Trevor Young - PR Warrior | Where PR meets social media meets content marketing

Why Authenticity Works in Branding, Just Ask Michael Buble

We talk a lot in the PR game about the need for brands to be genuine, and why authenticity is one of the strongest cards you can play in a marketing sense.

In the case of high profile people, celebrities and the like - personal brands - authenticity takes on even greater importance. Exhibit 'A' your honour - the video below (don't let the title put you off).

It's a ripper! At time of writing, over 40,700 people had shared it on Facebook,seriously bolstering Buble's stocks. (I only saw it for the first time today, must have been living under a rock these past few weeks! Hat-tip Scott Kilmartin from Haul).

Tony Hsieh from Zappos.com reportedly once said "a brand is what people say about you after you've left the room" (or words to that effect). That being the case, Michael Buble's brand is in pretty good shape!

Original source.

Michael Buble Heckled By Mom - Watch MoreFunny Videos

 

SocialMediaExaminer.com Presents Facebook Success Summit 2011

Michael Stelzner, the guy behind the hugely popular Social Media Examiner blog and author of Launch (see video below), has announced the Facebook Success Summit online marketing conference.

It kicks off on October 5 and will run until October 25.

The Facebook event will be run along similar lines to Stelzner's Social Media Success Summit series - I participated in the last two summit events and learned heaps from both, hence am happy to recommend this initiative (I'm also an affiliate for the event).

The Facebook Success Summit brings together 19 experts of the calibre of:

• Guy Kawasaki
• Mari Smith
• Robert Scoble
• Jay Baer
• Victoria Ransom (Wildfire)

The event is aimed at marketers and business owners, although 'personal brands' such as bloggers, authors, speakers etc as well as nonprofit organisations will also benefit from the hints, tips, advice and strategies provided by the presenters.

Facebook marketing involves connecting with customers and prospects via Facebook's active 750 million-member community.

The goal is to increase exposure for your brand, improve relations with customers, build a strong base of fans and advocates for your business, cause or issue, and grow sales/donations/registrations etc.

With more than 10 million Australians on Facebook, this event may give you the head start you're looking for in your social media marketing efforts.

To learn more, register or access your free class with Facebook guru Mari Smith, click here (affiliate link). >> REGISTER TODAY and SAVE 50% - SALE ENDS THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15TH

How a 'Little Crappy Ass Theater' Turned a Disgruntled Customer into Marketing Gold!

This is gold!

The owner of the Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Austin, Texas threw out a young lady who was caught texting during the film. His beef was that she broke the rules of the house:

"If you talk or text during a movie, we kick you out".

The texter cracked it and left an angry retort on the cinema's voicemail, which the theater promptly used as the basis of its 'Don't text in the cinema' public service announcement currently screening before R-rated features).

By the way, at time of writing the YouTube video (below) had notched up some 350,000 views (no doubt helped along by a tweet from famed movie critic, Roger Ebert, who alone has 460,000+ Twitter followers!

N.B. if you have sensitive ears, you might like to check out the censored version (which has only 9000 views).

 Lesson for marketers?

• STAND FOR SOMETHING - by taking a zero-tolerance stance on people who text and talk during a movie (everyone's pet hate), the Alamo Drafthouse sets itself apart from its competition; it must be working - the brand has received some pretty decent accolades - Entertainment Weekly (#1 theater in America - "One of America's most fanatically unique moviegoing experiences"), Wired.com (Coolest Movie Theater in the World) 

• BUILD A COMMUNITY OF FANS - the Alamo Drafthouse has a solid following on both Twitter and Facebook, so when the boss blogged about this story (and posted the clip on YouTube) they had a ready made audience.

• GIVE PEOPLE SOMETHING TO TALK ABOUT - this feeds into the point above ... by creating and posting the video the theater gave its fans a reason to propel the story throughout their own personal networks.

• HAVE SOME FUN - some brands might cringe at the thought of taking the piss out of a disgruntled customer, but for the Alamo Drafthouse irreverence is all part of the package, and what you see is what you get.

Great stuff!

(Hat-tip Lester Francois via Scott Kilmartin).

How a Real-Time Facebook Promotion - Borne Out of Frustration - Ends Up in 'The Oz' Newspaper

Melbourne entrepreneur Scott Kilmartin was frustrated on Thursday last week.

The owner/operator of cool recycled products brand Haul was fired up after Westpac's electronic payment system (including EFTPOS) went down for much of one day, leaving businesses such as Scott's in a spot of financial bother.

Scott (or was it his 'celebrity' dog Gus the Boxer that came up with the idea?) quickly went into action and posted a 'distressed' promotion on the company's Facebook page, following up with messages to the Twitterverse.

Here was the wording in full irreverence:

SALE, SALE, SALE!

In honour of Westpac leaving us high and dry with an EFPTOS machine & online payment gateway experiencing 'technical difficulties' we've decided to have a SALE.

ALL Westpac & St George customers get %33 off EVERYTHING in our North Fitzroy store.

Methods of Payment:
CASH, rubber cheques, IOU's scribbled on the back of beer coasters (with a note from your mum saying you'll cough up the coin).

Raid that rainy day stash, smash that piggy bank and show Gus your ATM cards (what else are you going to do with them today) at the door.

fine print:
SALE ends whenever Westpac comes online

Fast-forward to Tuesday.

The IT section of The Australian newspaper covered the Westpac debacle and featured a pic of Scott with his 'stern face' on.

A lesson for marketing in today's high velocity hyper-connected age:

When you post something on Facebook - when you tweet about it - if you're clever enough, who knows where the story will lead?

In Haul's case, some good publicity in a major daily national newspaper in a section that's perfect for the brand - you see, many of Haul's products are laptop satchels and iPad covers made from recycled advertising billboards. And who reads the IT pages?

All up - not great for Westpac, but pretty cool for Haul.

PR Warrior Goodness Spreads to Facebook

Seeing that in recent times I've started talking about the PR Warrior in the third person, I thought it was probably about time 'he' got his own Facebook fan page.

Seriously though...

I have a 'private' Facebook account that I sort of muck around with but nothing too serious, preferring to keep it mainly for personal use and less for business-oriented content, links, information etc. 

However the 'public' Facebook Pages is kinda like Twitter, don't you think? People who like what you're all about come to you - an effective medium in helping to grow a networked community of like-minded souls.

I find Facebook a great platform by which to add value, share content and build relationships with people, especially those who don't necessarily want to do the Twitter thing. It's all about giving people options in how they choose to connect with you.

So, with Gus the Boxer as my inspiration, the Facebook page is up and running and I'm humbled that a number of you were quick off the mark in 'liking' it. For that I thank you - nothing worse than having a public page with no friends/fans/likes :)

Check out the page here.

 

Facebook Helps Public Maintain the Rage Against UK Xmas Pop Excesses!

This is a great story highlighting just how social media can rally the public into action (it also demonstrates the power of a single big idea)!

Each year the UK makes a big deal out of the number one song on its pop charts in Christmas week. 

Normally the winning song is a lightweight pop number. The Spice Girls, for example, have scored in the past although in recent years, the top tune has been by the winner of Simon Cowell's X Factor TV show. 

This year was no different, with young singer Joe McElderry tipped to top the charts this Christmas. That was until rock fan and part-time DJ Jon Morter organised a Facebook campaign to knock X Factor from its traditional top spot and instead propel hardcore Californian rock band Rage Against The Machine's 17-year-old song 'Killing in the Name' to number one.

The campaign was started as a bit of a joke but gained momentum until the point where 'Killing in the Name' (video below) sold 500,000 copies, 50,000 more than McElderry's ballad 'The Climb'.

Up to five million people reportedly tuned in to hear RATM take the number one spot.

The other big number is the Facebook Group, which at time of writing had nearly one million members (check it out here).

In a move that will undoubtedly endear them to fans, RATM have stated they would perform a free concert in London to celebrate the achievement as well as donate the proceeds from the chart-topping single to charity (source).

N.B. this post also appears on www.trevoryoung.posterous.com

Thou Shalt Raise My Online Profile in 2009 - PART TWO

What's the best way to raise your profile online and in doing so also boost your 'brand reputation'? CONTINUATION FROM PART ONE (BELOW)

I'm liking LinkedIn more and more these days as a credible and professional social networking platform. The fact you can now have your blog content fed straight onto your profile page is a bonus.

Once again, like any other social media tool, LinkedIn needs to be nurtured. The bigger your network, the more contacts you have access to. 

There are plenty of professional LinkedIn groups you can join and participate in, which in turn helps get your name 'out there' as well as a channel to reinforce your expertise in a particular area.

 

I've got a Facebook account but I use that more for keeping up to date with friends and not as a commercial exercise (that said, there are some business enterprises that successfully use Facebook groups or fan pages as a marketing tool).

Twitter is the platform most people find hardest to get their head around but it's starting to gain significant traction as well as coverage in the media (which in turn helps boost its credibility). 

I find Twitter to be very useful from several perspectives, specifically finding out what's going on - i.e. getting the 'heads up' from a range of knowledgeable and well-connected people in business, marketing and social media circles - as well as being able to converse with said people on all manner of issues and topics. While you can get some heated debates (albeit, with opinions spat out in 140 character bursts), there's also a lot of fun to be had as Twitter has more than it's fair share of clever-witted people.

With the likes of Opposition Leader Malcom Turnbull and PM Kevin Rudd now embracing Twitter, the online community is starting to increase its profile in here in Australia following the successful use of Twitter (and other social media tools) by Barack Obama - here's an interview with Scott Goodstein, who ran the text-messaging & mobile communications for the Obama campaign).

 

Social bookmarking sites are very useful tools. I'm constantly building my repository of bookmarked blogs and online articles on Delicious and while it's more for my personal use, the list is also public and therefore openly available for people to peruse should they so desire.

 

Friendfeed is an excellent tool that aggregates feeds from a various of sources. For example, myFriendfeed site instantly filters my content feeds from Twitter, LinkedIn and Delicious. In other words, it's a good one-stop shop and as such, a worthy addition to my social media portfolio.

So there you have it rock stars - the foundation of the PR Warrior's online visibility efforts and a few tips as to how you too can raise your profile in 2009.

Remember, what works for me doesn't necessarily mean it will be right for you and what you're trying to achieve, so do your research, experiment a bit...and have fun!

P.S. I'll probably utilise other tools as they come on-stream - I've recently started on Tumblr, which sits halfway between Twitter and a blog, but this is more for personal use (I must say, if you're wanting a presence but not wanting to get too deep into blogging, this may be your answer).

P.P.S. I love podcasting and online video and while these channels are not yet part of my personal online repertoire, I expect they will be in 2009 :)

List of Corporate Social Media Examples Continues to Grow

More and more blue-chip companies and brands are dipping their legs into the social media water (as opposed to merely their toes!).

Fantastic to see!

In recent times I've been busy compiling a list of examples of corporates who are getting involved with blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Second Life et al; it's still very much a work in progress but in the meantime, check this out -- ex-Forrester analyst Peter Kim has put together an A-Z List of Social Media Marketing Examples which is definitely well worth bookmarking.

It's a solid if not eclectic list with some interesting examples, ranging from the well-documented success stories through to some companies that are attempting to use social media in innovative ways. 

Corporate Twitter forays overall tend to be a little naff although some brands, with a little effort, have potential while Forrester and Wholefoods are making great inroads in this space.

There are also several examples of consumer 'backlash' social media executions - what can happen if an angry group of consumers turns against your brand.

All in all, Peter Kim's list is definitely worth spending some time on if you're interested in a broad overview of what's happening in social media from a corporate and brand perspective.

Sydney Writers' Centre Serves Up Facebook Lesson

If you want to check out a great example of an entrepreneurial business utilising Facebook as a means of interacting with consumers, building a community and promoting itself, then check out the Sydney Writers' Centre's page.

Sure, the centre promotes itself and its courses on the page, but it also allows people to subscribe to its newsletter, contains relevant photo albums (student success stories and pics of its training rooms)...plus it uploads info re writing competitions and other relevant topics.

Importantly, the page allows people to ask questions and put forth their views (including their reviews of the course - very powerful! - which part of "I highly recommend it.." and "Loved it, loved it, loved it" wouldn't resonate with prospective students??). 

Oh, and 172 fans have subscribed to the page. 

Mmmm. Positive interaction with current/past/prospective students intertwined with relevant brand promotion. How good is that? And the cost? Stuff all!

Click here for more information on the Sydney Writers' Centre. By the way, the centre also writes a regularly updated blog and has its own Twitter page.

Here endeth the lesson!

PR Clients Demand Social Media Input From Agencies

I'm a great believer in public relations consultancies being to the fore when it comes to discovering new industry trends and being across innovative tools, techniques and technologies that will help us better service our clients.

While some clients might require agencies for 'arms and legs' and overload work, in my experience most are genuinely keen for their external PR team to generate new ideas and strategic thinking to help them achieve their corporate or marketing goals.

In other words, it's the PR agency's job to add value by bringing to the table fresh up-to-the-minute thinking. Not that clients shouldn't also be generating their own thoughts and ideas as the agency-client relationship, to work effectively, should be a true partnership.

The emergence of social media is a perfect case in point.

Social media is having a profound effect on the way the public relations industry goes about its business globally. In a survey by The Firm Voice (a publication from ther Council of Public Relations Firms in the US), a number of agencies were asked the question:

To what extent are clients demanding social media PR?

According to the survey, PR firms' social media capabilities are either "extremely or moderately important" to 83 per cent of clients, a jump of five per cent from the previous year when similar research was conducted.

According to Weber Shandwick's Interactive, Social & Emerging Media practice, "about 70 per cent" of its clients are asking about social media "such as YouTube, Facebook, blogs and word-of-mouth approaches".

Boston-based Brodeur Worldwide estimates that 75 per cent of the agency's clients are asking about new PR technologies, while both The Horn Group and Ketchum report that nearly all their clients are asking about social media PR.

These figures are significantly high enough to suggest that agencies, to remain relevant and 'in the game', need to be bolstering their knowledge of and capabilities in the new media space.

However, rather than becoming tech-head boffins, I believe it's more to the point that PR practitioners understand how to best integrate these new media tools into broader campaigns that also include other elements of the communications mix, including 'old school' traditional media and face-to-face activity.

I contend that in Australia, we're probably some 8-12 months behind the US in terms of social media pick-up (in the marketing industry at least) and therefore if a similar survey to the one discussed above was conducted in this country, in all probability it would register less interest from clients re new media.

That said, when I attended last week's Advertising, Marketing & Media Summit in Melbourne, all the talk was about social media and its implications on marketing programs. Indeed, many of the 'non'-social media presentations alluded to the trend in one way or another, so maybe there really is looming pent-up demand for social media PR and marketing skills in Australia.