360DigitalInfluence

We are 10 days away from PR Blackout Week - a week for mom bloggers to get back to the basics of blogging and temporarily ignore PR folks and brands - being organized by mom blog aggregator MomDot.  Opinions have varied as to  whether or not this is necessary or is a PR tactic in its own right. Regardless of your position, it is a wonderful invitation to discuss the state of union and give current practices a good sniff test. continue reading

At WOMMA, we have worked with the great research firm - PQMedia -to release a comprehensive report on the financial state of the growing social media and word of mouth marketing field. This report has just been pre-released to members as part of the value of membership. There’s a lot in here. As a member, you would receive the report automatically. If you are not a member yet want the report, reach out to WOMMA and they can hook you up (not sure the fee)

UPDATE:  WOMMA’s chief WOM enthusiast, John Moore has distilled down some great highlights in his video.

So the big headlines are, well, big:

• “Spending on U.S. word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing increased 14.2% to $1.54 billion in 2008, as brands recognized the need to get involved in consumer and business conversations and allocate resources to WoM. Spending increased at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.6% from 2003 to 2008.”

• “Total spending on WoM marketing is expected to increase 10.2% to $1.70 billion in 2009 and grow at a CAGR of 14.5% during the 2008-2013 period, reaching $3.04 billion as more brands include WoM in their media mix and ROI metrics improve.”

• “The growing use of WoM programs that rely on “influential ambassadors” to share their knowledge and opinions about products and brands led to a 34.6% increase in WoM media to $109 million in 2008. Spending increased at a CAGR of 122.5% from 2003 to 2008, the strongest growth rate among all of the WoM categories.”

I am still digesting all of the great data in here. Two graphics that I find both revealing and insightful include the share of spend across categories and the relationship of traditional and alternative media share (at the top of this post). In the case of the former, I am surprised to see Health and Pharma placing ahead of Travel. Presenting this past week at the ExL Pharma conference at Pfizer, I was deeply encouraged by the progress made in pharma related to social media over the past year. Nontheless, I expect more out of the travel and tourism space. I am guessing travel will grow dramatically (3.3% to 8% - that’s my prediction) this year.

As for traditional vs. alternative media, I think we have all been seeing this and I would expect the trend gain velocity. I will dig in deeper to the report and hopefully share more later…..

We recently added a great new talent to our team based in SF. She is expert at digital PR, technology and has another, even more impressive, badge of honor. Meet Rachel Polish, Senior Digital Strategist with 360° Digital Influence. And, yes, amongst her other great experiences working with terrific brands like SanDisk and PR Newswire she serves as public affairs specialist for the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve.

Recently, I asked Rachel  about her POV on how social media is changing PR. Here’s what she said:

Me: Tell me about your own social graph. Where are you most active digitally and offline? 

Rachel: While I am incredibly passionate about social media and online engagement, it is my belief that these things cannot exist in a vacuum.  While I am active on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Friendfeed and am a frequent guest blogger, I balance all of these online conversations with a myriad of networking events, tweetups (including those I develop), Social Media Club, presenting and attending PR/social media conferences and serving on the board of PRSA.  I am only as good as I can be online if I am also pounding the pavement, building a network and picking up on best practices while offline. 

Me: As brands work to get involved in social media and scramble after the Twitter-train, what are 1-2 of the most underutilized strategies/tactics that might actually help them most?

Rachel: LISTEN first!  I’ve seen too many brands get burned by not understanding the needs of their customers before attempting to engage. When the company/organization does not “connect,” it can be detrimental.
I counsel clients and companies to remember that all of these online tools must still map back to a larger communications strategy.  Activity on Twitter, for example, must be about two-way conversation and result in some sort of ROI, however that is determined by the stakeholders.

Me: How will marketers and communications experts resolve the tension of “who owns social media” in the organization?

Rachel: This is an excellent question and, in my experience, there is not a one-size fits-all answer.  What I believe works best is a customized solution, depending on the organization.  In some cases, the customer service department or the sales organization might be a better fit for “owning” social media, as long as PR and marketing have the right to counsel on messaging and brand strategy.  It really varies, depending on the client.

Me:Can you tell me one trend that you are keeping an eye on that might be a little surprising?

Rachel: Just in the last few weeks, I’m noticing that several luminaries in the social media world are halting their blogging activity in favor of using Friendfeed or other conversational sites to engage with their followers.  I’m not sure if these same folks have noticed a drop-off in blog readership or if they would prefer to gain more traction on quick-hit sites, but I’m keeping an eye on the buzz around this trend right now.  Are blogs going away?  I don’t believe so, but I’m interested in seeing where this leads.  Stay tuned. 

Me: You have a neat background – amongst other things, you work for the Coast Guard – how are they exploring social media?

Rachel: Thanks!  I love the Coast Guard and am actually working on a post for the unofficial Coast Guard blog right now regarding how I believe our social media activities need to have more focus and messaging clarity.  It’s called “The Brand of Me vs. The Brand of We.”  The Coast Guard is very forward-thinking when it comes to social media and has a very open policy.  For example, whenever I manage a major case from a communications perspective (i.e. search and rescue operation, environmental disaster, major event, etc.), I ensure that we have video and photos uploaded to the Coast Guard’s visual imagery site, YouTube and flickr.  We also distribute a traditional press release to relevant media outlets, but also post the same release to a site that allows for commentary and reposting to other social media sites.  The commandant (leader) of the Coast Guard blogs and has a video camera with him almost all of the time.  The Coast Guard is also active on Twitter and Facebook.  I would love to see more focus, clarity and coordination between all of these activities to ensure we are being as transparent as possible while engaging in a meaningful way.

Me: Welcome aboard! (okay, it had to be said)

Bloggers using creative commons licensed photos have reason to celebrate: Google has finally added a Usage Rights feature in the Advanced Image Search tool. I often use Google’s image search though, when I’m blogging, I usually am forced to go to Flickr and search for creative commons photos to make sure I legally use and credit the work.

Now, with Google’s new tool, I can search across photo sharing sites (Flickr included) as well as the broader web knowing that the images I’m browsing are okay use, assuming I follow the Creative Commons guidelines.

If you’re also searching for a particular color (or colors) in a photo, don’t forget about Flickr’s MultiColor Search Lab (powered by idee) to quickly scan Creative Commons photos based your pallet section:

I had the privilege of attending BlogHer ‘09 this year in Chicago where 1200 women bloggers (okay, men too!) came together to “celebrate the fact that our blogging, whether personal, professional or political, has brought us real work, real friends, real satisfaction and is most definitely a significant part of our real life!”

While it’s impossible to spend significant time at BlogHer without feeling a renewed sense of pride about new media and inspiration for your own blogging, the implications of social media for marketers and the effect of social media on traditional media took center stage at the keynote.

On Saturday, BlogHer co-founder, Lisa Stone, led a keynote panel discussion with Tina Brown, founder of The Daily Beast, Donna Byrd, publisher of The Root, and Ilene Chaiken, creator of “The L Word,” on how the rise of social media has challenged traditional media.  The entire conversation was fascinating, but I’ve shared some of my favorite moments here.  continue reading

Monday and Tuesday, we will be participating at the NYC Pfizer campus in the ExL Pharma conference on Public Relations and Communications. Most of the major pharma and even device brands will be on hand. My particular session is a panel titled:

• THE CHANGING FACE(BOOK) OF PR: Leveraging Facebook, Twitter and Other Social Media Tools to Reach Key Audiences

Despite the “tools” in the title, my fellow panelists and myself have chosen to talk about practical changes happening today and tomorrow in pharma communications. While we plan to be very specific, we don’t want to create  a  session that gets lost in tactical discussion about Twitter without a more useful context.

Later in the day are the roundtables. This is my favorite format as it really lets peers carry on a discussion. My merry group will be talking about:

• VALUE OF SOCIAL MEDIA: Benchmarking and Measuring the Impact of Web 2.0 Communication Tools

This past Tuesday I spoke on a panel in Chicago sponsored by New York Festivals.   The panel - Social Media: How to Profit from It & Get Clients to Buy Into It – featured a great group including:

John Geletka, Director at Ratchet; Len Kendall, Media Strategist, Constructive Grumpiness; Rob Saker, Business Partner, Marketing Technology at Miller Coors; Vinny Warren, CEO, Escape Pod.  Alan Wolk hosted.

The topics were what you might expect … who owns social media within an organization (everyone and no one); what role should legal departments play in policing social media activity (bring them in early, rather than during a crisis); how do you help overcome clients’ fear of opening themselves up to attacks in social media (people will talk about you either way, better to get involved than bury your head in the sand); can agencies run a client’s Twitter feed or blog (not recommended in most cases, but either way total transparency a must).

And while the conversation was spirited, what really got me jazzed was the depth-of-bond formed by physically being in the same room.

Alan Wolk is someone I “met” over Twitter and had developed a great rapport with.  But upon actually meeting him – hearing his voice, shaking his hand – I instantly knew him in an entirely different way.

Len Kendall and I have exchanged messages over Twitter for months – but it turns out he is more soft-spoken (in a refreshing way, compared to many in social media who are at the other end of the volume spectrum) than I imagined, which will undoubtedly factor into my future conversations with him.

John Geletka, Rob Sakar and Vinny Warren … had someone introduced me to them via email or Twitter, I’m sure I would have found them interesting, but they would likely have gotten lumped in with a lot of other people I e-meet every day.  Now, you’re darn sure I’ll pay closer attention to what they say moving forward.

We (meaning those of us reading this blog) lead an increasingly digital existence.  But once in a while we need to remind ourselves that nothing takes the place of some old-fashioned face time.  Since it’s Friday (and I’m in a Friday kind of mood), I’ll leave you with this classic … way ahead of its time.

Diana Ross

I had my second night out with the Atlanta Social Media Club this past Thursday. And, while I have to admit, I miss my social media gurus in DC - it’s great to get out down here, meet new people and learn/discuss the social media scene in ATL. Thursday’s SMC meeting was part of a 3-part series on our “Social Media Love Affair” (catchy tittle, eh?) - focusing on the importance of investment in social media on getting consumers to commit.

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This is the final post in a five-part series exploring the trends laid out in our webinar, Facebook Bootcamp for PR. Look out in the coming weeks for some interesting updates to the original presentation!

One of the oft sited benefits of Facebook is its ability to keep us connected to friends and family who may be thousands of miles away, but there is a missed opportunity to better connect with the friends and fans in our own backyard. That’s why we’ve identified geolocation and mapping as a Facebook trend we’d love to see blossom in the near future. A hat tip to Trendwatching.com is due here- they’re January piece on Mapmania was an inspiration to notice all of the ways that virtual maps make daily life easier and with maps and social networks both growing in use on mobile phones, the two trends must eventually intersect. continue reading

During the  July 4th holiday weekend, two stories about Silicon Valley’s PR industry  - one in The New York Times and one on TechCrunch – were published, causing a bit of a stir among PR and social media practitioners, VCs, founders of start-ups and those who follow the PR space.  While both pieces take different, yet cynical perspectives, neither portray the PR industry in most positive light.

The New York Times article features one PR practitioner in particular, who places her success on the sheer number of contacts she has in her rolodex.  The TechCrunch piece says it all in the title – “The Reality of PR: Smile, Dial, Name Drop, Pray.”  The comments on the TechCrunch blog following the piece were mostly cynical toward PR folks and mostly painted all of us in the industry with the same, unfavorable broad brush. continue reading