Wolfstar: public relations, social media and word of mouth

Social media and the most important man in the world.

Tom Southgate — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:23:42 +0000

Now the maelstrom surrounding the US presidential elections has subsided, it only seems right to try and work out what impact, if any, social media had on electing the most powerful man in the world.It would be extremely nice to think that the countless blog posts both from the major protagonists and countless armchair pundits had an impact on the outcome of the election. A brief glance at the statistics does indicate that the Obama campaign was the more effective at gaining influence on the internet. Indeed, a recent report from Hitwise suggested that 88% of all internet traffic surrounding the Presidential election was directed towards Obama’s blog, compared with just 12% towards McCain’s.

The most obvious outcome of the difference in exposure can be shown in the differences in funding between the two candidates. Obama managed to raise $639 million through equal amounts of donations both large and small. By contrast, the McCain campaign only managed to raise $360 million. This was, in part, due to McCain’s decision to opt into the public financing system, restricting him to $84 million of public money to fund his campaign, with no private donations accepted after the 1^st September. The gap does reflect an overdependence of McCain on traditional means of raising donations through established channels such as individual donations from Republican party members, and sympathetic business. This difference has other implications. He was not gaining visitors to his blog on the scale of Obama, and was missing out on potentially important secondary and tertiary feedback from the electorate. The ability to comment on Obama’s blog directly, or to use other aspects of social netorking like Twitter to comment about him and his policies provided invaluable feedback on policy, and allowed him to tailor his message towards the electorate.

Was the failing of McCain and his campaign team to appreciate the impact social media can have the reason why he lost the election? At first, it appears to coincide nicely, but does this stand up to closer scrutiny. McCain’s ignorance was a clever move, the sign of a shrewd operator. Obama had portrayed himself as a candidate that was modern and aware of the times. He was one of the youngest Presidential candidates in history. At 71, McCain was 24 years older than his opponent, and appeared as the grand old man of American politics, a man who’d been there and done it all before, fighting against a man who still looked wet behind the ears.

With this image in the public’s imagination, McCain’s image could have been damaged by embracing social networking. McCain using Facebook is like your grandad using it, just a little bit too scary to believe. This seems bourne out by the fact that McCain’s Facebook page has only 602,000 supporters, whilst Obama’s page on the same site has more than three million. This gives weight to the notion that Obama’s age was instrumental in gaining support from the younger half of the electorate. With this in mind, it could be argued that a stronger presence within the social networking community would not have made any noticable difference to the McCain campaign, no amount of twittering could change his age.

However, there is a flip side to this. Surely, a stronger presence on social networking sites would have emphasised his willingnesss to communicate in new ways, ensuring his appeal to a younger demographic and stealing Obama’s spotlight. This might not have won him the election, but it would certainly have gone a long way towards spreading his and his party’s appeal among a newly politicised American generation.

However, a key part of McCain’s appeal was his image as an elder statesman. An important element of this was his experience in Vietnam. Internment for five and a half years left him physically unable to move his hands above his shoulders, and severly limited his ability to use a computer. Despite this, it does not seem beyond the realms of possibility that his aides could act on his behalf. Although writing in someone else’s name does break a golden rule, his opinions could easily have dictated his musings. This might have bent the rules, but certainly wouldn’t break them, and would at least give an online presence and would provide the ‘blogosphere’ with something to talk about, and provide him with valuable feedback.

A further important point is how the Obama campaign was able to transfer the online benefits of social networking into small town America. The campaign was revolutionary in the flexibility it gave to Obama’s election offices throughout the country. People were simply told what the message was, then given free reign to pass it on. This lack of top-down control enabled word of mouth messages to be spread quickly and easily. This is in sharp contrast to the McCain campaign, which operated a much more inflexible system, relying on fewer, larger offices to get the same message across.

Perhaps we should not be surprised that the ability of social media to make a difference to the outcome of the election was extremely limited. The very nature of the internet means that people who read and commented on Obama’s blog would not necessarily be eligible to vote. Furthermore, to suggest that social media was the defining factor behind Obama’s victory would be dangerous. Doing so would ignore all other factors behind the result, from American dissatisfaction with the Republican foreign policy and a candidate committed to supporting an unpopular war on the McCain side, to a candidate that presented himself as a fresh start prepared to change America.

Faced with this opposition, it seems fair to suggest that social media was not able to change the outcome, merely emphasise the ideas that were already held by those who made the final decision, the American public.

Introducing… Tom Southgate

Tom Southgate — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 12:25:14 +0000

Hi, my name’s Tom Southgate. I graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in Political Studies in 2008. I chose Politics because I didn’t know what I wanted to do when I graduated, but hoped I’d find something I liked while I was there. The thought of studying a subject where there are no right or wrong answers, only opinions to be supported and ideas to be debated also appealed.

This plan worked well, and following the suggestion of a friend, I decided that PR was for me. Over the course of my second year, I convinced said friend that turning him into ‘Community Man,’ making him wear yellow tights and brown underpants would be an extremely vital part of his campaign to be elected The Leeds University Union’s Community Secretary.

After a fruitless year of applying for graduate PR jobs, I realised that to get onto the ladder, work experience is sorely needed. While I was applying for work experience and waiting nervously for my degree result, I filled my summer with cricket, cider and camping. I was eventually lucky enough to find some work experience two award winning PR Agencies in London; Parker, Wayne and Kent and Tonic Life Communications. In my time there, I attended events that ranged from the Global-Mix Streaming Media Conference, to the launch of 1001 Inventions at the Houses of Parliament. After a month in London, I came back to Manchester and found a placement at Wolfstar.

When I’m not looking for work or work experience, I can be found doing everything from listening to the latest Fabric podcast when I’m out for a run, beating my friends on Pro Evolution Soccer as my beloved Manchester City, trying in vain to win my local pub quiz or curled up in front of the fire with a good book, pipe and slippers not included.

Are PR degrees worth it? The survey!

Stuart Bruce — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:42:42 +0000

As a follow-up to Jed’s post asking “Is a public relations degree worth it?” we’ve put together a quick survey to find out what you all think. I’d be grateful if you could spend a couple of minutes to answer and we’ll publish the results later next week. Click Here to take survey.

BarcampUKGovweb09

Stuart Bruce — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 08:27:16 +0000

BarcampUKGovweb09 is set to take place on January 29.

I missed last year’s successful event, but definitely want to try and attend this one. We’ve also got some clients that I think might be interested in participating.

Technorati Tags: barcampukgovweb09

Is a public relations degree worth it?

Stuart Bruce — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 17:59:42 +0000

Over on his personal blog at Rock Star PR Jed Hallam has sparked quite a debate (20 comments at the time of writing this) on the value of PR degrees. If you haven’t already seen it you should check it out and add your comments. I’ve added mine and reproduced it below:

“Wow Jed, what a response. Where do I start to add my comments as a lot of it has already been said.

I suppose my answer would be it depends. I’m a very firm believer in the value of PR qualifications and certainly anyone with less than about ten years’ experience has to offer me something ’special’ to counter the fact they don’t have one. When I first graduated I paid personally to put myself through completing the CAM Diploma in PR as weekend classes.

I think the real value of PR degrees isn’t necessarily when you first start work. Some of the technical skills can reasonably be learnt ‘on the job’. It gets more useful a few years later when the really good PR students tend to be the ones that become best at seeing strategic comms within the overall business and organisational context.

I also very much agree with David Brain’s comment about the importance of ‘extra-curricular’ stuff on a CV. What most impresses me, regardless of what degree someone has done, is what else they’ve done over and above what they had to. On a PR degree you have to get some experience, either as a year out or during the degree. That don’t impress me much. What does is what you’ve done for your student union, a local charity, community or pressure group, a political party - you get the idea. I want people who are willing to put something back into society because you want to, not because you have to. If people can’t be bothered then Wolfstar definitely isn’t the best place for them to start job hunting!”

Blogger relations tips from Womma’s Andy Sernovitz

Stuart Bruce — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 17:54:12 +0000

Andy Sernovitz has an interesting post on ‘How to get a blogger to write about you’. As well his advice on the correct and incorrect approach he also has some comments on hiring a PR company to manage blogger relations. I’ve commented on Andy’s blog, but thought it was worth expanding on them here:

1. Hire a firm with proven, long-term, personal relationships with the bloggers

This sounds good until you start to analyse it and realise that it would be almost impossible for a client to actually find a public relations firm that had relationships with the specific bloggers it needs to have a relationship with. Most clients that we work with what us to advise them on what the relevant blogs for their industry, sector or products are. Sometimes the answer will be blogs that at least one person in our team knows well. In other cases we’ll be operating in a new space and the challenge and enjoyment is exploring it and really getting to understand it, before ever engaging in blogger outreach. To expect a client to find a public relations company that already has relationships with “the” client’s specific bloggers is asking the impossible.

What is right is that if you’re hiring a PR firm to do blogger relations then you must make sure it has done it before and that it’s team totally embraces, lives and breathes social media. Check out the team’s social media profiles and ‘rankings’ before you appoint them. Don’t fall for appointing a PR company that only superficially uses social media and has set-up blog and Twitter accounts etc just to show that they are ‘doing it’.

2. Supervise them very, very closely

I understand why Andy is saying this – there are so many examples of PR firms doing social media and blogs really badly. However, just supervising them closely isn’t going to make much difference as it assumes the client knows what to do. Most don’t, that’s why whey hire PR consultants as advisors, because the consultants have more experience and expertise. That’s the main point about hiring a consultancy is that they know more about it than you do.

3. Insist on complete disclosure of the relationship

On this one I totally agree with Andy. But it is no less than is required by trade and professional associations such as the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), Womma and WOM UK.

4. Do NOT let them delegate the job to a junior account exec

This is a very nice idea, but totally unrealistic as many clients might not have the budget to just have senior folk do the work. What you do need to do is assess the calibre of the whole team that will work on your account and look at what training and other quality control processes are in place.

5. Review every email that is being sent on your behalf

In my view this is just the same as point 2 and just doesn’t make sense. Indeed it could back fire very badly with the client trying to put some of the marketing hype back in, that the PR consultancy has taken out!

A good rule of thumb: Do not trust someone to pitch a blogger for you who has never eaten food with the blogger.

A good sound bite, but not such a good rule of thumb.

If your PR firm embarrasses your company, you take the reputation hit forever. They move on to the next client.

Too true, that’s why you need to have the right public relations company to advise you on social media and blogger relations.

Speaking at Marketing Live Conference in Bratislava

Stuart Bruce — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 17:33:27 +0000

My next speaking gig is at the Marketing Live Conference in Bratislava. I’ll be speaking about word of mouth marketing and social media.

Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media

Stuart Bruce — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:38:28 +0000

The Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media conference is having another outing and I’m on the bill. Conference producer Andy Wake says:

“The Don’t Panic Guide to Social Media takes place at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester on Friday 5 December and will examine the strategic opportunities and benefits of new media and online PR alongside a wealth of case studies. Some of the hottest names in UK PR will be travelling to the city. Full details on the conference can be found as a PDF on the Don’t Panic website.”

Wolfstar wins outstanding small consultancy of the year

Chris Norton — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 09:58:39 +0000

Last night, the Wolfstar team spent the evening at the Queens Hotel in Leeds. We went out on mass to the CIPR’s Pride Awards as we were short listed for the Outstanding Small Consultancy of the Year. I am delighted to say we managed to win and I am extremely proud of all of the team as their hard work is now really starting to pay off.

Wolfstar has only been going for around 18 months now and we have managed to grow from three people to more than nine (we were less than five when we wrote the submission) – so it looks like we may have to go for the larger version of this award next year.

Free Starbucks coffee if you vote today

Stuart Bruce — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 10:04:32 +0000

Excellent word of mouth marketing initiative by a brand promoted using social media by Starbucks, who are saying “If you care enough to vote, we care enough to give you a free cup of coffee.” Simply brilliant. Will be even better if Starbucks use their global dominance to repeat the move for elections in other countries. It won’t look so brilliant if they don’t.

Via Media Culpa

Technorati Tags: WOM, social media