Facttactic

Corporate and technical writers

Training and education

online communities becoming a female world

More young women are embracing online communities while fewer men feel their online communities are as important as their offline equivalents, according to a new study.

This is apparently a sharp reversal in attitudes and has taken place over just a couple of years.

Researchers at the University of Southern California say 67 per cent of women under 40 feel as strongly about their internet communities as their offline ones, while only 38 per cent of men said the same. In 2007, the numbers were just the reverse, with 69 per cent of the men and 35 per cent of the women feeling that way.

If the numbers turn out to be accurate, it could be a pointer to a rethink by us PR hacks over how we plan online campaigns.

thinking outside the box sux!

Do you like to ‘think outside the box’? Well, keep it to yourself! The phrase has just been voted the most annoying office buzz phrase, followed by ‘Let’s touch base’ and ‘Blue sky thinking’.  Here’s the top 10 most annoying phrases.

It’s great to see that list — for a couple of reasons:

Firstly, because that empty phrase has long annoyed me and I was astounded to see that the pinnacle of Wellington’s international cultural scene — the Arts Festival — seems to have used it as the main metaphor in their marketing for this year. Have they no idea?! Or do they mean ‘one out of the box’? Another corporate and empty cliche. Bring back the zing!

The other, more positive reason I like it is because it is a great example of how to get global media attention. The survey comes from a London firm, Opinium; and, if you Google it, it has appeared in more than 70 media outlets around the world.

A snappy idea, a well-crafted media release, the reach of the internet and you have an idea that can quickly go global. The actual content of the release may not have a direct spin-off for the firm, but the wit and relevance behind the whole thing means its name is highlighted globally and positively.

By the way, the annoying jargon came 4th on a list of things that annoy workers the most. Grumpy or moody colleagues, slow computers and office gossip made up the top three.

digital marketing is ‘here to stay’

Digital marketing is becoming the most influential and representative manner in which to engage an audience, and this is down to social networking, according to a report in the NBR this afternoon.

The NBR website reported ‘Google innovationist’ Justin Baird, at the Digital Now New Zealand 2009 conference in Auckland, saying that marketing was “no longer about broadcasting your messages and then moving onto the next thing – it’s now an ongoing dialogue, which in turn is an amazing opportunity to learn from your customers via very direct feedback”.

Not a new message, but good to see it reinforced in New Zealand — and applicable, of course, for PR plays, too.  Read more from the NBR here.

Update 27 September

According to this NZ Herald article about New Zealand internet use:

* Nine out of 10 internet users participate in social networks
* More than a quarter have made a major purchase based solely on online reviews
* Ninety-seven percent research online before making a significant purchase
* Twenty-eight percent buy goods as a result of reviews they read on the web

The ability of organisations to get their message across in social media forums is now an essential and significant  part of any business communication strategy.

the abuse of position, the revenge of social media

A Chicago woman made derogatory comments on Twitter about her landlord and her rented property. The landlord reportedly went straight to court to sue the woman.

The citizens of cyberspace are Tweeting and blogging like crazy about it. Messages for and against both parties.

The woman may or may not have the best intentions. The landlord may or may not be the world’s best landlord. But who’s right? Who’s wrong?

It doesn’t really matter anymore. The lid has been lifted, the genie’s out. Damage control will be difficult to put in place. Take care how you project and protect your corporate reputation!

blogs are your friends

With blogs fast becoming authoritative sources of news in their own right, the avenues you need to reach to get comprehensive publicity coverage can sometimes appear infinite. But you do need to communicate with far more than just traditional media outlets.

Spend a bit of time online researching who is writing the most authoritative and informed blogs on topics relevant to your business. You will easily be able to find the blogs you should be talking to.

People in your industry will be aware of leading blogs. The Technorati website shows who the most popular global blog sites are. Google’s Blog Search works well if you type ‘New Zealand’ after whatever topic search you are after.

What is news on a blog?

How does news develop and grow in the online age, where blogs are taking on papers in the news-breaking game and often winning? American journalist and new media expert Jeff Jarvis defines it as  “product versus process journalism.”

“Newspaper people see their articles as finished products of their work. Bloggers see their posts as part of the process of learning.”

The way blogs work  include “collaboration, transparency, letting readers into the process, and trying to say what we don’t know when we publish – as caveats – rather than afterward – as corrections,” Jarvis says.

Traditional news outlets like to project the impression that their story is the definitive version .

Whereas, as the Irish Independent reports, journalism – as practised by bloggers – exposes the workings of a scoop. “[High-profile technology blog] TechCrunch, for instance, publishes the beginnings of a story that may only be a rumour. The responses to that rumour, often from reliable sources, generate updates to the story, which is polished with the help of readers to get closer to the whole truth.”

“This is journalism as beta,” Jarvis writes. “Every time Google releases a beta, it is saying that the product is incomplete and imperfect. It’s a call to collaborate.”

And that call to collaborate is drawing millions of blog readers and comment writers. If you want your company to be where the word-of-mouth action is, you need  to be noticed in the blogosphere.

… And, lastly, just to add to the proliferation of news sources you need to pay attention to: Is Twitter the news outlet for the 21st century?

twitter – world famous in NZ

I have been a bit doubtful of Twitter as a viable business tool in NZ for the simple reason that the number of New Zealanders using it has, in my experience, not been large. More than 90 percent of the people choosing to follow my tweets are in the United States. Not useful when you are a firm that sources its business domestically.

But new figures show that my concerns may be misplaced: the percentage of Kiwis using Twitter apparently outstrips the percentage of Americans doing so. Even though the total numbers may not be huge yet,  market research company Perceptive says 6 percent of New Zealanders regularly tweet, compared with 5 percent of the US population.

So I’ll keep the Twitter experiment going, and as Kiwi Twitter numbers grow, see if I can encourage more Kiwis onboard.