Your Brand Is Under Attack! What Do You Do? – 101.

In the wake of the ongoing WikiLeaks saga, numerous household name brands have come under online attack. Companies such as Visa, Amazon and PayPal have experienced cyber attacks in the past couple of weeks as retaliation for attempts to block the WikiLeaks website. While attacks of this proportion are uncommon, it underscores the importance of being prepared and having a strong social media crisis management plan already in place when one, two or 47,000 people attack your brand online. Drawing on my own experiences as well as a few national case studies, here are a few suggestions to adhere to when Web 2.0 attacks:

Don’t freak out. It’s easy to hit the panic button, jump into a space pod and blast off to another planet still lacking modern technology. OK, it’s not that easy, but panicking is a surefire way to act impulsively, which almost always leads to bad decisions. In the social media world, a mountain can be made out of a mole hill very quickly. Don’t underestimate the power of disgruntled consumers, the investment community or the media! Immediately sit down with your colleagues and formulate a proactive plan that addresses the crisis. Set a goal(s) and assess how you’re going to go about attaining it, then execute.

What are you waiting for? Act quickly! It’s true what they say c timing is everything. If it takes you longer than 24 hours to respond, you might as well pack it up and go home. Ask Gary Vaynerchuk, wine aficionado and entrepreneur. A couple of years ago someone hacked into his website, programming the site to show pornographic images when consumers accessed it. Did Vaynerchuk just let the storm blow over? No. He immediately posted a video blog apologizing to offended parties, then tweeted the blog link to his hundreds of thousands of followers.

A Beckerman client company that is publicly traded recently fell victim to a slew of written attacks from the same individual on multiple investment related message boards. With SEO having the importance that it does within the investment community, we wanted to react quickly to “put out” false claims that were sure to be seen when Googling the company name or the CEO. We immediately tripled the blogging efforts on behalf of the client, and posted two press releases highlighting recent technological advances. We also stepped up the outreach for company blog content, making sure that all relevant trade publications and some national media picked it up. The results were immediate. While still online, the potentially damaging comments are more difficult to find -- resulting in a happy client.

Don’t Censor. Seriously. Just ask Cooks Source Magazine. Wait, you can’t -- they’re not around anymore. Want to know why? Read this. Nestle also tried deleting negative posts on their Facebook wall and threatening to take legal action against those using a depiction of their logo as a profile image. Give me a break.

My agency works on a consumer client that recently came under fire from two individuals who were unhappy with political views taken on the product’s Facebook page. Understandably, as October and November yielded some historic political events that in hindsight probably had no place on there. While these two internet crusaders took to Facebook to vent their displeasure at seeing a product take a political stance, our team addressed how to diffuse the situation. While an obvious easy and immediate solution would have been to ban the individuals from the Facebook page and delete their negative (but not profane or scandalous) comments, we elected to give them their voice. We actually reposted their content for all to see, and addressed it head on. One of the two individuals ended up quietly leaving the page, while the other responded positively and remains a frequent. The manner in which we handled the situation actually resulted in a significant increase of fans during the three-day stretch – a success in our book.

Don’t spin/be transparent. This one should be easy but alas, it’s not. You screwed up. Admit it, and go about fixing your mistake. You know who Scott Monty is, right? It’s an old story that I’ll let you Google on your own time, but essentially Monty, the resident social media expert at Ford Motors, quickly and effectively addressed a nasty situation between a few website owners and Ford’s lawyers, who were pursuing legal action to shut them down for misuse of a logo. Without waiting to watch a crisis unfold, Monty fixed the issue by publicly posting about it in a proactive manner. There was no spin, just brutal honesty about what both sides did to correct the situation and how to avoid it from happening again.

An easy way to make a bad situation worse is to get caught twisting the truth to support your viewpoint. Mike Shanahan, head coach of the Washington Redskins, recently endured a hectic two-week period in which he was accused of being a racist following his benching of quarterback Donovan McNabb. When asked why he benched McNabb, Shanahan gave a weak explanation, then backtracked on it. Twenty four hours later, Kyle Shanahan, his son and team offensive coordinator, altered the story one more time. Soon after, Washington Post columnist Josh Weinstein penned an article calling Shanahan racist for his actions. Is Shanahan racist? I don’t think so, but by not handling the situation in a transparent manner, he opened himself up for attack.

It will happen again. These examples of methods to protect/recover from an online attack of your brand have been learned from experience -- either others’ or our own. You can’t predict when it will happen again, but if you choose to stay in business or a marketing profession – it will. Moving quickly, honestly and proactively are tools for success the next time your brand faces a digital crisis.

Confession: I'm An Online Lurker

In web speak, a lurker is a person who reads discussions on a message board, newsgroup, chatroom, file sharing or other interactive site, but rarely or never participates actively. Research indicates that "lurkers make up over 90 percent of online groups."

It may sound strange that I recommend to my clients that the best way to learn their way around an online site like Twitter or Facebook is by lurking first. That means reading and watching, but not participating until you are sure you're not going to make a mistake.

Most companies that venture into the social media space are initially sidetracked by information they are distributing, rarely taking the necessary time to see what's going on around them. Social media is called "social" for a reason. The goal is interaction, and you can't interact without listening and following others no matter how loud you scream. Below are a few tips for paying attention to enhance and improve your digital experience.

Pick Some Blogs. Then Read Them. You'll be amazed how much you learn about your company, industry and competitors by reading blogs. Curious why a competitor seems to attract more funding? Read their CEO's blog. Want to know why your company hasn't been featured in the New York Times? Follow their green blog, Green Inc., then ask yourself why if you would be a good fit.


One month of following a blog isn't enough. Understanding what your competitors or target audiences are doing day-to-day is a great way to gauge what's working for them and what isn't. If it's something you can fit into your business model, maybe it's worth some consideration. If competitors burned through cash on a failed venture, maybe there's a lesson to be learned from that too. Becoming knowledgeable about various media outlets has less to do with social media and more to do with knowing and understanding your trade.

Follow/Fan/Subscribe. As with blogging, learning from others is fantastic way to improve one's own social media skills. If a company runs a successful campaign that triples their sales for a quarter, will you be aware of that? If a competitor makes a colossal and public mistake using social media, do you think you'll make the same one? Hopefully not, but you might if you're not paying attention to what others are doing.

Many consumer product marketing reps were paying careful attention to the successful social media Old Spice Guy campaign that ran this past summer. Where did Old Spice get that idea? They weren't the originator, that's for sure. The "Most Interesting Man" from Dos Equis came first, but who came before him? Social media success can be cyclical, so sign up to follow a company on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook and subscribe to their YouTube channel. You never know when the next big idea might hit you, and what might trigger it.

What Are Your Fans Saying? Last, but not least, what are your fans, followers, members, etc. saying about your company? Yes, it's great that you distribute two releases a week, tweet three company profiles and hold a contest every Friday. But sometimes you just need to shut up and listen!

If one displeased stockholder is vocal about your shareholder letter... that might not be a big deal. However, if you're finding tweets/Facebook posts from 5, 10, 50, 100, etc., displeased shareholders...that might be an issue. Remember, with social media, small numbers can become large numbers and molehills can become mountains VERY fast. You should spend more time listening to your existing followers/fans than outputting your content.

It's also important to gauge reaction to your content and to alter your approach based on results. It doesn't do any good to have 10,000 Facebook fans when half of them don't view the page and the other half post negative content. Quantity is important, but quality is everything. Make sure you remember that every time you log-in that social media is used to better engage your audience.

Lurking and listening is a guaranteed way to keep your finger on the pulse of your industry and up-to-date with what your competitors are doing.

Follow me on Twitter @efisch

Managing Your Time Using Social Media

For many, especially those giving the Web 2.0 world their first embrace, social media presents a challenge in terms of time management. Between the thousands of social media venues and the countless tools used to manage them, it's easy to see how even the most experienced and savvy web user can lose track of time.

Time management is an important aspect in handling any work-related task, and social media needs to be viewed as one such component. The following are some general rules to live by:

Identify Your Audience. It is always important to focus on what works and what doesn't. Maybe you have a great blog connected to your website where original content continuously goes viral. Your links are often retweeted and your LinkedIn inbox is full of requests to connect. So why are you spending a third of your social media efforts on Facebook? Your company fan page only has 77 fans! Spend the time where it is most productive. Respond to some more LinkedIn requests or cut another blog post. Sure, you can post the link to the Facebook page and respond to any online commentary, but if your audience isn't engaging you on Facebook, you should be focusing your social media efforts elsewhere.

Set Goals. Before creating a Twitter handle, YouTube
stream or Facebook fan page, you need to ask yourself, "What am I trying to accomplish?" Of course, your social media presence should be reflective of your company/industry, whether it's business to business, a consumer product, a non-profit, etc. Do the research. Do you want a large, general fan base where any member/follower/subscriber is accepted, or do you want a refined audience whose business interests are similar to yours? Is generating discussion/feedback and establishing your company representative as a thought leader important? Are you looking to connect with the investment community? By identifying these goals, you can pick and choose what demographic groups you should be reaching out to, and how much time you should be spending using social media venues to do so. Set initial goals such as gaining 500 Twitter followers in the first month, initiating three productive discussions on Facebook or connecting with 10 target individuals on LinkedIn. By setting/reaching your goals, you create metrics for time spent.

Stay Focused. OK, this is the hardest one, at least in my experience. Just as with web surfing, what started off as a focused work task can end up 14 browser windows later as watching YouTube videos of soccer highlights from 1986 (obviously I'm telling you this from personal experience). If you're looking for content to post, individuals to connect with or companies to follow, you should be doing so without distraction. Gameplan specifically what you are looking for and seek only targets that fit that criteria. Another tip involves using a timer. Set aside a certain percentage/portion of your workday to devote to a certain task, and set the timer. When it's over, no extensions and no overtime - move on.

As with anything else, time management for social media revolves around a plan, execution and self-discipline. By implementing a system that integrates social media into your workday while still maintaining a high level of productivity for your business, you too can succeed in the social media frontier of 2010.

Follow Eric on Twitter: @efisch

Building on clean tech from real estate roots

My agency Beckerman (www.beckermanpr.com) was recently featured in an NJ Biz article about our company growth. I thought it would be worth posting to here, and yes, I'm included in the photo towards the bottom, all the way to the left!

Building on clean tech from real estate roots

Beckerman’s expansion strategy puts public relations firm’s new focus on emerging energy clients

Monday, July 12, 2010 12:00 AM
By Evelyn Lee

Evelyn Lee

Evelyn Lee covers real estate, economic development and the environment for NJBIZ. She has been a staff reporter here since 2006.

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After building its reputation representing some of New Jersey’s top real estate players over the past two decades, Beckerman Public Relations is now pursuing an aggressive national expansion plan that will be driven by acquisitions in a different sector: clean technology.

“Clean technology is going to be here for a long time,” said Keith Zakheim, president of the Hackensack-based firm. “It’s at the confluence of three really important trends” — a push from the federal government to increase renewable-energy use; greater efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and national security concerns, as the purchase of fossil fuels tends to support countries that are not U.S. allies.

Through a series of major acquisitions, Michael Beckerman, CEO of Beckerman Public Relations, says his company will become ‘the dominant brand, nationally, for sustainibility.’ [Christina Mazza]

Zakheim, 35, was the founder of Avalanche Strategic Communications, a Hackensack-based public relations firm with a niche in clean technology, before being acquired by Beckerman in June 2009. Beckerman subsequently relocated its headquarters from Bedminster to Hackensack; the firm also opened satellite offices in New York and Washington, D.C.

Since then, the company has scooped up two other PR firms — Wise PR, a Manhattan-based digital media specialist firm, in September 2009, and last month, Antenna Group Inc., a San Francisco-based PR firm specializing in clean-tech companies.

With the Antenna acquisition, Beckerman is now the largest clean technology PR firm in the country, with 35 clients between its Hackensack and San Francisco offices, Zakheim said.

Of the company’s 50 employees, about 18 are dedicated to clean technology, and will work under the Antenna brand, which Beckerman will retain as a subsidiary.

“Clean tech is clearly an area we want to be a category killer in,” said Michael Beckerman, CEO. “We will be the dominant brand, nationally, for sustainability.”

Beckerman, 46, made a name for his company, which he founded in 1989, by amassing a client base featuring some of the most prominent names in New Jersey real estate, such as Advance Realty Group, CB Richard Ellis and NAI James E. Hanson — each of which has been a client for more than a decade.

Beckerman Public Relations CEO Michael Beckerman, second from right, said his continuing growth strategy involves acquiring additional public relations firms that handle clean energy. Here, Beckerman stands in the firm’s Hackensack office with, from left, Eric Fischgrund, senior account executive; Jason Heller, associate account executive; and Cassandra Carpio, account executive. [Christina Mazza]

“The greatest barometer of my success is the tenure of my clients,” he said.

That may have come, however, at the expense of what some critics have called high turnover at the company.

“I am a tough guy to work for,” he said. “I drive people hard, and I want people working for me that are going to really, really kill for their clients.” Turnover is “a byproduct of this culture that I’ve built, which is always focused on client retention.”

Retention, however, will be joined by expansion, as Beckerman continues its aggressive pace of acquisitions. “I really wanted to diversify the firm, and use the economy’s contraction as an opportunity to go out and acquire other PR firms,” he said. The company plans to make one or two acquisitions every year over the next five years, with a focus on clean-technology PR firms over the next two years.

“We’re growing in very strategic locations, where clean tech is driving the economy,” identifying Boston, Denver and Texas as locations where the industry is strongest. The company also aims to open a second New York office, which will be devoted to clean technology.

Meanwhile, the company also is building its clean-technology client base in the Garden State, said Zakheim, who is heading up the acquisitions for the company and will oversee its clean-technology practice. “In clean tech, New Jersey is fast becoming one of the major players in the country,” because of the various incentives and rebates the state offers for solar and other renewable-energy projects, he said.

While all Beckerman’s clean-technology clients had previously been based on the West Coast, the firm has begun signing more New Jersey companies in the past three or four months, and now represents four local businesses.

Clean technology is driving much of the company’s growth. Prior to its acquisition of Avalanche, real estate accounted for about 80 percent of Beckerman’s revenue; that industry now makes up only 25 percent of its billings, while clean technology is responsible for 50 percent, Beckerman said.

The real estate slowdown “didn’t adversely affect us that much, because the nature of PR is companies need you in good times and in bad times,” Beckerman said, though the company lost 10 percent of its client base during the downturn.

But, “I still see real estate as a growth opportunity for us,” he added, including national expansion. The firm is picking up more real estate clients in New York, and also expects big growth on the real estate front in San Francisco, he said.

Meanwhile, in clean technology, the company already has created a comfortable lead over its competitors.

“They’re stepping up to the plate and we’re rounding second base already, heading towards third,” Beckerman said. “We’re extremely well-positioned in that niche. I want to keep going.”

How to Begin Building Your Online Community

Great. You've created your Facebook fan page (the social media website ranked #1 in terms of daily visitors) for your business or your client. Next, you set up your Twitter account (the fastest growing micro blogging application in the world), followed by your YouTube profile. Logos, contact information, and company bios have been updated - so now what?

You may have a great page background for Twitter or post the most interesting and unique articles to your "wall" on Facebook, but if nobody's watching, your content goes to waste.

So, how do you build an audience for your content? The following are a few suggestions you might find helpful when launching a social media campaign for a business:

- Post Links on Your Website! - This might sound like common sense, but every day I encounter another company that makes the mistake of not posting their social media links to their website. There are varieties of aesthetically appealing visual designs you can choose from. Whether it's an icon that says "Follow Us On Twitter" or one that says "Like Us On Facebook," get those links on your homepage so you can direct your most likely followers - those who are interested enough in your company to already be checking out your website -- to your social media sites!

- Link! Link! Link! - In the digital media world sharing is caring, so show some love for your new Internet friends. Read an article supporting major funding for your industry? Post it. The Wall Street Journal writes a favorable review of your groundbreaking state-of-the-art technology? Post it. You get the idea. The more people and places you can link to, the better chance you have of your content being noticed. While doing this, it is important to give credit where credit is due.There are various ways you can share outside content crediting those who authored it. Social media is reciprocal; you'll be surprised how many share your content with their audiences.

- Stimulate Your Audience - This phrase may be overkill by now, but social media is more than just posting editorial coverage, company news and relevant photos about your company. Listen to what people are saying, and ask questions. Social media is just like the real world - if you're sitting across from someone at a restaurant talking AT them until you're blue in the face, they're going to stand up and walk away. Ask your audience for feedback on your company; what they're currently doing or whether or not they understand a company announcement, press release, etc.

- Monitor For Your Brand/Industry - You're not the only person out there talking about your company (at least I hope not), so wouldn't it make sense if those talking about you on social media outlets knew you were out there too? If you're not using a professional social media monitoring service then get out your detective tools and do some sleuthing on your own. Start with your company name, and move outwards from there. Keywords that define your company and industry and names of competitors should be monitored on a daily basis. There are also websites out there that can do this for free, including SocialOopmh, HootSuite and TweetDeck.

There are many more ways to build your online communities via social media and establish quality relationships that result in sales, investments, insight or whatever else you're looking for. Have fun, be creative, share and connect with others. These steps are the building blocks for establishing long-term success online.