WeetPR » Social media

Walk the talk

John Weet — Tue, 25 May 2010 13:11:21 +0000

I would have thought that it was a pre-requisite for a company that positions themselves as social media experts that they should walk the talk. I received a “Hi, John Weet. xxxxx is now following your tweets on twitter” email this morning.

I clicked through to their twitter account and saw nothing to tell me who they were. It was a company account and there was no clue in the name. The profile wasn’t filled in and the last tweet was made via facebook 7 weeks previously. I also scanned down at the tweets they had made to see if they were saying anything that I wanted to listen to. There wasn’t much of value to me.

Normally I would have exited at this stag but I was intrigued. They have 4,839 followers so a lot of people are following them. They had no easy link on their profile so I had to type in the link that appeared on their background.

The link took me straight to their blog, the latest blog entry was dated 8months previously. None of the blog entries were categorised or tagged.

In the head of their home page they have a graphic that says.

“does your brand need a voice online? What is a social network? I want to start a blog? Are you looking for a way to connect with your consumers in this digitally connected world? We can help”

Looking at the “About” page you can see that they are positioning themselves as an online communications agency.

So let’s say that i stumble upon their web presence and decide that I want this company who have a relatively inactive twitter account, and who have a very inactive blog to help me out with social media. Ideally I would like to meet up with them for a chat so let’s go to their contact page and see where they are based. Oh… all I get is an email address. I have no clue where they are.

So what lessons can we learn from this. Some lessons will apply to all and others to those trying to set themselves up as social media experts.

1) Write a profile on your twitter page. If people don’t know who you are and where you are coming from why would they follow you (I could be wrong on this one as the company in question has almost ten times the followers I do)

2) If you want people to go to your space on the web once they have been to your twitter page, then make it easy for them. Put your blog URL in your profile and not just on your background.

3) If you have a blog and you are offering your services to others to help set theirs up then keep yours current

4) If you are offering your services to people then make sure they know where you are based. I know it’s not essential in our modern connected world but some people do like face-to-face meetings and they look for local companies.

Please comment if you think there are any more lessons to be learned.

Gave my first “Prezi” presentation last night

John Weet — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 12:46:41 +0000

It seemed to go OK. If I was doing it again there were a couple of things I would have changed, on the whole though I was pleased with the outcome.

The subject matter was social media and crisis communications. I am no expert in the subject so the purpose of the presentation was just to get people up to speed on a couple of case studies so that everybody was starting off from a minimum level of knowledge.

I was a little nervous using Prezi for the first time so I created a duplicate presentation on PowerPoint too, just in case. I downloaded the Prezi files and then presented from the Flash file saved to the desktop. That seemed to work OK.

Social Media and crisis comm’s on Prezi

When will PR professionals get up to speed on social media?

John Weet — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 13:21:48 +0000

I was on a domestic flight today and used the time to catch up on some reading. I was reading a CIPR profile magazine from earlier this year in which they were reporting on the CIPR marketing communications seminar. A show of hands revealed that less than 20 percent of the people there were up to speed digitally. I’m not surprised but I am also a little shocked.

I am shocked that more PR professionals are not getting up to speed. I admit that I am a little scared that I will get left behind in this revolution and that I won’t be able to offer a full range of services to my clients when they ask for it, or even worse that they won’t ask me they will just go somewhere else. If I am scared then why aren’t more people?

Here in the Wessex region of the UK the local CIPR group are trying to do our bit. We arranged a social media fast facts workshop this week. The event was based on Pecha Kucha where each presenter gets 20 slides to present his topic, but here was the challenge, each slide changed automatically after 20 seconds, whether you had finished or not. This really did make for a fast paced and fun event.

We had six speakers who were, in order of appearance:-

Tom Chapman of Headstream presenting a case study on Samsung football.

Heather Yaxley of Greenbanana presenting blogging.

Yours truly presenting twitter

Darren Lilleker of Bournemouth University presenting how politicians are using social media

Dan Kerins of the Southampton daily echo on how they are engaging with their publics through social media

and finally Luke Williams of social tech solutions on Evaluation, Metrics and ROI of social media.

The event was hosted by Five by Five digital in Southampton and was well attended by 33 people. But, with a total CIPR membership in our region of 300 this is still only 10 per cent. If the 20 percent figure from earlier on is correct and if we were to assume that all people who attended were new to the subject then that still leaves 70 percent of our membership who may not be engaged. I know the maths is simplistic and relies on assumptions but it is still a large number that are not engaged in social media. What are thy going to do if a client or boss asks them about it?

If they want to offer a full integrated campaign then they will soon have to show that they have at least considered social media. they may consider that some of this stuff is a flash in the pan and will have a limited life but what they do need to remember, as Luke Williams told our group on Wednesday is, that the tools may fade and die but the concept will remain. The public are used to instant communications and it is unlikely they will ever settle for anything less. PR professionals will need to get up to speed at some point or risk losing clients and / or a job. This may sound like scaremongering but I believe it to be a fact.

All slides from the event are available here

Easy Jet, Getting it right on Twitter

John Weet — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:16:00 +0000

I flew with Easy Jet for the first time a few weeks ago. I only had hand luggage so thought I would turn up and check in at one of those handy self check in machines that all the other airlines (the ones I tend to use anyway) have. I arrived about an hour before my flight to Basel only to find no self check in machines and a horrendous queue. Feeling quite grumpy I sent the following tweet while in the line.

When I next checked twitter I had the following message

We had a little bit of email correspondence and I felt that I had aired my grievances and that I had been listened to.

I travelled with Easy Jet again this week and on my return I had the following message waiting for me.

I’m not easily impressed but must admit that I am impressed with Easy Jet and with Paul. It’s not difficult for a company to monitor the twittersphere for their brands but it’s what you do with that information that matters. I admit that I did not have a big grievance and that part of it was of my own making but I felt the response I got was good.

I wouldn’t say I’m a convert to Easy Jet. I’m not a big fan of the scrum that takes place at boarding and also I am far closer to Southampton and Heathrow, so these are certainly my airports of choice. However what I will say is that I will not go to great lengths to avoid them as I have done before.

Playing catch up on social media

John Weet — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 12:24:00 +0000

I am playing catch up on social media. Having come into PR later in life than many (after a succesful career in engineering) I have spent the last seven years trying to get to grips with traditional PR tools and techniques let alone trying to get up to speed on social media.

I did begin to see the writing on the wall though several years ago and realised that if I am to survive in this industry I need to get engaged. I created an entry on Face book, much to the dismay of my kids. I signed up for a FlickR account and dabbled with a blog, although this was really just a means for me to rant and get things off my chest. I joined LinkedIn and also signed up for Plaxo. But that was it. I couldn’t find the time to make sense of them and to understand what they could do for me and what they could do for my clients.

I have found the time now and I understand them better, I am becoming an evangelist and spout about social media to anyone who will listen, but I do recognise that I am not an early adopter, I know I am behind the curve. As Heather Yaxley points out in her Greenbanana blog some PR people have been around this arena for years. I haven’t, I am a new boy and am certainly a long way from being an expert, but then again, who could be an expert in this field when it is constantly changing and when there is so much more out there to learn.

As an example, I came across YouAre the other day, I haven’t found the time to review it fully yet but it looks like another Micro Blogging site like Twitter, and more besides. From what I can see this started up last year and has yet to hit the mainstream (I stand to be corrected on this). As a PR professional I do owe it to myself to keep on top of sites like this, and all the others that get lumped together under the social media umbrella. If I don’t keep current then in these changing times I will get left behind.

Even though I am playing catch up I will still act as an evangelist. I am enthusiastic about the subject and I hope that my enthusiasm will rub off on my peers because what I do recognise is that, even though I am behind the curve there are many more PR professionals behind me. I will encourage them at every opportunity to get engaged and if in the process I can share what I am learning, and learn from them also, then this will in the end benefit us all.

Is Twitter a numbers game?

John Weet — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 09:50:00 +0000

I have seen other blog posts on a similar vein to this one but I don’t care. I’m going to talk about it because it intrigues me.

Whenever I get an email saying that somebody is following me I go and look at their profile.

I also use Social Too to give me, on a daily basis, a list of people who have begun to follow me or stopped following me (a very useful tool). Again, when i see that somebody has started following me I go and look at their profile.

The reason I look at profiles is to a) ask myself what it is that I have said that makes this person want to follow me and b) to consider whether they are worth following back.

I fail to understand sometimes why some people who decide to follow me want to. I had one the other week who was a beer drinking Newcastle united supporter who works as a labourer. I looked through her tweets and could not see any shared interests at all. Why on earth would she want to follow me unless she is working a numbers game, trying to build up her followers by following more. What is the point in that?

I also sometimes get nothing from the profile that makes me want to follow them. I had one the other day that said his name was ploton and he was from the planet zog, or some such similar inanity. This gives me nothing at all on which to base a judgement as to why I woudl want to follow them.

Another useful tool for determining people to follow, people that can add value, is Mr Tweet. Mr Tweet looks at the subjects you tend to Twitter on and then suggests others that you may like to follow. One of my first steps is to look at the number of tweets these people make a day. Too many and I don’t bother. I don’t want them clogging things up so that I miss something I really do want to see.

I had one the other day that against my better judgement, based on the number of tweets per day, I did decide to follow him. he was obviously reading the telegraph on line yesterday because he tweeted about every single story he read. If I want to read the telegraph I will read the telegraph I don’t need somebody to give me a link to each individual story. Again, is this also a numbers game. Seeing if you can get in the record books for the greatest number of tweets per day.

I saw an interesting blog the other day where somebody (and forgive me that i can’t remember who) introduced me to the 90:10 rule where 90% of your tweets should add value and the remaining 10% can be for other stuff. A good rule I think.

So for me its not a numbers game. I don’t have hundreds of followers and I don’t follow hundreds of people. The people I do follow I can either learn from or they provide me with amusement. For those that follow me I hope I can add something to the discussion.

Social Media ROI

John Weet — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:53:00 +0000

Saw an interesting blog post from Axel Schultze today on Social Media ROI. ROI is of course an important conversation to have when working for an agency or as a consultant. How else, particularly in these difficult times can you prove your worth.

The formula that Axel comes up with is

Contribution Margin in currency generated from externally referred customers over cost in currency for human interaction and other cost to manage and engage in the ecosystem= Social Media ROI.

Now I started thinking about this. For some businesses this may work. I can see for instance how it might work for a client in a B2C environment where people can purchase on-line. You can see where people are referred from and input the amount of any resulting order into the equation.

But what about when you are working in a B2B environment and where you may also sell through distributors. Your goal with social media may be to raise awareness or to establish yourself as experts in the field. How do you measure contribution margin then?

I don’t think there is a single answer. It depends on the goals of your social media strategy and the type of business you are in.

For the full blog post go to socialmediatoday.com

Come on in – the water's fine

John Weet — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 08:38:00 +0000

Social Media and User Generated Content (UGC) are big things. They are becoming more and more important to the marketing communications industry and I worried that if I didn’t get involved I would find myself left behind.

I hadn’t really thought about it before but I was already active in the social media scene. I have had an account on Facebook for several years but never really used it. I also registered with LinkedIn many years ago, but only ever got as far as setting up some basic profile information. I also have an account with FlickR and have a personal blog.

After enrolling on a short course on Social Media, presented by Luke Williams of socialtech I decided to get more involved and what better way than jumping in with both feet.

What I am going to do is briefly describe what I did, I’m not saying this is the only way to approach it, or that it’s the best way. It’s just the way that I did it.

I completed my profile and linked up with many of the people in my address book. I then searched for groups that i felt were relevant to me. I have dabbled a little bit in discussions and know that I need to get involved more. That’s my next step.

Twitter.

I signed up for an account then started searching for people that (a) I could learn more about social media from (b) Any of the employees in my clients organisation and (c) Celebs and other people who may provide some light entertainment along the way.

There are a number of tools that are helpful when searching for people, I used Twilerts and identified many people that I thought were worth following. I then looked at the people that were following the people that I found and then started following some of them too. I didn’t always get it right. some of the people I followed didn’t have anything to say that I wanted to listen to so I swiftly unfollowed.

When i started on Twitter I also felt pressured into posting continually so I posted anything. I’ve calmed down now and post when I think I’ve got something worthwhile to say, as well as sometimes just to get things off my chest.

My next step was to follow links from twitter posts taking me through to blogs.

Blogs and RSS feeds

I subscribed to many different blogs initially. blogs on social media as well as industry blogs. The amount of information that I had available to me now was huge and it has taken a long while to wade through it all.

I know that I am no expert yet, and when I say that, i am not saying it as a true expert who is dismissing the title as Lisa Hoffman may do. I am saying it because I do understand that I am still on a learning curve, but then I am not alone. everybody involved in Social media is constantly learning as the tools evolve, as new widgets, gadgets and sites are developed.

The same rules as for traditional PR still apply though. Understand your audience, understand the message you want to get across and then decide what media to use to get that message across. If social media is appropriate then you need to try it. If you don’t it is only a matter of time before your competitors do.

Media Myths & Realities survey

John Weet — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 11:42:00 +0000

Bournemouth university and Ketchum have issued a press release announcing the survey mentioned in my previous post. The full press release can be seen here.

According to the release, the survey compares the media usage habits of 500 British consumers, 1,000 Americans consumers, 500 American communications industry professionals and 500 adult consumers in Brazil.

There are many interesting points raised and I really do need to try and get hold of the survey results.

One point worth mentioning, especially in light of the money programme that aired on the BBC last night, is the fact that in the UK consumers read national newspapers at nearly three times the rate of consumers in the U.S. (53 percent compared with 18 percent). Brazilians are even higher at 62 percent.

What is not said in the press release, but was stated in the presentation that I sat through, is when people say they get their news from the Telegraph, as an example, they are talking about the brand and not necessarily the newspaper. The brand will of course include the web site.

This is interesting in that a representative of one of the large UK nationals that was interviewed in the BBC programme has stated they are trying to take that brand into the US market. The reason is one of economics.

With printed newspapers you generally know the majority of your audience. They are constrained by the boundaries of your circulation. This make it easy when selling advertising space. Not so with the web, your audience could be anywhere. Not always an easy sell to a potential advertiser. If the brand has good recognition however, in the US markets then that opens the door to the vast sums of US advertising dollars that are lying around waiting to be picked up, simple isn’t it!

I started this post with a mention of Ketchum so plan to finish with one too. What a good example of how not to use social media. Off to give a talk to one of their largest customers on the use of social media a senior representative of Ketchum arrived at their town and made a twitter post “True confession but I’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say, ‘I would die if I had to live here.’” This post was subsequently seen by somebody at the company he was going to visit. A company who are fiercely proud of the town where they are based. To see the full story click here.

WeetPR.com

LinkedIn, How useful can it be?

John Weet — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 09:27:00 +0000

I am starting to get quite active with Linked in. One of my clients is in the process automation industry so i have joined a group on LinkedIn called Automation.

One of the other members asked a question about what people thought was the best product in a certain field. 4 out of the 5 responses recomended my clients product. From a PR point of view that is great, but it also enabled me to identify the person asking the question, the company they work for and their office location.

How valuable can that be?