There is hardly any doubt that data journalism (also referred to as data-driven or database journalism) is one of the most interesting recent developments in journalism. And it might just be one of the next big things in PR, too.

Data journalism uses the abundance of existing data, analyses them and presents the results in a graphical way. The Guardian and New York Times even have dedicated teams focused on data journalism. According to the Guardian’s how-to guide, anyone can do it. Basically there are two approaches to it: you either start with asking a question (‘do speed cameras cost or save money?’) and gather data that might answer it.

The alternative is to start with what you have: databases within your own organisation and open data.

Half your brain

This is where PR comes in. We are always looking out for soft news angles, creating topics that show the expertise of our organisation and giving journalists valuable input that they can use for an editorial article. Presenting the data in a visual attractive way (like an infographic) helps to attract the attention to your message. According to experts from Stanford University in an interesting video report on data visualization half of our brain is hardwired for vision. Data journalism and visualisation takes advantage of this.

If you want to see how this works: this tool visualises your LinkedIn network. Pretty cool, huh?

A great example of how PR is starting to realise the enormous potential of data journalism is the Dutch TV show Nederland van Boven (similar to Britain from Above and Deutschland von Oben). The programme combines beautiful footage shot from a helicopter with data visualisations on different aspects of our lives. For one of the episodes (on communication) the editors turned to Vodafone to ask for data on the use of mobile phones. Not only was Vodafone willing to provide the data, the communication officer even helped to analyse the data. His initiative was rewarded with an internal innovation award. And it’s easy to see why – the results are stunning, with the data presented in several interactive maps, like the one below:

The above map allows you to calculate how far you can travel from our Eindhoven office in 60 minutes, the lower one displays the routes that dog owners take when they walk through the forrest.

How hard is data journalism?

As data journalism is reaching the adult phase, the cases of successful use in PR are growing: PR Daily recently published four interesting examples, including an analysis of the average viewing time of online videos. Ooyala, a provider of video services, found that tablet users not only finish videos more often, but are also more engaged.

These examples showcase that you can put as much time and energy in data research and graphical presentation as you want. Sometimes even the most simple analysis can generate good content: online fashion outlet Vente Exclusive performed some research on its own database and discovered that Dutch women buy bigger bras than Belgian women (based on the purchases of 15,000 women). As you can imagine, the press release received very good pick-up.

Sharing knowledge

This is just the beginning. I’m convinced that we will see many more successful cases of data PR in the near future. One could even argue that PR pro’s (and many journalists alike) still don’t take enough advantage of the availability of (open) data. According to Nicholas White, co-founder and CEO of The Daily Dot, data journalists require a totally different mind-set and skills:

In the information age, journalism needs to go further. Information bombards us. What is scarce is insight, understanding and knowledge.

For PR this means that we have to start putting more effort in analysing data ourselves and make beautiful visualisations (using tools like those offered by our client Tableau Software). Another way to enter the world of data journalism is by opening up databases to journalists, for their research.

After all, it’s all about sharing your knowledge.

What are your favourite examples of data journalism? Have you tried it yourself?

With the Six Nations tournament kicking off this weekend, our latest analysis shows that rugby union and it’s players are hot on the heels of their football counterparts when it comes to twitter and social interaction, and it’s Ireland that is leading the way.

Former captain and British Lion Brian O’Driscoll was found to be Europe’s most followed rugby player on Twitter. O’Driscoll, who will miss this year’s Six Nations Championship because of injury, has more than 135,000 followers. That’s well ahead of the giant French forward Sebastien Chabal who charged into second place with almost 90,000 followers.

Irish players fill no fewer than 7 places in the LEWIS PR Twitter First 15. The top placed English player is full back Ben Foden in 4^th place with 67,000 followers.  Jamie Roberts beats his captain Sam Warburton to be named the most followed Welsh player but there’s no place in the top 15 for any player from either Scotland or Italy.

England bad boys Danny Care and Mike Tindall both make the list. Care, who will miss the Six Nations after being disciplined following a drink driving ban, is in 10^th place with Tindall, who was at the centre of so much of the controversy at last autumn’s Rugby World Cup, is 12^th on the team sheet with more than 33,000 followers.

Amongst those rugby super stars who don’t make the list are Jonny Wilkinson, Gavin Henson and new England rugby captain Chris Robshaw. Wilkinson, who has just retired from international rugby, has 23,000 followers, TV celebrity Henson, who’s recently been recalled to the Wales squad, has fewer than 20,000 and Robshaw has less than 10,000.

“Following our recent research into the Premiership and the other main football leagues across Europe this shows us that rugby still has some way to go to catch up with football. But there is no doubt that Europe’s top players are becoming more and more engaged with fans across social media,” said LEWIS PR’s Head of Content Keith Beech.

The report found that Ireland interacts best with fans on its www.Irishrugby.ie website. In the Six Nations table England pip Wales for second place while World Cup finalists France collect the wooden spoon for www.ffr.fr, which proved to be the least effective of the national sites for engaging with its supporters according to LEWIS.

“Social media has fundamentally reshaped the way people interact with the world around them and this is no more apparent than within the field of sport,” said Dean Russell the European Social Media Director at LEWIS. “Platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have allowed a new generation of fans to connect with their sporting idols and our research shows that rugby is beginning to embrace this.”

“For the nation’s sites it’s important that they do not just use these social channels to broadcast their messages but also to open up an authentic dialogue with fans to answer queries and complaints as promptly and efficiently as possible,” he adds.

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A second version of the infographic with the results can be found below. You can click on both of the images to see larger versions. Details of the methodology used, and further queries, are available on request by emailing socialsixnations@lewispr.com.

Ever feel like PR is a constant race to keep up? To keep up with new techniques, new best practices, new worst practices? Join the club. We feel like that too sometimes. The good news is that, as a global PR agency, there are 300 of us here at LEWIS working on keeping abreast of the latest – and best – ways to communicate. We benefit from our collective learning, so we wanted to share that learning more widely. We picked the 12 digital techniques we think PR professionals and communicators most need to master and put them into a brand new book: The Changing Face of Communications.

The fact is, this industry has changed irrevocably. The methods and channels we use to communicate, the expectations of the audiences we communicate with, the way we measure the impact of that communication, the timeframes, the timezones and the techniques – they are all different. We’re dealing with a whole new set of digital marketing rules. Some basic principles have stayed the same, but you still need to step up and master the new rules of PR if you want to be successful.

We’ve broken the task down into 12 bite-sized guides to get you started. Learn how to apply SEO to your PR campaign to boost your brand’s online visibility. Or how to take your corporate blog to the next level. Or even how to optimize your web site for conversions.

Of course, there are more than 12 digital marketing techniques to master. So, tell us in the comments below if you would like to see similar guides on other techniques. What are the new rules you’re trying to get to grips with?

Visit our PR resources page to read the ebook version or receive a printed copy of The Changing Face of Communications: 12 Digital Techniques for Modern PR. And come back and tell us what you think.

What was hot on the web this week? Get up to speed on the latest trends, news and services with some of our favorite new stories.

Facebook Readies IPO Filing For Next Week

Rumor has it Facebook could be filing for an initial public offering as early as Wednesday. It’s currently looking at a deal that would value the social network between $75 billion and $100 billion.

A $10 billion Facebook offering would rank fourth among U.S. companies, behind Visa, Inc., General Motors Co. and AT&T Wireless. At a $100 billion valuation, Facebook would be worth about the same as McDonald’s Corp. and nearly half of Google Inc.

Read more here.

Google Streamlines, Revamps Privacy Policy

Google’s updated privacy policy, taking effect March 1, will merge user data collected across multiple services—its latest push to learn as much as possible about the people who use its products.

If you’re logged in, Google will treat you as one user across all services. For example, data from your Gmail behavior will be integrated with your Google Maps behavior, and so on.

Google hopes these changes will create “a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.”

Read more here.

Twitter To Censor Tweets in Individual Countries

Twitter announced additional flexibility with its technology that will allow the removal of tweets in specific countries where free speech isn’t granted on all topics.

Before, when Twitter removed a tweet for censorship reasons, it disappeared worldwide. Now, when a tweet contains content illegal in one country, it will be removed only from there, but still seen elsewhere.

Similar to when Google removes certain search results, Twitter will post a notice when specific tweets are removed for censorship.

Read more here.

Ready Or Not, Here Comes Facebook Timeline

Facebook’s biggest overhaul since the Wall, the Facebook Timeline, will soon be mandatory for all users. Timeline will roll out over the next few weeks, and once it does, users will have only seven days to preview and hide anything they don’t want others to see.

Timeline makes it easier for you to travel back through your Facebook posts—posts that normally disappeared off your wall and into oblivion.

Additionally, Facebook launched a new tool called Activity Log, which users can use to review all posts and activity from today back to when they first started using Facebook.

Read more here.

On presence:  We found that 83% were present on Facebook, 70% on LinkedIn, while 69% regularly used Twitter. Only 9% of those surveyed said that they had not subscribed to any of these.

On trustworthiness: Just 5% of journalists stated that they fully trusted the information found on social networks and 8% declared they don’t trust them at all. The majority of journalists surveyed (62%) deemed them “quite reliable”, although still preferring to verify their trustworthiness via another source.

On shaping the news agenda: 38% of journalists considered social media to be a primary source of information that is then corroborated with other sources. Twenty five per cent use posts to compare different views, and 11% draw on social networks to enrich their stories. Only 2% would use information found on social media as a single primary source. Over a quarter (26%) don’t consider them an influence on the editorial agenda at all.

On news distribution: More than half of respondents (51%) consider social channels to be a very important aspect of news distribution, but only if used in conjunction with traditional channels. A significant 29% describe social channels as essential, because they allow interaction with a new readership who want to be involved in the story rather than just a passive reader.

You can follow, and join in, our Twitter discussion using: #RicercaLEWISPR and #LEWISsurvey

Feel free to get in touch in the comments below too with your thoughts, observations and predictions on how these figures may change in 2012.

He speaks the truth – some PR is bad and some hurts the companies that it’s meant to benefit. I’m sure the same can be said of bad practitioners in every profession.

What stands out most for me is that his hints and tips, while all valid, are tenets that the PR industry should have been abiding by for years. It’s clear from his experience and frustrations that being on the receiving end of good PR continues to be the exception not the norm.

And that’s what needs to change. What needs to be made ‘new’ again.

The three mistakes Alex mentions are cardinal sins. You need relationships with the media to understand what they want to hear about and, importantly, how. You have to develop strong, targeted content in whatever medium suits the message. You have to know your client or you are doing everyone a disservice and wasting valuable time. That’s why training of your consultants is vital – you and they need to understand the importance of persistence, perfection and personality. These are all skills that will benefit any PR campaign.

PR as an industry has changed. It had to in order to embrace the social revolution, to deliver what our clients need, even before they know they need it, and to ensure that our clients receive only the best PR attention. Everything we do is now social and there is no turning back – in fact, everything social is gathering speed and we need to keep pace. The best PR consultants have changed too and realised it’s time to embrace the ‘new’.

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

What was hot on the web this week? Get up to speed on the latest trends, news and services with some of our favorite new stories.

Add a little flavor to your brand with Pinterest

Chobani yogurt has figured out how to integrate Pinterest with its social media strategy, and Emily Schildt, Chobani’s digital communications manager, shares her insights on how your brand can too.

A key feature of Pinterest is its ability to showcase multiple facets of a brand’s personality. Taking advantage of Pinterest’s boards, you can give users a visual on what your brand is all about, rather than just describing it. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words.

Read more.

A recipe for search and social

Google recently rolled out what it’s calling Search Plus Your World, which optimizes your search results with content pulled from Google+. Despite lots of kickback from users, we actually love the new search.

Search Plus Your World essentially adds three new features to search: personal results, profiles in search, and people and pages.

Search Plus is an exciting advancement from Google and continues the trend of the last several years: bringing search and social together.

Read more.

Let Foursquare tell you where to have your next meal

Foursquare recently rolled out its new recommendation feature Explore, a personalized search engine for places that gives you Foursquare’s best picks for where to go—for food, shopping, entertainment, you name it.

Explore has been available on Foursquare’s mobile app since March 2011, but it is just now becoming available to users on the web.

Explore is powered by Foursquare’s always-expanding, massive check-in and tips repository. It even factors in your personal preferences and your friends’ previous activities to offer results that might be a better fit.

Read more.

Facebook mixes in 60 new apps to Timeline

Facebook will now allow developers to build a variety of apps that let users add anything they want directly to their timelines.

Newly integrated apps include favorites as Pinterest, eBay, Foodspotting, Airbnb and Foursquare. App settings can be tweaked to fit users’ privacy needs—they control who sees what updates, and what activities get posted on their timelines.

Read the full list of apps here.

Did you know that LEWIS London hosted 16 of its international colleagues for secondments last year? And that 25% of LEWIS London staff visited another office in the network? I didn’t, until recently when I had the opportunity to participate in LEWIS PR’s global secondment program. I visited LEWIS’ London headquarters with my colleague Jessica Winter, where we got to know the team and share best practices for running both traditional PR and social media accounts. It was a great experience and I wanted to share a few thoughts on some of the more notable similarities – as well as differences – between Silicon Valley, where I’m normally based, and Silicon Roundabout (the British equivalent).

If I were to identify a single theme that came up in conversation more than any other, it’s undoubtedly the rise of social – and what we at LEWIS are doing to evolve with the times and integrate it into our service offering. I come from LEWIS Pulse (formerly Page One PR), which LEWIS PR acquired to bolster its social media capabilities and expand its presence in Silicon Valley. People in the London office have been keen to speak with us about our social media best practices, and we’ve been equally eager to hear what they’re doing on this side of the pond.

On both sides, we’re focused on identifying best practices in the rapidly maturing social media market. It was interesting to share notes on how social media support is worked into different accounts. If you’re not using social media to support your brand and messaging, you’re not so much missing out on an additional opportunity to differentiate yourself in the market, you’re facing a competitive disadvantage. Social media is here to stay, and it’s of vital importance for organizations across the board – from enterprise tech startups, like those I represent – to global 1000 brands as some of those represented by LEWIS London – to connect with their communities on social channels and manage their brand and messaging.

Beyond social media, it’s been interesting to see how traditional PR activities are carried out in the UK. I was particularly impressed by the content media team that LEWIS has in place in London. The team is comprised of a group of former journalists whose job is to review all content (press releases, blog posts, bylines) for quality and newsworthiness. It’s not something I’m used to seeing in the U.S., but it’s an interesting tactic that has been well received by clients here – definitely something worth exploring once I return to San Francisco.

Perhaps the most noteworthy difference between PR in the UK that I noticed was its tendency to take on more of an educational tone. I was witness to the formation of one pitch in which a member of the content media team recorded a video interview with a senior diplomat from the Obama Administration about the trade relationship between the US and UK. The video content was then leveraged for a pitch involving several LEWIS clients, to a strong degree of success.

One of LEWIS’ greatest strengths as an agency is its global reach; The secondment scheme isn’t just a vague idea – people all over the agency are benefiting. Both Jessica and I have formed strong connections on this trip and are planning to hold a monthly call with some of our colleagues here in which we share account best practices and discuss general trends we’re seeing in the field.

Until next time!

You can read Jessica’s overview on the visit on the LEWIS Pulse blog here.

The accepted distinguisher of who is and isn’t a digital native would therefore appear to be the generation they form part of. In most cases, those born into a world of digital technology do indeed have a greater understanding of digital concepts – but in reality, the qualities that define a digital native have nothing to do with age.

So how do you define a digital native? And did Goldilocks have the right idea? (not the breaking and entering part, just the try all three approach).

This digital native is too little…

Alright, you’re a twenty-something who grew up with computers and the Internet. Google is ingrained in your brain as the only way to research anything and you’ve been on Facebook since college. So, you’re unquestionably labeled a ‘digital native’, right?

Wrong. There are indeed, so-called digital natives that dislike Twitter or tweet mundane updates on the sandwich they just made. These are the same individuals that go straight to IT support rather than trying to restart their computer or fix it themselves. They have adopted Facebook but hardly show interest in exploring other social networks. And of course there are some Millennials that choose not to have a Facebook account at all (shocking, I know). Will they read a book on their e-reader or the tablet with the most hype? No, these people stick to good old-fashioned hard covered books.

And this digital native is too much…

On the opposite end of the spectrum are those that take digital and social media to a level of excess equal to Donald Trump’s wealth. They know the ins and outs of every social network and are always showing off the newest app they just downloaded. At a restaurant? They’ve already uploaded a review on Yelp, checked-in and offered suggestions on Foursquare and spread the word digitally to all their friends. They are a marketers’ dream. However, sometimes living in the digital world distracts one from reality. Five thousand friends on Facebook is great, but how often do you catch up over coffee with any of them? Do you forget to enjoy the party because you’re too busy uploading pictures? Does your date get annoyed because you’re tweeting at dinner? Does all this digital activity really make you an influencer or qualify you as an expert?

Ah, but this digital native is just right!

For me, it all comes down to this – true digital natives are those that understand how to best leverage all the technology that lies at their fingertips, but only adopt what adds value to their day-to-day life.

Whether they leverage tablets for easier consumption on aggregate news via Twitter and RSS feeds, it all centers on ease of consumption, as well as a willingness to share information and learn from others. The best kind of digital native will share links – if they have value – and spread helpful content whether it is through review sites or social networks.

No matter their age, these storybook digital natives will innately gravitate to what is useful to them – and it is that, and not age, that is the key defining factor. Goldilocks learned the same lesson – the best fit is neither too much nor too little.

It’s a new year, with new ideas and lots of amazing things to see at the show. There is simply too much technology to highlight in one blog post, but I’ve put together a few of the really exciting gadgets and developments I saw during the time I had.

Most impressive
The EXODesk by EXOPC was one of the most impressive demos I’ve seen in a long time. This is a 40-inch multi-touch surface desk that supports a variety of apps, games and widgets. Think about using this as your coffee table or in classrooms of the future. It is more impressive to see in action, so take a look at a demo here.

TVs
I wrote last year about Samsung’s 75-inch 3D Smart TV, it truly was an amazing site.

Well, this year, Sharp was showing off a 3D-capable version of its 80-inch LED TV, first announced in October 2011.

Not to be outdone, LG unveiled its new line of TVs, which feature 3D, with the largest being an 84-inch version! Aside from that, LG had one of the most impressive 3D demos at the show, with a constant audience of onlookers.

Celebrity appearances
As usual, there was a long list of celebrities at CES to help introduce new products and discuss technology. LL Cool J was on hand to discuss his latest venture, Boomdizzle; Justine Timberlake made an appearance with Panasonic to discuss the brands partnership with MySpace; but arguably to most talked about appearance was Justin Bieber, showing off a dancing robot from TOSY Robotics. I heard that people were lined up for hours just to see him, but some nearby vendors had a different reaction to his appearance.

There are some amazing products coming to market in 2012. We’ll follow all of this closely and look forward to the 2013 CES.

Is there anything you saw or heard about from the show that you are really excited about?