Sunday 19 February 2012

What are they saying about us?


This week we looked at the social network monitoring software  that help organizations determine who is saying what and know when to jump in or change gears with their strategies. We were asked to look at two free services and one paid.


Comes in both a free and inexpensive model (at $5.99 a month, I’m going to consider Hootsuite a free option.) Through Hootsuite, users can keep rack of their Twitter follower growth, track Twitter mentions and gain insights into who “likes” them on Facebook.

According to their website, you can:

  • create custom reports from over 30 individual reports
  • track brand sentiment, follower growth
  • incorporate Facebook Insights and Google analytics all without leaving the dashboard
“The dashboard allows you to create a tab for each of your accounts and allows you to do things like schedule and send multiple tweets from different accounts at the same time. A Hootlet Bookmarklet allows you to tweet from anypage you are reading.”
(source: Michael Grey)

Adam Troudart likes the fact that it is easy to get information on any of your contacts, that you can see the number of retweets of any of your tweets.


Pulls content from a variety of sources:
Social mention pulls content from approximately 80 user generated content like blogs, FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr and YouTube.

Provides details on what is being said about your term:
Type in a term and, if you like, specify which sites you'd like information from, and SocialMention curates a dashboard showing all kinds of information regarding what's being said about it.

Provides a score of your term based on four factors: strength (frequency), sentiment (ratio of positive to negative mentions), passion (likelihood that people mentioning the term will use it more than once), and reach (unique number of users mentioning the term divided by the total number of mentions found). read more
  
Provides a daily email alert service

See its dashboard


 
A service you can pay for....
Scoutlabs $249/month
According to Jason Falls, Scout Labs is a self-serve, web-based tool priced for small to mid-sized business and brands  It is comparable to Radian6, but half the price.

 “scans blogs, forums, Twitter, news, photos, videos, open social networks and more,
Scout Labs takes all of that data, counts it, trends it, analyzes it, scores it for sentiment and extracts interesting customer quotes and emotions to present what customers love, hate, want, wish, think, and feel about a brand right now.”
Ways the product benefits social media campaigns:
  • Brand Mentions: you can measure the number of mentions in key channels going back six months and compare data sets.
  • Visualization: generate quick graphs for comparison to industry and other brands. Identify areas of success and for development.
  • Collaboration: Workflow features allowing assignment of post to anyone on the team for quick action. Also, quick save of items of note.
User profile
Scout Labs is designed for use by extended teams across an organization – Everyone can tune in, collaborate and jump into conversations with customers

For a comprehensive overview, see Demain La Veille

Tuesday 14 February 2012

PR Disaster

This week we were asked to look at Public Relations dilemmas and how social media could be used as a potential solution.  There are a few disasters to choose from, but one that is so charged, I can’t forget about it is the Susan G. Komen Foundation’s  decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood (PP) .
The Foundation has pulled at least a couple of beauts recently, actually, and I feel compelled to touch on both.
For anyone who doesn’t know, the Foundation funds breast cancer screening (look at mandate) and appears to be one of the heavies behind the ubiquitous pink ribbon.  "As the world’s largest grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists, we’re working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find the cures.” The most recent and famous blunder – pulling $ from Planned Parenthood (PP) –is thought to have potentially affected poor women who depended PP for breast cancer screening. 
January 31, The AP reported that Komen for the Cure has decided to halt grants to Planned Parenthood that were used for breast cancer screening for low-income women. According to the reports, this decision was made in December and communicated to Planned Parenthood, which urged Komen to reconsider. Komen, citing a new policy that prevents grants to organizations under investigation, said because Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-FL, is investigating whether government money was improperly spent on abortions, the decision to pull the funding was final.
On top of the unfolding public relations calamity, the rationale didn’t even make sense. They were still funding organizations whose programs were under investigation
Immediately, Planned Parenthood swept into action. They posted this compelling piece and rallied their supporters to replace what they said that Komen had denied those most in need.
The results were swift and spectacular. NY Mayor Michael Bloomberg immediately tweeted his intentions to donate $250,000 and supporters rallied.
Komen, somehow, had not anticipated the negative response. They were silent as their supporters and those of PP raged on among themselves and the world.  An awkward justification appeared on You Tube , facebook posts were deleted (!!)before Komen retreated and returned the funding to PP. What a mess!
Komen had not considered the potential fallout from the situation. Someone was not talking to their communications team!
The point is, that Komen was completely unprepared and blundered in their communications strategy. 1) they had none 2) they were silent 3) they deleted FB posts , etc.
Underlying all of this of course, is the tension in the US between pro-lifers and pro-choicers, which we may not be so aware of here, but I doubt we would forget for a moment if we were living in the U.S.
PP on the other hand, was ready and did everything right to get the people on their side.
I feel compelled to mention another puzzling strategy of the foundation because it involves an atrocious contributor to ill health among North Americans, (not to mention chickens). The Komen Foundation invited Kentucky Fried Chicken  (KFC) to sponsor their fight against cancer.  What an odd choice KFC is full of hormones that are implicated in breast cancer,it is fried, which is also associated with poor health and cancer,  and that it is  not generally in any way connected to wellness.  
I think the Foundation needs help.

Sunday 5 February 2012

Trick or Tweet

I love Twitter, but for me, here comes the ugly:

If you don’t already know, there are a  number of aps that allows tweeters to preload their account and send the tweets out during peak following times.  Buffer, SocialBro and IFTT are mentioned in the attached article by Jeff Haden.

According to Haden, users can just use Buffer to “make announcements at a specific time, to send time-sensitive tweets like for limited-time offers, to communicate when your followers are most likely to notice.”

Using SocialBro, along with Buffer, you can see who is online, monitor a specific group of users via Twitter lists and monitor search terms. Ultimately, according to Buffer co-founder Leo Widrich, you can “boost click through rates up to 200 percent,” by sending tweets during high peak periods.


Installing Buffer with a browser extension and you can choose a buffer option to schedule your retweets. 

Using IFTT (If  This, Then That) connects two Web services together. IFTT also works with a variety of services, including Google Reader, texts and Instagram. According to Haden, you can “Take a lot of photos in a short period of time and you’ll machine-gun your tweets.”


Okay, I love this from a marketing perspective. I can see how  it could improve my future professional life, should we move into Twitter at work, but my heart sinks at the automation, nonetheless.  No more real time, a little less real. 

Somewhere in the world I am sure that aps are tweeting aps with some sort of tweet monitor analyzing the data to feed back content with a filtering algorithm  - no humans involved!

Saturday 4 February 2012

Community Managers


This week's topic is community managers, a customer-service/public relations type of role dedicated to supporting the growth of online communities attached to the product or service.

The online communities themselves may spring up independently as fans, or be consciously developed by the company.  Much of the literature supports the idea that the community manager err on the side of the public and create trust, rather than transparently towing the company line. For example, a good community manager may recommend another company’s product, if that ultimately builds the trust of the community.

I found the following article by Terry Rachwalski, a consultant in beautiful Victoria, BC. She offers a simple description of what she considers the attributes of a good community manager. Unlike some of the other writers, Rachwalski doesn't see the role as independent of the company agenda.


Two examples of Canadian companies who have demonstrated effective community management:


 

This company is all over available social media sites and hosts forums on its own site.

From the website: “What truly makes us fantastic is our community. Our team isn't stacked with corporate suits but PC enthusiasts just like our customers. We have very knowledgeable and helpful customers like you who contribute daily to our forums, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and Twitter. Their enthusiasm and support, and yours, helps set us apart from everyone else.”

NCIX has almost  80,000 Facebook members and aside from communities it is involved in listed above, has its own user forum and distributes weekly e-newsletters.

NCIX uses Facebook to host contests, liking gets you the flyer and there is an option to recommend it to friends.

According to the NCIX Facebook page: ”We strongly believe that our success is determined by the experience our customers and partners receive. We thank everyone who supported us over the years and appreciate the continued support as we continue to grow.”



 

An online bookstore naturally has a huge online community managed on their site as well as a Facebook page, a Youtube channel and Twitter.

Their onsite community offers members a variety of activities including networking with other members, joining or beginning a book club, building a virtual bookshelf, posting reviews and creating top 10 lists.
The Indigo Facebook has almost 240,000 fans and includes a game you can play, an Indigo  Ideas section for customer feedback.

Monday 30 January 2012

How I selected my reading list


First of all, I chose blogs that were easy for me to understand.  I am new to this and am eager for the facts in clear language, free of too much industry lingo. Secondly, I chose blogs I thought I would want to read.
I looked for simple page layouts, photos and even a touch of humour. The last thing I enjoy is something that sounds too stiff or corporate-like. Any writers that touched on real life situations definitely inched up their appeal by doing so.
I started with a recommended list of top 10 or top 100 PR blogs and chose.  After that I thought it would be interesting to choose some from Britain and Australia, to see if location still mattered.
Others I picked up while I was researching and I liked what they had to say or were suggested by friends.
I’m still examining my strategies as I read the feeds, though I find the sheer volume of reading  and digesting all the new material a challenge.  It will be an ongoing process.
Some of the blogs I chose and why:
Stuart Bruce – not the usual corporate stuff! Informative and relevant and I loved the picture of him with his family with the elephant. That was probably the clincher.
Chennai Social Media – found it while researching. It’s full of practical tips on how to use existing vehicles well.
Chris Abrahams – I came to it for the language, I’m sure. It’s clever. It’s also a bit complicated for me and one that may fall of the list in future.
Influential Marketing   - Informal language, good information, photos. Love it.
Media Culpa – I was probably attracted to the name. It appears to be a good source of information. I’m going to keep reading it.
Social Media Marketing – I chose this because it’s made it Britain and I wanted to know what’s different coming out of the U.K. vs. the U.S.
Strategic Public Relations – not sure I’m going to stay with this one. With everything out there, it seems to be lacking the personality of some of the others.
The Buzz Bin – interesting content. I like its style and format.
The Intangibles – This is a no brainer. Of course I want to hear what Boyd is telling the world. I also like the informal language, photos and humour.
The PR Warrior –  I chose it because it is Australian and I wanted a different viewpoint. I liked it right away for its personality and the smiling face right at the top.  I’m not that complicated.
The Wall - I chose this one again for its foreign content and so far, have not been disappointed in the content.

Saturday 28 January 2012

Exploring our geeky sides

 
 
A fallen angel from the Lynx Excite campaign
This module, I was most impressed by Augmented Reality (AR). The sci-fi quality of that type of application really appeals to the geek in me and I can imagine it has almost limitless potential.  I came across many impressive ways it was used for public relations activities.
 
To start, I saw how Adidas had launched its new Scotland Football Shirt in a mall in Glasgow, allowing people to put themselves on screen with their favorite players. What a way to create publicity and give a few people a thrill. Those who interacted with the set up in the Buchanan Mall, really seemed to have enjoyed themselves.

 
The Youtube video for Layar. an AR browser for mobile, shows how easy it could be to shop for houses using their service. One can identify houses for sale, then call up information and even call the realtor. That would be a fabulous service for a local BIA or tourist board.  View it here.
 
I tried a watch on here, an interesting way to capture attention and potentially, bring a consumer a step closer to a purchase.
 
Finally,  I found the Lynx Excite campaign using fallen angels.  View the response to them at a London tube station. They left a pretty big impression.
 
 
 
The competing aps this week were QR codes, LBS aps and a discovery engine like Stumbleupon.
 
QR codes or Quick Response codes (photo) work the same way as barcodes, but are two dimensional and hold much more information. They work by having the user take a photo of the code with a mobile phone, which initiates action such as:
 
Connection to a web address
Download a MP3
Dialing a telephone number
Prompting your email client with a sender address
 
They can be read from any angle and can be used in multiples to hold a great deal of data. Now next time you see a realty ad with one of these babies, you'll know what you're missing.
 
Location Based Services (LBS) can be used like maps to show you where the nearest corporate or savvy service has provided data. If you don't happen to know where the nearest Starbucks is, don't fret. Many of the services will offer perks if users in the area "check in" with them, which also lets their friends keep up with them.
 
One of the largest LBS,' Foursquare, invites feedback about the local services, so if you trust what others have said, you may avoid a bad experience somewhere. Seems a little sketchy to me...
 
In terms of PR applications, if your service generates good feedback, it's helpful. LBS check ins can also trigger local advertisements.ON a practical note, it has been said that LBS' can help users keep track of their mileage (if they continually check in as they go through their routes).
 
Discovery engines have been created as a means for beleaguered internet and mobile users to cope with the bombardment of information that all this new technology is offering them. User preferences are provided and thereafter, the engine provides content to match the profile. It sounds a little creepy, but is actually kind of fun. Its hard not to like something that consistently pops up with info to match your interests.
 
Of course the searches are not completely innocent. A rating system drives competition between companies and Stumbleupon offers paying option to help them your "engaged" mind. It sounds like a viable marketing tool.
 
 
 

Thursday 26 January 2012

Appifying just about everything

When I first saw the quote  “Mobile app developers will ‘appify’ just about every interaction you can think of in your physical and digital worlds"  (Scott Ellison, IDC mobile and wireless),  I had a hard time with it. I thought it was geeky and overblown. Was my future phone going to make my future coffee? As I may have mentioned, I don't have a smartphone. Then I started to look at the trends and I started to feel like the world was becoming the one Woody Allen woke up to in The Sleeper.
I found that,  according to a study commissioned by mobile application store operator GetJar, the mobile application market will reach $17.5 billion by 2012. By then, the number of mobile application downloads will have also grown to nearly 50 billion from just over 7 billion in 2009, and that a year ago January 26, The Globe and Mail reported that:
“...research firm Gartner Inc. forecast the worldwide mobile app market to surpass US$15.1-billion in revenue in 2011, an increase of 190% from the US$5.2-billion mobile applications generated in 2010. By mid-decade in 2014, Gartner is expected that figure to reach US$58-billion, marking growth of 1,000% from 2010 levels.”
1000% increase by 2014?

Then I learned that they can locate and unlock a Zip Car, act as health monitors for diabetes patients and track the development of a pregnancy. That applications are growing in the areas of mobile payments; spooky, J. Bond-like "near field communications"  (contactless data transfer between compatible devices placed within 10 cm of each other); money transfer through short message services (a need in the developing world); location based services (aps that tap into your phone’s GPS to offer location based services such as directions to local businesses) and last but not least, for all the marketers: mobile search aps to drive sales and marketing  opportunities on the phone.

There could easily be an app for making the coffee. Wait for it. 

Sunday 22 January 2012

A blessing and a curse

As I delve into the explosion of social media tools, I am astounded by the innovation and creativity through which they are used. I really love Twitter for its potential to create positive change - greater transparency, an honest news feed (or atleast one that is unfiltered by corporate interests), its use in crisis communications.
Sometimes I am a little unsettled by the way some platforms, which appear at first to be benign mediums for social interactions, have opened the doors to so much marketing, while somehow managing to label it organic. It's a wierd dilemna for someone who works in public relations!
Maybe I just have something against Starbucks http://www.facebook.com/ads/stories/. I loved the Skittles campaign http://mashable.com/2010/10/18/skittles-dazzle-the-rainbo/.
I haven't really sorted out how individuals really steeped in social media find the time to do anything but stay current. Is that why so many people are stuck to their smartphones? I guess I answered my own question.

Friday 13 January 2012

Getting to know more about social media

Social media is not completely new to me, but I am a bit of a dinosaur when it comes feeling comfortably savvy about all of the ins and outs and their uses for public relations. I  admit that I have not taken the time to re-familiarize myself with the new FB or to completely understand the "like" functions and what all the connections imply. I have noticed the new connections to Twitter and am occasionally asked via email to participate in petitions that appear connected to FB through applications.

I have a Twitter account, but I have never tweeted and I don't have a smart phone. I know that many cynical non-users believe the users tweet each other when they go to buy coffee. But I am a bit of a fan. I see Twitter as very important in replacing some of the traditional media functions.

Being available to individuals not constrained by corporate interests, Twitter has a role in liberating important world news and events from potential political and corporate interests. No meetings required. No committee decisions needed. I appreciate it for that, though I fear what might be a social addiction to those short sentences. Don't get me started on texting.

It's been a while since I was directly involved in media relations, but I got rid of my own cable subscription last year and admit to using some of the major papers as litter box liners while catching up on the news online, so I can see the world of media has changed and I've changed with it, though I didn't notice it happening.

This course is my attempt to catch up with the world around me and learn more about the implications of  emerging social media platforms and evaluate their uses for public relations activities, good and bad.