Et la guerre se poursuit

Je suis encouragée par le changement d'attitude que je remarque, autant chez mes clients que chez mes collègues: nous sommes de plus en plus nombreux, ici au Québec, à nous réveiller aux nouvelles réalités imposées par les médias sociaux.

Je rencontre de plus en plus de clients allumés, qui comprennent le phénomène et qui songent y investir les budgets nécessaires.

Après près de 2 ans de négociation ardue, j'ai enfin réussi à convaincre la SQPRP que l'association doit offrir des ateliers en Web 2.0 à ses membres. Une nouvelle série sera enfin inaugurée cet automne par Marc Snyder (détails à suivre). Merci, Marc. D'autres nouveautés dans cette même veine s'annoncent.

Si le Québec accuse présentement un retard dans ce domaine, c'est peut-être que le marché n'est pas encore prêt. Mais quand il le sera, je le serai aussi.

Le travail d'évangélisation est très loin d'être terminé, mais tranquillement, à force d'en faire, on y arrivera peut-être.

Webcast of the Day : Wikinomics

A big thanks to UdM's Robert Gérin-Lajoie for this heads up.

Don Tapscott, founder of the New Paradigm think tank and co-author of Wikinomics presents a great primer for anyone who still needs convincing that social media is a passing fad. The demographic discussion is very well presented. Wake up call for PR practitioners, marketing reps and corporate heads who hope to 'talk' to the some 80 million members of the Echo generation who are coming of age.

How the Smartest Companies Create Value in the Age of Mass Collaboration.

Available in various formats here.

Ah, the gems one gathers at YULBiz. Merci Robert.

Webcasts of the day : My summaries

I'm torn between 2 webcasts this afternoon :

2pm: PR Newswire's Authentic Communications: Examining Social Media and the Online Conversation

3pm: Vocus : Maneuvering the New Media Landscape (archived through Vocus homepage)

... so I listened to a bit of both.

Some interesting points raised in each:

Authentic Communications: the Facebook case

- Larry Harris, EVP Integrated Marketing, DraftFCB, working with Facebook, claims that the company's annual marketing budget is $500 -- and says that's spent on BBQ -- Facebook is completely driven by word-of-mouth.

- Harris feels the share feature in Facebook allows a properly set-up marketing link to work very well.

- In Facebook, you get three strikes before you're removed as a user - but in reality, the community itself is best at policing itself. Authentication and bond to a 'real world' community helps Facebook's credibility.

- Facebook was launched in Feb 2004 as an online version of Harvard's print version Facebook by one of its students - it was immediately successful with requests from other universities for a similar service resulting in corporate launch.

- There are 13 million unique active users as of today on Facebook - 3rd in Canada behind Microsoft and Google.

- More than a billion and a half photographs are stored on Facebook. Users have the capability to remove photos of themselves posted by other users, if tagged.

- The average freshman will spend an average of 2.5 hours setting up his or her profile and choose to provide personal information including room and phone numbers.

- Groups like athletic departments regularly ban member participation in social networks, fearing negative PR, but Facebook's privacy settings are reassuring to these groups. Consequently, Facebook has 1/3 of their user's mobile phone numbers.

- Chris Kelly, Facebook VP describes it as : Unparalleled access to information about the people around you -- an efficient tool to work with your real world community (ex: status updates)

- Kelly proposes that advertising needs to be a collaborative, rather than an interruptive medium, in the social media space.

- Are seeing groups from different demographics step onto Facebook now, but still dominated by younger users.

- Major brands are showing up on Facebook through individual interests (ex: high school student starting a group about Daimler-Chrysler Jeeps).

- Groups about causes (ex: breast cancer fundraising) are very popular on Facebook - used by Starbucks to communicate with the user generation.

- Facebook's banner ads are run in collaboration with Microsoft.

- The things that are static on Facebook do the best, apparently - also, the more local it is, the better it does - use of the sponsored story - sponsor links with logos drive the value and deliver the results that have worked with advertisers on Facebook - insertion into the dialogue & meeting users where they live is the key to success for marketers.

- Facebook created 1400 profiles for each of the candidates in the recent US 2006 race in order to study usage. Found that more than 1 million users connected with candidates. 1.5 million users connected with issues. Worked with 'Rock the Vote' and were able to help register 50 000 voters. Advertisement started to drive traffic towards direct engagement. Example: In Conneticut Second District, where the U of Conneticut is there was a tight campaign. Traditionally, university aged participation is low - using Facebook, they increased voter participation by 600%. Result : The Democratic candidate beat his Republican counterpart by 83 votes.

- Facebook's two largest regional networks are London & Toronto.

Since I was having technical difficulties with this first webcast, I jumped over to the Vocus webast:

Maneuvering the New Media Landscape

- Tim Cox of Zing PR, the keynote speaker, gave a social media 101 talk during this short webcast.

- Cox states there are 'tectonic shifts' in the balance of power : companies no longer control the message. PR has to engage customers directly, on their terms. It needs to engage both traditional and new media, but it's time consuming to do so + there remains the need for ROI efficiency.

- Can a single PR campaign be deployed across both traditional and new media? No, according to Cox - Now, we have to think in terms of dialogue, instead of monologue. Have to see blogs as a conversational medium - so have to be a 'better listener'. You have to understand what your clients are talking about + understand the power of tagging techniques & social bookmarking.

- Need to change your mindset to work with social media - believes corporate blogs and RSS feeds are critical components - but his presentation focuses more on tips for embracing conversational media :

- Targetting : have to develop a relationship with bloggers, who are intolerant of pitches.

- Making your news more accessible to conversational media: uses PRWeb to issue social media press releases which include hyperlinks and are designed to be readily found by consumers - Cox states PR practitioners need to develop a new storytelling style in order to build brands and goodwill in a way that will be well received.

- Social bookmarking : Cox considers this a key aspect to a good social media strategy, describing them as breadcrumbs on the Internet which allow us to share our interests with other people

- Case study : Swedish company BEMZ - launched in Sweden a couple of years ago and is moving towards a US launch - make slipcovers for IKEA furniture. His strategy combined traditional with social media relations and included 'real quotes', links to the corporate website, downloadable photos, bookmarking etc. Release here.

- Methodology for blogger relations : Cox doesn't rely exclusively on PR database in building his blogger lists - sees Technorati as a great place to start: suggest PR reps take the top 10 on the relevant subject, and then read them. From there, look at the blogroll and see why these are connected to the top 10. Views as a time consuming but essential process.

- How blog pitches differ from traditional pitches: must take into consideration that bloggers aren't trained journalists - approach must be personal. Many detest newsreleases as something which interposes itself between them and the real message, thereby blocking transparency. Require a direct relationship. We have to figure out how to help our clients become more proactive and engage directly with bloggers. Have to be careful and selective about how to approach the blogger.

- Tagging : sees it as making it easy for people to find the news - he looks carefully at the news release and pulls the key words.

- How to track blog coverage and ROI : tricky - not easy to quantify, so didn't have a good answer. Can base an analysis of the blogs 'that matter' using Technorati.

- Convincing clients to invest in social media : comes down to the extent to which the client understands social media. Show them how much is written about their company in blogs & how much people are using blogs now to find out about companies, make purchase decisions. So educating them is the starting point. Suggests recommending books to clients, including the Cluetrain Manifesto and Naked Conversations.

- How to get involved in social media with a limited budget : would allocate his budget to research at the beginning and include targeted objectives in the campaign.

- Considers trackbacks as critical to generating buzz.

Cox didn't have the chance to answer my question on what to do when a blogger's contact information isn't made available - if I can't send them an email, I find myself having to move on, as I'm against astroturfing and don't want to risk having my client getting backlash for being perceived as imposing himself in the conversation. I'm curious to see how he broaches this issue.

Blogue du jour: A Class Act

Pour voir ce qui se passe dans le blogosphère du 'ROC' depuis quelques années, je vous invite à consulter le blogue de Gary Schlee, professeur au Collège Centennial de Toronto. Il nous dresse l'historique des blogues dédiés aux RP ailleurs .. et, depuis le 4 février 2004, ici.

Article ici

Article of the Day : YouTube Getting More Internet Visits Than All TV Networks Combined

YouTube is now the 12th most visited Internet domain in the US. The sites that receive more traffic than YouTube are MySpace domains, Google, Yahoo domains, Hotmail, MSN, eBay, Live Search, and Facebook.

YouTube Getting More Internet Visits Than All TV Networks Combined - Article here

Blog of the Day : Freelance Switch

101 Essential Freelancing Resources available here

A mega-list of tools available online to help freelancers get organized.

Now I just need to add 'go-through-freelance-tool-list' onto my To Do list.

Thanks to Geoffroi Garon and Sylvain Carle for the heads-up on this one.

Podacast of the Day : On The Record

iPressroom's Eric Schwartzman receives blogger Stowe Boyd during his weekly podcast here

They discuss :

- new ethics of the blogoshere
- PR professionals and control issues
- the nature of consensual blogs
- the most effective use of social media and it’s relation to the broadcast model
- social media press release
- validity of the press release as a means to distribute information
- new tactics for a new era of media
- authority vs. integrity

Article of the Day: Crisis Lessons from Virginia Tech: Social Media Critical in Reaching All Stakeholders

Enter a new age in mass communication : Virginia Tech students used Facebook while their college crisis communication strategy depended on Email.

Sign of the times - as communicators, it's up to us to keep up with our target audiences.

Article here

Suite du sondage

Mon sondage fait jaser. C'est l'fun.

C'était le but.

La suite? On s'en reparle.

Pierre Bouchard à la SQPRP

Notre collègue Pierre Bouchard prépare actuellement un atelier pour la SQPRP qui intéressera certainement tout professionnel en RP s'intéressant au domaine de la santé:

Comment utiliser efficacement les relations publiques dans le secteur complexe de la santé

Clientèle ciblée : Les professionnels en communication, ayant entre 5 et 10 ans d’expérience, qui se questionnent sur les façons stratégiques d’aborder le système de santé et ses multiples acteurs dans un contexte de défi et de changement.

Il m'arrive d'avoir la chance de collaborer étroitement avec Pierre, et je constate que le travail qu'il fait avec les associations de la santé est vraiment impressionnant.

Pour avoir un avant goût, visitez son blogue - car Pierre s'intéresse également aux médias sociaux. Je serais bien tentée de l'appuyer dans le cadre d'un mandat qui jumèlerait ces deux domaines. Il suffit, maintenant, de convaincre les clients...

16 mai, entre 9h et midi : c'est un rendez-vous, M. Bouchard.

Divulgation d'intérêts : Cette conférence, c'est moi qui l'organise en tant que membre bénévole du comité Formation et développement professionnel de la SQPRP .. mais si je recrute toujours des confénciers qui m'intéressent, je pense également aux autres. Ben un peu, au moins. Sérieux. Ça va être super.

R.I.P. June Callwood 1924-2007

Canada as a whole, and the journalistic community in particular, is in mourning, as one of this country's great journalists passes.

Here are just a few of June Callwood's illustrious accomplishments:

Ms. Callwood began her career as a journalist in 1942, at the Globe & Mail

Writer for Maclean's and Chatelaine magazines

Host of CBC-TV's In Touch and contributor to VisionTV's National Treasures

Author of several books

Ghostwriter for Dr. Marian Hilliard, Barbara Walters, Otto Preminger and Bob White

Founding member of over 50 organisations, including Casey House, the Digger House youth hostel, Nellie's hostel for women, PEN Canada, the Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation and Feminists Against Censorship.

Receipient of 15 honorary doctorates, the Order of Canada, Officer (1985), the Order of Ontario (1988), the Canadian News Hall of Fame (1984) and the Toronto Arts Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (1990), was named B'nai Brith Woman of the Year(1994) and was the recipient of the Harmony Award for her work in eliminating barriers to diversity

Accomplished pilot

June Callwood, social activist, journalist, broadcaster and writer and all-around-cool-chick, died early Saturday at the age of 82, following a lengthy battle with cancer.

Résultats du sondage

Cherchant à tâter un peu le poulx de mon entourage professionnel face aux médias sociaux, j'ai sondé, il y a dix jours, trente professionnels québécois oeuvrant dans le domaine des relations publiques. Il s'agissait majoritairement de jeunes avec 5 ans d'expérience ou moins, mais également des professionnels chevronnés. De ce nombre, dix-neuf ont relevé le défi. Merci, merci, merci à vous tous.

L'échantillon étant petit et les questions formulées de façon correcte, mais pas plus, loin de moi de prétendre que ce sondage soit scientifique. Il s'agit plutôt d'un portrait un peu à-la-Cézanne : c'est à dire impressionniste.

Voici les résultats --

Blogues:

• 68% consultent les blogues
• 20% tiennent un carnet
• 37% consultent et/ou rédigent des blogues à des fins professionnels*

*Noter: Je ne pense pas me tromper en croyant qu'en ce moment seulement un répondant tient un blogue professionnel -- ceci dit, il aurait fallu que je présente ma question autrement pour en avoir la certitude. Voilà pour les sondages pas-très-scientifiques. MS.

Baladodiffusions / podcasts:

• 16% en écoutent -- 100% de ceux-ci à des fins personnels seulement
• Aucun n'est producteur de podcast

Videoblog/Vlogs:

• 21% en regardent -- 100% de ceux-ci à des fins personnels seulement
• Aucun n'est producteur de vlog

Quelques constats:

• 53% sont assez ou très d'accord pour dire que les médias sociaux représentent la communication, nouvelle génération
• Aucun dit croire qu'il s'agit d'une vague passagère
• 16% considèrent que les médias sociaux ne sont pas pertinents pour leurs employeurs ou clients
• 26% confirment désirer proposer l'utilisation de médias sociaux à leur employeur et/ou clients, mais ne savent pas trop comment s'y prendre
• 5% (un répondant) affirment entretenir des relations avec les blogueurs
• 5% (un autre répondant) affirment intégrer les médias sociaux dans leurs plans de comm.
• Parmi les séniors, les opinions semblent partagées quant à l'utilité des médias sociaux. Environ 40% disent ne pas être intéressés ou croient en savoir assez sur les médias sociaux, tandis que 60% se disent prêts ou sont dans le processus de se familiariser avec cette nouvelle voie de communication.
• 10% des répondants auraient participé à au moins atelier, un rassemblement, ou une conférence à ce sujet au cours des six derniers mois
• 74% aimeraient en connaître davantage sur les médias sociaux
• 53% désirent suivre une formation à ce sujet
• Aucun n'est membre d'un groupe de relationnistes s'intéressant au phénomène des médias sociaux

Website of the day : Bloglossary

Those of us who love playing with language will enjoy this resource : Blogossary is exactly what it sounds like.

What's more, it's an interactive tool, so you can suggest additions, as blogging language evolves.

Article of the day: Top Ten Social Bookmarking Sites

Article and links to sites here

R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut 1922-2007

A moment of silence

( - )

to mourn the passing of this seminal writer .. and former PR man for General Electric.

One of the 12 people I'd like to invite to the table, in that imaginary dinner party game people play.

Kurt, we hardly knew ya.

PR survey

Update on my little survey: Most of the colleagues I contacted have kindly answered last week's informal survey on the use of social media by Quebec PR professionals. Responses are still slowly trickling in, so I'll give it a couple more days before presenting the results.

Stay tuned.

Article du jour : code d'éthique pour blogueurs

La proposition de Tim O'Reilly soulève toute une polémique.

Article ici.

Code ... et réactions de la communauté ici.

Glimpse into a past life

Signed up to Facebook this week. Given how much I've been hearing about it, I figured it was de-rigeur.

Came to the cruel realization that I'm a good 10-15 years older than the average subscriber -- not too many of my high school chums have signed up, although it was nice to become reacquainted with the one who had.

What was interesting, though, was scanning through the Montreal profiles and stumbling on those of the once-little-girls I'd taught in a past life, during my brief stint as a private school History teacher back in the late '90s. Not hard to do, given how easily Facebook lends itself to a six-degrees-of-separation exercise. From the looks of it, these former Sec. I students are all university grads now. I know which city they call home these days, where they're working and what their interests and political affiliations are. I've seen some in wedding dresses. More than one, I suspect, has someone calling her Mummy, although the shock of seeing one with babe in arms might have been too much for my old ticker to take. And I kid you not, each girl had a friends list of about 250.

Six degrees of separation available at the click of a mouse.

There's one client I'm thinking of -- one who shall remain nameless -- who really (but really) needs to jump on the social media bandwagon. The potential of it all, especially in his case, is simply mindboggling.

Just for old times' sake, I'll sign this blog entry:

Madame Sullivan

On me lit

En allumant mon ordi ce matin, j'ai été surprise par le contenu d'un courriel provenant d'une professionnelle que je respecte beaucoup.

Depuis quelque temps déjà, je lis ton blogue avec intérêt. Je me suis permis d’y référer nos collègues (...)

On me lit?!? Depuis quelque temps déjà? Aie. Bon. C'est officiel - il va falloir que ça fasse un peu plus sérieux, mon affaire.

Je vous avoue que cette confirmation tangible de l'existence d'un lectorat me rend un peu songeuse. Je présume que dans la vie de chaque blogueur il y a ce flash tout particulier; cette réalisation qu'on n'écrit plus dans le vide. Que ce médium peut, potentiellement, rejoindre une foule de gens que l'on connaît, tout comme de parfaits inconnus. Des collègues. Des clients. Des clients potentiels.

Mais, après tout, c'est le but de l'exercice. De vivre moi-même ce que je demande à mes clients de vivre.

Car en devenant blogueur on se rend forcément vulnérable. C'est un peu comme laisser son journal intime ouvert sur un banc du Parc Lafontaine.

Je me souviens, il y a environ dix ans, de la première fois que j'ai été témoin de ce geste d'exhibitionisme qui est monnaie courante de nos jours chez nos personalités publiques. Il s'agissait d'un comédien, qui avouait sa dépendance à je ne me souviens plus quelle drogue, à je ne me souviens plus quelle chaine américaine. Autrefois, à l'époque d'Hedda Harper et de Louella Parsons, Fatty Arbuckle avait été disgracié en partie suite aux rumeurs de débauche narcotique qui circulaient à son égard. De nos jours, il suffit de se confesser au temple d'Oprah, et tout .. ou presque .. est pardonné.

C'est l'expérience américaine, du moins.

Nous, Québécois, sommes peut-être un peu plus pudiques à ce niveau là. Notre tradition est moins Testify, brother! et plutôt un Pardonnez-moi, mon Père, car j'ai pêché qui se fait à deux. Et l'autre n'est véritablement qu'un vaisseau. Un genre de téléphone qui nous permet de nous adresser à Celui qui est le seul à pouvoir porter jugement. C'est quand même intime, ça.

Est-ce là, la véritable explication? Une question de mentalité toujours ancrée, malgré nous, qui fait en sorte que les Québécois (et les pros en RP du Québec) s'attardent peu sur le phénomène des médias sociaux qui explose ailleurs?

Quand je me serai remise du choc de me savoir lue, j'y réfléchierai plus longuement.

Blogue du jour: Marc Snyder

Notre ami Marc lance un débat très important, à mes yeux, dans son carnet d'aujourd'hui.

et Martin Lessard nous propose une réponse très intérssante.

Allez y. Ça vaut le 'déplacement'.

Pour ma part, la semaine prochaine, j'analyserai les résultats d'un mini-sondage très informel et pas du tout scientifique que j'ai lancé il y a quelques jours aux professionnels en RP de mon réseau, question de tâter le poulx de la communauté un tout petit peu face aux médias sociaux.

À suivre.

Article of the day: Boomers hip to Web technology

The best way to reach people over 50 is with an integrated media plan, says a new study from ThirdAge Inc. and JWT BOOM.

Article here

Article of the day: The state of the blogosphere as per Technorati

Technorati is known widely for its quarterly State of the Blogosphere reports, analyzing the trends around blogs and blogging. With this report, we expand on this tradition by introducing information and analysis relating to the broader range of social media on the Web -- what we and many others call the Live Web (another good definition). Technorati continues to grow well beyond its roots at the leading blog search engine; increasingly, we are the main aggregation point for all forms of social media on the Web, including blogs, of course, but also video, photos, audio such as podcasts and much more.

The rest here

Where convergence is seen as a good thing

Something to watch for (?)

YouGetit.com

The press release says:

The next step in social media has finally arrived, and it is YouGetIt.com.

"Websites like flickr.com, YouTube.com, Craigslist.com, Joost.com, and any other hot Web 2.0 property are all very limited," says William Mobley, CEO of Web2Corp. "They're social media, yes, but they only deal with one aspect of media. flickr.com is a photo site, YouTube does video, and eBay is auctions and sales. You don't have convergence, you don't have synergy of content. (...) "

We've moved beyond Web 2.0 and are launching Web 2.1. We're finally beginning to approach what Tim O'Reilly calls the "Semantic Web". The Internet's about to be revolutionized, and we're starting by inviting media, major tech writers, and bloggers to come see what the next big thing is."

Yawn. I swear, everything is _the next best thing_

Methinks I'm getting cynical in my old age.

Article of the Day: The Seven Deadly Sins of Pitching Bloggers for PR Purposes

Getting down to basics - this article by Chip Griffin sums things up pretty clearly.

April 12th: Mark it on your calendar

Are the stars aligning on April 12th? Two events added to the event calendar to your right:

1. PR Newswire's webinar : Blogging: Get in? Get out? Or get out of the way?

2. From Mass to Grass (Toronto)

In honour of the latter, Buzz Canuck is launching a terrific new interview series : The 52 Faces of Word of Mouth. Which, by my count, is actually going to include about 70 Canadian social media leaders.

Each post will include a Q&A plus a term, a quote and a stat you may not have heard Word of Mouth-pedia.

Rodage oblige

Bon. Ça y est. J'ai pris une décision quant à l'évolution de mon carnet.

Voici ce que j'ai décidé en ce lundi pluvieux de pleine lune : je vais gérer mes propres attentes.

Résultat?

1. Je continuerai à ajouter des événements (à droite) même si je sais que ça ne sera jamais une liste exhaustive de tout ce qui se passe dans le monde des RP à Montréal.

2. Des simples liens vers articles qui m'intéressent alimenteront mon blogue de façon hebdomadaire (ou presque). Ce n'est, après tout, qu'une question de prendre les 5 minutes nécessaires pour faire la mise à jour du carnet (chose qui me semble difficile, je l'avoue, ces derniers temps).

3. Une fois par semaine, je ponderai un document digne du manifeste affiché ci-haut.

Après tout, il faut se fixer des objectifs réalisables, dans la vie.

Un premier lien, vers un premier article, alors: The World's Watching: So Why Aren't PR Pros Using Viral Video?

Si quelqu'un a la réponse, faites-moi signe; je vous donne une piastre.