HC+T Update: September 27, 2013

From: "HC+T Update" <shel@holtz.com>

Subject: HC+T Update: September 27, 2013

Date: September 27th 2013

September 27, 2013
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Back-to-back speaking engagements, both of them local and both of them covering the hot topic of social visual communication, gave me a lot of time in the car (to Mountain View on Wednesday and Sacramento on Thursday) to catch up on my podcast listening. In those drives, I listened to Freakonomics, This Week in Tech, The Social Hour, Six Pixels of Separation, Marketing Over Coffee, This Week in Law, How to Do Everything, and the SocialPros podcast. How about you? What podcasts have you heard lately?

This week on FIR

It has been a big week for FIR. We launched our new podcast as part of the FIR Podcast Network: FIR On Strategy with Andrea Vascellari. Andrea shares his advice for strategizing digital communication based on an adaptive framework. Neville and I are excited to add this show to the lineup that also includes interviews, book reviews, speeches, and other content. Listen here. On The Hobson & Holtz Report, we covered the Ghost blogging platform, Target's focus on earned media, how PR agencies are using LinkedIn, a live conference stream served up as a part of an online ad unit, some typography geekery, Weber Shandwick's report on "ingagement," the FTC's examination of native advertising, and a survey that reveals some boards of directors are connecting reputation and financial performance. Listen here.

I'm faced with another embarrassment of riches when it comes to stories, studies and reports published this week. As always, the Friday Wrap is made up of items that may have escaped your notice but are worthy of your attention. I collect the items I consider for the Wrap, the podcast, blog posts and other content at my link blog, LinksFromShel.tumblr.com. (Am I the only person who still has a link blog?)

15% of American adults don't use the Internet

Roughly one out of every seven American adults over 18 don't use the Internet or email, according to The Pew Internet and American Life Project. Among them, 34% say it's not relevant to them, they're not interested, they don't want to use it or they have no need for it, according to Pew's Kathryn Zickuhr. Another 32% are daunted by the difficulty of going online, either because it's frustrating or they're physically unable to use it, or they're too worried about concerns like spam, spyware and hackers. Smaller percentages can't afford it or don't have access to it. Among those who do use the Net, 9% don't have home access, many citing cost as the reason. These numbers are worth remembering if your company is convinced that traditional communication is no longer necessary when it's the only means of reaching 15% of your potential audience.

Word of mouth tops list of trusted advertising

Word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family are the most trusted form of advertising, according to 84% of consumers worldwide, with "owned advertising" -- that which appears on brand websites -- the second-most trusted source at 69%. The Nielsen study -- reported in Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog -- cites Nielsen's Randall Beard explaining that "Brand marketers should be especially encouraged to find owned advertising among the most-trusted marketing formats. This emphasizes the notion that marketers maintain the ability to control the messages about their brands in a way that consumers consider credible." It also suggests that maintaining a vital destination website has more value than a lot of marketers think.

Wikipedia errors damage brand reputations

Errors on companies' Wikipedia pages can damage their reputations -- a lot, according to a PRSA study. MediaBistro's Patrick Coffee notes that, according to the study, "59% of those familiar with the pages of their own companies or their companies' clients indicate that errors exist," and "28% of respondents believe these errors can be 'reputation-damaging,' while 38% who answered yes to that question believe that such mistakes have already taken their toll on the reputation of the company/client." If you've been frustrated by your efforts to get a Wikipedia editor or admin to pay attention to your request for correction, it's time to redouble your efforts.

A clueless 20% of companies still block Facebook

At least those 15% of Americans who don't use the Net won't feel like they're missing out if they work for one of the 20% of American companies that block employee access to Facebook. Statistics company Statista surveyed employers to find out which sites they block; Facebook came out on top. Twitter was second, at 15.1% and YouTube third, at 13.7%. Nearly 10% of companies actually block LinkedIn. "It should be noted that this study only draws from data collected among 1,021 half-time and full-time employees," which means it may not be comprehensive, writes TIME's Samantha Grossman. Anybody with a background in research knows that's most likely a valid representative sample. I continue to be dismayed at the practice of blocking employee access even as solid evidence continues to mount that it's a bad idea and counterproductive. Productivity goes up when trained employees with policies to guide t hem have access; market share increases and crises diminish. Can someone please let the CEOs of these companies in on the secret?

Fortune 500 flocks to Instagram

Of the photos posted to Instagram as of September 17, slightly more than 19,000 were shared by Fortune 500 brands with Instagram accounts. Competitive intelligence firm TrackMaven found 112 active accounts from the elite group of businesses. (Another 11 Fortune 500 companies have accounts with no activity.) For all the photos, however, these companies have posted on 243 videos, according to C|Net's Jennifer Van Grove. She also points out that "Videos see fewer interactions, defined as 'likes' and comments, than photos. The average photo receives an average of 37 interactions per 1,000 followers, while videos receive an average of 24 interactions per 1,000 followers."

Pinterest introduces article pins

Ever since Pinterest became a vital source of inbound traffic, I have made sure my blog posts include artwork people can pin. I have no idea how many others have tapped into Pinterest as a means of bringing people to text-based content -- it is, after all, an image-based utility -- but Pinterest must see some value in the concept. TechCrunch's Sarah Perez writes that the company has rolled out an article pin type, "designed to expand Pinterest's reach beyond those pinning photographs or product images linking to e-commerce sites to those also interested in saving and sharing stories they're finding around the web." These pins include more information, including the headline, author, a description of the story, and the source. The implications for communicators should be clear: Pinterest is now worth factoring into your planning for amplifying articles and other narrative content. And, given Pinterest's pop ularity, the idea of bookmarking articles could threaten longstanding services like Delicious.

Twitter becomes your emergency broadcast system

At least you won't have to listen to that annoying modem-like sound radio and TV stations play when they test the emergency broadcast network. Twitter has announced it will make sure users get special alerts from government and aid agencies during emergencies. If you sign up, you'll get smartphone notifications and SMS text messages "from any of several dozen agencies who have signed on to the program," Gerry Shih writes for Reuters. Among the early adopters of the program: FEMA, Tokyo's Disaster Prevention service and the World Health Organization.

Images spread on Google+ like fires spread through forests

As I write this, I'm struck by the fact that study after study these days examines how content goes viral, a field of study that didn't exist a mere decade ago. The latest comes from Trento RISE in Itali, where research Marco Guerini has "studied the characteristics of images that spread virally on Google+," according to an MIT Technology Review post. A key finding -- the spread of images have more to do with the state and connectivity of the network at the moment the image was posted, much as a forest fire's size is based on the connectivity of trees and not the size of the spark that ignited the blaze. The team harvested some 300,000 public posts from the 1,000 most-followed Google+ users over a one-year period, then studied "three indices of virality -- they looked at the way each of these posts was reshared, plus-one'd (equivalent to be liked) and replied to." They also categorize d images into groups like those with text and image-only posts. the results are intriguing. "Posts with fewer than 75 plusoners are more likely to contain images whereas posts with more than 75 plusoners are more likely to be text only." Why? "While it is easier to impress with images in the information flow...high quality textual content can impress more," according to the researchers. Comparing static and animated images, they noted that animated images "are significantly more likely to be re-shared while static images are more likely to be replied to or plusoned," according to the article, which contains a lot more information on which kinds of images provoke what kind of responses.

LinkedIn is offering native advertising

Even as Wall Street Journal editor Gerard Baker warns media companies of the risk posed by native advertising (calling it a "Faustian pact"), LinkedIn has adopted the practice as part of its big push into content. Known primarily as a recruiting resource (where most of its revenues come from), LinkedIn has transformed itself into a "daily destination to read, share and comment on news," according to USA Today's Scott Martin. As a result of becoming a key source of trusted business reporting, LinkedIn's pageviews grown almost 70% from this time last year. Among the companies buying sponsored content space on LidIn: automaker Mercedes. According to social media chief Mark Aikman, "They may be the closest to the current Mercedes-Benz buyer, and they represent the best opportunity." Lenovo also jumped onboard based on the desire to "get in front of...decision makers wi th specific responsibility for making those decisions for buying IT products," said Lenovo's social media chief, Roderick Strother.

New York lowers the boom on fake online reviews

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced a deal this week with 19 businesses that said they'd stop writing fake reviews and pony up more penalties that amount to more than $350,000 in penalties. The deal is the result of a year-long investigation in which state investigators posed as owners of a Brooklyn yogurt shop "in order to nab a handful of search engine optimization companies that posted positive reviews for clients," writes Patrick Clark in BusinessWeek. The collection of businesses caught up in addition to the SEO agencies included a teeth-whitening boutique, some laser hair removal spas, a strip club franchise and a charter bus company. Schneiderman says the investigation demonstrates the need to approach online reviews with caution. It should also serve as a signal to companies employing the dubious tactic, since the New York investigati on certainly won't be the last.

Forget the Social Media News Release; how about one made entirely of tweets?

Amazon's PR team announced its Kindle product rollout campaign in a series of 14 tweets, each concentrating on a different aspect of the new product. Accompanied by the hashtag #firedx, the tweets taken together formed a sort of 14-tweet press release, according to Patrick Coffee on MediaBistro. "With everyone talking (yet again) about the death of the traditional press release, we wonder how many more will follow Amazon's model. It's tough to fit all the information in a standard release into a tweet -- even 14 of them," Coffee writes. A traditional release was, of course, distributed as well.

I'm speaking about content marketing and gamification to IABC/Orange County on October 8.
I'll have a speaking slot at Ragan's Intranet Summit in Chicago on October 16.
I have three speaking gigs the week of October 20: one at the Canada regional IABC conference, one at The Mayo Clinic, and one at IABC's intranet conference in New York, held in conjunction with Prescient Digital Media.
I'm conducting a workshop November 6 at Chesapeake Energy Corporation in Oklahoma City, part of a three-day ragan conference on the role of communications in creating best places to work/
I'll present a webinar on December 4 for Lorman Education on social visual communication. It'll be available to the public.
Next February 6, I'll speak at an industry conference for manufacturers of Omega 3 products on crisis communications. The session is in Salt Lake City.

Does your team have the right competencies?

An Adobe study has found that more than 80% of marketing professionals are still getting their digital training informally on the job and only 9% feel fully confident that their digital efforts are paying off. "No one hands you a playbook on how to make it all work," according to Adobe's CMO, Ann Lewnes. How do you even know if your team has the skills and training they need to meet the objectives the organization has set? The answer: a competencies audit. For more information, email me at shel@holtz.com or give me a call at +1.415.881.7435.

Since 1996, HC+T has helped organizations communicate effectively in the emerging online space using intranets to reach employees and various dimensions of the Internet to communicate with other stakeholder audiences.

HC+T provides a full range of services for large organizations, from speaking and training to communication audits and strategic plan development.

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