HC+T Update: April 5, 2013
From:
"HC+T Update" <shel@holtz.com>
Subject:
HC+T Update: April 5, 2013
Date:
April 5th 2013
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The big news this week was the Securities and Exchange Commission's release of guidelinies for using social media to distribute company news. A hot topic since the days when Jonathan Schwartz ran Sun Microsystems and engaged with the head of the SEC in a conversation about the potential for blogs and RSS to meet Reg FD requirements, we're getting closer and closer to the day when a Facebook update or a tweet will be disclosure-compliant. There's too much to report about this for a Wrap summary, so you'll just have to wait for Monday's episode of For Immediate Release, where I'll report on it in detail. In the meantime, here are some other stories you might have missed. As always, I draw these stories from a larger collection I maintain at LinksFromShel.tumblr.com. |
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Items from the Holtz.com blog published during the last week:
Five approaches to real-time marketing that won't make you look like a dimwitted copycatBrands are tripping over themselves to duplicate Oreo's success with its real-time missive delivered during the power outage at the Super Bowl. Audiences don't want knock-offs of an original idea, as evidenced by the negligible levels of engagement most of these efforts are producing. But there are ways to be part of the real-time world that will resonate with your customers. I assess the situation and offer five approaches that in this post. |
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A summary of the items appearing in this week's Friday Wrap. (You can peruse the entire collection of articles from which I selected these items on my link blog at LinksFromShel.tumblr.com.)
Less liking, more sharing: the new Facebook mantraRemember when marketers focused all their efforts on getting you to like their page? Those superficial taps of the like icon became the holy grail of Facebook marketing. Not so much any more. The trend now, according to Adweek's Christopher Heine, is encouraging site visitors to share. "Whether people are sharing our content is an indicator we use to understand if we are going in the right direction," said Catherine Schenquerman, digital ad manager at JetBlue, whom Heine quotes in the piece. Heine also cites Ford's Scott Monty, who equates likes to the "digital grunts" of Facebook. "The like," Monty says, "as far as I'm concerned, is the minimum commitment you can ask from a [Facebook] fan. Likes, comments, shares -- it goes in that order of importance. Even the person who authors the first comment is like an 'ugh,' another digital grunt. I am more interested in the valu e of a share." In fact, Heine reports, "Facebook's news feed algorithm gives up to 1,300 percent more weight to shares than likes."Corporate tweeting benefits little-known companiesWe have heard the question hundreds of times: What's the ROI of corporate tweeting? For lesser-known companies, it can be huge, according to a study from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, which found that tweeting "measurably increased the market liquidity of stocks" that usually have a hard time breaking through the media noise. The reason? Those tweets find their way directly to investors. The study found that "bid-ask spreads narrowed significantly for lesser-known companies when they tweeted about their news," according to a ZDNet piece by Andrew Nusca. "Bigger companies that already enjoyed visibility didn't see any impact. In short, tweets helped level the playing field."Not many social roll-outs succeed, according to GartnerGartner, the tech analyst firm, says its research revealed that only 10% of the organizations undertaking social networking initiatives succeed. The result was based on a study of "social collaboration initiatives taken by 1,000 organisations around the world," writes ComputerWorld UK's Antony Savvas. Sasvvas quotes Gartner analyst Anthony Bradley: "Without a well-crafted and compelling purpose, most social media initiatives will fail to deliver business value. A provide and pray approach provides access to a social collaboration technology and prays something good comes out of it." Characteristics of a good roll-out, according to Gartner, include participant magnetism, community draw, organizational value, and promoting evolution (what your organization and the community can build on).More screens? More screen switching"The more screens you have, them ore likely you are to engage in media multitasking," writes Lucia Moses in an Adweek story. Time Warner's Medialab conducted the study, the results of which suggest that advertisers "will have to work harder to get and keep people's attention as they flit from screen to screen." On the other hand, "second-screen apps that complement the TV viewing experience can heighten people's response to the advertising and the programming." The study found that, during nonworking hours, digital natives switch platforms every other minute. For those nonnatives 35-55, the switch happens 17 times every hour. One result of this study I found particularly fascinating is that emotional engagement among people with multiple screens was higher when pairs of people were watching together, as opposed to a lone viewer.Criticizing a rumor-spreader publicly can change rumor-spreading behaviorsStevens Institute of Technology professor Yasuaki Sakamoto has found that "exposure to public criticism changes rumor-spreading behavior on twitter during disasters,"according to a blog post by Patrick Meier, one of Sakamoto's students. The study, "Toward a Social-Technology System that inactivates False Rumors through the Critical Thinking of Crowds," was designed to answer the question, "Can critical thinking be crowdsourced?" The answer: If there are some critical thinkers following a topic, their "timely criticisms can result in an emergent critical thinking social system that can mitigate the spread of false information." (The emphasis is Meiers'.) That is, exposure to criticism of the rumor you spread will reduce your intent to keep spread those rumors. The research suggests that "exposing people to criticisms can reduce their intent to spread rumors that are associated with the crit icisms. Exposure to criticisms increased the proporation of people who stop the spread of rumor-tweets approximately 1.5 times [150%]. This result indicates that whether a receiver is exposed to rumor or criticism first makes a difference in her decision to spread the rumor."If Vine and Instagram can shake up journalism, why not corporate communications?Photojournalists are using Instagram to shoot and edit photos that then appear in prominent positions in mainstream media. Most recently, sports photographer Nick Laham's shot of Alex Rodriguez -- third baseman for the New York Yankees -- appeared in the New York Times. Earlier, Ben Lowry "used his iPhone and Instagram to cover turmoil in Libya last summer," writes Leslie Meredith in Mashable, because it made it easier for him to get closer to his subjects. As fir Vine, the Twitter-owned app that produces six-second videos, the NCAA's Wolverines of Michigan set up an account and posted a video "showing the team's triumphant return to Crisler Center." Newer tools could find their way into the mix, like Funky, which includes filters and voiceovers for 30-second videos. It seems that media has recognized the utility of these apps for reporting. It can't be long before innovative communicators start finding ways to use them in PR.Hashtags and mobile, a match made in heavenOver half of consumers make use of hashtags, according to results of a study from advertising firm RadiumOne, but even more interesting is that nearly three-quarters use hashtags from their mobile devices. Those respondents said they were likely to explore new content and share what they found via hashtags if advertisers provided discounts. RadiumOne's VP of mobile, Kamal Kaur, told Bulldog Reporter's Daily Dog, "Hashtags implicitly reflect customer sentiment and are one of the most powerful ways consumers have to vocalize their tastes and preferences at scale in a real-time fashion." Another study finding: 41% of respondents use hashtags to communicate personal ideas and feelings. Interestingly, Pinterest has moved the other direction, removing hashtag functionality, according to Laura Thomas, even as rumors surface that Facebook will introduce them.Mobile ads will speak to youAn ad appears on your phone. You ask it a question about the product it's touting. It answers you. Sound far-fetched? Perhaps, but it's also a reality thanks to Nuance Communications, the company that gave us the language features of Google Voice and the iPhone's Siri. Three ad agencies have already tested the mobile ads, offered by Celtra, a purveyor of mobile rich media advertising, according to Joe Mandese in MediPost's Online Media Daily. Three ad networks are on board to distribute the Voice Ads format. "These are ads that you can actually have a 9limited) conversation with," Anthony Ha writes in TechCrunch, "potentially creating a much more interactive and fun advertising experience -- which is particularly challenging for mobile advertisers who have to work with limited s creen space."Bing and Klout, together at lastMicrosoft's Bing search engine will soon display social influence scores in the results of searches for people. The BtoB site notes that Bing has already provided information from LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter profiles in the results of a search on a person's name. Bing is adding Klout "to gain an understanding of the areas these people are expert in," according to the Binb Blog. Completing this circle of life, the more times an individual is queried on Bing, the higher his Klout score will rise. |
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Business is booming!I've recently finalized arrangements to provide consulting services to staffing company Robert Half International and to the International Monetary Fund. I may be announcing another deal or two in the next week or so. HC+T can help our organization communication more effectively, too. Give us a call at +1.415.881.7435. |
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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. Visit us at Holtz.com. |
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