Google+ pages toujours dans les starting blocks

Depuis une semaine Google a annoncé la sortie de Google + pages. Une façon pour les entreprises, les marques et les organisations d’utiliser officiellement Google + pour se connecter avec les consommateurs. Bravo ! Avons-nous envie de dire, mais dommage : ce n’est pas encore prêt pour les entreprises.

Facebook nous a déjà montré la voie depuis plusieurs années : un outil stable, puissant avec des fonctionnalités progressant régulièrement et relativement cohérentes. Les défauts ne manquent pas mais c’est devenu un outil majeur, qu’aucun professionnel de la communication visant le grand public ne peut se permettre de ne pas considérer. Google, très fort pour copier ce qui se fait de mieux dans le domaine, semble lui s’être arrêté au milieu du gué.

Voyons rapidement les éléments manquants :

Google ne permet pas à plusieurs administrateurs de gérer une page, ce qui signifie qu’une seule personne peut gérer une entreprise ou une marque sur Google +. C’est le défaut le plus rédhibitoire à mes yeux et qui n’est pas prêt d’être résolu car  les plans de Google d’après Carter Gibson n’incluent la possibilité d’inclure cette fonctionnalité qu’à partir du 1er trimestre 2012. Certes il existe tout de même une possibilité pour contourner cela : créer une adresse email dédiée et partager les identifiants avec ses collègues. Pas très pratique tout de même et cela demande de gérer encore une adresse email supplémentaire.

La possibilité d’organiser des concours ou des promotions est interdite. On peut tout de même mentionner l’existence du concours mais son organisation doit être hébergée sur un site dédié tierce. Je ne comprends toujours pas ce que craignent Facebook et Google en permettant cette option.

Passons outre le fait que Google n’ait même pas pris la peine d’intégrer ses propre outils que ce soit d’analyse comme Google Analytics, de blog (Blogger) sans même parler de YouTube. Ce qui est encore plus gênant c’est l’absence de l’audience. Plus de 23 millions d’internautes français sur Facebook, combien sur G+ ? Les chiffres ne sont pas encore là mais cela ne doit certainement pas dépasser le million, sans doute beaucoup moins.

Attention mon propos n’est pas de dire que Google+ n’apportes rien, loin de là. Je constate juste que l’outil n’est pas encore prêt pour être intégré dans nos stratégies de communication. Evidement le monde tournant à la vitesse que l’on sait, l’histoire ne sera pas la même dans 3 mois. Du moins je l’espère !

Facing the challenges of social media: managing the crisis

Everyone talks about the great opportunities that social media offers to engage with customers in new ways. But, there’s another side to the story that’s less appealing.

Recent research shows the social media crises are on the rise and it seems businesses are unprepared. The good news is that 76% of the crises examined in the report could have been prevented had the brand been prepared to respond. According to the same research the top three reasons for the crises were lack of internal social media education, absence of professional staff to monitor and handle social media issues and lack of an emergency plan.

These results clearly demonstrate that despite the buzz around social media brands are not confident about using the medium when it comes to crisis situations. So how can businesses get the most out of social media and ensure they can effectively handle a potential crisis?

Taking social media seriously is maybe the most important advice to be given when it comes to managing social media crisis. Underestimating the power of the medium can have damaging consequences for the business.  Monitoring social media regularly and developing an effective strategy that enables companies to deliver a consistent message across all communication channels is a necessary step in reducing the potential damage of such an event.

Having dedicated staff to handle social media issues is also a good way to ensure that your business will be better prepared to react effectively in an emergency situation. Another important step to consider is using the social media channel to choose the direction of your social media strategy in a crisis situation. Monitoring the reaction of your target audience for example could provide organisations with useful tips on how public opinion is changing and help them select the most appropriate course of action.

Powerpoint : ca suffit !

Tout est parti d’une petite remarque anodine lancée par un client à la fin d’un bilan de 6 mois. Pour ceux qui ne sont pas familiers avec cette pratique ce bilan est l’occasion de faire un point en profondeur sur toutes nos activités de relations presse et media sociaux, et de préparer au mieux notre travail pour les 6 mois suivants. « Le problème avec PowerPoint c’est  que cela encadre trop notre manière de penser. » Sur le moment j’étais un peu ahuri : « Comment ? On s’attaque au sacro saint support de toute présentation en entreprise mais c’est un crime de lèse majesté ! » Quelques recherches plus tard je dois toutefois me rendre à l’évidence PowerPoint est de plus en plus attaqué. Non seulement la slide PowerPoint uniformiserait et simplifierait trop la pensée mais en plus elle empêche le débat d’idée. Le général américain James Mattis va jusqu’à affirmer que PPT nous rend stupide. Ok, ok j’ai bien compris. Et maintenant que fait-on ? Moi je veux justement dynamiser l’échange avec mes clients afin de provoquer l’étincelle créatrice. Je me suis donc mis à la recherche de nouveaux outils pour présenter nos résultats à nos clients. Vous avez de la chance je vous épargne tous mes essais et erreurs dans la quête de ce graal !!!!

Voici un petit florilége de mes outils préférés :

• Mindmanager (ou FreeMind : version gratuite et opensource du même logiciel) : pour ceux qui connaissent j’entends déjà vos commentaires : « Ce n’est pas un outil de présentation mais de brainstorm ». C’est vrai mais cela permet d’articuler ses idées de façons nouvelles, de créer des liens entre les éléments et aussi de mettre en place une scénographie dépaysante.  Maintenant il ne faut pas trop utiliser cet outil car sa rigidité de structure devient lassante.
• Prezi : ca, c’est un outil bluffant ! Son principe : c’est un outil en ligne qui permet de zoomer et dézoomer parmi les éléments de sa présentation. En gros on met tous les éléments (texte, photos, vidéos, …) dont on souhaite parler sur une immense page blanche et on construit son parcours d’une manière incroyablement intuitive. Attention au mal de mer toutefois. Les premières fois on a tendance à vouloir jouer avec tous les éléments et l’audience peut être indisposée très rapidement aux mouvements de rotation et de zoom trop rapides que l’on a mis en place. Attention la version gratuite du logiciel oblige de le laisser libre d’accès sur le serveur de Prezi. N’importe qui peut donc y accéder : eviter d’y mettre des données confidentielles.
• Tableau Public : mon jouet du moment ! Cet outil extrêmement puissant permet de représenter les données sous des tableaux  et des schémas interactifs. Plus on lui donne des données, plus il est content ! Du coup cela révèle des tendances qu’on était très loin d’imaginer au départ. On peut même représenter les éléments sur une carte géographique si cela à un sens. Non c’est vraiment très bien.

Pour conclure, malgré tout ce que j’ai dit avant, PowerPoint c’est quand même pratique il faut bien l’avouer mais il existe de nombreuses alternatives qui méritent d’être connues. Et vous quels sont les vôtres ?

Is Britain fed up with Facebook?

With roughly half the UK population signed up to Facebook, there is no question that the social networking phenomenon has taken the country by storm. But with reports of a notable decline in user numbers in the UK as well as in the US, it would seem that our fascination is starting to fade. So what is potentially fuelling the decline?

Some people believe that Facebook has simply reached the natural limit of people who want to be engaged with social networking in the UK. Others seem to think that the eagerly anticipated Facebook iPad app will put user numbers back on track when launched. I would suggest that some of the main contributing factors to ‘Facebook fatigue’ could include the following:

• Worthwhile new features need to be added to keep users engaged
• Some people are beginning to reject the notion of giving up their privacy in exchange for non-stop communication
• Social networking can be addictive and waste too much of our time
• Facebook has been spending too much time focusing on developing countries, and neglecting established user bases in the process

Whether it reaches its goal of one billion users, or goes the way of Myspace over the next few years, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for the World’s biggest social networking service. Or will the Chinese buy it first?

Has social media killed off the postcard?

I don’t know about you but the news of the demise of the traditional postcard is quite sad, if a little unsurprising. Sending a postcard home was once a staple of the family holiday, letting family know how you were despite knowing they would receive it long after seeing you and your sunburn in person.

Any post that isn’t a bill or junk mail actually makes my day. It shows someone’s gone out of their way to think of you, it has the personal touch so often lost with the internet or a text.

According to a report out last week Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have killed off the novelty of sending a postcard home to loved ones. Surveying 2,000 people, travel firm ebookers found four in ten people no longer send postcards when on holiday.

With the ease of new media and despite high charges for using WAP on your phone abroad, one in two Britons admit to checking and updating social networks or email when on holiday. Despite half of people who check or update social networks while on holiday confessing they think it’s a waste of their time, as many as two thirds admit to spending two hours or more doing so. It seems we can no longer bear to be out of the loop for even a week without feeling disconnected and aloof.

Newspapers can thrive in a social media world

When the Guardian tweeted  on Wednesday evening about it’s live blog for that evening’s Apprentice show, it demonstrated very clearly how newspapers can embrace social media and use it to their advantage.  Forget print (long-term), integrating social media and using it, is how newspaper brands are going to survive and prosper.  By blogging about the Apprentice live, the Guardian is extending its influence and value and role as a commentator. It’s true that the Guardian understood the power of social media globally early on and embraced it with open arms. I really do hope it propers especially with its new digital first strategy announced recently.

Coincidently, Twitter has also been talking about the influence of social media in newspapers this week.   Twitter has recognized that it has become an invaluable tool for the media when it comes to finding  and sharing stories,  so it has now released a guide that shows journalists how to best use the tool in their daily work. ‘Twitter for Newsrooms,’ has no new info particularly but the fact that Twitter has launched an official guide for journalists is indicative of how social media sources make the news now.

Facebook has also recently undertaken a similar initiative, launching a Page for journalists on Facebook, intended to be a resource for journalists who want to incorporate social media into their reporting, networking and storytelling. The social network also kicked off a journalists’ meetup programme.

It’ll be interesting to see how social media tools and newspapers continue to integrate for the benefit of all. It’s a revolution and it sure is changing everything fast.

Going for gold with Olympic campaigns

With just under 400 days to go until the London Olympics Games kick-off, marketing activity by the official sponsors have stepped up a gear. Though the majority of us will have to watch the games from the sofa having failed to secure tickets, this hasn’t stopped the marketing machine ramping things up with numerous events and announcements hitting the press in the last few weeks. Here are some campaigns that caught my eye:

Boasting that this will be the most ‘content rich’, and ‘connected’ Olympic games in history, Samsung  has set its sights on making 2012 the ‘Smart Games’. The tech firm is on the hunt for 60 Samsung Mobile Explorers. Each will be given  smartphones and tasked with sharing their own experiences of the Olympics through social media as online ambassadors for the brand.

Similarly, Coca-Cola  is in search of young and inspiring torchbearers for their Future Flames competition. If you have a burning passion and a life-changing story, the judging panel – which includes rapper Dizzee Rascal – can get you on the torch relay.  BA on the other hand are after not one, but three great Britons. Create a pieces of art, film or a menu using the games as inspiration and you can get mentored by Tracey Emin, Heston Blumenthal or Richard E Grant. Not bad.

Given the lead time, it’s understandable that the majority of activity to date has been competition-based.  As we near the opening ceremony,  I can’t wait to see what else the cunning PRs have up their sleeves. Assuming we don’t experience a fiasco on par with the ticket allocations, I’m sure there’ll be more to come.

10 Top Tips for the Perfect PR Press Trip

It’s not just all about social media. Some of the original ‘tactics’ still have a worthy place in campaigns and the PR industry is famous for organising press trips. It sounds very glamorous, and it definitely can be, but it should always be rewarding and fun for those that go. Whether it’s for building media relations or securing a fantastic piece of coverage, press trips need to be remembered for all of the right reasons. At onechocolate we’re lucky enough to host press trips on a regular basis and, as such, thought we’d share some of our nuggets of wisdom with you:

1. Invite people who you think will not only enjoy the trip, but will also get on with other people – to help create a good atmosphere
2. Be very organised – eg have everyone’s contact details and make sure everyone has your number in case there’s a problem
3. Do remind guests if they need to bring something eg a valid passport, swimming trunks (people sometimes forget)
4. Keep things simple eg arrange a reasonable meet-up time and obvious meeting point
5. Don’t push press releases constantly at your guests, it’s annoying and will probably irritate them
6. Make sure your client is briefed properly
7. Set your client’s expectations for the trip
8. Be nice, courteous, calm and helpful – if you’re in control, it will rub off on others
9. Do enjoy a drink with journos and clients if the occasion arises – but remember you’re working
10. Have fun!

What’s the influence of social media on PR and journalist relationships?

A recent survey analysing the rise of social media within journalism caught my eye. Over 900 journalists were surveyed by Darly Willcox Publishing and the results have been analysed in a white paper by FT journalist Martin Stabe.

According to the survey, 75% of journalists claim social media is important for their work with 90% using it more than they did a year ago.

But what got me most interested was what the survey has to say about the effect of social media on how PR professionals and journalists interact.

A finding of the report is that ‘communicating with PR professionals currently has a relatively insignificant role in journalists’ use of social media. What’s more 44% of journalists believe  PR professionals aren’t making the most of the medium.

Reasons cited included some PR professionals failing to understand the need to build genuine relationships using social media, and lack of resources to respond quickly to journalists.

Working in PR, the value social media is immeasurable. We take pride in developing and maintaining relationships with journalists but traditional methods of contact remain essential. That’s what PRs said in the same survey with use of email and phone significantly exceeding contact by social media. Of the social media PRs use most to communicate with the media.

Social media is paramount in keeping engaged with journalists yet unless combined with traditional communications, from picking up the phone, to face to face drinks, no amount of Tweeting someone would be effective. It is all about maintaining the right balance of new and traditional ways of engaging the press.

Connected Devices take over the World!

Future-gazing usually ends up with visions of everyone doing the shopping in flying cars or taking a holiday on the Moon with their robo-dog. Never turns out that way but a vision of a world dominated by tiny intelligent machines that know everything about you and are constantly talking with one another is coming true or so Cisco would have us believe.

Their  recent survey caught my eye because it seems that by 2015 there will be more Internet connected devices on the planet than people. In fact, 15 billion devices or twice the world’s human population. We’re going to be outnumbered by devices in a way that the car or the TV never achieved (though there are some techy obstacles like a looming shortage of IP addresses that we need to fix)

And this forecast of being surrounded by connected devices  seems rooted in reality. Mobiles are almost an additional body part, never leaving our grasp and more likely to be in our hand than our pocket. We constantly want to touch them and check our connectivity more often than we actually ever check our pulse rate.

From a communications perspective, the opportunities to engage with people seem limitless because we are so connected.

But then again the fact that we’re living with so much readily available connectivity intensifies the need for communications that are highly personal and stand out from the crowd.