Today Toby Srebnik, Director of Social Media from O'Connell & Goldberg PR gave us a speech as a guest speaker on the topic of Social media evolution and audience engagement.
In the world of socialnomics, social media really matters to brands. Social media sites can showcase an entity's personality, drive traffic to the entity's locations and web presence, build trust-based relations, create buzz, establish a dialogue and following with fans, communicate values, and mitigate negative public relations, etc.
Amongst the various social media sites like Twitter, FB, Linkedin, and Foursquare, Srebnik specified in Twitter use for business. He offered some tips on Twitter for business:
(1) Telling the story in your bio: be clear upfront of who you are; (2) interaction: a two-way conversation enables business growth; (3) personality: it is important to make sure the customers receive fastest and effective response and convey a consistant corporate voice, but cleverness and fun to some extent helps; (4) ask questions of your followers to initiate conversation; (5) retweeting helpful tips: this serves as a way of reminding and emphasize.
The company which runs its brand on Twitter should remember that Twitter must be a conversation, and the person who tweets should have something valuable to contribute. Like anything, over time Twitter becomes second nature, not a burden or one additional thing to do. This is when Twitter as a marketing or PR tool is incorporated into the strategic communication plan of a company.
While Twitter is all about branding and brand reinforcement, FB is more of a storefront (store hours, address, photo gallaries, customer interaction) which is indispensable in social media branding as well. To achieve a well-rounded social media strategy, Linkedin and Blog are another two important social media tools to reach targeted audience.
In order to see what people are saying about your entity before or after you launch your
social media presence, there are multiple websites to use as measurement. Several of these sites
are FREE including on sites: socialmention.com and www.toolreach.com.
I really agree with one of his line in the speech: Entities that give followers a true sense of community
succeed with social media. In building up a community, companies need to do something that will stand out, and also, implement different social media tactics according to different social media sites or tools.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Prezi - Trend for Ideas Sharing
I got to know a recently emerging presentation tool, Prezi, which has become increasingly popular. Prezi is a cloud-based presentation software and storytelling tool for exploring and sharing ideas, distinguished by its Zooming User Interface.
Users input their ideas - editing words, inserting images and Youtube videos on Prezi canvas. For a more organized information display, users can frame and group the information according to topics. Then, Prezi allows users to construct a prescribed navigation path. Zooming User Interface enables users to zoom in and out of their presentation media. For showing or editing the presentation, users are able to present directly on "Your Prezi" with full screen to the audience. To invite other viewers to check or edit the presentation, users can generate a link sent to the people whom they want to share the prezi with, anyone who has the link can view the work but only those who has Prezi account can edit the presentation.
Prezi was first developed by a Hungarian architect Adam Somlai-Fischer as an architectural visualization tool. This tool makes ideas sharing more interesting, intuitive and visual.It serves as an innovative tool in for business and conference, education, information and data visualization, diagram processing, mind-mapping in the realm of cognitive sciences, resumes and portfolios, individual expressions of creativity like E-cards, etc. Aside from online designing and presenting, Prezi offers off-line desktop application for Pro users to create and save their presentations on their own Windows, Mac or Linux systems. If co-editing and showing in real time to people that are geographically separated, Prezi has a Meeting feature to allow up to ten people to participate in editing or showing prezi simultaneously. Prezi Viewer for iPad is an app developed for the iPad prezis viewers.
Different from Powerpoint, Prezi is a non-linear navigation, has a map layout instead of slide stack layout, is web-based rather than computer-based. But Prezi has limited printing options. Another criticism for Prezi is that it induces nausea. The company has acknowledged this potential side effect and offers video tutorials for wiser use of layout to avoid this excessive visual stimulation. Since the interesting formats Prezi brings for a presentation, the content and logic in presenting might be distracted. Therefore, it is important to know your goal first, handle the tool well to let it help you to accomplish your goals.
With its various attracting features, Prezi is definitely becoming a trend for presentation and idea sharing.Like Slideshare, Prezi is going to be another dominating social publishing site which will be utilized by more social media users and practitioners.
Users input their ideas - editing words, inserting images and Youtube videos on Prezi canvas. For a more organized information display, users can frame and group the information according to topics. Then, Prezi allows users to construct a prescribed navigation path. Zooming User Interface enables users to zoom in and out of their presentation media. For showing or editing the presentation, users are able to present directly on "Your Prezi" with full screen to the audience. To invite other viewers to check or edit the presentation, users can generate a link sent to the people whom they want to share the prezi with, anyone who has the link can view the work but only those who has Prezi account can edit the presentation.
Prezi was first developed by a Hungarian architect Adam Somlai-Fischer as an architectural visualization tool. This tool makes ideas sharing more interesting, intuitive and visual.It serves as an innovative tool in for business and conference, education, information and data visualization, diagram processing, mind-mapping in the realm of cognitive sciences, resumes and portfolios, individual expressions of creativity like E-cards, etc. Aside from online designing and presenting, Prezi offers off-line desktop application for Pro users to create and save their presentations on their own Windows, Mac or Linux systems. If co-editing and showing in real time to people that are geographically separated, Prezi has a Meeting feature to allow up to ten people to participate in editing or showing prezi simultaneously. Prezi Viewer for iPad is an app developed for the iPad prezis viewers.
Different from Powerpoint, Prezi is a non-linear navigation, has a map layout instead of slide stack layout, is web-based rather than computer-based. But Prezi has limited printing options. Another criticism for Prezi is that it induces nausea. The company has acknowledged this potential side effect and offers video tutorials for wiser use of layout to avoid this excessive visual stimulation. Since the interesting formats Prezi brings for a presentation, the content and logic in presenting might be distracted. Therefore, it is important to know your goal first, handle the tool well to let it help you to accomplish your goals.
With its various attracting features, Prezi is definitely becoming a trend for presentation and idea sharing.Like Slideshare, Prezi is going to be another dominating social publishing site which will be utilized by more social media users and practitioners.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
RSS Feed, A Really Simple Tool that Simplifies Your Life
In reaction to Chapter 9 of PR 2.0 – RSS Technology: A Really Simple Tool to Broaden Your Research. “RSS (originally RDF Site Summary, often dubbed Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.” – Wikipedia, A Definition of RSS.
More specifically, RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", which can be web-based, desktop-based, or mobile-device-based. The user subscribes to a feed by entering into the reader the feed's URI or by clicking a feed icon in a web browser that initiates the subscription process. The RSS reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new work, downloads any updates that it finds, and provides a user interface to monitor and read the feeds.
Before RSS came to our life, the news that we read daily is sorted into millions of newspapers, magazines, TV news, etc. The readers’ freedom is to select the media feed they are in favor of, not necessary contents. Now, RSS takes a step further: the readers now have freedom to have their own feed to access information. For example, I used to skip through the whole newspaper to read the news of my own interests, but now, with the RSS technology, I can subscribe and receive news of our favorite sections or topics. What’s more, in several RSS readers, i.e. Google Reader, you will be able to add star to certain articles. By doing this, the system will automatically re-rank the priority lists of news according to star system and recommend you the topics that related to the star one.
In addition to news reading, the RSS also can be used to fetch latest updates from our favorite websites as long as it supports RSS subscription. With this function, we will be able to receive latest news through one single RSS reader, instead of skipping through ten different websites. For my blogging project’s comment log part, I use Google Reader to subscribe to many leading PR and social media blogs, which are out of my interests. I don’t need to bookmark these sites into my bookmark bar on my website browser, instead, by opening my Google reader, I’m able to go through all the latest updates on my favorite sites. By scanning the updates, I can click those I would like to comment on and then leave my comments.
I believe RSS is a revolutionary invention for the information industry and will add values across all industries and client types. Especially, in an era with explosive amount of information communicated everyday, it helps people to cut down the information stream that they receive based on their own interests, simply simplifies our lives.
2011 Miami Book Fair International
2011Miami Book Fair International will be opened on Nov. 13-20! This year, China is honored to be the featured country of the Book Fair and welcome to China Pavilion!
Actually I am the PR coordinator of a team doing public relations campaign for the China Pavilion on behalf of the Confucius Institute of Miami Dade College, who holds the Miami Book Fair International.
It is really a great opportunity of me being involved into this, because the Confucius Institute doesn't even have any PR staff for this big event, so I would be engaged in every detailed action of this campaign. However, it means huge challenge and difficulty because we should start from scratch - including research, plan, action, and evaluation.
During our research, we figured out our targeted audiences: Educational Institutions located in Miami area that offer Chinese language or culture courses, local Chinese communities, Educational institutions' faculty and students who are majoring in art, literature, communication, and culture, and all publics who are interested in literature, art culture and cross-cultural communication. We targeted our media as: local Chinese newspapers including Florida People's Weekly and World Journal, as well as local English media focusing art, educational literacy, and China/Asia. And we set our goal - to increase the awareness of and the number of visitors to China Pavilion, and objectives.
We plan to reach out our targeted audience and media mainly by pitching and social media. We also decide the tasks:
1. Writer English and Chinese press releases
2. Develop pitch letters for media, educational institutions, local Chinese communities, etc.
3. Develop media lists for art, educational literacy, and China/Asia
4. Recruit volunteer for China Pavilion
5. Build up social media sites for the China Pavilion
6. etc.
We are now in the period of action. I'm not doing specific pitching or social media in front but act as a leader, a coordinator, a liaison, and a information provider. I really feel that a PR campaign is a big project, and in every minute you will be distracted by many details, requests or information.
And social media is actually a time consuming sub-project to do. You need well-rounded information, and need to figure out ways to reach out, like sending out invitation, also you need to update posts every time you have a new activities or so. Well, the event if not far away from here, good luck on us!
Actually I am the PR coordinator of a team doing public relations campaign for the China Pavilion on behalf of the Confucius Institute of Miami Dade College, who holds the Miami Book Fair International.
It is really a great opportunity of me being involved into this, because the Confucius Institute doesn't even have any PR staff for this big event, so I would be engaged in every detailed action of this campaign. However, it means huge challenge and difficulty because we should start from scratch - including research, plan, action, and evaluation.
During our research, we figured out our targeted audiences: Educational Institutions located in Miami area that offer Chinese language or culture courses, local Chinese communities, Educational institutions' faculty and students who are majoring in art, literature, communication, and culture, and all publics who are interested in literature, art culture and cross-cultural communication. We targeted our media as: local Chinese newspapers including Florida People's Weekly and World Journal, as well as local English media focusing art, educational literacy, and China/Asia. And we set our goal - to increase the awareness of and the number of visitors to China Pavilion, and objectives.
We plan to reach out our targeted audience and media mainly by pitching and social media. We also decide the tasks:
1. Writer English and Chinese press releases
2. Develop pitch letters for media, educational institutions, local Chinese communities, etc.
3. Develop media lists for art, educational literacy, and China/Asia
4. Recruit volunteer for China Pavilion
5. Build up social media sites for the China Pavilion
6. etc.
We are now in the period of action. I'm not doing specific pitching or social media in front but act as a leader, a coordinator, a liaison, and a information provider. I really feel that a PR campaign is a big project, and in every minute you will be distracted by many details, requests or information.
And social media is actually a time consuming sub-project to do. You need well-rounded information, and need to figure out ways to reach out, like sending out invitation, also you need to update posts every time you have a new activities or so. Well, the event if not far away from here, good luck on us!
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Four Ways for Advanced Companies to Prepare for Social Business Success
As more and more companies have implemented social media marketing and PR, some have been more familiar with the new media tools to reach the audience. Social media can be very effective for a crisis, meanwhile, social media crises are also on the rise - yet most companies are ill-prepared.
Companies are often quick to deploy Facebook pages and Twitter account, but the complexities of social media business are often ignored, long-term success in social media requires adequate preparation. For the corporation, this involves a realignment of roles, policies, processes, and a transformation of the enterprise into a social business.
There are four ways for advanced companies or companies which want to be advanced to follow internally:
(1) Business Governance and Reinforcement: establish and reinforce a corporate social media policy that allows employees to participate professionally. This require a company to establish a baseline process to reinforce and update the policy, as well as train incoming hires.
(2) Enterprise-wide response processes enables rapid customer engagement. A common fact that most companies are facing across the enterprise social media is that workflow becomes more complicated, consistency and efficiency decrease, while risks increase. Often the social media accounts managers find it hard to keep up with the growing volume of conversations. Therefore, a social media triage and workflow process should be distributed across the company. Also, there should be a social media crisis response plan. Most of the existed crisis plan a company has does not include social media part. A social media crisis plan can help to diminish or avert the crisis.
(3) Ongoing education program and best practice sharing fosters continued learning. Even seasoned practitioners require continuous social media training. And best practice sharing among practitioners supplement social media education.
(4) A dedicated and shared central hub, often named the "Center of Excellence," provides leadership. Increased consumer adoption and low technological barriers encourage corporate stakeholders to deploy social media on their own, with or without approval. the widespread adoption, if without proper coordination, can result in a fragmented customer experience, duplication of resources, and increased costs. So company needs a scalable formation, to organize in a Centralized formation in which a single group leads strategy and deploys efforts on behalf of the entire company. Also, assemble a dedicated, cross-functional group which is responsible for coordinating social business efforts.
Reference: Owyang, Jeremiah. (August 31, 2011). Social Business Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare Internally. Altimeter Group.
Companies are often quick to deploy Facebook pages and Twitter account, but the complexities of social media business are often ignored, long-term success in social media requires adequate preparation. For the corporation, this involves a realignment of roles, policies, processes, and a transformation of the enterprise into a social business.
There are four ways for advanced companies or companies which want to be advanced to follow internally:
(1) Business Governance and Reinforcement: establish and reinforce a corporate social media policy that allows employees to participate professionally. This require a company to establish a baseline process to reinforce and update the policy, as well as train incoming hires.
(2) Enterprise-wide response processes enables rapid customer engagement. A common fact that most companies are facing across the enterprise social media is that workflow becomes more complicated, consistency and efficiency decrease, while risks increase. Often the social media accounts managers find it hard to keep up with the growing volume of conversations. Therefore, a social media triage and workflow process should be distributed across the company. Also, there should be a social media crisis response plan. Most of the existed crisis plan a company has does not include social media part. A social media crisis plan can help to diminish or avert the crisis.
(3) Ongoing education program and best practice sharing fosters continued learning. Even seasoned practitioners require continuous social media training. And best practice sharing among practitioners supplement social media education.
(4) A dedicated and shared central hub, often named the "Center of Excellence," provides leadership. Increased consumer adoption and low technological barriers encourage corporate stakeholders to deploy social media on their own, with or without approval. the widespread adoption, if without proper coordination, can result in a fragmented customer experience, duplication of resources, and increased costs. So company needs a scalable formation, to organize in a Centralized formation in which a single group leads strategy and deploys efforts on behalf of the entire company. Also, assemble a dedicated, cross-functional group which is responsible for coordinating social business efforts.
Reference: Owyang, Jeremiah. (August 31, 2011). Social Business Readiness: How Advanced Companies Prepare Internally. Altimeter Group.
Nike Golf ‘s Social Media Presence After Tiger Woods’ Crisis
In the end of 2009, Tiger Woods was involved in an infidelity crisis. Triggered by a car accident, more than ten women stood out later on claiming that they once had affair with the world No. 1 golfer. Because of this crisis, Woods' marriage was in deep trouble and it went to an end on May 2, 2010. Amongst many Woods' sponsors that dropped him as a spokesman, Tiger Woods' main sponsor – Nike – is standing by its man.
On Twitter, Nike did the same thing. On Nov. 27, 2009, Nike tweeted the same content on Nike Golf's Twitter account:
Afterwards, Nike Golf's Twitter account was full with its product information, other golf tournament and athlete report, etc. Again, not a word on Tiger Woods.
On March 17, 2010, Tiger announced that he would make a return to professional golf at that year’s Masters Tournament. On April 7, 2010, Nike released an television ad featuring Tiger Woods, which was deemed as an indirect response to the crisis. But the general meaning is that Tiger will learn from his life and Nike still shows its loyalty to this World No. 1 Golfer. On September 15, 2010, Nike put Tiger on Twitter to chat with the audiences.
Celebrity endorsement benefits a brand but may also put the brand at a risk. When a crisis happens, a company should response to the crisis asap. Inform the publics of their decision and rationales. Nike indeed made announcement of their position regarding Tiger Woods after the crisis, but didn't do well in explaining and communicating with the audience. Partly because of the Tiger is a high-profile spokesperson. But the audience opinions was kind of mixed, Nike could have done better on this. And social media, has definitely been Nike's expertise.
Phil Knight, the chairman and co-founder of the sportswear company, has given his unequivocal backing to Woods at a time when other sponsors are distancing themselves from the world's top golfer. Knight said: "When his career is over, you'll look back on these indiscretions as a minor blip." Knight brushed off the scandal engulfing Woods as "part of the game" of sponsorship deals.
Nike has been advocating transparency as its corporate value and been very active on its social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. I Took a look at its social media sites after the crisis, the result is interesting.
On Nov. 27, 2009, the day when Tiger Woods' car accident happened, Nike Golf posted on its Facebook expressing concerns and believed he would be fine. And this is the only post about Tiger Woods' crisis during the whole crisis period. Not even a word on Nike's support to Tiger later on.
later on, Nike Golf filled its Facebook posts with a campaign it launched for Christmas which engaged many audiences because they gave away free gift for the holiday. And this event last for nearly a month which, of coures, overlapped with Tiger's crisis. I think Nike regard it as a way of distracting - drawing people's attention to their products and business, rather than focusing on the crisis itself.
On Twitter, Nike did the same thing. On Nov. 27, 2009, Nike tweeted the same content on Nike Golf's Twitter account:
On March 17, 2010, Tiger announced that he would make a return to professional golf at that year’s Masters Tournament. On April 7, 2010, Nike released an television ad featuring Tiger Woods, which was deemed as an indirect response to the crisis. But the general meaning is that Tiger will learn from his life and Nike still shows its loyalty to this World No. 1 Golfer. On September 15, 2010, Nike put Tiger on Twitter to chat with the audiences.
Now, Tiger Woods is still the background person of Nike Golf's Twitter account.
Celebrity endorsement benefits a brand but may also put the brand at a risk. When a crisis happens, a company should response to the crisis asap. Inform the publics of their decision and rationales. Nike indeed made announcement of their position regarding Tiger Woods after the crisis, but didn't do well in explaining and communicating with the audience. Partly because of the Tiger is a high-profile spokesperson. But the audience opinions was kind of mixed, Nike could have done better on this. And social media, has definitely been Nike's expertise.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Chinese Media Hit on Steve Jobs' Death
Steve Jobs and his Apple products enjoy high popularity among Chinese people. They make a trend dominating the electric market, symbolizing a lifestyle of fashion, convenience, and effectiveness. Therefore, Steve Jobs' death received a massive and deep media attention and condolence by the publics in China.
When the sad news was released by Apple, it was in the very early morning in China. But almost all the top nationwide news media covered the news on their frontpages hours later when the day in China started.
The way Jobs' death reported was basically the same with U.S. news media: memorizing his legendary life, honoring his innovative contribution to the world and learning from his spiritual leadership.
On social media sites, people spread the news out, grieved over this inspiring individual.Till 7:00 p.m. Oct. 6, there were 63,000,000 micro-blog users posted to give condolence to Steve Jobs. However, from my observation, not as many people mourning over Jobs' death know deeper than "he is the designer of iPhone I used to post my micro-blog." iPhone 4 caused a huge stir once it was launched, and it's becoming more and more indispensable among people who are into a kind of fashion, especially among younger generation. However, iPhone is too expensive for many Chinese people to afford, sometimes wrong values in comparing with iPhone caused drama -- a boy sold his kidney to buy an iPhone 4 for his girlfriend. This is an extreme case though, it's true that a lot of people decide to buy an iPhone not because they really know how convenient and effective it makes life to be, but due to the trend and peer pressure. Many people are disappointed that no one will possibly to bring surprise with iPhone 5 or other future products.
Still, many others thanks to Steve Jobs for bringing the change to the wold and our lives. There is a dispute among people who didn't think or expect Jobs deserved such massive coverage by the media and attention by the publics. It is known that although China is a big market for Apple products, Steve Jobs hadn't been showing interest in Chinese market and he had never been to China before. Based on the contribution to the country and its people, some individuals like Longping Yuan, who invented hybrid-wheat which saves a lot of Chinese people's lives to certain degree, deserved more respect and attention.
Another point of view which I believe is valuable indicates that Steve Jobs' death is provoking, and Chinese people especially practitioners in technologies and manufacture should learn from Jobs' innovative spirit, develop creative and useful product for people to improve their quality of life, to make their life as challenging and surprising, rather than following other patent and being a copycat. This advocacy is of great value in China now and eternally.
When the sad news was released by Apple, it was in the very early morning in China. But almost all the top nationwide news media covered the news on their frontpages hours later when the day in China started.
The way Jobs' death reported was basically the same with U.S. news media: memorizing his legendary life, honoring his innovative contribution to the world and learning from his spiritual leadership.
On social media sites, people spread the news out, grieved over this inspiring individual.Till 7:00 p.m. Oct. 6, there were 63,000,000 micro-blog users posted to give condolence to Steve Jobs. However, from my observation, not as many people mourning over Jobs' death know deeper than "he is the designer of iPhone I used to post my micro-blog." iPhone 4 caused a huge stir once it was launched, and it's becoming more and more indispensable among people who are into a kind of fashion, especially among younger generation. However, iPhone is too expensive for many Chinese people to afford, sometimes wrong values in comparing with iPhone caused drama -- a boy sold his kidney to buy an iPhone 4 for his girlfriend. This is an extreme case though, it's true that a lot of people decide to buy an iPhone not because they really know how convenient and effective it makes life to be, but due to the trend and peer pressure. Many people are disappointed that no one will possibly to bring surprise with iPhone 5 or other future products.
Still, many others thanks to Steve Jobs for bringing the change to the wold and our lives. There is a dispute among people who didn't think or expect Jobs deserved such massive coverage by the media and attention by the publics. It is known that although China is a big market for Apple products, Steve Jobs hadn't been showing interest in Chinese market and he had never been to China before. Based on the contribution to the country and its people, some individuals like Longping Yuan, who invented hybrid-wheat which saves a lot of Chinese people's lives to certain degree, deserved more respect and attention.
Another point of view which I believe is valuable indicates that Steve Jobs' death is provoking, and Chinese people especially practitioners in technologies and manufacture should learn from Jobs' innovative spirit, develop creative and useful product for people to improve their quality of life, to make their life as challenging and surprising, rather than following other patent and being a copycat. This advocacy is of great value in China now and eternally.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
R.I.P. Genius Jobs
Apple just released its new iPhone 4s and it turns out to be "iPhone for Steve." The news of Steve Job's death was all of a sudden during the time in which public expect for the new iPhone. It was supposed to be another milestone for Apple, but he just left the vampire created by his whole life today.
Apple puts Steve Jobs' picture on its official website, this is a grieved moment.
Google is writing "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011" right below its searching box. Many others all around the world are mourning over Steve Jobs' death in various ways for his genius mind, and infinite accomplishment to the world.
"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." Steve Jobs said in a commencement speech at Stanford University in June 2005, almost a year after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Thank you for giving so much to the world. Apple won't be the same without you, and our lives won't be the same without you too -- RIP Jobs, our beloved genius.
Apple puts Steve Jobs' picture on its official website, this is a grieved moment.
Steve Jobs was a genius. He proved the appeal of well-designed intuitive product over the sheer power of technology itself and shifted the way people interact with technology.
The widely successful products like iPod, iPhone, iPad, iMac have fundamentally changed the industry of PC, electronics and digital media. Steve Jobs is a brilliant guy who has changed the way people using Internet, consuming music, books, TV programs, etc. Many doubts arise after Steve's death in that whether Apple is able to continue its creativity and rapid development in electronic and communication industry. Nearly all the Apple products, even the stairs inside Apple company and its retail stores were designed through the hands of Jobs. People are wondering whether future Apple products would be such brilliant, innovative and successful. Steve Jobs successfully branded himself the image of Apple vampire though, I'd rather believe Apple will continue building its legend as it's been expected, offering innovative and popular products to the customers. This is the scenario that both Steve Jobs and the publics would like to live.
The death was first announced by Apple and then around 8:00 p.m. on Oct. 5, main news media outlets like CNN and WSJ released the news on their website. But most of the first-known public were informed through social media before big traditional news media spoke out. Chinese facebook and twitter were blew up by people discussing and grieving over Job's death as early as around 6 or 7 p.m. Couple hours later, both Renren.com and Weibo put a section on the top of their main page advocating for sharing memories and condolences over Steve Jobs.
Announcement on Renren.com (Chinese facebook page)
Announcement on Weibo.com (Chinese twitter page)
We have to admit that social media is much faster in spreading news out than traditional news media. Even though traditional news media has used the prepared materials for Jobs' death, it turns out to be much slower compared to social media. However, traditional news media offers more in-depth and accurate information, which is an indispensable news source after people are informed with brief and might be inaccurate news. Google is writing "Steve Jobs: 1955-2011" right below its searching box. Many others all around the world are mourning over Steve Jobs' death in various ways for his genius mind, and infinite accomplishment to the world.
"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose." Steve Jobs said in a commencement speech at Stanford University in June 2005, almost a year after he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Thank you for giving so much to the world. Apple won't be the same without you, and our lives won't be the same without you too -- RIP Jobs, our beloved genius.
Saturday, October 1, 2011
How Toyota Used Social Media to "Digg" Itself Out of a PR Nightmare
In January 2010, Toyota had to recall its 2.3 million vehicles because of faulty accelerator pedals. Immediately Toyota was trending on Google and Twitter on a daily bases, negatively. Realizing the opportunity to reach out to the publics through social media during the time of crisis, Toyota's social media team, which was only a few months old at that time, decided to address the situation via Digg, http://digg.com/, which had outsize influence on Google News searches.
It proved to be a great move. Before in the 1980s, there was similar auto crisis happened on Auti who faced a gas accelerator recall. But now under the 24/7 scrutiny of social media, Toyota had to create a new way to get their message across.
On February 8, Toyota served up Jim Lentz, president of Toyota's North American sales operation, to the publics in the form of a Digg Dialogg. Lentz appeared on a dedicated video site, was interviewed and asked many questions from the publics. Within two weeks, the Dialogg received 1.2 million views, and there were 3,200 questions. The Dialogg gave Toyota the appearence of achieving social media branding nirvana: Transparency. The survey by YouGov shows that Toyota hasn't completely recovered afterwards, but was in mostly good news.
Kimberley Gardiner, Toyota's national digital marketing and social media manager said, if the same thing happened today, she'd probably choose TweetChat on Twitter instead. In fact, Toyota has held several chats on Twitter later. It also uses Facebook, as a way to reach out to Toyota owners, while Twitter addresses those consumers who might be skeptical about the brand.
Now many celebrities and entities like to hold online chat and dialog with social media users, as a way to interact with targeted audience and be aware of the public opinions and questions. This is specially effective during a crisis, be accessible, be sincere and be willing to talk is a must in order to mitigate negative public relations.
Reference:
Wasserman, Todd. How Toyota Used Social Media to "Digg" itself Out of a PR Nightmare.
It proved to be a great move. Before in the 1980s, there was similar auto crisis happened on Auti who faced a gas accelerator recall. But now under the 24/7 scrutiny of social media, Toyota had to create a new way to get their message across.
On February 8, Toyota served up Jim Lentz, president of Toyota's North American sales operation, to the publics in the form of a Digg Dialogg. Lentz appeared on a dedicated video site, was interviewed and asked many questions from the publics. Within two weeks, the Dialogg received 1.2 million views, and there were 3,200 questions. The Dialogg gave Toyota the appearence of achieving social media branding nirvana: Transparency. The survey by YouGov shows that Toyota hasn't completely recovered afterwards, but was in mostly good news.
Kimberley Gardiner, Toyota's national digital marketing and social media manager said, if the same thing happened today, she'd probably choose TweetChat on Twitter instead. In fact, Toyota has held several chats on Twitter later. It also uses Facebook, as a way to reach out to Toyota owners, while Twitter addresses those consumers who might be skeptical about the brand.
Now many celebrities and entities like to hold online chat and dialog with social media users, as a way to interact with targeted audience and be aware of the public opinions and questions. This is specially effective during a crisis, be accessible, be sincere and be willing to talk is a must in order to mitigate negative public relations.
Reference:
Wasserman, Todd. How Toyota Used Social Media to "Digg" itself Out of a PR Nightmare.
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