WHEN Myer CEO Bernie Brookes said last week that an increased Medicare levy to fund the National Disabilities Insurance Scheme NDIS would be bad for business, it reminded that while public relations professionals have done a good job of training CEOs in some ways, they have done a bad job in others. 

There is no doubt PR professionals do a great job of training their CEOs to speak to business, to shareholders, to board members – but they do a lousy job of preparing the boss for social media. The backlash on Myer’s Facebook Page, the tweets from the public and celebrities alike on Twitter, and other social media sites was staggering.

The Myer Facebook Page has 190,000 subscribers. However the Page usually only gains about 23 comments per post. Not now. The comments are in the hundreds and at least one of those comments collected a whopping 200 Likes within 4 hours. On Twitter, the #BoycottMyer hashtag has been used by thousands of people. One tweet sent out at 9pm on Tuesday night had by Wednesday morning been retweeted 260+ times.

It probably won’t surprise you to know that as I write this article, I am watching Myer’s stock, in real time, drop as the social media viral effect takes hold. On the day of the comments alone, it fell about 4 per cent. Can CEOs really afford to be oblivious to social media?

It is no longer enough for a CEO to be the talking head to journalists and shareholders. They must now provide the vision, strategy and values direct to consumers as well. It’s now the CEO’s job to juggle both shareholders’ and customers’ values.

Yet, according to IBM’s 2012 Global CEO Study, only 16 per cent of CEOs are on social media. Given that more and more investors are responding to social media discussions, ignoring a direct-to-market channel is surely negligent? In Japan, CEOs are placing chief public relations officers on their board to manage negative criticism, respond to crisis, protect the brand integrity and help ensure the share price bounces back from negative community feedback. Get ready, Australia.

Social media gives CEOs the opportunity to demonstrate that they have vision, to use low-cost, effective communication tools to bring their passion and commitment for their industry to wider audiences, to prove leadership to their community of staff, clients, peers and other stakeholders and to show courage to lead from the front.

If your CEO does not have great communication skills, lacks vision & passion, couldn’t demonstrate knowledge or leadership if their life depended on it, it’s time to get a new CEO. Or start looking for a new job.

Laurel Papworth is a social media educator and a member of Forbes magazine’s ‘Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers’ list globally. Twitter: @silkcharm

 First published in The Australian May 06 2013 (paywall)

Also: ABC NEWS PM http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3750505.htm

And The Finance Quarter on ABC

Not For Profit likes are worth $214.81 according to this Not for Profit Benchmark social media survey.

What’s wrong with the image below? If you said “it’s created by an Ad agency that doesn’t understand social media and charges UNICEF for the privilege of alienating their community” you’d be partially right. BTW the causes they represent don’t suck. The way they go about alienating the community does. This ad is the equivalent of standing on a street corner with a cap in your hand and berating people for not giving up their coins. Even worse, it tells people off for doing EXACTLY what they are meant to do in social media – be the medium, the conduit, the C2C channel. UNICEF and their agency take the fallacious view that liking a campaign or a social object (status update/tweet) or sharing/forwarding a piece of information does nothing to increase donations. Check the JustGiving information at the bottom for a revelation in exactly how much a Facebook Like is worth in dollar terms. Shortsighted campaigns like this make it embarassing when Unicef come back later with a “please like us on Facebook” campaign to raise more awareness, donations and call to actions. You can’t have a call to action if you don’t have a community. And you have to have campaigns to keep a community involved. And you need people sharing and retweeting to grow  your community. Shock tactics like this are unworthy of organisations like UNICEF. And don’t tell me it’s just Sweden – they need a unified brand in a global Village. And don’t tell me they have top engagement worldwide – so does @BarackObama and he never talks to ANYONE on Twitter – just broadcasts. As always, your mileage may vary but remember: slactivism is a term made up by Media and simply not true. Check out RiotCleanUp or ChristChurchStudentArmy to see the opposite of “slactivism” on Facebook & Twitter.

Equivalent: Take out an ad in a newspaper gets zero donations.

The main issue for me is lazy-assed advertising. It’s easier to go for the cheap thrills, low hanging fruit, if-it-bleeds, it-leads nature of trashing a sacred cow (in this case Facebook) and attempt to take the higher moral ground. Why bother engaging with your community when you can denigrate them into donating? Just stand on a street corner berating passerbys for not donating. That works.

Where Forsman & Bodenfors, the Ad Agency behind this ahem brainwave falls down is in the absolute, undeniable, in-your-face nature of lack of undestanding on how social media can be used to create social agency by not for profits.

Compare JustGiving who are genuinely engaged with their community, who ACTUALLY know what to do with a Facebook Page that has Likes on it, besides sneer and passively aggressively suggest that “we have nothing against likes we just don’t see the value in them” type of statements. JustGiving found that a “Like” is worth 5 pounds – 1 pound more than Unicef needs for a vaccination. Go figure.

From JustGiving blog

Yesterday I spoke at the Social Media Academy’s Facebook PR & Marketing conference, and I was excited to share some new stats we had around the impact of Facebook on fundraising on JustGiving. If you’re interested in seeing an ROI on social media activity, then this post is definitely for you…

Back in September, we released an update to the site that enabled people to “recommend” JustGiving pages on Facebook (see new tools to help you raise more) using Facebook’s ‘like’ buttons. Since then, we’ve been monitoring how that has been used to drive more people to fundraising pages (and charity pages too) and updating our analytics tracking to see how many of them donated.

We can only use reliable stats from the 17th November, as that was when we updated Google analytics to track funnels better, but the results are interesting.

Here are the numbers from the 17th November to the 4th December:

5,986: the number of ‘likes’ of JustGiving fundraising pages

16,278: the number of visits to JustGiving fundraising pages from Facebook ‘like’ links

933: the number of donations from people who clicked on ‘like’ links in Facebook

Those of you who are keen on maths (who isn’t?!) will have worked out from that…

6% of visitors from ‘liked’ links on Facebook end up donating

On average, six ’likes’ are needed for one donation (the ratio of ‘likes’ to actual donations is 6:1)

One ‘like’ is effectively worth around £5 (assuming the average donation is like the rest of the site: £32)

If we extrapolate that further, and take the overall amount of 26,981 distinct ‘likes’ since their release on the 29th September and assume each is worth £5, ‘like’ buttons have generated £134,000 to charities on JustGiving in the last two months.

What do you think? Here’s JustGiving’s slideshare

Slactivism or Social Agency? Activated community vs dismissive not for profit? I cannot tell you strongly enough how I think Unicef’s approach is wrong, dangerous and out of touch. The only slightly positive note is that we are talking about Unicef. But I’m not donating.

Dont forget this is an Advertising campaign, no social media engagement expected or indeed wanted. The funny thing will be once UNICEF figures out they need Likes to get donations. Suddenly they will be less dismissive of people doing what people do – passing things on, people being channels, mediums, media. Just wait.

FYI I donated for another campaign for another not for profit that raised money by asking “top bloggers” to promote a Like/Donate campaign. I did not run that campaign but I knew people who did. 80,000 participated. Unicef, you suck.

*****

It’s often said Twitter is one of the most powerful teacher professional development tools available.

But how do you master it? What are the secrets to mastering Twitter, increasing your reach and influence, and understanding how to have Twitter serve you better?

Join social media expert, Laurel Papworth from May 28th for three very exciting social media workshops tailored specifically towards educators.

From beginner to expert, these courses will challenge and empower you. One lucky participant will have the opportunity to gain a Harvard Qualification! The person who refers the most friends to the Partners in Learning network be given a free Harvard online social media course. So tell your colleagues, tell your friends and become part of our online social revolution, who knows, you might even get your own #Hashtag.

Information about the courses

Tuesday 28th May, 4pm- Getting stated: Basic Twitter•

• Overview of Twitter and difference from Facebook, and other social media
• Filing our Your Profile, assessing Reputation Online. Your Voice Vs Organisation Voice
• The Status Update- 4 types of Tweet. Using appropriate #Hashtag and @name
• Etiquette on Twitter. Do’s and Don’ts in the Twitosphere 

Tuesday 28th May, 5pm- Intermediate: Finding and Following Key Influencers

• Who to follow? Understanding connections in Twitter for Education
• Following Key Education and Academic Influencers and how to identify and engage with them
• Building Lists from University Lecturers to Media Education Journalists to students in the classroom
• Top Education people to tweet: we’ll get started with a must-follow list!
• Topics for tweeting and developing educational campaigns/games

Tuesday 4th June, 4pm May- Advanced: Add Ons for Twitter

• What tools could you use to reduce time and manage resources?
• Reputation measurement embedded in Twitter
• Backchannels for class content and tutorials
• Automating knowledge management delivery to distributed classrooms
• Creating Newspapers from Tweets for students and staff
• Monitoring Twitter through 3rd party tools – ethics of spying and privacy
• Measuring Twitter is more than just Follower numbers: how many clicked on your link? The importance of Klout score to school leavers and graduate 

To join the sessions make sure you are registered as an Australian Partners in Learning Network member and stay tuned. Course details will be posted here soon and sent to all Australian PiL Network members.

Join here on Livestream to participate in this Twitter course.

WHEN the Twitter account of Associated Press was hacked last week, a single tweet was sent out: “Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama is injured.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 150 points in about four minutes, erasing about $150 billion of value. 

Once people looked outside and noticed that the White House was indeed still there and once AP had corrected the report, the market bounced back. The real questions are: how can a market be so vulnerable to a single tweet, is this a new situation and what should financial boffins be doing about social media?

In 2008, Twitter’s CEO Evan Williams tweeted about it being a great day in Seattle. He was blissfully ignorant that the twitterati would put two and two together and figure out that Twitter had gained funding from a Seattle venture capital company. The market responded accordingly. Clearly, even Twitter’s CEO did not understand the impact of social media.

Rumour, innuendo and conjecture about companies, investment, who’s hot, who’s not is grist for the mill in social media. No wonder the ASX updated their continuous disclosure guidelines this year to make it absolutely clear: the financial sector must monitor blogs, Twitter and Facebook to check whether details of secret deals are leaking. If a market-sensitive transaction is being discussed on social media, then the market must be informed. Monitoring social media is no longer optional for companies: it’s a legal requirement.

Which makes it all the more surprising that research by Comar Brunton into more than 500 retail investors in Australia found that 54 per cent considered that social media delivered “no real benefits” for investors. Only 5 per cent of investors said they relied on financial planners or brokers for advice: the rest of the time they back their own judgment or else listen to family, friends or the media. Perhaps they don’t realise social media is family and friends?

There are some great social media integrated dashboards available. I monitored the Toyota Prius brakes story unfold on Twitter, with the stock ticker open; it was fascinating to watch the price tumble in real time. Surely, even if the discussions are not from trusted friends and family, a large volume of strangers talking up or down a stock has to have some impact on investment strategies?

The financial sector’s biggest issue on social media is not ROI (Return on Investment) but COI (Cost of Inaction). A response — even “let me find out” — is preferable to silence.

Six years ago, when the Engadget technology blog received information that an Apple product would be delayed by three months and inquired of the company whether the rumour was valid, Apple responded with “We don’t engage with social media”. So Engadget published the rumour with Apple’s “no comment” response. Apple’s stock promptly tanked on massive selling, going from $107.89 to $103.42 in precisely six minutes. At the time, this wiped just over $4 billion off Apple’s market capitalisation. Oops. Apple now engages with social media.

If I was talking to financial advisers and they proudly declared to me that they did not monitor, leverage or engage with social media, I would grab my purse and back out of the room. Rapidly. The cost to both of us would just be too high.

Laurel Papworth is a social media educator and a member of Forbes magazine’s ‘Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers’ list globally. Twitter: @silkcharm

 First published in The Australian April 29 2013 (paywall)

A FEW days ago, I bought a DVD on Amazon.

At the end of the online checkout, Amazon thanked me for my purchase and then asked me to tweet, Facebook, LinkedIn or Google Plus the Amazon link with an image of the DVD, the price and a description.

Most of my friends have excellent taste (meaning the same interests and values as me!), so I pressed the “Tweet this Purchase” button.

Off it went. While it’s nice to have customers talking about your product and services with their friends online, raising brand awareness and hopefully providing great reviews, the ability to measure how much that tweet, Facebook share or Google Plus one is worth, is, well, priceless.

Those little “Facebook Share” and “Tweet This” buttons are starting to show real power in the emerging C2C (Customer to Customer) media channels.

ChompOn, a group-buying site similar to Living Social and Groupon, recently revealed that at the end of a purchase, if the customer “shares” the purchase on Facebook, it’s worth $14 to their business. Eventbrite, the social ticketing site, sold another $2.52 worth of tickets from an average of 11 people who clicked on the shared link. The customer is effectively signing up the next customer at zero cost.

Because people who participate in donations, fundraising and not-for-profits know each other, Just Giving discovered that if a donor shared the link, 6 per cent of clicks coming through that link would donate and that one share is worth about $8 in donations.

It’s worth noting that Facebook shares are worth dramatically more than tweeted links. Undoubtedly, this is because of the closeness of the social graph (a hundred close family and friends) on Facebook, versus the relative looseness of the connections on Twitter (several thousand acquaintances). Review sites such as Power Reviews have revealed that the value of a review shared to Facebook is $15.72.

Once the customer reviews the product and submits it online, if they then share that review socially, their friends click on the shared link, come back and purchase the product.

As for my DVD purchase on Amazon?

No one appeared to have bought a copy from my tweeted link, as far as I’m aware.

But then again, I’ve been too busy purchasing a new dress tweeted by a friend from an Etsy store to notice.

Laurel Papworth is a social media educator and a member of Forbes magazine’s ‘Top 50 Social Media Power Influencers’ list globally. Twitter: @silkcharm

First published in The Australian April 1 2013 (paywall)

Social Media is Earned Attention. The minute you have to Buy Attention you’ve really admitted that the content/story/message is not strong enough to stand on it’s own. In fact it’s crap. So hey, let’s inflict it on the customer community anyway by paying to get their attention, by yelling at them using traditional ads. Quel Surprise! The community starts yelling back.
In case you haven’t noticed, most companies do Sponsored Posts really really badly.  The ad comes through, the comments are atrocious, brand recall might be high but brand sentiment plummets. Hasn’t anyone noticed that Social Ads means that the Customer has right of Response? And the response is often “fuck off from my newsfeed”?

Sure you get 145 comments but what happens when most of them are like this: 

Harvey Norman are not the only one’s coming in for a community caning. Have a look at  Walmart’s Page:

 Facebook Users don’t care that they are Facebook’s product, not customers. They don’t care that Businesses are allowed to advertise to them. They don’t care if you have a really important event, competition, fundraiser, or promotion – just leave them alone. And they have a voice and they speak as one – leave us alone. Remember, a post that is contextually relevant to the reader is information, if it’s not, it’s spam.

Tips to write better sponsored posts on Facebook:

• Be fun not salesy. Fun posts are entertaining to the customer, sales posts are selling sh!t. Don’t be the Used Car salesman at the Party. 
• Use sponsored posts to EARN attention. In other words pay good money for the GREAT posts, and leave the dodgy one’s to sit where they belong, unloved and unclicked. 
• Be the magazine, not the ad. Even though it’s an Ad, make it about a recipe with an image of the meal, rather than an ad for the tomato paste or whatever.
• If it’s an offer, a coupon or even a competition, write the copy to be funny (promotional) or heartwarming (fundraising).
• Ask a question. Most of the comments should be people answering this question, not bitching about how this crap comes through their newsfeed.
• Respond to the comments. Seriously, how often do you see a sponsored post, with hundreds of comments and not a single one back from the corporate online community manager? Responding back will make it seem less like a bought ad, and more like engagement.
• Truly awesome images – eco housing, luxury baths with rose petals, cats doing those cute cat-like things people like, naughty sayings on Victorian postcards. Not your washing up detergent media assets.

Any other tips?

This guy at btbmedia has no idea about social media so the points he makes are very traditional marketing. He makes the point about people like Gerry above not understanding “free” use of Facebook. he misses the point that Gerry knows, doesn’t care, and will use the SAME media channels to ANTI market the Walmart Brand. But our blogger basically says that if thousands of people click on your sponsored post, what does it matter if hundreds of thousands hate it? I would say in todays market that is short term gain for long term damage but I guess time will tell. I’m not convinced all News is Good News, all PR is Good Pr, in the always on, long tail of community discourse. Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV).

One Business Page/Channel To Rule Them All. My Precioussesss. 

The images show the eery similarity between the rebranding of YouTube into OneChannel and Google Plus. Of course Google Plus could get a new name of OneChannel instead?

OneChannel To Rule Them All

AdBreak:I’ve set up a little social media community on Google Plus. Please join us? You can also connect with me on Google Plus +LaurelPapworth.

How do you go from 1/2 a billion members to over a billion in a month? Merge YouTube, Gmail and Google Plus.  YouTube has over 1 billion monthly active users, Gmail and Google Plus are both on 1/2 a billion MAUs (Monthly Active Users). In comparison Facebook has 1 billion MAUs.  One quick way to convince Business to migrate to Google Plus business pages is to bring all their customer channels together.

Imagine logging into your Google Plus profile and you have new menus on the left: Video, Mail, Places. Easy to imagine withe the Google Plus layout so similar to Youtube OneChannel and new Gmail.

Otherwise how else do you explain how much Google’s video service YouTube is looking like Google Plus these days? Compare old and new:

Then I had another look at Gmail rebranding – new compose, new bits and bobs and it occurred to me how easy it would be to just rebrand it as Google Plus.

Click to see Google Plus Circles

Merging of Google Plus Business Pages & Google Places is a no-brainer. Facebook already has merged Facebook Places and Business Pages, it makes sense not to run two separate business Pages, one for your shop and one for your shop’s location.

If  you were wondering what a Google Plus profile looks like, here’s mine. A lot like Blendtec new OneChannel profile and nothing like Cocacola old YouTube profile.  Or you can look at my YouTube channel and my Google Plus Profile.

YouTube, Gmail, Google Places are Dead, Long Live Google Plus?

1. To Get Facebook Notification RSS feed

To find your Profile RSS feed, go to > Facebook > Inbox > Notifications.

Right click on RSS and you will get the feed link: The structure of the feed is:

https://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=FACEBOOK_ID&viewer=FACEBOOK_ID&key=INTERNAL_KEY&format=rss20

2. Add Facebook Notifications to  Hootsuite

Go to Hootsuite and “Add Stream” as normal. But click on Apps (not Facebook) and add the RSS Stream App.

Now you have to edit the RSS by copying and pasting in that link into the Settings area

In other words, add YOUR RSS feed

https://www.facebook.com/feeds/notifications.php?id=FACEBOOK_ID&viewer=FACEBOOK_ID&key=INTERNAL_KEY&format=rss20

into the ADD RSS feed below (don’t forget to copy and paste the RSS feed with YOUR Facebook_ID)

3. Other Facebook RSS Feeds

it gets very tricky. Try FBRSS.com because then you can create

• Your RSS Status Feed
• A feed for each of your friends’ updates
• A feed for each Page you are interested in.

does that help?

You can follow my podcasts on iTunes http://bit.ly/smb_vid (video) or http://bit.ly/SMB_aud (audio) and YouTube Social Media Business.

A. Definitions in Social Media

Basic stuff I know, but it has to be said so we are all on the same page.

Social Objects

Social Objects are status updates, videos, infographics, discrete pieces of content that can be distributed. If social media is the medium or channel then social object is the content that travels that channel, passed hand to hand, mouth to ear, tweet to retweet, Like to Share. Your conversation calendar is probably full of statistics, and images and videos that you want to distribute via social channels.

Social Media

Media is mediums (plural). Channels. If you broadcast on social media then you are connecting with your Circulation. If they turn around and discuss it, retweet or share it, then we see Exposure/Reach. The Medium is the Customer. Think C2C channels.

B. Four Types of Status Updates for Social Media Engagement

A quick glance of any Facebook Page would show you these four I think.

1. Testimonial or Statement update

Personally we say “I’m going to the supermarket” or “I’m taking the kids to school” or “I’m having lunch”. No response required. Corporates say “we’re launching a new product”, “our CEO is happy with our end of year results”. No action required. Limited engagement.

2. Q and A or Social Search

Shift “I’m having lunch” into

• What should I have for lunch?
• What are you having for lunch?
• Where’s a good place to go for lunch in Melbourne?

and you will get a different response I think. Try this with your standard business updates – shift them to a question.

Warning: Don’t just stick a “what do you think of that?” “have you seen this cool….?” on the end of every tweet and Facebook Page update. Be wary of “finish this sentence” sort of questions – can be disaster!   Make the question timely and relevant.

3. Social or Discussion

On Twitter we use the @name for a reason – to bring that person into the conversation. Simply placing content online does not guarantee discussion -try bringing in relevant people. On Facebook personally we can use +LaurelPapworth and the same works on Google Plus.  By naming people “tagging them” they can be pinged with interesting content. Do NOT do this simply to promote e.g. @SilkCharm here’s a special offer you’d love. Because I wouldn’t. But sending someone a report or analytics or an infographic or a newspaper article definitely will build relationships. Generosity. Think Paying it Forward. If you haven’t retweeted someone, answered their question don’t even THINK of sending them a press release and ask them to tweet it. You can @Name thankyou occasionally for good manners!

WARNING: some senior execs seem to sit on Twitter and just say thankyou to people. That’s not really engagement – none of these 4 types of udpates can sit in isolation. You need all four.

4. Distribution of content -external and internal

A key mechanism of social channels is distribution (not creation) of content. Finding, Filtering and Forwarding (not blogging). Or Discovering, Discussing, Distributing (not creating an original YouTube video).

INTERNAL: sharing something on Facebook, retweeting something on Twitter. In other words, you forward it on the network you are using. Particularly useful is forwarding key influencer material, or client issues. Remember: invest your time in the channels where you customers invest their time. That may or may not mean LinkedIn or Google Plus.

EXTERNAL: sharing something from offsite into the network. Finding an interesting blog post and tweeting the link. Putting up a YouTube video on Facebook. Try and think reciprocal  sharing with key social media influencers rather than tweeting your own links ad nauseum.

Be the Magazine, not the Advertisement.

You are a Media company now.  Think about magazines – they find content, quotes, articles and publish them and then wrap the promotions around that content. Don’t just stick up “Buy One, Get One Free” offers or “enter our competition” Facebook update. Then you are an advertisement channel, not a content channel.

Internal to facebook and twitter it’s pretty easy to pass on information from your network to your network. Just click “On a Page you manage” then choose the Business Page.

Distribution is the quickest way to build influence and a following – become a news distributor!

Don’t try to fool people. Coles is full of “content” but it looks like ads masquerading as content. e.g.

Let minestrone soup with tomato, basil & mozzarella panini from Curtis warm you up. bit.ly/YYTwlR #ColesRecipes

— Coles Supermarkets (@Coles) April 16, 2013

It links to a Coles site and their own content. If you stick with distributing your own content, you won’t be part of the community. Notice the lonely little bubble in the top left corner? Don’t be that bubble!

Notice that each ripple can be within it’s own network (Facebook or Twitter) but can also jump to another one – what goes up on YouTube can be blogged, tweeted and facebooked.

Your updates should be cross pollinating content from your different streams, and acknowledging social content too. Don’t get ratty if key influencers don’t share your stuff when you don’t share theirs!

I know this stuff is a bit basic for some of you, but go look at the Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts of many Australian businesses and you’ll see it’s all promotion promotion promotion. No conversation diary, no acknowledgement of good content, no recognition of key influencers, no social search and give and take. And that’s disgraceful. Pass this on to a company you think needs to pull their little socks up please?

Traditional media is meant to be impartial but currently is using sponsored “columns” written by banks to bolster up the likes of Australian Financial Review. Corporate media is throwing a lot of money at “owning their own channel” e.g. their own tv station, magazines and podcasts yet can we trust corporate media? Social media is often seen as opinionated rants – certainly not impartial like trad media – yet can bring many channels into the conversation. In the video I ask about the sacking of a journalist who was outspoken about sponsored columns in newspapers and also about having my corporate media article accepted and then rejected on the grounds the CEO didn’t use social media. The perils of losing traditional media to corporate media and ending up with Mongrel Media.

PS That was the best thumbnail for a video. Ever. PS my iTunes channel is http://bit.ly/smb_vid

I put a bunch of questions in the video as I think G Paddy Manning (@GPaddyManning) (see background here) has brought up an important issue. I personally think it’s too late, the seepage of Corporate Comms into Traditional Media started years ago when the first journo, running late, under resourced, published a press release as an article and said “ah well, it was written by an ex-journo and I have nothing else to add anyway”.

Censored Media

All media is censored media. Stands to reason – the content and tone and underlying purpose has to be filtered for that audience. Fin Review would (should?) reject a fluff piece on The Voice, Womans Day would reject an indepth analysis of banking regulations in Australia. Not write or wrong, just matching content to channel/audience.

I wrote a piece on why CEOs should be on Twitter for Unnamed Corporate Media (their magazine, they paid me to write). They chose not to publish it in the end because their CEO wasn’t on Twitter. Traditional Media wouldn’t have done made that decision. Or would they? Maybe a big advertiser could have had the article pulled? Somehow I doubt it, not for this fluffyness.

Traditional Media – Bought Media

Traditional media owns their own channel so companies need to buy attention of the audience. In other words Media have the content/articles/shows, Organisations have the advertisement/Press Release/Promotion. Traditional media needs to stay impartial so that the consumer accepts the ads along with the content. The minute the channel becomes polluted with advertorials and infomercials (ads as content) we get confused, annoyed and it diminishes the brand.

However Traditional Media is dying in it’s heritage state and evolving into a earned/corporate media. How does that sit with you? Will we lose impartiality?

Corporate Media – Owned Media

Instead of taking an ad to a content aggregator (newspaper or TV), Corporates build their own channel. This can be a enewsletter or their own TV station (airlines bring in sponsored podcasts and TV shows) or a magazine you can pick up at the front desk. This is NOT brochures or catalogues (pure commercial) – I’m talking about creating a magazine not the Ad!

Advertorial – Bought AND Owned Media

4ME accepts TV shows from Corporate Media e.g. Melbourne Property from Real Estate Institute of Australia and realestate.com.au  this is majority owned by News.com)

And Evening News accepts information shows from Commonwealth bank.

Oh and sitting on a Qantas flight, I was stunned at the 30-odd pages on Mining in their magazine. One Industry spokesperson buying another Corporate’s owned media channel? No wonder the money is not going into Fairfax or Channel Ten.

QUESTION: I need really really really good examples of Corporate Media. Particularly any where you BUY the magazine, or TV show etc. but not necessarily. Can just have great content, or a big readership etc. Got one? 

Social Media – Earned Media

Given that Media means mediums/channels, I don’t think social media is about content at all.  It’s about the viewer/participant/reader/customer turning around and becoming a channel. C2C if you will. As such, the person who receives the content or social object needs to be ‘engaged’ enough to turn around and Like it, Share it, Comment on it, Retweet it, Blog it, YouTube a video about it, LinkedIn it, Google Plus it.

Death to Mongrel Media! Awww no wait!

The minute they do, they’ve forwarded the content into their own channel for you. Earning attention from Customer to Host is pretty hard, getting them to do the whole Customer to Customer thing is even tougher.

Mongrel Media

Use your corporate media (YouTube team, enewsletter, press release from Corporate Comms) to negotiate with traditional media time on air as “information” not “advertisement” such as reflecting on stock prices, or expert du jour opinions.  Ask for feedback on Twitter and Facebook Pages to incite discussion that will push the content into the customer networks. Mongrel wrapped up in different channels.

Mixing Mediums is not new: Tourism Australia “Best Job in the World” was a mixed media campaign of social engagement and traditional advertising. But I think Corporate Comms writing our News and educational articles in the future is a) scary and b) inevitable. And only Social might might get organised in time to stop it before we get swamped. What say you?