Rolling out new tools
Posted by Laura Woods
The public relations profession is at a wonderful and challenging crossroads in its evolution. No longer can the traditional approach of solely using press releases be effective in building a client’s reputation and media presence. Now PR professionals have to be comfortable integrating all aspects of social media — blogs, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and other tools – into their strategic arsenal. Beyond proactive approaches, PR pros need to be diligent in setting high standards for all communications and monitoring for questionable or negative impacts.
Social Media: The Perfect PR Tool
With the soaring popularity of social media, consumers are now in charge. Praise or complaints for a company, product or individual can go worldwide in an instant, damaging sales and brand image if they are not positive. Negative consumer feedback can take on a life of its own if a company doesn’t respond appropriately, as with Nestle in the recent bashing over use of palm oil. PR professionals can track the feedback and develop appropriate responses.
This rings especially true with Facebook since studies now show that the social networking/photo sharing site has become the most visited Web site today, surpassing Internet giant Google.
Many Companies Still Making Facebook Fumbles
Still, many companies are getting it wrong when it comes to Facebook by jumping into social media without a clear direction or management strategy. The U.S. military recently made a Facebook fumble by failing to standardize the use of Facebook. The Pentagon hired PR firm, JANSON Communications in Washington D.C., to conduct a study on the quality of military Facebook pages. The results pinned the military’s messaging to be messy, inconsistent and lacking a clear strategy.
The JANSON study revealed:
- 22% of pages lacked of clear terms of use governing behavior of fans
- 84% of pages had no interaction with fans at all during the study period
- Most of the Facebook pages viewed were not marked as the organization’s “official” page, leading to potential confusion with fan-created pages and “clone” pages
By misusing Facebook, the military lost a valuable opportunity to share its message and promote positive interactions with U.S. military members, many of whom are in their early 20s and avid users of social media.
How could this have been avoided?
The following tips are common knowledge among PR professionals but are worth repeating to help focus on the fundamentals:
1) Develop a clear understanding of the different elements of social media. You should be familiar with the top sites, including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn and how each can be used strategically for your business or organization. Facebook works for both consumer-based and B2B companies because it helps achieve the goal of getting your name out there. You can start by engaging your own friends and coworkers and then expand from there.
2) Create a plan that will help your business achieve its goals. What are people saying about your brand already? Who is your target audience? How will you attract them to your site? What value will you provide? What do you want to achieve with social media? By answering all of these questions, you will already have a strong foundation for your social media efforts. Monitor, analyze and adjust to stay fresh and relevant.
3) Social media is all about consistent, honest communications. Posting and commenting is the only way you and your organization can truly engage in social media. Without it your page will become stale (what the JANSON study refers to as a “Zombie” page). But let’s face it, most people in business find themselves too busy to devote time to it every day. One approach: share the wealth. Develop a plan, schedule and deadlines for several people to participate.
4) Track social media for crisis situations; instant responses. In today’s world of breaking news every minute, consumers won’t write a complaint letter to the president of a company when they can post instantly and share with thousands via Facebook or Twitter. They now have an open forum and audience who may empathize. The key is to react, address the problem, and continue to interact with your followers, fans and critics, too.
Einstein Bros. Gets it Right!
With a little time and preplanning social media PR is a breeze and will make your clients very happy. The bagel shop, Einstein Bros. had a successful Facebook debut by utilizing some of the tips above.
Einstein Bros. launched their Facebook Fan page by offering a coupon for a “free bagel-with-a-schmear.” The result was a drastic jump in fans up to over 400,000. Einstein Bros. played it smart and had already created a plan to keep those 400,000 fans engaged. In order to make sure content was posted consistently, they created a monthly calendar with holidays, high-profile events and store promotions to be posted on the Fan page.
This type of plan is simply a guideline because you should always be listening and responding to what your customers want to talk about. The flexibility of the plan is what will make it easy to follow. Einstein Bros. had an enormous amount of initial success with their Facebook page because they simply dedicated time to preplanning—and so can you.
Tags: blog, branding, creative, facebook, marketing, planning, PR, promotion, reputation, social media, Twitter, YouTube
Laura, great piece and thanks for mentioning the JANSON Military Facebook study. We weren’t actually hired by the DoD to conduct the study but did so on our own accord as our market is the defense, aerospace and government sector and sought to baseline how many of our clients are using social media both good and bad. Your lessons are spot on.
Hi Fred – Sorry we missed that piece of information but thank you for the heads up. We will be sure to reference the study correctly in the future. Thanks again for reading the blog and giving your feedback! Good luck and we wish you continued success! — Laura Woods