A couple of weeks ago I had the good fortune to be able to present on the subject of “blogger outreach” to an audience of public relations professionals at an event organised by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR).

It was a knowledgeable audience and the overwhelming impression I got was that I was preaching to the converted – these are the guys and gals who are already on the bus in terms of understanding the value that can be derived from working with bloggers.

But there were two things that they really wanted to know:

1 how to find relevant bloggers and generally make the process easier? and

2 how to measure outcomes and really demonstrate value?

So, welcome to Inkybee, the new tool for resolving both of these pains. There’s a sneak peak inside the slide deck below. And if you want to take her for a spin, just sign up for a 30-day, unlimited free trial. There’s also lots of other helpful resources on the inside including our two ebooks on blogger relations.

Are you on the bus?

Photo credit: kallejipp / photocase.com

Let’s face it, the term certainly has it’s issues. For those outside PR it probably sounds like somebody being a bit sick on their shoes whilst within PR there are all those connotations of spam and bad practice. But putting all that aside for one moment, it’s clear that blogger outreach is in some form of ascendancy.

Firstly, lets look in more detail at what blogger outreach is exactly – or rather, what it should be, because it’s often done very badly. In simple terms, it should be the process of building real and meaningful relationships (friendships to be more exact) with the right bloggers and then “reaching out” to them with relevant propositions that have potential of benefiting both the blogger and you. The blogger benefits from you providing great content to share (for example) and you benefit from him or her taking your message directly to the right target audience for your campaign.

But let’s not get hung up on the term “blogger outreach”. Why is it in the ascendancy?

Perhaps the main reason is that blogger outreach is an incredibly important part of the digital marketing mix which is transforming modern marketing in its entirety. Blogger relations, influencer marketing, content marketing, word-of-mouth marketing are all part of this mix, as is the important SEO process of link building, or perhaps more correctly, “link earning”. However, because blogs are in some way the content engine of of social media, an organised blogger outreach campaign can provide a solid backbone for a more general digital marketing campaign

Secondly, the relatively new concept of “link earning” is also contributing heavily to the current ascendancy of blogger outreach. Because Google has effectively binned lots of the traditional SEO-based techniques of link building, marketers now need to think more laterally to earn the links they would previously have built using SEO. The SEO industry is learning that reaching out to the right bloggers is a fast and direct method of getting the type links that Google really respects.

Some other major benefits are outlined in our “8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are Essential to Your PR Strategy” but the bottom line is that reports of the demise of blogging are greatly exaggerated. Rather, bloggers are becoming increasingly influential because it is a fact that somewhere out there, there will be a blogger who is already engaged with and talking to your target market. Furthermore, the likelihood is that their audience is highly engaged and active in social media.

It is your challenge as a PR or marketer to make friends with that blogger by reaching out to him or her today.

Great, so how do I get started?

Well, the most important thing to do is read the (free) Best Practice Guide to Blogger Outreach. It covers the entire process in some detail and it warns you how to avoid the pitfalls and difficulties you are likely to encounter.

But we’ve also got a big announcement.

As some of you know, we’ve has been very busy building over the last couple of years building a new tool called Inkybee to help manage the process of blogger outreach.

We’re very pleased to announce that as of today, Inkybee is in full, free public beta.

Inkybee is a simple, user-friendly tool to relieve the pains of anyone doing blogger outreach.

In simple terms this is what Inkybee will do for you:

• Inkybee finds relevant blogs for you.
• Then Inkybee tells you which ones are the most influential.
• You can track your relationships with your bloggers.
• And finally Inkybee measures the value of your work.

Go and give it a test drive by clicking on the button below. It will take seconds to create an account, it’s free and there’s lots of help videos and links to further resources inside.

Give it a go and let us know what you think.

Smarter blogger outreach... for the busy PR

Inkybee is in free public beta. Click below to create a free account and take it for a test run.

Start free trial

The PR profession has taken a fair amount of flak in recent years for failing to measure its activities properly. Much of this is due to a lack of progress beyond that most resilient of measurement units, the Advertising Value Equivalent, or AVE. In the summer, a couple of industry heavyweights, Mark Westaby and Philip Sheldrake reported in PR Week that little had changed in the last 20 years.

If that is the case, it is a frightening – and damning – statement as the comms world has changed beyond recognition in the same timeframe. Indeed, even a much shorter timeframe has seen fundamental changes that are crucial to the industry – principally the arrival of digital media, social media and mobile technologies. The way consumers digest news has changed for ever.

You can look at this evolution through very different lenses. An old-world, pessimistic lens may regard this as challenging and confusing – how does the industry cope with such monumental changes to its business model? But a new-world, optimistic lens can see great opportunity – to consign bad practice to history and embrace new ways of communicating and measuring the communication.

New “converged media” communications may have additional measurement challenges such as attribution, but they also have significant advantages via the analytics that can be run on definitive output data.

Public relations and communications in general is too complex to boil its measurement down to one single universal measure, but progress is being made, particularly in these areas:

• In getting beyond outputs to measure business outcomes
• In using analytics to quantify specific outputs and outcomes
• In establishing a new framework for practitioners
• In defining standards for social media measurement
• In setting an agenda for globally agreed standards for research and measurement in PR

So the industry is waking up and recognising the opportunity – the positive lenses appear to be on. It is a great time to be involved in this space as there is so much positive development with exciting times ahead.

This only scratches the surface. If you would like to dig a little deeper and also pick up some more practical information on various tools and resources, my presentation to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, Scotland is right here:

Finally, I must thank Joe Walton of Real PR, Laura Berry of Holyrood PR and CIPR Scotland for organising the event and giving me the opportunity to present this subject.

Which lenses are you using?

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Last week I attended #oiconf – the Online Influence conference. It promised to deliver “social media content strategies to drive your business” and boy did it deliver.

Oi!2012 was the brainchild of Tony Dowling, a professional marketer who, as well as driving the sales and marketing for his radio station and writing an active blog, managed to organise a great conference for no financial gain to himself whatsoever. Appropriately enough, the idea was borne out of a Twitter conversation with Mark Schaefer and it grew from there, culminating in an excellent event held at the Celtic Manor hotel near Newport in Wales last Thursday.

Whilst the theme was “online influence”, the presentations dovetailed beautifully to give the large audience a real feel for how to utilise the internet, and social media in particular, to grow their businesses. It wasn’t a theoretical diatribe of new world digital behaviour; it was a series of practical, hands-on lessons on how to ‘be social’, embrace content marketing and utilise the various social media channels to the best effect.

All of the presenters did excellent jobs of presenting different aspects, summarised as follows:

Jay Cooper of Bloom looked at “being social” in the context of a “social business”, not just “social media”. His entire presentation is online here.

Emma Meese of Social Pop explored the practicalities of how to leverage the Twitter and Google advanced search tools.

Mark Webber, a self-confessed “content-wonk“(?) gave some great examples of how brands use different forms of content effectively (Taytos being the best example). He then stuck his neck out and randomly picked a member of the audience to give advice to. The man selected had his own electricians business. Within two minutes Marc had opened his eyes as to how he could attract new business via the Web using simple ‘how-to’ video guides. Simple, but potentially highly effective.

Pippa Davies (Mrs Motivator) treated the audience to a lesson in creativity and how to connect with your audience. There was also a helpful section on how to use eBooks, particularly via communities on Amazon.

James Cridland of MediaUK presented an entertaining session on the power of social media, particularly Twitter, using the London riots as a case-study.

Lastly, the headline act, Mark Schaefer of the popular {grow} blog mesmerised the audience with his assessment of how influence works on the internet. His messages seemed so simple, yet so powerful:

• “Content that moves is Power”
• “Influence has been democratised”
• “Follow a model of Consistent Engagement via Meaningful Content with your Relevant Audience”
• “Focus on Outreach to Bloggers”
• … and many more.

It was an inspiring day. The vibe in the room was amazing as you could almost hear the pennies dropping, see the lightbulbs going off and feel the sponges filling with new-found insights.

Well done to Tony and everyone involved in the organisation of an excellent event and thank you to everyone I met during the day and evening who made it so hospitable and fun.

Watch out for Oi2013!

The Best Practice Guide for Blogger Outreach

Download the definitive 39-page guide to reaching out to bloggers. It's free and packed full of best principles, tips, tools and resources.

Download!

Photo credit: view7 / photocase.com

This follows on from our previous post about the background to objectives and measurement. We’ll keep it very simple for the moment, but there are two parts to the process of setting objectives in the digital space.

1. Setting business objectives
2. Setting campaign objectives

You need to consider both of these in order to have a complete picture of what you’re setting out to do.

On a general note, objectives in the digital space must be tangible, measurable and deliverable. Also, these objectives should be clearly presented in simple sentences so that everyone in the team can understand them.

1. Setting a business objective

Whether you’re running this campaign for your own business or you’re working on behalf of a client, you need to understand the top level business objectives.

These objectives are generally financial and are best based on the amount of cash you need in the bank by some specified date.

Band example

• Business objective is to generate 4K of sales for ‘Our Well Received Debut Album’ by the end of September 2012

Performing arts company example

• Business objective is to generate 11K of tickets sales for ‘Our Not-To-Be-Missed New Show’ by 23rd of October 2012

Widget manufacturer example

• Business objective is to generate 10K of sales of ‘Our Fantastically Useful Widget’ by the end of September 2012

Graphic design consultancy example

• Business objective is to generate 50K of fees by end of September 2012

You get the idea. Write the sentence down as large as possible on one page of A4 and stick it on the wall so the whole team can see it.

But, don’t miss this bit. You need to have this written down. If you’re working for a client and you haven’t been given clear information, ask them! The results of your campaign can then be measured. It will make it much easier to justify the effort you’re about to undertake on their behalf.

Importantly, these are not the Campaign Objectives. The main point to make is that the way to deliver the business objective set out above is to create a strategy that probably involves several different campaigns and each campaign will have one clear objective.

The reason for this is that your campaign is more likely to succeed if you’re only dealing with one very clear campaign objective.

Too many objectives and you’re more likely to fail.

There are several different campaigns that you may run. Some examples include;

• Promoting an ebook that you have published
• Promoting a film that you have made
• Encouraging sign ups to a mailing list
• Encouraging ‘Likes’ of a Facebook page

etc. etc.

Each of these is best treated as a separate campaign.

2. Setting a campaign objective

There should only be one primary objective for a campaign. If it turns out that there are several objectives, then you should consider running separate campaigns.

Once again, we need a very simple sentence that everyone involved can understand and which is measurable.

The primary objective of this campaign is to get [some number of] people to [watch/download/sign up for/become aware of/buy/visit] [a video/ebook/event/concept/product/page] before [some specified date].

Ebook campaign example

• The primary objective of this campaign is to get 500 people to download an ebook before the end of September 2012.

Video campaign example

• The primary objective of this campaign is to get 1000 people to watch a video before the end of August 2012.

Event campaign example

• The primary objective of this campaign is to get 5000 people to sign up for an event before the 8th September 2012.

Note that some aspects of the campaign strategy (such as those above) will build visibility and awareness in support of the business objectives but it is also possible for some top level business objectives to be delivered directly by one campaign. The trick is to have the right mix of campaign tactics to deliver the business objectives. Lets look at the Band example from above.

Business objective

• Business Objective is to generate 4K of sales for ‘Our Well Received Debut Album’ by the end of September 2012

Based on album price of 7, the Campaign Objective very simply becomes;

Campaign objective

• Campaign Objective is to get 571 people to download ‘Our Well Received Debut Album’ by the end of September 2012.

When setting the numbers above, it is important to bear in mind the conversion rates needed to deliver the top level business objective but we will discuss this in detail in a separate post.

But, the most important thing is to keep this objective absolutely simple and get it written down. Write it down and stick it on the wall!

Takeaways;

• Keep these objectives dead simple
• Understand the difference between business and campaign objectives
• Write them down!

We’ll talk about how to keep track of progress against these objectives on a week by week basis in another post. Why not subscribe to our RSS feed to be updated about the next posts in this series.

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Later this week we will commence our series of posts on blogger outreach to delve deeper into some of the key subjects outlined in our recent ebook, “The Best Practice Guide for Effective Blogger Outreach”. We will also be bringing it to life with a series of short videos with bloggers, PR professionals and their clients, so watch out for those.

Putting first things first.

It is true for just about anything in life that you need to understand where you are going and what success looks like. As the recently deceased late, great Stephen Covey put it in the second of his 7 habits, “begin with the end in mind”. Of course, Stephen was referring to the deeply important character values that determine your life goals. Blogger outreach is nothing like as grand, but the same principle applies – identify where you want to get to in order to determine how you get there.

Blogger outreach can be considered as a form of public relations and in this context the public relations industry has long since established why setting tangible objectives is important. As long ago as last century (1999), the Institute for Public Relations (IPR) set out “Guidelines for Setting Measurable Public Relations Objectives”. A paper by, amongst others, Katie Paine and James Grunig, starts by stating:

“Measurable objectives in public relations do two things:

1 They facilitate and support business objectives, thus demonstrating that PR activities support the business or performance goals and are thereby ‘strategic’; and

2 They enable PR practitioners to show they have achieved what they set out to achieve, and thereby demonstrate accountability”

All very sensible and important.  As good a start as this was way back in 1999, since then the public relations industry has suffered on two counts:

Firstly, a complete failure to implement meaningful measurement metrics. The industry standard of Advertising Value Equivalents (AVE’s) has stuck, but as pretty much everyone now recognises, it is horribly flawed. (More on that whole subject later in the series).

Secondly, the world has changed since 1999 and public relations has changed with it. The reasons stated above for creating objectives still stand, but how PR is implemented has changed dramatically with the increasing prevalence of digital channels and social media in particular.

The industry is now moving to address these issues with AVE’s being denounced and a recognition of the importance of embracing digital channels, of which blogger outreach is clearly a part. One organisation which is leading the charge in both of these areas is AMEC, the international association for the measurement and evaluation of communication, Forth Metrics being an associate member.

AMEC supports some fabulous cross-industry collaboration, particularly in relation to setting social media measurement standards. In relation to objective setting, they have also established the “Valid Metrics Framework”  which is becoming widely adopted as a methodology for setting objectives and measuring against them and it could easily be applied to blogger outreach. For anyone looking to set detailed objectives it is well worth investing the time to set this up. It is explained HERE in detail, but in simple terms it creates a matrix which details the following:

1 The public relations activity – blogger outreach, influencer engagement, etc;

2 The intermediary effect – what metrics are important in the blogger’s dissemination of the message – reach, engagement, impressions, etc; and

3 The target audience effect – what metrics are important in the actions of the audience of the blogger – web traffic, downloads, actual sales, etc.

These effects are then segmented across the continuum of the marketing funnel from ‘awareness’ at one end to ‘action’ at the other. If all of this sounds complicated, it’s not, and there are sample matrices that are pre-populated with options for what you could use as metrics for setting your objectives against.

This is an excellent model that I have no doubt will develop further in its sophistication and application. However, I am sure that there are many organisations out there who struggle with its implementation due to the modern day strains on that most precious of resources – time!

So in our next post we will take you through a very simple, practical methodology for easily setting objectives for a digital campaign.

But remember, whether it is the personal determination to win an Olympic gold medal or the business objective to develop a brand, imprint that goal in your brain and don’t forget it.

The Best Practice Guide for Blogger Outreach

Download the definitive 39-page guide to reaching out to bloggers. It's free and packed full of best principles, tips, tools and resources.

Download!

It’s great when hard work pays off and people appreciate your work.

We put a lot of work into our Best Practice Guide for Effective Blogger Outreach. As a result we believe it is the most comprehensive document on the subject available. But it still needs to find its way to the people that need it.

Click to download 'The Best Practice Guide for Blogger Outreach'. Photo credit: kallejipp / photocase.com

So thank you to the people who wrote about it including Danny Brown, Mike McGrail, Adrian Swinscoe and Tasha Pert at PR Moment.

Thank you to all of the people who retweeted it and shared it on their social networks.

Thank you to the people that said some very nice things. In particular:

Gini Dietrich – “Everyone who does blogger relations MUST download this eBook. Now.”

Arik Hanson – “The e-book every PR agency should download now”

Chris Abraham – “Have you read the free digital blogger outreach eBook by @ForthMetrics yet? A secret weapon of a book!”

Danny Brown – “It is such a well-timed and much-needed read … a very smart blueprint.”

Adam Vincenzini – “Download this bad boy…now!”

Adrian Swinscoe – ” a hugely useful step by step guide to reaching out and engaging bloggers”

Paul Sutton – “This is a fab guide. Worth downloading.”

And thank you to the hundreds of people that have downloaded it – we hope you enjoy it and find it useful.

We hope it continues to be shared around the globe to help everyone working in this area. But we’re not stopping there.

We really believe in the importance of this stuff, so we’re not about to rest. We want to bring the ebook to life and provide lots more insight in some more easily-digestible bite sized chunks. So we’re pleased to announce that next week we are kicking off the following:

1 A “blogger outreach step-by-step” series: a series of blog posts looking at every aspect of blogger outreach with illustrations, tips, tools and more.

2 A “blogger outreach interview” series: a series of video interviews with PRs and bloggers to demonstrate real-life stories of blogger outreach in action.

All appearing on this blog, so subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss it. And tell your friends . . .

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The Best Practice Guide for Blogger Outreach. Photo credit: Bastographie / photocase.com

It’s HERE. It’s NEW. It’s FREE. And to quote Chris Abraham “This is the book I should have written every day for the last six years!”

You can get your hands on our new eBook, “The Best Practice Guide to Blogger Outreach” via the link below.

It is a 39 page, comprehensive resource covering everything you need to know to get stuck into blogger outreach and to do it well.

We wrote it to help everyone trying to reach out to bloggers. Blogger outreach requires some very different skills and techniques to traditional media and the PR industry is at risk of developing a bad reputation from treating bloggers poorly.

As our last eBook, “8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are Essential to your PR Strategy“, showed, the value of developing strong relationships with bloggers is large and growing, so it must be a win-win for both bloggers and PR professionals to educate everyone in doing it better. Blogger outreach requires time and patience. We believe an hour invested up-front in reading our eBook will pay dividends in the long run.

Included in the book are views from some of the leading lights of the industry on why blogger outreach is important, so to whet the appetite, here’s a flavour:

• Sally Falkow “Reaching out to bloggers is a core function of PR today”
• Paul Sutton “The communications industry is facing two major challenges at present: humanisation and relevancy. Those who have cracked blogger outreach understand the need to listen to bloggers”
• Tonia Ries “Building relationships with bloggers and other online influencers offers marketers an enormous opportunity”
• Kelsey Libert “Blogger Outreach creates partnerships that are pivotal to the success of any content marketing campaign”
• Danny Brown “Treat bloggers as a bona-fide media source in both your pitching and follow-ups”
• Gini Dietrich “Blogger relations is about relationships and specific targeting”
• Adam Vincenzini “The expertise shared by a subject-specific blogger (a niche expert) is often much more compelling than a generalised report from a mainstream outlet”
• Shelly Kramer “Maintaining an updated blogger database—as well as active relationships—should be a vital component of your outreach”
• Mike McGrail “Content has never been more important and some of the best creators of brilliant content are bloggers”
• Adrian Swinscoe “People that do blogger outreach well really stand out and I’m happy to help them”

It’s time to help the industry do blogger outreach better so we’ll be following this up with more blog posts and videos to help you. Now’s the time for you to get ahead of the game.

Please do let us know what you think of it in the comments below. And if you like it, please ‘spread the love’ by sharing this post with your network. Thanks!

The Best Practice Guide for Blogger Outreach

Download the definitive 39-page guide to reaching out to bloggers. It's free and packed full of best principles, tips, tools and resources.

Download!

Actually, only two of the three in the title were really in abundance. Read on and you’ll see.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending the 4th European Summit on Measurement in Dublin, a conference run by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC for short).

When I first heard of AMEC I have to confess that I wondered whether it was just a collection of geeks. 16 months and 3 conferences later I now fully recognise the extent of the commercial experience and acumen within the organisation and the key role it is playing in driving forward an important agenda for communications and measurement professionals globally.

The Dublin conference follows up on the previous successes of Barcelona in 2010, when the Barcelona Principles were adopted; and Lisbon “Legacy” in 2011, when the application of the new ‘Valid Metrics’ framework was rolled-out.

A year ago I blogged on the outcome of the Lisbon Summit and raised 4 challenges. So let’s revisit those:

1 The challenges of ROI and global standards are elephantine. Well, no elephants have been devoured, but reasonable sized chunks are being chewed on. Particularly in social media measurement, where the “March to Social Standards” presented by Tim Marklein and Katie Paine showed tangible evidence of progress in promoting transparency of sources and methods of measurement and in the definitions around the key metrics of Reach, Engagement, Influence and Relevance where draft documents are all due out this year.

2 The ridiculous number of organisations that have to be cajoled along. There was impressive progress here too as the #SMMStandards team have brought together all of the key stakeholders plus some clients and, crucially, the Media Ratings Council in the States. Katie Paine put this down to a grand offering of lobster and wine, but however it was achieved, she’s rivalling Kofi Annan when it comes to multi-party diplomacy.

3 The different audiences – client and agency, large and small. I believe this remains a big challenge as it will continue to be the case that “one size does not fit all”. The standards are the right way to go, but ultimately the end solutions for Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft, Philips or Fedex will remain way beyond the means of 75%+ of small, independent operators. As Richard Houghton, former president of ICCO stated, “60%+ of campaigns are not even measured”.

4 Education – of both PR agencies and their clients. Summit delegates recognised the importance of this and of showing leadership to take the industry forward, but it is a challenging task, particularly in such a difficult economic climate when budgets are being squeezed leaving even less scope for new measurement techniques. However, more engagement with the end user is essential, as otherwise there is a danger that the measurement people drive an agenda that their customers are not interested in.

The world is changing fast. Digital comms – in all its forms, not just social media – have changed the way businesses manage their brands. Developing standards, frameworks and practices to measure communication in this new world is incumbent upon the profession and Barry Leggetter‘s AMEC is leading the charge.

Forth Metrics aims to play its own small part in this, particularly in the space where simple, objective measurement can be opened up to the vast majority of PR professionals, not just the ones with the well-heeled global brands to look after.

Oh yes, and whether it is Philip Sheldrake‘s “geek chic” or not, embracing the challenges to drive the industry forward needs some distinctly non-geeky skills!

Smarter blogger outreach... for the busy PR

Inkybee is in free public beta. Click below to create a free account and take it for a test run.

Start free trial

Whatever campaign you’re currently working on, it is a fact that someone somewhere in the blogosphere will care passionately about the subject matter. As a credible PR, it is your task to find those people and reach out to them relevantly and in a way that demonstrates that you care about the subject of the campaign too.

One of the major challenges in smart blogger relations is how to find the blogs that are writing passionately about the subject of your current campaign.

We’ve been working on this problem for a while and we’re currently testing a pretty useful tool to help you find relevant blogs. You can help us test it right now (see below), but first here’s a brief overview of some of the existing tools and processes you can use to find blogs.

Google Blog Search

Google Blog Search is the best place to start. You can convert any web search into a blog search by clicking ‘More’ in the navigation to the left of the results listing and selecting ‘Blogs’.

Blekko

Blekko is a very useful search engine that promises spam free results. You can restrict it to blogs by using what they call a slashtag (“/blogs”).

Tumblr Spotlight

Tumblr Spotlight offers curated list of blogs relevant for a whole range of subject matters.

Technorati

Potentially getting a bit dated, but the Technorati directory does have over 1.3 million searchable blogs in it, so worth a look. Remember to toggle the search from the default ‘Posts’ to ‘Blogs’ to get more useful results.

There is also a bunch of other blog directories that can be searched for relevant keywords, the most well known being Blog Catalog, Alltop and Blog Rank.

Inkybee Blog Discovery Tool

As part of a suite of tools we’re developing for blogger outreach, we have a test blog discovery tool that you can go and have a play with.

Simply enter a keyword and it will find blogs for you and rank them based on relevancy, reach and engagement.

It’s currently in Public Beta, so why not be one of the first to give it a go. We’d love to get your feedback on how it performs for you.

Create an account by clicking the button below.

Smarter blogger outreach... for the busy PR

Inkybee is in free public beta. Click below to create a free account and take it for a test run.

Start free trial

Bastografie / photocase.com

Yesterday I spotted this tweet from Nextness editor Jessica Stanley (@dailydoseofjess), and it made me weirdly nostalgic for a long lost time… on Facebook.

When I was a teenager, Livejournal was the social network of choice, although we wouldn’t have described it that way. (We also didn’t call it “blogging” until at least 2006, though The Social Network tells it otherwise.) Trends then moved on via MySpace and on to Facebook where this type of group-making, keen one-click sharing and, of course, ubiquitous game spamming, were the norm.

What I’m left to wonder is this: did we quieten down? Have our habits matured? Or did we simply get older? (Actually, don’t answer that.)

In the 3 or 4 years since (broadly speaking) Facebook and Twitter took up permanent residence as our social media tools of choice, we’ve learned a lot about what is acceptable and unacceptable to share on social media. Companies with regular Twitter presences generally have a handle on what not to shout about. We’ve all learned from that petulant employee being fired by her boss whilst having a whinge about him on Facebook, that person who got him or herself into trouble for phoning in sick then tweeting about their hangover, and that graduate who didn’t get the job after the employees looked over the state of their social media presence.

Everything online is permanent. We get it. But remember when we used to talk about social media ‘noise’? Let’s get back to that for a moment.

In my line of work, I often come across, or am responsible for running, time-sensitive social media campaigns. As soon as a deadline looms, panic abounds and all sense is thrown out of the window: hands reach for keyboards, emails fly like paper aeroplanes, and the turnaround is aimed directly at the project’s Facebook fans and Twitter followers. The result is a cacophony where there should be a crescendo. Ultimately, to panic is to leave a bad taste in your precious community’s mouth.

A recent article on Econsultancy demonstrated that noise, promotion and spam will reduce your Twitter followers. This online poll by Chris Lake asked users for their common reasons for unfollowing accounts on Twitter. The poll attracted over 500 votes – a reasonable sample size and good indication if you have a follower count around that number. Many tend to be the traits of individuals (one hopes!), e.g. Foursquare / check-in abusers [22% - 115 votes], Crimes against grammar [18% - 93 votes], Auto / DM abuse [16% - 86 votes]. Meanwhile many are extremely vague, e.g. Not interesting enough [43% - 226 votes] and Too quiet [27% - 141 votes]. Overall, though, they demonstrate the tricky nature of keeping your followers happy on Twitter.

Of the ones that companies ought to be careful of, I’d point to the two peas in a pod: Spammy [47% - 245 votes] and Too noisy (tweets too often) [52% - 271 votes], along with Too many ‘begging tweets’ [28% - 145 votes], and Too many retweets [17% - 90 votes].

When campaigning hard for word-of-mouth through social media, it’s easy to be tempted into tweeting too often, begging for retweets, retweeting irrelevant content and, worst of all, retweeting tweets of praise. Although ‘too quiet’ is featured on this list, overall it is clear that it is better to be too quiet than too noisy.

By practicing quality over quantity, followers are more likely to pick up and share your rare gem of a tweet than your whimpering request for a retweet (in which case, by the way, they also retweet the request). I have more than once made the mistake of thinking that Twitter marketers had grasped that begging Stephen Fry for a retweet is not a social media strategy. A few hundred quick clicks might seem like gold dust, but focussing on your community and building a network of people and organisations who care about your message and can pass it on with genuine passion is key to reducing noise, keeping your follower numbers intact and, most importantly, spreading a message that’s worth reading and retweeting.

What are your Twitter pet hates and faux pas?

Credit: Bastografie / photocase.com

So, blogger outreach. What’s that, then?
Did you know that there are some 181 million+ blogs out there? Someone, somewhere is definitely talking about your area of interest. And your potential customers are listening to them. Bloggers come in all shapes and sizes including some of the internet’s biggest influencers. Many are known for their expertise in a certain field, their skills in curating great content, or simply having great taste. By inviting them to become your brand ambassadors, you can encourage them to create content that fits your marketing message. Think of it as a form of satellite content marketing.

What have bloggers ever done for us?
When advertising was king, a flashy message or aspirational lifestyle image was often enough to sell a product. But what happens when it gets into the customer’s hands? As you’ll read in our Inkybee ebook, studies show that greater than 80% of internet users read blogs at least once a day  and that greater than 70% of consumers stated that blogs affected their purchasing decisions (Hubspot). Furthermore, 38% of bloggers will write about brands they love or hate (Technorati) – a number that is likely on the rise.

Furthermore, the latest Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey placed trust in online customer opinions at 70% – vastly outstripping traditional media. Consumers no longer trust the press or flashy advertising from companies, so an independent expert or advocate in the form of a blogger – a consumer’s peer – can be hugely valuable. Put those together and you could have a trusted, enthusiastic, and aspirational brand ambassador of your own. What’s more, these individuals can wield great influence and marketing potential to people whom advertising simply cannot reach.

As well as the key influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers, there exists a key group of bloggers known as the “magic middle”. Not all bloggers are professionals who are paid to talk about companies and their products and services – but many do command their own powerful niche.

Regardless of their blog’s focus, magic middle bloggers are passionate people dedicated to writing about topics and issues relevant to them personally. These are the bloggers who tend to inspire real-world customers to explore and experiment with new products and services based on the word of their peers.
- FutureWorks 

Bloggers vary in influence, and in their awareness thereof, but they are not going to champion you unless you provide value, content, or a reward to their blog. Treating them well and offering value to their audience is a winning strategy; but don’t expect something for nothing. As much as bloggers need content, they’re not tied to the same content output expectations as professionals and journalists, so make them an offer that they can get into.

Beware of the dog…
As much as bloggers can help you, they can also hinder you if you don’t offer them value. Bloggers don’t play by traditional media rules, nor do they serve the purposes of bigger organisations that they work for. The power is with the blogger, but the responsibility lies with you: they can be as negative as they can be positive if you don’t treat them right. Learn from the mistakes of others in our post about how not to conduct blogger outreach.

At its core, blogger outreach is a simple transaction between product marketer and a passionate communicator. You provide great content via a message, a product, or a service to the blogger and they transform it into a persuasive story for their readers, generating awareness and positive validation for your brand.

Simple DOs and DON’Ts:

DO

• Know your audience. Their interests, their motivations. And not just at a superficial level.
• Be polite and patient: many bloggers receive masses of email offers and promotions.
• Offer your blog partners content and value in the form of products to review, content to promote, or giveaways and treats for their readers.
• Read the your potential partners’ disclosures. Just because you send a blogger a product does not mean that they will automatically review it.

DON’T

• Don’t send endless follow-up emails to non-responders. One follow-up email is plenty. After that, it’s time to find new partners.
• Don’t chase up bloggers to mention you outside of your agreed partnerships.
• Don’t forget that bloggers are accountable to their audience and it’s a responsibility that most take seriously.
• Don’t demand promotion in exchange for entry into a competition. Value your potential partners quid pro quo.

I’m in!
Want to know how to make bloggers click, and stick? Read Brian Solis’ “10 Steps to Building a Better Blogger Relations Program”. And check back shortly for our upcoming Inkybee “Best Practices for Blogger Outreach” ebook.

What are your experiences with blogger outreach? If you’re a blogger we’d love to hear from you.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

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This question was recently put to me by a publicist at a party with a distinct tone of weariness and – yes, it was there – irritation. What this publicist was expressing is I think quite a common feeling among overworked PRs, who have based their career on the traditional media notions of forming close relationships with journalists, carefully crafting press releases and ‘managing the message’.

spacejunkie / photocase.com

Now, said publicist is asked to invest an increasing amount of time into the blogosphere. To an independent blogger who answers to nobody. Who can write what they want and who often has zero interest in press releases.

I can understand their reticence, so I’d like to answer the publicist’s question right here, in what I hope is a more comprehensive and eloquent manner than I originally did at the aforementioned party.

So who reads blogs?

Loads of people, actually. It’s all to easy if you’re new to reading blogs to make the assumption that it’s some niche activity with a tiny readership. Not the case. Conservative estimates based on data from major platforms such as WordPress and Tumblr suggest that there are more than 100 million active blogs out there. According to a 2011 eMarketer report, in the US alone there are 122 million people reading blogs – more than half of all US internet users. In a 2010 blog post, Danny Brown estimated the figure even higher, with blogs being read by 77% of internet users (his source being Technorati’s State of the Blogosphere 2010).

But are they any good?

Yes, there is a massive variation in quality, but underestimate the serious blogger at your peril. Take for example the mighty Huffington Post, not only considered the most powerful blog in the world but moreover a distinctive voice in an increasingly generic media landscape. Or the relatively obscure Han Han, touted as the most popular blog in the world with 340 trillion (yes, that’s trillion) visits. This Chinese writer and activist is little-known over here but is a major voice of dissent against his government’s policies. Then there’s those blogs that pack an incredible commercial punch, like The Sartorialist, which along with successful campaigns for Burberry and DKNY and a best-selling book, notches up a CPM rate in excess of $30. As an article in ‘The Business of Blogging’ points out, “At his current traffic levels, even with a $20 CPM and only 50 percent of total inventory sold, Schuman could theoretically earn over $100,000 per month on advertising alone, easily earning him more than a million dollars of revenue per year.” Not to be sniffed at, huh?

Will they say what I want them to?

Well no, not necessarily. The question of getting the best response from blogger outreach is a post in itself, but for the moment let’s just outline the basics. A blogger doesn’t give a crap about your press release, and most are free as a bird and therefore able to write in whatever tone of voice they please, so forget about getting any carefully honed corporate messaging in there. (Although of course you can and should target your outreach campaigns at bloggers who ‘fit’ your brand and audience.) But the trade-off is far more valuable: good bloggers have earned the trust of their readers, so their opinion is worth its weight in gold.

Does my target audience read blogs?

This is the more important question, and the great thing about blogging over, say, national press, is that you can be incredibly specific about who you’re targeting. If you’re an Edinburgh fashion boutique, you might get just as much business from a review in popular local blog Wayward Daughter as you would from a review in Stylist magazine, and much of that business will be local people, walking straight through your door and coming back time and time again.

Moving away from audience but staying on the subject of niche, if you’re promoting electrical semi-conductors the Guardian Technology pages might very well give a few lines to your product, based on a vague summary. But semiconductorchat.blogspot.com (yes, I made that up, but you get the idea) will write in glorious accurate detail about every quirk of the tech, to an engaged audience of people reading with the sole aim of purchasing electrical semiconductors.

So, ‘who reads blogs anyway?’ The right question is surely ‘where do I get started?’

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

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One of the key things you can do while developing successful blogger relations is to put yourself in the blogger’s shoes. Whether they’re big, corporate shoes or training shoes for growing feet, blogger outreach is like going back to school in a number of ways… but the rules may have changed since last term.

Likewise, in the case of PR for journalists versus bloggers, the shoe is on the other foot. If you are a brand reaching out to bloggers, it’s likely that they have the power. If you put a foot wrong, your reputation in the blogosphere could be at risk. So think like a blogger, consider what they want and need, and put it into practice.

All of this is a silly way of saying that when it comes to blogger relations, you must consider the proposition. Offer value and the opportunity for great content and bloggers will flourish, create great copy, and help to promote and amplify your message. Give them a pair of knackered old sandals when you made them expect Jimmy Choos, and you lay your credibility on the line. Bloggers are not constrained by traditional media rules – they don’t have to answer to the businesses they work for, and they do not have to toe the political line of that business either.

Trends are changing, and if your brand isn’t handling blogger relations in the accepted way while your competitors are out making friends with bloggers, you could seriously fall behind. The prominent and self-explanatory British Beauty Blogger recently posted about the beauty PR industry’s failure to keep up with flourishing trends in blogger relations practice. In a post titled ‘The Game Changed While Some Brands Weren’t Looking‘, British Beauty Blogger (let’s call her Brit) outlines some of the techniques employed by beauty PR executives – some of them seemingly generous and lucrative – and why, ultimately, they don’t offer value to bloggers.

Some of these mistakes are simple enough to correct: for example, she laments that some PRs still offer the same small rewards for writing a review as they did when her audience was considerably smaller. Once a blogger’s following elevates them above the “magic middle“, a single product provided for review purposes doesn’t cut it anymore. While many bloggers receive samples for consideration, most are too busy or do not blog for money. This can cause mounting expectations and ultimately prevents bloggers from creating the kind of fresh, innovative content that would be ideal for a blogger outreach campaign.

While this is a competitive field for drudgery, outreach fatigue for the blogger is further incentive to up your game. Again, it is important to put yourself in the bloggers shoes. If you were Brit, what would add value for you? Here is one way where brands are being innovative but, in putting themselves rather than the blogger first, got it wrong:

Recently, I’ve turned down the ‘opportunity’ (twice) to endorse products going on sale in stores nationally in exchange for a printed link on the packaging.

Now, what’s the first thing you do when you buy a new product? Take it out of the box, and … throw the box away.

… Take it from me that this kind of ‘promotion’ does not lead to significantly bigger stats, because by the time a customer has put the box to one side to take the actual products out … everything nudges that box further towards the recycling. A product endorsed by a blogger (even if you have never read a blog) might inspire you to purchase because any endorsement has the potential to swing a decision, but it is more or less worthless in real terms to the blogger.

Other mistakes which put the blogger first but are not well thought-out are competitions. As Brit rightly points out, not all bloggers (and perhaps very few) are familiar with the legal acts that govern giveaways and competitions. By putting your bloggers in these uncomfortable positions, you damage the relationship of mutual trust that you should be building together.

So before sending your proposal, put yourself in your prospective blogger’s shoes. Some things to think about:

• Do your own expectations and those of the blogger’s align?
• What is our mutual goal? (Think about message and mutual gains)
• How long will this take for the blogger to write?
• Think ahead – are there any costs involved or legal concerns to address?

By understanding your bloggers and catering to their needs without their having to ask, you can put your best foot forward and create an efficient, marketable blogger outreach campaign that takes off all on its own.

Read more about the value of blogger outreach by downloading the Inkybee eBook, and check back for more tips for building a successful blogger relations campaign.

luxuz::. / photocase.com

I used to work at Channel 4, which readers in the UK will recognise as one of the most creative and subversive broadcasters in the business. Channel 4 has a reputation for occupying the bleeding edge of innovation: it pioneered reality TV with Big Brother, broadcast the first ever gay kiss to show on primetime with Brookside, and (to choose an example from the less populist end of the scale) consistently wins awards for the fearless quality of its news and documentary journalism.

It’s no surprise then that when it comes to digital media, Channel 4 is at the front of the pack, effortlessly working across multiple platforms and engaging its audiences in ever more inventive interactive relationships. When I got the job, I panicked, set up my first Twitter account and bought an iPhone (hey, I was young and impressionable).

So you can imagine my surprise when my very first day brought an almighty tirade from my boss against what he termed ‘The Gurus’.

Over the past few years we have all had to keep up with the dizzying speed of technological change, and right at the front of the pack was the social media ‘guru’. I use the term disparagingly not to represent the intelligent and clued-up experts of their industry, but the people who insist on turning a new tool into a new clique; the early adopters who aren’t sure why they’re adopting; the people who ram their platforms down your throat yet never have time to reply to a polite email.

They take to new technologies in a puppy-like fashion, but I’m going to put my neck on the line here and make this claim: they actually hold back the tide of progress. Their evangelism scares people off, and their vague posturing when it comes to tangible results speaks volumes.

Some industries have shown a degree of reticence in keeping pace with digital Darwinism. Often they are overwhelmed by the pace of change and unsure where to start; more often they have yet to be convinced of the return on investment. Enter the new vanguard of inbound marketing: measuring the results against real business objectives.

This is a baton that has been wisely taken up by such PR experts as Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks, who recently commented: “Integrating social into your PR and marketing programs is no longer an option…and neither is not measuring your efforts to real business results….It’s time to learn how to do this, no matter what your level of expertise. It’s the only way to keep social, well, social and keep your job from becoming extinct.”

The new wave of digital marketing:

• Thoroughly researches and examines the brand to better understand its key strengths and tone of voice
• Sets clear and measurable objectives for the campaign
• Outlines a strategy based on a firm understanding of where the customers are, and what content they want
• Creates strong content supported by two-way conversations and maintains those engagement levels
• Measures the results against the original objectives and presents these clearly and accessibly to key stakeholders

If the digital guru is the excited kid of marketing, we are now seeing him grow up, buy a suit and confidently claim his place at any boardroom table. Which we all know is precisely where he should be.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

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credit: BrewDog

This week saw provocative craft beer company BrewDog hit the headlines, as allegations emerged that Diageo had abused its position as sponsor of the British Institute of Inkeeping (BII) awards to prevent BrewDog from winning Bar Operator of the Year. Misguided Diageo executives are thought to have threatened to pull all funding for the BII should its fledgling competitor beat it to first place.

BrewDog has a reputation for outlandish publicity campaigns – which included courting press outrage with a 41% proof beer and presenting one brand inside a stuffed stoat – and is a master of guerilla marketing. Describing their ethos as “a beacon of non-conformity in an increasingly monotone corporate desert”, BrewDog was never going to miss this PR gift bestowed by Diageo, and promptly released a blog post titled ‘Diageo screws BrewDog‘ and a Twitter campaign under #andthewinnerisnot. Within hours, the hashtag was trending worldwide and the entire embarrassing affair reported on primetime news. Diageo was forced to release a humiliating apology in the hope of fending off further damage to its reputation.

BrewDog isn’t the first David to slay a Goliath, using tweets instead of stones. Independent jewellery designer Stevie Koerner challenged Urban Outfitters with having stolen one of her designs. A few million retweets later, and Urban Outfitters watched aghast as their share price plummeted and Stevie notched up a whopping $36k in sales. In the same industry, retail giant Claire’s Accessories faced a torrent of criticism across Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook as well as traditional media outlets for allegedly copying the designs of funky jewellery boutique Tatty Devine.

So what can we learn from these virtual wars? Simply, that you don’t need a big budget to make a big impact.

credit: BrewDog

Be provocative, where it suits your brand

BrewDog courts controversy at every turn. Their approach divides opinion, winning them a fair number of critics as well as supporters, but it does gain attention. The old adage that there’s no such thing as bad publicity isn’t true for every organisation (I doubt it’s true at all) but this kind of provocation marketing does seem to work pretty well for BrewDog. First of all, it enables a small business to make a disproportionately large impact. If they quietly sold great beers, I wouldn’t be blogging about them now, but a few outraged media headlines about BrewDog creating a nation of alcoholics makes them a recognisable name among their target market. What’s more, it chimes perfectly with their edgy, anti-establishment image.

credit: Johanna Basford

Try a personal touch
When I set up as a freelancer, I took inspiration from illustrator Johanna Basford, who elegantly manages her social media presence. By strange coincidence, Johanna is the girlfriend of BrewDog founder James, but her approach to marketing is notably different. Johanna offers quirky little personal insights, including Studio Sneak Peaks, Vimeo tutorials and even ‘shots of my desk’. Johanna is one person, self-employed with (I would venture) a miniscule marketing budget, yet through talent and imagination she’s amassed an impressive client list and consumer following. The personal touch has paid off for Johanna. Last year she launched a campaign to win a Starbucks commission, which started with her sending a beautifully packaged illustrated cup to a marketing exec each week, and was supported by a wave of tweets and RTs testifying to her enthusiasm and talent. Her work is now appearing in Starbucks across London. Read all about this clever strategy on her blog.

Think informative, and visual

RSA Animates is a master of this. When it animated Daniel Pink’s seminar on motivation, the resulting video went viral, notching up over eight million views. The secret was simple: useful information, presented in a visually stimulating way.

When it comes to digital marketing, the size of your budget doesn’t really matter. It’s what you do with it that counts.

Credit: flickr.com / D Sharon Pruitt

Allow me to be a Bad News Bear for a moment and give a little word of warning: bad blogger outreach campaigns can lead to worse PR.

To borrow a phrase from Chris Houchens, “Blogger outreach in PR is like working with gasoline. Work with it correctly and it makes the vehicle go. Do it incorrectly and it blows up with disastrous consequences.”

Without a good strategy and respect for your intended brand ambassadors, blogger campaigns can easily backfire.

Blogger outreach is a time-consuming enterprise that requires attention to detail and clear communications. By cutting corners you may put your brand at risk.

Some services promise quick and easy ways to contact influential bloggers, but remember that you are writing to humans and that there are a number of straightforward tactics that they can sniff out in a second.

The “Dear blogger” approach.
Starting a pitch by either using a generic word like “blogger” or no name at all – a friendly ‘hey there’ – sets the alarm bells ringing before you’ve even got going. Both Danny Brown and Mike McGrail have recent examples of shocking pitches which don’t get past first base. Finding out the name of the blogger, and then using it, is essential.

The “Hello, we love your blog” approach.
Paying bloggers compliments and demonstrating your brand or product’s relevance to their blog is always a good starting point. However, false knowledge of their blog or telling your life story is a waste of everyone’s time. Do your research, be polite, and offer relevant services.

The “We love your blog post on page 4” approach.
One way to bypass the initial “we love your blog” scepticism is to dig deeper into your chosen blogger’s archives to show that you have been reading their blog for some time. But tread carefully.

The Worst Case Scenario
One particularly horrifying blogger outreach email was sent to the prolific and popular blogger The Blogess. You can read all about it here (contains strong language).

“Let’s just clarify here. This email is addressed to a website. I got this email on a Thursday. The post she said she enjoyed was the one where I had to dig up my recently deceased dog. It’s pretty clear that Misty had never read my blog before.”

Practice Makes Perfect
Mistakes like this happen everywhere in the PR world, so don’t let this put you off blogger outreach. However, do make sure that you have educated yourself before you start emailing as mistakes like this can be costly.

Blogger Outreach “the right way”
As tough as this sounds, knowing the pitfalls of blogger outreach before you begin is paramount to success. We hope to educate and guide you through the learning process, avoid those pitfalls, and create successful blogger outreach campaigns of your own. It’s time worth investing.

For more “Essential Tips for Warm Blogger Outreach Pitches”, check out Christina Jones’ post in the Blue Glass blog.

You can read more about the value of blogger outreach by downloading the eBook below, and coming up we’ll tell you how to craft the perfect blogger outreach email.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

Download this free eBook and start reaching out to bloggers and get your messages directly to a target audience who are waiting to hear from you

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Do the words ‘Big Data’ make you yawn? Don’t worry – this post is not a technical trawl of data analysis techniques. Instead, it aims to show why Big Data is a trend we cannot afford to ignore. And more importantly, it offers some tips on where to jump in.

What is Big Data?

The digital age has brought about an explosion of information that is both incredibly valuable and dauntingly complex. All digital channels – the web, mobile devices, PCs, email, social media, etc. – generate data ranging from customer accounts, passwords, contacts, networks, photos, videos and even seemingly throwaway comments about likes and dislikes. All of this leaves traditional database management tools bursting at the seams, giving rise to epic new storage systems such as Google server farms and The Cloud.

Mining for gold

The World Economic Forum report ‘Big Data, Big Impact’ recently declared data “a new class of economic asset, like currency or gold”. Yet unlike gold, Big Data is a mine that keeps on giving: global information is doubling every two years, and by 2020 data is expected to have multiplied by a factor of 50.

The opportunity

Big Data may seem daunting, but it’s a genuine game-changer, so understanding it is crucial to maintaining an effective online marketing strategy. As the 2011  SAS/Economist report concluded: “There is a strong link between effective data management strategy and financial performance.”

The missing link

So how do we get from point A ‘data management strategy’ to point B ‘financial returns’? The answer is interpretation. To adopt a social cliché, knowledge is power. And data analysis unlocks that knowledge. Wherever digital data is created, it can be stored, analysed and interpreted. Brian Solis, a man who knows a thing or two about disruptive technology, stated earlier this week, “the role of CMO and CIO is becoming closer than ever before”, with Big Data being the catalyst.

Three things you can do right now

1. Find someone who gets it

Big Data has massive potential to drive analytics and accountability, so you need someone in your organisation who can embrace those changes. In a PR Daily article listing essential ‘non-PR’ skills, Jeremiah Sullivan, owner of Framework Media Strategies put it like this:

“There is an enormous race to not only attain data from customers and competitors alike, but to also crunch the numbers and research the plethora of information ascertained from Web analytics to communicate better, smarter, and faster with target audiences. These days, being able to interpret data and statistics is essential.”

2. But do the basics yourself

You don’t need a maths PhD to collect data and manipulate it on a spreadsheet. Writing on Spin Sucks, Kami Huyse says it’s time we learned to embrace Excel:

“One of the best gifts you can give yourself is to take an advanced Excel course to learn how to manipulate data in spreadsheets. We need to move beyond the basics. Take a course locally, or the one linked to above. It is the skill that will pay back in spades.”

Kami also makes an important point worth bearing in mind not just in data analysis but more broadly in all marketing efforts: use your brain. Don’t be intimidated: ask questions and apply your professional judgement.

3. Get the right tools 

There are plenty of free or relatively cheap tools to give you a helping hand. Google Analytics and Facebook Insights just keep getting better, while services like Social Mention add greater insights to their monitoring. And as Web Metrics Guru Marshall Sponder points out, companies like ClearStory are making software for ordinary business professionals because:

“The world is talking about the size of Big Data sources, but at the end of the day it will be about the ease of consumption.”

If all this is starting to sound interesting, check out Heidi Cohen’s excellent summary of ten data experts’ views, containing nuggets of insight such as this from Kathy Greenler Sexton:

“When you combine the tools and technology that are available now with the emerging awareness of data’s power to fuel new products, improve experience, drive marketing and leverage market intelligence—it’s easy to see that we are at a tipping point. This is the year of the data-driven company, and more companies will be modeling after Amazon’s success.”  

So, what’s the lesson?

Well, you should know that big data is out there and its getting bigger by the day. However, you shouldn’t have to worry about the ‘big’ part of big data because Inkybee and other solutions use clever new technologies like Apache Hadoop to deal with that problem.

But, you should be aware of the power of big data and how it is going to affect marketing and public relations. Big data is game changing and agencies that understand the potential will be well placed to dominate in the coming months and years.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

Download this free eBook and start reaching out to bloggers and get your messages directly to a target audience who are waiting to hear from you

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Traackr recently updated their A-List of the top PR 2.0 Influencers, so we perused the top five blogs for pearls of new media wisdom. Here’s what those at the cutting edge of modern marketing have to say.

Chris Abraham on why social is not a numbers game:

“You just have to be faster than Mark”

“You don’t have to be the fastest, the biggest, or the strongest in order to win at social media, you just have to be faster than Mark. Who is Mark? Well, I am sure you’ve all heard the joke about outrunning a bear . . .

Steve and Mark are camping when a bear suddenly comes out and growls. Steve starts putting on his tennis shoes. Mark says, ‘What are you doing? You can’t outrun a bear!’ Steve says, ‘I don’t have to outrun the bear – I just have to outrun you!’

In social media, you don’t have to outrun the bear, you just have to outrun your competitors — your real competitors, not your aspirational competition.”

• Read Chris’ post in full

Heather Whaling on relevancy:

“We need the right set of tools to deliver the right message to the right audience”

“The most effective PR people are the ones who research each opportunity and develop a customized pitch. Be warned: If your pitch appears off-topic or feels like a “canned” message, it won’t pique the attention of traditional media, bloggers or this new set of online influencers. So, before you ask someone to pin your image or share content with a Facebook group, do your homework. Relevancy is rewarded.”

• We’re keen on relevancy. Read Heather’s post in full and look out for our own forthcoming blog post on the subject.

Lee Odden on promoting great content:

“There’s a feeling that if content is really good, it will attract engagement all on its own. That’s a naïve perspective.”

“With a hub and spoke publishing model, themed content is published into a repository that represents a “go to” resource for topics that the brand wants to be known for. At the same time, that content can be promoted through spokes or social channels among communities that are interested. People often rely on content promotion to discover what’s new. Promotion can attract traffic, social shares, and links, which can all serve as useful signals to search engines and improve standard and social search engine visibility.”

• Read Lee’s 5 top tips for successful B2B content marketing

Deirdre Breakenridge on convergence:

“We’ll help to break down silos”

“What will PR look like as we approach 2015?

PR will be more integrated with marketing, advertising and customer service.  PR professionals will focus on communications strategy with a permanent seat at the strategy table. We’ll help to break down the silos and to work cross functionally with other areas of our companies. New strategies in monitoring, measurement, innovative communication, relationship building, reputation management and crisis management will give PR a direct path to the CEO. PR will be held more accountable and will have to demonstrate ROI, which is sales and revenue based.”

• Read all of Deirdre’s predictions on PR 2.0

Gini Dietrich on measurement

“Social media breeds PR laziness”

“We’re approaching social the same way we’ve always done things. We’re collecting fans and followers and circles like they mean something to business growth. We’re inventing auto direct messages that are overtly sales-y. We’re claiming there is no ROI on awareness…you either have it or you don’t and PR is one way to help you achieve it. This is baloney.

…Integrating social into your PR and marketing programs is no longer an option…and neither is not measuring your efforts to real business results.

…It’s time to learn how to do this, no matter what your level of expertise. It’s the only way to keep social, well, social and keep your job from becoming extinct.”

• For more expert PR advice, visit Gini’s blog

In the new media world dubbed PR2.0 these guys are the experts. They are also the best-connected influencers. It pays to find these guys for the markets that your business is seeking to develop. And then to listen, to learn and to engage.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

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There comes a certain moment in any good house party when you will find yourself slumped on a sofa, clutching a G&T and contentedly watching the general hilarity. You feel a bit like an anthropologist quietly surveying a microcosm of society.

There’s the Host, scurrying around trying to keep everyone in drink and Pringles. There’s the Mother Hen, usually found treating stains and consoling a sobbing, drunken guest. There’s the Loner who grabs a book from the shelf and smiles amiably at the general company. And right in the centre of the room, or on top of the coffee table, is the Exhibitionist, talking loudly to everyone who will listen.

Which of these people would you trust to recommend you a mobile phone? I bet it’s not the person who talks the loudest. In fact, nobody strikes you as being in any way pre-qualified for the job. Instead, you’d rate their opinion against a number of factors: how much you trust them, their knowledge of technology, their ability to listen to what you need, or even the brand of their trainers.

It’s common sense, right? And yet, many companies have fallen under the misguided belief that a person’s influence can be defined and measured, then harnessed to drive sales. This is dim. Or more fully, Digital Influence Measurement (DIM).

Recent years have brought a host of new tools which claim to rank an individual according to their influence online. Using measurements such as twitter followers, blog reach and search engine visibility, services like Klout give an ‘influencer’ rating from 1-100, and sell this information to marketers and PRs seeking fertile ground for their campaigns.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not suggesting that there’s no value whatsoever in such services, but we should ‘proceed with caution’. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Klout has come in for a torrent of criticism both from social media ‘doers’ and marketing professionals. Some of it is as amusing as it is provocative.

It strikes me that part of the issue is an ideological one. Much has been written of the democratising power of the web, cutting out the middleman and giving everyone a voice. Power to the consumer, down with the middleman, etc. Set that idealism against the gloomy economic inheritance of capitalism gone awry, and we can begin to see why Klout invokes such feelings of irritation. It takes millions of creative blogs, Facebook baby pics and friendly tweets and translates them into currency, which it then uses to rate your value as a consumer. Friends become ‘social capital’, stylish people are dubbed ‘tastemakers’ and algorithms define the value of your relationships.

That was phase one. Naturally, the technology is getting smarter and we are all becoming more adept at understanding its uses – and its limitations. Soon, tech ‘gurus’ will start talking about DIM 2.0 (*snigger), an evolved approach to digital influence.

I expect (or hope) it will look something like this:

There is no such thing as intrinsic worth

One of the phrases I repeatedly read in discussions about digital influence is “the worth of who you know”. But what really defines worth? Stephen Fry is a member of the so-called digerati and a hugely influential intellectual. But if you’re trying to promote a set of excellent new crochet pins, will it matter a shit if Stephen Fry hears about it through one of your influencers? Or take Joe Blogs. Maybe he updates Facebook 10 times a day and tweets every minute. Both will enlarge his Klout score, but will anyone really hear his worthwhile opinions amongst all the white noise?

Smart marketers take a more targeted approach to assigning value.

Voices vs influencers

Remember the loud one we watched at the party? He’s a voice, not an influencer. Says Pat Hurley from media monitoring service mBLAST: “We recently moved our terminology and focus away from ‘influencers’ and towards ‘voices’. They’re only influencers, for you, after you engage them and they use their voice for you! It’s all just potential influence until there’s engagement.”

Meaningful engagement turns voices into influencers, and eventually, advocates.

Topic talk

Many measurement services are refining their technology to hone in on a specific genre or topic, instead of a broad intrinsic value. The question moves from ‘Who is influential?’ to ‘Who is influential in the field of young urban fashion?’ Both SocMetrics.com and PeerIndex claim to look not just at whether a person is influential, but where a person is influential.

Think local and specific, not generic. 

Start at the beginning

It might sound blindingly obvious, but many businesses make the mistake of choosing individuals with the highest Klout scores and directing all their attention to them. In his report on Digital Influence, Brian Solis says: “The problem is that many companies are looking at influence backwards, unknowingly or lazily relying on scores rather than understanding how influence is actually created and used. An important question for businesses to consider, however, is what does a score actually represent?” Brian uses the example of Rolex. If Rolex wants to find authoritative voices to promote its luxury goods, it would look for influencers in that area. Alternatively, it could look for voices to steer popular sentiment. Or for temporary brand uplift, it might look for the size of a network, regardless of relevance.

First decide what you want to achieve, then hand select the people best placed to help you achieve it.

Smart not spam

So you know what you want to achieve and which influencers you want to engage. The next step is to prepare a pitch that’s concise, interesting and relevant. For bloggers, it’s always worth taking the time to visit their site – sloppy research could turn those potential influencers into irritated people with a large audience to complain to.

 A blanket press release will sink like a lead balloon. Nothing beats personal, meaningful engagement.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

Download this free eBook and start reaching out to bloggers and get your messages directly to a target audience who are waiting to hear from you

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Don't miss the turning! Credit: Yaban / photocase.com

My post last week looked directly at the importance of bloggers and why the public relations industry needs to embrace them. Within the context of the digital space, the following are now unquestionable:

• The Web has changed the way consumers and businesses behave.
• Every business has customers who are on the Web.
• The Web has dramatically impacted on the traditional marketing funnel.
• A Web presence is critical for the vast majority of businesses.
• The Social Web, or Web 2.0, has only served to accelerate the impacts.

All of the above have a huge impact on communications strategy and public relations and as the McKinsey Global Survey of 792 marketing executives said at the end of 2011:

• “Marketing executives overwhelmingly agree that an effective online presence is very or extremely important for staying competitive—81 percent of them say so.”
• “digital media and tools have changed companies’ ability to interact with and serve new customers”
• “71 percent say data-driven customer insights will be very or extremely important to their companies’ competitiveness during the next two to four years”

Brian Solis describes the major issue perfectly in his book, “The End of Business As Usual”. He evokes the concept of Digital Darwinism originally coined by Evan I Schwartz as long ago as 1999: “The reality is that we live and compete in a perpetual era of Digital Darwinism, the evolution of consumer behavior when society and technology evolve faster than our ability to adapt.”

And David Meerman Scott emphasised the point by managing to find iPads online in the middle of a Panamanian jungle this week!

The evolution continues and the pace does not let up. Social media is where news breaks and the majority of the younger generations in the western world spend their time, learning, discussing, sharing and interacting. The impact of this on traditional media is there for all to see with dropping circulation figures and struggling advertising models, but that is a subject for another day.

Looking at the impact on comms and PR, there are some bright lights who are leading the way, a great recent example being Lewis PR, whose CEO and Founder, Chris Lewis recently stated:

“Social media is evolving fast. It is merging with journalism and Public Relations and hence the communications industry is undergoing seismic change. This process has been called disintermediation but it’s more like disintegration of the status quo . . . the digital communications halo is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ for customer service or advocacy, it has moved to the core of the marketing function.”

Change is often challenging. “Seismic change” even more so. One wonders how comfortable the majority of the PR industry is with it? The CIPR appears to have recognised the challenge. In a recent series of reviews conducted with its members, two of the recommendations for action in the final report “PR 2020: The Future of Public Relations” were:

• Practitioners need to move faster to develop their knowledge of digital communication.
• Change should be embraced.

Wise words, but is the PR industry really ready for the changes in direction needed to keep up with digital evolution? Or, like the music industry in the 90′s, are they about to miss the turning?

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

Download this free eBook and start reaching out to bloggers and get your messages directly to a target audience who are waiting to hear from you

Download!

Credit: kallejipp / photocase.com

Today we are launching a series of articles and eBooks in the field of blogger outreach.

The aim is to educate readers, helping you understand the value of blogger outreach and how to go about it effectively. Our first eBook, “8 Reasons why Blogger Relations are Essential to your PR Strategy” can be downloaded for free at the end of this post.

There is lots more informative material to come, including the results of our survey of 500 PR professionals across the UK.

The communications industry has dramatically changed over the last decade and many are still running to catch up. Traditional forms of media, such as TV or Newspapers, used to be the only major channels available to influence an audience. The rise of blogging and social media has opened up entirely new channels to capitalise on and yet many PR execs are still reluctant to include blogger relations as part of their campaigns.

The PR agencies that have been developing relationships with bloggers are creating brand advocates who are respected opinion leaders within the various topics they write about. Those that haven’t will have to start blogger relations soon or risk losing their clients to someone else. It is 3 years since the Future Buzz said “I would like to think every PR firm gets it by now“, so . . .

Why do we still avoid reaching out to blogs?

With all that can be gained from developing blogger relations it’s hard to believe that people are still resistant to this area of PR. A lack of immediate results or a mixed response to initial attempts to develop a blogger relations strategy discourages people from continuing. Comments such as ‘I sent them a free trial of our product and never heard anything back from them’ are common.

As shameful as it is to admit there is also an element of snobbery toward bloggers. While a lot of journalists write blogs the majority of bloggers are talented amateurs who write in their spare time and as such their work is often less respected. The elitist attitude that a blogger should be thankful that you deemed them worthy of your attention will get your proposals sent straight to the bin. You can’t develop good blogger relations while you look down your nose at it. As Gini Dietrich wrote recently in Spin Sucks, bloggers are sometimes still treated like second-rate media.

Building relationships with bloggers requires different working practices from traditional PR and old habits can be hard to break. The same approach that has worked great with journalists will result in disdain from a blogger; they don’t want a press release, but they do want great stories. Change of any kind is difficult. People resist making changes because they think their working practice is fine as it is, but those that don’t adapt risk being out-manoeuvred by the competition.

Marketing industry gurus like David Meerman Scott, Brian Solis and Murray Newlands have been espousing the value of blogger outreach for some time. It’s a fast moving train and it’s not stopping.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

Download this free eBook and start reaching out to bloggers and get your messages directly to a target audience who are waiting to hear from you

Download!

I never cease to be amazed by the lack of clarity, consistency or really anything robust when it comes to measuring all forms of online marketing efforts, especially PR.

Online measurement – being at least one step further than ‘monitoring’ – is a hot topic and one that will get increasing attention in the coming months and years. More consumers and businesses are moving online, online marketing budgets are increasing and will get greater scrutiny.

A great number of organisations purport to measure aspects of online activity, attempting to define “influence”, particularly across the various social media platforms, from Twitter to Facebook and beyond. But few have actually got as far as defining financial outcomes let alone ROI.

As I reported from the AMEC conference in Lisbon, the ROI workshop showed some big inconsistencies in approach to ROI, some of which involved it not even being a financial measure. However, at least the intent is there to progress towards a solution, evidenced by the topic “How to measure the ROI of PR” being the number one Lisbon Priority.

There are some commercial organisations who are championing the cause of measuring ROI. An example is Alinean whose “social media ROI calculator” is a mechanistically solid process. There are some PR industry leaders adopting the AMEC Barcelona Principles – most recently the Worldcom PR Group. And there are also some commentators who have also tackled the subject. One of the finest is Olivier Blanchard. Having recently finished reading “Social Media ROI”, his definition of ROI and methodology for recognising the “continum to get to ROI” from the initial investment through actions and reactions to deliver non-financial and then financial impacts is simple and logical (and my brain likes that!).

Olivier Blanchard book

The key challenge to cross the chasm and make measurement of ROI a reality lies not just in definition, but in implementation. In many cases application of the theory can take up a lot of resource, both human and financial. Yet there are opportunities to use simple automated methods to extract results. One obvious resource that appears to still be vastly underutilised is Google Analytics. Clever yet simple application of different elements of the GA toolbox can help to define end value. An existing exponent of this is Andrew Bruce Smith of Escherman as his blog on using Google Analytics data explains.

Forth Metrics aims to make a contribution to this journey towards understanding and measuring the value of online PR and digital marketing in general. I know one or two other disciples out there who are pursuing the cause. Let me know if you know any too.

As a slight diversion from the usual theme of this blog in relation to the measurement of PR, earlier this week I was drawn to the other key theme underpinning the world of online PR: how to do it, or perhaps more accurately, how not to do it, especially in the context of blogger outreach.

My attention was brought to it via a blog post by Danny Brown, one of Canada’s top marketing bloggers. The tale is an amusing one, but cringe-worthy in relation to the pathetic naivety shown by the person concerned. In short, it demonstrates how not to try to engage with the target of your story. In this case it was a commercial property news site and the rules apply to an even greater extent when a blogger is being targeted. Danny’s top two tips are worth reiterating:

1. Respect their time and intelligence, and

2. Don’t be bolshy.

For me, the other key message in relation to blogger outreach is about researching the subject matter that your target talks about to make sure what you are sending them is relevant to them and their audience. Then of course, it all needs to be interesting, compelling and, if possible, entertaining.

The marvellous resource that is Hubspot covered this in a recent Inbound Now marketing podcast when they interviewed Jason Falls of the Social Media Explorer: “How to handle blogger outreach and pitching”.

Jason Falls

Finally, Danny’s post did teach me a new word for someone not doing a good job: an “ass-hat”, which is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “One who has their head up their ass. Thus wearing their ass as a hat.”!

Contributing to the social media measurement workshop

Part 2 summarised the areas of progress that will form the basis of the agenda moving forward. But what obstacles lie in the way?

Firstly, the two highest priorities (measuring the ROI of PR and adopting global standards for PR measurement) are probably the two most weighty challenges facing the industry. It is right to address them, but probably via several bite-size chunks or we might finish up biting off more than we can chew. Clarity of definitions would seem a sensible first step before the ‘global standards’ can be produced.

Secondly, quite a number of different organisations have a bearing on the delivery of measurement standards – AMEC itself, plus IPR, PRCA, PRSA, ICCO and others no doubt. There would certainly appear to be consistent thinking in terms of intent, but a co-ordinated effort it still required to get everyone in the same place at the end of the road.

Thirdly, this manifests itself in a similar way in the commercial organisations in the industry. There will be a diversity between the needs and demands of larger organisations versus smaller outfits (on both the client-side and the agencies themselves) and also between monitoring organisations whose clients do not currently demand “outcomes” and PR agencies, some of whose clients are becoming more demanding of value delivery. One size will definitely not fit all.

Finally, there is the challenge of educating the clients themselves. The helpful phrase “client leadership” arose during the Summit, but as Richard Houghton of the Consultants’ Organisation, ICCO, will tell you, AVE’s remain ingrained and the commercial incentive to replace them is not clear (yet!)

For further views on the Summit, the ever insightful “Measurement Standard” blog from Katie Paine is on the ball.

In conclusion, the challenges may appear considerable, but with a co-ordinated approach and a will to turn the good intent into practical implementation, the industry can only benefit from the wisdom of Lisbon.

Saúde!

"What does the future hold, Tim?". With Tim Marklein of WCG.

On the rooftop bar above Lisbon with AMEC executives, Mike Daniels and Barry Leggetter.

All the component parts were in place: top quality speakers, delegates, and industry bodies, and a challenging agenda to build on the foundations laid in Barcelona in 2010.

So what positives can be drawn? Arun Sudhaman’s review in The Holmes Report provides some stats on the definitive outcomes, but my take on the big wins is in the following areas:

1 Consensus across AMEC and the other PR organisations that global definitions and standards are a priority for the industry and that working groups across the various institutions would progress this agenda. This includes addressing the challenging area of social media and guidance on ROI.

2 An increased focus on client education programmes to educate clients on the benefits of clear, consistent measurement of value.

3 Affirmation that the Valid Metrics approach as a working model that can be applied in practice, moving the industry towards measurement of outputs, outcomes and business results.

4 Agreement to push the value of the “PR toolkit” and ensure that measurement of PR campaigns is an integral part of it.

We are still on the journey and it is not a straight road, so more on the challenges and conclusions in Part 3 tomorrow.

Richard Bagnall of Metrica, Katie Paine of KDPaine & Partners and Tim Marklein of WCG discuss social media measurement

The Summit took place in Lisbon last week from 8th to 10th of June. Hosted by AMEC and IPR it was the follow up to the 2010 Summit that pronounced the Barcelona Measurement Principles.

It was my first year in attendance and it promised a lot:

A speaker list drawn from many industry leading companies: Cision, Ketchum Pleon, Gorkana Group, News Group International, Metrica, WCG, Media Monitors, Brandwatch, Kantar Media and many more.

Delegates drawn from every corner of the globe: I discussed the agenda with people from the UK, USA, Australia, Sweden, Argentina, Dubai, Germany, South Africa, Slovenia and more.

Representation from the key industry bodies: as well as IPR and AMEC, we heard the views of the PRSA (the Public Relations Society of America), the Council of PR Firms, ICCO (the International Communications Consultancy Organisation) and the IPR Commission on Measurement and Evaluation.

And lastly, an agenda that asked searching questions in the key areas:  ”moving towards global standards for social media measurement”, “how to use AMEC’s new Valid Metrics”, “what the industry believes is important”, “what the client thinks” and “ROI – definitions, language and change”.

The combination of all of this produced some lively and interesting debate. It will be interesting to see what official communications are released, but I will highlight what I believe to be the main challenges and victories over the next 2 days.

If you were there, let me know what you think. Or, if you weren’t, let me know what you would have liked to have seen.

I’m off to Lisbon tomorrow for the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) 3rd annual European Summit on Measurement. This is where the big thinkers of digital communication expand on the theories and approaches to measurement. Except it should not just be theoretical – I am hoping that practical application will be a key consideration. Last year the Summit pronounced a framework called the Barcelona Principles which have been widely adopted and led to the more practical Valid Metrics Guidelines.

The jury is out on whether these do address the needs of digital communicators in the commercial world. Even AMEC chief Barry Leggetter called the Principles “a baby step”, so there is recognition that there is more to do. Jon Clement’s interview of AMEC director, David Rockland, in his blog certainly produced some interesting feedback.

One person I am looking forward to meeting in Lisbon is Katie Paine, the “Queen of Measurement”. Her blog, “The Measurement Standard” is the best I have seen in its field. She previews the Lisbon event here.

It will be hot. From all I hear, the intent is excellent, so let’s hope it’s not just hot air. It should be interesting.

Forth Metrics aims to create robust metrics tied to objective business outcomes. Measurement is key and so is the process of setting clear customer goals to measure against. The social media industry suffers from a lot of ‘noise’ from a whole host of services that claim to provide insight into what is going on out there. No wonder it is confusing. However, sometimes, you do just have to take it all with a pinch of salt and laugh. And laughing is good for you. So if you want a short history lesson on 18th century Crimea and a tongue-in-cheek giggle at the expense of social media influencers, take a look at Ron Shelvin’s blog.

15.6 million is the number of results that you get from a Google search of “social media measuring”. Ouch, that’s a lot to trawl through, so let’s all hope that Google’s algorithms are doing a good job of prioritising the best ones.

However, it gets worse as the 15.6 million results is less than half of the 38.5 million results for “social media monitoring”. This really is a huge jungle and demonstrates the evolution of this subject, my hypothesis being:

The (business) world needs much better measurement and is currently stuck in a morass of data overload from monitoring.

The first place to start here is to define the difference. In simple terms, this manifests itself at different levels. Monitoring occurs at a level that has a lack of depth as it focuses on simple data outputs around the level of noise or “engagement” – mentions, followers, fans, clicks, tweets etc. Measuring extends a degree of depth to this by applying analytics to it, at one level to to benchmark using measures like ‘share of voice’, and at a deeper level by understanding the impact on business metrics – leads, conversions and ultimately sales and returns.

There are two big problems with relying solely on monitoring:

1. The results do not match up against tangible business outcomes, so what is the real value? and;

2. The results tend to create even more data that is time-consuming to understand and evaluate. And time is a precious commodity!

So, measuring is all important, and it has got some catching up to do. What do you think? Let us know in the comments.

8 Reasons Why Blogger Relations are
Essential to Your PR Strategy

Download this free eBook and start reaching out to bloggers and get your messages directly to a target audience who are waiting to hear from you

Download!

Hard work making sense of all this?

I am researching across the vast array of web analytics tools that are now available and it is proving to be an interesting exercise. One of the conclusions is that the level of complexity in the majority of the offerings remains far too high. The natural consequence of this is that unless you have an expert in this area in your business or someone with a lot of spare time to devote to mastering it, the exercise becomes a turn-off to many people who don’t even initiate engagement with it as they can’t understand it.

My thinking on this was highlighted when reading Lou Dubois’ blog on Inc.com entitled 11 Best Analytics Tools.

In it he quotes the 90/10 rule: “if you have $100 to spend on analytics, spend $10 on reports and data, and $90 on paying someone to filter through all of that information. Because without a proper understanding of the information these services will provide you with, it remains just raw data”.

And do you know what, he is right. Deriving value from web analytics tools can be labour intensive, hard work and often unfulfilling. Whether it is in analysing own website statistics or activity on the web such as social media monitoring, there is an overwhelming data overload. It appears that the current methodology to address this is to present it in the form of a dashboard. This has the advantage of being a standard format which, with the benefit of some graphic design expertise, can look impressive, but what does it really tell the user?

Large corporations can employ people with the expertise whose job it is to derive the real value from all of this and even employ industry consultants like Meltwater or Radian6 to do it all for them. But for the vast majority of small businesses who are trying to engage with digital marketing, this is a big hurdle. They can’t afford the 90/10 rule. So is it not about time that the rule was seriously broken?

The digital world cannot be protectionist in keeping hold of old methods to hold the knowledge in the hands of the industry experts. Via clever use of technology and simplicity of presentation it must embrace change and lead the education of the layman, thus drawing many more of those currently disengaged bodies into digital action.

In 2011 I believe we must help small businesses by seeing some real progress in developing valuable insights from digital data that are automated to derive and simple to understand.

Small business analytics generally means data from lots of different sources

Lots of business commentators are talking up the importance of business analytics.

A good recent example is Jeff Catlin, CEO of Lexalytics, whose company specialises in text analytics. He is quoted as saying growth for text analytics vendors in 2010 was 50% and is predicted to be 40% in 2011.

He also goes on to talk about social analytics, stating that in 2011 it will be a “crucial and mandatory element” for businesses.

Like many other commentators, we agree, but it is important to take a closer look under the lid. “Business analytics” can come in many forms, and “social analytics” in particular remains an evolving species for 90%+ of businesses. In this arena, the majority of vendors are still focussed on the “Voice of the Customer” (“VOC”) to attempt to track what is being said about brands, by whom, and possibly whether it is positive or negative. This is fine if the only concern is reputation, but there is one core flaw: a lack of transparency of meaning and value to the core business.

Small business analytics – what are the challenges?

So, the first important challenge is to make sure any analytics is able to transform company data into a valuable result for the business in question. In simple terms, this means aligning the metrics to business objectives. This may be as simple as defining and measuring the relationship between the “social data” and revenue, but this in itself is an important step.

There are two further challenges: firstly, in this ever-expanding world of data, ensuring the right data is monitored, and secondly, ensuring that the analytics is simple and cost-effective enough for small businesses to be able to use it. More on each of these on a future occasion.