Wildfire Tech PR Blog – Business and Consumer Technology Public Relations

The last ten years or so have been extremely disruptive for the PR and marketing industry. In 2009, we’ve seen the rise and public acceptance of Twitter, the death of numerous print magazines and a migration online by brands and consumers alike.

But what do we foresee in 2010? What will be the trends that we think will come to fruition? Here’s our top ten:

1. Continued demise (and metamorphosis) of traditional media – there is no doubt that more traditional print media publications will disappear (including some very high profile ones). The media will focus on trying to generate revenues from online content (expect to see a lot more about paywalls…)
2. Creativity will count – because it is so easy to publish content on the internet, being heard amongst all the noise is critical. Getting your message across is both an opportunity and a challenge for us creative PR people. PR agencies will ignore this at their peril
3. More brands becoming publishers – in light of the first prediction, we think more and more brands will publish and distribute their own content, either as a corporate blog  or by supporting and creating a new breed of industry portals
4. Distributed content – following on from this, creating (creative) content that can be distributed across the internet (and even offline) will be important for effective PR. With the rise of the social web, sharing is where it’s at, enabling this (and encouraging it) will pay dividends
5. Real-time – Google’s recent announcement will only increase public interest in real-time content (think Twitter et. al.). Acting and reacting quickly will be vital
6. Video, video and more video – we were amazed to learn recently that Salesforce use YouTube as their primary social media channel, but it makes perfect sense. Video is a fantastic way to simplify complex messages or information, so expect to see a lot more of it in the tech industry in particular
7. Even more “social media gurus” hanging around – not necessarily a welcome one here, but at a time when it’s hard to move for experts in all things social, separating the wheat from the chaff is going to get even more important
8. The PR/customer service dilemma – as more and more brands use social networks for PR and marketing, consumers will respond by making customer service demands via these channels. Finding a way for the two to co-exist will be a challenge
9. Blogging to rise “from the dead” again – the ‘death’ of blogging is currently one of the web’s favourite themes. But, next year, those who were jumping on the blogging bandwagon will stick to the shorter form that is Twitter, while the ‘real’ bloggers, with something to say will take back their prominence and excel
10. Even more stressed-out journos – it’s a tough time being a journalist at the moment. Shrinking numbers of publications and shrinking numbers of jobs are juxtaposed with the ‘real-time’ web and the race to publish online news before anyone else. Don’t expect this to change anytime soon. The days of long boozy PR lunches are well and truly over. Getting quality content to journalists and providing them with all the elements of a great story quickly and efficiently will be vital

What have we missed? What do you expect to see in 2010?

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So you might have already read our experts’ views on the big trends of 2009, but what about 2010? Will social media continue its spectacular rise and which consumer gadgets will get us all talking? Here’s what our panle of top journalists think will be big in 2010:

Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, the Guardian

1. Crunch time for Windows Mobile – can it survive?
2. Trend towards paid-for – an end to widespread “free” in all sorts of things

Peter Judge, Editor eWeek Europe

3. At the pocket level, Droid will fail but in a flood of Android phones a few diamonds will emerge
4. At the pan-business level, carbon accounting packages and add-ons designed to meet the CRC laws will appear – but too many companies will miss the point, use Excel and fall foul of the regulations (and yes, that’s a plug for our CRC seminar)

Sean Hannam, online editor, ERT

5. 3DTV will be the big CE buzzword – with household brands such as Sony and Panasonic planning on bringing in 3D-enabled home theatre systems and TVs. Sky has also confirmed it will be launching a 3DTV channel next year
6. Internet/wi-fi radio will go mainstream – driven by innovative products like the Pure Sensia, which combines iPhone-like touch-screen functionality with the benefits of radio, social networking sites and ‘apps’

Paul Carr, TechCrunch, Freelance

7. The first assassination of a public figure, facilitated by Twitter
8. Still no hoverboards

Chris Lake, Editor in Chief, Econsultancy

9. Goodbye acquisition, hello loyalty – I firmly believe that this past decade has been all about customer acquisition, whereas the future – for the smarter operators – will be about improving customer service, satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The recent shift towards public customer service (via social media platforms), transparency and brand management will focus minds on keeping customers happy
10. Testing, testing 1-2-3 – We’re also going to see widespread adoption of site optimisation tools, such as multivariate testing technology. The best performing websites will have teams of people who obsess over this kind of thing. Web managers who insist on making constant iterations to improve the user experience will seek out higher conversion rates, and they’ll *know* what makes conversion rates increase. No need for guesswork! Their users will tell them: all they need to do is watch

Jim Martin, Deputy Editor, Computer Shopper

11. SSD uptake – solid-state disks look set to become mainstream (particularly for laptops) in 2010, as prices fall thanks to better manufacturing efficiency. As price falls, capacity will increase – 1TB SSDs are already on the horizon
12. Cloud computing – online apps also look like they’re going to become popular. Google Docs is a great example, as the benefits for consumers are immense: no need to invest in Microsoft Office, you can access your documents and calendar from any internet-connected device, plus collaborate in real-time with others on the same documents

Sean Hargrave, Freelance

13. Apple vs Google – in the mobile world is going to be massive as a raft of Android phones hit the market and Google launches its own branded phone. The mobile net really will take off as more flat rate data packages will be offered and so smartphones and unlimited data gain traction beyond media and tech types. The question nobody dare ask is what will the consumer experience be in peak times. Will the crowded mobile networks be able to cope?
14. To pay or not to pay - 2010 will be a defining moment for the web as we see what media companies do to end this farce of giving away the content we produce for nothing. Idiots online say anyone who wants to charge doesn’t ‘get digital’, my advice to them is give away your web devving skills or give free legal advice online. Everybody thinks journalists should work for free. This is not only unfair it will just mean that sponsors will step in, if consumers aren’t paying, and people won’t be able to trust news. 2010 will see the emergence of pay walls and towards the end of the year we’ll realise it’s not the wall that’s the issue, it’s what’s behind it

Gareth Beavis, Tech Radar
15. Mobiles, especially smartphones, will get bigger – we’ve seen a couple of post 4-inch devices, and a larger number in the 3.5- to 4-inch category springing up
16. Cloud computing – we’ll likely see something on this from Google, as well as Microsoft and maybe even Apple opening up mainstream services to allow users to store content wherever and stream it on multiple devices

As another year comes to an end, we’ve asked the great and the good of tech journalism to review the year.

From netbooks and cloud computing to green IT and social media, here’s what they had to say:

[You can also read their predictions for 2010 here]

Charles Arthur, Technology Editor, the Guardian

1. Cloud computing – all over the place
2. Apple’s upward trend v Microsoft’s decline – the iPhone has become iconic and defined its sector; Microsoft has become less and less relevant to anything, though it still makes lots of money

Peter Judge, Editor eWeek Europe

3. Small level, netbooks getting too big for their boots
4. Big level, green data kit with a not so green sales pitch – bin your old servers and save money on electricity. Yes, but what about the environmental cost of the binned kit?

Sean Hannam, online editor, ERT

5. The year of the netbook – or the mini-notebook, with consumers snapping up these small, portable products that are designed for surfing the web. It is likely to be the fastest growing PC sector this year
6. iPod docks sector continued to be massive – with the iPod still being the consumer’s preferred choice of MP3 player – and the iPhone becoming more popular – the iPod docks market outperformed any other audio sector

Paul Carr, TechCrunch, Freelance

7. Apps that turn breaching our own privacy into fun game – Foursquare! Location-based Twittering!
8. People are finally paying for non-porn content – annoyingly what they’re paying for is social gaming. I mean, seriously? Farmville? Fucking hell

Chris Lake, Editor in Chief, Econsultancy

9. Increased usage of social media channels to complain about brands - it’s a lot easier to let off steam on the likes of Twitter and Facebook, compared with the pain of telephoning a customer ‘service’ centre. This tells us that customer services is broken, and in many cases it is
10. User centric web strategies FTW – more and more companies are putting consumers at the very heart of their plans. It’s the most obvious no-brainer in business. We’re seeing a firm commitment to the user experience, with increased spend on internal and external usability resources. That said, many firms still need to fix the ‘beautiful basics’ on their websites, as far as usability goes

Jim Martin, Deputy Editor, Computer Shopper

11.    IPTV – BBC’s iPlayer has become massive this year, and lots of other similar services from ITV, Five and Channel 4. Even YouTube now has full-length shows to watch. The days of scheduled programming (and the concept of channels) is beginning to fade
12.    GPS everywhere – We saw just about every kind of device get satnav, from phones to netbooks. Plus, cheap standalone satnavs mean that almost everyone has a satnav in their car now

Sean Hargrave, freelance

13.    The promotion of what ‘people like me think’ alongside search engines -  I think the only rival to Google long term is links and tips through social media. Think back more than a year ago and compare your discovery online to today and you’ll notice far more clicking on links and discovering info through Facebook and Twitter, and others
14.    Sales started to become a major part of marketing – as the recession bit, companies realised it doesn’t matter how many ‘hits’ they get, it’s all about sales. Yet I’m still stunned at how few brands take the time to de-duplicate restults and stop cannibalising their customers by, for example, spraying vouchers all over the web for people to use

Gareth Beavis, Tech Radar

15.    Thinner TVs – everyone was looking to see what would be the next big thing in TVs, and making them razor thin and LED backlit has meant that the OLED revolution has become a little less interesting to a number of people
16.    Blu-ray finally won the war, and it was full steam ahead for HD content. This, coupled with Sky HD becoming more prominent, meant that hi-def is quickly moving into the mainstream, which is a great thing

The Guardian has today revealed it’s iPhone app. It’s a pretty slick user interface and is sure to be a hit amongst commuters as it comes complete with offline browsing.

I caught up with Jonathon Moore, Product Manager at Guardian.co.uk (Twitter), to find out a bit more:

Why the iPhone?

The iPhone is dominating our mobile traffic right now so it seemed reasonable to open our emerging mobile app strategy on that platform. We have to start somewhere – and we have a great strategy of where we’d like to go next.

You’re a bit late to the game compared to other UK newspapers. Why the delay?

We are late to the game. But we feel that’s ok. It does change our approach, however. We’re not first to market – but we definitely want to be best to market.

Oh – and we’re touching 1m uniques via our mobile browser site (in just over six months from a standing start) which also makes us the UK’s number one digital newspaper on mobile. So being slightly late certainly hasn’t seemed to have done us any harm!

What were the key challenges? What were the key areas you wanted to get right?

We wanted to create an excellent content discovery experience, something that’s traditionally been massively difficult to achieve on mobile (remember the RAZR?).

I also – and this is just a personal comment – felt the experience within the News category needed a lift. Nothing really inspired me too much. We also wanted to create something that offered a full guardian.co.uk experience and – crucially – something that looked like it had been created with love. Believe me – this has. Our users are passionate about our content so I wanted them to be passionate about the product too.

You’ve decided to charge for the app. Why is this?

We think a small charge for increased functionality that is specific to a single device is a really small trade-off. But of course the app has to be great. No-one wants to pay for something below par – so the challenge was to make it both beautiful and useful.

If you were to ask me my favourite aspects – I’d say the ability to dip into quite niche content via the keyword pop-up, simple access to our great audio content and off course offline. I hope we’ve achieved something our guardian audience will like. We’ll find out. Initial reaction is really encouraging and positive.

There doesn’t seem to be any advertising on the app, will this change?

We haven’t ruled anything out but there are no current plans to add advertising.

I’m assuming this is the first iteration and there will be improvements in the future? What are you hoping to include at a later date?

Yes you’d be right. Well we know what’s missing: Twitter, video and commenting (ability to read and write) so while I’m not promising timescales – that gives you an indication of the things on our list.

But we also want to push things forward more. We’re really ambitious about this. This is our v1.0, others have been in the AppStore for months if not years. But even without that I think we’re ahead in many areas already.

Do you foresee a time when print newspapers won’t exist and apps like this will be the way we consume our news?

Ooooh big question. Not for me. I still love the feel of paper too. Ultimately the consumer will decide though – so it’s really about choice. We want to offer our superb content in every way possible – with the same level of excellence in mobile product design that goes into the journalism.

At Wildfire, we work with a range of B2B and B2C clients and I genuinely believe there is real potential for both in terms of social media. But, I’m often frustrated by the lack of really good industry insight into using social media for B2B campaigns.

So, when I saw an event – the Dell B2B Huddle – organised by blogger Neville Hobson and Kerry Bridge from Dell, I jumped at the chance to attend.

I went to the event eager to learn more about what other companies focused on B2B marketing were doing in the social media space. And overall, the day delivered.

Rather than a blow by blow account, here is my run down of the key themes and ideas that kept cropping up throughout the day:

A lack of focus on B2B

The event was advertised as focusing on B2B, but much of the day could have been equally talking about B2C. To my mind, this could be for two main reasons; either that social media for B2B and B2C is pretty similar, or there just isn’t as many high-profile examples of B2B social media campaigns.

Personally I think the latter is closer to the truth. Having said this, I saw some great case studies from the likes of Salesforce and Intel in the afternoon, both of whom were using social media in really creative ways to reach a business audience.

There was also a really interesting roundtable session I attended where the differences between B2B and B2C were discussed.

Campaigns are always going to be different from company to company and industry to industry, but I think companies that are B2B-focused face different or unique challenges.

In some ways, these challenges are easier to overcome. As Will McInnes suggested in the roundtable, social media is very powerful for niche groups, so if you are targeting a specific segment of business users (IT managers for example), then it is potentially easier to target them using social media than if your campaign was looking at consumers in general.

Know your audience

I was pleased to see this theme discussed throughout the day as it is central to our approach here at Wildfire. Any campaign must start by truly understanding a target audience and this is even more important with social media and, as I suggested above, with a B2B campaign.

Challenges of running social media campaigns in big organisations

This is a favourite topic at social media conferences; the challenges of getting social media accepted in a business. I’ve seen a real change here in the last year driven in part by the media’s obsession with Twitter and other social networks.

Whereas a year ago, most advocates for social media came from pioneers lower down within an organisation (or from agencies), in the last year there has been a greater awareness from the CEO down that social media is something to try and implement. This brings its own challenges of course, with marketing teams suddenly tasked with the job of implementing social media campaigns, often with a lack of guidance, education or support (or budget).

Risks of social media

Linked in many ways to the last point, are the risks of social media. Those all too familiar ‘social media case studies’ including Dominos and Motrin made an appearance during the day as examples of what can happen when things go wrong online.

As both those examples show, disaster management is much much easier if a company already has a presence on key social media channels and this is equally true for B2B.

Generation Y

Another of those common themes at events like this, is the argument that the next generation to enter the workplace will expect to be using social tools in everything they do.

Two interesting points relating to this came through. Firstly, many of these predictions are overblown; yes, generation Y will want to use social tools, but they will also embrace ‘business tools’ like email, so potential issues or problems are often overstated.

Secondly, the point was made that social media is increasingly being used by older generations, generations that are already in businesses. Don’t forget that Twitter is used mainly by people that are 25 plus.

Tools like Yammer were cited as effective ways of weaving social media into the very fabric of a business.

Overall, this was a great event and I hope Neville and Kerry consider running similar days in the future. Thanks also to the speakers including Steve Lamb and Benjamin Ellis.

Here are some round-ups of the day from some other great people:

Neville Hobson, Neil Denny, Joining Dots and SocialOptic

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