Online Reputation Management As Seen From The Outside

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How To Handle Negative Reviews Of Your Business

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McDonald’s Rolls With YouTube For McCafe Launch

By Tameka Kee – Mon 04 May 2009 09:01 PM PST

imageMcDonald’s is launching an all-out ad blitz for its new line of McCafe premium coffees—and one of the first places you’ll see the branding is on YouTube. McDonald’s has rolled out a rich media spread on the YouTube homepage, taking advantage of one of the video site’s new ad formats: the “tandem masthead” (pictured here). Lionsgate first tested the two-unit ads, which share creative across the top and side of the screen, about a month ago; YouTube is making the tandem ads an option for all advertisers as of today.

YouTube Product Manager Zal Bilimoria spins it as a major coup, since it will be McDonald’s first rich-media buy on YouTube. (McDonald’s previously ran video ads on the homepage—but it wasn’t for a high-profile product launch). The fast food giant joins ABC, Electronic Arts and Volvo as brands that have taken a chance on YouTube’s larger, flashier ad units; Volvo tested another unit, the “expandable masthead”—it incorporated photos, videos and a Twitter feed, no less—which YouTube is also offering up to advertisers across the board.

Bilimoria said YouTube decided to make the experimental ad units a permanent part of its roster after tests found that the original homepage mastheads (which YouTube debuted in January) had user interaction rates that were about “three times higher than other rich media units of a similar size.” The McDonald’s campaign serves as the latest sign that YouTube is making some progress in its quest to legitimize itself as a hub for premium ads and content: it made it easier to find and promote full-length movies in mid-April, shortly after sealing a rev-sharing deal with Disney for special ESPN (NYSE: DIS), Disney/ABC channels.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PdfBRQ18yY&hl=en&fs=1]

RT: @SocialMedia411: Who’s The Real Social Media Expert Here? AKA Why Smart People Aren’t Consulting (Mack Collier): http://bit.ly/O4lR ???

My daughter will be doing an internship at MR. Mudd in LA .http://www.mrmudd.com/. Any LA tips and contacts?

ACTION ALERT: Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers

Written by Hamid Tehrani on March 22, 2009 – 12:19 am -
Background: Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, an Iranian blogger, died tragically in prison on March 18, demonstrating the sad fact that a blogger’s life can be lost as easily as a blog can be filtered by authorities.

Bloggers have been praised on many occasions for their contribution and value to the information society. They are admired in many cases as unheard voices but unfortunately most of the time, when a blogger faces persecution, his or her voice is not heard.

Sadly, Omid Reza’s case is not an exception and dozens of cyber dissidents are in jail around our globalized world and many more face political persecution.

When: I would like to propose March 18 every year as an International Day of Solidarity with Persecuted Bloggers.

Why: We can remember, talk and honor in this day jailed, tortured, killed and threatened bloggers, regardless of their political ideas and social or ethnic backgrounds. We can also discuss on this day what measures should be taken to support persecuted bloggers.

How: Please contact me at helpforbloggers[at]gmail.com if you’d like to get involved.   So far I have received very positive feedback from Committee to Protect Bloggers, Global Voices Advocacy, Freekareem, Mideast Youth and several bloggers and  I am ready to receive your comments, ideas, initiatives and words on this topic.

Posted by metricsman

As we launch into a year with perhaps as much uncertainty, on multiple levels, as most of us have known, I offer my fearless predictions for 2009.  The single most interesting dynamic this year in my view is the tension between an increasing need for accountability and tight budgets.   

1. Social Media Dominates Measurement Conversation

In June of 2008 I did a quick blog analysis to understand the volume of posts about PR/public relations measurement compared to social media measurement.  About 80% of all posts were specific to social media measurement.  I repeated the analysis for December 2008 and got the same result.   Social media measurement is dominating the conversation.  It is interesting to note the social media measurement online conversation is not being driven (with a couple of notable exceptions) by the firms and individuals associated with traditional media content analysis.  They seem to be followers and not leaders.  New players and voices are emerging, particularly from the web analytics world.

2. Quest for Standards
For many in public relations measurement the Holy Grail is a single, powerful metric of success. A standard metric everyone generally agrees with and that is applied consistently would enable lower costs leading to greater measurement participation, and allow agencies and companies to compete on actual results, i.e. audience effects, not on cutesy proprietary metrics and algorithms.  Or so the argument goes.  In the other camp are the ‘snowflake measurement’ disciples who say each public relations program and set of objectives is unique and therefore requires unique measurement approaches – standardization doesn’t apply to snowflakes.  Driven by a desire to find ‘standard’ social media metrics, look for the standardization argument to be a hot topic again in ‘09.

3. Engagement Will Be The Hot Social Media Metric
Many have said Web 2.0 is about ‘engagement and not eyeballs’.  Indeed, it looks like Engagement will be the metric of the moment in 2009.   While everyone might agree, at a macro level, Engagement is about the engagement between individuals and brands, there is almost no agreement on what Engagement really means, particularly in the online world.  There are many different views at different levels of abstraction:

• BusinessWeek has a Reader Engagement Index they calculate as a comments to posts ratio.  An Engagement Index of 5 would indicate 5 comments per post
• Forrester Research defines the engagement between individuals and brands in terms of the four I’s: Involvement, Interaction, Intimacy, Influence
• And well-known web analytics guru Eric T. Peterson has developed an eight-term equation for Engagement that includes clicks, recency, duration, brand, feedback, interaction, loyalty and subscriptions.

Look for many other definitions and points of view on Engagement in 2009.   Measuring Community and Velocity may also be hot social media metrics.

4. Cross-Platform/Domain Measurement Challenges
How do you measure the influence on someone who has read your blog, posted a comment, sent a tweet to 35 followers, visited another site, referred to your blog with a trackback, texted four friends about your post, two of whom visited your blog as well?   Most measurement approaches and tools today are tied to specific platforms and not people.  As communication increasingly becomes horizontal/ peer-to-peer – online and offline – our ability to measure discrete programs becomes exponentially more difficult.  It would seem a greater emphasis on holistic approaches that are audience-centric might be a partial solution.  Look for measurement firms to begin to address this challenge in 2009.

5. A Battle of Good (accountability) versus Evil (economy)
So far, the spirit of experimentation in social media has provided a sort of ‘get out of jail free’ card with respect to having to demonstrate the value of digital and social media programs and initiatives.  It looks like all that could change in 2009 primarily driven by the economic climate.  2009 will be the year when the pendulum swings from experimentation to accountability.  2009 will raise the bar on all of use to demonstrate how social media and other PR programs are helping to drive desired business outcomes. Acting against this pendulum swing are the Evils of flat or reduced 2009 budgets.  It will be easy for many people facing budget pressures to reduce or eliminate measurement.  But you do this at the peril of credible accountability.  What do you think will win in 2009 – Good or Evil

February 24th, 2009 by Robin