An engaging online strategy doesn’t necessarily mean an increase in bottom-line revenue

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

I’d never really noticed it before, but Burger King has a really cool homepage.

Take a look for yourself, but the website has three volume bars (‘Fun’, ‘Food’ and ‘King’), which control how big the central icons are.

For example, if you max out the ‘Fun’ bar, and minimize ‘Food’ and ‘King’, it makes it easier to see all the advertorial video content on the site. Read the rest of this entry »

Creating online communities: the journey doesn’t stop there

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

Working in PR, marketing, advertising etc, we need to pull ourselves back from situations and realise that we don’t all spend the entire day behind a computer screen engaging with Social Media.

We should always, at the very least, ask how the offline is being influenced by the online. Jeremiah Owyang recently alluded to this in a post on his Web Strategy blog.  If we don’t, then we can end up with a campaign overflowing with clever ideas that create dynamic online communities, but build limited relevance for the company in question and, as a result, limited revenue and ROI. Read the rest of this entry »

The rules of social media

Posted by: Paul Matthews

Rule number one:

There are no rules.

Sure there are ways that you should do things and a lot of ways that you shouldn’t, but for all intents and purposes social media and the law by which it is governed, is not too dissimilar to how we live in the real world. ‘Do unto others…’, build relationships, show respect and generally be nice; all of these social etiquette practices apply online and act as a guide to how we should behave.

If understood, the success of campaigns, initiatives or ideas that people/companies have will rise and fall on the response of the desired recipients: the community you are looking to engage with.

Read the rest of this entry »

Defining ’success’ in Social Media

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

Nobody has the definitive solution for how to measure the success of Social Media. At least not yet.

Sure, you can talk about online ‘buzz’ created by how many blog posts, tweets, videos, status updates etc. that occurred for a certain brand, person or topic, but what’s ‘buzz’? Virtue, a company which does ‘technology solutions for social media marketing’ has just released its second annual list of the ‘most social’ companies in the world on this basis. I was interested in the result, which was, unsurprisingly, the iPhone, but took it with a pinch of salt. Of course, Apple, and others on the list, have built strong online reputations, but ‘buzz’ doesn’t necessarily mean success and it certainly doesn’t guarantee revenue as the mentions could as easily be negative as they could be positive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing in NZ: Where’s the Experience?

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

Experiential marketing is about bringing the customer closer to the brand and, by its very definition, creating an experience. It’s fair to say New Zealanders love experiences like anyone else; tons of graduates take an OE and the country is full of different tours, promising the ‘Kiwi experience’.

In addition, there are plenty of campaigns that tap into Kiwiana and play on the strong sense of national identity. You only have to look at the extremely successful ‘Tourism Paeroa’ campaign by L&P and the newly launched ‘Get Some Kiwi in Ya’ concept from Kiwi Bacon to see that we all love engaging with a brand that feels alive.

Read the rest of this entry »

Google Opts For Word-Of-Mouth News Announcement (Again)

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

With news that Google has just announced the next step in its plan to take-over the world , one tech sector at a time, it seems like an apt moment to highlight how it does PR/marketing. Read the rest of this entry »

The Importance Of Face-To-Face Networking

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

With the huge increase in the role of online in the media world, in particular social media, it’s easy to forget the importance of face-to-face networking. It’s great to ‘connect’ with people on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and the like, but nothing beats having a drink and chewing the fat in person. Read the rest of this entry »

Is it a trend or is it a ‘megatrend’?

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

In the media we are always speaking about ‘trends’. Twitter was/is a trend; Google Wave is a trend; apps that drive core business revenue also seem to be an increasing trend (just take a look at the Pizza Hut app )…but what’s a ‘megatrend’? Well, according to Adam Kleinberg , CEO of a Traction, a creative agency out in San Fran, it’s something that transforms society as we know it; “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” and all that malarkey. Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media to bring world peace?

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

At what could be described as its ‘beta’ stage, social media was a tool for people to stay connected within restricted groups (think Facebook’s origins within American colleges). It obviously widened considerably after that and is now on a par (or even beyond) with us checking our emails everyday. It then became a tool for businesses to have a stronger online presence; one where they could communicate better with their customers and potential customers. In even more recent times, social media has evolved into an almost catch-all term for digital marketing. While those in the know will tell you there is more to digital than purely social media, it certainly plays a large part in today’s media landscape. The advent of Twitter has meant social media is now an information swapping super-highway and full-on customer service portal, in addition to all its other guises. Read the rest of this entry »

The ’socialisation’ of the internet

Posted by: Alex Erasmus

SEO and SEM specialist First Rate recently pointed out how data from Hitwise (the online data monitor) shows that Facebook has overtaken TradeMe as New Zealand’s second most popular website (after Google, of course).

With the rising popularity of other social media such as Twitter and Flickr and the further news that Facebook has just signed a deal with market research company Nielsen to boost its credentials as a genuine advertising platform, businesses in NZ need to be aware of how these events are changing the way they need to work. This ’socialisation’ of the internet is not simply a way for people to stay in touch; it’s bigger than that. The use of social media tools to speak to potential and existing customers has broken down the traditional barriers between businesses and the man on the street.

Read the rest of this entry »

Effective media relations strategy; what it can and can’t do

Posted by: Paul Matthews

Last week I delivered a workshop at the Annual Media Relations conference in Wellington which, among other things, stressed the need to synchronise communications throughout the organisation; internally, externally, online and offline. There was much discussion, most notably on the surprisingly diverse ways in which organisations measure the effectiveness of their media relation strategies.  More on this later…

I reminded delegates however that media relations cannot eliminate negative publicity, nor control the media or their message; bad news is bad news, and media relations is not a quick fix. While effective media relations gives you some ability to manage your own reputation, it does not ensure that your competition is squeezed out of media coverage.

On the plus side, building an effective media relations strategy develops credibility in what you do; improves the external, and internal knowledge and perceptions of your company. It also provides depth and breadth to your communications strategy, increasing the frequency of your message.

Social media plays major role again in breaking news

Posted by: Paul Matthews

In November last year, terrorists attacked a hotel in Mumbai generating huge offline and online coverage around the world. Social networks led the story and provided live commentary throughout the ordeal. I blogged about it at the time. Read the rest of this entry »

United Airlines and online reputation - responding to Sons of Maxwell ‘United breaks guitars’

Posted by: Paul Matthews

Check out this YouTube effort by Canadian band Sons of Maxwell who have been fighting United Airlines since March 2008 over compensation for damaged guitars while touring. Clearly, the band felt they weren’t getting a satisfactory response from the airline, so after a frustrating 12 months or so, they finally took matters into their own hands. The  video was loaded onto the Sons of Maxwell YouTube channel on Monday, and after only three days it’s already had 640,000 views!! It’s certainly not doing any harm to the band’s reputation at the moment, with loads of coverage both online and offline. Read the rest of this entry »

Corporate blogs level the playing field for small businesses

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

In the latest issue of b-Innovative, the publication of the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, writer Catherine Slogrove sought my views on the opportunities that social media provides small businesses. As I am often asked this question,  I thought I would re-publish some of those thoughts here.

Social media is a leveller. Traditionally, small businesses can’t compete with large corporates which enjoy vast advertising budgets in traditional media. But due to the low costs of new media, a small business can have an equal, if not greater online presence than larger  companies. And when an online presence  is planned, executed and managed well, the benefits flow. These include attracting new customers, engaging more effectively with existing clients, and stimulating relevant media coverage. Read the rest of this entry »

When not to communicate by email - lessons in reputation management

Posted by: Paul Matthews

Here in New Zealand, an unfortunate public squabble has erupted in the last week between the surviving children of the late Sir Edmund Hillary, conqueror of Mount Everest and national hero, and the Auckland Museum, to which Hillary bequeathed his documents.  I won’t delve into the complex details of the dispute  - there seems to be more to this issue than currently meets the eye.

Both sides have certainly made strong cases to the media over the last few days. Today, however, according to this story in the New Zealand Herald, a poorly worded communique from the Museum suggests that that institution may have given up on the communications task at hand and, dare I say it, abrogated its responsibility.

The Museum is a major public and cultural asset belonging to the city. So, it is poor form at the very least, Read the rest of this entry »

New Zealand Public Relations and Journalism in an online world - are the lines blurring?

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

I was interviewed this week by business journalist Melanie Cooper for an article published today in The Independent which looked at the alleged blurring of the lines between journalism and public relations in New Zealand.

The article discussed the role of well known site, Scoop, which publishes media releases as well as news. In addition, the National Business Review, has recently launched a service, ‘From the Horse’s Mouth‘, which publishes unedited media releases.

I made a number of points to Melanie which, for space reasons, could not all be published. So I thought I would post in more detail, here on BulletPoints, my thoughts around some of the issues she raised: Read the rest of this entry »

Telecom chooses Twitter for big announcement

Posted by: Paul Matthews

Today, New Zealand telco Telecom gave its voice on Twitter the big job of unveiling the launch date for its long awaited new 3G network, the XT Network (brought forward to 13 May).

It’s interesting that such a significant announcement was entrusted to Twitter as the first channel of dissemination - such is Telecom’s confidence in its growing and influential Twitter followers. And it didn’t take long for major blogs to take note with Geekzone leading the way, slightly ahead of mainstream media such as the New Zealand Herald.

Definitely a sign of the times; not that long ago, the media release would have been the largely undisputed means of communicating such a major company milestone.

Spreading the message via Twitter - provoking re-tweets of great content

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

When the National Business Review interviewed me recently on the role of Twitter, I told marketing reporter Hazel Phillips that those companies contemplating Twitter shouldn’t get too distracted by the early adopters who may appear to dominate the conversations with endless updates of banal goings-on. The fact remains that there is a remarkably high level of serious communication taking place on Twitter and, more significantly, much of this is exclusively taking place on Twitter. So my first comment to our clients is: if you are not there in the first place, how can you take part? Read the rest of this entry »

NZ judge takes social networking sites beyond the social network

Posted by: Thom James

Reading the news of New Zealand High Court Judge David Gendall’s decision to allow court papers to be served via Facebook, it occurred to me that the inexorable move away from ’snail mail’ to online communication is at a tipping point. While social networking channels are of course used predominantly for social purposes, Judge Gendall’s ruling is the first time in New Zealand we’ve seen a social network used for clerical/administrative/official purposes. For many, social networks are already supplanting email as their primary form of written communication, and the practicalities of being able to instantaneously deliver a court order to someone on the other side of the world is a demonstration of how redundant paper mail is becoming. I still prefer getting Christmas and birthday cards via the postbox mind you.

Online reputation checks; Pope recognises power of search!

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

This article in today’s New York Times caught my attention. In a relatively frank letter, Pope Benedict has admitted that checking online reputations might be useful prior to making any HR appointments or, in this case, revoking an excommunication!

Yes, I am referring to the recent furore surrounding the so-called ‘Bishop’,  Richard Williamson, and his disgraceful Holocaust denials, which you won’t find on his blog.

In citing the Pope’s letter, NY Times reporter Rachel Donadio noted in particular: Read the rest of this entry »

Avoiding identity hijacking online

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

The latest Aladdin Annual Threat Report warns that the boom in online social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Bebo, MySpace etc could very easily turn into an “online nightmare” with the rise of identity hijacking rather than identity theft damaging both personal and corporate reputations. Read the rest of this entry »

PR and social media observations on the demise of Ferrit

Posted by: Thom James

The news that Telecom is folding its online retail outlet Ferrit has come as little surprise to most commentators. In the pick of the blogosphere’s musings on the story, Lance Wiggs lays out the reasons he believes Ferrit has failed. I agree in particular with his third point about Ferrit’s poor business case. From a consumer’s point of view, it was always a somewhat confusing proposition, while to retailers it will have seemed a rather questionable channel to opt for - a commissioned intermediary over direct trade with the customer. Read the rest of this entry »

Facebook groups - Why some flourish and others fail

Posted by: Mike Shaw

Facebook groups cover seemingly everything, from people’s pet hates to their political views. However, the relative success or failure of such groups varies greatly. Why do some groups fail to take off, while others go viral and spread across the planet accumulating millions along the way?

Here are my observations on Facebook groups and some tips for success:

The four key groups:

Read the rest of this entry »

God outsources to Google

Posted by: Mike Shaw

Just received our annual Christmas card from the New Zealand Privacy Commissioner, Marie Shroff, with a rather apt theme; the work of celebrated New Zealand cartoonist, Chris Slane:

(Click to enlarge)

Image Copyright - Chris Slane 2008

Importance of social media for news consumption

Posted by: Paul Matthews

By now most of us are aware of the devastation and havoc currently taking place in Mumbai. You may have learned many of the details through the myriad of social media channels currently available. Here are some samples: Read the rest of this entry »

Using Twitter for business

Posted by: Thom James

Kipp Bodnar of the excellent Digital Capitalism blog posts about the value of Twitter for corporates. He lists 6 ways in which companies can utilise the microblogging tool. The immediacy of communication via a Tweet makes it a potentially highly effective relationship management channel, one that is more direct and inclusive than a blog. The only caveat would be that Twitter is probably not quite popular enough yet, in New Zealand at least, for its potential to truly be maximised.

Banning Facebook altogether is not the answer

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

The Virgin Atlantic and British Airways examples of employees misusing social networking sites (both on Facebook) have attracted widespread media coverage. While some corporates may now be considering baning the use of such sites, as Jason Ryan warns, this may be ultimately counterproductive:

The implications of blocking will likely be far more deleterious. First, for many skilled and connected professionals, a disconnected workplace will be the equivalent of a career backwater. Second, from an organizational point of view, you are effectively abandoning what is now a competitive advantage and will soon be the industry standard.

Latest YouTube development enables users to get specific with video clip links

Posted by: Mike Shaw

YouTube’s newest trick might not be a giant leap forward, but it’s a handy step for those wishing to share YouTube clips. In the past when you linked to a video, or embedded a clip in a blog post you were stuck with the clip playing from the start (unless you also employed additional tools liked Splicd). However as Jason Kincaid on TechCrunch explains, by adding a small extension to the link, you can now control the point at which YouTube starts playing.

In other words, rather than link to an entire speech, or full video clip, you can now add ‘#t=2m15s’ to the end or the URL in order to set a specific start time. In this case, 2 minutes and 15 seconds in to the clip. Particularly handy if you wish to refer to a specific point in a YouTube clip, or even simply to skip advertising or opening credits.

For an example of what I mean, just compare the two links below…

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VIPS73z5_UY&feature=related

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=VIPS73z5_UY&feature=related#t=3m22s

US elections: Online playing its part, but ad spend short of expectations

Posted by: Thom James

It was widely assumed that one of the chief battlegrounds of the 2008 US Presidential elections would be online.

While various social media channels have provided fertile ground for debate and engagement with the political process, online ad spend itself has fallen well short of predictions, as reported by ClickZ. Media research firm Borrell Associates estimates that, of the $2.27 billion total spent on political advertising, less than 1 percent of that has gone towards online.

I’m curious to know what the breakdown is for election ad spend here in New Zealand, where Kiwis will go to the polls four days after the US, on 8 November. We’re seeing online channels (see TV One’s YouTube debate, Google’s ‘08 Election Gadget) play a much more prominent role than in the last general election in 2005, but banner advertising has been minimal, and parties don’t seem that savvy to the use of AdWords. Google ‘tax cuts’ or ‘education’, for example, and only Labour pops up in the sponsored links.

There are, of course, a myriad other ways of utilising online channels. But for all the talk of how the fractured media landscape has diminished the effectiveness of traditional above the line, it still seems that in the election campaigns here in New Zealand and in the US, parties are still putting their faith in traditional advertising over online.

Search Engines, Transparency, and Online Reputation; Five year old plagiarism comes back to haunt the author

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

As Canada heads to a federal election this month, the opposition Liberal party has dropped a timely bombshell concerning incumbent Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. It turns out he delivered a speech to Parliament when he was Opposition Leader in 2003 which appears to largely plagiarise a speech delivered in another part of the world, two days earlier, by then Australian Prime Minister, John Howard. The speech writer in question has resigned this week, acknowledging that he was “overzealous in copying segments of another world leader’s speech”. Canada’s Globe and Mail has the full story as well as the two videos side by side.

Read the rest of this entry »

How NOT to manage a crisis: ‘when all else fails, try bribing search engines!’

Posted by: Paul Matthews

There are many recommendations Bullet PR would make regarding online reputation management, especially during a time of crisis. These would not include however, a recommendation to bribe search engines to exclude negative content! Read the rest of this entry »

Judge Harvey bows to the inevitable

Posted by: Thom James

An update to my previous post on the Judge Harvey online name suppression order: the judge has lifted the ban in the face of submissions from lawyers representing APN, Fairfax, TVNZ, TV3’s owner MediaWorks, Radio New Zealand and NZPA. This would have been an expensive process. Access to the accused’s names online was possible regardless of the ban, so it begs the question; what was the point in the first place?

Judge Harvey’s attempt to thwart the internet is doomed to fail

Posted by: Thom James

There’s a lot of debate out there in the blogosphere over yesterday’s decision by New Zealand District Court Judge David Harvey to prevent the online publication of the names and images of two men charged with the murder of teen John Hapeta.

It’s a curious one. As the likes of Bernard Hickey point out, this guy is no internet ignoramus; he’s actually one of our foremost authorities on cyber-law in New Zealand. If that’s the case, then he must surely recognise the impracticalities of his ruling. Name suppression orders are imposed on a regular basis in New Zealand, which makes this particular half-measure all the more curious. If it is Judge Harvey’s intention to restrict access to this information in order to prevent potential jurors being influenced during a future trial, why allow their names to be released in the first place at this stage in proceedings?

The judge states that he is “concerned with the viral effects of digital publication” - is he not similarly concerned with the viral effects of conversation around the water-cooler, in the pub, on the phone? Surely Judge Harvey is not so na?ve as to perceive the Internet as some sort of conduit for disrupting and influencing the judicial process? One can see what he is driving at, in wanting to restrict future access to the information, but the idea is just too full of holes to be practical.

At the end of the day, it’s a moot argument - the names are already out there should you care to google them. Even if they weren’t, the information is now public record, and can be accessed in future by anyone who can be bothered to track it down. While news websites may adhere to the ruling for fear of the legal ramifications, information online has a life of its own, and is no respecter of the law. As of 4.40pm on 26 August, there are 133 hits for the two names, and that will only grow exponentially. So what exactly was the point? It will be interesting to see where this precedent leads, as there is already interest internationally in Judge Harvey’s landmark ruling.

Five reasons why blogging makes sense for smaller businesses

Posted by: Thom James

I spoke at an Auckland Chamber of Commerce event this week on the benefits of blogging for small to medium businesses. It really is an ideal channel for companies offering niche products and services that lack the brand presence of larger organisations. Here are five reasons why blogging is such a great tool for SMEs:

1. Cost - Access to free software such as WordPress make a blog an extremely cost-effective branding tool for companies that lack a substantial marketing budget
2. Presence - A blog site external from an organisation’s website expands its online footprint, increasing its visibility. There are a lot of poorly-optimised company websites out there, making a blog a particularly vital SEO tool
3. Personality - Blogging gives a business a means of breathing a bit of personality into its brand, conveying an authenticity that engenders loyalty and trust in consumers. Many small businesses are run by the individual(s) that started them, so why not give an outlet for the passion they have for what they do?
4. Conversation - A blog is a great opportunity to instigate conversation with a customer base. I spoke with a lady at the event who was a naturopath. A blog is an ideal communications channel for such a business, allowing it to hold conversations with customers who are seeking advice or who might have queries about natural medicines. That one-to-one relationship adds significant value to a company’s offering
5. Community - As I have noted, with many SMEs operating in niche spaces, a blog is an opportunity for them to position their brand as a community hub. For example, I spoke with a chap who sold kickboxing equipment. Setting up a blog on kickboxing would give him a platform to position himself as an expert, provide his customer base with a focal point to discuss the discipline and deliver his company with excellent brand positioning, and an avenue back to his sales channel.

TVNZ NZ Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards

Posted by: Paul Matthews

I was lucky enough to be invited to the TVNZ NZ Marketing Magazine Marketing Awards last week at the SKYCITY convention centre in Auckland. Hat tip to Graham Medcalf and his team who put on a fantastic event, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening and my congratulations to all the winners.

Front row (left to right) Sue McCarty, Chief Executive, Marketing Association, Sandra King, Group Advertising and Marketing Manager, Fairfax Media, Simon Young, Founder, Simon Young Writers and iJump Back row (left to right) Lisa Fitzpatrick, Marketing Manager, Marketing Association, Graham Medcalf, Editor, Marketing Magazine, Rob Davis, Director, Admission, Paul Matthews, Account Manager, Bullet PR, Juliette Bavister, Marketing Manager, 3media Group, Rosalind Malone, Events Manager, 3media Group
Read the rest of this entry »

Best practice social media; the Public Sector leads the way

Posted by: Paul Matthews

We?ve talked about both the benefits of good, quality use of social media and the repercussions for abysmal practice throughout this blog.

An organisation that seems to be embracing the use of social media is the Ministry of Economic Development (MED), especially surrounding the Digital Strategy it is formulating for New Zealand. In fact, in some ways the Public Sector is leading the charge in this arena. I was curious to find out exactly how successful they have been.

I asked Zara Lynch, Digital Strategy Communications Manager a couple of questions on how she had felt the conversation was developing.

• Would you say the use of social media tools in formulating digital strategy has been successful?

• As a result of your experience, do you have any practical tips for those looking to use social media?

Zara:

Being the first time we had a go at using social media tools, the digital strategy wiki was very much a learn as you go experience. In terms of success - we didn’t get thousands of comments like the Police Act wiki last year! But the comments that people made on the wiki were informative and helpful to the consultation process - both in terms of comments for the draft and suggestions for the wiki itself. Some great ideas have come through the wiki that will be reflected in Digital Strategy 2.0 which is due out in the next month or so.

In terms of tips - the best advice we can give is have a go! Web 2.0 is all about talking, sharing knowledge, participating and trying out new gadgets!

Some other great examples of public sector online participation are:

The Couch - the Families Commission online panel

Safe As - the Ministry of Transport Road Safety Forum

ParticipatioNZ wiki - State Services online participation community of practice

Wordpress 2.6 now released ? Corporate blogging made easier

Posted by: Thomas Rowley

The much awaited Wordpress version 2.6 has just been released and is now running on Bulletpoints!
Here is a brief overview of the new features that are relevant to the public relations practitioner:

• Post Revisions: Wiki-like tracking of edits
  This is a great feature, especially if you have a multi author blog.
• Press This!: Post from wherever you are on the web
  With a move to make blogging more and more accessible this feature makes blogging really easy, no excuses now for marketing communicators and mobile warriors!
• Shift Gears: Turbo-speed your blogging
  This feature utilizes Google Gears, which basically downloads as much of the sites files 7 scripts so that they run locally, this dramatically speeds up load times on pages.
• Theme Previews: See it before your audience does
  Another great feature for those who are very active in improving and upgrading their blogs, check that new theme without the whole world knowing!

There are also a few smaller features that might come in handy, such as a word count which saves copying and pasting back & forth from word.

For more information visit the official Wordpress blog

How NOT to use social media part 2

Posted by: Thom James

I blogged a few weeks ago on National Australia Bank’s dodgy use of comment spam to promote its services on Aussie Rules-related blogs. If you thought that was shoddy behaviour, have a look at this example from the US.

As with the NAB case, the consultancy’s social media practice here is astoundingly unethical. Have a read of the excruciating way 5WPR VP Juda Engelmayer attempts to wangle his way out of it. Amusing, and extremely embarrassing for a consultancy that supposedly prides itself on its online PR savvy.

Jimungo launches Pulse of the Nation virtual election

Posted by: Paul Matthews

We don’t usually go in for shameless plugs here on Bulletpoints, but this is pretty cool. Our client Jimungo has created and launched an online competition called Pulse of the Nation, allowing players to participate in a virtual New Zealand election and win prizes for accurately predicting the winners.

You may be familiar with Jimungo if you’re one of the 150,000 who play Telecom Virtual Rugby each year - Jimungo has been running that for some time. In the last few years, they’ve also launched Jimungo League and Jimungo Netball, but an online competition around a political election is a world-first as far as we know.

Pulse of the Nation is essentially an online community with a competitive element - you can take on your mates and your family, and see who comes out on top after each virtual election every two weeks. Since it went live three days ago, 3000 players have already signed up. The Jimungo boys have got some neat stuff up their sleeves for developing the ?community’ aspect of the game as we get closer to the election proper here in New Zealand later this year (yes, our electoral cycle is coinciding with that of the United States in 2008). So sign up and see how good you are at picking which way the political winds are blowing. You don’t have to be domiciled in New Zealand, though you need to be to win the iPod Touch prize for the most accurate prediction. (In case you don’t understand Pulse of the Nation’s proportional allocation, New Zealand has an MMP electoral system) Good luck!

‘Where the bloody hell are you?’ - I’m going to miss you!

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

Yes, the now ditched Aussie tourism slogan grew on me! Maybe it’s because I’m Kiwi; we have that much more cultural affinity with Australia than just about anyone else - I think it appealed to us. And of course, it spawned a whole bunch of amusing variations, particularly so at Bledisloe Cup matches!

The images on the TVC were simply spectacular - that mouth-watering variety of visual slendour from the great vastness of the Australian continent. It certainly made me want to visit Oz!

But apparently Canada and the UK didn’t like the language or something; Tourism Australia ditched it… and now the Aussie PM himself is having a go!

Ultimately the slogan fell victim to the tighter travel market - there was little or no discernible increase in inbound travel from specifically targeted countries.

But maybe Australia doesn’t need a one-size-fits-all global slogan - after all, what attracts New Zealanders, for example, to visit Australia may be entirely different to that of Japanese or Germans. What happened to targeted marketing?

So, bloody hell, whatever they come up with next, I hope for their sakes, it isn’t treated as a sacrificial lamb should greater macro-economic forces once again take their toll on tourist numbers.

WordPress Content Managent System (CMS) - Not just a blog

Posted by: Thomas Rowley

As I get more familiar with WordPress I find myself recommending it for just about any type of website. It’s important to think of WordPress as a highly customisable CMS not just a blogging platform. I have created a simple New Zealand CMS theme that could easily be used for a basic website. To modify the theme you can find all the WordPress template tags here.

Click here to download the WordPress website theme.

Bank spams blogs: how NOT to communicate via social media

Posted by: Thom James

Here’s a great example of why, if you’re a large corporate, you should leave social media well alone if you don’t understand it. Last week National Australia Bank had the audacity to spam a number of AFL-related blogs to promote a new service. Now, comment spam is a sneaky little practice at the best of times, as I’ve discussed previously. But when a corporate behemoth that made an A$4.6 billion profit last year decides to intrude on a blogger’s patch and use it as a free marketing tool, that’s taking the proverbial.

There are a couple of things that are particularly galling about this episode:

1. The bank’s PR consultancy showing a worrying lack of awareness about basic blogging etiquette. If consultancies are going to recommend dodgy practice like this to clients, it impacts negatively on the companies that do use social media transparently as a valid communications channel
2. The complete lack of remorse shown by the bank. Ok, you’ve been rumbled, and the bloggers whose blogs you’ve hijacked are obviously peeved. Now, good ORM practice would recognise the need to post a genuine comment on those blogs admitting fault, apologising and perhaps offer some form of recompense (free AFL tickets, for example). But all the bank has done is prodded the hornet’s nest by denying any wrongdoing, which has, of course, encouraged bloggers to decry their behaviour, and thus spread negative comment about National Australia Bank online. Well done guys

Hat-tip to Simon Young over at ijump for the link.

Why public relations matters in a changing media landscape

Posted by: Thom James

Interesting article in The Australian last week. Nick Davies’ book Flat Earth News cites research finding that 80% of stories in British newspapers were rewritten wire copy and press releases, or “churnalism” as Davies puts it.

It’s true that newspapers around the world are cutting costs and trimming editorial staff. But the selected findings of Nick Davies don’t tell the full story. In a post-Enron world, the likes of Sarbanes-Oxley and equivalent laws in other jurisdictions, mean there is an increased demand for greater corporate governance in the private sector, and greater statutory obligations for transparency in the public sector. The reality is that many organisations must use PR tools by necessity in order to ensure full disclosure and regulatory compliance.

At the same time, the media has a greater need than ever for content due to the demands of their expanding online channels. The NZ Herald, for example, frequently runs material on its site that is not replicated in the print version. It is an unfair expectation on already stretched journalists that they fulfil this demand themselves, which is where PR-driven content comes in. As long as the content that’s provided is newsworthy, relevant and of interest, then PR serves a valuable purpose to the media.

The public relations industry has long been an easy whipping-boy for media commentators like Davies, who would have you believe that PR is responsible for devaluing or undermining journalistic standards, that in some way the industry is corrupting the integrity of the media. Well I’m sorry Nick, but that’s nonsense - it’s simply up to publications to ensure they cut the wheat from the chaff, and ensure that what makes it into print is relevant to their readers.

Avoiding pitfalls to ensure Corporate Blogging success

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

Following on from my previous post re the benefits of blogging, it?s also appropriate to point out the pitfalls to avoid in ensuring long-term blogging success. There is no better source to turn to than US Search Engine Marketing and Online PR guru Lee Odden of Top Rank Online Marketing and the excellent Online Marketing Blog. I had the pleasure of meeting Lee at Search Engine Room Australia. Check out his five very salient points in ‘5 reasons why business blogs fail’.

Corporate blogging; why New Zealand companies should blog

Posted by: Nicholas O'Flaherty

I gave a presentation on online public relations last week to the Sales and Marketing Institute of New Zealand, which included the topic of corporate blogging. As a result of a number of questions following the presentation, I have compiled a list of key benefits, which are in no particular order of importance:

• Cost: it?s cheap to set up with little ongoing costs except your time
• Online makes sense: A lot of people now have broadband at work and at home, and they are with this as a communications channel
• Ease: online publishing is easy; posting blogs becomes second nature
• Content: Most companies are sitting on a mountain of content. One post minimum on average per week is respectable
• Media relations: the blog can help enormously in strengthening your relationships with key journalists.
• Blogger relations: a blog makes it much easier to start to attract the attention of influential bloggers; they provide links to your posts, driving traffic to you
• Connecting with customers: this can become a real cost effective direct channel to let your customers know what to look forward to
• Research/polling capability: the direct relationship ultimately may allow you to do this
• Gain better insights of your customers: find out what they want, get greater detail, demographics etc
• Providing an online community for customers: the comments capability will allow feedback and discussion; strengthening your customer relationships, and making isolated customers feel together
• Attracting prospects: the blog can drag in prospects virally and show them what they?re missing out on.
• Strengthens your brand: makes key influencers sit up and take notice; a blog shows that you are progressive, dynamic, 21st century, customer ?centric, etc
• Risk: comments are moderated which deflects unsavoury content or spam
• Potential advertising revenue: yes, why not? If you build your readership, you may end up with an attractive advertising target

And in particular, here are some important Search Engine Benefits of blogging

• Create inbound links to your blog: having a blog at yoursite.co.nz/blog means that these links benefit the ranking of your main site
• Create niche content: By blogging about niche subjects you are able to create highly optimised content, increasing your rankings for key terms as well as the ?the long tail?
• Fresh content: Search engines love fresh relevant content; regular posting will benefit search rankings
• Social media: By submitting each blog post to relevant social media sites like Scoopit, Digg & Reddit you not only allow content to spread virally, you can create a lot of incoming links

The future of public relations in New Zealand

Posted by: Thom James

I spoke on a panel at the PRINZ Annual Conference last week on the future of the PR industry in New Zealand, alongside Pip Tschudin of Trustpower and Sharleen Pihema of Manukau City Council. It was a lively hour, lots of interesting questions from the floor.

One of the main topics of discussion was the role of technology in the industry, new media in particular. It’s obvious that we are a good few years behind the US and UK in how we utilise new media channels, but it was heartening to see that, on the evidence of some of the questions we received, NZ practitioners are becoming more aware of the potential of social media.

It has taken so long for the idea that blogs and user-generated content are incredibly powerful communications tools to filter down to this neck of the woods. I spoke on blogging at a PRINZ event in June last year, and the lack of awareness in the audience was surprising. Clearly, in the year since that event people have become much more clued up, and the next 6-9 months should see more and more organisations employing new media as part of their comms strategy.

Online Reputation Management ? Free Tools

Posted by: Thomas Rowley

With many companies offering paid Reputation Management tools that deliver less than ideal results it can be hard to know where to start. Here are some tools that are not only effective in managing reputations; they are also 100% free.

• Google Alerts
• Google News RSS Feed
• Google Blog Search RSS Feed
• Yahoo Pipes

Google Alerts
The most basic online reputation tool, Google Alerts informs you whenever your chosen word or phrase shows up in Google. Although quite handy, be warned alerts can take some time to come through, and therefore reducing the ability to respond in a timely fashion should it be necessary.

Google News RSS Feeds
The RSS feeds on the Google News search page are a great way to keep up on any news relating to your search term. Every time your feed updates you get the latest news based on your search term, you can also keep an eye on any coverage you competition gets.

Google Blog Search RSS Feeds
Much like the Google News feed except the search is across the blogosphere.

Yahoo Pipes
I?ve blogged about the benefits of Yahoo Pipes before, but only because Yahoo Pipes is possibly one of the best free tools available for monitoring your online reputation. The compelling benefit of Yahoo Pipes is that it aggregates content from multiple sources based on your search term then publishes it into one RSS feed. Every time you update your feed you get the latest content from the various sources. Here is a Yahoo Pipe that I setup to get you going, feel free to clone this tool and develop your own version.

Beware of clever comment spam on your corporate blog

Posted by: Thom James

We recently noticed a couple of incidences of comment spam on one of our clients’ blogs.

Comment spam is usually pretty obvious since it more often than not links you to sites selling products to help you cope with sexual inadequacies, or ‘genuine’ Rolexes and the like.

However this particular spam was far more subtle, hidden in fairly innocuous comments from supposedly encouraging readers.

And they both pointed to credible, if not plain-looking blogs (see below), loaded with Google AdSense ads. Nevertheless, one of them hid links to unsavoury content at the bottom. And there were other clues, such as a lack of detail on how to contact the supposedly expert blogger, or any biographical info about the author.

Not surprisingly, both blog domains were registered to the same person. Whether the spam was being distributed automatically or manually, this was an attempt to direct traffic to these blogs to make money from the Ads. So, Brian Fleming, knock it off…

As spammers get smarter, you need to watch out for these kind of comments, otherwise you may find yourself approving them in the moderation process when in fact they are dishonest attempts to redirect users to their blogs or boost their rankings by adding in-bound links.

So if it’s your job to monitor and moderate your company’s blog, make sure that every link embedded in a comment goes back to a bona fide blog on similar, relevant content. And read those blogs carefully!

Search Engine Optimisation Basics for Public Relations Practitioners (1)

Posted by: Thomas Rowley

As public relations embraces online communications, PR practitioners need to understand the fundamental importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). With so much information out there about optimising web pages for Google it can be hard to know where to start.

Here is what I consider the most important aspects of Search Engine Optimisation,

The Basics:

1. Page Titles
2. Headings
3. Content / Copy
4. Links

1. Both the page title & the file name are important, try to start with relevant words. ie. If your page is about “computer chairs” Then name your file “computer-chairs.html”. Your title should be something like “Computer Chairs - Your Business Name”.

2. Headings have a lot of weight when Google determines what your content is related to. Your main heading should be surrounded in heading tags (H1, H2 for subheadings etc.) and contain the same keywords as your title & file name.

3. The most important aspect of your page is quality content. The content of your page should be related to and contain the keywords that you used in the first 2 steps. Don’t overdo the keywords though, a good rule is it should contain the keywords but not seem obviously ‘keyword stuffed’ when a user reads the page.

4. Inbound links make all the difference to where your page will show in the Google results. As a general rule the more websites linking to your page or website, the higher up the results your site will show. This is because Google counts each link as a vote for your website and the better the linking / voting site the better the value of the link.

My next post will discuss different methods for acquiring links so stay tuned.

From your Sony Handy Cam to YouTube in 46 easy steps

Posted by: Thomas Rowley

Recently I had the task of implementing a YouTube channel for a client.

I was quite surprised with the amount of effort it took to get video from our ‘Sony HDD Handy Cam’ edited and up on YouTube. The first hurdle was the codec that The Handy Cam used, in true Sony fashion it wouldn’t open in any of the video editing software demos I had.

After multiple downloads of various video conversion and editing tools I discovered Sony Vegas which opened the files directly from the cam with no need for conversion to another format. I found Sony Vegas to be a great tool, especially for quick editing of clips for YouTube. Compared to Adobe Premiere (editing software I have used in the past) the rendering / exporting was a lot faster and previewing transitions and effects was faster too.

So for YouTubers wanting to get video from their Sony Handy Cam (and other brands too) online I recommend Sony Vegas, at about $100 US for the platinum version . I think it’s good value.