Virtual Reality and 3D platforms not just a child’s game. “Second Life: The Dream Platform for PR Professionals,” was the last session I took while attending PRSA International 2008, but it was one of the most effective. Why you may ask? Because Second Life isn’t just about creating an avitar and playing in a virtual world it is about jumping on board to the future of interaction.

Second Life not just another social media site, and these statistics prove that:

• 14 Million Users
• 100 Countries represented
• 35 Million hours spent on Second Life a year
• $1.5 Million UDS earned per day on virtual goods
• 35 Median age of users on Second Life

What do these statistics say to us? They say that there is an untapped market that is not declining, but growing rapidly. 35 is the median age of the user, there are 14 million users in over100 countries, and $1.5 million dollars are made each day. This tells us that Second Life is not going anywhere but up. Vitrual worlds are now not only for children they are for adults.

People are interacting using Second Life, businesses are selling goods and networking, even presidential candidates are using Second Life to get to a wider audience a new audience why aren’t we? In this session there were tons of people that questioned why they should be on Second Life? It seems like a trend and it is so new what could it really do for them?

Answer: Over 10 years ago people were scared of a computer tool called the “internet”, now this is the most widely used computer tool in the world. Secondly, in 15 years when we are trying to hire new employees they are going to be from generation now. These employees are the generation that are growing up on mainly knowing these virtual worlds, if we are to progress in our industry and our field we need to adapt to change.

Virtual Reality and 3D Platforms are being used by hospitals, non-profits and even global businesses like Nokia to promote their products and services. A new way of interacting with our target audience, a new way of reaching new audiences and keeping true to what PRSA International 2008 has been trying to promote all weekend, point of connection. Connecting with people from all over in one.

I am excited to see where this leads PR and Media Relations. As scarey as it is to accept change the excitement of the unknown keeps me on the edge of my seat. I say embrace Second Life to give your company and your clients a “second life” at reaching a broader audience.

New influencers are creating new sources of media, who are these new influencers? You, me and even Joe the plumber. How is this possible? We are now publishers we are able to report, comment and even create news content, we have the news and the media is now coming to us.

Paul Gillin, author of The New Influencers, states that there are Ten Secrets to Success of Social Media. But to understand these we must first realize that traditional media is declining and that search is the new circulation. Once we understand this we as PR professionals will be able to understand how each person is an influencer of media marketing and will become more successful in our marketing and media strategies.

Secret # 1- Don’t Fear Negativity. We must learn to accept that we cannot control what people say, but that we can contain negativity to a certain degree. There are always going to people that may disagree with what you say or what you do, but the trick is to realize it and accept it. If you make a mistake fess up to it. After all if you don’t and it is proven that you were in the wrong you are just adding fuel to the fire.

The best example of this is Dell Computers, in 2007 a former employee wrote an article for the Consumerist titles, ” 22 Confessions of A Former Dell Employee.” Dell was not happy about this not that the article was attacking Dell, but that they felt the Consumerist had no right to post the article without Dell’s consent. Dell emailed the Consumerist telling them to take down the post. Well, the Consumerist did not like this demand and posted the email from Dell on their site. Needless to say Dell realized they were wrong for asking to take down the post and offered an apology. Unfortunately, there was some damage done to Dell’s reputation. All Dell had to do was realize this was out of there control, and that there was no negativity regarding the Dell brand.

Secret # 2 – Start with the Goal Not the Tool. Always remember to keep your audience in mind when you decide to implement your strategy. Using a blog as a way to inform and display your product, but if you want to really communicate look at what tool would be more effective.

• Podcasts
• Online Videos

Match the tool you use to the audience that you are trying to connect to.

Secret # 3 – Embrace Niche Markets. Niche markets are:

• Knowledgeable
• Engaged
• Responsive
• Helpful
• Spenders

Once you inform these niche market audiences of what you have to offer then the information can reach specific groups, you connect to people from all over.

Secret # 4 – Empower Your People to Speak for Your Company. If you do not give the opportunity for your employees to speak for your organization and to learn how to talk about your organization you are setting yourself up to fail. If someone ask your employee what your company is about and they cannot answer you lose credibility. Let your people blog about who your company is, this is a great way to get inbound links and awareness of your brand.

Secret # 5 – Master Search. Educate yourself and your company how to use search engines and analytic sites to measure your popularity. Do you know how your consumers are finding you? By leveraging sites that give you results you drive your brand awareness and find out who your target market really is.

Secret # 6 – Think Like a Publisher. How do you do this? Get your brand out there, learn how to leverage all sources of media and communications.

• Twitter
• Blogs postings
• Newsletters
• RSS feeds
• Podcasts

If you don’t publish yourself and you wait for someone else to, then you won’t get the recognition you want.

Secret # 7 – Ditch the 13 Week Campaign. Using social media takes longer than traditional campaigns. You must build trust, engage the community and respond accordingly before you see results. Once the results start to come in  they are lasting, your brand is trusted in your community which you have built and your community will spread the word of how great you are.

Secret # 8 – Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something New. Once you feel your marketing strategy is starting to flatten out reinvent your approach. This is what PR and Media Relations is all about reinvention. Blogging for a client may payoff more than an email campaign. Evaluate who your target is has it changed? If so, a new approach is probably the best.

Secret # 9 – Use It Straight. What this means is do not be afraid of feedback. If you blog you must enable comments, this is how you find out what is working and what is not. If you are meeting your audiences needs or if you are not. Take comments with optimism, it is hard for someone to be angry with people who are nice to them and who listen to what they have to say.

Finally secret # 10 – Give to Get. Offer value to your audience. Give your audience a chance to create your marketing strategy. Why is this so important? This tells your audience that you value them, you are here for them and want to help them succeed.

By following these Ten Secrets to Success of Social Media you are giving yourself and your clients a chance to succeed and more importantly you become the influencer you shape how you are preceived.

Dr.Pepper and Guns N’ Roses, two things that couldn’t be further from each other -  yet Ketchum – has found a way to connect these. On behalf of Dr. Pepper, Ketchum launched a promotion, if Guns N’ Roses finally released their album Chinese Democracy, then Dr. Pepper would give everyone in the United States a free Dr. Pepper.

Guess what? Next month, Guns N’ Roses is releasing their much anticipated album. So what does this have to do with PR and Media Relations? Joanne Puckett, Vice President of Global Research for Ketchum and presenter of “Deriving ROI for Interactive Communications,” believes it relates due to the platform on which the promotion was sent. Ketchum realized that mass media is slowly declining, and that to create buzz around their client there needed to be an embrace of a new platform of communication enter Social Media.

By using social media to connect with an audience that may have never drank Dr. Pepper, Ketchum did something amazing. They connected two brands that probably would have never joined together, but by doing this they connected to a wider audience. This is proof that those who use social media are not just generation Y, but also generation X, baby boomers and everyone else in between. Dr. Peppers awareness has increased and they are now seeing an increase of 15% on their ROI. Ketchum embraced social media to derive a greater ROI for Dr. Pepper.

Barack Obama and Facebook is another example of how thinking outside the box and approaching PR and Media Relations in new light has proven successful. Obama has increased his awareness significantly by being on Facebook, using blog sites, emails and other social media sites to get his message out. By looking at behavior of his target audience and how they perceive the presidential campaign Obama has been able to customize his marketing strategy and tactics. We will not know what his ROI is until November 5th, but we can only speculate that he has done himself a huge advantage by embracing social media to get his message out.

What’s my point? Social Media drives brand awareness. From new drinkers of a soda pop, to a presidential candidate social media is playing a huge part in gaining new audiences. In the PR field if we do not pay attention to this meme of social media we are not doing our jobs as communicators.

“The Point of Connection,” this years theme for PRSA International 2008. If we do not embrace social media we are not touching all the points of connection. Without connecting to new audiences we cannot continue to derive greater ROI’s. Like Obama says, “It’s time for a change!” PRSA International 2008 is helping PR and Media Relations embrace change.

What are other ways PR and Media Relations Professionals can embrace change to derive greater ROI?

• Read what competitors are doing
• Listen to what your target market is saying
• Research the latest trends in your specific category
• Challenge yourself and your organization to take chances
• Reinvent your marketing strategy if it seems like it is flattening out

Embrace change and learn how to use social media for your advantage. It is not going anywhere and it will certainly play a critical role in your organizations and clients goals.

That’s not a knock on Todd, who does a good job keeping us up to date, but a general industry observation.

Faye Shapiro – “Why PR Needs a New Narrative”
Stepping in for Jim Sinkinson, Ms. Shapiro declared earned, unpaid media to be up for grabs. Public Relations managers are being retitled Chief Conversation Officers, she informs us. That is just the sort of thing that social networkers love to make fun of. She declares that this is a brand new direction for PR. Is this true? Does a change of tactics (wholesale thought they may be) constitute a new direction? Are the fundamentals changing? I’m not sure that’s a settled question.

“The Art of the Story: Finding the Heart of Drama”

A Q&A featuring Rubenstein turning the tables (he uses this phrase many times) on Charlie Rose for a tableside interview. Charlie states that Howard is good at what he does because he is so good with people. Media relations professionals don’t need a reminder on the importance of being friendly with people, but being good with them is an altogether different animal, isn’t it?

Rose discusses couching interviews and stories as narratives. It isn’t about specific questions, but about creating a story that makes it easy for the interviewee to provide their component of the narrative. He relays a story of an interview with Ted Turner, in which he did not want to discuss his relationship with Jane Fonda. Of course he did, and Mr. Rose was able to parlay that into an award-winning interview.

Rubenstein introduces the question of how interviewers work to move past talking points. It is worth noting that this is the very first question he asks. As PR professionals, we should recognize that the first thing any journalist or outlet wants to do is cut to the chase. Their goal is to get AROUND our talking points, or at least move beyond them. This is even more true for social media. Too often, we fight against the very journalistic impulse to acquire news, and our clients pay the price.

Rose reveals something interesting. Recently, he became frustrated with CEOs and businessmen “with reputations”, and set his producer to find something as far from that as possible. How do we benefit from such a search? By establishing a reputation for relevance. The producer certainly didn’t search a stack of press releases to find which talking-head could provide the most talking points. She went to the person who she knew could provide a great interview on the fly because that person wouldn’t even know how to provide anything else.

Rubsenstein broaches the subject of ethics in Public Relations. Both note that it is a mixed bag when it comes to ethics. He brings it back to understanding what he needs and wants, and how PR can deliver to those needs. He admonishes media relations folk to eschew the notions of trying to “spin” reporters. We are strategic advisors to our clients. It stands to reason we should take that role for reporters as well. Isn’t that what we’re trying to do anyway? Advise reporters on what they should report?

Rose is asked who he would most like to interview. Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson and the Pope are on his short list. So if anyone reading this happens to represent the Pope, you have a great shot at the Charlie Rose show.

By all accounts, Barack Obama had the Democratic presidential nomination in the bag two weeks ago. All he had to do was come close in states like Ohio, Texas, and Pennsylvania, and coast to Denver this summer. But his campaign made a serious miscue. While floundering in Ohio, Obama’s campaign challenged Hillary Clinton to quit if SHE lost in Ohio. Big mistake…

It used to be that success in American politics consisted of a series of turning points. The Lincoln-Douglas debates, Fireside chats, and the “Checkers” speech all consisted of a politician seizing a moment to elevate his cause. Nobody saw them coming, and nothing was the same after.

Today, if a prominent politician schedules a major event, news venues will analyze the speech from every angle before it has been drafted. Social networking sites will come to a consensus about what he or she should say, and the politician will speak against the backdrop of a plethora of expectations, against which even the most successful speech has the potential to fail. Many will watch the speech on YouTube days later, reading and contributing comments as they watch.

Minnesota experienced record-setting turnout at caucus events. Why? Because voters went to the Internet to ask questions about the previously mysterious process, and were persuaded that their participation mattered. The medium became the message as informed voters took the caucuses to codify the opinions formed on blogs and Facebook.

This brings us to Obama’s mistake. Obama’s campaign staff, confidence inflated by eleven consecutive primary wins, tried to make Tuesday’s primaries into a coronation. While the goal was to put the final nail in the coffin of the Clinton campaign, the message became: “whoever loses Ohio and Texas loses the nomination.” Not what you want to convey when polls have your man behind in both states, eh?

The challenge was delivered via traditional channels, leaving news and social networking sites (many of them friendly to the Obama campaign) to parse the message. Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter penned a column urging Hillary to drop out BEFORE the Tuesday primaries. The expectation was that Obama was going to win big on Tuesday, and Hillary was going to bow out. Now, Hillary’s narrative is one of reversed momentum, and she even has the appearance of a front-runner in spite of the fact that she is trailing substantially.

What the Obama campaign should have done was to leverage many of the social-networking kingmakers who have been so supportive of the campaign to date. The message should have been goal-oriented, changing minds and getting supporters to the polls, producing a steady drumbeat of positive discussion. Instead, they opted for an outdated “turning point” paradigm, in an attempt to create a Lincoln-Douglas moment. Instead, he bombed like a “Daisy” ad.

What can we learn? Well, every company has events, whether they are conferences, product launches, acquisitions or just really great news stories. These singular events have a tremendous impact on the future success of a company. But in today’s marketing landscape, we must always be aware of the discussion that is happening BEFORE our big events. Fair or not, expectations are reality, and online marketing represents an opportunity to set them appropriately.

By Jessica Cameron-Ruud – Account Coordinator

As a fairly new person on the M&O team, I’ve had the advantage of learning from some of the best in the business. The learning curve I’m quickly working to overcome is how best to navigate the constantly changing digital marketspace to reach our target audience online.

I recently attended a Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) Event ‘Conversations about the Future of Advertising”, which really got me thinking about how to embrace the shift to digital communications and online marketing. Offering up some valuable insight to help marketers determine how best to navigate the digital marketspace, we can find new ways to expand our connections and reach our target audience online.

Here are 3 tips to embrace the digital revolution in your business:

Live the Life. Only through trial and error with various digital communication channels such as Google, YouTube, Face Book, Digg, etc. can you define what approaches work and what approaches don’t. A marketer that understands how to interact with others in social communities online is more likely to understand the preferred language and tone used among community members.

By speaking in a language that engages listeners online, your message is more likely to reach your target audience through viral spread. Change in the online world is inevitable, constant interaction puts you at the forefront of what’s to come.

Real Time Promotion is Key. Real time promotion is simply communicating to your customers about the most current, and ‘right-now’ happenings with your brand. If you’re offering a once in a life time sale today, your customers aren’t going to be interested tomorrow.

The internet offers the advantage over traditional mediums to reach your customers now, in real time, understanding what drives them, and making decisions based on real time data. The idea is simple, promote company news and events as they happen in ‘real time’ through blogs, image sharing sites, social networking sites and discussion groups, and open communication channels to connect with your target audience.

1 evangelist, 2 evangelist, 3 evangelist, MORE. Make your customers work for you. By building relationships with your customers in the online world, you create an army of evangelists that speak out, blog about, and promote your brand online. Reach your customers in the online world through communication channels that entice interaction.

The idea behind interaction is to provide your customers a variety of tools in which they can get to know and become comfortable with your brand. Once the evangelist has taken over, you may find that word of mouth has helped your original customer base reach new heights.

Change is happening daily in the online world, those that embrace and continually seek to learn new tactics to further reach their customers and grow their business online will be most successful through the digital revolution.

Within your businesses’ marketing plan, what online marketing tactics have you chosen to grow your business online? How do your digital communication skills measure up to the task?

Our SEO firm’s blog, Online Marketing Blog was included in each permutation of the list using a wide variety of criteria. I have yet to see so many different criteria used in any other ranking of marketing or PR blogs. That includes the AdAge Power 150 and Onalytica’s ranking of the most influential blogs, both of which include TopRank’s Online Marketing Blog.

Such lists always attract a bit of scrutiny and criticism, as they should. It keeps them honest or outs them as otherwise.

I will be flying in tonight and will be speaking on Monday afternoon in a session about integrating search engine optimization and social media to extend public relations efforts. My co-panelists will be Jamie O’Donnell from SEO PR and Sally Falkow from Expansion Plus. SEO and social media in the context of online PR is hot right now and I expect the session to be well attended.

I’ve written an outline of what I’ll be presenting on over at Online Marketing Blog in a post called, “Leveraging Social Media and SEO for Public Relations“.