Social media and networking channels have during the past year established themselves as the preferred method of communication amongst the varied publics that we interact with. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube have become part of the mainstream.
Those who at the beginning of 2010 doubted the power of these channels are now active users, even evangelists. Last year social media was about discovery. It was about people building up their communities online. It was about real-time engagement.
This year in 2011 we‘ll see less experimenting and an increase in engagement. The knowledge that we have as individuals will be pooled and shared within our communities and this in it self will create challenges and opportunities for companies and individuals that we in public relations will be working with.
Communities: engaged and empowered
2010 was about Wikileaks. Partnering with news outlets around the world including The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel Wikileaks and it’s community focused on releasing classified material to the media and public. While the aim of the site when it was set-up in 2006 was to expose ‘oppressive regimes … (and) be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations’ Assange and his associates focused on uncovering political machinations around the world.
What Wikileaks did in 2010 was to light a fuse that will see in the coming year more people consider and question the ethics and values of their employer. We’ve already had the case of former Julius Bär employee Rudolf Elmer who worked for the bank for over 20 years until his dismissal in 2002. In a very public press conference at London’s Frontline club Elmer handed over to Wikileaks Julian Assange secret documents detailing the activities of his former employer in the Cayman Island and alleged tax evasion.
Sites such as Wikileaks, Openleaks andTradeleaks will prosper and be a contact point for investigative journalists and campaigning organisations wishing to question the transparency of members of the business community.
We can’t dismiss Wikileaks or what it stands for. In fact, the publicity generated and the way in which it’s core values have been promoted will have made people, employees in sensitive positions in the corporate and private sector, more willing to leak confidential information. For many, and not just the hacktivists, Wikileaks is the raison-d’etre it needed.
Last year News International started putting its main titles behind a pay-wall, something that other news outlets are watching with hope. Murdoch is one of the only publishers that can invest in this experiment. If it works though, and many editors are hoping that it does, then the pay-walls will be going around other titles.
Quality journalism costs money. It shouldn’t be free. But getting readers to spend money during a recession will be difficult and it’s because of this that in 2011 we shall see more news outlets releasing apps for mobile devices. Those that are free will switch to a paid for subscription service. Paying for content through apps will be a precursor to getting people to pay for quality content online. The content that is currently free.
Mobile
Mobile is everywhere. It is the channel that personalises everything we do. It allows us to update our status, our community, our location, our likes and dislikes. All this data allows brands to tailor their offerings for more personal approaches.
Why is mobile so important? Well, over a third of Facebook’s users now access the site through a mobile device. Twitter meanwhile has also seen a rise of people accessing it through a mobile, with also more than a third of users accessing Twitter via their mobile phone. Expect this to rise.
Mobile is not just about phones, but also about tablet PCs and the ubiquitous iPad. Consumers today want content, updated, on demand wherever they are. Keeping your audiences up to date and up to speed will be central to the work of public relations professionals. And with the news-cycle crunching down even further reaction times will shorten even further.
Crises only became so when people accessed their desktops at work or home, but with the increase use of mobiles, people will be able to react to issues quicker than ever before. Listening and engaging will be central to the job of those working in communications.
Of course as the use of smartphones continues to grow and establish itself so will geo-location services like Facebook Places and Foursquare start to take-off. And with the recession, business will look to use every opportunity available to them to help people part with their hard earned cash.
Content accessible through mobiles will become a must for established organisations and brands.
This year of 2011 will be a key a seminal year in the integration of social media into communications. It will be a year of communities and engagement.
The fact that young people or anybody else might need to change their name is not in my opinion what is shocking, but that society would prejudge people based on what they might have got-up to during their youth.
It’s an astonishing claim from Google, given the amount of data that they cache.
Danny Dover’s recent SEOmoz.org blog post - The Evil Side of Google? Exploring Google’s User Data Collection - gives you an idea of what search engines such as Google have stored. I would recommend that you read his post to get a clear understanding of how vulnerable reputations have become. And why are they so vulnerable? Well, the fact that people are sharing information makes the net a great place for data mining for investigative journalists.
Let’s remember the case of Stuart MacLennan, a prospective Labour candidate, who before seeking nomination to stand for Labour in Moray referred to pensioners as “coffin dodgers”, the common’s speaker John Bercow as a “opportunist little twat” and referring to Fairtrade he demanded a “slave-grown, chemically enhanced, genetically modified” banana. Of course he didn’t say this in person, but Tweeted it to his followers some time before he sought the Labour party’s nomination. Needless to say that it was a journalist who unveiled his comments, which led to the then Prime Minster Gordon Brown to sack him. So, should he change his name? Possibly not because in politics nearly everything is forgiven.
With social networking having taken a front seat in the way in which we communicate the watchword for managing a reputation is something that would have sounded odious some time ago. That word is self-censorship, something that in ‘pluralistic’ countries happens just to conform to the expectations of the wider community.
The big question is my opinion is whether social media will makes us more tolerant or more authoritarian?
And for those who might be using lawyers to get libellous content removed from a web-site, while lawyers can enforce an order on the hosting company, getting the cache-trail cleaned up is a different question all together.
An internal Sky News memo obtained by Techcrunch at the time highlighted how the editorial team saw that news stories were breaking on Twitter thanks to users who eye-witnessed stories and then reported them to their followers. Ruth Barnett, who today is the channel’s Online Politics Producer, was chosen as their Twitter correspondent.
I meet with Sky News Executive Editor Chris Birkett earlier this week, who confirmed that searching for news on Twitter and other social media platforms is now part of every journalist’s remit at Sky News. I asked Chris about the impact that social media’s had on its newsgathering and content promotion operation.
Birkett said that their web and online team are responsible amongst other things for verifying content sent in to the newsroom through social media channels. Birkett added that the number of users accessing Sky News online was being challenged by those who got the outlets news through their social media feeds.
Sky News Executive Editor Chris Birkett
Today the Sky News website has an audience reach of c.7.5 million unique users – 3.3 million in Europe and a further 4.2 million in other markets around the world. Their iPhone app has been downloaded 2 million times, with Birkett confirming a “massive rise in users accessing the site through mobile devices,” something that is encouraging the news outlet to make it’s app available on other platforms, such Android, which recently announced it supported flash video.
Birkett noted that 18,000 people watched the Sky News Leader’s Debate from their smartphone. We were also shown the development room where they were testing their forthcoming iPad app.
The one disappointment from a mobile aspect was that while the iPhone app has the facility for users to send in user generated content (ugc) the numbers have not yet excited editorial staff. ‘Not yet’ being the watchword.
Asked if Sky News had benefited from The Times and Sunday Times paywall Birkett said that there didn’t appear to be a surge in traffic, which leaves one to question where Times Online users gone to? Birkett did say though that Sky News has 650 staff – a lot less than the BBC, 500 of which are at the Sky News Centre and of which 150 are journalists. The Times and Sunday Times meanwhile have dedicated 700 journalists, allowing the Wapping titles to provide the in-depth comment and analysis while Sky News focus on short video.
We are looking forward to another visit and further insight from Sky News.
Gordon Brown with head in hands after "bigoted woman" gaffe.
Last week Prime Minister Gordon Brown said about the election during the #leadersdebate that, “if it was all about style and PR, count me out.” The fact is that after his walkabout meeting with Rochdale pensioner Gillian Duffy it is PR, or lack of it, that highlights that he is stumbling along the election stump.
The chance encounter with Gillian Duffy was a meeting that Labour insiders were hoping for – a meeting with real and ordinary voters. The problem arose not during the robust questioning by Duffy, which in my opinion turned out positive, but how he perceived the meeting went. It was comments that he made in his car and which were picked up by a live microphone that might have derailed the Labour Party’s efforts during this general election.
Media channels and the online community on Twitter wasted no time in making the most out of the comments from a lady who at the end of his meeting with Brown described herself as a life-long Labour voter that would vote for the Prime Minister. After she heard the comments, he decision changed.
While PR gaffes like this do happen, in such situations they can be critical. It would be interesting to see how Gordon’s spin-doctors try to turn this around. I say this as Lord Mandelson is on the BBC News Channel giving his view on the event as part of a “damage limitation” exercise.
Of course, you can judge for yourself how he fared up and until he got in his car on the Channel 4 footage below.
UPDATE: News reaches us that after his BBC Radio 2 interview with Jeremy Vine, Brown jumped in the car and returned to Rochdale to apologise to Gillian Duffy. We should remember that after learning how Gillian had been described by the Prime Minister she said to journalists that she did not want to see or meet him again. That decision though has been taken away from her as Brown has been at her house for over 30 minutes.
The Chartered Institute of Public Relation’sannounced today that it has brought together some of the UK’s most eminent social media thinkers “to provide input into the Institute’s policy guidance, education and training.”
Led by CIPR Board Member and Stainforth MD Rob Brown the advisory board is charged with looking at the impact of social media on “online reputation developments, convergence in marketing communications and best practice social media measurement.”
CIPR President Jay O’Connor said: “A core theme in our three-year strategic plan is social media and the impact on the public relations profession. Rob joined the CIPR board to lead our efforts in this area, feeding into our policy, research and training. As part of this, Rob has set up the Social Media Panel – a group of some of the UK’s foremost social media contributors, who will debate and input, ensuring our guidance reflects the very best thinking and practice.
“Things are moving quickly. Reaching out to practitioners who can offer their insight so that we can guide our members and the profession appropriately is key.”
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.
Twitter
@KLBarber Yeah, great to finally meet. You just bumped into him? :) 11 hours ago
RT @LondonPR: Editor Jonathan Grun to give us behind-the-scenes look of the Press Association on 23 Feb: http://t.co/dA57QNsn. Few tix a ... 19 hours ago
@fieldproducer So that means that the negotiations are ongoing! ;) 19 hours ago
So Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has come out and warned that young people will be entitled one day to change their names so that they can escape online and social media activity that’s been recorded and could hinder their future.
Let’s remember the case of Stuart MacLennan, a prospective Labour candidate, who before seeking nomination to stand for Labour in Moray referred to pensioners as “coffin dodgers”, the common’s speaker John Bercow as a “opportunist little twat” and referring to Fairtrade he demanded a “slave-grown, chemically enhanced, genetically modified” banana. Of course he didn’t say this in person, but Tweeted it to his followers some time before he sought the Labour party’s nomination. Needless to say that it was a journalist who unveiled his comments, which led to the then Prime Minster Gordon Brown to sack him. So, should he change his name? Possibly not because in politics nearly everything is forgiven.
2011, A Year Of Change In Public Relations
Thursday, January 20th, 2011Facebook, going from strength to strength
Social media and networking channels have during the past year established themselves as the preferred method of communication amongst the varied publics that we interact with. Facebook, Twitter and Youtube have become part of the mainstream.
Those who at the beginning of 2010 doubted the power of these channels are now active users, even evangelists. Last year social media was about discovery. It was about people building up their communities online. It was about real-time engagement.
This year in 2011 we‘ll see less experimenting and an increase in engagement. The knowledge that we have as individuals will be pooled and shared within our communities and this in it self will create challenges and opportunities for companies and individuals that we in public relations will be working with.
Communities: engaged and empowered
2010 was about Wikileaks. Partnering with news outlets around the world including The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel Wikileaks and it’s community focused on releasing classified material to the media and public. While the aim of the site when it was set-up in 2006 was to expose ‘oppressive regimes … (and) be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations’ Assange and his associates focused on uncovering political machinations around the world.
What Wikileaks did in 2010 was to light a fuse that will see in the coming year more people consider and question the ethics and values of their employer. We’ve already had the case of former Julius Bär employee Rudolf Elmer who worked for the bank for over 20 years until his dismissal in 2002. In a very public press conference at London’s Frontline club Elmer handed over to Wikileaks Julian Assange secret documents detailing the activities of his former employer in the Cayman Island and alleged tax evasion.
Sites such as Wikileaks, Openleaks andTradeleaks will prosper and be a contact point for investigative journalists and campaigning organisations wishing to question the transparency of members of the business community.
We can’t dismiss Wikileaks or what it stands for. In fact, the publicity generated and the way in which it’s core values have been promoted will have made people, employees in sensitive positions in the corporate and private sector, more willing to leak confidential information. For many, and not just the hacktivists, Wikileaks is the raison-d’etre it needed.
Media
The media will not die. News will not disappear. The fact is social networking is making news consumption as popular as ever. Half of the problem that media organisations have though is that consumption is not taking place on platforms that publishers control and so monitise. Research by telecoms operator Orange confirms how ‘14% of people who access the internet on their mobile phones read fewer newspapers as a result,’ before adding that, ‘13 percent said that owning smartphones like the iPhone meant they read more newspaper content online.’ And with Advertising-spend still down media organisations are working hard to find a new business model.
Last year News International started putting its main titles behind a pay-wall, something that other news outlets are watching with hope. Murdoch is one of the only publishers that can invest in this experiment. If it works though, and many editors are hoping that it does, then the pay-walls will be going around other titles.
Quality journalism costs money. It shouldn’t be free. But getting readers to spend money during a recession will be difficult and it’s because of this that in 2011 we shall see more news outlets releasing apps for mobile devices. Those that are free will switch to a paid for subscription service. Paying for content through apps will be a precursor to getting people to pay for quality content online. The content that is currently free.
Mobile
Mobile is everywhere. It is the channel that personalises everything we do. It allows us to update our status, our community, our location, our likes and dislikes. All this data allows brands to tailor their offerings for more personal approaches.
Why is mobile so important? Well, over a third of Facebook’s users now access the site through a mobile device. Twitter meanwhile has also seen a rise of people accessing it through a mobile, with also more than a third of users accessing Twitter via their mobile phone. Expect this to rise.
Mobile is not just about phones, but also about tablet PCs and the ubiquitous iPad. Consumers today want content, updated, on demand wherever they are. Keeping your audiences up to date and up to speed will be central to the work of public relations professionals. And with the news-cycle crunching down even further reaction times will shorten even further.
Crises only became so when people accessed their desktops at work or home, but with the increase use of mobiles, people will be able to react to issues quicker than ever before. Listening and engaging will be central to the job of those working in communications.
Of course as the use of smartphones continues to grow and establish itself so will geo-location services like Facebook Places and Foursquare start to take-off. And with the recession, business will look to use every opportunity available to them to help people part with their hard earned cash.
Content accessible through mobiles will become a must for established organisations and brands.
This year of 2011 will be a key a seminal year in the integration of social media into communications. It will be a year of communities and engagement.
Tags: 2011, app, banking, corporate, corporate communications, facebook, journalism, mobile, news international, paywall, pr, predictions, public relations, reputation, rudolf elmer, rupert murdoch, social media, social networking, the guardian, the times, twitter, wikileaks
Posted in comment, media, mobile, news, social media | 3 Comments »