ANOTHER TAKE ON BLOGGING

This article from today's "Financial Times" makes some interesting points.

The new corporate firefighters
By David Gelles

Published: January 22 2009 02:00

When advertisers launched a campaign last September for the pain reliever Motrin, they hoped to attract the attention of mothers whose backs might be sore from wearing baby-carriers. The advertisements implied that while baby-carriers might be fashionable, hauling a child around could be painful.

Mothers were not amused. Soon after the ads were released, anti-Motrin campaigns appeared on Facebook and blogs. Outraged mums, furious at the suggestion that their babies were a hassle, posted rebuttal videos on YouTube. Through Twitter, the microblogging service, thousands of people attacked the company.

Motrin was caught off-guard. For days, no company representative replied. Critics accused the company of being not only insensitive but also unresponsive.

Eventually a marketing executive at McNeil Consumer Healthcare, the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson that markets Motrin, e-mailed individual bloggers to apologise for the campaign. But the damage was done.

The "Motrin moms" episode illustrates the power of social media - the expanding network of websites that allow users to interact with each other and, increasingly, with companies. It also demonstrates the perils for enterprises that are unprepared to interact with social media.
But now a growing number of companies, including Ford Motor, PepsiCo, Wells Fargo and Dell, are creating new high-level jobs to ready themselves for engagement with social media, with titles such as director of social media, head of communities and conversation, vice-president of experiential marketing and digital communications manager. The role of these new executives is to monitor and influence what is being said about their companies on the internet.

Johnson & Johnson made its own appointment in the wake of the Motrin debacle. Having already dabbled in social media, in December the company promoted Marc Monseau, a 10-year company veteran and former director of media relations, to director of social media. "My responsibility is to work with the corporate office and the individual companies to better interact online," Mr Monseau says. "It underscores the fact that we realise this is an important audience and one that we need to develop relationships with."

These new jobs represent a broad shift in media relations strategy at large companies. "Corporate communications has radically changed," says Andy Sernovitz, chief executive of the Blog Council, an organisation for heads of social media at big companies. "It's no longer just companies talking to the press, and customer service talking to customers. All these other people showed up in the -middle. They may not be press and they may not be customers, but suddenly their collective voice is bigger than the traditional channels."

The essence of social media is conversation. Rather than a one-way stream of information, where companies make announcements to the press and customers, social media enables a great deal of interaction, where companies are in constant dialogue with the public. "We've seen a shift from doing things the old way to now having conversations with our customers," says Jeanette Gibson, director of new media for Cisco Systems.

Ms Gibson, who began her job in 2007, says there is now a mandate at Cisco that all staff be attuned to what is being said about Cisco online. "It has definitely shifted how we've done communications," she says. "Our executives are video blogging every day. Everybody's job is now social media."

Dell, the computer maker, has one of the most robust corporate social media programmes. Bob Pearson, former senior vicepresident of corporate communications, became vice-president of communities and conversation for Dell in 2007.

He now has 45 people working for him. The core team works on "blog resolution" - trawling the web for dissatisfied customers, then attempting to contact them to make amends. Others on Dell's social media team manage the company's 80 Twitter accounts and 20 Facebook pages. Still others manage IdeaStorm, Dell's forum for customer feedback.

Dell is taking its customer feedback seriously. When the company launched the Latitude laptop last summer, six of the features, including backlit keyboard and fingerprint reader, were ideas that came from IdeaStorm. "It's always worth talking directly with your customers. It's always worth listening to them," says Mr Pearson. "It's the wisdom of crowds."

Peter Shankman, a social media expert and founder of Help a Reporter Out, a service that broadcasts reporters' requests to a network of experts, says many companies are still reluctant to get involved: "Companies are slow to adapt because they're still not 100 per cent sure they can make money with social media," he says.

Yet Dell, for one, has made a business of it. By broadcasting discount alerts on Twitter, it says, it has generated more than $1m in sales. And in the US, 59 of the 100 leading retailers, including Best Buy and Wal-Mart, now have a fan page on Facebook, according to Rosetta, an interactive marketing agency.

Other savings can be realised through the Web's ability to reach many people at once. "If you solve someone's problem on the phone, nobody knows," says Mr Sernovitz. "If you solve that same problem in writing on a blog, it costs you no more, but thousands of people are satisfied. And then, if 100 people never call because they found the answer, you very, very quickly get to multimillion-dollar savings."

Other companies are using Twitter to douse public relations fires before they erupt. Scott Monty, head of social media for Ford Motors, used Twitter to appease users who were angry after the carmaker sued an enthusiast website that was selling unauthorised Ford merchandise. When fans of the enthusiast site posted angry messages, Mr Monty "tweeted back" to explain the company's position.

Bonin Bough, who was appointed director of social media for PepsiCo last year, also used Twitter to defuse a brewing crisis after the company released a series of advertisements depicting a cartoon calorie character committing suicide.

"Social media is much more than getting out there and having conversations," says Mr Pearson of Dell. "It transforms a business if you use it correctly."

LABOURSPACE.COM

The Labour Party has just launched a unique campaigning site Labourspace.com.

The Labourspace.com site gives organisations and individuals the opportunity to set up campaigns they want to bring to the attention of Labour politicians.

Ed Miliband, who is compiling the next Labour election manifesto, launched the site today. Speaking about the importance of working with campaigning organisations and individuals to build our manifesto, he explained how the website can help achieve that:

"LabourSpace is the Labour Party's campaign social networking site. I hope it will provide a unique home for organisations and people to host and promote their campaigns - and to bring their ideas to the attention of Labour ministers and the wider party.

"The idea behind Labourspace.com is really simple. You get your own webpage within the Labourspace network where you can tell us why you think Labour should be implementing your campaign ideas.

"I will be regularly checking out the site which I expect will become a lively forum for discussion and debate. I hope people will use it to let us know what their priorities are for a better, fairer Britain under Labour in the future."

OBAMA - MY TWO HOPES

Well, who could fail to be inspired. The hope (to use Obama's own word) and excitement reminded me of May 2 1997. I was one of the many lining Whitehall that balmy summer's morning cheering our new Prime Minister, Tony Blair, being completely carried away by the optimism he was bringing to Britain. It was, indeed, a glorious day, just as it was yesterday.

I have two dreams of my own:

Obama's statement in his inaugural address that "We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus - and non-believers" bodes well for those of us who are humanists and secularists. While it may not be a massive move away from faith (and Obama is himself is a committed Christian), it did at least put down a marker that the 44th President may be moving away from the religiosity of the Bush years. I can only hope that freethinking, ie not possessing a religion, will again become acceptable in America. My dream will be well on the way if we see non-believer candidates for the 2012 presidential contest.

Obama has shown some willingness to carry forward the equalities agenda. Yet it is not enough for him to quote his personal experience as "a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant (who) can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath" and leave it at that. He must deliver on equalities. I was pleased to see three women among the 14 names so far announced for his Cabinet. Yet appointing Janet Napolitano, Susan Rice and Lisa Jackson is not enough. I want a complete change in attitude to abortion in America and equal pay across the United States, and that's just for starters.

TURKEY CONSIDERING NUCLEAR POWER

The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last night spoke of Turkey's intention to build nuclear power stations to meet its growing energy needs. Addressing a dinner organised by the European think tank, Friends of Europe, Mr Erdogan described how Turkey will soon be making its final decision about the nuclear power he claimed it now required.

I must say I find this an uncomfortable thought. Although I have no objection to nuclear power in the UK and other countries with an established nuclear capablity, the idea of a non-nuclear power developing the potential, albeit for peaceful, civil use fills me with dread. Since Turkey is a member of NATO, my misgivings may be misplaced. However, we only have to think of Iran to see where this could go.

Much of the reminder of Erdogan's speech at the elegant Cercle Royal Gaulois Artistique et Litteraire in Brussels, was, as you may have expected, taken up with Turkey and the European Union. The EU, he claimed, will not be served by a fortress Europe mentality, and such an attitude will not help solve the present economic crisis. As far as Turkey joining the EU was concerned, the Turkish PM pointed out that a number of countries had once been considered inadmissible for EU membership. As well as mentioning Spain and Portugal, he cited the twice vetoed application from the United Kingdom. Turkey, which has had a successful customs union with the EU since 1996, is also negotiating for EU membership. Ten chapters of the accession process have already been opened and one is practically closed.

Mr Erdogan stressed that Turkey's goal is full membership of the EU. Privileged partnership is not acceptable and has never been raised in connection with any other country. Turkey will benefit the EU. It is the 17th largest economy in the world and the sixth largest in Europe while also being a member of the G20. Turkey's economy has consistently improved. Six years ago the GDP was 259 billion US dollars; it is now $750 billion. Inflation has been reduced from a high of 30 per cent to 10 percent and interest rates now stand at three per cent. All this means that Turkey is in line with the economic criteria in the Maastricht Treaty for EU accession.

As I have indicated before on this blog, I am a strong supporter of Turkey joining the EU. I think all of us involved in the EU now have a responsibility to make it happen.

On the question of Cyprus, Mr Erdogan expressed his displeasure that the Greek Cypriots had rejected in a referendum the plan put forward by former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan. He also took the view that the north of Cyprus is not in the EU and told the audience that the Turks would always be one step ahead of the Greeks. This was not, I fear, a very helpful response. I only hope those participating in the current peace talks take a more enlightened view.

KEN CLARKE - MONEY BEFORE COUNTRY?

In today's Independent, Jeremy Hunt Shadow Secretary of State for Culture says

“David Cameron rightly expects all members of his Shadow Cabinet to put every ounce of energy they can into defeating this disastrous government, so no one should have any interests that deflect them from this.”

So will William Hague be giving up his directorships and make more speeches in the House of Commons than he does at dinners?

Will Oliver Letwin stop going to work in the City in the mornings for a merchant bank and make his work in the Shadow Cabinet what he puts “every ounce of energy into”?

Nothing released to the press to say that Ken Clarke will be dropping his directorships to focus his energies fully. I have always found puzzling the media view that Ken Clarke is a “nicer” Tory. As Deputy Chairman of British American Tobacco he has promoted a habit smoking that kills millions prematurely and puts vast unnecessary costs on health services, ultimately paid for by us as taxpayers.

Come on Jeremy, weren’t you being a little economical with the truth?

How can David Cameron ask to run the country when he can't even get his Shadow Cabinet to do what he asks?

HOW LONDON'S BUSES COULD GRIND TO A HALT

I have seen adverts for churches on London buses for decades and never heard of a Muslim, Buddhist, Jew or Atheist refusing to drive our iconic red London buses. London is the great cosmopolitan city of the world and we tolerate each others faith and those of us who are sceptical readily.

Now a bus driver is being allowed to drive only buses which do not have the "There's probably no God" advert. This is wrong. London buses would grind to a halt if the drivers all had to check whether they agreed with the religious adverts on them. Rightly they keep on driving.

I hope bus driver Ron Heather will show more tolerance and understanding, qualities which I consider to be part of Christianity, and changes his mind and drives buses whatever their adverts.

DISCUSSING GAZA WITH THE ISRAELI EMBASSY

At the moment sadly Gaza is the subject I am blogging on most. I appreciate the comments that constituents have made on my previous postings here and here.

Letters/emails on Gaza continue to dominate my mailbag/inbox and I am responding to every single one of them as soon as I can.

This week I arranged a meeting with a senior member of the Israeli embassy to press my view that there should be an immediate ceasefire. I took the opportunity to provide him with copies of my blogs and all the comments that have submitted on them. They demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of Londoners writing to me support me in calling for an immediate ceasefire.

Please continue to let me know your views. I will continue to do all I can to work for an immediate ceasefire.

VICTORY IN HARINGEY

The coldest I have been leafletting in a very long time was last week for the 7 Sisters by-election in Haringey. Great to hear about the victory and my congratulations to Joe Goldberg. For details of the result and some analysis see Luke Akehurst.

TORIES ABSTAIN ON EQUAL TREATMENT AT WORK

MEPs today voted on a Report on the implementation of Directive 2002/73/EC, a Directive on putting into practice the principle of equal treatment for men and women as regards access to employment, vocational training and promotion, and working conditions.

Written by Spanish Socialist Teresa Riera Madurell, the report concerns the implementation of the Directive rather than any policy change. The UK has, in fact, done all it should and fully implemented the terms of the Directive.

Strange indeed then that nearly all Tories voted as a bloc and abstained on the final vote to accept the Report. Those who abstained were:

Ashworth, Bowis, Bradbourn, Bushill-Matthews, Callanan, Chichester, Deva, Elles, Evans, Harbour, Heaton-Harris, Kamall, Karim, Kirkhope, Nicholson, Parish, Stevenson, Sturdy, Tannock, Van Orden

Only Beazley and Dover voted for the Report

By abstaining, the Tories have again broken with the EPP (the centre-right group in the European Parliament to which the Tories loosely belong). The first draft of Theresa Madurell's Report was objected to by the EPP who tabled many amendments which watered it down. However, in the end, true to the spirit of European compromise the EPP, PSE (Socialists), ALDE (Liberals) and the Greens came together to propose a jointly amended text. All of these parties therefore voted in favour of the report - with the not so honourable exception of the British Tories.

It will, of course, come as no surprise that UKIP Members Bloom, Clark and Farage together with the far right, including father and daughter Le Pen, voted against the Madurell Report. The Tories are certainly keeping interesting company these days.