Lisa Graveling is the UK PR manager for Sage and was one of the team involved in the company UK CEO Paul Stobart's recent Twitter Q&A. Below I asked her a few questions about it and how she felt it went. Check out the hashtag - #sagepaul - for further reading and also this Guardian article about it too.You can follow Sage on Twitter here.

Disclosure: I've done some work with the Sage Group but this had nothing to do with me.

1. How did the idea for the Twitter interview come about? I know that Ford in the US did something similar with the company’s CEO, is this where you got your inspiration from?

We wanted to do something a bit different to celebrate our thousandth follower and inject even more personality, so a Twitter Interview with our CEO seemed like an obvious one. We actually didn’t see the Ford example until afterwards.

2. What was the objective for the Twitter interview? Was it more for experimentation purposes and is it something that you may look to do in the future?

We had three main objectives for the Twitter interview.

• To prove that we take innovation seriously

• To engage with our stakeholders (whether they were customers, prospects, accountants, business partners or journalists) in a different way and try new conversations

• To find out more about what people want to know from us

It was an experiment, and there was no right or wrong result but we’re really pleased with how it went. We had some really positive feedback and hit all of our objectives. And as a bonus, generated lots of media coverage.

3. Initially did Paul Stobart take some convincing to participate in the Twitter interview?

No, our leaders and spokespeople are all keen to find our more about social media. Paul already speaks directly to several customers every week, happy and not so, so this really was another opportunity for him to get even closer to our customers - he didn’t need any convincing and ended up really enjoying himself.

4. By his responses it seems he got to grips with using Twitter relatively easy. Did you provide background info and training on the concept of Twitter beforehand?

Before the Twitter session we sat down with Paul and took him through our Twitter activity so far, what we were already using it for and how it can benefit businesses like ours as a communications tool. He had already embraced the notion that social media was all about honesty and transparency so we talked him through the types of things that he could be asked to check he was comfortable with it, then it was literally over to him!

5. What has been the general reaction from both the Twitter community and the wider media from the Twitter interview?

We’ve had a really positive reaction, I think the volume of questions from our Twitter community has proved this – we really weren’t sure what to expect but Paul could hardly keep up.

Media coverage wasn’t a primary objective of the session but a real bonus was that Paul’s session was picked up in our channel media, and several nationals, including the FT.

A particular highlight for us was Paul being compared to another famous Twitterer, Ashton Kutcher on the Guardian’s Business Editor’s twitter feed! We used that as a bit of a tongue in cheek way of promoting our Twitter feed internally, as its really important for us that the whole business knows that the channel is there for us to help them share insights and information with our followers.

6. Do you envisage senior management from all types of businesses taking this kind of upfront and personal approach with customers?

I think more and more businesses are using Twitter as a channel to their customers and prospects so it will be interesting to see how this develops. At Sage, we’re passionate about delivering a great experience for our customers in which ever way they want it, so if that involves answering questions about what weapon we’d pick in a Zombie war, so be it!

We’ll certainly continue to experiment with Twitter and other channels in our business, for example we may set up separate Q&A sessions with our HR director or Finance Director to answer questions on their area of expertise.

7. Sage UK has been active on Twitter for quite a while and in my opinion is using it to very good effect.  Do you have any other plans for how you will use the platform for PR and customer service initiatives?

Our Digital PR activity this year is about helping to deliver a ‘great customer experience’ so we’ll be using Twitter to help us to do this.

Specifically, we’re using twitter to:

• Demonstrate our innovative approach

• Show extraordinary customer experience

• Inject personality into our people and brand

• Spread marketing and PR messages

• Encourage customer recommendations

• Address customer complaints

• Build relationships

• Provide information for our stakeholders 
  

That's according to Adam Parker of RealWire (disclosure: I used to work at RealWire and now consult with the company) who, after analysing 71 Social Media News Releases (SMNR) that the company distributed over a six month period, found that SMNRs generate 21 percent more coverage than 'traditional' press releases. When looking at only blog coverage the results showed the increase was 336 percent.

Does this mean that SMNRs are the way forward? Yes I think they are but not necessarily because of what this analysis has shown. As Adam says, the actual format of the release is likely to play a small part in the results it achieves. Content is King, however, and more effort goes into creating an SMNR than creating a regular release so chances are it will be more interesting. Also, and as an explanation of the high blog coverage increase, I think smart PROs understand their audience and have chosen the SMNR format when they have news that they know will be particularly interesting to social media users. That's what I think, anyway.

As an end-user (that's a technical phrase for 'a reader') SMNRs are more engaging because there are more assets (multimedia, previous coverage, comment facility etc) to keep my attention. Barriers to entry for creating multimedia content have come down and press releases will be considered an organisation's official statement for a long time yet. As I've said already, SMNRS (or something in that form) are the way forward.

Stuart Bruce points to a great example of where social media can make a difference. The Daily Mail, often a joke point on Twitter (check out the Daily Mail Headline Generator by Chris Applegate), is/was running a ridiculous poll (my opinion not PR Week's) on the news outlet's website titled, "Should the NHS allow gypsies to jump the queue?" 

As Stuart says, "A Twitter campaign has sprung into action urging people to vote the right way, which means that at the moment the result is YES 93%, which given the leading question isn’t the hate filled answer the Daily Mail was looking for."

At a time when there have been recent racist attacks in the UK we do not need polls like this, particularly from mainstream news outlets. Twitter is a great channel to mobilise people into action and in this case it was used by users of the popular microblogging platform to simply cast a vote on a pointless poll.

As Stuart says, last count was at 93% in favour of yes. However, the poll has since disappeared from the site and one wonders if they will cover the results in the newspaper? Probably not me thinks.

Lately I've been lucky enough to travel around to a number of countries in the eastern part of Europe (hence my lack of posts lately) discussing and exploring the opportunities in online PR. One thing that was most striking to me is how much of a global phenomenon social media is. Yes, I know, the West isn’t the only region to have the internet, I know this. However, as someone who has read a lot (stress: a lot) of blogs in his time, I’m only aware of case studies and examples of good and bad usage of social media predominantly from the UK and US.

Even with a global medium like the internet, I sometimes think that I - and many people like me - live in our own bubble and focus solely on what’s happening in the UK. It stands to reason I guess; from a PR point-of-view it’s usually where our business focus is and we share more in common with those based in the same country as ourselves. Social networks like Twitter with such immediate communication generally require people to be in a similar time zone only add to a localised interaction.

However, it’s been good to step out of the bubble for a while and to view how social media is progressing in other countries. Are these countries as advanced as the UK? Probably not but it's moving fast. There’s a lot going on and it’s certainly reinforced the fact to me that social media is indeed a global phenomenon.

Exciting times to be working in this era of PR.

It seems that us PR people are taking to Twitter like ducks to water. I don't have a number but I'd assume there are potentially tens of thousands of us around the world using Twitter for client initiatives and to build relationships with our peers and journalists. Back in November 2008 (long time in internet months) I actually carried out a little research to see which UK PR people are using Twitter. The response was positive and it was then developed into a wiki. Side note: you should add your Twitter profile to it if you're not already on.

That said, even the wiki isn't a full representation of all the PR people on Twitter so if you're looking to follow more of your peers on the popular micro-blogging platform I have a handy little tip for you which I found on the blog, Mr Google Alerts.

Searching on Google is easy and we all know how to do it. However, with Google search you can also perform comprehensive and detailed search queries making your search very specific. In this case we can tell Google we want to find all the people on Twitter who work in PR and are based in London. To do this we write this in the search box: intext:"bio * pr" intext:"location * london" site:twitter.com

And there you have it. Take a look for yourself. There is a caveat however - the search results will only bring up the people who have specified that they work in PR and are based in London in the 'bio' and 'location' section of their Twitter profile. It's a good first start though and the formula is not restricted to just this. For example, you can also find journalists based in London or Manchester. Or you might be working on an initative which involves accountants, in which case you can make the search more generic to find accountants using Twitter.

The best part is you can add the search query to Google Alerts so whenever a new Twitter profile is added you will get an email from Google notifying you of it. 

As part of the day job I run an online PR training course which aims to help PR people understand and navigate the often complex and technical online media world. While some elements of PR will never change - regardless of whether it's done online or off - it is no secret that social media is throwing up a number of challenges for the PR traditionalists. Last week I delivered a course in Lithuania and afterwards one of the delegates commented that I use a high proportion of case studies where a company's reputation was impacted negatively. At first I disagreed with her notion but having given it some thought I concluded that, yes, perhaps despite my vested interest in online PR I do focus heavily on the negative.
 
Reason why? Subconsciously I think I do it primarily to deter fellow PR people from making similar mistakes from what I highlight in the training. Some of the traditional PR approaches don't apply to the online world and the best way to illustrate this is by showing real life PR gaffs as case studies. From this I hope that people understand that the result of what they do online is archived and cached forever. It can't be deleted, hidden or covered up.
 
The hugely popular technology start-up blog, TechCrunch, this week carried a blog post about a PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) social media seminar which aims to look at how to engage bloggers effectively and ethically. Part of the seminar will discuss how a New York based publicist allegedly screwed up by sending unsolicited press releases to a group of bloggers who attended a trade show. A discussion on the issue can be found on TechCrunch's blog post and on the PRSA Colorado blog which also includes commentary by the alledged publicist.
 
Make your own mind up about the situation. This blog post isn't about pointing fingers and saying who is right or wrong but aims to highlight that, since the advent of social media, we are all potentially unwilling case studies. Not sure about you but I don't fancy seeing my picture on a Powerpoint slide on how not to do PR.

It’s safe to say that we the people are increasingly becoming used to engaging in discussions and debate online. One only has to consider the number of Facebook wall discussions, blog comments, Twitter tweets and the often downright abusive comments on YouTube that take place each day across the web.  Media is becoming socialised and as social animals ourselves we are embracing this phenomenon relatively easily.

Mainstream news publications are increasingly getting in on the act too. The Guardian, Sky News, Telegraph and Times all allow their readers to engage in conversation around news articles, often generating heated debates around certain topics from sport to politics. From a personal point-of-view I often find the discussion taking place in the comment section more interesting and informative than the article itself.

Readers enjoy giving their opinion and a different perspective to that of the article; often criticising the journalist on the basis of their stories. Do journalists ever engage in the comment section of their own articles, especially when readers question the journalist’s professional integrity? As someone who reads 95% of news content online I have yet to see this happen.

Of course one might argue that journalists are too time-strapped to be engaging in two-way discussion with readers. My belief, however, is that readers will increasingly expect participation from the journalist. Bloggers do so why not journalists?

If media online is becoming more socialised then should journalists become a little more socialised online also? To retain credibility they may need to.

Hello and welcome to the first post of my PR Week blog. Why the 'iOnline' name you might ask? Well it's supposed to illustrate what the blog is about. Me keeping an eye online and reporting interesting events, new online tools, PR screw-ups/successes and anything else that I think you might like. Besides, all the good names were taken.

There is no set agenda here and the content will vary from post to post. I'll try not to go on and on about how online is fundamentally changing the PR industry forever because, quite frankly, I've done enough of that on my personal blog and this latest move by PR Week only adds to the notion that the we are going through a period of communication change. Some say revolutionary where others argue evolutionary; either way it's a change no less.

So bear with me while I discover my PR Week blogging voice and I promise you some good online insights. In the next couple of months I'll be heading out to a number of emerging markets on a project involving the online media in those particular countries so expect some reportage while I'm on the road.

So grab the RSS feed and stay tuned.