Free Thinking Weaves Blogs in China, Good or Bad?

One of my media friends in China started to write her own blog in sina.com at the end of last year. She has been a reporter in electronics and telecom industry for years. As a veteran, she is no longer satisfied with her views and opinions only known though her own media. In social networking era, everyone seems to have a dream to make his/her fame though social media.

By opening a blog in the largest online portal in China, she tends to enjoy more freedom in writing and thinking that she seldom found in her own media, which has some sales constraints from the ads clients on the voice of their editorial group. (In China, the editorial and sales team especially from trade media cannot completely separate in job functions, although this situation has changed a lot in recent 3 years.)

She even works harder on her blog, where she shares her insights on hot industrial issues and discloses inside corporate stories based on what she learnt from her own network. While her exhilaration on gaining more voice freedom and more eyeballs puts a potential PR threat to the industrial players. Some information or conclusion has already been found wrong or incomplete from her quick and superficial analysis. Her non-preciseness on her free writing and thinking easily makes companies as the victims of her voice of freedom.

I think she is not a special case. From PR perspective, we need to…

1. Make a list for the sensitive blogs and keep monitoring them;
2. Identify the negative messages which the bloggers disclose or keep emphasizing or repeating;
3. Evaluate how big impact of the negative points will bring to the companies;
4. Find an appropriate opportunity to communicate with the bloggers and try to put out fire in early stage;
5. If the incorrect messages already cause a PR crisis, you have to quickly get your feet wet.

Doing Business in China, Web 2.0 Style

Share an interesting news story from PRnewswire...

Christine Lu, a Taiwanese girl who immigrated to US at the age of 2, came back to China with a tiny camera and big personality to make her creative dream come true. She started her journey by founding The China Business Network in May 2007, a platform from which she hosts The China Business Show and the largest online community of people doing business in China. The goal of this network is to provide people in US with a start in knowledge of doing business in China. So far, she has interviewed more than 100 executives, entrepreneurs and China consultants to share their business stories in China.

In March, Lu added visuals, she is zipping around Shanghai, vlogging for The China Business Network, staying connected on other social network and using web 2.0 technology to bridge the gap between those who live and do business in China, and those outside China, climbing that same learning curve.

I think Lu's idea on bringing vlog for specific target audience will be extended to China local trade media in near future. Why? Because not only web video usage is booming, but also the presence of web video as a PR tool is growing in communicators' portfolios. So why the media with clearly focused target audience not test the water?

Share a super video on Beijing people preparing Olympic 2008 posted on the homepage of The China Business Network, which is filmed by a Singapore vlogger.

The China Business Network

China Electronics Media: Riding on the Wave of Web 2.0

I still remembered the hot designer contests jointly held by local influential semiconductor print media and various industrial entities in China from 2003 to 2005, while nowadays we can see this wave is going on-line, using the tools of web2.0.

EDN China, one of most popular media in China electronics industry, launched its new online version at the end of last year, which puts so much focus on the user generated contents. Just a few months after the launch, the designers' contests in the name of various industrial players start booming. From designer discussion group, online forum to engineering communities and blogs, the media has positioned itself as an interactive platform for the local designers. User generated contents, such as designers' blog contests, design case contests are often regarded as a good promotional way for the companies with limited inside communication resource.

The overall concept and adoption of web 2.0 just step out of the fledging status in local semiconductor media. How far it is related to the conversation rate still needs to be further proved. While I believe there will be more growth potential on web 2.0 tools to inspire and increase the customers' interactions and responses, the key points are how much you know your customers, how much you are able to help your customers' design to the point, and how much you are familiar with the media and new tools.

This era, media is no longer just a information channel, it is a partner to help the business reach out the target audience in more creative ways.

A Few Words on SEO and PR

When talking about online public relations, don’t just think about blogs or video podcasts, try to leverage any web based technologies to help…

Thanks to Bryan Mavrow, my BCIT teacher on e-marketing. His teaching on Search Engine Optimization (SEO) reminded me that we should not forget the role of SEO in public relations. In public relations, our goal is always to get our qualified messages out to the target audiences as many as possible and thus possibly lead to a perfect ending with business outcome.

Nowadays, with the booming of the search engines, journalists and customers are so dependent on finding their interested information through search engines. Have you realized the rankings on search engines can carry just as much weight (or more) with online PR efforts as getting covered in a prominent blog or online publication? Don’t forget SEO is the best and efficient way to improve the search ranking.

While optimizing PR and news content, you need to think from a journalist perspective, which they care verifiable information, easy to find contact information, examples and any other information that will help them write the story.

How do we optimize the PR and news content? A few basic tips to share, let us take the news release for an example:

1. Prerequisite: A well organized release with clear and conglomerate key messages;
2. Choose the top keywords(brand name, product name etc.) for your press release;
3. Put them in the title and the first paragraph, and try to repeat keywords or phrase several times in the content of the release;
4. Make sure at least one of those keywords is actually a link;
5. Substitute keyword phrases for pronouns like "it" or "its" to increase their overall frequency in the release.

See it is simple, but just don't forget to make it happen when you are preparing the PR materials...

Tip Sheet: Managing Crises Through Social Media

Refer to the complete article written by Robbin Goodman.

1. Set up the most basic monitor tools, such as Google alert or RSS feeds.

2. Identify the key points of the negative issue, ask yourself:
- Is the attack true?
- Will an escalation have a negative impact on our brand or reputation?
- Will it have a negative impact on sales?
- If we respond, will it help reduce future complaints?

3. Quickly get your feet wet.

"You'll never be able to manage your blog coverage like you manage the press. Don't even try," says Andy Sernovitz, CEO of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. He says that "what you can do is participate, earn respect and tell your story. Jump in, join the conversation and be a part of it."

4. Don't "market"; engage in a dialogue.

When it comes to the social media, you must listen thoughtfully and communicate with your stakeholders in an authentic, humble, human voice. When there's a problem, show that the problem is being taken seriously by the person at the top. Statements should come from an individual with a face, a name, a voice and an e-mail address ... not from some corporate monolith.

5. Be prepared to take the gloves off.

When it's clear that attacks are inaccurate and unfairly damaging your company or client's reputation, you can challenge critics to cite their sources and ask them to debate in a neutral format. Usually, the best way to respond to a negative comment is by posting the response on your own blog, not the blog where it appeared, where people who will read your comments are likely to be fans of the blogger and, as such, are predisposed to adopt and defend the blogger's point of view.

6. Know when to go offline.

Remember that you always have the option of communicating directly with traditional reporters, customers, employees and shareholders. The most effective strategy can sometimes be going to the mainstream media--both on and off the Web--to argue your case.

7. Don't forget your Web site.

Make sure that your Web site is as up-to-the-minute as it can possibly be. If you're at fault, there should be a letter -- or video -- from the CEO with an apology and details of the changes that are going to happen to prevent recurrence of a problem. If it's difficult to make changes to the existing site, be prepared to set up a special crisis site to deal with your special situation.

Some Questionable Voice for Social Networking

The benefits of social networking that it has bought to the enterprise business in terms of collaboration tools like blogs, widgets, twitters and IM as a result of user generated content can not be ignored but at the same time the impact of social networking has been minimal besides online advertising. What it can do is hopelessly mix up your personal and professional life and inadvertently give access to people about your personal information, which you’d much rather keep to yourself and your social ilk.

The other is the time spent wasting company resources while on the job doing what is popularly being referred to as social NOTworking! This is a real concern as, while many managements have draconian solutions but it is important for all CIOs and CTOs to consider how much of the technology and infrastructure that they provide is actual used by employees, and how much is in the nature of freeware which certainly brings a lot of productivity to the enterprise including web based e-mail, instant messaging services as well as social networking tools.

Complete article to share: Is Web 2.0 becoming Bubble 2.0; Social Networking becoming Social Notworking?

On the Way of Social Networking Going Mobile

According a study from ABI research at the end of 2007, the value of mobile marketing will reach $19 billion, including mobile search and video advertising by 2011. Social networking will be no longer just blogs and social homepages, such as myspace or facebook, it will go mobile.

eMarketer says the following factors will drive the growth of mobile marketing:

• Mobile text messaging becoming a mass-market service worldwide
• Mobile music climbing the rungs of the mass-market ladder
• Mobile-centric tribes of users in both advanced and developing economies where the mobile screen is the first place marketers can reach them

“The vast majority of the spending will be based on text-messaging campaigns,” says Mr. John du Pre Gauntt, eMarketer Senior Analyst “with mobile display advertising and mobile search constituting the rest of the main market.”

While the way of social networking going mobile is not as smooth as people imagined, there are many obstacles which have to be overcome:

- The question of how to use customer information to improve ad targeting while respecting privacy

- The possibility of advertising revenue subsidizing basic mobile services such as voice, text or data

In addition, from customers’ side, nearly two-thirds of respondents to a Maritz Research survey of Gen Y consumers said they were unlikely or definitely unlikely to subscribe to text retail offers sent to their handsets. Moreover, a full 84% of mobile users in an Ingenio survey said text messages sent by companies would be unacceptable.