Online PR (Public Relations) News

World's biggest food company 'planning online PR campaign'

2010-02-04 00:00:00

The world's biggest food company, Nestle, is to launch a campaign to defend its reputation amid "vociferous" criticism on social media sites.

PR Week said the Swiss firm is keen to address a range of issues, from long-standing concerns about its formula milk to a more recent "hijacking" of its online marketing services by critics.

The publication reported that in 2009, Nestle suffered a "social media crisis" after its invite to influential parenting bloggers in the US on Twitter was taken over by activists and turned into a "highly visible" anti-Nestle campaign.

While there has been no official comment on the online PR push, PR Week said a company source had told it the firm is keen to counter criticism because "stories don't die online".

According to the Yomego Social Media Reputation audit, which measures the amount of discussion about brands on social media websites and the sentiment behind it, Nestle had a positivity rating of 12 out of 100. Rival food company Kraft scored 32.

Nestle products include Nescafe coffee, KitKat chocolate bars and breakfast cereal Shredded Wheat.

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Stats highlight "compelling case" for using social media in online PR

2010-01-29 00:00:00

A new collection of "mindboggling" statistics on the growth of social media should encourage businesses to ensure it is part of their marketing mix, an expert has claimed.

Jake Hird wrote on the Econsultancy blog that the sheer size of the potential audience on social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter makes a "compelling case" for adding it a firm's arsenal of online marketing services.

Looking at Facebook alone, he said the site had over 350 million users in December, up 40 per cent from 250 million less than six months before.

The site has claimed around half of its active users log in on a daily basis, equating to around 175 million people every 24 hours.

Mr Hird noted that around 70 per cent of Facebook's users are located outside the US.

Each week, more than 3.5 billion web links, news stories and blog posts are shared by this online community, he added.

Elsewhere, Twitter now has around 75 million user accounts, while LinkedIn's worldwide membership tops 50 million.

With such an "apparently vast space" in which to operate, Mr Hird said it is crucial for firms to have a keen understanding of their marketing and business objectives before they launched themselves into the social media landscape.

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Twitter named top social network for online PR

2010-01-21 00:00:00

Twitter has topped a poll of PR professionals as the most popular social networking site for internet marketing.

The site, which launched in 2006, beat YouTube and Facebook into second and third place respectively in the survey by New Venture Publishing.

Other social networking sites in the poll's top ten included LinkedIn, Flickr, Myspace, Bebo and MSN Messenger.

However, the survey noted that using social networking to boost online PR was a relatively low priority for many professionals, coming behind integrating online marketing services with other PR activity and developing in-house expertise in web-based PR.

The first prototype of Twitter was developed in two weeks in March 2006. It was launched publicly in August of that year.

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Online PR professionals turning away from bulk email?

2010-01-15 00:00:00

Digital advertisers may be moving away from the use of bulk emails, as research has revealed that 75 per cent of recipients consider irrelevancy of messages to be the main reason for unsubscribing from a company's services.

Econsultancy's Matthew Kelleher cited figures from a survey conducted by Merkle, which found that 66 per cent of people are also concerned with the frequency of email missives.

"We can only influence people while they are engaged," he said, noting that it is up to internet marketing services professionals and others to ensure that customers are not battered "into a state of disengagement", which may occur through repeated "irrelevant and valueless" emails.

In addition, Mr Kelleher stated that the consumers that brands should be nurturing in order to make them valued clients are those that are currently opening emails.

His comments follow a recent study by Epsilon International, which found that UK delivery rates are still high at 95.3 per cent, signalling that those in the industry are confident in email marketing as a strategy.

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Online PR 'set to mature' in 2010

2010-01-14 00:00:00

The next 12 months will see the PR sector on the internet come to much greater prominence than it already has, one firm has stated.

Research by agency Punch Communications has found that 90 per cent of its clients are hoping to incorporate digital elements into their PR campaigns in 2010.

Although digital PR has been around to some degree for several years, it has evolved considerably in recent times, with companies offering blogger relations, social media products and search engine optimisation techniques.

Pete Goold, managing director of the company, said: "There is no doubt that digital PR is maturing apace, as more agencies now offer such services and indeed more clients are looking to adopt them."

He added that the "typical request" generally involves some "element of the digital mix".

Eva Berg-Winters, digital media expert at PricewaterhouseCoopers, recently claimed that online advertising will expand over the next 12 months, particularly in terms of the mobile internet.

Internet marketing services 'should avoid no-reply@email'

2010-01-05 00:00:00

While many marketing professionals view the use of a 'no-reply@' email address as a useful tool for cutting down on unwanted correspondence, the practice can in fact backfire on a company.

This is according to the manager and founder of ExactTarget, who believes that not only is the use of such an address antisocial, but it is also poor business practice.

Writing for UtalkMarketing.com, Peter McCormick explains that, since good search engine marketing is now becoming just as much about excellent customer service and making consumers feeling wanted as it is making initial contact, no-reply emails can prove a big turn-off for potential customers.

He explained: "Seeing 'no-reply@' in the 'from' field raises an immediate red flag", adding that it says "'this message is about us and we don't have time to listen to you'."

This expert tip follows on from a feature in BizReport in which the chief marketing officer at Lyris advised that email will continue to prove a useful marketing tool well into the new decade.

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Email 'important' for online marketing services

2009-12-31 00:00:00

The use of email has been recommended to brands as a strategy for the new year by an industry expert, who has made his 2010 predictions for the technique.

Chief marketing officer with Lyris Blaine Mathieu told BizReport that email offers the highest return on investment of all forms of online PR and forecast that it will be more fully integrated into social ad platforms in the future.

"Even though email is the 'grandfather', it really is the cornerstone and will remain," he said.

Furthermore, Mr Mathieu also stated that email is likely to be incorporated into other types of formats in the next 12 months, adding that those who do not employ "integrated tool sets" are "doing a disservice to the brand".

This comes after a recent survey by Silverpop indicated that email marketing is a favoured technique by many in the digital industry, with 47 per cent of respondents stating they will be maintaining their budgets in this area in 2010.

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Should brands increase their online PR?

2009-12-29 00:00:00

Brands may benefit from increasing their online PR output in 2010, as research has revealed that weekly use of the internet is climbing.

According to Econsultancy's Rebecca Lieb, citing figures from a recent study by Harris Poll, the average amount of time spent on the web has risen from seven hours in 1999 to 13 hours for the period between July and October in 2009.

Website marketing services might also like to focus on targeting older generations, as the statistics showed that those aged between 30 and 39 registered an average 18 hours on the internet, while 40 to 49-year-olds spent 17 hours surfing.

"Hours online may have increased because of the recession," Harris Polls was quoted as saying. "Going online is free; going out usually costs money."

Companies may already have instigated plans to increase their online PR expenditure however, as Eva Berg-Winters of PricewaterhouseCoopers recently predicted that internet advertising will grow in the next 12 months.

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Social online PR budgets on the rise, survey says

2009-12-23 00:00:00

Industry-wide marketing professionals will be increasing their budgets for social media advertising, it has been claimed.

According to a study by Marketing Sherpa, sectors such as education and healthcare will see 43 per cent spend more in this area, with two per cent decreasing their expenditure.

And travel and leisure businesses will also direct more of their cash flow towards social networking, with 52 per cent taking such action.

The industry that will see the greatest hike in this form of advertising will be retail and ecommerce, with 79 per cent of online marketing services and others furthering their outlay.

Senior analyst with the company Sergio Balegno said: "The human factor will account for nearly 60 per cent of social marketing expenditures next year, including staff salaries for blogging, content development, social monitoring etc."

Earlier this month, Jason Falls of The Social Media Explorer observed that using such techniques in business can be advantageous, but experiencing a return on investment can take some time.

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Email marketing 'an online PR favourite'

2009-12-22 00:00:00

Email marketing appears to be a favoured advertising tool by those in the technological industry, as a new survey has revealed that many will be maintaining their budgets in this area during 2010.

According to Silverpop's latest survey, 47 per cent of those asked made this claim, in spite of the fact that 36 per cent do not believe the recession will end "anytime soon".

It was also found that four out of ten internet marketing services professionals and others participating in the study would retain their current levels of expenditure.

Chief executive of the company Bill Nussey noted that firms comprehend the capabilities of email in terms of engaging with consumers.

"Today's marketers are mindful of the important role relationship building plays in a successful marketing strategy," he said.

These figures come in support of those from Epsilon, which indicated that email marketing delivery rates in the UK have reached 95.3 per cent, a rise of 0.2 per cent year-on year.

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