Shel Israel reminded me of a story that occurred last spring involving a blogger, Lance Dutson, and the Maine Office of Tourism.  My partner Tris blogged about this unfortunate event on his own blog and it was also spread throughout the blogosphere.  As Shel reports, the blogger seems to be the last man standing.  I’m not going to jump on the bandwagon here and kick a man while he is down, but I do want to figure our what lesson was learned here by the people involved.

I for one have always talked about the power of blogging and the impact it can have on businesses, politics, and even down to the personal level.  It has had its own impact on me and my business as well.  I for one try to learn from my mistakes and go forward with the newly found information.  I wondered if the businesses involved here took away anything from the blogging lesson associated with this unfortunate event?  It has been nearly a year since this incident was first discussed, which is ample opportunity for everyone to plan a new strategy and to implement change.

I first took a look at the advertising agency, Warren Kremer Paino Advertising, LLC, and after thorough review of their flashy website, I see nothing that even remotely looks like a blog.  I see your standard pages and corporate speak copy, but nothing that would resemble a press release/news or any other social medium that would address the Lance Dutson story.  Communication does not seem to be a strong point of this ad agency.  They have a very impressive list of clientele, including of course the Maine Office of Tourism.  I would love to have seen the numbers generated by blogosphere mentioned in their results of the Problem, Solution and Results section here.  The people at WKP don’t get a passing grade for this lesson.

Then I went over to check out Nancy Marshall of Nancy Marshall Communications.  This is the PR agency initially involved in the reporting of the Maine Office of Tourism incident. Again, an exhaustive search of the site produces nothing along the social medium resembling anything near a blog.  I am pointed to a press release that is distributed by them nonetheless which of course causes my irony indicator to fly off the charts.  This from the release:

"To win Best of Show for the third straight year is an honor," said Nancy Marshall, principal of NMC. "It’s been an exciting and productive year and everyone here at NMC appreciates the recognition and accolades for our work."

An exciting year I have no doubt what with lawsuits and such being filed and the entire blogosphere pointing to your firm as a way not to handle a public relations problem.  You would think with a name like theirs with the word communications in the title, there would be some type of communications involved on the site.  Ms. Marshall, I would be happy to provide you with a blog, I can have it up and ready by Wednesday next week, just say the word.  I’m sure you might stumble upon this post through the use of tools to track what is being said about you and your clients.  Until then, you also get an F for the effort.

Now on to the client, The Main Office of Tourism.  I did notice right away that the site had a media room.  I was truly excited, until I clicked the link and found that it was a letter addressed as "Dear Friend in the Media:", and of course signed by the MOT’s best communication firm and president, Nancy Marshall.  Let’s rephrase that on a blog post called Dear Friend in the Blogosphere and other Media.

I’m not sure that we could say that Mr. Lewis, who was fired after all of this, was necessarily "Dooced", as he was not fired for writing a blog, but he may have been "Dutsoned" for what a blog wrote about him.  I could find no Dann Lewis: My Point of View Blog.

This is a good lesson in the power of blogs, but apparently the companies involved did not complete their homework, have failed miserably, and will have to go back to summer school to be taught that the social media is always going to be right behind them watching.  Turn around and join the conversation.  Show us what you have learned.

Tags: Shel Israel, Lance Dutson, MOT, Maine Office of Tourism, Warren Kremer Paino, Advertising, Nancy Marshall, PR, Blogging