090624 - Public sector training

HoW TO USE SOCIAL WEB IN YOUR PUBLIC RELATIONS & MARKETING

What we will cover today

Online – definition
Impact of Web 2.0 on PR – consumers, media and stakeholders
How to develop an online mar.coms strategy:

Auditing and monitoring the online environment
Tools, tactics, targets and teams
Measurement

Detailed review of the Online mar.coms toolbox
Online reputation management
Bringing your issues to the table

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Who, what, why?
A quick introduction, where you’re from and what you are looking to get out of today
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|Trainer/s: AN Other, Job title and company
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Who on earth am I?

Or as my girlfriend sees me…
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Online mar.coms– the reality

It doesn’t require a big step change
Just understanding of basic principles
Knowing who can support you internally and externally (sense check tools, select external technology providers, metrics etc)
ID’ing your/your clients’ comfort zones
Small steps to achieve your/their PR objectives
Selecting correct tools and techniques for the job
Testing, measuring and refining

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Online mar.coms ownership
Currently falls between digital marketing, SEO, customer services and PR for most orgs

Technology and jargon
PR runs the risk of being defined by its channels
Lack of resources, support and training from traditional marketing bodies CIM/ CIPR/PRCA etc
Other digital marketing disciplines filling online skills chasm
Varies who has ‘brand permission’ in the online space

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There are 3 categories of Online Mar.coms
Monitor/
Map/Research
Promotional
Defensive
Underpinned by
Honesty
Transparency
Rapid response
Process
Integration
Flexibility
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Papa’s got a brand new mar.coms bag
Online surveytorials
Search Engine Optimised Releases
Advertorials
Press release distribution
Competitions
Online media relations
Surveys
Tagged photography
Press releases
Online surveys
Webcasts
Social media releases
TV interviews
Media relations
Skypecasts
Online Reputation Management
Radio interviews
Webchats
Mashups
Internet radio
Photography
Podcasts/Vodcasts
Virtual World events
Microblogs
Audio features
Investor relations
White papers
Guerrilla activity
Stunts
RSS feeds
Widgets
Social network APIs
Search Engine Optimised brand
publications
Folksonomies
Newsletters
Online monitoring
VNR
Brand publications
WIKI’s
Internal communications
Interviews
Corporate/Brand blogs
Internal blogs
Events
Forums/Boards/Comments
Stakeholder relations
Brand ambassador activity
Crisis Management
Dark blogs
Stunts
Infographics
Stakeholder mapping
Conferences
Press briefings
Press trips
Social Search
Viral
Product launches
Social Tagging
Social Networking
Social Networking events
Crowdsourcing
Social Bookmarking
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Online media centres
Blogger relations
Reputation Management

It’s A World Of Change, Isn’t It?

The tenets of strategy are the same as they have been for the past 3,000 years
Clients are still ultimately measured on the performance of their business
We still communicate with people ultimately in mind to be influenced
It has never been cheaper or easier to produce content
Clients can disintermediate the media and communicate directly with their audiences
Audiences can easily communicate with each other on a large scale
We have new media vehicles
The news cycle lasts longer – online news sources act like an echo chamber

A change in emphasis….
Traditional marketing efforts

Core contacts and networks
Well-defined channels
Generic communications materials
Structured
Media vehicles required
Key influencers= journalists, analysts etc
ROI difficult to measure

Online mar.coms

Larger networks changing rapidly
Tailored materials
Conversational
Disintermediation
Key influencers: context dependent
ROI easier to measure

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The golden rule
“People matter, Objects don’t”. That’s all you need to know about social media. – Hugh MacLeod
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Golden rule two
UTILITY

Fundamentals of online

Understand how networked audiences work
Map online environment to gain intelligence before planning begins
Flexible and tailored communications
Integrate with other marketing disciplines and other PR channels
Be meaningful – messages with intent and purpose, not spin
Measure and learn
Agree organisational ownership and chain of command – Internal PR teams, digital marketers, external agencies/specialists, combination?

Changing behaviours
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Fragmented media landscape

UK consumer media consumption
Share of media time% of media time for all internet users
Weekdays

37.2 million UK internet users
61% population
54.6% of UK households have broadband

Sundays
Saturdays
Source: BMRB Internet Monitor
Base: All Internet users aged 15+
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Sub-groups on the net

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Top 10 social networks
Source: comScore World Metrix, (Global Home, Work) June 2007

Social Media is growing fast

The User Generated Content pyramid
1% Creators – initiate conversation
10% Synthesisers – respond/filter
89% Consumers – read/recommendand use other WOM channels
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FINANCIAL TIMES
DAILY TELEGRAPH
ECONOMIST
LOADED
GUARDIAN
VOGUE
BBC
MEGASTAR
BLOGGERS - SOCIAL NETWORKING USER GROUPS - FORUMS - WIKIS - PHOTOS CONSUMER-GENERATED CONTENT

Dissemination of information

Media 2.0
Weekly and monthly publications are left behind:
Wired is still a monthly magazine but also publishes a plethora of content every day
Sections are user-generated such as Found: ‘Artifacts from the Future’
Daily publications now publish several times a day through different media:
The Times is one of the largest audio content providers in the UK media
The news cycle lasts longer – online news sources act like an echo chamber:
The most linked-to site by English speaking blogs is the New York Times online, the Guardian is close behind it

Future of news
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From hard copy to multimedia news
FROM
TO

Most popular stories dictate tomorrow’s print headlines
47 staff blogs
Telegraph TV – web TV channel
Podcasts
A4 size print your own paper Telegraphpm
Comments on every story
My Telegraph personal news portal, personal blog space and social network

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News - reach

One in 24 UK internet visits went to a news and media site. BBC accounted for 15.45% of these visits Source: Hitwise May 2007
UK Guardian 29.8 m unique users Source: ABCe Jan 2009
22.8 m for Daily Mail (2.3m for paper) Source: ABCe Jan 2009
22.8 m for Times Online Source: ABCe Jan 2009
21.9 m for The Sun (<3 million for paper) Source: ABCe Jan 2009
25.9 m for The Telegraph Source: ABCe Jan 2009
6.7m for Mirror.co.uk Source: ABCe Jan 2009
10.2 m for The Independent Source: ABCe Jan 2009
160 branded quality news sites in UK alone
50+ respected newswires

Lazy online engagement
Chris Anderson blocks unsolicited PR
Tom Coates and the PRostitutes
“SSPR please stop spamming
Bloggers”

Virgin Atlantic case study
Oli Beale, a copywriter with WCRS wrote to Virgin Atlantic about his experience on their flight.
His letter was shared on the internet as one of the funniest complaints letters ever

Virgin Atlantic case study continued
Virgin aftermath:
912 references on Technorati
Coverage in all the major national newspapers
Front page on Yahoo! UK for two days
Source: Technorati

In case you thought it was just business that got it wrong…

Different British police forces crackdowns on amateur photographers getting worldwide attention
Online blogs continue debate over Baby P debacle
Insider exposes like NHS Doctor provide an insightful critical look
Facebook group on local issues
Baby P Facebook groups

It doesn’t have to be this way
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JetBlue case study
Valentines Day 2007:
130,000 customers trapped in bad weather conditions
JetBlue fliers were trapped on the runway at JFK for hours, many ultimately delayed by days
Only 17 of JetBlue's 156 scheduled departures left JFK
What JetBlue did
Communicated directly with its audiences
Admitted that things had gone wrong
Explained what had gone wrong
Explained what they were going to do about it

PRagmatic approach required

Embrace and understand the environment
Understand the audience and how influence works online
Understand how traditional media is changing
Knowledge share – workgroups, trend spotters etc
Get over the ‘technology’ hurdle - use the tools personally to discover PR uses and how to make your job easier
It will take time
You may make mistakes on the way

Reach
Traditional Media
Nationals
Online Media
Trades
Niche sites
Citizen sites
Media websites
Blogs
Long tail PR thinking
Reaching millions
Reaching Billions
Source: Immediate Future, June 2006

Working towards a strategy
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Strategic approach
Implement
Measure Impact, Learn & Identify Opportunity
Plan (integrate online and offline thinking)
Audience research
Client business and brand analysis
Business environment

Understand the client environment and marketplace
Recognize how the world of communications is changing
Understand how the audiences relate to the brand
Understand how they relate to each other and the world around them
How and where to reach them, what are the rules of the community?
Assess client’s business situation
Diagnose communications fitness
Design integrated Influence Plan that combines traditional and new channels
Incorporate broad objectives
Define your story
Apply your story to relevant outlets
Story development
Media relations
Analyst relations
Online influencers
Digital Storytelling
Social networking
Site design
Online promotions/ viral
Blogging/ podcasting
Virtual events
Mapping
Online / offline impact & cross-linking
Quantitative & qualitative reach
Campaign performance
Business impact
Web analytics

Monitoring
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Why?

ID core stakeholders and influencers outside of traditional media/contact lists
ID where conversations happening and WOM networks of influence on the web and offline
ID existing/emerging conversations and trends relevant to your organisation, brand, industry, key staff etc
ID which traditional media online rank highly in SEO terms
Market research, message auditing, pre-crisis and strategic planning, leaks
To help plan proactive PR and social media strategy
Traditional PR databases/tools (e.g. Mediadisk, Editors, Vocus) fall short
Beyond journalists - ‘Normal’ people can be influencers
‘Reputation Insurance’ – Masterfoods
Mapping techniques can be used for finding and tracking proactive coverage

Mapping

Reputation monitoring software suppliers, specialists and agencies (over 150 specialist suppliers out there)
Free tools plus your own internal data (e.g. Web analytics)
No one solution best – until Google develops ‘Trends’
None fully automated – human analysis/filtering required – an evolving industry
Can be costly, so vital to plan: What information is most useful
Presenting to strategy planners – visual models, Wikis, databases etc
How to share and maintain information across teams and external agencies

Key words
ID primary keywords - Organisation, brands, spokespeople, initiatives, affiliate organisations, known brand detractors, ‘competitors’

Brainstorm internally and use clients’ internal departmental data and external agency data
Keyword tools: Google Wordtracker
Web analytics - Your analytics should show your referring key-words and phrases
Analyse web log files
PPC Campaigns
Online research tools: Hitwise, Comscore and NNR

Search engines
Still thinking about key words:

Search engines – Google, Yahoo, Live, Ask etc
Check inbound links to your sites via Google: Link:www.yourdomain.com
And Yahoo: Linkdomain:yourdomain.com
Yahoo! Site Explorer
Make sense of what you find
Organic search and PPC results for each keyword
Google page rank
Review source and establish their link community and who they influence
Establish whether target for PR, link, partnership or monitoring
Issue cluster
Contact details
Search ranking against key words

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Professional tools and services
Source: Magpie - Brandwatch
Source: Onalytica
Source: Networksense Mapping - icrossing
Source: WexView - Waggener Edstrom

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Homebrew
Source: Michelle Goodall

Social media measurement tools
Blog search engines

Technorati
Blogpulse
Google blog search
Quarkbase
Addictomatic

Make sense of what you find

Who links to them or cites blog posts – especially traditional media
RSS subscribers
Debate analysis – topics and brand/org share of voice
Sentiment analysis – positive, negative, neutral
Potential target for PR, link, partnership or monitoring target
Issues cluster

Alerts

Google alerts
Yahoo news alerts
Review and define source
See relevant section – blogs, social networks and forums, video and photo UGC etc

Social networks & forums
Consider niche, local sites and verticals, e.g. Teaching – TeacherTube, UK Teachers Forums,

Use social network engines to find them
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Bebo, Ning etc

Review source and establish influencer ranking

Who links to them or cites conversations – especially traditional media
Debate analysis – topics, brand/org share of voice
Sentiment analysis – positive, negative, neutral
Issues cluster

UGC: video and photos

The curated web

Microblogging
Microblogs - Twitter

If you have an account set up you can track for keywords
Twitter Search
Twilerts via email
#Hashtags

Picture by foxypar4

Stitching it all together

Influence
Popularity vs influence

Popular stakeholders of an issue influence many. But those they influence may not themselves be influential, e.g.. Jodie Marsh - bullying
Influential stakeholders impact those who matter, directly and/or indirectly, e.g.. Demos on social policy

Source: Onalytica

Promotional tactics
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Measurement & evaluation
What gets measured gets done
Be careful what you measure

Evolving web analytics area, especially buzz and sentiment analysis
Speak to your/your clients web analytics team to see what can be measured
Test and learn
Think about engagement as well as reach
Think about ROI

Picture by calloohcallay

Online media & press centres
Plan to develop an online media centre? Establish PR objectives with developers

Argument for transparent information for consumers and journalists – no log-in
Needs to be:
Accessible and easy to navigate
Search function for images, text and video – ability to tag all media content when adding for Universal Search
Searchable archives
RSS
Social bookmarking
Search Engine Optimised releases and media content
Social media release

SEO press releases
ID primary keywords/phrases relevant to release content and add:
In the release headline
Once in the sub-header (if applicable)
In the first paragraph – keyword density in body text<10%
Also use in alt tag of associated images
At least once in the meta description tag
Once on the URL of the page
Embed links to optimised and relevant content pages on your website
Add release to online media centre, put on posting sites – does not replace ‘sell in’
Must be well written …read and judged by people not just search engine spiders!
Measure and track response and feedback into process
Old materials can be re-optimised

Online media relations

Most obvious element of online PR - rarely executed well
PROs ‘tick the online media box’ or use wires and posting sites
Perception online coverage less valuable
Reality - reach is huge!
Negative as well as positive coverage stays online for a long time - affects SEO
Measurable – e.g. unique users/view, referral clickthroughs, blog citations, SEO position, outcomes from traffic generated by referral URL
Get it right, measure it and watch client perceptions change rapidly
You will have ID’d key targets through monitoring process
Share learnings between teams

Corporate blog
3 things that blog readers demand – compelling content, freshness and interactivity

Develop simple policy guidelines for staff and ‘conversationalists’
Get the tone right and expect it to develop over time
Post regularly
Designate editors
Be authentic and honest – your thoughts about ghosting?
Allow comments – it’s a blog!
Link liberally and engage with the blogosphere

Social currency and social objects
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Identifying your social currency and social objects
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Levels of online engagement

Monitoring: no engagement but active listening to what is being said about the organisation and its peers – any related issues
Low-level engagement: as Monitoring plus response-led online presence
High-level engagement: as low level engagement, but proactive approach, integration with other marketing and customer services activities

Picture by cmcbrown

Blog relations

Read and listen – tonality, attitude to brands and orgs etc
Develop a conversation and participate
Be open
Soft sell
Supplement with promotional tactics
Use experts and enthusiasts
Provide creative and relevant ‘blog fodder’ or ‘social currency’
Don’t be afraid of losing some message control

Social Networks
The best known forms of social software
Think about your target group:
Their motivations
Their location
Where they are in their life
Be respectful of their personal space
Think about how you can add value
How do you engage beyond becoming a friend

Social Networks

Similar to blogs, ‘friends’ demand useful content, interactivity and kudos
Time intensive - develop editorial team and simple policy guidelines for staff and ‘conversationalists’
Each network has different tools and audience – What works for Bebo-ers might not for Facebook-ers
Provide regular challenges
Rank and reward creativity and talent
Amplify content the network creates
Set project timelines and communicate this to ‘fans’

Social Networks
Listen, listen, listen
Social networks are really good for audience segmentation
Are you providing something that would be found useful by your audience, or what you want to tell them?
If you aren’t relevant, what can you as an organisation do differently, rather than using a different channel for the same old, same old?

Crowdsourcing

Open call to ‘public’ to solve a problem and collaborate to help achieve a goal
Final solution is usually agreed by the participating crowd
Rewards often Whuffie
Many potential applications for PR
Idea generation and filtering
Tasks being carried out
Time intensive, lack of message control, multi-territory legal and IP restrictions are issues

Forums & BBS
Depending on brand between 40% - 85% of UK user comment on forums, bulletin boards etc
But, a definite shift towards blogs and other forms of social media
Monitor environment, identify and learn from comments
Same rules as blog relations
Do not recommend a ‘covert’ approach or seeding comments
But, opportunity to respond to negative comments and improve level of conversation
In majority of cases, forums self-regulate but occasionally you may need to post…

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Curated Web

Video and podcasts
Easy cost effective to make and host compelling podcasts and video
Blogs and social network users happy to link to good, relevant content
Must be strategic about driving consumers to it and measuring impact
Opportunities for PR:

Create blog and social network fodder or content for debate/mashups/viral
Use celebrity broadcast time to create exclusive video and audio content
Audio/visual media releases – brings story to life
Brand or campaign channels in Youtube, MySpace etc

Wikis

Viral

Audience (demographics, psychographics, geography, available technology)
Tonality
Brand credibility – can you talk to an audience in this way
Viral motivators – humour, self interest, sex, topicality, extreme behaviour, charity
Simplicity – best are often the simplest ideas
What is the utility?
Highly commercial channel – few getting it right
Social media creating own viral effect
Cost effective?
Never guaranteed
Message at the mercy of the recipient
Influence v impact

Virtual world and online events

Events

Don’t just have to take place in Second life
Consider practical use of web 2.0 tools to support on and offline events
Capitalise on existing events
Live blog from events (e.g. blogging4business)
Videos and podcasts before and after event to extend impact of programme
Tagged event photo galleries on Flickr

Competitions
Branded coverage on 3rd party sites in return for prize with a perceived value

Can be promotional or editorial
Criteria: minimum prize value, length of competition, copy / branding
Live link offered to campaign or org. web sites
Product/brand/company photography and/or logo can be used
What measurement statistics will be provided
How prize fulfilment works
What prize terms and conditions required

Advertorials
Commercial and editorial teams generally involved in set up

Advertorials work very well in an online environment, especially when links, full ROI measurement, opt-in user data, or agreed user reach required
Important to establish objectives at outset with site
Copy written and layout suggested by PR - will be amended to suit site ‘house style’ – a hybrid of commercial and editorial copy with agreed levels of brand control
Examples of advertorial content include:
Branded surveys/polls with incentive to link out from hosting site
Editorial where a greater emphasis on message control required and subject matter very commercial, e.g. new brand variant launched

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Infographics

Interactive visual applications or web pages
Add visual support to a campaign, e.g. BBC’s British History Timeline
Powerful tools which can tell complex stories
Excellent ‘social objects’ and offline media materials
Can create viral effect with consumers
Ensure you publish URL in media materials and link to SEO and relevant pages on supporting web site

Picture by Pseudo Placebo

The United Nations Stands Up Against Poverty
NEEDThe United Nations (UN) engaged Waggener Edstrom Worldwide (WE) to provide global digital strategy, social media counsel and public relations consultancy in support of the UN Millennium Campaign's "Stand Up and Speak Out" event on October 16-17, 2007.
The UN needed to create awareness and generate interest for an event designed to highlight and reinforce the pledge made by governments from 189 countries to the Millennium Development Goals, specifically to work toward the eradication of poverty worldwide by 2015.
APPROACHGlobal scope demanded an innovative approach to unifying audiences across the world via their individual Internet engagement points. Given the variety of mediums and 3-week timeline, WE drafted an integrated communications plan, vested in top social media opportunities, that was strategically and quickly executed.
RESULTS
Within 3 weeks WE…

Targeted more than 343 influentials via three

digital press releases

Incorporated aggressive SEO that increased impressions and clicks by 20 percent
Conducted blogger outreach that resulted in at least 338 blog posts
Executed a Twitter viral campaign that created 25,000 followers
Contacted 290, 400 people via LinkedIn
Garnered more than 9, 500 views on YouTube and UStream.TV

Now it’s your turn
.

Online reputation management

Identifying your conversationalists and reputation team

Your reputation audit will have ID’d staff using UGC/social media and key external advocates, partners etc
Internal audit to ID your best conversationalists?

Are they marketing/communications/PR staff/agencies
Senior management
Do they come from other parts of the business, e.g.. field sales, customer service, web development etc?
Reactive and proactive social media and online engagement

Crisis management
Internal and external stakeholders not just staff
Need to include agencies - Search, PR, DM etc

People tend to trust ‘people like us’ – Edelman Trust Barometer

Typical reputation management roles

Contextual strike teams
Information holders
Defenders
Conversationalists
Expert commentators
‘Technical’ specialists
Campaign based teams
Legal specialists

Picture by ktylerconk

What’s your plan?

What do you want to influence
When will you respond
How will you cultivate authenticity
What information is currency
How will you personalise conversations
When will you involve legal personnel
Draft procedures and protocols

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Each team member should be sure of their role and responsibility

How they will receive information
Rules of engagement
With whom
Through which media
Information timings – embargos
Exclusivity of information
Who they report to – chain of command and who is ultimately responsible and will support them if required
SLA
What is in it for them
Acceptable tone
Measurements and success criteria

Picture by chrisamichaels

Strategies for managing unfavourable comments and opinions

Is it true?
If so, what are you doing about it?
If so, put criticism in context
Is it on influential site – assess and rank site
Who is the detractor – are they influential
Are others commenting
Is it affecting search ranking
Assess seriousness of attack – this is where you should get legal advice

Strategies for managing unfavourable comments and opinions

Act quickly – the truth will out but ensure others don’t tell your story
Involve lawyers as safeguard –mentioning this can get instant results
Get the facts straight
Consider message, conversationalist and channels that will be used
Review procedures/protocols and mobilise the team members
Humour and self deprecation can help
Be candid and declare your interest
Be brief, to the point and transparent
Consider using combination offline media and PPC, e.g. Google Adwords
Keep all email, phone and meeting records relating to issue

Bad Phorm
Phorm does behavioural advertising
It records all the web pages that you visit
The company didn’t respond fast enough

UK and US government investigations ensued
Partners pulled out of business relationships
Sustained organised badvocates
Mainstream press coverage in The Guardian, The New York Times

Personal online engagement
Not just your brand it’s your people
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IP Issues

Give online users the opportunity to use your IP where relevant in a legitimate manner
Image resource library and licence
Outline what ‘fair use’ means
Be clear in plain language what your trademarks are
Be polite and unthreatening in your communications with offenders
If you are still struggling with compliance go direct to the ISP or platform owner
Don’t put anything in writing that you wouldn’t want to see published

O’Reilly Publishing & Web 2.0

CMP Media with the knowledge and approval of O’Reilly Media legaled NFP IT@Cork
Hue and cry break outs in the blogosphere over the course of 3 days
O’Reilly Media step in and pick up the phone to Tom Rafferty and agree that Rafferty can use the web 2.0 descriptor

Further reading
Collected papers and essays by danahboyd
Notre Dame University: Fifteen-minutes of fame: The Dynamics of Information Access on The Web (May 13, 2005) by Z. Dezso, E Almaas, A Lukacs, B Racz, I Szakadat and A Barabasi
OECD whitepaper on user-generated content
Digital Natives Programme by Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School
The Long Tail: why the future of business is selling less of more – Chris Anderson
Groundswell by Charlene Li & Josh Bernoff
Wikinomics website which is based on and extends the book of the same name by Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams
The Cluetrain Manifesto
How to use Digg-
What I read
Google’s keyword tool

Online press release distribution
Pressbox - free