Evening Standard 2013 Budget Leak

The London Evening Standard came under fire today for breaking the strict embargo placed on the 2013 Budget, as the newspaper published details of the Budget on Twitter before George Osborne took to the dispatch box.

The Standard shared a picture of it’s front page that detailed the 2013 Budget on Twitpic, an image that was picked up by MPs in the House of Commons and Journalists that were covering the 2013 Budget.

While the image was quickly deleted from the social network, the damage was done. Research from Topsy.com (select cached Page) reveals that over 2,000 viewed the image. It also got retweeted by Sky’s Adam Boulton (@adamboultonsky), The New York Times Sarah Lyall (@SarahLyall) and other influential journalists and bloggers.

The paper’s Political Editor Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) was forced to issue an apology on Twitter even though it was certainly not him who shared that image. Editor Sarah Sands meanwhile issued the following statement, ‘An investigation is immediately underway into how this front page was made public and the individual who Tweeted the page has been suspended while this takes place. We have immediately reviewed our procedures. We are devastated that an embargo was breached and offer our heartfelt apologies.’

I wish to apologise for a very serious mistake by the @eveningstandard earlier which resulted in our front page being tweeted. 1/2…

— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) March 20, 2013

… 2/2We are so sorry to the House of Commons, to the Speaker and to the Chancellor for what happened. We shall be apologosing to them

— Joe Murphy (@JoeMurphyLondon) March 20, 2013

For some reason Osborne’s advisors chose today, when all eyes would be on him, to unveil his Twitter account. An odd choice of day given the Chancellor’s unpopularity in the polls and how the public share their views online. A very bad call in my opinion.

Twitter is a news channel, one that because of today’s real-time digital age can inflict greater damage. And while embargo’s have been a traditional tool in the armoury of PRs, in today’s digital world it is a public relations professional job to maintain total control of the story, especially a story which contains market sensitive information. Twitter and digital are hard to control. Conditions on the sharing of content online must have been secured.

It’s been a bad day for HM Treasury’s PR team, but a worse one for the Evening Standard.

Twitter is changing public relations. It’s making media outlets more competitive. As some on Twitter have said, The Standard’s story was just ‘too hot off the press’. Don’t take it for granted!

The end of Google Reader, but not for RSS feeds

In a recent blog post Google announced the closure of Google Reader. The service, which is an aggregator of content served by web feeds, will cease on 1st July.

Google reader has become an essential tool for journalists, PRs and those in communications roles in business and the public sector. It has allowed users to subscribe to websites and content that used RSS web feed formats.

The announcement by Google in it’s blog ‘A Second Spring Cleaning‘ took many by surprise as the service is still very popular with influencers in media and communications. In a Sysomos blog post a few days back Mark Evans states, ‘When It Comes to Digital Influencers, Blogs Rule.’

Google Reader went live in October 2005. It was created by by Google engineer Chris Wetherell (@cw), Mihai Parparita (@mihai) and Jason Shellen (@shellen). Former Google Labs Product Marketing Manager and now Instagram founder Kevin Systrom (@kevin) was also responsible for pushing it out of the Google Labs team.

In the past five years, Reader has been adopted by a wide group of people, especially journalists and those working in communications roles in business or the public sectors.

Journalists have been using Google Reader to aggregate RSS links. It has enabled them to be alerted when an organisation in a sector they cover updates their website. Reader has also allowed them to monitor independent bloggers that could be first with insight and so be valuable independent commentators. And while we have taken to Twitter and other social networks, RSS feeds today still enable us to get the content, from the coal face, and without the noise.

Visiting Professor at London’s City University’s School of Journalism Professor Paul Bradshaw (@PaulBradshaw) is a fan of RSS feeds, having taught students about the value of feeds in his Online Journalism Courses.

Even for PRs, Google Reader has become an essential tool for monitoring content online. And the fact that Google Reader is cloud based is another reason why those working in-house or agency-side have it as a default tool on their desktop, mobile and tablet.

The fact is that while Google has killed Reader, it has not killed RSS feeds. And while a campaign has been started that asks Google to save Reader, it is unlikely to change the search giants decision.

If you are scratching you head and wandering what to do, then for the time being you need not panic. Google has given us three and a half months until 1st July to export our feeds and find an alternative service.

I use Silvio Rizzi ReederApp (@ReederApp). On Twitter, Silvio posted  yesterday, ‘Don’t worry, Reeder won’t die with Google Reader.’ This app enables me keep my feeds synced while I am on the go, hence the value of it being cloud based.

Paul Bradshaw has a Google Doc that lists all alternative RSS aggregators. A great document and one that’s worth a look.

And once you have found you alternative this Lifehacker post gives you details on how to export your feeds from Google Reader and import them to your new service.

For me, the essentials for an alternative include:

• Be a cloud service – you can access your feeds from you desktop, mobile and tablet
• You can star and tag content that you read
• You can share content across your networks – Twitter, Evernote, Delicious
• It have a Bitly functionality
• It has search capability.

So, in short, what I want is for Google Reader to stay with us!!

***UPDATE 17/03/2013***

Social Times reports in a post ‘Why Google Is Really Pulling The Plug On Reader‘ that the reason behind Google’s decision to kill Reader is ‘that Google will launch mobile news subscriptions to compete with Apple’s lucrative Newsstand.’

Writing in Social Times Cameron Scott (@ConcertoMates) reports, ‘A former Google Reader product manager offered a different, but complementary, analysis on Quora. Brian Shih argues that Google repeatedly endeavored to pull technical staff from Reader and reassign the staffers to social products.

Shih’s account suggests that Google saw Reader as competition for Google+. The company may want its users to rely on Google+ to get more Web content in one place.’

Meanwhile BuzzFeed is reporting that Google Reader drives more traffic than Google+.

CIPR Share This Launch at Google Campus (Image from Gorkana)

The UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations (@cipr_uk) Social Media Advisory Panel (#ciprsm) has this week announced its objectives for 2013.

During the forthcoming year the panel will focus its effort on updates to its Best Practice and Wikipedia Guidelines, a specification for the skills for the future PR practitioner and guidance on social media and the law. It will also be working on Share This Too (@sharethistoo), a follow-up to Share This – the bestselling book it produced last year.

Set up in April 2010, the panel – which I’ve had the pleasure of being a member of since it was founded three years ago, brought together some of the communications industry’s leading digital and social media thinkers. The aim was to establish best practice and share knowledge with public relations and communications professionals by brining together experts in social who work in a range of disciplines ranging from public and government affairs, to consumer, international and brand development.

Let’s remember that while people today use these channels as a matter of fact, companies, brands and decision-makers are still cautious and suspicious of engaging in online conversations with their publics. It is this misunderstanding that we are committed to challenging.

In 2012, the panel developed industry-leading guidance and events including:

• Social Media Guidance (PDF) – a best practice guide to social media for public relations, downloaded more than 4,500 times in 2012.
• Social Media Measurement Guidance (PDF) – a practical guide to measurement resulting from the panel’s relationship with AMEC, downloaded more than 1,500 times in 2012.
• Social Summer – a series of evening events around the country on various aspects of social media, attended by more than 500 people in 2012.

Today perception and reputation is shaped by people – by how they are connected and how they share their thoughts and opinions.

Brands can no longer rely on ‘push communications’. Social is very public, and is transforming how public and private sectors organisations communicate and engage with consumers and stakeholders.

You can follow members of the panel through this #ciprsm twitter list I have set-up.

This is an exciting time to be in public relations.

Why Social Media Is Important to Brands

Review of Haymarket’s Social Brands conference, with a focus on how social and digital media is changing business and communications.

Storified by Julio Romo· Tue, Feb 12 2013 04:37:13

HMV tweets with retweet data

The social media team at HMV today gave Deloitte, who’d been appointed to deal with the administration of the company, a lesson in crisis management when they live tweeted their own sacking.

At just past 13.25 HMV’s official and verified Twitter account sent out the following tweet: “We’re tweeting live from HR where we’re all being fired! Exciting!! #hmvXFactorFiring“. This tweet went viral with over 1,300 retweets in 30 minutes.

This tweet was followed by 7 others, which told the world what was happening behind closed doors.

The social media team’s other tweets included posts such as: “There are over 60 of us being fired at once! Mass execution, of loyal employees who love the brand. #hmvXFactorFiring” and, “Sorry we’ve been quiet for so long. Under contract, we’ve been unable to say a word, or -more importantly – tell the truth #hmvXFactorFiring.”

The best tweet, and one that highlights the generational gap that exists between old-time marketeers and the new digital and connected world came a few minutes later with this comment, “Just overheard our Marketing Director (he’s staying, folks) ask “How do I shut down Twitter?” #hmvXFactorFiring.” It is this tweet, which was retweeted over 200 times. that highlights the failures of traditional marketeers that work for brands such as HMV and who still don’t understand social and digital channels.

Given the company’s failure to adapt to the digital economy it was perhaps unsurprising that HMV didn’t take control of their social media channels before announcing the redundancies. Even the Deloitte and their PRs failed to understand the power of people and influencers on social networks.

If you find yourself in a position where you have to announce bad news, here are a few tips:

• Be transparent in what you announce. Don’t spin, your audience will find out
• Keep your communications team alongside you
• Listen to your audience and gauge their sentiment
• Make sure that social networks are owned by your public relations team
• Engage where you legally can, and don’t delete tweets!

I say don’t delete Tweets, because copies are kept in the cache of many online services, such as Google or Topsy. Here is a link to Topsy Advanced Search, where you can find copies of @HMVtweets posts detailing the firing of staff. You’ll also see  data on the number of retweets that each tweet secured.

Other bloggers that have picked up the HMV story include:

• Rachel Miller (@AllThingsIC): Silence a Barking Dog? Or How The HMV Tweets Went Walkies.
• Shel Holtz (@ShelHotz): Think You Can Keep A Layoff Secret? HMV Proves Otherwise

Introducing Facebook Graph Search

Facebook recently launched Graph Search, a facility that will allow users to find places based on their friends activity on the social network.

Graph Search aims to deliver a very different type of search from what Google offers. The objective for Facebook is to give users recommendations based on what your friends like and talk about.

For example, if you search on Facebook for a Curry House in London, the results you would get will be based on your friends Likes and Check-ins to Indian Restaurants in London. And if by any chance your friends haven’t been to a curry house in London, then Facebook will give you web results from Bing, with whom it has partnered.

The partnership means that we are going to have to spend more SEO time on Bing.

Writing for SearchEngineWatch.com Ben Straley (@bstraley) says that the, ‘simple rule of thumb is that the more content that gets shared, liked, or commented on through Facebook, the greater the chances of discovery of that content through Graph Search.’

How is Facebook going to offer me the best results to my search queries?

Facebook is currently the biggest social network in the world with over 1 billion active accounts. More than half use Facebook on a mobile device.

Every users journey through the network is recorded, giving it a wealth of data that it uses for advertising revenue.

According to Europe v. Facebook founder and law student Max Schrems data that the social network collects includes:

• Your friends and family
• The IP address used from every location you’ve used to log into Facebook
• Dates and name changes
• Your messages and comments
• Every event you’ve been invited to
• Check-in to places
• The Pages and comments that you ‘Liked’
• Camera metadata including date/time and GPS

How will Graph Search affect the reputation of my business?

Graph Search for Journalists

Facebook Pages can be set up by anyone. If you are not on Facebook then there is chance that a supporter or detractor has already set up a Page. And if they haven’t, Facebook’s deal with Wikipedia enables it to deliver Wikipedia entries on companies or brands that do not yet have a presence on the network.

Remember, an unofficial Page can attract as many people, even more than an official Page.

Certain media outlets will look at content on Pages, official or otherwise, to see if they can find case studies during a crisis.

Journalists are really going to like Graph Search. In a note on the Facebook + Journalists page Journalist Program Manager Vadim Lavrusik says, ‘because graph search is in early stages of development, the first version focuses on four main areas: people, photos, places, and interests.’

Before adding, ‘the new search enables journalists to do richer searches when trying to find experts for stories. For example, say you’re doing a story on a specific company, and you’re looking to interview someone who works at the company’s New York office, you could do this by searching for, “People who work at ACME Inc. in New York,” to find potential employees to reach out to.

You could even make the search more specific to find people who work at the company with specific titles, for example. This could make it easier to find potential sources and experts to reach out to for stories you’re working on.’

What can I do to manage my reputation on Facebook?

First, and above all, offer a good service. Nothing works like recognising your customers. If they like you, then encourage them to share their praise, because if they don’t they’ll be equally happy to share their dislike.

In PR, the saying goes that good news is repeated 3 times, while bad news 11.

Social media though does amplify bad news. People like to share and shame. Not being on Facebook just means that you are outside the room while people talk about you.

If you already have a Page, then Facebook has shared a few tips about SEO to help you when Graph Search goes live. These include:

• The name, category, vanity URL, and information you share in the “About” section all help people find your business and should be shared on Facebook.
• If you have a location or a local place Page, update your address to make sure you can appear as a result when someone is searching for a specific location.
• Focus on attracting the right fans to your Page and on giving your fans a reason to interact with your content on an ongoing basis.

Remember, your presence, activity and authority on social media are signals that help your SEO. Make sure that you own it and can influence the perception.

Does Graph Search mean that Facebook Likes finally have a value?

Hypothetically yes. A Like is one of the key signals that Facebook will use when they filter data to answer your question. But, there is a difference between Liking a Page but never commenting, and commenting and never Liking a Page.

In any case, the Likes from people in your network are the ones that are going to count. Likes from fake Facebook users should be considered a waste of money.

Instagram, here today, gone tomorrow?

Everybody loves a start-up. They are new, agile and the so-called ‘gurus’ like to describe them disruptive. The problem though is that many often lack basic business experience – common sense leads many to be here today and gone tomorrow.

Enter Instagram, which was founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in October 2010. Instagram was one of the first photo sharing and social networking services that enabled users to ‘take a picture, apply a digital filter to it, and share it on a variety of social networking services, including its own.’

Instagram was a runaway success. Within it’s first year the application had over 5 million users, a figure that grew to 30 million by April 2012 when Facebook approach the company and bought it for a cool $1 billion. Today, Instagram has 100 million registered users.

Facebook though isn’t going to buy such a company without thinking of how to monitise it.

Which is why on 5th December this year Kevin Systrom announced at Le Web that Instagram was going to block Twitter from displaying photos as Twitter Cards. This announcement didn’t go down that well with users who shared their photo’s on Twitter.

The removing of Instragram from Twitter cards was nothing in comparison to the announcement on 18th December that the company was changing its terms and conditions. Under the new policy, the company would have the rights to sell users’ photos to advertisers without “compensation or notification.”

This announcement was described by users as a ‘suicide note‘, especially after Instagram announced that the only way to opt-out was by deleting a users account before 16 January 2013.

Instagramers took to Twitter to denounce the new terms and conditions. High profile photographers deleted their accounts and the media, rightly so, went negative.

Kevin Systrom took to the company blog to try and manage the crisis. In a post he appeared to claim that users had misinterpreted its revised terms of service. He blamed the furore on “confusing” choice of language.

Blaming the language is an odd strategy, as legal documents are supposed to be written in plain English. And in any case, any change in terms of use should have gone through both compliance and PR.

What is stranger is that given that this was not the first time that a photo sharing site had both been caught trying to claim copyright over users content, it was odd for Systrom to blame ‘confusing language.’

Let’s remember that in May 2011 Twitpic, which went mainstream after a user captured a US Airways plane crash landing on the Hudson River, announced a change in its terms and conditions. The changes sought to secure copyright over all images on the network. A backlash ensued with users hastingtaging #twitpic #delete.

Twitpic founder Noah Everett apologised on the site’s blog for the “lack of clarity” in the language used. Photo sharing network Plixi was also caught in a similar situation when entered into a deal with World Entertainment News.

Fact is that many photo-sharing sites have tried to monitise their business by trying to grab exclusive copyrights from users.

Networks such as the Yahoo-owned Flickr tried something different though. In May 2009 Flickr entered into a deal with Getty Images. As part of the deal Getty can approach users in order to secure a deal on an image that they have taken. Users can then take anything between 20 and 30 per cent of sales through the renowned global picture agency.

And Getty is not the only site that offers to pay users. The Agence France Press backed Citizenside acts as an agent for pictures that are sold, often passing 50 per cent to the user.

So the question to Instagram and Facebook is, why try and grab everything and then blame the lawyers, when you could have set the scene for crowdsourcing opportunity for amateur photographers?

Photo sharing sites have tried to grab copyright from users in the past and failed. Perhaps, sharing money earned would have enhanced Instagram’s reputation.

Perhaps speaking to your PR, Instagram could have saved themselves a lot of grief.

As it stands, and according to Andrew Beaujon at Poynter, ‘unhappy Instragram users are still suspending their accounts.’

FT Weekend Magazine November 16, 2012

The Financial Times is ‘one of the world’s leading business news and information organisations,’ recognised for its authority, integrity and accuracy. The prestigious Global Capital Markets Survey considers The FT as one of the most important business reads, with a reach of 33% of the most senior corporate and financial decision-makers surveyed in the world’s largest companies.

Total circulation for The FT stands at 600,000. This includes 313,000 paid digital subscribers who get access to premium content that sits behind a paywall.

Every Saturday though the newspaper publishes it’s FT Weekend Magazine. This glossy supplement has a very different style than the weekday FT.

The CIPR Greater London Group had the privilege recently of hosting a breakfast with the Magazine Editor Sue Matthias (@suematthias), her deputy Alice Fishburn (@AliceFishburn), as well as Associate Editors Natalie Whittle (@NatalieWhittle) and Sue Norris.

We wanted to know the workings of The FT Weekend Magazine and the Do’s and Don’ts when pitching to a supplement that reaches influential high-net-worth audience.

Speaking at the meeting, Sue Matthias reminded us that her magazine has a very different audience to the newspaper. It is not a business magazine. And to confirm this fact, Sue highlighted that 70 per cent of FT Weekend Magazine readers do not buy the FT on Monday to Friday.

Audience demographics for the magazine tell us that readers are aged in the late 30s to early 40s and are split evenly between men and women.

Reading The FT

Unlike the newspaper online, the magazine DOES NOT sit behind a paywall. Content is available openly to everyone that logs on. This generates a ‘second life’ for content that has already appeared in print.

The magazine presents content in a reportage style, focusing on features and investigations. Pictures and other visuals are very important.

Feature lengths vary between 1,200 and 4,000 words and have lead times of between 1/2 months to a few days.

The working week for the magazine starts on Wednesday afternoon, just after they have put the coming weekend issue to bed.

Sue advised PRs that the best time to contact The FT Magazine team is on a Thursday or Friday. Between Monday and Wednesday you are more than likely to be ignored.

Matthias prefers approaches via email and NOT via phone. Equally, and with The FT being an international title with regional online editions, remember to establish a relationship with your closest FT bureau, let it be in Singapore, Beijing, New York or San Francisco. If you are based outside of the UK then pitch to them as the magazine team keeps in touch with the FT’s foreign bureaus.

Sue’s top three tips when pitching to The FT Weekend Magazine:

1. Know The FT Weekend Magazine and the section to which you are pitching. There needs to be a connection. And keep the feature idea broad, relevant and flexible. If they like it they, then be prepared for your concept to be restructured.
2. Be aware of times and deadlines. Pitch with as much notice as possible.
3. When selling-in, only do so via email. And remember to have an eye-catching subject. Then wait. DO NOT follow up with a phone call. Let them come back to you.

Remember that with content online the FT Magazine will very rarely (read NOT) include linkbacks to clients. So don’t ask for this.

For many PRs The Financial Times Weekend Magazine is an aspirational title. But getting in the magazine is not about the PR, it is about the magazine. If it’s good enough for them then it is great for you. Simple advice.

Big Data and Emerging Technologies were the two themes at this years FT Innovate 2012 conference. Speakers including Tesco’s CEO Phil Clarke, Accenture Management Consulting MD Aimie Chapple and Lady Gaga Manager Troy Carter gathered in London to debate the importance of innovation and the need to implement innovative cultures in corporate environments.

Tesco’s new CEO Phil Clarke kicked off by highlighting the importance that innovation had played in taking his supermarket from being “third biggest in the UK, to the second biggest in the world.” Clarke told the assembled audience that success today depends on innovation. And that innovation only succeeds when organisations have the right mindset. Moonfruit founder Wendy Tan reaffirmed this message later on when she said that, “innovation is also about innovating the organisation.”

Technology empowered the customer and client. We live in a connected society where, as Clarke said, “technology has made the customer more powerful than ever before.” This connectivity, especially through social media has given people the ability to ”make or destroy brands in minutes.”

Focusing on Big Data Clarke reminded us that Tesco itself has huge amounts of data on its customers. According to it’s own Annual Report, Tesco Clubcard has over 44 million active members around the world – 16 million accounts in the UK, 7 million Europe and over 20 million across Asia.

It is the data from it’s Clubcard loyalty scheme, which next year in 2013 be celebrating it’s 10^th anniversary, that according to Clarke enables Tesco to “continually improve the customers shopping experience.”

But, as Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster Francis Maude MP reminded us, “Data is the raw material of the digital age.” Its application has yet to be maximised in business processes. In fact, as I’ve argued many times data is useless unless you know what to do with it.

In PR and communications data can deliver insight an enhance engagement with stakeholders. It delivers knowledge and can prepare brands when an issue catches fire. Equally, it helps organisations to find their influencers. But as BAE Systems Liz O’Driscoll pointed out, there is a need to distil data into information. This will become a key skill for those in communications professions.

IDEO Founder Thom Thulme summed it all up when it came to data, ”Data is best organised around customer journey’s. It helps generate empathy with users.”

But what about the future? Philips Chief Design Officer and Vice President pushed told us a cold hard fact. That there will be “50 Billion connected devices by 2020, that’s more than 6X global population.” That establishes a requirement for real-time reaction from people, companies and brands. No longer we will be able to afford to be late in our communications.

And while we talk about data and social networks, we need to move away from thinking in numbers of fans on Facebook. Lady Gaga Manager Troy Carter hit the nail on the head when he described Facebook as a large, passive and diluted community. A platform that has not been designed for fans. And I would argue is not even designed for engagement. Or at least engagement in a format that pleases people.

The world has shrunk. People want to be treated as individuals. They want to interact in real-time. They want to be heard and rewarded now. They do not want a one-size fits all network.

Technology is as much about people as it is about processes. Some think that data and technology allows us to better exploit the consumer. This is wrong. Data and technology, together with professionals that understand people, will help businesses to better serve people.

Twitter Cards – Julio Romo: Google AuthorRank, What PRs Need To Know

Earlier this year Twitter rolled out Twitter Cards, a unique feature that would allow partner websites to present their content on Twitter in a more engaging way.

The service was initially designed to help media organisations preview in their Expanded Tweets content, images and video that they had just published on their websites.

Initially developed for journalists and publishers, this opt-in feature allows sites that offer ‘great content and those that drive active discussion and activity on Twitter‘ to potentially secure increased click-throughs from to their websites their tweets.

For Twitter, the aim was simple, to further position the network as a primary source for real-time news, content and comment.

I have been testing Twitter Cards Expanded Tweets for a few months now, to see if the feature could be used by companies and brands. And if so, if Expanded Tweets could help content creators secure increased engagement from the communities they have around them.

For brands to make the most out of the Expanded Tweets feature they are going to have to seriously look at the content that they create and publish on their websites. Get the tone and voice wrong and you will see no change in the level of interaction – reinforce negative perceptions. Adapt your brand style and how you communicate online and Expanded Tweets could help how your content is seen and shared by influencers on Twitter. To put it in simple terms, brands are going to have to learn how to become publishers.

Here are a few tips to guide you how to use twitter cards for blogging and content marketing.

What is Twitter Cards?

Simply put, Twitter Cards is a facility that enables you to present the content you publish on your website in a more engaging way on Twitter.  The feature will:

1. Give you control of how your content is displayed on Twitter
2. Help drive more traffic to your site
3. Increase the number of people following your company on Twitter through content attribution.

And it is content and the attribution of it that is central to what Expanded Tweets is. Facebook Open Graph already enables how content is displayed and shared by individuals, while Google’s own Author Rank, which I wrote in this earlier blog post, confirms how people and what they share has become central to how reputations are built and authority is gained online.

Today, PRs have to remember that to help establish your brand and the thought-leaders within it you have to think about people, the content and the knowledge that is there to be shared online.

How do I activate Twitter Cards for my website?

There are three quite simple things you will have to do:

1. Read Twitter Cards documentation and add the appropriate markup to your website – typically just 3 lines of HTML
2. Test the markup using Twitter Cards Preview tool, and
3. Once you have added the markup to your website, fill out this Twitter Cards application form and include a link to a representative page containing markup. Note that your submission will be rejected automatically if you have incomplete or broken markup.

Twitter Cards HTML Code for Twitter Summary Card

Once you have submitted your email application you will have to wait for an email from Twitter confirming that your request to be included in Twitter Cards has hopefully been approved.  Following the activation and depending on the type of content you publish on your site, tweets will be shown in three different forms:

• Summary: The default card, which includes the title of your story, description of the post, thumbnail image used on the article, and Twitter account attribution
• Photo: A Tweet sized photo card showing image posted on your site
• Player: A Tweet sized video/audio/media player card displaying content that can be clicked and played

Twitter Cards will attribute both the author of a post by mentioning their Twitter handle and the Twitter account of the site that carries the content.

Why has Twitter launched this service?

A lot of people are turning to Twitter for real-time news. Today though news comes not just from traditional media outlets, but from bloggers and influencers online. As I have mentioned before, many news outlets are no longer battling to be the first for breaking news. Instead they are focusing at verifying and curating the content that people are capturing and sharing around the globe.

Today, everybody has a community around them and Twitter is aiming to be the hardwire that connects us.

I am a PR within an organisation that traditionally just publishes press releases on our website, can I use Twitter Cards?

Yes, you can. But don’t expect to improve the level of engagement between your audience and your brand if the content that you share has no personality.

The challenge that you are going to have to overcome is that of developing a tone and personality that your brand is going to have to use online and in real-time. Think of your team as a newsroom. You might have to:

• Adapt the structure of your website
• Increase the amount of content that you share on your site,
• Increase the frequency of the content
• Attribute individuals to content – CEO, CIO and other internal thought-leaders, which will require you to develop their own online personalities. Google search results is pushing people with authority to the top of rankings. Twitter is looking to do the same.

Get it right and over time you could see increase engagement between your audience and your brand.

As a consultant I have spent time reviewing the communications departments of clients, restructuring and training teams to ensure that they are more flexible and their content is more in tune with what their audience wants.  Through PR and social media consultancy I help companies and brands capture the ground and enter the conversation – teaching how to listen and engage. The aim is to help get their audiences talking and carrying their messages off-line.

Twitter Cards is just one tool that can help brands increase engagement. One tool that can maximise conversations and discussions.