Watch the Upscale Business Magazines

How do you know if you're reading an upscale men's business magazine? By the types of ads the magazine carries.

No, not ads for golf clubs, single-malt scotch or investment houses. Those are meaningless. Pennysavers have those ads.

Check out the watch ads. Lots and lots of high-end watches with tons of features most people have never heard of. And there's never a price or MSRP for the watch. (Here's my essential checklist for buying a watch: 1. Does it tell the time? 2. Do I need a new watch.)

If there are two watch ads or less -- think an Airline publication -- it's not really an upscale magazine.

But that's only part of the equation to determine if the magazine is truly upscale.

The other part are ads for executive jets.

Now do the math: more than three watch ads but none for jet ownership -- not even fractional jet ownership -- it's not really an upscale magazine. Let's call it a faux-scale magazine.

The corollary to that equation never occurs.

You never see a magazine with several ads for even fractional jet ownership without several ads for high-end watches.

There's just something about watches and planes.

Three Stages of Merger Communications

The media may love hostile takeover attempts—witness the amount of ink devoted to the second attempt by Microsoft to acquire Yahoo, or last year’s purchase of the Wall Street Journal by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. But these are the exception. Of the more than 8,795 mergers and acquisitions deals announced worldwide this year, the vast majority have been friendly.

From a communications perspective, friendly deals have three phases: pre-deal planning, deal announcement and post-integration. (In contrast, hostile deals, which require 24/7 crisis management, have more phases, and can include lobbying shareholders for proxy votes and litigation.)

If you're interested in M&A communications, check out my article, "Three Stages of Merger Communications," published by the IABC's CW Bulletin.

The CW Bulletin is the e-newsletter supplement to CW magazine. Sent each month to all members, every issue of CW Bulletin presents articles, case studies and additional resources on timely topics in communication.

You can also check out Mass High Tech, which published a different article on M&A communications here.

Richard Wolpert's Rules To Follow When Cell Phones Drop Coverage

After yet another dropped call from a friend who calls on his commute home in suburban New Jersey, I thought there must be a better way of calling back.

Check out Richard Wolpert's description of what happens after a dropped call: "So you both call each other back at the same time and get each others voice mail. So you realize the other person is calling you back (you both realize this at the same time). So then you, and the other person, both decide to not dial again and wait for the other person to call you back."

He has a simple rule, available at his blog here:

1. if you initiated the call and it drops you call the other person back.
2. if you received the call and it drops you just wait for the call back.

Guy Kawasaki referenced it on Twitter, and I plan to mention to everyone I talk to via cellphone.

What Do Most People Use Facebook Applications For -- It May Not Be What You Think

Interesting Wall St. Journal, "Some Facebook Applications Thrive, Others Flop: Popular Programs Are Useful, Entertain and Let Friends Mingle." The headline almost says it all.

But, according to a chart only available in the print edition, the Journal reported that 26% use Facebook applications for enhanced communications. What's surprising is that Facebook is supposed to enhance communications, so I would've thought the number would be higher.

Twelve percent use Facebook apps for comparing themselves with others.

The other reasons include: playing social games (11%), profile enhancement (10%), categorizing friends (10%), sending gifts (7%), media sharing (5%), self-expression (5%) playing with a digital pet (3%) and playing games (3%).

Ok, I don't understand why you'd want to play with a digital pet. You can get an offline digital pet so you don't need to sit at your computer to use it. In fact, my middle son has one, it's very annoying, and I'm willing to make it available for the right price, but the advantage of his digitial pet is, again, you don't need to go online to use it.

But we've got a problem, I think, with the people who play games but not playing social games. What are they doing -- playing anti-social games? That would explain why it's such a small group. These people need to get some friends. But can someone let me know the difference between playing games and social games?

How Many Social Networking Sites Can One Person Belong To?

If I were to keep up with all the social networking sites out there -- aside from Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo & Twitter, I might never get any work done.

A former colleague told me she uses LinkedIn on a daily basis -- she told me this using LinkedIn's email system -- but then told me that was the case when she was looking (and found) a new job. I've been on the site, and it's been helpful tracking down former colleagues just as Facebook has been useful tracking down former classmates.

And that's been nice, catching up with old friends.

But LinkedIn is often cited by reporters as a business-oriented site. I see it as a networking/connecting site, and I do know of some people who use it as part of their job search. But I have not seen any business from it. The same is true for Facebook, Plaxo and Twitter -- and would be, too, if I went to MySpace.

Now there are industry-specific social networking sites, like PR OpenMic. I checked it out, and it seems to be mostly college students and some practitioners. And while I found it interesting to see how some of them view social media since I figure they should be closer to it then I am, I kept thinking: do I need another social media site to check out?

The answer is probably not.

As for the mainstream social networks, I'm not knocking the ability to reconnect with old friends. But the media has often reported on the above sites as being useful for business. I just don't see it, and have not experienced it.

I see them as nice to-do's. As long as you don't expect to generate business leads from them, you won't be disappointed.

10 Twitter Etiquette Rules

Long since anointed by the media (over the past year) as the NBT (next big thing), Twitter has a bunch of local customs that people new to it need to learn.

I've started compiling some etiquette and best practices for using Twitter, which limits users to 140 characters. Most ideas come from other sources, to which I will give due credit. Most of these tips are most appropriate for people new to Twitter. (Apologies is any or most of the tips seem familiar to people who have used Twitter for a long time (i.e., several months).

1. Remember, Twitter is a conversation. When responding to other tweets, try to give context by mentioning the subject or question you're responding to; that makes it easier for your followers, saving them from having to go back to the beginning of the thread to figure things out.
   
2. Ask questions; don't just pontificate.
   
3. What part of 140 chars do you not understand? (Thanks to jyarmis).
4. Discretion: Some things are better left unsaid. So avoid stream-of-consciousness-blogging via Twitter. Check out this article about what happened when a tweet backfired.
   
5. Transparency is vital -- just as with any other social media.
6. Consider quality vs. quantity. (I am going to look at what makes for a useful tweet in the next few weeks.)
   
7. Many users provide links to interesting articles, information, etc. Guy Kawasaki does this many times a day.
8. Use proper grammar. Check out Mignon Fogerty, the host of the Grammar Girl blog/podcast who tackles proper grammar usage on the popular micro-blogging site. Her tips are available at"Grammar Girl's Strunk & Twite: An Unofficial Twitter Style Guide," and include:
   
1. "Don't start posts with 'I am.' You're answering the question, 'What are you doing?' It's OK to answer with fragments in a conversation."
2. "Use proper capitalization. Typing in lowercase doesn't save characters; it's just lazy." I totally support this tip.
3. "Don't use abbreviations such as 4U and L8...Shorthand symbols such as >, =, &, and @ are allowed."
1. For an interesting look at the impact of Twitter, IM , SMS and texting may have on language, check out the Boston Globe's "Is language dead or evolving? Some see the use of shorthand and abbreviated text as the beginning of the end. But studies say students know the difference between formal writing and instant messaging."
4. "Use numerals, not words, for all numbers."
5. "If you can't say it in 140 characters, reevaluate whether you should be posting it at Twitter."
6. "Provide links and context whenever possible. Remember that many of your followers can't see what you are responding to."
9. If people follow you, it's polite to "follow" them back. However, because of that, be careful about adding too many people at one time -- that's the Twitter version of spamming. People will think you're trying to sell/hype something rather than start a conversation.
10. It's really about conversation. When I tweeted about writing a blog on etiquette, I got a lot of response. But be careful contacting someone you don't know -- like in real life, you could be seen as butting into someone else's conversation. If they don't know you, they may not respond. (A better way to initiate a conversation would be to comment on that person's blog. That assumes, of course, that the person has a blog.)
1. In fact, according to jljohansen in a tweet written after my first draft of this article, he said, "First rule of Twitter is 'Don't be creepy' after that, Right and Wrong are dependent on social contract of your friends/follows.
2. To which Nedra said, "Sadly, the creepy people don't realize they're being creepy."
3. See, how the conversation idea works?
   

Check out some other articles: Twitter + Etiquette = Twitterquette?, Twitter Fan Wiki, and "The 10 rules of Twitter (and how I break every one)" by Robert Scoble.

Of course, there may be a rule that I've just broken, according to a comment on Scoble's blog, Scobleizer: Don’t blog about how you use Twitter.

Here are a couple of other good how-to Twitter articles: "Twitter for Beginners"; Ten ways market your blog on Twitter without being a spammer; and "The Art and Science of Retweeting for Twitteraholics."

How to Work with Bloggers -- and How not to Work with Them

Stevie Wilson of LA Story wrote a response to the question of a previous post, "Guy Kawasaki on the impact of bloggers on PR and buzz" that contained fascinating insight about swag and gifts (they're not the same thing), and how some in Hollywood treat bloggers as persona not so grata.

Here's her comments:

Swag is the name of the game in Los Angeles– in a city that lives and dies by celebrities getting swag and quite frankly are the least needy for that - because they have the $$ to pay for anything given to them.

Yet they give the products to those who can afford them and won't give a darn thing (really -- I have been dissed to my face because I am press-- particularly online as bloggers are thought to carry no power. Really? You would think that some pr people would be aware of the power of immediate press and going viral but not so)

Swag has a bad connotation because it smacks of pandering and frankly payola. However when it comes to blogging– depending on the topic of course–one can hardly blog about a skincare line if one hasn’t tried it — or has tried it for only one week and doesn’t own up to the fact.

Gifting is somewhat different. Sometimes it’s a holiday or birthday gift that really is a “gift” between a corporate entity and the blogger for the support (if there has been support and I don’t mean Perez Hilton type support that has been advertised) that the blogger may have given. Or it can be something that the corporate entity has done to gain the attention to the brand in such an unusual and interesting way that it definitely gains the immediate attention and enthusiasm of the blogger– like a video iPod that has videos of fashion shows or make-up tips from NY Fashion Week.

In LA, there is a gifting process that is quid pro quo but typically, for the more visible press— which means stylists who bring in celebrities to a suite whose promoter gives them a trip or a great big fat goody bag of stuff (the same goody bag given to the celebrities)
However, that being said, even the stylists are shunned despite bringing or sending in celebrity friends, clients or contacts.

Some PR and brands don’t think that bloggers count. Trust me– we can reach people faster if you are kind, polite and friendly.

Agreeing with Chris here that offering me some worthy information is well worth it — whether it’s to be written about or giving me some heads up on a trend or event that’s about to launch.
I have pr people who slip me the 411 on celebrity clients wearing the brands they represent before anyone else has it. You can bet I run that information and pronto!! Others tell me about new things just because they know I can help support that when it launches– because I can “plan” for blogs around it.

It all depends on how and what you value. I have yet to see anyone gift me something so amazing that I would jump. Been promised things (cars to come get me and other trinkets), but they never come through– suddenly bloggers are persona not so grata.

What's really interesting is that when you are persona not so grata that when they *NEED* you particularly when they want you to cover something at the last minute-- a day or the day of or 2 -3 days before when they have all the 411 at least a couple weeks before.

Bloggers have schedules too and to be so "off the cuff" and treat a blogger as "less important" most of the time but then come to them at the last minute to get some coverage-- how cooperative do you think that blogger will be? Karma baby, karma!