Archive for May, 2008

Three years ago Business Week said blogging will change your business.  And they were right.  Not only has it changed the way we do business, it has grown and morphed into social media with new tools popping up at a dizzying pace.

Business Week has an update to that story, Beyond Blogs.  One one of the changes is right there on the web page – Business Week Video. Every print publication is now in the multi media business and in competition with the TV channels.

We need to stay up to date with the rapidly shifting media landscape and be fully familiar with these new media tools.

The reason they updated the story is a classic example of how search has influenced reputation, perception and how we do business today.

Because so many people read the artice and linked to it, when you search ‘blogs business’, that three year old article comes up. Business Week felt that since people want the latest information and they’re finding stale data they needed to update the story. 

A cautionary tale for anyone who is in the publishing business today – it’s vital to stay current in search.

This story is about social media and how our interaction and communication has changed with Faceboook, MySacpe, wikipedia nd Twitter.

 

 

 

More than 100 journalists have just taken early-retirement packages as the Post trims its payroll.

“This is a rough time for the newspaper business, a rough time for The Washington Post and a rough time for me,” writes Howard Kurtz, staff writer for the Post.

They are certainly not alone. Nationwide, average daily paid newspaper circulation declined 2.6 percent in the six months that ended Sept. 30, 2007 compared with the previous year, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, an independent organization that monitors the industry. Sunday circulation dropped 3.5 percent nationwide during the same period.

Even Oprah is feeling the pinch.  The average audience for The Oprah Winfrey Show has fallen nearly seven percent this year; the circulation of O, The Oprah Magazine, is down 10 percent in the last three years; some of her latest book and product picks have attracted criticism from longtime fans; and her endorsement of Barack Obama appears to have alienated some of the middle-aged white women who make up the bulk of her TV audience. 

But the industry is not dead, says the State of the News Media report. On an average day, roughly 51 million people still buy a newspaper, and 124 million still read one. 

While it might not be dead, it is definitely ailing.  Circulation is declining. Advertising is flat. As Warren Buffett said at his annual investor’s meeting in May 2006 newspapers appear to have entered a period of “protracted decline.”

The Web clearly is both opportunity and threat to newspapers, says this report.  They hope to use online news to capture that younger audience proving so elusive in print. And done right it could lead to more ad revenue.  Some newspapers are partnering with former rivals like Monster and HotJobs.

It’s time to re-think your media relations strategy. The latest issue of the Proactive Report gives the inside scoop on News and Media Relation in the Internet Age. 

 

 

I am at the Executing Social Media Conference in Pasadena today and the lunch keynote was the story of the Will It Blend? videos from BlendTec.

BlendTec hired George Wright about 18 months ago – the first time they had hired anyone to do marketing. One day he saw the owner of the company testing a blender by putting a plank of wood into it.  He immediately saw the possibilities and videoed the test.  Will it Blend was born.

After 70 videos they have generated over 40 million views and these videos have become one of the most watched channels on YouTube. 

Their success has led to mainstream media coverage  – they’ve been on Good Morning America, The Today Show, Jay Leno and the History Channel, to name just a few. 

Brand awareness is through the roof.  Two years ago few people knew BlendTec by name and not many were keen to spend $399 for a kitchen blender.  Now over 40 million people have seen the videos on YouTube and http://www.willitblend.com/ let alone in print or on TV. 

They have over 100 000 subscribers to their RSS Feed, so when they put out a new video they have an instant audience – and they forward it to their friends.  They get thousands of suggestions on what to blend next.

So was it just about brand awareness and entertainment?  Or did it actually result in sales?

Indeed it has – a 500 percent increase in sales.

Wright was recently asked by an old school marketer when he is going to advertise his product.

For an initial investment of about $100 he started a viral social media campaign that has resulted in a huge boost in brand awareness, a 5X increase in sales and even seen their marketing efforts become a profit center – they now sell DVD’s of their videos and make co-branded videos with other companies.

So no, they’re not planning on spending money on advertising anytime soon.  They are planning lots more social media campaigns. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was interesting to hear top tech bloggers tell PR folk that there is essentially no difference between working with a blogger and a journalist now.  That certainly holds true for the big blogs, some of which have become as powerful as mainstream media.

The tech bloggers on the audio conference were:

Tom Foremski – Silicon Valley Watcher

Neville Hobson – The Hobson and Holtz Report

Kara Swisher – D | All things Digital

Dean Takahashi – The Tech Talk Blog

Here are the top take-away tips:

• Read the blog – make sure you know what they write about before you pitch
• Comment on the blog and join the conversation.  Don’t ‘parachute’ – leave just one comment  to pitch your idea or news
• Don’t try to sell through comments (Astroturfing)
• Build a relationship - and if possible meet face to face
• Offer an exclusive – or at least a unique angle.  Bloggers don’t want to add to the ‘noise’ on news that is already out there.
• When you put news on the wire you have broken the news – bloggers want to either hear it before it goes on the wire or get some exclusive angle
• Offer your experts as contributors or for trend comment
• Don’t pitch garbage – send only real news
• Personalize all outreach – do not send spam emails to bloggers
• Don’t embargo news to bloggers – by the time the embargo is up they’ve moved on to other news and forgotten it
• Include images – PR people don’t offer images/multi media and it’s vital in the Web 2.0 world
• Offer the embed code for video – video that a blogger can’t use on their blog is useless.  Put your video on YouTube so you can add embed code easily. (And one tip from me - add your URL to the video so if the YouTube version gets used, your URL will be visible)
• Make it easy for bloggers to get the data – create a section on your website with information, images and multi-media for bloggers 
• Put all your news – text, images or video - in an RSS Feed
• Get on Twitter and put your news out there – it’s much faster than blogging
• If you are in the tech space read Techmeme
• If you are another space look for a similar news aggregator for your space
• Put your profile on Facebook, LinkedIn.  Have your own blog. Comment on industry blogs and communities.  Be active in your space

Bloggers who are also journalists understand the news/PR relationship.  Bloggers who are new to the game are less forgiving – they do not like to be pitched.  You have to build a relationship before you ask for coverage.

As always, Bulldog delivers the goods.

 

 

 

John Biggs – Crunch Gear

 

At last!  A conference on social media in my backyard – the beautful city of Pasadena.

Executing Social Media is organized by Communitelligence, and attendees at the first 2 had very positive things to say about this event. 

You’ll hear and meet PR, marketing and social media luminaries: the list of speakers includes Brian Solis, Chris Heuer, Phil Gomes, Jeremy Pepper, Nathan Gilliatt, Lena West, Linda Zimmer, Sally Falkow, Jake McKee, Jeanette Gibson, Sylvia Marino, Jay Bryant, Aaron Shapiro, Scott Wilder and John Hingley. Conference moderator is Jacqui Chew.

And you get to do dine arounds in the best restaurants in Old Town Pasadena – like Villa Sorriso and Twin Palms

I look forward to seeing you in Pasadena next week.

 

 

OnlineSpin has an excellent post today about the woes of traditional media and the constant whine that it’s all due to Craigslist. 

It is not Craig Newmark’s fault – but it is a result of the Internet making it easy to publish.

Newspaper companies have a business model that is not designed for a world where the vast majority of consumers (their readers) and marketers (their advertisers) are connected to a robust, Internet Protocol (IP)- enabled communications network, says Dave Morgan.

And some smart entrepreneurs, like Craig Newmark, saw the light a long time ago. His websites have had a telling effect on newspaper revenues, there is no doubt.  But he was not the cause.  He was just smart enough to see the possiblities in online publishing.

Morgan makes some good points about traditional media and how Google may be going down that same path. Read the full post.

If you have not yet read it, do so.  If you have not read it for a while, read it again. 

And when you finish the book, read chapter four again. (Doc Searls does know of what he speaks)

“The long silence — the industrial interruption of the human conversation — is coming to an end. On the Internet, markets are getting more connected and more powerfully vocal every day. These markets want to talk, just as they did for the thousands of years that passed before market became a verb with us as its object.”

And the Net certainly has changed that situation in the last ten years.  As PR people you’d think we’d be the first ones to get this clue.  After all, PR is about communication and conversations.

Better late than never. Don’t let another ten years go by. This is the core of PR today. Get the clue and get on board. 

I am doing a series of posts about who got the clues at PRoactive. The first post is about lessons to be learned from Dell about markets being conversations. 

There will be a new post about one of the clues each day.

 

 

 

 

It worked for Dell. IdeaStorm put them in touch with their customers and allowed them to tap into some smart new ideas for product development.  Other companies are sitting up and taking notice.  Starbucks is one. 

image: jimg 

Back in the CEO seat since January, Howard Schultz took a leaf out of Michael Dell’s book and launched MyStarbucksIdea.com.  Using the ‘ideas’ software from Salesforce the site allows customers to offer advice and ideas for improving the brand.  Customers make suggestions and others discuss and vote on them.

Taking it one step further Starbucks has added 48 idea partners – employees who act as hosts for the discussions. Their role is to facilitate the conversation – not lead it.

Idea partners also act as advocates for customers’ suggestions back at their departments, so that “customers would have a seat at the table when product decisions are being made,” And in reverse, they are a conduit to the customers, giving them feedback on what has already been tried - what works and what doesn’t.

In contrast to what many companies fear, the site is not being used to whine and complain.  Customers do say what peeves them, but they’re offering constructive ideas to solve the problems.

Waiting for your coffee in long lines is high on the list.  Put my regular order on a card so I can swipe the card when I enter the store, place my order and pay, all at once, was one idea to sorten lines.  Have a separate line for brewed coffee orders that are quick to fulfil was another.

In an interview with BusinessWeek, Marc Benioff, Chairman and CEO of Saleforce pointed out that in this age of nonstop, immediate communication in blogs, wikis, Twitter, and YouTube,  “your customers are having a conversation about your products and practices. The question every company has to ask is: ‘Do I want to be part of this conversation? Do I want to learn from it? Am I willing to innovate on the basis of it?’ ”

 

 

Jeremiah Owyang of Forrester tweeted today that since many of the companies he covers, and clients, are on Twitter, it’s essential he is there too. And he pointed to this post on Technobabble which has a chart showing how various analysts are using the tool.

The chart lists 59 analysts, how active they are and their comments on why they’re using Twitter.

If you’re new to Twitter read Lee Odden’s post about five new Twitter tools you can use. And Jeremiah just posted an update to his list of 7 essential Twitter tools. He’s now using Summarize to search Twitter content, since it can follow conversations.  Add this one to your list of Online Reputation Management tools.

 

Need a guide to the constantly changing social media landscape?  Subscribe to the PRoactive Report

 

 

Harry Hoover has a list of Journalists who are on Twitter here and here

Todd Defren of PR Squared says, “Am I seriously suggesting that a PR person MUST become an active Twitter user if they want to have a meaningful career? Even though Twitter is supposedly still a below-the-radar service? Well, yea, kinda. But for more – and more varied – reasons than you might think.”