I am speaking this week at the IAB’s seminar, demystifying online PR. It is interesting that in their blurb on the seminar they say…

Demystifying Online PR - Online PR has changed the roles of creative and PR agencies in a client’s communication strategies. This seminar is aimed at both – showing how you can combine an understanding of online as a powerful marketing channel as well as an appreciation of traditional public relations best practice.  With experts from the industry this event will provide a thorough introduction to the subject, share key case studies and illustrate how you can use online communities to spread your marketing message, monitor online commentary on a brand and distribute press materials online for the best results. 

The idea that online PR is another marketing channel is a common mistake. And completely forgivable. We all want to fit online PR in a box: to understand how it integrates with our other marketing and PR efforts. So it is easy to see why it has been billed this way.

But online PR and social media relations is unique. Why? Because it is the only medium in which your brand can be ‘marketed’ without you!

OK, maybe not marketed. But it is the only space where your advocates will shout and your detractors will shout louder! To approach the discipline with the intention of spreading a marketing message is to misunderstand the huge shift in brand ownership online.

It requires marketers to change their mindset completely. I often get asked to justify budgets against recognised online marketing ROI. Online agencies and brands want to push all online activity together and create metrics that work across the board. They want to compare online PR campaigns with ad campaigns, affiliate marketing, SEM.

But it doesn’t work that way. There are no comparisons for reputation in the blogosphere. No way to benchmark the feedback and loyalty you engender by being active in communities.  

Yes, online PR will drive traffic to your site, it will increase your visibility, done right it can also generate advocacy and positive sentiment. But it is a much more complex discourse. It requires greater integration with a company’s ethos, transparency, adaptability, and basically a change in marketing mindset, from pushing messages to starting dialogue.  

Technorati Tags: Online PR, social media, online marketing, blogosphere

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6.58pm – Broadcasting now on the goggle box is the BBC’s money programme – all about second life. But wait, if you are at a computer, you can see it in second life and if you miss that, you can see it again in second life at 8pm and 9pm.

I am the lady with no hair and purple eyes (can’t be bothered to fix it!). In real life I have hair and brown eyes (most dull)

Will blog later on whether it was any good….

Update: well the programme turned out to be pretty basic, but then I guess I should not be surprised. All that excitement for nothing.

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A rather clever idea by our friends over at Picture Production Company has just launched: a wiki for Fox’s Fantastic Four film release.

The idea is simple, viewers can change, edit and submit to the website in Wikipedia style. The base level content is everything you expect to find on a film site – background, trailers and more about the Marvel comics.

Without the need for registration, no one is accredited for adding to the site. And I wonder if this makes a difference. Do fans want to have their names associated with the film content? My gut feel is that they would love their names in lights – an ego thing!

It is also rather difficult to see what has been recently added. So looking through, it is impossible to asses whether fans have made a contribution yet. It seems the site has only just gone live so may take some time to develop. May really take off when the film launches in each country and the trailers and PR machines start up proper.

A quick check on Google shows that it already has 19 links from niche sites and bloggers. Technorati uncovers 30 sites linking to the URL and a good positive sentiment. One would hope that this increases as the film rolls out.

I have to say, I love the idea. It is participation, and relinquishing control of a brand, at its best. Created in multiple languages it allows for regional variations too. There is also a sister site that lets you download and grab games for your blog and website. A very cute way of ensuring the spread of information and branding across the web.

The bit that appears to be missing, and in all fairness might be in the pipeline, is alerting the blogosphere. A bit of relationship building with influencers would help spread the word. The conversation activity so far seems to be a bit organic and random. A general thumbs up from me though: great to see companies experimenting with wikis.

Technorati Tags: wiki, Wikipedia, participation, blogosphere

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A new corporate communications service has just launched, charging companies £300 a pop to respond to comment appearing online. By providing a ready, SEO-friendly platform, newscounter is hoping brands under fire will turn to them to get their message across.

Unfortunately, I think it misses the point entirely. Newscounter’s founders clearly have spotted the growing need for companies to manage their brand reputation online. But have missed the fact that there are more effective – and frankly cheaper – ways to achieve this.

A company blog offers everything that newscounter offers and more. If a blog has existed for an appropriate length of time, the number of links it collects from peers in the blogosphere ensures that it too is endearing to Google’s SEO spiders. Comment can also posted at will – for free.

However, the most important benefit is that a blog provides an opportunity for readers to post their own comments in response. And this is where newscounter really falls down. Aside from the prohibitive cost of £300 whenever a company wants to add something else to a certain debate, there is no mechanism to encourage and foster dialogue.

I find that these things often come down to natural common sense. If you think of a house party, with everyone discussing a topic in the living room, newscounter would be the equivalent of putting up a loud, brightly coloured poster in the dining room. Not in tone with the party atmosphere and easily disregarded. People might see if it every now and then through the French Doors, but will more than likely continue their own conversation regardless.

How loud a poster of course depends on newscounters’ success in the coming weeks. I suspect it may pale and fade quickly.

Technorati Tags: SEO, newscounter, company blog

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Digital marketing agencies are increasingly looking to tap into the conversation on social media. Those that have expanded beyond the marketing push are reaping the rewards and finding that buzz around online campaigns can dramatically shift perceptions, drive visitors and enhance objectives.

I am on a panel at the next BIMA Dialogue on the 24th May. Matt Morison of RMM chairs the panel discussion called, ‘Igniting buzz with social media relations and online PR’. I shall be sat alongside Mark Rogers at Market Sentinel and Dan Light at Picture Production Company.

They both have some amazing case studies to example. Mark’s are Avis and Intuit and Dan will show he engaged with bloggers for the Warner Bros release, 300. I am intrigued to see how he organised an advance preview screening of the movie for an audience of UK bloggers using PPC’s island on Second Life.

Me, well I shall be outlining the success of the Sony BRAVIA ‘Paint’ campaign that we managed last year. Already pretty full, I understand there are a few places left. So feel free to book a place on the BIMA website.

Technorati Tags: Digital marketing, social media, buzz, Market Sentinel, Second Life, Sony BRAVIA

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A roundtable from e-consultancy (declare: they are a partner) reveals that future thinking of some of the digital industry’s forward thinking players. What strikes me is that throughout the summary, there is constant referral to social media relations.

The obvious one,  is the statement that, ‘There is a blurring of the lines between SEO, social marketing and PR’

There has always been a close relationship between online PR and SEO (search engine optimisation), but what interests me is that this relationship is now extending across mobile, online advertising and behavioural marketing. It is not so much that this is explicit in the web 2.0 world, but that it is now being taken seriously. And not just as another ad/marketing channel; as a new level of engagement, a new discipline. Key points in the reports suggest

• There needs to be an understanding levels of influence in a certain thematic space and interaction with the online community
• There is lack of case studies around social media optimisation
• Behavioural marketing is becoming more tribal than demographic targeting
• Companies still think of their websites as a destination but the reality is that content and brands are being consumed in other places
• Companies have to accept that if they allow people to play with their brands, ‘some people will play rough’.

My question is: does that mean digital marketing companies are likely to team up with PRs in the know on social media, or are they going to start competing in this space. I would love the former, but my gut feel says it will be the latter.

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There are a profuse number of PR blogs. Checking out Technorati there are 13,431 PR blogs. I guess us PRs like to communicate. No surprises there then.

So you can imagine my fear in starting this blog. Awkward and self-conscious to say the least. I tried like mad to think of something witty to write. I dreamed that my first post would be a mix of intelligence, humour and philosophy, with some desperately insightful comment. But after two days thinking about it I stumbled upon the blog life cycle and realise I just needed to jump in with both feet (and because I can’t think of anything witty!).

Our plans for this blog are simple: Graham and I want to express our views, create pertinent observations and experiment a little with the blogosphere. Of course, a little linkbaiting/ link building is part of it, as is some sensible SEO, but actually this blog is just our way of doing what comes naturally to opinionated PR: debating! It is the conversation that we would like to engender, just for the joy of being part of the online PR community (you can tell I have been lurking much too long!)

(deep breath) So, welcome to the immediate future blog….

Technorati Tags: PR blogs

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