Kampanye Public Relations

“Public relations is planned, persuasive communication designed to influence significant public”.

Public relations merupakan suatu bidang yang memerlukan segi perencanaan yang matang (planned), sama dengan bidang periklanan yang melakukan “komunisuasi”, yaitu gabungan antara melakukan komunikasi dan sekaligus membujuk (persuasive).

Dalam melakukan kampanye atau propaganda (PR campaign and propaganda), selain untuk mengkampanyekan program kerja, aktivitas dan inormasi, tujuan lainnya adalah untuk memperkenalkan, meningkatkan kesadaran atau pengertian dan mencari dukungan public dari sasaran khalayaknya (target audience), dan sekaligus mempengaruhi serta membujuk sasaran khalayak yang terkait dan dituju (significant public), perkembangan berikutnya dikenal dengan stake holder (khalayak sasaran yang terkait).

Definisi umum tentang public relations tersebut kemudian disimpulkan lebih spesifik lagi, yaitu public relations merupakan seni (arts) dan gabungan dari disiplin ilmu manajemen, komunikasi, psikologi, sosial, dan marketing, untuk membentuk agar perusahaan atau lembaga, gagasan atau ide yang ditawarkan, nama dan produknya menjadi disukai dan dapat dipercaya oleh publiknya.

Dalam hubungannya dengan target audience atau stake holder tersebut, dikenal tiga tipe tentang apa yang disukai dan tidak disukai, yaitu sebagai berikut :
a. Those who know you and like you (mengenal dan menyukai Anda).
b. Those who know you and don’t like you (mengenal dan tidak menyukai Anda).
c. Those who neither you nor care you (tidak dikenal maka tidak disukai).

Dari penjelasan di atas, Scott M. Cutlip dan Allen H. Center dalam buku Effective Public Relations, (New Jersey: Prentice Inc. Englewood Cliffs, 1982), mengatakan, “Public relation merupakan fungsi manajemen yang menilai sikap public, mengidentifikasikan kebijaksanaan dan tata cara seseorang atau organisasi demi kepentingan public, serta merencanakan dan melakukan suatu program kegiatan untuk meraih pengertian, pemahaman, dan dukungan dari publiknya”.

Sedangkan tujuannya adalah untuk mempengaruhi publiknya, antara lain sejauh mana mereka mengenal dan mengetahui kegiatan lembaga atau organisasi yang diwakili tersebut tetap pada posisi pertama, dikenal, dan disukai. Sedangkan posisi yang kedua, mengenal dan tidak menyukai itu, maka pihak public relations berupaya melalui proses teknik public relations tertentu untuk dapat mengubah pandangan public menjadi menyukai.

Pada posisi public yang ketiga, membutuhkan perjuangan keras untuk mengubah opini public yang selama ini tidak mengenal dan tidak menyukai melalui suatu teknik kampanye public relations (PR campaign) melalui strategi menarik perhatian (pull strategi) yang mampu mengubahnya, yaitu dari posisi “nothing” menjadi “something”.

Lebih lanjut, silakan tinjau Strategic Campaign Internal Perusahaan.

Apa itu Strategi Komunikasi Kampanye

 

Tujuan komunikasi dilihat dari berbagai aspek dalam kampanye dan propaganda, baik untuk keperluan promosi maupun publikasi. Misalnya, tujuan komunikasi dalam dunia periklanan (advertising communication) adalah selain memberikan informasi suatu produk yang dikampanyekan, juga menitikberatkan bujukan (persuasif) dan menanamkan awareness dalam benak konsumen sebagai upaya memotivasi pembelian. Pemasaran (marketing) berupaya meluaskan pasaran suatu produk, sedangkan kampanye PR (public relations campaign) dalam berkomunikasi bertujuan menciptakan pengetahuan, pengertian, pemahaman, kesadaran, minat, dan dukungan dari berbagai pihak untuk memperoleh citra bagi lembaga atau organisasi yang diwakilinya.

Jadi, strategi itu pada hakikatnya adalah suatu perencanaan (planning) dan manajemen (management) untuk mencapai tujuan tertentu dalam praktik operasionalnya. Komunikasi secara efektif adalah sebagai berikut:

a.       Bagaimana mengubah sikap (how to change the attitude)

b.      Mengubah opini (to change the opinion)

c.       Mengubah perilaku (to change behavior)

 

Apakah tujuan utama strategi komunikasi itu? Menurut R. Wayne Pace, Brent D. Peterson dan M. Dallas Burnett dalam bukunya Techniques for Effective Communication, tujuan strategi komunikasi tersebut sebagai berikut:

a.       To secure understanding

Untuk memastikan bahwa terjadi suatu pengertian dalam berkomunikasi.

b.      To establish acceptance

Bagaimana cara penerimaan itu terus dibina dengan baik.

c.       To motive action

Penggiatan untuk memotivasinya.

d.      The goals which the communicator sought to achieve

 

Bagaimana mencapai tujuan yang hendak dicapai oleh pihak komunikator dari proses komunikasi tersebut.

 

Peristiwa dalam proses komunikasi kampanye ini melibatkan konseptor (conception skill), teknisi komunikasi (technical skill) dan komunikator dengan segala kemampuan komunikasi (communication skill) untuk mempengaruhi komunikan dengan dukungan berbagai aspek teknis dan praktis operasional dalam bentuk perencanaan yang taktis dan strategik untuk mencapai tujuan tertentu.

 

Kondisi yang mendukung sukses tidaknya penyampaian pesan (message) tersebut dalam berkampanye, menurut Wilbur Schramm di dalam bukunya, The Process dan Effects of Mass Communications, yaitu sebagai berikut:

a.       Pesan dibuat sedemikian rupa dan selalu menarik perhatian.

b.      Pesan dirumuskan melalui lambang-lambang yang mudah dipahami atau dimengerti oleh komunikan.

c.       Pesan menimbulkan kebutuhan pribadi dari komunikannya.

d.      Pesan merupakan kebutuhan yang dapat dipenuhi, sesuai dengan situasi dan keadaan kondisi dari komunikan.

 

Pesan tersebut berupa ide, pikiran, informasi, gagasan, dan perasaan. Pikiran dan pesan tersebut tidak mungkin dapat diketahui oleh komunikan jika tidak menggunakan “suatu lambang yang sama-sama dimengerti”.

 

Menurut pendapat William Abig, definisi komunikasi dalam kampanye itu: “Suatu pengoperan lambang-lambang yang bermakna antarindividu.”

 

Lebih lanjut, silakan tinjau Strategic Campaign Internal Perusahaan.

Barack Obama, The Social Web, and the Future of User-Generated Governance

 

What follows is the unedited version of my latest post for TechCrunch, “Is Obama Ready To Be a Two-Way President.“America voted while the entire world watched and listened. Whether you supported Obama or McCain, we equally shared the hope for positive change and a new beginning towards a brighter future. This Presidential election was the first in 50 years, in which there was no incumbent President or Vice President from either party competing for the Presidential nomination. On Tuesday November 4th, 2008, history was made and America is now poised to break new ground as it continues to define and document unwritten history as we work together over the next four years.

Close to 65% of the American population voted in this election, its highest turnout since the election of 1908.

By all means, this election was profound in its results. While I’m not an avid proponent of the Electoral College system for electing our President, the numbers were absolute and decisive. Obama won both the Electoral College vote 364 to 163 and the popular vote 53% to 46% with roughly 127,000,000 votes cast.

Credit: CNN

With Obama’s wins in key “swing states” including Ohio, Florida, Colorado, and Pennsylvania, this election is considered a monumental victory that fundamentally redrew America’s political dynamics. A Democrat had not won Virginia and Indiana in a generation.

Obama’s victory is deeply symbolic. It is a justifying, magnificent, and powerful testament and redemption to those who have struggled for national and personal freedom throughout the history of the United States.

Congratulations is the very least I can send to Mr. Obama and his campaign team.

For the sake of this discussion, let’s examine the election another way, one that may bring to life a different picture of how Obama earned his place in history, and in doing so, his campaign both redrew political lines and also forever changed the political ecosystem.

Over 46% of American voters and 22 states sided with John McCain. Either way you look at it, it’s still a significant portion of America who didn’t believe #change or #hope were attributes of the Obama campaign. These voters believed their future lay with another candidate.

Politics aside, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent or member of the Green Party, we can not overlook the power of real world community relations combined with the reach and engagement of online social communities and networks.

Again, almost half the country was split with a noteworthy percentage heading into the election undecided.

Online tools such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter contributed to the netting of record-breaking campaign funding and the staggering galvanization of a younger generation of first-time voters who truly made an impact and a difference. The Obama campaign, for example, outspent McCain nearly three-to-one on TV ads toward the tail end of the campaign, which many credit the technology and the corresponding impact of sociology in of itself. The Obama campaign leveraged multiple technology platforms, social immersion strategies and good old fashioned door-to-door relationship building to engage constituents directly, raising an astounding $600 million in campaign contributions.

They went directly to the people online and in the real world.

The Obama team, for example befriended almost 130,000 friends on Twitter with an almost equal amount following him.

On Facebook, the Obama page boasted over three million fans compared to McCain’s 618,000.

YouTube also swayed towards Obama with a network of 358,000 to 191,000 with the Obama camp posting over 1,800 videos compared to McCain’s 330. These videos accounted for millions of views.

If you compare the other social networks and communities from FriendFeed to MySpace to Flickr, the stats are asymmetrical in Obama’s partiality.

Many of these two-way tools however, were simply used as broadcast mechanisms to send updates, solicit contributions, provide updates, and to also rally and unite supporters, albeit successfully.

Reaching the Other 46%

My question is, what if these same social media tools where deployed to not only communicate “to” constituents, but also to listen and interact with supporters as well as those who don’t currently endorse the President-elect?

I argue that if Obama dedicates a team aside from the outbound crew that “pushed” content through social channels in order to strategically reach, listen to, and embrace the 46 % that voted against him, he might be able to run a truly democratic term and head into the next election with a record-breaking approval rating – curtailing the necessity to campaign while in office in order to focus on the issues we elected him to fix – while also cultivating the country for greater future prosperity.

Winning over, conservatively estimating, 5% of voters who were on the fence but ultimately voted for McCain, accounts for almost three million votes.

Since 1954, the approval rating of each President has been actively tracked and published as a reflection of sentiment among the American people:

Among those Presidents with the worst all-time approval rating, our current President holds the dubious honor of ranking at the top:

- George W. Bush – 76% (in a report published 11/10)
- Truman – 67%
- Nixon – 66%
- George Bush – 60%

Perhaps even most concerning is that each President has historically disregarded these numbers so that they could focus on the issues at hand. If the Whitehouse were a business, many of these Presidents would have filed for political bankruptcy.

All signs and words emanating from the Obama camp and Mr. Obama himself, point to a strategy of leveraging today’s powerful, two-way bridges of communication.

In a text message sent to supporters on the eve of the election, he reaffirmed that they will be part of Presidency moving forward, “We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next.”

But perhaps the most revealing promise that revealed Mr. Obama will run his office for the “people” of the United States, not just those who voted for him, was shared through his inspirational words on November 4th:

I will listen to you, especially when we disagree…and to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too.

His first step to bring the vision of running a cross party campaign is the launch of Change.gov, a portal for transparency and interaction during, and hopefully post the transition.

In a sense, Change.gov is a simple and engaging site, but also highly intricate in its goals to give voters a voice. It is resource center for sharing information, updates, jobs, and also provides a channel for people who share their vision, concern, and ideas with the President and his advisors through text, an uploaded image or video.

Mr. Obama offers a message to visitors:

I ask you to believe – not just in my ability to bring about change, but in yours. I know this change is possible…because in this campaign, I have had the privilege to witness what is best in America.

Change.gov is the first step in a long road of reshaping the dynamics of politics and communication with voters.

They’re on the right track however.

Obama’s history-making campaign that fused community relations with social sciences, after all, carried him to the Democratic nomination and also the Oval Office. Mr. Obama and his team have cultivated and collaborated with a database of millions of people that spans a sophisticated contact relationship management infrastructure that spans across the real world to all popular social networks.

With an elaborate and revolutionary channel that will only grow with his Presidency, Obama takes office with a powerful new medium that may eclipse the reach and drive of traditional broadcast media.

Transforming Voters into Customers, While Potentially Erasing Party Lines

But, what about those who voted against him?

What’s the channel for Obama to ask, “Why didn’t I get your vote?” Is it Change.gov or is it through the combination of inbound and outbound engagement that will unearth the concerns that offer genuine potential for not just listening, also but response and earned support?

Most successful businesses around the world place customers at the center of everything. Before the Web, Nordstrom built its engendering foundation on world-class, and now world famous, customer care. In today’s Social Web, Zappos is growing its business by engaging with customers and creating a public and transparent customer-focused culture that is quickly building the company into a global brand that will make it easy for the company to extend its business beyond shoes.

There’s an extraordinary opportunity here for the Whitehouse to leverage these new and influential channels of conversation to embrace and cultivate voters as if they were customers, winning market share, one person at a time.

This is era where information was and is democratized. It is also a live and unfiltered looking glass into the office of the Presidency and also the thoughts, insights, support, satisfaction, and grievances of the American People.

It’s a Two Way Street

This isn’t just about broadcasting content through new channels or merely soliciting feedback, participating in popular networks or actively listening, it’s the ability to identify and internalize themes to precipitate change and earn support through action – not just words.

For the first time, the U.S. President can simultaneously cultivate communities through traditional door-to-door interaction and also directly where people create, discover, and share information online.

Shortly after completing the first draft of this post, the Washington Post ran an article announcing that Mr. Obama will record the weekly Democratic address on the radio and also on Youtube. The videos will be hosted on Change.gov and the official YouTube video channel, with the first one already recorded.

Other opportunities include:

- Launch a social network at Change.gov and/or whitehouse.gov

- Create a citizen feedback and collaboration page at GetSatisfaction

- Solicit policy proposals that people can vote up or down on Change For Us.

- Open the blog to comments on Change.gov (with community moderation).

- Address the country on YouTube and all other video networks with updates, polls, and also address issues in between official State of the Union broadcasts.

- Capture behind-the-scenes footage of the inner workings of the White House and share across all video networks.

- Create a user-generated channel on Magnify.net that features content from constituents.

-Create an @obamacares or @whitehousecares account on Twitter and other micro-blogging communities to listen and respond directly within each network.

- Complement the Presidential radio show with a regular podcast or livecast on uStream.tv or BlogTalkRadio and also interact with the people online, in real time.

- Publish speeches and important policy documents on document networks such as Scribd and Docstoc to be shared and disseminated throughout blogs and personal social profile pages.

- Create a portable and evolving Obama Widget using a SproutBuilder.

(What other ideas do you have? Add them to comments).

This is how a President, or any politician or business for that matter, can authentically connect with the people formerly known as the audience – in the real world.

It creates the foundation for people to participate in a crowd-sourced Government that doesn’t need Congressmen to share discontent or new ideas. The Web cuts through political tape to spotlight real time threats and issues to expedite support and response.

It’s through this collaboration that any public official, particularly the President, can continually maintain a real-time pulse of the country to learn from the human effects and responses to actions to run a more in-tune and effective campaign.

It’s the art and science of stripping down the politics to reveal truth. This is a political ecology rooted in sociology and conversations. People shouldn’t only have a voice during an election time; listening and responding should be an ongoing practice and process of any office.

The President can’t satisfy everyone, that’s just the reality. It’s human nature to disagree. This President-elect is not purporting to be perfect, but it seems he’s honestly willing to learn. With a national CTO in place combined with an informed engagement team versed in social sciences and psychology, we can use technology and two-way channels to not only increase economic efficiencies and boost education and media literacy, but also “listen” to those influential beacons in order to continue to redraw, or potentially erase, party lines.

My hope is that these incredible networks remain a constant source of conversation to extend beyond campaigning, but also collaborative governance that unite people across party lines.

It’s not about being Republican or a Democrat, it’s about representing the majority of the people, their views, passions, ambitions and struggles, in order to be a representative of the people for the people. This is Obama’s opportunity to use the tools and channels of today’s emerging voter demographics to rewrite the future of politics, while serving the best interests of the American People in the process.

Sometimes the best advisors and cabinet members are the very people who elected that person into office, and maybe, just maybe, also those who voted against him in the first place.

by my favorite PR expert, Brian Solis – San Fransisco

Source: Barack Obama’s flickr stream

Where there’s victory, there’s also opportunity…

Mensa Award 2008, The first hits

 

 

The award is not famous world event as like Oscar or Grammy Award.  The award is not prestigious award as like Olympiad champion which presents best participants from all over the world.  The award is just internally event, which not popular, but has highest value in our world company.  Mensa Award, the award for valuable people in Mensa Group who contribute their selves for the growth of company.

 

Has reached the heart of people for 3 years, Mensa Award 2008 was the most spectacular of others previous series Mensa Award.  What makes it different?  In spite of the extravaganza of theme, it’s covered with well done communication strategic from the beginning till end.  The result?  Audience enjoy the fascinating paths which’s created from all dimension effect of communication, with up and down tone spirit encouragement and statement, and finally it succeed delivering audience’s emotion to follow the stream of challenging event.

 

The First Hits

 

The big ‘WHAT’ confirmed all the way first term advertisement of  Mensa Award.  What  is Mensa Award, what makes it different, what’s the most reason to participate this year event, what is why you must enjoy this event, was the theme of Mensa Award premiere advertisement.

 

The grounded proposal of these ad is why this big event need to be major focus, so it can reach the first feedback atmosphere from audience as well reminding them, the award will come soon.

 

Here are the highlights;

 

 

 

 

Posted by Afril Wibisono

Second Life

Another breakthrough from web 2.0 effect. If you think your real life is suck and always suck, second life offers what you need most. it’s your desireable life, with all pattern you want! Your love life, career, school, social life, even you can make your second ‘real’ dream you wanna built. You can own your company, buy some land, with your own money (free some value money at first sign up). If you ever notice the ’sim city’ game, it’s the best description for second life, but more complex, online, and can interact with other players from all over the world. Well, it’s the best virtual life can be offered right now, I guess. Wanna try? Please come to www.secondlife.com

PR 2.0 is not Web 2.0!

It’s fascinating to see how the “PR 2.0″ manifesto has spread through a natural and intelligent set of influencers over the last 10 years, without attracting “opportunistic” PR professionals to jump on the bandwagon – until now.define Web 2.0 anyway? Answer, not many.2.0 launched with a similar intent of documenting the transformation of business in a new, online economy (e-conomy for those who remember).

The problem is that very few professionals across the generations actually understand the premise behind the evolution, let alone the ideas and more importantly, the technology, behind most things legitimately 2.0.also brandishing it as new marketing and pissing off a lot of influential people along the way.

Now with Web 2.0 starting to crossover into the mainstream, PR 2.0 (and everything 2.0) has become the golden ticket for misguided marketing professionals.

Just a side point though, how many people can accurately

It is often mischaracterized as the new rev of Web hype aka bubble 2.0, without regard for the technical undercurrent that enabled the transformation from the static web to a two-way and many-to-many experience.

But back to this discussion…

It’s been an uphill battle since we (a hybrid breed of PR and web marketers) first started using the term in 1995/6 as a way of analyzing how the Web and multimedia was redefining PR and marketing communications, while also building the toolkit to reinvent how companies communicate with influencers and directly with people.

It was a chance to not only work with traditional journalists, but also engage directly with a new set of accidental influencers, and, it was also our ability to talk with customers directly (through forums, bbs, etc.)

No BS. No hype. Just an understanding of markets, the needs of people, and how to reach them at the street level – without insulting everyone along the way.

The concept was actually inspired by Web 1.0 and the new channel for the distribution of information it represented. It changed everything. It forced traditional media to evolve. It created an entirely new set of influencers with a completely different mechanism for collecting and sharing information while also reforming the daily routines of how people searched for news.

At the time, software revs were an important part of the day-to-day marketing grind (for us), and 2.0 seemed an appropriate moniker. Not unlike when Business

Instead of publishing a magazine however, many savvy marketers decided to use PR 2.0 as a philosophy and practice to improve the quality of work, change the game, and participate in a more informed and intelligent way.

We envisioned fusing the intelligence of market analysts, the mechanics of Web marketing, the credibility of market influencers, and the conviction and reach of passionate evangelists. And to this day, this is still the case.

However, marketers are starting to link PR 2.0 with the social carnival of Web 2.0, offering services to help clients and companies tap into “the power of blogs, social networks, etc.” Many of these people were also guilty of offering hollow “new media” services during the first boom and others are just too young to remember the transformations that were already set in place in the 90s.

Selling services without respecting and understanding the playing field truly is the dark side of PR.

PR 2.0 was not at all inspired by Web 2.0. It is, however, influenced by it – just as it was by Web 1.0, search engine marketing (SEM) and social media.

It is the art and science of learning from, and practicing, the pearls of wisdom that shake out from the ongoing street brawl between traditional, social, and new media, as they fight for survival and the ability to influence.

It truly is PR redux, and there are those who are carrying the flag with a true working knowledge and honest conviction in order to improve an industry, long plagued and hampered by the lack of PR for itself.

Unfortunately, the PR industry has positioned itself as a necessary evil or the bastard, oft-misunderstood step child of marketing communications.

There’s been very little done about it, outside of the echo chamber.

Then, to add to the mix, there’s social media…which is also a hot topic as a different set of capital-driven marketers are

Social media is important because it represents the democratization of news and information.

But, PR 2.0 isn’t Social Media. And Social Media isn’t Web 2.0. These are also distinct movements that can complement and inspire each other.

PR 2.0 does, however, incorporate the tools that enable the socialization of media, providing smart folks with the ability to reach folks directly.

Social Media frames “media” in a socialized context, but it doesn’t invite PR (as it exists today) to market through (or to) it. However, worthy individuals can participate in conversations.

“Worthy” and the associated boundaries will only be defined by those who fail miserably. The elements that make information so popular in social arenas can also quickly become a global case study of what not to do. People can quickly become piranhas if they feel that they’re being manipulated.

We have to be careful about how much of what we’re highlighting is social media vs. the art and practice of “social tools” used to converse with people. Seems that’s a hot topic when I meet with the likes of those defining the landscape through socialized applications.

In all honesty, the best new media practitioners are using social tools to conduct so-called PR 2.0 transparently. At the end of the day it’s about the conversations you start, not by how many people in the industry understand how you did it.

Most web and marketing savvy pros prefer not categorize significant movements with a simple number – especially if it represents such incredible change. I concur. But in the absence of qualified, representative categories, I ask that we all agree that something is taking place here, and has been shifting for the last ten-fifteen years (at least).

Web 2.0 aside, PR 2.0 is an opportunity to force a renaissance of a worn and beaten profession and transform it into something much bigger and meaningful. PR 2.0 is about bringing value and prestige back into the profession, while creating a new breed of communications professionals for a new century.

It is not a derivative of Web 2.0 and those who categorize it as such are deflating a powerful opportunity for change.

Benefits of Social Media

As the prevalence of social media continues to rise, organizations of all types and sizes are recognizing the ways in which social media can help them better understand, respond to, and attract the attention of their target audience. As a result, businesses are now jumping on the social media bandwagon at a rapid pace, embracing blogs, social networks, wikis, and other vehicles to achieve their marketing and public relations goals.

What types of benefits can corporations achieve with an effective social media strategy? Get the Message Out Faster – and to More People Social media enables more rapid sharing of information. It may take hours, or even days, for a new announcement to reach the end consumer through traditional channels. Why? Because when a press release is issued, a journalist or writer must first wade through all the sales and marketing lingo to find the key points. Then, the content must be re-purposed in article format, and sent to an editor or proofreader before it is published.

Social media vehicles, on the other hand, allow for instantaneous dissemination of not just news, but images, audio, video, and other multimedia content as well. And because releases geared toward social media outlets contain only key highlights, pertinent facts, and hyperlinks to related statistics and quotes, the information they contain can be immediately picked up and posted by bloggers and other online journalists.

Social media also provides more widespread coverage, enabling breaking news to reach a much larger and broader reader base than standard media outlets alone. While magazine readership and the number of available print publications continue to decline, the number of consumers using the Internet to access and share information continues to rise sharply. For example, one recent study showed that almost one out of every four Internet users – over 41 million people total in 2006 – visits MySpace on a regular basis.

Improve Branding Social media, and blogs in particular, can be a highly useful tool for enhancing both awareness and image. Blogging can help “spread the word” about a company, its products, and its services to more people, dramatically increasing brand recognition and awareness. Additionally, social media can enable executives to gather input and feedback directly from their target audience, and use that intelligence for more effective reputation management.

Insight into why people like – or hate – a brand is needed to help change and control audience perceptions and preferences. Boost the Impact of Direct Marketing Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a key component of today’s direct marketing and lead generation strategies, and social media has proven its ability to significantly complement SEO initiatives. Many social media techniques – such as frequent use of common jargon and key phrases, title tags, ticker symbols, and links to blogs and other relevant Web content – can dramatically improve search engine rankings.

Additionally, while SEO relies on just a handful of popular search engines such as Google and Yahoo to drive target prospects to a site, social media expands the potential audience by creating alternate channels. For example, when content is published to a site, and that content is then linked to from del.icio.us or reddit, it can generate a tremendous boost in Web traffic.

Many companies also find it much easier to generate compelling content that is likely to be picked up by bloggers, than it is to keep up with the “rules” required to rank high in today’s popular search engines.

Perubahan Media

Perubahan media saat ini terjadi di mana-mana. Sejak kemunculan internet, media perlahan-lahan merubah bentuknya, strateginya, langkahnya, untuk lebih efektif mempengaruhi masyarakat dengan isi dan cara penyajian yang baru.

Masyarakat informasi, itu istilah yang sangat memegang peranan penting dalam era media baru dan perubahannya. Artinya apa? Artinya adalah setiap orang di seluruh penjuru dunia memiliki akses untuk membuka cakrawala informasi seperti layaknya fungsi wartawan pada era media konvensional. Hal ini terjadi secara perlahan-lahan sampai akhirnya berkembang sangat cepat sehingga mempengaruhi keseimbangan kekuatan di dalam masyarakat.

Internet, yang pada awal kelahirannya tidak terlalu kelihatan kekuatannya, karena akses internet yang memang hanya dimiliki beberapa orang, kini menjadi membumi, karena sekarang setiap orang hampir selalu terhubung dengan internet (seperti apa yang terjadi pada tren alat komunikasi mobile di awal kelahirannya). Inilah yang disebut era digital. Dan ini yang membuat masyarakat juga naik statusnya, hampir sama dengan pembuat berita profesional, karena memiliki kekuasaan untuk memberikan pandangan atas informasi dan peristiwa yang terjadi di masyarakat.

Konvergensi pun terjadi di mana-mana. Semua saling balapan melengkapi dirinya masing-masing dengan fitur-fitur baru era digital. Seperti media massa, telekomunikasi, internet dan software komputer yang muncul dengan berbagai keunggulan. Semua mengkontribusikan dirinya untuk memenuhi fungsinya sebagai fitur komunikasi massa yang bila dimodel-komunikasikan sangat cocok menggunakan pola SMCR oleh Wilbur Schramm.

Terlepas dari historical-nya, bagaimana media massa ada dari masyarakat tradisional, industrial, dan akhirnya menjadi masyarakat informasi, penemuan-penemuan yang mempengaruhi media massa telah banyak mewarnai sepanjang tahap tersebut, misalnya telepon, media cetak, film, media rekaman (seperti CD misalnya), tv satelit dan tv kabel, dan broadcasting.

Nah, komunikasi massa yang diterapkan oleh media massa ini pada dasarnya tidak terlepas dari potensi tipe komunikasi yang dibagi jenisnya menjadi komunikasi intrapersonal, komunikasi interpersonal, komunikasi kelompok, komunikasi kelompok kecil dan komunikasi kelompok besar. Tipe komunikasi ini jika dalam komunikasi massa, bisa dicontohkan dengan munculnya istilah personal assistant, e-mail, multi-user video game, telecourse, dan website/ blog.

Jika kita balik lagi bicara tentang media baru, inti perubahannya sebenarnya ada lima poin, yakni, digitalisasi, interaktif, generasi audiens (masyarakat informasi), komunikasi asynchronous (komunikasi tertunda), audiens yang lebih tersegmentasi, dan pola multimedia. Ketika bicara tentang digitalisasi, semua media konvensional seperti koran, tv, radio sama-sama merubah bentuk mereka menjadi serba digital, seperti misalnya HDTV dan website. Interaksi antara media dengan audiens, produsen dengan customer, audiens dengan audiens, pun menjadi lebih kuat dibanding media konvensional. Masyarakat informasi pun semakin populer statusnya dipakai oleh semua orang yang memiliki berbagai macam kepentingan. Komunikasi tertunda juga kerap menjadi momok yang terjadi di era media baru, karena hasil komunikasi massa bisa dilihat kapan saja, ditindaklanjuti kapan saja, dibuka kapan saja. Audiens yang lebih personal, lebih segmentasi, juga merupakan target media di era media baru. Sementara pola multimedia memang kerap menjadi tool buat media-media dalam menyajikan konten berita, informasi dengan berbagai bentuk menarik, seperti misalnya dalam situs berita, dalam tv internet, dalam web blog-web blog, dalam forum tanya jawab di web, dan lain sebagainya.

Posted by Afril Wibisono

The Definition of PR 2.0

PR 2.0 uses a combination of social media tools that are available to communcations professionals to reach and better communicate with influencers and consumer audiences directly. Social media is a direct-to-consumer approach that allows audiences to drive the communication in their communities. PR professionals are beginning to incorporate PR 2.0 into their strategy and planning as an effective way to communicate directly to Web 2.0 audiences, to raise awareness and increase overall brand exposure.

Brian Solis started promoting the PR 2.0 concept in the 90s and it was specific to how PR, multimedia, and the web would intersect and create new breed of PR/Web marketers. He’s been talking PR 2.0 for almost 10 years.

As a matter of fact, PR 2.0 actually started long before the birth of the Social Media Release (SMR). The SMR has been supported and pushed by many influencers, including Tom Foremski’s public outcry for the death of the traditional press releases.

Tom Foremski, a former Financial Times writer, wrote an article in the Silicon Valley Watcher titled, “Die! Press Release! Die! Die! Die!” Foremski’s dramatic call to action demanded changes to the traditional news release. It was this call to action that started a revolutionary transformation.

It was Todd Defren who offered the first template and still remains an authoritative champion; Chris Heuer helped lead an effort to propose a standard for their construction and distribution; Stowe Boyd reminds disingenuous, lazy or opportunistic PR people that they’re not invited to participate in Social Media (and rightfully so); Shel Holtz hosted the original NMRcast, and continues to demonstrate the value of new releases; and Shannon Whitley’swork helps PR “get it;” along with many others who continue to carry the flag forward.

Solis joined Heuer from the onset of the “Working Group” and has since spent most of his free time defending the reasons for the existence of SMRs in blog posts and at conferences, while also carefully practicing what he preaches.

Today, social media tools are accessible to brands large and small to reach audiences who want to control their own communication. In a Web 2.0 world, where thousands of communities are built, the traditional methods of web communication are not suitable. Web 2.0 technology combined with an audience’s desire to build and share content has transformed our industry.

As a result, PR professionals are incorporating Web 2.0 resources into their brand’s PR strategy and planning for more targeted and impactful Web communication.

Posted by Afril Wibisono

The PR 2.0 Change

I encourage you, the follower PR proffesional of PR 2.0, to read this article Nice to share …

The PR 2.0 Change

I’m basing my blog post on the reaction to my last post on “PR of the Past vs. PR 2.0 Today.“

I wrote that post to pinpoint the amazing technological differences between today and year’s past and how a PR person’s role has altered (for the better). But, the real discussion (the comments on my blog) focused on how PR people need to evolve as a result of social media communications and how there’s still resistance.

As a matter of fact one comment stated, “A lot of PR people don’t even know that PR has evolve[d]…or they don’t want that!” I realize that every professional advances at his or her own pace. And, with respect to technology and social media communication, there are PR people who dip their feet slowly and then there are others who jump in head first (which isn’t the recommended approach).

To move forward, it doesn’t matter the pace of engagement but rather the fact that you must engage. At this point, a transition to new media communication is inevitable because, and I quote the words of Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion blog, “All Media is Social” and “All Social is Media”.

According to Rubel, you can no longer separate traditional media from social media. He says that we do our planning, executing and measurement we must look at the entire landscape. If PR people want to grow in their industry, if they want to keep close relationships with influencers and other important stakeholders (media outlets, bloggers, customers, employees, etc.) and if they want to communicate effectively, then it’s time to evolve.

The world is changing quickly and we see evidence of this every day, beginning with the media landscape.Here are just a few examples:

1. There are about 30 top news sites on Twitter

2. Media outlets from BusinessWeek to The New York Times publish articles online with viral sharing tools and the ability to comment to engage readers in dialogue

3. Media outlets have started their own communities with blogs and social networking platforms, even traditional newspapers, on the local level.

4. CNN has iReport, which allows consumers to become video journalists and share the raw video news footage.

5. eMarketer stats discussing the demographics is narrowing gap

6. The Twitterbowl rated advertising spots on TV will millions contributing to the conversation and providing valuable feedback to brands.

7. Social networks are recognized sources for news and information, including breaking news stories.

8. PR service providers have included PR 2.0 capabilities and viral sharing tools in their news distribution services.

by Deirdre Breakenridge

Posted by Afril Wibisono