Posted April 27th, 2012
by Matt Donahue
I attended PRNews’ Measurement Conference last week. I’ve always liked the format of this conference, it’s only one day which keeps everyone focused, it attracts vendors and clients who want to learn and share, and people actually network because time is short. This conference is valuable for those wanting to learn the basics about PR measurement, as well as getting into the depths of deeper ROI analysis. This was my fourth year attending and I had the honor of participating as one of the “Measurement Dr.” speakers. Pretty cool!
My top five takeaways:
- Can’t stress it enough: it is important to set meaningful and smart objectives when measuring PR performance. If you want to meet or beat the objective, it must be grounded in measurable terms, e.g., “generating significant buzz on a campaign” is not meaningful or measurable. Get concrete and realistic.
- Organizations that operate in social and traditional media need to look at both in tandem. They inform and complement each other. They are different, but you cannot substitute one for the other, nor measure one without taking the impact of the other into account.
- Question: how do you get around corporate lawyers on responding via social media during a PR crisis?
Answer: PR team needs to reach out and get involved early with corporate lawyers before the crisis to define the social media response policy. Doing so during a crisis is too late, and you’ll not be able to measure anything but negative customer conversation about how poorly your company handled the crisis.
- From Linda Rutherford, VP Communications, Southwest Airlines: “It’s a gift to learn something from our community of customers via social media and be able to adopt it as a message within the same news cycle.” This clearly illustrated how fast and impactful the social Web is. Great to see Southwest using it to their advantage.
- RoR – Return on Relationships. A good way to talk about the value that social media has for PR and the organizations they represent and what they can get out of engaging in and measuring social media performance. Two ways to look at it, what did we do with our relationships in social that pushed our message into the mainstream discussion, and what did we do with our relationships in social to purposefully keep something from becoming news.
Tags: crisis communications, measurement, media measurement, PR News, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted in Matt Donahue, Measurement, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted April 20th, 2012
by Jennifer Hall
Spring has finally sprung, and that means conference season is in full swing. Lucky for me, Social media continues to be a hot topic at most industry events. A few weeks ago, I attended the PRSA Digital Impact Conference in New York City and got a chance to hear how some major brands built their social media programs at their companies. Here are some of my key takeaways:
Your company should have a social media policy. I know, I know- social media is supposed to be fun and free so the word “policy” seems like a 4 letter word. But people like to know their boundaries and having guidelines in place will help make tweeters feel more “official”.
Next up: Training .The executives aren’t the only ones who need it. Now, all employees have publishing power and can become an army of brand ambassadors. In my experience, there is definitely no shortage of people who want to learn about social media. So the challenge is having the right (and enough) resources in place to support your “army”.
While at PRSA, Richard Binhammer from Dell took the stage to explain how strategically leveraging social media can connect your brand to customers. As Dell’s social media and community director, Richard explained how their infamous social media program works. Their training course consists of 4 classes (about 8-10 hours each) which cover Dell’s guiding principles, social media policy and professional vs. personal etiquette. Then Dell employees have an elective option for their final class where they can choose to learn more about a social platform of their choice (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc). Finally, once a Dell employee completes the 4 courses they are dubbed a “Social Media Certified Professional”. Pretty neat, huh? And my favorite part of their program is that they also host exclusive in-house events for the certified tweeters. Seems like a great way to incentivize employees and keep it fun!
Now, Dell has been considered an industry leader for social media since the beginning and we all envy their powerhouse social program. But keep in mind it takes time to get everyone on the band wagon so here are a few pointers to remember along the way.
- Make social media “official”- having a policy or even just basic ground rules can create a solid foundation for your social media programs. Remember, policies aren’t meant to “scare” people away from social; their intention is to help guide your company through the social media journey.
- Educate- let’s face it, social media can be intimidating to newbies so it’s important to host training sessions that demonstrate the value of using social media in a professional world.
- Be collaborative- a successful social media program includes multiple departments and everyone has a role to play. It’s just a matter of defining those roles and fostering a cross functional team.
- Don’t be afraid to fail- this is new territory for everyone, so let yourself experiment and if you fail, learn from it and keep driving on.
- Keep it fun!- after all, it is social media
Do you have helpful tips for pioneering social media at your company? We want to hear them! Be sure to include your pointers in the comment section.
Until next time… Happy Tweeting!
@jennhall00
Social Media Marketing Manager, Dow Jones & Company
Tags: dell, PRSA, Social Media, social media policy, training
Posted in Jennifer Hall, Social Media
Posted April 12th, 2012
by Eva Rohrmann
We’re getting ready for PR News’ Measurement Conference next week, where my colleague Martin Murtland will be participating in a panel, “How to Measure Your Brand’s Reputation During and After a Crisis.” He’ll be reviewing case studies of how companies responded to a PR crisis and is looking forward to the discussion on measuring media impact to refine strategies during a media storm.
As part of our preparations, we took another look at Francisco Guerrero’s examination of PR “disasters” in The Wall Street Journal. With today’s social-media-shortened attention spans, what does it take for a crisis to become a long-term reputation disaster?
WSJ.com Article: The Short Life of a PR Fiasco
WSJ .com Video: The Short Life of a PR Fiasco
Learn More about PR News’ Measurement Conference on April 18
Tags: brand reputation, Crisis Management, media measurement, PR News, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted in Measurement, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted April 10th, 2012
by Eva Rohrmann
We’re back in the office and have had a chance to compare notes from PRSA’s Digital Impact conference last week.
- From the session run by Monster: Velocity, or how fast a conversation is growing, is an insightful new measurement.
- Dell has a four-part program for “Social Media Certified Employees,” prepping them to engage in the different channels.
- From the breakout with Sprint: You need to capture your audience in the first 15 seconds when creating a viral video, or really, with anything you do.
- It is not always clear how a corporate communications rep should or could interact with volunteer Wikipedia editors, but a CREWE has risen to tackle the challenge.
- Social media is now a degree at some universities, like Emerson College.
- We’ll keep the Discover. Consume. Share. mantra from Lee Oden’s “Content Marketing and PR” session in mind as we design content programs.
- During our breakout session, “Manage Your Company’s Social IQ,” the whole audience identified Key Elements of Social IQ:
- Walk the talk
- Participate and interact
- Have a number of different people involved at your company
- Offer valuable and relevant content
- Listen to different constituents
- Link engagement to business goals
- Adapt to situation and change if necessary
- And we always like a funny cat video (thanks, Sprint!)
Tags: measurement, PRSA, Public Relations, Social IQ, Social Media, Wikipedia
Posted in Measurement, Public Relations, Social Media
Posted April 5th, 2012
by Carmen Sandin
Calling Game of Thrones a ‘cultural phenomenon’ may be bold; calling it a social media hit cannot be denied. After season one’s finale was broadcast in June 2011, the anticipation for season two grew exponentially as tiny morsels of information carefully managed by HBO were gradually fed to starving fans lurking on social networks.
To what extent did anticipation for Game of Thrones grow as the premiere date (1 April) approached? The following charts illustrate key dates leading up to the event.
The top coverage peak in early March followed the unveiling of the ‘epic’ teaser trailer while, after a slight slowdown, there was a marked increase in media attention ahead of the much-awaited airing.
The most prominent source group was blogs, followed by message boards, a clear indication of how online influencers increasingly fill the gap of traditional media for entertainment news.
While 76% of the buzz was domestic, 39% of non-US coverage originated in Spain regarding the US premiere. Season two launches in Spain on 23 April, but the US airing is currently the global focus.
Note the peak in late March, when HBO released new character photos. Trends show the most mentioned characters are Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen, while Tyrion Lannister is frequently cited for his role as Hand of the King in the new season.
Tags: Game of Thrones, HBO, measurement, Social Media, Twitter
Posted in Carmen Sandin, Measurement, Public Relations, Social Media
