PR Blog Jots Has Moved!
Please visit CustomScoop's Media Bullseye web site for the latest news from PR and marketing blogs and podcasts. You can still peruse the archives here, but new daily updates will be posted to Media Bullseye.
Please visit CustomScoop's Media Bullseye web site for the latest news from PR and marketing blogs and podcasts. You can still peruse the archives here, but new daily updates will be posted to Media Bullseye.
Ads in Sheep’s' Clothing
Communications Overtones
Just because something bills itself as “social” doesn’t make it any different than straight-up direct advertising, according to Kami Huyse. She examines the new “social networking” site from Pepperidge Farms cookies, which encourages people (women, really) to “connect with cookies.” At first I thought it was a clever word play and would end up having something to do with the computer cookies; but not, they’re serious. Kami can’t believe it either, especially considering the only interactive feature on the site is an email newsletter sign-up. “Connecting with Cookies is pure advertising and the site is a brochure. There is nothing wrong with that, but if Pepperidge Farms was sold a social media site, this isn't it.”
Speaking of Ads...
Jaffe Juice
Following the release of the Deloitte and Touche numbers this week, which showed most Americans still citing television as their number one influence in advertising, Joseph Jaffe highlights another interesting survey indicating that spending on broadcast advertising is actually expected to drop this year. He further notes that spending in online advertising is expected to rise, but also finds plenty of faults with the study, which does not take social media into account. “Definitions notwithstanding, my ire is really raised with the casual causal relationship being inferred between sentiment and budget shifts (or at least broken down into up, down and no change) Television still commands the lion's share of budgets and surely "status quo" would be perceived as a complete business victory. Am I wrong in thinking that there are lunatics out there still trying to increase TV's share of the overall budget?”
Counting to Ten
Now is Gone
In many respects, the social media community is like the playground, according to Ike Pigott. He takes a “shirts and skins” analogy to describing how best to ease into the environment with limited public embarrassment. Ike argues that when you’re playing shirts and skins, sometimes people can get cut or bruised, but learning how to deal with “fouls” will help anyone navigate the waters. His analogy may be somewhat twee, but his advice is spot-on. He lays out some excellent reasons for taking a deep breath and getting a thicker skin before jumping into the middle of playground squabbles. “bvious libels aside, you need to measure your responses. That takes a little bit of experience and a whole lot of patience. I find myself wanting to drop into a comment stream on a forum, or in the reader comments of a newspaper website. It’s human nature — but you’ve got to count to ten and toughen up the skin.”
TV Still Tops in Advertising
Marketing Conversation
The latest consumer survey for trends in advertising indicates that 85 percent of consumers still count television ads as the largest influencers of their buying habits, with online ads coming in at 65 percent. Saul Wainright finds this statistic dubious, noting the increasing amount of time Americans are spending online, either on personal computers or through mobile devices. He wonders if perhaps online ads really are the most influential, noting the survey respondents could just be assuming they were influenced by TV. I’m not sure I agree, as I think it’s tough for many of us to remember that a huge percentage of the population still spends no time online at all. “Ultimately the questions asked are: What are people talking about? What are they using? Who is using it and what do they think of the product. The passive reception of information is over. Consumers want recommendations, influence and the ability to give and receive feedback. They want to be part of the conversation not the passive receivers of information.”
Ringing in the PR New Year
Engage in PR
What resolutions should PR practitioners be making for 2008? Kyle Flaherty suggests that the industry is not prepared for the changes coming with the new year, and outlines three areas for improviement he deems most important to turn things around. He highlights the importance of understanding the changing nature of journalism, and that blogger relations are now going to be (at least in part) required knowledge for everyone in PR. He also recommends changing up the business model. “Get creative with your clients! What about payment based on the achievement of business goals..I know, shudder to think actually being paid based on results. Measurement is a terrific byproduct of social media, thus you can work an agreement with a company where you will get paid based on people you drive to their site or demo or whatever it is you want them to travel over towards.”
Common Sense Crisis Advice
Common Sense PR
Lying is wrong. This rule is ingrained in us from the time we are school children learning about George Washington and the cherry tree (never mind that story is a myth) and Honest Abe. And yet, we are all still guilty of lying, at least occasionally, throughout our lives. Eric Eggertson points out that in communications at least, lying can only get you into even worse trouble, and you will usually be exposed by eager journalists or your competition. “As soon as you realize you didn’t tell the truth, make a clarifying statement. If you feel the need, explain why you "misspoke," but don’t leave a lie hanging. It will come back and hang you. By making the first move, you spoil the glee for journalists and competitors to crow about catching you red-handed in a lie.”
The Fifth Estate
The Buzz Bin
Ever wonder why we occasionally refer to the news media as “the fourth estate?” I’ve wondered this a few times myself but never bothered to look up the answers. Geoff Livingston explains the history behind the term, and examines the potential of a new term: the Fifth Estate. Referring, of course, to “new media.” Geoff uses the latest statistics regarding use of social networking and content creation to argue that the new media revolution should take a place beside mainstream journalism. “That’s why the term the "Fifth Estate" works for me. By its very nature it empowers the community of people creating content, honoring them as an an estate holder. It moves beyond dialogue about whether people are worthy of having their voices heard or if they should simply be viewed as an audience. Instead, the Fifth Estate represents a place of earned stature.”
Need Traffic?
ProBlogger
Gawker revealed this week that it would be instituting a new payment structure for its ever-prolific bloggers working for its various sites—they would now receive a flat monthly rate plus bonuses for high traffic posts. The emphasis, Nick Denton explained, should be on high quality posts over vast quantity. Seems to make sense, although the issue has been debated regarding whether it just invites all the gaming of SEO and link-baiting that goes on when folks are trying to drum up traffic. Regardless, here are the seven types of blog posts most likely to gain big traffic (hat tip to Steve Rubel for the link). “It’s a question every blogger asks themselves. I want to answer it here by outlining 7 content methods that seem to work wonders on social media while also generating a lot of grassroots in-bound links. Can you bring these powerful post types to your own blog?”
Still More On Measurement
Fleet Street PR
On popular video sharing site YouTube, are the sheer number of eyeballs on your video the most important indicator of the video’s success? Dave Fleet doesn’t think so. Dave argues that there are lots of things about a video that are important that cannot be measured by views alone. He points out that a high number of views gives no indication as to whether the message of the video truly resonated with the viewers, or if they will buy your product or service after viewing it. “Does several hundred thousand views of Microsoft's new videos mean they've succeeded? Maybe. On the other hand, the negative comments would seem to indicate otherwise. Only more useful measures will tell.”
Would Alexander Graham Bell Have Liked Social Media?
Conversation Agent
Defining social media is an undertaking that plenty of bloggers have tackled before, with typically mixed results. I like Valeria Maltoni’s approach here—she argues that at its core, when you really consider it, social media is nothing but a tool we use to communicate. It’s the telephone of the 21st century, but too many people try to turn it into something more meaningful than that, and she worries that companies trying to adopt social media into their communications plans will find themselves out a lot of money with little result. “What social media does is simply allow you to do one thing: communicate. That's it. Social media is not the conversation. It's the room in which you hold the conversation. It still comes down to saying, doing, or producing something valuable for your customer.”
Facebook vs Scoble
Matthew Ingram
As the news of the Scoble/Facebook kerfuffle continues to spread through the blogosphere this morning, Matthew Ingram gives a good breakdown of the situation for anyone who was out to breakfast when the story broke. He discusses the particulars of why what Scoble was doing ticked Facebook off, and covers the issue of data portability in a way that makes sense to newbies. That is: if you do all the work of building up your contact list using Facebook, shouldn’t you be able to download it for use in any way you like? “The bottom line, I think, is that Facebook should make it easier for people to move their data from Facebook to somewhere else without scraping the site using bot-scripts. Whether Scoble’s symbolic gesture will help to push them in that direction remains to be seen.”
Make Your Meetings Count
Chris Brogan
I enjoy finding posts that can be useful across the board to anyone working in communications, not just the social media geeks among us. In that spirit, I offer Chris Brogan’s latest post on making the most of your meetings. Chris breaks down meetings into their various purposes (status checks, brainstorms, etc) and offers advice on how to keep them short and effective. He also adds in some geek appeal, noting some social media tools that can be of assistance in running your meeting. “Social media tools that are useful at brainstorming sessions are a mindmapping tool like Mindmeister, which captures free form ideas in a visual way, and can be later shared in a variety of methods. Other tools for brainstorming could be a shared tumbleblog on Tumblr, where people can clip in various bits of information to share what their vision of a project can be. Need visuals? Don’t forget Flickr for finding photos to use internally for the discussion (be mindful of their Creative Commons status).”
More On Measurement
Communications Overtones
Yesterday we highlighted a post from last week in which Joe Thornley called for a roundtable discussion on measurement, noting that Kami Huyse was one of the bloggers he’d like to see attend. Kami proves why with her post today, on calculating the ROI of public relations campaigns. (Hey, two posts in a row that can appeal to non-social media geeks! I’m on a roll.) Kami offers an extensive guide to PR measurement resources for those seeking the most cost-effective approach. “You can conduct very expensive and complicated measurement schemes, but an immediate source of measurement could be much more simple. Talk to your marketing, development or IT department and you may find many measurement resources that are closer than you think!”
Content Advertising
Copyblogger
When CustomScoop first began sponsoring popular PR podcast For Immediate Release, we used a simple 60-second commercial outlining our features. When the audience complained that it was dull and boring, we switched it to a minute-long segment about trends in social media and the importance of monitoring to reputation management called the “media monitoring minute.” Using real, appropriate content as a form of advertising has been gaining speed in recent years, and Brian Clark argues that trend will only continue to grow in importance. “The plain truth is, great content is the most effective way to advertise online, because to be considered great content, it can’t look anything like what we consider advertising. But great content does need to naturally demonstrate that you’re knowledgeable about your field of expertise, and that’s why it works so well.”
Suggestion for 2008: a Measurement Roundtable
Pro PR
Measuring public relations results in the social media space is a tricky undertaking. Many of the brightest PR bloggers (Kami Huyse and Katie Paine, to name a couple) frequently devote blog posts to the subject, but Joseph Thornley wonders if we cant’ do more. He suggests a measurement roundtable, a “real life” event featuring the best minds in PR measurement. “Let’s engage a moderator or group of moderators who would frame the questions and then attempt to draw out major issues, points of agreement, and lines of additional discussion. The roundtable format should enable participants to have a full discussion of each topic, with free exchanges of opinion, and hopefully the development of consensus on principal issues.”
Stumped on Web Strategy? Start Here.
Web Strategy by Jeremiah
In a mind-bogglingly comprehensive post, Jeremiah Owyang updates his similar (and popular) rundown of web strategy from 2007 for the new year. In what can only be described as a condensed version of “Everything You’d Ever Want to Know About Web Marketing (but were afraid to ask),” Jeremiah breaks down web strategy into eight families, with subtopics on everything ranging from search engine optimization to online video. He stresses, however, the importance of integrating web strategies into an overall plan. “Whew, that’s the major families, but remember for many corporations, these elements will not be successful in a vacuum, the opportunity for momentum happens when they are combined and used strategically. At least one person or group should have full knowledge of how your brand is being used online and in other mediums.”
I Can Has Webkinz?
Six Pixels of Separation
The unbridled success of kiddie social media gathering site Club Penguin has prompted what Mitch Joel is calling a “second wave of virtual worlds,” that is, an influx of social networking sites aimed at the 10 and under crowd. The most popular of these is Webkinz, which takes regular stuffed animals and sells them with a special web code that allows kids to log on to their “virtual pet’s” online world. Think Beanie Babies meets Facebook. Mitch Joel points out that analysts are predicting the number of children involved in virtual communities to more than double by 2011, to about 20 million. Mitch takes this surge as a sign that the virtual world will only continue to thrive. “Disney picked up Club Penguin for about $700 million dollars, and we're reading reports that over 95% of teens and tweens take part in Online Social Networks - if you couple that with taking a look at meta trends, you'll be able to piece together how the Web is looking to unfold when it comes to making money in Online Social Networks, Virtual Worlds, etc... I don't like any of the Second Life is over rhetoric. I've heard that time and time again when it came to other new online models. Most of them wound up surviving.”
Welcome to the last edition of PR PodJots of 2007! This week’s Jots are slightly abbreviated, as it seems that there is some sort of “holiday” coming up that has many of our regular podcasters off somewhere trapped in a “mall” or something. It’s a real mystery.
Despite this, a few intrepid souls maintained their usual rigorous podcasting schedule, unlike me, who will be taking the entirety of next week off! Therefore, no new PodJots next Friday. They will return the first Friday of 2008, January 4.
Marketing Over Coffee – Seasons’ Greetings as Marketing?
John and Chris welcome very special guest Scott Monty to the show this week. Among the issues on the menu this week, they discuss the idea of the holiday card as a marketing tool, something a few bloggers were touching on this week. Twist Image, Mitch Joel’s Montreal-based marketing firm, set a great precedent with their much-praised multi-media holiday greeting.
While most companies send standard holiday greetings to their customers and vendors, some are branching out into multimedia, a clever take often involving games or other interaction. Scott points out that at smaller companies like crayon with a lower budget, online video can provide a possible medium for holiday greetings.
Also discussed
Around the PR Podcast Horn (in alphabetical order):
For Immediate Release #302 and 303 – On the Monday show this week, Shel and Neville cover the latest Pew study on digital footprints, and Chip Griffin’s piece on the social media rulebook, which many disagreed with vehemently. On Thursday, Shel and Neville included coverage from Dan York on the Web Awards, a discussion on brands and social networks, and the demise of Blognation.
Forward Podcast – In the Forward Podcast’s first ever live show on Saturday, December 15, Paull Young and Luke Armour discussed what “you” are doing to address globalization with “academic powerhouses” Richard Bailey and Robert French. They discuss language issues—English as the universal “language of business,” for example—and other issues that will influence business on a global scale in the coming years.
Inside PR – Getting into the spirit of the season for the latest episode, Dave and Terry make their PR and social media “wish list.” Among their fondest wishes, they guys ask for improved measurement methods, for social media to become a PR staple rather than a niche, and for PR pros to stop claiming to be social media “experts” when they aren’t actually engaged in the community.
Marketing Martini – Bill Sweetman discusses domain names frequently, but have you ever thought about the particulars? This week he talks about the importance of having a domain name that ends in .com. He emphasizes the need to buy your brand’s dot-com name through a site like Go Daddy, and the importance of domains to branding.
PRobecast – In an especially fun episode, Doug Haslam, Tim Alik and Adam Zand cover a range of subjects. They discuss the Webkinz craze and the ethics of advertising to children, as well as whether it’s kosher to break up with a significant other via social media. The team also gives their thoughts on Chip Griffin’s controversial “Rulebook” post on Media Bullseye, and whether Google Knol is a viable competitor for Wikipedia.
Six Pixels of Separation – Mitch Joel continues to focus on a wide variety of topics this week, letting audience audio comments dominate much of the show and spur the discussion. He also calls for lots of comments with thoughts on 2007, which he will compile into a “Yule Log” episode for next week’s show. In his “six points” this week, Mitch offers six ways to optimize online advertising.
Life Isn't Fair
Communications Overtones
Many in the blogosphere are debating (probably fruitlessly) the intricacies of the fair use rule in copyright law. Boiled down to the basics, fair use allows artists to use copyrighted materials in parodies. In reality, the law has far too many shades of grey for even experts to adequately explain, which results in heated debate about definition of the term and where it applies. Kami Huyse tackles the debate continuing to swirl around the Richter Scales bubble video, and the complex questions behind fair use. “As someone who heavily uses Flickr photos to illustrate this site, I am very concerned about making sure that credit is given. No photo is used here unless it links back to the original source. Plus, my tool doesn't even pick up a photo unless is has been marked public. But is that enough? Do I have to get permission every time?”
I'm Linking to a Post About Writing, What a Surprise!
Tough Sledding
Since I began writing for CustomScoop’s blogs this year, I’ve been continually emphasizing the need for quality writing skills for anyone working in communications. Getting through to an audience is difficult enough, if you’re not armed with excellent written communications you’re starting out by swimming upstream. Bill Sledizik underlines the importance of writing, particularly in training the PR pros of tomorrow in his classes at Kent State. He offers some worthy grammar and punctuation tips that everyone in PR should keep in mind. “Good writing involves far more than I can summarize in a blog post. Good writing is about content, context, tone, organization, flow and texture. It’s about choosing words precisely and punctuating sentences accurately. Good writing also means sweating the “little stuff” — the details of grammar, usage and punctuation. It means caring enough to use the language artfully but also correctly.”
Monitor, monitor, monitor!
Engage in PR
After making an offhand remark on Twitter regarding his general dislike for photo-sharing website Slideshare, Kyle Flaherty was surprised to receive an email from the company’s CEO the very next day. She was looking for his feedback in more detail, remarking that they learn more from users who aren’t wild about the site than those who love it. This is an excellent example of using social media monitoring to engage in your target community, and turn criticism into a positive development. “I was astonished at how quickly Rashmi had touched base and how willing she was to get feedback from me. I immediately sent her an email with a few of my thoughts about why I wasn’t an overall fan of SlideShare, which she answered within hours with some really helpful tips and tricks for using SlideShare.”
We Wish You a Merry (Geeky) Christmas
PR Works
I’ve noticed a few Christmas greetings trickling into my inbox incorporating video or other multimedia this holiday season. Is this how the social media geeks celebrate the holidays? Dave Jones compliments Mitch Joel and the team at Twist Image for their creative take on the holiday card, comparing it to a sort of “People magazine” for nerds, as it highlights some of the higher-profile bloggers and podcasters in this space. Some other cards offer video greetings, while others offer interactive games. “For a full round-up of the online Christmas card shenanigans, Kate Trgovac has done the heavy lifting and clicked, viewed, watched and listened to some of the latest, greatest (and not-so) over on the One Degree marketing blog over a few posts.”
Community Vs. Cancer
Every Dot Connects
As any regular readers are aware, I’m a huge Twitter cheerleader. But never have I looked on in awe at the power behind this community until this week, when I noticed people changing their avatars to include peas, or “peavatars” as some are calling them (see my peavatar here). The reason? Susan Reynolds, a blogger and “power networker” on Twitter, is undergoing a mastectomy this week, and has used frozen peas to ease the pain of her breast biopsies. Connie Reece discusses the Twitter-based movement to fight breast cancer, and to show support for Susan. “In the days to come, Susan’s family will be by her bedside, caring for her and assisting her recovery. But an entire socialmediasphere will be rallying around her cause, lifting her spirits and doing our small part to help find a cure. Join us, won’t you?”
Do You Need to Lose Excess Media Fat?
Pardon the Disruption
While we don’t often highlight CustomScoop’s own staff blogs on the Jots (we prefer to spread the love around!), I thought Chip Griffin’s post on media snacking was one worthy of mention. The end of the year might be a good time to reevaluate your content intake—perhaps it’s time to clean out your feeds and start fresh, or finally purge those blogs you hardly ever look at from your reader. What will you do for a “new media diet” come the new year? “For one, I need to do a better job of reading books. I still read a fair amount, but too often I go for easy reads designed to simply entertain or to read an important industry book to allow me to better address trends. But I also need to read longer magazine articles and other more meaty content on a more regular basis.”
Do You Smell a Rat?
PR Squared
2007 has fostered a lot of great success stories in social media. More companies than ever before are adopting it as part of their communications strategies, and its legitimacy as a medium will only continue to grow in 2008. But as more of the Fortune 500 start noticing blogs and other forms of social media, are they serious about change, or are they only paying lip service? Todd Defren examines this question, and argues that even a high profile company could do more harm to the validity of social media if they don’t do it right. “In some select cases we found our prospective clients more interested in paying lip-service to Social Media ideals than in true change. They were looking to mark off the check-box, as in, ‘Social Media? Yep, we got that.’”
More Tips for Blogger Outreach
Communications Overtones
Perhaps in a reaction to the numerous bloggers who are calling out PR firms and professional flacks for lazy pitching practices, I’ve seen an uptick lately in posts offering constructive advice to companies looking to dip a toe in the blogger outreach waters. I applaud all these efforts, the more we try to educate PR pros on the best ways to reach out to key influencers, the less bloggers will have to complain about. Kami Huyse offers ten common sense tips on forming relationships with influential bloggers. “I have synthesized the words of a few others and added a bit of my own advice to help newcomers navigate this area. Call it bloggers relations, blogger outreach or influencer outreach (my new favorite term), but remember that it is all about the attitude you bring to the game and the golden rule, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you.’”
Buzz Advertising
The Flack
With the Superbowl looming weeks away, advertisers are already gearing up for the expected PR bump the best ads usually receive. Peter Himler wonders how viral video will continue to affect advertising, noting several buzz worthy YouTube spots (including the Whopper video I discussed in yesterday’s Jots). He argues that it seems the point of advertising in many ways is to become the newest “big thing,” rather than to simply get your product in front of the eyeballs who happen to be watching the spot when it runs. This concept is especially valid when you consider the number of TV viewers who are timeshifting, watching programs on DVR and fast-forwarding through commercials. “Many marketers no doubt count on that PR pop to justify their multi-million dollar investments. They retain PR firms to "leverage" their clients' creative to end up on the list of "most recalled." In fact, the noise for this year's game already has started. Perennial big bowl bettor Budweiser floated Ferrell (at left) to whet the media's appetite. As the marketing disciplines blur, we're seeing more and more ads created explicitly to set mainstream and citizen media's tongues-a-wagging (versus only reaching the audience du moment).”
Wait Til Next Year...
Marketing Conversations
It’s that time of year again! Movie critics are coming out with top ten lists, news outlets are conducting “year in review” segments, and bloggers are making predictions for new developments in the year ahead. As 2007 winds down, Jonathan Trenn offers up his own fearless predictions, including the idea that women are going to be moving up in the social media world. As the proud owner of some female chromosomes, I hope he’s right. I’ve wondered before why it is that in a profession with so many women, there aren’t more powerful female PR bloggers. Perhaps 2008 will set a new trend. “More often than not, men are early adapters, while women are more cautious. But women seem to use the internet more for social reasons. We’ll see some significant success stories from social networks that are either specifically designed for or are primarily geared to women. And they won’t tolerate being overly marketed to or egregious violations of their privacy.”
