Presentation to the Scottish textiles industry by Paula Mc Nulty, Weber Shandwick

1. Social Media…the ‘must-have’ accessory?
Paula Mc Nulty
27 October 2011

3. Social Media – what does it mean?
Social Media refers to the use of web-based and mobile
technologies to turn communication into an interactive
dialogue.
It is:
• social interaction
• enabled by accessible and scalable communication
techniques
• a change in the way we communicate
• about sharing opinions, insights, experiences, and
perspectives with each other

4. technology allows people immediate
access to highly engaging information
and to connect socially
24 hours 200 million
of video tweets
uploaded delivered daily
to YouTube
each minute
implication:
750 million The need to
active deliver engaging
Facebook users information and to
(250 million via connect socially with
mobile) audiences to
match audience
behavior and
expectations.

5. 90%
PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE WHO
REGARD WORD-OF-MOUTH AS
THE BEST SOURCE OF IDEAS AND
INFORMATION ABOUT
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

6. control credibility
web 1.0 web 2.0
company audiences

7. The Landscape is Changing
Traditional Media Digital Media
• Media provided a mostly • We can engage - and interact - with
one-way “channel” to audiences our audience directly
• Journalists use bylines and have a • “Netizens” can be anonymous and
degree of accountability (slander, there is virtually no recourse
libel laws apply)
• Drive our content to desirable
• Drive desirable eyeballs to our eyeballs in “communities” such as
forum (corporate website) blogs, Facebook, YouTube etc
• Media influence audiences / • Consumers influence media:
consumers; you didn’t typically camera phones, video cams are
know about it until you “heard it often the first “on the scene”
on the news”
• Fairly ambiguous rules of
• Relatively clear rules of engagement and sometimes
engagement and conduct unclear codes of conduct (“pitches”
(pitch/place, validate stories with frowned upon, highly opinion-
three sources, etc.) based content)
7

8. people want their relationships with
organizations to mirror their personal
relationships – personal, accessible,
empathetic and responsible

9. news media responds to this reality
by producing and sharing stories in
multiple mediums.
implication:
This creates the
need for companies to
use a variety of ways –
video, audio, text,
graphics and photos –
to match media
expectations.

10. content advocacy retention economies
Your business is full word of mouth people absorb by resonating with
of compelling stories, establishes company’s information in a a wider yet more
and traditional and point-of-view more variety of ways, targeted audience
social media effectively than and stories should on their preferred
have an appetite any other com- be told with channels, and
for them. But munication vehicle. variation. This activating advocates to
remember content Advocacy is driven improves overall further distribute the
distribution, by word of mouth retention and story, economies are
syndication and when relevant willingness to realised – stories
conversation and shareable content share information, work harder for
are at your disposal. lives in multiple particularly told by their investment.
destinations and a trusted voice.
formats.

11. So how do you do it...and do it well?
Think
strategically!

12. Things are fusing in our industry

13. Are we providing
the media with Do we need help to
video, images and produce a variety of
graphics to tell our our own stories,
stories – could we? formats and
Should we? destinations to
become more
Are we inline with “social” – inline with
the new way media the expectations of
produce and people our audiences?
absorb information?

14. a communications
strategy that
fits your business, your
needs and helps you
excel in today’s diverse
content and
conversation-driven
media environment

15. So in essence...
You need to identify what stories can be told in which
formats and where you can drive those stories.
You can become your own media outlet, publishing your
own stories on your own channels, as well as share your
news with more traditional media in a manner more
consistent with how news is produced and absorbed
today.
It is about “Content Fusion” - a new way
of approaching media relations.

16. think about it this way…

17. Assets
There to be
used
& created
Stories
Conversations e.g. News
Create multiple Knowledge
History
Resources
Destinations
e.g. TV/Radio
Online/website
? Formats
e.g. Photo
Image
Magazine, Newspaper
Social media
Video
Apps Audio
Vehicles
e.g. Tweet
News release
FB/Blog post

18. Different approaches and always a solution...
• What does your
business need?
• Who is best placed
to manage it?
• Do we need external
help to get started?
• What technology is
available to make it
“Nobody can go back and start a easier?
new beginning, but anyone can
start today and make a new • Are my competitors
ending.” doing it?
Maria Robinson

19. The facts speak for themselves...
Using social media brings:
• 77% more site traffic
• 56% higher conversion rates
• 42% higher average order value (emarketer)
and:
• 91% of Europeans use internet to research a purchase or buy a
new product (marketinggum)
• 51% of Facebook and 67% of Twitter brand followers claim they
are more likely to purchase that brand
• 24% of consumers start a purchase search on a brand’s website -
76% start them online in search and social media
• 70% of users say reviews and commentary on social media make
them more confident in purchase (Comscore)

20. Social Media…the ‘must-have’ accessory ?
!
Questions?

21. Contact Details:
Paula Mc Nulty
Associate Director
Weber Shandwick
9 Lynedoch Crescent
Glasgow
G3 6EQ
www.facebook.com/paulamcnulty
www.twitter.com/mcnult (@mcnult)
www.linkedin.com/in/paulamcnulty
Presentation slides available at: www.slideshare.net/paulamcnulty