Creating Communities: Quantity vs. Intensity?

It’s fascinating to watch how different companies attempt to harness social media to create what Seth Godin describes as tribes.

Clearly there are many benefits to organisations creating online communities and engaging with their customers and potential customers via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter – the most obvious being that communication is interactive, direct and instant.

One school of thought says its best to amass huge tribes (some companies by virtue of their brand power are able to do this anyway). Coca Cola’s Facebook Page for example, has some 3,773, 653 fans. But does size really matter, or is it more important to have a small, but highly interactive tribe?

Blue Dog Photography is one example of a small company who has created an engaged tribe. This photography training company is run by commercial photographers Danielle and Nick Lancaster out of Tamborine Mountain, in Australia’s Gold Coast Hinterland. Their Facebook Group page is relatively new and small – about 250 members. I joined the group after attending some Blue Dog workshops this year.

Blue Dog Photography - tribe-building via Facebook

Blue Dog engages with its workshop participants by offering a weekly photo competition. Open only to people who have attended a workshop, this competition instantly creates a feeling of exclusivity. Participants are asked to list the camera settings of the shots they submit, which promotes ongoing learning and information sharing. Members are invited to comment on each other’s photos, which promotes much discussion amongst the group, and is leading to the formation of many new Facebook friendships.

 Blue Dog lists details of upcoming workshops and retreats so that group members are always aware of when the next event is on – but it never feels like a sales pitch. You can practically hear the cheers from the community each time new workshops dates are announced. More recently, Blue Dog started posting daily updates from its photography tours on Fraser Island and Vanuatu. What better PR than to have happy customers posting amazing pictures to their Facebook and Flikr profiles, and the photo album on the Blue Dog page.

From a customer perspective, the regular interaction between the Lancaster’s and their “customers” (who they more frequently refer to as friends), is really valued. They converse online with the same friendly, professional approach they adopt in their workshops, so the “Blue Dog experience” is consistent wherever the interaction takes place. Blue Dog uses Facebook to provide advice and commentary on people’s images, regular tips about photography via the Blue Dog blog, links to photographic exhibitions, and information that is generally useful to their growing base of fans.

From a marketing perspective, it’s a positive example of how a relatively small business can engage instantly, regularly and cost effectively, with its clients and prospective clients. Importantly, it demonstrates that tribes don’t have to be huge to be effective. In the case of Blue Dog Photography’s tribe, intensity is definitely winning out over quantity.

Melanie Surplice has more than 12 years of experience in international BtoB marketing communications and is a former public relations professional. She is a part time Report Writer in the Dow Jones Media Lab based in Australia.

I Use Facebook, Hear Me Roar

As an officer for a certain women’s business group, I created and subsequently was asked to remove a Facebook group, as it was deemed an “inappropriate social media channel.”

This made me think: Are women’s business organizations missing an opportunity to connect online?

Facebook touts more than 300 million active users, with 50% logging on in any given day. Among US users, women outnumber men in every age group. The gap is most notable in age groups that correspond with prime career years: 26-34, 35-44, and 45-54. Women outnumber men by more than 2 million in each of these groups. In the US alone, that’s nearly 7 million more women than men potentially in the prime of their careers.

So why wouldn’t professional organizations want to reach women through this channel? Using MainStreet.com’s Top Women’s Organizations and PINK Magazine’s Favorite Women’s Business Organizations, plus a smattering of personal favorites like 85 Broads, I compared 62 women’s organizations and their presence on Facebook with LinkedIn, the traditional source for online business networking.

Encouragingly, more than three-quarters of organizations researched have some social media presence, and a slight majority maintains a presence on both Facebook and LinkedIn. There doesn’t seem to be any theme about what “types” of organizations fall into each category – nationals vs. regionals, for example. The only potential stand out is with ethnic women’s organizations. Of the four included, none fell into the “LinkedIn only” category.

Most orgs are on both Facebook & LinkedIn

For organizations with a presence on both channels, there appears to be a positive correlation on group size: the bigger the Facebook group, the bigger the LinkedIn group, and vice versa. So it would seem members aren’t flocking to one channel over the other. LinkedIn groups are usually better populated than Facebook groups at present – this could be accounted for by the fact that LinkedIn is a bit longer in the tooth.

Groups are better populated on LinkedIn, but not always

So what does all this mean for women’s professional organizations, and the use of channels like Facebook for business networking? First, you can successfully promote and recruit members through more informal networks, but you shouldn’t pick one over the other. A good social media strategy combines interesting content and awareness efforts across multiple channels. Click here to see the full list of organizations we reviewed and which seem to be following this best practice.

Jennifer Hoffmann is Manager of Customer Engagement at Dow Jones and is based in New York City.

Why does measuring social media in a recovering economy matter?

Corporations hobbled by dwindling budgets in an economic downdraft should consider disregarding ROI on their social media measurement programs (at least for now), and instead think of it as another cost of doing business. Most corporations are still slow to molt or modify their “time-tested” PR programs to evaluate their performance in traditional media, much less the Wild West of social media.

What is perhaps more critical at this juncture is to start understanding some of the rudimentary rules of the road while it’s in its infancy, especially with respect to guard rails and hazard signs. Indeed, as the rules and tools of old school PR shift as social media continues to eclipse traditional media outlets in terms of sheer volume, engagement in the era of Web 2.0 will be more important than standard PR metrics, such as messaging and impressions, which is a suspect metric by many even for traditional press outlets.       

There are many more questions than answers at this nascent stage of measuring the ROI of social media  — and there’s no time to wait for PR wonks to hold scores of social media summits to build consensus, but one thing is clear: the new medium poses risks … and opportunities. Achieving ROI results isn’t worth waiting for when the value proposition for measuring social media is instantaneous awareness.

It’s perhaps more imperative now than ever to monitor discussions on blogs and message boards about products/services, reputations and brands, as corporations in nearly every sector have dialed back their spending on their traditional marketing and PR/corporate communications mix, and are now devoting more time and resources leveraging social media to convey their messages and to promote campaigns.

And, yes naysayers, when it comes to social media, you can manage what you cannot measure. Companies that are savvy about understanding how they are being positioned against their competitors in a down economy are more likely to (1) have a handle on increasingly heavy traffic on social media sites (2) quickly react to the likelihood of unfavorable attention when companies across all industries are under pressure (3) manage the greater potential for unfavorable coverage as the tendency toward negativity in social media intensifies in a cratering economy (4) tap into a comparatively low cost highly accessible way to drive messages by stakeholders who are no longer first adopters.

Brian Panton is a quality assurance specialist and report writer in Washington, DC.

Changing attitudes on Social Media in Russia

Many PR and communications professionals I met in Russia are still very cautious about the social media and its benefits. Internet usage in the country is still significantly lower than in the Western Europe and the US. According to the research by the Public Opinion Fund, only 35% of the population were using the Net in summer 2009 though there is a growing trend of low-income citizens getting access in the past year. Another barrier is a large number of agencies offering evaluation of the blogosphere with relatively limited knowledge about the social media and how it can improve customer engagement and become a tool for defending company’s reputation. Financial and time resources also pose limitations. But perhaps conservatism and fear of change are the decisive factor.

 A press-secretary of one the top Russian oil companies which also owns petrol stations across the country said that the CEO hardly used Internet or email in his work. He was unlikely to be interested in evaluating the company’s social media coverage. However, the press secretary started preparing fortnightly two-page reports about company’s mentions in blogs and forums. Eventually he discovered that social media provided an invaluable feedback about the operations at petrol stations and the quality of service that influenced company’s image. The reports became a vital tool for the company. Now they go straight to CEO and other top managers weekly, allowing for timely decision-making and keeping them being ahead of the competition.

 Last winter I was talking to a Director of Communications of one of the leading Russian mobile providers. The guy was in his early thirties, very knowledgeable about the latest technologies and new gadgets. But when we started to discuss social media, he cut me short: “The social media evaluation in Russia is of no value for us and it is not going to be for the next 10 years”. Fortunately, many PR professionals in Russia are taking a different stance on social media as they see the benefits brought by monitoring and analysing it. They find different ways of introducing their management to the social media.

Perhaps the most important thing for the companies looking to evaluate their social media presence is being open-minded and creative. Monitoring and evaluating social media can be used as radar to prevent PR disasters and blows to company’s reputation, as product feedback or as a source of quotes to publish in the corporate magazines. But more importantly it will increase the transparency and engagement with the customers. “The power is with people…People will judge you, your company, and your brand. Reputation management requires new skills in this radical transparent world” (Andy Beal, Judy Strauss “Radically Transparent). I believe Russian attitudes toward to blogs and forums will change and it will become an invaluable tool for PR and comms people in Russia in the near future.

Fighting the urge to scratch your itch

It is easy to lose sight of the important fact that disparate groups compose a brand’s social media landscape.

Social media users put important parts of their identity on display.  And when one’s identity has a stake in something, emotions will be involved. A Facebook user might join a fan page of a product simply because it’s cool, and a Twitter user motivated by a sole bad experience might suddenly complain about it. But the sort of complaints one might see on a forum dedicated to a community with strong preexisting beliefs about how a product or service ought to be will be of a whole different intensity.

For instance, popular novelist Dan Brown can count 97,000 fans on his official Facebook fan page and hundreds of related user-created pages, and it is not likely that many will be critical of him. On the other hand, forums or blogs dedicated to writing will likely be hotbeds of harsh criticism of his work.

Part of the established social media landscape around your brand may have engrained beliefs about your product tied to the community’s identity and perhaps even be the reason for a particular group’s existence. In this part of the blogosphere it’s more likely that a criticism will be tied into how the critics perceive their group, and so it may often be the case that the group is emotionally invested in advocating against your brand in a way that a disappointed customer might not.

These criticisms are likely not based on anything you could or wish to change but rather based on their beliefs about how things ought to be done. Nor is the group likely to be visible or influential to your target customers. As such it may be better to watch the group to see why their criticisms matter to them, or for ideas that may improve your products or services, rather than engage these critics.

As you identify groups that matter, you’ll likely find that existing social media channels such as MySpace and Facebook give you the mechanisms to grow the positively disposed but disparate communities where you can steer potential clients while further isolating the echo chambers of your harshest critics.

New Ways to Engage the Media Webinar

Our Asia-Pacific team is hosting an hourlong webinar on Nov. 5 to discuss trends and share case studies on the complex media landscape and new ways of engaging the media and stakeholders.

There’s a great lineup of speakers including, Carlos Tejada, Asia news editor, The Wall Street Journal; David Meerman Scott, Marketing and Leadership Speaker; and Lars Voedisch, Regional Head for Media Intelligence in Dow Jones Asia Pacific.

Registration is free. Sign up by Oct. 30 to learn about:

• Best practices in engaging the media. A viewpoint from Wall Street Journal Asia
• New Technologies, Social media and recent trends in media engagement
• New Dow Jones offerings that fit into the engagement process

The Convergence of PR and Marketing

Alan Scott, the CMO of Dow Jones’s Enterprise Media Group, and I have spent a lot of time over the last few years talking about the future of our professions. Both of us agree that social media is significantly changing the way that enterprises must engage with stakeholders, and that affects the way in which both PR and marketing are practiced. Alan’s view is that the two professions are rapidly converging. I feel that PR needs to lead the way in social media efforts, because our strength is in two-way communications. Our conversations tend to be lively, not because we disagree, but because we’re both so passionate and excited about the opportunities that social media presents.

If you plan to attend PRSA’s International Conference in San Diego from Nov. 7-11, you can join the conversation Alan and I have been having. On Monday afternoon, Alan will be leading a session titled: “Social Media: Welcoming Employees to the Global Conversation.” He’ll discuss how social media is creating a significant opportunity for PR to lead a converged marketing and PR discipline into a new era of marketing, centered around global conversations.  He’ll share his thoughts and best practices on how communicators can engage their employees and other stakeholders by applying the new rules of marketing and PR.

More information on the conference is available at www.prsa.org/conf2009.

For readers of our blog, we’re offering a discount on registration. Use code ITC9DWJ when you register, and save $100! For discount details and to register go to http://www.prsa.org/ic2009/partners/dowjones.

Diane Thieke, @thiekeds

For Social Media, it’s all about Facebook – or is it?

Or: You can’t outsource your communications strategy!

Lately studies showed that Facebook (FB) is now the world’s largest Social Media network – so an easy decision on where to put your resources and start your organization’s Social Media initiatives? Well, many of those articles announcing FB as the winner only looked at a handful of ‘global’ networks (e.g. Myspace, Friendster). So yes, in absolute terms, FB is bigger than the likes of MySpace. But does that actually matter? Maybe – because it is easy to focus on simply one platform or network to effectively use your resources to achieve your communications or outreach objectives.

Talking about this: if your target market is Korea, maybe you should rather look at Cyworld; for China – don’t ignore Xiaonei/Renen, Kaixin or 51.com; in Japan, better consider Mixi (sidenote: did you know that over 50% of users access the service via mobile devices?)…  Or if Twitter is the buzz you want to follow – have you considered that in China alone there are four very popular local Twitter-like services (some would call them ‘clones’)?

While there is actually some consolidation going on, Social Media is by definition actually a very native language driven affair. Chinese is currently the 2^nd most popular internet language. If you consider the relatively low level of internet penetration in China today – then Chinese can actually be expected to become the number one online language within the next months or latest years in terms of pure volume of virtual communication (e.g. through messengers) or content (e.g. blogs, forums).

Looking just at these few indicators, it is quite obvious that there is unfortunately no one-dimensional answer when it comes to which social media channels would be the best for your organization’s engagement plan. Very old-school like, it goes back to the drawing-board to ask yourself: what are your objectives, your target audience and your resources before blindly jumping on the Social Media wagon.

Of course it is important to outsource parts of your tactics and advice – and leverage others’ expertise and experience. But still every organization’s chief communicator has to decide on the direction – both for online and offline. For that, decision makers need to build inhouse capabilities – because you can’t outsource strategy!

Lars Voedisch – @larsv

#social media: changing behaviors in both directions with the “hashtag”

Much attention has been paid to the impact of social media on marketing and PR. However, the power that citizens and consumers have to promote change within corporations and governments has also been affected by the changing relationships in the media marketplace.

Traditionally, information traveled in only one direction: corporate world → traditional media → consumers. Today, though, social media has revolutionized the flow of information between companies and their stakeholders.

Today’s consumer/citizen produces his or her own content on the Web quickly, at little or no cost and as part of his/her daily routine. This “non-media” content circulates freely and quickly from one corner of the globe to another.

With the rise of these online networks, the relationship between the citizen consumer and large organizations has become far more democratic and horizontal. The resulting lack of control over content and the growing number of people joining the online conversation can result in uncertainty for businesses and governments.

A few examples below illustrate the way in which the “social relationship” between large organizations and the citizen consumer has changed with the arrival of Web 2.0 and social networks.

For companies to successfully join the social media conversation, they need to understand the rules and conventions of the game. In the Twitter world, hashtags are a community-driven convention for adding additional context and data to one’s tweets, and they help users follow conversations on the site. In addition, a hashtag is a way of notifying users that they can join a tweet to a specific discussion or event.

• After the Iranian protests broke out, the volume of tweets using the tag #IranElection increased, resulting in thousands of tweets about the protests. Twitter then played a significant role as proxy servers were used to circumvent the government’s efforts to block access to the Internet. Citizens both within and outside Iran used hashtags frequently to inform and update people about the events and to help organize the protests.
• Habitat, a British furniture retailer, saw its reputation at stake when it used Twitter in a marketing campaign to sell products and add consumers to its marketing database. Habitat used hashtags to promote an offer to win a £1,000 (US$1,900) gift card, but it chose hashtags already in use for other purposes, such as #mousavi, which was also used to protest the Iranian elections. Twitter users accused Habitat of improperly capitalizing on a serious political issue, and its mistakes were heavily retweeted on the microblogging service. As a result, Habitat pulled all the messages and replaced them with standard marketing tweets. It also apologized for its promotional messages on Twitter.

These examples illustrate that new media, such as Twitter, can become hubs of real-time information, and any player in the media marketplace – corporation, government or consumer – can contribute ideas, opinion, news and observations.

But as Habitat’s experience has shown, the properties of Twitter can result in a disadvantage since it is instantaneous and accessible anytime, anywhere, by thousands of “followers,” making mistakes more immediately visible to potential target audiences. The Habitat story also demonstrates that consumers are reluctant to “buy” just any information released by corporations on social media sites. On the contrary, they scrutinize content according to the rules established by the online community.

Consumers and citizens can now produce media content and messages that drive change in the offline world, as much as they receive information that seeks to change their behaviors. We know that the hallmark of excellent public relations is two-way communication. Now that markets are conversations, consumers have as much opportunity to change organizational behaviors as organizations have to change the behaviors of their stakeholders.

Claudia Schoenbohm is a writer and consultant in the Dow Jones Media Lab. This post is an excerpt from her graduate research studies at the London School of Economics.

Social media and the communications process

It’s no secret among communicators that social media has become a major disruptive force. Its ability to amplify commentary and criticism has CEOs on edge. This puts communications professionals in a challenging spot. It wasn’t so long ago that they could work with their contacts to identify rumors early, then plan and take responsive actions before an issue spun out of control. Today, the time to market is increasingly squeezed. We no longer have a 24 hour news cycle. We have a 24 second Twitter cycle. What’s more, rumors can originate from anyone and from anywhere – even from outside the organization’s usual circle of employees, customers, partners, and stakeholders.

The impact on the communications process is evident. There’s a greater volume of information to monitor, research and understand; more trends to analyze; any number of hot spots to discover and watch; more people – journalists, customers, activists, and bloggers – to engage. In an era of ever-growing budget pressure, this enormous task has to be accomplished with great efficiency. So, it’s no surprise that communications professionals are looking for new ways and tools to help them reinvent their communications process.

At Dow Jones, we’ve spent a substantial amount of time with our public relations and corporate communications customers to understand how we can help them be more successful. We’ve built new tools and enhanced existing ones to enable them to be more productive and effective. Our capabilities are built around the communications process enabled by social media (Monitor. Analyze. Discover. Engage.)

 

We are literally MADE for your communications success:

• Monitor, research & promote the buzz;
• Analyze issues, trends & strategies for greater impact;
• Discover opportunities and risks in time to act; and
• Engage and pinpoint the influential. 

In short our mission is to:

“Help clients create communications success at every point in their day.”

But we feel that’s not enough. You may not realize that Dow Jones has a wealth of public relations and media evaluation expertise. The Dow Jones Media Lab consultants and analysts have worked with hundreds of companies across dozens of industries and regions to understand the impact of traditional and social media on their brand, reputation and campaigns. We’ve started this blog, The Conversational Corporation, so that the Dow Jones Media Lab can share their insights into best practices in social media, PR, communications research, and media measurement.  

The first of these is from Claudia Schoenbohm, a writer and consultant in the Dow Jones Media Lab. Her post on social media as two-way communications is an excerpt from her Master’s studies at the London School of Economics. Her post will be available shortly. In the meantime, download our ebook “The Conversational Corporation: How Social Media is Changing the Enterprise” here to help understand the intersection between business and social media and the need to transform your organization into a “conversational corporation.”

We hope you enjoy the blog, which will be updated frequently with new information. Bookmark it, grab the RSS feed, and visit often.