blog till you drop!
A cocktail of advertising, social media, and technology
Valentine’s Day at Piccadilly Circus
Feb 12th
Last year, I had the opportunity to work on the relaunch the McDonald’s Piccadilly Circus sign through Social Media using Facebook, Flickr, Delicious, YouTube, whilst also engaging with a few London-based bloggers.
By standing on the pavement at Piccadilly Circus, you can have a unique and quirky picture taken right under the sign.
McDonald’s have just added some new executions bang on time for Valentine’s Day including a ‘I love you balloon’, ‘Be my Valentine’ and 12 red roses.
Why not pop down there at the WE to check them out? The ‘I’m loving’ it’ catch phrase fits quite well with the whole Valentine’s theme… Saying that you might end up getting dumped if you take your GF out for a meal at McDonald’s on V-Day 
*
* Any other day is OK though
Blogger relations – the good, the bad and the ugly
Feb 9th
Engaging with bloggers is by far the hardest aspect of digital PR; emailing news releases to bloggers often won’t do the trick – bloggers want good content but they also want to get something out of being approached, a product perhaps an invitation to an event, some may even ask for cash (I think we all know about how I feel about bloggers getting paid, so we’ll skip this one)
This blog post is very much a summary of my experiences as someone who engages with bloggers, but also regularly gets pitched.
2007 – The honeymoon period
I was first pitched by a PR agency back in 2007 – I was overwhelmed back then. Wow, someone was actually sending me a phone to review, because they cared about what I had to say, AND they had taken the time to read my blog. So far so good…
In 2008 the cracks started to appear
2008 saw an even bigger growth for Digital PR with brands increasingly wanting a piece of the digital cake. Some PRs did a pretty good job at engaging with bloggers whether it was through commenting or saying hello on Twitter, whilst others still sent long boring press releases *sigh*
In 2009 things got out of control…
… and bloggers started to express their discontentment
Have I ever told you about the SEO agency who sent me a one-liner email with an attached very long and boring press release for sex toys? When I told said PR that I write about social media marketing, she responded that I was on a database – #hugemassivePRfail
I believe that 2010 will be the year of crowdsourcing. French High Street shoe retailer Andre, approached a few lifestyle bloggers last year and a new limited edition shoe range, created by the bloggers themselves “Quand les bloggeuses s’ent melent”* will be on the shelves this coming Spring.
Sorry to disappoint your boss, but creating a media list containing 100+ blogs isn’t the way forward – it’s tedious and a waste of time.
But how do you engage with bloggers:
1) Content is king – bloggers write out of passion. Don’t expect bloggers to write anything if your content sucks
2) Is your content relevant – so you’re working on this ‘awesome’ travel campaign and want to engage with travel bloggers. Make sure the bloggers you include on your media list are highly targeted. There are lots of different types of travel bloggers – those who write about their adventures around the world, those who write about the travel industry in general (think Cranky Flier or Travel Rants) and the professional travel writers. Even though they fall under the travel bloggers umbrella, they are not interested in the same type of content.
3) Whenever possible target your influencers, in other words those who have written about your brand in the past – they’ll be thrilled to receive the latest news about your brand
4) It’s quality that counts not quantity – shorter, more targeted media list are better for everyone’s sake (think about your poor unpaid intern who’s spending days engaging with bloggers), plus if your list is shorter, you’ll have lots of spare time on your hands to find out more about the blogger you’re trying to engage with.
5) Engage with bloggers – I am not talking about sending a nice paragraph about how much you enjoyed xxx blog post, but a leave a (thoughtful) comment, or engage in a Twitter conversation. With (secret) Twitter lists, keeping an eye on your pitching ‘victims’ is easier than ever.
6) My first ever boss told me that clients buy people, not companies. I believe that bloggers ‘buy’ PRs. I wrote about clothes2order a number of times last year as their approach was spot on – friendly and personable
Are there any other blogger relations tips that should be added to this list?
Greed, not need, driving unsustainable thirst for ‘news’ – by @adamvincenzini
Feb 3rd
My favourite thing about Social Media has to be the ability to connect, and share ideas with like-minded people from all over the world, and I’ve met quite few people IRL over the years who I really admire, and enjoy spending time with.
My new favourite blogger is the Comms Corner’s Adam Vincenzini, the rising star of Digital PR, and a very likeable person on a personal level too!
Earlier this year, Adam decided to give up reading newspapers for a whole year and purely rely on digital sources instead. Here’s his take on digital content and our thirst for ‘news’
By Adam Vincenzini, The Comms Corner, on location in Australia.
It’s been interesting watching the ‘digi-sphere’ from a distance while in holiday mode in the last few days, especially with a huge time difference attached.
Without client deadlines et al, I’ve been able to spend a little extra time dipping into conversations I wouldn’t normally and read articles (purely online, of course) in more depth.
One theme has cropped up that potentially presents some huge opportunities and some equally huge challenges: consumer and media boredom.
This boredom stems from a ‘greed’, not a ‘need’ for continuous ‘news’ (now, I am only using ‘news’ as a term here as it’s the most easily identifiable way of describing what we crave, but honestly, only about 5% of what pops up on my screen each day is actual ‘news’) .
I’ll quickly highlight a couple of examples.
The ongoing rise and fall, and rise and fall, and rise and fall of Social Media
It was The Drum’s Gordon McIntyre-Kemp’s turn today to tell us that Social Media is dead and that certain tools like Twitter were completely ‘dispensible’.
Now, I’m not one to predict the future (that’s best left to Doc Brown ad Marty McFly), but I’d happily bet my entire Michael Jordan Basketball shoe collection that The Drum features a report in a few weeks time telling us how Social Media is growing at a record rate.
I blame us, both as consumers and communicators for this. Why? The Drum wouldn’t feature such content unless it’s readers wanted it…and then retweeted it…of course.
#JournChat talks about delivering news in real time
The lovely bunch of PR folk in America, led by Sarah Evans, regularly host an interactive discussion that focuses on burning media issues – it’s quite fun, and I think just as valuable.
One of the topics this week was meeting the consumers need for news around the clock and how that presented opportunities for traditional media, Bloggers, PRs etc
It’s true, a story can be played out over a few days now if it has enough sub-plots, but it comes back to my earlier point, are we actually reporting on ‘news’?
This has been clearly demonstrated in the last month in relation to the launches of the Google Nexus One and the Apple iPad.
I’m still recovering from the amount of chatter and deliberation that surrounded ‘what would be announced’ on the 27th of January this year.
We, yes we, were giving legs to a story about WHEN something might be launched?!?!
Madness.
OK, get to the point…
The moral of this post (!) is that people who create quality content are fast becoming the most sought after professionals on the planet.
And, for brands who want to capitalise on this insatiable thirst, very measured choices must be made when appointing resources to help deliver this content.
While the platforms and tools are fun to play with, they are indeed ‘dispensible’ if the content they deliver doesn’t adequately satisfy the masses.
AV
Facebook: what does your profile picture say about you?
Feb 1st
I’ve been busy in the last couple of weeks , hence the lack of blogging but here’s a quick one for the road – the credit goes to @jetube for this
According to Nico, girls have only use four different types of Facebook profile pics and coming to think of it, his analysis is pretty accurate!
1) The single girl… will have a picture of herself dancing, on holiday, with a girlfriend/best mate or their pet
2) The girlfriend… will upload loved up couple pic…
3) … a few years down the line, this will be replaced by wedding photos, awww
4) Add another couple of years, and the family profile pic will follow!
I find psychology truly fascinating and by doing a little online digging, I found the results a Facebook profiles study carried out by social psychologist Dr Asi Sharabi on behalf of Cosmopolitan.
POUTING: Presenting such a provocative, sensual symbol indicates someone who wishes to be acknowledged in a sexual way – seeking intimacy or a partner. It could also indicate being a very tactile person
WITH AN ANIMAL: A person who displays themselves as capable of caring and nurturing, indicating need of an outlet for these tendencies and a broody nature.
DANCING: To display yourself on display, so to speak, is the ultimate invitation to be watched. Those who show themselves dancing are likely to be strongly extrovert. Additionally, in Western Culture, dancing has strong connotations toward leisure and freedom, denoting a hedonistic, pleasure-seeking streak.
WITH A BOYFRIEND: A popular picture type with serial monogamists, and signifies searching for a deeper or more committed relationship.
WITH A GUY (NOT BOYFRIEND): As well as a simple flirtatious contact, a picture with a potentially ambiguous meaning shows a love of creating stories, and playing games with the social fabric. In short, one who thrives on gossip.
DOING AN ACTIVITY: This is someone who identifies with their abilities and experiences rather than emotions or relationships. It may also indicate an unwillingness to commit or settle down.
ON HOLIDAY: Those who identify themselves with a carefree holiday may have a tendency to over-stress in their everyday lives. This could also indicate escapist fantasies or a dreamer disposition.
LOOKING AWAY FROM CAMERA: An unwillingness to be caught and posed in the conventional way is indicative of someone headstrong and confident in their approach to life.
NIGHT OUT/FANCY DRESS: This image represents the social, extroverted aspects of a personality; denoting that they value confidence and attention highly.
Have you identified any stereotypical pics gentlemen use on Facebook?
Good-bye Flickr Pro
Jan 23rd
I’ve fallen out of love with Flickr…
I have been a Flickr Pro user for a number of years, but recently decided not to renew my Pro account. Flickr was the place where I kept my travel shots, but also indulged in a little macro photography now and again.
The Flickr community is awesome and I’ve discovered a number of truly amazing photographers over the years… I am a firm believer that the photo-sharing site can be a very powerful conversational tool, and should be included, whenever possible, in your overall social media strategy.
Flickr has however failed to keep up with other social networking sites in terms of innovation, and I’d really like to see them work on their integration with other Social Media sites. Here’s what I’d like to see:
- Flickr users are increasingly tweaking their profiles to update their status and it would make sense to incorporate a status bar
- Better integration with Twitter: I’d love to have Twitter widget on my profile
- A descent Facebook Flickr pictures tab/widget (most of the ones I’ve tried to install on my Facebook profile are mediocre), and an embeddable Facebook Fan Page would be good too
- Embeddable slideshows/photofolios on LinkedIn
- Foursquare integration – Adam mentioned that he’s like to be able to add pictures to his Foursquare check-ins. I’d like to be able to create maps of places I have been to. Foursquare and Flickr could be a match made in heaven
I have decided to keep a free Flickr profile where I’ll be uploading photos on the go from my phone for now. Photo-manipulation FTW!