We started working for a small start-up out of Palm Beach, Florida, around this time three years ago.  It was a small company with a small device, but one with huge executive experience, personality and ideas. At first, it was hard to grasp how big this would be and how fast it would take off, but the founder knew from the beginning. They would offer high-quality local and long distance service to millions of consumers for $20 a year. This little company created the magicJack. Sound familiar? I hope you’ve heard about them from reading some of the fantastic print coverage they’ve received: Walt’s column in the Wall Street Journal , or any number of reviews from outlets like New York Times, AP, PC Magazine, Good Housekeeping, ABC News, Rachael Ray and The Early Show. All of these gave honest reviews that showed that this device wasn’t too good to be true – it works and it saves you money. It could also be that you watch TV and have seen their informercials and commercials – a very aggressive and successful campaign by anyone’s standards. Hopefully, you’re one of their 6.5 million customers and enjoying a low-cost calling option.

Last month marked an exciting new stage for the company.  magicJack’s parent company YMAX merged with VOIP pioneer VocalTec, an Israeli-based company traded on the NASDAQ.  Overnight, YMAX became VocalTec and began trading under the NASDAQ symbol CALL.  At the same time, they discussed new ways consumers will be able to experience the company’s voice service, such as on your mobile phone via a femtocell solution and through mobile apps.  It’s a new era for the company and one we are excited to participate in!

We submitted our project proposal and waited with baited breath to hear back. The thing is, it is nerve-racking to submit a proposal that DOESN’T focus intently on media relations. After all, we are a PR firm and therefore we specialize in media relations. And we do. But at the same time, we don’t. We focus on communications. We do a ton of different work for our clients (believe me, it isn’t all media all the time here, at all), but if asked what my job entails by an outsider, I would say, almost immediately, media relations – meaning I support the media in their effort to report the news and I work with my clients to make sure their news gets to interested media. Media relations is the presumed activity of choice.

So we just heard back from the client (oh yeah, we got that business) that our approach was really appreciated – that we looked at their needs and based our recommendations off of what would most benefit them rather than just sending the same ol’ same ol’ media relations campaign.

It, of course, makes sense to do the above. But I don’t think it always happens. Just like it makes sense to tailor a pitch to the media, but clearly that doesn’t always happen. It is nice to be at firm that appreciates the right answer – not just the expected answer or the easiest answer.

I’m not sure who was more nervous of the two of us, but if it was him, he sure didn’t show it. In the last Fresh INK post, Kari mentioned Wilson Rothman as an excellent interviewee, doing all of the things we recommend to our clients re sound bites, staying on message, etc. Well this time, the shining example is our client – and we are so impressed and proud (though we certainly don’t claim his success, minus all of the practice he’s had over the years through the interviews we’ve set up for him ).

What did he do right? He smiled (engaging), he spoke in real language (sometimes hard for a tech guy – again, engaging), he spoke to what he knows and deferred topics on which he’s not an expert to someone else (staying on message), he shared information that was of interest to the audience, of interest to the reporter, and in his best interest (staying on message), and lastly he had a pretty memorable sound bite (Bluetooth headsets transmit 1/1000th of the power of a cell phone – go figure!). He was also extremely quick on his feet on this live show, which is hard for even the most seasoned spokespeople to do and he did it well.

Kudos to you Mike! You know me, I don’t mind giving the critiques when needed, but this time – not a critique to be had in the house. Check it out:

MICHAEL FOLEY, BLUETOOTH SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP: Sure, these are two examples of wireless headsets that you wear in your ear to take phone calls. So then your phone can remain in your pocket, in your purse, in your briefcase, and then you don’t have to hold it to your head. Many new cars now have Bluetooth built in as well, where it uses your speakers for basically a hands-free kit in the car. Of course, everyone is not going to go out and buy a new car, so you can get aftermarket Bluetooth speaker phones as well to use in the car. These you can clip these on the dash right above your head. You can make the call and not, again, have to hold the mobile phone to your head while you’re driving. Of course, while you’re driving, that’s the law in many states and many countries around the world as well.

KING: What are your thoughts on the study released tomorrow?

FOLEY: I found it very interesting listening to the experts, and thought it was very confusing. I don’t think they really know right now. And the other thing I didn’t hear any of them talk about all of these were phones from 15 years ago, 10 years ago because they’re 10- year studies. Think of what your phone was like 10 years ago, Larry.

KING: I think I still have the same one.

FOLEY: You’re the exception. Most people in America in a ten-year period would go through four to ten cell phones. And they transmitted with a lot more power back then than they do now. Like everything, the technology changes over time. And how you fit that into the study is very interesting.

KING: What’s the difference in the power transmission between a cell phone and Bluetooth?

FOLEY: A bluetooth headset or speaker phone uses approximately one one thousandth of the power.

KING: One one thousandth?

FOLEY: Exactly. It does depends on your mobile phone and Bluetooth headset. But, give or take, that’s roughly the amount.

KING: I believe Dr. Ottis Brawley is still there. Are you there, Dr. Brawley?

BRAWLEY: Yes, I am.

KING: What do you think of the Bluetooth?

BRAWLEY: I think that for people who are concerned about cell phones concerning brain tumors, using a Bluetooth or a wired device is a very reasonable thing to do. I don’t want people to be panicked and not use their cell phones over all of this, or be confused. If you’re concerned, use a wireless device or a Bluetooth.

KING: Isn’t you safer? Wouldn’t you be safer using a Bluetooth?

FOLEY: It sounds like it. I’ll leave that up to the medical experts. But if you can use something that uses one one thousandth of the power, and it really doesn’t change your use patterns — just put this on and take the call like you normally do — why not do that. It seems prudent to me.

KING: Quickie, where did it get its name?

FOLEY: Bluetooth was a Danish king around the 900s. And he united the Scandinavian countries. The original concept with Bluetooth was it was a technology that would unite the mobile phone and personal computer. And Bluetooth was originally created by people in those countries at Eriksson and Nokia. So that was the code name and it stuck. It’s been the name for over a decade now.

KING: You can buy these anywhere?

FOLEY: Sure. Any electronic store, you mobile phone provider store, they all have headsets, car kits. Of course, as I mentioned, most new cars come with it now.

KING: One one thousandth?

FOLEY: Yes.

KING: Thanks, Mike. Thanks, Dr. Brawley. Thanks to all of our panel. We’re going to do a lot more on this.

Can we begin with a definition of cloud computing? Cloud computing is the computing that happens on the Internet rather than on your computer.  A good example would be back in the day when we wanted to get on AOL, we had to load a bunch of software onto our computers. Now when we want to get on Facebook, we just open a web browser and Facebook is there. That’s the computer vs. the cloud right there.

With one’s personal data, if it’s not inside your own computer, it seems that you’re somewhat at the mercy of whatever cloud computing service you’re using to safeguard you’re privacy and even the security of that information. Absolutely, but the flip side is they’re better at keeping your data than you are. People at home lose data all the time.  I was shocked the other day, I heard a statistic that 5% of Americans use an extra hard drive to back up their computer. And hard drives die all the time, I had one die last Friday.

Even the best companies can’t stop hackers. The most high profile example that we’ve heard about lately was probably with Google.  It had some of its software code stolen and later said what was stolen was a code to the company’s global password  system. Now. . Doesn’t it suggest what could happen? I think the best analogy to that is that there’s a difference from stealing the blueprints to the castle and stealing the keys to the castle. You can look at a blueprint until your head spins, you still might not be able to figure out a way in.  As far as I know, user passwords were not stolen.  That would be the bad thing.

Since increasingly cloud computing is transforming the way we put data on the computer, whether at work or at home, do you have tips? The key to this whole thing is the password.  I dug up some numbers that are kind of startling. A hacker can use software to decode a four character password in one and a half minutes but if the password is eight characters, it would take two centuries.  Those extra four characters geometrically expand the difficulty of decrypting the password to a degree that the hacker wouldn’t even bother.

Only read this with the Whoomp! song playing in the background (read the below over the lyrics). Otherwise it’s not as cool… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V6T0lJc3dU

Lo-Po back again
All Hands Meeting with the Bluetooth SIG
Party on SIG Members and make some noise
Mike Fo’s in the house jump jump rejoice
Chris Pirollo over here
Brier Dudley over there
Wave your BBooks in the air shake your derriere

These SIG Members are getting busyyyyyy

Whoomp! Bluetooth SIG, Whoomp Bluetooth SIG!

HTC to HTC
Gonna show what High Speed is all about
Now its time for Nike guy to get on the mic
And brag about how he’s always right
PH lingered and wasn’t cool but he’s an ol’ fool who’s not cool
If Brier gets lost, gonna show him the way

Whoomp! Bluetooth SIG, Whoomp! Bluetooth SIG!

(The shackalacka stuff….and this part isn’t as cool, but whatever)

Don’t blink! Our hotels haunted
Seattle’s great lots of peeps to thank
Fish stank
Uh
Not like lady
Who asked for coffee on the AA
She got it spilt it all over jlo
A double O O M G oh my
As the dude in front reclined reclined
Whoomp there it is I’m done.

Images and video should make up the basic building blocks of a multimedia library.

Consider audio clips that can be useful for radio or can even be the extra hook to secure coverage. For example, when our client BlueAnt introduced its Q1 voice controlled headset, a broadcast reporter wanted to demonstrate the product on air. When “micing up” the Q1 so that the device’s voice prompts could be heard on camera proved difficult, audio clips were provided to be edited into the story.

This content will be used by a variety of outlets so make sure it’s ready to be multi-purposed. For example, video can be broadcast quality for TV outlets AND available in formats that can be easily embedded online. Images can be hi-res for print outlets AND low res for online.

When possible, make all materials accessible/downloadable via a simple click of the mouse. If B-roll assets are only available to be shipped, simply indicate that and publish the appropriate contact information online.

Finally, organization is key for letting journalists effortlessly navigate your multimedia center to access what they need quickly. Images, video, etc. should be categorized appropriately. Nokia does a great job of that.

Pretty straight-forward stuff but worth noting because companies of all sizes should offer multimedia assets. Doing so certainly isn’t rocket science nor does it require external vendors or even big cost.

I could talk for hours about the great experiences I had at SXSWi, including the great keynote presentation by Evan Williams, an interesting session by the FCC, and my run-in with Pete Cashmore (I know, be jealous). But unfortunately, I’m going against one of the rules I’ve learned about creating short but sweet blog posts. So, in true social media form, I’ll ask that you to check out my Twitter profile and look at my history as I was live tweeting from the event. Oh! Be sure to check out some pictures I took from SXSW (below). Enjoy!