How can PR better leverage the growing power of the mobile Internet?  That’s the question I had when I attended mobicamp here in Atlanta on Friday evening.   The brainchild of Amro Mousa, mobicamp was a new unconference centered around mobile technology and its impact on the day to day life of average users. More than 150 people registered, and I chance to talk with attendees in the mobile space including Richard Yates at Mobilesect, Kevin Planovsky at Vert Mobile and Sanjoy Malik, founder of Air2Web and a Venture Lab fellow at Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute.

My early verdict about the mobile Internet:  I think PR can do better job . Simply put, while we are great at pushing information, we are not making it easier for mobile users to pull it.

It almost goes without saying the mobile Internet growth is huge.  An estimated 63 million people accessed news and information on their mobile phones at least once during the month.  That figure came from a March 2009 study by ComScore as reported by Erick Shoenfeld.  And the numbers are only growing. BTW, the  second most popular mobile activity was social networking.  With 9.3 million daily users, accessing social networking on mobile devices is rapidly gaining ground.

Those figures are consistent with those of Caroline Dunn, Internap director of product management – mobile and a mobicamp presenter.   In a white paper she submitted, she cited a Cisco Systems report that predicts mobile data traffic will double each year from now through 2012, and mobile video will account for 64 percent of mobile traffic by 2013.

With all these people getting news and information from mobile devices, you would think that companies would seize the opportunity to leverage mobile.  But that’s not the case.  A study last year by Omniture found many companies from retailers to content providers are not taking advantage of the opportunity presented by this increase in mobile Internet use.

In many cases, PR is not considering that the mobile Internet experience involves different screen sizes and different audio and video formats. Most mobile phones are not equipped to handle the Flash applications found on web sites. The net result is that PR is not effectively capitalizing on the mobile web.

Mobile is a PR Opportunity

Recognize m. or .mobi?  They are telltale signs you are a mobile site, and we need to get familiar with them. Look at the difference between mobile and desktop versions of the CNN homepage.  See how the mobile CNN page is more streamlined.

When we work with our web designers and content designers, are we taking into account the mobile web? When we upload video, PDF files and other content, are we configuring them for a mobile audience?

According to Wikipedia, the main advantage of .mobi, from the users’ perspective, is that they are theoretically guaranteed a site optimized for usage on the go. This means hard factors such as smaller screens, device form/size, device input/output options, existence of embedded sensors (acceleration, location, touch, light/darkness, ambient noise), as well as soft factors such as expectations of immediacy of results, context awareness under a shortened attention span (compared to home/desktop use of the Internet).

The reality is that very few .com extensions are optimized for mobile phones.

Ed Schipul discussed in his excellent Slideshare presentation that mobile PR is more than using the trendiest application, text messaging or simply transferring the desktop to a smaller screen; it’s about a whole new way of communicating – one based on simplicity and immediacy. People are grabbing information on the run.  They don’t have the time, inclination or minutes on their plan to download graphic-laden sites that only slow down the experience and make it more difficult to access information.

As Mark Emery wrote:  ”People still behave differently on mobile devices. Let’s face it, it is still relatively arduous to do things on a mobile phone versus a computer. Chances are that if you’re taking the time to type out a URL in a mobile browser, you have an exceedingly good idea what you’re after.”

This is how web and mobile integration specialist Andrew Lunde at Lunde Cognitive Effects explained it to me, “It’s important for PR to keep in mind what information they want to deliver to their audience in a mobile context. They need to work with web designers to create a database that allow users to view and retrieve content over multiple devices and formats.”

This post is long, but it only scratches the surface of the mobile web and its impact on PR.  It doesn’t address strategy, successful campaigns or opportunities to create additional value and extend community. But I hope it starts a discussion on the growing use of the mobile Internet and the technical considerations that PR needs to make when disseminating content.

Let me get back to you.

Source: http://www.highposition.net/news/

Take the PR Search vs Placement SURVEY.

What’s more important to you — positive coverage in the Wall Street Journal or top search results for your key search terms?   The survey is intended to find out what our peers are doing.

The right answer is both, but most clients will more likely say placement. The truth is most PR professionals have only a basic understanding of SEO.  And for those with more advanced knowledge, it is not always a priority.  Consequently, we are failing to take advantage of the way people and reporters gather information and leaving visiblity to chance or the kindness or journalists.

Fundamentally, a comprehensive PR strategy must incorporate search as a means of building or maintaining a client’s image.

Increasingly, people use search to get their news or use Google Alerts to deliver it to them. They put together strings of search terms that focus less on new sources and more about the information they are seeking.  Consequently a search may yield a bevy of high ranking unflattering stories that undercut more positive ones.  A great hit in the New York Times may go unread.

But why the disconnect?  Why don’t placement and search align more closely?  Several factors are at work.

Maybe it’s vanity (It’s really cool to get a front page, top of the fold – those are print terms) or maybe it’s convention.  But it’s bigger than that.

Training – Despite the growing number of search specialists, conferences, webinars, and tools, most PR professionals are not equipped to handle the power of search. We don’t know how to optimize a release or a website or leave it to someone else.

Lack of coordination or control – Search generally falls in the hands of marketing and advertising.  Even though press releases can drive traffic to a website, PR is often left in the dark about a company’s search strategy or lacks access to and an understanding of basic web analytics.  We also don’t appreciate the power of the content on corporate news rooms to aid in search results.

Other priorities – Even when PR does have access to search data, optimizing a newsroom on a company website is often a low priority for overworked web services or IT departments.

In short, clients need to appreciate that how the public and reporters consume news is as important as where we place it.  Otherwise we are missing out on a powerful opportunity to blend new and traditional media.

Let me be clear.   Hits will continue to matter.  Blogs and media outlets still exert influence.  They reach millions of readers.  People continue to bookmark sites and subscribe to favorite sources of news and opinion.

But their visits or more brand related.  I go to the New York Times website because first and foremost I like their brand. Generally, I am not searching for a particular topic or company.

It’s also not binary.  Placement increases search results.  But we need to make it easier to find the news in the first place.

As Lee Odden wrote: 

Using SEO as part of a Pull PR effort, ie optimizing news content, puts a company’s news content in the places where the media are looking. Pitching directly to journalists and analysts via email and phone is hit or miss. With thousands of press releases distributed each day, it’s a challenge to stand out. That’s why optimizing news content to facilitate self discovery by the media is a perfect compliment to any SEO or Media Relations effort.

So let’s not cede control. Let’s not miss opportunities to maximize coverage.  Let’s begin to more concertedly optimize releases and newsrooms on corporate websites for search. Let’s create content that supplements and maximizes traditional media. In the end it will help us better measure results and demonstrate ROI.

In coming posts, I will begin to outline how to use SEO.

Let me get back to you.

Are corn chips “information dense” enough for new media?

I was reading about Jimmy Wales’ keynote presentation at the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco last week.  In deciding whether a particular brand merits new media, Wales said, “unless your brand is information dense, the highly interactive market is both expensive and useless.”  In other words, in his view, certain brands are not rich enough to sustain online communities.   

According to Wales, Marvel is a good brand and Doritos – not so much.  People just don’t have that much to say about corn chips, but they will have lengthy discussions about their favorite Marvel superhero.  He dismisses efforts like the Skittles Twitter campaign as gimmicks. They are at best one hit wonders and at worst recipes for PR headaches.

Now I wasn’t there to hear the presentation, but it did make me think about information density and new media adoption.  The only thing more problematic than a company who refuses to consider new media is a company who embraces new media to drive traffic for the wrong reasons with no appreciation for long term relationships.

So how dense is dense?  What is the litmus test for whether your product is appropriate for new media. Hell a bottle of carmel colored water and sugar was recently named the second most popular brand on Facebook after President Obama. 

Information Density Considerations  

I believe any brand is potentially dense enough to sustain a new media campaign. But it isn’t just the brand. You will find people passionate about anything. Instead, it’s also the campaign behind the brand.  Even dense brands need  an effective new media strategy to sustain online conversations. In attempting a new media campaign, it may be helpful to consider the following questions that I have asked before:  

Long Term vs. Short Term – Are you engaging in a long term conversation or a brief campaign?

Continuity – What steps are in place to maintain connections and continuity after the campaign?

Scalability – Is it scalable? 

Amplification – How does the social media strategy extend other marketing efforts?

Payoff – What is the pay off for the user?

The Community – Do the needs of the community match the marketing strategy?  Is there an identifiable community to reach?

Technology – Does the communications platform match the user target? 

Refreshment – Does the brand community or interactive website have rich, refreshed content?

And sometimes companies don’t have a choice but to tap newl media. How many people would care enough to engage online with the Domino’s pizza brand?   Apparently quite a few especially when a disgusting video by former employees surfaced on YouTube.  Acting late or not having an online infrastructure in place can be terribly damaging to a brand. 

Now I know that marketing and crisis communications are different animals, but they are part of a brand continuum. I think density can be misleading.  It suggests that brands have a choice about new media. At a basic level, companies don’t have an option. As a recent BusinessWeek article points out, conversations are already happening around your brand, and crises can arise that demand an immediate new media response.  The key take away:  be prepared.  If nothing else, measuring information density is a useful way to pressure test your brand and fortify your new media strategy.

Let me get back to you.