Monthly Archives: January 2010

My blogging birthday: Mengel Musings turns one

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It doesn’t seem possible, but tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of Mengel Musings. From my first, very tentative post to my 100th post Wednesday announcing my new job at readMedia, it’s been a fantastic first year as a blogger. This space has been a way for me to explore the rapidly changing world of PR and communications, force myself to write on a somewhat regular basis, converse with smart people from across the Web and around the world, and even learn a little bit of CSS.

Here’s a retrospective:

Three most-viewed posts in the last year

These posts saw the most traffic on my site. The numbers are probably not totally accurate as some of my posts were syndicated to SocialMediaToday.com and my stats here don’t reflect those page views. But all-in-all, these were popular (in the case of the McDonald’s post it was largely due to Google searches — it still gets traffic daily):

Five reasons corporations are failing at social media
Locally targeted McDonalds ads turning heads
(tie) How I use Google Reader without going insane
(tie) Six ways to add social sizzle to internal communication

Three most-commented-on posts in the last year

I try very hard to respond to commenters and engage in dialogue, so some of these comment numbers are a bit inflated since many of the comments are my own. Still, these posts generated good discussion among readers. In second place with 48 comments was the ‘Five reasons’ post listed above, so I skipped it and moved to the next on the list:

Allan Schoenberg: My Twitter “Patient Zero” (57 comments)
“Become a fan” of Facebook brand fatigue (45 comments)
Can “sponsored journalism” really work? (33 comments)

Three posts that are my personal favorites

These are the posts that, while they may not have gotten a ton of traffic, comments or retweets, are posts that I am most proud of, enjoyed writing the most, or that I think show some of my best thinking:

Where the boys are (hint: in the business school)
Are corporate communicators hopeless in social media?
Anatomy of a social media product launch: Screenr

Year two and beyond

What’s next for Mengel Musings? Well, I may not be posting quite as frequently as I get up to speed in my new role. Secondly, the topics and focus of this blog will probably shift a little. Since I’m now out of the corporate communications world, I’ll be writing less about that. You’ll probably see more posts about how the news and media landscape is shifting and the challenges and opportunities that presents for PR professionals– especially in regards to local news content.

I’ll still write a lot about social media, but I (and many others) am ready to move on from the Shiny Object Syndrome that captivated us all in 2009 and talk more concretely about how social media participation provides value for organizations – how and why companies are using social media to generate sales leads, support integrated paid/earned media campaigns, enhance customer service and loyalty, and provide real value.

Thanks for sticking with Mengel Musings throughout the first year, and I hope you’ll hang around to see what year two has in store. Check the archives and tell me what was your favorite post of the last year. What would you like to see more or less of going forward? As Jason Falls always says, the comments are yours. Let me know.

My new gig: inbound marketing at readMedia

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Forget the catchy lede. I’ve had this cat in the bag for a while now and it’s time to let it out: I have a new job!

Starting today(!), I’ll be heading up inbound marketing efforts for Albany-based readMedia. After seven years in corporate communications, I’m trading the manufacturing plant for a hip downtown office, the Blackberry for an iPhone, and the red tape of big company bureaucracy for an intimate start-up culture.

I’ve been working with readMedia as one of my consulting clients for the last several months and so when they offered me a full-time position, I already knew it would be a great fit. My new coworkers are fun, smart, and generally have good taste in beer (want to follow ‘em? Check out this Twitter list of readMedia employees I created).

So, what am I going to be doing? A lot of really cool stuff. I’ll be running the company’s paid and earned media campaigns, representing readMedia at trade shows and conferences, managing their social media presence and using inbound marketing to generate sales for the company. Right up my alley.

readMedia

A little background on my new company: readMedia is a software and media company whose platform allows organizations like governments, nonprofits, and schools to publish social media-enabled news releases online and distribute them directly to geographically-targeted media outlets. readMedia’s clients produced over a quarter of a million pieces of specialized, hyperlocal news content last year — like this story about a state worker selling drugs in the basement of the State Capitol. (Seriously. Only in New York. And maybe Illinois.)

The media landscape continues to change as newspapers shed the staff and resources that were traditionally devoted to covering local news — town board meetings, fundraisers and local events, students away at college being named to an honor society or making the dean’s list. But these types of stories are still important to local communities and form the original content that drives old, new and niche media stories within a community. readMedia gives its clients the tools to serve as their own beat reporters and publish high-quality, hyperlocal content online and to traditional media outlets.

I can’t even describe how excited I am to get settled in at readMedia and become a part of their team. I’ll still be organizing Social Media Breakfast Tech Valley (though likely with some more help) and blogging right here, but I’m stepping away from consulting to fully devote my time and brain waves to readMedia.

So many of you supported me throughout this past year by acting as mentors, sounding boards, collaborators, and friends. I’ll dispense with the Academy Awards-style mushiness, but I really do appreciate all of the great advice and input I’ve received as I transitioned from corporate communications to consulting and now to this new role. So simply, thank you.

Game on!

Social media for military communication

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This morning I had the pleasure of speaking at the New York National Guard Public Affairs Conference in Saratoga Springs. Public affairs officers from Niagara Falls to Long Island and points in between gathered to discuss military communication, public affairs and social media.

Below are the slides from my presentation. I generally prefer to keep slides simple and visual and support them with story and commentary, versus trying to pack a lot on the page. But hopefully you can still get the gist of what I shared with them.

Navigating the Social Media Minefield

View more presentations from Amy Mengel.

I stuck around the conference for a bit after my presentation and heard Stephanie Gaskell, reporter for the New York Daily News and author of the paper’s “War Zone” blog, discuss her experiences as an embedded reporter, first as a freelance journalist in Iraq and then later in Afghanistan on assignment for the Daily News. Her anecdotes reiterated how reporters are continually under pressure to produce more stories with fewer resources and that being on-target, relevant and timely with pitches is of primary importance for public relations and public affairs professionals.

Thanks to LTC Richard Goldenberg and Eric Durr for inviting me today.

Reputation management: Royal Caribbean and Haiti

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External crises can force companies to make consternating choices.

Royal Caribbean has come under fire for continuing to dock its cruise ships on the Haitian peninsula of Labadee in light of the devastating earthquake. An article in The Gaurdian, later picked up by The Huffington Post and the LA Times travel blog, among other outlets, questions whether passengers should be sunning themselves and enjoying cocktails on the beach when so many are suffering in Port au Prince.

It’s a sticky situation for Royal Caribbean. On the one hand, they’ve used their cruise ships to deliver pallets upon pallets of supplies and drinking water for the residents of Haiti. They’re bringing economic activity to Labadee, where hundreds of Haitians rely on tourism income to feed their families (in fact, it’s probably less a matter of the positive economic impact of the cruise passengers than it is the avoidance of the negative impact should the cruise ship divert to somewhere else and thus leave those who depend on tourism revenues in a lurch). Royal Caribbean has also pledged $1 million in relief to Haiti.

Opinions are flying around the Internet and in the media as to whether RCCL is doing the right thing. Passengers themselves are divided, and some refused to disembark during the Labadee visit and stayed on the ship. Others are glad to be spending their money and be involved with the relief effort. Some have made the argument that Haiti (and for that matter, most Caribbean vacation destinations) was abjectly poor and in need before the earthquake, yet that didn’t stop cruise ships from docking there and passengers from visiting.

It’s a reputation management nightmare. There’s no clear-cut “right answer” that will make all RCCL stakeholders happy. Royal Caribbean made its decision and while many are supportive of their efforts, some are swearing off the cruise line and calling it insensitive, shameful, or even disgusting.

Blogging the company’s rationale

I do admire the way Royal Caribbean has communicated throughout this crisis. The company’s blog, written primarily by the CEO, has been almost entirely devoted to Haiti for the last two weeks. One post details the internal processes the company is using to monitor and manage the situation in Haiti – they’ve even posted a link to a .pdf of their daily meeting notes. Another post addresses the Guardian article and defends their decision to continue operations in Haiti. They’ve posted several photos of relief supplies and discuss a meeting with President Clinton. Both the CEO, Adam Goldstein, and Associate Vice President, John Weis, are posting a few times a day.

Sometimes CEO blogs get a bad rap, and it’s often deserved. They can be dry and uninformative. But having a CEO or company blog in place gives you an instant response platform when a crisis arises. Royal Caribbean had to make a tough call, and through its blog has been able to not only explain and defend its decision in detail but also receive instant feedback by way of comments. Many of the comments support the company’s choice.

I’m sure the RCCL team agonized over what the proper course of action was. I’m still not entirely sure what I would have chosen to do had I been the one making the choice. But I can appreciate that Royal Caribbean was honest, forthright and transparent about its reasons and processes with its customers. I read the posts and can relate to Adam and John as real people who had to make a difficult decision and ultimately are trying to do right by the people of Haiti, their employees, their customers and the public at large.

Did they get the communications piece right?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments. Instead of debating whether or not RCCL made the right choice to continue docking in Labadee (those discussions are happening all over the Web at the links I included above), I’m more interested in hearing your reactions to how they’ve communicated their choices and actions during this crisis. What could they or should they have done differently? What risks do they still face in terms of reputation management and how do you think they should address them?

How you can help

My earlier post on how to donate and support Haiti relief efforts

Image via Royal Caribbean’s Why Not blog

Facebook, GoodReads, and… WalMart?

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oldbooksWhat was one of the first social networks I joined? It wasn’t LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter or even MySpace. It was GoodReads. I’m a big time book nerd, and I love that Good Reads let me search and review books and see what my friends are reading. I can keep track of books I’ve read, sort them by “shelves” and mark books that I’d like to read in the future.

But as Facebook and Twitter continue their dominance among social networks, GoodReads has done a nice job adapting and integrating. I can login to GoodReads via Facebook Connect and add the GoodReads app to my Facebook profile, which lets me post my book reviews as a status update. I can send book recommendations to Twitter with one click and I can search across my Twitter and Facebook friends to see who’s on GoodReads and easily add them to my friend list.

The key with niche social networks is keeping activity levels high – if no one uses a network, it’s not very social, and will probably wither on the vine. As Facebook has clearly emerged as the platform of the masses, it only makes sense to ensure that your niche network is integrated (if users choose) with Facebook (and probably Twitter, too).

One-Stop Shopping

Need an analogy? The way the retail landscape in the US has changed over the last 50 years provides a parallel. In the 1960s, hardware stores sold hardware, appliance stores sold televisions and washing machines, sporting goods stores sold fishing poles. Along came WalMart and put everything under one roof. Sure, specialty stores still exist today, but a majority of Americans have moved all their purchasing to a one-stop shop. [Avoiding side treatise on small business vs. conglomerates and respective impacts on community.]

So, if Facebook is becoming the WalMart of social networks, then the niche networks need to figure out how to integrate and play along with Facebook, like GoodReads has done. Make it easy for your members and users to participate in the content on your network. If most of them are already spending a lot of time from Facebook, then figure out how to make your niche network thrive on that platform. Don’t make them shop around, because except for your most passionate members, many of them probably won’t do it. I probably would have given up on GoodReads long ago if I wasn’t reminded of the site each time I logged into Facebook and saw the tab on my profile.

What are your experiences? Have you joined and given up on niche social networks because they weren’t convenient? Would you rather hop around to different niche communities on the Web or use a common platform like Facebook to interact? Let me know in the comments.

Image via Flickr user Auntie_P