Practical Issues in Social Media

Practical Issues in Social Media Ben Cotton Leeds Business School

What is social media?
Kaplan and Haenlein, (2007):
"a group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, and
that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated
Content”.
Hazleton, Harrison-Rexrode and Kennan (2007):
“ social media can include, but is not limited to, email,
instant messaging, online groups, blogs, internet social
networks and cell phones”.

What are the characteristics?
Mayfield (2008):
Participation
Openness
Conversation
Community
Connectedness

The major players
Brown (2009):
Bebo
Blogger
Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Flickr
Friendster
Last FM
Linked In
MySpace
Photobucket
Twitter
Wordpress
Youtube

And a few more…

Benefits of Social Media
Lower cost, but not free
Reach a large audience, quickly
Can communicate directly with audience
Social Media can remove traditional channels from the communication process

Pitfalls of Social Media
Skills/knowledge gap
Lack of understanding of etiquette
Loss of control
Can cause reputational damage

Good & Bad
Often public, immediate and permanent
Viral nature
It is now, popular and growing…zeitgeist

When Social Media goes wrong!

Case study: Microsoft
Microsoft Astroturfing on Wikipedia
Paid bloggers to edit ‘inaccuracies’ on its Wikipedia entry
Against Wikipedia rules
Publicly criticised
Unethical, lack of disclosure

Case study: Habitat
Habitat spamming the Iranian election on Twitter

Case study: Habitat

Thornton’s Manager offended the town he moved to
Case study: Thornton’s employee

GMPTE brandjacked on Twitter
Case study: GMPTE

When Social Media goes well!

Barnet Council uses its Facebook page as a forum
Social Media in the public sector

NHS Salford used Twitter to inform patients of which hospital services were available
Essex and Kirklees councils created a Gritter Twitter account
Reports faster than news agencies
Social Media in the public sector

Social Media Guidelines
Do you have them?
Do employees know about them?
Who wrote them?
Are they available?

What do you think?
Social Media will change the face of Public Relations?
Social Media is just another communications tool?

The good old press release

Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!
In Feb 2006 Tom Foremski blogged about traditional press release
Challenged PR industry to come up with something new

Social Media Release Tom Foremski (2006): “ Press releases are nearly useless. They typically start with a tremendous amount of top-spin, they contain pat on-the-back phrases and meaningless quotes. Often they will contain quotes from C-level executives praising their customer focus. They often contain praise from analysts, (who are almost always paid or have a customer relationship.) And so on...”

Social Media Release Template
In May 2006 Todd Defren came up with a template for the SMR

Traditional Press Release Social Media Release vs.

Traditional Elements
Headline
Core facts
Approved quotes
Boiler plate
Contact details

Navigation
Hyperlinks in text
Links to previous coverage
Links to FAQ
Social Media Elements
Multimedia
Video
Audio
Images
Social Media
Social Bookmarking
RSS feeds
Technorati tags
In bound links
Comment with organisation

Who are they for?
Journalists
Bloggers
Consumers
Bloggers the new journalists?

How to pitch to bloggers
Still much debate…
Bloggers don’t like being pitched to – nor do journalists
Email, phone, meet, comment on blog, follow on Twitter
Read the blog rules to see if there are guidelines
Establish a relationship first, then approach

Other considerations
May get shown as a bad example
Embargoes may not be respected
Can be time consuming
More work than a traditional press release e.g. you need video, audio, images, social media etc

Examples
ITV - FA Cup Final
Bright One Communications – Unique partnership project seeks illustrative talent to collaborate on exciting youth project

What are the benefits?
Enriched with multimedia
Optimized for search
Optimized for conversation
Optimized for sharing

Social Media Release Conclusions
They look nice, but they still need to be newsworthy
They are not a substitute for relationships – the usual rules apply
Research in PR Week showed journalists prefer SMR, still need to be targeted
If it’s unsolicited…it is still spam!

Recommended Blogs
Steve Rubel.com
Brian Solis.com
Neville Hobson.com
Ste Davies.com
PR Squared by Todd Defren
Mashable
Wolftstar

Any questions? Q&A

Thank you Contact details [email_address] www.twitter.com/bencotton www.socialwebthing.com www.linkedin.com/in/bencotton End

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Practical Issues in Social Media

by Ben Cotton on Jan 25, 2010

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Practical Issues in Social Media — Presentation Transcript