This document provides an overview of digital channels and why they are important for modern business. It discusses the growth of social media and user-generated content. Digital channels allow businesses to engage with customers through search, social networks, forums, and more. The document also covers audience profiling, measuring intent, and how brands can start engaging through channels like search, social media, customer service, and more. It emphasizes being useful to audiences and focusing on dialogue over message broadcasting.

1. Digital Channels – the basics
Ged Carroll
director – digital strategies
Ruder Finn | RFI Studios
http://ruderfinn.co.uk

2. Who on earth am I?

3. Slide deck available for download
from:
http://renaissancechambara.jp

4. In this session
 Why digital?  Channels
 Some numbers  Some examples
 Intent  Questions
 Audiences

5. Why?
 Over 5 billion consumer created images on flickr
 Over 500M people on Facebook alone
 8 million new fans a day
 350,000+ active applications on Facebook
 3.8 million unique users on Twitter in UK
 85 accounts followed on average

6. Because it is part of modern
business life
 Online banking  Google as a
 Online billing reputation engine
 E-government  Google as an oracle
 E-tickets
 Electronically
organised social
lives

7. Because media relations is a wrapper
around the media industry
…and the media industry isn’t
doing too well
 Following @themediaisdying
is like reading a litany of the
dead
 Guardian Media Group
turnover down 9.9% year on
year ABC - August 2010

8. Public relations as a business is at
risk
 Marketing singularity
 TribalDDB (media buying)
 Thought leadership
 wearesocial (WOM)
 IPA
 1000Heads (WOM)
 WOMMA
 Brew Digital (WOM)
 IAB
 Mindshare (media buying)
 Grassroots
 Ogilvy (advertising)
 measurementcamp
 VCCP (integrated marketing)  London Bloggers Meetup
 Techlightenment (CRM | digital  CIPR fightback started this year
creative)  http://ciprsm.wikispaces.com
 Wieden + Kennedy  Regulation
(advertising)
 ASA
 Dentsu (advertising)
 Poke London (digital creative)
 Few if any of the clients I work
with are PR professionals
 iCrossing (Search marketing)
 LBi (digital creative | search)

9. Why? Because you don’t have a choice
Determined
communities will
engage with your
brand regardless of
what you do.

10. Intent is the new demographic
Intent driven
Content driven
Controlled message Open conversation
Advertising Public Relations Social Media
Push Messaging Content-driven User query
driven by via intermediary driven by
age news need
gender trends desire
race information passion
income education whim
geography entertainment curiosity

11. Intent into interaction
Intent
- Search
- Share
- Communicate
- Be entertained
- Be creative
- Influence others
Query
Interaction Filtered through:
- With other users - Trusted web
- Brands - Google | Bing-Yahoo! | Naver | Baidu
- Vertical search
- Organisations
- Site search
Destination
User chooses destination based on:
- Content
- Credibility
- Trust

12. No longer about message
broadcast, but dialogue and intent
interception

13. Social services online gender split

14. Audiences
Publish a blog
Publish your own Web pages
Creators Upload video you created
Upload audio/music you created
Write articles or stories and post them
Post ratings/reviews of products/services
Social Technographics™ Comment on someone else’s blog
Critics
profilel model Contribute to online forums
Contribute to/edit articles in a wiki
Use RSS feeds
Collectors Add “tags” to Web pages or photos
“Vote” for Web sites online
Maintain profile on a social networking site
Joiners Visit social networking sites
Read blogs
Watch video from other users
Spectators Listen to podcasts
Read online forums
Read customer ratings/reviews
Groups include people participating in at
least one of the activities monthly.
Inactives None of the above
© Forrester Research

15. Social technographics profiling tool

16. Google Adplanner

17. Hierarchy of Brand Values
Being
nice
Being human
Being useful

18. Channels (or where can I be useful?)
 Search
 Image library  Social bookmarks
 Archives  RSS feeds
 Location details  Flickr
 Advice  Video
 Research  Blogs
 Local or expert  Social networks
knowledge  Forums
 Entertainment  Twitter
 Google Maps
 Where 2.0

19. Brand promise | touch point
service level agreement
Content immersion opportunity cost is a
trade off for a superior user experience.
Non-delivery is a negative brandmark
Video
Audio
Text I image
Text versus audio versus video

20. Customer communications

21. Customer service

22. Customer service

23. Customer self-service

24. Engaging a new sector

25. Internal communications

26. Community building

27. Corporate communications

28. Pre | soft-selling

29. HR | talent acquisition

30. Where do I start?
 Social media guidelines  Think about search
 Register and park  Monitoring the online
appropriate identities environment
 http://knowem.com  http://www.google.com/alerts
 http://godaddy.com  http://twitterfall.com/
 Personal use (if your  http://socialmention.com
organisation allows it)  Rules of engagement
 Experiment  Reactive engagement by being
 Look at your current web useful
presence  Planning
 How can you facilitate  Proactive engagement
sharing of existing content
 RSS feeds
 http://addthis.com

31. Final bits of advice
Utility is your new watch-word

32. Final bits of advice
People matter, objects don’t
that’s all you need to know about social
media – Hugh MacLeod

33. Final bits of advice
Never write an advertisement which you
wouldn’t want your own family to read.
You wouldn’t tell lies to your own wife.
Don’t tell them to mine.
Do as you would be
done by – David Ogilvy

34. Final bits of advice
All of us who professionally use the mass
media are the shapers of society. We can
vulgarise society. We can brutalise it.
Or we can help lift it
onto a higher level. – Bill
Bernbach

35. Questions?

36. Thank you very much.
Ged Carroll | @r_c | gedcarroll@mac.com | http://renaissancechambara.jp
Ruder Finn
gcarroll@ruderfinn.co.uk | +44 20 7462 8900 | http://ruderfinn.co.uk | http://
rfistudios.com | 74 New Oxford Street, London, WC1A 1EU

37. Links
Planning Tools Academic Research
 http://www.forrester.com/empowered/tools.html  Meeyoung Cha – The million follower fallacy: http://
 http://www.google.com/adplanner an.kaist.ac.kr/~mycha/docs/icwsm2010_cha.pdf
 http://www.klout.com  danah boyd’s publications: http://www.danah.org/papers/
 http://www.compete.com
 Fifteen-minutes of fame: The Dynamics of Information
 http://www.socialmention.com
Access on The Web (May 13, 2005) by Z. Dezso, E
Research information Almaas, A Lukacs, B Racz, I Szakadat and A Barabasi
 http://pewresearch.org/ (Notre Dame University): http://www.nd.edu/~networks/
 http://pewinternet.org/ HumanDynamics_20Oct05/0505087.pdf
 http://www.ofcom.org.uk/cmr  Digital Natives Programme by Berkman Center for Internet
 http://royal.pingdom.com & Society at Harvard Law School: http://
www.digitalnative.org/
Reading
Professional Bodies
 http://www.out-law.com
 IPA: http://www.ipa.co.uk
 http://econsultancy.com/blog
 WOMMA: http://www.wommauk.org
 http://www.crowdsurfing.net/
 IAB: http://www.iabuk.net
 http://www.wikinomics.com/blog/
Legal + Regulatory
 http://www.micropersuasion.com/
 ASA: http://asa.org.uk/
 http://renaissancechambara.jp/
 Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations
 http://mashable.com/
2008: http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2008/1277/pdfs/
 http://www.speedcommunications.com/blogs/wadds/ uksi_20081277_en.pdf

38. The stuff your boss doesn’t want
me to tell you
Where should I be looking for my next role How can I find out what a new employer is like to work
(outside the usual suspects)? for or get the lowdown on interview questions?
 TribalDDB: http://tribalddb.co.uk  http://www.glassdoor.com
 wearesocial: http://www.wearesocial.net How do I maximise my chances of getting employed?
 1000Heads: http://www.1000heads.com  http://renaissancechambara.jp/2009/10/22/29-things-
 Brew Digital: http://brewdigital.com for-pr-people/
 Mindshare: http://www.mindshareworld.com  http://www.speedcommunications.com/blogs/earl/
 Ogilvy: http://www.ogilvy.com 2010/09/07/30-ways-to-survive-and-thrive-in-pr-today/
 VCCP: http://www.vccp.com  http://meandmywebshadow.com
 Techlightenment: http://techlighenment.com  http://www.speedcommunications.com/blogs/wadds/
 Wieden + Kennedy: http://www.wklondon.com 2010/09/17/getting-ahead-on-linkedin-and-building-
 Dentsu: http://www.dentsulondon.com your-personal-reputation/
 Poke London: http://www.pokelondon.com
 iCrossing: http://www.icrossing.co.uk
 LBI: http://www.lbi.com
 Dare Digital: http://www.daredigital.com