Why Are We Still Having PR Crises in Social Media?

We’re a good 5 years into the whole commercialisation of the social web and social media tools now. Facebook has become a channel and so has Twitter. Over 2 billion people are connected in the world. We’ve had some doozies of PR fails in social media and crises evolve from the use of social media by average citizens. Some have hit major news media like CNN (e.g. United broke my guitar and Motrin moms.) Yet we’re still seeing these crises occur. Most recently with the Penn State issue over Sandusky. In fact some might say these crises are on the rise. Why?

The C-Suite Still Isn’t Listening
We’ve seen it with a number of our clients, even this year. We provide them the analysis of how the social media crisis they’re facing happened, where it spread, which group or individual drove it and the content/messaging that evolved. Usually there is a deer-in-the-headlights look from the CEO or VP followed by an expletive. The other phrase we often hear is, “but this stuff is for kids.” Unfortunately that sentiment is still largely the case in the C-suite. Few executives actually, if ever, use these social media tools in many industries. They just don’t have the time and the responsibility for this is levelled at the PR or marketing teams and seen mostly as part of a marketing channel. For the marketing VP it is seen mostly as a broadcast channel, not an engagement channel. Unless you use social media tools it is hard to wrap ones head around it.

The Impact is Still Intangible
Sort of. In some cases such as United and the guitar fiasco it is immediately measurable. In others, like the Keystone XL issue, it is more complex and harder to definitively say that social media use directly resulted in Obama’s decision to delay. But social media was used by individuals and groups; it was very coordinated and  focused over a long period of time. For many businesses the impact is soft in a sense, until sales decline or a legislative issue doesn’t pass. Sometimes it is hard to clarify. But the fact is, these tools are being used by citizens and they are having an impact. It’s just about degrees.

Businesses Run On Process
All businesses run on processes. Companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars shaping and refining their processes. From sales to marketing to manufacturing and hiring. With larger businesses, social media is disruptive and challenges industrial era thinking. It is hard for a large company to quickly shift gears. This presents an immediate disadvantage to business. One that people have knowingly or unconsciously taken advantage of.

So it is a combination of issues that come together and we suspect there will be more PR crises to come and probably some very nasty ones. In fact we expect them to rise into 2014. Until senior management in all industries comes to greater grips of the potential damage, even if they aren’t using social media as a company, these types of crises aren’t going away anytime soon. Some firms have implemented social media monitoring tools for online reputation management, but even then they are not immune to a crises happening.

(Photo Credit: Benedetto Tozi on Flickr)

Keystone XL and The Impact of Social Media Study

Today we announced the release of our groundbreaking research into a major issue that crosses two borders – the Keystone XL pipeline and how social media was used.

Download the free report here: MediaBadger Keystone Research. No registration required.

We note that this was an in-house research project by our own team and was not sponsored by any company, organisation or individual. Some of the key findings of this report are;

• This issue galvanised very large numbers of people, organisations and groups on both sides of the Canada-US border and social media facilitated cross-border connections and relationships.
• Negative sentiment around Keystone has remained a majority view among people active in social media channels since this issue entered the public domain in July 2008.
• Positive sentiment, however, has gained momentum over the past year and has nearly closed the gap with negative sentiment in some channels.
• Our research also suggests that social media was vital in incorporating  the views of local, civil society groups from rural areas in a broad public debate.
• Finally, the issue also moved into the social media dialogue surrounding the 2011 Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa this December.

We can certainly see the social media is having an increasingly bigger impact on our world beyond just marketing. Increasingly, citizens are learning how to use these technologies to organise and drive change not just in democracies, but in dictatorships like Egypt and Tunisia.

So what do you think? Will social media continue to be as or more important in society?

Social Media As a Soft Power Tool in Global Affairs

Based on much of our research, social media is not just a tool for promoting democracy (although that is hotly debated) but we see it as becoming a “soft power” tool on global issues. Perhaps one that even citizens can use to garner influence and attention from other nation states. For those not familiar with hard and soft power, in a very simple way it is this; “hard power” is the use of military forces in a direct way (i.e. bombing Libya recently to aid democratic forces) whereas “soft power” are tools like sanctions (economic) that can impact a country (e.g. sanctions against Syria’s dictatorship.)

Social Media and The Art of Political Perceptions in Soft Power
Perhaps one of the best examples of using social media tools in the ongoing game of “soft power” is the US State Department. Closely followed by the UK government. On the dictatorial side is Iran with it’s army of counter revolutionary bloggers and the likes of Hugo Chavez using Twitter (given all the coffee Chavez drinks Twitter would seem to suit him.)

These tools become just another part of the arsenal of persuasion and perception development/management as part of a governments communications strategy. But they are not insignificant as some might think. In ways small and large, these messages enter the Cyburbian stream of concsiousness, they are shared, edited, discussed, debated and added to. They can also add context to a situation that may not find coverage in traditional news media.

Defining Positioning
Using social media services, governments can define their positions more clearly using text, images and video. This then becomes a relied upon source by academia, think-tanks and other governments. We’re not indicating the “truth” of a statement or definition of a position, just that this is how they can be used. How they are used.

Civil Society Has a Big Voice
The other side of this is that civil society groups (from Greenpeace to PETA to Medicins Sans Frontiers) now have a global voice. They can and do use these tools to shape views, opinions and perceptions. Influential citizens can join the conversation as well and become thought leaders both for an against issues in any language or culture. This new ability for civil society to participate in the global dialogue and have influence is a new dynamic in applying to soft power.

There is a whole new dynamic to global communications and their impact on the use of soft power tools. One that will offer some fascinating areas of study for many years to come.

Civil Society Groups & How They Use Social Media

From the Arab Spring to the Occupy Wall Street movement and the Keystone XL issue and even down to small, localised activities, civil society groups (from radical left-wing activists to the average and necessary protest) have figured out social media and are making increasingly effective use of it. Below, we’ve provided a diagram of how these groups, some that have been around a long time, others that just form for a short period, are using these tools. Businesses would do well to understand them and the processes for marketing, investor and public relations.

In the Management block, we can see how social media tools are used to manage the administrative functions of the group. In this case they may use email, a Facebook group, Wiki’s and other tools, that are a mix of “open” to the public and private. In the second block, Communication, we see how they use the various tools to communicate/broadcast the messages developed as a team. All forms of digital content are used across multiple platforms (e.g. Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, Flickr etc.) Once the content and creative has been released it moves to the “Engagement” phase, where the grassroots group enters into dialogue with the general public, answering questions and ensuring the message is consistent and understood by the public and hopefully shared. The Actions shows how once the message is out there (i.e. “meet at the town hall, wear your t-shirts and bring signs at 2PM”) it can result in a number of real-world activities. The green circle indicates that if an event in public or online piece of content (e.g. video) is successful, the general public shares the results of the activity that took place in public and the feedback communications loop is triggered (the green line returning to the communications block.) Once news media picks up on a story, such as a highly successful public rally, this transitions the story to a broadcast public, usually significantly increasing recognition for the civil society group and expanding their message. Social Media is a highly cost-effective route to organizing, creating and communicating a mission. Traditional news media then plays a vital role in expanding audience attention and driving further public actions.

We have seen this process used in a number of actions over the past two years. It works and has become highly effective. The gap we often find that our business and government clients miss, is that these social media is simply a set of tools used to galvanize support and actions that take place in the real world. They might see videos after  a protest or action and say “oh well, yeah, we know that happened.” But the same tools were used beforehand to organize the rally. Those affected by these necessary and key parts of a democracy could, however, be better prepared.

The Next Big Thing in Social Media is Television

Yes, television. That old hunk of electronics is going through some major overhauls and it may very well be where Apple will be disrupting things yet again. You can easily connect your telly to the Internet today. Most via devices like AppleTV or Boxee, SlingBox and others are simply streamers of content via online channels. But the biggest problem isn’t the features and functions of these devices. Sony, Panasonic, Toshiba and all the others are building in processors to their TV’s already with no need for hanging devices like an AppleTV. The biggest issue is input – it’s just not easy to use a little remote control to type in a blog post, let alone a “tweet”. Added to this is little capability for engagement – its much like the Internet pre-social media.

But that engagement is coming. Within a two years, perhaps less, you’ll be able to send a “tweet” when watching a show telling others what you’re watching. Perhaps rate, tag and comment on a movie you’re watching or songs you’re listening to. Already Apple has enabled the use of an iPad via Apple Remote to interface with an AppleTV.

Once software companies and major social media technology brands like Facebook and Google+ figure out easy ways to input and interact with the television set a whole new slew of tools will be available and television will see a renewal of content and applications. This will also present several new challenges in regards to privacy, content rights and revenue models. On the revenue side, it will likely impact in increased “splitting” of fees amongst carriers and creators. To offset broadcasters and carriers desire to have “metered” access, content creators will likely pay “gateway” fees to have their content delivered over networks. Eventually the consumer will pay for this. We also suspect that micropayments will take off significantly when the integration of television and the Web happen – already we see this with Apple in regards to shows and movies. Consumers will face greater complexity in buying and leasing content in the near term. A complexity that may damage the business models. It’s been quite easy to turn on the telly and just flick through channels and that form of media consumption will not change for a very long time.

But social media tools and services will hit television and it will spark a new level of application development and entirely new social media tools and interactions. We continue to see in our research the adoption of more “social technologies” and limited growth in “single user apps” such as photo editing software (even those apps are seeing integration of social elements.) We have little doubt that in short order, televisions will come with a hard drive.

So the question then becomes…what are men going to do when the easy to hold remote is gone?