Powered by Orange: A Social Marketing Case Study

If you live anywhere near Oregon, you'd have to be living in a cone of silence to not be familiar with "Powered by Orange."

Powered by Orange is the social marketing juggernaut that's boosting the image and awareness of Oregon State University far and wide. The apparent success of the campaign was summed up recently in a piece by Kaukab Jhumra Smith, "'It's OK to Be Imperfect': One School's Quest for Social-marketing Success."

As OSU's VP for University Advancement Luanne Lawrence notes in the article, not everything goes as planned when it comes to social marketing. However, most of the experiments the university is trying seem to be paying off in terms of engaging students, staff, and most important, alumni and others seeking a connection to OSU.

In addition to soaring traffic on OSU's website, the article notes an increase in first-time donations by alums and a wave of new enrollment. As Jhumra Smith points out, here's what OSU is doing:

• Recruiting bloggers from around campus to be opinion leaders.
• Training staff, students and faculty to use social media platforms to talk about the work and campus life.
• Emphasizing relationships through meetups, contests and other events.
• Soliciting videos and other submissions to build participation.
• Creating an online directory and making available marketing materials to businesses and others who want to join in the campaign.

“It’s really kind of fun to make mistakes in social media because you can learn and recover very quickly,” Lawrence said in the article. “Fifteen- to 25-year-olds are rebuilding every aspect of the industry, and I’m listening to them.”

Michael Stoner examined Powered by Orange a year ago, calling the campaign "the most comprehensive university social marketing campaign that we’ve seen to date."

Believe it.

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Social Media for PR Pros Working with Reporters

A friend and local public relations professional sent me a Facebook message asking my opinion on a couple of questions she was considering for a newsletter article she was writing about social media, public relations and working with reporters.

She asked:

1. How have relationships changed between reporters and public relations professionals over the last decade?

2. What tips would you offer to a public relations professional to interact with reporters and build a trusted relationship?

Here's my response:

In this age of social media, public relations professionals have more authority – and responsibility – than ever before. This includes their relationships with news reporters and other media professionals, who they now outnumber.

With smaller newsrooms and tighter deadlines, reporters are even more reliant on public relations professionals to provide quick and accurate details about breaking news events or background information for longer-term stories. Reporters are working at breakneck speed these days to post stories online, so making immediate contact with knowledgeable, responsive PR pros is essential. Where once there existed a more clearly separate reporter-source relationship, today it’s all about collaboration.

Just as journalists are feeling more pressed to deliver, public relations professionals are under increasing pressure to stay “ahead of the story,” whether responding to an incident involving their company or setting the news agenda. And with extensive social media networks and information distribution channels of their own, they no longer have to rely solely on the news media to “get the word out.”

Meanwhile, customers as well as news and information consumers no longer have to depend on the media to find out what’s going on. Here’s where the job of public relations professionals becomes most critical, and must be most transparent. Customers want the facts and they want them now. They are savvy enough to recognize spin. And with their own social media networks, they will punish businesses and public relations professionals who mess with them. Who can afford having a Facebook campaign launched against them?!

With this in mind, here are some tips for public relations professionals looking to build a stronger relationship with the media:

1. Take full advantage of all the social media tools out there – Facebook, Facebook fan pages, Twitter, blogs, YouTube, Google maps, Flickr, Web sites, podcasts, wikis … and don’t forget old standbys such as e-mail.
2. Make reporters part of your personal and professional networks: become Facebook friends, invite people to become Facebook “fans” and Twitter followers.
3. Dedicate time every day to updating and maintaining your social media presence, making your media contacts aware of important business and industry news and articles, along with bloggers, Web sites and other “insider” resources they can use to inform readers.
4. Don’t neglect old-fashioned face time and telephone calls. Take advantage of informal “meetups” and other opportunities to connect outside of typical business “transactions.”
5. Be ever proactive, anticipating news and be ready to take immediate action.

What’s changed over the past decade? Building and maintaining a strong relationship with media professionals remains as important as ever. What’s changed primarily are the tools available, and the speed at which you are expected to respond.

A really good resource is the book “Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation, and Earn Trust” by Chris Brogan and Julian Smith. In addition to Chris Brogan, I’ve listed several other good marketing/public relations blogs in the “New Media” and “Eye on Marketing” sections of this blog (look to the right).

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(Photo credit: "News Reporter" by Truthout.org, courtesy of Flickr/Creating Commons)

Some More Social Media Links

Here is a pair of interesting social media pieces:

• "A Satirical Take on Social Media in 2009," a snappy slidecast by Rob Cottingham passed along by Reportr.net
• "Five Easy Steps to Stay Safe (and Private!) on Facebook" in the New York Times. (Sure it's from September, but good advice is always timely...)

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Mr. Splashy Pants Becomes Social Media Hit

You never know what's going to go viral. Take, for instance, Mister Splashy Pants, a humpback whale that Greenpeace made its poster beast to head off whaling in Japan.

Alexis Ohanian shares the fun -- and effective -- tale of the swimming social media sensation in a new TED video, "How to Make a Splash in Social Media." In four minutes, Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, shows how groups can leverage social media to make social change.

As he notes, an effective social media campaign can level the playing field when you don't have a budget -- because it often costs nothing. To make that happen, however, he reminds us that you have to be genuine and you have to be open to losing control of the message.

"It's OK to lose control," he notes. At the same time, "It's OK to take ourselves a little less seriously." That's for sure...

And if you like this video, here's a few other posts to check out:

• Seth Godin on standing out, being remarkable
• LBCC makes multimedia fun

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Websites You Need to Know About

What's hot online? Or at the least, what should you be in the know about, especially if you're in the media? Here to help with its annual checklist of online must-knows is The Guardian's "100 Essential Websites."

The creators note plenty of familiar players here -- Facebook, Twitter, Flickr -- as well as some we may be hearing more about in 2010, such as Tumblr, Posterous, Listorious, Spotify and Pitchfork.

As the article notes: "... The smash hit of 2009 has been (apologies: I know this will cause pain) Twitter, where 1,000-word stories are reduced to 140-character tweets. Short attention spans R us.

"Twitter's rapid growth and open programming interface have given the site a wide impact. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of ancillary sites and services have been launched to help Twitter users post pictures, track followers, or – more usefully, from a commercial point of view – find out what the "hive mind" is thinking."

And what about music?

"Music has been a significant player in the growth of the web since Napster, and its influence continues to grow. Spotify has made the biggest impact this year, gaining mindshare lost by Last.fm and Pandora. Meanwhile, Pitchfork has expanded its role as the web's authoritative music magazine, and The Hype Machine came to prominence as a source of instant erudition by tracking the music blogs."

The list has something for everyone, with categories ranging from microblogging, search and the link economy to gaming, film and celebrity gossip.

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Another Take on Time Management

In my continuing quest to aid all those who are trying to cram 36 hours of life into a 24-hour day, I encourage you to read a new post by Amber Nasland on her social media blog called Altitude. Her focus: "Social Media Time Management: Nine Guiding Principles."

When it comes to managing your time, she notes at the outset, "It’s a balancing act. And ultimately, you’re in the driver’s seat."

Her first gear is managing disruptions: "Pick three things that you have to get done today, and focus relentlessly on those. (Hint: they should always be tied into your bigger picture goals, or you’re wasting time)."

Control information overoad, she continues, and make use of those tools that can save you a lot of time, such as WordPress for blogging or Google Reader to streamline your reading.

If you're in a situation at work or some other circumstance in which you find yourself answering the same e-mail question over and over, Nasland suggests creating a "template" that you can use to cut and paste common responses. Or set up a link to answers for a set of frequently asked questions. I like that one.

And when you don't have the answer, she says "communicate expectations." If you can't get to something for a day or two, say so, or refer people to somebody else who may be able to help.

But my two favorites are the last on her list: 8. Establish routines; and 9. Unplug:

If you set aside specific hours in your day, turn off other distractions. (Yes, it’s okay to close your e-mail program). Put your phone on Do Not Disturb or let it go to voicemail. Even 30 minutes of focused time on a single task, on a regular basis can ramp up your productivity.

and

Get offline. Go outside. Take a bath. Play with your kid. Go to the movies. Or go to an in-person event or Tweetup. There is nothing that will derail your social media efforts more than never walking away from them.

We all need to break from time to time ...

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(Photo credit: "Time Flies..." by kamera.obskura, courtesy of Flickr.com/Creative Commons)

Who Needs Google When You Can Twitter?

So what's the big deal about Twitter? Mashable contributor Soren Gordhamer has some answers in "How Twitter Is Dethroning the Old Guard."

Gordhamer notes how the "next great social media site" may soon replace some of our most-used online actions, including searching for information, e-mail and even MySpace. He writes:

To the extent that Twitter will begin to truly rule these areas is unknown, but I think it’s hard to argue that it is not already having an impact.... Twitter is clearly riding the waves of our time, and could have an even more significant impact on social networks, search, and communication than it does today.

Noting the power of the Twitterverse, Gordhamer poses the question: Why look something up on Google when it's faster to get the answer from your Twitter followers? "As information becomes more social, Twitter provides both a community and a much more effective means of finding emerging news and content than Google does," he notes.

As for e-mail, its faster to send a tweet; and MySpace contains too many graphics and other information for a generation increasingly using mobile devices to connect.

Each day more of my students are signing up for and finding new uses for Twitter. It's time to devise a fun classroom experiment.

BONUS COVERAGE: Don't miss this list of Twitter "don'ts" by Sean Ludwig.

MORE BONUS COVERAGE: "Twitter's Hot, Sure, But What Does It All Mean?" by Peter Ames Carlin in The Oregonian.

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J-students Make Waves with Social Media

Social media isn't just fun for today's college journalists, it's essential as they look to expand their skills as well as their portfolio. In a new post on MediaShift, journalism instructor Alfred Hermida shares how students are maximizing the reach and power of social media to do their journalism and build their personal brands as newspeople.

He writes: "Today's students should be building up their professional persona online through social media, creating a digital identity as an ambitious, engaged and curious reporter."

In addition to connecting with sources through Twitter, his students use their blogs as their "business card," showing off their professional as well as school work.

Hermida concludes:

"Being active online, sharing experiences and engaging with audiences is fundamental for students looking to enter journalism. It is even more important at a time when journalism students are uneasy about their job prospects. Budding journalists have always had to work hard to get themselves established. But the emergence of social media, through platforms such as Twitter, has added a new dimension to this, one that the reporters of tomorrow cannot afford to ignore."

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(Photo credit: "The Ultimate Blogger's Kit" by m-c, courtesy of Flickr.com)

Tips for the Social Networker in Every Journalist

These fine reminders on "social media" for journalists come courtesy of Alfred Hermida at Reportr.net:

1. Be human: Mass media was based on the notion of reaching millions of people with one message. As a result, that message often came across in an impersonal, corporate voice. Social media provides an opportunity to be more personal, informal and conversational.
2. Be honest: Be transparent and open about what you are doing. Social media is about genuine relationships and anyone trying to fake it is likely to be found out very quickly.
3. Be involved: Journalists should not approach social media by thinking, “how can I use this for a story”. Social media should be part of your job, not an add-on or something to be used for a story and then abandoned.

My advice to journalists is to be part of the social web, to live the social web.

Well put.

Hermida is leading a seminar today on social media best practices at a day-long event organized by CBC Vancouver. I'm looking forward to the follow-up. Meanwhile, check out the workshop blog.

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