Public Relationships

20% discount for Digital Branding conference (Hong Kong, Singapore)

2012-01-26T14:40:00.000+08:00

The good folks at Pacific Conferences have asked me to speak at their upcoming Digital Branding conference. I'll be taking a deep dive into "Meaningful Brand Measurement: Turning Social Media Activity Into Business Outcome". Specifically I'll cover:

Understanding how digital has changed brand measurement
Latest trends in measuring social media initiatives to gauge the effectiveness of digital branding programs
A KPI-based measurement methodology (with examples from companies)
Deep dive case study on how measurement analysis changed a telecommunications company's branding approach
Understanding big data and the future of measurement

I'm speaking last on day two, so I'm hoping to keep this one both informative and entertaining! If you're keen to attend, the conference will be in Singapore on March 12 and 13 and in Hong Kong on March 15 and 16.

And if you'd like to save money, if you copy me (woolf.jeremy@gmail.com) in the registration email or quote my name in your registration form, you'll save 20% on the conference fee. More deets here:

- Jeremy

Big Social Media & Digital Trends for 2012 – Part Two

2012-01-20T12:04:00.002+08:00

Social media is struggling through its adolescence. Growing pains arevery real for many businesses, torn between the social business nirvana and thepragmatic realities of the day-to-day. To help those keen to get a jump on theyear ahead I offer five more trendsthat are likely to shape PR, social media and digital communications in 2012.

1. From Bolt-on to Business as usual

The advent of social media saw marketers attach themselves to channels such asTwitter, Weibo and Facebook with palpable glee. Many felt they were low-costways of pushing more marketing messages at a receptive public, and gleefullymeasured success per 1,000 likes in the same way they’d previously lapped upmedia coverage measured by the pound. Social networking activity was ratherclumsily ‘bolted’ on to existing marketing and communications programs, andoften left to its own devices.

The lessons of 2011 told us that social isn’t a ‘bolt’ on. For manyconsumers, Facebook is the Internet. Facebook traffic is going up and webtraffic is in decline. 1-800 numbers are passé – customer support is 24×7 and onyour social network. The mission for 2012 is to create a seamless experienceacross a range of historically disparate social media, digital and offlineproperties. Wishful thinking? For many, perhaps. But in the social consumer’smind, the change has happened. Better interaction across business functionsisn’t just management dreaming, it’s social consumer demand.

2. Social goes mobile

More than 300million people are accessing Facebook via mobile apps as the smartphone becomes the primary internet access device. The users have spokenand in 2012 marketers must be ready for them. The brand relationship isincreasingly dependent on smaller screens which need to offer compelling – anddirective – experiences.

We’ll need to start marketing through mobile channelsfirst, making better use of images, video, and less text. Variables such as geolocation, NFC, mobile search and augmented realityneed to be factored in as time and location become critical for brands wantingto capture greater mobile wallet share. For those that haven’t considered this,take a look at your website on a smart phone (here's mine). Hope you’ll like what you see…ormore crucially I hope your consumers like what they see.

3. Influence is currency

2011 saw the influence debate really take off. Google, Twitter and Facebook are fightingtooth and nail for your social credentials. Influence ranking systems Klout and PeerIndex both have gained greater recognition over the year but withtheir success has come controversy. The fact that Klout’s changes causeduproar indicates that reputation measurement is here so stay.

2012 will seeeven greater use of influence scores as the industry seeks a better standard. Better algorithms will dictate greater use of scores in shaping PRtactics. Our focus will increasingly be on understanding how the influentialand vocal minority can help us shape our client’s brands. Customers andemployees will play larger roles in marketing programs as social currencybecomes easier to measure. The ability of Klout and its ilk to keep innovatingand providing more specific data will change the way we look at PR forever.

4. Changing channels?

In 2011 the social network wars exploded. The emergence of Google+ saw Facebookand Twitter make significant changes to their UIs. Niche socialnetworks like Instagram and Pinterest founda home on many desktops and mobile devices.

In 2012 we’ll see Facebook, Google+and Twitter continuing to innovate and offer greater ability to focus conversationsfor more specialized groups.

The question is, will this be enough for social consumers to keep them loyal or will newnetworks emerge to challenge?

The traditional broadcasters also aren’tstanding still. The entertainment and social media industries are colliding,with Twitter in particular helping create a new discipline called social TV.Second screen apps such as Umami and Gracenote are also blurring the linesfurther.

In 2012, stories will increasingly have to be told across networks tokeep consumer attention. Social networks will continue to innovate while simultaneously the big networks will do more to keep consumers withintheir ‘walls’. The challenge for brands will be to keep on top of the niche andlarge social networks and traditional broadcasters. It will be critical to keepan open mind and be willing to experiment as the channels jostle for position.

5. PR’s future

My final prediction is a big call but that’s the pleasure of forecasting. Frommy perspective PR will go through a required change in 2012. The shiftwill reflect the other nine trends I’ve talked to. Our ability toreact to changes in channels, consumer behaviors, tools and technologies willcement our future as an industry.

This change is one that will see a dramaticshift in our required skill set. We’ll need to take our heritage in client and industry understanding,audiences and narrative development and marry them to inbound marketing and content marketing skills. PR’s success will be its ability toput as much emphasis on creating compelling messages as it does on directing and measuring consumer behavior.

Our understanding of lead generation, website optimization, paidsearch, landing pages, calls-to-action and SEO techniques will ensure ourconsultancy is designed to achieve business KPIs. The combination of thisskill set with our traditional expertise in media and analyst relations,internal communications, public affairs, community management and contentcreation will ensure that PR has a role not just as a buzz generator but – mostcrucially – as a function that creates measurable and meaningful change.

Let me know what you think - leave a comment below or find me on twitter.

Images sourced under Creative Commons license from flickr users midgley, jcarlosn, JeffHester and MoyanBrenn, respectively.

The original version of this post first ran on my company's blog, HyperText

eBook Review: Google's ZMOT Winning the Zero Moment of Truth

2012-01-16T10:42:00.004+08:00

An idea struck me this morning. Don't know about you, but I'm someone whoabsorbs information better from a printed page. Call me old-school, but that'show I'm wired. I also spend the first part of my day reviewing the latest thinking onsocial media, social business, inbound marketing, PR and other digitalcommunications things. Often I'll find ~~a whitepaper~~ an eBook that looks interesting, soI'll tag, print, and add to my reading pile.

Now while many of these are poorly written attempts to drag you into asales funnel by capturing your attention (and your email address, businesssize, website and title), the majority are excellent sources of new thinkingand ideas (that are really worth your email address, business size and so on).

This all got me thinking. I'll tweet the good ones out but they'reprobably worth a more thoughtful commentary than one can impart in 140characters. So welcome, gentle reader, to the first (and possibly last!)Whitepaper Review...

ZMOT:Winning the Zero Moment of Truth

By Jim Lecinski

The average shopper used 10.4 sources of information to make a decisionin 2011, up from 5.3 sources in 2010.

Woah. This stat alone makes the paper worth reading. That's almosttwice as many sources in less than a year. If you ever doubted the influence ofonline in buying decisions of all kinds, then you won't after finishing this 60odd page whitepaper from Google.

Full of useful stats and up-to-date research, the core proposition isthat consumer buying has changed forever. Some marketers may be familiar withProctor and Gamble's First Moment of Truth (FMOT) where the consumer at thestore shelf decides to purchase. The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) happens beforethe consumer gets to the store (or polling booth, presses 'add to basket',decides which company to join, or signs the three year multi-million dollaroutsourcing contract).

The ZMOT is the moment when you go online (laptop, TV, mobile orwhatever) and start learning about a product or service. According to thewhitepaper, 84% of shoppers said that ZMOT shapes their decisions. It'snow as important as the original stimulus and Proctor and Gamble's FMOT inmoving customers from undecided to decided.

Sales Funnel No Longer Linear

The other key finding marketers need to consider is that shoppers todayare non-linear. While Marketing 101 was all about the sales funnel, it's naiveto assume that once you've hooked them, they'll follow a predictable path topurchase. The paper points out that 54% of people comparison shop for productonline. The nature of the Internet is that they'll typically widen searchesbefore coming to a conclusion. I really like this quote as it ties it alltogether: "...the funnel is now more like a neuron, with branches that letshoppers move forward and backward through the process until they're ready tomake a decision."

What's perhaps most telling is that conventional wisdom has told usthat only more expensive or complex decisions rely on deep online research. Butin the recessionary environment, everyday products are subjected to a similarscrutiny.

Proctor and Gamble have taken this to heart and are working onsomething called "store back" where they're now planning a marketingprogram based on a consumer's brand experiences working backwards from theshelf to the moments before the store.

From my POV, I see two other layers to develop. One is "communityback" - where you're planning from the immediate post-purchase experiencewhere a new buyer, "elector", employee or whatever is givenconfidence that they made the right decision and also support from a communityor shared interest group to help them with their decision should they havequestions or concerns.

The second is "advocate back" - where we plan for those 20%of customers (using the term generically here) with thegreatest influence, reach, Klout, and predilection for sharing are brought into thefamily with the knowledge that they're more likely to share good experiencesand help others make the right decisions.

B2B Buyers Research Online

The paper also reinforces that B2B decisions are made based on onlineresearch. While you may be so 'long tail' that there might not be a devotedcommunity talking about your product or service category, your buyers aredefinitely hitting search engines and researching. As the paper says,"Whether you're buying a refrigerator or a jet engine, you want to do yourhomework in advance."

It also offers great advice for companies starting out by offeringseven steps to win at ZMOT that every marketer should test these against theirown strategies. At the heart of this is knowing how people search for yourbrand.

For example, in "public relations", people are searching for"what is public relations" and "how to PR". I wonder howmany agencies ensure these search terms are reflected in their web copy andanchor text?

Critically the result should answer the question. For example,"what is public relations" must lead to a definition - not a salespitch.

This is the core of ZMOT. Being where your consumers are when theyfirst take that decision to search. The trick - and it's a big trick - is thenbeing able to meet their needs through an extended, non-liner buying path tothe point of purchase and beyond. The 'beyond' piece is most critical as ifsomeone’s happy with their purchase; they're more likely to talk about it whichhelps ZMOT. Rinse and repeat...

-Jeremy

I'd love your thoughts, comments and ideas. Jump in through yourpreferred channel below...

Photo Credit: 1017072, El Bibliomata, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fdctsevilla/4306301206/

Every Presentation Ever: Communication FAIL

2012-01-13T09:33:00.000+08:00

The sad but true reality of far too many communications brought to vicious life by GrowingLeaders.com. Worth watching - then watching again before every presentation you give. I especially like the IT guy...

Are brands losing touch with consumers?

2012-01-11T14:27:00.001+08:00

I jumped into a LinkedIn discussion the other day. The Group was discussing how brands are losing touch with consumers.Certainly the data is increasingly telling. As recently as today, more data isout telling us that most consumers don’t talk about brands on the dominantsocial media channels.

Responses ranged from “…brands were never in touch in thefirst place.” to “companies don’t understand the customer service role”. Iweighed in with the following…

Agree with the above but add the following thoughts. Brandshave often gone into social media channels without a clear understanding ofwhat their customers actually want. IBM (disclosure - IBM is a client of myemployer Text 100) released a Social CRM study that highlighted the emerging gap between marketingperception and social consumer reality. It showed that while brand marketersfelt consumers came to their social networks to feel brand love, they actuallywere more interested in receiving coupons, discounts and customer support.

I think this is compounded by the fact that often the peopleinteracting with social consumers on networks like Facebook and twitter aren'tadequately skilled in this type of customer-facing role. Just look at thegrowing list of social media customer service issues (search for OceanMarketing and Penny Arcade on Google for more on this)! I think the time'sright for social consumer support people to step up and play a larger role insocial network planning and execution.

If you're interested, I've blogged about these points in a2012 trends post - link's here.

So that’s my two cents. Anything to add?

-Jeremy

Photo credit: "My Favorite", Erwss, Peace and Love, cc attribution, share alike http://www.flickr.com/photos/erwss/3129884643/

smart thief caught on cam

2012-01-09T09:27:00.000+08:00

Great video from LG. Guess to most people (and vendors!), a thin TV's a thin TV. But with more than 1.6 million views as of 9 January 2012, you have to assume a bunch of folks have LG=thin embedded somewhere in their brains.

Big Social Media and Digital Trends for 2012 – Part One

2012-01-04T08:50:00.002+08:00

The social media gap is growing into a full-blown chasm. Onone side, we have companies that are struggling to get on board, having stalledat the twin road blocks of ROI justification and resourcing.

In the middle, there many businesses that have made solidsteps but run the risk of seeing their fledgling communities wither and dieunder the growing threat of recessionary cuts.

And in the distance, we have organizations that are well ontheir way to becoming social businesses. They have vibrant, self-supportingowned media communities while experts from many business functions act asambassadors in earned media networks. Their customers and employees areactively engaged in digital discovery and collaborative service development,and all of this is wrapped up with measurable and meaningful ROI.

But let’s be frank. This is certainly the exception and notthe rule. With this ideal in mind, it seems timely to look the trends that arelikely to shape social business adoption in 2012 and beyond…

1. The year social grows up

The writing is on the digital (or is that Facebook?) ‘wall’…interactive marketing is here to stay. With analysts predicting spendhitting nearly US$80 billion by 2016, social media and digital are no longerthe playthings of pajama-wearing bloggers and tweens. Beneath the headlines,though, there lies another story. Social media is hard. The streets aren’tpaved with digital gold. For example, Reuters recently reported thatfinancial advisors are seeing declining benefits from social media. In the samemonth, The New York Times toldus Facebook visits were dropping.

My company's client IBM’s Social CRM study highlighted theemerging gap between marketing perception and social consumer reality. Itshowed that while brand marketers felt consumers came to their social networksto feel brand love, the actually were more interested in receiving coupons,discounts and customer support.

In 2012, brands will increasingly be faced with a series ofhard choices. I said in last year’s trends post,that a presence in the big four of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube wasbecoming a non-negotiable. The hard choices come as they realize that buildinga thriving community in each is time consuming and – without firm goals inplace – possibly pointless.

There is a case for maintaining a minimal presence in onechannel – perhaps using it as a bridge to another. For many brands, YouTubeisn’t a strong community option – but is undeniably the video sharing leader.In this example, they should focus on other channels to build engagement whiledirecting consumers to their videos – and then back to other, more appropriatechannels for conversation or to purchase.

All of becomes more complex as brands need to maintain awatchful eye on emerging channels. Case in point is the much maligned Google+which is tipped tohit 400 million users by the end of 2012. Are you there yet?

Maturing social consumers will also start modifying theirbehaviors. Social media overload will see them dropping away from socialnetworks that don’t give them what they need. Those brands that haveestablished social presences should start 2012 by asking their loyal,high-sharing social consumers what they want – and modify accordingly. This isespecially important for those that have plateaued, are struggling to attractnew followers or are seeing engagement levels dropping. The opportunity forbrands in 2012 is for smarter, probably smaller, social networks that are builtaround tangible social customer needs of the vocal, high sharing minority andmeasurable business outcomes.

2. The age of social consumer relations management

The days of customers being happy with 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.Monday through Friday support are coming to an end. Encouragingly, many brandshave responded with social brand media monitoring programs and customer supportstaff in owned social media channels. While things are on the up, 2011saw brands such as FedEx, OceanMarketingand Qantas addedto the pantheon of social media fail case studies.

Clearly, we’re not there yet. An October2011 study from by Conversocial found many retailers failed to respondto complaints in social networks. Secondly from the ‘damned if you do, damnedif you don’t’ school of customer support, issues have also blown up whenattempts at online customer interaction have been judged inappropriate. Andwe’re also seeing backlash when brands have failed to anticipate the likelyonline reaction to their social media marketing attempts.

I predict 2012 will see the emergence of socialconsumer support functions. People with solid expertise in managing and predicting online customerbehavior will play a much greater role in all facets of a brand’s onlinepresence. The social media gold rush days are coming to an end. We need expertshelping to plan and manage discussions.

Surveys have told us people are lookingfor customer support in social channels, so get your customer support peoplethere. This will force even deeper collaboration between business functions andwith external agencies. It will also force jobs to be restructured as socialconsumer support – with its deeper customer understanding – taking a much morestrategic role in business decisions. Begs a question – will PR become a socialconsumer relations function?

3. Drop the ‘social’ as social business becomesbusiness

Me (left) discussing socialbusiness evolution with Clelia Morales from eBay;Christophe Rocca from SanDisk and Jonathan Jiménez from Vodafone during a Text 100 event in Madrid

McKinsey reports thatsocial technology use is increasingly correlated with operating marginimprovements and market share leadership. Great news, especially for those ofus who see social business becoming, simply, business in 2012, just ase-commerce became commerce before it. This year, we’ll see a rapid adoption of social technologieschanging all facets of business, whether they want to change or not.

The days of a marketing-led social media function are comingto a close. Smart companies are building centers of excellence that aresupporting all business functions in a coordinated fashion. They’re alsoinvesting in training all employees, realizing that the core demands fromsocial consumers are for subject matter expertise, not the size of someone’sTwitter following, Klout ranking or ability to text 100 words a minute.

Text100 has created an ambitious Digital Certification program where consultants,HR, IT, Finance staff and Office Managers are all tasked with improving theirthought leadership, digital consulting skills, community management andtraining.

Like an increasing number of companies, we’ve realized oursocial consumers want to interact with us through social channels. In responsewe’re redesigning our client support, marketing, recruitment and internalcommunications channels to suit the requirements of our audiences.

The mission for 2012 is for marketers to let go of otherbusiness disciplines. Future success won’t be in their ability to interpretwhat their colleagues in customer service, human resources and so on do anddeliver on their behalf. It will be in their ability to partner, coach andultimately enable these functions.

4. Spokespeople evolved: Executives to experts

A recent GlobalWebIndex reportfound that B2B decision makers were highly socially engaged and ratedconversations with brands on social networks as more influential than webinars,sales presentations, conferences or corporate entertainment. The more complexthe decision, the greater the need to ask questions of experts in onlinecommunities.

Social consumers who make big decisions want to talk to theright people online. We’ve pushed C-level executives into the spotlight formore than a hundred years – and if they’re the right people to manage thesecomplex online conversations then we need to arm them for the discussion.

We’re increasingly managing Digital Academy training for ourclients. These programs help people from customer support, sales, marketing,human resources and so on use social networking channels such as Twitter andLinkedIn to support their business goals. The resulting programs see theseexperts blogging on corporate websites, managing communities in companydiscussion forums, and acting as ambassadors in external earned mediacommunities.

Through 2012 and beyond we’ll see people from all businessfunctions playing similar expanded roles in support of their own objectives.This is a logical next step for those companies that have developed owned mediaproperties across Facebook, twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn. Based on ourexperience, it’s best to start with one business function, division or productand build a program around someone with a greater aptitude for social media.Measure their success – learn from the things that didn’t go well – and evolvethe campaign around them.

5. Big data becomes business as usual

IDC’s “2011Digital Universe Study: Extracting Value from Chaos” told us the world’sinformation is doubling every two years. Last year saw 1.8 zettabytes createdand replicated. That’s a lot of info and while most PR people would run amile before diving into the data, that’s one fear our profession is going tohave to face.

In 2012, marketers will need to use hard metrics to gaugedigital and social marketing ROI. We’re entering a tough economic environmentwhere even harder questions are going to be asked of the PR tactics we propose.The time for social media experimentation is waning in the hunt for solidbottom-line results.

The answer increasingly lies in what’s being called ‘bigdata’. While the definitions are blurred, at its corebig data means using a range of data sets including competitive information,online data such as social networking behaviors, offline data and customerinformation to enable a three dimensional approach to business decisions.

From a PR perspective the emergence of better, easier-to-usemore targeted tools combined with geo-location technologies will mean data willplay a meaningful role in PR activities. We’ll go beyond reach and“participation” measures such as likes and retweets and instead deriveaction-oriented insights from our metrics.

Big data will also help us understand the individuals we’reinfluencing so we can create more targeted strategies. And if this still makesyou want to run a mile, 2012 will also see a rise in specialist dataanalysts who will increasingly play a role in shaping communications decisions.

I’ll put up part two of this post next week. As always, your thoughtsare very welcome. To discuss directly with me, fire a note to woolf.jeremy@gmail.com

Photos courtesy of flickr users Stuckin Customs, KY_Olsen, Text 100,and Koenvereeken,respectively.

The original version of this post first ran onmy company's blog, HyperText

40 things killed by tech

2011-12-14T04:12:00.000+08:00

Nice video from Eric Qualman reflecting physical and some rather intangible things that technology has killed over the past two decades.

Creating Time for Social Media: Preventing information overload in three steps

2011-12-07T22:50:00.001+08:00

While the benefits of social media interactions are becomingmore and more obvious, many people I speak with worry about the time it takesto build and maintain online relationships. Like any other business tool,managing a social media presence takes commitment, practice and discipline. Tokeep on top of social media, I follow three steps each day:

1. Community-building

While it’s tempting to immediately open Outlook in themorning and become bogged down with the day’s emails, it’s a good habit tomonitor social channels before checking email. I also recommend maintaining aseparate email / Gmail account for social profiles which simplifies profilemanagement and prioritizing responses. My first five minutes are spent checkingfor new Twitterfollowers, Facebook friends, Google+circle additions and LinkedIn connectionsand group updates.

When I check the updates, I make a point of notautomatically following everyone back or contributing to all discussions.Consider things such as the kind of content the person shares and their onlineinfluence – a Klout rankingsearch can help here.

2. Curating and commenting

Set up Google Alerts for interesting topics and spend 10minutes reviewing your Google Reader for relevant news and blog posts. Whilereviewing, look for breaking trends or opportunities to comment or share. Ifyou’re pressed for time, flag an article using a social bookmarking or anotation tool such as Delicious or Evernote and comment later. Also makesure you cull LinkedIn groups and blogs that are no longer relevant – this willsave you time and keep you focused.

When commenting on blog posts, make sure you read all of thepost, review other comments, comment early and link only where the link extendsthe discussion or reinforces your point. Also consider the time of dayyou tweet. Tools like Tweriod willtell you when your followers are most active.

3. Sharing as You Go

The final tip is to share throughout your day. My logic isthat if you find a blog post, news story or video of interest, your audience islikely to feel the same way. Remember, the focus should be less what you wantto say but rather what your community wants to hear.

Twitter is a great channel for sharing your daily web‘finds’ and Google+ is also growing in popularity.

You can also synch up your Twitter, Facebook and LinkedInaccounts so content is shared across all three – this is a great time saver. Toshare selectively, use Google+’s Circles or Facebook’s Lists to post relevantinformation to different audiences.

Using this approach I’m able to keep on top of social mediain less than 20 minutes a day. If you’d like more tips on social mediamanagement, I suggest subscribing to Text 100’s DigitalDownloadnewsletter and HyperText blog.

Note: This post originallyappeared as part of the Focus Friday series on the Xerox Real BusinessBlog. Xerox is a client of my employer, Text 100.

Social Business is Someone Else's Problem

2011-11-29T11:38:00.001+08:00

I've been reading, thinking, speaking and writing a lot about socialbusiness recently. There are many definitions being bandied about. Some call itEnterprise 2.0. Others say the networked enterprise. I keep coming back toSocial Business and I quite like this definition that comes via IBM, a client of my employer Text 100:

A Social Business embraces networks of people to create businessvalue.

But I'm not writing yet another post about the issues of definition.I'm writing on the issue of application. One of the core principles of a socialbusiness is that constituents (be they employees, business partners, voters,customers and so on) are involved, via social networking technology, inbusiness decisions.

The best example of this in action is crowdsourcing new ideas from a widerange of stakeholders using platforms such as IBM's SocialBusiness Jam. This is absolutely best practice, with the 2006 InnovationJam, for example, bringing together thousands of people worldwide andcreating 10 new IBM businesses with seed investment totalling US100 million.

IBM is clearly ahead of the curve. But for those businesses startingtheir thinking, there are a bunch of challenges. The biggest single barrier formany business is somehow overcoming the business silos that make inter-functioncommunication and in many cases impossible. Assuming you can get the rightpeople around the virtual table and start bouncing around cross-functionalideas that will make the company millions, stop. Pause. And consider.

Reflect on how many brainstorms you've been in where literally hundredsof great ideas are created and everyone comes out of the room energized. Yethow many times have you walked back into that same room months later to tacklethe same problem and realized nothing had been done? All the best intent in theworld means nothing unless you're also planning to filter, prioritize andimplement.

And this is hard. It requires resource committed in advance. Itrequires people willing to take charge and make decisions. It requires lobbyingand c-level endorsement and participation. While social media (sadly) is oftenthrown to the nose-ring-wearing intern, social business is business engineeringand change management.

Before you start on your social business transformation, realize thatthe grown-ups need to get involved on the ground. And realize that this is along-term play that needs sustaining well-after the brainstorm endorphin buzzdies down. There needs to be boring things like consensus, approvals, budgetsand, most critically ownership of the implementation process. In socialbusiness - just like regular business - look before you leap.

-Jeremy

Photo Credit: Afterwards Tom and Eric weren't exactly sure at whichpoint during their discussion the elephant had entered the room, DavidBlackwell, http://www.flickr.com/photos/mobilestreetlife/4179063482/

Possible / probable futures

2011-11-24T09:11:00.000+08:00

I love the future and want to live there. Check out "A Day Made of Glass... Made possible by Corning"...

Google Street View Meets Toy Story

2011-11-24T09:03:00.000+08:00

I love this one. Silicon Alley Insider posted it today via Larry Page's Google+ page. It is called "Address Is Approximate" and tells a wonderful story using stop motion and Google Street View. Worth a look...

Share or Experience? Louis C.K. Hates Twitter

2011-11-22T10:10:00.000+08:00

I love this. Louis C.K.'s voice of reason rails against the insane desire to share over genuinely experiencing something. Sharing for sharing's sake seems an act of insanity. A good fundamental question - why are you on twitter? Discuss...

Introducing...the Social Media MBA

2011-11-14T21:47:00.001+08:00

About a year ago I received an intriguing email from ChristerHolloman, Sky News tech journalist and serial entrepreneur. Chris' conceptwas crowdsourcing a book on social media, and he asked me to contribute achapter. Of course I was keen to help and I'm pleased to announce The Social Media MBA willbe coming out from Wiley next February.

Our book features chapters from 15 social media folks fromacross four continents. Chapter headings include Inspiring AndFacilitating Creativity, Intent Is The New Demographic, GodTechnology and case studies from brands such as Dell, Kodak and Phillips.

My chapter covers The Social Media Gap and I've previewed iton Chris' Sky News blog here.

I must say this was a fascinating project to be involved in.The authors come from a range of backgrounds and geographies, which gives thebook - without a hint of a bias - a global flavour that is missing from manycomparable works.

If you'd like to know more, or correspond with the authors,there's a LinkedIn Group here. And given the people who put this together, expectmore social media as we hit the shelves. If you're keen to get your hands on acopy, you can pre-order from Wiley here.

- Jeremy

What is Branding?

2011-11-03T15:48:00.000+08:00

Nice take on the evolution of branding - and what it means to be a brand today. Good discussion starter methinks...

《10 minutes and you know about China》

2011-11-03T13:59:00.000+08:00

This 10 minute bluffer's guide to China is well worth a watch for anyone who's lost in translation...

Exploring social media on a global level

2011-11-03T11:23:00.000+08:00

Some words from me on social business, barriers, and best practice.

New PlayStation 3 pushes the right buttons

2011-10-08T23:36:00.001+08:00

As a card-carrying PlayStation 3 gamer, I loved this new ad. Oddly emotional, full of Easter eggs, and a wonderful celebration of all things PS3. Tribute to advertising's ability to create an emotional response.

Steve and me

2011-10-07T09:08:00.000+08:00

Photo: Rubenerd

Yesterday Steve Jobs died.

For some reason this has affected me more than I'd have thought. I didn't know Steve Jobs. But I kind of knew him. If you know what I mean.

My relationship with Steve started back in 1983, when I first snuck into my high school's fledgling computer room. More of a closet really. Inside, people's faces were illuminated by amber and green glows. The technology was a rag tag mix of 'Poly PCs' (hobby computers built by the local polytechnic), PC clones and a couple of Apple 2es. The longest line was always for the Apple 2es. And it was easy to see why. Castle Wolfenstein was the flavour of the month and the kids thrilled to be chased by sprites shouting 'Halt, SS!' at the tops of their 8-bit lungs.

Whereas the Poly PCs had colour and the Windows clones could be taught tricks, the Apple 2es just worked. And they were cool.

Fast forward a couple of years. I got into gaming and went down the Commodore 64 and Amiga path. Apples didn't have the games so I didn't pay much attention. Occassionally I'd go to my mate's place and fool around on his Apple, mocking it gently as I sat in the high and mighty Amiga world. As I started working, I struggled with clunky desktop PCs running DOS or early generations of Windows.

The next time I thought about Apple was in 1999. I'd started working for Text 100 PR in Sydney and Apple was my largest client. My 'beats' were K-12, Software and I also looked after some of the design tools.

On my desk was a brand new candy blue iMac G3 which I hated. It was being forced to run on a PC network and objected. I missed my second mouse button and trust me, there's no pain like running a Windows 95 emulator on a first gen iMac.

Despite the desktop challenges, I started to warm to Apple the company. While this was certainly pre iPod, iPad and iPhone, they had some very cool kit. I was especially impressed with obsessive fan base and the aura of this guy called Steve Jobs. I remember being transfixed as he had the audience literally in tears during one of the early Macworld 'Stevenotes'. This was the launch of Airport and he wowed the audience by picking up his notebook and walking away from his desk while remaining online. The crowd went wild.

I also recall doing PR for product launches which was a challenge. No one on the client side really knew what they were launching until Steve took the stage at Macworld on the other side of the planet (in the middle of the night Sydney time). So we'd invite the press to 'something', and the executives would sit up all night cramming for the morning's launch.

While this was frustrating, it was unlike any other company I'd worked for. The showmanship was astonishing. And it worked.

Another gap as I moved onto other clients and Apple faded into the background. The next time I crossed paths with Apple was as a consumer. And it was a revelation. I was late to MP3 music players but was happy I waited. The iPod was unlike anything I'd seen before. Elegantly designed and oddly familiar. It just worked. It was like flicking on a switch as I then sought out Apple stuff. iPhones, iPads and AppleTV followed. There's something - to borrow from Steve - magical built into these devices.

Hard to define but you know when you find it. I bought an HP wi-fi printer a year ago. It took me an hour to configure my home PC (which sat next to it) to talk to it. My iPhone said 'Oh, there's a printer'. And printed.

I've also become fascinated by Steve Jobs the leader. I've devoured Carmine Gallo's The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and been fascinated by Jay Elliot's The Steve Jobs Way. I obsessively follow Apple through my Podcasts, twitter and blogs. I went on pilgrimages to Apple Stores in San Francisco and New York. A born-again fanboy? You betcha!

This week, the world lost one of our greatest innovators. Thanks for the magic Steve.

-Jeremy

Photo credit: Rubenerd

Transmedia missionaris: Henry Jenkins

2011-10-02T09:48:00.000+08:00

I've become re-fascinated by transmedia storytelling. This video sums the concept up nicely...

News article: Social Media in China

2011-10-02T08:53:00.002+08:00

On a recent trip to China I met with Beijing Review and discussed social media in China and globally. Covered a range of things including the changing face of social media in China, the challenge for brands, talent and areas of focus. The article is here:

http://www.bjreview.com.cn/business/txt/2011-09/30/content_395522.htm

- Jeremy

Speaking at PR in the Digital Age Conference

2011-09-26T11:46:00.001+08:00

I'm speaking at the PR in the Digital Age conference in Hong Kong and Singapore in November. Details are here.

I'm talking about social media policies - here's the overview:

Bottling the lightning: How Social Media Policies and Employee Empowerment Are Changing PR

We live in interesting times as the days of communications control are coming to an end. Thanks to social media, ours is an age in which all employees can create, publish and comment. Enterprises have little choice in the matter.

They can either raise their fists in anger against this seemingly unstoppable force of nature. Or they can try to bottle the social media lightning and use it as a force for good.

This presentation will examine why businesses should empower their employees to act as brand advocates, the roles and functions of social media policies, and examine best – and worst – practice examples of employees’ social media behaviours. It will cite case study examples from companies such as Text 100 Public Relations, IBM, NXP Semiconductors, Singapore Health Promotion Board and Vodafone.

20% Speakers Referral Discount

If you sign up as a delegate through me, you're entitled to a 20% discount. Copy me in on the registration emails or quote my name in the registration form and save 20%. This discount applies to Early Bird Pricing. There will be an additional 10% off the total bill for groups of three or more.

Contact the organizers here for more.

- Jeremy

Sina Weibo Changes Communications in China

2011-09-05T17:05:00.002+08:00

I met with Holmes Report Managing Editor Arun Sudhaman last week and over sashimi he asked me what was shaking up communications in Asia. I pondered, sipped miso soup, and said 'Weibo'.

This form of short form communication - crassly referred to as 'Chinese twitter' - has certainly taken Chinese social networkers by storm and, in the process, had changed the way many Chinese companies were communicating. I saw this first hand during recent trips to Shanghai and Beijing.

Arun raised some more questions and his analysis was published today. Here are the original questions and my responses - with special thanks to TT Yang and Shannon Pu from Text 100 China who helped immensely.

IsWeibo (Sina & Tencent) changing the ways companies communicate in China? Inwhat ways?

The introduction of weibo has changed communications in China inthree key ways: speed, content and measurement. Weibos such as those from Sinaand Tencent allow people to post in real time, which requires both publisherand audience to react and respond faster than traditional PR communications. ManyChinese companies haven’t historically managed real-time communication – butincreasingly there will be an expectation that they monitor and respond to inquiries through social media channels.

Weibo’s mainstream popularity and immediacy is forcing companiesto pay more attention to this form of social networking. Given they only have140 Chinese characters to work with, companies must think more carefully abouthow their audiences will react to their Weibo ‘tweets’. They need to createcontent designed to generate a response from their readers – ideally a commentor ‘retweet’.

Critically, the language must be that of the reader, not that ofthe publisher. Instead of measuring PR results by character count or by thekilogram of press coverage, Chinese companies are increasingly looking atretweets, interaction and audience reach as success metrics. Finally, theoutcome is more important that the output.

Whyis this happening with Weibo (as opposed to other social media platforms) andwhy now?

Weibos have come of age as they have several key benefits overother social networks. The format - 140 words – makes it easier and faster tocreate and share content. The two most popular Weibos – Tencent and Sina – alsobenefit from being owned by two of China’s dominant Internet companies (unliketheir predecessors or competitors).

Whereas social networks such as RenRen and Qzone are chieflyused for entertainment, weibo are seen as a professional or intellectual outlets.The more sophisticated nature of weibo discussion (and its audience) has helpedmany B2B companies overcome their reservations about the importance of socialmedia channels.

Discussion around recent public issues such as the Zhejiangtrain crash and the Red Cross scandal has accelerated Weibo participation anduptake. Corporate usage is likely to increase thanks to Sina’srecently-launched Enterprise Version Weibo. This adds marketing functions suchas bulletin boards and videos on the home page and the ability to put the mostimportant tweet on top.

Doyou think companies could improve how they are using Weibo? How?

The popularity of weibo is forcing companies to question howthey communicate. Whereas China has historically been a market in which goodnews flourished, companies must now be prepared for the likelihood of having torespond to criticism or negative feedback. There’s no way to absolutely controla discussion – but weibo presents an opportunity to drive a public conversationwith an influential community. Those companies that use weibo as a way ofbroadcasting their press releases will soon realize that this is not the way towin the hearts, minds and even stomachs of their audiences. In one example, hotpot restaurant Haidilao managed queries over its ingredients in real-time usingWeibo.

Arethere any examples you can point to of companies using Weibo in a smart (PR)way?

Text 100 helps its client NXP manage itsofficial Sina Weibo. While traditional media relations remains a critical partof the communications program, the NXP Weibo has quickly become an importantway of interacting with almost 2,000 news media (including EE Times, ChinaBusiness Journal, and Semi China) and industry influencers. Interestingly, 30percent of our readers are NXP’s most critical audience – engineers. The Weibotakes an informal and conversational tone and has proved popular with NXP’saudiences. Beyond news and announcements, the Weibo has been used for product marketing.We recently used it to invite opinion leaders to use NXP’s e-meter product. Thetrial generated more than 500 comments and retweets within a week, creatingsignificant product demand.

- Jeremy

The Case for PR

2011-06-21T09:42:00.000+08:00

This morning I recorded content for an upcoming webcast called The Future of Earned Media: Radical Integration. My topic was:

"What do PR people understand that other marketers traditionally haven’t? "

Grammar aside, I was happy to help out - and my response (in two minutes or less) follows...

PR has always been driven by two key virtues that differentiate it from other marketing disciplines such as advertising

1. An understanding of narrative

2. A sense of campaign

In terms of narrative, we're storytellers. Since 1906 when the first true press release went out, we've built a profession around creating and most critically encouraging people to listen to and share our stories.

This has largely been through the news media, using tactics such as press releases, interviews and so on

In the digital age, this means we're using techniques such as blogger relations, campaign management through Facebook and twitter, YouTube videos and so on to tell our clients stories.

This history has given PR people a good ability to drive discussion towards a singular aim - to use stories to support our clients' business objectives.

The second thing that PR has is a sense of campaign.

We're in it for the long haul.

PR isn't driven by the 13 week advertising push - we tend not to create events with a big bang finish.

We think about six, 12 month campaigns with complex, overlapping objectives. These campaigns are built on an understanding of what helps our clients' audiences make decisions.

Don't get me wrong, events naturally help - but are subset of the whole. We understand what creates attention, interest, forms decisions, then once someone has decided to buy, how to get them into a brand community, then ultimately become a brand advocate.

-Jeremy

Exploring Brand Journalism in Asia

2011-06-21T09:37:00.000+08:00

I was recently asked by Campaign Asia Magazine for some thoughts on corporate/brand journalism in Asia. It was interesting to give this topic an Asian airing. While I’ve been following developments in North America, with industry commentators such as David Meerman Scott driving the charge, it was interesting to see the extent to which Asian brands were taking Tom Foremski at his word and becoming media companies.
Some thoughts follow…

What recent developments have there been in corporate journalism in Western markets and how and is this trend taking shape in Asia?
In North America and Western Europe we’re seeing more companies hiring former journalists into corporate journalist roles. The driver for this is the realization that every company is now a media company. They no longer need to rely on traditional media outlets to print or broadcast their stories. Tools such as Facebook, Twitter, RSS and blogging allow them to publish. However, just because you can publish, doesn’t mean you should. Companies still need to be able to tell a compelling story – and that’s where journalists come in. One recent example of this in action is SAP’s hiring of InformationWeek’s CIO Bob Evans as a communications strategist and contributor.

Corporate or brand journalism is very much in its infancy in Asia. While many journalists have made a journey to the PR ‘dark side’ over the years, this is most often into account management roles. The thinking has frequently been that their knowledge of the inner workings of a newsroom combined with great contacts will create better coverage opportunities.

While the decline in the number of traditional media outlets isn’t as pronounced in Asia as it is in the US, we’re certainly seeing a decline in revenue which is forcing staffing restructures in many markets. The rise of bloggers as influencers combined with access to global information sources through channels such as twitter is affecting Asian trade and niche publishers in particular.

As a result, we’re seeing some Asian brands beginning their transition into becoming media companies. Technology companies in particular have taken the lead, with India’s Infosys maintaining a number of popular blogs. Alibaba’s Alizila news website is one of the best examples of a company embracing corporate journalism. Alibaba hired former Time Magazine Editor Jim Erickson to maintain the site that covers Alibaba Group companies and the wider industry. Critically, Alizila presents balanced coverage – not just corporate good news.

What are the dos and don’ts when it comes to corporate journalism?
The do’s – create information that is valuable for your audience. Whether it’s through videos, tweets, infographics, blog posts or eBooks, make sure you’re giving your audience something they want to read and share. Unfortunately the bulk of corporate communications today is focused on the media as an audience. Press releases, for example, seldom even meet their specific requirements – let alone those of the people brands really want to influence.
The don’ts? To paraphrase David Meerman Scott, it “…is not a product pitch. It is not an advertorial. It is not an egotistical spewing of gobbledygook-laden corporate drivel. It needs to present opinions in a journalistic way and not be afraid to be critical. That’s why journalists are often the best people to create this type of compelling content.

Why should Asian brands engage in corporate journalism?
The value in corporate journalism for Asian brands is being able to tell stories and grow a community around their brand without relying solely on mainstream media to interpret their stories. However, there’s a catch. Unless the stories are interesting, well-written, balanced and devoid of what the Cluetrain Manifesto called “facile corporate happytalk” then they won’t find nor sustain an audience.

Is this trend likely to develop and take hold in Asia?
While mainstream media holds its audience – and until conservative attitudes to influence and decision-making are challenged – we’ll only see a small number of brands realize the potential of becoming media companies. Corporate journalism will grow as the audiences start to move away from traditional media outlets in favour of other sources. If the lessons from North America are anything to go by, this won’t be a gradual shift. The opportunity for brands in Asia is to create compelling content now – as the ‘end game’ is to build communities around their brands – and in order to do that, they need to create engaging content. – Jeremy Woolf, Senior Vice President, Text 100 Hong Kong

*Photo credit: Flickr user DuncanMacinnis

2011-05-17T10:57:00.000+08:00

Who owns social media anyway (and why can't we just get along)?

2011-04-07T10:32:00.000+08:00

My colleague Amber flagged this post titled "How PR People are Destroying Social Media". The author's conclusions on the damage PR is causing social media....

No Bottom-Line Results: De-emphasis on measurement and results, lack of critical thinking and lack of strategic creativity to achieve them
Too Much Talk: Over-emphasis on communication for the sake of communicating
Less Executive Support: Obfuscation of the potential of Social Media ROI, discouraging it as a goal, decreasing the enthusiasm of executives for Social Media
Lower Effectiveness: Confusion in corporate organization and control issues which decrease effectiveness of Social Media for the corporation

I was compelled to respond. While the author was clearly trying to pick a fight, it really isn't a case of "us" versus "them". It is worth reading the other comments - and here's my response in full.

Brian - I hear you. There are some bad old world PR (and marketing) practices being retrofitted into social media. And yes, there are bad practitioners who wouldn't know analytics from their...well, you know what I'm saying. But as a PR agency guy from way back who runs social media and digital things today, I need to defend my profession.

While the topic of social media ownership has been bounced around for awhile now, the conclusion I favour is that the business function best placed to own the customer / candidate / employee (and so on...) relationship should be in the driver's seat. Be that HR, Sales, Marketing, PR or Legal - these are the folks that are building relationships one tweet, blog post or forum comment at a time.

That said, someone has to get them in the car and make sure the oil's changed, tires are roadworthy and the destination is mapped out. PR folks - in our defence - have been keeping campaigns running since Ivy Lee put out the first press release in 1906. We've always taken a longer term view to communications and while I agree measurement has been a struggle (reflecting more the unwillingness for companies to spend as opposed to any lack of desire from my profession), this longer term view is where I feel the PR folks add the greatest amount of value.

Good PR folks build 1-1 relationships - we've done this with journalists for more than a century. We've built community relations programs, managed employee communications and driven discussions with industry analysts. We've also told stories that go beyond a one off promotion, 13 week marketing 'play' or new web app. The ability to look at long term objectives and create a comms program using a variety of tools is at the heart of our profession.

And while we don't always get it right, we also aspire to speak as human beings and not in the language or hyperbole, press release or brochure. Just because you can publish, doesn't mean you should - and folks who understand how people communicate will always have a role guiding those that struggle.

Jump in to the discussion - this one is worth beating around a little more...

Some thinking on social media and digital in Asia

2011-04-04T09:33:00.002+08:00

Did a quick podcast interview with Mercy Surayasin from Singapore Management University's last week. I've been a great supporter of SMU since sharing the stage with Professor Michael Netzley at a conference in Hong Kong. They produce the excellent Digital Media Across Asia Wiki which has just launched its latest revision.

Here are the podcast links. We discussed at Asia and Hong Kong in particular topics like how businesses can better take advantage of social media and digital channels, the barriers to adoption and big trends for 2011.

Happy listening!

- Jeremy

http://dmaa.posterous.com/digital-media-in-hong-kong-interview-with-jer

Interview with ClickZ: Businesses Rally to Assist Victims in Japan

2011-03-19T09:28:00.000+08:00

The delightful Adaline Lau from ClickZ called me the other day for some thoughts on corporate giving following the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. It was interesting to consider how companies had responded and also their apparent motivations for response. Clearly the ability to rally their communities or networks around a cause is a phenomenal testament to both technology and connectivity.

From my POV, the most critical piece (CSR 101) is that a company's motives are not what publicity can be gained but how can it help. Any publicity benefit is a by-product only. Perhaps I'm being idealistic. In any case, here's the story:

Businesses Rally to Assist Victims in Japan

Hong Kong-- As Japan battles a potential nuclear catastrophe following last week's earthquake and tsunami, businesses are racing to offer a helping hand to assist victims. Companies, especially those specializing in tech and interactive media, are using their technology prowess to facilitate disaster relief efforts.
However, where do companies draw the line in raising awareness of their cause without being misinterpreted as being self-promotional and insensitive to the crisis?

Jeremy Woolf, senior vice president, global social media practice lead at PR firm Text 100, offered this advice: "You do any sort of CSR [corporate social responsibility] because it's the right thing to do. You don't do it because it's a way of generating publicity."

Continues...

To support the relief effort, please review the following links:
Hong Kong Red Cross
International Red Cross

The New York Times Says Blog(s) Are Dead

2011-02-22T13:09:00.000+08:00

Well, sort of. Sunday's New York Times story has certainly created ripples. Citing research from the Pew Research Center, the author's core premise is that people are forgoing blogging in favour of short form communications through social networks like Facebook and twitter. Fair point. It is impossible to deny the growth and popularity of these channels.

But are blogs dying? Personally, I think it's more of an evolution. Social networks have created a culture of immediacy - enabling and compelling people to share in real time. This sharing is typically short form, making it easier to create and consume than a blog post. But does this mean people don't want to read long form? I say no.

Considered analysis and commentary is critical. 140 characters forces brevity and, frequently, superficiality.

Look at today's tragic earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand. I learned of the 'quake through a post from my Uncle on Facebook. I went to twitter and saw a raft of RTs and links to mainly mainstream media channels. To find out what had happened I looked to blogs, mainstream media, radio and news sites in particular. I wanted to go beyond the headlines and sought out channels that were able to frame the story, provide context and give me a level of qualified detail that short form social networks couldn't offer.

I think what the New York Times has identified is perhaps a decline in traditional personal blogging. But, in doing so, must make us question precisely what traditional blogging actually is. Is Hong Kong's NeonPunch a blog? Or is it a news outlet? Is Tumblr a blog? A microblog? These channels have much in common with blogs as we new them.

And what of the enterprise? I feel corporations, too, are undergoing a blog-inspired evolution. We're gradually seeing companies such as Alibaba.com through its Alizila news site communicate in real language and offer objective commentary and news that can be commented upon and shared.

But more to the point, does it even matter? Blogging has given us a form of expression to which Facebook and twitter owe a great debt of gratitude. The consumers have spoken. They want personal opinions and they want to be able to share and comment. These attributes were at the heart of blogging long before before the first tweet was tweeted nor the first question posted on Quora.com.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, rumours of the death of blogging have been greatly exaggerated. Blogs - and more critically the communications revolution they inspired - will be with us until people decide they no longer want long form articles to read, share or comment upon. And I for one hope that's a day we'll never see.

- Jeremy

Photo: Tad Not Drinking Wine, ekai, Tad Not Drinking Wine, ekai, http://www.flickr.com/photos/ekai/155031332/

Big social media trends for 2011 (part two)

2010-12-23T21:55:00.001+08:00

Continuing on from yesterday’s post, here are my final five social media PR predictions for 2011…

6. Evolution from executives to experts

Companies have historically relied on a few trusted voices to get their messages out. Logic

Brincando com o céu, dpadua, http://www.flickr.com/photos/imaginarios/493066909/

said get the right person in front of the right media outlet and the masses will become educated. As we know, this logic – in isolation – no longer applies. Today’s consumers are the most media savvy generation in history and their ability to stomach corporate gobbledegook is at an all time low. In 2011, I predict more B2B companies in particular will elevate their subject matter experts to key roles in their communications programs. This will see experts blogging on corporate websites, owning communities in company discussion forums, and acting as company ambassadors in external earned media communities. In time we’ll see people from all business functions playing similar expanded roles in support of their own objectives. This naturally will require changes to job descriptions, coaching and administration – and this is a long term play. My advice is to start with one business function, division or product and build a program around someone with a greater aptitude for social media conversations. Measure their success – learn from the things that didn’t go well – and evolve the campaign around them. It’s PR, Jim, but not as we knew it…

7. There’s no time like the present

2011 will be the year that companies finally accept the fact that the world moves in real time. With search engines incorporating real time data in their results and, thanks to twitter, customers demanding real time responses to their enquiries, many businesses need to change how they prioritize online comments. Unfortunately for some, the catalyst for real time communications is often a rude shock caused by a negative comment or story flaring up online. At a base level, real time social media monitoring (combined with a good understanding of behaviour and online influencers) can help avoid embarrassment and control negative discussions. On the other side of the coin, the opportunity created by the simultaneous publication and notification of content is much more interesting. Real time encourages more dynamic conversations, and makes it easier for to act on information, create new content and work with your customers. Real time communications programs that track social media channels for relevant keywords can create opportunities to delight your customers and identify sales leads.

8. Location is the new black?

Facebook (disclosure: client) put its stamp on location based services in 2010 with the

Map 1735 New France, Map 1735 New France, http://www.flickr.com/photos/24842486@N07/4407438138/

launches of Places and Deals. Foursquare is fighting back and many companies are adding location functionality to their apps and services. Just as twitter broke into the mainstream this year, expect 2011 to be the year of ubiquitous location based services. With Near Field Communications chips built into many mobile devices, expect commerce to add to the growing list of services. While electronic coupons, discounts and ‘mayorships’ have driven participation, will 2011 be the year when LBS shakes off its loyalty program circa-1990 origins and we start to see new ways of using this technology? And will B2B companies find practical ways of using location beyond treasure hunts at trade shows? Or will 2011 be the year that privacy concerns reach a tipping point and people begin to opt out as the available data goes from benevolent (where’s the nearest sushi place?) to big brother (you’re driving too fast and your premiums just went up).

9. Gaming the system

Game mechanics have been part of our lives for some time through things like frequent flyer programs and green stamps. But thanks to the relatively recent mainstream success of check-in apps like Foursquare and Facebook Places, I expect game mechanics to become increasingly common in the workplace and in business applications through 2011 and beyond. Using the fundamental concepts of gaming such as status, interactivity, ‘levelling’-up, rewards for actions, and leaderboards, we should see more and more businesses getting into gaming as a way of rewarding and inspiring customers and employees. Companies such as Reputely, Badgeville and IActionable are helping businesses adopt game mechanics. But are companies doing more than simply adding points or basic rewards for desired actions? Before deciding that game mechanics will help you achieve your objectives, you need to understand your workforce’s or customers’ motivations. More critically, you need to be clear that the behaviours you’re rewarding are the right ones for your business.

10. The big four become BAU

While 2010 was for many businesses a year of social media experimentation, 2011 must

Red Death, Tiberiu Ana, http://www.flickr.com/photos/txberiu/2414778448/

be the year of action. Specifically, consolidation on the so-called ‘Big Four’ social media properties of twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn. Not so long ago, these were cloaked in mystery, the playthings of the tech elite. I’d suggest that by the end of 2011 brands will be distinguished if they don’t have a presence in these ‘Big Four’ social media sites – much as brands 10 years ago would be called out if they didn’t have websites. The ‘Big Four’ have become mainstream and your customers expect to find you there. If, by the end of 2011, you’re not in these places, I’d suggest you will struggle against competitors who understand the game has changed forever. Tough thing is, you also need to experiment with things like location or game mechanics or expert programs or application development. Net-net, creating and maintaining compelling ‘Big Four’ social media presences is quite simply the non-negotiable point of entry in 2011.

Big social media trends for 2011 (part one)

2010-12-22T21:28:00.000+08:00

I’m often asked in meetings to predict what the next big social media PR thing will be. I reply, with a grin not unlike that of Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat, that if I knew that, I wouldn’t be in this meeting. We chuckle (not for long but politely) then move on. Chuckling aside, I must confess, the transition from 2010 to 2011 has given me reason to pause, reflect, and take a guess at what the new year will bring – and, more importantly, what people in communications should do about it. So here goes – my 10 big things for 2011...

1. The wisdom of groups
It seemed that 2010 was the year that we re-discovered the age-old technique of group buying. Groupon went global, and in doing so it released a pent up demand for getting together and buying stuff that we may not necessarily need but might at some point. Gathering the collective wisdom of crowds will only become more critical in 2011. We’ve seen the growth of social media conscience sites like Jumo that connect people and organizations working to improve the lives of others. Kickstarter created a new way of getting creative projects off the ground using crowd financing. For 2011, I expect much, much more of the same. I anticipate companies will embed the principles that underpin these services into their businesses. They’ll find ways to better connect their customers, partners, suppliers and employees using social networking tools. The challenge will be to ensure that the brand objectives play a distant second to meeting the needs of the people they’re trying to connect together.

2. Will the last reporter to leave please turn out the lights?
The decline of journalism as we knew it is well documented. But while that old models decline; this surely creates new opportunities for people who can tell compelling stories (such as journalists). We live in an age in which everyone can publish – but just because they have the tools, doesn’t mean companies can create good, compelling content. I see 2011 as the year of the brand or corporate journalist. These folks will become the new objective voices of our organizations, creating interesting content on behalf of their companies and sharing it with the world. Their web content – be it blog post, photo, video, or whitepaper – must be objective and inherently good enough to warrant sharing. Those companies that get this right should expect their audiences to consume, interact with and, most critically, share their stories. Those that continue to deliver the Cluetrain Manifesto’s “...facile corporate happytalk” should anticipate a different outcome.

3. Complex things made simple(r)
In an age where people see more than 34 billion bits of information each day, something had to give. And it did this year. In 2010 we saw apps such as Flipboard, Pulse and Paper.li take our myriad of complex data streams and re-package them into form factors more reminiscent of magazines than RSS readers. It was also the year of the app. Though cruelly described as the ‘strip mall’ of the Internet (versus the web’s open prairies), it is clear that people like apps. Thirdly, those amazing infographics visualizations that make complex data easy to digest also came into full bloom. In 2011, I expect this quest for simplification to continue with the app experience increasingly crossing back to the Web. Websites will be redesigned around their audiences, with social networking in mind. After all, no one wants to have a relationship with a dictionary. The patience for buggy, beta or complex sites will wear thin in an age where people have more options than ever before. Add to this the desire for a seamless experience across all devices - driven by the rise and rise of mobile - and we’re going to see a new era of ease-of-use.

4. Marketing is participation
2011 will see the proliferation of the community managers – those people that keep our shared-interest networks together. One lesson from 2010 – as learned the hard way by companies such as Nestlé and BP - is that managing an online community is not a simple task. While many companies have created social media presences on twitter and Facebook with a view to sharing their happy news with keen fans or followers, these channels need editorial direction, management and investment. A study by our sister brand Beyond told us that the top two reasons for following a brand on Facebook were to find offers and discounts and to demonstrate love for products. But love alone isn’t enough to keep people from clicking. Just like a television channel, twitter and Facebook need programming, new content, and interaction – fundamentally a unique reason to keep someone coming back. Whether the community is for employees, customers, prospective hires or journalists, you can’t underestimate the skill required to run this environment. Nor can you ignore the fact that these properties are increasingly the first point of contact for your brand. Ensuring your best people oversee your businesses’ most critical online relationships will only become more important as the year goes by.

5. The customer is always right
One of my favourite quotes from 2010 comes from Time Magazine’s Man of the Year, Facebook’s (disclosure: client) Mark Zuckerberg, who said, “There's going to be an opportunity over the next five years or so to pick any industry and rethink it in a social way...we think that every industry is going to be fundamentally re-thought and designed around people.” While there’s no surprise the person who created the world’s biggest social network espouses this view, it’s hard to deny the logic. We live in an age of unprecedented access to information and choice. Smart companies realize this and are building their business strategies specifically around their customers, employees, partners and prospects. They’re also realizing that simple customer acquisition is no longer the end game. The old sales funnel logic doesn’t apply. In 2011 the point of sale is the beginning of a new relationship through which the customer – empowered by community or network – should become an advocate. In doing so, old customers help reduce your cost of acquiring new ones. In support, 2011 will be the year that social media evolves from being tacked on to your marketing efforts to becoming fundamental to your business strategy.

Tune in tomorrow, gentle reader for the next five big social media trends for 2011...

This post first appeared on Text 100's HYPERtext blog

Game of Death (MTR Style)...

2010-12-10T09:24:00.003+08:00

I saw a fight on the MTR (Hong Kong underground rail) this morning. Not Jackie Chan or Bruce Lee-esque (as one would hope in Hong Kong). More like two middle-aged Hong Kong Weebles (Google it), one male, one female, slapping each other.

Imagine the scene. Crowded MTR carriage. People getting off in Causeway Bay. Woman gets off, turns around, and slaps man's shoulder. Outraged, man chases woman out of the carriage and pummels her shoulder, then scoots back on the train. Eyes filled with rage, woman runs back into the carriage and hits man's shoulder, quickly turning and running out again, swearing loudly in Cantonese. Man raises a middle finger as she departs, closing train doors ending Causeway Bay's own little Game of Death.

Man defiantly wipes tears from his eyes, staring stoically into the middle distance (and hoping like hell the train gets to Wan Chai so he can disappear into anonymity once more.

It must be Friday...

Die buzzword die

2010-12-01T10:56:00.001+08:00

Tim Dyson, CEO of my company's holding group recently poured oil on the buzzword fire with the following blog post. It got me thinking about buzzwords and our culpability for creating them - and now decoupling them. See his original post here - Is your client ‘world leading’? – 10 other words/phrases brands should avoid.

Here's my response:

Nice post Tim. I’m thinking SEO might be the answer to this tragic abuse of the English language. Perhaps simply demonstrating that no-one ever powers up Google looking for a “reliable, scalable, open, end-to-end solutions” will encourage more people to use real language in their communications.

This, of course, assumes that these sorts of missives are designed to actually be found, read and acted upon. I fear they are largely created to keep line of product managers happy and box-checking PR folks employed.

Perhaps I was being too idealistic - and some of the comments reflect this. But the recent Wikileaks noise has also strengthened my resolve for clarity in communications. Without wanting to push the issue of irresponsible disclosure too far off the table, I am very interested in the massive gap between the behind closed doors discussions and the public faces presented by our leaders. While I sincerely hope none of the disclosed documents put people at risk, I am at least glad that we are hearing what our leaders really think.

I'm no diplomat (my wife will attest to this!) but I am looking forward to a day when language at all levels is used less to mask or hide but more to enable genuine (versus in-genuine) communication.

-Jeremy

Social Media Consultant - Is there a market for this profession?

2010-11-29T10:24:00.001+08:00

Caught this query in the Social Media Marketing LinkedIn group. My rapid fire response below...

Haven't read through all 100+ comments so forgive me if I'm repeating - just wanted to add that I think there is a market today - but in its current form this is a medium-term consulting opportunity at best. While many companies struggle today to get their social media houses in order, external consultants can certainly help create structure, content and offer hands-on management.

But as companies (borrowing shamelessly from Mark Zuckerberg) rethink themselves in social ways, social media channels and activities will become the norm regardless of the business function. The need for real time interaction and specialized responses will make it more difficult for third parties to play their current transactional roles.

With this inevitable maturation of social media, the opportunity is for consultancies to support the connection between business objective and customer - and enable this through a range of integrated communications techniques.

Speaking for my own profession (PR) if I may, I see our future as one in which we shape and guide narrative, we coach and construct strategy, we build communities and networks, but we don't necessarily engage on behalf of companies as we do today.

-Jeremy

Social media in Asia - the journey of a thousand miles

2010-09-20T09:52:00.005+08:00

There's an old Chinese proverb that translates, so I'm told, as "To open a a shop is easy, to keep it open is an art". Seems apt when I look at the way some companies are tackling social media in Asia. I touched on these topics in an interview with ZDNet Asia. The story runs here: Social communication requires small steps - Internet - News. I think it covers the topic well, though felt one of the quotes needed a little more context:

He [Woolf] said businesses that have not budged are typically helmed by "old-school" executives in their 40s who have been successful sales people, but are limited to working with traditional platforms.

"Until the digital natives--people who are adept with digital media--take on more important corporate leadership roles, for now, I do not see the communication platforms of these enterprises to be built around social media," he noted.

The question was on the challenges I'm seeing Asian companies face as they embark on social media strategies. As always, it is hard to generalize about Asian businesses. There are certainly people in their 40s (I count myself in their number) who get this stuff. But as recently as last week a company I've been working with at once asked to accelerate its social media program and in the same breath was reluctant to start micro blogging for fear of saying the wrong thing.

I guess this is a case where we in PR are victims of our own success. We've told companies since 1905 that press coverage was critical to shaping their stakeholders' beliefs. We've happily measured success by the kilogram of press coverage. Yet today we're now telling those executives that had to be cajoled into media interaction that they've now got to get down and commune with their customers. Online. In public. In real time.

I'm no ageist. Some people are doing this well, regardless of their years. But for many - especially in the B2B world - this is a big leap. And in some cases today, a leap too far. Solution? Don't try to fit a square peg in a round hole. Start small. Look at your talent pool and mix it up. Make incremental changes. Be prepared to make mistakes. And learn.

More here and here.

How not to win a PR award

2010-09-07T18:19:00.000+08:00

I've spent a couple of days judging entries for the Asia-Pacific PR Awards. This is the second year I've done this and I find it to be a very rewarding exercise. It reinforces in my mind that PR is a very healthy profession in this part of the world. I've also found the judging process to be very professional, impartial and undeniably fair.

But now, the gripes. I certainly have a lot of respect for the folks who've put time and effort into their entries. I know from experience how long it takes to put an entry together, get the required endorsements, often while balancing a crazy workload.

But if you're going to the effort of entering, can I suggest a few simple things that might help you take home the gong on the night? These suggestions don't reflect the thoughts of my fellow judges nor the organizers - they come from my addled mind.

1. Make friends with the judges (not literally)
Judges are reading up to 100 entries. Make it easy for them to read your content - so don't run photographs or artistic watermarks under your text. Also, cramming more text onto your pages doesn't make for a better entry.

2. Cut to the chase
These are PR awards, and they're judged by PR people. Esoteric and flowery language may cut through in some circles, but, as I always say, you can't kid a kidder. Be convincing but leave the hyperbole in the press release.

3. Measure against real objectives
The less specific your objective, the harder it is to prove you achieved it. I know this is a perennial issue in our industry, but do yourself a favour and report things you did achieve. Too many entries promoted programs that, by their own admission, didn't work.

4. AVE is a lie
Ad value equivalency is invalid. I know some clients force this upon us. But it simply is illogical to put a financial value on newspaper column centimetres based on ad advertising rate. See more from IPR, PRSA and KD Paine.

5. Reruns might work for Seinfeld...
It is great that some programs have had year-on-year success. But if you enter year-on-year, please make it fresh. Use the fact that the program is old as a challenge and demonstrate how you overcame it. But don't find-and-replace your entry.

Hopefully some helpful advice. In spite of my gripes, I believe the overall standard of entries this year has been excellent and I'm very happy to see even more Asian markets represented.

- Jeremy

The social media tipping point

2010-08-24T16:44:00.000+08:00

I've been a bad blogger and not updated for awhile. One thought struck me in my absence. There is much buzz about social CRM. Interesting concept and one that's getting the social media bubble excited. I'm all for it, and cross-referenced the idea against several client and prospect meetings I'd had lately.

Client X (who shall remain nameless) bemoaned that head office had forced him to set up a Facebook page but would only go ahead if "there would be NO conversation". Client Y (also nameless) was struggling, as his division had developed a cool iPhone app, but the rest of his company (staff numbers in the tens of thousands) didn't care. He couldn't even get a meeting with the client support people.

Now, there was an elephant in the room, sitting quietly as we had those meetings. This particular elephant reminded me that every time you open a social channel - like Facebook, an iPhone app or Twitter stream - you're opening a 'door'. And once this door is open, anyone can walk through.

While some may like to think that social networks and channels were sites for marketing-led group hugs, the reality is people will want to talk and don't necessarily want to play by your rules. Frustrated by 9am to 5pm customer support queues? Comment on a company's wall. Angry about the delayed response from your local branch? Tweet about it.

The social channels are changing not just marketing, but the way businesses are structured. They're breaking down silos and forcing a greater level of inter-departmental cooperation. This is great news for those who've struggled over the years with political and bureaucratic barriers to commonsense.

The real trick for those just now embarking on their social media 'journeys' is to ensure they're connecting the dots now - versus letting an angry customer set the agenda. And for those who've already pushed the social 'button' but not met with customer service, I suggest you make that call...

-Jeremy

Social media - PR Friend or Foe?

2010-07-26T17:30:00.000+08:00

I was recently asked by the Asian Digital Marketing Association to join an Australian Chamber of Commerce panel. The topic of debate was “Social Media: Friend or Foe”. I thought this was interesting, given the profile social media has claimed of late.

Such is the hype you could be led to believe that social media channels are the only sources people turn to for information. In preparing for the panel discussion, I built up four home truths that I’ll table here for your consideration.

1. Social media isn’t a silver bullet. Until the day comes that all other kinds of media are truly eclipsed, putting all your eggs in one social basket is a flawed approach.

2. Social media goals need to support your business’ goals. Success isn’t measured by the number of Twitter followers you have. It should be measured by what those people actually do.

3. Social media is an ongoing commitment. A four week Facebook “campaign” opens the door to discussion. Close it at your peril.

4. Social media alone isn’t a strategy. These are just channels through which, on occasion, a strategy is enacted

Now, with that out of the way, ladies and gentleman of the jury, is social media a friend or foe? If it will please you, let me present defence exhibit A - a Nestlé KitKat.

This icon of chocolate goodness seems, on face value, to be harmless. That said, Nestlé has long been the target of environmental groups, critical of its procurement practices. Greenpeace recently began pressuring Nestlé to stop using palm oil in its products, citing deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions and endangered species loss.

They placed a video on YouTube which graphically made a connection between dead Indonesian orang-utan fingers with Nestlé’s famous KitKats chocolate finger confectionery.

In response, Nestlé lobbied to have the video removed from YouTube citing copyright infringement. Greenpeace received free press – and the video popped up all over the web. But it didn’t end there. With Greenpeace’s prompting, its supporters then attacked Nestlé’s Facebook fan page by posting negative comments on the company’s wall. They used anti-Nestlé slogans instead of profile pictures – distorting the Nestlé “KitKat” logo into Nestlé “Killer”.

Nestlé again went on the offensive, threatening to delete comments from people who misused their brand. The company’s forum moderator went on the defence, and fuelled fires by insulting the company’s attackers. Nestlé was portrayed as a company that wanted to stifle criticism – not defend its trademarks.

Ultimately, the Nestlé community manager apologized for being rude, and stopped deleting posts. But the damage had been done. In this case, Nestlé was under-prepared. It didn’t seem to have a plan when a very public social media channel came under assault. On the upside, I can hope that this lesson is one well-heard by brands now flocking to Facebook in their thousands.

Now, your honour, if it will please the jury, may I present defence exhibit B - a jar of Vegemite.

For the uninitiated, Vegemite is a sticky and pungent dark-brown yeast-extract that we antipodeans spread on our toast. To launch a new cheese flavoured spread, manufacturer Kraft created a public naming competition, subsequently putting the nameless product on shelves. Kraft received 48,000 entries and announced winning name – iSnack 2.0 –at the 2009 AFL (Australia Football League) grand final.

Immediately, this name was met with almost universal customer condemnation. Without warning, the Web 2.0 generation turned on Kraft. Thousands of comments flew across Twitter. 31 Facebook pages and 168 Facebook groups were created to condemn the iSnack 2.0 name. A website, “Names That Are Better Than iSnack 2.0”, sprang up.

One commentator even suggested that the 27-year-old designer who had submitted the winning name be tarred with Vegemite and forced to run naked through the streets of Sydney “as retribution for his cultural crime.”

Within 72 hours, Kraft decided the i-Snack 2.0 name wasn’t worth defending. A subsequent online poll and telephone survey of 30,000 Australians and New Zealanders determined Vegemite “CheesyBite” was the preferred name. The furore, however, paid dividends - Sales of iSnack 2.0 rose 47 percent during its controversial first two weeks, while sales of the original Vegemite were largely unaffected.

Marketing stunt or blunder? I guess the lines between genius and madness are blurred.

So, is social media friend or foe? Does it even matter? In both cases, social channels were certainly used to attack the brands. These channels don’t exist because marketers want them to. They exist because the mob wants them to. The real question, members of the jury, is what roles are you and your company playing in social media channels?

- Jeremy

The interns shall inherit the earth

2010-06-02T11:09:00.000+08:00

Imagine the scenario. You walk into a crowded bar. A group of potential customers stand in a corner. They’re talking about your company and your competitors. Interestingly, they’re trying to determine which company they should buy from, and each is putting forward solid arguments. So far, it’s been a friendly conversation.

You listen for awhile. The argument seems to be going your way. What an opportunity! Perhaps it would be time to for your company to step in and offer its perspective? You can validate any competitive counter claims put forward and have a better offering. But who should talk to them? You need a big hitter. Someone who can get things done. A closer. You reach for your phone...and call...the office intern?

Far-fetched? I’m not so sure.

After meeting with several large organizations over recent weeks, it seems this is a scenario playing out in bulletin boards, forums, and on Facebook Fan Pages all over North Asia. I guess on face value I should be celebrating the fact that at least these companies have the cojones to talk to their customers. At least they’ve graduated from paying spammers to crudely ram key messages down their customers’ throats and call that social media engagement.

Now don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against interns. I think internships are a great way for people starting out in their careers to learn the marketing “ropes”. And certainly, those companies that treat interns with respect and understand that an internship is a learning experience should be commended. While most interns that come into my businesses have stronger paper qualifications than I hold, I think this combined with their much vaunted Gen Y bravado doesn’t really make them ready for the trenches.

So why, then, dear Asian enterprises, would you put your interns into your client engagements? Are those well-paid sales people too busy to actually sell? Are the PR people too tied up with press releases to market? Are your customer support people still answering 800 number calls? Do “resource limitations” mean that the only people left to offer your customers the advice they’re looking for aren’t drawing salaries?

The answer, I think, is that this is hard. Social media channels are new and largely untested. We’ve spent the best part of a century convincing our executives that a pile of press clippings equals PR success. They’ve been media trained black-and-blue and told to focus on three key messages supported by sanctioned talking points. And now we want them to do what? Take part in online conversations with complete strangers who may well be 15 and not actually in the market for a high end sports car? Are you nuts?

Well, only a little. There’s a leap of faith required here. More accurately, a leap that gives us the latitude to participate and learn. We can prove the conversations are taking place relatively easily. In Hong Kong, forums such as Uwants and Discuss sit in the top ten most visited websites. Facebook is the number one web destination in Hong Kong. People are talking online. But we need to make a better case for conversations leading to action. Web analytics is part of the answer. A (relatively) simple report from your product or service’s web landing page can show which web destinations people are coming to you from. A pull down menu at the point of purchase can also qualify the connection between discussion and demand generation. Certainly better measurement is part of the answer.

Ultimately, though, you need the authority to create change. If you genuinely think that online conversations are leading to sales from the wild, then it is time to change your approach and talk to the very people who want to buy from you. But at no point in “join the conversation” does it say “send interns into the conversation”.

So, what to do? I think the first step – once you understand the online conversations - is looking at people’s roles and responsibilities as you prepare to get involved. Train the right people for wider roles, but don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

If the conversations concern customer support, then it makes sense for customer support people to prioritize online in parallel to their regular email or phone roles. If the conversations can be classed as pre-sales, then look at those who manage this function and see how to plug them in. Start small and discreet. Learn from your experience. Rinse and repeat.

Sure, let the interns help. But don’t put your brand in the hands of folks who’ve barely finished high school.

Death of a spokesperson?

2010-05-15T17:26:00.001+08:00

Some questions have been racing through my mind, gentle readers. I’ve met with a large TV brand recently and we touched on the corporate spokesperson’s role in a social media world. Has the corporate spokesperson gone the way of the dodo? Is it a case of Darwinian survival of the fittest, where only those who can traverse the often murky social media landscape will survive? And for those that are walking the talk, can they separate their personal and public brands? Or are the two entwined in some kind of Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader-esque embrace?

Many questions, to which there are many answers. Historically, the corporate message has been sculpted in boardrooms, drilled into sanctioned corporate spokespeople and delivered (we hoped) without deviation to a receptive media corps.

Not that this is all gone, but the era of the three-message-plus-talking-point spokesperson may be coming to an end (or, at least, becoming a secondary means of communicating company messages). If you believe the hype, our media-savvy consumers are flocking to alternative channels to get information. And when it comes to dealing with corporations, they’re wanting to engage with companies on a human level, on their terms, and on their turf. While our corporate spokespeople absolutely need to keep practicing for media outreach, the need for a brand to have spokespeople in social channels can’t be ignored.

So what to do? Not every traditional spokesperson has the right stuff to leap into social channels and – warning, social media cliché – join the conversation. The requirements of a BBS community, Facebook fans or twitter followers are quite different from those of a journalist. Journalists aren’t typically looking for long-term relationships or dialogue - they’re looking for credible sources with stories to tell. Social media communities, on the other hand, want to hear from a human being – not a press release. Someone who tells it like it is, without bludgeoning them with overt corporate messaging. They want advice and information delivered honestly.

And this is the challenge for PR folks who realize the power of social communities. How do you find a spokesperson that can walk this fine line? How do can you help someone build up virtual relationships and not appear a corporate shill? And, most importantly, how do you ensure they are driving conversations that help their companies succeed. As they say, it aint show friends, its show business.

I think the first step is determining who the social media spokespeople are. These need to be people who are as comfortable with a blog comment as they are with a quick tweet or creating a new thread in a forum. I feel the best social media spokespeople will have already built up a valid role in these communities. Or if they’re heading into new territory, have the time and aptitude to do this properly. Reality is, these folks won’t typically be the spokespeople of old.

The second thing is ensuring they are supported. While one approach is to point a spokesperson at a social media channel and let them go, this is a potential road to ruin. Yes, some people are very comfortable in social media channels and like managing conversations. But – and it’s a big but – comfort doesn’t equate to success. We expect our new social spokespeople to build relationships, but also help connect the community to our brand. This is where planning, calendar creation, connection with a business’ marketing and communications function and ongoing coaching become critical.

The third consideration is perhaps the most challenging. Companies have for many years feverishly tried to control their brand presence. While many intellectually realize the need for social media interaction, the very thought of putting a spokesperson into the social media wilderness terrifies many. This is where they need to empower this new generation of spokesperson. Our social media spokespeople need the authority to make decisions and comments in real time. This confidence will often require a chance in corporate policy, real-time escalation and prioritization, and a lot of training.

Hard work, yes. But the returns are becoming clearer. More and more data is showing that social media conversations are critical in forming opinions about brands. Perhaps the real question is – can you afford not to do it?

To circle back, then, to my original premise. Is the corporate spokesperson dead? No, there will always be a role for people who can represent brands in traditional ways. But those that rely on the media as they sole way of communicating with their stakeholders need to look again at how their critical audiences make their decisions – and determine if the megaphone alone is the best path forward.

- Jeremy

Coca Cola creates true happiness

2010-04-14T22:43:00.003+08:00

A little old, but I like this one too much not to immortalize it here. A perfect example of a wonderful idea, beautifully executed. Kudos Coke!

Seeing red over shades of grey

2010-04-14T22:30:00.001+08:00

I recently moderated a panel at one of those social media and marketing conferences that come up every quarter or so. The topic was something rather studious and academic - along the lines of “Considerations for applying social media marketing in Asia”. Perched on stools beside me were colleagues from the research, marketing communications and digital sectors.

With topics such as “Is social media in Asia a fad?” and “how do you measure social media ROI”, the scene was set for an interesting discussion.

Recalling my debate training from 1985, I kicked off with a Mark Twain quote – “Asia is not going to be civilized after the methods of the West. There is too much Asia and she is too old” and let the panellists discuss. So far, so good. Data was passed around and everybody nodded in a sage-like fashion. But I was keen for a little controversy, so, every so cautiously, I built up to the ethics question.

Y’see, as any regular readers of this column will attest, social media and public relations ethics are pet topics of mine. I’ve raged against the PR spammers, girded my loins against pay-for-play blogging, and called out the so-called gunners who “seed” forums and blogs with facile marketing happy-talk on behalf of their corporate masters.

So, when it came time to put this particular cat amongst the pigeons, I was ready for a stoush. The question, if I remember correctly, was something innocent - along the lines of “What types of online behaviours are you seeing in Asia?”

The researcher and marketing folks offered their perspectives. One audience member chose to list the types of services they procure and this included a throw-away reference social media seeding. Seizing my chance, I leapt. Well, truth be told, I asked for clarification. It turns out it was a very regular practice for this company to pay agents to seed positive comments in blogs and forums on their behalf.

Smelling blood, I innocently asked if it was clear at any stage that the comments were from a marketing company and not the vendor they represented. The response was negative, followed up with a rather blasé “People don’t seem to worry about it. And, after all, there are shades of grey.”

Shades of grey? Shades of GREY? Instead, I saw red. Perhaps “shades of grey” is marketing-speak for “misrepresentation”. Perhaps I missed the particular class in marketing and PR school that said it was OK to pretend to be a consumer and make a fake endorsement of a product or service.

C’mon folks. I appreciate it is a brave new world. The days of advertising and PR dominated by the megaphone of mass media are coming to an end. But as we board the train to a world of consumer conscious and relationship-oriented marketing, surely we don’t leave our ethics on the platform?

Surely we’re bringing up our young, impressionable marketeers, budding advertising creatives and suits and up-and-coming PR flacks with a sense of right and wrong? I feel the lines are pretty clear. The Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is an organization that also struggles to see the grey in this picture. According to their Ethics Code, members...engage in practices that are designed to enable the reasonable consumer acting rationally to make better informed purchasing decisions.

This doesn’t seem unreasonable. If a consumer feels the person providing product advice or opinion on a blog, forum, Facebook Fan Page or Twitter stream is someone like them, then, according to the researchers, they are more likely to accept that opinion. Fundamentally, this opinion is formed based on the quality of the information provided. Corporations and their representatives have a responsibility to interact appropriately on social channels.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying you can’t endorse your products or services. But you need to do it in such a way that the opinion you offer is balanced; can be validated and genuinely offers value to the discussion at hand. We’re talking about a dramatic change in style here. The language of press releases and strap-lines isn’t going to cut it.

Consumers certainly don’t object to discussing the virtues of a product or service with a company’s representative, but if they want to read a brochure, they’ll go to the website. This is one of the reasons that social channels have sprung up and are shaping opinions – they are seen as objective forums for discussion where consumers share opinions on their own terms. If the corporations want to play the game, they need to learn the rules.

If this sounds like too much work, then perhaps it is time for those companies unwilling or unable to play a responsible role in social media channels to purchase a billboard or buy another TV spot.

- Jeremy

Photo: Shades of Grey, Neilbetter, Creative Commons, Some Rights Reserved

Service must have been pretty bad before...

2010-03-20T09:51:00.000+08:00

Six Social Media Marketing Trends in the Year of the Tiger

2010-02-17T17:11:00.001+08:00

Like many in our industry, it was with a sense of great relief that I watched the clock tick over into 2010. I was happy to see 2009 vanish – a year that brought little to our profession. It was a year that saw agencies downsize, creativity slump, and media outlets collapse. Unfortunately, we also saw many marketeers demonstrate expertise in the recessionary duck-and-cover manoeuvre.

Personally, I look forward to seeing a greater emphasis on social media as part of the communications mix in 2010. For those wanting to enhance their social media programs - or who plan to put greater emphasis on social media, I’ve dusted off my crystal ball. It revealed six social media trends you should be planning for in the Year of the Tiger...

Augmented reality changes the way we make decisions
Must be frank – I love augmented reality (AR). There’s something inherently cool in being able to connect the digital and physical worlds via devices such as GPS-enabled smartphones and webcams. Early applications have done everything from telling you where your nearest Japanese restaurant is (and offering community-based ratings) to letting you try on a pair of new virtual eyeglasses from the comfort of your desk. The opportunity is for PR folks is to figure out how this type of heads up display technology can benefit your clients – and fast!

Corporate journalism fills traditional media vacuum
In spite of media outlet closures, people still want to hear, see or read well-written content. Social media channels give the companies we represent the wonderful ability to fill the growing traditional media story void. They can present their news stories, thought leadership positions, even product information directly to the people they want to influence. The trick is going to be ridding themselves of facile corporate happy-talk and producing content people actually want to consume.

Companies forced to actually speak to their customers
Shock! Horror! The people have spoken and they want conversation. Why is it then that so many companies refuse point blank to talk to their own customers? They’d rather pay bloggers or – heaven forbid – spammers – to own these most critical relationships. I hope 2010 is the year in which Asia Pacific companies realize that social media engagement is the way of the future and empower their staff to interact through blogs, forums and the myriad of other social channels. There might even be some money in it for them....

Web analytics force PR folks to embrace their inner nerds
PR folks aren’t renowned for their skill with numbers. Otherwise they’d be accountants. However they’re going to have to improve their analytical skills if they’re to get anywhere with social media. The greatest argument for social media as a game-changer is using web analytics tools to demonstrate how social media tactics have changed consumer behavior. A myriad of web tools can explicitly show how a forum conversation, blog discussion or Facebook game encouraged an audience to download, vote, view, join or take other bottom-line-impacting actions.

Real time search requires real-time reaction
The growth of Facebook and twitter as search destination has forced the major search engines to incorporate real-time search into their results. Search algorithms still prioritize results based on criteria such inbound and outbound links to quality sites but in parallel they’re showing the latest twitter tweets, news or blog posts. From a PR perspective, this makes the real-time monitoring of these channels even more critical. Regardless of your best SEO efforts, your customers can now see the latest thoughts from the crowd on your company during the same search. These thoughts – no matter how abstract or ill-informed – now have a place of pride on the critical first search engine results page. You need to be ready to respond should the posts warrant it.

Sidewiki helps companies offer an online alternative
One of the greatest fears of social media is the lack of control. Those who publish through blog, micro-blogs, discussion forums or other social channels aren’t bound by journalistic conventions such as corrections, letters to the editor, apologies or take-downs. But with the introduction of Google’s Sidewiki, companies have a digital right of reply. Using this tool, users can make comments that appear alongside a web page – comments that can’t be edited by the page’s owner.

Hopefully this advice helps as you bring more social media into your public relations programs. And as the last Chinese New Year firework fizzles out for another year, I raise my glass in toast. May the best of your PR yesterdays be the worst of your PR tomorrows.

- Jeremy

This post appeared in the February 2010 issue of Marketing Magazine.

Buzzing about Google Buzz

2010-02-12T15:19:00.002+08:00

I've been buzzing for a couple of days and have found some benefit.
Putting aside (if possible) he security and privacy concerns, Google Buzz seems to be a better place for genuine conversation than either Facebook or Twitter. I like the fact that you don't need to mess around with blog-like comment systems to offer thoughts, and that these comments are managed conversationally (unlike Twitter, which is more like a Where's Wally approach to discussion). Facebook also doesn't lend itself to real dialogue, which I think Buzz offers. I also like the fact that Buzz discussions I create or join pop up in my Gmail inbox (instead of needing to hunt for discussions across disparate platforms).
Saw something saying there had been 9 million posts and comments since launch, so I think we're witnessing the start of something here. Got to say I've spent more time in Buzz in two days than I had in Wave over two months. So will I buzz? I think Google have pushed some of the right buttons here, so yes, count me amongst millions..

- Jeremy

Social media talent wars: traditional agencies vs. digital shops

2009-12-23T09:01:00.000+08:00

If you believe what the PR blogosphere is saying, there’s an exodus away from classic public relations agencies into ‘cooler’ realms. The finger is being pointed firmly at social media, the dastardly force that’s luring younger practitioners in particular into upstart pure digital shops.

Young, impressionable PR folks are being turned off by the ‘old school’ world of PR. Perhaps the thought of spending formative days compiling activity reports and cutting and pasting media coverage into lengthy Word documents doesn’t have the same ‘zing’.

As someone who started his career nursing paper cuts caused by hours spent combing newspapers and magazines, then cutting out articles before gluing them to A4 sheets and mailing to clients, I can see the appeal.

On face value, the shiny object syndrome seems to be pulling inexperienced yet digitally aware PRs like ‘moths’ to the pure-play digital shops’ ‘flame’. Quite frankly, I get the lure. It seems a chance to play with toys in a digital sandbox. Old school PR ‘distractions’ such as building relationships with journalists, creating press lists, understanding the news cycle, and helping change a company’s image over time seem relegated to annals of history.

Sounds like fun. And don’t get me wrong. The last thing I want to do is start a feud with digital shops. I think they are doing a fine job building things that are helping shape influence. Facebook applications and games, web landing pages, interactive websites and so on are all vital parts of the modern web of influence.

I guess the issue I have is that these places are typically the love-children of good coders and advertisers. Their approach to communication is built around the individual’s (typically consumer’s) experience with the application, site or game (for example). Consumers are taken on a frequently emotional journey through mouse clicks and hyperlinks. Again, nothing wrong with this. My argument is that classic PR touches a different part of the brain. Digital content is part of the mix, but not a strategy in isolation.

In the early days of the Web, they used to say, “Content is king”. Web pages were destinations in their own right, and the success measure was “stickiness”. I feel today, conversation is king. The shiny things act like honey traps, but success is surely the ability to drive influence through conversation, pushing people to destinations and then taking action.

I challenge the notion that the digital shops that feel that they can “do” PR or marketing. I don’t want to overplay the science of public relations, but good practitioners are certainly made and not born. The ability to create a communications strategy that ties in business objectives to tactics and measurable outcomes is core to the PR discipline. Ever since Ivy Lee put together his Declaration of Principles in 1906, PR’s mission to act as a "two-way street" that helps clients listen as well as communicate messages to their publics has been set in stone (gotta love Wikipedia).

Much of this makes me sound like an old fogey, but the shiny things and their owners need to take heed. There’s more to communications (warning - gross generalization follows) than putting up a web site, no matter how sticky the content. The ‘if you build it, they will come’ theory of communications is rarely successful. You only have to look at the virtual tumbleweeds rolling through Second Life to get a sense of what I mean. Some of the attempts to drive influence through ‘social media marketing’ have been laughable.

I’ve written before about the seeding practices that seem to be a substitute for driving authentic conversations. This practice of paying so-called gunners to spam forums and blogs with crude product or service messages is raising the ire of bloggers, forum moderators and community members alike. It seems a rather odd interpretation of public relations, if you ask me.

My advice to those young folks tempted by the digital shops is simple. Spend some time assessing the role of social media and the associated tools as part of the wider communications mix. Understand that a grounding in the fundamentals of communication will always be relevant. Understand also that while social media’s influence will continue to grow, the ability to tell a good story and help shape a conversation are critical elements and should not be overlooked.

At the end of the day, some will go. And that’s OK. But this does remind me of a quote from former New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon. A journalist asked for his thoughts on the so-called brain drain of people migrating from New Zealand to neighbouring Australia. Always the diplomat, Muldoon considered, and then responded: “It raises the IQ of both countries”.

Food for thought? I hope so.

Do clouds really have silver linings? Some PR thoughts as we stutter out of recession

2009-10-25T22:50:00.000+08:00

Hmmm. There’s an odd smell in the streets of Hong Kong. And no, it’s not stinky tofu. It is the smell of optimism and I’m cautiously inhaling. After what seems like an eternity of dark headlines, budget cuts, market “re-prioritization” and other tales of woe, we appear to be bouncing back from the recession or, if you prefer, financial tsunami.

Whether it is W, L, U, V (or pear) shaped, a recovery is inevitable. While I’m not an economist, indicators such as new business demand, increasing client spend and calls from recruiters tell me that change is afoot.

While this certainly sends my financial team into raptures of accountant joy, from a consulting perspective, I wonder what clients and agencies have really learned from the recent unpleasantness? Have we changed behaviours for the good of companies’ communications programs? Has the mantra of doing more with (even) less created positive change and delivered genuine return on investment? Or are we back where we started with lower budgets and higher expectations? Hong Kong is, after all, the land of best service, lowest price.

A straw poll of twitter followers provided some clues. One told me: “What we learned from the recession? Nothing is the same - PR is changing, and the challenge is to heard above all the noise.”

A second optimist summed it up nicely: “Recessions just speed up trends. Clients have been wanting more for less for more than 20 years. Now they want EVEN more for EVEN less. So clients need to understand how to get better value from agencies, and agencies need to work out how to deliver that value and remain profitable.”

From my POV, the recession has brought us both positives and negatives. Let’s look at this from client and agency perspectives. Firstly, the client. I’ve seen some of my clients positively change their business models in response to tougher times. In one company’s case, this meant creating teams that cross over marketing, communications and sales lines. What’s especially encouraging is that they now assess every communications activity on its ability to generate business leads. The term “demand generation” is certainly now a part of every good PR consultant’s vocabulary. Those smarter companies have also looked at refocusing their marketing programs to include social media outreach.

I’ve also seen many companies that were forced to dramatically cut their PR spend. In many cases, their agency partners shared the pain through reduced retainers, fewer projects, and an expectation that even more could be done with a smaller PR investment. I also found that in China in particular, these requests were sometimes accompanied by a similar expectation that pre-recession service levels could continue “...in the interests of the relationship.”

From an agency point of view, the pressure of the past 12 months has been enormous. Many agencies have reduced headcount, cut salaries and made other significant compromises across their businesses. We’ve had to find efficiencies where none existed before, especially challenging given the very tight margins within which most PR agencies work. Tactics have included refining business processes, empowering junior staff to take on senior responsibilities at an earlier stage in their careers, offering services for well under industry rates to acquire business, and conceding to sometimes unrealistic client demands.

The smarter agencies, though, will realize that in making these concessions they’ve become more efficient businesses. Similarly, clients will realize that agencies are, in some cases, able to provide greater service than budgeted for. I’m hoping now that things are picking up again, there will be meeting of the minds on these points. Yes, agencies can be squeezed, but agencies are businesses and need to generate profits. They also depend largely on the well-being of their staff and the siege mentality of last year is unsustainable.

As my twitter friend pointed out, doing more with less is not a new thing – it is business as usual. So from an agency side, we’ve had to tighten belts that were already very tight. Given this, is it fair for us to expect a return to the heady pre-1987 days of three martini lunch PR as we bounce out of recession? Clearly not. But I am confident of a couple of points. Firstly, that agencies coming through the other side of the recession are fundamentally better at what they do. Secondly, that those savvy clients that have reprioritized their communications programs to focus on demand generation are going to reap the returns. For those that find a balance between these two complementary realizations, perhaps that odd smell is the sweet smell of success...

- Jeremy

This article first appeared in Marketing-Interactive

Answered - Four social media questions you were afraid to ask

2009-10-07T12:51:00.001+08:00

Recently, I ate peanuts aboard a Dragon Air Airbus 33A, while sitting on the tarmac at Shanghai’s Pu Dong Airport. My “first in the queue” plane to Hong Kong had idled for three hours. As I bit into the peanut (musing on the packet’s stern warning “Caution: contents contain peanuts”), I started thinking, as one does, about social media marketing.

I’d spent the previous two weeks discussing social media and public relations with audiences in Shanghai and Beijing. As my brain began to file away the conversations, I started to doodle the questions I’d been asked on my Dragon Air napkin (“Caution: contents contain dead trees”). It seemed that four things were on the minds of the multitude of marketers (try saying that three times quickly!) I’d met with over the past couple of weeks.

In the interests of the greater good, I thought I’d try to tackle them in this column because I think they frame the necessary next steps that many companies are still struggling to take.

Question 1: Should my company get into social media?
First, you should understand what you’re trying to sell, who you want to influence, and what influences them. If the answer is, in part, social media, then that needs to be part of the marketing program. The fact is, your brand is probably already a topic of discussion across social media channels. Realize also, social media isn’t a trend, fad or buzz. It exists because Web 2.0 tools have enabled everyone to publish. Quite frankly, the people have spoken. The underlying social media principles of openness, collaboration, participation, conversation, community and real time are woven into the fabric of communication.

Question 2: OK. So I should do this. How do I start?
Start by understanding the social media landscape around your product or service offering and associated themes. This ‘mapping’ exercise will help you set priorities, strategies and tactics. Once you understand the most influential channels and influencers, then representatives from your company can start to play active and authentic roles in these communities. Their mission? To help drive conversations within the communities, and also drive discussions back to you company webpage, blog, Facebook fan page, or other ‘owned’ media channels. A great way to start is to empower your 800 number helpdesk team to play their role in online communities. Why? They are already trained to manage 1-1 discussions with your clients and prospects.

Question 3: So I’m already “there”. How do I control my message?
Sadly, you can’t. The presumption of controlling messages is a hangover from the old days of PR 1.0. Many companies in China in particular been able to exert a significant degree of control over traditional media. In social media, however, not responding to the inevitable negative comments means that they become part of the digital record forever. By having company representatives in social media communities, you can ensure you’re across relevant discussions, presenting your point of view and adding value to the community. If you can manage this, discussions will be more balanced. And by driving the discussion back to your company blog, for example, you’ll have time to offer your point of view (and improve SEO in the process).

Question 4: OK. So I have some semblance of control. How do I measure this?
Social media is infinitely more measureable than traditional media. In media relations-based PR, we’ve relied on the collective leap of faith that says an article on page 42 of Ming Pao will be read from beginning to end, absorbed, and will play a key role in a business decision. I have nothing against Ming Pao, but surely this is an output, not an outcome.

By having company representatives contributing to social media communities, you can create measurable action and demand generation. If your representatives are compelling and people click through to your web landing page for more information, to book a place at an event or buy a product, then you’ve hit the jackpot.

Web analytics tools such as Google Analytics can show you precisely where those inbound links came from. Your SEO goes up, but more importantly you can make a direct correlation between social media activity and consumer behaviour.

It all sounds deceptively simple. The reality is there are places to start and the point of entry isn’t so challenging. But this is a long-term commitment that fundamentally changes the way your company will interact with its audiences. Social media continues to take many marketing managers in Asia out of their comfort zones. Through more conversation, active participation, and handfuls of Dragon Air peanuts, this is an opportunity you, as a marketer, can’t afford to ignore.

- Jeremy

Honour amongst thieves

2009-09-10T20:44:00.004+08:00

As I put fingers to keyboard, I’m angry. I keep telling myself this shouldn’t sound like sour grapes. I keep telling myself, that in these tough times, businesses have to make tough decisions. But one thing really gets my goat. And that’s PR companies that try to win business by attempting to steal clients away on the basis of pricing alone.

Now of course price is a key component of most purchases. PR firms, like many professional services companies, may choose to be flexible with pricing to win a new client over. They also frequently struggle to secure annual increases or adjust agreed rates in a timely fashion. You’ll hear the pricing question come up most often during a competitive pitch. Especially true in North Asia where in a game called “you show me yours and I won’t show you mine”, budgets are all-too-frequently not disclosed during the critical pitch process. The agencies simply have to apply the tried and true “finger in the wind” theory of financial modelling combined with an all too common patchwork of services and tactics. If all of the planets come into alignment they’ll hit the magic number and the relationship begins.

But I digress. Pricing is undeniably important and most companies are putting considerable pressure on their suppliers to do more with less. Over the past 12 months, I’ve had everything from retainer cuts, project spends drying up, complete shifts to project only work and immediate cancellations of agreements, in spite of agreed contract terms. That’s an unfortunate business reality and agencies are typically accommodating. I guess we, in some karmic fashion, acknowledge that such concessions and acts of goodwill will be rewarded at some magical point in the future (hopefully not too far in the future).

The other key factor is relationship. Fundamentally, no relationship is perfect. PR agency / client relationships are frequently like marriages – they have their ups and downs. But what really gets my goat is when competitors come a-knocking on my “partner’s” door and sell on price alone. “We’ll provide the same service at half the price,” they whisper into all-too-willing ears. Certainly, it sounds like a compelling proposition. But is it grounded on reality – or desperation? Sure, we’re all under pressure to make our numbers. But this type of behaviour brings our industry, which already struggles with its own PR challenges, into further ill-repute.

Naturally, these approaches raise questions in our clients’ minds. Am I getting real value for money? Did my procurement team push hard enough in the original negotiation? Can the work be done for less? But these questions need to be balanced with a few from the other side of the brain. Such as…has my agency been a loyal supplier for many years? Do they continue to provide me with valuable insights? Has the account team gone above and beyond the call? My fear is that price alone has become a weapon all too frequently used in the competitive arsenal. We’re not selling fish at the market here. Long term business relationships surely count for something, even in these unsettled times.

I had a situation several years ago in Australia where a client was approached with a similar offer. It had been a challenging relationship for many reasons, but the account team persevered and was making considerable progress supporting a tough proposition in a tough media market. Then we got THE call. A competitor had offered to provide the same level of support for half the fee. While we could be flexible, we couldn’t compete to the same level. And so the hard work of two years was cast aside and we parted ways. Four years later, my former client is now working with its third agency partner as it continues on its search for the holy grail of a perfect balance of best service and lowest price.

The other consideration is the question of the greenness of the grass on the other side. While these types of approaches may sow seeds of doubt, the decision to review or change agencies can’t be taken lightly. Certainly, agencies need to continually add value and nurture their client relationships. Taking clients for granted is a cardinal sin. But next time the price question raises questions, a conversation with yourself – and your agency – is in order.

To my clients I ask that if there are nagging doubts regarding service – or pricing – have the conversation with your account team. And to the unscrupulous agencies that choose to use the price lure – may the fleas of a thousand camels infest your armpits forever.

- Jeremy

This article appeared in the August 2009 issue of Marketing Magazine Hong Kong

The Top 10 Essential Social Media Stories This Week

2009-08-30T22:47:00.000+08:00

The Top 10 Essential Social Media Stories This Week: "

From an image editing disaster by Microsoft to Yelp’s augmented reality application to a rehab center for Internet addicts, it’s been a busy week in web news.

We were blown away by Facebook’s latest iPhone app and shocked by a new ad campaign that informs drivers of the dangers of texting while driving. Less shocking: a new study suggested that social media users are somewhat narcissistic.

In Mashable news, meanwhile, our Summer of Social Good conference was a hit…and ended on a high with an unexpected marriage proposal.

Without further ado, here are the top stories in social media this week.

1. Microsoft Apologizes for Photoshop Trainwreck – Microsoft edited an image on its Polish website, replacing a black person with a white one. An apology was issued for the mistake.

2. EASTER EGG: Yelp Is the iPhone’s First Augmented Reality App – Yelp sneakily launched an augmented reality iPhone app this week. We take it for a test run.

3. First U.S. Rehab Center for Internet Addiction Opens Its Doors – America’s first Internet addiction center opens. A sign of the times?

4. How Facebook Can Ruin Your Relationships [VIDEO] – A recent study showed that Facebook increases jealousy in relationships. Now we have video evidence.

5. STUDY: Social Media Is for Narcissists – are social media tools used for narcissistic ends? A new study appears to confirm it.

6. Apple Censored the Snow Leopard: Now With 100% Less Blood – Apple’s Snow Leopard operating system arrives…with the blood stains removed.

7. IT’S HERE: Facebook 3.0 for iPhone Has Arrived – Facebook’s latest iPhone app is here…and it’s awesome. We look at the unique features in this innovative new social app.

8. Texting While Driving Video: Will Graphic Imagery Change People’s Behavior? – A graphic new ad uses shock tactics to warn of the dangers of texting while driving. Will it work, asks Adam Ostrow.

9. Dual-Screen Laptops?! Yes, They’re Real (and Coming Soon) – One laptop screen not enough space for all your applications? Ben Parr clues us in on a new dual-screen laptop that provides oodles of screen real estate.

10. Don’t Want to Let Go of Your Ex? Yes, There Are Apps for That [Video] – A parody iPhone ad offers to help stalk your ex.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, AndrewJohnson

Reviews: Yelp, facebook, iStockphoto

Tags: social, social media

Shock! Horror! 40% of tweets on twitter are pointless babble!

2009-08-17T12:05:00.002+08:00

Sigh. In the biggest Twitter story of the week, Pear Analytics research report concludes that 40% of tweets are - drum role - actually pointless babble. Outlets such as Computerworld, InformationWeek, Cnet and The Daily Telegraph have gleefully reported the twitter = babble story.

But, I fear they are missing the point. This study reflects analysis of 2,000 English tweets from the public timeline. This is akin to measuring a minute of radio commentary from 2,000 radio stations. Babble will feature highly, because there's a lot of babble out there.

Perhaps I'm unique in my Twitter usage, but I certainly don't spend time watching the public timeline for my news and information. Seems a rather inefficient way to use twitter if you ask me.

With tools such as TweetDeck allowing you to manage twitter searches via people, groups, or topic, there are rather easy ways to avoid the babble - and rather meaningless research reports!

Dear spammers – can we have our social media back?

2009-07-25T09:30:00.002+08:00

I’ve spent much of the past month meeting with social media monitoring companies to find a supplier that can manage searches and analysis in Asian languages. I’ve been geeking out on some of the applications, and, without the hint of apology, challenging a lot of what I’ve seen. I hope the folks I’ve met with have enjoyed the discussions.

While I’ve been quite impressed with how far Asian language buzz, sentiment and share of voice dashboards have come, the spectre of “social media marketing” raised its head in three of the discussions.

Naturally, as an inquisitive fellow, I pushed them on this point. With the innocence of a new-born lamb, I asked them precisely what they meant by “marketing” in a social media context. The response? “Seeding”. Now, for the uninitiated, “seeding” has little to do with the planting seeds in fertile soil and nourishing them to grow.

Sadly, it seems, “seeding” has a lot to do with spamming forums and blogs with often inappropriate commercial messages.

This is akin to arriving late (and uninvited) to a party that’s in full swing. Then strolling casually into the middle of an intense discussion and yelling “buy a car from Chan’s Auto Yard!” Next step is to run out of the party, never to be heard from again.

Now come on people (and seeders). Who are we kidding here? Is this behaviour acceptable in any community in which you operate? Is this “marketing”? No. It is spamming pure and simple. And what makes it worse, is that as corporates discover the genuine influence of social media discussions, they’re defaulting to these sorts of tactics and running the risk of doing their brands considerably more harm than good.

I understand the good folks that are paid to “seed” in this way are referred to as “gunners” (in traditional Chinese cheng churn meaning, literally, hired guns).

So, let’s break this down. You identify a forum like Uwants or DiscussHk as an influential channel where discussions relevant to your brand, product or service are taking place. People care enough (or, at least are passionate enough) to share their feelings and ask probing questions. Instead of joining the conversation in a meaningful way by replying to posts or establishing a contributing and helpful role within the community, you instead hire a gunner to spam inappropriate comments at this influential audience.

I can only assume that this approach is based on the assumption that at least a “key message” is “placed” in the discussion; therefore this somehow constitutes marketing success. And perhaps using the direct marketing logic, maybe a 1 or 2 percent response rate justifies the expenditure. Whereas an unsolicited email can be deleted or captured by a spam filter, the gunner’s handiwork lives on in the digital record. Ideally forum moderators or bloggers block such comments, but if they let them remain, they are nothing more than a reminder for most netizens that the offending company has no understanding of social media conventions and should be at best ignored, and, at worst, flamed.

Companies need to realize that there really is no such thing as spamming your way to social media influence. Influence is established through trusted relationships built over time. It appears that for many companies in Hong Kong, these types of relationships aren’t worth the investment required. I fear that until we reach a stage where the communities voice their objections, however, our forums are blogs destined to be the playground of these digital gate-crashers.

It does raise the question of how else to engage in these vital channels. The answer is pretty clear. Like any community, you need to understand the discussion, so spend time researching and reading. Determine which forum threads or blogs focus on topics you’re interested in. Look at the language of discussion and analyse the nature of comments and posts. Consider how you can meaningfully join the conversation – how can you add value? Can you answer a question? Point people to new information? Introduce a new topic that the community will value?

And remember, by starting down this path, you’re making a commitment to the community. Once you’re in, you should stay in. And through this, you’ll develop the relationships marketers only dreamt of a decade ago.

Finally, a call to action. For those who really value the digital communities they’ve helped build and increasingly see as a preferred place for discussion, debate and research, now is the time to take back the night. Next time you see a post that’s clearly “gunned”, make it clear that they’re not welcome in your ‘hood.

- Jeremy

Note, this article appeared in the June 2009 issue of Marketing Magazine Hong Kong

It Aint Yo' Daddy's Crisis Communications

2009-06-05T11:44:00.003+08:00

Great grand-daughters and great-grandsons of P.T. Barnum. An apology for not posting. Things have been manic. Some thoughts on crisis communications that struck me as my Marketing Magazine deadline approached. Read on, enjoy (and comment!)...

At some point in a darkened room, a wise and learned soul sat down and created the original PR crisis communications course. Much like a cherished family heirloom, this course has been handed down through the generations and across the agencies, tweaked occasionally, but it essentially says the same things.

It tells us the first 24 hours is the only 24 hours. It tells us (and misleads us slightly) that the Chinese character for crisis is a combination of the characters representing "danger" and "opportunity".

It reinforces that crises can smoulder or be sudden, that understanding the news cycle is critical. It also instructs that candour is one of the best tools in an executive's arsenal.

It is a sad reality that this document too often dusted off once a crisis has hit - or following a poorly managed crisis. The challenge is that today the dynamics of crisis have changed. Social media has turned some of the old rules on their heads. While we happily extol the virtues of social media's ability to enable business through (jargon alert) appropriate community engagement, the darker side of social media is often glossed over even ignored.

Several recent events have hopefully slapped the collective faces of companies that happily employ the "ostrich approach" to crisis management. The first relates to Domino's Pizza. This decades-old global brand reinforces an image of fresh, hot food prepared by happy, enthusiastic workers. It received a wake-up call on April 12 when two employees felt compelled to post a video to YouTube showing them performing various unsavoury acts on food products. See the video (TV news coverage here); you'll know what I mean.

What's interesting is that prior to the age of YouTube, such a thing may have been limited to a video cassette played at frat parties. But within 48 hours, the offensive video had been viewed millions of times. Domino's did many of the right things in responding - it posted its own YouTube video, and replied directly to the blogger that broke the story.

The company - and hopefully others like it - learned a lesson in how easy it is for idiots with video cameras to cause a brand considerable damage.

Another topical crisis that has raised questions over the role of social media in a crisis is the recent Swine Flu / H1N1 outbreak. Social media flavour of the month Twitter came under fire for spreading misinformation. Such was the level of incorrect tweets, that mainstream media saw it as an opportunity to quite rightly raise questions over Twitter's credibility.

On the positive side, the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) has used Twitter as a force for good to spread reliable and accurate information. Its followers have grown from 2,621 (April 23) to 249,940 (June 6).

A third example of social media's ability to amplify a crisis comes from the god-mother of e-commerce, Amazon.com. In April, social media channels were full of the news that sales rankings and search results for gay and lesbian books had disappeared from Amazon's website.

Amazon did itself no favours by telling the Associated Press two days after the fact that the error had been caused by a glitch in the system. A new Twitter hashtag (#glitchmyass) and twitter user quickly appeared - symbols of the community's distain over Amazon's actions and response.

So, what to do? Traditional media channels are increasingly feeding on crises and issues that break through social media. Channels such as facebook, twitter and YouTube have become trusted sources - but their ability to misinform or mislead is as powerful as traditional media's historical ability to credibly inform and lead.

There are three fundamentals that all companies need to take on board

today:

Be vigilant: Understand the social and traditional media landscape and monitor for issues in real time. This is commonsense, but companies are still being surprised. Make sure employees' actions in social media channels are also under review.

Fish where the fish are: Ensure you have a credible presence in key social media channels in advance. Just as with mainstream media, a crisis is the worst time to make a first impression. Companies need to be part of key communities if they hope to secure support in times of crisis.

Change plans: Unlike the crisis plans of old, don't wait until the crisis to bring it out of the drawer. Crisis preparedness needs to be part of the daily communications mix - starting with something as simple as listening to the conversation that's already going on 24x7.

- Jeremy

PR versus advertising - the battle rages on

2009-05-09T15:08:00.004+08:00

I put together these words for Marketing Magazine - a new take on a perennial debate...

US merchant, religious leader, political figure and "father" of advertising, John Wanamaker, is often quoted as saying "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half."

I think John would be scratching his head today - as are many communicators - when asked to justify a modern communications mix. In the past, the leap of faith that dictates that noise in the "free" media and buying ads equates to marketing success has kept many a marketeer employed. But the current global unpleasantness has put every dollar, ringgit, or renimbi under scrutiny that we haven't seen since the post dot com crash days.

Today we face CEOs who, over the past few decades, have become accustomed to measuring PR and advertising success in the same way you assess fish at a wet market - by the kilogram (of press clippings and ads). Their complimentary marketing programs floated in harmony, mysteriously above and below a magical line.

These same CEOs are now being also being asked to comprehend Facebook groups and Xiaonei pages, tweets with twitter, discussion forums and BBSs, and being told to blog until they can blog no more.

And when, as is common in these difficult times, they ask what the return on this increasingly complex investment is, all the smoke and mirrors in the world won't protect the un-informed marketing manager.

In an attempt to help our clients answer some of these questions, my company, Text 100, did some digging. Realizing that an unfortunate by-product of tougher economic times is a reduction in marketing spend, we tried to figure out the role that public relations plays in building brand value. How? By assessing the statistical relationship between media prominence (measuring prominence of mentions in unpaid media) and brand value for the 100 companies in Interbrand's 2008 Best Global Brands report.

While I'm not a statistician (and have no desire to throw gasoline on the advertising versus PR fire), the results were interesting on several levels. Overall, we found that how often a company appeared in the press accounted for over a quarter of its brand value. The survey (fact sheet here) determined that the more complex the product, the smaller the role advertising played in its brand value. Net-net, a sizable amount of brand value, particularly for high involvement industries, is tied into media coverage.

So...PR is good for complex products and makes a difference. But just how good is it? A recent Neilson AIG study concluded that advertising builds confidence in financial brands in crisis. In essence, they determined that those financial institutions that spend more on advertising will maintain more consumer confidence than those that pull back.

Not rocket science. But check out this data, buried under a sub head in the press release. "When asked what factors would increase confidence in the safety and soundness of their financial institution, respondents cited:

- Seeing regular advertising for that institution (25%)

- Receiving regular mail or e-mail offers from that institution (25%)

- Regularly seeing internet offers/advertising from that institution (21%)

- Reading positive stories in the press about that institution (44%)"

Read that last bullet again. It clearly states that reading positive stories in the press bolsters much more confidence than seeing regular advertising.

Defence exhibit number three, your honour. TNS study on brands in the digital world provided a couple of choice factoids. When asked what types of digital media have you seen being used, respondents cited dedicated websites, sponsored content, banner ads, popup ads and email as their top five. But when it came down to what people actually trusted, only manufacturers' websites appeared in to rate highly.

The ad spend went into channels that weren't trusted. Recommendations from friends and family, independent reviews in publications, expert product reviews from websites, product labels on packaging and consumer reviews from websites were Asia's most trusted channels. So, if you rightly assume that trust is a big part of purchase decisions, then channels that fall under the PR domain are the place to spend your money.

So, is it PR = good, advertising = bad? No, I don't think so. But I think in a time of greater scrutiny, any decision needs to be measured on its ability to create or boost stakeholder confidence. We're talking to the most media savvy generation in history. Advertising will always play a critical role in creating and changing perception. But if you want to create confidence and community, the PR spend seems to fall into the half not wasted.

- Jeremy

Measuring PR success

2009-04-22T14:52:00.002+08:00

The good folks at PublicAffairsAsia recently asked me some questions on PR measurement (which has always been a pet topic of mine). Here's the resulting article. My full responses follow...

How has evaluating PA (public affairs) activity changed in the last five years?

There has been a significant shift in measurement over the past five years, but it is inconsistent across companies. While some are using sophisticated tools like Biz 360 to measure output, many still rely on out dated (and discredited) techniques such as ad value equivalency. In North Asia, many still rely on character counting and the volume of clippings as opposed to more sophisticated action and message or tone oriented metrics. On the positive side, companies are increasingly not just measuring their own output, but also assessing competitors’ performance.

Is there more demand for quantifying PA work and what are the drivers behind it?

Yes. The global recession has forced companies to look very closely at their marketing spends. This means the need to demonstrate return on investment has become significant. Critically, the ability to make a connection between marketing activity and business or organizational change is vital.

The impact of the credit crunch on evaluation.

As above, there is more and more pressure for better evaluation. Ironically, this is coupled with a smaller spend. So evaluation techniques using free web tools are becoming popular. Companies are increasingly compromising holistic measurement, and looking at representative measurement of campaign success.

The role of evaluation in Asia....

Becoming more important as more sophisticated marketers come into management roles. The large global measurement companies are improving their double byte character support and this is making global best practice measurement possible in Asia. This is leading to better analysis and forcing communicators and agencies to demonstrate a better connection between their programs and the business as a whole.

The future trends behind evaluation processes....

The future is more, real-time assessment. Online dashboards will replace monthly clippings books, allowing for campaign decisions to be made in real-time (as opposed to waiting for a monthly or quarterly review). With better data and analysis will come better, more quantifiable results.

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted

2009-04-11T09:27:00.004+08:00

Some ramblings on mainstream media's newest darling, twitter. This ran in the latest issue of Marketing Magazine in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia. As an aside, I find the headline especially telling as just this morning, the New York Times reports that anti-government protests in Moldova were "fueled" by twitter. Read on...

Twitter's success is testament to the social media tenant that everyone can publish. With the entire online population empowered to report, stories will increasingly break online. The new model seems to be Twitter stories leading to more in-depth analysis in traditional media channels.

These channels are also seeing Twitter as a source of content and viewer collaboration. Sky News has appointed Ruth Barnett as Twitter correspondent, and increasingly Twitter is being used by broadcast outlets such as CNN for real-time talkback (twalkback?) on topics of the day.

But when journalists themselves turn to Twitter, you have to wonder about the way in which news will be broken. Reuters editor in chief David Schlesinger in effect scooped his own company when he tweeted George Soros' Davos statement "the global economic collapse could end up being worse than the Great Depression" - ahead of posting over the traditional Reuters wire.

From a corporate perspective, there are more and more tales of Twitter-centric business and branding success. Dell, for example, is widely credited to have used Twitter with producing US$1 million in revenue over the past year and a half through sale alerts. In essence, people who signed up to follow Dell on Twitter received messages when discounted products became available from the company's Home Outlet Store.

When under attack for a bad taste advertisement that showed a cartoon calorie committing suicide, PepsiCo turned to Twitter. In response to criticism, Communications Manager Huw Gilbert, tweeted: "Huw from Pepsi here. We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologise and please know it won't run again."

Twitter critics saw the post as a positive and authentic response, and were generally supportive of Pepsi's quick action.

So what does all of this mean for those of us in PR? Will Twitter go the way of the dodo? Is it bubble waiting to burst? A qualified "highly likely" to both, but the reality is, the growth and popularity of this tool and similar services such as China's fanfou, Taiwan's buboo, and Thailand's Noknok cannot be ignored.

Twitter offers companies a chance to foster conversations with their key stakeholder audiences. Whether it be journalists (who are increasingly tweeting themselves) or customers, a tweet or direct message on Twitter can help create both an instant response and a initiate lasting relationship.

Whether through 140 character Twitter pitches, real time updates from events, direct customer communications, breaking news, early alerts on issues, or growing maintaining relationships with influencers and constituents, it seems if the answer to "What are you doing?" isn't "spending time on Twitter", you're missing a trick.

Gee Whiz - Social Media!

2009-03-20T08:50:00.003+08:00

Short rant to start the day. Noticed a couple of headlines in my RSS feeds:

Microsoft Turns to Social Media to Promote Internet Explorer 8

and

International bishops seminar considers 'new media'

Is it just me, or is anyone else wondering why these are still coming out as news stories? Perhaps I’m a little close to this, but it is starting to remind me of those old Web 1.0 press release we used to write when our clients first opened their websites.

Hoping soon that the discussion can move from “gee, social media” to here’s what communication looks like – forever.

Side note, spent some time in the company of colleagues from other agencies last week. A little surprised to hear some are still keeping social media expertise in walled gardens within their businesses.

From my POV, that’s backwards looking. While specialists are good to have, all PR consultants need to be rounded communicators – and that means being able to advise with confidence on all channels – social media, traditional media, influencer, internal…

- Jeremy

It's official - PR is more powerful than advertising in building brand value

2009-03-10T08:32:00.004+08:00

From my employer Text 100 and our analytics arm, Context Analytics, a new study demonstrating the value PR plays versus advertising. Full study is here. Key findings...

Companies must closely manage what is perhaps their most valuable asset – their brand – and this study helps executives quantify the impact public relations has on their brand value
Findings reinforce that PR and communications are important and cost-effective tools that deliver real business value – often at fractions of the cost of advertising
The Media Prominence Study brand value based on Interbrand’s 2008 Best Global Brands report, show that on average 27 percent of brand value is tied to how often the brand name appears in the press
In industries that involve more research before purchases are made, public relations can account for nearly half of brand value. For example, in the computing industry, media prominence accounted for 47 percent of brand value, or 16 times that of the personal care industry.
The more complex a product is to a buyer, the more likely they are to research the product category and to look for information they can trust – from editorial content rather than advertisements.

Interesting (and very timely) stuff...

- Jeremy

5 social media suggestions (in 200 words or less)

2009-02-09T10:38:00.003+08:00

Recently had in interview with the Shanghai Business Review. They asked for five social media suggestions and gave me 200 words. My response follows - have I hit the nail on the head?

1. Understand your objective and audience

Social media isn't a “silver bullet” for communications. You need to understand your business objective, audience, and what influences them. If the answer is "social media channels" then add social media to the communications mix.

2. Understand the social media environment

Map out the social media landscape before starting to engage in these channels. You have to understand the conversations before you can join them. Remember, the internet is littered with the carcasses of dead blogs!

3. Prepare your spokespeople

Engaging in social media relations is quite unlike traditional media relations. Your social media spokespeople are unlikely to be your MD or CEO. Whoever steps into this role needs to understand the dynamics of peer media conversation.

4. Say after me “be authentic”

Social media revolves around human conversations. If you think channels such as blogs, social networks or discussion forums are places to post press releases or yell about discounted wristwatches, then go back to step two.

5. Measure, measure, measure

Social media is very measurable, with anything from share of voice, to tone, to number of posts and comments able to show success. My advice is to start small, and add new metrics as your confidence increases.

Thoughts?

- Jeremy

Hong Kong joins Charity:Water Tweetup

2009-02-03T19:49:00.004+08:00

On February 12, Hong Kong will participate in the world’s largest Tweetup for Charity:Water. We are one of more than 175 cities to support this cause. Charity:Water is "...a non-profit bringing clean and safe drinking water to people in developing nations." Videos and more info here.

Hong Kong’s Twestival will at the Yumla Bar (off the top of Pottinger Street) on Thursday February 12. Things start at 8pm and there will be live music from N™ and a DJ. More info here.

Tickets are HK$100 and include a free drink, with all proceeds going to Charity: Water. Tickets must be purchased from the Twestival charity website in advance (You need a Twitter account).

Hope to see you there!

- Jeremy

Some words on social media in China

2009-01-22T14:45:00.002+08:00

Put some thoughts together for the folks at Public Affairs Asia. Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue...

CHINA'S INTERNET REVOLUTION

New data has revealed that China's internet population is still soaring and, says Jeremy Woolf, this presents new challenges for public affairs and communications professionals

Woolf: China's web growth opens new opportunities

Before you go down the social media path, understand business objectives and audience dynamics

China’s world-leading internet population of 298 million shows no sign of slowing down.

With year on year growth of 41.9%, the introduction of next generation mobile technologies such as 3G will only speed up this astounding uptake. What’s encouraging is the 60.8% increase in rural areas, giving those who typically relied on mainstream media access to social media channels.

From a social media or public affairs perspective, this growth further reinforces the need for companies and government entities in China to include social media as a key part of their communications strategies.

While there are concerns about the ability to “control” messages within these channels, the reality is the control that many companies have enjoyed over mainstream media content is shrinking. It really isn’t a question of whether you should engage in social media – the reality is your brand is already part of the online conversation.

Authentic communications

It is critical that in making the move to social media relations, Chinese companies adopt ethical practices and genuinely contribute to the communities in which they want to engage. The success or failure of this engagement lies in their ability to authentically function as part of an online community.

Authenticity will be a challenge for many. One of the reasons for the astronomical growth of blogs and discussion forums/BBS in China is their ability to give a voice to people who for so long were unable to express themselves. But with this boom comes the realisation that these channels are influential and can be used to shape public opinion.

This has led to the growth of so-called astroturfing or fake grass roots movements in China. The most public expression of this practice has been the “50 Cent Army”, consisting of students who are paid a small amount of money to contradict anti-Government opinion.

The concern is this practice will potentially damage the reputation of social networks as open and trustworthy environments. I can only hope that the self-policing nature of social networks will ensure discussions remain authentic and unwanted posters are discredited.

Message not medium

Despite the inevitable enthusiasm for social media relations that the internet figures will generate, one communications fundamental remains consistent for companies seeking to grow their brands in China. That is that the message is still more important than the medium.

Only once you determine that blogs, social networks, micro-blogging and video sharing sites are influential and are where your audience ‘lives’, should you plan and engage these communities.

Before you go down the social media path, understand business objectives and audience dynamics, listen to the market, prepare yourself and your spokespeople, then participate. Evaluate. Then do it again.

Jeremy Woolf is senior vice president and Greater China director of Text 100 Public Relations

- Jeremy

Tweeting about twitter

2009-01-10T08:44:00.003+08:00

Happy new year to all. First post of 2009 focuses on the hottest thing in social media in 2008...the rise (and rise) of twitter.

Got to say like most people, when I first embarked on my twitter journey, my initial reaction was one I shared with my aged mother. "Who on earth would care what I'm doing?"

The answer's in the numbers. With more than six million twitterers, growing at an astounding rate of (according to Hubspot's State of the Twittersphere Q4 2008) between five and 10 thousand each day, people clearly do.

Checking out the RSS feeds today, a couple of stories come to light that bring the business potential of twitter into focus.

Whether Internetnews.com...

"Less altruistically, some businesses have discovered that Twitter is an effective way of communicating with consumers. Dell (NASDAQ: DELL) says Twitter has produced $1 million in revenue over the past year and a half through sale alerts. People who sign up to follow Dell on Twitter receive messages when discounted products are available the company's Home Outlet Store. They can click over to purchase the product or forward the information to others."

Or the erstwhile Financial Times...

"PepsiCo turned to Twitter this month after users began posting criticisms of a Pepsi Max advertisement, which depicted a cartoon calorie committing suicide.

Huw Gilbert, communications manager for PepsiCo International, “tweeted”, or posted a public message, in reply. “Huw from Pepsi here,” he wrote. “We agree this creative is totally inappropriate; we apologise and please know it won’t run again.”

Critics saw Mr Gilbert’s post, with one “tweeting” back: “Thank you . . . for having the guts to get on Twitter on behalf of Pepsi and give us an update on the suicide ad.”

... it appears corporations are starting to figure out the power of micro-blogging. I wonder if Asia-based companies are seeing the value (yet)? Hard to think of any solid examples in my neck of the woods of tweeting success.

Will be interesting to see if the twitter phenomenon continues its growth beyond the confines of English. Will localized micro-blogging sites like China's fanfou, Germany's 1you, Taiwan's buboo, or Thailand's Noknok maintain their share or succomb to twitter's multi-lingual global juggernaut?

If you doubted twitter's universal appeal, you have to go no further than the mircale of twittervision to see that it really is a global conversation.

- Jeremy