Does the PR industry need better leadership?

I was interested to see this week a live debate by the two candidates for the CIPR presidency. The debate was being trailed by Philip Sheldrake on Twitter and he was also asking for possible questions for the two. I decided to throw my hat into the ring:

@sheldrake with many thinkng PR is fallng behind, wht should the CIPR do to ensure we lead the way/thinking in digital, social & SEO #ciprtvless than a minute ago via HootSuiteDanny Whatmough
DannyWhatmough


I was pleased to see that my question was posed to the two candidates (about 14 minutes in!). The responses were mixed.

Rob Brown, who has written an excellent book on digital PR, gave a good overview of where we are and argued that, while the past has been all about journalist relations, PR faces a new opportunity and needs to reinvent itself.  He suggested that we have a fantastic opportunity to get to the heart of what PR actually is and begin to engage directly and build relationships with the public.

Sally Sykes was a little more hesitant in her response and although she acknowledged that ‘this was our moment’, she fell back into the reputation management debate which I don’t really think encompasses the true might of what digital and social means for the PR industry. She did however acknowledge the importance of training, which is another positive sign.

Do we need more than the grassroots?

So my question is: does the industry needs better leadership from the top when it comes to online PR and social media and do we have this at the moment?

I’d argue we don’t.

I feel that a lot of the new thinking out there is coming from the grassroots of the industry (maybe this was always the way?). I see wide-ranging, in-depth arguments about the future of PR on Twitter, Linkedin and on blogs (even in PR Week from time to time!), but I don’t see much of this coming from the industry’s professional bodies.

I should add that I’m not a member of the CIPR and so maybe it’s just that I don’t hear some of the noise they are making because it is internalised. And perhaps this is partly why I’m less interested in membership itself.

I want the CIPR to be going out there are really representing the industry and its members by demonstrating the opportunity that PR has, encouraging change and best practice. We know that social media conferences are always oversubscribed; there’s clearly an appetite out there, but I feel that there is confusion and panic about how the industry can adopt these new techniques. The industry needs leadership here.

I know how these organisations work. In the past I used to work for a professional body and I appreciate that in big organisations like this change takes time and it happens slowly. Maybe this is how it should be; maybe we need a more staid, considered approach from the top? But I see some of the great work that bodies like the IAB do in the digital arena and wonder why PR be the same.

Let’s grasp the opportunity and shout about it

At the end of the day, I’m not trying to bash the CIPR or the other PR trade bodies, I’m just passionate about the opportunity the PR industry has and the changes that are necessary for it to truly grasp this potential.

It’s why I decided to enter into the PR industry in the first place instead of some of the other digital marketing disciplines out there. PR has a powerful argument for owning communication in the digital age. I’m just not sure that, as an industry, we are fully realising this potential yet. Hopefully, if elected, Rob or Sally will take this baton and run with it. As Sally said, this is our moment, we need to take it before it is too late.

Paper.li adapts its auto-tweet

My post yesterday about Paper.li generated a fair bit of reaction and so it’s interesting to learn today that the service has decided to withdraw its auto-tweet feature:

“We hear the complaints, and are looking into ways to satisfy paper.li users while reducing the spammy feeling for others. We are thus testing a new type of tweet. It doesn’t just say a daily is out – it shares the top story of the day. We believe such a tweet clearly conveys more interesting info for followers. It is quite close to a retweet really – so something that basically says: “this is relevant for me and the group of people I follow – you should probably read it too”.

Does this solution make it any better? A little, I guess, but I’m still not convinced that auto-tweets are the way forward. Whatever the effect will be, the information overload debate is certainly not over…

Why paper.li and automated curation are doomed to fail

If you’ve been active on Twitter recently, you will have no doubt come across paper.li. You know, those autotweets that crop up from time to time encouraging you to click through and read xx’s ‘Daily’.

Essentially, paper.li takes your most recent tweets and puts them (and the sources they link to) in a supposedly easy to read, newspaper-style format. A daily round-up of the things you find interesting. As the creators themselves say:

“paper.li organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag.A great way to stay on top of all that is shared by the people you follow – even if you are not connected 24/7 !”

Bridging the gap

It certainly sounds an interesting concept. Microblogging has always been a fantastic route for those that didn’t want to commit to a full-blown blog, but still wanted to share interesting links and thoughts with a wider audience. The problem arises that when you start following multiple people on Twitter; the information overload issue comes to the fore. Paper.li attempts to solve this by giving a round-up of what you and your followers have said and shared so far. And, if the number of automated tweets are anything to go by, the service is increasingly popular.

Where’s the value?

But I wonder if anyone is actually consuming this content. The autotweets themselves (I’ve blogged before on my feelings towards autotweets, so no need to dwell too much on the issue here) give very little indication of the content that lies beyond. For this reason, I’m usually inclined to ignore them. I’ve seen others also tweeting about their increasing frustration too.

Another reason is that, when I do click through, there seems to be very little added value. You get a list of links and snippets of articles. One or two might be of interest, a couple you’ve probably already seen (no doubt one or two from Mashable!) and some just won’t be of interest.

There’s no personal insight.

A lazy way to spew out more content?

We know the perceived wisdom that ‘content is king’ online, but it seems to me that content only really works when it is interesting and compelling. I think the ‘information overload’ issue is a really interesting one. We’ve moved away from the forced curation of content that we had in the past with newspaper editors and the traditional offline media dictating what we should and shouldn’t read and think (and I know this is still very powerful even today). But we’ve haven’t quite found a way to replace this and ‘manage’ the massive amounts of data that are bombarded in front of us on a daily basis.

For me there is an opportunity out there for a forward looking startup. Tweetdeck and the like may still be the way forward – I’m increasingly using lists in Hootsuite to segment tweeters – and the content they tweet – that I really want to keep an eye on. This is personalised curation and is surely the way forward. I’m just not sure whether the automated curation that we see with paper.li will ever gain much real traction apart from with those that are too lazy to add value and curate for themselves.

Is customer service via social media really the answer?

My new iPhone 4 arrived on Friday; I was very excited. But alas, my experience in trying to get it activated and in getting my old number ported across has been less than satisfactory. My dealings with Vodafone as a new customer have hardly turned me into a customer advocate (give it time, I guess) and, whilst I won’t bore you with the various trials and tribulations (you can get an idea from my Twitter feed), the various phone calls and tweets I have exchanged with the company over the last couple of days have made me think about the role that social media can play in customer service.

The first thing I will say is that, despite the problems they’ve had in the past, the @vodafoneuk Twitter account is impressive. They answer tweets in good time and are always helpful and friendly. They also work long hours and are available throughout the weekend as well, unlike certain other telecoms companies (yes O2, I’m looking at you!).

But, having said that, when I came to actually trying to get things done, it was only through a call to the contact centre that things were accomplished (albeit slowly and painfully, but that is another post for another time).

So the question is, can customer service via social media ever really be effective in getting problems solved, or will it always just exist more as an advanced information distribution service? When the Twitter rep did want to try and check the status of my activation, I was forced to use good old email to get in touch (an email that received no response I hasten to add), so back to the same old problems.

So how did my experience via social media make me feel as a customer? On the one hand, I was impressed by their speedy responses and genuine desire to help. But once I had got over that surprise, all I really wanted at the end of the day was a resolution to my problem and this they couldn’t help with.

I appreciate this is early days for companies like Vodafone and that many are still feeling their way, but I can’t help but think that brands might be setting themselves up for a fall. After all, Vodafone are able to manage the relatively small number of enquiries they receive through Twitter at present, but what happens when or if numbers start to skyrocket. In terms of the investment, is this a drain on resource for Vodafone or are they seeing reduced call volumes as a result? Customer service is always a big resource hog for businesses and I wonder whether social media helps or hinders that?

The fact is that the ‘customer service through social media’ issues aren’t ones that brands can easily ignore. If you have a presence on social media as a business then your customers or clients will get in touch with you to discuss customer-service-type enquiries whether you like it or not. Is there a way to do this effectively or are we all just delaying the inevitable call?

Danny Whatmough (@dannywhatmough) is a PR consultant at Wildfire PR. He blogs at dannywhatmough.com and the Wildfire Blog

An ode against automated tweets

If there’s one thing that really annoys on Twitter, it’s automated tweets. You know the ones:

  • xx has uploaded a video on YouTube
  • xx has checkedin on Foursquare
  • xx has added xx film to their Lovefilm account

It’s lazy and annoying.

I’m not saying some these updates won’t be of interest to your followers. But all of them, really? If there is something you really want to share, then take an additional 2 minutes, log into Tweetdeck and pen a 140 update that adds some value.

Social media is a highly personal medium and doesn’t suit automation at all.

I blame the brands too. I can see why they think it’s beneficial to get users to spam their followers with updates on their latest film choices, shopping basket selections or YouTube uploads. But more often than not, it ends up frustrating – hardly a good brand association.

Increasingly it happens by accident (again, I blame the brands). You forget that you joined your Twitter/Facebook account to your Lovefilm/YouTube/Foursquare account and it happens automatically, just at the point when you decide to upload 50 videos, and automatically inflict your followers with a stream of useless, context-less drivel.

Sharing branded content is important to companies using social media marketing. But the sharing has to be earned to be effective. Sending automated updates isn’t clever and doesn’t demonstrate an eagerness to share, just forgetfulness. There are no shortcuts.

Testing out Twitter @anywhere

So yesterday, Twitter finally rolled out the full documentation for it’s new developer service Twitter @anywhere.

@anywhere allows developers or publishers to integrate Twitter into their website, providing a more unified experience.

At the centre of @anywhere is the idea of ‘hovercards’ – these are the little boxes that appeared on Twitter.com recently when you ‘hover’ over a username. All it takes is a few lines of javascript code in the header of a webpage – e.g. @dannywhatmough

The other components of @anywhere are the “Connect with Twitter” (a remote sign-in system) and the Tweetbox, which you can embed in your page and let people send tweets directly from the page.

The Guardian also has some good examples of how this can work in practice for publishers.

Is Twitter growing up?

There are rumblings of some pretty big changes coming down the round for our favourite little microblogging service. The last week alone has seen the launch of Twitter for Blackberry, the acquisition of Tweetie (read: Twitter for iPhone) and a sneak peak of a brand new Twitter.com.

This all harks back to the tweet above from Twitter employee Alex Payne last year (since removed from the site), which suggests that advanced web-based features are on their way. Payne’s tweet also suggests moves that will encourage users to use the main website rather than the numerous third party apps that are readily availble.

A new direction?

Does this move away from third party developers signal a change in strategy for Twitter and, if so, what has caused this?

Unlike other social networks (read: Facebook), Twitter has always openly encouraged the use of its API by third party applications, many of which have added more sophisticated functionality and features. It seems that Twitter is now perhaps sensing that keeping users on the main site would be more beneficial and, as far as I can see, this can mean only one thing: monetisation.

Twitter has made a number of big hires in recent weeks on the business side of things and it seems the company is intent on building profits throughout 2010.

Twitter 2.0, whenever it arrives, will surely include new features, is likely to include the business accounts that were promised last year and will possibly reveal in full the monetisation policy that has been imagined and speculated about by commentators ever since the service started.

Is Twitter growing up? Who knows! But what is for certain is that interesting developments are afoot…

Clever AP knows Facebook can become the web’s newspaper

A report today in TechCrunch reveals that the Associated Press is using their Twitter account to push followers to their Facebook page. Rather than linking directly to news pages on their website, they are linking to pages on their Facebook profile which also features the news.

Techcrunch critises this move: “maybe they think that by hosting the content on Facebook, they’re being impartial with the tweets. But again, why not just use their own site?”

But, I think Techcrunch misses the point here. This isn’t about impartiality. It’s about building communities and it’s a smart move. I’ve written recently about the war that is brewing between Facebook and Google as both networks seek to become the social media (and email/messaging) dashboard.

Facebook is moving from the ‘walled garden’ network to the more open, ‘first port of call’ that, in many ways, Google has been to date. And with its user base soaring, it is perfectly poised to capitalise.

Facebook is also envious of the success that Twitter has had by embracing businesses and news outlets and has taken big steps recently to mirror this. It is a move that seems to be working, with recent research showing that Facebook is becoming a major driver to news networks. Outlets like the NYT has realised this and AP seems to be catching up on the action now too.

AP should be able to make the most of this, open digital world that media organisations now find themselves in. They are all about content. Monetising this content is a challenge. But embracing and building communities and new distribution networks is vital. By distributing their content directly to an engaged user base on Facebook (and Twitter), AP has much more control of how it uses this audience.

The traditional ‘website as a destination’ is beginning to decline. Fast forward to the ‘site-less’ web where rather than engaging with audiences on a corporate site, media outlets (and indeed brands) need to go to where the audience is. This is a big challenge for Murdoch et al but is already happening and is happening big-style.

As Steve Rubel says: “The AP is now changing the game for news by not only going where attention spirals are taking us but by also using their content to curate a conversation there and – above all build relationships.”

Monetisation is certainly an issue, but if AP can build up a significant user base on Facebook, the money will come.

As the power of Google News dimishes, can Facebook take over as the web’s news curator? AP seems to think it can…

hat tip to Ben, picture credit

Vodafone: why control is important in social media

Last Friday, Vodafone UK joined the likes of Habitat, Motrin, Walmart and Eurostar in the list of social media fails.

If you missed the story, a slightly inappropriate message appeared on the company’s Twitter account on Friday afternoon:

“VodafoneUK is fed up of dealing with dirty homo’s (sic) and is going after beaver”

The initial reaction from the twittersphere was that the message was the result of someone hacking the account. However, a few minutes later, another tweet confirmed the real cause of the offending article:

“A severe breach of rules by staff in our building, dealing with that internally. We’re very sorry”

The company then set about a mammoth task of apologising individually to all its followers that complained about or mentioned the sorry affair.

It transpires that the tweet in question had been composed and issued by one of the company’s call centre operatives in Stoke. The agent in question has now been suspended.

Here are my random thoughts about this whole incident:

  • The customer service problem – I think the issue of ‘how to deal with customer service on social media is a really interesting one and is yet to be dealt with really effectively by many brands. I’ve actually often thought that Vodafone does a pretty good job on Twitter, they reply quickly and informatively to those that tweet. But to do this, you need a big team and this does pose problems
  • Putting social media in the hands of your employees – this is always going to be a risk for a brand, but it is impossible for big companies to manage this in any other way. Just make sure the right policies are in place
  • Does it really matter? – Yes, a mistake has been made, but it’s not really the end of the world is it? All of the social media analyst crowd (and I include myself here) were delighted by the ‘new case study’ material, but for your average Twitter user, this whole incident is probably of little interest.
  • If things go wrong, deal with it and deal with it quickly – Vodafone rectified the issue pretty well. The responded quickly and very transparently. The constant tweeting of the same message looked a bit odd, but as Mark says, probably worked very well in terms of reaching out directly to those that were concerned enough to complain or mention it.

‘@billgates’? Sounds like a PR stunt to me

The Twittersphere has been awash with users trying desperately to follow former Microsoft supremo Bill Gates, who joined the microblogging platform this week. So far he has about a quarter of a million followers – not bad for a few days.

He hasn’t really said anything particular interesting, though did manage a few words to Ashton Kutcher!

Part of me wonders how you can be who he is in technology without having tried Twitter before now. The other, more sceptical side of my being remembers that this is the week he launches his new blog for his foundation…

Far be it for me to utter the words “publicity stunt” or “ghost-tweeting”!

If this is all just PR, then it has to be commended as it is doing the job…

About

This is my story. I've always been fascinated by the internet. My first passion was music and I studied a music degree at Birmingham University. But once graduated I quickly went back to the web working as a digital marketer. I also ran a web startup for a few years. In the need of a new challenge, I turned to the world of PR and now work as an Account Director at EML Wildfire. My interest is primarily looking at how PR professionals can make the most of the web and digital marketing. This blog contains my thoughts and things I find inspirational.

© 2012 Danny Whatmough - Made by me