Archive for June, 2011
Announcing Cleveland HubSpot User Group (HUG) – First Event July 20
PR 20/20 announces the launch of the Cleveland HubSpot User Group (HUG), an in-person network for local marketers to share ideas, keep informed on HubSpot updates and tools, and support local businesses. The group will meet regularly for educational and professional networking events, and provide ongoing updates and constructive discussions through its LinkedIn Group.
While dubbed the “Cleveland” group, it is open to all those interested in joining, and intended for HubSpot customers, partner agencies and other marketers located in Northeast Ohio.
The Cleveland HUG will be supported by a network of volunteering members. So, if you are interested in learning more, we encourage you to join us on LinkedIn and attend our first event — see details below!
Our First Event — A Taste of Cleveland {Marketing}
We invite you to join us for our inaugural meeting, and kick off the group with a proper introduction! Our first meeting will focus on introducing members to HUG and one another, explaining the opportunities available to you through involvement, and providing local marketers with an opportunity to network.
The event will offer you a chance to introduce yourself, the company you work for or represent, and the campaigns with which you are currently involved. The open forum will focus on discussing successful inbound marketing campaigns.
Come enjoy a “taste” of the Cleveland marketing scene on Wednesday, July 20 at 6 p.m. in the PR 20/20 office (812 Huron Rd., Suite 780, Cleveland, OH 44115). Going along with our theme, we ask that attendees bring an appetizer to share with the group and an open mind to discuss their marketing experiences.
We look forward to meeting you, and kicking off the Cleveland HUG!
Event Details:
- RSVP: http://tasteofclevelandmarketing.eventbrite.com
- Date: Wednesday, July 20, 2011
- Time: 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
- Location: 812 Huron Road, Cleveland, OH 44115, Suite 780 (Google Map: PR 20/20 office)
- Parking: The Quicken Loans and Progressive Field parking garage. Entrance is located off Huron Road. Flat lots are also available off Huron and E. 9th.
- Food & Drink: Please bring an appetizer to share with the group; drinks will be provided.
RSVP through Eventbrite, or contact Dia Dalsky, Cleveland HubSpot User Group leader, with any questions or suggestions you have regarding the event. Please note: Space is limited to the first 25 reservations made.
About HubSpot User Groups
Currently, there are more than a dozen HUGs located throughout the U.S. and abroad that have been established to provide local users with value beyond HubSpot, online tools and resources. Each HUG is created to accomplish the following goals:
- Encourage members to continue learning about inbound marketing
- Enable the sharing of experiences and new ideas
- Help keep users informed of new HubSpot features and products
- Support networking within the geographic location
Not from Northeast Ohio, but still interested in joining a HUG? Check out a full list of HUGs to find one in your neck of the woods: http://hugs.hubspot.com/
About Cleveland HUG Host PR 20/20
PR 20/20 is an inbound marketing agency and PR firm specializing in search engine marketing, social media, content marketing and public relations. We function as marketing consultants for clients seeking to grow smarter and faster than the competition by concentrating on the activities that build inbound links, drive website traffic and convert visitors into leads.
PR 20/20 is a leading HubSpot partner agency, having worked with more than three dozen HubSpot clients providing services such as: web design, search marketing, social media consulting, content marketing (i.e. case studies, eBooks, white papers) and PR services.
We are establishing the group as part of an ongoing effort to foster industry innovation and support like-minded professionals. It is our hope that by continuing to shed light on the state of the industry we can encourage other agencies and marketers to move away from the traditional marketing model, and embrace more effective and measurable processes.
Related Blog Posts:
- Does Inbound Marketing Really Work?
- Dawn of the Inbound Marketing Agency
- An Idea, a Book and an Opportunity for Change
Dia Dalsky is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Dia on Twitter @DiaDalsky.
Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.
Do You Believe In Life After Likes? Measuring Social Business.
Colleague Steve Rubel and I were recently invited to participate in a very cool initiative coordinated by Eloqua‘s Joe Chernov and Jess3 – a social media playbook for industry professionals dubbed the “Social Media ProBook.” In it, you’ll find valuable perspectives from a variety of practitioners ranging from Ford’s Scott Monty, to Citi’s Frank Eliason, and HP’s Liz Philips among many others (disclaimer, HP is an Edelman client). My contribution was on a topic I feel will be of increasing importance to those of us deep in the trenches of social business integration and measuring results. Below is the full contribution, and I highly recommend that you browse through the ProBook and share it with others. It’s got some great, timely information on how to take social business to the next level within your organization.
Do You Believe In Life After Likes? Measuring Social Business.
Anyone telling you that they have the measurement and ROI (Return On Investment) issue solved in regards to social media is exaggerating at best. While I don’t have enough space here to dive as deeply into this topic as I could, there are a few specific points I would like to emphasize. But first, let’s do some level-setting — conversations around measuring results must move beyond fixating on single metrics such as “likes” fueled by the Facebook ecosystem. While they may be a desirable indicator of success, “likes” are one of many metrics, and social business leaders must take a step back to look at the big picture before putting all your social eggs into one big integrated basket. A great starting point when digging into measurement is to organize your efforts into one of the following outcomes: behavioral change and economic impact.
Behavior Change
Behavior change can be looked at from multiple perspectives. For example, if a large enterprise has determined that X amount of dollars can be saved annually if employees shift their behavior from A to B, then success can be measured by the percentage of shifts in the behavior from undesirable to desirable (over time). Likewise, on the public front, if a business finds itself in a crisis scenario and needs to “stop the bleeding,” it needs to trigger a shift in actions (such as fewer negative postings in public and more neutral or positive expressions, often referred to as “sentiment”) to help reverse opinions. From a marketing perspective, prompting desirable behaviors is also linked to influencing thought and opinion. Ratings, reviews and recommendations of products / services all serve as significant purchase indicators. Apply a social lens to these behavioral indicators (for example, sharing an opinion via a social network) and you can begin to frame up outcomes, which involve thought and action.
Economic Impact
Economic impact attaches a value — revenue generated or money saved — on a business initiative. It should not be confused with metrics. Returning to the crisis scenario, a business that has successfully averted or subdued a crisis (leveraging social media) can reference benchmarks from similar situations faced by other companies or their own estimations to evaluate how much money the business saved through taking appropriate action. Sales is of course the obvious financial outcome, however even if tracking sales via social activities is elevated to a science, companies must also consider how much more or less it might have taken to achieve similar results using other methods (such as traditional media purchasing). In areas such as human resources, economic impact can be measured in quality and efficiencies (such as recruiting better candidates in less time leveraging social networks). In customer service, it could spending less on call centers because customer advocates are helping others before they ever have a chance to pick up the phone. Simply put, economic impact is money the organization saves or makes integrating social initiatives into the business.
Construct A Measurement Framework
Measuring social business success begins with constructing a measurement framework, which maps to your objectives to the appropriate strategy. A measurement framework aligns KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) with criteria to measure against. For example, if your KPI is “visibility,” your framework should be structured around relevant, measurable metrics, such as page rank in search engines or designated networks. “Acquisition” could also be another KPI, which can be measured by fans and followers. A desired outcome can be ownership of a conversation or subject matter. In this case measuring against a KPI such as “authority” could include metrics like shares, media mentions, links, likes, embeds, traffic, and comments. Some of these metrics can be aggregated into things such as “share of voice” or the approximation of how relevant you may be to conversations. A measurement framework based on applicable KPI’s can be applied to different facets of social business — for example separate ones can be developed for customer service, marketing, sales, R&D, etc. There are metrics which can be shared across all of these functions, but a framework should go deep in identifying what needs to be measured and where (what social properties). The framework also should be flexible enough to change as new data is introduced.
Analyze For Meaning
The less frequently discussed aspect of social measurement is effort, or the time it takes to derive meaning from numbers, data and fluctuations in metrics. A “measurement dashboard” satisfies the need for program architects to view all types of information at a glance, but while it offers up valuable information on that “what,” a dashboard seldom tells us “why.” Human intervention is needed to determine why there might be an increase in re-tweets around one form of communication vs. another. Dashboards can tell us what times of the day users may be more and less active, but the insights we derive from them requires processing that transcends the display of information
Measure What Matters
Measurement initiatives must begin with serious consideration of the desired outcomes. On the behavioral front, raising awareness on an issue or a successful adoption rate of a platform can be sought after outcomes. Advocacy can be another powerful outcome for any organization. On the economic impact front the outcomes should be focused on determining if money was actually made or saved. The metrics you then choose to analyze and report against align against these outcomes from the beginning. Tracking irrelevant metrics is like playing a game with numbers instead of meeting your business objectives. Start your measurement initiatives with your goals, objectives and outcomes and work your way backwards toward what should be measured. Take a holistic approach and avoid the temptation to focus solely on metrics that demonstrate only short-term gain. Be prepared to update your approach and framework as your social business objectives evolve. And, most importantly, get ready for life after likes —because it’s coming soon to a business near you.
Go To Togo is van de baan, leve Project 2 Link
Om maar met de deur in huis te vallen, het project Go To Togo is beëindigd en dus een No Go To Togo geworden. In onze vorige twee blogs las u dat wij van plan waren om een handelskanaal op…
Brazil Goes Social: The Rise of the Brazilian Digital Middle Class
More than half of the population in Brazil now belongs to “class C”, which became the largest slice of Brazil’s classic “social pyramid” for the first time this past year.
Known as the digital middle class, these Brazilians made up 42 percent of the country’s Internet population in 2010, and are highly coveted by digital marketers, despite their average monthly income being only US$581.
This historic shift has forced Brazilian brands and marketers to figure out how to engage 101 million people to whom they never really had to pay attention before.
It’s clear that the “social pyramid” traditionally used to describe Brazil’s social structure no longer works. Today, a diamond is more accurate. In 2010 alone, 19 million Brazilians "graduated" from classes D and E to Class C.
Social media nation
An impressive 45 percent of class C Brazilians are active on social media. Brands, therefore, have focused their marketing efforts on channels such as YouTube, MSN Messenger, Twitter and Orkut, the Google-owned social network that still trumps Facebook in Brazil.
Popular chocolate brand Lacta, for example, partnered with Orkut on Fazendinha, Brazil’s answer to Facebook’s Farmville game (the name literally translates as “little farm”). When players plant a cacao seed on their virtual farm, the seed grows into a tree that produces MiniBis, Lacta’s new chocolate snack.
These social networks have also given brands access to a previously elusive demographic: middle class women. According to research, 83 percent of class C women access the Internet on a daily basis, and 40 percent of them spend more than two hours a day on social networks.
In order to engage this underserved market, popular Brazilian clothing chain Marisa launched a flashy new website that includes a virtual changing room where shoppers can “try on” clothes on a variety of body types.
Almost half of the Brazilians who use social media belong to Class C, and the vast majority of this "digital middle class" are female.
Different market, different rules
Brazilian brands have learned that the products and strategies they’ve used to reach class A and B consumers can’t simply be “pushed down” to class C.
This new middle class is, after all, making the transition from a very different economic reality in which a can of condensed milk was considered a luxury item to be offered as a gift on special occasions.
Brazil’s emerging consumers will be loyal to brands and products that cater to their unique needs and norms. Sales at the Casas Bahia retail chain skyrocketed after the brand figured out that class C customers loved furniture with mirrored doors because it made their small homes appear bigger.
Brazil is one of the few countries in the world where Facebook isn’t the dominant social network. Here are some theories for why Google’s Orkut still reigns:
- Orkut’s interface is much simpler, enabling the millions of Brazilians who are new to the Internet to navigate it with relative ease.
- The Farmville-style game Fazendinha lives on Orkut. After investing a great deal of time and money to build their virtual farms, users are reluctant to leave them behind.
- The name Orkut is easier to say. Pronounced as “or-koo-tchee,” it’s closer to Brazilian Portuguese phonetics and reminds them of the word “iogurte” (yogurt). “Fey-see-boo-key,” on the other hand, is a bit too long and not as catchy.
And since many class C customers live in isolated areas where electronic products such as mobile phones are essential, Casas Bahia added a video series to its shopping website to explain in plain language how to use these unfamiliar items.
Class C-targeted ads also tend to be more didactic and direct. Most middle class Brazilians access the Internet from pay-by-the-hour Internet cafés (LAN houses) and don’t have time to ponder the pros and cons of buying a product while surfing on the clock.
With this reality in mind, department store chain Ponto Frio, one of the largest in the country, has added video and 3-D presentations on its website to reel in customers.
Class warfare goes digital
If wider access to credit lines over the past decade is largely responsible for allowing class C to participate in the economy, Orkut gets credit for putting class C on an even social footing, at least online.
About half of Orkut’s Brazilian users come from the digital middle class. Meanwhile, the upper classes are quietly fleeing to rival Facebook to escape Orkut’s rapid “favelization,” a term commonly used to describe the influx of lower income users.
Some things change more quickly than others.
Social is for sharing, not hiding
I fear we are on the verge of fetishizing privacy. Well, we’re not — but our media and government are.
Media’s assumptions
Yesterday I got a call from a journalist about Google+ and its Circles. He was not at all hostile to Google, Facebook, or social, but even so, implicit in his questions was a presumption that privacy is our highest priority in social services.
Think about that for half a minute and the absurdity of it becomes apparent. We don’t come to social services to hide secrets; that would be idiotic. We come to share.
The journalist said that people must be afraid of being public. Think about that for the rest of a minute: Media and government have held a monopoly on publicness as they have owned the megaphone and soapbox. Now the internet gives the rest of us the ability to be public and these long-public people think we are scared of what the have? How patronizing of them.
The meme about Google+ Circles is that it beats Facebook on privacy because it gives us upfront control over whom we share with. That’s true: Every time I share something I make a decision about whether to share it with the public or some of my circles. That is better, clearer, and easier than digging into Facebook’s settings once and for all to silo my world. It is better than not bothering to change those settings and depending on Facebook’s defaults, only to find them change and become more public. Google+ got to learn from Facebook and start with Circles to enable this difference.
Except I have watched my own behavior with Google+ lo, these 36 hours and I find at when I share with less than everyone it is not out of privacy or security needs. It’s out of relevance. I may have something to tell my TWiT colleagues or my fellow journowonks that would bore everyone else who follows me. So I restrict my audience not to keep a secret but to reduce noise for them, which I can’t do on Twitter or can’t easily do on Facebook. I am still sharing; it’s better sharing.
The journalist talked about Zuckerberg and Google wanting us to share — and they do because, as I’ve said, they depend on getting us to generate more signals about our interests, needs, and desires so they can gi e us more relevant, thus valuable content, services, and advertising. But in the journalist’s phrasing I heard him implying that Zuckerberg and Page were squeezing stuff out of like toothpaste tubes, against our wills.
Nonsense. As I say in Public Parts, 600 million people can’t be wrong. We are sharing a billion things a day on Facebook alone because we want to, because we find value in it. That’s where the discussion should begin, with the power of publicness, not with the presumption of privacy.
Government’s presumptions
I was delighted yesterday to see a senator — Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania — warn his colleagues against “breaking the internet.”
Some are in such a rush to regulate the net and protect what they and media think is our highest priority — privacy — that they threaten to both hamper how sites and services and operate and how they can sustain themselves.
Jay Rockefeller is pushing do-not-track. John Kerry and John McCain have a privacy bill. Al Franken has a bill to limit sharing of location data with third parties (those “third parties” are becoming the boogeymen of the digital age, though they are often just companies that serve ads, provide web services such as analytics, and sell us stuff).
I’m not suggesting that all this legislation is bad. We do need privacy protections. Sites must give us greater and clearer control over what we share to whom and why (as Google seems to have done with its Circles). Phones should not be storing information about what we do without our knowledge and without giving us control over it. Stipulated.
But I fear unintended consequences. Rockefeller’s do-not-track could pull the advertising rug out from under web sites, forcing some of them to go behind a pay wall — if they can — and killing other sites, reducing the content on the web. Franken’s location bill, I learned this week, does not have a carve out for sending data to ad-servers (they are dreaded “third parties”), which could kneecap the local-mobile content industry before it even starts.
Politicians and media companies are coming at these questions at the wrong starting line: as if we go to the internet to take a piece of private information and squirrel it away there. That’s not what we’re doing. We’re sharing.
: MORE: On Twitter, @hasanahmad complains that when sharing a photo with a circle members of that circle could share it in turn and then it becomes more public.
Yes, absolutely. That’s how life works. You tell a friend something. Then, as I say in Public Parts, the responsibility for what to do with that lies with that friend; what you’ve said is public to that extent and whether it becomes more public is a decision your friend will now make. It may be fine to share in turn; it may not be. You’d need to set those conditions with that friend before sharing. And if you don’t want the friend to share, maybe you shouldn’t share. The issue here isn’t technology. It’s people. No change there.
So I asked my Twitter interrogator what he proposes we do about this: Put license conditions on the photo we share? Sue the friend?
This is where Eric Schmidt is right. I’ll paraphrase him: If you want to hide something, the worst place to do that is on a social network. That’s where you share. Your brain is where you hide secrets.
: SEE ALSO: Jonathan Allen on sharing for purpose v privacy.
Magazines Extend Their Brands Beyond the Page
Plenty of magazines are expanding beyond print content these days – and I’m not just talking about the web.
New York Magazine is the latest in a slew of magazines that has taken its brand into uncharted territory. MediaPost reports that the weekly mag has teamed up with HowAboutWe.com, a dating site that allows users to choose partners based on date proposals. Basically, you post a date idea and find someone who digs your proposal.
This may seem like an odd coupling, but think about it: New York Magazine’s website devotes an entire section to restaurants and another one to bars. A partnership with a dating service that focuses on dates – which often take place in restaurants and bars – seems like a no-brainer.
HowAboutWe isn’t some fledgling startup either. It’s been garnering buzz for the past year or so. Mashable, Gawker, CNN and The New York Times are just a sampling of the publications that have covered the free dating service.
So it seems like a smart move for New York Magazine to jump on the bandwagon and collaborate with an up-and-coming brand.
Of course, New York isn’t the first magazine to extend its brand through innovative partnerships. TechCrunch reported back in February 2010 that Lucky Magazine had partnered with location-sharing site Foursquare to create a tool that offered tips to New York Fashion Week attendees on the best places to get coffee, WiFi access, or other necessities.
Foursquare has also inked deals over the past year with the likes of Bravo, Spin, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.
Whether these partnerships go on to become success stories or not, the bottom line is that the notion of what a magazine brand is and does has changed forever.
TNT employees Social Media Guidelines: A great example of can-do attitude
Over the past week, I've talked about the conflict between legal staff and communicators when if comes to real-time media.
My post When lawyers stupidly get in the way of marketing kicked off the series followed by my video interview with Vivienne Storey Is social media worth the risk? A lawyer's perspective.
Next up is a terrific set of social media guidelines from TNT. Rather than saying "no," the legal and HR staffs, communicators, and management of TNT have created an environment of "yes."
Notice how clean and simple the TNT employees Social Media Guidelines document is. No Times New Roman 12-point single-spaced legal document here! Also notice that it is available to anyone on the public web.
Here are some additional posts with links to other organizations' guidelines to check out. Some of these blog posts are dated but still interesting examples. These organizations created guidelines as much as four years ago!
Video conversation with John Suffolk, CIO of UK government, on social media and data mashup (2010)
IBM blogging guidelines and the company's 3,000 employee bloggers (2007)
US Navy issues one of the first social media guidelines in the government sector (2008)
As I travel around the world, it is clear that organizations everywhere are struggling with real-time media. Some, like TNT, are positively thriving.
These global examples are important – Vivienne is based in Sydney but advises multinationals, TNT is in the Netherlands but operates worldwide. The UK government clearly has constituents everywhere.
Many thanks to my friend Remco Janssen who introduced me to the work of Cecilia Scolaro, online communication specialist for TNT Group, who was instrumental in working on the TNT guidelines.
Quick Guide to Smartphone & Mobile SEO
Need to learn more about smartphone and mobile SEO best practices? Let’s start with a few statistics:
According to an infographic from Microsoft Tag, 51% of smartphone users are more likely to buy from a retailer with a mobile specific web site, however: only 4.8% of retailers have a mobile web site.
A recent study by Google, “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users” reports 77% of smartphone users visit search engine websites followed by social networks. And nine out of ten smartphone searches results in an action (purchasing, visiting a business, etc.). Mobile use is growing faster than all of Google’s internal predictions, with YouTube seeing 200 million mobile playbacks a day, according to Eric Schmidt.
To capture the market, marketers and advertisers are increasingly allocating budget to mobile. In fact, eMarketer estimates total mobile advertising spending in the US will reach $1.1 billion this year, which is up 48% over 2010. Mobile search is forecasted to account for up to 10 percent of search budgets with Google capturing 97% of that market.
How can marketers take advantage of the opportunity with mobile search & optimization?
Of course there’s paid search advertising on mobile as there is on the web, but our focus here is on content, social and organic search, so the following tips will emphasize what you can do without advertising.
Fundamental SEO Best Practices – Effective site optimization applies for mobile sites as they would for desktop websites. Search engine accessibility, keywords, content and links all matter with mobile. Keep in mind screen real estate is smaller for keyword use in titles and descriptions. As a primer, check out this post from the Google Webmaster Central Blog, Making Websites More Mobile Friendly.
Mobile Friendly Website – First, decide if you need a dedicated mobile site or if you will present mobile users with a mobile friendly version of your existing site. If you happen to know that a significant number of your customers use traditional mobile phones, then a dedicated mobile site may be warranted. See the “Mobile Filters in Google Analytics” tip below for info on determining your website’s mobile activity.
A custom CSS file can usually accomplish a mobile friendly site for traditional, internet enabled mobile phones or it may be necessary to develop mobile specific pages.
Smartphones can view most websites as a desktop browser would, only smaller and may not need such customization. Another consideration is that some features, such as Flash content, will not display on an iPhone. Hopefully HTML5 adoption will address that. While smartphone use is rapidly rising, there are still a very large number of traditional mobile phones in use. A “mobile friendly” site isn’t exactly a SEO tactic, but if people can’t view your site, there’ not much use in it attracting search traffic.
Mobile URLs & Content - Because of advice given by search engines, many Webmasters have their mobile sites detect user agent access via a mobile device and serve up a mobile friendly site using a different URL such as
- m.mywebsite.com
- www.mywebsite.com/mobile/
That is no longer necessary and website owners can present the appropriate content using the same URL. rel=canonical can be used for desktop content. In all instances, the same content must be served to Googlebot and Googlebot-Mobile as what a user would see. Advantages to a single URL include a single destination for link building and also to facilitate social sharing of pages via mobile phones meant for desktop consumption.
Mobile Keywords – When researching keywords, it’s worth considering that mobile search query strings, on average, are 25 percent shorter than desktop searches. As for mobile keyword research tools, Google’s keyword tool provides a mobile filtering option and the stats you see for Competition, Global and Local Monthly Searches, and Local Search Trends are all specific to the device filter you pick.
Mobile Formatting and Layout - There are many resources for mobile website development. If you want to test how your mobile friendly website will appear, then Mobile Moxie offers an array of handy tools for testing websites on mobile devices. Tools include: Keyword Research, Mobile HTML Code Grader, Mobile Search Engine Indexing & mSEO, Mobile Website Emulator and Phone Comparison, Mobile Search Engine Simulation and Results Comparison.
Mobile Content – In addition to testing the mobile user experience, it’s also important to test the effectiveness of your mobile content. Delivering mobile search traffic to pages is just the beginning with effective mobile marketing. Make sure the content users are interacting with resonates and inspires desired outcomes. Achieving mobile content effectiveness draws on content marketing best practices by knowing customers, their pain points and interests, keywords and social topics. Then apply that insight to your mobile content strategy. There are numerous mobile marketing case studies to draw ideas from to see what’s worked.
Mobile Site Map – Websites that serve only mobile content can provide Google with an XML sitemap. Non mobile URLs should not be included, but URLs that return both mobile and non-mobile content can be included.
Mobile Filters in Google Analytics - On mobile analytics, Lori Ulloa says, “You can use Google Analytics to track your mobile visitors without creating a separate, filtered profile. You can get info such as those coming from mobile operating systems, mobile devices and even mobile carriers. If you do decide that an app is the right way to go, the Google Analytics for Mobile Apps SDKs make it easy for you to implement Google Analytics in your mobile apps.”
However, if you do want to use filters to extract mobile data (arguably to see if you have a mobile audience in the first place) then Google Analytics offers options in both standard and beta. Filters will inform you how much of your organic traffic is coming from mobile, how they interact with your content and if they’re converting.
By 2012 mobile searches will account for 25% of global searches (Google Smartphone User Study). Consumer use of smart phones and tablets has skyrocketed and in keeping with best practices for changing customer information discovery, consumption and sharing needs, mobile marketing warrants serious consideration by companies of all sizes, industries and locations.
You’ve read my take on determining where to allocate search marketing resources before: If it can be searched, it can be optimized. That certainly means mobile search as much as it does search on the web. The question is, how and when your business will approach mobile marketing and more specifically, mobile SEO?
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Sino-Forest: Guest post from Charles Lankester
The free-fall of China’s Sino-Forest (TRE: CO) share price this month provides valuable insight for any corporation which has, or is considering, listing on an international Exchange. While the Sino-Forest case is still evolving, here are the facts.
In just a few days, close to US$5 billion of value was wiped from Sino-Forest Corporation, the Toronto-listed Chinese forestry enterprise. The share price plummeted from C$18.21 (1 June, 2011) to just C$2.60 (29 June, 2011), a fall of more than 85%.
Muddy Waters for Sino-Forest
The reason for the fall in share price was a confidence crash caused by Muddy Waters Research, a specialist analyst of Chinese companies. On June 2, 2011, the research firm published a 39-page report on the company, which cited the stock as a “strong sell”Among many controversial claims, the report claimed Sino-Forest’s “capital raising is a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme, accompanied by substantial theft” and that the company “massively exaggerates its assets. We present smoking gun evidence that (Sino-Forest) overstated its Yunnan timber investments by approximately $900 million”. Muddy Waters also made no secret of the fact that it held a short position on Sino-Forest shares.
Sino’s communications did not help, they hindered
So far, so bad. But what made the impact of the report so much greater was the response from Sino-Forest. Aside from taking a day to issue their first statement, the conference call that was eventually held by the company’s management left many questions. Participants did not feel the management dealt with the allegations robustly, leaving doubt and lingering concerns. Despite being under a global assault and seeing value erode, the company refused to identify its “Authorised Intermediaries”: those who purchase Sino’s timber product. The Financial Times headline from 21 June, 2011 says it all – “Sino Forest is hamstrung by its secrecy”.
Three reasons why overseas-listed firms should care about Sino-Forest?
1. One company’s problem is every company’s problem. Since the fall of Sino-Forest, overall Chinese ADR values have been off by as much as 30 per cent. Confidence has been so badly damaged in the company that this has infected the entire market for internationally-listed Chinese companies. Commentators are now looking at Chinese equity more negatively, with an apparent mindset that if it can happen at Sino-Forest, it could happen anywhere. Consider this quote from 22 June from a commentator to the UK’s Daily Telegraph website directly under a Sino-Forest article: “Is this Sino-Fraud a one-off? No I don’t think so. Apparently the Chinese have been littering the S&P with IPO’s in companies like this that then mysteriously disappear with all the cash AFTER the float. Amazing?!”
2. Home rules and conventions don’t (always) apply overseas. Especially in communications. If domestic investors have come to accept and understand a degree of corporate complexity, and even a traditional lack of access to certain information, this does not mean international investors will be so tolerant. A simple rule applies to global investors – if I don’t understand your business, I will sell your stock. Especially in a controversy. Transparency and accessibility are vital when communicating – both in good times and bad.
3. International listing? Prepare for an international communications environment. It must also have considered the reputational risks it faces and mitigate/plan for them well in advance. While Sino-Forest could not have anticipated “exactly” the Muddy Waters report, it could have reasonably scenario-planned a hostile report and how it would respond. It could have gone one step further and asked an in-house researcher to play “devil’s advocate” and identify all the vulnerabilities the firm might face if subjected to hostile scrutiny.
So could Sino-Forest have handled this better?
Yes, by managing communications more deftly and realizing that in today’s marketplace, companies are lucky to have a couple of hours to figure out their response to a reputational risk event. I know it is always easy for a third-party to point at a case after the facts. But Sino-Forest’s initial response fuelled the controversy surrounding their case. Rather than waiting to issue a response, and then offering lack-luster, often defensive statements, there is another approach they could have taken. One that any CEO concerned about his or her company’s reputation and share price may wish to consider.
Another communications approach: understand, research, plan
1. Understand the speed and structure of the new environment. The only way companies stand a chance of retaining the initiative and defending their reputations in a controversy, is to think and plan ahead, especially in a digital world. I reference digital media specifically as this is, in 99% of the cases, where news or rumours first appear and where increasingly trusted commentary appears. The Financial Times’ FT Tilt, Street Insider, Tech Crunch and Motley Fool are all real-time, respected and followed sources of financial news. These are just a few major sites: there are hundreds of thousands of other commentators whose opinions are respected. Make no mistake, bloggers from the other side of the world can influence a share price just as much as mainstream media, sometimes even more so. The difference is speed: an idea, a keyboard and a posting is global in seconds.
2. Research your vulnerabilities. Undertake comprehensive vulnerability audits from a news and information perspective. Who has written previously? Which blogs are most influential? Data-mine conversations, news and search streams to ensure potential risk factors are understood and identified. Many companies also create real-time social media dashboards that quickly identify and track any data or traffic “spikes” allowing them to obtain immediate context, analysis and response recommendations. The value of this? Companies can often identify an issue early, ensuring they have the answer to the question before the phone rings wherever possible
3. Plan ahead. When “it” happens, it is critical that the company quickly implements pre-prepared communications plans that put the right spokespeople in the right place at the right time to make decisions with the right processes to mitigate/disrupt the kinds of crises that might arise. This pre-work goes right to message development around potential threats prior to when they occur.
Transparency rules
Aside from contingency planning, the best advice right now to any CEO studying the Sino-Forest case, and how to avoid it happening to them, is to consider being even more transparent about what your company does. It is no longer viable for a corporation to just say “you can trust us” because we have a top international audit team and a global bank who do all our work, therefore we are a good company.
Trust starts from personal relationships, so it is important to go out and build these relationships. Profile your management in the international media. Invite stakeholders from the US and Europe to come and visit operations in the domestic market. Hold regular investor calls. Invest in a fully-functional investor relations programme, backed by a multi-lingual website.
Five billion reasons to learn from Sino-Forest
Let’s look back at Sino-Forest. What really happened? Simple: one man managed to bring down a US$6 billion dollar company to less than US$1bn in two weeks. This is probably the best ever case study management will ever have to study Asian companies operating in the US or European markets and losing it all. Would Sino-Forest’s share price have been so badly battered if they had had sophisticated communications planned and in place? I would hypothesise that the company would have weathered the storm much better, and would have appeared much more transparent and accessible.
Something nervous investors badly need at a time of crisis.
(Disclosure: Sino-Forest had a relationship with Edelman Hong Kong
prior to the current controversy from June, 2010 to September, 2010.)
By Charles Lankester, MD, Corporate Practice, Edelman Asia-Pacific
charles.lankester@edelman.com
Sino-Forest: Guest post from Charles Lankester
The free-fall of China’s Sino-Forest (TRE: CO) share price this month provides valuable insight for any corporation which has, or is considering, listing on an international Exchange. While the Sino-Forest case is still evolving, here are the facts.
In just a few days, close to US$5 billion of value was wiped from Sino-Forest Corporation, the Toronto-listed Chinese forestry enterprise. The share price plummeted from C$18.21 (1 June, 2011) to just C$2.60 (29 June, 2011), a fall of more than 85%.
Muddy Waters for Sino-Forest
The reason for the fall in share price was a confidence crash caused by Muddy Waters Research, a specialist analyst of Chinese companies. On June 2, 2011, the research firm published a 39-page report on the company, which cited the stock as a “strong sell”Among many controversial claims, the report claimed Sino-Forest’s “capital raising is a multi-billion dollar ponzi scheme, accompanied by substantial theft” and that the company “massively exaggerates its assets. We present smoking gun evidence that (Sino-Forest) overstated its Yunnan timber investments by approximately $900 million”. Muddy Waters also made no secret of the fact that it held a short position on Sino-Forest shares.
Sino’s communications did not help, they hindered
So far, so bad. But what made the impact of the report so much greater was the response from Sino-Forest. Aside from taking a day to issue their first statement, the conference call that was eventually held by the company’s management left many questions. Participants did not feel the management dealt with the allegations robustly, leaving doubt and lingering concerns. Despite being under a global assault and seeing value erode, the company refused to identify its “Authorised Intermediaries”: those who purchase Sino’s timber product. The Financial Times headline from 21 June, 2011 says it all – “Sino Forest is hamstrung by its secrecy”.
Three reasons why overseas-listed firms should care about Sino-Forest?
1. One company’s problem is every company’s problem. Since the fall of Sino-Forest, overall Chinese ADR values have been off by as much as 30 per cent. Confidence has been so badly damaged in the company that this has infected the entire market for internationally-listed Chinese companies. Commentators are now looking at Chinese equity more negatively, with an apparent mindset that if it can happen at Sino-Forest, it could happen anywhere. Consider this quote from 22 June from a commentator to the UK’s Daily Telegraph website directly under a Sino-Forest article: “Is this Sino-Fraud a one-off? No I don’t think so. Apparently the Chinese have been littering the S&P with IPO’s in companies like this that then mysteriously disappear with all the cash AFTER the float. Amazing?!”
2. Home rules and conventions don’t (always) apply overseas. Especially in communications. If domestic investors have come to accept and understand a degree of corporate complexity, and even a traditional lack of access to certain information, this does not mean international investors will be so tolerant. A simple rule applies to global investors – if I don’t understand your business, I will sell your stock. Especially in a controversy. Transparency and accessibility are vital when communicating – both in good times and bad.
3. International listing? Prepare for an international communications environment. It must also have considered the reputational risks it faces and mitigate/plan for them well in advance. While Sino-Forest could not have anticipated “exactly” the Muddy Waters report, it could have reasonably scenario-planned a hostile report and how it would respond. It could have gone one step further and asked an in-house researcher to play “devil’s advocate” and identify all the vulnerabilities the firm might face if subjected to hostile scrutiny.
So could Sino-Forest have handled this better?
Yes, by managing communications more deftly and realizing that in today’s marketplace, companies are lucky to have a couple of hours to figure out their response to a reputational risk event. I know it is always easy for a third-party to point at a case after the facts. But Sino-Forest’s initial response fuelled the controversy surrounding their case. Rather than waiting to issue a response, and then offering lack-luster, often defensive statements, there is another approach they could have taken. One that any CEO concerned about his or her company’s reputation and share price may wish to consider.
Another communications approach: understand, research, plan
1. Understand the speed and structure of the new environment. The only way companies stand a chance of retaining the initiative and defending their reputations in a controversy, is to think and plan ahead, especially in a digital world. I reference digital media specifically as this is, in 99% of the cases, where news or rumours first appear and where increasingly trusted commentary appears. The Financial Times’ FT Tilt, Street Insider, Tech Crunch and Motley Fool are all real-time, respected and followed sources of financial news. These are just a few major sites: there are hundreds of thousands of other commentators whose opinions are respected. Make no mistake, bloggers from the other side of the world can influence a share price just as much as mainstream media, sometimes even more so. The difference is speed: an idea, a keyboard and a posting is global in seconds.
2. Research your vulnerabilities. Undertake comprehensive vulnerability audits from a news and information perspective. Who has written previously? Which blogs are most influential? Data-mine conversations, news and search streams to ensure potential risk factors are understood and identified. Many companies also create real-time social media dashboards that quickly identify and track any data or traffic “spikes” allowing them to obtain immediate context, analysis and response recommendations. The value of this? Companies can often identify an issue early, ensuring they have the answer to the question before the phone rings wherever possible
3. Plan ahead. When “it” happens, it is critical that the company quickly implements pre-prepared communications plans that put the right spokespeople in the right place at the right time to make decisions with the right processes to mitigate/disrupt the kinds of crises that might arise. This pre-work goes right to message development around potential threats prior to when they occur.
Transparency rules
Aside from contingency planning, the best advice right now to any CEO studying the Sino-Forest case, and how to avoid it happening to them, is to consider being even more transparent about what your company does. It is no longer viable for a corporation to just say “you can trust us” because we have a top international audit team and a global bank who do all our work, therefore we are a good company.
Trust starts from personal relationships, so it is important to go out and build these relationships. Profile your management in the international media. Invite stakeholders from the US and Europe to come and visit operations in the domestic market. Hold regular investor calls. Invest in a fully-functional investor relations programme, backed by a multi-lingual website.
Five billion reasons to learn from Sino-Forest
Let’s look back at Sino-Forest. What really happened? Simple: one man managed to bring down a US$6 billion dollar company to less than US$1bn in two weeks. This is probably the best ever case study management will ever have to study Asian companies operating in the US or European markets and losing it all. Would Sino-Forest’s share price have been so badly battered if they had had sophisticated communications planned and in place? I would hypothesise that the company would have weathered the storm much better, and would have appeared much more transparent and accessible.
Something nervous investors badly need at a time of crisis.
(Disclosure: Sino-Forest had a relationship with Edelman Hong Kong
prior to the current controversy from June, 2010 to September, 2010.)
By Charles Lankester, MD, Corporate Practice, Edelman Asia-Pacific
charles.lankester@edelman.com