Candidate no. XXXXX

Twitter and the Media Relations Function: Threat or Opportunity?

Word count: 6,400

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Contents Introduction ……………………………………………………………………… 3 Literature Review ………………………………………………………………. 4 Methodology …………………………………………………………………….. 14 Findings and discussion ………………………………………………………. 17 Conclusion and recommendations ……………………………………………. 27 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………. 31 Appendices ……………………………………………………………………….. 33

Appendix 1 – Gordon Brown on YouTube………………………. 33 Appendix 2 – Habitat on Twitter………………………………….. 34 Appendix 3 – Immediate Future Research……………………… 35 Appendix 4 – Quantitative research (survey)…………………… 36 Appendix 5 – Biographies of interviewees………….................. 41 Appendix 6 – Transcript of interview with Conor McNicholas… 42 Appendix 7 – Responses from anonymous…………………….. 46 Appendix 8 – Transcript of interview with Neil Perkin…………. 47 Appendix 9 – Government Twitter Guidelines…………………. 48

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Introduction

• The day the editor of music magazine NME resigned, journalists

reported his Twitter comment ahead of his press release comment1

• The very first photographs of the US Airways plane landing in New

York’s Hudson river were released via Twitter2

• On the day Michael Jackson died, tens of thousands of messages hit

Twitter, causing the service - which had been urged by the US

government to stay online at the height of the Iranian protests - to

come grinding to a halt.

Micro-blogging platform Twitter has rapidly developed from a barely known

tool to a rapidly growing phenomenon recognised for breaking news and

interacting with celebrities, journalists and organisations. But how did we get

to this point – and what are the implications for media relations practitioners

trying to utilise these tools and not get left behind?

The review that follows looks at the advances in technology and social media,

and the effects these developments can, and do, have on media relations.

Do such developments mean the end of PR as we know it and the start of a

form of PR 2.0 we are still discovering? Is there still a place for traditional

methods? And what are the implications for practitioners who do not engage

with new media?

Many top brands and organisations (Dell, Apple, British Airways, Starbucks,

Sony, even the monarchy) are using Twitter as a communication channel to

engage with their customers, potential customers and other stakeholder

groups. But little is understood about how exactly it is being used. The aim of

this report is to investigate how Twitter is currently used by journalists and PR

practitioners in order to better understand how it might usefully be

incorporated into communications strategies – and to establish whether it

presents a threat, or an opportunity, to media relations.

1 http://www.musicweek.com/story.asp?sectioncode=1&storycode=1038014 2 http://twitpic.com/135xa

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Literature Review

Communication – the big picture “Public relations contributes to effectiveness by building quality, long-term

relationships with strategic constituencies.” Grunig (1992: 6). Together with

Hunt, Grunig presented the four models of public relations outlined below.

This set of historical PR typologies in itself could be seen to mirror

technological developments in communications seen over time. Two-way

communication has been made simpler, less time-consuming and more cost-

effective since the advent of email and the World Wide Web. This could

suggest that, as technology develops, PR needs to move ever closer to the

‘excellence’ model – two way symmetrical communication. It could be argued

that the model is normative and “idealistic” rather than reflecting the

conditions in the world where public relations operates. (L’Etang, 1996:64).

However, advances in technology are providing more opportunity to practice

two-way communication, enabling organisations to engage more often with

publics both to distribute information and receive feedback – and those

publics are becoming expectant of that level of access and involvement.

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Discussing political opportunities, Kaid suggests: “Scholars have argued that

by providing a mix of audio, video and print capabilities with clear feedback

mechanisms, the Internet eliminates many of the previous structural barriers

to direct candidate-citizen communication.” (Lee Kaid, 2004:524).

The relationship an organisation has with its publics is put forward by

Ferguson (1984) as a central focus and more recently Tench and Yeomans

(2006:156) suggest the focus on relationships “requires greater involvement

from organisations. This is not as simple as it sounds – involvement means

genuine dialogue, which in itself can be challenging.”

L’Etang (2008:24) agrees that dialogue of this kind can be challenging,

highlighting the bias a practitioner has towards the organisation for which it

works: “Because the managerial approaches… necessarily begin with the

strategic aims and objectives of the organisation, they set a particular agenda

for change which does not necessarily involve stakeholders.” L’Etang

suggests that if PR practitioners wish to establish a true dialogue with

stakeholders, then inviting them to be involved in the process of defining aims,

objectives and desirable outcomes at the outset should be considered.

L’Etang does not however address how this would apply to media relations. It

would be very difficult to bring journalists into the process of setting

organisational objectives.

Of course, the media is an important audience given that they help the

general public make informed choices and are often perceived as the public’s

representatives, reporting on matters that affect the wider population. But the

media continues to fragment, and consumers continue to choose the media

they believe is mostly aligned with their personal agenda. Therefore, it

remains important to target the correct audience via the correct media.

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Advances in technology… Communication remains key to building relationships and is an area that has

seen a huge change due to technology: Brown (2009:1) suggests it as “more

significant than the introduction of the printing press.”

Online communication gathered pace with the introduction of the Internet in

the 1990s. However, it was in 2004, with the development of Web 2.0 that the

most significant change was seen. Web 2.0 created access to technology and

infrastructure allowing people to form groups more easily, communicate with

others all around the world, share content such as videos, photos and web

links, and change the way they could communicate forever.

As Searls and Weinberger (2001) suggest: “In the age of the Web where hype

blows up in your face and spin gets taken as an insult, the real work of PR will

be more important than ever.”

Over the past five years since the arrival of Web 2.0, the media cycle has

rapidly developed into a ceaseless process, creating a demand for stories

around the clock and increasing the already strong competition between

media owners. This, in turn, has led to an erosion of authority and a decline in

trust. Members of the public are changing the way they consume media and

this appears to be leading to greater scrutiny and a demand for increased

transparency. “The 1990s implied a new public demand for transparency,

openness and participation.” (Van Ruler and Vercic, 2004: 416). Meanwhile,

with fewer journalists – around 3,000 in the UK have been made redundant

since last summer (NUJ, July 2009) – reporting more stories, and increased

pressure on budgets and resources due to the current economic climate, the

media relations function is becoming increasingly important. Research carried

out by Cardiff University found that 60% of press articles were ‘pre-packaged’

and 19% of articles were “verifiably derived mainly or wholly from PR material”

(Cardiff University, 2008).

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“Churnalism has swept through newsrooms, forcing the mass of reporters to

spend hours recycling second-hand wire copy and PR material without

performing the ‘everyday practices’ of their trade.” (Davies, 2009:59).

However, there is also increasing competition amongst journalists, and the

demand for stories to be turned around more quickly than ever. Where old

media allowed journalists hours, days or weeks to investigate a story, the

demands of new media are instant and ceaseless.

Advances in technology create great opportunity for PR practitioners:

“A fundamental reason why public relations practices exist today is the loss of

community resulting from the new means of communication and

transportation… especially the escalating development of… technology,

multiculturalism and globalism.” (Kruckeberg and Starck 1998:11)

However, it could be argued that these advances in technology have helped

build communities. Allowing anyone, anywhere in the world, to communicate

and share information with others has made it easier for publics to form, which

might bypass traditional media and pr channels and set their own agendas.

What it means….

Audience expectation Writing in 1996, Bland et al. point out: “At the moment, the majority of people

have no idea of how to get involved with the Internet, nor why should they

want to.” (Bland et al, 1996:37). This position has transformed dramatically.

Most people now have a clear idea of how they can get involved with the

Internet; they understand much more of what technological tools are available

to them, and are better educated to use them.

“Expectations have shifted from pushing out a huge quantity of messages to

improving their quality and relevance by customising communication through

email and discussion groups.” (Holtz 1998 cited in Theaker, 2004). Here Holtz

suggests that forms of new media have improved the quality of messages, so

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it could be suggested that blogs and social networks – which developed after

this comment – also have this advantage.

The general public now know the ways in which organisations can

communicate with them – and they expect more from them than ever.

“There is a shift in power from the companies to the individuals – people have

always wanted, but can now get things on their own terms.” (Stephen

Johnston, senior manager in Nokia’s Corporate Strategy Group, cited in

Breakenridge, 2008:128).

Issues and Crisis Managing issues and crisis is made increasingly challenging due to the ease

at with which publics are able to share information and opinion. Gladwell’s

(2000) “tipping point” theory sees the added complication of a ceaseless

media cycle, with input from citizens and lobbyist groups as well as

professional journalists. The speed therefore at which a practitioner will need

to both plan (around an issue) and react (in a crisis) will need to be rapidly

increased, whilst continuing to communicate the facts.

Word of ‘mouth’ has never before travelled such distance with such speed.

Online forums, blogs and social networking sites have resulted in news (good

or bad) travelling from specialist to public in moments. Intel found this out in

1994, when they tried to hide a flaw in the Pentium processor that caused a

mathematical error in a narrow set of circumstances. “They chose not to tell

the public – but the Internet speeds information flow, and bad news travels

fast. A single person discovered the chip’s flaw and emailed a few people,

who ran their own analyses, and in just 24 days… information passed from

online newsgroups and emails to mainstream press. Today, with blogs and

social sites, this public outing of a company’s mistakes, and further pick up

from mainstream press, happens within just a day or two, sometimes in just a

few hours.” (Shiffman, 2008:66). And – with search engines like Google,

today’s negative stories are no longer tomorrow’s fish and chip paper – they

can stay archived online and available without context for anyone to see.

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An alternative view shows that this increasing speed of communication can

benefit organisations as well: “This turns Twitter into an early-warning

system… for spotting negative buzz and heading it off before it does real

damage to your bottom line. Ignoring online commentary about your company

could really hurt you.” (Ojeda-Zapata, 2008:13).

Trust and credibility Professor Gunther Bentele (Zerfass et al. 2008:57) argued that “public

relations, journalism and the media act as trust mediators.” Trust and

credibility of PR practitioners and organisations can be built upon using new

media, but can also be made harder to achieve. Attitude research among key

audiences indicates that “the more people feel they know about an

organisation, the more favourably disposed they are towards it.” (MORI, cited

in Communicating Out of a Crisis, 1998). However, this does not address the

issue of who the information about the organisation should come from. The

sender of the message can be just as important and Kelleher suggests:

“Emerging communication technologies may demassify public

communication, but public relations people should work to ensure that

technologies don’t de-humanise communication.” (Kelleher, 2006).

Control “In the near future, the issue may be less about what media companies are

doing to people and more about what people are doing with the media… as

the massness of the media declines and as new technologies continue to

empower individuals, social control by elite groups in society may become

more difficult.” (Chaffee and Metzger, 2001 cited in Kelleher, 2006:9).

“Publics form when stakeholders recognise one or more of the consequences

as a problem and organise to do something about it or them.” (Grunig and

Repper, 1992:124). The Internet has made this increasingly easier to achieve,

with social networks bringing groups of like-minded people together in the

same forum.

“Most of the barriers to group action have collapsed, and without those

barriers, we are free to explore new ways of gathering together and getting

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things done.” (Shirky, 2008:22). Perhaps this makes the modern media

relations practitioner more of a negotiator than ever before.

Current trends – Social Media Deirdre Breakenridge describes Social Media as “anything that uses the

Internet to facilitate conversations between people.” She goes on to suggest:

“Social Media refers back to the ‘two way’ approach of PR that Ivy Lee

discussed in his day. It’s about listening and, in return, engaging people on

this level. It forces PR to stop broadcasting and start connecting. Monologue

has given way to dialog.” (Breakenridge, 2008, xviii).

It is no longer enough for a PR practitioner to distribute a press release and

wait for results. Society is moving away from a world where content and

products were pushed to a world in which content and products are pulled.

“What has happened is that the organisations have lost control of the agenda.

In order to influence how they are seen they have to participate in

conversations.” (Brown, 2009:3)

New platforms and channels have created a forum through which consumers,

the media, celebrities, brands and organisations can interact – and where

journalists are called on increasingly to offer less formal and more personal

views via blogs.

“Changes are taking place in the way we use the media channels that have

been available to us for many years. Totally new communications channels

are emerging. The PR practitioners of the 21st century must understand all of

these and how they are controlled and influenced if they are going to adapt

and survive in this new environment.” (Brown, 2009:4).

“We are living in the middle of a remarkable increase in our ability to share, to

cooperate with one another, and to take collective action, all outside the

framework of traditional institutions and organisations.” (Shirky, 2008:20).

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As social media has developed, networking opportunities have emerged in the

form of tools such as YouTube, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs and more recently

microblogging, particularly in the form of Twitter. This has inevitably bred

citizen journalists with a passion for publishing their opinions.

YouTube YouTube is now the most popular video-sharing site on the web, and has

hosted all kinds of videos from memorable TV clips and first wedding dances

to product demonstrations and CEO messages. However, social media sites

are often perceived as the people’s forum, and if used incorrectly, can be

extremely damaging to personalities or brands. (E.g. Appendix 1).

Facebook Facebook has grown phenomenally quickly. It is now widely used by citizens,

organisations, celebrities and brands. Facebook can be used to an

organisation’s advantage, particularly within certain sectors: “There are

particular types of businesses and organisations whose presence on

Facebook and other social network science would be better tolerated than

others… For example, sports clubs, music, fashion, leisure and even politics

will be better suited to participation in social networks than oil companies or

banks.” (Brown, 2009, 51). However, it is important to recognise that they can

also cause damage to reputations, sometimes without intention. It is common

for people to informally complain about their jobs and organisations –

forgetting Facebook is a truly open source platform.

Blogs Citizen journalism is paving the way for individual voices to rise to a level that,

in some cases, eclipses that of most traditional media. One example that

demonstrates this trend is Perez Hilton’s celebrity gossip blog. According to

Web analytics service Quantcast, PerezHilton.com attracts more than 6.4

million visitors globally each month, putting it among the 500 most-visited

sites on the Internet – and ahead of US-based OKmagazine.com.3 “Many

3 http://www.quantcast.com/

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bloggers are now privy to valuable information that was once the sole domain

of traditional news media. That access, combined with the ability to instantly

publish information, means bloggers are scooping reporters more often than

not.” (Solis and Breakenridge, 2009:57).

“Blogging provides experts and wannabes with an easy way to make their

voices heard in the web-based market-place of ideas. Companies that ignore

independent product reviews and blog discussions about service quality are

living dangerously.” (Meerman Scott, 2007:47). Of course, for a large

organisation finding and responding to every mention of the company or

product online could be a full-time job.

Twitter There is very little research in to the use of Twitter for media relations.

Recent criticisms of Twitter have included the amount of “clutter” it produces.

Clay Shirky refers to the new concept of ‘publish then filter’: “The media

landscape is transformed, because personal communication and publishing,

previously separate functions, now shade into one another. One result is to

break the older pattern of professional filtering of the good from the mediocre

before publication; now such filtering is increasingly social, and happens after

the fact.” (Shirky, 2008:81). However it could be argued that what is

“mediocre” to one person is valuable to another, thus the more choice of

material available, the better.

Chief executive of uSocial, Leon Hill explains: “Twitter started as a way of

friends keeping in touch, but as with any social media site once they get big,

every business or marketer jumps on the bandwagon. It's an excellent

marketing medium.” (Hill, 2009 cited on www.bbc.co.uk).

The research that follows looks at Twitter as a formal and informal

communication tool and how media relations officers might use it. It appears

that Twitter can be a successful means of promoting a personality, a brand, or

engaging with an audience (Barack Obama had about 105,000 followers on

the eve of the presidential election - he now has over 1,832,073). But it can

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just as easily be used incorrectly with negative consequences (Habitat’s

recent hashtags error – illustrated below – resulted in a number of negative

articles across online, print and broadcast media (see Appendix 2).

(Social Media Today, 2009)

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Methodology

Aim This project was established to investigate how journalists and PR

practitioners use Twitter, and its use might benefit or threaten both parties.

Research is therefore conducted to investigate:

• How PR practitioners use Twitter as a form of communication.

• How journalists use Twitter as a form of communication

• The pros and cons of using Twitter as a PR communication tool

• Whether or not Twitter is perceived as a trusted information source

It is hoped that by investigating use by both PR practitioners and journalists,

the findings could prove valuable to the field of media relations.

Overarching Approach In order to answer key questions and also look at wider issues, a mix of

qualitative and quantitative research was carried out. However, during the

final analysis stage of this research a report was published by Immediate

Future (Appendix 3), investigating the use of Twitter by PR and marketing

professionals. This research was also examined and compared with the

primary research.

The quantitative approach A survey was designed in order to obtain a statistical overview of answers to

key questions. This approach was chosen in order to obtain large amounts of

data using a large sample, which could then be easily analysed. It also

minimised bias, as it does not involve any manipulation of the participants.

The self-completion survey was distributed to a sample of journalists and PR

practitioners. The sample was chosen and approached individually, with an

invitation to share the final analysis.

The survey was designed using www.suverymonkey.com and featured 27

questions (Appendix 4). It was hoped that the 23 multiple-choice questions

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would achieve a maximum response rate, whilst the four open questions

would provide key words/phrases that respondents associate with Twitter.

The journalists targeted were employed across a range of disciplines

including national newspaper, trade, broadcast, magazine and online press

and wrote on a range of topics to gauge the broadest perspective. For the

same reason, PR practitioners were also targeted across a broad range,

including third sector, technology and celebrity, including both trade and

consumer representatives.

The survey was tested and then distributed primarily by email. During the

research stage, the power of technology again plays a vital role. This is a

huge step from the quantitative research methods discussed in 2007: “The

telephone survey is by far the most commonly used research method in public

relations. It is a quick, inexpensive, and convenient way to reach people.”

(Caywood, 1997:41). The survey was designed to record responses

anonymously. This option was taken on the assumption it would ensure a

more honest reply from the sample. 100 journalists and 100 PR practitioners

were targeted with the survey. Having received 50 responses from journalists,

Survey Monkey was used to set a limit of 50 responses from PR practitioners

as well, ensuring the data represented an equal sample of each.

The qualitative approach Since quantitative research provided useful statistics but had not touched on

deeper views, qualitative research was undertaken to build upon what was

already understood. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted in the

natural settings of the interviewees. This was in order to see the interviewees

in their working environments. “The act of being mindful, or putting yourself

into the shoes of others, as Fill (1999) recommends, is precisely the goal of

most qualitative researchers.” (Damon and Holloway, 2002:9). There are

however weaknesses with this approach. Just as using an in-house email to

distribute the survey was not ideal in terms of displaying an obvious loyalty;

qualitative research was also restricted in that interviewees may have

answered questions with the interviewer’s organisational position in mind.

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Interviews were conducted with:

• Conor McNicholas, editor of music brand NME (following NME.COM

being voted Interactive Consumer Magazine of the Year at the

Periodical Publishers Association Awards 2009).

• Industry blogger Neil Perkin (his blog is listed as one of the top UK and

global media and marketing blogs by Advertising Age).

Email responses to key questions were obtained from:

• ********* (PR professional of 10 years following a 15 year career as a

senior journalist). Full biogs – Appendix 5

Secondary research On July 13, (after the primary research above had been conducted and

analysed) Immediate Future published a report entitled “Twitter for PR and

Marketing professionals”. This raw data was deemed relevant to the research

question and was therefore incorporated into the research stage. The

secondary research adds value in the form of high-quality data. And by cross-

checking it against the primary research, it was possible to gain further

understanding of the topic.

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Findings and Discussion The first survey question aimed to establish what percentage of PR

practitioners and journalists are using Twitter. This would be vital in

understanding how relevant and useful the project would prove.

Journalists

PRs

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It can be seen that Twitter is used by a high percentage of PR practitioners

(86%) and less by journalists (64%). However, both numbers represent a

majority, meaning the research question would be of significant relevance.

And in both cases (55% of PR practitioners and 53.1% of journalists) over half

of the respondents using Twitter stated they use it “multiple times a day”.

However, in order to understand the significance for media relations, it was

important to identify whether or not respondents use the tool as part of their

job, or if their role was unrelated to their usage.

The survey therefore asked “Do you use Twitter for personal use only, for

business use only, or for a mix of both?” The results below outline that 12.5%

of journalists, and just 4.7% of PR practitioners, use Twitter in a purely

personal capacity. This left the majority of each group using it for business in

some way. ********* suggests: “It could be argued Twitter is not 100% a

business tool but is a platform for communication which businesses can utilise

to their advantage.” (Full responses – Appendix 7)

Journalists

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PRs

Findings also show that, of journalists’ tweets, all are made live without any

approval process. And just 11.9% of PR practitioners’ tweets are approved.

This indicates that Twitter is viewed in a different way to traditional channels

of both publishing and PR. For example, it would be very unlikely that a PR

practitioner would distribute a press release without having gained approval

by another authority. When referring to the research question, this discovery

could suggest a way in which Twitter could pose a threat – leaving

businesses, PR practitioners and general staff to ‘tweet’ company information

without any approval. This is a view backed by ********** who suggests: “It is

very important to maintain company standards online as well as offline so

Tweets should be treated with the same care as a press release distribution to

the media. Irresponsible tweeting can damage the reputation of a company

very quickly.”

Having uncovered information about whether journalists and PR practitioners

are using Twitter, and if so how, the research then investigated how they

viewed the tool (and its use for communication by the other group). Interesting

results showed that whilst no PR practitioners would be “very unhappy” to be

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contacted by a journalist on Twitter, 12.9% of journalists would be “very

unhappy to be contacted” by a PR person. The chart below outlines the

responses to the question from journalists. This indicates that Twitter is

perceived suitable for some audiences, whilst unsuitable for others.

Should PR practitioners decide to incorporate Twitter into their media relations

strategies, it is important they understand how tweeted information will be

viewed by their audience. When asked how much they trusted what they read

on Twitter, 21.9% of journalists replied “not very much” and none replied “a

lot”. However, when asked the same about what they read in a press release,

20% stated they trusted it “a lot”, and none replied “not very much”. This is

highlighted as a crucial statistic within the research as it identifies the trust

issues that could be faced when using Twitter for media relations. It was also

a view backed by some of the Journalists’ responses to the question “what is

the worst thing about Twitter?” as highlighted in the table below.

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Worst things about Twitter Best things about Twitter

“PR companies are increasingly using it as a tool to break their stories. It makes me trust it a little less than before.” “Clutter, useless information.”

“It distracts my staff.”

“Not always sure if you can trust/believe what is written.” “It does not cover any detail and is not always necessarily accurate.” “There are many impostors on the site.”

“Limit of characters.”

“It’s immediate, direct, and can be

followed on the move.”

“It feels like a proper community.”

“Good to hear about breaking news.”

“It helps you feel part of a chattering

community – a virtual water cooler.”

“Links to interesting content

elsewhere on the web.”

“It’s a good way to find out

information quickly.”

“As a celebrity journalist, the access

to celebs and how they’re

feeling/what they’re up to/where they

are is extremely useful."

Given trust was a key aspect to investigate, one of the survey questions also

provided journalists with a list of words and asked which they felt applied to a)

Twitter and b) press releases. The key differences between the two forms of

communication are outlined below:

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When examining journalist responses, differences in keyword association can

be seen in a few cases that suggest press releases are the preferred method

of communication, including:

• Authentic (press release 81%, Twitter 23.8%)

• Targeted (press release 72.3%, Twitter 33.3%)

• Factual (press release 95%, Twitter 15%)

However, advantages of Twitter are also highlighted by the following:

• Immediate (press release 10%, Twitter 96.7%)

• Exciting (press release 21.4, Twitter 100%)

• Personal (press release 0%, Twitter 100%).

Negative views of the press release are not only expresses by journalists. The

following chart compares the same question when posed to PR practitioners.

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Interestingly, despite suggestions that Twitter produces clutter, journalists

expressed the view that it is in fact press releases that contain clutter. Despite

that, the research found that (67% of) journalists preferred to receive

information from PR practitioners via press release, rather than Twitter.

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The quantitative survey results do suggest that Twitter is currently playing a

part in media relations:

• 50% of journalists are following PR people, and 95.3% of PR

practitioners are following journalists.

• PR practitioners are using Twitter to distribute press releases (34.9%),

find out what journalists are working on (65.1%), and link to their

clients’ websites (34.9%).

• Journalists are using Twitter to break news (71.9%), follow

brands/companies they write about (40.6%) and to find exclusives

(15.6%).

And when looking at the opportunities it presents, both parties identify

benefits:

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Journalists PR Practitioners

It’s an easy way to get the wisdom of

the crowd.

Monitoring brands, news and opinions

in real time

A good place to market myself Good opportunity for our clients to

engage with their customers on a

more personal basis

Personal celeb moments and

interaction we wouldn’t usually get

Connect with journalists in a casual

fashion

A way of gauging what the mood of

the sector is

Instant access to breaking news

Ability to reach new audiences Ability to broadcast to many and

engage individuals in one-to-one

conversation

Contacts Able to track what journalists are

interested in, and provide insight

Referrals to our site Networking

Brings followers closer to our world See who is writing about my clients,

and what they are saying

Threats were highlighted during the qualitative research stage, including

Twitter’s ability to make other platforms seem immediately dated:

“Twitter is live stuff happening now. It shoves everything down.

Because live broadcasting/Twitter does the job that the internet does at the

moment, the Internet becomes more like a catch up daily newspaper that you

turn to when you want to read sites of aggregated stuff in the last few hours,

which means all the daily newspapers start to look like weekly magazines. If

you look at what’s happening with The Sun, it looks more and more like a

weekly every day – it’s all based around real life, and campaigning. They can’t

break news stories anymore so it’s all about the angles that they take. What

then happens is that weeklies (like NME) start to look more like monthlies.

We’re now a premium product that comes out every so often. So monthlies

then have to move to a place where they become super high-value

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quarterlies. What Twitter is doing is shoving everybody down and changing

everybody’s business models.” Conor McNicholas (July, 2009 – see Appendix 6

for full interview transcript).

The Immediate Future report also highlights some of the risks Twitter

presents, including the ability for anyone to register as a brand and tweet as

that brand. As a solution the report states: “Even if you don’t intend to use

Twitter just yet, you should still consider registering accounts that match your

brand names to prevent this kind of domain squatting.”

Those in the sample who do not currently use Twitter were asked why not,

and if they would ever consider using it in the future. Reasons for not using

the tool currently included not having a need for it, believing it to be a trend

that will pass, and not understanding it (Q.25 Appendix 4).

Those PR practitioners not already tweeting appear not to have given up on it

entirely – 85.7% say that would “probably” consider using it in future.

However, 55.6% of non-tweeting journalists say they would “never” consider

using it (Q.26 Appendix 4).

Neil Perkin describes the service as “a window to the world” – and it seems it

is gaining popularity all the time. Although Twitter trails other Web giants, its

explosive growth over the past year means it could soon catch up. The site’s

traffic saw a rise of 1,298% between April 2008 and April 2009 (Neilson,

2009), compared with MySpace’s 7% drop across the same period. Not all

reactions to Twitter will be entirely positive: “An entire new empire of

distraction has opened up.” (Johnson, 2009). However, Twitter itself appears

to have made an impression and it’s speed is clearly something that will have

a huge impact on both PR and journalism moving forward: “Twitter looks like a

flash in the pan but that notion of real-time broadcast publishing I think is

going to make a massive difference.” (Conor McNicholas).

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Conclusions

Since this research was undertaken, Twitter has been high on the news

agenda for reasons both good and bad.

Signs indicate that Twitter is here to stay and that organisations are beginning

to realise it is not something they should ignore:

• The government recently published guidelines for its departments

using Twitter, advising them tweets should be "human and credible"

and written in "informal spoken English." (Appendix 9).

• The Independent recently published a “Twitter interview” with Liberal

Democrats leader Nick Clegg in which all questions and answers were

less than 140 characters4

• City University is to offer a ‘Twitter degree’ in response to the growing

technological knowledge gap within PR and other sectors5

• Twitter itself recently introduced a ‘101’ introduction course for

marketers.6

However, Twitter still has some way to go before it can present maximum

opportunity. According to a new LinkedIn Research Network/Harris Poll of

2,025 adults, 69 per cent say they don't know enough about Twitter to

comment on it7. And some brands still need to be convinced - Marks &

Spencer and John Lewis are among leading UK brands failing to take

advantage of Twitter by not having an official presence on the site. The

research also highlighted trust issues which would need to be overcome in the

long-term in order for Twitter to be recognised as a credible source of

information.

If Twitter can be used in conjunction with wider media relations strategies, and

open communication channels that have previously been challenging to

4 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/twitter-interview-nick-clegg-1744614.html 5 http://www.prweek.com/news/913674/degree-Twitter-offered-City-University-London/ 6 http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/922498/Twitter-launches-101-introduction-course-marketers/ 7 http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/news/923476/hell-Twitter-Two-thirds-adults-no-idea/

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establish, the service could present organisations, PR practitioners and

journalists with vast opportunity. Figures suggest the media industry is indeed

leading the way in terms of use of Twitter. According to research from Tamar,

media and communications companies have the strongest presence on

Twitter - the BBC alone tweets to more than 320,000 followers.8

However, the risks this real-time publishing tool present should be carefully

considered, particularly in media relations. Control that once sat with a PR

practitioner, representing a gatekeeper to the brand/company/CEO is in

danger of being lost if practitioners do not engage with Twitter and what it can

do. What’s more, the media industry that is embracing the tool is in turn being

threatened by its success. This is best highlighted in the celebrity sector.

Celebrities now don’t need to go through any kind of print or broadcast media

to get their message across. When something is printed about them that they

don’t like, they can tell all of their fans instantly. “For us, it’s a real issue

because that relationship, and that value that we previously sold to our

readers, where we said “If you want to speak to this guy, the only way you can

do it is by coming through us. Do you love Morrissey? – We’re the magazine

that will deliver you Morrissey” is being lost. The Morrissey of the next age will

be on Twitter and if you want to follow him, you can follow him. Celebrities can

now broadcast directly – the whole system completely breaks down.” (Conor

McNicholas, July 2009).

Overall, when deciding if Twitter is a threat or an opportunity to the media

relations function, it is apparent the answer is both. Threats are clear in the

form of real-time publishing resulting in increased pressure on journalists,

easy access to personalities that in that past have been gained through

traditional media, and a loss of control for PR practitioners in dealing with

situations before they become public knowledge. However, opportunity comes

in the form of easy-to-build networks of opinion formers, extremely quick

access to news, giving corporate brands a personal ‘voice’, and assisting the 8 http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/news/search/894860/Brands-failing-harness-power-Twitter/

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recommended two-way symmetric communication model discussed at the

outset. “It gives a human face to your business. Some companies run their

entire customer services on Twitter very well, like Zappos. Even their CEO is

on Twitter. It’s extremely good for engaging with a community of people.” (Neil

Perkin, July 2009).

This research concludes that the threat Twitter poses to media relations is

currently outweighed by the potential opportunities it presents – but that in

order to maximise those opportunities, the industry needs to educated in how

it should best be used, and establish some ground rules – or an ‘excellence’

model – to demonstrate best practise when using Twitter.

“When you do this sort of stuff, be very mindful that you’re effectively running

your own little broadcast network. And if you want people to follow you, you

have to put in quality content. If you don’t put in quality content, what’s the

point?” (Conor McNicholas, July 2009).

An important point to also consider is what could happen to Twitter if it does

begin to get used more commonly for media relations. Whilst it could be

accepted widely by PR practitioners and journalists, this could in turn result in

less use by the general public. Not everyone would agree that Twitter is the

environment for media relations. When asked how he would feel if he

discovered a PR practitioner had written someone else’s personal tweet,

Conor McNicholas suggests: “It’s against the rules of the game.” And on the

subject of PR practitioners contacting him, asking him to mention their

products on Twitter, he responds: “They haven’t done that yet. But I think

that’s because they see it as a personal thing that they can’t really influence –

which is true.”

The research question would benefit from further investigation in to the risks

of Twitter – particularly addressing legal issues (on July 29, news broke that a

Twitter user was to be sued by her former landlord after she complained on

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Twitter about mould in her apartment).9 Any confusion about what can and

cannot be published on a micro-blogging service like Twitter should be erased

before media relations can truly immerse itself in such a tool.

And research in to how press releases are handled on Twitter would be

beneficial, particularly in light of the launch of the ‘One Line Press Release

Service’ by Muck Rack, an aggregation service for journalists using Twitter10.

The service promises to deliver public relations messages to top journalists in

a concise, tidy package via Twitter – something which all practitioners could

be feeding in to and using to their client’s advantage.

If used correctly, and without alienating other users, Twitter has plenty to offer

media relations. “When you sign up suddenly this whole world is unleashed

and you think, “Wow, what an amazing, amazing tool.” (Conor McNicholas,

July 2009).

9 http://www.brandrepublic.com/News/923835/Tenant-sued-mouldy-Twitter-comments/ 10 http://www.revolutionmagazine.com/DigitalPM/News/922422/PR-Twitter-one-line-press-release/?DCMP=EMC-Media-PM-Bulletin

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Bibliography Bland, M. (1998). Communicating Out of a Crisis, Macmillan Press Ltd

Bland, M; Theaker, A; Wragg, D. (1996:37). Effective Media Relations: How

to get results, Kogan Page Ltd.

Breakenridge, D. (2008:128:xviii). PR 2.0 – New Media, New Tools, New

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Caywood, C.L. (1997:41). The Handbook of Strategic Public Relations and

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Johnson, S. (15/06/2009:36) How Twitter Will Change The Way We Live,

TIME magazine, Time Inc.

Kelleher, T. (2006:9). Public Relations Online: Lasting Concepts for Changing

Media. SAGE Publications.

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Kruckeberg, D. and Starck, K. (1988:11) Public Relations and Community: A

Reconstructed Theory, New York: Praegar.

L’Etang, J. (1996: ) Public relations in Britain Routledge; 1 edition ( 2004)

L’Etang, J. (2008:24). Public Relations: Concepts, Practice and Critique

SAGE Publications Ltd, London.

Lee Kaid, L. (2004:524). Political Communication Research. Lawrence

Erlbaum Associates Inc.

Meerman Scott, D. (2007:47). The New Rules of Marketing & PR. John Wiley

& Sons, Inc. .

Ojeda-Zapata, J. (2008:13). Twitter Means Business: How Microblogging

Can Help Or Hurt Your Company, Happy About.

Regester, M. and Larkin, J. (2005:50). Risk Issues and Crisis Management,

Kogan Page Ltd.

Shiffman, D (2008:66). The Age of Engage. Hunt Street Press

Social Media Today. (2009). How not to use Twitter: HabitatUK as a case

study http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/103334

Solis, B. and Breakenridge, D. (2009). Putting the Public Back in Public

Relations. Pearson Education Inc

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Education Limited

Taylor, K. (2009) CIPR President Journalists and PRs: can it ever be a

marriage? http://prvoice.typepad.com/ 3/06/09

Theaker, A (2004) The Public Relations Handbook. Routledge (2nd Edition).

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Zerfass, A. Bentele, G. van Ruler, B. Sriramesh, K. (2008:57). Public

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Appendices Appendix 1 – Gordon Brown using YouTube Gordon Brown’s use of YouTube was criticised as the ‘comments’ function had been disabled, resulting in a one-way communication.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TTE6cTBrGcA&feature=related

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Appendix 2 – Habitat’s incorrect use of Twitter

Habitat blames Twitter faux pas on intern by Staff, Brand Republic 25-Jun-09, 12:00

LONDON - Furnishings retailer Habitat has blamed an "overenthusiastic intern" for its attempt to use the election protests in Iran as a promotional vehicle.

Yesterday, Habitat apologised for its promotional messages on Twitter, which also tried to ride on the back of interest in the launch of the latest Apple iPhone.

Irrelevant hashtags featured in the messages included '#mousavi', referring to an Iranian presidential candidate, and '#iphone'.

The promotion was designed to sign people up to its database with the chance to win a £1,000 gift card.

According to a Sky News Habitat's communications team said they had not authorised the messages, but they have confirmed they were not hacked. "The hashtags were uploaded without Habitat's authorisation by an overenthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications of his actions. He is no longer associated with Habitat," a spokesman said. Twitter users accused Habitat of spamming and its mistake was heavily retweeted on the micro blogging service. It was being touted as a case study example of what marketers should not do on Twitter. The offending tweets have since been removed and Habitat promised to "do better for the Twitter community".

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Appendix 3 – Immediate Future research The Immediate Future report included a chart illustrating which brands currently have the strongest Twitter presence, including Apple with 28,616 followers, Sony PlayStation with 14,550, and Red Cross with 7,034. It was known at this stage that music brand NME (New Musical Express) had a following of 24,924 (not included in the Immediate Future research) so the importance of cross checking the two reports was already clear. Similarly, the Immediate Future report highlighted notable journalists on Twitter, from Jemima Kiss at The Guardian with 8,356 followers to Adam Boulton at Sky News with 483 followers. Absent from the list in between was Stephen Brook at Media Guardian (with 990 followers) and Conor McNicholas, editor of NME (with 3,348 followers), who had been interviewed as part of the qualitative research. The full report is available at http://www.immediatefuture.co.uk/twitter-for-pr-and-marketing-professionals/

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Appendix 4 – Quantitative research – the full survey Below is the version sent to journalists. A duplicate was designed with slightly tweaked questions appropriate for PR practitioners. Formatted online versions available at : http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=LpZC5FIROFvB16HS0nt5Gg_3d_3d (Journalists) http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=_2fBrhMLD7LRV5pjAIzo2UbQ_3d_3d (PR practitioners) 1. Do you use Twitter? Yes No (go to question X) 2. On average, how often do you use Twitter? Multiple times a day Daily A few times a week Once a week More than once a month Less than once a month 3. How did you find out about Twitter? Friend Colleague Magazine Newspaper Website Radio TV Other (please specify) ___________________ 4. Approximately how long have you been using Twitter? Less than one week Less than one month 1-6 months 6-12 months 1-2 years Over 2 years 5. Do you use Twitter… For personal use only For business use only For a mix of both 6. Do you Tweet as yourself or using a brand/client name (e.g. @JoeBloggs or @SundayTimes?

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As myself As a brand As both 7. Do your tweets go through any kind of approval process? Yes No If yes, who by? _____________________ 8. How many followers do you have? 0-30 31-100 101-300 301 – 500 501 – 1000 1001 – 3000 Over 3000 9. How many Twitter profiles do you follow? 0-30 31-100 101-300 301 – 500 501 – 1000 1001 – 3000 Over 3000 10. How happy would you be to be contacted on Twitter by

A fellow journalist A PR person Very happy Happy Don’t Mind Unhappy Very unhappy 11. How much do you trust what you read On Twitter In a press release Not at all Not very much A little Quite a lot A lot 12. How would you feel if you discovered that tweets by an individual were written for them by a PR person? I would expect it I would think it was appropriate I wouldn’t mind I would be disappointed I would think it was inappropriate

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I would be angry 13. Which of the following words do think best describes a) news via Twitter and b) news via a press release? (Tick all that apply) Twitter Press Release Authentic Boring Irrelevant Immediate Factual Newsworthy Clutter Personal Exciting Targeted Credible Accurate 14. What kind of Twitter profiles do you follow? (Tick all that apply) Friends Celebrities Brands Politicians Employers/potential employers PR people Journalists Colleagues General news outlets (e.g. BBC/Sky News) Specialist news outlets (e.g. Media Week) Other (please specify) ___________________________ 15. What makes a good Twitter profile? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 16. Have you used Twitter for any of the following? (Tick all that apply) To chat to friends To arrange a business meeting To network with potential employers To break news about my brand/company To find out news about celebrities To follow what is said about my brand/company To observe only Other (please specify) ________________________

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17. What do you feel Twitter offers that is valuable for business? __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 18. As a form of communication, do you feel Twitter is… Formal Informal A mix of both 19. Do you consciously use Twitter for business? Yes No 20. Have you used Twitter to contact someone you don’t know? Yes No 21. If so, have they responded? Yes No 22. What is your preferred way of receiving information from PR people? Phone calls to work landline Phone calls to mobile Informal personal email Press release by email to me personally Press release by circular/group email Face to face meetings Facebook MySpace Twitter I don’t mind Other (please specify) ____________ 23. What’s the best thing about Twitter (in less than 140 characters)? ……………………………………………. 24. What’s the worst thing about Twitter (in less than 140 characters)? …………………………………………….. 25. Why do you not use Twitter? I haven’t heard of it I don’t understand it I don’t have a need to use it It’s a trend that will pass

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I was advised against it I used it and didn’t like it I don’t like the sound of it Any other reasons (please specify) ___________ 26. Would you consider using Twitter in future? Definitely Probably Never 27. What is your preferred way of receiving information from PR people? Phone calls to work landline Phone calls to mobile Informal personal email Press release by email to me personally Press release by circular/group email Face to face meetings Facebook MySpace Twitter I don’t mind Other (please specify) ____________

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Appendix 5 – Biographies of interviewees

Conor McNicholas is editor of weekly music magazine NME – a position he has held for the past seven years. He has recently announced his resignation and will be editing Top Gear magazine from later this year. In 2005 he won both the British Society of Magazine Editors’ (BSME) Entertainment Magazine Editor of the Year Award and the Periodical Publishers Association (PPA) Consumer Editor of the Year Award. Conor led the editorial team to an

array of awards for the brand and played a key role in the brand's development across a range of platforms. Last year NME won the coveted PPA Consumer Media Brand of the Year award. The judges were impressed with NME's approach to brand development, “setting the template for how a modern magazine brand can extend its reach and influence in a variety of ways and across a variety of mediums”. Conor is currently chair of the BSME.

Neil Perkin heads up IPC Advertising’s Digital advertising, marketing, strategy, research and insight areas. He has been at IPC Media for eleven years and in that time has ran or worked in most of IPC’s advertising operating divisions. After several years working on titles such as Homes & Gardens aLivingetc, Neil spent two years heading up IPC’s Award-winning Digital Sales Operation, before overseeing the Corporate Key Accounts area handling advertising and sponsorship revenues from some of IPC’s largest advertisers.

He then expanded his remit to take on responsibility for IPC Media’s TV listing and women’s weekly trading divisions. Neil is a seasoned blogger on all things media, social media, advertising and marketing and his blog, “Only Dead Fish”, is listed as one of the top UK and global media and marketing blogs by Advertising Age.

nd

Plus anonymous

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Appendix 6 – Transcript of Interview with Conor McNicholas, editor of NME [At the time of the interview, Conor had 3,127 followers]. How did you find out about Twitter and what made you start using it? I first heard about it on the Media Guardian website – I thought it sounded like the most ridiculous thing in the world, had absolutely no time for it and didn’t see how it could be useful. Then I was at a BSME event at start of 2009 and there was a conversation with Juliet Warkentin, editor of WGSN.COM. She’s my vice chair at the BSME and we were talking about magazines and declining circulation and she was saying we just have to keep raising our awareness and working ourselves as brands as much as the brands we work on – keep blogging, keep twittering. She’s a serious character and I thought if she’s mentioning Twitter as a legitimate source of information, then maybe I should have a look at it. A couple of weeks later, like most of the Twittersphere, I had my Road to Damascus moment where there was a video on the BBC News homepage of Stephen Fry explaining Twitter and why it was so great. At that point there seemed to be enough noise about it that I though “Right, I really need to engage with this.” I went off, set up an account, started reading what other people were writing and suddenly completely got it. When you sign up, suddenly this whole world is unleashed and you think: ”Wow, what an amazing, amazing tool.” When you use Twitter, do you think of it as personal, or as a business tool? Or as both? Mine is very definitely a business tool, without a shadow of a doubt and it’s there, not to sound too egotistical about it, for brand Conor McNicholas. That’s why my name is down. When I signed up I was very clear that I wanted it to be Conor McNicholas, not Conor NME. I’m interested in how individuals can use it to manage themselves and manage the brands that they represent. When I put stuff up on Twitter I’m very conscious of who my audience is and I make it primarily for NME readers, and partly for people in the industry. When my profile went live I very quickly got something like the 500 most important and connected people in the record industry. They all piled in really quickly. I was saying this to a bunch of students the other day at the Guardian Graduate Recruitment Fair – that when you do this sort of stuff, be very mindful that you’re effectively running your own little broadcast network. And if you want people to follow you, you have to put in quality content. If you don’t put in quality content, what’s the point? The reason I have over 3000 people following me is not cos they think I’m a great guy and they want to hang around with me. It’s because 1) they like the idea of hanging out with the editor of NME, not me personally, so what I broadcast is stuff that fits in with that profile. They don’t get to hear about my kids, or about me cleaning up baby sick. But they will hear about me going to a festival, or music I like. There is so much amazing stuff I experience – most music fans would give their right arm to do what I do – three gigs in one night and not paying for any of them, going to after parties and people sending you brand new albums. You can’t help but take it for granted but if I can share that with other people, I

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figure that’s the responsibility of the job. So when there was a Blur reunion gig in Colchester I tweeted the whole thing and did a track-by-track as it was happing live – all 27 tracks. I had responses from Japan saying thank you so much because I was the only broadcast medium that was there. That was the only way to find out what was happening at that gig. The PR from RMP was getting calls from national newspapers asking what was happening at the gig – and she was telling them to read my Twitter feed cos that was the only way they would be able to get any information. Her pointing national press towards my profile – it’s stuff like that that makes you think, “Wow, this is powerful.” So you use Twitter to break news? Oh yeah, you have to be increasingly careful cos there’s a lot that I get told that people don’t want to get out. You still have to protect sources. I heard a preview of The Editors’ new album the other day and had to ask the guy after if he was happy for me to put up a first review, and he was. But if you start to break people’s confidence with it – because it’s so instant – it can cause real problems. How about information you see on Twitter? Do you trust it? Would you use something from Twitter without verifying it elsewhere? If we know that the profile is legitimate then we would use it. If there’s a question mark over whether or not its official then we’d look into it. So how would you feel if you found out that a profile you considered official was in fact being written by that person’s PR representative? It’s against the rules of the game isn’t it. I have respect for Matt Horne who does all his own stuff and Rob Brydon. Matt and I talk on Twitter a lot. We were out at a Horrors gig and he put a Twitter posting up to say he was at the gig with me – straight away I got 300 followers. It’s amazing when those things happen and you realise the reach. He’s got 30,000 followers. These are big reach bits of media. What do you think makes a good Twitter profile? A clear name, a good engaging photograph cos that’s how people will perceive you and you need your profile to look different to other people’s. You need to think about the quality of the content you’re putting out. If you only want to speak to a select 100 influencers and those influencers are signed up, that’s fine. But if you want to do something with any scale you just need to think about who the audience is and what sort of data they want from you. You need to think about the audience, not about yourself. What does Twitter offer you as a business tool? It enables me to be instantly accessible and seen to be real to a whole bunch of key opinion formers and key opinion forming fans. I do use it to PR myself in the record industry. If there are things I’m passionate about or I want people to know I can use it. There are things it can be useful for. For example, if I finish at a meeting with Universal and I say I’m off to Warner Bros or Sony BMG, it leaves all the people at Universal wondering what I’m up to. You can really play on that but I think it’s important they know I’m out and about doing

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these things cos I think it reflects well on the NME – it’s what the editor of the NME should be doing. The two key things from a business point of view are driving traffic to the website and letting people know what’s on the cover that week when it goes live on the newsstand and being seen to be enthusiastic and proud about it. If I’ve got 3,000 people each following my every word, I should be telling them what’s going on with the cover. Bit.ly links are amazing because you can then track the number of people who follow that link through. So you can drive traffic to your website and see the numbers go through. There are lots of other URL shorteners but Bit.ly seems to be the standard at the moment. [At this point Conor demonstrated how Bit.ly works – he adds a link to NME.COM to his profile. Three seconds after making it live, four people had already clicked through]. You can see that my links make up a small percentage of the general conversation that’s going on. If you repeat that for every active new page on NME.COM, Twitter is now the second biggest referrer of unique users to NME.COM after Google. Enormous. When PRs see that happening do they contact you and ask you to mention things on your Twitter profile? They haven’t done that yet. But I think that’s because they see it as a personal thing that they can’t really influence – which is true. No PRs have approached my Twitter yet but I think it will happen in the future. You mentioned that you checked if you could mention an album review before you Tweeted about it. In terms of other Tweets to your profile, do they go through any kind of approval process? Absolutely not. This is entirely me writing my stuff which is what I love about it. Have you used Twitter to contact anyone you don’t know? Yeah, a couple of times. I sent a Tweet to Mike Batt who wrote the Wombles theme tune cos we went to the same school and I thought I’d say hello. He never replied – but then again, he was following about 3,000 people. Have you made useful business contacts? Yes, definitely. There is a couple of people in the record industry who were on Twitter slightly before me and because I’m editor of NME, they used to pretty much slag me off at any opportunity. But I’ve ended up becoming quite good friends with them via Twitter because they can see that I’m a human being. I’ve also had a very well publicised spat with Calvin Harris. Things like that become quite interesting – I’ve had private conversations with Calvin Harris through direct messaging and there was one occasion where he decided to quite viciously have a go at me via Twitter but I didn’t mind in the least cos I thought “do you really want to do this publicly?” I was as nice as pie back to him. You have to remember all the time it’s a public profile. It feels quite private but actually it’s not. So would you say it’s formal or informal, private or public?

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That’s the magic of it. It’s kind of both. It’s formal informality, and a very private public conversation. I think if you’re somebody with the scale of Hollywood – hundreds of thousands or maybe even a million followers, then forget about it, it’s absolutely public. But I can have a conversation with a music obsessive and I don’t really need to worry about the wider impact. Although equally you do need to be careful about what you say cos it is writing it on a big wall. What’s the best thing about Twitter? (In less than 140 characters) It’s instant and interactive What’s the worst thing about Twitter? (In less than 140 characters) It’s fiendishly addictive You recently resigned from this role and announced it on Twitter. How did that work? It was crazy. The press release went live at 11. I posted it on my Twitter profile at 11.15 after I’d checked it with Chris Taylor (IPC Media’s head of media relations). It just went crazy. That was the first everyone knew about it. Press went with what they could get first. It turned out to be useful for me because everyone got to know very quickly. It was surprising – the speed at which the whole thing went. Has Twitter affected you/NME in any other way? Celebrities now don’t need to go through any kind of print or broadcast media to get their message across and when something’s printed about them that they don’t like, they can tell all of their fans instantly. For us, it’s a real issue because that relationship, that value that we previously sold to our readers, where we said “If you want to speak to this guy, the only way you can do it is by coming through us, do you love Morrissey? – We’re the magazine that will deliver you Morrissey ” The Morrissey of the next age will be on Twitter and if you want to follow him, you can follow him. Celebrities can now broadcast directly – the whole system completely breaks down. What’s next for NME using tools like this? We’re looking at changing the system fairly fundamentally. The thing that really concerns and excites me is real-time publishing – so Twitter is interesting but Twitter isn’t the end game. If a gig finishes and 20-minutes later we’ve got a live report up, we pat ourselves on the back. It’s great. We publish on the web, we make content, we finish, check it, hit a return button, and it’s checked again after. That starts to look archaic relative to Twitter cos Twitter is live stuff happening now. It shoves everything down. Because live broadcasting/Twitter does the job that the internet does at the moment, the Internet becomes more like a catch up daily newspaper that you turn to when you want to read sites of aggregated stuff in the last few hours, which means all the daily newspapers start to look like weekly magazines. If you look at what’s happening with The Sun, it looks more and more like a weekly every day – it’s all based around real life, and campaigning. They can’t break news stories anymore so it’s all about the angles that they take. What then happens is that weeklies (like NME) start to look more like monthlies.

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We’re now a premium product that comes out every so often. So monthlies then have to move to a place where they become super high-value quarterlies. What Twitter is doing is shoving everybody down and changing everybody’s business models. And that’s what’s going to be interesting over the next 3-5 years. Twitter looks like a flash in the pan but that notion of real-time broadcast publishing I think is going to make a massive difference. Appendix 7 – Responses from anonymous (questions and answers sent on email) Do you think social media – and in particular Twitter – is an opportunity or a threat to the PR profession? It can offer the opportunity to extend professional circle of contacts and reach wider audience using an online community. Immediacy of message distribution provides an opportunity for the PR profession to deal with issues / crises fast. It’s about two-way communication and building the brand online. I recently interviewed the editor of music magazine NME – he said he views his Twitter 100% as a business tool. Do you think it’s right that Twitter is used increasingly for business, or do you think it should remain a social network for informal communication? Twitter provides businesses with an opportunity to engage in the big conversation that’s going on out there amongst customers / media professionals, then using that conversation or credibility to draw people towards your business. It could be argued Twitter is not 100% a business tool but is a platform for communication which businesses can utilise to their advantage. Habitat received criticism recently for using incorrect hashtags on Twitter. Do you think Tweets should be subject to an approval process (as typical with press releases) or should they be left to individuals to self-publish? It is very important to maintain company standards online as well as offline so Tweets should be treated with the same care as a press release distribution to the media. Irresponsible Tweeting can damage the reputation of a company very quickly How does your organisation currently use Twitter and how do you think it might benefit your organisation in future? We currently use Twitter as a platform of message distribution assisting traditional offline activity whilst building our professional contacts online. Can benefit the organisation by building the agency brand, building industry contacts, and communicating with key audiences for products / personalities

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Appendix 8 – Transcript of interview with Neil Perkin How did you first hear about blogging and what made you start? It was about 3 years ago. I was working on the launch of a site called GoodToKnow. The project team was tasked with finding out a bit more about social media. Do you see your blog as personal or as a business tool? It’s personal but because I blog about the industry I think it has business benefit. I’d argue it’s good for my organisation – I have an opinion about things and I think a lot of people respect that – and if you have a respected opinion, I think that reflects well on your organisation. Do you trust what you see on Twitter? I tend to trust people that I know. When someone follows me on Twitter I always make a judgement call on whether or not to accept and trust them – I look at who they are, who they are following, and if they have a link to their blog, I look at that too. Social media is all about conversation so I look for someone who acknowledges the conversation. I look for people who are very open and who respond to feedback. What can Twitter offer business? It’s a window to the world. It enables businesses to interact directly with its customers. And I think it gives a human face to your business. Some companies run their entire customer services on Twitter very well, like Zappos. Even their CEO is on Twitter. It’s extremely good for engaging with a community of people and getting content out there. Twitter is a conversational medium so if you broadcast it doesn’t work. When you blog, do you consider yourself a journalist? No, not at all. I’m not a journalist and I’ve never been trained as a journalist. Journalism is a craft. Blogging doesn’t have to be researched, or even finished. It’s a thought you put out there. And people come back either agreeing or disagreeing. The best thing about Twitter? The people you meet The worst? Self promotion

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Appendix 9 – Government introduces Twitter guidelines ASSOCIATED PRESS British government tells civil servants to tweet

By JILL LAWLESS (AP) 29/7/09

LONDON — The British government has told civil servants: Go forth and tweet.

The government published guidelines Tuesday for its departments on using the microblogging service Twitter.

In contrast to Twitter's limit of 140 characters per message, the document runs 20 pages, or more than 5,000 words.

It tells civil servants their tweets should be "human and credible" and written in "informal spoken English."

It advises government departments to produce between two and 10 tweets a day, with a gap of at least 30 minutes between each "to avoid flooding our followers' Twitter streams."

The advice says Twitter can be used for everything from announcements to insights from ministers, and in a crisis could be a "primary channel" for communicating with the electorate.

The document warns against using Twitter simply to convey campaign messages, but notes that "while tweets may occasionally be 'fun,'" they should be in line with government objectives.

It also says departments should not follow any Twitter users who are not following them, as this could be interpreted as "Big Brother" behavior.

The guidelines are the British government's latest attempt to embrace the Internet and social media — efforts that have been both praised and mocked.

Stolid, unglamorous Prime Minister Gordon Brown was memorably called "an analog politician in a digital age" by the leader of the opposition. A YouTube appearance in April amid a scandal over lawmakers' expenses backfired when Brown seemed to be stiff, insincere and smiling inappropriately.

The Twitter document said the government must "accept that there will be some criticism" of its efforts.

Twitter, launched in 2006, first gained popularity as a way for fans to follow the thoughts and activities of celebrities like Oprah Winfrey (2 million followers) and Ashton Kutcher (3 million). It has also proved a powerful tool for mobilizing causes and protest movements, in post-election demonstrations

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from Iran to Moldova, where activists used Twitter to rally support after cell phone networks went down.

Governments around the world are also starting to use it to keep voters and constituents informed, with Britain and the United States among the most active. President Barack Obama's political Twitter stream — with more than 1.8 million followers and run out of the Democratic National Committee — has recently encouraged people to tweet their members of Congress about his proposed health care overhaul, and provides links to the president's news conferences.

The White House, meanwhile, has more than 800,000 followers to promote official government news, such as photographs of the first family's recent trip to Russia, Italy and Ghana. A handful of aides keep the account updated. Only a few are allowed access to Twitter on their government computers because U.S. law requires aides preserve every presidential record — including tweets.

In Britain, the prime minister's office, the Foreign Office and some individual lawmakers already use Twitter to broadcast their activities online. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's 10 Downing St. office has more than 1 million Twitter followers, who receive tidbits — written by a Downing Street staffer — such as "PM has just traveled from London to Cardiff by train."

Other governments have more modest Twitter presences. In Denmark, where there are no government Twitter guidelines, Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen has just under 3,500 followers for his sporadically updated Twitter feed. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has 16,700, a similar number to Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has just under 2,000 followers for his Hebrew-langauge feed.

Several Swedish opposition politicians have caught the Twitter bug, though the government is so far immune.

Neither French president Nicolas Sarkozy nor Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi appears to have a Twitter presence. German Chancellor Angela Merkel does not tweet, either.

Spain's government launched a Twitter account last week; it has just over 2,000 followers.

Politicians also must beware the pitfalls of Twitter-impersonators. When Michael Jackson died last month, several British newspapers republished a tweet seemingly from British Foreign Secretary David Miliband: "Never has one soared so high and yet dived so low. RIP Michael." It was fake.

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Tom Watson, a Labour party lawmaker who is one of the House of Commons' most active bloggers, said Twitter could be a valuable tool for Britain's Labour government.

But he said the guidelines showed how levels of familiarity with the Internet varied widely in the government's Whitehall offices.

"There are some very bright, digitally enabled civil servants who unfortunately have to write these documents for their bosses, the mandarins, who still get their secretaries to print off their e-mails so they can read them," Watson told the BBC.

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