Public relations aims to build goodwill and understanding between an organization and its publics. While mass media is declining, personal recommendations still strongly influence purchasing decisions, as advocates answer questions and share opinions online. Brands must enable advocacy by creating helpful, inspiring content designed to be shared. Advocates are valuable in generating publicity and managing reputation, especially in crises. Building long-term relationships is key, through transparency, service, and creating great experiences. Advocates can be mobilized to support brands, as real-life examples have shown.

1. chris.reed@brewdigital.com @chris_reed

2. Advocates? The power of the people – why what they say counts Cultivating brand advocates to support you through the good and bad A look at brand advocates in action

3. What I’m going to cover… How everything has changed And how everything remains the same The importance of advocates in both publicity generation and reputation management A few real life examples

4. Everything’s changed? Or not? Public relations is the discipline which looks after your reputation, with the aim of earning understanding and support and influencing opinion and behaviour. It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics

5. A quick canter through ……the history of comms

12. 1981/2. ZX Spectrum V BBC Micro Channel 4 launched Mass media started a decline

14. Relationships between PRs and journalists (previously our clients’ biggest advocates) have changed

16. Has who consumers trust changed? Source: Nielsen Global Trust In Advertising Survey / Base: Europe, which includes: Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK Nov 08

17. But have they really changed? 66% of the economy is influenced by personal recommendations - McKinsey& Company 20% of consumers are key influencers of purchasing activities of 74% of the pop - Gartner Consumers mention 56 brands in conversation per week - Keller Fay Each peer recommendation reaches 150 people on the social web – Forrester 40% of advocates answer, comment, or give opinions online several times each week - Yahoo! and Comscore

18. If I tell my Facebook friends about your brand, it's not because I like your brand, but rather because I like my friends Mike Arauz

19. PR = social media marketing? Enable others to advocate for your business by creating compelling content, designed to share Monitor, defend and enhance your reputation online: for people and for spiders Build relationships especially when you don’t need them

20. Your audience is now your channel Create content which makes people feel like laughing out loud, feel loved, feel clever, feel inspired, and feel like passing on Solve people’s problems. Proudly Be in it for the long term, not for a quick win

21. Enabling advocacy through content You can’t buy advocacy. You can only earn it.

22. Enabling advocacy through content But it’s helped by transparency, passion, a service mentality and helpfulness

26. We’re now in an era of nodes, net promoter score and propagation planning

27. So what’s the value of an advocate $3.60 Vitrue, April 2010

28. So what’s the value of an advocate $136.38 Syncapse, June 2010

29. Reputation-enhancing Monitor and defend your reputation online: for people and for spiders Customer service is now totally transparent Your genuine fans will stick up for you 2011 will see Google and Bing going big on ‘social’ search, as well as ‘Live’. Google’s algorithm now demotes brands with critical forum comments

30. Transparency leads to advocacy

31. Advocacy in crisis comms

36. TV Licensing EGs In 2008, the community of fans for US TV Series, Jericho, badgered CBS to recommission the programme by delivering 20 tonnes of nuts to their offices. They did.

37. In 2010, the community of fans for a TV advertisement in the UK decided how a relationship would pan out

38. The Great Schlep mobilised young Jews to persuade their retired family in Florida to vote for Obama

39. Build relationships Relationships featuring PRs and stakeholders have always been reciprocal Relationships between advertisers and media owners have always been transactional

40. Build relationships People like people who like what they like Experiences make great talking points

41. Build relationships Listen with passion Engage with understanding Create great experiences Help by solving problems

42. Your audience is now your channel Create content which makes people feel like laughing out loud, feel loved, feel clever, feel inspired, and feel like passing on Solve people’s problems. Proudly Be in it for the long term, not for a quick win

44. Define the specificsSales increase? Reputation improvement? Customer service?Measure the outputssocial mentions, links, views, engagement, followers and friendsEvaluate the outcomes and impacts against budgetCPA, tracker research, behaviour change, sales increase

45. chris.reed@brewdigital.com @chris_reed