Posts Tagged ‘Public Relations’
What happens when social media really takes off. August 30th, 2010
I am surprised that the launch of Microsofts Kinect, the long expected arrival of internet TVs by year end and the never ending expansion of cloud based services has not generated more debate about the potential impact on PR and social media.
In the not too distant future instead of the collection of different remote controls, DVD/VHS players, games consoles and related bits you will eventually have a very large screen with a built in sensor that can pick up and interpret your movements. This will all be connect to a ultra fast broadband connection which pulls down the different services you are looking for from entertainment channels, social media platforms, your photos, home videos and music collection. The lines we draw between different media, storage and internet access will become completely blurred. Instead of thinking PC for internet access, TV for news and programmes, stereo and radio for music we will consume it all through one screen. For alot of people this is already a reality as they access TV via RTE’s iPlayer on their PCs or laptop. We will probably spend more money on sound systems and bigger screens as ultra fast broadband via fibre becomes more of a commodity.
All of this sounds wonderful and not too futuristic but it has seriouly implications for the PR industry.
Picture this. You will be sitting on your sofa, to change a channel, increase the volume you merely waving your hands. You are watching the 9 O’Clock news or PrimeTime and see something about company. You wave your hand another direction and your collection of social media appears along with a virtual key board. As the piece is still running on split screens you visit the company website for more information. You also decide to check out their facebook page and decide that what was reported is worthy of posting a comment or you just check what others are saying. You go to the personal sites of the spokesperson via LinkedIn or another to see how credible they are. You tweet your comments on what is being covered with your own personal networks and make judgement calls on it. If it particularly irked you, you DM friends and organise for a coordinated response to the company. DMs will naturally switch to video chatter where you see the people in your network and the debate leaves a less trackable footprint. Parodies of the crisis/spokespeople performance will appear instantly as people create their own mocking content. The phone number pops up in the company search and you call the organisation to register your view point – all from your couch. Finally you organise a flash mob to appear at the company or outlet to register a protest, video record it and upload to keep the debate going.
A lot of this all happens at the moment. Anyone checking out twitter at the weekend will see lots of comments by people about whats on TV and radio. This ranges from mere obervational to wide ranging debates. At the moment this is a trickle as you need to have a reasonable smart phone, be working on your PC or feel motivated enough to go online. Once people have access to all of these on one ease to navigate screen its set to explode.
Most companies have a reasonable feel for the increased importance of social media and have started down the line of building a social media strategy. This will move it from a nice to do to a must have. Here are some of the changes I can see.
- Social media monitoring and responding becomes a 24 hour job.
- Debate will be swift and much more far reaching.
- After hours online chatter will have matured by the time most people get to the desk the following morning.
- Social media tombstones which have not been updated will be highly visible and reflect poorly.
- The expectation that there will be a company representative at all times will grow (via social media or phone lines).
- Big launches and crisis may need to have experienced teams working on them on a 24/7 basis.
- The weight attached to traditional media will continue to be extremely important but debate will take place else where.
- Local issues will get even more global exposure and debate.
- Messaging will morph and adapt as the temperature of debate rages.
- Expectation of an active presence on a broader range of channels.
- Ability to rapidly create content to match particular platforms will increase from Video – YouTube, Photography, Pix.ie, Facebook etc
- Traditional PR outreach will need to be integrated into social media outreach.
- Communications, marketing and online teams will need to be synched.
- Close community debate will be harder to track especially if video or DM orientated.
- Coordinated action will spill over into real life organised action.
- Nature and tone of online debate and chatter will change as it moves from early innovators to mass audience.
None of this is massively different from what PR companies are faced with every day but the scale, speed and timing are very different. 9-5 just wont work and ill thought comments will spread much faster and to wider communities. At the moment this is contained due to technological barriers, once these disappear a regular tidal waves will appear. Consider the difference between 20-30 tweets from a few influentials which can network out to a few thousand via retweets versus the 600,000 people who view PrimeTime. How well resourced would an Irish or international company be to that larger figure but also a much broader profile. Some Irish companies I have spoken to can be dismissive of what they view as a small Irish Twitter community while they are consignant of the impact of high profile programmes. Merge the two with sufficent numbers and you enter a whole new arena.
Of course its not all bad and with all this come huge opportunities but the the reality is its not that far away.
Tags: crisis management, internet ready tv, PR, Public Relations, Social Media, social media channels, ultrafast broadband
Posted in Facebook, Online PR, Online Reputation Management, Public Relations, Twitter | Comments (2)
Some tips for SME product launching August 3rd, 2010
I was asked to give some tips for an article in the Sunday Times SME section on how to launch a product to maximum effect. Naturally my contribution was only a small part of the article but I thought some of the other bits I contributed might be of interest. It is fairly much top of mind so not a comprehensive list by any means.
1. Traditional Media – Press release
The first step is to build up a list of the appropriate media that cover your area of expertise or product. This should include the media publications but also the specific journalists that have covered the topic in the past. Searching in the publications website or using the news search function in a search engine will give a good starting point. From this build the email and contact list that you will send the release and other information through to.
The key to getting a story covered in national media is to have a strong interesting story. Think about what your product or story from a reader point of view rather than your own. How does it fit in with other things that are being covered in the media and research a strong hook. This could be anything from a record breaking attempt to a stunt based hook but needs to add to the relevancy of the product.
- Take time to script a press release detailing all the key facts and details.
- Make sure the essence of the story is clear in the opening paragraph and keep the release short and snappy avoiding cliché, superlatives or hyperbole.
- Media moments can be very short with a 5-10 second piece on radio deemed enough to tell your story so brevity is essential especially for broadcast media.
- Utilise any interest facts or figures to support why the product is interesting. This will also help journalists who would otherwise have to do this research.
- Only use quotes if they add to the strength of the release.
Once you are ready to issue the release you need to decide if its strong enough to send to numerous different publications or to give to one as an exclusive. Currently there are many freelance journalists who supply copy to a range of publications and this might be a better route depending on the interest level in the story. If you have a list of media you are sending the release to, try to include personal notes rather than blind cc (bcc) people on email. Only call the journalist if you have something else valuable to add to the release.
Make sure you are ready to respond to any queries quickly as the media move extremely fast. This includes having someone available to do radio or television interviews. Do all the preparation for this in advance by drawing up all the questions you think you will be asked and jotting down answers to them. Record yourself and get someone else to interview you – ideally using a video recorder.
All media outlets are busy places and journalists time is limited. Unless your product is truly ground breaking or innovative avoid press conferences as you may be faced with a costly empty room. Media will only attend if there is something else or true value that they could only get by attending rather than from the release.
Some things to avoid are contact journalist close to the publication time. Get you story in early and don’t expect a positive response from a Sunday paper journalist on a Friday afternoon or a broadcast news journalist just before an hourly bulletin.
2. Traditional Media – photography
Quite often a photo (with a well worded caption) can tell the story as effectively as a news article. In addition space in newspapers is limited for articles but visually arresting images work if they tell the story in a visually arresting way telling what they product or service will do.
Some hints
- Use a professional photographer who will take the photos, caption them and send to the correct people in the media.
- Use props to help tell the story.
- Avoid use of people in suits only shots.
- Use children and models if appropriate.
- Think of the backdrop and location – blank office wall is rarely attractive – think outside locations.
- Avoid overly branded photos such as logos.
- Make sure the photo is of sufficient size/quality for the newspaper.
Famous people or celebrities are always attractive to the media. You might know someone through personal contacts who will help you. Be careful here as the celebrity might become the story rather than you product or service.
3. Think Social Media.
Facebook, Twitter, Blogs and a variety of other social media tools can be used to help promote the message especially after you have taken the time to distil it all down into a press release. In addition they facilitate multimedia content (video, audio) that print media cannot handle.
Post the release on some of the well trafficked news sites such as IrishPressReleases.com.
If you have a twitter profile set up use it to point to the release or some interesting aspect of the launch. Social media is all about conversations with people so do not view it as purely broadcast and aim to try genuinely engage people. If your tweets are interesting enough and you have built up a reasonable following people may retweet your posts which further increases your reach. Facebook allows you the opportunity to also upload photography and video so think beyond the initial launch and plan some additional follow on content.
Make sure the launch is well covered on your website. Put into your news section and if you have a blog section, talk about the launch and related areas and link to the press release. Avoid thinking about the release as wallpaper and pasting in every outlet. Quite often there are very interesting angles that are not in the release itself.
YouTube also offers great potential to help promote the service. Think about it as adding extra value rather than purely promotional. This could be using humour (always difficult) or simple how to video guides.
For the more advanced social media users you could also use live broadcasting services such as UStream. This could be particularly useful if a product demonstration is being given. If it is a web based product you could also try Screen Toaster which allows you to give a walk through the service accompanied by an audio talk through.
Social media is heavily relationship driven and follower/Likes will only be grown over time by sharing more interesting content with people over time and focusing on having conversations. This means not treating the launch as the end point but rather the beginning.
Similar to traditional media relations there may be many blogger, twitters or websites that cover your area of interest. Get to know these people in advance and form relationships with them from telephone contact to posting on their sites, following and answering them on twitter.. Find out their interests and how they wish to be approached (if at all) and find some common ground. Avoid sending unsolicited and untargeted emails.
Final Comment.
Media relations and social media can achieve a lot in terms of profile but they can soak up a lot of time which you need to factor in advance. The launch should be seen as phase one and follow up stories and an editorial calendar of follow on announcements are extremely important. Keep note of who have covered the story in the past and if appropriate contact the journalists after the story. You may also notice them covering related areas of interest and if you have something of value to add contact them for future stories.
Tags: photography, press releases, product launches, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted in Hints and Tips, Online PR, Public Relations | Comments (0)
Start Stop and Social Media February 17th, 2010
I started this post a number of weeks ago. In retrospect it should really have been two separate posts which it will now be but instead of posting it, I let it lie in my drafts folder until I ‘had time’ to think it through properly. Big no no. Missing self set blogging deadlines and waiting for free time to post really kills blogging activity.
Anyway, the deeper I delve into social media the more I see the gaps between traditional PR operations and how people are trying to integrate it into social media.
Social media poses lots of challenges for PR people, some of which I covered in previous posts. One I see increasing in importance is the start stop nature of PR.
Start Stop
In media relations a lot of time is in planning, reporting, researching and writing and outside of dealing reactively with media queries and keeping relationships alive the actual contact and engagement time with media can sometimes be a relatively small part (the reliance on email has made this even worse). Sometimes you can be touch with the same journalists a number of times in a day and then not speak to them for months. This is not really an issue in traditional media. The press machinery moves on and contact with a news, sports or business desks have little or no crossover and not being part of the daily debate and process of pulling newspapers together does have a disproportionate bearing on your standing.
This is somewhat different in the online work. If you have not blogged or tweeted for a while, people do notice and its up there for all to see. Try tracking the last time someone has contacted a newsdesk versus the last time someone has responded to a tweet or posted on boards.ie. This has other implications than the obvious staleness and relevance issues. A lot of PR people see social media as extension of the media process and only update it when they have a press release or other national newsworthy announcements to make. This start stop is relatively acceptable for national media but in social media jumping head long into conversations after months of absence can appear odd or worse rude. Trends, topics, influencers all move at lightning speed online and an absence of a couple of days can make one almost irrelevant.
The obvious answer is that PR people should spend more time online and engage more but social media could suck all the time available as there is a endless source of relevant distractions. However there are some simple things that people can do to overcome the start stop including:
- Plan social media activity beyond the traditional PR milestones – dont allow weeks to build up with no input.
- Build an extensive editorial calendar of proactive content.
- Decide on a daily or other social media routine. Post at a certain time, check for replies at a certain time, response at a certain time. This sets expectations and enforces a schedule.
- Create thematic days – one day could be photos from the archive for example.
- Set aside time for reading and engaging in other peoples posts, tweets and online conversations.
- Most importantly – be programmatic and stick to it.
People naturally go through peaks and troughs of activity but when you leave a community for too long you loose: relevance with others in the network, touch of what is really happening, links and connections with others. I am always amazed by how quickly online communities innovate and change. One thing for certain is that being an expert in a platform now does not mean you will be any better than an enthusiastic beginner in a few months time. The secret lies in managing the time input and building it as a central part of PR programmes.
Tags: merging social media and traditional media, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted in Online PR, Public Relations, social networking | Comments (0)
Can you automate PR? August 28th, 2009
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.
Tags: media contact directory, PR ireland, press release distribution, Public Relations
Posted in Online Tools, Public Relations, Uncategorized | Comments (1)
3D image technology give lift to photography. July 17th, 2009
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.
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.
Tags: photo, photosynth, PR, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted in Online Tools, social networking | Comments (0)
What is your online reputation number? May 15th, 2009
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.
Tags: Blogging, Facebook, Online Reputation Management, PR, Public Relations, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in LinkedIn, ORM, Online Reputation Management, Online Tools, Public Relations, Twitter, Uncategorized, social networking | Comments (3)
Nice tool for checking the strength of your message April 8th, 2009
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.
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
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.
Tags: ciaran norris, Online Tools, PR, press releases, Public Relations, Search Marketing World, speech, wordle
Posted in Online Tools, Public Relations | Comments (0)
Online PR Distribution Debate Opened Up Again? March 27th, 2009
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
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
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.
Tags: online PR sites, PR, PR distribution, Prangle, PRzone, Public Relations
Posted in Online PR, Online Tools, Public Relations | Comments (7)
Obama Online – Was it really that easy? February 27th, 2009
Joe Rospars from Blue State Digital presented a quick overview in the Camden Court Hotel on Wednesday 25th on how online media helped win the US presidential election. The alert for the bloggers orientated session was hastily sent out and got good traction on Twitter and the blogosphere which meant approximately 200 people attended, something that would have been difficult to do in the past with such short notice. It was clear from the Drivetime interview before the session, that he was in town to promote his work for the revamped Fianna Fail online assualt, something that upset some bloggers (it was not clear before then).
Overall the session was a little light (it was free after all) and you left with a feeling that it could not have been that easy. However there were some good points made.
As we rush to bright shiny new onine tools we sometime forget about the power of email and capturing email address of those who would like to hear updates etc. In the Obama campaign ‘value added content’, giving email recipients a first look and ensuring that the mails were personal, timely and worth reading was key. Some were planned updates on the campaign and some were in response to the McCain efforts.
Video
The campaign produced in excess of 2,000 videos and they acted as the ‘glue’ to bring a lot of content together. ‘Transparency’ was a key theme here and the video showed a lot of the behind the scenes operations and was combined with ‘Authenticity’ where many featured interviews and interactions with supporters. These pillars meant that the videos were not all Obama speaking to the masses and generated lots of local/regional type content. They generated a strong sense of people working together in a common cause.
Blog
Held together with the ‘Voices for change’ the blogs used a lot of volunteer effort spreading the message with multiple voices. People in 28 different states were utilised and field organisers were training to the use the online tools.
Listserv
This enabled people to work from home and provided them with the tools to set up their own groups. Over 1,000 list serv groups were established giving a very grass root feel.
Conversation and Engagement
The tools – email in particular – were the basis for stimulating conversation.
Interestingly Joe Rospars pointed out that the McCain camp has similar tools and the essential difference in success were attributed to:
- online not viewed as central part of the McCain campaign
- no real value was placed on community/volunteerism and leveraging the supporter base
- conservative approach to engaging people at meaningful level
One final point that was made that poses interesting challenges for the PR community was the level of control. Early on it was agreed that the usual approval and screening process would have made it impossible to get the level of content through and indeed would possibly sanitise the message too much to the point that would not appear authentic. Joe Rospur had final say on material and huge trust would appear to have been placed on the people twittering and blogging. There are lots of inherent risks here but this delegated responsibility with a trusted team was balanced against the need to have rapid and updated content. I imagine there were tighter controls that indicated at the session but message was clear that in the world of new media new ways of ensuring content is on message and delivered quickly need to be devised.
Obama himself would appear to have been reasonably distant from the technology.
In summary using the social media online tools was the minor element while how they were used, authenticity/transparency of the messages and how large groups of people were mobilised and empowered using these tools were the key success factors.
I have since received a Finna Fail email message from Brian Cowen that seems to try capture some of these elements. Time will tell if its enough….
Other posts on the topic include:
Cian in Irish Election
and many others!
Tags: Joe Rospars, Obama, presidential election, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted in Blogging, Online Tools, Twitter, social networking | Comments (3)
PR and Bloggers Can Live Together January 22nd, 2009
Last nights PR and Blogger meet up in Edelmans offices passed off with any physical harm to any of the attendees. Billed as collision course the atmosphere was pretty friendly and more curious than frictional. Overall some interesting points:
- most bloggers post on their own time and approaching them in a insolicited fashion is akin to stopping a random punter on the street and sticking a press release in their face.
- most bloggers are open to approaches that show you undertand their blog, what you are offering is relevant, is fairly informal and covering anything from attending events, angles on stories, reviews of new stuff, interesting videos. The approach by BTs to the Young Scientist and giving free tickets was pointed out as positive.
- Bloggers are constantly in touch with each other and will frequently IM each other when they get approaches from PR companies especially if offering exclusives.
- No bloggers reported making money from their blogs and are fuel/energised by passion for the topic.
- Blogger relations takes more time and the PR industry has a struggle to convince clients to allocate resources so it does not end up being a bloggers email address getting added to a media distribution list.
- Journalists who are also bloggers view mails and to their media email account very differently to their blogger email account.
- Twitter offers great potential for monitoring (ORM), possible relevant story seeding and early heads up on industry developments.
- Bloggers like to have previews of up and coming stuff so they can debate it before it hits main stream media.
- Bloggers spend vast amounts of time in preparing their posts and take personal pride in them. Poor blogs will just not get read.
- There is a general nervousness in approaching blogger as mistakes can become highly personal and visible.
- Links to stories/press releases/photos plus personal commentary are more welcome than cut and paste press releases.
- PR community doing a poor job with clients in convincing them of the merits of PR and blogger relations in general.
- PR people should blog more so that they can understand the medium and utilise the Irish press release service.
Overall is was a positive event and these type face to face encounters help to over the suspicion and mistrust between the two groups.
Interesting to see how the next one goes which is planned for February.
Tags: blogger event, blogger relations, PR, Public Relations
Posted in Blogging, ORM, Online PR, Twitter | Comments (8)