360DigitalInfluence

[updated with new title as official WHO flu title as of May 1, 2009]

[updated with new posts from around the global Ogilvy network as of May 4, 1:00pm EST]

Today, we executed our first Ogilvy PR Blog “roadblock” and invited all Ogilvy PR blogs - across regions and practice areas - to share their unique perspectives on the current flu outbreak and its impact on many aspects of business.

This fast moving issue has already stirred up controversy about where and how we get our health information, the Obama administration’s response to the crisis, and inspired renewed commitment to mitigating impact through prevention and early intervention.

We invite you to take a moment to explore these expert views from around the network and share your thoughts with us as well. continue reading

On the ride in, I listened to the radio relay stories from around the globe about the reaction and impact of Swine H1N1 Flu*. I wondered what a lot of folks must wonder - what do I need to know about this horrible outbreak? What is information and what is hysteria? From our own work with the CDC specifically around pandemic flu, I certainly understand that communication and civic leadership is half the battle to helping people cope and take the right action.

As we all try to get smart about the facts and the fiction, Christopher Graves, President of Ogilvy PR in Asia (and active 360 Digital Influence member) brought us a simple dashboard that compiles news and official resources from the WHO, the CDC and others. You can check it out here.

I particularly liked the Continuity and Communications section which compiles about twenty sources like Outbreak Communication Best Practices from the WHO.  As communicators, we each have to ask ourselves how we can help. This is what Web 2.0 is great for mashing up existing reources in a way that makes them more useful and relevant for folks and getting it up quickly. I even wonder if our government is ready to use the social media gurus and pundits who have “reach”. What if the echo chamber banded together to carry a “clear information about flu” meme to all their followers?  Theoretically, they are the new influencers. What if they stepped forward to convey the facts and the useful information that citizens need to know activated by a WHO or CDC advocacy campaign?

Check out the Ogilvy dashboard on H1N1 Flu.

(Note: I changed our references to the flu to H1N1 - that is the accurate name. )

Check out the video below to see who won the free conference pass to WOMMA’s WOMM-U in South Beach on May 13- 14!

Thank you to everyone who participated. There were truly some great entries. Congrats to Robert Fields who wrote about a WOM campaign he is currently working on with the Salvation Army’s National Food Drive to push teen involvement within the community. You can read his entry and check out others in Kaitlyn’s post here.

See you in Miami, Robert! Please send your email address to tanya.chadha@ogilvypr.com. Thanks!

As a follow up to our recent webinar, Facebook Bootcamp for PR, you’ll see five blog posts in the coming weeks exploring the five trends set out in our presentation. Let’s start with the changing demographics of Facebook and what they mean for public relations and marketing professionals using Facebook.

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A new experimental site, Photocracy.org, is a crowdsourcing initiative to explore whether images are useful in providing brand identity information. The people behind the site, Princeton University student Josh Weinstein and Sociology Professor Matthew Salganik, are currently collecting information on perceptions of 3 countries - the United States, China and Japan - using votes on images of those countries.  Visitors from each country are asked to choose which of 2 pictures is more representative of the country.  Since the site’s launch a few weeks ago, over 100,000 votes have been cast for comparisons like this one:

Why is this useful?  To find out, I asked the people behind the project some questions. continue reading

This week, John Bell and I delivered Facebook Bootcamp for PR, a one-hour training webinar for public relations and marketing professionals hosted by the Bulldog Reporter’s PR University. During the workshop, we shared
key strategies and best practices on how brands can build a successful Facebook strategy, engage with fans through Facebook, and add scale and impact to your Facebook presence through additions like applications and targeted advertising.

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May 13/14 the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) is holding its annual WOMM-U event in Miami, FL.  The agenda is jam packed with word of mouth practitioners from some top brands (Lenovo, Disney, PepsiCo, Wal-Mart), and digital shops (Federated Media, Facebook, Distributive Networks, Visible Technologies) who will be leading practical, interactive discussions for developing and implementing successful WOM programs in today’s economy.

Through our association with WOMMA, we’re excited to be able to offer 1 free pass to the conference to one of our readers ($1495 value) – but we’re not going to make it easy.
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Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is headed to Trinidad and Tobago later this week to participate in the Summit of the Americas - a somewhat annual gathering of the 34 democratically elected leaders from the Western Hemisphere. In preparation for the meeting, the State Department has launched a Digital Town Hall microsite, allowing users to submit questions to be answered by Secretary Clinton live from the Dominican Republic on April 17th.

There’s kind of quirky thing about the Summit of Americas site: it uses Howcast to power much of the content. From the URL (townhall.howcast.com) to the “How Tos” section on the top nav, it’s clear the State Dept adopted the instructional video sharing site’s format for presenting much of the content.

Howcast is best known for its simple, informative style for how-to videos - from How to Paint a Portrait to How to Hang Hooks in Your Closet.  (I admit to using the site myself; remembering how to tie a necktie is not, as it turns out, like riding a bike.)

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Today’s interview comes from a conversation with Kristin Foster, a Digital Strategist at Ogilvy PR and the head of Facebook strategy for The Heart Truth Campaign.

As part of our Focus on Facebook series, we interviewed several Facebook experts and asked them the same four questions. Check out our previous interviews with Kevin Barenblat of Context Optional and Mike Hoefflinger of Facebook.

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Today’s interview comes from a conversation with Mike Hoefflinger, Director of Brand Product Marketing for Facebook where he oversees revenue-generating products for brand marketers.

As part of our Focus on Facebook series, we interviewed several Facebook experts and asked them the same four questions. Check out our previous interview with Kevin Barenblat of Context Optional and stay tuned this week for more interviews and materials from our upcoming presentation.

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