Just when PR professionals think they've got a handle on the whole social media thing and are lining up to score, the goalposts move again.
In the last few days there's been two events that have the potential to significantly shift the social media world yet again.
First and foremost, Google has released an invitation only preview of it's social media platform Google+. This is undoubtedly a full frontal assault on Facebook.
Many of it's features are similar to Facebook however there is the introduction of a couple of very interesting and useful features.
Circles is based on the concept that in real life you have circles of friends. One of the great criticisms of Facebook and other social media sites is that, once you add someone to your network, they can see everything you share. In real life, most people have different conversations - and share different parts of themselves - depending on their circle of friends. Google+
Circles allows you to do this in the virtual world as well.
Hangouts is also potentially huge with users being encouraged to engage in video chats.
Google is very gun-shy about unleashing Google+ as a product, given it's string of failures in the SM world however there is real potential for this to create a seismic shift in the landscape.
Mashable's take on it can be found http://mashable.com/2011/06/28/google-plus-review/.
The other big event is that News Corp has sold MySpace to an ad-targeting firm called Specific Media LLC for a reported $35M. This has got to be one of the worst business acquisitions of all-time given News Corp purchased it only 6 years ago for $580M.
It remains to be seen whether MySpace can recover to be, in the words of Specific Media CEO, Tim Vanderhook, "digital media company on par with Yahoo, AOL, Facebook and all the other big names out there."
Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304584004576415932273770852.html#ixzz1QjYXYmmH/
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Monday, June 20, 2011
PR + SEO = Happy CEO
Search engines have emerged as the first choice for people wanting to find news. In fact, more than twice the number of people use a search engine as their first port of call for news over traditional newspapers, magazines, TV and radio combined.
Search Engine Optimisation is far more than something the IT guys do to your website or a cool phrase, (“Yes of course I’m optimised for SEO, who isn’t these days?”) it is a valuable tool that can help you connect with both media and consumers directly.
It’s vital to have the correct infrastructure in place, such as a Wieck Online Newsroom, but that is only half the equation. The way communications initiatives are delivered also plays a major role in getting your ranking up.
So naturally, as part of your PR strategy you have identified a set of 25-30 keywords for your news releases to ensure they rank highly with the God, Google. Right?
OK, so perhaps not.
No need to worry. There’s a free tool that’s just right for you: Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
Here’s how it works;
Say you own a coffee shop in Sydney. You might put in coffee, cafe, cappuccino, sydney into the ‘word or phrase’ and you’ll return around 100 results showing you how many people search for those terms globally. You’ll get two or three times that amount if you log in with your Gmail account. Plus, when you log in, you can export the data to Excel. You can drill down into these results and see which ones are popular locally.
This will give you a good guide as to the most frequently searched for terms related to your business and the ones you should be keeping in mind for use in your website copy and headings, press release headlines and copy, and, of course, in social media. Here’s where you should drop these keywords: your Facebook page, Twitter bio, YouTube channel, and blog’s URL. Use those keywords in your blog posts.
Of course, you should include the important keywords for your business, like the name of the business, its owners, product or brand name(s), etc.
To learn more about keywords, check out this 18-minute video by Wordtracker. Take some notes, and be sure to apply your keyword list to your newfound SEO knowledge.
Search Engine Optimisation is far more than something the IT guys do to your website or a cool phrase, (“Yes of course I’m optimised for SEO, who isn’t these days?”) it is a valuable tool that can help you connect with both media and consumers directly.
It’s vital to have the correct infrastructure in place, such as a Wieck Online Newsroom, but that is only half the equation. The way communications initiatives are delivered also plays a major role in getting your ranking up.
So naturally, as part of your PR strategy you have identified a set of 25-30 keywords for your news releases to ensure they rank highly with the God, Google. Right?
OK, so perhaps not.
No need to worry. There’s a free tool that’s just right for you: Google AdWords Keyword Tool.
Here’s how it works;
Say you own a coffee shop in Sydney. You might put in coffee, cafe, cappuccino, sydney into the ‘word or phrase’ and you’ll return around 100 results showing you how many people search for those terms globally. You’ll get two or three times that amount if you log in with your Gmail account. Plus, when you log in, you can export the data to Excel. You can drill down into these results and see which ones are popular locally.
This will give you a good guide as to the most frequently searched for terms related to your business and the ones you should be keeping in mind for use in your website copy and headings, press release headlines and copy, and, of course, in social media. Here’s where you should drop these keywords: your Facebook page, Twitter bio, YouTube channel, and blog’s URL. Use those keywords in your blog posts.
Of course, you should include the important keywords for your business, like the name of the business, its owners, product or brand name(s), etc.
To learn more about keywords, check out this 18-minute video by Wordtracker. Take some notes, and be sure to apply your keyword list to your newfound SEO knowledge.
BP’s Former CEO Talks about Dealing with Vicious Media
The story of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and the subsequent PR nightmare that unfolded is the monster in the closet that keeps many communications types up at night.
The way this played out in the public’s eyes is now written into the text books of what not to do when facing a crisis but rarely do you ever get an insight into what was happening inside the machine when the wheels fell off.
Now that it’s all over and he has his life back, Tony Hayworth, former CEO of BP and one time “most hated man in America”, has spoken about what it was like trying to deal with the “vicious” media storm of this environmental crisis from inside the fish bowl. Hayward spoke to some communicators at a networking club hosted by a UK PR agency called the Loewy Group. Lucky for us, someone present summarised Hayward’s comments in a blog.
One of the biggest problems at the time was not only keeping the media informed of unfolding developments but also tackling the inaccurate stories proliferating. At its height, there were 50 people at BP working around the clock purely on countering “inaccurate” information being posted on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking platforms.
The appetite for information was insatiable. The apparent inaccuraies in some of the reporting fuelled public hysteria and hysteria fuelled more hyteric reporting. “We were at war with the media every day. There’s no other word for it,” he said.
Possibly the most profound lesson learned is one that all CEOs should heed. He volunteered that despite utmost efforts to communicate clearly, transparently and at breakneck pace, many mistakes were made. “What would I have done differently? I would have had more of the senior team around me to handle communication with the media.”
He said that one of the main communications lessons learned for all large corporations was that plans for crises such as these must be made and tested regularly. BP wasn’t sufficiently well prepared with communications processes and resources to handle what happened, and it showed.
The full report can be found here: http://www.speedcommunications.com/blogs/earl/2011/06/16/deepwater-horizon-inside-the-vicious-media-war/
The way this played out in the public’s eyes is now written into the text books of what not to do when facing a crisis but rarely do you ever get an insight into what was happening inside the machine when the wheels fell off.
Now that it’s all over and he has his life back, Tony Hayworth, former CEO of BP and one time “most hated man in America”, has spoken about what it was like trying to deal with the “vicious” media storm of this environmental crisis from inside the fish bowl. Hayward spoke to some communicators at a networking club hosted by a UK PR agency called the Loewy Group. Lucky for us, someone present summarised Hayward’s comments in a blog.
One of the biggest problems at the time was not only keeping the media informed of unfolding developments but also tackling the inaccurate stories proliferating. At its height, there were 50 people at BP working around the clock purely on countering “inaccurate” information being posted on Twitter, Facebook and other social networking platforms.
The appetite for information was insatiable. The apparent inaccuraies in some of the reporting fuelled public hysteria and hysteria fuelled more hyteric reporting. “We were at war with the media every day. There’s no other word for it,” he said.
Possibly the most profound lesson learned is one that all CEOs should heed. He volunteered that despite utmost efforts to communicate clearly, transparently and at breakneck pace, many mistakes were made. “What would I have done differently? I would have had more of the senior team around me to handle communication with the media.”
He said that one of the main communications lessons learned for all large corporations was that plans for crises such as these must be made and tested regularly. BP wasn’t sufficiently well prepared with communications processes and resources to handle what happened, and it showed.
The full report can be found here: http://www.speedcommunications.com/blogs/earl/2011/06/16/deepwater-horizon-inside-the-vicious-media-war/
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
PR Pros' Prose Provides Perspicacity
"Public Relations 2011 Issues Insights Ideas" is a great (and free) publication that offers advice from PR professionals with a wide variety of backgrounds and specialities. The brainchild of Craig Pearce, an award winning strategic public relations professional, it brings together opinion pieces from some of the most recognised names in the business.
The articles are intended to broaden your knowledge of strategic and tactical approaches to the practice of public relations. Indeed there are many thought-provoking nuggets of knowledge to be found inside it's pages.
To give you a bit of an overview:
Professor Jim Macnamara argues that the emphasis for PR education should be on more theoretical elements, rather than on practical experience. He points out that "doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right”.
Paul Roberts brings PR back to basics, suggesting it is driven by strategy – essentially comprised of the who, what, when, where, why, how of communication and engagement. Simple right? Maybe, but the implementation of this basic tenet is crucial to success.
Paul Seaman casts a critical eye over the virtues of transparency, CSR and better corporate governance. He examines the crisis of trust in Western firms, governments and other institutions and ponders the difference between healthy scepticism with lack of trust. He suggests that throwing away trust in the name of transparency is retrograde and corrosive.
Craig Pearce has 4 articles in this document. First up he tackles the interconnection between PR and CSR. CSR is related to more than what an organisation actually ‘does’, the notion of articulating this is the domain of external PR and the combination of the two is a valid way of getting change to occur.
He follows this up later with a piece on the importance of the PR professional in the corporate structure and how social media is emphasising this. Pearce argues "it is such as important opportunity that we’d be completely remiss not to go for the jugular… because effective application of social media can help achieve two-way symmetrical communication. A major benefit of this approach is that it helps organisations operate in a manner more likely to contribute to society interests, rather than organisational interests alone."
His third contribution emphasises the importance of "the public relations professional is the conscience of an organisation." However he warns, "Without exhibiting leadership, you will never be the best possible public relations professional you can be."
Finally he examines James E. Grunig's models for public relations, concluding: "Applying the two-way symmetrical communication model is the best way to build and sustain long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and its stakeholders, make a meaningful contribution to society and, most importantly, prompt society to become more satisfying and more equitable to greater numbers of people."
Mandi Bateson gives some tips on social media engagement, pointing out that the "audience doesn’t care that your organisation has very separate PR, marketing, sales and customer services departments" and "As guardians of the brand or product messaging, PR professionals are well placed to own the social media strategy".
Judy Gombita examines the results of the Edleman Trust Barometer and suggests "21st century PR regime really needs to be looking to the internet as a legitimate outlet for ‘earned media’". She looks at how PRs can leverage other findings to fine-tune strategies such as who to use as the spokesperson and how to 'don the (internal) journalist cap' to better service their communications efforts.
In another article, she compares personal interaction at networking events with social networking in the digital world. Gombita suggests "Optimum public relations and social media (a.k.a. digital PR) revolve around humanising an organisation... in as comfortable and intuitive a way as possible."
Trevor Young goes into bat for consultancies, suggesting that (despite the growth of in-house communications departments, in both size and importance) external agencies are a vast resource of knowledge that shouldn't be ignored - especially when it comes to social media.
Dwight Whitney questions whether Facebook (and other social platforms) should actually be called "anti social media" on a number of levels from cyber-bullying to the fact intimacy and emotions are being replaced with a mega mall concept of friendship where ‘more is better’.
Dr. Tony Jaques provides some interesting case studies about how social media is having a dramatic effect in the field of issue management. He argues that "social media have changed the community’s expectation of what is acceptable corporate behaviour, as well as increasing the community’s capacity to communicate those expectations".
Jane Jordan-Meier explores the pros and cons of wheeling out the CEO as the public face of the company. In a crisis situation "their physical presence sends two powerful messages: “I care and I am accountable” however never forget "as a basic rule, go for the person that is most credible, most believable, most authentic and has the genuine interest of the affected community/consumers/constituents at heart."
Dr Catherine Sweet's article talks about how her academic experiences have impressed upon her the "the power of ‘story telling’ as being the best form of PR and communication there is." She notes that while online engagement is necessary, "Face-to-face story telling is more persuasive because more emotional connection is possible" and "Eye contact matters –it’s that trust thing and it creates a connection that online just can’t replicate.
For the full document, simply subscribe to Craig Pearce's blog
The articles are intended to broaden your knowledge of strategic and tactical approaches to the practice of public relations. Indeed there are many thought-provoking nuggets of knowledge to be found inside it's pages.
To give you a bit of an overview:
Professor Jim Macnamara argues that the emphasis for PR education should be on more theoretical elements, rather than on practical experience. He points out that "doing the right thing is more important than doing the thing right”.
Paul Roberts brings PR back to basics, suggesting it is driven by strategy – essentially comprised of the who, what, when, where, why, how of communication and engagement. Simple right? Maybe, but the implementation of this basic tenet is crucial to success.
Paul Seaman casts a critical eye over the virtues of transparency, CSR and better corporate governance. He examines the crisis of trust in Western firms, governments and other institutions and ponders the difference between healthy scepticism with lack of trust. He suggests that throwing away trust in the name of transparency is retrograde and corrosive.
Craig Pearce has 4 articles in this document. First up he tackles the interconnection between PR and CSR. CSR is related to more than what an organisation actually ‘does’, the notion of articulating this is the domain of external PR and the combination of the two is a valid way of getting change to occur.
He follows this up later with a piece on the importance of the PR professional in the corporate structure and how social media is emphasising this. Pearce argues "it is such as important opportunity that we’d be completely remiss not to go for the jugular… because effective application of social media can help achieve two-way symmetrical communication. A major benefit of this approach is that it helps organisations operate in a manner more likely to contribute to society interests, rather than organisational interests alone."
His third contribution emphasises the importance of "the public relations professional is the conscience of an organisation." However he warns, "Without exhibiting leadership, you will never be the best possible public relations professional you can be."
Finally he examines James E. Grunig's models for public relations, concluding: "Applying the two-way symmetrical communication model is the best way to build and sustain long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationships between an organisation and its stakeholders, make a meaningful contribution to society and, most importantly, prompt society to become more satisfying and more equitable to greater numbers of people."
Mandi Bateson gives some tips on social media engagement, pointing out that the "audience doesn’t care that your organisation has very separate PR, marketing, sales and customer services departments" and "As guardians of the brand or product messaging, PR professionals are well placed to own the social media strategy".
Judy Gombita examines the results of the Edleman Trust Barometer and suggests "21st century PR regime really needs to be looking to the internet as a legitimate outlet for ‘earned media’". She looks at how PRs can leverage other findings to fine-tune strategies such as who to use as the spokesperson and how to 'don the (internal) journalist cap' to better service their communications efforts.
In another article, she compares personal interaction at networking events with social networking in the digital world. Gombita suggests "Optimum public relations and social media (a.k.a. digital PR) revolve around humanising an organisation... in as comfortable and intuitive a way as possible."
Trevor Young goes into bat for consultancies, suggesting that (despite the growth of in-house communications departments, in both size and importance) external agencies are a vast resource of knowledge that shouldn't be ignored - especially when it comes to social media.
Dwight Whitney questions whether Facebook (and other social platforms) should actually be called "anti social media" on a number of levels from cyber-bullying to the fact intimacy and emotions are being replaced with a mega mall concept of friendship where ‘more is better’.
Dr. Tony Jaques provides some interesting case studies about how social media is having a dramatic effect in the field of issue management. He argues that "social media have changed the community’s expectation of what is acceptable corporate behaviour, as well as increasing the community’s capacity to communicate those expectations".
Jane Jordan-Meier explores the pros and cons of wheeling out the CEO as the public face of the company. In a crisis situation "their physical presence sends two powerful messages: “I care and I am accountable” however never forget "as a basic rule, go for the person that is most credible, most believable, most authentic and has the genuine interest of the affected community/consumers/constituents at heart."
Dr Catherine Sweet's article talks about how her academic experiences have impressed upon her the "the power of ‘story telling’ as being the best form of PR and communication there is." She notes that while online engagement is necessary, "Face-to-face story telling is more persuasive because more emotional connection is possible" and "Eye contact matters –it’s that trust thing and it creates a connection that online just can’t replicate.
For the full document, simply subscribe to Craig Pearce's blog
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
It's Always been a Matter of Trust
The 2011 Edelman Trust Barometer provides some interesting insights into how consumer perception of a business affects their willingness to believe news and information about that business - put simply, they need to trust you to believe you.
This is hardly earth shattering news however what is interesting is the more subtle findings that could prove to be highly beneficial in the way external PR initiatives are shaped and delivered.
Edelman polled 5075 people in 23 countries on 5 continents. They were between 25-64, college-educated and in the top 25% of household income per age group in each country.
Perhaps not surprisingly, financial services, banks, insurance and media are the least trusted industries. On the other end of the scale, technology, automotive and telecommunications are the most trusted. In the case of automotive, this result comes despite the financial bail-out of the 'Big 3' in the US and numerous model recalls across the sector. Telecommunications must also be celebrating when you consider the amount of complaints registered against them.
Quality, honesty, trust and treatment of employees are all rate highly when it comes to corporate reputation, while returns to shareholders are the least important factor.
When it comes to the question of who to quote in a release or put in front of the wolves, an academic/expert (75%), technical expert within the company (64%), industry analyst (53%) and CEO (50%) rate as the most credible sources.
Online search engines have become the go-to for news with 29% rating that as their first source when it comes to news about a company, a little odd considering this method requires knowing what to search for. Online news sources comes in second place with 19%. News from the company's website (11%) ranked just behind traditional media outlets of radio/TV (12%) and print (15%) suggesting that the importance of having an effective online newsroom is almost as important as traditional media outlets when it comes to corporate reputation.
Also surprising is that social media ranked last with only 5% saying they would use that as their first source of news.
One of the most significant findings is how profoundly trust protects reputation. When a company is distrusted, 57% will believe negative information while only 15% will believe positive information after hearing it 1-2 times.
Conversely, if the company is trusted, only 25% will believe negative information and 51% will believe positive information after hearing it 1-2 times.
Clearly consumers are more willing to have their opinions reinforced than they are to have them changed.
The full survey can be downloaded here.
This is hardly earth shattering news however what is interesting is the more subtle findings that could prove to be highly beneficial in the way external PR initiatives are shaped and delivered.
Edelman polled 5075 people in 23 countries on 5 continents. They were between 25-64, college-educated and in the top 25% of household income per age group in each country.
Perhaps not surprisingly, financial services, banks, insurance and media are the least trusted industries. On the other end of the scale, technology, automotive and telecommunications are the most trusted. In the case of automotive, this result comes despite the financial bail-out of the 'Big 3' in the US and numerous model recalls across the sector. Telecommunications must also be celebrating when you consider the amount of complaints registered against them.
Quality, honesty, trust and treatment of employees are all rate highly when it comes to corporate reputation, while returns to shareholders are the least important factor.
When it comes to the question of who to quote in a release or put in front of the wolves, an academic/expert (75%), technical expert within the company (64%), industry analyst (53%) and CEO (50%) rate as the most credible sources.
Online search engines have become the go-to for news with 29% rating that as their first source when it comes to news about a company, a little odd considering this method requires knowing what to search for. Online news sources comes in second place with 19%. News from the company's website (11%) ranked just behind traditional media outlets of radio/TV (12%) and print (15%) suggesting that the importance of having an effective online newsroom is almost as important as traditional media outlets when it comes to corporate reputation.
Also surprising is that social media ranked last with only 5% saying they would use that as their first source of news.
One of the most significant findings is how profoundly trust protects reputation. When a company is distrusted, 57% will believe negative information while only 15% will believe positive information after hearing it 1-2 times.
Conversely, if the company is trusted, only 25% will believe negative information and 51% will believe positive information after hearing it 1-2 times.
Clearly consumers are more willing to have their opinions reinforced than they are to have them changed.
The full survey can be downloaded here.
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