Building Community with PR

Building Community through PR Presenter: Deirdre Breakenridge Author of “PR 2.0” and “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations” Moderator: Mike Lewis @bostonmike VP of Marketing, Awareness, Inc .

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About Awareness

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations PR and Community Building Strategies & Tactics Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge

PR Builds Community: Overview

What’s Wrong With PR?

Mass communication broadcast model

One way messaging

Spin, hype and jargon

Transparency and ethics

The Social Web is Forcing the Reinvention of PR with a Focus on Community Building:

Broadcast messages do not exist in the social media landscape

Focus on the conversations that are pervasive

Meaningful communication leads to valuable

relationships: from virtual to physical

PR is poised to earn newfound recognition

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge

PR Builds Community: Opportunities & Challenges

Considerations:

Service factor : Offering to the community

What value will you provide and to whom?

How will you be prepared and ready to respond?

External factor : Factors for consideration

Easy access to other communities because resources are no longer limited to close proximity

Commitment factor : Silence is not always “golden”

Manage and direct continuous conversations and relationships

Consideration (cont.)

Participation factor : The homestretch of Social Media

Ideas are not useful until people get together to produce something meaningful

PR/Marketing factor : Align with business goals

Align community building goals with

business goals (include all areas of the company)

Develop actionable enterprise within the community

Increase participation

Research/obtain feedback

Recruiting/employment opportunities

Endorsements

Leads and/or sales

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge PR Builds Community: Opportunities & Challenges

PR Builds Community: Strategy

Strategic Objectives

Develop incentives for participation

Organize your Social Media participants

Drive attraction, attention, affinity and action

Measure value that can be converted to virtual revenue

Administer the following:

Project budget

Requirements/guidelines

Infrastructure

Maintenance

Beware the False Assumptions to Community Building:

A hosting ground for negative commentary

PR people as ghost bloggers

An audience that automatically appears and participates

An open canvas to “sell” to your audience

A place to recycle, borrow or plagiarize content

One more destination with poor content and grammar

An extension of your newsroom with marketing messages and press releases

PR Builds Community: Creating Your Social Network Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge

On the Contrary, You Will Give Your Brand:

A voice and a persona

The ability to communicate directly with customers and other stakeholders

A strong culture and loyal brand ambassadors

A non-traditional platform for conversations

A forum to unmask predispositions

A destination to mold perceptions

PR Builds Community: Creating Your Social Network Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge

Action Items for PR:

Technology/programming

Editorial schedule

Content review

Comment strategy and counseling

Customer service

Web analytics

Listening/conversationalist/identify trends for engagement

PR Builds Community: The PR Person’s Role Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge

Social Media marketing starts with the observations of human behavior and interaction within online communities

Technology provides the tools to facilitate conversations online

Monitoring and tracking conversations

Humanize your story by aligning it with the culture and the people driving the communities you’re trying to reach

What matters to them?

How do they talk to each other?

PR Builds Community: It’s About Sociology, First. Technology, Second. Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge

“ It’s the listening that separates Social Media experts from Social Media theorists” – Brian Solis

The Conversation Prism Workflow Identify – Identify your key communities and networks based on the frequency of conversations and where they occur Observe – Observe the culture of the communities that define your online ecosystem Listen – Search and pay attention to important conversations related to your brand/industry Internalize – Dissect, analyze, and learn from the feedback and dialog in each community Route – Channel the information internally to the appropriate Groups. For example, customer service, marketing, PR, sales, etc.

The Conversation Prism Workflow Process – Determine the opportunities to improve products or services and implement the change Participate – Engage with customers, constituents, stakeholders, and influencers (both online and offline) Provide feedback and insight – Consistently monitor the discussions surrounding your brand and provide information that actively positions you and your company as a helpful resource to the communities that are important to you (building and maintaining relationships) Repeat – The process is always ongoing

Charting a Social Map

The Human Network

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge PR Builds Community: Social Media Tools

Social media tools/resources include:

Social Media Releases (SMRs)

RSS feeds

Streaming video

Podcasts

Blogs/comments

Social network applications

Social Media Releases – A viral release that is shared in the blogosphere.

SMRs are not:

A mechanism to fix what’s wrong with news releases

An announcement designed to replace the traditional news release

A communications tool exclusively for journalists or bloggers (it’s meant for customers too)

A release that goes over the wire or is typically advertised by wire services

A standard template; SMRs can take many forms and include a wide range of content

A tool that is meant to control the message; it is highly viral and shared in the blogosphere

PR Builds Community: Social Media Tools

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge Sample social media release - the SMR includes images, videos, audio and a mechanism to share the information on multiple social networks.

Putting the Public Back in Public Relations Solis • Breakenridge When PR Builds Community: You make the difference!

Any Questions?