Image: Chicago Cubs, Major League Baseball

Most Major League Baseball teams are now in full swing with their spring training game schedules, leading up to the season opener April 4^th when the World Series Champion New York Yankees visit the Boston Red Sox. Long suffering Cubs fans like me are filled with hope and excitement this time each year. It’s the one month annually when we can boast that “this is our year!” Now this isn’t a knock on my Mighty Cubbies, just the transparent truth that we haven’t won a World Series in over 100 years. Taking the positive approach – we have a big celebration to look forward to, and this requires preparation.

All teams, in fact, are doing their pre-season due diligence to evaluate each player’s talents and select their final rosters for the season. Spring seems a time of year when we all can step outside, stretch out in the sun, clear the cobwebs and identify improvements we can make in our lives, both personally and professionally.

Professionally speaking, marketers and PR practitioners are among those who can benefit from some annual spring training. A few baseball tenets can guide the way. For instance, you can:

Assess your roster – You know your team and which tools are at your disposal. Perhaps someone or something is clicking, yet only needs a new position assigned to shine. Maybe you have a gaping void in centerfield, so assess your prospects internally and externally to fix it. Stepping back to survey your operations can be revealing, and in the context of a still young season you can likely correct course.

Keep your eye on the ball – Don’t have a vacation mentality. In business it is always game on, and even seasonal businesses should seek to make downtime productive by prospecting and networking. It’s not uncommon to get caught up in the hustle and lose sight of your stated goals. Review the marketing and communications plans you poured your heart into preparing for the executive board. Are you on course for the All-Star team and to make a playoff run?

Use your relievers – We’re working in the knowledge economy, and most of us have at least several colleagues or contractors with varying talents. Make sure you are aware of your team members’ core competencies and don’t hesitate to put them in the game when needed.

There’s probably no limit to the baseball clichés we could come up with to get ourselves motivated, but you get the point. Baseball teams don’t solve all their problems in a day. They work on them game by game, inning by inning, and you can too.

A Season Of Social Media?

Ok, being a social media enthusiast I couldn’t help but scan for teams using Facebook, Twitter and social networking in interesting ways. The Cubs have some common elements in play including a Facebook fan page (with a half million fans, nice), but it’s the south side White Sox who impress me most early here in the pre-season. The team works with Amy Jo Martin and her Digital Royalty team, ensuring high creativity.

All Major League teams follow a specific format for their Web presence, which at times seems limiting to me yet I can see the overall benefit of consistency. The Sox have taken what they have to work with and blended in some social elements including links to Facebook and a collection of Twitter accounts, as well as use of the league’s MLBlogs network.

Digital Royalty’s work with the team for SoxFest in January was impressive for giving the team’s social networking a jump start in the offseason. dR created some interesting activities to bridge virtual Web connections and onsite activity including games of “Hide and Tweet” where tickets to SoxFest were hidden around Chicago for fans to find via Twitter hints.

The good vibrations have expanded since SoxFest. Just yesterday for example I saw a tweet from @InsideTheSox (club VP of Communications Scott Reifert) who was demonstrating the importance of listening – that classic we all preach regarding social networking.

Reifert spotted a couple of fans chatting on Twitter and offered to reward their loyalty with tickets to today’s game: “@ciaomari and @DiyaMarketing – overheard you talking about Spring Training. I have tickets, tomorrow’s on us. DM me for details.”

The simple things truly are some of the best. As this attention to detail keeps up a critical mass of fans are sure to follow.

Wishing a great Spring Training to everyone!

And for us Cub fans, some encouragement via a social video courtesy of Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder…

Ok, add me to the list of marketers, PR practitioners and bloggers who feel compelled to comment about Apple without any prompting from the company whatsoever. Or have I been prompted in some cosmic way?

Last week’s “at last” arrival of the iPad, its launch event in San Francisco and the PR halo surrounding it signaled yet another moment of truth for the company’s recipe of experience-driven innovation, secrecy and consumer buzz.

Apple’s iPad even made an appearance on the Grammy Awards television broadcast. I found this to be cheesy product placement (I’m not aware if it was an Apple tactic or otherwise), but the Grammys is certainly where eyeballs were last weekend and only an iPad in the President’s pocket during his State of the Union address would have trumped it.

As the Grammy telecast kicked off comedian Stephen Colbert just happened to have an iPad inside his tuxedo pocket when announcing the Song of the Year award winner. I will say that Colbert made the prop “fit” his routine with a funny “what, you didn’t get one of these in your gift bag?” quirk to Jay-Z and the celebrity audience. He further passed it off as trying to be cool for his daughter who was in attendance.

Making the iPad “fit” is really a fitting point here. The cool factor that is Apple products makes many industry observers, techies and consumers want to find viable uses for them. This power of attraction is such an asset for brands. And this doesn’t always require revolutionary but rather evolutionary product strategies, as CRM industry analyst Denis Pombriant commented on in his recent Apple post.

My perspective is less technical and more focused on the communications aspects Apple have at play. I mentioned the company in my “Inside Inbound Marketing” post last week and, the more I ponder, it certainly employs a form of Inbound Marketing, not so much by creating tons of its own compelling and sharable Web content per the intended Inbound definition, but certainly via content. Apple’s content is great products. It’s also the music, videos and iPhone apps it sells (which it does not create but profitably distributes). And most notably it’s the word-of-mouth the company’s presence generates.

The elements of Apple communication mainly boil down to: innovation, mystery and community.

Innovation’s inherent leadership quality

There’s a pecking order to power and influence in just about any market. Apple certainly makes the short list of enterprise-level organizations that move technology markets. Testimony to this was offered this week from a former Microsoft employee. In a New York Times piece Dick Brass contemplates what might be the diminishing impact of Microsoft when compared with Apple on the scale of innovation. In short, fusing its focuses on customer experience and technology has netted the easy-to-use products that have placed Apple in an enviable leadership position.

The moat of mystery (and its occasional, strategic leaks)

Apple seems to make a living out of being quiet and letting the rest of us tell its story. There are pros and cons to this approach, of course, and it is best reserved for a few solidified brands that can weather the cheers and jeers of its publics. Apple has launch events down to an art form and between these occurrences a sort of super sleuth mentality produces much of the Apple chatter. Take these iPad prototype photos for example, or this lavish timeline about the iPad’s history – the iPad that didn’t officially claim until last week. Such examples of speculation and debate usually require a kernel or two of fact, so Apple soft peddles information in some fashion to influencers. It’s all permissible when you have a charismatic leader like Steve Jobs who surfaces occasionally at events to confirm and add context. (I profiled Jobs’ persona in my keynote presentation to PRSSA chapter presidents at their Leadership Rally last May.)

The pure power of communities

For Apple it’s communities of developers and techies. It’s the blogerati. It’s admired tech columnists and reviewers like Walt Mossberg, David Pogue and Lance Ulanoff. It’s consumers. I’m sure there are many other community types but you get the point. Word gets around.

The innovation, mystery and eventual facts feed the communities that create a surge of Apple interest. How long can it last, and what other lifestyle and communication standards will Apple innovation create? I’m certainly not claiming to know Apple’s inner workings from a communications standpoint, or any other, yet even removed from specifics I find that watching its marketing machine work offers an educational and entertaining view. How about you?

The Simpsons (TM) Fox Broadcasting

Ninety countries, 45 languages, an entry in the Oxford English Dictionary (for “D’oh”) and 450 episodes of quality programming spanning 20 years … this is “The Simpsons,” or, these are the Simpsons I should say. As an entity, individual family members and as a diverse cast of characters they’ve helped shape how we express humor in our lives and, I think, have taught us a few simple lessons about communicating along the way.

The Simpsonian Institute of Communications

You don’t have to dive too deep into any Simpsons episode to extract a kernel of wisdom. The program makes fun of American life yet often nails the reality of our existence (with sarcasm and hilarious consequences, of course). There are infinite learnings you can draw from the show. Here are just a few broad thoughts that come to mind.

Be Bold If You’re Going To Break Or Change The Rules

The recent Simpsons 20^th Anniversary Special (which you can view here) notes that in its early days the show could get away with a lot of things others couldn’t on television. The show’s creators attribute most of this to being an animated rather than live-action program, which seemed to allow usually censored occurrences and character lines to fly under the radar.

We may not have cloak of animation as a built-in advantage, yet a lot of appreciation and respect can be gained for being a game-changer provided your intentions are good (and I suppose sometimes even when they’re not, considering a tabloid perspective). Being up front with your actions generally gets your message across most effectively, as this classic McBain clip helps illustrate.

A Cast Of Characters Enriches Your Program

While The Simpsons focuses on the dysfunctional family adventures of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie, the show’s longevity and ability to reach the masses is powered by its universe of interesting characters. Ned Flanders, Comic Book Guy, Lionel Hutz, Apu, Moe, Selma Bouvier-Terwilliger-Hutz-McClure-Stu-Simpson … there’s someone for everybody to identify with and root for or against. While communicators understand the importance of having a central spokesperson and a consistent message, even a corporation’s leader or a brand’s representative becomes more likeable when they’re interacting with others.

Star Power Isn’t A Necessity, It’s Good Color

The Simpsons have had hundreds of A-List celebrities and people-of-the-moment appear in episodes. While these moments are often interesting and quiet funny, most aren’t essential to the main plot. Even household brands that emphasize celebrity spokespeople should be careful not to put all of their eggs in one basket. Consider Accenture’s quick dissolution with Tiger Woods. One of my favorite Simpsons clips is the all-star music ensemble for Timmy (the boy trapped in the well) which Sting kicks off.

Familiarity And Repetition Works

The Simpsons are among those who have proved that when something works it doesn’t really need much adjusting. Plots have been repeated over the years and the show even makes fun of itself for doing this. Bart, for example, has had a pet elephant on more than one occasion. He and Lisa have foiled the evil plans of Sideshow Bob ten times now, and the annual “Treehouse Of Horror” episodes are among the series’ most popular. Consider the NBC late night programming scuffle with Leno and Conan for example. The scheduling shakeup of just a few months ago seems to have only created more problems.

Memorable Sound Bytes Help Us, Well, Remember

“Eat my shorts. Don’t have a cow, man. D’oh!” Practically anyone passively aware of television programming over the past two decades can instantly identify these phrases with The Simpsons. It works in marketing too: “We try harder. Less filling, tastes great.” And sometimes in life it backfires. “Read my lips, no new taxes.” Regardless, creating memorable sound bytes can catch people’s attention, grow a person’s or brand’s reputation, and potentially solidify their position in history. It sure has worked for Matt Groening, his Simpsons creative team, and the characters themselves.