Category: PR
Players from PR, SEO & Digital, competing hard for ground in the newest game in town – social media, now have another entrant to contend with, at least in Australia – a law firm.
A Sydney legal firm, Turner Freeman has teamed up with comms agency SR7 to launch En Garde, a social media monitoring company targeting businesses, government departments and institutions, offering to police social media networks to “prevent social media marketing campaigns from becoming a platform for inappropriate content or attacks on brands”.
Quoted in mUmBRELLA, Turner Freeman partner Steven Penning said: “The management of online risk should be approached with the same diligence afforded to traditional risk factors such as financials, operational and material. Social Media risk can be managed properly if appropriate mechanisms and procedures are put in place and legal counsel who understand the medium are used.” More »
Speaking at the Government’s digital creative industry conference C&binet (surely they meant C@binet) late yesterday, Simon Fuller, Spice Girls’ creator said that content providers were the key to future success online.
Fuller describes digital media as a “war zone” where creative ideas will dominate. He referred to his own operation, 19 Entertainment, as a “bespoke aggregator”. “The next big idea could come from some kid in India. That’s the way it should be – I’m excited,” he said, quoted in The Guardian.
Fuller said that while he believed certain companies – such as Google and Microsoft – have a “big head start” in online there is still room for many players in the emerging digital media market. More »
Google’s new social search tool went live yesterday, enabling participants to see results from agreed social networks they belong to. The timing is interesting, shortly after Google had agreed a deal with Twitter to incorporate tweets in search, here’s a tool to mine them.
Also yesterday, eMarketer’s latest survey once again confirmed word of mouth is the number one purchase driver online, family first, friends second, social networks third.
So theoretically, if we’re looking for a hotel recommendation in say, Dijon and some friends have stayed there and tweeted about it “Having dinner in the garden at the lovely Sofitel, Dijon” – that’s the review we trust, more so than the one from Swedish Bjorn and Benny on Trip Advisor who enjoyed playing the hotel piano (though that might have been quite a sing along). More »
Brands like Mastercard and Geek Squad are creating their own news content published direct to consumers via channels like YouTube, rather than pitching stories to traditional media, Advertising Age reports today.
The US advertising monitor cites the declining number of media outlets combined with the growth of quick fire customer engagement through online communities as drivers of a new approach to PR.
Mastercard, for example has deliberately pursued a low tech video route, interviewing it’s executives on camcorders, editing on laptops and uploading to YouTube. Mastercard’s PR agent, Andrew Foote at Cohn and Wolfe says:
“They’re realizing they can comment on issues and get the points of view of their experts out there and on the record. Once the videos are up, the company will often tweet the links and follow up with reporters letting them know MasterCard commented on the topic.” More »
Online video is the top marketing priority in 2010, ahead of email and search, according to a new survey from US based TurnHere.
The top reasons for video include: branding (60%), exposure on sites like YouTube (54.7%), and viral content (48%).
Professionally produced content was overwhelmingly favored over user generated, 83.5% of respondents already using online video in their marketing efforts in one form or another.
90.7% of respondents are likely or highly likely to use online video in their marketing efforts in the next 12 months, the survey found.
Apple has certainly been busy with video, with the latest in its PC vs Mac films ‘Broken Promises’ released yesterday, taking aim at Microsoft’s launch of Windows 7 which was brought forward 24 hours because of the postal strike. I bet their PR agency appreciated that. More »
Procter and Gamble loo roll brand Charmin is searching for five “super-fun” bloggers to record hundreds of thousands of customer visits to its temporary restrooms in Times Square for five weeks from 23rd November.
Part of Charmin’s ‘Enjoy the go’ campaign, successful candidates will be appointed Charmin Ambassadors whose role will be to blog about their experiences and share content on Facebook and Twitter. Alarmingly they’ll also be posting video content.
This is not the first time Procter and Gamble has set out its stall in Times Square. In 2008 Charmin ran “Plush Potties for the People” tour across the US which also finished in Times Square. The 2009 campaign is however the first time P&G has used blogging and social media to push the brand and the first time it has hired a consumer as a spokesperson.
The five appointed will be paid $10,000 each but they’ll have to be prepared to answer questions like “why do you ‘enjoy the go’ more than anyone else” and “how will you entertain bathroom guests”. Interviews will be held on November 5th at The Hilton Hotel, NY if you’re interested. More »
In a post on his blog yesterday Stephen Fry reflected on his role in the Jan Moir Twitter storm last week and also a regretted comment he made on Channel 4 the week before “let’s not forget which side of the border Auschwitz was on.” Fry explains “The words just formed themselves in a line in my head, as words will, and marched out of the mouth.”
It was odd to see Fry talking politics on Channel 4 in any case, especially in that shirt he was wearing and of course the opportunity to gaffe live on TV as an entertainer is multiplied many times, as Anton Du Beke and Brucey have experienced recently in that highly controversial political show, Strictly.
Writing something first before sending it anywhere at least gives you the chance to weigh up and edit what you’re expressing. My rule of thumb on Twitter is never to say anything too negative, if I can help it. More »
In a post on her blog on Thursday, Susan Moskwa, Google’s Webmaster Trends Analyst recommends proactively publishing “useful, positive information” to gain control of your business (or personal) online reputation.
Moskwa’s comments come in the context of dealing with negative online publicity and in 2009, it’s still the case that most businesses only think of online reputation when something goes wrong. It’s the online equivalent of crisis PR.
Other companies are taking a more considered approach, combining elements of search and editorial planning to ensure that their online reputation matches their brand values. More »
UK Google search results for online reputation have risen 41% in the last year, according to data from search specialists WhyCommunicate?
Internationally, the US, followed by UK and Germany are the countries running most searches for online reputation with “online reputation management” and “bad reputation” the fastest rising search phrases.
Interest in online pr has grown over the same period by 27% and micro-blogging (Twitter) by 72%.
Interest in online pr is surfacing more frequently in the media too. Recent news stories include the LSE’s findings that companies with good online reputation grow 4-5 times faster and the slightly surreal recommendation from Gartner that company avatars follow a dress code. Centaur launched a dedicated site to the subject – Reputation Online last month. More »
The new Conservative party campaigning website, launched on Friday looked like a dud when I first arrived on its blue blog page (the one my Google search landed on). Its main purpose seems to be to tutor Tory campaigners via a You Tube video on how to conduct a telemarketing campaign from home.
So here you have the odd scencario of one of the newest and most popular marketing channels – video, being used to organise undoubtedly the least popular and most old school marketing channels - cold calling.
This only added to my growing suspicion that political parties think online marketing is a type of intranet for posting information and instructions to the party machine rather than an engagement tool for reaching voters. More »
