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

Replace White Noise With Respect

One of the most pressing needs for companies today is not so much getting customers to shell out their hard-earned for products or services, it’s to get people to care enough so they’ll take notice of you, recommend your brand and share your content with their friends. Oh, and if they like you, buy your stuff.

The emergence of social media as a disruptive force in business has been in play now for several years. One of its by-products – some would say casualties – is that people are ultra-overloaded with information like never before (and we’re starting to filter the information we receive – ie. one in four Australians “Like” a new brand on Facebook on a weekly basis).

Much to the chagrin of the “powers that be” people no longer blindly accept what companies, government organisations or the media tells them. “We’ll make up our own minds, thank you very much” is the catchcry (often with the help of our ever-increasing personal networks of peers, friends and acquaintances whose opinions we value and trust. According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, 62% of Australians trust “a person like myself” as a credible source of information about a company – a jump of 31% from 2011).

Earning the attention

While many brands continue to go after consumers’ wallets with a single-minded purpose (as if it were still 1999), they’re often neglecting a critical step in between. And that is earning the attention and respect of the people who matter most to the success of their business – their customers, stakeholders and influencers.

Peoples’ attention is the scarcest of commodities in today’s hyper-connected world.

As marketers, communicators and senior executives, we need to understand and respect that fact. By intruding on peoples’ busy lives and continually pummelling them into submission with unwanted message upon unwanted message upon unwanted message, we’re basically saying:

“We don’t care about you. It’s all about us.”

The people want (and deserve) more. We are a harried and time-poor lot, surrounded by so much “white noise” and spin spouted by way too many brands that we’re shunning your logo and ignoring your message. Instead, we’re gravitating towards brands that understand the “new reality” – companies and organisations that treat us with empathy and respect, brands that communicate in ways that are open and transparent, that engage us with authentic and interesting stories, that create content that contributes to our lives in some way.

Mind shift is required

May I suggest it’s time for a major rethink about how we go about things from a marketing perspective. Brands need to reframe the situation of how they communicate with consumers and their other stakeholders. Dare I say it, a mind shift is required, and it needs to start happening at the top.

Rather than continually pushing out your message to the masses, who by and large aren’t interested, why not start trying to PULL people towards your brand by being remarkable, interesting, relevant and useful?

INSTEAD of selling all the time, why not try being helpful?

INSTEAD of pitching, why not draw us in by being interesting (and interested)?

INSTEAD of intruding, why not attract us by providing solutions-based content that makes our lives easier?

INSTEAD of making it all about you, why not start making it about us ­– your customers, stakeholders, employees and partners? 

I understand there’s a need for major brands in particular to attempt to buy peoples’ attention with paid-for advertising, incentive programs, promotions and the like. I’m not trying to suggest we do away with traditional methods altogether, but rather, start introducing ways to communicate with people that are in sync with the times and the mood of the marketplace.

In future posts I will provide examples of fast growing companies and well established brands that are doing things differently from a marketing perspective, and as a result are attracting public and media attention for all the right reasons.

 

 THIS ARTICLE WAS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON LEADING COMPANY. 

REVEALED: The 'New' Definition of Public Relations

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has crowdsourced its new 'official' definition of the discipline of public relations.

* drum roll *  HERE IT IS:

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

It was no small feat to get to this point in terms of coming up with a definition of PR that accurately reflected the profession as it's practised today. Read the back-story here.

This too is a good yarn in the New York Times: Public Relations Defined, After an Energetic Public Discussion

According to Wikipedia: The PRSA, founded by Richard Rotman, defined public relations in 1982 as:

"Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other."

Hmmm. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Personally, I've always liked the looser definition of "Doing good things and telling people about it". Not sure who came up with it, but it's the only one I've ever been able to remember!

These days I'm more about CONNECTION ... CONTRIBUTION ... CULTIVATION ... COLLABORATION.

But that's another story (more on that later).

For what it's worth, you can chuck in all the new tools and what not but the new definition still stands - and personally I think it's a good one. It is, ultimately, what we do in the PR game (despite what Government spin doctors might think).

Once more with feeling:

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

What do you think?

Perspectives on Trust from Edelman Sydney {Video Interviews}

This week saw PR firm Edelman Australia launch the local findings of the global Edelman Trust Barometer at events in Melbourne and Sydney (disclosure: I work for Edelman).

The report was launched by Michelle Hutton, CEO Edelman Australia and included a panel of support speakers including:

• Greg Baxter, Former Corporate Affairs Director, News Limited
• Professor Jim Macnamara, Professor of Public Communication, UTS
• Hailey Cavill, Founder + Director, Cavill + Co
• Laurence Evans, President International, StrategyOne

While at the Sydney event I managed to catch up for a one-on-one chat with all of the speakers - below is an edited video of my interviews (thanks Ed Courtenay for filiming/editing).

The following is from the Edelman blog:

The 2012 Edelman Australian Trust Barometer was launched today at an event at Sydney’s Mint. The key findings:

• 60% of Australians do not trust government leaders to tell the truth 
• Business, more trusted than government, has the opportunity to move from a license to operate to a license to lead 
• Technology the most trusted industry sector in Australia, while trust in energy industry is low 
• Trust in media increases; Social media increasingly trusted as a company information source amongst informed public 
• Peer to peer trust is rising: 31% increase in ‘a person like myself’ and 17% increase in regular employees as credible company spokespeople

Click here to see more, including a Slideshare copy of the Australian presentation and infographic.

Here is the official global website dedicated to 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer.

FURTHER READING:

• Edelman Trust Barometer - Intro by Edelman Australia CEO Michelle Hutton
• 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer - Global Deck
• Richard Edelman on the 2012 Trust Barometer Findings (VIDEO)

 

12 Social Media Trends Australian Companies Should Look Out For This Year

For companies and organisations already reeling from a year in which Australian consumers embraced the social web in massive numbers and with greater levels of intensity, 2012 promises more of the same but with some potential break-out trends.

So how should marketers approach 2012?

What should the leadership teams of large organisations be looking for in terms of building and protecting their corporate reputation in a hyper-connected world?

Below is a snapshot from a detailed paper I've written about how I think 2012 will roll out in terms of PR, communications and the social web.

• BETTER USE (AND INTEGRATION) OF SOCIAL MEDIA – Brands that have experimented with the social web will go back to basics and start thinking more strategically how to leverage new media technologies for their business, including better integrating with other marketing and corporate communications.

• ADOPTION OF QUICKER RESPONSE TIMES – As more and more Australians become heavier and more frequent users of social media, so too their expectation brands will respond in a timely manner will grow. Thus companies will need to factor in quicker response times in line with today’s ‘real-time’ marketplace.

• LEADERS WILL ADOPT PRINCIPLES OF SOCIAL BUSINESS – Forward-thinking organisations that put ‘social’ at the heart of their enterprise will become the new leaders in an era where everyone is connected and two-way collaborative communication trumps ‘top down’ broadcast of polished messages.

• INCREASED EMPHASIS ON CONTENT MARKETING – The notion of brands becoming media companies in their own right will hit home locally; expect more use of the term ‘content marketing’ not to mention a growing trend for companies tapping journalists, PR people and bloggers to create content on their behalf.

• THE RISE AND RISE OF THE POWER BLOGGER – Blogging in Australia will continue its impressive growth but the big shift will be in the rise of the power blogger – the ‘multi-dimensional storytellers’ who will continue to increase their sphere of influence on and offline as the popularity of their ‘personal brand’ grows.

• CONTINUED DEBATE AROUND ROI – The debate over social media ROI will continue to be a hot topic but more reasoned voices will come to the fore as decision-makers better understand and appreciate what can and cannot be achieved in today’s new media world.

• GROWTH IN CONTENT CURATION – Not everyone is a content creator; with so much information flying around the web, the public will increasingly rely on filters (people, tools or apps) to edit and package information for their consumption e.g. Flipboard, Zite, Storify etc. Expect to also see a rise in influence of people who develop a reputation for content curation.

• THE RISE IN STATUS OF THE COMMUNITY MANAGER – Once the domain of a digitally savvy but inexperienced ‘junior burger’, organisations will start paying more respect to social media by appointing more knowledgeable and senior people in the public-facing role of community manager; expect this person to take on increased importance as their connection with the community deepens.

• COMBATING FACEBOOK’S CLUTTER – Facebook will continue its dominance; brands will need to become more creative and look to provide unique user experiences if they are to stand out from the crowd.

• TWITTER’S GROWING INFLUENCE – Twitter will continue to break into the mainstream consciousness as even the laggards start to wonder what all the fuss is about and join up.

• TRACKING THE RISING STARS – Keep an eye out for Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, Flipboard, Tout. How could your brand leverage these platforms?

• WHERE TO FOR SOCIAL INFLUENCE MEASUREMENT & SCORING SYSTEMS? – One of the more controversial talking points among marketing and PR folk this year has been the use (and validity) of online reputation and social influence measurement systems e.g. Klout, Kred, PeerIndex et al. Expect more of the same in 2012!

What do you think 2012 holds in store for Australian PR professionals and the brands they represent?

 IMAGE: Thinkstock

Four Books to Keep Your Mind Fertile Over the Christmas Break

It's that time of the year again folks when the PR Warrior selects a handful of books that, if read over the Christmas break, will knock your marketing/PR/social media knowledge out of the park!

Okay, maybe that's an oversell. But you will emerge from 2011 all the wiser for the experience.

The books I've selected look at marketing and PR in the context of today's super-connected and highly fluid marketplace, where anyone with an internet connection and a point of view can become an important influencer in their own right.

The four books I cover in this video are:

1. No Bullshit Social Media - Erik Deckers & Jason Falls
2. The New Relationship Marketing - Mari Smith
3. The End of Business as Usual - Brian Solis
4. Engagement From Scratch - Danny Iny

In a nutshell:

• No Bullshit Social Media - pragmatic, to the point, business-oriented, practical information.
• The New Relationship Marketing - jam-packed with helpful hints, soft skills for today's marketing and business professional - share the love! (Download a FREE sample chapter here).
• The End of Business as Usual - must-read for PR folk, bigger picture ideas and concepts (check out my interview with Brian here).
• Engagement From Scratch - multiple views, stories and ideas from a broad sweep of smart thought-leaders in the social media and new marketing space.

Notable mentions from2011 (not in video):

• Niche - James Harkin
• Real-Time Marketing & PR - David Meerman Scott (PR Warrior review here)
• Smarter, Faster, Cheaper - David Siteman Garland
• Poke The Box - Seth Godin
• We Are All Weird - Seth Godin
• Tell to Win - Peter Guber
• Anything You Want - Derek Sivers (this is an especially cool book, great yarn!).

Enjoy!

* Author Jason Falls comes face-to-face with the PR Warrior.

The World According to Peter Shankman

One of the better presentations (and there were many) at BlogWorld Los Angeles 2011 was Peter Shankman’s keynote.

Shankman (below) is best known as the founder of an online service called HARO (‘Help A Reporter Out’).

He is an absolute showman, but at his heart he’s an entrepreneur who intuitively understands PR and marketing in today’s hyper-connected social age.

Here are some of the tips Shankman dangled in front of the packed BlogWorld crowd.

• Everyone talks about having a back-up plan for when you fail. Shankman, however, suggests having a back-up plan for when you succeed and your business idea goes viral.
• “You don’t control the direction of your company - your customers do” ... “Shut the hell up and listen to your audience.”
•  “If you screw up, own it!” – be transparent, say you’ve screwed up and say how you’re going to fix the situation.
• “Having an audience is a privilege, not a right” (be relevant!).
• Ring your personal and business contacts on a regular basis simply to say "hi"; ask them how they’re going, what they're up to – you’ll be surprised how such actions can lead to business opportunities.
• Break out of your comfort zone – “eat your fear”.
• Do something so great that people will sit up and take notice and start talking positively about you and your brand.

Click here for more details about Shankman’s book - CUSTOMER SERVICE: NEW RULES FOR A SOCIAL MEDIA WORLD

 

PR Needs to Support Journalists in Their Role as the Fourth Estate

I wrote a post the other day titled The Rise, Rise (and Rise) of the Opinion Cycle.

It was based around a presentation the former senior press secretary to PM Kevin Rudd, Lachlan Harris gave at the Public Relations Institute of Australia's PR Directions conference.

The presentation proved to be quite controversial, and sparked much debate during the conference. 

I received a few comments on the post, one of which was from Geoff Barbaro (below), co-founder of Corporate Growing Pains. He is the author of The Leader’s Beacon: The 55-minute guide to Leadership Communication.

Geoff's response to the post was too comprehensive to sit languishing in the comments section on the blog so, with his permission, I have posted it in full below.   

 

G'day PR Warrior, I believe there is a lot in what Lachlan and you say, and I'm not sure there's an easy fix.

Traditional media organisations have been cutting expenses in traditional management style and have failed to maintain their values and standards.

As a result, they have spent the last couple of decades throwing away their Unique Selling Proposition.

They have also spent that time diversifying their business interests into entertainment and gaming, which now provides the lifeblood for many of these organisations.

It is no coincidence that traditional media sales have fallen in real terms, almost in inverse proportion to the rise and rise (and rise) of opinion. We can get opinions at the local pub.

What we want from traditional media organisations are the credible facts we can use to back-up our views and fuel our debates.

As an industry, PR has been extremely remiss in not strongly supporting journalists in their role as the fourth estate. Opinions have nothing to do with the role of the fourth estate. We are partially responsible for allowing this problem to occur.

We need to challenge traditional media to return to values-based journalism that meets standards, but we won’t take on that challenge because it is not seen as being good to challenge media proprietors and some see it as against the interests of clients.

People like traditional media. Despite predictions for the last 40 years or so that it was dying, we continue to keep it alive. We still like reading papers in the mornings, however they are delivered.

Many of the young journalists entering the industry still want to achieve the same things as their predecessors. But our will to fight to keep alive traditional media is continuing to drain.

Soon, someone will come up with the new way to deliver credible, properly checked and appropriately sourced news. When they do, the disruptive innovation for the traditional media companies may be complete.

In the meantime, I'm not sure that being proactive in the media is that effective.

By all means, respond fully and openly when they ask questions, but I'm not sure that the effectiveness of traditional media is so high that we should continue to respond or drive proactive campaigns when there are so many avenues available for direct conversations, discussions and debates between organisations and their stakeholders.

Traditional media tend to be picking up and reporting these conversations anyway, so do we keep going to journalists, given we will be lucky to get any news reporting and the majority of coverage for any reasonable issue will be reporting of opinions?

I agree with your approach about open conversations with stakeholders and not relying on the media filter. Stakeholder conversations are much more credible than our media releases.

Why not let the journalists have good access to these conversations? After all, the pressure to report them fairly becomes far greater when a) the whole conversation is public and b) the stakeholders being reported can respond to any element of comment about them.

However, if we go down this path, we also need to be more accountable for what we publish, more accountable for ensuring our information is presented accurately and fairly and that stakeholders have the clear right to respond in their own ways just as openly, without threat or much in the way of censorship (censorship for standards only, not messages or themes). 

And hopefully keeping us accountable will see journalists back in their true role as the fourth estate.

Cheers.

Geoff Barbaro

The 55-minute guide to Leadership Communication available on Amazon 

Corporate Growing Pains Pty Ltd 
ABN 45 144 975 404 

 

Is It Time Your Brand Took the Concept of 'Inbound Marketing' More Seriously?

Let me say from the outset that if 'outbound marketing' tactics are working for your business, then keep using them.

If taking out an ad in Yellow Pages works for you, do it! If telemarketing generates leads, or sponsoring the weather on the local TV news channel builds your brand, by all means continue to invest in those channels.

But, it must be said the time has come for marketers to think more seriously about the concept of inbound marketing - that is, marketing activity that is focused on getting found by customers. In other words, attracting people to your brand.

Generally speaking, inbound marketing involves a combination of content creation, participation on the social web and SEO.

Interestingly this 'new' form of marketing communication - attracting people to your brand - is rooted in public relations rather than traditional marketing. It skews heavily towards engendering two-way interaction and building relationships, trust and reputation. This is classic PR territory!

Philosophical Differences

The infographic below - produced by Voltier Digital (hat-tip Mashable) - succinctly shows the philosophical and tactical differences between the two forms of marketing - inbound versus outbound. 

This goes beyond opening a Twitter account for your brand but rather, requires a change of mindset compared to traditional means of 'communicating' with the marketplace.

One of the more effective exponents of inbound marketing is Hubspot. I wrote this post about the brand recently - Smart Marketing Defined in Less Than 40 Words.

My only caveat is that inbound marketing on the surface skews towards web-based activities, which is fine but I often like to add into the mix strategic 'face-to-face' communication such as events and brand experience marketing where relevant.

I think sometimes we forget that lot of online activity is also about 'offline' relationships. 

SOURCE: Voltier Digital 

Brands Covet Influencers With Klout

It was only a matter of time before Klout was discovered by the marketing industry for its power in being able to identify true influencers in key consumer categories.

Welcome to the world of Klout Perks.

The video report below by Wall St Journal online is compelling viewing for anyone interested in 'what's next' in terms of marketing and communications - marketers, advertisiong agencies, PR people will all see huge opportunities in this new development.

Variety of tools

While I know many in the PR industry are already reaching out to influential people (heck, we've been doing it for decades, but now the influentials are just as likely to be 'citizens' rather than journalists), it still takes a bit of research and the use of a variety of tools.

More often than not these people are popular (in a niche) bloggers who are often also very connected elsewhere e.g. Facebook and Twitter. At Edelman, for example, we use proprietory tools such as BlogLevel and TweetLevel among other tools to try and measure people's 'influence'.

However, brands in the US are paying Klout to identify influencers in particular niches or categories. They then connect with these influencers, often giving them product to sample or inviting them to a special event.

Check out some of the results here.

What I like about Klout from a PR perspective is it doesn't just measure followers like a lot of other online measurement tools do.

The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from social networks in order to measure:

• True Reach: How many people you influence 
• Amplification: How much you influence them
• Network Impact: The influence of your network

If you haven't already done so, give Klout a try. 

I think we'll be hearing a lot more about it in coming months!

Brian Solis on Brand Journalism and the ‘Connected Consumer’

Best-selling author and renowned new media thinker Brian Solis delivered a neatly-packaged glimpse into the future of public relations during his opening keynote address at the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s PR Directions national conference in Sydney this week.

Could Solis have jam packed any more information into his one-hour presentation? I think not. That said, social media and its effect on PR and marketing is a massive multi-headed beast of a subject, and so props to Solis for being able to paint such a broad (but vivid) picture within his allotted one and a bit hours.

It was perfect timing because he has only just released his new book: The End of Business As Usual (Rewire the way you work to succeed in the consumer revolution) and the theme of his presentation was more or less along these lines.

These quotes, from an interview with Solis that appeared yesterday in ZDNet, will give you a pretty good feel for Solis’s current pitch:

The End of Business as Usual is aimed squarely at change agents and business leaders. It isn’t about social media as much as it is about building a business that connects with a new generation of connected customers.

Think about the ties that bind in social media for a moment. Everything and everyone is connected by shared experiences. What you’re doing, what you’re witnessing, what moves you, what you’re learning, what you love, what you hate, you are compelled to share your experiences.

When it comes to businesses, shared experiences assemble to form a brand that’s co-created by the consumers who experience it. Connected customers see this pool of experiences within their social streams or in the results of a social search. Experiences are influential and they are absent from a traditional Google search.

The ‘Connected Consumer’

Solis talks a lot about the ‘connected consumer’.

He says you don’t need to connect with everybody, you just have to connect with ‘hubs’ (of connected consumers).

He also advises looking beyond the major social networking platforms, saying that just because you set up a Facebook or Twitter account doesn’t mean you’re hitting the connected consumer.

It’s how we earn relevance with the connected consumer that’s important.

“My job is to speak through you (the connected consumer)…that changes my entire strategy”.

Brand Journalism

Solis is a staunch advocate for the concept of ‘brand journalism’, saying: “We have to become the resource, we have to become the influencer”.

He introduces the idea of creating a new role within the organisation – the CEO, or Chief Editorial Officer.

People will follow you if you provide information that helps them, Solis says.

He gives the example of Cisco’s ‘The Network’ technology news site for which the company hired journalists and bloggers to write content that’s of interest to customers.

The website’s audience is in some cases bigger than the publications that cover the tech industry.

Flipboard has reportedly hired a senior editor from Forbes magazine to manage its brand journalism efforts.

Indium Corporation, which manufactures among other things solders and semiconductor assembly materials (yep, very sexy stuff!) created content around questions people were asking for/searching for online.  

The company’s portfolio of blogs (yep, they have way more than one, indeed its portfolio of blogs is written by a team of 15 writers) -  increased inbound leads by 600%! More on Indium here.

 “Content is not king,” Solis contends. “Context is king”.

(NOTE: author David Meerman Scott is also a strong advocate for the concept of brand journalism – check out his take on it here).

Paid, Owned & Earned Media … and more

In PR circles, the concept of paid, owned and earned media is now well accepted.

However, Solis throws two more into the equation – ‘promoted’ and ‘shared’ media (i.e. shared media = Dell’s IdeaStorm and the My Starbucks Idea platforms; promoted media = promoted tweets and sponsored Facebook stories).

Solis gives the example of Budweiser which created a Wordpress site that became a hub for Bud content that was interesting and newsworthy, and targeted to people who loved commercials, Superbowl and beer.

“It’s about making something so interesting it’s shareable,” he says.

“This is a time when we can become part of the story.”

Solis urges brands to adapt to a new KISS model: Keep It Significant and Shareable.

Resonance is the new ROI

Solis is big on listening to connected consumers – he says you’ve got to listen so you know what they want … “it’s about intelligence, not (just) monitoring for followers and likes”.

Intelligence, he maintains, translates into insight which in turn can translate into ideas.

“Being in public relations is more incredible than ever before,” he says.

 

PIC: Brian Solis and the PR Warrior rub shoulders at PR Directions.