PR Talk

I am a second year Public Relations student at Bournemouth University, and I will be sharing my thoughts on the wonderful world of PR here.

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"Nothing succeeds like success"

 - Max Clifford

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Another Example of Generational Differences

I realised last night how I've incorporated words from social media into my vocabulary without even realising, and I know I'm not alone. Personally I understand what someone means when they refer to 'liking', or 'retweeting', but it hit me last night that some people in other generations may not be so clued up.

I was driving with my parents in the car, and decided to tell them about my Twitter experiences. I started my sentence with "I'm being followed," and my Dad's immediate reaction was "Is it a police car?" and my Mum joined in with "Drive past the house so they don't know where you live." I was so confused, until it dawned on me that they thought I meant I was being literally followed and not virtually.

It just goes to show how the virtual world is working it's way into the real world, but not everyone is as comfortable with it as others.

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Would you tell your Mum? Social Media & Ethical Practice

Prior to the growth of social media, traditional communications practices were often arguably more concerned about getting results than they were with ethics. However, in recent years there has been a shift in focus for brands, as they are beginning to see the importance of being ethical (or at least being perceived to be ethical) in all aspects of their practice - including their PR.

I think a good place to start would be to define what I mean when I refer to 'ethics', essentially being ethical is doing what is widely considered to be the right thing. Or in other words "If you don't want to talk about it with your friends or family at the dinner table, and you don't want to read about it on the front page [of a newspaper]...it's not ethical." So basically, if you wouldn't want to tell your Mum then you probably shouldn't be doing it!

So with the increasing reliance on social media for PR professionals, it seems fitting to consider ethics in relation to the practice of social media for brands.

Previously, consumers that felt a brands communication tactics were questionable (for example spam, spin or propaganda) did not have an outlet to discuss this, meaning that it was not an issue for PR professionals to consider in too much depth. However, with the development of social media, it is now possible for consumers to engage in discussion and examine organisational practices in an open forum. In addition, the online actions of brands (footprints if you will) are remembered and can be traced, therefore it seems an obvious conclusion that "In a world where the entire space around you 'remembers' your choices and your actions, do you have much in the way of an alternative but to operate ethically?"

The CIPR recently released an updated 'Social Media Best Practice Guide' setting out their guidelines on the use of social media for PR practitioners. However, it is important to remember that they are just that - guidelines, they are not enforceable laws, merely recommendations for best practice. So this begs the question, how far will they be taken into consideration by the PRO responsible for a brands' social media practices?

The key 'Dos' of social media, according to the CIPR, that particularly relate to ethics are:

Disclose relationships when endorsing an organisation/client/customer

Be honest about who 'manages' social media channels

Be transparent when updating information

Correct errors openly and in a timely manner

Be upfront about conflicts of interest and paid for opportunities

It is clear that each of these guidelines are highlighting the importance of transparency, suggesting that ethical social media practice relies on openness and honesty. If a PRO chooses to ignore these guidelines, then it could result in consumers losing trust in their client and consequently losing interest in their communications. Clearly this needs to be avoided at all costs.

I mean at the end of the day, it's all well and good for a PRO to be communicating with a large number of target publics on a daily basis through social media outlets, but if the consumers on the receiving end aren't interested then is it really of any value to a brand?

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How Social Media is Changing Activism

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Social Media: The Future of Activism?

The Urban Dictionary uses the term 'slactivism' to refer to "the act of participating in obviously pointless activities as an expedient alternative to actually expending effort to fix a problem." It has been argued that social media encourages slactivism, as users will happily click to show their support online but won't transfer this support offline. This is evident in statistics too, for instance the Red Cross has over 200,000 'likes' on Facebook and followers on Twitter, yet in 2009 online donations only equated to 3.6% of their total private donations.

It has also been said that digital or online activism is a hollow political gesture, that does not lead to actual change in society. However, a recent study conducted by the University of California concluded that "spending time in online communities appears to promote engagement with society." This indicates that social media users that participate in online activism are more likely to engage with offline activism. Although, I imagine it would depend on the effectiveness of the online activism campaigns that users are being exposed to - this is where PR comes in.

In terms of implications for PR, it is useful to look at 'The 4 Cs Social Media Framework' devised by Gaurav Mishra; the 4 Cs refer to Content, Collaboration, Community and Collective Intelligence. Mishra argues that digital activism campaigns rely heavily on the Content level, occasionally engaging in Collaboration but rarely reaching the Community or Collective Intelligence layers. He suggests that it is key for PR and social media practitioners to consider how campaigns can be designed with effective Content, be Collaboration based, utilise Collective Intelligence and build a long-term Community. If this is achieved, then digital activism campaigns will be far more successful and transfer the online message into offline actions.

The organisation Free the Children runs a continual campaign to encourage students in Canadian schools to help build schools for under-priviledged students around the world.They have been running for fifteen years and they have built 650 schools; arguably in this time they have developed their Content and encouraged Collaboration amongst the students. They have a strong online Community with almost 175,000 people 'liking' their Facebook page in the first month it was launched. From this nearly 20,000 people attended an event which encouraged Collective Intelligence, and this culminated in 2,000 people committing to a trip overseas to help build schools. This indicates that the more commitment involved, the fewer people will participate. However, in terms of percentages 10% of event attendees (gained as a result of the initial 'like') did make a further commitment, suggesting that as the campaign utilised all 4 Cs effectively that digital activism is being used successfully. The founder of the organisation Craig Kielburger summed this up when he said "[Social Media] opens the megaphone so much wider...when you finally look at the spectrum, we've got more people who are finally making that journey."

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Trailer of the 'Live Every Litre' campaign for the Honda CR-Z

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So is the grass really greener?

This week my lecture began with the lecturer informing us that our lives are mundane and that by the time we're forty we'll all be having affairs. Perhaps this is a generalisation, but her reasoning behind our predicted infidelity is that as human beings we are constantly looking for that little bit of extra excitement in our lives. Basically we are never fully satisfied with what we have, and our mentality is that the grass is always greener on the other side. (From my experience it's not, or maybe it is at first but then the grass on the other side begins to seem greener...)

Maslow believed that it is human nature to be striving for something, and then once this is satisfied, another desire becomes apparent and so we go on striving. As consumers we are constantly wanting what we don't currently have but think we need - whether it's an ipad, a mulberry handbag (my personal current desire) or even a ferrari.

PR practitioners can exploit this by targetting campaigns to convey the idea that there is more to life than what consumers are currently experiencing, and positioning products as their latest desire.

A study into consumer desire concluded that desires are much more profound than wants, and that desire is cyclical and insatiable. When consumers develop a desire for something, it can achieve an elevated status in their mind. The consumer believes that once they get what they are striving for, then their life will somehow be improved and more complete. 

In addition, the study found that what is desired is often the social relationships that come as a result of consumption experiences rather than consumption itself. This poses an opportunity for PR as it suggests campaigns should be focused on the social benefits of products as opposed to the tangible factors. So for instance creating interactive social media campaigns may encourage consumers to purchase a product, as they can become part of a social process and community.

An example that I particularly liked is the 'Live Every Litre' campaign for the Honda CR-Z, which set out to engage young Europeans with the end goal of creating the world's first crowd-sourced documentary film. Consumers were invited to apply to take part in once-in-a-lifetime journeys that would be filmed for the documentary. They received thousands of applications, and consumers then chose 13 people to hit the road via an online vote. Not only did this produce a great documentary, it created a community amongst individuals looking for life-changing moments and all centred around a car. Genius! I shall post a trailer of the documentary in my next post, but here's a link to it... Trailer

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Why don't you Google it?

The word Google has made it's way into the dictionary, defined as "to search for something on the internet using the Google search engine," and it got me thinking how often I've said or heard someone say "I'll Google it." It seems that "search has become integrated into the fabric of our society," and people have gotten used to having information at the end of their finger tips. I mean can you imagine not being able to win arguments instantly by Googling it on your phone? Or maybe that's just me..

As of July 2009 more than 113 billion searches were being performed each month, of which Google had a 67.5% market share (hence why I'm focusing on them). With figures as high as this it seems obvious that the PR industry needed to take note, and think of effective ways to target global users of search engines. After all, what other communication channel has that many active users a month?

There has been a lot of debate over who coined the term Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but basically it refers to "the process of improving the visibility of a website or a web page in search engines via the natural (un-paid) search results." SEO is based on two main tools, keywords and links.

If we consider keywords first, the best thing to remember is there's no such thing as too specific. The idea is to ensure your keywords will be the terms searched by users in Google; therefore, by including them on your website it will appear higher in the natural search results. Murray (2005) argues that on average a good website will have a keyword density of 2% (basically 2% of overall word count per page will be keywords). The efficiency of keywords can be tracked using various methods, but Google analytics is a good free tool - there are lots of books that will help you make sense of it, take a look at Google Analytics to get you started.

Links refers to inward links to your website on other sites, and put simply the more links your website has, the higher it's ranking will be on Google. There are several ways to increase the amount of links to your website, including adding it to online directories, submitting articles/comments online that include links, and forming link partnerships with other organisations.

So SEO is already a big deal, and it's only going to get bigger. It makes sense for SEO to fall into the PR remit, after all it is done as a way of improving the reach of a communication channel, and PR is all about communication. So PR practitioners need to familiarise themselves with this up-and-coming discipline, to ensure they are fully exploiting the benefits the internet has to offer their clients.

Right, I'm off to learn more about SEO and see if I can improve the ranking of my blog!

P.S. I used Google to help me write this post..

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Error, what error? I made a mistake on purpose just to see this...

The best 404 error page ever, I'm not kidding you should check it out!

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Can you spot the seam?

"The difference between encountering a brand at a Coke machine, on a billboard, on a TV commercial, or reading a news article, and encountering a brand on the web, is that the web is completely interactive, and an organisation is exposed beyond a simple slogan or opinion."

Until fairly recently, brands only had to focus on creating a seamless brand at the point of sale; however, with the rise of the internet and the dominance of social media they now have so much more to consider. So it's not surprising that many brands are struggling.

It seems obvious that a brand would want to convey a sense of seamlessness throughout all of their communication with their publics, but sometimes this is easier said than done. One area that many brands struggle with on the web is their 404 error page (or in simple terms, that annoying page that comes up when the site can't find what you're looking for). Take a look at these less than seamless examples of brand 404 error pages...

Sainsbury's - Ok so Sainsbury's is a supermarket and therefore, may argue that they need to focus more on point of sale than online, but in the modern world there really is no excuse for a 404 page as devoid of branding as this.

Google - Now, in my opinion it is unacceptable for an online brand of Google's size not to have a branded 404 page. There is a branded error page that comes up in certain circumstances, however, as you can see in the image they also have a standard page too. I don't know about you, but I was very surprised by this obvious tear in Google's brand seams! (I left the address bar just to prove that this really is from Google!)

A lot of brands have caught on to the fact that in order to be seamless they need to have a good 404 page, and here are a few good examples that particularly caught my eye...

Urban Outfitters - Their 404 page (American site) works really well as it fits their brand image, the retailer is seen as unconventional and somewhat quirky and I think that is reflected in their error page. No visible seams there then.

Blue Daniel - Literally the best 404 page I have ever seen, I mean other brands should take note! It completely fits their brand image, and is so seamless that you're hardly aware it's an error page - in fact it's so good that it makes me want to deliberately make a mistake to bring it up! Seriously you have to check it out for yourself, the image doesn't do it justice!

So it seems that gone are the days when a brand could overlook their online seams and concentrate on point of sale, we are now in a world where attention to detail is everything and as a PR practitioner this is something to be very aware of. With competition increasing between brands it is clear that even the smallest loose thread in a seam can lead to your whole brand unravelling...

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Generational Differences

I had an interesting conversation with my lovely Mum last week about social media. She was asking me how people find time in their day to check their Facebook and Twitter etc. and I was trying to explain that it's not a case of finding time, it's just part of daily life for my generation.

My Mum isn't on any social networking sites so if she were to start then she would have to find time to make use of them, but to me it's just natural. My Blackberry is like an extention of my arm, I'm always on it (probably too much) and to be honest I dread to think how much time I spend on Facebook and Twitter!

I would go into more detail but I've just thought of a great tweet..

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Carrying your life in your pocket..

What started out as a yuppy must-have back in the 80s has now become an integral part of modern life, with around 70% of the world's population now using mobile phones on a regular basis. Considering figures like this, it would be crazy to ignore the implications for PR - I mean what other media has this level of widespread consumption?

The first mobile phone was developed in 1973 by Dr Martin Cooper, who made the first ever mobile phone call to his rival - whether this was a PR stunt or just a bit of banter is unclear, but either way it's brilliant! Despite this innovation, it took another ten years before the first commercial mobile phone service was launched.

Dr Martin Cooper with one of the first ever mobile phones

Mobiles have come a long way in the last three decades, and are now about so much more than just calling or texting. Carrying a mobile phone these days is like carrying an mp3 player, a camera, a laptop, and (thanks to mobile social media) your friends with you. This is the impact mobile phones have had on modern life. In fact, it's predicted that by 2015 mobile phones will replace computers as the most used method of access to the internet.

Dr Martin Cooper said "the idea is that the phone number becomes part of you," but in my opinion it has gone one step further, with phones becoming part of people - I know I feel like my right arm is missing if I forget my phone! Surveys have shown that on average in the UK we check our phones 150 times a day!

Mobile apps (applications) have rapidly grown in popularity, with Apple's App Store reporting over 5 billion downloads. This is an obvious opportunity for PR practitioners to take advantage of, and many already are. 

One example of a mobile app being used as a PR tactic that particularly caught my eye, was conducted by Pizza Hut in the US. The Pizza Hut iphone app allows customers to create a virtual pizza and order it. Users can make their virtual pizza by dragging out the dough, placing toppings of their choice on top and even making the pizza 'half and half' by just tilting their phone from side to side. Once their pizza has been ordered, they can play the Pizza Hut Racer Game which challenges them to deliver pizzas as quickly as possible whilst avoiding obstacles; the game is designed to make waiting for their pizza that little bit more fun. The app was popular and led to increased sales and improved brand preference. Clever PR right there. 

However, not all apps will be as successful. It's been said that the mobile app industry is similar to the music industry, because like songs, some apps become big but most will never be hits. This highlights the need for PR in the actual promotion of apps, I mean it's all well and good creating an amazing mobile app, but if no-one downloads it then what's the point?

Right, I'm off to trawl the App Store to see what treasures I can find!

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Interactivity Empowers Consumers

It has been said that "interaction is central to the creation of relationships," and as PR relies heavily on forming relationships between organisations and their publics, it seems that interactivity is an obvious ingredient in successful campaigns. 

As a result of the rise of social media, PR is now becoming far more about active two-way communication, and far less about the passive one-way communication that is typical of traditional media platforms.

Consumers have been given a voice, and 'word-of-mouse' has really taken off. The beauty of the online world is that anyone can have their say, and anyone has the power to influence others. Take Twitter for instance, say Bob from the small village of Pluckley tweets a negative comment about a brand, then one of his followers sees it and retweets it, then one of their followers sees it and retweets it, and so on (you get the idea)...then before you know it that one little tweet from one man in a village has reached thousands of people!

Produsers (no it's not spelt wrong, it's a witty combination of producer and consumer - sadly not thought of by me) are are also being given the chance to interact with campaigns and actually have a say in how they are run.

Rowse Honey have recently launched a truly interactive campaign, that sees them put a more creative PR twist on what will be their first ever television advertising campaign. The staff at Rowse Honey were split into teams and tasked with developing and filming their own TV ad for the brand, with the best six going to public vote via Facebook. A teaser advert has been shown on TV introducing people to the concept (see next blog post), press releases have been sent out, and key bloggers have been sent goody bags to get them talking about it.

When you go on the Rowse Honey facebook page you can watch each of the adverts and then vote by clicking the 'like' button, this means that you can only vote once for each video - although it doesn't stop you voting for all of them! Then when the vote closes, the ad with the most likes will be shown on TV for a week. When I last looked the video in the lead (my personal favourite!) had 1341 likes and 207 comments, with the other ads not far behind, so a lot of people are interacting with the campaign already. Another great interactive feature is that consumers can speak to the stars of the ads through the Rowse Honey Facebook page.

The campaign has been conducted in association with DHM, and co-founder Dave Dye said, "Opening that up to dialogue via Facebook is something not every client would be brave enough to embark on. It's a very 2011 idea." I think he's right, and 2011 will be the year when we see this type of campaign becoming more popular, as consumers start to expect interactivity in PR campaigns.

Visit the Rowse Honey Facebook page and vote for your favourite ad now!

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PR Campaigns & Social Media

The early noughties saw the introduction of social networking, and in recent years it has become part of everyday life for a lot of people. Last Friday marked Facebook’s 7th anniversary, and remarkably Facebook now has over 500million active users with around 50% logging in every day!  

Social media has taken off far more rapidly than traditional media, for example it took television 13 years to reach 50million people, and it only took Facebook 9 months to reach 100million people! Figures like these demonstrate the power of social networking, and make it an obvious way for brands and organisations to communicate with their publics.  

It seems that the PR industry has taken note of the growth of the online world, and realised that in order to reach wider audiences and allow for interaction with publics, then social media needs to be incorporated into campaigns. In fact, some PR campaigns are going as far as just relying on social media tactics and are finding them to be successful.

To celebrate its tenth anniversary, Ask Jeeves PR launched the Ask Jeeves Unanswerables campaign. The basic premise was to reveal the top ten unanswerable questions of the past decade; a microsite allowed visitors to post their own answers, with the top answer for each question winning an ipad, and the campaign was also promoted on Twitter and Facebook. The objectives of the campaign were to raise awareness of the anniversary, to drive social media buzz and to increase Twitter followers and Facebook page likes. The campaign was a success, with all of the objectives being fulfilled.

It is clear that without the use of social media platforms this campaign would not have been possible, and it highlights the fact that digital world has opened up a whole new world of possibilities for the PR industry.

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So should we work for free?

There's been a lot of media attention around interns in the PR industry recently, in particular the fact that many agencies think it's ok not to pay them. I completely understand that work experience is crucial to career success, and it's great that companies are giving students these opportunities, but at the end of the day some people just can't afford to work for free!

BBC2's Who Gets The Best Jobs? shows how one PR agency boss guilty of 'employing' 20 unpaid interns feels about the issue. He actually admits to the reporter that he worries that not paying interns "does favour the slightly better off." Stating the obvious really...

I appreciate that agencies can't afford to pay interns an amazing salary, but every little helps. For example, I am currently looking for a placement in London and my train for the year alone will be over £5000 - it's one thing to work for free, but it's another thing to pay £5000 for the privilege!

Luckily many agencies think interns should be paid, with many PR professionals making their opinions on the topic quite clear as a result of the BBC expos é. 

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Thought I'd share one of my favourite ever PR campaigns with you - Lotus Faceless People by Focus PR.

I love it because it was so creative, and really stood out from other campaigns. It obviously worked as the campaign was massively successful, with 50% of cars being sold in just three weeks!

Enjoy!