Name: Johna Burke
Email:
Bio: I’ve been in the media monitoring and measurement business for nine years, joining BurrellesLuce in 2000. How did I get here? I was a client. I was the PR and IR director at U-Haul International for nearly 11 years. Then I chose to help make my former peers more efficient and effective. I enjoy my role as a trusted advisor and am enthused to speak about best practices in public relations. My commentaries on the subject have appeared in PR print and web outlets. Currently, I chair the Southern Region of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). So what am I passionate about, aside from measurement? My family which includes my three “boys” (Boston terriers). By the way, did I mention that I am also a master at Seinfeld trivia? Twitter: @gojohnab; LinkedIn: Johna Burke; Friendfeed: gojohnab; Facebook: BurrellesLuce
Posts by Johna Burke:
- Are your metrics aligned with your organization’s business objectives?
- Are the key messages consistent across all media and communication vehicles?
- Are your key messages aligned with your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) efforts to ensure optimization of your brand?
- Do you have designated campaign landing pages to know what “call to action” is working or not working so you can adjust accordingly?
- Is your social media policy being honored? (A copy of the BurrellesLuce policy is available if you’re just getting started.) Is your brand being infringed upon online or in print?
Conan’s Newark Wings Clipped via YouTube
September 30th, 2009It often seems as if nothing is off limits when it comes to late-night comedy, but Conan O’Brien might wish he had drawn the line before he took a jab at Newark, New Jersey. He made the following comment on his show: “The Mayor of Newark, New Jersey wants to set up a city-wide program to improve residents’ health. The healthcare program would consist of a bus ticket out of Newark.” Cory Booker, Mayor of Newark, responded with this YouTube video.
A lot of public information officers (PIOs) struggle with how best to handle social media due to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Hopefully the actions taken by Newark will serve as a good case study and pave the way for other government agencies to participate in the conversation. I know I’ll continue to follow the tweets, videos and social media efforts of Mayor Booker, the City of Newark, and Newark International Airport (EWR) as these government outlets effectively take on social media and even network television as needed.
Mayor Booker tweeted that it was a “joke” – accompanied by this cheeky tweet: “just got call from the White House. Pres is inviting Conan & I to come have a beer & try 2 settle this. This could be a teachable moment.” I hope for Conan’s sake he can make the peace. If the tri-state winter precipitation is anything like the spring and summer this year I would hate to be banned from EWR for my travels.
If the City of Newark were your client, how would you have advised them after the Conan comment? Do you feel like the Mayor and City of Newark are demonstrating good media relations/public relations use of social media? I always appreciate your feedback and know that other BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog followers benefit from your feedback when you post here.
Fair game or “Brandjacking”?
September 25th, 2009
If you are a big brand name, you’ll want to hurry over to http://www.squidoo.com/ and see if you now have your own “dashboard” or “Unofficial Water Cooler” page on their server. If so, I definitely want to hear your thoughts.
Yesterday Advertising Age reported on Seth Godin’s new “Brands in Public” online aggregation system. It essentially takes Google content and some social media feeds (worth noting that all tweets and feeds do not disclose the screen name of the poster) and puts them into a dashboard. Seems harmless enough, right? Well, if you are one of the “hundreds” of brands now with an unofficial page – and Trader Joe’s is one – you may have a different opinion.
The Trader Joe dashboard was highlighted in the article so I naturally “had to see it.” The best I can tell, the real menace on the Trader Joe’s site is MeganCasey. As editor-in chief of Squidoo, she has commented in two separate areas of the Trader Joe page. Perhaps it’s because she’s an avid shopper and her feedback is sincere; I’m sure she does think: “This is a really cool dashboard of Trader Joe’s info and comments. Nice to see it all at a glance. Thanks for putting it together!” But isn’t that a bit self-serving since it is her company that created this unsolicited “dashboard” using the Trader Joe’s brand? The reality is each time this page is updated with a comment, including those by MeganCasey, the Google rank for this page increases.
I’d like to hear what Andy Sernovitz, founder of Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) thinks about the ethics of these dashboards. It would be interesting to hear from someone at TEKgroup, who could provide counsel to both Squidoo and the hundreds of affected brands about why RSS feeds aren’t always the best way to “showcase” of your coverage. And I’d like some of the great BurrellesLuce clients and PR minds to share how they would advise a client about a “ready made” dashboard.
It’s also worth noting that if these dashboards are a great service to brands, why isn’t there one for “Squidoo” or “BzzAgent” (the two companies responsible for the concept and content)?
Has Squidoo upset the balance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) as we know it? Or simply found a way to extort $4800.00 a year from public relations practitioners trying to be good stewards of their brand?
UPDATE: This morning Seth Godin sent out an “Adjusting as we go” post about the reaction to his “Brands in Public” idea. He stands behind the concept and positions it as a way to help brands and non-profits “be part of the conversation.” I’ve long been a fan of Seth Godin and respect him, so maybe this is just guerrilla marketing. After all, if he gets one hundred of the brands to send him a check that’s $480,000.00 to stream unfiltered RSS feeds. GENIUS!
Crowdsourcing: Research, Marketing or Public Relations?
September 10th, 2009
As many of you already know, “Who should manage the social media?” is an ongoing discussion among marketers, customer evangelists and public relations professionals. A recent AdWeek article describing how Vitaminwater will be “eavesdropping” on Facebook and Twitter to develop their next product is a classic example of why this is a spirited debate.
The Vitaminwater Facebook app is a three-part game. My first question: Does the online community have the patience to engage in a three-part exercise to yield a valid data? There’s the opinion about what flavor of water will be most palatable … and then there’s the reality. Will it taste good and be marketable to the mainstream? I won’t even weigh in on how 50 Cent and Carrie Underwood, both seemingly nice celebrities, will make the final decision. I mean, it is “Vitamin” water. Shouldn’t they have at least tried to enlist the help of the Big Brother Doctor, Will Kirby?
This campaign is getting some nice buzz on both Twitter and Facebook, but how will it ultimately fare? Will it be an interesting campaign like the Mountain Dew labs box this summer or will it be a runaway hit and yield record sales because it was “developed” by customers?
I know we have a lot of smart visitors to the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog so I want to know what you think. Would you classify Crowdsourcing primarily as research, marketing or public relations?
Is Your Media Measurement Program Vulnerable?
September 9th, 2009When was the last time you audited your media measurement program? Do you “think” everything is running smoothly or do you “know” how everything is going with your program? If you aren’t conducting routine audits of 
your program, trouble could be lurking that could injure your organization.
“Bridge inspection potentially saves lives” should be the headline, but outlets are reporting about how commuters are inconvenienced. Until the recent inspection of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, everyone thought the bridge was just fine, but an inspection conducted during the reinforcement process revealed a crack that needed repair. The California Department of Transportation had to communicate that the bridge would not open for yet another day.
As one can imagine, this message was not well received, even though it appears that a potential catastrophe was avoided. Commuters expressed frustration how their commute would be adversely affected, but quotes expressing thanks that the weakness was are few and far between. How will the headlines read if your communication program fails?
A communication audit can potentially save a reputation. Some quick quality checks to include in your audit:
A good media measurement program is very much like the bridge inspection. It is there to reinforce your efforts and identify weaknesses that may exist. Developing and implementing a solid program is your chance to show the importance of measurement to your C-Suite and identify ‘cracks’ before they become breaks in your program. Be assured that if you don’t identify weaknesses now, irreparable damage to organization and your brand may result.
Is there a crack in your media measurement program? Will you find it in time?
What Are Your Top Clients Worth?
August 24th, 2009I am always impressed by small business owners and their entrepreneurial spirit. Fortunately, I’ve been very lucky to work closely with many public relations agencies that I believe will be among those to survive as the economy improves.
Recently I spoke to a small agency owner who had just contracted with BurrellesLuce for three monthly Share of Voice (SOV) reports. (To find out more about SOV, read our white paper, “Do Share of Voice Metrics Matter in an Online World?”) He told me he was using the SOV reports as a value-add for his biggest clients. He advised me that he was using them to compare the outcomes of brand and project campaigns his team worked on for various clients.
When I dug a little bit deeper and talked to him about quantitative reporting (which is what this SOV report consists of) versus more qualitative reporting his response was, “Sometimes a thirty-thousand foot view is enough.” He went on to add, “My team provides other reporting, but this perspective of how we’re doing compared to competitors resonates with clients.”
I asked him how he persuaded his clients to add the service and he scoffed, replying: “There is no extra charge for my clients. This is an agency business expense.” He then revealed how his team further uses the reports – drilling down into competitors’ coverage to identify journalists and bloggers who are not currently covering his clients. This is a classic example of using public relations efforts to show value and hold on to top clients.
Are you taking advantage of everything you can to bring maximum value to your current and prospective client base? Are you downloading free whitepapers, like those provided by BurrellesLuce, and sharing them with your clients? Do you use the resource section of professional associations like PRSA? What are other ways you are leveraging your existing resources?
