A case for going social

No matter where you are at in your thinking about social media, if you’re not at least considering going social, you’re missing out on a lot of marketing opportunity. That doesn’t mean you have to or should go social tomorrow, but at some point you will or you’ll pay the price through missed opportunity. Here are three reasons to go social:

1. People, a lot of people, spend their time, a lot of time, there. Whether you like it or not, your company’s messages are competing with the millions of messages customers see every day, even if those messages aren’t from your competitors. Their attention is simply drawn to messages that resonate with them personally and professionally. According to a Pew Research Center study, 67% of American Internet users are on Facebook. And according to a Nielsen report, American Internet users spend more time on Facebook than any other Internet brand. Being there just makes sense if you can find a way.
2. Social media is becoming a primary communication medium. People use their Facebook accounts and LinkedIn accounts as some old-school executives would use their rolodexes. And in some cases people only communicate via Facebook. It has even replaced email for some people. That means it’s stealing eyeballs from your email marketing campaigns – not in huge quantities right now, but it’s going to get larger. Being there will help you offset some of that loss. And your organization will learn how to use social media effectively as it continues to grow.
3. If there is one department in your organization that you don’t want to become stagnant or behind the times, it’s your marketing department. Marketing has and always will be the place where you find vision into the future. Sure, part of it is because you have so many creative types there who aren’t working nose to the grindstone on some spreadsheet. But it’s mostly because they have to anticipate customer trends before they hit or they can expect a call from the c-suite asking them why customers are going to the competitor more often than their organization. They have to be ahead of the times, constantly trying to find the next big thing. Social media is where they’re going to find it today. It’s where your customers are and, if nothing else, it’s a place to listen to what they have to say about you. And they’ll say a lot once you put the page up. That’s a guarantee.

These are just a few reasons to go social. There are many more. But there are reasons not to go social as well. I'll share those in tomorrow's post. Jakel Communications can help you navigate the social media world. Contact us today!

Stop, think, strategize before implementing social media

So you’ve decided that you need to be in social media. The tendency is jump on it and create the Facebook page and the Twitter account right now. 

It’s easy, so why not.

Hold on. As they say, anything that’s worth doing is difficult. If social media were that easy, it wouldn’t be worth doing. Either you need to re-evaluate your reasons for jumping into social or you need to back up and consider the strategy first.

Here’s how I look at social media and the steps I would take in developing a social media presence. (Of course, there are a lot of ways to do this, but this is my preferred method.)

1. Determine what you want to accomplish that might involve social media. The “might” is key. It is always possible that social media isn’t the best tool to use. If it isn’t the right tool or a supporting tool, don’t use it and wait until it is the right tool before you implement a strategy. I say this because there are still a lot of skeptics at the executive level and you don’t want your first foray into social media to be a failure. You want it to be successful.
2. Look at your overall business goals and write out how social media fits into those business goals. Even if you’re not the CEO, this is an important step. If social media is going to work for you, you have to see its value in the grand scheme of things.
3. Craft a social media strategy. The strategy must, absolutely must, refer to your overall business objectives. If it does not, the strategy will be nothing more than a science project. The goals you write into the strategy should support the overall business goals.
4. Double, triple, quadruple check that you can implement the strategy with minimal resources. Social media activities can quickly consume the time and energy of your people, and you are rarely allowed to hire a social media guru, especially when you get started. You have to prove the case.
5. Take baby steps toward implementation. It’s normal for any strategy involving a shiny new tool to be grandiose in nature. If you’re a visionary person like me, you might believe that it could reshape the entire organization. Take a step back from that and implement it in bite-sized chunks, testing one small element of the strategy at a time. This will help you find the social media groove that works for your organization. Over time, it will slowly become an important brick in the foundation of your marketing efforts. 

That’s the magic of slowly integrating social media into your efforts through strategy rather than tactics. If you throw everything at social media too fast, it becomes an organization fad, something we tried once that didn’t work. The only reason it didn’t work was because you threw everything at it.

Like any new technology or medium, especially those that are evolving fast, there isn’t enough information to create the perfect roadmap that works for every company. Throwing everything at it in this one grand promotional scheme introduces way too many variables, so many that nobody will be able to pinpoint why it didn’t work. Instead, they’ll throw the entire thing out the window – the baby with the bath water.

Again, this is easier said than done, so you might want to hire a professional just to get you started. Jakel Communications can help. Contact our Colorado public relations firm today!

Let's talk social media

You can hardly go to a conference as a PR or marketing professional that isn’t dominated by discussions about social media. You generally have two camps in attendance – the skeptics and the believers.

The believers are often the speakers and the first few rows of people in attendance. The rest are the skeptics sitting in the back rolling their eyes and asking, “How is this going to produce real ROI? My executives will not give me the resources to maintain 175 Facebook pages and 175 Twitter accounts without proof that it's going to produce a significant return.”

Which camp am I in? I’m standing outside the meeting room, wondering when people will realize that the answer to social isn’t yay or nay. The real answer is – it depends.

It depends on what you want to achieve. Just like every other tool we use in marketing and PR, social media isn’t the magic bullet. There are no magic bullets.

Social media is a tool that can help you achieve certain objectives and the best way to start using it is to have an objective you can achieve partially through social media. Starting any other way will only lead to frustration and failure.

For example, if your objective is to sell more product, lease more apartments or sign more contracts without giving any discounts, social media might not necessarily help you meet your objective. At least not in a direct, immediate fashion.

But if your objective is to raise awareness of your product or brand, create word-of-mouth brand buzz or engage your customers in a more personal way, then it can and will help you do so with the right strategy. (Of course, if you have these objectives, you believe the result will be more revenue and profit. It’s just a different philosophy on ways to achieve results from the direct approach.)

With the right strategy, you can easily strengthen your brand through social media. All you need to do is give your customers an incentive (or compelling reason) to follow you. And you’ll need more reasons or one that lasts, so they don’t get tired of hearing from you and click on that daunting hide posts button.

This is easier said than done, so you should contact a professional for some assistance. Jakel Communications can help. Contact our Colorado PublicRelations Firm today.

Part II: The best PR is on offense, not defense

Since I didn’t have the virtually appropriate space to finish what I was saying in Part I, here’s Part II with more ways to stay on offense in PR.

1. Build meaningful relationships. It works just like a business network works. If your relationships with the media traditional and new are shallow or non existent, you’re in for a world of hurt when a crisis hits. And you’ll struggle to be on offense because they’ll have no idea who you are or what your objective is. The more authentic and transparent you can be with the media, the better your relationship will be. Sounds a lot like marriage and friendship, doesn’t it?
   
2. Never decline to comment without a good reason. Sometimes the media just calls you to talk about something random but touchy to you. It’s easy to just say no comment or let me get back to you … wink, wink … But it’s also very damaging to your reputation and your ability to be on offense. If you have to give no comment (and I know that sometimes you really do for legal or confidentiality reasons), make sure you explain why. Just leaving it at no comment is a damaging move.
   
3. Leave the salesperson hat at home. One of the biggest mistakes you can make when building a friendship or going on a date is to constantly sell yourself. Everything is about you and how great you are. The same concept applies to the media. Hint: They really aren’t interested in how great your company is. They’re trying to write or cover a story about the subject they called you about. They rarely want to talk about your product or service. Of course, you can work those in with a solid strategic messaging platform, but you have to know when it’s time to be you rather than the CEO, COO or CMO of your company.   

I’m sure there are a lot of other best practices to share on this subject. If you’re a PR pro or just a good networker in general, feel free to leave some of your thoughts in the comments below.

But if you need help in playing offense in PR, you should contact Jakel Communications, a Denver PR agency. 

The best PR is on offense, not defense

About a year ago, I was asked to come up with a tagline for myself for a bio on the company intranet. It took me a few days because I wanted to make sure that what I chose really embodied what I believe about PR and communications.

Eventually, I chose “I’d rather be on offense than defense.” Nothing could be more true in public relations and communications in general. Being on defense means you’ve already lost in some respect – some damage has already been inflicted on your reputation.

It’s common sense. You’d rather be on offense talking about the new product launch, rather than on defense talking about the people who were injured by your product. Being on offense in today’s social media world is easier said than done. The moment something goes wrong with your product or service, the news hits Twitter or Facebook within an hour.

While you can’t always be on offense, there are ways to ensure you’re playing offense more often than defense. Here are a few tips:

1. Live your values every day. If you read my blog a lot, you knew this was coming. As long as your values are meaningful to society, living them will be interesting and newsworthy because they’re expressed in charitable activities.
   
2. Talk to the media about everything. I know. Your time is valuable, especially if you’re in the c-suite at a public company. You rarely have time to sleep at night, let alone spend time with a reporter. Unfortunately, this is one of the best things you can do for your company. You’re the face of the organization. That means your words and reputation are powerful allies. Use them on offense, and defense becomes a whole lot easier. Think of it this way: it’s easier to protect a 40-point lead than a three-point lead. The next time the media calls for comment on the state of the industry or your market, you might want to take advantage of the opportunity to build upon your solid reputation and attach it to your company. Even when the story is about how difficult the market is, as long as you choose your words wisely, you can put yourself and your company in a positive light.
   
3. Develop a strategic cadence. Like a quarterback calling out signals at the line of scrimmage, the cadence matters. Go overboard and the offensive line jumps offside. Underutilize it and the defense is in the backfield before your center can lift his head. Do it just right and the defense jumps offside. By creating a strategy that delivers the right cadence to the media, you can build a solid reputation that the media respect enough to not hit the quarterback after the offside whistle is blown. Make sure you are participating in newsworthy acitivities regularly so your communications team can build an effective strategy. Remember, anything you send to the media has to be real, it has to be authentic. It has to come from a place of your values. If it doesn’t, it will fall flat and the spin detectors will go off like the final gun in a football game.

This blog is getting a little long, so I’ll share more about being on offense tomorrow. If you need some help getting your communications back on offense, Jakel Communications, a Denver publicrelations agency, can help. Contact us today!