Foursquare for Business

Social Media has changed the way businesses are operating across Australia, with consumers spending an increasing amount of their time on Twitter, Blogs, Facebook and other forms of Social Media.

Companies can no longer afford to ignore discussions online about their brand. Working in partnership with The Wall Street Journal, Ogilvy’s specialized Social Media team has created a series of tutorials to help companies take those first steps.

The latest in the series, “Foursquare for Business”, will take place on August 19 at 1PM Sydney time.

Foursquare is the hottest new social media platform that is taking Australia and APAC by storm.

Part game, part social network, Foursquare allows people to “check in” wherever they are via their mobile devices, become “Mayor” of their favourite locations, and earn fun “badges” along the way.

Foursquare presents some tremendous opportunities to brands and businesses of every size. From Microsoft’s launch of Office 2010 via a Foursquare Mayor Meetup in Australia to Dominos Pizza seeing an increase in profit through a Foursquare program, this new social media platform is proving it’s worth its weight in ROI.

Join Ogilvy’s award-winning Asia-Pacific Social Media team, including Brian Giesen and Thomas Crampton for a free 30-minute online seminar powered by Citrix GoToWebinar.

Attend this live, interactive Webinar to learn:

1. What is Foursquare and why is it so addictive?
2. How do you use Foursquare to achieve a communications or business objective?
3. How should you assemble a strategy?
4. What NOT to do with Foursquare?

Space is limited for this 30-minute Webinar* and registration is required.

Sign up here http://www.asiadigitalmap.com/2010/08/foursquare-for-busines/

Twitter, PR and a New Starter at Ogilvy

We have a newcomer to the Ogilvy PR Australia team who hasn’t dabbled much with Twitter in the past. I’ve taken him under my wing and been running through a few ideas to help him become a meaningful contributor in the Twitter medium.

I wanted to emphasise to our new-comer how fantastic Twitter is for conversing with PR professionals and how effective the tool is for sharing links, building relationships and providing thought leadership. As all social media advocates say – you need to be a part of the conversation!

The process has helped me clarify just what I think makes a PR professional a worthy person to follow on Twitter. After scrolling through my list of Twitter PR’s that I follow, it was easy to see which people added value to my Twitter experience. They all seemed to follow the same Twitter value rules:

Represent your personal brand. It is important to have a good balance between professionalism and personality. We want to know about your interests outside of work as well as your specialty within the PR industry.

Provide content for your followers. Your followers expect you to share links to industry-related news stories or announcements. It is important that the links are credible, relevant and recent.

Engage with your followers. We all know that PR is about 2-way communication and it is no different in Twitter. Retweet, @reply and follow back.

It goes without saying that authenticity, transparency and accountability are essential in ethical Twitter practice.

So without further ado, I would like to introduce Koby Geddes ( @kobygeddes ).

Koby joins Ogilvy PR Australia after a year and a half at OMD as a print trader, buying ad-space for large Australian corporations. He is extremely active in social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and MySpace. He is obsessed with music and fronts a punk band outside of work hours.

In my opinion @kobygeddes will be someone to watch on Twitter!

If you have any Twitter tips for Koby or any recommendations for Twitter PR’s to follow, please let us all know!

Are you a PR Twittizen?

I’ll be the first to admit it – I am totally addicted to Twitter. My initial motivation for joining the Twitter bandwagon was to add another PR tool to my belt that enabled me to see what was going on in the PR/social media landscape in Australia and beyond.

And the sensation around Twitter only seems to be growing. According to one source, Twitter users are creating 50 million Tweets a day. That’s a whole lot of Tweeting.

A large portion of the Australian IT&T media community are on Twitter, so my initial dabblings with the tool were primarily to observe these conversations. As well as providing the Twitterverse with daily updates on my caffeine habits, of course.

Over time though, I moved beyond just observing and watching conversations. I found myself responding to news, retweeting interesting articles, commenting on trending topics – even starting my own conversations! I started to use Twitter as a tool to reach out to business connections. I was engaging and participating with my Tweeps, Yo.

It was as if almost overnight, I had somehow moved from being a Tweeter to a Twittizen.

The difference between the two? Well, I think the main difference is that a Tweeter is someone who just broadcasts what they are doing at any given point in time, and a Twittizen is someone who actively engages in the Twitterverse. This translates to actively reaching out to media, clients and other business connections. In my journey to becoming a PR Twittizen, I would have to say that the top three things I’ve learnt are:

-       Be absolutely transparent with the information you disclose or share about a client. This is the golden rule for being a PR and using Twitter. It also pays to outline who you are and the company you work for – it makes it easier for media to find out who you work with and possibly reaching out to you for more information. I recently heard a tech blogger tell a room full of PRs that he gets frustrated when Twitter profiles just reference ‘tech PR’.

-       Twitter is not a private dinner conversation. It’s a conversation that you are broadcasting to everyone. Remember that your conversations are public and that you are representing your company and your clients. EVERYONE is watching.

-       Find the right balance between personal and professional Tweets to provide your business connections with valuable information. If you can’t find the right balance, it might be worth creating two profiles – one for work and for play.

I strongly believe that there is value in using Twitter as a PR tool. As a PR Tweep, it helps me to keep my finger on the pulse when it comes to news and trends, and provides an avenue to establish and maintain dialogue with media I have relationships with. These days, I can’t imagine doing my job without it.

Any PRs out there that use Twitter? What are your thoughts on using it as part of your PR toolkit?

Australians – officially the world’s most prolific social media users

The Nielsen Company’s most recent social media research has revealed that Australians are spending up to seven hours each month on social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.  This figure is substantially higher than the global average of five and a half hours.

Australia has jumped to the top of the leader board ahead of the USA, Britain and Japan. The research found that almost ten million Australians are spending time on at least one social networking site. With a population of 21 million, this figure equates to almost half the country.

Facebook topped the list as the most popular of all social networking sites, with over 8.2 million unique visitors per month, followed by YouTube, then MySpace and with Twitter coming in fourth.

So, if Facebook is the most commonly used social networking site and Australian’s are spending 7 hours a month interacting on social networking sites – How come there are only 357,871 fans on the Australia Facebook fan page?

Sam North and Brian Giesen take second place in the Ogilvy Digital Influence Essay Writing Competition

In November 2009, the Ogilvy Digital Influence Essay Writing Competition was announced.  All Ogilvy employees from Asia Pacific were invited to submit an essay on the topic of Digital Influence.  Our very own Sam North and Brian Giesen joined forces, with their essay Digital Influence taking second place out of 28 entries submitted.  Congratulations Sam and Brian from everyone at Ogilvy PR!

Digital influence

By Sam North (with sorely needed input from Brian Giesen)

At the start of 2009 Ogilvy PR in Australia makes a brave decision. No doubt some think it foolish, but at the height of the Global Financial Crisis two senior people are employed – and to newly-created positions.

One is a 57-year-old, overweight, grey-haired, career journalist, direct from a 21-year stint at the Sydney Morning Herald where he had ended up as the paper’s Managing Editor. He’s the Sam North in the above byline and it’s fair to say that when he begins as Ogilvy’s Media Director he is pretty much a digital influence sceptic.

The other is Brian Giesen, a buff, enthusiastic 35-year-old from Ogilvy in Washington DC, and a digital influence expert brought to Sydney to give the locals the low-down on this shiny new toy [Note: Giesen says that ‘’shiny new toy’’ is North’s description. Giesen describes the digital world as the most exciting, liberating thing to happen to communications since the invention of the telephone].

The two find they get on well together, but North delights in asking the hard-bitten, cynical questions of Giesen and other experts at the various educational forums run for the Ogilvy crew in Sydney. He throws around phrases like ‘’how do we see a return on investment’’ and intimates that the likes of Twitter and Facebook and Yabber are of interest only to the young and the restless who will soon move on to something else.

Giesen and North give speeches at the same new media conference in Brisbane. Giesen talks about the election of Obama and how social media is harnessed to motivate tens of thousands of usually apathetic Americans to become involved in the political process. His speech is a triumph.

North talks about how the old media is still alive and kicking. He sounds, even to himself, like Canute trying to hold back the tide. His speech is politely ignored.

Giesen and North work on a KFC campaign to promote a new grilled chicken burger. North provides some media training for the spokespeople while Giesen sets up a Facebook page for KFC.

Facebook for a chicken burger, thinks North. Yeah, right!

Traditional media virtually ignores the launch but the Facebook page, which offers a coupon for which a free burger can be redeemed, has hundreds of people lining up around the block causing pedestrian chaos in downtown Sydney.

Within a week the Facebook page has attracted 84,000 friends.  A handful of people post messages attacking KFC for the nutritional value of its products, but those voices are quickly stamped on by other KFC fans. It’s the perfect scenario, consumers standing up for the brand without any input from the company.

Giesen has the good manners not to mention North’s nay-saying.

His prejudices wounded but still functioning, North hangs on to his suspicion that it’s only the young and tech-savvy who get the digital world.

Then Giesen shows him a statistic from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For the uninitiated, the ABC is Australia’s public broadcaster with TV and radio networks. The demographic of viewers and listeners skews towards older people. What Giesen says is that the ABC audience (in a country with a population of 22 million, mind you) downloads 5 million vodcasts and podcasts each month.

While North ponders the fact that there might just be a few older people out there with at least some semblance of technical skill, Giesen tells him that of the 8.1 million Australians who use Facebook, 700,000 are over the age of 50. I must get myself on to Facebook, North thinks to himself.

Giesen, never one to let an opportunity pass, adds that in October Facebook’s Australian users uploaded 80 million pictures and wrote 32 million wall posts and 45 million status updates.

North pretends not to be impressed by that, or by the help Giesen’s team gives him during a big announcement for Ford in Melbourne.

They set up on-line monitoring for the period surrounding the announcement and North finds himself finding out in real time what the websites and blogs and Tweeters are saying. It’s an invaluable service that gives North the opportunity to react and target the message to counter any growing trend of criticism, complaint or query. North looks good, Giesen and Ogilvy look better.

Giesen’s glow becomes even rosier when the TED organisation want help with publicising the quest by religious scholar Karen Armstrong, the winner of the 2008 TED Prize, for the world’s major religions to come together in recognition of the principle which is at the core of all faiths – compassion.

At the heart of the campaign is the Charter for Compassion, a document crafted by people of all religions which was launched in November with the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond TuTu as its first two signatories. It is intended that people will access the website to join the charter and show that the overwhelming voice in all religions is one of compassion – not negativity or violence.

Giesen’s team creates a 3 minute video featuring prominent Australians saying just what ‘’compassion’’ means to them. Those giving their thoughts range from celebrity chefs through to influential food and marketing bloggers.

The video is completed in a day and a half and is sent to around 200 bloggers and Twitterers. By any measure it delivers an outstanding, authentic, heartfelt message.

The video is picked up by Australia’s major news organisation and run on its websites, with more than 20,000 viewers choosing to spend three minutes of their time thinking about compassion and being driven to the Charter’s website.

Giesen then steps right into North’s territory and builds a social media centre for Microsoft Australia’s website, to coincide with the new Windows 7 operating system. North thinks he knows something about media centres so logs on to pick holes in Giesen’s work.

There’s access to Twitter and Facebook and Ustream TV. You can click onto various Microsoft bloggers. There’s are current and historic media releases, and recent news items featuring Microsoft, not to mention the impressive image bank available via Flickr and the plethora of videos. Suddenly North is feeling that the current crop of journalists have it too good.

The year ends with North at a pitch. ‘’You should think about social media,’’ he advises the client, without even a hint of embarrassment.

North explains that in the future every campaign is likely to embrace social media and will get ordinary people involved in a brand, a campaign, or an issue, through sharing values and opinions.

He goes on about all forms of communications being about conversations and about how it’s not necessarily all about a brand interacting with its customers but as much about facilitating customers’ interaction with each other.

‘’Social media will grow your brand, strengthen the connection between you and your customers and keep you grounded and aware of what people really think about your company,’’ he says with all the conviction of the newly-minted zealot.

A wry, tolerant smile touches Giesen’s lips as his innate good manners prevent him from commenting.

Tweeting trees and dogs, has social networking gone too far?

People have argued that social networking sites such as Twitter are a waste of time. Do we really need to know what our friends are doing every second of the day, when they have just brushed their teeth or drunk a coffee?

But if you thought it couldn’t be taken any further, think again. We are now seeing tweeting trees and dogs.

Is it really necessary to know how many people have ‘stroked’ the leaves of a tree at MWC? Or what a computer believes our dogs are thinking when they move or make a sound?

To give some background, Sony Ericsson developed a device that makes a tree tweet. At the 2010 MWC they hooked up a tree to an electromagnetic field sensor that enables it to detect motion. The tree tweeted such things as, “My leaves have been stroked by 52 friendly visitors. I’m starting to like MWC. #ectree.” Also, Mattel is about to launch a toy, ‘Puppy Tweet,’ a collar which detects when your dog moves or make a sound then randomly selects one of 500 pre-written tweets to post to Twitter.

People seem to enjoy reading this kind of information on Twitter, with 515 people already following the tweeting tree. Personally, I am not sold, I believe that there is much more fascinating information out there to read and wont this sort of information just clutter the already information overloaded net? Though, I am interested to see how far people will go with social networking.

The Executives Guide To Social Media For Business-to-Business Companies

Across Asia, social media tools like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and blogs have redefined how businesses operate.  While the focus is often on Social Media strategies for reaching consumers, companies operating in the B2B space – consultancies, wholesalers and manufacturers – can sometimes benefit even more than consumer-focused companies.

Shouldn’t you learn how to leverage social media?

Join the award-winning Social Media team from Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for a free 30-minute online seminar powered by Citrix GoToWebinar.

This webinar will provide concrete examples, action plans and case studies, including:

· 5 key steps for a business-to-business strategy;

· How to build and engage a community of potential and current customers;

· Real-life case studies from successful business-tobusiness strategies;

· The highly popular – and now extended – Question and Answer section;

· Much more…

The seminar will be led by Brian Giesen and Tania Chew, both senior regional strategists in Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team, and moderated by Thomas Crampton, the team’s Asia-Pacific director.

Hurry! Space is limited for this 30-minute webinar* and registration

is required.

Join us Wednesday, 3 March at 11:00am (Hong Kong time)

To register go to wsj-asia.com/webinar

MC Hammer Inside Tour

Issue

Music icon and social media guru, MC Hammer was engaged to launch Twitter on the Xbox 360 online service, Xbox LIVE, and introduce the brand new “Lips: Number One Hits” game, which features the classic hit “U Can’t Touch This”.

Challenge

Ensure Xbox key messages in the coverage achieved were not overtaken by the “celebrity factor” of MC Hammer.

Insight

As the world’s 14th most influential person on Twitter, MC Hammer was credible and passionate brand ambassador, who could pull on nostalgic heart strings of media to secure incredible mainstream coverage, and then surprise them with his online savvy.

Creative Idea

An extensive media tour of Sydney and Melbourne was held, targeting every major television, radio and newspaper outlet. MC Hammer was clearly briefed to naturally communicate the key messages of the Xbox Twitter and Lips offerings,with Pulse attending each interview to ensure Xbox coverage.

Campaign

The activity took place over a 4 day period, with over 30 media outlets receiving one-on-one interviews with MC Hammer. Hammer was briefed on the key Xbox messages which he reiterated in all activity.

Outcome

Over 65 pieces of coverage have appeared to date on the MC Hammer media tour across high rating outlets like Rove, Sunrise, Channel 10 News, The Morning Show, Hamish and Andy show on 2DayFM, The Age, Daily Telegraph and Famous. Xbox key messages on Twitter and Lips featured in 100% of this coverage that Pulse placed.

Don’t tweet like a twit: leveraging Twitter

To all the PRs who are regurgitating client messaging on Twitter: STOP STOP STOP! This is NOT what Twitter is all about. Twitter is about being a PART of the conversation. Twitter is not about secretly stalking journalists.

Recently, I was lucky enough to attend MediaConnect’s Kickstart conference in Queensland. Kickstart brings together some of Australia’s most influential technology journalists to meet with technology vendors and their PRs.

I’d recommend the event to any vendor who’s interested in meeting face-to-face with journalists and who has an opinion to communicate about the technology industry that doesn’t involve flogging their own products (there was a lot of product pushing this year, which is never good when trying to cultivate relationships with journalists!).

Possibly the most interesting part of the entire conference was the last session of the event which focused on Twitter. Self-proclaimed Twitter gurus Alex Kidman, Anthony Caruana and Nick Broughall formed the panel of journalists discussing this new communication tool.

I’ve been ‘tweeting’ for roughly five months and it seems a pretty basic proposition to me: think of something quirky to say that makes you sound insightful, busy and fun and sum it up in 140 characters or less.

Easy enough? Clearly not.

Alex, Anthony and Nick gave feedback during the session that PRs need to be more willing to participate in Twitter discussions. No one is going to follow you if all you do is re-post client press releases and announcements.

I was a little surprised that PR colleagues would be doing this, but after doing a quick scan for PR tweets, it became fairly obvious that the journalists are right. Quite a few of us have ‘tweeted’ less than fifty times and the majority of our posts are about our clients. There are way too many PRs who don’t seem to understand that Twitter isn’t just a PR tool, it’s an ongoing conversation amongst colleagues.

I even spoke with a PR person from a local agency (who will remain unnamed) who suggested we develop a ‘statement’ to issue via Twitter in response to some negative tweets about a product. Clearly we’re not getting the Twitter picture!

Upon reflection, Twitter is the ‘technology-of-the-moment’ and will doubtfully last forever. Just as Facebook has left behind its niche audience following in favour of widespread adoption, Twitter will do the same. And, when it does, I venture to guess that our beloved technology journalists will move on to the ‘next new thing’. But, for now, Twitter is here to stay.

I’ve compiled a list of tips and tricks that will help you navigate the world of Twitter smoothly…

1. Engage with Twitter outside of your client work – i.e. tweet about what interests you, what you find meaningful and what you think might be of interest to others as well. Sharing links, articles and asking questions are great ways to get involved.
2. Reply to your followers/the people you are following – If you agree, disagree, don’t understand or want to know more, ask! Or, just drop people a line who you think have said something interesting.
3. If a journalist asks you a question – answer!
4. Use functions like Search.Twitter and TweetScan to find out about what journalists are saying about your client’s brand.
5. Interact with journalists, when appropriate – if you see your client or your client’s products being criticised by journalists, try to work out a way to offer them support or counsel to improve their experience. In this way you can target problems before they escalate and possibly even build brand advocates.
6. Don’t just post links to client press releases! If your client has written a blog/byline that you find particularly interesting, sure, go ahead and tweet about it. No one appreciates constant tweets about press releases and announcements.
7. Use Twitter to pitch stories in a short and concise way to journalists via Direct Message – don’t blast a pitch to your entire Twitter following, rather send it directly to the person who matters most, what a great way to get a quick reply!
8. Be careful what you say! Don’t post anything about clients, co-workers, friends, etc that you would not want them to see. These posts don’t go away people and you certainly don’t want to burn bridges!

Now get tweeting!

Having tweeties for breakfast

The key, according to Ogilvy’s digital influence expert Brian Giesen, is this: If you want to use Twitter, the newest of the new media, for public relations or business then it is imperative that you follow the rules.

And just what are those rules? Well, it’s all pretty simple. After setting up a Twitter account (the essence here is to be completely transparent in identifying yourself or your brand) there are basically three steps to engaging with and through Twitter: 1) Follow, 2) Create and 3) Engage.

Giesen, speaking to a 100-strong crowd at a Frocomm breakfast conference held on Wednesday at Ogilvy House, said the first stage, follow, meant that a business searched Twitter to discover what people were saying about their brand or their market.

After a time, the business could then enter the create phase, Twittering interesting messages relevant to the conversation and gathering followers.

Only after going through those steps, Giesen stressed, should a company starting engaging with other tweeters, responding to people who mention the brand, offering advice and assistance where necessary so that people who may have been critical may be turned into brand evangelists through the positive contact.

Twitter’s growth in Australia this year has been extraordinary. Traffic has surged more than sixfold, the fastest growth in the world, while there are almost 4 million registered users, rating us fifth behind the US, Japan, the UK and Canada.

Giesen said businesses could use Twitter to meet real business objectives in a number of ways: customer relations; product promotion and sales; crisis and reputation management; event coverage; issues advocacy; and, internal communications. All, however, utilise the three steps: follow, create and engage. And, he stressed, all must use the code of ethics for social media which includes being transparent, respecting other Twitterers by knowing when to participate and when to listen, thinking before messaging (will it be seen as helpful or intrusive), making sure your message is relevant, and providing value to your followers.

Another of the speakers, Strath Gordon, the Director of Public Affairs at NSW Police, related how he had to deal with a company which was Twittering under the name NSW Police. After trying unsuccessfully to contact the through Twitter Gordon was forced to go to the media. A prominent newspaper story and subsequent radio interviews soon had the company coming forward (It was a marketing company trying to build the NSW Police Twitter profile so they could go to the police and show what a powerful tool it was).

The police have now taken over the name, together with 2000 followers, and are using it to Twitter information. At times the responses from the public regarding matters such as speeding fines were ‘’in language not usually used’’ in communication with the police. Gordon said the police see Twitter, and other social media, as valuable tools to help report crime, issue general warnings and to inform people of the real level of crime.

Gordon also said that there was no doubt terrorists and criminals were using social media to communicate with each other, using codes words, and revealed the ‘’secret’’ parts of the force were developing ways to  counter that.

Giesen provided a list of do’s and dont’s for Twitter users.

Do:

• See what other businesses are doing on Twitter;
• Use Twitter search engines for keyword searches around brands, products and topics of interest;
• Follow Twitterers with similar interests to establish a brand presence;
• Use twitter to start a conversation;
• Be dedicated to Twitter, with more than one employee on Twitter to ensure an ongoing presence;
• Ask questions and get feedback from followers;
• Engage consumers in co-creation and get constructive insights for future products etc;
• Follow the blogger code of ethics;
• Spread the word about your participation by including your Twitter handle in your email signature.

Don’t:

• Push ads or brand messaging;
• Talk about your everyday tasks. Make your Tweets entertaining and/or valuable;
• Tweet anything about clients, co-workers friends etc that you would not want them to read.