Contently Managed - Digital PR, Social Media, Traditional PR Solutions and Strategy » Digital PR

Looking for Friday Social Media and PR Fun ideas

Craig — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 15:22:47 +0000

We’ve had Star Trek, we’ve had Godzilla trashing London after being released by a criminal mastermind and now we’re looking for something for tomorrow.

The rules are the same as always: put some ideas in the comments section below. I’ll pick one at midnight and then either get right into it or sleep on it. Either way, the PR solution gets posted tomorrow so you know it’s not faked.

If no-one has any good ideas, don’t worry there’s some great ideas in the comments section from last week and I can use one of them instead.

And as always, if there’s an idea that stumps me (which is different from an idea not used) there’s a bottle of whisky in it as a well done.

So whatcha got?

Internet (again) forgets that there was a world before it

Craig — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 15:56:27 +0000

This is something that’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine – and there’s an online and digital PR lesson for companies here too – this idea that if you aren’t on the internet (or it isn’t on the internet) then it never happened.

The very nifty The FutureBuzz site runs a lot of good articles and today it had a decent one on the Whiteboard Girl (which seemed so obviously a fake I can’t believe people fell for it.) but where it fell down was in saying that the stunt by had ripped off a photographer called Andrew McDonald.

Now that’s fine. Andrew did it before them, but where’s the proof that the team even knew of what Andrew had done (love the lost camera idea though) or that Andrew feels they ripped him off? It’s far more likely that they got the idea from Bob Dylan. After all, it’s been done enough times since (and for all I know Dylan wasn’t even first).

It’s a danger for many reasons even before we consider the old ‘those who don’t learn their history are doomed to repeat it’ saying. We live in an age where people go ‘give credit where it’s due’ constantly – so be online so people can credit you and others can check you out – but also know your history. If you know your history you know what’s worked in the past, what hasn’t and so on. It also stops you looking like an idiot when you make false claims. Also, perhaps people shouldn’t accuse others of being rip-off merchants without actually checking out if they did rip someone off?

(to be fair, Andrew Singer has responded to me on Future Buzz:

INXS and Bob Dylan used whiteboards to take photos with a digital camera and post them in succession to a blog? In this case The Chive saw the success of Andrew (Andrew’s idea did catch on in the social web) and re-used it. Despite where Andrew may have gotten inspiration for the idea, he was the first as far as I can tell to use it digitally (and in a far more creative way).

I think it’s something that Andrew and I will have to disagree on, though his main point about not getting credit for work done is bang on. Anyway, here’s some videos to pass the time…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Edinburgh shows the way for podcasts and social media in August

Craig — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 06:55:59 +0000

I love Edinburgh as a city. While it doesn’t have the buzz of Glasgow, it is far more relaxed, like a Brussels without the bars. Or diamonds for that matter. But one thing it has plenty of is social media activists and practitioners. It also has a stonking huge festival or two. And now they’ve all come together for the good of Scotland. Or to fight evil. Or something. What it won’t be though is dull…

First up, the far-too-talented Ewan Spence has brought back his popular almost-daily Edinburgh Festival Podcast which, last year, pulled in more than 100,000 downloads and listens, beating The Guardian’s Edinburgh efforts (which were also very good to be fair, but Ewan’s had far more content). He’s already reposted some greatest hits from last year and a preview for this year.

Secondly, Mike Coulter, the gentlemen of Scottish Digital Communications (and a top husband as well it has to be said) has announced the Edinburgh Coffee Morning meetings are going daily. Now I have never made it to a Friday EdCM – and being quite blunt, the odds are against me getting to the daily ones either are slim (the official line is that it’s a hell of a time to travel through to Edinburgh and I have the school run, both of which are true but also many things have been said about me, being a morning person is not one of them) but they always get great write-ups so if you are in Edinburgh, I can’t say enough good things to encourage you to get along.

And while we’re talking about Edinburgh, I can’t suggest Illegal Jacks (disclaimer: client) enough for food and drink – and if you are a blogger or journalist who will write a review, then you can eat free!

Is Social Media that big in the UK? Or is it except for viewers in Scotland?

Craig — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:19:57 +0000

… Except for viewers in Scotland. That old phrase used to strike terror into people watching the TV in seventies and eighties (normally on BBC 1) as you would get a description of a great live football game, film or TV show and they you would hear “except for viewers in Scotland” and you’d get Gaelic or something.

And watching the recent video put online (and below) by Simply Zesty, an Ireland-based online PR and social media firm I’m wondering if all this does is show the digital divide up more than anything. More after the video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Lovely video with some interesting factoids but two things bother me:

Where did the numbers come from? If it’s a survey, how many people/businesses were sampled?
Those figures are heavily skewed towards England. London alone skews the percentages.

There are whole parts of Scotland where you can – theoretically – access the web but even something as 2.0 basic as watching a YouTube video without stutters or pauses is impossible. There are incredibly large parts of the country where something as basic as a 3G or phone signal is equally impossible.

Now in 2009 I organised the Scottish leg of the Digital Britain Unconferences and it was mooted there that in many parts of large cities even like Glasgow, broadband sign-up is only at around 33% (National Statistics show that Scotland in 2009 had the lowest penetration of online access with only 62% of the population able to access the internet).

Which, in turn, can be seen as a partial explanation for why businesses in Scotland have a slight reluctance to engage online – if with basics like a website.

But the next time you see someone going ‘we’re all on the interwebs’ just pause and ask if everyone really is. Equally, ask if everyone needs to be on there.

The point of this post isn’t to be digitally dismissive, it’s a reality check but also to remind the digital advocates that not everyone wants to be all-singing all dancing online. Some do – businesses and individuals – and we should help them, but we should never make others feel pressured into being online.

And similarly, those who go ‘digital marketing is the only way in the future! Billboards and newspapers are dead’ should remember that you should never have your eggs all in one basket if you want to do the maximum good or ROI from your digital work.

Wikileaks story shows strength of digital but also the (weakening) role traditional media still has

Craig — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 09:23:33 +0000

A lot of my American friends see the story as undemocratic, but I think the Wikileaks publishing of 90,000 documents about the war in Afghanistan (background here, TL;DR version of documents here) shows a few things: 1) the power of digital communications to help inform people, 2) the death of traditional media yet also 3) the usefulness traditional media still has?

Thoughts? I suppose I better explain myself first…

The power of digital communications

The fact that we have sites which are (relatively) well-known where people can leave this sort of information is fantastic. It shows that people refuse to be drones and don’t like the public being lied to (that actually ties into the idea of story, but that’s for another post). What you have to hope though is that the site can stay up. For example, there’s no mirror site and trying to access it this morning has been horrific. It’s well and truly slashdotted.

The death of traditional media

Having said how wonderful Wikileaks is, there’s always been a place for people to go with sensitive information. A place where they could hand it over and have their identity protected. It’s a place called newspapers (and to be fair, TV too. But when you think of the big scoops I think print trumps TV – see The Pentagon Papers, Watergate and so on). Therefore it’s a damning indictment that the leaker decided to not go to the traditional press. Was it because of declining influence, lack of trust over protecting sources or because the US press (especially) has been seen to be highly uncritical of the recent wars?

The usefulness traditional media still has

Having said that, Wikileaks wanted this story out to as many places as possible and as many people as possible talking about it. And it knew that the best way of doing that was still to use international press, which it did, calling on The Guardian, the New York Times and Der Spiegel to analyse the documents in advance. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, traditional media still has a lot of life in it – from reaching people who don’t do the web (yes, there’s a lot of those people still) to getting highly-valued links on the web – and even as circulations go down, it’s not going anywhere for at least 20 years.

The impotence of both digital and traditional media

Of course, the leaks are only worthwhile if they bring about change and people get engaged? Will they? I’m sceptical, but I would like to be proven wrong.

What do others think? Is this a win for democracy, traditional press, digital? All of the above or none?

There is also the possibility that this is all a cover for something else…

How bars, pubs, hotels & bartenders can use social media to profit ( #totc related )

Craig — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:07:24 +0000

Richard Paterson, Whyte & Mackay’s whisky Master Blender is over in New Orleans just now for Tales of The Cocktail, which sounds like a great event judging by the Twitter stream. Now one part of it is a talk on Keeping Ahead in an Online World, which is being hosted by Paul Clarke and Lindsey Johnson of Lush Life.

Now Richard’s going along as well and he asked me what pointers – based on my work with BrewDog, Tesco Scotland, Whyte & Mackay, Jura Whisky, Snow Leopard Vodka and other brands in online engagement – I could offer those at TOTC and those who sadly can’t make it.

So in that spirit, pour a drink and here’s some quick tips. Anyone who needs more pointers or has questions should get in touch (details above). There’s also a bottle of 22-year-old Scotch whisky up for grabs for those who read to the end…

Using social media to promote your pub, bar, hotel or staff

The first thing to remember – more than anything else – is to set out what you want from this. Do you want to boost sales, your profile, get a new job? What? Work out what your goal is and go backwards from there. Think of it like a roadtrip – you can’t work out how to get somewhere until you know where you’re going.

The second thing is to know what words describe you best. For example, LA Bartender specialising in whisky, best bar for whisky cocktails and so on. These are your keywords and you should make the best use of them that you can. The more often these words are associated with you online, the higher your ranking on Google will be – and everyone wants on the Google front page.

One other thing to remember: make sure all the local press and specialist press know you are online and where they can find you. Social media is wonderful and online lets you be your own publisher, but the traditional press still has a role to play too.

Something else to consider: laws will change in the rules of engagement, but always be civil to people. Be funny and sarcastic if you want, but always be polite and civil to people. And think of online like a party – who do you like to be with at a party? The person who only talks about them or the person who talks with others about what they do and what they like? Be the second kind of person.

Lastly, Using social media only works if you’re willing to put the effort into it – and more importantly, engage and learn from your customers. You shouldn’t think of this as talking to your customers but instead talking with. It’s the difference – as comedian Billy Connolly puts it – between ‘making love to someone or making love with someone. What sounds more pleasant?’.

BARS/PUBS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

It’s a great time to be a par or a pub. Not only can you engage people locally, but you can also keep an eye out for people coming your way and entice them to visit before they’ve even set foot in your city. Regardless of what you do, always make sure you are using search buttons and the likes of Google to see what people are saying about you – Google Alerts is a great start.

Blogs

First off, have a decent website and incorporate a blog into it. Use the blog for everything – to announce new members of staff, write about what’s selling well, any events that are coming up and so on. If you have a chief bartender you may want to give them a spot of their own on the blog. You can even tie it in to something like Flickr and post pics from the bar. The blog is about promoting your bar/hotel so everything that happens there and is interesting is well worth posting online. Here’s some blog topics off the top of my head – some of which could be ongoing:

Best chat-up lines overheard at the bar
Most attractive male/female
Best dressed customer
Top selling cocktails and beers (if you want to be brave, highlight the worst selling too and see if people rally round the underdogs)
Create a cocktail competitions
Details of any bands or entertainment acts playing – include YouTube videos and so on
New products, new staff and so on
Tying in with local events
Promotions
Talking about staff
How to pour the perfect Guinness (Seriously, that’s a lot art to many people)
How do you pronounce Glenmorangie (that one always starts a pub row)

And remember to link out lots to other blogs and get them to link back to you. The bartending and drinks community is vast online so make the most of it. Also, engage with your local blogging community. Invite them out for a free meal or a drink. Tie into specific groups – mums/moms, dads, groups – and so on. Here’s some tips for dealing with bloggers.

Email

“Hang on a minute, that’s a bit 20th Century,” I hear you say. Email lists are fantastic and still a great way of keeping people loyal to you – especially as you are sending the material to them. You could send them a weekly email with details of any promotions, a cocktail of the week, tasting notes for a spirit and a beer.

Just remember to time it well. At 4.55pm on a Friday, people just want out the door. Similarly, Tuesday 9.30am isn’t a time people associate with drinking. Send the newsletter on a Thursday or pre-Friday lunchtime.

And even though it’s email, keep it as small as possible. Don’t send hundreds of pictures. Remember, more and more people are accessing email via mobile phone and you don’t want to wallop their data charges.

Similarly, email them one-offs for special events but don’t go OTT as that will put people off you.

Twitter

Goes without saying that Twitter can be a great way of interacting with a market. You can either have one Twitter account for the whole place or let everyone have their own – though make sure you have a staff social media usage policy. Don’t use the main Twitter.com though – use Hootsuite or Tweetdeck and have a bunch of search terms – for people in your area, for locals at the bar, for any mentions of the bar or of favoured spirits/beers sold at the bar. Use the likes of Twellow (especially Twellowhood) and WeFollow to find people nearby or that you want associating with.

The great thing about Twitter as well is that if a bar is quiet, your staff can use their time to engage online with people.

And use #followfriday to gain new friends.

Foursquare/Booyah/Gowalla

The Geolocation side of this is starting to take off online and for bars and pubs it’s a great opportunity to get seen again, promote yourself, offer discounts and so on. But also monitor it to see what people say about you. You could equally be cheeky and go to competitor’s bars and badmouth them, but that’s not really in the spirit of things.

Facebook

Facebook is where 500 million people have signed up for – more than 100 million Americans – so you would be daft not to be there. Now it’s one thing to have a good Facebook page – get the vanity URL, use Static FBML for a good landing page. Now, don’t just use it for crossposting material from elsewhere. Again, use it for good and proper engagement with people.

One thing you should also consider are Facebook Ads. They aren’t for everyone but at the same time it can be a way of raising awareness to people in your area.

YouTube

Video can be great for bars. Not only can you put up videos of events or slice of life moments but you can also put up drinks of the staff showing how to make the cocktail of the week. Similarly, put up videos of any acts performing at your bar.

Podcasts (audio and video)

Podcasts are also a great way or engaging people. And you can do them quickly. You could make audio versions of your blog posts as well as putting in a weekly pubcast. Use AudioBoo if you just want to do quick videos.

Events

If you’re putting on events, it’s a great way of building up friends and customers. This blog post tells you how to get the most out of an event with social media.

Creativity

This is what will make you stand out from the crowd. The creativity that goes into your writing and posts will help make you stand out, but also throw stunts from time to time. For example, when the iPhone 4 row over dropped signals started, some people were saying ‘put scotch around the phone to improve the signal’. Now imagine if you said to your audience: “We’ve got a $300 bottle of scotch here for anyone brave enough to come and drop their iPhone into a glass of scotch to see if it improves the signal.”

What if a regular patron is ill? Do a live linkup from the pub via Skype to them at their house – and send them over a crate of beer.

Put the best tweets of the week in your bar window so people can see it.

Have a cocktail competition. People submit cocktail ideas, everyone votes on them via the web and the best one goes on the menu for a month with 10% of the cocktail price going to a charity (that gets charities invested in your pub as well).

Could you do something for the new season of Mad Men? Live screening and cocktails?

Now those sort of things will certainly get people talking, that builds a buzz and gets people coming through the door.

Your customers

These are the most important people in this whole process. If someone tweets that they weren’t happy with service, respond to them, consider offering them something else. Respond to every blog mention, every tweet. Don’t let anyone feel ignored.

But doesn’t this social media stuff cost a fortune?

Nope. All of the above is easily done by your inhouse staff in return for a little time. Failing that, there are companies and people out there who will work to a budget to promote you. And if ever in doubt, ask online “so and so wants to charge me $1000 to run a Twitter account. Is that too much?” And see what people say back. There’s a restaurant in Edinburgh called Illegal Jacks which has done well in Edinburgh purely from engaging the Scottish social media crowd.

And there’s more (bottle of whisky time!)

No doubt I’ll have missed some stuff out. The beauty of this is that the options are infinite, limited only by your imagination and time. In fact, why don’t we use the comments section to see what great stunts and initiative have been done by bars, pubs and bartenders using social media. We’ll keep the comments open for a week but the best answer wins a bottle of Whyte & Mackay 22 year old whisky – tasting notes for which are below, courtesy of a Mister Paterson:

Click here to view the embedded video.

All you really need to start a digital PR, social media campaign

Craig — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:32:04 +0000

Been at a lot of meetings recently where people are worried about the cost of trying to do social media and as I pointed out today, the starting tools are actually very simple, but very powerful… (warning: we’re going into Seth Goodin territory here for those who aren’t fans of the Purple Cow)

All you need is some time, some creativity, a desire to be interesting, informative and helpful and the following:

a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, v, w, x, y, z, , , . , !, @, ?, “, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 0 and SPACE BAR, RETURN, CAPS LOCK, SHIFT (and if you want to be technical about it, the Windows/Command/Apple buttons).

Armed with that lot you can pretty much do anything.

Why the Old Spice Campaign may not be true social media after all

Craig — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:11:24 +0000

I’ve already praised the Old Spice Online Campaign, which has now drawn to an end and I have two niggling thoughts that make me think about it in a different way:

One: was a sales channel opportunity missed by not including a Buy Old Spice Now option as the first comment in each video? I know many will dismiss the idea but it’s still not being OTT and I bet lots of people would have clicked on the link.

Two: if true social media interaction and engagement is an ongoing process, then someone needs to be continuing the chat with the hundreds of thousands of people who are now following the brand on Twitter, YouTube, Facebook and elsewhere. Otherwise it’s been a one-off – a very personalised one-off, but still a one-off – stunt.

We are constantly told that real social media engagement (as well as ongoing sales opportunities and ROI) comes from the ongoing conversation, so it will be interesting to see if anyone does keep the chat going or if the channels will be allowed to die.

Old Spice reminds social media marketing: KISS

Craig — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 11:02:36 +0000

If you’re online and in marketing or social media, the odds are that in the last 24 hours you’ll have seen/heard about the new Old Spice social media campaign. In short, it’s really fantastic but if there’s one thing that sticks out, it’s the fact that it’s really simple in execution: basic monitoring of what people are saying, post creative and funny responses. It’s KISS.

If you haven’t seen the campaign, this Social Media Penguin post is a good intro and this tells how the Old Spice videos are made (and this is a decent read too). Read them or just dive in after the jump. Here’s the basic story with a few links to videos before we come back to the text: Old Spice Man (well his team) found tweets and interesting people online and sent them personalised videos, people spread these about and left comments on YouTube, Twitter and so on. Old Spice Man then sent them personal videos. Including actress Alyssa Milano:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Alyssa then got in on the gag by doing a video back in style – in a towel in her bathroom (after the Old Spice team had sent her flowers) – and she uses it to raise awareness of a charity.

And then we had the inevitable throwback (which is still funny) and also some fans creating an unofficial voicemail site:

Click here to view the embedded video.

And then we had the end – but the second last video is a belter when the daughter of the actor playing Old Spice Man gets in touch

Click here to view the embedded video.

And then, the end:

Click here to view the embedded video.

KISS

Now yes, clearly a lot of planning went into this and there was a team involved – not just for filming but for script writing – but at the end of the day, this was a concerted effort that was phenomenal. As Mashable puts it:

Wieden + Kennedy (full details of the team involved on the blog of Iain Tait) have set the standards all marketing experts will worship and follow in the years to come.

This is the future of marketing.

At the end of the day, here’s all this was (I don’t mean that as a negative but it’s a very simple concept, well executed):

The agencies got together and did it, mostly being left alone by the brand (mostly due to the time hell that would have been trying to get approval on all the scripts)
They started writing and filming
They put them online
They monitored online and adapted to what was being said
More filming and tweeting
Repeat from 3

To me what’s really clever is that this reaches males and females (females are still more likely to buy smelly stuff for men). It offends no one because it is quite funny and even if you don’t like one video, they are short enough that the next one that comes along you will probably like.

What’s the ROI on the Old Spice Campaign?

There’s posts about the stats generated and the buzz. And it will be interesting to see if this translates into sales – especially in the UK where it’s not the US-version of Old Spice that’s available. Also, should Old Spice have included a ‘buy it now’ link in the videos? Part of me thinks yes, but I know a lot of people out there would say that would be a step too far.

One question though: has it really been social media or just a digital stunt?

Lessons for companies and agencies over the Old Spice Campaign

If you hire people, trust them to get on with it. If all these scripts had needed traditional approval, it would have ground to a halt.
React quickly. Old Spice is now the benchmark and there will be more like it in future.
Content is a winner, personalised content is the absolute winner.

You say you don’t believe in story?

Craig — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 09:28:45 +0000

Once upon a time… well, over the last few weeks actually… when meeting with people I’ve done a lot of talking – like many in social media – about story and the power of it (I’d be daft not to, having been a daily journalist for more than a decade and an author of four books) but what’s surprising is the number of people who say they don’t believe in the power of story or this idea that they have a story to tell.

Oh really?

Story plays an important part in everyone’s life – and I don’t mean the stories we watch on TV, in computer games, in books or so on. I mean the other stories that we not only believe in but participate in. You may not have considered it this way, but at the subliminal level, your whole life is a story:

Every time you send a tweet, SMS, Facebook update, talk to your mates down the pub or blog you’re telling the story of what you’ve been doing
You have a job and work (or want to) because you believe in the story of working to get ahead and be a success
You have a partner (or want one) because you involve yourself in the story of companionship, perhaps even taking it as far as believing in the nuclear family
You’re (mostly) a good citizen – and teach others to be so – because you believe in the story of society and looking out for each other
You pay your taxes because you believe in the story of Government and also perhaps the NHS if in the UK
If religious, you believe in the story of your faith

Not only do you believe in each of these stories, you involve yourself in them. Story takes form. At the highest level story changes people and society, but at every point, there’s always a story.

Still not convinced your business has a story? It already does but others are writing the tale for you.