It’s been fun this week to observe some NZ political campaigners getting huge global visibility with their innovative social media take on the mass protest.
Instead of gathering hundreds of people with placards in a street march, the organisers of a campaign against government proposals for internet regulation have asked people to blackout their photos on their personal Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, et al, social media accounts.
Thousands have done do: high profile actor Stephen Fry amongst them on his very widely read Twitter account (the third most popular in the world behind Barack Obama and CNN, apparently).
It’s a great example of an online campaign gone viral very quickly. Emails have done the rounds in offices around New Zealand alerting people to the campaign; organisers have ben spreading the word on social media sites; and a topic that may have been of little interest, and even unknown, to many people has caught their imagination.
It shows very clearly the effect that some creative thinking to develop a simple and quirky idea can have when teamed with the power of social media to organise and galvanise people and an easy-to-participate-in campaign.
Ah, yes, what exactly is the campaign about: the legislation requires ISPs to have a policy to disconnect users after repeated accusations of copyright infringement … here’s the proposed legislation and here’s the protest’s main web page.
A good new article details how U.S airline South West uses social media tools in its PR work: from employee-writen blogs to Twitter accounts, podcasts, video and a social networking site.
Each tool is overseen by a single team member and is geared to reach a slightly different audience.
South West recommendskeeping social media channels distinct. It has used its employee-written blogs to look at issues, Twitter to break or tease news (South West also uses it to share photos, highlight competitions and job opportunities) and its Facebook account to highlight promotional events.
The article says that the airline’s Flickr group pool is for customers interested in posting or viewing photos of trips on the airline; the YouTube channel is for people wanting information about destinations or South West trivia; and South West’s Facebook fan site is for people wanting to know about airline-related events and news.
(Better read the article promptly! The guys at Ragan, who have published this article, only leave things up for a few days. You can register on their site, though, to read all their back copies. It’s well worth the effort to register.)
Twitter - the microblog service where each post can only be a max of 140 characters - is getting hugely popular, even though many people are still working out just how to benefit from it. This article shows some real world Twitter uses that are getting good PR and customer service results for the U.S company involved.
The growth of online video is huge and New Zealand is starting to see its own online video stars appear. Their success gives good pointers to the way online video should work in a social media setting.
This story shows how some clued-up Kiwis have made their mark on YouTube. See any tips you could use for a social media campaign?
As the article says: “It has no production values, no nudity and no laughs, and yet a three-minute silent video of a man opening a cardboard box has been watched online by almost half a million YouTube users.”
Unboxing is its name. Youtube videos of men doing nothing but unwrapping new consumer goods from their packaging. Attracting viewers in their tens and hundreds of thousands.
A ‘neuro-marketing’ expert says it taps into some strong primal desires. It’s been described as ‘geek porn’!
It’s cheap, it’s so simple, it taps into everyone’s desires. It’s powerful PR for the companies whose products are unwrapped.
Yeah, but what’s my point ?! … Great PR ideas can be done online for next to nothing and to great effect. Feel the power.
Trying to find social media conversations relevant to your industry but not sure where or how to look for them — here’s some mighty tips from the guys at ReadWriteWeb.
It shows how to identify the top blogs on any topic; how to find their most popular recent posts and their best blog archives; and how to find where else they are having conversations online.
A little bit techie but easy enough to follow and worth its weight in gold. It will let you more easily keep in the know about what people are saying about your industry and, more importantly, what they could be saying about your organisation.
Usability guru Jakob Nielson has just judged the best intranets for 2008, and he says intranet trends are towards more collaboration and Web 2.0 tools, more personal customisation, an increase in user-centred design and bigger budgets. Find out more here.
A couple of days ago we talked about an authentic and ‘human’ voice in your online communications. Here’s some more info in a knowledgeable and very readable presentation. (Click on the controls at the bottom of the presentation to view it.)
