B.L. Ochman's blog

Dear Delta Airlines: Nothing Else Matters if Your Customer Service Sucks

2010-03-14T22:55:02Z

Dear Delta Airlines: Delta's customer service sucks, and therefore, nothing you do in social media, advertising, PR or marketing matters one bit. Here's a hint: Instead of being concerned about your next M&Ms flavor, you need to be concerned about your customers.

Your customer service rep IS Delta Airlines
A little while ago, a Delta customer service rep hung up on me when I asked her name. That was after she told me "we don't make seating arrangements over the phone." And after she couldn't answer a simple question about how to print a boarding pass on your website.

It doesn't matter if corporate says it cares, or if your ads promise good customer service. What matters is that one hourly wage person who answers your phone screws up your company's public face.

That customer service rep is Delta. And she is proof that your company doesn't care about its customers.

Hourly employees create your bottom line results
When you come right down to it, it's almost always the hourly employees who have actual contact with actual customers who create your bottom line results. It makes great economic sense to empower them to solve a problem with one phone call.

Yet day after day, poorly paid employees, who are not empowered to make even their own simple decisions, handle the most important thing any company has - customers. It's really time for that policy to change.

Customers matter. Treat us like you know that.
Delta dear, in case you haven't noticed, the airline industry is in crisis, and the country is in the midst of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Customers count. Time to treat us like you know that.

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Five Reasons Why Companies Should Not Block Employee Access to Social Networks

2010-03-08T01:38:13Z

Last week, a client told me that they don't allow employees to access YouTube at work. "Do your employees carry cellphones?" I asked. The answer was "yes," of course. Well then, most of them already have access to YouTube - right in their pockets.

The fact is, resistance to social network access at work is futile.

The Economist, in a special report on social networking, notes that a survey of 1,400 chief information officers conducted last year by the recruitment firm, Robert Half Technology, found that only one-tenth of them gave employees full access to such networks during the day, and that many were blocking Facebook and Twitter altogether.

Five reasons companies should allow social networking
1- Resistance is futile.
Workers increasingly have Internet access on their smart phones. By the year 2013, 43% of global mobile internet users (607.5 million people worldwide) will be accessing social networks from their mobile devices, according to a new report from eMarketer

2- Don't assume people won't find other ways to waste time.
Executives' biggest concern? That social networking would lead to "Notworking" instead of doing their jobs. As the Economist report notes "This assumes that people would actually work rather than find some other way to pass the time they have to spare."

3- Social networks actually can make workers more productive.
Three out of four of the 895 experts interviewed for the recent Pew Internet report The Future of the Internet IV, said that use of the Internet enhances and augments human intelligence, and two-thirds said use of the Internet has improved reading, writing, and rendering of knowledge," according to Janna Anderson, study co-author.

]]> 4- You'll miss great ideas.
Great ideas can come from any level of a company. Using social networks internally (wikis, blogs, forums, even IM) fosters collaboration, and allows workers at all levels to contribute ideas.

Experts emerge from within a company when collaboration is encouraged, and along with them come some of the best ideas that would otherwise be lost. Because people can comment on information, companies often learn of internal expertise they didn't know about already.

In most big companies, instead of collaborating, marketing competes with sales, advertising competes with PR and so on, creating silos that prevent fresh ideas from being heard.

I've consulted to companies where the marketing directs of divisions had never even met their counterparts in other divisions, let alone collaborated with them. As a result, they often were working on similar projects without sharing knowledge or resources. This wastes money, and squanders ideas that could be helpful company-wide.

5- Employees are much more trustworthy than companies think.
Managers worry that employees will leak confidential information, or speak poorly of the company.

Most people have much more common sense than to jeopardize their jobs, with wanton comments in social networks, especially these days.

If you can't trust your employees, you have one of two problems: you are hiring the wrong people or you are not properly training the people you hire.

People who want to say something negative will find a way, with or without access to social networks during business hours. However, negative feedback also can provide an early warning that changes need to be made, either in policy or employees.

All in all, companies have more to gain than to lose by allowing employee access to social networks. My bet is that it'll take another two years for most companies to figure that out.

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David Pogue's iPhone Song

2010-03-08T01:37:45Z

All true! But i got me an iPhone and I love it. As many times as I've heard Pogue do this song, it never gets old. Most recently, he sang it at Ragan Communications' Social Media for Communicators conference in Atlanta, Ga. And hey, who knew Pogue could sing?!!

He sang it first on The New York Times website in 2007.

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Reebok's naked workout video: just a bare attempt to create buzz?

2010-03-01T03:14:15Z

Is it fake, like the infamous fake Puma ads simulating oral sex back in 2003? Or is the Reebok video featuring a naked Chuck Liddell and his girlfriend, Heidi Northcutt, working out in nothing but Reeboks an off-color joke produced by the company itself.

The goal of this type of advertising is to find a way to get people to talk about your brand in today's mind-bogglingly crowded media landscape. The usual next step in the game (dubbed sub-viral marketing way back in 2002) is for the company to demand that those who spread the word cease and desist.

Sub-viral strategy: risky at best
It's a risky strategy at best because it can result in millions of dollars worth of free publicity or it can backfire. Frankly, the new Reebok ad, doesn't seem interesting enough to have much, umm, staying power.

Brands including Budweiser, Ford, Levi's and Mastercard have been accused of producing their own sub-viral ad campaigns and unleashing their PR firms to spread the word about them. Sometimes, the ads are carefully shot to look like they were done by amateurs, sometimes they are painstakingly made to look like the company's real ads.

Engineering a fake
Online parody ads about Victoria's Secret, Honda, General Motors and many other companies have gained overnight buzz. How the companies react to these ads presents a new media PR challenge.

Back in 2003, ads appeared online showing a woman wearing Puma trainers while offering oral gratification to her standing boyfriend. The man was also wearing Pumas, and a Puma bag was in the foreground. The woman's photo is cropped at the shoulders, but what is going on was abundantly obvious.

]]> Puma - then represented by Peter Kim, reacted by sending out cease and desist letters and calls to sites that ran the ads. That, as it turned out, is about the same as trying to convince a pack of laughing hyenas to get serious. All that did was force the spoof to be shown and discussed more and to become a permanent fixture in every major search engine and on thousands of Web sites.

Gawker ran the cease and desist letter, as did Adrants, noting "Thousands of people are circulating images emblazoned with your brand and you didn't even pay for product placement."

The campaign was risque enough to appeal to their target audience of 20 -24 year-olds, who are constantly online and wild about this type of controversy.

Mastercard's risque ruse
Naturally, companies don't openly admit that they created a sub-viral campaign because that would defeat the purpose and spoil the fun, but Mastercard has publicly alluded that they engineered their own off-color parody ad through their advertising agency. The video clip parodies Mastercard's "priceless" campaign.

The clip features a boy walking his girlfriend to her door after a drunken night out and asking her for oral sex. The voiceover interrupts his plea with Mastercard-parodying quips like, "Getting the nerve to ask such a question: $12 bottle of wine," several times before the girl's sister appears with a message from dad. "Go ahead and give him a blowjob - but for God's sake tell him to take his hand off the intercom."

Not all fun and games
Of course not all viral campaigns work out in the company's favor. Two years ago, Brad Templeton's netfunny.com published a sick satire of the Mastercard "Priceless" ads based around the Columbine tragedy.

Mastercard reacted with a "cease and desist" letter from their lawyers demanding that the parody be removed from the Web site, claiming it violated their trademarks and copyrights, in spite of the well established rules protecting satire and parody from such attacks. Netfunny posted the response:

Web site hosting for anybody: $10/month and up
Threatening letters to people who satirize you, hoping they won't know the law: $500
Reputation as giant corporation required to intimidate small publishers: $billions
Supreme court decisions protecting parody and satire from accusations of copyright and trademark infringement... Priceless
There are some rights money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard's lawyers.

Bonus link: Tons of parody ads here Organique.com
Hat tip to Adrants

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Chris Brogan (and I) rail against the 24-hour clock

2010-02-26T15:38:20Z

My friend Chris Brogan has written a blog post that everyone needs to read. It's about the craziness of the rampant belief that we need to be available 24/7 to be successful; that emails have to be answered immediately; and that everything we do is so damn important is has to be done now, now, now.

Describing our addiction to urgency, Chris writes, and I couldn't have said it better:

"This Has to Stop
None of us are performing surgery (unless you are). You're not calling me for the antidote to a poison. We MUST police ourselves about our sense of urgency. ...

How I Am Going to React
I'm saying no. I'm going to say no to a BOATLOAD of things I've originally said yes to, simply because I'm very frustrated. I can appreciate your need to get things done. I can appreciate your wanting to include me. But I can't be held to a 24-hour clock. "

All this urgency precludes doing our best thinking - which means we don't do our best work. Or have balance in our lives.

You do have a life, don't you? :>)

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Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Funds ViewChange: an Extraordinary Combination of Technology & Compassion

2010-02-26T02:37:34Z

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is funding ViewChange.org , which uses powerful semantic search technology "that dynamically refreshes information as the video plays, providing up-to-date links to related articles, videos, and blogs." The beta site, which is live now, is set for public launch in June.

If you are inspired by what you see at ViewChange, you can take action by donating to a cause or sending stories directly to mainstream media and policymakers.

This is the kind of media outlet I've always hoped someone would create, where positive results for problems are stressed instead of the gloom and doom of the old-fashioned mainstream media model.

Because it IS news when people help people; it IS news when small changes lead to big shifts that makes lives better.

What's so interesting about this is that ViewChange.Org is creating a new model for media, one in which the editorial gatekeeper - the last bastion of MSM's hold on news - is eliminated by technology that finds all related information, not just the most sensational stories.

I, for one, will wait hopefully to see the impact this new model has on how news is reported in mainstream media. With this type of technology, it appears we can kiss print goodbye because we're in real-time now, baby.

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Why 'good enough' isn't

2010-02-25T15:39:38Z

If you work for a big company, I'm willing to be that more than once you've heard "we just need to get the work done. B+ is OK. Everything doesn't have to be A+"

In offices all over the planet, people say that every day. But good enough isn't. If you want to be productive instead of busy, a linchpin instead of a drone, you have to learn to say no to "good enough."

Taking the extra step, asking more questions, giving more than expected are hard and they take time. In busy offices, understaffed because of economic pressures, time is at a premium. And so is great work.

Sadly, in many corporations, where silos prevent cooperation, committees prevent out-of-the-box thinking, and fear prevents taking chances, good enough is the norm.

As he often does, Seth Godin got me thinking this morning with his post about creating memorable experiences. He wrote:

"Should your product or service be very good, meet spec and be beyond reproach or... should it be a remarkable, memorable, over the top, a tell-your-friends event? ...you try to compromise and do both, to please everyone. Sorry, but you can't."

After several decades of work, I'm still convinced that "good enough is not.

How about you?

Image by Hugh Macleod

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Justin Bieber a social media case study for the bean counters

2010-02-22T05:49:29Z

Dear Bean Counters: If you're still wondering if social media can really sell anything, take a look at Justin Bieber - a self-taught musical star created by YouTube videos, a determined mom, a Beatle-esque haircut, and a whole heaping bunch of talent.

All of 15, still in the throes of adolescence, he's an Internet-created pop superstar whose mother launched his career with YouTube videos made for his family and friends.

Signed to a record label by an agent who found him on YouTube, his first single, "One Time" hit Number 20 on the Billboard 100 months before the CD was officially released. To date, it's had 38,936,287 views on YouTube.

He's performed at the White House for President Obama, Mrs O and the girls, performed with Taylor Swift, and been booked to appear on Saturday Night Live. His website features his "fan pack" - replete with autographed and personalized 5 x 7 photo.

What does this kind of success mean to corporations? To social media gurus? To bean counters?

It means fresh and new trumps cautious and staid. Original beats safe, and audience preferences and interaction mean more than carefully scripted performances.

In other words, when it comes to success, it's not the words that matter. It's the drive, the talent, and the timing. The more things change, the more they stay the same. The medium changes, but not the results.

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PR People of Earth - get a clue

2010-02-18T03:52:19Z

If you can't stand to read yet another grumpy post about clueless PR peeps, just skip this one. But if you are a PR person, you need to tape this to your computer, make a copy, and paste that one to your bathroom mirror so you'll see it every day when you brush your teeth.

Time and again, I think I've written my last clueless flack post. But then I get an email pitch about "6 steps to PR success," and it's addressed to Dear (First_Name.)

It came on the same day as the unsolicited press release about the revolutionary new dog harness, which has, in fact been around for at least a dozen years.

Add that to the "Dear Mr Ochman," pitches and "your Alexa rank is amazing," and "I'm sure you'll be interested in ... " (Hint, I'm not.)

I'm happy, i suppose, to know I'm not alone. My friend Toby Bloomberg recently got a pitch that said:

Hi Toby,

Hope you are well! Just in time for Valentine's Day, I'm writing to offer you an article from xxx LCSW, BCD, and author of the new book, The Power of the Middle Ground: A Couple's Guide to Renewing Your Relationship.

Ever fabulous, Bloomberg responded:

"Thanks for reaching out. Perhaps your blogger relations list got a bit mixed up .. Diva Marketing is a site that addresses social media and branding issues .. although I do mention Max every once in awhile .. but you knew he was a dog because of course you've read my blog.

Warmly,
Toby"

So please, dear flacks, before you pitch again, take this quiz.

(It first ran in 2007. It is running again for obvious reasons.)

Dear PR people: please take this quiz before you send out another press release or email pitch. (Scroll down for the correct answers: )

]]>
1. Has the print, online or broadcast reporter you are pitching ever covered this topic?
2. Why Would this pitch or release elicit a response from people who read it?
3. Is this pitch or release bullshit?
4. Would anyone pass along a story on this topic to a friend or colleague?
5. Have you Googled the reporters and bloggers on your list so you know if they've covered your competitor?
6. Have you read your competitors' press releases?
7. Have you checked to see if any blogs specifically cover this topic?
8. Can you make the copy shorter?
9. Do you know if the person you are pitching is male or female?

Answers: 1. Yes; 2. Yes; 3. No; 4. Yes; 5. Yes; 6. Yes; 7. Yes 8. Yes. 9. Yes.

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Hey Old Spice and Time Warner! You were the laughing stock of social media week new york

2010-02-08T04:05:42Z

Old Spice was the laughing stock of Social Media Week New York when I showed this horrific photo from their lameass Residue is Evil campaign. Time Warner was close behind on the lousy campaign laugh meter.

As I noted back in August 2009:

"Ok, I'm not a 18 to 25 year-old man, so I'm not the demographic for the Old Spice Deodorant's Swagger contest. Nonetheless, I've never seen a more confused, obtuse, badly designed contest than the one that starts on this annoying page and gets weirder and harder to use from there. They've included their slickly produced commercials as examples, which rather, umm, stinks."

This disturbing photo is what remains of that horrid campaign

Showing it won the votes of the 200 or so people who gathered during Social Media Week New York at SUXORZ to choose the Worst Social Media Campaign of 2009 with me, Henry Copeland, Ian Schafer, Steve Hall, and Carolyn McCarthy

Fully disclosed stupidity
The Old Spice campaign is an example of the "fully disclosed stupidity" that now abounds in social media campaigns, wrote Henry Copeland, founder of Blogads, which sponsors the annual SUXORZ events. Derision and sheer disgust at this campaign should tell Old Spice that it's time to get creative.

Time Warner Doesn't Twit
The other example that won me a round for a worst campaign example was Time Warner's my explanation of Time Warner's horrific service. Failing to monitor their brand in social media caused long-term damage to the brand.

A senior customer service person at Time Warner told me, "Time Warner doesn't Twit" when I noted that I was tracking my customer experience on Twitter. But guess what? Time Warner is advertising for a social media manager. So maybe they've woken up at last to the need to listen and learn from customers.

The Time Warner job ad says:

"This individual must understand the online marketing space and how social media is interwoven into that space. They must be able to identify and communicate social media opportunities and create materials in support of our stated social media strategy which his to 'Connect consumers and influencers with information, support, entertainment and each other.

We want to empower consumers and customers to engage with the brand"

As Henry noted, no sentient being who works in marketing can possibly fail to understand that social media is now essential to every company's relationship with customers.

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Toyota: Way too little, way too late & what they should have done

2010-02-07T17:26:44Z

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Toyotathon of Death

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show
Full Episodes

Political Humor

Health Care Crisis

The 911 call that captured the deaths of four people in a Toyota went viral online when it happened on August 28, 2009. Yet Jim Lentz Toyota CEO for US didn't speak out online until Feb 2, 2010. By that time, the reputation damage had been done, and the company was already in what appears to be a death spiral.

Toyota apparently believed it could control the message, but they are wrong. No company has complete message control in the Internet age when everyone with a computer or a smart phone has the tools to have his/her opinion heard round the world.

If Toyota understood how to use social media, or that days are like dog years in Internet time, they might have had a chance to survive.

Ham-handed response
The company's ham-handed response to its vehicles' mechanical failures, recalls, and consumer deaths will be a what-not-to-do business case study for years to come, and is also quite likely to cause Toyota's demise.

The butt of jokes, and surely soon to be the target of huge class action lawsuits, Toyota is not only in the midst of a PR crisis, it's in a fight for its life.

"Toyota today unveiled a new slogan, "Drive a Toyota. You'll Never Stop," writes Andy Borowitz in Huffington Post.

Toyota's handling of its cars' mechanical failures, recalls, and consumer deaths ranks among the worst handling of a crisis ever. Like so many huge corporations, Toyota has put a toe in the water of social media, but they have yet to start listening and stop broadcasting a message.

Toyota and Lexus recall lawyers are forming Facebook groups and buying Google ad words.

"It thinks it can control this crisis, and in the process has thrown its own credibility out the window," said Sean Kane, a safety consultant whose firm has documented thousands of reports of unintended acceleration.

Here's Jim Lentz , Toyota's US CEO, announcing that "today, Toyotas are starting to get fixed." And, astoundingly, that's all he says!

It was not til Feb 1 that Lentz was featured in a YouTube apology video in which he wore a lot of make-up.

That video has only been viewed 41,485 times on YouTube, which, compared to up 38 million or so views for many of Fred Figglehorn's videos, shows nobody is coming to the Toyota "newsroom" for news.

What should Toyota have done?
- Responded the same day the 911 fatal crash tape was released, to at least acknowledge that there was a problem, and say that they were investigating.
- Set up a place online for consumers to register safety issues
- Had senior executives monitoring and responding to the online conversation 24/7
- Had a dark blog ready to roll in a crisis.
- Acknowledge the recall on every Toyota marketing site, and point consumers to information about it. Toyota Live Web is still live and featuring a College Bowl contest.
- There's no mention of the recall there, no mention til Jan 28 on the LiveWeb Facebook page of the recalls
- Gotten Lentz on Digg Dialog before February 5th
- Started answering consumer questions 24/7 on Twitter last August, instead of waiting til Dec 23rd, when they denied the issues.
- Stopped posting comments from what appear to be shills on the Facebook page wall. Corporate BS has all the value of real bullshit.

No company can ignore the fact that news will spread on the Internet with or without the participation of the company. The conversation is going on in a wide variety of platforms, and the last place consumers go for accurate information in a situation like this one is the company's website or press releases.

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#socialmedia Tweet Chat #45 - The fear factor: Shift Happens

2010-02-03T04:05:35Z

I am immersed in Social Media Week New York, and wanted to share some of the highlights of my travels today. The theme of the day: Shift happens.

Tweet Chatting with Borders Free WiFi
Since there was no wifi at the new media conference I was covering today, (!?) I ended up at Borders, where the coffee was great, and the wifi was free, (thank you Borders!) so I could host the 45th edition of the hour-long weekly Twitter Social Media chat, produced by hashtagsocialmedia.com's Marc Meyer and Jason Breed.

Just about everyone who's anyone in emerging media has hosted and/or participated in the weekly chats. The pace is fast, and the level is definitely not entirely newbie.

329 Tweeters, 1358 #sm45 Tweets in one hour!
In an hour of fast and furious speed typing, I responded to 329 participants' more than 1357 Tweets. The topic I chose to examine was the fear factor hindering corporate social media adoption.

Tactics you can use
Because the Tweeters were so sharp and so quick, we got great answers to my third question: Are there quick tactics that can be used to build company enthusiasm around SMM? Pls note: The conversation is, or soon will be, online.

Action items to encourage corporate social media adoption
Highlight of the hour was definitely our crowd-sourced list of tactics that can be used to build enthusiasm for adoption of social media.

@brightmatrix: Good SM case study can be of who is talking about your co both in good & bad ways. Show why you need to join in.
@Mossappeal: demonstrate for corp execs the increased search rankings from searchable presence on soc med sites
@bdresher: Tactic: On-going soc med education! I send weekly Twitter Tip email sharing best use, reports, case studies, trends, etc
@billrobbCisco: i like to show them stats on an issue where competitor uses social media & they don't. very clear way to demo value
@iMediaMichelle: Favorite tactic: Teach your execs and colleagues to follow conferences and events and comment via hashtags
@ByDesignMktg Tactic: Encourage your employees to follow your co on SM and retweet, post, etc. Be part of it. Also helps emp engagement.
@Marc_Meyer: tactic: Create a hashtag around your company, product, or industry and drive the conversations
@MaryAnnHalford another tactic: map where your target audience is participating in sm
@smange A first step for company enthusiasm could be to use social media to help build community within the company - HR bonding
@whatsnext tactic: #sm45 show them how social media tools :wikis, internal communities,can help increase productivity. not all SM is external
@MaryAnnHalford let's do it now: Tactic 1: show management what your competitors are doing in sm and results
@whatsnext let's see if we can get 10 quick tactics for encouraging corp social media use & post to our blogs
@Marc_Meyer: Quick tactic: Real time keyword/product/industry monitoring
@jasonbreed: To prove to execs, I like taking 12-18 mnth stock chart of competitors using S.n showing them theirs.
@wvpmc building a biz case for a new mrktg initiative begins with research: customers, competitors, ind leaders> benchmarking

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Thistle Farms: Marketing With Hope, Love & Social Media

2010-02-01T03:31:50Z

Sometimes, the use of social media is a rather frivolous afterthought in marketing campaigns. In the case of Magdelene House and Thistle Farms, hope, love, and social media sell redemption. Let them show you what social media really can do.

Last week, I went to a house party for Thistle Farms, a non-profit business operated by the women of Magdalene House, a two-year residential program for women who are recovering from sexual abuse, violence, and life on the streets, and who have paid dearly for their past.

The party was held to celebrate the start of Magdelene's 10-city tour of prisons, offering hope to women inside from graduates of the program who've been "on the inside," often as many as 100 times.

Marketing with hope, love, and YouTube
If you want to know what transparency really means to marketing, read on. The group uses Facebook, blogs, and YouTube to spread the word about the program, which has an 80% success rate.

The key is the stories of the women, and I promise you that you can't watch this video without tears.

Magdelene was founded by Rev. Becca Stevens, chaplain of St. Augustine's at Vanderbilt University. She blogs about faith and justice here.

The women women of Thistle Farms create natural bath and body products - but what they really sell is hope and grace. All sales proceeds go back into the program.

Through Thistle Farms, the women of Magdalene - each of whom was considered unemployable because of multiple arrests and prison time - gain much needed job skills, and learn responsibility and cooperation.

At the party I attended, two of the women, who are now clean and sober and employed as executives of Thistle Farms, told their stories. In the midst of a lot of hugging and tears, every person in the room brought some of the products - which are great, by the way.

]]> Neither the Magdalene program nor nonprofit Thistle Farms takes federal or state money. They operate in faith on grants and the generosity of donors along with the small profit the handmade products bring in.

Currently, the products are available in stores in 21 states and the District of Columbia and also online. Most recently, the ladies received a contract to sell their wares from Whole Foods, a testament to the quality of their goods and growth potential of their business.

The stories of the Magdalene and Thistle Farms programs are now available in a book, "Find Your Way Home -- Words From the Street, Wisdom From the Heart," available online, including at Amazon.com.

Bonus Link:
Karen Strauss - Becca Stevens is awesome!

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2010 Social Media Week NYC: My Schedule & Recommended Events

2010-02-01T02:27:50Z

Social Media Week NYC kicks off Monday and scores of events - almost all aimed at newbies - are planned. I'm speaking at three events this week - one online and two at the Roger Smith Hotel. Details are below along with several other events that look interesting.

Where I'm speaking
1- Social Media Tweet Chat
Tuesday, Feb 2 noon-1pm EST on Twitter

I'll moderate a conversation on Twitter about the business of social media. These Twitter chats have been moderated by a stellar array of social media luminaries including my friends Scott Monty, Ann Handley, Shel Israel, Charlene Li, Brian Solis, and Toby Bloomberg.

My topic will be the fears of clients, how we can help them get past the fears, the lawyers, and the time crunch to participate in social media in a relevant way.

2- How to Use Social Media Effectively in 2010 + Speed Dating Breakfast
Wednesday Feb 3 8-10 a.m. Roger Smith Hotel (47 & Lex)

I'm on the panel, details here, panelist bios here

Registration at 8am, Panel starts at 8:30. Social Media Speed Dating will start around 9:30 or so.

3 SUXORZ: the worst social media campaigns of '09
6:30 - 8:30 PM Roger Smith Hotel
50% disc w the code "SUXZ"

Join me, Carolyn McCarthy of cnet.com, Ian Schafer of deep-focus.net, Steve Hall of Adrants and moderator Henry Copeland as we review and skewer your nominees for the worst social media campaigns of '09. The audience will have the final say, voting for the SUXORZ losers.

There's an open bar from 6:30-8:30 to lubricate our deliberations. Together, we'll shame the marketers who abuse people-powered media.

Worst of 2009 nominees include Pepsi, @insidethebcs, Charmin, Habitat, Pampers, Kiva, General Motors, TimeWarnerCable, Ricola, Marshalls, PETA, Pizza Hut, Lenovo, Ryanair. Visit our Facebook group to add nominees or throw your comments into the bonfire.

Schedule for the week
Here is the entire schedule for Social Media Week. Several of these events look like they'll be worth attending

Free events during social media week are noted here but most are already full.

Yet another directory here via MediaPost.

A few events that look especially worth attending:

]]> Tues Feb 2
- 8:30 a.m. - managing social media data
- 2:30 PM - The Science of Social Media
- 6 pm - humanizing social media

Wednesday - Feb 3
- 12 - Social Graph Optimization
- 4- Navigating Social Media & New Technology in Healthcare & Phamaceutical Industries
- 6:30 - Reinvention from the ground up

Thursday, Feb 4
- 8:30 PSFK Good Ideas Salon w/Seth Godin
- noon - Putting the social in CSR

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I'm baaaack! and why I've been so quiet lately

2010-01-31T23:21:49Z

Dear wonderful readers: Two weeks ago, I started my new gig, with the title chosen by my readers: Managing Director of Emerging Media for Proof Integrated Communications, the digital marketing arm of Burson-Marsteller.

I have never had a corporate job, and having had my own companies since 1981. Now that the work I've been doing for client for the past 10 years is in vogue, this seemed like the right time to accept the opportunity to be part of something bigger than me, to help shape Proof's growth, and to work with a team of smart people.

Silos and roadblocks
Even with all the meetings, the minute departmentalization, and the fact that you can't just do stuff yourself, I'm liking it a lot! It's interesting, challenging, hectic, and fun.

There's been a lot to get used to. And a whole lot to learn about who is who and what is what.

I'm baaaack!
So please forgive my relative silence over the past couple of weeks. I've been on overwhelm!

But I'm baaack, and I will continue Tweeting, posting here and on FriendFeed, and keeping up with my other social networks. Because, given the pace of change, if I don't keep doing all the things that make me who I am - a bit of a pioneer in the emerging media space - I'll be useless in six months.

And of course, I'll continue my partnership in Pawfun.com - where you can make great Valentine's gifts featuring photos of your loved one's pets.

]]> All content copyright B.L. Ochman, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, with the attribution: By B.L. Ochman, What's Next Blog, and a link to the post