Tag: PR
The PR industry needs to establish Forum Interaction Guidelines
Being a digital planner you need to have your user stats straight as well as some cases. Both positive and negative. Today a case which most certainly will become a classic social media fake case was revealed, when forum users talking positively about Samsung products were found to be representatives from Swedish agency The Viral Company, who represent Samsung.
The forum users, who had disguised themselves with normal forum nicknames, had been found in several forums talking about both gaming, tv's and other topics relevant to Samsung.
We work with customer support for clients in forums, blogs and micro blogs by answering questions and trying to help, and we do this being transparent and open about who we are. Forum users are knowledgeable and critical towards organizations entering their forum, which makes it incredibly important that we keep the distance and our transparency to establish trust with the forum users.
This kind of "seeding" makes my work so much harder and ruins the reputation of all organisations working with a distributed digital presence. Just as we have created a blogger relations document I think we need to establish a Forum Interaction Guidelines.
- We will always be transparent when interacting with forums
- We will never break the rules of the forum
- We will only interact with the forum when needed
What else is needed?
Pers Värld revealed the story.
Media Culpa also posted about the story.
Update: Adland contacted Samsung who seem unaware of the forum spamming.
4 
Did I mention it is all about the details?
We think details make all the difference. This awesome donkey piñata is part of an activity that Jung carried out during this week.
Viva el Showroom blog!
9 steps to contact bloggers
I know the headline isn't too stylish, however blogger relations are still important.
The list on how to contact bloggers was put together some time ago. Today I pulled it out of the drawer for a client, and thought it would be a good idea to post it and see if I'd get any reactions.
PR people? Bloggers?
- Read the blog – are they interested in what you have to say?
- Read the About page – do they accept press releases or other kind of information?
- Find out how they want information delivered (e-mail, Twitter, etc)
- Send individual e-mails
- Be a person – not a brand
- Don’t fake your intentions, who you are or your relationship to the blog
- Be polite
- If they don’t answer, send one reminder – then stop
- If they do want information, find out what kind – press releases, event invitations, etc
Swedish digital marketing - one way, short-lived campaigns
Patrick Gardner, CEO at Perfect Fools, writes a column on adage saying that Swedish digital advertising is ahead, but that it has been about one way, short-lived campaigns focused on delivering the message.
I have seen lots of these kinds of campaigns without focus on engagement and dialogue, simply pushing a message through a flash-based campaign site. But I thought that the trend was moving towards two-way communication, not only from more PR focused agencies, but also from ad agencies.
Gardner also mentions creating business is a trend, saying that agencies are developing their own products, like jeans or software. I doubt this is the way to go for agencies, in the long run it will be hard finding ROI in putting your hours into your private projects only to shine.
Rather, I think creating business as a trend should be focusing more on sales, conversion rates and SEO.
US clothing company ruins their reputation in Sweden - IRL and online
The labor unions traditionally have a very strong position in Swedish society, and messing with them usually means that the famous s**t hits the famous fan. These days the flying remainders also creates ugly digital footprints.
It looks like US clothing company, Urban Outfitters, didn't do their home work before asking their employees to quit their jobs so that they could be re-hired through a temp agency.
Trying to work their way around Swedish work laws stirred up a big discussion and loads of upset people. It didn't take long before there was a Facebook group ("Shame on you Urban Outfitters") with 8,800 members.
Of course, media has written lots of articles on the topic as well. Not only will UO need to spend long hours to get their reputation back up, but also their SERP. Looking at the first page of the search for "Urban Outfitters" on Swedish Google, seven of the results are regarding the protests. Several of the sources are from top Swedish newspapers and will need some dedicated work to knock down.
Don't you ever bring a dull message
Delivering a message is an art form. And often times you see senders who believe a little too much in the strength of their story, resulting in dull messages.
This is not the case with this Australian school.
via @jahno
Confidence is everything
When the first guy gets the ball in mid-air his only thought is - "bicycle kick!" When the second guy gets the ball in mid-air his only thought is also "bicycle kick!"
Bicycle kicks is one hard move to make, but when you succeed it is darned pretty. The reason these guys think "bycycle kick" when others would think "retain" reads "confidence". They know they have a fair chance of hitting the goal with a bicycle kick, since this is the way they think, practice and play the game.
What goes through your mind when you get the ball in mid-air - "bicycle kick" or "retain"? Confidence reflects much of the work we do and goals like these aren't made by people who retain.
Stop Talking About Social Media
Even though I think Seth Godin is brilliant I tend to get a bit tired of his quite preaching style. However, when he's brief I enjoy it. Like when he says Make a decision.
It doesn't have to be a wise decision or a perfect one. Just make one.
I'd like to apply that thought to social media - because I think it is time to stop talking about why companies should use it and start doing it. I admit I am guilty of having talked about it, but I am trying to quit.
Rather than talking, teaching, preaching about possible strategies and benefits, let's focus on ideas and conducting them. Sure, there are really smart projects being conducted within social media, and sure, there are still things that need explaining.
But I am certain there could be a whole lot more fun social media projects if we'd just stop talking and start doing.
What Amount of Information Sells?
I'm invited to speak at the 2009 IPRA Summit in London on the 30th of October. I really look forward to talking (on the topic "PR 2.0 or How to create a buzz on internet?") and meeting with the great speakers line up.
Talking about the line up – we were all asked to provide a "short bio". I interpreted "short" quite literally, and being the humble person that I am that meant two sentences. The other bios being a lot longer makes mine stand out a bit.
But is it good or bad? Does it make me look more interesting or less experienced? I think this is a case that can be applied to a lot of PR situations, press releases for instance.
How Not to Pick a Name for a Joint Venture
Photo: Thomas Hawk
Nigeria's state-run gas company NNPC and Russian Gazprom formed a joint venture last week. And guess what name they chose for the JV. From BBC:
The new firm, to be called Nigaz, is set to build refineries, pipelines and gas power stations in Nigeria.
I had to do some serious searching before daring to blog this. Maybe Russian or Nigerian April Fools is late in June?
Via @jimmsy
Do You Care About the Details?
Caring about the details is often what makes a marketing initiative fly or crash. I found the above picture on Swedish online market place, Blocket, in an ad for a couch. I have a hunch this one won't fly.
The PR Agency Needs to be Digitally Transformed
Photo: thatliz
I read an interesting post on my good friend Jerry Silfwer's blog (Swedish), where he pasted a comments thread with Christan Rudolf on the blog Disruptive (Swedish) about the state of PR and SEO. The three of us have been discussing the issue on both their blogs, so I figured I'd share my thoughts.
SEO is becoming a more and more important part of PR. If digital PR work is done without SEO it won't be found, and as Christian says "SEO is social - it is all about keeping a conversation", which is where PR comes in.
I am personally quite certain that most (if not all) PR agencies will need SEO skills inhouse, actually they already need it. PR agencies also need skills within digital strategy, digital creative as well as moving image.
Don't get me wrong, PR isn't going to be only digital, but almost all campaigns will be digitally integrated and to be able to create meaningful campaigns you need to be really close to all things digital.
Today lots of agencies focus on the strategic parts, which means advising clients on how to do things, but not necessarily what to do and most often not actually producing the project. Agencies will of course be able to use partners outside of the company, but I don't think it is the right way to go.
Finally, a list of questions to ask your agency to check how digitally transformed they are:
- What should my company do in PR to enhance SEO?
- Could you show me your top three digital projects?
- Can you show me a technological tool that you developed, be it for internal or external use?
- I heard social media is measurable – what do you think?
Are these relevant questions? What other questions should be asked?