russ deveau

After watching the use of ChatGPT explode among my peers and key influencers over the last two months – often to a wide range of amusing results, I decided to run my first experiment using the quickly-evolving AI platform.

I asked ChatGPT to explain Fog Computing – a concept and technologies I helped position in the global IoT and edge computing market.

The ChatGPT results – pictured below – were incredibly accurate and were generated in seconds.

This fast-moving technology is laying the groundwork for a wide range of exciting use cases in all vertical markets and among researchers and users around the world.

Check out the Open AI blog for a quick intro on the technology and consider joining the Open AI Discord group where some lively discussions are taking place and where I’m a member as intellyruss.

As another year filled with unprecedented challenges for so many comes to a close, I’m sending holiday greetings and hoping 2023 is the best year yet for family, friends and colleagues worldwide. – Russ DeVeau

Here’s a fun Flashback Friday post from my days supporting clients positioning in digital identity management, privacy and security markets.

It was an honor to participate as an expert in global communications during PR Newswire’s first webinar on communicating across cultures.

The slide above is part of my presentation from this extremely well-attended event.

Many of the points I addressed during this panel session are important strategies for realizing a variety of successes in today’s fast-moving integrated marketing campaigns and proactive influencer relations programs. – Russ DeVeau

Kiplinger does a nice job outlining where the metaverse stands today and some of the challenges and opportunities associated with AR, blockchain, crypto, and VR technologies. This is a good read for getting up to speed on a wide range of Web 3.0 initiatives. – Russ DeVeau

Such an honor to have spent time working as a contractor on Intel’s Data Platform Group marketing team to help position digital transformation initiatives. – Russ DeVeau

CIO posted a nice overview of tech trends and predictions for 2020.

I’ve been covering new year industry predictions for quite some time.

The development and promotion of new year predictions can often be a valuable proactive strategy for generating coverage and placing messages in traditional and social media outlets all year long.

Fort the past several years, I’ve generally covered IoT predictions and trends where the overriding theme has always focused on security challenges.

This was true back in 2017 when I wrote IoT in New York City, an open standards approach, and remains just as true today as the CIO article highlights Gartner seeing security as a top IoT issue in 2020.

Check out the entire CIO article by Hannah Williams here.

Should the development and promotion of industry predictions be part of your 2020 content calendar? – Russ DeVeau

Related:

IoT in NYC, an open standards approach

A jump into 2016 data center predictions

The Queens Tech Night held last night in the very cool Plaxall gallery in Long Island City was a great event for learning about the New York City and Queens tech scenes.

It was a fact-filled educational and networking session loaded with information about some of the leadership New York City has in the global technology sector with speakers shining a spotlight on the technology innovation that has been happening in Queens and Long Island City.

I found Elias Roman‘s keynote particularly interesting. Roman is a founder in residence at Google, a co-founder of Songza – an early music streaming and recommendation service launched in Long Island City in 2007 – and a Queens native.

Roman reviewed the history of Songza and discussed some of Google’s early Web 2.0 initiatives. He also gave an overview of Google’s 20 % program, an initiative where Google employees can spend 20 percent of their work time on side projects they are passionate about and Google believes are worthy of further development.

Roman’s talk reminded me of my days working in Web 2.0 marketing – which was right around the time Songza was founded – and managing communications and messaging for Liberty Alliance and Kantara Initiative.

This is also when I launched the IDDY Awards. The IDDY was a global awards program I managed for five years and, shortly after the program was launched, quickly became the award many in the digital identity and privacy sectors wanted to win.

The program was in its fourth year when Google and Plaxo applied for and won an IDDY Award. The submission was for a standards-based solution that helped improve the success rate of users finishing the registration process with a social network. This was a valuable application for growing social networks at the time.

The IDDYs were about recognizing technology innovation in the global digital identity management and privacy sectors.

Yesterday’s Queens Tech Night was about recognizing technology innovation in New York City and Queens.

It was a lot of fun to see the enthusiasm and Long Island City pride attached to the standing-room only event.

The Queens Tech Night founders promise more events in the future. Sign up here to join their Meetup group.

I wrote a case study focusing on some of the many successes the IDDYs enjoyed during the program’s seven year run. It may be a good read for anyone interested in some best practices for managing a successful awards program. Check it out here. – Russ DeVeau

The top photo is a picture of Elias Roman addressing the standing-room only crowd during Queens Tech Night. The bottom middle photo is of Queens Tech Night founder Ben Guttmann discussing New York City and Queens tech innovation. The bottom right photo shows part of the Plaxall gallery in Long Island City where the event was held.

I’ve recently tweaked my Design, Copy and Content page to include some of the trendsetting advertising and content development and marketing strategies I’ve developed during my career to date.

The page features some best practices and tips community managers, content development and social media teams may be able to leverage to beef up their own proactive marketing programs.

A couple entries from the page follow.

I created the piece above during my time developing content and messages for the OpenFog Consortium and OpenFog’s Fog World Congress. The image went through many revisions based on a few different campaigns and proactive marketing programs I was working on at the time. I used a version as key content for Fog World Congress, another version to regularly showcase women working within the OpenFog Consortium and a third version to tie women working in technology to the IoT space. This widely circulated image has frequently been at the top of the #womenintech and #womeniniot feeds.

The image above is part of a series of content I created for a proactive campaign designed to drive client visibility in IoT and edge and fog computing. This widely shared and hugely successful series focused on leveraging logos, hashtags and images to tie RTI to some of the most important trends and stories in the Industry 4.0 space.

Check out the updated and continuously evolving page here.

What do you think? Do the ads, content and images work based on the strategies and tactics I’ve included in post descriptions? Let me know your thoughts by sending a comment or two my way using email or social media.

I’m always interested in discussing best practices with other professionals and with students, teachers and content development enthusiasts worldwide. – Russ DeVeau

Key messages – and when appropriate, speaking points – are the cornerstone of every successful proactive positioning and storytelling program I develop.

I’m generally a fan of key messages that are conversational and easy for media-trained spokespersons to communicate and repeat during interviews and briefings with industry analysts, journalists and social media influencers.

A conversational – and generally very simple – message designed to meet positioning objectives is typically the type of message I like to see as a headline whenever I issue news – or when I am working on proactive campaigns and editorial programs.

This CIO story is a great example of how simple key messages and speaking points developed to help shape traditional and social media coverage and headlines can deliver significant positioning results. I developed the messaging for this story to help quickly position enterprise cloud clients as leaders in the big data and data analytics sectors.

The messages – delivered flawlessly by BMW’s Mario Mueller, one of the top-ten best spokespersons I have had the opportunity to work with during my career to date – were published hundreds of times as a headline in outlets and languages around the world. The messages also served as key positioning content in communities and on social news feeds worldwide.

Last week Intel generated some very interesting headlines based on what I consider to be another excellent use of a very simple, very strategic and highly effective key message. During an interview with Silicon Angle, Raejeanne Skillern, a VP in Intel’s cloud group, said that Intel had completely restructured to become a cloud and IoT company.

That’s a very powerful business transformation message that further positions Intel in the fast-moving global IoT market. It’s also a message that other technology companies will likely start incorporating into their own message platforms as more and more organizations move to build and deploy IoT solutions.

Does your organization have a strategic IoT message? Should you have one? – Russ DeVeau

Related:

–Successful executive positioning is rooted in multiple proactive strategies

–Russ DeVeau: an approved corporate spokesperson

Last week, while I was working in Savannah, one of my work credit cards was being used in stores across Virginia. Kudos to the bank for recognizing and moving on the issue almost immediately and for offering fraud notifications via text and email.

This experience reminded me of the days – about ten years ago – when I was leading strategic communications for the launch of the Liberty Identity Theft Prevention Group, the world’s first collaborative initiative formed specifically to address the fast-growing identity theft problem.

The group’s initial meeting was held in Chicago where representatives from the FBI, top-tier industry analyst firms, law enforcement, government groups, legal communities and enterprise technology and policy experts gathered to discuss potential action plans for addressing a wide range of identity theft issues.

While it seems to be a bit of a cliche today, the somewhat frightening message of “it’s only a matter of time before you or someone you know becomes a victim of identity theft” was one of the messages repeated over and over again at that meeting.

I’ve pretty much lived and worked with that message in mind ever since that meeting took place by implementing strategies ranging from paid monitoring of social security number activity and better home and office shredding policies, to using best practices for conducting online transactions and managing passwords and PINs.

After witnessing firsthand how easy it was for someone to use my credit card, I’m now taking a few extra steps to protect my information by working to ensure the organizations I do business with have implemented top-notch security policies and by being even more vigilant about monitoring account activities on a regular basis.

This year, along with sending family, friends and current and former clients and colleagues best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season, I’m also sending a reminder to be extra careful about guarding against identity theft.

Taking a few steps now to beef up account security can go a long way in protecting yourself and your family against fraud during the holiday shopping season and all year long. – Russ DeVeau

Related:

–Russ DeVeau: Online identity theft and your mother’s maiden name

–Edward Snowden demonstrates the power of Twitter

News outlets are reporting that Carly Fiorina suspended her presidential campaign today.

I saw Carly at a keynote she gave at an Oracle World conference shortly after she became CEO of HP.

I was working with the HP telecom team in Cupertino at the time and several of us headed up to San Francisco to support HP’s participation at the event and to hear and see Carly speak.

I was looking forward to her keynote because I had been paying attention to her career in telecom and – given my background in promoting women leaders – had a lot of respect for her groundbreaking role as the first woman to lead a major company as CEO.

While I didn’t pay close attention to Carly’s presidential campaign speeches, she did wow as an engaging and high-energy spokesperson when she talked about technology issues and trends during her Oracle World keynote.

She got a rock star welcome and did a great job enthusiastically communicating industry and HP messages throughout her speech. I gave her keynote a grade of A for content, delivery, timing and style. I thought it was great.

Things were changing quickly at HP when that keynote took place.

My HP colleagues were more than a little fearful speculating about where the company was heading. Those fears turned out to be justified as thousands of HP employees eventually lost their jobs during Carly’s tenure as CEO.

Much of Carly’s time at HP was painful for many to experience and watch. But even with the turmoil, Carly Fiorina remains on my top ten list of best keynote speakers in the global technology sector. – Russ DeVeau

I have recently been clicking on, liking and retweeting several of the ads I see go by as a part of my daily social media routine. I also tend to pay close attention to ads my friends and followers have retweeted or liked and have retweeted and liked many of those ads.

Some of the ads I’ve retweeted have remained on the Twitter feeds I manage for several weeks – since the ads were first released – and have been retweeted hundreds of times.

I retweet and like ads because I’m interested in the content. But I’m also watching ads I’ve retweeted to test how long they stay active and to see where retweet and like numbers go over the short and long term.

I’ve been a heavy Twitter user for nearly a decade. Twitter does a good job targeting ads based on my daily activity, history, friends and followers and a wide range of hashtag and key word strategies I use every day.

This means I tend to see a lot of cloud, data center, big data, sustainable ICT and security and privacy ads from major vendors in these industries.

The ads I am most interested in at this stage of the game are the ones I am seeing from the little guys. Certainly I see ads from smaller players in the industries where I tend to be extremely proactive.

But I’ve also seen, clicked on, liked and retweeted ads from independent consultants such as accountants, analysts, researches and writers. Twitter ads may have the potential to be a bit of a promotional game changer for many of the little guys who are among the early users of the ad program.

The ads may prove to be a valuable tool for acquiring new customers and for building an active community of friends and followers. At the very least, the ads are helping to jump start and expand the visibility of the little guys on Twitter.

It find it interesting that I only pay attention to Twitter ads when I am using Twitter’s web-based platform – and this doesn’t happen too frequently.

I almost always use TweetDeck and Hootsuite to manage client Twitter activities and I’ve been using both of these platforms for as long as they’ve been around.

I’m using Twitter on the web somewhat regularly right now because I am working on several non-established Twitter feeds where I am focused largely on research and credibility-building.

I find search on the Twitter web platform – which is based on Search.Twitter.com, a company Twitter acquired several years ago – to be more effective when I am in strategic research mode.

I tend to largely ignore Twitter ads when I switch back to Hootsuite or TweetDeck where promoted ads have been visible for years.

It will be interesting to see how this potential red flag issue plays out because I know ad visibility is likely priority-one among Twitter users and social media managers embarking on Twitter ad strategies. I also know many of these users rely on TweetDeck or Hootsuite as their go-to Twitter platform.

I’ve managed hundreds of Twitter initiatives for clients positioning in a wide range of industries. I know how to leverage Twitter to build excitement and communities, place key messages, influence search and build strong relationships with influencers, customers and potential customers.

Twitter ads are showing that they may have the potential to significantly enhance many of these strategic capabilities. – Russ DeVeau

After nearly a decade of partnering with global technology consortia, I understand the unique challenges and many exciting opportunities member-driven organizations have when it comes to realizing communications, membership and visibility objectives.

Partnering with standards bodies is always a rewarding experience for me, mainly because these organizations are made up of so many diverse, passionate and talented developer and technology teams.

These individuals – who are almost always from competing companies – come together under the umbrella of the organization to collaborate on the development of standards and best practices for addressing common technology and policy issues.

Many of my most successful product launches, executive positioning programs, industry analyst tours, press events, social media strategies and global integrated proactive campaigns have been developed while I have been working with technology consortia and standards bodies.

This is largely because these organizations are generally all about producing high-quality and extremely promotable content.

I’ve launched and managed proactive communications campaigns and executive positioning programs for Climate Savers Computing Initiative, Concordia Project, Java Verified, Kantara Initiative, Liberty Alliance, the Liberty SAML and SAML 2.0 Testing Programs, OpenLiberty.org, Open Data Center Alliance and Unified Testing Initiative.

I’ve also had opportunity to partner with many other global member-driven organizations – such as Cloud Credential Council, the Green Grid, the Information Card Foundation and OASIS – on strategic marketing programs and on positioning and promoting events, output and members.

I know that when I work with standards bodies there is always something important to talk about, someone to showcase, and an innovation or strategic piece of output to promote. I also know that there are many incredibly hardworking and under recognized heroes in the global standards world.

It’s always an honor for me to help promote these individuals and their stories and work in regional, national and international markets. – Russ DeVeau

I’ve talked and written a lot about how the press release is evolving and how I’ve been using press releases in proactive communications programs much differently today than I did five or ten years ago.

I discuss this trend in my Where’s the Quote and Hard and Soft News posts, which outline some of the best practices I’ve developed to help my clients successfully leverage the many new positioning and visibility opportunities associated with wire distributed content.

This press release caught my eye because it includes an important industry trend in the headline. It’s an example of how wire distributed content can be used to visibly tie an organization or an executive to a hot topic or trend.

The release was issued by Legrand, a company I am familiar with. I read the news because I follow the Internet of Things trend. I am almost certain I would not have clicked on this release if the company did not include the trend in the headline.

Internet of Things: Legrand Launches Eliot, its Program for Speeding up the Deployment of its Connected Devices Offering

Highlighting an important industry trend in a headline that crosses the wire can be a great strategy for quickly getting the attention of bloggers, industry analysts, journalists and social media influencers covering a topic or beat. I likely would have read this news if I was an influencer covering IoT when this release was issued.

Influencing search across traditional and social media search engines is often the number one benefit of issuing news with an industry trend called out in the headline. The company visibly positioned in the IoT arena as soon as this release crossed the wire. Any coverage stemming from this news and any proactive activities the company may embark on in the future can help solidify this positioning.

Should an industry trend be highlighted in the headline of your next wire distributed content? – Russ DeVeau

I keep a close eye on social media trends and platforms to ensure I am always maximizing client community building, visibility and message placement opportunities. Earlier this year I wrote about a trend showing how teens are abandoning Facebook, largely because they don’t want their parents tracking their social media activities.

This past weekend this trend was validated by my 17 year old nephew who was visiting New York City from Massachusetts.

We were on the E Train when we both overhead a woman say that she needed to check in on Facebook. My nephew, latest smartphone in hand, looked at me and said that he hasn’t checked in on Facebook in over a year. He followed this by saying Facebook was for old people.

We’ve had many conversations about social media in the past because my nephew has been active on social media for years. He knows Uncle Russ can preach about online privacy and security, online reputation management and best practices for managing videos, pictures and selfies.

This time around the conversation was a lot more fun for both of us because he was so enthusiastic about sharing his current social media likes, dislikes and goals.

Facebook is out because he’s not interested in – and doesn’t want – comments on the content he posts. Snapchat and Twitter are in because he wants to build communities of friends and followers who are really interested in the content he creates and shares.

One of his top goals is to gain social media status among his friends by significantly growing his number of Twitter followers. But he’s definitely not looking for likes or shares on any content he develops and posts. He’s a Snapchat fan because creating and sharing content is easy and fast.

We were on the train for only a few stops. During this time he created and posted three Snapchat videos, each tagged with Hell’s Kitchen, Manhattan and Fun. He had fun creating them and I had a lot of fun watching him speed through the process of creating and sharing quality content.

He never mentioned hiding stuff from his parents as a reason for leaving Facebook. But I’m quite sure avoiding the potential prying eyes of his mom and dad, who are both quite active on Facebook, entered into his decision to leave.

I know his parents don’t know much about Twitter. I would also bet they have not heard of Snapchat. If he is part of the teen trend of leaving Facebook to shield online moves from his parents, he’s likely met his goal – at least for now.

On the other hand, perhaps he’s simply an early user of new social media platforms. Maybe, after finishing his education, he will transform his interest and experience in social media into a career, just like his Uncle Russ. – Russ DeVeau

I discussed how branding requirements and communications technologies and websites change and evolve over time in my Yahoo Pipes and Web 2.0 posts. This time around I’m discussing how my brand is evolving and my website is changing.

I’ll launch a new website loaded with case studies, content, best practices, news stories and interviews with some pretty interesting folks from the global communications and technology industries in 2016.

My first professional website was published over 15 years ago. Sadly, from a Russ DeVeau history point of view, this site was never archived.

My next site was launched over ten years ago with help from two fantastic interns I was working with at the time. This site remained active for several years and was archived.

I’ve posted a couple of screen shots – for old times’ sake – on Pinterest.

With great clients, exciting projects and new branding, I’m really looking forward to 2016! – Russ DeVeau

I retweeted a data center storage tweet from SanDisk last week. The tweet stood out in one of my data center feeds because it focused on 2016 predictions and because it was issued in September.

It was the first 2016 data center storage predictions tweet I’ve seen this year. Industry analysts release market share and sales predictions on a regular basis, but vendors and other organizations tend to issue this type of content in 4Q and often during the month of January.

Releasing following-year predictions content early can be a very smart communications move. It’s a great way to take a leadership position in driving the 2016 predictions story and a great strategy for potentially integrating messages into stories and social media content that will likely be developed when competitors and influencers begin issuing their own 2016 trends and predictions news.

Do you have 2016 predictions news on your 4Q content calendar? Will you release earlier next year? – Russ DeVeau

Within hours of becoming active on Twitter, Edward Snowden had tens of thousands of followers. Less than 24 hours later, he has exceeded one million. I’m betting it won’t be long before he doubles this number.

Snowden may be demonstrating that he is a master at leveraging new media to place messages and drive headlines. At the very least, he’s reinforcing how social media has forever changed the communications world.

Activating his Twitter account resulted in a massive amount of news coverage and social media mentions. Snowden’s decision to initially follow only one organization – which I see as a smart positioning move  – was covered extensively in breaking news stories.

His first tweets generated nearly two hundred thousand retweets in a matter of hours and helped kick off another cycle of significant traditional and social media coverage.

Snowden is proving how social media can drive traditional coverage and how important Twitter is when it comes to creating awareness, building community and placing messages.

I know from my experience working in the identity, security and privacy sectors that there are a lot of folks interested in seeing what Snowden may tweet next. This is when we’ll likely see the social to traditional media coverage cycle begin again. – Russ DeVeau

I’ve recently been seeing an increasing number of tech sector press releases issued over a wire service that don’t include a quote attributed to an executive or potential spokesperson.

While acknowledging that every organization has unique objectives when it comes to issuing news, my experience has taught me that many coverage, positioning and visibility opportunities can be lost when news crossing a wire goes without a quote.

The quote is usually the most important key message included in any press release I write, and is typically the message I want to see in print and on news sites over and over again. The quote is also a critical component of press releases I develop as part of executive positioning and online reputation management programs.

I always write press releases so that client messages are front and center. But I also write press releases with a thorough understanding of what journalists and editors need to quickly develop and publish a high-quality story. This is why one of my top goals when writing hard and soft news is to issue content over a wire service that an outlet can immediately publish as a standalone news or feature story.

Some of my best media placements occur when an outlet publishes my content almost word for word. This is because all of the key messages I want to communicate to target audiences are included in the wire distributed content I write – and this content always includes a well-messaged quote. – Russ DeVeau

The role of the press release in proactive communications programs has changed dramatically over the last decade. In today’s 24/7 communications environment, press releases are frequently issued as part of larger content and SEO strategy and – often to the ongoing dismay of several of my old-school PR pals – no longer used only to announce formal news.

A few years back, I started using the term “wire distributed content” when writing about the evolution of the press release. It’s a term I continue to use when providing clients with counsel on how to best leverage the many new positioning and visibility opportunities associated with content distributed over a wire service. I put wire distributed content into two categories based on the concepts of hard and soft news. While both concepts can often deliver similar results, the strategies and tactics I employ for hard and soft news can vary greatly.

Hard news means I’m writing a press release that will be issued over a wire service based on a significant move by one of my clients. My number one goal with hard news is to generate coverage. I am generally extremely proactive with hard news and always have a media trained spokesperson on hand to interact with industry analysts, journalists and social media influencers for pre-briefings, interviews on the day news crosses the wires and throughout the news cycle. This cycle can last for several weeks depending on how proactive I am with the news.

I frequently go with a soft news approach when my number one goal is to influence search and usually as part of a storytelling, leadership positioning or reputation management campaign. I will often issue soft news when I want my clients to come up in a search based on a key word or trend. While soft news released over a wire service can result in significant coverage, I don’t always pitch soft news to influencers. Instead, I use soft news as a means to strategically place client messages and as key content for social media distribution.

Some of the most successful proactive campaigns I’ve managed over the last decade incorporate both hard and soft news. This is why I know many of my old-school PR pals – who may be struggling a bit with the concepts of hard and soft news – will eventually come around to understand the value both programs bring to today’s fast-moving communications campaigns. – Russ DeVeau

I’ve managed a few proactive communications projects with AT&T developer and technology teams over the last few years based on my work providing industry analyst, media and social media relations support to global technology consortia and standards bodies.

I have worked behind the scenes – which is often my preferred method of working – to announce AT&T’s involvement in UTI by proactively arranging an interview between Martin Wrigley, a top-notch UTI spokesperson, and John Waters, a technology journalist who was writing for Application Development Trends at the time.

The result was a fantastic feature story loaded with UTI messages and placed without issuing a formal press release. AT&T has also been part of the enterprise cloud, data center and big data trend stories I’ve been proactive with in global markets as part of my work with ODCA.

Given I keep a close eye on the global service provider and telecom industries and have helped promote a couple of AT&T initiatives from the industry standards point-of-view, I was anxious to take a look at the company’s newest ad in the “It Can Wait” campaign.

I understand why the ad generated so many headlines in traditional media and so much buzz across social networks. It’s a powerful and frightening depiction of how dramatically life can change because of a text or social media check-in by someone driving a car.

While the ad can be painful to watch, the message is spot-on and one that should likely be seen over and over again by anyone prone to texting while driving. The It Can Wait campaign is focused on eliminating device use while driving and incorporates a remarkable use of virtual reality technologies.

Virtual reality is a trend I mentioned last spring in my Here Maps post and – when it comes to using the medium for ad and campaign development – seems to be an area where AT&T’s communications team has taken an early lead.

Check out the latest It Can Wait ad below. – Russ DeVeau

It was a little surprising to see that Yahoo will no longer be supporting Yahoo Pipes, one of the early web content aggregation technologies. I mentioned Yahoo Pipes in a post a couple of years ago when I was discussing some of the issues surrounding the relatively new self-publishing and web curation tools and trends.

What I didn’t mention in that post however, is how large a role web aggregation concepts have played in many of my most strategic communications and SEO initiatives. Yahoo Pipes was one of the aggregation technologies I looked at when I was leading industry analyst, media and social media relations for the global launch of Kantara, a member-driven organization formed in 2009 by leaders in the identity industry to help foster the harmonization of the many identity standards and protocols in use at the time.

I incorporated aggregation into communications activities because I wanted a dynamic way to showcase launch and ongoing traditional and social media coverage on the Kantara web site and as a means to create new and long-term coverage opportunities by visibly tying the organization to trends taking place in the identity industry.

A portal serving as Kantara’s original “Connect” page featured links to the organization’s newly launched social sites, and included aggregated feeds developed based on key words and trends important to Kantara’s mission and branding goals.

I trained communications teams from across Kantara’s founding membership roster – including public relations and social media reps from BT, CA, Intel, Novell, NTT and Oracle – on how to leverage the portal for message placement and demonstrated how aggregation could help influence a wide range of search results.

The Kantara portal was extremely instrumental in helping to establish an active social media community for the organization and – for nearly five years – provided a great view of some of the important conversations taking place in the identity industry.

Of course, branding requirements change over time and so do communications platforms and technologies. I’ve seen many social networks, outlets and tools evolve over the last decade. During this time I’ve also seen the launch of many new social apps and web initiatives.

Some of these initiatives have garnered a great deal of initial attention, a large and loyal fan base and a significant number of early adopters. But many initiatives also lose a degree of relevance and users when a new technology comes along that seemingly does the job easier, faster or more effectively.

Perhaps Yahoo Pipes has fallen into this cycle given there are more options for incorporating aggregation concepts into strategic communications programs today. Or maybe Yahoo is giving another piece of the Internet pie to Google as some media outlets covering the Yahoo Pipes news have suggested.

Either way, Yahoo Pipes has played an important role in web content aggregation and has been extremely influential in helping to shape many of today’s aggregation-based applications. I’ll discuss some of these applications and technologies in future posts. – Russ DeVeau

I identified some global industry trends occurring in technology and telecom in my Nokia, Alcatel and Here Maps post. This is where I highlighted some of my work in the connected car market and discussed how the connected car story will likely remain a hot topic for quite some time.

The folks at Venture Scanner released an infographic that does a great job overviewing the connected car industry and many of the segments and players involved.  This is a very strong visual for taking a look at the “bigger picture” connected car story and for identifying potential storytelling opportunities in this fast-moving industry.

If you’re interested in keeping an eye on some hot industry trends, Venture Scanner may be great Twitter feed to follow. – Russ DeVeau

I know from experience that social media contests and sweepstakes can be incredibly valuable tools for increasing brand awareness and building and expanding online communities. Contests can also be a great way to communicate key messages and to proactively interact with influencers, customers and potential customers.

I’ve managed numerous B2B and B2C focused social media contests, and always have a lot of fun creating and implementing the strategies and tactics that drive brand awareness for clients, and build excitement for contest activities among target markets.

Two of the most exciting and successful Facebook and Twitter contests I’ve managed have been in conjunction with my pals at dot ME. Both contests focused on goals that included community expansion, message placement and the acquisition of new customers.

The contests were launched by leveraging traditional media strategies, including the development of press releases and proactive media outreach to drive initial buzz among target audiences and communities.

These strategies were complemented by the release of a steady stream of fun and engaging content designed to establish and continuously expand contest visibility, participation and momentum across multiple social media outlets.

I’m a big fan of holding planning sessions with client teams prior to the launch of any contest to discuss how to measure successes and ROI, and to agree on how to best address any potential issues that may come up during the contest period.

I hold these sessions because there are many ways organizations can leverage contests to successfully raise brand awareness, but there are also many ways an online contest could potentially harm a brand – at least over the short-term – if a contest isn’t administered properly.

This is why I always recommend that organizations launch contests based on well-defined goals and strategies and tactics that are flexible enough to adapt to whatever may happen on social media while the contest is running.

Continuous monitoring of contest activities and conversations, combined with appropriate proactive interaction with participants and potential participants, can help maintain momentum throughout the contest period and ensure that any potential hiccups are addressed immediately.

My experience has taught me that the most successful contests tend to be those that run for a relatively short period of time. I also recommend that contests begin only when the social media manager truly understands their current community of friends and followers.

Existing community members who may not be interested in participating in contest activities could see ongoing contest content as spam and may be tempted to hit the block or unlike button at any time during the contest period.

This point can be especially important if the community consists of top-tier journalists and other influencers who follow a feed for industry-specific content.

The social media manager can help minimize the possibility of losing quality followers during a contest by letting existing community members know a contest is coming – which is an excellent buzz-building tactic – and by pointing to rules and time frames early in the outreach process.

Organizations looking to leverage contests to increase brand awareness will want to adhere to the rules established by social media outlets and be aware of the many legal issues involved in administering online contests, giveaways and sweepstakes.

Social media managers should also note that there is a dedicated group of folks who seem to participate in almost every social media contest. These participants may or may not convert to customers or engaged long-term friends and followers. But they are great at helping to build buzz for contest activities, can be a lot of fun to interact with during the contest period and usually always play to win. – Russ DeVeau

When one of my communications goals includes generating media and social media coverage in Europe, I often start by looking for strategic opportunities in London. This is because London is an important communications center for bridging regions, time zones and English and non-English speaking markets.

I’ve found that when I allow an important news story to break early in the day in the UK, news services and influencers located in other European countries will often pick that story up, translate it into the local language, and then release it in their own market and to their own social networking communities.

Coverage in the UK and across other European countries can often spark significant coverage in North America as influencers on the US East Coast begin their day by writing stories based on news that broke in Europe overnight. Depending on the target audience and exact nature of the news, this coverage cycle could very well continue throughout time zones worldwide.

A plan that includes clear goals and objectives should be in place before issuing and pitching news and stories. But if coverage in Europe is a goal based on news or storytelling initiatives, London can be a great place to start proactive activities. – Russ DeVeau

I am a big fan of the infographic as an important part of client content strategies. Every organization has a story to tell and every organization can leverage an infographic to help tell that story.  I also appreciate the “what happens on the Internet in sixty seconds” infographics developed regularly by various creative teams around the world to help visualize some of the search and social activities that take place in an Internet minute.

This one was developed by the Vocational Training Council in Hong Kong, and illustrates some phenomenal year-after-year growth in social and sharing sights. These can be a fun and useful tool for looking at potential community building and message placement opportunities and for identifying preliminary priorities for SEO and reputation management programs. – Russ DeVeau

When an industry analyst or journalist is interested in speaking with a spokesperson from an organization I support based on a proactive media campaign I am managing – or for input on a trend or breaking news story – my preference is to always put the influencer in touch with a well-prepped and media-trained executive or technology expert.

This isn’t always possible, especially if the influencer is on deadline and a spokesperson is not immediately available. I’ve seen clients miss out on countless opportunities for potential coverage in business, trade and vertical outlets simply because an approved spokesperson was not available to meet with an influencer when a request for an interview was made.

Because I thoroughly understand the positioning goals of every organization I work with, and understand the unique requirements of the industry analyst and media communities, my clients frequently rely on me to speak with influencers on their behalf.

This value-add helps lessen the chances of missing top-tier coverage based on the location and availability of a spokesperson and helps clients build strong and long-lasting relationships with targeted influencers. This Computer World feature story is an excellent example of how I have effectively managed the spokesperson role on behalf of clients.

I first met Jeremy Kirk, the journalist who wrote the IDG piece, at an analyst and press event I was managing in London, right about the time when he first joined IDG to cover the security beat. Since then we’ve worked together on many digital identity management, security and privacy stories. Some of these stories are highlighted below.

One of the key messages in the privacy guidelines story where I am quoted focuses on how the technologies for federated identity management are in place – it’s the business and policy issues associated with deploying federated identity solutions where enterprises are struggling.

I find it interesting that pretty much the same message is being communicated today when it comes to enterprise cloud deployments and the Internet of Things. – Russ DeVeau

Computer World – Liberty Alliance releases legal, privacy guidelines
InfoWorld – Liberty Alliance urges standard for UK ID card plan
Network World – Oracle submits identity framework to Liberty Alliance
Computer World – Liberty Alliance releases new client ID specs
PC World – Liberty Releases Guidelines for Data Management, Handling
PC Advisor – Progress on Liberty Alliance Project ID plan
IT World – E-government Group forms within Liberty Alliance
CIO – Liberty Alliance, Microsoft Discuss Identity Protocols
InfoWorld – Liberty Alliance helps fuel use of identity specs
CIO – Liberty Alliance Publishes New Specs for Securing E-Commerce
InfoWorld – Vendors seek unity on identity protocols
Washington Post – Identity framework moves into next phase
Computer World – Tangling with identity management? There’s help
Info World – Identity federation: Is it time to move now?

I’ve been working in the telecom sector ever since I managed the global launch of IBM’s Telecom Business Unit over fifteen years ago.

This experience was followed by two years of leading HP’s telecom positioning in the U.S. market, and then by three years of supporting the positioning of various Alcatel business units in U.S. and global markets.

I’ve continued to support telecom and service provider positioning across vertical market segments through my work with leading IT consortia and standards bodies in the digital identity and security, mobile application quality, sustainable ICT, and cloud, big data and data center industries.

So it’s not surprising that I am keeping a close eye on the potential Nokia and Alcatel merger, and on Nokia’s recent news about the possibility of selling its Here Map division.

News stories from around the world are showing there is significant interest in obtaining Nokia’s mapping and location-based services technologies, with Apple, Audi, BMW, Uber and Mercedes Benz reportedly among the potential suitors.

These industry moves will continue to drive media coverage as speculation surrounding the sale of Here continues and when details related to the Nokia and Alcatel merger become finalized.

Once deals are in place, communications teams from the organizations involved will likely have a variety of new options for proactively telling leadership stories and a wide range of opportunities for showcasing the spokespersons who will help tell those stories.

I learned a long time ago that a great spokesperson is key to telling a great story. And because I’ve worked with many spokespersons from Nokia and Alcatel, as well as with spokespersons from organizations rumored to be interested in Here, I also know these companies have an incredible pool of spokesperson talent.

Two of the top-ten best spokespersons I’ve ever worked with come from BMW and Nokia. I’ve worked with senior BMW executives to tell BMW’s leading data center, enterprise cloud and connected car stories and with senior Nokia executives to tell far-reaching digital identity management, security and privacy stories.

While it’s too early to know how the Nokia and Alcatel merger and potential sale of Here will play out, I’m betting these industry moves will help to further drive some of the next round of trend and hot topic stories we’ll see in the networking and technology sectors.

If proactive storytelling is part of your marketing and content strategy, it may be a good time to look at options for developing stories where spokespersons can speak to issues and unique differentiators in order to capitalize on these trends.

The connected car and location based services stories will likely remain hot topics for quite some time.

But I’m also seeing huge opportunities for proactive storytelling in areas that include the potential for more telecom industry consolidation, software defined networking (SDN), virtual mapping and reality, the Internet of Things, wearables, robotics, and of course, just about everything mobile. – Russ DeVeau

Congratulations to the Reddit team for moving to incorporate video and more additional user-friendly capabilities into the ten year old platform.

Reddit was among the first social platforms I leveraged when the communications industry was moving to incorporate web and community sites into marketing and SEO campaigns. The platform was also a very important part of the early and fast-moving Web 2.0 story that drove consistent headlines throughout a good part of the last decade.

This is when I was when managing industry analyst and media relations, webcasts, and in-person Privacy Summits in Basel, Berlin, Brussels, London and Washington DC to tell a Web 2.0 story from a security and privacy point of view.

I was also experimenting with Reddit from the communications perspective, leveraging the relatively new platform to highlight quality blogs and news created by experts in the security and digital identity management industries.

While the Reddit landing page always looked a bit clunky – and it looks just as clunky today – one of the Reddit features that impressed me the most was how easily content shared on the platform could influence online search results.

Influencing search was one of the reasons I included Reddit as a platform I discussed when I began holding training sessions for technology and communications teams on blogging and social media best practices.

One of my first training sessions took place in San Francisco in 2006 when I showed a group of clients how sharing and sharing buttons on websites worked. I demonstrated how a blog could almost immediately show up at the top of a Google or Yahoo search page after sharing the content on sites such as Reddit and Digg.

This was an exciting proof point for showing how early Web 2.0 technologies were playing a role in SEO programs and how the Web 2.0 phenomenon was laying the foundation for a whole new world of visibility and community building opportunities.

The San Francisco strategy session also marked the unofficial launch of my blended approach to integrated global communications, which I developed based on my experience guiding clients through all phases of the new media and social networking evolution.

I’ve analyzed and worked with hundreds of social tools, networking, sharing, and community sites over the last decade to stay on top of the social media industry and to ensure I am always maximizing client visibility, search and online reputation management opportunities.

Many of these sites and initiatives have come and gone over the years. This is why it’s so good to see Reddit, after ten years and growing to 170 million users, still driving headlines and evolving to offer new services. – Russ DeVeau

I frequently talk with clients and potential clients about my blended approach for delivering move-the-needle communications results in regional, national and international markets.

My assignment with ODCA, the global member-driven organization focused on driving open enterprise cloud, big data and data center solutions, serves as a great case study for demonstrating how I combine multiple proactive strategies to reach target audiences around the world and to deliver far-reaching communications results.

My goal for ODCA was to dramatically raise the visibility of the organization in markets where members do business and to position ODCA Board Members – who have included senior executives from BMW, Capgemini, China Unicom, Infosys, Intel, Lockheed Martin, Marriott, National Australia Bank, SAP, T-Systems, Verizon, and The Walt Disney Company – as leaders in open enterprise cloud and data center initiatives.

By developing stories that tied ODCA to important industry trends and by leveraging my well-established relationships with industry analysts and syndicated top-tier journalists in Berlin, London, Miami, New York, Paris and San Francisco, I regularly placed stories that were distributed in multiple outlets, languages and regions, as well as across the social media sites and communities of news outlets worldwide.

The result was a record number of top-tier media placements for ODCA, thousands of Twitter tweets and retweets of ODCA stories, messages and content; a doubling of quality followers on the ODCA Twitter feed; and a steady stream of new ODCA social media followers, likes, and interactions.

I’ve managed a wide range of integrated communications campaigns for clients around the world with preliminary proactive activities usually starting with story and key message development.

Finding the story journalists will want to publish – and target audiences will want to read and share with their own social networks – is the most challenging and rewarding part of the process. And with twenty years of experience in the continuously evolving communications industry, I know every organization has a story to tell.

Check out some of the hundreds of global media stories I helped place for ODCA, all dramatically influencing search across traditional and social media engines and serving as key content for social media distribution and sharing. – Russ DeVeau

CIO Australia – CBA, Telstra join Open Data Centre Alliance
Financial Express India – Big Data poses tremendous challenges
American Banker – Be Careful or Big Data Could Bury Your Bank
ZDNet – Microsoft joins ODCA to promote cloud standards, interoperability
eWeek – Microsoft Rides Cloud to Open Data Center Alliance Membership
CIO Asia –  Microsoft Joins Open Data Center Alliance
Wired Magazine – Microsoft Joins Open Data Center Alliance
Computer World Singapore – Microsoft joins Open Data Center Alliance
Silicon France – Microsoft rejoint l’Open Data Center Alliance
PC World Spain – Microsoft se adhiere a la Open Data Center Alliance
ZDNet France – Microsoft rejoint l’Open Data Center Alliance
PC Week Russia – Microsoft вступает в Open Data Center Alliance
CIO Germany – ODCA adds to list of needed cloud improvements
Computer World India – ODCA adds to list of needed cloud improvements
PC Week Russia – SAP-as-a-Service
CIO Germany – ODCA: Virtual machines inching to portability
TechTarget – BMW accelerates private to hybrid cloud
CNW News China – ODCA: The virtual machine is gradually achieve portability
Cloud Computing Insider Germany – BMW brings private cloud to drive
IT Business Germany – BMW brings private cloud to drive
Data Center Knowledge – Open Data Center Alliance Tackles Cloud Lock-In
CIO Australia – ODCA: Virtual machines inching to portability
CIO Brazil – Portability of virtual machines challenges industry
CNIT China – ODCA Study: Virtual machines are gradually achieve portability
Forbes – Cloud Interoperability and The Battle For The Open Cloud
Cloud of Data – Discussing Virtual Machine interoperability with the ODCA
Data Center Professionals – ODCA BMW Private Cloud Strategy
MPA Australia – NAB’s new private cloud: The future of broking?
CIO Germany – Open Data Center Alliance tackles big data analysis
Computer World Hong Kong – Open Data Center Alliance tackles big data analysis
CIO Latin America – ODCA SE ABRE A BIG DATA Y SDN
Computer World Mexico – Open Data Center Alliance se abre a Big Data y SDN
CIO Peru – Open Data Center Alliance se abre a Big Data y SDN
Network World Big Data Spain – ODCA se abre a Big Data y SDN
Networks Asia – Open Data Center Alliance tackles big data analysis
Le Monde  –  L’ODCA se penche sur le SDN, le big data et le stockage
Computer World Australia – Open Data Center Alliance tackles Big Data analysis
CIO Peru – Kingston joins the Open Data Center Alliance
CIO Asia – Open Data Center Alliance tackles big data analysis
Channel News Spain – Kingston joins the Open Data Center Alliance
Times of India – Infosys has joined the Open Data Center Alliance
ZDNet – 10 steps to avoid cloud vendor lock-in
IT Management Russia – How to avoid vendor lock-in Cloud Services
Pro UK – Big Data creates equally big questions
CiOL – Open Data Center Alliance showcases enterprise ready cloud
LeMagIT France – BMW s’apprête à allumer son Cloud privé
Channel Web UK – Does hybrid cloud mean fragmented security?
SPTC Russia – Increase the benefits of the cloud using cloud-based applications
V3 UK – BMW on journey to the cloud with private deployment
Computer World Germany – SAP and Infosys in the ODCA steering committee
VAR India Magazine – Infosys and SAP Join ODCA
Cloud Insider Germany – ODCA published concept for better carbon footprint
CloudPro – ODCA publishes cloud carbon emission study
Environmental Leader – How to Measure & Control Cloud CO2 Emissions
MSP Today – Industry Alliance Aims at Cloud Maturity
Cable and Installation – ODCA updates roadmap for enterprise cloud adoption
Information Week India – 8 cloud computing trends to watch out for in 2014
MSP Today – Cloud Group Tackles Information-as-a-Service
Environmental Leader – How to Cut Cloud Computing’s Carbon Emissions

Some exciting contest news from my friends at The .ME Registry…

.ME Registry Announces Five Day Social Media Contest

Get Social & Receive a Free .ME Domain Name Registration