PAN Communications prSPEAK

With the countdown to the 2010 Winter Olympics dwindling down, NBC is gearing up (and bundling up) to provide real-time coverage from Vancouver, Canada.

During the 2008 Summer Olympics, YouTube videos and news blogs caused the games to leap into the viral world. A year and a half later, social media will be even further integrated into the Olympics Games. Widgets, RSS feeds, tweets and mobile alerts will all have their moments in the spotlight during this years’ games.

NBC, the network host of the Olympic Games, has launched a website dedicated to the games: www.nbcolympics.com. The site makes it easy to pick from a slew of widgets and pre-setup RSS feeds.

The website is just the beginning. The network is happily jumping on the applications bandwagon and has designed two apps that will help Olympic fans stay up-to-date. These apps will bring iPhone and Blackberry users top stories, medal counts, videos and more right to their cell phones. The videos are also accessible on Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon internet-enabled phones. Users can also receive SMS messages with this information by texting Olympics to 51515.

U.S. Athletes have a collaborative Twitter page right on the NBC olympic page titled “Tweet Sheet.” Athletes such as World Champion Erin Hamlin, who competes in the luge event; five-time Olympic medalist Apolo Ohno, who competes in short track skating; and gold medal winner Shaun White, who competes in both skateboarding and snowboarding, will all update in real-time during the games. Right now, the athletes are tweeting about everything from how their practice runs went earlier in the day to radio shows they will be guest starring on.

Members of the NBC team will not be the only people utilizing social media during the olympics. One user tweeted on February 4: “@Charisma_Events The Big O is coming – not Oprah – the 2010 Olympics.”

Blogs are springing up from every corner of the world to report on the upcoming Olympics. It seems fitting that all these fast-paced forms of media that join the masses on the web, will cover an event that brings the world together.

We just had to post this video of Boston-area weatherman Pete Bouchard (@pbouchardon7) to see if Channel 7 will send us a DMCA takedown notice, too.

This story by Mike Masnick @TechDirt tackles fair use and whether or not Channel 7 actually can demand people not use the clip, which until now had stayed semi-under the radar.  Of course, the very best way to generate more unwanted publicity for video, audio or text posted to the web is to hire a bunch of lawyers to spook the few people who posted the video and moved on, until they got spooked by lawyers.

It’s like poking a tiger in a cage.  First bloggers will echo the story, then pundits move in to dissect the situation (which is where we’re at now), then the story will get more blown out of proportion by mainstream outlets.

Of course, with events in the world being what they are this is not anything of consequence.  But still, there’s something interesting in watching digital media (mostly open) wrestle with legacy media (mostly proprietary, filtered) over control of content’s soul.

Senior Account Manager Erica Burns talks to Jason Ouellette, Co-Director, Technology Portfolio

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Over the past two years, one of the major themes across all business publications has been the dismal state of the economy. Lessons learned articles with phrases like “How to XYZ in a Down Economy” have been flooding the headlines and executives who have weathered economic storms of the past have been sourced for their valuable experiences and advice.

Last week the Dow hit 10,000 and this propelled what began as a mumbling across the internet that the economy is on the rise, into a wave of optimism. Though there are many experts proclaiming that despite these sporadic glimmers of hope, the end is not near—there is no doubt that businesses are beginning to think about how to position themselves to succeed when today’s economy does get back on track.

From a media standpoint, this has opened opportunities for businesses that have been able to weather not just storms of the past, but this storm, successfully. Recently, we have positioned a number of PAN clients for opportunities that went beyond their traditional trade publications to offer broader expertise in top tier business publications.

Recently, in her regular “Stand Out” column in SmartMoney, Diana Ransom tapped CEO Ryan Wuerch of Motricity for his strategies behind making and overcoming tough decisions to keep his company on top. Offering his perspective as a business owner, rather than an expert on mobile internet, provided an opportunity to reach a wider audience outside of those focusing  solely on Motricity’s industry.

In another SmartMoney article entitled “One Year Later: Lessons from the downturn,” Tangoe, a company specializing in telecom expense management (TEM), a very niche space, was able to break out of the traditional conversations around TEM and connect with SmartMoney’s audience in a more relatable way. For this opportunity, CEO Al Subbloie was able to highlight his company’s success over the past year and also further assert his leadership in the TEM industry and beyond. A topic from which many businesses can glean advice, the article was also included in the Wall Street Journal.

As we continue to have such a close eye on the economy, it is clear that media opportunities forward-thinking in nature, abound. Predictions and analysis on when we will climb out of this slump will continue and as they do, thinking about how clients can weigh in on the conversation from unique, but significant ways, will be key.

Today we find Bloomberg had rushed in at the last minute to buy BusinessWeek, which was arguably (if not lately) considered to be the bible of the business world; and The Wall Street Journal overtook USA Today as the nation’s largest paper measured by paid subscribers.  Either news item on its own has enough weight to merit reflection and analysis, but one following the other so closely?  Well, that’s a lot of conflicting information out of the media for one day.  Although not yet fully understood, there will certainly be real implications for publishing, advertising, PR and the media industry as a whole.

The Wall Street Journal news is a little surprising given the past year’s prevailing atmosphere of media consolidation, collapses and closures.  The paper seems to be bucking the trend and turning Rupert Murdoch into a “could be” prophet when he said “the philistine phase of the Digital Age is almost over.” Is it really possible not everyone on the web will demand free content?  The Journal’s news seems to say so.  But The Journal is The Journal and certainly–just as in all industries–there are islands unaffected by tides.

BusinessWeek’s situation likely more accurately reflects the publishing industry’s status.  While the ‘08/’09 economic crash can take some of the blame for the decline in advertising revenue, the industry’s problems had been building for some time.  The web has forced newsrooms to shrink, foreign bureaus to close and has hampered the ability of mainstream publications to keep up with breaking news over social tools and networks.  Traditional outlets may excel at analysis, but they can’t beat the web in a number of areas which used to be dominated by newspapers, news programs, radios and magazines–especially weekly magazines.  Eventually and surely, new technology overcomes old methods.  Bloomberg is a data-driven organization that has learned to adapt to the web, and the web has made available more data to an increasingly wider audience which Bloomberg would like to tap.  BusinessWeek’s straightforward ability to analyze and simplify market news probably fills an increasingly larger need in Bloomberg’s organization as it looks to expand its influence beyond the financial spectrum.

For the media (and for advertising, PR and other dependent industries) the signals to adapt and even plan for what’s ahead couldn’t be more clear.  The media has to write for the web, business has to build for it, and the rest of us need to embrace living in that world.

As we see fewer editorial contacts at the major print outlets, we will see an increase in freelance and even “citizen” journalists with the ability to publish and build an audience at their whim. Social media savvy has become increasingly critical in reaching and influencing these new thought leaders, and the successful employment of tactics and strategies take more than just passing familiarity with the medium.  The mainstream media’s mixed messages are keeping all of us on our toes, and for the best of us, on top of our game, too.

I just returned to the office on the heels of two very successful client media tours. The first took me to New York City for two days of meetings which included FOX Business News, Forbes, and Dow Jones. The second was a combination of Boston and New York City with briefings at Network World, Tech Target, CRN, and Baseline. And it occurred to me, I think we sometimes get so wrapped up in pitching news and creating strategy for our clients that we forget about the importance of face to face interaction with reporters.

For one, I think the media appreciates it. It’s not often they get to sit down with a C-Level executive and pick their brain on various trends, industry happenings, etc. The conversation tends to be a bit more casual and can cover the gamut of topics. During the Forbes interview, the reporter and CEO touched upon everything from expense management to how to advertise your business to dealing with other CEO’s. Ultimately, it built a strong relationship between the two individuals and our client left the meeting feeling really good about how it went.

This leads me to probably the most important benefit of in-person briefings: the benefit to your client. The reality is, most of these meetings are either introductory or a chance to build on an existing relationship and “catch up.” Some clients may have some resistance to this if there is not a definite answer on whether coverage will result, especially if they have planned a trip specifically for the briefings. But to that, we council our clients to stay open minded. Yes, the Forbes interview was not a 100% guarantee for coverage, but we left the meeting with three separate story opportunities – one of which ran the following week! Bottom line: a reporter is more likely to remember your company and think of you as a source if they’ve had a chance to meet you in person.

So, as we approach the end of summer and you’re looking for creative ways to up-level a client and their company, get a conversation started on the benefits of face to face meetings with the media. It keeps things fresh, gets your client front and center, and can lead to some significant results!  

 

In 1964, author and media pundit Marshall McLuhan introduced a controversial concept that would forever alter mainstream media (and subsequently, our role as PR practitioners): “The medium is the message.”

In his book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, McLuhan writes that all media have characteristics that engage the viewer in different ways and argues that any given medium affects an individual’s understanding of its content.

Without getting mired too deeply in his media classifications of hot/high definition and cool/low definition media, much of McLuhan’s theory revolved around the senses receiving the communication: sight, sound and touch.

As PR practitioners today, our job is ultimately to ensure the successful receipt of our clients’ messages by their target audiences. Far too often we labor first and foremost over the content of our message—be it a press release, bylined article, white paper, blog post or tweet—while relegating the message’s delivery and medium to an afterthought.

While there is consideration for the medium, the decision is generally influenced by the content and target of the message, e.g., “We want to reach young adults, ages 18-24 who earn less than $60,000 per year… let’s Tweet!” or “Our buyers are teenage guys… let’s do a YouTube campaign!”

Of course, I’m making generalizations here, but the truth is that many times we choose a particular medium based on the statistical, demographic information of its audience rather than taking the time to understand the effectiveness of the medium for influencing the “aha!” factor.

Successful PR is more than having a great message. It also goes beyond delivering that message to the right recipients. From start to finish, it involves a series of decisions that, as mentioned above, ultimately ensure that the right message (read: understood the way it was intended) is received by the right audience, leading to the right response or action. In a presentation to the staff recently comparing various wire services, junior associate Adam Novak comically quipped, “If a press release goes out over the wire but nobody sees it, did it really go out?”

Obviously, the medium is going to impact the successful delivery of a message, but let’s not forget that our job is not just to deliver the message. Rather it is to make sure it is received and interpreted the way you, or your client, want it to be.

We have tools at our disposal today to create and distribute content quickly and easily over any medium imaginable, and at PAN, we’re finding that clients are eager to make these a strategic part of their message. Where “pitch” and “press release” were formerly limited by pre-defined parameters, PR practitioners around the world are now enjoying the freedom and creativity to reshape the way we do our jobs.

In the past couple of months I have been asking friends and family for suggestions on purchasing my first smartphone for personal use.  “Well, I have the BlackBerry Curve, which I love.  Definitely don’t get the iPhone, you can’t instant message or use it abroad,” one co-worker advised.  “No, no, no, the Blackberry Curve erases all your text messages and the speaker quality is terrible for music,” my father countered. Even my hairdresser offered advice: “Palm Pre’s the way to go. It’s the best for browsing the web.”

 Well, I am not planning on traveling to Europe soon, I have no interest in instant messaging or blasting music from my phone and browsing the web from a two inch screen makes me dizzy- that’s just me.  So, here I am back at square one with a laundry list of contradicting recommendations from unqualified sources.

A recent Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey indicates that consumers trust recommendations from “known people” first and foremost.  Well, that’s true.  Anywhere from Doctor Referrals to counsel on the best Local Italian restaurant, your list of “known people” is your first source.  But is it always the best?  Asking a handful of family and friends for tips and suggestions might get you the most biased answers of all, each based off of single experiences with relatively little or no expertise.   Although something has to be said for “in-the-trenches” consumer opinions, where do we go when we’re looking for knowledgeable, firsthand, impartial, targeted answers? When advice from your boldly opinionated friends and family leave with even more questions than with which you started, where do you turn?

 As The Nielsen study shows, when we look for answers outside our personal networks, we put trust in faceless consumers on the web.  What is notable about the 70% of respondents trusting online consumer posts is the other sources that the percentage beats out. Over formal advertising, a multibillion dollar industry, we put our trust in the words of complete strangers.  With consumer opinions posted online as the number two source of trusted advertising, it’s clear that the power of social media continues to grow and the term “word of mouth” is no longer to be taken literally. 

The online consumer dialogue consists of industry experts and newcomers alike, giving us the ability to either immerse ourselves in a larger industry-wide conversation or pickup quick, simple answers.  Sifting through blog posts and various responses, pros and cons, multiple experiences etc. force us to become more informed consumers. The ability to seek out fellow consumers who are also considered “experts” on any desired topic, is also what makes social media an extremely powerful tool in terms of consumer decision making.

No offense to Dad or the folks over at Heavenly Hair, but I’m taking my smartphone questions to the web.  I’ll consult the consumer experts, get involved in the online dialogue and make an informed confident decision about the device that’s right for me.  

 Now if only I could find a smartphone smart enough to make that decision for me…

At times here on prSpeak we don’t take a minute and recognize the great work and results generated by some of our teams. Last week one of our newest clients was shown immediate return on their public relations program through some fantastic national business coverage with Fox Business News and Forbes generated by their team here at PAN (not to mention a meeting at Fortune that will surely turn into positive coverage in the near-future.) One thing that jumped out at me during our first three/four weeks with them is the great passion during and after the pitch and the excitement when the coverage appears. Goes to show there is some great opportunity out there – just need to tailor the story a bit more these days and the results will be evident. I just thought that it was worth a minute to put the spotlight on one of our teams here at the agency and show the readers of prSpeak some great coverage.

There have been many articles on PRWeek that have discussed the important of blogging and general social media outlets influencing the decisions made by consumers.  One article in particular, “Study finds social media equally influential to conventional outlets” (http://www.prweekus.com/Study-finds-social-media-equally-influential-to-conventional-outlets/article/126482/) written by Aarti Shah, talks about how user-generated sites hold equal importance to traditional media sources when considering technology purchases. Now that the internet-driven world is inherent, companies are making sure that they are reaching out to their audiences in ways that they weren’t even thinking about before.  This new way of targeting audiences, buying consumer products and even getting familiar with the messages that the companies are trying to sell proves that it is important to be aware of what is going on in society since ideas are constantly being created.  With blogging and social media websites being “in” right now, I wonder if the hype will still be as rampant five years from now or if a whole new kind of service that reaches out to the public will replace it. I guess only time will tell.