presentation to nhs graduate trainee communicators 'practical issues in social media
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Practical Issues in Social Media
Ben CottonLeeds Business School
What is social media?
Kaplan and Haenlein, (2007): "a group of Internet-based applications that build on theideological and technological foundations of web 2.0, andthat allow the creation and exchange of User GeneratedContent”.
Hazleton, Harrison-Rexrode and Kennan (2007): “social media can include, but is not limited to, email,instant messaging, online groups, blogs, internet socialnetworks and cell phones”.
What are the characteristics?Mayfield (2008):
• Participation
• Openness
• Conversation
• Community
• Connectedness
The major playersBrown (2009):
• Bebo
• Blogger
• Delicious
• Digg
• Flickr
• Friendster
• Last FM
• Linked In
• MySpace
• Photobucket
• Wordpress
• Youtube
And a few more…
Benefits of Social Media
• Lower cost, but not free
• Reach a large audience, quickly
• Can communicate directly with audience
• Social Media can remove traditional channels from the communication process
Pitfalls of Social Media
• Skills/knowledge gap
• Lack of understanding of etiquette
• Loss of control
• Can cause reputational damage
Good & Bad
• Often public, immediate and permanent
• Viral nature
• It is now, popular and growing…zeitgeist
When Social Media goes wrong!
Case study: Microsoft
• Microsoft Astroturfing on Wikipedia
• Paid bloggers to edit ‘inaccuracies’ on its Wikipedia entry
• Against Wikipedia rules
• Publicly criticised
• Unethical, lack of disclosure
• Habitat spamming the Iranian election on Twitter
Case study: Habitat
Case study: Habitat
• Thornton’s Manager offended the town he moved to
Case study: Thornton’s employee
• GMPTE brandjacked on Twitter
Case study: GMPTE
When Social Media goes well!
• Barnet Council uses its Facebook page as a forum
Social Media in the public sector
• NHS Salford used Twitterto inform patients of which hospital services were available
• Essex and Kirklees councils created a Gritter Twitter account
• Reports faster than news agencies
Social Media in the public sector
Social Media Guidelines
• Do you have them?
• Do employees know about them?
• Who wrote them?
• Are they available?
What do you think?
• Social Media will change the face of Public Relations?
• Social Media is just another communications tool?
The good old press release
Die Press Release! Die! Die! Die!
• In Feb 2006 Tom Foremski blogged about traditional press release
• Challenged PR industry to come up with something new
Social Media Release
Tom Foremski (2006):
“Press releases are nearly useless. They
typically start with a tremendous amount of
top-spin, they contain pat on-the-back
phrases and meaningless quotes. Often they
will contain quotes from C-level executives
praising their customer focus. They often
contain praise from analysts, (who are almost
always paid or have a customer relationship.)
And so on...”
Social Media Release Template
• In May 2006 Todd Defren came up with a template for the SMR
Traditional
Press Release
Social Media Release
vs.
Traditional Elements
• Headline
• Core facts
• Approved quotes
• Boiler plate
• Contact details
Navigation• Hyperlinks in text• Links to previous coverage• Links to FAQ
Social Media Elements
Multimedia• Video• Audio• Images
Social Media• Social Bookmarking• RSS feeds• Technorati tags• In bound links• Comment with organisation
Who are they for?
• Journalists
• Bloggers
• Consumers
• Bloggers the new journalists?
How to pitch to bloggers
• Still much debate…
• Bloggers don’t like being pitched to – nor do journalists
• Email, phone, meet, comment on blog, follow on Twitter
• Read the blog rules to see if there are guidelines
• Establish a relationship first, then approach
Other considerations
• May get shown as a bad example
• Embargoes may not be respected
• Can be time consuming
• More work than a traditional press release e.g. you need video, audio, images, social media etc
Examples
• ITV - FA Cup Final
• Bright One Communications – Unique partnership project seeks illustrative talent to collaborate on exciting youth project
What are the benefits?
• Enriched with multimedia
• Optimized for search
• Optimized for conversation
• Optimized for sharing
Social Media ReleaseConclusions• They look nice, but they still need to be newsworthy
• They are not a substitute for relationships – the usual rules apply
• Research in PR Week showed journalists prefer SMR, still need to be targeted
• If it’s unsolicited…it is still spam!
Recommended Blogs• Steve Rubel.com
• Brian Solis.com
• Neville Hobson.com
• Ste Davies.com
• PR Squared by Todd Defren
• Mashable
• Wolftstar
Any questions?
Q&A
Contact details
[email protected]/bencottonwww.socialwebthing.comwww.linkedin.com/in/bencotton
End
Thank you