Some of the smartest minds in social media gathered recently at the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) Symposium at Harvard for a discussion of the group’s latest research findings. This is my third year attending the event and it has been hugely interesting to see the progression of each of SNCR’s studies. A couple of trends really POPPED for me this year…

Surprisingly, corporations are still behind the curve with social media adoption. Nora Ganim Barnes (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) found this in the Social Media Adoption Trends Among Inc. 500, Fortune 500, Higher Education and Charities study. While many of the world’s biggest brands have a presence on social media platforms, Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies are still behind Charities and Higher Education in their use of social media to communicate with stakeholders. The proof is in the pudding. Check this out:

What does this tell me? While many companies “get it”, there is still more work to do in educating consumer brands (our clients) on the value of social media in helping them to connect with their customers. With changing media consumption habits, the methods in which we communicate must also continue to evolve!

While corporations still have some catching up to do, media and journalists are using social media for their story-telling and reporting in a BIG way. In a separate session, Jen McClure and Don Middleberg presented the “3^rd Annual SNCR/Middleberg Survey of Media in the Wired World”. In this study, it was found that 90% of journalists say that their reliance on social media has increased significantly in the past year. 75% of journalists are using Facebook in generating content. 70% are using blogs. 69% are using Twitter. 54% are using online video. 53% are using Wikipedia. 31% use LinkedIn and 28% use citizen photos.

So, to those Fortune 500 / Inc. 500 corporations that have not yet adopted social media as a significant portion of their communications strategy, you might want to take another look at what the cool kids (i.e. influencers and journalists) are doing!

Thanks to SNCR for organizing yet another great Symposium, as well as for honoring 360PR’s work with the Ball brand National Can-It Forward Day campaign in the Excellence in New Communications Awards.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 1 Comment →

By Caitlin McNamara

The JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge Series is a 12-city, six-country, five-continent road race, making it the largest road race series in the world. The Corporate Challenge provides an evening of healthy competition, camaraderie and teamwork for local companies to get to know all of their employees. This year, the Corporate Challenge continued its success with a projected number of 250,000 participants.

360PR was lucky to be involved in the race series by taking the communications lead in Chicago (May 26), Boston (June 2) and New York (June 15 and June 16). In addition to focusing on JPMorgan Chase, the bank, we also worked with companies that participated including Caterpillar and Molex (Chicago), Dassault Systemes and Fidelity (Boston), as well as Coach and Johnson & Johnson (New York). Learning about the individual runners and the companies as a whole, we were able to fine tune our pitches leading to national and regional coverage with Banker & Tradesmen, Mass High Tech, the WSJ Dealbreaker Blog and many more.

Each year, companies from all different industries participate in this 12-city road race series – ranging from Tassimo, to WebMD, to Bloomingdales. In Boston, the 360PR crew took part in the 3.5 mile race around the Boston Common. And, while we didn’t win the race, we’re proud to say that 360PR made it to the top 10 in the Boston  t-shirt contest this year!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Cause-Related, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations by Admin - No Comments →

360 recently hosted members of the new Boston Parent Bloggers Network for a discussion on what’s next for bloggers and brands and what’s working now.  The meeting was spurred by a rigorous schedule of blogger events we have underway this fall for an array of brands.

We’ve had great turnout at our first few events.  But if you’re a blogger, how many events for how many brands can you get to in a given week, especially if blogging is a part-time gig as it is for many?  And how can agencies and brands take it the next level?

All of the bloggers we met with are active on Twitter – some to promote their blogs and give-aways and others for purely social reasons.  The group agreed that on the whole Twitter is a platform for influencers, not the average consumer.  Facebook is also part of bloggers’ daily routines and bloggers “like” brands that fit their lifestyle.  If you’re not interacting with bloggers on Facebook, consider how you can.

Bloggers stressed that once they have become invested in a brand by participating in events, writing posts, etc., they expect to be kept in contact with.  The best programs, like relationships, are ongoing.  For example, a food council sent a different “recipe in a box” to bloggers every month for a year.

Bloggers said they’ll continue to take the time to go to events, but certain times work better than others – for mom bloggers it’s Monday-Thursday mid-morning, after school, or after 7PM.

Virtual events are catching on with busy bloggers.  Some factors for success include special access to a celebrity or other high-profile speaker, a charitable tie-in, and limiting the event to no more than one hour.

We talked about the value of tapping into existing events instead of, or to supplement, your own.  Conferences like Type A Mom, Blissdom and Blogalicious are drawing hundreds of bloggers and offer a captive audience for quality interactions.  But you have to have a strategy to stand out.

Bloggers are also interested in ambassadorships, which might entail producing content for a brand – a video series, for example.

When asked how they measure their influence and success, bloggers cited their loyal readers and the quality of their writing as most important.  It’s that personal relationship with their readers that continues to differentiate blogs from traditional media.  Brands that are succeeding in the blogosphere have a similar respect for bloggers, and an ongoing, integrated approach.

Many thanks to Christy Matte, Jodi Grundig, Erin Furey, Melanie Feehan and Kate Hayes for contributing their time and insights for this post.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Boston, Digital PR, Marketing to Moms, Social Media by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →

I’ve walked through Copley Place and the Prudential many times. But, instead of grabbing a bite to eat in the food court last Friday, I speed-walked through the mall to the Hynes Convention Center for the first annual Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East). It was quite a sight…over 60K gamers, many fan boys and girls in full costume, descended on Boston and captured the attention of the Pru “suits” on their lunch break, as well as the local media. Multiple features in Mass High Tech, the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Xconomy.com and others chronicled the success story that was PAX East.

Held for the past four years in Seattle (PAX West), PAX organizers decided to branch out to the East coast and Boston was a natural choice – as a HUGE college town, Boston is filled with gamers! Thousands of attendees and about 70 hardware and software companies, including 360 clients Turbine and Immerz, crammed into the tiny Hynes Convention Center for a sold out show. And I’ve heard that in 2011 the event will be held at the much larger Boston Convention & Exhibition Center – the open space will provide more room for the nerd herd to really spread out next year.

The gamers are gone, for now. But it’s clear that PAX East was a milestone event for Boston, the first gaming event of its size to be held in our backyard. While Massachusetts has long been known as a leader in various technology sectors, in recent years the gaming cluster has really started to shine becoming a key growth area for the state.

According to a 2009 survey by the Mass Tech Leadership Council, the state’s video game makers, which include industry heavyweights Harmonix and Turbine, take in $2 billion in revenue per year.  There are over 70 companies in MA dedicated to games, employing over 1,200 people. There are also multiple local organizations dedicated to fostering the community, including the New England Games SIG (of which I participate as a steering committee member), the Boston Post Mortem, and the MassTLC Games Cluster.

Did you get your game on at PAX? What did you think? We at 360 can’t wait until next year! Check out some photos of the 360 team at PAX on our Facebook page.

The 360PR team at PAX East - Elicia, Stacey, and Amanda

Filed under: Boston, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Media and Press, Video Games by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

A good parody is an attention grabber, especially when it’s on YouTube.

That’s one of the lessons I learned first hand at the “how to make a viral video” session at SXSW, where along with 500 other people, I had the good fortune to star in a parody video that since it’s posting only four days ago, has already been viewed over 34,0000 times on YouTube.

So here’s what happened. Spoofing the highly popular  surprised kitten video – as in viewed 21 million times popular – Damian Kulash, the You Tube sensation from the OK GO band, pretended to tickle a room full of people in the SXSW audience. See  surprised SXSW audience. If you like this spoof, check out Damian’s attempt to tickle his pet dog, who doesn’t seem at all surprised. See surprised dog.

The SXSW viral video seminar was led by Jonathan Wells, the creative director at Flux,  Margaret Gould Stewart from YouTube, Jason Wishnow from TedTalks and Damian Kulash from OK GO. They were informed and articulate, and it was one of the  more meaningful and lively discussions at SXSW. I learned that many popular viral videos happen not on purpose like, Charlie bit my finger.  So the question is, how do you create a successful viral video on purpose? Here are 10 secrets I learned from this panel of pros:

1. Don’t be a Debbie Downer. Most videos that go viral spread happiness.

2. Go for a sense of wonder, inspiration and surprise, and create content around the unexpected and the great reveal.

3. Use multiple camera angles and close ups so viewers can develop an emotional connection with those on camera. Watch James Watson on TedTalks to see some awesome camera angles and inspired delivery of content, in turn creating  both an emotional and intellectual connection with the speaker.

4. Exclusivity online doesn’t work. Allowing people to embed your video is good common sense.  Science has it that the traffic that drives virality in the first 48 hours is due to embedded video on blogs, not on You Tube.

5. Viral doesn’t always mean having to create original content. You can also curate original content from others and provide a platform to help them gain a larger audience for their content.

6. Create a video people will compulsively want to watch over and over again. One way is to think of the most impossible thing to do. Then do it. That’s the approach taken by  OK GO on their latest video, which took 6 months, 65 takes and 60 engineers to create. But it averages 4-5 views per session.

7. Metadata is the SEO equivalent of making your video go viral. Make sure you tag your video properly once it’s on YouTube so people can find it. It’s also recommended that you connect your YouTube channel with your Facebook account. This way all your YouTube updates will get automatically posted on Facebook.

8. People are compulsive about sharing human experiences. Visceral emotions in video around love, food, sex, and laughter generally get passed around.

9. Viral is in the eye of the beholder. People who come to YouTube from social networks are more interested in what else their friends are watching. The idea is to understand the mindset that people bring with them and build off that in creating your video.

10. Be quirky.YouTube’s top celebs are quirky and lo-fi, but they draw audiences any cable network would envy.

Without a doubt, it’s always fascinating to see smart, unique, and occasionally crazy concepts come to life. Most interesting are those that connect with a brand and really support brand awareness.

I welcome your comments and love to hear what you see working to hook fans with video!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Social Media, Uncategorized by Admin - 1 Comment →