Share This Too E-Book
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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
The follow up to Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals.
Share This is a practical handbook to the changes taking place in the media and was conceived and written by 24 public relations practitioners using many of the social tools and techniques that it addresses. The book covered the media and public relations industry, planning, social networks, online media relations, monitoring and measurement, skills, industry change and the future of the industry.
Share This Too is also a pragmatic guide for anyone that wants to continue working in public relations. It is a larger book with more than 30 contributors, including all of those from the highly successful first book and many of whom are successful authors in their own right.
It probes more deeply into the subject and is divided into seven sections:
- The future of public relations
- Audiences and online habits
- Conversations
- New channels, new connections
- Professional practice
- Business change and opportunities for the public relations industry
- Future proofing the public relations industry
The content entirely complements the first book rather than merely updates it. It delves deeply into what is current in the theory, delivery and evaluation of 21st century public relations and organisational communication.
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Seitenzahl: 433
Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013
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Table of Contents
Title page
Copyright page
List of Contributors
Foreword
Introduction
Part I: The Future of Public Relations
Chapter 1: Digital PR Is Dead: Social Goes Mainstream
The continuing evolution of the media
The blurring of channels
The impact of social media and networks
The growth of social media adoption
Digital is part of every programme
Evolution and the opportunity for PR
Opportunities we should seize
Biography
Chapter 2: The Shift to Conversation: Content, Context and Avoiding Cheap Talk
Getting started
Content and context
Building the right relationships
One size doesn't fit all
Biography
Chapter 3: Content Frameworks: Using Content to Achieve Marketing Communications Goals
Rise of content marketing
Developing content strategies
Content production framework
Conclusion
Biography
Part II: Audiences and Online Habits
Chapter 4: Planning: Audiences, Media and Networks
Where we've come from
Where we're at
Biography
Chapter 5: Digital Anthropology
Etiquette – a definition
Table manners – family, friends and business
Attention span and absentee attendance
Etiquette – breaking up
Biography
Chapter 6: Understanding Social Capital
What is social capital?
Influence and social media capital
Relevance is King
Social media capital scoring approaches
Social capital for PR
The value of social capital
Biography
Chapter 7: The Unsocial Web
The three problems to avoid
Staying out of trouble
How to manage feedback and responses
Conclusion
Biography
Part III: Conversations
Chapter 8: Gamification: Engaging Audiences through Play
Gamifying participation at DevHub
Consumer loyalty: Samsung Nation
Science: FoldIt
How GiffGaff turns customer service into a game
Snake Oil 2.0?
How should communicators use gamification?
The future of gamification
Biography
Chapter 9: Community Management
What is community management?
What should be on your community management checklist
Summary
Biography
Chapter 10: Curation
The news now finds you
Welcome to the era of Big Data
Summary
Biography
Chapter 11: Live Social Events
Learn to walk before you jump
Hanging out with Google
There's a first for everyone
Producing live content
Final thoughts
Biography
Part IV: New Channels, New Connections
Chapter 12: Mobile Media
The supercomputer in a smartphone
Curated, personalized and highly mobile news
The data-driven society with mobile at its core
The smartphone to multicorder
Biography
Chapter 13: To App or Not To App?
1. Hyper-connected devices
2. Hyper-connected applications
3. The mobile hub
4. Mobile-directed experience
5. A new creative landscape
Overall implications for brand strategy
Biography
Chapter 14: The Visual Web
A bird's eye view
Networks and top tips
The new press release?
Biography
Chapter 15: Finding Your Way around: from Foursquare to Google Glass
Where will you check in?
Augmented reality apps
Putting PR on the map
Biography
Chapter 16: Connected Employees
What is employee engagement?
Informed employee voice
Social media and employee engagement
Connecting with unconnected employees
Biography
Part V: Professional Practice
Chapter 17: Social Media and the Law
Defamation
Liability online
Receiving a complaint
Privacy, confidence and data protection
Considerations and tips
Copyright
Trademarks and passing off
Biography
Chapter 18: Online Crisis Management
Defining a crisis
Crisis planning
Brand monitoring
Crisis management plan
Crisis response
Post-crisis phase
Biography
Chapter 19: Wikipedia and Reputation Management
Building a crowdsourced encyclopaedia
Reputation management
Relationship with public relations practitioners
Working with Wikipedia
How to help improve Wikipedia articles
Engaging with the community
Dealing with disputes
Wikipedia works
Biography
Chapter 20: The Rise and Rise of Digital Pharma
The global healthcare landscape
How patients approach digital health
Healthcare professionals and the increased adoption of digital health
Avoiding the code breakers – how to navigate regulatory responsibilities
Control and adversity
Getting creative with digital health communications
What's next?
How do you kick things off?
Biography
Chapter 21: Social in Corporate Communications
Digital versus social
Role of 21st century corporate communicator
Corporate reflections on social media
Using social technologies
Biography
Chapter 22: Putting the Social into Corporate Social Responsibility
The social web should be integral to CSR
Innovative uses of social media for CSR
The social media trap for bad CSR
New opportunities for CSR social media
Biography
Chapter 23: Building a Personal Brand Online
So what's changed?
Lies and league tables
What do I know?
Recruitment as matchmaking
Biography
Chapter 24: The Social CEO
Social's trending with CEOs
Make me social
All views my own
Buy me, trust me, love me
Biography
Chapter 25: Working across Borders and Boundaries
Social media and globalization
Networks by countries
Language and culture
Desktop v. mobile
Biography
Part VI: Business Change and Opportunities for the Public Relations Industry
Chapter 26: Laying the Foundations for a Social Business
Convergence
Complexity
Biography
Chapter 27: Social Commerce: Show Me the Money
Impulsive purchases: harnessing the spontaneous buyer
Influencing to buy – social proof
Collaborative purchases
Buying everywhere: social across the consumer touch points
Biography
Chapter 28: How to Change Organizational Mindset
Using change management principles to increase social media adoption
Departments that must be influenced
Making a case for social media
A taste of what is to come
Statistics for the boss
Change is inevitable
Biography
Chapter 29: The Six Influence Flows
Grunig's 4th
Some definitions
Mapping the interactions
Mapping the influence flows
Social business
A new model of PR?
Biography
Part VII: Future Proofing the Public Relations Industry
Chapter 30: Metrics that Matter
Let's focus on the metrics that matter …
… Not just count what's easy to capture
A simple, credible approach
Biography
Chapter 31: Quantified Self
The rapid rise of Quantified Self
The sentient world
Quantified Self in action
Down to business
The employer brand
What's next? Why us?
Biography
Chapter 32: Network Topology
The link graph
The social graph
The economic graph and beyond
Biography
Chapter 33: The Public Relations Power of “Big Data”
What is Big Data?
Big Data and text mining applied to PR
Limitations of Big Data
Conclusions and future directions
Biography
Index
© 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd
Share This is a trademark of ShareThis, Inc., and is used under license. All rights reserved.
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Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Share this too : more social media solutions for PR professionals / Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) ; edited by Rob Brown and Stephen Waddington.
pages cm
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-118-67693-6 (cloth)
1. Public relations. 2. Social media. I. Brown, Rob, 1962 December 17– II. Waddington, Stephen. III. Chartered Institute of Public Relations.
HD59.S451563 2013
659.20285'4678–dc23
2013024673
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978-1-118-67693-6 (hbk) ISBN 978-1-118-67692-9 (ebk)
ISBN 978-1-118-67686-8 (ebk)
Cover design: Salad Creative Ltd
List of Contributors
Foreword
Brian Solis, Principal, Altimeter Group
Do you realize just how much is changing right now? I promise you that it's bigger than you think. And your role in this is also much grander than you know or believe. See, disruptive technology, social networks, new influencers, they're levelling the media hierarchy. The ado of crafting messages, pushing them upon targets, and propagating while attempting to control your story is not only the old way, it's the very thinking that's at the forefront of new communications.
This isn't about the new tools that are before you.
This isn't about social media or popular social networks.
This isn't about bloggers and blogging.
Nor is this about tablets, smartphones, and the app economy.
This is about putting the public back in public relations and social in social media and that has nothing to do with tools or technology we overly celebrate today. Slow down. Take a breath. While there's an abundance of change there isn't a wealth of innovation in processes or methodologies.
The truth is that in a time when we could change everything, we're running without clarity of direction or vision. We're not necessarily talking about a revolution as much as we're conforming revolutionary opportunities into familiar packages. We're merely taking what we know and applying it to what's new. In many ways, we're working against ourselves. But, what's happening right now is both revolutionary and evolutionary. And in the face of the unknown it is courage that carries us forward and creativity that will open new doors.
This is a time to rethink the value proposition of marketing and communications and your role within it.
Why is what you do important? Stop. Try that answer again. There's a reason that your friends and family have a hard time understanding what you do for a living. It's because the value you think you provide and the opportunity that is presenting itself to you are in fact two very different things. Essentially, your experience carried you this far but it is your vision and ambition that will carry you forward. Think again about the value you offer and the value that others say you deliver.
Allow me to share a slice of my life with you …
I've fond memories of surfing. I would grab my board and wetsuit, play great music, and head for the beaches of Southern California. The ocean was my sanctuary as I would surf for recreation, therapy, and also tranquillity. There was just something about the smell of the ocean, the sound of the waves, and the ability to dance with Mother Nature in a way where she let you lead and you appreciated the momentary gesture.
When snowboarding grew in popularity, I immediately embraced it. I did so because I saw it as an art form that was easy to categorize against something familiar. In fact I thought of it as winter surfing and I was wrong to do so. I brought to something new my previous experience and expected it to carry me forward into new territory in a very different environment. What I didn't bring along was a new and open mindset. I overconfidently got on my board, leaned back as you do in surfing and set out to surf that mountain the way I thought I should. I learned, quite painfully, that I did the very thing that you're not supposed to do. See, in surfing, and skateboarding, your back foot is essentially the rudder. You steer by leaning back and using your back foot to steer your course. In snowboarding, it's the exact opposite. You lean forward.
All it took was someone to point out that there was a different philosophy to the approach. Once they did, I was as soulful on a snowboard as I was surfing. It just took an open mind, perseverance, and several ice packs.
Today, in what is nothing less than an emergent moment for marketing and communications, I see even the best of them leaning back instead of leaning forward. It takes a different philosophy. It takes a different approach. If you take a moment to think about it, everything is different about what's taking place now and its direction and future is unwritten.
Again I ask. What is the value of what you do? What's in it for you, your business, and those with whom you engage? This time, think about it beyond the company you represent. Think about it from the perspective of the people you're hoping to reach … every step of the way. People are part of everything you do now and you are also among them.
Value is not boundless. Value is in the eye of the beholder and it varies based on the context of the relationship and your desired outcomes. It is relationships, after all, that form the foundation of business. Marketing and communications are merely enablers for conveying value while also investing in and reinforcing relationships.
What you do and how you do it now serves a higher purpose. This is why I believe that your role in this is much grander than you may realize or believe. Lean forward.
Brian Solis, digital analyst and author of What's the Future of Business (WTF)
www.briansolis.com
@briansolis
Introduction
This isn't a book about a specialist area of PR, it is about how current practice is evolving and where industry as a whole will be in the immediate future.
Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals published by Wiley in 2012 was conceived as a practical handbook for PR people interested in changes taking place in the media and the impact that this was having on the practice of PR. It was written by 24 public relations practitioners, receiving critical acclaim and quickly establishing itself as a number one bestseller in the PR book chart.
Share This Too is even more ambitious. It is a pragmatic guide for anyone that works in communication or public relations. It is a larger book than the original with more than 30 contributors, each of whom is acknowledged as an expert in their field.
The group has been assembled from the CIPR Social Media Panel and associates, many of whom contributed to Share This. It includes academic, in-house, and agency practitioners from a mix of business, public sector, and third-sector.
Six of the contributors are published authors in their own right.
This isn't by any means a second edition. The content complements the first book by probing deeply into what is current in the theory, delivery, and evaluation of 21st century public relations and organizational communication.
The editorial process for Share This Too followed that developed for Share This. Contributors worked to rigorous editorial guidelines, submitting their draft text to a Google Document. Each chapter was peer reviewed by the other contributors.
Our thanks go to each of the authors for investing their time and energy in this project and the team at the CIPR for supporting this project, in particular Phil Morgan, Kim Roberts and Andrew Ross.
Rob Brown and Stephen Waddington
2013
Part I
The Future of Public Relations
Chapter 1
Digital PR Is Dead: Social Goes Mainstream
Rob Brown
The distinction between digital and “mainstream” or “conventional” channels is at best unhelpful. The term “new media” is archaic and the line between new and old is impossible to draw.
Audiences are changing: every graduate entering the workplace now and forever was born after the arrival of the web. Print won't disappear in a single generation, whilst there is an aging population more at home with dead wood and ink, but it will be consumed by an ever decreasing demographic. The binary idea that something is digital or not is no longer very useful. Are radio and TV digital or analogue? The answer is that they are both, or possibly neither.
It appears likely that social networks passed the 50% adoption threshold in the middle of 2011. They are no longer niche channels accessed primarily by young people. According to website monitoring company Pingdom, the average age of Facebook users is now over forty.
It is often argued by those that decry social networks that they are somehow marginal channels simply because they don't like them or manage perfectly well without them. Universal adoption is seldom achieved by any technology. It doesn't matter that some people, perhaps even a significant proportion, will never use Twitter; some people don't own a television. The fact is that social channels now play a significant part in communications and for many they have become their first preference for news consumption. We must call time on the notion that digital or online PR is somehow a specialization or a separate discipline. Digital PR is dead.
The continuing evolution of the media
There was a time, not so very long ago, when our concept of the media was a simple one. Printed newspapers were divided neatly into national, regional and local. There were trade and consumer magazines. We had national and local radio stations and television channels that you could count using your fingers. There was also a time, a bit further back, when we just had cave paintings.
Newspapers have re-invented themselves as multi-platform media brands operating across lots of different delivery systems. Print newspapers exist primarily for the convenience of their older readers. Never mind the quality of the papers, feel the width. Not quite as bulky as they used to be are they? Every print newspaper has an online edition and for most there are apps for phones and tablets. We now expect online newspapers to carry video.
Recognizing the trend towards tablet computers, the Financial Times launched a promotion at the end of 2012 offering a Google Nexus 7 tablet free to any subscriber in the US taking out a one-year subscription to the digital edition. That's more than just a promotion given that the Nexus 7 retails at $199, which is almost half the value of an annual subscription. Barnes & Noble have also heavily discounted the Nook Colour tablet along with a yearly digital subscription to the New York Times.
The way we watch television has changed. Sky+, BBC iPlayer, YouView and a plethora of other systems have handed the schedule to the viewer. Commuters watch their favourite programmes on their phones on the way to work. Content from broadcasters and from other sources including brands is converging. Does it matter whether we listen to radio on a dedicated box in the car or kitchen or through the headphones of a laptop? The line between digital and analogue has faded to the point where it is barely identifiable.
The blurring of channels
Is the Huffington Post a newspaper? The title undoubtedly owes something to the history of print. Most of the content, however, is produced by non journalists. That is not intended to be pejorative. It is a simple fact that the majority of contributors do not meet the commonly understood definition of journalism as a paid job or profession. The other obvious observation is that the Huffington Post isn't printed on paper.
If you listen to both BBC Radio 4's media show and the Guardian's Media Talk on your iPod, is one a radio show and the other a podcast?
If you compare the websites of USA Today – the biggest selling newspaper in America – and CNN – the main all news channel on US television – they are pretty similar. In fact the video content is more prominent on the newspaper site than on the TV site. Google has been a news aggregator for more than a decade and Twitter now links to news stories via its “top news” feature.
Talking to friends and colleagues, most of us often don't register where we get our breaking news; it may be via a link on Twitter or the car radio. What really matters is the story.
The impact of social media and networks
Social networks at their inception didn't have much to do with news. As the name implies they were largely social, helping us to connect with old or current school friends. Now many of these social channels are at the core of both the gathering and dissemination of news.
The world woke up to Twitter's capacity to deliver news almost instantly, during the Mumbai terrorist attacks of November 2008. Since then its role has become far more pervasive. Twitter delivers news but it can also influence the agenda. Debates often take place in the social space before they are elevated to the pages of newspapers or broadcast channels. Journalists recognize the importance of building their follower numbers in order to promote traffic to their stories.
In 2012 Google made some significant changes to its news search which included greater integration with Google+. Google+ comments appear on news search pages and in real-time coverage pages. Google+ members are also able to see comments from people in their circles on the news pages. Scott Zuccarino, the Google News product manager, said at launch: “many news stories inspire vibrant discussions on Google+, and today we're starting to add this content to both the news homepage and the real-time coverage pages.”
The growth of social media adoption
In recent years delivering communications programmes using social networks as delivery channels was a specialist activity. When the networks were new, adoption was low and they were niche channels. Social networks are now a mainstream phenomenon. Facebook claimed in October 2012 that it had passed the billion user mark with more than 50% of the US population signed up, and Australasia, Latin America and Europe all have similar adoption levels.1
NM Incite, a joint venture between research firm Nielsen and management consultants McKinsey, took a comprehensive look at social media adoption in 2012. They found that the total time spent on PCs and mobile devices grew by 21% over the previous year, with time spent on mobile apps more than doubling.2
According to a Pew report published in December 2012 people in developing countries are joining social networks at a higher rate than the populations of Europe, North America and Australasia. The global report looked at 21 nations and found that the majority of internet users in Brazil, Mexico, Tunisia, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, India and Russia use social media.3
The report also indicates that the adoption of mobile phones has led growth. In fact the way people access the internet is perhaps a more important question for PR people than whether they access the news via digital or analogue platforms.
Digital is part of every programme
The most powerful argument for the absence of a division between traditional and digital PR is that it is difficult to conceive of a PR campaign that is entirely without a digital dimension.
Print publications without any form of digital outlet are a rarity, so even if you think you are sending a press release to a print title you are putting it online too. That alone makes it essential for a PR person to understand the dynamics of the web.
Many journalists were amongst the earliest adopters on Twitter. Many appear to be more inclined to respond to an engaging tweet than they are to a phone call or email. If it is possible to build a relationship with a journalist via that route why would any PR person choose not to do so?
Evolution and the opportunity for PR
I believe that the discipline of PR is in a process of rapid evolution, where the knowledge, skills and practice of public relations are changing. It would be complacent to say that this doesn't present us with some real challenges. It also provides the PR function with some real opportunities.
The evolution of the media and communications in general is reshaping the nature and the relationships between different types of marketing communications operations. PR people face increased competition from advertising agencies, search engine optimization (SEO) specialists, digital agencies and others. However, public relations practitioners are uniquely placed to take advantage of a world where conversation and dialogue have largely supplanted top-down, one-way messaging. Our skills are firmly rooted in debate, discussion and the art of persuasion. We have always operated through intermediaries when delivering news and information. The intermediaries may have changed and broadened but those skills are as valuable as ever.
There are new skills to learn too, many of them were covered in Share This. Share This Too explores the knowledge and skills base still further.
One of these skills is the ability to read and interpret web analytics. I've encountered PR people who visibly freeze when the subject of analytics is raised and yet we've always used analytics. Combined circulation figures, key message scores and the discredited practice of advertising value equivalents were all analytics. The data may be more complex – “getting information off the Internet is like taking a drink from a fire hydrant” said Mitchell Kapor, pioneer of the PC industry – but it's increasingly easy to access and gain insight from. Many web services and social networks have easy-to-use built-in in analytics. Every PR person should have at least a working knowledge of how to gather insight and information this way.
Opportunities we should seize
The socialization and democratization of the web have redrawn communications and in doing so they have blurred boundaries. With the challenges this brings there are also new opportunities.
Video content
Video content will become increasingly evident in PR campaigns. The growth in video consumption is astronomical. YouTube statistics are eye-watering. Psy's Gangnam Style has racked up a billion views and on YouTube as a whole there are approaching 5 billion views a day. Platforms like Apple TV are bringing down the walls between web TV and current broadcast platforms. Cost of production is in freefall. Producing engaging video content should become a serious consideration for many PR campaigns.
PR-led SEO
“Google is not a search engine. Google is a reputation-management system … online, your rep is quantifiable, findable, and totally unavoidable. In other words, radical transparency is a double-edged sword, but once you know the new rules, you can use it to control your image in ways you never could before.”
Clive Thompson said this in Wired in 2007.4 PR has always been about reputation management and a key determinant of reputation is the content on page one of a Google Search. The most important tool that search engine optimization specialists have at their disposal is now the “press release”. If we educate ourselves about the value of good editorial combined with link strategies as part of PR, we can greatly elevate the power of PR. The search engine companies are actually working in our favour, since they are engaged in a constant struggle to promote natural search elevating real news and information. This is where the enlightened PR person comes in.
Redefining our relationships with journalists
The hugely insightful journalist and blogger Tom Foremski has said “PR people … are pitching stories to journalists who have very much smaller pageviews on the stories they write, and far smaller Twitter/Facebook communities to which to distribute their stories, than the PR people.” PR people need to build their own communities both to deliver news directly but also so that we are able to direct a relevant audience to stories that have been written with the independent perspectives of journalists.
Digital PR is dead because all PR is digital.
Biography
Rob Brown (@robbrown) has worked in PR for over 20 years and for over 15 years held senior PR positions within three major global advertising networks: Euro RSCG, McCann Erickson and TBWA. He launched his own business “Rule 5” in MediaCityUK, Manchester in November 2012. Rob is the author of Public Relations and the Social Web (2009), blogs for The Huffington Post and has written chapters for Public Relations Cases: International Perspectives (2010), Public Relations: A Managerial Perspective (2011) and Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR Professionals (2012). He is founding chair of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations Social Media Panel.
Notes
1Report: Social network demographics in 2012: http://cipr.co/Wsb2vE
2The Social Media Report 2012: http://cipr.co/XiuBpJ
3Social Networking Popular Across Globe: http://cipr.co/WrWaPH
4Wired: http://cipr.co/WXwpmN
Chapter 2
The Shift to Conversation: Content, Context and Avoiding Cheap Talk
Dom Burch
In the race to be liked on Facebook or followed on Twitter, brands must focus on creating engaging content that resonates with their customers or stakeholders. Social media content should always be relevant to who you are and what you do. The most authentic brands resist the temptation to follow the buzz and always strive to look and feel the same on the outside as they do on the inside. Traditional media relations, as we know, are gradually being eclipsed by the rise in social media relations. The days of PR departments endlessly issuing press releases to generate news and capture column inches are in decline. What's more, traditional print coverage is becoming less relevant to brands, many of whom are now significant media owners in their own right (Nike, Red Bull, Audi).
With access to large groups via social networks, brands are beginning to engage significant numbers of customers or stakeholders in regular conversation and, when managed carefully, positively influence their perception. In that context, generating engaging and relevant content (or news as it was once known) continues to be one of the most important disciplines for strategic communication professionals.
While the means of communication are shifting from traditional media to social media, the need to focus on creating engaging content that resonates with a brand's publics, be they customers or stakeholders, has never been more important. Yet some brands have placed too much emphasis on reaching scale quickly at all costs, without due care and attention towards the quality of the connections being established.
Unlike press releases of old that often jumped straight to the big sell, social media requires brands to be less direct and more willing to engage in conversation.
Getting started
The best content-led engagement strategies are built on a simple three-pronged approach: listen first, engage second, and seek to influence or persuade last. Sequential in order, but not necessarily equal in terms of time needed to master each phase, it is essential before getting started to gain insight into what people are saying about your brand.
Asda followed a methodical five-year plan when first approaching social media in 2009. The first year was almost entirely dedicated to listening and monitoring. Year two led to trials of Twitter handles and the introduction of a new interactive corporate blog/website called Your Asda. The monitoring and listening continued, leading to insight that enabled Asda to focus on engagement in year three. In year four, armed with three years' worth of insight, two years of trialling things and a year of outreach and engagement, Asda was able to accelerate its efforts and significantly grow its presence on social media. Year five sees the introduction of tightly managed programmes that seek to influence customers by sending large numbers of them towards specific activity, be that online or in store.
Social networks like Twitter have become relatively free, real-time focus groups, where increasing numbers of people openly discuss a brand's advertising, pricing, products and services, members of staff or customers. As a result, savvy marketing and PR professionals have quickly learned the importance of listening closely to what is being said. The old adage that your reputation is what people say about you when you leave the room is still true, but social media monitoring now gives brands unrivalled access and insight into those conversations outside the room.
Brands in traditional sectors like financial services have taken longer than most to get started, dwelling on stage one. There are notable exceptions like First Direct, which led the way in trialling social media on its core website. However, many others have at best been listening without much engagement – perhaps fearful of regulators, or amplifying customer service issues, or because internal structures cause inertia.
Other sectors like retail and travel have recognized the opportunity, and have worked hard to avoid reputational issues by listening closely to what people are saying about them, and moving quickly to intervene, taking problems offline to resolve them swiftly.
Blindly following the social buzz each day can take brands into uncomfortable territory, and can leave customers – be they followers or fans – questioning the validity of their relationship.
Just because everyone else is talking about something doesn't mean a brand should too. For example, when the Duchess of Cambridge announced she was pregnant, brand after brand clamoured to celebrate the imminent new arrival. Many fell into the trap of making tenuous connections.
When approaching social media, it is absolutely key to have a clear content strategy. It forces brands to consider who they really are and what they stand for. The risk of not having a strategic approach is that some brands try too hard to be popular by blindly following the crowd or buzz of the day, inserting themselves into conversations without a clear reason or purpose. Even sponsoring non-related but popular hashtags on Twitter can be met with a muted response at best or a negative reaction at worst. Asda Deals sponsored a Ricky Gervais trending hashtag to recruit new followers. Many reacted angrily to Asda Deals appearing in their timeline.
Content and context
Natural and meaningful conversations in social media reflect conversations in real life. They are two-way dialogues, not one-way broadcasts, where open-ended questions are posed to seek out opinions.
Conversations in the real world become more meaningful as the relationship develops, and don't tend to jump immediately into a justification of a particular viewpoint or into an aggressive sales pitch.
So when brands adopt this style in social media, with an audience that it hasn't harnessed and built trust with, the reaction can be either negative or disengaging.
Context therefore dictates a brand's tone of voice. Red Bull has a clear brand proposition, giving it the licence to associate itself with a breadth of hair-raising events and activities. Most brands, however, are more restricted in what they can legitimately be interested in. If you are a shop that sells baked beans, always bear in mind that's how others will view you.
Social media content should always have a clear purpose, be that to inform, entertain or inspire. Before embarking on a social media programme, brands should consider carefully what outcomes they are seeking to achieve. Are they attempting to gain insight, elicit a response, or drive traffic, whether online or in-store? By being explicit about what their social media content is trying to achieve, they are better placed to set clear, measurable goals that can act as a benchmark for future activity.
Building the right relationships
The biggest mistake a brand can make on social media is prioritizing the rapid acquisition of new fans or followers above the quality of the relationships they are building. At Asda there is a mantra when it comes to measuring the success of social media – “fans are for vanity, engagement is sanity”.
Some of the most successful brands currently harnessing social media have taken an organic approach to building their communities. That's not to say that organic necessarily means slow. From a standing start it is possible to build large communities and reach scale quickly, but the tactics used are important and will dictate who joins the community, how actively engaged they are, and how relevant a connection has been made.
When handled well, social media lets brands recruit ambassadors and cheerleaders, who once engaged have the ability to turbo-charge natural word of mouth and act as the first line of defence when things go wrong. Stefan Olander, VP of Digital Sport at Nike, famously said: “Once you have established a direct relationship with a consumer, you don't need to advertise to them.” That's how powerful social media can be.
One size doesn't fit all
While the mass market appeal of Facebook gives brands the opportunity to reach large numbers of their customers through their newsfeeds, other social networks can create opportunities to reach different customer segments or interest groups.
The key is understanding the unique benefits each social network might bring to your brand – and then, if you decide it's worth investing the time and effort, identifying the type of content or conversations that are appropriate in each context. Simply copying posts designed to generate fan engagement on Facebook and pasting them into Google+ or Twitter is missing the point. Content strategies need to be in a continual state of review as the social media landscape shifts and changes.
Tailored content that fits distinct social platforms and meets the needs of the specific audience is likely to develop in the same way as it did for traditional PR professionals who once had to write different releases for different sectors – be that trade, consumer, local or national.
Hope and Social is a six-piece rock band based in Leeds, Yorkshire. Formed in 2008 the band is characterized by its “Pay What You Want” approach to music. Nobody really “manages” them as such, but they work hard to ensure their fans feel every bit as much a part of the band as the musicians themselves.
They have released four albums in less than four years, all under the banner of Alamo Music, the first ever fan-funded, fan-owned record label.
This is how they describe themselves on the home page of their website www.hopeandsocial.com:
“We make timeless music and give it away, like our brand new album All Our Dancing Days. We involve people in everything we do, and they never fail to amaze us. We have fun and make art. We create events to remember. We talk about what we do and stuff we care about. We hail from Yorkshire in the north of England, where we have an enigmatic studio called The Crypt. We share what we learn from the mistakes that we make. Fingers crossed, we will die with our hearts out in bloom. We are Hope and Social. Lovely to meet you.”
Ben Denison “helps out” with the band, and has had a huge influence on how they have adopted social media, making it an integral part of how the brand operates and functions. Ben says:
“Content and context is king. Putting your products within a story is absolutely key. They become more valuable objects that way. People buy into the story and the product. As the two become intertwined you lose track of which is the story and which is the product. The barriers are removed.
Organisations used to be characterised by how they saw themselves from the inside and how others viewed them from the outside. When the two were different, something would inevitably leak. Social media now means the two must be the same as you tell your story to the outside world.
Social at its best is small; it is telephone not megaphone. Brands therefore should think of social media like being in a country pub. You wouldn't walk in and start shouting about how great a person you are or handing out cash. You'd sidle up to the bar, pull up a stool and listen in to the conversations going on around you. You'd join in when you had something interesting to say, and it wouldn't be about you, it'd be about something you know that you want to share to spark the interest of others. Social media is no more complicated than that.
Wherever possible you should celebrate the values of the organisation that you are in. Have a common belief that everyone aligns themselves to, a higher purpose that connects with people, and moves your content away from the functional to the emotional.
More and more forms of corporate communication are moving towards conversational style harnessing the personality of the brand. Emails sent from organisations are more likely to be opened if they are interesting, not just shouting calls to action at you. You can't preach or direct people to go here or go there all the time.
Cleverly devised content is a person to person experience with the ambition of creating “vibrating” advocates as I call them. Cheerleaders who have been positively infected by who you are, what you stand for, and what you do – but in that order not the other way round.
Thinking person to person means every post, every tweet, every email, every interaction has to be as good, if not better than the last – otherwise the people who you are engaging with will slowly begin to lose interest. And winning them back round is really hard to do.
As social media develops and grows it will be important for brands to create sub-groups and smaller clans of people who are passionate about certain things. You can't expect everyone to love everything about you, so remind yourself you are in the country pub and striking up conversations.
Building friendship is based on equality and genuine interest in others. Then if you're really smart you can tell them about your little country pub down the road and when you leave, they may just follow for a nightcap, and if you're really lucky they′ll bring one or two friends with them.”
Danny Blackburn is head of content at IMP Media Ltd, a social media agency based in Leeds with clients including Everything Everywhere, Hobbycraft and Asda. He says a lot of companies admit they focus on engaging content without really understanding what it actually means: “In a nutshell it's about having a clear strategy to begin with (we're saying X to Y in order to achieve Z), knowing your audience, giving them what they actually want, and doing it in a way that encourages them to respond, get involved or tell others.” He points to a number of examples of brands getting it right.
Intrepid travel: Genuinely inspiring, high-quality content. They really understand the motivation of the people they're conversing with. They use social media in a way that manages to promote the brand without actually feeling like it's promoting the brand. I look forward to their posts popping up in my newsfeed: www.facebook.com/intrepidtravel.
Rapha Racing: Yes, I know it's cycling (snore), but it's a cracking example of brand extension. Rapha clothing is expensive, exclusive, boutique gear for people who “appreciate quality” (or “with more money than sense”). The Facebook Page exudes the same feeling which makes people want to spend so much cash. It's aspirational, reeks of quality, and makes you feel like you're part of a club. The fanbase is small, but that's fine for a brand like this: www.facebook.com/rapharacing.
Red Bull: It's an obvious one, but you can't argue with ‘em. They're essentially a media company now – massively high production values, producing content that's perfect for the people they're trying to reach and to convey the image they want to put out there. They have a massive fanbase and engage them online by covering the subjects the fans care about and (generally) the subjects that aren't covered anywhere else. Great use of sponsorship too, amplifying the very best stuff they produce far and wide: www.facebook.co.uk/redbull.
Danny adds: “It's all about really understanding who you're talking to and producing relevant content – that takes investment of time, money and creativity. You look forward to, enjoy and welcome the most engaging Facebook content appearing in your newsfeed.
I guess it's easier to stay relevant when your target demographic is focused and narrow. If Red Bull suddenly diversified into nappies and baby wipes they'd struggle to talk to their existing Facebook audience in an engaging way – the same is true for Asda if it tried to talk to its audience about action sports. Although babies riding freestyle motocross bikes would be quite cool …”
Biography
Dom Burch (@domburch) works for Asda. He studied PR at Leeds Metropolitan University back in 1994, graduating with a BA Hons degree in the summer of 1998. His first (unpaid) job was with Cause Connection, a CSR unit within Saatchi & Saatchi, before being properly employed by Green Flag in Leeds as a PR assistant. Following a two-year stint at Direct Line in Croydon Dom joined Asda in 2002, working his way up from PR manager to head of PR and social media. He is the architect of Asda's social media strategy, and looks forward to the day when he never has to speak to a journalist.
Chapter 3
Content Frameworks: Using Content to Achieve Marketing Communications Goals
Robin Wilson
Content is probably the most powerful asset in current marketing communications campaigns and will only become more important. In terms of engaging audiences, and driving business goals, creating a compelling content strategy is perhaps one of the most critical factors facing businesses today. What follows is an overview and a simple methodology for planning content strategies with practical tips for producing content frameworks.
Rise of content marketing
In the age of shareable “always on” communications, brands are being urged to become publishers and use content more effectively to deliver business benefit. More and more companies are creating and publishing content across their owned media platforms, sharing content through earned media channels and displaying content in paid media. This has led to the rise of a new discipline called Content Marketing.
According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI):
“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”5
Research suggests that content marketing is set to grow in importance. In 2012 Econsultancy published research in conjunction with Outbrain6 that revealed that 90% of digital marketing executives believe content marketing will become more important in the next 12 months.
However, the move to becoming a publisher is not a simple one. Brands are used to selling products whereas publishers sell advertising space. It's a different way of thinking. The Econsultancy research reported that only 38% of digital marketers have a defined content strategy.
Acting like a media company and producing content that people want to read, watch or listen to, is very different from producing content you want people to read – the difference between publishing and advertising.
Some companies have adopted this way of thinking. Red Bull7 is probably the best example of a brand acting like a publisher as it produces content that people want to watch while integrating the brand messages. The trick is having a content strategy at the heart of your marketing strategy.
Developing content strategies
Like any marketing communications or public relations strategy, a content marketing strategy should be part of the wider marketing strategy. It should take the organization from point A, where you are now, to point B, where you want to be and deliver against business objectives.
The following process for developing a content strategy is pretty straightforward and a good starting point.
1. Marketing objectives
What marketing objectives can you contribute to or influence with content? Some of the marketing objectives that content can impact on are:
Brand health: the right kind of content used in the right context can affect positive sentiment, favourability and goodwill towards the brand.Brand recognition and recall: highly shareable, compelling content can spread far and wide and help raise awareness of a brand, product or service.Education: highly visual content in particular can really help educate an audience on a complex or emotive issue. The NHS in Leicester produced a very powerful social marketing campaign on teen pregnancy8 that showed a young girl giving birth in a playground from the point of view of a schoolmate, capturing the moment on a mobile phone. (Unfortunately, the video was subsequently banned by YouTube.)Purchase consideration and loyalty: content, particularly that which creates repeat interaction, can be used to keep the brand front of mind, which supports consideration and repeat purchase.Maybe it's stating the obvious, but the starting point should be to think about how content can be used to contribute to the organization's marketing objectives.
2. Content objectives
What do you want the content to do? Thinking about the marketing objectives you want to affect, work out content-specific goals. It's worth thinking about the specific actions or reactions you want content to generate. For example:
Types of content objectives and how they can impact marketing communications objectives
MARCOMMS OBJECTIVESCONTENT OBJECTIVESCONTENT KPISBrand RecognitionAwarenessViewsBrand LoyaltyEngagementShares, comments, Likes, Retweets, repins.EducationAwarenessViewsEngagementShares, comments, LikesSalesLeads, enquiriesClick throughsThe specific content objectives and associated KPIs will be bespoke to an organization's marketing plan and business goals.
3. Audience behaviour
What type of content does your audience read, watch, share and interact with?
It's important to work out early on in the process what content is going to appeal to your audience and, perhaps more importantly, what content will drive the action you desire. Usually, a range of content will appeal to your audience and drive several actions. Things to look at are:
Subject matter:
