Flash mob

Many people might be familiar with the big T-Mobile dance flahmob in Liverpool Street Station, summoned by Telco brand T-mobile from earlier this year.

On this Saturday of 30^th April, they had their second flahmob – a massive singalong of “Hey Jude” in Trafalgar Square, London. The sing-along event, hosted by Vernon Kay, saw a surprise appearance by US pop star Pink. Her performance came as the makers of the famous T-Mobile Dance ad filmed their new advert Sing. The gathered ‘mob’ sang hits such as The Beatles’ Hey Jude, Britney Spears’ debut song Hit Me Baby One More Time and musical number Summer Nights from Grease.

It’s an example of a big company that does understand how to market their product with Fash mob  –

A flash mob, as stated in Wikipedia, is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, and then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via social media or viral emails,  rather than those organized by public relations firms or for a publicity stunt.

Although it was rarely mentioned on business or marketing books, papers or lectures, I think it will be an interesting research topic and must be discussed more and more.

I have been thinking about flash mob as a new way of fruitful advertisement:

• 13,500 people in Trafalgar Square to join in a rendition of Hey Jude
• 11 million viewed their videos on You Tube, might not be Susan Boyle level, but still pretty good. 
• Low cost  – organized via facebook, emails and advertised on You tube.

A successful marketing campaign with Fashmob, which organized via the new Social Medias – Facebook, Youtube, internet and etc. Compared to the Songsmith ad, who do you think gets more attention?

In the Web 2.0 Ages

It was a normal day, I went home, have a dinner then came to my desk switching on my laptop and now two hours later I am writing this.

Here is the list of what I have done with my computer in last two hours:

•  Going to Facebook to check if any news from my friends or any funny things happened
•  Watching a YouTube vedio recommend on my friend’s blog. It’s where the catchword “I say Britain you say Tallent, britains got tallent its DJ Tallent LOL?” from.
•  Going to Twitter, ask people to recommend a good website booking my holiday flight ticket to Europe.
•  Going to Raynair website, booking the tickets.
•  Uploading some photo to Flickr .

I would like to say, now, Web 2.0 brought the web user a great age, which let us to share fantastic information of all kinds – text, sound and images. On the area of PR, web 2.0 technologies provide PR professionals unlimited information (Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts) with which they resonate with their publics. Web 2.0 can help reveal what target publics really care about. This can be invaluable in helping ensure that products and service are designed according to the interests and concerns of their publics.

If your organization is still approaching the Web the old way in the past decade, this should serve as a wakeup call.

The wired world is changing.

Podcasts are becoming a great PR and marketing tool. Many big company, like Nokia, IBM, etc, start to use Podcasts to promote their products, technology, services and methodology. Please have a glance at the podcasts provided by some big companies’ website like Nokia’s. You will found that, maybe out of what you expected, they don’t do advertise and sell.

Well, they usually provide interest issues or news related to their business and invite experts such as a customer, an analyst or a journalist to discuss, but they never say something about their products or recommend you any services they provide. You may think that is really a waste without say something nice about yourself. Actually, they are right and quite smart. Nobody wants to subscribe to and download a commercial podcast. You can brand your product, service or company by being the provider of useful information. You should avoid turning your podcast into an advertisement at all costs, regardless of what your marketing VP wants. Also, if you spend your time bashing your competitors, your listeners will unsubscribe in droves. They’re coming for insights, not an commercial. As my mother (and yours, too, probably) used to say, if you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say anything.

 So be careful on the content of the podcast you choose. Remember a series of good podcasts on one particular issue can also support a company’s sales campaign and its issues management.

Public Relations in China

Many people have written blogs or essays about Chinese Public Relations, and most of them are foreigners, on whose good knowledge of Chinese market I really applaud; after reading their perceptions, I thought maybe I need write something, from the view of a native Chinese.

1. Over view of the PR in China markets

•  Chinese PR industry is big

 China’s population (1.3 billion) makes up one fifth of the world’s total; it’s economy is the second largest in the world; it’s the fastest growing major country for the last 25 years and is one of the largest importers and exporters: second and first respectively, if memory serves me well. So absolutely there is a big PR industry for Chinese.

• Chinese PR industry is young

 Many people didn’t really understand the meaning of “public relations” and some of them believed it meant only maintaining their public relationships. I know that, as many people mentioned before, guanxi (means personal relationships) has a deep influence on the Chinese organizations. Using new social media tools in PR fields are not popular, and organizations usually prefer to do look at their partner or friends resources. They emphasize mutual benefits and joint responsibilities.

1.  Key trends for Chinese PR business in the future

• Large development space

 As the Chinese people are paying more attention to information about the products and services they purchase, and the Chinese government is appearing to be friendlier to its people in all aspects, there is a large space for the PR development. Public relations in China will be a prosperous industry in the next few years.

•  Social Media ready to be exploited

 Social Media age is coming late to China. More than 70 percent of Chinese internet users are under 30 years of age. So I believe in the near future, when today’s young people take main charge of the market, using social media in PR will be very popular and therefore the PR industry will have great development.

•  China will develop its own way

 On one side, China is a traditional country with more than 5,000-year oriental culture. On the other side, Chinese people are very keen to opening their mind to accept the business practices. As a result, it may not completely follow the western business model and could develop in its own way, which balanced between traditional Chinese values and the global business practices.

Google vs Baidu

There’s an interesting on the Chinese internet in Economist, which basically sums up that the Chinese internet community is a world unto itself. And it really is. Some Western internet companies have tried a failed there: like for online shopping, the Chinese use Taobao instead of Ebay, and for Social networks, they use Xiaonei instead of Facebook. Also, Google isn’t the dominant search engine either. Instead it’s Baidu, a Chinese owned search engine.

China’s population (1.3 billion) makes up one fifth of the world’s total; it’s economy is the second largest in the world; it’s the fastest growing major country for the last 25 years and is one of the largest importers and exporters. It’s an emerging Superpower according to Wikipedia.

 “And why is all this relevant to public relations?” you might ask. The main reason I would think is that most of the Western internet companies haven’t do enough work to understand the complex Chinese market. I am taking Google and the Chinese Google- Baidu as an example:

The market reality is that millions of Chinese Internet users download free music online. Baidu understands this reality and its music search product — which presents a list of links for free music downloads when people search by song, singer, or label — is extremely popular, while Google is unable to do this. The truth is that very new market is a new challenge; just because you are number one at home does not mean you will be number one in every country you enter. Baidu may enter the US market some day, it will face many of the same challenges that Google is now facing in China. 

China’s population (1.3 billion) makes up one fifth of the world’s total; it’s economy is the second largest in the world; it’s the fastest growing major country for the last 25 years and is one of the largest importers and exporters. It’s an emerging Superpower according to Wikipedia.

 “And why is all this relevant to public relations?” you might ask. The main reason I would think is that most of the Western internet companies haven’t do enough work to understand the complex Chinese market. I am taking Google and the Chinese Google- Baidu as an example:

The market reality is that millions of Chinese Internet users download free music online. Baidu understands this reality and its music search product — which presents a list of links for free music downloads when people search by song, singer, or label — is extremely popular, while Google is unable to do this. The truth is that very new market is a new challenge; just because you are number one at home does not mean you will be number one in every country you enter. Baidu may enter the US market some day, it will face many of the same challenges that Google is now facing in China.

Online Reputation and Ethics

On this post, I am going to critical think about some issues about Online Reputation and Ethics. I thought it might be beneficial, to me and to all of you, to involve in this discussion:

So, here is the first issue that I am thinking:

•  Under what circumstances it would be ethical to remove comments made about your website in social networking situations (ie. Facebook Pages, YouTube, MySpace, Ning, your university blogs)?

 I would think only when said content is an egregious violation of social/ethical/moral standards: ie racial slurs, inciting hate/violence, attacking others, encouraging the violation of rules/laws, etc.

 The second issue is:

• Under what circumstances it would be unethical?

The examples I mentioned in last issue are very rare and occur few. If someone says something bad about a product, that doesn’t give us the right to swipe it off that is because a site is supposed to foster open communication. If they are stating negative opinions, that is their right. In some of those instances, you need to address deeper root issues causing people to take that kind of action.

 Now the last issue:

• If you don’t remove negative comments and opinions, what other options are available to deal with these situations that are more acceptable?

Have someone, perhaps a company ambassador, tasked with monitoring channels and conversations. Have them go in where things might be taking a negative turn to inject a little subtle spin into the dialog. Link it to information that can refute bad or incorrect comments, and treat it like a polite debate.

From Ebay feedback to Word of Mouth —— Word-of-mouth has moved online

I am a regularly Ebayer, and with several years of eBay experience, checking sellers’ feedback is what I have to do before making any purchase. Every eBay member has a Feedback Profile, which includes feedback information that their traders have left for them. Learning to trust a member I usually has a lot to do with what their past buyers or sellers have to say.  On eBay, the feedback is the most important rating tool for both buyer and seller.

Leaving feedback for each other and check other’s feedback on eBay is a good example of Word of Mouth Marketing. It also tells us Word-of-mouth has moved online. Consumers like to know what people think about the products or services they going to consume. Most of the shoppers admit to going online to do some investigation before they make decisions of buying something. Now as the social media age coming, people are using social media (like Twitter, Facebook, Blog and etc) to find out what others are saying about brands, services and products. With an online community, you can direct and stimulate this word-of-mouth marketing by getting involved and encouraging consumer advocacy.

Word of Mouth Marketing

My friend Tom plans to buy a car. He is thinking about Peugeot 206 because it is cheap and economical. On Facebook he asked all his friends who have a Peugeot 206 and how do they like it, and also, he went online to research this type of car trying to know more information before making purchase.

This made me think about the Marketing term -Word of Mouth Marketing. I really agree that Work of Mouth has become a key driver in the marketing activities. For promoting a product or service, some times passing information from person to person is more important than advertisements or other traditional marketing campaign. Competition between brands is running high and consumers are assaulted with competing sales messages. As a result, those looking to make a considered purchase are turning to the only remaining objective resource – each other.

Studies show that

“In fact, word-of-mouth is four times as trusted as TV advertising and five times more effective than magazine advertising. Social media marketing can help you capitalise on this by increasing customer engagement with your brand to drive loyalty and repeat purchase.” 

Studies show that

“In fact, word-of-mouth is four times as trusted as TV advertising and five times more effective than magazine advertising. Social media marketing can help you capitalise on this by increasing customer engagement with your brand to drive loyalty and repeat purchase.”

Take advantages of SEO

One of my professional aims is to set my own brand and on-line website. I will do anything I could to optimizing the website to promoting my name. I know the earlier a site appears in the search results, the more customers will see it. As stated in the last post, I noticed the importance of PR contents optimization. Doing some research on this, SEO frequently come out on my search results and start to grab my mind. “If you want to be effective at PR you need to learn the principals of SEO.” Lee Odden (2009, Online Marketing Blog) said. I become interested in this term, and two questions need I do research on:

• What is SEO?
• What is the current situation of SEO in the web PR?

Wikipedia is seems to be a very helpful on finding the answer. SEO is short for Search engine optimization, which is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results. (Wikipedia, 2009).

SEO is an Internet marketing strategy, which considers how search engines work and what people search for, however it is highly ignored on somehow. Especially in Countries like China or India, web PR is just beginning to take shape so expecting advanced tactics like optimizing PR based content is too much right now. Maybe in near future we can expect something exciting.

PR Content Optimization

Recently, I am busy on booking my travel money.  Searching on Google and trying to find a good provider who gives good rates, two companies grabbed my eyes: Crown Currency Exchange and Currency Express. They seem to be the most popular companies as they always come out on top of my search results and be top 5 on almost all the comparison of travel money providers, like the table shows.

Actually, it is not true after my own experience. Crown Currency Exchange provides a bad rate, which is even lower than Post office and the banks and need 2 weeks to delivery, and for Currency Express, after they asked my address, bank account and even passport number, they promised sending the money to me in one week, but on the next day, they called me to cancel the transaction due to my information is wrong, on which I really have no idea! I have to fall back on Google, and this time I choose Tesco, as there is store in Leeds which is easy for me to contact if any problem. Only with an easy 5 minutes call, they took my personal details, and then next day I receive my money with a very good rates which higher than Currency Express a lot.

With all my work and personal experience, I would say Tesco give the best service. However, why Tesco have not come out to the top 20 on any of the travel money comparison list I searched? Apparently, Tesco need do much to make sure the content published on the web as part of PR efforts is easy to find via search, that’s what’s so called PR optimization.

What PR contents can be optimized?

• Images
• Videos
• Press releases
• Blogs
• Letters to the editor
• Online newsrooms
• Media kits
• Webinars/demos
• Newsletters
• Real world interviews published digitally

I think social media is something that if a business is not doing right now then they are far behind the game. It’s never too late for a company like Tesco to start better communicating with its customers and prospects on line.

Some Guides for Twitter Beginners

Twitter has become incredibly popular and it is doubling in size each month! Originally a personal application, Twitter is an increasingly valuable tool for business and a great way to follow breaking news. For example, Twitter users always break news stories first such as the recent jet landing in the Hudson River. It is also a fun way to follow friends and celebrities.

I firstly get in touch with twitter several months ago, with months practice, now I am a regularly twitter, here I am posting some guides for twitter beginners. (If you search “Twitter guides” on Google, thousands of guides come out. Most of them are quite complicated, and some have 10 or 20 steps. Read some of them and referring to my own experience, I sum up the following 4 steps

Step 1 – Sign Up Now!

This is easy, go to Twitter.com and create your account. It is free!

Step 2 Create a Basic Profile

Start with a simple description about yourself. If you like people know more about you, add the link of your website or Blog.

Step 3 Listen first and start to write

To get started, have look at some of the popular people on Twitter, read before you type!

Step 4 Follow the Three E’s of Social Media – Educate, Engage and Entertain!

If you are using Twitter for business or for building a personal brand and reputation, your followers will stay interested if you are a valuable place for information and links, I call this the first E of social media Educate.

The second E Engage encourages you to develop a two way dialogue with your users. Ask questions. Reply to their comments and happy and sad news. The Twitter celebrities have a Twitter timeline filled with @ replies and re-tweets as they engage in a two way dialogue with their followers.

Lastly, have fun. Entertain your followers with a funny YouTube video or a Blip.FM song selection once in a while.

For a deeper understanding of where Twitter came from and where they are going here are two recent videos from the Co-Founders. Biz Stone reveled that they are “Building Value and in the Future they will Build Revenue, with testing to commence this year”

Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone on Stephen Colbert’s show:

 

Using Blogs to Promote

I have a Blog, on which I make friends, share my smile and experiences. Through my Blog, people know me and my music and games. If you have a business, you need a Blog as well. A Blog can help position you as the expert in your field. You already know a great deal about the products you sell or the services you offer. A Blog gives you the opportunity to easily share that knowledge, with thousands of interested people across the globe.

 I am thinking about the advantages of using Blogs to promoting:

 

• It’s honest advertising. People said it’s kind of “soft-sell” machine. I really agree this point. The language in a Blog is informal, not promotional, like the way I am writing now. We build a friendly relationship with my personal transmission of information. Not “sales talk” or “marketingese.”
• Starting a Blog could be a low-cost method of boosting your profile with potential customers.
•  It could also be a time-consuming effort that increases little benefit to your bottom line.

 So, start your business Blog!

Using Video in Marketing

One of my favourite website is YouTube, which bring the excitement of video to me everyday. Not just me, as consumers get busier and their mailboxes get fuller, they’re more likely to watch a video-directed mail than to read a print paper. The use of video is an effective and simple way to make connection between customers and companies. Recent case studies indicate that 97% of videos are watched at some point. Some studies suggest that as many as 94% of video direct-marketing recipients will pass their copy along to another viewer. Therefore, I have the reason to believe that using video to promote business is a great way to get attention on the web.  Videos are used to inform potential customers on different products, services or promotions. Companies know building a solid relationship with clients is a main key to boosting sales.

 Begin thinking about how to use video for marketing your product or service by understanding three basic types:

•  Video Direct-Mail;

              you mail your video directly to a targeted list

• Video Direct-Response;

             you send your video to prospects who request it after seeing your “free video” offer in another media (e.g., an infomercial, a direct-mail brochure, a magazine ad, an  Internet homepage)

• Video Premium;

              you offer a video either free or at a significant discount as a purchase incentive

 Another tip would be to take a look around at the following video (Diet Coke)  that have been previously successful and study what is it about these videos that made them a success.

LinkedIn

As a Master student of PR, What brought to me by the New Media Age is to find out all there is to know about integrating online marketing into campaigns to achieve winning results! In the next two posts, I will talk about the connection and effectiveness of four social media tools: LinkedIn, Video,  Blogs and Twitter.

 The importance of LinkedIn

 Joining the Recruitment and browsing employers’ website is what the potential graduates like me usually do.  I started to realize the importance of LinkedIn when I started to see a significant number of visitors go there. LinkedIn is a not only a recruiters playground, it is the “professional” Facebook. I’ve made many contacts and have had some great answers to questions I’ve asked. I also read other people’s questions as well. Advanced search is awesome and even if you are not connected to the person you find, you may have a connection otherwise like attended the same school or belong to the same association.

 LinkedIn holds a lot of value that most don’t realize and it holds even more potential that I hope the LinkedIn team can capture and provide. It’s a great tool that shouldn’t be missed by small or large businesses alike.

 I guess, LinkedIn is a new word to many people, so here I am sharing a very good video overview explaining what LinkedIn is and how it works.

Hey, let’s hook up on LinkedIn!

The Age of New Social Media Tools in PR

I have read a paper today, during which a survey about “Social Medias Power Users” attract lots of my interest. This survey was conducted on 2007 by The Society for New Communications Research. It focused on “How social media tools (include podcasts, on-line video, Blogs, social networks and other new communication tools) influence organizations”

The results of this study shows me 86% of the organizations use twitter, 79% of them use Blogs, 78% use LinkedIn,  41% use online video, and 38% use social networks in their organization’s communications initiatives.

Through the above numbers, we can believe that social media tools are becoming more valuable to their activities as more PR professionals and journalists use them.  I am thinking about my friends and me myself, we do spread our activities across a wide range of channels, Podcasts, newsgroups, photosharing sites and wikis. It serves all of us well to stay up on social media trends—learning faster, easier ways to share information. Therefore, as a potential PR Professional , facing to these large amounts of new emerging media tools, I should master as many skills as I can to use them to make more efforts on my PR research and should always grab myself with the steps of new communication tools and technologies.

Hello world!

Welcome to WordPress.com. This is your first post. Edit or delete it and start blogging!