Are You “Allowed” to be “Social” at The Office?

February 9th, 2010
by BurrellesLuce Insider

by Crystal DeGoede*

 

Image: NBC.com

Image: NBC.com

Are you fortunate enough to work at an organization that allows, let alone encourages their employees to access and engage on social networking sites?  I have many friends that work in varying professions and industries and are restricted from accessing sites such as, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc. at work.  But that still hasn’t stopped them from updating their status and tweeting during the 9-5 workday. In fact, they are using any type of device they can to access their profiles. If organizations are worried about employee productivity, I would say, this takes even more away from productivity – than if the companies had simply implemented social media policies that allowed for allotted social networking time. But productivity isn’t necessarily the only reason or even the number one reason, for that matter, why companies don’t want their employees logging on.

So why are organizations banning these sites? In a recent survey conducted by British research firm Sophos, 72 percent of companies believe their employees’ activities on social networking sites could endanger their business’s security. Other data backs up that fear: The number of businesses that were targets for spam increased from 33.4 percent in April 2009 to 57 percent in December 2009, a dramatic increase in such a short time period.

Now that Facebook announced it has 400 million users, and is pretty much forcing users to make their profiles open to everyone, the security risk increases. In fact, Sophos, deemed Facebook the most potentially dangerous network, with 60 percent of businesses saying they believe Facebook presents the biggest security risk, significantly ahead of other popular social networks. It’s not just Facebook that poses a threat; I am sure that we all changed our Twitter password when a phishing attack was reported last week.

No matter what your profession is, most of us rely on social media everyday for advertising/marketing mediums, the ability to communicate with clients/prospects, colleagues and peers and most importantly how we get our news. For this reason, some argue that access to social networking sites benefits the company more than it poses a threat.  I would have to agree.

Here at BurrellesLuce, having access to these tools within the past year has made a difference in the way we communicate to our customers and prospects, the amount of information we have obtained and distributed, along with the relationships that have been established, among other things.

A HBR blog post “The Über-Connected Organization: A Mandate for 2010” by Jeanne C Meister and Karie Willyerd breaks-down a survey “WHISTLE – BUT DON’T TWEET – WHILE YOU WORK” conducted by Robert Half International on the importance and benefits of organizations being on social networking sites.

  • Access to social media improves productivity. According to Dr Brent Coker from the Department of Management and Marketing at University of Melbourne in Australia, workers who engage in “Workplace Internet Leisure Browsing” are more productive than those who don’t.
  • Millennials will seek jobs that encourage the use of social media. Those born between 1977 and 1997 — the ones you need to hire to replace the retiring boomers — are networked 24/7 and expect the company to accommodate pervasive connectivity. An Accenture survey of Millennial preferences for various technologies at work found that they prefer to communicate via instant messaging, text messaging, Facebook and RSS feeds.
  • Companies that provide access to social media create a more engaged workforce. Take the case of Cerner Corporation, the health IT firm. In 2009, Cerner implemented uCern, a corporate social network. In 2010, it will extend this social network to its customers and suppliers.

So what does all of this mean?  Social media needs to be embraced now by those organizations that can benefit from it.  Employees need to be aware that using Facebook or Twitter at work is a privilege and rules established to prevent its abuse. And precautions need to be taken to ensure safety. If you are using social networks, strengthen your passwords (PasswordMeter.com is a great resource that can help you assess the security of your passwords) and change them often; don’t click on a link that doesn’t look right or is not from a trusted source. With all parties in agreement and working together, there is nothing to fear. 

What would you do if your company suddenly restricted access social media?  How would you argue that the benefits outweigh the risks?  How has social media helped your overall communication plan? If you are one of those that doesn’t have access, being able to participate in the conversation would benefit the organization you work at? 

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The More Things Change, The More They Stay the Same

February 8th, 2010
by Tressa Robbins
Flickr Image: David Reece

Flickr Image: David Reece

Now that 2010 is well underway, I thought it would be interesting to go back and read some articles and posts from the past couple years to decipher what’s changed in the realm of media relations. 

I was a little surprised to find that not much has really changed!  (Not entirely surprised as this was what I suspected.)

Your target media now may not be just traditional media but also bloggers, ezine/webzine editors, streaming webcast producers, and freelance writers. However, the qualities or traits that define good media relations have remained essentially the same: Before preparing your press release, do your homework and familiarize yourself with the chosen topics as well as recent writings of your target journalists and bloggers. Then do some additional checking to ensure that your intended audience is also the audience for the media you’re about to pitch. (BurrellesLuce 2009 whitepaper “New Rules for Media Relations”)

In early 2009, Jeremy Porter conducted interviews with PR professionals in an effort to gauge what the biggest challenges were in dealing with the media. The results shared on his Journalistics blog could have been written today!  Some of the challenges included were:

  • Having accurate media contact information – keeping up with ongoing changes
  • Breaking through filters to reach the right contact, at the right time, with just the right information
  • Leveraging new media like Twitter in appropriate ways
  • Having better access to what journalists are writing about and what information they value most
  • Measuring the value of media outreach and placement – beyond impressions, release pickup and ad value
  • Developing more effective processes for media relations – moving away from one-size-fits-all pitching

With the exception of Twitter, this sounds like the same challenges we had 15 years ago when I was working at a St. Louis PR agency.

I’m not oblivious to the fact that public relations and the media are changing in some ways (that may be the topic for a future post), but in many ways it seems that the more things change, the more they stay the same.  Am I wrong? What similarities or changes have you seen occurring in the world of public relations and media these past few years?

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Meeting and Conversing: Real Life vs. Online

February 5th, 2010
by BurrellesLuce Insider

by Colleen Flood*

Flickr Image: jaffry, grace and eliza

Flickr Image: jaffry, grace and eliza

While attending a luncheon in NYC yesterday, I initially sat at an empty table with a colleague from BurrellesLuce.  We sat across from each since we are often together and had just had a lengthy chat in the cab ride over.  A very nice person came and sat to the left of me and we started chatting.  I learned about her business, what types of clients she worked with, where she lived and where she has lived, among other things. I also met the person to the right of me and learned her interesting story as well.  I found this sort of face-to-face engagement to be very different from my most recent online networking situation.

First, let me start by saying that using social media as a networking tool is all pretty new to me still. (I have yet to network on #journchat or some of the other networking areas available online, but look forward to getting involved in the future.)  However, the Twitter networking event that I did participate in, while interesting and informative, was very fast-paced and, at least for me, also very limited as far as networking opportunities.  I could not really get to know the attendees in the way that I would have liked.  I met some very interesting people online, don’t get me wrong, but did not take much away from this initial experience.  Perhaps I need to network more online or become more immersed in the social media universe to really feel and establish the sort of connections that physical industry events provide. 

I think part of feeling a lack of connection can be attributed to feeling as though my online relationships are not real and I often find myself becoming shy towards my online contacts. (And I am guessing, that I am not alone and that others may feel similar.) I can almost compare this to email vs. picking up the phone.  I like to talk to people so I will often call a colleague or client to converse about a business matter.  However, I find many people have gotten away from this and instead request an email. While email is a wonderful thing and I could not live without it, I have determined that much of the business I do could be done more efficiently and effectively with one simple phone call rather than a string of six emails back and forth.  Maybe I’m old fashioned but a conversation whether it’s face-to-face or on the phone helps me to connect and form much more intimate bonds.   

Even so, I am thankful for the relationships I have made online. I would likely never have met these people if it weren’t for social media events and look forward to meeting them in real life someday.  I do think once I become more immersed in online networking/friendships I will be able to keep up my contacts easily through systems like Twitter.  I’ll know more about people by following them and seeing their updates. In the end, social media can be a very powerful and effective tool – helping me build and maintain relationships – but it is just one tool in a much larger communication toolbox.

What are your thoughts on online vs. real-life networking? Do you think one necessarily replaces the other? How do you establish and maintain good relationships regardless of the medium?

*Bio: Colleen Flood has been a sales consultant with BurrellesLuce for over 12 years and is eager to become a more integrated part of the social-public relations community. She primarily handles agency relations in the New York and New Jersey metro-area. She is not only passionate about work, but also about family, friends, and the Jersey Shore. Twitter: @cgflood LinkedIn: Colleen Flood Facebook: BurrellesLuce

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Is “Automated” Costing You Results?

February 4th, 2010
by BurrellesLuce Insider

by Carol Holden*

Flickr Image: ohad

Flickr Image: ohad

Among all of the lists of trends and predictions for the industry in 2010, as the person in charge of BurrellesLuce Media Measurement custom, Sentiment Analysis (aka tone) jumps to the top for me. Even as more social media monitoring companies add new measurement tools, the question regarding accuracy continues to linger.

In thinking about how to work with a sentiment analysis tool the analogy with online banking comes to mind. Would you continue to pay your bills online or use an ATM if you knew you lost 30 cents for every dollar you spent? Certainly 70 percent accuracy is not good enough for my money. How can it be good enough to reflect the hard earned efforts of an ongoing PR program, which ultimately comes down to money as well? How much staff time would you still need to invest in the sentiment results to make up the difference lost? And how would you pinpoint the percentage of stories that need human review or would you ultimately have to re-review everything?

Forester Principal Analyst Suresh Vital raised some interesting points involving the maturity of sentiment analysis in a recent article on Destinations.com. The most telling point: in talking with his clients, who have deployed some form of sentiment analysis, accuracy rests at about 50 percent.  “In the near term,” Vital says, “human intervention will still be necessary.”

Automated, hybrid, all-human-judgment, please share your experiences in judging the sentiment of your coverage. What is good enough and what can you afford to miss out on?

*Bio: I’ve been in the media business all of my adult life, first in newspapers before going full circle and joining BurrellesLuce, where I now direct the Media Measurement department. I’ve always enjoyed meeting and especially listening to the needs of our customers and others in the public relations and communications fields; I welcome sharing ideas through the Fresh Ideas blog. One of my professional passions is providing the type of service to a client that makes them respond, “atta girl” – inspiring our entire team to keep striving to be the best. Although I have been lucky enough to travel through much of Asia and most major U.S. cities for business or pleasure, my free time is now spent with my daughter, visiting family/friends, and of course the Jersey shore. Twitter: @domeasurement LinkedIn: Carol Holden Facebook: BurrellesLuce

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Do-se-do Your Partner

February 1st, 2010
by Johna Burke

In Virginia, one of the highlights of the fourth grade was the annual square dance. We practiced “our moves” for weeks, got just the right plaid outfit, and when the event arrived we were all in top form to do-se-do our partners. In many respects, minus the plaid, social media is the communication do-se-do equivalent. If you’re “free-styling” too wildly people may watch, but it’s hard for them to partner with you.

Seatle Municipal Archives

Flickr Image: Seatle Municipal Archives

Long before there was social media there were sewing circles. These communities influenced decisions and trends by their power of conversation. Last week the Craft and Hobby Association Winter Convention and Trade Show reminded me that good communication, no matter what the platform, yields results if you move in tandem with your audience (partner).

  1. Have a clear understanding of your brand and your value statement for your audience.
  2. Listen to your audience and understand what they want and/or need from you.
  3. Engage to provide clear messages and value.
  4. Measure your successes and failures.
  5. Make adjustments to further build on your strengths.

Granted, I was influenced by the bedazzled smocks and aprons, but was truly amazed at how smoothly these communities have integrated online socialization into their face-to-face roots. (I’m very thankful at BurrellesLuce we are fortunate to have an engaged social media team, enthusiastic bloggers, and amazing client advocates who have made a similar smooth transition of their relationships.)

There have been at least a hundred new mainstream dance moves since I was in the fourth grade, but, like with crafts and hobbies, the classics live on forever. The evidence is in this video of children doing the Virginia Reel at the 2009 Kala Ghoda Art Festival in Mumbai, India.

Do you have a social to online success story you’d like to share? What classic core competencies do you attribute to your success? How have those skills attributed to your success in social media?

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