You might ask: “A follow button? What else is new?” But this button is an important part of Mynewsdesk’s “network feature”.  And, believe me, this button make sense.

Some companies are using the web simply to get their message out there. No more no less. And that’s fine. As long their information make sense for the visitors. And the visitors are the people they would like to reach. Which is the main purpose with their web presence, I guess.

But, as you’ve seen, more and more companies are taking the opportunity to engage with the visitors as well. They would like to get to know them a little bit better; listen to what they have to say; understand their needs and wants, to be able to serve them even better.

Journalists, thought leaders, industry spokesmen, bloggers, speakers, frankly all professional communicators or experts, in one way or another, are no exceptions. But they usually don’t want consumer related updates. But core corporate information, as long it’s not corporate bullshit. They want real authentic stuff, sensational facts, preferably exclusive. Because these people need information advantage, to keep their authority.

If you’re a journalist and would like to connect with the companies from this point of view, you don’t get enough out of being a fan to companies Facebook pages, nor to follow them on Linkedin, Twitter, Quora, Foursquare, among others.

In this case the newsroom do play a very important role. If the companies don’t just dump their content, but are using it to connect with the people that really matters.

Mind, that the “follow feature” is not equivalent to the “subscribe features” like RSS, newsletters, etc, but a feature for people to connect and engage. Because the foundation of PR has always been to connect and engage with influencers over phone and voice. Now, I believe it’s time to use the latest web based network solutions for the same purpose.

It’s very easy to integrate the button to your site. Just copy the script and paste. For existing hosted newsroom clients of Mynewsdesk, it’s already there.

Get ready to connect.

Image from WebCoast 2012 by Sina Farhat

The Swedish word ‘knytkonferens’, translating as potluck conference, was coined last year when the first Swedish unconference on the west coast, WebCoast, took place. And the word really hits the nail on the head of what the concept is all about.

How so? It is the participants who contribute to the content of the conferences with their own skills and experience. That it sparks associations with potluck dinners is unsurprising, but instead of food, it is knowledge that is being shared; instead of bringing a cake to the table, the participants put up a note on a notice board about what they would like to talk about and add to the agenda. And isn’t it true that a couple of the dishes at a potluck party always appear particularly enticing?

In order for a potluck conference to work, there are a handful of prerequisites. You need a space with a number of smaller rooms; everyone must know what time things kick off in the morning and when you will call it a day; and a time must be agreed when the participants get to stick their notes up on a board, or ‘the grid’. A session, then, can be anything from a discussion to a workshop or lecture. The grid offers a square for each time slot, and as the session notes are added the conference agenda starts to take shape. You can read more about the different terms and concepts here.

The dynamic that emerges when everyone gets the chance to talk about something that matters deeply to them is very rewarding and tends to lead to stimulating discussions – chats that don’t follow a traditional round-the-table format but bring in new perspectives. As a participant you are forced to really get to grips with what’s on offer, rather than simply follow a pre-determined agenda and passively listen to the speakers and sales people like you normally would. At a potluck conference you actively choose which sessions to attend; it is not about ‘any other business’ or other last-minute items at the end of the day-two timetable when everyone’s itching to go home.

The potluck conference concept creates an environment where everyone who wants to speak gets to speak, increasing understanding and cooperation across departments. I can picture sessions on customer service, complaint handling and campaign ideas, to suggest a few examples based on my experience over the years. Imagine the fresh perspectives you can get when discussing issues with colleagues you normally don’t work with on a day-to-day basis. For those of us working with communication, creativity is a word that has become almost like a mantra, and with that in mind, the potluck conference fits right in.

The fact that you have to go to a specific place to check the agenda (the grid) means that mingling and networking comes naturally – unlike when you rush to the coffee machine on the way to a meeting and barely notice whether the person next in line is a colleague or an external visitor.

Here are some concrete tips. Start by making half a day of your next conference into a potluck conference. Let the employees talk openly about their passions – and don’t limit it to work-related topics. Appoint someone who starts off by talking about their hobby, just to get people to think outside the box. Ensure that there are plenty of smaller conference rooms and spaces to help stimulate dialogue and conversation. Appoint another person who is responsible for bringing the grid and pieces of paper to write on. Make it easy for yourselves! It may sound like a sweeping generalization, but all organizations want to create an environment where everyone gets to have their say and enjoy a creative milieu with inspiring colleagues. Swapping a traditional conference setting for one with no agenda can be one way of kickstarting that process – so be open-minded and try out a potluck conference!

What businesses are brave enough to let the staff decide on the content of a conference in 2012, thereby creating the first internal potluck conferences in Sweden? That, I’d like to know!

This post was written by Sandra Gonzalez Sköld, one of the people behind WebCoast.

http://about.me/sandragskold

With our latest update you can now create and post related material directly from your press release, news or blog entry. Our goal is to make it easier for you.

Working on your press release, you see the button – create new. Click and a menu pops up, where you can easily and efficiently add and directly relate your material to your press release. The related material will get the same categories as your press release, but you can of course tag this material as you want.

Remember, when you upload related material via this quick form. The material will only get title, caption, and tags. If you want more information related to your material then choose to publish the material as usual.

The best thing of it all – when you publish your press release, the related material is also published!

Remember you can always contact client support if you have questions!

Pinterest is essentially a website where users can collect images that inspire, excite, or make them happy. This virtual pin board can include anything from gorgeous dresses, tasty recipes, or motivational quotes. Despite still being invitation-only, it was one of 30 most visited sites in the US. Between 12 January and 12 February, over 103 million Americans visited and “pinned” something on Pinterest.

If you’re new to Pinterest, search for things you like and you’ll be guaranteed to find something you could pin and subsequently find users to follow. User keywords or hashtags.

If you want to spread a particular image on Pinterest, you can choose to Repin, Like, or Comment. If you like the image, it’ll end up in the Like-feed on your profile page. If you Repin something (which is similar to Tumblr’s Reblog or Twitter’s Retweet), it will end up in the Pin-feed. Comments work in much the same way as Twitter (with an @) and a user will be notified if you mention her. And it will most likely be a “her” – about 80% of users are female.

You can of course pin images to your Pinterest yourself. Upload an image or pin something from the web, but don’t forget to credit the owner of the image or first ask for permission.

If everything works correctly, the image you pin will always link back to the webpage it was originally published on. This is great for companies that have a webstore, as they can drive direct traffic to a specific product. The images can be easily embedded in a blog or website and will automatically link back to Pinterest.

When you repine or pin, you can choose to sort the images in a folder, or Board. As a new user, you get a few suggested default Boards which you can rename. If you come across a person you want to follow, you can choose to follow all their pins or just specific boards you’re interested in. Those that follow you see what you’ve pinned or repined, but not things you’ve liked.

I’m sure you’ve noticed the hype around Pinterest in the past few months. This has led to a huge number of companies to start their own branded Pinterest boards. Here’s a list of the “usual suspects”:

• Southwest Airlines
• Coca-Cola
• Dunkin’ Donuts
• McDonald’s
• Starbucks
• Volkswagen
• Sony Music
• Nordstrom

Here’s an exhaustive list of 250 companies on Pinterest (mostly North American).

If you want to start a company Pinterest board, make sure you read the terms and conditions first. For some brands, Pinterest is a great way to work with images. Etsy and GAP are great examples of this. For other types of businesses, you might need to be a bit more creative. See HubSpot as an example of how a bit of quirky creativity could help promote the brand.

Source: heartbeatoz.tumblr.com via Helen on Pinterest

A couple of additional tips to those of you interested in Pinterest.

You can add a Pin It button to your webpages, products, or images. You can find this button under Goodies. Also, if you want to track if anyone has pinned any of your images, just use the following URL: interest.com/source/webaddress.com. For example: http://pinterest.com/source/gap.com/ or http://pinterest.com/source/mynewsdesk.com/

If you want even more Pinterest stuff, check out my collection on GimmeBar and feel free to follow my Pinterest boards if you are interested in vintage dresses, furniture, and all things in between!

Helen Alfvegren works as a media planner at PHD. She has a passion for communication through images, text, and video. She blogs at helalf.se and tweets as @rockspindeln (in Swedish).

This blog entry was originally published in Swedish on helalf.se.
Re-posted with permission!

SXSW Interactive

SXSW Interactive is “an incubator of cutting-edge technologies and offers compelling presentations from the brightest minds, networking events hosted by industry leaders, and special programs showcasing the best new websites, video games and start-up ideas.”

Launched nearly 20 years ago, this festival has steadily grown to be probably the biggest of its kind in the world – and easily one of the events the attendees look forward to most.

Hot Topics

Just from glancing at the immense schedule of events, seminars, and workshops, you can see that this year will offer something for everyone… literally. It can seem a bit daunting, but one thing that stood out for me was the many sessions focusing on that buzzword of buzzwords, “viral”.

For a many of you (myself included) the topic may have been done to death, but the reality is that it still is the “holy grail” of  advertisers, marketers, and communicators. Just look at the Super Bowl ads that have popped up in the last few years. Or, more interestingly, check out the lower budget ads or the non-commercial videos that are have “gone viral” to varying degrees, such as these:

11 144 256 views

2 037 428 views

818 406 views

Is It All Random?

As descriptions of the sessions listed below suggest, the answer seems to be no.  There is a science behind it, as well as the need to invest quite a bit of resources to get the job done. So, how do you make your branded content go viral? Here are a select few sessions that deal with this:

• Deconstructing the Myth of Viral Video

• Hacking YouTube: Science & Secrets of Viral Videos

• Viral Is a Dirty Word: Strategic Video Success

• Branded Content: We’re All Publishers Now

• Screw the Big Screen, We Have the Web!

• Entertain or Fail: Brands As the New Publishers

• TV is Dead. Video Advertising is Alive & Well

If you are not attending the festival, don’t fret. Each session has handily been assigned an official Twitter hashtag for everyone to follow. If that fails, someone is bound to put something up on YouTube or Slideshare in a week’s time or so!

If you are attending… I’m not jealous at all. Nope. Not one bit!

Sometimes the local copies have more users than the original, and better features too. Our guest blogger Juliana Loh has examined these and compared some of the copies with its original counterparts, giving great insights and ideas to companies ready to take the plunge into Asian markets and their social spheres.

Social networking: Ren Ren vs. Facebook

There have been, and still are, various Chinese versions and copies of Facebook, but hands-down Ren Ren is the most popular. Ren Ren has a wide range of users, targeting to business professionals and white collar workers. So it is a suitable platform for brands to create a presence. It’s also the top app for download on iTunes, and free.

The other close competitor platform is Kaixin, but it has a larger demographic of students.

Microblog: Sina Weibo vs. Twitter

The sheer volume of netizens on the microblog Weibo beats Twitter handsdown. On the first day of the Chinese New Year this year, 32 312 tweets/messages were sent in one (!) second at the stroke of midnight on Weibo.

The interface is interactive and has always had the thumbnails of images and videos, which Twitter only recently implemented.

Most foreign luxury brands use Weibo, and some only post in English. Even President Obama himself uses it to spread his pre-campaign message. Many expats in China, or foreign celebrities, also have accounts to build their personal brand in the Asian marketplace, all tweeting only in English.

Interesting to note is also that Tencent QQ’s microblog, also called Weibo (to make matters even more confusing!), is catching up with Sina Weibo.

Photos: Weico vs. Instagram

This photo app is linked directly to Sina Weibo, the Chinese microblog and China’s equivalent of Twitter.

Apart from the different filters, there are however many more options in Weico, such as a ‘lomo wall’ and content marked by categories like ‘entertainment’ ‘horror’ ‘humour’ ‘news’ ‘hotspots’ (all linked to Jiepang, the China Foursquare equivalent).

Location services: Jiepang vs. Foursquare

Jiepang is a direct copy of Foursquare. It works the same way, but with a slightly easier navigation and interface.

The icon is a red crab that works the same way as a Foursquare check-in. It allows venues to promote specials, have fun badges and allow the user to see ‘hotspots’, ‘friends nearby’, ‘check-ins’ and tell you ‘how many people are there’.

Messaging chat programs: Weixin vs. Whatsapp (what is it?)

WhatsApp Messenger and Weixin are mobile messaging program apps. Weixin is free to download and has the full functions of the more known Whatsapp, but complete with emoticons. Tencent QQ (equivalent of MSN), is behind Weixin. The user interface has a full English option, so it’s a good way to stay in touch with Chinese friends, as Whatsapp comes at a cost to download. The app also has a photo function with different filters and layouts.

There are also options to find friends with a QR code or import them from your QQ contacts. They go even further by being cheeky to ask you to back up your contacts on your server (and sell the database after?).

Author Bio:

Juliana Loh was born and bred in Singapore and has worked in Italy (www.fabrica.it) and then Beijing where she spent 4 years working with the off/online Chinese media landscape before relocating to Hong Kong in February 2011 to set up the social media arm for @swirehotels. She is also editor-in-chief of their recently launched blog. She is responsible for curating and writing all its content, feeding and updating all social media platforms—an integral part of her digital strategy for Swire Hotels. Yes, she’s the multitasking elf behind illuminated screens answering all your tweets @swirehotels,@OppositeHouse @UpperHouse_HKG @EASTHongKong and inquiries on all the Facebook pages in Asia. Follow her tweets: @bilbaobab or 微博 @julianaloh

On 16  and 17 February, Mynewsdesk HQ in Stockholm will host People Days, our global staff conference.

While Customer Service will be open from 9am to 5pm as usual, please note that it may take us a little longer to respond to emails. Any invoicing or technical queries will be answered on Monday 20 February at the latest.

Thank you in advance for your understanding!

Best regards,
Mynewsdesk Customer Service

Nothing is so good it can’t get better. That could be the motto for our product team, who see to it that the Mynewsdesk platform is steadily being improved upon.

Mynewsdesk is the smarter platform for PR and brand engagement, but even a smarter platform can always get even better. Behind the scenes, our product team is working full time to improve on our offering. Sometimes, that means creating whole new features, like Explore. Sometimes, it means improving on what’s already there. That’s what they did this time. Three small but important updates to the platform to make life easier for our clients.

First out, it’s image uploading.
We’ve made it possible to upload multiple files at once to an account. We’ve also changed the way images are handled; rather than having two types of images – web images and high-resolution images – all pictures can be used for all types of materials.

Then, it’s related materials.
Now, relating item A to item B means that B is automatically related back to A. Sounds complicated? Not at all. You can set up the relation from either direction. Let’s say you have a press release and want to relate it to five images. As soon as you’ve added those five images and saved the press release, you’re done. You don’t have to go to each of the five images and relate them back to the press release.

The third and final update
This time it only concerns our Pro, Premium and Plus accounts. We’ve made it easier to add your newsroom to Facebook! From a 6-step instruction to one simple green button. Click it, and select the Facebook page you connect from the drop down menu.

What you can count on
If there’s one thing you can count on, whether you’re already using Mynewsdesk or considering signing up for the service, it’s that the platform is constantly being worked on to get even better, and even smarter. Nothing is so good it can’t get better!

To identify the key influencers for your brand, it’s not enough knowing just what is being said – you also need to know who’s saying it, and what kind of influence that person has. And that’s exactly what our Explore functionality is made for. It gives you a quick and easy overview of who’s said what about your brand, your competitors, your industry… Create your alerts, get the results in real time and get in touch with your key influencers.

The improved Explore functionality covers more than 40,000 sources. You’ll get a clear overview showing top influencers, most frequent influencers and most frequent sources. Explore covers not only editorial sites, but also Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. It couldn’t be easier. Go on, go ahead and find your key influencers!

5 points to make Explore work for you!

So how do you get the most out of Explore? We’ve put together these five easy steps to help you along  – here’s how to do it!

1)   Create your alerts
Figure out what’s important for you when finding your key influencers. Decide which key words you can use to cover your interests. A good place to start is your company name, words related to your industry and your biggest competitors.

2)   Sit back and give it some time
Let the Explore engine work its magic for a day or so. The alerts will start when you create them, and will not work on content published prior to you activating your search profile.

3)   Check out the results
On your Explore dashboard, the results will be collected in an overview, where you can see who’s been saying what. You can also check the hits, to see what’s being said.

4)   Get into the details
Check out the different hits. Who’s the actual person behind them? What sort of areas do the most influential hits cover?

5)   Get in touch
In the dashboard view, hit “follow”, in the hits view, you can choose to email. The choice of how to get in touch and interact with your key influencers is yours. You can easily reply to tweets, retweet, share likes or share articles on your own social media channels. Explore the possibilities of Explore, and don’t be afraid to click the different buttons to see what they do. There is always an extra step before anything is sent, so it’s hard to do something unintentionally.

Get Exploring!

Not enough has been shared about Chinese social media channels and even then, some are misleading and I personally find not quite helpful in terms of helping big corporations understand the game and what the marketing potential and critical mass of the Chinese can do for their products.

At the World Social Media Forum in Sep 2011 held in Singapore, there was little mention about weibo 微博, Sina’s microblogging platform that has huge marketing potential. One of the world’s larget market still remains exclusive and somewhat mysterious largely because of the language and cultural barriers. Additionally one needs to navigate the censorship heavy media landscape sensitively and strategically as the rules of the game changes in real time according the events happening in the country. Most recently, the riots in Guangzhou has caused restrictions in posts with words/vocab that hint opposition or violence are blocked.

Kidnapped children have been found and returned to their parents via weibo and real time netizen updates keeps one in the loop of popular culture. http://www.jingdaily.com/en/luxury/shang-xia-turns-luxury-to-philanthropy-helping-children-of-migrant-workers/

This introductory post is just a tip of the iceberg to introduce social media in China and the mirror platforms that I use frequently for Swire Hotels as well as some recent statistics that might be useful. The marketing team of Sina Weibo also kindly shared their marketing tools slide on how brands make full use of the micro blogging platform to launch and track campaigns in the Greater China markets.

We all know doing business in China is about relationships, or guanxi 关系, so entering the market with the right foot requires time, commitment and knowing the right friendly local folks who will help you out, whether is to make the phonecalls to the right person or organizing dinner with the connected person.

Sina Weibo Campaign Reference

A recent group discussion on linkedin listed the top 5 best key opinion leaders on weibo, it is misleading and I have to disagree with this because the startling numbers of 12-15 million followers for these celebrities don’t make them the right influencers for all brands like the article’s subhead claims “top 5 best profiles on Sina Weibo for your Key Opinion Leaders to help you to penetrate the China Market with the social media marketing”. It’s like asking Dunhill to put Snoop Dog in a suit and tweet given sheer fan numbers. Marketing to a Chinese audience follows the same vein. You get the drift.

For a high-end fashion brand, it’s logical to garner the support of the edit or in chief ofVogue China, Angelica who may only have 300,000+ followers, but her influence on consumer decisions is huge. I think Nike did a brilliant job with their China market penetration by updating their wallpaper with Li Na’s victory in real time when she won the championship. National pride + sporting spirit + a women’s sportswear label. Win-win. great social media strategy on their part.

I wouldn’t rule out the possibility that China would have its own intranet someday, with critical online mass, their own mirror social media platforms and the power of the great firewall, that would definitely be possible. If you’re in China, a good and reliable VPN is Astrill, the other proxy networks, well needs a VPN for you to land on the site to purchase one. The irony.

Some other stats and trivia at a recent weibo seminar in Sep 2011.

1. Weibo HKG has hit 2million users recently, with over 1000 corporate accounts (the blue V) and over 600,000 monthly unique vistors
2. has a KPI of 91%
3. Sucessful brand case studies on weibo include Johnny Walker, Intel, Olay feat Maggie cheung that generated significant number of forwards
4. ICBC has 159 accounts altogether managed by a team of 40. Weibo had advised against so many accounts given that content doesn’t differ much, but they have managed to push relevant content geographically for all their branches.

Author Bio:
Juliana Loh was born and bred in Singapore and has worked in Italy (www.fabrica.it) and then Beijing where she spent 4 years working with the off/online Chinese media landscape before relocating to Hong Kong in February 2011 to set up the social media arm for @swirehotels. She is also editor-in-chief of their recently launched blog. She is responsible for curating and writing all its content, feeding and updating all social media platforms—an integral part of her digital strategy for Swire Hotels. Yes, she’s the multitasking elf behind illuminated screens answering all your tweets @swirehotels,@OppositeHouse @UpperHouse_HKG @EASTHongKong and inquiries on all the Facebook pages in Asia. Follow her tweets: @bilbaobab or 微博 @julianaloh

Check out the Swire Hotels social media campaign that launched 3 weeks ago.

China sites in English that are helpful:
www.danwei.org
www.chinasmack.com

China’s version of sex in the city for laughs:
Sexy Beijing