So we are in Miami, FL at the WOMM-U getting ready for an exciting two days. This year Erin will be leading various blog workshops. Throughout the day David and I will be posting photos to Flickr, videos to YouTube, and updates to this blog and Twitter.

If you are in Miami, drop by our booth and lay down a sick riff on Guitar Hero.

I’m out in San Francisco this weekend, prepping to deliver the Digital in Action program to colleagues on Monday and Tuesday. Today is a work day, but yesterday I took a day off and headed to Napa Valley with a colleague (Kevin Haythe from Exetor Group) to indulge in one of my passions, wine tastings. We visited four wineries, and had four different experiences that each led us to have a different perception and thus interaction with the winery. Here’s how it went down.

First, we visited Rubicon Estates. It is a huge winery with the focal point of the experience being a beautifully renovated chateau. As you pull in the driveway signs direct you to “drive to the red carpet.” Your car is valeted, and you are told to go inside to pay the $25 tasting fee. The experience inside is overwhelming. You can taste five wines, buy all kinds of stuff (some actually related to wine), and view exhibits, again, some actually related to wine. We thought the wines were okay, but left feeling a little taken advantage of by the winery and disappointed that they seemed to make enjoying wine more complex than it needs to be. We didn’t buy a thing.

Next we visited Whitehall Lane Winery. The experience was still formal, but it was much more approachable. We were given a choice of two tasting options, both for $25 per person. We went with a vertical tasting of three reserve cabs. The host respectfully paid attention to our conversation, and offered us a fourth reserve cab to taste when she heard us talking about only really liking one of the three wines. At that point the tasting room got very crowded and she had less time to interact with us. When we were ready to square up, we bought one bottle of wine, and she kindly comped us one tasting due to the crowd. We left feeling positive about Whitehall, and more disenfranchised with Rubicon.

The next stop was Heitz Cellars. The tasting room was a little smaller and was run almost like an invitation into someone’s home. Hosts poured wines and engaged in lively dialogue with visitors. As we debated what to purchase, one of the hosts invited us to try to other wines that they don’t offer as part of the formal tasting, but he thought we might enjoy. He answered a lot of questions about unique characteristics of Heitz cabernets, and even let me take a picture of his dog. There was no charge for the tasting, and the hosts truly tried to create an experience around the wine and winery with guests. We left with 6 bottles to ship, and 1 to take for dinner. We started to see a pattern about the interactions we had with the people and the brand and the opinion we had of the wines.

At this point we decided to go off the beaten track and visit a winery that neither of us had ever heard of. We ended up at Burgess Cellars, a winery on the side of Howell Mountain that offers tastings by appointment only. We walked in to a room full of people who had an appointment, but were warmly welcomed by the host, Michael. We then enjoyed a complimentary tasting of five different Burgess wines, with lively conversation, questions and answers, fun banter with lots of laughs, and photo opps. We bought 33 bottles to shop between the two of us, and then Michael gave us a complimentary bottle to enjoy during our trip. It was clear that Michael was selfless in his creating an experience, which made us want to repay his kindness with a purchase. We were so pleased with the warmth of the Burgess experience that we decided to call it a day and head back to the city.

Why am I writing all of this on a blog about digital perspective? We talk about how marketers need to build trust with consumers online to truly be successful in reaching business objectives, but the reality is that they need to do it in all of their business interactions. We felt that the Rubicon experience spoke at us and even potentially looked down on visitors as they tried to impress us with the majesty of wine. I’d liken it to a big fancy website that has lots of bells and whistles and shouts, “look at me, look at me” but then doesn’t really have anything to say and isn’t open to hearing from visitors. Whitehall and Heitz were much more accessible - as websites they would have been providing the functionality I’d expect, but also been listening to my needs and flexing to meet them. They created a relevant experience for us in real time based on how we interacted with them. And Burgess would be a social media website, co-creating an experience based on shared interests and open dialogue. Our spending tracked against our experience and the level of trust we had in each winery, ranging from no purchase at Rubicon to 33 bottles at Burgess. The challenge and opportunity for marketers is to recreate these types of interactions online, and to flex to consumers so that a relevant, self-directed experience is had by all.

Offline the Latin culture is very warm and social – this seems to be translating online. According to Comscore and Analytics 2.0 the number of people creating profiles on social networks has increased by 103% from Jan 07 – Jan 08. The study included Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico.

Some interesting figures:
• Orkut - 12.9 million (up 27% from 10.1 million in ‘07)
• Sonico - 7.3 million (Sonico launched during the second half of ‘07)
• hi5 - 4.2 million (up 72% from 2.2 million in Jan. ‘07)
• MySpace - around 3 million (13 million users in all markets analyzed)
• Facebook - 2.2 million (up 4,152% from the Jan. ‘07 count of 52,000)

Says Ramiro Prudencio, Managing Director at Burson-Marsteller:

“The growth of social networks in Latin America is extremely important for those of us who manage brands and issues. People are engaged, sharing information and shaping public opinion – especially younger internet users – through these networks. If practitioners and clients think they will drive successful and effective communications programs through traditional media alone, they will be missing a tremendous opportunity. Moreover, there is an opportunity to quickly apply what we’ve learned from working in the US and Europe over the past couple of years as social networks have taken off, and offer clients unique insight as to how things are likely to trend in Latin America.”

NBC News is getting into the education business, the digital education business to be exact, reports the New York Times. In conjunction with the New York Film Academy, NBC News is offering a four-week, eight-week and one-year digital journalism program for interested students. According to the Times, “a crying need for digital technologies” is one of many driving forces behind the new venture.

Although the article cites references regarding push-back in the academic world, specifically the fact that having “digital” tools doesn’t necessarily equate to journalism success, I believe NBC News and the NY Film Academy should be applauded for their endeavor. As a recent graduate and digital native, I know the impetus of understanding and applying digital in today’s world. Part of my job as Global Digital Coordinator is not only tracking current online trends but also evaluating these trends in terms of relevancy for our worldwide clients and Digital team.

Digital is all around us, ranging from websites to mobile phones; from broadcast TV to radio; from blog posts to blog comments…however the question remains: “What do I do with it?” Although the obvious answer (”a lot”) may appear simple, there should be a significant amount of thought and planning before one engages within this medium.

This idea of digital as omnipresent, and more importantly, actionable is present in Burson-Marsteller’s training program, Digital in Action, already in its six month throughout the company. Similar to the actions of NBC News and the New York Film Academy, an organization that values continuous learning and training via solid strategies, best practices and tools around new technology/communication channels serves as the ultimate destination for knowledge sharing, for company, employee and student.

Do you see value in the partnership between NBC News and the New York Film Academy?

I’m behind on my writing. A nasty cold, a couple of speaking engagements, and some urgent client work have made it tough to find time to blog. I spoke a week or so ago at the Airports Council International Media Relations conference at the Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. The conference was very interesting – it was an assembled group of communications professionals from major airports across the country. I have rarely given much thought to the unique challenges of managing an airport’s reputation, so this conference was a real eye-opener. The presenters before me did a great job of talking about the implications of user-generated content. Think about it – a routine arrest for drunk or disorderly conduct can be captured via a mobile phone, shared with the media, and then blown out of proportion on a slow news day.

This got me thinking about our personal responsibility when it comes to creating content online. People seem to think if they capture an image or incident that there are no restrictions on how it is shared. I am starting to disagree. I think we all have a personal obligation to make sure that any content we create is used in context, and that all parties are treated fairly. In the examples I saw from the airport conference, reporters were getting their hands on assets created by the flying public, and were then running stories with little fact checking and making assumptions that were completely false. This puts an unfair burden on the airport communications professional to set the record straight, and more importantly it can create fear and anxiety in air travelers. Given as much as I travel the last thing I want or need is more anxious people in airports.

We know that people are unintentionally creating news reports, and we also know the media are running stories based on this content. If we are all journalists now, don’t we all have an obligation to ensuring that the stories we create or contribute to are true, in perspective, and helpful to the general public? It is almost though, in some cases, the tables are turned and the citizen journalists have to uphold a higher standard or reporting. I know I plan to – I travel with an iPhone, a BlackBerry with camera, and a digital camera with video capability. They’ll remain in my pocket the next time I’m dashing from gate to gate.

Equally as interesting as the conference was the time I got to spend with the DFW Int’l Airport public affairs / communications team. Ken Capps, VP of Public Affairs at DFW hosted a dinner at the awesome restaurant in the Grand Hyatt at the airport. He had many great stories about running comms at an airport, and I greatly appreciated his insights and hospitality. More importantly, I appreciated his commitment to transparency in digital communications, and was excited to hear about his plans to push the digital envelope in the next iteration of the DFW website. He has a great team that I got to spend some time with – Megan Bozarth who is the marketing manager, and Cynthia Cooper, a marketing specialist. They are working together on DFW’s web presence and are very committed to providing a great experience for air travelers. Brian Murnahan spoke about the challenges of media relations for an airport, and Sarah McDaniel-Langhorst also had an interesting perspective about working in a comms role for an airport. I always assumed the mentality was along the lines of “get them in, get them out,” but Ken and his team are truly committed to creating a pleasant experience throughout the entire airport. That can’t be an easy task – this is an airport that is bigger than all of Manhattan! I’m quite jealous of my colleagues James Florez who is Managing Director of our Dallas office, and Kent Pingel who is day to day project manager on our work for DFW, in that they get to work with this awesome team every day.

This morning, our Worldwide President and CEO, Mark Penn, announced the launch of a new Facebook application around his bestselling book, Microtrends. For the 70+ million users on Facebook, the Microtrends application presents an awesome opportunity to engage, interact and learn from your friends’ various niche interests. As Mark put it, “If you’ve read the book or heard me talk about Microtrends, you know that 1% of society can make or break a business, win an election or launch a social movement. But let’s get down to what’s really important: Which 1% are you?”

The application is in the form of a short quiz which allows you to discover which “Microtrend” you align with. Are you a Caffeine Crazy? High School Mogul? Numbers Junkie? 30-Winker? (I am!) What about your friends? Do they fall into similar or different groups? Take the quiz and find out.

As Erin has previously posted about the era of open and personal communication, Microtrends enables relevant microtargeting - the chance to offer different stakeholders messages and products that emotionally moves them. For Public Relations practitioners or Marketing professionals, the age of mass media and mass messaging is dead. Microtrends, and more specifically, this application represents a new and exciting way for us to listen to our clients, friends and family.

A special “Thank You” goes out to everyone who worked on the first iteration of the application: Zach Ambrose, David Brooks, Ryan Coogan, Matt Hersh, Dan Lazar, Stacey Lazar, Robyn Pearlstein and Kinney Zalesne (co-author of Microtrends). I’m really excited to see how the application plays out, particularly within the dynamic social ecosystem of Facebook.

Radiohead continues trusting their fans. They have partnered with Aniboom (a animation/video social site - think YouTube and Akira) to hold a music video contest for the In Rainbows album. People will be asked to submit animations clips and while the competition will be judged by the community, Aniboom, and Radiohead themselves.

Remember that Radiohead offered their album, In Rainbows, to be download at a price determined by each fan, some paid $0, some paid $12. Seems like more and more the middle men (music labels and now producers / directors) are being left out. NIN (Nine Inch Nails) dropped their record label and sold their latest album online ($5) - they grossed $1.6million in the first week. Read what Trent Reznor had to say to his fans (notice the amount of comments: 3,133)

Both NIN and Radiohead trust their fans…

Southwest Airlines has announced that they have had to ground more than 40 planes for lapsing in safety inspections, and the FAA is trying to fine them more than 10 million dollars. Given that Southwest has been celebrated for their open communications via their blog, I was immediately interested to see whether or not they’d post a response or point of view on this situation.

As it turns out, they did post their press release on the “Nuts About Southwest” blog but also posted links to their CEO’s media interviews, and other comments directly to the consumer. This is a great example of a company creating conversation and even opening themselves up to criticism because it is a) the right thing to do, and b) the best way to truly understand what their customers are saying.

The comments to their blog are the most interesting part of this story from my perspective. There are the usual suspects - brand loyalists supporting the company and committing to ongoing patronage, and of course, those who are upset with the company and say they’ll never fly SW again. More interesting though are the conversations happening among the blog readers, including Harrison, a self-proclaimed former Southwest mechanical intern who vouches for the strength of their crew and applauds the company for allowing an open dialogue and several current Southwest employees sticking up for the company.

What are the implications of Southwest’s creating dialogue with stakeholders via their blog? There are a few that jump to mind, although I’m sure there are others that I’m missing. First, both mainstream and online media have an additional source of information that goes beyond the standard press release. Obviously, they are getting real time feedback from customers. Employees are rallying, or have the opportunity to rally to the company’s defense. And, they are likely seen as more credible since they are engaging in an open conversation as opposed to simply issuing a press release and then slamming the door. What are the other benefits of the conversation Southwest is participating in?

Nice job Southwest, and good luck beating that fine. I think you deserve a discount just for the way you are handling this situation.

I am sure that by now you are aware that Southwest Airlines had to ground 44 planes for further inspection after rumors that the company failed various safety inspections. While I will not go into the details of the case, watch the CNN interview with Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly for that. I would like to make reference to Southwest Airlines’ blog “Nuts about Southwest”, whose authors has been posting information on the subject since March 6th.

A total of three posts have been published since, receiving more than 230 comments from customers…obviously there is concern, and some even rant on about what a horrible airline Southwest is. But after scanning the comments, overall I noticed a very supportive and positive reaction.

For example:

“I DO believe you. After much frustration with United, I transferred a couple of years ago to Southwest on parallel runs. After retiring over a year ago, I still have 600,000+ miles banked on United. But I’ll take Southwest any day.

I have carefully watched your pilots’ pre-flight inspections and despite the occasional levity of your crews, I have nearly absolute faith in them.

Beyond that I most appreciate the fact that immediately on learning of this error you reported it to the FAA and Boeing. The naysayers can say what they want. I still think that Southwest is the best managed airline in the business. And by the way, my wife will be on a 7 am flight to Oakland tomorrow and will fly to Sacramento on Tuesday!

Posted by: Len Frank | March 7, 2008 at 12:12 am”

And there are plenty more like this - the majority of negative comments are “pulverized” by customers supporting their airline. It seems to me that Southwest Airlines has done the right and honest thing: kept a clear and open conversation with their passengers. Further more, this has enabled Southwest customers to become the airline’s most important spokes person.