August 6th, 2010 by Wadds

Speed’s big bring-your-kids-to-work-day experiment

The nervousness in the air at Speed is palpable. Tuesday next week is bring-your-kids-to-work-day.

Those with children are worried about how they’ll behave and those that don’t are concerned about the impact that ten new faces between 1- and 13-years old around the office will have on their working day.

I will almost certainly be the first person to have a tantrum.

It seemed like such a great idea when it was originally planned. Having just sat on a call to run through what we’re going to be doing during the day I’m not so sure.

But that’s the point. It’s an experiment. It’ll be an opportunity for us all to see a difference side of each other, whether child, parent or colleague.

We’ve media workshops planned, mood boards to create, social games to test and the launch of a new game to plan.

I am sure that it’ll be great. My daughters will be joined by some of the other Speed offspring to blog about their experience here.

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August 6th, 2010 by Wadds

Getting ahead and getting hired in social media and digital PR

I ran a workshop last tonight as part of the CIPR Summer Social series on building your personal reputation online. It’s never been easier to manage your personal reputation by building networks and publishing your work.

Here’s the deck.

It kicks with an audit of your online reputation or web footprint and then describes how to create profiles on LinkedIn and Twitter, build networks and publish content. It includes case studies from people that have used social media to build their personal profile and secure jobs and concludes with a discussion about dealing with less favourable content.

I’ve pulled examples and case studies from around the social web and am grateful (pause for breath) to Ben Cotton, Carolyn Mendelsohn, Jed Hallam, Josh Halliday, Laura Tosney, Matt Watson, Mike Litman, Neville Hobson, Phil Sheldrake, Shel Holtz and Stephen Davies.

I’ll follow with a blog post next week with personal recommendations from some of this gang about how they’ve used social media to build their personal reputation.

If you’re interested in exploring this topic further I recommend you check out Antony Mayfield’s Me and My Web Shadow: How to Manage Your Reputation Online.

Steve’s up next week at the CIPR Summer Social series on word of mouth.

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August 4th, 2010 by Wadds

Escherman and Realwire on online PR reach versus engagement

Escherman’s Andrew Smith and Realwire’s Adam Parker have scrutinised the reach versus engagement for 50 online news sites ranging from Heat to The Economist.

“In the past, the notion of measuring engagement with editorial content was largely theoretical.  Circulation and readership figures were treated as proxies for engagement,” say Smith.

But for online PR, Google tools provide hard numbers. Parker and Smith define reach as the number of views that a page receives and engagement as the amount of time that a person spends on a page.

They find that visitors spend a widely varying amount of time on different news sites and predict how many words they are likely to have read per page.

“[…] as a general rule, specialist titles seem to have lower numbers of visitors and page views, but tend to have far higher engagement with content,” says Smith.

There is one exception. News sites such as Reuters that act as a syndication service have a high level of reach and engagement.

The lessons for online PR are clear.

  • Don’t chase sites with large circulation numbers as engagement is likely to be low
  • Plan your campaigns and target content at sites where your audience is engaged
  • The higher up a story you get your content the more likely it is to be read
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July 19th, 2010 by Wadds

Take a look at Zopa as NS&I shuts door to new accounts

Another week and another great member’s email from Zopa. The social banking network reported today that more than £1million was lent via the network last week.

It’s the fifth occasion that lending has reached such volumes according to Zopa and is a sure sign that consumers are turning to social banking as a very real alternative to both rip-off charges and poor returns from high street retail banks.

Zopa matches lenders with borrowers packaging loans in £10 chunks to mitigate the risk to lenders. Borrowers are credit rated and matched with lending markets made-up of offers by lenders. It’s an efficient model that undercuts retail markets. Zopa takes a small cut for managing the debt and passes on the balance to the lender.

Its how a bank should work isn’t it? I think so.

I’ve been lending via the network for 2.5-years. In that time the average return (after fees) has been 9.35 per cent and I’ve had two instances of bad debt. Each week the cash collected is reinvested in the market.

National Savings & Investments (NS&I) announced today that it has withdrawn a number of deposit accounts because they’ve become too popular. Investors looking to generate returns that out perform any high street bank would do well to check out Zopa.

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July 16th, 2010 by Wadds

Are PRs shunning News International titles and taking their pitches elsewhere?

Media reporting on the News International paywall was never going to be easy to find. Journalists were unlikely to ever be supportive of Murdoch and its no surprise that more journalists aren’t critical. I would be cautious of calling out anyone that was attempting to discover alternative ways to protect my livelihood.

But one thing is for sure. Michael Wolff, Murdoch’s biographer and publisher of Newser was never going to be an fan. In his Newser column on Wednesday Wolff called for Murdoch’s publications to report on one of the biggest stories in media-land.

“Murdoch outlets have no [...] penchant for anything other than the party line. The news from News Corp is always snarlingly good – even when it is very bad.”

Wolff suggests that PRs are starting to pitch their stories to other media outlets rather than News International titles that are beyond the paywall and the reach of Google.

He quotes an unnamed entertainment PR as saying:

“Why would I get my clients to talk to the Times or the Sunday Times if they are behind a paywall? Who can see it.”

Are you prioritising pitches to other titles ahead of The Times and The Sunday Times?

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July 7th, 2010 by Wadds

Media monitoring beyond the paywall

PR agencies and brands needing to see what has been written about them on national newspaper web sites face a quieter couple of months given the new News International paywall and The Financial Times (FT) digital archive.

Content from News International titles has been withdrawn from media monitoring agencies and aggregator services and won’t be available until the launch of the Newspaper Licensing Authority’s (NLA) eClips platform, expected sometime in September.

NLA channel partners such as Cision, Durrants and Precise will provide their clients with News International content via the eClips platform as part of their monitoring services.

Meanwhile, the FT has pulled out of the NLA scheme and has launched its own digital searchable archive. In future media monitoring agencies and their customers will need to purchase a licence direct from the FT once their current NLA licence expires.

Is this the thin end of the wedge for the demise of the ‘pay once and you’re protected’ approach to media copyright management?

“The FT has been developing a direct licensing philosophy for some time. [It] wants a direct customer relationship, so that whilst the channel (aggregator or press clipping agency) may charge for its service, only the FT can charge for its content,” said David Pugh, CEO of the NLA.

“Collective licensing is valuable for publishers and clients alike – but the FT feels that it has a unique position as a global brand with niche content and expertise – and their view is that this is best managed by them directly,” he added.

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June 26th, 2010 by Wadds

Alternative BP definitions for Reputation Online

Creating alternative definitions for acronyms is a tactic that I was taught as a trainee hack as a means of livening up copy. The crisis in the Gulf of Mexico provides the opportunity to explore alternative definition for the initials BP.

Here’s a few I used (with thanks to the subbing skills of Steve Earl) in an article for Reputation Online on BP’s communication response.

Brutal Predicament
Battered Perception
Buying Pilloried
Becoming Plain?

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June 17th, 2010 by Wadds

PRCA breakfast: SEO for PR

The PRCA hosted a breakfast at Ketchum Pleon this morning where myself and Fernando Rizo (@fernandorizo) ran attendees through the basics of organic and pay per click (PPC) search.

My presentation covered organic SEO as part of the PR process. Fernando spoke about using paid search to kick start PR campaigns and conversations. Its a neat tactic that he calls contextual marketing “so as not to threaten the ad guys.”

Here’s my slide deck.

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June 14th, 2010 by Wadds

The rise of search marketing (and the failure of PR)

Return on investment is a dirty term in the PR industry. It’s a bit like margin. The industry would rather not go there.

In almost every other area of marketing professionals are able to plan an outcome against a level of investment. And generate a healthy bottom line.

But PR is different we say. It deals with influence in the editorial world and that’s beyond the comprehension of a spreadsheet.

The PR industry’s inability to communicate in the language of the boardroom means that it has failed to gain recognition in all but a limited number of cases.

PR for too long has been a craft and not a business discipline. But that is changing. But the change is far too slow for my liking.

Here’s a cautionary tale for anyone in the PR industry. Andrew Smith has scrutinised NMA’s latest league table of UK search marketing agencies for the third year running.

“[…] search firms continue to generate very respectable profits – certainly compared with the PR sector. And search firms are making no secret of continuing their land grab for PR work. The PR sector must therefore continue to up its game in terms of the quality and value of the digital services it offers,” says Smith.

Search could have been a new revenue stream for advertising (pay per click) or PR driven editorial (organic).

But with a couple of exceptions (Golley Slater and Chime-owned VCCP) according to Smith neither discipline has moved fast enough to capture the market and a new industry has emerged.

Social media is the next battleground. Be warned.

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June 10th, 2010 by Wadds

The Economist on the survival of newsprint – “not dead yet”

Positive comment on the future of newsprint is hard to come by yet an article in The Economist today (disclosure: Speed client) is optimistic. It finds that newspapers have escaped closure by cutting costs.

The decline in the fortunes of print has been widely reported. Consumer appetite is in decline and classified advertising has moved online to sites such as eBay and social networks such as Facebook.

The Economist reports that the response from publishers has been to cuts costs (staff and paper), raise prices and use syndicated content. Only a handful of papers have succeeded in persuading their readers to pay for online content.

The post recession prognosis calls for newspapers to “become more distinctive and customer focussed.” Success says The Economist relies on carving out niches. Survival depends on the broader issue of persuading young people to pay for news.

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June 8th, 2010 by Wadds

Government sets out UK media priorities

Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt outlined the Department of Media, Culture and Sports’ priorities for the media at the Hospital Club in London today.

Here’s a link to the speech in full. And here’s my summary of the key points.

  • Support for a universal internet service level of 2Mbps
  • Series of market testing projects to bring superfast broadband to rural and hard-to-reach areas
  • Support for Ofcom’s proposals to open up access to BT’s ducts and telegraph poles to promote further third party investment
  • Scrap the Independently Funded News Consortia (IFNC)
  • Relaxation of local cross-media ownership rules
  • Review by Nicholas Shott, head of UK Investment Banking at Lazard, into the viability of local television stations throughout the UK
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June 6th, 2010 by Wadds

Thinking Digital recommended reading list

Here’s my reading list for the next few weeks made-up of recommendations from speakers at Thinking Digital. This handful of titles covers the latest thinking on measurement, planning, the semantic web, social media and data visualisation.

Obliquity: Why our goals are best achieved indirectly by John Kay – recommended by Rory Sutherland
Bursts: The hidden pattern behind everything we do by Albert-Laszlo Barabasi – recommended by Jer Thorp
Pull by David Sielgel – speaker
Engage: The complete guide for brands and businesses to build, cultivate, and measure success in the new web by Brian Solis – speaker (thanks to Gabba’s Paul Fabretti for hosting a lunch with Brian and distributing copies of his book)
The power of pull by John Hagel – recommend by Joi Ito

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June 2nd, 2010 by Wadds

Dick Powell named D&AD chairman

Congratulations to Loewy colleague Dick Powell who has been appointed to the prestigious position of D&AD chairman. He succeeds Anthony Simonds-Gooding, who is stepping down from the role after 17 years.

Powell is co-founder of Seymourpowell with Richard Seymour. He’s a past President of D&AD and recipient of the D&AD President’s Award for his outstanding contribution to creativity.

D&AD represents the global creative, design and advertising communities. You will almost certainly have come across the work of its members in the recent weekly showcase feature in the Metro.

Here’s the announcement in full.

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May 26th, 2010 by Wadds

Not all customers are equal in social media

Brian Solis

Image via Wikipedia

We’re only beginning to see the use of Twitter for customer service. Yet the expectation of brands that use the channel is increasing all the time.

Businesses may start prioritising engagement with customers on Twitter according to their influence. This was Brian Solis’ prediction speaking at Thinking Digital in Gateshead today.

Solis said that measurement tools such as Klout enabled brands to determine the influence of a Twitter user and prioritise their response accordingly.

Ultimately the ability for consumers to communicate directly with organisations is likely to required fundamental corporate and organisational change.

“Fundamental issues that are repeatedly arising on Twitter need to be dealt with at an operation level within a business,” said Solis.

Placating Twitters users will only work for so long he said.

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May 26th, 2010 by Wadds

Brian Solis on Engage

Gabba’s Paul Fabretti hosted a lunch at Thinking Digital in Gateshead today where author and social media marketing expert Brian Solis talked about his new book Engage.

Solis says that he wrote Engage as a means of explaining to his wife how he earns his living. He said that he intended it to be a handbook for anyone working in new media.

It’s an audacious challenge that led Solis to over shoot his publisher’s brief by 300-pages.

In a Q&A session after his talk Solis was asked how agencies and brands should measure the success of social media campaigns.

He said that it’s very easy to track cause and effect digitally – and that metrics should always be tied to objectives but also recognise intangible and serendipitous benefits.

But Solis cautioned companies to get their online housekeeping in order to improve the effectiveness of their campaigns.

“We’ve one click to get it right. We’re taking people from a rich social experience to web sites that are stuck in the nineties,” he said.

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