PR Problem: Samsung, Selfies, and Ethics

Keeping in line with last week’s post on selfies, Samsung is having a PR problem with their use of selfies as a publicity tool. 

This past Tuesday, when the Boston Red Sox were visiting the White House, David Ortiz spontaneously took a selfie with the President, a day after becoming spokesperson for the company.

While the picture was harmless, its gained popularity not for the celebrities it captured but for the fact that the president possibly could have been manipulated to be included in a product promotion.

The White House’s response, “Obama obviously didn’t know anything about Samsung’s connection to this,” Pfeiffer said Sunday on CBS’s Face the Nation. “And perhaps maybe this will be the end of all selfies. But in general, whenever someone tries to use the president’s likeness to promote a product, that’s a problem with the White House.”

Meanwhile the company has received praise for using similar marketing stunt during Ellen’s Oscar selfie, but this most recent supposedly planned pic is calling the company’s ethics into question, especially since Samsung Mobile US immediately retweeted the picture to its 5 million followers, writing: “Big Papi, Big Selfie.” 

Samsung’s response, “We were thrilled to see the special, historic moment David Ortiz captured with his Galaxy Note 3 during his White House visit.” The company also claims that the White House had now knowledge of Ortiz’s endorsement with the company and  that nothing was formally planned.

So while Samsung is taking a hit for how they are getting people to start talking about their product, there is no doubt that the selfie got people talking.

Selfies as a PR Tool

Admit it. You love taking selfies.

While some people find these pictures unflattering, and the ultimate form of narcissism there is no denying that a majority of people have taken at least one selfie. I have even seen my 3-year-old cousin take a selfie with my grandmother (though it was an accident when he took my phone).

Then there are the selfies that make headlines. For example, this past December President Obama famously received criticism for the timing of a selfie he took with Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt and British Prime Minister David Cameron. Or there is the selfie that broke twitter, when Ellen Degeneres and other A-listers snapped a pic live during the Oscars.

 

But what makes a selfie successful is not who is in the picture or where it is taken it is the concept of the selfie itself. In other words, taking a selfie of yourself at the Eiffel tower is more effective than a Instagram picture of the Parisian landscape because it gives people a better sense of who you are.

Selfie of me in Paris

Simply put from a PR perspective, selfies are a way you can engage with your followers. Moreover, selfies don’t have to just be for personal use, but also for brands and are a great tool to incorporate in campaigns.

For instance, if a retail store like Saks Fifth Avenue was trying to promote their new spring line, the store could hold a selfie contest and have people take selfies in front of the window display.

So whip out your phone and take a selfie.

 

 

 

For more information for selfies and PR check out:

http://blog.prnewswire.com/2014/02/12/brand-content-in-the-age-of-the-selfie/

http://mashable.com/2014/02/11/selfie-pride/

Crowdsourcing: Key to Global Engagement

At the root of crowdsourcing is the saying “ two heads are better than one.”

In other words by using social media and the internet to cast an even wider net of participants the amount of data and possible ideas becomes limitless.

Take for example Lay’s Do Us A Flavor Challenge. After a successful run in 2012 in which the company received millions of submissions nationwide the contest is back again. What made this contest so successful were three key aspects:

1. Innovative Content; crowdsourcing is like one big think tank. In regards to Lays the result of the competition was that the company was able to come up with innovative flavors that they might not have come up with on their own.
2. Ultimate Focus Group; Even if the company came up with the flavors themselves,  efore launching the new flavors they were market test by all types of demographics by having participants vote on their favorite submission
3. Increase Engagement; whether or not the submission was good, by reaching out to the public it creates bonds between the company and its customers

While crowdsourcing provides many benefits, the caveat is that quality control is much harder and more manpower is needed to filter out the good ideas.

However, these negatives play less of an affect with this newly popular use of crowdsourcing in the search for the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.  Over 3 million people have volunteered their time searching through satellite images via Topnod.net in order to scan for the missing flight.

So when you think about it the idea that crowdsourcing give us ability to come together and engage with the larger global community whether it is for something so mundane as a new potato chip flavor or as a major search party is a pretty nice sentiment.

The New PR: Persuading a Share

When you look at the most successful marketing and media campaigns the ones that are the most successful are usually the ones that encourage people to voluntarily use social media without being coerced.

This past week at Newhouse, a social media roundtable was held and out of everyone who spoke what Jeff Pyatt said from Outbrain had to be the most thought provoking and interesting out of the group.

But before going into what Pyatt said, let me ask you this, “How many times do you click on the links on the bottom of the page under the “recommended stories” or “stories you might like” headline?”

As PR practitioners we can pitch the media all we want and journalists can write anything they find interesting, but this doesn’t do anyone any good if there is no one to read it because it just doesn’t come up in their search or mediums that glance at on a daily basis.

That is where Pyatt and his work at Outbrain come in. Outbrain is a source of the links at the bottom of the page that brings the stories that might not have been on your radar screen to your attention, without you really even noticing you are being targeted.

Not only does this drive more traffic to sites, but also create a more personalized experience and help with media strategies. Then when you think about how using a tool like Outbrain will effect the future of PR, it goes back into persuading people being so engaged in a story that they want to share it. Or as Jeff Cutler, a senior VP at MATTER, states in his article The Art Behind a Share, “everything will be built to tap into the unconscious by creating fully immersive experiences that direct behavior in a subliminal and magical way.”

Visual Social Media

When it comes to social media and devising a PR campaign a lot of the focus goes to creating a presence on Twitter and Facebook. But what about Pinterest, Instagram and now Vine?

What makes these channels so great for PR is that all of the content can easily be integrated into Twitter and Facebook so in reality you are not really creating more work but spreading it out amongst other channels.

               

Moreover what makes Pinterest, Instagram and Vine so great is that for lifestyle brands especially pictures are just as effective if not more than statements.Not only that they allow PR practitioners to push the boundaries of creativity and truly allow PR practitioners to tell a more compelling story.

So let’s let the images do the talking for us and start to have a visual presence on social media to really start and captivate followers.

For some more information here are some great articles on how to utilize these channels in PR:

http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/7_creative_ways_brands_are_using_Vine_15278.aspx#

http://www.ragan.com/PublicRelations/Articles/6_ways_brands_can_use_Instagram_Direct_47796.aspx#

http://socialmediatoday.com/stephaniefrasco/2120081/10-ways-get-more-pinterest-followers

Read all About It: What is Newsworthy Today

Looking at the news coverage from NBC and CBS from the past couple of days it is clear that what is considered newsworthy has a lot more to do with reader interests than it ever did before.

For example lets take a look at  some of the stories covered on February 14^th:

A majority of the stories covered by both mediums had to do with the Olympics, Gay Rights and Valentine’s Day and there is a lot of overlap in what is said. From this when looking how to target reporters on what is newsworthy, it is clear that there are trending topics that can be found in the overlap and if there is a way to connect your client to one of these topics the chances of getting your story picked up are probably going to be better.

Though in general just looking at the tone of these stories and some of the topics it is clear that while there are more light hearted stories, such as a giant 800 pound snowball that crashes into a school dorm, when it comes to pitching or creating an event as PR people it better be something really out of the ordinary because otherwise it is not going to get picked up- your average 500 pound snowball just is not going to cut it.

The bottom line is that no matter how interesting or relevant the story is it better be pitched in a way that will not only be compelling to the journalist but also relate to reader’s interests and when it comes down to it a story that is more emotional or that readers can get emotionally invested into it is always going to be more newsworthy.

Social Media, PR & The Art of Listening

From my own experience in the workforce, interactions with professionals and professors and just by reading the news one thing is clear- you better know how to use social media or you are not going anywhere.

Not only do you need to know how to use each platform, as PR professionals we also need to know what everyone is saying about our clients everywhere. Social Media allows not just PR practitioners, but everyone the ability to make an impact and it is our job to respond accordingly and depending on what is said and how the situation is handled makes it either negative or positive.

While there are multiple channels that require monitoring, social media has also improved the way we interact with our key publics, as there are so many different ways we can engage with consumers. For example you can host a Q&A on twitter or create an Instagram contest.

However, one of the problems that social media poses for a PR practitioner is that it doesn’t allow us to creating strong relationships with each followers as it is geared towards mass audiences. As Dale Carnegie puts it in How to Win Friends & Influence People in the Digital Age,  “We (as a public) seem to believe that the influence comes from the sheer volume of impressions and connections…it doesn’t. True influence comes from connecting to the individuals and nurturing relationships.”

So yes, PR practitioners no longer have to be solely dependent on the gatekeepers of traditional media, but that doesn’t mean that just because social media offers a two-way communication channel that both sides feel the same towards one another. Simply put, social media makes sure that we are more creative in the content we release but also better listeners.

PR & Me- My Interest in PR

I am a foodie. I hate the term but there is no way around it- I am who I am. I know more about restaurants, cookbooks and chefs than one ought to and of course I love to cook and eat.

As a foodie, I want to merge my interest in Public Relations and the food industry to work at restaurant and hospitality firms, such as Bullfrog & Baum or BeccaPR. This past summer, working with James Beard Award Winning Chef Jody Adams at TRADE, her newest restaurant in downtown Boston, I even got to learn about the behind the scenes operations working as a hostess and food runner. Other than never having to pay for food all summer, I also loved working on events at the restaurant especially the Boston Magazine’s Burger Battle. If I don’t end up working at a hospitality firm I am also very interested in doing PR on the client side for food publications, such as Bon Appetit, working for food blogs like Food52 or my absolute dream job of working at the Food Network either in brand management or PR division.  Who knows maybe someday in the near off future I will even be promoting my own restaurant, but for now a girl can dream.