eCommunications for global organisations

…still, it seems to be quite an organic growth with no pre-defined output…

I picked up an interesting discussion on linkedin about free PR tools that could be used online.  I wanted to share them on this post so that you could use them or test them for your next campaign (I know I will).

Follow the link to this site (avangate) and you will find a list of 50 sites where you can submit your press release for free.  Someone also recommended three other sources on the forum:

http://www.article99.com/

http://www.1888articles.com/

http://www.free-press-release.com/

They also mentioned to be careful because submitted to some of these services could generate some spam emailing to your inbox, so perhaps it is worth doing an test with an alternative mailbox.

Keep me posted if you have any comments or insights on this - will report back when we have tried them out.

I’ve heard of twitter for quite some time now, and towards the end of last year, twitter seemed to be in all the ‘big things for 2009′ predictions. Although I liked the idea of the ability to communicate instantly to a group of ‘followers’, it seemed to me no more than a status update similar to the one you could use (and that I enjoy a great deal) on facebook. So I couldn’t understand what the fuss was about.

Then I came across this blogpost in mashable.com on whether European companies should or actually do twitter. I thought the question was a good way to start exploring the subject. I then posted the question on a forum on linkedin.com (something I am finding increasingly interesting) and got a number of comments (I think you might need to be a group member to follow the discussion) on the subject, as well as very interesting information.

The long and short of it is that it is a subject of great interest, and an increasing number of individuals and companies are starting to use twitter. What makes it so interesting is, like most things that make it big online, that it is simple. In fact, to a certain degree, it is a simple form of blog, or sometimes called ‘microblog’, and it enables you to update people on your thoughts and movements in less than 140 caracters.  The FT.com wrote a story about it (registration needed) called “ Twitter uses 140 characters to change the world”, which gives you a good idea of where they are heading.

There is also an article in the BBC online entitled “Why celebrities love Twittering “ which is pointing to a new phenomenon. Stars and celebrities are starting to use twitter, it gives you a real feel of ‘intimacy’ as you can track there movements. Some of the ones mentioned in the article include Stephen Fry and Jonathan Ross

Steffen (occasional contributor to this blog and team member of ZN) also wrote about this only few days ago discussing why he thought twitter was worthwhile. 

Clearly a topic worth following. In the meantime, you can check me out on twitter (http://twitter.com/pweiss) although I make no promise of being interesting or relevant (that will come later).

For all of those who don’t know yet:

Youtube has upgraded some of their key functions. One interesting new feature is the video owner option called ‘insights’.

You cannot only see where the viewers are coming from and whether they found the ad in a player, via youtube/google search or via related videos…

But also see what part of the video they really liked! Something we should certainly share with our clients! It only works if the video has been online for a bit and gets enough views, though. (data goes back to 2007!).

I just came across a group called the Energy Collective.  I was interested in this community because they use an online platform to discuss complex issues.  Second, the topics are more niche and specialised than ‘web 2.0′ or ’social media’ as many existing communities already do.  This is how the describe themselves:

Welcome to The Energy Collective, a moderated online community for people who want to understand and discuss how energy choices, technology and markets are shaping the quest for a secure and sustainable future. Our featured bloggers are a cross section of respected scientists, activists, policy makers, corporate leaders and entrepreneurs united by their commitment to innovation as the key to a sustainable future.

I was already aware of this kind of structure to discuss similar issues by following the Social Media Today which uses the same platform (called Wordframe).  They also have a few other communities using the same basic approach.  What I like about these two examples is that they show how intelligent discussions can take place between “experts” and it provides some really useful way to learn about a topic and discuss certain subjects (either through comments or through direct posting).

With many clients we have been exploring various tools to create, manager or engage with online communities and it is clear that there is no magic bullet and many experiments out there (read my post on what we have been doing for ZN) and even more dead communities or failed attempts at building online communities that simply don’t have momentum.

Most of the communities that are very active center around web or technology related subjects which is why I really like the energy collective as it demonstrates that the same logic can apply to any kind of environment.  I expect that over time these online communities will be considered as the source of real expertise and the thought leaders will develop and share ideas from there and onwards to others.  They also become a place where experts, policy makers, journalists and interested parties can build their expertise and profile on the issues.

One thing I am missing is more transparency behind who is funding these initiatives.  In the case of the energy collective it would help to know if there is a political agenda behind the organisation - maybe it is there somewhere but I have missed it.  As it is a very sensitive topic I think they should be clear and upfront about who is doing this, why and how they get paid for their time (for editing and managing the community).

I just read a post from Gitte Gorzelak called You mean..having 57 blogs is not a good idea? and as I found myself commenting on the post it made me think about when is having too many platforms, blogs and social networks running at the same time is a waste of time.  I tried to answer in my comments, but I feel that this question deserves a more thorough examination.

To take ZN as an example we have quite a few ‘digital assets’ running.

First we have the ZN site (www.zn.be).  It has a hyperlink on the homepage to our blog (Hyperthinker.com).  So far, so good.  However we have a page called ‘The Lab’ which links to another initiative which is our NIng platform.  The later platform has links to the blog as it feeds it through an rss feed.  We also are able to import videos from our youtube channel which means that actually there is a lot linked to the ning platform.  We also have two other ’groups’ on Xing.com (actually two: one called hyperthinker and another on emarketing).  Interestingly  the latter has continued to survive despite being neglected (I had some difficulties with lack of applications and the lack of integration with the outside world).  But they both have over 400 members and as I checked earlier, both had posts dated December. 

We also created several facebook groups (some private, some public - but to be honest this generated little impact from a business point of view but it was great to connect with old friends).

Finally we created a platform on linkedin.  This one is very interesting as it well designed, and has a great facility to share articles (automatically creating a clean title and summary from a url).

All these experiments are very useful in approaching clients (we have replicated a ning platform for client recently around a packaging competition) and we have also started many blogs and facebook communications programmes which have met with some success. 

The Xing group actually generated a few leads and some positive referrals and so did some of the other initiatives.

The main puropose of these online ‘assets’ is that they serve as a place of learning.  I am also finding that a good blog serves to focus the mind on key questions (like this one) and helps to share your thoughts and feelings, especially with your own team and clients (and perhaps prospects but I feel this is not the main aim of this).

So I guess so far we are making slow and steady progress up the learning curve.  I would like to see as much hyperlinking as possible between those different platforms so people can choose how they want to consumer their information, which profile they want to use and what ways they want to choose to express themselves.

The simple blog seems to be the most ‘mature’ of the lot, but it takes hard work and discipline (something that was a missing a little in the past).  However I have seen the various communities serve very effectively the purpose of client if the fit with the campaign was right.   We will continue into 2009, with more experimentation and look forward to meeting you there…

From time to time a strange discussion takes place with one of our clients, prospects or someone I meet at a party.  In the later case I was discussing what a viral marketing campaign was and whether it could actually be commissioned by a client.  The scary answer by inexperienced (or dishonest?) marketing agencies is horribly consistent: let’s do a one minute video - it will be funny and maybe a bit outrageous and as a result we will have ourselves a viral marketing campaign.

This kind of answer makes me sad and a little angry.  I must also admit that I was once involved in a project like this and had to fight with the ‘advertising people’ about the fact that a funny video alone simply would not do it.

Recently Seth Godin, the man who ‘owns’ the concept of viral marketing (calling it ‘ideavirus) has revisited the subject on his blog.  He wrote a post entitled ‘what is viral marketing’ which is a great recap of the meaning of the concept.

He summed up my feelings better than I could:

The reason for this post is that viral marketing is getting a bad name, largely from clueless marketing agencies and clueless marketers. Here’s what they do: they get a lame product, or a semi-lame product, and they don’t have enough time or money to run a nationwide ad campaign. So, instead, they slap some goofy viral thing on top of it and wait for it to spread. And if it doesn’t spread, they create a faux controversy or engage a PR firm or some bloggers and then it still doesn’t work.

My word of advice next time the topic comes up:

1) You can never predict whether a campaign or video will go viral

2) The real question is why do you want something to go viral and what you are trying to accomplish: the answer to this is often that you want to get your message out and get a discussion going on a topic or raise awareness of some issue.  Instead of trying to create a viral marketing video, why don’t you concentrate on doing just that?

3) Stop using the word ‘viral’ - if you want traffic, say you want traffic, if you want people to forward the message, say that too.  Nobody wants viral marketing for its own sake - and the most successful viral marketing video were accidental (ask the Star Wars kid).

I want to end this with another quote from Seth Godin’s post:

Something being viral is not, in an of itself, viral marketing. Who cares that 32,000,000 people saw your stupid video? It didn’t market you or your business in a tangible, useful way.

Marketers are obsessed with free media, and, as is often the case, we blow it in our rush to get our share. We create content that is hampered or selfish or boring. Or we create something completely viral that doesn’t do any marketing at all.

In the past couple of weeks, my interest in blogging has been renewed by a couple of projects and client conversations we have had.  In the past we have been involved in setting blogs for a few clients and also finding ways to engage with bloggers.

The conversations we have with clients often start with the reasons why they feel a blog is a risky proposition and is fraught with potential dangers and difficulties.  Debbie Weil does quite a decent job at giving practical advice on how to approach this in her book ‘The Corporate Blogging Book’

Check out here presentation on Blogging and E-retailing

Although blogging continues to grow as a tool of corporate communication, we still find that some clients are very reluctant to test it as a marketing or simple communication tool.  The reason for this, in my view, is not because of the technology or legal consideration.  The main obstacle is a mind set.  From outside it looks strange and dangerous.  The idea of people communicating in a company with their own voice is still a major paradigm shift.  The good news is that once they start blogging they usually realize that it is enjoyable and works.  It also opens the door to changing the tone and manner in which they communicate.  So there is hope for 2009.

Understanding what happens behind sites and where people come from is a constant challenge of emarketeers.  I just found this very nice post from a blog called socialfishing which identified a great tool to get detailed demographic about big sites, including social networks, search engines and other sites that qualify. 

It’s called quantcast and it seems to deliver some great insights.  Check out the summary of soime of the key networks by socialfishing:

“So here’s Facebook. 52 million US people. It skews slightly younger, female, educated (college), with children. (Click on the “demographics” tab for the summary).

Here’s LinkedIn. 9.3 million US people. It skews slightly older, male, highly educated (grad school), no children, more affluent.

Here’s Twitter. 2.4 million US people. Skews more female, more Gen-X, less affluent, educated (college and grad school).

Here’s Blogger.com. 23.5 million people. Skews male, younger, middle income, post grad.”

Worth a look.

Renowned US PR professional and blogger, Brian Solis, has devised the “Conversation Prism”, a chart which marks all types of online interaction as well as many of the tools which perform them. Brian remains true to the essence of the online community by allowing his users to contribute - items he might have missed may be added by adding to the picture on his Flickr account.