Hyperbole aside (“kills its attackers,” “the world shook”), there is little question that what we witnessed in America last week was the influence of social media and the internet in shaping public policy … the American way.

I am not being all nationalistic and stuff here.  Compare the SOPA defeat with the Arab Spring of the past year.  Stay with me.

Without question, history has shown us that change (innovations to revolutions) occurs because of communications.  Whether we’re talking about societal progressions from print to radio to television to cable to the internet (innovations), or we’re talking about communications facilitating awareness of oppression, inequity, fairness and freedom somewhere else (revolutions), communications is the constant when change occurs, actually, for change to occur.

The sudden and dramatic death of SOPA  is a powerful example of how America changes.  We are a nation of laws and, despite the rhetoric around the impact of SOPA, it was the openness of American society and how information is shared that convinced our elected leaders that they were going too far … that their proposed policy was not good policy in the eyes of those whom they represent.

From my perspective, the only real difference between SOPA and the Arab Spring is that people didn’t die to affect change.  There were no mass protests, no dictators overthrown, no unimaginable collateral damage (women, children, etc.). 

There was just a change, or more specifically, a temporary halt to a bad change in law.  This article in the Hollywood Reporter confirms that there are other chapters to come in this story.

At one level, we witnessed the beauty of the American form of democracy.  At another level, we witnessed the awesome power of the internet in affecting change right here in America.

As an old politico and a comms pro, I love this stuff. From the Arab Spring to America’s 2012 Presidential Election, the impact of social media is as fascinating as it is remarkable.

For all the other junkies out there, please read this post (5 Examples of How Social Media is Changing the 2012 Elections) by Kevin Dugan.  It’s really good stuff.

Kevin highlights some sites that do a great job from his perspective (and his is a good perspective) of covering the 2012 contest via social media.  Some of the angles for coverage (fashion choices?!) make the read as interesting as it is fun.

I could comment more, but just read Kevin’s post and bookmark a few things to follow.  Thanks, Kevin.

It discusses the battlefield for 2012 for mobile devices.  Interestingly, the article suggests that this may play out at the Consumer Electronics Show opening next week in Las Vegas.  It references new devices that reflect converging industries: powerful tablets/smartphones v. laptop PCs with mobile device weight and battery life.

The Vehr Communications 2011 Social Media Usage Survey showed that tablets were mostly for personal use.  We also speculated that advances in technology may bring the worlds of laptops and mobile devices closer together.

Definitely something to watch.  Enjoy the brief below.

“High tech’s most powerful players are preparing for a new series of battles this year, many of them maneuvering to build or bolster positions in the fast-moving mobile market. Some potent combatants, including Apple Inc., are using patents as well as new products to outflank rival makers of smartphones, tablet-style computers and related products. Courts could help shape the prospects of several big names, including Google Inc. and its quest to popularize handsets and tablets running its Android operating system. The year could also be a crucial test for mobile-device laggards, like Microsoft Corp. and Intel Corp., which are desperate to build bigger footholds in the market, as ailing incumbents such as Research In Motion Ltd. and Nokia Corp. face increasing pressure to shore up their franchises.

“Many of the year’s opening gambits will play out at the Consumer Electronics Show, which opens next week in Las Vegas. The big product showcase is expected to include new devices that reflect two converging industries: tablets and smartphones with personal-computer-class performance and laptop PCs with weight and battery life approaching those of cellphones. “People have finally figured out that these mobile devices are computers, and they want to do the same things as they do on their personal computers,” says Mike Rayfield, general manager of mobile computing at Nvidia Corp., a Silicon Valley chip maker. “The activity and intensity will continue to accelerate.”

“The focus on mobility has steadily increased as the personal-computer market has matured. Researchers at Gartner Inc. expect PC shipments to grow 4.5% in 2012, on the heels of less than 1% growth in 2011. By contrast, unit sales of smartphones are expected to increase nearly 40% this year, with tablet sales surging nearly 63%.

“Apple has been leading the charge since the 2007 introduction of the iPhone. But handset makers that use Google’s Android software collectively far outpace Apple shipments. Apple, Microsoft, Oracle Corp. and other Android opponents have filed patent actions in a variety of courts and before the U.S. International Trade Commission, many of which are expected to result in rulings this year.

“Also look for whether Apple produces a third iPad or embraces fourth-generation cellular technology, if Microsoft’s new operating systems take hold in the mobile market and if Facebook Inc. more aggressively counters Google in smartphone-related offerings.” (Don Clark)

Whether driven by a quaint midwestern humility, Catholic/Jewish residual guilt, or a too-insular perspective, we tend to think it happens only to us or that we have it worse than everyone and anyone, everywhere and anywhere else.

As communicators, we always advise our clients to stay focusse don the positive.  Reinforce what has gone well while, if necessary, being honest but not overly effusive about what hasn’t. 

So, as I think about the New Year, I like to think about things that did happen here, some recently and some not so, things that should make us proud, say it loud and be comfortable standing out front.

• The board of director’s of the nation’s most respected civil rights organization, the NAACP, as it closed it annual convention a few years ago, gave the Cincinnati Police Department a standing ovation for its professionalism and courtesy.  Yep, it happened Cincinnati.
• Cincinnati was named #3 in the “Top 10 US Travel Destinations in the US” by Lonely Planet just last week.  That’s right, Cincinnati, #3 in the US.
• Cincinnati was selected as host city for the prestigious World Choir Games being held in America in 2012 for the first time ever (full disclosure, the World Choir Games is a client of our firm).  You bet, right here in Cincinnati.
• We have a grab bag full of firsts (check them out).  From the first professional baseball team to the first city to host a municipal song competition (Saengerfest); from the first heart-lung machine to the first Jewish theological college in America; from the first US concrete skyscaper to a favorite son being the first to step on the moon.  We did these things, Cincinnati.

Are there other things about which to brag a little?  Of course.  Have we had our share of missteps?  Certainly.

Join me in starting 2012 thinking about how good we are and how that can be the foundation for getting even better. 

It happened here, Cincinnati.  Be proud of it.

Throw on your green dickey, grab a moose-antler mug full of eggnog and earn an education, Cousin Eddie style.

“You surprised to see us, Clark?” How many employees are talking about your brand online? Our 2011 Social Media Usage Survey found that 74 percent of Greater Cincinnati brands allow their employees to use social media at the office. However, only 44 percent have a social media policy and 30 percent offer training to employees. Make sure you’re setting the right expectations with employees and protecting your brand – otherwise, you may find your “head sewn to the carpet” mid-crisis.

“If you scratch his belly, Clark, he will love you till the day you die.” Customer service will be a huge topic in the social media arena in 2012. Facebook and Twitter have both made recent changes to their respective platforms. Facebook will begin to allow customers to send private messages to brand pages. Connect with your customers and provide great service – they’ll keep coming back again and again.

“Merry Christmas. Sh***** was full.” (You can fill in the blanks) Make sure this isn’t the response you get from editors you’re pitching. You only get one chance, so make it count – otherwise, pitches may get lost in a sea of others’ feeble attempts to place a story. Too many times, editors receive pitches and releases that miss the point and end up “filling their tanks.” Be sure to do your homework, be on-point and on-time.

“Oh, that uh, that there’s an RV.” Go mobile! 2012 will certainly be another year of transformation in the mobile landscape as smartphones and tablets continue to evolve. Take a tip from Cousin Eddie and invest some time and resources in educating yourself on the latest mobile trends to maximize exposure and connect with customers on-the-go.

“Are you serious, Clark?” While local media and NORAD track where Santa’s sleigh travels on Christmas Eve, many brands still aren’t monitoring their reputations online. Get serious about what you can do to leverage what others are saying about your brand and revisit your crisis communications plan, as it pertains to social media inquiries and attacks. When was the last time you checked Google Analytics? What are customers and competitors saying about you?

“Clark, that’s the gift that keeps on giving throughout the entire year.” It may not be a “Jelly of the Month Club,” but revisiting your networking channels to build, maintain and grow professional relationships will drive traffic to your business year-round. Keep the conversation alive – do you have an e-newsletter to keep vendors, suppliers, current clients and prospects up-to-speed?

As year-end meetings convene, make sure you’re discussing hot topics such as social media, customer engagement initiatives and online reputation monitoring. Your brand will thank you, plus Cousin Eddie would be proud.

Of course, we bring this up in the context of Saturday’s Crosstown Shootout between Xavier and Cincinnati, a college basketball game that ended in a shameful bench-clearing brawl that left one player’s face bloodied and the reputation of two successful programs tarnished. The damage was compounded by the postgame press conference in which Xavier senior Tu Holloway referred to his teammates – who, by the way, represent a respected Jesuit institution of higher education – as gangstas and was as unapologetic as can be about inciting the incident. (He did apologize Sunday.)

The lessons learned can be applied to all athletic teams, as well as companies big and small.

Before I continue, some full disclosure: I am a former newspaper sports editor and sports reporter who covered both Xavier and UC men’s basketball programs, wrote books about both programs, covered several Crosstown Shootouts, planned coverage for others and loves what the game means to college basketball and the city of Cincinnati. I like the drama, the intensity, the history, the storylines. I did not like what happened Saturday. It overshadowed a great effort by Xavier and a tremendous rivalry and undermined two fine universities.

OK, back to the lessons learned:

1. Media training should be part of every high-profile athletic program. That applies to pros, colleges and even some high schools. You don’t think O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker, considered two of the top high school basketball players in the country, could’ve used some professional training when they played at North College Hill? All coaches and athletes should go through media training with experienced professionals who can help prepare them in a variety of ways, including understanding that how they are portrayed in the media reflects how they will be perceived by future employers. I know many college programs attempt this in a variety of ways, but there’s no substitute for involving an outside party. The training should be ongoing and considered part of the education for student-athletes. Skip Prosser, the late Xavier basketball coach, once told me he wanted his players to learn how to deal with the media because it would help prepare them for what they might face later in life. This all applies just as much to low-profile and high-profile companies who receive or may be in a position to receive media coverage.

At Vehr Communications, we have worked with executives and staff from a variety of professions.  Our goal is help them represent their companies in the best possible way, enhance their reputation and protect and serve the business interests of their organizations.

2. Key messages are critical, whether they are developed over time or on the fly in a crisis situation. Xavier should not be faulted so much for making Holloway and fellow guard Mark Lyons available to the media following Saturday’s melee, however, the two young men should have been better to prepared for the spotlight, which included national TV. This is when you revisit your training, identify in advance what key messages you wish to project in the media, then present yourself in a way that remains consistent with the key messages. In Xavier’s case, that could have been:

a. We want to be a tough-minded program, and we are. Our locker room is full of players and coaches who are strong-willed competitors. That is one reason our program is consistently successful.

b. We never wanted the intensity of the game to spill into what occurred and we regret that it did. We always want to play hard. We never want to disgrace the game or our university.

c. We apologize to our fans, the university and the city. There is no excuse for what happened. We accept our share of responsibility.

d. We are proud and excited about how well we played the game and wish the focus was more on our 23-point victory. It’s our own fault that it’s not.

Being respectful, humble and sincere would’ve gone a long way. On the flip side, UC coach Mick Cronin spoke passionately and sincerely about his embarrassment and what the ramifications might be for Bearcat players. He came off looking very good. UC did not make players available. If they were ill-prepared to face the media, then that was a great decision. Xavier players were ill-prepared.

Companies and public officials today are expected to respond instantly to crisis situations. Social media demands swift response time and promises that messages will go viral – sometimes to a worldwide audience – in short time. That can be a good thing when a situation is handled well or damaging when it’s not.

3. A social media policy should be in place. What is OK to post? What can you and shouldn’t you say on Facebook and Twitter? What is acceptable from the organization’s point of view? All of this should be in writing, part of training and engrained in the culture of an organization. It’s especially important in a crisis situation.

4. A crisis communication plan may seem like a luxury but it’s invaluable when a crisis situation occurs and a plan is in place: Who will speak on behalf of the organization? Who will help them develop key messages? What’s the protocol and procedures for a quick response time? What are the dos and don’ts? Having a plan in place is like purchasing an insurance policy. You hope you never have to use it but you’re sure glad you have one if you need it.

Our local universities needed it Saturday. Traditional and non-traditional media locally and nationally feasted on every word, every response, every Tweet.

The result was not good for the schools, especially Xavier, for college basketball or for Cincinnati.

There will be a next time. The scenario will be different, but there will be situations that call for training and planning. Will your organization be ready?

There were no winners in yesterday’s game, only two schools coming away with damaged reputations and kids that need to grow up and appreciate what they have been given.

A large number of young men in an intense, competitive, physical situation made a bunch of bad choices on the basketball court.  From talking trash to shoving to taking swings to heel stomping a guy on the ground, these kids blew it and their teams and schools will be dealt with, hopefully, harshly.

This post is about what was said immediately after the game.

UC chose not make any players available to the media.  Good choice.

XU gambled and chose to allow two seniors to talk in a post-game press conference.  Bad choice.  Well, it could have been a good choice except that they opened their mouths.  The two players said ugly, stupid, somehwat unintellligble things (who cares what the difference is between a “ganster” and a “thug” anyway?).  They reflected poorly on their university and their team.

XU Coach Mack did fine representing himself and his university, trying to put focus back on the game and expressing his disappointment for what happened. 

UC Coach Cronin hit it out of the park.  He spoke truth from the heart.  Honest comments.  Indignation.  Outrage.  Proper focus.  He reminded us all that this college sports stuff is about more than, well, college sports.  He did this after his team had just been beaten, and beaten badly, by a better team.

Cronin: “Too much glorification of all of sports in our society. The fact is, guys are here to get an education. They represent institutions of higher learning. Xavier has been a great school for years. We are trying to cure cancer at Cincinnati. I go to school at a place where they discovered the vaccine for polio and created Benadryl. I think that’s more important than who wins a basketball game. And our guys need to have appreciation for the fact they are there on a full scholarship. And they’re there to represent institutions with class and integrity. That’s that.”

His words followed his actions. Right after the game, get this …

“Cronin was animated after the game in his disgust at what happened. As his players entered their locker room after the game, he said, he made all of them take off their uniform jerseys and physically removed several of the jerseys.”

Cronin said, “They will not put it on again until they have a full understanding of where they go to school and what the university stands for and how lucky they are to even be there, let alone have a scholarship because there’s a whole lot of kids that can’t pay for college.”

Again, I am way more XU than UC.  I am, though, now a big Cronin fan.  In a very tough situation, when it was hardest, he said and did exactly the right things.  That only happens if it’s coming from the heart – if he really means it.  He showed character at a time when character was needed because character was missing.

It wasn’t calculated to look good, to shine for the boss or to position for his next contract negotiation.  It was the right thing to say at the right time in a  bad situation.

The truth is an amazing and powerful thing.  It is at the core of communicating what something or someone stands for.  It is needed most during the toughest moments. 

What a concept … speak the truth.  Thanks for the real life lesson, Mick.

To see the results, go to our web page  and see the 2011 Social Media Usage Survey.  You can download the full report.

TRENDS AND SHIFTS:  Smartphone and tablet computer usage is up 15 % from 2010.  In smartphones, Blackberry’s are in freefall (down 15% to 31%), iPhones about the same as 2010 at 31% (from 30%), but Android increased 11% to 25% in 2011.  The national trend is the same, but much more pronounced (negatively) for Blackberrys.

iPad (Apple) rules the world of tablet computers among Cincinnati business profesionals.  34% of them use a tablet (15% increase); of those, 85% use an iPad.  Importantly, 71% of tablet users use them for personal reasons, with only 29% saying tablets are used professionally.

We think this will change and more of us will use tablets for work.  However, we’ll see if business applications for tablets computers will replace more expensive hardware (notebooks, laptops, desktops).  It’s happening in niches, but is not yet spreading to broader use.

TRAINING AND POLICIES:  In our survey, 74% of workplaces allow employees to access social media sites while at work, but only 44% have social media policies in place and even less (30%) provided social media training.

I’m remined of the use canaries in coal mines to detect deadly but odorless gas build-ups.  The canary dies - time to go.  Of course, history shows that the dead canary was too little too late to protect workers.

Employees who don’t know the “rights” and “wrongs” of online social media behavior, whether as a company policy or as one of the many and rapidly developing legal precedents being set in courts everywhere, can harm themsleves, their co-workers, the brands they represent and the corporations reputation.

From CEO to CMO to legal to HR to IT, this is big stuff.  Most employees would never do anything hurtful to their employer, so long as they understood what might hurt.

Of course, disgruntled employees can do great damage, whether on a corporate social media site or their own personal social media site.  The lines are blurring, the legal precedents are being set, and blocking access is not the answer.

Interesting stuff.  Please read our survey.  We’d love to hear your thoughts.