“Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it,” Ferris Bueller said in the 1986 film, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.”

Bueller’s comment is still true in today’s consumer technology market, where users of ubiquitous services like Netflix and Facebook endure rapid changes to features, user agreements and privacy settings with little choice in the matter.  The way that companies announce such changes has also become faster in the digital era.

In September, Facebook further obscured users’ ability to maintain profile privacy with the introduction of the Timeline and Open Graph functions, which post notifications about everything users read, view and listen to.

Meanwhile, Netflix fueled an already-controversial price increase by renaming its DVD-by-mail service Qwikster, dismantling the convenience of managing  DVD and streaming movie queues seamlessly and distancing itself from mail customers altogether. Both companies’ moves ignited massive criticism on social networks. (Neflix abandoned its Qwikster spinoff in October.)

“Many tech companies don’t do a good job building relationships with customers and influencers in advance of significant changes,” explains  Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz and Associates and author of  “Smart or Lucky: How Technology Leaders Turn Chance into Success.”

However, fostering these relationships vets market reaction and creates more enthusiastic constituents.

How, where and when

Industry events and conferences gather constituents in a format successfully used by companies like Amazon and Apple to make big announcements. Some annual events become known entities where attendees and media expect news.

Facebook used the familiarity of its annual f8 conference to announce its latest changes. Positive reasons for doing so include surrounding your news with supporters to influence favorable reaction and the magnetism that these events create, even encouraging others to tune in and live stream or blog the event.

In addition to logistic and cost realities, cons include the pressure to impress. Consider Apple’s “failure to launch” last month, when event attendees expected an iPhone 5 unveiling but saw an improved iPhone 4S instead.

Netflix chose passive approaches for its announcements.  A customer email broke the price-hike news, setting off  customer threats to leave the service. CEO Reed Hastings later posted a YouTube apology for how he handled that communication.

Positive reasons for these approaches include controlling succinct messages while targeting both specific and broad recipients. Cons include perceptions of greed, considering the success of Netflix’s business.  The Qwikster announcement looked hastily delivered — it did not have a Facebook page or the @Qwikster Twitter handle at launch.

Netflix displayed panic according to Hurwitz, who encourages communicators to position themselves to write the story during transitions. She suggests testing strategies with experienced outsiders under NDA.

“Even if you say ‘I’m going to do it my way,’ you are at least informed how the market may react and can develop messaging in advance,” she says.

Above all, define your objective, outcomes that you seek and how you want the headlines to read.  “Netflix didn’t want ‘prices raised, customers fleeing’ but that’s what they got,” Hurwitz said.  “There is no substitute for well-crafted announcements.”

This post also appears as the November “Digital Dialogue” column in the PR Tactics Journal, published by the Public Relations Society of America.

Google+ debuted in June and amassed its first 25 million users faster than any other social network, according to PC Magazine. This finally established Google’s social media presence, after its previous Wave and Buzz experiments received little fanfare. Google+ functions similarly to Facebook, including requiring users to register their real names.

Google experienced crisis-level backlash in July when the company enforced this policy deleting thousands of pseudonym accounts and those of some celebrities, tech gurus and people with uncommon names.

As a result, Google updated its policy and offered concessions such as notifying users with naming violations before deleting their accounts and creating an “other names” field.  While Google+ continues to grow, this name-transparency episode illustrates trust issues with digital citizens, social platforms and, by extension, brands.

Augie Ray, executive director of community and collaboration for United Services Automobile Association, an association dedicated to military personnel’s financial well-being, agrees that there are instances when anonymity can protect people online, though he generally prefers transparency.

“More business can be transacted when people are open,” he explains. “Trying to identify ‘@princess5827’ on Twitter is difficult, whereas if members post concerns on our Facebook wall, we can easily contact and assist them.”

Ray, a former Forrester social media analyst, thinks that Google is wise to follow Facebook’s lead regarding name transparency because it encourages authenticity.

Yet, we live in an era of asynchronous transparency where consumers leverage social networks to demand brand honesty but offer less details about themselves in return. Consider consumer “distress” messages on Twitter:  Some are legitimate pleas for help, while others are shortcut attempts for support or freebies.

This transparency imbalance did not always favor consumers. Brands more or less controlled their messages since advertising’s inception until the social-networking revolution.

Ray argues that this divide between brands and consumers impedes social networking’s vision for transparency. For instance, brands could post service-issue specifics that are customarily kept private when consumers post aggressive complaints online.

Like it or not

Questionable online activities manifest in ways beyond anonymity and deception. Some real-life behaviors create confusion when exhibited online. Facebook Likes are one example. People often Like brands to get deals, not as an endorsement.

When Netflix announced subscription increases in July, thousands of angry customers posted negative comments on the company’s Facebook page, and many Liked the page in order to do so.  Some visitors may assume that those Likes are from adoring fans. The value of a Like depends on context and interpretation, which skew impact.

Communicators must be clear about their intentions online. Ray says FTC guidelines can aid Facebook transparency. The guidelines require that companies promoting customer endorsements disclose the material exchanges, or perks, offered.

“Transparency leads to authenticity then listening, which should lead to honest communication,” he says.  “This is what social media is all about.”

This post also appears as the September “Digital Dialogue” column in the PR Tactics Journal published by the Public Relations Society of America.

Image: PRSA

Media and digital communication opportunities emerge in a flash and conclude just as fast. Factor in the time it takes to identify these opportunities and the likelihood that many practitioners are seizing them and you have a real-time PR challenge on your hands. Consider the following to make the most of each moment.

Be concise and precise — Some of the best media pitches and calls to action are composed of merely a simple subject line and a few sentences.  What specifically do you have to offer — with any tangential information removed — and why should media or potential customers be interested? Using just the facts can really pay off.

Create urgency and excitement — Writing with brevity helps your information get in front of editors and producers for consideration.  Add a dash of urgency and excitement by connecting your pitch to a scheduled event, conveying your uniqueness or offering a contrarian point of view.

Link to more when relevant — Shortened or clean URLs (those devoid of cryptic letters and digits) are inviting to editors.  You’ve provided a succinct and compelling offer, and those who click through demonstrate their interest. Google’s URL shortener and others provide metrics to monitor response, and you can make URLs for an audience of one if needed. Relevance is key, so rather than linking to a Facebook or blog home page, lead readers to a specific post, Web page or video; perhaps one created just for them.

Believe in brand journalism —  A small investment in professional writing, photography, video and blogging resources allows you to publish your own news, pique media interest with elements to expand on your stories, support your content creation and activate calls to action that work online 24/7 to attract additional media and business inquiries.

The following pitch exhibits the above characteristics:

U.S. Census data being released this week is expected to show a record increase in the nation’s poverty rate.  The anticipated poverty rate increase — from 13.2 percent to 15.0 percent — comes just seven weeks before midterm elections. UCLA has an expert.

UCLA School of Public Affairs Communications Associate Seth Odell wrote this to accompany his contact details and a September 2010 UCLA Newsroom YouTube video featuring professor Michael Stoll’s early census analysis.

The video served as an audition with media who could immediately confirm Stoll’s expertise upon viewing. It became a brilliant piece of brand journalism when packaged with Odell’s summary and contact details; succinct and compelling with a timely tie-in to the November midterms.

The summary aided search engine optimization, driving media outlets searching the Web for experts straight to UCLA.

Bank on your best pitches — Develop a pitch bank containing your greatest hits and items that the media didn’t initially pick up so you can recapture their effectiveness and relevance when your next moment of truth arises.

This post also appears as the February “Digital Dialogue” column in the Public Relations Society of America’s Tactics Journal.

My latest Digital Dialogue column for PRSA’s PR Tactics journal appears online and in the April print edition. “Using social bookmarks: Share knowledge, create awareness” discusses the value of social bookmarking sites such as Delicious or Diigo to collect and organize Web information and share it with others. I think the power of bookmarking is often overshadowed by social networking mainstays like Facebook and Twitter.

What’s great about bookmarking is that it can thread through and support many online communications that a business or brand may use. The inter “linking” work that bookmarking sites do can naturally position them in the background of Facebook, Twitter and the larger online communities. Although, they too are communities in their own right with capabilities for one bookmark user to link with or friend hundreds or even thousands of others. The concept when embraced and maintained by companies can generate big time awareness and goodwill, as well as a network or channel available to broadcast future messages.

The article expands on the topic and intends to help along conversations about how communicators can take better advantage of bookmarking.

My thanks this month to the Public Relations Society of America’s editorial staff, and also to Paul Greenberg for introducing me to Diigo. As an author and highly sought out CRM and social networking speaker, Paul knows a thing or two about prescribing the right tools.

I’ve bookmarked a few “101″ style videos at www.diigo.com/list/ryanzuk and have included a classic on the subject here.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x66lV7GOcNU]

“Ping In The New Year!,” the first article for my new social media column has published in the January print and online editions of PRSA Tactics. First off, many thanks to John Elsasser, Amy Jacques, Randi Mason, and the team at the Public Relations Society of America for this opportunity to contribute. I’m looking forward to writing about many aspects of social media for consideration and application by PR practitioners.

***Name the column: While discussing names for the social media column with John, he came up with the idea of asking readers to submit their ideas. Great, as this encourages people to participate and ideally return from time to time to engage in conversations via comments about the articles. If you have an idea we can consider, please submit it to John at @JohnElsasser on Twitter or e-mail john dot elsasser at prsa dot org.

The PRSA Tactics staff and I will select a winner. And John informs me that a $25 Amazon gift certificate and the prestige of knowing you named the column goes to the person who’s idea we select.

This month’s article takes a look at the mountain of management time social media activites can require, once you dive into them. Tools including Ping.fm, and ideas for keeping on top of everything are covered. Brandon Zeuner (bzkicks on Twitter) also lends insight this month, gleaned from his many consulting ventures. Thanks again Brandon!