DIGIWEDO: Social Media PR nut » Social media

90-9-1

Digiwedo — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 10:34:27 +0000

PR has argued for a long time that one of the keys to successful communications is defining the right people to talk to. Ultimately, who are the most influential people that your audience look to. Until a little thing called Social Media came along, this meant journalists. Having spent the last four years working in digital/social media communications I can tell you that you we’re increasingly seeing these influencers emerge within a whole host of social contexts online – social networks, blogs, community sites, forums and so on.

So, what’s 90-9-1? Well it was something that I’ve been seeing crop-up on a number of other blogs, Twitter feeds and I think it originated with the BtoBOnline magazine. It essentially states that 1 per cent of a community contributes 90 per cent of the content online and are by far and away the most influential. The remaining 9 is the percentage of people that interact and comment on this content and in addition to this, the 90 also represents the number of people that passively (read/view) engage with the content.

While I think this a very smart way of looking at audiences within social media, I think that it lacks flexibility in terms of the the communities themselves. I can tell you from personal experience that the ratio of influence and content production is very different from say a gaming community and a community around fitness. What this rule does show us is the need to map out the ratio of influence based on the specific communities you’re looking at, it would be extremely helpful to know that the community you’re targeting is say 80-15-5. By establishing this, you can better develop your strategy and resulting tactical plan to the point that you’re actually using the structure of the community to your (and their) benefit.

Is IR the next big social media milestone for PR?

Digiwedo — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 08:31:58 +0000

I came across an interesting press release from Furlong PR suggesting that FTSE 100 companies are missing on the investor relations potential of social media. The press release mainly cites some research that Furlong has conducted which looked at a number of FSTE 100 corporate websites. Unsurprisingly, most of them lack any kind of social media elements, even the basics such as RSS feeds. In the release, they also make reference to a Canadian company that began integrating social media into their investor relations and saw traffic to their site increase from 100 to 4000 per week, and also saw the share price double from $0.06 to $0.12.

With most experts assigning social media “ownership” to PR, is IR the next big milestone for the PR industry? In my own experience over the past four years working with social media, it was initially quite difficult to convince traditional PR teams to invest in social media and I envisage the same journey unfolding with IR teams. So, what lessons can we learn from our social media journey with traditional PR teams? It surely has to be simplifying the entire process:

Clearly outline the objectives to be achieved – drive further traffic to IR information, increase conversation around this information. Ultimately, help increase the reputation of the company and therefore help the share price
Clearly identify the audience – understand the stakeholders that are important to IR, outline the different groups within these and rank their importance
Identify relevant channels – where do we best focus our efforts? Looking at he audiences, where do they spend their time and where are we most likely to be able to deliver our information and meet our objectives
Measurement – we know what the objectives are, who the audience is and the channels we’re going to use, so therefore we should know what we’ll measure to judge success

Sounds simple and straight forward doesn’t it? But what’s not addressed here is the fear factor that we all faced with those initial projects with clients. This is something that we’ll need to address with more authority and vigor with this audience. So, how do we do it? Do we employ the tried and tested methods of crisis communications, do we wheel out the Crisis comms chap? Nope, that’ll just increase the fear factor by 10! So what do you do? You follow a method that’s not readily employed in PR, but one that encourages companies of all sizes invest anything from a few thousand dollars to billons of dollars – you assess the risk, independently if you can.

Risk assessment is something that FTSE 100 companies undertake in most major projects, either externally or internally depending on the size and scope of the projects. Why can’t PR do the same when dealing with IR in social media? Most PR firms have IR, corporate and even legal teams that could help produce such an assessment, so it seems a logical step to take and one that FSTE 100 companies are very comfortable with.

Integrated works best

Digiwedo — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 11:06:30 +0000

While we’ve known for a while that an integrated approach is the best way forward when it comes to marketing, social media can often be the fly in the ointment. Only this morning I saw a question on LinkedIn asking how you make sure Social Media is integrated as opposed to a separate being. My answer to this is simple: You need to start from the beginning of your planning process and not jump to ideas, tactics and channels. In addition, you need to view social media in the right way – it’s a channel, not an idea, tactic or strategy in it’s own right.

Starting from the beginning, ask yourself what you goal is, what are your objectives are, who you want to talk to and then you can start thinking about the best places and ways to achieve this. This is where social media comes in, if you’ve followed the path outlined above, then social media will naturally be integrated within your wider strategy. By viewing social media as a channel, you naturally have a unified approach, but the trick is to view this “channel” on it’s attributes, thus it become a “conversational” opportunity and should be utilised in this way.

Which brings me on to a post that featured on the GolinHarris (the company I work for) Speaking of Social Media Posterous page. The post in question covers a new piece of research from Physhster Inc. and AllRecpices.com which found that social ads are most effective when complementing relevant content, which takes the integrated argument right through to the actual placement of your content. You can read the full post here or download the report here

Landmark bill signed…watch it all on Facebook

Digiwedo — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 16:15:56 +0000

I just saw the Health care reform bill signed by Obama live on….Facebook. That’s right, not Fox, Sky, the BBC, the ABC, but Facebook. While live streaming through facebook isn’t brand new, it’s extremely interesting to see that the White House is using it as a major means of communicating, but then again, why not? Health care reform in the US effects millions, so it’s important that people are offered the news through as many different channels as possible, which is going to include the countries biggest social network.

As you can see from the screen grab – it’s a very simple and straight forward application, but another nice touch is the use of Facebook Connect next to it, letting you see the reactions of others. The most interesting thing about this is the history behind it. Countless US politicians have fought for this over the years, but it wasn’t until Obama that the job got done. What else would we expect from an administration that has utilised social media so effectively in today’s media landscape? That’s right, you heard it first…..through Facebook.

Of, about and around – brand stories

Digiwedo — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 10:56:28 +0000

In a kind of celestial collision of heavyweights, the different disciplines that currently operate in the digital space regularly collide with each other when it comes about the best way for brands to operate in the digital space. Many people will tell you that there is one way to get it right and it’s usually the discipline that they work in. I firmly believe that this just isn’t the case, anyone that tells you there’s only one way to do things either doesn’t have the big picture, or doesn’t want you to see the big picture.

There is a difference between the way that the disciplines operate in this space and it’s usually in the way the story is told and that’s not to say that one tells it better than the other, i.e. advertising gets better cut through, PR is more believible. I remember working closely with some advertising cousins on a combined brief and the lead creative was somewhat struggling to come to grips with the social media space and said “I’ve always been taught that if you make something so f**king beautiful, so f**king interesting, funny or whatever…not only with they watch it and enjoy it, they’ll thank for your it”. I think that’s absolutely right and it actually applies to us all when working in the digital space.

The point of difference is the way we tell our stories, but fundamentally, shouldn’t what we all be doing “something so f**king beautiful, so f**king interesting, funny or whatever…not only with they watch it and enjoy it, they’ll thank for your it”? The answer is yes and the true tick of marketing that uses all disciplines in harmony is that you end up with conversations that are: “Of” the brand, for example owned presences such as websites and so on, “about” the brand, which is where I feel truly great advertising and PR should operate, then finally “around” the brand which is where PR and WOM drive further user-generated conversation around a brand. The point is, if just one works in isolation, how can they possibly be effective?

FourSquared away

Digiwedo — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:24:03 +0000

I saw a very interesting stat the other day that FourSquare had added 100,oo0 users in a couple of weeks – phenomenal. I’ve been using FourSquare for a while ow, but on and off. What I have noticed over the past few weeks is that the type of people joining has moved past the social media mob to my more mainstream friends. Added to this, I recently approached FourSquare to see what the brand opportunities were with the them and to my great surprise, a marketing pack was promoting sent back detailing a number of different opportunities. So, I started to think – is FourSquare actually going to be the next big thing and will it be able to do what Twitter hasn’t done so far, partner with brands.

This has made me get more involved with FourSquare as a user and I have to say, I am now addicted. The combination of geo-location, updates and more importantly points and rewards make it a killer network. If these guys add pictures and video it’s a game changer. On the back of that, you can easily see how something like FourSquare could branch out into the fabled augmented reality network we’re all dying to see. In the meantime – be there, or be FourSquare.

It’s a woman’s world

Digiwedo — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:05:17 +0000

This did the rounds earlier in the week, but I wanted to add my thoughts to the debate as well. New figures out from Social Media God, Brain Solis show that women are dominating the social web, with the exception of Linkedin, YouTube, deviantART, Delicious and Digg.

From my own experience, I’d say that this is spot on. Take Facebook for example, from my experience not only do there tend to be more women engaging with brands through sponsored pages, they are also the most active fans on the page and contribute much more to the conversation.

What could this mean for brands? I think it represents an opportunity to further diversify the way they talk to their audiences, providing the opportunity for near 360 degree engagement, but more importantly a continuous and collaborative conversation. The result – a carefully crafted brand built by people that care the most.

Spotlight on….Tweetalondoncab

Digiwedo — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 10:08:08 +0000

In the land of social media there’s practically an idea a minute, some good, some bad, some crazy and some that are genius. The genius ideas usually speak to our personal and cultural situations, which is why Tweet a London Cab is genius.

Now, having lived in Australia for 4 years and also experienced the taxis in countries around the world, I can tell you that the black cabs of London are second to none. So, when you add a layer of social media over the top of that impeccable service, you’re bringing a British institution bang up to date.

Essentially, the team at Tweet a London Cab offer a service for people to DM their feed with their location, destination and time of pick-up so that drivers in the area can arrange to pick you up via Twitter. Sure, there is a novelty factor to it, but it’s also quite cleverly shifting engagement to more popular, modern means – in this case Twitter

I’m not entirely sure of the business model behind it, but it is still early days for them so I guess it’s watch this space for now….Who knows, it could all be an elaborate publicity hoax. If only then operated in Hertfordshire…..

Surviving and thriving on Facebook

Digiwedo — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 13:35:03 +0000

Once the darling of social media, Facebook now has to battle Twitter to be the first word on excited communicators lips when talking about social media. But in my opinion, it’s between Facebook and YouTube as to who’s done more to attract brands to invest in their platform. If pushed, I’d have to say that it’s Facebook, if for nothing else that the self-serve advertising and awesome analytics it offers.

But still, getting it right on Facebook requires a bit more that setting up a sponsored page. I’ve worked on several Facebook campaigns to date and the one thing that I would say is this – getting it right takes time, effort and commitment, here’s a few tips:

1 – take a look at what’s going on elsewhere on Facebook that relates to what your doing – what are the type of things that your competitors are doing that makes them successful, what kind of pages are your audience interacting with and the big question – is someone already running a page under your brand name and do you want to work with them rather than set-up your own?

2 – talk to people. Ask your audience what they think. Ask them on Facebook, via your website, your blog and other social profiles and get their opinions.

3 – have a content plan. You need to have a steady flow of content in order to keep your audience interested, don’t just launch then twiddle your thumbs

4 – promote your page through all means available to you. Internally, customer emails, traditional advertising, PR, blogger relations and even packaging – check out what Pepsi Raw did

5 – engage with your fans as much as you can, as often as you can. Keep the conversation flowing from both sides.

6 – give them the autonomy to help shape the page by submitting photos, videos and even regulating negative comments

7 – Invest in some social advertising from Facebook. Using this blended results yields some awesome results.

Finally, remember that Facebook is most effective as a long-term marketing tool. As such invest and plan to be active with your page for the long term and you get some superb results

Twitter: The final frontier

Digiwedo — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:28:40 +0000

I spend most of my day thinking up new ways to help my clients interact with social media and I have to say, I find that extremely rewarding. I recently had some time with one of the senior team at my agency and she described my current position as “working in the place to be at the place to be” and I think that pretty much sums-up the way I feel about things – I work for an awesome agency in the most cutting edge part of PR.

One of the most interesting challenges at the moment, is figuring out exactly how to get clients involved with Twitter and how we then measure the output. It is the final frontier, in a Captain Kirk sense, we’ve pretty much got a handle on blogging, YouTube, Facebook and so on, but Twitter is still a bit of a tough one.

Sure, I know the same rules as everyone else in terms of engagement, growing followers, becoming a trusted presence, but what about the overall package? Take Facebook and YouTube for example – both have some awesome analytics attached to them, which make it easy to track, measure and analyse your work. Twitter lacks this and while there are 3rd party tools, they lack the sophistication of those on Facebook and YouTube. We’re kind of stuck with numbers like followers, friends and retweets. For those that are interested in working Twitter into their communications mix – here are a few tips :

Use tools like Tweepsearch to help grow your network in a more targeted way
Don’t underestimate the power of the retweet
use bit.ly links to take your Twitter feeds effectiveness
Identify a core set of followers that you really want to retweet your content and focus on them -perhaps consider providing one of pieces that are specific to them
Take a look at tools like Tweetbeep to help your tracking
Identify and use the #hashtags that are most relevant for your industry and use them

The way I view Twitter at the moment is as a part of a wider social media plan, acting as more of a hook than anything else, allowing brands to direct their audiences to content hosted elsewhere. So, for the time being the basic analytics we have kind of do the job, but you have to ask – where to next for Twitter?