Guest Post: To embargo or not to embargo

Embargoes are a hot topic. Hot enough to draw some heavy-hitting journalists to a panel event last week in San Francisco to discuss the pros and cons, and importance of relationships between journalists and PR people. In a guest post, Burson-Marsteller’s Bobbie Peyton shares some highlights from the Embargo 2010 event.

————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Embargo 2010: An Industry Discussion on Future Rules of Media Engagement

Thursday Oct. 29

Photo: from left to right the panelists: Mark Glaser, Damon Darlin, Tom Foremski and Dylan Tweney. Photo by Marie Domingo.

Moderator: Sam Whitmore
Host: Waggener Edstrom
Panelists:

Damon Darlin, NYTimes

Dylan Tweney, Wired.com

Mark Glaser, MediaShift (PBS)

Tom Foremski, Silicon Valley Watcher

Last Thursday evening, October 29, I attended a lively panel discussion entitled, Embargo 2010: An Industry Discussion on Future Rules of Media Engagement. In attendance were the who’s who of Bay Area technology writers.

Hosted by Waggener Edstrom at Varnish wine bar just down the street from the San Francisco Burson-Marsteller office, the event had erupted in controversy in Twitter and the blogosphere before it even began: Michael Arrington was a no-show, and female tech journalists were tweeting their disapproval of no females on the panel (hashtag #embargo2010).

Photo: from left to right: Bobbie Peyton, Laura Perez, Nora Upalawanna and Connie Zheng. Photo by E.B. Boyd.

Before the event started, a few of us BMers were awkwardly awaiting a drink at the open bar, and the mood reminded me of a junior high dance, with boys on one side and girls on the other. In this case, it was PR people on one side and journalists on the other. I spotted Sam Whitmore and headed in his direction. As the moderator, he was a neutral zone.

The panel finally got underway and from the start it was clear that almost none of these panelists liked embargoes. Dylan started off with what would be the quote of the evening: “The word embargo derives from a Latin phrase that means ‘f**k you.’”

At first, the discussion was less about embargoes and more about how to break them and still maintain access. Dylan Tweney encouraged reporters to break embargoes if nothing more than to keep that adversarial relationship alive and well between journalists and anyone who tried to control the media.

That is one of two issues that Tweney has with embargoes: controlling the media. The second is its elitism: only an invited few are chosen to relay the message.

Another issue brought up during the panel discussion was how PR reps and companies don’t do their part to prevent leaks or blacklist those writers who break embargoes. This in turn rewards writers with more readers and click-throughs since they’re the first to break the news. Rafe Needleman spoke out about this issue with my other favorite quote of the evening: “Readers don’t reward thoughtfulness, they reward velocity.”

Not all of the journalists had something negative to say about embargoes. Chris Preimesberger likes them and believes they help him do his job better. Inevitably, the conversation turned to relationships, which was the key takeaway. Journalists are more likely to respect embargoes from people they have relationships with and with whom they trust. Even Tweney, who advocated for an adversarial relationship, admitted that the problems with embargoes has less to do with the nature of the beast, and more to do with a lack of trust between PR professionals and journalists.

Other journalists present in the audience included:

• Wendy Tanaka, Forbes.com
• David Needle, internetnews.com
• Bill Snyder, InfoWorld

[Editor's note, 11/5: link to more photos is not available.] [More photos of the event.]

I wonder what kind of shoes he’s wearing…

Today I was reading one of my favorite geek blogs: Geekologie. (Be warned…some of the language on this geek blog is nsfw.)

In a recent post they embedded a video that I think shows some pretty amazing stuff. Apparently, it’s Cirque du Soleil practice footage of trampolining. Enjoy and happy friday!

Web 2.O-no-he-didnt!

“San Francisco’s Municipal Transit Agency is launching an internal investigation after video of a fight between two bus passengers that the vehicle’s driver never reported popped up on YouTube.” Click here for the full story.

[via @ralphlee]

[Headline phrase credit: @sharonhowell]

Q&A with Dave Wendland

Guess who was quoted in the USA Today article “Real-time Web keeps social networkers connected“?
DAVE!
And, can you guess what Dave talked about? No surprises here, folks…
SOCIAL MEDIA!

“Unplugging is virtually, no pun intended, impossible,” says Dave Wendland, 25, a heavy-duty real-time Web user in Chicago. “People tend to go through withdrawal, and I can attest to that. The problem of disconnecting is that you feel disconnected. Go figure.”

Haroldskids had the opportunity to ask Dave a few questions about his experience working on this media opp. Read on…

1) How did this opportunity come about?

I used to live and work in San Francisco, and I still keep in touch with former PR colleagues. One of them frequently works with Jon Swartz of USA Today, who also lives in the Bay Area, and for this particular story Jon was looking to interview a mobile social media user who lives outside of his region to make the story more well-rounded (preferably a user from the Midwest, Northeast, etc.). She suggested that Jon contact me, which he did within a couple of minutes. The interview took place over the phone and different e-mail exchanges.

2) Did you use social media during the interview? If yes, what platforms?

Indeed. I used Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn during the interviews to connect with Jon. He saw I’m present on these and other social networks.

3) Was your interviewer very familiar with social media? Did he use social media during the interview?

Very much so! Jon is present and active on sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, and writes about tech/social media frequently for USA Today. He’s also written a book on security and identity theft, entitled Zero Day Threat.

4) Were there any quotes you would have liked to see in the story that weren’t included in the final copy?

Given the scope of the article, I’m happy with how it turned out. There are some big names, companies and sources that Jon quotes. What’s more interesting is the quantity of information a reporter gathers versus the amount of information that actually makes it into a piece like this.

5) Tell us about your photo shoot experience.

The photo shoot was bizarre! Tim Loehrke – a USA Today photo editor based in Washington, D.C., – contacted me after my interview with Jon and said they were considering the overall article for a section cover. They wanted to know if I was open to being photographed using my mobile device during my morning commute, which they knew from the interview. It sounded like a fun opportunity to be part of a big story, and at the very least scare my mom a little.

A couple mornings later they sent Brett Roseman, a photographer for the Chicago Sun-Times, to my apartment. The bizarre part happened when Brett buzzed my apartment on Friday at 7 a.m. I went downstairs to open the door and in my groggy state I forgot to take my apartment keys with me. As I was shaking his hand on the porch I heard a “click” behind me. So within 20 seconds of meeting Brett I was already apologizing for locking us out of my building, me in bare feet, him with his expensive cameras and lenses ready to go. Great! Now we were running late for both my job and his job, and in a moment of sheer panic I grabbed a large rock from the sidewalk and tried breaking into my own apartment building. Brett got out his cameras so fast, you should’ve seen him. True professional. He asked if he could photograph the lockout-turned-B&E and I said sure, so long as that part didn’t make it into the story, which it thankfully didn’t!

The windows did not break! Can you believe it? And I was like really, really trying to break them in here. All my might. A big rock. At one point my elbow. Nothing doing. So I called my landlord, who showed up 40 minutes later to let us in. Brett and I talked about a lot in that time span, but mostly it was just me apologizing. My landlord showed up, saw my bare feet and did not look very convinced when I told him Brett was shooting me for a USA Today article. He scratched his head and laughed nervously. I do not blame him! Once inside I restarted my morning, and Brett began the shoot from door to door.

6) What’s your #1 tip for people who are intimidated by social media?

The best way to understand social media is by trying it out for yourself – that and always remember your keys!

Thanks for your time, Dave! We’re glad this pic made it into the paper — not the photos from your B&E!

Photo credit: Brett T. Roseman for USA TODAY

A secret formula for getting retweeted?

An article in Fast Company, today explores the DNA of tweets that get retweeted based on the findings of Hubspot viral marketing scientist Dan Zarrella. The moral of the story is that the more the tweet focuses on you and your life, the less likely it is to be retweeted.

That doesn’t come as a huge surprise. I don’t think I’ve ever had someone RT my mundane musings. It would be odd for people to do so! Generally the use of slang and poor grammar make a tweet less retweet-worthy as well. An interesting finding was that the squeaky wheel does sometimes get the oil. That is, people who ask to be retweeted often get what they ask for.

(via Fast Company)

Here are the words you shouldn’t be tweeting if you want to go viral:

…..and…. you should tweet on Friday at 4pm, apparently. I suppose this is when the cubicle-bound masses mentally check out before they get going on their weekend plans.

May all your tweets be bountiful!

BY SHARON HOWELL

There’s Something About Memes (part 4 of ?)

Memes are defined as a unit of pop culture. The term was first coined by a British scientist, RichardDawkins,  to describe the evolution and spread of cultural ideas. Somewhere along the line, the term degenerated to describe LOLcats and Rickrolling.

The success and longevity of a meme depends upon how culturally relevant it is. Case in point, this past Sunday, MTV aired its annual Music Video Awards. As a big television event, the award show had lots of eyeballs on it, so when the  unexpected happened, it did not take long for that moment to bear fruit to a new meme. During an acceptance speech by country/pop singer Taylor Swift, hip hop artist Kanye West grabbed the microphone from her hand to proclaim that Beyonce, who Taylor had beat out for the award, had “one of the best videos of all time.” (Video here) This opened the door for a brand new meme that caught on like wildfire yesterday.

An example:

 

Stats for your eyes

I love stats. Yes, I do. I love stats (especially when they’re about social media). How ’bout you?

Some that caught my eye[s]:

• If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest.
• 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices.
• Generation Y and Z consider e-mail passé. In 2009, Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen.

[via Mashable]

Say what?

WSJ takes a look at text-messaging shorthand (Quick! Tell Us What KUTGW Means).  The writer cited one link, in particular, that I think may be helpful for those who are trying to find ways to cut down on the number of characters (why, hello, Twitter) or who need a  translation guide: netlingo.com.  The site provides “definitions of Internet and texting terms.”

Did you read the WSJ article? Yes? Well, then –

Time for a quiz! Put your answers in the comments section.

Translate the following:
1) NSFW
2) TTYL
3) IMO

Too easy? Try these:
4) WDYM?
5) SWDYT?

Enjoy –

P.s. KUTGW = Keep Up The Good Work

PRWeek’s “40 Under 40″ in 2009

Mary Ritti, our friend and colleague here at Burson-Marsteller, has been honored by PRWeek in its 2009 “40 Under 40″ list. The writeup is included below. Congratulations on the achievement, Mary! Very well deserved.

Mary Ritti
MD, Burson-Marsteller, 37

Mary Ritti joined Burson-Marsteller’s technology practice in 2002 after nearly a decade of agency and in-house experience with high-profile companies, including Nokia.

At Burson, she has become known as a strong leader and creative thinker. She is equally proficient at developing and growing talent and client accounts, such as HP and Intel. She heads the account for the latter, and helped create its “Inspire” and “Sunflower” campaigns.Burson’s new media team in tech was initiated by Ritti, and colleagues recognize her as an early champion of digital use to benefit clients and the firm.

When not working or taking care of her two small children, Ritti lends support to many nonprofits, including Music in Schools Today, Lake County Animal Rescue, and Little Earth Keepers.

- Dave

Twitter SEO Tips

Most companies make a conscious effort to search engine optimize (SEO) traditional web-based communications, such as press releases and websites. The same principles apply with Twitter! Since people are finding tweets and users based on keyword searches, you can search engine optimize your tweets and bio to better reach your desired audience.

The following Mashable post summarizes ten commonly used SEO Twitter tricks. Try them and perhaps you will gain a couple of followers!

1. Choose a good handle

2. Select an account name wisely

3. Make your bio count

4. Spread the word

5. Remember your URL

6. Select the initial characters of each tweet carefully

7. Write keyword-rich tweets if possible

8. Mind your retweetability

9. Provide some link love

10. As always, give ‘em what they want