Careful What You Tweet
Social media is never silent and it seems that every week there’s a new lesson for social media PR agencies to learn. If you haven’t seen the story about Grace Dent, you missed a good lesson last week. In a nutshell, a PR Graduate made a serious gaffe by tweeting how ugly he thought she was following her appearance on Have I Got News for You – he compared her to an ex girlfriend he described as an “ugly abhorrent horse”. It may seem timely for many, as the ensuing Twitter storm and extensive media coverage happened just prior to the announcement by the Independent (who have also raised their cover price to £1.20) that she was joining them and the Evening Standard as a TV critic. One can’t help but feel sorry for the poor chap who has been branded a ‘Troll’ (though it was one tweet and he immediately apologised) and received quite fierce retorts from the journalist – part of the conversation is below:
GD: Hi there Mufadel. How much do you like your job at [company name removed]?
GD: I’m wondering, as a public relations person for a firm I work with, what your thinking was in sending me this message?
JM: Unreservedly withdraw my vulgar and puerile comment regarding @gracedent, especially in light of the bbc doc on internet trolls last week.
GD: you’ll bear the brunt of your idiocy at 10am tomorrow morning when you’re unemployed. Good luck.
Having a hunt on Twitter, it appears that the conversation has been removed and it was a storm in a teacup. Grace also received her fair share of criticism for her reaction but, thankfully, the entire situation appears to have been resolved and the PR in question is still employed.
So what delightful lessons can we draw from this? Firstly, do be careful what you tweet and who you tweet at – as you can see, there’s potential for it to go horribly wrong. There has been so much in the media about the misery caused by social media so here are our social media PR tips….
- Think twice about what you Tweet or post on Facebook – it’s great to have a personality but ask yourself – is it really how I want to be reflected?
- Remember that Twitter is public – others can see what you write and it can affect current and potential employer’s decisions.
- If you @ someone’s Twitter handle they will see it – worth bearing in mind when you want to engage with them.
- Don’t insult people – insults are now generally considered as trolling (it doesn’t matter if they’re strangers) – friendly banter is great if you know them well. If you’re a PR trying to befriend journalist, it’s difficult enough to build relationships without shooting yourself in the foot.
- Your Tweets can reflect badly on your current employers and no one wants the CEO of the company stepping in to manage the situation, as happened in this case.
Things can go viral – you have to be pretty lucky/unlucky (depending on what you want) but why tempt fate with social media PR that’s not thought through?
Perhaps Thumper from Disney’s Bambi put it best… If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothin’ at all
Does International PR Exist?
A debate which has been a hot topic throughout the PR world is the long fight between PR academics and practitioners, on whether international PR (or Global PR) exists.
Some say that PR only exists in countries where democracy, free market economy, freedom of press and civil liberty are present. If so, how can international PR exist when significant regions of the world fail to reach these conditions? Just because an organisation has many offices worldwide, it does not necessarily mean that their PR communications are effective within them.
All the above are plausible, however, having studied PR and worked within the industry, my opinion is YES! It does exist. Think of an international brand and type it into Google and you will see how ´far spread´ their communications efforts have been in raising brand awareness.
Not only that, but Globalisation and the 21st Century have shaken up the PR world allowing better international communications to form. The internet has not only changed traditional methods of communication but also the power which organisations hold. Two-way communication and transparency of social media means organisations now have more stakeholders to consider and engage with.
It is therefore extremely important that global PR agencies understand the challenges and trends international PR faces when executing business plans. In order to be truly international, you need to grasp a few things:
Different variations of PR – understanding how the media within different countries operate is crucial.
Cultural and sociological differences – It is important that International communicators have knowledge about the world at large, ideally being able to speak and write several languages.
Understand the importance of Social media PR – The digital world has allowed different cultures to interact, therefore creating a wider audience for you to engage with.
Ethical considerations – In order to have ethical PR within the new global economy, an organisation must take into consideration what its ethical obligations are to different cultures, social groups and identities that they are trying to interact with.
In a nutshell, sociological norms and the political power of different countries have great effects on the results and success of international PR campaigns. So therefore, to be effective, global PR must be localised to different cultures. Globalisation, has bought cultural boundaries closer and social media has made communications more accessible, the combination of the two has increased the viability of global PR and its potential success.
The Best of British: The Food & Drink Expo and the Natural Food Show
Over the past two weeks, I have had the opportunity to savour what the food and drink industry has to offer us in 2012. I attended the Food & Drink Expo at Birmingham’s NEC, the largest trade fair for the industry, and the Natural Food Show, held at Kensington, Olympia. The two shows were very different in their atmosphere and size of shows, yet both events had some strong themes running through them.
The concept of ‘Britishness’ and the importance of using British produce was very much all around me. With such a high demand from consumers for all things British, there was a lot to see at these events which showcased such quality foods. From smooth and rich varieties of cheese to the best in home grown fruit made into jams or juices, to freshly made quality ready meals. There was also a high level of gluten-free products which suppliers are hoping will reach many mainstream supermarkets or independent food stores this year. These products are also working around the biggest events to happen in the UK this year as some brands are co-ordinating their product launches with the Jubilee and the biggest sporting event of the year.
As ‘34% of shoppers says that quality is extremely important when choosing where to shop for food and groceries – the highest level for more than a year’, it is clear that consumers do want to know where their purchases come from, what is in it and how organic and eco-friendly are the products they are buying. We may be in a time of recession, but consumers still want to eat well, care about provenance and take a lot of pride in our produce. Brands are trying hard to tick all the boxes to meet the needs and requests of consumers and their values, and are quite effective in their exercise. Similar to Levi Roots’ Reggae Reggae sauce (a guest speaker at the F&D Expo), the foods I encountered had a great story, a lot of drive and with the right backing they will be very successful in time to come.
Linkbait, Samantha Brick and the Canny Mail Online Team
The recent news of Samantha Brick and her tale of beauty as a burden caught the imaginations and reactions of the nation through the power of social media. In less than a few hours Samantha’s story about the pain of being beautiful had been discussed, ridiculed, condemned but most crucially distributed and read by millions. ‘Samantha Brick’ trended on Twitter for two days in a row (to date) with further spin off stories designed to capture even further readers. So big was her news that it even eclipsed the story of James Murdock resigning from BSkyB.
As the dust settles and her story becomes tomorrow’s fish and chip paper, the question can be asked that maybe the Daily Mail and Mail Online team are a rather canny bunch. Already at the helm of the UK’s biggest newspaper website (91 million unique users per month), the Samantha Brick story is likely to see a sharp spike in that figure – as readers from other sites and papers all converged to the Mail Online site to read the story and vent their opinions.
However the technique used, Linkbait, is not a new one – but the Mail Online may have hit a sweet spot with this particular story. Link bait is any content or feature, within a website, designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website. With this story the viral aspect was huge – circulating through Facebook, Twitter et al like digital wildfire. As the story snowballed, those in charge of the advertising revenue for the Mail Online site must have been smiling like Cheshire cats. Whether the story itself was a hoax or genuine isn’t the point – it’s a canny tactic to drive traffic, using provoking content to a news site that’s already huge. If there is a Press Award for ‘Best Use of Linkbait…’ the Mail Online has it in the bag.
Major opportunities for the new innovators?
With some signs that the economic climate is getting better, well least some, there are also early indications that markets for consumer durables, some hit hard by the recession, are on the way back up. If we take televisions as the example, The Guardian reported last week that John Lewis had seen a 13% increase in electricals last week and this excluded the newly launched iPad.
However, Sony and Panasonic, the traditional kings of TV, are making gargantuan losses from their television divisions despite having TVs that rate highly in media reviews. The new kings – Samsung and LG – have risen by matching, or even bettering, their features whilst being able to tap into lower manufacturing costs. And over the last couple of years the supermarkets have moved, very aggressively, into the electricals sector giving the established retailers, witness Currys and Best Buy, more than a run for their money.
Sony itself has noted that brand loyalty is on the wane. The recession has given time and major incentive for consumers to re-evaluate bigger ticket purchases and question the value and the brand. This is where the opportunity lies. No self respecting consumer wants to buy at the bottom of the market where the product may fail before they have received its value (somewhere around two to three years from the informal research we have done). So with it becoming easier over the last five-ish years to have access to great technology at really aggressive prices, the advent of the value brand has arisen. With less interest in pricey cutting edge technology the consumer has chosen to buy new again in a couple of years to keep pace. A new market is borne.
To really stand out you add to the value proposition with, say, great customer service or great additional content then you have the essence of a brand that with time and investment will stand out in the market and could become part of the next wave of long term successes. Recessions can change markets and bring new opportunities. Let the new competition begin.
