Canuckflack

Longform writers feel under tremendous pressure from the free-flowing and often ill-considered commentariat - so says a rather longwinded* but amusing article by Gary Kamiya in Salon. The degradation of the traditional barriers between professional writers and their critics is creating pressures that may affect the development of the form - and the author.

Frank Shaw notes that equally important is effect ill-considered comments have upon the discovery and appreciation of genuinely insightful comments buried in a thread full of crap. “The signal to noise ratio is increasingly becoming an issue, and finding the gold involves sifting through a ton of sand.”

Some selected quotes from the Salon piece:

“…Then Al Gore invented the Internet and everything changed. Pieces that in the olden days would have garnered five or six letters suddenly inspired more commentary than a rerun of “Gilligan’s Island” in a cultural studies class. The floodgates opened, and in charged the masses — some filled with fulsome praise, others waving scimitars and dragging siege machinery into place, others ranting about their ex-wives …”(Salon)

“…This is an age of massive feedback, but it’s hard to deny that the collective American mind, now that its amp is turned up to 11, sounds a lot like Mötley Crüe.”

“…The context of online communication is more like being in your car in a traffic jam than sitting across a table from someone and having a talk — and it’s easy to flip somebody off through a rolled-up window. As a result, the kind of people who are prone to flipping others off, braying obscenities and ranting pointlessly are disproportionately represented in online letters sections and reader blogs.

“…The letters pages of Salon, like every other online magazine that doesn’t filter its posts, is a classic spaghetti western — the good, the bad and a really heavy dose of Eli Wallach.“

*I know what you’re saying - “Colin, by tagging the article as long-winded, aren’t you guilty of the same crimes to literature being discussed?” Sure, sure. But If I see a 1500 word piece on new media that mentions all of the following, I consider it long-winded:

• Lord Byron
• Stendhal
• epistolary
• Walt Whitman
• besotted
• pugnacity
• Triumph of the Will
• Neitzche’s Zarathustra

Yes, yes. I like the piece. Every pretentious sentence is finely crafted and pop culture references are often thrown in to balance the pretention.

Technorati Tags: Salon, comment threads, authenticity, trust, authority, new media, author

Party Animals, launching tonight on BBC2, is the latest drama to dig into the lives of political assistants and the others in orbit around the seat of government. Drawing on the saucier aspects of the character’s lives, it has also created a blatantly fake online community tied to the programme - and is beginning to link that community out to other social sites. 

“….Drawing on a wealth of first-hand research it presents Westminster from the ground up - the young researchers and advisors shouldering huge responsibility in a frantic, high-stakes world. It’s no wonder their personal lives are so messy. …” (BBC Show Site)

villagevermin.co.uk is the associated site, and it links out to existing (and legitimate political blogs) like Guido Fawkes. Also to be found is a fake profile for character Scott Foster on dontdatehimgirl.com.

Career Opportunity for Bloggers?

The entries on villagevermin are quite sparse. Is there a career opportunity for new graduates experienced in blogging and social media here? Maybe a new breed of poorly paid production assistant that ONLY maintains the online profiles and manufactured communities?

In the evolving world of social media, it’s the wild fliers you have to look for, you know. That solid homerun with the unintended consequences. Like a blogger relations strategy that goes hinky. Or a word of mouth campaign that slowly builds up some substantial and negative street-level karma.

It’s like going to a baseball game with the gang from work and witnessing a homerun derby - then discovering that one of the homeruns went through the windshield of the boss’ Escalade.

What’s the point of selling the management team on a new and innovative strategy if you don’t outline some of the risks that may accompany it? A capable counsellor always tempers their pie-in-the-sky projections with a dose of reality. For example: our blogger relations program could help influence online opinion of our new program - or it could really irritate one particularly influential commentator.

Preparing the groundwork before launching your new communications strategy will insulate it from unintended consequences.

Some ways a social media strategy can go hinky:

• You target bloggers with an unrelated interest or specialty, and they write about it
• Your new campaign comes with eau de toilette: the specialists you hired have screwed up so many campaigns in the past their work is automatically discounted
• Over-hyping your innovative new outreach strategy to the traditional media alienates social media and online outlets
• Hip to be square: trying to look edgy and innovative never sells as well as you’d imagined
• The bloggers you target aren’t transparent about their relationship, but the blame blows back on your company
• That new car smell: the executives get so excited about trying something new that they overlook the poor fit with actual business strategy. They later abandon the project without support
• One of your executives tries to influence the company’s Wikipedia page
• Your street team hires a: felon/female impersonator/ladie’s man

How to prepare for potential risks:

• Make sure the pitch for the business includes a dose of reality
• The social media evangelist should be accompanied by a strategist who can draw the whole media picture. A sober second voice, if you will. Maybe even a planner…
• Follow up on that dose of reality: schedule a discussion of how past social media campaigns have rolled out - including the unmitigated disasters
• The strategy should dentify how to respond to possible complications/crises. This will force everyone involved to work through responsibilities and roles before the crunch comes.
• The customer relations team/call centre HAS to be briefed on the strategy: they’ll be the first to hear of any problems

Any other suggestions?

Piles upon piles of clothes at Kohls? Paul’s post and pictures prompted a corporate reply - AND a staff blog to pursue the issue. This is a trend that could really take off, and leave no leeway for overworked store staff. Take a look at the 119 comments in reply to the Flickr gallery “Filthy WalMart” - which range from understanding to shocked to, frankly, obviously planted by a corporate spokesperson somewhere.

To be honest, it just looks like the evening staff were having a bad night. Maybe the crew from Career Opportunities were working that shift. (shout out to Jennifer Connelly and Frank Whaley! And Betty Boo!)

Some sample comments:

As a former supermarket employee, I have to say, in all fairness, that Sundays are the hardest day on a store, especially since that’s usually one of the busier days, plus, depending on the circumstances, one’s where staff get some sort of premium pay.

That being said, those holes (lingo) in the Grocery, HABA, Produce, and Frozen are unacceptable, and certainly didn’t appear after one days sales (or one weekend, for that matter). Someone’s getting fired, and by someone, I mean store management.

In other news, I can’t wait until Walmarts DMCA cease and desist for in-store photography threatening their intellectual property hits Flickr, cuz you know it’s coming… (rzklkng)

But did you get greeted on the way in? (A Hunted Joy)

Technorati Tags: Wal-Mart, groceries, night staff, sloppy customers

The advertising community is still stunned that Fabio is a continuing draw for online audiences. Nationwide Insurance’s Super Bowl ad, which featured the long haired bohunk poling down the canals of Venice (or the Venetian hotel in Vegas), kept pulling viewers long after its first airing during the 2006 Super Bowl.

In true “B” star fashion, Fabio made sure his sponsors kept up on the info. Nationwide’s VP for advertising and brand management made that point in a New York Times piece about maintaining the buzz built from a Super Bowl placement:

“We got 1.8 million downloads on that one site. Fabio himself keeps me apprised of that.” (NYT)

Fabio’s life would be much easier if there was a widget he could install on that VP’s desktop.

Imagine what other information could be simply and efficiently distributed through widgets, rather than depending upon online media:

• Minutes Since You Last Saw William Shatner In Media
• Last Person to Misinterpret The Cluetrain Manifesto
  
• Average Episode Run of New Television Dramas Calculator
  
• Latest Coochie Flashed to Papparazzi
• Number of PPT Decks to Start With a Hugh Macleod Cartoon
  
• In/Out of Rehab Updater
• Dating/Not Dating/Slutting Around
• Friends/Not Friends with Paris
• Slept with Wilmer

Technorati Tags: Super Bowl, Fabio, Nationwide, widget

In case you didn’t know, Gmail has some problems. And that means problems for you, the Gmail user. The service doesn’t recognize “dots” in an email address - unlike every other email application in the world. This means “cmckay” and “c.mckay” and “catherine.mckay” may all be treated the same.
I own the c.mckay email addy. Gmail let me create it, what, two years ago? At the time, there was no mention that following the DOT convention might cause problems.
Well, it has - but not for me.

For Catherine McKay of London, whose confirmation email for a pre-Christmas peformance at the National Theatre landed in my inbox. (Compelete with home address and partial credit card information. I tried to email this person, but Gmail returned the email to my inbox. I deleted the message)
For an undetermined “C.McKay” whose USC Trojan alumni newsletters are misdirected.

For another C McKay who apparently filed their income tax return electronically today. I know they did, because the Santa Barbara Bank and Trust sent me confirmation that their refund would be deposited in their account (login addy and confirmation number provided) by February 9.

I know that last one isn’t spam, because I also received the confirmation from Intuit’s Turbo Tax confirming that the income tax return had been accepted.

I guess I’m joining the chorus asking if Google actually plans to take any of their products out of beta - or is that a strategy to avoid dealing with the repurcussions of their mistakes?

Technorati Tags: Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, National Theatre, Gmail, Google

“Aren’t you there to make sure the English language isn’t pissed on by your sub-editors? … Is it sinking into your thick skull, you high school dropout?” (SF Chronicle) 

The San Francisco Chronicle has begun to make selected voice mails from readers available as a podcast. The series is called Correct Me If I’m Wrong. (h/t to Romenesko)

This is quite original. The Chronicle is now reinterpreting materials produced as part of its everyday relationship with Chronicle readers, drawing upon now-conventional podcasting methods to generate additional media for Chron properties.

I wonder if callers are warned their recorded voice could be distributed online (I tried to check, but couldn’t find the “letters to the editor” phone number. Maybe it’s the Chron’s general exchange number.)

I’d argue, though, that most podcasters exercise some discretion when picking which comment or voice mail to replay - often dropping the rude, unintelligible or pedantic.

The Chron, on the other hand, tagged this first podcast under “Correct Me If I’m Wrong …” and “Comedy.”

I like it.

Technorati Tags: Correct Me If I’m Wrong, SFGate, San Francisco Chronicle, letters to the editor

“There’s always going to be two sides to every story. Mine’s going to be `No comment’.”

That’s Malcolm Lee, the head of a bus company in Northern England. Upon losing a labour tribunal ruling, he was ordered to pay 2,300 pounds to a former employee. He paid up in full - a one thousand pound cheque, and a huge and heavy box of small denomination coins to make up the other 1,300 pounds.

(Newcastle Journal, with a h/t to the Northerner)

Enjoying a sweet dessert sensation from McDonald’s this afternoon, I noticed some highly unusual packaging. Here’s a hint:

She’s my cherry pie
Cool drink of water
Such a sweet surprise
Tastes so good make a grown man cry
Sweet cherry pie
Oh yeah

(Warrant - Cherry Pie)

This item on the value menu seemed to be communicating a subliminal message to me. It’s almost like Warrant wrote the copy on the box.

Let’s break it down, shall we?

1. Cherry Pie. ‘Enuf said.
2. Check out the guy with the wraparound shades.*
3. Check out the smirk on the guy with the wraparound shades, aimed right at you.
4. That smirk’s lecherous intent is further exaggerated by the tag line: “i’m lovin’ it”
5. What’s with the girlfriend, in a clearly submissive pose? A $1.49 pie causes this kind of reaction? Maybe if you’re stoned … or baked, as the kids might say.
6. Her reaction is clearly reminiscent of 80s hair metal videos. She might as well be posing across a Jaguar.
7. “CAUTION: FILLING IS HOT!” Might as well finish that consumer safety warning off with an imperative: “GIRLFRIEND! HOT I SAID!”

For the younger crowd, Warrant’s Cherry Pie might not be familiar as a hair metal song, but as part of the audition sequence in the cheerleading flick “Bring it on!”. (Youtube, skip to 6:33)

*Or are those Vuarnet sunglasses?

Technorati Tags: hair metal, cherry pie, warrant, Mcdonalds, value menu

Stick figures in peril, the Flickr group. Looks like kids have particular concerns: being struck down by the evil cloud of electricity, and concussions from daddies in a rush.

This sign from Italy warns young lovers that it’s especially risky to try to recreate the “train scene” from Risky Business: not only could you fall out the door at the next stop, but your foot could get stuck between the train and the platform. I call it “booty fall.” 

Pointer from Stee.

I’ll tell you what disappoints me about the future. ‘Cause you want to know. You really do. You know what disappoints me? The haphazard application of perspective.

I remember how the future was supposed to turn out. Handheld computers with touch screens? Check. Phones that plug into your ear? Check. Overbearing governments with exaggerated sense of certainty? Check. Wierd little cars that seem underpowered and designed solely for French pensioners? Check. Cradle to grave monitoring by the security establishment? Check.

The boundless power of information management was in every vision of the future sold to us by fanciful movies like Brazil, Farenheit 451 and 1984. But it was a shoddy bill of goods. Why? Because all those smart writers and directors assumed that some things would remain constant - like standards of quality and presentation in photography.

The personnel files continually flashed on screen always had traditional mug shot poses. Like your school pictures - stand up straight, look forward, and don’t smile too much. The surveillance film always looked like it was shot by a professional cinematographer with a three camera unit … completely realistic …

Well, the future is nothing like that. Thanks to camphones, the perspective has shifted. It’s obvious those photo booths at the mall are sitting unused. The lady down at the drycleaners is having a hard time selling passport photos. The schmuck at Sears is putting a hell of a lot more oversized pencils and velvet curtains as props in his work.

Take Paul’s picture over here. Looks normal, right? NOPE. Look at the drooping right shoulder. Clear sign that he home skooled his portrait. The only reason it doesn’t look worse is because I cropped it. Take a look at the original. Or take a look at Jeremy’s picture - the gangsta original.

This is a blogger epidemic. On countless blogs and MySpace pages, writers look like they’re midway through trying to cop a feel. HONK!

The motion is familiar to most guys. It’s the traditional reach-around, but this time the Canon SureShot’s the one looking sweet and approachable.

To be fair, there are other photo crimes being perpetrated by bloggers - like the unrealistic perspective shot. Here’s a shot of Sean - it may have been an ambitious reach-around, or maybe the picture was taken by a twelve inch Steve Austin action figure with the bionic eye standing on the coffee table.

Sure. You’ve seen worse on Craigslist. Who hasn’t? There’s a disease of self-love, people. Kids today are getting used to seeing pictures with a distorted perspective, an asymmetrical view of the subject and a distorted view of the tableau being framed.

Trouble is, it doesn’t take Pablo Picasso to pick up a camphone, retreat to his room and send a completely inappropriate drunk dial pic to his entire contact list.

Technorati Tags: camera phone, cam phone, blogger profile, blogger pic, about me, pic included

Once again, a fake letter from Craig Newmark.

UPDATE NOTE: Obviously, this is not a real letter. It has not circulated anywhere. It’s meant as wry commentary on the fickle nature of the media and their eagerness to find a simple answer to complex questions. Craig is too nice a person to write something like this.

Technorati Tags: Craigslist, YouTube, Chad Hurley

“Say Blogosphere Again” - from Coolestshop.com

From Steve Rubel’s post about his cheque from the Blogburst network:

“Clearly the way journalists and bloggers are being compensated is changing. However, everyone really should disclose the mechanics of how they are rewarded. Why should there be a double standard for the level of disclosure for journalists vs. bloggers when it comes to new models of compensation? We’re all part of the media fabric now. This should especially be revealed when anyone is being compensated based on traffic.

…But the point I want to make here is that no blogger - full-time pro or part-time paid - is exempt from disclosing how (not necessarily how much) they are paid and who is paying them.”

So - let’s say you’re the evangelist for a social media practice at a largish public relations agency. Your pay is directly related to your ability to demonstrate thought leadership in the subject, and your workload is divided between blogging, client service, client pitches, and conference presentations.

What proportion of your salary should you disclose, Steve?

This is an important question for bloggers and social media consultants as the world of blogging makes the transition from idealism to practical (read monetized) application.

The idea of disclosing all side interests, compensation deals or product placements that support a blog is a goal. As more and more bloggers develop viable careers from their work, can this be put into place with any level of accuracy?

Technorati Tags: Steve Rubel,  blogger compensation, pay per post, blogger ethics

Today,  I came across an animated gif used to illustrate a retail solution for an unnamed supplier. Even at first glance, there are some strange things going on in that shopping cart:

1. Bread and eggs. Two different damn corners of the supermarket.
2. Two big bottles of white wine. Are your friends coming over?
3. Right beside the red peppers - is that a jar of Marshmallow Fluff?
4. Two six-packs of Heineken. Are the significant others retreating to the home theatre?
5. She has extremely stumpy legs, but
6. A stylish A-line skirt and fitted t-shirt.
7. And we finish with Karl Pilkington’s head.

Counterfeit is the new authentic. Your knock-off kicks have a better story, have been involved in far shadier locales and with more suspicious characters, than those limited edition Nikes your girlfriend found online. And they, IN NO WAY, have come near an MBA-bearing product manager, his latte or her beemer. Abe Burmeister:

“…Once it’s made, once it’s shipped, once it’s slipped past customs, once it’s settled lightly in some temporary location, then you still need to find it. There are no insider announcements, no camping sessions lining up to buy the goods the second they hit the shop, no fevered eBay auctions for the newest of the new, and there is almost no way of knowing how many were made and how many more will follow. Value and excitement both tend come from the thresholds, and nothing navigates the thresholds of taste and legality like a counterfeit good. These are the real artifacts of the industrial age, the goods with real stories. Goods you can wear both with pride and without fear of harming their secondary market value. More authentic than any brand can hope for, welcome to world of the authentic counterfeit.” (Abstract Dynamics)

Dammit, I like Richard Huntington’s Adliterate post on the benefits of blogging for planners.

“… I have often joked that it is only planners that blog in advertising because account people have nothing to say and creatives have better places to say it but maybe its more that blogging was built for us. … Blogging has given us planners a way to show we are good and create influence within our agencies, the broader community and potentally with our clients. “

I’ve long had an affinity for planning.  As a government communications strategist, I’m expected to maintain a wide-ranging interest in and knowledge of popular culture, public policy, media trends, new technology and strategic insight - but feel very little of the love regularly thrown the way of the “civilian” public relations community. (ha! right.)

Richard touches upon some of the scepticism still directed at blogging and social networks, particularly among “more established” planners and executives, but isn’t shy about recognizing that

” … the community, like all communities, has begun to coalesce around specific ‘new marketing’ ideas that are in danger of becoming of becoming an orthodoxy every bit as dangerous as the antiquated ideas about brands and communications that it is seeking to replace. Specifically it encourages a view that the marketing landscape has already reached a kind of utopian future without offering any clues about how brands and the clients that own them should get there. …”

Technorati Tags: adliterate, media planning

With the new season of 24 upon us, you know what product placement would have made a lot of sense?

Jack Bauer using an iPhone.

Ed pointed to a Cracked magazine piece on the technical specifications needed for Jack Bauer’s phone, and I’m pretty sure Steve promised all those and more.

Sure, Apple doesn’t need to added marketing buzz. But putting an iPhone into the hands of the country’s top anti-terrorist agent sure would have generated demand among the agencies and officials in Washington - currently a prime territory for the Blackberry.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPhone, Jack Bauer, 24

American Idol premiere tonight, folks. These are the best hours - the tryouts and the flaming disasters. The nationally televised performances that pop a hole in the delusions of many erstwhile singers and rap stars. And now you validate your insensitive and soulless armchair criticism with an official-looking judge’s scorecard!

Technorati Tags: American Idol, Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, Ryan Seacrest, Delta Park Project 

There’s a tempest in a teapot brewing over at Blog Herald, and commented upon by Joe at ProPr.

My only thought at the moment? A lot of Amanda Chapel’s comments* across the blogosphere have nothing to do with debating a finer point, and hell of a lot to do with promoting and protecting the Strumpette brand.

And sometimes, when in this defensive mode, her comments come across as written by Y&R’s Phyllis Summers Abbott or Dr. Kimberly Shaw Mancini from Melrose Place.

*by comments, I mean her appearance on others’ blogs. I frequently enjoy and appreciate her point of view on Strumpette itself. It’s like a buffet, folks: sometimes you have to pass over the particularly unappetizing dishes and give the chef a break.

Technorati Tags: Strumpette, Amanda Chapel, ProPr, Chris Clarke

For Edelman, it makes perfect sense to establish and communicate the limits of your dealings with the blogosphere - especially if the stumbles of your high profile client programs are forever being highlighted online.

Richard Edelman has posted the general guidelines Edelman employees will follow when a conversation about their practice and their client develops online. They make perfect sense and show a balanced approach to managing an emerging business practice. But this paragraph struck me as unusual:

If there are questions posed about a given program, particularly about our approach, we will do our best to ensure that those most closely involved with the effort are commenting. It is a far better option to have those truly informed about our work join the conversation as and when appropriate. This is what happened on Microsoft with both Rick Murray, head of Me2Revolution, and Pete Pedersen, our relationship manager on the client, commenting in PRWeek.

[Cartoon-like headshake] Whaa? Wait. The head of your online practice thought the best place to respond to criticism about a blogger outreach program was … IN PRINT? IN A TRADE MAGAZINE? Not all the critics of the VISTA program are public relations pros - and not all PRs subscribe to PRWeek.

Which you have to be to read Murray’s comments - because the PRWeek piece is behind a subscriber firewall. (Unless you know to read Keith’s blog. Then there is a free link)

As for you bloggers who didn’t get a free laptop preloaded with Vista, here’s Rick’s POV:

“…Murray said, in part, the furor could have something to do with the limited scope of the campaign.

He added, “I think the reality is, when you handpick a small group of people out of 55 million bloggers, [many will] be less than happy with the solution.”

Yeah. Shut up you whiners.

Technorati Tags: Vista, Edelman, blogger relations

Technorati Tags: Beckham, Galaxy, Real Madrid, football, soccer

… and I don’t mean Kid Rock. Steve-O has signed up with PETA to expose animal cruelty at Ringling Bros. circuses. He seems to have first brought up his distaste for animal abuse while visiting the Tom Green Show (I know! Who knew he was still around!) - and I was surprised to actually hear Steve-O say the words “spend the money on Cirque du Soleil tickets.”

Thanks Steve! Now that Celine is shutting down her Vegas theatre, Cirque is Canada’s main cultural export.

… Back to PETA … Steve-O’s campaign includes a draw for a PETA2 tshirt signed by the Jackass himself, as well as a skate deck. Great way to add to the mailing list!

PETA, who is clearly on the ball when it comes to campaigning, has made a promo video with Steve-O. The campaign page provides the code to stream the video on your MySpace page, and it is also available on YouTube.

PETA’s got a good thing going, this protesting animal cruelty by showing up at fast food outlets and disrobing gig. Last week some PETA supporters showed up at a KFC in Cleveland. The Cleveland Scene was on the … uh… scene:

“Some scalding hot chicks stripped naked for an important cause last week, bearing all outside a KFC restaurant on Carnegie Avenue. The women were apparently representatives of an advertising agency called PETA, which had been hired to increase the sales of KFC’s tasty Buffalo Snacker.

The display attracted plenty of local media, although most of the reporters seemed less interested in the women’s important message than their scrumptious thighs, legs, and biscuits.

…“I got some Snackers, I came out here, and I watched,” said one onlooker, huddled with his friends in the KFC parking lot. “It was a good day.”

The print coverage was supplemented by the work of Walter Novak: Action Rock Photographer. A sample of the cut lines under his extensive photo gallery:

• As the fellow in the parking lot told Scene, “I like the one on the left.” 
• Even the PETA girls were intoxicated by the sweet aroma of chicken in the air.
• Predictably, a guy from Q104 showed up in a chicken costume.
• More predictably, photographer Walter Novak proved conclusively that this woman was wearing pasties.
• Yes, the Q104 chicken ate a bucket of KFC at the protest . . .

Technorati Tags: consultants, social media practice, blind leading the blind

Corporations have no problem establishing an identity in the online world: where they have a problem is maintaining a believable “corporate personality” that helps moderate the ups and downs of public perception and criticism in such a responsive and rapid environment.

At the moment, corporations cheat in their outward communications. Their real world and online brand identity is well established through advertising, marketing and community outreach. If you believe you are dealing with a responsive and responsible organization, that’s likely the result of extensive planning - detailed call scripts, employee communications manuals, automated responses to online contact forms, and regular refresher meetings for salespeople and marketers.

Any perception of personality or individuality from a corporation usually flows from an oversized personality in the C-Suite. Traditionally, the arrival of a new voice in the executive offices has meant a breath of fresh air throughout the organization. Mandates are renewed, clear and action-oriented visions are developed, and employees are (hopefully) energized. If the new executive is also a strong communicator, their arrival can improve perception of the company’s products, performance and staff in financial markets and in the marketplace.

The work of that executive as a spokesperson and corporate representative doesn’t equal a corporate personality, however. When a strong communicator leaves (Jack Welch) or is forced out (Robert Nardelli), the corporation’s public identity is often weakened despite their work.

These are the corporations that receive a mixed reception from customers - both online and in the real world. Michael Dell may be a personable and well-spoken executive, but it’s obvious that his customer care staff have irritated some influential bloggers. Local consumer reporters can find no end of dissatisfied customers with a gripe against regional and national telephone, cable, utilitiy, airline or electronics firms.

The key to a consistent and reliable online identity - one that will weather trashings in online forums and sniping from bloggers, an identity that will instinctively know how to deal with negative comment threads and critical YouTube CGM - is a corporation that has worked hard to build a corporate personality to help guide every employee in the organization.

This means all the units in a corporation that touch the customer or the outside world have learned to listen, speak and act with a common personality.

This doesn’t mean homogeneous messaging, strict protocols or highly controlled communications. Instead, it means a workforce that has been trained to apply a common set of principles and behaviours when dealing with customers, suppliers, and stakeholders.

It’s not necessarily about the social media catchall (and trite) phrases: transparency, community, conversation. Instead, it’s about responsiveness in communications, open recognition of failings (and of successes) and the willingness to give employees free(er) rein in their area of responsibility.

Front desk managers at hotels have the ability to comp rooms or offer upgrades; phone reps can actually acknowledge that mistakes have been made with your order; managers know that they can speak about their area of expertise in public.

It’s the freedom to act in micro situations - a form of corporate behaviour that influences individuals, not organizations or communities.

It’s these individual actions that often trip up corporate attempts to play in the social media sandbox - planted comments on corporate blogs; anonymous postings on message groups; rewrites that provoke clashes with the wiki overlords; knee jerk reactions to leaked corporate videos appearing on YouTube.

It’s the sort of philosophy Herb Kelleher put in place at Southwest.

Ask yourself, as a public relations pro or a marketer: when you heard that Southwest was going to let A&E film a reality television series AT THE GATE, did you think it was utter genius or outright stupidity?

That’s the sort of corporate personality that will have to develop as CGM and social media continue to merge with “traditional” media. It’s the corporate confidence that employees are trained well enough to let it all hang out, with a camera rolling.

BTW - I stole the term “corporate personality” from Kevin Dugan, who used it on an episode of the Dallas Marketing Zoo.

You’ve certainly already broken some of your New Year’s resolutions. Those new career goals are likely moving slowly. That commitment to learn more about social media is still holding strong, though. So come on down to the