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Any business can become King of social media, not just burgers

In: None · 29-Jul-10 13:42 · Comments (0)

Facebook reached 500 hundred million users worldwide a few weeks back. That's rather a lot by anyone's estimation.

Even more staggering is that 50% of active users log on every day, and average internet users spend more time on Facebook per day, than on Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and Amazon combined!

With such an active consumer base brands are jumping on the Facebook bandwagon to reach customers. But are they doing this effectively?

Research from the Altimeter Group revealed that brands fell short, and nearly half reviewed did not fully leverage Facebook to activate word of mouth.

It's interesting that even though The Society of Digital Agencies reports that 45% of senior marketers named social networks and applications their top priority for 2010, so many businesses are behind the curve in using these channels effectively for their marketing and PR.

It's even more perturbing when you consider the impact some recent Facebook campaigns have had.

Tourism Queensland's "The Best Job In The World" campaign was a PR and viral marketing phenomenon with 336,000 Facebook-referred website visits, and over £5.5 million worth of exposure generated.

Last year Burger King created a Facebook application that encouraged users to remove Facebook friends, in exchange for a free Whopper.

This was a brilliantly creative Facebook campaign that saw 233,906 friends removed by 82,771 people in less than a week. It also generated great PR, with Burger King and the advertising agency applauded for their out of the box approach.

These examples show that brands like Burger King that get their online strategy right can really reap the rewards from social media.

There appears no reason for other businesses not to follow the same route, as simple but innovative idea's spread through social media networks and their community of online users can prove to be a powerful free branding tool.

Saying that, I'd still choose a Big Mac any day of the week...

Mark

 

A company blog is not about self praise....

In: None · 29-Jul-10 10:11 · Comments (0)

...or for telling the world all about the great things that a company is doing. But today I'm breaking the rules.

When things get busy at work, and busy times lead to challenging times, it crosses my mind to ask what I'm doing here. Let's be honest, it happens to the best of us.

But we're very lucky at Ascent PR as, once a quarter, we get a chance to take a day out together to look at what we've achieved and think about our hopes and plans for the future. What's more, we get to spend some ‘quality time' with our colleagues and generally take a break and enjoy ourselves.

Our latest ‘Qwerm' (the name assigned to these days, it's a long story) was no different. We joined the rest of our colleagues from Ascent PR (part of the Berkeley Communications Group), for a day of treasure hunting and boating on the Solent. All organised by the lovely Charlie at Seriously Cool Events.

Splitting into three teams, we spent the day competing to take the best photos, make the best hats and cross the Solent the quickest on RIBs, while doing our best not to fall in. The photographic evidence tells the story.....we had a ball.

It's these kind of events that make all the difference to me. The knowledge that a company invests in its staff to reward hard work and bring some light relief to our busy working lives, is something that keeps me going when we're under pressure to generate results for clients and motivate our teams.

Helen

World Cup office fever

In: General interest,Human interest,Topical News,Work,Happiness · 24-Jun-10 16:54 · Comments (0)

Apparently over 10 million of us watched the crucial England World Cup game yesterday, with many expected to have bunked off work to view the match. I still think it's incredible to witness the hysteria and media frenzy that's all part of a competition like the World Cup.

However, even more impressive is that over 800,000 streamed the match online - showing just how far technology has come in the last few years. Before, many people would have missed the match as they wouldn't have been able to leave their desks or wouldn't have had a television in the office. I bet many Brits were sneakily keeping up to date with the football via the internet.

There has been a lot of discussion about how the England match would disrupt work time and affect productivity of staff. But, most of the future matches will be in the evening or at the weekend, so I don't think that 90 minutes watching a match, will really harm future productivity. In fact it'll probably boost morale for the rest of this working week, whilst we feel good about the victory!

Unfortunately some fans in London couldn't watch the football because of a power cut, which won't do much for EDF's profile, much like the criticism ITV received when fans watching the game on HD missed the first England goal. Hopefully England's next match on Sunday against Germany will create a positive mood in the office by Monday morning.

Angela

Is the BP oil spill the world’s worst PR disaster?

In: None · 18-Jun-10 15:42 · Comments (0)

BP is currently facing the biggest PR catastrophe of its existence with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, but how is it fighting to resolve the situation and repair, not just the ruptured well, but its sinking reputation too?

When the reports first surfaced about the oil spill, most of the headlines were about BP's falling shares and a hike in petrol prices but as the weeks went on and several attempts to block the leaking pipe failed, a state of panic rippled into the UK press from across the pond. Fears about the welfare of marine life, the affect on the tourist industry in Florida and along the coast and the wider environmental impacts escalated to the point that the US President labelled it the "worst US environmental disaster'.

So far, BP's response to the PR nightmare has been to throw money at the problem - £1.1bn to put a figure on it. This includes payouts to Florida, Alabama and Mississippi, 51,000 compensations claims have also been issued to the oil giant, 26,500 of which have already been paid costing £42m.

BP's chief executive, Tony Hayward has faced the worst backlash from the public and government and has been called "the most hated man in America" over his role in the crisis. Yesterday (Thursday) he faced a grilling from a congressional committee where politicians were able to ask whatever questions they wanted. This is just the beginning of his PR battle to win back public trust and in a statement during the conference he states that BP will emerge, "stronger, smarter, safer".

With a permanent solution to the spill yet to be found it seems that BP's PR management team and crisis manager still have their work cut out. What is clear is that committing to pay for the clean-up isn't going to cut it for the public; Heyward will need to commit in the long term to repairing the environmental damage, a battle that could last several years.

Louise

PR power of the World Cup

In: PR,Topical Interest,Publicity, · 10-Jun-10 11:38 · Comments (0)

Love it or hate it - the World Cup will be taking over the world's media and water cooler discussion for the next month. It will be pretty hard to escape all the excitement of the event, whether it is flags flying from car rooftops, beer deals in your local supermarket or World Cup sweepstakes in the office. Apparently, even David Cameron is getting involved, by hoisting an England flag over No 10 during the World Cup.

Years ago the build-up to this event just used to be focused on the football and the team, but now it's become such a multi-billion pound event that companies cannot resist jumping on the World Cup bandwagon. For instance, fans are being offered free bus travel on England match days in Ipswich, Sky Bet is offering new customers a free £5 bet on the event and Toshiba is promising to give customers their money back for a laptop, should England win the trophy.

Whilst I sit back and cheer our team on over the next few weeks, I'll be interested to see how much media exposure the event receives, hopefully for all the right reasons, and how it reaches fever pitch as England progress through the tournament.

Angela