I am spending a lot of time thinking about how Public Relations can manage a future where the the platforms and channels for communication are changing fast.
That TV viewing figures fall when homes get broadband is interesting, not startling. It will be a bigger issue when broadband is 50 meg instead of 8 which is happening in places where there is cable (not in the hills about Stonehenge you understand).
What is important for us is to be able to identify the new and next media journey, the next process in relationship building and an ability to evaluate the new as well as its implementation, effect and possible outcomes. These are tools we must have and they must be part of the PR management package at every level of practice.
What we have to do is look at some of the thinkers in this area like Malcolm Gladwell Author of Tipping Point and Blink.
In addition, we can call on the techniques used in engineering, mathematics and management.
People like Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe with their five essential qualities for 'Managing the Unexpected' : preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify, sensitivity to operations, commitment to resilience, and deference to expertise, are invaluable.
Of course, part of this thinking includes how we approach risk management.
These are things we now have to put into PR planning and management.
They do need a lot of thinking about as part of a managed strategy for PR
Showing posts with label Internet mediated PR. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet mediated PR. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Adverts turned into conversationtional value
I want to comment further on the post by Charlene Li on the acquisition of Right Media by Yahoo!
While here post and the Right Media (not to mention Yahoo!) focus on serving up advertisements, I want to change the setting somewhat.
If instead of serving up ads, the 'advertiser' served up ideas or even dynamic conversations what would happen?
The advertisement would become a conversation and although push in the first place could quite quickly become the method for pull.
The concept turns online advertising into a form of interaction not dissimilar to RSS feeds.
Instead of shouting, PR can enjoy a conversation with interested parties.
What will be happening will be that values will become a currency between users and organisations... nice thought.
While here post and the Right Media (not to mention Yahoo!) focus on serving up advertisements, I want to change the setting somewhat.
If instead of serving up ads, the 'advertiser' served up ideas or even dynamic conversations what would happen?
The advertisement would become a conversation and although push in the first place could quite quickly become the method for pull.
The concept turns online advertising into a form of interaction not dissimilar to RSS feeds.
Instead of shouting, PR can enjoy a conversation with interested parties.
What will be happening will be that values will become a currency between users and organisations... nice thought.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
What do we need to know about the media
There are many channels for communication. More arrive every day. What do we need to know about them if we are going to use them for public relations activities?
Here is a small list:
Here is a small list:
Title (e.g. email)
Definition
History (wikipedia or another resource)
Fast Facts (how would you explain this channel for communication really quickly)
Communication platforms (p.c, laptop, cell phone, print - yup I guess the dead tree society deserves to be included in social media resources).
How do people (the public/s) contribute to this channel? To what extent is this common (past/now/future)
How does the public share knowledge of content in this channel - using this channel and across other channels. To what extent is this common (past/now/future).
Risk analysis (issues, future opportunities, threats - read the lecture and fill out the risk assessment matrix )
What services are available to help you set up/deploy this channel (software, suppliers and/or contractors; are there expert people that you could employ on behalf of a client)
How to implement the technology (what are the steps involved)
Internal/external policies (examples of such policies will be needed if you are going to use this channel)
How do you optimise this channel to help people find/use it (e.g. Search Engine Optimisation)
Monitor (what is there out there that can help you monitor the effect of your work using this channel - e.g. can you set up and RSS feed or a search engine monitor. Can you monitor how this channel is affecting its audience and how? Do you need to use a monitoring company and if so who has the expertise - and how much will it cost?)
Metrics (what numbers are available in the public domain? What numbers are available in the private domain? Is this best measured as page views or is it the number of references it generates in Digg) or a combination or are the metrics completely different?)
Evaluate (How do you set realistic targets and outcomes; how can you measure how hgood you are at using this channel for communication; how can you evaluate the effectiveness of using this channel for communication as part of a relationship building campaign?)
Overcoming barriers to dominant coalition (what are your arguments; how are they supported with real and verifiable evidence; can you call on quantifiable evidence and case study supported reasoning?)
Case studies of good and bad practice (Can you find case studies and can you look at the best examples and the worst and then identify the risk mitigation or opportunity optimisation policies you need to have when using this channel for communication).
Relevance to organisations and practice
Training (training resources, training examples, etiquette)
Friday, April 27, 2007
Opinion Polling is showing half of the story
Sir Robert Worcester FIPR has been offering his opinion polls to the PR industry for years. Mostly these services offer useful information and sometimes insights (you might imagine that, in another life and as the founder of Media Measurement, I had some occasion to monitor what was offered and used by some of his clients).
Today I read his comments about uptake of the Internet and why we should not rely on it because it does not reach a range of segments of the population.
To begin with lets be clear, the Internet is not a channel for communication and it is as much a place as a range of technologies. Thus if people do not access the Internet using a PC, they might by using a cell phone of television set, Skype phone or Playstation3. Thus the Mori factoid offered in Profile Magazine does need to be read with salt and a wake-up pinch.
Mr Worcester's contribution offers us this:
"...But still only about one in four of those 65 and older have taken up the Internet, and there has been no growth during the past 18 months.
"- And still fewer than one in ten of those 65 and older in DE households living on state benefits are taking part in the benefits of the internet.
Just as one would not depend on SMS for interacting with these segments of populations, one might also not use Blogs or telemarketing the over '80's.
That the Internet - a place - is where a lot of people visit and is not far from anyone, does not mean that it is in the least bit appropriate for direct relationship building any more than Heathrow Airport.
All That Robert Worcester's polls tell us is that loads of people use PC's to use the Internet - Wow! another victory for the pollsters.
This was just a plea to get PR people to use Newspaper interactions and is just nuts. If a campaign is worth its salt and is only exposed on one of, lets say 60, Internet mediataed communications channels, the media will report it.... no need for press releases - just good journalists who are on the look out for a good story. The newspaper proprietors will eventually learn that there is a need for good journalists for print as well as online and that printed newspapers are different to digital news (Read differently, at different times, using different channels etc).
If Robert wanted to get to the meat, he might ask if a story is relevant for the constituent and if so which media is not reporting it. You see, if the story is not on a tape, my 90 year 'old other person in the household' would not read it in a newspaper either - she is one of the nine in ten of the over 65's not using the Internet everyday (well except DAB radio) and is blind.
Come on Bob - it was a cheap article.
Today I read his comments about uptake of the Internet and why we should not rely on it because it does not reach a range of segments of the population.
To begin with lets be clear, the Internet is not a channel for communication and it is as much a place as a range of technologies. Thus if people do not access the Internet using a PC, they might by using a cell phone of television set, Skype phone or Playstation3. Thus the Mori factoid offered in Profile Magazine does need to be read with salt and a wake-up pinch.
Mr Worcester's contribution offers us this:
"...But still only about one in four of those 65 and older have taken up the Internet, and there has been no growth during the past 18 months.
"- And still fewer than one in ten of those 65 and older in DE households living on state benefits are taking part in the benefits of the internet.
"It is also true that the majority of wealth is in the hands of the oldest third of the country, who did 43 per cent of the voting at the last election. If you are thinking that communicating to your audiences is so easy now that the internet is so ubiquitous, think again. You might not reach all of your target audience using traditional media, it is also true that you won’t reach all these people via the internet, without also using the traditional media."
This is using an opinion poll as a 'PR exercise' on behalf of the newspaper industry (big Mori customers one cynically might add) .Just as one would not depend on SMS for interacting with these segments of populations, one might also not use Blogs or telemarketing the over '80's.
That the Internet - a place - is where a lot of people visit and is not far from anyone, does not mean that it is in the least bit appropriate for direct relationship building any more than Heathrow Airport.
All That Robert Worcester's polls tell us is that loads of people use PC's to use the Internet - Wow! another victory for the pollsters.
This was just a plea to get PR people to use Newspaper interactions and is just nuts. If a campaign is worth its salt and is only exposed on one of, lets say 60, Internet mediataed communications channels, the media will report it.... no need for press releases - just good journalists who are on the look out for a good story. The newspaper proprietors will eventually learn that there is a need for good journalists for print as well as online and that printed newspapers are different to digital news (Read differently, at different times, using different channels etc).
If Robert wanted to get to the meat, he might ask if a story is relevant for the constituent and if so which media is not reporting it. You see, if the story is not on a tape, my 90 year 'old other person in the household' would not read it in a newspaper either - she is one of the nine in ten of the over 65's not using the Internet everyday (well except DAB radio) and is blind.
Come on Bob - it was a cheap article.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Internet Archive
One of the great places to put out of print books and papers that you always meant to submit to a journal but just could not face the form filling is the Open Archive.
I have put my first book about the Internet there.
It saves having to back it up every so often.
I have put my first book about the Internet there.
It saves having to back it up every so often.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Managing the risk of technology
The graphic below comes from a post by John Milan in Read/Write web and is very germaine to PR practice. We are not going to stop Internet Transparency or porosity. We have to manage it.
If you look at the image, it offers the means by which the senior practitioner can manage lack of IT knowledge and responsibility or innovation.
Using the techniques of Risk Management, Organisations can asses thier level of risk along both axis (1-5) and can then look ate what can be done to mitigate the risk and test the assumptions again.
Sophisticated applications of these types of approach offer a good idea of ROI for managing risk (and opportunities).
Nice graphic!
If you look at the image, it offers the means by which the senior practitioner can manage lack of IT knowledge and responsibility or innovation.
Using the techniques of Risk Management, Organisations can asses thier level of risk along both axis (1-5) and can then look ate what can be done to mitigate the risk and test the assumptions again.
Sophisticated applications of these types of approach offer a good idea of ROI for managing risk (and opportunities).
Nice graphic!
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
It Just Happened
You can embed this video using this code from here: http://eyespot.com/blogs/leverwealth?postId=9378
Monday, April 02, 2007
The online module for a PR degree
I am pondering what we really need in a PR first degree course now.
At present the online module includes a syllabus that is primarily based round online strategy: how the online landscape is changing for organisations and how to assess the change (the Internet is ever evolving); Online demographics and segmentation (is segmentation now in the hands of the user?); the significance of value systems online (marketing speak served up as values lays organisations wide open to dissonance); development of aims and objectives (but this time aimed at the online communities of which there are many); strategy development (the mix and match of multi-touch communication and related effects); risk management (is a management function that is essential); tactical use of social media from YouTube to web widgets, wikis to blogs. We also have to develop strategies for graduates to keep up to date with online communication developments.
Students should provide case studies of social media to see how social media is being used and how. Must they must have their own blogs (even if it is an existing Bebo or MySpace account)? Is it ethical to force anyone and expose student experimentation to future employers - forever?
There is no substitute for work on a brief for an organisation (presented in a wiki - with all the background reserach) and they should use and apply web widgets, search, monitoring and evaluation tools and strategy software. They have to deal with legal, copyright and ethical issues and there is a case for the development of a video blog.
Add this to writing and semiotic skills on top of what theory remains (after the digital tsunami has wiped out 'the media' as we have known it for 50 years) and symmetrical relationship building and we have a start.
Oh... they must get that RSS feed going on week one otherwise they are as out of date as Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (June 7, 1757 – March 30, 1806) buying votes with kisses.
Its a lot to handle.
But what have I missed out.....
At present the online module includes a syllabus that is primarily based round online strategy: how the online landscape is changing for organisations and how to assess the change (the Internet is ever evolving); Online demographics and segmentation (is segmentation now in the hands of the user?); the significance of value systems online (marketing speak served up as values lays organisations wide open to dissonance); development of aims and objectives (but this time aimed at the online communities of which there are many); strategy development (the mix and match of multi-touch communication and related effects); risk management (is a management function that is essential); tactical use of social media from YouTube to web widgets, wikis to blogs. We also have to develop strategies for graduates to keep up to date with online communication developments.
Students should provide case studies of social media to see how social media is being used and how. Must they must have their own blogs (even if it is an existing Bebo or MySpace account)? Is it ethical to force anyone and expose student experimentation to future employers - forever?
There is no substitute for work on a brief for an organisation (presented in a wiki - with all the background reserach) and they should use and apply web widgets, search, monitoring and evaluation tools and strategy software. They have to deal with legal, copyright and ethical issues and there is a case for the development of a video blog.
Add this to writing and semiotic skills on top of what theory remains (after the digital tsunami has wiped out 'the media' as we have known it for 50 years) and symmetrical relationship building and we have a start.
Oh... they must get that RSS feed going on week one otherwise they are as out of date as Georgiana Cavendish, Duchess of Devonshire (June 7, 1757 – March 30, 1806) buying votes with kisses.
Its a lot to handle.
But what have I missed out.....
The ethics of the 'empty chair'
Like many people, I watched Jeremy Paxman on the BBC Newsnight programme Michael White of the Guardian and "Guido Fawkes" a political blogger.
The discussion talked of the relationship between Journalists, bloggers and politicians.
The debate told how some politician 'punish' some journalists by not allowing access, the 'empty chair' whereby access is denied to the fourth estate when the politician has had some sort of bust up with a newspaper, TV channel or journalist. The other side of this trade off is when journalists do not report or who selectively report about a politician in a way that harms the the politicians standing with the electorate and other constituencies.
This is, of course, an example of the all too cosy relationship between Public Relations and the Media.
Underlying this debate is a serious point.
Who is all this content really for? Would it be, just by mis-chance, electors or others who want to be informed about the events among politicians and government?
If not. It does not matter much, other than it is a huge and costly exercise affecting the public purse.
If it is, then there is a big issue and one would no longer doubt why people are turned off by political maneuvering to manipulate the information they need but a wrangle at their expense.
Lets take this further and into the realm of all Public Relations.
Lets suppose an organisation wants to get its message across to a constituency and relies on the media to act as the purveyor. Is this legitimate? Is it ethical?
There can only be legitimacy if this is the only method for communication. Today, of course, this is not so. There are endless channels for communication. The traditional Press, radio and TV are but three conduits among many (The press release is no more than a form of blog post that saves lazy journalists setting up effective RSS feeds).
If, on the other hand, the Press is being used to add legitimacy to a story, then it has to do the job. It should not be selective or deny access because it has had some sort of tiff. It cannot be childish about it. Today, the press release can find its way onto a web site; the background can be offered and debated using blogs, wikis or any other form of publishing and social media. On the other hand the Press can be critical, it can add that most precious of values, time and expertise. It has a resource and journalistic expertise to put the story into critical context. The same might be said of bloggers but without the authority of the publishing house. The closer the media gets to PR the less it is valued for its critical faculty and its authority.
At the same time, when a person (minister, politician, celebrity, company, brand) plays the empty chair routine and and does not provide access to a journalist, programme or newspaper, the media response has, once again, to be critical and explain to its audience that it is being denied access and transparently explain why it is not able to report or discuss issues in public.
The public, including the elector in the case of Fawkes, Paxman and White, can then make a judgement.
Pretending that the present state is 'News as Usual' demonstrates a lack of ethics by both parties. It undermines the authority of both and diminishes trust.
An ignored person, politician, celebrity, company or brand has YouTube and blogs available all the time. Its use is news on a number of fronts. An ignored journalist has the privileged position of showing how a lack of transparency is against 'the public interest'.
The status quo, in an age of social media corrupts both PR and journalism and both sides need to recognise it if only to re-build trust among their respective constituents.
This is not just a political issue, it is an issue for all practitioners. Why only use Press releases and private briefings when the whole world can see the story for what it is using social media.
It is time the publishing houses looked at what they can offer that blogs can't. Expert, timely, critical, reporting.
It is time for PR to act ethically and expose stories to their publics and not hide behind copy takers, the so called journalists of our time.
The discussion talked of the relationship between Journalists, bloggers and politicians.
The debate told how some politician 'punish' some journalists by not allowing access, the 'empty chair' whereby access is denied to the fourth estate when the politician has had some sort of bust up with a newspaper, TV channel or journalist. The other side of this trade off is when journalists do not report or who selectively report about a politician in a way that harms the the politicians standing with the electorate and other constituencies.
This is, of course, an example of the all too cosy relationship between Public Relations and the Media.
Underlying this debate is a serious point.
Who is all this content really for? Would it be, just by mis-chance, electors or others who want to be informed about the events among politicians and government?
If not. It does not matter much, other than it is a huge and costly exercise affecting the public purse.
If it is, then there is a big issue and one would no longer doubt why people are turned off by political maneuvering to manipulate the information they need but a wrangle at their expense.
Lets take this further and into the realm of all Public Relations.
Lets suppose an organisation wants to get its message across to a constituency and relies on the media to act as the purveyor. Is this legitimate? Is it ethical?
There can only be legitimacy if this is the only method for communication. Today, of course, this is not so. There are endless channels for communication. The traditional Press, radio and TV are but three conduits among many (The press release is no more than a form of blog post that saves lazy journalists setting up effective RSS feeds).
If, on the other hand, the Press is being used to add legitimacy to a story, then it has to do the job. It should not be selective or deny access because it has had some sort of tiff. It cannot be childish about it. Today, the press release can find its way onto a web site; the background can be offered and debated using blogs, wikis or any other form of publishing and social media. On the other hand the Press can be critical, it can add that most precious of values, time and expertise. It has a resource and journalistic expertise to put the story into critical context. The same might be said of bloggers but without the authority of the publishing house. The closer the media gets to PR the less it is valued for its critical faculty and its authority.
At the same time, when a person (minister, politician, celebrity, company, brand) plays the empty chair routine and and does not provide access to a journalist, programme or newspaper, the media response has, once again, to be critical and explain to its audience that it is being denied access and transparently explain why it is not able to report or discuss issues in public.
The public, including the elector in the case of Fawkes, Paxman and White, can then make a judgement.
Pretending that the present state is 'News as Usual' demonstrates a lack of ethics by both parties. It undermines the authority of both and diminishes trust.
An ignored person, politician, celebrity, company or brand has YouTube and blogs available all the time. Its use is news on a number of fronts. An ignored journalist has the privileged position of showing how a lack of transparency is against 'the public interest'.
The status quo, in an age of social media corrupts both PR and journalism and both sides need to recognise it if only to re-build trust among their respective constituents.
This is not just a political issue, it is an issue for all practitioners. Why only use Press releases and private briefings when the whole world can see the story for what it is using social media.
It is time the publishing houses looked at what they can offer that blogs can't. Expert, timely, critical, reporting.
It is time for PR to act ethically and expose stories to their publics and not hide behind copy takers, the so called journalists of our time.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Communities attract participants
In this new era of "conversational marketing", the measure for engagement in a community isn't the number of people logging on. Rather, it's how actively people participate in the community, according to research by Communispace.
The anaysis of participation behavior among 26,539 members of 66 private online communities, provides an initial look at member participation in communities.
The study evaluated communities along three participation metrics:
- Frequency - how often members contribute
- Volume - the number of contributions made by each member
- Bystander or "lurker" rate - what percentage of members are simply observing versus actively participating.
"Big public communities may attract more eyeballs, but they may not be the answer for practitioners who are looking for deep engagement with customers" says Julie Wittes-Schlack, Communispace vice president of innovation and research.
I can believe this. A social space refelecting a the social values of an organisation and its constituency will attract like minds and participants.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
"You can't hide anything anymore" - Don Tapscott
Wired has a great article today.
There is nothing really new about it because it was covered by the CIPR Internet Commission five years ago as a principle but now Clive Thompson offers it in case study format.
The key issue now is the extent to which these ideas change organisation.
Today, at Bournemouth, we talked about theses things. We talked about how hiding from the digital rip tide is not an oprtion and embracing it must, of its nature change organisations.
Clive re-enforces the visible part but not the wholesale change that has to take place inside organisations.
It is not an option.
As Alex Iskold writes What has happened is that a load of 'Rights' are now transfered.
There is nothing really new about it because it was covered by the CIPR Internet Commission five years ago as a principle but now Clive Thompson offers it in case study format.
The key issue now is the extent to which these ideas change organisation.
Today, at Bournemouth, we talked about theses things. We talked about how hiding from the digital rip tide is not an oprtion and embracing it must, of its nature change organisations.
Clive re-enforces the visible part but not the wholesale change that has to take place inside organisations.
It is not an option.
As Alex Iskold writes What has happened is that a load of 'Rights' are now transfered.
- The Basic Human Rights in the attention economy
- Property: You own your attention and can store it wherever you wish.
- You have CONTROL. Mobility: You can securely move your attention wherever you want, whenever you want to.
- You have the ability to TRANSFER your attention.
- Economy: You can pay attention to whomever you wish and receive value in return. Y
- our attention has WORTH.
- Transparency: You can see exactly how your attention is being used.
Monday, March 19, 2007
The teaching of PR
There is conflict between what is happening in an Internet Mediated world and PR Theory:
I would like to explore, and do not have the licence to expound that with 1.1 billion (yes - billion) observers of corporate (and personal) activity, online PR is set against a practice that self evidently undermines scream management, spin marketing, bling PR, conscienceless and conscience driven CSR and privileged lobbies. For every propagandist, there is a counter propagandist: for every view, a countervailing argument. The wisdom of crowds is at once powerful and scrutinised. Where we teach Public Affairs the Internet offers the perpetual revolution (Mao lives - Zittrain proclaims the Cultural Revolution). The influence of the Internet on so many authors we use for teaching is a problem for a module that encourages online searching. Banish the words 'market segment' (unless a segment of one), stakeholder (when everyone can see, change and influence everyone and diversity attacks Freeman's ill founded ideas) and treat 'publics' with care (because a blogger is at the nexus of a relationship cloud that can be tiny or huge and have equality of power and influence in five minutes of global fame). NOLA.com, the web affiliate of New Orleans' Times-Picayune, was awarded the Breaking News Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Katrina. It is a blog and its content was powered by SMS. Can a PR student master (comprehend) SMS mediated blog relations? Even Porter and Grunig have modified their views in the last two years . Then, of course, the very nexus of contracts (Coase, and Easterbrook weep) is dismantled when the reality of Internet agency and porosity etch away at the Intellectual Property of 'the contract' as surely as MP3 downloads and relationships replace conversation (Sonsino) as the driving force so that organisations cease to exist as we know them – proof being three students who, asked to provide a press release as freebie to a friend with a start up web business, have asked for part equity in exchange for an online (social media) PR programme. This is an issue for all PR teaching as we know it. Die press agentry Die! Die! Die!
With so much vested in Marketing, and notably Marketing PR (whatever that is), its disintermediation before our very eyes shows the PR and Marketing Schools suffer from schizophrenia in some style. London is the world leading online advertising capital. The UK is the biggest market for online advertising; Martin Sorrell briefs the City that his empire is not dependant on Advertising and marketing agencies and keeps his share price afloat; Web sites are in slow decline, sex sites are eschewed, social media soars in exponential appeal; relationships conquer all; the brand is an RSS feed; the message is corporate values systems (British corporate value systems are scrutinised by more English speakers in China that in the UK and USA combined). Transparency, agency and porosity is the theoretical core of Web 2.0 and is nearly a decade old and still the marketers believe they have a future and, worse, encourage students to take marketing degrees.
Like many organisations, the CIPR this year ceded its online presence to the UK's PR bloggers. Many of the latter had, individually, more reach and page views that the Institute or the leading trade magazine.
Major companies and brands are in the bottom quartile for online interactive presence despite the best efforts of the likes of Martin Sorrell who are fighting off freely created wiki content for Google ranking despite a massive online budget and not a few millions spent in online advertising.
We are now past the 'does social media change behaviours' we know it does - and more measurably than advertising. We are past page views and need to measure engagement. But these are measures that we still have to learn about and teach.
Online studies undermine 'marketing by numbers' not by the way they are taught or through the content in the modules but by the evidence of the online conversation space. Projection or rejection of brand messages, brand values, semiotics and values is no longer at the disposal of the brand. At best it is available by permission. The power has shifted. Power and influence is now held by a nexus of relationships and all too often they are outside the organisation and the organisation, whether it knows it or not, is changed.
Saturday, March 03, 2007
12 Themes on the 'User Revolution'
Piper Jaffray & Co. Internet Media and Marketing research team today published an in-depth, comprehensive research report titled, "The User Revolution.
There are 12 key themes discussed in "The User Revolution" report:
1. Global online advertising revenue to reach $81.1 billion by 2011.
2. Communitainment: Internet has increasingly become a principal medium
for community, communication and entertainment -- three areas that
have collided and are impacting each other's growth -- generating a
new type of activity: communitainment. Communitainment is taking time
away from other, traditional, types of content consumption on the
Internet.
3. Usites -- The increasing popular category of user generated sites,
which we are calling Usites, are driving traffic away from other
destinations and pose a challenge to the advertisers and publishers.
4. The Internet is now a mainstream medium: The web is the leading
medium at work and the second leading medium at home behind
television.
5. Internet usage patterns are changing, favoring Usites,
communitainment sites, search, and away from traditional portals.
6. User Generated Brands. The consumers are taking control of content
consumption and branding.
7. Media Fragmentation: Advertisers increasingly will need to buy more
inventory, from nearly all types of media, especially the Internet,
to have the desired impact.
8. The Golden Search: search has become the new portal.
9. Google's dominance is likely to expand, partly fueled by a wide
variety of non-search related products that create a virtuous cycle
of brand affinity for Google.
10. Video ads will be the driver of the next major growth in brand
advertising and getting additional dollars shifted from traditional
media to online.
11. Ad networks are experiencing increased demand due to increasing
Internet fragmentation, desire for more targeted inventory,
increasing usage of networks for branding and increased site
visibility.
12. Agencies are rapidly evolving into more sophisticated,
technology-savvy entities that combine best of breed offerings.
Delete Ads, insert relationships.
There are 12 key themes discussed in "The User Revolution" report:
1. Global online advertising revenue to reach $81.1 billion by 2011.
2. Communitainment: Internet has increasingly become a principal medium
for community, communication and entertainment -- three areas that
have collided and are impacting each other's growth -- generating a
new type of activity: communitainment. Communitainment is taking time
away from other, traditional, types of content consumption on the
Internet.
3. Usites -- The increasing popular category of user generated sites,
which we are calling Usites, are driving traffic away from other
destinations and pose a challenge to the advertisers and publishers.
4. The Internet is now a mainstream medium: The web is the leading
medium at work and the second leading medium at home behind
television.
5. Internet usage patterns are changing, favoring Usites,
communitainment sites, search, and away from traditional portals.
6. User Generated Brands. The consumers are taking control of content
consumption and branding.
7. Media Fragmentation: Advertisers increasingly will need to buy more
inventory, from nearly all types of media, especially the Internet,
to have the desired impact.
8. The Golden Search: search has become the new portal.
9. Google's dominance is likely to expand, partly fueled by a wide
variety of non-search related products that create a virtuous cycle
of brand affinity for Google.
10. Video ads will be the driver of the next major growth in brand
advertising and getting additional dollars shifted from traditional
media to online.
11. Ad networks are experiencing increased demand due to increasing
Internet fragmentation, desire for more targeted inventory,
increasing usage of networks for branding and increased site
visibility.
12. Agencies are rapidly evolving into more sophisticated,
technology-savvy entities that combine best of breed offerings.
Delete Ads, insert relationships.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
INTERNET PUBLIC RELATIONS - interactivity
INTERACTIVITY
As we go through the aspects of Internet mediated public relations it is noticeable that someone has secretly sneaked into the place where they keep management, public relations and marketing rulebooks and scribbled on most of the pages.
In traditional management teaching, public and stakeholder relations created understanding of the culture or context for a company or organisation. People ‘understood where they were’. This relationship, largely crafted by companies, and other organisation (politicians, church, civil service, charities and Non Governmental Organisations etc) created an environment to allow a company (or organisation) to effectively promote its products and services. This created and context and public knowledge and (sometimes) an empathy with the public. Within this context, advertising and marketing promoted products and services to achieve sales. The chain of supply, production, distribution and payment process took over and distributed the product or service. It was simple.
Figure 1 (c) David Phillips 2007 The Traditional Information Value Chain
This process is now changed – someone has scribbled in the book! The public relations (politicians, church, civil service, charities and Non Governmental Organisations marketing, advertising and value chain transactions) contribution is now increasingly subsumed into an Internet driven context.
This conquest is both overt and hidden.
The overt presence (promotion and interaction between an organisation and its constituency) is now largely transparent and available in the Internet network. This is because of the application of web sites, news distribution, Internet marketing and market makers, in business to consumer and business-to-business environments.
The subliminal influence of the Internet, as the means by which an organisation is evident in the human (and machine) context, is not difficult to uncover.
The presence of information and messages about organisations is spread by, and through, web crawlers, search engines and RSS (note these are technologies not people). They are also distributed by people using email, Mobile text messaging, Instant Messaging, blogs, newsgroups, chat, personal, media and corporate web sites and much more.
Even tracking a new message in cyberspace is daunting. Monitoring all the messages, new and old, is already too difficult. The Internet is thereby in charge of creating context in which an organisation is evident to a broad constituency.
Such change is of the Internet. There is more. This change is affecting the ‘traditional’ context more than most understand.
Because a large part of the physical world is now dependent on information delivered across the Internet and through a range of devices, the once separate relationship between traditional and Internet driven relationships has gone. For example, reporters and news providers have become heavily dependent on the Internet which means that ‘traditional’ newspaper readers are reading Internet driven news by proxy. Traditional banks, manufacturers, logisticians, lawyers, physicians.... (the list is too long to enumerate) and more now depend on the Internet for information to allow them to operate. The context by which an organisation is known is only as good as its ability to use the Internet and to be part of the Internet culture. The web site is now the front window and front door for most organisations.
New employment dependencies are becoming apparent such as the print, publishing and distribution of books and CD’s benefiting from the on-line success of Amazon, Barnes and Noble and their competitors. This true of so many industries.
Progressively, overtly and subliminally, Internet technologies throughout the supply/demand chain, or, more appropriately, the value chain, but more significantly throughout the ‘value network’ have taken charge. Now, the whole population is dependant either directly or indirectly.
The context in which an organisation can thrive is rapidly moving from its ability to create relationships with publics (public relations) to relationships created by and across the Internet – and mostly via third parties beyond its control.
Figure 2 (c) David Phillips 2007 The New Information Value Network
The value network, extending upstream to suppliers and downstream to customers also includes the value added third parties to the transaction as well as other tertiary contributors in a network of networks. At an ever-greater extent they attenuate processes as information flows transparently through the whole of the transaction network. At once the supplier can be customer, partner, social commentator and commercial foe in such a networked structure. The consumer of news is also its author, editor, distributor and promoter as bloggers file their copy, pictures and videos and journalists comment upon them.
The international effort to sequence the human genome resembled an open-source initiative. It placed all the resulting data into the public domain rather than allow any participant to patent any of the results. This has resulted in a wave of new drugs and treatments, criminal investigation techniques, archaeological research and so forth. The information, once made public has created wealth in many directions.
The Internet's capability to allow people to access information comes through the nature and use of search engines, a very popular form of interactivity, but so too is an ability to interact with products and service, buy and sell, to pay taxes and to hold conversations, exchange virtual artifacts like pictures poetry and films.
Any analysis of pages viewed or searches made this century will show that interactive sites get more people involved.
More people have access to the Internet, more people can get 'stuff' faster because they have broadband, people are spending more time online. Industry has responded. It has invested in 'better' web sites. More graphics, eye tracking to optimise page layout and many other methodologies.
The result is disappointing.
Corporate web sites, by and large, have seen little by way of exciting growth in the amount of access by Internet users. Exceptions are those that offer opportunities to play, interact or buy.
Is the relatively poor performance of the generality of institutional web sites just because there are many more sites for people to visit? Is this because search engines have made it easy for people to find new places to go?
The Myspace, YouTube and Second Life phenomena suggests otherwise. Analysis of these types of web site, hugely interactive both in terms of their technologies and as the means for development of social groups, shows dramatic acceleration in numbers of users, frequency of use and interactivity. Even more significant is that these sites are key recommenders. People share information about their favorite web sites.
Conversations have been important for Internet users since it began but now these conversations are among millions, are easy to use and are huge drivers.
Interactivity changes organisations. As users interact with organisations, the organisations have to change. They have to respond. As a result they create systems, protocols and processes to re-act. If an order is placed online, a company has to devise systems to deliver goods, services and interactions with users. The Internet is changing organisations. Processes are included in the intellectual capital of organisations which is one way in which the Internet is changing the asset value of organisations. The online relationships are affecting the value of organisations.
Internet mediated Public Relations adds value in its own right and, additionally, as its evolution as a catalyst for empowering users in their relationship clouds, it becomes a bigger player in changing the value of organisations.
Friday, February 02, 2007
The demographics of the web - broader than you think
The current generation of "silver surfers" spends an average of six hours online each week, research by the insurance company AXA found according to the Daily Telegraph.
Emailing and online chatting to friends and family was the favourite internet activity of the retired people surveyed, followed by researching information, booking holidays and shopping.
According to the survey, 41 per cent of retired Britons named internet usage as one of their favourite pastimes.
This are the baby boomer generation. The generation that most marketers do not target online.
Which beggers the questions
Who is no longer part of the Internet generation?
What media is valuable for engaging with these people?
Is the PR industry using it?
Radio as we don't know it
The announcement of the latest Rajar figures is heralded as a great success for radio broadcasting by the broadcasters and the media. It is nothing of the sort.
Radio was dieing.
Then came the Internet
Then came that hackers and illegal file sharing folk
Then came light. Broadcasters found that MP3 was a friend, streaming Internet Protocol radio shows was a friend. The long tail is a friend.
They told the copyright lawyers to go away - well almost.
The shared their shows and find that digital radio is up, Podcasts are up, radio on TV's is up, Radio via mobile phones is up, listening via PC's is up.
Top programmes are up, niche programmes are up, listening to historic programming is up.
As the Independent put it: The digital revolution and the expansion of new ways of accessing information through the Internet has given a huge boost to one of the older and more traditional forms of electronic media - the radio.
There is one other angle. You can listen to the radio and do other things. It is great multitasking medium.
The research says that we we do things concurrently by switching from one task to another when we multi task so that is worth bearing in mind. This is not full and complete attention for much of the audience for much of the time.
PR practice has a big challenge, alongside the Rajar channels there are all the podcasts. Dozens of them.
Offering content both in terms of talking heads and ready made content is now a very definite part of the communication mix for PR.
Radio was dieing.
Then came the Internet
Then came that hackers and illegal file sharing folk
Then came light. Broadcasters found that MP3 was a friend, streaming Internet Protocol radio shows was a friend. The long tail is a friend.
They told the copyright lawyers to go away - well almost.
The shared their shows and find that digital radio is up, Podcasts are up, radio on TV's is up, Radio via mobile phones is up, listening via PC's is up.
Top programmes are up, niche programmes are up, listening to historic programming is up.
As the Independent put it: The digital revolution and the expansion of new ways of accessing information through the Internet has given a huge boost to one of the older and more traditional forms of electronic media - the radio.
There is one other angle. You can listen to the radio and do other things. It is great multitasking medium.
The research says that we we do things concurrently by switching from one task to another when we multi task so that is worth bearing in mind. This is not full and complete attention for much of the audience for much of the time.
PR practice has a big challenge, alongside the Rajar channels there are all the podcasts. Dozens of them.
Offering content both in terms of talking heads and ready made content is now a very definite part of the communication mix for PR.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Social Media stats keep comming in - and its good to talk
I have been commenting on the rise and rise of social media in the Internet firmament.
I noted Heather Hopkins contribution to this meme on Monday and added BBC news about the phenomenon in Google searches.
If PR really wants to offer an effect for its clients, these are the statistics that should be on the tip of the collective indutry's tounge.
Today Heather offers more evidence.
At the risk of taking her thunder here are some of her facts:
I noted Heather Hopkins contribution to this meme on Monday and added BBC news about the phenomenon in Google searches.
If PR really wants to offer an effect for its clients, these are the statistics that should be on the tip of the collective indutry's tounge.
Today Heather offers more evidence.
At the risk of taking her thunder here are some of her facts:
- Adult websites are down 20% in market share of UK Internet visits comparing December 2005 and December 2006.
- Gambling websites are down 11%.
- Music websites are down 18%
- Net Communities and Chat websites are up 34%.
- News and Media websites are up 24%.
- Search Engines are up 22%.
- Food and Beverage are up 29%.
- Education (driven by Wikipedia) is up 18%.
- Business and Finance up 12%.
- Search Engines (including Google) accounted for 35% of upstream visits in December, up 13% year on year.
- Net Communities and Chat accounted for 7% of upstream visits, up 64% year on year.
- News and Media accounted for 5% up 26% year on year.
Monday, January 29, 2007
Social media continues to take over
Some time ago I noted how social media is growing compared to traditional media. This post showed how social media page views and reach is dominating web evolution Now there is more evidence from Heather Hopkins at Hitwise. She reports that social media search is showing this evolutionary trend too. The BBC has noted the same effect in Google searches.
Social media is a critical area for PR development and we need to embrace it fast.
Social media is a critical area for PR development and we need to embrace it fast.
British companies seem reluctant to create their own web logs, but are they missing out on free exposure?
So asks The Independent and it is an indightment on the PR industry that it has not yet given UK business these tools!
The Indy article notes that "An internet search reveals the rapid growth in online blogging - web and marketing consultants, politicians, journalists, media companies, authors, academics and students are all heavily into blogs (or web logs - online diaries). But it is difficult to find small firms that blog outside of those in the internet and media industries."
So what's the problem guys? The CIPR could start with a more robust attitude I guess which is now down to the survey being conducted by Francis Ingham and it is up to you to make you voice heard.
The Indy article notes that "An internet search reveals the rapid growth in online blogging - web and marketing consultants, politicians, journalists, media companies, authors, academics and students are all heavily into blogs (or web logs - online diaries). But it is difficult to find small firms that blog outside of those in the internet and media industries."
So what's the problem guys? The CIPR could start with a more robust attitude I guess which is now down to the survey being conducted by Francis Ingham and it is up to you to make you voice heard.
Friday, January 26, 2007
New ePR book
This week David Meerman Scott released the second edition of "The New Rules of PR: How to Create a Press Release Strategy for Reaching Buyers Directly,". The second edition of the eBook features a foreword by David McInnis, CEO & Founder of PRWeb and social media expert.
Scott's new eBook provides communications and marketing people with tactics and techniques to take advantage of the new media landscape. It include:
* Optimizing your news release to achieve primary placement in search engines and news portals (SEO)
* Using online news distribution services to reach thousands of Web sites and blogs throughout the Web, and connect directly to your key audiences
* Leveraging interactive features including TrackBacks and tagging to encourage circulation in the social media space
* Developing content to attract key audiences and drive Web site traffic.
I like David's thinking and look forward to a good read.
Scott's new eBook provides communications and marketing people with tactics and techniques to take advantage of the new media landscape. It include:
* Optimizing your news release to achieve primary placement in search engines and news portals (SEO)
* Using online news distribution services to reach thousands of Web sites and blogs throughout the Web, and connect directly to your key audiences
* Leveraging interactive features including TrackBacks and tagging to encourage circulation in the social media space
* Developing content to attract key audiences and drive Web site traffic.
I like David's thinking and look forward to a good read.
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