Maximizing Social Media's Potential
HIGH STAKES
THIS ISSUE: MAXIMIZING SOCIAL MEDIA'S POTENTIAL
By the end of 2009, there were 133 million blogs worldwide, 350 million people on Facebook, 27 million tweets every 24 hours, and 1.2 billion YouTube views each day. With these staggering statistics likely to grow in 2010, the opportunities to engage critical audiences provided by social media are incalculable, as are the forums they provide to manage reputational crises.
In this issue, we identify the keys to success in the social media space in times of crisis and relative calm…Gain insight on the blogosphere from Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra…Examine the blogs covering the latest social media developments…And look ahead to how this media revolution will affect companies and countries in 2010.
Strategies: Monitor, engage, and be transparent
While the social media space is in a continuous state of evolution – with new platforms and technologies introduced nearly every day – the basic tenets of effective online communication remain constant. They provide roadmaps to uncover issues before they become crises, build loyal communities of support, and elevate customer service to new levels.
Success in the social media space demands creativity, vigilance, and a long-term commitment – with fastidious monitoring, ongoing engagement, and an open, honest approach.
Monitoring
While social media sites are as diverse as the millions of people that use them, they are all, for the most part, interrelated. This is precisely what makes the digital space “viral.” Today, a single reputation-damaging blog post, Facebook update, tweet, or YouTube video can reach around the world in a matter of minutes. If you’re not actively watching and listening for mentions of your company, its brands, and your own leadership, you lose critical intelligence that can be utilized to stem a crisis before it happens.
Engagement
In crisis, the rules of engagement are simple. Criticism left unattended can quickly snowball and rapidly transform a small problem into a worldwide scandal. Companies need to respond in real time. Also be sure to respond in the same venues where the criticism originated. As we’ve seen countless times in recent years, it’s the only way to match the reach and speed with which crises now expand.
In times of relative calm, the rules are more nuanced. Establishing a brand presence on Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media site is just the beginning. Building goodwill and developing a community of brand ambassadors requires frequent content updates and committed engagement.
Post new content on a regular basis and provide information that your audience cannot find anywhere else. If you are seeking new audiences, identify a specific niche where interest abounds and content supply is limited. If your goal is to communicate with existing audiences, provide information about your brand that is not easily available elsewhere.
If it makes sense for your company, use your blog to provide opportunities for supporters to engage with you. Southwest Airlines does just that by soliciting comments and ceding a level of message control to its readers – providing them with a participatory stake in its brand development and, in turn, building consumer loyalty.
Transparency
While transparency has always been an unwritten rule of the social media space, new guidance issued by the Federal Trade Commission in December has upped the ante. A number of practices long frowned on in the social media sphere are now on the FTC’s hit list:
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"flogging," or creating supposedly-objective blogs that serve only to promote a product or service;
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"astroturfing," where advertisers posing as ordinary consumers share raving, but often misleading, reviews;
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paying social media users to knowingly post inaccurate information about a product or service.
Most important, social media users – from celebrity spokespeople to everyday consumers – who are paid to post information about a product or service will now be required to disclose their relationships with companies and could be held personally liable if they don’t. If they think Twitter’s 140 character limit will get them off the hook; they’re wrong. As the Associate Director of the FTC’s advertising division, Richard Cleland, said, “If you can’t make the disclosure, you can’t make the ad.”
Companies must now proactively discover and correct misinformation about their brand or product posted to social media sites. The FTC’s message is clear: its targets aren’t going to be bloggers who break the rules, but the companies who pay them.
Industry insight: Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra on "The State of the Blogosphere"
As the industry-leading blog tracking service Technorati just released its “State of the Blogosphere 2009” report, Technorati CEO Richard Jalichandra sat down with High Stakes™ to discuss the impact that blogs had on business in 2009 – and what we can expect moving forward in 2010 and beyond:
What surprised you most about how the blogosphere has evolved in the last year?
Richard Jalichandra: What struck me most this year was how much the serious bloggers are continuing to raise their game. Three quarters of bloggers said they blogged more this year. They also continue to be the earliest and most prolific users of other social media tools to support their blogs. The percentage of bloggers using Twitter grew from 40% last year to more than 80% this year – and their number one use of Twitter is to promote their blogs.
More bloggers than ever are seeking to monetize their efforts: we saw a 68% increase in the blogs with ad tags over last year. And the lines between blogging and traditional media continue to blur: 40% of bloggers have worked within the traditional media and 27% still do. This is in contrast with 1% of the general population.
Do you believe that companies have come to fully understand the impact that blogs can have? Why or why not?
Richard Jalichandra: Most companies understand that bloggers can have a significant impact on perception of their brand, and on their revenue. When we do see a gap, this is what we see: there are companies who still view bloggers as hobbyists. Today, blogs are professionally run media businesses. They need the same level of attention as traditional media outlets, but a different strategy.
Recently, the Federal Trade Commission instituted new rules that require more disclosure from bloggers who work with brands for product reviews or advocacy. What do you think this will mean to the developing relationship between bloggers and brands?
Richard Jalichandra: It was a very arbitrary decision on the part of the FTC to place a focus on bloggers while completely neglecting other media, particularly print magazines where the most egregious and frequent instances occur. The vast majority of bloggers are already fully disclosing their relationships. The FTC seems to have created more confusion than anything else. It’s too early to tell if there will be a negative impact, such as bloggers becoming reluctant to write reviews.
This year, Domino’s, United Airlines, and Amazon.com all felt the sting of the social media. What should other companies learn from these examples?
Richard Jalichandra: You can add Ralph Lauren to that list. If you missed the story, their lawyers sent a cease and desist letter to a very well known blogger who had poked fun at one of their advertisements, and ended up drawing huge attention to the ad as well as to their response. They bungled the situation further, then finally ended up apologizing.
We tell our clients all the time: don’t wait for a crisis to get started. Companies that have come through crises well have all addressed the issue head on, right away. But it’s more than talking back. First, give up any illusions that you can control the flow of information. Second, social media present an unprecedented opportunity to know what people are saying about you, right now, as well as the opportunity to engage. Are you taking advantage of this? You should be. Third, are you just talking back or are you actually using the information you’ve received to drive change?
Can you share one or two examples of successful corporate engagements in 2009? What was it that made these specific approaches successful?
Richard Jalichandra: I think a great execution to look at is IBM’s Smarter Planet initiative. Instead of trying to force a conversation around IBM, they enabled a conversation around efficiency, infrastructure, healthcare, resources, and how we will collectively use technology to build a better world. They created content, assembled existing content, and distributed the entire conversation across the blogosphere. Technorati built conversation ads that featured rotating categories of blogosphere and IBM content. We also conducted blogger outreach to get more bloggers involved in writing about these important topics.
Besides the state of the blogosphere report, Technorati has been busy redesigning its homepage and implementing an entirely new authority ranking system. What motivated all these changes and what do they mean to the users – bloggers and blog readers – who rely on Technorati?
Richard Jalichandra: These changes add up to one simple thing: Technorati was founded to help people find blog content. The new Technorati does this better than before. We’ve overhauled Technorati Authority to better reflect the topical and fast-changing nature of the blogosphere. For example, we are now looking at who’s linking to you over the past month, rather than the past six months.
We’ve also introduced Topical Authority – making it easy to find the top blogs by content category. The overall site and our blog directory have been revamped, and we’ve added original content articles, giving bloggers a chance to reach a much larger audience than they do on their own blogs.
Blogs and social media
The blogosphere is a resource for understanding and adapting to the realities of the next decade’s digitally-driven commercial environment. As consumers find new ways to research their buying decisions, new challenges and opportunities arise on a daily basis. Those ahead of the social media curve today could find themselves behind the curve tomorrow if they ignore the insights blogs offer.
Here’s a look at four blogs you should be watching:
Mashable
http://www.mashable.com
Mashable is the world’s leading blog covering social networks, with a particular focus on the latest developments and newest tools. This is a must-read for anybody who wants to stay current in the social media space.
http://www.mashable.com
Mashable is the world’s leading blog covering social networks, with a particular focus on the latest developments and newest tools. This is a must-read for anybody who wants to stay current in the social media space.
Social Media Explorer
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com
This blog explores social media from a marketing and public relations standpoint, featuring essential commentary, analysis, case studies, and general social media advice.
http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com
This blog explores social media from a marketing and public relations standpoint, featuring essential commentary, analysis, case studies, and general social media advice.
Social Media Today
http://www.socialmediatoday.com
Designed for business audiences, Social Media Today is a moderated community dedicated to covering the ways in which social media can be leveraged to enhance communications and marketing engagements.
http://www.socialmediatoday.com
Designed for business audiences, Social Media Today is a moderated community dedicated to covering the ways in which social media can be leveraged to enhance communications and marketing engagements.
Soshable
http://www.soshable.com
With new avenues of interactive online communication coming fast and furious, Soshable taps some of the brightest social media experts for practical advice on navigating an ever-changing landscape.
http://www.soshable.com
With new avenues of interactive online communication coming fast and furious, Soshable taps some of the brightest social media experts for practical advice on navigating an ever-changing landscape.
What's Next? The mobile media craze kicks into high gear
The term “apps” denotes the nearly endless number of “applications” that smart phone users can download to make day-to-day life a little easier and more enjoyable. From a marketing and strategic communications perspective, consumers can now access up-to-the-minute information about products and services, find out-of-the-way locations, and read consumer reviews with just a few keystrokes. As buying decisions are increasingly being made on-the-go, a strong presence in this corner of the social media space will be essential in the coming year.
For those companies ready to go to the next level in 2010, here’s a look at two emerging technologies likely to make waves in the coming months:
Location-Based Services (LBS): Services like FourSquare, Loopt, and Gowalla now provide smart phone users with the option of sharing their location with others and finding out where friends are congregating in real time. But unlike many of the location-based mobile applications that have emerged in recent years, these services offer more than just a pinpoint on a map.
FourSquare, Loopt, and Gowalla users can identify others who frequent the same establishments on a regular basis. Each time someone checks in at a location, an alert can be sent to friends via Twitter. These services also encourage users to leave feedback about the establishments they visit. As such, LBS monitoring now represents a powerful customer service tool that enables companies to respond to consumer criticism in real time (just as Twitter monitoring became essential as that platform’s popularity skyrocketed last year). Companies that offer incentives for LBS engagement likewise provide users with ample motivation to share positive experiences that will influence others’ buying decisions.
Augmented Reality (AR): Augmented Reality is the overlaying of real-world objects and locations with information gathered from the Web. Services use the camera and GPS function on smart phones to identify where an individual is and then put information about their surroundings on the phone’s display. For example, if you were visiting New York City and trying to find a Starbucks, you could launch an AR application to locate the closest store. Not only would the service display a street view identifying all the Starbucks in your vicinity, but it might also tell you about other coffee shops nearby and whether they have free Wi-Fi, as well as provide recent customer reviews.
Services like Layar have emerged at the forefront of this market with applications on the iPhone and Android. The selection of what can be “layered” is endless, which underscores the need for companies to monitor the information being shared by consumers online. A bad review on consumer review sites such as Yelp may now appear front and center in AR, whereas that review was less visible to consumers searching for information on their computer.
This month's top posts on Levick's...
With 2009 – the Year of Social Media – having come and gone, Dallas Lawrence takes a look back at the six things every company should be doing online in 2010.
Larry Smith talks with PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Laura Laybourn about PwC’s expanding corporate intelligence services and the FCPA compliance functions that best protect corporations in an era of increased enforcement.
Gene Grabowski looks at what Gilbert Arenas did wrong after he was charged with unlicensed gun possession and what he must do right if he hopes to return to the NBA.
Plaintiff’s attorney Matthew Ferguson talks to Larry Smith about increased liability for developers in the current real estate market.
Michael Konczal examines the EPA’s recent moves on air quality and what it means for companies perceived to be major polluters.
Making Your Point
Making Your Point, a new book by Levick Senior Vice President David Bartlett, examines the fundamental strategic considerations driving effective communication. It defines that key component called “emotional intelligence.” It provides the simple powerful tools to make a point in person, prepare and deliver effective speeches and presentations, get messages across in a media interview, and communicate during crises. Making Your Point is an easy-to-use communications guide for professionals and non-professionals alike. Order your copy today.
Making Your Point, a new book by Levick Senior Vice President David Bartlett, examines the fundamental strategic considerations driving effective communication. It defines that key component called “emotional intelligence.” It provides the simple powerful tools to make a point in person, prepare and deliver effective speeches and presentations, get messages across in a media interview, and communicate during crises. Making Your Point is an easy-to-use communications guide for professionals and non-professionals alike. Order your copy today.
Stop the Presses: The Crisis and Litigation PR Desk Reference – now in its second edition – is a survival manual for corporate leaders, board members, lawyers, and communications specialists. This book provides the dos and don’ts of crisis planning and communications and articulates the essential strategic guidelines for navigating myriad bet-the-company issues. Order your copy today.Future High Stakes™ issues:
Maximizing Social Media's Potential:
Blogs, Facebook, and Twitter are shaping buying decisions like never before. Do you know the rules of social media engagement?
Patents & IP Litigation:
High-profile intellectual property cases threaten to sink stock prices. How can companies protect themselves in the wake of a negative ruling?
High-profile intellectual property cases threaten to sink stock prices. How can companies protect themselves in the wake of a negative ruling?
CEO Departures:
Whether in the midst of crisis or at the end of a long and successful run, CEO departures present critical communications challenges. Do you know how they are best overcome?
More to come:
- Coming to America
- Diversity
- Education
- Executives Behind Bars
- Food
- Global Capital Markets
- Intellectual Property
- Internal Communications
- Internal Investigations
- Monetizing Moments
- Money Laundering/Money Transfers
- New Media/Social Networking
- Product Liability
- Professional Services Crises
- Public Equity
- Whistleblowers
- Reputation Management – Celebrity
- Reputation Management – Corruption
- Reputation Management – SEC Investigations
- Tourism
- Trade
Next month in High Stakes™: THE 2010 PROXY SEASON
As investors, regulators, and the media demand unprecedented transparency and accountability, companies must prove that business as usual is a thing of the past.