Social Media Marketing – Understand the Channel Culture First

Or perhaps, second. First before you engage in a Social Media marketing effort, you need to “listen” to the conversations, to understand them and what channels they are taking place in. Secondly, you need to understand the “culture” of that channel; the way it is used, the “tribe leaders”, the expectations from engagement, the beliefs of the participants and the form of the content.

Understanding this Channel Culture is as important as listening. It’s one thing to know the desired destination, it’s another to know how to engage. Going to England? Are you ready to drive on the left hand side of the road?

Here’s how we define the elements of Channel Culture from our research;

1. How It’s Used: Twitter is used essentially as a news push. Whether you’re expressing what your doing or sharing breaking or interesting stories.The nature and types of content may change as well, based on time of year or week and more.

2. Behaviours: How one “behaves” in Facebook versus a more closed environment such as Instant Messaging is crucial to developing your brands “tone of voice” in that channel. Listening helps to understand the way your marketing team can engage in the chosen mediums.

3. Tribe Leaders: In Twitter and in the blogosphere, there are those seen as “leaders” by the way they engage and how respected they are by their peers in that channel. There are always leaders. Always. How they lead varies. Some may be obvious, others simply through sheer presence and subsequent influence.

4. Beliefs or Values: In Social Media channels, people develop sets of values and beliefs that are evolved as the channel evolves. These may be the type of content encouraged or discouraged, the length of the content, acceptable responses and an understandable link to the nature of the channel with your product. Trying to sell freezers at a golf course is not a smart marketing move.

5. Rules of Conduct: Yes, they exist. Always. They may be established “rules” by the administrator of a chat room or forum (i.e. the moderator) or they may be very informal. But breaking them can get you banished and instantly dropped causing reputation management issues and a potential crisis leaking over into other channels; kind of like Facebook and Nestle.

These elements come together and form the nature of the culture of the channel. Understanding them can help mitigare failure, guide content development, creative opportunities and process of engagement for marketers.

(Author: Giles Crouch, MD)

5 Principles of Social Media Engagement

At least, these are the ones we’ve found to work with clients. You might also have seen them mentioned somewhere else; no claims to being the first to think of them. They do, however, work and work well. Enough that I think we can at least put a stake in the ground for these four. The rules are being written daily.

1. Transparency: Be out front. Be real about who you are and why you’re company is involved in Social Media. Transparency means not hiding behind the old cloak of PR spin.

2. Authenticity: Don’t hire a flock of ghost writers to pretend they’re “you” or use a fake “personality” in campaigns. You’ll be found out and it will cost you more to repair the damage than it did in success. In this sense also, don’t pretend you’re not trying to sell me something when you are. Marketing has been deceitful enough these past 40 years.

3. Trust: If you’re business is transparent and your actions are authentic, you will build trust. The old bait and switch tactics are, well, old. Be original.

4. Respond: Social Media is “communications” which implies a two-way set of behaviours. If as a business you don’t want to respond then use one-way media; advertising in broadcast mediums.

5. Listen: Do this before you do anything in Social Media. Seriously. Start with a good long, deep listening to what is being said, who it’s being said about, why, where and in what context.

They aren’t a complicated set of principles and I’m sure there’s more. Let me know, I’ll add them or we can carry on the conversation in Twitter. But we’re starting to establish some principles that we know work in ongoing Social Media activity. Aren’t we?

(Author: Giles Crouch, Managing Director)

It’s All In the Way We Gather

Any of us working in the world of Social Media have heard many times from business clients “I just don’t get it.” Many of us have chimed in that Social Media isn’t just “marketing” it’s communications. What I often find that we forget is that Social Media is simply an extension of human behaviour in the real-world.

Social Media or the Social Web, is about people forming into groups, sometimes for a long time, other times simply for a brief conversation. We might form a community on Ning, such as many educators have done. Likely these are teachers of various types, but some of them may also belong to a local sports community on Ning, or even a knitting community. In real-life these people teach at a school, play on a local footsie team or knit for R&R. They form into groups to connect about what matters, to share ideas and knowledge…to grow. Sometimes groups form around a cause and create online petitions.

We’ve often found the most success with clients on Social Media strategies when we look at how groups form, why they form and what keeps them going. This may sound simple, but it’s not. Especially if you hope to rally a group around a product, this is very hard. It is an artful blend of the right value/promise, tools and how the “rules” of the group are developed and governed…then we can drill down into group tensions and frictions…and on.

But essentially, if you look at the groups you belong to in the physical world, translate that to how you can communicate on the Web – the knowledge component of footsie (as in rules discussions) or knitting (as in discussing techniques) and you’re on your way.

(Author: G. Crouch, Principal)

Death of the Corporate Spokesperson?

For decades we’ve had the Corporate Spokesperson; groomed, media trained and prepped to deliver a single message repeated at least 3 times in an interview. Or just the “face” we always saw. This worked for Traditional Media, but with the growth of Social Media and the blurring lines between professional and social media for what consumers read, this is changing radically. The “Corporate Spokesperson” may be evolving to be the “Corporate Conversationalist” who has brand status similar to that of the corporation itself. Continue reading »

Why PR Agencies Don’t Like Social Media

In an industry based on a series of carefully choreographed set of moves, the moves are no longer the same. There’s a new partner on the dance floor now, and where everyone was doing a waltz, they’re doing the tango. And people are liking it.

Change, as is often said, is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean we have to like it. For decades the Public Relations profession has operated like any other professional, well-established industry, with a set of Best Practices and processes that enable it to function economically and socially. PR agencies have helped shape corporate and celebrity images, guiding the “conversation” with the public. Or the PR professional has worked for corporations in-house, acting as the director in the corporate movie. There is an elegant series of moves in the dance with the journalist, the steps are known and each party accepts them.

A PR professional had to work only with newspapers, magazines, radio and television journalists. Then perhaps put some information on a Website. The channels were defined, the medium known and understood. Feedback mechanisms were few, largely controlled and time-delayed. All factors allowing sober second-thought and time to remedy or let a story be forgotten. But somewhere, some smart geek clicked her heels and we’re not in Kansas anymore.

One of the most important assets in a PR firm, perhaps the most important, is it’s contacts with media. Many PR firms will even focus on certain industries and the media that covers those industries. They coveted, coddled and protected those contacts fiercely. They still do, rightly so. But now media can uncover more information, faster and check the facts and details faster. They don’t necessarily have to even speak to a PR professional; they can choose their dance partner now, and there’s a lot more dancers.

It’s not just the issue of media contacts and those carefully nurtured relationships that is having an impact. The PR professional has been the conversationalist of the public and private sector institutions. They could set the tone and manner, define the language and help impart carefully developed messages. I’ve been through the media training with bridging techniques and message management. These rules still apply, it’s just that new rules are being added to the conversation.

The challenges Social Media represent are numerous, and no rule book has been defined yet. Bloggers, citizens, anyone at all, can quickly start a PR crisis or boone on the Web in just a few minutes. Citizens can say whatever they want, unbound by the code of ethics and best practices recognized and accepted amongst professional media and PR professionals. Among the many new steps on this dancefloor, is that citizen bloggers and voices don’t know the workings of the PR profession and traditional media. They don’t accept the process of fact checking and attempting impartiality. Citizens in Social Media just want to speak when they have something to say.

It is dealing with these new moves that will have the PR industry facing increased turmoil and reeling dizzily across the dance floor for a few more years yet. But as the new channels evolve, no doubt new skills, approaches and tactics will evolve, and so will a new guide book. The PR professionals that can understand Social Media and integrate their practices with traditional media, defining new steps and leading the dance floor, will be incredibly successful and infinitely valuable to private and public sector organizations.