Posts Tagged ‘social media’

When I hear the words ‘protest song’ I immediately think of some gnarly old hippy wheezing into a harmonica spouting wordy and ideological rubbish. And musically at least, this song is not much better, but perhaps it will mark the day social media gets taken seriously.

For anyone unfamiliar with United Breaks Guitars, its the work of a musician namd Dave Carroll who was moved to record it after United Airlines, er broke his guitar and were unsympathetic after doing so. Essentially a letter of complaint set to music, he posted it on YouTube and it got a lot of hits a week or two ago.

Since then, United’s share price has fallen by 10 per cent and mainstream media has suddenly shown an interest, with even BBC Breakfast running a story on it today. Is the fall in share price just down to the song? Of course not, although the publicity generated has not done United any favours in what is a difficult time for the business.

But it does bring social media and how companies manage their online brand and corporate reputation much more under the spotlight. When people start connecting YouTube videos to falling share prices (accurately or not) then business leaders will turn their attention pretty sharply to addresing this.

A few months ago Ruder Finn surveyed inhouse PROs about digital communications and a majority were still struggling to see ROI. Perhaps looking at it from this different persepctive - what happens if you don’t pay close attention to your brand online - will scare people into seeing its value?

As the late Michael Jackson once sang: “It don’t matter if you’re black or white.” A new study from Ruder Finn supports this hypothesis.

Ruder Finn Intent Index

The Intent Index reveals a new view on why people go online and redefines how we look at demographics. The important concept here for digital business trends is that marketers need to truly connect with their audiences, and not treat their online communications like a checklist of tasks.

As a result, Ruder Finn co-CEO Kathy Bloomgarden has said that “intent is the new demographic.” She continues,

“Delving deeper into the underlying motivations of online behavior is critical to developing proactive strategies. Just being online is not enough to leverage digital channels to drive business imperatives. Audiences must be targeted based upon their intent.”

She recently discussed the Intent Index in a video interview with PR Week in the US.

You can view the results, which will be updated quarterly, with a cool, interactive flash tool here: www.ruderfinn.com/intent

It’s quite addictive.

You can view the full press release along with interesting results here: RF’s New Study of Online Behavior Focuses On User Intent

The survey has the capability of being narrowed down for specific industries, and an EU-focused survey is planned for a future quarter. Please comment if you’re interested.

For those of you on Twitter, here are some “re-tweetable” findings (using #intentindex or #rfintent via @RuderFinn):

More than twice as many people go online to socialize (81%) than to do business (39%) or shop (31%)

72% of people go online just to become part of a community

Seniors are going online today for the same reasons younger people are; to have fun (82%) and to socialize (80%)

More people go online to connect via a social networking site (41%) than to post comments or opinions (34%)

More people go online to be entertained (82%) than entertain others (48%)

People seek education and entertainment: most people go online both to learn (88%) and have fun (83%)

Almost half of people (47%) go online to learn to improve themselves and nearly one-third (31%) to find self-help experts or books

The desire to learn drives people to the Internet; top areas are new subjects (68%), the world (65%), a disease or condition (61%)

Three times as many people go online to compare prices (66%) rather than people via dating sites (21%)

E-commerce isn’t dead — one-third of people (34%) go online to purchase an item

Top things people go online to buy: household items (49%), electronics (45%); music (35%), movies (29%)

More men (42%) than women (36%) go online to do business

Women comment, men read: 55% of women go online to find venues for personal expression compared to only 43% of men

The age of blogs: 44% of people go online to create or update blogs and 42% of people go online to read other people’s blogs.

Women (48%) are much more likely than men (39%) to go online to advocate for an issue or position

The Ruder Finn Intent Index is based on a study among Internet users that asks respondents how frequently they go online for 295 reasons. The Intent Index shows that a person’s intent may be a better indicator for how to develop a communications campaign than demographic formulas. This post also appears on Left Brain.

John Prescott's twitter page

I was just pointed to a really interesting gallery on The Independent’s website titled Twitter’s speedy move to the centre of politics. The gallery is compiled with the help from the team at Tweetminister, which is a really useful resource that lists all tweeting MPs and Prospective Parliamentary Candidates (PPCs).

What I really find interesting about it and is obviously the point of the gallery, is the evolution of twitter use by Parliamentarians. Initially, when I first joined twitter around 18 months ago, I think there were only one, maybe two MPs tweeting. Now according to the Independent, there are at least 66 MPs tweeting - 10% of the Commons. What’s even more exciting is that the vast majority of those MPs are active tweeters. Sure you have MPs such as @HarrietHarman who hasn’t tweeted since May and there is Shahid Malik (@DewsburyMP) who has never posted, but you also have avid users such as Kerry McCarthy [Lab] - Bristol East with 2623 updates, Jo Swinson [LD] - East Dunbartonshire with 1503 and of course Tom Watson [Lab] - West Bromwich East with 2368. There are apparently also 13 Ministers tweeting away.

Some MPs have even got so involved they have tinted their profiles green in support of the Iranian protestors. This may be a slightly questionable in terms of foreign policy decisions, but the fact is these MPs actively involved in the political social media revolution.

Most surprisingly, possibly in the majority of cases, it is actually them tweeting and not a researcher hidden away in Portcullis house as proven by @JoSwinson who tweets from the Chamber. And they reply if you contact them.

So the moral here is that there is a growing awareness of the power of twitter and social media in Westminster and this is surely going to grow. Twitter, facebook and other tools are becoming more and more legitimate ways to contact and engage with MPs and other key decision makers. I can only guess about what is to come especially in the lead up to the General Election

Michael Vaughan is delighted at being made to go on Twitter

English cricket is not known for its innovation and dynamism, on or off the field. Our lack of cricketing prowess will be demonstrated to the world (again) in the Twenty20 World Cup this summer and as much as I’d love England to win the Ashes the chances are at best slim.

Yet I was strangely cheered this morning by news that the England and Wales Cricket Board are to use Twitter, YouTube and Facebook as part of a wider marketing initiative this summer. With no football tournaments and no Olympic games, cricket has a chance to engage with a much wider audience than it does usually and it is encouraging to see such an austere and conservative organisation as the ECB willing to branch out and use social media for this purpose.

Cricket definitely has a perception problem with many people incorrectly assuming it to be stuffy, boring and only followed by old men. This is emphatically not the case and any steps to engage with a younger audience are to be applauded - if the ECB can use social media then so can anyone. I just hope they get some of the players involved as I’d love to read the thoughts of @KP “I wouldn’t have done it that way Straussy”, @vaughany “@Vaughanny is disappointed to have played at that wide one” and @belly “given it away again, gutted”

I spotted a really interesting piece from McKinsey this week on six key ways that companies can make web 2.0 work for them. The piece covers the management and technological aspects of deploying web 2.0 tools with a few interesting supporting cases from google, AT&T and Pixar amongst others.

So this kicked off my thoughts about the six (OK I tried ) seven biggest benefits that I have seen at Ruder Finn since embracing and actively using web 2.0 strategies and tools both internally and externally are:

1.  Recruitment. One example is a fabulous associate director through Twitter last year and have had some great CVs for a senior account exec post this year

2. Internal comms. A third of my team (tech and corporate division ) work remotely / collocate at least part of the time so using collaborative tools has helped the division manage account work as well as keep the banter up at a healthy level.

3. Measurement and trend analysis. We find that social media provides a much quicker and more reliable measure of current opinion that older forms of research.  Everyone from our managing director to graduate trainees use social media to crowdsource ideas, gain recommendations and give / seek advice from both inside and outside the industry.

4. New business. We have received new business briefs, recommendations, invitations to speak at events, training requests and various others through the blog and Twitter.  Writing a proposal in only 140 characters is our next mission

5. An even bigger focus on reading and analysis. Our agency believes passionately that you cannot be in PR without being a total media junkie however through use of RSS, embracing apps like Twitter and becoming bloggers ourselves, we read and consume more media than ever.

6. Genuine experience and better consultancy. Through doing it ourselves, we are much better placed to advice, counsel and help clients in their social media efforts - an essential in an industry moving this fast.

7. Feedback.  Whilst compliments on social media (or anywhere else) are always fabulous to receive, far more valuable are the more negative constructive things you learn about yourself, your agency or your clients that might previously have gone unnoticed.  The stuff that helps you improve as a company is, in my opinion, the most valuable result of all.

(I haven’t listed stronger/new relationships and conversations here as that is a given)

Reading this list you can see why the naysayers are so frustrating to us and others in our industry.  No matter what your opinion of web 2.0 is, I’m sure you’ll agree that the outcomes listed above are pretty impressive business benefits by anyone’s standards.

CROSS POSTED at my personal blog - balancing act

Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter, yesterday told Marketing Magazine of its plans to start charging the brands that use it. Could it be that Twitter has finally figured out how to make money?

Biz was largely unspecific about the associated costs, but what implications will that have on the platforms continued growth? And how will they differentiate between “commercial” and “business” use – and how does this impact the idea of the personal brand?

Spinvox - a voice to text conversion service - is a fairly well-known company, but James Whatley is the company’s key representative on Twitter and he holds much more weight in the Twittershere than the company itself. @whatleydude has the greater brand value, yet in theory will not be charged – as Stone insisted Twitter would not charge individual users.

Increasingly in the world of digital communications, it’s not what you know but what you share with the community that you have around you. Will we see a move to companies hiring people with a stronger brand value than their product or organisation? Does this happen anyway? Is it a new thing? Will this force people to be less transparent about the brands they represent?

I posted a while ago about social media tool, Twitter, and its role in disrupting the media process.  Charles Arthur rightly pointed out:

Except… this is only accurate about “disrupting the flow of the news process” where “news” means “news about technology stuff”.

We in technology PR and media are living in a bubble to a certain extent and mainstream media in other industries are yet to use the tool widely. Rory Cellan-Jones, tech correspondent at the BBC posted this morning about his recent experience using Twitter:

When I said in a “Tweet” last week that I was looking into addiction to online games I immediately got useful replies, including one which sent me to a psychiatrist at the Tavistock who became the key figure in my story. Then, minutes after I did the story on Today, I got more Twitter messages attacking me for being unfair to gamers. I was then able to point them at a blog post I’d written with more detail and that became a forum for a vigorous debate about the pros and cons of online games.

Yes it is a technology topic but it is slightly more mainstream in reach and provides a great case study of how journalists are using Twitter these days.

Yesterday at the Future of Mobile event in London, Guardian writer and lover of Twitter, Jemima Kiss said Twitter is one of the most important tools of her job.

I hope PR folks are listening and taking note…

Courtesy of Paul Walsh via Twinkle

Just stumbled across a really useful post for PRs wanting to follow and interact with journalists on Twitter by Stephen Davies.  Lists like this always make me a bit nervous but here’s hoping people respect Twitter as a conversation medium and don’t just abuse the system, although the “unfollow” button is only ever a click away.

Ok so Wired says Blogging is dead, yet according to research out from ComScore today, 14.5 million of us Brits read at least one blog in August alone. Compare this to the UK daily papers that achieved a combined readership of 11.25 million in the same period…

Blogging is here to stay. Posts might become shorter, more visual, more video based as trends change but the very nature of individuals logging stuff on the web isn’t going to disappear any time soon.

With an audience of 14.5 million of us a month reading what others have to say, why would it?

This is cross posted from Becky’s own blog where it originally appeared on November 3rd 2008.