For anyone who is new to engaging with online communities, here are a few things that it’s good to have in your toolbox to get you going in the right direction:
The 90-9-1 site: named after the ratio of audience members, users and creators in a community
Some handy ethnographic research on kids’ relationship with social media, and here’s a cool video interview on the topic. Useful if you are planning to reach out to young people online. Caveat: No brandwashing! Let them keep some of their innocence.
A great case study on tools and widgets that are useful for networking online communities.
Just been looking at BrandRepublic, which has an article saying the recession could be made into an ‘advantage’ for PR agencies, as clients look to more low cost publicity methods like below-the-line and web outreach. Which makes me think: all those social media savvy people selling blended campaigns have the potential to get their fingers into both pies. Why not sell some projects in alongside the drumbeat stuff you do on retainer to swipe cash off other parts of the marketing mix? It may be seen by some as ‘disaster capitalism’ for the communications industry, but hey, hard times call for concentrated efforts…
Just got information about a new Twitter advertising service called Twittad from Beth Kanter. The idea she suggested about also conntecting with the charity sector is spot on. It would be great to be able to send Amnesty International or Friends of the Earth ad slots via my twitter stream, or to be able to donate the money made from normal ads to charity. It could also potentially enable PRs to sell microblogging campaigns with CSR tie-ins.
Of course there always comes the risk of being accused of selling yourself, especially if you’re working for a large client that pollutes and creates waste donating money to Greenpeace to greenwash away its sins; which is exactly why telling an authentic story about the relationship between your client and the charity would be very powerful. If you can get your big polluter to take ‘corporate consulting’ from the charity as well to help them clean up their ways, you can then stream the story of how the process goes as well. Two hits for the price of one!
The social media press has been awash with reasons for the stalled Twitter Facebook deal. Looking at TechCrunch, All Things D and Techmeme, much of the reporting has understandably focussed on:
1) Cash ( Facebook offering to acquire Twitter for $500 million of its stock )
and
2) Costs (Concerns over Twitter’s burn rate)
I’d like also to talk about usability. While we are all seeing less and less of the infamous Fail Whale, there are some issues around inflexibility - I’d love to be able to lifecast pictures or video for instance. Other microblogging sites like Pownce and Friendfeed could eclipse Twitter in the not too distant future, especially since searching for people you know (or would like to know) is STILL not working.
For PRs, Twitter is a dream: offering you access to opinion formers that you may never have been able to have such close contact with otherwise, the opportunity to get breaking news at lightening speed and to request case studies and third party information in moments. Further intergration with Facebook could be what it needs to ‘cross the chasm’ and turn its 6 million user base (which still has a heavy male, social media and IT and earlty adopter skew) into something closer to Facebook’s 120 millon. I believe the results of a move, if they were to ever reapproach the conversation in future would be great news for comms professionals, especially with the advent of the Facebook phone -Â encouraging more mobile twitter use and therefore the increased possibility for PRs to have conversations with audiences wherever they are.
And why am I waiting for Twitter to reach scale? So PRs can use their in-depth knowledge of the tool to sell marketing campaigns to clients if Twitter decides to take up some of the revenue-generating ideas suggested here (my fave being in-stream advertising). A great opportunity to eat into the marketing team’s budget with blended marcomms activity…
Thanks to Rob Fields for a timely reminder of the changes we are seeing in the world now as it pertains to life online. The video illustrates the impact of globalisation on the information age.
And while we’re on the subject of shifts; the New York Times’ definition of those born in the early 80s and beyond as Generation O makes for interesting reading as well.
To all those who have a spare £499, Trendwatching’s 2009 Report has launched. I attended an amazing talk by Kristina Dryza back in 2007, who spoke about an increased trend towards consumers wanting transparency from brands and also wanting more meaningful experiences in life, which will affect the way brands will have to workto maintain the trust of and connection with their communities. Both of those factors appear to have been touched on in the 2009 report. Yes, I know it’s pricey. Rob someone and buy it!
Techcrunch’s latest piece on Monday, in which Michael Arrington appraises the financial benefits for Facebook in implementing its Verified Applications Programme got me thinking about whether clients would also be willing to pay extra for Facebook apps designed to supplement viral message dissemination.
For many companies that are looking at ’social media relations’ for the first time, creating virals can be a potentially powerful yet risky business. Will that shiny new Facebook app I’m using to create hype around my brand be the next iLike? Or will it be a wasteful experiment? And with the economic climate being as it is, would clients be OK with the extra cost? Should PRs include it in the fee?
The impact of this programme in terms of user uptake of verified apps is something I’d look out for, before signing up. After all, if the verification stamp means I’ll be counted in the top 10% of FB’s 48,000 odd apps in the eyes of potential downloaders, that could well be worth that extra few hundred dollars.
I’m seriously considering making a handy tools page on this site with the best stuff I find on social media tools and how they affect how we talk about brands. Especially after seeing this on Leigh Householder’s blog.
After yesterday’s post about the death of press releases, I’ve come across more media trend predictions on Steve Rubel’s blog about when the death of ALL tangible media formats will happen. As more communities share knowledge online, suggesting that preceding formats will die out as a result is tempting, but in six years? I think that is unlikely.
What is interesting about the similarity between these ideas is while the former (death of releases) idea could be seen as as ‘call to action’ to PR professional to change the way they communicate, the idea that the end could be nigh for newspapers as well would place a similar pressure upon journalists, broadcasters and bloggers.
A few thoughts I’d like to add to that discussion are these:
1) Internet penetration levels are still not high enough, even in the US to enable even the poorest person to access news online. The mobile internet may be a significant growth area in the future, but even this trend excludes older news consumers, who would find such technology hard to use. Also, what about people in other countries? How would an ‘online only’ society communicate with those that are not?
2) A disturbing thought: we as a global society don’t yet have a way of securing an energy independent future. Will we have enough electricity to keep us going over the next 100 years? With that in mind is it really wise to put all of our recorded knowledge onto the web, an innovation which is dependent upon electricity? What would happen to all of our records of modern society if the lights went out?
3) With regard to books, I doubt very much that they will be seen as a defunct format. While I may not have bought a CD recently, had my software emailed to me, I still buy and always will buy hard copy books. I (believe it or not) don’t want to be online ALL the time. Books for me personally are more than just a convenient format like a CD or DVD; they represent an opportunity to digest information in a slower, more relaxing fashion.
Mark ‘Rizzn’ Hopkins has added some noteworthy points on this topic too.
Just got this from Angela Connor’s blog. Putting a cat amongst the pigeons? I think so! One thing this argument does forget is there are still many niche trade publications that aren’t even online, and clients that don’t even read e-newsletters, never mind Twitter, so they don’t value ‘online coverage’.
