Archive for January, 2010

Although we’re bombarded with information about social media from all sides, and we do hear about successful programs, it seems that in too many cases we’re still stumbling in the dark. Almost half of the worst PR blunders of 2009 had an online component.

“The biggest lessons learned this year are in the social media sphere,” says Michael Fineman, president of San Francisco-based Fineman PR. Each year, Fineman PR publishes a list of the “Top 10 PR Blunders” of the year.

“There are at least four or five blunders directly related to working with the Internet—or not knowing how to work with the Internet,” Fineman says.

The two worst social media fiascoes were:

United Breaks Guitars: although the end of the saga was played out online, it could have been avoided if United had handled the problem promptly. Not only was the video United Breaks Guitars seen by more than 3 million people in a week, the story caught the attention of mainstream media. Ben Mutzabaugh of USA Today described Carroll’s success as demonstrating “just how quickly the Internet can help a disgruntled customer turn the tables on a company and its effort to manage its public image.” Views are now up to almost 7.5 million.

Dominoes Pizza: Again the company was way too slow to respond. This video had over one million views in just 48 hours. After two painful days, Domino’s finally reacted, launching its first corporate Twitter account and posting a public apology on YouTube.

Constant monitoring of social media, being prepared for an online crisis, fast reaction times and knowing how to respond should be paramount in 2010.

One of the predictions that came out of the report by Stevens Gould Pincus on M&A activity in the PR industry is that there will be an increasing need for new media/interactive divisions in PR firms. The report also highights that training will be high on the list for 2010.

They predict that PR practitioners – whether agencies and in house – who grow in this area will stay ahead of the competition.

Are you ready for 2010?

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The CMO Club polls its members each week and the most recent question put to the group was:

What is your top priority for hiring?

Social Marketing was at the top of the list with 39.2%  with comments such as “The biggest gap I have is Social Marketing expertise. We all know the basics, it’s applying new social networking capabilities to our marketing mix.” and “A few years back Industry expertise mattered more. Now it’s the science of customer engagement. I can always teach them about the industry.”

When asked what they’d do differently in 2010, 64 %  said they planned to increase social media spending, and 72% of those CMOs not currently overseeing social media initiatives planned to create some.

Pete Krainik, founder of the CMO Club, even suggested this will be the year that CMOs failing to grasp social media will be fired.

Krainik predicts that social media will be an enterprise-wide mainstay by 2011, but it seems like most marketers are still trying to wrap their heads around it all.

Are we seeing a similar trend in PR?  Is your job at risk if you don’t master social media skills this year?  The PRSA Counselors Academy has this on their top 3 items for PR  professionals in 2010. The PR And Social Media report from Econsultancy tells us that only 13% of companies are ‘very satisfied’ with the level of social media service they get from their PR agency.

A quick Twitter poll of PR and Communication professionals shows that about 70% of them think that PR professionals and PR agencies that don’t master social media will lose out.

PR executive recruitment specialists report that they are seeing the same trend as the CMO Club – social media skill is the number one requirement for landing a PR job today.  (Yest most PR schools don’t teach it.)

And just knowing how to put up a Fscebook page or a Twitter feed is not enough.  You have to know how to implement the right social actions for your situation and blend them seamlessly into your PR campaigns. You have to be able to build a community and actually engage with them – not just use social media as another broadcast medium

What can you do to improve your social media skills?

• Learn how to plan a social media strategy
• Attend the Social Media Club meetings in your area
• Follow PR thought leaders on Twitter:
• Subscribe to this blog

What would you advise PR people to do to improve their skills?

Image Credit: Desmond  Kavanaugh