1. What status do social and digital media have in your daily PR work?

Today, social networks are a key tool in the strategy of Lead Image 2.0 for its immediacy and real-time. On the one hand we use Twitter, Facebook and blogs to meet the needs of journalists to generate effective and confident communication. On the other hand we converse to audiences that are of interest to our clients and ourselves.

In these cases it is essential to add platforms such as LinkedIn, Tumbler, and Google+ to those already mentioned. Our agency has clearly understood that it’s no longer sufficient to cover traditional media (newspapers, radio and television) but today, multifunctionality is required and the internet is a major factor. Through our database consisting of 1, 300 journalists, among them: section editors, news managers and editors, we release relevant information about our brands, as well as additional material (photo galleries, videos and audios) – all with the purpose of enriching the work of our contacts.

With the objective of learning more about the communication between our consumers and participating in the conversation, Lead Image analyzes the information emerging in social networks about our customers, competitors and major topics of interest. Subsequently, Lead Image delivers statistics and data about trends, consumer behaviors and the impacts of PR campaigns to its clients.

We think that social media let us reach out to people more directly, via Twitter and Facebook and an ever-growing array of new platforms. It used to be B2B and B2C but now it’s B2P, with P standing for people. Social media cuts across channels and is all about engaging with individuals, holding conversations not relying on press releases and launches. Thus, social and digital media have a priority in our day-to-day planning with all the customers using social and digital channels.

2. Do you use social networking in your PR and communications work?

It is our everyday work to use social media channels within PR strategies, on the one hand to enhance the communication with editors, influencers and industry experts, and on the other hand to distribute information of our clients via different channels and ideally broad the reach of their campaigns. Through our social media channels, we can detect relevant information, trends and topics in specific markets or conduct research and also help our clients to communicate with their target groups and media partners. We also use social networks internally to communicate and distribute news and strategies.

3. What would you see as most recent innovation in the field of PR?

The way people seek information and communicate is evolving and so the way brands do their PR work is fundamentally changing too. In order to stay competitive in this new age, we need to innovate.

Product and service development is a key ingredient. By harnessing data, automation and devices we are changing our industry, thereby delivering more immediate, relevant and measurable services. Lead Image VIP –online pressroom- and IPI –image perception intelligence- tools, were developed to give an advantage to our customers with innovative service that will help brands achieve their campaign targets.

We believe in usability and that the tools mentioned above will simplify the handling of personal content, audiovisual formats and communication within the social networks. This way, information will be easier to access for our clients and at the same time, it will be easier to address their target groups. Lead Image understands the importance of social networking and participates actively on them. However, we still consider the principle of Public Relations “direct and face-to-face contact” a key factor in our strategies.

*The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.

Schools.com has created an infographic that aims to show how “social media is replacing traditional journalism as a news source.” The research depicted in the infographic shows that 59.5% of people get their news from TV, 28.8% from newspapers, 27.8% from social media and 18.8% from radio. Of the 27.8% using social media as their news source, 59.5% use Facebook, 19.9% use Twitter, 12.7% use YouTube and 11.6% use Google+.

In a close third place, social media is quickly climbing the ranks to be society’s preferred source of news. This aligns with research from TEKGROUP’s 2011 Social Media News Survey report, which found that an overwhelming 84% frequently or exclusively use social media tools to follow or monitor news and information. This may partly be due to the speed at which social media is able to disseminate news to the masses. In fact, many significant news stories have broken on social media before television stations or print newspapers picked them up. Stories including the Hudson River plane crash, royal wedding announcement, and death of Osama bin Laden all broke on Twitter.

So what does this mean for traditional journalism? While its top rank may be hanging in the balance, there are still many advantages that are keeping it alive. Although social media may only have a few characters to relay pertinent news, traditional stories have the ability to provide all the facts in one place while exploring multiple angles without being hampered by forced brevity. What’s more, news coming from traditional journalism comes from reliable sources with an element of credibility that is often missing from the average social media user who often, although unknowingly, may publish hear-say or rumors. In fact, Schools.com shows that nearly 50% of people have heard breaking news on social media that turned out to be false!

So, what do you think, is social media killing the traditional news industry or will there always be a place for TV broadcasts and the printed word?

This post was first published by Meredith L. Eaton on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.

1. What status do social and digital media have in your daily PR work?

In Belgium, social media is currently only used marginally in the lifestyle, transport, and tourism industries as well as in the B2B press relations.  Facebook is used by some of our clients in the lifestyle and tourism sectors. But we are not actively involved in these social media activities. We are represented on Facebook and Twitter but more as a way of receiving news, than to disseminate news for our clients. Except for the launch of some new products with buzz effects and YouTube films, the Belgian PR world is not yet actively using the social media to communicate.

Digital media, on the contrary, are used every day and have already taken over a big part of the market. Specialized online media for topics such as wine, tourism, medical, transport, etc., are already outnumbering the print media. Our activities integrate this new trend. We are also posting more pictures, YouTube films etc. in order to be able to respond more efficiently to the format of these new digital media. Their flexibility and speed is also a very positive aspect for our activities. Clients can get first clippings a few minutes after sending out a press release!

2. Do you use social networking in your PR and communications work?

Social networking is useful to stay in contact with clients and influencers. It’s also used by us as a good information source about prospects or stakeholders.

3. What would you see as most recent innovation in the field of PR?

Locally the importance of video (YouTube format) has gained importance within the last 12 months. We are following this trend but the technical aspects (costs, quality etc.) still need to be better controlled. It is more and more required to direct our activities to the Benelux market and not only to Belgium. International clients are looking for agencies able to cover the whole region. PR Consult’s strategy is to answer these demands, directly with our own consultants, or depending of the specific requirements, with adhoc partnership with Dutch colleagues. We have many contacts in the Netherlands and are able to provide the most appropriate partner.

*The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.

Unlike traditional social media efforts (it’s odd to think that there are now “traditional” social media efforts), Live for Now is not hosted on other networks, such as Facebook or Twitter.  It is instead Pepsi’s own, self-developed and independent platform.

Live for Now will essentially be a pop culture news aggregator, tracking the hottest topics from around the web and presenting them in a colorful and lively format. The news content hosted on the site can be shared with friends via Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Pepsi will host “challenges” from celebrities in which they ask their fans to complete a task, and the beverage company has also partnered with a daily deals site to offer discounted concert tickets.

If this sounds like an interesting little side project to further engage consumers on social media, think again. The “result of intense consumer research carried out across a variety of markets over the past nine months,” as AdAge puts it, will be the centerpiece of Pepsi’s first ever global campaign. Live for Now will become Pepsi’s homepage, and will launch on Wednesday by “taking over” Yahoo.com as well.

Pepsi has stated that the reason for Live for Now is because the brand has always done well when it has been able to successfully connect itself to pop culture, but “there have been times in the last decade where we haven’t been in the right place in entertainment around the world, haven’t been at the forefront,” said Simon Lowden, CMO of PepsiCo. It is not unfair to assume that, with Live for Now, Pepsi wishes to become one of the top pop culture news aggregators on the web.

It will certainly be interesting to see how Live for Now plays out. Will consumers be OK with getting their news directly from a brand? Is the departure from normal online marketing, including replacing your homepage with a content site and investing heavily in celebrity integration, worth the ROI?

Many have theorized that the future of marketing is content.  With Live for Now, Pepsi has bought in, and the results, whatever they may be, will serve as a learning point for all brands to follow.

What do you think? Will Live for Now be a successful venture for Pepsi?

Image via TechCrunch

This post was first published by Jason Fidler on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.

1. What status do social and digital media have in your daily PR work?

In Malaysia, more companies are increasingly integrating social and digital media into their marketing efforts especially in these industries:

*fast-moving consumer goods

*food & beverage

*tourism & hospitality

*fashion & beauty

*entertainment & lifestyle

While some companies are savvier than others in these new media aspects, social and digital media would only be effective if the company’s idea, product or service is truly compelling for it to draw the selected target audience’s attention and participation.

2. Do you use social networking in your PR and communications work?

Yes, we use social networking to conduct market intelligence, gain feedback from selected target groups, monitor public opinion, keep up with industry news and government policies that affect our clients, build up a database of customers who are interested to know more about our clients’ products/services and relevant activities, respond to general queries or complaints, etc.

It all hinges on what objectives our clients want to achieve from their PR/marcomm initiatives using social networking.

3. What would you see as most recent innovation in the field of PR?

Social media have certainly revolutionized PR as they have paved the way for greater interaction between two separate parties; whether it’s government to government, government and their citizens, business to business or business to consumers/target markets and vice versa. Now everyone has a ‘voice’ and collectively, the volume can reach such a fervent pitch that it becomes a force to be reckoned with. Every response, reaction and opinion then becomes tangible, measureable data that can be used for different purposes: to determine the status of one’s performance or market presence, to formulate future policies and action plans, etc.

*The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.

This may be a natural part of our evolution, but don’t tell Skype that. The company is in the midst of a major campaign called It’s Time for Skype, where they bash platforms like Facebook and Twitter as being impersonal. Skype instead calls people to communicate via their system – touting the tagline “welcome back to humanity”.

Most recently, they added a new app to their offerings as part of this campaign. Instead of the typical emoticons we’re all used to, Skype is introducing an app called “Humoticons”, that allow users to upload images of their various facial expressions for use in chat. In the corporate blog, Skype explains that users can post these images in the Humoticon gallery or share them on Facebook.

While this is a novel idea, Mashable reporter Sonia Paul notes that there’s immense irony in this and in the campaign as a whole. She states that “not only does Skype have a video call integration feature on Facebook, but the entire Humoticons campaign is housed on a Facebook page.” Additionally, it uses both Twitter and Facebook for promotional purposes, and even has a specific hashtag… #timeforskype.

The other irony I see in this is that, if we truly want to bring humanity back to our communications, why can’t we just talk in-person? How about logging off of Skype and heading to dinner with your mom, or a bike ride with a friend?

What do you think of Skype’s campaign?

This post was first published by Joanna DiTrapano on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.

1. What status do social and digital media have in your daily PR work?

Millions of Egyptians embraced social networking during and after Egypt’s revolution in 2011, and companies, organizations and institutions are looking to reach out to these users, many of whom are young, affluent and have many followers, and increase their brand/message awareness. This is particularly true since the nation’s business climate has not yet recovered in the wake of the revolution. However, Egypt’s many business fundamentals are still strong, and firms that are committed to paving their own success are turning to public relations professionals like us that have a keen understanding of how important social and digital media are now and in the future.

MEAComS started its Facebook page on July 1, 2010 to interact with our fans and update current and prospective clients on the agency’s activities. MEAComS aims to lead by example, continue to learn and apply the latest global tools and trends. Staff members try their best to update the page and interact with users daily on a variety of diverse topics.

We also promote our clients businesses and use social media to check out their competitors, while analyzing online and offline activities as a fully integrated communications specialist.

2. Do you use social networking in your PR and communications work?

Our Facebook page serves as a way to reach out to clients and potential business partners, but it also gives our agency a way to connect with users visually. We make sure to take photos of our events as well as the people we work with and meet along the way, giving users, who view our page, a glimpse of our activities and who we are as people. Adding a human element to any campaign or message gives something for consumers to relate to and understand on an emotional level. That is what we want to achieve.

Also, by being a part of Twitter and Facebook, we are immersed in the pulse of Egypt and can find out what are the key trends and issues affecting the masses. We can also directly participate in those discussions and receive immediate feedback on our work.

We also post news in our blog on the website and issue a quarterly newsletter with a detailed summery of our activities.

3. What would you see as most recent innovation in the field of PR?

The newest trend we have noticed in terms of communication is the prominent use of Twitter and Facebook to promote presidential campaigns and civil society. We see that Egyptians are active in campaigning for reform, the parliament elections and now presidential campaigns. Candidates are eager to use creative public relations to create a positive image. They are also using online media monitoring tools to respond quickly to negative posts on Twitter and Facebook.

The use of social media is important for leading newspapers and magazines, all of which have Facebook, Twitter and other social media site. Nearly every TV channel has an online presence as well. We can see programs online, which makes it easy for us to follow shows and updates.

*The series is based on phone or face-to-face interviews and written input, therefore please excuse language mistakes which might reflect foreign language influences.

1. Expensify - When traveling to trade shows, more often than not, there’s a tedious expense report waiting for you upon your return. Keeping track of paper receipts amidst business cards and USB sticks is not an easy task, let alone remembering all your cash tips or personal charges. Expensify is a handy app that acts as a mobile receipt scanner, which can also be used to log cash receipts. What’s more, both of these operations tie directly into the full online service and it’s completely free for individuals (and very cheap for businesses).

2. Business Card Reader – The stack of business cards accumulated after a trade show often seems like it’s a mile high, especially if you are faced with the task of entering each contact manually into your database. But, with the business card reader app, you can dispose of paper business cards on the spot and simply snap a picture using the text recognition software to load the contact instantly into your phone. Such apps are esentially modernizing business cards for the 21st century and making networking one step simpler.

3. Free Wi-Fi Finder – It’s great when trade shows provide a Wi-Fi network for the event, but, usually, the network gets quickly overloaded and either kicks you offline or takes forever to connect. Sometimes, it’s necessary to just find a quiet place with Internet connectivity to catch up on email or check in on life back at the office. That’s why the Free Wi-Fi Finder app is such a great tool for trade shows, or travel in general.

These are three apps that I certainly won’t be leaving home without the next time I travel to a trade show. Have you found other apps useful for trade shows or business travel? I know apps like Bump, Ustream and Call a Taxi can also be extremely helpfup, but what else would you add to the list?

This post was first published by Meredith L. Eaton on March Communications’ blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.

1. What status do social and digital media have in your daily PR work?

Our activities in social and digital media have been constantly growing for the past few years, which have lead Point Virgule to create its own dedicated digital department.

Our digital services focus mainly on ePR, i.e. the relations with bloggers, and the Community Management on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. We also work with partners to provide a wide range of additional digital services for websites, blogs, e-mailing, videos…

We support our clients with an appropriate mix of traditional PR and social media communications, which of course can differentiate in regard to their activity frame and target market. For example, despite the request of some, we do not advise ePR for strictly B2B businesses such as IT companies for the Franch market, as there are not so many blogs covering these fields. In that case we recommend a traditional PR approach. In contrast for B2C brands like cosmetic or for clients concerned by ecological issues, we can create a great synergy between journalists, bloggers, and social communities (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…).

What is interesting in the e-PR approach, is that we are addressing bloggers which are not working in communication. They dedicate an average of about 3 hours per week to their blog, and cannot be bothered with inappropriate information. We have to create a more personalized speech and favour their engagement towards our clients.

2. Do you use social networking in your PR and communications work?

All of our consultants are on networks like LinkedIn (and Viadeo, its French equivalent) and social networks like Facebook, with a professional use of course! Most of them also have a Twitter account with which we can both broadcast and amplify our topics, but also link and get in touch with journalists and bloggers. Amongst the latest, there are industry experts, editors, influencers, and following them on Twitter can give us ideas on their interests and can be a very efficient way for informal contacts.

We will soon release our own Facebook page with several goals: communicate on our know-how, focus on certain innovating operations, relay interesting news and initiatives in the digital world, and of course create a dialogue with our clients, prospects and our main contacts: the journalists.

3. What would you see as most recent innovation in the field of PR?

We think that brand content will be the next big challenge. More and more brands have their own corporate media or communication channels and display their own contents, especially online on Facebook, blogs, even specialized websites. The traditional brand > press officer > journalist relation is put upside down and often consumers don’t even see the difference.

Our profession will have to evolve to support our clients in these new content strategies that come in addition to the traditional PR. PR agencies have to develop wider skills that embrace content strategy and production, not only texts but videos, games… and most of those new actions will take place online.

This allows us to create taylor-made contents to focus on a more engaged audience for our B2B and B2C clients. It also improves their recognition with much more qualified target groups. In fact, incorporate the digital media in a communication strategy is answering the marketing goals of our clients, but also improving their business objectives.

The irruption of the digital world is an opportunity to bring new ideas and innovation. The boundaries between professional media / personal media / brand media will become thinner. In order to serve our clients we are constantly working on new approaches, like using content recommendation platforms, creating think-tanks with bloggers, involving opinion leaders on Facebook…

Today’s news that Facebook is buying Instagram for $1 Billion in cash and stock left me somewhat baffled… and with a growing sense of deja vu.

What’s perhaps most interesting is that there has been a lot of factual reporting of the Instagram acquisition news, in terms of how Zuckerberg posted it to his timeline and what he had to say about Facebook’s plans, but there has been very little analysis of the deal in terms of whether they are paying the right price.

My question is… will this go down in history as the moment the VC’s and tech speculators took it one step too far?  Perhaps.

Instagram no doubt has enjoyed phenomenal growth, ending 2011 with 15 Million users and already doubling that to 30 Million so far in 2012, with users uploading around five Million photos per day.

How Facebook’s acquisition affects user loyalty and how they will improve or otherwise the Instagram experience remains to be seen, but speculation is just getting started.

And, if you think about some of the facts surrounding it and other social media starlets, there’s an awful lot of ‘iffiness’ coming into play.

Instagram was about to raise another round of funding at $500 Million (CORRECTION:  Instagram had just raised $50 Million valuing the company at $500 Million, hours before the acquisition that instagramly doubled its value…?). Facebook is being valued for its upcoming IPO at around $50 Billion.  Most of the $1 Billion Instagram deal was for stock based on this IPO valuation.  Over the past two months, social media stock has become increasingly volatile.  GroupOn and Zynga stock has suffered the most, the former for some slightly dubious accounting practices. All of the valuations are based on future potential earnings, massive subscriber bases, whether active or not, and in many ways, the valuations are linked to each other in a cascade effect built around Facebook.

Now, here’s a comparison of valuations around companies from the 1999 bubble and now…

This chart is from an article on Digital Trends a year ago speculating about social media overvaluation, and is based on 2011 numbers.  And lots has changed since then already.

Based on VC-fueled speculation, and there are a few usual suspects here, and the notion that as long as Facebook gets paid everyone else can also get paid, there are five companies that are speculatively worth more than the largest 24 IPOs of 1999.  Note, that includes Groupon which has of course started to unravel somewhat with its first post-IPO financial report that announces a revision to 4th quarter earnings and admits material weaknesses in internal financial controls. Note also that none of these five companies actually makes or sells anything… well apart from Zynga which makes games and sells in-game purchases which will hold the promise of generating substantial income.  The other business models are based on a critical mass of users and then unproven potential advertising revenues.

Who knows how and where exactly this will end up, but sooner or later some reason has to dawn and for valuations to bear some semblance of reality in terms of a business’ potential to generate solid and tangible revenue.

This post was first published by Martin Jones on March Communications blog, PR Nonsense, and may be viewed here.