While the world debates the meaning and the merits of Julian Assange, Wikileaks and our expected right to privacy, we at Creative Concepts can’t help but wonder… how interested would Assange be in sifting through your emails?

One of the basic tenets of social media is the call for transparency.  As the theory goes, the more openly you engage with your customers, the less ambiguity there is in your actions and the less “dirt” there is for others to dig up, should they choose to do so.  (For a deeper examination of the business approach to transparency, check out the book Tactical Transparency by our friends Shel Holtz and John C. Havens.)

But despite the public push toward openness, that doesn’t mean companies and brands don’t still have their secrets.  Tactical transparency doesn’t preclude tactical advantages. And, as Christopher Penn reminds us, some companies are built on secrets.

The question, therefore, is this:

Are your public actions drastically different from your private motives?

People tend to be most vocally concerned about privacy when they’re worried that the image they’ve publicly projected would be somehow damaged or destroyed “if certain information got out.”  In the case of military positions or diplomatic strategy, that concern can be understandable.  But in the case of brand management?

Perhaps the Assange affair is a timely opportunity for you to reconsider your brand’s public image and its private intentions, and to make sure that they’re harmoniously reconciled.

The world has enough secrets.  Does your company have too many to hide?

This is about more than lulling potential customers into a false state of security so you can take financial advantage of them later (although that’s obviously reprehensible).  This is about making sure that what you want and how you’re getting there isn’t in conflict with who you are.

And just who are we? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook to learn more!

Photo by Lost Vegas.

Her take?

Blockbuster misunderstood why people were choosing Netflix and Redbox in the first place, and they could never recover from their own clouded perception.

In their case, they underestimated the time their customers would be willing to spend in (or in transit to and from) their stores, when similar (and sometimes better) options were available online, or in less time-intensive settings.

You may not be running a video rental empire, but your business is almost definitely competing against external threats.  You may think you understand those threats, and how to combat them.

But you may also be wrong.

How can you tell whether or not your company is misdiagnosing its operational problems?

Ask your customers.

Social media makes it so easy to track and respond to customer complaints — or to solicit customer feedback on everything from their in-store experiences to their wish lists to their discussions about your company’s culture — that you no longer have an excuse for not knowing what your customers really think of you… and of your competition.

Here’s a test:

What do you think your value proposition is?

Do your customers agree?

(Do you know?)

Ask random customers for five reasons they’d suggest your products or services to a friend.  If their answers are wildly divergent from your own, you may have a problem of perception.

And no matter how far they are from what you think the mark is, when it comes to the public’s perception of your business, the customer is always right.

Just ask Blockbuster.

Need a perception boost? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!

If you want to film a branded video on location, here are 7 tips we’ve learned — some of them the hard way — to help filming and post-production go as smoothly as possible.

1. Befriend and respect the location’s manager or owner.

If you’re filming in a business or office, track down the manager, owner or supervisor.  Be friendly.  Explain what you’re doing, and what your goals for the video are.  Ask them if they know of any obvious stumbling blocks to avoid, any shortcuts, or any particularly photogenic angles.  (After all, it’s their building.)

2.  When you’re outside, roll with the punches.

If you’re outdoors, be mindful of the public, the nearby property owners and the police.  What you’re filming probably looks interesting, and you may attract a crowd.  If you’re not controlling the crowd with barriers and security, they may linger.  This is good, because it increases the exposure for your shoot — but it also increases your opportunities for unwanted noise and distractions.

When we were filming this video with Joe Torre, Phil Simms and Terry Francona for Bigelow Tea, we had the restaurant to ourselves — but that didn’t stop curious passersby from taking cell phone pictures through the window.

3.  Listen for what’s not supposed to be there.

Does the location play music on a PA system?  Is the heat or air conditioning on?  Are the walls thin enough to let nearby conversations come through?  Does the floor vibrate when cars or equipment move past?

If you can hear it in the room, you can hear it on the video.  Make sure the audio that’s in your video is supposed to be there.  And if you can’t turn the noise off, be prepared to work around it (and hope you can reduce it in post).

4.  Shoot more than you think you’ll need.

Maybe your script only calls for 10 shots, and you’ve wrapped ahead of schedule.  Be proactive.  Get an extra introduction or conclusion.  Ask the interview subject a few unscripted questions.  Pitch some alternate ways that a product could be shown, or that a topic could be discussed.

It’s these unexpected additions to the script that may well turn a stiff, boring video into a human story with actual character.

5.  Stay loose.

No matter how comfortable someone seems in person, putting them in front of a camera is like sending them into battle.  People freeze when that red light comes on.  They panic.  They become acutely aware that the next words out of their mouths will be seen by numerous strangers, possibly for years to come, and that’s a lot of pressure.

Be personable.  Help the subject loosen up.  Make them laugh.  Get them comfortable.  Change the subject.  Ask them a question.  Change the lighting.  Move them to a new room.  Make a mistake, then fix it, so they see that mistakes can be corrected and recovered from.

Above all, do whatever it takes to ensure that the personality seen by the viewers is the same personality you saw on your subject’s face before the red light went on.  (And if all else fails, film them when they think they’re not being filmed.  It’s funny what some black tape over that red light can accomplish.)

6.  B-roll will save your life.

Get ample footage of the location, inside and out.  Get shots of every participant, even when they’re not looking.  Shoot labels, packaging and displays.  Shoot products, in all stages of assembly and execution.

If you’re filming a conversation between two people, get reaction shots from both of them.  Get shots of the table.  Get shots of the audience.  Get shots of their hands.

There will always be at least one place in the final edit where you’ll wish you had just one relevant clip to cut away to, over an emergency edit you had to make.  If you don’t have something to use, you can’t make that cut.  Never, ever shoot yourself into a corner.

7.  Always carry release forms.

You’re shooting on the street outside a business and you’ve only planned to get once scene with the company’s owner.  Suddenly, her favorite customer, or a longtime vendor, or her family members arrive unannounced.  What a wonderful opportunity to film a meaningful exchange with your client and the people who matter most to the success of her business!

Now, if only you had a release form that person could sign, so you could legally use their image…

For more business tips, connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!

This online database of social media policies includes the communications guidelines and handbooks used by dozens of companies, from About.com to Yahoo (sorry, no “Z” companies listed yet). Maybe you’d like to know how Coca-Cola advises its employees (PDF) to conduct themselves online, or how the Mayo Clinic moderates comments?

And if your company frequently represents the messages of others, there’s a solution for that, too.

For example, we here at Creative Concepts have our own internal social media policy (downloadable here), which separates our actions as individuals from our actions on behalf of our clients.

Why?

Because our creative team holds a variety of opinions, ideas and beliefs, and we believe that we should be free to express ourselves as ourselves. But when we’re speaking on behalf of our clients, we ensure that there’s a proper separation of our personalities & philosophies and theirs.

We’re not alone. In the Coca-Cola example above, their policy clarifies the difference between speaking “on behalf of the company” and speaking “about” the company. They also designate which groups of employees are expected to respond to certain conversations (such as negative commentary about the company), and how. (Because no one wants to be the next “Nestle vs. Greenpeace” case study of a conversation gone wrong.)

The lesson? Social media is embraceable by companies of all sizes. But strategy and planning isn’t just for your outward-facing messages; it’s also a necessity for helping your employees know what’s expected of them.

Want to learn more? Connect with us on Twitter or Facebook!

It can be daunting (and expensive) to determine which employees should be allowed to engage the public, speak candidly or answer questions.  And explaining which kinds of employee behaviors and proprietary information are strictly off-limits can be downright awkward.

Fortunately, there’s a solution that helps ease the friction: PolicyTool.

Simply enter your company’s name and some relevant information, and PolicyTool will generate your very own customizable social media policy in twelve short clicks!

Although PolicyTool’s service is not intended as legal advice, the policy it generates does provide a good starting point for your company’s continued embellishment.  Your HR department, tech experts and legal team can add or revise sections as desired, or you can simply opt to implement the generated policy as-is.

Here at Creative Concepts, we instituted our own social media policy prior to the creation of PolicyTool.  But if we’d had a useful template to start from, it would have helped shape our own internal discussions about best practices.

And really, that’s the whole point: PolicyTool may not solve every problem, but if it gets your company talking about the best ways to govern and maximize your social media channels, it’s worth every penny.  (Oh, and it’s free.)

Image by Gregory James Walsh via Flickr.

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When news of this lawsuit hit the web, many were astounded by Horizon Realty’s seemingly over-the-top behavior — especially considering the Tweeter in question (Amanda Bonnen) only had 20 followers at the time of the tweet.  (Perhaps even more mind-boggling was Horizon Realty’s response to the public outrage, including the presumed joke, “We’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of organization.”)

While the lawsuit itself — and the web firestorm that surrounds it — will find its own conclusion, let’s not miss the opportunity to find several lessons in this fiasco.

1. What you say on Twitter is public. (Even if you don’t think it is.)  That goes not only for what YOU say, but what’s said ABOUT you.
2. The days of being a “sue first, ask questions later” organization may soon be over. Spurious lawsuits only work as scare tactics when the defendant is isolated from legal resources, support and information — none of which is true in this digitally connected age.
3. The public is quick to defend the underdog. Within hours of this story first being tweeted, it was among the top Trending Topics on Twitter.  (Note to corporations: you are almost never the underdog.)
4. The public rarely has all the facts. In this case, Horizon contends that Bonnen had filed a class action lawsuit against them on June 24th regarding the alleged mold issue. If Horizon’s portrayal of Bonnen as a tenant seeking to exploit the system for financial gain turns out to be true, their behavior may not only be understandable but forgivable.
5. Your reputation is ALWAYS in the hands of others. Horizon contends it needed to file its suit against Bonnen because it has a reputation to defend (against her allegations of mold), but they failed to assess the negative impact this lawsuit could have on their reputation in the eyes of potential customers.  Regardless of the facts in the case, the web-going public’s perception is that Horizon Realty is a reactionary and overly-litigious company — not an impression likely to bring in new tenants by the truckload.

All said, there’s still one other question we won’t be able to answer quite yet: namely, how *does* a wave of negative online publicity affect a company? Horizon Realty isn’t Domino’s, and their PR crises aren’t parallel, but the web’s reaction to them has been similar. Whether Horizon’s clientele pays attention to Twitter is something only time (and Horizon Realty’s bottom line) will tell.

Blogs exploded in popularity due to ease of use, but it was the growth of an audience that led each blogger to feel that his or her blog was valid.  Yet the mere existence of an audience is enough for some people to believe that audience is aching to be marketed to.  This has inspired bloggers around the world to consider using their newfound clout to suggest how their audiences should spend their dollars — preferably at a profit to the bloggers themselves.

Which is fine, as long as those suggestions are independent opinions.  No one is advocating that bloggers starve.

But when a sponsor pays a blogger to positively review that sponsor’s products and services AND when that blogger fails to mention that they’re being paid to do so, that author risks losing their credibility. No one likes being misled, even over something as simple as which dish soap or bubble gum their favorite blogger claims to use daily.  What bloggers lack in credentials, they make up for in the implied trust of their readership; actions that erode that trust will drain all credibility from that blogger’s reputation over time — and acquiring a reputation in the blogosphere is a hard-won goal that’s worth protecting.

Marketers: Bloggers — and their audiences — are valuable resources who deserve to be respected, not manipulated.  You wouldn’t expect a mainstream magazine or TV news outlet to run your commercial as a news story, so don’t provide bloggers with an opportunity to sabotage their (and your) reputations.

Bloggers: respect your audiences (and yourselves) enough to be forthright about your sponsorships. Your audience wants you to succeed; they just don’t appreciate being lied to in the process.