PR Speak

It was exciting conducting a second round of a two-day program on new media communications for colleagues in Singapore’s public service. On Day 1, participants were brought through some trends and developments of Singapore’s online space, and agencies such as the Health Promotion Board, the National Heritage Board (pics below are of Walter in action), and the Ministry of Education shared case studies, followed by a sharing on Wikipedia.

Day 2 saw many of the participants making their maiden foray into Web 2.0, creating their very first blog posts, contributing their first pictures onto Flickr, and uploading their first YouTube video. Ivan from the National Library Board brought the participants through how to create a podcast. Here are some pics.

The participants came from diverse walks of Singapore’s public service, such as Temasek Polytechnic, MINDEF, the Central Provident Board, the Energy Market Authority, and Tan Tock Seng Hospital, just to name a few. Here is a video of the class in session, taken from Day 1. If you were part of this class, please send me your blog URL.

Although I do not consider myself a fan of TV political talkshows, I have off-and-on caught episodes of NBC newsman Tim Russert’s “Meet the Press,” and he came across as a tenacious, hardnosed veteran journalist with a passion to get past political smokescreens.

My personal encounter with Tim Russert was at the PRSA International Conference in 2007, where Russert was one of the featured speakers. He talked about the poisonous atmosphere that pervaded beltway politics in Washington D.C., but what struck me the most was his admiration of the everyday goodness, decency, and work ethics of so many working class Americans, as embodied by his father. When sharing how his father’s life impacted him and set an example for him, Russert’s voice shook with emotion. Clearly despite all his successes, Russert stayed rooted to his family and to the ethos of everyday working Americans.

Read CNN’s report of Russert’s untimely death here. Three-term governor of New York, Mario Cuomo (whom Russert served as press secretary) wrote a piece on Russert when the journalist was named in 2008 by TIME magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.

Please check out Walter’s recent post on his participation at Verge (OgilvyOne’s Digital Summit). He shares key learnings from Jessica Greenwood’s presentation, which outlined some incisive observations about where marketing is going. One trend is clear, integrated marketing communications campaigns–both horizontal and lateral integration–are the way forward to stand out in an increasingly crowded marketplace and get the attention of jaded consumers.

Synovate  is into its third year conducting the Young Asians Survey, a 11-market study spanning the media consumption, purchase habits, attitudes, favorite brand and heroes.  I thought it was interesting that, according to the survey, “the biggest media junkies can be found in Malaysia (12.9 hours a day), Thailand (12. and Hong Kong (12.2). This covers time spent on the internet, watching TV or DVD/VCD/videos, reading newspapers or magazines and listening to the radio.”

The HK press release can be accessed here.

The Singapore survey fact sheet can be accessed here.

If anyone has a fuller report, I’d love to see it!

In my earlier post, I highlighted a study by APCO Worldwide declaring that PR suits and blogger pros were at odds in their perceptions of how well PR executives were doing in reaching out to bloggers. I asked for a detailed report of the study, and while none surfaced, a fellow blogger–Bill Sledzik, who teaches PR and media ethics at Kent State University–sent me a four-page summary that concluded with five broad pronouncements that APCO termed “consensus points” based on its discussions with bloggers.

But for this specific study, guess how many bloggers did APCO hold discussions with? Well, the population sample size for this study was a grand 102 people (55 PR professionals and 47 bloggers). While I don’t think that the conclusions themselves are anything terrificly new or controversial, delivering industry “best practices” based on a survey of such minute sample size is. APCO does no credit to the marketing research profession. It even did a press release publicizing the study, and ironically enough, a website that aims to “bridge the gap” that it found in the study. Is the company aware of criticisms of its study in blogosphere?

The summary report–quite appropriately entitled “badscience”–that Bill Sledzik sent me is attached. Thanks, Bill.

badscience

PR professionals conduct blogger outreach for various reasons, but a fundamental one of which surely is to cultivate brand awareness on behalf of their clients.  However, bloggers may have other motivations for blogging.  A survey by APCO Worldwide and the Council of Public Relations Firms found that PR pros and bloggers were at odds in terms of how well each party thought PR folks were reaching out and developing relationships with bloggers.

Whether/how companies should conduct blogger relations is a highly contentious issue.  Some argue that “blogger relations” inevitably translate into “seeding” relevant bloggers with certain products or giving them privileged access, and “hoping” that these bloggers would then altruistically “share their experience” with their readers, arguing that this amounted to bribery.  Others counter that this is no different from traditional media outreach.

The PRWeek article can be found here, but I would hesitate to comment until I see the full report.  I’ve done a search to no avail.  Can anyone help?

Perhaps in recognition of the power of social media to transcend national and geographical boundaries as well as its ability to generate awareness and build excitement, the organizing committee behind Singapore’s successful bid to host the inaugural Youth Olympics in 2010 announced that new media will be extensively used. 

This is what the Straits Times–the country’s state paper–said: “The new media platform will be extensively used to reach out to youths worldwide by developing youth communities and strengthening the connections between young people even before the YOG begins.” (Feb 21, 2008, ST)

Check out the following 2010 social media sites:

Friendster

Facebook

Youth.sg 2010 discussion forum

I was just talking about viral videos in Singapore so far coming from “guerilla,” ground-up sources while corporations here have yet to figure out how to harness its communications potential. 

Blogscape highlighted the case of Donovan Lee, an undergraduate from the National University of Singapore who, disappointed that his stellar results failed to gain him entry into an Ivy League school, decided to showcase his Mathematical prowess through a series of YouTube clips.  From the plaudits left on his videos, he has clearly gained a following, not to mention an unusual, innovative portfolio of work.  More relevant to this blog, Lee may offer some lessons on a YouTube clip can be successful.  He does not resort to slapstick or spoof.  Earnest, engaging, and just slightly amateurish (classroom is a white board propped up in his Bishan flat bedroom–but it does help boost his sense of authenticity), he explains arcane Mathematical concepts with an unfailing smile and ease.  More importantly, his viewers clearly think he is offering value and making contributions to their knowledge.

Way to go, Donny.  Is the Ministry of Education watching?

‘Tis the season for predictions, and there are many.  But one of the most succint and reflective that I’ve come across is one by San Antonio based new media PR practitioner and blogger Kami Huyse.  Read her post here. 

On the first trend of the rise of viral videos, I’d have to say that Singapore has had its share.  Most of them, however, have been by “citizen journalists” making social commentary.  On the side of the corporates, the most notorious was the MDA “senior management rap” (an oxymoron, if you ask me).  By and large, companies here have not caught on to this trend.  In fact, when famed British 3D street artist Julian Beever was in Singapore last year at the expense of Nokia, the Singapore office failed to leverage on a new media video campaign to boost the reach of its PR program, unlike Aveeno, whose YouTube campaign garnered significant attention (read my earlier observations here).

Richard Edelman unveiled his company’s annual trust barometer study–this is the ninth edition–on his 6 A.M. blog a day before the official release.  He previewed seven key findings, but I just want to highlight a couple, which I think are particularly interesting.

Finding #1: “Trust in media as an institution is at a high point in the study’s history, with marked increases over past year standings in the U.K., Germany, the United States, Canada, Japan, South Korea, and India.”  This is the first year where the definition of media was expanded to include social media, which probably boosted its ranking.
==> In Dec 2007, BBC commissioned a study on the perception of media in 14 countries.  For Singapore, 1,011 were polled out of the 11,344 worldwide.  Responding to one question on perception of press freedom, only 36 per cent gave Singapore’s press a high freedom rating.  This was the lowest of all the 14 countries surveyed, a key fact completely omitted in reportage by local state-owned media.  Almost as if to prove the point, one local English daily put a spin on the figure, reporting it as such: “Despite the fact that the media here was perceived ‘as less free than in any other country surveyed’, 36 per cent gave the local press a high freedom rating.” (TODAY, “Social stability is key: Poll,” Dec 11, 2007).  Check local citizen journalist Alex Au’s blog for more background and analysis.   I am also attaching a more detailed report of the study: 10_12_07_worldservicepoll.pdf

Finding #2: “Social media is on the rise, particularly in the BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China). As expected, it is also more highly used and trusted by young opinion elites. Wikipedia ranks as the No. 2 source of credible information among 25-to-34-year-old opinion elites in the United States, by 55% of respondents.”
==> A surprising lot of professional communicators I know do not give much credence to the community-edited Wikipedia, dismissing its credibility and value.  Numerous studies, including one groundbreaking experiment by Nature, provided much evidence that Wikipedia articles are as accurate as those found in Encyclopedia Britannica.  While there have been a number of high-profile hoax entries, Wikipedia has instituted measures to tighten its editorial policy and process.  There is a whole community out there that is actively creating and editing entries on companies, newsmakers, scandals, and social issues.  Does Wikipedia not provide organizations with an excellent opportunity to be part of a conversation in a transparent, open way?