Social media has presented both challenges and opportunities for communication practitioners who want to reach their stakeholders directly. What was once considered as a “fad” by the public relations industry has now been integrated into communications strategies. How do practitioners decide if social media has a role to play in their organisation or campaign strategy? What platforms would you adopt in reaching out to stakeholders? How do you measure the effectiveness of social media?
21. While technology and the way information is being consumed has changed the way you reach an audience , your brand and ability to tell a story remain the same.
The definition of social media keeps evolving as the becomes more entrenched in the way its being used to engage, communicate and influence conversations. Whether you are sharing photos on Flickr, part of a fan page on Facebook, reading a blog or using Twitter, you are all consumers and participants in the social media movement. One of the distinctions that has given increasing prominence to social media in the last few years is the sophistication of many tools or services that can be used on the Internet to facilitate conversations. While PR has delivered on its function of communication, it was running into the risk of failing on a number of fronts – consider the decline in traditional media outlets, changing media consumption patterns, lifestyle shifts brought about by how people are searching for information and interacting with brands. In our attempts to use PR to engage with its stakeholders, we were starting to become irrelevant by having a one-sided conversation that was all about delivering key messages and talking points = AND NOT LISTENING (Optus, Telstra examples) Social media brought the balance back into our relationship with the public; its brought people back into the equation
The Nielsen Social Media Report for 2010 highlighted the widespread adoption of social media amongst Australians with 9 million or about 41% of the total population interacting with social networking sites. that 9 out of 10 Australians are looking to fellow internet users for opinions and information about products, services and brands. Social media is driving decision making among consumers through word of mouth.
75% of Australians have visited Facebook and 59% of them have a profile online and they spend an average of 8.19 hours a month Twitter accounts the highest level of activity on a social networking platform with audience levels up by more than 400% in 2009. Nearly one quarter of online Australians (23%) read ‘tweets’ in the past year, 14 percent ‘followed’ companies or organisations via Twitter (up from 5% in 2008) and 13 percent posted ‘tweets’ (up from 4% in 2008). By social platforms, Facebook is the most popular site with 75% of online Australians ever visiting the site, followed by YouTube (70%) and Wikipedia (65%). Yet when you consider the average age of these platforms, they have been around for less than 10 years (FB 2004, YouTube 2005 and Wikipedia 2001) and traditional media outlets have been in existence for a far longer period of time
PRSA survey on who manages an organisations web strategy and you will se the PR leads in content generation and networking. Social media is closely aligned with the PR function and hence the communications strategy. Employers are looking for candidates who can develop and manage social media within the context of communication: -82% of respondents said mainstream media relations expertise was either important or very important. -But over 80% said knowledge of social networks is either important or very important. -Nearly 77% said knowledge of blogging, podcasting and RSS is either important or very important. -And almost 72% said an understanding of micro-blogging services like Twitter are either important or very important.
Set yourself up to listen: Google Alerts, Twitter search such as tweetdeck, Radian 6, RSS feeds on key blogs, searching video and image sharing sites, opinion and discussion forums Have an understanding of what is being said about your brand or issue before you dive into a conversation.
Example of not for profit customer Engagement channels could include a blog which hangs of Blogger or Wordpress if you are after an extended news platform, a fan page on Facebook, a branded TV channel on YouTube or a corporate Twitter account Consider which channel best suits your needs and where your audience is – e.g. age demographic, professionals LinkedIn versus consumers Facebook Consider how you will resource this – its an ongoing process, need to consider frequency and level of engagement
Your social media platform becomes a live brand voice; discuss about Optus scenario and Tweetdeck; dedicated Optus person to monitor and respond Tweet updates for a product launch, generate excitement or ask questions; FB fan page disgruntled update on wall to be addressed; close a sale Social CRM: engaging with the customer in a collaborative conversation to provide mutually beneficial value in a trusted and transparent business environment = the premise for social media
Basics: Wikipedia entry, blog, twitter, Facebook fan page Blogs – look outside of your soapbox, create relationships with like minded bloggers Twitter – find the followers, engage on a regular basis, be involved in discussions, post meaningful content Podcasts – why will it be interesting to a stakeholder? Story outside of the story – e.g. customer insights LinkedIn – developing employee networks, relevant in environments where Facebook is banned
The agency created a Facebook profile for the store manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Over a two-week period, it uploaded images from of IKEA showrooms to his Facebook photo album. Then it put out word that the first person to tag their name to a product in the pictures, won it. Facebook being what it is, word got out and needy, enthusiastic Swedes begged for more pictures so that they could tag themselves to a new sofa, a new bed, or a new vase into which they could stick their plastic flowers or their dead grandparents' ashes. Before Facebook could take credit for its own wonderful ingenuity in creating the world's most needed Web site, thousands of Swedes were spreading pictures of IKEA showrooms all around the personal galaxy known as their profile pages. This idea is, as the best always are, simple and inspired. Which, some would say, also perfectly describes the clever, affordable, if sometimes maddening-to-put-together little things made by IKEA.
Taking its live show to the masses: Burberry streamed its live collection to a wide audience around the world. Watch comment trial. Burberry invites photographers and trench coat owners to participate in Art of the Trench. Trench portraits must be taken outdoors and feature you or a friend wearing a Burberry trench coat. There are no restrictions on photographic style or location.
Took Dell two years to make US$2 million in sales from its Twitter focus. Offers major discounts for Dell computers and products. All of the deals on @DellOutlet are Twitter-exclusive. In the early days of DellOutlet two years ago, a session at South by Southwest prompted Dell staffer Ricardo Guerrero to suggest and help Nelson start tweeting. Back then, the focus was on sales. Because DellOutlet sells cosmetically defective or damaged and previously ordered products, in addition to certified refurbished items, their inventory often runs in bubbles. For example, the week after a new product comes out, many people buy it but change their minds after it’s already on a delivery truck. In this case, Dell can’t sell it as new, so it ends up at Dell Outlet. To clear out this category of stock, DellOutlet puts out a tweet. Gradually, instead of only tweeting offers, DellOutlet started replying more and more to customers, and now many of the tweets read with an @ reply at the beginning instead of a percentage. Dell had discovered the value of talking to customers. Engaging “helps to increase reach and retention,” Nelson says. “The people that follow you won’t just ‘unfollow’ you once they get the deal that they want. They’ll continue to follow you, because they know you’ll give them valid relevant info and that you’ll respond to them if they have a question or comment or problem.”
Organisational culture -Need for a level of openness, able to share with stakeholders -willing to take risks/experiment -support from management e.g. of a C-level podcast for strategic audience -investment of time e.g. of blog which couldn’t make it or got shut down Regulation -ASX regulates what is reported on the market -In providing material information discuss Telstra example as a market first -Consider other regulatory requirements in force e.g. health, government and freedom of speech Managing employees -what becomes public domain -social media policies to define what is acceptable -used widely in organisations such as HP, IBM, Cisco, Sun, BBC, Intel etc. Brand voice -social media is social so you need to consider the tone for responses -regulatory approved statements won’t necessarily engage with your audiences -be interesting, human – authentic – Turnbull versus Rudd twitter streams
Global / Regional / Local content -What is suitable for your audience – topics, trends -Local language considerations Resourcing - Dedicated in-house team, outsource? Control -social develops a life on its own and its hard to maintain a high level of control over message and response when you engage with a wider audience Skills and knowledge -finding and working with employees and agencies who understand social media -as practitioners, we are focused on the message; we can achieve a level of fluency in producing content -need to gain technical fluency or have support to deliver on search marketing – how to use SEO to optimise a campaign, build analytics into a site etc.
Audience -Are they online? Look at your audience demographic and consider if the platforms you are targeting reaches them -Would you be competing with many? How do you make campaign more unique? -Its an open platform, would your issue/concern trigger an emotional meltdown? How would you fight back?