Something #old, something #new, something #borrowed, something #blue

According to this article, social networking bride , brides and grooms are getting more social about their big day. I read this last night and thought ‘yes that’s probably true’ but it wasn’t until my walk to the train station this morning that I realised just how true that was. Here’s three things that have happened within the last week amongst my Facebook friends:

1. The proposal: the whole thing documented on Facebook from start to finish – the prep, the venue set-up, the moment he got down on one knee, her reaction, and of course, the ring. Personally, I’m not a fan – there’s very few moments that really belong to just you and the man you love (yes, including that one), and I think a proposal should be one of them. Some things just shouldn’t be #shared.

2. The hen do: Now this one I like – getting all your hens to upload their photos (the good, the bad, and the very drunken) with a hashtag. This particular example was #CazIsGettingMarried. Love it. The photos with the not so attractive stripper should definitely be #shared.

3. The big day: And now this one I love – getting all your guests to upload their photos to an app like WedPics. Standing in your wedding dress on the best day of your life is not really the time to get out your phone and take a selfie. So let your guests do it for you! And then when you wake up a married couple, with a slightly sore head, you can browse hundreds of photos courtesy of your guests and relive every moment of the day. This isn’t just about #sharing, this is about a virtual photo album to keep your memories.

So there you go, weddings are now social. Myself, I’m not engaged or married, so let’s wait and see if I become a social bridezilla.

Pause #1: In your face Sheryl Sandberg

Reading an article in the Evening Standard Magazine on the tube on my way home, I’ve finally found the antidote to the (what I believe to be) stupid Sandberg concept of ‘leaning in’. It’s now all about ‘the recline’.

The company HubDot have reinvented the often awkward and certainly false experience of networking. At their events, it’s not a question of ‘who are you and where do you work’, but rather ‘what’s your story’.

So kick back, recline and look up HubDot – it’s cool.

My 5 Minute Pause

It’s been a while again since I blogged – it’s like anything in life, if it becomes too much of an effort, it doesn’t get done. And that’s not because I don’t enjoy it, there’s just always something better to be doing.

So instead of long blog posts (because really, who has time to write them, or indeed read them?), I’m going for short posts, that take little effort to write, and little effort to read. What I’m going for is capturing things that inspire me, things that I think are cool, and things that I don’t want to forget (I’m sat right now, for example, with two screens to distract me – nothing stays in my head for very long). Think #100HappyDays, but different.

And so will begin My 5 Minute Pause. Because we rarely get to just stop and think.

Moving home: from Facebook to Instagram

For seven years now I have been a dedicated Facebook user. And that’s actually a relatively short time for someone my age – I ironically (based on what I do for a living now) had a ‘I’m not joining Facebook’ rebellion. And then I realised all my friends were off to uni and I was missing out on keeping up with their lives.

So having gotten over my rebellion I became an avid Facebook user for seven very social years. Then it all changed. From having Facebook as my social media home, I recently packed up my life (my photos, events, documentation of my every last activity, my relationship, my friendships) and moved house. To Instagram.

So what was the reason for my move? It had a lot to do with the ever changing settings on Facebook that left me totally unconfident in the privacy services it was allegedly offering. It seems that by default Facebook wants to catch you out – defaulting things to public, adding new features without explaining the implications of using them, and making admin rights so complicated that it’s a challenge for people who even work in social media.

One Sunday when I realised the privacy settings on my page were not working as they had been set, I decided my home was no longer Facebook. Faced with the inadequacy of the settings (for example setting all photos to completely private; and then them proceeding to be publicly viewable), I removed all of my photos from my page.

It was in doing that I realised the thing I loved about Facebook. Unintentionally, it had become the documentation of the good times I’ve had over the past seven years – the holidays, the parties, the days out, the festivals, the spontaneous ridiculousnesses with my best friend. Did I really want to lose all of that?

At the same time I was pondering over this point, I read in the Evening Standard magazine an article about social media that really hit home for me. Being a commuter, I usually have the Evening Standard eagerly thrust in my face on a daily basis, but rarely do I pick up the magazine version. So when choosing to accept it on this  particular evening (and being a strong believer in fate), I felt this article was somewhat poignant in my current social media conundrum (also known as a #middleclassproblem – ‘I just don’t know what social media network to use’). Here’s what it said:

“It’s as if we no longer believe that being present is enough – we have to record our experience in order to validate it…”

And with this I realised that I shouldn’t lose all of my documented experiences, I should just move them. It’s now part of our behaviour – we experience something; we document it. I didn’t need to leave home for good like a stroppy teenager that’s had a fight with their parents, I could instead find a new home to document life’s experiences. Consider it like leaving home to go to uni – you have a new house, but that doesn’t mean you lose your home.

Which leads me to stop talking about the negatives of Facebook, and remember what it is good for – there’s things we are all good at, it’s just about learning what those are.

Facebook remains the quickest, most efficient mechanism for getting something out there fast. This very blog being the best example of that – I want people to read and share my blog, and luckily for me, there’s over 500 friends on Facebook who might do just that. But more importantly, the one thing that kept me on Facebook, was the group chat that I’ve had continuously live for over a year now – without the ability to real-time ask my oldest friends if my outfit is ok, what their thoughts are on the film I’ve just watched, or hear their latest relationship developments; I’m pretty sure I’d be lost.

So the intention of this post was to not just rant about Facebook’s flaws and put you all off forever, it was actually to portray that social media is very personal. Too many people talk about the latest trends and over-analyse user demographics. But really, who cares? People will pick and choose their social media behaviour to be reflective of their mood, the stage in their life they are at, and the type of thing they’ve just experienced. And it’s the cleverest brands out there that will realise this. And it’s those brands that will succeed in social media.

Read, love, share.

 

Social media and sub-Saharan Africa. Really?

To continue the #ViewFromThePlane series this post is written by my good friend Pippa. She’s currently on a three-month trip with the United Nations Association International Service to Burkina Faso. Here she gives her #ViewFromThePlane.

The scene out of the window is typical of a sub-Saharan high street; women sell fruit on the side of the road, rogue donkeys wander the streets and there’s dust, everywhere. Here I am in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, a place that couldn’t be further from London both in terms of culture and resources. Burkina has some of the world’s lowest human development indicators in terms of life expectancy, educational attainment and income. But it’s not all malnutrition and dirty drinking water. Ouagadougou presents a ‘modern’ West Africa, where businesses function, taxis roam the streets and you can even get wifi (if you’re lucky).

But in a country where many continue to struggle obtaining basic human rights, is there really a place for social media?

Last week I had dinner with a Burkinabe friend. When I asked him what he had had planned for the rest of the evening he responded “I’ll go home and chat to my friends on Facebook”. For him, Facebook is an ideal way to stay in touch with his friends from university who are based all over the country. Like many people in the UK, he uses social media to ‘socialise’ in a virtual realm.

But in reality; computers, smart phones and tablets don’t play a part in the lives of the majority of the people here. Serge, another
Burkinabe friend, estimates that as little as one in twenty own a device capable of using the internet. Serge is an educated 32 year old with a career in finance. After many chats on the subject, he acknowledged the power of social media but commented “it’s for the developed world, here we have other priorities”.

In his experience, a very small demographic use social media: the young, wealthy and educated. Gender inequality is still an issue here and it’s apparent that more men than women have access to the internet, let alone social media. According to the Guardian, in Sub-Saharan Africa, ‘45% fewer women than men have access to the internet’.

So, with so few people using social media in Burkina, how functional can it really be?

A couple of weeks ago around 300,000 people took to the streets, in peaceful demonstrations against potential changes to the constitution that could allow long-time President Compaoré to run for another term. The protests were supposedly the country’s largest in decades, and this time, were accompanied by vivid online activity. Twitter saw tweets from those expressing their opposition to the president and mobile devices were used to tweet pictures of the protests in action.

Meanwhile, groups were created on Facebook in which Burkinabes documented their frustrations and those pro-Campaoré expressed their support for him and anguish at the civil uprising. By Burkinabe standards, social media was buzzing with political conversation.

On the face of it Burkina Faso is a country that is not yet capable of fully functioning social media. When you search Burkina Faso on Google Images you are still faced with images resembling an Oxfam advert, and indeed this is an accurate reflection of life in many parts of the country. That said, economic disparities between different regions of the country are huge and social media seems to be excitedly waiting in the wings, ready to be used by those who have the socio-economic means to do so.

Words of SazJ
So no surprises there about access being restricted to the wealthy and the educated. But, when i asked Pippa if she would write her #ViewFromThePlane, I actually had to question whether there would be anything to write about – was it stupid to assume that every country in the world uses social media?

But alas, it’s there, and it’s in its rawest sense. In the western world we get consumed with thinking how we, as brands, can become part of people’s lives and how we can use social media to do that. But we forget why social networks were first created, and what makes them so powerful. It’s socialising in its most exciting form. And the people of Burkina Faso are embracing social media for just that. Let’s hope we can keep the brands away.

Find more from Pippa on her blog here.

How to work with influencers by Taylor Swift

Last weekend I was part of the crowd of 20,000 teenage girls seeingTaylor Swift at the O2. I realise I am no longer a teenage girl, but for a few hours I let my hair down and sang along to Love Story like the best of them.

In between the support act (The Vamps) and Taylor herself coming on, they played a video clip up on the big screens. The video talked about the launch of her RED Tour and the promotion around both the album and the tour itself.

Why did this interest you may ask? When did this blog become a review of teenage pop icons? Well actually, not only was I pleasantly surprised with the concert itself (believe it or not), I was also massively interested in the social media activities surrounding the tour and album promotion.

Of course there was the hashtagging before, during and after the concert – nothing new there – but what really interested me was the excellent use of influencer engagement. Before the launch of her RED album, Taylor Swift (or her record label) approached the 13 most active fans from around the world and invited them to follow her around in the run up to her album launch. Those who ‘followed’ her online could quite literally ‘follow’ Taylor Swift during her week long media tour. And the idea? These already very active followers would take to their social media profiles and document the media tour using #TaylorFollowers.

I think this is brilliant. A perfect example of online behaviour becoming part of our offline lives – bringing ‘following someone’ to reality (in a non creepy way). So why was this so great? Three key reasons:

• Number 1: It rewarded fan loyalty. There’s nothing like proving to a fan that they are valued, and this does it in the best way possible for your typical Taylor Swift fan – put them in front of their idol, congratulate their loyalty and give them a platform on which to have a voice in something that they are very passionate about
• Number 2: Inviting and encouraging user generated content gave an impression of organic promotion. We’ll always be more welcoming to something our peers have told us vs. a brand or company. Combine our peers with our favourite celebrity telling us something, then you have a very powerful promotion machine
• Number 3: It increased the reach exponentially. Not only was it using the organic reach of the 13 chosen fans (cleverly chosen for that  very reason), it expanded it to a audience that may have previously had very little to do with Taylor swift. Me, for example

There’s no better way to promote a brand (and let’s face it, a successful celebrity is a brand) than through content created by those that rate the brand so much. It’s a classic case of authenticity and trust.

The concept of influence is hotly debated. I believe there is no one definition of influence; more an expression dependant on what you’ trying to achieve. Here Taylor Swift was trying to launch her latest album to the biggest audience possible; one that will be as receptive as possible. And the best way to do that? For her it was engaging her most loyal, socially active, influential fans.

And those are three key principles that could be applied to any brand, activity or indeed, celebrity. Whilst a brand not so exciting or head turning as Taylor Swift may not have the same size of fanbase or reach, there will always be influencers of opinion and those driving for something – be it promotion, change or just wanting to raise awareness. And it’s these people that are your most valuable assets. Get on their wrong side and you’re over; get on their right side, and the only way is up.

#WordsOfSazJ

It’s time to take social media seriously; and it’s not all fun and games

You may read this post title and think ‘oh here she goes again’ but actually today I’m taking a different view on social media. As someone who whole heartedly believes in the benefits of social media, I also whole heartedly believe in the power of social media. And power does not necessarily mean good things.

With a generation of children and young adults who have grown up in an extremely social world, we’re looking at a dynamic outside of the school environment that we’ve never had to deal with before. A world where a small amount of playground teasing turns into a an online world of hatred and constant torment. Where hideous trends like ‘hot or not’ are causing huge amounts of already self-conscious teens to rely on their ‘friends’ to rate their appearance. And where young girls still in their school uniforms are being allowed to behave like 20-somethings flaunting themselves to whoever chooses to engage with them.

There have been so many – too many – instances over the last year alone where we’ve heard about another young person having taken their own life because of constant online torment.

I previously referred to social media and the ‘surround sound effect’. Well here it is in all it’s ugly glory – surround sound bullying.

And in my opinion, those who should be taking responsibility are shying away from what needs to be addressed, immediately. And that’s not through lack of desire, I believe it’s through lack of knowledge of whats really going on; perceived lack of ability to do anything about it (how do you control the whole internet right?), and genuine fear of the repercussions of taking a stand. But, how many cases of online bullying that have ultimately led to a young person feeling that they have no choice but to take their own life, does it take before we stand up and properly do something about it.

So what’s the solution? First we have to really understand the problem. What has led to a culture where this type of activity is able to harbour online seemingly uncontrolled? I believe there are three key issues:

• Lack of supervision and moderation: We wouldn’t allow our children outside during break time with their fellow classmates, left to do entirely as they choose, without any adult supervision. This is because they don’t necessarily know the dangers that are out there, they often don’t know where the boundaries of acceptable behaviour are, and sometimes they need someone to turn to if they need a helping hand. So why are they left unsupervised online? Lack of supervision and moderation of online conversations means a small amount of ‘harmless’ teasing manifests itself into a daily torrent of abuse that the individual is unable to get away from. This is unacceptable.

• A culture that says this is ok: This type of activity is only allowed to manifest itself for as long as its being accepted. Until someone really questions it and take a stand, it will continue. Without education, young adults will continue to behave as they currently doing, as they are naive to the longer term repercussions. This is unacceptable.

• Social networks not taking responsibility: There was once a time not so long ago where Facebook was quick to shut you down if the cover photo on your fan page had text covering greater than 25% of its area. They were quick to spot that. But they don’t seem too quick to spot potentially harmful messages posted between members in the network it created. I understand that policing social networks is a seemingly impossible task – where does the responsibility begin or end? But, doing nothing? This is unacceptable.

So there’s the problem; how do we find a solution? In my opinion three key groups have to stand up and take action: parents, schools and the social networks themselves. Now I am probably in no position to preach about what should or shouldn’t be done – I don’t have children, I’m not a head teacher and I certainly don’t own a social network. But one day I will have children, I have a little sister (although she’d hate for me to call her that) who has grown up in this very social world I’m talking about, I’ve so far spent the majority of my life in a school, and I like to think I know a lot about social networks.

So here’s what I think needs to be done:

Parents
It is the responsibility of a parent to educate, protect and encourage the best from their children. Just as for brands and companies, the birth of social media brought crazy new parameters to communication and a new overwhelming world to which parents had little to no experience in. They didn’t understand it, didn’t know what to tell their children about it, and believed it to be merely another form of communication. Years on, many parents are on these social networks and understand how their children use them – even policing them from afar. But what about those that don’t?

Parents need to take the time to educate their children on what’s right and what’s wrong when it comes to engaging in social media. They need to teach them how to feel safe; when to bring an adult into a situation – when to hit that ‘report’ button.

How can we hope for things to change if parents don’t take this first step towards protecting their children?

Schools
But it’s not all resting on the shoulders of parents. Some schools are taking action in the area of online safety – and it’s good – but it’s not enough. Talks are being held with both parents and children, but they are not compulsory and they are assuming a certain amount of knowledge of social media to start with.

But it’s not all bad news, Childnet International are a non-profit organisation aiming to make the internet ‘a great and safe place for children’. Aimed at young people, teachers and parents, the organisation aims to do exactly what is needed in this area – educate and provide the necessary tools to keep young people safe online.

Friday saw Safer Internet Day where a number of schools around the country dedicated part of their curriculum to educating their pupils about the potential dangers of the social world, and how to stay safe. This is good – and some of the initiatives were really excellent – but this shouldn’t fall to one day a year. I’d like to see this as a dedicated curriculum piece throughout the year, from a very young age. With 59% of 11-12 year olds having a social media profile, they need to understand what they are doing from that very age.

And it’s not just about learning how to stay safe – that is really just theory. And it also assumes that ‘staying safe’ means being wary of adults posing as peers. But what about peers? Some of the worst stories we’ve heard over the last year have been due to online bullying by classmates. For this, it’s not about learning to be safe, it’s about there being repercussions for those individuals who assume that hiding behind a keyboard makes their behaviour is ok. These repercussions have to fall under the remit of schools when the event is an extension of what is happening in the school environment.

Social networks themselves
And then finally it’s the responsibility of the networks that are hosting and harbouring these activities. There needs to be greater accountability for the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. And steps in the right direction are being made. Following the inquest into the tragic death of Tallulah Wilson who killed herself after extensive activity on self-harm pages on Tumblr, Culture Secretary Maria Miller is this week unveiling at the cabinet meeting a call for social media companies to transform how they police their sites. This call will see representatives from a host of social networks hopefully form consensus about responsibilities in policing and removing offensive, potentially harmful posts.

It is the likes of these individuals who understand the blurred lines where our offline lives meet our online lives – why is what would be considered beyond unacceptable – even illegal – in an offline environment, are we having to accept as ok in a social environment.

So let’s hope that this drives change; let’s hope social networks stand up and take things seriously, and that legislation is brought in to police social networks better and protect those that are most vulnerable within them. Let’s hope that both parents and schools step up to their responsibilities of education and implementing repercussions. Because it’s not one person’s responsibility – none of these things will work in silo – change will only be seen if all three parties step up and take action to change the culture that we seem to have found ourselves in.

As children leave the likes of Facebook because their parents are on there, it’s no longer enough to be there too. You can’t follow them round the internet, but you can make them smarter internet users. Social media will not go away – and I’m glad about that because of the good that it can bring – but this is an area that needs to change.This will change because it has to. No question about it.

New year, new destinations, new focus

You may have noticed somewhat of an absence of new content on here, and having declared reform in my last post, it seems I haven’t followed through.

But new year means new starts, right? And with that I’m bringing a new 2014 focus to my blog – still talking about everything to do with social media, but taking it on a bit of a world tour. So armed with my iPad, a 2 hour plane journey ahead of me and Instagram, I give you my first social media #ViewFromThePlane.

A snowy Munich #ViewFromThePlane

I want this to be a series documenting the places I’m going to be lucky enough to visit this year, taking a look at how social media differs around the world. Many people make the mistake of thinking that social media is a one size fits all type channel, but there’s a whole world of social networks out there waiting to be explored.

So first stop, Germany. Not hugely exotic you may say, but actually pretty interesting from a social media perspective. From what was initially a relatively slow start, social media is now very much mainstream for the German population, and with this has come a shift away from a more reserved attitude to sharing personal information in a social environment. One of the reasons social media uptake wasn’t as rapid in Germany as it was in other markets was the concept of opening up ones life to people you didn’t necessarily want to share with. You wouldn’t tell everyone at a party everything you’d done in the last week, so why do it online?

But looking at the social trends in Germany, we see this mindset is very much shifting – for at least a significant proportion of internet users. And looking at the top sites used its very much leaning towards those that are geared up for personal connections without the unsolicited intrusion that was first associated with social media (yes Facebook, no matter how much you try to trick us into making our content public, we will prevail). Unsurprisingly the top sites are Facebook, YouTube and Google+, but I’m not that interested in those (although interestingly German is seeing a greater usage of Google+ compared to its European counterparts); what I am interested in is those local networks.

First up we have wer-kennt-wer.de (Who-Knows-Who) – the second largest network in Germany, and particularly popular amongst the non-academic in the south of Germany. But the recent plateau in page visits is suggesting that the community has reached a saturation point. Stayfriends.de has suffered a similar fate – what was the third most popular social network in Germany in 2012, is now too seeing a decline in members engaging within the network. With 5.6 million members it’s still a game player, but the game may be taking an extended half time break.

And then there’s the trend being mimicked that we saw across the rest of Europe (and the world) of the younger generation taking offence at seeing their parents on Facebook and consequently leaving it for something far cooler and newer to the social world. In Germany, the platforms the kids are flocking too is schuelerVZ where you’ll see almost exclusively high school students.

So why the social media uptake now? Well of course time has been a good stamp of approval – a slow and steady uptake has meant those observers have sat back and seen that actually you don’t have to share everything with the world. And the increase in mobile usage across Germany has certainly been a contributing factor, with over 10 million people accessing social networks on their mobiles every day, social on the go has become the norm.

And looping back to the idea of privacy and data protection, it suggests a reason why these local networks are so popular. If people in Germany are choosing their social networks based on the available privacy settings and how safe they perceive their data to be, then there is perhaps comfort in going where others are – safety in numbers.

So what can we learn from our cleverly cautious friends in Germany (clever in the fact that they watched others make social mistakes, learnt from them, and then did social at their own pace)? Other than of course Facebook is dominating, the main learning for me is the importance of understanding culture and behaviour. We may think we all behave the same because geographically we’re very closely linked, but don’t be fooled by that short plane trip; we don’t all need to share a selfie every three minutes.

Next stop, Belgium.

#ViewFromThePlane

The social world of serendipity

This is from an article I wrote for Pharmaceutical Marketing Europe

No one would disagree with the premise that social media has changed how we communicate, but when it comes to the discussion of how best to use social channels, there is still disagreement around the extent to which brands should focus on placing content or planning for organic discovery. 

With the emergence of social media came an evolution of the paradigm for digital content discovery: the primacy of search to deliver trusted, timely and valuable information has now been displaced by sharing. 

And here lies the importance of serendipity. With our social feeds acting as a vehicle for the accidental, but delightful, discovery of something useful, we find content that we didn’t even know we were looking for.

Some people will tell you that the era of social media and serendipity is over, and that social campaigns should be planned for at the same level of detail and accountability as other cross-channel campaigns. Perhaps so in major consumer categories, where branded content – or its hip new cousin ‘native advertising’ – seems present at our every social turn. But in healthcare, serendipity is a phenomenon yet to be fully explored. 

Real discoveries of serendipitous content can be thought of as ‘happy accidents’. For the pharmaceutical industry, that can sound worryingly synonymous with ‘unsolicited’, but this simply highlights that the power of social for pharma lies within disease awareness. 

As digital pharma teams, we spend a lot of time placing our content exactly where people go looking for it – the familiar truism of ‘fishing where the fish are’. But this isn’t really enough. If social is to deliver on its potential for serendipity, pharma teams need to do more than sit back, relax and hope that their audiences visit the Facebook page their agency sold them – they need to provide the prompts that are so necessary to encourage voluntary sharing. 

This is achievable by focusing on three key things:

1. Understanding behaviour
To plan for success through serendipity, understanding the psychology of sharing is a must. As individuals, we share content for a number of reasons: to say something about ourselves and what we stand for, to add perceived value to our communities, or simply because we love it. If you are on the receiving end of ‘the share’, you just might stumble across the information that drives you to an action that ultimately results in a diagnosis.

2. Understanding audience personas and journeys
When it comes to social media, there is no ‘one size fits all’. Therefore, profiling your audience is key. By understanding the demographics of the social journey, as well as the implications of these on trust, preference and expectation, you can organically become part of the conversation.

3. Actually adding value

The chance of serendipitous discovery is more likely when we offer something – be it advice, content or a service – without asking for anything in return. This means actually listening to insights and meeting real identified needs, instead of following social suit with a Facebook page.

If you are still wondering where your social efforts are best placed, turn your attention away from Facebook towards StumbleUpon – a giant collection of the best pages on the internet, seemingly generated at random for your viewing pleasure. How do they do this? Understanding preference, behaviour and personas. Serendipity at its best.

Read, love, share

Tick tock, tick tock

I haven’t been so hot on the blogging recently (half finished drafts sat in my WordPress app I realise don’t count!) but I vow to get back on the wagon. And the reason for my lack of published posts? Social media! Ironic you may say.

I’m having a pretty exciting time at work – social media has now taken over all that I do, and I couldn’t be more pleased, I LOVE it. But, it has meant a lot of long days and no time for blogging, tweeting or finding the twenty-or-so new social networks that have probably come out since my last post.

And with that, I get to the point of this post (and begin to contradict myself…) – time and its relationship with our online behaviour.

More often than not, we face objections to actually doing social (from our peers, clients, and even that voice inside our head) in the form of one of the following:

• I don’t have enough time in my day to do social
• Social media is too instantaneous and real-time; it scares me
• I won’t be able to respond or engage with the community in the real-time manner that is required by social media
• I can’t see the ROI on the necessary time I’ll need to invest to make social a success

I could write a blog post on each of these alone, exploring the reasons why, in fact, none of these are valid reasons to not do social (duly noted that I used the first one in my opening paragraph…) However, I think when faced with these oppositions, the best thing to do is flip it on its head. Let’s not think of reasons why we can’t do it; let’s think of reasons why we can’t NOT do it. And that of course is just a confusing way of saying, you have to do it.

It was a few months back now, but something I saw that really said to me who was leading the way in terms of understanding and integratng social into their business, was (perhaps surprisingly) the recruitment initiative run by Pizza Hut, ‘Because I’m Great’. This was a complete 180 on the traditional interview – a live LinkedIn review was conducted right before a 140 second interview took place. No paper CV, no half an hour presentation, just 140 short seconds to demonstrate why you have what it takes to be the head of digital. And the reason? To demonstrate an understanding of the short amount of time we now have to grab people’s attention and convince them to take action. And of course using Twitter’s 140 character limit as a rule of thumb for the time constraint. I personally think it’s brilliant.

So back to my original point. If Pizza Hut get the importance of doing social to such an extent that it even impacts their recruitment process, then so should the rest of us. This initiative also goes to show how time doesn’t have to be a barrier to doing social – if we can now recruit our most senior staff in 140 seconds, we can certainly put out a few tweets.

On to the next point about the instantaneous nature of social and the potential risks involved. I again urge anyway quoting this as a reason, to flip it on its head and understand the value of a instantaneous communications tool. The best way to rationalise this is thinking back a few weeks to the birth of Prince George. If my office were to be used as a representation of the British population as a whole, then all 65 million of us  were glued to @ClarenceHouse awaiting the announcement with baited breath. As soon as they knew, we knew. As soon as we knew, all of our followers knew. And so went the spiral until everyone knew about the arrival of the next King.

This demonstrates how important social media can be from a business perspective – using it as a word of mouth marketing tool, but on steroids. Of course, we have to think of the flip-side of this, when things can go horribly wrong and spread like wildfire through the social space. But that’s where you get a good PR agency, a good social media team and a robust issues management plan (get in touch if you’re interested…!).

So to end, I think this quote from Aaron Lee really sums up both the necessity for using social media, and also the need for consideration of time in all its various meanings:

“These days, social media waits for no one. If you’re late for the party, you’ll probably be covered by all the noise and you might not be able to get your voice across. It could only mean that if you want to be heard by the crowd, you have to be fast; and on social media, that means you have to be REALLY fast.”

So hurry up, the clock’s ticking…

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Ever heard of social petworking?

Social petworking – believe it or not it’s a real thing. Not only is it real, it’s growing at a phenomenal rate.

If this is as new a topic as it was to me a few months ago, then let me introduce you to some of the sites leading the way.

First of all we have My Social Petwork – the Instagram of the animal world if you like. This network is based on our love for those cute doggy snaps and the videos of kittens doing crazy things that we just can’t take our eyes off of. Users rate photos and videos of people’s pets (and there really is a whole array – giant snails feature on the home page…) with the aim to become the highest rated photo or video of the day. If we look at the activity all over our Facebook feeds, it is quite clear there’s an audience for this type of community. And I’m just talking about the owners – thats not including the 1 in 10 social profiles that are actually for pets themselves. If you’re not familiar with it, take a look at Boo’s profile – the most popular dog on the planet, or so the 7.3 million likes would suggest.

Then we have the interestingly named Yummy Pets – the self proclaimed Facebook for pets. This takes it up a level – owners are no longer owners but indeed ‘pet parents’. I think there’s a lot to be improved on the branding (‘click here to discover yummy pets’ seems a somewhat strange invitation), but with 150,000 members, there’s no arguing its popularity. The community is very much built around what we are used to seeing on the ‘human side’ of social – profiles, status updates, photos, and lists of friends and fans. Having started life in France and launching this year in the UK, it’s certainly a booming business.

Now I’m no huge animal lover, but I do love social media, and I get where this adds value. There’s clearly a lot of pet owners with a whole lot of time on their hands, and that’s no bad thing for the petworking community, but where the value is really added is when these communities can be used as a resource for improving pet care. As examples, the sponsored ads within Yummy Pets take people to practical pet services, the blog provides helpful updates on keeping your pet healthy and of course the VIPets section – it’s always vital to keep up to date with celeb pets…

So my conclusion on the trend that I was initially pretty skeptical about is that it makes complete sense. As a generation we love social media, as a global population we love our pets, ergo we love social petworking. And if you’re still not sold – take a look at this infographic on the top social networking stars (the numbers are a little outdated, but they are still very much stars). Engagement numbers we could only ever dream of!

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When mathematicians aren’t so anti-social…

Social network friendship clusters

As someone who loves social media and has a sometimes not so secret love for maths (love is a strong word, maybe a heavy appreciation and respect is slightly more accurate), the data analysis side of our online behaviour is something that I find pretty exciting.

Anyone who’s ever studied maths will know Stephen Wolfram – he’s your go-to guy for any maths related crisis (oh yes, they exist). Over the past year, he has been running Personal Analytics for Facebook – a research project designed to give users the facts and stats on their personal accounts with some funky graphs and charts. Pretty cool. But the point to the project was to obtain (completely transparently) a mass of data that would allow for in-depth analysis and provide a snapshot of Facebook usage across the world.

The full report is pretty lengthy, but there is so much that we can use to 1) build a case for Facebook (and social media as a whole discipline) and 2) extrapolate the data to develop intelligent forecasts and ROI measures for our campaigns.

And across the ocean, another Facebook study has been conducted – one that alleges to map obesity rates to Facebook activity. Published in PloS One, this Harvard Medical School study concludes that our interests listed on our profiles determine our likelihood of being obese. The idea is that there is a relationship between the lifestyle habits we endorse online and our real-world health.

The research team explored the content users across the US were listing as their interests, what they posted to their timelines and the content they liked and shared. All of which apparently leads to a conclusions about the likelihood of obesity. As pretty well put by the study authors, the potential of this type of data understanding “could be harnessed for intelligently targeted health interventions, such as through online and mobile messaging”. A very, very interesting concept for someone in my line of work.

Looking at these pieces of data analysis lead me to what I deem to be a pretty important conclusion. Never underestimate the power of data.

We are often blindsided by the all singing all dancing social media campaigns we see and get ahead of ourselves when coming up with our approach. But the most intelligent and successful social media initiatives are those that are founded in data, research and well-considered strategy.

With the rights tools and know-how, we can understand our audiences in such great depth as to pre-empt what they will be looking for, where they will be looking for it, and how.

As Wolfram puts himself, “it feels like we’re starting to be able to train a serious “computational telescope” on the “social universe”. And it’s letting us discover all sorts of phenomena, that have the potential to help us understand much more about society and about ourselves.”

So to do social right, embrace your inner nerd and learn to love the numbers before jumping in. And if that’s just not possible, come to me and my team, we love data!

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Anyone can create a Facebook brand page. Or can they?

I’ve learnt over the last few weeks that Facebook do not make lives easy for page managers!!

I have a wish list of things I think Facebook should do – Mark Zuckerberg, if you’re listening, take heed.

Wish number 1 – stop making things so hidden!! What I would like is a list of rules that clearly state: you can do this, you can’t do this, do this and you’ll get closed down, don’t even dream of doing this…you get the point. Credit where credit is due; it is all there, but you have to be some sort of MI5 spy to find it.

Take for example, the cover photo rules. So I know that no more than 20% of my cover photo can be text – easy enough. And I also know that I can’t have a call to action in my cover photo. But, my definition of a call to action and Facebook’s definition could be very different. It’s a term we use a lot in PR to get a community to take action – usually around a disease area or some type of health activity.  My interpretation of what the Facebook rules do not allow is some kind of ridiculously large arrow pointing to the like button…which is fair enough. I would say, two pretty different takes on the term ‘call to action’.

Then there’s all the different default settings – not letting other people share on your timeline, the notifications settings, the positioning of images…to name a few. All things you need to think carefully about – but first of all you need to know that these exist!

Wish number 2 – have insights on posts that others share to the timeline.  Whilst insights is amazing, and almost a bit freaky in terms of the data it pulls, I really would like to know how posts by others are fairing. But hey, maybe I’ve become data spoilt!

However, on the plus side, once you’ve done it once, you’ve gone through so many different scenarios, you’re a pro!

And actually, whilst there is a bit of leg work in terms of getting to grips with the settings, there are some really nice features that work so well for the kind of work we’re doing. Timeline lends itself so nicely to telling a story –  you can go right back to when you launched and call out any key milestones, share historical content and generally get your positioning out there. Who said we couldn’t rewrite history?!

Then there’s the posts themselves and all the different features – back dating, post dating, location tagging, people tagging, pinning, marking as a milestone…the list goes on. What you want your community to see, they’ll see.

And then there’s the satisfaction of hitting ‘publish’ on the page. After the blood, sweat and tears that goes into deciphering Facebook’s Ts and Cs you get to sit back and watch the notifications rack up.

If you ever need ratification of the power of social media, it gets displayed right there in front of you: content sharing, organic engagement and likes without begging for them!

So I think my conclusion is page managers need a check list as reassurance before hitting publish. And just in case Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t follow my blog,  I’m going to make one. Stay tuned! 

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You haven’t seen anything yet

A few days ago I read Useful Socia Media’s guide to corporate social trends in 2013. Having attended their conference this year, I knew there would be some good stuff in there. But the thing that actually stuck out to me the most is this analogy that has now become my new social mantra….

“Social media is still a child in its infancy. With boundless enthusiasm and a sense of unbridled optimism, she thinks she can change the world. Don’t be the grown up that tells her what she can’t do. You haven’t seen anything yet.”

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Social customer service done right

This post is to say a quick thank you to Chiltern Railways. A little odd, I know, but sometimes you just receive good customer service and these rarities should be celebrated.

Thursday night was a bit of a #fail for me. After a busy week and one too many wines after work, I fell asleep on the last train home. Having woken up just as the doors were shutting at my stop, I sprinted off – pretty pleased with myself that I’d not stayed asleep all the way to Banbury. Then to my horror, I realised I was bag-less.

Any girl will back me up here – my handbag is my life. Car keys, house keys, purse, ID, kindle, make-up….the list goes on. So combine the loss of this, with the late hour, and you have a pretty upset PR girl on your hands.

So to get to the point. I get home at 1am and try to call Chiltern Railways on any possible number I can find. Of course they aren’t open. So in what I felt was a stroke of genius I decided to tweet @chilternrailway and ask them what I should do. I then put myself to bed thinking all hope was lost.

I wake up the next morning to find a tweet from @chilternrailway advising me what I should do. Bearing in mind this was 6.30am, I was pretty impressed. I then proceeded to have a -albeit short – back and forth conversation with them. And I’d like to note here that this was a good five and a half hours before any sort of office opened that could help me.

So the point of my story is about using Twitter for customer service.These guys were responsive, helpful and that all important one – personable. They were responding to me like they actually cared about the loss of my bag (I know working in PR I shouldn’t be a sucker for these things, but it really does work!), and most importantly, they were available when no-one else from the company was.

Let this be a lesson to all of you out there: Twitter is a hugely valuable asset for maintaining excellent customer service. Oh, and don’t leave your bag on the train.

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The social media side effect

This is an edited version of a blog I contribute to elsewhere on the web.

People working in the world of pharma would be justified in beginning to think that their profession has never been sexier. Hollywood is turning what has historically been perceived as a dry profession into an arena in which love stories and thrillers are made.

If you’ve ever watched Love and Other Drugs – a rom-com where Anne Hathaway falls for a drug rep – you’d be forgiven for thinking that those of us who work in and around pharma were now being viewed in a positive light.

But Hollywood is hardly famed for its naturalistic representation of anything (let alone something as complicated as our industry) and so anyone hoping for the attentions of an Anne Hathaway look-a-like (or their male equivalent) on the basis of their job should probably just keep waiting.

A darker side of the industry is hinted at in the upcoming Jude Law movie Side Effects (trailer embedded below) in which Steven Soderbergh explores the ramifications of the industry’s approach to selling anti-depressants in a way that may be thrilling on screen but which is unlikely to do much to prevent criticisms of pharma’s role in society.

And it’s this bigger question of pharma’s role in society that yet another new film about the industry addresses.

In the strictly non-fictional documentary ‘Fire in the Blood’, director Dylan Mohan Gray explores the negativities of drug patents and the access restrictions this can mean in the developing world.

As very coherently put by PJ Online (the journal of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society) in their review last week, this is the third part of what could be considered a recent trilogy of bad publicity for the industry:

• Ben Goldacre’s Bad Pharma
• The All Trials campaign
• And now this documentary

So what do all of these things mean for us actually working in pharma?

Well, it means we have a whole new audience taking an interest in our world – a whole new group of people interested in what we do, why we do it and at what cost.

What this means in a connected world is the opening of a Pandora’s box of online activity, one that for those companies who have already put themselves out there in the social ecosystem is likely to prove testing for their social infrastructure and guidelines.

A great PM Live article poses an appropriate metaphor in urging these companies to ‘strengthen their social immune systems’ by looking to use their online communities as ambassadors in times of crisis.

But can most companies realistically look to rely on this mechanism? Again – if you currently manage any pharma social activities ask yourself “Do I really have an online community who are likely to make credible ambassadors?”

If you manage externally-facing social activities in the industry right now, and the answer to the above question is “no” then you should probably conduct a quick review of your processes and run some scenarios on how a new influx of informed (and inevitably negative) opinion might play out for you.

In this new world where anyone is fair game in terms of wider social conversations, it’s essential to understand where conversations are happening, why they are happening (both from a conversation driver perspective and from a deeper understanding of social trends) and what our role and responsibility as the pharma industry is in participating in these.

As the release of both these factual and fictional takes on pharma’s ethics highlights, never before has listening been quite so crucial to keep abreast of online conversations and to understand their implications for your business.

Whilst Hollywood does not generally drive direct consumer engagement with pharma’s social profiles, what it’s already doing is making the whole pharma conversation just that little bit more mainstream.

After all, humans are, by nature, curious individuals, so the chance of watching Love and Other Drugs, for example, and then heading off to Google Pfizer are pretty high.

So will a suited and booted Jude Law prompt your average Jo to turn to their social channels for a little more information on psychiatric drugs and their side effects? Yes, it’s more than likely. And this goes double for the issues raised in Fire in the Blood.

This isn’t to say that companies should go out there with a strongly worded opinion in response to this documentary, but it does highlight more strongly than ever the need to be prepared.

Being prepared means having the ability to listen to conversations and to then take leadership where leadership is required. It means real-time listening – and listening in the context of wider issues – and knowing how and when to respond.

The ability to understand and act upon inputs such as response rates, tone of voice, and the implementation of effective governance decision trees and their associated responsibilities, will weed out the socially strong from the socially naive.

And let’s not forget that social media can, and will, drive traditional media coverage. Effective online crisis management can, and will, prevent this from happening.

But only if you know these issues exist.

We as an industry must be ready for social trends to mirror popular culture and satisfy our inquisitive natures, and have our listening and response protocols up-and-running, and be ready for engagement.

As pharma becomes part of everyday conversations, let’s see who leads the way, and who is left scrambling to pull together an SOP.

Who knew Jude Law could teach us so much?

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A positive NHS story

So it would seem that the NHS are upping their game when it comes to digital and social. This week I’ve seen a few things that have made me think the NHS are actually embracing the impact of social media and digital assets in the healthcare world.

The NHS Commissioning Board are offering us some clarity in terms of what could potentially be an overwhelming number of health apps. The online library initially consists of 70 healthcare apps that the NHS deem to be clinically safe for people to use. And the rationale? Well, as a minimum, a clinical assurance team made up of doctors, nurses and safety specialists, are looking to see that the app is relevant to UK audiences, complies with data protection, and that the information provided within the app is based on trusted sources.

But this only gets you, as an app developer, in the door; not yet onto the site. The next qualifier is to determine whether the app could potentially cause harm to a person’s health. If the information provided is deemed to be too personalised to an individual, or indeed goes so far as to recommend treatment options, then it will not make the cut. This type of specific guidance is determined to potentially cause more harm than good if used incorrectly. And I would have to agree.

Now this type of guidance is a nice to have, but some could argue not necessarily essential. Does this list of 70 really help when you have 13,000 healthcare apps out there? Potentially not.

However, the other piece of news this week (thanks to Dominic Tyer’s Digital Intelligence blog) that has got me seeing the NHS in a bit of a different light is the announcement that they will be funding new ‘digital health hubs.’ To me, this is a bold move that demonstrates recognition of the fact that digital and social media add value to the patient journey, and can no longer be ignored in healthcare. Finally!

What these hubs look like isn’t yet clear but partnering with the Online Centres Foundation, the digital health hubs will be taking over public areas in locations such as libraries, cafes, pubs and community centres. The purpose of these is to allow those that may not have easily available internet access to become the informed patients that they deserve to be; going to their doctor with an idea of their future, without it being prescribed to them.

I’ve previously written over on the other blog I contribute to about how we as healthcare PR professionals need to be putting the patient back in the conversation, and I think these initiatives do just that. People will be able to find out more about their conditions and interact with health services online that they haven’t previously been able to, readying them for any interactions with healthcare professionals that they might have.

A lot of us sitting in our PR worlds may assume that everyone out there is sitting, eagerly waiting for us to create that online asset that improves their life as a patient, but what about those people where online assets aren’t even accessible, let alone fundamental to their patient journey? With these new hubs and more initiatvives like the app library in the pipeline, more and more people will be able to access digital assets that ultimately improve their patient journey. Keep up the good work NHS.

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The four T’s: Spokespeople in the social space

Something I’m working on at the moment is how to work with spokespeople in the social space. This can sometimes be a bit of a grey area, so I thought it would be helpful to share some learnings for all of you out there who may be nervous or just plain confused.

When being socially active on behalf of a company, there are four key things to remember. I like to call this the four T’s:

• Transparency
• Trust
• Training
• Time

The key thing to consider both as a spokesperson and as a company asking someone to be your spokesperson, is transparency. It is important that as a spokesperson, whatever you say in the social space is supported with documentation of who you work for. And for this, I like to refer to our offline world. In traditional PR, any spokesperson would openly declare that they are paid by, or a consultant to, X company. This is in the interest of not wanting to mislead, and to be honest with the fact that you are representing a third party. And also, let’s not forget, in the world of healthcare it’s because the ABPI tells you to!

The purpose of this is not to undermine the authenticity of what is being said, it’s purely to maintain honesty and transparency in an industry that often faces criticism. No one likes to be deceived. So in the social space we just need to apply the same principles. Whether it’s in your twitter bio, your ‘about me’ on your blog, or even just a mention on relevant blog posts, a simple ‘consultant of the pharmaceutical industry’ is usually sufficient. But of course, whenever doing anything like this, it is vital to check internal social media policies, as these often vary by company.

The next T is trust and for me this is two-fold. Do you as a company trust a potential spokesperson, and are they as individuals trusted in their communities?

So by that I mean do you trust them to stay on message, be an advocate for your brand, know how to behave in the social space both courteously and credibly, and not to engage in negative conversations? On the other hand we have to consider their level of credibility within their audience – are they trusted? It is only if this is true that they will be able to influence opinion and shape conversations in the way that you desire.

Next we have training and I believe that this is very important. Not only do you need to educate your spokesperson on the rules and regulations, the tone and messages of your campaign, and the expectations, you also don’t want them to feel unsupported and perhaps apprehensive to actively engage in conversations. Again, we can look back to our offline lives – you would never ask activity of a spokesperson before media training them, so don’t do it in the social world!

An important part of this will be an issues management-type session, whereby you walk through a pre-approved protocol of exactly what to do in worst-case scenarios. I like to do this in a simple flow chart – ‘if this happens, I follow the flow chart and do this.’ Easy!

As an aside, it’s also important to note here that you should never ask someone to be a social spokesperson unless they are already active, comfortable and present in the social space. Nothing screams ‘I’ve been paid to do this’ more than a tweet going out from a handle that has had no activity for 3 months. It also means that the individual likely feels pretty comfortable with engaging online and understands common courtesies and expectations.

Then finally we have time. For success, you need agreement from your spokesperson that they have the time to make the commitment that social can sometimes be. We can’t let comments or questions go without response. And of course us as PR agencies can support in this by real-time monitoring of any engagement, and implementation of a process of notification and action.

The second part of this time element is to ask yourselves ‘can you as a company commit to putting the time in for monitoring, ongoing support to your spokespeople and adaptation as the campaign and objectives evolve?’ And fingers crossed the answer is yes!

There’s no denying that the social world needs different considerations and in some cases a bigger time commitment, but as with many areas of social, we can look to our traditional PR practices that we know so well and take reference. And remember, your spokespeople aren’t necessarily your biggest influencers, but they are the face of your brand: preparing them for the social world is worth the investment.

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A little about the Facebook updates

Facebook seems to be announcing updates as frequently as its users are updating their statuses. But the latest one is the first one that I see as being relevant to everyone’s day-to-day use.

The main update that seems to be getting all the chatter is the change to the newsfeed. Today it was announced that no longer will there be just one news feed, you will soon be able to choose whether you are seeing the photo feed, friend list feeds, music feeds, or updates of your liked pages – the Following feed.

Who cares? Well I think it will make for a much nicer browsing experience– and I am aware I’m saying this without actually having tried it out – I think it will cut down on all the junk that our feeds have become so full of. We’ll be able to pick and choose the information we see, with the click of a button. Goodbye to the endless baby pics and hello to content that we actually choose to consume.

And for companies? Well I think there’s certainly something in the ability to choose a feed of updates from the pages you’ve liked. Perhaps we will start reverting back a little to looking at those vanity metrics of how many likes our page can get, as ultimately that means we sit in someone’s dedicated feed. Of course we could still be one amongst hundreds, but we wouldn’t be competing for attention with the photos from last Friday night…

And what about the other updates? Well there’s the appearance of the newsfeed itself – images will appear much larger, multiple shares will appear as one and the thumbnails of shared links will appear bigger with more information, making for a much easier browsing experience.

Mark Zuckerberg said at the announcement today that they are trying to give us ‘the worlds best newspaper’ and I think they might just be getting there. This is the first update in a while when I think, yes, that totally makes sense. We are moving to a much more visual word where images are now telling the stories that our words once did. When time is now our luxury, we are ever more selective with how we choose to spend it online. And Facebook is now slotting nicely into these behaviours. Well done Facebook. Well done.

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News bulletin

When I first interviewed for my job, one of the tasks I had to do was develop a presentation on ‘citizen based journalism.’ Now this was in 2011 and I started to wonder whether anything had changed since my findings then. In short, the only change I’ve seen is the growth of this trend where public citizens play an active role in the process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information (thanks for the definition Wikipaedia).

In my opinion, there is no longer a clear definition between what is news and what is noise about daily happenings. News has become what you as an individual deem it to be. We can now pick and choose what news we consume – we are no longer reliant on what the 10 o’clock news tells us. In fact, due to the instantaneous nature of the social world we live in, the 10 o’clock news and the morning papers are actually giving us old news.

So who is the journalist in 2013? We have journalists in a traditional sense who work for a news organisation, whose sole job is to find, gather and analyse news. But then we have us. If we provide real-time updates as an event unfolds, does that make us journalists too?

When there was the helicopter crash in Vauxhall last month, I saw it before it even made the news because one of my Facebook friends uploaded a photo of the smoke from the scene as they waited for a train. Is he a journalist? No, not in the traditional sense. But when you think of the purpose of a journalist’s job, then this certainly fulfilled that criteria.

I like that now the two roles merge. Traditional journalists have come to rely on people to provide the on-the-ground, credible perspective; often viewing their Tweetdeck feeds as the new newswire when it comes to keeping abreast of current stories.

And I know this isn’t a new concept, I just wonder how, and if, it will change in the future. Will we become ever more skeptical of what is packaged to us as ‘news’ and turn to our social profiles for on-the-ground reporting and opinion. Perhaps we will become a little more selective in who and what we follow, but I think the future of news reporting is most definitely in the social sphere. And this ties nicely to one of my earlier posts about why social media sits with PR professionals.

Also on this topic we have the term ‘news jacking’; the art of latching on to a current piece of news and becoming part of the conversation, and something that sits so beautifully across news and social media. Done right, this can work really well and is an easy PR quick win. A great example of this right now is the Harlem shake that’s currently causing a pretty impressive online storm. If you don’t know about it, firstly, where have you been, and secondly, Google it!

And now there are a lot of companies, charities and groups of friends on Friday nights recording their own versions and jumping in on the current hot topic. A really good example was done this week by JG Environmental, who did a pest-themed Harlem shake. In an awesome example of the power of both PR and social media (here is where I get excited!) there was a hashtag, a YouTube video with views increasing by the minute, online conversations and even local media coverage. If you want to know how to become part of a meme whilst promoting your business and giving your company that personality that social media allows you to do so well – take a look at these guys. And for that matter, their social media strategy in general is one to be admired.

And on that note, I’m off to Harlem shake around my house.

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Watch and learn!

Over the last week I’ve come into contact with a few really cool examples of just how powerful social media can be. So for all you doubters out there, please, read on. And even if you aren’t a doubter, it’s always nice to have those examples in your back pocket that can stop people in their tracks.

My posts tend to have a healthcare related stance but these examples are actually totally unrelated to healthcare. For me, it’s important to look outside your day-to-day world to see just what the possibilities are, be inspired and learn how to push those boundaries.

The first example is about a tiny village in Switzerland. Their challenge? They needed people to visit their one hotel and one restaurant. Their real challenge? A mountain village of 80 inhabitants is not most people’s first choice for a dining location. I’ll let this video explain the rest…

So what’s important here? The take-away for me is that you don’t need a huge amount of money to be successful in social media. The citizens of Obermutten clearly spent a small amount filming and editing, but then they let the power of social media take Obermutten to the global stage. And in a classic online word-of-mouth scenario, the little Swiss town has made its mark on the tourism map.

My next example actually comes from a documentary that aired on channel 4 this week – you may have watched it, The Fried Chicken Shop. An odd choice you may think, but it somehow managed to captivate me even beyond the hour it aired for. Into the shop walked a guy who ‘worked in social media’ and out came his hilarious recommendations for the shops’ social media presence. ‘What would you hashtag? Spicy chicken?’ he asked the bewildered chicken server. And then came the influx of #spicychicken tweets. Within minutes, not only had the twitterverse managed to find this guys handle (only knowing him as Nick) but his followers were doubling by the second. After an hour, his followers had gone from 52 to 2600 and #spicychicken was trending. Less than a week later, he now has over 4000 followers interested in his #spicychicken tales.

A silly story you may think, but there are again some key points that can be applied to any social media campaign: be current, be emotive and be human. Thousands of people jumped on #spicychicken because it was a classic ‘he’s talking about it, so I’m going to talk about it!’ type scenario. To not be involved was to miss out.

The content itself was funny – you couldn’t help but find it entertaining. So be emotive with your content and people will naturally talk about you. And finally – and I think some companies forget this – just be human; speak to your audience as real people, and not an obtainable metric.

My final example is from the Australian transport agency, and it really goes to show how good content is really all you need. They took a pretty dry subject – train safety – developed a really cool animation and then sat back and watched social media work its magic.

A classic case of some awesome content going viral, purely because the medium was engaging, the content relatable and the vehicle popular. Anyone working in social media dreams of reaching these kind of viewing figures!

So three key learning’s about social media: invest a little (but not necessarily a lot), have good content and behave like a person talking to a person. Easy, right?!

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So where did you two meet?

I truly believe that social media has changed how we behave as a society. ‘That’s ridiculous!’ I hear you cry. But let me explain.  Over the last ten years as social media has grown to what it has become today, the way in which we interact with people has changed. And I don’t mean that we now interact online – it actually goes beyond this. Look at our offline behaviour and how the online versions of us have become our reality.

I think a perfect example that demonstrates my point is when you look at online dating. I remember a time not so long ago when admitting to having met someone online was very much taboo. If at all possible, you’d try and quickly think of an alternative story when someone asked ‘so where did you two meet?’ But now, it’s no different to meeting someone in a bar on a Friday night. It is no longer judged, but commonly accepted as part of the dating process of the 21^st century.

Even greater than this is the way that social media now adds value and credibility to our offline lives. By this I mean the way in which popularity is now the number of friends/followers/connections, and the number of likes you can get on a post. Being opinionated is triggering 50 comments on a post and evoking heated debate. Cool is now being the social media hipster (check out this video of these hipsters +50 years) who shares that awesome content that you haven’t seen yet. ‘Did you see the video Lauren posted last night?’ ‘Yeah, where does she find this cool stuff?’

Social media by its very nature gives us access to people that ordinarily we may not interact with on a daily basis. It’s changed our expectations in terms of social interaction, the opinions we form of people we are yet to meet, and our perceptions of human behaviour. It has made us more informed and taken away almost all elements of surprise. Before we meet someone – either on a professional basis or a personal one – we will almost certainly have looked at their respective LinkedIn or Twitter handle. And if they don’t have one? Well, we begin to question whether we should be meeting them at all!

I wonder if sat in his college dorm room Mark Zuckerberg ever imagined he would be shaping societal behaviour? Can we go back and find the time where our online lives began to shape our offline lives? To our offline and online selves: ‘so where did you two meet’?

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How private is private?

Anyone who has a twitter account will have heard about the security breach this week, with hackers gaining access to user data from 250,000 accounts. This has got me thinking about security and privacy with social media in general – how much of what we put online is really ours? Now I don’t mean that hacking is acceptable – it’s absolutely not – but what about the information we willingly share on our profiles? Are we forsaking our right to privacy if we choose to share our photos, our thoughts, our activities and relationships; ultimately our lives?

I think there’s privacy in a variety of senses. There’s the expected privacy that random strangers aren’t looking through the pictures of your summer holiday to Ibiza. But what about if it’s a ‘friend of a friend’ type scenario? Does that still count as a stranger? Then there’s the type of privacy that I’m sure my 15-year-old sister requires, and that’s for my mum not to have any idea what she’s up to! But I go back to my first point: you can set all the privacy settings you like, but ultimately you are posting personal content to a place that technically can be accessed, in one way or another, by 2.5 billion people. In a world of posting and sharing, how can we really control what happens to information and content that we perceive to be ‘ours’?

This, however, should not be a deterrent for social media use; it’s what should be embraced. Know it, accept it, understand it and positively exploit it. Use it the right way, and this very nature of ‘no walls’ is what we, as social media lovers, use for a whole host of reasons. The access to conversations, information and peers at the touch of a button, is what makes social media so successful. Really I think it’s just a common sense call. It’s as simple as take your ‘is this for public knowledge’ filter from your offline actions, and use it online.

Privacy is something I think we are still learning and negotiating every day both on a personal level and as part of the work we do on a daily basis. Ultimately, whether we like it or not, and indeed whether we agree or not, the whole point of social networking – as I referenced in my very first post – is about sharing. So to answer my own question, I don’t think it’s really a question of who ‘owns’ your content, it’s who has the right to share it. And the answer to that is, really, anyone who comes into contact with it.

Now, this isn’t a cautionary tale – far from it; I sort of love that nothing is secret anymore – it’s just something to bear in mind before hitting that post button. Just think, would it be ok if your (*insert scary authoritative person in your life*) sees it? If you have to ask this question, the answer is probably no.

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The language of conversation

It seems that some are still questioning why social media strategy sits with PR agencies as opposed to a digital or creative agency, or indeed any agency at all. For me, the answer is simple – nobody understands messaging, engagement and overall language better than PR experts. This is something we’ve been doing since the term ‘public relations’ was first coined, and in this new world – although on the whole I refuse to call it ‘new’ anymore – of digital PR, the power of language is more evident than ever.

‘Who cares about language?’ some may ask – just give me a branded Facebook page and a couple of videos on YouTube and I’ve ticked the social media box. No, no, no! This is where some brands are still falling down at the first hurdle. In fact, they aren’t really even reaching the first hurdle. To achieve brand longevity and a sustainable social media presence, it is vital to use language that is audience specific, ignites conversation (in a positive way!) and gives you a social identity. If you can achieve these things, then you are on the way to reaching those people – be it patients, carers, families or medical professionals – that are looking for support.

If you’re a patient, perhaps recently diagnosed, chances are you are feeling apprehensive, concerned and more than likely curious to find out more. When you turn to the big G, the last thing you want to see is brand and company messages shoved in your face in a completely unnatural and downright intrusive manner. What’s really going to make you click on one of the results out of hundreds of pages of search results (SEO aside) is something engaging, meaningful and organic. Something that resonates with you and your current emotions. And the power of language choices as a brand is not to be underestimated here.

Then of course there’s language in the native-tongue sense – a big consideration in global social media campaigns. As I’ve been researching and thinking about this post, I’ve started to wonder if really there can be a truly global campaign at all. Today we have to consider language variations, cultural sensitivities and platform reach, but can we really do this via one campaign?

The social media space in India is showing a nice trend that addresses some of these challenges. In a country with a whole variety of languages and dialects within one set of geographical parameters, we are seeing unexpected popularity in image sharing platforms such as Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook for their abilities to share and communicate in a universally understandable way.

So I suppose in a way, my two points here could be contradictory: words and language are fundamental, yet image sharing is the global solution. I, however, think that the two can in fact be complimentary and work hand in hand. And that goes back to my original thought; know your audience, know your objectives and know why. As the saying goes, a picture tells a thousand words.

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Start with a blank canvas, visualise Facebook friendships. 

So, what do you do?

My first post, and what better way to start than to answer that question that I think every single one of my friends and family has asked at some point over the last few years, “so what do you actually do?” I started explaining this to my best friend a few months ago, and after a number of minutes of my rambling and chucking in the odd PR-y word (of course) she stopped me and asked, “What do you mean by social media?”

This surprised me. I assumed it was a given. Common knowledge. But alas not! And so I started thinking about what social media means in my life and how it affects the work we do in our world of PR. In the healthcare world specifically, social media is about people with a common interest – be it a recent personal diagnosis, caring for a family member, or living with a condition – coming together to share concerns, share advice and share experiences. And that, to me, is the point right there – share.

No one likes to suffer in silence; everyone sometimes needs some anonymity. Social media allows people to ask questions without judgement, talk about what it’s like to feel defined by a disease, share treatment experiences and feel informed to make the right choices.

So, what do I do?  I take social media beyond the ‘like’ and ‘follow’ – because let’s face it those are just vanity metrics (thanks to Steven Shattuck for that nice little phrase!) – and create a platform for meaningful discussion; give patients a voice and a reason to be heard.

Then of course not forgetting the other person in this relationship – the medical professional. If one half of the relationship is clued up from all angles, so too must the other. And this is where we see the healthcare professional communities like doctors.net and the BMJ’s doc2doc, come in. Patients connect to understand, healthcare professional connect to be able to provide context. What was once wading through volume after volume of medical journal, can now be a ‘whip out the iPad, ask a question, get a peer’s perspective and view some case notes.’ Et voila, all parties have a means to connect in their respective communities.

And that is the beauty of a social media ecosystem.  A ‘surround sound’ of current, relevant, insightful and engaging content that is platform independent, yet audience specific.  And this is where we, as PR and social media pros, work our magic.

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