Stereotyping: One Bad Habit Social Media Needs To Dump

Earlier this week, I checked up on a Twitter chat session about blogging, but could only sit through one question. The question seemed innocent enough. Who do you target? Bloggers who are consumers or bloggers who are influencers?

The session quickly broke down into defining influence, with the most commonly accepted definition being a combination of "reach" (total followers) and "credibility" (engagement and RTs). Most people know how I feel about that definition. It fits in nicely with personal branding.

Here's a short answer so you don't have to read the personal branding post (unless you want to). Focusing on influence sucks. It can be summed up with an alternative title for this post: How I stopped chasing influence and became a better person.

Have Some Social Media Pros Taken To Trees Instead Of The Forest?

Before social networks, when blogs were the primary source of communication, the general likability of social media was that everyone had an equal voice regardless of reach. Sure, some people benefited from knowing a bit more about a subject, were better writers, or learned a few things about SEO. But let's not split hairs.

Everyone was at square one.

Most people involved in blogging were excited because they could present their ideas with an equal opportunity to be heard. They didn't need any reach, authority, or influence. They only needed to share their insights and, occasionally, they would capture more interest than major media networks. There was ample chaos, but chaos is kind of fun too.

Chaos is not very sustainable.

Most people think nature has a propensity toward chaos. It doesn't. It has a propensity toward organization. Even after the very messy Big Bang, entire universes and solar systems slowly began to organize themselves into pinwheels or other designs. The same thing happens in tiny ecosystems. Move ants to a new home and they will organize shortly after the initial confusion.

People are prone to stereotyping.

For people, part of our organizational structures include stereotyping. It is one of the things I've always found interesting about watching online behaviors. Many of the people who once celebrated the chaotic nature of the Web are now those trying to create a whole new hierarchy to replace experience, credentials, authority, and expertise.

The new hierarchy is kind of an unintentional scam with reach, interactions, associations, and time online as replacements. These things frequently creep into every communication decision being made on the Web — who to read, who to follow, and who to retweet or acknowledge. It's a load, and I don't mean Tootsie Rolls.

Kayne West Already Disproved All Those Influence Theories.

With a few simple clicks, Kayne West disproved everything some social media pros teach about influence.

He decided to only follow one kid named Steven Holmes. So overnight, everyone started following the kid. Even members of the media bombarded Holmes with questions and messages, hoping he would pass them along. West has since stopped following the kid after learning he unintentionally disrupted the kid's online life. (Or maybe Holmes deleted the account as he said he might. I didn't look and it doesn't matter to make this point.)

Holmes' temporary influence didn't have anything to do with reach, interactions, associations, time online, or even trust. It had to do with perceived access. It's something I already knew from covering a few tenuous fan movements and running campaigns for independent films, causes, and other such stuff. Influence can be created overnight and dumped just as easily.

In some ways, it has a negative value. And the reason I'm starting to think making decisions based on reach, interactions, associations, or time online is nothing more than a new form of stereotyping caused by ego, naivete, or scalability.

Skip The Stereotyping And Create Community.

When I was working on a social media campaign for an independent film, I connected with the fans of select cast members. I didn't care how many followers or friends or "influence" they had. I connected with them based on their enthusiasm and our mutual potential to become friends (most of them are still friends, one year later, by the way).

These two dozen or so people often received insider news first. It wasn't always intentional. Sometimes it was because they asked questions and my team answered them as quickly as possible. As a result, their "influence" grew, often at a faster rate than the film. (Doubly so when translation was involved.) And, after the campaign ended, most retained their "influence."

Of course they did. While it wasn't formal per se, the community we created placed them at the center, and not us. That concept was by design. I didn't want to become a quasi-celebrity on the back of my client. Influencers don't always operate that way.

While I don't think it's intentional, the only people propping up influence these days are those who stand to gain something from the illusion of being influential or are trying to create relationships based on efficiency because of social media scalability. Good for them. As a rule, however, I just don't see the value, but only because my team knows better.

Selling Offsite: Delta Airlines

When it comes to social media, Delta Airlines is ready to go all in. Today, it launched the industry's first social media 'Ticket Window,' which is a fancy way of saying you can now book tickets on the Delta Facebook page.

After the page slurps your Facebook profile data and is able to secure a private connection, a process that takes a considerable amount of time, you'll be able to book flights off Facebook. How long? I started this post while waiting and quit waiting after I finished this post. Clearly, there are some bugs to be worked out.

More importantly, however, the concept kicks dust on the rented land cautions. When there is money to be made, companies don't care.

Facebook is only the beginning. Delta plans to expand its Ticket Window to other sites, including online banner ads to allow full booking capabilities within the airline's advertisements and without requiring you to leave the site you are on. Delta also has plans to provide a fully functional app that does everything its Web site and the Ticket Window can do.

Who Cares? It's An Airline.

This idea is a leap forward, because despite shortcomings, the company is doing something few have thought of — it bypasses the quest to drive visitors somewhere other than where they are. It creates an opportunity to skip the sales funnel and move directly to outcomes.

It's hard to say whether people will book flights while reading an article on The New York Times or playing Farmville, but there is a non-linear quality that can't be ignored. It demonstrates just how far social media will transform not only how we communicate, but how we sell, shop, and share.

That is not to say everything is all roses for the airline industry. Most still struggle with their basic brand promiseds. Added-value on-time flights without additional charges and some assurances nobody is busting up your luggage on the tarmac. The actual flight experience is where some innovation needs to be made and Delta still has some communication rough spots.

Communication Rough Spots.

For as much investment in the concept of a mobile Ticket Window, it's difficult to find the official Delta page on Facebook. Enough so that I had to visit the site to get the Facebook page, which defeats the purpose. Add another problem.

For creative flair, Delta altered its logo on the Facebook page (pictured left). I didn't recognize it. Sure, the new look launched earlier in the week was a step up over what most airlines offer online. (Most have websites like their service. Lacking.) It's a nice, simplified and streamlined site. However, it didn't include a new logo.

Over time, I suppose people will be able to distinguish the Delta logo no matter how they fly it onto various communication pages. But in the interim, it's disruptive in a negative way. It also assumes the airline has a huge following of fans. Maybe they do. The press release sure made it sound like they are on par with Virgin, Southwest, and JetBlue.

"Our customers are spending more time online and are looking for new ways to connect with us," said Bob Kupbens, Delta's vice president - eCommerce. "We're now delivering technology where our customers are - from our own website to our Facebook page to Internet news sites and beyond."

Like many airlines, they seem a little bit stuck on themselves. It was also a little spooky that they decided to launch on Facebook because "We already know Facebook is the most used website by inflight WiFi users on more than 2,000 Delta flights every day."

Nitpicking aside, the real thrust here should send any marketer's or communicator's head spinning with ideas and applications. While making every ad a storefront could diminish branding applications, there is something to be said for being able to book flights, buy products, or even line up speakers with customized topics wherever your landing page happens to be.

Inviting A PR Disaster: Hewlett-Packard

If there is any doubt that Hewlett-Packard implemented the wrong crisis communication strategy, look no further than abundant speculation. Speculation doesn't happen by accident. It happens when the public doesn't have any semblance of clear, authentic communication.

Stanford scholar and longtime Hewlett-Packard watcher Chuck House has come out strong for HP. He says chief executive Mark V. Hurd's resignation is tied to red herrings. The real reason, he says, is Hurd, nicknamed Mark Turd by ex-HPites who worked directly for him, was a thug.

The Los Angeles Times has taken a different tact. It reports that the HP board of directors ought not to flash a high standard of ethics too liberally. They cite how employees and top brass are treated differently when it comes to compensation, including an unusual formula to calculate the lump sum value of pensions that increased John H. Hammergren's pension from $11 million to $85 million.

James B. Stewart, a columnist for SmartMoney magazine, takes yet another approach on The Wall Street Journal, claiming that the HP board of directors didn't disclose enough. He writes that "by withholding information, the HP board is only prolonging the agony and feeding the press a juicy mystery." Perhaps not on the front end, but certainly now, HP has bought a crisis communication plan that caused more pain than if it would have not reacted to the threat of scandalous publicity.

Bad Crisis Communication Plans Magnify, Multiply, And Amplify.

There are more than 10,000 HP speculation stories across the globe today. And by the looks of things, it's only the tip of the iceberg.

Even if we just look at these three stories, they are all bad, even the pro-HP piece penned by House. It makes you wonder how powerless the board of directors was, waiting for a misstep to bring the "evil" executive down. The Los Angeles Times makes it look like the board is engaged in selective ethics. And the Stewart write-up makes it look like they are holding back, perhaps even lying.

Any time the crisis flies in more than several hundred directions, you know it's botched. Now, business reporters (people who are always looking for exciting stories because the daily stories aren't always so exciting) are looking at every angle. They are making mountains everywhere and they are doing it well beyond the scope of the initial crisis, which was a mole hill by comparison.

Situation Analysis Is Always The First Step In A Crisis.

If there were any internal politics as some suggest, they do not belong on the boardroom table at a meeting to discuss disclosure in order to avoid a public relations disaster. Handling a crisis can only have one objective: minimize damage.

So, if we take the board of directors' word that there is nothing more than what they disclosed — that Hurd was engaged in a non-sexual close relationship but fudged expense reports to hide the relationship to avoid the perception of an affair — then there is no other conclusion than they botched the plan.

In this scenario, a better course of action would have been to clear the chief executive's name, make him pay the $20,000 back (which becomes a personnel matter), manage any crisis in the event it becomes a crisis, and move on. After all, in this case, there was no evidence that Hurd's transgression (which isn't even clear as a transgression) would have been as big of a blip on the media radar. Even if it was, it seems the intent — if it was to avoid a crisis — has backfired exponentially.

This leaves us with two possible outcomes. Either HP created a crisis out of nothing or there is much more to the story.

I'm not big on crisis communication rules other than treating them as situational. I look at the classic tenets of crisis communication and see guidelines that help us ask the right questions given the readily available information we have.

However, if you do want a rule to hang on your shingle, I might suggest this one: in for a pinch, in for a pound. And once you are in for a pound, you'd better hope your only motivation was to articulate the crisis as authentically as possible.

Evaluating A Living Crisis Communication Situation.

Almost every time we evaluate a living crisis communication case study, someone inevitably says that it is too soon to conclude anything. In general, I agree with that assessment. For example, I would be doing you a disservice if I said this will kill HP.

I don't think it will (operative word is "think"). I buy HP products because the hardware is good. The ink, on the other hand, is very pricey. But I suppose it's possible.

However, public relations professionals and crisis communication managers ought to know by know that they have to draft crisis communication plans based on readily available information (not all information) and build in dozens of contingencies if and when that information turns out to be inaccurate. It happens all the time.

Sometimes the people in the field make a mistake. Sometimes public perception turns bad regardless of the facts. And sometimes, clients aren't always forthcoming. They might not lie, but I have heard "Oh, I probably should have told you ..." enough times that charging clients one dollar per utterance would have meant my retirement.

Running Into Fire: Hewlett-Packard

Ask most public relations professionals what is the first thing to do during a crisis and the pat answer is "get ahead of the crisis." That was the advice given to Hewlett-Packard’s (HP) board of directors as it related to chief executive Mark V. Hurd.

And now everyone on the board is under fire, with an unlikely charge by Lawrence J. Ellison, the chief executive of Oracle. According to Ellison, he was familiar with the sexual harassment claim against Hurd. He was familiar with the debate that raged between the board of directors. And he was familiar with the fact that the board had investigated the claim and found it to be false.

So what happened? APCO, the public relations firm advising the directors, advised that the company would face a firestorm if the accusations of sexual harassment were made public, regardless of whether or not they were true. They went so far as to make mocked up newspapers to show what the damage would be like.

According to Ellison, the board was originally split 6-4 over disclosure. On Friday, board member Marc Andreessen said the decision was unanimous.* Andreessen joined the board last year. He is co-founder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz and co-founder and chairman of Ning (another social network that has made questionable decisions recently). He reportedly played a key role in the ouster.

What Went Wrong With The Mark V. Hurd Public Relations Debacle?

Some public relations pros are still second guessing the backlash against HP. They stand by the principle to get ahead of the problem and disclose everything. They obviously don't understand media relations whatsoever.

While Hurd had allegedly been found padding expense reports to hide a questionable relationship (approximately $20,000), most members of the media would have found the sexual harassment charges a non-event if they were false. There might have been a firestorm or not, no matter how juicy the story might have been.

Michael Holston, HP's general counsel, told investors on the conference call Friday that Hurd "had a close personal relationship" but Allred's law firm clarified "there was no affair and no intimate sexual relationship between our client and Mr. Hurd."

Stated plainly, it seems like the board of directors created an illusion of a unanimous disclosure vote to show solidarity to disclose what amounts to a non-event. The tension this caused between the board and Hurd was insurmountable, ultimately leading to the resignation (despite the breach in conduct).

The fudged expense reports could have been a quiet personnel matter, easily resolved as Hurd paid them back. It was certainly a lapse in judgement to fudge them in order to hide a relationship. However, the $20,000 compared to the reported millions in severance. Some people are baffled by this settlement. Don't be. The amount is reflective of the mistake.

What One Quote Stands Out As Grossly Misguided?

It didn't come from Hurd. It was Andreessen who said "HP is not about any one person." But unfortunately, that is precisely what the new message seems to be. Andreessen has suddenly risen to become the face of the company. And, he is already named as one of the people deciding on a replacement.

That may smell funnier than anything Hurd did. But that aside, if politics and public relations pat answers weren't involved in the decision making process, this might be be a good time to ask how differently it might have played out. We'll explore this in a second post tomorrow or Thursday. In the interim, PR pros ought to consider that crisis communication is situational.

I often illustrate the point in classes by contrasting up real life crisis situations between a tiff between a homebuilder and a handicapped elderly woman and also a tiff between a homebuilder and a vandal. Students are frequently surprised at the outcomes. We handled the one that turned out right.

HP did it wrong, and now it will still face months (and maybe years) of unflattering media coverage. You know, the stuff they wanted to avoid. Worse, we suspect it may become uglier, depending on who they pick as a replacement and how well that person performs.

* Having served on many boards, directors often revote on issues to show solidarity, even if the minority has reservations. Ergo, they knuckle.

Challenging Marketers: 65 Percent Say Social Media

Almost two-thirds of advertising and marketing executives say it is somewhat to very challenging to keep up with social media trends. And, according to a recent survey conducted by The Creative Group, about 41 percent of advertising and marketing pros say the easiest way to keep up is offline.

This survey is based on more than 500 telephone interviews with approximately 375 marketing executives and 125 advertising agencies. Marketing executives tended to work for companies with 100 or more employees. Agency executives with more than 20 employees.

What Makes Social Media Challenging For Marketing Pros?

A good portion of the challenge has to do with the constant changes taking place in the space, prompting complete tactical changes within the individual networks. To remain competitive, every social network is constantly updating and adding new features. Some are small. Some are complex. And some take social networks down.

Not all of the changes are tied to platform developers. Some networks suffer from their own success. For example, growing popularity with Twitter has led to increasing challenges caused by over saturation. With a random review of the last 20 tweets on my stream, 18 of them were links to other sites and posts.

One second later, the same. One second later, the same. One second later, a hashtag conversation session claimed half.

This doesn't even consider all the new platforms, networks, sites, forums, and apps emerging daily. But what's worse for marketers is this weird standard to continually drive "demand" on the most popular networks at the moment.

For example, marketers on Twitter have to explain why the company account stays flat for a week or two (never mind they are creating relationships on other forums). When url shorteners are accidently flagged as spam on Facebook, people temporarily panic. If two people stop following a feed or Facebook page, they blame it on the last little bit of content shared.

The Most Common Problem With Social Media Programs Today.

We see it daily. Knee jerk, reactive thinking that keeps marketers chasing the latest tactics, tricks, tips, and changes on whatever the most popular social media program is today. And, somewhere along the way, they've created an erroneous expectation that not only do they have to convince people to visit their sites, but they also have to be the most "popular" on every social network they join.

It's possible, but not probable. Some companies, products, and services are better suited for one network than another. But beyond the obvious, the real mistake is to continually case tactics without considering strategy. Strategy has nothing to do with social networks. It has to do with communication.

If there is any irony in the findings from The Creative Group, it's mostly that marketers and agency pros answered their own question. When they want to learn something about online marketing, they aren't looking online. They're looking offline. But even offline, they aren't looking to learn the right stuff.

Thinking First: Fresh Content Project

If someone asked me right now what is the most important skill set a marketer or public relations professional needs to learn today, it would have nothing and everything to do with the Internet. It's called critical thinking.

Critical thinking is the foundation upon which all of their other decisions will be made. And, more importantly, it will help them realize that everything they thought to be true or learned from a teacher (or speaker) is almost always wrong for the needs and situations they will face once they work in the field.

After all, if circumstances didn't continually bend the rules that came before, we'd still be running vintage duotone ads to peddle other people's junk. Well, all right, maybe that's a bad example. Or maybe not. The campaign I'm linking to might work for Skype, but not for AT&T. And that's the point of several fresh content picks listed below. Think before you believe tip links.

Best Fresh Content In Review, Week of July 26

• Sentiment Analysis And The Problem With Computational Analysis.
When Jed Hallam opened a much needed discussion on sentiment analysis, people took notice. And while most of them noticed his follow-up post more, the initial post has much more meat. The slickness of computational analysis — spitting out that a brand has a positive sentiment — based on supposed online mentions, has little to be desired. Without vetting the analysis, you really don't know what is going on with a brand, especially if it happens to be those stacked up with a common name. Think before you report.

• 10 Ways Geolocation Is Changing The World.
Guest posting and cross content posts certainly have advantages. I may have never seen Rob Reed's post on geolocation marketing had it not also appeared on Collective Thoughts. I'm glad it did. Reed, who is also the founder of Max Gladwell, provides ample examples and ideas around mobile or proximity marketing. We've often said that mobile is the future of the Web, but when you look at Reed's post, you realize that geolocation is also what will usher in most brick and mortar to the Internet in any number of creative ways.

• Digital case studies: Punch Pizza.
One example you won't find on Reed's list was recently featured by Arik Hanson. Punch Pizza doesn't waste time playing by social media and social network rules. Instead, it looks at the platform and wonders how those various networks might help introduce its pies. Flickr became its coupon corner. It gave away pizzas for football fans when their teams lost. They've also capitalized on current events and hosted several creative contests. What makes this case study great isn't the numbers as much as the thought behind the campaigns. Punch Pizza asks "why not?" instead of "why?"

• Brand Crisis Revisited: The Silence Of The Crisis Police.
One of the reasons Bob Conrad resonates is because he doesn't bend to convention, especially when it comes to how to handle a crisis. In this post, he tackles the apology, empathy, and getting ahead of the problem, all three of which have become the pat answers for almost everything in the crisis communication arsenal. When some people critique a crisis going afoul, these are the most mind-numbing of the bunch. It's not that they are wrong, but they deny any semblance of situation analysis. Sometimes the laundry list that is taught is not the right laundry list to employ because the shirts aren't really dirty.

• Social Media Spending To Double This Year.
If there is any doubt whether social media is already mainstream for modern marketing, take a look at the report racap from Brian Solis. Almost 20 percent of most marketing budgets are now dedicated to social media. In fact, Internet marketing has taken over the top skill sets that employers are looking for from marketers. They simply cannot exist without some semblance of social media knowledge. It doesn't even matter if you are talking about B2B or B2C businesses. Most companies have finally figured out that they must market where the people are and the people are online.

Want to review more Fresh Content picks? Click on the Fresh Content label or join the Fresh Content Project on Facebook.