As social media permeates the communications landscape in new and sometimes unexpected ways, a January 20 panel of experts from the heart of the blogosphere and others who monitor, measure and use that “sphere” discussed just how it is altering and affecting the concept of brand stewardship.
Moderating this year’s “What’s Hot in PR?” panel, held at USA TODAY was Natalie Zmuda, reporter from Advertising Age.
The panelists included:
Doug Wood, Partner, Reed Smith LLP and General Counsel,
Association of National Advertisers.
Cindy Chiu, Strategy and Incuation Lead, Microsoft
Lisa Fain, Founder, Homesick Texan Blog
Amy Ostan, Founder, SelfishMom.com
Ted Rubin, Chief Marketing Officer, e.l.f. Cosmetics
Zmuda began the discussion by asking Wood to summarize the status of recent Federal Trade Commission (FTC) guidelines imposing some regulation on bloggers—guidelines that had spawned outrage from segments of that community. With an effective date of December 1, 2009, the guidelines mandate transparency from a blogger regarding his or her relationship to a company or product. According to Wood, now bloggers have the same accountability as anyone who chooses to endorse or critique a product or service. This begins to tackle the truth vs. fiction problem in blogs —how to discern what is fact and what is not. Companies are beginning to use a similar approach with employees—there has to be an internal policy regarding social media to mitigate corporate vulnerability. In both cases—external and internal—many companies have turned to the offline world for examples of how to regulate such “speech”.
Moving from monitoring to measuring the impact of social media, Microsoft’s Chiu gave a brief demonstration of the company’s new Looking Glass software, that monitors what’s being said about a company on the Web, analyzes the messages by examining key words, and finally, uses that information to help a company push out messages to key groups. The current software, whose capabilities are constantly being refined, allows an organization to tap into any big online shift in sentiment about a company or product. “Once that data is in hand, then you go grab a human being to address the issues raised,” she said.
An avid advocate of social media, e.l.f.’s Rubin explained just how he has embraced bloggers to build the e.l.f. cosmetic brand. “Blogging is the most important element of a social media strategy,” Rubin feels, “Faceook and Twitter all feed into and off of our blog.” Without a traditional marketing budget, Rubin has crafted his brand strategy almost entirely on the Web. Early on, he created an “ask elf” section on the company Web site—and from that began to build a community of brand advocates—many of them who now blog about the brand. While still e.l.f.’s principal blogger, today he has a stable of guest bloggers, both big and small. Rubin welcomes all comments—even the negative ones—viewing those as an opportunity to convert a critic to a fan. “Customer service must be part of the CMO’s job,” he says. He also is not fazed by the FTC guidelines, but feels that most marketers will continue to push the envelope until brought up short by the agency.
Both bloggers on the panel had established their own personal blog guidelines long before the FTC’s were released. Ostan, of SelfishMom, has a disclosure page and recognizes that she “does not blog in a vacuum”. At the end of every one of her posts, she has a link to that page. Homesick Texan’s Fain’s simple policy is not to accept free things. Both emphasized the independence of the blogging community—whose value is in expressing its singular (as disclosed) views on an issue or product.
As the discussion wound down, there were a number of questions from the audience. Perhaps the most pointed, given the topic, was directed to the bloggers on the panel.
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