Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine which officially launched on June 3, is making headlines yet again as the company “dips its toes into a hot new area of real-time search.” The company revealed on July 1 it will include the latest Twitter updates from popular users such as actor Ashton Kutcher, technology journalist Kara Swisher, search analyst Danny Sullivan and popular news services on Twitter.
The Twitter accounts that will be featured in searches were chosen based on the number of followers and the volume of tweets they produce. Bing plans to update Twitter results approximately every 60 seconds.
Although all major search engines including Google and Yahoo currently catalog Twitter profiles and file older tweets, Bing is the first major search engine to leverage Twitter in this way, according to The New York Times.
While only a select few Twitter profiles were chosen to participate in this real-time search, it’s only a matter of time before other search engines begin rolling out similar services and the pool of Twitter accounts featured in searches increases.
As Twitter continues to gain momentum, discussions around real-time search and the immediacy of information continues to escalate. Sean Suchter, general manager of Microsoft’s search technology center in Silicon Valley comments, “We’ve been watching this phenomenon with great interest and listening carefully to what consumers really want in this space.”
While securing article placements in prominent publications is often the cornerstone of a successful PR campaign, the rise of social media and now real-time search of social networking platforms, is changing the shelf life of traditional news stories and diversifying the mediums in which news is disseminated. Clearly, Bing’s announcement is going to impact search engine optimization (SEO) strategies for organizations and it’s important for PR professionals to continue to educate their clients on how to strategically leverage social media so they can capitalize on these new SEO opportunities.
Bing’s move to include Twitter updates in search results is further validation that Twitter and similar social mediums like Facebook are here to stay. Organizations need to continue to evaluate and determine how to best leverage these tools in order to drive traffic to their Web sites, increase awareness of important events and ultimately achieve their overall business objectives.
To learn more about the importance of participating in Twitter and its benefits visit our past blog entitled, “Businesses Cannot Afford to Ignore Twitter – Five Steps to Take Now.”
Since 2002, technology writer Peter Rojas has been developing Web site interfaces for the news and reviews of electronic gadgets. He has been involved with the creation of popular technology blogs such as Gizmodo and Engadget, and is now embarking on yet another start-up to change the way gearheads learn and communicate about electronics.
Earlier this week, Rojas and his business partner launched the first “gadget-oriented social network”, GDGT. Unlike his past blogs, GDGT does not rely on paid reporters, but rather on device owners who have opinions to share. Site users can create profiles and post questions, comments and advice to other users. Rojas envisions users driving conversation around “electronics devices they have, had or want to buy and helping each other decide how and when to replace them.”
Although there are hundreds of other gadget sites on the Web, Rojas believes GDGT will stand out because, “most gadget sites cater only to five percent of a gadget’s lifecycle – the lust phase. We are building the place where you can live with your gadgets online in perpetuity.” It is clear that Rojas believes in the idea of specializing social media sites to better facilitate discussions about users’ hobbies and interests.
The notion of a social networking platform devoted to niche topics such as gadgets shouldn’t come as a surprise. As more and more social media sites are gaining popularity, businesses are viewing this medium as an opportunity to connect with their consumers and provide them with a platform for communicating about products. Twitter and Facebook are already regarded by consumers as a trusted network to get opinions and recommendations on a variety of items as these opinions are coming from trusted people in consumers’ networks.
Only time will tell if users enjoy hearing other consumer’s opinions or if they will miss traditional product reviews. In order to ensure that the Web site won’t be home to uninformative one liners such as, “This product is terrible!” Rojas decided to allow only reviews with more than 200 words to appear on the site.
Although relying on citizen journalism can be potentially unstable, it appears communicating through social media is here to stay.
As for the veteran gadget Web site creators, GDGT’s social media platform is the future. “We view this as the final act. Gizmodo was the prototype. Engadget extended the idea. This could possibly be the last great gadget site,” said Rojas.
Social media has dramatically changed the way organizations interact with customers and key audiences. Opportunities to engage directly and in real-time through social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs have given way to new levels of engagement with instant feedback.
As more organizations evaluate how to leverage social mediums, many are asking questions such as, “How do I measure the impact of social media for my organization and brand?” and “How can I extract insight from social mediums to help improve my business?”
While there are some tools that exist today that can help measure public sentiment and number of company or product mentions in the social media sphere, the practice of measuring the impact of social media is a work in progress and continues to evolve. A recent PR Week article explores the topic of social media measurement and reminds readers that, although social media measurement has come a long way there are still many questions left unanswered.
According to PR Week Editor Tonya Garcia, “Progress has been made on two key fronts: End users have raised their level of understanding the issue and the capabilities of measurement and monitoring technology have gotten better.” In addition, many social media measurement tools now provide information about the age, gender and location of the social media user and also enable companies to determine influencers and brand evangelists.
As a result of this progress, organizations now have access to better social media measurement tools. A few of the social media measurement tools that are helping organizations today include:
Visible Technologies – A provider of online brand management solutions for companies and individuals, Visible Technologies makes two systems for tracking conversations on the Web including TruCast and TruView.
Radian6 – Provides tools for real-time social media monitoring and analysis that lets users track keywords (names of brands, companies, products, competitors, etc.) on all forms of social media including blogs, video sharing Web sites, social networking sites, microblogging sites and more.
Cision Social Media Dashboard – A dashboard designed for PR professionals and marketers that captures data in real-time and delivers it to dashboard analysis widgets. You can set up e-mail alerts and search terms, sort social media coverage dynamically, analyze and compare volume of social media coverage, easily share reports and social media coverage with key stakeholders, and more
As these tools continue to evolve and offer more sophisticated features, organizations will have more opportunity to extract data and leverage customer feedback, measure public sentiment about their products and solutions and monitor competitors’ activities – which will no doubt help them better see the value and impact of social media.
Social media has dramatically changed the way organizations interact with customers and key audiences. Opportunities to engage directly and in real-time through social networking platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs have given way to new levels of engagement with instant feedback.
As more organizations evaluate how to leverage social mediums, many are asking questions such as, “How do I measure the impact of social media for my organization and brand?” and “How can I extract insight from social mediums to help improve my business?”
While there are some tools that exist today that can help measure public sentiment and number of company or product mentions in the social media sphere, the practice of measuring the impact of social media is a work in progress and continues to evolve. A recent PR Week article explores the topic of social media measurement and reminds readers that, although social media measurement has come a long way there are still many questions left unanswered.
According to PR Week Editor Tonya Garcia, “Progress has been made on two key fronts: End users have raised their level of understanding the issue and the capabilities of measurement and monitoring technology have gotten better.” In addition, many social media measurement tools now provide information about the age, gender and location of the social media user and also enable companies to determine influencers and brand evangelists.
As a result of this progress, organizations now have access to better social media measurement tools. A few of the social media measurement tools that are helping organizations today include:
Visible Technologies – A provider of online brand management solutions for companies and individuals, Visible Technologies makes two systems for tracking conversations on the Web including TruCast and TruView.
Radian6 – Provides tools for real-time social media monitoring and analysis that lets users track keywords (names of brands, companies, products, competitors, etc.) on all forms of social media including blogs, video sharing Web sites, social networking sites, microblogging sites and more.
Cision Social Media Dashboard – A dashboard designed for PR professionals and marketers that captures data in real-time and delivers it to dashboard analysis widgets. You can set up e-mail alerts and search terms, sort social media coverage dynamically, analyze and compare volume of social media coverage, easily share reports and social media coverage with key stakeholders, and more
As these tools continue to evolve and offer more sophisticated features, organizations will have more opportunity to extract data and leverage customer feedback, measure public sentiment about their products and solutions and monitor competitors’ activities – which will no doubt help them better see the value and impact of social media.
A recent case study in Advertising Age examined Sharpie’s new campaign designed to encourage consumers to associate the Sharpie brand with creativity and expression. The goal of the “Uncap What’s Inside” campaign was to inspire consumers to “uncap” their creativity and express their individuality as a low-cost way to “accessorize their lives.”
Newell Rubbermaid – which owns the Sharpie brand – decided to take a new approach for the campaign that incorporated the company’s traditional print strategy with elements of social media via Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and a community Web site, sharpieuncapped.com, to showcase user-generated Sharpie creations.
“Traditionally we have had a really strong return from our print buys. That is why print continues to be a critical piece of our plan,” said Sally Grimes, vice president of global marketing for Newell Rubbermaid. “But I would say we absolutely acknowledge it’s a new world out there in how brands interact and engage with their consumers. And that’s a reason why social media has become part of our plan with our community site.”
We have help many of our own clients recognize the potential impact that social media can have on their brands. Social media gives organizations a new platform to actively engage with their customers, monitor perceptions about their brand and disseminate news and other information in an unfiltered way. More and more our clients are coming to us asking for counsel on how to develop and integrate a social media strategy into their existing PR and marketing plans.
Here are some things to consider if your organization is looking to dip their toes in the social media waters.
Know your business objectives – It’s important to understand that social media is another tool in the PR toolbox. Any social media initiatives should be tied directly to your organization’s overarching business objectives in order to have a positive impact.
Know the medium – Before establishing a presence, it’s critical to understand what type of audiences each social media platform attracts. For example, the audience for Twitter may be thought of as younger, technology savvy youth. However, because so many businesses and professionals are active on Twitter the age brackets with the highest number of users are 25 to 54 years old.
Anticipate what could go wrong – There are several widely-known examples of companies whose social media campaigns backfired. Because of the viral nature of social media, there is always a possibility a campaign could go sour. Consider possible worst-case scenarios and potential solutions before rolling out a campaign with social media elements.
For more information on developing a social media strategy send us an email at info@communiquepr.com.
It recently became public knowledge that potential job candidates for the city of Bozeman, Mont., were being asked not only to reveal their online social media affiliations, but also release their username and passwords during the application process.
The request for applicants to submit their social media usernames and passwords has stirred mixed emotions with some individuals praising the city’s thoroughness while others claiming the city of Bozeman is invading the personal privacy of the applicants.
In a recent ReadWriteWeb blog post, writer Frederic Lardinois explores the issue further. He includes a quote from Greg Sullivan, the city’s attorney, to further explain why the city requested username and password information from applicants.
Greg says “So, we have positions ranging from fire and police, which require people of high integrity for those positions, all the way down to the lifeguards and the folks that work in city hall here. So we do those types of investigations to make sure the people that we hire have the highest moral character and are a good fit for the City.”
While the city may have had good intentions, public reaction has been negative and brought on a slew of media attention. The city’s application process caught the attention of several local reporters as well as national outlets including the New York Times, U.S. News & World Report and Human Resource Executive Online.
Whether it was the public outcry or simply a change of heart, on June 19 the city of Bozeman revised its application process. As a result, applicants are no longer required to submit social media usernames and passwords on their application.
This story is a great reminder of two things. The first, is hiring processes and policies can easily reach the eyes and ears of the public. If these policies are perceived negatively, it can quickly create bad publicity, build a negative image of your company and brand, and hinder recruiting efforts. If your organization is faced with bad publicity, remember to first gather facts to ensure you are prepared to answer questions; however, it is important to respond quickly and truthfully
The second reminds jobs seekers that more organizations are looking online at social sites like Facebook and Twitter to gather more information about candidates. As a best practice, professionals should refrain from posting anything online that you would not be comfortable having your employer see.