Bateman Banter » Client Spotlight

Reality Buzz: What can businesses learn from American Idol?

Bill Bourdon — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:29:02 +0000

You might think the connection between popular reality TV shows like American Idol and business strategy is fuzzy at best, and on many levels you’re right. But there’s actually a lot that businesses can learn from these programs – not from Randy Jackson or Paula Abdul, but from the social media data.

Bateman Group’s client Kapow Technologies just completed a really cool project, dubbed Reality Buzz, which was created to see if real-time analysis of social media conversations could predict the outcome of two popular reality television shows: American Idol and Dancing with the Stars. After collecting tens of thousands of tweets, comments and discussions about contestants each week (down with Kate Gosselin!) and applying a dash of sentiment analysis, Kapow batted well above .500 on its predictions. In fact, Reality Buzz predicted 80 percent of the elimination rounds for Dancing with the Stars correctly!

In a great guest blog post to ZDNet, Kapow’s Rick Kawamura offers five lessons learned from Reality Buzz that businesses should apply in order to extract real value from social media data. Here are a few choice excerpts:

Rule #1: Data trumps conventional wisdom

While Malcolm Gladwell, author of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, would say otherwise, data-driven business decisions definitely outperform guesswork.

Rule #2: Timing is critical

Any data more than 24 hours old is pretty much worthless for predicting who will be eliminated from a reality TV show. The same holds true in the business world, where it’s imperative for the data to be as close to an event as possible, as this data has the strongest effect on sentiment.

Rule #3: Don’t be blind to the noise factor

It’s easy to understand trends, changes in momentum, volume of traffic, and ratio of positive to negative sentiment. However there is a lot of noise that can easily skew the data, especially with large, very public shows like American Idol. The bigger the show, product, etc., the more noise.

Rule #4: Not all social media sentiment created equal

There are differing degrees of sentiment, and not all translate equally well. Companies also need to consider how to weigh one tweet versus a Facebook comment versus a blog post. Each is just one piece of data, but does each one count equally?

Rule #5: Don’t look at data in a vacuum

Having knowledge of the events and circumstances surrounding the data sets is critical to understanding and extracting intelligence from social media. In the case of Reality Buzz, it was helpful to watch the performance shows for added context.

Welcoming CoreMedia and StepStone Solutions to the Client Roster

Fred Bateman — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 20:36:24 +0000

We were pleased to announce this week the addition of two more European-based companies to our expanding client roster of national and global brands.

Effective immediately, CoreMedia of Germany has appointed Bateman Group as agency of record for the U.S. for the full range of integrated PR and social media communications programs.

In addition, StepStone Solutions of the U.K. retained Bateman for a three-month brand building project to increase perception of StepStone Solutions in the U.S. as one of the world’s leading suppliers of Total Talent Management Solutions.

CoreMedia and StepStone Solutions join a small, but growing cadre of European-based companies who have turned to Bateman Group to jumpstart their North American presence. Others include The Open Group, Jericho Forum, Panda Security and Kapow Technologies.

Please join us in welcoming CoreMedia and StepStone Solutions to the Bateman client roster!

The Best of Bateman Banter 2009

Bill Bourdon — Sun, 03 Jan 2010 17:10:52 +0000

On June 25, 2009, we launched Bateman Banter, the Bateman Group’s official blog on topics and trends in communications, public relations, marketing, social media and technology – and the areas where those topics intersect. We thought our growing readership would appreciate a recap of the blog’s most popular posts from our first six months. For those of you visiting Bateman Banter for the first time, this post will do a good job catching you up. We’re looking forward to seeing all of you return for more Bateman Batner in 2010.

Bateman Buzz Meter – Editions One, Two and Three. The brainchild of our very own Shannon Walsh, Bateman Buzz Meter is our take on the best and worst industry headlines and PR campaigns . From the Tiger Woods fiasco to Facebook’s new privacy settings and lots in between, the Bateman Group organizes the latest news, PR stunts and blunders in a colorful and easy to read matrix each month.

12 Days of Christmas in Silicon Valley. If you haven’t seen it yet, our holiday video card features the Bateman Group’s special rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas performed by the amazingly talented Gale Bradley Singers. Fred put it best when he described the video as “a parody of what we can only call ‘Silicon Valley values’ at a time we can all use a good laugh.”

Open Social Media Strategy Pays Off for Panda Security. This post highlights how the Bateman Group’s client Panda Security has embraced social media to transform itself from an introverted and technology focused company to an open organization that is able to better interact with its customers, partners, and employees.

Are spokespeople going the way of the dodo? In this evocative post inspired by a Wall Street Journal article, Tyler Perry (not to be confused with Tyler Perry) answers the question: Will corporate blogs replace company spokespeople?

37 Signals Satires Twitter Valuation: Why Didn’t I Think of That?! In this post by yours truly, I call out the best tech industry PR stunt of the year: 37Signals’ satirical press release about its billion dollar valuation in response to Twitter’s one billion valuation. 37Signals’ CEO Jason Fried jokingly justifies his company’s valuation based on investors who are paying $1 for 0.000000001% of the company. Brilliant.

Facebook vs. Twitter: Which is Better for Marketing your Business? In this controversial post inspired by a New York Times article, Lisa Melsted offers her prediction about how B2B versus consumer brands will get utility from Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter in the future.

To Embargo or Not to Embargo? Prompted by the Wall Street Journal’s decision to no longer honor embargoes, Tyler Perry discusses the implications of this policy shift for brands, PR, and the broader media landscape. Only time will tell what embargo policy shifts are in store for 2010.

PR or Advertising: Who Should be Managing your Sponsored Conversations? In this post I introduce the emerging and somewhat controversial concept of ’sponsored conversation’ and explain which camp, PR or advertising, is better positioned for success in these new waters. And the winner is…PR.

Bateman Group speaks out on information overload. The fragmentation of the media landscape and explosion of the blogosphere has made it increasingly challenging for PR practitioners to stay on top of not only the news, but the conversations most relevant to our clients. In this great video post by Amy Ziari, she interviews some Bateman Group employees about the history of how PR firms have monitored media and what tools they use to stay productive in an era of information overload.

Finally Putting “The Article” to Bed. In this witty and insightful post, Fred weighs in on the heated debate sparked by Claire Cain Miller’s July 4^th New York Times article on the Evolution of PR in Silicon Valley. Fred offers some great perspective on the different styles of PR, comparing and contrasting approaches perfected by new kid on the block Brooke Hamerling and industry veterans like Andi Cunningham.

Introducing Bateman Banter, the official blog of the Bateman Group. Fred pens the inaugural Bateman Banter post and lays out our editorial mission and unique P.O.V.

Thanks for your feedback and inspiration over the last six months since Bateman Banter has been and please continue to join the conversation by sharing your thoughts and perspectives with us.

12 Days of Christmas in Silicon Valley

Fred Bateman — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 21:16:34 +0000

With the holiday season upon us, we were feeling especially creative this year. We wanted to apply this energy to a project that both celebrated our industry and made use of the very elements responsible for its rapid change — digital media, new delivery methods and viral publishing. Our holiday video card features a very special rendition of the 12 Days of Christmas performed by the amazingly talented Gale Bradley Singers. Its a parody of what we can only call “Silicon Valley values” at a time we can all use a good laugh. Credit for this creative and humorous send up goes to the entire Bateman staff. Special thanks to Amy Ziari for her masterful video editing and production skills.

Bateman Group’s Pro Bono Client Shines

Bill Bourdon — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 17:58:59 +0000

The Bateman Group signed on our very first pro bono client last summer with Little Kids Rock, a national nonprofit bringing free musical instruments and instruction to underfunded public schools in 23 cities (think Red Hot Chili Peppers not Bach).

I am thrilled to report that earlier this week Little Kids Rock received a $500,000 donation from the Dr. Phil Foundation which will bring rock’n music programs to 25,000 school children in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Tampa, and two additional cities to be named by the end of 2009.

This is what my friend and Little Kids Rock founder David Wish had to say about the partnership:

Dr. Phil’s passion and vision dovetails perfectly with our history of bringing music to children. This is an extraordinary opportunity to partner and make a real difference in the lives of thousands of kids. With the creation of Little Kids Rock Across America, we will be training more teacher volunteers and reaching more kids in more classrooms who would never have had opportunity to play music in an economy where arts programs are evaporating.

According to Dr. Phil McGraw:

Little Kids Rock approached the Dr. Phil Foundation in search of a meaningful way to put music into the lives of children who need it. With the help of this great organization, the Foundation has created a program designed to expand what they have been doing so effectively, one guitar, one school district and one volunteer teacher at a time. David Wish had a dream, and he made it real. I am proud that with his help, Little Kids Rock Across America will be teaching kids and their mentors what the power of music can really do to change who they are.

Open Social Media Strategy Pays Off for Panda Security

Bill Bourdon — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:42:58 +0000

Juan Santana, CEO for the Bateman Group’s client Panda Security, just published a great blog about his company’s experience with social media.

Juan explains how Panda has embraced social media over the last year to transform itself from an introverted and technology focused company to an open organization that is now able to better interact with a rapidly changing marketplace.

With so many organizations, large and small, putting rigid rules on employees about when and how to use social media, Panda has taken a different approach:

“While some companies were (and many still are) concerned about productivity, spokespersons following the company communication guidelines or employees potentially disclosing confidential information when they interact with the media, at Panda, we have taken a conscious decision and encouraged everyone to interact with the “outside world” as they see fit. After over a year of having this new “policy” (or more appropriately, the lack of) in place, we can only talk benefits from a decision that has impacted most areas in the company: from support to product management, from PR & Communication to sales … even some developers, who tend to be much more reserved, can be seen in Twitter : -)”

I’m pleased to say that the Bateman Group collaborated with Juan and his team on developing a set of educational resources (how-to documents, best practices guides, etc.) and a loose policy framework for encouraging all of the company’s employees to use social media constructively. As Juan notes in his blog, the policy is more of a corporate statement that removes excessive red tape for engaging with Twitter and various social networking sites in meaningful ways that positively impact the Panda Security brand.

Since that time, the use of social media among employees at every level inside the organization has exploded and the results have been extremely positive. Juan attributes much of this success to the fact that Panda did more than just give lip service to employees about the benefits of social media; they invested the necessary resources and time to ensure multi-channel communications would become ingrained in the company’s culture.

“I am totally convinced that the success of a social media strategy in a company is achieved when you actually stop talking about it as a differentiated strategy. When that happens, it is because it has become natural for these ‘new’ channels to be used for the company’s daily work.”

We continue to be amazed by Panda’s forward-thinking and incredible ability to execute internally when it comes to social media. We certainly would not have been able to achieve the results seen on the PR side if it weren’t for the company’s ongoing commitment to multi-channel communications and encouragement of employees to become actively engaged.

Here is just a sampling of how some Panda employees are using social media to make a difference for the company:

http://twitter.com/Panda_Security

http://twitter.com/Panda_Japan

http://twitter.com/kaijern

http://twitter.com/PandaBrasil

http://twitter.com/PandaTechSup

http://twitter.com/Luis_Corrons