July 26, 2015
Business Review Article – Starbucks #RaceTogether campaign
I distinctly remember when this campaign launched last year and the Public Relations disaster it created. While I understood the Corporate Social Responsibility Starbucks was attempting to conduct.
Mashable Article – Starbucks retracts #RaceTogether
Interesting at the public wasn’t ready for the #RaceTogether campaign. Given the very recent dialogue regarding if racism still exists today, and the even more recent events in North Carolina, New York City, and <INSERT NAME HERE> in Missouri, the idea of creating a conversation isn’t bad, but backlash by those companies and individuals who believe corporations should remain out of social and/or political issues should have been expected and addressed prior to the campaign’s launch.
PRNewser – Integrate or Die
Integration within advertising and PR appears to be this world’s convergence of media. Because the efforts of both areas collide with consumers on multiple devices and channels, it seems very logical to combine their efforts, or at the very least, consistently coordinate.
I did find this quote great, as I encounter it with job applicants all the time, “Just because you’re young and you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Pinterest and anything else that’s out there that’s social…doesn’t make you a social media expert.”
Activist practitioner perspectives of website public relations: Why aren’t activist websites fulfilling the dialogic promise?
This is a fascinating article into the insights of activist organizations public relations efforts. However, I’m not sure the idea or concept of a website serving as a secondary, archival platform is unique to their type of organization. As a veteran of website marketing for more than 10 years, every organization I’ve worked or volunteered has their PR team consider the website almost secondary to any other activity, or even last, and seldom as a “push” tool.
Even today, working for a larger international company, I find myself reaching out to our PR team after a release or large/major announcement to inquire, “would you like to add that information to the website?” I find it almost comical that the team will direct journalists to communicate to readers/viewers to visit our site(s), but then don’t communicate that new/updated information to the internal teams to ensure it’s actually available for the public to review/read/react/share.
I was equally intrigued by the reported success of microsites, again, I’ve seen in non-advocacy organizations.
The PR function of a website may just inherently play secondary value to the other site’s primary focus or mission; convert sales, garner volunteers, solicit donations, confirm reservations, etc.
Smartphones, publics, and OPR: Do publics want to engage?
This statistic provides the greatest insights into the research, in that brands should engage with users who first engage with them, to drive the greatest re-engagement:
“Further statistical investigation revealed that the willingness to interact with organizations was positively correlated with users’ existing smartphone activities. For example, users who had previously purchased items via their smartphones (r = 0.32, p < 0.001) or had experience using organizational smartphone applications (r = 0.35, p < 0.001) were found to be more willing to interact with organizations.”
“Although smartphones play an important role in the daily routines of Israeli users, most users rarely use their smartphones to interact with businesses and nonprofit associations, to download consumer or business applications, to search for deals and sales, or to purchase goods and services.”
While it’s not the majority of users engaging with a company or brand through a smartphone, the percentage indicates a decent penetration rate and therefore is worth entertaining and also supporting through various marketing and communication techniques. I would be curious to see if this percentage of a population shifts at all outside the boundaries of Israel, as well as if this number has increased, decreased or remained flat.
An analysis of the mobile readiness and dialogic principles on Fortune 500 mobile websites
The research around Fortune 500 companies in 2012 is not at all surprising, as it was the exact same situation and scenario at my company, which ultimately led to us completely overhauling our mobile experience. However, ours is still largely a “separate” experience with only recently our path-to-purchase shared in a responsive-designed format across devices.
Again, I’d be curious if this exercise was repeated for the 2015 Fortune companies, what the results and scores would look like with today’s “mobile-first” approach to web design and development. It’s also interesting to see Adobe Flash called out, given the announcement last week and some of the back-and-forth with Adobe and Mozilla [need to add link here]
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In this week’s readings, we see two themes emerge and somewhat converge; specifically the usage of PR entities within organizations to activate traditional consumer-direct communication channels in person and online through dialogic and relationship management theories.
With the first two news articles about Starbucks’ recent #RaceTogether campaign, there is an almost instantaneous backlash from both consumers and employees. While the company was attempting to interject themselves into a social issue, it’s unclear why this particular issue was selected. However, as a brand that has helped in other similar efforts, (product RED, sustainably sourced coffee, etc.), their leadership may be somewhat haloed by where the social boundaries exist for both their consumers and investors.
Within the PRNewswire article, integration within advertising and PR appears to be this profession’s convergence of media popular in the 2000s. Because the efforts of both areas collide with consumers on multiple devices and channels, it seems very logical to combine their efforts, or at the very least, consistently coordinate. I did find this quote great, as I encounter it with job applicants all the time, “Just because you’re young and you’re on Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Pinterest and anything else that’s out there that’s social…doesn’t make you a social media expert.”
Within the activist article on leveraging websites for communication and engagement, I found the insights fascinating. However, I’m not sure the idea or concept of a website serving as a secondary, archival platform is unique to their type of organization. As a veteran of website marketing for more than 10 years, every organization I’ve worked at or volunteered for has their PR team consider the website almost secondary to any other activity, or even last, and seldom as a “push” tool.
Even today, working for a larger international company, I find myself reaching out to our PR team after a release or large/major announcement to inquire, “would you like to add that information to the website?” I find it almost comical that the team will direct journalists to communicate to readers/viewers to visit our site(s), but then don’t communicate that new/updated information to the internal teams to ensure it’s actually available for the public to review/read/react/consume/share.
In the article about smartphone engagement of brands by Israelis, while it’s not the majority of users engaging with a company or brand through a smartphone, the percentage indicates a decent penetration rate and therefore is worth entertaining and also supporting through various marketing and communication techniques. I would be curious to see if this percentage of a population shifts at all outside the boundaries of Israel, as well as if this number has increased, decreased, or remained flat.
Finally, the research around Fortune 500 companies in 2012 is not at all surprising, as it was the exact same situation and scenario at my company, which ultimately led to us completely overhauling our mobile experience. However, ours is still largely a “separate” experience with only recently our path-to-purchase shared in a responsive-designed format across devices.
Again, I’d be curious if this exercise was repeated for the 2015 Fortune companies, what the results and scores would look like with today’s “mobile-first” approach to web design and development. It’s also interesting to see Adobe Flash called out, given the announcement last week and some of the back-and-forth with Adobe and Mozilla
Questions:
Dialogic Principles, MMC6400, Web Theory,