Turning News Into Knowledge

LinkedIn announced a partnership with Twitter on Nov. 9  allowing LinkedIn users to Tweet status updates from LinkedIn and vice versa by including a #li or #in hashtag in updates.

The announcement spread quickly across the Twittersphere after Mashable blogged about it the same day. LinkedIn and Twitter users around the world were fast to jump in and try it out, many of whom merely announced that their updates were now posting to both Twitter and LinkedIn. In fact 23.3% of tweets from our sample in the first couple of days did just that.

After two weeks, it seems the use of #li and #in has dropped to less than 10% of the activity in the initial 2 days after the launch.

More interesting facts:

• Realtors and recruiting “tweeters” were fast to make use of the tags.  4 of the top 5 handles (@hrdadgar, @ZuluJobsIN, @linkedin_jobs and @hotcandidates) posted 31.6% of tweets using the new tags, @hrdadger posted 26.7% of all tweets alone!

• #in seemed to be the preferred tag, with #li being used in only 9.2% of LinkedIn tweets.

• Of the top 10 URLs used in these updates, 75% linked to the announcement about the LinkedIn Twitter partnership

While the partnership may have been a strategic business move for two of the top social networks, the lack of uptake by users might deem this initiative a #fail.

This is a quick look at emerging patterns on Twitter. After three-months, MediaMiser will do a full analysis on multiple news sources. Stay Tuned!

Just a quick note to let you know about our open house event happening this Thursday, Nov. 26, 2009 from 4-6 pm at our new office on Holland Avenue. We’d like to welcome you into our new office and to help us celebrate a great year of growth for the company.

Hors d’oeurves and drinks will be served. Also, we’re collecting non-perishable food items for the Ottawa Food Bank, if you’d like to bring an item.

We hope you can make it!

Full details and RSVP here…

Please take this post with a grain of salt. However, this has been a really weird week in both the world of sports and the Twittosphere.

This week, we had cases of politicians and public figures tweeting stuff they shouldn’t, which of course made it to the mainstream press, making the person who made the inappropriate tweet look foolish and requiring them to make an apology.

In the world of sports, the FIFA World Cup (Soccer/Football) is reeling from an extremely contentious goal scored by the French National team over Ireland, knocking the Irish out of the upcoming World Cup in South Africa.

So, what do these two things have in common? Well today, Thierry Henry, the French player who passed the ball with his hand (which should have negated the goal, sending Ireland to the World Cup) was reported by the Telegraph to have apologized on Twitter. You can see his apology on his Twitter page.

Now, I’m not saying it was inappropriate of Henry to say he’s sorry on Twitter. In fact, I believe this is a very good forum to do so, and many politicians and public figures may want to take note. That said, for the mainstream media reporting on Tweets of this nature, let’s be honest, it’s made for an interesting and very weird week.

Therefore, in the spirit of this very weird week, I suggest we develop a terminology for issuing apologies on Twitter.

I went to a Twitter glossary and found terminology for almost everything, except an apology. Since Twitter is now broadcasting apologies and, in many cases, is creating reasons for people (or tweeple) to apologize, we need a Twitter term for an apology.

Do you have a suggestion? Leave a comment below…

Resources:

• Nearly a third of the members of Parliament are on Twitter bandwagon (Canadian Press)
• MP tweets herself into hot water (Sun media)
• Halak agent faces Twitter backlash (CBC)
• Thierry Henry apologises for handball on Twitter (Telegraph)
• Thierry Henry’s Twitter page
• Twitter Glossary

As PR and social media measurement gains strength and focus from experts and various audiences, bashing eyeball count, or reach numbers, and advertising value equivalencies (AVE) has become a favourite sport.

While I am in full agreement with the new measurement theories and understand the importance of starting with your objectives and measuring outcomes that meet the set objectives, I would insist that eyeball count still plays a part in the overall picture and here are some reasons why:

Connecting is the first step

If you are putting out a press release, tweet, blog post, podcast or any message, your goal obviously is to communicate with your desired public, engage them and generate the desired outcome from that engagement. The fact that they have seen (eyeball count) is the first step towards this process. The higher the eyeball count, the higher the probability of engagement. There is an old saying “the beautiful peacock danced in the jungle, but who cares no one really saw it.” It’s the same here, you might have the best concept, but if nobody read it or saw it then you’re not going to go much further with your campaign.

Hence measuring the reach is your first and important step in the process of measuring the campaign success. If we stop at this step, (which traditionally we have been doing) then it does not mean much. But it’s an important foundational step to further build upon the full picture of impact and measurement.

Create departmental synergies before you knock off the eyeballs

Conceptually, any campaign, when created, involves top management, marketing, sales, PR and other departments. Ideally they should all be talking to each other through implementation to measurement. In reality, due to time and resource constraints or simply poor management, the implementation and measurement happens in independent silos. This prohibits percolation of original concept and messaging to all decision makers, especially when external PR and marketing consultants are involved.

Now the task of truly measuring the impact of a campaign in a cohesive way is an even bigger challenge. In the end, each unit ends up highlighting results for their individual efforts instead of focussing on the objectives of the campaign and company goals. So while sales have its numbers to show, marketing has its branding and advertising results, PR (and specifically the media relations unit) often is left with showcasing the reach and AVEs as a quantitative measure of its efforts. So until we get to the utopian world of perfect communication synergy, eyeballs are here to stay.

I absolutely love all the discussions and focus on new measurement concepts, and it’s just the right kind of thinking that will help elevate the importance of communicators, but in doing so, I would be careful to not step on to the media relations people and discount their efforts. Eyeballs and AVEs aren’t the be-all, end-all of measurement but they have their place in the big picture.