The Truth About Digital PR

Flash Player 9 (or above) is needed to view presentations.
We have detected that you do not have it on your computer. To install it, go here.

more share options
Embed For WordPress.com

Without related presentations

I was in Brisbane a couple of weeks ago presenting to a PRIA conference on digital PR. It was a good conference, but there was a lot of the same ‘social media’ propaganda. While I was sitting there listening to all of the speakers I actually got the feeling that as an industry, we’re starting to lose sight of what really matters. They examples they gave often had gaping PR & strategic holes in them.

With all this talk of social media, Twitter and everything else, I reckon it’s getting harder and harder to know what really matters. One day we hear stories like Queensland Tourism’s ‘Best Job In The World’ campaign, universally hailed a digital PR success...

...and the next day we’re faced with situations like McDonalds.. A classic reputation management situation that started with a guy with a mobile phone.

And emerging from all this are the social media experts who somehow have knighted themselves with guru status and seem to think they know something about PR...

These are the people who love to bombard us with complex network charts and talk about the ‘next big thing’.. and when you ask “So, where do I start?”..

... they say EVERYWHERE! It’s no wonder PR people are hesitant to touch the digital space.

I titled this presentation ‘the truth about digital PR’ and I reckon the truth is pretty simple. It’s easy to lose sight of what matters. And that’s what I’m going to argue this morning.

So what I’ve decided to do today is take some of the stories told at that conference and see if there are any fundamental PR holes that have been left in them. We’ll be looking at Barrack Obama.

.. we’ll try to get to the bottom of who’s desk this is...

and we’ll even get a taste of Swine Flu.

And I’m going to break them down into the key areas of reputation management, media relations and community relations.

Many people would argue that reputation management is the most important part of the PR persons job. And it’s even more important now with the internet.

Many marketing people have credited Barrack Obama’s election at least in part to the way his campaign embraced social media..

They did everything from setting up their own social networking site for supporters..

To running a Twitter account. At one stage BarackObama was the most followed Twitterer in the world...

They even created this terrific iPhone application that went as far as sorting through your address book and asking you to call your friends who were in swing states...

But a trademark of that election was all the mud slinging going around. So his campaign created this website called ‘Fight The Smears’ that tried to set the record straight. A clever little reputation management approach.

Until one day someone on the campaign typed Barrack Obama into his firefox tool bar and it came up with this suggested search... It turns out there were 7 million results for ‘is barack obama a muslim?’. In all the work they had done online for the campaign nobody thought to check what people were searching for on the internet.

Somebody decided to come to their aid though. By simple making a website 'isbarackobamaamuslim.com'...

and made it to the number 1 listing on Google.

And sent people to this website.

Brands are having some of the same reputation management issues too

Number 3 search result for Nandos is boycott nandos

a website dedicated to the hatred of this company...

This is Alison Godfrey. She’s a journalist for news.com.au and, as it turns out, is a fan of Twitter.

3 Favorites

Chipo Mugomba, Online PR extraordinaire at Perfect Relations (India), favorited this 3 months ago
Tags pr digital social media
serhatayan at serrat, favorited this 4 months ago
Samraat Kakkar, Business Head at Alternative Path, favorited this 4 months ago
Tags pr20

The Truth About Digital PR - Presentation Transcript

the about digital PR
the It’s easy to lose sight of what matters
Reputati on manage ment
Reputati on manage ment Media relation s
Reputati on manage ment Media relation Comm s unity relatio ns
Reputati on manage ment
Is Barack Obama a muslim?
Media relatio ns
91%THE PROPORTION OF JOURNALISTS THAT USE THE INTERNET TO RESEARCH STORIES SOURCE: TopRank Online Marketing Survey on Journalists Use of Search, October 2008
82 % TO LOOK FOR STORY IDEAS SOURCE: TopRank Online Marketing Survey on Journalists Use of Search, October 2008
59 % TO VERIFY PRESS RELEASES SOURCE: TopRank Online Marketing Survey on Journalists Use of Search, October 2008
91 % TO FIND NEW SOURCES SOURCE: TopRank Online Marketing Survey on Journalists Use of Search, October 2008
Comm unity relatio ns
MP XON COL A RO I d Ag eing EH ON N lth an TH Hea r for M iniste May 2009 ELE ASE 22 IA R MED e AIN’ opriat o ‘CO NT is appr sed t e that it t Lev el Rai advi sed m Aler s today op, ha . Bish AIN sor Jim CONT icer, Profes level to ber of f d i cal Of demic alert m all nu e is to i ef Me ia’s pan a s a sm s phas he Ch ustral ralia h m of thi T A a t Aust he ai t o raise t ely. i ses th sion. T media ecogn ansmis ive im AIN r an tr effect CONT -to-hum d the his is el to n T l ert lev one human ustralia. s ures a f the a t least ithin A n mea tectio ase. sing o s and a T he rai case virus w o der pr this ph e flu of the h as bor under tuatio n swin spread u - suc nue the si
flu.sa.gov.au
4.1 million
4.1 million THE NUMBER OF SEARCHES FOR ‘SWINE FLU’ IN 30 DAYS
750
the It’s easy to lose sight of what matters
a David Campbell david@fnuky.com.au @davidjcampbell