Strive Notes

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Mark your calendar!  I’m running a ‘Getting to grips with social media’ workshop on 30 March 2010.  Last November’s event proved very popular. It was sold right out and I’ve had several enquiries about running another one.  Here’s the deal:

Getting to Grips with Social Media

Learn:

• how the social Internet is changing how humans and organisations communicate and interact.
• about the various social networks, tools and platforms
• about blogging and the democratisation of information
• policies and best practices in social media
• strategies and tips to get your organisation involved

Workshops  include case studies on  local, UK and international organisations.

Understand:

• where social media fits into your organisation
• what social networks can (and can’t) achieve
• the risks and benefits of the social Internet
• the art of online conversation

Leave with a good grounding in how the social Internet works, the tools of the trade, and some ideas on how to get started.

The workshop will be held  9.00 to 13.00, 30 March 2010 in Douglas, Isle of Man. The venue is to be confirmed.  The cost is £75 per person and includes coffee, tea and nibbles.  Becasue the workshops are interactive, space is limited so book early to  avoid disappointment.  Email workshops(at)sherrilynnestarkie.com or Twitter @sherrilynne.

Here’s a video from the Q&A at November’s workshop:

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If you have a social conscious and want to take control of the kind of web advertisements you see, help is at hand.  The DoGooder, is a new browser plug-in that lets people replace push website ads with ones that they actually appreciate seeing and find useful.

The plug-in is free, takes 10 seconds to install, and creates revenues for good causes: the company behind the plug-in gives 50% of its profits to green initiatives, charities, and nonprofits. The range of causes to benefit include everything from environmental campaigns to child poverty to disease eradication.  Donations do not go back to brand advertisers.

The concept is not all that new. There are a number of online ventures focused on raising cash for third-sector organisations through social networks and similar platforms. But the DoGooder has its own slant on getting cash and raising awareness of social causes.

The fundamental premise is that people would rather help people than faceless corporations. It seems to be working: the plug-in has  already had almost 6,000 downloads since the launch late last year.

In Internet advertising, a company or brand will have its adverts served to a range of websites in the hopes that people will click through to their own homepage.  Impressions in the millions typically generate hundreds of clicks; the low return is attributable to the lack of relevance and personalisation of web adverts.

With the DoGooder, people indicate their preference for information about charities and good causes and because they actually want to see this information, there is a significant improvement in click through conversion rates. So instead of seeing a banner ad for the latest installment of Celebrity Big Brother, a DoGooder user will get information about an environmental campaign, or something similar.  In addition, people who use the plug-in can play a role in deciding who gets the cash raised by clicking on ‘Suggest a Cause’.

Here’s the bottomline: it’s easy, almost effortless to download DoGooder. It doesn’t have to cost you anything and you’ll still be raising cash and helping good causes. The plug-in helps eliminate a lot of the white noise on the web.  Seemingly the proposition is win/win.

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Sherrilynne Starkie, Chris Gledhill, CI Mark Payne

Thanks to the more than 50 people who came out last week to Super Third Thursday, this year’s first meeting of the Isle of Man Social media club.  Our speaker was CI Mark Payne of the West Midlands Police who is the driving force behind the use of social media in Britain’s police services.

“My top tip in terms of organisations engaging in social media is that it’s much better to ask forgiveness that to seek permission,” said CI Payne. “Social media are very intuitive and you’ve got to let go some of the control. Let your people talk. Trust them. And let people talk back to them.”

The West Midlands Police service is established on several social networks including Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. In addition, CI Payne is a regular blogger.

The idea behind this is very simple.  CI Payne explained, “Police are often criticised for being difficult to get hold of, or not listening to what local people are saying. We try all kinds of ways to communicate with the public, meetings, newsletters, traditional media, talking to people we meet and anything else we can think of. There is clearly a huge amount of conversation taking place online and, where people are talking about policing or crime issues, we want to be part of the conversation.”

Super Third Thursday was sponsored by PDMS (disclosure) and the West Midlands police are a client of the web development company. Managing Director Chris Gledhill said, “Super Third Thursday was really fantastic. It showed the West Midlands police can engage with the public in a totally different way. ”

Here CI Payne fields questions from the crowd:

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Yesterday Chief Inspector Mark Payne of the West Midlands Police spoke to the Isle of Man Social Media Club . Following the Third Thursday meeting, he and I had a fascinating conversation about how social media is changing the police’s relationship with the media.  What follows is a blog post on the subject that Mark published a few days ago and he’s kindly allowed me to republish it here.

I tweeted about an interesting article in the Guardian last week. The thrust of the argument is that police forces are pumping out PR based press releases, which papers print unedited due to lack of resources. Police are therefore writing their own headlines, and not telling the public about crime. Using my newly acquired media monitoring skills, I noticed that this link had created a huge amount of interest, so I thought it might be useful to give people a personal insight into the relationship between the police and the media.

Firstly, it is right to state that society in general would be a worse place without journalists, both local and national. The role they perform in holding public authorities to account is crucial to a democracy, and as we have seen with the recent MP’s expenses debate, they can foster change on a grand scale. I would not want to live in a world where the media is supressed or controlled. Although nobody likes to be caught out or embarrassed by the media, it beats the alternative where public bodies do what they want without fear of exposure.

Although I now run the press office for West Midlands Police, I have spent most of my career as a Detective. I have investigated murders, rapes, serious violence, taken guns off the street and dismantled drug rings. I am therefore well placed to offer a rounded view on the police relationship to the media.

I have first hand experience of working with the media at the coal face  with varied results. For example, I used a newspaper appeal to trace a crucial witness to a murder, and I have also found the media to be really accommodating when there are important messages that we need to get out to the public. I have also found myself on numerous occasions having fairly heated disagreements with journalists when they want to publish stories that would have a detrimental impact on live investigations.

I have always struggled with the concept of a journalist insisting they want to publish a story, when the police are telling them that doing so would make it more difficult to either arrest or convict the offender. My instincts as a police officer are all about getting the bad guy locked up, whereas journalistic instincts tend to be to get the story out before another media outlet. This is often the cause of friction between police and media.

In the time that I have been in the press office (approaching 18 months) there has been a marked change in the media world. There are many fewer journalists, and less local papers. Although the media are still an important part of our communications plans, we now place greater emphasis than before on local communications, delivered by way of officers contacts in the community, newsletters, local meetings and with web based communications. This is not because we are trying to provide less information to the public, just a recognition of the changing landscape.

One of the assertions in the Guardian article is that police do not tell people about crime. I would argue that there is more information available than ever before. If you click on this link http://bit.ly/54BEsF and type in your postcode, all of the information about crime in your neighbourhood is available at the touch of a button. Even in the halcyon days to which the reporter refers, there was never this amount of information available, so it is a little unfair to suggest we are hiding crimes. What I think the article means is that we are not giving it to journalists in the way they would like to receive it.

In my current role, I have daily conversations with a wide range of journalists. They are generally easy to get along with, and we have good relationships with most local papers. There are clearly competing demands and occasional fall outs over stories, but on the whole the relationship is positive. Often queries from journalists will make us look again at an issue and ask whether we have actually done the right thing. Where we haven’t I encourage officers to say so, and put it right. This seems to me to be a quite healthy relationship, and one that I encourage.

It is not our role to fill the newspapers with stories. We will issue a press release if there is a policing purpose behind it, for example, we want public help to identify an offender, or want to warn the public about a specific crime type which they can guard against.  We will also issue press releases where there is good news to report, so that the public get a balanced view, and are not left afraid to go out at night.

The relationship between police and the media will continue to evolve. I remain optimistic that the traditions of policing and journalism can continue to co-exist for the good of everybody, and I will continue to look forward my local paper every week.

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Filed under: Media, Social Media, public relations

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Students get more than they bargain for when a Happiness Machine replaces the soda vending machine.  This YouTube video from Coke has been viewed  +373k times in four days and gets 6,800 mentions on Google Blogs.  It’s a simple concept and it’s working well.

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Filed under: Social Media, Strive Public Relations Limited

PDMS, the software development firm specialising in web development services, has forged an alliance with Sherrilynne Starkie, managing partner of Strive Public Relations, to help organisations to build, manage and engage with online communities through social computing.

As part of PDMS’ Digital Design service, the new venture provides a unique combination of deep software engineering expertise along with a thorough understanding of organisational and marketing communications.

“The social network revolution brings many challenges, but it presents even more opportunity through innovation. The winners of the next ten years will be those organisations that really get to grips with it,” said PDMS Managing Director Chris Gledhill.

“Sherrilynne is an internationally-recognisedsocial media expert who has an in-depth knowledge of how people are using Internet technologies to form and participate in online communities. Together we’ll innovate we can develop and implement the social software solutions to meet the needs of today’s organisations.”

PDMS Digitial Design social media services include:
·     strategic engagement campaigns
·     online community building and management
·     Digital PR, SE0
·     corporate blogs, social websites
·     social applications development
·     web content development
·     training and coaching
·     online conversation monitoring & response

Sherrilynne Starkie said, “The alliance with PDMS is the perfect marriage of PR and Web know-how. Social media is changing how humans communicate the world over.  Organisations are struggling to keep pace and those that put web services at the centre of their communications and business strategies are set for success.”

Social media across the organisation:

Sales: Online communities are discussing companies, brands and products and this chatter can impact sales. Insight can inform sales and product strategy. Online promotions reduce cost of sales. Encouraging consumers to share views on social networks drives ecommerce site traffic

Marketing: Brand amplification, core message dissemination, loyalty and awareness are just some of the marketing activities that social media impacts.

Insight: Consumer research, done well, can be costly. Social media provides constant feedback and both quantitative and qualitative data at a fraction of the cost of traditional research methods.

Innovation: Social networks devoted to idea generation among customers, team members, shareholders, or any distinct community can promote innovation, improve quality, streamline production and generally improve the overall development of an organisation.

Government 2.0: Public sector bodies are becoming more open. That means they are using social computing to increase collaboration and transparency to transform the way governments relate to citizens and operate.

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Corporate social media use grew 14% in 2009, according to The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

Their latest study compares adoption of social media over three years (2007, 2008 and 2009) by the Inc. 500.

Highlights of the report:

• Social networking continues to lead the way. The technology that continues to be the most familiar to the Inc. 500 is social networking with 75% of respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57% in 2008).
• Twitter has achieved amazing “share of mind” with 62% of executives reported being familiar with the new microblogging and social networking platform.
• The adoption curves for different social media technologies are not all the same. While social networking and blogging have enjoyed growth in actual adoption, the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off or declined. The addition of Twitter (considered by respondents to be both a microblogging site and a social networking site) in the latest study shows that an amazing 52% of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for their business.
• Social media matters and is here to stay. Forty-three per cent of the 2009 Inc. 500 reported social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy.
• Ninety-one per cent of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77% in 2008).
• The Inc. 500 companies are also seeking to protect themselves legally, with 36% having implemented a formal policy concerning blogging by their employees.

The research demonstrates that, at least among fast-growing corporations, new media and social media are being rapidly adopted, but attention is turning to the platforms that have the widest adoption.

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Filed under: Social Media

Dell has been at the forefront of social media since the company first got flamed byTech blogger Jeff Jarvis a few years ago.  Having learned its lessons the hard way, the now company puts social media at the centre of its whole marketing strategy.

Having already established a pretty solid track record in online engagment, it’s no surprise the Dell understands how best to measure the return on social media investment: by looking at the bottomline.

This week the company announced that it has earned more than $6.5m in sales of PCs software and accessories as a direct result of Twitter.  A million and a half people follow the more than 100 employees that ‘tweet’ daily.

The company first got into Twitter in 2007 and sees the microblogging site as an effective way to interact with customers.  With Twitter, Dell reaches users in 12 countries, including the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, China and Japan.

Of course Twitter is just one part of a complex social media strategy that includes other networks such as Facebook, MySpace and YouTube.  In addition the company publishes a wide array of blogs and uses a wikisite, IdeaStorm,  to drive innovation.

Dell remains a case study in social media excellence.

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I read BusinessWeek’s article ‘Beware Social media Snake Oil’ with interest because it’s a subject I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.

Over the past couple of week’s I’ve run into a few people claiming to be social media consultants who, after a few minutes discussion,  reveal themselves  as having not really understood many of the fundamentals of the social web.

The article’s author Stephen Baker says, “The problem, according to a growing chorus of critics, is that many would-be guides are leading clients astray. Consultants often use buzz as their dominant currency, and success is defined more often by numbers of Twitter followers, blog mentions, or YouTube (GOOG) hits than by traditional measures, such as return on investment. This approach could sour companies on social media and the rich opportunities it represents.”

I couldn’t agree more.  It’s not too hard to set up a Facebook Fanpage or a YouTube channel.  You can be  aggressive in acquiring a large number of contacts, followers and friends.  But the truth is that counting eyeballs, hits or unique visitors doesn’t really mean that much if the actual humans behind the numbers aren’t buying, voting or behaving they way you’re trying to encourage.

So how can you avoid the snakeoil and ensure you’re getting the expertise you need?  You can start by asking a few tough questions of your social media guru.  Here’s a few suggestions to get you started.

1.  Ask about hands on experience. Do you have your own blog?  How long have you been blogging? When did you join Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? What other social media platforms do you personally use and why?  What measurable results have you achieved in your own personal social media activity? Can I see examples?

Hopefully your consultant will have five or more years hands on experience with multiple platforms.  They’ll be able to explain how and why they use each channel and show you concrete results with plenty of  business-related examples.

2.  Ask about potential strategies and tactics. Which channels should I use? Which ones should I avoid? Why? Should social media replace my current marketing and communications activity? Will social media turn my business around? How do you measure success?

Your consultant should be able to give you some thoughtful answers that relate to helping you achieve your objectives.  You’ll want to hear about a focused strategy, not about millions of eyeballs or promises of rankings.  You’ll want to hear about social media as complementary to traditional marketing and communications channels, not as replacements.  You’ll want to hear about added value, engagement and collaboration, not a panacea or a magic bullet.

3. Ask about costs and other resource requirements. How do you structure your fees? Who within  my organisation  will be involved? Are there any other costs involved? What return on investment can I expect?

A popular misconception about social media is that it’s free.  Another is that it’s easy to be successful.  So if your consultant foresees a low price and talks a lot about automation and bots, run a mile.  If you hear the words ‘oursource’ or ‘turnkey’ think very hard before getting involved.  Social web success not only takes a long-term commitment,  it requires a change of mindset.  This is not something you can hand over to someone else to do on your behalf.  You and your team members will be involved daily.  Content development will involve people with a range of talents and expertise.  It will take time and money, outside of the consultant’s fees.  When you consider the time, skill and talent necessary for success, you’ll see that social media is not a just a  cheap alternative to advertising. But, done well it will deliver quality results in helping you  achieve your objectives.

In his BusinessWeek article, Stephen Baker advises, “Think back to the dot-com boom a decade ago. Soaring valuations were based initially on promise and hype. In early 2000, when investors started focusing on scarce profits, the market collapsed. But many companies drew the wrong conclusions. Believing the fall of a hyped market was a sign of the failed promise of the Internet, they drew back on Internet investments. This happened just as the technology was on the verge of living up to much of its promise, dominating global communications, transforming entire industries—and spawning social media.

“The best way to avoid a similar backlash today is for social media’s practitioners, including thousands of consultants, to shift the focus from promises to results. It may be the only way to convert the skeptics—and flush out the snake oil.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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Filed under: Marketing, Social Media, public relations

The Isle of Man Social Media Club meets the third Thursday of each month and everyone is welcome.

On 21 January 2010, we are kicking off the New Year with Super Third Thursday with guest speaker Chief Inspector Mark Payne of the West Midlands Police.

Chief Inspector Mark Payne is responsible for the smooth running of one of the busiest police press and public relations departments in the UK. West Midlands Police is also one of the most progressive in relation to social media use including its aptly named ‘plodcast’ which provides an insight into the work of the force and the varied employment opportunities for police and support staff.

Launched in 2006, the regular and free audio downloads attract more than 20,000 listeners. More recently the force has begun uploading crime prevention advice and behind the scenes videos to YouTube and launched a Facebook site offering news and appeals, videos and crime alerts as part of a wider strategy to reach young people.

CI Payne will discuss the social media campaign, the challenges and successes his team has faced and will be happy to answer questions from the floor.

Social Media Club brings together journalists, publishers, communications professionals, artists, amateur media creators, citizen journalists, teachers, students, tool makers, and other interested collaboraters.

Essentially the people who create and consume media who have an interest in seeing the ‘media industry’ evolve for everyone’s benefit. We are more than just USERS, we are the reason the tools exist – we are the people who communicate our thoughts and ideas near and far. Join us and let’s shape the future together!

PDMS, the Island’s largest software developer has kindly offered to sponsor this event, so it’s free to attend. But it’s bound to be popular so book early to avoid disappointment.

Super Third Thursday will be held at 12.30 at The Claremont Hotel in Douglas.  A finger buffet will be served.

There is no fee to attend but prior booking is advised.  Email smc(at)strivepr.com to reserve your place.

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Filed under: Social Media, events

Johnston Press, parent company to the Isle of Man Newspapers, is introducing subscriptions fees on their websites in a pilot scheme starting next week.

The Worksop Guardian, Ripley & Heanor News, Northumberland Gazette, Whitby Gazette (all in England), and the Southern Reporter and Carrick Gazette (in Scotland) will restrict access to non-subscribers, in an attempt to create revenues  from their websites.

The papers will allow access to the homepage of each paper, but stories away from the main page will require a subscription of £5 for a three month trial. Johnston Press says it will review whether to extend the scheme past this date and to other sites depending on the pilot’s success.  So far, there has been no announcement concerning the Isle of Man Examiner, Manx Independent or the Isle of Man Courier.

Rupert Murdoch has been threatening to do much the same with the web content published by his news companies around the world.  It’s already been introduced at the Wall Street Journal.

Will it work?  I do hope so.  I hate to think about the news media and publishing companies being on their knees, unable to attract advertisers or to sell hard copy newspapers.

But local and regional newspapers are going to have to raise their game if this going to work.  People are not going to part with hard cash for cheque presentation stories or for information they can get free elsewhere.  They will pay for quality reporting and exclusive content.

The eyes of the news media industry will be on Johnston Press to see how this pilot plays out.  If it works, we’ll see a bunch of publishers introducing the paid subscription model before long.

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Filed under: Media

Her name is Becky Cruel.   She’s 14 years old and lives in the Isle of Man.  And she’s a YouTube sensation…in Japan.

Inspired by reading the Japanese comic, Fruits Basket, she fell in love with Japanese culture and videos of herself dancing to songs in the Japanese anime style.

Her video has been viewed 323,000+ times and she’s now working as a spokesperson for Asia’s largest food conglomorate, Lotte.

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Lansons Communications Chief Executive Officer Tony Langham addressed a meeting of the Isle of Man’s Chartered Institute of Marketing group.  He gave an overview of the work his firm is carrying out on behalf of the Isle of Man government; a 16-person media relations team is trying to raise awareness of the Island as a reputable business jurisdiction among UK and international audiences.

Looking to the future Tony confirmed that social media will become  key corporate communications channels in 2010.  “We talk about the Internet revolution as something that is going to happen.  But it has already happened. Research shows that adults in the UK already get 50% of their finance and business information through the Internet. Twenty per cent of people in the UK look at forums and blogs.  It’s not something for the future, he said.  “The revolution has actually hit us. So if you’re in business you need to get on LinkedIn.”

Here’s the man himself:

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If you’ve heard about the eGaming industry in the Isle of Man and are curious to find out what it’s all about the Junior Chamber of Commerce is having an event next week that you’ll want to be sure to attend.

Warwick Bartlett will be the speaker. He’s going to provide an insight into the current situation of eGaming on the Isle of Man and will also discuss future issues for Island as an eGaming jurisdiction.  Warwick has more than 40 years’ continuous experience in the betting and gambling industry.  He is currently chairman of the Association of British Bookmakers (ABB) and has previously served as chairman of the Bookmakers’ Committee to the Levy Board. Warwick is a frequent speaker and panellist at gambling conferences around the world. His firm, Global Betting and Gaming Consultants (GBGC),  is an independent, specialist consultancy dedicated to providing data, research and advice to the international gambling industry.

Venue: Cushag Suite, Hilton Hotel, Douglas
Date & Time: Wednesday 25th November at 6.00pm
Food/Drink Buffet, Tea/Coffee
Cost JCC Members £9, Non-Members £12

Book by emailing  events(at)jcc.im

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Filed under: events