Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
On Sunday night, we were reminded once again how prevalent social media is in today’s communications landscape and how quickly information is disseminated through platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Prompted by President Obama’s announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed, Twitter recorded the “highest sustained rate of Tweets ever,” an average of 3,440 tweets per second were sent between 10:45PM EST and 12:30 AM EST.
It was impossible for anyone on Facebook or Twitter on Sunday night not to hear the news. The widespread use of social media is undeniable, but its role in business has yet to be defined. Social media is recognized as an important tool, but the exact ROI is hard to track.
Mashable recently published an article on “9 Digital Marketing Lessons From Top Social Brands,” which examines how MTV, American Express, Xbox, NBA and AT&T have learned to use social media to get results.
The nine lessons are fairly standard, like understanding your audience and choosing the right platform. However, the one lesson that I believe deserves some attention is “be human.” Take into consideration why people follow celebrities on Twitter. Fans want to feel connected to the individual and know this person’s thoughts, feelings or whereabouts. It is quite possible that most celebrities have a whole team carefully crafting their tweets, but a follower wants to believe they are gaining insight into the celebrity’s life.
The same connection is true for any consumer following a business on social media. Consider the following points when crafting a tweet.
- Be Conversational. Developing a consistent tone that resonates with your audience will help establish credibility and make your followers feel a part of your business. “Nailing a tone that resonates with your audience is of paramount importance,” says Tom Fishman, manager of social media and community at MTV. The article says the goal of MTV is “to sound human and conversational and not be the voice of some corporate overload.”
- Use “We” or “I”. Writing tweets in “we” or “I” helps to convey there are “hearts and faces behind the computer screen.” Using “I” makes the tweet personal and whoever is tweeting should identify themselves. Using “we” makes the message sound as if it is coming from the whole company. This helps people establish a personal connection.
- Don’t Sound Like a Press Release. Brands should use social media to promote their message, but it’s important to avoid sounding like a press release. If you are tweeting about a press release, make sure to add a message instead of tweeting the headline.
- Admit Your Mistakes. An important part of being human is making mistakes. While we strive to be vigilant, errors happen. If there is a spelling error or factual mistake in a tweet, don’t delete it and “sweep the mistake under the rug.” Followers prefer to see the human side of a company by admitting their mistake and correcting it.
At the heart, social media is another avenue to disseminate information, but people often forget the human element can go a long way. Infuse a little personality into messages and start making a personal connection with your fans.
As we’ve mentioned previously on this blog, analogies often help make complex topics more digestible for a broader audience. While this normally happens more often in business-to-consumer scenarios, the same principle can be useful for learning lessons in any context.
Earlier this week, Ragan’s PR Daily writer Arik Hanson posted an article about the “4 PR Lessons from Saved by the Bell,” the pop culture TV hit from the ‘90’s. While naturally light-hearted, due to the characters and subject matter, Arik makes some great correlations from the show, which are completely applicable to PR and marketing.
Consider these four PR lessons which Arik notes in his article:
- “Persistence Doesn’t Always Pay Off” –Screech was very persistent in his pursuit of the lovely Lisa Turtle. He tried many angles and approaches, but never achieved the desired results. The same goes for media pitching. When pitching media, it’s tempting to continue to follow-up via phone, email, Twitter, and any other mode possible, but sometimes it’s better to re-evaluate your strategies than continue to force the issue.
- “When Everyone is Zigging, Try Zagging” – Screech is perhaps one of the most recognizable characters from the show. His quirky personality and clothing positioned him as unique, making him memorable. Arik points out that when launching new products or services, it’s good to identify and promote the features or aspects that set it apart from competitors. Ultimately, this is the way that consumers are going to remember why they should choose one product over another.
- “Success Is Never As Easy As It Seems” – One of the most talked about episodes of the entire series was when Jessie Spano decided to take caffeine pills to help keep herself awake for an all-night studying binge. This is a great reminder that it takes a lot of hard work behind the scenes for launches and announcements to run smoothly and, “make it look easy.” It can be tempting to take short cuts or the easy way out, but keep in mind that this may not be the best strategy to keep up momentum in the future.
- “Regular Communication Is Key To Productive Relationships” – Remember how Zack always seemed to be in Principal Belding’s office? Arik opines that maybe this was Belding’s way of keeping in close contact with Zack in the hopes of helping him realize his full potential. The same strategy applies for the relationship between PR and marketing teams – both in-house and agency. When all members of the communications team are in sync and in the loop, it makes for smoother sailing through the entire process of a launch or media announcement.
These four lessons serve as a great reminder that education comes in many forms, and it’s good to think critically about lessons of all shapes and forms can be applied to our professional endeavors. Have you learned any great lessons or utilized strategies that you gleaned from an unexpected place?
Jeanne Miller, communications manager with Tecplot, Inc., recently forwarded me an interesting article from BtoB magazine about how changes in the discipline of marketing are driving organizational changes.
The article focuses on how business-to-business marketing teams at Intel Corp., Sybase and Xerox Corp. are “rethinking the organizational structures and even their cultures” so they can generate more content. According to BtoB magazine, to make content development easier, b-to-b marketers with these companies are hiring former journalists and creating editorial calendars to govern what is used in advertising, on websites or in social media campaigns.
The April 4 article, entitled “Content needs to drive organizational changes,” is an interesting read, but generating content and the need to rethink the structures of marketing departments is an issue consumer companies and nonprofit organizations are facing as well. This is not a challenge unique to b-to-b marketers.
From our work with Seattle Children’s hospital I know that the marketing, public relations and social media teams confront many similar challenges as the companies mentioned in the BtoB magazine article.
Zillow, the practical website that helps individuals understand real estate values or find rental property, is also using content to drive consumer awareness via its blog, news coverage (Zillow is a source of content for Fox News, for example) and social media. Consider these two blog posts.
- 80K the Non-Distressed Way: See Homes for Sale for $80,000
- Whack! Nicolas Cage Sells Rhode Island Estate at 60 Percent Loss
These were both incredibly popular with a large number of Facebook shares, tweets and comments on each. This new practice of creating so much original content is a huge departure from the marketing activities of yester years. It is no wonder that it is causing organizations to rethink the structure of marketing departments and teams. What will be interesting is to track going forward is which companies and organizations get this market-department restructuring right and how it impacts their marketing campaigns and subsequent results.
With more than 500 million active users on Facebook and nearly 200 million registered accounts on Twitter (as last reported on Jan. 29, 2011 in Forbes), it is likely that your company is one of the many to have a presence on either one or both of these social media platforms. And it is even more likely that the majority of your colleagues are also actively participating on these platforms – for personal or professional purposes or both.
With more and more people are using social media (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flicker, Twitter, etc.) every day in their personal lives, the line is blurring between what is public and private, personal and professional. And while most may appear to be using these tools appropriately, others may be unknowingly posting information about your company that is inappropriate and has the potential to quickly damage your company’s brand and reputation. If you don’t think anything bad can happen to your company from an innocent tweet of Facebook post, think again. Take a look at this chronology of brands who were “blind-sided by the Internet and social media” as captured by Industry Analyst Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter Group on his website, Web Strategy.
We have been collaborating with a number of our clients in the development of their social media strategy, identifying best practices and the appropriate channels to engage with their key audiences. For some, we are partnering with them and other departments to modify their existing social media policy to help employees use social media in a respectful and responsible way.
However, simply having this policy in place does not always mean that employees will understand them or incorporate them into their daily jobs or lives. It is important to develop a social media training program that helps to socialize your policy and provides your staff a foundation to help them make the right choices at work and at home when it comes to using social media.
Below are just few ideas to consider when developing your social media training program:
- “Engaging” Training Materials. If social media is about engaging with your community, why not make your training session interactive and engaging with your employees as well? You could create a PowerPoint presentation to share your social media policy and best practices. Consider including real life examples of appropriate and inappropriate uses in social media to create an interactive discussion. You can also develop a quiz that tests employees’ knowledge and comprehension throughout the presentation, and offer a prize at the end. In addition, you could also create a fun introductory video that opens the session with employees sharing what “social media means to them.” By engaging staff in these interviews in advance of the training session, it may help to drive buzz and excitement among other staff members who will be curious to see their peers in this video.
- Leverage Other Employees as “Trainers.” Depending upon the number of employees and office locations, it may not be practical or efficient for any one team to attempt to directly educate all of your company’s employees. Consider training a well-respected leader in each office location who will then train the employees in their office. Spend time with them in a ‘train the trainer’ session to review the social media policy in-depth, ensure they understand the need for the training and the social media do’s and don’ts. By doing so, they will be able to accurately communicate your new policy during their training sessions to their staff.
- New Hire Orientation. Now that your employees understand your social media policy, consider developing information for your HR team to present to any new employees as part of your on-boarding or orientation process. Whether it is a single PowerPoint slide or simple one-page handout, share a high-level overview of your social media policy with directions on where they can find more information and who to contact if they have questions. HR can also make this information available on your corporate intranet to serve as a helpful reminder for employees.
- Leverage Internal Communication Channels. Partner with your company’s internal communications team to help build excitement by featuring some of the key takeaways employees will learn at the training session and potential prizes they can win from their participation.
Afterwards, create a brief story to share in your employee newsletter to reinforce the key messages provided during training and remind staff of best practices when engaging in their personal social media channels. If your company has an intranet, consider creating a dedicated page to host the training materials, your social media policy and contact information if employees have questions or concerns.
Regardless of the methods you develop to train your staff, if it is done well, your employees will end up with a much better understanding of how to manage their personal social media activity, ultimately helping you to avoid future potential issues for the company.
If you have provided social media training at your company, what methods or tactics worked well for you.
With more than 500 million active users on Facebook and nearly 200 million registered accounts on Twitter (as last reported on Jan. 29, 2011 in Forbes), it is likely that your company is one of the many to have a presence on either one or both of these social media platforms. And it is even more likely that the majority of your colleagues are also actively participating on these platforms – for personal or professional purposes or both.
With more and more people are using social media (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flicker, Twitter, etc.) every day in their personal lives, the line is blurring between what is public and private, personal and professional. And while most may appear to be using these tools appropriately, others may be unknowingly posting information about your company that is inappropriate and has the potential to quickly damage your company’s brand and reputation. If you don’t think anything bad can happen to your company from an innocent tweet of Facebook post, think again. Take a look at this chronology of brands who were “blind-sided by the Internet and social media” as captured by Industry Analyst Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter Group on his website, Web Strategy.
We have been collaborating with a number of our clients in the development of their social media strategy, identifying best practices and the appropriate channels to engage with their key audiences. For some, we are partnering with them and other departments to modify their existing social media policy to help employees use social media in a respectful and responsible way.
However, simply having this policy in place does not always mean that employees will understand them or incorporate them into their daily jobs or lives. It is important to develop a social media training program that helps to socialize your policy and provides your staff a foundation to help them make the right choices at work and at home when it comes to using social media.
Below are just few ideas to consider when developing your social media training program:
- “Engaging” Training Materials. If social media is about engaging with your community, why not make your training session interactive and engaging with your employees as well? You could create a PowerPoint presentation to share your social media policy and best practices. Consider including real life examples of appropriate and inappropriate uses in social media to create an interactive discussion. You can also develop a quiz that tests employees’ knowledge and comprehension throughout the presentation, and offer a prize at the end. In addition, you could also create a fun introductory video that opens the session with employees sharing what “social media means to them.” By engaging staff in these interviews in advance of the training session, it may help to drive buzz and excitement among other staff members who will be curious to see their peers in this video.
- Leverage Other Employees as “Trainers.” Depending upon the number of employees and office locations, it may not be practical or efficient for any one team to attempt to directly educate all of your company’s employees. Consider training a well-respected leader in each office location who will then train the employees in their office. Spend time with them in a ‘train the trainer’ session to review the social media policy in-depth, ensure they understand the need for the training and the social media do’s and don’ts. By doing so, they will be able to accurately communicate your new policy during their training sessions to their staff.
- New Hire Orientation. Now that your employees understand your social media policy, consider developing information for your HR team to present to any new employees as part of your on-boarding or orientation process. Whether it is a single PowerPoint slide or simple one-page handout, share a high-level overview of your social media policy with directions on where they can find more information and who to contact if they have questions. HR can also make this information available on your corporate intranet to serve as a helpful reminder for employees.
- Leverage Internal Communication Channels. Partner with your company’s internal communications team to help build excitement by featuring some of the key takeaways employees will learn at the training session and potential prizes they can win from their participation.
Afterwards, create a brief story to share in your employee newsletter to reinforce the key messages provided during training and remind staff of best practices when engaging in their personal social media channels. If your company has an intranet, consider creating a dedicated page to host the training materials, your social media policy and contact information if employees have questions or concerns.
Regardless of the methods you develop to train your staff, if it is done well, your employees will end up with a much better understanding of how to manage their personal social media activity, ultimately helping you to avoid future potential issues for the company.
If you have provided social media training at your company, what methods or tactics worked well for you.
Over the last two months, we’ve had the pleasure of working with Verdiem to execute a targeted media relations campaign to generate coverage in national and local business publications as well as IT and green IT vertical publications for a new product announcement. Our objective was to help Verdiem continue to establish itself as a thought leader in PC power management and win mindshare within the industry. We developed a media relations strategy to target publications that specifically cover green IT issues to discuss how Verdiem’s SURVEYOR solution helps organizations save money and energy. We also wanted to reach out to Mac reporters, as the updated product included support for the Mac OS platform.
Verdiem last week announced the latest version of their flagship PC power management solutions, SURVEYOR 5.5. This new version includes support for the Mac operating system, a unique differentiator within the market as no other solutions offer this functionality.
With the recession still having a shrinking effect on IT budgets, Verdiem’s SURVEYOR PC power management solution offers enterprise IT professionals with an opportunity to save money, while also reducing their carbon footprint. SURVEYOR typically reduces the energy waste from employee computers by 30 to 60 percent, which translates to an approximate savings of $20 to $60 per computer. So far, there are more than 600 companies (with more than one million employee computers) utilizing this software to monitor, manage and report on their energy savings.
As a direct result of our efforts, we secured more than 11 standalone stories in key publications such as EnvironmentalLeader.com, GreenBiz.com, iTWire, Mac Observer, Mac News, Wall Street Journal (via ZDNet) and Northwest Innovation, who also published a second article, a Q&A feature with Verdiem CEO John Scumniotales.
While the green IT movement isn’t new, there is still tremendous growth occurring in the space with opportunities for companies to differentiate and become a thought leader regarding a specific “issue.” Verdiem is a pioneer in the PC power management space, and with a compelling pitch, solid statistics to back up its claims, and a great spokesperson who is passionate enough to effectively tell its story, we were able to secure quality coverage that further demonstrates their innovation and win mindshare in the industry.
If you are interested in learning how Communiqué PR may be able to help your company launch new products or services in the green IT space, please contact us at [email protected].