Listening & Making: Exploring Two-Way Podcasting

Podcasting has been considered more of a one-way communication means as the process of making a podcast usually does not involve opinions from the groundswell. Podcasts are usually created and made available for interested public to download with related technologies.

However, in organizational use of podcasting, it is important to address the needs and wants of the target audience. Making podcast more audience-oriented and interactive would be a great move to engage with viewers/listeners, which would help organizations develope preferred relationships with the target publics by making and using of podcasts. Here, I'd like to introduce a few cases to discuss some possibilities in bringing podcasting, specifically audio podcasting into a two-way communication pattern.

1. Involve audience in the creative process.
Just like magazines have special pages for readers' letters, and blogs have places to leave comments, podcasting programs needs to listen to what the listeners have to say/suggest about the works, and try hard to respond to the criques/suggestions with action. The Royal Airforce Museum in London are giving out lovely Teddy Bears as they are soliciting listeners' suggestions about which celebrity would be most ideal to record the next podcast series. I think this move is very beneficial to the organization-audience relationship established through podcasts. For organizations, it is a great way to understand the preferences of the target audience. It is also a positive message that says organizations care about the feelings and insights of the audience. For audience, this approach transforms the presumption about their duties involving podcasts- they are now not only expected to download and listen to the latest episodes, they are invited to add wit and wisdom to the creation of the episodes they are going to listen to. And, participation is awarded!

2. Get audience to generate their own podcasts.
Another great use of podcasts for organizations is to hold podcast competitions that encourage audience to initiate podcast creation efforts. Basically, organizations set themes and requirements based on which listeners/participants create and submit podcasts. NASA's 21st Century Explorer Program holds an annual podcasting competition. Participants of 2009 were required to record audio podcasts on what they think is NASA's greatest exploration achievement in the past 50 years. Similarly, Little White Earbuds, a website designed for DJs hosts an annual podcasting competion that encourages listeners to submit their mixing works for award consideration. I think organizations that has a mission of informing/educating target publics can do something similar in order to make podcasting experience interactive, though there is a premise- organizations need to have established a fairly good listener base.

Please let me know your thoughts about two-way podcasting. What else do you think would work?

Viral Video Marketing: The 'Midget' Case

So what do we mean exactly by “viral video”? The easiest way to begin is by thinking of its original meaning used in medicine. Viral is something that “spreads and grows.” Viral video is when other people take your created video and willingly share it with others; it spreads out to a larger audience, and when done right, grows in its reach and influence. Viral videos can be a great way for organizations to promote products and services as they are not full of hard sale like traditional commercials. Instead, the biggest priority of viral videos is being fun and entertaining, making the viewing public laugh hard and become willing to share them with others.

The first time I became aware of viral video marketing is by watching an episode of the Celebrity Apprentice 2009. The episode featured a task for both competing teams to create a viral video for the detergent company, ALL, on their new “small and mighty®” detergent brand. The objective was which team could better impress the executives of ALL with their submitted video. Team Athena's video was entitled 'Jesse James Dirty with Midgets'. Here is the video for you to watch-



Actually, both teams thought they should go with midgets in their videos, simply because it was one of the most popular keyword searches for videos on YouTube. “We searched the internet for one of the most-used keywords when searching for viral videos, and ‘midget’ is one of the top 5 words.” Said Melissa Rivers, who was on Team Athena.

It turned out that the executives from ALL hated the video. They complained about the demeaning of the little people, and considered their image to be very “clean” and conservative; not racy or “dirty”. Viral video marketing experts made similar criticism that the video creators made general assumptions about the searched keywords, rather than addressing the specific and unique interest of the target audience/consumers of the product, meaning that they thought moms/housewives wouldn't appreciate watching a video with little people in it.

I think the case touches a very important aspect of viral video production for marketing purposes-

1) Learn the target audience before making a video that you think EVERYONE would find funny. Who is your target audience? What is their demographic? What videos are they watching? What keywords are they searching for? What websites do they frequent? What online communities are they participating in?

2) Learn the expectations of your client before making a video. Are they looking for something edgy with strong appeal to humor, or are they intending to deliver a solemn yet inspiring message?

I'd like to know your thoughts and comments about making/using viral video for marketing.

Social Media: Gaining Executive Support

Social media transforms organizations. However, in the real world, not every organizational leader are Steve Jobs or Twitterpreneurs. To make some executives realize the strategic advantages social media brings to organizations takes efforts. To help them understand it, we PR and social media practitioners need to show to executives how big, dynamic and relevant the groundswell is, and maybe even get the executives into the groundswell. The persuasion would be no easy task, and several things need to be paid attention to.

1. Uncertainty stops executives from acting.
Executives may have already been informed how important and helpful social media is, but lacking first-hand experience of using social media makes them have second thought about implementing a customer centric communication program. Also, they may think what awaits organizations in the groundswell may be an organizational opportunity or threat, creating the impression of uncertainty and out of control with social media. Two things need to be clarified to reduce the anxiety- 1) how is social media transforming the organization in a positive way; 2) a fully developed plan to reassure that social media helps relationship building (maybe by using ROPES model, and including case studies).

2. Approaches should reflect each executive's current level of support.
A scale should be introduced to measure different levels of support. Some executives may be blind about the value of social media. You need to educate them from lesson one. Some executives may be positive toward social media, but may need your help with a specified plan of action. Other executives may be social media enthusiasts, and they'd be your important assets for selling the social media plan to other executives.

3. Be ready to walk a long way for support.
PR practitioners should be prepared to take a long road gaining executive support on embracing social media. Timing (when to approach executives), information (what to present to executives) and manner (how to talk about it with them) all substantially matter, and all takes time. You need to be faithful and persistent in face of all kinds of challenges.

Happy Crowdsourcing!

When talking about embracing the groundswell, Li and Bernoff point out the importance of making customers an integral part of the way an organization innovates. They argue that organizations should be proactive in engaging customers in the product/process improvement to increase the chances of developing and presenting something customers want.

What organizations can do with the new trend are threefold- 1) listen to what customers are saying; 2) keep customers' talks going; 3) proactively ask customers to tell what they think needs to be done.

The third one touches the idea of crowdsourcing which combines "crowd" and "outsourcing". A crowdsourcing is done through an open call to a large group of people (a crowd) asking for contributions. An example using social media is a request made by Luce Foundation Center for American Art on Flickr to have people help with the task of finding a perfect substitute art piece from their online archive to fill display gaps when certain artworks are out on loan (as image below shows).



The "Fill the Gap!" crowdsourcing is very successful. Many people go to posted their selected artworks to fill gaps. They also interact with each other by commenting each others' choices. Eventually, Luce Foundation Center would fill each gap by following people's recommendations (as image below shows- the previous gap filled!).



Two important factors I've learned from this social media based crowdsourcing project are-

1) 'Crowdsourcability': make sure it's something your target publics know, care about, and are willing to participate in;

2) Execution: when great ideas come out from the crowd, adopt them. It's the best way to keep crowdsourcing efforts going.

Please let me know your thoughts about organizational crowdsourcing using social media. Thanks!

Photosharing= Photos + Sharing

How you are going to show whom what pictures?

For organizations, to effectively make a presence and exert impacts on photo sharing sites, they need to do more than uploading pictures, and hard-selling information/product/service with the pictures. An essential part of successful organizational photo sharing is... sharing.

With sharing, the logic is actually quite simple- those photos should not only be yours; they should also be your viewers', which means something within/about your photos can be felt, recognized, liked, and remembered by the target publics. Such emotional connections will lead them to give their inputs on the community (by commenting photos, or even sharing their photos), and become more involved with the organization (by joining your photo sharing groups and actively participating in communication).

Throughout many success cases, two aspects are consistently crucial with organizational use of photo sharing.

1. Helpfulness is valued in photo sharing, too.
Nikon Digital learning Center on Flickr is popular because of helpful photo taking tutorials and advices on member-uploaded photos given among group members (mostly photography enthusiasts) and by photography professionals hired by Nikon. Also, Nikon's Flickr has well served a large number of frequent Flickr users who care about quality of photos they take.

2. Participatibility is key.
Every month, Mass MoCA's Flickr Finds gives themes to its Flickr group members to take photos on. The January 2010 Flickr Finds featured photos capturing a touch of blue. Best photos were picked out and then put on the Mass MoCA blog (below are some of them).





Mass MoCA's Flickr has become very popular, as again, with its very interesting participatory Flickr activities, it manages to engage photography enthusiasts- a demographic factor too important to miss out on for using Flickr.

I'd like to hear your thoughts about what elements are important for organizations to secure the sharing in photo sharing!

Weibo, Scarf, and Microblogging

Since Day One of microblogging, many questions have been raised about current and potential organizational usage, a major one being how can organizations achieve two-way symmetrical communication when using microblogging? I want to share a success story of VANCL, an online fashion retailer in China, as its microblogging strategies have gained many thumbs-up from PR and marketing professionals.

In 2009, Sina.com, one of the biggest online portals in China launched a microblogging service called Sina Weibo (Sina Microblogging). Sina cleverly punned on the likeness of “wēi bó” (microblogging) and “wéi bó” (scarf) in Chinese pronunciation. Thus, instead of asking people “have you microblogged today?” Sina asks “got your scarf today?” The naming created a buzz, and attracted thousands of netizens to come and get their scarves.

VANCL were among the first companies on Weibo. Their first updates were about giving free VANCL scarves to new followers. Relevant and fun, the campaign helped VANCL gain initial attention and followership. Many of VANCL’s updates later were also about freebies and bargains- giving gifts, time-limited ￥1 purchase for some ￥888 apparel for followers who leave comments the earliest, etc.

But that was not all. Besides good at giving away scarves, VANCL also made efforts to connect with followers/consumers emotionally. What they did included:
- Sharing designers’ new creative ideas for new seasons
- Sharing photos of office, studios, team activities and energetic friendly looking new VANCL employees
- Answering followers’ questions in a timely manner
- Asking for and rewarding design suggestions
- Recruiting catalog models
- Reminding people to dress warm and travel safe for Chinese New Year.

Several good lessons could be learned from VANCL on organizational usage of microblogging to interact with key audience in dialogues and interactions:

1. Find a good bonding point between your organization and the microblog. For VANCL, it was on Weibo because its target consumers (young people in the early years of career who like to shop online) are comfortable with microblogging. What makes the reason for your organization to be on Twitter?

2. Introduce yourself. Tell organizational stories. Help people know what you do and what you believe. Build emotional ties.

3. Listen and be responsive. Microblogging is not another place to put news and news releases. It enables organizations to directly communicate/interact with the audience. Value their feedback by ingratiating and responding it on time.

4. Prepare incentive packages to encourage participation. Everyone can use a giveaway or a few coupons, so give a wéi bó (scarf) for their “wēi bó” (microblogging)!

A Brainstorming Exercise for Organization Vlogging

As an owner of a very popular vlog, Philip DeFranco has actually made a vlog on how to make a popular vlog.



In summary, DeFranco mentioned (in an entertaining manner of speaking) three important elements of a vlog-

1. Has a theme/themes a vlogger is passionate about;
2. Gives interesting/innovative input;
3. Solicits audience feedback.

All these elements are actually applicable and critical to organizations’ vlogs, too. First, a theme sets the tone for the vlog and the perception of the organization in the vlog audience’s eye. Second, interesting input is the key to identifying with the audience. Jason Calacanis, enabler of the vlogging sensation Mahalo Vlog Idol believes that a great corporate vlog needs to be: a. entertaining, and b. informative, and that the order is important. Lastly, vlog, as a form of social media, needs to be interactive and participatory. Philip DeFranco solicited feedback from other vloggers by promising to publicize the best vlogs; Blendtec invited the audience to tell them what to blend next time. In essence, vloggers need to have ways to ensure viewers that feedback is expected and worthwhile.

So, how about some brainstorming exercise for organization vlogging? It only takes two steps-

1. Name an organization you want to work for (ideally or realistically);
2. Help the organization come up with a theme for a vlog.

Toyota’s Hibernating Blog

Once bitten, twice shy.

To owners of 8.1 million Toyota vehicles worldwide, this idiom has become increasingly relevant. A massive recall due to a sticking accelerator problem has made a substantial number of loyal Toyota customers reevaluate the reliability of their Toyota cars as well as the maker of them.

Toyota has, gradually, implemented crisis communication programs (here’s a timeline regarding Toyota’s responses to the incident). Social media wise, Toyota has, again gradually, addressed issues on Youtube, Facebook fan page and Twitter. But with this post, I’d like to direct your attention to an official Toyota blog that is fast asleep during a whole winter of crises.

Our Point of View is a blog written by Toyota associates that aims to “explore current issues in the automotive industry”. A frequent author is Irv Miller, Toyota’s VP of Environmental and Public Affairs. The first post was written in January 2008, and the last in December 2009. As the tag cloud indicates, the blog makes the most effort to inform/educate/promote “hybrid”, “Prius”, and “Venza”. It’s interesting that though tags of “recall” and “recalls” are listed in the tag cloud, they don’t link to any related posts.

Also as said, the blog stopped being updated since December 2009 when the floor mat problem started to hugely affect the carmaker’s reputation and revenues. Information related to the most recent recalls is not available on the blog; nor is a hyperlink to Toyota’s official recall website. The last post has generated 205 comments, but none of them were responded. Speculations, anger, and disappointment were everywhere yet unheeded-

“You asked for it..You got it Toyota”

“The problem is not the pedal but the electronics. Toyota needs to come clean and tell us the real problem. And then fix it.”

“Be a company of integrity, if there is a problem admit there is a problem, and fix the problem. be a company of integrity, honesty, open communication and be responsible and do your part, so step up to the plate.”

……

I feel that since Toyota has decided to open a blog in the first place to directly communicate with its stakeholders, it needs to carry on the communication, and make efforts to turn the hatred into discussions- before the place becomes a recycle bin of hatred and negativity.

I’d like to hear your opinions on Toyota’s hibernating blog. Do you think they have stopped updating the blog for a reason? Or do you think the carmaker needs to wake up the blog, and manage the crisis through frequent and genuine communication with the blog readers?

B2B Social Media: Putting a Human Touch

B2B, or business-to-business, describes commerce transactions between businesses (e.x. between a manufacture and a wholesaler) as opposed to B2C (business-to-Consumers) or B2G (business-to-government).

You may wonder why I am writing on this topic since I’ve decided to focus more on consumers in this blog. Well, the point I am trying to make with this post is that we may treat B2B more like B2C when implementing social media efforts.

As Li and Bernoff point out, it’s important to look at the target audience of B2B not only as businesses (organizations), but also as businesspeople (contact points representing the organizations). This concept is crucial when a business approaches another business using social media- you cannot connect, communicate, and share ideas with a business, but the people doing the business.

My experience as a marketing communication intern in a Raleigh-based PR agency has helped me understand the importance of putting human touch to B2B. I have worked on three B2B projects using social media to help our gaming technology clients (game engine, game localization, and game artificial intelligence) develop and maintain relationships with such businesses as game developers, game publishers, and game education institutes. We make efforts to reach them, impress them, and make connections with them, so as to create business opportunities for our clients.

In retrospect, the critical part of our work always involves learning and connecting with the key people in the businesses. For example, we do regularly email campaigns for a game engine client to inform game publishers of the technology. We customized campaigns when reaching various key decision makers. For CTOs and chief programmers, we inserted video demos in the email, and included the link to the online community where they could discuss technical details with the engineers from our client side. The strategy was implemented based on the fact that management on the technology side contribute to the decision making by making critical judgment of advantages and disadvantages of technology, so they need to know what kind of technology is available here. Whereas for CEOs and CFOs, they go to trade shows and they care about price, value and budget. Thus we reach them with the help of Salesforce event management function- before major trade shows, they would receive emails that inform them of our client’s competitive edge (addressing past successful titles of similar genres developed with the technology, price-performance ratio, etc.), plus a chance for a coffee together in the upcoming trade show.

In a word, knowing who you are communicating with is essential to B2B social media practices. Are they more of spectators than critics? Would they appreciate an opportunity to create contents? Or maybe they are fine as long as they can make comments, or subscribe to things, or share things? Strategies are built on the people, so start to learn them.

Don’t be Evil… Says Who?

My previous blog about Pizza Hut’s viral marketing through social media in China brought Paromita and I into a very interesting discussion about ethics of social media marketing. Was it unethical of Pizza Hut not to disclose that it was the creator of the original post? If you were on the team that strategized and implemented this campaign, knowing that self-disclosure was not essential with the local law and industry regulations, plus absolutely tempted by the fact that the campaign would sell much better if “astroturfed”, what would you do? Where would you place ethics for an organization such as a corporation? What would be your priority, and at the same time, how would you define your bottom line financially and ethically?

How I wish there were a universal ruler that measures ethics, but after all, life is never a black-and-white, good-or-bad dichotomy. In the business world, ethics is a challenging issue full of gray areas, entangled with variables. Yet, for organizations, attempts must be made to answer these questions, because publics of interest care to know what kind of player you are in the market before they decide what kind of relationship they want to have with you. To help with the thoughts, I’d like to share Google’s word about ethics.

“Don’t be evil,”

says Google in their organizational philosophy. As a technology/service provider that integrates information, Google believes that it is unethical, evil to manipulate information. This ethics standard can be seen as an underlying motive of Google’s recent statement about leaving China (by closing its google.cn domain) when Gmail accounts of several pro-democracy dissidents’ were censored and hacked. While many thought it was a morally advantageous excuse to shut a poorly performing line of service (google.cn’s market share has been disappointing), many believed Google was a hero. As the picture below shows, some people even presented bouquets (as a way to say goodbye to the beloved) to Google’s Beijing office when the announcement was made.



I tend to believe that Google’s ethical practice in China has largely combined interest of itself and the key publics. Google’s revenues rely on a stable service that reflects natural unmanipulated information flow, which serves as a legitimate reason for Google to stick to the ethical standard. More importantly, Google’s key publics (users, investors, the press, etc.) expect to see consistent execution of “don’t be evil”, even when it means making clear the core values against the "Great Firewall of China" (Government PR efforts are much needed after that though.) It reassures them that Google is trustworthy, protects the brand, and in the long run, it helps cultivate the Chinese market. Thus, what Google did in China was both a moral bottom line and a moral high ground for its stakeholders and itself.

What I’ve learned from this incident is that, for organizations, ethics can be and should be strategic. Ethic standards should direct organizations to developing positive relationships with their key publics. Organizations need to decide the ethical DOs and DON’Ts in a big picture thinking about long term consequences, and in the eye of the publics on whom an organization's success or failure depends.