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How to Leverage Social Media for Public Relations Success
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Transcript of IT Leaders Dr. Tom Seymour Business Information Technology Department College of Business Minot...
How to Leverage Social Mediafor Public Relations Success
IT Leaders
Presenter• Dr. Tom Seymour • Business Information Technology Department• College of Business• Minot State University• Minot, North Dakota• www.minot.com/tom• www.minotstateu.edu
DCN was formed by “fifteen” independent telephone companies in North Dakota who serve 148,000 customers in 244 communities. DCN operates a 100-percent fiber optic communications network linking all regions of the state, including all of the major population centers. The network allows North Dakota customers access to the “telecommunications highway” not only on a state level but also on a national level. DCN utilizes fiber optic networks in adjacent states and Canada to connect North Dakota customers to the world.
ND Telephone Company Model
What is Social Media?
It’s all media that includes a social component
◦ When you share a news story or post a press release with
share functionality
◦ When you post on facebook, twitter, etc.
◦ When you write an article that allows for comments or
comment on an article
◦ When you use a live chat function on a website or leave a
review on Yelp
Nearly every website now has a social
aspect
◦ Take advantage and make your content shareable
The Social Web
• 200 million Twitter users• 900 million+ Facebook
users.• 50% of users log on to
Facebook in any given day• Average FB user has 130
friends. • Social media is critical
in your marketing plan!
The Viral Impact of Social Media
Twit
ter:
Sep
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20
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; Fa
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ook:
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Why engage in Social Media?
Reach New & Younger Audience
Generate Direct Customer Relationships
New Sales and Service Opportunities◦ 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations vs.
14% trust advertisements!
Increase Customer Satisfaction
Mobile is an extension of Social Media!◦ 10.5% of all Social Media usage is on a mobile
device! use social media on their mobile devices!http://www.jeffbullas.com/2010/08/05/latest-research-reveals-social-media-usage-up-43/
Where your customers are!
Where Should I Be?
What are my customers using? Facebook
◦ More than 135 million users in US
◦ Avg. users spends 6 hours each month
◦ Fastest growing demographic is 55+
◦ Avg. user is a fan of 8.7 brands
#1 reason to fan a brand is to receive promotions*
# 2 reason to fan a brand is show brand support*Information taken from 2010 Exact Target Facebook Report
What you need to know about Facebook
EdgeRank – refers to how likely your content is
to appear in a user’s “top news”
Insights – The analytics collected about your
fan page – very important to crafting message
North Social – A cost-effective suite of apps
that enhance your page across multiple media
What are my customers using?
◦ 200 million worldwide users
◦ Will show up in searches
◦ Easy way to syndicate content
◦ Main users are early adopters and opinion leaders
Information spreads beyond twitter
◦ Can instantly view conversation about your
company
What You Need to Know About Twitter
Search Engine Optimization – Use your
keywords in your tweets
Timing – Average half-life of a tweet is 4
minutes. It’s OK to share the same link several
times. (just vary content and wait several
hours)
Clients – Programs like HootSuite, Seesmic and
Tweetdeck make managing twitter easy
What are my customers using? YouTube
◦ More than 2 billion views each day
◦ Syndicated to facebook, linked through twitter
and embedded in websites and blogs
◦ Easy to create and upload
◦ Very easy to share
What You Need to Know About YouTube
YouTube is owned by Google – Videos are great
for Search Engine Optimization
Users expect videos to be authentic – Don’t worry
about content being “perfect”
Easily embedded – Place into your facebook
page, blog, etc.
What are my customers using?
Blogs
◦ Blogs are a great way to enhance your brand
◦ Tell your story
◦ Provide added value for your customers –
answers to frequently-asked-questions
◦ Push this content to all of your other social sites
What you need to know about blogs
Host Sites – Many companies use outside sites
such as wordpress, blogger, posterous or tumblr
Add share buttons – Everywhere
Links – Make sure that links to and from your
website are easy to find
Integrate – Place links to your other sites into
your blog
What are my customers using?
◦ Great for B2B outreach
◦ Can add products and services with full social
media support
◦ Let company’s find your services
◦ Position company as a thought leader
What You Need to Know About LinkedIn
Promote – You can add all of your Products
and Services to your company profile
Take Control – Any employee with a
@yourdomain email address can edit the
page until you lock it down.
Find content – Telecommunications section of
LinkedIn Today
What are customers using?
Google and Bing
◦ Search Engine Optimization – how do you rank?
◦ Google and Bing account for 95% of all search
traffic*
Google Analytics (free) can report your company’s
search engine use percentages
◦ Social Search – Friends social actions affect
search rankings Information taken from Mashable April, 2011 report
What You Need to Know About Google and Bing
Search is Social -
◦ Social Media and Search Engine Optimization go
hand-in-hand
◦ The more content you develop across the web,
the more chances you have to be ranked
◦ The more your content is shared, the more
valuable it looks to search engines
Know Your Roles!
How Do I Use Social Media?
The Many Roles of Social Media
Customer Communications
Engagement Tool
Listening Tool
Media Relations
Brand Management
Listening Tool
Google Alerts – Allows you to capture any
conversation about your company or other
keywords online
Provide places for customers to give feedback
◦ Twitter – create a unique hashtag for product launches
or other promotions
◦ Offer review or discussions tab on Facebook
◦ Review Sites – see what customers think about your
business (yelp, Google places)
Find Out Where You Are Now You must understand your current efforts!
◦ What are you currently doing in Social Media?
Create a baseline for your social media efforts and benchmarks!
What accounts does your business have?
Are they the appropriate type?◦ Facebook Fan Pages NOT PERSONAL PROFILES
◦ Twitter Accounts◦ LinkedIn Profiles◦ Foursquare / Locations Pages
Customer Engagement
Join conversations
◦ #hashtags allow users to have a conversation over
◦ Review blogs that relate to your industry – Alltop.com
◦ Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Seesmic all allow for easy
monitoring of social sites
Ask questions
◦ Customers love feeling valued
Media Relations Make your press releases easy to find and
share
Syndicate press releases through your own
channels
Take advantage of wire services with share
features
◦ Businesswire, PR Wire, PR Log
Media Relations The Social Media Press Room
◦ Have share buttons for all press releases
◦ Add your press releases as individual web pages
rather than PDF’s for greater searchability
◦ Include links to any images, videos or other
collateral
◦ Have shareable versions of all company fact
sheets, logos, and bios.
Brand Management Social Media has no gatekeeper Produce content that shows your brand’s
personality Ex: New Ford Focus Campaign
Know Your Social Reputation What are people saying about
you online?◦ Do you know?
Develop a strategy to overcome bad reviews on social media and engage those with positive feedback!
A few bad reviews can turn people away from your business!◦ Customers can broadcast their sales and service experiences
quickly and easily.◦ Who is monitoring what is being said publicly about your
brand everyday?
Focus Your Message & Strategy
What Do I Have to Say?
How to determine your strategy
How much time can you devote?
Who will “own” the social media
channels?
What are your goals?
Where are your customers?
Create Compelling Content
Content is key to your social strategy
◦ Give customers a reason to return to your social
channels
◦ Review what type of content is popular
What’s the difference?
Type: photo, link, video
Content: community focused, product driven
Timing: early morning vs. afternoon
How do you develop content?
Content Calendars
◦ Easy as an excel spreadsheet or email
calendar
Determine how often you want to update each
channel
Facebook: 1-2 times a day
Twitter: 3-4 times a day
Blog: 2-3 times a week
YouTube: 1 time every two weeks
How do you develop content?
Determine what you want to talk about
◦ Divide content into topics
Promotions
Community focused
Value added – additional info customers are
seeking
◦ Will you need images, video, links?
Posts with these items are shareable on facebook
How do you develop content?
Ideas for content
◦ Photos from events
◦ Video of employees talking about company
Especially C-suite
◦ New campaigns
◦ Interesting links relating to your products and services
◦ Questions
Get every department involved in the brainstorming
process!
Your Social Media Policy
Develop a social media policy for your sites:
Does This Help Us Make Money?
The ROI of Social Media
Social Media Goals◦ Facebook Fans, Twitter Followers, etc
Engagement◦ Twitter Retweets◦ Facebook Comments and Likes◦ Referral Traffic to websites
Revenue = Results◦ New customers◦ Sales tied to Social Media
Set Goals and Measure Results
Driving Sales With Social MediaMedium How to use it for sales
Facebook Create awareness
Scoutmob, Groupon (costs money)
Drive foot traffic or couponing in local areas
Twitter Lead generation through following, direct messages on promotions, create awareness
LinkedIn Drive inquiries through discussion posts, event posts, and article posts
YouTube Drive awareness and higher search rankings
http://mashable.com/
Find Competitive Advantages Maintain Monthly Counts of Facebook Fans
and Twitter Followers of your competition.
What are they doing well?
How can you do it better?
Identify competitor growth on a monthly basis!◦ What are they doing to grow their audiences?
Set a goal to become the local market leader!
What’s An App?
• An “App” (short for application) is a program on a phone or other device that does a certain job.
• Many types such as games, productivity apps, organization apps etc.
• Range in price from free-to high dollar prices.
Android Applications
Ipad apps are available from Apple's online app store, which can be downloaded directly from the Ipad. There's virtually an app for every category. And more are added every day
Business
Entertainment
Educational
Social Networking
Travel
& More!
IPAD APPS
Case Studies Let’s look at real world examples
How was Social Media Used? Case Study: Great Plains Communications
◦ Awareness Campaign
◦ Brand Management
◦ Search Engine Optimization
◦ Listening Tool
Case Study – Great Plains Communications Situation
◦ No social media presence until September 2010
Goals
◦ Wanted to increase search engine rankings –
differentiate from similarly named company
◦ Provide customers with additional tools to engage with
company
◦ Increase channels customers have for finding
information
Case Study – Great Plains Communications
Solution
◦ Integrated set of branded channels including
GPC-Blog
YouTube
Case Study: Great Plains Communications
◦ 200 fans with an average of 10,000 post
views/month
◦ Helps drive traffic back to blog and website
Top referring site to GPC-Blog
◦ Provides area for customer engagement
◦ Ads drove 27% of traffic for recent HD launch with
a price tag of $65
Case Study: Great Plains Communications
YouTube
◦ 2,500 views
◦ FAQ’s received strong feedback
◦ Used for Video Contest
No video formatting issues
Videos received 3,000 views independent of channel
views (within 6 weeks period)
Case Study: Great Plains Communications
Blog
◦ GPC-FLASH – with frog icon
◦ Provides mix of product news,
community spotlights, helpful tips and tricks
◦ Includes FAQ tutorial videos
◦ Used as informational site for customers and
employees
Case Study: Great Plains Communications
◦ Products and Services added
◦ Encouraged employees to be active on related
LinkedIn groups
◦ Had “photo day” to increase employees with
full profiles
Case Study: Great Plains Communications
Results
◦ Top place page rankings for brand on Google and
Bing
◦ Facebook has 200 fans and counting
◦ CRC now uses blog as consistent learning tool and
refer customers to social sites
◦ Blog has been syndicated internationally
SRT Web site in Minot, ND
Facebook Page
YouTube Channel
What do I do now?
Keys To Success
Live it! If you don’t have a personal Twitter, Facebook
or FourSquare account – create one now!◦ Unless you are a social media user it will be
difficult to see the opportunities.
Follow other sources on Facebook and Twitter.◦ Study how they are interacting with their readers.
Blogs – either related to your business or not National Manufacturer Websites
Manufacturers like Ford are getting very involved in Social Media!
Get help when needed Sound like a lot of work?
◦ Getting started is the hardest step.◦ It will quickly become part of your core strategy.
Look for a Social Media partner that can grow audience and manage content.
Two primary options for moving forward:◦ Hire an expert internally.◦ Source social media from a firm specializing in
engagement.
Commitment and Consistency is Key
Social Media requires daily involvement!
Empower appropriate staff members to manage accounts.◦ Teamwork makes it easier.
Establish Content Guidelines.◦ We have a sample set of Social Media guidelines to provide
you with a starting point.◦ Do what you feel is right for your market and audience.
• Customers want a conversation that adds value.◦ Conversation◦ Responsiveness◦ Answer questions and be a resource to your social media
audience.
Promote your efforts! Facebook Fan Box on Website
◦ Allows for readers to “Like” your inventory!
Allow sharing of content on Social Networksfrom inventory pages.
Promote using integrated assets: Advertising / In-Store / Web / Email / POS /Etc. should all work together.
Online contests are successful audience drivers!◦ Play by Facebook’s rules or risk being banned!
Key Takeaways It’s all the social web
Determine your goals before you start
your social campaign
Create content calendars for all channels
Use the content you create across as
many channels as possible
MEASURE RESULTS!
Social Protection Tools
www.cotweet.com – view employee tweets and
manage multiple corporate Twitter accounts
www.faceinfected.com – Extract dubious links,
messages, and Wall posts from Facebook
Tweetwax.com – Clear and Organize messages
uPotect.it – Use this beta plug-in to post
protected status updates and comments on
Combine + Conquer or Risk Losing to Those Who Do
Blogs + Blogging
Comment Marketing
News/Media/PRSEO
Social Networks
Word of Mouth
Q+A Sites
Forums
Online Video
Podcasting
Webinars
Research/White Papers
Infographics
Social Bookmarking
INBOUND MARKETING!(Find Your Audience Organically on the Web)
Direct/Referring Links
Type-In Traffic
Document Sharing
Google + 7 Years to Develop
THE ADVENT OF
MOBILE Devices and
Social Media
