Our job, to educate the students and professors about what’s next in the PR/social media sphere. The big question facing educators across the country is wow do they adapt their curriculum to teach social media? At the University of Georgia they have dedicated social media classes and have started to incorporate social media components into other courses as well.
Social media’s ability to help businesses engage with their members, users and audiences is becoming increasingly more common, and something what many in the communications field have actively been encouraging their clients to do.
What’s particularly interesting, though, is social media’s broader ability to quickly share and disseminate critical information when things go wrong, wrong as in threatening, dangerous, and frequently life-altering, which we’re seeing right now with the California wildfires. CenterNetworks points to some of the recent coverage of the fires on sites such as Flickr (see the search term “california fires” for recent images), YouTube ( see the 2000+ results for “california fires”) and Wikipedia (see “California Wildfires of October 2007″) among others. CNET reports how microblogging site Twitter is being used by news organizations such as KPBS and L.A. Times and individuals Nate Ritter to give updates. And Ustream.tv is showing live coverage of the fires.
Meanwhile, on-the-ball international organizations such as the American Red Cross are using social media tools to help serve as vital and up-to-date information sources — see the Online Disaster News Portal, as well as the Red Cross and the Safe and Well Twitter accounts.
My prediction is that within a relatively short time frame, say perhaps three years, the majority of disaster relief organizations, both government and private, will fully implement real-time information dissemination via text messaging, microblogging and an assortment of additional tools and social networking sites.
Welcome to the second installment of our video series 5×5, in which we introduce viewers to companies that are offering interesting, practical and useful services or products. In 5×5 we cover about five questions in around five minutes, without any hype.
In this video, I interview Bryan Zmijewski, Chief Instigator at LuckyOliver. Bryan talks about how marketing managers can use the images on his stock photo site to help establish their company’s brand, and how a community focus helps keep the content on LuckyOliver fresh and exciting.
I call this blog “Does it SELL Stuff,” but really it examines social media’s impact on the bottom line of any organization. An interesting facet of this is charity work, and seeking donations. Just as in the for-profit sector, social media can generate revenue if it’s used correctly — sheer creative uniqueness doesn’t hurt either.
Perhaps only with social media can one man standing in line for four days can result in 100 million free media impressions for a brand, and in selling a single iPhone for $100,000, with the proceeds going to charity.
Enter Johnny Vulkan of marketing agency Anomaly NYC and his innovative work for the charity Keep a Child Alive, or KCA. KCA focuses on generating awareness of the AIDS pandemic in Africa. This isn’t a blog about charity, or politics of any kind, so let’s just get down to how Vulkan used social media to generate such a windfall for this organization.
Vulkan was the first in line for an iPhone at the Soho Apple Store in New York, NY. Now keep in mind he wasn’t the first in line anywhere (that distinction goes to Greg Packer, dubbed the iLoser by the blogosphere), but he was first in line at the Soho store, and he came with a social-media strategy.
Albeit, a spur-of-the-moment strategy.
“We didn’t have a lot of planning,” Vulkan said. “We put the idea together in a couple of days.”
The focal point of that plan was two-fold: first, Apple was tight-lipped about the iPhone and wasn’t giving out information; second, the media wanted information, and would take just about any angle they could get on the iPhone’s launch.
“We knew the media would be covering the story,” Vulkan said. “We knew Apple wouldn’t provide any info, but the media was hungry for info about the iPhone.”
That gave him an opportunity to get attention and leverage it for the benefit of KCA. The deviously simple plot took the following steps:
Be first in line, because in social media it’s usually only the first mover that gets coverage
Prepare assets that cater to bloggers and social media, particularly photos on Flickr and ready access to links and information about KCA
Watch for coverage of the story, then make those links available so the story is more “discoverable”
Leverage existing relationships with bloggers, and knowledge of the blogger’s content, to make them aware of the story
“You can’t just ask bloggers to cover something,” Vulkan said. “Too many people do that, without understanding what the blog’s culture, what they cover, or an understanding the volume of requests that a top blog receives every day.” Vulkan started, of course, by being the first in line at the Soho store. He took a picture to prove it, conveniently branded with the KCA logo, then posted that picture to Flickr.
And that was all it took to get things rolling. Vulkan and Anomaly put out a press release, kept an ongoing photostream of Flickr pictures and made them available to the media. These ready-made assets made it a snap for bloggers to pick up the story, and they did, including key posts in BoingBoing and Gizmodo.
The blogger coverage turned into mainstream media coverage.
“A lot of old media came to the story because conventional journalists use blogs as first-round stimulus for news stories,” Vulkan said. “Blog coverage makes the story trickle up to mainstream, then mainstream coverage trickles back down to other blogs.”
At all times, the media coverage focused on KCA.
“They (the Keep a Child Alive organization) said it’s the highest traffic spike they’ve ever seen,” Vulkan said. “They have a lot of stars helping out, a lot of events, but the iPhone event generated their highest traffic ever.”
Vulkan got his iPhone (and got to mug with Spike Lee for the event, but that’s just how Johnny rolls), which was, of course, captured on video and uploaded to YouTube (see the video at the top of the story).
The end result? Throw that sucker up on eBay, and a woman from Phoenix drops $100,000k to get it. Oh, and to support Keep A Child Alive. All of this using donated time (four days in line) and free social media tools like Flickr, YouTube, blogs and press releases. And, of course, the social networks Vulkan and Anomaly have established over the years.
Next week I’ll be attending the PRSA International Conference in Philadelphia. In addition to speaking and participating in a panel I’ll be working with the conference blogging team. In advance of that, I’m reposting my comprehensive guide to conference blogging.
This review originally came out of the 2006 FPRA Annual Conference. I was part of the team of four people blogging the event. Listed first are the tools we used. Following that, I’ll talk some strategy.
The Tools
This is broken down into two major sections, hardware and software. As with everything, check to make sure all your tools are working ahead of time and that you know how to use them.
I bumped into Tim Ryan of KCBS yesterday at the Web 2.0 Summit, we quickly chatted about the bubble-like feeling that’s very evident here in the Silicon Valley.
Don’t get me wrong, I like Oregon, and Medford is a nice place, but it’s not one of the top 10 cities (or, let’s be honest, 20 or 30) that come to mind when you think of where you’ll end up on a tech media tour.
Portland? Maybe. Seattle? Sure, especially if you’re a software or e-commerce vendor and want to catch the eye of the local 800lbgorillas. But Medford? You’d be better off calling the remotely located journalist, analyst or influencer instead of traveling in and out of municipal airports without any direct flights to your next stop, right?
You can — but you’d be doing your public relations program a huge disservice.
Yes it may happen one day, but it’s going to be a long while before technology replaces the importance of face-to-face meetings. I’ve had clients in the video/videoconferencing space over the years and I admit I’ve sold my share of, “with XXX service, you don’t need to kill yourself on a red-eye flight to New York or Tokyo.” After 9/11, I also remember believing that these technologies would finally flourish as people thought twice about traveling when they could pull off get-togethers using the latest virtual meeting platform. That may in fact have been the case for some, but I know people who never stopped traveling for the simple reason that they wanted to sit across from their audience, look them in the eyes, read their body language and react accordingly.
Making the effort to see someone in person also sends a strong message. People like Michael Arrington may yell at you for sleeping on their front porch, but they hopefully still recognize the effort and will let you make a pitch. This is even more the case the more remote the location.
People you visit in San Francisco, New York, Boston, Seattle, Chicago and Washington, D.C. know you’re probably meeting with other folks during the same trip. But who else are you going to be meeting near the Medford airport? The other journalist living on the banks of the Rogue River? There could be dozens of tech influencers in the Rogue Valley for all I know, but it takes a little extra work to get there — and that means something when you sit down and tell your client’s story. If nothing else, you’ll know what engages the audience and what doesn’t. You’ll get to shake a hand and pound the table to make a point. You simply can’t replace that.
So that’s what I’m doing in Oregon, and I don’t mind it one bit. I don’t mind a successful meeting with good people in a beautiful place. And if you think I’m wrong, hey, that’s great. It means the security line at the Rogue Valley International-Medford Airport will be one Valley geek shorter, and you’ll wonder why your PowerPoint-delivered story via Polycom fell on deaf ears.
Click the player below to listen to the podcast interview with Jimmy Wales. If you prefer to download the file directly, you can click here.
In addition to our new video series 5×5, we’ve also rolled out the Voce Nation Podcast series, which focuses on companies and individuals doing meaningful and innovative things in the social media space. In our inaugural podcast, I talk with Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, the multilingual, free online encyclopedia. Jimmy shares his views on censorship, how communications professionals can best use the encyclopedia, and which social media tools he finds personally useful.
Let us know what you think, your comments are always welcome. If you wish to subscribe to a RSS feed of only our podcast click here. The iTunes subscription is coming soon.
In my previous post I put forth an analogy to illustrate a point. I do that quite a bit in training sessions. I’m constantly comparing online/social media situations to things we see in everyday life. Analogies help those just learning about social media find a relationship to what they’re used to. (Big Social Media Consultant Secret: Many of rules you use in personal interaction offline, apply online :-) pass that along.)
Conversational monitoring, blog monitoring, persistent keyword searches…whatever you call them are a standard item in any social media toolkit. In Mike’s recent post he ‘deconstructs’ measurement into three key elements: Influence, Engagement and Reach
But what do you do with the results? As in what is actionable? What is important and needs immediate response, and what can wait? None of the paid services offer this funcation (that I’ve seen). You need to be involved with the community to know the impact. Here’s another analogy:
Imagine you’re at a coffee shop and you overhear somebody talking about a subject/client in a positive/negative way. What are your options?
A. If it’s your local coffee shop you’ve lived in that community for a number of years chances are you might know the person or the subject very well. You would know that person’s standing in the community. Are they like E.F. Hutton? When they talk do others listen? Or are they the village idiot? In this case you could start up a conversation in a natural manner, or introduce yourself. Chances are the other person knows you, or at least has ’seen you around’.
Once you start that conversation the discussion is wide open. Maybe you state your case, perhaps you change their mind, or at least get them to see your side of the issue. The point is you know all the social intricacies of the situation. You know that talking to one person will take care of the issue, and that person will talk to you.
or…
B. You’re on a trip far from home and the ‘local’ coffee shop is somewhere you’ve never been before. You’re the ’stranger’ sitting by themselves in the corner, the locals are asking, “Who’s that?” How did you get here? Some search dropped you here.
When that person across the room talks, you have no idea who they are and what their standing in the community is. You have no idea what the impact of their statements are. How do you approach them and introduce yourself? We’ve been in situations like this before. Introductions like that can be awkward to say the least.
Talking to that person might actually make the situation worse. You just don’t know.
Spend a week in the coffee shop though, and your situation changes.
If you’ve been doing your homework and have built a presence in a particular community, we can add an Option C:
C. It’s your local coffee shop and you’ve lived in that community for a number of years. Somebody has a problem/comment. Rather than saying something to a group of folks, they come directly to you first. Perhaps it’s a genuine issue, or it’s simple a misperception. However, a few quick, private words between friends takes care of everything.
Josh and I have known each other for a few years, we’ve worked together on multiple projects and what can I say — those who know Josh through his consulting work with Hyku know he’s the type of pro who has *earned* the admiration and respect of many people in our industry.
To say I’m fired up to have him on our team is, well, an understatement.
Filed in 
Vulkan started, of course, by being the first in line at the Soho store. He took a picture to prove it, conveniently branded with the KCA logo, then posted that picture to 
