The Social Radio Experience

After the rise of the social TV, it was only a matter of time before a ‘Social Radio’ came onto the scene, and it has presented itself in the form of an App!

‘The Social Radio for Twitter’ app reads out your Twitter feeds for you, turning your Twitter account into a ‘radio station’. It gives users the opportunity of choosing content they want to listen to (Twitter users, lists, hashtags, trending topics) and play songs or albums found on phones or tablets. This application, although still in the Beta stage, was released at the end of February 2012. It has received extremely positive reviews and was also been selected to compete in the top 20 best mobile apps for the Appcircus/Mobile Premier Awards. The app allows you to multi-task at work or be on the move whilst keeping on top of tweets that you are following. This application is also a good platform for those with limited accessibility. I decided to try out this app, and I must admit it was a quite unique experience.

I can definitely see the appeal of this app as I am able to listen to what is being tweeted by the people I follow, whilst carrying on with my daily tasks or making that cup of tea. It is very accessible and easy to use, takes little time to download, and has minimal delay in comparison to the feed on the online pages. However, as it is still being tweaked, there are a few issues which need some work, and will no doubt be corrected in the future.

For example, we do not tweet as we speak; therefore certain words that are abbreviated will be mispronounced due to the robotic text-to-speech voice, i.e. how it pronounces links, or words such as ‘UK’ or ‘USA’. Unfortunately, this makes the human tonality of live tweeters very cryptic, which I think would be problematic as brands and individuals use Twitter as a quick way to get their personality across in their short messages.

Despite its flaws, it is an interesting experience, particularly for those who need to keep track and be updated on their real-time feeds. It’s a big step in content-based communication and is only the beginning of what is to come and how we might experience the future use of social media platforms.

Are You Pinning?

News of the next big thing on social networks is almost a weekly occurrence, but sometimes one comes along that genuinely grabs your attention. The one in question this time is photo-sharing site Pinterest – you may have already heard your friends, colleagues or family talking about ‘pinning this’ and ‘re-pining that’. So what’s all the fuss about?

To break it down to its simplest form, Pinterest.com is an online and social pinboard that allows users to grab their favourite photos from across the internet and share them with followers. Users simply ‘pin’ a picture they like to their own page, and now there is even a ‘pin it’ button you can add to your browser’s favourites bar to make pinning even more easier.

The social network is currently taking the internet by storm, amassing approx. 12million users in under a year. The site is also invite only at the moment – adding a certain level of exclusivity that naturally panders to consumers’ curiosity, heightening the ‘want-factor’ to be part of it. The highly visual pin boards and simplicity of pinning something ensures its user-friendliness across all levels.

The website, high on visuals, is something brands can benefit from too. With the virtual pinboard proving an easy way to share, discover and comment on interesting content from around the web – providing a viable traffic stream to your website. Each ‘pin’ is essentially a link to an external website, therefore allowing you can drive traffic to your site by pinning eye-catching content that your audience is interested in. Users who are looking for your type of content will click through to your site. Interestingly, Pinterest is generating more referral traffic to websites and blogs than Youtube, Google + and Linkedin combined.

It’s still too early to tell if this will be a lasting thing or not, but for the time being Pinterest is definitely causing a stir. Getting involved could mean having a head start against competitors, and if it all falls by the wayside the very least you can expect is adding awareness of your brand to an interested audience. It’s a win-win scenario.

Re-branding to fit in with the digital age

Last month, Waterstones announced they would be dropping the apostrophe from their trading name in order for their brand to fit in with the digital age.  The outcome? Public outrage!

Soon after the re-branding announcement was made, angry customers along with journalists took to the blogosphere and social networks to announce their disapproval and anger that the organisation could make such a grammatical error.

Why you ask, would they do such a thing? Well, it turns out the apostrophe was hindering their acceptance into the digital age – URLs and email addresses don’t allow apostrophes. And to be fair who really cares?

Well, as you can imagine, the public backlash was no skin off their nose. For a start they secured heaps of coverage and got people talking about the brand. Secondly, instead of just drumming out the typical ‘CEO statement’ (which they did), they decided to add humour to the equation by turning a crisis into a positive. They turned their Oxford Street twitter page into a fictional story about the lost apostrophe’s last day at work.

Some may say that the new re-branding has made Waterstones lose character or that their reputation is now damaged. And all this hype has got me thinking about the importance of a brand’s image and identity and how a minor change can cause drastic outcomes. To most companies re-branding is a bit like a flip of a coin; it could resurrect or damage a company because the effect and power of a brand’s visual identity is so strong when communicating key values to consumers. It is therefore important that organisations handle re-branding with care, in order to continue having trustful and loyal relationships with their key stakeholders.

This is even more important when re-branding to fit in with Web 2.0. It is essential that organisations think about their consumers in everything they do when deciding on re-branding. It is far easier to understand their audience these days, with free monitoring tools available to help track and listen to their consumers. In the digital age the winners will be those brands that are open to two-way communication with their audience.

What PRs can learn from the US Super Bowl final….

Earlier this month America was taken over by the frenzy of the Super Bowl final -  the biggest annual sporting media event. With the final attracting more than 100 million viewers every year, it was no surprise that brands were fighting for every chance to get media exposure during the event. However, paying $4 million for a 30 second TV ad is a luxury that very few brands can afford. As brands were fighting for the attention of the Super Bowl fans, many companies turned to social media to tap into the huge potential of the event.

According to CocaCola’s marketing team  more than 60% of the Super Bowl viewers were expected to have a smartphone, tablet or laptop device nearby, while watching the game. Not surprisingly, brands were quick to respond with engaging social media campaigns that enabled users to interact during the game. CocaCola’s TV ads for example directed viewers to CokePolarBear.com, where people could watch two Polar Bears supporting different teams. The popular ad characters were also tweeting during the game, voicing their comments and sharing their experiences from the Super Bowl final.  Similarly, Chevrolet launched a free mobile app that allowed users to interact and answer trivia questions related to the game, giving them the chance to win a car and other prizes that were given away during the show.

The creative use of social media during the event didn’t stop there. The hosts of the Super Bowl event in Indianapolis created the first Super Bowl social media command centre that allowed staff to monitor social media activity around the event and proactively offer assistance to visitors at the stadium. What’s even more interesting is that the organisers used cutting edge search tools and analytics to detect potential customer issues based on specific key terms and requirements. So, for example, if a visitor is complaining on Twitter that he cannot find a parking space, the analytic tools will detect the issue and will alert the social media command centre prompting the team to provide personalised guidance and advise.

As social networks are changing the viewing habits of audiences, brands have plenty of opportunities to engage with their customers in a new and proactive way. The strong integration between social media networks, traditional media platforms and hand-held devices is heralding an era of interactive multimedia experiences. This, coupled with advanced analytics of users behaviour, can offer huge opportunities for marketers and advertisers to engage with their audiences in a more personalised and creative way. However, with social networking websites increasingly looking to feature ‘sponsored stories’ based on users’ interests, the line between social networking and brand engagement will be increasingly blurred.

PRs can use this opportunity to start meaningful conversations with their audiences. However, this communication has to be centred around the needs of the consumer rather than on commercial interests. Putting consumers first is the key to building a good relationship with the brand. And in the long run this is the only relationship that matters….

#McDStories – stop the #hype!

I have recently become a vocal defender of McDonald’s which is rather unexpected.  A couple of weeks ago, as you may have heard, they started part of a campaign with the sponsored hash tag #McDStories.  Their idea being a way to share their growers’ stories.  For those who have somehow missed this story: the tag was quickly jumped upon to share negative McDonald’s experiences.

So campaign going wrong, what did McDonald’s do? Within two hours they pulled the campaign, they also quickly rolled out their social media director Rick Wion to explain and comment to interested media.  His quotes are down to earth and reasonable. The campaign refocused on another hash tag they were working on #meetthefarmers.   The result?  McDonalds claims only 2% of the tweets were actually negative and it didn’t even make it into the top ten trending topics.

So what went wrong? 1.0 media met 2.0 social media.  And apparently 1.0 doesn’t understand 2.0. So ensued a coverage storm way bigger than the initial story one could argue.  A central principle of social media is opening up to ALL conversations – you have too – not just the version the brand wishes to broadcast.  Accepting you are not perfect and listening to your detractors is all part and parcel of this new world.  You are not going to like everything they say but at least you can listen and learn.  And your wider audience will respect you for it if you do this well.

Now, don’t get me wrong, no-one plans for a campaign to go wrong but if McDonalds did not instigate a campaign with any potential for negativity (given the size of this brand, not everyone will be a fan), the reality is they would either have to quit social media (to jeers of ‘Dinosaur’ no doubt) or reel out campaigns so orchestrated and non conversational (you know who you are some of you juggernaut brands) that they defy the very game changing opportunity that social media has bought.

The real shame is the #fail bandwagon some of the so called social media experts jumped onto.  Trending topics give rise for opportunities for self promotion.  The McDonalds bashing that ensued underlined the lack of understanding of a central social media principle.  And to add to this most detractors had nothing to offer regarding a fail safe system that would have prevented this – because there isn’t one.

Nobody truly active in social media is invulnerable to a failure like this is the real bottom line to this one. The higher the profile the brand the more likely it is to happen.  McDonalds did pretty much everything right.  It had no lasting effect on its sales, share price or brand – seriously, who’s not heard all these stories before – and if you don’t like the food, you don’t like the brand anyway so no loss there either.  What this example really shows us is to be prepared for the media and social media storm that follows the initial mistake.  Until the world view catches up with 2.0 that is.