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Simply stated, social media has changed the way we communicate during disasters. This is now abundantly clear with all of the online activity surrounding the recent earthquake in Haiti.

Over the past couple weeks, there has been a tremendous outpouring of support for the Haitian people. According to the Chronicle of Philanthropy donations have exceeded $470 million!

Mobile giving raises the bar

A large portion of donations are coming from The Red Cross’ mobile phone texting campaign. With partners Mobile Accord and the mGive Foundation, Red Cross quickly enacted a mobile texting campaign shortly after the earthquake hit. And with the help of the NFL playoff game spots and other widespread promotions, mobile phone users have donated over $25 million thus far just by texting “90999!” According to this NY Times story, over $500,000 per hour was donated to the Red Cross during recent NFL games. And according to Pew and Twitter-tracking service Sysomos, 189,024 tweets included “90999″ between January 12^th and 14^th. 2.3 million included the word “Haiti” or “Red Cross” in this same time frame. Truly unbelievable!

Relying on social media and citizen journalists

Not only has social media been used to gather donations, but people on the ground in Haiti have used Facebook and Twitter to send updates/photos, while concerned onlookers tune in to the constant stream of updates. In addition, news outlets have relied on social media and “citizen journalists” in their reporting. For example, CNN started a “Haiti Boots On Ground” Twitter list, compiling updates from the CNN reporters on the ground.  CNN’s iReport has also played a key role in their coverage of the disaster.

And companies have rallied to develop mobile apps and websites dedicated to the cause, such as a Creole-to-English translator app .  An organization called “The Extraordinaries” which allows people to complete micro-tasks for organizations or causes, using a mobile phone or web browser in a few minutes, have set up a support page at http://www.beextra.org/haiti to leverage the “power of the crowd” to help locate and identify missing persons.

Our best wishes to the Haitian people and to all of the families affected by the earthquake. Stay strong.

Filed under: Cause-Related, Internet, Media and Press, Mobile Industry, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 5 Comments →

There’s a lot of confusion about the new rules governing how brands can run contests and sweepstakes on Facebook.  We dug into the rules with help from  360PR friend Susan Getgood, and we’re happy to share our learnings in this post.

Get Your Contest Approved.

The most important thing to know is that all promotions administered on Facebook must be approved in writing by Facebook at least seven days before the start of the contest (advice: try to give two weeks notice to Facebook.)

If you are just promoting your contest, and all the action (entries) take place elswhere, you do NOT need approval from Facebook, but you should also not mention Facebook at all. Our advice is to put a notice on the Tab page announcing the contest that says “this promotion is solely sponsored by (insert your brand or company name here).”

If you are administering the contest on Facebook there are very specific rules and prohibitions including specific language that you must include on the entry form and in the rules. The entry form and official rules must include acknowledgement that Facebook is not involved, a signed release from each entrant, and a company contact for questions from contestants (so Facebook will not be contacted.)  Here are the other important Do’s and Dont’s.

What you CAN’T do

• Run a promo that targets individuals under the age of 18
• Promote gambling, tobacco, firearms, prescription drugs and gasoline
• Offer any of the above as prizes
• Offer dairy as a prize
• Run a sweepstakes that conditions the entry upon purchase or completion of a lengthy task
• You cannot condition entry to the promotion upon taking any action on Facebook, such as updating a status, posting on a profile or page, or uploading a photo (on standard FB areas). Rather, contests must send users to a custom app box in a tab or pop-up window to enter the contest
• Finally, no promotion can use any Facebook messaging mechanism (wall post, chat, message, poke, etc.) to administer the contest or alert winners. Winners must be alerted by email. You can promote the winners on the Facebook wall.

What you CAN do

• Post an announcement about a contests/sweeps on the wall; you just can’t administer it through the wall.
• Administer the contest on your website or on a Facebook tab.
• Run a photo contest in which a user uploads a photo or video through a third-party app to enter the contest.
• You can make being a fan a condition of entering a contest - by not displaying the tab to non-fans, or providing notice that you must be a fan to enter.  BUT, becoming a fan cannot be an automatic mode of entry. That is explicitly prohibited.
• You can instruct visitors to your page to visit the tab/third-party app to enter the promo and they will be prompted for their Facebook account to access the contest. If they don’t have one, they will be prompted to sign up.

Even with the new rules, we’re seeing many fun and engaging brand contests and sweepstakes on Facebook. Here are two examples of brands with great viral mojo doing contests on Facebook (and following the new rules.)

[Read more →]

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Social Media by CindyGordon - 10 Comments →

The wait is over!  The first weekly digital news round-up of the New Year is finally here.  I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath to find out what’s going on in the world of social media, so here it is.  To ease you into a year that’s sure to be a digital whirlwind, below are stories to frame your social media savvy for 2010.

Mashable “How Social Media Has Changed Us” -  It’s amazing how many technological innovations have been made in the past decade - Skype, text messaging and the widespread use of blogs, to name a few.  This piece presents some less-obvious ways in which social media has changed our lives and the lives of future generations. There’s no doubt technology has made our lives different, but the article’s author asks the question, “for better or worse?” 

AdAge “The Official Social Media and Mobile Glossary of 2010″ - I like to think of myself as being on the up and up when it comes to social media.  After all, combing through news stories, writing this weekly post and working at a PR agency as part of a dedicated digital team pretty much forces me to be in the know (willingly, of course!)  However, after studying the terms in this article, I feel ignorant.  Quad stalkers?  Deciprocity?  Mobilenecking?  I was fully aware that the actions described by these words existed, but who the heck made up these names to define our digital behavior?

Mashable “Facebook Founder on Privacy: Public is the New ‘Social Norm’” - It honestly scares me that I know friends of friends of friends last names, addresses and places of employment.  That knowledge is as comfortable to Mark Zuckerberg as a home cooked meal.  At a recent awards ceremony, the mastermind behind Facebook made it clear that lack of privacy is the wave of the future.  In my personal opinion, Facebook’s solely to blame for making our public lives private.  As with anything, if you don’t want the ride, don’t get on the bus.

Filed under: Internet, Social Media by SkyeMcIntyre - No Comments →

As I have finally conquered the hundreds of e-mails that awaited my return from a week in Las Vegas at CES, I have a moment to reflect on some of the things that struck me about this tradeshow in particular.  This was the first CES that I have attended (though I had plenty of 360PR vets to show me around), and I can assure all who have not been there that the hype is real.  CES consists of massive show floors that stretch across three different convention halls, hundreds of meeting rooms, and spills out to hotel suites all across the city - it is certainly far too much for one person to take in on their own.

Source: www.pcper.com

TWICE Magazine reported that the attendance of the first two days of CES was 112,515, which broke the forecast for the entire show.  In addition, this number was nearly 15,000 more attendees after two days than the previous year - perhaps a positive sign for 2010.  As a PR guy walking the show floor, it was awesome to see so much energy around some of the coolest products I have ever seen.  Some show product trends included tablets, e-readers, 3-D TV’s, and green tech, but there was certainly enough (something like 20,000 products were launched) to keep any techie salivating for days.

In particular, the media energy caught my attention, possibly because they were out in full force.  I was intrigued by the delight of the editors from Popular Mechanics as they handed out their CES Editor’s Choice Awards on Thursday (which Oregon Scientific, a 360 client, was fortunate enough to win).  It was clear that they were just as excited about the awards as they were handing out as were the companies who accepted them.

I first saw evidence of the media excitement at CES Unveiled, which was an event a couple nights before the start of CES.  I staffed a table at Unveiled and was one of the people that was nearly bowled over by the swarms of media that lined up, patiently waiting to get into the ballroom at the Venetian to see what companies had to offer.  From some of the largest media outlets to the smallest tech product review sites, journalist after journalist stopped at our table with a smile and said, “What’s new?!”  These two words, combined with their visible enthusiasm, exemplified just how jazzed these same people who I pitch all year round were to be at one of the greatest tradeshows in the world.  And I was happy to be there with them.

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences by JohnLeRoy - 1 Comment →