measured PR

Facebook Patent: Facebook awarded major patent by US Patent and Trademark Office

Facebook filed a patent claim on August 11, 2006 for what is now called the newsfeed patent, which was awarded on February 23, 2010. Commentators are calling this the single-most significant patent since the Six Degrees patent, which had its fair share of drama. So, what is so significant in this patent? It is vastly broad and open to interpretation. Twitter's future comes to mind and according to Nick O'Neill Facebook are claiming that this does not apply to status updates, instead it is about implicit actions and stories that a user is engaged in. Implicit actions?

The results are in: etsisalat takes the lead as the most talked about brand in the telecoms segment in UAE dailies, followed by Zain and du.

Data supplied is a summary of the period 9 Feb to 22 Feb 2010. Figures include positive, neutral and negative mentions in the UAE Arabic and English morning daily newspapers. Companies are counted only once if its name is used on more than one occasion in a single article. Indices and stock prices are not counted. The margin of error is +/-5%. Impressions are based on the number of mentions multiplied by the claimed circulation.

I have watched tweets and blogs about Tweetups and then GeekFests and I ignored them. I ignored them because I thought they were cheesy. By the third one (or what is dubbed 3.14 and incorrectly called geek to the power 3.14) I decided that it was time to check what it was all about. Admittedly, part of the turn off was the location. Al Quoz. I'm not particularly fond of driving in areas I'm not familiar as I am notoriously known for my lack of internal GPS :) But.. still. Al QUOZ?!

A few days ago, Socialize and YouGov Siraj issued a press release about the influence social media has on consumer decisions. The headline read: Most UAE residents use social media for purchase decisions. I had to pause for a minute. Really? Are you saying that UAE residents are the most tech savvy?

Oh, wait.. the survey conducted by YouGov Siraj is conducted online. So, we can rephrase this by saying, most residents who are online use social media to make purchasing decisions. Admittedly, this does not make for an attractive, attention grabbing headline. I'm not a journalist, so I'm sure someone can do a better job at that.

You talk to anyone in the PR industry about the blatant lies that come out of their agencies on behalf of their clients and they will vehemently defend themselves with words like "integrity" and "credibility". The truth of the matter is, PRs lie. Some stretch the truth, some bend it and most outright break it.

Although not unique to our region, but we do have a rather unhealthy obsession with being the 'first' and 'only'. I will not pretend, we love being the first and we try to always be ahead of everyone else. The problem is when you are so focused on that and you forget to check if you are indeed the first or not!

Indeed it's not just a question of lying about just being first or only.. it also goes back to throwing out figures that have no basis in reality. And oh how we love to give out dollar amounts! The general justification a PR will have is that journalists love numbers and so we need them even if we have to make them up!

The UAE press during the period of January 26, 2010 to February 8, 2010 on the Automotive industry shows no surprises. Toyota coverage skyrocketed with the constant flow of bad news and recalls.

The past couple days have been crazy. Coincidental announcements from us and a competitor about the launch of social media monitoring solutions! You can't make this stuff up! What caught my attention however was the whole Arabic-centric theme. Clever. Not entirely honest, but a clever PR twist.

Arabic is a challenging language to support, from a purely technical point of view. Well, at least it used to be. I know this from my experience when I was writing the first Open Source Arabic Spellchecker back in my Arabeyes days. You see, I know a thing or two about Arabic and the linguistic challenge involved.

Communicate magazine's October 2009 issue carried a story about PR measurement where a competitor made the prediction 90% of his clients will not use AVE's (from the current claimed 60%). My reaction was: huh?! It's one thing to inflate figures -- something the region is notoriously known for -- but to even make predictions based on made-up figures? Having been an integral part of the measurement industry in the Middle East, I would have to admit that these figures are nothing short of an impressive science fiction movie.

I have seen many Twitter HOWTO's and Guides, but I have yet to come across one that shows consumers how they can get the attention of brands/products. We have all been busy talking about how we can talk to consumers, how we can engage with them.. which is all great, but we seem to forget that just like marketers, a lot of these social media tools are new to consumers as well. After all, we are all consumers.

Being on the monitoring end of things, I hope that I can give some insights to how brands see the world and how you, the consumer, can make your voice better heard. The most important thing you need to know is this: good brands are really trying to listen.

Give your opinion weight

The bulk of PR agencies in the Middle East aim at gaining more media exposure to their clients. I think evaluation fits in when we smartly link this media exposure with pre-set business outcomes to our clients.
Needless to say that organizations from both private and public sectors in the Gulf have recognized the power of public relations in strengthening brand equity and enhancing corporate reputation.
They started to recognize that PR involves creating, maintaining and enhancing long term relationships with stakeholders.
Clients in the region realize that their stakeholders have become too demanding. These facts make it imperative to PR practitioners to start providing integrated solutions directly tailored to match their clients’ PR requirements and precisely evaluated according to pre set business outcomes to move PR from being “lovely to have” to being a crucial part of any business strategy!