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.

Social media sites are walking all over UK laws

To say that our current laws and jurisdictions can’t cope with global social media sites is becoming more and more self-evident with the latest football scandal which escalated over the weekend. Whilst the name of the  footballer was revealed via Twitter and abroad,  the English media were enforced by the injunction to stay schtum. It’s clear that our laws will need to be changed to embrace our new global world of communication and social media.
Whilst said famous footballer tried to obtain a High Court order asking Twitter to reveal details of users who had revealed his identity, legal experts claim it was doomed to failure because the High Court in London has no jurisdiction in California where Twitter is based.
There was an avalanche of online publicity with 100s of Tweeters repeating his name which was further reinforced when the Today programme, BBC Radio 4’s flagship current affairs show appeared accidentally to reveal the footballer’s identity – BBC correspondents then tweeted his name making matters worse.  As the Scottish Sunday Herald also revealed his name, it’s quite clear that the our global world that shares news online cannot be restricted by injunctions.  The law needs to be modernised because enforcing injunctions and controlling the media can’t last.

Mobile: the next big thing in Marketing and PR

The number of people accessing the internet via mobile devices may reach 1 billion by 2014, meaning mobile will overtake the PC as the most popular way to get on the Web. At the same time, more users will be consuming mobile apps with the mobile app market reaching $8.3 billion in 2014 compared to $3.8 billion forecast for this year.

This makes thinking about the marketing opportunities of mobile and mobile apps all the more pressing and exciting. Many brands are already incorporating mobile apps into their marketing and PR campaigns. Deodorant brand Lynx has launched a mobile app which encourages consumers to share their party experiences with selected friends by streamlining their social media activity in one place. The application will be promoted through the company Facebook page, YouTube channel and a dedicated website and will act as a media channel for future brand and marketing campaigns.

What’s significant about this example is how it makes the most of how the mobile platform allows marketers and PR professionals to interact with consumers regardless of time and location. The increase in mobile internet usage is a great opportunity for brands to engage consumers through social networks, while using dedicated apps and location-based websites to make their messages relevant to consumers. Additionally, mobile apps can be used to create innovative, interactive and engaging forms of content using specific Smartphone functionalities such as multi-touch navigation, cameras, GPS, etc.

Not surprisingly brands and media companies are focusing significant efforts on tapping into the mobile platform. In the era of mobility and social networking, mobile devices will have a profound impact on how marketers and PR professionals communicate with their target audiences.

Social media revolution! So what’s next?

Social networking websites have seen unprecedented growth with communications professionals quick to adopt social media as a new platform for conversations about their brands. However, initiating online conversations with target audiences is often not enough when it comes to raising brand awareness. Identifying social media influencers among these audiences and encouraging them to talk about the brand is as important as participating in online discussions and putting up corporate messages on social networking websites.

The US baseball team Cleveland Indians has successfully used this strategy to build a strong relationship with their fans by becoming the first sports team to have a social media suite in their stadium. The idea encourages social media savvy fans to tweet and blog about their experiences from watching the games and to help raise brand awareness.

Another interesting example of emerging trends in social media use comes from the finance sector. Hedge funds and other investors are considering embracing sites like Twitter and Facebook to rally support for their industry and reach out to small shareholders and potential allies. Small investors are already using social networks to increase their influence versus big shareholders on boards. Websites such as MoxyVote.com allow small shareholders to vote on corporate issues independently or as part of a broader group and strengthen their role in corporate decision making.

As online activism becomes increasingly important for NGOs and private organisations, its potential to move groups of shareholders from passive administrators to active participants should not be underestimated. Engaging audiences as brand ambassadors or cause advocates is a great way of strengthening brand loyalty and encouraging a two-way model of communication. However, this area still has to be explored. As different industries adopt social media at different pace, there is plenty of space for experiment and innovation.

Social Media – A British Love Affair

Hold the press everyone – it’s finally official. Social networking is now top of the list when it comes to our favourite British online pastimes. It’s even overtaken portals such as the BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and Sky Sports.com in popularity.

The stats are massive – last month Facebook accounted for over 12.46 per cent of all internet activity and there were 2.4 billion visits to social networking sites just in January 2011 alone.

Similarly Linkedin has more than 90 million registered users around the world and there are over 1 billion tweets a month on Twitter.

It seems the tipping point has finally come, with social media leaping ahead when it comes to influencing our online lives. And there’s apparently no end to this British love affair.

But despite all the numbers and stats, one fact remains clear – this revelation surprises no-one.

Social media is so much part of our daily lives, most of us don’t even think about using it. So it’s hardly a shock it’s dominating our internet usage.

In such a short time social media is now firmly in camp ‘Status quo’ – now that’s surprising!

Future of E-books Drips with Blood & Gore

We liked this recent blog posting from our international partner Brodeur on e-books.

Whether you like the concept or not, how e-books can be more than an electronic representation of books and spark off  and create  an entirely new form  of written media as the example of the Dracula book illustrates is really interesting.

What next? Oliver Twist with slopping  gruel effects? Lord of the Rings with glowing Elvish scripts?

Yeo Valley Farm – a truly integrated and memorable campaign

It was no coincidence  that just before Christmas, I was reading an interesting editorial profile in the Sunday Times magazine on the family behind Yeo Valley Farm when their ad campaign was also breaking during the finals of the X-factor.   This editorial along with many other articles were appearing in conjunction with a TV ad campaign that’s edgy and also quickly became a youtube hit . The Yeo Valley campaign is one very recent example of a powerful PR campaign working alongside advertising and also integrated with social media.  The campaign  introduced Yeo’s digital presence encouraging viewers to access their new website. Very quickly, Yeo Valley has 19.3million tweet impressions, and 1.5 million youtube views. Great to see a campaign that had such a strong mix of marketing tools and working so well together.

New era, new job titles

I love Brian Solis – whenever you wonder whether your social media thoughts and experiences are going in the right direction– you can always count on Brian and his industry friends to put some perspective on it.

His latest piece is well worth a read as he talks about the ‘beginning of the end of business as usual and the socialization of business’. He argues that there is a new business  role model that is currently unwritten. This reminded me of something my son’s headmaster said at prize day recently, that our children are being educated for roles that don’t currently exist!

In Brian’s latest thought piece, he talks about the need for a corporate social media strategist who is neutral and can change the business and drive social media through every aspect of the organisation – without that – social media is all a bit tactical and piecemeal – a bit of blogging here, a bit of tweeting there but it’s not really making a real difference to the business and the way it performs long-term. 

This is definitely the beginning of an era of a new phase in business. Without someone driving it from the top – it just won’t happen in a way that will impact the performance of any business.

So in five years time will the job title of coporate social media strategist be in every organisation and not just the ones who have embraced social media as part of their business strategy’. What will their skills be made up of  – consultancy thinking, digital skills and marketing knowledge?

Video on Demand bolsters not bashes trad linear TV

An article caught my eye that confirms an old suspicion of mine.

Seems that most people use video on demand to catch up on shows missed on old fashioned TV. The number using VoD to find new shows has declined rather than risen. Interestingly the habit of catchup TV means viewers are engaging more not less with their television viewing.  While they watch TV, they are concurrently surfing the web, making transactions and talking about what they’re watching on social media networks and sites.

So it looks, like radio, TV may get a renewed  lease of life  from new media technologies that weaves the format into our lives in new and more interesting ways. It all goes to show how new waves of technology rarely wipe out the old either rapidly or entirely.  A plural not singular digital media future.

Could the same apply to the future of the print media, I wonder?