360DigitalInfluence

Thanks very much to the nearly 300 people from across Asia who dialled into our webinar on “Social Media for B2B Companies”, hosted in partnership with the Wall Street Journal Asia and Citrix Online.

As promised we have uplosed the presentation deck to Slideshare and have updated to include links to a few great additional resources that you can use to help your business get started. These links include the following:

• Ogilvy On: Social Media for Crisis Management  
• Ogilvy On: Twitter for Business
• Ogilvy On: Facebook for Business
• Social Media in Asia Presentation
• APAC Statistics and Research (Asia Digital Map Blog)

Hurry! Space is limited for this 30-minute webinar and registration is required.

Join the award-winning Social Media team from Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide for a free 30-minute online seminar powered by Citrix GoToWebinar and done in partnership with The Wall Street Journal Asia.

This webinar will provide concrete examples, action plans and case studies, including:

· 5 key steps for a business-to-business strategy;
· How to build and engage a community of potential and current customers;
· Real-life case studies from successful business-to-business strategies;
· The highly popular – and now extended – Question and Answer section;
· Much, much more…

The seminar will be led by Brian Giesen a senior regional strategist in Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence team and moderated by Graham White, Managing Director of Howorth Communications in Sydney.

Join us Wednesday, 3 March at 11:00am (Hong Kong time):

http://bit.ly/aWsvrI

Next week we are hosting the third Webinar in our “Executive Guide to Social Media” series, which is a partnership with the Wall Street Journal.

The session is going to be focused on what to do when a crisis hits and we’re fortunate to be joined by John Bell, the global managing director for Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence and Jamie Moeller, who heads up our global public affairs practice.

Wednesday, December 2, 2009
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM Sydney / 11 AM to Noon Hong Kong
REGISTER HERE

Here is a quick overview of what will be covered during the Webinar:

The best time to respond to a crisis is before it happens. That is a communications fundamental. Now in age of Twitter, mobile phones, blogs and Facebook, the speed and style of our response has changed dramatically.

Brands that are used to tightly controlled messages are thrust into the back and forth of social media. Detractors are savvy with the ways of YouTube and inciting crowds. Customers and stakeholders often demand that their brands be more transparent and engaging than ever before.

This webinar will include concrete examples and action plans answering numerous questions, including:

• How can you prepare for a crisis today?
• How do you rally your Marketing and Communications team to use all of the resources of the social Web and effectively manage a crisis?
• How should you assemble a plan?
• What NOT to do in a crisis

So get your crisis questions ready and register now as space is limited and we’ve had more than 2,000 registrations for previous sessions!

Join me, Josh Mehlman (Editor, NETT Magazine) and Suzi Dafnis (Community Director, Australian Businesswomen’s Network) and find out!

Next week Wednesday, we’ll be running a 1-hour session on Facebook for Business.  Here are the details:

Lunch+Learn Webinar
Title:    Using Facebook to Build Your Brand
Date:    Wednesday, 14 Oct 2009
Time:    12 noon Australian EDST

REGISTER HERE!

During the session, we’ll be giving practical tips and covering:

• 5 ways to a rapid-start strategy in Facebook
• How to engage your Facebook community
• Real-life examples of how businesses of all sizes use Facebook to build their brands
• And more…

I thought the end of the week would be a good time to start winding down from the mania of work, take stock of what’s been achieved and what I can look forward to in the week ahead. For me this week, it’s about going back to basics and cutting through the fluff in the way we communicate.

No matter how many times it’s been said, I still continue to come across dire examples of communications folks who seem to rapidly lose the plot after “Dear [Editor name]” or “Dear [Blogger name]“. Maybe it’s because we’ve gotten too used to pitch templates, or there’s a false sense of security that the mention of a big brand name/spokesperson equates to instant interest. Or maybe some folks simply get scared when trying to reach out to bloggers and forget how to speak to the human being at the other end of that email.

A few oldies-but-goodies that I will be closing my week off with:

Thou shalt not blast the world and their mother

It all boils down to relevance. Has the journalist/blogger written something of relevance recently that you can reference in your opener? You won’t know unless you read. Read the papers, read blogs, follow smart people on Twitter and read what they link to. Doing so makes you a smarter communicator…for yourself and for your clients. And for goodness sake, address your email recipient by name.

And your point is..?

Anyone out there a fan of The Big Wiffle Waffle? Not me. You’re reaching out for a reason right? So state what it is. Spending the first 5 lines talking about your client’s history/milestones/messages will get you nowhere fast…except maybe the “Delete” button.

The worst blogger “outreach” emails I’ve come across actually go on to tell the blogger what to do. Example: “In exchange for XYZ, you will write a weekly post about XYZ in your blog and create a YouTube video.”

Think about emails that you personally receive that get your attention. They tell you right up front in the subject line what you’re going to get, and it’s based on understanding what you like and what you want. The same principle applies.

Who said so?

Saying your product/contest/event is cool or exciting usually makes it come across as anything but. Especially if you’re fond of using exclamation points in every other sentence!

Again, go back and focus on the individual at the receiving end of your email. One size does not fit all and that’s the surest way to getting you some solid blogger backlash…online or behind your back.

Lastly AND firstly, listen

Nervousness and insecurity can drive us to be verbose, repetitive and fluffy. So I say stop talking for a minute (or more). Take a step back, look straight at whom you’re talking to and really listen to what they’re saying. Set aside your urge to sell your message and instead try to understand what THEY are looking for. You’ll be surprised how far this simple exercise gets you.

Have a great weekend. And while you’re at it, check out:

• 7 Things to do to Avoid Being Killed by a Blogger in a Pitch
• The Real Difference Between Journalists & Bloggers

On Wednesday I am participating in a Lunch+Learn Webinar hosted by Citrix Online.  The focus of the Webinar is how organizations can participate on Twitter and meet business objectives. You can register for Webinar here.

I will be sharing the Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence strategy and approach for using Twitter (Follow, Create, & Engage) and talking about how Twitter can be used to help address seven business objectives, ranging from managing a crisis to promoting products and services. I hope you can join, here is the Citrix email message:

Social media tools like Twitter are redefining how your customers and stakeholders interact online. Isn’t it time to see if your business can leverage the power of this microblogging platform?

In this interactive, one hour Lunch+Learn Webinar, you’ll get a step by step breakdown of how the Twitter service works and how to get started using it. Moreover, you’ll be able to engage with industry experts on practical ways to integrate Twitter into your business.

Attend this one-hour Webinar to learn:

• How to get started using Twitter
• Twitter do’s and don’ts
• How businesses of all sizes use Twitter to gain an advantage
• And more…

Lunch+Learn Webinar
Using Twitter to Gain a Competitive Advantage
Wednesday, 8 July
12 noon Australian EST

Speakers:

• Brian Giesen, Director of Digital Strategy, Ogilvy PR
• Jonathan Crossfield, Marketing Manager, Netregistry
• Josh Melman, NETT Magazine Nett Editor, NETT Magazine

Don’t you realize that only around 15% (or less) of your Twitter followers actually respond and pay attention to your tweets? The reason is simple, Twitter is very much like your offline social life, you can meet as many people as you want but you only communicate more often with a certain crowd after all. I have done some testings and successfully increased followers’ engagement, it’s all about ♡!

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Whether you’re gearing up to launch a brand new blog, or you’ve been posting religiously over the past few years and have amassed a sizable audience, it’s always a good idea to take stock of the various ways to drive traffic and increase engagement on your blog.

I’ve created a list of 28 blog traffic and engagement driving tips that you can use to ensure you’re doing everything possible to generate ROI against the time and energy you’re investing by blogging. While this list is by no means comprehensive, it’s hopefully a good starting point and may spark some new thinking about how to get more people reading and engaging with your content.

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I’ve actually got quite a fair bit to share, but i suppose the details can be further articulated in later posts. What i want to share is perhaps key takeaways that i got from Your Blog™ as a blogger from each of the presenters.

Overall
i know the session was about marketing your blog, but a great sense i got from each presenter, was that they actually don’t make money from their blog, but rather, their blog was both personal branding and a marketing tool for who they are as people, as personalities.

My suspicion (correct me if i’m wrong) is that earning a living from blog advertising for personally owned blogs is a bit of a myth. Whether it’s a question of eyeballs or sustainability, all three bloggers who shared use their blogs as pieces of thought leadership, reputation and authority. Only Arti, who was an ex-journalist was paid for her professional writing skills.

Yongfook: 8 profound and live changing things that happened because of my blog
Yongfook was one of my original heroes when i first started blogging in 2003. Back then, he was still writing his crazy Japanese food blog posts, talking about dealing with isolation in a rural Japanese village, and i thought “I want that! I want a really fun blog!” And so that’s my key takeaway, even as Yongfook matured and evolved to his current lifestream, he’s always maintained that unique Yongfook personality.

Arti Mulchand: Write Right
Key takeaway: You don’t have to use long flowery language to be a good writer. A good writer communicates clearly, gives readers content that is easily understood and makes a point. One good method to sustain reader interest, is by ’scattering gold coins’. Give them a good reason to read the next paragraph. Always.

Design Sojourn: How to be a __________ superstar
Key Takeaway: Managing your blog’s branding / personality so that you’re not an expert, but an authority on your given subject. My personal take on Brian Ling’s insight, is that it’s hard to be considered an expert in the field without actual accreditation, but being an authority is more feasible, valuable even perhaps. It allows you to share your opinions confidently, while always being open enough for discussion. Sometimes it’s not always about having the final say in things and have your words treated as ‘gold’, but being regarded in your area of interest / field of expertise. And you can play your cards right, is to share knowledge, share good things, invite different opinions, distill for further insights and maintaining both online and offline relationships. So those Technorati links that add to your authority? There’s some truth to that system!

Toysrevil: Eh, You Singaporean Meh?
Key takeaway: Original content. Toysrevil is the embodiment of passion when it comes to sharing knowledge, opinions on all things toys. But what really struck me, was how he puts his personal stamp on each picture he takes of a toy. In some sense, there is only one such picture in the world, they each tell a story, and convey important information for those in the toy scene. Each picture is uniquely his, and i believe that has helped add fans to his growing fan-base.

All’s well that ends well
And those were the key takeaways i got from the speakers! I’m sure everyone’s got an opinion and some key takeaways! May i invite you to share what yours were if you were here at Your Blog™ with us?