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“Media and Marketing for Middle School” Goes Digital

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On January 10th, GCAI kicked off the seventh year of “Media and Marketing for Middle School,” a vocational mentoring program at the Zanetti School in Springfield, MA. The program was started by Holly Barden-Lopez, an English Language Learners teacher at the school and John Garvey in order to introduce students to the marketing field and all of the writing that it entails.  At that time, Holly had requested that we meet with a small group of her students to discuss the pamphlets they were working on. We  decided to built on that idea and introduce them to the entire print production process – from concept and copy to inks and printing. Since Zanetti was our neighbor at the time, we were able to take them on a variety of tours including  James Langone’s Photography Studio, The Republican, CBS3 Springfield and our office on the 24th floor of Tower Square. John was not offended when students remarked that the best part of the office tour was looking out the window as opposed to his comments.

When the school moved out of their 100 year old building and into a new facility a couple of miles away, GCAI brought the program to them – with some new twists. While traditional media remains a big part of the program, digital marketing is increasingly playing a bigger role in the presentations.  Television, radio, and print news will all be covered, but so will the mobile wave, social media, and online advertising.  Most of the eighth grade students participating have Internet access in their home and are active on Facebook. Many of them already have Smartphones and all of them have iPads, thanks to a grant written by their teachers Tonya Claiborne and Wendi Meunier.

Along with John’s introductory presentation, the 2012 speaker lineup is as follows:

1/17 – Brenda McGiverin, Digital Sales Director, WWLP.com

1/31 – Elysia Rodriquez, Anchor/Reporter, WWLP 22News

2/7 – Craig Swimm, General Manager, WMAS 94.7 FM and  “The Hall” 1450 AM

2/14 – Elizabeth Romàn, Reporter, The Republican

2/21 – Mary Fallon, Media Director, GCAI

Thank you to all our speakers and stay tuned for more reports from the classroom!

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition Requires Radical PR Tactics

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Back in the day (like five years ago), GCAI provided pro-bono Public Relations services to  Greater Springfield Habitat for Humanity’s blitz builds, so the concept of rallying volunteers, supplies and donations to build a house was not a new thing to us.  Then, along came the Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (EMHE) Springfield build.

For those who have not followed the show since its inception in 2003, basically its star Ty Pennington and his design crew roll into town, partner with a local builder and then build a new home for a deserving family in about a week. Although there is undoubtedly a lot of background work that takes place over the months preceding the build, the local builder and supporting volunteers (insert PR agency here), complete their work in about five weeks.

What made this build quite interesting for GCAI, was the fact that it would help the family of Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover, who committed suicide at the age of 11 after being subjected to relentless bullying at school. We have provided pro-bono PR services to a foundation in his memory for the past two year and were preparing to launch their second annual race/walk to raise money to support anti-bullying efforts.

By agreeing to take on EMHE, we would have two significant pro-bono efforts going on at the same time. Not the smartest business strategy, but our hearts were committed!

Unlike our previous Habitat blitz build efforts, GCAI would bring its full tool box of digital marketing strategies to the EMHE effort.  That would include starting and managing  of an online community that experience explosive growth, Search Engine Optimized PR, and online management using iPhones in the field, Sponsored Posts advertisement on Facebook and more. Our objectives were simple: develop volunteer support, media coverage, and donations. The response to our efforts was stunning!

In just under five weeks, the Facebook community we started for EMHE grew to over 7,000 members (see example A).  With management activity that just about matched the 24 hour a day demands of the build itself, this community thrived. It solved problems, answered questions, chased off trolls and spammers, donated supplies and money and volunteers, and – in doing so – exceeded our wildest expectations.

Facebook Insight: Screen Shot for Total Facebook Likes

Example A

 

Using Facebook Insights, we were able to determine that the EMHE Springfield page received over 1 million impressions and engagement occurrences (fans interacting with a post) which reached 8,000.  Active and live community management ensured that engagement spiked at key points during the event, in this case, the 9/11 “Door Knock Day” and 9/18 “Reveal Day” (see example B).  We chose not to use scheduled posts very much during the five week event due to concerns about Facebook relevancy scoring (diminished impressions due to using a third-party app to scheduled post). At the Online News Conference in Boston MA recently, Facebook presenter Vadim Lavrusik suggested that this was not the case. Still, GCAI would recommend live community management for events like EMHE even though it is extremely labor intensive.

Facebook Insight: Facebook Fan Interaction

Example B

Despite the lack of advanced planning time, our available technology – critical to SEO PR and real time community management – worked quite well.  As previously mentioned, iPhones and certain apps were key to these efforts.  Rather than use embargoed releases, we chose to disseminate from the field using the iPhones.  We were also able to take pictures and capture video which – upon approval from the show – could be posted right to the Facebook Fan page.  The phones provided a means to communicate with media (by text and email) – who were traveling up to an hour and a half to cover the event. We were also able to call in interviews to 94.7 FM WMAS who provided daily coverage of the event.  Media also posted extensively about the event on Facebook and Twitter. Using the iPhones, we could Like or RT these mentions – thus giving them extra SEO value.  The result was fans would could not attend events, where therefore able to enjoy all the excitement through the fan page.  Community management was live and instantaneous (see example C)

Facebook Insights: Real Time Dissemination

Example C

We did discover the outer limit of SEO PR conducted from the field, however.  That limit is battery power and we are currently researching several battery backup solutions for our next effort.

Interestingly, the local Twitter community did not respond to this effort at all.  The EMHE profile was used for PR dissemination, but generated very little by way of followers and engagement (See example D). Hashtag use was encouraged and used, but again, in very low numbers.  GCAI generally has found that the local Twitter community is not responsive to charitable or civic efforts in terms of engagement (RTs, mentions, offers of support).

Twitter Followers

Example D

Finally, we were monitoring and searching for multiple keywords as part of our online reputation management strategy. There was a relatively low response because the majority of the conversation stayed within the Facebook community that we had created. We did find a few negative posts within the comments section of online newspaper articles. Those responsible for the negative posts, trolls or spammers as we like to call them, were forced out of the community by other commenters. The negative posts were often marked as spam or inappropriate by members of the online newspaper community to prevent further posting.

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to be a guest blogger, ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

Facebook’s Timeline: When It’s Coming and What You Can Expect

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Timeline is coming soon to a Facebook page near you, but if you just can’t wait and want a sneak peak of how your profile is going to look then this article How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline NOW from Mashable. The article explains with step-by-step instructions and screen shots on how obtain Timeline before everyone else does. Right now the official release date of Timeline is unknown but Facebook sources have revealed that users should be able to opt into Timeline within the next two to four weeks.

Here is a screenshot of what my profile looks like now with Timeline:

Facebook Timeline Screen Shot, Laura Chechette

I like to describe Timeline as my own personal yearbook. It includes all of the information, photos, status updated etc. that you have ever put on Facebook. It also gives you the option to add more details like the birth of a child, bought a house, etc.

The best part is that you can edit your Timeline to only include information that you want to share. So that unflattering or maybe inappropriate photo or status update from your freshman year of college year can be deleted.

The information section of your profile has also received a facelift. It is now much more structured and organized in chronological order.

Facebook Timeline, Information Section Laura Chechette

Currently the Timeline feature is only going to affect the personal profiles on Facebook, but Mashable had a few ad agency’s imagine what fan pages might look like if Facebook decided to change them as well. The article, How Facebook Timeline Might Radically Change the Look of Brand Pages [PICS] includes 12 different screen shots of what brand pages could look like if they change to the Timeline layout as well.

Do you have Timeline? Do you like the changes? Let us know in the comments section.

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to be a guest blogger, ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

 

Facebook’s Timeline: When It’s Coming and What You Can Expect

Timeline is coming soon to a Facebook page near you, but if you just can’t wait and want a sneak peak of how your profile is going to look then this article How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline NOW from Mashable. The article explains with step-by-step instructions and screen shots on how obtain Timeline before everyone else does. Right now the official release date of Timeline is unknown but Facebook sources have revealed that users should be able to opt into Timeline within the next two to four weeks.

Here is a screenshot of what my profile looks like now with Timeline:

I like to describe Timeline as my own personal yearbook. It includes all of the information, photos, status updated etc. that you have ever put on Facebook. It also gives you the option to add more details like the birth of a child, bought a house, etc.

The best part is that you can edit your Timeline to only include information that you want to share. So that unflattering or maybe inappropriate photo or status update from your freshman year of college year can be deleted.

The information section of your profile has also received a facelift. It is now much more structured and organized in chronological order.

Currently the Timeline feature is only going to affect the personal profiles on Facebook, but Mashable had a few ad agency’s imagine what fan pages might look like if Facebook decided to change them as well. The article, How Facebook Timeline Might Radically Change the Look of Brand Pages [PICS] includes 12 different screen shots of what brand pages could look like if they change to the Timeline layout as well.

Timeline is coming soon to a Facebook page near you, but if you just can’t wait and want a sneak peak of how your profile is going to look then this article How to Enable the New Facebook Timeline NOW from Mashable. The article explains with step-by-step instructions and screen shots on how obtain Timeline before everyone else does. Right now the official release date of Timeline is unknown but Facebook sources have revealed that users should be able to opt into Timeline within the next two to four weeks.

Here is a screenshot of what my profile looks like now with Timeline:

Do you have Timeline? Do you like the changes? Let us know in the comments section.

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to be a guest blogger, ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

 

Facebook Changes: Subscribe, Lists, Ticker and More!

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If you logged on to Facebook this morning then you know the whole layout of the site has been redesigned. We all know that Facebook changes on a regular basis, but this recent update is only the first of many to come according to this article from Mashable, Facebook to Launch “Major” Profile Redesign at f8. f8 is a conference taking place today in San Francisco for developers and innovators who are meeting to discuss Facebook. Parts of the event will be streaming live.

This video explains in simple terms a few of the most recent modifications to the site.

If you are interested in learning more about the subscribe feature, this article Facebook Subscribe Button: What it Means for Each Type of User from Mashable, breaks down the changes and how it may affect users. So whether you’re a Facebook “super user” or a grandmother trying to log on to see photos of your grandkids, the ability to “subscribe,” instead of “friend” may change the way you use Facebook.

Last but not least, earlier this month Facebook made life a lot easier for people creating a Facebook Page. According to AllFacebook.com You No Longer Need 25 Fans to Get a Custom URL. So instead of having a URL like this www.facebook.com/pages/Make-It_Happen-City/207334002619825 which no one can remember, it can become www.facebook.com/MakeItHappenCity even though the page has less than 25 fans.

What do you think of the new Facebook redesign and subscribe feature? Let us know in the comments section.

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to be a guest blogger, ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

Will You Be In My Circle? Google+ Mashup

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Google +Google+ debuted as a private beta platform on June 28 and only select people received invites to join. Now three weeks later, I finally managed to get a hold of a Google+ invite only to find out that “Google+ About To Hit 10 Million Users” according to Mashable. This number should be taken with a grain of salt however because it is coming from a third party and Google has not verified it.

My limited experience with Google+ has been pretty uneventful because very few people I know are on it therefore my stream is fairly empty. I am still learning how to use the platform and take advantage of all the features it offers. The article Google+: The Complete Guide from Mashable includes screen shots, videos, and just about everything you would need to know to start using Google+.

One aspect I have had the chance to test is the Hangout feature. Hangouts are meant to directly compete with Facebook’s new Skype Video chat, but hangouts are better in my opinion because they allow up to 10 people to be included in the same video chat. As of right now Facebook doesn’t offer this capability. If you want to learn more about the two services read Facebook Video Chat v. Google Hangouts: It’s No Contest from TechCruch. My vote is for hangouts and I can see them playing a big role in Google+’s future.

Do you have a Google+ profile? What do you think of Hangouts or any of the other features? Are you still looking for a Google+ invite? Email me if you want one!

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to be a guest blogger, ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

How Twitter is Becoming Part of TV on #TheVoice

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Although I’m not normally a fan of reality TV or singing competitions, The Voice on NBC has gotten my attention because of its use of social media, and Twitter in particular. When I watch the show, instead of a bowl of popcorn in my lap, I have my Macbook open to Twitter so I can interact with the show’s contestants, coaches, and viewer’s all over the country. By following the hashtag #TheVoice I can see what other people are saying about a singer’s performance or the ridiculous outfit that a coach is wearing and add in my two cents.  The show goes a step further by incorporating viewer’s tweets into the show live with the “V correspondent” Alison Haislip. Alison reads tweets on air as well as asks coaches and contestants questions posed on Twitter. If a tweet isn’t read it still has the opportunity to appear on the bottom of the screen.

In this video interview, Alison Haislip, talks about her strategy and how she tries to get fans to interact with the show.

The article, The Voice: How a TV Show Became a 24/7 Social Media Conversation, from Mashable explains why this show is different than anything else on television right now. Here are a few highlights from the article as to why this kind of integration with social media could be the future of TV.

  • “70% of the tweets about the The Voice include the hashtag #TheVoice, a “phenomenal” rate that a Twitter spokesperson says is an “industry high,” said Nicolle Yaron, the show’s supervising producer.
  • “During the show’s first live performances, every contestant, coach and team trended,” said Andrew Adashek, the show’s social media consultant.
  • “When Team Christina performed ‘Lady Marmalade,’ the Facebook Page gained nearly 10,000 likes within a few minutes.
  • The Coaches tweet live throughout the show as well as the contestants. The coaches twitter handles are below if you would like to follow them and get in on the action next week!

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to be a guest blogger, ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

P.S. In case you were wondering I’m voting for Javier Calon, @Javstwtr, to win it all! Who will you be voting for?

Share Buttons: Are They Worth it? Find Out In This Week’s Social Media News

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AddThis

Sharing information online is now easier than ever before because of share buttons. These buttons aren’t just there so you can “like” the picture of your newest baby cousin, but they can also help increase traffic to your website and result in a profit for your company.

This article By The Numbers: How Facebook Says Likes & Social Plugins Help Websites explains why having the ability to share your content through social media is imperative. In case you still need convincing, check out this stat from the article; “The average media site integrated with Facebook has seen a 300% increase in referral traffic.”

Although Facebook and Twitter share buttons dominate online the Google +1 button that debuted in March is starting to make some noise. Last week it started to appear on various websites such as Mashable and the code is now freely accessible to anyone who wants to use it. The article Google’s +1 Button Challenges Facebook’s Like Across the Web explains the impact this new button could have on sharing online.

If after reading about the benefits of share buttons you want to add them to your own website, we recommend AddThis. After registering (for free) you can add just about any social media share button to a website, blog, email newsletter, and more. AddThis is constantly updating and adding new services. For example they’ve already added the Google +1 button to their service. What makes AddThis our share button of choice? It gives analytics for shares, clicks, top services, the ability to track trends, and more.

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to be a guest blogger, ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

Where To Find Information About New Social Media Trends

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Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

This week’s social media news comes to us from Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist at The Christian Science Monitor. He directs the social online engagement strategy for CSMonitor.com, the web version of The Christian Science Monitor. Kevin’s main focus at the Monitor has been to build a loyal audience utilizing email newsletter campaigns and traditional social media platforms.  We asked Kevin where he looks to find the latest social media news.

Q: What sites, books, twitter handles, etc do you read and follow to stay current on the most recent social media trends?

It’s funny to hear people talk about social media trends when I go to conferences or meetings that focus on online marketing. The speakers seem to focus on talking about the cool social campaigns they ran for some big name company with a $500K budget. Then I say I’m from a newspaper and that I was wondering what they can recommend to help me drive more fans. I hear, “buy Facebook ads for a targeted audience,” reach out to “digital influencers,” “have a contest and raffle off something big.” I sit back and get a good chuckle. They never ask, “What type of community do you have?” or “tell me more about what you’re trying to achieve.” It’s always these cookie-cutter approaches. If you’re outside the retail/consumer-based world, social media gets tricky – mainly because we’re not selling a specific product.

But there are a few people who get it. Here in Boston, I like to keep up on what the Hacks/Hackers Meetup group is talking about. A lot of the thinking is big picture, but the best part is the networking – it can always lead to collaborative thinking opportunities. Doug Haslem (@DougH) seems to have a good grip on what’s happening in the social media marketing world. As everyone knows Mashable.com is a great resource for any business trying to do social media without a dedicated staff or budget. I subscribe to a ton of newsletters, but I really like the content sent out by MediaPost. With anything, you have to be aware of your surroundings. At the Monitor, I try to think less like a marketer and more like a reader- go figure. I try to think about the tools I would like to see when visiting CSMonitor.com, and then come up with strategies to meet those needs.

Staying up on trends is great, but what’s trending doesn’t always work for our audience. The web readers that flock to Mashable.com are not the same readers that visit CSMonitor.com every day. I would say the most important thing to remember is always keep your audience in mind. Often, simply by showing the personal side of your organization can go a long way with your fan base, and that doesn’t take a big budget or creative messaging – just a genuine interest in their needs.

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

Want To Stand Out In The Social Media Crowd? Build A Community Of Loyal Readers

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Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

Kevin Curley Social Media Specialist Christian Science Monitor

This week’s social media news comes to us from Kevin Curley, Social Media Specialist at The Christian Science Monitor. He directs the social online engagement strategy for CSMonitor.com, the web version of The Christian Science Monitor. Kevin’s main focus at the Monitor has been to build a loyal audience utilizing email newsletter campaigns and traditional social media platforms.  We asked Kevin a few questions about online newspapers and the social media platforms he manages.

Q: How do you think online newspapers will function and fit in, in the future?

I wish I had the answers. From our standpoint, readers’ access to mobile technology has dramatically revolutionized the way we think about news consumption. No longer can we brag about the number of foreign bureaus or correspondents we have on-the-ground. These days, anyone with a smart phone can break news when and where it is happening. But covering newsworthy events goes way beyond just snapping a photo, uploading it to Twitter, and writing what you saw. That is where newspapers fit in the mix. Both have a role in media, but different roles nonetheless.

Journalists offer depth, context and hopefully, an unbiased perspective – at least that’s what we strive for at the Monitor. I don’t see this changing much in the future. What will change is how we consume news; print vs. online, tablet vs. phone, audio vs. video, etc. I think everyone is trying to figure out what works best, but I would put my money (like so many others) on a multimedia mobile approach; way beyond the iPad.

How will online newspapers function in the future? Anyone can follow trends, write a blog post and ride the wave. But, in my opinion, you have to build a community of  loyal readers to stand out in the crowd. Take Slate.com for example. There you have a site with a relatively small number of unique visitors/month (7.5 million) compared to the enormous number of page views/month (80 million). They follow trends, create great content that readers want, and according to Quantcast, average more than 10 pages per unique visit; i.e. extreme reader loyalty.

I would bet that in every board room of every major news organization, whether television, radio or online, big people with big titles are coming up with big ideas that will  transform their traditional old-school news site into some attractive multimedia landing page for a younger, hipper audience.

My role, is to help this new audience connect deeper to the Monitor community through our social media activity.  By creating a community of engaged readers, we’re hoping they will become CSMonitor.com brand advocates; distributing our content to a larger audience – specifically their friends and family.

Q: How do you manage a Facebook page with over 25K fans and a Twitter account with 9,500+ followers?

Christian Science Monitor Facebook PageManaging Facebook is easy if you set the agenda or tone right away. Fan pages that let the fans dictate the tone can get out of control; its like having your pets sleep on the bed with you. At first, it may be cute, but after awhile, they run the show and you end up not getting any sleep.

When I started the Monitor’s FB page in 2008, I set community rules that stated “no ranting, no name calling” and that the page reflected the mission of the newspaper, “to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” Even as the number of fans increased, and with only one full-time staff member monitoring the fan page, the community has continued to be free of ranting – most of the time.

We engage with our readers, uphold the community rules, and most of all – try to create an environment where people feel comfortable offering their opinion. We feel its necessary to show a personal connection with the fans. We’re not perfect, some people get upset when their comment disappears, but overall I’m happy with the community we’ve built. The last time I looked at our Insights, out of the 25K, 85% were active, and we’re averaging about 4,000 interactions a month.

On Twitter, I would say I only invest about 5% of my time managing the account. With an organization trying to do more with less, we realized we can’t invest the time needed to make Twitter a big player for us. We do highlight our ‘Top RT’ers’ and ‘Top Influencers,’ but we don’t seek out influencers – it’s just not our style. In fact, we know that by being a trusted news source on Twitter, we’re the influencer.

Like most news organizations, the bulk of our referring traffic from Twitter comes from readers utilizing the share tools on our website. Looking ahead, we’ll try to expand those opportunities and really try to improve the user experience on CSMonitor.com. There’s probably more we can do with Twitter; Huffington Post, CNN, Mashable.com, and the Daily Beast are always leading the charge – but they’ve got the resources to pull that fancy stuff off with ease. I need to get a couple 100K more page views from Twitter before we start considering it a big player for traffic.

Next week Kevin will tell us where to look online to find the most recent social media news so stay tuned!

If you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura

Social Media In Ireland: Twitter, Smart Phones, The Next “Big Thing”

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Eoin Kennedy

This week’s social media news has a special St. Patrick’s Day twist because it comes to us from across the pond written by Eoin Kennedy of Dublin, Ireland.  Eoin is the Associate Director at Slattery Communications, where he heads up their digital offering Engage Online. Eoin has 15 years of experience in corporation communication with multiple degrees in public relations and marketing. He was an associate lecturer in Marketing with NCIR, a lecturer on Irish Times Digital Diploma in Digital Marketing, and the list goes on. To learn more about Eion’s experience read his LinkedIn Profile. Eion is also active on Twitter and writes his own blog, Thoughts on Communications in Ireland. He has a deep interest in social media and how it impacts public relations which is why we’re so excited to ask Eion a few questions.

1.       What is the most brilliant use of Twitter and/or Facebook that you have seen employed by a SMB recently?

Finding truly brilliant examples is difficult within Twitter and Facebook but there are lots of examples of Irish companies using the platforms in very effective ways and leveraging real business opportunities.  It is also a highly subjective exercise so instead of trusting my own judgement I crowdsourced some opinions of fellow Irish Twitter users.  The results were interesting and although they included some self promotional responses they uncovered some interesting examples. The short list included:

GoHop
Coffee Shop 3FE
Lake Hotel Killarney on Facebook
Car Spare Parts Mick’s Garage
Jameson Whiskey
Various Diageo Brand Guinness
Smirnoff
Captain Morgan
Renvyle House Hotel
Italian Restaurant – La Cucina
Burrito Restaurant – Burrito Blues
Business Support organization – Business Start-Up
Ethical Online Shop – Coze De Roze
Entrepreneurship Support – Social Entrepreneurs Ireland
Media Buyer – Media Works

Childrens Waterproof Online Clothing Store who have won numerous awards – Puddleducks Twitter and Puddleducks Facebook.

The hospitality industry generally scores well in use of twitter and social media but the one that was references most was Irish Weather Online with their use of Twitter.

The service earned its stripes during particularly bad weather in December in Ireland with timely and accurate weather reports.  It was not the only weather service during that period and they was plenty of collaboration of fellow twitter users sharing stories and warnings but the consistency won them great praise.  To me this reflects the characteristic of good Twitter and social media use in that they are highly focused, very time sensitive, engage/converse a lot and reach great heights in a short period.  Within social media great heights can be reaches but maintaining attitude can be very difficult.

The list above is not exhaustive but Plenty more great examples at Brendan Hughes Blog and Your Social Monitor Ireland.

One voluntary project we are involved with at the moment is an attempt to harness Irishness and affinity to Ireland through a Shamrock Urself .  Driven by social media enthusiasts its objective is to give a sense of unity in troubled economic times.  Many of the best social media projects take this form of using collective goodwill rather than straight forward commercial exploitation of the platforms.

2.        How will the rise in adoption of smart phones impact PR in the near future?

Smart phone adoption in Ireland is reasonably solid but not near global penetration levels.  One piece of research by Return2sender show that one-fifth of Irish adult population owns smartphones with the expected smartphone ownership to grow to 1.5 million by spring 2011.

  • 256,000 people own an iPhone in Nov 2010 – expected to reach 630,000 by end of 2011
  • Some 8.4 million apps have been downloaded by almost a quarter of Irish consumers, with half a million people downloading them on a regular basis.
  • One-third of these apps were paid and two-thirds of them were free. Music and games were seen as the most popular apps.
  • Men were the most dominant in the Irish market – 64pc of smartphone owners were male and 59pc of people who download apps were also male.
  • Broader Smartphone adoption breaks 50% in November 2010

There a number of ways that the smart phone will impact PR including:

–          Content filtering based on user preferences online means that news is delivered to user tastes – our choice of media will change and we cannot guarantee outreach to audiences
–          Need to ensure platforms, sites, apps are optimized for mobile use
–          Need to generate timely and consistent information and news on the move rather than traditional media peak times.
–          Need to have capability to build and create mobile video content
–          Skimming of storing by users and rapid sharing
–          Social TV (see below)
–          Need to build location based offerings and promotions
–          Additional social media activity
–          Increased posting and photo uploading sharing by consumers – positive and negative.  Organisations with physical premises could benefit greatly by user generated content but it bring adherent risks.
–          Increased need for continual monitoring as comments, posting from smart phone can arise at any time.
–          New tech that will change mobile behaviours – RFID and NFC.  This could impact from registering to events and ability to seamlessly purchase using smart phones.

In general peoples relationship with their smart phones is extremely personal.  This allowed better one to one relationship but access is guarded more carefully by users so there is a need to exercise caution in this approach.

3.       From a PR and small business PR and marketing perspective – what is the next “big thing” on the horizon in IE/UK/EU?

PR as a discipline had always sought opportunities in new communication modes and in theory as owners of messaging should always be deeply engaged in all communications.

PR practitioners will continue to look at ways of harnessing social media and there will be increased use of SEO PR especially as the number of traditional media outlets drop.  Search will continue to be important and an increased importance will be put on areas like article links with large traditional media website than the traditional press cutting.

There are many developments on the horizon or currently par boiled but developments will be rapid due to the speed of innovation but also the degree of competition between SEO companies, ad agencies, hybrid consultancies and web development companies, all looking to own this space.

Some of the immediate ones are

  • Increased use of multimedia content and its generation
  • Building of large social media databases and communities that can be utilized to evangalise on brand behalf
  • PR companies grabbing increased SEO and online advertising budget
  • Online response timing will continue to be cut shorter
  • PR companies themselves investing in life streaming and greater transparency
  • Blogger relations and online planning will become a normal part of PR life
  • Increase focus on creative online solutions and pure social media/digital campaigns
  • Organisations will invest further in online reputation management and online crisis management
  • This will be the year of Facebook places and geo locations services

One of the big development I think the industry is relatively unprepared for is the rapid emergence of 24/7 PR.  The evolution of social TV, whereby people discuss, comment and share what is happening on TV is a growing phenomenon.  On a personal side it is a superb addition to TV viewing and equivalent to sharing the couch with a huge variety of people.  It makes life as a channel hopper even more distracting and results in even better dialogue as people are discussing live issues rather than from memory at the water cooler the next day.

As usual technology evolutions will be key to moving this from niche to mainstream.  Using a PC for social TV is clunky, lap top less so, iPhone or smart phone even less and iPad a much more enjoyable experience.  Even with all these devices the level of social TV is pretty small and confined to short comments , conversations and observations on talkshows and current affairs programmes but it  also extends to soaps.  However the advent of internet enabled TV along with enhanced cloud services and the inclusion of movement sensor technology such as Microsoft Kinect will change all of this.   These technologies changes will change a trickle to a flow and a flow that the PR industry looks unprepared for.

Consider the difference between a few avid twitters commenting on a news piece versus the unstoppable gush of the total TV viewership in pure numbers terms.

In the not too distant future instead of a multitude of devices we will have one extremely large screen with a ultra fast internet connection.  All photos, games, documents will be accessed in the cloud rather than the current collection of PC, DVDs, Games Consoles etc.  People will become familiar and comfortable with using the TV for things other than watching programmes.  Similar with current gaming with the Xbox Kinect manipulation will be through the person themselves.  A simple wave will bring up a menu, a hand pointing in mid air will reveal a key board.  The senor will interpret these movements so the person needs not move from the seat.

Now consider a company you represent is in the middle of a crisis that is airing on a current affairs programme.  Imagine ,if at the wave of a hand, that the thousands of viewers were able to pull up all their social media properties, blogs and websites.  Imagine the level of live tweeting, retweeting, @comments, Facebook tagging, Linked In searching and flash mob organizing that could be done from ones couch.

Imagine the levels of comments on a company’s Facebook page, the searches on executives and the posting of video comments (which the Kinect would easily allow), the parodies of performances, the volume of emails to company contact, texts and calls to spokespersons mobiles and rapid Infographics generation.

This potential flood cannot be dismissed or ignored until the next day so the ability of PR companies to monitor, interpret, engage and respond in a 24/7 basis could be something very real in the short term.  There are lots of implications of this from rapid messaging development, large scale online planning , monitoring and online activation.

What is certain is that technology advancements will happen and bring smaller scale online activity to almost mass medium level.  The PR industry needs to be ready for these changes and able to help guide organisations through the maze – otherwise there are plenty of organisations on the sideline waiting to eat its lunch.

Hope you enjoyed this special post, if you have suggestions for future Social Media News posts, want to ask questions or share thoughts, please feel free to email me. Thanks! – Laura