First, thanks to Bill Geist and his blog for bringing this gem to my attention first. Thanks, too, for the link, Bill, to the original article. Had I not seen it for myself, I would have assumed you were kidding.

The following is excerpted from the El Paso Times: El Paso officials are developing a branding campaign for the city… The campaign is the result of market research that found people in several cities had "no or little familiarity with this community…" El Paso City Manager Joyce Wilson said. "If you don't define who you are, someone will," she said… The city allocated about $285,000 for research and development of the branding campaign through two companies, Wilson said.

The result of all this work: all this money:

The campaign's theme will revolve around this tag line: "El Paso, Texas — You Have No Idea."

Tremendous, isn't it? El Dunno, Texas?

Meanwhile, this Wikipedia link will confirm that El Paso didn't always have this much trouble figuring out what it is all about:

During the Wild West era, El Paso was dubbed as the "Gunfight Capital of the World"…

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Once a long time ago I was a daily newspaper reporter. I became familiar with every slight, every affront, every faux pas the average tainted person or politician or municipal employee and hot air bag could commit against my employer and me, the writer. Bad people hate it when you report the truth… when you accurately capture what they actually say and do.

Disclaimer: people hate it, too, when a reporter fabricates stuff, gets it wrong, misunderstands things, adds his or her bias, and/or writes from a hidden agenda. Complaints about this sort of stuff are legitimate. Complaints about writing that puts the subject in a bad light over things the subject actually said or did– well, that's not debatable, alterable, or negotiable.

This post, on a favorite blog of mine, written by Rich in Nevada, explains this in greater detail. It's about bloggers sometimes being asked by tone deaf corporate types and their PR dirty workers to take posts down. New era, same old corporate arrogance from some. The point: don't ask. I can tell you it ain't happening. By the way, roam around Rich's blog… it's a good one.

To his thoughts I wish to add the following: in my experience, the blogosphere is a comparatively tame place versus newspapers. Most bloggers seem reluctant to name names when offended, affronted, marginalized or manipulated by mainstream corporations, their agencies or the media. My theory is that this reluctance by bloggers stems from the fact that most of us work alone with no one else within earshot with which to compare notes. In a mainstream media newsroom, in contrast, lots of experienced heads talk out loud, decide together, and usually they agree to name names.

The blogosphere will get there if corporations and their agencies continue to show an inability to understand this and to adapt. You can ask for a correction, a clarification. You can't ask for an undo… not without great peril.

Peril? Yes, because I have worse news for those who would believe they have this kind of influence. When good reporters meet resistance, they push ahead harder. Resistance is usually a sign they've hit a nerve. Hit a nerve and find a goldmine of news. Write more, more often, more aggressively.

Which brings us full circle to the headline on this post. Sure, posts that go up can come down. And to be honest, I'm more than a little upset no one has asked me to deep six a story. But if and when they do, I'm fairly sure the offensive item isn't coming down. Many, many more posts just like will probably be going up, up, up.

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RELAX. That’s the advice Paul Gillin of AdAge has for marketers panicked by the prospect of managing social media. It’s true that blogger reception has infected the mainstream media, but there is no need to panic.

There's nothing new about bottom-up publicity. Toyota achieved its reputation for quality three decades ago not because it said its cars were good but because thousands of customers told Consumer Reports its cars were good. The only difference today is that we don't need mediators or researchers. People can speak for themselves, and the conversations that result are richer and more diverse than anything you can find in a survey.

I encourage you to read an interesting study from Fox Interactive Media that was released yesterday examining both the growth and marketing power of online social networks.

Some key stats:

1. More than 70% of Americans 15-34 are actively using social networks online, and the research showed social networking sites taking a strong foothold in the primetime hours.
2. 31% of online users claim they spend more time on the Web in general after starting to use a social network.
3. Brands such as adidas and Electronic Arts attributed more than 70% of their marketing return on investment to the ‘Momentum Effect’ that is created by social networks.

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