1:35 pm

    Though the acquisition is off, we’re still planning on some changes to the Buzz Bin.  Namely, the blog and the readers would be better served if we split the content into two blogs. We feel like we’ve got a lot of great content, some strategic and some tactical.

    First would be the Buzz Bin, which would continue with 2-3 Livingston posts a week, Qui Diaz on social media for social good, and interviews of leading voices. We anticipate adding a third strategy oriented voice to the blog in the next month or two. The leaner and meaner Buzz Bin would begin in its third major retooling on September 8.

    Second, Livingston Communications would start a new blog, which would focus more on tactical execution. Larissa Fair would be the lead voice, and she will be accompanied by our weekly columns from Marinel Mones and Mike Nelson, Buzz Meter and Blogs of Fire, respectively.  The second blog would launch in mid-October.

    As the Buzz Bin is as much yours as ours, we definitely want to know if these changes work for you, or if you prefer to keep the blog as is. Let us know.

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Blogging, Blogs of Fire, Buzz Meter, Livingston Communications | Comments (7)
    Aug 22 2008

    A Better Place

    August 22, 2008 – 1:29 am

    “Our mission is to break the world’s oil addiction.”

    Compliments of September’s Wired cover story, I learned of Shai Agassi’s phenomenal start-up Better Place. An admirable mission as Green is my number one current cause. And social causes have rapidly become critical professional matters for those of us writing on the Buzz Bin.

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    Shai (see his blog here) abandoned a promising career at software giant SAP to fulfill his quest to end oil dependence. His vision of all electric cars is so ambitious it makes your mouth drop. Forget GM’s broken Volt model. Instead, envision battery power readily accessible through a networked grid everywhere. And the cost? One third of the gas-guzzling fuel costs the average American spends.

    shai.jpg Impossible you say? Yet he has Renault, Daimler, the Israeli and Danish governments, powerful investors, and talented individuals across the globe getting in line behind him. He is attracting the world’s most incredible minds, and breaking so called rules left and right. And he is likely to break current paradigms for hybrid and electric cars.

    Why? Because he was tasked by fellow entrepreneurs to change the world, to make a difference for the environment. In his relentless passion to achieve what he sees as the world’s biggest environmental challenge — oil addiction – he has turned the heads of many, and may become one of our generation’s greatest heros. I hope so.

    Many times on my personal blog (this piece is cross-posted there), I’ve stated a definitive intent to use my communication “powers” for good.

    At Gnomedex this weekend, I will have the great pleasure of meeting Beth Kanter, one of the leading change bloggers out there. Beth’s work is so prolific we felt compelled to interview her yesterday. Voices like hers, like la Marguerite, like EcoGeek, speak to me every time I open my reader. It’s dedicated, 110% committed people like these change bloggers, like Agassi, that let you know the impossible can be achieved.

    Inevitably my mind returns to our internal mission: Building a significant social cause practice, and using our social media skills for good. In the past week, we’ve made several steps that have put us in position to kick some real butt on behalf of organizations trying to relieve poverty, end genocide, educate America, and more.

    We live once. No one will remember us for marketing body armor, wireless networks, cars, software, etc., etc. What will your legacy be?

    Yes, we have to pay the bills. Not everyone can direct corporate strategy in this way. Or maybe you can just quit like Agassi — like me — and start your own company. But all of us, every single one of us can do more. As communicators we have the ability to help in ways most people cannot. We can use social media and traditional channels to heighten public awareness, help fundraise, and build better companies. And it’s hard to imagine that there isn’t some cause that every person holds dear to their heart.

    2008 is 66% over. What are you doing to make Earth a better place this year?

     
    AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Geoff Livingston | Posted in Geoff, Livingston Communications, social cause, social media | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (6)