SEO, Social Media, and The New Rules of Marketing & PR

This week in #MaristSM16, our readings focused on search engine marketing and optimization as a means to reaching buyers directly. Over the course of the semester, we’ve learned about the new rules of marketing and public relations. According to Scott (2015), if you’re following the rules, you have already built an effective search engine marketing program: starting with buyer personas, building content especially for those buyers, and delivering the content in the online forms they prefer (p. 396).

In reflecting on the lessons, tips and rules we’ve discussed in class, it is easy to think about how they can be applied to my own personal and professional social media habits. One of Scott’s new marketing & PR rules that resonated the most with me is “You are what you publish” (p. 37). For a business, success stems from considering organizational goals and focusing on buyers first – showing that the business understands their customers and has the solutions to fit their needs. Content is the main driver behind this.

Above: Scott summarizes his new rule of marketing & PR: “If you’re publishing great content on the web, you’re great. If you’re publishing nothing on the web, you’re nothing. And if you’re publishing bad content on the web, you’re bad.” (Retrieved from YouTube) 

I will implement this rule by carefully considering the content I publish in both personal and professional social media contexts. To make the most impact, the content should make sense for the target audience, be easy to understand, and reflect the specific goals of the situation/context. Whether posting a simple update to friends on my own Facebook page or sharing a link to an article about my company, it all comes down to the right content at the right moment.

One tip/tool that may be more challenging to adopt is the development of a presence in the world of blogging. As Scott (2015) mentions, “blogging is not for everyone,” as businesses may question the return on investment behind blogging given some difficulties to quantify (p. 79). Especially for smaller businesses, there are resource limitations that may prevent the creation of a blog – particularly the amount of time required to maintain it. On a personal level, I also have some reservations about the practicality and overall usefulness of maintaining a personal blog. Creating great content takes time, and that is a consideration both businesses and individuals need to take into account.

(Image: Nielsen)

But for organizations that have the resources to maintain a blog, it can be an extremely powerful tool. Take my employer, Nielsen, for example. The business maintains an insights-driven blog called “Uncommon Sense”, a vibrant hub of all things Nielsen: recent reports, insights from senior executives, and dynamic infographics about viewing and consumption habits. The blog is just one “spoke of the wheel” intended to drive prospects to Nielsen’s landing page – which in turn leads to customer conversion (Turner, 2013).

We see through this example and many others that everything is connected: every social media component must be well planned and executed for maximum impact.

References:

Scott, D. M. (2015). The new rules of marketing and PR (5th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Turner, J. (2013). An in-depth guide on how to calculate the ROI of a social media campaign. Retrieved from http://60secondmarketer.com/blog/2013/11/17/in-depth-guide-calculating-social-media-roi/.

How Safe is Social Media?

This week in #MaristSM16, we’re taking a look at safety and security considerations related to social media. In today’s digital world, we are making more personal information available to others than ever before – in many cases, sharing details about our location, who we are with, what we are doing, and even what time we are doing it. 

(Image: TrustE/National Cyber Security Alliance 

U.S. Consumer Privacy Index 2016 Infographic)

According to the 2016 U.S. Consumer Privacy Index, 45% of consumers are more worried about their online privacy today than one year ago, and there is a clear business impact because of it. As demonstrated in the infographic, consumers have have limited their online activity, stopped using a website or app, or avoided clicking an online ad out of privacy concerns. When consumers lose confidence in their safety online - and particularly on social media sites - businesses suffer. 

This is not to say we should not avoid using social media out of these concerns, but instead, must carefully consider the risks of online communication before posting anything. This is especially important in a business setting, as employees act as representatives of an organization whether or not they are at work or at home – and what they post matters. I found this Rolling Stone article to be an interesting read on some (now infamous) poor choices on social media that led to undesired consequences for the posters. The bottom line? Whatever you post on social media can (and likely will) be found – so don’t post anything you wouldn’t want your employer or fellow employees to see.

The National Law Review provides helpful information to employers in considering social media policies and their impact on the workplace in terms of employee rights. The National Law Review Board (NLRB) points out that policies that put limits on social media communications may violate labor laws, since an employee’s “right to engage in concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid and protection” is protected (Collins, 2012). While there are certain things that employees should not do – such as participating in a public rant (i.e. inappropriate comments) about a company – the expression of opinions as a whole on social media channels (on workplace conditions, etc.) is largely protected (Halpern, 2012). 

(Image: CDK Digital Marketing)

For this week’s post, please consider and respond to the following questions:

1. Do you believe that employers should be able to restrict their employees’ use of social media? Consider the decisions outlined by the NLRB and whether you agree or disagree with any in particular.
2. Think about how well your personal or professional social media habits follow the tips outlined by Microsoft and McAfee. In your discussion, choose one guideline that you think you follow well and one guideline that you could follow more closely.

I look forward to the discussion!

References:

Collins, J. (2012, February 1). NRLB report: Employers’ social media policies must be narrow, must not restrict right to engage in protected activities. Retrieved from http://www.natlawreview.com/article/nrlb-report-employers-social-media-policies-must-be-narrow-must-not-restrict-right-t.

Halpern, S. (2012, December 3). When is your company’s social media policy an unfair labor practice? Recent NLRB decisions offer long-awaited guidance for employers. Retrieved from http://www.natlawreview.com/article/when-your-company-s-social-media-policy-unfair-labor-practice-recent-nlrb-decisions-#sthash.lhT2scRO.dpuf. 

Identify Your Target Audience and Focus on the Consumer

Identify Your Target Audience

This week, our team was tasked to analyze Procter & Gamble’s “Thank You, Mom” campaign in terms of its effectiveness in identifying and engaging with its target audience – mothers. Procter & Gamble (P&G) considers mothers to be one of their most important consumer bases, as they are traditionally the ones who are buying and using P&G’s household products on a daily basis. According to Marc Prichard, global chief marketing officer of P&G, the company is “in the business of helping moms,” and the “Thank You, Mom” campaign was a “global serenade” to mothers everywhere (Vega, 2012). In these ads, moms are touted as unsung heroes, helping their children grow and navigate the challenges of falling back down and getting up again – both literally and figuratively.

P&G's dedicated "Thank You, Mom" Facebook page garnered more than 500,000 likes during the campaign's peak. Today, the page has more than 800,000 likes. (Image)

By utilizing a variety of digital channels, from Youtube to Facebook to Twitter, P&G was able to effectively share its message with its target audience of mothers and those who love them the most. Hashtags like #ThankYouMom and #BecauseofMom were universally relatable and even encouraged people to reach out to their own mothers to say thanks (Mainwaring, 2014). According to a 2015 study, more than 75 percent of parents turn to social media for “parenting-related information” and “social support.” In this regard, P&G’s integration with social channels is a clear fit to reach their target audience, with nearly 81 percent of mothers using Facebook alone (Duggan, Lenhart, Lampe & Ellison, 2015, also for image below).

P&G’s campaign was a well-executed example of using social networks to target the right people through social media who are (or would become) the company’s advocates (Kerpen, 2015, p. 38).

Focus on the Consumer

How is success defined in the world of marketing and public relations? Scott (2015) discusses the disconnect that is often apparent between an organization’s goals and the marketing and PR measurements used to define success. From past experience working directly with clients at a public relations agency, this story is sometimes all too true. In today’s growing world of social marketing, we can no longer rely solely on measurements such as number of press hits or impressions to gauge success. Instead, we should focus more closely on the following metrics, as described by Pozin (2014): 

• Keeping competition out of the media
• Relationship building
• Brand building
• Reaching the right target audience
• Seeking and obtaining the right endorsements

A former client of mine launched a speaker series with the help of our agency, building every component of the event from the ground up. Our contacts asked for status reports on a regular basis that tallied the circulation numbers, impressions, and other ad measurements, and would present those hard numbers/statistics to investors as “proof” that the series was becoming a success. But what was far more important were the relationships that both our agency and the client were forming with the thought leaders that would help promote the series, and the support gained from various local organizations that helped shape the credibility of the events. Ultimately, the client focused less on developing a social presence and more on traditional metrics that, in my opinion, may have impacted the ability to most effectively reach their target audience and maximize success.


References:

Duggan, M., Lenhart, A., Lampe, C., & Ellison, N. (2015, July 16). Parents and social media. Retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/07/16/parents-and-social-media/.

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable social media (2nd ed.). McGraw Hill Education.

Mainwaring, S. (2014, January 7). How P&G is leveraging the Winter Olympics to build its customer community. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/simonmainwaring/2014/01/07/how-pg-is-leveraging-the-winter-olympics-to-build-its-customer-community/#2e6bd0ae7637

Pozin, I. (2014, May 29). 5 measurements for PR ROI. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2014/05/29/5-measurements-for-pr-roi/#31d6a5d41ca2.

Scott, D. M. (2015). The new rules of marketing and PR (5th ed.). Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

Vega, T. (2012, April 16). Mothers will get the glory in P&G’s campaign. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/17/business/media/mothers-get-the-glory-in-procter-gamble-campaign.html. 

Social Media for Business: Engagement, Responsiveness & Transparency

This week, we navigated through some of the “Do’s” and “Don’ts” of effectively using social media for business through the lens of author Dave Kerpen.

Much of what Kerpen discusses may appear to be common sense, but his points regarding engagement, responsiveness, authenticity, honesty and transparency are important ones to reinforce. One item that stood out to me in particular was Kerpen’s assertion that, by the year 2015 or 2016, there would be companies whose only “official website” would be a social media site (p. 175). Kerpen believes that social media platforms like Facebook provide all of the tools that a traditional website would, with the advantage of exposure to a much larger potential customer base.

While his points are valid, there is still tremendous value to a company having a website – and to that end, seamless social media integration into an existing website is imperative for a company’s success. Temin (2014) adds that few organizations have successfully been able to build the totality of their brand presence on social media: websites act as the “hub,” while social media platforms are the “spokes,” each with unique benefits and audiences.

Team Two – what do you think? If you were the owner of an organization, would you consider moving away from the traditional website towards a social-only presence? I personally think a balance is most appealing, making sure that social media is as tightly and easily integrated into a website as possible for maximum exposure.

The fact of the matter is that businesses are utilizing social media to their advantage – as of 2014, there were 40 million active small business pages (Beese, 2015). During my time at my former job with a PR agency, I was tasked to integrate social media into our clients’ marketing and PR programs. One client I worked with was Satin Ice, a worldwide manufacturer of fondant. In 2015, Satin Ice hosted its inaugural trade show, “The Americas Cake & Sugarcraft Fair,” and with the help of my agency, developed a suite of social media accounts specific to the show. While there are always lessons to be learned, I would consider Satin Ice’s foray into social media for this trade show a “perfect example” of some of the concepts Kerpen discusses, including:

• Social media maintenance is not just the responsibility of one department. As Kerpen stated, “Customers don’t care about your job title or what department you’re in. If they have problems, then they want solutions” (p. 175). With a little training from our agency, Satin Ice employees from across the business – from the CEO to the administrative assistant – became fluent in social media and were able to address feedback or questions in a timely manner.
• Respond quickly to comments – both good and bad. At the conclusion of the trade show, the show’s Facebook page was flooded with (mostly positive) feedback from attendees. Satin Ice did a terrific job of acknowledging all of these comments – especially important given it was the inaugural show and feedback would be extremely important for future years. 
  
  Responses to negative feedback, such as the one below, were short but genuine and generally quelled any customer concerns (Facebook.com/CakeandSugarcraftFair). For instance, the commenter here “Liked” the show’s response. 

Responses to positive feedback, such as shown below, helped develop the show’s “social personality,” as described by Kerpen - showing that Satin Ice truly cares about connecting directly with the consumer and enticing them to come back for more.

And for those of you interested in all things cake and chocolate – the show will return next March!

References:

Beese, J. (2015, June 20). 17 powerful Facebook stats for marketers and advertisers. Retrieved from http://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/.

Kerpen, D. (2015). Likeable social media (2^nd ed.). McGraw Hill Education.

Temin, D. (2014, January 9). Don’t kill off your website – use it as the hub for your social media presence. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/daviatemin/2014/01/09/dont-kill-off-your-website-use-it-as-the-hub-for-your-social-media-presence/#63068ea314e8.

Images retrieved from Facebook.com/CakeandSugarcraftFair.