The recent Hitwise paper ‘Seizing the moment in Social media’, details ways that brands can and have made hay from the news cycle including Al Jazeera and Lonely Planet during the rent uprisings in Egypt. This post looks at what these brands did and the challenges inherent in emulating them.

From @jkrums twitpic: http://twitpic.com/135xa

The report opens with a reassertion of the importance social media of social media as a destination (In January 2011, social networks accounted for 12.4% of all UK Internet visits) and the role of news and media (6.1%). And because of the real time nature of both there is a natural fit: want to know about breaking news, head to twitter (see Michael Jackson’s death, the Hudson River crash and the Icelandic ash cloud as examples of stories that broke in social before hitting the mainstream media).

Cross breed these two and you have an opportunity to respond to the news cycle in social media that can result in increased awareness and the establishment of trusted relationships.

While the connection with Al Jazeera is obvious, I didn’t quite get the Lonely Planet connection. Lonely Planet has a huge audience spread across the globe, sincluding Egypt. Taking advantage of their heavily engaged membership Lonely Planet set up a forum and asked their members to post real time updates of what was happening on the ground, which DOUBLED traffic to their site.

It’s worth noting that while Al Jazeera is an obvious choice when searching for news in the middle east, 20% of their traffic came through their dedicated social channels as they shared video and live blogging updates as well as through Facebook and news links through twitter.

The other example in the Hitwise paper is closer to the more quotidian concerns of a consumer brand: BA providing real time updates during the December 2010 snow storms, again using twitter and increasing traffic to their site 25% over any other airline and trebling positive sentiment towards the brand.

Great: increased traffic, new users, lots of inbound SEO friendly links and an enhanced reputation and brand sentiment.

Is this something other brands can emulate? Find out after the jump…

Let’s look at the common elements to these examples;

• Each had a unique opportunity: access to information that had a degree of exclusivity
• They all used social media in a timely and transparent way
• They established or already had appropriate social channels for this kind of activity
• They were responding to a real need and interest of the online community
• All of these combined in a way that they were actually adding value to the online community

So what are the challenges?

• Is what we have to say unique enough? Why are we talking about this, why should the audience expect us to have an authoritative or informed point of view?
• Can we use social media in a timely and transparent way? If this communication is being handled by an agency, do they have access to the right sources of internal information and the mandate to cover it? If its being handled internally do the company representatives have the internal authority to communicate in this way, and if not what’s the approval process? In constantly evolving news situations timely means real time. Like…Now. And now. And then now again, in ten minutes time.
• Not all social channels are created equal: its probably not appropriate to use a Facebook page dedicated to vouchers and discounts to discuss the health concerns around a product category health scare. So are we prepared to start a new presence and do we have a plan for its ongoing maintenance or its graceful retirement?
• Are we in a situation to respond to a real need? Lots of brands and many aspects of brands and their marketing are not important in users’ lives. Interesting, possibly entertaining, but not vitally useful and important. But dig away and there in the heart of the brand is something that responds to an audience need, otherwise they wouldn’t exist, right?. So the job is to find out what it is that your brand that actually matters to users and when that might occur in the news cycle?
• Adding value: If we’re going to weigh in on a topic of importance are we able to add value? Are we prepared to put aside the valid but in this context inappropriate marketing concerns we have so that we can deliver real and timely information that is of use? (remember and learn from Habitat). We need to ask ourselves; are we marketing or are we communicating? Is this message or activity designed to benefit us the brand or them, the users?

So while the benefits of responding to the news cycle in social are real, so are the challenges. Oh yes, and the news cycle isn’t preplanned. So brands need to anticipate scenarios and forward plan what out any concrete knowledge of what exactly is going to happen.