Why online should be treated as an equal.

It fast becoming a realisation of many companies that online presence should be handled with the same care and expertise as the traditonal media. No longer seen as something of second importance.

NME.com is a nice little example of this. They expect a big increase in its next ABCE figures after changes to the site this year, which won the publisher the AOP award for consumer website last week.

The relaunch of the mag this year saw major changes to its website. The last ABCE figures found NME.com to have 3.4m unique users. In fact, NME rearranged its editorial team making sure that all staff work on both the print title and the website, as well as boosting video and blog content, and launched NME Breakthrough, a community site for bands and new music fans.

David Moynihan, editor of NME.com said, “NME is a very cross-platform brand but it’s still important for us that the magazine remains at the heart of everything we do, be it the TV channel, live shows or online content.”

On top of this, NME will also add to its channels with a mobile app, planned for launch later this year.

It’s not a coincidence the NME won Best Consumer Site at the AOP last week. Their focus on online production is key to their success. Take note. They have been able to grasp the importance of including high quality content in order to satisfy readers and done so with strong and effective digital PR and marketing on board.

Delicious delights go digital.

We are all aware of the strengths both economically and culturally of cookery and recipe books that bookshop retailers and chef, bakers, and cookery novices have had to offer for years but there is also a growing usage of online platforms to share.

The growing emergence of recipe bloggers and cookery platforms has generated huge interest and the increasing number of followers should in fact be utilised and exploited by the food and drinks industry to capture the attention of their target markets.

It is an opportunity for companies to get to know what people are interested in eating and drinking and perhaps engage with them. From this, they should be considering the potential benefits of using different forms of digital pr in this environment.

There has been a resurgence in the get to know your food method of cooking, where people seem to be more willing and excited about experimenting and sharing recipes and dishes.

So these areas of interest and could prove to be a successful method of engagement for businesses, both cost-effectively and more suucessful in learning what their customers are really interested.

No not flipper, Flickr.

It is the social media generations form of photo albums but with a slight difference, it can be stored and shared by millions around the world at the click of a button.

And the new news, the 40 million Flickr registered users are being given the chance to make money out of their snaps.

For the last two years, leading images agency Getty Images has tapped into more than 100,000 photos taken by professional and semi-pro photographers who post on the site.

Now the doors are being opened to all Flickr users as Getty take advantage of a library of four billion pictures. “Flickr users are the eyes of the world,” said Douglas Alexander, Flickr’s general manager.

Getty’s chief operating officer Nick Evans-Lombe said Flickr has said that it has been a great resource and inspiration, “one of the great benefits is that it is truly eclectic and has this fantastic broad reach across the globe.”

Along with this, Evans-Lombe also said another great asset of the collection was that it was “more gritty” because the photographs are not shot for commercial services and therefore have more authenticity.

So the potential is out there. This also goes for business. Getting your snaps up here is such a handy useful method of storing and sharing photos and eliminates confusion over file attaching etc. It’s well worth investigating the possibilities so get your digital pr strategies switched on to all the handy installments of social media.

Ambush marketing or guerilla pr – what’s all the fuss about?

Well, quite a lot of fuss in fact. I’m referring to the Dutch brewery’s World Cup stunt that has led to arrests, threats of legal action and the loss of an ITV pundit’s job.

When 36 young women wearing orange mini-dresses associated with the Dutch brewers Bavaria entered the Soccer City stadium in South Africa for teh Netherlands/Denmark match, the cameras, predictably turned towards them en mass, captured shots that would grab attention around the world.

However, the reaction of those in charge was somewhat different. All of the ladies were ejected from the venue and two arrested on charges of organising “unlawful commercial activities.” Meanwhile, legal action is planned against the brewery.

Coupled with this, ex-Jamaica and Wimbledon player Robbie Earle was dropped as an ITV pundit after claims some of the orange clad ladies had entered the stadium using tickets intended for his family and friends.

This may sound trivial but the World Cup’s authorised beer, Budweiser, has paid millions for the privilege of exclusive representation during the competition.

It’s no surprise that sponsorship is big business, both for the brands and the sporting governing bodies - thus also meaning that “ambush marketing” or “guerilla PR” have themselves become a huge growth industry.

But if you’re planning on any sneaky tactics for the 2010 London Olympics think again, or at least think shrewdly, as a result of strict legislation passed by Parliament ahead of the games.

Nevertheless, it is still worth noting the potential huge exposure for anyone who manages to outwit them. So the answer, get a great digital pr strategy in place!

The softer side of PR.

The agency world has been called upon to lend a helping hand and provide pro-bono work for small struggling charities.

With the enslught of the economic crisis almost everyone was touched by it, with no exception for small charities. As some within the industry have explained, they are volunteer-led with little money and they need something to help them punch above their weight.

Step in pr agencies. Some say that to work best the charities need to use the stories of the people they help, which is their best resource and could significantly raise their profile and provide the potential to forge a bigger role in the current climate.

What is really required is that small charities need to get across key elements to build their brand: be authentic, be dinstinctive and most importantly, be compelling. An emotional engagement is vital, but not always focusing on a tear jerker.

So it is quite possible and not too much work for pr agencies to pass along some of their industry tricks and improve the standing of the struggling charities, not least in the influential digital field through different forms of digital pr.

Virgin gaming.

Not one to be outdone in any market, Virgin is stepping into the billion dollar market of gaming. But is this the right move?

Apparently so. There has been a sharp focus on the gaming sector and how profitable it can really be for all involved. 

In fact, recently comes the news that the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) alongside Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) have collectively invested £2million in staff training and development within the game sector in the region.

This investment, among similar initiatives in the UK, has worked to stimulate gaming development and create a global centre of excellence in video game production.

Thus it is little wonder that the heavyweights of gaming come to the UK for development purposes. This now leaves the door open for aspects of the gaming industry to sprouse up its act in order to capitalise on this, which should be done by also considering the digital appearance of the company and how best to handle this through effective forms of digital pr.

The iPad phenomenon is upon us

But what does this really mean for us? Or is it really business that will better benefit?

Last month the Apple iPad was released to the masses in the UK and while the tech geeks were salivating at the thought of a purchase, others were questioning its’ usability.

For some it is viewed as an over-sized mobile phone, for others a less efficient laptop. However, should we conisder that this form of tablet computer falls into a different category altogether? As the Kindle, Amazon’s mobile reading device has proved, people are actually more willing to swap paper for screen, whether that be ebooks, magazine literature or more in-depth work emails etc.

Which could be exactly where ecommerce comes into the equation. For example, it provides the potential to turn flicking through mags into a full blown interactive experience. You see something you like on the page, you click on it and you are transported to the item’s or brand’s website, allowing you to browse, gain more info and, more interestingly, purchase instantly.

Thus the iPad could provide the possibility to “transform etail” as some industry insiders have put it. So then the responsibility now lies at the feet of the brands to seriously consider the potential benefits of engaging in such technology. Yet this should be considered in conjunction with the brand’s digital pr strategy to generate the best outcome.

Online activity equals online sales?

It’s undeniable that the increasing prominence of social media within society has in turn become an increasingly important driver of sales. For some time, communities have been able to learn about special promotions and services from companies through Facebook, Twitter and a number of other social media sites.

More interestingly, consumers are actually seeking the views of fellow consumers. For example, last Christmas Argos asked its users to submit reviews of products they’d bought. It received 70,000 responses in just one day. Highighting that the best way for a brand to reach out to a larger community is from its site and engage them in a dialogue that helps consumers identify with the brand.

Now, the connection between online activity and online sales emerges when companies realise they need to start establishing meanigful experiences online and create conversation hubs and communities where their influence can drive desired behaviours, both on their websites and in stores. Some industry experts suggest its incumbent on retailers to become more socially savvy and up to commerce leaders to push the technology and enable interactive and valuable experiences online.

 As well as this, it is key that the online experience is more intuitive, easier to navigate and more efficient for people. Online sellers need to make sure product information is clear and concise and that customers can easily navigate pages in a way that’s desirable for them. It has to be enjoyable for the users who will, if enjoyed, pass on the details to friends.

From a retailers point of view, people are interested in new releases, offers and competitions and they find this works best to release this. It’s news people want to hear and therefore that’s what they offer.

The other side of the coin is that retailers don’t socially engage with consumers, someone else will do it for them. So the key is to have an active presence through social media and respond and maintain presence. Social media is no longer seen as a niche. When considering the traffic for social media platforms such as Facebook you see that these are the places people are choosing to spend the majority of their time. Thus, this is exactly where brands need to spend their time listening and they need to do it well. Therefore, it wouldn’t hurt to consider the benefits of developing a top digital pr strategy.

But does this also flag up challenges? In many cases, it appears it is the customer who is driving the trend, not retailers, which makes this a tad unsettling for the more traditional of companies. There is much research that reveals that customers are more likely to believe a recommendation from an unqualified person they’ve never actually met than a company’s own regulated advertising.

It’s fever pitch time - for footballers and PR professionals alike.

With the kick off to the World Cup just days away I can’t help but wonder what PR professionals and brands are doing with the growing excitement (yes, despite some of us being unable to remember the last time our boy’s qualified).

As the 2010 South African Football World Cup approaches, branding activity surrounding the world’s most watched sporting spectacle hits fever pitch. It seems that official and ‘unofficial’ sponsors, celebrities, charities and entire nation are implementing strategies geared  towards capitalising on the tournament’s almost universal appeal, with mixed levels of success.

Yet how well can they bank on success? Can they really connect with football fans, or is this even the point? Are they merely attempting to get a cut of all the excitement interlinked with the event.

Studies have already revealed the successes and failings of the big brands in the days counting down but surely this will alter somewhat in the weeks of the tournament? What they must be doing is continuously driving interest back to their brand through real time strategies, achieved through effective digital PR.

Not forgetting the brands that are not directly sponsoring the sporting event but are still competing for consumers attention. Here they appear to jump on the football wagon by enlisting the use of ex-footballers to front campaigns.

But the attention still returns to social media. It’s a platform to discuss and share YouTube clips, news, opinions, and is all in real-time. Being the first World Cup to engage heavily with social media, this will surely set the tone for future international sporting events, good or bad.

It’s all about engagement.

It’s worth noting the following:

• The average person can read around 200 words per minute on screen and that the average UK Guardian reader spends around 7 minutes and 30 seconds per visit (according to Google).
• The Guardian has monthly page views of around 88 million in the UK and around 21 million unique visitors per month (according to Google)
• Based on the above, the average visitor will spend around 450/4.2 = 107 seconds per page. In other words, the average reader will read up to 350 words before moving on to another page or off the site completely.

So what does this tells us?  Well, any article longer than 350 words will not get a look over. Not least because on any given page, the reader is also potentially being distracted from reading by ads and other elements on the page. In that case, what is required within 350 words to have any material impact on the reader?

Is 107 seconds really long enough to make any impact at all? Hmmm. Then again these are average figures. Some people may be able to read more quickly on screen. Then again, many people will read more slowly. And clearly some people may spend more time with content. Anyhoo, what is known, and shared with industry insiders alike, is that online PR planning needs to take account of engagement in determining what media sites to target and the appropriate content to provide. If a site’s visitors spend barely 30 seconds on reading a page, then crowing to the client that they’ve got 14 paragraphs of coverage at the end of a 3,000 word article is pretty meaningless – whether it is the BBC or the Wheel Tappers & Shunters Weekly.

Sun, sea and sand – the online adventure.

It’s certainly not a new thing the link between holiday searches and the internet. But it seems to have stepped up the exposure and deals in recent years.

The travel industry has obviously changed tremendously in the last decade, and with that the internet. The internet and new media have evolved, allowing you to promote your travel brand or destination online as much as offline. Online editorial coverage is a must these days as it is one of the most influential sectors for holiday seekers.

Long gone are the days of teletext holidays with focus now falling on exploiting the digital world. The important part for holiday companies to remember is that they need to generate enough coverage to stand out in this competitive market place. Effective digital pr is useful in highlighting the most rewarding social media endeavours as well as attracting new customers through new avenues.

Go organic.

No i’m not talking about getting all mucky on your hands and knees growing your own veg. I’m referring to natural search results and the fact they yield more leads compared to pay per click ads.

Only 26% of searchers click on Google’s sponsored links and the figure is 39% across all search engines. The eyetrack study clearly shows that search engine visibility in the natural results is twice as valuable as a sponsored link or an ad.

The OneUp Web study shows that when a website appears on the first page of a Google search result, they can expect exponential increases in traffic and conversion rates.

Thus you can achieve more viewership and more click throughs from organic search results than you can with pay per click ads.

And so, if you’re not getting results and ROI from your website, you need an effective online pr strategy to build up your search engine visibility and brand recognition.

Whilst being on page one in the search engines is an important aspect of a companies online pr profile, online news sites like Yahoo! News and Google News and getting coverage in blogs and social news websites have also become an essential part of a successful online pr strategy.

The year of the digital citizen.

Whether it be news, entertainment, work, lifestyle, a large percentage of people’s lives now incorporate aspects of the digital world and really can’t be without it.

With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that Facebook is now the top mobile service on smartphones.

Facebook is the app most popular with American smartphone owners, according to a report by Nielson. In fact, Facebook is the most popular app even for BlackBerry users who are typically seen as more business-focused.

Nielson’s mobile application report found that Facebook was the most used app on iPhone and iPod Touch, BlackBerry and across all other smartphones, other than devices running on the Android platform.

More than 4,200 people were surveyed who had all downloaded an application in the last 30 days, with 58% who own an iPhones and iPod Touch, use the Facebook app on their device. This was closely followed by Google Maps, which 47% of iPhone OS users use the most after the Facebook app, and then the Weather Channel – a forecasting app.

The report also found that the average number of installed apps on a BlackBerry device was 10, while this nearly quadrupled when it came to iPhone’s average of 37, and doubled when comparing to Android’s average of 22.

21% of American wireless subscribers now own a smartphone – which is up from 19% on the previous quarter. 14% of mobile subscribers have downloaded an app in the last 30 days.

Overall, social networking, maps, weather and music were the most popular app genres across all platforms. Thus, also highlighting the ever expanding areas of opportunity for companies to reach out to consumers, especially through successful forms of digital PR.

Social medias “how to”

Though social media marketing and pr has been rapidly advancing in recent years in terms of adoption and sophistication, many businesses still struggle with it, wondering whether they are doing it enough, doing it correctly, or whether they should be involved in social media at all.

However, for entrepreneurs business owners, investors and consultants, one of the most exciting prospects of social media, lies in the ability to dramatically amplify your visibility and value proposition among existing and potential stakeholders. Social media can finally place small, local and emerging businesses in the spotlight in ways that up until this point, were largely unattainable.

New media can be seen to be rapidly reshaping the landscape of how people find and share information and much of it isn’t just moving online, it’s connecting people in ways that weave a dedicated network of prospects and advocates within networks that invite your value-added participation. As a result, once scattered customer-bases are now unifying online as concentrated contextual markets, enabling the establishment of bridges and highways between businesses and prospects and ultimately creating new opportunities in the process.

In fact when combined, small business and social media PR is anything but small. Some industry insiders have even found that many small businesses are doubling adoption of social networks, seeing this as a successful method of identifying and attracting new customers and focusing on the development of dedicated online communities and also listening to customer feedback.

Social media serves as a platform to identify, learn and connect with customers and prospects along with those who influence their decisions. As in anything, you get out what you put in. Engagement is everything so utilise digital PR well.

Books in the digital age.

Its been a bit of a toughy the last few years for books they’ll have us believe.  If i’m being honest I was completely unaware of this and do you blame me? It’s seems anyone and everyone is spending their precious freetime at their local bookclub, sitting on their arses, discussing old classics and new best-sellers, and no it’s not just your mum.

Yet despite this growing phenomenon, it appears there is no direct correlation between this and book sales, which is why publishers are now pinning all their hopes on the latest tech unveiling. The Apple iPad.

With the iPad going on sale in the UK this week, book publishers’ are eagerly anicipating that Apple’s tablet and its iBookstore will prove as revolutionary for their industry as the iPod and iTunes were for music. So this might yet be the year of the e-book. Yrt industry insiders say teh sector as a whole has a way to go before it can claim to be at ease with digital.

“The iPad feels like it’ll be a transforming influence on digital publishing,” says Penguin’s director of digital Anna Rafferty. “But while significant, its just one piece of an emerging digital marketplace, in which no one should put all their efforts into just one platform.”

This is pretty much the general thought system of those in the publishing world. Evidence of the degree to which digital has already rewritten the traditional rules of book publishing isn’t hard to find. Consumption of e-books is rising fast – UK publishers’ sales of digital products rose 20% to £150m in 2009, according to Publishers Association figures.

This is kind of understandable when you consider that research has found that readers who view sample book chapters online are more likely to purchase, claims LibreDigital. This is in conjunction with Amazon saying it sells six Kindle e-books for every ten printed books when both are available and iTunes revealing that the number of e-books on the iTunes app store passed the number of games for the first time in Match 2010.

It’s an ever evolving world and one which traditional sectors of business need to stay ahead of the pack, which is exactly why they need to seriously consider the real-time benefits of enlisting digital PR skills to strengthen their brand and products.

I, however, will never turn to e-books for a reading experience when you can have a smelly dog-eared book all of your own, where you can tuck away for years and then rediscover upon every moving day. Treat.

It’s all about content.

As has been discussed more and more in recent times, content is the new attraction. It’s substance isn’t it, and some brands are fully aware of it.

Ebay is launching its first content site, using third-party contributors including writers from Glam Media to promote its Ebay Outlet store.

The auction site opened the online high street outlet store last month and is promoting it with the launch of a fashion blog, live4less.ebay.co.uk, using contributions from women’s vertical media network Glam Media.

Live4less is set to feature content on several topics covering fashion and lifestyle, which will link to tips and inspiration about products on Ebay Outlet. Just what you need right?

The online brand is supporting its site with activity on Facebook and Twitter, while online PR, outdoor and press campaigns have been running since the store launched in April.

Ebay are aware of the strengths that social media can offer, “we want to talk to our audience in their own areas, because that’s the best way to engage them” said Ebay spokeperson Ruth Szyszkowski. 

The contributors from Glam include a fashion journalist and a mummy blogger. Using established bloggers added credibility to the site and enabled Glam to spread its content, expressed Ally Pyle, editor of Glam.com. From this, the content is both crerative and will have a variety of voices that can give credible fashion advice.

In with social media, out with advertising?

That can’t be entirely true I hear you say but it seems advertising has fallen in recent times far from its pedestal and with that a new player steps in.

Of course, it comes with little surprise that consumers don’t trust advertising but the actual firgures are airly dismal with marketing solutions provider Alterian revealing that the number of consumers who don’t trust advertising is worryingly close to a whopping 100%.

In actual fact, finding that 95% of respondents indicated that they did not trust advertising and less than a tenth (8%) trust what companies say about themselves. Instead, more than half share the view that companies aren’t out to sell what is best for the consumer but what they want to push.

Step up social media. It appears that respondents who actively engage with social media are more likely to be more positive about companies in general. The survey brought to light that whilst only 16% thought overall companies were “genuinely interested in them,” a much higher figure (33%) of those who use social media thought that.

It seems a natural progression as social media is a platform that enables companies to interact and engage.  However, it should be said that the fact that social media users in this survey were more likely to believe that companies are interested in them has debatable meaning. It could be suggested that consumers who interact with companies online via social media are more likely to have favourable perceptions about companies in general.

Unfortunately, industry insiders note that even thought the issues at play here are far bigger that social media, social media alone is the subject of skepticism amongst many in senior management.

Which of course is a bit of a problem. But the bigger problem is making sure that companies don’t repeat the traditional adverstising mistakes with social media. Step in the need for effective online PR tactics to have at hand, that are carefully thought through to instill confidence in the brand.

Music needs to spread their word digitally.

With the Digital Economy Bill passing through the House of Lords, a survey has warned that legal online music providers have not promoted their brands sufficiently to the public.

This week the final details are being made to the UK’s Digital Economy Bill in the Lords, which will aim to drive consumers away from online copyright infringement  and towards legal services.

Yet it seems these legal services are not so well-known, with a recent survey from Consumer Focus revealing that the public has a extremely low awareness of these legal alternatives and more is required to communicate their services to the public. With their focus so heavily falling on online music distribution, you’d think the natural partner would be digitally-enabled public relations, which would work to target their desired consumers.

Of the 2,000 or more adults aged 15 and above, 85% of those aware of such services could only name iTunes and Amazon, despite there being more than 20 services in the market.

Jill Johnstone, International director, Consumer Focus, said: “The music industry is shooting itself in the foot by not promoting legal legal online music services. If file sharing is causing the damage the music industry claims, why aren’t they putting more effort into promoting the legal alternatives? Before we go down the enforcement road it is only fair to ask the music industry to do more to make people aware of the legal options.”

Its all about online and not to be left out, Sony Music have now announced their phasing out of the mailing of physical stock and switch to a digital e-card systemfor the distribution of promotional music.

Chairman of Sony Music, Ged Doherty, explained that “digital promo is set to become an industry standard as other major and independent music companies also make the switch. Physical stock is expensive, difficult to store and environmentally unfriendly.”

When digital PR is going right.

It seems M&S is on the right path at the moment, developing a mobile site that doesn’t just target iPhone app users.

M&S is doing a lot of things pretty well recently, notably its succesful presence on Facebook, and now its smart mobile strategy. Congrats to them: smart enough to see the value in recruiting intelligent, innovative thinkers and allowing them to make their mark effectively.

This is also evident in the rebranding of men’s fashion and golf brand Lyle &Scott who are ramping up its search activity to increase visibility internationally and has launched its first transactional mobile site.

Along with this, the company’s communication campaign has centred on increasing its social activity, launching a one-day promotion on Facebook to highlight its next-day delivery, as well as creating closer engagement through Facebook and Twitter.

Following this, Cadbury is one of the latest brands to abandon campaign sites altogether for social media, launching a game on Facebook to support its ads for Crunchie Rocks.

The launch of Crunchie Friday will be supported through its digital PR by paid-for media on Facebook, search ads and display ads on gaming-focused websites. They opted for the option of not investing in consumers coming to them but rather going to where their fans are already engaging.

This launch of the social media game is the latest move by Cadbury’s strategy using social networks to promote awareness of their individual brands.

Getting to grips with new tricks.

Everyone’s a content producer these days. Yet the growing volume of content that brand owners distribute across multiple digital platforms is driving a fresh challenge up the corporate agenda: how to create a publiching culture tht allows you to plan and manage content more strategically.

As industry insiders have noted, when brochurekit was topdog, content strategy was all about the organisational flow of repurposed content onto web sites, with little direct focus on audience needs. How it has changed with the emergence of broadband and the rise of search and social media they have done more than just swell the volume of content online.

Today’s newly appointed content strategists come from many backgrounds, often with user-experience or web-editing roots. Their experiences have convinced them that, more than ever before, companies need overarching strategies for creating and delivering content.

This is especially due to the fact that content has become a company-wide function and increasingly core to any business. Communications used to be via a narrow funnel but now it’s bleeding out through numerous channels. The challenge it seems, is to create a strategy encompassing all these different elements and to make this process softer on your company should be to focus on possible digital PR opportunites for your company.

In fact, quite recently there was industry talk going round that the value of content through digital distribution could be up to ten times what it was five years ago. As digital content consumption becomes integral to people’s daily lives, it raises the question of what the best content is for a brand.

Additionally, the added challenge arising is that the recession sharpened finance director’s focus more closely on maximising the return on every penny spent, leading to fresh expectations that every piece of content be cost effective.