Bloggabase - How to target the right people

With the clitter clatter of the online world, it can be hard if not nigh on impossible to connect with those who want to connect with you. Exactly, how do you get to meet? Well, "Bloggabase" might be start. What is it? Bloggabase is a new way to bring bloggers and marketers together in a more specific and dynamic way. You sign up as a blogger and you will receive "targeted product review opportunities" which could ultimately lead to an income for your blog. This might not be suitable for all bloggers (myself included) as if you're not at blogging full time it may be annoying to receive emails about subjects that you right about. As Google is looking at the authorship and the subjects rather than links on your blog, they certainly seem to be heading the right direction. But I wonder is it just more SPAM in your inbox. Lorra

Don't be lazy-get that sale

With so many social media monitoring sites like Radian6, google alerts & Collective intellect, it has become apparent just how important online chatter has become.A lot of companies only use these sites in a crisis pr environment, but is that a wasted opportunity?There is such a thing as proactive social media that the Pr professional should not only develop but embrace. You should always be on the lookout for mentions of your business. All you have to do to prove this point tweet to your followers that you are in a particular town and ask what restaurant to go to. Why should business that are in your area not tweet themselves? They can only do this if they are constantly monitoring online chat. Surely, a wasted opportunity if the restaurant themselves did niot promote themselves?I once worked for an insurance company and the one thing that I took away from a solid month of training was: DONT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR THE BUSINESS!!We went looking for bunkbeds recently, we went to at least 4 furniture shops ready and willing to spend our hard earned cash! NOT ONE of the sales people asked for the sale, none seemed eager, in fact they were the opposite. Two did not even stand when we approached their desk asking about delivery costs.This surely was an indicator that we were willing to buy. The sales people seemed tried and had no interest in our plight - even when the sale was standing right in front of them. I would not be impressed if I was their boss depending on each and every sale.The two lessons here are: 1. MONITOR ONLINE CHATTER 2. DONT BE AFRAID TO ASK FOR THE SALE - BE EAGER, NOT HALF DEAD!We're still looking for the bunkbeds. Anyone willing to prove my point!!Lorra

FLOTUS and her tweets!

In this age of digital media & communications just how important is it that the First Lady Michelle Obama tweets?With just 300,000 followers she is well behind her husband at 28.2 million followers, but in fairmess thats to be expected. Michelle Obama signs her tweets MO as a certain amount of tweets are written by her staff and this is to show what she personally is tweeting. A lot of her "Get moving" campaign is online, with sessions of Questions & Answers on particular subjects.It certainly is making the Office of the President a little softer by association. First Lady Obama is a pro at using social media to help her causes, however, with the good comes the bad.Twitter is so accessable First Lady Obama is reaching people she would normally not be in a position to communicate with. With this broad catch of people comes people who are not necessarily there to talk about her anti obesity campaign but her husband's opponents who also know how to effectively use Twitter. They use it not to talk to her, rather to slam the President and the adminstration through the First Lady.So, although the First Lady is reaching people that would normally not be reached without social media, she has to be aware that there certainly will be tweets from people who do not believe in either the present adminstration or her healthy eating plans. For the most part though, I think it's great. At least she's trying.Lorra

How important is the internet to the business person?

The Chairman/CEO of Starbucks certainly seems to believe it is! With his new comic book, "Howard Schultz: The man behind Starbucks", this is a new & exciting departure for the PR executive. It not only gives extra publicity to the brand (Starbucks) but also makes their leader more human and in this online social age any edge in business is a good edge. This new publication or ones like it can show their leaders in a "softer light" which may translate to the brand in an age when social responsibilty seems to be king with the consumer. As most of us are friends with a certain amount of business online we feel we have a vested interest in not only their brand, but the direction they take. Now, this may only be "pretend" as it's a good way for companies to get consumer buy in and ultimately increase sales it has never been so important to engage in social media and make your brand more appealing to the masses. Blogs and podcasts are another good social way to connect with your audience. The Skys the limit as far as social media & PR goes! Lorra

Has Pinterest more to say than Twitter?

Pinterest is a pin board style photo sharing website that allows users to create and manage theme based posts, for example you can have a "kitchen" board with pictures of all the styles and colours you like - these are known as "pins". You can have as many boards as you like and can share images by re-pining a picture you like. With Twitter, you have the same idea only using letters. You get to "tweet" using 140 characters. And these can be re-tweeted of the reader finds them interesting/funny etc. Pinterest although slow to take off, it seems to have embedded itself into a certain type of internet user. It can be used by anyone - if your interested in cooking you not only can have different boards, Pinterest allows you to see the entire content that you have recently shared, which if you cant find that particular receipe can be handy. If a picture is worth a thousand words, Pinterest can be used in fields never thought possible. There is a new "visual medical encyclopedia" that will use pinterest's pictorial navigation system. Pinterest does seem to have the edge on Twitter - but not by the user numbers. Lorra

How do you rate Google circles?

With all the developments of social networks over the years & the comming & going of sites like BEBO & My Space, can Google circles really last the pace? When Facebook came along, it could be argued that what made it so popular was not only right place - right time (right stage of development) but an ease of use for the end user. With over 600 million users now on Facebook it certainly is a success in the social network field. After facebook came twitter - Jack Deasy's 140 character site, that has become popular both with celebrity & the regular Joe soap. In fact, celebrity status is key on Twitter - Justin Bieber gets 32,000 re-tweets per tweet!! Yes, thats 32 thousand PER tweet. Then came along Google Circles - You certainly have the feeling of more security in that you can open up your circles - you can have a friends circle, family circle etc. etc. but I for one have found that slowly but surely they have introduced un-invited posts, new add banners and everything else you wanted to get away from on Facebook. Now, I know they have to get revenue but I for one liked it the way it was! Lorra

Celebrity PR

As you are all very aware I'm sure, celebrity is these days the holy grail. In the world of PR, things (clients) seems to have shifted considerabley. From the days of Ivy Lee Leadbetter & Edward Bernays and the first heady PR days in Ireland (ESB), Public Relations in general seem to have taken a turn into celebrity, and some might say not for the better either. Now, don't get to cross! If you look at the PR professionals that the general public would hear about I think there's only one........Max Clifford (let's forget his personal problems for the moment). He is as famous, if not more than some of his clients. PR used to be about communicating your message, telling the truth, keeping people informed of a developing situation. Now, of a lot of celebrity PR is about who is pregnant, how much weight have they lost or more importantly put on, who is dating who? Even the fashion industry seems to have taken a back seat to some of these celebrity issues in certain publications. Now, there is obvisoulsy a market for this type of publication and with that happily enough comes a market for PR professionals. As the industry has expanded there certainly are options for the PR graduates of today to specialise in celebrity. Lorra

Will good SEO increase your online traffic?

With over 1 trillion web pages online, it's harder than ever for a person to find YOUR website or your client's website. How do you increase traffic on your online & social media sites? With good SEO (search Engine Optimisation) that's how. As a PR professional, gone are the days where you will have a personal relationship with every journalist. According to Alex Warren more than 91% of journalists now search Google for their next story. We truly have become a global village. With this in mind it ios up to the PR professional to increase the liklehood of said journalist finding that Press Release that you stayed up all night writing. With good use of keywords you will be able to at least increase your chances of being found online. You should also look at the possibility of "back linking" - this is where another website may use your name or your details. You can put a link to your site on their page, using their visitors to boost yours. All these can help visits to your website. Also what I said in my post about LinkedIn holds true for SEO, don't be afraid to use the lingo that the people you are targeting will be using, use buzzwords. This will help with Google searches for your clients. Lorra

Just how important is LinkedIn?

LinkedIn,a business oriented wedsite aimed at professionals is very popular in Ireland. Started in December 2002, it has grown to have 472,687 irish users. (Irish Social Media Statistics). How can it work for you? As LinkedIn is basically a huge big database of professional people it can be used as a "get in touch" website as the searches can be more specific - you are searching within a specific demographic unlike Facebook etc that can have a broad reach. It can be used to get information and help from the exact people you need to talk to - the ones with the expertise in their chosen fields, so you can join a group or discussion board and get all the help you need. You can use it as your online CV. Remember - empoyers check these websites BEFORE they hire you for that full time position. Here are some basic dos & don't 1. DONT put up that cool picture of you at the PR ball last year with a pint in your hand. Ideally, it should be a corporate shot with the logo of your present employer in the background. KEEP IT PROFESSIONAL - facebook can be used for social chats. Keep you CV updated with the lingo from your chosen field - ie it's better to say I'm an expert in java script, coding etc than say your a computer programmer.. Dont be afraid to approach people - thats what its there for, ask for that meeting or to keep you in mind if a job comes up. www.linkedin.com Lorra

How to keep up?

With the never ending development of all things online and social media I find it really hard to keep up with all the new sites and apps. Here are two that I think are worth a look:

Sanebox and Rebel Mouse.

Sanebox basically takes your inbox in hand and files all your non important emails into their sanebox file. The really cool thing about it is you can train the software to re-file emails into your main inbox if you think they are important enough.

Rebel mouse is a personal website that you can set up but that can link all your social network sites onto it. You then have
control over what goes where in one easy site, personalised to you.

It's hard to keep up with everything, but these are two I find helpful.

www.sanebox.com
www.rebelmouse.com

Lorra

Space Tweets & Public Relations

These two subjects would normally not have much in common, but since Commander Hadfield has started tweeting from his space station we have an insight into life as an astronaut. Commander Hadfield is the flight engineer on expedition 34, aboard the ISS. He is giving a lesson in Public relations as he responds to a lot of tweets and not just the geeky ones either. A father, on behalf of his 5 year old daughter asks: what does she need to do to become an astronaut? His reply: "To be an astronaunt you have to be healthy (eat your greens and exercise), smart (do your homework) and trustworthy (do your jobs well). Then you get the suit and the rocket."In this crazy world of celebrity and the "having it all" lifestyle it's quite refreshing to me to read a guy who has worked hard and smart to get where he is and is using social media in a way thats new to all of us. Remember, the rocket that flew to the moon in the 1960s had less memory than your smart phone you're probably reading this from now. What a way to get children interested in space - a true public relations success! To read more from Commander Hadfield & see some really cool pictures of the earth check him out @Cmdr_Hadfield.Lorra

Are we breaking the rules?

In this 21st century of social media, data controllers and data processors, it is hard to keep up to date with  all the new legal developments and requirements that you should know. One of the more important new legal requirements is the Data Protection Regulations 2011. The Data Protection Commission report on Facebook's re-audit from September 2012 can be found here

According to themarketingshop.ie there are certain things as a business or PR professional that you cannot do anymore. Here they are:

* You cannot ask people to "like & share" to enter a competition, apart form the fact that you are spamming all your Facebook friends, you cannot as a business or contestant participate in a "fair competition" because of privacy restrictions.
* The "like" button, the share function, the option to upload photos or comment on a post are not permitted by Facebookto be used for promotional purposes.

* Acknowledgements that the promotion is not "sponsored by, endorsed by, administered by or supported by Facebook" i.e. you are required to completely release Facebook from any association with your promotion. You are also required to advise exactly who any information provided is being released to and whta you intend using it for.

 *Third party applications - starting from free and available widely across the web or customised to suit, these are the ONLY way you can run a promotion on your Facebook page.

* Lottery Competitions - I'm always astonished at the number of pages that think it's approriate to ask people to "like & share" a photo of a lottery ticket in order that they should win the main prize, they can claim a share of it. Quite apart from the fact that "like & share" competitions are not permitted on Facebook, gaming legislation and licences are in place for a reason and apply to the online world just as it does to the offline line world. This is one that will make for an interesting court case should anybody ever win and should be avoided at all costs.

* Interestingly, you are also not permitted to announce a winner in a Facebook status update, via a message to their inbox, or using the chat function within an account.

(Not a full list - check the report above for further details).

So, as Facebook is trying to adhere to these new regulations, Twitter and all the other social platforms that are being used as advertising tools for big & small business will surely have to follow.

Lorra

Has social media gone a step too far?

According to Ralph Reigel of The Herald, a senior judge has warned that the court system is now being plagued by social media.

Judge Sean O Donnabhain warned a Circuit Criminal Court jury to stay off the internet and away from social media sites at the opening of an indecent assault trial.
You can read the full article here.

I don't know if I could stay off all social media sites for the duration of a criminal trial. Even to pick up your emails there is a possibility that you will see something you shouldn't in relation to the trial.
Have we taken social media to a new level? Has social media become more important than physical contact with our friends/neighbours? Do we put too much effort into our "social media selves" as opposed to our real selves?

Could we see something on a social media site like Facebook that would genuinely change our minds on how to vote at a trial?

According to the 2012 Neilsen Report, there is a mix of emotions associated with the use of social media. Initially it was thought that there was positive emotions in using social media but on further investigation it showed a number of negative emotions like jealousy, anger and sadness. It also showed that the negative emotions outweigh the positive emotions in both weight and occurrence.

Maybe, Judge Sean O Donnabhain was correct in what he directed the jury to do. In a very emotive case it is prudent to keep the jury away from all social media as negativity rules.

Bring back sequestering I hear you say!!

Are you a "Two Screener"?

I know I am & I love it.

My two main "two screener" programmes are The Late Late Show (I know) and Vincent Browne.

But what exactly is "two screening"?

According to Gavan Reilly "it is a new online phenomenon whereby you use a laptop or smartphone while watching a TV show and commenting on the content on sites such as Twitter".

A survey from SKY has revealed that almost 50% of adults use another device while watching TV to discuss the contents of the show they are watching. Although, in the same survey 70% said they would  use Facebook to discuss what they're watching, with nearly half of all surveyed said they regularly send text messages to discuss their programme of choice.

With the increase in ownership of tablets (half of all homes expected to buy a tablet device by 2013) is this going to make a difference to how the traditional media is going to use the new online media as a means of growing their audience and ultimately their bottom line?

With developments last week of the Anglo Bank debt deal, there was a frenzy on twitter (#vinb) only adding to the general excitement and possibly lending to the viewing numbers of the show.

The traditional media has not really utilised this type of social behaviour as yet. I think that sometimes the comments on the show you are watching can often be more entertaining than the show itself - just check out #lls or #latelate some Friday night!

But can the PR professional use these new behaviours to their benefit?

I think that you can develop your chosen brand by embracing this new phenomenon. You can truly build familiarity and raise awareness of your brand in the consciousness of your followers, along with other online media.You can start a conversation with your public, which will be an  interactive one and it could be argued building brand loyalty as you go.Also, as the industry moves from 9am -5pm, what better way is there to communicate with a large audience at 9.30pm on a Friday night and not have to pay for advertising?

Two Screening can be fun too - just try it!

Lorra

Tweet Tweet

Twitter - How important is it?

With the recent news that Twitter was hacked, the "sophisticated"
hackers may have gained access to 250,000 of the 200 million user details, you have to wonder should we be concerned?

There was widespread media coverage but there did not seem to be the same public disquiet as there was when other sites were hacked. Maybe this is due to the fact that everything on Twitter is for public consumption anyway?

Both  The New York Times & The Wall Street Journal who were hacked recently have reported that their computers had been hacked by "China-based hackers" who were likely to monitor media coverage that the Chinese government deemed important. (RTE News)

There may be questions asked if these are linked, as your twitter account has your email address attached.

Twitter is now so important that the hacking of a relatively small number of users has made headlines.Check out the full blog here.  Twitter Blog

Personally, from the amount of coverage that the hacking received, I think it's only fair to say that Twitter IS really important - for the moment at least!

Lorra

To Wix or not...

As we had to set up a website for IT in college, (I'm a very mature student), I thought it might be a good idea to write about my experience in the context of PR & Media.

I started this project early last week using the wix.com website. I found the site fairly easy to navigate and there were plenty of templates to choose from. Of course, you could upgrade at any time - for a price. I kept my website pretty simple with no extras. But be warned, I was using the wix express instead of  wix beta and there certainly is a difference. The main wix beta, I found to be much easier to use, even for a non technical minded person like myself, so I decided to scrap all the work from the wix express and start afresh with the main site.

I'm sure there is a way to transfer all your content from one to the other - if there is PLEASE don't tell me now!

There are loads of options for apps and you can use these to intergrate your social media sites like facebook and twitter into your website.

If you are just starting out in the PR or Communications sector (or any business) you definitely could make your own website, without it looking clunky or too amateurish using wix, until you hit the big time anyway!

Lorra

Online Social Media & Public Relations

In the world of the 24 hour news cycle, smart phones  and online social media sites such as Facebook & Twitter are such professions such as Public Relations really required for modern day businesses/celebrity?

As a student of Public Relations I think that PR is necessary now more than ever. With the realm of celebrity in particular,being in constant communication via Twitter with their fans, there is now no "buffer" between the two, which can lead to a negative conversation and ultimately damage their "brand".

Crisis PR can be used effectively in this instance, using the forum that may have highlighted the problem in the first place. As a PR professional you can effectively and quickly, using media sites such as Twitter communicate your message to a specific cohort of followers.

Also, with the cost implications being low (salary only) Public Relations can utilise these sites to their full potential for their clients.