my 2 cents

Who should "own" Social Media?

 

Here's something to add to the continuing discussion regarding where responsibility for social media should lie in the corporate organization chart.  It's been an ongoing battle between marketing, PR and advertising, with some adding customer relations into the mix.

A survey by The Creative Group, reported in MediaPost a few days ago, adds some fuel to the fire.  The survey of marketing and ad executives shows that 39 percent of them feel social media outreach belongs under the purview of the communications/PR department.  Thirty-five percent say it should reside in the marketing dept., and 15 percent feel it should be assigned to the customer relations dept.  Five percent felt it should be a direct responsibility of the CEO.

MediaPost writer Erik Sass adds his own opinion that social media should be the responsibility of all the departments mentioned above.

In theory, he's right.  But in real-world practice, one person or one department needs to have day-to-day responsibility for the organization's social media outreach and dialogue.

My vote is for the PR department. 

The PR discipline is supposed to be sensitive to the impact and tone of communications.  The PR person or PR department is supposed to be most adept at putting ideas into words that explain, motivate or convince an intended audience.  If that audience happens to be reached via social media, the tool that is utilized is still words, or in some cases words and pictures or video.  But it's all based on the written word, which is what we in Public Relations are supposed to best at.

The PR person can't -- and shouldn't -- work in a vacuum, though.  That's where all the other departments come in.  Guidelines should be established based on input from the marketing and advertising folks, the customer service people, the lawyers (ugh) and possibly even the CEO as well.  But implementation and day-to-day dialogue via social media should be under the guidance of the PR people.

There should be protocols established so predetermined actions can be taken if a problem or firestorm erupts online, as we've seen happen.  That's when it might be necessary to have group decisions made regarding content and wording. 

But everyday communications via social media should be, in my opinion, handled and overseen by the PR people.  They're the ones who should be most adept at a company's communications with the world beyond the boardroom.

 

 

Where we use our smartphones ... Not only in the car

 

One of the areas of specialization in my Public Relations practice is traffic safety.  I've been working in this segment of PR for more than 20 years, since I organized and publicized the first World Traffic Safety Symposium for the New York Auto Show.

The Auto Show work led to a contract for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and then the National Road Safety Foundation, a non-profit that produces safe driving educational programs and distributes them free to schools, police and individuals.  I've also done work for companies that market traffic safety-related products including one I recently started with -- a just-launched cellphone app called LifeSaver that prevents the user from texting and driving.

I know how big and important an issue texting and distraction is.  It's up there as one of the top causes of traffic crashes... just behind impairment. 

A recent Forrester Research study shows that 68 percent of us access the internet from our cars.  Hopefully, not all are driving when they do that, but it's easy to see what a big danger cellphones have become for those of us on the road.

The survey also shows that 64 percent go online via mobile devices in our living rooms; 63 percent in restaurants; 61 percent in the bedroom; 51 percent in the kitchen; 50 percent in the bathroom; 45 percent on public transit.

The restaurant figure shows how addicted we've become to being connected.  We've all been in restaurants where you'll see a group of people at a table -- all looking down at their phones instead of engaging in conversation with their tablemates.  As for the bathroom statistic -- well, I guess going online is yet another way to be productive in the bathroom.  Talk about multi-tasking!

George Simpson, who writes for Media Daily News, has a good column on the subject.  It'll give you a chuckle as you scratch your head and wonder... "What are we becoming?"  Or as Simpson headlines his column:  "Sure signs that society is starting to crumble."

 

 

Govt. to take a closer look at "sponsored content"

 

One of the new "big things" of the past few years is content marketing, which includes sponsored content.

Content marketing isn't anything new in the world of PR.  It's just another name for one of the things we do -- generate exposure for clients in the media.  In PR, we generally don't pay to have our content run.  Instead, it's our challenge to take the information our client wants us to promote and make it worthy of being used on its own merits as information or news that our target audience may find useful.  To succeed, we need to think like a combination of a marketer and a journalist.

Sponsored content, on the other hand, is often material that's used because a sponsor is paying for it to appear.  In newspapers and magazines, paid content that is made to look like it's part of the publication is usually called an advertorial, and any reputable publication will clearly indicate to readers that it is paid for an ad or advertorial.

On TV, they're called infomercials... long-form ads that are made to look like reak TV programming, often simulating a talk show or interview format.  On TV, such content marketing is also clearly marked as paid programming.

The internet, however, is a whole different story. It's still the wild west online.  There's no big capital outlay for printing presses or TV transmitters and no license needed to broadcast over the public airwaves.  Anyone with a computer can create a site online.  Anyone with a computer can use social media to promote products for pay.

On many sites, the lines have become quite blurred between legitimate content and sponsored content. So-called mommy bloggers were big on crossing the line, although most have cleaned up their act in recent years.  But it's happening enough that the government is stepping in. 

The Federal Trade Commission has had some nonbinding guidelines regarding sponsored content, but enough marketers are crossing the line so that the FTC is convening a workshop in December to begin taking a closer look.  The workshop will bring together ad people, publishers, consumer advocates and government regulators, and hopefully they'll be able to come up with a plan that can put a stop to abusive content marketing practices. 

The key here is that anything that's been paid to be online should be clearly identified as paid content.  It's the right thing to do so the public can trust what they read and see in the media, whether on TV, in print or online.

An interesting aside here is the potential impact on public relations.  Tighter controls over identifying sponsored content may create more opportunities for marketers to turn to PR to get their message out there. 

 

Jimmy Kimmel Teaches Us a Lesson

 

You probably know the old warning about not believing everything you see online.  I'm a firm supporter of that skepticism. 

It's easy to doctor articles so they look real.  Anyone can post a bogus news release.  And how many emails do we all get from well-meaning friends who forward things that have been forwarded dozens of times to the point where it's hard to see where it originally came from?  And how trustworthy is the original source...IF that's really the original source.

Social media has a place in the newsgathering process, since it allows media (and we news consumers) to get news as it's happening.  An example is the terror attack in Mumbai a few years ago, where information was sketchy.  A reporter for The New York Times was on site and his Twitter updates kept us informed.  But there were many other tweets online, and it's hard to know which, if any, were authentic or accurate.

So the joke Jimmy Kimmel played recently should teach us a lesson about relying on social media for news and information, and it should make us question a bit more closely the authenticity of what we read and see online.

In a monologue sevberal weeks ago, Kimmel talked about a video he saw on YouTube showing a young woman twerking (dancing) and accidentally setting herself on fire.  He showed the clip that night and made no further references to it after that.

After the Miley Cyrus twerking debacle on the MTV music video awards show two weeks ago, the YouTube clip started getting lots of views as people did YouTube searches for "twerking."

Then, a few nights ago, Kimmel mentioned how the clip had more than 10 million views and had been picked up by major news organizations including most of the network news shows and dozens of newscasts on local TV stations.  He then did a Skype interview with the woman in the clip, only to reveal midway through the interview that the woman -- a professional stuntwoman -- was actually behind the curtain on Kimmel's stage.  The interview and the original clip had been staged as a really funny bit on Kimmel's late night show.  And he mockingly referred to all the news coverage the original clip had received.

Some are miffed with Kimmel for pulling the wool over the public's eyes as a way to get more publicity for himself, but I have no problem with it.  The fault really lies with the media who simply pulled a funny video off of YouTube and ran it without looking into its authenticity.

Maybe it's a lesson that the media and the public should be cautious about what they take as real and accurate when it's on social media.

Links to the original clip and Kimmel revealing the hoax are here, in a TV Week story.

 

 

Flavor of the Day

 

As we all remember from our own teen years of those of our children, fads and favorites among young people come and go at a moment's notice.  The same may be said about fads and favorites in the world of consumer technology and, in particular, social media.

Who remembers MySpace?  That was THE big thing for young people.  Now, it seems to be used mainly by some musicians and others in the arts.  But for most teens, the mention of My Space would probably draw the same blank stare as if you mentioned 45's.

So I might add a grain of salt or two to the new report from Pew Internet that says teens have "waning enthusiasm" for Facebook and that they're spending more time on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.

One reason they say they're not as active on Facebook is because that platform has become popular with adults.  It's not cool for kids to be hanging out in the same space as their parents, after all. OMG, how embarrassing!

Another reason they're moving away from Facebook is because there's too much sharing of teen drama and inane things like "what I ate for dinner."  Really?  Have they looked at most of the tweets on Twitter, including those posted by adults?

Pew says 94 percent of teens active on social media are on Facebook, which is unchanged from a year ago.  Twenty-six percent are on Twitter, which is more than twice the amount a year ago.

The study shows that teens are being a bit more careful about sharing their personal information, which is good.

But I'm not sure what these numbers mean, since they could be totally different a year from now when teens discover the next big thing online. 

 

Content Marketing Creates Opportunities for PR and Journalists

 

It's all about content now.

With social media opening new ways for marketers to reach out and connect with consumers directly, a key to effective social media outreach becomes the content itself.  Self-serving hard-sell material doesn't seem to be what works best on social media platforms. 

For content marketing to work, what marketers put out there -- regardless whether on digital platforms or via traditional media -- must draw people in and keep them coming back for more.  To do that, the material being offered needs to be interesting and relevant to the intended audience, and not simply a blatant sales pitch.  The "sales" part of it will kick in by gradually getting the audience to trust your brand and rely on it for good information.

It's the type of writing that Public Relations people are trained to do.  It mixes journalism and marketing, with the selling part very subtle, if there at all. 

The increasing focus on content marketing is creating new opportunities for PR agencies, freelancers and laid-off journalists. 

It's a whole new world.

 

Image:  Forbes Magazine

Content Marketing Challenges

 

A new survey from my friends at MarketingProfs, where I'm a contributing writer, shows most B2C marketers now use content marketing, even as they continue to be challenged by determining the effectiveness of their efforts. 

Eighty-six percent said they are now using various forms of content marketing to reach consumers.

Social media and websites are the most commonly-used platforms, with 84% of respondents saying they utilize them.  E-newsletters follow close behind, with 78% and online videos and blogs round out the top five at 70% and 69% respectively.

Content marketing is here to stay, but the biggest challenge, after "lack of sufficient budget," is producing enough content and creating content that engages the target audience. Just having content out there doesn't do much good if it doesn't get read or doesn't move people to take some form of action.

That's where good PR people (note, I said "good") should be utilized by marketers.  It's always been a role of PR practitioners to take marketing messages and craft them into engaging content.  That's what we do when we draft a news release or a feature article or a speech.  When we pitch a story or segment idea, or when we script a video or write a blog post or newsletter, we've got to make it interesting enough to get read or viewed and compelling enough to help create a desired response -- buying a product or service, understanding or agreeing with a position on a issue.

PR people are trained or learn from experience to walk the fine line between the blatant, hardcore sales messages of advertising and informative unbiased journalism.  It's that combination, leaning a bit toward the unbiased journalism part of the equation, that enables PR results to have a credibility that advertising usually just doesn't achieve.

So it makes sense that the PR function should be involved in the content marketing task.  It should, of course, be a collaborative effort, coordinating with marketing, advertising and sales.  But PR should be given a very strong, if not decisive, voice in the process to ensure the content in content marketing doesn't get diluted to the point of ineffectiveness by the other marketing and management disciplines.

It will take an enlightened and trusting top management to put such a structure into place and enforce it, but it should pay off in terms of producing and disseminating solid content that attracts attention and engages in an effective way.

 

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An Ongoing Marketing Challenge: Harnessing Social Media

 

Marketers have long recognized the tremendous opportunities presented by social media.  In theory, it can enable them to laser-target their messages, be timely and engage in almost a one-on-one relationship with customers and prospects.

In theory... that's the key phrase that's been tricky for so many marketers to get past.  Theory doesn't always seem to match up with reality.

This is proven by a recent survey of consumers in the U.S., U.K., Australia, France and Germany.  It shows that 65% of respondents said they would stop using a brand if it annoyed them on a social media site. Forty percent said they would be annoyed by receiving messages from a brand they haven’t followed. And even among those who follow a brand, only 48% said they felt positive about receiving marketing messages.  That means more than half don't want to be bothered by blatant marketing messages.

The survey bears out what we already suspected, that social media is a good and accepted source of word-of-mouth recommendations.  Sixty-eight percent of consumers say they've investigated a product recommended by friend online, and 15% actually made a purchase based on an online recommendation.

The challenge for marketers is how to engage and get across marketing information without turning people off online.  We've come to accept ads and other marketing messages on many media platforms like TV, radio, newspapers and magazines, and even online sites like YouTube and Vimeo, where we've learned to sit through the 15-second pre-roll ad before we can see the video we really clicked to see.

But social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have a more personal feel to them, where an ad or marketing message can feel like an unwelcome intrusion ... almost an invasion of privacy. 

I don't think there's a one-size-fits-all solution to this challenge, but some marketers might be able to overcome possible negative feelings if they carefully -- very carefully -- temper what they say and how often they say it via social media.  The trick is to provide useful information --useful to your consumer, not necessarily useful to you the marketer.  And do it only when it's really appropriate.  Too much can be a turnoff, even to loyal customers.  At first, it can be just an annoyance.  But keep peppering people with messages and they may eventually "unfollow" or "unlike you." 

Each marketer must find the mix of messages and frequency that works for their customers -- emphasis is on "works for their customers" and not on what works for the marketer.  It's a slippery slope, for sure, and it's not for everyone.

 

 

 

social media is a popular source of word-of-mouth recommendations, with 68%  of consumers saying they had investigated a product recommended by friend online, and 15% actually making a purchase based on an online recommendation.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/187775/consumers-punish-brands-which-annoy-them-on-social.html#ixzz2D448cajc

found 65% of respondents said they would stop using a brand if it annoyed them on a social media site. Forty percent of consumers said they would be annoyed by receiving messages from a brand they haven’t followed . And, even when they’ve followed the brand, only 48% said they felt positive about receiving marketing messages.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/187775/consumers-punish-brands-which-annoy-them-on-social.html#ixzz2D43C8LwY

found 65% of respondents said they would stop using a brand if it annoyed them on a social media site. Forty percent of consumers said they would be annoyed by receiving messages from a brand they haven’t followed . And, even when they’ve followed the brand, only 48% said they felt positive about receiving marketing messages.

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/187775/consumers-punish-brands-which-annoy-them-on-social.html#ixzz2D43C8LwY

 

Millennials and the News

 

 

MediaPost reported on a survey they conducted which asked Millennials (ages 14 - 34) how they access the news.  The results are interesting.

TV is still tops with young people, with 73 percent saying they rely on TV to keep up with the news.

A close second, which shouldn't be surprising, is Facebook, with 67 percent saying they regularly check FB to see what's happening.  Twitter keeps about a third of young people informed, the survey found.

The survey didn't differentiate whether those who rely on social media follow the FB pages and tweets of legitimate news sources, or if they rely on links, re-tweets or paraphrasing from their social media "friends."  Where they get their news on FB or Twitter can make a difference in the accuracy of what they're seeing, and that should be of concern.  We know how easy it is to manipulate what gets re-posted.

While social media enables us to select our own news content based on our interests and those of our friends, it also risks giving us a narrowly-focussed slant on what's happening in the world.

Watch TV news or thumb through a newspaper and you'll, hopefully, get a broad view of what's going on.  Or, at least, it's there if you want it.

So while it's great that young people want to know what's happening in the news, it's important that they get their information from sources that provide a broad and reliable perspective.  FB and Twitter may not always be the best sources for that broad and reliable view.

 

Other Voices: Seasonal-themed Facebook Campaign

We open this space from time to time to others, to get a variety of ideas and views.  This post is written by Stan Johnson, who works as a freelance writer for Qwaya, a Facebook ad manager tool.  She writes about social media trends and strategies.

 

People who use Facebook for business realize that one of the good things about this medium is that you can constantly change your page based on any number of factors. Just using the calendar as a reference, you could find hundreds of different occasions to change to a new theme.  On a big holiday like Halloween, you might want to attract more fans by creating a themed page, post or app.

Sears, Mike’s Hard Lemonade, Progressive Insurance and a wide assortment of other brands have used a Halloween theme, and they’ve all proven very popular.

Here are some tips that may help you theme your FB page for Halloween.

Find True Seasonal Influence

Focus less on the technical history of the holiday and more on what it’s become in the land of commercialization. Halloween not only means dressing up, candy and spooky creatures, but also encompasses more adult-based activities like parties and food and cocktail recipes. So you have an incredibly wide range of influences to select from. Don’t settle on something as overused as a vampire or zombie (unless you can add your creativity to it); draw your Halloween influence from a unique corner of the genre and work to create an exclusive theme.

Give Technology a Whirl

Some of the best themes out there use technology via applications. For instance, an app that allowed for regular pictures to be turned into zombies was big for one company, while a game full of pumpkins was big for another. Don’t be afraid to let your creativity shine through with the use of technology. Apps are easy to create, and delivering something Halloween-based can put you on par with the big players.

Research the Competition

You want to ensure that you use parity, not plagiarism. Look at your competition, direct and indirect, to see what they’re doing.  While you can use them for inspiration while also referencing their methods, avoid copying anything directly. If they’re using a regular post, make an app. If they have a cool way to encourage sign-ups, do them one better and offer more incentive.

Don’t Scare People Away

There’s a side of Halloween that’s very dark. Unless you’re catering to this niche in some fashion, try to avoid that side of the season and air more on the side of whimsical. You can still go a bit gruesome while keeping it wholesome. You’ll just have to focus more on caricatures than characters. Whether it’s Facebook ads, a page post, a download app, etc, keep it light. You don’t want to go to the dark side and alienate your base. People-friendly images, videos and apps. That’s what you want.

Creating a themed page can be quite easy or it can be very difficult. It all depends on how you personally approach the subject. For Halloween, remember to find your influence while keeping things original and playful. Appeal to a mass audience during this season.