PLEASANTON, CA  – June 29, 2010 -  Trainer Communications, a full-service public relations, integrated marketing and social media agency servicing the enterprise and consumer technology sectors, today announced that the San Francisco Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA-SF) has honored the agency with the Northern California Silver Anvil Award for “Best Integrated Consumer Product or Service Campaign.”

Trainer’s winning Zazzle campaign, comprised of strategic top-tier business publication and holiday gift guide placements, and national consumer broadcast segments, resulted in billions of impressions worldwide. The Silver Anvil awards emcee Tom Vacar, an award-winning journalist for Channel 2 Fox News, made note that Trainer had earned the distinction of being the only company in the past 25 years to receive a perfect score by the judges. Trainer CEO Susan Thomas, along with several Trainer team members, attended the gala event held in San Francisco, Calif. on the evening of June 17, 2010.

Trainer, a previous Silver Anvil award winner, was selected based on PRSA’s comprehensive evaluation system that stringently assesses overall campaign objectives, strategy, tactics, execution and results. The core elements of the Zazzle campaign included:

* Expert-driven strategies on news releases and key media targets
* Tactical use of state-of-the-art PR management tools
* Award-winning Metrics Matter™ best practice methodologies

“More than just our PR agency, Trainer Communications is a strategic partner whom we collaborate with on a regular basis to help build our business. Trainer consistently executes creative campaigns, delivers stellar results based on its Metrics Matter approach, and almost always exceeds expectations. We offer our congratulations on Trainer’s perfect-score award win and look forward to teaming with Trainer on additional award-winning work in the years to come,” said Michael Karns, marketing director for Zazzle.

In addition to this PRSA Silver Anvil, Trainer is being honored this week at a gala event hosted by the Bulldog Awards in New York City for “Agency of the Year.” Trainer will also receive the 2010 Bulldog Award for “Best Campaign Under $100,000,” saluting Trainer’s PR innovation for its highly successful “Data Robotics Goes Pro” campaign. These three awards add to a growing list of national acclaim for Trainer which, among other accolades, has also won the 2008 Bulldog Award for “PR Innovation of the Year” for its Metrics Matter methodology, the 2009 Sabre Award for “Best Agency to Work For,” and the 2009 MarCom Gold Award for “Excellence in Publicity Campaign.”

“While these awards validate our PR and marketing prowess, what’s really important is the value our campaigns create for our clients to help drive their business. We are honored to represent clients like Zazzle that encourage us to perform at elite levels all of the time,” said Susan Thomas, CEO, Trainer Communications. “While we strive for perfection in all that we do, we are truly humbled to receive the first-ever perfect score in the 25-year history of this prestigious award.”

About Trainer Communications
Trainer Communications is the premier provider of integrated marketing and high-tech public relations services. Specializing in technology, the agency offers deep domain expertise across data infrastructure, information security, optical and wireless communications, enterprise software, networking, and consumer industries. Trainer represents emerging and high-growth technology companies that lack the market recognition and visibility needed to meet business objectives and is the only agency that guarantees quantifiable results with its Metrics Matter™ methodology. Established in 1995, Trainer has represented more than 200 companies, including one-third that resulted in a positive liquidity event. Notable successes include Brocade, Cloudscape, CrossWorlds, Data Domain, G-Log, Itronix, Oblix, Sygate, Trigo, Versata, and WhereNet. Based in Silicon Valley with nationwide coverage, the agency has received numerous awards, including the 2010 Bulldog Award for Best Small Agency of the Year and Best PR Campaign Under $100K, the 2009 and 2008 MarCom Gold Award for Best Publicity Campaign, the 2009 Iron Sabre Award for Best Agency to Work For, two 2009 National Videographer Awards, the 2008 Bulldog Award for PR Innovation of the Year, and the 2008 Iron Sabre Certificate of Excellence for Product of the Year. For more information, visit www.trainercomm.com.

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Posted by Joe Franscella, 2-25-2010:

RSA Conference 2010 is here, only a few days away at least. Many in the PR trenches are busy psycho-dialing in hopes of scheduling that one last, or in some cases first, meeting with a journalist or analyst so you can prove your worth to your clients. If you have a big name to throw around with some big news coming out at the show then you may be hitting the jackpot, however, if you have small clients that don’t command recognition just based on their name brand, you may be running into some high, high, I mean high, hurdles.

If you have a small client and you were smart about it, you set them up to do mostly prebriefings with news breaking this week, I see some of this going on and it is clearly paying off. If, however, your are chartered with booking the all-coveted show briefing and you are having bad luck, don’t despair, you may be able to interest at least a few writers or analysts — if you know what they’re after and you know how to approach them.

In an attempt to better understand what might secure (no pun intended) a briefing with a security writer or analyst at the world’s biggest security trade show, I reached out to a wide audience and asked them what their pet RSAC pitching peeves are and what might make for an interesting pitch and potentially secure a meeting. Responses were similar all around — “tell me something new, something I don’t already know and something that is effecting the industry on a wide scale; don’t bother me with follow-up calls, understand what I write and for God’s sake, understand the difference between news and marketing — I do.”

Judge for yourself by some of these responses, are you following the rules?

Seth Rosenblatt, CNET Download.com, http://download.cnet.com/download-blog/?tag=rb_content;overviewHead:

The best thing any PR rep can do is research. Far too few actually spend the 30 seconds of Googling required to learn who covers which beats, and this is incredibly important in the complex field of security. Do all political reporters cover the White House?

Kelly Jackson Higgins, Dark Reading, www.darkreading.com:

Peeve: When they bundle all of their security clients together into one email/pitch.

What works: Tell me something I don’t already know, or have something truly innovative to share.

Ira Victor, The CyberJungle Live 10a-noon Pacific, Saturdays at www.kkoh.com, Podcast anytime: www.TheCyberJungle.com:

Peeve: PR people pitching products rather than true hard news stories

What works: Learn about our program, and pitch us stories that would be newsworthy for our audience

Martin McKeay, Network Security Blog and Podcast, http://www.mckeay.net, http://netsecpodcast.com:

Peeve: PR hacks who call and call and call and never leave a message or sending an email.  If you want to talk to me, leave me a message and I’ll get back to you if I’m interested.

What works: Take the time to do your research and make sure it’s something to I’m going to be at least related to what I do.

Dr. Anton Chuvakin, http://www.chuvakin.org, http://www.securitywarrior.org:

Peeve: Blind and uneducated pitches like “Need PCI-DSS compliancy? We can help!” They are my #1 pet peeve since they are both dumb and mistargeted.

What works: New, hot technology that falls under the category of things that I care about worked the best.

Deb Radcliff, Freelancer (SC Magazine/Network World, Online Crime Bites), http://derad.typepad.com/:

Peeve: A pr person I really like just sent the stupidist note.  “I have a lot of clients at RSA. So tell me your schedule and I’ll book them into your schedule.”

What works: Have some relevant market information, be in the pulse, and don’t just try to tell me a 4.0 is better than the 3.5. The other best thing, really try to align the client with the interests you know about the writer. Some try to shove these folks down the throat just for facetime no matter there’s a match or not there.

Jennifer Leggio, ZDNet | Social Business, Quick’n'Dirty Podcast, http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?tag=trunk;content:

Peeve: Based on the pitches I am receiving it is clear that many PR people are not reading my bio or my blog. I’m getting pitches for data center hardware when what I cover is security relative to social networking. Not to mention, I work for a security vendor in my day job and I’ve had my company’s competitors send me pitches assuming that I would honor an embargo, even though I have no past relationship with the PR person. It’s both shocking and disappointing how many companies are sending proprietary news like that.

What works: Simple – make it relative to what I cover.

Sharon J. Watson, Senior Producer, Security Squared, http://www.experteditorial.net/securitysquared/:

Peeve: Agency reps—and they are always from agencies—who clearly didn’t bother to look at Security Squared in any depth to find out what info we cover or for whom we cover it, so they pitch products/companies that clearly don’t fit our profile (and the pitches are always generic).

What works: Tell me how your announcement fits our coverage profile and then tell me you have a consultant, analyst or user/beta tester I can talk with to vet your whiz-bang statements.

Mike Rothman, Analyst & President, Securosis, www.securosis.com:

#1 peeve is PR folks sending me bulk e-mail merge notes trying to get time with me. Oh, kind of like this message.

More seriously:

1) #1 peeve is someone that doesn’t take the time to understand what I cover and just sends me a blast email. No I don’t care about line encryptors and I’m not going to take a briefing at RSA about it.

2) #2 peeve is PR flacks trying to get me interested in their client/company 3 weeks before a show. Last time I checked, the year was 365 weeks and this is a relationship business. If I haven’t heard of you, the likelihood that I’ll take a briefing at a show like RSA (where I have maybe 20 meetings slots the entire week) is nil. So start building the relationship in the other 362 weeks of the year and then maybe we’ll get some time at RSA.

3) To be clear, there is nothing a PR hack can do to get me interested and to take a meeting. I make my own list of companies I’d be willing to meet with about 6 weeks ahead of the show. Then I tier it. I reach out to the folks I feel I need to see there (top tier). Then if someone else on the list approaches me, I’ll probably take the meeting. If you aren’t on the list, you’ve got no chance to get on my calendar.

To wrap up, the personal touch is always best received. Read my blog, follow my research and then make your pitch TO ME. Not some blast email. That ends up in the circular bin immediately.

Ellen Messmer, Sr. Editor, Network World, www.networkworld.com:

Peeve: Assuming there’s a lot of time to meet

What works: Make it clear why the news is important

Mirko Zorz, Editor in Chief, Help Net Security – www.net-security.org (IN)SECURE Magazine  – www.insecuremag.com:

Peeve: What annoys me the most is a *long* pitch consisting of several paragraphs informing me of news I’m very well aware of, as every member of the press should be. Such essays usually contain hideously exaggerated terms such as “leading, unprecedented, best-of-breed, industry defining” to describe the generally very obscure company I should be running to talk with because they someone named Pam told me there are a lot of breaches and that’s a problem. Wow, really?

What works: They should actually read the publications they’re pitching to, find how they do cover events such as RSA and what topics they focus on. These kind of pitches are always short, informative and make my decision easy.

PRs that have in the business for a while should learn how to develop a relationship with the people they’re pitching to. Some of the great ones have been sending me material for years and when it’s coming from them I know it’s worth publishing. They know what I’m looking for because they took the time to find out. It makes both our lives much easier as less time is wasted on unnecessary e-mails.

Rake Narang, editor-in-chief for Info Security Products Guide, http://www.infosecurityproductsguide.com/:

Peeve: I travel a lot and therefore prefer emails to voicemails. As we approach nearer to any major shows every year, I find that tons of voice messages are left for me. That’s the time I do not have time to listen to voicemails as my pre-event meetings and interviews have already begun and therefore I am probably not even available in my office. There’s no way that I will actually have time to listen to all those mostly 10+ minute voice messages.

What works: I am always open to new product announcements. Three things that I love most are products, products, products. If your initial message can summarize some recent attacks or security threats and how your new product can help, then I am already listening. I read all emails sent to me and anyone can approach me directly.

Nick Selby, Managing Director, Trident Risk Management, http://tridentrm.com:

Peeve: RSA is the busiest time of an analyst’s year; there are literally dozens of companies trying to get face time, and we’re looking forward to finding out lots of new information. The problem is, all companies think that RSA is, like, the best time ever to announce a new whatsit. So in addition to trying to meet up and see what’s happening in general, the flacks are all trying to get us juiced about some dumb-ass gimmick they’ve come up with to cut through the noise of RSA. Hello? The NOISE of RSA is why we go to RSA. All these announcements are distracting. What, you’re  so desperate for validation that you think that putting “RSA Conference 2010” in the lede of your press release will make customers say, ‘Oh boy! That product must be really good – they announced it at a conference they paid to be in!’ I don’t think so.

What works: If you truly want me to get excited, give me an embargoed release before the show so I can see whether I care. Don’t flatter yourself that you’re letting the cat out of the bag – no one cares about your drama unless you do more than $250m in business each year and even then it’s not like, you know, national security stuff (no matter how you try to play up that your CTO used to work for the CIA or went to MIT *yawn). Speak ENGLISH in your press releases (Nick Patience at The 451 Group famously said, “I know you have an end-to-end solution…But is it tightly integrated?”).

That is all.

Scott Crawford, Enterprise Management Associates, http://www.enterprisemanagement.com/:

Actually, this seems to have improved quite a bit in the last few years.  There seems to be greater understanding that we simply cannot respond to every request to meet (so don’t take it personally if we don’t). PR pros should also recognize that analysts aren’t journalists. Attention-getting is a non-starter. Our job is to highlight actual value, and we recognize we have to be thorough in covering a broad market, so we will take note. But give us the facts and make them digestible because if you don’t, we will do it for you. If I see that and I have an interest in your area, I will get back to you. We are interested more in the impact of a vendor offering on the market, on customers, and – most importantly – on real issues. Does a “solution” actually solve something? If not, that’s one of my “round file” words.

Again, it’s a question of bandwidth and interest. We simply can’t respond to all requests, nor will we react to every item of “news.” The PR biz in general should recognize that the signal-to-noise ratio is quite high around and before conferences, so they should weigh the risk that an announcement will actually get lost in that noise.  It would be best if 1) they know what we’re currently focused on & likely to respond to, and 2) if it’s actually news. You will help yourself by checking out what we’ve said recently: Twitter, firm websites and blogs should be checked. News really should be news. Product re-branding or incremental version releases aren’t. Innovation is, of course, but that’s a rare thing. Capitalizing on hype will likely get you tuned out, unless the client had already established credibility in the topic or area of concern and has a realistic take on an issue. Saying that a client is now all about <insert hypy topic here>, regardless what they may have claimed to have been all about before, will get you ignored.

Overall: Recognize that you’re doing your client a truly valuable service. Innovators aren’t necessarily communicators. Help your clients understand trends and how they really can address actual problems. Attention-getting gimmicks and manufacturing “news” just to get a client noticed mean you aren’t really invested in doing your homework for your clients. Have some self esteem. Don’t be a “hack, be a professional and do the legwork to know what the real issues are in your industry, so you can help your clients be better perceived for offering real value, and to help them perform better in fact. That’s a real service.

RSA Conference 2010 is here, that’s especially true if you’re in PR and you have an information security client that’s contracted with you to raise awareness for them at the show among media and bloggers. If you’re representing McAfee, Symantec, Cisco, RSA (EMC’s security division) or another mega IT security powerhouse, stop reading — you should be able to attract big ink and electrons based on their size alone. These companies have so many thousands of international customers and so many people dependent on their latest versions that journalists and bloggers owe it their loyal readers to keep them informed on their latest moves.

If, however, like most of us, you have a smaller client with news that is worthy of coverage but not necessarily able to compete with the biggies, don’t despair, there’s ample opportunity to get your clients the coverage they deserve and need.

If you are representing one of the smaller players in the market, there are a few steps you can take to secure them coverage, when pitching for a briefing remember to:

• Develop a story around your clients’ news that relates to common trends that will rise out of the conference. Does your clients’ news fit in with the cloud, social networking, Web 2.0, application vulnerabilities, the next wave of viruses, Obama’s plans for cybersecurity, protection of digital healthcare records?
• Start reaching out for briefings now, you may not be able to get what you’d otherwise like to during the actual show, but you may be able to do a fair amount of phone briefings leading up to it, thus ensuring that your client is part of roundups and other show-related features that publish.
• Consider making your announcements a week before the show. Breaking news leading up to the conference provides press and bloggers with an opportunity to write about developments outside of those they need to cover at the show itself. Enabling them to provide a wider variety of news and information to their readers while at the same time alleviating pressure on them to have to try and cover everything the week of the show may be of help to them.
• “Cyberthreats,” “Cybersecurity,” “Cyber-this and Cyber-that.” Remember, telling a writer that you clients’ new version and its features responds to cyberthreats, is a little ambiguous at best. When talking to the media and bloggers, specify the threat it defends against, “My client’s new feature was used by company Such-and-Such to thwart Conflicker, here’s how …,” is valid information that the information security community can actually use to improve the security environment — news a blogger or journalist could actually attract readers with.
• Consider responding to the RSA blogs. Chances are journalists and bloggers covering the show will, at some point, review at least some of these and possibly formulate ideas — if you’re client is on the ball with being part of these then you just might earn them a little play.
• Know what the journalist or blogger you are reaching out to covers; understand their beats. I know, I know — this little bit of direction can be as ambiguous as my thoughts on the use of the term “Cyberthreats.” What I mean by this, is that you should know a few basics prior to your approach: 1.) do they cover product announcements? 2.) do the vast majority of their articles include customer interviews? 3.) are they primarily focused on keeping up with the latest threats? 4.) are they channel-focused or vendor-focused? 5.) do you see any direct or inferred theme or pattern in their last five to six published articles? 6.) Do they rely on hard facts and information that comes out of surveys and other studies? If you have answers to these questions, then you’ll know what to bring them.

Hopefully, these tidbits of information will help you secure some of the coverage you’re on the hook for. They’re by no means full proof but they are based on what I’ve learned through experience over the past few conferences. Watch for my soon-to-publish survey results of journalists’ and bloggers’ top peeves when it comes to pitching them for RSA briefings.

The start of January marked my second anniversary at Trainer Communications. On that day, I tweeted:

I meant it, too. There’s a lot of great things that go on at Trainer Communications. Aside from working with an excellent bunch of PR, communications and marketing pros, Trainer’s commitment to Metrics Matter™ (the agreement made between Trainer and clients on the amount of press coverage that will be achieved for each initiative) and entrepreneurial spirit fosters the perfect environment for me — one where results are key and creativity and initiative are rewarded.

Prior to coming to Trainer, I had been the managing editor of a Central Valley (CA) newspaper and founder and general manager of a communications and advertising consultancy that produced a weekly cable network television show covering sports and recreation activities. During the 26 episodes, I leaned to do everything it took to produce a weekly show, which included but by no means was limited to — securing sponsors, filming, editing, voice over, production, coordination with the cable company for scheduling and technical matters, and receiving praises with humility and scorn with professionalism. Need to produce a weekly cable television show? Let’s talk.

One of the things I wanted to carry into my PR and communications work for clients and Trainer was my ability to produce video — something I am glad to say I’ve had a chance to do. Through the course of my Trainer career, I’ve produce videos for former clients, current clients and Trainer, some of which you can check out here:

Solidifying my satisfaction over the past two years at Trainer were two key events, 1.) Helping our firm to win a national Videographer’s Award of Distinction for production of a Web 2.0 news video, and, 2.) Being named as one of the leads of Trainer’s Video Practice in our 2009 yearend release. Check it out:

I am looking forward to another year with Trainer (and many more after that), to building the video practice and to continuing to help lead client accounts successfully. Next up: RSA Conference 2010, here we come!

2010 is around the corner and it’s every account coordinators favorite time of year — Editorial Calendar time! For those of you out there in IT security PR, here is a QA with SC Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Illena Armstrong that sheds some light on the SC Magazine ed cal process as what assets you need to bring to the table to get your clients considered for inclusion.

Q — How does SC Magazine decide which It security issues to focus on for the coming year?

A — Our editorial advisory board is absolutely crucial here. They’re quick to provide me with their insight on what they view as major trends, issues or worries that information security pros are facing in coming months. Also, of course, we have a long list of industry contacts with whom we speak regularly and there’s a wealth of information at our fingertips as we report for various news and features, hit industry events (or organize our own) and meet frequently with vendors or chief security officers.

Q — When you write a feature story driven off of an ed cal, are the resources typically supplied via PR reps or do you usually reach out on your own, is there a percentage breakdown, 2:1 for example?

A — Both. And, really, it just depends on the feature. Again, we have our own industry contacts to whom we turn. Also,  if a PR rep emails me in advance of my assigning stories to staff – providing compelling, timely information without too much vendor hype,  I’ll often encourage reporters to make contact. Especially helpful in such instances is the offering up of customers: I always want to see end-user perspectives in our content, so if vendors or service providers have thought leading information security professionals they can introduce us to then it’s a win-win.

Q — What’s the best thing PR reps can do to get their clients to be made part of stories?

A — Product/service proselytizing  gets you nowhere. Yes, we like to here about mergers and acquisitions, product releases, new hires and promotions, and other company news, but if you’re pitching us for a story or news item there has to be something substantitive there. We can see a plea for a veiled product pitch to make it into one of our stories a mile away. SC Magazine is all about objective, timely and thoroughly researched information. From our news and features to our product reviews and online/live events, we look to arm our readers — information security business leaders — with information they can use right after they leave our website, close the pages of the magazine or step away from one of our events.

Q — What’s the worst thing a PR rep can do to annoy you; ensure their clients won’t get included (Hopefully not ask for an interview for their blog J)?

A — If we feel you’re not a fit for a particular story or you’ve pitched us too late or we just have more information for a story than we can use, please don’t fret. We cover a huge, quickly changing market. Just because you play in one segment of it, doesn’t mean you automatically will be included in a piece covering it.  We covet helpful, knowledgeable industry contacts. There’s always another day, another story on which we can work together.

Q — It seems like a lot of security pubs and bloggers focus on security issues around social networks and Web 2.0 social apps, I don’t see an ed cal focused on this subject (am I missing it?). Is there a reason why SC isn’t devoting scheduled coverage to this phenomenon?

A — Nope. We’ll hit it, but probably in a cover story, which we do not cite in our annual ed cal in order to be as up to the minute as possible with these pieces. Too, we do allow for one-off features on hot topics that we may not have thought of six or even a two months in advance (that’s not the case with the topic you note in this instance, however, as we’ve covered this ad nauseam on our site and in our hardcopy). Too, as a quick reminder, the ed cal is subject to change – a disclaimer always worth pointing out.

Q — Typically, SC US doesn’t cover product announcements as “news,” are there ever any times when an announcement is news though, why?

A — It has to be big, industry-changing stuff. A few years ago when Vista hit, we not only covered it, we made it the subject of a cover story, speaking to one of the security gurus at Microsoft about it. There are occasions when product announcements also might reveal something about a market segment’s evolution. In those instances, you’ll see some news analysis about it or maybe read a commentary or opinion on the subject. And you shouldn’t forget our product reviews. These are the most comprehensive in the industry. Chances are that if the timing’s right, a review on a new product or new version of a product will be put through the paces for a spot in a Group Test.

Q — Is there any other question you would have liked for me to ask that I did not, if so what is it and what’s the response?

A — Maybe something about our events… We’ve got a lot (and I mean a lot) going on here. Our SC World Congress conference and expo had a stellar second year in NY this October, followed up by the launch of SC World Congress 24/7 – an always-on online environment that not only includes video, presentations and more information from the live event, but also sees the occurrence of a monthly online event and more insight than can be cited from exhibitors and other experts who are participating. Folks should check this out and, really, take a gander at all the stuff we’re doing by hitting www.scmagazineus.com.

Q — Anything you’d like to ad?

A — We’re always open to ideas. If they won’t work for us, we’ll tell you – trust me. Keep in mind that beyond features, news and product reviews, we do have space for contributors in the magazine and on our site. So, don’t hesitate to contact us and we will get back with you… might be after deadline, but we’ll get back to you.

Check back soon for some exclusive video footage of San Jose Mercury News’ Chris O’Brien and USA Today’s Byron Acohido on trends to watch for 2010.

Tisa Penny (left), Shannon Magill and Susan Thomas with the PR News and MarCom Gold awards, earned for outstanding communications, PR and marketing efforts in support of the Mt. Diablo Region YMCA fund raising efforts.

There’s nothing like an award to rally the troops, build morale and validate the value of your organization’s services. At my day job, Trainer Communications, we value awards our clients win as well as those we earn. They not only instill a sense of organizational pride, they also validate fine work done and best efforts put forth.

Recently, the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals, PR News and the Videographer Awards recognized Trainer for its outstanding work in communications, public relations, marketing and video.

For its pro bono work done on behalf of the Mt. Diablo Region YMCA’s new facilities fund raising efforts, the Association awarded Trainer its International MarCom Gold award and PR News awarded it an honorable mention. For its outstanding work in video production, the Videographer Awards presented Trainer with the prestigious “Clapboard” for corporate video and Web 2.0 news video production for its work done for former client G-Log and current client Bear Valley Resort. The MarCom and PR News awards were earned by the outstanding trio of Trainer founder and CEO Susan Thomas, Account Coordinator Shannon Magill and Account Coordinator Tisa Penny. The Clapboards were earned by the Trainer video duo of VP Ross Perich and myself.

G Log Corporate Video:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bear Valley Resort Web 2.0 News Video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Anyone who’s ever brought a client in front of Mike Rothman for a briefing knows two things: 1.) Prepare the client to tell the truth; 2.) Prepare the client to hear the truth. Although a lot of times clients don’t realize it at first, the toughest briefings — which may leave them rattled — often end up being the most productive as they not only provide (pardon me) “insight,” but also a good indication regarding the true level of resonance that their messages are having. Prior to going to eIQ, when Rothman was still taking briefings, I had an opportunity to bring a couple clients in front of him, while the clients didn’t necessarily exit walking on sunshine, they were forced to reconsider at least a couple bullet points and then recraft them to be more aligned with reality as opposed to hype (which paid off in subsequent briefings). My hope is that Rothman will again take vendor briefings and continue to provide the same sharp-witted insight as he has in the past — the truth, as harsh as it may sometimes be, does everyone a favor.

I am glad to see Alan Shimel continues to go strong on his blog, now AShimmy, when he announced he had left Still Secure I was left to wonder if he’d continue to post his thoughts and opinions on the tech industry, to my delight he continues to go strong. Many of my It security marketing and PR plans start off with a trip to Alan’s blog to find out what he’s saying about “it,” to understand how he’s breaking “it” down or to find out if I am really planning around something “new” (note to security PR pros: when Dan Kaplan at SC says publicly that Alan’s blog is one of the sites he looks at for potential ideas, checking it out on a regular basis isn’t a bad idea).

Alin posted an interesting link to an I.B.M. Cloud commercial aired during Monday night’s NFL game. I don’t disagree with him that taking the Cloud into the pop culture main stream may signal the demise of it’s media sexiness, however, my observations were on the quality of the commercial itself and what a valuable learning tool it was for those of us pitching technology full time. Watch the commercial:

I.B.M. does a nice job of quickly defining what the Cloud is from a technology perspective and then goes heavily into what the business and consumer benefits it offers are. This format is a good lesson for anyone pitching a technology story — go light on tech and heavy on practical benefit. A lot of times it’s hard to get client’s to understand that a lot of the writers you speak with, unless they’re techy bloggers, don’t have time to become engineers, what they write about are the practical benefits a technology provides over its really cool code.

Reading Brad Stone’s piece in the New York Times on new eTailer Glyde.com got me thinking, what’s the return policy? If I buy a used — often very cheap –  game at Game Stop I can return it within seven days for a full refund and it won’t cost me $2.50 (see Glyde.com return policy). New DVD’s are so cheap to buy at stores like Walmart and to rent at RedBox in the supermarket it doesn’t seem to make any sense to buy something used on an online venue. It will be interesting to see where this company heads and what the future holds for this Web site, surely the profitability plan can’t be based around consumers selling used games and DVD’s to one another, there has to me more coming in the future.

Happy Halloween from a few of the hard-working, fun-loving gang at Trainer Communications. You won’t find a better bunch of PR and marketing practitioners completely devoted to client satisfaction but also sure to have, at least, a little fun every day.

Posted by Joe Franscella

Media designed to be made available quickly and easily over the Internet to anyone with a Web browser and Internet connection is typically referred to as “Social Media.” Commonly used social media types include videos, blogs, photos, PodCasts and remarks made on social media publishing communities, blog reply fields and platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and WordPress.

Well-known and heavily-patronized social media publishing sites and platforms and modern Internet search engine functionality has made it possible for individuals and businesses to interact on topics of mutual interest through social media at breakneck speeds and on a massive scale.

Social media interactions are so popular and easy that businesses recognize that with it, they can enhance brand recognition, win new customers and manage existing customer relationships. Well-known technology suppliers such as EMC are taking the power of social media so seriously that they are actively recruiting manager-level employees to fill full-time positions in the practice.

It seems as if new ways to penetrate customer bases via social media interactions spring up daily. Change takes place at such a rapid pace that many newcomers end up throwing in the towel before they even get started. Statements such as, “We haven’t yet seen the value of social media,” are often defense mechanisms that really mean, “I haven’t got a clue.”

To compensate for a lack of understanding on how to best utilize social media for customer interactions, organizations are increasingly relying upon their marketing, communications and PR agencies to integrate social media communications elements into their marketing strategies. Unfortunately, many agencies are as clueless as their clients.

CMOs, marketing VPs and directors that need to rely upon an agency to establish social media interactions can quickly cull through the morass of service providers and determine which actually provide “expertise” by checking them against a set of “expert” criteria.

Once you have identified an agency that can provide expert strategic leadership within traditional marketing arenas, you can then judge its ability to provide expert social media execution by evaluating  it against these seven-criteria:

1. Agency employees participate in social community interactions through the use of various social media formats
2. Agency employees have established, regularly used accounts on popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube
3. Agency employees have established, regularly updated blogs
4. Agency employees have been recognized as active social media participants by recognized social media icons
5. The agency utilizes social media as a way to market its service offerings
6. The agency has secured tangible metrics as a result of its social media activities on behalf of clients or itself
7. The agency can demonstrate thorough knowledge and understanding how to raise search engine rankings through the use of keywords, meta tags and other SEO techniques

There really is no room for a missing check box when it comes to your evaluation. Just like college students must demonstrate that they have fulfilled all the requirements of a degree prior to having a diploma granted, an agency must also fill all requirements prior to earning “expert” status.

The last thing any good general wants to do is go to war with untrained soldiers. Could you imagine devising a clever strategy and then deploying soldiers on the battlefield who don’t know the difference between a muzzle and a breach? The results would be disastrous. Imagine you are a CMO, marketing VP or director and you decide to execute on a social media strategy with untrained soldiers, how well do you think it would go?

Before you choose an agency or consultant to to lead your company into the social media battlefield, make sure its soldiers are well trained in the art of interacting through the medium. How do you know if your firm’s soldiers are prepared? For starters, find out if they are engaged on a regular basis.

As a marketing and PR practitioner, I make it my responsibility to be involved beyond what my employer and clients expect. I blog, I Facebook, I Twitter, I YouTube, I Digg etc…etc…I am so passionate about the practice that I am proud to say David Pogue of the New York Times included me in his book:

In my next blog post, I am going to present a checklist of criteria CMOs, VPs and directors can use to determine the social media expertise level of an agency. Talk soon.