Soundcloud Responds to A Crippling Hacking Strike, In Their Own Words Using Soundcloud #PRNightmare

JacobSperber October 12, 2011 No Comments

Soundcloud , the extremely popular social web platform for musicians and DJ’s to share their music with the masses, got hit with a hacker attack which put the website down for an entire day. As Facebook and other social mediums blew up with different theories from users on why the site was down, when Soundcloud regained its functionality the company used their own platform to answer the cries of users with their own voice.

In addition to an email communication that was sent their user base the Soundcloud executive team posted this audio file to provide a very sincere message to their users: http://soundcloud.com/alex/thanks-and-were-sorry-at/s-4SBID

While I often use Soundcloud to listen to sets from my favorite DJ’s, I never thought about using it for recorded communications on company news and announcements. Because the platform has a built in comments features, users can provide their thoughts throughout the timeline of the recording providing organizations with valuable insights and feedback.

It got me thinking this is an interesting way to add some additional color to press releases and/or outbound communications when video isn’t an option and engage customers and users in conversations. (Note: with any recording, video or audio, to improve SEO the file should also be transcribed and posted somewhere on the company’s site.)

Turning this potential PR nightmare into on opportunity for showing how their platform works, the Soundcloud team has inspired me to consider their platform as an option for my clients to tell their story in their own words. It also reminded me how important it is for tech companies to user their own tools, whenever possible for communicating with the public and media.

August 2011

JacobSperber August 6, 2011 No Comments

Cool Gadget Sizzling Hot – August 31, 2011
Reveal Latest Worlds Tech Gadget Portal
By Staff

Clickz – August 29, 2011
Using Mobile Applications to Improve Email Acquisition
By David Daniels

HomeWorld – August 25, 2011
Sign Up Eclipsing Click Through For Mobile Marketers
By Staff

Email Expert – August 25, 2011
Mobile Advertisers Shift Focus to Email Signups
By Andrew Bonar

The Luxury Project – August 25, 2011
Retailers increase mobile ad spending with most campaigns focused on acquiring email and social signups
By Trevor Lloyd-Jones

BizReport – August 25, 2011
Survey: Retailers like mobile, don’t like click-thrus
By Kristina Knight

Clickz – August 15, 2011
Connected Acquisition
By David Daniels

Biz Report – August 4, 2011
Non-Instrusive ads key for mobile says expert
Kristina Knight

 Econsultancy – August 3, 2011
Majority of marketers unhappy with mobile ads: report
By Particio Robles

BizReport – August 3, 2011
Low ROI holding back increased mobile ad spending
 By Helen Leggatt

 The Drum – August 3, 2011
Mobile advertising lack of ROI “biggest deterrent for marketers”
 By Staff

 The Mobile Marketing Watch — August 3, 2011
Survey: “Low ROI” Cited As Main Reason For Not Increasing Mobile Advertising Spend
 By Justin Montgomery

 SysCon — August 3, 2011
Mobile Marketing News Weekly – Week of August 1, 2011
 By Kevin Benedict

 DigitalMediaWire – August 2, 2011
Many Marketers Disappointed in Mobile Ad Results
 By Chris Marlowe

 Business2Community – August 2, 2011
How the Mobile Ad Industry Can Grow Even Faster
 By Zephrin Lasker

 Marketing VOX – August 2, 2011
Rethinking (Again) the Approach to Mobile Marketing
 By Staff

 Adotas – August 2, 2011
Survey: Low ROI Holding Back Mobile Ad Spend
 By Gavin Dunaway

Digiday – August 2, 2011
Does Mobile Have an ROI Problem?
 by Carla Rover

Mobile Marketing Watch – August 2, 2011
Marketers Concerned with Mobile Ad Spend
 By Staff

 Kelli’s Blog — Aug 1, 2011
Has the Economic Downturn Ended Mobile Advertising Before it Began?
 By Kelli Richards

Paul Sutton’s #NoSearch Google free two-month diet calls for lots of Twitter

JacobSperber July 29, 2011 No Comments

Paul Sutton, head of social communications for Bottle,  launched a two month experiment of living search engine free, called #NoSearch.  Armed with a strict set of rules, Sutton hasn”t used Google, or any other search engines, for the last two months. Instead, he is relying heavily on twitter.

Sutton is using #NoSearch on Twitter to keep his followers and fans apprised to his every move. You can also read more about his expirament on his blog.

Deidre Breakendridge, of the New PR Toolkit, interviewed Sutton to find out what inspired a PR pro to go search engine-less:

“working in online PR and social communications as I do, I’m all too aware that social networks enable us to share and find information like never before. We can research, ask friends and carry out polls in minutes.  It’s a form of ‘collective intelligence’, and that made me question whether we can get by online by forgoing search engines in favour of our online networks.”

Now about eight weeks into the #NoSearch experiment, Sutton has found that his social media networks are his lifeline most notably his Twitter following. Paul also surprisingly talks about the importance of the often overlooked world of social bookmarking:

“I’m now seeing a real value in social bookmarking, a side of social media that, to be honest, I’ve never taken that seriously before. Delicious, Diigo and Stumbleupon hold such a wealth of valuable information, and while they can’t compete with Google for finding a website URL, they’re just as good for information.”

The more you read into Sutton’s trials and tribulations on #NoSearch the relevance and application of social media becomes very clear.

 

 

CLIENT NEWS: EffectiveUI Wins Mulitple Stevie Business Awards

JacobSperber July 21, 2011 No Comments

The 9th Annual American Business Awards honored the best and brightest a wide array of businesses and disciplines, crowning this year’s Stevie Award winners at a gala event last night in New York City. EffectiveUI was announced today as winning multiple awards.

More than 2,800 entries were submitted to The 2011 American Business Awards and more than 200 executives nationwide participated in judging to determine this year’s Stevie Award finalists and winners.

 

Hit! Pontiflex’s AppLeads platform featured on GigaOM

JacobSperber July 12, 2011 No Comments

GigaOm published an article featuring the Ponitflex AppLeads Platform today. GigaOm reporter Ryan Kim details the current state of mobile advertising and how AppLeads addresses top concerns companies are facing with digital marketing. AppLeads works around the increasingly ineffective one-click banner ad system:

It’s an interesting take on mobile advertising and shows that there are still a lot of creative ways to make ads work on smartphones and tablets. Instead of opting for persistent banner ads, which are often mistakenly clicked, Pontiflex gives users a simple proposition: choose to engage with a brand that it thinks a user will find useful or skip it and move on.

Press Release: EffectiveUI and Boeing Hit the Hangars, Cockpits and Offices to Gain Valuable Customer Insight

JacobSperber June 21, 2011 No Comments

EffectiveUI and Boeing Hit the Hangars, Cockpits and Offices to Gain Valuable Customer Insight. With User Research Phase Complete, Customer Insight Will Drive User Experience Design in transforming Boeing’s MyBoeingFleet customer portal.

The companies are sharing examples and findings of the research portion of the project in a session titled, “How Customer Insight and Ethnographic Research Drive Customer Experience Strategy” today at the Forrester Customer Experience Forum in New York.

Read the full press release

Scroll to Top