Gearheads: The Sterling Communications Blog

Education is the key to your environment

As the Cleantech Forum® XXIII, September 8-10 at the Boston Convention and Exhibition event organized by the Cleantech Group (our client) is fast approaching, I often wonder how will the presenting companies and the new emphasis on capital efficiency, and engaging governments help drive the second cleantech investment boom? More importantly, how will they impact us, consumers, and our environment?

It is with these thoughts, that I ran across this great article from Philippe Cousteau, Jr. about 5 green things consumers can do to protect our planet and oceans. After reading this article, it became clear to me that although technology plays a major role in helping us reduce our carbon emissions and protect our planet, educating consumers on smarter ways to conserve and protect energy sources are equally important, if not more important. As Cousteau so eloquently put it, "Consumer issues are one of the most important places we intersect with choices that make a difference—not just for the environment, but for our health, for our kids, and for our families." With that thought I leave you to reflect on: What 5 things are you going to do personally to protect mother earth?

Even a recession can bring happiness if you take action…

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve been spending more time at home and not going out as much to eat or socialize. With more time on my hands, I read more, something I enjoy very much, and ran across this great article that Guy Kawasaki tweeted about on 10 instant tips to be happier now. All of the 10 suggestions were very insightful, in particular the last one, which was all about taking time in your life to reflect and taking action on things you've always wanted to do.

 

For a few months now, I’d been thinking about renovating my apartment, but didn’t do anything about it as I couldn’t justify spending money in these uncertain times. However, the more time I spent at home, the more I felt like I needed to make a change. For some reason I was stuck and the timing just wasn’t right.  After reading this article, I felt like there was no better time then NOW to start my flat renovations. It gave me the nudge that I so needed. And, coupled with that Liam Rose, one of my colleagues, who has an eye for design and style offered to help me, I had no reason to procrastinate any longer.

 

Liam assured me that we could overhaul my apartment cost effectively. Too my big surprise, he was right. He introduced me to TJ Maxx , which is a great store for bargain hunters. After only a few hours of shopping, moving furniture and redecorating, we had renovated my flat and it looked brand new. There was a new surge of energy to my space and to me as well. It just goes to show that a little can go a long way. As I sit in my newly decorated flat, I often ask myself, why did I wait so long to start my happiness project? I guess, sometimes you just need the right people and circumstances in your life to take action.

 

Social Media Almost As Important?

PR hiring managers in the U.S. now say it is nearly as important for prospective hires to have social media savvy as it is for them to have traditional media-relations skills. That’s what a recent iPressroom survey reported. Okay, public relations professionals need to be social media savvy -- most of us in the field have known this for years. What made me raise my eyebrows was this phrase – “…social media communications skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills.” Let's break this down a bit. First, this is like saying, e-mail and phone communication skills are nearly as important as traditional media relations skills. Second, what is traditional media relations skills? Last time I checked, traditional media outlets weren't doing so hot -- so why are social media skills "nearly" as important?

It will be a great day in PR history when social media isn’t considered a separate entity; just as picking up the phone and e-mailing aren’t separate communication strategies. The simple fact is that key constituents, like editors, analysts and customers, are now using social media to communicate. Common sense would then dedicate that PR professionals would need to also use social media tools to reach these target audiences. It’s all about fishing where the fish are. If public relations professionals aren't audience savvy, then social media know how is the least of their worries.

Maintaining Integrity in the Realm of PR

A colleague sent me an eye-opening article a few days ago about unethical moves made by a certain PR firm. The article in MobileCrunch, descriptively titled “Cheating the App Store: PR firm has interns post positive reviews for clients,” describes how a PR agency went about posting fake reviews for their clients apps in the App Store.

Basically, the Reverb PR team had their interns post fake positive reviews in the App Store and actually has a document that details the role that the interns play:

"Reverb employs a small team of interns who are focused on managing online message boards, writing influential game reviews, and keeping a gauge on the online communities. Reverb uses the interns as a sounding board to understand the new mediums where consumers are learning about products, hearing about hot new games and listen to the thoughts of our targeted audience. Reverb will use these interns on Developer Y products to post game reviews (written by Reverb staff members) ensuring the majority of the reviews will have the key messaging and talking points developed by the Reverb PR/marketing team."

In a previous post, I described how ethics played a huge role in my decision to major in journalism. I participate in a few Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) events per year—each conference stresses the importance of ethics in the PR profession.  With its deceptive practices, Reverb goes against the PRSA values of transparency, integrity and honesty. Though it’s unfortunate that some PR firms have thrown ethics out the window, I think it’s important that the media keeps us (PR professionals) in check.

Just last week, Jennifer Leggio of ZDNet pointed out a couple of PR firms for mass email, unapproved inclusion in  an email list and lack of BCC in a mass email (whoops, whoops and oops). While the naming of names might seem a bit harsh, Jennifer’s point is that specific PR firms are giving a bad name to the profession as a whole (side note: Leggio noted Sterling's own Tiffany Anderson listed as one of the "amazing PR professionals" in her blog ☺)

The media is basically telling us in the PR profession: “Check yourselves, we’re the media for cryin’ out loud—we have the power to out you!”

That said, it’s easy to point the finger at firms who’ve been called out for their mistakes; it’s better to take those lessons and incorporate them into your profession. I appreciate media’s words of advice and will take them to heart ☺

ENFJ ≈ Teacher / Social Worker / Writer; while ATGC = Teacher / Social Worker / Writer?

Most people are familiar with career personality tests, such as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator or the Strong Interest Inventory. I took a couple of them in college to get ideas on what career path might be good for me to pursue. These tests are becoming even more mainstream now — a “version” of the Myers-Briggs test has even appeared as a quiz on Facebook.  

These tests are designed to give people ideas about what they possibly should do for a career. They give an indication of which jobs match specific personality types, suggesting that people would have a passion for certain careers based on their personality type. The administrators and creators of the test, however, are very clear to explain that the test results are only an indicator and that they should not be relied on as an absolute assessment of which career may be best for someone.

But, what if it was taken one step further — from asking someone questions to determine a possible career path to determining, or even forcing, a career path based on DNA test results? You may think that it seems a little extreme, but a children’s camp in China thinks DNA testing a great way to help kids fall into a career that perfectly suits them by nature.

tr.im Resurrected?

Comments seem to be offline for the moment, so I'll reply here: to Nicole's post:

With more than 20 million Twitter users trying to cram their message into 140 characters, URL shorteners have become a necessity. However, much like Twitter, it can be difficult to find a way to successfully create revenue from these services.

tr.im's founder, Eric Woodward, seems to have reconsidered shutting down the service. As a fan of their brand name as much as the service, I was disappointed in the haste and tone of the announcement. Haste, in that there was no warning to users. Tone, in that their "us versus Twitter" laments ignored, again, their users. From the comments alone on tr.im's blog, there seems to be a collective desire to make his service work. Some interesting ideas from users willing to pay as well as some intriguing entreaties from the open-source community are appearing, but both camps value transparency -- something that is only now appearing from the company. The "Link Economy," as Jeff Jarvis has put it, has real value.

The market needs help finding the good stuff; that curation is a business opportunity. There is also an opportunity to add context (here are lots of links about Darfur but here is a page that will explain what they mean). There is also a need to add reporting and new content and information atop a link ecology. There is a need to create infrastructure for linking (full disclosure: I am involved with two companies trying to do this — Daylife and Publish2). There is a crying need for advertising infrastructure and networks to help the recipients of links monetize them.

Knowing where conversations are flowing, what topics have traction, and returning readers to original sources are (or should be) prized commodities. URL shorteners can offer that and more, but it may take some far-sighted investors to see the value in competing with bit.ly's backers. I think the tr.im brand, as sullied as it has been by this episode, still has the potential to offer a premium service -- if for no other reason than the domain itself is near perfect. We'll see.

Change is Atwitter for Twitter URL Shorteners

With more than 20 million Twitter users trying to cram their message into 140 characters, URL shorteners have become a necessity. However, much like Twitter, it can be difficult to find a way to successfully create revenue from these services.

One startup URL shortener, Bit.ly has some big plans to accomplish this. Shirking traditional ideas, such as including ads when users click on links, Bit.ly wants to focus on its analytic capabilities to take a different approach. It currently offers free analytics on the traffic related to its shortened links, including number of clicks, the location of the person clicking, and the service used (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) It’s easy to use and targets the average person, rather than other web analytic offerings that are more technical or target marketers. The next step for Bit.ly will be to mine the links to create a real-time news service that works somewhat like Twitter Trends, but tracks hottest links rather than most-used words. According to WIRED, “The result would be a Digg-like news service comprised of links determined to be important by Bit.ly’s analysis engine. Part of the company’s technique will be to look at links being shared by unlike people, suggesting they have universal appeal.

This is just one of the plans Bit.ly has revealed, also suggesting they may target marketers interested in paying for deeper data access and analysis based on its links; as campaigns move to Twitter, they will want to see ROI with this type of information.

Just an algorithm, the technology for shortening URLs is not that special, and many argue isn’t worth much. So whatever the approach may be, it’s clear that URL shorteners will have to offer more to show their value.

Follow the Money

I love a mystery. It’s the result of those dozens of Nancy Drews I inhaled as a child. And the mysteries I love most are historical ones. You know, where it takes decades for the truth to out. I’m a sucker for PBS series such as "Secrets of the Dead" and "History Detectives."

It’s fascinating to see new technologies applied to old mysteries —DNA tests of the Romanovs and of Dr. Sam Sheppard, blood spatter tests in Dallas, drug analyses of Marilyn’s "suicide."

So it was with great glee that I read the headline "Watergate Tape: Nixon's Lost Minutes May Be Recovered." Wow, while the Watergate mystery with the most entertainment value was Deep Throat’s identity, the most significant has to be the details of the 18-1/2 minute gap. It supposedly offers the answer to Howard Baker’s question during the Senate hearings, "What did the President know, and when did he know it?" Thirty-five years (yesterday) after Nixon’s resignation, a forensic technique called electrostatic detection analysis could at last bring to light written notes on that erased conversation. This is the 21st century equivalent to Miss Marple shading the impressions left on a telephone note pad and deciphering a poison prescription. (I should add, I was alerted to this news story by George Stephanopoulos’ Twitter feed, another example of the impact of 21st century technology.)

Call me a dreamer, but I firmly believe that technology will eventually lead us to the truth about the grassy knoll.  But before you then call me crazy, I also believe that Elvis did leave the building, for good, on August 16, 1977. I just wish it weren’t so.

Opportunities and Growth in the Cleantech Industry

The cleantech industry represents a diverse range of products, services, and processes spanning across many industry verticals - including technologies from energy generation to transportation, waste management to materials and more, according to Cleantech Group, a San Francisco-based research firm. Recent news and discussions about the industry have highlighted general cleantech market stability, investment rebound, as well as the overall growth and opportunities present in the sector. 

 With current economic conditions still continuing to deteriorate, it has become increasingly difficult for companies in all job sectors to overcome this recession. The Wall Street Journal talked about the Silicon Valley’s unemployment rate rising to 11.8%, above the national average in fact. The article focused more closely on jobs within the tech industry and stated that those who are jobless as a result of weakened tech spending are encountering difficulty getting back into the field, and are now having to reconsider their careers paths. According to the article, areas that are attracting investment and have continued to maintain many job opportunities include the cleantech and healthcare industries.