In today’s Wall Street Journal Francesco Guerrera contemplates the degree of damage caused by recent corporate crises at JetBlue (pilot breakdown), Global Payments (personal data exposed) and BATS Global Markets (IPO killed).  Looking at stock performance, customer bookings and credit card usage in the wake of the individual disasters, the piece questions if our socially-networked, information-saturated society has helped reduce the lifecycle and impact of crisis situations.  Living in a 24 X 7 news cycle certainly means there is more noise in the market and the potential for negative headlines to be replaced quickly with breaking news, however, organizations still have an opportunity and a responsibility to respond to crisis situations with strategic communications and messages.

The most powerful way to weather a corporate crisis is to build a solid brand reputation that engenders loyalty, trust and passion among core audiences (customers, partners, employees, investors, etc.).  Brand reputation and loyalty isn’t built overnight – it involves all facets of the organization – and, is reflected in a variety of ways, including communications campaigns that articulate the vision, mission and corporate values.  Guerrera’s sources rightly point out that brand reputation helped companies like JetBlue overcome a recent crisis.  But, brand reputation can’t be taken for granted and it can’t sustain multiple corporate crises.  Each situation slowly chips away at brand value and trust.  As a result, organizations need to make changes to ensure that missteps don’t occur again and these changes need to be communicated to appropriate audiences.

We always advise clients to have a crisis plan in place and to revisit the plan often to ensure all facets are current.  The plan should include the roster of internal and external executives who will comprise the Rapid Response Team along with roles and responsibilities for each party.  Scenario building in the plan will aid with tactical implementation roadmaps and initial message development, all of which will expedite an organization’s ability to quickly and effectively react to breaking situations.

In our experience, organizations that develop a crisis framework move fast and fare well in a crisis situation.

Crowdfunding, or the act of pooling resources together for a common goal, recently became popular as a funding tool for technology startups, though it can occur for a variety of purposes, from charity donations to funding to start small businesses and create jobs.

Richard James and the Name Changers, a band from the Greater Boston area, had dreams of making it to Austin for SXSW, where more than 2,000 emerging artists took the stage over four days last week. The band, which recently finished recording their second album, had heard of other bands using crowdfunding to finance recording new albums and decided to make use of the popular crowdfunding website Kickstarter.com to raise the funds to travel south for the music festival with a finalized demo to share with industry executives.

The band used both online and offline tactics to promote its Kickstarter.com page, which included blasting out emails, promoting videos of the band on social media channels and their website, as well as asking audience members for donations during live gigs. On Richard James and the Name Changers Kickstarter page, the band offered fans personalized incentives to donate money toward their trip, including hand-written thank-you notes, signed t-shirts and more.

If you’re not familiar with Kickstarter, users only receive the money if the goal they initially set is met and if it’s not, all money donated is forfeited and returned to donors. In this case, Richard James set a goal of $10,000 and saw a tremendous amount of support from the local Boston community. In the end, the band ended up surpassing its original goal by a couple hundred dollars.

Richard James and the Name Changers is just one example of a band that took to crowdfunding to collect money to pay for expenses a record label or the venue bringing in the band would normally pay, which represents a shifting trend for emerging artists that no longer need a record deal to make it big. Richard James knew they had power in numbers through their fans, and when they made it to Austin, the band played three shows and handed out over 400 demo tapes to influential names in the industry.

While the pay-out in Richard James’ case was positive, the surge in crowdfunding’s popularity hasn’t been without controversy. Yesterday, the Senate passed a bill that loosens SEC regulations to permit small businesses to raise money through crowdfunding, which some say will create jobs. Others fear this legislation will lend itself to scams where people donate money to swindling organizations. Either way, the bill is expected to be passed by President Obama as early as next week.

You can check out three more successful music crowdfunding campaigns from Hypebot here.

One of the best parts about SXSW is the knowledge that others bring to the event. The convention center was busy with activity all week, and I attended several really great panels. I wanted to provide an overview of a couple of them for your reading pleasure:

• How to Connect with the Right Festivals & Venues: This panel, moderated by Panos Panay, CEO of Sonicbids, focused on getting noticed by festivals and venues. The panel featured talent buyers, marketing directors and more from festivals like Great Escape and venues like The Knitting Factory. All panel members stressed the importance of social media metrics as they were booking new bands—acts that had a large presence on social channels are more apt to bring in fans to the venues.
• Reaching Today’s Digital Music Consumers: CEO and president of eMusic Adam Klein gave this session on Thursday afternoon, which focused on research his company had done on digital music behaviors. I found that the research on how consumers discovered music (mostly through community, whether it be social or in-person word of mouth) made sense in the context of an event like SXSW, and the session provided a good background for artists to help market their talents more effectively.
• Cool Garage Recording Tools and the Crap to Avoid: This was a great panel that focused on different technologies emerging artists can use to make their stuff sound great. What I loved about the panel was hearing how technology in music has changed over the past decade from tape to being mostly computer based; technology like Avid Pro Tools is really beneficial because it gives bands more freedom to make mistakes, as they’re not tied down to a certain number of time they’ve rented in a recording studio.

Overall, I was really impressed (though not surprised) at how engaged the audience was for each panel. I’m working on a wrap-up SXSW post, so expect that to come later in the week!

During today’s SXSW keynote, Bruce Springsteen took the stage to a packed room to talk music, politics and life. As I looked around and saw the faces of the thousands of people in the room captivated by his speech about his history and musical influences, it struck me that Bruce really understands marketing in the new age of social media. He engages with fans on many levels, and he has earned a wonderful, multi-decade career because of it.

To honor Bruce, his presence at SXSW and his legacy, here are 3 tips that companies should follow on social media we can learn from The Boss:

• Be genuine: When you see Bruce get on stage, you know there is no where he’d rather be. That excites his audience and engages his fans. When using social media, it’s important to create joy and passion whenever possible, through your content and your products.
• Let others join the conversation: When Bruce got on stage this morning, he engaged with the audience by asking questions and making jokes. Social media is no different – your fans should be given the opportunity to provide feedback and you should tailor your efforts to meet the needs of your fans. If your fans ask for more videos, give them more videos!
• Deliver useful (and truthful) content: Bruce, speaking to an audience of aspiring musicians, didn’t sugar coat how hard it was to make it as an artist. The information he provided was honest and empowering for the musicians in the room. Companies should make sure what they are posting is meaningful—no need to tweet four times a day if only one or two actually match up to your social media goals. 

When I arrived
to Austin late last night, one of the first things I noticed in the airport gift shops was stickers, t-shirts, water bottles and more with the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan. After exploring the city for a day, I realized it really was a quirky town with lots of character. While “weirdness” might be what the Austin tourism board promotes, SXSW is really all about the social. Twitter launched here in 2007, which put the festival on the map as a social media launchpad.

This year was no different, and while there were no true breakouts, the focus was heavily on geolocation based applications like Highlight and Glancee.

Highlight and Glancee both help you physically find people around you based on interests and mutual friends—leveraging information from your Facebook account. It can also make “introductions” to people who are in the same vicinity as you, thus connecting you to people you might be compatible with. This is very interesting for a venue like SXSW, where many people are looking to make connections and get in touch with some new people. Though for some, it seems a little cyber-stalkery and the location isn’t always perfect. Today, I sat at the same table as a friend and Glancee told me he was 206 yards away.

On another note (and how can we not address this?), in addition to connecting with people through social apps, this year you can actually get online—using people. In a controversial marketing attempt, NY based BBH Labs hired homeless people throughout the city to act as 4G mobile hotspots. The activity was met with criticism, and BBH Labs has already said that SXSW was a trial for the company and that it will likely not move forward with this plan.

We’re excited to see what tomorrow brings during another day at SXSW. More tomorrow!

Unless you are living under a rock, you have likely seen at least one of the popular “Sh*t People Say” videos that have been making the rounds online  What started as a trend built around social profiles (girls, single girls, yogis, New Yorkers) quickly took over the professional space as well with the influx of videos like Sh*t Graphic Designers Say and even Sh*t PR People Say (who, in our line of work, hasn’t asked someone to “take the lead on that” or “made a few tweaks” to a colleague’s work?).

 Here at Version 2.0, everyone has a favorite (hint: Sh*t Nobody Says is among them), and we were excited at the prospect of collaborating with one of our client to develop one for their own industry. Aside from being a great excuse to put our flip cam to use, we saw a valuable opportunity to insert our client into the excitement and leverage the platform to build some buzz.

What makes all of these videos so compelling and shareable is that they are so on-point and easy to relate to. The recipe for viral success? Identify a target audience that is 1) self aware, 2) social media savvy and 3) not lacking a sense of humor.

Our client HiveFire, makers of the content curation software Curata, seemed like the perfect candidate, and we had a blast collaborating to figure out what phrases were constantly bouncing around their offices.

What did we come up with? Check out Sh*t Content Marketers Say to see for yourself.

At Version 2.0, we’re typically focused on the business section headlines and the executives behind them. But this week, as the New England Patriots prepare for their divisional playoff matchup against the Denver Broncos tomorrow night, it has been hard to ignore the onslaught of buzz surrounding not our beloved QB Tom Brady, but his contender:  squeaky clean Denver QB, Tim Tebow.

The headlines, however, often focus less on Tebow’s (sometimes questionable) prowess on the gridiron, and instead upon his devout and publically-demonstrated Christian beliefs—like getting down on one knee and bowing one’s head in prayer, which has been widely dubbed “Tebowing.”  Saturday Night Live even went so far as to develop this skit where Jesus appears to ask Tebow to “tone it down” with his religious zealotry and start playing better earlier in games.

Whether you appreciate his commitment to his beliefs or scoff at his public prayer, one thing is clear: it’s capturing a lot of attention. Consider the following statistics:

• 20,000: the number of user-submitted images now featured on the website, Tebowing.com, which launched in October and features images of people Tebowing in their everyday lives—from a fetus and Winnie the Pooh, to those paying homage at famous locations around the world.
• 9,420: the number of tweets per second including  the term “Tebow” following his overtime win against the Pittsburgh Steelers on January 8—including shout outs from Lady Gaga and Kobe Bryant. This broke the previous record held by Beyonce Knowles of 8,868 tweets per second when she revealed her baby bump at the MTV Music Awards.
• 47: the number of different ways internet searchers (mis)spelled the player’s name during the nearly 200,000 searches conducted following the game noted above, according to The Wall Street Journal’s coverage of Salesforce Radian 6 research. Fans’ glee or anguish may have contributed to the misspellings—“teeeebow” was searched for 661 times and “teboowww” was searched 98 times.
• 3:16: as in, the biblical passage John 3:16—“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life”—that is a favorite of Tebow and one that he, at times, had painted on his black eye paint. “John 3:16” was also the most searched term on Google last Monday, the day following his heroic overtime win. By coincidence (or was it divine intervention?), Tebow threw for a season-high 316 yards and set an NFL record with 31.6 yards per completion.

But heading into this weekend’s game between the Patriots, which the Boston Herald dubbed a “Clash of Biblical Proportions” in yesterday’s paper, we only care about one number: three—which represents the number of Super Bowl Championships Brady has brought back to New England (compared to Tebow’s zero).

While the value of social media has finally been accepted by many marketers, it’s clear it’s still a long way from reaching its full capacity. Tools and tactics are introduced all the time, and this recent article from The Boston Globe discusses the newest industry embracing the phenomenom: live performance theaters. This is a surprising clash of the old and the new, and unlike TV programs that promote hashtags in the corner, this acceptance of technology is not what one would expect from one of the oldest forms of entertainment.

Theaters throughout the country are struggling to keep their doors open and because of this, they’ve begun to endorse special sections — known as “tweet seats” — where audience members are allowed to use their mobile phones during performances to engage with Twitter (yes, during!) a show. This option gives audience members (and those outside the theater) a way to interact with performances, and it might be a great way to attract young people, whose presence is lacking in theaters around the world.

“Tweet seats” are already being utilized by theaters across the country. At the Palm Beach Opera this month, audience members attending “Madama Butterfly” used the hashtag #pbobutterfly to update followers and share predictions. One tweeter wrote “Butterfly will die. Goosebumps. #pbobutterfly.”

While some may complain that Twitter usage in the theater could distract audience members or even performers, internet enthusiast David Smooke (@DavidSmooke) says, “this is the inevitable shift to real time notes. Priceless one liners are no longer zinged to the monocles and canes of a play’s intermission, but rather can be read — in real time by anyone — inside or outside the theater.”

Do you think audiences should be allowed to tweet at the theater? Will more theaters begin to embrace “tweet-seats” and encourage audience participation throughout the show? We welcome your thoughts.

As we hit the stores or search online to finish up our holiday shopping during these last hectic days before Christmas, it strikes me how significantly brand drives many of the purchase decisions (and gift requests!) that all of us make during the holiday shopping season as well as throughout the year.  According to data collected on global trade by Version 2.0 client Panjiva, Mattel’s Barbie is once again the top holiday import to the United States.  Panjiva’s CEO Josh Green speculates that retailers are focusing on classic toys such as Barbie, Lego and Hot Wheels rather than toys that are unknown and/or have no brand appeal.

In looking forward to 2012, we are excited to continue examining the relationship of CEOs to their brands (see our online survey, if you haven’t taken it yet) and analyzing the role that brand plays in the client programs and successes we’ve experienced in the past year.  For more on Version 2.0’s work with clients, please take a look at our case studies which are now posted on the website.

Everyone at Version 2.0 joins me in wishing you a happy and restful holiday season and great success in 2012.

Maura FitzGerald

The feud that has erupted on social media between Alec Baldwin and American Airlines has already claimed some victims – namely, Baldwin’s Twitter account, which he has decommissioned after a series of rants in response to being removed from an American Airlines flight for refusing to turn off his iPad before take-off.

Not among the victims, apparently, is American Airlines’ sense of pride and righteousness: the company issued a public statement via Facebook to set the record straight, in which is cited FAA regulations that required Baldwin to turn off his electronic devices (he didn’t – apparently he was too engrossed in a word game) and listen to all crew member instructions (we’re pretty sure that insulting flight staff through expletives isn’t “listening”).

Although a good celebrity mud-slinging session always catches our attention, we’ve been drawn to this story because AA has taken a tried-and-true PR approach by issuing a public statement and leaving it at that. Rather than positioning this as an opportunity to bring a disgruntled customer back on board, American seems to be standing behind its employees and backing their decision to kick Baldwin to the curb – or at least back into the airport security line. (Do celebrities get their own security line? We want to know.)

American Airlines may be bankrupt, and its flights may leave some wanting. However, we have to respect the company for staying above the fray so far on this one. It’s a smart move, too, to deliver a traditional press statement through Facebook, not Twitter. This way, American’s “friends” can offer support, and it has fueled lots of supportive Tweets in response. American’s brand perception might be stung by the company’s financial straits, but this kind of statement may indicate a sort of inner brand strength that will help the culture transform and succeed.

We can’t wait to see how this plays out in the media over the next few hours – meantime, however, it looks like Zynga, the maker of “Words with Friends,” Baldwin’s professed addiction, may steal the spotlight with its clever tweetpic of a pro-Alec Words with Friends gameboard . Of course, after the unflattering picture painted of that organization in the New York Times recently, we know they could use some positive coverage…