Social Media Darwinism » PR

Any Publicity is Good Publicity in Social Media, right?

Paul Dunay — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 18:00:29 +0000

It used to be said that any publicity is good publicity. Now the same could be said about social media – any mention of your brand is good in social media but that’s not entirely correct!

Let me explain …

Five years ago, a tech savvy, digitally focused company could find satisfied and unsatisfied customers venting about their product or service on any number of electronic forums (you remember UUnet , AOL Chat rooms, Fucked Company etc …) These were online bulletin boards, chat rooms and blog sites but the difference was the conversation was more isolated and therefore harder to find.

It’s the interconnected nature of today’s social networks like Facebook or microblogs like Twitter and the way they broadcast their messages to the world but also in the process creating permanent search friendly records that make them so powerful and also potentially dangerous.

This is why PR needs to move from fixating on getting ink in Publications to getting digital ink in Conversations. Think about the life span of paper based earned media – not long after its printed does it sit on someone’s shelf. Rare is the day when you walk into a meeting and someone pulls out an old magazine and slams it on the desk fussing about an article written months ago. But a quick Google search and bingo digital ink is indelible.

The challenge for all of us is to explain to senior leadership and members of the board that getting into hundreds of conversations online is better than a mention in the Wall Street Journal!

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Social Media for the Boardroom

Paul Dunay — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 15:00:24 +0000

At a recent BlogWell event I got a chance to hear Robert Raines from Chevron present his Social Media program and how he reports their activity into the Boardroom. It all starts with the Pulse Report that Chevron had produced by Edelman (their PR firm) using their Alterian’s SM2 social media monitoring tool. They identified around 60 Million conversations (per year) across blogs, microblogs such as Twitter, discussion forums and social networks like Facebook and other enabling technologies such as YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr relating to Energy.

From there the work began with Edelman to classify them into key conversational issues (of which they identified 50 issues) and then narrow that down to 8 major issues within 3 broad categories: Energy Resources, Energy Technology, and Energy & Environment. These were the three broadest terms that applied to the most relevant conversations about energy.

Obviously a topic like Energy has been written about for ages – at its highest level it has millions of conversations, press, articles, blog pages and best of all opinions! They used Boolean searches (which are available in most listening engines today) to narrow their searches to only the most relevant posts. Then they detailed a taxonomy of trigger words that signaled whether the post was positive or negative in sentiment. And from there analyzed and tracked the changes in volume and sentiment for each topic by quarter.

Using the report they were able to glean insights into the prominence of certain topics by consumers and the trending of the topics that were most important to Chevron. Moreover they could use the report to build content and engage in topics that were trending where Chevron was a thought leader or was looking to become more of a thought leader.

I think this report is a great example for all of us – it shows a very comprehensive approach to monitoring and gaining insights from data. Many listening engines provide you with “streams” of data which is great. But as I like to say “there is a big difference between Data and Insights” and this report shows you how Chevron navigated the streams of data to create real insights that can be shared and discussed at the highest levels of the organization. Its perfect example of where I think PR needs to focus these days – on conversations and not on publications.

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PR needs to Focus on Conversations

Paul Dunay — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 15:01:02 +0000

It’s no secret that the number of publications has declined over the last few years. The impact of that can be felt in B2C as well as B2B Marketing. There are fewer numbers of print publications remaining and every company’s marketing department wants to garner more traditional press. But it’s a zero sum game and we are all fighting over the same shrinking slice of pie!

Worse yet, upper management hasn’t backed off the idea of “getting ink” in favor of new forms of digital ink. I still hear marketers say – “my CEO just doesn’t care about blogs – they only want to be in the NY Times or Wall Street Journal”.

This is really doing the PR industry a disservice. Let me explain …

With the number of traditional publications declining it brings the traditional walls that have been the master of the Public Relations industry down with it. PR becomes this amorphous blob that can move into many adjacent markets. Obviously PR firms could add “digital media” as a compliment to “traditional media” but upper management doesn’t care about digital media.

What they need to sell to upper management is not the notion of targeting certain blogs (I know I get tons of emails every day asking to cover a certain story – which by the way is the wrong approach) – it’s the notion of being part of conversations!

Think about this – Years from now the only lasting memory of your firm won’t be the print impressions it garnered – it will be the conversations your firm was involved in and had the greater share of voice of! PR should be trying to help us OWN as much digital media land as we can – that specifically relate to the conversations that are important for your company to be a part of. We go from targeting Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 publications to targeting Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3 conversations!

For Example – Avaya should be part of any Business Communications conversations on the web because that is what we do. We should own that conversation from a share of voice perspective and report to the CEO what’s our “Market Share” in that conversation much like we do with regular market share data based on revenue. By extension we also want emerging conversations on Social Media’s impact on Business Communications (perhaps that is a Tier 2 conversation) or even further out, the impact of Video on Business Communications (perhaps a Tier 3 conversation).

PR Agencies need to start driving this agenda for their client firms and increasing their market share in specific conversations where ever they happen – rather than continuing to fight for a few coveted spots on page 3 of the Washington Post!

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B2B Marketing: Trust + Community = ROI

Paul Dunay — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 16:34:18 +0000

Trust is not a new thing when it comes to marketing and communications as evidenced by one of the most awaited studies in the communications world is always the annual Edelman Public Relations Trust Barometer.

Trust is not a new thing in the world of sales either – its a fact that people enjoy buying from people that they trust and in B2B Marketing part of our job is to shorten the time spent building trust so sales can have an easier time and focus on selling.

Social Media changes that and elevates Trust to the individual level. This is actually good news for the B2B Marketer. We get to help our thought leaders build trust virtually before they even walk in the door. Building demand for their unique point of view.

I think the element of Trust in B2B Marketing runs deeper and is more important than in B2C Marketing which makes it a really unique attribute when it comes to B2B Marketing since it is much more critical to the sale.

If you can combine the element of Trust across a wide range of fans, followers and advocates then you have a community. The word community is often overused now that Social Media has come along. But think of it here as an audience that you have built by creating and publishing attractive content that engages them with your thought leaders. Social Media gives you this great gift of the ability to create community because you publish content on a regular basis – think of the way publishers have created community around their brand and their editors – the same holds true for B2B marketers.

Other than selling to your existing customer base which is always the shortest time to cash sale that you can find in any B2B organization – I see not trouble envisioning that your community is the 2nd best place to find and create a sale. Prospects who have been listening to you, watching what you publish and responding to your content are already working their way up the Awareness to Consideration to Purchase cycle. Its just up to you to get them the right offer in order to get them to buy!

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Influencers vs Advocates in B2B Marketing

Paul Dunay — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:35:55 +0000

According to Wikipedia – Influencer Marketing is a form of marketing that has emerged from a variety of recent practices and studies, in which focus is placed on specific key individuals (or types of individual) rather than the target market as a whole. It identifies the individuals that have influence over potential buyers, and orients marketing activities around these influencers.

In my own words – Influencers are individuals that write about Avaya but they also write about Cisco and Siemens in social media or otherwise. They are non partial and therefore they write about many firms. Which is why I prefer to have my communications group work with them much like they have always worked with the media.

I draw a hard line between Influencers and Advocates.

An Advocate is an individual we know perhaps via social media that tweets about Avaya or retweets about news coming from Avaya. My social media team deals directly with them and they rarely talk about other firms in our space. They are “advocates” of the Avaya brand.

Over the last year we have really grown our base of Influencers and Advocates. But the group that excites me the most is the Advocates – I want to grow that budding community – I want to offer them special access to news and previews of our latest product. I think growing and focusing on this group is the key to igniting more WOM in your business!

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What you can learn from Mister Splashy Pants?

Paul Dunay — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 16:19:38 +0000

Ok so what does a humpback whale have to do with marketing? Check out this campaign from Greenpeace for the answer.

Greenpeace was hoping to raise the awareness about humpback whales that were being threatened by the Japanese Fisheries Agency’s plan to kill 50 humpback whales.

They started with an online competition to name the humpback whales that Greenpeace were tracking via satellite in the Pacific. They originally received 11,000 submissions in the competition to name the humpback whales they were tracking on their migration to the Southern Ocean, and then they narrowed it down to the final 30. Some of the names we very thoughtful like Shanti or expressive like Libertad. And then of course there was Mister Splashy Pants.

Mister Splashy Pants quickly became an internet meme, and later the subject of a TED talk by reddit co-founder, Alexis Ohanian. On December 10, 2007, Mister Splashy Pants was announced the winner of the competition. 150,000 people reportedly voted, and ‘Splashy’ received 119,367, over 78 percent of the votes. The nearest rival was Humphrey at 4,329 votes, or less than 3 percent. reddit alone was responsible for 20,322 of the votes.

But even better than that because Mister Splashy Pants was so popular and a viral sensation the Government of Japan decided to abandon plans to kill humpback whales in the Southern Ocean before Greenpeace even left the dock!

Advertising guru Russell Davies praised Greenpeace’s handling of the campaign as “one of the defining moments in New Media marketing.” And the name has since spawned clothing, logos, flashvideos, and the slogan “Save Mister Splashy Pants.”

The lesson to be learned from Mister Splashy Pants is: Crowdsourcing works but only if you let go and are open to the results. Initially Greenpeace was hoping one of the more thoughtful names would be chosen so they left the competition run for a week longer hoping that would change the result – but it only made the results stronger in favor of Splashy.

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Facebook as the Media

Paul Dunay — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 18:41:00 +0000

An interesting trend has started to happen with Facebook lately – Media events are turning into Facebook groups!

Sure everyone friended Chesley Sullenberger after he successfully landed his US Airplane in the Hudson or friended Michael Phelps after he (fill in the blank)

But 2 media worthy events – this week – have both turned into Facebook groups

1) Facebook’s new Terms of Service (TOS) which prompted a Anti TOS group to show up
2) But the more curious one was Lance Armstrong’s bike being stolen prompted a group to help him recover his bike (see photo)

It’s an interesting use of Facebook groups which traditionally have been an underused part of Facebook now that Fan pages have become so popular. With groups you can join up to 200 so long as they are open, global or in your network.

The most important part of groups on Facebook is the Discussion Board – it’s what makes a group a group and why many are not that well attended since the owners don’t keep the conversation going. Perhaps we have seen a whole new use of groups starting to emerge for Topical Media issues.

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Accelerate your PR with BuzzGain – a podcast with Mukund Mohan

Paul Dunay — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:07:00 +0000

Discovering and connecting with the people who will help your business thrive in today’s social economy is vital especially when attention has become a precious commodity! As a PR and Marketing specialist it is becoming mandatory for businesses today to identify the communities that are actively defining and shaping the future of your business in places like blogs, Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, as well as traditional media.

Much more than a Social Media monitoring solution, BuzzGain can help you reveal the influential voices and corresponding conversations that are happening about your product or service so that companies can listen, learn, and effectively engage in mutually beneficial relationships.

BuzzGain is an ideal DIY solution for PR check out their white paper the 5 Steps to DIY PR

Pricing for BuzzGain starts at $99 per month for companies under $100m in revenue, $100m – $1 billion is $500 per month, those with over $1b is sales is $1,000 per month.

And don’t miss out on the BuzzGain’s 15 day free trial offer – you can be accelerating your companies PR in matter of minutes!

Link to Original Audio Source

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About Mukund

Mukund Mohan founded BuzzGain, the leader in Do It Yourself PR. He has founded and successfully sold 3 startups before BuzzGain. Prior to founding BuzzGain, he served as the Vice President of Marketing for Inovis, a leading B2B Community Management software company. Before Inovis he was head of product marketing for Mercury (Hewlett Packard) responsible for the strategy and customer success of the company’s Application Management solutions.

Mukund studied at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County pursuing a master’s degree in computer science and holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering and computer science from the University of Mysore in India.

Full Disclosure: BearingPoint is a Beta Client of BuzzGain

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The Power of Social Media meets the Press Release

Paul Dunay — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:01:00 +0000

Is the press release dead?

Well not really. But there certainly is a new wave out there – the social media press release, or SMPR, spawned by Todd Defern and the folks at SHIFT communications.

What does this mean for you? Well, when newspapers, magazines and other media go online, they are trying to create a conversation around a given article or topic they have written about. Why shouldn’t that be the case for press releases?

So I decided to get a podcast together with Todd so he could shed some light on success stories using the SMPR. Enjoy …

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About Todd

Todd Defren leads client services and business development efforts for SHIFT Communications, a $10 million agency with offices in Boston and San Francisco.

Working in high-tech public relations for approximately 15 years, Defren currently specializes in social media strategies and is widely noted for creating the first template for social media news releases in 2006. He followed up with a template for social media-optimized online newsrooms in early 2007.

Prior to SHIFT, Defren was at Sterling Hager, joining in 1994 as an account manager and reaching the level of managing director of the San Francisco office in August 2000. His earlier experience included managing the strategic and tactical corporate communications at ENTEX Information Services, a $2 billion New York-based systems integrator, now part of Siemens AG.

Defren has served as a visiting professor at Emerson College in Boston, lecturing on marketing and public relations on the Internet. In 2006, Defren was named a Research Fellow and member of the Advisory Board of the Society for New Communications Research.

Full Disclosure: I have hired SHIFT Communications to help BearingPoint with our Social Media PR

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PR’s role in new media, a podcast with Cece Salomon-Lee

Paul Dunay — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:46:00 +0000

PR professionals have been on the front end of all media relationships for a very long time. But the advent of new media poses some challenges for even the best PR professional.

To get some advice on how PR pros should handle new media, I conducted an interview with Cece Salomon-Lee. She runs her own blog called PR Meets Marketing, where she discusses how marketing is changing the way she practices PR.

Link to Original Audio Source

About Cece

After nearly 12 years with high-technology public relations agencies, Cece Salomon-Lee took her first in-house PR position in early 2006. In addition to managing public relations and media programs, Cece provides corporate messages and strategy in her current position as marcom manager with ON24, Inc. In her spare time, she shares her experiences on her PR Meets Marketing blog.

Please note: her comments on this site are her own and don’t necessarily represent ON24’s positions, strategies or opinions.

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