CS2 Live

BY: Kate Metcalf

People all over the world are finding various methods to express their outrage in response to the ongoing hacking scandal of Rupert Murdock’s News Corporation.

Concerned citizens are protesting, governments on both sides of the Atlantic are investigating, comedians are mining the hoopla for laughs. Wendi Deng’s slap heard ‘round the world has already become a meme all its own, hitting the online trifecta of animated gif, someecard design and Urban Dictionary entry nearly overnight. Yes, being Wendi-slapped is officially a thing now.

Beyond the handwringing and backpedaling, the controversy has launched an important conversation about journalistic ethics, individual privacy rights and the occasionally too-cozy relationship between reporters and their official sources. It’s also spawned a movement for responsible web surfing in the process.

For those looking to disassociate themselves from Murdoch’s massive media empire in the wake of the scandal, there are now several tools to make Internet browsing News Corp-free.

From Business Insider:
Murdoch Alert, a Firefox add-on, warns an Internet surfer when he or she stumbles upon a Murdoch-owned site. (A previous program called Murdoch Block simply wouldn’t allow browsers to go to any page owned by News Corp or its subsidiaries without permission from the user of the computer.)

Even if you think that the criminal acts of a few don’t necessarily reflect the corporate ethos of a whole, the Murdoch Alert add-on is still fascinating in the way it illustrates the expansive reach of News Corporation online. It’s a good reminder of the importance of the Internet as a repository for unfiltered, multifaceted news content in the face of the growing monopoly-based approach of traditional news sources.

BY: Keith Essary

Recently I have noticed a stream of chatter about the number of subscribers (likes) on a Facebook page not being used as a metric of success. When I hear or read it, it is usually accompanied with statements about having a small community of dedicated followers genuinely interesting in conversing about the company or brand. I may loose some peer points by saying this, but for most businesses, this is a misguided approach to Facebook.

Generating brand-consumer and consumer-consumer conversation on Facebook is an important goal. However, this is obtained through a high number of subscribers who use the inherent features of Facebook. Further, strategizing toward this single goal tends to produce some tactics and campaigns that I can only describe as “reaching”, which can lead to a failed initiative or negative ROI. To drive it home even more, this goal alone barely scratches the surface of the benefits provided by Facebook.

A company has to carefully consider how best to position itself on Facebook, including defining a strategy and being deliberate with its execution.  However, fundamental marketing tactics should not be ignored or replaced with something entirely new.

First and foremost a business must understand that, within Facebook, they are operating among consumers in a technical construct similar to a consumer, but they are still a business and are expected to behave as such. In my experience, most consumers expect something that falls within the realm of a basic business function – customer service, support, promotions, offers, public relations, brand loyalty programs, etc.  The first challenge is about developing engaging methods to perform any combination of these existing functions on Facebook. With proper concept and execution, the dedicated followers and conversations can naturally occur.

When performed in moderation, the notion that if a business markets to consumers on Facebook in a traditional manner they will be disliked, is simply false. Rather, if a business attempts to be something they are not in order to solicit conversation, they run the risk of being labeled artificial or “trying to hard”.

Experimenting with Facebook is great way to gain an understanding of how consumers will receive marketing tactics and standard business functions on Facebook. For example, if a business knows it obtains a .03% redemption rate of a particular coupon through a direct mailing, drop a coupon to the business’ Facebook subscribers or through a Facebook advertising campaign and compare the results. Another helpful tactic is to make wall posts rooted in different business functions and compare the interactions to the posts.

Through all the hype and struggle to “be social”, remember that, at the base level Facebook is a media just like any other media and fundamental philosophies should be applied.  More subscribers means more marketing opportunities – sometimes it’s just that simple.

I check out the Wall of these Facebook pages from time to time:

Chili’s: Primarily offers, coupons and giveaways – 923,763 subscribers.

Home Depot: Primarily an extension of their existing sell-by-how-to approach blended with public relations and general conversation – 411,130 subscribers.

Sears: A combination of customer service and product promotion blended with general conversation – 631,136 subscribers.

Facebook: Promotion through user success stories and announcements – 47,815,792 subscribers.

BY: Kate Metcalf

The number of blogs occupying real estate on the Internet is somewhere in the neighborhood of the hundreds of millions (give or take a few ten million). That number itself is staggering, but the importance of that number to those of us in the PR world becomes even more apparent when you consider this: 52% of bloggers consider themselves journalists, according to a recent study by PR Week and PR Newswire. Continue Reading »