Riding the Green Wave in April

Ann Curry's special on NBC - "Our Year of Extremes: Did #ClimateChange Just Hit Home" - was well done and provided a necessary reminder - in simple a+b=c terms that there is little doubt it is people that are impacting our planet's dramatic weather changes. And watching the report as both an ad sales marketer and someone passionate about sustainability, something was clearly missing. Something as glaring as those glacier images. Not one advertiser in that show grabbed the opportunity to align their brand with corporate social responsibility. And not one advertised product was anything endemic to the area of sustainability. There were half a dozen ads for QSRs and fast food restaurants, a couple of department stores and (ironically) insurance companies, many cleaning products, and even those land-filling coffee pods. I'm from the "it'll never be perfect but at least we can try" camp. So, where was Starbucks and its sustainability effort? Where were CSX or Amtrak touting fuel-saving transportation modes? How about even a fuel-efficient or hybrid car? Even Microsoft - which PRNews just applauded as the most socially responsible company of 2013. Instead, we saw ads for (ironically) air fresheners and burgers.

A few years back #NBC launched its fairly wide-reaching "Green in Universal" effort. Where's the beef now? Around then, #CBS bought a smart little company EcoMedia, which while today still allows ads for mainstream brands to feature a leaf in the corner of your screen, indicating a portion of the ad buy is being donated to environmental causes, I haven't seen a leaf in a long time. Now, just as when waves of consciousness were spurred by things like long fuel lines then diminished when the lines went down, it seems it has grown less ...convenient?... to wave a green flag. Yet media media gives a nod to extra eco-content in April -- Earth Day month  

But as every marketer today will tell you, ads are most effective when more "native" to the content and appropriately aligned. So, some cynics might cry "greenwashing" if the Climate Change special had ad loads of more environmentally conscious products, but even they would have to agree that the AD environment was better suited to sponsors who at least tried to grab the opportunity to shine their sustainability spotlight a little bit brighter.

You Might be a SM S-head If... (SM Swelled Head)

The whole strategy of tapping social media for business marketing is to listen to what the world is saying about you or your company. Then, by being smart, or funny, or a good resource when you participate in online conversations, earning a good reputation. Just like the popular kid in school. I hate to say it's like the George Burns quote, but it IS sort of like what he said about acting:

"it's all about honesty. If you can fake that, you've got it made."

You work on creating a well rounded perception of your brand, your brilliant thought leadership, your trustworthiness, etc. and you hope you get people to talk TO you and ABOUT you (hopefully in a good way!) -- drive digital word of mouth.

All that is great and helps add some soul to a CEO or more lifeblood to a business. We've seen the success stories of the Zappos customer service, Dell's course correction, and Obama central become over-Tweeted parables of bar-raising expectations.

Where I start to get concerned, and believe me I'm no exception, is when we start confusing our personal value and when we're always thinking or promoting our value as a "brand." We start to measure our own worth by the number of followers, friends and alerts, and turn what should be our more personal dialogues into crafted multilogues.

When did even my personal pages or Tweets become a race to be the first to post the cool link? I mean, heaven-forbid you DON'T include some valuable nugget these days?? Who needs that kind of pressure on, say, Facebook? Can't I just hang out by a wall?

But the world is a great big sheet of cellophane now, so poster beware. (And yes, I WILL stop taking your feeds if you think I am titillated about your lunch choice today.) It's a fine line between being more professional in our personal life online, and starting to drink your own Kool-Aid, believing tons of people are really listening as we try to come across more personally in our professional life.


It's easy to confuse hitting the first few hundred or the thousand mark on Twitter (@mossappeal, ya'all) with real people who will hang on your every word at an actual cocktail party. I've heard lots of stories of groups with hundreds of fans on LinkedIn or friends on FaceBook using it exclusively to post an invite to an event...only to have lots of leftover pigs in a blanket because of no-shows.

It takes time and it also takes a little humility to promote yourself on every platform and remember to find that balance between your personal and professional brand.

So I offer these Warning Signs.

You might be an S-Head on Social Media (Swelled Head, that is) IF:

1. You think you can stop Dating and start D@ing. Worse, you try to set up a first date via a D@.
2. You think your friends want to know your opinion on the state of crude and your followers want to know a crude joke, and you blast all the same feeds to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn .
3. You try to get a reservation at a hot restaurant by assuming they, too, think 1000 followers makes you A-list.
4. You're incensed when no one Diggs you, man.
5. You truly believe your last 23 Q&A answers deserved "Best Expert" status.
6. You are stunned that Mrs. Kutcher isn't following you.

...And the 7th sign you may have a SM S-head?
Your blogs are way too long because you enjoy expounding and are sure that since there are a billion people online now, at least a million will hang on your every word. ...whoops.

And by the way, I hope you tweet this blog or link it to your profile, because I'm -- I mean, it -- is really smart and funny and resourceful, don't you think?

Note to Tendo...and self

I had the opportunity a couple of weeks ago to address High School students in the Children's Aid Society Corporate Advisory Committee's Career Panel.

(Major thanks to Nicole at WE and other marketing folks for supplying the kids with network-branded gifts. Another blog about that later.)

One of the students sent me a follow up note asking for recommendations in pursuing a marketing career or deciding on a career path in general.
In writing back, I realize that the thoughts I shared with her are good reminders to MYSELF:

Hello Tendo:
Thank you for the nice note. I'm glad you found the panel discussion helpful; and your courteous response is very impressive!

With regard to your questions:

"What would you suggest as a high school some things that i should look out for now to better prepare myself for the future?" (sic)

• For any of the areas you mentioned, I believe keeping on top of new technology will be very helpful. Try to learn about new media areas -- from interactive advertising to broadband video. If there is a student media group, whether it is a radio station, Web site, or TV station you can get involved with, that would be great. Explore volunteering in many areas for them, such as writing or production.
• Go online and read as much as you can from media publications that are posted for free, such as http://publications.mediapost.com/ or maybe http://www.brandweek.com/bw/magazine/current/index.jsp A lot will be over your head, but some will sink in here and there, and you'll either be "in the know" or at least be able to recognize some terminology when you need it.
• Intern in whatever media company or ad agency you can, too.
• Take classes in typing if you haven't already (and SPELL CHECK everything you send out professionally.)
  
• Keep trying to be as well-rounded and exposed to new ideas and professionals you admire as much as possible.
• Keep a journal! (I still have mine that I started when I was 16!) Picture yourself succeeding. :-) Make a note about the jobs you think are cool, and WHY you think you are drawn to them. Make a note about the people you admire and WHY you admire them, or may want to emulate them. (Was there an air-traffic controller who showed confidence under pressure, and you would like to have more of that quality? Was there a TV executive you saw on the news with a great sense of humor and you think you would like the opportunity to come up with creative entertainment ideas?) You don't have to decide anything right now except to decide to stay open and observing and interested in gaining experience. All the rest will come to you.
  

"can you please describe for me what exactly it is that you do at your job such as responsibilities and etc. ? "

I invite you to visit my Web site (www.mossappeal.com) and look at my bio, and some of the work I've done. I started as a radio copywriter and a newspaper reporter at the same time, while I was a senior in college. I was pretty busy, but I learned a lot about two different areas of media at once. I still use my writing skills today, but I also discovered that I am a good "project manager" -- overseeing all the steps needed to make a project come to life. I oversee designers and other (better) writers, Web masters and printers. I speak with clients about what their OBJECTIVES are (see the first paragraph of my home page), then I try to come up with a creative way to help them meet those objectives.

"also do you enjoy it?"

I am self-employed, which means I am always having to land the next assignment or win the next project. It keeps me on my toes! But you can't beat it for creativity. I do miss having a team around me all the time to bounce ideas off of, and am looking to work with others on a more regular basis. It also allows me the flexibility to also do work that is important to me, like helping produce environmental marketing messages for companies trying to do the right thing!

I hope you'll drop me a note here and there and keep me posted on your progress and the path you choose.

Best regards,

E.B. Moss

MT Writng?

A marketing peer once told me my blog was too well written (!) -- as in seeming too well-crafted vs. the more stream-of-consciousness style typical of the genre. I can understand this, but that happens to be how my writing gene manifests itself; even my emails to pals get infused with, well, "turns of phrases." (Ugh! Listen to me!) Anyway, numbers and math are not my friends, but I did start my career as a journalist and copywriter.

When I got my first Treo, my drug of choice in the PDA arena, I tried obsessively to correct thumb-driven typos. Then I received a message launched from a friend's Blackberry that included the line, "Sent from my Blackberry, if typos." I loved that! I quickly modified that line for my Treo sign-offs and exhaled in relief: there was nothing worse for an anal English major than replying to a client and belatedly seeing tons of unintentional errors.

Then I got a new device which is more of a pocket PC, whatever the heck that means. I'm still trying to figure it out, but it has this bigger keyboard and can actually let me create Word documents. I feel like I have less of an excuse for typos, but also haven't figured out how to insert a custom excuse in the signature line yet either. ("Sorry for typos. Can't figure out how the heck to type on this VX6800 thing.")

Anyway, at a recent seminar for business owners, a speaker admonished the audience, saying that while it's great to be able to respond to issues in email from almost anywhere at almost any time, putting your best brand forward requires that you take the time to write cleanly and professionally and NOT ask forgiveness for typos even from a PDA! I have to agree.

Your friends will forgive you. Your clients may judge you.

The trouble with txting and PDAs is that they go hand in shrthnd with poor writing skills these days. We get so used to dashing off quick messages, expecting that we'll be forgiven our typos in deference to expedience, that we are losing the QC (quality control, that is) that should go in to professional correspondence at the very least.


This really struck me when I was browsing some Q&As on the Web site of a professional trade publication. Kind of like in LinkedIn, people often ask or answer questions on forums like these as a form of quasi-PR...social network self-promotion. So why, for pete's sake, would someone clearly not make ANY effort to look smarter and professional?

Check out these verbatim (except for deleting identifying names, since I can't believe they want THIS kind of PR) questions, posed to a promotion marketing expert:

do the people at dr. pepper believe in marketing the product in area;s other than sports events .. the goal in marketing is to associate and familiarize one with the beverage..there are certain ways to associate the product with movement as in action the primciple tool for promotion. there are techniques for specific economies

Here is the very next question (yes, question, but neither had a "?") posted by someone else:

I don’t know where to go with a fan appreciation series if competition events that tie in witjh the sport and sponsor. It is a vehicle that can be on tv, sota like a reality sow, but note extreme as whats on tv now.

Could be there were typos or poor grammar in this post. If so, sorry. Only my sister -- an expert copy-editor -- will probably know (or say so.) But as to the above examples, that were signed by the submitters? All I have to say is: OMG.