by Marta Majewska

Sanoma Magazines Belgium recently conducted a study on the usage of iPhone by women.

Below some interesting highlights from the report:

• 2.9% of the Belgian population 15+ owns an iPhone. This equals 257.000 users.
• 1.7% of women owns an iPhone, which equals 78.000 women in the North and 55.000 in the South.
• The prototype iPhone owner is male, between 15 and 44 years and is part of the higher social classes.
• Women get an iPhone relatively more often as a gift. They are relatively recent onwers.
• 6 on 10 female iPhone owners accesses at least once a week the internet thru the iPhone. 4 on 10 almost never does this.
• The most popular sites that are visited on the iPhone are Facebook, Google and newspaper sites.
• 77% of the female iPhone owners has a Facebook account.
• 36% of women have ever installed an app on their iPhone. Only 19% of them has actually paid for it (= 7% of the female iPhone users) Women prefer free apps with ads above paying apps.

My Social Evolution from Nicole D’Alonzo on Vimeo.

We have a new colleague @Porter Novelli New York! Nicole, who works on the Digital Strategy team in NYC, will spend a portion of her time serving as a public facing community manager for the global PN presence.  Using a best-practices approach to community, she will manage the overall editorial calendar for social content and oversee submissions to our blog. She tweets from @porternovelli and serves as a liaison for our staff to integrate great content from across the network into all of our social channels.

A bit of background on Nicole:

Nicole D’Alonzo is an SAE and serves also as the Community Manager for The Laughing Cow.  She graduated from York College of Pennsylvania with a B.A. in English Literature and a minor in women’s studies.  Nicole is also an active philanthropy ambassador and video producer.

You can see her client work in action for a client at:
http://www.twitter.com/thelaughingcow
http://www.thelaughingcow.com/blog/

Are you smart, driven and passionate about social media? You love it and you want to spend the whole day learning and doing it? Then you will fit perfectly into the Porter Novelli Social Media Team! We need an intern who is looking to dive in and get their hands dirty and is willing to do everything related to social media from research through tweeting to blogging and more!

Responsibilities:

• Social media research across any given topic (collecting, organizing and analyzing data)
• Social media monitoring
• Social media outreach
• Blogging
• Developing creative ideas for social media campaigns
• Any other tasks given by a supervisor

Requirements:

• Familiarity and interest in Web 2.0, social media and the blogosphere
• Excellent computer skills
• Excellent writing skills
• Fluent in English (and preferably another European language)

Bonus points if:

• You’re an active blogger
• Have more than 250 followers on Twitter
• Speak several languages

Start date: August or September

Job type:
Full-time (preferred)

Based in:
Brussels, Belgium

Interested? Contact me @princess_misia or send your CV and motivation to marta.majewska@porternovelli.be (don’t forget to include your social media details such as Twitter, blog etc.)

By Danny Devriendt

Mom tried to raise me to be an honorable citizen. Thinking of it: so did dad. Greet people. Thank them. Speak with two words. Be helpful. Pay for things you need. Get older ladies safely across busy streets.

Honestly, they succeeded quiet well.  I was managing reasonably good, trying to be mister almost perfect. And then… I bought an iPad. And my world shifted. Because mister Steve Jobs disagrees with mom. He does not want me to be a nice citizen.

My iPad has all this great tools and things. It’s a fully mobile, highly connected dog-and pony show. But to make half of the stuff work, mister Jobs wants me to cheat. I live in Belgium, and iTunes will not let me buy ebooks. ITunes will not let me buy TV-series. iTunes will not let me buy movies. No buying, no renting. God and Steve know why.

I cannot even buy my favorite stuff in another country than Belgium. iTunes will not let me. American Express and Visa ensure there is nothing wrong with my credit. There is something wrong with iTunes. There is something wrong with Steve.

Now that he pocketed a small 1000 dollars, I discover that some nice features of my iPad only will work if I rip or download illegally. Apple will not take my good money for legal entertainment on my kosher personal iPad.

Sorry mom… blame Steve. But nothing will stand between me and an iPad driven Monthy Python.

by Marta Majewska

Ladies and gentleman … or señoras y señores! On Thursday night we reached our final destination – Madrid! The next morning we were expected at Loft39 – a very elegant location where the seminar was taking place – and after some good café con leche (or a triple espresso if we’re talking Danny), the seminar could start.

After a warm welcome and the introduction of the speakers by Juan-Cruz Más Vidal, the CEO of Porter Novelli  Madrid, Gary Stockman was the first to take the floor to talk about how real-time has redefined communications, the need for a holistic, integrated approach and the urgency of authenticity and innovation. John, using a fluent Spanglish;), talked about his experiences with Community Management, the need for brands to become curators of high-quality content and took our attendees to the magid world of augmented reality. Danny showed off with his mayorships and foursquare badges when talking about location-based services and introduced the participants to new analytics and Delphi – Porter Novelli’s forward looking cornerstone.  Next to our great speakers from Porter Novelli, we also had a guest speaker, Celia Morales, Head of EU Social Media and PR eBay Europe, who talked about the latest, and very successful, social media campaigns of eBay and the company’s take on social media.

After the seminar, we met with the Spanish from comms&marketing, business and technology publications including  PR Noticias, IPMark, Brandlife, Negocio, El Periódico de la Publicidad and El Publicista with who we’ve had some really great and open minded discussions. We discussed the role of social media for companies as well as governments and oh how handy it is to speak fluent Spanish in moments like that

The day was rounded off with an internal session at PN Madrid where we’ve met with our wonderful colleagues!

Big thank you to Juan-Cruz Más Vidal, Higinio Martínez and all our colleagues from the Madrid office who helped with the organization of the event!

If you speak Spanish, check out the blog of our Madrid colleagues for further reading.

Real-time Reputation Specialty Offers Integrated Platform for Corporate Affairs

Porter Novelli today announced a new specialty created to help clients manage crises and competitive threats in the era of social media.  The agency’s Real-time Reputation Specialty is an end-to-end solution that includes everything from achieving crisis preparedness to corporate reputation repair after an incident.

The new reputation management group provides for fully integrated reputation management and is led by an integrated team of specialists in corporate communications and social media.  The group will work with Porter Novelli’s senior corporate communicators and their clients to anticipate adverse events and move rapidly – within minutes – to manage emergencies, using an integrated approach of both on-line and off-line channels and employing both conventional and digital means to mitigate possible damage to corporate reputations.

“Recent news events have demonstrated something we have seen for some time,” said Gary Stockman, CEO of Porter Novelli.  “A world where social media can damage hard-won reputations in mere minutes requires a fundamentally different way to practice crisis communications, one that pairs the speed and reach of social media itself with the insights and judgment of seasoned crisis communications specialists.”

“Consumers have become more demanding in their opinion about companies and their products and less tolerant when something goes wrong.” says Corneel Maes, Crisis Communication Expert at Porter Novelli. “Therefore companies need to manage their reputation more actively and, in case of an incident, be prepared to respond in the traditional and the social media within a very short time frame.”

“Today, how a company responds to a crisis situation or a potential threat is getting as much attention as the event itself,” Danny Devriendt, Social Media Expert at Porter Novelli added. “Our Real-time Reputation specialty can help organizations anticipate these events and manage them to the best possible outcome – all in an environment that is as fast-moving and unforgiving as we have never seen.”

Companies interested in learning more about the new specialty can contact Corneel Maes (corneel.maes@porternovelli.be) or Danny Devriendt (danny.devriendt@porternovelli.be). You can also find us on Twitter via @pnbr5

by Marta Majewska

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June 23, 2010. The long anticipated day at the Brussels office has arrived! And it started with a visit from some unexpected attendees – the police Concerned with the smoke coming out of our famous @PNBR5 lotus, which was parked right in front of the office, two brave police officers rushed to save the day with their mini extinguisher … and were busy arranging more unexpected guests – the fire brigade!  The smoke btw, is our favorite special effect – and it’s coming from the smoking machine

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After this fair share of entertainment and with the entire office dressed up in the George Clooney/Demi Moore style (Luc definitely deserves the look-a-like award!), we were ready to welcome the attendees. Over 40 participants representing European associations, companies and media attended the event. During the seminar, Gary, John and Danny did their magic and let’s be honest here – if they didn’t manage to convince you about the importance of digital and get you excited about it, you should go back to living under a stone because there is simply no hope for you! Oh, not to forget, in the middle of the presentation we had a power cut … just like that … and trust me, getting a beamer back to work is not an easy thing, unless you have the superITman – Mohamed – who has special powers to fix just about anything!  So as you can see, it’s never boring @PNBR5

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Kathy arranged the most wonderful lunch and we were ready to connect with our attendees during the speed dating session – before anyone will misinterpret the services Porter Novelli is providing – we are talking social media speed dating here Later in the afternoon, an internal digital session took place during which John surprised everyone with his special talent – harmonica.  Yes, John plays harmonica (how awesome is that?). The day rounded up with a tweet-up and then we rushed to the airport to catch our flight to Madrid! Hasta luego!

*Kudos to Kathy, Febe, Wendy, Carolien,Evelien, Sasha, Christian and everyone who helped make this event a great success!

by Marta Majewska

Yesterday, the first digital seminar of our EMEA roadshow took place in the PN Amstelveen office. The event attracted high attendance from the social media knowledge seekers. Participants came from all different industries ranging from automotive to gaming. We also welcomed three attendees from the most popular social network site in the Netherlands – Hyves.

After some opening words from Maurice Jansen, Director @PN Amstelveen and the organizer of the seminar, Gary, John and Danny gave a lively presentation during which they discussed Porter Novelli’s take on digital and its role in the communications industry. They presented the most important trends that are shaping the communications industry these days from augmented reality through location-based services to gaming. There were some great and varied questions from the audience that initiated a spirited discussion.

The event was rounded up with a drink where more discussions on digital and social media took place and we were happy to receive many enthusiastic reactions from the attendees.

Kudos to PN in the Netherlands for hosting the event!

by Marta Majewska
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Yesterday, we proudly kicked off the EMEA digital tour in the Porter Novelli Amstelveen office! The Netherlands is the first country, followed by Belgium and Spain, where we will be hosting the digital seminars starring our Porter Novelli digital experts namely Gary Stockman (Porter Novelli CEO), John Havens (VP, Social Media at Porter Novelli and the author of the book, Tactical Transparency), Danny Devriendt (Director Digital Europe) accompanied by me

It was a lovely sunny day and we received a very warm welcome from our Dutch colleagues who even decorated their entire building especially for us – no, the decoration has nothing to do with the WK …

The day long discussions about social and digital media were rounded up with a great internal session during which we discussed the trends currently shaping the communication ecosystem and shared our digital experiences with each other.

We finished off with a drink where more discussions on social media took place (the digital talk never stops at PN )!

Today is another exciting day in our tour – we are holding our first seminar for the Porter Novelli clients, media and other interested parties. Wish us luck!

by Marta Majewska

Our colleagues at Porter Novelli Atlanta created a video with great insights on women and their use of social media in the United States.Take a look below: