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 »

Not mobile optimised? Then you’re not in business

Research giant Nielsen recently released a study that confirmed what we have all probably known for some time: optimising your site for mobiles is the next game-changer for global business. The research features on Australian SME website, Smart Company and highlights several salient points, notably the relevance of Google maps via smartphones. As Matt Bruce, managing director of Nielsen’s online business, says:

“Google is making big plays in mobile, both in terms of maps and mobile search. I think businesses need to pay attention to local business listings, and that type of activity, because people are increasingly using these tools to get around.” Read the rest of this entry »

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

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 »

Online Reputation Management ? Free Tools

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.

From your Sony Handy Cam to YouTube in 46 easy steps

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.

Using Yahoo Pipes in your Online Reputation Management

Keeping track of your online reputation is time consuming enough without having to decide which of the myriad tools you use to get the job done.

However, whichever combination you decide on, whether Google Alerts, Google News Feeds, IceRocket Search Feeds, Technorati Watchlists, etc, make sure you aggregate them through Yahoo Pipes, an essential tool for today’s communications professional.

Yahoo Pipes helps you keep track of your Online Reputation without having to search in 20 different places. You can aggregate content feeds from a number of different sources, and present them in RSS, email or even SMS, without needing the skillset of a programmer.

Here is a Yahoo Pipe I created from an existing News Aggregator Pipe (Yahoo Pipes allows you to easily ?clone? existing pipes & modify them.)

How to use this Pipe:

1. Enter your search term in the search box and click ?Run Pipe?, which will return a list of results.

2. You can then subscribe to the updates through RSS, etc.

As with any Online Reputation Management tool there is a certain amount of manual reading involved to determine which results are relevant. But Yahoo Pipes certainly goes a long way toward simplifying the task in hand.