Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Abraham Harrison Staff, Activating Bloggers, Blog Messaging, Blog Strategy, Blogger Activation, Blogger Code of Conduct, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Ethics, Blogger Gifts, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Blogger Service, Brand Advocacy, Brand Ambassador, Brand Promotion, Brand Reputation, Branding, Chris Abraham, Circumadvertising, Direct Email, Direct Marketing, Email Marketing, Email Outreach, Gift Giving, Gifting Bloggers, Give Swag, New Marketing, New Media Marketing, New Media Strategy, Norman Birnbach, Online Advertising, Online Advocacy, Online Brand Promotion, Online Branding, Online Communications, Online Community Outreach, Online Engagement, Online Entertainment, Online Evangelism, Online Influence, Online Marketing, Online Media, Online Messaging, Online Outreach, Online PR, Online Pitch, Online Public Relations, PR Back Talk, PR Blogging, PR Blogs, PR Ethics, PR Hubris, PR Industry, PR Pitching, Pitching Bloggers, Pitching New Media, Pitching Social Media, Pushing Swag

This morning, Norman Birnbach wrote an article wherein he suggests that I emphasize giving swag:

One of his tips is to “Give swag” — a point that Chris Abraham emphasized in a recent interview. The reason is that blogging is often a second career and there are few perks so swag can make a difference to get bloggers to respond.

He is not wrong, but I think I need to clarify my definition of “gift-giving.” I don’t emphasize giving away swag, necessarily — what I do emphasize is gifting — and giving ’til it hurts, “What a gift needs to be is super-valuable to the recipient — the value of a gift is based on perception.”

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2 Comments » Posted on June 16th, 2008 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Abraham Harrison Staff, Activating Bloggers, Ad Budgets, Advertising, Andy Sernovitz, Asset Distribution, Blog Messaging, Blog Strategy, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Influence, Blogger Outreach, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Brand Advocacy, Brand Ambassador, Brand Promotion, Branding, Branding Online, Consumer Generated Media, Conversation Marketing, Crisis Management, Direct Marketing, I Will Not Be Broken, Influencer Identification, Influencers, Influencial Bloggers, Internet Strategy, Jerry White, Marketing Conversation, New Marketing, Online Advertising, Online Advocacy, Online Avertising, Online Brand Promotion, Online Branding, Online Communications, Online Conversation, Online Influence, Online Marketing, Online Messaging, Online Outreach, Online Public Relations, Promotional Strategy, Public Relations

Andy Sernovitz’s blog’s name says it all, and definitely reflects my response to reading this: Damn, I Wish I’d Thought of That!, especially in his post Instant Word of Mouth for Restaurants. From our experience doing blogger outreach and blogger gift-giving, this is on-the-money advice you should all consider (Via Chris Abraham — Because the Medium is the Message):

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No Comments » Posted on June 3rd, 2008 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Blog Counter-Messaging, Blog Messaging, Blog Policies, Blog Strategy, Blogger Engagement, Blogger Relations, Blogger Response, Blowback, Brand Promotion, Brand Protection, Brand Reputation, Branding, Branding Online, Buzz Marketing, Citizen Generated Media, Citizen Journalism, Citizen Media, Code of Conduct, Cult of Personality, Customer Ratings, Customer Reviews, Influence, Influencer Identification, Influencers, Influencial Bloggers, Influential Brand Advocates, Influentials, Intellectual Property, Legal Blogs, Legal Issues, Memetics, New Marketing, New Media, New Media Blogs, New Media Marketing, New Media Strategy, New PR, Online Advocacy, Online Avertising, Online Brand Intelligence, Online Brand Promotion, Online Brand Protection, Online Brand Reputation, Online Branding, Online Communities, Online Community Outreach, Online Engagement, Online Evangelism, Online Facilitation, Online Marketing, Online Participation, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Online Reviewers, Online Reviews, Online Strategy, PR Hubris, Peer-to-Peer, Pop Culture, Public Relations, Reputation Rehabilitation, Social Meda, Social Networking, Viral Marketing, Web 2.0, Web 3.0, Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouth Marketing

I just asked a question via Twitter. And I’ll repeat it here.

Question for social media types…many complain about interference from legal dept. when it comes to social media, especially with UGC…so, are there any conferences, events, seminars, etc. that bring the two groups together to understand one another more?

Not to toot my own horn, but that’s a good question. And it’s one that needs to be answered.

Marketers are essentially in charge of defining, promoting, enhancing, and protecting the brand. Lawyers are essentially in charge of protecting the entity, the business, and, yes, the brand.

I got to thinking about this because social media strategists often, as part of their strategy, enlist, encourage, or allow a brands users to play a role in the branding. I got to thinking of a recent story involving a group of car enthusiasts putting together a picture calendar showing off their cars. They calendars were to be sold on CafePress. But there was some sort of communication screw up and it was halted I believe. Some social media strategists mistakenly blamed the car company.

But then I thought…wait…if the legal department did have reservations in this situation, is that necessarily a bad thing? Think about it….

What if one of the participants of an unsolicited consumer generated media effort has let’s say a problem. Like a police record. I mean, let’s say he’s the type of guy who could get nailed by Chris Hansen of Nightline. You know, a pedophile.

Ridiculous? If you think so, you’re missing the point. The point is that legal department and marketing departments are going to have to understand one another and work together to both reasonably promote and protect the brand through social media. Cutting edge vs. overly cautious won’t do. Lawyer potentially nixing or at least getting in the way of potentially effective programs or frustrated marketing types angrily rolling their eyes at the stupidity and interference of the legal department will only serve to stifle the brand, or, potentially worse, leave it unprotected.

No Comments » Posted on March 2nd, 2008 by Jonathan Trenn

Filed under: Abraham Harrison, Abraham Harrison LLC, Abraham Harrison Staff, Blowback, Brand Advocacy, Brand Promotion, Brand Protection, Brand Reputation, Competitive Intelligence, Domain Name Strategy, Online Advocacy, Online Attack, Online Brand Promotion, Online Brand Protection, Online Brand Reputation, Online Branding, Online Communications, Online Crisis Management, Online Identity Management, Online Monitoring, Online PR, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Reputation Management, Reputation Rehabilitation

Let me first reveal that Abraham Harrison LLC, my employer and my company, is an online reputation management company — online reputation protection, promotion, defensive SEO, domain name strategy, and crisis management. That said, I could not be happier because online reputation management is apparently the new black, at least according to Techdirt, Forget Publicists, All The Cool Kids Have Online Reputation Managers:

It’s been well-documented that Google has become something of the mythical permanent record teachers warned you about as kids. There are plenty of stories about people losing jobs or discovering dubious information about dates using Google. A few years back, services popped up claiming that they could scrub your online record clean — though, how successful such services could be was certainly called into question. However, it appears that those services have morphed into a new, somewhat scary, category called online reputation management. While it’s to be expected that corporations might have people monitoring online reputations, it’s quite another thing to have individuals hire firms to do the same thing.

(Tip of the hat for the article to Scott Burns)

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1 Comment » Posted on February 1st, 2008 by Chris Abraham

Filed under: Affinity Groups, Altruism, Authenticity, Blog Messaging, Blogger Influence, Book Reviews, Brand, Brand Advocacy, Brand Ambassador, Brand Intelligence, Brand Promotion, Brand Protection, Brand Reputation, Branding, Branding Online, Business Intelligence, Buzz Marketing, CRM, Consumer Generated Media, Conversation, Conversation Marketing, Customer Ratings, Customer Reviews, Customer Service, Customer Supprt, Guerilla Marketing, Honesty, Influencer Identification, Influencers, Influencial Bloggers, Influential Brand Advocates, Influentials, Integrity, Internet Culture, Managing Conversation, Market Research, Marketing Conversation, Markets are Conversations, Media Virus, Memetics, Messaging Online, New Media, Online Advocacy, Online Brand Reputation, Online Communities, Online Community Outreach, Online Conversation, Online Engagement, Online Evangelism, Online Messaging, Online Monitoring, Online Outreach, Online Participation, Online Reputation, Online Reputation Management, Online Reviewers, Online Reviews, Online Virtual Communities, Reputation Management, Social Intelligence, Social Meda, Social Networking, Viral Marketing, Viral Media, Viral Propagation, Word-of-Mouth, Word-of-Mouth Marketing

The culture of participatory social media is having some surprisingly significant effects on both the way satisfied customers play a role in contributing to the marketing message development of products and services. And it is also playing an increasingly important role in defining the key touchpoints that customers use in the deciding factors one what to purchase. What makes this all the more noteworthy is that much of this is rooted in offline purchases. I’m putting this together from two recent studies…

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1 Comment » Posted on December 2nd, 2007 by Jonathan Trenn

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