PR Nonsense

Since I’ve moved to the United States, social media has become a larger part of my life. Not just because I have to keep in touch with my friends and family at home, but because people in the U.S. are great at using social media for business purposes and to communicate. I found an article about social media in Europe and the first thing I thought was; I have to blog about this.

It’s commonly known that social media is the new tool to connect and reach your target group.  You might even say that we have entered the social media era and platforms like Facebook and Twitter will play the lead part in future business, as well as our personal lives. In Europe, Facebook and Twitter are gaining more members every day, which allows the U.S. to globalize their social media strategy and focus their international marketing on European Facebook and Twitter members. The social media branch is growing in Europe and is becoming an increasingly beneficial marketing tool for companies.

The article says: “According to comScore Facebook is the most popular social network in 11 out of 17 European countries. Other social networks are feeling the pain of the Facebook growth but still play an important role.”

Despite the size and success of the United States’ most popular social network, local European social sites aren’t struggling as much as you’d think. So, what kind of social media sites should you target? Here are some facts about European based social media sites from the article to help you:

“Skyrock lost a lot of visitors to Facebook, but is still a dominant player. It has 22.6m French users. 30% of them also use Facebook, but the majority can be found on this French site.”

“In Spain Facebook has become the biggest social network in the past year. Two years ago Tuenti was the most popular. Tuenti has ‘only’ 6.8m users where Facebook has 10.5m- but why leave out 6.8m users?”

“In Germany StudiVZ Group is still market leader.”

“Holland, one of the smallest countries in Europe has the most loyal fans when it comes to their home based social network. Hyves still has twice as many users as Facebook in the Netherlands. A remarkable number which can be largely explained by the deep roots they have.”

According to the Financial Times, the Dutch based Network Hyves has made a profit over the past four years. I am a Dutch citizen and I am not surprised at all about these results. Almost every Dutch citizen is found on Hyves, despite age or occupation. If I wanted to search for Dutch people for information about businesses, or just looking for friends, I would start at Hyves.

In 2008, I worked as an intern at Myspace Holland and was very curious about the development of social media in Europe as Myspace was establishing offices throughout Europe, mainly to gain more members. But what was supposed to be a 5 month internship was cut down to a two month internship. What happened?  Myspace Holland was supposed to beat Hyves in users, content, and advertisers. They pulled the plug on the Myspace Holland office since they only had 500,000 users after 2 years, while Hyves was still the leader with 7 million users, which amounts to about a third of the entire population of The Netherlands.

Facebook and Twitter are growing in popularity in Europe, but we should not forget that the home based social networks are still good functioning channels to reach your European audience.

By Mick van Est

Today, March Communications celebrates its fifth birthday, as a high-tech PR agency in Boston!

Throughout the past five years, we have worked with technology clients of all sizes from all over the world, with particular expertise and focus on telecommunications, security, clean tech, enterprise software and services and consumer technology.

What sets us apart from the high-tech PR crowd is an intelligent and creative application of public relations to the rapidly evolving brave new world of ‘media.’  We have a strong European heritage and combine a knowledge of global business drivers and local and sector-specific expertise.

A BIG thanks to all of the March PR employees for their hard work and dedication!  Keep up the great work.

I hope to be as popular as Betty White when I’m 88 years old!

Former Golden Girls star recently announced that she will be appearing on Saturday Night Live.  The New York Daily News reports that White may appear in a special “Women of Comedy” episode with Tina Fey, Amy Poehler and Molly Shannon, but details have yet to be sorted.

Through the power of social networking, over a million fans joined the Facebook fan page/petition, “Betty White to Host SNL (please?!” after she starred in a Snickers Super Bowl ad.  White also starred in The Proposal, a 2009 movie with Ryan Reynolds and Sandra Bullock.

With social media, anything is possible!  Thank you for being my (Facebook) friend.

Chatfé is a new kind of social platform that lets you have anonymous phone conversations with like-minded people, and I recently got the opportunity to talk with Paul Orlando, CEO of Chatfé, to learn more about this social networking tool.  To see part 1 of this interview and a comparison of Chatfé and Chatroulette, check out this post.

I came across an interesting point on Chatfé’s blog when Paul Orlando, CEO of Chatfé, described Chatfé as an antidote to the conversations sparked by smokers bumming a cigarette.  In my recent conversation with Paul, he said he thought that while NYC’s cigarette tax is a good thing overall, it extinguished a conversational spark that existed for the last 50+ years.  When people ask strangers for a cigarette or a light, it’s often an excuse to talk to someone.  Paul notes that, “smokers were members of a culture that had a built in mechanism to talk to another person without any pressure.  Now that that’s gone, I hope that Chatfé can bring forth another conversational spark.”

Chatfé recently won the Best Business Viability award at Microsoft’s BizSpark, for which one of the evaluation criteria was how it addresses a business problem.  Chatfé succeeded in this category, Paul notes, because the technology and platform enable individuals and businesses to engage with people in a different way where text is not enough.  People can have an opt-in, free-flowing conversation and go deeper into learning.

This past February, Paul presented at Dorkbot on his experience on what happens when connections are totally random and when they’re completely filterable.  Paul calls Chatfé the “reverse of a social network,” in that they’re working on getting people to speak to one another instead of relying on text and images.  They want to move beyond the popularity of things like Twitter followers, Facebook friends, profile images, etc. and bring conversations back to voice, surrounding topics people really care about.  Paul calls it a “pleasant wrong number experience.”

So who is Chatfé for exactly?  Well, on their website, they say it’s for everyone, including entrepreneurs, students, artists, club-crawlers, sports-lovers, and language learners… basically anyone looking to talk about different topics or spark a debate.  Paul mentioned, however, that they’re “exploring working with a non-profit customer who would benefit from using Chatfé technology to enable their members to connect.  A support group that connects qualified members confidentially and anonymously by phone would be a great way to do that.”

No matter how Chatfé evolves in the coming months or years, it is certainly a breakthrough concept that will be interesting to follow and see how it can be put to use either personally or within various industries.

Green. Say the word, and the press comes running.

That you can buy a ‘green’ car is nothing new. But, with the possible exception of the battery-powered, plug-in electric Tesla Roadster, your choice is limited to a set of largely-mainstream econoboxes: Toyota Prius, Ford Fusion, Honda Civic, etc.  There are exceptions to be sure, but most of these marques, while well respected, haven’t produced many cars worthy of a poster for a teenager’s bedroom wall or the creation of a special savings account to be emptied during a mid-life crisis.

But what about a green supercar? Manufacturers have been flirting with it behind the scenes for years, but it always seemed like a pipe dream: A car that can do 190 miles-per-hour AND get reasonable gas mileage? Where do I sign? Well, you can’t, because they don’t exist.

Well that all changed this week. How about a hybrid Ferrari? Oh yes. Well, sort of.

The latest trend to grace the world of cars, it seems, is the hybrid supercar. Porsche, Lotus, Ferrari and Audi, to name a few, all debuted new concepts for ‘green’ go-fast machines. None of them are actually commercially available yet, though.

But they sound great, right? Now you can be green and not sacrifice the fun factor. Unfortunately, some of these concepts still seem a bit too much like mere headline-grabbing PR vehicles (pun very-much intended).

I question, for example, the actual greenness of the Ferrari 599 HY-KERS concept. It’s a hybrid, yes. And Ferrari says, according to this NYTimes.com piece “Within three to four years, every Ferrari in our lineup will offer some version of hybrid operation,” which is great.  But the HY-KERS also has a massive 12 cylinder engine in it still. The normal 599, which uses that same big 12 cylinder, gets roughly 9 mpg (gulp), and the HY-KERS says it will increase that number by as much as 50%…to about 14 mpg then. That’s…not very green.

But what can’t be denied is that Ferrari really knew how to make the most of their new concept with the press. Because they attached the hybrid/green moniker to it and splashed it with some green paint, they got a boat-load of coverage for it. It’s a simple, clear example of issues response: knowing what the media wants to hear about, and working your message in to it. Obviously there are some genuine intentions from Ferrari to make the company more green by offering a hybrid version of every model in the future, but they’re a long way from actually doing that.  But what they were able to show this week is that they understand it’s important to be seen as an industry leader who is thinking ahead.

Pretty interesting (and rather well done) video on the growth of the Internet, from its humble beginnings to the current Worldwide breakdown in users.  Fascinating to see, in statistical terms, how their use of it has changed over time and just how much spam there is these days!  Also notable is the growth in blogs and online video….and of course the acceleration of the proliferation of social media.

Man people generate a lot of info these days…..most of it just repeating what many thousands of others have also just repeated themselves!  I’d like to know how many more times the same information now features online since Twitter emerged….

At some point hopefully the chatter will die down and Twitter will emerge for what it seems most useful for…that being listening.

Ever heard of Chatfé?  Well, neither had I until I stumbled across them on Twitter and actually got the opportunity to speak with their CEO, Paul Orlando, to learn more about this latest social networking tool.

Chatfé, pronounced chat-fay – a combination of the words chat and café – is a new kind of social platform that lets you have anonymous phone conversations with like-minded people.  I recently wrote about Chatroulette, which may sound similar in that both services pair you with strangers to talk anonymously, however Chatfé doesn’t randomly pair you with just anyone, they match you up with other people based on topics you say you’d like to talk about.  Users are able to express interest in a conversation by adding topics to their conversation queue, either by posting a new topic or clicking on existing ones.

In my recent conversation with Paul Orlando, CEO of Chatfé, he says, “At Chatfé we are interested in helping make meaningful conversations that are also in the moment, so we needed to provide some context — that’s why you see topics — that’s the starting point for users to self-select into something.  Nothing based on pictures, profiles, gender, just what are you interested in talking about.”

Chatfé and Chatroulette have two other major differences.  Firstly, Chatfé is purely audio and conducts all interactions via phone, unlike Chatroulette, which incorporates video.  While you must user your own phone to conduct these calls, Chatfé calls both users and connects them to begin the conversation so that no personal information is exchanged and no one’s personal phone number is seen via caller ID.

Secondly, on Chatfé you have to register, whereas with Chatroulette, you just type in the URL and go.  The registration is part of Chatfé’s efforts to make their networking platform safe.  They continually state that everything is done in a secure way that protects your privacy.  Paul notes that, “If you try both, you’ll see that Chatfé and Chatroulette aren’t that similar. And there’s a time and place for both.”

Paul said that the idea to start Chatfé came from their CTO, Steve Wang, who 10+ years ago received a call from a wrong number, but instead of hanging up, he ended up having a great conversation for 30 minutes.  He thought: what if we could give people that experience whenever they wanted and let them ask questions, give advice, talk about whatever they wanted, in a safe and fun way?  And thus, Chatfé was born.

In my post on Chatroulette, I noted that some people have expressed a dislike for the service due to inappropriate behavior, and when I asked Paul if he anticipates any similar situations with Chatfé, he commented that, “the user behavior you get on Chatroulette is predictable and due to the fact that their site design encourages it.  It’s not that all the perverts in the world decided to go there; it’s more that the site helps bring out that behavior.  It’s easy to ‘next’ people and video means that decisions can be made purely on an immediate visceral reaction.  So, while it is possible to have a good talk on Chatroulette, lots of people are likely to hit ‘next’ before the talk even has a chance.

“I’ve seen statistics saying that the average length of a user interaction on Chatroulette is around 5 seconds, at least for men. But on Chatfé, the average length of talks is about 5 minutes. To me, that says that people are enjoying their talks and they are making the effort to communicate, listen, answer questions, and, in short, do all the things that they would normally do.

“Because of the way we built Chatfé, we haven’t had a problem with abusive behavior.  We don’t listen in, but we talk to our users about their experiences.  If there is ever abusive behavior and we get complaints, we can simply block the offending phone number.  So far, behavior is overwhelmingly positive.”

This is a very new and interesting concept, one which you’d presumably have to assume at least some level of risk when connecting with strangers to try and generate meaningful conversation out of thin air.  And, though Chatfé is still very new and was only just recently opened up to the public as a beta version, it’s quite common for social networks such as this to evolve over time as companies realize how it’s most being used, what it’s most being used for, what audiences make the most of it, etc.  Already, Paul sees potential for this to happen with Chatfé, saying, “It’s great to start with a direction in mind and the best companies actively listen to their users, learn and adapt. Just look at how Twitter evolved past its origin.”  Indeed!  So while it has begun as a conversation platform, who knows where it will be in a matter of years, or even months?

Stay tuned for part 2 of my interview with Paul Orlando, CEO of Chatfé!

Today was almost the same as always, waking up and heading to the office. Like every morning, I walk to the subway station and the man who hands out the Metro and I have a quick look in the eyes before he passes me the tabloid newspaper, it’s a ritual. Having been born and raised in The Netherlands, we consider the Metro to be a newspaper without much exciting news, just something to help you through the train ride. But this does not mean that once in a while your eye won’t catch something interesting, especially when it’s about blogging and nonprofit organizations.

The article I read is about two professionals who are trying to establish a nonprofit in twelve weeks. The environmental consultant and the investment management analyst behind this project, Tuesday Inc. wish to remain anonymous until their project succeeds. They combine their experience into what they hope will be an organization that will solve the negative social patterns involving the homeless and inmates.

Realizing that their resources are scattered all over the place, they set up a blog to provide others a better perspective about the putting up a nonprofit. With their blog and twitter account, they have made their deadline of twelve weeks public so it serves as an external motivator.  “It is one thing to set a deadline, but it reaches a whole new level once you make it public” commented one of Tuesday Inc’s anonymous creators.

Tuesday Inc’s twelve-week deadline is April 20 – Let’s see if they can make it!



When I first joined Twitter, I wondered what to tweet.  What could I possibly say that was “tweet-worthy?”  If memory serves, I think my first tweet was literally, “TWEET!”  Needless to say, it didn’t produce many re-tweets or spur any discussions.  I was just testing out the chops!

Turns out many people are reluctant to join Twitter because the feel they have nothing to say.  I just read an interesting article in the New York Times that looks at Twitter benefits from a different angle.  Essentially, it’s not about what you’re saying (you could be saying nothing at all!), it’s about what dialogues you’re tapping into.

“At its best, the social medium is a perpetual, personalized news service about topics of your choosing — whether health care reform, tech news or the latest episode of “Gossip Girl” — filtered and served to you by people who care a lot about what you care a lot about.

“Even the most prolific users say Twitter has become more useful as a way to tap in to the discussions of the day than to broadcast their own thoughts. And once you get pulled in, you might just find you have something to say after all.

“Biz Stone, Twitter’s co-founder, suggests that naysayers simply log on to Twitter’s home page and search for a topic they are interested in, whether it’s their favorite sports team, the name of their company or a topic in the news.

“Within a minute, they understand the appeal, he said.”

Did you know that Twitter users post 50 million messages daily?  And that 20 percent of posts and 57 percent of repeat messages contain a link?  So, tapping into the right conversations can easily bring the news that interests you most right to your fingertips.

The article offers a few tips to help those who remain reluctant reap the benefits of Twitter:

A CUSTOM NEWS FEED – Example: “By the time Bridget Baker, who works in public relations in Seattle, checks Google Reader while eating lunch at her desk, she has already read most of the articles in her feed because she saw them on Twitter.”

CHECK YOUR LISTS – Example: “Janessa Goldbeck works in Washington for a rights organization, the Genocide Intervention Network. Each morning, she checks a few Twitter Lists of people who work in human rights. ‘I don’t want to follow all those people, but I can get a snapshot of the landscape each day by looking at the Lists,’ she said. ‘It’s the quickest, most personalized news filter you could imagine.’ ”

ATTEND A CONFERENCE, VIRTUALLY – Example: “Most conferences these days have a Twitter hashtag. At the exclusive TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., in February, for example, attendees added #TED to the end of their posts.

“By searching #TED on Twitter, people could read the latest updates (and skip the $6,000 attendance fee).”

ASK QUESTIONS – Example: “Bertalan Meskó, a medical student at the University of Debrecen in Hungary, wrote a post about a patient with mysterious symptoms: ‘Strange case today in internal medicine rotation. 16 years old boy with acute pancreatitis (for the 6th! time). Any ideas?’

“Within hours, specialists worldwide had responded, suggesting gallstones, lupus or growths on the pancreas. One of the suggestions helped the doctors with a diagnosis.

” ‘It would have been impossible to find that specialist through e-mail, because we had no idea who to contact,’ Mr. Meskó said.”

Now would you look at that!?  Twitter saves lives.  What a crazy world we live in….

As if drivers need another distraction on the road, enter digital billboards.  A recent article in The New York Times describes these billboards as having the same glow as Times Square with the immediacy of the Internet.  The images change every six to eight seconds, flashing timely messages to commuters.

To this day, there is no research associating these billboards to accidents, however the Federal Highway Administration is currently undergoing a study to be completed this summer.  Volunteer drivers will have eye trackers inside their cars to determine how long they glance at the billboards.

According to this article, “Only about 2,000 of the nation’s 450,000 billboards are digitized, but the industry expects there to be tens of thousands of them, as many as 15 percent of its overall inventory.  The signs are typically used in busy traffic areas, where advertisers are willing to pay a premium for them. A digital billboard costs $250,000 to $300,000, roughly half what it did five years ago, but much more than the $5,000 to $50,000 for a traditional billboard.”

Big corporations, such as General Mills, McDonald’s and Verizon, are beginning to use these digital billboards and according to Clear Channel Chief Executive, Ron Cooper, “It’s a very flexible, very responsible medium and very impactful..” Clear Channel currently has 450 digital billboards across the U.S. and plans to add another 150 this year.

What are your views?  Will a flashing, Vegas-like billboard on the Mass Pike distract you from the road?  Or are these billboards a smart idea, as we move ahead in a technologically savvy (and paperless) society, giving advertisers more flexibility and creativity with campaigns?