2. DATA DIVE
2
Goals, Spending Help Find Best Social
Site for Your Brand’s Message
PR managers and directors may think that a ro-
bust social media strategy means having brand
presence on every last social channel. Yet they
may want to maximize their social strategy by
being more selective.
“It’s important to understand the differenc-
es between the platforms; what purposes they
serve and the demographics of their user base,”
said Erin Allsman, VP of public relations and so-
cial media director at Brownstein Group (see
chart below). Allsman spoke at PR News’ Digital
PR Conference earlier this month in Miami.
For example, Facebook, the mother of all
social networks with one billion-plus users, has
evolved into a “pay-for-play” platform. Photo-
sharing site Instagram is an inspirational vehi-
cle, where users are more likely to seek users/
brands they already know, Allsman said. Twit-
ter has evolved into a news service. “Budget-
ing should always start by identifying the goals
and objectives for a campaign, and then align-
ing” them with the spending requirements and
specific characteristics of the chosen social me-
dia platform(s). “PR managers should anticipate
that any Facebook campaign will require adver-
tising spending, along with the resources to cre-
ate content.”
(Facebook, Instagram and Twitter will take cen-
ter stage at PR News’ Big 4 Conference, August 6
in San Francisco. Snapchat will be the fourth so-
cial media network featured at the event. To reg-
ister, please go to big4conference.com.)
Vol. 72 ISSN 1546-0193
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3. THE CHECKLIST
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26173 google boot camp strip ad.indd 1 6/12/15 3:15 PM
Content discovery, a native ad unit recognized by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, occurs when an ad or paid content link is
delivered via a “widget.” Steve Cody, CEO of Peppercomm, said even the best funded combinations of search discovery tools
will fall flat “if the content itself is self-serving and intended to sell products and services.” Below are some other key tips.
Relevant Content Makes Discovering It Easier
3. FOLLOW THE RULES.
Keep in mind that home pages,
product pages and general naviga-
tion pages are not acceptable con-
tent. This means you can’t drive to a
product page on a corporate site to
promote a product launch. However,
you could develop a microsite that
includes editorial content about the
new product.
For example, engage a group of
influencers to test the product in ad-
vance and write a review, including
pictures, that you can house on the
microsite. Planning ahead will ensure
you have editor-approved content
ready to go.
1. SET OBJECTIVES.
Ask: What do I want to accomplish?
This could include driving traffic to a
brand-owned website, increasing brand
awareness, or creating a lift in website
conversions. Identifying what you want
the content to do will make it much
easier to tackle the next step.
2. IDENTIFY THE CONTENT YOU
WANT TO PROMOTE.
Pick content based on your objectives.
If you want to increase traffic to a
branded recipe site, then test a few in-
dividual recipes from the site. If brand
awareness is the goal, consider driving
to recent media placements.
4. UPLOAD YOUR CONTENT.
Once you’ve identified the right piece(s)
of content, it’s time to upload the URL
and an image, as well as craft a head-
line. Consider testing multiple images
and headlines across different content
discovery platforms to see which com-
bination drives the greatest engage-
ment. Don’t use overt marketing or
sales language.
5. SET YOUR TARGETING
PARAMETERS.
Each content discovery platform of-
fers different targeting options based
on demographics, geography and in-
terests. Select targeting criteria that
align with your objectives.
6. MEASURE PERFORMANCE
AND OPTIMIZE.
Track the impressions and clicks that
each set of creative is driving and
then optimize based on performance.
Keep in mind that content discovery
often proves to be a more effective
tool for driving awareness than paid
search, so PR professionals who run
content discovery campaigns should
compare their CPC and CPM results
with those of recent paid search
campaigns.
Source: Monica Bhandarkar is VP of social media and marketing at JSH&A. The above content is an excerpt from PR News’ Book of Content Marketing Strategies & Tactics.To order a
copy, please go to prnewsonline.com/prpress
Picking the Right Content
Owned content such as posts or videos from a corporate blog, brand news-u
room, content hub or YouTube channel: A food company that manages a
recipe site may consider using paid content discovery to increase the reach of
a fan-favorite recipe during a relevant season or holiday.
Earned content like media coverage and organic blog posts:u A positive prod-
uct review from a leading online tech publication could be promoted via paid
content discovery, targeting other readers with an affinity for technology.
Paid content like sponsored content on blogs or publisher sites:u A brand that
partners with a blogger network may want to extend the reach of a few of the
network’s highest quality blog posts via paid content discovery.
4. 4
Continued from page 1
Flexibility Key in Working With Outside Bloggers
FULL DISCLOSURE
What are the rules of the road for
brands and organizations that recruit
bloggers and other influencers to pro-
duce content on their behalf? On its
website the Federal Trade Commis-
sion provides some of the key ques-
tions:
* Our company uses a network of bloggers
and other social media influencers to pro-
mote our products. We understand we’re
responsible for monitoring our network.
What kind of monitoring program do we
need?
* Will we be liable if someone in our net-
work says something false about our prod-
uct or fails to make a disclosure?
The FTC has these recommendations
for brand managers to follow when work-
ing with external bloggers:
Explain to members of yourl
network what they can (and can’t) say
about products and services; for ex-
ample, a list of the health claims they
can make for your products.
Instruct members of your networkl
on their responsibilities for disclosing
their connections to you.
Follow up if you find question-l
able practices among bloggers who
are contributing to your PR and
social media channels.
Source: Federal Trade Commission
tent for USANA’s independent business owners to share as
they talked to potential customers about the RESET weight-
management program, according to Tim Haran, director of
social media at USANA.
“We seek [non-bloggers as well as external bloggers] who
are health conscious...and can test our products,” Haran
said, adding that Brown was paid an undisclosed sum for
the blog post. “We want people who are really willing to talk
about how our products affected them.”
*Payment/Work Structure: This is a key issue that PR
execs need to mull when they recruit external bloggers. A
lot depends on whether the bloggers are paid for individual
posts or are compensated to contribute on a long-term basis.
Some bloggers may work for the exposure alone; those with
a sizeable audience may want $1,000 or more, per post.
Finn Partners recently recruited bloggers to participate
in a Twitter Chat to raise awareness about a major player in
the financial services sector. The bloggers were paid up to
$200 to participate, according to Alexandra Kirsch, associ-
ate VP at Finn. She would not name the client. Kirsch added
that if brands and organizations want more “oomph” from
external bloggers, they need to pay a premium.
While her own nonprofit “rarely has the funds to pay ex-
ternal bloggers,” said Alexandra Paterson, national commu-
nications lead, kids market/department of public and media
relations for American Heart Association National Center,
“‘paying to play’ is extremely common” in the not-for-profit
world. Regarding “pay for play,” Paterson said it’s important
to have “a candid conversation of costs up front so everyone
is singing off the same hymn sheet.”
* Trust: This is a huge issue obviously. Will the blogger
stay on message? Speak against your brand?
Paterson stressed the importance of trust in cultivating
relationships with outside bloggers. Here’s how:
Get to know them as bloggersu . Understand that “they
are influencers and they themselves are brands and have
a reputation they want to uphold,” she said.
Don’t sellu . “This isn’t just about your brand or your
client,” Paterson said. “It’s about [the brand/your cli-
ent and the blogger] coming together to promote one
cause or product.”
Don’t compromise the bloggersu . “It’s their blog, their
views, their voice,” Paterson said.
Finn’s Kirsch, referring to the Twitter Chat, said, “The
only ground rules were that [the external bloggers] promoted
their participation in the Chat on their own Twitter handles.”
She added, “It’s not ethical to request more than that. You
walk a tight line asking bloggers to have an opinion. The
value was in their participation. Disclosure is also crucial
in working with bloggers. All engagements must follow FTC
regulations” (see sidebar below).
PR pros are urged to think through these and other issues
before deciding to employ external bloggers. Should you de-
cide it’s the right move, Haran offered the following tips:
1. Share and share alike. Get your bloggers on board re-
garding how important it is that they share branded content
with their audiences.
2. Map out the company’s objectives. Make sure blog-
gers are patched into new products and services that are
being offered so they are hitting on those key messages.
3. Be flexible. Unlike internal blogging, which should ad-
here to an editorial schedule and deadlines, external bloggers
need a fairly long leash; don’t hold them to hard deadlines.
One way to improve timeliness is to keep external blog-
gers from getting bogged down in the corporate bureaucracy,
“The blogger will have a more authentic, timely product when
not everything has to get through several layers of approv-
als,” said Jessica Nielsen, VP, communications at Lockheed
Martin. Of course, that goes back to trust. Nielsen’s tip:
“When selecting a blogger, you may opt to do some testing...
by giving him or her a few test scenarios to apply the guide-
lines you’ve given them.”
CONTACT: Tim Haran, tim.haran@us.usana.com; Alexandra
Kirsch, alexandra.kirsch@finnpartners.com; Jessica Nielsen,
jessica.nielsen@lmco.com; Alexandra Paterson, alexandra.pa-
terson@heart.org
5. 5
Enter Today: www.digitalprawards.com
PR News’ Digital PR Awards is the industry’s top honor in the
PR and communications digital space, recognizing outstanding
digital initiatives among corporations, agencies and nonprofits.
Categories include: Digital Marketing Campaign, Redesign/
Relaunch of a Site, WOW Campaign, Blog (Organization), Cause
Marketing/CSR, Facebook Communications, Social Networking
Campaign, Video, Contest/Game and Digital PR Campaign.26218
Entry Deadline: July 10, 2015 | Final Deadline: July 17, 2015
Questions? Contact Rachel Scharmann at rscharmann@accessintel.com; 301-354-1713
DIGITAL PR AWARDS 2015
Meld the Personal With the Professional
a section that says, “X people viewed you in the past day.”
Click that link to access a data chart that looks similar to the
one below. The first tab—Profile Views—provides insights
into what drives views of your profile week-over-week to help
you understand how specific actions can impact your activity,
both positively and negatively.
You can also review activity for your highest-engagement
weeks to determine what drives activity. When I did that,
here’s what I found drove views:
Publishing a blog post: Using LinkedIn’s blog publishing
platform, I simply repurposed my posts from my company’s
blog, but you can also publish original content
Joining a group: LinkedIn will even make suggestions to
help you find groups most relevant to you
Adding connections: Interestingly, adding fewer than
five connections per week did not drive much activity for me,
but adding seven-12 connections had a significant impact on
my views
Sharing status updates: Most notably in the form of
sharing interesting articles I read or was quoted in.
With this in mind, I now have a better idea of how to keep
my connections engaged, as well as how to leverage articles
and blog posts as a way to build influence and thought lead-
ership.
Brand application: Go to the “Analytics” tab on your com-
pany profile. Spend some time with the “Updates” section,
which will help you understand which content is driving the
highest engagement by followers. Look for similarities among
those high-engagement pieces and think about them when
you share content.
WHERE THEY WORK
Click on the second tab on the chart to see where the people
who are viewing your profile work. Are they customers? Col-
leagues? Competitors? This data will provide insight to help
you understand what kind of content you should be sharing
on your LinkedIn profile to keep your connections engaged.
By hovering over the “other companies” section of the
first chart (“Where your viewers work”) I noted several of my
client companies were in the mix, as were some new busi-
ness prospects. This suggests an opportunity to share best
practice or industry trend information with those important
stakeholders more passively and allow them to discover the
information on their own time, in their own way.
Brand application: In the “Analytics” tab on your corpo-
rate page, scroll down to “follower demographics.” This will
help you understand the experience and seniority level of
most of your visitors, allowing you to better tailor content to
reach them.
WHO IS VIEWING YOU?
To take it a step further, study the data in the last tab of the
chart, which provided detail into who looked at my profile.
While the data itself is anonymous, it still can allow you to
build personas around the type of people who are viewing
you—both by title and industry. This means you can continue
adjusting the type of content you share on your page, or ad-
just the type of groups you might join to ensure you’re maxi-
mizing your impact on the site.
Brand application: In the “Analytics” tab on your corpo-
rate page, look at “follower trends,” including how you com-
pare against peer or competitor organizations. If you find your
peers are outperforming you, reference LinkedIn’s “grow your
fan base” tips to help you build your presence.
LinkedIn analytics can answer a lot of other questions:
How you rank as compared to your connections, who among
your connections yields the most influence (so you can study
and learn from them) and when your published posts garner
the most traction. The point is that there is perhaps no better
place than LinkedIn to cultivate your personal professional
brand, and to use similar analytics tools to boost your com-
pany’s LinkedIn presence.
(This post is the second in a series about using data and
analytics to improve your social media brand. See PR News,
April 27, 2015, for the article on Twitter analytics.)
CONTACT: Lisa Zone is customer communications practice
leader at Cleveland-based Dix & Eaton. She can be reached at
lzone@dix-eaton.com
Continued from page 1
6. 6
BY BILL MCINTYREON TOPIC
It’s an occupational hazard for many
companies: If the legal squad and
the communications crew are unable
to find a way to be responsive during
a crisis, you’ll be left at the starting
line while negative messaging runs
free, the opportunity to protect your
reputation gets lost, and your inabil-
ity to respond weakens.
Taken together, this will raise suspi-
cion among employees, customers and
shareholders that your company is not
worth supporting because it is unwilling
(or unable) to help itself.
How do you overcome this? We
cannot practice during a real crisis be-
cause the stakes are too high. Read-
ing about how to manage a reputation
helps with the theory of working to-
gether in a crisis, but lacks the prac-
tical road test needed to expose the
strengths and weaknesses of your cri-
sis plan and processes.
The keys to improving the relation-
ship between legal and PR are:
Establish a crisis teamu with hier-
archy, structure and membership
from management, communica-
tions, legal, HR, operations, IT, gov-
ernment relations and customer
relations.
Identify responsibilities and rolesu :
Who makes the decision to com-
ment publicly? Who has veto pow-
er? What conditions must be met
to make a ‘go, no-go’ decision?
Run scenarios and challenge eachu
crisis-team member to identify the
‘must fix’ gaps versus the ‘nice to
have’ fixes stemming from each of
the scenarios.
CAN WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
I recently took part in an industry
panel discussion focusing on corpo-
rate reputation management during a
crisis. It was the first of dozens of
such panels that I’ve participated in
where the audience was nearly bereft
of PR pros.
The crowd consisted of in-house cor-
porate regulatory attorneys, company
A Crisis Team Can Save Your Brand
If the legal squad and
the communications
crew cannot find a way to be
responsive during a crisis,
you’ll be left at the starting
line while the negative
messaging runs free.
general counsels, private sector attor-
neys and very few communications pro-
fessionals. I was thrilled.
This was a unique opportunity for
me to show how to balance the equally
important priorities of legal and com-
munications teams, in real time, for ef-
fective reputation management during
a crisis (and not).
In every
crisis I have
managed,
the com-
munications
leadership
routinely was
frustrated by the legal department’s
reliance on legalese, or jargon used
by attorneys that can alienate the
very audiences you want to serve.
Just as often, however, the legal
team cringed at PR pros’ badgering it
to dump the legalese and “speak like
a normal person.” That friction can
make a bad situation worse.
NO INFIGHTING
Lisa Powers, executive VP, public af-
fairs & communications for the Per-
sonal Care Products Council, agreed
with my assessment. “During a crisis,
facts get obscured by perceptions and
legalese gets tuned out,” she said.
John Richter, a partner with the
international law firm King & Spald-
ing LLP, provides this tip: “You have
to avoid premature statements that
could create confusion or have liability
implications. You need to be accurate,
consistent, and timely—in that order.”
Unfortunately, the PR-legal dynam-
ic usually leads to infighting, a condi-
tion that is antithetical to what you
need during a crisis.
To improve this state of affairs
you need to establish a chain of com-
mand, where both legal and commu-
nications report to the same senior
executive.
Building a stable communications
and cooperation bridge between legal
and PR is your best chance to balance
the equally important priorities of both
teams. It’s also a fundamental require-
ment for effective reputation manage-
ment in a crisis.
CONTACT: Bill McIntyre is managing
director, Ketchum PR, Washington D.C.
He can be reached at bill.mcintyre@
ketchum.com
Here’s what PR pros can do to create
a better balance between legal and PR:
Monitor the media coverageu
about your industry and build a
list of potential crises. Conduct an
analysis on the crises that have
hit competing companies. You
also can talk to senior managers
about their worst-case scenarios.
With that list completed, identifyu
an internal crisis team (that in-
cludes legal and communications
leadership) to conduct a mock cri-
sis response exercise. The exercise
will create draft materials to have on
hand for potential crises, highlight
the gaps in your plan and process-
es and allow you to balance expec-
tations and streamline procedures.
Send your general counsel andu
your communications director to
reputation-management training
sessions. The cost is worth hav-
ing legal and PR understand each
other’s needs.
7. 7
Toshiba Uses Strategic Meetings to
Integrate and Boost Communications
the process?”
DeBar said.
She has
taken other
pains to improve PR integration through-
out the company, such as posting “Best
of Clips” on the company’s intranet “so
people feel connected to our communi-
cations,” she said. DeBar also makes
the media clips available to the compa-
ny’s sales reps to spur ideas for gaining
new revenue.
“Anecdotally, the business units are
much more aligned with our key mes-
sages and our communications is much
more consistent,” she said.
CONTACT: Charlene DeBar, cedebar@
TAMS.com
When Toshiba America Medical Sys-
tems was set to roll out a national ad-
vertising and marketing campaign late
last year, Charlene DeBar, manager of
corporate communications, thought it
was an opportune moment for change.
Previously, the departments within
marketing communications—PR, adver-
tising, collaterals and the Web—would
have separate meetings. The medical
diagnostic company’s messaging suf-
fered as a result. Integration of Toshi-
ba’s content and information “was dis-
jointed,” DeBar admitted.
That changed when the ad cam-
paign—featuring a “voice box” that
communicates a customer’s needs—
made its debut last October. DeBar
used the campaign as a springboard to
implement processes to bring the com-
pany’s various disciplines together and
improve internal and external communi-
cations. These efforts include:
Input meetings for new campaignsu :
When Toshiba introduces a product or of-
fering all the communication disciplines
meet together to discuss messaging ar-
chitecture and make sure managers are
coordinated.
Regular biweekly meetingsu : Each
business unit meets with marketing
communications biweekly to get a bet-
ter sense of the PR and communica-
tions work underway and how depart-
ments might contribute to it.
The meetings have sparked better
engagement among the various busi-
ness units. “If one group has a great
video, how can we maximize that around
all areas of the company, with PR driving
SILOBUSTERS
CHARLENE DEBAR
What has helped you rise to theu
position you hold today? The news
has always fascinated me. So I think
having an intellectual curiosity and
just devouring news [has helped me
to get where I am]. My area of ex-
pertise is media relations and media
generally. I’ve always been very curi-
ous about how people consume news,
not whether they read it online or in a
magazine, but what stories are being
told and what angles particular out-
lets are taking.
When did your interest in news be-u
gin? I grew up in a [San Antonio, Texas]
household that always had the news
on, CNN, NBC Nightly News and our
dinner conversations revolved around
what was going on in the world. I start-
ed my career in Washington, D.C., han-
dling media relations for a public policy
think tank. I thought it was so much fun
to call reporters and see what would
Make Sure Your Message Has a Goal
interest them about whatever study
we were doing. So I thought working at
a PR agency would allow me to try to
make news full time. Later I realized it’s
a balance of keeping your clients out of
the news as much as trying to get them
in the news.
What have been the guiding prin-u
ciples in your career? You need to be
a very good listener and goal oriented,
you have to think about what the goal
of your message is, what’s the ultimate
goal of your storytelling.
Who influenced you?u My grandfa-
ther was a big influence on me being
interested in the news. In the industry
my mentor is Ken Luce, founder of the
LDWW Group. Besides ingraining in me
being goal-oriented and strategic, a lot
of what I learned about people manage-
ment and team building I learned from
him, I like to call it The Ken Luce School
of People Man-
agement.
What’su
your hiring
philosophy
and advice
to aspiring PR pros? I never hire
anyone who doesn’t write a thank-
you note. A lot of PR is about
follow-through and follow-up. Read.
You have to know what’s going on
in the news and how different news
outlets are telling stories. Get work
experience, put in your time and
take internships. You’re not credible
without experience.
[Anne Tramer was honored during PR
News’Top Women in PR luncheon earlier
this year.]
CONTACT: Anne Tramer, atramer@omni-
hotels.com
HOW I GOT HERE
ANNE TRAMER
8. 8
THE WEEK IN PR
Toyota’s PR Chief Arrested1. : Toyota
Motor Corp. has a major crisis on its
hands, with a twist. The Japanese auto-
maker was in crisis mode late last week
after CCO Julie Hamp (picture, above
left), an American and the company’s first
senior female executive, was arrested on
suspicion of illegally bringing pain killers
into Japan. Hamp was appointed just two
months ago. The company is standing by
Hamp. “To me, executives and staff who
are my direct reports are like my children,”
said Toyota President Akio Toyoda at a
news conference. “It’s the responsibility
of a parent to protect his children and, if
a child causes problems, it’s also a par-
ent’s responsibility to apologize.” He also
expressed regret that the company had
not provided enough support for an em-
ployee who was not Japanese and had
come to live in Japan. Japanese media
reports, citing police investigators, said
57 addictive Oxycodone pills were found
in a small parcel labeled “necklaces” that
was sent from the U.S. and addressed to
Hamp in Japan, per Reuters.
A New Lease for the News Re-2.
lease? PR pros push out news re-
leases and hope their contents will
translate to the top and/or bottom
lines. That seldom happens, as it’s dif-
ficult to measure the effectiveness of
press release distributions. But help is
on the way, thanks to Business Wire.
The wire service last week introduced
“Market Impact Report,” an Investor Re-
lations tool that gauges the influence of
a news release on a company’s stock
price. Communications metrics within
the report enable PR pros to determine
whether the disclosure of a corporate
action helped move the market.
Media Cup Runneth Over3. : It’s man-
na from heaven for PR pros cranking out
all that content: A new report by ZenithOp-
timedia shows people will spend an aver-
age of 492 minutes daily consuming me-
dia this year, up 1.4 percent from 2014.
The growth is being driven by (surprise)
the furious rise in Internet use, which will
increase 11.8 percent, ZenithOptimedia
said. The report tracks the amount of time
spentreadingnewspapersandmagazines,
watching television, listening to radio, visit-
ing cinemas, using the Web and viewing
outdoor advertising while out of the home.
It reaffirms the insatiable appetite con-
sumers have for media. The challenge for
PR pros is gaining better insight about the
kinds of media audiences want, and then
making informed choices about where to
place their content investments.
AndYetAnotherMessagefromTwit-4.
ter: The microblogging service said last
week it is removing the 140-character limit
on direct messages, starting next month.
Different from tweets, direct messages on
Twitter are a sort of email sent between
followers. This is good news for PR pros
as it gives them more wiggle room when
reaching out to media and other influenc-
ers via Twitter about their campaigns and
branding activities. Character count or not,
it’s still advantageous to be concise with
your message.
Treasury Department Channels the5.
Social Sphere: It may not change the over-
all perception of the federal government,
but should go a long way toward getting
people more engaged with it: The Treasury
Department’s announcement late last
week that by 2020 the $10 bill will feature
a yet-to-be-named (and notable) woman.
“We’re going to spend a lot of time this
summer listening to people,” said Jack
Lew, Treasury Secretary, in a statement
that invited the American public to send
suggestions. It’s unclear what happens to
Alexander Hamilton, the first U.S. Treasury
secretary, who has graced the $10 bill
since its inception. Contests, of course,
are an increasingly popular way for brands
and organizations to grow their social
channels’ audiences,and the Feds appear
to be stealing a page from that playbook.
Lew will make a decision by year’s end.
The Treasury Department’s PR team now
has an opportunity to harness something
seldom affiliated with the Feds: fun.
PR Movers6. : Cohn & Wolfe named
David Herrick president of the U.S. re-
gion. He will oversee and drive busi-
ness across all Cohn & Wolfe offices
in the U.S., including operational and
strategic oversight. Prior to joining
Cohn & Wolfe, Herrick (pictured above)
was COO at MWW...FleishmanHillard
said last week that veteran journalist
Fran Carpentier has joined the New
York media relations practice as a se-
nior VP and media strategist. Formerly
a senior editor at Parade.com, Carpen-
tier will work with the agency’s global
healthcare practice, among other ar-
eas of the business.
