Archive for June, 2010
Distribution is only the first step for your Social Media News Release!
June 29th, 2010
As you might be aware, Pressitt the Social Media News Release, is co-owned by Liberate Media.
Today I wanted to highlight the fact that the SMNR is not a ‘fire and forget’ tactic. It’s not a newswire either.
The SMNR is useful because it opens up conversation and allow brand owners to engage with online users and vice versa. The conversation shouldn’t end after a few hours, days or weeks.
The beauty of the SMNR concept is that you can keep the conversation alive by re-visiting your SMNR and updating it with fresh content and then re-publishing and re-engaging with your audience. It’s the start of the conversation, not the end of your news.
Ideas to update you Social Media News Release:
- New quotes or updated quotes
- Fan videos/images
- Additional links to other news coverage or user generated content
- Update on the announcement
- New findings/research
- or even just to update your contact details
- Updated product shots
- Expert commentary from other sources
Standard newswires would charge to do this, but Pressitt allows you to make any amount of edits for free.
I hope this small snippet of advice allows you to use the social media news service of your choice more effectively, if you have any further queries, please get in touch.
European PR measurement summit - really?
June 28th, 2010
As you may have seen in PR Week last week, the so-called ‘Barcelona declaration of research principles’ was created at the second European summit on measurement, in partnership with AMEC (the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication), and incorporating the CIPR’s Measurement Group, the Global Alliance for Public Relations, the IPR’s Commission on Measurement and Evaluation, the PRSA and the ICCO to agree a set of measurement and evaluation principles.
On reading the story, my initial reaction was full of hope, finally we can put the ghost of measurement to rest in the PR sector by agreeing relevant industry-wide standards, and hopefully kill off the AVE scores once and for all.
In fact the Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) system, and its relevance as a PR measurement, was highlighted in the third principle, which reads: ‘AVEs do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space.‘ Spot on!
The full list of seven principles are below:
SEVEN KEY PRINCIPLES
1. Measurement and goal setting are fundamental for any PR programmes
2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality - clip cuts are generally meaningless
3. AVEs do not measure the value of PR and do not inform future activity; they measure the cost of media space
4. Social media can and should be measured
5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media results
6. Business results can and should be measured where possible
7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement
I’m sorry, there must be some mistake, surely this is the agenda for discussion, not the outcome of an ‘expert’ summit that involved 200 delegates from 33 nationalities, supported by 5 global bodies?
Far be it from me to call into question exactly what they did for the rest of the time at this summit, but isn’t this a starting point? And if this is the second event, what exactly took part at the first event?
The mind boggles at how this feedback is supposed to be relevant at a time when PR in general is already being left behind in terms of how it measures and justifies spend, let alone how PR understands and utilises social media, and surely point 4, (above) only goes to prove PR is still very far from doing this.
As for the quotes from various ‘industry figures’ and bodies represented in the PR Week article, i agree, it is important, and it is a positive platform to grow from, which we should support. However, it’s really not a huge step, in terms of steps, it’s pretty tiny. Where is the urgency? Where is the delivery? We all know what the PR industry should be doing, but surely the issue is ‘how’.
Perhaps that comes out of the next event? Is it unfair of me to expect more? If this was the outcome of a client-facing event would the client be patting us on the back and saying well done, you’ve stated the obvious, and it’s taken you years to do it, but at least you’re on the right path now.
Yes, i understand the event was developed to set ‘principles’ and in fairness that was achieved, but come on, can we really afford to continue moving at such a slow pace?
It’s great that the PR industry is going to leave AVEs behind, but the truth is, the fact that AVEs are still being discussed underlines how far behind we are.
Oh, and apparently the Barcelona Principles will be refined based on detailed participant feedback, and will be built on by AMEC and its partners over the coming months and years.
I think it’s best that i don’t comment on that little gem.
Site review: Tagxedo - tag cloud creator
June 23rd, 2010
Remember Wordle, the application for creating word clouds? Well Tagxedo is a similar type of word cloud creator, but with a twist.
What’s the Twist?
You can upload images for the word cloud to morph around.
How it works:
Add one of the following options; a URL, Twitter or Delicious ID, a news search or a normal search term or even an RSS feed. The information is then pulled in to create your word cloud. Next is the exciting part where you can play around with the multitude of settings until you get your desired final product.
What is does:
- Generate tag clouds in real-time, then respin to your liking
- Save the tag cloud as images for printing and sharing
- Look at all variants of the clouds in a gallery, and pick the one you want for further tweaking or saving
- Choose from many different fonts
- Quickly switch between different colours and themes
- Constrain the cloud to selected shapes (heart, star, cloud, oval, etc)
- Use images as custom shapes (e.g. Reddit Alien) [premium feature]
- Use words as custom shapes (e.g. “USA”, “Love”, “Joy”, “I LOVE YOU”) [premium feature only]
- The final image can be saved for download
- The premium features are currently free while it is still in Beta.
View some more examples from the gallery.
In summary Tagxedo is a really fun tool that could be used to great effect in presentations, it’s something I personally wouldn’t mind paying extra for to use the premium features.The only problem is that you have to have Silverlight technology installed to use the application.
June 22nd, 2010
The Next Web has published a post/infographic titled Some facts on Facebook you probably didn’t know- see below. I thought it would also be interesting to combine this with some facts about Twitter.
Here are two of my favourite facts from the below infographics:
Facebook: Women aged 50 and up are the fastest growing demographic.
Twitter: 10-11 pm is the most active hour on Twitter.
Twitter facts
Do you know of any other interesting Twitter or Facebook facts? Let us know via the comments section.
Favorite tweets made into short films
June 21st, 2010
Here’s an interesting thought “What if your Twitter conversations were made into short films?”
Jen Oslislo and her pals have done just that.
Highly visual and very amusing, good stuff!
Twitter: The Criterion Collection, Vol II from Jen Oslislo on Vimeo.
Here is the first in the series.
Twitter: The Criterion Collection from sween on Vimeo.
What Twitter conversation would you like to be turned into a short video? Please add your thoughts to the comments.
A new chapter for Liberate Media
June 21st, 2010
As you may have seen, I recently completed a deal to acquire the remaining shares in Liberate Media from my former business partner.
Since starting the company back in 2006, we’ve focused on integrating more traditional PR methods with social media strategies and approaches. It’s been a very successful time, and we’ve enjoyed living in a sector that has developed so rapidly, and exploded into the mainstream PR, search, digital, marketing and advertising spaces.
The lines between these disciplines are getting increasingly blurred, and although we all have our own opinions on how the future will take shape, it seems the communications sector in whatever guise it appears, will be a very different beast in the years to come.
At Liberate Media, much like our sector, we’re also changing, but it’s a change that I feel is important to position us for the ongoing development in the market. You’ll be seeing a few new focuses and developments in the near future, while maintaining our core expertise in communicating to brand audiences online, offline or where ever they are, but more on that another day.
When we started Liberate Media, I quickly grew to appreciate the advantages and disadvantages of working day-to-day with a business partner. However, in May 2009, when Wendy took a break from the business, returning earlier this year, I realised that my personal ambition for the company was to continue its evolution and focus on delivering a service that not only reflects the sector’s development, but also our client’s growing need. This will be our focus moving forward, and I hope to be introducing a few new faces along the way.
So, for now, please stay in touch and let us know what you think.
June 21st, 2010
Sadly this will be my last contribution to the Liberate Media blog, as after four adrenalin-fueled years, I am leaving my post as director and moving onto pastures new.
Setting-up Liberate has been an incredible experience, and I’m eternally grateful for the support that we’ve received along the way from friends, family (my husband in particular!) and industry peers.
Back in 2006, we saw the huge potential that social media would create for the PR industry, and we wanted to be a part of that change, leading by example. In the four years since, the industry has undergone a rapid transformation, and we’ve always endeavoured to keep Liberate Media evolving in terms of our knowledge, approach and positioning. Last year we set-up our own Social Media News Release service Pressitt, which has been a great success and I will continue to be a part of.
Setting up a business from scratch isn’t easy. At the start there were a lot of lost weekends and holidays, but it was worth it for the satisfaction that you get out of building something that is our own. I’ve always kept a close network of trusted mentors (you know who you are!), and they have been wonderful at guiding and advising me along the way, and sharing leads and contacts where ever they can. We have always taken the approach of building the business through word-of-mouth and recommendation, and from my experience, this has always helped to create great client relationships and distance us from the pitching circuit, which I still believe is an ineffective way of selecting a PR partner.
Time is always what I wanted more of! When you’re working flat out and the business is established, it’s easy to forget to take time out for business planning and creative thinking around the next stage of the business. At times we were guilty of getting too caught up in day-to-day work, but when we did make time for blue sky thinking and planning, it was always worth it in terms of re-inspiring and re-energising, and positive changes always resulted.
For old time’s sake, I thought I’d dig up the first ever post that I wrote for the Liberate blog: ‘Liberating our Online Identity‘. It goes to show how far we’ve come.
If you’ve been a regular reader of my blog posts, thank you for your time.
I wish Liberate Media the best of success for the future.
Over and out!
Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up (18-06-2010)
June 18th, 2010
Welcome to another instalment of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’.
1. Bi.bg is a link shortener which can be added to your tool bar for future ease of shorting any URL.
2. The bookmarklet combiner allows you to add a number of bookmarklets of the same type into a folder to add to your browser. Nice little space saver!
3. Kadaza lists many popular websites in a visual format, covering hundreds of topics like news, careers, and social networking.
4. Endor.se - allows you to reach out to your network for work help or to find a contact with a specific skill.
5. TwitVance is a great Twitter tool with Bit.ly integration that lets you schedule unlimited tweets. You’re able to edit and delete tweets, add multiple twitter accounts as well as connect your Bit.ly account to track your clicks.
Social Media post of the week: 15 more awesome social media infographics
SEO post of the week: 29 Worst Practices & Most Common Failures: SEO Checklist Part I
More of the same next week.
Check out previous issues of the ‘Weekly Social Media sites, tools and posts round-up’
June 16th, 2010
Tweasier the new Twitter management application, and brainchild of Chris Norton, launched last week. I’ve been having a play around and wanted to share my experiences with you.
First of all, what is Tweasier? Well, over to Chris to explain:
“The idea for Tweasier came from an idea after I started blogging specifically just about useful Twitter tools . The Tweasier blog started to grow in stature and popularity and I started to think that maybe a tool should be developed which has some really great features. I suppose you could say it’s because of you guys.
“The application is only in beta testing (so please be gentle) but we are hoping you guys (its users) will help us find the nasty bugs so we can eradicate as many as possible before we launch this tool to the world.”
So, what’s the difference between Tweasier and the other Twitter management applications? Surely Chris has missed the boat and been beaten to the punch by other Twitter clients? Well, no, Tweasier is much more than a client. Tweasier’s brilliance is in the features it offers, and specifically the analytics suite.
Yes, i know there are other free Twitter analytics packages, but Tweasier is well…easier. It’s an all in one package, and the Tweasier team has obviously put a lot of thought into exactly what the user wants from their Twitter application, including simple but effective search and suggestions features.
To offer you a quick rundown of the features, i’ll revert back to the Tweasier launch post:
The new Tweasier application is packed with helpful services, allowing Twitter users to do any of the following:
• Run, save and clone Twitter searches based on location, keywords and personal biographies so conversations can be monitored.
• Receive personalised email notifications informing the user about their activity within the Twittersphere
• Visit Tweasier’s fully equipped analytics suite - providing more than 30 different up-to-date statistics on any Twitter account. Some of the graphs and data can also be exported for use in future presentations or reports.
• Sort an account’s friends or followers by more than 20 different criteria such as: people that haven’t tweeted in the last 30 days, people that didn’t follow the user back and also prune your friends to clear an account up if necessary.
• Users can take a quick peek at Twitter conversations between two people to get both sides of the story.
• Users can read messages, tweet, direct message and even shorten long URLs using Tweasier’s dedicated Twitter client.
• Scheduled tweeting - users can write and save several tweets until later in the day
• Users can use Tweasier’s own in-house ranking system which easily shows whether a user is worth following or not
Take my advice, when you go to Tweasier, check out the Analytics package, and have a play. I think it’s a real triumph of useful data displayed in a simple and readable format. The dashboard offers 30 different types of stats, including network features that show who of your followers is most influential. Some stats can also be exported, which makes my life so much easier!
Tweasier is currently in Beta and i’m sure it will improve, but it’s already excellent, and although i’m sure the last few weeks before launch have been tough for Chris and his team, he can rest assured that it’s been worth it. I’ve already shown the package to a few clients and they all love it.
Well done guys!
Which World Cup teams are searched for most online?
June 16th, 2010
While trawling my twitter feed yesterday, I noticed the following question, “Out of the World Cup favourites who is searched for most online?” So I decided to take a look.
I used the search term, ‘England’ or the name of the ‘county’ followed by ‘World Cup’ E.g. England World cup.
So who exactly are the bookies favourites to Win this Year’s World Cup:
Here are the current World Cup odds from Paddy Power.
Adding the search terms into Google insights for search over the past 30 days provides use with the following table.
So the clear winner by a country mile with the above search terms is England, this is by no means a perfect representation of results, I could have offered a more detailed keyword research.
As a matter of interest I also ran the same report for the World Cup of 2006.
Again it seems like England come out on top.
So to answer the initial question - Out of the World Cup favourites who is searched for most online? From the quick and dirty research I have undertaken, England who are currently fifth favourites to win the World Cup, come out on top - hopefully this is a good omen or maybe just wishful thinking!