Archive for the 'Viral Networks' Category

My good pal Susan Macaulay posted this video on Facebook, asking if it was real or fake.

Wouldn’t it be cool if it were real?

I’m afraid it’s not. It’s a clever viral add in the German market for Microsoft Office Project 2007 - see the Mach es Machbar (Make it Possible) site. The Google transalation of the German text is below:

Bruno Kammerl `s point landing:

Make it possible - with Microsoft Office Project 2007
The man without fear of big ideas - is it really?
Bruno Kammerl Even if an invention is. The time is ripe for new heroes.

Product Shoot Microsoft Office Project 2007 Make it as Bruno - realize your plans:
With Microsoft Office Project 2007.

Often, when I talk with businesses or organisations about blogging and social media, whether in the formal context of a presentation, or informally at a drinks party or over dinner, a common reason why they have not engaged in social media - say they never will - is because it is an open and interactive space and people could leave negative comments about their company/ products/ services on their blog.

In response, I usually explain that the reason that people would usually leave negative feedback publicly is that there is no other recourse easily available to them to express their grievance to the business/ organisation in question. This is usually because access to that organisation’s customer services is non-existent or difficult to find or once it’s found, the layers of bureacracy or telephone press-button options are designed to deter access. In fury and frustration, that customer will want to express themselves in the strongest possible way as much to hurt the company as to obtain redress for their grievance because the inaccessibility has added to their unhappiness and most likely fueled it into rage.

All a customer wants is for your business to show that you care and a simple complaints procedure where you actively address their problem will do more for your company’s reputation in the long term than saving a bit of money on refusing a refund or some form of recompense. Handled right, an aggrieved customer could be transformed into an evangelist for your brand. Handled wrong and you’ve not only made an enemy for life - that enemy will also co-opt many more antogonists into their camp with stories about how badly you treated them.

The other point I usually make is that whether or not your organisation is engaging in social media, your customers will be talking about you online. They may be praising your produce or servicess or they may be badmouthing you to anyone and everyone.

United Airlines found out to their detriment the high cost of not addressing one customer’s problem. He was a musician whose costly, specialist guitar was apparently damaged on a flight he took with them. As his YouTube page explains, he tried to get recompense from them and was passed from pillar to post to no avail. In frustration, he finally wrote a song which he performed on a YouTube video about his bad experience with the airline.

The video became a viral sensation across the internet and has so far had over 4 million viewings. The press (including Chicago Tribune and The Guardian) picked up the story. According to The Guardian, “Days after United Breaks Guitars went viral on Youtube, United changed course and offered compensation, Carroll said. He declined and suggested they donate it to charity.”

How might United Airlines have avoided this PR fiasco? By ensuring that they have a proper and authentic process for dealing with genuine complaints in a timely way. It seems so simple and obvious, doesn’t it?

So for any business, whether or not you have a blog, in today’s connected world, your customers will find a way to badmouth you if they want to - they don’t need to wait for you to create a blog so they can leave negative comments. The answer to dealing with negative feedback online is not avoiding blogging and social media but putting in place an easily accessible and genuine complaints procedure to show your customers that you care. Who knows, if you address their grievance effectively, they might actually be singing your praises instead of singing about how rubbish you are…

~~~

Thanks to Moyra Weston and Michael Spencer for first telling me about this video.

Here’s a clever but simple viral marketing flyer from Selfridges I received by email a moment ago from blogging massage therapist Melanie Crowe. Click on the links to download your web voucher to enjoy the discount and/ or forward the flyer on to friends.

By placing the voucher online on its own webpage as well being forwardable by email, Selfridges have also enabled bloggers like me to publicise their offer online on our blogs.

Enjoy - and if you do buy something using your voucher, why not come back and let me know what you got?

We would like you to have a special pre-Christmas gift. Just show this voucher at the till, before you pay, every time you make a purchase from Friday 30th to Sunday 2nd December 2007 and you will receive 20% off* your Christmas shopping, including our festive Christmas Hampers, with 10% off* our unequalled range of fragrance and beauty. So get your Christmas list ready. To qualify for your discount: 1. Simply click on the link below and fill in your details. 2. Print off the voucher. 3. Show the voucher at the till point before you pay to receive your discount.
	For store locations and opening times visit www.selfridges.com or call 0800 123 400.
	Enjoy your Christmas shopping!

When I was writing my article Blogging Thrives in Malaysia for IABC’s journal, Communication World, I was struck by how quickly news of events travels in the new era of online communications.

I started researching and writing the article in July this year and as I finished it and was about to send it to the journal editor, Malaysian blogger Nathaniel Tan was taken into custody and I had to quickly update the article with that latest news.

Just after I sent it off to the editor, I got an urgent email from one of my interviewees, Asohan Aryaduray, the New Media Editor at The Star newspaper in Malaysia saying that there had been “some serious and troubling changes in the political landscape” and giving me an update on further crackdown and potential changes in the laws affecting blogging.

I had to recall the article and revise it yet again with these latest updates.

On Saturday, I was building on the research I had so far on blogging in Malaysia for the book I am working on about New Trends in International Public Relations and came across reports online of riots in Kuala Lumpur during a political rally for electoral reform, within hours of it happening. A link was posted on the Facebook group “Save the Malaysian Judiciary” to a YouTube video of an Al Jazeera TV report showing police spraying demonstrators with chemicals during the march.

When I first found it on Saturday afternoon, it had been viewed 240 times. When I checked back 3 hours later, it had been viewed over 8,000 times.

Some further digging led me to more videos around the event, including a video from a little while back that was one of the rallying calls for the protest.

More and more, the way we receive news and information is going to be a mix of traditional news media and citizen communication - people passing on news around the world through emails, social networks and social media tools. Right now, it’s still new and worth commenting on but soon, it will be the norm. We’ll still most likely turn to the journalist-produced content for news that has been fact-checked and produced according to professional standards and guidelines (though journalists can still get things wrong!) but alongside will be a stream of information passed on by non-professionals. The trick will be identifying the non-professional sources you can trust and those that may be scaremongering, gossiping or pushing their own agendas.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post and others in the category New Trends in International Public Relations is part of my research project for the book of the same name that I am co-authoring with business communications expert, Silvia Cambie. I am focusing on the social media aspects while she is working on the wider public relations issues.

To find out more about my research for this book, see my book wiki.

To see who has contributed to my research for the book, take a look at my Contributors List.

If you can help with my research for the book, please contact me via the book wiki contact link or email me via this blog.

The UK Department of Health has launched www.privatedickmovie.com, a website where you can watch short films that look like old ’70s porn flicks. You can create your own version by using your name and those of your friends as characters in the movies. After personalising the film, you can then send it to your friends.

A government department promoting porn - is this another example of the degenerate West? No, it’s part of a campaign to encourage safe sex. On the official campaign website Condom Essential Wear, it says: “Sex is great. But if you don’t protect yourself, it could soon stop being as much fun.” The aim is to “make condoms a fun and essential part of your sex life.”

Sex education in the UK really has come a long way since those TV ads in the early ’80s that featured a big monolith in a thunderstorm and a doomsday voice warning about AIDS. I recall being mystified by that ad, which told you nothing directly about AIDS or what to do to protect yourself - it seemed to be the darker, meaner version of the Monty Python “nudge, nudge, wink, wink” sketch.

This new campaign is cheeky and fresh and is clearly aimed at a very modern audience that would not give the time of day to being preached at. It’s in the same vein as the Colgate Smile campaign (discussed in my other post of today) in that it aims to make something rather dull and dutiful fun - and even a bit sexy.

Colgate, the toothpaste giant, is going online with a viral marketing campaign to promote good dental health, according to BrandRepublic.com

The viral solution is a send-a-smile generator that allows parents and kids to upload pictures of their kids face and customise the picture with a range of funny and clever accessories under the themes of cowboy, fairy, pirate and princess.

There is a competitive element to the campaign and prizes include kids parties and smile-card packs.

You can check out Colgate Smiles to have some fun for yourself and your kids.

This is a great way of engaging customers - and potential customers. The competitive element with a great prize also draws people into the fun. And fun is the key - it can transform something rather dull and dutiful into an engaging activity that involves everyone in the family.

Staying with the fun and health themes but at a completely different end of the spectrum, in my second post today, we can see how the Department of Health is trying to make safe sex fun…

Photo: thanks to greefus groinks on flickr.com

Last week, I wrote about the Heinz user-generated video campaign that left the company with some egg (or ketchup?) on their face. Today, I’d like to look at the Yahoo! user-generated video campaign that appears to have been more successful.

Nick Chavez, Director of Corporate Marketing in Cool Stuff at Yahoo! explains the idea in this video posted on YouTube:

The key differences for the Yahoo! ad campaign compared with the Heinz ad campaign, I think, are these:

• Yahoo! has a maverick brand image that could comfortably encompass any weird or wacky or irreverent takes on its brand in contrast to Heinz which has a family-oriented “clean” and respectable image. In fact, a large part of the impact of the ads is the suggestive double-meaning around the word “Yahoo!” itself.

• Yahoo! seeded the campaign with an initial competition for videos made by film students, all of whom would have a personal stake in the success of their creations in terms of their career in film and advertising. They then chose the best dozen or so to seed the wider campaign, showing by the standard and quality of those films the high benchmark that others should be striving to better

The take home message from these two ad campaigns is about knowing your audience and your brand and how to leverage those two aspects to work together instead of against each other.

You can check out the various Yahoo! user-generated ads for yourself via the links below:

New Yahoo! Campaign

Videos submitted to the New Yahoo! Campaign site.

The health club student film mentioned by Nick Chavez in the video is shown below:

Here are a few more that particularly caught my eye (ear?):

Mother and daughter talking about “the change”:

What does your Yahoo! look like?

My boyfriend is always playing with his Yahoo!

I got an invite to Joost last week and it really is fab! What is Joost? It’s internet TV poured onto your PC screen via broadband. There are different channels - documentary, comedies, entertainment, music, cartoons and more. But no full feature films as yet.

I’m impressed by the quality of the picture, sound and speed. I’ve been watching the stand up comedians at the Montreal Comedy Festival - which star quality acts.

And it’s got integrated social networky type stuff like live chat with your friends and a quick blog tool so you can blog while watching TV. So no more sitting alone in your room watching telly - you’re alone, yes, but you’re also not alone, since you are networked to the rest of your Joost community at the same time. The thing is: you’d better be good at multi-tasking to take advantage of all these functions.

Click on the picture below to watch a promo video

Joost is in beta testing at the moment and is by invitation only. And I have some invites! Email me via the Contact link above and I can send you an invite - only available until the invites run out. Or click on the badge below.

The only thing is, with this network installed on my PC, I’ll never do any work again…

NOTE: ZenGuide is updated Mondays and Thursdays

Following my post looking at the use of online multi-media by the Hillary Clinton presidential campaign, co-ordinated by Team Hillary, I’ve just heard that her rival Barack Obama has signed up for a Twitter account.

You can now get his hot-off-the-press tweets of his campaign trail. Well, in theory anyway: his last update at the time of my writing post said “1 day ago”. He - or his staff - are going to have to gain a bit more momentum with Twitter to have any credibility at all with the technoscenti.

In contrast another presidential candidate, John Edwards, has been on Twitter for longer and has been tweeting much more prolifically.

Twitter is the relatively new craze that lets you post mini-blog entries via your mobile phone or your PC. The length is limited to 140 characters and your entries appear on the twitter page online that you’ve signed up for. You can add your “friends” to your twitter circle - they have to be signed up to twitter first. You can also opt to receive your “friends” updates on your mobile phone or on the webpage only. You can set it so that only your “friends” see your posts or so that it is public and anyone can see them - or receive them on their phones.

It seems to have taken the world by storm and different groups of people are using it in different ways. The main excitement about it is that it is immediate and brief and you can send and receive texts via your mobile phone.

# The top tech and marketing experts and commentators like Steve Rubel, Robert Scoble, and others are using it mainly to exchange “hot off the press” information about breaking news and new products within their industries. By linking to blog posts where an issue is explored more deeply, their use of twitter gives their readers an early heads-up on issues which can be followed up by going along to the longer blog piece for more detail and analysis.

# News companies like the BBC are posting minute by minute updates of news flashes.

# Monster.com, the recruitment website, is using to send out instant messages about new jobs.

# Professionals and consultants are updating their “friends” about their business activities and also offering a glimpse into their personal activities. You might find a tech consultant texting to say he is working on a software issue, heading off to an IT conference, meeting others in his business for a drink, chilling out in front of a DVD.

# Ordinary folks are sharing glimpses into their lives eg working in their gardens, seeing their friends and keeping each other updated about their daily lives.

# It is also a lively community for exchanging ideas, raising queries, sharing advice. So far it seems to be mainly the tech types (as you might expect) but as it’s use spreads, there should be more non-tech participants finding uses for it to suit their particular interests. In particular, its potential in developing countries like Africa where there are a lot of mobile phones but problems with broadband/ landline communications could be potentially empowering.

For me, I have a public twitter page at www.twitter.com/fusionview - in the context of my arts and culture blog Fusion View. Anyone can see my “tweets” and those of my “friends” on that page. (I also have a private one for my family and personal friends - only they can see what I text on that account: usually to do with what I had for dinner and what I’m up to at the weekend, the sort of thing that’s fun for a personal circle to know but banal in the wider context!)

I think the value in Twitter for business use could be as a brief heads-up on breaking news either within their sector or within their organisation and it might be useful for a team working in different physical locations to keep each other updated on time-critical tasks. For personal use, it can be fun especially if you want to keep friends and family quickly updated while you’re travelling or on holiday. For organisations, it can be used for disseminating information, advice and news eg for those networked only via mobile phones in developing countries, or organising events within a short time-scale and in real time.

You can read my further thoughts on Twitter on my other blog, Fusion View:

Twittering Away

Fusion View Tweets on Twitter

Mind Map

Here are some other commentators on Twitter:

A list of ways to optimise Twitter - http://slackermanager.com/2007/03/the-several-habits-of-wildly-successful-twitter-users.html

Top Twitterers list - http://www.twitterholic.com/

Someone may have been hired via Twitter : Justin.tv sent out call for someone to help and got 100 responses in a few hours - http://www.mdoeff.com/blog/2007/03/27/was-someone-just-hired-on-twitter/

Why Twitter is so successful - http://millionsofus.com/blog/archives/188

A real time world map of who is twittering where - http://www.twittervision.com

Here is someone who’s not so keen on Twitter (who’s picked up my posts on it on my other blog Fusion View - small world!) - http://digital-nomads.blogspot.com/2007/03/tumblr-online-usalbility-or-just.html