Category: Social Media

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

Age is just a number

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.” Continue reading →

Interesting survey – how Global Fortune 100 is using Social Media

Big business

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%. Continue reading →

Mashable declares “Google’s got a monster on its hands” with Buzz

Google Buzz

Social Media site Mashable asked its community what the number one reason people found themselves using Buzz (and therefore why it had gained traction so quickly). The summary?

· Easy to use

· Accessible

· Convenient

· Closer social circle

· Moves in real-time

· Engaging

While one might argue this is a list that any Social Media platform would be aiming to achieve, it’s easier said than done. Continue reading →

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

Burger King

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. Continue reading →

Creating online communities: the journey doesn’t stop there

Lack of connection?

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. Continue reading →

The rules of social media

Engage With Social MediaRule 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.

Continue reading →

Defining ‘success’ in Social Media

Success

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.

Continue reading →

Marketing in NZ: Where’s the Experience?

Kiwi Bacon's 'Get Some Kiwi In Ya' campaign

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.

Continue reading →

The Importance Of Face-To-Face Networking

Media Mingle

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. Continue reading →

Is it a trend or is it a ‘megatrend’?

trend

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. Continue reading →

Social Media to bring world peace?

Facebook Peace Graph  

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. Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Social media plays major role again in breaking news

twitterIn 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. Continue reading →

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

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. Continue reading →

Corporate blogs level the playing field for small businesses

1574R-0990AIn 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. Continue reading →

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

Journalism and Public RelationsI 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: Continue reading →

Telecom chooses Twitter for big announcement

xt-logoToday, 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.

NZ judge takes social networking sites beyond the social network

facebookReading 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.

Avoiding identity hijacking online

Aladdin 2008 OverviewThe 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. Continue reading →

PR and social media observations on the demise of Ferrit

ferritThe 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. Continue reading →

Importance of social media for news consumption

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: Continue reading →

Using Twitter for business

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.

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

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.

Best practice social media; the Public Sector leads the way

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

How NOT to use social media part 2

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

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 picks

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!

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.

Spam comment

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.

The future of public relations in New Zealand

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.

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.