This document discusses strategies for unifying public relations and social media. It provides guidance on building an effective social media strategy, including finding and defining target audiences, engaging with and connecting to those audiences, building and maintaining a social media presence, and understanding and optimizing performance. Specific tips include using the Social Technographics Ladder to segment audiences, creating a conversation calendar to plan social media activities, and learning from Coca-Cola's successful viral video campaign that drove over 2.7 million YouTube views primarily through Facebook sharing. The document aims to help practitioners maximize the benefits of an integrated PR and social approach.
20. Coca-Cola “Happiness Machine”
Developed “Happiness
Machine” - a gift-giving
Coke machine for the
students of St. John’s
University
Branded video designed to
reinforce the “Open
Happiness” theme
No Media support – 100%
Viral Distribution
Over 2.7 million views on
YouTube (most from FB)
5 Star YouTube rating with
over 1,800 comments
(majority positive in tone)
23. Kellye Crane
E-mail: kellye@cranecom.com
Twitter: @KellyeCrane
Blog: Solo PR Pro
Web site: www.cranecom.com
Jeremy Porter
E-mail:
jporter@journalistics.com
Twitter: @JeremyPorter
Blog: Journalistics
Notes de l'éditeur
Why Unified? The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Don’t look at PR and Social Media as Separate Areas - Social doesn’t replace PR, it extends it
You now have new opportunities - it’s a positive change. When you combine PR + social, you’re able to get compounding results
To be effective, cross-functional planning now a necessity - better communication across departments -- Put an end to silos in your organization
This is similar to the principles of integrated marketing communications – the coordination and integration of all marketing communications tools, avenues, functions and sources
Old versus new PR…
Social is the newest new media – the way you’ve been doing things for years can be adapted to social
Social media now inextricably part of PR - these aren’t separate areas. PR has always been more than traditional media relations, now even more so
Content should be shareable - have a shelf life beyond today (and yes, you still need to do that SEO stuff)
Things move faster online – you can’t take time to write, revise, refine, rinse and repeat until you create the perfect response
What has changed: you don’t necessarily have to rely on journalists anymore
It’s also not necessarily most effective to look for those couple of big hits anymore – a front page mention in the New York Times might not have nearly the impact of pick up in a few dozen influential blogs
And while we’re talking about PR, the press release is NOT dead – it lives on
Here’s a good example of a social media newsroom…
Journalists are looking for you, and for rich media
Find & Define
First, let’s talk about listening. Before you can build an effective unified social + PR program, you have to do a lot more listening. Most of you know it requires talking with people, not at them – this requires listening. So, before you start planning, you need to have an effective listening program in place
Also part of Find & Define:
Who are the people you are trying to reach?
Who influences them?
Where do they live?
How do you do that? Research.
Use a strategic approach to identifying the right channels (i.e., don’t get on Facebook just because everyone else is)
Different types of online audiences require different strategies to reach them
Creators
Conversationalists
Critics
Collectors
Joiners
Spectators
Inactives
Look how participation varies by demographics
For example, 18 to 21 year olds are the most active across segments
Seniors, while least active in social networks, are increasingly spectators and critics
How can you tap into Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators?
Free Forrester tool: http://www.forrester.com/empowered/tool_consumer.html
Engage & Connect
You have your objectives
You know who you want to reach, and how you want to reach them
Now how are you going to execute?
How do you manage your communications across these channels?
Find the Influencers
Traditionally, you go to newspapers, magazines, radio and TV
Today, you still do that, but you might look to influential bloggers – or connections in the social network
You can serve ads against somebody’s friends today
You can see how influential bloggers are by using tools like HubSpot’s blog grader – you can check somebody’s social influence using tools like Klout
Engage Based on the Social Media Landscape
Sample Engagement Strategy for One Platform
INCLUDE CRISIS PLANNING: be prepared for crises. Know what you’re going to do if somebody starts spreading rumors about your brand online. You need to react in real-time these days.
Respond…
Quickly
Authoritatively
Truthfully
Strategically
Authentically
Build & Maintain
Create a strategy for building and maintaining your relationships across your media – social and otherwise
Adapt your messaging for each medium
Don’t just have a Facebook page, have a strategy for the type of content you want to share, how often you want to share it and how you will measure it’s consumption
INTEGRATE messaging across channels
A Conversation Calendar can be an indispensible tool for communicating within a team, as well as across functions. These can be done in good old Excel. A Google Docs spreadsheet is also excellent – it can be easily shared and updated in real time.
This is an example of a conversation calendar for an agency.
This example spotlights the focus for the week in the right-hand column – you could also do that on a monthly basis. Make it work for you.
Understand & Optimize
What gets measured gets managed – as the Pete Drucker quote goes
These days, if you can’t figure out how to measure something you’re doing, you probably shouldn’t be doing it
Learn from the data
Look for patterns
Look for places you can improve
Kill off underperforming components
Measurement + Monitoring Are Worthless Without Action
You should be able to find a couple of things you can hone in on in every analytics report
Always be on the lookout for things that can be improved – for example, if you’re using Google Analytics:
What is your most popular content? – can your write more on that topic?
Where does the majority of your traffic come from (geographically)? – can you localize some content or hold an event?
What keywords do people use to find your site? Do you have enough content in those areas?
What do people search ON your site?
What are your top referral sites? – can you do more with them? What sites are you familiar with that don’t send traffic your way? How can you get on there?
Tools of the Trade for Measurement, Monitoring
There are a lot of free tools out there for monitoring and tracking online communications – some of the most popular include:
Google Analytics
Twitter Search – search in real-time or setup search queries you can get in your RSS reader
Google Alerts
Klout
Social Mention
Facebook Search – did you know you can search status updates now?
Facebook Insights – on your Facebook Page
-Integrated Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, traditional advertising, social and traditional media outreach – and more
-Sales more than doubled
-Changing the image from old-fashioned to more hip
As of mid-August
On day 1 the campaign received almost 6 million views(that’s more than Obama’s victory speech)
On day 2 old spice had 8 of the 11 most popular videos online
On day 3 the campaign had reached over 20 million views
After the first week old spice had over 40 million views
The old spice twitter following increased 2700% (probably off a lowish base)
Facebook fan interaction was up 800%
Oldspice.com website traffic was up 300%
The old spice YouTube channel became the all time most viewed channel (amazing)
The campain has generated 1.4 billion impressions since launching the ads 6 months ago
The campaign increased sales by 27% over 6 months since launching (year on year)
In the last 3 months sales were up 55%
And in the last month sales were up 107% from the social responses campaign work
Old spice is now the #1 body wash brand for men.
Most important: Overall sales up 107%
2.7 Million+ views – with NO media
5 Star Rating
1,800 comments
Don’t try to do too much all at once
If you’re just getting started – focus on two or three core social channels
Many start with a blog, because there are so many benefits from a social, search and PR standpoint
From there, work in promotions platforms – Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Attention is a limited resource, focus your efforts and have a plan