6. Challenge: Launch a new social media management
tool, targeting key niches (sports, retail, restaurants)
Strategy:
• Media/blogger outreach
• Content marketing
• Social media
7. Media/blogger outreach:
• Target tech media & trade pubs in key
verticals
• Embargoed product launch
• NYC media tour
• Guest posts on visual storytelling, fan
engagement
• Data-driven stories
8. Timely infographics
• Mashable, Yahoo!
Sports, ESPN.com
• Increased traffic 360%
• 50+ viable leads
• Opened new doors in
sports vertical
10. • “Traditional” tactics still work
• Tease launches via social media
• Create content to amplify a launch
• Provide suggested tweets/FB
updates to key advocates
12. Goals:
• Build a community year-round , activate it leading up to the
marathon
• Provide real-time customer service to deliver a better race-
day experience for athletes & spectators
• Extend partnerships, especially with Nationwide Children’s
Hospital
• Gain insights and feedback through online monitoring and
digital research
13. 30 Tips, 30 Days
• 8 of the top 10 blog
pages in 2012 were
tips
• Blog traffic grew 260%
• 2010 to 2012:
pageviews tripled
16. Virtual Scavenger Hunt:
• Drive traffic to the new website
• Positive reinforcement
• Establish new connections with potential
marathon runners/walkers
• http://bit.ly/CbusMarathonHunt
19. Results:
Top referral sources:
• Facebook
• Facebook Mobile
• Twitter
Facebook:
• Engagement: +133%
• Fans: +42%
• Customer service doubled
Twitter:
• Engagement: +59%
• Followers: +45%
$875,000 raised for
Nationwide Children’s
20. • Bridge the digital-physical divide
• Use social media to build & sustain
a year-round community
• Embrace and nurture your biggest
advocates
• Build a strong relationship with PR
partners.
22. Challenge: Generate traditional and digital media
stories that will convince people in the Twin Cities that
biking/walking is a viable transportation option.
Our plan:
• Repurpose traditional bylined articles that first
appeared in mainstream media outlets on
owned media channels
• Amplify reach through social advertising
23. The Process:
1.Write bylined article for mainstream media
outlet
2.Repurpose content for BikeWalkMove.org
3.Post and promote content on Bike Walk Move
Facebook page
4.Create sponsored stories on Facebook to
drive engagement and traffic to
BikeWalkMove.org
25. Results
•Increased blog traffic by 71% year-over-year
•Grew Facebook community by 1,500% in just
eight months
•Facebook posts promoted via Sponsored
Stories had an average of 109,000 impressions
26. Challenge: Make what has historically been “dry”
bike/walk count data more compelling to target audience
through a more visual format.
Our plan:
• Use bike/walk count data to create infographic
• Pitch to mainstream media outlets and bloggers
• Use as valuable content on owned and other
social media channels
• Use as “art” at in-person events
27. The Process:
1.Create infographic based on 2011 bike/walk data
2.Pitch infographic as part of larger story to mainstream
media/bloggers
3.Create a blog post on BikeWalkMove.org featuring infographic
and data points
4.Break up infographic and feature individual visuals with
compelling headlines on Facebook
5.Use sponsored stories to drive traffic back to BikeWalkMove.org
6.Pitch infographic to bike/transit bloggers
7.Use infographic at real-life events as “art”
28.
29. Results
•Infographic post had 1,768 page views on
BikeWalkMove.org
•Infographic post among top-ten most clicked posts
during two-year campaign
•Facebook posts featuring individual infographics
averaged: 68 likes, 10 comments, 16 shares and
83,000 impressions per post (far higher than our
average numbers per post)
31. Challenge: Build momentum for a company without
focusing on the product
Our plan:
• Hijack Google Fiber in KC
• Differentiate from Silicon Valley startups
• Establish pre-launch credibility
33. Challenge: Capitalize on Super Bowl
interest to show platform’s power
Our plan:
• Determine timely, spreadable content
• Produce an infographic
• Targeted pre-pitching (sports, social
media)
38. Challenge: Drive awareness for Metro Dentalcare clinics
with the key healthcare decision-maker in the family –
Moms – with a limited budget and no real
giveaways/product.
Our plan:
• Engage “second-tier” mommy bloggers in a campaign
focused squarely on the health of their children
39. Two Minutes, Twice a Day for Two Weeks
•Challenged 10 lifestyle bloggers to brush kids’ teeth
for two minutes, twice a day for two weeks
•Metro Dentalcare retweeted, featured posts
•No money was spent on sponsored/paid posts
•Organized St. Paul Saints baseball game as
“reward”—opportunity to meet up/network
40. Results
•8 blogger posts
•94 comments across blogs
•60 “commitments” from readers
•52,000 impressions (Twitter, blogs,
Facebook)
•4 leads
41.
42. Challenge: Drive awareness and positive
sentiment for Sleep Number online while making
better use of existing blogger relationships
Our plan:
• Repurpose earned blogger content in different
ways across owned and other Sleep
Number social channels
• Look for additional ways to engage existing
blogger partners
43. Sleep Number Blogger Outreach
•Promote review posts via Facebook, Twitter
•Curate posts around certain products on
Beds.com
•Approach bloggers about becoming Sleep
Better Chat (Twitter chat) co-hosts
•Consider using bloggers as media
spokespeople in some cases
44.
45. • Bloggers value networking—use
that to your advantage
• Paying bloggers isn’t always the
answer—discover what really
motivates them.
• Blogger outreach isn’t over when
the post goes live. Look for ways
to keep relationship going!
• Repurpose blogger content in
different forms—Facebook,
Pinterest, blog posts.
47. A Labor Negotiations Case Study
•Union and COTA couldn’t reach an agreement
•Red White & BOOM
•Massive power outages & extreme heat
•Social goal: Leverage social channels to
– Present facts
– Respond to questions
– Convey empathy
– Amplify community need
56. • If you’re not quick, you’re not relevant
• Perception is reality
• People expect near-immediate
responses
• Establish approval process BEFORE
crisis strikes
• Befriend the legal team
58. Be a Know It All
Big agency tactics … solopreneur attention
•Point-of-View Documents
•One daily idea (digital AND traditional)
•Breaking news
59. Keep clients one step ahead
Solve a client’s biggest problem: No time to
keep up
•Monthly Trend Reports
•Research: What are
other brands like us
doing?
•Best practices – social/PR
•Weekly/monthly e-newsletter
Product, new company, partnership – PR leads launch. Add a layer social communication to reach an even larger audience. With some planning, you, too, can amplify reach by incorporating content marketing and social media.
Venueseen: First IG campaigns/monitoring platform. Targeted key pubs – general marketing & niche verticals. Media tour. Data. Traditional PR/media relations.
To sustain media coverage, we incorporated content marketing that also showed the power of the platform. Infographics pitched to media and then shared on social media. Generated coverage. More importantly, generated sales leads.
Helped them get stated with social media. ID potential customers, existing communities to participate in. This online-offline approach led to fast customer growth and accelerated product development.
What can we learn?
Columbus Marathon is another client of mine. In this situation, we partner with a traditional solo PR pro in Columbus. She does traditional, we do online. Clean divide that works well, maximizes clients’ resources. From our perspective, we wanted to build community year-round, while using social media to drive registration and improve customer experience. Blog, FB, Twitter and Pinterest.
We work closely with the traditional PR person to ID tips, content opportunities. The internal team gets a LOT of questions leading up to race day. We saw an opp to use social to preemptively answer those questions. 30 Tips in 30 days – major driver of traffic and cuts down on email and phone calls.
On Facebook, we share a variety of content, giving inside access/first peak at medals, $$ raised. Also, provide real-time updates during the race.
While we’re not Oreo, we were able to leverage a real-time impromptu event to further our goals and extend excitement and building relationships. #PRParty: Use social media to fuel and amplify excitement
Get creative throughout the year. Partner with the PR/marketing person. We propose strategy and execute online. She manages logistics (collecting prizes, etc) Virtual scavenger hunt:
Also a real-world scavenger hunt: tweet and go seek.
After the race, we truly want to know what peopl eloved and areas for improvement. This actually led to us adjusting the corral process between last year and this year We can then provide this to the internal team as they’re planning for future events.
Because we have such a close partnership and strong relationship with the Marathon staff, we’re truly an extension of their team. Something as intense as event social media won’t work unless you have that trust and close relationship. While we’re really proud of the social media outcomes, we’re most proud to be part of a team that raised nearly a million dollars for the children’s hospital.
From our experience, a couple tips:
Arik
Related to off new times, how can you “hijack” something that’s already in the news? You don’t have to be a big shop to do this. You just have to know what to watch and how to react quickly. I think Solo and boutique firms are sometimes better positioned for “ newsjacking ” because you can move much faster than most larger firms.
What’s this look like in practice? Leap2 – app in KC. Not quite ready to focus on product, but wanted to build momentum through PR. KC – first fiber city. LOTS of media coverage. We wanted to use that to introduce Leap2 to the media and tech community.
Homes for Hackers – put a face on the concept of fiber accelerating KC’s startup community
Similarly, everyone knows the Super Bowl would get a lot of attention. But, how can you tie your brand to it without getting lost in the shuffle? We worked with Marketwire to get in front of the coverage. Created an infographic that IDd the Ravens & 49s biggest fans online, as well as reporters, hashtags to follow during the game. It was a playbook for the Super Bowl
Because we created valuable content AHEAD of the big game, we were able to secure placements with media looking for fresh coverage angles – including ESPN and Mashable.
How many of you use Twitter lists? That’s an easy way – with little time/effort – to be a resource when/where reporters are looking. AP reporter needed sources re: Nemo. Venueseen provided info around people using Instagram to share their blizzard experience. This was a Sunday afternoon. I just happened to check my “tech reporters” Twitter list and saw this request. Sent info and ended up in the story, which even ran in the WSJ.
You don’t need massive resources to insert yourself in timely news opps. Keyword searches, staying on top of trends, always collecting data from clients can help you react quickly and provide a lot of value to clients with minimal effort.
Arik
NEW-2/6
Crisis situations can be draining on resources, especially if you’re a smaller company. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t provide value you clients. Know what you can realistically manage and work with client to streamline processes.
COTA – bus system. Strike during massive July 4 th celebration and power outage. By ourselves, could we have handled all the media inquiries and social? Probably not. COTA used their traditional PR firm to manage the media piece and had us spearhead the online communication. That division of responsibilities played to everyone’s strengths, while ensuring nothing would slip through the cracks.
We took the talking points legal had approved and tweaked for social – focusing on tone and length. We also clarified the approval process. What did the client want to see? What did they just want us to handle? That eliminted a lot of back-and-forth and made us all more efficient.
Lots of questions/concerns on social channels. We rseponded, which at least let people know we’re listening and trying to help through this difficult time
Conversations during crisis aren’t limited to your own page. We even responded to questions/comments on local media FB pages. Go where the conversation is taking place.
Strike over, but our job was still going. Lots of feedback, customer service opportunities.
What ’s the role of social media in all this? If you ask the marketing director at COTA, she’ll tell you that they strongly believe …. They also knew their larger, more traditional PR firm couldn’t be nimble enough to manage social. They needed aggressive, proactive social media – the kind of responsiveness more likely to be found in a smaller firm. As a solo practitioner, or a smaller firm, realize that that’s one of your strengths. Play it up!
In a crisis situation, people do expect a near-immediate response. So, if you’re unable to manage that yourself, bring in resources or discuss a plan with your client.
