Universal Information Services

Posts for Social Networks

This year a friend of mine was featured on Food Network's Cupcake Wars. About a week before the airing I sat down with him, while dining with my wife. and suggested he engage a PR professional to help harness the publicity of that show. A few days before airing, Bill contacted me to pursue the use of PR. Within 10 minutes I had him connected with a real PR professional. As a news monitoring service it is very apparent to us that if an organization wants to reach the largest audience quickly, local TV, Radio, and Print are the best bets. Now of course this depends on the audience and the service or product, but generally speaking the largest audiences for a single story are found in traditional media. However, as everyone knows, magnifying placements in traditional media through the social networks is a key component of most PR efforts.

Public Relations was the perfect tool for this promotional need as the event, a Cupcake Wars episode, could easily be promoted as a "local company done good" story. But, it would require someone with real media relationships in order to rally the TV, radio, and print media quickly. With the trending power of solo PR professionals, almost any event or PR push can be managed by a single PR pro. Through the use of now more affordable tools for news monitoring and earned media measurement, these one person shops can compete on a broader stage. Such was the case for this Cupcake Ware effort. This effort utilized traditional media relations outreach, event planning, and social media engagement to promote the show.

One of the trends for 2012 is how solo PR professionals will continue to grow their ranks. Whether because of downsized agencies, or the trimming of corporate PR departments, or even news media personalities entering the public relations industry, this does seem to be more than a trend...maybe the new normal. But I digress.

Back to the cupcakes. The overall statistics were amazing.

ROI is evident by the lines now forming at Jones Bros. Cupcakes. They did a good business before, but now it is booming over there. The TV and radio coverage generated through PR was, as expected from a well formed effort, great. And even some mentions in print were earned.

This short post illustrates a classic #samerules approach was needed here, but amplified by the #newtools of social media. One of our points for the last two years, not as just a trend for 2012, is that public relations and marketing must get away from thinking in terms of traditional and social media as separate mediums. We have only media, understanding and using each medium within the greater media takes a real pro. Whether you're an agency pro or a solo PR pro, being an expert in media relations is a primary function if you expect results. There is no faking real public relations.

Let me know if we can help you understand the impact of your PR efforts through measurement or tracking. Or better yet, give us your thoughts on how to best generate PR for an event, service, or product. Sharing the knowledge makes us all better.

Cheers!

Comments (5)

Gina Svendsen serves as Media Analysis Director for Universal Information Services.

This blog entry is my rant—my opinion. In writing this post, I am putting myself “out there” for a discussion –because without discussion, it’s just me on my soap-box. As the Director of Media Analysis for Universal Information Services, it's also a great diversion from analytics.

I have a slew of nieces and nephews from college-age all the way down to elementary school age, so I’m always wondering, “What can I learn from these great kids and apply that to my life?” As I was brainstorming over this blog post, it donned on me. Transparency. I learned about transparency in a media relations class in college. This old rule has changed over time and, I believe, is MORE important today and will begin to change even more over the next five years.

Today’s younger generation knows way more about this than we do because of Facebook and mobile devices. I just read that the web is older than today’s incoming college freshmen—their posts on Facebook are transparent, with the person behind the post showing their authentic self. They post the good, the bad and the ugly. (I am amused by the number of people on Facebook who air their own dirty laundry! But this is another blog subject for the future.) But seriously, I think we can learn something about transparency from the younger generation and apply it to our industry. I’m talking about being MORE authentic and transparent, more than you are right now.

When I think about transparency in PR, I instantly think of the Toyota gas pedal problem. Toyota didn’t own up to the problem right away and the end result was they lost customers. Toyota forgot the second part of the old rule. If you own up right away, we will be incredibly forgiving. The younger generation has a real problem with this because their transparent, digital lives are chronicled on Facebook. Their meaning of transparency is much different—much more stripped away. More transparent than the transparency we learned about. To them, even privacy is different. It is also stripped away, and private is not ‘as private’ as it once was. The younger generations are consumers and soon to be our peers and they have different ideas on being transparent and private.

Now, I’m not suggesting you go overboard with this idea and post the bad and the ugly, but sit with this a few minutes and think about it: how can you, your brand, your company be more genuine and transparent? More than you already are? Research has shown that by doing so, you will show your friends, your consumers, your employees a true self, and this will gain trust. Trust gains more followers, fans and customers. Trust gains the word of mouth advocate, the most desired customer out there.

Stop hiding your personality, the younger generation doesn’t! You have one, don’t you? Put some personality into your announcements, press releases, or blog. Do you “put on” a corporate façade –if this is you, pull up! The younger generation can already see through your front and they don’t appreciate the legalese. And of course, this will all come full circle when there’s a big screw up and you have to quickly admit your fault (and what you plan to do to fix it) because then everyone will forgive you. If you don’t the opposite will happen.

Comments (2)

With recent storms, high-profile shooting tragedies, and the ongoing political climate, the US news media has again reminded us they they have a hard time letting go of a story. Universal Information Services monitors all news media and analyzes content for organizations and government agencies. In our activities we observe trends within the news coverage, and have again seen how media persistence often keeps the news focused on a story, long after anything new is occurring. Although the cases I outline below are recent, they are intended as apolitical and should serve merely as recent illustrations of how the media will stay on a story long after they should move on.

Case 1: Apparently the broadcast networks believe the United States is comprised of about 12 states in the East and Northeast.

Evidence: An analysis of recent blizzards and heavy snow storms reveal that the heaviest snow fall does not actually occur in New York City, Boston, or Philadelphia. In fact, The upper Midwest and the Rocky Mountain states get far more snowfall per year than any of the aforementioned cities. But to hear Sam Champion (ABC), Al Roker (NBC), or whoever the current weather person is on CBS tell the story you would think snow only falls on the east coast. Amazingly, these three networks will devote nearly 40% of their newscasts telling us of the great difficulties facing our nation because of the east coast weather. By my math, there's at least 40 other states that are seemingly still in operation, even when our geo-centric networks believe the entire country has been shutdown because New York City got 8 inches of snow. Omaha got 8 inches of snow last weekend and the local news media gave balanced coverage on the impact from the storm. Locally, the news even found time to cover other local and national news stories and moved on after the storm stopped. Hmmm, so maybe in this case it is a network news issue and the local media can, well, localize the story more and knows when to move on to other issues.

Case 2: Tucson Tragedy: The Gabrielle Giffords Shooting

Evidence: Yes, by all accounts this was a horrible occurrence. Whether by gun, knife, or stone, the senseless killing of anyone should be condemned. This tragedy happened on Saturday morning, January 8th. From that evening through January 12th, the network news devoted the majority of their "news" programming to this one issue. Yes, several angles were covered from the act, to the politics, to who failed to do what. These issues definitely need to be covered, but in the situation of NBC's Today Show, do we need four hours on this one topic? In all fairness, NBC did sprinkle a few other stories in there, like the massive snow storm sweeping the East Coast. However, when hours after the incidents turn into days of coverage, news directors and assignment editors need to think about "story fatigue".

When you, the media, have nothing new to report...move on. Your viewers are people, not machines sucking in data no matter what the message. We crave variety. We have varying interests. We don't all live in New York, Boston, or Philadelphia. When your news story gets old, we move to different channels or mediums. If you're tired of losing viewers to reruns of The Office or the iPad, then program for people. The #samerules of human nature have not changed. We simply have #newtools at our disposal that make it easier to tune out and turn off...well maybe we're not turning off. The news consumer has and will continue to seek out the type and variety of news their mind needs as long as the media fails to move on when the story gets old.

If you need help analyzing your own news, or want to see the results of our news consumption studies, let me know. I also encourage you to comment, a variety of opinions is also good.

Comments (5)

Subtitle: Go Break Your Own Leg!

After a short conversation with a friend and fellow Downtown Omaha business inhabitant, Jeff Slobotski, I found myself considering possible social networking trends for the coming year, 2011. In line with my #samerules #newtools philosophy, Jeff and I had been discussing the importance of striking a balance within the virtual living of social networks. One needs to balance themselves on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and even Linkedin for the professionals, by actually getting out and participating in life so you can contribute original content to the living fabric of these social networks. Always at the top among lists of "how to be successful in social media" is the need for compelling content.

A potential downside that may develop into a trend in the next year, is that of social media addiction. You can find plenty of opinions on this newest addiction, and like other activities in which people over indulge, living solely within your social network(s) will have fundamental problems for some people (#samerules).

In my news monitoring and media analysis role at Universal Information Services we're seeing patterns develop where people are simply living vicariously through others within their social networks, without bringing new value to their network. The incidents of retweeting, rather than posting new content, is accelerating at an exponential pace. On Facebook you'll notice more people only taking the time to "Like This" rather than posting a newly formed thought, or comment, to a specific post. It seems that the great power of social networks also has the power to let us check out from actually doing something, and simply observing what others do. Is this healthy for you in mind and body? Is it healthy for your social network?

In an ironic twist, I chose the above subtitle to demonstrate the notion that be it good or bad, you must own your own experience...then let us know your thoughts on that experience. Whether for business or personal, social media and social networks are only effective when we have an understanding of the person behind the information. People do want to know you, your opinions, and what you can teach them through your social networks. Stated differently, go out and break your own leg.

I can tweet about how great skiing was until I broke my leg. I can even post pictures of the ski patrol, my cast, and even the look on my wife's face. But truthfully, I'm glad it was my leg...a real life experience I own and can appropriately share with others.

Now I don't want to break a leg all the time, but I do want to have enough real life experiences so I can contribute compelling content to my social networks. One must be able to seed their posts, comments, and tweets with interesting thoughts that come from their life or business. So metaphorically, go break your own leg...and let us know all about it. Your social network engagement will go up, your credibility will go up, and best of all, you'll see more of the World.

(Disclosure Statement: I did not actually break my own leg. Yes, it made for a better title than, "I broke my collar bone when I tripped over the soccer ball and hit a wall". Next post, "Credibility and Content: Does the truth still work?") Leave your comments and links to related topics. Your network will thank you.

Comments (5)

Every year, but with growing frequency, people and organizations try to create order out of the prior 12 months (11 months in most cases). This ordering process takes form of the "Top 10 List" and purports to rank any and every topic imaginable. As a blogging technique, or social networking strategy, all the books and experts will tell you that it is actually a very successful tool. People like lists, and as it turns out, it appears search engines also like them. There's even a site devoted solely to Top 10 Lists, http://top-10-list.org/

Seeing a tweet, Facebook post, or even a Linkedin discussion with the words "Top 10", "Top 5" or even "Top 3" piques the interest of enough people that it is truly a strategy for engagement. If you are creating a list you should be asking yourself, "What can I place in order that will truly be of interest to others?" Generally, as Warren Buffett would say, invest in what you know. What is your sandbox, your product, your area of influence? Straying outside of what you know usually has the worst impact a marketing person could achieve, little to no impact at all.

The beauty of a "Top X" list is that it can be fairly simple to create and very enjoyable to compile. At Universal Information Services we come in contact with virtually every news story that breaks throughout the year. As a complete news monitoring service we not only see all the news online, but all the news that was actually broadcast or published. Our news monitoring and media analysis teams have the ability to quantitatively measure the biggest stories, then compile our list of "The Top 5 Biggest News Stories"...by volume. Our list uses statistics to measure which news stories were seen the most, not necessarily which stories had the greatest impact on society or represented the greatest value. We can, however, localize our "Top 5" lists to specific cities, helping ensure greater exposure from traditional and social media outlets.

So we use the media to create our Top 5 list, which in turn generates more media exposure for Universal Information Services...media begets media. Ironically, this is completely in line with our #samerules #newtools philosophy. The new tools of social networking help amplify small messages to the point that traditional media takes notice. As traditional media now uses the same social networking tools that we all have access to, they are able to cover stories in the traditional media that previously would have earned no placement.

As we enter December, brace yourself for the onslaught of Top 10 Lists. As a fun exercise, use your preferred Twitter client, I prefer Tweetdeck, and open a search for "top 10". I began writing this blog about 20 minutes ago and in that time I have averaged about 1 tweet per second that includes a mention and link to a top 10 list. Many of them are retweets because, well, most Twitter users don't really want to create new content, they'd just rather RT someone's idea and be considered part of the "engaged" crowd. Not that I have anything against retweeting, I do it all the time. But one of the top two rules for social media engagement is to be sure you provide compelling content. That's a topic for another post.

Leave a comment or link to your favorite Top X list. Who knows, maybe I'll release a Top 10 List of the Top 10 lists received.

Cheers!

Comments (2)

As my sixth post to Universal Information Services' blog page, I felt it was time to elaborate on the philosophy of #samerules and #newtools. This blog was intended to cast light on what new tools are available to the PR professional and business communicator. We also want to contrast the flood of new tools against the common sense thought that using these tools entails an understanding of the fundamental rules of communication and PR. At the core of the new tools is not a paradigm shift in the way we communicate, but rather a set of rules we've seen and used for many years prior.

For many people the prospect of mastering new tools to enhance their media relations efforts can be unappealing or simply a burden. Like it or not, new tools present themselves everyday and for every industry. These new tools do have differences that make them unique, but their fundamentals remain the same. Here are some examples of #newtools with #samerules at their core.
1. The iPod: Did it change how we enjoy music, or simply the ease with which we enjoy music? Most would say that the Sony Walkman ushered in the era of personal audio. The iPod represents a new tool, but fundamentally has the same rules as the Walkman. The phonograph brought music into the personal space more than a century before the Walkman.
2. Twitter: Did Twitter change all that we know about communication and public relations? No. Fundamentally one can argue that Twitter is a micro blogging system, stemming from the blogging conventions, that stemmed from the fundamentals of writing and journalism. Blogging and micro blogging are a great example of what happens when we democratize the tools. These new tools are now available to everyone and at no cost. But, the same rules of writing compelling content (did everyone just leave?) apply or else no one will read what you have to say (*small exception to this point, see below).
3. Rock & Roll: My friend, Jeremy Lipschultz, Ph.D., almost tripped me up with the illustration of what Elvis and The Beatles meant to music. Do these bands represent #samerules or new rules? Then it came to me, what the original Rockers did was analogous to what social media is doing for journalism and public relations. Electric instruments, amplifiers, and a faster tempo were, at their core, the application of new tools using the same rules. Aside from the most pure form of industrial music, Rock & Roll (including all variations) still adheres to the #samerules of tempo, notes, chords, chord progression, etc. Elvis used his new tools to amplify his message and draw a greater audience, much like the social media tools.

Now I don't want you to walk away thinking that none of the #newtools have new rules. I believe quite the contrary. All new tools do have new rules that make them unique, but they ALSO have the #samerules at their core. One should not forget common sense, human nature, and the fundamental conventions of good public relations. The new tools are great because they let us amplify our message beyond what we could previously do with the older tools. The #newtools help us engage other mediums by extending our audience and community.

I'm confident someone will find a new tool that has none of the #samerules at its core. When that happens I will embrace that concept and most likely discuss it here on this blog. But until then I encourage you to try and test this theory. Are there any new tools of communication you are using that you feel have no fundamental rules from prior modes of communication? Leave your comments to engage with me, or visit our website for some ideas http://www.universal-info.com/

Cheers!
Todd Murphy
Vice President
Universal Information Services

(*small exception: The Long Tail philosophy dictates that there is an audience or buyer for everything, no matter how unique the product or content. At the very far end of the Long Tail you may find some #newtools that have no corresponding #samerules. I love The Long Tail.)

Comments (2)

If you watch Twitter or follow public relations groups on LinkedIn, you've seen a common question about the #newtools for monitoring news or social media. Over the past week I counted no less than 200 sources people had offered up as their favorite new tool for tracking media. Some are free, some are paid, but what all of these services have in common is they are trying to help users and organizations cut through the deafening media noise. People want solutions, the answers, an educated interpretation of what their media exposure means in terms of values that are important to them. 99% of the services out there are missing the mark.

The subtitle of this post is "The Art of Noise", not as a reference to the avant-garde alternative band of the 1980's, but as a reference to the growing volume of news and information available to everyone. What PR professionals, corporate communicators, and anyone tasked with tracking media need is simply an answer to the question of, "What stories should I be focusing on? Show me what is truly important and why."

Here are a few of the services I believe have sound methodologies for generating meaningful earned media placements: Cision, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, BlueVision, and Carma. Yes, these are competitors: Universal Information Services offers many of the same services, but these companies have also demonstrated a high rate of reliability and are worthy of mention.

In contrast, the shortcoming in almost every online news monitoring solution available is that it is a software-as-a-service (SaaS). Invariably this means you, the customer, must know exactly what you want to track, what metrics you want to see, and then you have to do the work of correctly entering that information into an online tool. All of this effort on your part must occur before you can see any analysis or report outlining your results.

For accurate media monitoring and pr measurement, and to cut through the noise to just the news you need, human reasoning is ultimately required. Computers can only decide a yes or no proposition (1 or 0). Yes, the human is still critical for accurate news monitoring and media measurement. So, in the end your use of SaaS solutions, or a system that includes customized human interaction, may be the difference between receiving an overwhelming amount of media noise and getting truly valuable information. How loud must it be before you can no longer do your job well? We look at the #newtools with the #samerules in mind…then do what is best for our clients. What do you do?