Online Communication TrendsDavid Phillips 2012

Our aim today

•Have lots of fun•Use our imagination•Think sideways•Find people online•Research audiences •Reassure ourselves that all this work is

worthwhile

Communications rules for this lecture

•You MUST use Twitter▫Tell your friends where you are▫Comment of what you find out▫Talk about the lecture and lecturer

•You MUST use Facebook▫Because it’s there▫Because the photos you put on Facebook

will help you remember.•Did you blog about the bits of this lecture

you find cool? Of course you did.

Lets take a sneak preview into tomorrow

A simple task• Identifying and targeting consumer

media; platforms, channels and tactics.▫The story of a handbag

Your client makes top of the range handbags

Who would you target to place your stories about their products?

Which media?

•Magazines?•In-store promotion?•Newspaper supplements?•Celebrity?

But this is where the audience is

The new media

NicheIn conversationSharingE(mail) communication

Facebook users in Portugal: 4,581,040

Where do we find the constituents• We look for common values

▫ One way is to use Google’s Adwords.

▫ See what words (values) attach to your brand

The values attaching to ‘handbag’organiser hooks designer black patent charms navy

As if by magic, the words found in Google that do not include the makers or the word handbag still take us to sites about handbags!

The words lead us to the constituents

Is Grunig out of date?

•The constituency does not have to be very engaged but does have similar values

•The big issue is often remote from the values common between the individual and audience

•There is no segmentation in messaging ‘everyone can see everything’

•Publics of one and in this instant only is now common.

•Public of millions is meaningless.

How to ask questions of your constituents

The winner....Google Surveys

Try Survey Monkey

The samples get big

Big Data

How do PR’s mine Big Data?

But where do I go to join the party?

• Many more• More to come• Many surprises

The nature of communication – the internet of things

• Apps• Widgets• Dresses• Glasses• Video games• Smart cards• Location tracking• Embedded communication

Nicole Scherzinger, formerly of Pussycat Dolls fame, stepped out on Thursday night wearing a Twitter Dress, an electronic-powered frock that displayed real tweets in real time.

Putting the new constituents and new platforms together – case study

It’s not what you have been taught. It has changed.

• How do you segment constituencies (publics?, stakeholders? Socio-economic groups?)

• Which media do segments use?• What is the media? • To what extent are platforms part of the

message and audience selection?• To what extent are platforms and channels user

centric (does your mum use a wii?).• Traditional paid-for has a role (e.g. paid search

and web advertising)

In the meantime all this stuff is translating into economic activity•The research

Is it for Portugal?

When the rest of the economy is.... er...• UK is a leader. Where it goes, so too will the rest of Europe.• Total U.K. Internet traffic is expected to increase by an

average of 37 percent every year between 2010 and 2015.• The U.K. Internet ecosystem is worth £82 billion a year• Every £1 spent on Internet connectivity—mobile and fixed

broadband networks—currently supports £5 in wider revenue for the U.K. ecosystem.

• Of the total £82 billion U.K. Internet economy, £37 billion is in the Internet value chain and £45 billion in the e-commerce it supports. The value chain is 2.6 percent of the country's GDP, while e-commerce is a further 3.1 percent.

• 2011 data showed that Portugal is catching up very fast.

Meanwhile Portugal BOOOOMs!• Internet retailing continued to grow in 2011, reaching €401

million. • The amount spent per person on internet purchases increased by

23%, • Internet retailing widened its consumer base• The level of confidentiality and security for online payment

remained an important concern amongst Portuguese consumers. • However, internet retailing in Portugal is experiencing

dynamic development, with an increasing number of Portuguese shopping online on a regular basis.

• The main factors which attract consumers to this channel are convenience of shopping and competitive prices.

• Six million consumers online (55.2% of population)• The number of internet users in Portugal is rising, which is

also helping to boost sales.

What we have learned• The way we consume information is changing• There are now many more media outlets and many are online• The audience is not in nice segments anymore• People cluster round values – which we can find using Google

tools (among others) • We can find where consumers and opinion formers are by

researching values.• Opinion and Consumer research is now possible and inexpensive

online.• This is all possible because we can interrogate (Big Data)• The internet is escaping the PC and we now have the beginnings

of the ‘Internet of Things’.• All this activity is making the internet bigger and more important• It is driving our economies.• Portugal is Boooooming online!

Our aim today

•Have lots of fun•Use our imagination•Think sideways•Find people online•Research audiences •Reassure ourselves that all this work is

worthwhile

•Yup... We did all that!