We were pleased to announce this week the addition of two more European-based companies to our expanding client roster of national and global brands.

Effective immediately, CoreMedia of Germany has appointed Bateman Group as agency of record for the U.S. for the full range of integrated PR and social media communications programs.

In addition, StepStone Solutions of the U.K. retained Bateman for a three-month brand building project to increase perception of StepStone Solutions in the U.S. as one of the world’s leading suppliers of Total Talent Management Solutions.

CoreMedia and StepStone Solutions join a small, but growing cadre of European-based companies who have turned to Bateman Group to jumpstart their North American presence. Others include The Open Group, Jericho Forum, Panda Security and Kapow Technologies.

Please join us in welcoming CoreMedia and StepStone Solutions to the Bateman client roster!

Behold the April Fool’s Day edition of the Bateman Buzz Meter (technically #4), our semi-regular ranking of recent newsworthy events based on PR and Social Media effectiveness.  As always, please comment on any current news headlines or PR stunts you think are worthy of the Buzz Meter we may have missed.

(Remember to click on the image to view it in full screen)

]]> http://www.batemanbanter.com/2010/04/bateman-buzz-meter-april-fools-day-edition/feed/ 0 http://www.batemanbanter.com/2010/03/wikipedia-rules/ http://www.batemanbanter.com/2010/03/wikipedia-rules/#comments Thu, 25 Mar 2010 16:27:28 +0000 Bill Bourdon http://www.batemanbanter.com/?p=461

Jay Walsh, Wikipedia

My colleague Amy just turned me on to a PRWeek Q&A with Wikipedia’s head of communications Jay Walsh, who offers some helpful tips about contributing content to the site.

Wikipedia entries for technology companies and their market segments often rank in the top five search results on Google, making them an increasingly important communication platform. It comes as no surprise that companies often turn to their PR agencies for advice on shaping or correcting their Wikipedia presence.

Some common questions we’ve received here at the Bateman Group include:
•    Can we publish our own Wikipedia entry or does a third party need to do it?
•    The Wikipedia entry on our company was turned into a stub – how do we get it back?
•    How do we edit an article that misrepresents our product?
•    We want to be closely associated with XYZ trend –can Wikipedia help?
•    How do we go about engaging our circle of influencers to collaborate on a Wikipedia entry for a new market category?

These are all issues that PR agencies can and should be proactively helping their clients navigate, but it’s crucial to follow the rules of Wikipedia engagement.

I’ve highlighted a few of Jay’s tips about complying with Wikipedia’s policies below. Are you playing by the rules?

Be Neutral
According to Jay – and this should not come as a surprise to most of our readers – one of the single most important rules to keep in mind is that maintaining a neutral point of view is a key aspect to contributing and editing Wikipedia content.

Publicists and PR pros are often representing clients, or even their own firms, and often come to Wikipedia just to edit those relevant articles.  Wikipedians can tell if you might not have a neutral point of view based on your actions and your history (every single edit to Wikipedia is visible to anyone – transparency is very important).

What Jay doesn’t tell us is that non-neutral content contributed by brands is seen a mile away by Wikipedia’s community and almost always removed from the site.  If your company is just dipping its toes into Wikipedia waters, starting small with an initial stub article for the community to build on often makes the most sense. If a company self-publishes a long and overtly promotional entry about itself, it will almost definitely experience resistance from the community and lose credibility in the process.

Wikipedia Tips
Jay offers the following practical tips for PR pros. Most of these involve common sense and follow industry standard social media etiquette, but there are a couple of gems in here, too.

•    If you start a page, keep it short (or make it a stub).  No need to write 2000 words in a first submission.
•    Be transparent about who you are.
•    Create a user account – and make one for one person only.  Don’t create user accounts that are broadly named (for example. WidgetsPR).  Wikipedians edit on behalf of themselves, not entities or groups.
•    Before you edit, ask if someone else in your firm or business already knows how.  They could save you a lot of time and advise you on the best way to proceed.
•    Make your PR assets available to Wikipedians.  We only use freely reusable images, so make your press image available under a creative commons license whenever possible.  Build robust websites for your business or your clients – provide up to date and high quality information so Wikipedia articles can have good sources when necessary.
•    Get to know what’s going on in the history of a page – especially if it’s a page about you or your business. Every edit and everything that’s happened to that page since it was created is publicly shared: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_history.

We’ll plan to share some specific Wikipedia case studies based on our client work in the future.

On June 25, 2009, we launched Bateman Banter, the Bateman Group’s official blog on topics and trends in communications, public relations, marketing, social media and technology  – and the areas where those topics intersect.  We thought our growing readership would appreciate a recap of the blog’s most popular posts from our first six months. For those of you visiting Bateman Banter for the first time, this post will do a good job catching you up. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you return for more Bateman Batner in 2010.

Bateman Buzz Meter – Editions One, Two and Three. The brainchild of our very own Shannon Walsh, Bateman Buzz Meter is our take on the best and worst industry headlines and PR campaigns . From the Tiger Woods fiasco to Facebook’s new privacy settings and lots in between, the Bateman Group organizes the latest news, PR stunts and blunders in a colorful and easy to read matrix each month.

12 Days of Christmas in Silicon Valley. If you haven’t seen it yet, our holiday video card features the Bateman Group’s special rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas performed by the amazingly talented Gale Bradley Singers. Fred put it best when he described the video as “a parody of what we can only call ‘Silicon Valley values’ at a time we can all use a good laugh.”

Open Social Media Strategy Pays Off for Panda Security. This post highlights how the Bateman Group’s client Panda Security has embraced social media to transform itself from an introverted and technology focused company to an open organization that is able to better interact with its customers, partners, and employees.

Are spokespeople going the way of the dodo? In this evocative post inspired by a Wall Street Journal article, Tyler Perry (not to be confused with Tyler Perry) answers the question: Will corporate blogs replace company spokespeople?

37 Signals Satires Twitter Valuation: Why Didn’t I Think of That?! In this post by yours truly, I call out the best tech industry PR stunt of the year: 37Signals’ satirical press release about its billion dollar valuation in response to Twitter’s one billion valuation. 37Signals’ CEO Jason Fried jokingly justifies his company’s valuation based on investors who are paying $1 for 0.000000001% of the company. Brilliant.

Facebook vs. Twitter: Which is Better for Marketing your Business? In this controversial post inspired by a New York Times article, Lisa Melsted offers her prediction about how B2B versus consumer brands will get utility from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in the future.

To Embargo or Not to Embargo? Prompted by the Wall Street Journal’s decision to no longer honor  embargoes,  Tyler Perry discusses the implications of this policy shift for brands, PR, and the broader media landscape. Only time will tell what embargo policy shifts are in store for 2010.

PR or Advertising: Who Should be Managing your Sponsored Conversations? In this post I introduce the emerging and somewhat controversial concept of ’sponsored conversation’ and explain which camp, PR or advertising, is better positioned for success in these new waters. And the winner is…PR.

Bateman Group speaks out on information overload. The fragmentation of the media landscape and explosion of the blogosphere has made it increasingly challenging for PR practitioners to stay on top of not only the news, but the conversations most relevant to our clients. In this great video post by Amy Ziari, she interviews some Bateman Group employees about the history of how PR firms have monitored media and what tools they use to stay productive in an era of information overload.

Finally Putting “The Article” to Bed. In this witty and insightful post, Fred weighs in on the heated debate sparked by Claire Cain Miller’s July 4^th New York Times article on the Evolution of PR in Silicon Valley. Fred offers some great perspective on the different styles of PR, comparing and contrasting approaches perfected by new kid on the block Brooke Hamerling and industry veterans like Andi Cunningham.

Introducing Bateman Banter, the official blog of the Bateman Group. Fred pens the inaugural Bateman Banter post and lays out our editorial mission and unique P.O.V.

Thanks for your feedback and inspiration over the last six months since Bateman Banter has been and please continue to join the conversation by sharing your thoughts and perspectives with us.