‘Word of mouth’ marketing is social media, PR and all of the above

Media types sometimes refer to ‘word of mouth’ marketing as the most powerful form of communications. Social media is intrinsically tied into this as it is based largely on the fact that personal recommendations are the most powerful; certainly more powerful than a brand talking at you.

However, word of mouth marketing isn’t purely about social media. It can be embodied in ambient/experiential marketing, promotional stunts and also PR.

The slight difference with PR is that it’s a third party recommendation/endorsement from a journalist or blogger rather than a personal contact.

So, essentially, social media is very closely aligned with PR. Read the rest of this entry »

The missing link: when sales, PR and advertising are disconnected

Apparently, the recent Old Spice ad has been right up there in terms of ‘talkability’, ‘buzz’ and ‘engagement’. This much is true, proven by the fact that the video, and the personalised re-incarnations (which was a great idea, by the way), have been viewed by approximately one zillion people around the world. They have been watched and passed on to friends and family because they are very funny; it’s that great content thing again.

But is this ad going to sell more product? I would never buy OId Spice, nor would my Dad, my brother, my boss, my flatmates…I’ve questioned them all and nobody I know buys it and the ads have, if anything, simply re-enforced this notion. Read the rest of this entry »

Beyond the guff, is all this social media stuff just advertising and PR in disguise?

I went to an NZ Marketing Association event this morning that featured the head of Facebook for Australia and New Zealand as well as the Online Editor team at Rugby World Cup 2011.

It was interesting to get an update on what Facebook can offer and it was also good to hear the inside story on how the Rugby World Cup is being promoted.

The talk did, however, raise a few questions in my mind about the ongoing role of social media.

Social media is all about sharing and it’s all about user-generated content (70% is the target according to Facebook) and…you’ve heard this before so I won’t bang on about what it is.

Driving Facebook followers or ‘likes’ is mainly achieved through advertising. Seeing as social media’s based on non-advertorial pledges, isn’t this oxymoronic? Read the rest of this entry »

Change the PR channel, ‘Google Me’ is about to start

People often talk about social media being just a channel for content, as opposed to it being the content itself. Which is true, but that perhaps doesn’t tell the full story.

The common idea is that social media should be used just like any other PR or marketing channel. I would disagree with this notion as each channel must be dealt with differently. As this blog post by Tim Sanders so rightly refers to, you should never move away from the brand strategy when incorporating social media into your marcomms efforts. Read the rest of this entry »

Online public relations and the privacy debate

There have been lots of conversations recently about privacy, specifically in social media. Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and head-honcho at Facebook, got very sweaty when discussing the topic recently. If Mark Zuckerberg, one of the pioneers of the share everything world we live in is getting sweaty about ongoing privacy concerns, then perhaps we should all be worrying.

But I don’t think it’s really about privacy. It’s actually about money. And egos. Read the rest of this entry »

Are location based services the next wave of social media or just hype?

Interesting guest post here on Mashable from Chris Treadway, about the future of location based services.

It raises interesting and salient points around, say, the number of people using LBS only manifesting itself into relatively small groups of people in individual areas.

The article also touches upon an ongoing, but rarely discussed, issue for PR and Social/Digital Media: are we just talking into an echo chamber? Read the rest of this entry »

The Future of PR?

Disclaimer: I have a tendency to make broad and sweeping statements.

This is the future of PR, via Brian Morrissey of AdWeek. Read the rest of this entry »

Bullet PR looking for online-literate Account Manager

If you are driven, motivated and like working in a flat management structure, this could be the role for you.

We are excited by the possibilities and challenges that digital media brings and passionate about using social media to complement ‘traditional’ PR. We wouldn’t claim to be social media experts, but we know our stuff and love learning more. Our new team member should have some knowledge of online PR, digital influence, social media and how they interrelate.

As an Account Manager at Bullet PR, you would be expected to have some PR or relevant marketing experience – probably one to three years in an agency setting. But, more importantly, you would need a  self-starter attitude and a determination never to give up.

You would also be comfortable picking up the phone and pitching to journalists as this will always be part of what PR is all about.

The office atmosphere is very open and everyone’s ideas are heard.

If you thrive off responsibility and like the idea of joining the team, please email your CV to jenniferd@bulletpr.co.nz

Communicating Creatively

Think outside the box for a minute. Let’s have a brainstorm and do some blue-sky thinking. You know,  a whiteboarding session.

Working in public relations, we’re straddling the line between the creative and business fields, often being pulled strongly in both directions. Clients want new, fresh ideas that bring original thought and perspective to help reach their audiences, while the realities of budgets and billable hours mean that the grandest, greatest, most original ideas are often ones that get cut first. It’s easy to therefore fall into the trap of complacency and do the same set of standard tactics that worked before and will work again. But that does little to advance the brand and reputation of clients, and frankly, they deserve better. Agencies are engaged for their creative nous just as often as for their business acumen, writing skills and media contacts.

Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media Myths

Edelman Digital recently interviewed Brian Morrissey, Digital Editor of AdWeek at the Marketing 2.0 Conference in Paris.

Morrissey gave a rundown of his ‘Social Media Myths’, which included:

• Social Media isn’t just about listening
• You can sell, you just have to do it right
• You can buy friends (Microsoft recently did it for its Facebook page by offering free ‘Farmville money’)
• Sponsored links. incoporated advertising can work with Social Media and is going to be the future

Some good points there, but what do you think? Are we going to continue to see the Social Media landscape evolve and will it one day come full circle and be just like TV and other media that talks to the consumer, rather than with them?

Not all about Gen Y: why age is just a number in social networking

Check out an interesting breakdown of the different demographics from online monitoring company, Pingdom (via BrianSolis.com). It details how, despite a similar look and feel, the multitude of social networks have a very different make-up in terms of participants.

PR and Marketing thought-leader Brian Solis highlights a few interesting findings. For instance:

“The 45 to 65+ group, those who are usually considered laggards in the technology adoption cycle, symbolize almost one-third of total users of social networks. They’re equally connecting with not only each other but also the younger generations.” Read the rest of this entry »

Clever Uses of Stickers in Advertising

I recently stumbled upon this cool collection of advertising stickers on StumbleUpon, the bookmarking website.

It’s a fun list and shows the creative ways advertising can be used. I would also say it’s in the realm of experiential marketing as these kinds of stickers always make people look twice, which is a form of brand engagement.

It just goes to show, not all effective communication is online these days.

Interesting survey - how Global Fortune 100 is using Social Media

I recently came across this survey by PR agency Burson-Masteller on London-based Social Media agency, Fresh Networks blog.

In my opinion, many of the best examples of Social Media leverage are by small to medium businesses. Perhaps this is due to their nimble nature and the entrepreneurial skills of the staff or it could be they are more likely to look for cost-effective marketing tools. Whatever the reason, this survey shows it is pretty rare for Global Fortune 100 companies not to be using Social Media. A whopping 88% of the European companies surveyed are using one, if not more, of the following: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogs. However, in the Asia-Pacific region, this figure is just 50%. Read the rest of this entry »

Defining ’success’ in Social Media

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 »

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

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 »

Is it a trend or is it a ‘megatrend’?

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?

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

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 »

Corporate blogs level the playing field for small businesses

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 »

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

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 »

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

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

Five reasons why blogging makes sense for smaller businesses

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.

Wordpress 2.6 now released ? Corporate blogging made easier

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

Bank spams blogs: how NOT to communicate via social media

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.

Avoiding pitfalls to ensure Corporate Blogging success

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

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

Beware of clever comment spam on your corporate blog

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!

Blogging in the NZ Public Sector; slowly but surely

I recently attended a seminar in Wellington on the use of social media in the Public Sector, organised by the Network of Public Sector Communicators. There were attendees from a variety of state agencies including the IRD, Ministry of Economic Development, State Services Commission, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Although it appears to be early days so far for public sector blogging, clearly the momentum is building if the level and intensity of discussion is anything to go by.

One of the attendees, Matthew Lane at the State Services Commission, alerted me to ?In Development?, a multi-author blog the Commission has just launched this month, for an initial six month trial period. As the blog explains, ?it?s an experiment for us to practice what we preach as we provide advice and guidelines to other agencies that are considering use of Web 2.0 tools to achieve their goals.?

The sector as a whole has been cautious. As Matthew Lane told me ?keep in mind the real purpose of this stuff. It is not valuable in and of itself to have a wiki or a blog. Are these things doing what we always wished we could do better than before? Sometimes wikis and blogs can be a waste of time?? I agree wholeheartedly. However, I do believe social media, if implemented correctly, can provide a level of responsible transparency that the Public Sector constantly seeks under its statutory obligations.

Incidentally, for a good explanation as to why Government Departments have been slow on the uptake, read Jason Ryan?s overview on his excellent blog. Jason is Communications Manager at the State Services Commission.

Currently, there is not a large number of agencies visibly raising their heads above the blogging parapet; though as one seminar attendee said, ?everyone is experimenting, and often people do not like to announce that due to fear of failure.?

Some public sector blogs appear to be little more than short-term experiments. Take this blog by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC); a few posts in December, and then nothing.

Blogs with sporadic posts can nevertheless provide valuable insights. The NZAID Field Blog is a case in point. But I guess the nature of that blog merits some leeway as NZAID staff ?update the blog as they travel to the field to visit NZ-funded programmes and projects;? and this is from places as far ranging as Tonga, the PNG Highlands and Sri Lanka!

One of the most impressive and successful blogs by the New Zealand public sector has to be Lively, part of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage?s online portal NZLive.com. It?s just marked its first year online and the multi-authored blog is contributing to a significant footprint of valuable online resources.
We know there is much more to come. I will return to this topic as more social media initiatives come to the fore.

Corporate Blogging & Online PR ? Bullet PR presentation at Search Engine Room

Here are some edited video highlights of our presentation at Search Engine Room in Auckland November 2007.
There were more that 100 attendees at this inaugural event, mostly from the search industry as opposed to public relations.

Successful Blogging: Relevant content for the right audience

The recent travails of a young Brit by the name of Max Gogarty has highlighted one of the principal rules around blogging. Max, the son of a Guardian journalist, was given his own blog on the Guardian?s website, where he would post on his travels as a backpacker. Unfortunately for Max, a combination of his apparent upper-class background, the manner in which he got the blog in the first place, and his inability to write a decent sentence resulted in him being pilloried by the Guardian?s readership.

The incident reminds me of why it is so critical to know who your blog is targeting, and how much thought you must put into your content. Max was something of a sacrificial lamb to the Guardian?s liberal readership, but surely it should have occurred to the editorial team that maybe he was not a particularly good match as a contributor? It smacks of a rush job, and when you?re preparing to launch a blog, consideration is critical ? get off on the wrong foot, and your blog is doomed to fail (Max?s blog has since been pulled). You need to be sure who your audience is, and your content should be tailored to suit that audience. Young Max is a shining example of how paramount relevance is. If you?re not relevant to your targeted readership you will either be ignored, or at worse be on the receiving end of a Gogarty-esque flaming.