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.
It’s hard to believe that I’ve been with Communiqué for a little more than two years – it’s been a great experience and I’ve learned so much. However, on Aug. 12 I will be leaving the company to pursue new opportunities in New York City.
I thought I’d take some time to reflect on what I’ve learned over the past couple of years.
- The media landscape has shifted and will continue to change. The economic downturn affected nearly every industry and organization – and print publications were no exception. In November 2008, we wrote a blog post about the economic impact on the industry’s top publishing houses. This downturn forced many magazines and newspapers to cut budgets and staff. During the past year or two we have found that editors have been more receptive to receiving bylined articles due to the decrease in resources. As a PR professional, this has greatly helped me boost my writing skills. Given resources are so limited and editors have less time to sift through e-mails, I have found that it is more important than ever to write very succinct pitches that tell a compelling story in order to secure coverage and share our clients’ story with key audiences.
- Social media is not a fad. It is here to stay. When I first started working at Communiqué Twitter was not the social media phenomenon it is today. I remember when US Airways flight 1549 landed in the Hudson River in New York – the fact that this news first broke via Twitter shows the way we exchange information has dramatically changed. Gone are the days when we would rely solely on TV, radio and newspapers to get our daily update on current affairs. In fact, more often than not I learn about breaking news events via Twitter or Facebook before I do via a traditional media outlet. I anticipate social media platforms will continue to expand and as they do, it will be important for organizations and PR professionals (like myself) to engage and familiarize ourselves with these different platforms.
- Transparency is not an option. Transparency, especially in light of the social media boom and popularity of online content, is truly an integral element to participating effectively in online conversations. When I tweet about a client, I make sure to let my followers know that I am promoting a client’s service, product or raising awareness of a recent announcement. I wrote a blog post in July 2009 about a company that failed to be transparent in publishing a product review and the ramifications that this had on the company’s reputation and image.
Working with clients including Attachmate, Tecplot, Tideworks Technology and Florentia Press has been such a pleasure. I’ve met some great people and have learned a lot about different technologies and products, as well as how a company works and the importance of client relations.
I want to thank everyone at Communiqué as well as the clients I have worked with the past couple of years. The experience and skills I have attained will be truly invaluable in my next adventure.
We talk about Twitter and its role in public relations a lot on the Communiqué blog. While we believe Twitter is a great tool and can be used to reach millions of people almost instantly, it is important not to ignore the biggest social media platform, Facebook. It not only dwarfs Twitter in the number of users (500 million registered Facebook users to 75 million Twitter users), but can provide organizations with a unique way to build and extend their brand and engage with key audiences.
A recent study from Rice University’s Jones Graduate School of Business, found that companies that use Facebook to reach fans see customer loyalty significantly increase among their fans. As such, Facebook recently began seeing an increase in companies harnessing the power of the platform to deliver their key messages.
Facebook can be extremely effective in reaching key audiences. When one person “likes” a fan page, that piece of information will show up his or her friend’s news feeds, allowing them to see the page and possibly “like” the page as well. This acts as a sort of word of mouth tactic and can help a product or brand gain more followers.
Additionally, when someone “likes” a page, they are given the option of inviting their friends to “like” it as well. Once a customer “likes” a page, they will then receive updates directly in their news feed, making it extremely easy for businesses to deliver their message to their fans.
Customers can comment and “like” specific posts and write their opinions or thoughts on the company’s Facebook page, providing businesses unfiltered information. This data can then drive new offerings, adapt messaging or help improve a product.
To help PR professionals learn the power of Facebook, the company created a fan page called PR on Facebook. The page is run by Facebook itself, which hopes to “share what we have learned about creating social content, promoting events, optimizing Pages, and integrating with tools off of Facebook.” I recently took a close look at the PR on Facebook page and want to share my initial thoughts.
Much of what is shared on the PR on Facebook fan page is how Facebook uses its own platform for day-to-day PR activities. However, all examples shared can be easily applied to any fan page. Facebook has shared examples such as how to provide reporters with permalinks to screenshots and announcements, and criteria for building and maintaining a successful Facebook Pages.
Most recently Facebook has shared how to set up a live stream box, which lets users visiting your Website or application share activity and comment in real time, on a fan page. To illustrate this functionality and the benefits, Facebook,
- Directed people to Facebook Engineering’s page to watch a live stream of their latest Tech Talk as an example
- Posted a link describing how someone could set up a live stream box on their own page
- Linked to a Mashable post describing how to set up a landing page for visitors
PR on Facebook illustrated how a PR professional could use the live stream box to help a company announce a product launch or do a daily segment with fan interactions, much like what the Facebook Engineers did in the example shared on the page. While the page is still in its infancy it appears to be a resourceful tool for PR professionals looking for ways to integrate Facebook into campaigns and initiatives.
So the next time you are planning a PR campaign don’t over look Facebook, consider integrating your activities with this powerful platform. PR on Facebook is a good resource as you investigate how to leverage the medium to your advantage.
Have you used the PR on Facebook fan page? We’d love to hear your thoughts on this as a PR resource.
The recent leak of thousands of reports surrounding the war in Afghanistan has become the focus of much discussion over the past couple of weeks. Not only the validity of these reports and the ramifications the information could have for the government, but also how technology’s role in assisting with the release of information will impact journalism.
In late July, more than 76,000 classified reports were release via WikiLeaks, an international organization that “publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of otherwise unavailable documents while preserving the anonymity of sources.” It appears that if consistently credible, the site could become a go-to source for journalists looking to mine information for stories.
A recent Wall Street Journal article discusses how websites such as these can impact traditional media. Jonathan Zittrain, a law and computer science professor at Harvard says, “I see WikiLeaks as just a new intermediary, not something that gets rid of intermediaries. So the function it’s serving if any is not something alone that should strike fear into traditional newspaper editors.” He goes on to say, “The people at WikiLeaks have learned that if they want to get a message out, they should hand it to the mainstream media under embargo. WikiLeaks is wholsaling it to multiple papers at once, so it’s not an example of WikiLeaks just supplanting what the media does.”
In the case of the war reports, WikiLeaks sought to proactively work with traditional media outlets to disseminate the news. The founder of the company held a press conference where he announced the availability of the information and helped journalists navigate their way through the reports. In other instances WikiLeaks also worked with publications to give them a sneak peek of the information via a protected password to the site. Is this type of collaboration a new model for journalism?
While there are still many legal questions surrounding whether WikiLeaks illegally obtain classified information, the website certainly is causing a stir among media experts. It will be interesting to see how site continues to work with journalists and media outlets to provide classified information. I believe if the site can continue to prove its information is consistently credible and protect its sources, it can certainly be a game changer within the media landscape.
What do you think about WikiLeaks? Leave a comment or send us an e-mail at [email protected].
Melissa Liton
We often get asked by our clients, “how can you measure the value and success of social media?” There are many tools that can track social conversations, capture data around who’s driving these conversations and measure the conversation’s influence. However, it can be a challenge to understand how this information is impacting an organization (i.e. brand perception, sentiment of customers and prospects, and thought leadership in the market).
I recently had the opportunity to test out two new solutions called MAP and Heartbeat from Sysomos, a provider of social media analytics which was recently acquired by Market Wire, a newswire service. Of all the products I’ve seen, MAP and Heartbeat are much more than social media monitoring tools. The solutions provide automated sentiment, key influencer tracking, geo-demographic information and access to real-time and historical social media conversations to help communicators and organizations understand and leverage social media in way that provides business value to the organization.
Sysomos is being used by some of the largest PR agencies and companies in the world such as Nokia, Sony Ericsson and HSBC. According to Sysomos’ website, MAP and Heartbeat’s key features and functionality include:
- Access to billions of social media conversations, both real-time and historical, that provide insight into the key social media conversations, why they’re happening and who’s driving them.
- Identification of key influencers by industry or demographic group, and the ability to engage them on-the-fly through access to Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
- Automated sentiment analysis to determine whether the relevant conversations are positive, negative or neutral.
- Detailed geographic and demographic data about social media participants and the conversations they’re having, including their age, gender and profession.
- Tools for in-depth research, historical analysis and the preparation of value-added reports.
In a recent press release from Market Wire, Brian Solis, principal of FutureWorks and social media expert said, “The future of marketing and communications is built upon data and intelligence. For the first time, the ability to not only learn how we can engage with communities of influencers, consumers, and prospects, but also measure the results in real-time will transform everything.”
One of the things I liked best about these solutions is that you can leverage data and analytics to determine whether or not a social media campaign is on track to be successful. Access to this type of data could enable communicators to shift aspects of a campaign if it’s not making traction. Additionally, you can use these solutions to gain insight into your organization’s brand perception or that of its competitors. This type of business intelligence can be highly valuable to an organization, offering the ability to identify and build relationships with key influencers, gain insight into brand perception and engage in conversations around your brand.
We’re currently trialing MAP and Heartbeat and will keep you posted on our thoughts. To see Heartbeat in action, check out this YouTube video.
Last week I had the opportunity to present at a conference held by Insight Venture Partners in New York City. In preparation for my discussion, I began thinking about my own experience working for a start-up company and how the practice of public relations has changed in the last decade.
Twelve years ago I was working for a start-up in Seattle. The company was Tegic Communications, developers of T9 Text Input for mobile phones. We licensed the software to mobile phone hardware vendors and eventually 90 percent of the OEMs responsible for worldwide mobile phone production adopted it.
We worked non-stop to generate significant editorial coverage to drive awareness and demand with the OEMs as well as to educate consumers about the availability of this new text input feature.
In December 1999, AOL negotiated a $350-million buyout of the company. Later, one of the AOL executives revealed to my manager that they paid an additional $50 million just because of the buzz around the company.
I shared this story during my presentation at the Insight conference, because it is a great example of how buzz and PR around a company can impact customer demand as well as its valuation. Clearly, however, with the rise of social media how one goes about generating massive awareness for a company and its products and solutions has changed significantly.
I also shared the following six tips for leveraging social media to build buzz and drive awareness for a company.
1. Take an integrated approach. To do this, we highly recommend developing a story arc. Think of a story arc as a trajectory, extended storyline, or the ongoing narrative that highlights a company’s overarching vision and its journey toward achieving it. Each company announcement, press release, social media update or interview provides the company spokesperson with an opportunity, or an “episode” to put it in television terms, to support the broad narrative or story arc.
Anne Taylor is doing an excellent job in this department. For instance, Anne Taylor promoted its social media sites in a recent e-mail marketing campaign. They encouraged customers to visit them on Facebook in order to receive a special offer. The bottom line is that social media, PR, advertising and other campaigns need to be aligned and integrated.
Another example of a company doing it right is Off & Away, a startup offering amazing hotel suites at unheard of prices with Internet auctions. The company was founded by former Amazon.com and travel industry executives, and recently raised Series A funding led by Madrona Venture Group, the venture capital firm behind Amazon.com, Farecast.com (now Bing Travel) and VacationSpot (now a part of Expedia).
The company is doing an outstanding job of leveraging Facebook and Twitter and taking an integrated approach to communications. You’ll see they have had editorial coverage in The New York Times, Condé Nast Traveler, Tech Crunch and several other media outlets.
2. Establish clear ownership. The second rule for leveraging social media to drive buzz is to make sure the right team owns it. We at Communiqué PR believe social media should be owned at a strategic level by the top corporate communications or public relations officer or manager in your organization. Here’s why:
- Corporate communications and PR own the organization’s external communications and oftentimes the overarching positioning. This puts them in an ideal position for understanding how the company brand should behave on social media platforms.
- Social media is about engaging and developing direct one-on-one relationships with individuals. Typically, the PR team is already doing this with many audiences (e.g., journalists, analysts, investors and other influencers). Given this, the team has many of the skills and expertise required to build relationships via Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.
- PR needs to have a direct handle on how the company is perceived. Social media provides immediate access to this information. Thoughtful and well-managed engagement on social media platforms can provide tremendous positive PR for a company.
- PR often owns content that is ideal for sharing on social networks, including news they can break to their online communities.
3. Use SM to Build Relationships. Make sure you are using social media to build relationships with key influencers. Social media can be a terrific way to reach reporters and garner earned media (e.g. editorial coverage).
When Communiqué PR helped Alaska Airlines with the launch of its Wi-Fi service, we tried to reach Ed Baig at USA Today numerous times via e-mail and over the phone – with no luck. Finally, I reached out via Facebook. He responded immediately and we were able to secure a timely and beneficial article for our client.
So each time you do an interview with a journalist or analyst, make sure you take a minute to connect with him or her on Facebook or Twitter. It is a wonderful, fast and effective way to build and maintain relationships with this community.
4. Merchandise Earned Media. You can and should merchandize editorial coverage that you garner for your company on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other places. With more competition between news outlets, journalists appreciate help promoting their articles. And we often find that positive editorial coverage leads to more positive coverage. Think about how print coverage in magazines and newspapers sometimes leads to broadcast coverage.
5. Don’t Forget about Blogs. As you think about the role that social media can play in driving public relations, don’t forget about blogs. Blogs are a good way to publish your own news, written the way you want, about the topics of your choosing, in your own words. They are unedited by reporters or anyone else and you can get your message out quickly to the entire world
Off & Away has a blog and uses it to share news and information about enhancements to its site, comment on travel trends and establish leadership with consumers, journalists, analysts and other writers. Ann Taylor, the clothing retailer, is also going to launch a blog. Its aim is to help readers figure out how to dress for the big interview, share insight into what is inspiring them from books, music and popular culture. As you can imagine, both these blogs will be an excellent repository of information for journalists too.
6. Publicize Unique Activities. If you’re doing something unique or new on social media that may well be news itself; or if you have a unique promotion, you should publicize it with the mainstream media. How do you take the social Web by storm in a day, winning over even the coldest of hearts and gaining international acclaim – with commercials?
A couple of weeks ago, a team of ad executives gathered in Portland, Ore., and produced 87 funny YouTube videos about Old Spice. In real time they leveraged Twitter, Facebook, Reddit and blogs. The videos went viral, and have been viewed millions of times, drawing strong editorial coverage.
At the time of my presentation, more than 240 outlets, including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and many other news outlets, had been written about these videos. In a three-day period, the videos were viewed 52 million times and on Twitter, Old Spice went from 3,000 to 48,000 followers.
It was a sincere honor to have the opportunity to share my ideas with Insight Venture Partners’ portfolio companies.
If you have tips for integrating your social media activities with public relations or other marketing campaigns, I would love to hear from you. Clearly, there are significant changes taking place in the world of marketing.
Recently, we were asked whether activity via social media can drive media coverage. The answer is a resounding yes. While it is important to realize that not all social media activity will drive media coverage, there are times when it makes sense to bolster a viral campaign vis-à-vis traditional media.
There are many ways social media can drive or influence media coverage. A reporter working on a story may become aware of a company that can contribute to that article, or a producer may see a post from a company and determine there is a story worth pursuing.
Social media provides another way for organizations and individuals to develop a thought-leadership platform. Sometimes activity conducted via social media breaks as a viral phenomenon and becomes newsworthy. Consider the United Airlines Breaks Guitars video or the Domino’s Pizza video fiasco. However, with both of these examples the activity created negative impressions and was not driven by companies.
This past week one company, Proctor & Gamble, demonstrated how orchestrated social media activity via YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, was able to drive media coverage for its brand, Old Spice.
To promote a recent new ad campaign, Old Spice worked with Wieden & Kennedy to develop 185 short videos of the Old Spice Man, actor Isaiah Mustafa, responding to questions that had been posed to him via Facebook and Twitter.
Mr. Mustafa, wrapped in a towel, responded to questions from actors including Alyssa Milano (click here to see follow-up videos to Alyssa: video 2, video 3 & video 4) and Demi Moore as well as Ellen DeGeneres, George Stephanopoulos, and many others.
On Thurs., July 15, The New York Times detailed the initial results sharing that over three days the “videos drew more than 5.2 million views on YouTube, where the Old Spice channel was the most viewed on Tuesday, while the brand’s Twitter followers grew to 48,000, from 3,000.” Old Spice was a trending topic on Twitter driving users to check out the videos.
This overwhelming response drove coverage in more than 500 media outlets including The Los Angeles Times, Good Morning America, CBS News, the Christian Science Monitor, Huffington Post, MTV.com, Globe and Mail, USA Today and TIME.
Clearly, what companies do via social media can drive media coverage. So the next time you have a clever viral campaign, don’t forget to publicize it with traditional media.