Social Web Thing » Public Relations

How to protect your clients against cyber squatting

Ben Cotton — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 12:00:15 +0000

Over the last couple of weeks I’ve been busy protecting clients from various forms of cyber squatting. For those who are unfamiliar with the term, cyber squatting is when someone uses the name of a brand online, often by taking a domain name, but increasingly by masquerading as an official source on social networks.

In order to mitigate against this, we always buy a variety of domains for clients, but as part of the planning process now have to think in terms of social networks and claim dozens of permutations of usernames that cyber squatters could use.

I’ve also had to be reactive after a recent client win by contacting Twitter to transfer a dormant account that used a copyrighted name. This is the other side of cyber squatting, where someone has already secured a vanity URL or Twitter handle incorporating a client’s name. This is an interesting scenario and both Facebook and Twitter have very clear policies on copyright infringement.

Whilst, this approach may seem somewhat overcautious, it has to become a routine part of reputation planning and management. By the time you wait for a crisis to occur, it will be too late. Someone out there will already be making a point at the expense of your client.

It has been interesting to see Facebook getting tough on cyber squatters which culminated in the closure of a page with 47,000 fans. Although, Facebook acted tough on this occasion, they reaffirmed to me that “a Community Page is not intended to represent the voice of a brand, public figure, or organization, but rather to serve as the best collection of shared knowledge about a topic.”

However, I understand that Facebook is in the process of enabling representatives of a brand with an official Page to claim Community Pages covering the same topic. This move will certainly ruffle a few feathers in the online world and may further damage consumer satisfaction, but it will most certainly keep brand managers happy.

As professional reputation managers it is important to demonstrate that we have planned for and mitigated against cyber squatting in order to prevent a repeat of the BP Global PR Twitter account, which will continue to haunt the oil giant for years to come, as a simple Google search for ‘BP PR’ demonstrates.

Whilst, prevention is always better than trying to find a cure, you can contact both Facebook and Twitter to resolve any issues around cyber squatting and copyright infringement.

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Research Internship at Edelman

Ben Cotton — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 08:00:57 +0000

Edelman has a paid internship available for somebody to work in Strategy One – the agency’s research division. The role is to ‘assist in the media research activities of client projects and expose current students or recent graduates to the field of media research and analysis.’

Whilst, I admit that I’m slightly biased, I think it would be a tremendous opportunity to experience the ‘other side’ of PR, namely the research, data crunching and analysis that helps inform strategy. It’s a vital part of what Edelman do and would be a welcome addition to any CV. In short, if you want to broaden your horizons and expand your CV – drop our HR team a line.

The deadline for applicants is 26 June 2010.

For more information on the role check out the Edelman website. There is also a range of other vacancies available at Edelman.

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Graduate opportunities at Porter Novelli

Ben Cotton — Mon, 31 May 2010 08:00:52 +0000

I received a Tweet the other day from Ziad Traboulsi who very kindly pointed out to me an opportunity that may appeal to SWT readers – that Porter Novelli Novelli are offering paid work experience for graduates looking to take their first steps in the industry.

The Porter Novelli blog does not offer too much information about what the role is except: “If you’re a grad looking for some work experience in PR, we’d like to hear from you.”

However, what I do know is that Porter Novelli is a great, forward thinking company. In short, it would be a great place to get to grips with the industry.

You need to send a CV and covering letter explaining why you want to work in PR and why they should choose you to toptalent[at]porternovelli[dotcodotuk].

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10 Free Social Media Monitoring Tools

Ben Cotton — Sat, 29 May 2010 11:00:27 +0000

I was encouraged to write a list of free social media monitoring tools after a previous post where I argued why organisations have to monitor social media. Admittedly, this post has been a long time coming, but as someone who uses a variety of free and paid for tools everyday, I believe it is important for the next generation of PR practitioners to have an understanding of their use.

As a result I’m hoping this post will primarily be useful to two groups of people:

Students or people who want to work in the social media side of PR – essentially, those who want to acquaint themselves with a few of the tools and principles of social media monitoring.
Organisations who have heard a lot about social media and would like to see (for free) the conversations taking place around their brand.

Before we start, I would also add, that in order to get a fuller understanding of the conversation around brands, I would advise using a variety of these monitoring tools in tandem, rather than relying on just one service.

Why monitor?
This is a fairly lengthy post and one that I hope people will find helpful, however I feel it deserves some justification. Well here goes…basically, the amount of conversation occurring on social media platforms means that there is a whole load of data out there ready to be mined for our clients – and this data, ultimately can and will help support the decision-making process. It has got to. For too long, Public Relations relied on instinct or even worse group-think, rather than data to inform communications strategy. But that is changing.

As a result PR agencies are increasingly hiring people to solely analyse online conversation, as well as looking for people who have a firm grasp of the basics. Hopefully, this post may enable you to do just that. Social media monitoring is the evolution of offline media monitoring, but agencies want this technical skill along with analysis to be in-house. We have a situation where clients not only want to know what journalists have written, but what consumers have said and importantly, how they can respond.

Another reason for this post is my passion for equipping the next generation of PR practitioners with the right skills for the job. On a daily basis I work with people whose role is to monitor and analyse WOM around our clients and I think there is a case for universities to show students the relevant tools to equip them with the right, practical skills for the job. It is an important to skill to be able to work out where conversations around brands are taking place. I’m hoping this post will point people in the right direction and give them the impetus to play around with the plethora of tools, gain an understanding of how they work and the data they provide.

1. Alexa
Alexa is a web information company that allows you to track the performance of any website. It can give you all kinds of useful data and organises them by country, language or in a custom category. I would recommend downloading the Alexa toolbar to get a better understanding of the information available.

Tip: Check out the Alexa and Google Page Rank plugin which can easily be added to your Google Chrome browser.

2. Blog Pulse
BlogPulse describes itself as an ‘automated trend discovery system for blogs’. Essentially, it is a search engine for blogs that analyses and reports on daily activity in the blogosphere. BlogPulse offers plenty of trend and other analytic information which can shape decision-making and let’s you understand the ‘buzz’ around a brand.

3. Boardreader
Boardreader is a search engine for forums and boards, enabling you to get fast and quality search for your own forum. Boardreader is a great tool for issue monitoring and identifying where conversations around particular brands are taking place.

4. Ellerdale
Ellerdale is a site that helps you understand what is being said on Twitter. It shows you what topics are trending in sports, politics, music, products and more. Ellerdale has the ability to curate a real-time Twitter view of any topic, including which users are the most rewtweeted on that subject, the top articles and the time of day people are most engaged today.

5. Google Alerts, Google Analytics & Google Trends
Google has changed the web forever and it is much more than just a search engine. Have a look at Google Alerts which allows you to sign up to receive email updates whenever specific names or phrases are mentioned. This is a great tool for issues monitoring and let’s you know when people are talking about a brand or issue.

Google Analytics is an excellent web analytics dashboard that gives useful insights into your web traffic. Google Analytics’ greatest strength is its ease of use coupled with comprehensive data which allowing you to analyse who is visiting your website.

Google Trends allows you to understand what is popular online. It allows you to enter up to five topics and see how often they’ve been searched on Google over time. Google Trends also shows how frequently your topics have appeared in Google News stories, and in which geographic regions people have searched for them most.

Next: Once you have familiarised yourself with Google Trends, have a look at Google Ad Sense and think how you could make it work for a client. An understanding of online Above-the-Line marketing techniques is always valuable.

6. Ice Rocket
IceRocket is an Internet search engine that has expanded into searching popular social networks, such as Twitter and MySpace as well as allowing searching of news sites and the web.

Tip: Familiarise yourself with IceRocket’s Big Buzz feature that allows you to search blogs, Tweets, news, images and more all from one page.

7. It’sTrending
It’s Trending is like Ellerdale, except that it lists what people share publicly on Facebook. The site serves as a zeitgeist for news, videos, technology, entertainment and more. Whilst, this service is useful, you can only view what people publicly share, so it serves more as signpost for trends and qualitative data, rather than quantitative data.

8. Technorati
Technorati is another great blog search engine. It indexes millions of blog posts in real-time and surfaces them quickly – it is an excellent starting point and brilliant to keep track of breaking stories, opinions, photos and videos across the web. Technorati not only tracks the authority and influence of blogs, but offers an index of influential blogs.

9. Twitterfall
Twitterfall is a Twitter client specialising in real-time tweet searches. New tweets fall into the page and it has many features which make it great for tracking conversation as it happens. This is great for monitoring conversation around a brand or issue.

10. Twitter Search
Twitter Search enables you to search, filter and interact with the large volumes of conversation on Twitter. This search application helps you filter all the real-time information coursing through Twitter.

If you are well acquainted with some of the tools listed, I’m confident that this knowledge will stand anyone in good stead at a PR job interview. Alternatively, if you are an organisation I’m hopeful this post will act as a solid introduction to social media monitoring, although I must stress, the free tools are the tip of the iceberg.

I appreciate that there are many, many tools out there and I would be interested to hear what free social media monitoring tools you use and more importantly what you would recommend.

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Fishburn Hedges internship

Ben Cotton — Mon, 24 May 2010 08:00:15 +0000

I received a Tweet the other day from the Fishburn Hedges Twitter handle informing me of their upcoming graduate scheme. The London based agency is looking for someone who is about to enter their final year of university or graduating in 2010 to learn about the brave new world of communications from some of the best practitioners in the industry.

Essentially, it’s a two month, paid, summer internship from the start of July until the end of August. They are looking for two ambitious interns who are eager to kick-start their career in communications through interesting and practical work experience. The internship programme is also a great insight into Fishburn Hedge’s prestigious trainee consultant scheme.

The two interns will have the chance to work with some exciting clients, supporting the teams with press releases, public affairs research and brainstorms. I’ve had a look at the role and it sounds like a great opportunity for someone looking to cut their teeth in the agency world

Fishburn Hedges are inviting people to email a CV and covering letter to intern[at]fishburn-hedges.[dotcodotcuk]. The deadlne is is 7 June and interviews will be held week commencing 7 June and 14 June 2010.

For more information on the role check out the Fishburn Hedges website.

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Social Networks become Social Entertainment

Ben Cotton — Sun, 23 May 2010 20:35:35 +0000

I was fortunate enough to attend the Edelman Social Entertainment breakfast last week where the findings of Edelman’s fourth annual Trust in the Entertainment Industry survey were presented. Gail Becker, President of the firms Western region, announced the results before Labour MP, Tom Watson, Acting Head of Crossplatform at Channel 4, Matt Locke and Online Community Product Manager at BSkyB, Maz Nadjm gave their views on the issues raised.

The main takeaways from the presentation were:

It is the ability to access content across devices, not cost, that is of significance to consumers.
Spending on entertainment continues to stay strong.
Those that state that they trust entertainment companies are also more willing to pay for content.

From a personal perspective the following points were also of great interest:

73% of 18-24 year olds in the US and 61% in the UK see social networks as a form of entertainment.
89% of those in the UK say they would not be willing to give up personal information to access free entertainment.
32% of UK consumers and 28% of US consumers trust entertainment companies.

Edelman Social Entertainment &Trust in the Entertainment Industry

View more presentations from Edelman .

As a PR Consultant who undertakes social media activity on behalf of large brands, it is interesting, although unsurprising to hear that people view social networks as a source of entertainment. So the question we need to ask ourselves is ‘how we can create content that offers real value to the client, but also entertains the consumer?’ It’s a perennial question and we have seen some great answers over the last couple of years with brands providing content that is entertaining or useful. Recent examples include the new Nike advert, Local Motors and Golf GTI.

The second point about not giving up personal information I am slightly sceptical about. Although, a large number of people may not like the idea of giving up personal information, in reality a lot of us do so already. It is clear people value their privacy, but perhaps they do not realise what they are already giving away and the digital footprint they leave behind? Whilst, I disagree with Mark Zuckerberg that privacy is no longer a ‘social norm’ I’m of the opinion that if we want to use social networks for free, there needs to be a reconciliation between the wants of the two sides. I feel volunteering some information, which will result in losing some privacy is a worthy trade.

Thirdly, trust in entertainment companies is low. This is hugely significant for them as the research shows that people who trust entertainment companies are more willing to pay for content. This once again raises the issue of trust and more importantly how do you create it? For me it remains the old recipe of communicating regularly and behaving in an open, honest and transparent way. However, organisations need to consider how they use this data – and they must be up front and honest with the consumer about how they will use it.

Overall, it was a great morning and insightful to hear Matt and Maz speak about what social entertainment will mean for their respective channels. It does truly sound exciting. However, for me, it was fascinating to hear Tom’s perspective and gain his thoughts on what the future concept of online privacy may look like. On a personal note, it was nice to hear him speak as he is an outspoken critic of the hastily passed Digital Economy Bill and also a great example of how a public servant can use social media to engage with the people who put him there.

For me, the main talking point from the survey is how companies handle this rich data, which I inevitably believe we will have to give up in order to use services for free. Whilst, I appreciate the potentially huge value this data has for companies, I’m hopeful it will also ensure end users have a better, more personalised experience.

You can read more about the Trust in the Entertainment Industry survey on the Edelman Digital blog.

University wises up to Personal SEO

Ben Cotton — Sat, 15 May 2010 11:00:51 +0000

I read an interesting article in Mashable last week reporting that Syracuse University in the United States has purchased subscriptions enabling it’s students to use Brand Yourself’s online reputation management system to enhance their Personal SEO.

Undoubtedly, this is a bold and innovative move by the university and one that I’m sure will benefit the students. However, when you consider the growing importance of graduate employment figures, it can come as no surprise that university’s are doing their utmost to ensure their students have the best possible chance in the job market.

For me, the concept of Personal SEO is nothing new and the sooner people understand that organisations DO Google potential employees, the better. I’m adamant that Personal SEO is something all young people should be aware of and research by Cross-Tab Marketing highlights why millenials should take note:

75% of HR departments worldwide are required to screen job candidates online.
70% of recruiters and HR professionals in the U.S. clam they have rejected potential hires based on information surfaced online, and nearly half say that a strong online reputation influences their hiring decisions to a “great extent.”
45% of HR professionals screen job candidates on social media sites.

Anecdotally, I also know this to be the case, especially within the PR industry, Stephen Waddington, MD of Speed Communications said: ‘Inevitably employers are using Google as a personal reputation engine and scrutinising these types of sites to review an individual’s career history and work ahead of hiring an individual.’

Indeed, one of the most common phrases I hear is along the lines of ‘if you cannot manage your own online reputation, why should PR agencies entrust you to do the same for clients?’

By the sounds of it, Brand Yourself’s platform will help students monitor and improve their online presence during the all important job search process. Whilst, I feel this will be a valuable, additional service that campus employability teams offer, I would make the case that students should be educated about online reputation management and how to leverage their Personal SEO as soon as they begin studying – not at the final furlong.

Online reputations are best managed over time with quality, organic content, not an afterthought upon graduation.

I’ve been blogging and speaking about Personal SEO for a couple of years now and thoroughly enjoy helping students protect and enhance their online reputation. It’s rewarding and from personal experience, I know what fantastic opportunities can come drop by if you look after your Personal SEO.

Another consideration is that when it comes to using technology to improve graduate employability, the US is normally about 12-18 months ahead of the UK. For instance student blogs, online resumes and e-portfolios are becoming more prevelant in the UK, whereas in the US they have been established for a few years. So I look forward to seeing which UK universities investigate this area.

In the long term I fully expect that more universities will follow Syracuse’s lead as people wake upto the fact that job interviews no longer begins with a handshake, but with a search on Google.

If you would like to have a chat about Personal SEO, do feel free to get in contact.

You probably just lost my vote

Ben Cotton — Sun, 02 May 2010 13:18:16 +0000

I try to keep SWT politically impartial. However, after recently exchanging Tweets with a Labour supporter, I felt compelled to write about the importance of adopting the right tone when engaging with people using social media. In a wider context, this is an issue many of our clients grapple with e.g. what happens when unofficial, but authoritative sources such as employees or supporters begin talking about or fighting your corner online. As I mentioned, I try to keep this blog impartial, so in the interests of balance, I urge you to listen to Tory candidate, Greg Knight’s jingle on his personal website. It will make you laugh.

In order to give you a bit more background, after the #Bigotgate affair I Tweeted how foolish Gordon Brown had been and that as things stood, I would be voting for Nick Clegg*. Shortly afterwards, I received an unsolicited reply from @blackburnvotes which was clearly pushing a political agenda. Things then escalated. I’m personally interested in politics and I am fortunate enough to know people who are active for the main parties, however I’m yet to make my mind up who to vote for – and like most people, I do not enjoy being spammed with political lines, especially on a social space.

Whilst, a few argumentative (or complimentary) Tweets from a party activist will not influence who I vote for, this mudslinging with @blackburnvotes sharpened my focus on Labour weaknesses. Although, the initial approach and engagement may have been well intentioned, in this instance it has resulted in a negative outcome. It has been a counter intuitive tactic. I suppose my big gripe is having someone who I’ve never spoken to before, spamming me with uninvited political views. Indeed, it did cross my mind that @blackburnvotes could be an elaborate troll.

Politics aside, I think this is an interesting case study of how someone, although well-meaning can cause more harm than good. Employees and supporters of organisations are having these sorts of online conversations all the time and whilst, we encourage organisations to embrace social media, in order to fully appreciate the potential benefits and risks it is best to acquaint them with basic guidelines or tips to consider. There are many cases of unofficial sources getting the tone right when engaging on social media, however there are many more who have got it wrong.

Whilst, I’m sure @blackburnvotes had the best intentions of the party at heart, it has inadvertently made me think about reasons not to vote Labour. Anecdotally, I know a lot of my peers have not made up their minds and 6 May will be a new experience for them. With the election race this close and allegiances yet to be forged, small differences like this, can make all the difference. Whilst, policy is integral, personal experiences and interactions have a big impact too.

Voters want to be wooed, not wound up. Labour probably just lost my vote.

*Subject to change.

Vacancy at Acceleris

Ben Cotton — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 08:00:22 +0000

I received an email this week from industry colleague Justin McKeown , Divisional Director at Grayling. He was forwarding on a message from Acceleris, an award-winning Harrogate based consultancy who have a vacancy which may interest SWT readers.

Acceleris are looking to appoint an Account Executive or Senior Account Executive with a couple of years experience to work across a range of accounts. They are a fast growing, integrated agency who recently launched the Acceleris Academy as part of their ongoing comittment to staff development – in short they sound like a good bunch to work for.

For more information about the role, please click here.

Slides of my presentation on Personal SEO

Ben Cotton — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 11:00:14 +0000

I gave a presentation yesterday to some Public Relations students at London Met University, having been kindly invited by their lecturer Gareth Thompson who got in touch after our paths crossed at the Euprera Spring Symposium.

The presentation details my thoughts on Personal SEO and how this is often a more accurate description of what people term ‘personal brand’. It contains quotes from senior PR colleagues and explains how blogging, putting real work online and networking can generate strong Personal SEO.

It’s always great to meet current PR students and see how other university’s ‘do’ PR education. I was impressed by this group of young people and look forward to seeing how they get on in the industry.

Here is a copy of the presentation – if you have any questions, please do get in touch.

WTF is Personal SEO?

View more presentations from Ben Cotton.