Last week Facebook unveiled it’s ‘Facebook for Businesses‘ guide to help small and medium sized businesses reach out to the over 750 million users that the social network has globally. Designed as an easy walkthrough the site has worked to highlight the simplicity of reaching out and building communities around individual business communities.
For many small and medium businesses Google has been the default when it came to online marketing, with many focusing on trying to get their business high-up the search-giant’s rankings. But shopping is social, focusing and benefiting from social recommendation, something that Google is trying with it’s Google+ offering.
After some time I have set-up a Facebook Page [please like if the content I share are of benefit] – mainly to keep my profile specifically for friends and family. For those in public relations, journalism and social and digital media I will be using my Page. And why segregate my Facebook into a Profile and a Page? Well, simple, an email from a friend who said, “dude, going to ‘unfriend’ you, nothing personal but all your chatter/comms is too much! Clearly still proper friends and happy to email etc.”
Facebook for Businesses makes some specific recommendations for businesses, including:
Setting some goals,
Sharing exclusive content and engaging with your community,
Checking and updating your followers, and
Creating a conversational calendar.
Google+’s offering is looking good, I can be found at gplus.to/JulioRomo.
Google has a long way to go to deliver a simple solution that reengages businesses offering them solutions that allow communities to engage with their recommendations.
There are plenty of offerings for businesses. The best way to promoting yourself is by trialing Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and even integrating these into your site. Simply said, it is about being seen.
Fifteen years ago news outlets opted to make the content that had a cover-price free online, a strategy based trying to get a slice of the then large online advertising pie. Then, after putting all of it’s eggs in one basket, it faced with a severe decline in advertising revenue, forcing many newsrooms to cut their staff. Then, after much strategising some outlets opted for paywalls, a decision that to this day still causes plenty of debate in the news industry. Some outlets, like the The Times, Sunday Times, New York Times and the Financial Times delivered various options – fully restrictive or freemium services. It all appears to have provided some security for the medium-term.
Enter Facebook, who with over 750 million members has decided to move into the news business with it’s Facebook Editions – an app that allows users to consume news within it’s walls.
News outlets had been working with Apple and it’s Newsstand offering which would update subscribers news subscriptions via an exclusive App. I wrote a post about this in September 2009 about the ‘Changing And Charging TimesFor News.’ Many outlets have signed-up to Apple’s Newsstand. Others haven’t, not liking the terms set out – including a 30% fee for Apple. The Financial Times is a case whereby they have taken their content from the App Store and have developed an HTML5 site that can be accessed through iPhone, iPods and iPads. Developed by Assanka, the HTML5 app is fluid and smooth and as a subscriber I have to say that it set’s the standard.
Facebook knows that over a third of its 750 million users access the site through mobile devices, and those who access the site on a cell-phone or tablet as active than traditional desktop users. This explains why news outlets like CNN, The Washington Post and Rupert Murdoch’s The Daily are wanting in on Zuckerberg’s next project.
The fact is that the consumption of news has not diminished, it has most probably risen. Start-up’s like Flipboard show how we the consumer like our news to be gathered from trusted sources that can verify content, such as journalists, as well as from friends and peers that can deliver unverified news, enabling us to be the first for news.
The speed at which news is consumed is what the PR community is going to have to focus on as outlets compete to deliver quality content.
News Corporation Chairman and Chief Executive James Murdoch this afternoon made the shock announcement of the clousure 168 year old News Of The World (#NOTW).
In what is seen as a high risk decision aimed at both ending the scandal surrounding News Of The World’s alleged phone-hacking and placating the political beasts who are calling for a ‘No’ to News International’s BSkyB deal, Murdoch and his Executives decided to sacrifice this title.
It is being reported that over 200 jobs will be culled in the clousure, with the offer being made to staff to reapply for work within News International. This of course has raised the question of if the decision is just a PR masterstroke to push through News Corporation’s desire to secure the BSkyB deal. It equally raises the question of why Rebekah Brooks still in her job, given that she was Editor of the title during the Milly Dowler phone-hacking.
Since it was made public that journalists had hacked into people’s phones, social media channels vocalised their disgust at the News Of The World with many thousands targeting companies, calling on them to remove their advertising from the title.
This is a going to be a text book PR case study of HOW NOT to manage a crisis and solve the reputation of an established news outlet.
Excuse after excuse has cost the jobs of many journalists just so News International can gain full ownership of BSkyB.
Of course, is there a Sunday Sun on the way? Well, On Tuesday 5 July 2011 – two days ago, the Sun On Sunday UK domain was registered (Registered by News International), so, we’ll have to wait and see!
UK national tabloid The News Of The World (#NOTW) is caught in the eye of a very public storm as revelations allege their involvement in the phone hacking of not just the murdered Milly Dowler, but the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and victims of the July 7th London bombing.
The esteemed Nicholas Tomalin, said that ‘the only qualities needed for real success in Journalism are ratlike cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability.‘ He was not wrong.
It is this cunning that’s got The Guardian’sNick Davies the story, as it’s served up insight into the activities that were allegedly common place at the News Of The World. But let’s not single them out exclusively. News outlets are in competition with one another and it would be odd to think that they were the only ones guilty. In fact, In the 2006 ‘What Price Privacy Now?’ report (below) the Information Commission highlighted that 305 journalists had been identified during Operation Motorman as customers driving the illegal trade in confidential personal information. Have a look at the list and you’ll be surprised by some of the titles that were named and shamed. The various reports confirm two methods that journalists and private investigators use to get information, including, ‘through corruption, or more usually by some form of deception, generally known as ‘blagging’. Blaggers pretend to be someone they are not in order to wheedle out the information they are seeking.’
Phone-hacking is really just the tip of the iceberg. Given that most people do not change the default password on their phone it is pretty easy to intercept voice messages. But, getting information on addresses, car registration requires deception and/or as the law describes, corruption.
The above report highlights the case of how in November 2006 Stephen and Sharon Anderson of St Ives in Cambridgeshire pleaded guilty to obtaining and selling information unlawfully whilst operating as private investigators. They used ‘blagging’ techniques to obtain and attempt to obtain personal information about individuals from a number of organisations including Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, British Telecommunications plc and various banks.
So, while our eyes are currently on The News Of The World, the real question is, what about organisations that private investigators get their data from? How safe is your data – your bank details, phone numbers, your bills and tax information? And how ready are these businesses for the questions that must be asked? If you work PR in-house or agency-side are you ready for the reputation of your client or employer being questioned? And questions about how safe customers data is? And today, when we work online, how safe our our emails and our personal profiles?
News Of The World’s official line that it was all down to a ‘rogue reporter’ just did not wash from a public relations perspective. While it might have held back the criticism, it was like putting a finger in the dam.
Some newsrooms are aggressive places with boiler-room like cultures. You have to get the story. You don’t ask questions about the how, you just need to make sure that all the pieces fit together and that your legal team sign it off. All of course with the safety net of ‘Public Interest.’ But what is the definition of public interest? And why is the very quiet Press Complaint Commission so neutral? The PCC’s statement was just pointless.
Carter-Ruck Partner Magnus Boyd says, “public interest is always the justification used for such intrusion. It appears the lack of an adequate definition of public interest has allowed many spurious claims to the public interest.“ He says, “At the moment only Ofcom and the PCC offer working definitions of what is in the public interest and both are deliberately vaugue so as to retain sufficient flexibility and applicability.”
“Conversely, however, the lack of precision in the definition of ‘public interest’ allows the concept to be cited on ‘a rather tired and formulaic basis’ in many cases as Mr Justice Eady noted. What is interesting to the public may not neceassarily be in the public interest but we can no longer afford to seek to define it by ommission or by the adage, ‘you’ll know it when you see it’.” We need to define what the public interest is in a way that the general public can understand and relate to and which will have sufficient flexibilty to adapt to changing circumstances without being all things to all men”
Talking about celebrity reporting Boyd goes on to explain, “Ironically, celebrity reporting usually requires the least invasive investigation techniques – there are usually people ready to talk off the record and perpetuate the gossip. What may well emerge from recent events is that hacking and blagging were used far more in the investigation of financial and corporate stories than readers may have realised as well as more general news items.”
Up an until The Guardian revealed that the phone of Milly Dowler had been hacked the story seemed distant from the public. It was an issue that just affected celebrities, people, as some might claim, that courted the media. But knowing to what lengths certain media outlets would go to has turned the tide.
A social media campaign by the public has been targeting not just readers of the paper but companies that advertise in the News of the World. Public revulsion is pushing this gossip paper into a tight corner. Companies like Ford, Mitsubishi, NPower, Virgin Holidays have cut their advertising from the title.
The Daily Telegraph’s Harry Wallop commented on Twitter, ‘NotW makes c£35m from ads + c£135m from sales. Few weeks of dropped ads won’t hit paper hard. Reader loyalty is what matters.’
The community is using Twitter and Facebook to spread their disgust and it’s having an impact, with subscribers to The Sun and other News International cancelling their subscriptions.
Social media can whip-up a storm and highlight public sentiment in real-time. Give the community and argument and it will express it’s view. But let’s remember, they are not the only guilty party and PR’s need to be ready for the questions about data, information and privacy that now need to be asked.
****UPDATE***
The Press Complain’s Commission yesterday released a statement that, well, didn’t say much apart from it being unhappy with the conduct of one of it’s members.
Labour MP Alun Michael, himself a former journalist, speaking in an emergency debate about phone-hacking in the Commons yesterday, said: “The PCC is well meaning, but frankly it’s a joke, the public deserve better and the journalists deserve better. The PCC clearly has neither the will nor the ability to change things. What we need is an independent body, that is robust, effective, and has the powers to investigate and enforce. That would be a major step forward.
The four-page document is the IOC’s attempt to recapture the ground it never had when Twitter became the must-have channel for those competing at the winter Vancouver 2010 games.
In the guidelines the IOC ‘actively encourages and supports athletes and other accredited persons at the Olympic Games to … post, blog and tweet their experiences.’ it directs those competing to avoid using social networking sites ‘for commercial and/or advertising purposes.’ If athletes and other accredited persons do break these guidelines then they risk accreditation being withdrawn. More worrying for athletes is the threat of possible expulsion from the games.
So how will these guidelines affect the work of public relations agencies working with athletes and their sponsors? Will non-accredited sponsors see these guidelines as a red rag to a bull? How strong will ambush marketing play during the 2012 Olympics? Remember how Dutch beer company Bavaria got, as The Daily Telegraph describes, ‘36 women wearing skimpy orange dresses attend the Holland versus Denmark game‘ to promote Dutch Bavaria beer in breach of Fifa guidelines. Organisers of the stunt were then arrested.
What are your thoughts? How important will social networking play for brands that are sitting outside the tent and that will never be able to be a participant in the Olympic experience?
Hello. I'm Julio Romo. I'm a London-based independent PR, communications consultant and digital strategist. I am also a freelance journalist and trainer, providing insight and consultancy on how to secure better engagement through the changing media and digital landscape.
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News Of The World – The Tip Of The Privacy Iceberg
Thursday, July 7th, 2011UK national tabloid The News Of The World (#NOTW) is caught in the eye of a very public storm as revelations allege their involvement in the phone hacking of not just the murdered Milly Dowler, but the parents of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman and victims of the July 7th London bombing.
The esteemed Nicholas Tomalin, said that ‘the only qualities needed for real success in Journalism are ratlike cunning, a plausible manner and a little literary ability.‘ He was not wrong.
It is this cunning that’s got The Guardian’s Nick Davies the story, as it’s served up insight into the activities that were allegedly common place at the News Of The World. But let’s not single them out exclusively. News outlets are in competition with one another and it would be odd to think that they were the only ones guilty. In fact, In the 2006 ‘What Price Privacy Now?’ report (below) the Information Commission highlighted that 305 journalists had been identified during Operation Motorman as customers driving the illegal trade in confidential personal information. Have a look at the list and you’ll be surprised by some of the titles that were named and shamed. The various reports confirm two methods that journalists and private investigators use to get information, including, ‘through corruption, or more usually by some form of deception, generally known as ‘blagging’. Blaggers pretend to be someone they are not in order to wheedle out the information they are seeking.’
What Price Privacy Now Notw
Phone-hacking is really just the tip of the iceberg. Given that most people do not change the default password on their phone it is pretty easy to intercept voice messages. But, getting information on addresses, car registration requires deception and/or as the law describes, corruption.
The above report highlights the case of how in November 2006 Stephen and Sharon Anderson of St Ives in Cambridgeshire pleaded guilty to obtaining and selling information unlawfully whilst operating as private investigators. They used ‘blagging’ techniques to obtain and attempt to obtain personal information about individuals from a number of organisations including Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, British Telecommunications plc and various banks.
So, while our eyes are currently on The News Of The World, the real question is, what about organisations that private investigators get their data from? How safe is your data – your bank details, phone numbers, your bills and tax information? And how ready are these businesses for the questions that must be asked? If you work PR in-house or agency-side are you ready for the reputation of your client or employer being questioned? And questions about how safe customers data is? And today, when we work online, how safe our our emails and our personal profiles?
News Of The World’s official line that it was all down to a ‘rogue reporter’ just did not wash from a public relations perspective. While it might have held back the criticism, it was like putting a finger in the dam.
Some newsrooms are aggressive places with boiler-room like cultures. You have to get the story. You don’t ask questions about the how, you just need to make sure that all the pieces fit together and that your legal team sign it off. All of course with the safety net of ‘Public Interest.’ But what is the definition of public interest? And why is the very quiet Press Complaint Commission so neutral? The PCC’s statement was just pointless.
Carter-Ruck Partner Magnus Boyd says, “public interest is always the justification used for such intrusion. It appears the lack of an adequate definition of public interest has allowed many spurious claims to the public interest.“ He says, “At the moment only Ofcom and the PCC offer working definitions of what is in the public interest and both are deliberately vaugue so as to retain sufficient flexibility and applicability.”
“Conversely, however, the lack of precision in the definition of ‘public interest’ allows the concept to be cited on ‘a rather tired and formulaic basis’ in many cases as Mr Justice Eady noted. What is interesting to the public may not neceassarily be in the public interest but we can no longer afford to seek to define it by ommission or by the adage, ‘you’ll know it when you see it’.” We need to define what the public interest is in a way that the general public can understand and relate to and which will have sufficient flexibilty to adapt to changing circumstances without being all things to all men”
Talking about celebrity reporting Boyd goes on to explain, “Ironically, celebrity reporting usually requires the least invasive investigation techniques – there are usually people ready to talk off the record and perpetuate the gossip. What may well emerge from recent events is that hacking and blagging were used far more in the investigation of financial and corporate stories than readers may have realised as well as more general news items.”
Up an until The Guardian revealed that the phone of Milly Dowler had been hacked the story seemed distant from the public. It was an issue that just affected celebrities, people, as some might claim, that courted the media. But knowing to what lengths certain media outlets would go to has turned the tide.
A social media campaign by the public has been targeting not just readers of the paper but companies that advertise in the News of the World. Public revulsion is pushing this gossip paper into a tight corner. Companies like Ford, Mitsubishi, NPower, Virgin Holidays have cut their advertising from the title.
The Daily Telegraph’s Harry Wallop commented on Twitter, ‘NotW makes c£35m from ads + c£135m from sales. Few weeks of dropped ads won’t hit paper hard. Reader loyalty is what matters.’
The community is using Twitter and Facebook to spread their disgust and it’s having an impact, with subscribers to The Sun and other News International cancelling their subscriptions.
Social media can whip-up a storm and highlight public sentiment in real-time. Give the community and argument and it will express it’s view. But let’s remember, they are not the only guilty party and PR’s need to be ready for the questions about data, information and privacy that now need to be asked.
****UPDATE***
The Press Complain’s Commission yesterday released a statement that, well, didn’t say much apart from it being unhappy with the conduct of one of it’s members.
In Press Gazette today, Dominic Ponsford highlights how a Independent Enquiry might (we hope) focus on the role of the PCC.
Labour MP Alun Michael, himself a former journalist, speaking in an emergency debate about phone-hacking in the Commons yesterday, said: “The PCC is well meaning, but frankly it’s a joke, the public deserve better and the journalists deserve better. The PCC clearly has neither the will nor the ability to change things. What we need is an independent body, that is robust, effective, and has the powers to investigate and enforce. That would be a major step forward.
Tags: #notw, blagging, investigation, journalism, media, news, pr, privacy, public relations, publishing, reputation, social media, social networking
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