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.

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

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Every industry conducts their own events. Some are local, regional, national and even international. However, there are too many industry events to count and an individual cannot attend them all. So, what can be done to allow those who cannot attend an event to hear what was spoken about? What about the use of the podcast?

 A podcast is a collection of audio (sometimes video) segments that can be listened to over the Internet or downloaded and listened to while on the go. This tool turns out to be a great medium for sharing previously recorded material with others.

 Earlier this summer I used this technique for a client event.

 DiCicco, Gulman & Company held a roundtable with professional service veterans in the architecture and engineering industry to discuss how to manage a business in an uncertain economy. The event had a wonderful turn out, but we realized that the material discussed would definitely be of interest to others in the industry, so the roundtable was recorded and turned into a podcast series to be shared with others following the event.

 Creating a podcast series out of a previously recorded event is a way of sharing knowledge with others. Not only will the information be accessible to those who were unable to attend, but it also has the potential to attract others in the industry, and it can help position you or your company as a thought leader.

 The podcast is a social media tool that continues to be underutilized. However, with an understanding of how podcasts work and how they can be used to share a message, a podcast can be powerful public relations tool.  

As new media continues to alter the way brands offer products and interact with consumers, the ways in which individuals utilize the information also continually changes.  Given that this evolution will only augment over time, the value that clients are seeing in non-traditional media opportunities (i.e. podcasts, video interviews, blogs) continues to grow. These outlets are more interactive in nature and allow bloggers, readers, and individuals/companies mentioned in a post to respond and communicate in real time via commenting. 

As PR practitioners it is important to acknowledge this evolution as well as develop a strategy that leverages a mix of both traditional and new media programs. Creating opportunities that allow clients to interact and share information with potential customers, key stakeholders, and interested parties should be the cornerstone of a successful PR program. 

With that in mind, I began to think of ways we could utilize the wealth of information that Mirror Image Internet’s (a PAN client) Director of Marketing Martin Hayward posses regarding mobile video delivery – and why it is quickly becoming the core of many mobile marketing strategies.  

Knowing that StreamingMedia.com is the premier online destination for industry news, information, and services related to the streaming media industry, and that we have a great working relationship with its Editors, I thought I’d propose the idea of producing a podcast with Martin and a Mirror Image partner, Wowza Media Systems.  Contributing Editor Tim Sigli, who has taken over the podcasting helm along with Jose Castillo, confirmed his interest, and we were discussing recording logistics before I knew it.  

Soon after, Martin, Dave Stubenvoll for Wowza Media Systems, Tim, and I were recording the contents of a compelling podcast via phone.  Throughout the podcast, Tim explored the benefits of a single codec, H.264, for mobile delivery from two perspectives: a single media server (Wowza, represented by Dave) and a content delivery network (Mirror Image, represented by Martin). 

The podcast has since been published and now lives alongside hundreds of hours of audio/video content on the Streaming Media site.  Listen to the podcast – and others – here, and let us know what you think!

June’s elections in Iran brought social media platforms like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube further onto the world stage. Social media continues to penetrate politics – its power being evident in President Barack Obama’s use of the medium as a major campaign tool in the 2008 presidential election. In the case of the Iran protests, ordinary citizens provided play-by-play journalism since traditional news organizations were shut down by authorities.

Dean Wright, in a blog post he wrote for Reuters, made an interesting argument. He pointed out that verification is a major issue. I’m paraphrasing here, but he said that content being shared might not be what it appears to be, either because of sloppy information from the person posting it, or deliberate deceit, either to create mischief or for political or other reasons. Dean warns that news outlets need to be extremely careful about what is written and said about material accessed from social networking sites – not taking it at face value.

So that led me to think about “verification” from a PR perspective (of course). While social media tears down the proverbial wall between the outside world and the companies that utilize these tools to communicate and interact with their following, how can we be sure of the validity of the message? Again, “not taking it at face value”, as Dean puts it.  

It comes down to a few things. Companies need to engage in conversations that may or may not have a direct link to their business, but offer something of value to the industry and or community, customers, partners, prospects, etc. We’ve all heard this before, but it really is a give-and-take. The more frequently companies engage in social media conversations and the more transparent the communication is  — no contrived marketing jargon that is – the more likely they are to build not only a network of followers, but invested participants in their business and industry.

An important way for companies to be seen by the outside world as a legitimate expert and resource in their space is to leverage existing partners and customers in more open social media platforms like industry forums, blogs and portals. There is power in numbers. A single real-time repository of shared expertise has a greater chance of being perceived less as a marketing or PR tool and more as a go-to resource, which can go a long way toward improving brand reputation, recognition and bumping your company up in the Google search rankings.

But what about leveraging interactions with existing customers to further validate the social media message and build brand loyalty? I’m not talking about simply responding to a disgruntled customer via Twitter to provide him/her with a rapid and satisfying response, though this certainly has merit. I’m talking about using social media to constantly evolve the brand, educate potential prospects to real-time challenges and best practices and offer solutions all based in on-the-spot analysis and interpretation of current customer interactions taking place. In today’s competitive marketplace reacting is a weakness. Companies must proactively anticipate to turn heads and break through the noise. By utilizing interactions with those closest to the business and its products (customers, partners, shareholders) social media content is built on transparency, a free flow of ideas and a genuine investment of one entity in another, whether it be company to customer, company to prospect, customer to customer, partner to prospect … well, you get the idea.

It’s no secret the PR and marketing industries are rapidly changing with the proliferation of social media and networking sites.  With this change come opportunities as well as challenges that we, as PR professionals, are embracing.

While some businesses (and industries) still approach social media, Twitter, and the blogosphere with reservation and sometimes trepidation (just think Mommy bloggers and the headache over the Motrin ad controversy), these outlets and forums are actually terrific ways to gauge customer interest, satisfaction, and engage with target audiences closely. 

And now, Forrester Research is out with its Interactive Marketing Forecast for the next five years, confirming the growth and monetary backing we can expect to see in social media marketing.  Forrester is estimating social media marketing to grow at an annual rate of 34 percent – faster than any other form of online marketing and double the average growth rate of 17 percent for all online mediums. 

With this burgeoning interest comes the need to understand the impact of all this money being spent on social media marketing.  Did the messages resonate? Were consumers and customers engaged? Excited? Or even angry?  With so much opportunity to engage with the “right” audiences online and so much information being published, businesses are having a tough time grasping the real information from the fleeting comments. 

This is where social media monitoring technologies, like Lexalytics (one of our clients at PAN), comes in.  These technologies can help companies ensure that their business’ reputation isn’t in jeopardy because of what is being written online. And now these technologies can be easily integrated with PR and marketing campaigns to measure success – and areas for improvement.  

This technology, which is more accurate and comprehensive than human analysis, can help businesses analyze blog and Twitter content, etiquette for responding to stories, and how to best leverage the information that is already out there.  Because human analysis is still essential to the process, the technology is enhancing it and allowing PR and marketing pros to decipher the areas for improvement as well as outreach faster, with more accuracy, and with greater analysis.

Within online networks and communities are individuals who will not all feel exactly the same way, so having the ability to extract meaning from all the noise — especially in a crisis situation — and measure extremes of opinion makes a critical difference in important business decisions.  After all, being equipped with information and analysis about what sentiment is living inside tweets, blog posts, and more, is crucial in being able to make sense of all the feedback and live conversations.

And this isn’t just for crisis situations. Being able to determine what areas of market education might be lacking in one area will help companies proactively engage with the right audiences to share information and interact.

As we become a nation of over 20 million bloggers, social media enthusiasts, and citizen journalists, being able to make sense of all the information and online engagement will quickly become a bigger task than human tracking and analysis can handle, so being equipped with the know-how and technology to bring this task down to size for PR and marketing purposes will quickly become most important.

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. 

Over the past few weeks our class has engaged in several discussions about the rising impact of social media.  As many of us know, social media is more popular today than ever before. It is the home to an ever-growing and changing online community.  There are a variety of advantages to using social media.  For starters, it is a great way to receive a diverse amount of information.  Social media broadens horizons which the mainstream media have no control over.  For example, Web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are are open forums where people can express themselves and their opinions however they please.  Social media is also a great way to broaden one’s network and connect with a large amount of people.  For example, social media is a fantastic way to advertise to niche audiences as well as spread aware and create support around an issue.  A primary example of this was seen last week when AT&T utilized their Facebook pages to stream Lil Wayne’s new single.  AT&T was able to generate support through emails and text messages which created buzz and drove consumers to their Facebook pages.  The result was a success driving a younger audience, who was their target, to AT&T’s facebook page, connecting Lil’ Wayne to their brand.  Networking opportunities are also found through social media as well as the blossoming of relationships between people who may have never known each other. 

Although there are clearly many advantages to using and exploring social media, it is important to understand and be aware that there are also innumerable disadvantages of social media.  Many critics of social media argue that oftentimes, information can be misinterpreted and messages can be skewed.  Because anyone can take part in social media and post on a blog, Web sites and blogs will become cluttered with excesses of information which can be inaccurate and negative.  There is also a lack of security and protection on many social media Web sites so things can easily get out of control.  However, regardless of the positive or negative aspects of social media, one thing is for sure and that is that it is an increasingly popular and innovative industry.  Consequently, visitors to social media Web sites and blogs should be careful when reading and posting information.  Consumers and contributors should always be cautious because frequently mistakes and falsehoods are written in addition to the fact that once it’s up it is for everybody’s eyes, and this should not be taken lightly.

Was in a meeting today and the topic of ’social media’ came up, again… It got me thinking about all of the opportunity and work being done by folks in the communications field – but to date, a number of organizations haven’t had the chance to see any of their benefits due to the need for immediate visibility/ROI (see sales).  YES ink is good – YES communities are good, but at the end of the day, people spending money with you and that have a budget being watched closely these days want to see their name in print (do I think that is correct, no – but is it true, in my humble opinion, yes). We in the PR industry know and understand the value of social media tools – but it is getting the client up to speed on its value and need is what takes some time and patience from organizations today.

We as an industry need to understand and realize that there is more of an opportunity out there today and that we have to put our clients in front of it. By finding some balance between traditional and social media tactics, I think you’ll see the most positive results.

As I have been reading in the trades, Twitter and blogs, organizations need to see the value (read into revenue) from social media tools/campaigns in order to accept it fully. Will it come, yes, but for now we need to use our industry smarts and insight to convince them that “if you build it, they will come” – someone already said that right?

WIth the economy still trying to find its way, we in the PR industry are faced with proving our value on a regular basis because a lot of times there are decisions made within our clients organization that even our marketing contacts aren’t aware of. So what we’re doing with a lot of our clients today is the traditional media relations, analysts, messaging, speaking engagements, etc. but we’re also extending our value and services by helping our clients reach the niche communities who end up being – ta da – their real customers, the end users. There are many tools that your company and your PR team can utilize to reach these audiences and market yourself right to them – so don’t get stuck in the traditional need to do A, B, and C public relations program. Open it up a bit and use your agency to open new doors and avenues for you – now is the time to try something new because each day we see more changes and who knows what tomorrow will bring. So talk to your PR team and get their thoughts on what else they can be doing to help further your position or to get that unique spotlight put on the company.