HYPERtext

Job opening: We're looking for a Peer Media Manager!!

Text 100 Public Relations currently has an opening for a Peer Media Manager.  This newly created position will work across all North American offices, sharing knowledge of social media as well as the latest insights and trends in the social media space. We are looking for a self-starting, team-oriented individual who thrives in an independent, small company environment.

Responsibilities include:

• Serve as one of the company's social media strategists, responsible for articulating social media plan and implementing it, both internally and externally
• Develop a set of best practices, devise recommended rules of engagement and through sharing of best practices and knowledge, help to build social media capability
• Support account teams in the development, coordination, implementation and administration of public relations programs using peer media tools, directed primarily toward the media and secondarily to industry and employees
• Coordinate, plan and execute social media campaigns for clients including blogger outreach, social networking initiatives, social news participation, press release optimization and virtual worlds participation
• Provide training to staff, leading internal and external skill building sessions
• Ensure that community engagement is both effective and consistent with the organization's image and overall strategy

Qualifications:

• Strong understanding of social media in relation to the broader media mix; understanding of the interplay between online/social media and traditional media
• Understanding of industry best practices, especially as they relate to social media at large corporations
• Proven ability to be a change agent
• Deep knowledge of social media tools, including those for measurement, social bookmarking, social networking   RSS, Twitter and blog publishing. Strong understanding of Web design, applications, navigation and the Web 2.0 ecosystem also preferred
• Strong relationships with influential bloggers
• Ability to counsel senior executives on effective use of social media
• Experience working with corporations or corporate clients who deploy social media effectively, including management of a professional blog for an organization or business.
• Strong communication, research, presentation and creative skills.
• Prior agency experience preferred
• Candidates must have a minimum of 2-3 years of corporate social media experience

Text 100 International is one of the largest independent technology public relations consultancies in the world. With 30 offices across Europe, North America, India, Africa and the Asia Pacific region, Text 100 is the largest and most established brand within the Next Fifteen Communications Group (London Stock Exchange: NFC). Currently, Text 100 has 5 offices in North America; Boston, Rochester, San Francisco, New York City, and Seattle.

Text 100 also offers one of the top benefit packages in the industry including:

• Four weeks of vacation
• 10 paid holidays
• 2 duvet days
• Highly competitive salary
• Full medical, dental and vision
• Domestic partner benefits
• 401k Plan
• Annual bonus package
• International opportunity

To apply, please visit: http://www.text100.com/careers.asp

Seattle Social Media Club: A Published Stream of Consciousness: Do Business and Micro-blogging Mix?

The next Seattle Social Media Club meeting is coming up on May 1! The topic is micro-blogging services such as Twitter and how they can be effectively used in a professional environment. We’ll be discussing everything from the basics (What exactly is a tweet?) to using micro-blogging to enhance your personal brand, grow and strengthen your business network, notify customers, promote your blog and more.

 

Meeting Details

When: Thursday, May 1, 2008; 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m.

Where: Text 100 Public Relations: 110 Union St. Ste 210, Seattle

Register: http://mayseattlesocialmediaclub.eventbrite.com

More Information: Katie Hoyne, Text 100 Public Relations, 206-267-2021

Council of PR Firms Launches Newsletter

Today the Council of PR Firms launched The Firm Voice, a new email newsletter for PR agency practitioners.

I was asked to participate as a member of the editorial team to help ensure that the content was relevant not only to individuals at the executive level, but to junior agency staff as well. Our firm's first contribution was this video, where some of our digital natives talked about how we use peer media both inside and outside our organization.

If you have any feedback you'd like to share about the newsletter, please do so in the comments.

Aaron Uhrmacher, NYC

Technorati Tags: Council of PR Firms,digital natives,public relations

Seattle Social Media Club: What do rocket scientists and yaks have in common?

They obviously don’t have the same IQ…so it must have something to do with the fact that they both represent possible business uses of virtual worlds!

We had a good turnout and lively discussion at last night’s Seattle Social Media Club meeting, where Jeff Barr of Amazon, Rob Lanphier and Greg Tomko-Pavia of Linden Lab, and Brian White of HP gave us great insight into the past, present and future of businesses in virtual worlds.

While I could go on and on about last night, I’d like to cover some of the highlights that really seemed to stand out to attendees. First, an explanation of the yaks and rocket scientists. As an example of how non-profits can benefit from virtual world participation, Brian told us about Save the Children, a non-profit that sold virtual yaks in Second Life and used 100 percent of the proceeds to help children around the world. Brian also told us about NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and its initiative to figure out how astronauts could connect with family and friends while they are literally tens of millions of miles from home.

Overall, the panelists seemed to agree that 2008 is THE year for businesses to discover the ROI that can be found within virtual worlds. The novelty factor has lost its shine and now it’s time to figure out to what’s worked and what hasn’t. Jeff’s Web Services group has seen a lot of success in holding regular developer chats on the Amazon Developer Islands in Second Life. Because they want to work with developers who are creative and can think outside the box, they naturally find these people involved in virtual worlds. Jeff has already hired two developers based in Europe by attending a virtual job fair. Two new global employees without spending any money of airfare, hotel, etc!

We also talked a lot about the immersion factor. Sitting on a conference call trying to figure out who’s speaking, or watching WebEx click through PowerPoint slides just isn’t the same as participating in a meeting in-world. Virtual worlds make meetings more interactive for both the speaker who can see his virtual audience, as well as attendees who receive visual and auditory cues, helping them focus more on the presentation.

We asked Greg and Rob “What’s next?” from a Linden Lab perspective, and they both agreed that upcoming focuses include interoperability, improved collaboration features and optimization. Rob also discussed his mandate as “open source busybody,” helping to liaise between Linden Lab other developers who want to work with the code that was released last year.

We look forward to staying in touch with our local virtual worlders...maybe next time it will be my avatar Madelynne who does the talking!

-Katie Hoyne, Seattle

 

Chevronasaurus

Fifty million years ago/They walked upon the planet so

They live in a museum/It's the only place you'll see 'um

Walking in your footsteps...

-- The Police

While the consequences of global warming become ever-more dire, the oil industry is awash in record profits.  And Chevron C.E.O. David O'Reilly is articulating a future that is downright, well, Jurassic.

The comments came in a San Francisco Chronicle article, "Big Oil has trouble finding new fields."

"We're a pretty resilient bunch," O'Reilly once said in an interview with The Chronicle. "We'll be around. We'll be selling energy. We'll be providing energy services. But I'm confident it will be quite different than it is today."

Uninspiring to say the least; damning, when taken to its logical conclusion.  This is a company not just in need of radical PR counsel--it's a company in need of a leader with vision and guts.  Chevron clearly has no real strategy for adapting to a changing world.  It intends to ride this massive wave of petroleum to the bitter end. 

And I'll wager it won't be a comet that will wipe them out, but rather some entrepreneurial valley start-up with a breakthrough technology and a genuine vision for a sustainable planet.  Here's to hoping things are profoundly different than they are today.

-David Bailey

Seattle Social Media Club: Virtual Worlds in the New Year

Text 100 Seattle is hosting the January Social Media Club meeting, which features a panel discussion with a killer line-up of virtual worlds experts, including Jeff Barr of Amazon’s Web Services group, Rob Lanphier and Greg Tomko-Pavia of Linden Lab, and Brian White, author of Second Life – A Guide to Your Virtual World.

Everything from why virtual worlds are important in business to examples of how Amazon has used Second Life to facilitate developer relations will be presented, but the best part of these meetings is their informal nature, which always takes the discussion in a million directions!

The meeting will take place at the Text 100 Seattle office (110 Union St, Ste 210) on Thursday, January 31, from 6:30 – 8 p.m. Please register in advance by following this link: http://seattlesocialmediaclub.eventbrite.com/. We hope to see you there!

-Katie Hoyne, Seattle

Technorati Tags: Text 100, Social Media Club, Seattle, Virtual Worlds

Yahoo: Head Winds, Bold Moves...and Jettisoning Fuel

Tough times at Yahoo.  Yesterday's revenue outlook cites "head winds" as Yahoo continues to try to reinvent itself and compete with the Google juggernaut.

Today's Wall Street Journal cites "investor impatience" and the Street's hackneyed call "for Yahoo's management to take bold steps, like staff reductions."  (Emphasis mine.) 

Bold steps are, indeed, called for.  But staff reductions are not a bold step: on the contrary, they are a tacit admission that management has been too timid, historically, or that attempts to be bold have failed.  Yahoo's announced reductions may be necessary, yes -- better to jettison fuel than crash. But bold?  Not to my thinking.

For comparison, I joined Hewlett-Packard within a few weeks of Mark Hurd joining as C.E.O., and I ran employee communications for one of HP's three business units (which happened to employ 2/3rds of HP's employees) for two years prior to leaving HP.  Mark rolled out a comprehensive turnaround plan within a few months of his arrival.  And yes, a substantial staff reduction was part of that plan.  But Mark underscored that the cuts were an unfortunate consequence of past under performance, and a necessity that had to be undertaken in order to fund a number of bold moves that would turn the company around. 

Almost three years since Hurd took over, HP's performance speaks for itself.  And it's worth noting that he brought employees along on the journey, driving up employee engagement and satisfaction during a time of massive change and upheaval.  Hurd kept "communicating with employees" near the top of a long list of priorities.

Hopefully Yahoo understands all of this.  Is management communicating with speed, transparency and brutal honesty?  Are they breaking down barriers and silos and rewarding contribution?  Are they encouraging risks, and discouraging ego-centric behavior?  Is management itself truly aligned around a clear vision and set of goals?

Jettisoning fuel may very well be necessary for Yahoo today.  But moving forward, a truly bold plan will aspire to prevent such dire measures from ever being needed again.  There's nothing like an engaged and passionate workforce to raise a company to new heights.

David Bailey

Two new studies on the state of privacy

"No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks",

states the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that was adopted by the United Nations in 1948. In many countries privacy is highly valued and protected by law. However, privacy advocates find that in reality privacy often is not as protected as the law would suggest.

Privacy International, a non-governmental organization founded in 1990 as a "watchdog on surveillance and privacy invasions by governments and corporations" recently released their "2007 International Privacy Ranking". With over 1,100 pages based on the input of 200 experts the report is very comprehensive. If you want to get a picture at one glance, you can take a look at the map on the left, but here are some key findings from the report's summary:

• "The 2007 rankings indicate an overall worsening of privacy protection across the world, reflecting an increase in surveillance and a declining performance of privacy safeguards. [...]
• The 2007 rankings show an increasing trend amongst governments to archive data on the geographic, communications and financial records of all their citizens and residents. This trend leads to the conclusion that all citizens, regardless of legal status, are under suspicion.
• The privacy trends have been fueled by the emergence of a profitable surveillance industry dominated by global IT companies and the creation of numerous international treaties that frequently operate outside judicial or democratic processes. [...]
• The lowest ranking countries in the survey continue to be Malaysia, Russia and China. The highest-ranking countries in 2007 are Greece, Romania and Canada.
• The 2006 leader, Germany, slipped significantly in the 2007 rankings, dropping from 1st to 7th place behind Portugal and Slovenia.
• In terms of statutory protections and privacy enforcement, the US is the worst ranking country in the democratic world. In terms of overall privacy protection the United States has performed very poorly, being out-ranked by both India and the Philippines and falling into the "black" category, denoting endemic surveillance.
• The worst ranking EU country is the United Kingdom, which again fell into the "black" category along with Russia and Singapore. [...]."

According to this report the protection of privacy is worsening. Does this mean that citizens are becoming more sensitive when it comes to the exposure of their personal information? Surprisingly, the opposite seems to be the case. People across the globe are sharing more about their private lives than ever before using social media. Aren't they aware that these "digital footprints" undermine their privacy? A recent study of the Pew/Internet & American Life Project suggests otherwise. While this study only applies to the US, it is of particular interest given that Privacy International found the US to be a country where surveillance is endemic. Here are some key findings:

• "Internet users are becoming more aware of their digital footprint; 47 % have searched for information about themselves online, up from just 22 % five years ago
• Few monitor their online presence with great regularity.
• Most internet users are not concerned about the amount of information available about them online, and most do not take steps to limit that information.
• Internet users have reason to be uncertain about the availability of personal data: 60 % of those who search for their names actually find information about themselves online, but 38 % say their searches come up short.
• One in ten internet users have a job that requires them to self-promote or market their name online.
• Among adults who create social networking profiles, transparency is the norm.
• More than half of all adult internet users have used a search engine to follow others' footprints.
• Basic contact information tops most searchers' wish lists."

So, while political interests and new technologies are driving an unseen level of surveillance, people are also exposing themselves like never before. This looks like a potentially dangerous combination. However, the fact that people are prepared to show more of themselves doesn't mean that they concede any kind of surveillance. They might have a wider definition of privacy, but one thing certainly hasn't changed: they want their personal information only being used in a manner they agree with. An increasing number of power users is currently trying to answer the question how to make that sure. They are either trying to solve the problem with technical precautions on how to safeguard your privacy online, or they are trying the legal route developing frameworks like a privacy manifesto or even a bill of rights for the open social web. These are all very worthy efforts, but the jury is still out what will actually work.

Georg Kolb

Technorati Tags: privacy, Privacy International, Pew/Internet

Social Media Breakfast: Taking the Conversation Offline

Text 100 sponsored the first Social Media Breakfast NYC today along with  Converseon.

About 30 people interested in all different aspects of social media gathered to hear Eric Krangel, who reports from the virtual world of Second Life under the avatar Eric Reuters, discuss how he sees social media affecting traditional media and communications.

In addition to the conversations at the diner, there was a bit of banter over Twitter as well.

This morning was a reminder that face-to-face meetings are an important part of building relationships, even as we continue to expand our connections through social networks.

There's group of smart, vibrant people working with social media here, and I'm glad we could all connect for the first of what I hope will be many occasions.

Thanks to everyone who participated.

- Aaron Uhrmacher, NYC

Technorati Tags: SMBNYC,social media

 

You're Invited: Social Media Breakfast NYC With Virtual World Reporter Eric Reuters

Technorati Tags: Text 100,Reuters,event,SMBNYC

As much as I love blogging, Twitter and other social media platforms (and I mean LOVE!), none of them truly replace face-to-face meetings. That's why social media evangelists like Robert Scoble spend so much time traveling to conferences around the world!

Hence, the Social Media Breakfast. SMB is an event that Bryan Person originated several months back in Boston, where anyone interested in social media could come together and exchange ideas, meet new people and learn.

Paull Young, from social media agency Converseon, and I both thought it was a great idea, and one that would be particularly welcome in NYC. (Side note: Paull and I have actually never met in person, despite many mutual friends and lots of blog/Twitter conversations)  

So if you're interested in learning more about social media and connecting with others working in this space, come on down and join us next Tuesday, December 12 at 8:00 AM at Big Daddy's Diner near Union Square for some coffee, eggs and conversation. You must be registered to attend. 

Our special guest will be Reuters technology reporter Eric Krangel (avatar Eric Reuters), whose current beat includes the virtual world of Second Life. 

The breakfast is FREE, courtesy of Text 100 and Converseon.

Since seating is tight, participation is limited to the first 30 registrants.

You can reserve your seat and find more details here.

We hope you'll join us! 

Aaron Uhrmacher, NYC