PR and Social Media

It’s a Different World 1999 2009  Mass media rules  Mass media in trouble  Faxes, pagers, memos  Blackberrys, smart  “You’ve got mail” phones  Y2K on horizon  Search engines  Average 8 hours  Social networking online/month  Average 75 hours  Columbine shooting online/month  Iran’s election

Or Is It?  Many everyday PR tactics remain effective.  News releases  Newsletters  Brochures  Special events  Publications  PR still strives for management role

Complex  “Let’s deal with this quietly and hope it goes away.”  Instant  No more “magic hour” to issue statement after crisis  Miracle on the Hudson (US Airways 1549)  First photo uploaded to Twitter 1 minute after landing  Citizen journalism -- amateur video, photos  Ongoing and everywhere  All day, every day, global  Rumors go viral. Truth and good news doesn’t.  Customers now complain online vs. calling hotline.

Simple  Public Relations is perfectly suited for a social world, perhaps more than any other communications discipline.  The outcome of good PR is good relationships.  The best PR comes from paying attention to key publics, engaging them, and learning from them.  Four-Step Process of Research, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation  Tactics based on strategy.  Strategy based on research.

Grunig’s Four Models of PR  Press Agentry  PT Barnum  Celebrity stunts  Public Information  Government agencies, schools  One-Way Asymmetrical  Press releases, newsletters, static Web sites  Two-Way Symmetrical  Feedback , conversation

Customer Relationships  Ongoing Communication  Direct Sales  Blendtec’s $50 investment resulted in 43% increase in sales in 2006. Will It Blend?  Dell Outlet has sold more than $3 million in PCs and accessories through Twitter.  Customer Service  @ComcastCares on Twitter – I’m sorry. How can I help?  Marketing, Promotion, Contests  Tiger Woods YouTube video

Media Relations  Convergence  Print, online, video, photos, blogs  Newsroom layoffs  Online newsrooms  Social Media Releases, with links to online content  Google News Alerts, automated monitoring  Help A Reporter Out (HARO)  Free 3x daily emails of media queries

Employee Relationships  Build community  Share knowledge  Intranets  Virtual townhalls  E-newsletters  Wikis  Blogs  Not just management  Yammer.com = Twitter-like service for internal comms.

Fund Raising  Online payment systems simplified fund raising  Organizations help participants raise money through individual Web pages, e-newsletters  In 2008, American Cancer Society raised $211,000 in its 4th annual virtual Relay for Life on Second Life.  Tyson Foods increases donation to food banks based on number of comments to its hunger relief blog.  Target let Facebook users vote on how it divided $3 million donation among 10 organizations.

Research Tools  Technorati.com  SurveyMonkey.com  Blogpulse.com  Alexa.com (Conversation Tracker)  Compete.com

Social Networking Sites  MySpace – 76 million U.S. users, average 4 hrs/month  Facebook –  More than 200 million active users  More than 100 million log in daily  Tremendous growth among older users  Business pages  Advertising  LinkedIn – business networking, 36 million strong  Ning – niche communities

Twitter  A free micro-messaging service that limits messages to 140 characters  Tweets can be sent and received via the Web site, mobile phone, text message, etc.  Established March 2006  Early adopters include tech, IT, bloggers  Breaking news, citizen journalism  Earthquakes  Miracle on the Hudson  Iran Election

Some Statistics  Twitter usage is spiking  1374 % jump in unique visitors in one year  February 2008 = 475,000  February 2009 = 7 million  April 2009 – Twitter enters mainstream  @aplusk vs. @CNNBRK in race for 1 million followers  Oprah signs up  New users spike but most remain inactive

What’s Twitter good for?  Communicate with key publics  Customers  Employees  Shareholders  Allow customers to communicate easily with you  Respond quickly to service issues  Receive feedback on programs, activities  Drive traffic to Web site  Build reputation by building relationships

Glossary of terms  Tweet = (n) a message posted to Twitter  To Tweet = (v) to post a message to Twitter  Follow = to sign up to receive someone else’s updates  RT = ReTweet, to forward someone else’s tweet to your own followers  DM = Direct Message, a private message sent to someone who follows your updates. DMs don’t appear on your profile or in public stream.  @username = How to refer to another Tweeter. A reply message begins with @ and the username.  # = Hashtag, a symbol used to simplify monitoring or searching a conversation thread (#Gustav, #prville)

Glossary of terms  Favorites – Marking a tweet to preserve it  Your favorites are part of your profile  Shortening a URL address  Bit.ly  Tinyurl.com  Budurl.com  Auto-DMs = automatic message, perhaps thanking new followers. Often causes negative reaction.  Auto-tweet = automatic updates documenting new Web content, headlines, etc.

Getting started  Sign up online at www.twitter.com  Must be linked to an email account  Limited to one account per email  Create a profile  Avatar (photo, logo, or other image) that will appear next to your tweets  Bio (brief description of account; becomes metatag)  Protect your account or not  To restrict access to your updates to only users you approve.

Getting started  Find other users  “Find people” option on main menu  www.search.twitter.com  www.twellow.com  www.wefollow.com  www.nearbytweeps.com or www.localtweeps.com  Review profiles of users who follow the same people you do  Identify hashtag that interests you and find others who follow that conversation

They’re tweeting about you  Just got back from USS Alabama battleship  Boys going on motorcycle trip from Little Rock to PCB, FL in few weeks. Planning stop in Mobile for USS Alabama. Suggestions for other stops?  The Scouts drive to Mobile, Alabama, today and will sleep on the Battleship USS Alabama tonight!  Aboard the USS Alabama. Kids are loving it.  Today is "boy's day" in Mobile, Alabama for grandsons. We are going to visit the battleship USS Alabama in Mobile Bay.

Now it’s up to you  Ignore the conversation  Monitor it  Participate and engage  Empower your employees, customers, volunteers, etc. to become true ambassadors. You cannot control the conversation or stop it.

Next step? Do some research  Identify social media users among your employees  Form a committee?  Ask target audiences about their use of social media  Which sites do they visit?  What would they want to receive from you on that site?  Study sites, applications to find best fits  Develop social media policy for your organization  Scenario: An employee blogs about work  Identify others in your industry who use social media  What do you like, dislike about their approach?

PR and Social Media

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