Wayfinder is proud to welcome our newest client to the family, Arden Fair Mall. Arden Fair, located in Sacramento, is more than a collection of retail shops, it’s an integral part of the Sacramento community.

Featuring Nordstrom, Macy’s, Apple and over 165 premier retailers, the mall is perceived by shoppers as a community gathering place for friends to meet, socialize and shop. It is one of the original Sacramento malls and residents feel a special connection and loyalty to it. So do we.

We look forward to developing a new campaign that will create an even greater connection between shoppers and the mall while reinforcing the preference to shop there time and time again.

In the meantime, if you find yourself in Sacramento and want to take care of your shopping needs, give Arden Fair a try.

In part one of this article, we covered the first two Ws of PR, “why” and “what”, using a recent PR campaign Wayfinder launched as an example. In part two, we cover the remaining three Ws:

Who: Who Are You Writing For, a Publicity Service or Editors for Press Coverage?
What’s the difference between getting publicity and getting press coverage? There are big differences, both in terms of whom you will be targeting your media release toward and what kind of coverage you will get.

With a paid publicity service, you will be writing a finished piece for the final audience. While you will get guaranteed results on big search engines, you will have little or no control over the websites, trade journals and news media in which your story is placed.

It’s a lot more work to obtain press coverage, where your audience consists of the Assignment Editors at television and radio stations, newspapers and major websites. But the results can be much more rewarding than for those of a paid service.

Here is the process we used in obtaining press coverage for our recent Wayfinder / Expedition Balance PR campaign:
1.    Researched and developed a target list of appropriate media outlets for our story, capturing the names, email addresses and phone numbers of the Assignment Editors.
2.    Wrote a short, compelling pitch letter (email) that explained our story, why it was unique and offered our contact information.
3.    Sent our media release as an attachment to the email.
4.    Called the Assignment Editors with a 60-second follow up pitch.

When: The Best Times to Get Press Coverage Depend on Your Media Story Timing.
Does your story have a special timing so that it needs to be at a particular time of year? Time of the week? Time of day?

Think in terms of the 3 Ws we’ve covered so far: Why am I pitching this story? What is so unique about it that people will want to hear about it? Who really needs to know about this story?

At Wayfinder, our media story had very special timing parameters and, because of this, it created urgency in getting the editors to develop stories within our timeframe.

As you’ll recall from Part One of this article, CEO Louis Briones’ mission was to raise $100K for Expedition Balance, an organization dedicated to helping our nation’s combat veterans struggling with PTSD. This was done via a fundraising challenge on Expedition Balance.org during the month of April 2010. Because of the immediacy of the event, Assignment Editors were compelled to move quickly to develop room for our story. Within just a few days of pitching, Wayfinder was able to confirm PSAs on nine San Francisco radio stations, one major San Francisco newspaper feature, a SF Bay Area talk show…and the list goes on.

Where: You May be Surprised By the Reach of Your Media Story.
It’s you, the  designated PR manager, who really can decide how far your media story can go, how many audiences it may have, how many communities it may impact.

At Wayfinder, we initially assumed that a local San Francisco Bay Area media story would be most appropriate. However, once we received such acceptance from Assignment Editors at media outlets in the SF Bay Area, we began to look for ways to reach out to other communities that were regional and national in nature.  Remember the headline:
New Wayfinder CEO Takes on a Mission to Help Combat Vets with PTSD.

Now think of all of the different potential audiences and communities it reaches:
-advertising community
-business community
-military and veterans community
-Latino community (Mr. Briones is Hispanic)
-communities where Expedition Balance.org has a presence (SF, Houston, Washington DC, Santa Fe)
-health community
-PTSD community

How far you want to go with pitching your media story and obtaining press coverage is really up to you and the hours you want to devote to this worthwhile effort. I hope our example has been instructive and helps you with your PR planning. I look forward to seeing your media story in the news soon!

Whether you’re pitching a media story about the CEO of a Fortune 500 company or a start-up business, here are the five “Ws” to consider before getting started on your next corporate PR project:

The Five Ws: In a New Corporate World; the “Why” Always Comes First.
Many of you who have studied journalism learned the five Ws in this order: Who, What, Why, Where and When. In today’s ever-changing world of marketing, have you ever wanted to stop in the middle of a marketing project and ask, ” Why are we really doing this project?”

How many campaigns, projects and job orders have gone from beginning to completion, with the “why are we doing this?” getting lost somewhere along the way? Based on my 25 years of experience, I can tell you that a great many have.

In Public Relations today, “Why are we doing this story?” is the most important question you can ask yourself before embarking on a time-consuming campaign. If the answer to your “Why” question will not result in the ultimate reward of press coverage, then take a pass on that story. Dig deeper and find a stronger, more compelling “why” and therefore, a stronger and more compelling media story and PR campaign.

For example, at Wayfinder, we recently launched a PR campaign about CEO Louis Briones and his leadership in launching a new national nonprofit, Expedition Balance, that helps combat vets with PTSD. The WHY in this campaign is that we at Wayfinder want our clients, potential clients, friends and associates to know that Wayfinder is not only a national marketer, but is also a caring, philanthropic leader that gives back to our community.

What: The Substance of Your Media Story (Release).
My college journalism professor was right: if you cannot sum up your media story idea in one sentence—then you should probably move on to another story idea with more clarity and substance.

At Wayfinder, we summed up our PR story idea in one sentence:
New Wayfinder CEO takes on a mission to help combat vets with PTSD.

After you get the story idea captured in one sentence, that becomes your media release headline. The rest of the media release should be written like a short news story, with an interesting angle that grabs your audience’s attention in the first one or two sentences. The next paragraphs should provide a unique idea with enough details to prove its potential as a news story worth their follow up.

In part two of this article, we will cover the remaining Ws of PR: Who, When and Where.

The latest Hitwise analysis shows that Facebook passed Google a few weeks ago as the most visited web site in the U.S. During the holiday season this year Facebook inched closer and at times surpassed Google’s weekly market share of visits. And finally in mid-March, Facebook clipped Google as the web’s most-visited web site. If you look at the trend and Facebook’s rise in popularity you can quickly forecast a predictable continuation of this phenomenon. But, will Facebook hit a ceiling? Will Google’s Facebook-like application Google Buzz generate similar success?

How will advertisers respond to the shift in online share of voice?

The interactive revolution and Web 2.0 have been going on for sometime and, in my opinion, the allocation of ad dollars will continue in Facebook and Google. Google’s core business as a search engine is not going away anytime soon since it’s a unique value proposition that Facebook does not offer. Additionally, Google’s search engine continues to evolve in response to search behavior and data insights. This proactive mindset allows Google to remain top of mind for searchers and marketers.

On the other hand, Facebook continues to attract members and these members are getting hooked. They’re beginning to interact with the site in numerous ways and the opportunities appear limitless. This new shift in online usage is impacting how marketers think. The social space is a clear departure from the classic four Ps of marketing and instead focuses on permission, proximity, perception, and participation. These social media marketing factors are very different in nature compared to search engine marketing. Search marketing seeks to capitalize on understanding the psychology of humans seeking to bring order to information as they seek navigational, informational and transactional information. Again, very different but the two approaches are beginning to blend.

What does this mean in context of Facebook’s rise as the most visited web site? Can Facebook blend their social community product with search capabilities and rich content to compete more directly with Google? They certainly can. They are clearly in a new position to leverage their web traffic to capture a greater market share for ad dollars. It will be interesting to see how marketing performance from this channel compares to search marketing as they both deliver different user experiences.

For more information regarding online marketing strategies, please call Luca Angeli at Wayfinder at 415-277-6968.

Well, let’s start with online video in general - how popular is it?
According to Universal McCann, 74.2% of US Internet users watched online video daily or every other day in 2008. And, Nielsen measured that in May 2008, people spent 4.5 minutes per day watching online video. Video content is only a click or two away at Yahoo, Google, You Tube, etc., so it should come as no surprise that…

A whopping ¾ of the internet viewing public watch at least some video on the web daily.

But what about video in email?
Can you include video in your next email? What about webmail? HTML5?

The simple answer is -  not really…
But maybe we’re asking the wrong questions.
Maybe the question that should be posed isn’t “How do you embed video in your email?”, but rather “What are the current best strategies for getting my video delivered?”

An incorporating solution - not quite video in email but a viable solution
The easiest and most foolproof way is to include a still poster frame into the email that has a big play button on it and links to a web version of your email. People click on the video play button and then are transported to the same creative on the web - but with an autoplay version of the video. The user experience will be almost identical to if the video was actually playing in the email.

And what about other options like…
HTML5
There are some promising developments in HTML5 which has a <video> tag. But it doesn’t have acceptance yet.

Animated gifs
You can convert your video to an animated gif, but these files are weighty, blocked by many email clients and companies - and still don’t look like real video.

Webmail
Webmail clients like yahoo mail, and gmail won’t play video.

Does it work at all in email?
Actually Apple Mail, entourage 2008, and the iphone will play video. But these have a pretty darn low marketshare.

So to sum up…
A quick tour of the web shows just how ubiquitous video has become and how important it is in many companies’ online marketing efforts.

But to transport a video experience to your email marketing efforts, it is still most reliable to drive the user to a web page that plays the video. But that may change soon.

There’s a lot of information out there about setting objectives and strategizing over social media programs. But I see very little about a key facet that is essential to the success of any social media marketing effort: Preparation.

Before your company jumps into social media, you need to understand the demands of the undertaking. Despite its using a digital interface, social media is a time- and labor-intensive enterprise revolving around honest, human interaction that necessitates timely responses on your part. Additionally, there are new technologies that must be learned with their inherent communication streams and protocols. Finally, understand that unforeseen issues will arise because anything that has human interaction at its core will also have some amount of unpredictability. My inner Boy Scout warns you - Be Prepared!

To start, the heart of the decision is how open or constricted your social media communications will be. Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter uses this slide to show three levels of openness and a topline of how they might be organized.

Once you settle on the general organization, however, there are still lots of other decisions. It’s important everyone involved is on the same page regardless of how tight or loose you run your program. Here are some questions to consider:

• Who is involved in the process? They need to be well-versed themselves in social media and have the right knowledge set for your target.
• What will they be communicating? Is it a coordinated effort or is it ad hoc?  Do you want to get the word out on some particular news or a product introduction?
• When should they be monitoring and posting? Will your team members be motivated to write and post on a regular basis?
• How should they comport themselves online? Will there be governance policies regarding topics, language, etc.? How will you respond to comments and media inquiries?

Then there are the legal issues: content ownership, trademarks, copyright and privacy concerns, for example. These are even more important in highly regulated industries such as healthcare and financial services.

As is the case with all marketing endeavors, a great strategy is not enough. Your success in social media marketing will come from being prepared before you execute. Scout’s honor.

It is difficult these days to read a headline that does not fill you with despair or fear to some degree.  Earthquakes, war, unemployment, bickering politicians, global warming, corporate greed — there is enough of it going around to desensitize even the most compassionate of us.  And so I understand people’s fascination with reality TV, online video games, and fantasy football.

These distracting influences keep us from being overwhelmed sometimes, and maintaining one’s own balance and sense of “being centered” is critical.  Unfortunately, too much attention to the meaningless can insulate and detach us from reality if we aren’t careful.  Checking out once in awhile is okay, but too many check out for a lifetime.  A better alternative to escapism, I think, is an attitude shift.  It allows you to stay centered, while also encouraging greater productivity and joy.  Becoming a more positive person can save your life.  It is a breakthrough in thinking that can dramatically change your view of the world and its inhabitants.  But meaningful change requires that the doors to your heart and mind be open.  Are your doors open?

I founded Expedition Balance after a much-needed time out in my for-profit career.  With all due respect to the metals industry and those who make it go, it did not make my heart sing.  Putting food on the table and a roof over your head are difficult and honorable causes, but when your profession crushes your soul a little every day, it is time to get out.  So I did.  As an eleven-year veteran of the Navy, educated in the ways of business, and with my mother’s passion to serve others, I decided it was time to (once again) heed the call of duty and work for something bigger than me.  The something that reached out and selected me is our effort to help ease the burden of combat veterans suffering from PTSD.  Fortunately for me and this great cause, Wayfinder stepped up and offered their services and resources.  EB would be nowhere without their help.

The problem is this: at least one in five combat veterans suffers from the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and there are nearly 2 million combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan alone.  Add to those numbers all the affected vets from the Persian Gulf War, Vietnam, Korea, WWII, and all the lesser known conflicts during our lifetime, and you begin to see the scope of our challenge.  Now consider this: PTSD causes everything from nightmares and flashbacks to suicide, homelessness, domestic violence, alcoholism, drug abuse, loss of hope and productivity, and other debilitating conditions.  Almost none of the combat vets that walk away from war with these symptoms, carried them into the conflict.  War created the problem.  War damaged their spirits and minds.  And because the government’s ability to treat this condition is limited, it is necessary for citizens and community efforts to help bridge the gap.  Like most good inventions, necessity created Expedition Balance.

Our little group knows that psychotherapy and medications can only go so far in treating PTSD.  Sufferers need to find a permanent solution; a long-term means to address the symptoms and bring joy back into their lives.  So, EB offers a host of proven methods that don’t come in pill form or a white lab coat; yoga, meditation, nutritional counselling, creative arts therapy, outdoor adventure, and several other remedies of nature.  Our vets can participate in our programs and then walk away with tools they can use everyday, in the privacy of their own homes.  No prescriptions or referrals required.

So as we approach the point where we are almost set to begin our operations, I wonder if I can do as much for our former warriors as they have already done for me.  Two years ago, I was one of those numb souls, living for the paycheck and watching too much TV.  A year ago, I began to wake up.  Today, I’m honored to serve the men and women who sacrificed much of themselves for the benefit of others.  It’s our turn to give them shelter.

Our website will tell you about ways to donate or otherwise help the cause: http://expeditionbalance.org/.  Peace.

Today is my last day here at Wayfinder (I’ll be gone by the time this is posted), which had me thinking about what advice I could leave behind to help someone out in the future. That is why I’m going to tell you about how I lost my iPhone over the weekend.

Losing an iPhone is almost as heartbreaking as losing a dog. I backtracked, woke people up at ungodly hours, overturned their couches, and left my name and contact information everywhere I went to that day. I almost thought about posting reward posters on telephone poles throughout SF.

I tried looking for another phone on craigslist, but I don’t have the patience and am not very trusting, so I gave up. I figured I’d just go to AT&T and pay $99 for another 3G. WRONG! The only reason I got that price was because I signed a 2-year contract. My contract wasn’t up until June of 2011. This meant I’d have to pay $499-$699 for a replacement. I refused.

Long story short, a good friend who works for Sprint hooked me up with an HTC Hero. It’s comparable, has a better camera, better sound quality than the iPhone, but isn’t as beautiful or cool, I’ll admit. The main pros though are that my monthly phone bill will be cut in half and Sprint offers me insurance so that I only pay a $100 deductible for a replacement.

Now, for the advice:

Throughout my ordeal, there were so many “woulda, coulda, shouldas.” Apple & AT&T know the iPhone is a thing of beauty, which is why they don’t care if you lose it. They don’t offer insurance because they know a lot of people will pay full price for another one. So here are some things you could do BEFORE you lose your iPhone:

1)    Get your iPhone insured. Be careful because most insurance companies won’t cover what most of us need them to, including theft, loss or accidental damage (like rain damage or dropping and cracking it). If you’re lucky enough to pin one down, the cost of the monthly fee combined with the deductible won’t even be worth it. You could end up paying the insurance company the same amount you would have to get a new iPhone.

2)    Download and subscribe to an application that will track your phone down. One of my sister’s bosses knows himself too well, so he subscribes to MobileMe ($99/year) which can pinpoint his iPhone’s location via satellite each time he loses it. It’s a good idea if, staying true to form, he drops it in the conference room and finds it a few hours later. I don’t recommend you use it to stalk and confront your thief, however.

3)    It may not be pretty, but make a wallpaper using Photoshop that gives your name and some way to contact you. If your screen locks, they won’t be able to go into your phone to find out who you are or call you, but at least they’ll be able to contact you because they still can see the wallpaper. Maybe add that you’re offering a reward. A $50-$100 reward is better than dropping another $499-$699 for a new iPhone.

If I knew what I know now, I might still be a proud owner of an iPhone. It was a lovely 8-month romance, but the high-cost replacement and large phone bill made it easier for me to walk away. Though, I’ll probably be back one day.

What’s wrong with my kids? I spend my days talking to clients and prospects about the virtues of social media marketing. My clients worry social media is all kid stuff—but my kids have no idea what I’m talking about.

Their social lives flow through Facebook. They don’t walk into a restaurant before checking it out on Yelp. They post photos to Picasa. “Social what, Dad?”

They’re on Linkedin to check out career opportunities. One of them is looking to be a mayor on Four Square. Over dinner I learn what’s not to be missed based on their daily (hourly?) Digg perusals. But, do they talk about new apps? Nope, it’s just “now you can do this.”

I try to educate them on the basics of engagement, but do they listen?

A friend of theirs established a Facebook page (Fiesta World) and is tapping into his extended network to validate a marketing idea. But, his eyes glazed over when I tried to talk to him about crowd sourcing.

These kids have no appreciation for the fact that two-way ongoing conversations have replaced one-way message broadcasting. They just don’t get that what they can’t even describe is playing an essential role in extending brands and achieving business goals. That GPS apps are revolutionizing engagement strategies. That whole industries are changing their product development and customer service models thanks to ongoing, instantaneous customer conversations on fan-based or corporate community sites. They just don’t get it.

What’s the matter with kids today?

James Cameron and Nicholas Christakis just authored a new book titled “Connected,” discussing the intricacies of social networks. While not having had a chance to read through the whole of their findings, I was drawn to one observation about our behaviors having a ripple effect on our network of friends.

Not just our friends, actually, but our friend’s friends as well.

Apparently, with up to three degrees of separation, we have the ability to affect others moods, decisions, buying habits and voting patterns, among other things. This goes double for members of the same sex in a social group. We all have an understanding that we humans love to follow the herd, but I certainly like to think that my moods and my decisions are my own, and no one else’s.  Apparently not.

And while in some ways that saddens me that we are SO susceptible to what others say and feel, it can also be very comforting. We create these social networks, whether online, or in the traditional sense, on purpose. There is a sense of contentment and community that we find in turning to others on our good days and bad days, and it’s great that we can rely on the opinions of those we find useful. Our social networks are our safety net, and if that means that when a friend is having a bad day, that saddens us, and we feel empathetic, I think that makes us all the more “Connected,” as it were.

In terms of how this relates to the marketing sphere, I think the most obvious connection is that we are influencers over our network in a very real and measurable way. As consumers, we now live in a world with online ratings for every product in our lives. Every choice we make as consumers becomes a very deliberate one, and I know I feel a responsibility to let the greater internet community know if a product has either over/underwhelmed me. In so doing, we take care of this network we’ve created. It all seems like a win-win to me.