Email was the spring board for so many other communication innovations that have been hugely beneficial in the evolution of business and the world in general. Think about it – after the emergence of email came blogging, then social sites, then Twitter and geo-location-based tools (the list goes on!) – all designed around communicating in a new and varied way. These new options provide myriad benefits that the physical world can’t – bringing global communities of people together around a common passion, globalization and democratization of information, real-time spread of significant world news and events, the concept of endorsement (i.e. retweeting a tweet), and even just teaching people how to drill down to short messages to get a point across quickly. And given the psychology behind real world interaction between humans, we can certainly expect the innovation in this space will only continue to evolve the way in which we communicate with one another.

While Mr. Tjan may argue that in-person conversations are a dying art, I’d propose that these technologies haven’t taught us to stop communicating, they’ve simply taught us to socialize in a whole new, and arguably more productive, manner. Certainly with the digital nature of our world, we should remember not to abandon the value of real, live conversation, but let’s not forget to appreciate the new and innovative communication and relationship building opportunities that do exist as a result of these technologies. Innovation and developments in this space will continue to grow, and new tools will emerge to mimic human behavior in a powerful way – not to replace it, but to enhance it. At the end of the day people are people and we’ll always value a live conversation, and now with geo-location software, chances are we’ll find a lot more people in the same location than we’d otherwise ever have been aware of.

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared on the Arthur W. Page Society’s blog, Page Turner. Aedhmar Hynes is a member of the Board of Trustees.

Kicking off the discussion, panelists noted that although the number of people watching video online is increasing, it is still a relatively small percentage compared to traditional TV numbers. Consistent viewership may be small, but they believe Web-based media is slowly becoming the preferred platform for viewers to consume content. During the past year, the industry has seen its first uptick on a small percentage of viewership switching to solely viewing programming via online platforms. This shift is lead primarily by viewers coming out of college, who are not quite in a full-time career yet, and not in a position to sign up for cable or premium channels. Although cable sales remain strong, the increasing trend of viewers seeking out premium services online is climbing. With this, the consumption of online video is forcing advertisers to change course. New broadcast and consumption models are giving viewers the power to frame how adverting dollars are spent, telling the industry where to invest and what social platforms attract and engage viewers.

In the beginning of 2011 alone, $18 billion was spent on advertising. Although advertising demand is still incredibly high, experts believe the model must shift as demographics become more defined and online video becomes easier to consume. As such, networks are looking for alternative ways to engage viewers across their own mobile and online properties with unique sponsorship opportunities for advertisers. One example of a new media campaign designed to engage viewers across different mediums comes from Old Navy’s music-focused campaign in 2010. Teaming up with Shazam, a leading mobile discovery company, the company launched the first ever taggable commercial, allowing viewers to identify custom-developed songs and, in some cases, receive special product perks via a mobile platform. Both Old Navy and Shazam saw strong campaign results, including a spike in the number of Shazam app downloads and increased brand recognition on social media channels. Building on that, in June Shazam launched its “Shazam for TV” platform with NBC Universal signing on as the launch partner. Shazam for TV works with networks to create “Shazamable” content that lets viewers uncover hidden content – not aired on TV scenes, or sneak peeks at upcoming episodes.

This type of new media campaign reflects the shift networks and cable companies are undergoing to re-adjust their promotions for TV programs by looking at social first to galvanize fan-communities by engaging in commentary posted online, not solely at the numbers of viewers tuning-in per week.  Recognizing that these new types of campaigns need to produce ROI, measurement company Nielsen launched its Online Campaign Ratings in Aug. 2011, designed to measure online branded ad campaigns similar to the way that ad campaigns are measured on television.  The service pulls data from Facebook to help advertisers craft a defined TV-style campaign metric that factors in reach, frequency, age and gender.

Although many in the industry believe availability to view network programs on-demand through online services is encroaching on sales, panelists believe there is room for both. It’s just up to the networks to continue to create additive experiences that will engage viewers across owned multi-platforms and take advertisers along for the ride. Whether viewers are watching programs online, or via traditional TV, experts see no reason for a divide, as the demand is strong enough that online viewing can complement traditional TV and advertisers can take advantage of this new model.

Have you noticed your consumption of video shift recently or seen a new ad campaign that seems to incorporate all the social platforms you follow? What type of offer would it take to entice you to Shazam a commercial?

When the secret was revealed to the bloggers, reaction was opposite of what the ConAgra/Ketchum team was hoping for. In fact, many bloggers felt as though they had been slapped in the face and took to the web and voiced their disgust over being tricked to eat frozen meals filled with preservatives and loads of calories – which many attendees strive to avoid daily. ConAgra and Ketchum eventually ended up cancelling any remaining “dinners” and quickly started apologizing for the switcheroo and for leaving a bad taste in anyone’s mouth (pun intended).

So why did such an elaborate stunt, designed to generate positive and “surprising” coverage, backfire? Both Ketchum and ConAgra seemed to forget two critical points about food bloggers (and bloggers in general):

1. Bloggers are passionate about the topics they cover (especially Foodies). Why else would they be blogging about it? Most bloggers start writing because they feel strongly about a particular subject – especially when it comes to food. People who are passionate about food – a.k.a “Foodies” – have an intimate relationship with the things they eat. They want to know who prepared it, where it came from (local vs. imported) and really pay attention to ingredients in their meals. So it’s only expected that then trying to fool food bloggers, who pride themselves on being foodies, into enjoying a frozen meal simply, it’s just not going to fly.
2. Bloggers are just as influential as a journalist at a major publication and expect the truth. We live in a digital age where everyone is connected to the internet, Googling everything in sight and most likely following at least a handful of blogs about topics they are passionate about. Bloggers know their audience just like every other journalist and their audience expects the truth – sometimes even more so from a blogger than from mainstream media. As a PR professional, you cannot take a blogger for granted just because they don’t work at the New York Times or Wall Street Journal. Bloggers are journalists and can potentially be more influential to your key demographic than other sources. Why else would we want bloggers at our events and covering our news?

As PR professionals we rely on relationships to do our jobs. From my perspective, the best way to build a relationship and gain trust is to be transparent – whether you’re working with a blogger, mainstream journalist or your neighborhood dog walker. ConAgra and Ketchum lost touch with this and probably burned some relationships along the way. What this situation really boils down to is this – no one wants to be fooled when they’re looking for a surprise. Especially when you’re hungry.

Take a look at our in-depth conversation below.

While technology means that it is easier than ever to work remotely, it also makes it extremely hard to switch off. Today, many of us no longer look at work and life as two disparate blocks which we balance on a scale.  For many of us it’s become a blend of both. It is a challenge to blend without letting work seemingly take over a bigger share and leaving you feeling stressed and unfulfilled.

Different people have different work styles and principles.  Some are perfectly comfortable blending work and family time, while others find taking calls or answering emails from home a strain.  Rather than trying to find a “right” way to manage work and life balance, focus on your own personal values and how you can feel in control.

A search on Wikipedia yielded the snippet that in anthropology, a definition of happiness is to have as little separation as possible “between your work and your play.” So to achieve happiness, perhaps it’s not so much of separating work and life but more about harmoniously blending the two – in the ratio that best suits each individual at each stage of their lives.

In his book Managing Work Life Balance, the author David Clutterback defines work life balance as “being aware of different demands on time and energy, having the ability to make choices in the allocation of time and energy, knowing what values to apply to choices and making choices.”

We all have a choice. We want to work for a company that promotes balance and allows for flexibility in choosing how we wish to achieve this balance. Our lives and priorities are all different and everyone needs different things in terms of how to integrate the various pieces.  In other words, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all work-life blending policy.

Having a child changes your priorities, so does committing to a wellness regime or a personal improvement plan.  When I had my first child two years ago, I was honest with myself and realised that work was important to me and I didn’t really want to cut back. I wanted to do it all – be super mum, continue working at the pace I had before and still have time for myself. I struggled at first and then did the following which helped me come to terms with what I wanted:

• Find out about and take advantage of work/life policies that are a fit for you

Don’t to be afraid to ask about possibilities and precedents.  For example at Text 100, we can work from home on preset days or just when the need arises (e.g. when the pest control man is coming over or you have to be home to receive a delivery), explore flexible work week options or even maximise holiday time by working out of other offices in the country we are visiting.

• Communicate

Talking to your managers openly can solve the problems that cause stress and may be the best way to reduce work-life conflict.  Talking about your situation and seeking solutions to challenges may yield unexpected results.  An example would be removing roadblocks to you embarking on a wellness programme – not scheduling meetings on the mornings you have a personal training session and coming in a bit later on those days. Not every problem is solvable, but many may be resolved in you actively search for resolution.

• Take care of yourself

Make time to rest and reenergise.  Come up with an annual leave plan and discuss this early with you managers to set expectations.  Agree with yourself what the boundaries will while you are on holiday.  It could be a no laptop, no email policy or if you are like me – emails for 30 minutes a day and only replying to the absolutely super urgent stuff that no one else can decide on (which you will soon realise is not many things at all!).

• Moderate Expectations

I find that hard black and white lines in my working and personal life don’t really work and often lead to unnecessary stress and the need to justify to family and myself when I cross the virtual boundary.  Be fair to yourself – the line with shift.  Also, whether you want time off, shorter work hours or greater flexibility, it’s important to be realistic in what you expect to be able to achieve in your job and the commensurate returns or rewards. Oftentimes, you may have to compromise somewhere.

I like the word blend as it suggests greater flexibility and is more dynamic.   In agency life and indeed in many careers, a strict 9am to 6pm work regime is near impossible to stick to.  As such, blending is important to achieve a balance that we can live with. It’s also key to accept that every day is going to be different – there will be busy times where we can barely breathe and others where we have the luxury of time. The point is to take advantage of the less hectic periods to work in some flexibility and squeeze in some additional ‘me’ time.

Photo credit: flickr user w00dy.

Photo credit: Ian Spanier, courtesy of MTV.com

On December 3^rd, 2009 MTV introduced the world to a new reality sensation, the Jersey Shore. For better or worse, Snooki, The Situation, J-WOWW, DJ Pauly D, Angelina, Ronnie, Sammi and Vinny entered homes across America and within weeks got us hooked on their dirty, somewhat raunchy, hilarious and always inappropriate antics. Almost two years later, #Jersdays (as coined by Snooki) is still going strong and the Season 4 premiere broke both ratings records (bringing in 8.8 million viewers, up from the 8.5 million that tuned in for the season three premiere) and social media records for tweets captured in a one-day period of a TV series. According to SocialGuide, more than 190,892 unique viewers chimed in with comments – totaling close to 300,000 comments about the Shore cast as they headed oversees to revisit their Italian roots for the season.

Building on the social success of the show, MTV recently launched WatchWith app for iPhone, a co-viewing second screen experience that delivers content to fans connecting them with the stars of their favorite MTV shows – including the socially savvy #GTL cast, and curating the social conversation on Twitter and Facebook.  The app, which is free using iTunes, displays content as a stream and gives preference to the user’s friends and followers, showing their comments at the top. Unlike other second screen experiences that serve as a supplement to real-time TV, WatchWith also functions as a “social DVR.” Viewers can follow the steady stream of content associated with the episode whether they are tuning in as it happens or catching up on a rerun.

In an interview regarding the app with DIGIDAY daily editor, Mike Shields, MTV GM of Digital, Kristin Franks said, “Our viewers are true digital natives. We started early on Twitter in 2007. We’re on Tumblr. We have to tap into the social nature of our shows. And we’re constantly trying to create incremental experiences. With WatchWith, we asked ourselves, ‘how do we capture our great story arcs to serve as tentpoles that extend across platforms?”

But the Jersey Shore influence doesn’t stop with record-breaking social stats and co-viewing iPhone apps. The fist-pumping crew continued to show us just how powerful they are when what appeared to be a bizarre publicity stunt by Abercrombie & Fitch last week totally backfired. The clothing retailer released a statement offering a substantial payment to Mike Sorrentino AKA “The Situation” and the rest of the cast to stop wearing the A&F brand on-air. An Abercrombie & Fitch spokesperson said in a statement:  “We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino’s association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes, but believe this association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans. We have also extended this offer to other members of the cast, and are urgently waiting a response.” Unfortunately for Abercrombie, according to CNN its stock fell nearly 10 percent at one point the day after making the statement and finished nearly 8 percent lower for the day.

Regardless of the A&F outcry, the cast of Jersey Shore remains on top both online and off. The new WatchWith app is just the next step getting the ins and outs with the cast of the show that America has fallen in love with (whether they want to admit it or not). While the cast of Jersey Shore sometimes causes us to turn away from our TV screens in disbelief, they have truly taken social media by storm and continue to pave the way for the future of reality TV.

Recently, there seems to be an emerging dialogue with clients and colleagues alike around the topic of soft data and internet transactional insights, informing strategy.

In Australia, this topic is on a regular news cycle as campaigners and journalists explore the issue. Most recently, our national newspaper online presented a rather negative view of the fact that our Australian politicians are using electoral roll data as well as soft data gleaned from tracking voter’s internet footprints.

What the piece failed to cover were the elements of transactional insights that inform anything from an election campaign, online advertising campaigns (repeat serving vs cookie tagging), through to developing health campaigns and community services such as Town and public transport planning.

Entities such as airlines, politicians, and even non-profits are increasingly using this data for finding new customers or targeting products to existing ones. Financial services companies such as banks and lenders are also using the same data mining services for marketing purposes and to make lending decisions.

Now, if you’re unsure of what I’m referring to in terms of ‘soft data’, or what data privacy actually means, here’s a crisp and clean TVC explaining (the negative) data footprints:

Privacy International – Data Trail from This is Real Art on Vimeo.

Sounds a bit scary, yes?

In what is perhaps a contrarian view, I’m actually quite excited about the possibilities of online business intelligence.

However, I’m not talking about using it for contextual advertising and lead generation for brands. We need to take this data upstream and utilise it in designing holistic digital and communications strategies based on insights gleaned from a person’s online transactions.

Rather it is the process of identifying the insight that leads to the solution for the brand.

One of the most successful and simple strategy development processes is visually represented by a personal brain-hero of mine, Mark Pollard.

The insight is where soft data and online behavioral patterns come in. Essentially vendors are now offering brands (and agencies) access to myriad of data tracked via online transactions.

Less than a decade ago, we used to rely on qualitative and quantitative data sourced from anything from a direct mail survey through to face-to-face focus groups of people in our targeted demographics. And for large-scale (or population-wide) data, the only source was from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) or Forrester.

These information sources were less targeted and not fluid enough to design behavioral insights to inform a robust strategy.

The key pillar to a communications strategy isn’t the tactics that are rolled out (for example a Facebook Brand Page is a tactic). The tactics are the easy (and sexy part).

As more and more social networking sites come online, the competition for registered (and active) users will escalate. Not only will social networks need to do more to procure new users and retain current ones, they will have to create new and innovative ways to monetise their websites.

Supplying content (digital footprints of preferences towards products, attitudes to Governments, behaviours, friendship networks, propensity to click on ads, areas of travel etc) created by a social network’s users to outside websites, advertisers, and affiliates for data mining purposes is a sure fire way to generate revenue for the foreseeable future.

And that’s where the opportunities lie for strategists. This intelligence is the deepest, and most honest insight you’re likely to come across when understanding what your strategy should (or could) be.

Let’s take this a bit more laterally; with the advent of geolocation services such as Foursquare and Facebook Places, we are acuminating copious amounts of previously inaccessible data on people’s travel patterns and location and population preferences. Wouldn’t this data be beneficial to a Town Planner, or even public transport and roads advisors, in future-proofing cities?

We need to move the dialogue on data mining (online transactional data analysis) from its immature ‘serve online banners depending on a user’s web preferences’ to a more sophisticated discussion. The debate (and execution) should be around the benefits and ethical parameters of designing strategies, policies, planning and funding decisions based on deep consumer insights gleaned from their own, online behaviour.

In either case, we can all confirm the importance of nurturing relationships in both realms. Social networks and online communities allow us to interact with others from around the world on any number of subjects, but there are still many times when meeting face-to-face can provide real benefits.

In public relations, this is especially crucial. We spend a lot of time tracking the articles, blog and Facebook posts, tweets and other forms of digital communications leveraged by reporters, and we follow up in these same mediums or via email, but connecting outside of computer and smartphone screens brings a deeper level of understanding and respect to your relationship.

A recent opportunity to take a predominantly online relationship offline occurred for several communications professionals and journalists when a well-regarded San Francisco-based TechCrunch writer announced that he was leaving the outlet to join another publication. Immediately after announcing his departure, an enormous number of tweets and Facebook posts were directed his way, asking about and commenting on his new plans, demonstrating how many people, whether virtual or in-person contacts, were alerted to his departure via social media platforms. To give him a proper send-off, his TechCrunch colleagues used Facebook and Twitter to organize an in-person celebration.

In addition to several TechCrunch writers, reporters from a number of other publications, like Wired, attended, and because the event was posted on Facebook, friends both real and digitally sourced were able to join. Many of the contacts who may have just had an online relationship with the reporter turned out to say hello.

By taking the online relationship offline, you set yourself apart and give any connection, but especially reporters who get hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of emails, tweets, Facebook messages, etc., a day, another way to remember who you are and what you can offer. Despite the number of people now tracing connections at least partially to digital beginnings, offline relationships are as important as ever and taking the time to meet in-person can remind both parties that there is a real person behind those screen names and profiles.

 The panel shared plenty of insightful content and best practices. I’ve captured the highlights and key takeaways below:

• “90% of brands using social media see business benefits” - Michael Chui
• In order to have success with internal collaboration tools, such as Yammer and Chatter, organizations need to look at the bigger picture and the workflow and beyond the tool itself. The tool should provide employees with access to information that they can’t get elsewhere.  
• Brands are increasingly using crowd sourcing tools within the enterprise, as well as externally, to discover the best ideas. A good example is GE’s Ecomagination Challenge.
• It’s critical for companies to nurture their advocates. 
• The industry is challenged with how to integrate social with traditional advertising, and the brands that crack this code will be successful. For example, with a paid TV spot, how do you engage and go beyond encouraging viewers to go to your Facebook page?
• The key to measurement is tying it to business objectives, as well as mapping it to core influencers and engagement. This goes far beyond quantity (ie Twitter followers, Facebook fans), and is centered on driving purchase decisions. 
• Businesses that allow employees to use social tools at work have higher retention because employees will fee lthat the organization trusts them.

 While some of the topics discussed remain ongoing conversations, rather than answers, it’s helpful for professionals to learn how other brands and organizations are plowing through similar hurdles and successes. This becomes especially important as the industry evolves and social media continues to be a staple in every day practice,

 To hear more from the panel, you can tune in to the full podcast on ZDNet here. 

Tweetcloud capture of what was said across the Twittersphere around Tuesday’s panel