Category Archives: Online Tools

Nice use of QR Codes

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I had an issue a while ago trying to view a QR code on a business card I received but an interesting discussion on the For Immediate Release podcast and an invite I received to the adgrad Winner of the RTE copywriting competition (it was awarded yesterday at an event in DIT Aungiers Street) prompted me to look at it again.

QR codes (or quick response codes) are basically an image like a bar code that scanners and QR codes applications on camera phones can interpret.  Once you scan it (I used a free QRcodereader on iTunes) you are brought to an online space (website, email address, social media) where you can find out more information.

Most current uses that I can see of QR codes are to make it easier to find web addresses especially ones with long urls but there are load of potential applications.  QR codes are already being used by the Irish media on news paper such as the Metro Herald with the DRG group and Social Media.ie did a nice post on some extra uses. Now that smart phones are reaching critical mass and as the creative industries start to deploy them we will see lots more applications.  One nice one could be virtual/real treasure hunt where people need to find QR code on a posters that bring them to another location until someone find the prize.   Here is an example of one in New York.  Either way another nice one for the toolkit.

You need to generate a QR code first but there is useful guide available on QRcodes.ie.  Here is one for this blog

(Edit on 17th June). When you start to look for something, you see it everywhere.  Nice offer of generating a QR code from Worky that can be used on a business card.

(Edit 28 June) Digital Times ran an interesting piece on the inclusion of QR codes in the Food Lovers Guide to Ireland.

Bought some grapes yesterday and was very pleasantly surprised to find that the QR code brought me to a video on recipes and ideas on preparing grapes.

QR codes on Dunnes Stores Grapes

(Edit 30 June). Went to the Bloggers International event last night in Portlaoise and spotted another nice use of QR codes.  Great event and nice video link ups with the UK.   As usual I alway pick up some gems at these type meet up.  As part of the event they invited some people to do elevator pitches that they recorded.  One of the companies who pitched held up a print out of a QR code for their website.  Simple and clever.  Will post the video once its available.

(Edit 1 July ) Nice article today by John Kennedy in Silicon Republic and QR codes.  Had never really thought about supermarkets using the QR codes to sell the ingredients for meals.  You scan a big QR code at store entrance that gives you list of ingredients for a meal, directions on where to find them and video of how to cook them.

(Edit 6th July)  these edits could go on for a while.  Really interesting use of QR codes by Tesco in South Korea where they printed large print outs of their shelves at train stations where people could scan and order food using the printed codes.

The Sunday Business Post Computers in Business magazine led with QR codes last week citing really good examples from property company Sherry Fitzgerald.

(edit 25th July) Previous focus has been on what people do with their QR codes i.e. simple point to a website or some creative execution of it.  Now according to Mashable, “a 30% tolerance in readability” means people can be much more creative in desiging the QR codes themselves.

This is the invite from the DIT students and congrats for being so inventive.

Adgrad invite from DIT featuring QR codes.

Quick peep inside Google Goggles

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When Google Goggles was announced some time ago it was not available in Ireland and my phone did not support it, so I promptly forgot about it.  I upgraded the phone a while ago but only stumbled on Google Goggles when playing around with Google Mobile on the iPhone.
In few short words it is described as an application that ‘uses pictures to search the web’.  All you need to do is take a photo of an object using the camera phone.  The application scans the image, looking for key identifiable information such a logos, places, landmarks, artwork, wine and contact information.  It then returns some search results based upon this analysis.  I imagine this list will eventually cover anything that might have a stored, tagged images online or in a searchable database.  It is all very early stage for the service but processing power, content and proliferation of smart phone would appear to the key overcomeable problems stopping it from being incredibly powerful.

Still even at this stage there are some lessions to be had from it and likely SEO issues.

Here is a quick example.

Evian Bottle

Empty bottle of Evian water

Once in the application I took a photo of an empty Evian bottle in my kitchen.

 

 

 

 

 

Evian Bottle analysed by Google Goggles

Empty Evian bottle being scanned by Google Goggles application

This is how it looks as the application scoured the image for something identifiable.  This stage only took a few seconds as the boxes floated up the image as a visualisation of it scanning for something recogniseable.

 

 

 

 

 

Evian Bottle, Google Search results

Search results from Google Goggles following photo of Evian bottle.

The results are pretty basic but it did recognise the logo, name of company and service and who it represented.

I clicked on the Evian logo result.

 

 

 

 

 

Google Goggle Photo Search

Organic listings from Google Goggles search

Interestingly the top result was not the Evian website but looks like another who registered an image as evian logo.

To me this and voice activated searches looks like a serious contender to typed searches especially in situations where you are looking at something visual and text just does not work.  The ability to identify a building and its history by simply taking a photo or finding out the name and background to a painting in seconds is something that could be almost impossible with text alone.  These are the popular uses that have been well discussed but there could be lots of marketing applications.  Think  about some really interesting competitions or posters that bring people to additional sites for more information.  As Facebook, Flickr, Pix.ie, Instagram have all shown people are often happier to take and share photos than  utilise text.

The bigger more immediate challenge will be optimising sites, images logos, company premises photos and key personnel so that when a customer does a Google Goggles picture search that there is a good library of comparison images and optimised text.  As the Evian example shows you need to thing about how Google Goggles will display and analysise images in order to optimise organic searches.  I would imagine there are lots of tagged images on their site but perhaps none or few that are tagged Evian logo.

Some simple top line observations.

  • increased need to have broader range of images on a company website or social sites.
  • think about your company from a customer view point – literally what they see, where and hence what Google Goggles sees.
  • optimising for Google Goggles with particular tags.
  • think creatively about promotions that could utilise the service.

The service is still fairly rudamentary but I can see that changing rapidly.  The results are way off or fairly basic.  It does recognise faces but the matching results seem almost random but similar to iPhoto Faces with better processing power combined with intelligent intuitive software then the abilty to identify someone from a photo and get psychological insights from an analysis of their social channel usage could be a few clicks away.  A wonderful service or scary invasion of privacy but looks like its arrival is not far away.

My other experience with testing Google Goggles was more personal.  I took a photo of a Peppa Pig DVD which brought me to Peppa Pig You Tube videos.  I am now plagued with hourly requests by my daughter to play episodes of the programme she has never seen before.  Very odd to see a 2 year old holding an iPhone in a tree house glued to a TV cartoon but thats the world of instantly accessible information, on any device, in any place whenever they want it, that they will grow up with.

 

Can you automate PR?

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I wrote a while ago about new distribution services that were launched in Ireland mainly aimed at auotmating the distribution of press releases to media and others.  Generally they range from posting press releases on a press release portal of sorts to closed systems where media are given access to closed stories similar to a reuters.  Some are paid for, some are free and they are based on similar international models.  Overall there is a general feeling that they are a useful supplementary service but unlikely to replace the time intensive pitching by public relations executives.  Piaras Kelly also has some interesting insights into the different services.

Over the last week or so there has been more some more interesting additions to the debate.  Last week Jill O’Herlihy from O’Herlihy launched a DIY PR Service whereby they would sell the media contacts for around 8 euro a name and charge a fee for writing the release.  From an initial glance it would cost around 1,000 plus euro for the tools.  This does not account for the time in tailoring the pitch, potential follow up, organising interviews, creating new angles and feedback.  The reality of PR is that its not rocket science and if a company has time they could technically do it themselves although an experienced hand will always do it better, knowing the landscape, subtle messaging, particular media interests etc.  The real value of this service would be getting access to the names and contact details (for future use) but again it is probably something you could do with Irish Media Contacts Directory.  Although they claim they have been given permission to pass on the details I wonder what media think of their contact details being sold so overtly for 8 euro a pop.  It will be interesting to see how the final service looks but if a company only has a couple of hundred euro to spent it might be a realistic choice for them.  Just make sure you factor in a good amount of extra time to do it right.

Today Jack Murray from Media Contacts Directory fame launched a new service called Media Express.  The handbook they produce has always been well thumbed addition in PR consultancies and they have since moved the data online.  Media Express is a further development where you can upload your release and photos, select from a large selection of media lists (e.g. property) and the release will be sent by email to journalists whilst appearing to come from you.  From one test it appeared you could do this for as little as 200 euro.

Interestingly the area where both struggle to automate is the scripting of the press release which naturally does take a human to do and does take time to do right.  Although neither approach will be appreciated by the big PR consultancies as it does have a big impact on the value being offered, focusing on the distribution and media contacts makes sence as the easiest area to drive efficiences and reduce cost. 

I am reading Free, the Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson and undoubtably the public relations industry will have to accept that aspects of their offerings where they place great value will become commodified and most likely free and that chargeable elements will be found elsewhere.  Currently that elsewhere is the messaging development, judgement calls and follow on activities – things that take human interaction. 

 The odd thing about PR and press releases is that when I started in PR about 15 years ago the cost of a typical press release issue was almost the same in pounds as it is in euros today.  The industry became a lot more efficient through technology and today I would imagine very few PR companies cover their full charge out costs on a regular press release.  Consultancies who focus on media out reach alone could be facing tricky times in future.

Regardless of what you think of these services its great to see innovation in the industry.  Overall I believe we are a long way off automating the PR industry but certain time elements and services will be replaced by technology.

3D image technology give lift to photography.

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PR companies generate a lot of really good photography from media launches to product launch shots.  Normally they are only distributed to the media and remain on file server until someone requests them which is a shame given the relatively high expense of them.  This is a legacy from the days when prints were ordered and with each print costing up to 20 euro, executives were reluctant to order what was not going to be reprinted.  Things have changed greatly since then:

1. Most photographers will give unlimited usage of the images and supply them on disk following an asignment.

2. Social media has created a wealth of new platforms to get extra value and better visual understanding of an organisation or the product.

At the most basic level photos should be uploaded to the company website – ideally in a format where they can be downloaded.  Social media sites like Flickr and Pix.ie should also be optimised especially if you have developed a community there.  Facebook, bebo and blogs can really be enhanced by including these images in posts and updates.

To date these images are also mainly 2D static images and give little interactivity or ability to see from multiple angles.  Now you can produce 3D images for free using Photosynth which is technology developed by Microsoft (disclosure they are also a client).  In their own words it ”allows you to take a bunch of photos of the same scene or object and automagically stitch them all together into one big interactive 3D viewing experience that you can share with anyone on the web.”

Photosynth gives the ability to reconstruct the scene or object from a bunch of flat photographs.  The free webbased technology examines images for similarities to each other and uses that information to estimate the shape of the subject and the vantage point each photo was taken from. With this information, it recreates the space and uses it as a canvas to display and navigate through the photos.

In essence you take a bunch of photos (20+) of the scene walking through or around it, upload them to the site (you need to set up a profile but simple enough) and then the technology does the rest.

You are left with an image similar to below:

Photos taken at the launch of airbike.ie showing their range of Yamaha FJR 1300A motorcycles.

Photos taken at the launch of airbike.ie showing their range of Yamaha FJR 1300A motorcycles.

From this you can navagate left, right, upwards or downwards depending on the range of photos you inserted.  You can include the link on a varity of different mediums.

This is one we did for the launch of Airbike showing its Yamaha FJR 1399A motorcycles that they will use to deliver a motorbike passenger service.

How Photosynth is used in communications is very open.  Image you are trying to walk people through a building/hotel/leisure centre or allow them to see a new car from different angles.  Normally this would have involved complicated website building technology.

Once you have created the synth why not include in press release material, blog, email signatures and social media platforms from Twitter (shorten the url) to Facebook.  What I really like about it is that people can choose the angle and the level of interactivity it allows.  

Some tips:

  • make sure you take enough photo (20 -30)
  • try ensure that the background are different enough so photosynth can easily stitch together
  • build in enough time into the photoshoot to take the right amount of shots
  • ensure you have unlimited usage rights of the photos
  • files are large so needs a good broadband connection

The video below gives a good run through the technology.

Augmented Reality

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Finally managed to play around with the augmented reality tool that has been doing the rounds.  Basically you need a web cam, log on to GE Augmented Reality site and print out the image below.

Augmented reality sheet

Augmented reality sheet

Depending on the selection you pick, there is one for solar and one for wind turbine, a 3D images suddenly unfolds on the screen and replaces the black and white image above.  You can interact with it by twisting and turning the image and can even blow (picked up by the microphone) which spins the turbines. 

Augmented Reality Wind Turbine Example 

 

Pretty cool stuff.  However i have seen lots of clever stuff that is entertaining but nothing else.  This is different.  Mini have used it to allow people interact with a 3D image of the car by printing the simple image on the back of a motoring magazine with instructions.  You simply put the ad in front of a web cam and up pops the 3D image of the car.  The video below is worth watching (although in German – I think).

 

 Depending on the price of this technology it could have loads of really great applications and could be extremely positive for the print industry also i.e. you need to buy the paper to get the initial image that allows you to get the 3D image – nice blend of traditional media and new media working together.

A Source of Inspiration has some other great examples of how this technology is being used now.  Worth investigating.  If anyone know of an Irish company using let me know. 

 

 

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

Twitter Check List

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The IIA managed to get a bumper crowd out last week to its Congress in the Crown Plaze Hotel in Santry.  This year the Congress was followed immediately by the awards which made it a long day but gave a much more opportunity for people to mix and network.

Colm Lyon from Realex Payments delivered the strongest of the morning sessions with a focus on leveraging the values of the organisation is solidifying the company’s strategy.  He also spoke about the need to engage staff in the process.  All things that people know but can get forgotten as companies look to an uncertain future.  Realex Payments has made great strides in intenationalising its reach and offer and has great visibility of what Irish companies are doing in other market places outside of Ireland.  They handle the transactions for their client’s offers which are delivered in other countries but managed from Ireland.  A much needed “can do” attitude. 

The afternoon sessions were all well attended and I participated in the Social Media Working Group one which was led by Brendan Hughes of FBD and moderated by Krishna De.  The session was structured to give participants a snap shot of what they could achieve in different social media by picking a company and building mini plans using Twitter, Blogs and Facebook/LinkedIn.

In building the session check sheets were developed for each that might be useful if you are looking at how you can leverage these different platforms.   The Twitter check lists is below.  New Twitter applications appear on an almost daily basis but its a handy beginning point.  It is structured to cover beginning, intermediate and advanced.  Let me know of ones I have ommitted.

Beginner. 

  • Set up a Twitter account in company name.
  • Find friends and potential contacts.
  • Watch Tweeter feeds from others.
  • Reply to relevant tweets.
  • Tweet areas of interest.
  • Search areas of interest through www.search.twitter.com

Intermediate.

  • Design the backdrop for your twitter feed.
  • Upload photo or avatar.
  • Build an editorial calendar and research topics
  • Build community by increasing following base
  • Direct message new followers
  • Engage in conversation by reply to tweets
  • Actively monitor by installing www.Tweetdeck.com or www.monitter.com
  • Post messages using www.tinyurl.com

Advanced

Some photos from the session are available here.

What is your online reputation number?

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How influential someone is in PR has alway been a bit foggy to say the least.  It is easy to claim you are influential but proof has normally been in the form of being able to open doors or hidden in the infamous black book of contacts.

In theory online makes it easier to check how influential someone is.  Things have moved on in terms of people merely using the web to increase their digital footprint.  To date there has been a bit of land grab in terms of occuping certain spaces and putting up profiles and leaving them to gather dust.  This was useful at the beginning where you could find someone’s LinkedIn profile when you searched for their name but its hardly an indication of their influence – its merely that they exist.  Now as people gather and participate in communities around them it is easier to get a better sence of their consistent presence on the web but also their level of contribution.

Piaras Kelly posted about what your Facebook connections could indicate about you sometime ago and Tom Murphy has posted more recently about an Andrew Smith comment on how the media are using LinkedIn profiles to vet the credibility about a potential spokesperson.

There is no doubt that this will continue to evolve further but it is not an easy task to acertain someone influence as Micah Baldwin comments in Mashable.com.   As a starting point he points to

Incoming Traffic – Pageviews, Incoming traffic from search engines, rss subscribers

Incoming Links – Primarily manual links such as blogrolls, in-post deep links

Reader Engagement – Internal searches, time on site

Recommendations – Retweets, share stats

Connections – Number of mutual connections, number of mutual connections on multiple sites

Track Record – Age of domain, number of blog posts, length of engagement

 Engagement – How often and long a person has engaged with a service online   

It is possible to get a manual snapshot of someone by using some of the tools that are available.  By inputting someones blog url in Technorati you can get a numercial indication of their authority and ranking.  By looking at their Twitter profile you can see how many people are following them and how many updates they have made.  LinkedIn will show their connections, groups, length of time on the community and you can check how active they are in that forum.  Similarly with Facebook and other social media.

None of these are perfect measures and having lots of stuff online does not equate to being influential but its a better start than taking someones word for it.

Surely there is good scope for someone to develop a FREE application that is comprehensive enough to take account of the different platforms (ie number of retweets on Twitter, pics through Twitpic etc to the strength of connections in Facebook rather than numbers) so that it goes beyond a popularity contest and give a genuinely useful figure.  Following 500 people is very different to being followed by 500 people.  It would encourage people to move from ‘I am online’ to ‘I participate and contribute online’.  If there was an acceptance of the importance of a ORN (online reputation number) number and people could increase that number by engaging more surely this would lead to an uplife in genuine online activity.

I imagine such applications would be greately aided by people inputting their handles, user names for the different platforms with boxes to fill for a wide range of social media.  This is probably especially true as people use different usernames and handles.  There may be some issues with walled communities but technology normally finds a way around these.

I am sure that there are a few out there that come close to this but I have not found any to date.  Let me know if I am missing the obvious.  A simple tool could always progress into a more complex one.

Nice tool for checking the strength of your message

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I have stumbled on lots of online tools that are interesting but trying to find an application for them in PR is sometimes a struggle.  Twitter Mosaic for example is a nice tool but does not have huge amount of PR useage potential.

At Search Marketing World 2009 Ciaran Norris from Altogether Digital mentioned a service called Wordle in his presentation where he showed the tag cloud it created on Obama inauguration speech which clearly showed the key words he was emphasising.

Basically the service allows you to input text or a url and it will create a tag funky tag cloud from it.  Frequently mentioned words are emphasised as in any tag cloud and the layout is pretty intuitive and easy to interpret with nice colour coding and layout.

Wordle Example using eoinkennedy.ie/blog

This one is from an analysis of this blog.  The more words the trickier it is but at a glance the main areas that you wish to cover should become pretty apparent.  So how is this of help to the PR industry?  This has great use to test the messaging validity of things like press releases and speeches.  It wont replace the manual intervention but it should give you a snap short.  It only does words and most messages are more complex than words but it should help to make sure that what you are trying to communicate actually comes across.   Consider that most people absorb huge amount of information but simple repetition of key words can stick.

Here is one I did on a press release we did for Repak on recycling at Christmas time.

Repak Green Christmas Wordle Example

Repak Green Christmas Wordle Example

Packaging Recycling at Christmas time was the key message we wanted to get accross and it shows in the tag cloud.  I would suggest that if you put in a press release or speech from a CEO and the tag cloud bares no resemblance to the core messaging then something may be wrong.

One note of caution – do not add to the gallery unless you are comfortable with people seeing it.

Online PR Distribution Debate Opened Up Again?

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The launch of a new press release distribution service called PR Zone is likely to open up the debate about public relations companies using online distribution services once again.

PR Zone Front Page

PR Zone Front Page

The PR industry has been slow enough to embrace these type services and Searh Engine Optimisation of press releases is ignored by a lot of traditional PR companies.  The service is not new (although it does contain some innovations) and is broadly a welcome development.  However the service uses a pay of play model where you register full company details and then buy credits to utilise the different levels of service they deliver.

This is a route that Prangle tied some time ago but with limited uptake from PR companies.  Prangle came from the journalist side of the house and tried to establish the service as a one stop shop for the media industry where the different publication houses would allocate a resource to monitor the feeds supplied by the PR industry.  The theory being that PR and other companies would go through the service rather than send their content to their contacts in the media.  The stumbling blocks were the cost involved (a fee was charged to use the service) and a perception that the relationships that PR companies spend years fostering with the media, would in essence be cut out of the equation.  It also relied heavily on the media commiting to using the service consistently and most media are still happier to receive stories from established contacts.  On a technical side the service was robust and future proofed in that it allowed uploading of different type media from high res photos to video.  As a supplemntary service it was useful but the cost of using it meant the PR industry did not buy into it wholesale.

Not all entrants went the paid for model and Irish Press Releases uses a model similar to the other international sites where you can up load a story, with the site displaying all the recent stories.  Some vetting of stories is done to ensure a certain level of quality control.  Overall its a good service and I imagine it will charge at a future date for add on facilities such as loading of extra multimedia and possibly other syndication services similar to PR Zone.

Irish Press Releases Homepage

Irish Press Releases Homepage

We have used some of the free international SEO press release submission sites and have also used paid for syndication services such as Business Wire – especially for international releases where we would not have strong relationships overseas media.

The PR industry would appear to feel threatened by these services espcially the paid for ones where they feel they could be cut out of the process and budgets are tight.  The reality is that having a service does not replace the genuine value that a communications company brings in terms of constructing a good robust story.  Up to half the effort can be invested in getting the messaging and scripting right.  These services are a good supplement to what a PR company does and does not replace them.  They are especially good at increasing the digital footprint, even more so if a company does not have a media section on their site.

Innovation in the PR industry is always welcome and for some companies these services are the best way for them to go, especially if they are good at telling their story and have limited budgets.  I dont believe they are a threat but rather offer a lot of synergy.

The big question is if the PR industry is willing to pay for them and see their value.  Time will tell.

Are we facing online newspaper subscriptions again?

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Siobhan O’Connell wrote an interesting piece in the yesterdays Irish Times about how newspapers need to make online content profitable.  One of the things I took from it was that broadsheets are losing readership numbers to tabloids which would appear to be more linked to the lack of an online presence than the editorial.  The arguement being that most broadsheets are freely available online while tabloids like the Star feature little more than an ad.  If you cannot get it online you are forced to buy the physical product.  Not a very encouraging sign or trend.  The online subscription model has with a few exceptions failed but Times Ann Moore looks like reopening the debate.  

Who started this rumour that all information should be free and why didn’t we challenge this when it first came out? I say this in college classrooms and they start to throw their shoes at me. I say, ‘Kids, your food is not free and your cars are not free, your clothes are not free. Good information costs money. Someone has to pay for the Baghdad bureau’.”

This is understandable in a era of dropping ad revenues but its extremely hard to get people to pay for content and even harder if they are used to getting it for free.  It appears more like a desperate attempt by media publications to steam losses than a concerted effort to monitise their online models.

As usual the industry will find ways around this.  One interesting development is the paper reviews by Campbell Scott of IGO People and Bernie Goldbach.  They use very simple technology to talk through stories they enjoyed in the media, which they record with mobile phones and upload to mobile video shaing site QIK.  Of course if they agreed to show the ads then everyone would be happy…wouldnt they?

From a very selfish simplistic  PR viewpoint the more opportunities that people have to view a story about a client the better………that is until its a negative one and then we curse the longevity, reach and viral nature of the web stories.