Posts Tagged ‘research’

Update – Aquarium of the Pacific Survey Rises Again

Thursday, August 13th, 2009

Posted by Erin Koch

I wanted to post a quick update to our earlier entry on the Aquarium of the Pacific Web survey aimed at helping them establish a new price for their Child ticket.

In addition to blogging about my experience, I sent a somewhat-critical e-mail to the Aquarium suggesting that their survey might be improved. They graciously responded, almost immediately, and said they were interested in getting input from a public opinion research company on how their survey process might be improved.

We contacted a long-time research partner, CIC Research, and they agreed to help the Aquarium make some edits to the survey. I’ll be posting another update here soon on what CIC suggested. Beyond the survey, this shows how an organization can be responsive and turn a potentially negative PR experience into a positive.

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The One-Minute News Cycle; Social Media Critical in Crisis PR

Wednesday, August 12th, 2009

Deep, Fast Searching

Deep, Fast Searching

Posted by Liz Dill

According to an article in The Wall Street Journal entitled, “For Companies, a Tweet in Time Can Avert PR Mess,” many large corporations such as Ford, Southwest Airlines and Pepsi are creating social media teams. By closely monitoring social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc.) they can quickly identify potential issues, analyze customer feedback in real-time and craft effective communications strategies to deal with the breaking issue while protecting the reputation of the organization. The article specifically mentions a situation where a Southwest Airlines flight had to make an emergency landing and their emerging media team was able to scan social media sites for passenger response to the incident, and then was able to craft an appropriate message on behalf of the Airline based on their findings.

In an ideal world of strategic public relations, goals are set, actions carefully planned, core messages thoughtfully crafted and outcomes weighed. The same systematic approach is particularly important when confronted with a crisis situation. Avoid the urge to launch a quick reactive response. Use all the resources available to gather information and create an intelligent, insightful situation analysis on the impact of the situation in both short and long term. Gable PR has detailed checklist to help in the process.

Analyze the results and determine the strategic response. With the impact of social media and the impact on the velocity of news and buzz, clients, organizations and their PR professionals need to be up-to-the minute. Look beyond Google News and the other news trackers to monitor the pulse of the conversations and emerging tones in real time. Without intense scrutiny of the social media universe, an organization could see a small incident gain global buzz and quickly escalate into a larger PR crisis – one with long-term impact that extends beyond the short-term issue.

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Aquarium of the Pacific Survey Sinks to Bottom of the PR Tank

Monday, August 10th, 2009

Underwater Wonder

Underwater Wonder

Posted by Erin Koch

We frequently remind our clients at Gable PR of the importance of getting solid audience intelligence before launching a comprehensive PR program. Knowing which messages will move your audience to take action, as well as where they get their information is the foundation of an effective PR campaign. It’s the PR equivalent of plotting a cross-country automobile trip; know all the nuances and details long before you even start packing.

But it is absolutely crucial that this research be conducted in a way that will result in accurate data. The road map can’t be based on leading questions or a biased audience sample.

I recently received an e-mail from the Long Beach Aquarium of the Pacific. The e-mail asked me to complete a quick Zoomerang survey. I agreed. From the outset, it was apparent that the aquarium was attempting to find a new pricepoint for the Child ticket. So they were conducting audience research on new ticket prices: a topic that will clearly require a good road map for communicating with their guests. Here is how the survey went:

    • Screen 1 – Would you be willing to pay $18.95 for a Child admission to the Aquarium of the Pacific?
    • 2 – Would you be willing to pay $17.95?
    • 3 – $16.95?
    • 4 – $15.95?
    • 5 –$14.95?

Now, as a card-carrying father to three fish-loving kids, how do you think I answered each question? As I continued checking off the “no” box, the amount of the proposed ticket price kept dropping! A wonderful thing! So I obviously continued checking “no” until the survey moved on to a different topic.

Had the question been phrased differently, I might have had a different response. For example:

At Aquarium of the Pacific, we strive to provide each guest with an experience that is worth far more than the price of admission. In this challenging economic climate, we are currently reviewing our ticket prices to determine whether changes might be acceptable to our valued guests, and would appreciate your honest input on what you would be willing to pay for a Child admission. Please check off all boxes that apply:

    • $18-20 [ ]
    • $16-18 [ ]
    • $14-16 [ ]
    • $12-14 [ ]

Giving the question more context, then providing the full range of prices under consideration on a single screen, makes me much more likely to give a straightforward answer, rather than trying to “game” the system to get the price to go as low as possible. It would also be easier and faster to complete, increasing the response rate.

Audience research is crucial. But the effort is wasted if the data is collected in a way that is biased. In this case, the Aquarium of the Pacific is very likely to receive data that indicate that very few of their prior guests are willing to pay even their lowest proposed price for a Child admission.

A final note: once I completed the survey, the screen stated, rather tersely, that I did not meet the qualifications to continue to an additional survey. A simple “thank you for your valued input” would have been good PR and much friendlier. And, more importantly, as a huge fan of the Aquarium of the Pacific, I dread the thought of them making a crucial pricing decision based on an awkwardly constructed survey completed by a non-representative audience sample.

Photo by Kevitivity

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Using Twitter for PR Research, Guerrilla Marketing, Crisis PR

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Posted by Tom Gable

While many people view Twitter as a frivolous tool for inane rambling about one’s largely uninteresting personal experiences to unknown followers who don’t really care, it can be a powerful and valuable research tool for PR. With a little work, Twitter can become a news junkie’s delivery and intelligence-gathering service to:

  • Keep on top of breaking news in various industries and topics of interest
  • Identify gurus in the space; sources of good information
  • Track a client’s competitors
  • Keep up on activities in your town
  • Watch trends build before your very eyes
  • Find fun resources

We were searching for new experts and sources in different fields of interest for Gable PR and its clients, including clean tech, renewable energy, certain areas of biotech and the life sciences and crisis PR, among others. We had set up Google, Yahoo, The New York Times, Washington Post and other news trackers and blog alerts. We also use Lexis/Nexis on focused searches. To ramp up the flow a notch and try to track the immediate flow of information available on Twitter, we checked posts by various social media gurus (@briansolis, @chrisbrogan, @problogger, @tdefren, etc.) on search applications and began testing Tweetbeep.com to search for Tweets on any given topic.

As seen in the screen shot below, I receive regular email alerts to Tweets on the topics of my choice, in this case algae. I can scan quickly for items of interest. If I find a gem, I click through to the original Tweet to check the person’s previous Tweets and credentials. This has helped our firm find experts in many fields – the pro-active Tweeters spreading knowledge and helping others learn. Most include links to other sources. Those on top of their game are inevitably fast at pointing to breaking news and important trend stories, academic papers, government studies and company releases.

Tweetbeep Alert

TweetBeep Alert Via Email

For PR, we use the Twitter research capability to track trends in any given industry and find articles of interest to Gable PR clients and some of the non-profit organizations we support that are trying to grow new industries in our region. You can see buzz building on hot topics in real time. Those at the top of the Twitter totem pole in any industry are inevitably the first to Tweet on breaking news. Then, re-tweets soar, soon to be followed by blog posts and links from technical, academic and organizational Web sites to the original sources. We have been alerted to stories on new technologies from Australia, New Zealand, England and India, among others. The Twitterverse almost bursts with excitement in any given field as news spreads and more people respond.

Beyond the News

Beyond news, Twitter tracking can provide alerts to changing laws and new opportunities. We are working with some startup companies in algae biofuels, renewable energy and trash-to-energy. Keen observers we follow from Washington found new guidelines from the Department of Energy and other government agencies on how to apply for grants related to the stimulus packages. We quickly forwarded the information to our clients, who in turn filed for grants to advance their technology.

The Twitter tracking does create volume control problems. At the bottom of the Twitter food chain: the hangers-on who spend their lives just retweeting and never offer anything of original value. They can be days and even weeks behind the flow, which makes it easier to determine the riffraff not to follow.

For managing the flow in following different industries or categories of interest, use another application such as Tweetdeck (screen shot below) or Seesmic. With Tweetdeck, you can set up Groups and arrange your followers accordingly. I have different industry niches, plus Wine, San Diego, News, PR, Directs, Replies and Favorites. As shown in the screen shot below, Tweetdeck pulls the incoming Tweets into the designated columns for easy scanning.

Speed in Crisis PR

Twitter can be helpful in crisis PR — the canary in the mine shaft. Agencies and clients can track emerging stories, analyze the flow of comments and join the conversation in real time while advancing the other components of a crisis plan. We also like it for competitive research, which can sometimes trigger guerrilla marketing. We once found news from a client’s competitor that made certain claims about technical superiority of its product, which seemed vastly over-stated. We alerted our client, who concurred. So we called key media to suggest they might consider checking with different companies in the industry to get a true picture of the technology. Long story short: our client and other companies were included favorably in most coverage and fared far better than the Hypemeister, who lost media credibility.

Helping the Community

That’s on the incoming side of the news deluge equation. On the flip side, think about how to return the favor and become a positive force in the Twitter community. Share information you’ve found through your own news tracking, Blog readers, news aggregators and other services. Become a smart editor and provide your followers with information and ideas they will value, plus a surprise or two (links to parodies in the Onion, bizarre lists, evocative quotes and funny videos, such as “United Broke by Guitar”).

While others are Tweeting about their lunch or observations about the weather or their state of mind, you will be helping make the world a more connected and better communicated place.

Tweetdeck Columns

Tweetdeck Columns

One more screen shot try

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Posted in Authentic PR, Brilliant Counsel, Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, Crisis PR, Hype Free PR, Leverage, Social Media | Comments Off

How much should you trust the media? Swine flu feeding frenzy raises doubts.

Friday, May 15th, 2009

eMarketer Data

eMarketer Data

Posted by Liz Dill

According to TNS, a global market research company, less than half of respondents actually trust the information they receive from newspapers, online news and TV broadcasts. The lack of confidence is not surprising considering the plethora of overblown and overhyped stories in the media such as the recent hysteria caused by Swine Flu. The Swine Flu story has now virtually disappeared from the media as top health officials have said that the Swine Flu is no more severe than the ordinary flu. According to the World Health Organization, 36,000 people die of the common flu each year and so far Swine Flu has claimed the lives of 23, most of whom were infants or elderly with weakend immune systems.

With schools and other public places now reopening their doors, it’s pretty clear that the Swine Flu hysteria caused by the media is a case of the boy who cried wolf. Seems a bit reminiscent of the Y2K scare. With the public not trusting the media and becoming desensitized when pack journalism drives a feeding frenzy of over-hyped coverage, what happens when a legitimate threat does occur? The public may not take it seriously and fail to take appropriate precautions. The bump in ratings and circulation is clearly outweighed by the loss of confidence by media consumers.

Media drives mask sales

Media drives mask sales

So what is the lesson learned? Do your research and place the news in perspective (one death here, another there, yet airwaves filled with images of people donning protective masks). Check out third party sites such as the Center for Disease Control and the World Health Organization. Don’t get your news from just one source – do a quick Google, Yahoo or other news search to see what other media are saying. Check out some of the media critics such as FAIR and Accuracy in Media. A real threat or a ratings grab? Knowledge is power.

 

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Obama Staffer Resigns Over Air Force One NYC Fly-Over Blunder

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Posted by Tom Gable

The New York Times today reported the resignation of Louis Caldera, the point person on the incident where Air Force One flow low over the New York City to create a photo opportunity and scared millions. President Obama called for a review of the incident. Today, the White issued a seven-page review along with the photograph. The memorandum from deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, said that “structural and organizational ambiguities” in the White House Military Office led to a series of miscommunications and a lack of public notification.

“If he (Louis Caldera) had been aware that the flight would cause so much trouble or any embarrassment to the president or to the White House,” the report said, “he never would have allowed it to go forward.”

No kidding! In putting this idea together, Caldera and his colleagues must have been living in White House LaLaLand, where one can do no wrong in the most powerful office on earth. I doubt the White House press staff was involved. If they had been, a routine pre-event analysis would have made the risks abundantly clear and Caldera would have never authorized the flight. For details and ideas on creating your own pre-flight check list on special events, see the earlier post on April 30.

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Is Twitter the new Facebook?

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009

Posted by Liz Dill

With the phenomenal growth, continued media hype and celebrity backing of Twitter, is the microblogging site becoming more popular than Facebook?

According to a posting on Socialtimes.com, a blog that analyzes social media, Twitter has surpassed 14 million users, up over 76.8 percent since last month when we wrote that they had surpassed 8 million users. This tally was before the Oprah effect that jumped traffic 40 percent in one day. Although Facebook has over 90 million users, the rapid growth of Twitter puts their projected year end user number at 50 million.

In my opinion, both have pros and cons. Twitter is incredibly interactive and you can reach far beyond your circle of friends, but the functionality of the site is limited (find other users, send messages, replies) and updates are restricted to only 140 characters. Facebook on the other hand has a multitude of functionality (find people, make connections, instant messaging, video sharing, etc.) but on the downside is more difficult to navigate and update. In terms of creating a sense of community, Facebook wins the battle hands down.

Both networks should definitely be included in every savvy PR practitioners toolkit to use when it makes sense for their client. Depending on the goals and targets of your PR campaign, one of the outlets might be a bit more effective over the other. Here’s a few tips:

1. Twitter can often breaks news faster than other sources
2. If increasing traffic to your site is your goal, Facebook seems to be the outlet to use due to the sheer number of users.
3. Twitter can work as a quick, easy and inexpensive opinion poll on your company/product.
4. Since friends and “opt in” to see your messages, your messages will be targeted to people who are interested in your product/service.
5. By using “Twitter Search” you can see if someone’s talking about your company and you can participate where it makes sense. This is a great way to monitor and participate in what is said about your company online.

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Making PR Headlines Shine (and Getting Your Copy Read!)

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

Headlines need to excite, entice and entertain. The best grab a reader’s attention in a short amount of space and lure him or her into a story. Your peerless and pithy prose can create evocative thoughts and images. But the words can’t go on forever like an abstract for a research paper (you can’t bore people into reading your story!) or simply wrap from line-to-line like copy within your story. Here are some quick tips for writing better headlines, which evolved from several seminars conducted with PR University and PRSA.

1. Read the media you are trying to reach (Amazing how seldom this happens!).  How would they write the headline?

2. Think about your target audiences and what’s important to them.

3. What’s the news (breaking, feature, opinion)?

4. Get creative.  How are you going to stand out from the crowd? Bigger ideas?

5. What general approach to take (fact-based, humorous, the ever-present pun, positioning and visionary, provocative, diplomatic)?

6. What are the most important facts and impressions you want to leave with your audiences?

7. Be a stickler for style

From that frame of reference, finalize your work of art:

· Brainstorm on key words and tags to use for search engine optimization

· Use a two-line headline and two-line subheadline wherever possible to make it easy for the reader and search engines to put it into context

· Have the client name in the first line wherever possible

· Use active verbs

· Have complete thoughts on each line

· Have logical line breaks and balanced lines as best possible

· Be smart about punctuation (including commas, semicolons and dashes)

· Use the “So What, Who Cares?” test to see if you’ve got it right

· Read the headline and subheadline aloud and see if it flows

· Edit, edit, edit!

Posted by Tom Gable

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Twitter: Boring and Banal, or Beneficial?

Monday, March 30th, 2009

Margaret Wente in a column in the Toronto Globe and Mail found Twitter banal and boring.

“If you thought Facebook was banal, try Twitter. It makes people who write their thoughts on Facebook sound like Shakespeare. Of course, it’s also possible I’m too old and out of it. According to new-media experts, the medium is greater than the messages. Twitter and Facebook are creating a new world of digital intimacy.”

She dismisses the ability to follow friends because “…Except that even over time, my friends’ and family members’ lives just aren’t that interesting. The lives of people I scarcely know are even less interesting. Spending time with them on Facebook is like having to sit through a detailed recital of someone’s winter vacation. I have tried and tried to get the hang of it, but I have failed miserably. I don’t care about any of these so-called friends. If I did, I’d actually spend time with them.”

Mark Evans posted a good piece on Twitterati in response:

“For me, Twitter is a professional resource. It’s a way to find newspaper articles (such as Ms. Wente’s), Web sites, and new services, thoughts about technology trends, and answers to questions that I would have otherwise never have seen or received. I don’t use Twitter to read updates on someone thinking of having coffee at Starbucks, and I don’t do updates about personal details that aren’t worth sharing. As a journalist trained to find and shape information, Ms. Wente should spend more time on Twitter to explore if there are ways she call pull value out of it. I’m sure, for example, that if Wente did keyword searches on Twitter to research future columns, she would find some valuable nuggets and new sources.”

I wholeheartedly agree and commented further on how to Twitter can be a powerful tool for PR:

“Twitter is a great research resource for my public relations firm. I set up search services for alerts on key words (clean tech, biotech, crisis PR, parody, wine, etc.). It’s a quick way to find out who is active in a given industry, niche, organization, cause or whatever interests you. From there, you can check the person’s profile and get a feel for their depth of knowledge and range of connections. The latter can provide leads for other good resources. I try to follow the experts who provide links to breaking news and trends in an area of interest. They often find great data in obscure places that I would never have found otherwise. I share the information within my agency and also with our clients. We combine it with information we get from RSS feeds and various news trackers. Knowledge is power and Twitter is adding to it.”

Posted by Tom Gable

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Posted in Client Service Results, Clutter Busting, In the Beginning, Team Play | 1 Comment »

Newseum Map Links to Newpaper Front Pages Worldwide

Monday, March 16th, 2009

This is VERY cool! A news junkie’s delight. See how different papers cover the news on their front pages. Delve deeper if so moved.

http://www.newseum.org/todaysfrontpages/flash/

Place your mouse on a city anywhere in the world. City and paper image appear on right. Click on the city to open image of the front page of that newspaper. You can either read the PDF version or click to go to the web site of the paper itself (the upper right corner). This site changes every day with its news publication.

Happy reading!

###

Posted by Tom Gable

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