KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

Here I am on CNBC

Not what I'd call a stellar performance.. but in case you're curious here's the video.

Measuring Pepsico's Green Thrust

In case you missed it, Pepsico today became the EPA's King of Green today by purchasing $2 million in carbon tax credits.
My thought was that it's really just a cheap, and effective marketing tool. For $2 million they buy alot of good will, eyeballs, and consumer loyalty among their target audience. AND their investors should like the forward thinking as well. I'll be on CNBC's Closing Bell this afternoon talking about it and would love any thoughts you might have..

Small Town Saga Part 2

First of all, thanks to everyone who has emailed me with their thoughts and offers to help. The outpouring of support is really encouraging.  Right now the best thing people can do to help is to call or email the Town Administrator : tselig@ci.durham.nh.us
(603) 868-5571 and/or the Town Council  and tell them how you feel about bringing the zoning codes into the 21st century.

A small sad story

I'm not sure whether the moral of this story is that small towns need to wake up to 21st Century reality or just that small town small mindedness is bad for business but either way it's been an interesting few days. On Friday night I spent several hours speaking with Berlin's Mayor, Bob Danderson. He was charming and welcoming and even admitted that he wasn't prepared to like me. He also explained his rationale for many of the decisions he's made that I might not agree with, but were done in an effort to broaden the tax base and reduce the property tax burden. And we ended up on agreeing on many more things than I expected.

I came back to Durham on Saturday afternoon to an official notification that I am in violation of the zoning ordinance of the Town of Durham.  As many of you know, I have a tendency to start companies in my kitchen -- that's one of the reasons for the photograph to the left. KDPaine & Partners is my second such venture and like Delahaye, the first few years we operated out of whatever free space was available. Initially that meant my building on Islington Street, but when I sold the building, the business followed me back to the farm.
My business is the quintessential virtual company. We have central operations in Berlin, a technology office in Kittery, ME, writers all over the country and partners all over the world. Occasionally we get together for a staff meeting or anniversary party but  mostly we operate out of wherever we are at the time.  Unfortunately, having a virtual company is illegal in my part of Durham. Because I live in a residential zone, I'm not allowed to operate anything other than a "Home Occupation" -- which is defined as having fewer than 4 employees. We have 20 employees. 1 in Durham, 1 in Dover, 3 in Kittery and the rest in Berlin. So, because KDPaine & Partners has become successful and grown, I am now breaking the law and can either shut my business down, or move. Needless to say, I'm choosing to move. Goodbye  Durham, Hello Berlin.
The town of Durham has spent years talking about high taxes (mine are over $40K a year!) blaming the University and enacting zoning regulations that restrict business development. There was a time when I even supported some of those restrictions. However, when the new zoning regulations were initially proposed, and I was still serving on the Durham Town Council, I made a recommendation that the new Zoning regulations should encourage 21st Century virtual businesses like KDPaine  & Partners. 

We don't pollute, we have minimal impact on the environment, we bring people into town to eat, and to stay in local hotels. We provide jobs for University graduates. We buy supplies in town, shop in town, and do our banking in town, all of which contribute to the economic health of the community. We also volunteer our time, donate to local charities,  lend our expertise to local non-profits  and  contribute to social capital and civic engagements in dozens of different ways.  The town, however, chose to ignore my suggestion and the new Zoning ordinance bans business services of all types in residential areas. You can't even get a conditional use permit to operate a business like mine. 

I could, of course, rent space somewhere nearby (but not in Durham because there is essentially no office space in Durham.) But even if such space were available, it seems a little silly when you're living on 55 acres to have to set up an office somewhere else.  And in a day when we're all trying to reduce our carbon footprint, shouldn't we be encouraging people to work to commute less instead of more?   
But the powers that be in Durham obviously don't see it that way. So if you know anyone who wants to rent a really lovely three bedroom house in Durham, New Hampshire, let me know.

Fifth Anniversary

For all those who couldn't get to our Fifth Anniversary Party, this is what it looked like..

What to do with the data once you've got it.

As more and more people get on board with monitoring their presence in social media, increasingly they are asking the question -- now that we have this data, what do we do with it? TNS Cymfony has just come out with a really interesting white paper that answers that question.

Some really good thoughts on Marketing ROI

There's a really great post on the issues involving Marketing ROI by an organization called "Brand Thread" -- the only problem is there is no author associated with the post, so I have no idea how credible the people are behind it, but its good reading nonetheless. This is an area I'll be talking about a lot more  in the future.

Can this reputation be saved?

Just when we thought it might be safe to call our selves "public relationship professionals"  this comes out.. I'm now officially in the "business intelligence" business. Thanks to Eric Schwartzman for sending it along.

So much for accurate data...

Is this is  Re-Cision-ist History?   Mark Weiner, who took over Delahaye (now Cision) after I left,  has moved to Ketchum. Given that Cision is in the research business, to which facts are allegedly important.. I found the wording of the announcement particularly intriguing...  "Mark founded what has become“Delahaye” over the past 12+years."  Particularly interesting to me because I don't ever recall him being in my apartment where I founded the company in 1987, naming it after my father, and coining the phrase "Delahaye Analysis". Nor did I see him when we moved to New Hampshire in 1989, or even when we moved to Portsmouth in 1993. He was nowhere in sight when we started measuring consumer generated media in 1995, now was he around for the launch of our international network, DelNet,  in 1996.In fact, I believe the first time he set foot in "Delahaye" was in 1999 at which point the compay was already 12 years old. So much for the facts.

This is HUGE!

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is finally forcing Nielsen/NetRatings and Comscore to submit to the same sort of rigorous, transparent audit of their metrics that traditional media have undergone for years. Talk about throwing down a gauntlet!