How many social media channels should you use for business?

In a nutshell - only the ones that are going to make a difference to your organisation.

With so many social networks out there it is easy to get caught up in a number of them, spread yourself thinly and not achieve the results you want. Wasting valuable time and money. I’ve seen this a number of times with organisations dipping their toes into the ‘social media ocean'. Setting up a number of social media channels because it’s what everyone else is doing or what they think they should be doing and then being disheartened when ‘social media just doesn’t work’.

If you have attended one of my social media workshops or training sessions you will be fairly familiar with the conversation prism - a visual map of the social media landscape developed back in 2008 by @briansolis. Not only does it inject some colour into my presentations, it also does a great job of demonstrating how vast the social media landscape is and the importance of having a strategy in place. 

As with anything, you get out what you put in, but it is important to understand where you should be dedicating your time. Having a clear integrated strategy linked to your business objectives, with well thought out channel selection and content plan will help you do just this.

So why am I sharing this? Version 4.0 of the conversation prism has just been released and it includes a number of additional social networks worth considering and according to its website, can be used in a number of ways:

• Show your executive team that social media is not a fad and that it’s bigger than Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Pinterest
• Share with your team to motivate them on new ways to think about social media
• Celebrate that you’re on the map!
• Study the landscape as you plan your next social media strategy
• Show the world that you appreciate art
• Give as gifts to everyone you know who loves social media or who needs to learn to love it

For those of you who want more check out the conversationprism.com have included a list of categories that have been updated below:

• Social Marketplace
• Enterprise Social Networks (shortened to “Enterprise” for formatting, companies included here were previously grouped under “Nicheworking”, which was redefined.)
• Influence
• Quantified Self
• Service Networking

PS For the geeks out there you can now buy the poster…

@lyannatsakiris

The power of Twitter as a PR too

Twitter has revolutionised the way we operate within the comms industry – 140 characters at a time.  Whether it is being used for tracking, monitoring, live-reporting, journalism, crisis management, political communications, networking, relationship building – the list goes on, there is no doubt that this social network has become a staple in the PR toolbox. 

Relationship building/insight

It is also particularly important when dealing with the media.  Breaking news happens on twitter and is also an essential tool for news journalists.  With increasing time pressures on reporters it is a great platform to get quick responses and pitch ideas in 140 characters. 

People are using twitter to build relationships/network as part of the changing nature of business and this is very much the case with journalist engagement.  Relationship building between PRs and journalists that traditionally would have taken the form of desk visits, long boozy lunches and a number of calls over the course of the year (not forgetting the follow up calls and emails to see if a press release will be used), now often equate to a few @ mentions and DMs. 

Through twitter people share a lot of personal information that you would not have had access to in the past.  Whether it’s the fact that they like white wine, go on surfing holidays or hate Sundays – all this information helps to build up a picture of what they are like and what they are interested in.  A lot of this information, which may seem mundane to some, can be very helpful in shaping your communications with an individual, creating talking points or even just ensuring that you have the white wine on order when you meet for lunch!

Twitter dominating the news

A report produced earlier this year looking at the value of social media to journalism by Polis, the journalism think-tank at the LSE, highlights just how Twitter has come to dominate news.  The report demonstrates the important role that Twitter plays in newsgathering and telling comments from journalists reinforce this:

Joanna Carr, editor of BBC Radio 4′s news programme ‘PM’, said she “wouldn’t hire anybody who doesn’t know how to use Twitter” and Lyse Doucet, BBC’s chief international correspondent said:

“There is no question, if you are not on Facebook and Twitter, you are not getting the full story”.

Stuart Hughes, world affairs producer at the BBC says that the way he uses social media has completely changed the way he gathers news. Until three years ago, Hughes relied on wire services and the internal BBC news production system for fast information. Not anymore.  He says: “Now, very often I will only glance at that”. Instead, Hughes uses Twitter.

Reporting is now in real time Hughes says:  “Social media allows me to get much closer to the story. There are journalists and other people on the ground reporting in real time and sharing it in real time, so by the time a story actually appears on the wire, very often I will have already spotted it through social media”.

Social media as a channel for communication has grown in popularity and importance for journalism of the last few years and with statistics likes these you can see why:

• The BBC has seen a consistent increase to referrals to its news website via social media -  500% between 2010 and 2012
• At the end of 2012 @BBCBreaking Twitter account had more than 4.5 million followers - it now has 6.2 million

Twitter and other social networks have become the norm in terms of how many of us consume news.  Online channels and the advent of digital media has opened up our choices and in a time when many are so short on time being able to pick and choose your information and where you get it from is crucial.  Across the globe people are living via smartphones and are used to doing things on the go, fitting in news consumption with busy schedules, sharing their own news and reporting on things that they witness. It is very much a two-way street.

So with a wealth of information at our fingertips and the number of choices available it is important that organisations as well as individuals make sure they are making the most of the opportunity and increase their visibility.

UNLOCKED - Ri Ri 'Talks That Talk' So Socially

I am really liking Rihanna's new album launch mechanic - an interactive Facebook app 'UNLOCKED' that lets her 'Rihanna Navy' fans uncover exclusives from a new album little by little.  Brilliant social engagement that I'm sure will keep her fans coming back for more.  How does it work?  Fans basically 'Like' the page and go on 'mission's' to unlock new content that is released.  Some of the content made available so far includes Rihanna’s 'R' logo, her new website and single 'We Found Love'. 

The app has helped boost her following online (with over 45 million people liking the Facebook page and more than 8.5million twitter followers to date) - and there is clearly a tremendous amount of interaction with her fans on a number of social media platforms. The app has obviously boosted awareness and ticks the loyalty box but will be really interested to see how RiRi's digital team integrate this with traditional promo tactics as well as how they keep engagement and momentum going, particularly with newly garnered audiences.  There must be so much data to crunch/digest - oh to be a fly on the wall in one of their planning meetings :)

Steve Jobs (1955-2011) Stay Hungry Stay Foolish

Today the world woke up to the news that Steve Jobs, Apple Co-Founder and CEO  had passed away after a long battle with cancer at the age of 56.  'Sad news' is a massive understatement and there has been a phenomenal public outpour of grief shared globally through a range of social channels. The online tributes and mini eulogies have been phenomenal to this awe-inspiring man but I'm not sure that even the most talented of wordsmiths could articulate the true impact that Steve Jobs has had on the world.


Truly inspiring speech below by the man himself,  if you haven't seen it already take some time out and listen.  Life is too short - 'Stay Hungry Stay Foolish'

Charities getting social

In the current economic climate where many businesses are struggling to stay afloat it is no surprise that donations for many worthwhile charities are at an all time low.  

So, in a tough environment where brands, including charities, are having to compete even harder for market share as well as a share of consumers’ attention and hard earned cash, it is more important than ever for them to think outside the box when it comes to engaging with their audience.

And with the advent of social platforms, many already have - as the Charity Social 100 Index reveals.  Charities are increasingly harnessing online opportunities to engage with their audiences with a range of social platforms so readily at their fingertips.  By shifting from a one-way to a two-way dialogue with a more emotive,  personal approach, forward-thinking brands are really starting to reap the rewards of 'getting social'.

UNICEF and Dulux invite you to own a colour and help save a child's life

There is some great work out there and one of the most recent campaigns that I think is brilliant is the partnership between Unicef and Dulux. They have come together to sell off the naming rights for the 16.7 million colours that the average monitor, laptop, tablet and smartphone screen can display.  The money goes to Unicef for bringing clean water, education, medical assistance and other aid to children across the world.

You can buy your own colour for a donation of at least £1 and get to choose what the colour will be called as well as explaining why you chose it.  This genius campaign also allows you to gift a colour which I think is a lovely idea for those difficult to buy for or in memory of a loved one.

To pick your colour you like you can type in a hex code or RGB values or simply use a colour dropper. Celebrities have started showing their support with Duncan Bannatyne choosing Saltire Blue in honour of his Scottish roots.

The donation mechanic allows you to give by SMS or by credit card. 

With so many colours to choose from at the moment I feel spoilt for choice - better get my skates on before my shade of turquoise gets snapped up!  What will your colour be?

KLM - A 'helpful' brand in the social space

Loving the social work by KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Great stunt to help illustrate their 'helpful' social media service by replacing normal Facebook and Twitter typed responses with a living alphabet made up of 140 KLM employees. Check out video below:

Past campaigns have included:

• Putting fans faces on a plane
• 'Surprising' passengers and giving them gifts
• Hosting the world’s first in-flight dance party because of a tweet

Great ideas, innovation and connectivity

Very inspirational video - where do creative ideas come from by Steve Johnson. Time well spent watching this.

Magnum – for your pleasure

Have to say that I was thoroughly impressed this week with the launch of Magnum’s new digital advertising campaign. It certainly had the WOW factor for me and dare I say it’s one of the most engaging digital campaigns I have seen this year. The team at Lowe Brindfors, based in Stockholm have done a brilliant job exploiting all the best aspects of the social web to create an extremely original and engaging campaign in flash.

The campaign which is a game called Pleasure Hunt revolves around a stunning young woman who undertakes an adventure through the interweb, passing through iconic websites such as YouTube, Dove, Samsung and Spotify as well as many more on the way to her final destination. What a great way to involve other brands to and appeal to a much wider audience.

Players control her movements along the way, by using the left and right keys and the space bar which allows her to jump. The aim is to collect as many chocolate bon bons as you can by manoeuvring her across the web pages. My attention span isn’t the greatest and I saw the game through to the very end. Not only do you make the lovely lady jump across the screen but you also get to drive a chevvy and a plane to collect the bon bons accompanied by a rage of musical accompaniments when you move onto different sites.

Take a look for yourself; I’m sure the campaign will impress – what’s your best score?

LinkedIn enters social networks big leagues

Professionals everywhere have revived the once-ailing LinkedIn. Users once referred to the career-oriented social network as boring and lacking any real innovation. It seems however, that 2011 is LinkedIn’s year to shine. On Tuesday the site announced it had hit 100-million members, more than half of whom live outside the US.

Read more at memburn

No Jelly & Blamanche for Twitter

Despite a raft of cynicism as to whether or not the social network would 'make it' so to speak, Twitter turned five today. The platform which provides a social networking and microblogging service has proved that it is here to stay and is very much a part of a profound change in the way we communicate.

The first ever tweet was sent by co-founder Jack Dorsey on the fledgling social networking service, telling fellow founders Evan Williams and Biz Stone that he was 'just setting up my twttr'.

To mark it's 5th birthday Twitter launched a new website discover.twitter.com and video (below) featuring some of its most prominent users:

Twitter first launched in 2006 and started out as a niche way for a group of blogging and technology geeks to keep in touch. It wasn't until 2007 that it really took off at the SxSW Interactive festival in Austin, Texas where it was enthusiastically adopted by an influential tech crowd - and word started slowly spreading. Since then, the site has been hailed as helping pro-democracy movements around the world and given the world celebrity gossip straight from the horse’s mouth.

Now:

There are now 1 billion tweets a week

460,000 people join twitter every week to share their thoughts in 140 characters or less

Twitter is thought to be worth around $10billion

But what next?

Halo Boys - Kelly Brook fronts Lynx Excite's new campaign

Absolutely love the new Lynx Excite Fallen Angel campaign. The brand has enlisted Kelly Brook, taking a brilliant integrated approach including TV ads and a Facebook app in which players attempt to lure the last remaining angel (Kelly) down from heaven by completing a series of tasks. At various stages players receive personal messages from Kelly and the overall winner gets the chance to party with Kelly herself.

TV Ad

What I really love is the augmented reality experiential activation of the campaign which took place last week at Victoria station. Extremely engaging!

Social Lovin For Valentines Day

There have been a lot of fun social media campaigns recently that tied in with valentines day including:

• asos' most-loved campaign where consumers could win their most loved asos item every hour on valentines day
• Anchor's 'every flirt deserves a squirt' campaign - a Facebook game in which fans are challenged to lick cream off a model of their choice in return for vouchers

I however particularly Loved this - a digital/social media campaign to reunite one of American’s most famous couples — Barbie and Ken.

Since their controversial split on Valentine’s Day seven years ago, the two plastic celebs led separate, but successful, doll lives.

The campaign, which marked Ken’s 50th anniversary came just in time for the release of 'Sweet Talkin’ Ken' which is described as the ultimate boyfriend because he says whatever you want him to say!

Like the campaign's solid engagement strategy which centred around barbieandken.com where users voted on whether Barbie should “take Ken back” or not and was seeded through Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and YouTube to get the message out.

asos to launch Facebook shop

As a big fan of asos.com I am pleased to see it embracing the world of social media and capitalising on it. This week the team at asos announced that it will launch a Facebook shop later this month, allowing its 390,000 fans to shop within the social platform.

Although Facebook shops have really taken off in the US, they haven’t quite haven’t quite caught on in the UK yet – this will be one of the first Facebook e-commerce shops to launch in Europe. Customers will be able to search all products available on asos.com, buy and share products with Facebook friends as well as write reviews.

The online clothing retailer has grown quickly over the past few years and its creative marketing, which has relied heavily on the use of social media, has given it an edge over other more traditional retailers in the same market.

I’m sure Facebook shops will be quite the trend for the retail sector in 2011 and that we’ll see a fair few retailers follow suit this year. And why not? It makes complete sense to engage with consumers where they ‘live’, making their online retail experience all the easier.

Facebook Places and Advertising

I am liking the integration between social media and advertising for Cheryl Cole's new album launch - Messy Little Raindrops. The outdoor UK-based campaign encourages fans to 'check in' to her Facebook page for a chance to win two free tickets (plus travel and hotel) to one of her X Factor shows.

Mediacom and Polydor Records have done a great job - not only will they boost her online following but they will also get some informed data on which billboards are most effective.

Ted Baker London's twitter experiment

Really looking forward to taking a look at Ted Baker London's twitter experiment - agree with the team @mashable - looks like a very clever promotion!

At 6 p.m (GMT) today, Ted Baker London will open the first live, Twitter-operated styling studio where a selection fashion bloggers will use a live video stream and Twitter to direct hair stylists, makeup artists, runners and models to create a number of different looks from 450 pieces of Ted Baker’s Autumn/Winter 2010 collection.

If you fancy following the styling session live on takeonted.com and on Twitter by following @ted_baker.

Want to take part? Tweet your own styling suggestions with the hashtag #takeonted. The best ideas, the company promises, will have a chance of winning a prize.

Mummy Bloggers and their role in PR

What motivates mummy bloggers – why do they blog? What do they get out of it?

Mummy bloggers are motivated by many different things. However friendship, unity and the notion of sharing are probably the most motivating factors for them. The internet has opened up a whole new world for parents and the raft of online communities now available helps lessen the isolation that some people feel while spending more time at home. Mummy bloggers write about everything from serious subjects such as post-natal depression and the challenges of raising a child with autism or merely sharing their favourite cup cake recipes. By being able to speak to others who are going through similar experiences, mummy bloggers are able to get the reassurance and social interaction they seek.

In what circumstances would you target a mummy blogger – what is their use to PR agencies?

Newspapers and magazines have always featured parenting columns but the growth of social media and online communities has meant that the dialogue has now become two-way. As a result, many more people can get involved in the conversation. So, from a PR perspective where we would have targeted features editors or columnists in the past to raise brand and product awareness, we now talk to mummy bloggers too. They have become very influential and are increasingly playing a larger role in product launches and product development. We would treat them the same way as we would a journalist by inviting them to launch events or sending them products to review. Mummy bloggers are a massively influential group who can help get your message out to a well targeted audience.
How you would target a mummy blogger – what have you found works well, and what should PR professionals avoid?

The biggest mistake a PR could make when trying to work with mummy bloggers is looking at them as a channel for mass communication and trying to target them as a whole. It is really important to find out as much as you possible can about each individual blogger that you want to engage with and tailor your approach accordingly. The best way to do this is to actually read their blogs – sounds obvious but many people still do not practice this common courtesy and look at mummy bloggers as merely a means to get their messages or products out. Once you have done your research you will have a greater understanding of what they are like and what resonates with them. Not every mummy blogger will be interested in what your client is selling so don’t think that you can ‘buy’ them. The best way to communicate with mummy bloggers is to be honest from the outset about what you are trying to achieve, take an interest in what they are doing online and engage with them. Direct them to information that helps them in their own blogging and build a two-way relationship. Keep in touch with them and ensure they have everything they need – in the same way that you would a journalist.

@lyannatsakiris

Skoda's Social Experiment

Skoda Social Experiment: The more you like on Facebook, the less you pay

We have seen some very clever things on Facebook by Skoda Belgium recently. Their current‘Generous Skoda’ Facebook campaign which is supported by a microsite utilises group buying power to drive fan growth and brand awareness.

Essentially for every Facebook ‘Like’ the campaign gets, the price of the Skoda Fabia drops by 2 euros making it a compelling shareable idea – upon liking you are encouraged to invite more friends in the interest of driving the price down.

This simple yet powerful idea makes great use of Facebook’s functionality and appears to be the first time that a brand has attributed a monetary value to this feature. The only catch with this campaign is that only one fan will get the car at the ‘Facebook Price’.

So what next? Although this campaign has clearly had a great impact so far on brand awareness/generating fans, it will be interesting to see if this concept will be taken on as part of a longer term campaign to reward fans with the ‘Facebook Price’ on a regular basis.

Is there such a thing as PR anymore dahlink?

So much more than PR
Times they are a changing… if you asked me a few years ago what I did for a living. I would have said I’m in PR. Ask me today and you’ll get a different answer.

So what do I do today? I work in communications.

It’s not just the old PR vs. marketing debate but with online/digital having entered the arena I believe that for quite some time now there is a bigger, better industry that has been bubbling away, growing and refining itself. Yes – communications. Forgive me if I am stating the obvious but have talked about this at length with colleagues and other industry professionals and I don’t know that everyone can see it as clearly as maybe I do. I suppose it’s a bit like the EU debate. Some want to be part of it (and are), some will not and still see themselves as individual member states and others will be in it to make the most of the benefits.

Integration and understanding are key
Ultimately for me communications is about understanding and engaging with people in the most appropriate way and thus finding the right solution for the client. Many people are still trying to fit a square peg into a round hole and it’s not just wrong in an ethical sense but it’s a big waste of time for everyone involved. People who do this are just setting themselves up for a big #FAIL.

Don’t get me wrong, I think there will always be a need for expertise in different areas of the traditional marketing mix, however I think that the future holds integration and collaboration for PRs and marketers, a place where people allow themselves to see the bigger picture, doing away with tunnel vision and having the courage to admit that there is not always one solution.

So do you see yourself as a member state or will you embrace integration?

To blog or not to blog?

I’ve been mulling it over for a while and I feel it’s time to bite the bullet and start the blog that I have been threatening to begin for months (maybe even years!).

I live and breathe communications. Whether it’s catching up with my mum on the phone, advising clients on integrated comms strategies or keeping in touch with my mates on social media sites - I am constantly communicating with someone in some shape or form. So why does it feel so alien sitting here writing this? I write for a living you see – from features on BREEAM excellent-rated buildings, newsletters on what’s hot and what’s not in the fashion world this season, to pieces on the benefits of organic milk. Yet, there is something quite unnerving about sitting down in front of my laptop sharing my thoughts in cyberspace.

I’ll keep this short and hopefully find something other than myself to write about next time (we PRs do love to talk about ourselves – if you are a PR reading this I know you are smiling because you know it’s true even if you don’t admit it!).

I am sensing that there will be something quite cathartic about pressing the ‘publish post’ button shortly.

Take care out there!