Wednesday was a momentous day in the history of the Internet. It was a day that saw some of the biggest sites in the world effectively close down in protest at proposed US legislation known as SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) – a bill designed to fight online trafficking of copyrighted intellectual property such as music, films and video games. For 24 hours sites such as Wikipedia, Tumblr and WordPress (to name just a few) “blacked-out” their content in protest to what they feel are measures that go further than stopping online piracy, and instead, censor the internet.

Why is a free Internet so important, and how would a censored Internet affect the PR industry? By placing a bar on the freedom of information and investigation, working with journalists to build stories could become nearly unworkable. While we all know you can’t trust Wikipedia implicitly, for PRs and journos, it is a starting point. The fast-paced world of online journalism would be forever changed without it. It may seem to be a huge leap, but the consequences of there not being a “free internet”, would – in the grand scheme of things – mean that user-built sites whose lifeblood is content created by its users wouldn’t be possible and in turn the sharing of news and information that’s become part of our everyday lives.

You could argue the Internet is now ‘too big’ to be destroyed, however, if SOPA was in place in 11 years ago, sites like Wikipedia would in all likeliness not exist today. Incidentally, Wednesday, my first port of call to find out when Wikipedia launched was to check Wikipedia, which just goes to show how valuable a tool the site has become and how often we can take it for granted. And that was the point of yesterday’s black-out, these sites are as much part of our daily lives as BBC News or Coronation St. If they didn’t exist, our lives would be lesser for it.

Think of how many times a day you Wiki something or look up a video on YouTube. It could be for inspiration for a pitch or because you have to write a press release on the banana export legislation of Costa Rica. We get inspiration and information from the Internet. Hell, you could even think of a great campaign idea based on that video of Hello by Lionel Ritchie made up from film clips that seems to be going around. So what would really happen if SOPA went through?

In a nutshell, more trips to the library – and no wants that.

David Macnamara

Chaos ensued as only two group members were allowed to star in the video and the other person had to film – inevitably this ensured that the point of the challenge was missed. Instead of spending the eight hours available to them coming up with a creative concept which might warrant spreadability, they bickered about who would be front of camera.

The results were pretty woeful. One group did a skit on Prince William and Kate Windsor (nee Middleton) on their honeymoon night, another also centred on the sex sells theme and spent the afternoon dressed as nuns flashing anyone that passed by and the third took the comic route of having someone dressed in a sumo suit exercising on the edge of a pond who was given a shove by a very Jim Carrey Riddler-type character. Despite being allowed to send the clip to one contact per group to spread the word and get the metaphorical ball rolling between them they didn’t manage even 1,000 hits. As one of the judges waspishly commented: “About as much buzz as wasp flying into a window”.

This just goes to show that creating a viral isn’t easy. What you may consider funny, isn’t to other people. The key is to think about what would make you forward something onto your friends. The programme rightly said that ad agencies (and indeed PR agencies) are increasingly turning to viral as a medium as it is a cost effective route to gaining wide scale awareness – however it is only cost effective if it does create wide scale awareness – otherwise it would probably be cheaper to place an ad in Downstream magazine (a specialist title for the Oil and Gas industry) which has more reach.

Viral isn’t easy and it just goes to show that not everyone with a camera can generate buzz; it is all about understanding how to get the clip correctly seeded out so that it does get those all important views. It is here that PR comes into its own. We have the skillset, the contacts and the heritage in creating conversations – both online and offline.

Features Editor Cathy Bussey’s well balanced piece attempts to bring to the surface tensions which have been bubbling away for the last few years between the creative communications sectors that have up until now had fairly clearly laid out stalls which defined their existence. The debate in PR Week puts the three would-be contenders into a boxing ring to see which one emerges the victor.

Whoever it is that surfaces from the final round still standing and with their bloody nose intact will undoubtedly believe that they rightfully deserve to wear the social media crown. The truth of the matter is that they will be wrong: there are no crowns to wear -only matching sets of badges to be worn by all.

Firstly, the idea of any agency owning a channel is laughable and dare I say a little bit arrogant. An agency’s role is not to ‘own’ but to support through expertise and consultancy. Chris Lake, Director of Innovation at Econsultancy echoes this very sentiment in a post he recently wrote on the Econsultancy blog:

“I firmly believe that a company’s social media strategy should be owned and managed by the company itself, rather than by external agencies.”

Those that submit to the notion that social media can readily be claimed in its totality as belonging to the domain of PR, advertising or the newly emerging digital sector clearly do not understand the scope, complexity or potential of social media channels.

Take the telephone, for example. It would be extremely bizarre to restrict its usage to just members the PR team, or have a ‘phone call strategy’ defined by an external marketing agency. It would be equally unlikely that a brand’s digital marketing agency would have the right to decide how the wider company uses email as a communications tool? Social media: Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr… they’re all just tools (with varying degrees of sophistication) that serve to meet multiple needs.

Only when marketers start viewing social media platforms in this way, as facilitators which address multiple needs across numerous departments (comms, marketing, branding, customer services, corporate reputation, stakeholder management, research and development) will the ownership debate be replaced by a discussion that focuses around an integrated approach to social media.

At Onlinefire, whilst we’re often seen as a ‘social media agency’, we actually prefer to work collaboratively with clients and their agencies to allocate defined roles for social media activation. In truth, we’re much more than a social media agency; we’re a creative online communications agency with PR at our heart. Social media is our channel of choice but much of what we do for our clients draws upon multiple marketing touch-points from experiential to events to traditional news generation – regularly drawing upon the skills of the wider Eulogy! Group. It’s no accident that this blog has ended up being posted on the Eulogy! site. It’s all about integration, don’t you know!?

• We don’t create flash iPad apps, but we work with digital agencies that do.
• We don’t do search engine pay-per-click campaigns, but we work with many great companies that can do these (and do them really well).
• Onlinefire isn’t a specialist in organising promoted tweets but we can get your brand trending on Twitter whilst a quality media buying specialist sorts out your specific Twitter ads.

I’m not suggesting that there isn’t a clear role for PR in social media. In fact, us PRs have traditionally been the gatekeepers of the brand conversation and as such are in a good place to see the potential opportunities that social media offers us. Admittedly the conversation has always been with identifiable mid-point influencers (media, stakeholders, analysts, etc.) but new online tools have allowed us to take this dialogue direct to consumers. Never before have communicators ever been able to have this level of proximity to our end users and this is a gift that the PR industry should embrace rather than shy away from.

Advertisers on the other hand have always been on the receiving end of huge budgets and as such have been able to create truly great pieces of branded content which inspire talkability. However even small advertising budgets on social media platforms can reap great rewards. Executed correctly, Facebook’s social ads can deliver amazing results for the right campaign due to its pinpoint targeting capabilities. This is probably still very much the domain of the media buying agency but the ease of which brands can manage these social ads makes it more difficult for some unscrupulous agencies to play the smoke and mirrors game with their clients. And Amen to that!

Agencies which have previously taken great pride in dining at the top-table with their clients have been forced to reassess their offering in light of direct to consumer alternatives that social media has provided the industry.

Self-defined digital agencies are currently the best equipped to advise and build social apps and widgets which add an extra layer of usability to social networks. This technical knowledge is something that most PR / social media agencies currently do not offer nor would they probably every want to.

So the content versus conversation divide still exists to some extent but for how long?

Huff and Puff…

Three Little Pigs

Remember the story of the three pigs? They all set about making separate houses for themselves. Imagine that instead of each having sticks, straw and bricks respectively, one had just cement, another had a spade to dig the foundations with and the third pig had just bricks.

Individually, neither would be able to build anything resembling a solid structure but collectively, they each bring a different and vital quality needed in the construction of a robust home. Replace ‘pigs’ with marketing agencies (perhaps this doesn’t require too much of a stretch of the imagination) and substitute the act of building a house with the objective of contributing to a successful social media campaign – and that’s where we find ourselves today; everyone working in collaboration to build something that ultimately benefits all parties to serve a larger purpose.

360-degree Implementation

A few years ago when Eurostar were being held up as an example of a brand being overly myopic in its approach to social media comms, few agencies acknowledged the lessons that clearly needed to be learnt from the fall-out. Having appointed a social media specialist agency to carry out a (pretty well-executed) sales campaign on Twitter, Eurostar hadn’t factored in the other internal departments that may need to use the platform in the future. So, when poor weather conditions meant that many passengers were left stranded at Christmas without any information advising them on their options, many turned to Twitter only to be met with a wall of deafening silence.

I remember being invited on to Channel 4 news to comment on how the brand misread its customer’s social media requirements. At the time, I seem to remember a lot of focus being placed on the channel and none on the message itself. Sure, there were some cultural learnings for Eurostar to be gained but any criticism of their trial Twitter campaign merely deflected attention from the real problem which was Eurostar’s inability to communicate with its customers in a time of need.

In this situation, it was clear that the in-house team were not equipped to deal with social media as a 360-degree comms channel and that a specialist social media agency were reluctantly handed ‘ownership’ of Twitter in its entirety wheras in reality they were only allowed responsibility for a small campaign area. The danger of ownership being taken outside of the in-house team becomes apparent when the platform overlaps with other departments’ remits as happened in the case of Eurostar.

Therefore, media ownership (social or traditional) should always remain with the brand gate-keeper (i.e. the in-house marketing team) and not on the agency side. Only by having centralised ownership, can social media be divided accordingly between various internal business groups with weighting distributed in an appropriate fashion that reflects needs and not historical budgets.

Aim for the stars…

The situation reminds me somewhat of the Space and Moon Races which took place between the USA and the then Soviet Union in the mid to late twentieth century where two politically opposed forces fought a very global battle to attain technological and ideological superiority within space exploration. A key marker within this political era was fixed on which would be the first nation to set foot on the moon. After billions of dollars, numerous fatalities and a plethora of disasters on both sides the USA emerged as being the first nation to have representatives step foot on the moon.

The flag was placed, the video images beamed back to the world below and now, over fifty years on, as the Star Spangled Banner continues to fly in solitude on a windless moon are we able to say that the USA managed to claim ‘ownership’ of the moon? The answer is almost certainly no.

One small step for social media

To learn more about the work we do at Onlinefire, visit our website or alternatively you can follow us on Twitter @onlinefire.

From what the Eulogites can gather, the founders of Quora looked at Twitter and realised a significant percentage of tweets were people asking questions. So they got to thinking about taking this away from the Twitter platform and providing a space where users can build up a network around various subjects and position the question to a more targeted audience. So far, so on-trend –marketing is heading towards an era of personalised messaging that is aimed at carefully segmented audiences.  So the general business proposition seems to be accurate.

Founded by two former Facebook employees (note the invite to link Quora with FB on the homepage) in California, Quora has been steadily feeding a growing obsession over the last few months. It is now in full access mode (after a stint as invite only). Simply put, it is a Q&A platform that is created, edited and organised by its users.

Sound familiar? Well it is different to Wikipedia, apparently. Namely its ability to follow topics and attract reputable users – they are confident that the questioners can trust the opinions of the answerers. Quora has coined the phrase ‘continually improving’, in that once one question has been answered, the page continues to be developed into a stronger and more useful resource – with a narrower focus we can assume. Interestingly, there is no requirement for a neutral point-of-view (like Wikipedia), but a desire for some consensus…between both masterminds and laymen. How refreshing. 

As far as we can tell, contributors aren’t paid for their knowledge. If you are a cynic, this might beg the question of their validity. That is, invariably, the better informed you are, the busier you are and the more likely you might demand payment. But if Quora fulfils its aims and is indeed shared and spread across other social networks, then the revenue potential for experts thus increases. There will be some aspect of editing – by trained individuals who can navigate their way through the quagmire that is libel law. But censorship will be kept at a minimum as much as possible. Busybodies can also amend and edit content as they see fit.

What does all this mean for PRs and marketers? Well the general sentiment is that it actually has mass appeal, by dovetailing with Twitter and Facebook – thus reducing social networkers own network management time. It also nicely hones in on target audiences who are interested in specialist subjects (linked to a relatively sophisticated search function) and offers geeks – and gleeks! – the chance to interact with likeminded users. The blog-like facility may end up in client’s coverage packs and could aid natural search, even complement news aggregation.

However, PRs will need to take an active involvement – we’ll need to be on there, monitoring, waiting patiently for updates. It will also be good for assessing our spokespeople’s competition and another way of seeing who is talking about what. Be aware that Quora users are expected to use their real identity when answering questions, so transparency remains key.

Overall, people seem unanimous in their intrigue with Quora, if not united in their praise. Seasoned social network observers are already asking about the iPhone app – apparently it’s on its way. The mobile site is already live. 

I found out that Quora is named Quora because a group of people coming together and reaching a consensus is a quorum. Apparently it’s got nothing to do with the new Tron character. But the highlight of my Quora-tive research was this Tweet:

http://twitter.com/rhodri
I joined Quora and now I’m a member and people are following me and I’m following them and I don’t know what’s going on and want my mummy.

Both Stephen and Fernando demonstrated the beauty of the results that these techniques provide. PR agencies can produce definitive statistics with SEO and PPC campaigns – unequivocal results. Fantastic!

Stephen and Fernando also discussed the complexity of ownership with the group. Eulogy!’s well versed in SEO having completed a number of projects for clients, but Stephen confirmed our fears that the PR industry (and the marketing community at large) is yet to understand the practice.

Five years ago, SEO firmly belonged in the hands of search agencies. Then ad and digital agencies took a bite. And now PR agencies, too? Well, yes of course! It’s editorial. Who else is better placed to write authoritative copy, rich with brand messaging and keywords? SEO sits firmly within the online PR gambit. It amplifies what other marketing channels churn out. It seeds your content all over the shop to encourage people to click, to engage and to talk!

I am committed to working with bodies like the PRCA to carve out a fair share of ownership of online and social media budgets. We’ve seen a big move towards this in the industry. Sure it’s a struggle sometimes, like when clients refuse to acknowledge PR as anything but proof in a paper, but our digital revolution is increasingly inevitable.

We’re working hard to this speed along. As chief exec, it’s my job to drive the agency forward not only in terms of new business but also skills and professional development.We believe PR’s love affair with social media will be a hot and steamy one, and it’s only just begun.

Talk has been rife in the media world about the waning importance of print media and whether it is due to have the final nail banged into its coffin.  In his blog, the COMMS corner, Adam Vincenzini is undertaking a substantial experiment to put to the test accusations of digital media cannibalising print media.

On January 1^st he embarked on a quest to go one year without buying or reading a print newspaper to see how it would affect his role as a PR consultant.

So far, he is discovering a lot – particularly about the ways he consumes digital media.  There is flexibility in digital news that allows him to choose which articles he reads, depending on his interests. He’s also become more aware of the rapidity with which he receives news throughout the day by following the Sky News breaking news Twitter feed.

I agree that taking in news digitally allows for immediate consumption. For example, when I get into work in the morning, I scroll my Digsby Twitter feed to get a steer on the stories that are due to be breaking later in the day.

But no matter what, I’ll always enjoy reading the paper. For me, the difference is that I’ll purvey a newspaper leisurely over my bowl of cereal. I look at newspapers almost as magazines now. I use them as leisure material, whereas I log on to actually read the news.

This is personal consumption, though. Professionally, I still can’t beat the feeling of seeing my coverage in the newspaper – it feels more real.  The sense of achievement is higher, and it’s something tangible that I can show friends and family. Maybe I hold print coverage in high esteem because I am quite new to social media. But having been encouraged to engage with online communities in my final year at university, I expect this to change.

I like print, I prefer it as I would Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range to Sainsbury’s own brand, but do I really need it? I imagine not. Good luck to Adam with his ‘no newspapers’ challenge.

In 2009 we saw the rise of user-friendly location-based services (LBS), but in 2010 location-sharing is set to come into its own.

This year, PRs who are in the know will be actively exploring the opportunities that GPS-aware services can offer, devising new and creative ways to capture consumer attention in a far more tailored and targeted way than ever before.

Last year saw the emergence of LBS and social community integration. South African social network The Grid launched Mobikasi, a 24-episode, location-based documentary about youth culture in Soweto.  Content was geo-tagged to the location where it was shot, enabling viewers to explore Sowetan culture by travelling through a mobile street map and watching video clips. This marriage of LBS and crowd-sourcing was hailed as the next generation of mobile social media.

In fact, the recent explosion of mobile applications has brought the advent of location-based app integration. Layar is a great example of this new trend. Winner of the Vodafone Mobile Startup Challenge in September 2009, the Layar browsing application is a mix of location-based technology and augmented reality. Combining a handset’s camera and GPS functionality, the mobile application overlays information relevant to digitally tagged real-world locations or items – from coffee shops to museums.

The advancement of LBS can be seen with the growing popularity of companies such as Foursquare and Gowalla, which enable consumers to tag and share content quickly and easily within social communities. The technology not only enriches existing core services, but also creates a more dynamic and compelling consumer offering.

The delivery of highly personalised brand messages, in the most relevant and creative way possible is the keystone of social media PR and the development of LBS looks set to raise the bar in 2010.

I was at the CorpComms Awards, held at the Park Lane Sheraton (which, for some reason, is actually on Piccadilly, and not Park Lane) where we picked up two awards!

Onlinefire was awarded with Best Digital Campaign for ‘It’s Amazing What You Can Do With 30 Peas’, a campaign that combined the best in digital outreach, blogger relations, viral videos and news generation.

Taking home the prestigious Young Achiever of the Year was Onlinefire co-founder, Graham Lee.

The judges described him as “an excellent ambassador for creativity and innovation”. “WOW!” was the general consensus.

On the B2B side, the team arrived at the venue where there was a collection of male models in boxing gear, skipping and shadow boxing on four plinths around an imaginary boxing ring. You guessed it – the theme for the 2009 B2B Marketing Awards was boxing.

We were confused too, but Ben and Rik weren’t fussed – especially being surrounded all night by promo girls in boxing gear:

But on to the important stuff!

Adding to our win earlier this month at the PRCA awards, Eulogy!’s campaign for Mortascreen won again last night, picking up Best PR campaign!

And naturally, like at the PRCA awards, we were the loudest table in the venue.

What can I say?  We like a good party.

Eulogy! had been nominated for three PRCA awards, Agency of the Year, Specialist Agency of the Year and Best B2B campaign. Our sister agency Onlinefire was shortlisted for Best Technology Campaign for its work with Virgin Mobile and its 30p tariff.

We took home two almighty awards: we are now crowned Consultancy of the Year 2009 and Best B2B Campaign for our work with Mortascreen.

It was a spectacular night. And I can’t lie, it was made all the more wonderful by our two award wins. Throughout this year, Eulogy!’s board, executive committee and team – from the graduates to the directors – have worked exceptionally hard to make a difference to every aspect of the agency, from things like training and internal comms, to client service, marketing and team structure.

It’s been worth all the hard work. These accolades are a great demonstration of the agency’s excellence. Our growth proves we’re a leading agency that delivers creativity with media insight – a formidable combination.

And, as you can see, we really know how to party! Apologies if we deafened anyone sitting near us. We were the noisiest and most fun-loving crowd in the room!

The moment we found out we had won PRCA Consultancy of the Year 2009!

But I actually think it’s an exciting time to be venturing into online PR.The methods of PR that companies are using are completely evolving through new media, making the opportunity to do something exciting and innovative with a campaign absolutely huge.

Whether you believe that social media symbolises the future of all media and communications or not, at the very least we can agree that it represents a democratisation of information – consumers are starting to speak up and companies are starting to listen. As the marketing director of the IAB  attested when he recently visited Eulogy!, digital and PR are becoming ever more closely aligned.

Social media sites have completely transformed the way brands and consumers interact. The relationship is becoming increasingly blurred. Rather than simply observing a press campaign, it’s got to the point where your average Facebook user, blogger, or Tweeter is becoming part of the campaign themselves. Likewise, campaigns are becoming much more tailored to the individual.

User-generated content, blogs and word-of-mouth are already playing a massive role in online PR; witness the success of the recent ‘Best Job in the World’ press campaign to see that. But online individuals are a fickle bunch, wanting more from the brands they consume like never before, so to get them on board is often easier said than done.

So what better place to face the challenge than with onlinefire? Here, it’s clear that everyone believes new media is something to embrace, rather than something to be scared of. Brands are increasingly realising that new media is not a fad and that it’s where a significant portion of future PR lies. It’s great to belong to a company that is at the forefront of this exciting space.