Here at Matter we are always excited to carve out a little time for fun, so we are over-the-moon when we can combine some Matter Fun with creative team building as well. With an eye towards such high-brow professional development, this past week the Matter Providence office hosted is 2012 Semi-Annual Matter Fun Olympics. This year the Games (if you will) grew into a team sport, and saw Team Awesome battle Team Chicken+Beer in a series of arduous test of skill, creativity and endurance…okay there was no endurance events really, but their punctuality was in high demand!

The Games kicked off with a team photo scavenger hunt around Providence. Teams were awarded points for each picture off the list, and could then earn extra points for creativity and  landing multiple items in the same shot. Bonus points were also accrued for including multiple members of their team in the photo.

Team Chicken+Beer was aggressive and less-than-bashful as they posed with forcemeats (#16 on the list) and convinced a stranger to let them pump his gas (#42).

Chrissy and Colleen gnaw on forcemeat (#30 on the photo scavenger hunt list)

Chrissy pumping gas for a stranger (#42), who looks a little perplexed by the offer.

Colleen gets herself caught on a security camera (#48)

Yet, Team Awesome managed to cram their entire team into numerous pictures while rallying to a first round lead with several rather creative, multi-item shots like the picture of the entire team with a tunnel (#30) and something evil (#10)…that’s a 15 point swing right there!

Greg, Julie and Amanda cram themselves into a picture of a tunnel (#30) and something evil (#10)

Another multiplier for Team Awesome as they combo a religious symbol (#6) and a house of worship (#46) with a weapon (#8) and ketchup on the plastic knife counts as a fruit (#33).

Greg stretches into frame so Team Awesome can get a picture with some fake animals (#32).

After a round of beers, the teams met at the judges table where Cait and I tallied the scores. Team Awesome held a commanding 275 to 230 lead …but Chicken+Beer wasn’t giving up without a fight. As the stragglers at the turn, they chose the three head-to-head games for phase two…the video game challenge! (Thanks to our local Dave & Buster’s, and its accommodating staff!) With each match up worth another 30 points to their team, the head games were palpable.

In the first game, Chrissy of Chicken+Beer dominated Julie in a game of hoops, leaving Team Awesome with only a 15 point lead! When Andy commanded Amanda on the air hockey table, he propelled Chicken+Beer, into the lead, but only by 15 points.

Hoop dreams deflating

Andy puts Amanda on ice

For Team Awesome it all came down to Greg, who needed a victory over Chicken+Beer’s Colleen in the dreaded NASCAR 2000. They took their seats and the race for the final 30 points was on! There was more crashing than racing, but when the smoke cleared, Colleen had taken the checkered flag and put Chicken+Beer over the top!

Colleen racing to victory

After a couple days for tempers to subside, the teams met again, this time for the awards ceremony where Chicken+Beer gracefully accepted their awards package…which was purchased entirely with tickets we won at D&B! For their hair-raising victory in the 2012 Semi-Annual Matter Fun Olympics, Team Chicken+Beer shared the D&B Whoopee Cushion and…the gem of all awards…the Wade Boggs plaque, which we hung from the gold chain that Cait secured with The Claw.

2012 Semi-Annual Matter Fun Olympics Champions, Team Chicken+Beer

Behold, the coveted Wade Boggs chain!

Congratulations to Team Chicken+ Beer, your 2012 Semi-Annual Matter Fun Olympics Champions!

After General Motors, who’s next?

That is, which brand is going to follow suit and either cut back or completely kill their Facebook ad campaigns just as GM has done, to much fanfare?  That is the question that marketers and investors everywhere are asking themselves just a few days before Facebook’s watershed $100 billion IPO this Friday.

GM caused a few tremors this week across the social strata when it announced it was pulling its $10 million Facebook ad campaign due to …. stop me if you have heard this before …. a lack of measureable results with the medium relative to the investment made.

The $10 million figure is actually less significant than it sounds, if that is at all possible.  It is just a fraction of GM’s total 2011 U.S. ad spending of $1.8 billion, according to this WSJ piece.  It is also a proverbial “drop in the bucket” of Facebook’s total 2011 revenue of $3.7 billion, most of which was advertising sales.

So what is the story behind the story here? Maybe more questions than answers…..

Was this an orchestrated attempt by GM’s communications team at news jacking on Mr. Zuckerberg’s week-long IPO party? GM’s timing has been questioned by many bloggers and investment types as curious at best and at worst, a downright orchestrated and opportunistic move by the auto giant to grab some headlines of its own. Most press reports note that GM expressed doubts over the ROI of its Facebook ads for several months, so it certainly does beg the question, why now?

Do any of us really buy cars or anything remotely as substantial, complicated or expensive based on Facebook ads? My sample size might be pretty small and less than scientific, but my answer is a resounding NO!  The same goes for insurance, mortgages or other financial services products, but there still 900 million (and inevitably a billion) reasons for brands to continue evaluating, testing and deploying ad campaigns given the breadth and depth of audience reach and the relative affordability of Facebook ads.

And, it’s the fundamental reason why Facebook – post IPO – has its mighty guns trained on Google so it can dominate social search.  Mark Zuckerberg has made no secret that is his Holy Grail, not, God forbid, advertising.

Will Kia, Honda, Ford, fill in the blank of your favorite auto maker brand collude with GM and pull their ads? Don’t count on it. Kia, for its part, is actually increasing its ad spend, WSJ reports.

Does Zuckerberg care? Does it really matter to mighty Facebook? As any marketer knows, paid ads constitute only one part of what can be done to build brand awareness, buzz and engagement on Facebook. There’s so much more that brands and their agencies can collectively do here that doesn’t require cutting a check. These include Sponsored Stories and the recently announced Reach Generator solution and of course, Brand Pages. After all, GM hasn’t cut back on those activities. In fact its’ investment here is three times its former ad spend, or for the mathematically impaired $30 million per year.

So expect the dollars to continue to flow to Facebook’s coffers and the debate about social media effectiveness to continue raging.

Death and taxes, you have company.

As PR pros, we write all day. But sometimes, our story is best told through visuals.

With that, I leave you with some Monday morning entertainment: http://99problemsbutapitchaintone.tumblr.com/

We are lucky to live in a country where we can happily disagree (out loud) with each other on so many topics. But even the most polar of opposites in political opinion agree on this: we have a right to say whatever we want, so long as it doesn’t put others in harm’s way. That’s called free speech, and it’s protected by the Constitution. (I could also tell you a few things about how a bill becomes a law, thanks to a BA from Holy Cross and extensive childhood exposure to SchoolHouse Rock.)

Free speech means that if I want to walk down the hall and tell my friends in the kitchen at work that I really like that candidate running for town council, I can do that with impunity. In fact, I can tell my friends I like almost anything without fear of being arrested (or fired) because of that opinion.

Unless it’s on FaceBook. If it’s on FaceBook, liking someone or something is not free speech, according to a ruling in a case handed down this week.

We all need to exercise judgment in expressing our opinions, and social networks are no exception. But the ruling in this case was not about the opinion, it hinged on the Like button as an expression, and whether that constitutes a form of protected free speech.

So, when I Like something or someone, everybody I’m friends with knows it. And that’s a statement – isn’t it? This judge doesn’t think so. I think that’s crazy.

I’m no lawyer. But when common sense is trumped by an arcane reading of constitutional law — or  worse, a lack of understanding of the medium in which the speech occurs, we should all be worried about what’s next.

In the age of personalization, none of us is very surprised anymore to walk down a supermarket aisle and see approximately 1,752 different brands and varieties of shampoo. As consumers, we’ve gotten so used to customized products and offers personalized to our needs that we have come to expect it. That trend has even spread to the world of publishing.

A few weeks ago, a trade pub that I follow regularly, American Printer, launched a cool-in-theory publishing concept that they call B2Me. Readers of American Printer receive a copy of the publication that has stuff customized to their interests.

For those unfamiliar with American Printer, it’s a B2B publication written for…wait for it…print professionals in the US. It first began publishing in the 1880s. Last year, American Printer’s former owner, Penton Media, said it would cease publishing, citing difficulties with its business model. American Printer being a strong brand, it was bought by another company, OutputLinks Communications Group, which relaunched the magazine under the new quarterly platform.

How does B2Me work? According to the publishers, its personalized to the reader just like a direct mail campaign would be, using each reader’s demographic profile. For example, some readers of American Printer operate small shops and can’t afford the top-of-the-line printing presses. Their version of the magazine may feature more editorial and advertising focused on equipment they are more likely to buy.

For my part, I am (a) glad to see American Printer still publishing, and (b) interested to see whether it will work out. Will subscribers read more of the magazine, and look at more of the ads? Will companies using any of the interactive advertising tools, like QR and PURL codes, get more value out of this model? I could see other B2B trade pubs following suit, especially those that appeal to readers at many different professional levels of an industry.

Whatever the ultimate result, it’s a great example of a publication adapting to changing reader and advertiser needs to stay in business. I’m sure other magazines will be watching this situation closely.

As PR professionals it’s our job to be on top of news at it breaks. While the news may one day be about Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and the recent death of musical and broadcast legend Dick Clark the next, being in the know allows us to not only understand the world around us and hot topics, but also provides our clients with an invaluable resource.

The majority of breaking news these days comes at us and is collected through social media, in particular Twitter. While social media is a key informational tool for us communications folk, it is also a top priority for many of our clients here at Matter. We are often a major part of the voice, strategy and management team behind a company’s social presence. We know all too well how instantaneously news (good or bad) can spread and multiply on online platforms and communities. This rapid reproduction of news on social channels is where I’ll place my focus on in this post.

If you’re familiar with the name Joseph Kony, you’re not alone. If you aren’t, have you been living under a rock? As you may recall, the name gained international attention in the beginning of March, when the San Diego-based non-profit Invisible Children, released its Kony 2012 video. To say the film went viral is an understatement; to date it has been viewed on the organization’s YouTube channel over 88 million times.

While millions of people have taken to the web to retweet, post about or share the atrocities and crimes against humanity committed by Kony, waging a cyber-battle on one of history’s most abusive men, celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber included, Joseph Kony and his crimes are nothing new to me. This viral video and online activism strikes a personal cord.

It does however serve as a reminder that creative imagery, emotional dialogue, time and circumstance play a huge role in the spread of information on the World Wide Web.

You see, for the last five years both of my parents have been traveling to Uganda because of Kony. They have worked with a local (New Hampshire) non-profit organization called ChildVoice International. The organization’s mission is to restore the voices of children silenced by war, through a conviction that children broken by war can be restored in safe communities with loving care, spiritual and emotional counseling, and effective education and vocational training. Some of the mothers that my parents have met and grown to know are just teenagers who were forced to marry Joseph Kony and bear his children. But have you heard of this organization? My guess is no. There has been no social media storm on its behalf.

I’m not going to say whether or not I agree or disagree with the use of social media to bolster Kony awareness, but I don’t think I’m alone in asking so what? It’s believed that Kony and the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army) are camping out in the bush of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Will Kim Kardashian’s tweet and 5 million others like it put an end to this elusive warlord? In its most recent push for awareness about the rebel leader globally, Invisible Children has organized “Cover the Night” events, which will take place today in numerous locations.

According to a recent WSJ.com piece, the events are a “broader test case in a debate over whether online organizing can bring about on-the-ground political action.” Yes, the news spread like wildfire socially, but do all the people who were at one point activists online care enough to physically take to the streets? This same article highlights a recent analysis by one of our clients, Crimson Hexagon, which found that while there were over 2.47 million social media mentions and conversations about Kony when the video first went viral on March 7, conversations have since tapered off.

While social media is of course important and will continue to be well into the future, the Kony 2012 campaign serves as a reminder that activism needs to go beyond the social space.

What I’ve learned in my time so far at Matter, especially working with consumer brands, is that social media provides a limitless opportunity to be vocal for the brand and follower alike. However, at the end of the day it’s the physical evidence and brand consistency and continuity on a daily basis that makes the most impact. As PR professionals, when engaging on social media for clients, we should constantly strive for value and be able to answer the “so what” question.

We recognize that Matter Chatter’s been a little sports-heavy lately, but we’re unabashed fans here at Matter, so forgive us.   Besides, sports and sports celebrity give us a perfect eye into media trends that are absolutely applicable in the business environment.

Anyway, never one to pass up an opportunity to completely blow an hour of my life on something remarkably mundane – I tuned into ESPNU (the extension of the Worldwide Leader that serves as a 24/7 reminder of the hypocrisy that is modern college athletics) this week to watch their College Selection Show Special. The main event was clearly the LIVE announcement of where the top two high school ballers in the country – Shabazz Muhammad and Nerlens Noel – would choose to play their (likely) one year of college ball before quickly moving onto the NBA fortune and glory.

Both players are already getting off-the-charts publicity for high school players, and are being lauded as landscape-changing phenoms. Watching them mugging for the ESPN cameras on Wednesday, what struck me about both these headliners, both Muhammad and Noel, is how well-prepared both guys seemed for the onslaught that lies ahead, and how the big man Noel in particular has already learned how to market his talents to create a brand – with his head.

You see like him or not, you will now KNOW Nerlens Noel because of his hair.   A Google search of “Nerlens Noel’s hair” returned 57,000 results and 307 news hits.  He has likely been the most recognizable player on every basketball court he’s played on to date for the following reasons: 1) he’s 6’10’’ (and growing), 2) he’s immensely talented, 3) he’s got a flattop haircut that you could serve wine on.  And Wednesday night when he shaved the Kentucky logo into the back of head to announce his one-and-done school of choice (breaking the hearts of Georgetown fans and my fellow Orange faithful), he made sure that his brand was established for a good long time.

Mark my words – flattop wigs will be flying off the shelves in Lexington and whatever NBA city Noel ends up in 2014.  Noel’s silhouette will look perfect and perfectly distinctive on t-shirts, caps and Starter jackets everywhere. Yes, the ESPN haircut stunt was a silly conclusion to what has become an increasingly silly process, but believe me the hair thing is going to pay off for Nerlens Noel in the end.

To bring it back to business (which was the point here, right?), to win the media game and become a brand that people will gravitate towards – it takes more than talent.  It often takes more than a great idea.  It takes a few good “look at me” moments, plus a lot of charisma.  A willingness to be in the spotlight, laugh at your own mistakes and exude confidence.  Some of the best brands thrive when their leaders know to always bring their best game, but try not to take it all too seriously and remember to have some fun.

It’s been a year since I began working at Matter Communications, and I could surely write a collection of novels concerning what I’ve learned.

• Vol. I – Industry News: Data Storage, Nonprofit, Photography, Publishing, Corporate Consumer, Social Media
• Vol. II – Say What? PR Lingo and Best Practices
• Vol. III – Getting to Know You: Professional and Personal Relationships
• Vol. IV – You Go Girl, Holla: Professional Growth and Success
• Vol. V – Sweet Intuition: What I Knew (Or Wish I Knew) Back Then That Helped Me Get Here
• Vol. VI – This Doesn’t Look Like Kansas Anymore: Change in Myself and Surroundings

Besides my own professional development, we’ve seen noteworthy growth here at Matter through our office renovation, the evolution of client partnerships, our collaboration with the lovely folks from Think Media and the addition of new faces – many of them young, AC blood.

On several occasions during the recent hiring process and upon the arrival of new talent, I’ve been asked what prospective PR professionals (or those entirely new to the scene) need to know when becoming a part of our Matter team. For creative, driven and competent individuals who may not have come from a directly related background (especially to recent grads), I’d like to offer a few things to think about that I hope will help light the way.

Professors to Managers

I think it’s relevant to compare PR team managers to professors. In college, you learn pretty quickly that professors vary wildly across fields of study in their teaching methods, editorial quirks, welcomed office hours and general goals for you, the student.

The preferences of Matter’s talented managers need to be considered individually as well – what works for one may not necessarily work for another. Though they all have the common goal of client success (and your professional success) in mind, the path to getting there may vary. Get to know your managers’ style and similarly direct your work. Ask questions for clarification (first to your colleagues and then to your managers), and actively listen and be observant. Learn the appropriate method and time to deliver your work, if they like you to arrive 5 minutes early to meetings, whether they like or loathe the oxford comma, bullet points and enthusiasm-laced emails (hint: observe how they address their own correspondence to you and the client) – and proceed accordingly. It will make everyone’s lives easier and happier!

Learning to read people and uniquely interact with them is a skill that will develop over time and ultimately help you across all of your accounts. The idea applies equally to your collaboration with team members, clients and the recipients of your pitches. Think about where they’re coming from and what will help them do their job best. More often than not, they’ll really appreciate your attentive consideration and end up helping you with exactly what you need.

When this becomes a regular habit, you’ll start to see things running more smoothly in all areas of your work. That’s when accomplishments start getting checked off the list – and you start noticing your own volumes of professional development filling up!

A lot of people in the PR world try to seem smarter by acting like a cynic about everything – poking holes in theories, finding mistakes in campaigns, or explaining how if they were in charge, they’d have done it better. I am guilty of that too.

But I have to admit that I prefer reading articles about PR and social media campaigns that go really well, more than those that highlight the mistakes that campaigns make. And in coverage of the social media world, the Hunger Games has quickly become the poster child for how to do social media right.

Nobody can say exactly what impact the social media efforts of the year leading up to the box office smash opening of the film had, but details about sheer numbers and level of fan/follower engagement make it a safe assumption that it was a key driver.

As a result of that success, marketing and PR blogs  abound on the lessons you too can take from the wildly successful social media campaign.

Here’s the thing. Unless you are releasing a well-made film based on a best-selling series that appeals to a broad range of ages and both sexes, you absolutely can’t use the same strategy or expect the same results. Disagree? Come on. I promise you that if you are a data storage company, you’re not going to have 800,000 views and shares of the latest chalk talk video on automated tiered storage, or the future of SSDs in the data center.

Nonetheless, reading through the year-long efforts distills some very simple rules about how to engage successfully in social media. None of them are new learnings. What the Lionsgate team did is follow these straightforward rules about social media – and they did it flawlessly.
Boiled down, these rules are:
1. Know your audience.
2. Know what they expect on different social channels.
3. Plan your content.
4. Give your fans and followers something they can’t get another way.
5. Engage.
6. Maintain the “brand” voice, but offer something different to your social communities.
7. Listen.
8. Change content and tactics as needed, based on what you hear.
9. Tie in to traditional media sensibly.
10. Understand that these channels are shifting and changing, you need to do the same as you engage on them.

Are you shaking your head – you’ve seen this all before, right ? Of course you have. Like everything in marketing, the rules matter, but if you can’t execute, you’re sunk. The only new lesson from The Hunger Games social media success is: flawless execution matters.

The soccer players on Team Australia are a smart, savvy and passionate bunch. They are committed to the sport of soccer and to improving their game. They are full of energy and have a seemingly endless desire to be better. Also, they are also six and seven year old girls. I am their coach.

Our spring soccer season starts tonight – with a brief practice in advance of Saturday’s opening game against Italy. On the global stage, this would be headliner. Two of the top women’s teams in the world going head to head on an international pitch. At the local level, however, this is a fairly regular happening with active and enthusiastic kids and parents.

A group of Swedish researchers recently determined that the world’s best soccer players show enhanced thinking abilities, and typically perform better in cognitive situations. The researchers determined that such performance is directly tied to some players being better at the game than others. While I’d like to apply these research results to tonight’s practice, we’re still focused on the fundamentals. Passing when we have the ball and taking the ball from the other team are our priorities this spring. We’re going to spend a lot of time on sharing the ball, a lot, and I’m looking forward to all it.

Having sound fundamentals are important – on the pitch and here in the office. Public relations account teams are like any other successful small organization, where having a solid base to build upon is hugely important. I’m proud of our foundation here at Matter – a group of hard-working professionals who share a willingness to learn the business from some of our more experienced team members. Like coaches on the soccer pitch, our experienced group teaches and encourages for the benefit of staff, our clients and our agency. Few organizations I’m familiar with tutor and mentor like we do, and that’s significant.

Just yesterday I watched a senior manager take her mentee for coffee and an afternoon chat as part of our ongoing mentoring program. Earlier in the day, Tim Bradley, our in-house and outstanding video producer, led an information and educational session about the many ways video can positively impact our client programs. Teaching, sharing, informing – all of it is a priority and has been key to our success.

We’ll work on passing tonight and all season long, and with any luck Team Australia’s foundation for success will be nearly as good as the one here at Matter.