Exploring the intersection of communications, marketing and social media with PR professional Dave Fleet

25 Questions To Make Your Social Media Workflow Work For You

June 15, 2009 – 8:00 am

You’ve pulled together a social media team, you’ve set your objectives, you’ve developed an integrated communications strategy that combines online and offline communications, and you’ve won the buy-in you need to start to engage online.

The first part of your system should ideally be listening, after which you can begin engaging in online conversations and launching your own properties. Sounds simple, but there are plenty of questions that can trip you up along the way. You should answer as many of these as you can before you start your social media outreach.

Here are a few, to get you started.

Team Coordination

Do you need a schedule to coordinate who is responding to online conversations?
How will you ensure that different team members don’t send duplicate responses?
Will you disclose who is engaging on behalf of your brand? Where?
How will you ensure consistency within your team in recording the various facets of conversations that you are tracking?
Will your team be active on weekends?
Will your weekend workflow differ from your weekday process?
Will you assign specific people to engage with specific individuals?

Tracking and Reporting

How will you record conversations for future reference?
How will you keep a record of conversations so you can see how you’ve corresponded with people in the past?
How will you report on the conversations about your brand/industry?
How will you report on your engagement, against your objectives?

Responding to Conversations

How will you triage conversations for different types of response?
Where are the limits – which conversations will you, and will you not, respond to?
Do you need a set of standard Q&As to frame your responses to common issues?
Is there a common "voice" that you want associated with your brand?
Will you set guidelines for your response time to conversations?
What process will your team follow when they encounter an issue for which they don’t currently have an answer?

Publishing Content

If you are working with other agencies, have you worked their content into your content timelines?
How often will you aim to publish content?
Do you have an editorial calendar for your blog?
How will you divide-up content creation?

General Outreach

Will your team use individual accounts on social media sites that require registration, or will they work from one corporate account?
Will you permit/encourage your team to use their own personal accounts in the outreach?
Do you have a policy on who you will subscribe to on the various social media platforms?
How will you approach the influencers in your market?

What other questions would you add to the list?

By Dave Fleet | Posted in social media, strategy | Tagged listening, monitoring, social media, workflow | Comments (66)

If It Walks And Quacks Like a Duck…

June 12, 2009 – 8:00 am

duck …then everyone else will think it’s a duck.

Sometimes it doesn’t matter what you say. You can throw out your corporate messaging all you like, but regardless of what you say, people just don’t believe you.

You can tell people that your product is great, but if people keep having problems your words won’t matter. You can tell people you have great customer service, but if you keep customers on hold for an hour they just won’t believe you.

If the reality doesn’t match your words, your words will eventually cease to matter.

When messaging doesn’t matter

Consider, for example, the Conference Board of Canada. Over the past few weeks Michael Geist has taken aim at a report the organization issued, alleging bias and plagiarism in the report due to pressure by the report’s sponsors. Despite a blow-by-blow account of the problems with the report, the board spent several days defending the report before finally recalling it, along with two other reports.

The story has continued to evolve since that point, but to a large extent, the case being made by the Conference Board no longer matters. Peoples’ perception of the situation is now such that the repeated messages from the Conference Board have little impact.

Communications is always evolving. It’s still common practice to simply repeat key messages in slightly different ways regardless of the question. That’s working less and less well with traditional media (as Paul Martin discovered even a few years ago), but it works even less well in online forums where people expect to talk to other people, not to robots.

Does this mean you can go rogue and just engage with no direction or consideration? No. You need to remember where you’re coming from – your brand’s identity, your objectives and the limits you’ve set through your engagement policies.

Remember though – if your organization walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it won’t matter if you say you’re a swan.

By Dave Fleet | Posted in communications, pr, public relations | Tagged communications, messaging, pr, public relations | Comments (1)

Which Podcasts Have Inspired You?

June 10, 2009 – 8:00 am

One of the things I like best about listening to podcasts is the ability to find insightful, thought-provoking content that I might otherwise have missed.

Tonight I managed to get out for my first decent run since racing in the Cabot Trail Relay a few weeks ago. While out pounding the trails for what felt like forever, I was able to catch up on some of my podcast listening. I highly recommend you check out two of the episodes I listened to, from two of my favourite podcasters.

TVO Search Engine

If you’re not a regular listener, you may not know that Jesse Brown’s excellent podcast recently moved homes – from CBC (their loss) to TVO (their gain). Michael Geist has done a wonderful job recently of drawing attention to plagiarism and bias in a report by the Conference Board of Canada claiming that Canada is a hot-spot for internet piracy (the report has now been recalled by the organization). In his second Search Engine episode in his new TVO home, Jesse interviews Anne Golden, CEO of the Conference Board. It’s awkward, it’s uncomfortable, and it’s fantastic journalism from someone that doesn’t let people get away with a template messaged response to questions. Make sure you check it out.

CBC Spark

Nora Young’s Spark podcast has long been a favourite of mine. While it has a similar tech focus to other podcasts to which I subscribe, Spark tends to cover stories I might otherwise overlook. In Spark episode 80, Nora interviews Andrea Reimer from Vancouver City Council about Vancouver’s plan to open up municipal data (in the same manner also announced by David Miller for the City of Toronto at this year’s Mesh Conference). I found the interview immensely refreshing. Coming from a government background, I know that there’s often a fear within government of what people will do with information. This often leads to the minimum information necessary being shared with the public. Reimer’s take, in contrast to that:

“…we shouldn’t, as policy makers, fear the public knowing what we know when we’re making decisions, and in fact by knowing it perhaps we could inform ourselves better… maybe they’ll think of new creative or throw in more information that we didn’t have…”

I found myself nodding and smiling throughout the interview. Well worth a listen, for a refreshing take on how governments can go about sharing information with the people who are funding its collection. What other podcast episodes have caught your eye (or ear) recently?

By Dave Fleet | Posted in podcast | Tagged Andrea Reimer, CBC Spark, Jesse Brown, Nora Young, TVO Search Engine | Comments (4)

Five Levels Of Social Media Responses

June 8, 2009 – 8:00 am

You’ve leapt onto the social media bandwagon. You’ve dived headfirst into the murky waters of Twitter. You’ve used a few other cliched sayings along the way, too. Suffice it to say, you’re monitoring what people are saying about you and you’re starting to respond to them.

Maybe you’re using free tools like Google Alerts, Twitter Search and BackType. Maybe you’re using a paid tool like Radian6, Ripple6 or Techrigy.

Either way, you’re starting to put together what Marcel Lebrun would call a listening program.

But are you listening? I mean really listening?

I’ve come up with five levels of approach to online listening and responding (not including the option of not engaging at all). In order of growing effectiveness:

Level One: Ostriching

(Yes, I’m using “ostrich” as a verb. My high-school teachers must hate me.)

This approach, a slight evolution from that which completely ignores online conversations in general, involves monitoring for key words and responding only when people say nice things about you. While this keeps your Twitter stream clear of debate and arguments, it does nothing to engage the people who are hurting or whose needs are not met by your company.

Tip: If you ignore critics, the only place that they go away is in your head. Everywhere else, they get louder.

Level Two: Laughing Gas

“Hey, thanks for your feedback!”

If you’ve just said something nice about a company, or offered something constructive, it might be nice to read a reply like that.

I’ve you’ve just complained publicly about a problem, that’s not the response you want.

Companies taking the laughing gas approach respond as though every mention is a compliment.

They’re not. It just shows that you’re not really listening, and implies that this is just superficial sugar coating.

Don’t do it. No-one will be fooled.

Level Three: “We’re Always Right”

Companies adopting the “we’re always right” approach appear to listen, but when someone disagrees with them that person is always wrong.

This kind of approach is distinctive due to the large number of arguments the company representatives have with other people – arguments that rarely end in agreement, as the representative never accepts that the other point of view may be valid.

Level Four: Superficial Debate

This approach is the best approach that many companies, where communications may not have a significant voice at the management table, can hope to take.

Companies taking this approach engage with people talking about them online, both postitively and critically. They may even engage in debates with those who disagree with them. Many disagreements end in an appeasing message from the representative – something like “thanks – we’ll have a think about how we can improve that” or similar.

If your company is at this stage, you’re in fairly good shape. You’re engaging with your fans and you’re debating with your critics without getting drawn into descructive exchanges.

From what I know, relatively few companies do more than this right now.

Level Five: Fully Engaged

Companies adopting a fully-engaged approach follow most of the same practices as those at level four, but with one important distinction: their social media listening and engagement team feeds back into the rest of the organization.

So, when you voice your concerns about a problem, that company is more likely than others to fix it.

Does this mean that every time a customer complains you have to bend over? No. Obviously companies can’t address every single concern that people raise or they’d (a) spend all of their time on tactical changes rather than strategic direction and (b) would go out of business due to ridiculously high costs. However, they can address issues where it is cost effective to do so.

Very few companies adopt this approach. It takes time, a suitable culture and a genuine integration of social media into core functions like R&D and customer service.

Companies that do this include Dell (see IdeaStorm), Seesmic and any of the social media monitoring companies worth their salt.

In Summary…

True listening – active listening – involves more than just nodding your head at the right time. It means absorbing what people are saying, acting where appropriate, and letting people know when you’ve acted.

If your company falls into levels 1-4, then you have room to grow. That’s ok, I would estimate that 99 per cent of companies are in the same situation. In fact, if you hit level one then you’re still ahead of most companies.

Where do you fall?

By Dave Fleet | Posted in monitoring, social media | Tagged engagement, listening, monitoring, responding, social media | Comments (32)

Emotion doesn’t trump reality

June 3, 2009 – 8:00 am

In recent months I, along with many other people, have voiced concern about the influx of “social media experts” with no real background in communications but a strong enthusiasm for social media tools. We’ve worried publicly that they lack real-world experience and strategic communications insight and that these two things will lead to their failure and, by extension, to them damaging the fragile reputation of the communications industry.

Yesterday my attention was drawn to a post by Phil Butler from Pamil Visions PR, entitled According to “Experts” – Normal Communication Is Dead? which takes aim at Twitter as a communications tool and at social media more generally.

I take issues with a few points in the post, although I wholeheartedly agree with Phil that some people are falsely building Twitter up to be some kind of silver bullet solution to companies’ problems.

Twitter isn’t a silver bullet

I’m NOT one of the people who thinks that every company should be on Twitter (last week I told one company that it probably isn’t the right tool for them). However, I do believe that Twitter and similar tools (it’s just one tool in the social media toolkit) are useful for companies in the right situations.

Perhaps more importantly, I do not agree that traditional communications is dead. I’ve written several times in the previously that social media tools add to our communications toolkit; they don’t replace the old tools. While the growth of the Internet is changing the influence levels of our different tools, traditional tactics are still critical for most companies, and in all but a few cases are central to the success of promotional efforts.

Emotion doesn’t trump reality

I have a strong concern about posts written from the perspective of someone who admits they “hate” Twitter. I’m fine with the sentiment – I’ll be the first to agree that no tool will work for everyone, and Twitter takes some getting used-to. I’m also conscious that I come from the opposite bias.

Still, people contemplating such posts should remember that there are other perspectives, and that pure emotion doesn’t trump reality:

Butler’s post implies that while journalists may be on Twitter, you can’t engage with them there. While relationships should extend beyond tools, I and many other people have appeared in tier one media outlets thanks to journalist connections made on Twitter, I’ve developed solid relationships with journalists and, thanks to these tools, I can often see if it is a bad time to be contacting those people with story ideas.
Butler also says that Twitter is mainly a conduit for the already famous and that you can’t learn anything from using it. If all you’re trying to do is broadcast, then that’s right – as if you have no voice then broadcasting doesn’t work. If, however, you’re trying to connect with people in your market and your target market do use Twitter, then it’s possible. Companies like Freshbooks, Zappos, Radian6, Fairmont Hotels and more are taking that approach. Note that I’ve included small companies as well as big ones to demonstrate that you don’t need to be huge to engage effectively.

Business benefits

The post also asks whether businesses have benefited directly from using Twitter. Bottom line: ours has. While I can’t give specifics without getting a red-hot poker inserted somewhere painful, I can tell you that we have landed large corporate accounts thanks in large part to our Twitter presence.

We’ve also seen corporate outreach through social media tools, both Twitter and others, to have a noticeable effect, especially when solving problems for people. Simply put, it’s the personal touch that most people no longer expect – by exceeding their expectations, you can delight people with little cost.

Senior management adoption… huh?

Lastly, you point out that most CEOs don’t use Twitter. To that I say, “do they sit in their offices writing the news releases, too?” No, because they have communications staff to do that while they run the company.

It would be lovely if every CEO could spend time blogging and twittering. Some do – they make the time to communicate on behalf of their company. Others, meanwhile, are more policy and strategy focused. That’s fine – that’s what the communications function is there for. What’s more, demographically, most corporate CEOs aren’t likely to be the users of social media tools, so why is this surprising?

Companies don’t write-off the importance of HR because the CEO doesn’t write all the job descriptions. Social media is somewhat analagous to that – you need top-level support for HR and social media approaches, but you don’t need the CEO to be doing the tactical work (although it would be lovely if they could).

Bottom line

While some people over-state the importance of social media, it’s important not to write these tools off based on emotion. Logic, experience and results will determine their success or failure for companies in the long run. Until that time, the early adopters will continue experimenting.

By Dave Fleet | Posted in public relations, social media | Tagged communications, pr, public relations, social media | Comments (6)

Vote in the PR “Readers’ Choice” Blog Awards

June 1, 2009 – 8:00 am

Over the last few months I’ve enjoyed getting to know Arik Hanson. Arik’s a communicator from Minneapolis (which, I just realized, is further north than Toronto – go figure…) who’s a smart guy but, just as importantly, is a nice guy too.

A couple of weeks ago, Arik came up with the concept of the PR “Readers’ Choice” Blog Awards after noticing a lack of peer recognition available to PR bloggers. Arik set-up four categories:

Best up-and-coming blog
Most educational blog
Most thought-provoking blog
Blog of the year

After soliciting nominations for the awards, Arik has now posted the official nominations. I’m flattered and pleasantly surprised that this site is nominated under the “Most Educational” category.

Some of my favourite sites are also nominated, including PR Squared, DannyBrown.me, Shannon Paul’s Very Official Blog, David Mullen’s Communications Catalyst and the Bad Pitch Blog.

Voting is now open but closes at midnight on June 3, so what are you waiting for? Head over and vote!

By Dave Fleet | Posted in miscellaneous | Tagged blog, pr, public relations | Comments (2)

Social Media Is Becoming A Commodity

May 29, 2009 – 8:00 am

Anyone can do media relations. Anyone can pitch a journalist. Some people can even do it well. However, no-one in their right mind is going to hire your firm because you pitched a straight media relations campaign to them because everyone is pitching it.

Social media is fast becoming a commodity, just like media relations. A few firms used to differentiate themselves by being the ones who paid attention to social media. Now, anyone who can talk a good game and who knows slightly more than the client is able to pitch it and sound like an expert.

Basic business theory says that while first movers gain a temporary advantage, if they don’t create barriers to entry to others then that advantage can quickly be lost.

As social media increasingly becomes a commodity, companies need to do more than just be there. Those who have enjoyed an advantage from being early to market need to work hard to separate themselves once again.

Just ‘doing’ social media is no longer enough to win you business. Having done it for a little longer than everyone else does little to differentiate you, either. You might crow that you were doing it before other people, but potential clients probably don’t care.

What do clients care about?

Ideas - creative, strategic ideas that solve a problem and accomplish objectives
Integrated solutions – approaches that bring together disciplines into a strategic approach
Understanding – a clear knowledge and grasp of the issues that matter to them
Rounded team – a well-formed team that covers all the bases
Chemistry – a team that gels with the client-side team personally as well as professionally
Thought leadership – demonstrated leadership in the areas that matter
Success – documented case studies – the one area in which, for now, being a first mover gives the advantage.

So what if you have 25,000 Twitter followers? It takes a few weeks for unscrupulous types to game the system and gain that many if that’s what they’re after. Similarly, who cares if you’ve had a blog for six or seven years? It’s what you’ve done with it that matters.

If you’ve been around in social media for a few years, think: what have you done to separate yourself now that everyone else is just like you?

By Dave Fleet | Posted in consulting, social media | Tagged business, social media, trends | Comments (12)

There’s Nothing Magical About Social Media Principles

May 28, 2009 – 8:00 am

We often hear how social media is “different” – how it changes everything about your communications. How you have to throw the old rules out the window when launching into social media tools. I respectfully disagree.

Too many “social media experts” treat these kinds of principles as though they separate social media from other forms of communication, probably because they’ve never practiced those other forms and only have preconceptions to go on.

There’s nothing magical about the principles people discuss for social media – there are just nuances in their application.

Here are a few principles that get banded about as “social media” principles, but which apply across different forms of communication and across different channels:

There is no silver bullet solution
Target your audiences
Messaging matters
Customer service affects your image
Tailor your approach
You rise and fall on relationships
Measurement is key

There is no silver bullet solution

Whether you’re launching a traditional media relations campaign, a store-based promotion or a series of advertisements, there’s no single solution to your problem. Social media is no different.

There’s no stand-alone “kit” to solve every problem – just as with every other communications discipline, you need to create it based on the situation.

Target your audiences

Every so often I see people opinionating about how targeting is an obsolete concept in digital communications. I really want to talk to those peoples’ clients.

When you’re formulating a communications plan, tactics come close to last in the development process. You think through the context, through your objectives, through your audiences and through your strategic approach before reaching your tactics. Why? Because your tactics should vary depending on those factors.

Is the audience for your raw iron ore on Twitter? Maybe (I haven’t done the research), but I doubt it. Regardless of whether you’re looking online or offline in your communications, you need to figure out how best to reach the people who are important to your business. If you think targeting doesn’t matter, you go ahead with that Twitter outreach on iron ore. Just don’t send me your resume when you’re fired.

Fail to target your audiences, and your communications will fall short regardless of whether they’re social media tactics or not.

Messaging matters

Messaging still matters. The words you use affect how people perceive you. However, communicators need to realize that in traditional media, in advertising, in social media and in other communications, repeating the same messages over and over again (politicians do this especially badly) doesn’t work. People, both journalists and potential customers alike, tune it out.

Customer service affects your image

Experiences matter more than the words in print. You can blather away all you like to that reporter from the Globe and Mail; if you’re leaving your customers on hold for an hour, they won’t care what they read in the paper. Your words will ring hollow.

The same applies to social media tools. Do a Twitter Search of your company name. What are people saying about you? Do a search on Facebook too, and one on Google Blogsearch, and on BackType, Technorati, IceRocket, EveryZing and so on. Are people complaining about your appalling service levels? Same effect as above.

Unique to social media? No. Important everywhere? Yes.

Tailor your approaches

When you pick up the phone and call an editor at the Toronto Star, that conversation is informed by all of the prior conversations you’ve had with him. You know that he’s interested in certain kinds of stories, that Wednesday is a bad day to call him and that he’s a visual learner who likes to see things for himself. So, tailor your approach to him. When you call his counterpart at the Toronto Sun, you know she approaches things a different way so adjust accordingly.

Blogger relations isn’t some mysterious black hole. The principles remain the same as good media relations. Know your audience; tailor your approach to them; give them content that helps them.

You rise and fall on relationships

It takes a long time to develop relationships, and you can burn them in an instant if you abuse them.

Online or off, the people who succeed are the people who build relationships with other people. It doesn’t matter if you’re calling a client, a colleague, a journalist or a blogger – those conversations are built on your past interactions.

The same goes for your customers, too – do they have transactions with you, or is it an ongoing engagement?

Anyone who suggests that this is unique to social media is in need of a clue as to how to succeed in the real world.

Measurement is key

If you tell me that measurement doesn’t matter in traditional media relations, I’ll laugh you out of the room. Now, as much as ever, companies are being forced to justify their budgets in all areas. Whether you’re producing ads, pitching journalists or building an online community, if you can’t measure your outcomes then good luck renewing your budget.

Closing thoughts

There are plenty of other examples I could give. Shel Holtz and Todd Defren - two guys with way more experience than me – both wrote interesting posts on the subject of “campaigns” yesterday. Again, as they’ll agree, while short-term initiatives work it’s always been more effective to build coverage over time than to go through constant, expensive one-day wonders.

These aren’t social media principles – they’re communications principles.

What do you think?

By Dave Fleet | Posted in pr, public relations, social media, strategy | Tagged communications, social media, strategy | Comments (12)

Is This Your Agency/Client Relationship?

May 27, 2009 – 1:56 pm

On a lighter-than-usual note: Agency folks, does this video seem familiar?

Fortunately, we’re blessed with clients who aren’t like this.

Hat tip to Todd Defren.

By Dave Fleet | Posted in miscellaneous | Tagged agency, client | Comments (8)

Want Me To Write About Your Stuff? Don’t Lie In Your Pitch

May 27, 2009 – 8:00 am

I receive several pitches each day. In general, even if I don’t write about what they’re pitching, I welcome the approach.

A few days ago, however, I received this email:

subject: I’d like to know your opinion Hello, My name is […]. I’m a […] student at […]. I writing you because I’d like to know your opinion about a YouTube Viral ad I saw recently posted on AdRants for a nonprofit called […]. Recently I’m seeing more nonprofits use social media to spread their message. This ad in particular struck me because it seemed like it was directed at a specific type of YouTube viewer, FailBlog fans. FYI FailBlog is a YouTube channel that posts juvenile videos about people falling and such. What I found refreshing is the fact that a serious nonprofit like [...] is using a juvenile ad to communicate a serious message. Here’s the video link: [Deleted – I'm not giving him the traffic] Hope you enjoy it and post about it. Look forward to hearing your comments. Thank You

Reading this, my spidey senses started tingling:

The person sending the email opened saying they wanted my opinion and closed asking me to post about it (is this what you had in mind?)
Some of the language sounded a lot like an informal version of what I see in a lot of pitches – “Recently we’re seeing more companies use X to do Y.“

After about 30 seconds of pondering this, I glanced at the email address of the sender, only to see that the email came from the domain of one of the world’s largest advertising agencies. What’s more, the person who sent the email appeared to be the person who had posted the video on YouTube. Instead of potentially getting me to write about their creative video, the agency has succeeded in getting me to block all emails from their domain in future. What’s wrong with this approach?

Main faults

The email, coming from an ad agency’s domain, claimed to be from a student. Even if the person really was a summer student at this agency, their actions reflect on the company.
The sender claimed to have seen the video on AdRants (it was indeed posted there) when in reality they posted it to YouTube themselves.

davefleet.com

If It Walks And Quacks Like a Duck…

When messaging doesn’t matter

Which Podcasts Have Inspired You?

TVO Search Engine

CBC Spark

Vote in the PR “Readers’ Choice” Blog Awards

Is This Your Agency/Client Relationship?

Want Me To Write About Your Stuff? Don’t Lie In Your Pitch

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