Are the FTSE 100 Image Conscious?
August 26, 2010
Browsing media sections on FTSE 100 sites, I couldn’t help but notice the huge disparity in the quality of material available.
While at the top end there are sites boasting a multitude of resources – BP being exemplary and unsurprisingly so – at the bottom there are FTSE 100 sites with very basic media sections.
Perhaps these don’t feature in the limelight as often and so their press area need not be so exhaustive. But still, I think it’s an area worthy of a little time and effort, especially given that if someone’s covering your company in some capacity the last thing you want to do is disgruntle them with a weak media section.
On that note, here is what I found looking for images:
Search option
Even some of the best sites don’t have the option to search images by keyword – BP offer instead the chance to search by theme – and other sites offer neither. Of course, you can use the general search on the website to look for images but the search will return lots of other things.
Barclays offer a well laid out resource library complete with search option (see right).
Image baskets
Some of the best sites I looked at offer the opportunity to put multiple images into a basket while you carry on browsing. You can check out when you’re ready, downloading the images in whatever format/density you choose. This is good because it means you can line up some “potentials” and then pick the best!
No logo?
Not all companies have the corporate logo available for download; simple, but makes a difference. Some sites go as far as to use the title Image & Logo Library to emphasise where they are.
External sites
Quite a few FTSE 100 sites have their image and video library managed by external sites, such as online newsroom www.footagefile.com, www.newscast.co.uk and www.prshots.com. To get images or footage from these sites you have to sign up and state who you work for/ your intentions etc.
“Please note: the newscast service is restricted to bona fide media titles.”
Meanwhile other sites have their images readily available for anyone to download without having to register with another site, which surely has to be preferable, no?
A place for positive publicity?
The media section can complement the corporate responsibility section through highlighting some of the company’s best bits and featuring any positive press the company has received. J Sainsbury plc’s site does just that, focusing their image gallery on their healthy living and fair trade produce endeavours.
And finally to consider: make journalists’ lives easier by pre-empting what they will be looking for – logos for instance -and putting it on the first page.
Is Your Company Making the Most of Social Media?
July 21, 2010
Choosing a Social Campaign
Whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Youtube, any corporation who decides to take their business aboard the World Wide Web should take a long, hard look at their social media campaign to see if it’s returning value. Many companies get on board a social networking site and expect a one hundred fold return almost immediately, as if just setting up an account was all they needed to do.
Growing the social side of a business requires focus and a dedicated effort to the process.
Social Media for Individuals
Becoming familiar with and participating on social media outlets can be a lot of fun. Interacting with people online who have the same interests and opinions can be a satisfying experience. Facebook for instance currently has over 400 million users online and are steadily growing. People join Facebook, send Tweets and update their photos to Flickr so they can be a part of what’s going on with their friends and family.
Social Media for Businesses
Part of the attraction for businesses to get on board social networking sites is the audience exposure that is available online. Social networking for individuals is a definite boon, however for businesses, social media outlets and interacting goes far beyond entertainment. It goes to the heart of why and how the business develops their brand online. When businesses begin building their brand and image, they need creative ways to make an impact on their demographics. Effective social media strategies are the key to unlocking the power of the system and getting it to work in their favor.
Maximizing the Outlets
Joining social media outlets is the first step. Finding relevant social outlets is very important. Many businesses will simply join each and every social media platform that becomes available, thinking that the more they’re a part of, the more exposure they will get. This is not necessarily so, which is why choosing the right ones to join should be a relevant issue, and more important than choosing what’s popular. For instance, for a photography business, a social platform like Flickr would be more relevant than a platform that did something completely unrelated to photography. This allows the media department to make better use of their resources and time spent on branding their image than if they joined and tried to work a platform that didn’t match the business’ personality.
After identifying the most profitable platforms for money expenses and time investment, it becomes important to work the platforms. This varies according to what platform you choose, but the basics are the same:
- Interact as often as possible, preferably once a day, no less than four or more times per week. This can be managed by one person or an entire media department.
- Post links to blog posts and articles that will appeal to your audience. Don’t oversaturate – just post the good ones.
- Be genuine in your feedback to others. They will learn to respect you and pay attention to what YOU say as well.
What are some things that you’ve done to increase your social networking exposure? What would you as a corporate entity add to the list of things to ensure that your company was successful in the social arena?
Begin With a Tweet? Foraying Into the Social Media Landscape
July 15, 2010
At 140-character increments, marketing your business has never been so easy. Twitter has made it simple and exciting for companies and individuals to interact, network and brainstorm on its platform.
How does social media fit into the grand scheme of things? How can a simple tweet change the way a media department is perceived?
Corporate Networking
Creating an environment that is conducive for social networking can be a challenge for some corporations. Perhaps many of the corporate executives think that the whole “social networking” thing is a fad that will pass. How can they be convinced otherwise? Sometimes, trying to convince corporate directors that a popular idea will work, doesn’t always work. Rhonda Sloan of American General Life Companies found out the hard way, but also found a way around the “no’s” to navigate her way to a “give us more” and at the same time, develop a strong company social media platform that saw growth. On average, public relations specialists may not have that degree of perseverance, but in the end, it can pay off in a big way.
Entertainment Networking
One fairly recent example of the power of social networking was when a Facebooker campaigned to get actress Betty White on the New York, USA-based comedy show, Saturday Night Live. The entertainment community was all abuzz about having the actress to appear and through Facebook and fans rallying to make it happen, the network decided to go ahead and have Betty White host the show. It was one of the most entertaining and impressive examples of the power of social networking seen yet. And, Betty White wasn’t too shabby on the show either!
Incorporating the Two
Although the corporate landscape and the entertainment world are two totally different, distinctively separate types of media, they both work on the same premise.
People.
Both genres need people-power to work, but the biggest difference in the two is the way that you get them to work, or to be effective. It may not be appropriate to have your company executive appear on a comedy-sketch show. It may not be the best idea to have a comedian give your corporate sales-team a virtual webinar either. But some way, somehow, there is a method to lift from both genres the things that work best and incorporate them into your media relations package.
What do you think would work best? I’ve come up with a very short list of the things that I feel would be conducive to it working, but I’d love to hear what you think also.
- Be creative, genuine. Don’t re-invent the wheel, just put your own spokes on it. Do something that hasn’t been done before, with your corporate personality on it.
- Utilize available resources. There’s no need to incur additional expenses. Use what’s at your disposal. Accounts with social networking platforms are free, upgrades at additional costs are optional.
- Engage the audience. Ask readers what they think and what they’d like to see. You’d be surprised at their responses and likely to get ideas as well.
Tell me what else you think would be ideal for social media outreach to work. What tools does your company use?
The Solar Plexus Punch of Targeted Marketing
July 8, 2010
The other day a flyer dropped out of a magazine I subscribe to. Yes, I do still read paper!
I tossed it towards the recycling pile, along with all the others that came with it, without a glance. No surprises there – open rates are very low, and action rates even lower.
However, in this case, one of my children picked it up and opened it, probably because of the image of two dirty, tired, and very young girls on the front. Inside, the names of the children: the same as the names of my two daughters.
Coincidence? Or very clever marketing?
Whichever it was, the message was very powerful indeed.
Rationally, targeted marketing like this would be expensive, but doable:
- Problem 1. The magazine already has my name and address since I’m a subscriber, but the advertisers don’t – but perhaps I gave permission to share “with carefully selected partners” at some time?
- Problem 2. They’d need to find my daughters’ names. More difficult, but not impossible, given the multiplicity of databases out there.
- Problem 3. Then merge, print, and get the flyers in the right magazines. This is really just a logistical problem, tricky but not insurmountable.
So not easy, but worth it, perhaps, for the impact.
What can you do to personalise your message for your audience, so that you get the same power behind the message?
Is Your Corporate Media Site Unnecessary?
June 7, 2010
Why wouldn’t you have a corporate media section on your website?
I’ve noticed a couple of trends recently, which at first glance seem to be going in opposite directions.
Expansive: Social Media Newsroom
Some companies are developing extremely smart social media newsrooms. I recently discussed the Social Media Newsroom X Factor panel at Social Media in a Corporate Context, which highlighted some very interesting developments.
These are all-singing full-on newsrooms, with every conceivable use of social media, multimedia and reusable elements, so that visitors can pick up, reuse, and share the content wherever seems appropriate to them. Do go and look at the Sony Ericsson version – and check all the tabs – because the screenshot doesn’t do it justice.
Something to think about, if you’re going in this direction, is whether this will replace the traditional newsroom – as in the Sony Ericsson example – or whether it will be an additional feature.
Example: Sony Ericsson
Lean and Elegant: News Releases
And then there are the companies which provide only their news releases.
These are sometimes beautifully presented, with helpful search and filtering options. Potash is a great example of this: I really like the clean look of the list pages (and the easy access to filtered RSS feeds), and if you visit individual releases, you can see how well they’ve implemented them:
- links within the release to elsewhere on the corporate site, and easily downloadable PDFs
- tabbed content within the release
- webcasts, slides and transcripts available within the release
Example: PotashCorp
This isn’t the only large company I’ve noticed recently that offers just news releases in what is conventionally known as the Media section. Are these companies who used to provide an extensive media section but now have scaled it right back? Or are these companies moving in the opposite direction, and building up a section from scratch – with news releases being the first step?
Or – and perhaps more interestingly – maybe these are two aspects of the same trend towards spreading content (images, videos, comment and conversation) across the web. One approach is to make it easy for others to spread the content; the other approach is to put the content out in locations where people might find it more easily.
If a company has social media outposts on places like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube, do they need a newsroom on site in addition?
Please let us know what you think by commenting below…
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