It’s Critical To Use Social Media

It’s tough to comprehend but there are still many brands that have avoided joining the digital world. Maybe they don’t have the staffing resources to launch an account, maybe they don’t understand its benefits for them or maybe they just don’t care. I’ve noticed this recently with a few brands that I’ve work with – typically the second concept is sticking point. Unfortunately, whether you want to or not, billions of people spend hours a day online and probably at least a few of those billions are one of your target audiences. If you need to be convinced, here are seven reasons you should have a social media presence (and a few things to be aware of):

Your audiences expect you to be there. Are potential customers or other stakeholders having conversations about your brand that you don’t know about? Probably. I find a good chunk of online conversations by using hashtag tracking software (I prefer Keyhole) to investigate how many mentions of the hashtag exist, tone, demographics of users and the total reach/impressions. For example, if your company is Digital Media Best Practice you could search #DigitalMediaBestPractice to find information about conversations around your brand.

Increase brand awareness and loyalty. By making it easy for audiences to find you, you can better share the great story (or stories) of your brand. Having a social media presence adds an extra layer of expertise and accessibility that audiences look for in two-way communications. Not only that, according to Hootsuite, 67% of customers go to social media for customer service. They want to see a point of contact they can easily reach in the digital space, and they expect a quick response.

Social media helps your SEO. The stronger your digital brand, the more likely you are to appear at the top of Google’s search engine. This includes a good social media presence. Good SEO is important because if people are talking about your brand or your core business, you want your website at the top of the list when they hit “Search” on Google so that they go to you first. If you’re on page two of Google, you might as well be dead.

Connect with your partners and watch your competitors. One of the greatest learning opportunities is to watch your friends and enemies to see how they market their service or product on social media. Learn lessons for what works well and what doesn’t for your own company, then make it your own.

Quick communications. In today’s media-saturated world, people expect instant updates and timely content. If you host a press conference or a significant announcement, you should plan for it to be tweeted, snapchatted, or otherwise sent to mass audiences. The best move here is to participate in live updates and join the conversation. This affords some level of control when guiding the tone of the day.

Crisis communications. If you think you can bury your head in the sand during an issue or crisis and the world will ignore you, think again. This goes back to those conversations people are having in the digital space that you don’t have a presence in. It’s far better to get ahead of issues/crises, delivering the first message in the online world about it. If you don’t set the feel of the conversation before it starts, someone else will.

Targeted messaging. Many platforms like Facebook allow you to target based on demographics and psychographics. This allows you to directly reach the key audiences you want, a valuable tool for marketers when trying to communicate a specific product or service.

A few things to note:

Resources are critical. With the amount of messaging people receive from thousands of brands a day, it’s a challenge to stand out in the noise. If you don’t think you have the staffing, technical skills or other resources to deliver quality content several times a week, you’re going to struggle to make your mark in the digital world. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean you need a lot of resources – a good story, strong written content and strong visuals will get you far. Just look at the Dollar Shave Club – they built a hilarious ad in their warehouse with a very limited production budget (I heard 2-3 thousand). It’s also easy enough to find hacks on taking nice photos and find tips for great content. Look to your competitors – what are they doing on their social? Can you capitalize on their good work and avoid their less than impressive?

Close versus open networks. Everyone thinks of Facebook as the juggernaut of social media networks. It is the dominating platform, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also a closed network which can pose a challenge if you want to see quick drives in impressions and engagements without dropping money on advertising. Snapchat is also a relatively closed network, with some potential to see featured (sponsored/paid) content. Open networks, on the contrary, exist when you can typically see everyone’s content unless they set their account to “private” (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc.).

Get It Done And Have Fun

It’s been a while since my last blog post. I won’t lie, graduate school has been harder than I ever imagined. I am currently doing a Master of Arts condensed into one year (typical length = two years). Since I managed to find time today to post an update, I want to talk about how to manage time while still maintaining who you are.

I feel like with post-secondary education, particularly at a graduate or post-graduate level, there’s an illusion that you can have fun or do well in school, but not both. I pride myself on my excellent time management skills while continuing to live my life the way I enjoy. Time management isn’t developed overnight. If you’re a natural procrastinator, it’s even harder. The tendency is to play first, work later, and that usually ends in disaster. My secret is to try and alternate play and work so that one never overwhelms the other. Here are a few more tips to manage your time as a student or a professional:

• Make a to-do list: I can’t emphasize this enough. I will always forget something important without it.
• Prioritize: If I’m falling behind, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed when I think of everything that needs to be done. Creating a list, and ordering tasks with what needs to be completed first, is paramount to my sanity.
• Set deadlines: And stick to them. This is especially important for procrastinators. I set milestones: complete my research in five days, write my introduction the day after that, section one the day after that. Suddenly, I have a completed paper.
• Stop multi-tasking: This may seem like an efficient way to get things done, but it’s stressful. If I’m juggling a bunch of things at once, I’m not actually finishing anything so I still feel overwhelmed and like nothing is being accomplished.
• Reward yourself: This is important to staying sane and my alternating play and work routine. Set a deadline to have a chapter read or a task done before 3pm, then go out for dinner with friends at 5pm as a reward.

At the end of the day, what works for me won’t work for everyone. The most important thing I can say to someone struggling to balance tasks is not to be too hard on yourself, and to tell yourself you’re going to accomplish impossible tasks is more harmful than helpful.

Alex

Protecting your online presence

Social media isn’t the new kid on the block any more, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t bite us in the butt every now and then. One example is a Liberal candidate in Calgary who resigned after several years-old offensive tweets came to light. In light of the continuing damage that social media can have on someone’s reputation, here are a few words of advise for cleaning up your online presence.

• Check your favourites. When it comes to Twitter, a “favourite” is often seen as synonymous with a Facebook “like”. However, there’s one major difference: your favourites on Twitter are a whole lot more public than on Facebook. Be careful what you hit that little star for, because it shows up in a list on your Twitter profile. Just ask USA Today.
• Check your privacy settings. Often on Facebook privacy settings for your posts default to “public”, so make sure you head over to settings and set them as “private”. This may seem like common sense, but about two years back Facebook introduced a new search feature that made all of your old posts public. Not sure what’s public and what’s not? Go to your profile, click the three dots beside “View Activity Log” and click “View As”; this will show you everything the public can see.
• Watch who you follow. On all social media channels, make sure you don’t follow any one who you wouldn’t feel comfortable vouching for. Check their profile and a few top updates. Who you follow and interact with online is, more often than not, easily searchable. If you’re connecting with questionable folks (think spambots, those that use offensive language), potential employers can see that.
• Use caution, but have fun. When employers first began hunting down social media profiles, career advisors were quick to recommend keeping everything professional. Personally, I like to give an idea of my personality, so I feel like it’s important to let your personality shine through. Keep it tame, but be true to yourself. Go ahead and post that photo of you sky diving, hiking, at the cottage or having a glass of merlot (but maybe not the video of you twerking).
• Only friend people you really know. With sites such as Facebook providing more options for personal information, contact information, photos, etc., friending  strangers puts you at greater risk for target by unsavoury characters. Information on these sites can give away your location, so keep it from prying eyes – your safety is more important than your friend count.

Is any publicity good publicity? Maybe, for a niche group.

An age-old question that communicators and PR strategists debate day in and day out: is any publicity good publicity? If your client is on the front page with a less-than-lauding review, do you cower in horror or squeal in delight about the coverage? My gut instinct says “nope, hide”, but there is some evidence to the contrary, such as if you’re a small business.

To quote a Business Insider article: “all publicity is good publicity — if no one has ever heard of you.” This may sound a bit odd, but publicity about a person or business whose previous status was obscurity may actually see a bump in revenue from being featured in a news outlet, for better or for worse. To assess this theory, Alan Sorensen, an economics professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, looked at book reviews done in the New York Times. To keep a long report short, he found that when books from unknown authors were given negative reviews from The Times, they still saw a significant bump in sales by as much as a third. Sorenson was able to extrapolate his findings to other businesses. These findings were also echoed by Ken Makovsky, founder of Makovsky PR firm, who says that unless a company is plagued by poor reviews, most people forget the negative story they read and simply recall the company name or its products in general. So, if you’re a small business fighting for a spot in our saturated market, perhaps any publicity is good publicity. But there is a limit to this theory. If you don’t remember Amy’s Baking Company, here’s a reminder.

The debate over negative publicity will no doubt rage on. Though there is some evidence to suggest small businesses benefit from any publicity, positive publicity is always best and should be a company’s ultimate goal. Having strong relationships with local media and local community are a sure way to drive your brand’s reputation.

PR Lessons Learned from GOP Candidates

  The 2016 presidential election is already shaping up to be a good one and it’s over a year away. The crew of presidential hopefuls is so entertaining, in fact, that they’ve managed to take over social media in a way I’ve never seen before. That being said, like with every major topic, I love pulling out a few solid PR lessons. One candidate for the Republican Party, Mr. Donald Trump, has caught my eye in particular and served as the inspiration for this blog.

• As tempting as it may be, do not blatantly insult your opponents: while taking jabs at other candidates is a deeply rooted aspect of political history, try instead focusing on what sets you apart from them. Your USP (unique selling point) will show the public why they should choose you over them without seeming like a sore competitor.
• Don’t “pad” the truth: the truth about deceitful statements that mislead will always come to the surface, usually at the worst time (like when you’re vying to lead the Republican Party). It’s better to be as honest and truthful as possible; you will gain more respect for it.
• Do not be openly discriminatory: although everyone has their niche and preferred clientele, to openly discriminate in this day and age, particularly when you are in the public eye, is asking for trouble (like insulting immigrants from Mexico or denouncing the Supreme Court’s gay marriage ruling). If legal action isn’t taken, the social media court will get you. Treat people as you want to be treated.
• Think before you speak: I tend to be a firm believer in that so many issues could be solved by thinking before we speak and act, especially in PR. If we just stop to consider the consequences of our actions, much embarrassment and public backlash can be avoided. One such situation could be suggesting you would date your daughter.
• It takes years to build a reputation, and just one debate to topple it: you can be the richest person in the world, but it’s all for naught if you blow it on national TV. Take away all your money, connections, investments and “stuff”; at the end of that the only thing you have left is your reputation – how people perceive you. Make sure that is someone you are proud of.
• Do not start a war with a well-known reporter when you are in the wrong: in PR, positive news coverage is critical for success, so making inappropriate remarks to any journalist (or person, for that matter) is career suicide.

Consider these valuable lessons learned from the GOP candidates before moving forward and decide if that strategy sends the right message about your brand.