Brian Solis and Chris Beck define the future of being social

August 27th, 2010

I’ve been following the series of video conversations between Brian Solis and Chris Beck, which are extraordinary in their breadth and depth. They are ‘must see’ for anyone involved with social media PR and indeed for anyone who is interested in the future of online communication.

What strikes me is the clarity of thought, the strategic minds at work here. These guys inhabit ‘social’ but also understand the commercial imperatives that underlie many online conversations. My favourite is the discussion on privacy and what constitutes the ‘online self’.

At a time when some commentators are questioning the existence and value of social networks, Brian and Chris offer a positive, inspiring view of the possibilities. Is social media dead? No. Does it present problems? Yes. Can we rise to the challenge? Take a look at these videos and make up your own mind. Personally, I’d say that with people like Brian and Chris leading the discussion, we’re in very safe hands.

You can see the complete series on Brian’s website

Here’s my favourite:

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David McCandless explains the power of infographics

August 26th, 2010

Here’s a treat - David McCandless explaining the power of visual information design/infographics at the recent TED Global conference in Oxford. There’s plenty of good for thought in his lively talk and he shows some wonderful examples of how complex data from different sources can be presented in a way that makes it more graspable. He also shows how new understanding can come from the process - and so change the ways we think.

My only concern is that the adage “garbage in, garbage out” applies even more to the production of infographics. There has to be a way of assessing the quality of the research data - and as Ben Goldacre proves every week in his Bad Science Guardian column, there is no shortage of questionable data online.

Posted in Blog, Digital communications, Digital media, Journalism, Social media, Social networking, Trends and research, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

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Leo Laporte and the end of social media

August 25th, 2010

One of the more visible social media professionals has decided to disengage, citing the pointlessness of the platforms. Is this the beginning of the end of ‘social media’?

Leo Laporte, the influential broadcaster behind the TWiT network of podcasts has posted a heartfelt blog in which he reasons that all social media is roughly the equivalent of talking to the wind.

The agent of change was his discovery that a glitch with Google Buzz – a social platform he has championed - meant that everything he had posted there for over two weeks hadn’t been seen by anyone. Worse still, no-one noticed.

Is Leo right? Are we all, effectively, talking to nobody when we engage online?

It often feels like that – but we have no real idea about who we have connected with through our ideas, unless we have engaged directly.

The power of social networks really lies in their universality and commonness. If you wanted an analogy, you could say that social networks allow millions of people to ‘overhear’ conversations in the way that we listen and learn from people talking on the train, the Tube, in cafes, restaurants and pubs.

This information is often of no immediate use, might be flippant, irritating or noisome but it’s also often very beneficial. It might colour our days, make something more understandable, or simply give us pause for thought.

More than that, the sharing of information, directly or indirectly, informs and celebrates the way we live. We like to share because it is a benefit. If no-one is listening, if the chatter machine has broken down temporarily (ie the pub had to shut its doors for a while) then definitely we lose an outlet for our egos.

But it does not mean that being social has no purpose and I think maybe it’s the reverse. It reminds us that we’re not special, individual or separate and we need to share together.

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Got your A-Level results? So how do you get into PR?

August 19th, 2010

As you’ve all no doubt seen, A-Level results have been announced today in England, so conversation around qualifications and careers are rife.

On a day like this it certainly takes me back to my own experiences of education, and the path I took to reach my current career. Today though, things are tougher than ever. According to today’s Guardian A-Level students are facing one of the most intense battles ever seen to get into university, simply due to a higher number of students looking for a decreasing number of places. In fact, the total number of places at English universities this year is 365,000, and each University will face fines of £3,700 per student if they exceed their limit.

This means that knowing what you want to do, and getting the correct advice on how to get there, is perhaps more essential than ever.

That got me thinking, how would I advise a student looking to get into the PR sector? To be fair this is a question I have been asked many times, and to be honest I always struggle to answer it with clear and straight-forward advice. Fundamentally, that’s because there is no single, clear and straight-forward route to success.

In my case, I started out in PR 12 years ago, and crossed the divide into social media around 2006. My degree is in Business, but to be honest I had no idea what I wanted to be when I applied or left University, in fact I stayed on at University to add an honours to my degree just to get another year of student life. However, the day finally came when I had to start my career proper, and again, if I’m honest I only took a role as an account executive at a PR agency because I thought PR sounded interesting, not much in the way of career planning there!

Back to the current situation, if graduates or students ask me how to get into PR or social media or hopefully even both, the simple truth is there is no guaranteed method. Having taken my own straw poll of colleagues throughout my career, I would estimate that less than 20% did a degree relevant to PR, now of course you could argue many degrees are relevant to PR, and you would be right, but I’m talking marketing, PR courses, etc.

Why is this the case? Well I would argue it’s simply because in the PR industry everybody starts at the bottom, you learn your trade from the ground up. It used to be the case that a degree was just a pass to get an interview, from that point on it was down to you, your qualifications counted for nothing.

In the past, and in my experience being an interviewer for various agencies, the issue with PR degrees is that the course doesn’t keep pace with the industry, although I’m now assured this is improving. I also realise this is a common complaint with many industries. Therefore, when I am recruiting, I don’t particularly give any advantage to those that have done a PR degree over those that have done History, Geography or English, for example.

This issue is now further complicated by the digital skills required to perform the roll of a PR. Or if you want to go into a specific career focusing on social media, you need to choose how you approach it, i.e. from the comms side, the technology side, web development side or creative side, and ideally with elements of all of the above.

In terms of choosing PR as a career, the number one issue in my opinion is the false reputation PR has developed among graduates, and in fact the general public, as this piece in the Independent proves, and I quote: “Why PR? Because PR is glamorous. You get to go to launch parties and meet interesting people and talk to celebrities.”

Anyone coming into PR with that opinion soon gets hit square in the face with a 2×4 of reality. But then I guess the reality for anyone starting out in PR is a little off putting - terrible pay, long hours, hard and demanding work. However, you will learn a whole host of new skills including many that will set you up for life, and your value, both of self and as an employee, will rocket.

So, to get into PR do you need to do a PR, or PR relevant, course? I would still argue no, but it should help to give you a more realistic picture of the career you have chosen.

Should you try to get work experience before leaving University? Yes, this is something that employers look for, and again it will give you a more realistic picture of the job at hand.

Do you need digital/social media skills? (there are plenty of social media-type courses around ) Yes, I probably would value this, as an introduction, because I’m part of an integrated agency.

I’m certainly not envious of those starting out at University today, well, okay I am envious of the 3-4 years of student life and all the fun that comes with it, but the jobs market and eventual value of the qualification, plus the debt we all come out with, are not attractive at all.

Those that invest time to develop a real picture of the careers options open to them will in my opinion succeed. Again when I was at Uni, careers advice basically came down to ‘what do you want to do when you leave?’ but today there are better options.

Many students take the opportunity to embrace the social web and ask advice from those in the industry, do their research and try to get involved while still studying. This is a smart move; most of us in the industry remember how difficult it was and will help out where we can.

There are also new careers services and guidance available, one of which we are involved in that will be launching soon called WYGU, (When You Grow Up), which is a social careers guidance and mentoring platform that aims to bring people of all ages and backgrounds together to get real information about careers from real people who are in those careers. Take advantage of these services as they offer invaluable advice that you just don’t find elsewhere or through official channels.

In summary, the PR industry is changing, which means the skills required are also evolving. The opportunities to get involved, if you can offer some of the skills mentioned above, are probably better than ever, but be warned if you thought a PR had to be an all-rounder before, it’s stepped up another level, there’s much more to learn.

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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.

Posted in Blog, Blogging, Content, Digital communications, Digital media, Liberate Media news, PR, Social media, Social networking, Trends and research | No Comments »

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Did Facebook and Twitter influence the General Election?

May 7th, 2010

As I took up my blunt pencil attached to a piece of string in the polling booth yesterday, and made a cross against my chosen candidate, it struck me how much Twitter and Facebook have enhanced my interest and understanding around this General Election, but similarly how far the UK still has to go before we can experience a truly, socially-connected election.

This was the first General Election where Twitter and Facebook played a part. They gave the electorate a new ‘voice’ aside from their vote, enabling them to freely discuss election issues in an uncensored environment within a much wider network of individuals.

Facebook set-up a live voter counter on its website (via a tie-up with the Electoral Commission) - according to the final tally, 107,892 Facebook users voted. A poll was also conducted through this group, aka the Facebook election, which saw Nick Clegg and the LibDems emerge victorious. Facebook groups and political pages have been hugely active - today a particularly active one seems to be ‘I bet I can find 1,000,000 people who want Proportional Representation - UK‘.

But how much of this social network activity and buzz was two-way conversation and engagement?

A comment on the BBC blog is telling:

“I asked questions via Twitter of the main parties, but no reply was ever returned. In fact, the only politician who replied was John Prescott. The political parties were treating Twitter just like another letterbox through which to poke leaflets - but failing to grasps the idea that such systems require two-way communication to be effective. I just felt ignored by them online.”

Today across Twitter in particular, and to a lesser degree Facebook, there seems to be a general feeling that today’s election results do not match with their political learnings and discussions over the past few weeks. BBC blogger, Rory Cellan-Jones, makes the same conclusion in his blog post: So was it an Internet Election?. He opens the post saying: “The verdict was already in, even before polling day. This was not an internet election, and all those who had suggested it might be had got it completely wrong. It was a television election, and all of those tweeters and bloggers were sad political obsessives talking to each other.”

Facebook and Twitter have undoubtedly provided a gateway to political engagement, and importantly among the younger generation. A YouGov survey found that a quarter of 18-24-year-olds had commented on politics via social networks. But at the end of the day, this activity seems to have had little impact on the final election outcome.

Posted in Blog, Blogging, Social media, Social networking | 1 Comment »

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Co-developer of the World Wide Web discusses Facebook and privacy

April 30th, 2010

I’ve just come across a fascinating interview with Robert Cailliau, a Belgian computer scientist who, together with Sir Tim Berners Lee, developed the World Wide Web almost 20 years ago. The video was taken by Robin Wauters for Techcrunch.com, during The Next Web conference that has taken place in Amsterdam this week.

If you’re short of time, scroll to the 5.38 mark where Robert explains why he’s not on Facebook, and offers his view on how social networks need to change their position on privacy.

In regards to Facebook, Robert says: “I can get in, but I can’t get out. I don’t know what happens to my data.”

He also goes onto talk about Skype which apparently refused to take his identifier off once he closed his account. “You have no control. You cannot buy something a la carte. You have to agree to the whole block and go in and be bound hands and feet to their terms of service, which is something that I think has to change…we should seriously look at all of these social networks.”

Posted in Blog, Industry events, Social media, Social networking | 4 Comments »

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FIFA backs Global Action Week to keep education at top of agenda with 1 Goal campaign

April 19th, 2010

Today (April 19^th) marks the start of Global Action Week 2010 organised by Global Campaign for Education (GCE) – to highlight the fact the 774 million adults cannot read or write.

Global Action Week will put pressure on governments around the world to keep their education finance promises. There has been detailed background preparation over the past nine months. More information is the GCE website.

But the aim is to extend this further, using the World Cup in South Africa as a platform to keep global education development at the front of governments’ minds.

The World Cup kicks off in Johannesburg and Cape Town on Friday June 11^th and global football body FIFA is fully backing the campaign.

It’s at the very least a welcome move for FIFA, which garners a lot of bad press, and shows the power of global brands to make a difference, while fostering a positive view of themselves.

Interestingly, FIFA itself is supporting the campaign quietly. This morning, there was nothing visible on its website to mark the start of the campaign – an opportunity missed?

High-profile supporters also include Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Gordon Brown (UK Prime Minister), Hilary Clinton (US Secretary of State) and Robin van Persie (Arsenal FC). No prizes for guessing which football teams my sons support!

You can see the full list of supporters here.

Today’s campaign launch also reminded me that while the focus is naturally on developing countries, literacy is a concern for all nations, a point made gently but tellingly by Lisa Adams, who commented on our Brian Solis Social Media Optimisation blog.

Lisa helps to run a literacy campaign in Kingsport, Tennessee that desperately needs help with many things, including website development.

The action week’s highlight is the world’s largest single lesson with school children across the globe involved in ideas around the topic “1 GOAL: Lesson for All” – linked with the World Cup build-up, which provide a perfect focus for education needs in developing countries.

The GCE says that this year is ‘make or break’ for global education development, buffeted by the economic downturn and at risk from governments focussing on other agendas.

The 2010 focus is on education financing and the campaign will be a precursor to the larger 1GOAL: Education for All campaign.

Global Action Week participation has grown from 2 million people in 2003 to over 14 million in 2009 – this year, the target is 30 million.

Today, I feel very lucky.

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Social Media Optimization Is The New SEO With Brian Solis

April 15th, 2010

Last night, I joined in the Hubspot webinar on “Social Media is the New SEO” with Brian Solis and took away enough ideas to last through the rest of this year at least.

Brian engages with diamond-like clarity and precision; and he doesn’t waste words so, likewise, I’ll keep this short.

You can see Brian’s presentation on Slideshare. http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/social-media-optimization-is-the-new-seo

Main takeaways:

1. Social media conversations currently are “Blah Blah Blah!”
2. The next level for marketing/brand professionals is to cut through
3. Do this by accepting that we are all publishers now
4. Create and curate Social Objects that extend depth and range of your conversations
5. Social Media Objects, managed correctly, automate your social media work
6. This is Word of Mouth automated, not just “going viral”
7. Social Media will have its own budget in companies next year
8. Maybe every savvy company will have a Chief Editorial Officer
9. That Officer will direct quality, calibre and frequency of content (Social Objects)
10. The new “CEOs” will help to connect the dots in Search.
11. With Social Objects you will be found and be useful, relevant, authoritative.
12. Social Media Optimisation is more than a conversation, more than manipulation
13. Empathy is the key.

You know, there was so much more in that hour - The buzz around the webinar and Brian’s book, Engage, is continuing through the #engage hashtag if you want to joiun the conversation.

You can also out more about Social Media Optimisation on Brian’s blogsite http://www.briansolis.com/2010/02/social-media-optimization-smo-is-the-new-seo-part-1/

Posted in Blog, Content, Digital media, Emerging technology, Industry events, Journalism, PR, Social media, Social networking, Trends and research, Useful resources | 12 Comments »

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Promoted Tweets - Twitter’s sensible first step to monetisation

April 14th, 2010

So, it’s finally happened. Twitter has made its first foray into the world of advertising with ‘Promoted Tweets’. Now before you throw your toys out of the pram, this isn’t the end of Twitter as we know it…or the world, it’s Twitter’s first, and somewhat tentative, attempt to make some much needed cash, and so far, so good.

As Twitter’s Co-founder Biz Stone said: ‘They will not be traditional adverts‘ and they must ‘resonate with users‘ and be part of conversations.

The reality is, advertisers will be able to buy Promoted Tweets that will then appear on Twitter’s search results pages, as shown in the image above. Let me say that again ‘appear on Twitter’s search results pages‘ so all the fear surrounding our Twitter feeds being clogged up with irrelevant advertising have proved unfounded…for now at least.

For the official word, check out Biz Stones post from yesterday: Some of the most interesting points for me are the opening:
‘Over the years, we’ve resisted introducing a traditional Web advertising model because we wanted to optimize for value before profit. The open exchange of information creates opportunities for individuals, organizations, and businesses alike. We recognized value in this exchange and planned to amplify it in a meaningful and relevant manner.’

And part of the Q&A:

Q. What will users see?
You will start to see Tweets promoted by our partner advertisers called out at the top of some Twitter.com search results pages. We strongly believe that Promoted Tweets should be useful to you. We’ll attempt to measure whether the Tweets resonate with users and stop showing Promoted Tweets that don’t resonate.
‘Promoted Tweets will be clearly labelled as “promoted” when an advertiser is paying, but in every other respect they will first exist as regular Tweets and will be organically sent to the timelines of those who follow a brand. Promoted Tweets will also retain all the functionality of a regular Tweet including replying, Retweeting, and favouriting. Only one Promoted Tweet will be displayed on the search results page.’

Q. You said, “first phase”; what else do you have planned?

A. ‘Before we roll out more phases, we want to get a better understanding of the resonance of Promoted Tweets, user experience and advertiser value. Once this is done, we plan to allow Promoted Tweets to be shown by Twitter clients and other ecosystem partners and to expand beyond Twitter search, including displaying relevant Promoted Tweets in your timelines in a way that is useful to you.’

So, although this is a first phase, it seems a very sensible way to approach the monetisation issue. Twitter appreciates that history has shown advertising and social networks don’t mix well, and is taking a gentle approach to beginning this process.

Therefore, I was a little confused to read a Telegraph piece this afternoon, which detailed the reaction in a survey by Groupola, who polled 1,219 UK Twitter users and found that 68 per cent of those interviewed were upset about the idea of branded tweets entering their personal feeds.

I’m not questioning the sample or the survey, but I’m not sure what the 68% were so upset about? I mean as it stands this doesn’t seem to be too intrusive and has little or no affect on the service. Yes ads entering feeds would cause more of an issue, but is this a case of the hype over blowing the reality? Or as only eight per cent said that they would reserve judgement to see how the new service would play out over the coming weeks, I wonder if the others had seen promoted tweets before casting their vote?

As I see it Promoted Tweets will currently only appear at the top of some of the Twitter search results pages, which resonates with Google’s paid advertising model and is surely something we’re familiar with by now.
Yes, the second phase of advertising will surely see more direct advertising, but let’s keep some perspective;

Twitter can’t go on providing a free service without any sponsorship/advertising. The monetisation has to come. They’re certainly not rushing it (four years after launch) it’s not a bolt from the blue, and it isn’t a draconian measure that will make us all pack our bags and leave the platform.

I for one will be looking out eagerly for the next phase of advertising, and hope Twitter manages to continue this level of transparency around its plans.

BTW: The current advertising partners include Best Buy, Bravo, Red Bull, Sony Pictures, Starbucks, and Virgin America, and you can read more about Virgin America’s use of Promoted Tweets in this Mashable article.

Chris Norton has also done a great round up of opinions, and you can get more information on Promoted Tweets from this Ad Age article: Twitter Has a Business Model: ‘Promoted Tweets’.

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