Digital Influence Mapping Project

Future PR Skills 2008: Deploy Live 'Listening Posts'

Part of a series

Running focus groups, sending out surveys are old-school. Today, we need to be actively listening all of the time to our customers, influencers, and communities of people that can impact our client's business. Social media has established a constant flow of conversations and media online. I love that Radian 6 calls one of their widgets "River of News." We're talking Big Muddy - a river as wide and torrid as the Mississippi.

Listening Posts allow us to pay attention to what people are saying in that river. This intelligence plays a different role than the occasional focus group where we ask 10-12 people (9 people if it's a government gig) what they think of a particular message platform or creative campaign. Listening Posts tell us what people are saying now not just about our brand - that's a no brainer (but still more complex than subscribing to a Google Alert). With some creative thinking, they can tell us about issues and ideas that either currently intersect with the brand or could with a little work.

Example: Maglite

Let's say you are working for Maglite. I like their products - very solid, reliable. They produce great light with an appealing form factor. Do people talk about Maglite online? You betcha. Just check out what others are saying in three quick places:

• Google Blogs
• Boardreader
• Flickr (First thing that pops up is a photo comparison of Maglite to Surefire)

But what if you wanted to find the customers you already know buy your brand or more interestingly find new customers? I have never worked for Maglite but I am guessing they do a lot of sales with first responders. They could look for conversations online having to do with equipment and first responders. Are fireman talking about tools? What about people preparing for some type of emergency? While my son seems quite prepared for the zombie hoard - others may be getting ready for some more down to earth danger like flooding and hurricanes. What about first time home owners trying to outfit their house with the essentials? There are a ton of homeowner conversations online. 

What Listening Programs Are Good For

Here's what Listening Programs are really good for (these are from our internal training courses):

• Track perceptions and how messages are being interpreted in the marketplace
• Lead to customer service intervention
• Identify promoters (and prepare to engage them)
• Offer a high-level view of emerging trends and what competitors are doing
• Demonstrate the impact and value of public relations or advertising (i.e. measure WOM)
• Help manage and improve an organization’s reputation

What New PR Pros Need

This is all new expertise for public relations pros. Never before have we had access to a steady stream of insights from simply listening to what people are saying online and offline. Today, it takes some new skills:

• Technological know-how (How do search engines work? What web 2.0 search tools are available and what are they good for? What is a Boolean search?)
• A curiosity about conversations and an insatiable appetite for words. Okay, the real skill here is the same one applied to our SEO skill set - the ability to imagine and observe what people are talking about and then derive the keywords that would help you and the general public to find those conversations. 
• An enduring empathy towards other people whether they be customers, constituents, stakeholders or any other abstract yet important group.
• The ability to sort through a lot of information and find the relevant bits and threads that tell a real story. It's funny there was a NYTimes article yesterday bemoaning the effects of the Internet's different model of "reading" and its affect on book reading habits. This new habit is what we need here.
• A strategic imagination that allows you to discover a conversation between interesting people and then think how you might engage them in some way that provides value for them and the brand.

There's a lot to listen to out there (IMPORTANT TOOL RESOURCE: here are links to a lot of the free, available-now sites courtesy of my crack training team with Ogilvy's 360° Digital Influence team):

Blogs – Use blog search engines and directories (Technorati, Google Blogs, Zuula, Clusty, Tweetscan); social bookmarking tools; blog rolls; search general search engines for lists of blogs

Message Boards – Use BoardReader; social bookmarking tools (e.g., De.licio.us); search general search engines for category-specific message boards (Yahoo Groups & Google Groups)

Wikis – Use wiki search engines; social bookmarking tools; general search engines
Newsgroups & forums – Use Google Groups, social bookmarking tools; general search engines

Directories – Search major directories (e.g., about.com, yahoo, open directory)

Multimedia – Use multimedia search engines, including meta search engines such as metatube.net,YouTube, Flickr, Google Images/Video; general search engines

Social networks – Search Facebook, MySpace, Linked In, Bebo, Gather, Eons, etc and so forth...

(photo CC from Zeroin on Flickr)

Flying Dog Will Grow through Word of Mouth

I had a great meeting with a very smart marketer - Neal Stewart from Flying Dog Brewery. We connected in his hometown of Denver where he was nice enough to take me out to the premier joint for craft brews in LoDo.

Neal has been driving sales of the Hunter Thompson/Ralph Steadman inspired brew for almost three years now. The craft brew racket is challenging. The beer afficionados rarely settle down with one favorite. Meanwhile you can imagine across town in a pub some guys  a died in the wool Coors or Bud drinker. Flying Dog is built on more than a great and distinctive taste. It's built on story and reminds me of Rohit Bhargava's thesis on personality and how critical that can be for a brand. Neal knows this intuitively. Flying Dog is irreverant, playful in a curse word kind of way and is the kind of brand that raises the pirate flag like the mystique of the Hunter Thompson era. (I think the "evidence bomb" in Thompson's hand in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas might have been a Bud  but that was well before Flying Dog's time.)

The Walmart of Beer

I met with another brewer that day. A big, giant multinational collection of houshold name brands. As they pondered their own global expansion, I asked them their thoughts on the InBev acquisition of AB. One thing seems clear, like most transitions, there will be a clash of cultures in the beginning. InBev is a machine with a head for operational effiencency and an expense discipline that rides in coach and stays at the Marriot Courtyard. AB on the other hand is Four Seasons all the way. The folks at the top of AB are about to be absorbed by the Walmart of beverages.

And then there's Flying Dog. I can't tell you how many barrels but it's in teh video. But they operate in a whole other business than AB and InBev. Neal works both social media and affinity groups in the real world. He has courted bike messngers and chili fans. He knows how to authentically celebrate his customers even if it as simple as handing out some cool perks at the local brew pub. His budget will never allow for a meaningful advertising-driven marketing approach. So debating whether the brand's fans would sneer at such an approach is moot.

Three Things on His Side

1. He gets word of mouth and so do his customers - he wants the beer bloggers to talk about the brand. While I am sure he would love to have them buy cases, that's not the point. He needs lots of WOM to raise awreness and get more people to try and buy.
2. Neal is fundamentally acclimated for innovation - he is trying new things all of the time. he is courageous by necessity (no $10m ad buy to save him!)
3. He has a small and nimble team - there is no bureaucracy of the big org to slow him down. He just does stuff and learns from each experience.

play the video to hear what he is doing with social media, digital marketing and word of mouth (what we call Digital Influence)

BlogHer 08: The Next Evolution of Media

My money is on BlogHer as a driving force in the evolution of media and advertising towards a new definition of "engagement."  Because they walk in with an deep and genuine respect for content creators and readers from all walks of life and an empowering attitude towards their members, they are better prepared now to explore the best meet-up of social media and advertising. That is where the best engagement will happen - when the value to the reader or participant, the creator and the advertiser are all kept in some type of balance.

There's a connection between the following:

• BlogHer's recent funding and partnership deal with NBC and iVillage ($5m)
• The current Blogher 08 conference winding down in SanFrancisco (follow the action on Twitter now)
• Trend by marketers to use blogger outreach as a blunt instrument
• P&G's conclusion that mombloggers are influential
• BabyCenter's conclusion that they had better embrace social media
• How media is changing a la Clay Shirky's great book Here Comes Everybody and ifocos.org's equally great report on new "media."

Blogher is a great organization, social network, ad network and business. They are a vanguard connecting the independent, grass roots voices of women with brands. They amplify the voices of women outside of traditional media channels by offering them visibility and income (the ad network) and over the past few years, by connecting them with brands who want to market to and through them. They stay true to the ".org" in their name, the community celebrating in San Francisco now, and their desire to see brands support this community in mutually beneficial ways.

iVillage wants more than new page inventory to slap ads against. Unlike the NYTimes acquision of About.com which increased their ad inventory considerably. NBCU and iVillage must know that the value of the content from BlogHer members and the level of engagement as represented by the event and the average number of comments on any member's blog will increase in value over time. They also know that you cannot look at what BlogHer has done as a media brand and try to replicate it without them.

BabyCenter & P&G

BabyCenter has tried to do that. They saw the light a while back about adding blogs and did so via a section of their monolithic site called Momformation. That was a simple approach to treating blogs like just more content (vs. conversations) Now they have struck a deal with the leader in blog advertising - Federated Media - to essentially harness the most valuable voices in the FM network and display their content within the Babycenter/Parentcenter "space." They call it the BabyCenter Parenting Federation. This is the equivalent of still trying to add more content but achieve the reach of the most popular bloggers in their category (and deliver advertising to those blogs).

Women bloggers are coveted by marketers. P&G has come to the conclusion that Mombloggers are influential - something I know that they knew before now. Perhaps they felt they needed and announcement around the Blogher conference. We work with women and mombloggers regularly and have built up good relationships because we do not bludgeon them with silly outreach requests. We even revised our open source Ogilvy Blogger Outreach Ethics Code when we saw that other marketers were spoiling everyone's relationships with indiscriminate "pitching."

BlogHer is Different

BlogHer offers something different. They offer a long tail community brought together by something deeper than commerce (i.e. ad revenue). They do represent a democratization of media in a more thorough sense. Brands who engage with BlogHer either directly or via iVillage will benefit from the word of mouth spread through that community as well as the collective reach of their 1300 or so members. The only warning I feel is that the partnership must go beyond just new pages for the NBC/iVillage network to deliver targeted ads to. Here's a snippet of what each side of the partnership said:

""We're excited to work with NBC Universal to raise the profile, voices and earning potential of the extraordinary bloggers in our network, and we cannot imagine better partners than iVillage, Bravo and Oxygen, with their superior programming and tools, both online and on-air," said BlogHer co-founders Elisa Camahort Page, Jory Des Jardins and Lisa Stone in a joint statement.

Zalaznick also announced the formation of a female-targeted digital ad sales network, as part of the overall strategy for Women@NBCU, the company's new content and marketing initiative geared to women. The sales network, comprised of BravoTV.com, Oxygen.com, iVillage and Sugar Inc, creates the largest online aggregation of top-tier women's media brands."

A Phase In Social Media Marketing

Jeremiah Owyang from Forrester raises some of the same concerns. Will indiscriminate pitching and what it leads to spoil the community (and the marketplace)? It is really just a phase. Bad or lazy marketers who flood online influencers with products and pitches will die off through the failure of their ways. Those who understand the "success equilibrium" and are willing to make the effort to find new, innovative ways to stay balanced and sell - will rise up.

"Success equilibrium" - this means that an advertiser must deliver on the following equally to reap meaningful benefit from their marketing effort:

• a commitment to ethical marketing in the social media and word of mouth space
• provide value to the community - both to the author and the reader (host and participant)
• provide a marketing impact back to the brand (i.e. "sell")

We are in a phase. Two years ago, when we were at BlogHer, marketers were just beginning to discover the power of women bloggers. Now they know and are using what they know to exploit that power. Soon they will learn from some of their ineffective ways and dig deeper into custom engagment programs supported from smart advertising wrap-arounds. BlogHer will lead the way.

Final Word - Clay Shirky

So what does Clay Shirky's book - Here Comes Everybody - have do with any of this? First of all, it's the first book that I have read in the social media "space" in a long time with an insightful POV.  Mr. Shirky sheds light on the rise of BlogHer - not literally but the change happening between traditional media (NBC and iVillage) and "everybody." The means of production and distribution was once confined and somewhat precious. Now, everyone can publish leading to a volume (firehose, really) of content relevant to many or few. This, by itself, is not a new obeservation but I find his description of the changes going on in media to be clarifying. He also points out the annoying folly of marketers trying to wrap themselves in the garments of true personalized dialogue. You either do it or you don't. I haven't finishd the book but it feels insightful and optimistic. To me it outlines many of the reasons BlogHer will lead the way to the next evolution of media. They are the best of the new digital influence that respects the individual and applies a business discipline to benefit everyone.

(photo by Josh Hallet used under CC and with deep appreciation for his talents and knack for being everywhere. ) 

Future PR Skills 2008: Advanced Search Engine Optimization

 

As part of a series, I am exploring what skills the next communications professionals need to have in hand to succeed and lead. We once thought search engine optimization (SEO) was a technical, geek activity. Get the guys and gals who talk in 'algorithms' and meta-content together and they'll fix you up. Enter the social web. Now for all the reasons we know too well, SEO is a critical public relations function.

The reasons again:

• 80% of Internet users in developed markets start their online session at a search engine (In North America that is either Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL or Ask.com)
• Put another way: The Google search results page for your brand is your new home page
• Social media - blogs, reviews, Web 2.0 content, social networks - return really well in search engines
• Despite the algorithms behind the scenes, the key to great search results is great content that is socially connected
• SEO is more than technology and 'advanced SEO' is at the heart of brand and reputation management

I now love Tadeusz Szewczyk. His SEO blog is so simple and straightforward - no, not just the design, but his writing too. He defines very clearly a great definition for 'advanced SEO'

"In basic SEO you just want

• to rank
• get found
• or garner huge traffic.

In advanced SEO you make sure the traffic is viewed as people, customers, multipliers.

In SEO 2.0 people out there do not hate SEO, they don’t even notice it because it just perfectly fulfills their wishes. Advanced SEO is not about cool programming skills only, it’s about social skills."

The Future PR Pro has mastered the critical parts of advanced SEO:

• creating content that is authentically valuable to people (stakeholders, audiences, users, publics)
• syndicating, distributing and sharing content to encourage linking and mash-ups
• building partnerships to gain access to new networks
• creating multimedia content for universal search
• engaging with WOM 'relayers' to build more 3rd party content and links
• integrating SEO with SEM efforts for a complimentary 'boost'
• user experience design to ensure owned Web properties follow the prime directive: be useful and in sync with best-practice SEO design

Resources to help understand Search Engines and SEO:

How Search Works

• Google Guide
• Google Technology
• Search Engine Watch: How Search Engines Work
• Search Engine Land Guides
• Yahoo Ranking

How Search Works with Social Media

• Pandia The Year of Social Media and Search Engines
• Dominating with Social Networks
• Leveraging Social Media Sites for Search
• 10 Q's for David Sifry
• Top Web 2.0 Search Engines

The 11 Skills of the Public Relations Practitioner of the Future

The Army has their Soldier of the Future. Why shouldn't the communications (aka public relations) discipline have it's own model for the expert of the future? As marketing and communications continue to merge and change (and the post-industrial, corporate organizational forces that drove them apart continue to fade), as technology injects innovation and uncertainty into our lives, and the demands of increasingly global clients get more and more complex, today's PR professionals must evolve.

It's more than learning the significance of Twitter vs. Friend Feed. It's more than learning that long tail bloggers have different expectations & habits than journalists.

There is a full field of knowledge (things people "know") and skills (things people can "do") that must change to make PR pros relevant going into the next period of change. It still starts with the core attributes of The Trusted Advisor - that model defined by David Maister that remains as relevant today as when he first published it.

Now, the Communications professional must master knowedge in a number of areas and a new set of skills inclusive of new personal behaviors. (I don't want to get hung up in nomenclature but the term "communications" may be a more forgiving and forward thinking term than "public relations." We tend to think of them as synonyms but the latter comes with a lot of earned and unearned reputation 'baggage')

Knowledge

• Communications Strategy & Planning
• Integrated Marketing including Digital Marketing & Word of Mouth Marketing
• Basics of Paid Media Planning & Buying
• Digital Influence
• Change Management
• Marcom Measurement Standards
• Basic Psychology
• Best Practice Research Approaches
• New Media Relations
• Creative & User Experience Design that Activates

Skills (I have added links to posts that cover each in more detail)

1. Create an integrated marketing and communications strategy
2. Deploy live 'listening posts' online and offline
3. Design and deploy an advanced search engine optimization program
4. Plan and run a new media relations program inclusive of head-of-the-tail and long tail "media"
5. Identify & engage with influencers online and offline
6. Manage communities
7. Integrate new technologies into their own lives
8. Model measurement and performance metrics including new "engagement" metrics
9. Run quick pilot programs  and evaluate on-the-fly
10. Train staff and clients continuously
11. (What am I leaving out)?

Clearly this is an incomplete list. What else should be on here?

(thanks to Force of Operations for the awesome illustration)

Our government is too big not to get social media

There is an interesting conversation going on within our 360° Digital Influence team blog sparked by a post from Brian Giesen regarding the death of Web 1.0 for government. The question of whether our government gets social media or fundamental issues around the Internet is a false question. There is no monolithic "government." There is a diverse collection of people across different agencies and departments, most of who are trying anything they can do their jobs better. That includes exploring and adopting social media. I don't find the institutional inertia inside government agencies any thicker than many corporations.

There is lots of evidence that individuals throughout government are exploring and becoming expert with how to use social media productively. While there is plenty of evidence that others are struggling. In such a big ecosystem like "government" that is completely understandable.

Technology is complicated

Today's Washington Post Business section covers the hearings yesterday garding Internet privacy in relation to data mining and ad targeting. The story was in the print edition and I cannot find it online but the intersting points were:

• one Congressman citing the use of the term "cookies" and feeling the need to learn a new dictionary
• the general sense that the discusison aqbout technology, data and privacy in realtion to Internet advertising was too complex to really understand within the scope of the session

But the campaigns lead the way

Both parties are using social media to the fullest. That's common knowledge. It's not just the 2 big candidates but plenty of the others who run every year that are deep into the tools, communities and methodologies of social media and just good use of the Web.

• Obama for America
• John McCain for President
• Josh Hallet on local campaign sites
• Jerry Weinstein at The Huffington Post on the Personal Democracy Forum

And then they get elected

Look at Robert Scoble's trip to the Hill this past month. he found plenty of folks who "get it" including Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren. See his video collection here.

3 NING Social Networks to Watch

The latest buzz around social networks - meaning the big guys like Facebook, Bebo, CyWorld and MySpace  - is about whether the services can ever turn into legitimate, profit-making  businesses. There is the usual hype-leads-to-backlash-of-criticism phenomena going on. Meanwhile, services like NING crank out hundreds of niche social networks for university groups, raw food enthusiasts and a private network for roadies. It's worth taking a moment to look at three examples of social networks on the rise. They are never meant to rival Facebook. Many are not meant to be revenue-generating directly. But all of these examples are serious social nets for the members involved.

Society for Word of Mouth (SWOM)
Started by Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell as a social network for word of mouth marketers focused on small business, the community has grown to 909 members in only a few short months. I am a member but admittedly don't spend as much time there as I would like. The site features member pages and groups. The forums have a few threads that are active. They have just hired a community member to become the community manager. She will no doubt fuel growth amongst the forum threads and even get the Events listing happening.

This is a commercial venture for Jackie and Ben. They have Google Ads and you can contact Ben to talk about more integrated advertising opportunities.

What's the point? Simple, this community will grow into a great idea exchange amongst people enthusiastic about word of mouth marketing (or as they clarify "an operational belief system"). Jackie and Ben will steward that community and offer valuable content and experiences for the business people who are members. Here's how they describe their purpose:

"1. To be a free social network for the true believers of word of mouth (or the merely curious);
2. To be a premium educational resource for making word of mouth fundamental to the DNA of any organization.

For the second part of the mission, SWOM will host webinars, training opportunities and produce educational materials in the weeks and months ahead. Plus, we'll have in-person events. Fun events!"

SWOM allows a community to grow organically around a BtoB knowledge delivery and networking service. Ben and Jackie provide the critical core  - the flint, if you will, for what will inevitably take off as a wildfire.

Firefighter Nation
Billed as "The Professional & Social Network for Firefighters, EMS and Rescue," Firefighter Nation boasts 21,000 members! Within the network, they have groups for Australian Firefighters, Firefighter Workouts, and an invite-only group for Fire Chiefs.

Thousands of pictures, 3500 videos, over a thousand message discussions (threads?) - there's a lot going on here. Dave Iannone is the founder of the service and is actually nearby in Maryland. I love that his bio says that he started working at the Hyattsville Fire Department when he was 12! Like Jackie and Ben, he's a professional (he has been working in media for a while now) and the solidness of the community probably has a lot to do with his efforts and knowledge.

He's got Google Ads on the site and what a great place to get in front of upwards to 20K fire and EMS professionals.

The Hoff
Yes, as in David Hasselhoff. I assumed this was the over the top ramblings of a rabid fan (I am a rabid fan of plenty of folks so this is not meant in any way to criticize Hasselhoff fans). But then I noticed two things. First - there are almost 9000 members on board. Second - this is David's social network for himself and his fans.

I love that the blog posts are from him and that he shared a whimsical video shot by himself in front of the Eiffel tower in a tie. Fans can connect directly with him. Using the SayNow plug in, fans can leave audio messages at a phone service ("Hassel the Hoff"). They are encouraged to photograph themselves around the world with "Hoff Around the World" signs set in the most extraordinary typefaces ever to print off a desktop printer.

This is a great example of a performer taking the bull by the horns and managing their "brand." I don't know how much credit to give to David or to the company that discretely advertises on the site - iconduit - as a media agency for iconic talent, which David definitely qualifies for. I choose to believe that the blog posts and videos are David-generated with a minumum of coaching

There are 41 members in the "Hoff for President" group. That's more than the "Metal Fans of Hoff Society" group. I know that's significant, I just don't know how.

Three good examples of how social networks arr growing and flourishing. No one's going to get rich with Google Ads but it's a start. Do you think that 1000 word of mouth marketers, 9000 David Hasselhoff fans or 21,000 firefighters might be a great connection for the right marketer?

We Are All Fashion Designers Now!

I love women's fashion. No, not in that weird, creepy way. I love the imagination and the style applied to a look. I have always known women with style who could put a look together beyond what a card-carrying fashion designer might do for the masses. Individual fashion. I gave my daughter (11)  a book on Japanese Street Fashion - harajuku - because she was intrigued by the extreme styles and drama of the looks. She puts her own looks together (no, that is not a picture of her)

Now there are two resources - one online and one in Beverly Hills - that tap into the personal stylist in all of us.

The social network for street style
"Street" is probably the wrong word. Personal Style is probably a better phrase overall but still we are talking about everyday fashion made for and by the people. I love Chictopia. The name comes from "chic" not "chick" so, don't worry.

Helen Zhu and her cofounders have established a social network grounded in people sharing their looks for themselves and getting ideas from the community. you can dive deep into the forums but the real action is in the photographs and the voting. This simplicity is the core of its beauty. In a time when we all belong to too many social networks, a simple structure that builds on teh one affinity - personal fashion - that brings members together is better than all the bells and whistles in the world.

Did I mention Hot Deals! Chictopia has a great business model that goes beyond targeted display advertising into deal sponsorships. If I were a retailer serving young women, i would be all over this community. (Sure, they don't have real "reach" yet, but I love this idea so much I knwo they will get there).

Fashion DIY in Beverly Hills
FashionologyLA recently launched (thanks Springwise) a new store catering to young girls who want a distinctive look at the touch of a few buttons. It's co-creation at the retail storefront. Here's how Springwise described the store experience (designed by: BigBuddhaBaba )

"Using touch-screen Design Pads, they begin by selecting what type of garment they'd like to create, choosing from an assortment of tops, bottoms and dresses. From there they select a fashion "mood" onscreen—themes include Juku, Pop, Rock, Malibu and Peace, all of which include a colourful array of graphic images. They then pick embellishments for their garments, choosing from options including Sew It, Clip It, Bling It and Pin It. Once a girl completes her design, she proceeds to the U-Bar, where a friendly Fashionologist uses a heat press to add the key design element to her new look and gives her a tray of embellishments to take to the customized Make It table. "

I am going to LA in a few weeks and hope to stop into the store to get some pics. For teh tween who wants a distinctive look - something that defines her - this could be a great choice. The looks have to be "ownable."   It cannot just be the difference between a glitter butterfly vs. an applique puppy. I serached Flickr and came up empty. But that is what they need - a gallery of customers proud in their looks (tough when your customers are so young and online privacy is a concern). Can they create a Chictopia-lite community? Will they offer looks as dramatic as the streets fo Japan? Whil ethe seocnd isn't likely, i hope they figure out the online gallery. Their store begs for user images.

I love how digital is putting the consumer in charge of fashion.