5 key PR takeaways from the 2012 CES

The real news from last week's 2012 CES in Las Vegas had less to do with the gadgets, devices, and shiny new things being introduced by the world's leading technology companies and more to do with the way those companies told their stories during the four-day extravaganza of all things technology. The convergence of social media and hand-held devices has created an entirely new way of gaining notice, interfacing with the media, building traffic, and leveraging the costs of attending any show, let alone the world's largest consumer technology show.



This year, four of us made the trip, some to support, some to sell, and some to simply learn more about what's new and hot. And no matter how exciting the technology, what really caught our eye is how companies are using digital communications and building their own channels of content to win, persuade, enlighten, and engage on the showroom floor. Here's the new bible of how it's being done:

1. Be the media. Texas Instruments helped show the way with a video team that traveled from booth to booth, interviewing partners and demonstrating how TI technologies power the coolest products. B2B customers throughout the show snapped to when TI showed up, a great way to build buzz and relationships, and celebrate their common ground.

Five notions about social media that must die

This Tuesday, we brought together a number of clients to share an evening of discussion about the issues their companies are facing with regard to social media. It was an interesting mix of people and businesses. Different industries, different problems, and a singular goal to learn from one another.

Some common themes emerged. What surprised me is that these themes are the same ones we have heard since we started taking social media seriously in 2004. While internally at our firm we feel we have come a long way in understanding the practice and implementation of social media for B2C and B2B communications, the fact is that most businesses can still be considered early adopters, even pioneers -- despite the noise level and cheerleading around social media for PR, marketing, and branding.

Here are the five themes that were common to most, if not all of our friends around the table Tuesday night.

Theme #1: Management is concerned that we can't control social media. We want control of our messages.

The Resolution: If you can't control your social media communications, then you must not be controlling any of your other communications. Your people are talking to your customers, suppliers, and partners on the phone and in e-mail. They are already representing your company. They are already the public face of the company. And they are probably already using social media to communicate, regardless of your internal policies.

Social media is nothing more than another way, a new way, for your people to communicate. Companies need to train employees on how to use it, just as companies train employees on how to present in person, on the phone, and in e-mail. This is a policy and training problem, not a technology or control problem.

Theme #2: Social media puts us at risk. The legal department will not approve our use of it. It creates a digital trail that could get us in legal trouble.

The Resolution: Social media communications are no different than e-mail or the telephone. Anyone could take any e-mail from your staff and post it on a blog, Facebook page, or Twitter feed (and they do). They could record a phone call and post it as a podcast (and they have). And I don't have to tell you that the first thing the lawyers subpoena in any case is the corporate e-mail database.