Universal Information Services

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The latest #newtool darling of the social media world is clearly Pinterest. For that one person who has not yet been overrun by the hype of the "next" thing, Pinterest defines itself in these words: "Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests." People who use Pinterest love Pinterest. But is love enough?

Pinterest has a beautiful interface and I'm finding it a great inspiration for creative and new ideas. But I'm having a difficult time declaring it a #newtool that will have long-term, mass appeal. Yes, new users are signing up at an alarmingly fast pace. This normally bodes well as a quick adoption rate proved out for other social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Even LinkedIn and YouTube have ridden the rocket to social media stardom. But where these established networks really took root was in their ability to serve both consumers and businesses alike.

I know it is is too early to call it for Pinterest, but I don't see much use for it for a wide variety of marketing, branding, and public relations efforts. Go ahead, attack me now with all of the exceptions to my prior statement. Of course I'm generalizing, as I do see it as very much a service to the "Long Tail" of marketing, where extremely niche communities will find an audience. These communities will most likely be centered on visual and physical elements that can be "pinned" in a meaningful way. I"m also optimistic towards the value of Pinterest for personal and social interests. But as far as a new tool for business, I"m afraid it fails to answer the "why" question. Why would a business use Pinterest in a broad B2B or B2C application? The current research shows that consumers gravitate to only a few social networks, not being able to manage many networks and communities at once. Pinterest may just be too much for most social netizens.

My prediction is that Pinterest does not demonstrate enough of a significant difference over other social networking tools, in reaching a mass audience, and it will only be a niche network like Quora, Foodspotting, Instagram, and Foursquare. The aforementioned sites/networks are all really great tools, but just don't address the same core, human nature needs like a Facebook, Linkedin, or Twitter do. You guessed it, we're still talking about the #samerules of human nature must be met if any #newtool is to become an integral part of our society. Am I wrong? Tell me where my thoughts left the tracks. I appreciate your comments...really, I do.

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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!

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...well sort of. I was able to capture part of an industry using my WordPress dashboard for creating time sensitive blogs and tracking comments. If content is king, engagement is queen.

In August of this year the broadcast monitoring industry's largest vendor declared bankruptcy. VMS, Video Monitoring Services, filed Chapter 7 and spilled thousands of clients onto the open market. A year ago this would have been of great interest, but of little consequence, to Universal Information Services. With the help of What-Cheer we completely renovated our web presence back in the fall of 2010. This gave us a custom themed WordPress website and a complete content management system for blogging and managing comments. What I would also find is that with the provided plug-ins of WordPress, my posts were being optimized for Search Engines and growing my brand presence with my industry. Here's where the story begins...

I was in Scottsdale, Arizona on a work related retreat when I learned that in 18 short hours VMS would be closing their doors. My associates quickly helped me brainstorm how I could best help the soon to be orphaned VMS clients find a home with Universal Information Services. Rather than exploit the misfortune of a friendly competitor, I simply created a higher profile for Universal Information Services, a profile that would help these clients find my company. Below is a timeline of what I did, what transpired as a result of my actions, and how that translated into growth for my company.

• 6pm August 25: A rumor of the impending bankruptcy hit my cell phone and six business friends helped me formulate a strategy using the #newtools of social media to help pull new prospects to Universal.
• 12:01am August 26: Seeing an industry email related to the bankruptcy, a second source confirming the rumor, I turned to my iPad to begin blogging about the bankruptcy and how it may impact VMS employees and clients. I accessed the CMS dashboard of Universal's website, a simple but powerful WordPress interface. There I quickly tapped out my thoughts on the matter. That original blog can be found here.
• 5am (in Arizona), 7am ET August 26: I moved my first blog on VMS with a single click of the Publish button.
• 6am August 26: Began commenting on other blogs and web sites, using my blog url on the comments to drive traffic back to the Universal Website.
• 7am August 26: Had breakfast and waited.
• Noon ET, August 26: VMS officially announces their bankruptcy...industry email, blogs, newsletters explode with confirmation and questions.
• Afternoon of August 26: Emails start hitting my smartphone with people commenting on my blog post. I respond to these comments quickly.
• 6am August 27: Update my original VMS related blog, citing some comments from over the past 18 hours.
• 7am August 27: Answer more comments on my blog post. I also realize that this blog has drawn more comments than any other in the prior year.
• 8am August 29: Post a related blog on my other company's website, The NewsTracks.
• September 2: Write a follow up blog reflecting back on the week since the VMS bankruptcy. Again, drawing a high volume of comments and links to our site.

The net effect:
My efforts, through our WordPress blog, effectively boosted our search rankings, with my sites capturing most, if not all, of the first page of organic results. Additionally, our Google AdWords campaigns went through the roof as Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube related postings all pointed back to the Universal website. Similarly, my Utah News Clips company saw a huge jump in google hits due to the SEO effect from that WordPress blog. All the comments, links, and links back to our site helped elevate our exposure in the industry by an amazing rate. So much so that our broadcast monitoring business, the part most similar to what VMS provided, saw a jump in sales of 36% for the month following the VMS bankruptcy.

Can I trace our September growth solely to the fact that we were able to quickly facilitate online interaction through our WordPress site, probably not. Having a coordinated plan to Tweet, Blog and comment all contributed to the growth. Most importantly, we didn't wait to take action and our WordPress blogs let us capitalize on the best #newtools of the web. The #samerules of time sensitive marketing is all we did, but in a much different way than would have been possible in years past.

Do you have a similar experience from blogging? Any tips you care to add to the strategy I used? Please contribute to the knowledge base (community) who views this site and leave your comments. I appreciate the engagement.

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Let me start off by saying at Universal Information Services there are some clients I do not want to date. Not because they are too much work, or a pain in the neck, or their margin is too low, but rather because they are already in a love affair with their current vendor. This post briefly explores the accelerating nature of marketing through the #newtools of social media, but focuses more on the #samerules of a positive customer relationship and why that leads to lasting love between client and vendor.

In the news monitoring industry, there are only a handful of services that provide complete news monitoring, media contact management and releasing, plus the ability to analyze all your media exposure...some would call that the whole package. There are many more news monitoring services that service a part of our industry by focusing on broadcast news, or media measurement, but few who can do it all. Therefore, in order to grow we must feed off of each others clients for a certain percentage of client base growth.

Through social media tools like Youtube, Facebook, and especially Twitter, we can amplify our message related to our strengths and relay testimonials from existing clients to prospective clients. I would call that advertising that we are "available to date". Primarily a "pull" marketing tool, the fun social media tools actually provide some great inbound opportunities. Yet, we still maintain a "push" marketing effort to reach out to those who haven't yet found the value in social media. Being honest with myself, I estimate 80% of our prospects are using one of our competitors. Therefore, in order to get to that 80% we must pull them away from a service like cision, Critical Mention, or TVEyes. At Universal Information Services I can tell you we don't want most of their clients. We only want clients who are unhappy and considering some kind of change. I would call those clients "available and hot".

As a user of services, news monitoring or otherwise, you should really think twice before dumping your current vendor for the "promise" of something better. Ask yourself these two questions before entertaining a pitch from a service competing against your current vendor.
1. Am I satisfied that I'm paying a fair price to my vendor in exchange for the services they are giving me?
2. Am I satisfied and pleased with the level of customer service, support and results my current vendor is giving me?

When we find a prospect that is happy on both accounts with their current vendor, that is a signal to move on. Realistically, my service will always be competing against what was considered by this client to be a good service. Not that I can't compete and surpass the quality of my competitors, but it is not the best position to be in when you will always be compared to an enjoyable relationship. It's kind of like dating a new person and having them continually talk about how great their old boyfriend or girlfriend was. Fundamentally, no news monitoring service can keep all of their clients happy all of the time. At Universal Information Services we hope to help those who are looking for better quality, faster turnaround times, or a more competitive cost for the services they need. In other words, we want to only "date" those clients that are really ready to move on or are unattached.

If you answered yes to the above two questions, I would suggest you tell the next competing vendor, "I'm flattered, but I'm seeing someone else". This can help save you much time spent listening to pitches for services you don't need to change, and will also let the competing vendor move on to a better prospect...not that anyone wants to be "that guy" at the bar.

Simply, if you are happy with your vendor stay with them...reward them for breaking their back to make sure you get the best service possible. If you find a competitor pitching a tool you need, ask your current vendor if they can provide that tool as well. Open communication is the key to any relationship. More often than not, your current vendor has all the same tools AND knows exactly how you want to work...already. This is in your best interest as you've invested months or even years into a relationship with your current vendor. How much is that investment worth to you and how long might it take to establish a functional relationship with a new vendor? Changing vendors does not come without costs.

I'm very interested in the psychology of "change". I'd love to hear your thoughts on why you change or don't change when a new vendor comes calling. Of course, if you're not seeing anyone, metaphorically, give me a call. I'd love to meet you.

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.

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EO-Nebraska (Entrepreneurs' Organization) Happy Hours for BigOmaha.

1316 Jones Street, Omaha's Old Market

Wednesday, 5/11/11: 5pm-7pm (Before The BigOmaha Launch Party)
Thursday, 5/12/11: 6pm-7:30pm (after the 1st day of BigOmaha)
(Did we mention there's no charge?)

Open to those attending the BigOmaha 2011 Conference or not (yes, this means even if you don't have a ticket to BigOmaha we would like to have you stop by and engage)

EO Happy Hour - EO Nebraska is proud to be a sponsor of the BigOmaha 2011 conference. EO will be hosting two happy hours that are open to all BigOmaha attendees, EO Members, friends, and anyone interested in engaging with others. We want creatives, developers, thinkers, entrepreneurs, innovators, Angels, and academics colliding and collaborating in one spot and without any formal agenda. Simply put, EO-Nebraska is creating a space for those who want to continue their discussions from BigOmaha, connect with others on development ideas, discuss start-up models and business sustainability issues with Nebraska's strongest entrepreneurs, or just have a cold beer before moving on to the next event.

Again, you do not need to be registered for the BigOmaha event to join this melting pot of ideas, experience sharing, and creativity.

Contact Todd Murphy for details regarding #EOhour.
tmurphy@universal-info.com
Todder4News: twitter

EO-Nebraska Fact Sheet

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Interestingly, this blog post started out as an experiment to find out how engaging location-based mobile platforms truly are. Many people won't deny that they've either not heard of Foursquare, or have heard of it and asked, "But why?" Like all #newtools in the social media world, or any new tool for that matter, adoption only occurs if the question of "Why?" can be answered. Why participate in Foursquare? Why would I want to take the time, effort, or bother checking in as I travel about my day?

I've tested/played/worked Foursquare for about a month now, and my basic summation is that Foursquare does not suck. I know I've only scratched the surface of what circumstances and environments are right for location based social tools like this, but here's what I can share so far.

First, Foursquare seems to work best when your community, or your friends, operate on a level playing field. If for example you spend most of your days at a desk in an office, but the rest of your friends or family are mobile and moving throughout the greater environment, you will never score well. You may become Mayor of your office, or even your cubicle, but you'll never have the points you get from checking in and a variety of places. Besides, there's just not enough engagement in this scenario to make it worthwhile if you don't go anywhere.

Second, Foursquare is awesome for close groups of friends or families. When you mix the game theory with the ability to comment and post pictures, your result is a somewhat competitive platform that engages the group. I enlisted my family (2 kids, a wife, plus me). We now scramble to check-in from our smartphones, or iPOD Touch in the case of my daughter, to see who can maximize their points. You soon learn the strategy to maybe be the second person to check in and garner those additional points because your "BFF" is there. I know, kind of corny, but so is Karaoke and that's hugely popular.

Finally, Foursquare is great for business to consumer location based check-in and event check-in. Restaurants, soccer fields, movie theaters, grocery stores, office buildings, concerts are all among places you can check in. If you don't see it, add it based on the GPS location of the space you want to add. There are obvious marketing benefits to what you add and how you name it, not to mention the tips you might post...or hopefully your visitors post. Offering discounts and consumer generated recommendations are very good reasons to try Foursquare.

Where I think Foursquare fails, simply because of the model and not their platform, is that it offers very little in the way of business to business engagement. I have a hard time applying the location-based game platform to a B2B model, but maybe someone can suggest ideas and leave them in the comments below. Still, at a simple level, it has provided an engaging platform that my whole family can participate in no matter where we are. I even enabled my Android phone as a 3G mobile hot spot with Verizon so my 10 year old daughter can play when there's not wi-fi in the wild for her.

Next step for my Foursquare use: Try and get the office team on board and competing during the week. I'll update this post at a latter date.

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How soon we forget. Just over a year ago Pepsi made big news when they officially announced, and I mean in a big way, they were skipping their usual Super Bowl advertising campaign. This ended 23 years of memorable ads. They had announced they were going all in for social media and would be betting that Super Bowl money on the "Pepsi Refresh" initiative.

To Pepsi, and other marketing agencies, those early days of social media (last year) meant that traditional marketing vehicles were dead. Time Magazine stated that the days of "mass-market media...are officially over". Oh what a difference a year makes. Here we have a classic, and very large lesson in #samerules #newtools.

Pepsi returned to advertising during the Super Bowl in a very big way this year. They had a total of at least three Pepsi commercials air during Super Bowl play. Hmmm, three ads airing on such an old, mainstream medium like broadcast television. How could this be when just in December of 2009 the media was all a flutter, not to mention "a twitter", with news of Pepsi's $20 Million dollar investment in their social media campaign. All social media last year, back on TV this year? Pepsi finally figured out what others have realized and is the point of this blog. Pepsi figured out that it is not "one thing", but everything. You can't just go all-in for social media any more than you can only advertise on radio or print. The true audience is too segmented and small in social media. Smart marketing means you have to pursue your audience and reach them with a variety of tools to get your message out. The same, fundamental rules of marketing have not changed...we simply have new tools at our disposal. These new tools are great opportunities and bring unprecedented interaction from target audiences.

Companies like Vizio have mastered the interaction between social media and mainstream media through pop icon, Beyonce. Using one medium to push the other. All roads need to lead to everywhere when applying the #newtools of marketing and public relations. Some campaigns will lend themselves better to one medium over another, but forsaking all other mediums for one medium is generally a fools errand. In Pepsi's defense several of the top commercials this year were created by alleged consumers. Pepsi/Doritos crowd sourced the winning ads by letting the public vote online (a #newtool tactic). Did you see those Dorito's Ads (a PepsiCo company)?

It seems Pepsi has learned their lesson in a very public way, but I haven't seen too much news about this change of heart. I've heard that in the old days when a company figured out they had made an advertising mistake they would simply redirect without drawing attention to it. Could that be what's going on here? Such an old-fashioned notion...

Leave your thoughts regarding Pepsi's change of direction when it comes to big advertising and social media. You can also view some classic and current ads from Pepsi.

Cindy Crawford Ad 1992
Pepsi Inner-tube 1995

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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.

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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!

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