The last three months have seen Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg’s profile soar with the publication of her book, “Lean In,” on the role of women and mothers in the workplace. At Porter Novelli’s Washington, D.C. office, Sandberg’s approach quickly became a hot topic around water coolers and on social media.
What emerged was that on the one hand, women at PN have spent more than a decade figuring out how to lean in while raising children and being present in the home. On the other, younger women who are yet to start a family, or are in the early stages of doing so, are eager for advice on how to achieve work-home balance.
To help women – and men – exchange ideas, we staged an office-wide debate in D.C., where around 20 people from the senior leadership team through to assistant account executives discussed the topic for over an hour.
One mom said she had learned from GE boss Jack Welch to be an effective time manager so that she could complete all her tasks to get home for a family supper. Another talked about how she balanced having a baby with getting started in the career that had been her promise to herself while at college. There was a discussion around whether it is possible to ‘have it all,’ or whether today women find it more manageable to ‘have it all, just not all at the same time.’
Encouragingly for Porter Novelli, people did feel that our firm supports their professional aspirations while allowing them to honor their responsibilities outside of work.
It was inspiring to be part of a discussion about topics that will continue to echo across the generations. And to see how colleagues at Porter Novelli are backing each other in the life choices they make.
Leading PR industry publication The Holmes Report recently took an in-depth look at the career of Porter Novelli CEO Karen van Bergen.
In the story published on May 5, 2013, former colleagues and industry sources praise Karen’s leadership and approach to business, while Karen herself shares background on her career and her thoughts on leading Porter Novelli.
The full story can be read here.
Technology is no longer an add-on, but an integral and integrated part of our lives. In fact, our children are learning to code at the same time as learning to read and write. For those holding the purse-strings, what we see, desire and decide is increasingly interwoven with algorithms and interfaces that seek to know us better than we know ourselves. These are strange days some may say, and indeed did, at a recent LS:N trend briefing where implications of rapid communications evolution for next generation retail were explored in depth.
Mega-systems vs. retail intimacy
With mega-systems such as Google, Apple and Amazon now driving how we discover, share and make purchase decisions, and social commerce becoming the norm, the boundaries of retail spaces are now blurred. But at the same time, challenging the ubiquity of these mega-systems, creative upstarts such as Secret Sales, Stylist Pick, Rue La La and Achica are introducing gated retail spaces and walled reward programs that cultivate a feeling of exclusivity and intimacy for users.
From bricks to clicks and back again
In parallel to this cyberspace battle for attention, consumers still like to visit bricks and mortar stores, even after having made purchasing decisions from the comfort of their mobile devices. FMOT (first moment of truth – the moment a customer experiences the product on the shelf) has been replaced by ZMOT making the path to consumer consideration and purchase more complex than ever. Communications professionals now need to understand more about target consumers: from media preferences to social sharing behaviours, while retailers need to look at ways of providing more than the traditional shopping experience across multiple platforms.
Sofa retailer CSL has embraced this challenge on mobile, extending its in-store offering to enhance the buying experience. The CSL app allows consumers to browse and virtually try sofas in their own room, get hints and tips from furniture experts and easily recommend CSL to friends and family via an incentivised sharing feature.
Insight and improvisation in the age of super speed analytics
Computing speeds have increased 2000 fold since 1980, enabling us to buy and consume all kinds of media in seconds, from viewing ancient manuscripts within museum archives to peering into the Amazonian rainforest. Given the rich and rapid evolution of behaviour that has accompanied this constantly accelerating trajectory, last quarter’s consumer surveys no longer provide adequate insight for effective communications planning and execution. Speedy access to sophisticated data analytics is enabling those who can adapt fast enough to respond to user behaviour patterns instantly.
SAP, the world’s largest business software developer, introduced Hana in 2012 – reducing point-of-sale data analysis times from one day to 10 seconds. CEO Hasso Plattner explained to LS:N Global that SAP plans to go even further, “In the next three years we might be able to achieve everything we do today in around a second.” Businesses have already begun using this high speed data analysis to make more accurate purchase predictions, eliminate inefficiency from supply chains and offer consumers a seamless shopping experience.
Evaluating earned influence, point by point
So this new retail paradigm means communications professionals can reach people in a more timely and relevant way. It also means that we can no longer rely on out of date AVE (advertising value equivalency) metrics to measure success. Instead we have access to analytics that track the entire consumer journey from awareness through to acquisition, and can capture conversion data which proves where earned coverage, influence and interaction is impacting the bottom line.
The SEC announced yesterday, April 2, that they would not be scrutinizing Netflix CEO Reed Hastings in response to comments he made about the company on his personal Facebook page.
The complaints stemmed from analysts who believed his comments about the streaming video service topping 1 billion hours amounted to material disclosure on a platform that wasn’t public and equally accessible to all investors.
| FOUR ACTION ITEMS FOR COMPANIES TO CONSIDER NOW |
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But the SEC has now found that companies *can* use social media platforms to announce information and make statements like this – as long as investors are told to look there. So the key point here seems to be that as long as investors – and others – know that statements will be made on Twitter, Facebook or other platforms, the onus is then on them to check those platforms regularly so they’re not left behind.
One of the questions raised by this ruling is how free it allows company officers to be in using their personal accounts for corporate statements. There’s no hard and fast answer to that, though, since it’s going to depend from one case to the other both on the executive in question and the market that company operates in. If an individual never talks about his position or company on Facebook, then it makes no sense for it to suddenly become part of a disclosure program.
On the other hand, if an executive regularly shares such information, then it’s important for the company to work with the executive to make sure this is being done in an orderly – and adequately disclosed – manner. Ideally these sorts of posts are coordinated with the investor relations team and, even before that, investors and analysts would be told that someone’s personal profile will, from time to time, contain important and material information.
That communication to investors is the first – and most important – part. Ideally this is something that’s done over a period of time, perhaps even months, before the executive in question begins posting relevant information to his or her account. This will allow enough time to make sure that everyone has seen at least one of the warnings and adjust their own reading and research to compensate and incorporate that into their routines and research.
The question remains, though, how a corporate profile might be used for the same purposes. This is a bit thornier since, particularly when you’re talking about B2C companies, most of those profiles are meant to speak to customers and not investors. So a message including forward-looking guidance on earnings is going to seem tremendously out of place on such a profile.
A third alternative may be the creation of investor-specific social profiles that are meant to only speak to the financial community without intruding upon consumer messaging.
All that being said, immediate action items for social media counselors include:
- Review the new SEC guidelines with investor relations and other relevant teams and individuals
- Discuss how executives are or aren’t currently using their personal profiles for corporate messaging
- Evaluate whether existing corporate social networks could – or should – support this kind of material
- Discuss whether investors and analysts have already been made aware of existing social profiles that are relevant to the company, whether personal or corporate.
In the latest issue of Marketing News, the flagship publication of the American Marketing Association, Porter Novelli CEO Karen van Bergen presents her insights on the critical balance brands must strike between global reach and local authenticity. As information increasingly spreads around the world instantly via ever-expanding networks of friends, fans, advocates and detractors, brands must understand and accept the new reality that–no matter how established, iconic or powerful they may be–branding is less one-size-fits-all than ever before.
“It is now easier than ever before for a brand to be truly global, which means that it is, in fact, harder than ever to be a truly global brand,” van Bergen cautions. “In order to establish and sustain an aligned global presence, organizations must maintain consistent brand standards while authentically engaging consumers in hundreds, even thousands, of local markets. It’s like playing chess with a worldwide audience of stakeholders on a multidimensional board, in real time, with different rules in each market.”
Click here for the full feature.
A prevailing theme at this year’s Guardian Changing Media Summit — an annual conference sponsored by The Guardian which brings together a unique blend of CEO and director level executives responsible for commercial, creative and digital strategies – was monetization. The current mood, and indeed associated moves, for communications professionals means two things: firstly that earned media is more important than ever, and secondly, that ‘non-traditional’ influencers will keep increasing their importance, as more paywalls thud into the cyber-ground all around us.
Newspapers are struggling to generate digital revenue on par with that achieved during the print heyday. It was noticeable to me that UK spokespeople and commentators are certainly far more lucid on the subject than they were a few years ago when Eric Schmidt wrote of the “terminal decline of print.”
Source: Changing Media Consumption report (UK) presented by YouGov and The Guardian
It’s 4:00pm on a Thursday afternoon. You’ve finished that evaluation and you’re just not quite ready to take on the next task. What do you do? Well, it might be tempting to take a 15-minute time out to check your feed on Facebook, read the latest stories on your favorite news website, or watch that video on YouTube your friend sent you earlier that day.
Jonah Peretti, founder and CEO of BuzzFeed (and previous co-founder of the Huffington Post), considers us part of the growing bored at work network – millions of office workers around the world who are a fundamental part of making content ‘go viral’ online.
In his keynote address at SxSW 2013, Peretti spoke of the importance of this audience for BuzzFeed, the “first true social news organization: a unique blend of breaking news, entertainment and shareable content.” If you’re wondering how an article about Pope Francis could sit alongside a gallery of “38 CDs that are at every used record store and garage sale,” take a look at the mash of stories in your feed on Facebook.
Although being a term that had fallen out of favor among marketers in the past, what’s important for us to remember is that we are all part of this audience. So rather than wondering how we can entice ‘online influencers’ to share interesting content, what we should really consider is the content that we are most likely to share with our family, friends and colleagues.
Powerful content allows us to share experiences and forge a stronger connection with our online communities. Next time we’re thinking of an idea for content that has the potential to go far and wide, Peretti asks us consider:
· Does it draw positive emotion?
· Will it provide a sense of identity?
· Does it capture the moment?
· Is there an element of humor?
· Does it create a sense of nostalgia?
Beyond the idea, we should also pay more attention to how content could be promoted to increase its chance of taking off. This means understanding how we use our online platforms to interact with our communities – what we may share in an email to our work colleagues isn’t necessarily what we would share with our friends on Facebook or post on a blog.
We know we can’t ever predict what is going to go ‘viral.’ But as long as we can stay close to what makes us human, we’re halfway there.
In May 1821, The Guardian newspaper (or Manchester Guardian as it was then known) published a table of data comparing average annual spending and the number of pupils attending schools in Manchester and Salford.
The newspaper’s first ever use of data informed readers about the number of students receiving free education and how many poor children lived in the city. While this data may now be easy to source, in 1821 it was considered ground breaking.
Those working at The Guardian may not have used the same tools for analysis as we now do, but the power of research-based journalism remains just as significant in today’s media.
Journalists continue to seize editorial opportunities by uncovering new insights from data obtained from reputable sources, and have often taken upon the roles of both ‘investigators’ and ‘researchers’ in their quest for a story.
The Guardian remains a leading media outlet in this form of journalism. Technology blog GigaOM recently reported:
“The Guardian can easily spend three weeks generating the source information and designing a visualisation…The results bring understanding and reader engagement to topics that are otherwise discussed with a lot of words or static numbers. Readers can and do play around with the information, share it widely and discuss it for long periods after it appears online.”
Commentators at SxSW 2013 discussed the impact of research-based journalism and whether meaningful data on its own had the ability to create a news story. They warned journalists of falling into the trap of “reporting on data without any real theme or a personal element” that would resonate with an audience.
While the ability to access resources online may have eased the search for data, it was also argued that journalists still need time to absorb research studies and build robust conclusions.
But does that mean the search for data should only be left to the media?
The increasing availability of data across a range of disciplines – such as health, education, retail, entertainment or sport – should encourage public relations professionals to also delve into research studies, provided they are educated to accurately interpret data and pinpoint insights that support a broader story.
This would not only allow us to share data with the media, but also with our key influencers in online communities. More than often there are conversations already taking place in social media that would benefit from our findings.
However, like journalists, we must always remember that it’s not just about the data. What’s most important is the story behind the numbers.
Arsenal Football Club is one of the most decorated clubs in English football. Founded in 1886, the club has won 13 league titles and 10 FA Cups, and is only the second team to have completed a season undefeated in the league’s history.
In recent times the club has also become a champion team on the digital football pitch. Arsenal.com is ranked in the top 12 football websites worldwide, while the team has 13 million Facebook fans and the highest following of any English Premier League clubs on Twitter.
Arsenal has grown a passionate online community and transformed its fans around the world from spectators to participants, creating a unique dialogue with supporters, players, coaches and even the media.
Richard Clarke, managing editor for Arsenal Media, discussed his club’s approach to sharing news in social media at SxSW 2013. His advice was to “focus on being foremost, rather than being first and foremost.”
He also believed content delivered to fans should provide a sense of “optimistic realism” and deliver “balanced criticism” to foster reasoned debate, rather than be vanilla and overwhelmingly positive. This was echoed in a survey conducted by Arsenal.com with its website visitors in 2012.
Arsenal.com does not consider itself a news breaker for major stories. The club rests upon its ability to deliver official, legitimate and trustworthy content – even if the story has already been covered in the news.
Clarke rightly argued that the club’s depth of content, access to players, data and historical information, and the ability to “always be there” was no match for any media outlet in the world.
While major sporting codes and teams in Australia have proven their ability to engage fans while managing the flow of content into traditional and new media, there is still something to learn from the approach taken by clubs such as Arsenal.
Rather than becoming fixed on the idea that ‘if it’s our news, we must be the first to share it,’ more attention should be devoted to becoming ‘champion content creators.’
Instead of just live streaming a press conference to announce a new player, why not introduce the player afterwards to the team’s followers on Twitter with a live Q&A session? Or rather than write a post-match review, film a snippet of the coach’s address immediately after the final siren.
Many of our teams are thinking outside the field in social media, but it’s imperative they continue to find new and unique ways to engage loyal fans and welcome new supporters to their online communities.
There’s a great bit in NBC sitcom Parks & Recreation where April Ludgate, the office intern, tries to explain to Libertarian-like Parks Director Ron Swanson about cookies (“So it learns information about me?”) The scene ends with Swanson pitching his desktop in the garbage bin after looking himself up on Google Earth.
It’s a nice illustration of a question we need to ask ourselves as technology gets better and better at tracking our online lives: do the digital breadcrumbs we leave, and the prompts and recommendations they elicit, give us more control of our lives or less?
Swanson probably wouldn’t agree, but I certainly love it when Facebook reminds to wish a friend a happy birthday or Netflix gives me a heads up that my favorite Wes Anderson movie is now available. But at what cost?
According to SXSW Interactive presenter Ben Essen, head of digital planning for Isis London, the average number of data collections per Web page increased from 50 in 2011 to 100 in 2012. That means that every time you visit your favorite search platform or online retailer there are up to 100 different interests tracking your every click, hoping to glean some information that will help them market their products, either to you directly or to groups of consumers like you. Essen estimates that the nation’s largest digital market analytics firms have as much as 1500 pieces of unique data on the average U.S. resident.
This practice isn’t new, of course; marketers have always gathered customer research and used it to try and convince people to purchase products or services. It’s just that the Internet has dramatically increased the amount of information they have access to.
The good news is that your computer, and the information it connects you to, can’t make decisions for you (at least for now). You may need to sharpen your mass media BS detector and be conscious of the source when considering online recommendations, but don’t “pull a Swanson” and disconnect yourself from the digital world quite yet. Ultimately, the choice of what you buy, what you watch, and who you reach out to on their birthday is still yours.