Learning to phlog!

Boris is at it. So is Amanda Wilkie, a participant in the recent charity ‘moonwalk’, and so are countless others including charities, sporting organizations and government.

Nothing cynical, underhand or even remotely relating to expenses scandals here. What are they all doing then you ask? The answer is ‘phlogging’. The aptly named concept of sending a blog entry live from your telephone.

The clever idea has been coined and developed by ipadio, a subsidiary of communications company Nemisys.

So simple to use, you sign up with your name, email address and up to two telephone numbers, and are presented with a dial in number and pin code. Then you’re all set to do your first phlog!

So what is different about this to other blogging/video/audio online? For one thing it’s instant. As soon as you dial in, you are broadcasting live over the internet. (Good thing or bad I haven’t decided yet). For another, you don’t need to buy anything. No new equipment, no geographical restrictions, no need to have wifi available where you are, or any cables to move something from your phone to your computer. You dial in from a landline or mobile and you’re set.

I think this is amazing, and you can listen to my first attempt right here

Likely uses? SO many. This thing is so simple that there’s no training required. It’s also so friendly that even people who have no idea how to handle anything web-related should be able to manage it. And the fact that you can do it anywhere in the world is really cool.

Have a look at Boris in action.

Downsides? I am sure there are many. Firstly cost. I have so far only tried a really short entry and I’m nervously awaiting the phone bill. As you’re calling an 0845 number, chances are that there will be a cost of around 50p per minute in the UK on most networks. So if you were interested in using this for recording something longer - an interview for example – the costs may mount up pretty quickly, particularly when compared to recording something for free onto your laptop using something like audacity.

Having said all of that, I think this is really neat and I’m going to play around with it some more. I’m hoping others will too!

When times get hard sell with a nice bit of nostalgia

I’m loving the current fashion for nostalgia in PR and advertising. You’ll have done well if you managed to miss the massive Wispa campaign last year. Stuff like that is just such strong testimony to the power of using brand advocates to spread your messaging for you.

The recent trend is a bit different but aims to generate that same nostalgic buzz. Three examples are Persil, Hovis and Nestle (with Milky bar).

Persil is cutting in clips from their ads over many years  – I love the ’90s one with the teen pouring powder all over the floor – celebrating 100 years of the brand. It’s great. Really can’t help smiling watching it.

The Hovis ad is a little bit different – same concept as the Persil ad, we watch a boy running through time from when Hovis first launched, through to the present day. I don’t recognise the clips or the music so I think it’s been made from scratch, but it’s meant to feel familiar.

Then today the Milky bar Kid found his way back into our hearts. I can’t find the ad, but Zoe Wood’s Guardian article looks at all of these examples.

I hadn’t read the Guardian article until I sat down to write this post, and I feel a little sad that it wasn’t just me wondering what the psychology is that is behind this – although also secretly pleased that my random musings on the journey home may actually be interesting.

So what is the psychology behind this trend? Well according to Wood, as well as researchers from Washington State Uni and Wolverhampton Uni, it’s about remembering ‘better times’. Wood’s article contributes the rise to the current economic doom and gloom. People look back on the past with a fondness, so the nostalgia ads give us that warm happy glow that makes us want to part with not only our money but our brand loyalty too.

Experimenting with Ning – reasons to give it a go

A while back I posted a step by step experience of setting up a social network on Ning. After trying it out, I put forward a proposal to my employers to develop a Ning social network. I have to say that I’ve been really pleased by the results. It’s by no means a perfect platform, and in the long term if you have budgets to custom build then something like this looks pale in comparison, but this was a low cost route to getting a really dynamic two-way conversation started not just between us and our customers, but between those researchers who could now talk directly to each other. It’s a joy to behold (no, really!). So, with all this in mind here are a few pearls of wisdom on getting started with setting up a social network on Ning.

• Do keep it simple. Like most things in life, you need a straightforward idea to make something like this work. Start out with a clear objective of what you want users on the network to do. Think about the big players – Facebook wants you to connect with your friends, Twitter wants to know ‘What you’re doing right now’, etc. And think about other dynamic tools such as blogs: the best ones are those that have a very simple objective, such as Problogger’s aim to, in essence, help bloggers blog better.
• Don’t get feature-itis. Simple simple simple. Do you really need that ‘what cat are you’ game? Does it really meet your site objectives? I didn’t think so.
• Do map your user profiles and identify top needs. At the end of the day, what you want doesn’t matter. We sat down and drew up a list of who we thought the site’s key users were, and prioritised a list of ‘user needs’ that they might have, for example “I am a lecturer, I want to share resources with my students”, or “I am a researcher, I want to share information about upcoming events I am organizing”. After prioritizing these, we put together a site that offered the functionality to fulfill just these needs, and nothing more. And as I’ve alluded to, while we got some of the priorities right, in other cases we were wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. Users will show you the things that they want and show you the things that they need once the site is up and running. It’s not static you can change it once you see how they are making the site their own.
• Do try everything out. The site can be really clever, and sometimes just plain annoying. One of the best things about it is how easy it is to move features around. See what it looks like, and if it doesn’t work, just shift it or remove it. If you don’t like the functionality of certain segments, take them out. The only things you can’t remove altogether are things like the ‘My page’ and the individual blogs. But even there if you experiment with textboxes and blank pages you can find ways to work around any difficulties. The help section is pretty good on Ning so look it up if you get stuck.
• Don’t go in blind. In this arena don’t be afraid to take advantage of the wide body of good and bad examples and learn from them. Ning is a social network platform – there are a vast number of networks on there. Spend some time taking in others in similar areas to yours or completely different.
• Do edit the text. One of the least intuitive functions on there but HIGHLY useful – to change certain phrasings across the site, select ‘Language Editor’ from the manager’s tab, then click in to edit the language that the site is set to (don’t confuse which version of English you are using: select either US or UK and stick to it!). Then from within there, you can search for specific words or phrases and choose to re-write them. For example the automatic invitation text reads “Come join me on…”. That wasn’t something we thought worked for our target members. Very useful.
• Do edit the registration information. Once someone is joined then they no longer have to give you any information about themselves. Think carefully about what you want to know about them (the edit is under ‘Profile questions’). Keep the registration short, and if you don’t need something to be compulsory, think about whether you really need it to be there at all.
• Don’t be put off by power users. It’s well known that the majority of social networkers are lurkers. You’ll get a small handful of people who are regular contributors, and that is absolutely no bad thing, as long as the discussion stays on topic and open-minded.
• Do set guidelines. This is for the site users but also for anyone within your organization that is contributing. There are some fantastic examples out there on best practice for blogging that apply equally well to social networks.
• Do monitor daily. Only by actively participating will you understand what is working and what isn’t, and more importantly will you understand what your users are getting from the site.

Interested in seeing how ours turned out? Visit www.methodspace.com

HarperPlus – free additional content for readers = excellent marketing opportunity

Harper Collins last week launched HarperPlus (see Bookseller coverage here). The site describes itself as “designed to enhance the reading experience”. By entering a page number from the print title where a symbol is displayed, you will get access to a variety of additional content (either video, audio, image, text or game).

The first book on the site is Apache by Ed Macy. It’s easy to see why a book like this works well. There are lots of additional photos, and creating a platform like this is a way to introduce additional value without adding to production charges, while at the same time creating something that readers can interact with.

This is a great strategy by HC. Not just in terms of reader engagement, but more for the benefit of providing the book with free online advertising. Readers get to experience something of the book’s essence outside of just the print title.

Where I think HC’s site falls down is in the levels of interaction possible. Given this is a very glossy-web.2.0-looking site, it’s almost frustrating to find that actually, once you’re on there, it’s all pretty much flat content, with little or no opportunities for the fans to engage on the site. They can read the additional content, listen to the audio and watch the videos, but they have no choice other than to do this on their own. This is missing a trick: while reading is a solitary activity, sites like this should be faciliating dialogue, and letting fans connect. Other than social media bookmarking, you’re on your own on HC Plus. Shame.

PPC Digital publicity session at London Book Fair

This year is my third London Book Fair, and the third time I’ve been to the PPC’s free seminar. I have to say I wasn’t blown away by the discussions or the panel, but nevertheless there were some good talking points.

The session was chaired by e-consultancy’s Michelle Goodall (@greenwellys). Great relaxed chair with some interesting insights. Must look up her courses. Nice reminder that social media started out with academics, sharing research. It’s obviously key to my line of work that academics still are active participants in this landscape.

Social media is a multitask medium: we watch TV and pootle on Facebook at the same time. Not sure if this is good or bad, but it’s something that we may potentially want to think about from a psychology perspective: if we only have half of someone’s attention, how much do we actually have?

87% of people online start out with a search engine. There are huge implications here not just for general SEO but publicity too. Where do social media releases come in? What ought we to be doing with tagging, cross channel key word placement etc etc to ensure that our news gets to the top of a person’s search results. Note here I am talking about PEOPLE – the end user/customer/prospect/whatever, not just a journalist. We have to keep thinking about the serendipity of searching. Michelle quoted a Nielsen study (must look it up) suggesting that we are (as a nation) now using social networks more than email. There’s an interesting question here about fragmentation. While the thought of 87% coming through Google (ok there are other search engines but hey let’s face it we’re talking about Google) means that search can be key to reaching out, there’s a whole new set of potentially gated communities where we’re still outside looking in. As we get more and more niche networks, how do we ensure we’re reaching the right people?

Next up was Nick Hawkaway (@Harkaway), author of the Gone-Away World. Wonderfully entertaining panellist. Nick claims his publisher got him into social media (blogging specifically), and it all spiralled from there. He was impressive. Clued up. So either Heinemann have an amazing digital team who are selling it well and explaining what it’s all about, or this guy should be changing careers as he was a super digital advocate. He had it all down: social media is about “dialogue” – making connections. “Twitter is like a giant pub discussion: you choose to listen to which conversations you want”. What a brilliant way to put it. You’d have to be a writer to come up with analogies like that.

From the author’s perspective then, social media is a chance to go beyond the content, engage with readers, get feedback. It’s applicable to a much wider world. Businesses too can have these same dialogues. And most importantly moving from push to pull opens up the opportunity to have real conversations with people that are genuinely interested.

Last up was Matt Brown of Stay Loose. Very nervous, bless him. And also a little unwilling to get specific. Annoying. To be fair there were a few take-aways, although at a very simple level:

1. Keep niche communities at the forefront of your mind. There are so many opportunities now to reach out to very specific communities.

2. Research blog influence. Review peer groups (who else are they referring to and are on their blog roll?); what is their sphere of influence (who else is looking at them); and their tone.

3. Go in without expectations. Understand your target, be concise, and don’t be pushy.

I felt like there was a big gaping hole in this section. Namely monitoring. As PRs more than anything in our role we should be concentrating on issues management. We have to be constantly checking the temperature of our audiences, and understanding what their needs are. Otherwise we have no way of knowing how or what to reach out with. I didn’t feel like the strategies these guys were talking about were looking at genuine engagement in social media communities as much as short term “identify your targets and sell something in”. There were some interesting ideas on finding blogs to target from Goodall: using page rank to decide on influence (interesting: haven’t tried that before and will be doing); Going by Google alone: what gets to the top of the search lists;  and what are the in-bound links from those sources. But beyond that first foray…? Unless you spend all your time as a PR or publicist working in a very small number of niche communities, how do you stay on top of all the different spheres of networks and influencers? While Twitter as a pulse monitor is amazingly effective, what about the rest of the blogosphere? And the social networks? Minefield. And as yet I don’t feel like I’ve got the answers. It was interesting that places like Technorati, Blog Pulse etc didn’t feature at all either. Would have been really interesting to know what kind of analysis these guys are doing of their social media activities. And what would constitute a valuable outcome.

There were some other interesting points in the discussion. The importance of getting the author involved in your digital promo campaigns was key. Early access to authors too: not just once a book is out. Journalists are more and more taking up use of digital assets e.g. exclusive videos. We can do more with this, and it doesn’t need to be high tech. Just genuine dialogue. One thing in particular Harkaway referred to was “writing about writing”! Authors can make the most of sharing their experiences.

A twitter wordle

Do I REALLY say ‘really’ all that much? oh dear. Check it on twitter.com/mithum

Make your own twitter wordle

Magical presentations

I went to an absolutely brilliant talk last night arranged by the CIPR’s Greater London Sector Group (GLG). Nick Fitzherbert provides tips for presentation skills that are based on principals he acquired during his years as a member of the Magic Circle (if you really are too young or were deprived the joys of Paul Daniels in the 1980’s/90’s then see here for more).

Everything he said reinforced previous presentation training sessions I’ve attended over the years, but he did it in such a sparky way (throwing in magic tricks along the way) that he had the whole room engaged and excited in a way you wouldn’t have expected.

All attendees came away with a book of 44 essential tips, summarised into four top sections: engagement, attention, impact and conviction. The really nice example he gave was of live performers and how they prepare. He talked about QUEEN’s preparation for Live Aid: they were booked for a 20min set, which they planned out (it’s short), thinking about their audience (what do they know already – best hits) and constructing it accordingly (short attention span, so it’s got to be a medley), practising it over and over, getting it down to a perfect 18mins, and then planning a BIG FINISH (sing along to We are the Champions). Result? They were claimed to be the best act of the day by some of the biggest names there.

Other really interesting highlights were thinking about expectations and perceptions: it’s not something I’ve ever really thought about in my preparations. But it makes complete sense: the whole ‘picture’ has to be based on an understanding of what the audience already knows, what they’re distracted by both in the room you’re in right now, but those other external distractions too (what’s for tea, when’s my train…).

I also really liked the advice on setting up: attention drives from left to right: so you should stand to the left of your projector screen so that attention comes back to you. You also shouldn’t look at that screen unless you want your audience to look at it too!

Nick runs two-day training courses on presentations. He also runs coaching and creative thinking courses. I’d definitely look him up if you are looking to fill any training requirements in those areas.

The longtail in action

I’m actually amazed that my, ehem, “experiment” in ignoring my blog has demonstrated the long-tail effect just perfectly. It’s not a lot of hits, but it has kept on going despite my shameful lack of activity. I did some Googling and it’s actually pretty poor in terms of visibility, which suggests I’m not doing a great job at maintaining a personal ‘online brand’. More to come on this as I see it as a forthcoming hot topic for 2009.

Collaboration here there and everywhere

There seems to have been a sudden splurge of online collaboration tools, both within publishing and the wider academic community. After my forage a few weeks ago into the world of ning, I do currently intend to try out some of these others and do some detailed comparisons. But for the time being, here’s some highlights…

First up, the new fresh author talent site from Harper Collins: authonomy. Aiming to bring together new authors along with potential readers and publishers, the site offers a community approach to rating new content. Attractive, nice welcoming tone, lots of user interaction, this site has been well planned and the community has well and truly bought into the concept. It had a good publicity launch followed by a period of BETA testing. It’s a really neat concept and a strong business opportunity – both for the authors getting the profile and the publishers growing a fan base. What is even more interesting is that HC is getting lots of great profile and loyalty, yet the site is open to other agents and publishers to do business too.

Next up is Penguin’s new partnership with match.com. Not so much a social network, rather an online chance to bring together individuals with a shared interest, even though there is membership and the chance to interact. I didn’t want to create a profile so can’t tell you much about its merits, other than to say it’s another great example of how the Penguin brand gets a big profile boost, without this being directly tied to the main Penguin business, or restricting it to being only about Penguin. My only criticism was it was really not easy to find this thing – search results were not great, so I had to search via the Penguin blog to find an entry point. Might just be my incompetence, but SEO needs to be next on the agenda…

Same goes for the new Facebook app from Pan Macmillan, who have launched the ‘Love letters of Great men‘ app to accompany the new book release of the same title. I have to say it took me quite some time to actually locate the app. The fan base is currently quite small, but I haven’t done my homework on what the average uptake of a new app is, or what the likely growth of new apps might be. I decided against downloading this one, but I wanted to include it to show again the kinds of things happening in networks.

I don’t intend to go into detail on some of the following – you can read more about them in Paula J Hane’s article on Information Today, but I will certainly be spending some time getting to know Research1; the American Chemical Society (ACS); the Canadian Medical Association (CMA);  and Indiana University School of Medicine Informatics’ Laboratree, along with the more established 2collab and labmeeting. So much fun to be had…!

A blow by blow Ning evening

I’m doing a live blog post. Right now! Yes right now! This week I’ve been doing some social network research. My experiment this evening is Ning.

So far I’ve created a user name, named my network after this lovely blog, and selected some colours and features

 

It’s pretty clever how you can pull features in and out – selection range includes description, members, forum, blog, videos, events…and more.

For the design the advanced settings are fairly bog standard. There is a nice selection of existing templates too. I’ve opted for something quite simple from the ‘do it yourself’ range. There may be more playing later on but this will do for now.

I’ve now been playing around with the questions people will see when they wish to sign up to my network. These are also customizable which is good. I really don’t care what my members’ favourite tv shows are…no offense, and you should feel free to tell me if you really want to…but I can’t pretend to care. I can’t think of a good set of answers around ‘day job’…any suggestions?

Ooh exciting. So now investigating security. There seem to be three tiers. You can close off the entire network, so it’s only accessible to registered members. This seems like a waste to me, because if you don’t really know from the name what the network’s about, why on earth would you bother to join? The middle tier is being able to see the front page, but then having to register to see anything else. That’s what I’ve gone for. The lightest security tier is being able to see everything without registering. What I can’t see is what someone who isn’t me that tries to join the site will see…will have to rope in the other half to try that one shortly.

Moving on to notification settings. Users get a lot of choice in terms of what email notifications they can get. They can opt to get none, or they can drill down through a detailed list of options.

Right have just convinced the other half to sign up, and being a nice lad he has done so. So the procedure was fairly painless. And the window displayed looked tasteful. It doesn’t ask you for masses of information – just a user name and password, plus the additional questions that you set. What’s interesting is that the user ID runs across the entire Ning network: Dan had already signed up to another Ning site a while back, so to join this network he could use that same user ID from the previous network, and it kept his user profile.

Another nifty feature: under each member is the option to ‘feature on home’, which allows for lots of fun to be had with profiling any significant figures that decide to join up! Come on now celebrity PRs I know you’re all desperate to join my Ning network…

Well I have to say my enthusiasm is waning. It looks like there’s still lots of playing to do here, and it’s not always clear what I can see as administrator and what a user can see, so there’ll need to be some triple-account holding to check and cross check what things look like, but this is a cool site and I’ll be spending some more time on here…