gravity7

I've been gestating ideas for the past several days around ways to use social media for PR purposes that would exceed the normal use of social media tools to print and distribute PR messaging. It strikes me that PR agencies are well positioned to understand client needs and interests, brand and message, and also how best to craft and roll out story lines. That's a skill, and a valuable one, for the combination of care attendant to a client's image and reputation, and the means by which to caretake it, are not intrinsic to consumer audiences. But the agency's self interest in demonstrating success can result in demands on social media (such as the ongoing debate around ROI and how best to calculate it) that may hamper creativity and low-level risk taking.

To wit, a PR firm may tend to view social media as outreach tools, means of distributing a campaign across yet another medium. A PR firm may wish to translate traditional messaging to social media, and monitor results for signs up pick up. It may wish to influence influencers, as it does in its offline campaigns, and again count the results. To which end tools like Radian6 and Visible Technologies can be used to validate success.

These are the things we do when we're uncertain of the value of both our effort and of our methods. Which has me wondering aloud about crafting a "playbook" for social media marketing strategies. If we could take some confidence from our methods, perhaps we might ask less of the metrics and measurement we use to confirm results.

A playbook, not unlike the highly-guarded clipboard many coaches hold tight to their chests on the sidelines, would articulate options best suited for specified needs. Perhaps some for "offense" and some for "defense" (ok, and special teams). Plays for image branding, for event announcements and invitations, for appeals to area or domain experts, critics, and reviewers, plays for building up a campaign launch, and plays for carrying it through. And so on. These plays would, in theory at least, provide a measure of confidence (rather than a measure of results) and could help the PR firm in client pitches as well as in facilitating creative approaches to social media engagement.

The playbook I've been mulling over would of course start with a definition of goals and objectives, many of them, and define appropriate means of execution. Branding, visibility, news, crisis remedies, customer support, resident expertise and help desk operations, product tips, lifestyle branding, and much more might each be pursued according to different strategies and tactics. Street, buzz, and affinity marketing. Sales, incentives, and offers. Best of breed reviews and recommendations. Long tail associations and links. End user reviews, expert reviews.

Or more creatively, putting product in the hands of a good cause and lifestreaming results. Creating transparency between product and consumers through product co-creation and "crowd sourced" feature requests and changes. Sneak peaks at future product, service, or other kinds of release (tv shows, movies, music included!). Back stage passes and special invitations to participate or engage with insiders. Twitter-based narratives and story lines (I like Family Guy -- I'd follow Stewie on twitter if his posts were written in character and revealed upcoming plot elements. I like Charlie Rose -- I'd follow his posts, or his producer's, or even those of his interviewees....)

If the goals of a social media release or campaign are the same as those of any commercial use of media -- distribution -- then why not give audiences something to tweet about. Why just package the same old and then count "micro-blogging" mentions? (Because it's safe? Because we know how to do it? Because we're lazy?) There's an opportunity here for creative revitalization of social media marketing for those who can see that this is a new, direct, immediate, and multi-media channel of communication. Used for talking and sharing. Not just for repetition but for invention.

Old media maintain a separation between the brand and its audience. And all PR, marketing, and advertising seek to cross that gap by appealing to audiences' attention and interest. Well, social media break that "fourth wall" (theater metaphor, the fourth wall is what separates what's on stage from the audience, and sustains the "suspended disbelief" required to keep the audience believing what its seeing while unaware of its production.) Break the fourth wall, expose or provide access to means of production, and I'm certain bountiful mentions and audience interest will follow naturally. All brands have willing fans, all have great stories customer stories posted by the wall alongside the water-cooler. All have internal brand champions whose ideas for getting product to non-profits, causes, and other beneficiaries would make for great PR and audience re-tale-ing... Brands and their agencies of record should be engaging in new and note-worthy efforts, not just repeating brand-centric messages.

I'm working on the playbook. Truly, I think that if commercial interests want audiences (read: users) to follow social media campaigns, they have to give us something worth talking about.

This an email exchange between myself and Edelman Sr VP Christel van der Boom on last night's panel at the Horn Group. We thought it would be worth sharing. I've simply copied the final email into blogger, placing Christel in web-ready tangerine.


Hey,
You seemed annoyed about what was said on the panel last night. What was it that none of them got?

Christel



It wasn't so much that I was annoyed -- I thought it was an excellent panel, not to mention a timely one, and I had a great time -- but it often seems that we're not thinking big enough. It was a PR panel on use of social media, and yet a lot of folks seem more concerned with what social media will do to their own profession and practice than on how they can craft new and compelling ways of using social media.

I was annoyed by the audience comment that social media are just tools in the PR professional's toolkit. I couldn't disagree more. Ok, they are "tools," but they're tools belonging to users and used for the purpose of the everyday: chatting, sharing, staying in touch, etc. The question of Who Owns Social Media comes up here. Chris Heuer and Cathy Brooks just moderated a discussion on this that I missed, but the question is important. Users own social media -- without us there's no point in talking about tools. Companies that build social media own social media -- without them there's no point in talking about users. But does PR, or do marketing and advertising own social media? No -- they have rights of access and if they use our talk tools respectfully and give us something compelling to engage with, they're welcome to count social media as part and parcel of an outreach toolkit.

I could not agree more and it's very frustrating when PR folks don't get this... especially since I work at a PR firm and get lumped in with the rest of them ;-)

Jeremiah put it well when he said that the PR industry does a better job of representing its clients than it does of representing itself. He's right. I suspect that PR professionals are good at what they do because they are attentive and concerned, responsive to a client's needs, interests, and goals, and more interested in doing that job well than stumping for their own reputations. But in the case of using social media, which are not just another distribution channel, don't PR professionals need to take end users (the client's potential audience) into account? Isn't there a third party at the table here? We have tracking and measurement tools in order to listen in on social media PR pickup. So shouldn't it be important to designsocial mediaPR campaigns that not only please the client but are appealing and compelling to social media users? Isn't this a programming and content creative challenge, more than just a distribution problem?

I agree with the person that said that PR is about public relationships. The problem is deeply rooted if you ask me. PR practitioners should always take the third party at the table into account. That also counts for reporters. My personal philosophy has always been that reporters are more important contacts to me than clients are. It may sound naive or arrogant, but in the end everyone is better served. I've always seen my job as a facilitator between organizations and the outside world. My role is to help build trust, credibility and mutual understanding. That is done through communication, building relationships, creating awareness and delivering on promises. I don't want to brag, but I feel lucky that I work at a company that has this view of PR.

You and I have talked about this, and I've pitched the idea that PR and marketing on social media should move from a brand impression model to a conversational, or participatory branding model. That consultants such as myself, hailing from the social media industry, ought to draw inspiration from content creatives, and not tool builders. Those who make our TVs don't make our TV shows. It's the task of PR to invent new kinds of "commercial conversation" appropriate for use in social media. Give audiences something to get involved in. Like that "packaged care" care package idea i threw out for UPS. Story lines and meaningful brand initiatives that complement a brand, enhance and attach to its image, but which are rooted in the everyday. Branding in social media should, I think, start with the audience (users) not with the brand. It's a shift of perspective, from talking about the brand to talking with consumers.

I think these two go hand in hand. First, I don't think that brand advertising will be replaced by conversational marketing -- they'll exist side by side. Second, even if you start with the audience, a company has to think about who they are in the relationship with their audience. What is their identity, what do they have to offer, how are they different from others... in other words branding and positioning questions. Having said that, because a brand is not a person, the identity of a brand can be defined by its users/customers/fans... and the two worlds start to blend.

What do you think? Am I off base on this? Is it not a matter of a new community of practice within PR agencies, possibly working with social media experts, and a new breed of social media content creatives? Is this possible? Can PR agencies, as Jeremiah suggested, develop the skill set required, and so not "lose control" of the message but develop new competencies around creative participatory messaging?

Last night's discussion demonstrated for me that PR people *do* have a hard time grasping social media. The fact that the discussion was focused on big blogs, news and analysts on Twitter shows that we were looking at social media through a PR prism, hence we start talking about tools. I think that there are agencies out there that get it. Horn Group is probably one of them, so is Edelman I think. Time will tell if we, as an industry, were able to change fast enough and if there is still a need for traditional media relations work (that is often synonymous with PR) in 10 years from now.