A Case Study in the Making

At SXSW, I had the good fortune to connect with a lot of people.  One of them was Wendy Piersall, aka eMom.  She made a point of telling me that she’s been spreading the word about Wiley.  How we understand how bloggers operate and really seem to want to exist in a Web 2.0 world.  I was really proud to hear that, because her positive experiences seem to have come not from me or others in the tech group, but from our PR and marketing teams on our parenting books.  It makes you as a marketer realize that we have this great resource out there in bloggers, who can certainly help spread the word about your products and services if you take the time to understand how they operate and how they want to be conversed with.

Now, from Twitter, I learn of the flip side of it.  How when you screw with bloggers and don’t understand the blogosphere, odds are you’re going to pay the price.  And take it from me, hell hath no fury like a mommy blogger scorned. 

Here’s some first person conversation about this situation, but take this as the Cliffs Notes version.  Basically, Johnson & Johnson decides to reach out to Mommy Bloggers.  They offer them a weekend away at something called “Camp Baby.”  A way to relax, hang out with other techno moms, and be pampered.  I believe massages and “hair braiding” were on the agenda.  Of course, they’re going to expose you to some of their products, but you’d expect that, no?

First problem here - some bloggers are invited, others are not.  When the bloggers who are in start talking about it, you’re bound to get some hard feelings from those who didn’t make the cut.  Unavoidable, but you should have a strategy for this.  Rule #1 - Bloggers talk.  Be prepared.  No, you can’t invite everyone, but be able to articulate why some people got in and some didn’t. 

Second, seeing as it is Camp Baby, you’d think childcare would be a possibility, even at a cost.  Maybe you have a baby baby, and need to nurse.  Nothing doing.  No kids are permitted at Camp Baby, and people who are invited are finding out about this NOW and being disinvited because they want to bring their kids. 

Seems obvious to me, but if you’re doing something called “Camp Baby”, and you’re planning on attracting new moms, THEY’RE NOT OFTEN ABLE TO ATTEND WITHOUT THEIR BABIES!  Nursing or not, moms with little ones often do not want to be, and even cannot be separated from them, no matter how fun the “hair braiding” may be.  Where is the surprise in this Johnson & Johnson, a company that makes baby products and is supposed to know this audience better than anyone?

Really bad PR move here, and I fear we’re going to be hearing about this as a case study of how not to reach out to bloggers in the days to come.  A bunch of women speaking at BlogHer Business have already been working to get the full story to discuss it in their panels at the conference.   I’ve read some comments about how J&J blew it, while companies like Graco have made the effort to understand bloggers and earned great marks for their PR activities.  Just goes to show that buzz is great, but buzz can also come back to bite you in the behind.  

The moral of the story?  Same message that good PR folks have preached forever.  Understand how your target wants to be conversed and interacted with and abide by it. 

It’s not about the peas

I’m kind of a newbie on Twitter.  I’ve had an account there for more than a few weeks, and have been playing around with it.  I’m beginning to see more a point to it as I go along, but it’s still a work in progress for me. 

As I’ve been exploring, I’ve been “following” people more and more.  They’re not always people I know, but that’s been the fun part.  Finding people who have Twits that interest you and seeing who they follow is a great way to get acquainted with a new blogger or learn something new.  So, every day, I “follow” about 5-10 people.  No big deal, until the other day.

“MeanTwitter” - not his or her real name - responded to my follow request with a “direct message”.  I’m paraphrasing because I will not name this person, nor do I want to take up the matter with them any more than we already have.  Anyhow, the message said in effect, “Thanks for the following request.  I see you do not have ‘peas’ on your avatar.  If you follow me, you need to have a “peas” avatar, and I will not follow you unless you do the same, either all the time or on Frozen Pea Friday.  Thank you, goodbye.”

If you’re not familiar with peas thing on Twitter, it’s essentially to support a woman named Susan Reynoldswho is fighting breast cancer.  She found amusement, warmth and support when she used a package of frozen peas to relieve the swelling from a biopsy. 

I didn’t know Ms. Reynolds before she started blogging about her experiences with breast cancer.  I’ve been so impressed with her, and am now a fan.  But I don’t have a pea avatar.  I can’t really give you a good reason why, but personally it would have felt false.  Not because I don’t support her, but it’s not like me to jump on a bandwagon publicly like that. 

I don’t appreciate that someone would try to bully me into having a pea avatar.  Does this person know me, know my background?  Do they know that I have a dear friend who has been fighting this disease for more than a decade?  Do they think I don’t care simply because I have not put peas in my icon?  Do not get me wrong.  I support Susan Reynolds to the fullest in her battle with this insidious disease.  I just don’t do it with peas.  When I am asked to donate to someone’s Race for the Cure team, I do it.  If and when my friend asked me to drive her to chemo or radiation, I would do it in a heartbeat.  Get my kid’s class to write letters of support to someone going through a bone marrow transplant - been there and would do it again.  If I was requested to write a letter to Congress to demand more money for cancer research or to fund mammograms for low income women,  you’ve got me.  Heck, I’d even march on Capitol Hill if you needed me to.  And I’d be thinking of Susan Reynolds when I did it.  You might even say I would do these things because of her and the other women in my life who have cancer. 

That’s the point, isn’t it?  I bear no ill will against anyone who has peas in an avitar and I hope this post isn’t taken as being anti-pea.  But I also don’t believe in bullying someone into doing something for a misguided purpose.   I can’t imagine Ms. Reynolds would want there to be someone taking things this literally.   Deny me a following because I didn’t sign a petition or encourage women to go for mammograms.   Don’t deny me a following because I chose not to change an avatar. 

Viva Las Vegas - the departure

Tonight, Mr. IT and I leave on the well-deserved long weekend trip to Vegas.  I’m not going to be blogging during the trip - time with your mate is way too important to spend feeding the blog.  I may try Twittering here and there, as that’s just a quick text message for me, but we’ll see.  I can’t decide whether it’s just a geeky time suck or there might be some value to it.  All part of the experiment, I suppose. 

You’ll find me in Quark’s bar at some point this weekend, surely. 

Twittering

Joe Wikert has a great post up today that was inspired by a Forbes article decrying Facebook and Twitter. 

That post was quite timely for me.  Yesterday, I attended an Advertising Club of NY networking breakfast. The topic was supposed to be “Technology: The Engine of Innovation”, but like many of these events, it barely skimmed the surface of what I was looking to hear. I attend networking events like this for several reasons. One is to get out from behind my computer and actually network. Talk with others who are out there doing what I’m doing, or better, what I want to do. Another reason is to learn something new, be inspired, and get energized about my work. Overall, I did better with the first than the second. The panel was supposed to talk about how so-called “new media” was changing the way marketers promote our brands, and how to find the best mix between offline and online promotions. The presenters were from a mix of technology companies(IBM, Microsoft, Yahoo, Panasonic and Xerox).  For the most part, there wasn’t a lot of “there” there.  They all talked about the corporate vision for brand promotion, but it was too top level to give the audience any “ah ha” moments.  Other than when the most-excellent woman from Yahoo (Mary Bermel) spoke, I didn’t find myself writing down too many gems or insights.  I hoped to hear more about true social networking and real world examples and best practices, but that really didn’t come out of the session. Maybe I read the description wrong, but others in the elevator after the session seemed to have the same perspective.

However, and back to the point of this post, two of the panelists, who really didn’t seem to embrace other Web 2.0 points, were Twitter embracers.  They both said that Twitter can serve as an excellent tool for marketers.  Obviously, this made my brow wrinkle, as the idea of following along with someone’s day online is about as exciting as taking 13 items in the 12 items or less line at the Food Emporium.  But Chris Webb has been converted, Wrox has started a Wrox Twitter thing, and Scoble seems hooked.  Today’s question - will I be sucked in via pure geek peer pressure, or is there something to this Twitter thing? The Twitter tag line is “What are you doing?” and as such, I ask the same question of the Twitter community, with the add on, “How are you doing it?” And so, the adventure begins…