Will social media kill public relations?

That was the question that popped up on my inbox first thing this morning. Not the best way to start the day with all this talk about killing public relations. I think that Maktoob Research (the senders of the email that, presumably, is being read by a couple of hundred PR professionals in the UAE as I write) has either completely missed the plot and doesn't understand public relations and social media or were deliberately trying to push up the number of click-throughs on their one-question survey. If it was the later, then good on them!

From Middle East PRoject

So will social media kill public relations? I don't think so. At least, not as long as public relations agencies are able to adapt and stay one step ahead of everyone else in the social media space. PR agencies should be in a position to:

• Educate their clients: Lets face it, most decision makers struggle to understand the value social media can provide to the marketing mix. We need to educate them
  
• Provide counsel: So company X wants to build its social media presence. Great! While the advertising guys can talk about buying space, us, humble PR folk, should be in a position to provide authoritative advice on who our clients should be starting conversations with and where. As cliched as it sounds, we need to help our clients be part of the online conversation
  
• Implement and execute: Don't think I need to go into details on this point

In my opinion (and I'd be happy to be proven wrong) a PR agency's role in helping a client work with social media should, in its most simplistic form, roughly mirror what it does with 'traditional' media with one huge difference: rather than talking to a journalist, we're talking to Jane Blogger or John Tweeter. Of course, the approaches and processes vary, but the essence remains the same.

PR stunts

Since moving to Dubai, my work's been pretty much all corporate and sometimes, I have to admit, I miss working at Cow PR, where the wackiest ideas were the best. The pining gets particulalry bad when I see videos like this one with Tic Tac Micha (spotted via Direct Daily):

I haven't seen any remarkable PR stunts in the Middle East since moving here but that is not to say that agencies in the region are not capable of them. The Agassi-Federer tennis set on Burj Al Arab's helipad was amazing! Check out the video here:

And here's a stunt that Cow PR created for Chevrolet at Christmas and I had the privilige of being part of. Its called Carmony. I guess that says enough!

Twestival: The aftermath

Image via CrunchBase

I have to admit that Thursday's Dubai Twestival was more fun than I thought it would be. It was a bit like meeting old friends I'd never met before.
@BinMugahid and @Esperanca, the two Tweeters I've known the longest since moving to Dubai, were both there. With his characteristic humour and honest takes on life, love and women @BinMugahid is probably one of Dubai's best known Tweeters and definitely its most original. @Esperanca, on the other hand, is a vault of information and does a great deal to steer people away from the oh-you're-on-Twitter-you-must-be-a-bespectacled-overweight-geek-with-no-friends-in-the-real-world image. It was also a real pleasure to meet @PKGulati who was responsible for bringing Twestival to Dubai. As he tell it, "It all started with a Tweet..."
Other people (Tweeple?) I bumped into were @CarringtonMalin, whose SpotOn PR did a brilliant job spreading the word about Twestival and @Abhamalpani, my counterpart from ASDA'A Burson Masteller. I'm really surprised that, besides ourselves (Weber Shandwick), SpotOn and ASDA'A, other PR agencies working in Dubai appear to have ignored Twestival, when they should have been all over it. I could be wrong about that (it was impossible to meet everyone at the event) but I'm sure that it was only these three agencies that devoted time and resources to pitching in to help for the event. If I am right, however, that doesn't say much about the region's PR industry.

The Dubai Twestival

Image via Wikipedia

Having missed the last Dubai Tweet-up, I'm really excited about going to the Dubai Twestival this Thursday. Unlike my Tweeps in London (and other places with cold, miserable weather!) we're having our Twestival at the beach-side Barasti Upper Deck, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort. Hah! Eat your hearts out!!
The organisers (@PKGulati, @DrBaher, @Esperanca, @BinMugahid and @CarringtonMalin) have done a brilliant job securing sponsorship from Le Meridien and Virgin Megastores Middle East. Last I checked, about 120 Tweeple are expected to attend the event.
Its incredible that, less than six months after it was unblocked in the UAE, Twitter is seeing the kind of growth that it is. By some estimates there are now between 300 and 500 Tweeters in Dubai, and its popularity continues to grow. We'll just have to wait and watch to see what the rest of this year has in store for Twitter in the Middle East.

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Social media and global conflict

I distinctly remember Operation Enduring Freedom when the media was abuzz with 'embedded' journalists reporting from the front line, which was then considering a near revolution in conflict reporting.
A couple of posts ago I had mentioned, very briefly, the role Twitter played when Bombay was being held hostage. Another year, another conflict and social media is playing an even bigger role in getting stories out from a war zone.
CNN yesterday interviewed Palestinian blogger Fida Qishta (who has overnight become a a spokesperson for her people). The broadcaster's iReport website, which allows citizen journalists the opportunity to upload their opinions and news stories, has more than 450 short video clips voicing opinions about the conflict.
Significantly both sides are maximizing the use of social media to win the online propaganda war.
The Israelis have set up a YouTube channel, the IDF spokesperson maintains a blog and Twitter feed, and the Israeli consulate in New York recently held a news conference on Twitter.
Not to be outdone, individual Palestinians and the Electronic Intifada have taken on the well-oiled digital might of the Israelis with live blog posts, gruesome images and news updates to share the tragedy with the rest of the world.
Al Jazeera's new media team launched a live Twitter feed with breaking news from Gaza, joining what is already a huge online conversation where opinions are voiced and news is broken in 140 characters or less. #Gaza is the most talked about subject on Twitter as I write this post.

If anything, this use of social media is revolutionary and may just set the standards for communicating in times of crises. The last few months have seen Social Media move from the sidelines (a marketing tool used to communicate with youngsters, geeks, superfans and other assorted target audiences) to a far more mainstream role (presidential elections and war). This is perhaps just one of many signs of things to come.

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• Israel brings Gaza airstrikes to the Web
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Politics 2.0

Just saw a Mashable post on how Arnold Schwarzenegger is using Twitter, a widget (below) and YouTube to push California legislators to pass his budget.



In many ways social media has come of age in 2008. Far from being perceived as a waste of time or a gimmicky marketing tool, political use of social media seems have given it a new air of respectability and seriousness. And politicians using social media are seen as being in sync with web savvy voters and open to interactive dialogue with their constituents.
While Barack Obama is the perfect case study of a public figure's use of social media, it wasn't just leaders in the West that embraced the Internet. In the Middle East we have Queen Rania of Jordan whose YouTube foray has won her accolades.
On the eve of a whole new year (not one that looks particularly bright) I wonder what 2009 will hold for social media. I guess we'll just have to wait and watch. But one thing's for sure...this isn't just a passing fad.

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The importance of being on Twitter

Telegraph.co.uk has an interesting piece of analysis on Twitter by Robert Colvile. Its interesting because Colvile seems to have largely missed the point.
In describing Tweeting as "a chore for the overloaded web surfer - another means of being bombarded with useless information," Colvile hasn't quite done justice to what is already an important social media tool.
Twitter's suddenly found itself in the media limelight (again) after Mike Wilson twittered away while escaping from a burning plane that crash landed in Denver. While terrorists held Bombay hostage, locals were tweeting eyewitness reports. At a less extreme level, Dubai Tweeter Binmugahid is looking at setting up a Twitter-based traffic alert system to help users get around the city's chaotic traffic. Twitter was used extensively during the US elections by candidates, journalists and ordinary people.
My point? Twitter is not just "a chore." When used properly it can be an important source of information. Whether or not you receive loads of "useless information" is entirely up to you because you decide who you follow and who you don't.
And yes, Twitter is full of people who want to share an evaluation of their lunchtime sandwich in 140 characters or less. But then, that's the most wonderful thing about the Internet...you don't have a gatekeeper who decides what gets said online.

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Google UAE Zeitgeist

Spotted this on Fahad Inc.. Google annual Zeitgeist found that 'Beijing 2008' was the fastest rising search term in the UAE, while 'Dubai' was the most searched for term. Hawaii was the most searched for holiday destination, Nasser bin Zayed was the most searched for person (Obama came in a close second) and Al Mahara was the most searched for restaurant.

Virtual world...by religion

ITP.net recently reported the launch of Muxlim.com's new virtual world Muxlim Pal. Muxlim.com is an online community designed to bring communities together from different parts of the world and has been around for a while (though I must confess I hadn't heard about it till last week!).

Its interesting that Muxlim has launched Muxlim Pal at a time when virtual worlds aren't exactly as hot as they were at about this time last year but we can only wait and see how successful Muxlim Pal is.  

From Middle East PRoject