Communications using Social Media during a Disaster

By now, some of you must have heard, seen on the news or read about the typhoon that wrecked havoc on Manila, the Philippine capital yesterday. As reported by the news, Typhoon Ondoy (international name "Ketsana"), dumped 13.4 inches of rainfall on the city of Manila -- reportedly the average amount of rainfall for a MONTH in the capital -- in just 6 hours. The result: massive floods raising the water level of the rivers and creating 8 to about 20 feet high floodwaters in some areas of the city and neighboring provinces.

NAPOCOR, the electricity generating government corporation of the Philippines, cut electricity to certain areas, affecting telephone and mobile phone access. In the affected areas -- some popularly known upper-income class exclusive villages and subdivisions -- families huddled under the still drizzling rain on their rooftops, as the floodwaters inundated some of the 1st and 2nd floor levels of homes, waiting for rescue that came only many hours later. By then, a number of houses were already washed away, water dikes were washed away, as well as vehicles floating along in the swift current of passing floodwaters.

With phone lines, mobile phones and electricity in some areas dead, how do you contact or even inform disaster teams where your loved ones are to be rescued? And how do concerned families and relatives of the affected living overseas find and be assured of their loved ones safety?

That's when enterprising socially-oriented Filipino volunteers sprung into action -- using social media! GMA News 7, a nationwide news TV channel known also for their public service programs, immediately opened a Facebook page, offering an interactive bulletin board wherein people can post their requests for help to locate a missing family member or relative, or to alert disaster control authorities to rescue a family member or friend holed up in a house inundated by flood waters. Most of the posters where family and friends overseas or also victims of floodwaters who were stranded in offices and friends' homes in the city.

Another group of volunteers put up an interactive Google map, plotting all the locations, based on the reported addresses of all the stranded flood victims. The result was an ingenious and alternative "digital century" way of sending out that important message to afflicted parties and notifying disaster crews on which areas of the city they have to focus their rescue efforts.

Now if we can just use this way of communications in Vietnam . . .

Get a more comprehensive story in the following link: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/173278/as-telecoms-break-down-social-media-connects-victims

When Teens become Fashion Bloggers . . .http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/sep/20/tavi-gevinson-new-york-fashion

I can’t believe this fashion blogger is just a 13-year old kid. But Tavi Gevinson already wears her clothes with panache and a downright saucy air. This bespectacled little wonder is wowing seasoned and much older fashion critics with her “very professional and mature” analysis of the latest fashion styles and trends. As they said, “fashion is self-expression” – and Tavi certainly exudes that!

If you want to know more about this one-pint wonder, have a look at her Style Rookie blog at http://www.tavi-thenewgirlintown.blogspot.com/.

Channeling your “Inner Celebrity” through Facebook and other Social Media (with thanks to fellow PR practitioner Brian Solis for the title)

In my last blog post, I mentioned about “feeling like a celebrity for a day” because of being invited to model for a couple of product advertorials. Well a fellow PR publicist said that we inherently create our “Inner Celebrity” which we can always make use of in publicizing not just our activities but also our clients’ activities.

So how do you actually promote to the world your “Inner Celebrity”?

Have you ever realized that just having a presence on Facebook, MySpace, Caravat, ecademy.com, Linked-in, etc. or some other blog you constantly post in, or regularly contribute to a chat forum is already a form of “self-promotion”? Even if it’s just 10 of your most trusted and loyal friends, or your buddies at the Friday Drinking Club, sharing your exploits and ideas to a small coterie of friends is already a form of self-promotion. It just doesn’t occur to you that often – because to some, it just comes like second skin.

Some like Julia Allison, a dating columnist for Time Out New York and former editor-at-large for Star Magazine, has no especial talent - can’t sing, can’t dance, but have a remarkable talent for posing in front of the camera – and a nose for finding where the next photo opportunity is – have been using social media and the internet world to self-promote herself (see article at http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/16-08/howto_allison).

So how does one start “publicizing oneself” to the people that matter, so to speak?

Step 1: Have a message/point/theme to say – and it must strike a chord in your intended target audience’s hearts and wow their brain cells!

Step 2: Assess the characteristics of your target audience. Do they like reading your rants everyday? Are you sharing the same brainwaves? Or like Jennifer Allison, you just want to spread your self-gratifying message to the public at large?

Step 3: Choose wisely your communications channel. Thankfully for us in Southeast Asia, we have our great social media networks to rely on – Facebook, Yahoo 360 blogs, Caravat, Hi-5, Linked-in, ecademy.com, etc. And a growing number of Twitter users here adds up to the choices for social networking.

Now for the meat ; ) A few tips from Allison and myself to get your personal branding machine up and rolling:

* Crash the parties that matter. You know – the one that the Italian Ambassador cum amateur photographer attended with half of the local literati and diplomatic community attending – and pretend that you know the host of the party when chatting with a few unknowns (actually you just tagged along with your friend who was an invitee).

* Crash into every foreign chamber of commerce monthly meeting you read about. Tell them you’re with the party of Ms. So and so from this and that company who happens to your friend’s company.

* Make sure you attend every fashion or new product launch, DJ event at FTV Bar or any similar bar – just so that the FTV cameraman can record your face and that of your gorgeous or not-so-gorgeous boyfriend in the crowd shots. In fact, make sure you strategically choose your place in the crowd – either near the stage or center of the dancefloor, not some obscure corner somewhere.

* Get chummy with any of the fashion mag reporters – and make sure that he/she calls you whenever she gets invited to a fashion shoot or function. Drop some famous names when you’re introduced to some corporate-looking hunk at the party: “I’m ____ and I’m with the party of Mr. ______ of Runway Mag . . ; )

* If you’ve got killer long legs, wear those Manolo Blahnik stiletto heels or other designer-inspired brands, and your genuine Gucci or LV bag, and wave the Gucci in front of a fashion photog that comes into your view – with the chief editor or a young corporate stud on your arm as an additional prop.

* Make sure you bring your “personal photographer” with you – and post your photos with an accompanying essay on Facebook, Yahoo 360plus blogs, MySpace, or Multiply.

* As Julia Allison opines, make sure that everytime you blog about yourself, you inform your target audience about a "certain dimension of your personality" or personal brand. It keeps them intrigued - that is if you are that intriguing ; )

In the world of social media, anyone can be famous – or almost famous!

The Power of Testimonial Advertorials

Somewhere or sometime in my colorful life as a PR practitioner (slash) exotic places traveler (slash) single brown female resident working in Saigon, you get these interesting requests about modeling for a client or so. So when Sony eventually invited me to act as a talent for one of their new camera models, I thought it would be a blast to be in their promotional video.

Little did I know how hard it takes to model for one of these gadgets. The camera alone (Sony Cybershot TX1) is a beauty! For one who had her first camera as a semi-pro SLR Nikon FE, the Sony camera felt like my good old Nikon before a friend of mine accidentally dropped my beloved camera into the sea. Lightweight and razor-sharp photos are what you can count on this camera – a plus to me since I hate carrying those heavy 2-pounder cameras.

And quite easy on the pocket too for a semi-pro camera (I was told it was going to retail initially at US$500+).

So the brief was to dress colorfully and make out as an expat walking around the Dong Khoi area. It was around 12 noon and the sun was glaring down on us. My make-up (they had to make me up, you know) literally melted and I sweated buckets.

Just to make the promotional video just as interesting, we invited some hip young guys like Boy band singer Minh Tuan of La Thang and other interesting-looking young people to be in the video.
But the result was worthwhile. If you’d like to know how the video’s final cut looked like, just pop in at the Sony booth at the Vietnam Computer Electronics World Expo at the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center today and tomorrow.

The PR Diaries: Why is Public Relations more Necessary in a Recession?

PR Day 1: Wednesday, 22 April 2009

The inspiration for the topic of this blog post was generated by one of my dear local PR friends. As her new function now included new business development aside from her usual account management duties, I gave her a tip -- write a nice letter to existing and old clients, telling them to not only continue engaging in PR during these challenging times but also amplify their PR activities.

Why so and how?

Out-of-sight, out-of-mind! How do you expect your consumers/stakeholders/viewers – even competitors going to remember your brand and your product during these unusual times? How do you expect them to keep buying your newly-launched mobile phone model, patronize your fitness center, or even use your manpower services?

Brand exposure must be continuous to induce top-of-mind. Doesn’t matter if your budgets are small, you still have to put your brand out there. And the easiest and most cost-effective way to do that is through Public Relations.

Adapt and Focus. This is the crucial time to assess and evaluate your product line or range of services and even businesses given the changing situation of the economy and the market. Perhaps it is time to trim down your product line and focus on promoting only those products and services that are not only most resilient in a downturn but also most helpful and practical for your markets.

Focus on the top 3 products and services that your company is outstandingly known or has the most potential to stand out in the cacophony of services that other similar agencies are delivering – and trumpet them out loud in the marketplace through PR as well as integrated marketing communications!

New PR has Extended Value. A young lady I recently interviewed to ask why she wants to be in PR, said that it’s rather glamorous to be in the industry. What the majority of the public and those wannabe PR practitioners don’t know is that PR does not just mean “glittering parties with celebrities”, press conferences and the press release. That represents old-school concepts of PR.

Public Relations, in the expanded and updated meaning of the word, means “using all points of contact to convey your message in a manner that gives value to the intended target audience”. This means, we widen the scope and effectiveness of PR by applying PR strategies and techniques to direct marketing, or advertising, or activation (of which special events is a component), or even online marketing. By integrating these other communications disciplines with PR, we become more “cost-effective”.

An example of this is the successful collaboration of PR and online or so-called web marketing. The “Visit Malaysia Campaign” have used the power of the internet by opening its www.khampamalaysia.com website, using well-targeted media relations – a component of PR – to generate print publicity of the campaign, and driving people to surf onto its website. The result was thousands of hits were recorded, leading to 3,000 people attending its booth at Diamond Plaza during this two-month campaign.

Cost-effective Communications. Having witnessed and survived two global economic recessions – one commencing in 1996-97 that affected Thailand and the rest of Asia so drastically, and the Dot-Com Bust in 2001, which affected mostly the US, Europe and some high-tech, high-touch countries in Asia, it is common knowledge in our industry that the first casualties of an economic slowdown are big-budget advertising and consumer research.

Then the tendency for those uninformed companies is to continue cutting down on other communications and promotional activities. This is definitely a No-No! As previously said, you don’t want your target markets to miss you out and think you folded up. If you do cut down, then that’s an easy way for your competitor to capitalize on your weaknesses.

Social Media – Fad or Necessity? Fortunately, with the dawn of the Digital Age, there came an effective instrument of communications which doesn’t cost that much and still comes out as impactful – “Social Media”. Social media tools include blogs, online forums, corporate websites, message boards, online social networking sites, etc.. Facebook and Yahoo 360° blogs are the most used and most directly impactful in Vietnam. And soon, Twitter or any local Twitter-clones will gain a following in Vietnam too!

Formerly considered a pastime and tool for teens as well as college and university students here in Vietnam, Social Media is now gaining ground as a ready and real-time source of information for most people even in business here. For instance, roughly 2 years ago, a foreign newcomer into the local scene of Hanoi may not have a clue as to where he/she can find the latest information about the hippest restaurants, bars, social networks, or events in town.

Enter the www.newhanoian.com. Set up by two entrepreneurs Elliot and Tom, it started out as just a listing of establishments and businesses in Hanoi. Later on, it came out with incisive, frank and very in-depth reviews of establishments and watering-holes in the city, as well as a repository of information on where to get this hard-to-find item or service. Judging by its top ranking in Google, it is becoming more popular now not only as a source of information but also a way to introduce new products and services into the local hanoian scene through local co-branding programs.

Of course, not all products or services can be best promoted or PR-ed through Social Media. But when 65-70% of your population is aged 29 years and below, as well as being online, IT-enabled or IT-savvy, it is definitely a very powerful PR tool.

Communicate to your Stakeholders. In our industry, “stakeholders” means all the persons and agencies who have an influence or “stake” in your brand image or reputation. Therefore clients are also considered stakeholders, as well as channels of communication like the media, influencing agents like the business or industry associations you circulate in, or your immediate friends.

Basically, you have to constantly communicate and assure your clients, colleagues partners, suppliers, providers, industry friends, etc. about your company and your vision of still thriving and operating DESPITE these very unusual times. That is the spirit and that is the main reason why PR still thrives in these times!