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About this blog
The Firefly blog features news, views, buzz and ideas around the PR and communications industry.
Social trends, PR and social media tools, communications strategies, attention grabbing WOM campaigns, entertainment hotspots, running integrated and pan-European campaigns, safeguarding reputations and managing crises are just some of the topics we’re talking about.
How social media affects the adoption of new technologies
17 April 2012
by Neil Fairbrother
Tags: B2B, digital, Neil Fairbrother, SEO, Social Media, technology
by Neil Fairbrother
Tags: B2B, digital, Neil Fairbrother, SEO, Social Media, technology
Blogs and Tweets and LinkedIn and Facebook Pages all form part of the social media panoply available to marketers for use in their PR mix. One of the features of these tools is that they are free, but this just refers to the capex. However, the opex – the cost of using these tools – can be hefty, because once you step on to the blogging conveyor belt you can’t stop; and if these tools are used incorrectly, the cost can be very high indeed.
I’ve worked in technology marketing for most of my adult life and by good fortune I’ve tended to surf the wave of innovation: intelligent networks when they were all the rage, VOIP, optical ethernet, webTV and now fibre to the home (FTTH).
The market I’ve specialized in is B2B and always with a technical orient. In the context of social media, this is a distinct advantage as most of these tools are created and used at least initially by technologists, part of the very audience I need to reach with my messages.
But selling in the B2B space is a complex affair; with decision-making units and communities of interest to influence, it’s a multi-level sell. This means that the marketing has to be multi-level, too. While social media is very important, good old-fashioned ‘real world’ networking reaches parts which Tweets don’t.
In many ways, social media allows the delivery of messages quicker, faster and cheaper. But who’s the audience you want to reach and are you reaching them? Fortunately, social media is measurable and can be analysed in ways previously unimaginable. And measurement is key.
So, create an SEO-optimized website; I’d recommend investing in organic SEO as opposed to PPC. Blogging tools allow you to create your own platform, and while you should have your own agenda, you should also plan to react to what the market is doing. For example, when a much larger competitive company to mine made an announcement a couple of weeks ago, we wrote a blog as a response and it was online within a few hours. The weekly stats review showed a spike of website activity and when I checked this morning, that blog is still the most read blog on our site.
LinkedIn is also very important in this space and is closely related to Twitter – mainly because of the linkages between the two. A single Tweet, for instance, cascades through several (but not yet all) of the company’s employees’ LinkedIn profiles. Another area that’s really useful on LinkedIn is taking part in discussion groups. Not everyone that’s on LinkedIn in necessarily on Twitter, so again, is your message reaching your target audience? And if not, what are you going to do about it?
There’s a closed loop here: when posting a news piece (or blog), Tweet it; the Tweets get picked up on LinkedIn and via the web stats, you can pick up who has come to the site from LinkedIn. Twitter is also measurable in that it is supremely interactive. What’s more, everyone’s identifiable – and these last two points are where the value lies. Identify who is saying what and who is interacting with whom. It may be that there are some real opinion-formers in the audience.
As mentioned, many of these tools are “free”, other than the opex needed to service them. Once you’ve started blogging or Tweeting, you can’t stop (there’s nothing worse than seeing that the last blog on a website was posted weeks or even months ago!).
However, if there’s a plan – a measurable messaging strategy with targets in mind and suitable resource allocated – then social media will get your messages to the people you need to reach. But remember, the CEOs of your customers are less likely to be on Twitter than on LinkedIn.
And real world networking trumps the lot.
By Neil Fairbrother, Neil Fairbrother Interim Marketing Ltd
http://web.me.com/neilfairbrother1/neilfairbrothermarketing/Welcome.html
Is Klout just a bunch of twitter?
Many people give social media influence websites a lot of Klout, in understanding how our Peers are Indexed. Ok, awful puns aside, determining social media influence scores is often pretty useful when developing social media campaigns, and identifying the key media and public figures the campaign will target.
However, beyond the deliberation around which is most accurate, Klout or PeerIndex, a new report from The Altimeter Group has found that neither really defines how users influence their online networks.
According to Brian Solis who produced the report, the scores these sites bestow on social media users should really be defined as a measure of “social capital” rather than of “true influence”.
Solis highlights many interesting counterarguments to the use of social media influence scoring, concluding that “brands are potentially misallocating precious resources based on the lack of understanding of what influence is and the role influencers play within customer markets.”
So, what does this mean for us PRs? Well, it is important that we are not complacent, and that we do not rely on social media influence scoring, over traditional and professional media understanding. As is the case with many aspects of 21st Century PR – and I have to be careful here, as my colleagues will agree that I am the first to get excited about a new-fangled digital tool! – there are many digital options that claim to make our lives easier, but in reality don’t. Social media influence scores are a great guideline but are certainly not the be-all and end-all. Media relationships are important; and understanding the media, key stakeholders and the target figures we work with, and developing these relationships to build a holistic media understanding, should trump the use of influence scores completely.
But who knows, social media and web integration is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Google is hot on the case in developing new algorithms that better integrate and analyse social media users across its already prolific news and media search platforms. It is therefore safe to say that, perhaps we are not far off being able to access tools that are accurate enough to truly index individual presence and influence across the media, both on and offline.
What PR consultants need to know about ScreenAgers, brand trust and reputation management
If I stated, “the weather’s changeable” you’d probably accept it without challenge, as every day the weather changes. If I asked you to find two snow flakes exactly the same, you would probably agree that’s an impossible challenge. However, if I told you that ScreenAgers know more about digital, media and social and than you (or me) I expect you would, in the politest way possible, move on and find something wholly more agreeable to your views. We have to learn to overcome our inbuilt and significant preference for news that plays to our fears (TED talk) and views that confer with our own views and opinions (Obliquity); we have to think outside of our comfort zone. ScreenAgers don’t have our old models to hang onto; it is worth seeing where they are going, so we can tag along.
Yes, there are new rules for engaging in a digital world that build on the social ones handed down from previous generations (33 new digital rules); but generally the digital age in which we live is creating change. This digital age is making things faster (PEW) and there may well be just too much information (Barry Schwartz on the paradox of choice). How we are dealing with it is widely debated (Nicholas Carr), and some business models and indeed businesses are being cast aside, think Encyclopaedia Britannica and Kodak this year. There are some very contentious issues that we love to debate: privacy, trust, identity and reputation management are the obvious ones that cross marketing, PR, brand, technology, law, regulation and economic boundaries.
Whilst we sit about debating our own personal views, the ScreenAgers are a group of savvy young communicators who have jumped into the fast flowing digital stream and learnt to swim. While they perfect their techniques, we are still deciding if it is safe, if the water’s the right temperature, how deep it is, if we’re insured, what to wear, who’s already in, what the risk is, and who will teach us about this unknown!
Given this change, what is the ScreenAger’s view on branding and trust and what can we learn from them? Some primary research was undertaken in Q4 2011 by ScreenAgers Trust Model; and the output is quite uncomfortable for hard line traditionalists who still hang onto their management theory from a 1990s MBA. Even the father of corporate strategy, Michael Porter accepts he was wrong about profit being a primary driver (HBR) and his value chain ideal has been tossed into the bin (HBR).
Our findings suggest that ScreenAgers understand privacy and they understand brands. ScreenAgers ‘get’ that they are the product, and advertisers are the customer of their free services. In terms of trust, they have an expectation that brands will exploit their data, and indeed expect them to do so, if they want the brand’s free services and personalisation. However, their willingness to share (share infographic) about goods, services and products is built on trust (45%) and experience of the brand (35%).
The survey looked at what ScreenAgers trust, and the results showed that they understand the balance of what data should and can be collected. They have expectations of who should get what data; and as regards analysing data and creating value from data for personalisation or customisation, they have strong views on who is good at it, and who is not.
So the message from this research appears to be that there needs to be clear alignment between brand promise and brand delivery, if you expect ScreenAgers to share with you and share your message. A refreshingly honest lesson for PR consultants to think about.
http://www.blog.mydigitalfootprint.com
The Budget 2012: Don’t be intimidated PRs!
Involving clients in conversations around the Budget can be a daunting task at first, due to the enormous variety of people involved and the political ramifications. However, as is often the case in the intertwined industries of journalism and PR, the focus should be on determining which conversations to be apart of, who should be involved and how best to tell your story.
At no other time is having a deep understanding of the media more important. Many newspapers have clear opinions on the Budget which are influenced by political allegiances. These are widely established and recognised, as seen in daily headlines leading up to the day: Enough quick fixes, Mr Osborne. Overhaul the tax system now (The Guardian), Mr Cable is in the wrong job (The Telegraph) for example. Others simply lay out their specific points of view: “The government spends too much and taxes too much. It has to curb both these tendencies…” (The Times, 7th March). If there is a story to tell around the Budget, you can be sure it will be received differently depending on the publication. Understanding this only helps to narrow focus and aid PRs in planning out a strategy.
Along with the media’s various political leanings, the enormity and variety of stakeholders adds a layer of complexity. My colleague, Mr John Craske and I, took to the streets last Friday lunch time to carry out a quick vox pop in Soho Square. Although completely unscientific, one interviewee summed up a common attitude when he said, “(from the Budget I want to see) anything that puts more money in my pocket” – a popular sentiment from ‘the man on the street’ which is easy to forget. It is important to accept that stories which play to this (rightly or wrongly) are popular and will often sell more newspapers than in-depth analysis of the broader economic issues.
War on the poor kids: Tory cuts and tax rises hit families hardest (Daily Mirror) is an emotive and hard hitting headline, but in reality is very misleading. The target readership of the Daily Mirror is deemed uninterested in hearing about the importance of maintaining the UK’s triple-A credit rating (the reason for cuts). Spending time and money trying to persuade the Mirror to contextualise such news, I would argue, is the wrong avenue for effective communications. The headline could easily have been, “Overspending Labour government impacts families hardest”, but it would never find a place in the left-leaning Daily Mirror. This serves purely as an example that some battles are worth fighting, whilst some are not.
Changing the nature of journalism and human interest is not the role of public relations but understanding it is. PR is about ‘Truth Well Told’ (slogan of McCann Erickson) and understanding the channels of communication should present a clear path through what at first may seem like and overwhelming jumble of opinion and news. Trying to get the Daily Mirror to explain why maintaining a triple-A credit rating is important may not be effective, but discussing the finer points with someone such as Phillip Inman, economics correspondent at The Guardian, most certainly would be. The same logic must be applied to client stories.
This post barely scratches the surface of PR and the Budget, but hopefully acts as reassurance that finding a client’s voice around the Budget is not as complicated as it may at first seem. The game is already decided; it’s about learning to play it. Tell the truth, tell it well, tell it to the people that matter and through the appropriate channels and don’t lose grip on reality.
Sacha Baron Cohen’s Oscars PR stunt
Media stunts are very much hit or miss. With the reaction to Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest stunt being very much divided, here are two opposing views.
For Austin it was a hit
Sacha Baron Cohen’s PR perfection at the Oscars saw his upcoming film ‘The Dictator’ promoted in every major news outlet across the world. The cost? A suit, an urn and ‘Kim Jong Il’s ashes’.
Showing up at the Oscars in full costume as his latest creation, General Aladeen ‘dictator of the Republic of Wadiya’, Cohen proceeded to empty the ashes of Jong Il over the red carpet and interviewer Ryan Seacrest.
This was perfect in every way. No filmgoer remotely familiar with Cohen’s previous work or even the premise of his latest film is going to decide not to see The Dictator because of the stunt. Instead, the whole world now knows about its release and will be reminded of his antics at the Oscars when it is released.
As for the venue, it too, could not have been better. In an our age of austerity there is something about an over-the-top awards ceremony that takes itself seriously, rewarding grossly overpaid actors, writers and directors (of such films as the Artist because it’s silent and therefore presumably ‘quirky’), which makes you glad a 6ft-3in British Cohen turns up, without taking himself, or the death of a tyrant, remotely seriously to add some light relief.
Charlotte was unimpressed
I’m with Donald Trump on this one; Sacha Baron Cohen’s stunt at the Oscars was ridiculous and disrespectful. It doesn’t help that I dislike the guy, but what annoys me the most is that a silly stunt like this deflected all the media attention away from the actual talent at the awards.
There’s a time and a place for stunts and, for me, doing it at a classy awards ceremony was totally inappropriate. It may have created chatter during the awards and a few photos in the papers the next day, but by the time his latest film is released, will people remember this? Even if they do remember, will it just be because it was so crude and crass? Any attention is not always good attention. I certainly will not be going to see the film.
The verdict
So was it a success? At Firefly, we remain unsure – but we’ll certainly be keeping an eye on the official box office figures on May 11th, when ‘The Dictator’ is released, to see what they have to say about this divisive and controversial stunt.
