Tag Archives: Brand

#ConnectChat Recap: How to Increase Brand Influence on Social Media

Posted on August 8, 2012 by | 2 Comments

Earlier this year,  #ConnectChat  featured social media expert Shelly Lucas (@Hoovers54) who discussed “How to Increase Brand Influence on Social Media,” with advice for social media and branding professionals on measuring and controlling influence, generating interest in target markets, creating brand personas, expanding brands into new social media territory, and more.

Shelly is a senior marketing manager and social media strategist at Hoover’s, a B2B business, and a division of Dun & Bradstreet (D&B). She’s responsible for listening to and engaging with customers and influencers online, including content strategy, online monitoring, new media campaigns and metrics. Shelly and her team increased Hoover’s Klout score from 29 to 61 (celeb status!) and doubled LinkedIn followers in one year.

ProfNet56: Thanks for joining us Shelly!

Hoovers54: Hi, everyone! Honored to be here!

ProfNet: Please feel free to jump in with questions and comments. And remember to include the #ConnectChat hashtag so we can all see your input.

ProfNet: Now let’s do this!

ProfNet: Shelly, what are some benefits that social media provides for branding that other channels cannot?

Hoovers: 1) Ability to scale: one to one, one to many, many to many. 2) High in virality: Beyonce’s pregnancy can generate 8,868 tweets in one second! 3) “Bottom-up” credibility: the influence of friend-to-friend referrals. 4) Real-time interaction: the potential for humanness or bringing a brand to life. 5) Real-time competitive (and market) intelligence — even if anecdotal, still valuable.

Hoovers: It’s important to remember that social media is a channel — not a strategy — and it’s one channel in a multichannel approach.

Hoovers: Social media can also create a brand experience. It’s not just a 30-second spot or print ad. Folks actually talk with the brand.

@skinnytwinkie15: Any secrets to getting something to go viral?

Hoovers: Important to going viral: know your audience. Cisco didn’t — that’s why its Old Spice parody didn’t work. Here’s a link to Cisco’s Old Spice parody: ow.ly/8N75X Compare to Brigham Young University’s (which works): ow.ly/8N78r

lisakanda38: Who manages @Hoovers social media — a team, one person? How do you do it? Social media calendar? Research and metrics? Third-party help?

Hoovers: A team manages social media, activated by expertise. We follow news cycles, company news and weekly themes, e.g., [fill-in-the-blank] Friday. At Hoover’s, social media falls under marketing, but we’re moving to a decentralized model (Altimeter’s “Dandelion”).

First_Retail11:What are some “best in class” companies/brands that use social media effectively and what do they do differently than most?

Hoovers: @Dell64 definitely does social media right! They have 6,000 employees certified to represent the brand and they have a command center.

ProfNet: What are some of the restrictions or limitations that brands face online?

Hoovers: A restriction that social media has is that the we’re not in control of the brand. We always knew that, but with social it’s clear.

KileyG: What is your opinion about responding to social media issues during “off” hours (nights and weekends)?

Hoovers: Depends on what the issue is. If it’s a crisis (and your biz should define this), social media needs to respond immediately. But how feasible is it to respond immediately to crises via social? We already sleep with our iPhones on.

Hoovers: f you don’t have 24-hour customer support — or a PR response team — responding via social media may be limited in its effectiveness.

KileyG: I think generally people are forgiving for some time to elapse if the event happens during strange hours. #vagueanswer

ProfNet: Shelly, you said a brand isn’t truly in control of its own influence. So how can a brand enhance its influence then?

Hoovers: Influencers are in control of the brand. And influencers don’t have to have a Klout score of 75 to be influential.

Hoovers: A group of influencers can aggregate behind a cause. Example: Beautiful Bald Barbie’s Facebook petition to Mattel. Power in social media.

First_Retail: Speaking of being in control (or not), how do brands avoid hashtag hijacking (example: McDonald’s) or is it just a risk with social media?

pcolpitts1127 It only takes one sour voice. Negative comments will always draw more attention.

Hoovers: It’s important to enhance the brand via social — for trust. Seventy percent of consumers actively avoid a product because they don’t like the parent company.

KileyG: @Hoovers I think that is why transparency is so important for brands.

Hoovers: Exactly! RT @KileyG I think that is why transparency is so important for brands.

Hoovers: Hashtag hijacking is an inherent risk. To be cautious, try to troubleshoot the hashtag for unsavory responses. #McDstories is open-ended — kind of like inviting the KFC deep-fried rat urban legend. Are #LittleThings better for McDonald’s?

KileyG: Brands have to be honest with themselves about how they are perceived (positive and negative). #McDstories

ProfNet: How should a brand’s social influence be measured? How important are metrics?

Hoovers: A definition of social influence is important to the question of brand influence via social media. I think of social influence as changing mindsets and actions via social — a form of persuasion.

Hoovers: Social influence does not necessarily = popularity. Dare I introduce the dreaded ROI word? ROI is difficult to measure, as social influence is transitive; it can reach across multiple industries, can fade and recur.

rjmcAssey29 @Hoovers Its true. In today’s business model, companies are unlikely to stick with a simple “social promotion.” ROI is the key.

Hoovers: @rjmcAssey: Yep. They love social but hate advertising.

KileyG: ROI can stretch across several areas — from actual money-related conversions, to increases in customer-service quality, etc.

Hoovers: A few ROI metrics I’ve seen: 1) @jasonfalls66 via @smexaminer50 suggests click per follower (measured against peer group). 2) @Crowdtap14 measures brand influence via a points system, awarded per social action. #gamification 3) You can also measure indirect revenue impact. @pgreenbe49 has discussed customer referral value via @Irregulars20.

ProfNet:How do you generate interest in Hoover’s target market?

Hoovers: We concentrate on creating a brand experience via social media. We try to make our social communities inviting, and hope folks attend. We go where our markets are and talk about what they care about. We target specific social influencers based on vertical and/or sphere of expertise via social media metrics and other tools.

Hoovers: LinkedIn is a very important venue for us (in B2B). We ask and answer questions, and post Hoover’s company updates. We’re trying something a bit different for LinkedIn company updates; we post mini-thought-leadership gems vs. recycled material.

KileyG: After you target them, how do you reach out to the specific influencers?

Hoovers: @KileyG We show targeted influencers social love at first — adding comments, not just RTs, which opens up a conversation.

ProfNet: How is promoting a brand different from promoting an individual?

Hoovers: I think the line between brand vs. personal promotion is blurring; social brand differentiation relies on same elements. People want to talk to other people, not to companies — and not to a flavorless brand. But as more social ninjas are activated in companies, I would say that brands are becoming groups of individuals on social.

TankaBar_Linda32: Brands have always been groups of individuals. It’s just that social media makes the nature of those individuals more transparent.

Hoovers: “If I look at the mass, I will never act. If I look at the one, I will.” – Mother Theresa. People identify with the “mass” of brand advocates (employees), all expressing the flavor of a brand, which leads to action. The challenge is to trace the action (source of social influence) or ROI.

What is the role of personalization as a brand? Is it smart to humanize brands?

Hoovers: I think it’s a good idea to humanize your brand. Who doesn’t like the Travelocity gnome (a great photo share on Facebook)? Others argue that people don’t want a relationship with brands; they want companies to solve problems, give info or give a discount.

JeniceJohnson18 Humanizing a brand is necessary to be relatable to potential clients. Otherwise it’s just another company.

TankaBar_Linda32 People in a company — customer service, sales, etc. — have always humanized brands. That, plus the quality of products/services.

Hoovers: William Shatner gets axed as Priceline’s spokesperson because of strategy change. An example of the downside of humanizing brands? @TheNegotiator16 become synonymous with “name your price” — when a brand changes direction, so does the mascot/spokesperson?

KileyG: @Hoovers I don’t think it’s a downside of humanized brands, but I *am* curious if/how Priceline will wrap this all together.

Hoovers: @KileyG Looks like @TheNegotiator character is nixed; Shatner remains under contract, says AllThingsD.com: ow.ly/8Nf6F

Hoovers: Maybe I’m big on humanization because B2B companies sometimes struggle with the pitfall of “deadly seriousness.”

KileyG: @Hoovers I talk to a lot of social media managers in the B2B sphere who struggle with this humanizing piece.

ProfNet:What trends are you seeing with social media’s impact on purchasing behavior?

Hoovers: Unleash the stats! The number of U.S. folks whose purchase decisions are influenced by social media went up 14 percent in 6 months (Knowledge Networks).

Hoovers: But 66 percent of small-business owners say their Facebook ads didn’t attract new customers (MerchantCircle study).

Hoovers: Edelman’s Trust Barometer 2012 shows that consumers are trusting social media more (14 percent, up from 8 percent last year).

Hoovers: And people say “regular folks” are more trustworthy! Only 38 percent say CEOs are trustworthy (a decline).

KileyG: Could be tracking error? RT @Hoovers: But 66 percent of small-business owners say their Facebook ads didn’t attract new customers (MerchantCircle study).

KileyG: Lots of questions about that 66 percent stat. Did they run just one ad in an otherwise inactive social effort? How did they track? Etc.

eltiare46 @KileyG No, it’s a marketing error. Probably multiple.

KileyG: @eltiare I agree. Execution/strategy errors need to be considered.

Hoovers: @KileyG: We agree! There are definitely many questions regarding Facebook ads. We found the MerchantCircle study via @OPENForum30: ow.ly/8NcOR

ProfNet: Are there any new or just overlooked social media channels that you’d recommend to branders?

Hoovers: You know I’m going to say something about Pinterest! “Pinterest is pure catnip for mature women.” – Tero Kuittimen. Pinterest drives more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined (via @shareaholic48). Great for storytelling!

Hoovers: @chrisbrogan69 tweeted this morning about Gentlemint — “like Pinterest for dudes.”

Hoovers: I also think social bookmarking (Delicious.com, StumbleUpon.com, Digg) is often overlooked. What’s on someone’s bookshelf says a lot.

Hoovers: Tumblr is also impressive, with multichannel capability. It’s the fastest-growing social network in the world.

ProfNet: Does anyone have any final questions or comments?

MichelleCvCM55: These are the most informative sessions! Thank you for hosting them!

KileyG: Thanks for letting me participate. Enjoyed the conversation!

TankaBar_Linda: Thank you for hosting #ConnectChat. Great discussion.

TankaBar_Linda: @Hoovers Thank you for the nod during #ConnectChat. And thank you for your insight, as well.

ProfNet: That’s a wrap! Thank you so much to everyone who took part in #ConnectChat. Hope you found it informative! Our next chat is on Feb. 14.

ProfNet56: Thank you @Hoovers! It’s been a really interesting #ConnectChat. Hope you enjoyed it.

Hoovers54 Thanks, everyone! Stellar chat! You can also find me via @DnBUS51 and my personal handle @pisarose51.

Written by Grace Lavigne, senior editor of ProfNet, a service that helps journalists connect with expert sources. To read more from Grace, check out her blog on the free social networking site ProfNet Connect.

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The Brand on Twitter, and its Supporting Cast

Posted on June 15, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Who owns the audience and other questions brands need to consider when building presence on Twitter

 The fourth in as series: Integrating PR and Social Media

ReadWriteWeb asked a number of tough questions after Sanchez left CNN. Click the image for the RWW story.

Twitter is undeniably an important communications channel for brands and communications pros.  It’s developed into an important news channel, and is a great way to connect with peers and to listen to what’s being said in your industry.

Before we start talking about tactics to use when adding Twitter to your communications mix, however, let’s first consider some of the ins and outs of building a presence on Twitter.

Before you jump into Twitter, think for a few minutes about what handle you’ll use.  It’s an easy decision for a brand – in most cases, the brand name will work well.  But what about employees who will be supporting the brand on Twitter?  While many people advocate using a personalized branded handle combining a brand reference and a name – e.g. @SuzieAtDell or @PRN_Sarah.  However, doing so poses a risk – if the person behind the handle leaves, the brand can lose that audience.

A good example was the situation at CNN when Rick Sanchez was abruptly dismissed.  His Twitter account, @ricksanchezcnn, had more than 140,000 followers – built on CNN’s time, under CNN’s brand, by Sanchez through his own personal efforts.    At the time of Sanchez’ firing, ReadWriteWeb summed up the situation, asking “Did CNN lose out on the social media investment they put into Sanchez’s personal account over the years? Ought they have driven all followers to an official company account instead, in case something like this happened?”

How did this shake out?   You can change your Twitter handle and keep your followers, and that’s what it appears Sanchez did – he’s now tweeting under @RickSanchezTV, and has 138,000+ followers.   In this case, he took his audience with him when he left CNN.

My own advice for brands is to stay clear of the grey area a personalized branded handle represents.  Have employees use either their own names (e.g. @sarahskerik) or a branded handle that can be easily portable between people (e.g. @CompanyNameMedia).  Though you can change handle names, there’s some value in an established brand handle.  Either way, it’s very important to work out issues around ongoing account control and succession with your social media teams (and your legal and HR departments) before becoming really invested in the social layer.   The division between the brand and the employee needs to be clear.

A snapshot of PR Newswire's presences on Twitter. Click the image for a complete roster of our employee and brand Twitter presences.

Here at PR Newswire, we have a lot of people tweeting under their own names, myself included.  We also have our flagship @PRNewswire Twitter presence, along with a number of other branded handles, including @ProfNet, @PRNalert, @MeetTheMedia and @MultiVu, to name a few.   While we do risk losing a little traction if an employee leaves the company, the upside for us is that we have a number of advocates for the brand, some of who tweet very actively about PR, investor relations, social media and marketing – our core business areas – and in the course of their own tweeting, they often choose to amplify company messages.

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president of social media.  Find her on Twitter: @sarahskerik

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The View from Hispanicize: Engaging Hispanic Consumers

Posted on April 15, 2011 by | Leave a comment

Team CaliEnte, winners of the PR Newswire at Hispanicize Engagement Scavenger Hunt with their prizes, Sprint Hotspots and Flip Videos.

If the need to drive Social Media programs from a PR perspective wasn’t evident before, the Hispanic PR & Marketing community surely brought it center stage at the Hispanicize conference last week in Hollywood, CA. Engagement from creating new Hispanic communities via digital platforms including Twitter and Facebook to how broadcast network portals connect with their audiences from TV screen to online screen, were hot topics.

CNN en Español Planning Producer, Felipe Estefan, was awaiting live audience feedback on his Twitter account – while presenting at the Hispanic Media Trends panel – to illustrate how he is using social media to better produce segments that connect with the network’s viewers. Marcella Sarmiento, Partnerships Planning Manager for AOL Latino, discussed how the portal is specifically engaging Latina women through their specialized content area- “Tu Voz en Tu Vida” (website name translates to “your voice in your life”) which aims to enable Hispanic women to connect and help each other locally for positive change.

The engagement theme continued with strong conference focus on the rapidly expanding trend of Latino bloggers as potential “brand ambassadors.” Our PR Newswire Multicultural Markets team tested the Latino marketers’ content engagement interests by creating a Scavenger Hunt during the conference. Participating teams had to search for attendees, speakers and sponsors, take photos or videos and post content to a specially created Facebook fan page. We partnered with Sprint and Casa Cristina to ensure participants had fun prizes as a reward for their engagement. Here is the page link to view all the new content including postings of the Team photos on Reuters’ Times Square sign in New York: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/prnewswireathispanicize2011

The conference also provided us an opportunity to introduce our own Hispanic market engagement platform, ARC Latino. Here’s a peek at our latest client service – we’re pretty excited about it!

Click the image for a demo of ARC Latino

Latinos are online in stronger numbers than ever and driving digital attention. From a practical communications standpoint experts agree that organizational PR strategies will continue needing off and online programs in order to reach the broadest number among your targeted audiences. But the point has now clearly been presented that an actual strategy is needed for Hispanic online communications in Spanish, English, Spanglish or any cross between.

Cristy Clavijo-Kish is Senior Vice President of Multicultural Markets for PR Newswire. Follow her on Twitter via @latinomarketing, connect with her on LinkedIn or send an email to multicultural@prnewswire.com.

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The Gods of Context Say Social Media isn’t for Marketing

Posted on March 22, 2011 by | 2 Comments
@garyvee gary vaynerchuk

Gary Vee telling it to the SXSWi audience.

One idea from SXSW has continued to gnaw away at my conscious since returning home with a head full of new information and ideas.  Many of those revolve around a recurring theme I seemingly couldn’t escape: social media isn’t for marketing campaigns.  Some speakers, like Gary Vaynerchuk, were very direct, stating that push marketing had no place in social channels.

“There’s no such thing as a social media campaign,” Vaynerchuk noted. “Those are just one night stands.”

Angela LoSasso, who heads up social media marketing for Research In Motion, makers of the ubiquitous Blackberry, was more subtle, describing real time presence as being in the right place, at the right time, namely, when the customer wants you, not necessarily when you want to be there.

Anglea LoSasso of RIM shows off some analog marketing gear promoting the new apps for Blackberries now available

Context was the common denominator panelist after panelist mentioned, and no wonder.  Context is the nexus of interest between a brand and its customer, and brands can use data to develop context around their content.  And doing so doesn’t need to be difficult. Simply watching what sorts of questions people ask about a brand can be a rich source of information, LoSasso pointed out, noting that incoming questions are used to guide content curation.   Riffing on this theme, LoSasso advised, “You need to be proactive and curate the questions you get and the answers you give.  Optimize FAQs and create video how-to’s that answer the most common questions.”

The folks at FourSquare take data use a step further, blending time and location data of a subscriber with their friends’ checkin histories to create a real-time recommendation engine that is designed to be useful at a specific moment.

“There’s a lot more context we can take into account,” said Siobhan Quinn, who manages products at FourSquare. “Real time marketing can help customers on the ground. If your venue (business) has a lull on a rainy day, real time marketing can help business owners drive specials proactively. Real time marketing is proactive and provides discovery to audiences who might not even be looking for something.”

Rob Garner from iCrossing offered perspective from the operational side, inviting his audience to think information dissemination as a stream that ebbs and flows, and acts like a digital organism. Many brands, he noted, are thinking of social media as a channel, rather than as a continual presence flowing through everything.

I wasn't the only one listening with rapt attention to iCrossing's Rob Garner talk about real time marketing

“It’s network reach, not just a channel,” he said, before challenging his audience. “You might be connected – but is your brand alive and present?

“It’s not about social media or social networks,” Garner continued. “It’s about the fact that society is networked. Society is wired. Communicating therein is simply communicating in a social environment.”

Vaynerchuk offered a poignant analogy, comparing social networks to cocktail parties.  One mingles, dipping in and out of conversation.

“We are living in the first time ever of consumer interaction,” he said. “Twitter lets you get into the conversation – and it’ acceptable!”  But he’s quick to caution those who are too eager to jump in, noting that companies try to close sales immediately at the mere mention of a product, barraging people with coupons, shipping deals and other spam.  Doing this ignores the context of peoples’ conversations.

“If content is king,” Vaynerchuk said, “Context is god.”

And therein is the disconnect with most social media marketing campaigns. The messaging is pushed by the company into the network. The message is most likely written from the company’s perspective, and goal of the campaign is to get attention and elicit response.  However, the real opportunity to connect with a larger audience depends upon building the contextual connection with your audience, communicating to them that your brand gets it, that you understand their needs.  Folks like Vaynerchuk, LoSossaso, Garner and Quinn would all argue that this is best achieved by creating an authentic presence for your brand in networks, and using your audience as a guide to content creation and interaction. Garner summed it up nicely.

“Use market research, study your audience and know who you’re talking to,” he advised.  “They will tell you what’s on their mind; they’ll show you what language people are using and others who are asking the same questions. It’s really an obligation any more. It’s an obligation to listen and act on that data.”

So what do you think?  Do marketing campaigns have a place in social networks?  Can you create lasting value marketing to your audience?

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s VP, social media.

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Brand Journalism: Ethics, Opportunities & Outcomes

Posted on March 13, 2011 by | 13 Comments

Brand journalism discussion at SXSW: notes captured on a white board

Brand journalism was the topic of two packed sessions at SXSWi yesterday, and common themes – including umbrage at the use of the word “journalism,” the imperative for brands to engage in reportage and storytelling as part of their content marketing strategies and concern around how brands and content would be policed – were repeated by both panels.

The panelists, and the related hashtags:

#curatedebate

#brandjo

The sessions were both moderated by powerhouse journalists from NPR – Tom Ashbrook and Bob Garfield – and both were strong, passionate and exquisitely well prepared moderators, picking up the conversation by the scruff and challenging the speakers along the way.   Tom and Bob, as well as panelist Lora Kolodny, also provided important perspective from the fourth estate, and all were universally skeptical of brands’ ability to tell all sides of tough stories.

This concern was met head on as panelists noted that in order to build credibility and trust, brands need report from an industry-wide perspective, which means giving competitors and unsavory stories air time in the branded channels.  As the audience quailed in their seats, panelists noted variously that someone would tell the story, so it might as well be the brand shaping the conversation and informing the reporting of the story.

(Sidebar: one story of how a brand shaped the messaging around a competitor’s announcement.)

Brian Clark of GMD Studios told a compelling story of how brave and unvarnished stories from Ford helped the company weather its darkest days during the recent recession.  He described how the company reported the stories from within, providing visibility into the tough conversations happening at the company.  Using a variety of media, including video, images and text, Ford stripped away its corporate veneer, using what Clark called “real language and real people” to tell the stories of the companies struggles and successes.  One key outcome Clark noted was the attention professional media paid to the stories coming out Ford at the time.

The conversation took an interesting turn when the discussions in both panels turned to policing the content brands publish.  Despite healthy skepticism from the journalists on the panels (Lora Kolodony in particular), the panelists from the content marketing side agreed universally that social networks will out untruths and punish brands that cheat.

Several participants didn’t fully accept that assertion, noting that  brands can and do influence negative word of mouth by promoting good deeds and offering freebies, tactics which can inspire customers to hold their tongues.  At the end of the discussion, however, there was general agreement that the truth will out.

The impact of influence – of both the brand and the audience – was also debated. Brands have signal strength, which gives them an advantage in the publishing arena. Information seekers now are in better position to be manipulated than informed by brand-sourced content, but manipulation and informing both happen, which sparked a discussion about whether or not brands were effectively buying trust.  The panel was universally dubious, readily giving credit to audiences.

“Signal strength of brands is a problem,” noted Gary Kim, “But an active citizenry with tools can defeat it.” He pointed to the fact that people still hold BP responsible despite spending on clean up and reimbursement of damages by the company.   And a great comment on the Twitter backchannel during the discussion underscored the power of social media:

“With regimes falling around us, why would journalists think a social Internet can’t call b.s. on brands!” @OliSnoddy

As might be expected, both panels spent time answering the question, “What is brand journalism?”  The panelists offered a variety of different ideas, which together form a comprehensive description:

  • An editorial approach to brand building
  • A nonfiction attempt at advertising
  • Thinking more like publishers
  • It’s not a choice, it’s a clear imperative
  • It’s all about real time marketing, brands acting as media in real time, as life happens
  • It’s the responsibility of companies to help their customers succeed

The role of content in marketing is undisputable, and both panels stressed the advantages of developing content marketing strategies focused on producing excellent content that tells stories and builds trust.

“No one will give 3 seconds to a brand today, but they’ll give you 30 minutes to listen to a good story,” noted Joe Pulizzi.

Whether or not we call it ‘brand journalism’ is still up for debate, but really, that’s just semantics.  Bob Garfield (who started out his panel discussion by saying “Brand journalism.  Really???”) summed up the discussion nicely, saying, “It may not be actual journalism but it can be revealing, informational, and can use journalistic platforms and formats.”

Author Sarah Skerik is PR Newswire’s vice president-social media

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Brand Engagement in Social Media

Posted on February 23, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Oreos, in all forms. What's not to "like" ?

I like Oreo cookies. I don’t mean that in the Facebook sense of the word like, but rather in real life. I like the originals and the double stuff. I like the white frosted ones that come out during the Holidays. I like any ice cream anywhere that features Oreos. I even like those “golden” Oreos. (Try them. They’re good.) Oreos have been a staple of my sweet tooth for as long as I can remember. And I’m sure I’m not alone on this. Still, I had no idea – until recently – of Oreo’s successful social media campaigns.

But I should have known, cause it turns out the makers of everyone’s favorite tuxedo cookie treat (sorry, Hydrox) has positioned themselves as major players in the social media space. For example, Oreo is the third largest brand on Facebook. They have well over 16 million fans. And you may have recently heard about how they set the Guinness world record for most likes on a single Facebook post in a 24 hour period. You may have also heard that rap star Lil Wayne beat that record a day later. How did Oreo respond? They sent him some Oreo cookies to celebrate. Talk about keeping their name in the story!

But sending delicious Oreo cookies to Lil’ Wayne surely isn’t enough to build a social media strategy around. (Or is it?) (It’s not.) Recently, I had the opportunity to listen to representatives from Oreo and other brands discuss what’s worked for them at the Content and Conversations panel at Social Media Week New York. One of the main things Oreo has done is move themselves to where their customers are. Put another way, they went to where the conversation was happening, rather than trying to bring the conversation to them. For example, a year ago, Oreo’s website was their main web hub. Today their Facebook page is. And on that Facebook page they disseminate product and promotional information in three languages 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They encourage their followers to share photos. They award ‘fan of the week.’ They host polls. They post recipes. Oreo not only engages their fans. They keep them engaged.

Representatives from Nokia, who also spoke at this panel, have found recent success in engaging their fans during a cross promotional campaign with the film “Tron.” They cashed in what they called the ‘nostalgic currency’ for the original “Tron” film and parlayed that into promoting the new film. Nokia released free content, two games, a screensave and wallpapers all tied into “Tron.” They offered code-breaking puzzles, complete with binary and assembly codes.  The Nokia N8 phone even came with Tron content already uploaded in it. As they said, “You can’t just blatantly advertise to people using these sorts of channels. A lot of the readers are already owners and fans, for one thing. And in any case, their purpose is to engage with customers, establish more personal relationships and have a little fun sometimes.”

The Nokia team also outlined six basic principles for engagement:

- Keep it in real time
- Take the party to the people
- Reward participation and collaboration
- Add something for everyone
- Understand how your audience wants to be engaged
- Build relationships with new audiences

People Magazine has also seen recent success in social media. Recently, they let their Facebook fans vote on their annual Sexiest Man Alive contest. In order to vote, however, fans had to like People’s Facebook page. In the first two weeks after the polls opened, People added more than 240,000 additional fans. They learned that not only do Facebook users love to vote in polls, but that engaged users will keep coming back.

Keeping consumers engaged is in every brand’s interest. It’s great to sell something to someone once, but to build a trusted and reciprocal relationship can pay way more dividends.

Authored by Tom Hynes, manager, blogger relations, PR Newswire.

It’s tough to engage if you’re not listening.  Do you know if your fans and followers connecting with your messages? PRN Media Monitoring enables you to listen to your social networks and track traditional media mentions, giving you a holistic view of the conversations central to your business.

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Don’t Call Us Daddy Bloggers

Posted on October 28, 2010 by | 24 Comments
Dad bloggers at BlogWorld 2010

The panel of dad bloggers from BlogWorld 2010. From left, Jim Turner, Brad Powell, C.C. Chapman, and Craig J. Heimbuch.

I found myself in a predicament at BlogWorld LV 2010. The “mommy” bloggers and the “daddy” bloggers were speaking at the same time. I wanted to hear from both sides of the parental blogosphere.

Alas, I had to make a choice.

I picked the lesser known and understood dad bloggers and felt slightly like a child forced to choose a side. Apparently, most people went with mom. I don’t think there were more than 20 people in the room for dads.

I couldn’t be happier with my choice.

It was half way into the daddy panel discussion that I began looking around the room. “All the brands not here listening right now, just made a huge mistake,” I thought.

2011 will be the year of the Dad bloggers!

I’m not making that up. Dad Brad Powell said it. And please note in the photo above, Powell looks like he’s very well in touch with his mom side and probably could have fit in on either panel. He was actually making a statement about how brands normally treat dad bloggers.

So what do brands need to know about dad bloggers?

  • Don’t call them “daddy bloggers.” According to Powell, they are “dad content creators.”  Craig J. Heimbuch added that “Dad bloggers write about anything…from a dad perspective.”
  • Don’t put them in your “mommy blogger” list and send out a blast email that starts with “Hey gals!”
  • Do read their blogs.
  • Do email them individually, call them by their name, and understand what each blogger writes about. Have an angle for your story that fits their interests.

Dad blogger C.C. Chapman said that if your email has any of the following in the subject line, it will not be read. The others agreed, and now we all know what to avoid:

  • Media Alert
  • Immediate Release
  • Urgent

An audience member with a very well known brand asked the dads about the best method to add contacts to her daddy blogger list.

I winced in pain for her. For a moment, you could have heard a pin drop.

Then everyone jumped in at once. The general consensus: Never say you are building a database or list of daddy bloggers (the same goes for other bloggers and journalists, by the way). Everyone’s fear, of course, is an inbox full of “Hey gals” emails.

I was surprised by the heartfelt stories shared by men in the audience who also blog and are dads and who feel they don’t get respect for putting their roles as family-men first. It’s easily accepted, and truly expected from moms, but dads are supposed to be out earning the big bucks, coming home late, and having time for the kids only on Saturday afternoon.

Brands mostly haven’t picked up on the fact that this is a different era.

Advertisers still target women with household products, and make men look naive about how the household functions.

Not that all dad bloggers are the primary caretakers of the home, but we have to realize that we are living in an age when many dads ‘choose’ to be the stay-at-home partner, working from home, doing the laundry, and making sure the kids get to soccer practice. It’s a choice many families make.

Blogger Jim Turner said he has confessed to peers on business calls that he was folding the laundry while they talked. Sometimes someone, another man, will ask him a laundry question and Turner isn’t shy about sharing his experience with products.

So what’s a brand to do?

Start by following the dad bloggers from this panel:  C.C. Chapman, Digital Dads; Jim Turner, Genuine Blog; Brad Powel, Dad Labs; and Craig J. Heimbuch/Man of the House. Read their blogs and watch their videos. Get to know them.  Join their discussions.  Then, check out the other dad bloggers in their communities. Finally, please remember to target your stories carefully and conscientiously.

This is the season of the dad.

Authored by Victoria Harres, director, audience development, PR Newswire

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