Posts Tagged ‘communications’
The 5 stages of Twitter from a PR perspective
July 16th, 2008
I began experimenting with Twitter at the start of the year, and in that short space of time have observed a dramatic change in usage patterns of the micro-blogging tool.
From a communications perspective, this can be broken down into different stages of adoption, which I feel offers valuable lessons in how user behaviour is evolving as a whole across social networks. Only today, within my own network of followers/followees, I felt we might be on the cusp of a new adopter stage, and so I thought it might be a useful exercise to analyse this in my own words, to see what lessons can be learnt.
- Discovery - at the start of the year (and admittedly the year beforehand), Twitter was very much in early adopter stage. The tech-savvy were the first to try it and decide whether or not it was a useful communications tool. This stage was characterised by a sense of ‘elite’ ownership i.e. those using it felt inspired by the fact that they were living at the cutting-edge of social media.
- Experimentation - Twitter asks the question : ‘What are you doing?’. Following early-adopter phase, users experiment with how they can respond to this question in an interesting way, increasingly pushing the boundaries of usage. Functionality moves from basic status updates to more engaging conversation.
- Self-promotion - as Twitter networks grow, users realise the profile-raising potential of the communications tool. Until very recently, there has been a noticeable increase in the number of people using Twitter for PR/self-promotion purposes. A growing trend has been to use the tool as a platform for seeding blog posts, product launches etc.
- Collaboration -we’ve been heading towards this for the past month or so, but today I saw Twitter come alive as a truly collaborative tool. Social media encourages openness and honesty, and within networks Twitter can be a great place to ask advice and receive timely, expert feedback. It’s a great virtual tool for the sharing of ideas, and bouncing around of creativity.
- Criticising - it’s bound to happen. Just as Twitter reaches its usage peak, people will start to want more than the tool is technically capable of delivering. Users will start asking “what’s next?”.
Which leaves us with ‘Migration’. I think Twitter has a bit more life left in it yet though!
Should PR fight its corner? Or just evolve…
April 18th, 2008
Danny Rogers’ leader article in PR Week raised a common and often debated subject this week. In Danny’s words: ‘Since the beginning of the year there have been several diatribes against the PR industry in the national media, equating it to a malevolent force’.
Nothing new there then eh!
Two quotes from the piece stand out in particular:
Exhibit A: Nick Davies’ book: Flat Earth News, argues PR’s raison d’etre is ‘… that the masses are a political threat whose thinking must be controlled by the techniques of PR’.
and
Exhibit B: A quote from this week’s Independent: ‘The aim (of PR) is to undermine or marginalise independent journalism, control decision-making, and lastly, mystify and misinform the public.’
PR gets a rough ride from the media as it is the media on the receiving end of much of what is wrong with the industry. To be fair their experiences have probably led them to these assumptions/conclusions, and after more than 10 years in the industry i can see why. I have met an assortment of PR professionals over this time, some that i am proud to say are the most intelligent, creative and real people I’ve met, and others well, are not.
So am i here to defend PR? No. Am i here to slate it? Nah. Do i have a point? I hope so…
The point is that as with all industries and stages of evolution, the strongest, or in fact the most suited to their environment, survive. PR’s evolution is based on moving away from the controlling instincts that the quotes accuse us of. Those that persist in employing these outdated models in a new environment will be found out and go the way of the famous flightless bird from Mauritius (featured above).
I think many of us, especially in the digital space, have already moved away from controlling the message/audience/issue. I feel a great many agencies and individuals have changed inline with their environment and as a result they are flourishing.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think PR needs another slagging match, or even defend itself to these allegations. What PR needs to do is understand how communications has changed, not just on the web but in all walks of life.
So, should PR fight its corner as Danny says? Or just get on with it, shed this archaic image and prove the doubters wrong.
Question Time: What’s the ideal balance between PR and social media consultancy?
April 7th, 2008
This week we’re running a daily Question Time on the Liberate Media blog. We’ll be posing a timely question to our peers and industry network, suggesting our views on the subject, and inviting informed responses back. There’s nothing like a bit of open debate and collaboration sometimes!
We thought we’d begin with a general question about the ideal balance brands/organisations, and PRs, should be looking to generate between traditional PR and social media consultancy.
I’ll begin by saying outright that there is no correct answer here. It’s a subject that is still very much up for debate, with some going so far as to argue that PRs are not the best people to be providing social media consultancy. An opinion I strongly disagree with.
At Liberate Media we’re of the opinion that digital PR should offer a blend of traditional PR and social media techniques. From our experience, it makes sense to have one consultancy handling the two, with the two strands being interlinked, as creative ideas, collateral and messages can often be effectively cross-fertilised.
We do not believe that PRs should be differentiating themselves through social media (as is rapidly becoming the case unfortunately), but instead be integrating social media thinking with more traditional PR techniques. At the end of the day, we’re not re-writing why people communicate, but how, and it’s this that PR and social media need to address together.
The exact split between PR and social media investment is the tricky bit! The social media resource model that has emerged over the past 12-months is project-focused, with spikes of activity around product launches etc. While this makes overall sense, at Liberate Media we believe there is also a strong case for retainer-based social media consultancy to allow for profile and brand building, and reputation management etc, to respond to the speed at which issues break across social networks.
We’d be really interested to hear your views on today’s question. Please let us know your thoughts…
Could Facebook be the key to re-building parent/children communications?
January 31st, 2008
The older generation is moving in on the hi-tech, online world and the under-30’s are not impressed, writes Martha Irvin from the Courier Mail.
The crux of her post reads that oldies are getting in on the social neworking scene, and the kids don’t like it.
This story rings true of a cousin of mine: a 20-year-old who likes fasion, music, designer clothes and her privacy. You know the type! Her only problem is she accepted her 40 something mum as a friend on Facebook! Her private life isn’t private no more!
The fact of the matter is that online social technology is getting easier to use and fast become accesible to people of all ages. What we are currently seeing is a generation split, but what’s interesting is the potential of social networks to re-build broken parent/child relationships.
Is Facebook becoming an earpiece for parent-child communications, instead of the dinner table? Are children more likely to listen to their parents in a trendy social network environment?
Maybe listening to you parents in a online environment is less confrontational and easier to digest. Let’s hope it brings families closer together… it might end up like the good old days when you sat around the wireless as a family waiting for latest radio play to be aired (before my time of course!).
November 29th, 2007
The PR industry has taken another bashing over the past couple of days for failing to embrace and understand social media as they should. If you’ve missed out on the conversations, it’s worth reading Will McInnes’ post “World has changed: PR agencies haven’t“, and Antony Mayfield’s follow-up post “Can PR evolve quickly enough?”.
Although Will makes the very valid point that “PR will NOT die at an industry level”, he insinuates that most PRs are in danger of being usurped by other agencies or disciplines, who have a better understanding of social networks.
And this is where I strongly beg to differ.
Expert PR thinking will always be at the strategic heart of any ‘PR’ campaign, and so long as we are always focused on being up-to-date in our approach and techniques, we will never be pushed out. The definition of ‘PR’ is on the very cusp of being radically overhauled, but our expertise and understanding of the media will never become redundant.
I am the first to admit that many PR agencies are taking too long over adapting and embracing the media climate that’s evolving so rapidly, but they shouldn’t feel bullied into having to becoming social media experts and having all the answers to hand. Their current PR expertise will be the only foundations and knowledge that they need to build on.
A great analogy to reference at this point is the publishing industry’s evolution from print to online. Ten years ago I got my first job at Ziff Davis, which coincided with the launch of its first two internet divisions - Gamespot and ZDNet. These websites were set up by traditional publishers and run by print journalists and editors - none had any prior knowledge of the Internet. To look back now it’s easy to see that we didn’t have a clue what we were doing, but we believed in the Internet and knew it was the right thing to be doing, and so just went for it! I don’t need to tell you how successful ZDNet and Gamespot are today.
My point is that we didn’t waste our time debating about how we should embrace the Internet, and who was best placed to succeed at it, or how we’d all lose our professions if we didn’t…we just did it, and learnt as we went along. As a result I’ve now been working in the digital industry for the whole of my career - I owe a lot to t’Internet!
So at the end of the day, us PRs are still the best people to do the job!
Technorati tags: pr, social_networks, socialmedia, willmcinnes, zdnet, communications