If you are ever visiting Hawaii’s Big Island when one of its volcanos is erupting, there’s a chance you may see Mick Kalber in action with his incredible Sony HDW-F900R HDCAM CineAlta High Definition Camera.

That's Mick in the white t-shirt, perched precariously on the side of a volcano as molten lava flows by.

In a conscious life-change, Mick moved to Hawaii 30 years ago and reinvented his career from that of TV news photographer to the world’s leading “volcanographer,” a term he coined.

His story underscores and brings to life the ever-increasing demand for unique video, even from an island in the Pacific with no television stations.

As a volcanographer, he has captured film and video images of volcanic eruptions on Hilo that we have seen on TV news, documentaries and motion pictures. It’s a far cry from his former life.

“I wanted an adventure. I had visited a friend on the big island and fell in love with the place and wanted to find another line of work,” he says.

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While Hilo has no TV stations, it has volcanoes – active, incredible, picturesque and dangerous volcanos. Mick bought a video camera and started capturing spectacular images of eruption like no one had ever before seen … up close.

His luck began with the high-fountaining eruption of Kilauea – red-hot molten lava shooting 1,200 feet high. He was there to capture the action, and TV news stations were ready to pay for his video.

“I’d never seen anything remotely like that! The landscape looked like the moon … and here was incandescent liquid rock doing what rock is not supposed to do … jetting into the air nearly as high was any building in the world … the sight boggled the mind!

“That activity lasted less than a day … not long enough for other photographers to get to Hilo. But it occurred every three to four weeks, like clockwork. Thus began the last 30 years of my documenting the world’s most active volcano.

“The massive 2,000 degree eruption gave way to a fissure, the formation of a lava lake, which fed flows to the communities of Kapa`ahu and Kalapana, destroying several dozen houses in late 1986 and entering the ocean for the first time in ten years. I knew then I had a story to tell.”

That historic eruption of Kilauea led to Mick’s first documentary, “VolcanoScapes … Pele’s March to the Pacific.”

Since then, his stock footage has appeared in the Hollywood movie, “Volcano,” TV commercials, and countless programs not only on TV news but The History Channel, Discovery and National Geographic. He found that the volcanos have given him a new and prosperous career. But, there have been dangers, too.

“I’ve had methane (gas formed by organic material that decomposes w/o oxygen) explosions go off under my feet. There are two types … one with a flame and one without. Fortunately the one that went up my pant leg had no flame. Scared the bejesus outta me though.

“I’ve melted countless pairs of shoes, tripod legs, video recorders … and have singed my eyebrows and hair any number of times. Burns on my arms and face have been minor … kind of like a mild sunburn.

“I do not wear protective clothing when shooting the lava flows. The main reason is that if it’s too hot for me to be there, it’s definitely too hot for my gear.

“Stood at the Pu`u `O`o Vent (active bent of the current eruption) and shot straight down into the throat … some 400 feet. I had to be right at the edge with crumbling cinders continually breaking off. To get there, I stepped over cracks a foot or more wide to stand somewhere I know will no longer exist at some point … but hopefully not while I’m standing there.

“Had I not been shooting, I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to do it, but the camera functions kept me distracted from the dangers. And, I got shots of a 60 foot high undulating dome of lava unlike anything I’ve seen before or since. But for the longest time afterward I was thinking, What the hell was I doing up there!”

Mick says his greatest pleasure in documenting Kilauea is not making money from selling stock footage or DVDs but rather witnessing “one of nature’s most amazing spectacles, and to be able to share those sights and sounds with people around the world.”

A career reinvented … passion and pleasure in his work … success in a specialized business … and, volcanos that keep erupting and keep him in business. That’s Mick Kalber’s recipe for happiness.

Check out Mick’s websites – VolcanoScapes.com and www.tropicalvisions.com.

Special thanks to Ann Kalber for the photos.

It is a reality in our fast-moving, digital-driven world that words matter. And, certainly in the field of communications where new uses and more precise usage of words and phrases play a key role in determining such essential factors as competitive differentiation, authenticity and value. Take, for example, online “newsroom” versus “news site.” There is a big difference.

A few months ago during a meeting with Gary Shapiro, CEO of the giant Consumer Electronics Association and someone I greatly respect, he observed that many CEOs and business leaders see little asset value in most online newsrooms.

Everyone has one, Gary said, and they all look and feel pretty much the same … resting places (or “graveyards,” as I have previously labeled them) for press releases. That’s true.

The common perception of online “newsrooms” is one of an archival place for news releases … and, while some news releases may contain some information that could be ferreted out as news, most tend to be more self-promotional and one-sided.

As a long-time journalist and author, I’ve heard the complaint for years from those in the news business about the use of obtuse news releases for marketing purposes. As a result, most reporters and editors ignore a great many press releases.

Fortunately, that traditional approach to handling news online is changing through brand journalism and “news sites” which are far more open, transparent, interactive and balanced in presenting legitimate and real-time news. Online news sites work make your organization or business a trusted news resource. They are an authentic and valuable asset.

News sites are embraced by corporations and organizations that recognize that the best approach to managing news in today’s online world is to become the center of all news about your industry sector or area of focus. And, all news might not be all good. But, having the confidence to lay it all out there and be the center of news, a company or organization earns respect and trust.

News sites, however, require a lot more work and need people with accomplished journalistic skills. It’s not promotion or marketing but rather news that captures attention in today’s world.

Think of it this way …

• Online “newsrooms” are more one-sided, self-promotional, static and dull.
• Online “news sites” are balanced, trusted, engaging interactive and result in far more visitors and control over how your brand is trusted and respected … and, talked about. Real news in real-time.

Online “newsroom” or “news site” … there is a big difference.

Here are some examples of what I consider to be good online news sites:

University of Rochester’s Futurity

Imperial Sugar Company’s news site

Louisiana Seafood News

Cisco

Boeing (actually, this borders on being a personal commentary blog but newsy)

Radio Free Europe

Stratfor's holding page.

Stratfor’s website was hacked and taken down on Christmas Eve. In unconfirmed online postings, the alleged hackers claim to have stolen not only the company’s website and backup but all of the company’s email records and unencrypted files that include customer names and all of their credit card data.

Today, ten days later, Stratfor.com is still offline with nothing more than a static holding page.

During those ten days, Stratfor has not been consistent, timely, respectful or transparent in its communications to subscribers who pay a pricey fee – starting at a base of $400 a year – for various levels of the intelligence reports. Quite the contrary, the company’s communications – mostly on their Facebook page – have been sparse, at best.

On December 28, Stratfor posted on Facebook:

“As part of our ongoing investigation, we have also decided to delay the launching of our website until a thorough review and adjustment by outside experts can be completed.

We expect this to take approximately a week, but it might take longer – please bear with us as we recover from this unfortunate event.

In the meantime, we will not be deterred from doing what we do best: providing our customers with top-notch geopolitical analysis.

Therefore, while our website is being tested we will be sending geopolitical analysis to our members via email.”

While that update was posted on Facebook, it was not emailed to Stratfor’s subscribers, many of whom no doubt never follow Facebook. The company is in the business of emailing reports to subscribers but failed to provide this important update.

Furthermore, as any Stratfor subscriber knows, the “top-notch geopolitical analysis” emails have stopped. The lack of any updates or timely and substantive updates from the company could be interpreted as an outfit in serious trouble, true or not.

In today’s lightning-fast online digital era – a time in our lives when corporate brands can be damaged in a nanosecond by information, accurate or not – crisis communications mandates:

• Openness to the point of vulnerability … which enhances credibility and customer support.
• Timeliness and responsiveness in communications even if a company doesn’t have all the facts.
• Consistency without wavering … and, fulfilling what is promised.

In the case of high profile Stratfor, the company has failed in all areas to date, and has made itself a case history of how not to manage corporate brand and reputation in a crisis situation.

The company says it “cannot discuss any details because several law enforcement agencies are investigating the incident,” which is simply not a genuine statement. Meantime, many mainstream news media are running the story. It’s being called, “The hack of the year.”

The media coverage snowball rolls on while Stratfor is silent.

Copyright 2010 Mark Alan Stamaty. Republished with permission of the artist.

The hackers reportedly struck Stratfor’s three servers located at a small web hosting firm in Austin, Texas, Stratfor’s homebase. According to what has been pieced together, they were seeking access to the company’s confidential emails.

Not only did they find about 3.3 million emails, they also captured the credit card information – including pin numbers – of thousands of Stratfor subscribers, including Homeland Security, police departments, foreign governments, government officials, private individuals, and … well, you get the idea. The credit card information had been stored on the servers in unsecured, open and unencrypted in plain text files, possibly in violation of law by Stratfor.

Click here for a detailed analysis of personal information stolen.

What the hackers did then was to completely erase the company’s servers, possibly including any backup of the website. At this writing, Stratfor is dead in the online water – no website, no email, faltering subscriber trust and shattered reputation among many high profile subscribers.

What’s now hurting the most for Stratfor – an expensive, premium online news and analysis aggregating service – is not necessarily the hacking but rather their own lack of crisis management and prompt, transparent communications. The fact that as we head into “Day 4″ since the attack they cannot get their website back online exacerbates the situation.

The company’s last communication with subscribers was on Christmas day (see below). Since then, nothing except for a couple of rambling posts with poor grammar on Facebook. In none of the spattering of statements has there been any accountability or acceptance of responsibility by the company, probably the result of bad advice from an attorney. Let us not forget that Stratfor’s careless security practices have compromised the credit cards of thousands of clients.

Stratfor's last alert to subscribers on Sunday, December 25, 2011.

The incident is causing many Stratfor subscribers to take a second look at whether the company’s daily email service of news summaries is still worth the hefty fees, especially when much of the same news and information is already online for free through Google and the plethora of online news resources.

Stratfor was created by Austin-based entrepreneur and salesman George Friedman. In his analysis of Friedman and Stratfor, David P. Goldman wrote in The Tablet in early 2010:

Friedman’s thriving business targets a key market niche: corporate types with geopolitical exposure who are too busy or too ill-informed to use Google.

“Controlling costs but without skimping on quality” is the secret to the McDonald’s-like commercial success of Stratfor, Friedman explained during a break from his New York book tour. “The secret is the division of labor: we have people who collect intelligence, people who analyze intelligence, and people who write,” he says. “It’s designed to give the subscriber a consistent product.”

“Friedman is not selling sophistication,” Goldman writes. “Subscribers to his premium service get more items in their inbox than the most avid geopolitics junkie could digest.”

Friedman today needs to sell believable crisis communications. It would have been easy and quick right after disaster hit:

1. News blog to deliver a steady flow of updates and assurance to subscribers, the media and public.
2. Engaging in the online social media discussion of the hacking and fallout. Stratfor’s voice is absent there.
3. Genuine acceptance of responsibility and empathy for subscribers whose credit cards have been compromised.
4. Clear and sincere messages, free of typos and grammatical mistakes.

Special thanks to Mark Stamaty for use of his illustration. Click here for his website.

Stratfor's website ... offline for hours.

It’s the latest cyber-attack attributed to members of the hacktivist group Anonymous, and one of the worst. The names, credit card details and other revealing information of an alleged 4,000 Stratfor clients were stolen and reposted on other websites to be shared around the world. And, that has occurred.

What has happened to Stratfor underscores how any high profile company, such as Stratfor, should respond to its clients in the face of such a crisis, regardless of whether or not it’s a holiday weekend. Stratfor has communicated poorly, especially for a company that provides a continuous stream of global intelligence to clients.

The New York Times reported, “Stratfor executives did not return calls for comment on Sunday.” There is no excuse for that, in my view.

There are lessons already to be learned for professional communicators about the Stratfor incident because communicators need to have a level of tech awareness about today’s digital era where the brands, images and reputations of companies can be shattered in nanoseconds.

Stratfor, which purports to be like a “shadow CIA” intelligence resource for thousands of companies and individuals, appears to have been a poster-child of poor Internet security itself:

1. Stratfor’s IT people never hid the company’s website IP numbers or the fact that its servers were located at a relatively small Internet hosting company in Austin, TX, which probably would have been understaffed on Christmas Eve. This may be a small point but it suggests a careless approach to website security. Anyone can quickly see that information via Godaddy.com or any domain name registrar. Simply enter a search for ownership (called “WhoIs”) of Stratfor.com and it reveals the IP numbers and that the servers are located at a place called Corenap.com in Austin. This is akin to intentionally leaving your house keys in the driveway only to be surprised when you return home that the place has been ransacked. Lesson to be learned: It costs $20 a year to hide such critical information.
2. Stratfor’s IT people not only hosted the company’s website on the server but also used it for company email, 200GB of which allegedly was stolen by the hackers. Lesson to be learned: Use an online server for website hosting only. Don’t pinch pennies. Use Google Pro Apps for powerful email service that is highly secure and runs separately.
3. Stratfor may have lacked a website backup due to the length that the site has been offline. Their site was built on a Microsoft website platform which is one reason companies, like Lockheed Martin, have switched to using WordPress for greater online security. Lesson to be learned: Not all IT people are as smart as they think they are.
4. Most troubling of all … Stratfor apparently stored highly sensitive documents on the same server … unencrypted. Clients lists, credit card data, credit card pin numbers and other information seemingly had been kept on the same server used to host the website.  That was incomprehensibly reckless and naive, in my opinion.* It possibly is in violation of law. Lesson to be learned: When client and customer information is entrusted to a company, act responsibly. Security of client/customer information is paramount. Keep it offline and secured with encryption.
5. When a hacking occurs, get out ahead of the social media buzz with openness, swiftness and transparency. Stratfor waited about 18 hours before posting a poorly written, repetitive and vaguely worded statement publicly on Facebook which seemed to be more about the company than its clients. The company has yet to enter the firestorm of negative details and sharing of company information happening on Twitter and other social media. Lesson to be learned: When a crisis hits, respond instantly. You will be judged on how quickly you communicate. Show empathy, especially about stolen client information. Enter the online conversation even if you don’t have all the facts that the attorneys want you to have. The trust and reputation of a company may be at stake, like Stratfor.

At this stage, about 24 hours after the Stratfor hacking, I would imagine the company has many very, very angry customers because Stratfor has not behaved like a responsible and professional “global intelligence” leader. It will be interesting the see if the company survives itself.

* As an aside, the website hosting company, Media Temple, stored client information in an unencrypted Word file online a couple of years ago. Their corporate site was hacked and the data stolen. Media Temple then blamed its customers for poor security, alienating many customers and generating a negative image of the company.

Washington Post photographer John McDonnell and I were visiting recently during a holiday get together, and the pieces of a puzzle all seemed to fall into place. John said that one individual came on the scene in the late 1970s who gained immense image-shaping influence, and his style singularly has changed how we perceive the world, events, happenings and major leaders ever since. He presented a brilliant thesis about the late Michael Deaver, and I agreed with every word.

Michael Deaver

“Mike Deaver was the single person who changed the way we see the world,” John said. “Deaver’s style of image-making extended far beyond his skills to position the image of Ronald Reagan for the presidency, and then, as Deputy White House Chief of Staff in the Reagan Administration, shaped the Reagan perception into legend.”

John should know. As a distinguished photojournalist, he has covered nearly ever major story in America over the last 40 years.

“It was all about the perfect image and soundbite for the media,” John said. “When I would want photos of Reagan, I would find him in a room with perfect lighting to favor Reagan. Deaver had ordered that. I would be ushered in by Deaver – ahead of patrons who had paid $10,000 to meet Reagan – for immediate access to get outstanding photos. Deaver and the patrons knew the influential power of the media’s images.”

John and I are in solid agreement – The art of three simple and clear messages that leave lasting and favorable memories, the perfect images, and the devices for staging events that change how the world sees things all came from Deaver’s genius and has been copied by very savvy business people and politicians ever since. Few people and companies back then and even now ever consider the image-enhancing payoff of lighting an event for TV and still photographers. And, that’s only a small part of the Deaver magic.

Ever wonder why there has consistently been so much great media coverage of events staged by the late Steve Jobs and Apple? Everything was provided for the media to get stories – Hollywood-style spectacle, passionate and authentic messages, timing, purpose, lighting, access. Nothing left to chance but rather all control over the media. Jobs knew and used Deaver-style.

In my most recent book, Making News in the Digital Era, I wrote my admiration for Mike Deaver, with whom I had worked. Here’s an excerpt:

Perhaps no person has left a greater and more positive imprint on the practice of strategic communications worldwide over the last couple of decades than the late Michael Deaver.

Mike Deaver was sometimes accused of being an expert at media manipulation. It is my guess that whoever alleged that harbored a good deal of envy for his talent. There is no question that Deaver made the contemporary concept of “photo op” into an art form to achieve the rewards of great media coverage, whether “spontaneously” manipulated or otherwise.

Deaver became famous as the image-maker for President Ronald Reagan. He was a master at staging visually memorable symbolic events—from the fall of the Berlin Wall to the fortieth anniversary commemoration of the invasion at Omaha beach. Deaver’s artistry created lasting impressions on millions of us around the world.

Former first lady and friend Nancy Reagan said Deaver’s greatest skill “was in arranging what were known as good visuals—televised events or scenes that would leave a powerful symbolic image in people’s minds.”

Deaver was nearly always behind-the-scenes, advising not only President Reagan but countless other leaders—heads of state to titans of industry—on the value of speaking with a clear voice and wise perspective. He was a leading example of people who have changed the world by knowing how to communicate a message, inspire greatness, and create a lasting great impression.

His secret for great communications was to help a leader develop an ability to translate the most complex issue into just a couple of clear sentences using simple words that would lead to positive change. In other words, leaders should take a moment to step back from all the chaos, look at the big picture of what needs to be done, and say it—in a few easy to understand words.

After leaving the White House, Deaver took his quiet manner and enormous talent to independent PR agency Edelman Worldwide, where he reshaped the practice of public relations and helped successful organizations around the world become even more successful. There, I learned from him and treasured his friendship.

Just before his passing in August 2007, Deaver was asked by his colleagues at Edelman to describe the few great communicators he had known, including President Reagan and Dan Edelman, founder of Edelman Worldwide.

This is what Deaver said:

“They, and a few of us, got into the world of communications when it was a world of print … then radio and TV and now the Internet, e-mails and blogs … and yet their values remain the same today—

• Know who you are
• Be open and transparent
• Be ready for change

“But the world IS CHANGING,” Deaver told his colleagues and friends. He quoted an excerpt from a column by Thomas Friedman in the New York Times. Friedman had written:

“When everyone has a blog, a MySpace page, or Facebook entry, everyone is a publisher. When everyone has a cell phone with a camera in it, everyone is a paparazzo. When everyone can upload a video on YouTube, everyone is a filmmaker. We’re all public figures now. The blogosphere has made the global discussion so much richer—and each of us so much more transparent. In this transparent world, ‘how’ you live your life and ‘how’ you conduct your business matters more than ever, because so many people can now see into what you do and tell so many other people about it on their own without any editor.”

What was important to Deaver was “how” we differentiate ourselves in a world that has become so exposed and so easily copied. He talked of getting your “hows” right—how you build trust, how you collaborate, how you lead, and how you say you’re sorry.

“More people than ever will know about it when you do—or don’t,” he said.

Guest post by Niall Cook, originally posted on Sociagility.com:

In November 2011, Sociagility.com – an organization in London that ranks corporate social brand value – looked at the social brand value of 50 of the world’s leading brands, creating a revised top 50 ranking according to their social media performance, as measured by PRINT Index™ KPI. The results are fascinating.

The PRINT system compares brands on five key dimensions or ‘attributes’ of social media performance – popularity, receptiveness, interaction, network reach and trust – across multiple platforms.

The Sociagility Top 50 report analyses the social brand value of the world’s leading brands and the competitive influences that determine their social media performance. Sociagility’s research is available through a free PDF download.

Here’s a visual representation of just some of the report highlights.

If you like it, please feel free to share.

Photo: Zazzle.com

“All we want,” he said, “is to be convinced of their level of commitment to help with their talent and resources. We could care less about boasting over what they’ve done for someone else.”

My friend had just gone through an exhaustive and complex process to issue a request for proposals (RFP) and make initial selections. Now, it was all over, and he believed the wrong agency had been selected by default. He was sharing highlights and trying to figure out what went wrong.

His team favored one particular agency going into the selection agency. Let’s call it “agency X.” And, yes, companies and organizations nearly always have favorites in any agency selection process.

My friend shared that the huge, multi-million dollar contract was “for ‘agency X’ to lose.” All they had to do was talk about meeting objectives and finding solutions. They needed to demonstrate desire to help. But, rather, all agency X did was brag about its past accomplishments and awards. Agency X wasn’t alone, my friend said. Nearly all other agencies talked too much about themselves.

“Another agency convinced us of their desire to help, and we chose them,” he said. Agency X lost out.

What my friend shared is nothing new. PR agencies, for example, brag about winning this or that award from professional agencies and outfits like The Holmes Report or O’Dwyer. That doesn’t mean a hill of beans to clients or potential clients who just want and expect assurance of commitment and best efforts for results on their behalf.

Boeing uses it to show us what an Air Force base test flight is really like. So does Louisiana Seafood, as a way for fishermen and seafood processors to tell their stories after the devastating BP oil spill. Imperial Sugar Company used it to overcome a corporate crisis.

It’s called “brand journalism,” a new form of communications for business that’s rapidly emerging as the digital revolution continues to evolve. And it’s igniting excitement because of the way it boosts awareness for a company, often faster than social media, advertising or PR.

The reason why? Brand journalism takes a different direction, more aligned with this era of engaged conversation and transparency. It showcases authenticity. Consider what you choose to spend your time reading, when you’re online — news or advertisements? Stories about real people or self-serving promotions?

Harnessing all of the appeal and credibility of news — and tapping into people’s curiosity about what’s really behind a company — brand journalism brings a new dimension to the interactive and social media power of the Internet. It enables companies and organizations to tell their own stories and become trusted information resources for all stakeholders and the media.

At the heart of brand journalism is a real-time online news site, developed by a company working with a team of skilled and accomplished journalists, and constantly updated. Legitimate news features and expert perspective from opinion-leaders, together with eye-catching news photos, will help your company differentiate itself from competitors. Your company will become a trusted news resource.

Here’s what any brand journalism site needs:

• Feature stories and profiles that call out the uniqueness of a company’s products, services, people and community. Key: Use clear, ordinary language that attracts curious readers.
• Third-party thought-leaders. Regular columns by industry analysts, experts and trade association leaders about trends and their perspective on your business sector as a whole.
• Brevity. Keep stories short — about 250 words. Within that tight space, bring alive purpose, vision, and why something is special.
• Authenticity. Keep things real by shining a light on employees who are making a difference.
• Balance. A steady flow of industry news through excerpts and live news feeds underscore balance, transparency and openness — all tenets of legitimate news.
• C-suite buy-in. It’s one of the most essential elements. Without a commitment to having an authentic and balanced website, any brand journalism effort is likely to wander into promotional terrain.

While brand journalism has evolved as a movement by many names since the 1980s, it has never reached a level of more influential power than today, with all the engaging, connected and interactive online tools at our fingertips.

Brand journalism is one of today’s most effective methods to bring alive the vision, passion and solid purpose of innovative companies determined to achieve leadership in today’s fiercely competitive world.

This piece originally appeared in Ragan.com.

Office workers in Washington in the aftermath of the August 23, 2011 earthquake.

TV news outfits maintain freelance cameras at places like the White House and sometimes on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon. But, those crews are rarely equipped to be mobile.

Because of severe budget cuts, TV news has become increasingly studio-locked. It’s low-budget and generally accepted to have celebrity news readers sit in studios and read stories or interview other reporters and guests about events in the world.

I remember watching a CNN anchor in a studio talking about earthquake damage but they had no video to air … two hours after it happened.

CNN's Anderson Cooper

Yeah, they can cough up some money for a live truck for Anderson Cooper to cover some dramatic story but it takes longer and longer to mobilize when breaking news happens. Network and cable news no longer have armies of video crews at the ready.

Have you noticed how much television news video that’s aired these days is actually shot by ordinary people on their cell phones or home video cameras who have witnessed actual news? We – you and I – have become a source of video for TV news.

And, there is significant opportunity knocking for communications professionals – learn the essential tenets of shooting and using authentic news video. Become a provider of timely, relevant and real TV news for your organization.

In advising and working with companies on the competitive advantages of solid brand journalism – and building and managing working, real-time news sites for those clients that become not only valued assets for the companies but aggregate all the news of their industry sector – we place great emphasis on shooting excellent quality NEWS video. Traditional b-roll and soundbites, the staples of TV news for decades. Yeah, TV news still needs video like that.

We store broadcast-quality HD news video at our online FTP sites for easy downloading by TV news organizations. And, it gets aired regularly by everyone from local stations to the networks.

The message here – if you want TV news coverage, begin by knowing how to shoot authentic TV news video, the core element of a story. And, then, learn how to get the attention of TV news producers. Learn to tell your stories.