Tiger Woods vs. David Letterman

December 10, 2009 By 10 Comments

Ever since the Tiger Woods story broke, we’ve been watching it from a communications perspective: How Tiger communicates, what he says when, and whether or not he’s handling this crisis right. We blogged about it last week (you can see that post here).

And, since it broke, we’ve also noticed something really eerie: for someone who talks to the press a lot, who relies on his public image for income (endorsements, public appearances, things outside of golf) — Tiger Woods has really bungled this crisis.

Then there’s David Letterman.

Remember his admission of guilt — for what would appear to be similar “transgressions” — on his TV show?

We reached out to some of our smart contacts in the Communications world to ask why David Letterman emerged from his story relatively unscathed — and Tiger’s story appears to keep going and going, putting his endorsement deals and his status as the first “Billion-Dollar Athlete” in serious jeopardy.

An About-Face of Character?

Gary Unger, Creative Genius, @garyunger on Twitter, says that when image doesn’t match reality, reporters and the public look for more:

“My initial thoughts are that Letterman has been known to be an @ss throughout the years. Recently his rants on Sarah Palin showed him to be ‘not very nice’ as far as continuing to pick on someone who lost. Not good form for the most part. (But now that Palin is back in the spotlight I think she’s fair game). And previously with Bush, Misc. sports stars, some movie stars. But more notably he was called out years ago for his philandering. I believe his wife now was his live in girlfriend for about 10 years. And he had multiple girlfriends at the same time. So Letterman’s character is ‘old news.’

Now Woods is a different story, he’s been projecting this squeaky clean image all these years. Great relationship with his dad and mom. Wasn’t photographed at strip clubs, buying drugs, or even having temper tantrums. And then all of a sudden this accident and some ‘weird’ parts to the story. Then Woods went into hiding. Not a good idea since reporters can smell the ‘weird’ and want to reconcile the weird part of the story to reality. Woods who is likely at base character a nice guy did what nice guys do, they try to stay out of the spotlight when they do something embarrassing and see that they went off the path and want to get back on the correct path.

The difference between the two: Letterman came right out and said it to America and that took the initial sting out of the issue. Reporters don’t have the ‘scoop’ and now can only report, not ‘find.’ Woods gave the sharks what they live for, the scoop. Not only that Woods is not talking, Letterman talked to whoever wanted to talk about it.

Letterman: ‘I’m an @ss, what are you going to do about it’

Woods: ‘uh….’”

Avoid the Phrase “No Comment” at All Costs

Rachel Kay (@rachelakay on Twitter), from Rachel Kay Public Relations (whose blog is called CommuniKaytrix), on Tiger’s “no comment,” thoughts she first shared right after the story broke:

“When we take clients through media training, one of the first rules we teach is to never say ‘no comment.’ The idea is that ‘no comment’ is essentially an admission of guilt. Whether or not it really is, ‘no comment’ can leave people feeling like they are uninformed, misinformed or that a concern is being disregarded. As the investigation into the accident heats up, what was concern for Tiger seems to be shifting to a feeling of what is Tiger not telling us?”

Get Out in Front, NOW.

Gini Dietrich, CEO of Arment Dietrich Public Relations, and author of the Spin Sucks blog:

“David Letterman got out in front of his ‘situation,’ he told people what happened, what he did, and he made it a non-story. Media talked it about it maybe two days and then got bored with the story because there wasn’t any dirt to dig up. With Tiger, just like what you blogged about last week, if he’d gotten out in front of the story (even 24 hours later) and was honest, no one would be digging up all of his mistresses.

This is crisis PR 101. Describe the situation, be honest, apologize, say what you’re going to do to fix it, and live your life. When it becomes a story is when you lie, when you avert questions, and when there clearly is something people want to find out to bring you down.”

So, we ask you, fair readers: how should Tiger communicate from here on out?

Filed Under: Influencers, Personal Brand, Uncategorized

How Tiger Can Get Past the Crisis – Hint: Social Media Can Help

November 30, 2009 By 14 Comments

Area 224 Managing Principal Dave Van de Walle has been part of crisis communications teams at Aon Corp., TransUnion and U Sphere. He was also Sports Information Director at Chicago State University in the mid-1990s. Here are his thoughts on the Tiger Woods accident and the aftermath:

If you think this is a complex crisis communications problem – the one being faced by Tiger Woods, uber-golfer, the first billion-dollar athlete, spokesperson for Gillette, and multi-ethnic role model of epic proportions – you might be under-estimating how complex it is.

There used to be a maxim about crisis communications: “tell it all, tell it early, tell it honestly.” These are organizational communications rules – but not personal brand management communications rules. BIG difference, and one that Tiger must confront head-on.

He’s his own team.

Seriously, as much as you might THINK he and his caddie (Steve Wiliams) are a team, or he and his wife, Elin, are a team – the reality here is it’s just Tiger Woods.

Now that everyone has a theory, what’s the world’s most famous athlete to do?

Tiger issued a statement asking for space, saying that “my family and I deserve some privacy.” Given the fact that golf reporters respect the guy for his class and dignity and how he treats them, I’d be inclined to cut him some slack.

Let’s borrow rather liberally from the playbook of another World-Class Athlete, Michael Phelps. Remember him? When he won all those gold medals, he grew a large Facebook following. VERY LARGE. 2,800,000+. He engaged with them as much as an athlete of his stature can – not a ton, but you felt like he was at least spending some time interacting.

When Michael Phelps had a problem,  he confronted it head-on, through Facebook friends. Apologizing for letting them down. Then he went back to business, and his support kept growing.

He took control of the story, sure; but he engaged the masses where they were. He worked with the Groundswell. Not against it.

[Remember: after Michael Phelps did all this public apology and sorry I let you down stuff, he had a minor fender-bender? He got out in front of that story, too. On Facebook.]

Meantime, back to Tiger. His site is one-way — comment on the site, but don’t talk with Tiger. In fact, the one-way nature of his site is part of the problem: his is a brand, and it’s personal, but it’s not, well, personal. You feel like you’re interacting with a corporation. Which you are.

Not a regular guy who dominates but doesn’t have too much time for the little people.

How to confront this head-on? Through social media? Some advice for Tiger:

Engage. The masses, the little people, your favorite reporter, another golfer. Someone.

Comment back. Please, give us a token “hey Bob129, thanks for your support! Elin and I are doing well, we’re both a little jarred by the accident.”

Tweet. Seriously, Twitter got out in front of this story and it took on a life of its own. You can start taking it back through a verified account, a little interaction, and some honesty. Even if all you want to say is “my face hurts.”

Tiger, I’m with you on the respect for privacy stuff. I’m sorta with you on the “I’m human” stuff. I’d really like to believe your story — when and if you share it. So long as you start talking with the gallery.

The gallery is out here, on Social Media.

Filed Under: Influencers, smm, Uncategorized

Why Area 224 is Bullish on the Business Climate (and What’s In It For You)

November 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

There’s now a lot of the RIGHT kind of activity out there, and we thought we’d share some reasons why we’re bullish on the business climate – as well as the “WIIFM” – “What’s In It for Me?” – for you.

Big Business Paying Attention to The Right Marketing Focus

Yes, we’ve talked to quite a few big business people — large, publicly traded companies, for example — who have decided that they need to take yet another look at how they are allocating funds. And being nimble enough to shift — sometimes on a dime — to Social Media Marketing and Mobile Technologies.

Case in point: Allstate Roadside Services, whose Mobile App is already off to a rousing start. [DISCLOSURE: Area 224 has a client relationship with Allstate Roadside Services to support this Mobile App.] The marketing push around this involves an integrated campaign — not JUST social media — but the decision to launch this in the first place stemmed from success the business had with MINI and a mobile app for MINI users.

Startups Jumping in With Both Feet – And Using the Bootstrap

No better way to start a business than to bootstrap and learn along the way. We did it with U Sphere — and boy did we learn a ton here about what makes things successful and, in our case, why things don’t scale or monetize enough to support the long-term business case.

Bootstrapping — building your business through sweat equity, looking under couch cushions for money, funding efforts out of cash flow — will give you the ability to understand just what the market will support. Or not support.

In any event, it seems like every day we’re tweeting with or getting a request to connect with a new startup. Most will not succeed, but some will figure it out. And all have the ability to learn from what the market tells them. (We did.)

Niche Within the Niche – Find it and Succeed

Self-serving mention of our Real SMM business — Social Media Marketing for Real Estate — and how it’s poised to make some things happen for the real estate industry.

Specifically, helping Realtors make better connections with consumers — i.e., people who will buy a house from them. Going after the overall real estate industry is, IMHO, too broad a focus. The “How Do You Market Yourself?” within real estate question — that’s a niche we think Social Media Marketing can help answer. Not all Realtors will want to get it, but the niche within the niche is where we’ll look for customers.

B2B Marketers Will Figure Out Social Media Marketing

It’s not going to happen overnight, but there’s something in each of the three other blurbs above for the B2B Marketing world.

For instance — where best to focus marketing dollars? Since SMM is trackable, moving ad dollars from print to online will give much better ROI data. Often, the business trade publications (maybe ironically) are the best place for online marketing — usually there’s a robust list, really good niche traffic numbers, and editorial content that drives visitors. (Because trade reporters with really good relationships are the ones breaking the industry stories that can drive traffic for right-now visitors that aren’t reading the print publication.)

We’ve talked to B2B marketers about sorting this out — we were part of a great discussion last week at Website Magazine’s Roundtable Discussion. (Disclosure — that’s not the official name, but Area 224 was there, at a round table, under a sign that said “Social Media Marketing.” The format of the networking event was great — move around every three minutes and talk about your business issues and learn from each other. Which we did.) It’s an investment — Social Media Marketing is an investment. B2B Marketers know that. How to best allocate the investment will take time to figure out — but the answer comes back to one of the discussions we’ve had over and over.

Why Do You Want To “Do Social Media Marketing” In The First Place?

Customer Service? Market Research? Public Relations? Executive Positioning?

B2B Marketers who know that up front — “Hey, let’s use Twitter to do brand research and see if anyone knows who we are?” — are poised for success.

So, Why are You Bullish on the Business Climate?

Filed Under: brand communications, Distribution, Influencers, smm

The Three Things Your Business NEEDS: HINT – None of Them Are Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn

September 16, 2009 By 2 Comments

Had a phenomenal conversation with my brother Jim today. Not just because he’s my brother and always a great guy to chat with, but because he’s moving forward at breakneck speed on a business launch of his own.

I happen to eat this stuff up: nothing in the business world is more thrilling than getting something off the ground.

I won’t share what he’s doing just yet — he’ll do that on his terms and when he’s ready — but I will tell you that our conversation ended up centering on the three things every business NEEDS. Right Now. Be prepared to be surprised, as these won’t be what you think you’d read in this space.

1. Influencers — and a Strategy to Reach Them. Let’s assume that Jim has a crystal-clear value proposition for his business (something he has and didn’t need to explain at all). Who is most important to connect with?

Jim knows his influencers and he’s actually sitting down with them already. The strategy, for him, is coming up with the WIIFM: “What’s In It For Me.” These influencers can be enticed, sure, with the right “thing” — maybe it’s an affiliate relationship, a cross-selling agreement, a cross-promotional idea.

Jim’s well on his way to sorting this out. I like his approach already, and the word “co-opetition” comest to mind.

2. Distribution — Getting The Stuff To Market. Nice, one, Jim — he’s already mapped this out. There are people who can use the widgets and happen to be the logical distribution channels for what he’s got. He’s picked up the phone and called them — again, WIIFM — and talked about what partnering would do for them.

He’s used the term “sub it out” a couple times already: he will tap the right people to implement this solution, so his value here is in his expertise in this niche. (Which is actually a niche within a niche, one of my favorite approaches.) This niche expertise brings us to thing three…

3. Positioning, or, in this case, “Brand Jim.” Because he has his crystal-clear value proposition, and it is something he is 110% passionate about, this will be pretty easy. But the proper positioning here is vital.

I’ll offer that steps 1 and 2 will help quite a bit with these. Aligning himself with the right people (he’s doing that already) helps “position” him as the expert in the understanding of this “niche within a niche” and what it means to the consumer. It’s impossible for him to be positioned as the low-cost leader here, because of the nature of his distribution channel and the influencers he’s already worked with. If he got different influencers on board, he could paint himself into a corner, something he’s very careful about. Plus, there’s a value exchange: you’re not just buying the widget but also the implementation of the widget AND Jim’s expertise in helping you use the widget.

Will this three-step program make you wildly successful? No guarantees of that.

But we’ve seen many a product and service launch that were missing one of these three, and that can doom you from the get-go.

Happy Launching!

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