Which online videos are popular?

Scott Button, of Unruly Media in London, called his four-week-old project "the world's first comprehensive and independent online video chart." The Viral Video Chart, a hit parade tracking the most popular videos on YouTube, MySpace and Google Video is worth a look. Thanks for knowledge to BL Ochman who has more about the results - beam me up Scottie.

The point being that if you see what is popular, you may like to include similar content in your work.

Issues blogging

A WILMSLOW dad has set up a boozers’ blog. Says the Wimslow Express.

The website for fellow drinkers to exchange views about local pubs and bars is a reaction to the police pubwatch scheme - which he claims is one sided.

Harry Bingley, of Church Street, set up the discussion site ‘pubs4people.com’ for people to chat about their experiences of Wilmslow’s pubs and clubs on the web.

The 50-year-old former marketing consultant says it is a reaction to the changing nature of the town’s pubs and clubs.

He hopes his website will redress the power balance of schemes like pubwatch and encourage publicans to think more about the views of the paying punter.

He said: "I recently saw a joke cartoon in the newspaper where a man was banned from a pub for smiling after happy hour - that just about sums it up for me."

This is the kind of site that is worth watching. It is the sort of blog that could become popular and so, for some organisations being involved in conversations relevant to this blogger may be interesting and advantageous.

Brand messages down on the farm

Among some constituents there is a common affinity that it just creates content.
The magazine Farmers Weekly has a blog running where farmers can comments on how well they are getting on with this autumn's drilling (that is planing seeds for you townies).

The latest news is here.

One of the interesting things to note is the branding that goes with it. Seed types are brands and many are specific to seedsmen. In this blog they get coverage (Google Juice).

PS, the winter wheat is now sown in the field behind us here in Wiltshire. The got it in yesterday just before it rained and rained and is still raining.

My girlfriend bit my foot - celebs in the news

Spongebob has a blog. He is a celebrity Squirrel Monkey, cute and with many adventures to tell. Not least that his girlfriend bit his foot.... you could not make it up ... Unless you were Freddie Star's publicist.

Spongebob went missing from the theme park and zoo in July but was later found being played with by children in Clapham. He had been kidnapped.

What a great way to build a brand and bring visitors to see this charming celebrity. More from the BBC.

Playing Public Relations games

Ryan Gilbey uses this phrase in his article 'A Right Royal failure' in the New Statesman.

In their refusal to play the public relations game, the Windsors create an opportunity for Blair to nip in quick and claim the glory.

Of course it is nothing of the sort.

Public Relations 'games' are practice session in Business Schools. In real life public relations is there to create effective relationships between organisations and their constituency.

One might ask in analysis of the film based on the death of Diana 'The Queen' (15) which of the players has, in the long run, the best public relations The Royal family or Mr Tony Blair.

You see Mr Gilbey, public relations goes to the heart of the organisation and the fluffy bit, the bit that journalists see; the bit that marketing people so often use is mostly of peripheral consequence.

Like most journalists, Mr Gilbey, you have been succored into believing the spin of your colleagues, fluffy bunnies, marketing people and Tony Blair.

An even bigger boooooom

Websites that offer users the chance to express themselves - whether by sharing their latest home videos or editing encyclopedia entries on obscure Japanese anime - are reaping the rewards in spades, research has found and reported in Silicon.com

Sites championing user-generated content have seen a significant leap in traffic on the year ago period, according to statistics from research company comScore - and several are now among the top 50 UK web property rankings.

Social Media makes money. Go get it.

How news moves between media

This is an actual case study.

The first parts of the story were published in online sites, then came the major newspapers: New York Times, Chicago Tribune, LA Times with their coverage. Their stories then helped spark the interest of TV and radio news crews.

It is about the events that surrounded the Foremski family and their uncovering of dark deeds on the Internet.

There are lessons to be learned in all sorts of directions here.

PR Boom Boom

The Guardian's Katie Allen believes its boom time in PR. She writes: In the wake of recent bad press for big names such as Cadbury and Thames Water, companies are waking up to the importance of "reputation management", fuelling a boom in the public relations industry.

Managing reputation is not about public relations it is about managing managers. If the PR person (corp affairs person, comms officer or other description that avoids the words 'public relations') is not facing down managers who should have been put out to grass with Stalin, then they are not doing their job.

So this 'Boom' is built on a fallacy and PR managers who are not gutsy enough to sit in on the board and other meeting and stir the waters.

The other boom has to be teased out of this quote:

The chief executive of Chime, Christopher Satterthwaite, said most companies were taking public relations more seriously as a result of advances in technology.

"If we live in the information age when anybody can find out virtually anything about any individual, any brand, any corporation, then the need to manage your reputation to me is so self evident that not to do so is corporately irresponsible," he said.

note the words 'advances in technology' - THAT is where the boom really is.

The reason I say this is that the online community is already disrupting the organisations (e.g. if you sell on-line you have systems that allow you to. This is the Internet audience changing the organisation for more about this see my lecture) it forces transparency and it makes organisations more porous.

It also means PR has to be the arm of the company that drives this area of activity.

So: Boom Boom!

A scam, or just another list?

Below is a list of PR firms that maintain blogs it says here. It goes on to say: 'Please note that this list is meant to only include official PR firm blogs. Please only list blogs that are directly affiliated with PR firms. We welcome the listing of PR firms of all sizes on this list.

This is a little wizz by the Bivings Group and you might like to check them out before wasting too much time because I there seems to be no reason to do it that I can see except to drive traffic to thier white papers .....

Message to feignt hearts - don't hide information

There ought to be a law that says “Information tends to go corrupt when hidden, and tends to corrupt those who participate in the process of hiding the information,” says JP Rangaswami.

We waste so much in the procurement process for the same reasons. We don’t use the tools we have to discover what’s out there. We don’t make the process a participative one. We make it worse by allowing the tenderers better access to the requirements than anyone else. I’m confused.

As with wikipedia and with the celebrity blogs, there will always be vandals, some in the interests of art, some in the interests of “freedom”, some for the heck of it.

But you don’t shut down record stores because Banksy makes a statement about Paris Hilton.

You don’t shut down museums because Marcel Duchamp puts a moustache on a copy of La Gioconda.

>So why do we do this? Why do we have so much fear of perfect information? So much so we blame the tools, the people, everything.

If you need to build a case for persevering, start here.

Wigets make sense

In the early days of the Internet, most companies would create a destination website, wait for users to show up, and then make money from the advertisements. Now they use widgets to reel users in. Consider a typical MySpace user's page, studded with widgets that pull from video goliath YouTube or photo services such as Slide. Everyone's a winner here: MySpace, because it becomes stickier; YouTube and Slide, because they get the traffic; and the user, because he or she gets it all on one page.

To learn more about this see what Om Malik has to say and add imagination.

Small businesses on the map

Google and Intuit agreed today to let all the small business owners who use Quickbooks automagically list their businesses on Google Maps, manage Adwords campaigns and post items to Google Base from within Quickbooks, says Eric Schonfeld. This is a must for all those small companies and smaller clients to help them gain effective presence in thier locality.

All in a days work

Shel Holtz makes a very good case for Public Relations people to be responsive to the medium they use. In his case he is talking about blogs. He says: There is an expectation in the blogosphere—and not an unreasonable one—that bloggers will check their blogs frequently and clear out their comment moderation queues quickly in order to keep the dialogue fresh and current. As businesses expand their presence in the blogosphere, they appear to be doing so at corporate speeds, not blog speeds. That’s a mistake. The blogosphere will not adapt to the pace of business.

I guess that if a PR person forgot to call journalist back they would suffer sanctions. So what is the difference?

New podcaster facility

A new opportunity for podcasters to market their content creation and technical production skills has just arrived in the form of an offer presented by Voices.com, a web service dedicated to giving everyone with a voice the ability to be found, listened to, and hired for podcasting and voice over work.

Meanwhile, the Independent reports BT is launching a podcasting service to give the nation a platform to show off its talents (or lack of) by making videos and audio clips available on a new internet service. The telecoms giant has teamed up with US PodShow Network to provide the service, to be available to all UK internet users.

Bebo on the market?

while its one thing to see people talk about Bebo because its cool, the number of suits talking about it tells a different story. The latest one is here.

BT and the BBC must have run a ruler over it already and the hype is about price not functionality.

Here is an idea by Yahoo and Intel

Yahoo and Intel are teaming up to pipe sports statistics to TV screens, targeting fans who devour data about real-world players to manage their fantasy teams, Reuters reports.

The deal helps the Internet media giant expand away from the computer screen to the TV screen, while the world's top chipmaker aims to showcase the benefits of its Viiv initiative aimed at making the PC a hub for home media and entertainment.

But think of the other applications. Imagine being able to add PR messages to TV screens.........

Blog wiki combo

David Tebbutt is excited about about BEA's moves into the Social Computing and its "upcoming blog/wiki combo (called Builder)."

David knows about these things.

He says BEA will make sure that theirs is tightly integrated to organisational computer systems, giving the ability to surface material from these systems right up to the wiki, for example. Another element, called Runner, will provide access control and audit trails.

So if you need to implement a Blog/wiki corporate programme, have a look.

WPP storming the social media?

WPP has continued its online spending spree, leading a $2m round of funding in internet marketing for its LiveWorld acquisition e-consultancy reports.

The move comes after WPP and LiveWorld formed a joint venture in July, with both firms saying they have seen growing demand for marketing services focusing on online communities.

LiveWorld has developed social networking applications such as blogs and messageboards for firms including MTV Latin America and eBay.

"In less than two months since announcing the LiveWorld-WPP joint venture, we have already closed new community marketing programs with major brands," said Mark Read, strategy director, WPP and CEO of wpp.com.

BT is getting into content and out of satellites

The Guardian says BT is launching an online "social media network" that will combine elements of the video site YouTube with clips and shows from the entertainment and music industry.

The site, called BT PodShow, is being launched as a partnership with the 18-month-old US-based PodShow.

BT is looking for content if you have some and the is a green eye element cast in the direction of MySpace.

The website is being positioned as a hybrid between the likes of MySpace and YouTube and fulfilling the online aims of traditional companies such as MTV and ITV.

Meanwhile, the BBC says that three-quarters of staff at the largest satellite communications station in the world could lose their jobs after BT said it planned to scale down the site.

Ninety of the 120 workers at Goonhilly, in Cornwall, could lose their jobs or be redeployed, as satellite operations are moved to Madley, in Herefordshire.

I just wish it would provide me with a high speed connection without the packaging, fluff and hard disc junk.

One thing we can be sure, if BT can charge more for the Madley 'pipe' they will just as soon as the wreckers leave Goonhilly.

Internet Mediated Public Relations - the building of strategies

Introduction

This is a story about two puppies. They are siblings and cute. They inspired this article.



It is also about social media and Royal Canin. Royal Canin is a dog food.

Yesterday, there was a blog post about Royal Canin in the 'Hotdog blog ' it said: "Well I have tried Blue (puppy formula) none of my 2 puppies even touched it. They put one in their mouth, spit it out and that was it.. it stayed there untouched. No matter how I try, they just won't eat it. So I stick with Royal Canin (puppy, small) since the vet was recommending that one anyways."

This citizen endorsement will be available for anyone seeking information about this dog food for years.

There is another post which references a press release which says: Royal Canin is a world leader in Pet Nutrition (www.royalcanin.ca) specializing in high quality foods for dogs and cats including breed specific foods for …

This is another post that will be available for anyone seeking information about this dog food for years.

There is little doubt about which is the more powerful statement.

The statements that endorse the product are very evident in post after post.

"Royal Canin has done a lot of research in the development of their pet food," said Vicky Jones, who co-owns Petland in Murfreesboro with her husband, Bob Hyde. The couple, both veterinarians, re-opened the store in March, and sales have exceeded their expectations. "Geared to be breed-specific, there are foods for Chihuahuas, (Yorkshire terriers), shih tzus and others. Royal Canin is really giving Science Diet a run for its money."

"So, on Derek's suggestion (Derek is my gay boyfriend/dog trainer buddy, if you don't recall) I'm giving Royal Canin a shot. He swears by it."

"Royal Canin is really giving Science Diet a run for its money.”

Different aproaches to advertising

If you compare these statements with, for example, an advertisement or a sponsorship programme there are many differences.

The blog posts

• The first is the authenticity of the voices. There are people endorsing and recommending the product.
• Second is how inexpensive this promotion was (free).
• Third, and this is key, they will remain available to people seeking information about the product for years to come. Its half life goes on and on and on.
• People seek this information in their time, when they want it and in a form that they want.
  

An advertisement

• The language of the company
• Expensive
• A life of a few days at most.
• Interferes with people's interests and lives when they don't really want it, have little current need and is disruptive.
  

Technically, we are talking about the value of 'the long tail' and the value of user generated content.

There is a need to build a strategy (see below) but we learn from the above that, with sympathetic engagement with ambassadors such as those above, we can lever the value of this endorsement a lot.

It has the advantage that it will be online for a long time and because we can engage such people, if only by offering a 'thank you' comment to their posts, we increase the google juice of their posts and our own web site. ROI is high and is measurable (links are assets ).

Optimising a blog (or wiki) post by adding empathetic comment, linking it to other blog and wiki posts and effective search engine optimisation, tagging, trackback and RSS implementation can increase the value of comment considerably. The investment in time and effort has a long 'half life'. The difference between issuing a release to the press and a blog post is that press comment has little by way of longevity but blogs (and press comment online) has a long life . What is important to know is that if its on-line it is cumulative.

Organisations that are not building a significant presence online now will have to race to catch up or they will be swamped by the sheer size of the presence of competitors.

There is one other issue. People who do not see (search for, don't have access to the web etc) are not excluded from these conversations. A person who offers a post and gets a comment, will talk about it to friends and family - even total strangers - and a greater affinity is developed. Of course, they might even spread the word by email, IM or other means as well.

Compared to an advertisement (seen today and forgotten tomorrow) online relationship building (always there, personal and human) online interaction is very powerful and is much less costly.

Building the strategy

Let's suppose our aim is to provide presence that aids development of market share for the product (I can't keep on promoting a dog food - even if our puppies do like it a lot and it keeps them fit).


How, then would we build a public relations strategy ?

Working with a team (that could be a in a range of locations) using project management software a range of interactive tools and knowledge management facilities (that need not cost a great deal).

• We need to articulate our vision

• What do we do best. What do we like to do, what do we want to achieve. (remember, it has to be authentic. It is the building block for the whole approach). Perhaps we are best at creating the right formula product, we like to manufacture and distribute it so that everyone can enjoy its benefits.

• We need to develop a knowledge base.

• Our company, its people, products, processes, stakeholders , users and their interests.
• The events and activities we endorse, sponsor and why.
  
• The third parties we work with and are involved with and why.
• The content of the conversations about our organisation, products and service (what do people like to talk about)
  
• The empathetic and mutual interest between constituents and the company (what do we like to talk about that our constituency also like to talk about.
• Identify dissonance
  
• We need to articulate our objectives
  • Articulate the benefits
  • Create presence
  • Build credibility through broad engagement of our stakeholders
    
  • Involve our active, aware and latent publics
  • Resolve dissonance
    
  • Deliver ROI in the short, say, three months, and long term over a period of, say, 12 months through consumer involvement
    
    • Mobilise our stakeholders in support of the company, its products and partners
      
    • Directly and indirectly involve our consumer audience which is a broad constituency (age, sex, income, location etc).
    • Encourage our consumer audience to consider us when they think about or are discussing dogs
      
    • Address dissonant issues for that proportion of our consumer audience and stakeholders that are expose to them
      

• We need to articulate our strategy
  • Timescale
  • Platforms and channels
  • Methods for optimising empathy
• We now have to undertake risk analysis
  • Cost, time opportunity threat of platforms and channels
  • Opportunity/threat in change in importance, influence and attitudes of stakeholder
    
• Analise cost benefits (advertising v PR; sponsorship v Social Media etc)
  • Corporate and product brand risk/benefitRelative effectiveness
  • Time to be effective
  • Cost
  • Investment
  • Key performance indicators (time cost effect)
• Create tactical campaign brief
  • Key (SMART) objectives
    
  • Milestones
  • Actions
    
  • Responsibilities
• Approvals and reporting
• Implement.
  

Online PR is not as easy as it sounds, it is definitely not something to be done lightly.

On the other hand using corporate speak and scream marketing is dangerous, even fatal.

The rewards for PR are enough to make a puppy wag its tail