A Twitter case study
...in Twitter format:
We launch ZeeVee. John Dvorak tweets "What's this about?" 900 followers flood the website. The #3 traffic referrer that week.
Will expound more in followup post.
25 reasons to keep innovating
We never write about ourselves in the Beaupre/Checkmate blog, but today we make an exception.Twenty five years ago today, Karen and I hung out our shingle. We started Beaupre in our first house in a former nursery with murals of Mickey Mouse and Raggedy A & A on the wall. Our view was a metal swing set from Sears on a one-third acre lot.
We had zero capital, no line of credit, one cheap pine desk, a rolodex and an IBM Selectric typewriter. We focused on technology from the start. Our first client was Integral Data Systems, a color dot matrix printer company later acquired by Dataproducts.
We’ve seen a bit of change.
On the competitive front, hundreds of competitors have come and gone, including great agencies like Newsome & Company; Miller Communications; Gray Strayton; Agnew, Carter, McCarthy; Drumbeater; Rourke & Co.; Nigberg PR; Copithorne & Bellows; Clarke & Co.; Fitzgerald & Co.; Ingalls, Quinn & Johnson PR; Creamer Dickson Basford PR; and Regis McKenna.
But survival isn’t an endgame. The passion to continually transform fuels ongoing success. I blogged about this when I paired Bruce Springsteen with technology innovation. We try to remember the ‘Bruce model' at Beaupre. You can never rest.
The transformation of PR is a current case in point. A grassroots online community has emerged and prospered, with customers and consumers talking to each other — and with companies — directly. This is redefining traditional models and practices for the better. It’s an energizing time to be in business.
Here are some highlights for the past 25 years:
- Our ‘endgame’ focus helped companies get acquired, go public, increase sales and build successful brands. That’s how clients measure our performance and how we like to be measured.
- The people who’ve been with us on our journey. They average nine+ years with our firm, and many have been with us a lot longer.
- Beaupre was acquired by Brodeur and Omnicom (NYSE: OMC) in 1999, two world class organizations that made us stronger. Nine years later, we’ve kept our brand, working model and culture, while forging lifelong friendships with smart, fun people like John Brodeur and Andy Coville.
- Still having a positive reputation means the most.
Many viewpoints have changed, and so have the views. Karen and I now look out on a salt-water panorama in Portsmouth, a terrific home to build a business. It’s a long way from the Sears swing set and Selectric. Thanks to all who make it possible.
From slick to primitive: video transforms our world
Isn’t it fascinating how video production quality has changed so radically? Those of us who’ve been around the communications block awhile remember the days when corporate videos were works-of-art. They were thoughtfully (sometimes painfully) conceived and slickly executed. The more time and money invested, the more powerful the impact, the more positive the perception. That was the operating model for decades.
YouTube turned the world of video upside down.
At first, corporations stayed away. They viewed YouTube as primitive consumer entertainment with no application to their world. They couldn’t see a viable business benefit. Then the early adopters stuck their toes in the waters of social media, posting video content with a business connection.
Over time, YouTube – and other viral video social networks like Veoh, Viddler, Vimo – have become an efficient and highly cost effective way for businesses to create grassroots visibility, interaction and community. An increasing number of companies now understand the positive impact on their brand persona.
Now they’re starting to have fun, just like the kids. They understand how video presents one of the sweetest ways to create and maintain a corporate personality. Instead of going slick, they’re going rudimentary, unsophisticated, guerilla.
Who cares if that video taken on the floor of a trade show is low resolution and the camera is moving around? People have not only grown tolerant of low-end video production quality, they accept it, often like it, and watch it like crazy.
YouTube also did one more thing: it reversed the game of authenticity. Old school video used to be highly regarded; the slicker the more viable. But now the reverse is true. The more rudimentary (with a dose of reason of course), the more credibly it’s viewed. I’m not talking fake authenticity (like Lonelygirl), but true genuineness.
This is such an epic transformation. We’re just beginning to see its impact.
10 reasons blogs are the ticket
Blogs aren’t a fad and they aren’t going away. According to Technorati there are more than 15.5 million active blogs updated in the past 90 days. There are 184 million bloggers worldwide according to Universal McCann’s Wave 3 study. Traditional media is trying to morph like crazy; the New York Times, for example, now has 53 different blogs.The Editors Weblog, a publication of the World Editors Forum “gets it” and is advocating “new rules of media.” They say “traditional media must evolve or die” and the first place they should start is by changing their mindset.
Blogs are historic, transformational and yes, even revolutionary. Here’s why they matter:
- Before blogs, we experienced a one-way media model. The traditional media gathered viewpoints, synthesized findings, shaped opinions and published their collective wisdom view. Blogs are grassroots, two-way, organic, bottom-up. Blogs created a communications channel that never existed, changing the media game for the better.
- Traditional media was autocratic. Maybe the magazine, newspaper or TV news program would agree a product, topic, company or angle was newsworthy, maybe they wouldn’t. If they didn’t see it your way, your message died a quick death. But the rules have changed. Increasingly, information breaks first in blogs. Then the traditional media notices it. Blogs are a speedy form of communication and are real-time news generators.
- Blogs give us a voice; they are democracy personified. You don’t have to agree with the blog you read, but a blogger has a right to express what he or she is thinking. Blogs give ordinary people power.
- Information was often tightly controlled. Companies and governments told you what they wanted you to hear. Or didn’t tell you what you needed to hear. Now there’s a way to find out what’s happening. All the time. Blogs make selective and/or secret information available, breaking down control barriers.
- While a blog can be one person’s view, a team view or a collective view, there’s always a compounding network effect. Blogs are a way for people to share information and connect with each other. Blogs create linkage, increase a Web site’s Google rankings and drive traffic to your Web site.
- We’ve witnessed on many occasions how one blog can have tremendous clout. Check out www.consumerist.com if you want examples of how individuals can shake up a big company. Blogs help make companies accountable.
- Blogs create an entirely new, vibrant community for companies (and others) to engage with. Corporations can engage in conversations with potential buyers, customers and other stakeholders, and vice versa, without any filters. Blogs build relationships and deepen brand loyalty.
- This word-of-mouth online network isn’t filtered by anyone; it’s honest and personal. Blogs are a direct channel; they cut out the middle-man.
- Consumers/customers want to buy from companies they respect, admire and enjoy engaging with. Blogs give heretofore stilted, impersonal corporations a human voice and personality.
- Thought leadership is arguably one of the best ways to differentiate. Content is king online; the more quality content you publish, the more your message gets shared and understood. Blogs are a perfect medium for consistently expressing thought leadership.
