the Social Communicator

For years we’ve noticed the rapid change of the PR industry. As traditional media outlets have moved online, and many even shut down traditional print operations, readers are rapidly shifting towards Internet consumption instead of the hard-copy.

With this migration, our industry has had to quickly evolve, learn new skills and take the show on the digital highway. We’ve begun creating digital PR campaigns that span traditional media relations and outreach, byline articles and press releases; all the way to social media and customer activation programs. But in order to prove our worth, we’ve relied more and more on Internet metrics to track rewards.

But what if the metrics and tools we’re using have an inherent flaw in their accounting? Could we be creating our own demise by cooking the books with estimates and assumptions of accuracy, without someone holding these tools accountable? Could we be creating our own Enron?

Perhaps.

In our quest to engage consumers, when strapped for characters in a Twitter-centric communications model, we’ve adopted a range of link shorteners which are supposed to be giving us raw metrics of interactivity. However, a colleague of mine recently pointed out a key flaw in these shortening sites.

One such site, Bit.ly, is the flagship for the industry and is the shortener of record for such sites like the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and even CNN. But for these organizations that rapidly moved to Internet distribution models (and have substantial advertising dollars associated with impressions and clicks) all of them may be getting short-changed in their traffic accounting.

Essentially, there’s no way to ensure that the reporting that the site gives you is 100% accurate, unless you validate it against your own server/host statistics – which could take hours of analysis to validate links and originating URLs.

What this means is that without sufficient tools to accurately measure the success of our campaigns (to the individual person), we’re trusting our reputation, and making assumptions on our clients’ reputations, on false numbers. From hand’s-on accounting and click monitoring, I’ve noticed the disparity of tracking from many of the links I’ve shared on Twitter, Facebook, this blog and other sites where I contribute.

So the question is, how do we raise the bar of accountability and ensure that we’re getting the best statistics? Here are a few tools that could give us a leg-up:

• Urchin - This wonderful toolbox from Google has given developers, site managers and campaign analysts one of the most accurate measurement tools to install on your servers and run from any desktop.
• Tiny.CC – This alternative to Bit.ly (which was recently banned and reinstated from Twitter [likely because they use Bit.ly as their default shortener]) easily shows every click and origination for any link generated
• Tweetburner - another link shortener has simple click tracks that measures each visitor
• “+” – yes I just put a plus sign there. In-fact, you should do the same by placing it at the end of any Bit.ly link yourself and see the disparity of actual clicks.

I’m not opposed to people continuing to use Bit.ly or any other link shortener like ow.ly or goo.gl or whatever else you find. Just know that if we’re trying to claim credibility for our campaigns, we better have credible data.

Courtesy Paramount Pictures

Typically, our year starts and ends with CES. Quickly, thereafter, we’re planning for and attending 3GSM, RSA, DEMO, ISC, CTIA, OMMA, NAB, ITEC, ASIS, GDC, INTEROP, SIGGRAPH, I/ITSEC and a few more along the way. There’s the hassle of traveling through SFO, OAK, SJC, LAS, LAX, JFK, ORD, ORL PDX, DCA and the occasional swing through DEN, SLC, ATL or HOU as you change planes.

It’s the proverbial alphabet soup of tech PR tradeshow staffing.

Most clients understand that there’s someone else other than the regular salesforce on the floor, who keeps pulling you aside to speak with someone donning either a “Media” or “Analyst” badge. As PR folks, we pride ourselves in not only keeping you busy with meetings, and seamlessly becoming an extension of your team.

Sometimes, I feel like people don’t understand the amount of work that goes into a good show. So, if you’re unaware of some of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into helping to create a knockout tradeshow, here’s the skinny:

Planning for the events begins months ahead of time. We’re coordinating with our clients to know what announcements we’re going to launch at the show. We’re ensuring that we’re all registered for the event, floor space is acquired, and that I&D houses are developing our booths. We secure the attending media list and send out “Save the Date” messages to reporters to start scheduling meetings. We draft our press releases; get them routed with our clients, and sometimes partners, for review.

A few weeks out, we coordinate and sometimes arrange the travel, lodging, and shipping of materials. Then, we develop backgrounders and press materials for briefings, build out a tradeshow book and confirm all of the scheduled meetings. Next, we host pre-briefings in advance of the event to ensure that there’s news breaking when the doors open.

Then the fun begins. Your release goes out, and the doors open for 2-4 days of on-your-feet staffing at the booth, answering questions from attendees while you’re constantly on the hunt for media badges. You shuffle your executives from one interview to the next, emailing press kits from your Blackberry, coordinating rescheduled briefings on the fly, and somewhere in there we scarf a Clif Bar for lunch. Then, we often get to staff a mixer or reception that runs until midnight, before passing out in a hotel bed.

It’s an exhilarating environment to be constantly on the move, and it’s great to see the barrage of good coverage that comes from a show. But, we truly put in lot of work to make sure it’s a hit.

To date, I’ve been through 30 airports, slept in maybe 60 hotels and ridden in over 400 cabs. I’ve racked-up a boat-load of frequent flier miles and Marriot points, and I still have 30 years to retirement. But rest assured, on my next trip I’ll be just as prepared, organized and ready to do it all again with a smile.

If you read my last post, you’d know that I recently started thinking about the next wave of social media innovation, and how video will play a big part in the newest platforms. One of the things that amazes me most about video, is its power to invoke change, more than any other platform.

For example, Google recently started a campaign to have people submit videos of their ideas or of innovation in use. From their CFO dancing like a fool (or a b-boy pretending to be him) to simple ideas that can have real impact on populations, video is a unique tool in conveying ideas.

As a communications vehicle, it leaves less to the imagination for the viewer and allows for a quicker connection with the audience. It’s the same reason that movies have such a bigger ‘wow’ factor than written word, in that it’s a multi-sensory experience.

Today, in my quest for lunchtime entertainment, I found a YouTube video posted today, that really hits the nail on the head. Sure, it’s a simple lost and found video, but it conveys so much more.

First, we get to know the character of the person who made it. We know he’s a father who seems to be a genuinely nice guy. Secondly, through his word choices, on-screen demeanor and situational candor, he gains our trust. And lastly, through the visual nonverbal communication, we’re able to realize the sincerity in his plea.

If this isn’t proof that video might be the impetus to change and the vehicle for true innovation, I’d like to see what you think rivals its power.

Today, I had the good fortune of catching a bite to eat with two of our younger team members. In the midst of our chow mein and orange chicken, I decided to open my gift of mass-produced Chinese wisdom…my fortune cookie.

It’s not often that I actually get a fortune that’s worth sharing, without the words “in bed” muttered afterwards, but this one was rather poignant for a tech PR guy. It read:

“Be innovative, take charge of new ideas. 6-24-32-36-45″

Lucky numbers aside (they failed to win tonight), it’s a rather powerful statement. Many people like to think they’re innovative, when they marginally improve an old idea, but it’s still an old idea. True innovation lies in discovering something completely new, and owning it, developing it, and making it something that actually has an impact.

I had a discussion with one of my lunch buddies about where we thought the biggest social media innovation will lie in 2011. We jarred about a few simple improvements to existing platforms, but one thing really stood out.

Video.

With the introduction of cellphones with HD capabilities, Flip cameras for under $100, and laptops that have built in video chat utilities, video is likely to be the next platform to spark true innovation. It’s attainable and becoming more user-friendly and will quickly be a part of our instant-consumption or broadcast culture.

So, along the lines of owning ideas, we decided to come up with the top 3 ideas for applications that we could see in the next year:

1. Video micro-blogging – Twitter entered us into an age of the 140 character text posts about where we are, and what we’re doing/thinking/consuming. Video provides us with the immediacy of thought, without having to type. Qik is a good start, and likely we’ll see a video-only platform for micro-blogging coming forth soon.
2. Contextual video search – Sure, you can Google for videos, but wouldn’t it be great if the videos were actually crawled by the bots to let you search the content of the video? Live transcoding and speech-recognition captioning will easily make this dream a reality.
3. eLearning 2.0 – For a few years, teachers have been searching for ways to improve distance learning opportunities for students who live in remote locations, or are on non-traditional schedules. Companies like Adobe, Citrix and Cisco have developed excellent collaboration platforms, but something needs to involve student participation, private video groups and the ability to manage assignments for individual classes/sections. Incorporating the best of social media with the immediacy of video consumption will help provide better student outcomes and create new co-learning opportunities.

These are our preliminary ideas for what’s on the horizon. What do you think? Where’s the next big idea?