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.

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.

The US soccer team just failed to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games. Last night they lost a “must-win” game to El Salvador and they will not move to the next round of Olympic qualifying. Considering the progress soccer is making becoming a tier-one sport in America – and the expectations of this team entering the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament – this is very disappointing and a bit of a disgrace.

Somewhat related, I’ve read a few of the soccer blogs and the consistent accompanying image is that of Freddy Adu being consoled by a teammate at the conclusion of the game. While I admire his talent and will never be able to comprehend the challenges he has faced, I can’t help but measure Adu’s performance against all of the hype he received upon his introduction to the world at age 14.   He – and now his underachieving U-23 teammates – remind me of those start-up companies that get all kinds of buzz without having much substance behind them, and then fizzle or get swallowed up well before anything of significance occurs.

I’m from the generation or PR people who watched embellishment become far too common, and most often connected to people, products and services never deserving of the praise. I didn’t even think twice when, as a young professional in one of my first PR gigs, all of my clients were dubbed “world leaders” or the “very best” in their respective categories. At the time it seemed like anything and everything worth promoting needed to be pumped as high as it could go, even if the offering didn’t remotely earn the superlatives.

The more experienced me now counsels start-ups on communicating when appropriate, and doing so wisely. Before those companies can make that “great splash”, they have to be certain that their corporate, product and executive stories are clear, concise and appropriately measured.  They need to ensure that their “elevator pitch” is sensible, that they aren’t making promises that are impossible to keep and that they’re not shilling “vaporware.”  It often goes against the better nature of media producers and consumers, but part of what we must offer clients includes the ability to know when to turn down the hype and even force them to take a few steps back before striking out with “guns a-blazin’.”   The new professionals here at Matter embrace a similar, thoughtful perspective and approach, and it’s given us great credibility with the media we pitch and work with daily.

Anyway, for all the other soccer fanatics and USA apologists, it’s highly likely that I missed the soccer articles over the past few months that gave a realistic, level-headed forecast of our chances to move forward in Olympic qualifying. Instead, I embraced the hype and can’t help but feel a little burned after last night’s loss.  Either way, USA Soccer might want to think about finding a more balanced PR strategy – and perhaps a little late-in-game defense would help, too.

Last week my five-year-old son, William, came up from the playroom, screaming and crying. Inconsolable and loud, he got my attention. He kept it by reporting (through snot and tears and hiccups): “Owen punched me in the face, threw me into the wall, then up the stairs. Then he broke my leg and my arm.”

Noting that Will was walking without a limp and gesturing like a windmill to emphasize his brother’s wrongdoings, I surmised that at least part of this story was fiction. I’ll cut out the next forty five minutes of The Mentalist-type mystery solving I did to summarize: Owen had taken the Wii remote from Will, flung it onto the couch and told Will he was an idiot and no fun.

Why would Will make up something when the reality is bad enough to get Owen in trouble?

Hop now with me to current events…
Mike Daisey reminds me a lot of my five year old. If you haven’t read anything about him, here is a quick summary: he’s performed a one-man monologue “The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” an exploration of Apple’s relationship with Chinese factory workers, and subsequently reported as facts what have turned out to be falsehoods about his interviews with workers at a factory in China.
Just like my little boy, Daisey represented his stories as fact, to get attention and justice for real wrongs. But because he made things up, his personal credibility is destroyed. The pity of it is that the facts of what happens in the lives of Chinese factory workers deserve the attention of those of us toting our iPads and iPhones around. Read more about it, and decide for yourself how you feel.
If you have a cause, if you want to make a statement about something, you can’t make up stories and then expect to be taken seriously. And you will probably do your cause more harm than good. It seems so basic. And Mike Daisey’s outraged disbelief at the maelstrom of controversy he’s caused reminds me even more of my little boy. When caught telling tall tales, he defaults to anger too.

The difference is that Will is five, and still growing into his moral code. And it’s my job to help coach him there. So we read ourselves a little Aesop’s Fable, “The Boy Who Cried Wolf”. I would respectfully suggest that Mr. Daisey do the same.

Here at Matter, we find lots of reasons to have fun together.  Writing in a way that helps me avoid a too popular cliché, we work very hard and like to blow off steam as a group.  I’m fully in support of both efforts: working hard and having fun.

To that end, later today I’m joining the smartest and savviest group of PR people anywhere, and a number of our clients, contacts in business, and friends, for the purpose of celebrating St. Patrick’s Day.  (Blogger note: We’re meeting at the Port Tavern here in Newburyport – and if you’ve read this in time, you are welcome to join us.)  While not all of what our agency does outside of the office occurs at a local watering hole, today’s celebration is an event where enjoying Irish music and a freshly poured Guinness is as high a priority as the event itself.

Celebrating St. Patrick’s Day is only one of a number of calendar-related celebrations.  Formally and informally, arranged and not, we try to get together as a group with some regularity. The culture here at Matter is a supportive one, both personally and professionally, and it’s one that embraces growth and new people.  To that end, we’re currently hiring aggressively – we’re a Pacesetter for goodness sake! – and a list of current openings can be found on our careers page.  If you are interested in a rewarding PR agency experience while working with peers who share a common respect and professionalism, and like to have fun, please do check out our listings and let us know if you have skills that apply.

I enjoy the company of the people here at Matter, and they enjoy the company of each other. They admire and respect one another, and I consistently tip my hat to each for their business-driving PR work.  Tonight, however, I’ll tip a beer with the group and celebrate a special day. If you’d like to be part of these celebrations – and the many that happen around here with surreal frequency – be sure to get in touch.

And, here’s something special that will get you in the Irish mood before Saturday.  Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Suddenly, the New York Knicks are reeling.  Only a few weeks removed from a winning streak of similar scope, last night they lost their sixth straight game.  They have slipped back to the eighth spot in the playoffs.  More concerning for the countless number of fans in the tri-state area (and displaced fans who happen to be in the Commonwealth) is the thought of the Knicks facing 2011 NBA MVP Derrick Rose and his Chicago Bulls, last night’s opponent, in a best of five series beginning this spring.  Somewhat appropriately, the New York Daily News says the team is in a “free fall”.

Six weeks ago the world was introduced to Jeremy Lin, the incredibly talented but overlooked basketball player from Harvard, and Palo Alto High School before that.  He had spent most of his time on the bench in Golden State and Houston, as well as a short stint with the Reno Bighorns of the NBA’s D-League, before spending more time on the bench in the New York.  Lin was on the verge of yet another release by his NBA employer, until the Knicks were decimated by injury and were forced to let Jeremy not only play, but start.  He had a tremendous debut in the starting lineup, followed by an equally impressive second, third, and so on.  His performances as a starter are now the stuff of NBA lore, and will likely result in professional basketball teams reconsidering how they evaluate young players.  The only element capable of exceeding Lin’s play during these games was the hype surrounding his arrival as a player on the world’s top basketball stage.

He was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated – two weeks in a row – and he’s one of only a few basketball players to ever grace the cover of Time Magazine.  The Knicks sold-out of his jersey and it immediately became one of the best sellers in the NBA.  Being the first Taiwanese-American to play and excel at the highest level of professional basketball, he grew instantly far beyond the typical sports marketing phenomenon.  He was an organic, genuine happening without promotion or hype.

Here we are a few weeks later, and Lin’s still playing very good basketball.  However, a number of stars absent during his Lin’s rise, which resulted in Linsanity, have returned to the roster and the team isn’t clicking like it once did.  It’s a complicated situation – established stars playing with soon-to-be-established new faces, in the center of the basketball universe.  Team dynamics aren’t always easy to manage.  Among other important elements, it’s a challenge managing expectations, and personalities. The Knicks are working at it – they are addressing the chemistry and will likely make some personnel changes, this year or next.  Like their fans in New York, I’m looking forward to seeing the slide come to an end and perhaps, taking a better seat in time for the playoffs.

The ebb and flow of being a fan can be much to handle. (Does anyone pull more at our emotional strings than our beloved Red Sox?) One month ago the Knicks were experiencing a major uptick in the season ticket sales based on the performance of their new star and the team’s surprising winning streak. Last week, they were booed off the Madison Square Garden floor after losing to the rising Philadelphia 76ers.  Maybe the rollercoaster effect is part of the draw of big-time sports. All I know is that I’m keeping faith – and all Knicks fans should too.

Walking through our office kitchen yesterday morning I caught a glimpse of Tim Hurley, one of our new guys, talking with Matt Landry, one of our old guys. (The latter doesn’t mind that label – it’s a point of pride if you happen to be Employee Hire #3 at a nine year-old agency.) That moment provided another example of why I’m thrilled that Matter Communications officially acquired ThinkMedia PARTNERS earlier this week. As a result of this acquisition, our agency instantly adds more depth of experience, points of view, personalities, etc., and we’re better because of it.

The sum of our many individual contributions results in success here at Matter, and that has always been the case. We value individual experience and cherish the unique perspective each member of our team presents. We are a better agency because our teams consist of diverse professionals with two years of this; four years of that; and six years of something else.  When you add all those valuable lessons, relationships and industry knowledge into a team of creative professionals – you become capable of producing results across the widest range of markets.   Every new team member who adds his or her achievements to the mix at Matter helps make us a stronger and more attractive agency.

It’s a special week here at Matter – that’s for certain. Our agency’s growth and development has been accelerated by the arrival of Tim and the rest of the team from ThinkMedia PARTNERS.  Theirs was a group that was having success and reaching its goals well before Tim and I had a good talk over a long lunch. We are so fortunate to have these professionals join our agency, and to combine two organizations that clearly excel and take pride in what they do. With both teams sharing common professional principles – a research-based approach, content-rich communications, etc. – and an unwavering prioritization of client service, we know that the chemistry will be right and our clients will recognize it daily.

I’m looking forward to the year ahead, and the years beyond; to executing smart and strategic programs on behalf of clients who demand results, and to accomplishing even more with the tremendous group of professionals who call Matter their second home.  Most of all, I’m looking forward to many more of those incredibly gratifying moments when our past and present teams come together to create something great.

Recently a colleague of mine did the unthinkable and tried to send a text while driving on the local-area bobsled course (a.k.a. Route 1 South) on the way home from work.  While I know nothing about the text – whether it was urgent, important or other – I do know it caused my colleague to not-so-gently rear-end the car in front of him as he wasn’t able to brake fast enough when the car in front was making a turn.  I was relieved to find out that nothing other than the front grill of my colleague’s car – and his pride – was hurt in this incident.

This is a serious reason why, despite the perceived importance of all communications flowing in and out of our mobile devices – and public relations is a business that thrives on the exchange of information, checking these tools while driving isn’t logical.

While significantly less life-threatening, here’s another good example of chaos that has resulted from checking a phone while driving:

I traveled to New York today for meetings in the afternoon and evening. I have a PMDA board meeting tomorrow – one that I’m very much looking forward to – and scheduled meetings around it as I typically do. Unfortunately, I had some hiccups getting to the city – and my very bad habit of checking my phone while driving is to blame.

 Driving from our office in Newburyport, I checked my phone at the precise time I was supposed to bear left on Route 95 South and accidentally took the exit on the right side for Route 128 North. At first blush, that’s really not a big deal. I should have easily been able to take the first exit and head back toward the airport. However, that turnaround activity took five minutes – a crucial five minutes when weather patterns threaten the airways and Delta Shuttle flights are being cancelled with good regularity.

 Here’s how things went at the airport once I arrived: naturally, I missed the 9:30 AM by less than five minutes. Then the 10:30 and 11:30 AM flights were cancelled. I arrived in New York late. (Like, very late.) I had to reschedule my afternoon appointment to the evening, and the evening appointment to even later in the night.  All of this unnecessary scheduling ridiculousness and a really long day spent trying to get to New York – all due to the fact that I had to check my phone at the 128 North/95 South split.

I’m certain that what I was reading at the time was important and meaningful in some way, but I’m equally certain it would have been just as important if I read it at the airport when I arrived.  While I’ve learned my lesson, I suspect I’ll see someone at the airport today with that same pained expression.  Oh well…

The Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center, the highly-respected (and now nationally-known) Newburyport-based organization that developed a ground-breaking program toward ending domestic violence in local communities, is one of the many local charitable entities supported by Matter. We have contributed to this organization in a number of ways over the past few years and just yesterday more than 30 of us (including friends and some family) participated in its Annual Walk Against Violence.

The work that takes place daily at the Jeanne Geiger Crisis Center is nothing shy of tremendous and it puts in perspective so much that we prioritize in our respective days. I’ve enjoyed getting to know the selfless dedicated staff of the JGCC who work so hard to help others, and I am consistently in awe of their commitment to success. Supporting this organization has been a significant source of pride for me.

However, an equally great source of pride continues to be the wonderful, committed and supportive people who work at Matter every day. In addition to being outstanding PR professionals, we have so many “good” people who understand that the success we experience in work is only one piece of a complex puzzle that makes daily life positive. With regularity, Matter employees sacrifice their personal time and energy for the benefit of others. During yesterday’s walk, I was reminded by a friend of how significant it is to have so many employees, friends and family spend a good portion of a beautiful Sunday in October for this cause. While not necessary, it was another nice reminder of how fortunate I am to work side-by-side with such a wonderful team.