Two teams, 90 minutes of training and two hours (support by the production team at Blueprint.tv) to make a three minute piece of compelling video content.
It was of course the latest training challenge for the crew at Speed, dubbed #speedvideo.
Here’s how they got on. Its astonishing what can be achieved in a tight timescale.
Check Steve’s blog to find out which team won the challenge.
Vikki Chowney writing last week on econsultancy examined the role of wire services as part of the modern corporate communication mix. We caught up to discuss the press release, the distribution of news, and search marketing.
Unsurprisingly none of the big name wire services took part or have commented on the story.
Check econsultancy for the full post. Here’s my comments.
“The public relations industry is embracing social media and slowly moving to direct relationships where relationships are built via direct engagement. It’s a long haul that will take a decade to work out. In the meantime wire services provide a short cut and though diminished will continue to have a role whilst these changes work through.”
“The press release has become a general purpose document that an organisation publishes on its web site and issues via a wire service, not to inform the media of a news event, but typically to reach broader audiences and more often than not to satisfy an internal audience.
“Wire services will always have a role in the financial market where a legislative framework demands that information is communicated simultaneously via prescribed channels.
“During the downturn there has almost certainly been an increase in demand for wire services as a catch all means of ensuring that a press release reaches as broad an audience as possible. It’s often an issue of scale for large international organisations.
“The online search industry has recognised the opportunity that press releases and wire services offer to build inbound links as a tactic to improve keyword search rankings.
“Faux news content is often distributed via a wire service with the goal of securing widespread coverage around target keywords and web links on editorially driven web sites that are ranked highly by search engines. It’s a mechanical process to game results that is a flawed. It creates confusion and can result in reputational damage.
“Wire services need to innovative and work out their relative to information flows as media continues to fragment and social media develops. Those that recognise these changes and figure out how to continue to be relevant by embracing social media will thrive.”
Thanks Vikki.
Thanks to the crew at blueprint.tv for producing this video summary from the Control in the Age of Anarchy event that Speed ran last week.
Grab a cup of tea, sit back and hear from Alastair Campbell, Will Whitehorn, Darcy Willson-Rymer, Steve Earl and myself, on the future of media, corporate reputation and public relations.
Social media is cited as a communication challenge by a mere seven per cent of communication directors, and less than 15 per cent seek social media skills in candidates.
These were two of the findings from the Business Leaders in Communications Study 2012 study published this week by VMA Group.
The study reported that fewer than half of communication directors believe that they have a major influence on board level strategic decision-making.”
These two sets of numbers are undoubtedly connected.
Respondents to the study have yet to recognise the role that social media increasing plays as part of the news agenda and the opportunity that is provides for organisations to engage with their audiences and participate directly in their markets.
Week-in-week-out corporate organisations take a reputational thrashing from the cocktail of traditional and social media week. This week it has been the turn of LA Fitness and McDonalds.
The start point for a comms director in understanding the developing media landscape should be a review of the role that social media plays in reputations, and the implication of all editorial content (conventional, social and their own branded) being shared socially.
In 2012 earned media, more commonly known as traditional media, is influenced as much by the professionals creating and publishing content as it is by those who consume media and respond instantly.
It’s not atypical for a media organisation such as The Guardian to publish three or four versions of a story as it develops, or to report it via live blog.
All forms of media have had to become social in a bid to remain relevant. Anyone with access to the Internet can create, edit, share and publish content to a global audience.
The media agenda is no longer neatly defined by the near 24 hour cycle of print. Instead it is set by individuals breaking stories via Facebook, Flickr, Google+ Twitter and YouTube.
The respondents to the VMA Group study have yet to identify with this shift. Simon Francis labelled them dinosaurs. I’m not going to be so harsh as I’d like the opportunity to sell them Speed’s services to help them through the process of understanding the new reputation landscape.
My view, Speed’s view, is that social media is returning the public relations industry to its roots of engagement in a two-way dialogue rather than a means of broadcast via the proxy of media relations.
It’s a journey back to the future of the industry defined by Eric Goldman, Edward Bernays and Ivy Lee.
Brave organisations have the opportunity to participate with their audiences via their own branded media and social media channels.
The opportunity for the PR industry is develop and understanding of the impact and interaction of owned, earned, and social media on an organisation’s reputation.
Measurement wasn’t raised as an issue during the VMA Group event. But herein is our greatest opportunity as communicators. Every action and interaction online leaves a digital footprint and provides a mechanism to measure results and take a step closer to proving return on investment.
If the PR and communications industry invested the effort in tackling these issues communications would command greater respect in the boardroom.
Thanks to VMA Group for investing in the report and organising a really excellent debate that will no doubt run and run.
In 2012 if a company creates a social channel as a marketing vehicle it is inevitable that customers will use it as a mechanism for customer service and sales.
It’s no secret that the fastest way to resolve a customer service issue is to complain noisily via Twitter. If you haven’t seen this consumer behaviour before check out the Twitter profiles and conversations of any of the mobile phone, telephone or broadband service providers.
The simple fact is that for consumers complaining via Twitter is a lot simpler than visiting a retail store or dealing with an offshore call centre. The willingness for consumers to embrace social media is one of the reasons that many sectors such as retail banking have been slow to embrace social media. They simply wouldn’t be able to cope with the demand from customers seeking to engage directly.
For brands it’s an issue of customer service as well as reputation. Organisations are having to quickly integrate their social channels with other operational parts of the business giving rise to the social business.
But consumers also need to temper their expectations. Re-engineering businesses so that they put social communication at their core will take time.
This comment was originally written for an article for New Media Knowledge about consumer expectations of brands that interact on social media. It follows the publication of a study on Social Brand Experience by the CMO Council (PDF download) last week. Please click here to read the full article by Chris Lee.
One of the people that Steve and I interviewed when we were researching Brand Anarchy (due out 1 March) was Alastair Campbell
Tonight Alastair will talk at a Speed sales event about the end of the age of spin and the need for a more authentic style of communication in the future.
The fragmentation of traditional media over the last two decades and the rapid rise of social media has brought brand reputation into sharp focus like never before.
Disaffected shareholders, customers and staff are noisily voicing their opinions to a global audience via the Internet. Meanwhile the established media is shared in new ways.
No one knows whether it’s going to get even worse. Will conventional media find a sustainable business model as attention continues to move online? Will new social forms of media over power brands?
Speed’s view is that you will never have complete control over your brand’s reputation. You never have.
But you might be able to get more control over your reputation than you’ve had in the past if you are willing to engage directly with your markets rather than via the proxy of traditional media.
That starts with a whole new approach to planning – because of the changed media – and a degree of organisational change for communications teams.
We believe that the future of organisational communication, and therefore the future of reputation management, lies in participation of a brand with its audience.
It’s a return to public relations in its purist form and it’s a huge opportunity for corporate communicators.
Clearing out your virtual life is always a good resolution for the New Year.
You know the sort of thing: unsubscribe from email newsletters, unfriend the Facebook bores and declutter your Twitter network.
As Twitter’s popularity has increased the network is increasingly being abused by automatic Tweets from other social networks and applications.
Without any social content these are nothing more than tweets from machines and that plainly isn’t social. It’s spam. Regularly automated abusers are unfollowed.
Here’s a list because we all love a list. I’ve scribbled down some of the auto-Tweet frustrations shared by people in my network and added a couple of my own.
I fear that I’ve sprayed my network with at least two of these machine-based tweets this week. Guilty as charged. I must do better.
Automated follow
My week on twitter: lost 23 followers, gained 0 followers, 0 RTs, because I auto my tweets
Virtual achievements
I’ve just got a virtual @xbox gold star for another pointless achievement
Automated YouTube tweets
I just liked another smiley cat video on @YouTube
The No One Clicks Daily is out
Featuring a machine-curated list of articles tweeted by those I’m following
Domestic Foursquare check-in
I’m at my house. Alone. Again
Tweet in your sleep
A link that makes me looks smart and is good for my @klout. Please RT but don’t reply because I’m asleep
Instagram: because we are all photographers now
Another snap of my lunch with an arty-farty filter
Do please feel free to make further additions in the comments.
In a corner of the web last week a group of PRs debated Wikipedia’s attitude to the PR industry. The discussion came after errant PR firms were caught out breaching Wikipedia’s guidelines. Stuart Bruce has the details.
A dull but worthy topic you might think. Not one bit. Wikipedia is a top ranking site for search. It frequently takes the number one slot in Bing and Google search results, Alexa ranks it as one of the top ten sites on the Internet, and its credibility makes it a starting point for internet research.
Wikipedia is a community. As Julio Romo highlights PRs can register as contributors but must follow Wikipedia’s guidelines:
It’s the first issue: neutrality and conflict where the PR industry falls down.
Wikipedia has published guidelines for the PR industry. In its Social Media Guidelines published last year the CIPR advises that PR practitioners seeking to update a Wikipedia entry on behalf of a client should work with an editor to update the relevant page per the CIPR’s Social Media Guidelines.
This is social media at its most social. The ultimate arbiter is the community. If anyone makes a contribution that the Wikipedia community deems to breach the guidelines it will be removed. To misquote James Grunig or more recently Philip Sheldrake, it’s a platform for symmetrical communication.
But Phil Gomes and Stuart Bruce don’t think the existing Wikipedia guidelines are sufficient. Gomes cites company data and information that is out-of-date and Bruce reckons that the very community nature of Wikipedia is the natural playing field of activists.
In a response on Gomes’ blog Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says that he has yet to hear a cogent argument for PR practitioners to directly edit entries. He says paid advocates don’t make good editors because they insert spin.
“The simple and obvious answer is to do what works, without risking the reputation of the client: talk to the community, respect their autonomy, and never ever directly edit an article,” he said.
Wikipedia agreed last Thursday to meet with representatives of the CIPR to develop clearer guidance on this issue. Ahead of that meeting Philip Sheldrake has, appropriately enough, developed a wiki page on the CIPR Social Media wiki to kick off the discussion.
In the last 12-months we’ve seen social customer relationship management emerge as a critical function for any consumer organisation. If you have a social profile then the issue is particularly acute.
Head to Twitter and search for the transport operator that you used to get you to work this morning, the name of the high street or ecommerce site that you recently visited, or the restaurant where you’re planning to eat tonight.
You’ll turn up a stack of insights from customers noisily expressing their views. Technology in the form of monitoring solution is essential to manage the huge volumes of customer data.
We’ve tracked the life cycle of a social profile for numerous clients at Speed. Launch a profile on Facebook or Twitter to engage with customers and within less than a week you’ll be dealing with customer service and sales issues.
Consumers are using social media to short cut existing customer management systems such as call centres. Good communication and integration between PR, marketing, customer service and sales is critical to meet consumer expectations.
It’s an issue that Econsultancy’s Online Reputation and Buzz Monitoring 2012 Buyers Guide recognises:
“This step-change has resulted in a shift in consumer expectations. Many customers now expect a public response when they mention a brand on a social network or have an issue or complaint. The absence of a swift response (in real-time if possible) is now seen as an abject ‘fail’ and responding online is increasingly seen as the norm.”
The Econsultancy guide assesses the marketplace for reputation monitoring solutions from the perspective of the buyer. It profiles 15 companies offering reputation and buzz monitoring technology and tools.
The companies included in the report are: Alterian, ASOMO, AT Internet, Attentio, BrandsEye, Brandwatch, Cymfony, Infegy (Social Radar), Market Sentinel, Meltwater Group, Onalytica, Radian6, Sentiment Metrics, Sysomos and Visible Technologies.
Econsultancy stops short of recommending any of the suppliers featured in the guide. Instead it characterises each of the organisation and its’ tools against a variety of criteria, namely history, business model, technology, data sources, monitoring and reporting, language support and cost.
On 19 January from 7.00pm till late, 500 of the UK’s brightest and best PR professionals will come out in force to support their own at the PR Prom. It’s fundraising event in support of Bright One, the volunteer-run communications agency for the third sector that provides PR assistance to charities across the country.
The event will be held at Shoreditch Town Hall, which provides a beautiful backdrop for an evening of entertainment. For a ticket of £50, guests will enjoy food, drinks, the opportunity to take classic prom-style photos, live performances, dancing, a silent auction and other surprises.
Music includes a special performance by She Makes War and The Olympians, with songs from the forthcoming album Little Battles alongside creatively twisted classics, as well as a DJ set from Hypernaked’s Matt Brawn
In the run-up to the event, you’ll be able to vote for your Prom King and Queen by tweeting a nomination in this style; ‘I nominate (name) for #prpromking at the @prprom’ or ‘I nominate (name) for #prpromqueen at the @prprom’.
Plus, we’ll be giving out a third award in the style of ‘Most Likely to…’, for which you can design your own category and rally support from colleagues. Simple tweet, ‘I nominate (name) for Most Likely to xxx #prprom’
Stephen Waddington, MD of Speed, has lent his support to the event, “Bright One makes a huge difference to the reputation of charities through the work of its volunteers. PR Prom is a chance for everyone in the PR industry to contribute to Bright One’s work – and have a great night out. Have you booked your ticket yet?”
Ben Matthews, founder of Bright One, said, “The PR Prom promises to be a fantastic event and will provide some much needed support to the valuable work that Bright One does. We want to see the industry come out to support their own and have fun while doing good.”
Amanda Rose, founder of Twestival and advisor to Bright One, added, “For our inaugural Bright One fundraising event we wanted to put together something special and quirky that everyone in the UK PR industry would look forward to each year. Many of the events out there are limited to those PR companies winning awards or at a price that only a few staff can attend – we hope to see lots of new faces out for PR Prom.”
The campaign to promote the event features well-known faces from the PR and communications industry, who Bright One thanks for their support; Kerry Bridge (Dell), Jon Silk (Waggener Edstrom), Kate Matlock (Ketchum Pleon), Reda Haq (Cohn and Wolfe), Jordan Stone (We Are Social) and Nik Thakkar (Exposure).
More information on the event is at PR Prom and you can buy tickets here.
