I meant to write this earlier today. It's off topic, sorry. I was watching the speeches of the candidates last night from Iowa after the returns came in and was struck by Mrs. Clinton's apparent indifference to Mr. Clinton standing behind her on the stage. Throughout all my many years, during which men dominated the national political scene, it seems to me in most cases the men acknowleged their wives. Must be a guy thing?

Come to think of it, I watched Mr. Huckabee's speech, too and don't recall a Mrs. Huckabee. Mr. Edwards let Mrs. Edwards lead off. I guess the times are changing… maybe… sort of?

I'm apolitical by the way. I just watch and listen to learn more about marketing and positioning and taglines. I liked Mr. Edwards' line this morning in New Hampshire. He said something like, "The status quo is yesterday. Change is tomorrow. Tomorrow starts today." Kind of clever for a politician. I bet they worked on that on the plane the whole way, don't you?

Remember: On election day, vote early and vote often.

Share This

Here's an interesting story about a California mall called Pacific View (owned by the Macerich Corporation) banning an anti-war demonstration on their premises at the peak of this past holiday shopping season. Turns out, it seems the court is siding with the protestors in the name of free speech, etc. But that's not what got my attention focused on this item. Instead it was this segment of the report, which in a wide variety of forms, you've read a million times:

Pacific View Mall Spokeswoman Alice Love was on vacation and unavailable for comment for this story. Other mall representatives, including Kathy Taggart and Macerich corporate public relations representatives did not respond or could not be reached for comment on this story.

If that were a rare or unusual reaction on the part of PR people to difficult news or awkward subjects, that would be one thing. But it happens routinely. I've done it. The idea is to hold your breath, hide out, get scarce, and wait for the thing to blow over. The conventional, traditional PR thinking is that by addressing such things, things only get worse.

I used to believe that. I could stonewall with the best of them. And maybe back then in my day that was the right approach? I don't believe it is any longer, especially not in today's world of evolving transparency and conversation and pro-sumerism. Today, I think companies like Macerich have a chance to talk about things, explain their position, diffuse bad news, and possibly come to a reasonable compromise through a dialogue with various parties with a multitude of real and imagined gripes. In this case, the story hasn't been killed by silence. It seems the marchers will be back.

By the way, if you go to the Macerich one-way, highly-polished, non-interactive website linked above, please notice their drop down under the general heading "Social Responsibility" and read about their community-based philosophy and Acts of Kindness. I think it illuminates why ordinary people often feel such a disconnect at a website and quickly head for the metasphere for new or better sources.

Before I go, I also just have to note the irony of a mall called Pacific View denying a peaceful anti-war protest.

Share This

Looking back over the past year of pushing the social media agenda here from AgencyNext, my unscientific survey reveals that e-commerce people… or what I call me-commerce people… seem to be further along than most. Why is that, I wondered.

For starters, my guess is that people selling products and services primarily or wholly online get SEO. Two, they know that fresh content and a growing archive of relevant, keyword-searchable data helps SEO. Three, I think they understand how self-absorbed consumers are today… how needy, how vocal, how fed up, how opinionated, and how full of ourselves we've become. Four, many of these pure online plays don't have an existing traditional offline infrastructure they have to trash if they sell more, faster, and at a higher profit margin online. Five, the people who would have to trash the existing infrastructure are many of the same people who exist because of the old infrastructure.

I call it me-commerce, by the way, because with social media linked to an e-commerce site, buyers and prospects get more ways to make the site all about them. Or, as seen from their perspective, 'more about me.' That's as in: my view, my opinion, my point, my reaction, my review, my comment, my thread… me, me, me.

Just my two cents. Happy New Year everyone.

Share This