Andy Gilman on How Social Media Changes Crisis Communications
Andy Gilman, known as “The Tylenol Man,” discusses how social media has changed crisis communications over the past ten years.
Apple
How Popularity Ends
What causes brands and people to lose their popularity?
How Will Project Glass Impact Marketers?
I will be speaking at xPotomac this February 25. Co-organizer Patrick Ashamalla and I are presenting together on Google Project Glass and augmented reality. Here’s a sneak preview of our session.
Google Project Glass promises to take ubiquitous mobile Internet access and layer unprecedented information into our day-to-day existence. While Google doesn’t like the term augmented reality, wearable computing could move this concept from a geeky work in progress to a breakthrough Internet application.
This glass monocle features a wirelessly connected computer built into it. A half-inch display allows you to take and share photos, chat and access information like calendars and maps on the Web. Bone conducting audio will allow information to transmit without interfering with outside sounds.
Scheduled for release in 2014, Project Glass holds so much promise Apple and Microsoft have competing projects.
Wearable computing empowers two things: Sharing and accessing information anywhere.
Does Google Deserve More Credit?
Sometimes I think Google deserves more credit.
This is not a defense of Google+, anti-trust issues facing the company, or the apparent sunsetting of Feedburner. Rather, more admiration for the company’s overall approach and success online in recent years.
When I learned Google had scrapped its facial recognition technology because the negative uses outweighed the good, I felt they were the better player of the big companies operating in this space. It’s not an isolated incident.
Google changed its privacy earlier this year, uniting its many disparate policies across different products into one holistic company-wide statement. The company waged an extensive public relations and advertising effort to explain the new policy to the general public.
When was the last time Facebook did that? Never, to my knowledge. You just log in and find everything switched without any communication whatsoever.
Read More »Does Google Deserve More Credit?
5 Forms of Apple Link Bait
Everyone wants to talk about tomorrow’s iPhone 5 announcement. Why bother trying to compete?
Instead, let’s “newsjack” the iPhone 5 reveal with a fun post lampooning the most common forms of Apple link bait! Here we go:
1) Find a “Lost” iPhone/iPad Prototype
“We found this prototype iPhone in the restroom of a Palo Alto bowling alley.”
Come on! Does anybody believe these iPhones find stories anymore?
Read More »5 Forms of Apple Link Bait
You’re Still Not My Audience
Let’s be clear. You’re not my audience.
We have a relationship here, and you can talk back. Further, I realize that I am just one of you, all members of the same community.
I’m just lucky enough to have you come here now and again, and read my posts.
The miracle of social media empowers this very public symbiotic relationship of equals.
It’s also why communicators who call their stakeholders audiences drive me crazy.
The Audacity of Corporate Social Media Failure
It was interesting reading all of the social media criticism about Google’s privacy policy changes last week. A measured critical tone offers refreshing context to the usual outrage pundits spout when analyzing the latest corporate social media failure. These dramatic declarations of “FAIL” include the anticipated demise of the brand’s entire reputation, the stupidity of the management team, and a lament about companies “never getting it.”
Another example: Last December’s dissecting of Apple’s rigid social media policy that bars any meaningful discussion of the company by employees. There was no great shocker here given the company’s approach to product development and public blogs that leak Apple product news. Yet, the company was painted black and evil for it.
OK. Apple just reported $13 billion of profit last quarter, its best quarter ever. Meanwhile, its more social media friendly competition never get close to performing on this level.
Let’s be clear. Marketing is not about pleasing social media aficionados. It should deliver ROI or outcomes that boost a company’s bottom line.
2012 Trend Spotting: Grieving Blackberry
Image by CNN By all accounts, 2012 will be the year that Blackberry’s decline dramatically increases. Most analysts and even parent company Research In Motion’s SEC filings see Blackberry dropping out of the top tier of smartphones, surrendering the market… Read More »2012 Trend Spotting: Grieving Blackberry