She's not thinking of global market or brand extensions or new product lines.

She wants this well-known, upscale brand to embrace social media. As Katz said in the most recent issue of Fast Company:

"We have to use the digital domain to reach even more people and be a resource to get educated on fashion and luxury. We're a retailer -- and a really good retailer -- but how can we take this voice we have about fashion and luxury and extend the reach?"

I'm excited to watch how Nieman Marcus executes on this strategy. We believe that most successful companies have good knowledge about their industry. The scale and cost efficienices of social media finally make the task of capturing and sharing that information worthwhile for reputation building and business development.

Now, if Nieman Marcus could just think about opening a store in Nashville...

The first place they should look is inside their organization and make certain their company's personnel policies outline appropriate social media use.

Anyone can set up a blog, Facebook, or Twitter account in a matter of minutes. And then there are thousands of forums and opportunities to comment in blogs or news articles.

Any company without a social media policy is at risk.

Need for a social media use policy

Intel learned a hard lesson when a scientist commented in a forum about a discovery. The scientist failed to disclose his affiliation with Intel, and the company was sued over his comments.

The issue is not whether or not employees can use social media; it's what is permissible for employees to communicate when they do. I've never seen a survey, but I believe most employees think their conversations in cyberspace outside of work hours are off limits to their employers. Legal precedent says otherwise.

Therefore, the policy should say that employees must refrain from commenting, posting, sharing information about or otherwise communicating about the business, other employees, or clients in social media.

The company should be clear that the policy applies to any social media use at work and at home.

Communicating with employees

The policy update is the easy part. Communicating with employees is harder.

Some companies will take the heavy handed approach. Thou shalt not and so on. I would never recommend this to companies unless there is a compelling reason, e.g. national security.

A better approach is to emphasize trust while explaining the risks from the company's perspective. Only in rare occasions do employees intentionally want to get their company into trouble. The other employees who are responsible will appreciate that the company doesn't lump them in the same basket as the known troublemakers.

I hadn't encountered this challenge before, but I knew other communication professionals probably had. Why not turn to the wisdom of the crowds for guidance?

Not all crowds are created equal

I posed my question on a few websites, with varying degrees of success. Here are the sites I tried and their rank of success on a scale of 1 (not useful at all) to 5 (most useful, thanks).

• Yahoo! Answers - 2: This site may be helpful for other questions (What should I do when my cell phone falls in water?), but it wasn't good for my complex, business-related question. I got one legitimate response that wasn't very helpful and a few spam comments.
• MyRagan.com - 1: This seems like a good forum, and a lot of other questions were being answered. I had high hopes because it's specifically for communication professionals, but I didn't receive any replies.
• Twitter - 2: I asked the question from our account, @atkinsonpr, and again heard crickets. Then I reworded the question a bit and asked it from my personal account. One of my friends replied, but it didn't spark an idea for me.
• LinkedIn - 5: I was amazed by the quality and quantity of responses. Less than half an hour after I posed the question, e-mails with well-thought-out answers started streaming in. In the end I received 13 responses. All of them were on point and useful. It helps that users who answer a lot of questions (and have good suggestions) can become "experts" so they have some incentive to participate. I highly recommend LinkedIn's Answers feature for any business-related queries.

Other applications for crowdsourcing

In this case I used crowdsourcing to help answer a question and solve a problem, but you can also use it as a trial balloon inside and outside your organization.

Want to see how your employees feel about a potential new program or process? Write a post about it on your internal blog and watch the comments to gauge their reaction. Overhear what they say in the halls.

Wondering if people would be receptive to a new product idea? Figure out where they are online -- your company's Facebook group, a forum, or Twitter -- and ask them. Their feedback may help with that decision and give you some clues about what other products they'd buy from you.

The very act of asking shows that you're listening and that you want to engage with your targets. You might get some great ideas, and you'll surely get some duds.

As with all free advice, you're not beholden to do what the crowd says. As long as the crowd offers, you might as well listen.

Vision

Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, knew that he had to find ways to help white Afrikaners and black South Africans, torn apart by years of apartheid, achieve unity and mutual respect. Understanding that rugby was the passion of white South Africa, he helped the country host the Rugby World Cup and turned to making an underachieving and almost all-white rugby team, the Springboks, win the championship.

Risk Taking

Taking up the rugby team was a risky gesture with both the Afrikaners, who hated and feared him, as well as his loyalists, who saw rugby as a symbol of white Afrikan pride.

When Mandela insists the team not be stripped of its name and colors after a humiliating loss, his base thought he was betraying his life cause. Quite a few of these black supporters had looked forward to “payback” time after years of brutality and humiliation under apartheid.

The white family of the young team captain (played by Matt Damon) embodied Mandela’s risk in reaching the whites as well. They repeatedly demonstrate their arrogance and prejudice by totally ignoring their black domestic, who hovers silently and subserviently in the background. 

Passion

Mandela put his money where his mouth was. He went to team practices and learned the names of every player. He wore a Springbok jersey and hat to all the games.

Particularly powerful was his mentoring of the young, white team captain, sharing ways to motivate the team and giving him lessons in leadership. In one gripping moment, he gives the captain the Victorian poem ("Invictus") he kept during his 27 years of captivity on Robben Island that concludes with “I am the master of my fate. I am the captain of my soul.”

The closing scenes of Invictus validate Mandela’s success in creating a vision, taking risks and igniting passion. The domestic in the captain’s family is cheering wildly in the stands after the victory - seated alongside the white parents. Black and white people in the stadium and in the streets are hugging each other. But the real tear jerker was the downtrodden young black child who, earlier in the film, was so dejected that he refused the offer of a free rugby shirt. He’s the last one to start celebrating, but then he comes to the realization that it’s “his Africa” and he goes crazy with joy.

You won’t forget this movie for a long time.

In short, it runs counter to all forms of marketing regulated industries have used for years. The social media guidelines from most regulators (whether FTC, FDA, FINRA, etc.) are still in development. This leads to a lot of:

"The regulators won't let us."

"What if we interpret the guidelines incorrectly?"

"We don't have the time or resources to figure out what is and what isn't allowed."

"We just can't do social media."

Have you said something similar to yourself or your team?

At the same time, you know that social media is a significant part of the present and future. Current and potential clients expect to connect with brands online and are making more and more decisions based on what they learn from online peers . You want to meet your customers where they are.

All hope is not lost. While regulation does pose some restrictions for participating, companies shouldn't use this as an excuse to refrain from social media altogether.

Our firm invited some clients over recently to listen to a Bulldog Reporter audioconference about how companies in regulated industries can participate in social media. Here are the six takeaways I got out of the call:

1. The company is responsible for adhering to the FTC's disclosure guidelines. If you give bloggers anything (a.k.a. have a "material connection") -- a trip to your HQ, a gift card, donuts, a pen, whatever -- they are supposed to disclose that on their blog when they write about your brand. Bloggers are accountable, but you're also on the hook to make sure they disclose. The FTC guidelines aren't laws, but action can be taken against you if you don't follow them.
2. When in doubt, disclose, disclose, disclose. It doesn't have to be two paragraphs of copy. A line should do the trick.
3. Many customers get the information they think they need online without contacting the brand. If heavy regulation keeps companies in the health care and financial services industries from participating online, there will be a void of information for consumers.
4. Especially in heavily regulated industries, a social media policy is crucial. You need to know what your regulators' guidelines are and create a policy that factors those in.
5. The FDA's guidelines for social media use should be available late this year or early next year.
6. FINRA has recognized that it would be cumbersome, if not nearly impossible, to require prior approval of every tweet and Facebook post. However, FINRA-regulated companies still must develop a way to keep records of every communication and implement measures to supervise comments.

Don't let concerns about your industry's regulators hold you back from exploring social media.

The first step is to understand who your regulators are (many companies have several) and then find and read their policies or guidelines. That will help you understand what you can do and how to shape your social media strategy.

The CEOs who have committed public relations blunders so far in 2010 need to bone up on the Roman philosophy.

The list -- like the BP oil spill -- is staggering.

As we near the mid point of the year, here's our list of nominees for the CEO PR Hall of Shame.

Grand Prize: Tony Hayward

He singlehandely has disproved one of the cardinal rules of crisis communications – always have the CEO (or top person in the company) be the spokesperson in times of trouble.

Key constituencies and the public want to hear that the person in charge of the company is in charge of the crisis. That universally held true … until the world got introduced to Hayward.

Every sound bite that comes out of his mouth puts another tear in BP’s tattered reputation. And those sound bites are getting replayed a million times. Which one was worse? Early on he called what has become the United States' largest oil spill ever  “relatively tiny." Shortly thereafter, it was “we are not to blame.”  His “I’d like to get my life back” comment understandably did not play well with all the people BP has put out of business or any of the rest of us in the U.S.

Somebody has finally gotten the hook and dragged him off stage. Why did it take 45 days?

First-Runner-Up: Don Blankenship

Then there was Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy Co. Don who? Rather than being available to comfort grieving families and provide information to the community and media during the West Virginia coal mine explosion, he was in hiding. Maybe he was a Tony Hayward and in the end the company was best served by his absence. But the only story the media had to tell was through the reports of the sad faces and angry voices of families who had felt abandoned by Massey. It was not a story the company would have written.

Second-Runner-Up: Akio Toyoda

It only took Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota worldwide, 12 days after a recall to come forth and apologize about defective accelerator pedals. By that time customers were furious with how they handled the recall, and Congress was investigating. But at least he cried. 

Honorable Mention: Lloyd Blankfein

The Goldman Sach's annual report listed journalists as one of the risks it faces moving forward. Journalists? Really? The company's point was the ongoing negative publicity about the financial industry and the company would be troublesome. And who caused the trouble in the first place? And then there's the issue of Greece. Never mind.

Unfortunately, we don't think this list to be final.

If you are interested, I've collected some of best practices in Anatomy of Crisis Management, an e-book about planning for, responding to, and surviving a crisis.  The e-book is premium content, so you have to log in/register for a free account to access the PDF file.

John Wooden’s accomplishments as a leader are legendary. Wooden coached UCLA for the last 27 years of his career. Here are the statistics:

From 1963 to 1974, Wooden’s UCLA teams also completed four undefeated seasons. No other Division I program has more than one.

How did Wooden’s team make the leap from good to record-breaking?

Wooden spent a number of years early in his career developing, experimenting with, and perfecting his Pyramid of Success. It defines 15 key behaviors that Wooden believes (and who would argure?) produce a highly successful team. The application of these behaviors manifested itself in UCLA’s unprecedented success.

The 15 behaviors in Wooden’s Pyramid of Success are:

• Industriousness 
• Enthusiasm 
• Friendship 
• Loyalty 
• Cooperation 
• Self-control 
• Alertness 
• Initiative 
• Intentness 
• Condition 
• Skill 
• Team spirit 
• Poise 
• Confidence 
• Competitive greatness

Download a copy of the pyramid.

Wooden’s website also includes an interactive version of the pyramid with a more detailed explanation of each behavior.

Several members of our team recently had the opportunity to hear from Tennessean publisher Carol Hudler and two of her marketing colleagues about the health of Nashville’s daily paper. She refuted several typical myths related to the newspaper business. Here’s what we learned in the course of the discussion.

• The Tennessean has adjusted to the ways people get news. In addition to the variety of print editions, they have several online and mobile platforms, including Tennessean.com, multiple Twitter accounts, YouTube, Facebook, and blogs. During the recent flood they delivered news and updates through all their platforms in a variety of ways. For example, they created an interactive flood timeline for the website and published a flood resource guide in the print edition. Their YouTube video on the devastation at the Opryland Hotel got 400,000 hits.

• They are also increasing their marketing services. With the many business advertisers they have developed relationships with over the years, they are integrating marketing counsel and solutions by packaging research, creative, and placements in print, online, and digital offerings.

• Although the printed publication still has challenges, they see opportunities in the Sunday edition where they plan to put more emphasis, including an expanded business section. 

• They continue to expand and upgrade their website to let people join in the conversation.  To help solve the comments dilemma, they’ve hidden all comments behind a link (you have to click on “comments” if you want to read them) and are “heading to more transparency about who commenters are.”

• Online is where they cover breaking news, while the paper the next day may not cover the story at all or may go into greater depth, depending on the importance of the subject.

The huge unsolved challenge is how to get readers to pay for online content. According to Hudler, The Tennessean’s parent company has some pilots underway to try to determine how to make this happen. 

We applaud them for not sticking their heads in the sand and hoping they can keep do things the same way they always have. At the same time, we’re skeptical about how successful they can be in charging for content online. The genie got out of the bottle long ago with the advent of free online news. Even though publishers want readers to pay, readers want it free and plenty of people out there will find ways to offer it that way.

Tell us what you think.  And stay tuned for the next chapter.

As anyone who reads online news stories knows, the comments section is the Wild West of the World Wide Web. The following scenario is not improbable:

A simple story about a local lottery winner leads to comments about immigration, which leads to rants about race relations and, ultimately, an indictment of the current administration (regardless of who is in office).

It seems people feel free to say whatever they want, no matter how hurtful, when they can hide behind a pseudonym. They might not always have that luxury. One Louisiana government official recently sued the The Times-Picayune in New Orleans to get the names of anonymous commenters whom he says defamed his name, though the paper is resisting.

What's the Solution?

Reader reactions have become engrained with online content and are now expected. The challenge for media outlets is to balance the objectivity of their journalism with the passionate responses of their readers.

Newspapers across the country have been experimenting with different solutions for years, including:

• Moderating all comments
• Requiring registration (and real names)
• Leaving an open forum to help clear them of liability
• Closing comments altogether

The Star Tribune in Minneapolis decided to close comments on the types of stories that seem to attract commentary lacking in civility.

The Washington Post is working on a different solution to filter out the noise. The first time anyone leaves a comment, a moderator would review it and assign it to a tier. Over time, those who stay on topic, are courteous and provide their real names will become “trusted commenters.” Theirs would be the only comments visible on a given article. If readers want to see the off-topic or inflammatory comments, they’d click on a button to access that tier.

Implications for Public Relations

PR professionals should pay attention to the comments section—and how it’s moderated—for several reasons: 

• Comments give you a feel for what people are saying about your client/company/brand. Just be sure to take those comments with a block of salt, especially if they’re not moderated.
• It gives you the opportunity to respond. If the reporter gets a fact wrong, noting that in the comment section is an immediate way to clarify. Rumors sometimes fly in the comments, and you can interact directly by providing the correct information. Just be sure to clearly state who you are (and who you're working for).
• Reporters and editors are paying attention. The editor of a local magazine told us recently that they watch the comments and sometimes follow up on leads if it appears the commenter has inside information or a unique perspective.

And a Final Note

And finally a note to media websites, please make it possible to read all comments in a single page. On most sites, stories that attract a lot of comments require readers to scroll through dozens of pages to view them all. We know you're trying to increase page views, but you're also making it difficult for your readers. There has to be a better balance.

How do you think newspapers should balance the benefits of fostering an online community with the downside of idle, and often offensive, chatter?

I saw the sign above in an airport recently. What we have here is failure to communicate on two levels.

Wouldn't "Yesterday's Airport of Tomorrow" be the airport in which I was standing today? But then a display about "Today's Airport" doesn't sound as sexy. And why would I want to see a display about the airport terminal?

The display is apparently (I didn't take the time to view it) about aviation history in this particular city. I don't get that message at all from the title.

The meeting where they brainstormed the name probably went something like this.
 

INT -- OFFICE CONFERENCE ROOM -- DAY

                AIRPORT EXECUTIVE
    Let's do a display about our city's aviation. We need
    a catchy name.

Looks around at the team.

                EMPLOYEE #1
    The Aviation History of Our City

                AIRPORT EXECUTIVE
    Boring. Next.

                EMPLOYEE #2
    Fly Our City -- A Retrospective on Aviation

                AIRPORT EXECUTIVE
    Nah.

Silence.
   
                AIRPORT EXECUTIVE
    I've got it. What do you think about--

[Grand, sweeping hand gesture]

    Yesterday's Airport of Tomorrow.

AIRPORT EXECUTIVE looks to the team for approval.
TEAM MEMBERS shoot quick looks to one another

                AIRPORT EXECUTIVE
     That's good stuff, right?

The team nods its approval.


We've all been a part of this story before. And we know this story rarely ends well.