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/.

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.