social media introduction for communications and pr professionals - by jos schuurmans

Social Media: What are the issues?

1. The rise of social media...

2. How shall we scope social media?

3. WHY should we get involved?

4. HOW (much) should we get involved?

CC: Bob Jagendorf, http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobjagendorf/361925178/

Number crunching

Technorati: State of the Blogosphere, 2008http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/comScore MediaMetrix (August 2008) o Blogs: 77.7 million unique visitors in the US o Facebook: 41.0 million | MySpace 75.1 million o Total internet audience 188.9 million

eMarketer (May 2008) o 94.1 million US blog readers in 2007 (50% of Internet users) o 22.6 million US bloggers in 2007 (12%)

Universal McCann (March 2008) o 184 million WW have started a blog | 26.4 US o 346 million WW read blogs | 60.3 US o 77% of active Internet users read blogs

Number crunching

Technorati: State of the Blogosphere, 2008http://technorati.com/blogging/state-of-the-blogosphere/

Number crunching

Pew Internet & American Life Projecthttp://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/527/press_coverageitem.asp

But what are we
talking about, really?

CC: Clearly Ambiguous, http://www.flickr.com/photos/clearlyambiguous/40437932/

Social Media is a tautology

because media have always been social.

The same goes for Social Networking:

networking is by definition a social activity.

What's the problem
with social?

CC: clarity, http://www.flickr.com/photos/clairity/154640125/

The media and networking have always

been social, but the Internet hasn't

or at least not as much as it is today.

Hence, what we really are talking about is

the Internet catching up with reality,

through new capabilities which we

have come to call Web 2.0

The reason why we talk about
social is because of Web 1.0

CC: g-hat, http://www.flickr.com/photos/g-hat/1321573829/

1. Finding information

2. Communication

3. Building relationships

4. Conducting transactions

The Internet is for:

CC: Akuppa, http://www.flickr.com/photos/90664717@N00/416359819/

When the Internet was still small,

slow and difficult to use, it would

only let us do a few things, like

sending letters and reading brochures.

We could do most of

these things offline, too.

The Net is mimicking us...
and getting pretty good at it

CC: antony-mayfield, http://www.flickr.com/photos/antonymayfield/2255188757/

Then businesses figured out

how to sell stuff on the Internet,

and media started to offer news

and other content online.

Even user-generated content!

The brick-and-mortar world started

to feel the heat of new competition.



And now, the Net is developing things

which we really cannot do in real life:

Social software lets consumers

help each other find the things they

are looking for, and recommend

things they didn't even know to look for.



Right! Both in media and in

(other) business, social media help

consumers cut out the middle man:

people no longer rely exclusively

on messages from journalists,

corporate communicators or

PR agencies.

Instead, they engage directly

in conversation online.



http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=7xAA71SsidsRampant Disintermediation:The Day of the Longtail

(Via Graeme Wood)

(Via Graeme Wood)

(...) Gone are the days when the consumers would come and dutifully arrange themselves in front of the TV or radio at specific times even! just waiting to hear from us. We could tell them the same stories over and over again, until the message sank in. Well, today, most of the chairs are empty. And the folks who do show up refuse to look or listen to us. (...)

The Cluetrain Manifesto (1999) is one of the two books (together with Chris Anderson's Long Tail) which, IMHO, describe the Internet and its relevance to business communications like no other.

From the Cluetrain Manifesto:

(...) Markets are conversations.

Conversations among human beings sound human.

They are conducted in a human voice.

Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors. (...)

Markets are Conversations

(...) Content isn't king. If I sent you to a desert island and gave you the choice of taking your friends or your movies, you'd choose your friends -- if you chose the movies, we'd call you a sociopath. Conversation is king. Content is just something to talk about. (...)

Cory Doctorow on BoingBoing:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/10/10/disney-exec-piracy-i.html

CC: fazen, http://www.flickr.com/photos/fazen/24239145/

As Communications and PR professionals,

we should consider the Internet primarily relevant to us

as a market place of conversations.

The Internet's relevance to us

CC: solarshakti, http://www.flickr.com/photos/73109955@N00/86481971/

WHY should you get involved?

a: The reactive approach

b: The interactive approach

c: Drivers for internal communications

HOW (much) should you get involved?

a: Current State Analysis: what is your Desired State?

b: Current State Analysis: what is your Current State?

c: Bridge the gap between Current and Desired State?

Whatever you do with social media has to be strategic

a): The reactive approach: Social Media as a threat.

Social Media, seen as communications-managing online

conversations, is a new element in the media mix.

Question: Can anyone afford not to listen?

Question: Can anyone afford not to prepare for crises?

The least you need to do is manage your reputation.

WHY to engage in Social Media?

b): The interactive approach: Social Media as an opportunity.

An opportunity to build reputation and brand value.

An opportunity to build new business models and revenue streams.

(depending on the nature of your brand and business).


c): Drivers for Social Media in internal communications.

1. Crisis management. Create mutual trust in the conversations of your internal stakeholders before a crisis breaks out.

2. Agility. Information sharing speeds up innovation. It flattens the organization which speeds up decision making (blogs, wikis, forums). Social Media are powerful means of knowledge management and of making tacit knowledge explicit through online conversation (tagging, rating, commenting). Social Media also spur online collaboration (wikis).

3. Employee engagement and human voice. (Gartner: N-gen will not do without)

4. Alignment of the internal culture and ways of working with the external business environment and strategy.


Niall Cook has a really good story about social sofware for internal purposes:http://www.slideshare.net/niallcook/enterprise-20-presentation-648032?nocache=3504

(...) 2009 will see the first wave of digital natives that are so immersed in digital culture that they are completely unconcerned about the effects of their technology choices on their organizations. (...)

As reported by eWeek:http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Messaging-and-Collaboration/Digital-Natives-Will-Drive-Web-20-into-Your-Business/

1. How do Social Media relate to your brand and core business?

2. Where do you want to be on the reactive interactive scale?

Listen what people are telling about you.

Respond and participate in conversation.

Initiate new topics, ideas, discussions.

Build reputation through the quality of your participation.

Be intellectually honest and as open as you can (importantly, be honest about what you can't be open about and why).

Be humble and respectful. Don't lecture, but invite people to share their thoughts.

Be interesting! Offer interesting insights, opinions, and questions.

Your reputation will enable you to add value to the people who care about your brand (e.g. your customers). You will be able to influence the content, direction and tone of the conversation.

HOW (much) to engage in Social Media?
CSA: What is your Desired State?

3. How much do you need to engage externally?

Do you want to engage in third-party, open, public Social Media and Social Networks?

Do you want to initiate to host your own online community? As a communications management strategy, and/or as a business model with its own revenue streams?

4. How much do you need to engage internally?

To what extent do the internal drivers apply to your business?

You cannot pretend to be something on the outside which you are not on the inside. Real change happens from the inside out. Your internal culture has to align with your external perception. Otherwise you will not be credible.

CSA: What is your Desired State?

What are you doing already?

Map your internal and external Social Media landscape.

CSA: What is your Current State?

Build a road map to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Test the waters, take baby steps and learn as you go along.

Bridge between Current and Desired State

While Social Media are on the rise,

media and networking have always been social.

Web 2.0 technologies and social software help consumers

cut out the middle man and engage directly online.

Hence, the Internet is relevant to Communications and PR

as a market place of conversations.

Your strategic need to get involved can be (externally

and/or internally) reactive and/or interactive.

Conduct a Current State Analysis to

determine how (much) you need

to get involved.

Conclusions:

Recap from this morning's presentation:CC: blmurch, http://www.flickr.com/photos/blmurch/2193301140/

Recap: the reactive-interactive scale.

Step 1: Start listening-in.

Step 2: Start amplifying interesting coverage.

Step 3: Initiate and influence.

Examples of Social Media projects.

People to read.

The Social Media Release (SMR).

This session: baby steps

1. Listen what people are telling about you.

2. Respond and participate in conversation.

3. Initiate new topics, ideas, discussions.

Build reputation through the quality of your participation.

Be intellectually honest and as open as you can (importantly, be honest about what you can't be open about and why).

Be humble and respectful. Don't lecture, but invite people to share their thoughts.

Be interesting! Offer interesting insights, opinions, and questions.

4. Your reputation will enable you to add value to the people who care about your brand (e.g. your customers). You will be able to influence the content, direction and tone of the conversation.

Recap: The reactive-interactive scale






People to read.



Subscribe to Google Alerts on your brand name, your product and service names, your top executives' names, your competition.

Identify the online media which cover your industry, your brand and your competition. Subscribe to their RSS feeds. Visit them regularly. Read user comments.

Read and identify bloggers who write about you and your industry. Subscribe to the RSS feeds of relevant blogs. Visit them to read comments.

Search microblogging services such as Twitter and FriendFeed to identify micro-bloggers of your industry. Follow them. Use notify.me and similar services to stay informed.

Step 1: start listening-in






People to read.



When you discover interesting conversations about your industry and your brand, start tagging them, e.g. on services like del.icio.us, digg.com, StumbleUpon, etc.

When you are ready to participate in the discussions themselves, start by commenting on other people's articles and blog posts. Use your real name and be authentic.

When you are comfortable with your own tone, you can initiate your own presence or publication, e.g. a blog.

Step 2: start amplifying interesting coverage






People to read.



When you have your own publication, again, start by amplifying: link with short comments to places elsewhere, where people are saying interesting things about you and/or your industry.

You can initiate your own posts, with more original viewpoints, when you feel ready. But remember to keep linking: as Dan Gillmor says: when you send people away to something interesting, they tend to come back for more.

Eventually, you can initiate new discussion topics and even break news relating to your own brand. But you have to be ready to answer curious as well as critical questions from your readers.

(See also: 'Does your work flow support your needs?'

http://www.josschuurmans.com/2008/11/does-your-online-work-flow-support-your-needs.html )

Step 3: initiate and influence






People to read.



Where to look for examples (guy's lists).

Guy Kawasaki:http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2008/10/the-mother-of-s.html

http://www.globalsocialmedianetwork.com/?page_id=201

http://www.beingpeterkim.com/2008/09/ive-been-thinki.html






People to read.



David Weinberger: http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/index.rdf

Doc Searls: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/doc/feed/

Steve Rubel: http://feeds.feedburner.com/steverubel

Chris Anderson: http://feeds.feedburner.com/TheLongTail

Seth Godin: http://feeds.feedburner.com/typepad/sethsmainblog

Brian Solis: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Pr20

Graeme Wood: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Geekmedia

Stowe Boyd: http://www.stoweboyd.com/message/atom.xml

Dave Fleet: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dfPR

Andrew Chen: http://feeds.feedburner.com/AndrewChensBlog

Jeremiah Owyang: http://feeds.feedburner.com/WebStrategyByJeremiah

Niall Cook: http://feeds.feedburner.com/enterprise2

People to read






People to read.



The Social Media Release (SMR)

In an effort to make news releases more digestible for not only journalists but the Internet population in general, the Social Media Release (SMR) combines the virtues of the traditional press release with social media features.

In particular, it contains links to further information on sites, blogs and wikis; links to relevant people and their social networking services; tagging, rating, sharing and commenting options; and links to downloadable video and audio (podcast) material.

SHIFT's first Social Media Release (SMR) template:
http://www.shiftcomm.com/downloads/smprtemplate.pdf

PRX Builder's Social Media Release (SMR) creation tool:
http://www.prxbuilder.com

Thank you, and I invite you to continue this conversation!

Jos Schuurmans

Cluetail Oy

http://www.josschuurmans.com/contact

+358 50 59 33 006

[email protected]

A subset of this presentation is available on SlideShare at:http://ping.fm/Hlqe7

social media introduction for communications and pr professionals - by jos schuurmans

Technology