I just hope everyone is well and enjoying their holidays. So my returning visitors will probably know that I haven’t been blogging as I was waiting to get graded for my blog, well…..(drum roll…….. ) it went really well, and I’d really like to thank all of you that showed interest in it and have contributed. I’ve received some notifications from other people recommending my blog and that they have been finding it very interesting, that means a lot, so thank you so much.
This blog post I’m making is simply an update and let you know that I’m back and ready to start blogging again, and what’s been keeping me busy lately.
So, I’m currently working on my dissertation that it’s all about how companies in Cyprus use Social Media as a Communication/PR tool. I’m still in the process of interviewing, but the findings up to now are very interesting. I’ll definitely be posting a blog on some of my findings closer to the end; I’m really looking forward to see the overall findings and analysis.
I have also been invited to speak at the 3nd EuroMed Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business that will take place in Nicosia, Cyprus (04-05 of November 2010). The conference is organised by the University of Nicosia and will take place at Hilton Park Hotel in Nicosia, Cyprus, with Dr. Yioula Melanthiou, Department of Marketing from the University of Nicosia. The paper entitled: “Using Social Networks as an Effective Promotional Tool for Higher Education Institutions”, which I covered in my dissertation in my BA degree last year. I feel really lucky that I have been asked to do this, it’s such a great opportunity =)
If anyone is coming, or interested, please let me know, I’d love to meet you after I give my presentation.
Just wanted to let you know, that as this blog was part of my module, I am not allowed to post anything until my tutor @stirpr grades all my brilliant posts I made ( optimistic! – ‘lol’), and then I’ll be back as soon as I hear from him!!!
So if I don’t blog for a while, you now know why.
Thank you for everyone who contributed and made this part of my course so interesting. I’m glad I chose this course, I’ve learnt so much, and blogging is something I’ll definitely continue and I’ll be making posts which I think they are worth sharing with you.
I can’t believe it’s the end of my MSc……wow!
Now it’s full focus on my dissertation-but I promise, I WILL BE BACK!
I was inspired by a blog that Ben Cotton made on Personal SEO and thought of doing a video on it. I added a few more tools that may boost your Personal SEO and manage your online reputation. If you are particularly in the process of applying for a job, this video may be of interest to you… Enjoy it and feel free to add anything that I may have missed out!
A great innovation could come from turning an existing idea, into a more effective and smarter one. That’s what happened with the well known ‘press release’. The new press release is now called a Social Media Press Release (SMNR) which is designed for online media.
How is it better and smarter than the old press release? It’s simple, the old press release was just written with the ‘press’ in mind. The SMNR, is (or better if I say MUST be) written with a variety of people in mind. It must be written with the journalists in mind, bloggers, publishers and the publics at large. It is designed in a way that fits within the nature and community of the online world. This in turn allows it to be shared and commented through social bookmarking, micro blogging and social networking communities.
A Press Release seeks to influence their target audiences’ through focusing on relationships through journalists, newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. A SMNR however is a little bit different. In order to achieve that influence you want, it is vital you get involved in this online world through listening, being accepted by the community on their terms and not yours, providing relevant and quality content and engaging with people and conversations in order to build relationships.
A SMNR takes advantage of the online social media tools such as You Tube, images, audio and hyperlinks to relevant websites and coverage of resulting online conversations. The message is sent out to a larger audience and the message is communicated more effectively.
The idea of having a SMNR started off with a former Financial Times journalist called Tom Foremski when on the 27th of February 27, 2006 he posted a blog with the title of “Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!” If you read it, you’ll see that he made his feelings quite clear of how he didn’t like the traditional Press Release where he made a request to the PR industry that it should be written in a more realistic approach. Todd Defren, by SHIFT Communications was inspired by it, and was the first to release the SMNR template which is 100% open to all marketing/PR community. This is how the latest version of it looks like
The PR Week on the 18th of July, 2007, stated that “newly published research indicates that 75% of journalists would prefer to receive media-rich press releases than a standard e-mail or Word file attachment”. Furthermore, RealWire analysed 997 releases during the period December 2008 to May 2009 for which coverage tracking statistics had been gathered by their Proveit release evaluation service. 71 of these were Social Media News Releases giving these results.
The Social Media Newsroom template however, “is intended to get companies thinking about how to present themselves to broader audiences; to motivate greater participation and openness; and potentially boost organic website SEO” (Todd Defren, SHIFT Communiations). It allows you to bring together information about your business into a vibrant, central location. It includes contact information, bookmarks, latest news and more. People then are able to comment on your organisations news directly into your press release which is then directed to your newsroom. This presentation is in pdf format, made by SHIFT Communications, which explains everything you need to know about the Social Media Newsroom and this is how it looks like.
They’ve been around for some time now, and I think that they’re great idea and indeed up to date with what is going on around us in this online world. Being able to receive a news release which is media-rich just makes it more interesting. What are your thoughts about it? Do you like it or do you think the old and normal press release is much easier and straight to the point?
Hello guys! This posting will be about ‘@its_sf’s world’ secret! Yes, that’s how much I love you guys that I’m willing to share what I’ve learnt about people’s use of my blog through Google Analytics. You don’t get this kind of information that often by people do you? Maybe if I analyse my statistics it can help some of you understand how some basic Google Analytics can give you valuable information about your visitors!
I do however, feel that before I start sharing some information with you, installing Google Analytics on my blog was a nightmare as you already know through my previous posting. So again, thank you @rxhost and @stirpr for your patience and help regarding this issue. We eventually managed!
It’s interesting to see what information you get from your Google Analytics. I admit it’s a bit complicated to read and understand at first, but it’s pretty straight forward. I’ve never used it before I started my blog, so I’m sure there’s still a lot I can learn to do with it. However, the basics are quite obvious.
Google Analytics is a free service to all users that have a google account. It shows how many people visit my blog, where they are coming from, what they are looking at and allows me to understand if they actually like what I post!
Most of my visitors come from referring sites with a 57%, a 33% of direct traffic to my website and a 10% through search engines. The second set of statistics noted above, enable to observe how the latest visitors of my website are finding it excluding the search engines to find my website, and then magnify them to see how they use it. My top three referring sites are, Facebook, Twitter and the Stirling PR Student blog site. This just proves how easy it is to promote your blog through social networking sites. 63% of my visitors are considered to be returning visitors which have at least returned to my website 3 times.
Moreover, you can also see what people typed in the search engines and entered your website. For example, some of the words that appear in search engines and found me were PR, Nestlé, media crisis, social media, sex sells diesel and Greenpeace. It’s also allows me to see if my visitors are clicking on the sites I recommend, which they do! Here is a small idea of what people can see through search engines about my blog.
Amazingly, I get people visiting my blog from literally all around the world. God that’s so cool and freaky at the same time! Here are the top 15 countries people come from when visiting my blog:
1. United Kingdom
2. Cyprus
3. United States
4. Canada
5. Romania
6. Bahrain
7. Ukraine
8. Sweden
9. Turkey
10. United Arab Emirates
11. Germany
12. Europe
13. Hungary
14. France
15. Greece
This type of information let’s me decide whether I want to target my international visitors more. If for instance I wanted France or Greece in my top five, I can clearly see that they are way below on the list. Therefore, I could start posting blogs that relate to France and Greece.
I’m quite happy with my Google Analytics, however, when I was studying my Google Analytics; I noticed that a very small minority of my visitors click on the “about moi” section. I think it’s important for people to learn who the blogger is, and find out a little about them. Whenever I visit a blog, the first thing I like to do, is read about the person. So its either people don’t think the same way I do, or that the “about moi” section isn’t visible enough and doesn’t stand out. I’ll probably make some changes and hopefully I get people to learn more about “me”. If my statistics change, then it probably means it was’nt very visible to people.
Bottom line, I wouldn’t know if I didn’t have Google Analytics! I also wouldn’t know all the above information…so thank you to my top three!! All my classmates at Stirling University, all my friends on Facebook, and all my followers on Twitter for visiting!
“a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now”.
This post is about my personal use of Twitter. We were asked to create a twitter account for my module, but I’ve been using it for over a year now and was actually quite shocked that hardly anyone from class had one! To be honest, what I love most about twitter is the fact that you get to know the breaking news first through it, and it’s the information YOU want to know, because you get to control who you follow. For example I get interesting daily information from some of the following @toprank,@crackberry,@BlackBerry,@therealprmoment,@behindthespin,@BenCotton,@cyprusmail,@prweekuknews,@stedavies, @CIPR_UK and @cnnbrk. So even if I don’t read the paper for a day or a magazine, I get updated via Twitter, at any time I want because I also have it on my blackberry. When I’m usually on my PC working, I always have TweetDeck open, which makes it much easier for me to see who ‘mentions’ me, or who ‘direct messages’ me, and I also have a number of lists open, such as #stirpr.
I know quite a few people that still find it hard to use Twitter, and aren’t yet convinced about the usefulness of it. I personally think it might be more addictive once you get the hang of Tweeting and Re-tweeting. The picture here is something I came up with, and what I feel Twitter is all about.
For my module in Digital Media and PR, we created the hashtag of #stirpr which allowed my classmates and myself use it to share interesting posts and notify eachother when each of us had a new blog post. Our lecturer @stirpr also shared helpful links we could use for our module and other interesting related material.
We recently had a ‘Public Relations Expert Panel and Networking Event’ at our university with six of Scotland’s finest Public Relations practitioners that provided us with an insight into the world of PR. Our guests included:
Although all presentations that were given were very interesting, Craig Mcgill talked about‘Digital Media and Brand Development’ something that relates to my posting I’m making on twitter at the moment. Before I attended the event, I did some research on Google to see who of our six PR practitioners were on twitter, and I found a few. I tweeted them saying that I am looking forward in meeting them, and that’s when the online networking started. I got my first reply from @craigmcgill saying that we should hashtag the event as #ciprstirling…the rest got involved, and @CIPR_Scotland also got notified about it….all through the power of Twitter!
This is a good example of ‘The Value of Effective Networking’ which Tony Meehan talked about that day. Twitter allows you to talk with people you want to, exchange information. Even if you’re having trouble with something, you can ask for help and get advice in minutes, or even seconds. When I had trouble setting up my blog with wordpress.com, all I did was tweeted something like this “I’m having trouble with #wordpress, I can’t find the right plug-in for google analytics”. It only took a few minutes before @rxhost saw my tweet and offered to help me, and that’s because I put a hashtag in front of the word #wordpress. I couldn’t find a better helper than @rxhost, I would recommend him at any time!
Now, although the twitterville fans would know this, all you users that don’t quite ‘get’ Twitter…it allows you to engage with anyone you want, from all around the world! I get valuable information daily on stuff I like to read and learn about, like social media and PR, by following the right people. I get so many feeds from different public relations or public communications management practitioners and academics. Don’t be afraid to ask for help from anyone. You will be amazed how helpful twitter can be, in so many different perspectives! Like promoting your blog by posting updates, or getting a lot of followers for being active in twitter which can eventually drive huge traffic to your blog or website!
My advice for those who are still trying to figure out Twitter and it’s its benefits…
Use it and you’ll Love it!
I do!
How would you characterize Twitter in 7 words or 140 characters?
After 23 years of advertising in Super Bowl, Pepsi decided to take a new direction. It went social media! Pepsi focused on a new campaigned called the “Pepsi Refresh Project”. The idea behind this is to award grant money for community projects that are voted by the actual community themselves. Pepsi has put aside $20 million which will be donated to local organisations and causes which are all proposed by the public in realms such as arts, culture, the environment, health and education.
Over the years, Pepsi spent over $142 million to encourage consumers to drink the Pepsi brand through major ads in the Super Bowl which included Cindy Crawford, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. This year Pepsi decided to concentrate on its social media strategy aiming to create the largest showdown between broadcast media the internet. When brands like Pepsi use social media, especially to such a large extent; and have followers and fans on Facebook or Twitter, does not necessarily mean there is a return, since those are just assets. If you read my previous blogs, I make it quite clear that what is important is how you use social media. Having thousands of followers doesn’t necessarily mean you are doing well…it really depends how you interact and use social media. Pepsi however is putting social media to practise to achieve a higher and meaningful goal where it can make the world a better place which is associated with Pepsi’s vision.
February 1 was when people were able to start voting in order to determine the best ideas, which will receive grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 each. Pepsi is using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter as well as a Web site where people can vote and collect ideas to benefit the community.
Lee Clow, chief creative officer and global director for media arts at the Pepsi-Cola agency said “our idea was that this year we’d try to shift the marketing and communications to something that’s truly walking the walk”. This campaign will allow Pepsi to engage with its consumers in a very different way.
Although there was no Super Bowl ad, there have been various commercials online promoting this project. Pepsi also sponsored a reality show called “If I can Dream” on hulu.com. Through all this promotion and getting people involved, we see Pepsi allowing ‘real people’ making the project for them.
All ideas for the Pepsi Refresh grants are submitted each month on the Pepsi Refresh Project Web site, where computer users have the chance to vote on the ideas suggested the previous month. If you haven’t already seen their campaign website, it’s worth looking at. I actually believe that this was a very smart move for Pepsi and easy to evaluate the success through number of fans and ideas coming in. All America has been talking about it as well as major players in the media such as the NY Times and CNN. Pepsi has mentioned that skipping the Super Bowl ad got them more promotion than they could ever imagine as the shock it created for not spending a million dollar ad in Super Bowl and focusing on a social media campaign this year. Much more on Pepsi was written on The Huffington Post.
So what do you think? ‘Could a soda really make the world a better place?’ through this social media campaign?
Reputation is something very important to all of us. Either that is as individuals or a company. Claire Powell (left), ex publicist of Katie Price, aka Jordan, forced to take Katie to court after she had made a controversial comment on the Graham Norton Show last October. Claire Powell, whose company Can Associates Limited still represents Peter Andre was forced to take legal actions and sue Katie Price for the allegation made.
Katie accused Powell of having an affair with her ex husband Peter Andre. Powell’s solicitor Mike Brookes said that this accusation was “serious, damaging and distressing” for her. This accusation was made in front of two other fellow guests at the show, and a studio audience of an approximate number of 600 people. The allegation was not broadcast on the show since the BBC “quite sensibly” edited what Katie said before it went on national TV. However, this had already been picked up by a number of tabloid newspapers.
Claire Powell is with Neville Hendricks, who is also the father of her child. She is a 43 year old greatly respected woman within the celebrity PR industry. The Guardian voted Powell as one of the top 20 most powerful celebrity makers. Therefore, reputation matters even more as it interferes with her job.
Price’s solicitor, Keith Ashby, released a statement as she was not present in court. It stated “she greatly regrets what has happened, and joins in the making of this statement in order to assist in settling the record straight”. Katie Price agreed to pay compensation, as well as Powell’s legal fees. Powell said “I didn’t really want to be in court but if something bad is said which is going to trash your reputation, you have to clear your name”.
So, that’s how much reputation matters and that’s how far people go to save it. It is how you are perceived through the eyes of everyone, either that is customers, suppliers, employees and other parties. It is important to pay attention to your reputation and work on improving it. Once a negative event comes up, it can drag you through the mud for quite a while, depending on the level of seriousness. We see and hear about it every day, either it’s Nestlé (see previous blog post), or Tiger Woods, or Claire Powell.
One of my favourite things I say when it comes to PR is what I already have as a note on my blog. Everything you say or do is PR. That highly involves your reputation, and everyone needs to keep it safe, as having a good reputation can get people to respect and admire you. In addition to this, it can take you places that having a bad reputation can definitely not take you!
I imagine that what Claire Powell did was hard, taking Katie Price to court as they were so close and worked together for so long. My personal opinion is that Powell did the right thing, and saved her reputation but also, Can Associates. Powell told PRWeek that she had to do everything possible to clear her name and the company’s reputation, owing to a vast number of untruths. She also said that “in this current economic climate, these claims can affect a company so much”. I think she did the right thing for her and the company!
££££ Sorry Pricey, you had to pay the price ££££
So, how much attention do you pay to your reputation? What steps do you take as a company to improve it? Remember, reputation is a hidden asset, and entrepreneurs invest in it because they know to get capital they have to get known and liked by the right people….
Just a reminder that Nestlé is the world’s largest food and beverage corporation. According to their website, one of their business principles is as follows:
“Nestlé is conscious of the fact that the success of a corporation is a reflection of the professionalism, conduct and the responsible attitude of its management and employees.”
Let’s talk about that responsible attitude of theirs while ‘we have a break and have a Kit-Kat’ over it. The whole world is criticising Nestlé for sourcing palm oil from Sinar Mas which is used for products such as Kit Kat. Sinar Mas is Indonesia’s largest producer of palm oil and has been accused of illegal deforestation of rainforests. This has other effects such as CO2 emissions, many communities are being destroyed, and pushing the orang-utans towards extinction as there are only around 50,000-60,000 left and the 80% of that is in Indonesia.
Greenpeace has already launched an international campaign which is targeted directly to Nestlé. The clip they made ends with a twist from Kit-Kat’s famous slogan: “Have a break? Give the orang-utan a break“. See below.
You would have thought that Nestlé’s PR professionals would do something immediately to save their reputation. However, what Nestlé thought was most important was to contact Google to remove the video due to copyright infringement.
Although it had been removed, it already had been posted on vimeo.com and re-posted on many other sites as well as YouTube, seen by thousands of people. What can I say? Maybe they were on a break and having a Kit-Kat when they thought of that, so couldn’t really focus on what to do next.
Newsflash Nestlé – Crisis has struck!
Greenpeace obviously isn’t giving up. They launched a report called ‘Caught Red Handed’ [PDF] which explains how Nestlé sources palm oil from suppliers, including Sinar Mas and the orang-utan habitat destruction in Indonesia. They are also encouraging people to share their Kit-Kat video with friends.
Greenpeace is amazed at how their supporters have taken this campaign to the next level. Thousands of people are on Facebook and Twitter calling for a boycott of Nestlé products. The Nestlé fan page is being bombarded with criticisms and very negative messages destroying Nestlé’s reputation.
PRWeek says that “the situation was quickly becoming a social media crisis “and I couldn’t agree more. It is insane what people are saying online. People are creating groups on Facebook and have turned profile pictures like the ones below and many more.
Nestlé released a statement on the 17th March, which said that “Nestlé recently undertook a detailed review of its supply chain to establish the source of its palm oil supplies and we have made a commitment to using only ‘Certified Sustainable Palm Oil’ by 2015, when sufficient quantities should be available.”
Is this what people expect to hear from such a large multinational company such as Nestlé? Weren’t they supposed to be promising to work harder to source palm oil from more sustainable sources at a much sooner date?
In PRWeek, Porter Novelli associate director, digital, Kerry Gaffney said: ‘Nestle’s status updates are pushing people on to its official site to see its corporate response. Someone within Nestle is also responding to posts, but they are not corporate in tone and are juvenile. The company should be tailoring its response more to the environment with a more human tone.’ Apparently, a Nestlé employee was responding to all the criticisms on the Facebook page but now has stopped. Kerry Gaffney also said that the person that was responding on Facebook seemed to be junior.
This is a lesson to all companies out there. Employ a person who is responsible to monitor your company’s profile online and never underestimate the social media world. If Nestlé had a more senior person on that position, he/she could be more in control of the situation and show some humility. I’ve learned that during a crisis you should show concern, clarity, control, confidence and competence. I’m not convinced that Nestlé ticked all the boxes here! Jon Clements has provided some useful tips for brands venturing into social media which are worthwhile taking a look. Jeremiah Owyang has also shared his thoughts about social media attacks. Nestlé might find these useful…
So, what are your thoughts on this? How can Nestlé tackle this social media crisis?
I was taking a walk in Buchanan Street the other day in Glasgow, with a starbucks coffee in my hand and I couldn’t help myself from staring at Diesel’s window when I passed by it. I was looking at it, thinking of their whole campaign message and how it made me feel. Before I go on, let me just show you what I was looking at…
Truth is, it caught my attention, and when I went home I also visited their website to check it out. I never entered the store though, maybe because I’m not a Diesel fan, or wasn’t in the mood for shopping (wow- I don’t say that that often!). So that’s when it hit me; I’m doing my next blog on campaigns which involve sex appeals.
So appeals based on sex usually are made to outright shock. The sexual messages that are sent out definitely command attention, but the attention received through different demographics may vary. A few months ago I finished reading a book by Ronald Smith called ‘Strategic Planning for Public Relations’. According to Smith and other researchers, they correctly state that sexual content can many times go wrong, as the majority will usually remember the sexual content in it, but fail to associate it with the brand or the sponsor presenting the message. Sexual content is far more effective when it has a legitimate association with the product, i.e. perfumes, lingerie or responsible sexual behaviour. I think lingerie, then Victoria Secret. Victoria Secret = gorgeous Victoria Secret models! It’s as simple as that really, even the meerkat agrees.
It is never a good idea to use sexual content just as a shock value. However, Diesel’s campaign with the slogan of “Sex Sells, Unfortunately We Sell Jeans” in my personal opinion is a smart way to attract their target audience. It’s simple and clever, and they use the motto ‘sex sells’ very effectively.
It’s true that women respond to sex appeals less than men do, (and I’m sure the majority of women will agree) and younger people are influenced in a more positive manner by the sex appeals than older audiences. The way Diesel uses their campaign to develop their message strategy and communication tactics are very attractive. Every jean on their website has a product name which when you click it, is linked to this ‘sex fantasy’ picture. If you like it (the jean-not the fantasy), it gives you the option to ‘expose your fantasy’ through…surprise, surprise our favourite social networks! So this is what you get if you like Mintha jean……
In my personal opinion, the overall campaign is pretty smart and I do think it will work. However, I do feel it gets a bit too much with the ‘expose your fantasy’ (top left) pictures it shows, but then again it fits in with the rest of the content in the campaign. If I liked the Mintha jean, that fantasy picture isn’t something it would stop me from buying it. For all those who are involved in campaigns, know that the message strategy and communication tactics are very crucial to a campaign and I think Diesel did a pretty good job at that.
But wait… How does a sex appeal link with a chicken salad? Sex appeals can be a two edge sword, so be careful where you use it, you don’t want to ruin or distract your message. Be the one to judge both campaigns. I give thumbs up for Diesel and thumbs down for the American fast-food restaurant, Carl’s Jr. Check out the video below! Does Kim Kardashian’s provocative eating manners sell salads?
) it went really well, and I’d really like to thank all of you that showed interest in it and have contributed. I’ve received some notifications from other people recommending my blog and that they have been finding it very interesting, that means a lot, so thank you so much.
I have also been invited to speak at the 3nd EuroMed Conference of the EuroMed Academy of Business that will take place in Nicosia, Cyprus (04-05 of November 2010). The conference is organised by the University of Nicosia and will take place at Hilton Park Hotel in Nicosia, Cyprus, with Dr. Yioula Melanthiou, Department of Marketing from the University of Nicosia. The paper entitled: “Using Social Networks as an Effective Promotional Tool for Higher Education Institutions”, which I covered in my dissertation in my BA degree last year. I feel really lucky that I have been asked to do this, it’s such a great opportunity =)
