I really think more businesses are starting to ‘get’ the potential of social media and the way in which some businesses are using it is very impressive and clever.
For instance, we can all agree that the @BigPondTeam has really done some great things leveraging Twitter. Twitter is the perfect channel for having a whinge and I know from personal experience how some people love to whinge about Telstra and BigPond (I used to work at a Telstra Shop many moons ago). Then all of a sudden this big corporation replies to your frustrated tweet (and pretty quickly, I’ll add), asking if they can help. What? Is this the same company where people complain about being on hold for what seems like hours at a time?
The biggest surprise was the goodwill it generated quickly among Twitter and the trend of users going directly to the BigPond or Telstra Twitter profiles with problems instead of calling up or visiting a Telstra Shop.
Similarly, @StarlightCinemas decided to give away some free tickets to help promote their outdoor cinemas using Twitter. Not only does this work online, as winners are likely to engage and report via various profiles if they won but they are also likely to go offline and tell friends, family and colleagues they won, who will then ask them how it went. Basically driving word-of-mouth on and offline – so simple and yet so effective. I would love to know if their social media activity coincided with an increase in numbers for this year’s season.
Onya Magazine: a web zine (and in late 2010 a bi-annual print one too) all about Australian people, businesses, culture, sports, places, beauty, fashion, environment, politics, lifestyle, music, issues, arts and ideas. It aims to be a hub of inspiration and information for its readers.
It’s now time to turn the page on 2009 and focus on the year ahead: 2010, year of the Tiger. In Chinese tradition, the Tiger is smart, determined and socially oriented. It doesn’t mind a challenge and is thrilled to be in new places.
So with this in mind, the start of the new year is a great time to review your business plan and explore areas of growth for 2010. One way to do this is by bringing your team together and looking at what is called a ‘blue ocean’ strategy.
Explore the blue ocean
The Ansoff growth matrix (below) is a tool that helps businesses decide their product and market growth strategy. Businesses located on the left hand column compete in an existing market where they have to constantly beat the competition and exploit the existing demand. It can be a comfortable and safe place to be.
On the right hand column, the blue ocean is a space of innovation and little competition. It can help build brands. Businesses in that space are creating and capturing new demand and making their competition irrelevant. Although more challenging and risky than working with existing products, the blue ocean can bring most rewards when executed well.
I’m constantly being asked by friends, family and colleagues – What is the point of Twitter? To be frank I actually thought the same thing when it was first introduced to me.
I couldn’t work out why anyone would want to know about the mundane aspects of my life! I still hold to that philosophy but I can now see both a business and social application for the ever popular Twitter.
Businesses that use Twitter well are those that use it both to disseminate information but also to respond to customers queries. Telstra Bigpond is one company that comes to mind. @BigpondTeam I suggest you give them a try if you are having any service issues. Just tweet about your issue and see how fast they respond.
In all the current debate (for debate read hysteria) about climate change there is an elephant in the room that has gone largely unnoticed.
It’s over population and despite what we do about limiting our CO2 emissions, if we can’t stabilise or reduce the population of the planet; it seems to me that these efforts will be largely wasted.
A few years ago my client was the Freedom from Hunger Campaign which was a campaign connected with the World Health Organisation concerned with helping the world’s hungriest nations to feed themselves, not reply on handouts.
At one stage it held the Australian record of the greatest amount of money raised in one-day doorknock appeal.
The need to stabilise the population was very much part of this effort and not much seems to have happened to the two major causes of uncontrolled population growth, namely the lack of social welfare in the world’s poorest countries that creates the need for people to have many children so that some will survive to support them in their old age or religious dogma that forbids contraception.
My prediction is that when the dust settles in Copenhagen, the next big headline will be over population.
I overheard two business colleagues speaking late last year in a networking session. The first one said across the table “It’s the year of the tiger next year, isn’t it?”. The second one who happens to be of Chinese descent agreed and from that moment onwards I knew 2010 was going to be a great year.
If you’ve looked at the DRPR website you’ll notice that it features a tiger and although it started out as a design element, over time we’ve adopted it as our mascot. Hence I was extremely excited when I found out that we are about to enter the year of the tiger.
From a revenue perspective we had a pretty difficult second half of 2009 and are completely focused on 2010 and the possibilities it is already bringing us.
I know it’s a bit a cliché but gee this year seems to have flown by, and we now find ourselves just two sleeps away from the annual visit from Santa.
I, like so many other people have spent lots of money buying gifts for friends and family and then crossing my fingers that they’ll be enjoyed and used by their recipients.
Often it’s the unexpected gifts that are the most appreciated and that’s why I wanted to reflect on the generosity of so many people in helping me raise $3,500 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) in the past few months.
Many of you will know that I took up road cycling last year so I could participate in the JDRF Ride for a Cure in January 2009 and again this year I put my hand up and said I’d participate in the ride that takes place in the Barossa Valley on Saturday, 16 January 2010 (just over three weeks away).
Back in August I started my fundraising efforts and was touched every time I received a donation. I’ve nearly raised the $3,500 and it’s been solely through the generosity of my family, friends and business colleagues. All I did was send emails throughout my network asking for help.
The beauty, peace and serenity of the Blue Mountains formed the perfect backdrop to what was deemed DRPR’s best offsite meeting to date.
Last week the team escaped to a quaint cottage in Bullaburra for a day of strategic planning for the year to come. With everyone focused, a hefty agenda to plough through and ideas and creativity flowing in abundance, the team ended the day with energy levels going through the roof – 2010 is shaping up to be an exciting year for DRPR.
Aside from a definite focus on strategy and business growth development, team bonding played a significant role with wines by the fireplace, a bush walk, shopping and the all important devonshire tea adding to a very pleasant Blue Mountains experience.
However not only were there plenty of laughs and great memories to take away from the weekend, each staff member also left with a prestigious award under their belt.
School’s out for 2009 and it got me thinking about my own education. I’ve only been in the PR business for about two years and while sometimes I would love that to mean I am in my early 20s, that is not the case.
I returned to study when I was 25 when I decided a career in retail wasn’t going to cut it and threw myself into a communications degree at the University of the Sunshine Coast.
Firstly I want to clear up that the uni I went to was great. Small class numbers, good lecturers, good facilities and plenty of opportunities. So this post isn’t commenting about how inadequate my uni was.
Rather, it’s about how much I didn’t learn at uni about the world of PR and that in most cases, experience is the best teacher.
I definitely can think of a few subjects that should be added to every PR curriculum, like:
How not to piss off a journalist
Online, online, online. There are too many subjects to list regarding online but mainly how to prevent an online faux pas and the subsequent bagging on Mumbrella.
The importance of decent high resolution images and what high res actually means
Client relationships – how to get them and keep them happy
How to work with marketers from a PR perspective
Business deals, the best ones are made over lunch
How to explain PR when you’re at a party and people just don’t seem to understand what it is that you do.
Posted by jogitsham 
