November 2011

Broadcast media traditionally refers to television. It may seem people are spending less time in front of the TV these days. But with the media everywhere mentality, broadcast television still remains a viable part of media relations outreach.

In fact, broadcast is becoming even more important today because of its availability online – increasing shelf life and exposure of key content segments. “Today, broadcast is about much more than just television and radio. There is mobile TV, podcasting, web streaming, branded content, and ad funded programming,” confirms Weber Shandwick, a full service public relations agency who specializes in Broadcast PR. “In short, it is all about convergence between traditional broadcast outlets and the new digital kids on the block. A well thought out convergent campaign using the best of the old in conjunction with the best of the new will amplify your messages and give you an important voice […]”

With that spirit in mind, BurrellesLuce put together 5 tips to help you get the most out of working with television journalists and enhance your broadcast efforts.

Read more to discover 5 tips for working with TV journalists in this month’s BurrellesLuce Newsletter.

Recently I wrote a post, here on BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas, outlining key tips for integrating online video into your PR campaign from a recent PRSA-NY panel. For this post, I thought I would re-cap some of what I thought were the most compelling best practices for creating, marketing, and measuring online video content – as discussed at the event.

The event featured presentations from Joe D’Amico, PopTent; Jake Finkelstein, Method Savvy; Jonah Minton, Ustream; Mark Rotblat, TubeMogul; Eric Wright, DS Simon; Jim Sulley, newscast US; and Larry Thomas, Latergy.

It was followed by a roundtable Q&A moderated by Jason Winocour, social and digital media practice leader at Hunter Public Relations.

How to Create Online Video Content
Nearly 89 percent of journalist report that they regularly include online video content in their stories. But how can marketing and communications professionals create compelling video content?

Jim Sulley, president of Newscast U.S., had these best practices to offer:

• Understand who you are trying to reach. Who are your target demographics?
• Get the attention of the people watching. You only have 10 seconds to hook their interest.
• Shoot to script, don’t script to shoot. In other words, take the time to plan your videos and write a script.
• Create biscuits, little surprises along the way, and don’t give away the ending upfront.
• Be truthful. And remember, production values count.
• Entertain or DIE.
• Too much text is annoying for online video.

When creating video content, you will also want to get your online community, stakeholders, and agencies involved, as this with provide you with feedback and help you market your initiatives.

Joe D’Amico, vice president of sales, Poptent had this advice to share:

• Initially, your objective should be to create 30-60 seconds of video.
• Work closely with the PR agency and provide the agency with a variety of creative approaches.
• Consumer insight is vital. Direct consumer engagement and take advantage of strong social media outlets.
• Showcase performance – such as votes and comments received from consumer engagement.

How to Market Online Video and Measure Results
It isn’t enough just to create compelling digital video and push it out to your constituents. PR and marketing professionals need to understand how video fits in to their larger communications and branding strategy and report on those results.

Mark Rotblat, vice president of Sales, TubeMogul, provided these tips for marketing online video and measuring results:

• Brands must determine what are they looking to accomplish through their budget.
• Paid Media drives Earned Media.
• Paid video drives consumers to your site.
• Owned Media (e.g., a company website) – Video improves conversions for web retailers by 64 percent.
• Broadcast your video on popular public websites such as, YouTube, Google video, Yahoo video, and dozens of other user-generated sites.
• When social sharing always include clickable overlaps to Facebook Fan page and social media games.
• Use click-through rates to measures the value of the video.
• When reporting ROI, know who’s watching, where they’re watching, and what sites they are watching.

In my next post, I will examine how live streaming of video can enhance engagement and community participations, as well as ways to effectively optimize video content for online search, as discussed at PRSA-NY.

How do you use digital video to connect with your stakeholders and constituents? What tips can you provide for marketing and measuring the success of online video campaigns? Please share your thoughts with me here on Fresh Ideas.

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Bio: Alfred Cox is a rare commodity of a performer who combines a relentless drive to succeed with the ability to provide “first-person” touch to his clients, creating loyalty and repeat business. He has a hard-nosed work ethic in a results- driven environment and he is often called the “Network King.” Alfred has been in the PR industry for the past 18+ years and joined the BurrellesLuce team in 2011. Connect with him on Twitter: @shantikcox Facebook:  BurrellesLuce LinkedIn: Alfred Cox

Last week, on October 27, 2011, I had the opportunity to connect with industry professionals at the PRSA-NY panel, Successfully Integrating Online Video Into Your PR Campaigns.

The event featured presentations from Joe D’Amico, PopTent; Jake Finkelstein, Method Savvy; Jonah Minton, Ustream; Mark Rotblat, TubeMogul; Eric Wright, DS Simon; Jim Sulley, newscast US; and Larry Thomas, Latergy.

It was followed by a roundtable Q&A moderated by Jason Winocour, social and digital media practice leader at Hunter Public Relations.

Why Digital Video
Fifty-nine percent of Americans get their news every day from online and a mix of broadcast, radio and print sources. In fact, it is predicted that “by 2015, the demand for online video is expected to grow by 81 percent.”

Eric Wright, senior VP of marketing and business development, DS Simon Productions, Inc., offered additional insight on why digital video matters to the media.

• AOL Newsroom is now bigger than the New York Times.
• Journalist are using online video on their website.
• 79 percent will use more online video in their messages.

Interestingly enough, over 50 percent of journalists say that video is vital to their jobs and that HD is the most important format.

For these reasons, among others, it is imperative that public relations professionals use video to engage and build relationships with stakeholders, the media, and the community. However, PR folks have lots of homework before integrating online video in their campaigns.

Best Practices in Mobile Video
So what are some of the general best practices in mobile video?

Larry Thomas, president of Latergy, LLC, says that communications professionals need to understand that “mobile video is here to STAY.” From there, we need to

• Focus on the story and know our audience(s).
• Tell the story “simple.” In other words, be sincere, be brief, and be seated.
• Distribute to all platforms and screens – and have the stories play on multiple types of mobile devices.
• Make sure your story is visual.
• Leverage your web video assets to reach the rapidly expanding mobile media market.

In a follow-up post, I will be exploring best practices for creating, marketing, and measuring online video as suggested at the PRSA-NY panel.

In the meantime, what other general online and mobile video tips can you add? Please share your thoughts with me, here, on BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas in the comments below.

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Bio: Alfred Cox is a rare commodity of a performer who combines a relentless drive to succeed with the ability to provide “first-person” touch to his clients, creating loyalty and repeat business. He has a hard-nosed work ethic in a results- driven environment and he is often called the “Network King.” Alfred has been in the PR industry for the past 18+ years and joined the BurrellesLuce team in 2011. Connect with him on Twitter: @shantikcox Facebook:  BurrellesLuce LinkedIn: Alfred Cox

Even though the PRSA International Conference was my 12th in the past 13 years, I was excited about this year’s theme of Envisioning the Future of Public Relations. As I’m a PRSSA mentor and adviser, and vice president of BurrellesLuce Media Contacts, the future of the profession is close to my heart.

One of the sessions I attended was led by my colleague Johna Burke, on the topic of storytelling and its importance in this digital age. I came away with two pages of typewritten notes, but here are what I believe to be the key takeaways.

Burke began by stressing that storytelling is the core competency in the public relations profession, next to great writing. She talked about this being the “Web 2.0” of storytelling. No more is it just local library readings, storytelling festivals and other analog channels. We now have multimedia, hypertext, social media, user-generated broadcast, etc. Public relations professionals must leverage the art form — make your story compelling, make it stand out.

Blasting your message out to the masses is not the way to reach everyone. The most important considerations:

• Where is your audience? Target your story through the proper channels.
• What matters? Understand who your community is and what they want. 
• What is sustainable? Understand how your organization makes and spends money. Channel your resources in the proper way so that you aren’t wasting time and money talking where no one is listening.

In the spirit of being in Orlando, Burke referenced Walt Disney as one of the best storytellers of all time; he knew who his audience was. He knew that kids were his primary market, yet he recognized his secondary market was the parents (using allusions above the kids’ heads to amuse the adults). He also didn’t forget there’s always a tertiary market — audiences we may not have originally anticipated but who still matter and who take an interest in our stories. These audiences should be identified as they emerge. 

The key is to understand what your brand means. Being generic dilutes the message.

Public relations professionals must empower their audience by digging deeper, driving the story. She warns to beware of the desire to be the newest, coolest — using the “all sizzle, no steak” analogy. People see through this, and will not support long-time relationships, which is what you need. You do want to be relevant — visuals, videos, info-graphics are powerful, but don’t miss the opportunity to tell your story.

Tressa Robbins is vice president of Media Contacts for BurrellesLuce. Tressa is a regular contributor to BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog, a member of the St. Louis PRSA chapter, Champions for PRSSA section member, PRSSA mentor and Professional Adviser. She recently served as a panelist for the PRSSA National Conference and speaks at the local and regional level. Connect with Tressa on LinkedIn and follow Tressa on Twitter @tressalynne.

The history behind the 2009 campaign:

Over 50 years ago, a local department store advertised for kids to call Santa on a special “hotline,” but they accidently used the number for the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD). Col. Harry Shoup, received the first call and told his staff to put the rest through. They confirmed Santa’s location via radar, and the tradition of tracking Santa was born. CONAD is now the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and United States Northern Command (USNORTHCOM).  NORAD volunteers still take calls, but they also answer emails and respond to social media posts from kids all over the world who want to know when Santa will be coming down their chimney.

As of November 19, 2009, Stacey Knott, public affairs, social media officer, NORAD and USNORTHCOM says, NORAD Tracks Santa had 719 Facebook fans, and a minimal presence on Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn and YouTube. For the 2009 holiday season, they wanted to increase communication with their audiences, improve awareness, and drive traffic to the NORAD Tracks Santa website. Additionally, they looked to increase awareness of NORAD’s brand and mission notes Maj. Michael Humpreys, public affairs officer, NORAD and USNORTHCOM.

Results from the 2009 campaign:

• As of January 1, 2010, NORAD Tracks Santa’s Facebook page had 417,608 fans.
• 13 million unique visitors from over 200 countries visited the NORAD Tracks Santa website.
• The NORAD NORTHCOM Facebook page went from 447 fans on October 1, 2009 to 5,911 on January 1, 2010.
• As of November 29, 2010, there 17,579 likes for NORAD NORTHCOM on Facebook.
• The NORAD website typically has 1,000-3,000 visitors per day. On Christmas Eve 2009, the website had over 90,000 visitors and over 85,000 of them were unique visitors.

Preparing for the 2010 season:

NORAD Tracks Santa is a volunteer operation, so NORAD relies on many partners to help create the website, keep the website from crashing, and help strategize on other tactics.  For 2010, some local Colorado schools are helping to develop games for the website. And for 26 hours over the eve of Santa’s arrival, the command staff, families, and other volunteers will run the command center phones and monitor social media to answer questions. Martin says it has been a great way for NORAD/USNORTHCOM to spread goodwill.

“The memories of NORAD Tracks Santa are a real tradition in people’s homes,” says Knott. She goes on to say, you have to believe in Santa after you volunteer to help.

For social media, Humphreys says they decided to focus on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, where they have the most activity – although they previously had a presence on Flickr and LinkedIn. Since they post pictures to Facebook, using Flickr seemed redundant.  YouTube is the second most used search site, and they have a lot of activity on there.

All of the NORAD Tracks Santa social media sites and website are “family friendly.” Knott confirmed they spend a lot of time checking to ensure people are not posting mean, ugly posts, or profanity. In the video above, Maj. Martin discusses addressing issues on social media.

NORAD Tracks Santa’s Strategies, Tips and Best Practices—

• Link back to the main website as often as possible
• Have a consistent message across all media (mainstream media and social media)
• Encourage interaction by looking for questions and try to respond to as many posts as possible
• Further the conversation
• Interact quickly
• Have an engagement protocol and enforce it
• Be trusting
• Continue engagement throughout the year
• Post pictures and videos

Humphreys says success comes from constant engagement on social media. Martin adds that NORAD Tracks Santa continues mainstream media outreach to print and web publications and with satellite media tours for broadcast stations.

I know I have great memories of watching the news to learn when Santa might be coming to my house. Do you have similar memories?

The BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers would like to hear how you’ve taken an old program and made it fresh with social media. Do you have any tips to share?

This year’s PRSA 2010 International Conference was my 11th in the past 12 years. As the date approached, I found myself wondering if it was going to be worth it. Would I really learn something new?  Now that the Conference is over, I can report a resounding, “Yes!”

One of the sessions I attended was led by my BurrellesLuce colleague, Johna Burke (@gojohnab). She offered so many great tidbits of social media/media relations-related information that it would be impossible to include them all in this blog post. However, there’s one point that stood out the most to me.

Burke began by discussing the changing media landscape. For example, according to the Pew Research Center, some 44 percent of online news users get news at least a few times a week through e-mails, automatic updates or posts from social networking sites. You must decide where social media fits into the strategy, and how to take advantage of it.

She advises:

• Participate in the dialogue, but don’t broadcast.
• Messages need to work in tandem and support other messages. In other words, consistency is key.
• Communicate to the whole organization, not just the media. Who are your other audiences? Who are our stakeholders?
• Be where your audiences hang out online. Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are the “big three.”

So what about pitching via social media? Burke prefaced these best practices with her PR101 golden rule: everything is on the record!  She says, at the bare minimum, know what sort of journalist they are — print, online or “MOJO” (mobile journalist). You should also:

• Know what they are writing about.
• Think about how to build a relationship with them. Comment first, pitch later.
• Find a way to provide information without giving away the scoop.
• Tell them why they should care.
• Do NOT send multiple requests to one reporter/blogger on multiple platforms. (You don’t want to stalk them!)

Obviously, not all of the tips are necessarily “new,” but there were new applications of old principles, and some were simply solid media relations refreshers.

Tressa Robbins, vice president, Media Contacts, BurrellesLuce, is a regular contributor to BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog, a member of the St. Louis PRSA Chapter and a PRSSA mentor.  She recently served as a panelist for PRSSA’s National Conference and speaks at the local and regional level. Connect with Tressa on LinkedIn and follow Tressa on Twitter @tressalynne.

For more coverage on the PRSA 2010 International Conference: Powering PRogress, visit PRSA Intelligence, follow #prsa_ic and the Conference blog.

Flickr Image: lumaxart

Social media and traditional media coverage can work together to give you great media coverage and business results. At the Powering Progress: 2010 PRSA International Conference in Washington, DC last week, Michael McDougall, Bausch & Lomb, Catherine Dunkin, The Standing Partnership and Nicole Ravlin, PMG Relations, presented case studies and personal experiences backing this statement.

Example 1: The lively interactive hour included several examples and ideas for gaining coverage for clients. A recent well-known example is the Old Spice campaign, where Isaiah Mustafa, Old Spice pitchman, answers Twitter and Facebook questions via videos. The videos were timely and funny, and lead to huge amounts of mainstream media coverage.

Example 2: Many people were shocked last year, when Pepsi announced they would not advertise during the Super Bowl. Instead, they agreed to donate the money to charities, and the public could nominate and vote on where the money should go.  The Pepsi Refresh Project garnered Pepsi massive coverage via social media buzz, which lead to mainstream media coverage.

Example 3: Vermont maple syrup and bacon seller Dakin Farm has been able to trace the ROI to their social media posts. They started with a blog and then moved to video. Recorded with a Flip camera, the videos on their YouTube channel and their blog have significantly increased bacon sales. Ravlin suggested using these kinds of videos to show the broadcast media producers the camera-readiness of your spokesperson.

Example 4: As I’ve discussed previously on the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas blog, incorporating geo-location social media into a campaign is new and a struggle for some organizations. But Boloco, a regional burrito restaurant chain, successfully used Foursquare to drive business and gain print and broadcast coverage. Each location’s “mayor” was given a VIP card good for prizes. If a new mayorship is awarded, Boloco invited both the incoming and outgoing mayors to lunch for handing over the VIP card. The promotion drew the attention of local newspapers and TV stations, which lead to increased traffic and sales.

Boloco’s CEO John Pepper blogs tweets for the company and responds personally to customers on Twitter. PMG Relations often refers reporters to his blog to get an idea of his personality and philosophy. The panelists commented on the importance of getting executive buy-in for any successful social media campaign.

How are you using social media to help you drive coverage in mainstream media? Do you have any suggestions or tips?

Rick Mans believes this to be so in his blog post entitled, Why Companies Should Not Invest in Online Monitoring, featured on Social Media Today. He writes that “If companies really cared about what was going on, they would have invested in such a social infrastructure that complaints/news about their products and services would come to them in no time.”

He goes even further by stating “…monitoring tools are a poor man’s solution to engage with your audience… when you are in touch with your audience and your audience can find you and you have created a group of loyal people (brand ambassadors / evangelists) around your online presence, you won’t need monitoring tools to discover complaints.”

This runs counterpoint to a contention of the modern business age that all social media must be monitored in order to truly be in touch with all of your customer feedback.

However, I believe the point Mans attempts to make is that if the proper feedback infrastructure is created internally, then the monitoring of online media will only be redundant. Moreover, no news should be breaking in the world of social media that you shouldn’t have been made aware of and are already working towards either finding a solution or a way to profit from it.

In a perfect world this may be so. Even if companies create their own customer feedback rail network, they still must possess the ability to anticipate the response in the social media world in order to best deal directly with their client base. After all, if a customer truly cares enough, they will vent or praise in their preferred online outlet (be that Facebook, Twitter, or some other forum) regardless of whether a company maintains a presence there or not.

Thus, it is imperative that we do both – monitor online media and genuinely listen to and engage with constituents. That is why BurrellesLuce is working even harder to create even more tools to help you listen, manage, and respond to the activities taking place in both traditional and online news, social media, and broadcast. Stay tuned in the coming month(s) as we unveil new ways for you to effectively take charge of your WorkFlow.  

In the meantime, what do you think? Is it critical to incorporate online monitoring into the larger engagement funnel or is it merely a show put on by companies? How are you using online monitoring in your public relations and marketing efforts? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of Fresh Ideas.

Flickr Image: The Progressive

Lately I’ve been struggling with the social media paradox – is it good or is it bad? I use social media because it encourages me to be, well, social. You can keep in touch with your aunt halfway across the country, you can check out photos of your recently married ex-boyfriend (ah-hem), you can stay on top of current news stories, and you can even rant or rave about practically anything and cyberspace is forced to “listen.” Networking is also another plus for social media. One of my friends recently told me how he actually used Facebook to help out a friend who was laid off. The news came up in his Facebook feed, he contacted his friend for a resume and emailed it to a PR firm he knew was hiring. His friend was rewarded with an interview and an opportunity that might have otherwise gone unnoticed.

All of this sounds good, so what’s the bad? Well, there is a lot of question and doubt regarding social media in the professional world. For one, some companies are hesitant to learn about these tools and apply them to their strategies. Instead, they are blocked, strictly forbidden, and grounds to send you packing in the event that you’re caught sneaking a peek at your Twitter feed.   

I recently attended a BDI conference called “Social Convergence and The Enterprise” and my mind is overflowing with all these thoughts on social media. Paul Hernacki, chief technology officer from Definition 6, boggled my mind with his perspective on social media in the workplace. He advised that we “stop blocking things internally.” Whoa! Wait, there’s more. Hernacki pointed out that while public relations, marketing, and communications departments should guide your company as your “official voice” this alone won’t be as successful as getting your organization involved as a whole.

This, my friends, is genius. Case and point: I tried to explain to my dad, who isn’t familiar with social media, what “liking” something is on Facebook. You should have seen the blank stare on his face.  My point is, how can you expect your employees to understand the power and impact of social media if they are not allowed to be actively involved?

At the same conference I also had the pleasure of listening to Jenny Dervin, director of corporate communications for JetBlue Airways. When speaking of social media, her words “you are being watched” hovered over the conference room. After all, the conference was being broadcast live over the web and we were all watching a live Twitter feed (#BDI) of our comments.  Dervin went on to further explain JetBlue’s use of YouTube and their blog “Blue Tales” as part of their strategy for taking a crisis situation head on. How much more authentic can you get than having the founder and former CEO of JetBlue Airways, David Neeleman, deliver an apology over YouTube? Kudos to JetBlue for picking up on the fact that consumers are involved in social media and for using this medium as a way to interact.

When your employees know what is being said on social media sites or how this medium is being used to promote a product, service, or idea it can only help your company. For example, if I worked at a major automobile manufacturer I might find it interesting to know that Ford is promoting the 2011 Explorer by unveiling it first on Facebook. In fact, the Ford Explorer fan page reached their goal of 30,000 “likes” so Ford will now give away a brand new Explorer! Clearly, Ford understands Facebook and the users who frequently use it.

I’m not suggesting that your employees should do nothing but surf the web all day, but there should be a balance. Encouraging your employees to understand social media and to use it wisely is an important tactic for any business plan. There are a lot of studies discussing whether or not social media decreases productivity at work. In my opinion, before social media it was Solitaire, before Solitaire it was “the water cooler.” There are always going to be distractions. If an employee is consistently not doing their job they shouldn’t be an employee of yours.  Not doing your work is a choice you make, regardless of how easily accessible any distractions are.

Social media gets people talking. If you want to be a part of the chatter, don’t block social media, incorporate it.  I’m sure you have many thoughts on this controversial topic and we’d love to hear them. Share your thoughts with the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas. How does your company feel about using social media internally? What ways have you utilized this social media phenomenon? How do you monitor social media?

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*Bio: Prior to joining the BurrellesLuce Client Service team in 2008, Denise worked in the marketing industry for three years. She holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Connecticut, where she gained experience interning in PR and working for student organizations. By engaging readers on the Fresh Ideas blog Denise hopes to further her understanding of client needs. In her spare time, she is passionate about Team in Training (The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s charity sports training program) and baking cupcakes. Her claim to fame: red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. LinkedIn: dgiacin Twitter: @denise10283 Facebook: BurrellesLuce

Over the last few years, however, the rate at which we receive the news has been accelerating and, believe it or not, promises to become even more immediate. Some news organizations are applying extreme and sometimes controversial business practices to keep up with this increasing pace and to survive in the highly competitive online news space.

With more pressure to deliver content to their followers, organizations like Politico and Gawker are helping to ratchet up the intensity to an even higher level when it comes to reporting the news. Pre-dawn start times at agencies along with bonuses tied to the number of pageviews a reporter’s story garners are adding to the sense of urgency in which a story is posted online. Tracking how many people view articles online is becoming a higher priority not only at new media, but old media as well – creating an environment to see who can post the most exclusive stories the fastest.

As a result, when a major national story is in the midst of breaking news, the rules of engagement sometimes become a bit blurred, with more outlets favoring “cut and paste reporting” over actual journalism. Last month Rolling Stone magazine was about to post the General McChrystal story in which he and his aids were critical of the White House – first sending an advanced copy of the story to the Associated Press (customary for magazines trying to promote a story) with some restrictions. But before Rolling Stone had a chance to publish the story on their website, on their scheduled date, two major websites (Politico and Times.com) decided to post a PDF of the entire story to their respective sites.  

Although it was seen by some as a breach of copyright and professional best practices, both companies explained that they posted the story as it was unfolding. Since Rolling Stone didn’t immediately post the article itself they decided to move forward on their own.  Eric Bates, executive editor of Rolling Stone, didn’t see it that way. Voicing his concern not only from his magazine’s perspective but from an industry perspective, he called it a “transitional moment,” adding, “What these two media organizations did was off the charts. They took something that was in pre-published form, sent to other media organizations with specific restrictions, and just put it up.”

However, the exhausting pace of online news isn’t just taking its toll on the media organizations themselves. It is also coming at a price to the individuals supplying the content. The longer hours and added pressure to constantly come up with exclusive stories has contributed to an increased turnover of staff at online news organizations with more journalists facing burnout at a younger age. A dozen reporters recently left Politico in the first half of this year and it’s very common for an editor to leave Gawker after just one year.

While some may debate the future of the media, one thing is certain: The online media race is on.  I’m just not sure if slow and steady wins this one.

Do you think that the media and their audiences, are biting off more news than they can chew?  As a public relations professional, what do you think about news organizations bending the rules of engagement to keep up with today’s frenetic pace of news and how does this impact the way you conduct media relations? If you’re a journalist or blogger, how are you handling the added pressure of constantly having to deliver? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.

Flickr Image: xJasonRogersx's

Not long ago, there was little recourse for poor customer service.  Sure, you could bite your tongue while waiting in line or demand to see a manager. Really though, the only way to get your point across would be the old-standby, the “dissatisfied customer letter” sent to management. If you were lucky, you might receive a reply back with their apologies and a coupon for $20 off your next purchase of four new tires.

The emergence of social media now presents an engaging and provocative problem for customer service. A client’s recourse is now immediate and omnipresent. Companies better be on their toes at all times or they run the risk of angering the wrong person with the right medium.

In his Adage story “Are Major Marketers Training John Q. Public to Whine on Web?,” Michael Bush states that customers are becoming used to quick responses to their posted complaints. He goes further than that saying, “… magically resolving complaints broadcast to the world by social media raises a question: By rewarding complainers with lightning-fast responsiveness, are marketers training consumers to publicly flog them rather than take the discreet and often-frustrating route of calling customer service?”

So as a company, not only do you now have to respond quickly to an upset customer or risk their issue going viral, you also have to worry that in doing so, you’re just setting yourself up for similar actions down the road.

Your clients can now use their phones to tweet their dissatisfaction with your service while they’re in a line experiencing it. This is all happening in real time. While the days of mailing out an angry letter may be nearing an end, we’ve just begun to feel the impact of the angry posts: You neglect to monitor your company’s online profile at your own peril.

How has social media and online communications affected the way you interact with clients? Do you think it’s true that customers who complain openly in public forums receive faster and better service than those who choose to complain privately via letter, email, or telephone? Share your thoughts with the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.

Transcript -

JOHNA BURKE: Hello, this is Johna Burke with BurrellesLuce, and we’re here at the PRSA Travel and Tourism Conference.  And I’m joined by Muffy.

Muffy, will you please introduce yourself?

MUFFY STEINHOFF: Sure.  My name’s Muffy Steinhoff and I’m a co-executive producer with High Noon Entertainment based in Denver, Colorado.

BURKE: Great.  Now, Muffy, you did a session today for the PR professionals. Try to talk to them about how they can best work with the broadcast media. Can you share some of those tips with the audience here today?

STEINHOFF: Sure. I probably have to first tell you a tiny bit about what we do. We provide cable programming for many networks. We have about 15 shows going on right now providing for eight to 10 networks. For instance, “Cake Boss” on TLC and “Tough Love” on VH1, and a number of shows like “My First Place,” “My First Sale” on HGTV and a number of shows for DIY Network and Food Network, such as “Food Network Challenge” and “Unwrapped.” OK, sorry, I had to get that out there.

So what kind of things could I tell you? Well, one of the things that I was telling folks today is that when you see a show that you think might have a connection for your property, it’s probably best to contact the production company as opposed to the network itself. For instance, if you had a pastry chef at a property that you thought would be a good fit either as a judge or a contestant on “Food Network Challenge,” you want to see who the production company is. It’s a slate at the very end of the show, and you can see that in our case it’s High Noon Entertainment. You can go to our website, highnoonentertainment.com, and see who produces that show, and then you can contact them directly.  And the closer you can target your message to the right person, the better off it is. We find people all the time who say, `Well, we went to the network and they never put us in touch with the production company.’ We do a lot of casting; we’re looking for the people.  If you can bring people to us that would be a good fit, that’s–that works out well.

BURKE: Great.  And where can people connect with you in social media?

STEINHOFF: I am on LinkedIn.  My name, again, Muffy Steinhoff on LinkedIn.  And also my e-mail address, which is msteinhoff@highnoonentertainment–no, I’m sorry, msteinhoff@highnoontv.com.

BURKE: Great.

STEINHOFF: We changed it.

BURKE: Muffy, thank you so much.

STEINHOFF: Thank you.

Flickr Image: jjjohn

Media giants Time Warner, Viacom and Fox News Corp announced their Q3 earnings this week. If we look at these as a collective weather report, I would say the hurricane has definitely moved off shore and is giving way to partly sunny skies, with scattered showers in some regions. Compared to the abysmal Q2 earnings, resulting from a down economy and significant reductions in advertising spending, the Q3 numbers look encouraging, especially from the cable and theatrical divisions. However, DVD sales continue to suffer across the board with more people getting their movies online and increased competition from services like Netflix. Newspapers and network television continue to face many obstacles, mainly decreased ad spending…

Fox News Corp

• Theatrical divisions are holding strong with summer box office hits like Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, helping to contribute to a very healthy 11 percent increase in net income.
• The cable networks experienced a 41 percent increase in operating income led by Fox News Channel who saw their own operating income soar by 79 percent and continued to blow the doors off the competition with viewership 125 percent higher in the third quarter compared to its nearest competitor.
• Overall however, revenue was off by 4 percent – weighed down by slumping revenues from its broadcast division (down 7.7 percent), and newspapers and information properties, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post, (down 17.7 percent).

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010871.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Time Warner

• Reported a five percent decline in revenues compared to Q3 2008, brought down by low revenues at AOL, and its publishing and film entertainment divisions.
• Slowing DVD sales contributed to a 12 percent decline in content revenues.
• However……what a shocker….despite falling ad revenues they had five percent growth in their cable networks divisions lead by HBO and Turner Broadcasting.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118010871.html?categoryid=13&cs=1

Viacom

• Profits were up 15 percent, but overall revenue dropped 3 percent – still better than expected according to Barrington Research analyst James C. Goss. “They beat my expectations on the bottom line. Revenues were better, but cost containment strategies really helped.” (Daily Finance, 11.3.09)
• MTV saw their ratings rise while Paramount, its movie studio, saw worldwide theatrical revenue increase 16 percent over last year. This was due in part to fewer films and focusing more on the blockbuster. Star Trek, Transformers, and GI Joe all did well at the box office.
• DVD sales were also down, pulling worldwide home entertainment revenue down 21 percent. But moviegoers helped to lessen the impact. (See my earlier blog post.)

None of this comes as a surprise to me, nor should it to any of our loyal BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers. As stated in my previous posts, cable and theatre continue to be bright spots while newspapers and DVD sales continue to face challenges. It appears to me that content continues to be there for the media companies; monetizing it in a profitable way, in this ever changing world of technology and in an economy that is just starting to show signs of recovery, is the real challenge.

As the old Buddhist saying goes, “You never step into the same river twice.” The media giants seem to have come to this conclusion, but are looking for far less turbulent rapids in Q4 and 2010.

Tuesday night I attended VideoSchmooze, a panel discussion loaded with heavyweights from within the television, cable, and video industry. We heard from executives at Hearst, Comcast, NBC and BlipTV – all of whom attempted to forecast the uncertain future of broadband/mobile video marketing and technology trends, paid vs. ad supported business models, and what the key broadband priorities are going forward for these companies.

Back in May I blogged about TV being at a crossroads as more people watch videos on mobile devices, PC’s, and laptops and what the new model for television might look like going forward.

Well here we are five months later and the question still remains: “What is the best way for video content providers to maximize profits from this explosion in online viewing?”  The challenges that exist are many. If companies like Comcast are successful with the launch of “TV Everywhere” (providing content on multiple platforms for existing customers at no extra charge) by the first of the year, how will this “untethered content” be monetized? How do you prevent cannibalizing incumbent models that remain key revenue streams for media companies (DVD’s and syndication)? How do you accurately measure the viewership online and will the ads be more targeted to the viewer?

For any of this to be a viable option the panel agreed the viewers would first have to be authenticated as a paying satellite or cable subscriber; the content would have to be protected through some sort of DRM (digital rights management) to prevent the undermining of the existing revenue streams (DVD’s and syndication) and there has to be a way to attach an add value to this nascent technology.

The question I find most interesting is “Who will dictate this new model? Will it be the cable providers, content providers, or the consumers?” With all this background noise, one thing is for certain: content remains king at a time when consumption is coming from more “non linear” mediums (e.g., smart phones and laptops PC’s). I live in Manhattan where there is a choice of over 18,000 restaurants, and while I’m always game for trying a new place, I usually return to my tried-and-true – the place where the food is simply just better. I’m not sure how the content will be distributed in the future, but one thing I do know for sure is that whoever figures out how to get the premium content I want and in the way that I want it will earn my loyalty. I’ll continue to try the latest and greatest technology but will always return to the place serving the best content. And as they say, “where there is good content there is ad consumption.”

As a marketing and public relations professional, how do these trends affect you? Please share your thoughts with the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.

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.

More fuel will soon be added to this surge in online video watching as more content providers latch on to an already booming space. With more people cutting back on their cable subscriptions, 23 percent who watch TV and movies online are connecting their computers to their TVs and bringing web video into their living rooms. Big name content providers are taking notice and are positioning themselves to take advantage of this trend.

Netflix, through its “Watch Instantly” feature, already offers access to 12,000+ TV shows and movies on a variety of devices from content providers such as Disney, CBS and MTV Networks. Multichannel News wrote a story a few days ago of a rumor that “Netflix’s ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming service will soon be offered on Apple iPhones and iPod touch devices and the Nintendo Wii gaming console.” 1

YouTube recently decided to add a feature called “News Near You,” where they use the Internet address of a visitor’s computer to determine the user’s location, and if any “news outlet partners” are located in a 100 mile radius. If so, news sources that have agreed to become video suppliers display seven days of local videos. The site is promoting videos from ABC News, Associated Press and Reuters.

CBS, HBO, and Cinemax have all recently agreed to participate in Comcast’s “On Demand Online” trial (part of Time Warner’s “TV Everywhere” initiative) by providing online content to its subscriber base. “The trial is aimed at testing out authentication technology which asks pay-TV subscribers to identify themselves before allowing access to online content at sites such as Comcast.net.”

In an interview Tuesday, Quincy Smith, chief executive of CBS Interactive said, “The company thinks of this deal as a way to extend the broadcast universe online by marrying the reach and frequency of the broadcast business with the ROI metrics of the online world.” 2 This is a way to extend the TV economics online. The other three major TV Networks, Fox, NBC and ABC, are already providing shows and movies through online service Hulu.

Whew! That’s a lot of online content coming our way (Even BurrellesLuce is getting in on the act — We recently announced the addition of robust online video to our monitoring set). It certainly will be interesting to watch how all of this unfolds over the next year or two. This 24/7 smorgasbord of online videos is sure to cause a little indigestion, so please practice moderation and remember to unplug every now and then and read a book… Sorry, eBooks, using Kindle, don’t count.

In the U.S., fewer outlets report on unique stories leaving less for the broadcast media to cover. You see, much of what is reported by broadcasters is born in print. Why is this important? Because while I love social media and all it has to offer, I don’t want to tune into an anchor checking their tweets. Where’s the journalistic integrity in an anchor reading their Twitter feed? Granted, there is a lot of great information available via social media, but evil forces are at work – a la celebrity death hoaxes (glad you’re o.k., Jeff Goldblum) – and I want to trust my news provider.

In Germany, however, CNN provided straight reporting of the news. The anchor and field reporter interviewed real people related to the story. It was simple, but  interesting and compelling. I even enjoyed the cricket coverage. Why? There were interviews with real people who play the sport, who love the sport, and whose business was impacted as a result.

My frustration came to a head recently when John Roberts, CNN’s American Morning anchor, gave a look followed by “I’m just saying” three times in as many minutes. Really, John? That’s your job. You are paid to say things, so please ease off the slang. What’s next, Kiran Chetry shrieking “OMG” before announcing breaking news? I’ve been a news junkie most of my life, so to watch something I’ve long enjoyed suffer is painful.

Sadly, the news outlets are not alone in struggling to find their niche and that impacts our clients here at BurrellesLuce. On a daily basis, I work with public relations peers who face a similar identity crisis. In some cases. PR pros abandon traditional media and hastily turn to social media outreach when their core stakeholders aren’t in that space. While I always say everyone needs to be listening in social media, you need only be active if you have something to add to the conversation or your key stakeholders are there and you want to be relevant to your audience.

What do you say to the CEO who says “We need a Facebook page”? The same thing you would say to him if he asked for all communication to be delivered on stone tablets. You counsel based your audience and your overall strategy. 

Am I alone in wanting and expecting more from our news providers? Please share your thoughts and I will climb off my soapbox.

Thirty years later, we’ve come a long way with TV, but something tells me we haven’t seen anything yet…

With consumers’ media consumption habits seemingly in a perpetual state of change, TV is at a crossroads. To avoid risking a fate similar to other traditional media that didn’t react fast enough, TV executives appear intent on adapting quickly to the changing habits of their viewers.

During my recent trip to England, I came across an article in last week’s UK Sunday Times, “Can You Have Too Much Television in America?,” describing U.S. broadcasters as taking nothing for granted when it comes to viewership. The article goes on to say that, with the average U.S. home tuning-in for nearly seven hours a day, broadcasters are already working on the remaining 17 hours with a range of mobile TV services that promise live broadcasts on phones, laptops and in-car screens.

Upon my return to the U.S., I thought I would check the validity of the UK Times article with some hard facts from Nielsen. According to Nielsen, American consumers are watching more than 151 hours per month – an all time high – another three hours on the Internet and four hours using hand held devices.

Beginning with the official end of analog TV on June 12^th, with the conversion to digital transmission, the rest of 2009 is sure to bring some of the most revolutionary changes television has ever seen. Time Warner recently announced they’ve slated the second half of 2009 to begin a trial with several distributors for their “TV Everywhere” initiative (the ability to watch TV anywhere, on any device, at anytime). As of April 30, Disney finally agreed to join NBC and Fox as a joint venture partner and equity owner of Hulu, a website that offers commercial-supported streaming video of TV shows and movies.

The stars seem to be aligning for what should be an interesting metamorphosis of a medium that has been around for seventy years. It will be interesting to see where television finds its future niche. Will it be in a wave of mobile video, fueled by an explosion of device subscriptions (a staggering 257 million in the US)? Or will it be the home computer or laptop used by those who prefer to watch their favorite shows on something larger than a three inch screen? Or perhaps it will be the good old-fashioned television set, the only household appliance seemingly getting bigger?

For now the numbers support the notion that when it comes to television, the more things change the more they stay the same. Who knows they might even bring back the Star Spangled Banner. What are your thoughts regarding TV’s paradigm shift? The folks at BurrellesLuce and I would love to know.

Don Bartholomew recently wrote a post where he states, “While traditional media relations will continue to play a role in public relations programming, its importance and impact is shrinking…”  He goes on to say that, “The best PR programs today take a broad, holistic view of the various avenues to engage with customers and prospects – traditional media, social media, community involvement, grassroots events – and attempt to do so in ways the customer/prospect respects and prefers.”  He then quotes the declining numbers of newspapers.

Traditional media relations and pitching are changing but not as fast as some would like you to believe. I recently read a post where the tally shows there were more (Canadian) magazine launches than closures this past year. And historically, all the best PR programs have used a variety of means to get the word out. When I worked at Shandwick (now Weber Shandwick) as long ago as the early-mid ‘90s (yes I’m that old) we pitched the print and broadcast media as well as planned and executed community grassroots events. 

A good, solid PR plan still typically begins with a media database such as BurellesLuce Media Contacts but definitely doesn’t end there. New social media may offer you many additional pitching opportunities today but don’t dismiss traditional print media just yet! 

What avenues are you using to reach out to the media?  We’d love to hear your feedback.

On the broadcast front, one-to-one advertising is beginning to get more consideration, especially in these tough economic times. Canoe Ventures is in part at the center of this and is working to create on-demand, heavily targeted ads for broadcast viewers. While the technology seems to be in place it faces legal and social pushback. Either some of the restrictions need to change, or companies like Canoe Ventures may be “encouraged” to take a hint from Google and present a “do no evil” exterior.

So, we have two companies and two industries working on the same goal; getting an exact message to one person based on what is “known” about that person. From what I understand PR also strives to deliver a targeted message to a person based on what is “known” about that person. Is this another step towards merging PR with advertising based on up-and-coming technologies? This would seem to be backed up by wording that implies a blending of PR and advertising in an article a friend of mine recently sent me an article from Adage regarding Walmart’s rethinking their PR strategy. Is Walmart edging towards a new model for PR? And if so, could direct influencing be a part of it?

My colleagues and I at BurrellesLuce, would love to hear your thoughts.

*Bio: Currently I am the chief architect of BurrellesLuce 2.0, the portal used by thousands of PR professionals to monitor, share, organize, and measure online and print news. I started as a web developer for Merck & Company and I am an accomplished technologist with a focus on large scale system architecture and implementation. With over ten years of experience designing and deploying technical solutions for a wide range of companies, I most recently managed web projects for NBC Universal, where I delivered social networking applications and supported high traffic applications. Prior to that, I served as director of technology for Silver Carrot, a marketing firm, creating and delivering the technology that powered high-performance online campaigns. In my spare time, I enjoy reading about economics and anything that has to do with modeling social interaction and social media. LinkedIn: Jeffrey Barrett; Twitter: @BurrellesLuce; Facebook: BurrellesLuce