Brett's Blog

I have been a frequent user of location-based services since Foursquare debuted at South by Southwest in March 2009. Ever since, Foursquare has dominated the geolocation space. However, Foursquare now has serious competition that comes with 500 million built-in users. Facebook introduced Places to iPhone users last week and will be rolling out on Android and Blackberry soon. This marks Facebook’s entry into the location space.

Facebook Places works very similar to Foursquare in that the user “checks in” to a location nearby. Checking in also makes a post on the user’s Facebook wall and announces their location in Places on the iPhone app. The post on the user’s wall is a small one line post. It doesn’t post a map like Foursquare does. There is also no social game involved with Places. There are no badges or titles you can earn while checking in. Another feature to note is your friends, by default, can check you in without your approval or permission. This of course can be changed in Facebook’s privacy settings.

Facebook Places is destined to be a hit, but I’m still holding on to Foursquare. And many other users are as well. According to a Tweet from Foursquare’s CEO Dennis Crowley, the company had its “biggest day ever” for signups of new users. With heightened media and user interest, it’s no wonder people are signing up to find out what this location thing is all about.

With a quick look of my friends on Places and on Foursquare, there’s a small number that use Foursquare. Many more are using Places. However, the friends that are using Foursquare are slow to adopt Places. I have only checked in one time using Places and received backlash from friends telling me not to give up on Foursquare. I wonder if the higher use of Places from my friends is because it’s an “opt out” feature of Facebook and not a third-party “opt in” app?

Only time will tell if Foursquare can keep up with Facebook Places. Can Foursquare differentiate itself enough to survive? What’s Foursquare’s next move? Does Facebook have a passion for location-based services or are they just adding features because they have to?

(Cross posted from blr | further’s blog)

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Filed under: Brett Pohlman tagged Facebook, Foursquare, geolocation, iPhone

As a Public Relations student at Auburn University, one of the classes I took was Style & Design in PR Messages. This class taught me the world of online (new) media and social media. I learned many things from blogging and Uttering to Twitter and creating my personal brand. A brand that I could be proud of when I Google searched my name.

My professor, Robert French, told us all the time how social media could help us find a job. I believed it, but I thought it was a little far fetched at first. I always loved technology and was intrigued with the newest online services. I found that social media was the way that I could fuse my love for technology and public relations together.

I immersed myself into the online social media world as I was couldn’t wait to get into the technology scene again. Robert had us start our blogs at PRBlogs.org. He also conducted a class assignment called “48 hours of Twitter.” Most students stopped using it after the exercise, but I enjoyed Twitter and was amazed at how easy it was to connect with industry leaders, aka my potential employers. Twitter opened a new world for me. Almost instantly I was engaging with industry leaders and gaining a wealth of knowledge from using Twitter.

I started reading blogs and listening to podcasts. I have a post here about the ones I read and listen to. It has since grown, but that’s a good starting point.You can also look at my blog roll on the left column.

It was cool to realize what exactly Robert was teaching us to do. My classmates and I started producing content online with the blog posts we were writing. I learned that I should always link to other people’s blog. This shows that I am reading, listening to and learning from other industry leaders. Also, it sends a ping (techie lingo) to the other blog to alert them I am writing about them. Most of the time, the person also commented back on my blog post after the mention. We all know the more comments, the stronger and more credible the blog. It was also cool to see my name show up on top of the Google search results. Your name is your brand and with a good brand all things are possible.

I knew graduation was coming soon and was applying to jobs all across the eastern part of the US. I was active on many Ning groups including one that every PR practitioner, professor and student should be a member of, PROpenMic. I also have my blog and my digital resume and portfolio to show to future employers.

I applied to a job in the Boston area in Integrated Marketing. I didn’t receive a call back, but unbeknownst to me, I was following the Marketing Director on Twitter. He was monitoring my online presence for a social media position that would be available in the coming weeks. A few weeks later, I received a direct message from him and asked me to apply for their Social Media Coordinator position. And as they say, the rest is history.

I graduated from Auburn University on August 9th and started my job as Social Media Coordinator at Schneider Associates on August 18th. Even though I didn’t think I would end up here, I really enjoy Boston and am getting great agency experience with national clients.

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Filed under: Brett Pohlman, New Job tagged Brett Pohlman, Personal Branding, Schneider Associates, Social Media

Should bloggers be ignored?

I was recently listening to live call-in show and in the chat room, one of the listeners said, “Bloggers do not matter.” Really? As I was sitting at the computer, I was genuinely disturbed by this statement. In fact, I would go as far to say the exact opposite and should be respected in their space.

As we have recently learned with the PR blacklisting kafuffle, bloggers do matter. I wrote about how much bloggers can change the Google search results in a recent post about Joseph Jaffe’s Delta Skelter.

The bigger issue is how bloggers should be treated. Should we treat bloggers just like other media or should we write them off and not consider them as a noteworthy news outlet. I believe bloggers have a commanding authority on news generation and are becoming more powerful everyday.

In today’s world, companies need to have some kind of blogger relations policy. Earlier this year, Target learned that the hard way.

There are many blog posts written about blogger relations:

• Todd Defren has even gone as far to make printable list of Quick & Critical Tips for Blogger Relations.
• Shel Holtz wrote Bloggers get pitched. Get used to it.
• Toby Bloomberg has written about blogger relations.
• Geoff Livingston has written Five Unorthodox Ways to Woo Bloggers and Social Media Marketing: More Than Blogger Relations.

My point is this. There are tons of material out on the web about how to treat bloggers. However, bloggers are continually and aimlessly being pitched.One of my favorite blogger relations strategies is the three R’s: Respect, Relevance and Relationships.

Respect. Most bloggers do not write for a monetary gain, so blogging is a very personal medium. Research from the Pew Internet Project suggests that bloggers are your in tune citizens. They are the better educated citizens that tend to be leaders in their communities more than the average citizen. They contribute to campaigns and follow the news. They give to charity, etc. They’re smart people.

Bloggers can tell if you’ve read their blog or not. The “Hi, how are you. I love your blog.” stuff will not cut it. You give them vague comments, they will give you vague comments back. In turn, you’re not solving anything.

Relevance. Take the time to read their blog. Read more than just the most recent posts. Click to and read their biography section. This will give you incredibly insightful information about them, their life story, what’s going on in their world, etc. Click through their blogroll. The blogroll is great because this shows who the blogger is interested in and who they value. Check out who the blogger links to in their post. This is another great way to see who the blogger values. Also, check the comments. See if the blogger is engaging in conversation. Doing these things will ensure that you will pitch the correct blogger.

Relationships. Most bloggers are not trained journalists or get paid to blog. They are not trained to look over your press release. They’re regular people that have a vested interest and are motivated in what they are writing about. Building relationships online is all about treating people with respect and reaching out to them with relevant material. (I can’t tell you how many times I have heard leaders in the social media industry say they will blog about things because the pitch was good and it was relevant.) It takes time and and is not easy, but it you build honest and solid relationships, you can be more efficient and thus effective with your pitch.

Relationships are the true currency of the blogosphere. To me, that’s what makes social media so enjoyable. I have the opportunity to reach out to people I would never have reached out to before. I can now see many different perspectives of the same issue. Just last week I was Twittering with people from France, England and Australia. Pretty cool!

Bloggers are people too. When I think of seamless pitching, I think if the people that hand out advertisements and fliers in Las Vegas. Most people do not want what they’re handing out. Let’s not make aimless pitching a habit. Remember the 3 R’s.

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Filed under: Brett Pohlman, Research, Social Media, blog, public relations tagged 3 Rs, Blogger relations, pitch, public relations, Relationships, Relevance, Respect

Delta Airlines: Don’t mess with Joseph Jaffe.

Apparently, Delta Airlines gave Joseph Jaffe a flight from hell.

Without getting too specific, he was at the Newark, NJ airport trying to catch a connector flight in Atlanta. After boarding the plane (late), the Delta representatives made the passengers disembark the plane. Later, the flight was canceled. He was told that there was a direct flight from JFK in New York City later that evening and confirmed his seat with a voucher. When he arrived, it was “complete pandemonium” as Jaffe proclaims on his Jaffe Juice podcast. The flight was overbooked. The Delta representative told him that he would not be flying business class, even though he reserved business class and his voucher from the Newark airport confirmed it. He was too far down on the waiting list.

He was stuck in a coach seat on a 10 hour flight. For those that do not listen to Jaffe Juice, Joseph has been traveling all across the country this year. He has been to over 20 international cities since February, speaking at different communication and marketing conferences. Needless to say, he was not happy with the downgrade.

Jaffe has taken a very proactive stance on getting what he deserved in the first place, good service. Here are his requests:

• A written letter of apology from the Chief Marketing or Chief Executive Officer of Delta
• Two First Class tickets to anywhere in the world that Delta flies (such as South Africa)

Jaffe has not only has the original blog post, but also has an updated Delta Skelter post. He has also started a Delta Skelter Facebook Group and a Delta Skelter YouTube video.

He claims Delta has had many opportunities to make him happy. He doesn’t expect to get all of his wishes. However, he does expect Delta to think creatively and outside of the box about customer service. Jaffe claims that when he was approached by a customer service representative through his blog, she had a scolding and defensive tone and was unwilling to work with him.

Delta has gotten themselves into a PR nightmare with this story. Not only did they not react in the way Jaffe wanted, they were unwilling to keep him as a future customer.

This story is a perfect example of the power of a blogger. When searching for “Delta Skelter” and “Jaffe” on Google, there 3,480 results. He also mentions on his podcast that if you search “Delta business class platinum,” the Delta Skelter post is in fifth position. He exclaims how detrimental it is to have such a negative post screaming at you when you search for these key search terms.

There are many lessons to be learned here:

• Don’t take customers for granted.
• Make bloggers happy as they have an avenue to harm reputation.
• Conversations should be beneficial to both parties, not just one sided.
• It’s not up to the business to determine when hen conversation has stopped, it’s up to the customers.
• Disclose all information regarding customers and the business. i.e. Don’t sent customers to another over-booked flight.
• It’s never too late to make good with customers.

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Filed under: Brett Pohlman, Social Media, blog, public relations tagged Customer Service, Delta Skelter, Joseph Jaffe, Juice, public relations

PR students are constantly reminded of how important research is in a public relations campaign. However, conducting research is also the step that most public relations practitioners admit they skip most often.

I was able to see firsthand how important research is in a job interview last week. For this interview, I shadowed the CEO of the firm for the day. He interviewed me throughout the day when he wasn’t directly on conference calls and on client pitches. It was great because I got to see how his firm works on a daily basis, not just a sparkling reality of the firm.

Research was of the utmost importance to this firm. It was one of the first steps of the client engagement. The firm would spend most of its time initially researching and sifting through everything about the prospective client.

There is an astronomical number of blogs post about the importance of research in public relations. Steven Davies post on the 12 Steps to a Successful PR Campaign. and Dave Fleet’s The “Communication Plan” Series come to mind.

Research has been talked about many times on PROpenMic, a Ning social network for PR students, educators and practitioners. Phil Gomes, the VP of Edelman Digital Integration, has a video post specifically on this topic. In fact, there are 17 pages worth of the mention of PR research if searched on PROpenMic.

Research is essential to the overall PR campaign. There are a multitude of examples in PR where companies have lost millions of dollars because they have not done the proper research. Some of the things that would go wrong include, but are definitely not limited to not targeting the right audience, pitching the wrong journalists, not having the right strategies and tactics for the campaign and poorly executing the campaign itself.

There are also examples of companies that have done extensive research, which has turned into a extremely lucrative PR campaigns. With the new 3G iPhone being released today, it it interesting to see what position Apple has taken for the iPhone. This time, Apple is after the Enterprise customer. Every time people think of Apple Inc., they think of the fanatics, the innovators and first adopters. I am proud to be one of the first people that bought the iPhone in June of 2007. I also know I will be one of the first people to buy the 3G iPhone as well. However, the Enterprise customers will give Apple a whole new customer base.

Apple is a great example of how research can truly pay off. The electronics company knows what it must do to create buzz around its products. Events like today, the World Wide Developers Conference, would not happen if Apple thought they could sell just as many products without the conference. The Mac vs. PC commercials have also been a huge hit.

If companies will fund the PR professional to do proper research, the benefits to that research will be immense for years to come.

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Filed under: Brett Pohlman, blog, public relations tagged Brett Pohlman, Campaign, public relations, Research