public relations - TheWayoftheWeb

Creating categories and definitions by doing, not debating

March 3, 2012 By Dan Thornton 2 Comments

I just read a post by Peep Laja which talked about the old advice of inventing a new category to be able to charge more for your products than just slotting into a predefined definition, followed by a post by Neville Hobson on an attempt to redefine what PR means. And both have reinforced my belief that you only create new categories and redefine existing ones by actually going out and doing stuff.

As much as I can have respect for the people who get caught up in debates about what PR, Social Media Marketing, Content Marketing, Transmedia, SEO, etc all should mean exactly, the simple fact is that noone cares. Seth Godin talked about successful modern marketing beginning with product planning and development, but still many businesses and consumers see marketing as part of advertising.

When I try and define what I do for people, it comes out as:

I write for my own projects
I write for other people’s projects
I market my own projects
I market other people’s projects
I run training courses in writing and marketing
I run training courses in writing and marketing for other people
I provide research for my own projects
I provide research for other people
I host my own websites
I provide hosting for other people
I manage my own paid advertising campaigns
I manage paid advertising campaigns for other people
I manage affiliate campaigns for other people
Or I do: Writing, Journalism, Blogging, Natural SEO, Paid SEO, PPC, Content Marketing, Social Media Marketing, Training, Tutoring, Affiliate Management, Community Management, Analytics,

Either way, it means I should need the world’s biggest business cards. I don’t.

It's me. And a quick meeting or search tells you more...

But actually, what tends to happen is that my client list has grown from referrals from existing clients or from people finding out about me for one area of what I do, and those that are more rewarding for me in terms of enjoyment and financial rewards grow more quickly than areas that I might not favour, so over time my reputation in some areas will naturally build and lead to more focus.

Defining what you and your brand do:

Rather than worrying too much about an exact definition, it’s better to have an idea which you and any employees can broadly follow, but also be flexible within. I always loved the idea of my former employers at Absolute Radio, which was that we were ‘a digital entertainment company with audio at it’s core’, and targetted ‘reluctant adults’. That meant we always focused on sound and sound quality first, and always prioritised those people who were incredibly passionate about their interest (music, comedy, sport), but it didn’t matter whether we had an idea for a website, mobile app, radio station, or anything else, as long as it involved the best possible audio and delighted the right people. And in a challenging market for all broadcasters, it seems like they’re doing better than ever.

But noone ever tuned in because of those definitions – they tuned in because they liked what they heard as a result.

Too often I speak to companies who declare that ‘their customers don’t do it that way’ – and it turns out that actually it’s because they don’t allow customers to interact that way for some reason.

Or that customers ‘just don’t get what we’re trying to do’. Or that ‘clients just don’t understand’.

Building brands – do stuff, monitor, do more stuff:

You don’t build a brand simply by having logos or mission statements. Those are brand assets. What builds a brand is making stuff available, seeing how people respond and then building on it. Google didn’t define itself as a search engine, it set out to index the world’s information. Apple didn’t say it only made personal computers – it put design into technology, whether it’s a Mac, iPhone or iPad. The legendary production line methods of Ford went from one colour of car to over 1000 different variations for the Ford Transit van alone.

Obviously to be successful, it’s not enough to be different – the recent demise of Saab is one example of how you can be known for being unusual but still fail due to not managing sales and costs effectively. But that name will still stand out for many years for a lot of people, and it’s easier to optimise a supply chain than to become known for brilliance and character.

Look at Amazon – offering web servers, books and Kindles. Artists such as Hugh McLeod, Tom Fishbourne, or Penny Arcade. Authors like William Gibson. Musicians from Robert Johnson to Hendrix to Skrillex. 37Signals and Wunderlist are as much about design as project management. I’m already incredibly excited about HiutDenim because I know Howies and The Do Lectures.

Put stuff out there and look at the response, using the wealth of data that is available and complimenting it with the right research.

Industries and reputations:

Some industries stuggle with their reputation. Obviously banks and bankers aren’t particularly well respected at the moment, and neither are journalists.

At the same time, SEO and Social Media ‘snake oil salesman’ has become a common criticism for digital marketing.

And yet I know brilliant journalists, SEOs and Social Media specialists who are incredibly well-respected and constantly in-demand because they do brilliant things consistently well. I’ve also had meetings with top marketing and SEO agencies which ended in disaster because they seemed to spend all their time talking a good game in public, but not delivering on it directly in a client meeting.

I actually have a couple of lists which are close to my heart – one is a list of companies I’d love to work with, whether as a freelancer or even possibly as a full-time employee because over the years I’ve known them, they always done things brilliantly (I also have a list of companies who seem to squander their potential and wish they’d let me help sort it out).

And I have another list of individuals I’d love to work with on a project at some point – it’s grown to quite a size over the years, with everyone from creative talents to hard-headed business people. And pretty much everyone on the list has worked on multiple projects, sometimes concurrently, but what they’ve done is always interesting or exciting or innovative or profitable – often all four.

The simple fact is that I don’t worry about crap definitions of the industries I nominally work in. And I’ve stopped worrying about being painted with the same brush as the snake oil salesman. If a million people see a great example of content marketing, or social media, or SEO that I’ve been involved in, then that’s far better mechanism for change than debating definitions.

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Filed Under: Branding, Business, Entrenpreneurship, marketing, public relations, Search Engine Optimisation, social media marketing Tagged With: brand building, brand ideas, brand strategy, definitions, effective branding, marketing, monitoring, public relations

Good blogger outreach and is Worky worth trying?

September 14, 2010 By Dan Thornton Leave a Comment

As my sites have become more popular, I’ve been contacted by an ever-increasing amount of people interested in whether I’d write about their company (or more often, the company they’re paid to promote). And generally they use email templates headed ‘Dear Sir’ or ‘Dear TheWayoftheWeb’, and it’s about something completely irrelevant to the topics I blog about.

So I don’t often do it.

But there are some worthwhile exceptions. In this case, the agency employed to raise interest in company/individual professional site Worky.com. Not only did I get a concise and accurate email addressed to me, but they’d used Youtube in a quick and free way to make the outreach even more personal. (Disclosure: I already knew a couple of people at the agency concerned, including a founder, which is probably why I made it onto their list). Plus I got quick responses to my email questions back, and a promo code I can share with you all.

And it’s obviously worked.

What is Worky, and are there free promo codes?

So Worky is ‘a place for your to promote your work life’, which involves creating a profile, connecting with companies and other users, and seems pretty similar to other career-minded sites (LinkedIn and Gist spring immediately to mind).

There’s some potentially useful features, such as a lot of analytics regarding your profile to aim at raising it in search rankings (And in the process, raise Worky up as well). I have to admit, I haven’t quite found the features that make it stand out as yet, but the founder is interesting serial entrepreneur, and it seems to do reasonably well in search results, for example.

So it’s interesting enough to be worth registering for. And rather than the standard free account, if you sign up to Worky via this link, and use the code ‘workypromo’, you’ll get to try the full paid version of the service. As always, I’d be interested in hearing what other people think…

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Filed Under: public relations, social media marketing Tagged With: good blogger outreach, good social media marketing, online career site, worky, worky promo code

Should PR and Marketing pay bloggers to post?

February 18, 2010 By Dan Thornton 2 Comments

The concept of paying bloggers to create a post about your product or service is not a new one – and it’s becoming more of an accepted practice by both PR and Marketing teams, and bloggers themselves.

It’s led to the creation of disclosure rules by the FTC in America, and continues to provoke debate amongst many people involved – the trigger for this post was a previous debate by Laurence Borel (@blogtillyoudrop). The post and comment which followed mainly took an anti-payment stance, which I respect, but also respectfully disagree with. And as someone who works in marketing (including seeding content and campaigns), as well as running three websites, I’d be interested in views on my personal opinion…

Why you should pay bloggers to post:

Image by DavidDMuir used under Creative Commons

As blogging has evolved, many people are now building up a profitable sideline, or in some cases, their main income through blogging. If we generally accept content naturally wants to be free, and that generally only exclusive niche content can create revenue (which is the commonly held consensus by most people), then most bloggers will struggle to create revenue in a market held by a reasonably-sized incumbent who can field full-time paid writers.

It’s not to say it’s impossible – by building and engaging a community, taking direct paid advertising, or occasionally finding an actually lucrative affiliate deal, bloggers can still build a mini media empire. But by removing the emerging practice of paid posts, suddenly one relatively easy method of generating income has been removed for bloggers. And it’s important to remember that while many bloggers are already in a reasonably well-paid full time job, a significant proportion are closer to breaking even or losing money on something which they could potentially be using as their sole profession in the future.

There’s an argument that bloggers should only be paid in products and services for review, which is a reasonable assumption to make – but when you have a preferred service for internal collaboration or book-keeping, free use of an alternative isn’t much use. And there are very few bank managers who accept 12 months of a free service as a payment for bills, meaning that some of these gifts will inevitably be auctioned, and end up as cash anyway.

In my professional life, I haven’t experimented with offering payments to bloggers – mainly because the content etc being shared and seeded doesn’t necessarily drive direct transactional revenue, and tends to be be more around sharing relevant exclusive content with people interested in that particular subject. There are also brand values to consider – at Bauer, and now at Absolute Radio I work with brands that have the ability to create exclusive content, and have a quality that people are often happy to be associated with.

Why you shouldn’t pay:

Having a budget to spend on paying bloggers to post carries some risks for both parties. One important element is disclosure and ensuring that paid posts contain ‘no follow’ links to avoid the bloggers and companies involved provoking the wrath of the FTC/Google/OFT etc.

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/elventear under Creative Commons

It also encourages PR and Marketing people to possibly become a little lazy – why spend time researching a blog, getting to know a blogger and searching for relevant content to share when you could bung them some cash and get the same type of hit rate? In addition to the ethical consideration, there’s also the chance that a large number of people might accept payment for irrelevant content to make some money, and their sites are far less likely to be trusted authority sites which will drive conversions (Unless they’re prominent affiliate marketing bloggers, anyway!)

It also means that blog outreach suddenly carries a direct financial cost about resources and some freebies – something which can draw attention to the ROI and conversion rates. And although you should be tracking all of those elements closely already, sometimes social media and humans can be a little unpredictable, and now you’ve got an upfront cost to recover.

There’s also the potential to come off as impersonal and possibly cause offence if you pay – whereas picking picking something relevant and important to an individual blogger can get fair more good will – and there are quite a few studies online that refute any link between financial reward and goodwill/creativity, so you’re just as likely to get a great post with a polite request or a gift.

So what’s the answer?

There’s no right or wrong answer – it all depends on your brand, your goals, your relationships with bloggers, and your previous results. Just don’t fall for anyone telling you there are any correct rules above and beyond the legal requirements and common sense ethics.

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Filed Under: Blogging, public relations, social media marketing Tagged With: blogger relations, paid posts, placing posts, seeding content

A vitally important law for business communications

July 13, 2009 By Dan Thornton 2 Comments

I neglected to write about my fellow speakers at the ALPSP event, mainly because I was enjoying a bit of time off for the last week.

There were great presentations from Ros Lawler of Random House, Phil Archer from the W3C Mobile Web Initiative, Steve Paxhia of Beacon Hill Strategic Solutions (With whom I got absolute soaked in the storms that hit en route to the station), and Gail Robinson from TSL Education Ltd.

But the one presentation that really kept me thinking was by Alex Evans from MediaMolecule (The developers of LittleBigPlanet for the PS3). It was interesting as a videogamer, someone interested in game theory, someone interested in encouraging user generated content, and someone interested in developing business and revenues in the changing economy.

But he also highlighted a very important law – one which was applied to programming, but in my mind applies equally to marketing, PR, and to almost every aspect of a business.

It is:

…organizations which design systems … are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations

Conways Law was originally introduced in 1968, by Melvin Conway. And for me it encapsulates a lot of the challenges I’ve encountered, whether it’s been for a large company, a group of volunteers, or in my current role.

As much as a system designed may mirror communication structures – communications will mirror them just as much. That’s why things tended to be more rigid and evolve more slowly in a larger, more traditional company which was constructed around a defined hierachy.

It’s also why a flat structure of volunteers led to challenges that seem to have proved even more insurmoutable since I left – trying to encourage business attributes from non-businesslike creative people.

And it’s why I relish my new challenge – listening and engaging with a team packed full of ideas, and then herding those cats into the most effective order.

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