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

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

Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, Joins Text 100 to Discuss Crisis Navigation

In today’s fast moving world, organizations of all sizes are faced with potential crises that have the ability to disrupt business, damage brand reputation or worse – involve a loss of life.

And this topic was definitely top of mind for the greater Seattle business community. On, Wednesday, November 7, the Seattle Text 100 office hosted a dinner and networking event to discuss best practices for helping an organization navigate through a crisis.  We had more than 30 attendees ranging from CSOs to communication executives from the likes of RealNetworks, AT&T Wireless, Amazon.com, Boeing, Boeing Employees Credit Union, Cray Computers, The Gates Foundation, The City of Seattle, Puget Sound Energy, Websense and Xerox.

The Virgin Way

Our special guest, Will Whitehorn, gave a thought provoking discussion about how organizations of all sizes need to consider the “law of unintended consequences” of their business and make sure they have the proper plans and procedures in place to deal with virtually any crisis incident that has an operational and brand impact.  Will explained that the way a company and its executives respond to a crisis often dictates how they’ll be perceived by the public in the long-term. 

In the case of the Virgin brand family, proactive crisis planning and executive participation in a crisis incident response is part of their DNA. Will provided a detailed account of how Richard Branson flew half-way across Europe in the middle of the night to be the first on the scene of a Virgin Rail accident earlier this year. And, when a police officer at the crash asked why the CEO of a major company would travel to middle of a rain swept field in England, Branson replied, “Because if I was the parent of one of the kids involved in this accident, I’d damn well want to the boss of this operation to be here.”  I think that pretty well sums-up what separates Virgin from so many other organizations that want to bury their head in the sand during a time of crisis.

Seattle Weighs in

Following Will’s presentation, each table continued the discussion with a collaborative sharing of crisis communication concerns and security best practices.  Topics of interest included:

• the increase in date breaches
• compliance requirements around data breach notification to internal and external stakeholders
• government's role in protecting consumers from data breaches
• selling the importance of crisis communications to the CEO
• the emotional side of business continuity planning

Feedback from the Event

Here’s a note from one of the attendees…

Mr. Whitehorn, Great meeting you last night, and thank you for an informative and thought-provoking discussion.
Reflecting upon your approach towards unforeseen contingencies and the example you provided about the train accident, I was literally stunned by the lengths you took to ensure customer safety and brand integrity.  I’m a military academy graduate and a former climber, so I’m familiar with the necessities of risk assessment, and detailed logistics and contingency planning when life and limb are at stake.  Before last evening, however, I have not seen anything approaching that level of rigor and discipline in a corporate setting.  With these values central to your brand, it is no wonder to me why you have remained part of Virgin’s leadership for 20 years.

Moving Forward

In reflecting upon the discussion of how to navigate through a crisis a couple of key points come to mind.  As with any effective crisis communications plan, there are several bottom-line benefits associated with the investment in crisis prevention and preparedness. For example, planning, which includes creating specific “what if” scenarios, can help mitigate a crisis from happening or at the very least, reduce anticipated response time to an incident. In addition, employing a crisis communications plan can reduce the cost of a crisis and above all, help protect corporate reputation.

In sum, be proactive, transparent and sincere.  And, as we’ve seen with the Virgin example, providing genuine communications from the top of an organization as well as ongoing communications to stakeholders goes a long way with respect to customer confidence as well as brand reputation preservation.

Christopher Barker and Hally Wax

Technorati Tags: crisis communications, Will Whitehorn, Virgin, Text 100

Making History, One Client at a Time!

I'm sure our founder, Mark Adams, didn't appreciate he was making a little piece of history when he took a young Bill Gates on his first European press tour back in 1981.

And I suspect our Text 100 teams around the world didn't quite appreciate the significance of launching the first global Chinese tech brand when they unveiled Lenovo in 2005 either.

I'm not claiming Text 100 has changed the world (well, not that much anyway!) but by virtue of being the granddaddy of tech PR firms, we've often had the privilege of a ring-side seat at great moments in technology industry history.

I got that feeling again this week when Text 100 had the opportunity to represent the Russian Venture Company on its first US press tour and business development visit. Like India and China before it, Russia is starting to build up its technology industry and it's not hard to imagine this country of 140 million people offering 60,000 new IT and engineering graduates each year could soon live up to its billing as one of the high-potential 'BRIC' countries.

And if Russia does realise its technology potential - aided by the investment dollars of our newest client and the expertize of entrepreneurs and VCs from Silicon Valley - then we'll be proud to say: "Text 100 was there at the beginning!"

David McCulloch

Students & Social Media: The Future is Bright

I was recently invited by the communication department at Rochester Institute of Technology to give a brief lecture on the for-profit public relations milieu. It's been so long since I was back at college that the students made me feel a bit like an old man. Nevertheless, I persevered through my presentation on what agency PR is, what corporate PR is, and what Text 100 has to offer. In particular, I pointed out how Text 100's peer media practice and Second Life expertise is a big differentiator for us. You could feel the interest level in the room perk right up.

Text 100 isn't new to the peer media landscape, especially not as the first PR firm to have a presence in Second Life. But these students have been utilizing all kinds of peer media for years now. When I was in school, AOL Instant Messenger was all the rage. But now with the advent of YouTube, MySpace, FaceBook, Friendster and a cadre of other tools and applications, the students sitting before me in the auditorium were no newbies (read: "n00bs") to online social environments.

But the interest they showed in Second Life was really astounding. While only a dozen raised their hands as actually active in-world, I think many more were able to grasp the scale of the SL economy and the opportunity for building brand awareness through PR. After my presentation, Dr. Susan Barnes from RIT told me they were offering a class in conjunction with RIT's Lab for Social Computing for winter quarter focusing solely on Second Life.

In the end, it was great to see so many young students so excited about PR and the future opportunities for the field. Based on the acumen demonstrated in post-presentation questions many of them brought to me, I'd say the future is in good hands.

Kevin Ptak

Technorati Tags: Rochester Institute of Technology, Second Life, Text 100 

When Two Worlds Collide.

If you hadn't already heard: social networking is the future of public relations. (Let me know if that's not yet the case in your part of the world).

It's certainly becoming a prevalent form of professional communication in Silicon Valley as more and more web-savvy reporters invite pitches from PR folks on sites like Facebook. Not surprisingly then, PR folks are rushing onto Facebook and, well, so is everyone else. Everyone else, including your family, your old college friends, random people from your past...and there's nothing to keep them apart!

As a mildly skeptical early adopter, I was amused this week to see BusinessWeek's Jon Fine put into writing a question that had been troubling me:  Do I really want my personal life and my private life to collide on sites like MySpace and Facebook?

The issue is becoming more of a hot topic as users like me encounter, for example, others 'tagging' pictures of them on Facebook for all to see. I've had 45 pictures attributed to me (i.e. not taken or uploaded by me, but identified as me by others), none of them, as yet, feature me particularly compromised in any way, but it could happen I suppose, and I'm not entirely sure that'll be a good thing! So what can I (and you) do to prevent your boss discovering you used to dye your hair purple and adore the Sisters of Mercy?

Alan Lewis, eBay's Chief Evangelist came into the office today to show off some eBay Facebook widges and, not surprisingly, the question came up again: What if I don't want my boss to see that my old college friend has bitten me and now I'm a zombie?

The answer, it seems, lies in 'setting permissions'.  Alan pointed out that it's fairly easy to control the content that others see attached to your Facebook profile. On eBay's Marketplace, for example, you can choose to have people see what you're buying, but not what you're selling. The general principle applies to most applications, Alan says.

There you go...now you don't need to fear the future. Right, I'm off to delete some zombies.

David McCulloch

Technorati Tags: Text 100, Facebook, Public Relations,eBay

Word of mouth #1 influence for b2b purchase decisions

A May 2007 study of market research firm Keller Fay Group, sponsored by experiential marketing agency Jack Morton Worldwide, provides some interesting insights on the influence of word of mouth on business-to-business purchase decisions. As far as I can see (through Technorati), the world of PR hasn't taken notice.
Keller Fay interviewed 700 executives in the US (288) and UK (406) between March and April 2007 and combined these with interviews with 2,188 executives participating in Keller Fay's TalkTrack tracking study of word of mouth. The key findings are:

1. Word of mouth is the #1 purchase influencer for business decision-makers (53 % in the US, 65 % in the UK). Sales reps follow on rank 2 (US 39 %, UK 35 %), Meetings/events/ conferences on rank 3 (US 38 %, UK 40 %), the Internet on rank 4 (US 37 %, UK 40 %) and press coverage on rank 9 (US 23 %, UK 24 %).
2. Face-to-face is the #1 way for decision-makers to have word of mouth conversations (75 %). The phone follows on rank 2 (19 %), E-mail on rank 3 (3 %), instant or text message on rank 4 (1 %) and online chat rooms and blogs on rank 5 (< 1 %)
3. First-hand experience of a brand is the #1 basis for brand conversations (86 %). Compared to that other aspects of the brand play a minor role (14 %).

There are some important conclusions to draw from this study. Business leaders base most of their purchase decisions on direct personal relationships: They trust their peers more than any other source. They prefer face-to-face over any mediated relation. And direct, first-hand experience is by far the most important motive for them to talk about a brand. In other words, media programs, old or new, are not the most powerful way to win their trust. We have to think beyond media relations, if we want to reach business leaders making decisions on purchases. We have to help creating positive first hand brand experiences and facilitating face-to-face meetings with advocates of our clients' brand.

Georg Kolb

Technorati Tags: Word of mouth, BtoB, Keller Fay Group, Jack Morton Worldwide, PR, Public Relations

Trust: The Most Important Currency in the Future of PR?

Bulldog Reporter has posted a byline article written by our very own Georg Kolb. It’s on the "Barks and Bite" section of the publication’s Web site. Georg, executive vice president of innovation at Text 100, wrote an article on the importance of trust in public relations and a number of the issues surrounding this subject matter. It makes for a very interesting read. I encourage you to check it out if you have a spare few minutes.

On another note, Text 100 recently announced an alliance with Zuberance to create services that will help business communicators develop more trusted relationships with their constituencies.

-Radley Moss

Text 100 and Zuberance partner to help businesses create and grow communities of trust

I am very pleased to announce that Text 100 partners with marketing software and services company Zuberance to help marketers with a critical business problem: creating and growing trusted relationships in an increasingly distrustful environment of stakeholders.

Trust always matters, of course, but why this specific focus on trust now and why Zuberance?

We all have probably experienced it ourselves, but over the last years, studies of market researchers such as Yankelovich Partners or Datamonitor have provided evidence that marketing has suffered from a significant decline in trust. As Yankelovich Partners point out, the most important reason for people's resistance to marketing is the level of saturation and intrusiveness they experience. Another important insight they provide is that "the relevant issue is not new vs. traditional media; it is old vs. new marketing practices". In other words, new media by themselves will not engender more trust, if you don't change the style of marketing.

Feeling overloaded and intruded, marketing recipients want to see more relevance and be more in control of what they get. New media is certainly empowering them to enforce this expectation. Any group of people who share an interest in what a company does or stands for can easily connect through the internet and share their views by word of mouth. Such communities of interest can include customers, employees, media, analysts, partners or members of any other traditional audience, each of them a potential source of trust or distrust between each other.

If we want to help businesses (re-)establish trust in such an environment, we need to make sure that we address all sources in this community of trust and do that in a relevant, integrated and interactive way. While Text 100 is experienced in engaging the media, analysts, employees, partners, new media and other stakeholders, we still have a gap to fill: our client's customers. This is where Zuberance comes in.

Zuberance provides software and services which enable clients to identify and mobilize their most trusted customers online. It's software based approach makes it scalable to large numbers, and they also use a strong metric to track their business impact. Zuberance is an innovative start-up, but lead by seasoned executives such as their CEO Rob Fuggetta. Rob is a passionate marketer who used to be a principal and partner at Regis McKenna and served himself as CMO of fast-growth companies.

We will flesh out our combined offering over the next couple of months, but the goal is to 1.) map out our client's communities of trust, so that they can focus their efforts on the right spots, 2.) help them grow trusted relationships and mitigate the impact of distrust and 3.) provide a clear measure for the business impact of the program.

Georg Kolb

Technorati Tags: Text 100, Zuberance, Trust, Communities, Alliance, PR, Public Relations, Marketing