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| Gini Dietrich |
The following is an interview with Gini Dietrich, founder and chief executive officer of Arment Dietrich, blogger extraordinaire, and recognized communication professional on soical media network sites. So thank you Gini Dietrich for taking the time to help out some College of Charleston students.
By using the main points outlined in the objective, we seek to gain knowledge regarding the connections between technology and communication practices and pose the following questions to gauge this relationship:
1. Have you noticed a change in communication patterns due to technology advancements? How so and to what extent?Yes, a huge change. Our industry has remained the same, pretty much since the inception of public relations. The timing of the economy and the launch of the social web has changed not only the way people communicate with the companies from which they buy, but also the way we, as companies, work with our customers. It’s totally flipped everything on its head and the old way of doing things is just that – the old way of doing things.
2. What forms of technology are most beneficial and prevalent in day-to-day business practices (i.e. Twitter for scanning trends, Facebook for marketing, Digg, LinkedIn, e-mail, webinars, etc.)?It really depends on the business and the industry. For instance, LinkedIn is fantastic for B2B companies and Facebook is great for B2C companies. It also depends on what the company is trying to achieve. Personally, I use Twitter as a newsfeed, but also to promote the great work others are doing (as well as some of the work we do). At work, we use Facebook as a way to find more in-depth information about specific things (AT&T buying T-Mobile or the air strike on Libya). We use LinkedIn to find potential candidates for open positions we have at Arment Dietrich. We use email marketing to provide thought leadership from within our four walls. We use webinars to test different pay models for content. We use StumbleUpon, Digg, and Delicious to bookmark and promote Spin Sucks.
3. What forms of technology do you use to reach target/niche markets? In other words, do you use one medium for x market and another medium for y market?This is another “it depends.” For some of our clients, Yahoo! Answers and discussion groups are still better than blogs or Facebook. While others see huge value from attending events such as SXSW and getting to know influential bloggers. We really focus on what makes sense for the business, their customers, and their industry than on the shiny new penny.·
4. How do you determine which technological outlet to use? Do you use technology to tell you which form of technology to use to maximize ROI? An example would be twitter software that tracks followers and determines the optimum time to tweet to maximize retweets, etc. We used to pay attention to statistics in bit.ly and su.pr, but now we track through Google analytics and PostRank. This shows us our goals, the trends, how much engagement we have from particular posts, sticking power, traffic, pageviews, and provides us insight into things to do better or differently.
5. How have you seen communication in business practices evolve due to existing and emerging forms of technology?It has completely flipped everything on its head. It used to be that we would track “results” through number of samples distributed or media impressions (which is calculated by multiplying the circulation with a pass-along rate), share-of-voice, positive vs. neutral vs. negative conversations (through media and influencers), etc. Now just distributing samples isn’t enough. We have a client who is doing a campaign at marathons this year. In the past, we’d provide samples of their new product in the goodie bags and watch to see if sales increased in some fashion. Now we’ve included a QR code that goes directly to a marathon Facebook page, where you can get all sorts of information, as well as buy the product. If people buy there, we know it’s solely due to the efforts of the product giveaway.
6. In what ways has this been beneficial?It’s beneficial in so many ways: Finally we can track our efforts to sales. PR is no longer an expense; it’s an investment. Customers can communicate directly with companies. Companies don’t have to rely on third-party influencers to tell their story. The world truly is flat and David can compete with Goliath without going into bankruptcy.
7. In what ways has this been detrimental?
I don’t think it has been, or will be, detrimental. When I speak, I hear all the time, “But we can’t control what people say online.” Nope. You can’t. But guess what? You can’t control what they say offline, either. Nothing has really changed. The only difference is that now you know if someone has said something negative about you, and you can do something about it. Before, if someone had something negative to say, you might not know about it until your sales dropped and you’re looking at historical financial data trying to figure out what happened.
8. What are some emerging trends that you are seeing as a result of increasing popularity/use of social network and social media sites? I think we’re going to see a shift toward private and secure sites that are opt-in. While everyone loves Facebook, it’s created a sense of “we don’t care about your privacy” and I think people are going to revolt and find new ways to communicate with their networks. We’re seeing a shift toward open Q&A sites, such as Quora and the resurgence of Yahoo! Answers. I think, in the next 18 months, the tablet is going to completely change the way we learn. Soon you’ll be interacting with content, both professionally and personally, that brings a completely customized experience to you.
BRING PAST PREDICTIONS INTO FUTURE CONTEXT: The following past predictions on Internet impacts are taken from Gartner, Inc. (www. gartner.com).
1. In what ways to you agree/disagree with the following predictions? How have you seen this in your company?
[Prediction from 2008] “Following the trend of the last few years, many of the new entries on this year’s Hype Cycle, including microblogging, social networking platforms and cloud computing, are making their impact in the consumer world before they hit businesses,” said Jackie Fenn, vice president and Gartner Fellow. We’ve certainly seen the impact of some of these technologies in the consumer world. And it has changed the practice of PR. Gartner predicts they will have an impact on the entire enterprise in the years to come.
Hmmmm….well, Twitter (microblogging), Facebook/Digg/Quora/YouTube/Flickr/etc (social networking platforms) and Google/Dropbox (cloud computing) are here. Sure they hit the consumer world first, but we’re past them hitting the business world. We’re about to hit mass consumption and things will begin to be formalized. Just like when the Internet launched and businesses had to figure out how to create websites, we’re soon at that point with the social web. The interesting thing about cloud computing is that, in the past two weeks, three clients have asked us what we think about keeping data on the cloud. I recommend it!
[Prediction from 2007] In 10 years, the largest influence on all purchases will be the virtual experience associated with them, according to Gartner, Inc. By 2015, more money will be spent marketing and selling to multiple anonymous online personas than marketing and selling offline. This transition in customer interaction is being driven by Generation Virtual, also known as “Generation V.” http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=545108
I don’t know that it’ll necessarily be to anonymous online personas, but it will be online. Too many companies are requiring you verify your real self online so the anonymous piece of it will go away. But we’re headed toward very exciting times. Imagine a world where we know exactly who is buying from us, what they buy, how they buy, and what they like. Suddenly the experience becomes completely customizable, which creates loyalty and hugely influential brand ambassadors.
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