Archive for January, 2008

User Generated Video (UGV) scored 22.4 billion views in 2007, up 70% over 2006.  Source: AccuStream iMedia Research 

YouTube can say thank you to the writer’s strike for some of that traffic.  According to Nielsen Online figures, YouTube showed an 18% surge in the two months since the writer’s strike began in November, compared with September and October last year.

The market is forecast to grow at 52% in 2008, and reach 34 billion views, as indicated by straight line linear regression analysis of current market data. 

The report’s detailed analytics features AOLUncut, Broadcaster.com, Crackle.com, Ebaumsworld, LiveDigital, Metacafe, MySpace TV, Revver.com, Vsocial.com, VEOH.com, Yahoo Video and YouTube, among others.

What are we watching online? Comedy, funny, music, entertainment and weird are the popular categories on UGV sites.

Where are we watching these videos?  YouTube of course, and MySpace.  All by itself YouTube accounts for nearly 10 percent of all traffic on the  web.  

But they’re no longer the only game in town. There are second and third tier sites that are getting significant traffic too.   (Remember that trend that says we’ve moved from ‘how many?’ to ‘who?”) 

Crackle.com was the market leader generating views per video  – they got 216,596 views per video on average.  How did they do it? Emphasized more semi-professional content.  Isn’t that interesting – we’ve been sold the idea that user generated content needs to be, well, user generated.  Yet the better quality videos are pulling the viewers.  

Seems great content still brings home the bacon.

What is driving the growth?  The research shows that brand partner channels on YouTube and semi-professional content will be the driving force for online video in 2008.

Is video on your PR list this year?  Here are some resources you might find useful:

WestGlen Communications

TurnHere

Media Dawn 

 

Image credit: Jonsson

 

 

 

PRSA-LA is celebrating their 60^th anniversary this year and as usual, their first meeting of the year took a critical look at the state of the state of PR.

This year’s panel was Dave Barthmuss – General Motors,  Gail Becker – Edelman, Jim Kennedy – Sony Pictures Entertainment, Joe Kessler – SS+K and Patricia Perez -  Valencia, Perez & Echeveste.  Bill Imada of the IW Group was panel moderator.

Several themes emerged from the discussion:  

 

• The media landscape has changed. Imada asked what advice they’d give to the beleaguered LA Times and the panel’s answers were heavily weighted to expanding the online edition and covering local news.  This trend to online news affects us as PR people and we have to adjust our media relations approach.   (The January issue of The Proactive Report is on News in the Internet Age)
• User generated content is only going to grow in influence.  Dave Barthmuss spoke about how peer reviews are influencing car buyers and GM’s investment in social media initiatives like the Fast Lane blog and Pontiac Underground. Joe Kessler urged PR professionals to embrace the new technologies and really get their wits around how search and social media impact PR.  Gail Becker gave insights from the Edelman Trust Barometer and how a ‘person just like me’ is still the most credible spokesperson for a company.  Making it possible for the public to connect with others ‘just like them’ in your organization should be a priority this year.
• Green and the environment are going to be a big issues. Many social responsibility programs will have a green flavor this year.
• 2008 will be a good year for PR.  In contrast to the findings of the CMO survey that stated PR was low on the list of spend priorities, all panelists felt that this is a good year for PR. They see it as a year of opportunity and expansion, if you embrace the trends.
• Search is a gaping hole is the PR skill set. In answer to a question from the floor Joe Kessler said search is one area PR people are not up to speed.  In general PR folk don’t understand the challenges and the opportunities that search visibility can offer PR. SEO-PR is a ‘must learn‘ in 2008.   

   

The event was videoed by iPressroom and should be available on the PRSA-LA website soon  

 

The Edelman Trust Barometer 2008 out this week says the twenty-five-to-34-year-old opinion elites, studied for the first time in this global trust survey this year — and historically cynical about business— are an important audience to reach.

“Business has a tremendous opportunity to tell its story through these young “info-entials” who are more likely to spread both positive and negative information about companies,” said Richard Edelman.

A year ago Eric Druckenmiller of Deep Focus had this to say about connecting with these young influencers:

1. It’s about trust and they tend to be wary of who they listen to. (Only 20% of respondents to the Trust Barometer Survey trust corporate or product advertising.) Young influencers have, as part of their DNA, the ability to block out irrelevant marketing messages– or worse, they experience automatic recoil and distaste (not unlike acid reflux).So
   the Trust Barometer finding that they are now more trusting of business is a big shift.
2. What’s “in” today
   for young influencers, can be “out” tomorrow. It’s imperative marketers act
   fast to follow these individuals where they go and provide relevant opportunities
   for engagement. And appropriately engaging these young influencers poses
   the real challenge.

3. Be genuine. The No. 1 rule of engagement in these spaces is to remain genuine with messaging and content. An authentic conversation starts with getting to know who “you” are and what you’re about
4. Give them the tools to share information: Once influencers have the information help them to share it with others. After all, that’s what makes them influencers.
5. Respect the context: Young influencers do not respond to messages shoved in their faces. Don’t interrupt the experience – aim to enhance it.
6. Brand evangelists become that way only if they feel they’ve arrived at the decision themselves. Don’t push the river – help it flow.

The people have the power of voice. Young influentials pass on information more often. Rather than be reactive about it, make reaching these young opinion-elites a priority. Just be sure you learn the rules of the social media game

The CMO Council survey of 800 senior marketers shows that marketing budgets are not expected to increase much in 2008. Only 7.6 percent said they will increase their budget by more than ten percent.

The survey found that allocation of budget dollars is moving away from advertising and public relations towards customer-facing and lead and response generation spend in 2008.

Heading the list of spend areas for 2008 are events and trade shows, direct marketing, sales support and online marketing. Further down the list are advertising and PR which were far better placed in 2007.

Odd that, since the survey also shows that marketers gaining ground in raising credibility and stature point to the following factors as key to underscoring marketing’s value:

• Impactful branding and communications
• Awareness and reputation gains
• Building internal relationships with sales & finance
• Improved customer relationships
• Quality of leads and opportunities

Impactful branding and communications comes from PR. So does awareness and reputation gain. 

The top six areas of CMOs plan to invest in are:

• Email campaign management
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Marketing performance measurement dashboards
• Customer intelligence and solutions
• Search engine marketing (SEM)
• Sales and marketing integration tools

Online reputation monitoring tools can provide a wealth of customer intelligence.  Including search engine marketing tools in your PR content is a must for 2008.

Where are the dollars going this year?

• Strategy and branding  
• Events and trade shows
• Operations
• Direct marketing (including telemarketing, mailings, email)
• Sales support
• Online marketing (web site, SEO, SEM, viral, podcasts/blogs, communities)
• Advertising
• Market research
• Systems
• Merchandising and promotions
• Public and analyst relations
• Customer data integration and analytics

Online marketing (web site, SEO, SEM, viral, podcasts/blogs, communities) is way higher on the spend list than traditional PR.  SEO and social media training could pay off this year.

Image credit: DaQuelia

Hill and Knowlton’s Corporate Reputation Watch study has brought to light another reason to be concerned about corporate reputation: hiring the best talent. 

A global study of MBA students at top European, US and Asian schools shows that certain industries and locations are losing the battle in the global war for talent. The reputations of key emerging markets (Russia, Eastern Europe, Middle East and South Asia) discourage the best talent from working there.  Certain industries don’t appeal to these bright grads either - alcohol, chemicals and tobacco are top of their “do not call ” list. (I happen to think that makes them extra bright!)

“The leaders of tomorrow are overwhelmingly seeking to associate themselves with industries, and specifically companies, with great reputations. Those with inferior reputations will find it very difficult to attract and retain the best and the brightest,” said Paull Taaffe, Chairman and CEO, Hill & Knowlton.

One of the ways people find informaiont about coimpnay is thorugh a search online. Search results matter and the flood of online consumer generated comments gain more influence each year.

A recently released study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that Internet users have become more aware of digital footprints: In 2007, more than half had searched for information about others online.

Online reputation management is a vital part of PR today.  You need to dedicate some of your PR resources to tracking, evaluating and handling all online mentions of your brand.

The November issue of The PRoactive Report gives detail of how to do this.  You can request a free copy of the report here.

Photo credit DKaz

One of the 14 trends Seth Godin says are changing the way we do business is the fact that social media has shifted who has influence. Paul Gillin’s book The New Influencers has a wealth of information about who’s who in the blogosphere and why they are so influential. But deciding who is indeed an influencer is still murky. How do we assess exactly who really has influence?  It’s easy enough to spot the ’top dogs,’ but how do you tell who has influence in your space?

“Consumers are increasingly turning away from print media, skipping TV commercials and ignoring 1990s-style cost-per-thousand banner ads. But they are still seeking information, and many are embracing social media” wrote the Wall St. Journal.  So we know we have to get our feet wet and start interacting in social media.  But where do we start? 

A new whitepaper from Edelman titled Quantifying the Impact of Social Media came out of a roundtable devised to bring together a group of ‘heavy hitters’ – described as interested stakeholders representing all key constituencies. The purpose of the roundtable was to address the question of influence and how it should be measured.

Who was there:

Measurement

Max Kalehoff, Nielsen Buzzmetrics (now with Clickable)

Advertising Research Foundation

Sarah Petersen, StrategyOne

Advertiser

Henry Copeland, BlogAds

Publisher

Jeff Jarvis, Buzzmachine

Steve Rubel, me2revolution

Keith O’Brien, PRWeek

Edelman

Richard Edelman, Edelman

Jonny Bentwood, Edelman

Rick Murray, me2revolution

Peter Kim, Forrester Charlene Li, Forrester 

Dr. Walter Carl, Northeastern University, ChatThreads

They came up with  some great ideas on how to expand the idea of influence and how to measure it. For instance if you take  only inbound links as a measure of influence then the top five blogs they were measuring run in this sequence TechCrunch BoingBoing Search Engine Watch Giga Om MicroPersuasion

However, when you add activity and engagement in social media sites the order is quite different. MicroPersuasion TechCrunch Scobleizer GigaOm GapingVoid

“The Holy Grail of influence is the ability ot recognize patterns and optimize outcomes – whether for advertising, medi=panning. public reliaitons or word of mouth,” said Max Kalehoff…

In defining influence it is important to emphasize the value of ‘the Network’. Any single person is nothing without a network. The network defines influence perhaps more than any one person. In its most basis form, someone may have an incredible idea but unless people hear about it, then its value is diminished.

 

Using this theory, the roundtable concluded that in the context of social media, an influential person is not necessarily the individual who has the ‘bright idea’. Influence can largely be determined by the meme. A meme has been defined as: “an idea or discussion that grows and spreads from individual to individual into a lengthy commentary”. (Jeremiah Owyang)  there ’s l;ots more to digest in this whitepaper.

Read the paper and let me know what your thoughts are about how influence can be measured in PR today.  We could have our own meme right here.

Need a Guide to Social Media? Read The PRoactive Report

If you were under the impression Facebook is only for the young, tune into 60 Minutes on Sunday night. Leslie Stahl has done a segment on Facebook and their Beacon social advertising program.  Facebook is one of the fastest growing sites online, with 60 million current users. Many believe it may be the biggest Internet property since Google.

US marketers continued to shift their spending into online advertising in 2007and spent a total of $19.5 billion.  J.P. Morgan predicts there will be even faster growth this year. Online advertising growth will be in the reigon of 30 perent this year according to J P Morgan and Zenith OptiMedia.

Charlene Li of Forrester was one of the people interviewed, and she reports in her blog that it was the best media interview experience of her life.

60 Minutes’ audience is certainly not the young and hip, yet they see Facebook as something their viewers should know about.

The number of U.S. adults over age 50 will soar over the next ten years. In fact, U.S. Census Bureau data shows that 50+ adults will be the only growth demographic — measured by age — between now and 2015 as the massive Baby Boomer generation enters its 50s and 60s.  And Baby Boomers account for more than half of U.S. spending, and the older they get the deeper their pockets.

Boomers are gowing online in growing numbers too.  70 percent of adults age 50 to 64 are online, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project,

While older Boomers use portals and banking sites, younger Boomers — age 40 to 49 — are much more attracted to niche websites, blogs, multimedia and social networking applications.

The Founder of Facebook may be only 23 but the users span the age spectrum from college kids to Baby Boomers.

 

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A majority of the almost 180 reporters and editors who responded to a survey by Omnicom’s Brodeur say that while blogs and other forms of social media do not affect the quality of their reporting they do influence the speed, tone and editorial direction of the news, reports MediaPost today.
43% said “new media” (blogs and social networks) had a “very” or “somewhat” significant impact on the quality of news coverage while 56% felt it was “not very” or “not at all” significant. 74% of journalists said that new media had a “very” or “somewhat” significant impact on the speed of news reporting. 
Just over half of all respondents said that blogs and social media had a “somewhat” significant impact on the tone of the discussion around a news feature, and about 10% felt that the impact was “very” significant. And when it came to the editorial direction of their stories, respondents were just slightly (51%) more likely to say that social media had an impact.

Are you up to speed on new media and how to adjust your media relations strategy in this new era? The 2008 Media Relations Summit is all about new media, new technologies and a new narrative for PR

User-generated media has become fertile ground for health and fitness content, Back in 2005 Forrester Research found that 85% of Americans seeking health-related information were turning to the Internet and the growing interest in health, wellness and fitness has only increased since then. As consumers strive to assume active control over their medical choices they’re searching for information, ratings and recommendations online.

Today millions are logging on to contribute information about topics stretching from avian-flu pandemics to the extraction of wisdom teeth or the use of acupuncture to overcome infertility. You could call it user-generated health care, or Health 2.0, writes The Economist.

The trend of trusting information from ‘others just like me’ takes on a new twist when it comes to health and wellness.  People no longer turn to perceived experts as they did in the past.  There is just too much medical information for one doctor to know. Someone with a rare disease can feel isolated.  By going online they can find and connect with hundreds of other sufferers. 

This connection and support online is also helping those pursuing fitness goals. About two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight, and almost one-third are obese, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. A slew of social media sites have sprung up to help Americans reach their weight loss and fitness goals.

Fitizens.com provides content and resources to connect fitness enthusiasts to fitness gurus. Sweat365 allows everyday athletes to learn from and inspire each other as they work toward their individual fitness goals. Membership in the community is free and the site allows members to track their workouts with tools that provide graphical feedback on their fitness progress.

If you provide products or services that are health or fitness related, think seriously about how you could get your content seen online.  Do keyword research. Find out what search terms people use to find information you could supply. Find the sites your audience visits.  Identify the influencers in your space. Then get creative about how you could supply relevant and useful content to the people interested in this topic.  They are online, searching for and talking to others in the same frame of mind.  Use the new media tools at your disposal and join the conversation.

 Photo credit: Brian Solis