HOW SOCIAL MEDIA HAS

CHANGED PR#manship4002Paige Brown

SOCIAL MEDIA: PROMOTION MIX

What is different between traditional “integrated” marketing communications & social media?

(Hint: coordination & Control)

SOCIAL MEDIA IS… CONSUMER-GENERATED MEDIA

Mangold, Faulds, 2009

KEY CHANGES

Consumers are turning more frequently to various types of social media to conduct their information searches and to make their purchasing decisions (Lempert, 2006; Vollmer & Precourt, 2008).

Social media is perceived by consumers as a more trustworthy source of information regarding products and services than corporate-sponsored communications transmitted via the traditional elements of the promotion mix (Foux, 2006).

WHAT IS THE “HYBRID” ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN PR?

In a traditional sense, social media enables companies to talk to their customers… Facebook, blogs…

In a nontraditional sense, it enables customers to talk directly to one another (less control) Conventional marketing wisdom: Dissatisfied customer tells 10 people

New age of social media: dissatisfied customer has tools to tell 10 million people

What can public relations officers do?

Social media also enables customers to talk to companies (market research, 2-way communications)

LOSS OF CONTROL

Public relations personnel have little control over content, timing, and frequency of information

This ‘groundswell’ “has profoundly affected all aspects of consumer behavior, and has bestowed consumers with power they have not previously experience in the marketplace.” (Mangold, Faulds, 2009)

How does this change your strategies as a strategic communicator??

Social media empowers the individual

NEW PR STRATEGIES

- Provide networking platforms to bring people together with other people who have similar interests Forums on your organization website Facebook pages; organized “chats” Dove’s “Campaign for Real Beauty” If you participate in external chats, forums, etc. you must provide full

disclosure of who you work for, what organization you represent

Example: Toyota provides a link from its website to a blog written by a father and son team who have embarked on annual 5,000 mile adventures to the Arctic Circle, Baja Mexico, and other unusual destinations in their Toyota FJ Cruiser (Toyota, 2008a). Readers can respond to each blog by posting their own observations and insights. They can also post their own stories from the road at www.ToyotaOwnersOnline.com.

NEW PR STRATEGIES

- Use blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. to engage customers Encourage feedback (on a

blog, for example) Engage in honest, open

communications

- Engage audiences in photo/video contests, invite audiences to share their own stories; online voting; games

- Have “ask me anything” sessions on your website, Reddit, etc.

NEW PR STRATEGIES

Use social media to: Provide information (“Science Behind the Brands” articles, videos, etc.)

Provide exclusivity (offering special deals to newsletter subscribers, etc.)

Engage audiences’ emotions Talk about the superior price, quality and value of your *product(s)

Support causes that are important to consumers (eco-friendly products / behaviors, etc.)

Tell stories (company stories, customer stories, employee stories, etc.)

EXAMINATION OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN PUBLIC RELATIONS A survey of ~600 public relations practitioners

– what were the key results?

SOCIAL MEDIA & PR TRENDS Social Media: Dykeman (2008) says, “Social media are the means for any person to: publish digital creative content; provide and obtain real-time feedback via online discussions, commentary and evaluations; and incorporate changes or corrections to the original content” (p. 1).

Social Media impact corporate and organizational transparency.

PR people spend 25% or more of their work time with blogs, social media sites, new media.

(Still, a minority of organizations actually measure social media performance & impact.)

PR people consider Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, YouTube, blogs and podcasts most important in their communication and PR efforts.

RESULTS

I TWEET HONESTLY, I TWEET PASSIONATELY “Participants have a sense of audience in every mediated conversation, whether on instant messenger or through blog comments.” – Marwick, Boyd 2010

‘Audience awareness’ factors into your goals, vocabulary, technique, subject matter, etc. when writing online.

Give some examples – who do you imagine your audience to be? On Facebook? On Twitter? On your Blog? On Instagram?

But is this true? Your real audience could be different than your imagined one.

“We may understand that the Twitter or Facebook audience is potentially limitless, but we often act as if it were bounded.” – Marwick, Boyd 2010

TWITTER

Microblogging site

140-character text updates to a network of others

Dynamic, interactive identity presentation

“Self-presentation on Twitter takes place through ongoing ‘tweets’ and conversations with others, rather than static profiles.” – Marwick, Boyd 2010

“The potential diversity of readership on Twitter ruptures the ability to vary self-presentation based on audience, and thus manage discrete impressions.” - Marwick, Boyd 2010

TWITTER CONVERSATIONS @reply lets users target a conversation or reference a particular user, BUT these tweets can be viewed by anyone

The vast majority of Twitter accounts are public. Tweets can be seen through the site, RSS feed, third-party software.

Re-tweets can go even further. Various tools allow users to repost tweets to Facebook, MySpace, and blogs.

STUDY QUESTIONS Who do you imagine reading your tweets? “I guess I’m tweeting to my friends, fans... and talking to myself.” “As an individual (not org or corp) it’s worth it 2 me 2 lose followers 2 maintain the wholeness/integrity of who/what/how I tweet”

“when I tweet, I tweet honestly, I tweet passionately. Pure expression of my heart.”

Who do you tweet to? Users write different tweets to target different people (e.g. audiences). Users with many followers may imagine a broad audience with disparate

tastes “I don’t think any tweet reaches everyone but they all appeal to someone. I try to mix it up.”

Use of hashtags to target different “silos” of audiences

What makes an individual seem authentic on Twitter? “like my stream 1/3 humors, 1/3 informative, 1/3 genial and unfiltered, transparency is so chic. try to tweet the same way.”

“to me, authenticity means being human; tweets include mix of ups, down, personal, professional. v.little robot or corporate speak”

“High honesty about what you’re here for. Don’t pretend to be my friend if you’re here for promotion. (Promo is fine. Lying isn’t.)”

What won’t you tweet about? Users balance the desire to maintain positive impressions with the need to

seem true or authentic to others “anything i’d consider TMI (to spare my followers): family problems, relationship rants, etc. This ain’t FB.”

“bathroom activity, romantic relationships, complaining about an employer”

Depends on the purpose of your twitter account “i’m very conscious that twitter is public. i wouldn’t tweet anything i didn’t want my mother/employer/professor to see”

Balance: Revealing personal information is seen as a marker of authenticity, but is strategically managed and limited.

No hate speech; “try to send messages that will bring people together”

CONCLUSIONS

Twitter appears to encourage “digital intimacy” and reinforce social bonds.

Many individual twitter users value authenticity (maintaining one’s values, not chasing followers).

Twitter is used: as a broadcast medium, marketing channel, diary, social platform, and news source…

Social media combines elements of broadcast media with face-to-face communication: Tweeters maintain impressions by balancing personal/public information, avoiding certain topics, and maintaining authenticity. (self-censorship and balance)

Strategic Twitter users mix together tweets with different target audiences to maintain broad appeal, instead of appealing simultaneously to multiple audiences.