You can now see some recent examples of campaigns that give us that warm fuzzy feeling, each in a punchy video just a couple of minutes long.

What's more, we've divided them out to show both fully integrated and discipline specific activities, covering advertising, digital marketing, eRM/eCRM/RM, identity and design, experiential and sales promotion.

Brands covered include Danone Activia, the Irish Film Board, Carlsberg, Nokia, Amnesty International, Aer Lingus, Sprite, Guinness and Aquafresh amongst many others!

Just click through to our colourful case study library to get stuck in!

Many FMCG brands struggle to engage their consumer in a way that brings to life the brand values. But there’s no big secret: establish a platform that’s true to your central brand idea and with a little creativity bringing it to life online is no more challenging than through any other media!

We like this viral example from Häagen Dazs, a viral to alert consumers about the consequences caused by the "colony collapse disorder" (where bees just die or disappear). Häagen Dazs ice-cream is made with natural ingredients, and bee pollination is an essential part of this. So the viral brings alive the core ‘natural’ value in a really smart and admittedly cute way. What’s more – you can create your own bee-vartar – here’s ours!

Closing the loop in-store, If users buy a pint of bee-dependent flavors, part of the money is donated, driving sales at point of purchase resultant of the online awareness and engagement campaign. Based on that, they are donating money to help fund honey bee research – sweet, you might say.

Microsoft IE gaff

Highlights included a senior guy from Microsoft Advertising failing to understand the meaning of 'IE8', apparently 'that's a different department'....fair enough (not)

IAB online effectiveness

There was a great presentation from the IAB about the effectiveness of online and TV working in tandem. Not ground breaking as it mirrors the findings of the old Unilever Dove case study - but great to have some UK data to show my clients.  My only scepticism about this, is that whilst being great research - it's a million miles away from making it into traditional offline media planning models, and the monthly TV vs Digital debate I seem to have.  The challenge of forcing the reappraisal of planning models it appears still needs to be fought by the digital agencies.

Online PR

At swamp we're about to launch our formalised online PR offer together with our colleagues in Brahm PR.  It's going to be good harnessing the power of a well established and excellent PR team with our knowledge and experience in digital... but it is weird - we've being doing online PR in digital for years we just never called it that before :)

Anyway, there was a great presentation from Immediate Future about the online PR campaign they did for Sony Bravia.  It was very niche focusing on the management of the release of the 3rd Bravia ad (the one with all the bunnies.  Basically they manage to head off the advertising blogerati from giving it a panning and suppress an underground revolt from fans of the fantastic Kozyndan.   Job well done, but did it sell any more TV's?

Still it's made me appreciate the Kozyndan bunny poster I have hanging in my studio even more :)

According to the story others can edit your Knol but not without your approval.  Readers can make a suggested edit to a Knol but ultimately the author has to choose whether to accept of decline.
This all kind of makes sense but I have to say I am a little disappointed.  I like the fact that a lot of entries on Wikipedia are bollocks and the fact that people can hide behind the anonymity that it provides.  Surely part of the fun of Wikipedia is trying to guess if what you are reading is true or an elaborate hoax.

The advent of the Internet as a marketing tool has seen the evolution of many traditional offline methods into full-blown techniques which boost search engine rankings through the clever use of search engine optimisation (SEO) and SEO copywriting.

Article Marketing relies for effectiveness on linking the websites of online directories, e-zines, blogs and other websites to the landing page URL of the article sender.  Also vital is ensuring that every article has keyword-optimised content for maximum search engine recognition of the landing page published.

The skills of the SEO copywriter (and other online marketers and SEO professionals) in identifying appropriate keywords and using them in opportune ways as the article and landing pages are written creates a wonderful synergy.  Google also rewards the quality and relevance of inbound links with potentially higher rankings for website pages to which published articles are linked.

It hardly matters what term is used - Article PR, Article Marketing or Article Submission - it would seem that 'Article Marketing' has the most meaning and now appears to be the phrase of choice among the online community. The web is about information.  Websites are about content.  Matching the search engine optimisation (SEO) aspirations of webmasters with the search term hunger of surfers is what makes the world-wide-web go round.  Marketing is about satisfying a need.  So in glorious capitalistic technicolor, manipulating the online browsing market using Article Marketing is seen as a natural commercial progression. 

Google has decreed that websites with the most high quality inbound links will win the rankings race - and there's no doubt that Article Marketing is a superb way of delivering this.  It's not merely the sites to which each article is submitted that are worth a link.  It's the reprints on other sites that can also create a kind of viral firestorm.

The best way articles can achieve this is with an eye-catching headline and brilliant content.  It helps too if the article is optimised along the lines of the sender's link/landing page.  Of course, Article Marketing is hard work.  The quality of both writing and content can suffer when the sole purpose is to generate as many links as possible. 

Article Submission software has added to this.  The automated submission of articles of dubious quality to dozens, if not hundreds, of online article directories is a questionable practice which Google and other search engines try to overcome with the use of methods such as Latent Semantic Indexing (to identify meaningful content) and duplicate content penalties.   

Rewarding high quality articles makes plenty of sense when the search engines' aim is to optimise the search experience.  Clogging the Internet with identical articles does nothing for anyone except the article sender whose website is given artificial 'importance' with strings of hollow links.

There's a circular logic, nay justice, to all this which gives 'white hat' Article Marketing a moral symmetry that echoes the simplicity of intent behind articles published in ye olde print media.

This has to be one of the most cost-effective ways of getting the most out of your marketing buck.  Not only does the world get to know about you and your business.  Your website can also bask in the reflected glory of dozens of new links which may ultimately brush the competition aside on the pages of Google and other search engines.   

If you also include the link building capabilities of article marketing in the Online PR mix - even though achieving results takes lots of hard work! - the immediate and longer-term rewards are as impressive as the relatively low levels of investment required to make sure your website earns its keep.

For REAL immediacy, of course, there's Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising.  Whether this counts as SEO copywriting is a moot point, although PPC does rely heavily for its success on good keyword selection that relates to tightly configured AdGroups, well-optimised landing pages and keyword-focused small ads.

It hardly matters, but PPC is firmly rooted in the search engine marketing (SEM) stable.  For purists who see SEO copywriting solely as a way to achieve higher website rankings, we have to be talking about optimised website copy, complete with appropriate keywords, meta tags and smooth, semantic syntax!

Other link-building tools which also draw on SEO copywriting skills include online PR and article marketing although, in this context, their SEO uses are focused on improving a website's search engine rankings.

For businesses looking to generate sales and qualified leads in the most straightforward and cost-effective way, SEO copywriting and the improvements it can make in organic search engine ranking make it an essential secret weapon in any marketer's armoury.

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Kontaktfrequenz: Jens, wie kam es zu dieser Zusammenarbeit?
Jens Dörr: Im Rahmen eines Semester-Projekts hatte ich gemeinsam mit drei Kommilitonen zuvor bereits mit der Daimler AG zusammengearbeitet. Das Daimler-Blog war gerade gelauncht worden und wir haben die Startphase, die Reaktionen in der Blogosphäre und die inhaltliche Entwicklung des Blogs beobachtet und analysiert. Allerdings hat sich das auf das Zusammenstellen theoretischer Erkenntnisse und Handlungsanweisungen beschränkt. Ich wollte meine Ideen aber vor Ort umsetzen und auch die Grenzen des Machbaren in einem Weltkonzern ausloten. Da kam die Ausschreibung für die Stelle im Corporate Blog Management genau recht, dafür habe ich eigens ein Urlaubsemester eingelegt.

KF: Welchen Stellenwert hat der Daimler-Blog heute im Unternehmen und welchen hatte er zu Beginn der Blogaktivitäten?
Jens Dörr: Der interne Stellenwert des Blogs hat sich seit dem Launch stark erhöht, wenn ich die Leserzahlen, Rückmeldungen und die Zahl der Mitarbeiter, die bloggen möchten, zugrunde lege. Dass Blog-Beiträge noch nicht den gleichen Stellenwert haben wie Pressemitteilungen an „Auto, Motor, Sport“ oder Fahrvorführungen mit Fach-Journalisten, dürfte klar sein.

KF: Im vergangenen Monat wurde der Daimler-Blog  mit dem "Best Of Corporate Publishing Award" ausgezeichnet. Was ist das für ein Gefühl? Hättest du mit dieser Auszeichnung gerechnet?
Jens Dörr: Ich hätte auch mit dem zweiten Platz leben können. Zwar ist es schön, wenn PR-Fachleute die eigene Leistung und besonders den Mut zum neuen Kommunikationskanal honorieren; auch bringt es den Daimler-Kommunikatoren öffentliche Aufmerksamkeit. Viel wichtiger ist aber, dass das Blog seine Ziele erreicht: Leser anzusprechen, die die Daimler AG über die traditionellen Medienkanäle sonst kaum noch erreichen würde; die Mitarbeiter in die Außendarstellung des Unternehmens einzubinden und damit authentischer zu werden und zudem ein unkompliziertes Angebot zum Dialog zu machen. Das alles klappt und wird immer besser angenommen. In Bezug auf die Auszeichnung war ich weder siegessicher noch hielt ich es für ausgeschlossen.

KF: Wie hat sich die interne und externe Wahrnehmung des Blogs seitdem verändert?
Jens Dörr: Nicht sonderlich – das würde ja auch voraussetzen, dass die Massen der Mitarbeiter oder Blogleser und Blogger davon in den Medien erfahren haben. Die Berichterstattung über den Sieg des Daimler-Blogs beim „Best Of Corporate Publishing Award“ war jedoch natürlich weder ein Thema für die „Tagesthemen“ noch für die großen Gazetten der Nation.

KF: Was macht euren Blog so erfolgreich im Vergleich zu den zahlreichen Corporate Weblogs?
Jens Dörr: Andere Corporate Blogs sind ebenfalls erfolgreich. Was PR-Fachleute am Daimler-Blog gut finden, ist die unzensierte Kommentarfunktion, das freiwillige Zulassen und fast schon Heraufbeschwören kritischer Stimmen (die ihren Dampf ansonsten aber eben an anderer Stelle im WWW ablassen würden), die Coolness etwa bei der Verlinkung von Webseiten der Konkurrenz und vor allem der Mut, die Mitarbeiter unmittelbar in die externe (!) Unternehmenskommunikation einzubinden. Zudem ist die Daimler AG hinsichtlich eines Mitarbeiter-Blogs Vorreiter unter den DAX-30-Konzernen. Da hat noch keiner nachgezogen.

KF: Gibst du uns einige Tipps und Tricks, wie man einen Corporate Weblog erfolgreich führt?
Jens Dörr: Es gibt ja mehrere Arten von Corporate Blogs: interne Blogs zum Projektmanagement, CEO-Blogs, Marketing-Blogs, Experten-Blogs aller Art und wie in unserem Fall Mitarbeiter-Blogs. Zwei Tipps für gelungene Mitarbeiter-Blogs kann ich gerne geben. Erstens: Lasst den bloggenden Mitarbeitern ihre Eigenheiten beim Schreiben – nur so bleiben sie authentisch. Das ziehen die Blog-Leser allemal dem perfekten PR-Text vor. Und zweitens: Launcht ein Mitarbeiter-Blog nur, wenn die Leute auch wirklich etwas zu sagen haben. Bei der Daimler AG ist das kein Problem: Hier geschehen täglich viele berichtenswerte Geschichten, die dennoch den Weg in die traditionellen Medien nicht finden. An den Kommentaren, Leserzahlen und der Verweildauer sehen wir aber, dass sich sowohl viele Kollegen als auch externe Blog-Leser und Blogger sehr für diese Geschichten interessieren. Wäre es nicht so, kämen sie einmal und nie wieder.

KF: Welchen Tipp hast du für deine Kommilitonen, um auch solch eine Chance zu erhalten?
Jens Dörr: Ohne mich zu weit aus dem Fenster zu lehnen kann ich sagen: Die Studenten des Studiengangs Online-Journalismus der Hochschule Darmstadt passen von ihren Qualifikationen her ins Corporate Blog Management wie die Faust aufs Auge. Seit der Zusammenarbeit im Rahmen des Semester-Projekts haben sie bei der Daimler AG einen Stein im Brett. Die Stelle ist ständig ausgeschrieben – OJ, worauf wartest Du?!

Ein Interview von Michelle Mühlhauser und Sina Lauer

The excellent Jason Baer at the Convince and Convert blog makes some very good observations as to why this is going to have a big impact on digital marketing. In particular when he says:

"If Google makes the marketing and advertising business as transparent as travel planning and stock purchases, the only agencies that will be able to survive are those that can add real value in messaging, creative, and integrating data into actionable tactics."

I would of course include PR in the above too. So why should the availability of search volumes bother the PR community? (Or at least the tech/B-to-B world?).

If you accept that 95pc of B-to-B purchase decisions involve search, then you can now put a real figure on just how many people are actually searching on terms that you believe they find important - and are relevant to your business.

Let's take an imaginary example. The Borked Corporation makes dilithium consoles. Av. profit on a console is $20. The company is aiming to make an additional $1m in profit over the next 12 months. That means selling an extra 50,000 consoles - or just over 4000 consoles a month. All marketing to date has been based around the key term "dilithium consoles". The company has invested a lot in PR-ing the term dilithium console. Their digital agency has persuaded them to invest heavily in PPC. As of last week, Borked Corporation can see actual search volumes on "dilithium console" - a mere 1000 for the month and an average of 1500 for the last 6 months. It doesn't take much to work out that Borked needs to answer some major questions - what terms ARE our potential purchasers searching on? How we can understand and influence the non-line buying process and incorporate the most relevant and impactful content at the appropriate juncture? Or more fundamental, is there a big enough market for our products at the current price/profit point?

Let's not forget that Google's Keyword Tool can be segmented by geography. For example, here's the results for the UK last month on the terms digital PR and online PR.

It makes for interesting reading. For example, the keyword term digital PR was searched for in the UK 480 times last month. Online PR got 2400. Exactly 5 times the volume. Or thought of another way, a total of 2880 searches for combined digital/online PR. Or around 100 times a day. And how many of those searches are from people looking to buy digital/online PR services? This is the kind of thinking that helps to bring a forceful clarity to all PR and marketing activity.

Why not see how many times your company/product name was searched on last month? The results may surprise you.

I have a problem with the first statement.

Someone shouldn’t have to tell me what the next big thing is.  If something “is” the next big thing whatever comes down the pipe is so important, wouldn’t it be obvious that it doesn’t need mentioning? Now Twitter, a cornerstone of social media, has been declared passé and dead by numerous sources my instructor included.

Interestingly enough my Presentation Skills class started at the same time.  The skills that I’ve learned are still as valuable if not moreso then they were at the start.

How can this be?

As post-graduate students we spend an inordinate amount of time writing, learning the latest technology and little learning soft skills such as how to network or deliver a pitch in front of our peers.   While technology and writing are fundamental skills, should they be studied at the exclusion of everything else?

If the “next big thing” comes and goes, how will that benefit a new practitioner over having a functional network, a good reputation or pitching ideas worthy of bringing in an account?

The logical answer: you need both.

The problem is that I have yet to encounter a single professional, practitioner, professor or pal that has advocated this middle ground.

Not one.

From everything I’ve learned about corporate communications there is an element of experimentation, development and creativity.  We aren’t advertisers nor are we marketers.  We are a completely unique and wondrous species unto ourselves.  If this is the foundation we are provided entering in the field is there hope for  growth?

In 1985, Bruce Sterling wrote Schismatrix , a story about conflict in the twenty third century solar system.  Humanity is divided among: the "Shapers" who are employing genetics and psychology, and the "Mechanists" who use computers and body prosthetic.   Replace “computer and prosthetic” with “social media.”  Then replace “genetics and psychology” with core skills and you’ve got the idea of current public relations.

I’ve heard it said that, “public relations is going through a renaissance.”  From where I’m standing it looks more like a civil war.   I only hope it can end better the Sterling’s book.

Einige der LeserInnen hier wurden auch zu friends von Eva Lichtenberger, was haltet ihr davon?

Stephen Harper has made it to the front page again with the G8 summits on climate control.  For the last few days poor Mr. Harper can’t seem to do anything right according to the national media.

On one hand he’s revered for influencing the key nations to “avoid overly ambitious emission-cutting goals,” according to the Toronto Star.  On another hand he’s been accused of refusing to meet Canada’s emissions - reductions under the Kyoto protocol.

You can substitute any issue and the result will be the same: Harper comes out on bottom.

Why?

Simple: In 2006, the Canadian Prime Minister went to war with the national media claiming they weren’t treating him fairly and he would not be dealing with them outside of the strictest channels. I can imagine the forehead slapping that went on with his PR department after this.

The truth is that the harder you try to control the media the less likely you are too be successful as any PR practitioner will tell you.

Instead Harper should have watched the Iron Man movie and taken notes.

In the movie millionaire industrialist Tony Stark, a.k.a. Iron Man, hosts two news conferences that get at the heart of Public Relations.  In each press conference he deviated from the ‘official company line.’  Whether he was sitting with the press eating a hamburger or telling the world he was Iron Man he got a few things right: he was transparent, honest and gave the media what they needed to make their own judgments.

The media didn’t always give him good press but it served the foundation for a relationship of trust.  It was this “trust” that served Tony Stark allowing for the transition from man to hero seamlessly.

This is a transition that I hope our next Prime Minister can make.  If Tony Stark runs – he’ll have my vote.

(Special thanks to fellow Iron Man fan Michael O'Connor Clarke for making this post possible)

http://www.squidoo.com/buzzwordsonlinepr
http://www.squidoo.com/buzzwordsarticlepr
http://www.squidoo.com/buzzwordsprmanchester

Love?
Our relationship started innocently enough. After much coaxing from friends I got a Facebook account.  It started with a little social networking and a few invitations to parties.  Soon Facebook and I spent time together and got to know each other.  For the most part we enjoyed one another's company and we seemed to hit it off … for a while.

It wasn’t long before I started noticing "changes" in our relationship.  A few private messages between friends turned into applications being added.   I mean it wasn’t serious: a scrabulous application here, a pet dragons application there, flog-blog and many others.  Soon I woke up and realized that I didn’t recognize my Facebook page anymore. I quietly wondered if Facebook had the same feelings about me?

My relationship changed.
The endless application and Facebook requests were making demands on my virtual space and robbing me of time.  My "friends list" was growing by leaps and bounds yet I found myself surrounded by strangers.  I was getting requests from “friends” I haven’t seen in more than twenty years.

The carefree days are gone.
Things got serious after that.  I had professional colleagues wanting to join my friends list.  I had family members wanting to add and be added.   Everyone wanted to know about “my” relationship with Facebook.  Was it serious?  Where was I planning on taking it?  Was there a future between the two of us?  One night I happened to take relationship status: off my profile (I was listed as being single.)  That night I received five phone calls from “friends” wanting to know who the new girlfriend was? Then the big question came u over dinner one night: was I showing a true representation of myself while meeting the criteria, ideals and expectations of everyone else?  It was too much. The demands of future recruiters, family and friends had taken over what was once a simple and enjoyable relationship.

The break-up.
In frustration I walked out.  Everyone wanted my relationship to be something it wasn’t.  In one night, I removed applications and threw my galleries in the virtual garbage can.  At the end of the evening my Facebook page was generic at best.  It had three applications each one respectable and none of which I used.  My Facebook page was respectable, credible and not me in the least.  As headed out the door I wanted to take a few “virtual” keepsakes back but then I learned Facebook owns EVERYTHING the moment you put it online.  I felt used. I felt betrayed. I felt alone.

One more chance.
One Saturday night I went back.  It was uncomfortable at first.  I spent a few moments staring at the empty template space where my applications had once been.  The mailbox which had kept dozens of messages was now vacant. I didn't want closure I wanted my Facebook back.

I wanted things the way they were before they got ‘complicated’.  I wanted it to be the way it was before prospective employers wanted to add me.  I wanted to feel the freedom before family members and strangers began begging me for more than a limited profile.

Get a room.
It has taken some trust building but I’m back on facebook.  Slowly, the features are being added along with new features.   One more thing: I’m making my profile completely unsearchable.  Like any good neighbor, you won’t even know I’m there.  Facebook and I are trying again but this time we are doing it on our terms.  Occasionally, we will drop an email or stop by on the Facebook chat.   For the most part we are very happy.

(Check out the counter-blog to my post, Michelle Novielli's She Said: Facebook )

Since technology facilitates communication, your organization’s presence on the web is the first stop for journalists, consumers and clients when they need information. A user’s online experience of a website directly impacts their perception of that company. So, to make sure you create positive impressions, in my opinion, here are 10 best practices for executing effective online public relations.

Timeliness

To keep users on top of corporate news, many organizations run online newsrooms. However, these can prove useless if they are not updated regularly. According to Dee Rambeau and Chris Bechtel on their Global PR Blog, there are many fundamental reasons for this timeliness. For example, news deadlines are now 24/7 since journalists are getting to the punch quicker. This means website content should be accurate and timely, with no excuses for old content. In times of breaking news, journalists will first check an organization’s website for updates; they won’t always pick up the phone first. With accurate and up-to-the minute updates, organizations can keep users up to speed with corporate news as it happens.

Know Your Audience and their Needs

When posting news online, organizations must consider their varying audiences and their needs. For example, a corporation’s website is the first point of contact for reporters doing research, editors looking for story ideas or fact-checking and even the average consumer looking for corporate information, news or even the chance to talk back.

To make your corporate website more user-friendly for these audiences, Rambeau and Bechtel offer a number of suggestions:

• Post PR contact information including e-mail and mobile numbers for reporters with round-the-clock deadlines.
• Archive news releases and make the entire website searchable by year or topic, enabling users to access information that isn’t posted at the top of the page.
• Consider posting fact sheets, backgrounders, case studies, images and press kits for download by journalists.
• Host an RSS feed on your news site for users to sign up and receive news alerts delivered straight to their reader.

Keep it Accessible

To direct traffic to your newsroom, discussion board or blog on your corporate website, simply make the links easy to find from the home page. Rambeau and Bechtel refer to this as “spoon-feeding” users. For busy journalists on deadline, making the navigation easy and intuitive will keep your website accessible and keep reporters happy. As one extra time-saving tip, DO NOT require registration for access to sections of your website, such as to a discussion board. This may discourage users from taking the time to fill out their info and leave a comment in the first place. Instead consider having an optional field on a sidebar where users may input their e-mail address to sign up for a newsletter.

Keep it User Friendly

With content on your site accessible and easy to find, it is also important to make sure the content itself is easy to use. For fast downloads and fewer Mac/PC/Vista conversion issues, post papers and reports online in PDF format. Also, longer chunks of written content can be draining to read. Consider breaking up text with short paragraphs, sub-heads, bulleted lists and links. Users can then quickly peruse through your longer articles and easily locate the information they're looking for.

If Doubtful, Consider the Advantages to Your Agency

If at the end of the day, you’d still rather stick to traditional means of PR, consider how online methods can improve your business. For example, an agency may experience account growth since clients will pay top dollar for agencies who can bring their corporations up to speed with the latest social media tools. As well, since not all agencies or corporations are on top of these new tools, your involvement will give you a competitive edge. And finally, if you're a communicator looking to undertake these initiatives on your own, Rambeau and Bechtel say it will increase your professional development and improve your skill set.

Also Consider Reputation Management

According to Lee Odden on his Online Marketing Blog, reputation management (online) is the business of monitoring what the marketplace is saying about your brand. It also means responding to situations before they run out of control. To monitor this, organizations can host their own blog, discussion threads, forums and social networking sites with tools such as GetSatisfaction.com. By engaging in two-way discussions with consumers, organizations are not only involved in the conversation but they can monitor it and use it to their advantage in improving their services and their brand.

Companies can subscribe to RSS feeds of search results on their company name from blog and news search engines, such as with Google Alerts or the BlogPulse conversation tracker. This will allow corporations to monitor how consumers are talking about their brand, which can provide early warning signs for product or service issues.

Just Do It

Whether or not corporations choose to engage in online discussion, conversations about them are still taking place. In his Essential Guide to Social Media, Brian Solis says that if you’re not part of the conversation, you’re leaving it to others to answer questions and provide possibly inaccurate information.

“Yes, there will be negative comments. Yes, you’ll invite unsolicited feedback. Yes, people will question your intentions. Negativity will not go away simply because you opt out of participating. Negative commentary, at the very least, is truly an opportunity to change the perception that you did or didn’t know existed.”

By engaging in discussion, organizations can help users solve problems, find information or simply engage them in dialog. In turn, they’re turning this relationship into a powerful competitive advantage in the marketplace.

In Social Media, this dialog is a two-way discussion that brings people together to discover and share information. If you’re hesitant, do the research, find your venue, consider the advantages and jump in.

Find Alternate Routes

While you may initially think of blogs and discussion boards, online PR is so much more. Inevitably, any substantial subject matter area has a back channel where top bloggers and influencers chat. For example, PR bloggers tend to connect on Facebook, Twitter and, to some extent, LinkedIn. In his Now is Gone blog, Geoff Livingston states these back channels can yield powerful connections to highly influential minds who may not have blogs with top rankings.

Corporations looking to find their consumers’ back channels should start with a basic search. Once your initial search yields important blogs, visit them and note which social networks the bloggers use to connect. Join their communities. And learn what your stakeholders really care about.

Establish Policies and Guidelines:

Whether they know it or not, everyone within the organization contributes to the public perception of the company brand. So, it’s important to create communication policies and guidelines for all personnel, not just those tasked with participating in social media. As well, get IT involved to make sure popular social networks are not blocked by the company’s firewall.

For those unfamiliar with social networks, training and education can bring things into perspective for everyone. Try to share examples of how to do it right and also circumstances where a variety of scenarios didn’t pan out ideally. Then, note how they were or weren’t corrected and share this information with your staff.

Evaluate

Finally, to determine whether any of your above efforts have been successful, why not evaluate them? Livingston states you should first determine measurement based on the outcomes, social media communication vehicle(s) and dedicated effort your company intends to commit to the effort. Select tools to attain measurement. Tools and measurement can vary greatly. Research what is right for you and your effort. Some are free (such as StatCounter) and some are not. But costs aside, consider the value of such tools that will allow you to monitor and analyze just how effective your use of online PR is.

It’s not surprisingly that many talented individuals are often hesitant to try social media. Even more disheartening is that with a few insights these contributors would be a worthy addition to any online community.

I present for your approval a few practices I've learned about Web 2.0 that might make your experiences easier.

1) Networking: Twitter is a free micro-blogging service. So what is the “twitter” advantage? It gives you access to a wide range of people to network with.  A basic step is to find someone you like and follow them.  Find out who they follow and add them to your list as well. These are key influencers and by following them you establish a meta-narrative between yourself and the person you are following.  Using twitter will also give you a glimpse into the influence, interests and insights those in your network have.

2) Vlogging: Seesmic is a Video-blogging site.   Vlogging is the next step forward in establishing an online presence.   In an age where deadlines  don't always make face-to-face communications feasible Seesmic can put a video-blog and face too your product or key message.  More importantly, it lets you deal with clients, critics and opinions face-to-face via the Internet.  While it might not make everyone an online-star it does add humanity into the web and more importantly: into your message.

3) Social Networking: Facebook is a social networking website.  Users can join networks, list their interests and add applications.  It is an ideal way to get an online presence. The key to having an online profile is to remember that while Facebook offers a way to have an online way to network it also owns the rights to any content that you upload.

4) Virtual Worlds: Second Life is an interactive 3D chat world.  The user to create a three-dimensional representation of themselves called an ‘avatar’ that can be used to interact with others in these virtual environments.  Virtual worlds like Second Life are the newest stage in discovering and interacting with communities and being able to present information in a completely interactive way.

5) Social Book-marking: Del.ici.ous is a social bookmarking service for storing, sharing, and discovering web bookmarks. Social bookmaking allows you to keep tabs on your favorite web-pages and make them available to your friends and general public.  This is significant as it allows you to promote discourse from people who might share a common interest in similar articles.  This in turn fosters collaboration and more dynamic research models.

6) Saving time: RSS feeds. One of the detriments of social media is that it can be a full-time job keeping up on all the new developments.   The other drawback is that constantly checking a large number of bookmarks is time consuming AND frustrating.  RSS feeds allow to save time, reduce frustration and get constant updates.  By marking an RSS feed you are alerted when something new is posted.  RSS feeds are convenient and stream-line research.

7) Online Business Net-working: LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking sites.  LinkdIn offers an opportunity for people to place their online experience, work profiles and professional net-works.  The importance of being able to network with a business profile is that it re-contextualizes the professional setting.  This allows you to view other members of the professional community and see how well connected they are.  Another advantage is that it also offers a way to connect with those using social-media tools that you share in common.

8 ) Metrics: Stat Counter and Google Analytics: The most important part of any communications plan is being to evaluate its success and/or failure and know the difference between these.   Having a blog with lots of content isn’t effective if no one reads it  How do you know if your blog, web-page or online articles are being read by hundreds of people that simply aren’t leaving comments?

By using Stat-counter and Google Analytics as open sources for monitoring your media you find the numbers of people paying attention to blog posts, web-site hits and more specific information. This is a valuable way to measure the effectiveness of your message.

9) Etiquette: This is one of the most valuable tools that often goes unrecognized.  One of the common mistakes that both veterans and rookies make is forgetting that there are real people on the other side of avatars, text-messages and emails.  These people have feelings, opinions and access to the same tools for expressing them.  By remembering common courtesy, taking time to reflect, and simply being polite you’ll be taking a major step forward to establishing online credibility.

10) Online Credibility: A common question is: how do I get people to read my material and take me seriously.  The answer: establish your online credibility.  This means that you need to present yourself as a person who can provide information, insight and offer connections that your readers feel are valuable.  This is done by reading blogs online and various forum’s making intelligent comments and having a sense of consistency in the manner in which you deliver your message.

Der ÖAMTC (mit dem mich viele gemeinsame Web-Jahre verbinden) betreibt ein Blog! Genauer gesagt handelt es sich um ein Redaktions-Blog der Internetredaktion zum Thema Elektro-Scooter.

Das Blog ist so frisch (gestern gab's den ersten Beitrag), dass man inhaltlich noch nicht viel sagen kann - außer dass das Thema genau zur richtigen Zeit kommt und sympathisch ist: Umweltfreundliche Mobilität, die zu Zeiten von Spritpreis-Rekorden auch noch erschwinglich ist.

Gut finde ich, dass jeder hier Kommentare posten kann - dafür sind Blogs ja gemacht. Und dass es ein Redaktions-Blog ist, macht die Sache noch sympathischer. Was fehlt ist ein bisschen Info über die Redaktion selbst (Foto!!!), aber das kann ja noch kommen. (Ich kenne die meisten meiner Ex-KollegInnen ja noch, aber die anderen Blog-LeserInnen wahrscheinlich nicht!)

Und jetzt bin ich gespannt, wie sich dieses neue Blog entwickelt - ich hoffe, dass aus dem kleinen Anfang eine großartige Sache wird!

But when it comes down to it, there is an easy way to find out the relative reputation of an organiation and its absolute reputation online.

The number of pages that have been indexed by search engines is an absolute measure of (nearly) all the mentions on web pages  (can we call this page impressions?). Some are good, some are powerful some are contortions of scream marketing and many are insightful and entertaining.

Compared with other similar organisations, it shows a measure of comparative reputation.

I agree that its not as simple as this but this is a good start.

There are other measures tht need to be included such as how old are these pages and how popular. Where are they in cyberspace (I still love the idea of cyberspace)?  Where are the web sites domains registered and where to they purport to belong (is this a .co.uk site or a .blogger.com site?). Do any of them point to the client web site? Are these comments supportive or embarasing and what kind of people write them or see them.

Is it possible to know these things?

Of course the answer is yes - this is Digicasity after all.

OK... and so what!

Well... I think of it this way. If you have a good reputation and you are a retailer then your largest shop is, by far, the web based one. It is also the least expensive and so the most profitable and it drives people into your bricks and mortar outlets.

This means that online reputation is a major contibutor to the bottom line.

This applies to all sorts of business - just ask Pub... he knows this too.

Ich freue mich so richtig darauf, vor allem, weil ja James Grunig, Larissa Grunig, und Yi-Hui Huang (mit der ich in Sachen OPRA vor langer Zeit schon mal in Kontakt war) nach Bled kommen. Und die sind ja besonders wichtig für meine Dissertation. Ja, und ich werde natürlich als Student hinfahren, erstens ist es ja so und zweitens sind 150,- EUR Konferenzgebühr doch deutlich weniger als 550,- EUR.

Eine gewagte Ankündigung: Ich möchte von Bled aus ein BledBlog schreiben, also das dort Erlebte möglichst gleich ins Netz fließen lassen. Abhängig ist das erstens von technischen Möglichkeiten (ich denke, die werden gegeben sein) und zweitens davon, dass ich mich zusammenreiße und auch wirklich brav mit-blogge. Ich werde das übrigens auf Englisch machen. Würde mich freuen, wenn der eine oder die andere Interesse hat und auch was postet dazu!

Online PR of course goes hand-in-glove with search engine optimization - and SEO copywriting in particular.  Apart from the immediacy of Online PR, its other main benefit is the number of inbound links it can generate for a site in a matter of days.  And even if you don't have anything that's earth-shattering on the 'news' front, Online PR portals will use most things that are informative and well-written - AND Online PR news releases hang around the web for ever!     

While virtual communities offer a new opportunity for social interactions, marketing and communicating ideas, this virtual world (along with the possibilities it offers) has come under real world fire.

“Second Life’s Real-World Problems” by Christina Dell points out some these dangers that I feel have merit.

1) Where is everyone: 8.7 million registered but only 600,000 active ones.

2) Crime: Government’s are scrutinizing the site as a haven for tax-free commerce and child-porn distribution.

3) Online gambling: The FBI forced Second Life’s virtual casinos to close as online gambling is illegal in the United States.

4) Disgruntled Users: Second life has been sued for seizing virtual assets worth thousands of dollars from fraudulent real-estate deals.

5) The stars are out: American Apparel, Starwood hotels and other brand names are leaving due to low numbers and allegedly raunchy behavior in Second Life.

While other causes for concern exist, there are also merits to virtual worlds. The question remains: as communicators navigating new virtual worlds are we hunting for a city of gold that only resides in imagination?