Social Media and Online PR: Econsultancy's 2009 report

PR has been through a torrid 18 months, as have most sectors across industry. We launched thebluedoor in Surrey 20 months ago and have grown through the eye-of-the-storm. By taking the necessary lean approach, we are winning business, growing accounts but most importantly delivering our clients fantastic results and great service - exactly what we are paid to do.

Key to our offering is integrating online into PR communications strategies, which is why yesterday's report - 'Social Media and Online PR' from Econsultancy has been a must-read for us all.

WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell has been extremely vocal about the role online has in taking PR out of recession - it has an important role within any communications strategy. And this report into the state of the Online PR industry certainly demonstrates that his prediction is more than just crystal ball gazing.

Econsultancy is (in their words) "an invaluable resource for Internet professionals who want practical advice on all aspects of e-business". And, as a word of caution to the results, by its very nature, the people involved and interested in its community and research are digital practitioners or at the least curious about the role online has in business.

Just some useful insights into the social media and online PR industry include:

• Just 10% of businesses are not engaging with any social media activity
• Smaller companies are quicker to jump into the digital space and use the digital tools, due to their inherent ability to be flexible, as well as willingness to experiment
• Twitter's 'darling' status is clearly demonstrated: micro-blogging is the most widely adopted tactic used by 78% of companies
• 59% of respondents do not have social media rules in place for employees to follow

I was interested to see that 24% said that measurement - or lack of - was a significant barrier to more effective social media engagement and direct traffic to sites was the most commonly used metric to measure social media activity. I am currently working with Kate Hartley of Carrot Communications to produce the first online PR measurement guide for the PRCA. To be published in 2010, it is planned to be a useful, practical and informative overview of the best practice methods currently being used.

I have also got a keen eye on the types of agencies delivering social media and online PR for companies - particularly as the SEO industry is going through significant changes. Search is loosing its snake-oil qualities and its value is moving into reputation management, conversations and transparently - the pillars of PR. In Econsultancy's report the highest supplier sector is traditional PR agencies at 15%, followed by Digital agencies (11%), followed by Specialist online PR agencies and Search agencies level-pegging at 8%. (Interestingly 42% responded by saying that no external agency was involved in delivering social media and online PR activities.)

In Econsultancy's 2010 report, I am sure that we will see significant changes in this pecking order, unless traditional PR agencies work harder to up-skill and jump into the digital space properly. And this means using it and doing it rather than simply reading the books, blogs and research papers.

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Technology sets entrepreneurs free – or does it create a Second Life?

We’re in the middle of Global Entrepreneur Week, so it’s no surprise that there is a focus on start-ups and entrepreneurs in the media at the moment. Although there have been some conflicting messages.

New research conducted by business advisory firm, Deloitte found that 75% of entrepreneurs in the East of England have found business opportunities during the recession.

However, another piece of research conducted by small business specialist Intuit UK showed 40% of those interviewed were waiting until the recovery kicks in before they start up their new ventures – hoping for better conditions.

The Times newspaper today gave a good overview of the possible scenarios, but two messages remain clear to maintain those great initial business ideas:

– the need for effective funding

- a well-considered business plan.

Having attended an excellent seminar by Business Link in Guildford last night, it was great to be in a room of self-starters. The scale of operations being run by the people there varied, but everyone in the room was keen to learn more about how technology can help small businesses manage their time to help them focus on their core business.

It was an insightful whistle stop tour as there are so many technologies that help companies across a range of areas, such as:

- Organisers/ virtual assistants

- Remote working tools, like GotomyPC

- Collaborative software, for example Webex and Sharepoint

- Internet based communications, such as Skype

All great ways to cut out time spent on administration or needless travel – how many of us travel 3 hours each way to attend a one hour meeting?

What interested me particularly this week is that social media is still considered a technology for the future for businesses.

Considering the number of companies effectively using the virtual world of Second Life already - for training, meeting with prospects, etc. - it seems a shame for this free medium to be ignored now. Its popularity within corporates is supported by the creator’s (Linden Labs) launch of Second Life Enterprise earlier this month targeted at the corporate world.

And it doesn’t have to be an expensive investment. There are numerous free tools available to aid collaboration – the key word that describes Web 2.0 – which make them perfect for small businesses looking for cost-effective ways to enhance their operations.

Whether it’s a Blog that provides a direct channel to a wide potential audience or Twitter which can work as an effective customer service tool, there are easily accessible tools to suit every need.

The main concern for most entrepreneurs and small businesses is finding the time to research these tools and try them out – yes, how ironic! As with any business equipment, from computers to mobile phones, it’s important to find the right tools to meet your individual needs.

Take some time to really think about what help/ support you need:

- What are the areas of the business that take up the most time (travel, administration, etc.)?

- How comfortable are you with existing technologies (phone, computer, etc.) and how do you use them now?

- What is the key focus for your business currently?

- Budget!

Once you take the time to review these things, your range of options will become clearer and easier to select from.

Trying them out can then be much easier to schedule into your day and the benefits are outstanding – in the short-term as well as the long-term future.

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Social media, journalism and politics: a fatal embrace?

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and now SlashKey are all continuing to grow with stunning speed according to exclusive research by Nielsen Online published in new media age (05/11/09). Key to their growth is the fight for their online audience's time. UK online population spent 11.1 billion minutes using social media sites during September 2009, an increase of 83% on the previous year.

Twitter - public enemy number one or popular darling, depending on whether you are a 'typical' BBC Moral Maze listener or enthusiastic Reuters news pundit - continues to grow. Currently standing at sixth most popular social media sites by unique users (4.43 million to be exactly), it is the fastest growing online real estate (1,959%), with 5,734,350,000 Tweets to date and counting.

Earlier this week, I attended a debate at Reuters to discuss with other Twitter users from the worlds of journalism, politics and PR, to discuss Twitter and social media's role in shaping the world. Top of mind were recent debates including BBC Radio 4's Moral Maze programme where people on Twitter were described as a "baying mob", as well as the recent Jan Moir/PCC event, plus Trafigura.

Of course at a self-selecting event such as this, there will always be an element of the digital gold-fish bowl preaching to its-self. However, I came away feeling that the reason why these tools are important are for the same reason that a complaints line, or marching against the poll-tax have always been important. Whilst I doubt that Government ever will take such tools to the heart of their communications strategies, social media certainly has a place, a powerful one too, at the table for those with ambition, aspiration, ideas and desire to make a difference. However, these same tools become less permissible as people progress up the food chain - the voice of the one has to bend to the voice of the party (a touch of the Stalins creeping in here), particularly in our current 'democratic' process of party line and party whip.

In today's anguished world of publishing where the debate on free vs. paid seems to rumble on towards its doomed end, social media has added a layer of complexity to the mix. Does a publication compromise the truth for the need to be the first to break a story? Speed puts the industry under immense pressure, however many of the journalists attending, particularly the younger ones, kept on reminding the audience - nothing has changed. The tools have evolved but the reasons haven't.

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Back to the future – how digital media can make some films last forever

Having recently seen the film ‘The Time Traveller’s Wife’ at the cinema, I started thinking about the amazing possibilities being able to see into the future might hold. The most obvious being the chance to win the lottery, but also to feed my digital PR interest in technology developments.

New gadgets, applications and especially lifehacker solutions never fail to impress me. But it’s been interesting how many ‘old’ technologies seem to be coming back (if slightly re-invented!).

Reading the FT’s Weekend magazine on Saturday, there was a great article by Tim Bradshaw about how Polaroid could be making a comeback. The company first introduced an instant camera back in 1948 and was still something ‘cool’ in the 90’s. Sadly, the company closed its doors in 2008 as it was considered ‘out of date in the digital age’. But now an Austrian Entrepreneur and a former Polaroid manager want to bring back instant film under a new name to meet the demand of Polaroid enthusiasts that still exists.

This Polaroid venture - dubbed ‘the impossible project’ – would revive the business on a smaller scale, believing strongly that it will break even. Embracing current resources available, the team is already using digital media to raise awareness, share pictures with enthusiasts on developments, as well as inviting the online community to input on challenges they are facing in order to find solutions.

It’s a wonderful story of how ‘old’ and ‘new’ technology is working together to meet a current need.

Having read this I was also less surprised to learn that there is a course available in bookmaking. The Papered Parlour in south London helps to keep alive an interest in an art form which could easily be forgotten in an age of digital books. But with a trial launch coming up of video ads in the magazine Entertainment Weekly (not unlike the newspapers in Harry Potter), thanks to a collaboration between Pepsi and CBS, maybe there is a future filled with even more old and new technologies being bound together?

If you’ve got an idea, starting a conversation online can be a powerful resource to gain input from experts around the world. While I wait for my personal inspiration though, I’m going to watch more Sci Fi films and look out for that next big new/old technology of the future!

Getting stuck in – sharing rich media content

In the true spirit of social media and online PR, I feel the need to share. A lot in fact - from video through to live Twitter feeds via blogs, emails, and so much more!

I never thought I’d find myself writing about embedded technology, but the ability to easily share such a wide and rich range of media (without having been trained how to code!) inspired me to write this.

Social media is all about sharing and collaboration, that’s not news. Many of us don’t even give a second thought to clicking a button on sites like YouTube to share something visual that has attracted our attention with friends visiting our Facebook, MySpace or Digg accounts.

Suddenly, a vast potential audience can share our selected videoclip, soundbite or image within seconds.

From a user’s point of view, it’s liberating. From a business perspective it’s a valuable marketing tool. Not only does it give straightforward access to an extended online audience, but it enables companies to make a connection with their target audience with content that is relevant to them in a form that they want. Also, enabling visitors to be walked through a process rather than having to read about it is invaluable – a picture tells a thousand words after all.

With the amount of information available to us online, how much more impact does something visual have? Who would rather read the transcript of an interview than watch it as good as live?

Video sharing – statistics to really know your audience

Aside from videos simply being more attention grabbing, companies also have the option to use video sharing sites to track insightful metrics such as:

Number of views

Viewing time

Demographics

Popularity

Traffic patterns

Tools enabling video measurement include: YouTube Insight & TubeMogul.

In a world full of constantly updating information, being able to stand out from the competition as well as track results is something to be valued – and shared!

So, in the spirit of sharing I hope you find this little nugget of interest:

Web 2.0 and social media for PR and internal communication: collaboration in action

The much anticipated and most comprehensive white paper on the digital landscape in Britain – Digital Britain 2012 - is being published today. This report is expected to help establish the Government’s blueprint for the future development of all things digital (technology, the internet and broadcasting) throughout the UK. As the report's author and Minister for Communications, Lord Carter of Barnes stated earlier this year: "Delivering Digital Britain will depend upon a smart industry, working with a committed Government to produce lasting solutions."

Smart industry collaboration is indeed essential to help address some of the more complex challenges faced both within and between an organisation and its publics when embracing Web 2.0. And the time is right for businesses to share, partner and integrate their expertise and knowledge – in the true spirit of this digital age.

Therefore, in collaboration with our sister company theblueballroom (internal communications) and Redcatco (social media and collaboration technology), we are offering companies 360-degree online communications consulting, as well as implementation and training on how best to embed Web 2.0 and social media into business and communications strategies.

We believe this collaboration presents a unique internal and external end-to-end offering for the diverse business function owners who are benefited by the opportunities and impacted by the potential pitfalls that online strategies and tools can bring. This approach will ensure that marketing, IT, customer services, communications (corporate, external and internal), lead generation, new business and HR can benefit from an enriched understanding of how Web 2.0 and social media can enhance internal and external communications strategies.

Digital Networking - Adapt or die?

Call me old fashioned, but I have always believed successful PR is all about building good relationships. Relationships with the client, relationships with the media and of course with the community.

It’s a recognised fact that one of the best ways to build relationships is to network, become part of a community and exchange information and ideas. The advancement of technology and the introduction of social networking have transformed the way we interact and share information. Online is now one of the fastest and most impactful ways to connect with people and build communities.

The tools that power the exchange of information and networking online are constantly evolving and this begs the question: Do the basic principles of relationship building still apply or have they, like the web and those that use it, had to adapt or die?

Social media such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr have been readily embraced and are fast becoming assimilated into our lives with more and more of us receiving information and networking via social media. Even the Mayor of London has been using phlogging social media technology to promote his trip to Seoul last week via ipadio.com!

Essentially networking, if done correctly, is about making connections with individuals, finding common interests, sharing information and ideas with the aim of establishing mutually beneficial relationships. If used correctly social media can be the driving force behind developing strong business communities and effectively promoting your organisation. The web is all about accessibility and the introduction of social media gives individuals, business and even products an active, immediate and responsive voice. We are also no longer just receiving news, we are making it. We’ve become independent distributers of news, as well as broadcasters, promoters and opinion leaders all in one.

So to answer the question, yes the basic principles of networking still apply; but in order to build lasting relationship we have to actively embrace all forms of networking. It’s no longer an activity we schedule in the diary it’s a way of life. In short: we as individuals and businesses have to adapt, innovate and contribute or risk disappearing all together.

Social networking, Surrey style!

Last night thebluedoor was networking both on and off-line at a fantastic event at Surrey University. Co-presented by Surrey Chambers of Commerce and SCEPTrE, the evening kicked off with short talks on networking by Avalon Solutions and an introduction to Web 2.0 by Casey Cohen from meterorite. After this excellent informative introduction, we were able to join other local businesses and put the networking tips into action, as well as watch demonstrations of social networking technology by local students.

From podcasting to interactive video, through Flickr, YouTube and Twitter, the many tools available were brilliantly presented by students. Talking from their perspective about how they interact with these technologies, they also outlined the potential these tools present companies to develop their business.

In a spooky coincidence, the reality of the use of social networking in business was the discussion topic on Radio 4's Woman's Hour programme today. Heather from Wiggly Wigglers, a small farm in Herefordshire, explained how her farming business won the Dell Small Business Excellence Award for its use of podcasts, Twitter and blogs.

Her comment that, "markets are conversations, and conversations are markets" really struck home to me and echoed the talks from last night's event.

Social media can be a huge influence on a business - to build a brand and gain access to the thoughts and desires of your target market. The overriding advice - take a bit of time to do some research, listen to the conversations taking place, then engage. The key being to share information in the same way you would in face-to-face networking. The results can be astounding.

We wish the students at the University of Surrey well with their studies and future careers. I'm sure everyone who attended came away with something valuable - and I'm sure are spending a bit more time online today than usual!

Surrey PR agency (that's us) awarded industry standard for excellence

As we move into our second year of business, thebluedoor is celebrating! Last week we were awarded the Consultancy Management Standard (CMS) by the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) – an internationally recognised gold standard of excellence. Of the UK’s 2,000+ PR agencies, only 109 agencies have passed this rigorous external audit which examines standards in management, communication and service delivery.

Since our launch last April, thebluedoor has defied the economic slowdown. thebluedoor works with a variety of national and international companies, delivering strategic, creative and valuable PR consultancy and services from press office function, crisis communication through to copywriting, growing in size and client base every quarter.

The timing of the company going live has been interesting to say the least! - the global economy has been extremely turbulent. However we are weathering the storm: we’ve doubled in size, increased our client base, are growing the team, and have begun our second year by achieving an industry standard that is recognised globally.

And in the words of Francis Ingham, director-general PRCA: “Well run businesses consistently deliver the results clients are looking for. The Consultancy Management Standard was developed specifically to ensure that PRCA members have the systems and structures in place to meet and exceed clients’ expectations. The Standard has been so successful that it has now been adopted in 14 countries around the world.”

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Battle of the bongo drums continues

As far back as 2006, the BBC was debating the battle between online news sites and newspapers. News-junkies were reporting to be turning increasingly to the Net for their daily fix of world events, and papers consequently beginning to feel the pinch.

In the media landscape of 2006 there was space for every one with enough money and expectations flowing around for newspapers and the online world to enjoy the spoils together. But, at the start of 2009 things are looking slightly less comfortable. Roy Greenslade is predicting that newspaper sales will decline further during 2009 and, what’s more, he says the closure of one paper will not benefit another: rather the resulting readers will vanish off into cyberspace.

The recent use of social media by Israelis following the Gaza conflict has lent it more credibility as a source of news. Although citizen journalism has to be sifted and weighed, it has the benefit of being immediate and thereby satisfying the global community’s need for information.

What makes it so powerful is its ability to connect people that are searching for the same things – niche news that might not sell newspapers will find a forum on the Internet. Using Alexa rankings and other popularity measurement tools we can find out which news sites are visited most and this is perhaps an indication of how credible they are.

But even if an online news website is ranked low, small news sites can flourish because of their low running costs. In this way “cat news from around the world” which has an Alexa ranking of 419,061, can co-exist with BBC weather which has an Alexa ranking of 46. In a depressed economy some media outlets may find that their only future lies online.