Building Community:

Turn Your Employees into Brand Champions

Presented by: Deirdre Breakenridge

PR 2.0

PR Builds Community:The Breakdown of ParticipationJeremiah Owyang’s blog, The Web Strategist, discussed a breakdown of Five ways companies let employees participate in the social web:

1.We have no clue – no rules, no guidelines, no resources

2.Shut it down – fearful, protect the company and the employees from liability

3.The corporate representative – only the polished executive can blog

4.Common employees blessed for social media – formal training program with guidelines and best practices

5.Everyone is encouraged to be involved – empower the workforce

You Will Give Your Brand:

• A voice and a persona and transparency

• The ability to communicate directly with employees

• A strong culture and loyal brand ambassadors

• A non-traditional, creative/innovative platform for conversations

• A forum to unmask predispositions/education through the community

• A destination to mold perceptions and a new means to be productive

Building Community:Creating Your Company’s Social Platform

Beware the False Assumptions to Community Building:

• A hosting ground for negative commentary

• PR people as ghost bloggers

• An audience that automatically appears and participates

• An open canvas to “sell” to your audience

• A place to recycle, borrow or plagiarize content

• One more destination with poor content and grammar

• An extension of your newsroom with marketing messages and press releases

Building Community:Creating Your Company’s Social Platform

Building Community: Opportunities & ChallengesConsiderations:

• Service factor: o What are you offering to the communityo What value will you provide and to whom?o How will you be prepared and ready to respond?

• Commitment factor: o What resources will you devote to this effort because silence is not always “golden”o Manage and direct continuous conversations and relationships

Building Community: Opportunities & Challenges

• Participation factor:o Who are your brand evangelists?o How will you reward and recognize participation?

• PR/Marketing factor: o How will you align internal social networking with

overall business goals?o How will you develop actionable enterprise within

the community Increase SM learning and participation – though leadership Research/obtain employee feedback Create innovation through idea sharing Share Leads and/or sales

Building Community: Opportunities & Challenges

• Education factor:o How will you train you employees to use social

media?o What guidelines will you set in place?o What technology will you use to support their

collaboration and to build brand champions?

Building Community: Focus on Challenges

Challenges in your organization:

•Little education on Social Media•Traditional approach to communications•Lack of executive/management buy in•Unclear objectives/goals/uncertain expectations•Who owns social media/where does it belong•No policies and procedures to guide social media communications

Community Community: Where to Start

Take the first steps to be a champion in your organization

•Don’t wait to be assigned tasks•Monitor related discussions outside of work on your own time•Demonstrate the pervasive and prominence of related dialog to your organization•Make “listening” and being the Research Librarian one of your critical objectives

Building Community:

One of the largest challenges:

Culture plays a tremendous role in social communications. The Social Technographics Ladder categorizes people according to how they use social technologies.

PR Builds Community:

PR Builds Community: Social Media requires a Change Management Program:

Change Management means:

Defining and implementing procedures and/or technologies to deal with changes in the business environment and to profit from changing opportunities.

There are 8 steps outlined in John Kotter’s book, “Leading Change.”

PR Builds Community:

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

1. Establish a sense of urgency• You can’t control the brand

or the messages• People will talk whether or

not you want to participate in the conversation

• You need a social media policy or guidelines

• Consider culture, productivity, reputation and champion outreach

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

2. Create a guiding coalition• Organize your group of

change agents.• Find well known and

respected individuals• Help to create action and

understand barriers to change

• Use a cross section of influencers

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

3. Develop a vision and a strategy• You need a social media

plan• Create a roadmap to internal

social media success• Keep everyone focused and

on the same page• Set objectives/goals and

incorporate measurement

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

4. Communicate the change vision• You can never over

communicate• Use social media to

communicate, but also use traditional vehicles

• Keep all of your employees up-to-date and feeling like they are involved in the change effort.

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

5. Empower employees for broad based action• Use your brand champions

to spread the word• Get other employees on

board• Reward and recognize the

employees who participate the most

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

6. Generate short term wins• Share short term wins

w/management team• Secure further buy in from

management team• Squash the naysayers

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

7. Consolidate gains and produce more change• Take your wins and reward

and recognize your social media/brand champions

• Promote employee efforts (highlight their participation in a newsletter, on a blog, a note from an executive

• Use your internal champions to empower other employees to action

PR Builds Community:

Steps to consider:

8. When change has occurred it is anchored in the organization’s culture:

It becomes a legacy and the company continues to reinforce the behavior and engage in the activities long after the tenure of management or the change agents.

PR Builds Community:

You Decide:

1. We have no clue2. Shut it down3. The corporate representative4. The trained common employee5. All involved

When you build the community …

You build brand champions …

And you make the difference!

Any Questions?

Deirdre:

Email: dbreakenridge@pfsmarketwyse.comTwitter: www.twitter.com/dbreakenridgeFacebook: http://profile.to/deirdrebreakenridgeLinkedIn: http://linkedin.com/in/deirdrebreakenridge