The obsessive focus on online traffic numbers seems to be cooling a little. A recent article I read started with this sentence: “Everyone knows that the really big and popular websites have a ton of visitors.”

The article goes on to detail that to become a top 1,000 website you need at least 4.1 million visitors per month; to become a top 500 website you need at least 7.4 million visitors per month; to become a top 100 website you need at least 22 million visitors per month, and so on. That’s interesting enough information, but unfortunately it’s not very useful.

Though it has its place, web traffic is a poor gauge of anything very meaningful to a business or a brand. It may give broad indications of audience size, but that number has significance only if used in conjunction with more nuanced and specific indicators.

Traffic numbers are easy to understand, they are easy to pull and track via analytics programs, and they may stave off more difficult questions. But they certainly don’t tell much of a story. Visits to bp.com are up more than 750 percent over the past three months. Does anybody want to argue that is positive for the company?

Focusing on outputs rather than outcomes leads to a reliance on metrics that reveal information so isolated as to be meaningless. More than ever, it is critical to use analytics that move past raw volume to determine who has been reached, whether they have been engaged, and what action they have taken as a result. That’s the information that matters. Organizations that focus on these specifics will be the ones that successfully and consistently achieve their goals online.

As digital, mobile and social media continue to assert themselves as integral components to business and communications, organizations might find it tempting to staff themselves primarily with digital natives.  After all, they are increasingly setting the agenda, especially in communications.

Yet amazed as we all are at the increasing power and innovation of digital and the people who have mastered it, we should not forget that it is the wisdom, temperance and insights of experienced professionals—often forged over decades spent meeting real-world business and communications challenges—that also adds considerable value for clients.

The goal of an organization should be to apply sound management and structure to intermediate these two distinctly different skill sets.  Drawing on the core strengths of both will amplify the sound judgment of experienced professionals with the optimal application of emerging communication tools.  Not only does this add tremendous value to clients, it also greatly strengthens cross-generational teams and the long-term stability of an organization as a whole.

Porter Novelli recently launched a real-time reputation specialty that partners experienced, veteran crisis communication professionals with some of our most accomplished and innovative social media experts.  Our crisis experts are able to impart the experience they have acquired mitigating serious issues, while younger staffers are able to share their knowledge of social media as a tool to engage, communicate and change opinion.  This best-of-both-worlds approach has proven to be incredibly beneficial to clients, while simultaneously creating an energized and vibrant atmosphere within the agency.

Organizations should avoid a false choice between seasoned professionals and digital natives, and seek solutions that allow all employees to collaborate and contribute from the top of their skill sets.  To do otherwise could cause organizations to undervalue some of their strongest assets and talent.

One of the most effective things an organization can do to better engage an online community is to authentically participate as a member of that community. That may sound obvious, but it can be easier said than done.

Many organizations can’t help but carry the full weight of their traditional role into all interactions they have with consumers. They may do it patiently, subtly or even subliminally. But some aspect of their communication will reinforce the belief that the relationship they have to this community is essentially similar to that between seller and buyers.

For instance, they may enter conversations only when they have a need or want something from community members. Or they may offer solutions that exclusively support a specific agenda and otherwise stay silent.

Instead, companies should recognize that their primary purpose within a community is to be helpful—not to sell. Being helpful online does three very valuable things:

·        It efficiently provides support for a specific consumer.

·        It positions the company as a concerned and interested expert in front of the community as a  whole.

·        It publishes a solution that will remain online for years, offering the benefits to new consumers with every search function.

While the real time and in-public nature of engaging consumers online creates distinct challenges, it offers amazing opportunities as well. Organizations that move past traditional and transactional definitions of brand and toward a more mutually useful relationship with consumers will benefit in a big way.

According to the late comedian Sam Kinison, there wouldn’t be world hunger if people would live where the food is! The outrageous stand-up was no futurist, but he had a point, and years later, cutting-edge technology speaks to it: While hunger persists around the globe, innovations have begun to dramatically improve people’s ability to grow and access food.

Why is there such reluctance to combine the need for food with the power of technology? How is technology changing our relationship with food? How do science and systems impact the way we grow it, consume it, market it, fortify it, manage it, purchase it and interact with it? The short answer: The changes are significant, the impact is growing and the story is complex.

Check out Porter Novelli’s latest in the Intelligent Dialogue series, Food 3.0, to learn more. And let us know what you think about the increasing close relationship between food and technology.

The good news is that food is health’s secret weapon. The bad news is that it’s a secret. While the wonders of food should be shouted from the rooftops, the message of better health through better nutrition remains sadly muted. Sound science and common sense notwithstanding, we’ve allowed industry politics, stubborn scientists and regulatory inertia to bury the lede.

If you haven’t thought about these issues, let us be your guide. We believe that the power of food is too important to remain forever in the shadows. Read more at “Eating Your Way to Health.” And let us know what you think.

These days, people whose job it is to communicate during a crisis could be forgiven for thinking, “I hope that never happens to me.”  Unfortunately, as one of my clients is fond of saying, hope is not a strategy. And even if it once was, it’s no longer the case in the era of social media.

We live in a world that’s digitally fueled, radically transparent and moving at hyper speed.  Yet recent events suggest that many companies are not only unprepared for a crisis, what preparations they may have taken often apply to an outdated communication landscape.

Today, what’s required is real-time reputation management – an approach that combines sound crisis counsel with digital and social media expertise to keep pace with always-on news cycles and the transparency of the Web.  At Porter Novelli, our Real-time Reputation Specialty includes everything from preemptive communications to programs that restore corporate reputation after an incident.  It pairs the speed and reach of social media itself with the insights and judgment of seasoned specialists in corporate affairs.

Our experts use online and offline tools, such as vulnerability audits and early warning monitoring, to reveal potential problem areas and help prevent incidents before they occur.  They offer preparation – from message testing and collateral development to alliance-building and simulations – to get organizations ready to respond to crises and threats in real-time.  And if an issue does flare up, they have an arsenal of digital and conventional tools to mitigate the situation and help restore reputation.

Keeping recent events in mind, here is some advice from our experts.  How prepared is your organization to handle the unexpected?

If Social Media Can Start Crises, It Can Stop Them Too

Social media can damage brand equity in minutes, so it follows that social media must be a critical component in any crisis or competitive threat response.  While many organizations see social media only as a way to talk, its greatest value is its ability to empower listening.  But be forewarned: digital tends to compress online voices until they all are assumed equal.  It is crucial to recognize key influencers in an audience in order to track sentiment accurately.  Using a tool such as Porter Novelli’s Influencer Weight Score can help reveal who or what you really need to worry about vs. something or someone you can safely ignore.

Don’t Mistake Communications Solutions for Crisis Solutions

Perhaps the greatest change brought on by digital and social media is the public’s understanding of spin and the prominent role that communications professionals play during a crisis.  Companies who view a real crisis – even a catastrophe – primarily as a messaging challenge will fail on all fronts.  When a crisis hits, the real problem is the crisis itself, not how to spin it.  Especially when lives are lost or at stake, communications must be used to accurately and effectively communicate what actions are being taken to avert or minimize tragedy.  Overly and overtly concerning yourself with how you are perceived doesn’t effectively respond to a crisis – it adds insult to injury.  People will remember callousness or corporate self-interest long after they have forgotten, and forgiven, an accident or scandal.

Technology Demands Transparency

The explosive rise of digital technology has raised the bar for all actors in a crisis.  Everybody now knows that pertinent data is both available and easy to distribute.  It is no longer acceptable to say, “Well, we can’t really measure the effects at this time.”  You are now speaking to an audience that knows that you can measure virtually anything, and that you probably have the ability to communicate the information in real time. In the digital era, people believe that when you say, “We aren’t able to tell you,” it really means “we don’t want to tell you.”  Gradually releasing more information because of public pressure casts further suspicion.  Better to be transparent from the start.

Moving Beyond Crisis Binders and Crossed Fingers

Smart organizations today have already undertaken a measure of crisis preparedness.  Often they have a binder full of information and protocols ready to be deployed in the event of a crisis.  But that binder may be providing a false sense of security if it hasn’t been updated for a while or augmented with digital resources such as early warning tools, influencer maps and a comprehensive social media response plan.

Not If, But When

Organizations today are learning that the power and possibility of today’s diverse communication landscape can quickly foment non-issues, mistruths or isolated incidents into serious threats to corporate reputation and brand equity.  And while it is not always clear from which quarter a crisis may emerge, what is certain is that it will strike in the future, not five years ago.  Don’t try to answer its challenges with outdated contingencies.  Crises propelled by today’s communications platforms are best managed using the latest, digitally powered techniques and tools.

I recently returned from a week-long immersion in the world of software developers, user experience designers and coders — Twitter’s first-ever ‘Chirp’ Developer Conference.  Through the course of the week, I absorbed a lot of information first-hand and had some great conversations that helped me to learn more about this increasingly important community.

-  They like to be made a priority: Developers truly came first at Chirp and they appreciated it.  Each session, meet up and gathering was designed to help the developers collaborate and network with each other not only to work on projects together, but also to find jobs at agencies looking for developers for hire.

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Yeung

-  They like access to top executives and R&D engineers: All the developers I spoke with loved the fact that Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams made themselves so accessible throughout the week.  Biz and Ev attended all the events (even the pre-Chirp TweetUp at PN’s San Francisco office!) to mingle amongst and talk to Chirp attendees.  Biz and Ev also set aside 1:1 time where they sat on a couch for 2 – 3 minute meetings with anyone who had an idea or wanted to shoot the breeze.  In addition, breakout sessions were scheduled with top execs and R&D engineers to talk about platform needs and give developers ideas for apps.

Photo courtesy of Kenneth Yeung

-  They want to understand your business: One thing Twitter was not ready to share was its roadmap for monetization or long-term API strategy.  This did not sit well with developers, many of whom built their businesses creating apps for Twitter.  This was one area where the company remained elusive, which left developers feeling nervous. Twitter did say though that it plans to host in-person and virtual town hall meetings with developers as new details are released.  That’s yet to be seen.

-  International isn’t easy: Companies want their apps to translate easily, and developers know that the market for international apps is huge.  Unfortunately, the translation process is daunting, because coding for other languages is extremely difficult – especially if the foreign language uses characters rather than letters.  What developers asked for were international boot camps to help walk them through the translation process so they’re able to translate their English apps easily for other regions.  Twitter said they are working on it.

A tweet recently came up in my Echofon feed: “You can’t spell CAPITALISM without API.”  For Twitter, 75% of traffic comes through its API, meaning most people accessing the service are doing so through an app or client.  It’s certainly in Twitter’s best interest to court the developer community if it wants to be profitable in the future.  Sincerely speaking to its developer base at Chirp was a good start.

If you are trying to reach the developer community and are interested in learning more about Chirp, see the full coverage at TechCrunch: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/14/twitter-chirp-our-full-coverage-and-live-stream/.

I recently had the opportunity to moderate a Porter Novelli Intelligent Dialogue on Driving Your Business by Integrating Social and Traditional Media featuring Bert Dumars, Vice President of E-Business and Interactive Marketing for Newell-Rubbermaid; Angela Losasso, Global Social Media Strategist for HP Imaging and Printing Group; and Debbie Curtis-Magley of UPS. We streamed the panel discussion live online and it is now archived for your viewing.

From L to R: Debbie Curtis-Magley (UPS), Bert DuMars (Newell-Rubbermaid), Angela Losasso (HP Imaging and Printing Group), and Jennifer A. Jones (Porter Novelli)

The room was packed with Atlanta’s finest C-level executives as we examined real world case studies around integrating digital/social media and traditional MARCOM and media strategies to drive business and measurable success. We covered the different ways digital and social media is intergrated internally from an organizational standpoint and how these online channels are changing business functions outside of MARCOM. Mr. Dumars, for example, shared a story about how user-generated consumer reviews impacted product development. Ms. Curtis-Magley shared an example of how traditional media’s interest in covering social media buzz can be leveraged to a brand’s advantage, particularly with regard to correcting false rumors. Ms. Losasso explained that the crediblity to talk about your brand online begins by talking to customers about themselves and their experiences as well as how this kind of customer engagement online has changed the rules of traditional product launches.

The hour-long conversation covered a variety of tangible case studies, future trends like mobile marketing, social media ROI, online monitoring and measurement, as well as the real world challenges and benefits to integrating digital and social media into all marketing communications functions. We thank everyone who participated and attended and look forward to seeing you all again at the next Intelligent Dialogue.

I’m trying to remember the first time I met Gary Vaynerchuk. I searched my Gmail account and found an email back from 2007 when I e-introduced myself and was angling for a bring in the thunder wristband. Well, that little tchotchke was just the beginning of a strong friendship. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of being in Gary’s company at a myriad of business events, book signings and even on the Affiliate Summit Party Bus from Boston back to NYC (that was insane). Gary’s charisma translates both online and offline and because of his mantra of hard work and family first, I can truly say he deserves all of his success.   

To that end, I am proud to announce that Gary will be stopping by Porter Novelli to have a fireside chat with us about what it means to #crushit. He will specifically touch base on what it means to be an online influencer in today’s world and how to leverage personal brands for campaigns with clients.

Gary is more than a Web personality and NYTimes Best Selling author. He represents the countless individuals who are leading the charge in the reshaping the media and entertainment industry. Having tapped into an online audience with a message that is much bigger than wine or business, he roams the world helping people realize their passions and flourish.  For those who would like to attend the event virtually, a livestream will be available at 1pm ET on the Porter Novelli Web site here (see Ustream embed below).

For more information on Gary, please visit http://tv.winelibrary.com/ and http://www.vaynermedia.com.

Live Broadcasting by Ustream

The war over the delivery of digital content continues to rage and new battlegrounds are introduced every day.  It’s being waged on many fronts and by many conglomerates. Some battles are making their way through the courts, and others via the board room. And now a series of recent events are shining a new light on how consumers may soon be impacted.

Much of this traces back to the current spat over net neutrality working through the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington D.C.   In August of 2008, the FCC dinged Comcast for their policy of bandwidth throttling.  In essence this is the practice of allowing certain content to flow freely from the source to the customer, while other content is given a lower priority and the delivery is slowed.  While this action by the FCC was, at the time, heralded as the pillar for the future fair-use of the internet, it seems now that it may have been outside the commission’s jurisdiction to make such a ruling.

This has further implications with the announcement last December that Comcast would eventually gain control of NBC Universal from GE. With their history of bandwidth abuse, it is sure to cause some concern as the Department of Justice review’s the deal.  Comcast will now own the pipes, the access, the content, and may have a free pass from the Court of Appeals to monitor and throttle content on their network as they see fit.  This is a dangerous amount of control especially given their other transgressions in cable TV.

As content continues its migration online from traditional outlets, companies like Comcast and Time Warner will be able to turn their customers into captive audiences delivering their own content faster than the competitions. If you’re ISP is Time Warner then perhaps the connection to NBC’s website will be suddenly slowed or USA Network will start appearing in the high hundreds on your TV dial. Meanwhile, Comcast Triple Play subscribers may find their access to HBO.com come to a crawl.

An alternative Orwellian vision of the future may include marketing partnerships that are priced for preferential treatment.  Advertising blocks purchased in packages across multiple networks and properties would include prioritized delivery as well.  Where advertisers used to wield power over the content of shows, the new paradigm may shift to seeing the networks penalize marketers for such maneuvers by blocking consumer access to product sites or network ads.

Although the future for the consumer does not have to be so bleak, there is certainly one important take away; buyer beware. It’s no longer enough to hold trust in access providers that all content is created, and delivered, equal.  And while the war being fought over the 1^st & 2^nd screens may look to be drawing to a close, the battle for the 3^rd screen is only getting started.