Takeaways from the PR Newswire Social Communications & Content Marketing Forum

Everywhere managing partner, Danica Kombol, along with Debbie Curtis-Magley, Public Relations Manager at UPS and Stephen Brown, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe, Atlanta, were featured on a panel today at the Social Communications & Content Marketing Leadership Forum presented by PR Newswire and the Business Development Institute.

The half-day conference featured case studies of best practices in content sharing, crowd sourcing, customer service and measuring success in social communications and content marketing.

Here are a few takeaways we wanted to share:

On Content:

User-generated content is something that brands are starting to see as very valuable. Crowd sourcing & user generated sharable content will soon be commonplace in the “traditional” marketing world. Danica Kombol mentioned case studies such as Burberry, Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany’s and reminded us that it’s important to note that you don’t have to be a large company to ask customers to submit their content.

On measuring success:

Brands should define social media goals. When a campaign ends compare your hard-data and see if it lines up. That’s how you define success. With traditional marketing you set goals, create tactics to reach those goals, and then measure success. What is so different online?

On Customer Service:

Deb Curtis-Magley reminded us that full transparency with all communications is important. Whoever is responding always signs the comment with their first name. In order to reach that comfort level you must train and empower your staff, know when to respond and when not to respond. Establishing trust with consumers is important. They will stand up for you when your brand has a set back.

Someone asked about handling negative comments on a brand Facebook page or blog. Danica Kombol recommended you state your guidelines visibly on your Facebook page or blog, that way it’s there to back you up if and when comments are vulgar or verbally offensive and need to be taken down.

The future of the press release?

Michael Pranikoff, Global Director, Emerging Media, PR Newswire spoke a little about how the press release is evolving: Use bullet points. Give a shareable shortened URL. Put compelling stats at the top. All tips that I plan to use.

Some Social Stats:

No Social Conference is complete without having a few social stats bandied about. Here are a few of our favorites:

  • Preschool to primary school age moms spend 25% more time online. Stephen Brown pointed out that “moms” are not all the same. Given my experience with mom bloggers I completely agree!
  • Only 78% customers trust peer recommendations on sites (even from strangers) while 14% trust advertisements.
  • The “Average Tweeter” is a 32 year-old male making on average $91k a year.
For tweets from the forum search for #PRNBDI on twitter.

The Starter Kit: What Every Brand Should Have Before ‘Joining the Conversation’

This deck outlines the importance of socializing your business before you jump into the “sexy” or public side of Social Media. Brands know they need to get Social, as we’ve done a pretty good job of advocating the importance of “joining the conversation.” As a result, so much of the internal Social Media dialogue is centered around the tactical. But what far too many overlook before they tweet can easily jeopardize the success of a campaign or worse, the integrity of their brand.

Have you had any experiences with socializing a brand or organization? If so, I’d love to hear your success and/or war stories!

‘Heart of Haiti’ Blogger Trip Video

Check out this video re-cap chronicling our March blogger trip to Haiti led by Willa Shalit and the Fair Winds Trading team. Many thanks to David Lewis for lending his editing talents and Ms. Emeline Michel for granting us permission to use her music.

Enjoy!

Edited by: David Lewis / Music by: Emeline Michel

Ready or Not: Priming Your Organization for Social Media Success

 

I always say that one of the most challenging jobs in the world has got to be that of a Social Media Manager in an organization that hasn’t fully bought into Social (and let’s face it, most still have not). Day after day of roadblocks and dismissals, feeling disconnected and misunderstood but not empowered or “senior enough” to affect any real change.

Many brands have finally gotten to the point where they acknowledge (albeit begrudgingly) that they need “Social” but they have absolutely no idea where to fit it into their existing mix. So they hire some poor soul, often times junior level with no team support, to execute that “Social Media thing” and expect to make miracles happen from the confines of a Twitter account. When they don’t get the results that the “experts” so emphatically promised them, they’ve found one more reason to write off the space as nothing more than fluff.

The truth is, in order for Social to really net results, it requires a total organizational shift that re-defines policy, philosophy, roles and procedures. That kind of change isn’t always easy, however, if done right, it establishes a solid foundation that will inevitably save a brand time, resources and potentially even a crisis or two. Organizations must also resist the temptation to banish Social to it’s own, isolated silo. Social Media simply can’t flourish on it’s own because it’s an extension of nearly every major department inside a company. And all of these separate interests, from Customer Service to Events, need to be integrated into one cohesive Social strategy.

The brilliant Charlene Li and her team at Altimeter have developed a social readiness checklist that any business considering a move into the Social Media space should check out. Their criteria is based on the following principle:

“To be successful using social technologies, companies must prepare and align internal roles, processes, policies and stakeholders with their business objectives. Social business is a profound change that impacts all departments in an organization.”

Central to this profound change must be a renewed commitment by companies to do better by their customers. From entry level to the C-Suite, anyone acting on behalf of a brand must understand this increased responsibility to individual customer engagement. And in order to stay competitive in an increasingly real-time environment, brands have to listen and respond both quickly and appropriately. Add to that the public’s growing demand for transparency and you’re talking change that extends far beyond deciding who will maintain a Facebook page.

Ultimately letting go is a scary proposition for most brands, big or small. But the greater risk lies in a non-committal and reactionary foray into a space that by most accounts, is here to stay.

What are your thoughts on brands’ jumping into the Social space prematurely or without a thoughtful strategy? Any experience as the person charged with Social Media within an organization not quite ready to make the leap? I’d love to hear your war stories!

Stuff Happens. So, Now What?

Three months into 2011 and it may have already earned its title as the year of the social media blunder. First there was the Kenneth Cole debacle when the brand’s founder (allegedly) attempted to equate the “uproar” in Egypt with the excited demand for his new spring collection. Then there was the now infamous f-bomb tweet from @ChryslerAutos made worse by the fact that it insulted the city of Detroit - the same city that just so happened to have a starring role (alongside Eminem) in Chrysler’s recent ‘Imported From Detroit’ campaign. And soon after came the quack heard ’round the world, when former Aflac spokesman Gilbert Godfrey took to his Twitter in an attempt to garner laughs about the tsunami tragedy in Japan, where the insurance giant maintains 70% of it’s business. And as we type, yet another controversy is climbing it’s way to the top of the Trending Topics thanks to a video of GoDaddy CEO killing an endangered elephant for sport that he unabashedly posted on his blog. (sigh).

As expected the Monday morning quarterbacking ensued complete with re-curing reminders that big brands need not have just “anybody” maintaining their social channels and how one foul tweet can all but devastate a brand’s reputation. And while it’s easy to play expert when your brand isn’t smack dab in the middle of said crisis, the reality is, there’s no such thing as an airtight preemptive strategy.

The real deciding factor among winners and losers in crisis management comes down to the actions performed in the hours, days and months AFTER the blunder. So with that, let’s take a quick look at how the brands behind this year’s biggest blunders to date handled their respective aftermaths.

Kenneth Cole

Not surprisingly, the backlash from Kenneth Cole’s Egypt tweet was immediate. And to the brand’s credit they reacted swiftly but with what many considered a lukewarm and even patronizing apology via Twitter. Later the same day, a more sincere version showed up on KC’s Facebook page (which on a separate but puzzling note isn’t easily findable on Facebook because it’s vanity url reads Kenneth Cole Productions). The apology was run of the mill as corporate apologies often are and while it’s safe to say the controversy is largely behind them, could they have taken it a step further and leveraged KC’s foot in the mouth moment for something positive? A respectable donation to an Egyptian based charity coupled with a fundraising drive across Facebook and Twitter would have distracted from the snafu and at minimum resulted in some feel good press. KC quiets any opportunities for further criticism by putting his money where his foot was and something legitimately good comes out of the whole mess. While a donation seems unlikely at this point, hopefully a lesson was learned about the importance of self-checks for basic sensitivity and respect, before hitting the “tweet” button.

Chrysler

Chrysler was also swift to react and many argue a bit too harsh when they let go of their social media agency of record, New Media Strategies, (who prior to their own termination had fired the employee behind that now infamous tweet) just days after the controversy went live. When some initial criticism around Chrysler’s “extreme” reaction began to surface, they went straight to their company blog to defend their decision and also clarified a few misconceptions surrounding the order of things, specifically, that they did not fire the employee, rather NMS did. A few saw irony (and a little hypocrisy) in Chrysler’s handling of the situation and their “partnership’ with Eminem, somebody who (from what I hear) isn’t exactly a stranger to the “f-bomb”. But context is everything, right? And ultimately Chrysler found itself in a classic “damned if you do…” scenario largely influenced by the timing of the “Imported From Detroit” campaign. They had no choice but to reinforce their commitment to the restoration of both the city and the brand, which have now become interchangeable.

AFLAC

“Tasteless”, “Deplorable” “Reprehensible”. Just a few of the choice words used to describe Gilbert Godfrey’s attempt at Tsunami humor. An anonymous commenter put it best when she pointed out that “while Godfrey may have been doing his job as a comedian; as ‘spokesduck’ for AFLAC, he was begging to get fired.” And fired is what he got. Within 48 hours of their veteran spokesman’s tweets, AFLAC announced his termination. They also pledged a $1 million donation to the International Red Cross to support relief efforts in Japan. AND, in just a week, the time it takes for most corporate giants to sign off on an office supply order, AFLAC had launched a multi media supported (including prime time TV spots) talent search for the new voice of Aflac leveraging Facebook and Twitter as the entry points. This demonstrated their commitment to a space that could have easily turned against them not to mention it drove an even bigger wedge between the their trusty mascot and the insignificant voice of that comedian guy. Brilliant, agile and responsibly risky - all in one swift move.

So whats the big takeaway from all this? Put simply, stuff happens. And in a space as free flowing as social media, MORE stuff happens. The good news? It’s likely that as the novelty of the corporate social media blunder wears off, so too will the public’s seemingly insatiable thirst to see an iconic brand do something unbelievably stupid in real time. And more often than not these blunders are either forgiven or altogether forgotten, at least until the next one occurs. The ultimate question marketers should ask themselves is, how prepared is our brand/organization to deal with a blunder before it becomes tomorrow’s crisis?

Please check back next week for Part 2 of this post where we’ll talk about developing an effective Social Media Crisis plan BEFORE a crisis occurs.

The Art (& Law) of Blogger Relations

Relationship building is at the core of what we do at Everywhere. And while every campaign is unique, we swear by these ten, basic principles for blogger relations success.