Bringing the digital world in-line saves time

09 August 2009

By Darren Burns, managing director, Weber Shandwick Shanghai and Guangzhou

Only 38% of Asian executives say their company's top officers pay a lot of attention to what’s being said about them online, according to a recent Weber Shandwick survey. Yet, according to advance reports from an upcoming Weber Shandwick/Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) survey - due for release soon - 100% of them say they use the internet to judge a company’s reputation, products and services.

There seems to be a serious gap between the way executives think about their own company and how they form opinions on competitors -whatever the reason for this disconnect, it’s clear that online media (in all its forms) is a major source of influence on reputation. And it will only grow in importance.

This is a call to action that communicators must seize to prove their worth in a rapidly morphing environment. To date, we mostly haven’t stepped up to the plate.

Everyone's talking about digital media, online news groups, BBS, etc., but still many companies are taking little action to manage actively - never mind passively - their reputation in the age of 24-hour news.

Many large organisations in Asia are not even tracking online conversations or "buzz" about their brands, products or services. It’s time we started to be serious about tracking our reputations online - especially in an area with the world’s largest online population and some would argue, most rigorous blogosphere (China, especially). To ignore even this most basic of online engagements seems tantamount to negligence.

While preparing for this article I talked to a lot of clients, agency types and other observers to uncover best practice. Those companies with better reputations had simply taken the time to commit to ONGOING communications with key online stakeholders as an integrated part of their overall communications strategy. In other words, bringing digital inline, versus the offline and online approach that is often the case today.

Here are some tips:

• "We don't actively manage our reputation online." Many companies only react when an issue or crisis hits. As agencies,we need to insist (as much as we can) that ongoing online reputation management is key - not a "nice to have". We can’t stop online issues, but we can manage them when it's part of our corporate communications DNA. As best practice, GM in China hired a social media manager in 2007 to actively improve its reputation online - and it's working!
• Monitoring online media in a systematic fashion - Not just the online version of newspapers - we need to include portals, news sites, and influential blogs and BBS. A high percentage of issues and crises now come from online sources and bounce into the "mainstream media." Do you have a tracking tool for online conversations?
• Creating your voice so you can respond in times of trouble - drive BBS, review sites to your own blog to answer allegations and issues. Do you have a dynamic web presence?
• Build a body of news and link it to your site - Utilise the content you create including news releases, articles, etc. This will ensure that more positive news will turn up in searches, therefore building enhancing your reputation. Search is where your reputation is stored for ever.
• "Know thy system" - Do you have contacts at top online news portals? Do you know influential bloggers that could have an effect on your reputation? Do you know that slander and other erroneous news will often be taken off a site if you just contact the administrator?
• Engage bloggers to seek feedback - Depending on your sector, engage online influencers when creating content, or ask them to demo a new product or service before it’s "officially" launched. Don’t underestimate positive word of mouth. Many anti co-X bloggers have been turned neutral or positive after simple engagement.
• Search Engine Optimization is key - Conduct o a key word search for your company and/or product and note how many "non-official" sites appear. Somebody said that search engines are the new media. It certainly is a reputation deal breaker - or maker.
• Convince your leadership - The upcoming Weber Shandwick/EIU study will help. It's not "OK" to opt out of online media. We can’t accept the “we don’t have budget” excuse. If anything, re-deploy budgets to meet the new reality.

How Inline Communications Won it for Obama

09 August 2009

Weber Shandwick European CEO, Colin Byrne discusses how Barack Obama's strategic use of digital and 'inline' communications played a central role in his historic campaign victory, highlighting valuable lessons that the PR industry must take on board in an attempt to harness the power of digital advocacy.

It is undeniable that we live in an ‘online’ era- where the world of digital has infiltrated almost every aspect of our being and is beginning to dictate the way we live our day-to-day lives. Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign details exactly that, and highlights how an effective use of inline communications and digital strategy can transfer the online advocates of today, into real-time votes, influential enough to bring revolutionary and well-needed change to the world’s most powerful nation. As Guardian’s blog editor, Kevin Anderson quite rightly sated, this is ‘the first election the internet won’.

As Weber Shandwick’s own, Chief Digital Creative Officer, James Warren has also noted in a recent article, Obama’s digital strategy and the seamless convergence of online and offline communications highlight’s an important lesson that the public relations industry is beginning to learn. Online advocacy has revolutionised the communications campaigns of the modern world and should make everyone sit up and take note as it affects not only the politically inquisitive amongst us, but also the seemingly apathetic individuals.

Here is a brief look at what they did and how they did it:

They created a campaign brought to you by “you”:
Obama’s campaign focused heavily on the personal touch, making its theme all about “you” and not “I”. As a direct result of this empowering message over 3 million people were compelled to make personal donations to ‘team Obama’, many of whom gave less than $100. This powerful personalisation mobilised the masses, creating active advocates who were willing to help deliver the message and get out the vote. John McCain, who claimed not to use the ‘net’, subsequently lost a large majority of the under 30 vote.
 
As we all know, when it comes to an electoral campaign, millions is spent on developing what is considered to be a powerful brand image. Take the Tories for example, and their ‘interesting’ new oak tree logo or Labour’s easily recognisable rose emblem. Obama on the other hand, allowed his supporters to customise his logo in order to make it personal to their individual understanding of his message and ideologies. The most prominent example of this was the Artists for Obama, a collective of designers who put their stamp on the Obama brand through original t-shirt and poster design. The ability of team Obama to loosen the reigns and lose control allowed them to not only gain an insight into the creative minds of the nation, but also gain those well needed votes in the polls.

Met people where they were:
Many would claim that social networking sites have no real place in the political arena and, regardless of their mass audiences appeal (notably a young audience); those numbers will never be transferred into votes. Obama, however, proved the skeptics wrong entirely. By setting up an online presence on both large social networks – such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube, but also niche networks such as LinkedIn, BlackPlanet, GLEE, Eons and MiGente – he expanded his potential audience and expanded his reach to communities across a wider social landscape. Again, this is a powerful medium that politicians and communication campaigns have yet to be effectively on such an epic scale.

Listened as much as they talked with social media:
As we all know, there is a tendency for politicians to prefer the sound of their own voices more than those of their constituents and supporters, but the key to Obama’s success was that he used social media not just to talk to supporters, but to talk with them. As a result some supporters with good ideas and suggestions even made the transition from social media supporter to paid staff.

With over 2 million Facebook supporters alone, they had no choice but to listen to the community if they were to maintain this support and attempt to transfer it into results in the voting polls. It also made it substantially easier to ask for help when they needed it most.

Fought myths and rumors head on:
If there was one piece of advice that all politicians and PR practitioners should use as their personal mantra it would be ‘learn from other peoples mistakes’, and that’s exactly what team Obama did.  Not wanting to see a repeat of the 2004 John Kerry “swift boat” controversy, they knew that misinformation must be responded to quickly and forcefully before it escalated and spiraled out of control. By utilizing fact checking microsites such as www.fightthesmears.com fact and www.healthplanfacts.org to detail policy specifics, electorates were able to check their facts and team Obama were able to set the record straight, ensuring that there was always an equal dose of accurate information to cancel out the negative content. They also used search advertising as a rapid response tactic by buying up negative phrases such as “Barack Obama birth certificate” or “Barack Obama is a Muslim,” which clicked through to a page that debunked the myth and gave details on his Christian faith.

Leveraged the power of video:
We can all only imagine just how costly a nationwide electoral campaign can be in a small country such as the UK (Labour were said to have spent in excess of £15.2 million on the 2005 election campaign), so just imagine the inconceivable amount spent in a super-states such as the US,  particularly where advertising is concerned. This is where the online video sharing facility, YouTube came to play a substantial role, providing Barack Obama with over 14,548,809 hours of free advertising; the equivalent of $46 million.

Not only were millions users tuning in to watch ‘The Obama song’ but also viewing footage of live events, creating mini documentaries and circulating campaign ads that never aired on American television. Essentially, these served as rapid response messaging ads for online and TV news consumption.

Built a mobile campaign for use on the ground:
As we all know, picking up your phone to hear an automated, robot-like voice, spouting out a generic, lackluster message, has never met with the warmest of responses, therefore the utility of mobile messaging was hailed as the next big thing in personalising campaign messages and targeting individual households. Team Obama managed to compile a mobile phone database of over 3 million phone numbers which acted as valuable tool in the swing states, and can continue to be a useful communication tactic for the new Administration.

If you couldn’t before see how the public relations industry could learn a lesson or two from effective and strategic political campaigning, I’m sure you now can! Although these strategies will continue to evolve as the digital landscape change, many of these tactics can easily be applied to the communications efforts that we, in the industry undertake on a daily basis. The importance of digital reputation and the power of the online community is one that is often underestimated and can result in a loss of communication with key audiences and influencer groups.  This is something that all PR practitioners should never forget; as an industry based so distinctly on how best to target specific audience groups in exciting and innovative ways would be committing social suicide if it were ignore the success stories such as Obama’s. If we are to continue to expand on the recent successes of the Public Relations industry and to build on its solid reputation, we must ensure that we continue to create and influence advocates in every imaginable way and through every conceivable medium.

The ability to tap into this source and create a faultless ‘inline’ convergence can be the difference between a major campaign loss and an epic historical victory. That is why echoes of Obama’s message of ‘change we need’ and!’ yes we can!’ will resonate in the minds of the masses for years to come and why McCain’s is likely slowly fade into silent insignificance.

Marketers will need careful planning for Expo 2010

09 August 2009

By Darren Burns, managing director, Shanghai and Guangzhou

In 2010, Shanghai will host the largest human gathering ever, with some 70 million visitors expected over six months. Nowhere on Earth will we find an exhibition where so much direct interaction is possible. This has massive implications for marketers.

But to take advantage of Expo 2010, exhibitors (usually countries, cities and sponsors), are going to have to get a lot smarter—when you are one of hundreds of exhibitors in a space the size of 500 football fields, it will be easy to get lost in the crowd.

To stand out, exhibitors will need to engage their targets in the lead up to and during the whole six months of Expo, not in a few weeks before. Past Expos tell us that over 50% of attendees have decided well in advance which pavilions they will visit. An effective communications campaign will need to tap beyond the ordinary; conduits like the 'unofficial' advocate—individuals or opinion leaders—will need to be rallied and integrated into your expo plan. The use of bloggers and other social media will be key in creating buzz and driving traffic to your space.

Engaging influential advocates in government, academia and society is crucial for third-party endorsement. Are these influentials part of your plan? Are they on your Expo planning board? Do you even have a board? Experiential marketing onsite will be crucial in perpetuating the buzz created in the lead up. How do you plan events for six months?

The Olympics are a great event for China. But Expo is a great event for foreigners to build their awareness in China while showcasing China's great strides of the past few decades. Start thinking about it if you haven't already.

Overcoming new media challenges - How to engage in online conversations while avoiding the pitfalls

09 August 2009

By Scott Sykes, VP & director, Asia Pacific, ScreenGrab™ new media practice

I, like many people my age, am a digital migrant, not a digital native. For many of the younger generation the online world is engrained in their DNA. As marketing and PR practitioners, engaging in on online world can feel uncomfortable, because the ground rules are different than many of the tactics we have been using for many years.

Brave New World
What do we do online? Don't we lose control of the message? How do we know who reads this stuff online? Why does it spread so fast? Why can anyone have an opinion and make it known to the rest of the online community? What about the well-known flogging PR disasters large corporations have experienced recently? What about the companies that were outed for unfairly modifying their Wikipedia entries?

The reality is that consumers inherently have more trust in opinions from like-minded consumers, than they do in information on branded Web sites or in traditional media. And that's exactly what is happening online. The capabilities of the Web today make it easy for anyone to have an opinion and make it known to everyone—like it or not, people are talking about your company.

In China where I live, for example, today there are more than 160 million people online. And they are spending more and more time online, an average of about 18 hours per week. There are huge numbers of people creating and consuming information via popular new media bulletin board system (BBS) portals, search engines and video sharing sites Sina, Sohu, Baidu, Tom and Tudou.

Naked Conversations
In preparation for a speech I gave recently in Hong Kong about new media, I contacted Shel Israel, coauthor of Naked Conversations, the now-famous book about social media. I asked Shel for his perspectives, about what had changed since the book was published about two years ago, his thoughts are posted on his blog. This book is amazing because it is so on point—Israel and Scoble called the revolution ahead of time. This book is a must read, in addition to Cluetrain Manifesto, and some other newer books including Infotopia and Wikinomics.

Israel's three top perspectives about the changes since the book was published are:

• Blogs were the thing then, but so many interesting and powerful social media tools have blossomed since;
• Companies need to embrace social media or perish, or at the very least they will lose their young customers to a company that understands the importance of real conversations with customers; and
• The future will again explode with new social media tools that we can't even dream of now, just like what has happened in the past two years.

That's not to say that the days of traditional PR and advertising are over, far from it, these types of media are still extremely useful for helping marketing and PR practitioners reach target audiences that care about their companies, products and services. But at the same time, if companies do not include new media elements in their broader plans, at the least they are missing an opportunity to engage all of the people that consume information and entertainment online, and at the worst, they are allowing competitors that are executing campaigns online to steal their business.

Tips for Overcoming New Media Challenges
So given this new media world we now live in, what to do we do about it as marketing and PR practitioners, and how do we avoid the pitfalls?

Consumers are creating media content themselves. Traditional PR experts who are used to dealing with journalists are now faced with the challenge of how to reach those individual "reporters" and ensure your messages are delivered to the right targeted audiences. Here are some helpful tips:

• Identify the most influential new media in your industry through research
• Respect them and talk with them in a polite manner, be aware of their importance
• Communicate with them via e-tools: MSN, QQ, email, but do not be afraid to call them directly or even meet them face to face if possible
• Provide multimedia materials as much as possible including video and audio
• Invite them to attend the offline events including press conferences, product launches or other events
• For consumers, communicate directly via ecommunications including news letters, corporate blogs, BBS interaction and search engine listings
• Be transparent and ethical, be upfront about who you are and what you are doing, the online community can quickly spot a fake and this could seriously damage your reputation and business

New media can spread good and bad, correct and incorrect information to the world very quickly. How can we ensure we use the most effective, timely and correct response to it?

• Listen and learn, build an online media monitoring and alert system, not only for portals, but also for BBS, and blogs, and take appropriate and moderate actions when necessary
• Provide more background information, fact corrections and multimedia materials as soon as possible, since new media has unlimited space and allows instant interaction
• Build your own new media including websites and blogs, and keep it updated, new media reporters visit these frequently to seek latest information, especially when there is a crisis
• Don't hide and hope it will go away, prevent an issue from becoming a crisis
• In China, official media, such as xinhua.net (), people.com.cn (), are still the most effective online channels to deliver official and influential information
• Encourage influential online portals to post reports from the above media

More and more consumers do not read printed media any more. Is it still effective for us to use traditional PR approaches?

• Traditional media outreach is still an important part of any marketing communications campaign
• At the same time you need to respect and engage with new media
• Do not treat new media the same as traditional media. Respect the differences
• Don't be afraid—be brave enough to communicate with the consumers directly
• Use new media tools to communicate with your audiences
• Don't get left behind, take the time to learn about new media and become an expert
• Know that you cannot control new media conversations
• Ultimately, devise dedicated new media programmes that complement your marketing strategy

How do we evaluate the effectiveness of a new media campaign?

• Measure how much traffic (page views and clicks) a campaign drives to the targeted website
• Measure how many online conversions were recorded during the campaign
• Monitor how much media coverage was generated
• Monitor how much and what kind of online buzz is happening
• Evaluate impact on sales performance
• Evaluate effectiveness in building consumer's loyalty to your products and brands

In summary, some of the rules of engagement are different and it is possible for things to go wrong if we don't give the online community the honesty, transparency and respect it deserves, but make no mistake, the online world can be a critically important part of a broader marketing or PR campaign, and we need to pay attention to it.

Corporate responsibility and reputation in times of disaster

By Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross, corporate reputation st, 09 August 2009

In today's global economy, having a strong record of corporate social and environmental responsibility is high on the agenda. The vast majority of CEOs worldwide recognise the importance of building strong and lasting relationships with civil society and understand that society gives them the license to operate and conduct business. In the context of natural disasters and other tragedies, building such relationships through corporate responsibility efforts is at once particularly sensitive, challenging and immensely important.

The influence of corporate responsibility
Companies' reputations are increasingly influenced by responsible societal relations—not just financial performance. A McKinsey & Company study revealed that a large majority of the global business community (84%) believes that high returns to investors should be balanced with contributions to the public at large. Weber Shandwick's own proprietary research, Safeguarding Reputation™ with KRC Research, also found that the vast majority of global business executives (79%) believe that a strong corporate responsibility record hastens reputation recovery post-crisis.

This belief about contributing to the world at large is increasingly translating into corporate practices and priorities. In its 2008 annual survey released in the Financial Times, the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP) reported that large US corporations lifted their charitable giving over the past year by 5.6% despite worsening economic conditions and a slowdown in corporate earnings. In an analysis of global Fortune 100 companies' CEO Letters to Shareholders from 2003 and 2007 conducted by Weber Shandwick's corporate responsibility and sustainability team Planet 2050, mentions of corporate responsibility increased a hefty 18%. Clearly, CEOs in the second half of this decade are embracing corporate responsibility as a critical driver of business strategy and reputation-building.

In addition to its growing prevalence and significance, the nature of corporate responsibility has evolved. It is no longer just limited to writing a check and charitable giving. Company leaders now recognise that corporate responsibility efforts can go beyond just financial contributions to natural disaster victims to include employee volunteer service and in-kind gifts of products and services. Importantly, corporate responsibility should not be a one-time event. Rather, more and more understand that corporate giving should be deeply embedded in a company's overall corporate business strategy and values—how it treats its employees, how it communicates its identity to stakeholders, how it relates to its local communities, how it works within its industry, and how it takes care of the environment.

The complexities of corporate responsibility during major crises
When it comes to helping societies that have suffered any natural disaster or tragedy, a company should have clear and consistent policies, and its values should be embedded in those policies. As natural disasters continue to surface, companies should know who to partner with and how to effectively provide relief efforts on a timely basis.

From what I understand, after the recent and profoundly devastating earthquake in China, many foreign companies were among the first to deliver charity and donate to affected areas. As of early June, the US had donated several billion dollars in earthquake relief money and services to China.

Public perception of corporate responsibility efforts has become a complex issue for companies as the combination of traditional and social media allows for the dissemination of hard facts as well as innuendo, rumor and misinformation.

In the case of China's earthquake and other disasters, one of the challenges facing companies that provide relief to victims is balancing who to tell and how much publicity is too much or too little. Many companies do not want to call public attention to their giving in these difficult situations because they understand that the act of giving is not about themselves but about the people affected. Sometimes news gets out because companies want to let their employees know that they are contributing and not standing still. Oftentimes employees are blogging themselves about their company's good deeds to help those in need. With Hurricane Katrina in the US several years ago, many companies were very quiet about their charitable giving.

Regardless of how much publicity is desired or generated, companies—especially when implementing corporate responsibility initiatives in times of natural disaster or tragedy—increasingly understand that their actions can be misinterpreted online and bloggers and pundits might not have all the facts. It is the job of companies therefore to be alert to what is being said about them and rapidly respond to incorrect information or figure out how to communicate directly with bloggers to correct any misunderstandings. This also applies to media coverage of corporate responsibility efforts in all regions of the world.

As the world has become increasingly global and news spreads instantaneously, companies must consistently choose how much information they want to disclose. The best guide for corporate responsibility decision-making lies with a company's values and heritage.

Beyond online. Get inline

By James Warren, 09 August 2009

James Warren, Weber Shandwick's chief digital creative officer, recently contributed the following piece to PR Week's annual "Digital Essay" supplement.

Is it really twelve months since the last PR Week "Digital Essay" supplement? How time flies! And yet, how much has changed since last we spoke. Last year, on these very pages, I advised the communications function of every organisation to assign dedicated resource to managing the promotion (and indeed protection) of its digital reputation. I wonder how many followed this advice. As anticipated, 2008 has seen the marketing world continue its unceasing adoption of digital tools and techniques. This is only set to increase as we enter 2009, and we PROs are ideally placed to take full advantage-the online environment is fertile ground for creating and amplifying advocacy. But how to profit from this advantage?

I wanted to use this essay to introduce two concepts; ideas upon which we at Weber Shandwick recommend you base your strategic communications planning and execution in 2009 and beyond.

The first idea is "inline." The beauty of inline is its simplicity: inline tells us not to build a standalone offline communications campaign and bolt it on to a distinct online campaign. Rather, inline teaches us to plan, create and execute communications campaigns that make no distinction between the channels employed. Public relations needs to break out of the silos of specialist planning and tactical execution and become truly reflective of how people (the community formerly known as target audience) are influenced. At Weber Shandwick, we do this by ensuring every campaign is optimised for the combination of channels that carry most influence.

As with all things, the devil is in the details. Working with our colleagues at Universal McCann, we create what we call an Inline Profile for each campaign, an integrated influence model that reflects the audience we are trying to reach and the nature of the communications objective. The Inline Profile enables us to identify which combinations of channels (and therefore tactical execution) will be most effective in driving advocacy.

To ensure all campaigns are inline, we have matched the insights gleaned from the afore-mentioned profile with rigorous and thorough training of all staff, plus the embedding of digital experts into each practice/office across the company to give every Weber Shandwick consultant the confidence that only knowledge and experience bring. This ensures that all campaigns are practically inline from conception to implementation.

Of course, inline communications is not only reflective of how the audience is influenced. Inline is a state of mind, a process and a point of view. It's not just about media content-increasingly we are staging experiential events to help drive communications with key influencer groups. And of course it is also based on media needs-ensuring that there is layer upon layer of additional corroborative information/messaging available via internet search and elsewhere, across all communication channels, to ensure no question of perspective goes unseen.

For evidence that inline communications works, look no further than the communicator of the year, President-elect Barack Obama. His election campaign was the living embodiment of inline thinking and execution, from the consistency of his "Change" messaging to the perfectly coordinated integrated communications and engagement activities, whether via the media, online or in the field, the Obama team created a truly inline programme.

The second idea I want to talk about is again straightforward. But if followed to the letter, it will ensure that the design and tactical execution of any digital activity is optimised for success. And it is, very simply: be nice.

While it sounds trite, those businesses that adopt the attributes of niceness when communicating online can only succeed. A few months ago I wrote on my blog: "...if you're generous with your time, are courteous, listen, don't interrupt, help people achieve what they want to achieve and make people smile-in short, if you're nice-then people will want to hang out with you and they'll want to introduce you to their mates."

Any organisation that demonstrates the attributes of niceness online-those that run online campaigns that are inclusive, non-judgmental, even-handed, polite, respectful, courteous, humorous, empowering, supportive, interesting and engaging-will be infinitely better placed to succeed than an organisation that doesn't. After all, it's not not called antisocial media for nothing.

My advice to you all: get inline and be nice. It's just like being back at school.