AHA Take

I know that I begin to sound a little like a broken record when I say this, but one of the most crucial social media lessons we put forward to clients is that social media is one component of communications and should be integrated into an overall communications strategy.

Everyone in our Vancouver PR agency (including our crew in Calgary and Toronto) view social media as a component of what we provide to clients. I was sitting in a meeting with a client last week discussing social media and from the discussion, it was clear to me that one of the individuals at the table saw social media as something completely different than what it is. He viewed it as a stand-alone “thing” (his words) that the organization has no control over. In his mind, social media is to be feared.

Now, to be fair, this individual heads up a large division that is all about rules and regulations and he isn’t a communicator. However, for the overall organization, it is important that he and others that feel the same way are provided with information about social media, including the opportunities and risks that come with participating. I also have to say that I feel strongly that for many organizations, there is more risk attached to not participating than there is in engaging their stakeholders.

I think one of the lessons that is crucial for a communicator to learn is that not everyone in your organization is as tuned in or aware of the benefits of social media as you might be. Understanding that within your leadership there may be challenges is important. Providing your senior executive with relevant information, case studies and examples of positive social media usage – and potentially the challenges you might face if you aren’t participating – is an important step.

AHA Flip Cam Friday

In today’s video, Ruth talks about positively disrupting people’s day.

Sarah Hartshorn has a good post on Social Media Today that outlines 5 Steps To Create A Social Media Plan. If you are considering including social media in your communications plan, it’s worth a read.

AHA Take

In the past few months, in our Vancouver PR agency, we’ve had the opportunity to develop several social media plans for clients. And Sarah’s first point on picking your marketing objectives is where we always start – although we focus on identifying your communications objectives.

A few months back, we had a meeting with a client in Vancouver about their PR needs and social media was a big topic for them. When we asked what the communications objectives were, they weren’t quite sure at that point. And, in fact, were a little thrown off by the question in relation to social media. They were used to identifying objectives when it came to traditional communications initiatives, but they were approaching social media a little differently. It was more about jumping on the bandwagon, rather than about what they wanted to achieve.

We took them back a few steps, asked them to leave social media out of the picture for the moment and focused on what their overall communications objectives were. Once we had defined the objectives, we then began to delve into understanding who their target market is. Once we identified their target market, we broke that down into the components of how their target market would like to receive information and whether they were engaged in social media. After all, there isn’t any point in reaching out on social media to people who aren’t participating.

It turns out that the organization needed a range of communications vehicles to reach their target market. And, at this point, social media wasn’t at the top of the list of where the target market was engaging. This was changing, but not to the extent where social media would be one of the key elements of the initial communications outreach.

Social media is a valuable tool for communicators, but it has to be used strategically, in support of achieving your overall communications objectives. It is important to go back to the foundation of communications strategy and planning. Define the objectives, identify the stakeholders and understand within their environment, how they want to engage. Then as an organization, you can meet their needs and expectations for information and dialogue.

The Era of the Virtual Agency

In today’s video, Ruth talks about how a virtual agency brings together the right people at the right time for the client.

You may have seen the video of a woman in Britain who, for no apparent reason, picked up a friendly cat and put it in a garbage can. Links to this video were emailed all over the world, it was uploaded to Facebook and YouTube and the clip appeared on a range of broadcast news shows.

AHA TAKE

Apart from shaking our heads at the cruelty involved – the poor cat was stuck in the garbage for about 18 hours – and the seemingly randomness of this nasty act, there are a couple of things that a communicator can take away from this video.

1. If the wired in world are interested in something, they share it. Positive or negative, if it catches the attention of a few people, it gets sent on and on and on. I got this video sent to me five times yesterday from people all over the world – people that weren’t connected to each other, just to me. Think about the risk and the opportunity in this. It’s huge!

1. You never know when you are being videotaped. This mean act was caught on a home security tape. Clearly, the women didn’t realize it was there. Think about how many cell phones are now enabled with video. In fact, it’s our understanding that they don’t even make cell phones without at least a camera anymore. We’re all human and we do things that we wouldn’t want put up on YouTube. What does that mean for a CEO, senior executive or board member? You can’t publicly step out of line with an organization’s values and think that at some point, somewhere, it isn’t going to be discovered and, may be, uploaded to YouTube.

What do you think? What else can we learn from this video?

I read (and reread) The New York Times article on crisis communications with interest. I want to repeat what I wrote yesterday – for anyone who works in communications, this article is worth a read.

AHA Take

I don’t agree with every expert quoted in the piece, but not agreeing is a good thing. It makes you step back and review why you think the way you do.

One of the experts in this article explains that sometimes, there is nothing you can do when a crisis hits except take your hits and get back to business; that sometimes you can’t get out in front of an issue or a crisis (I am paraphrasing here). He uses the Tiger Woods crisis as an example.

I disagree – specifically with the examples cited in this article. We wrote a blog post on Tiger Woods a while back and I still believe that had Tiger communicated more openly and admitted that he had affairs and explained what he was going to do about it, this crisis may have had a different outcome. Now, we’re still seeing women who claim they had an affair with Tiger come out of the woodwork.

While I agree that stepping up, admitting what happened truthfully and taking responsibility won’t necessarily absolve an executive, celebrity or anyone from what they did (and it shouldn’t), not taking responsibility can damage your brand further. There is a new level of expectation, of transparency and openness that isn’t going away that social media supports and expands. Every situation is different and should be approached that way. But, secrecy, dishonesty and outright lies will come back and damage you, sometimes worse than the original crisis.

One of the other key points that jumped out at me in this article is that what the CEO or senior executive thought they were communicating was not always what was received by the community they were speaking to. That’s one of the huge challenges – you know what you want to tell people and you share the information in a way that you think is appropriate, but human beings have a funny way of being…well, human. We want to hear what we want to hear, not necessarily what you want us to hear.

Having BP’s Tony Hayward in front during the current crisis might have looked great on paper, but anyone who has travelled to the Gulf knows what an incredibly unique culture that region has. Having a somewhat arrogant CEO with a British accent suit up and talk “at” people just wasn’t going to fly in that area. Even if Tony Hayward had the best intentions, his delivery was all wrong for the people of the Gulf Coast. It has its own culture and it seemed that no one took that into consideration. Add to the disconnect the fact that BP looked like it was downplaying how much oil was spilling into the Gulf, what it meant to the people there and the environment and, almost from day one, BP had it’s back against the wall.

At the end of the article, the point (and it’s a good one) is made that no matter what, you need to have a crisis plan in place. Especially in this day and age, it is a crucial component of an organization’s strategy.

In today’s AHA Flip Cam Friday video, Ruth talks about communication. It’s more about what your audience hears, than what you say.

Kevin Barenblat has a great piece on how to choose a social media partner on Imediaconnection.com.  He outlines 10 questions to ask if you are considering working with a consultant or agency for your social media outreach. It’s a good article and worth reading if you are considering bringing on social media assistance.

AHA Take

I think that we, at AHA, bring an interesting perspective and specific expertise to our approach to the social media initiatives that we develop for clients. We are a PR agency, not social media marketers, and we view the world from a different perspective. While we work to achieve the campaign goals and objectives, our approach is one that is public relations founded, rather than with a marketing focus. That means that we are also cognizant of any potential risk that might be associated with an organization participating in social media and have the skills and ability to help mitigate and manage that risk in respect to communication.

Social media has blurred the lines between marketing, PR/communications and operations. It provides an opportunity for collaboration throughout your organization. And there are incredible opportunities as well as potential risk attached, so you want to make sure that you are strategic about how your organization uses social media.

One of the questions that Kevin recommends asking is: How will you measure ROI? Measurement is a challenge that communicators have faced for years. Back in the day, we used to measure media clips. Even though that didn’t really showcase the value, it was one of the few tools that we, as PR people, had.  The world has changed drastically and providing editorial/advertising value doesn’t work anymore. It’s important, we believe, to understand what your objectives are and to define how you will measure return on investment (and success) relevant to your objectives. Social media demands that you put the information into context and not just take numbers and minutes on your website, it includes engagement, connection and the development of relationships. It can be measured and it should be – regularly. If you aren’t monitoring, measuring and analyzing how people are engaging with your organization through social media and what value that brings on a regular basis, you can’t refine, adjust and improve. Measurement is important.

What questions do you ask potential social media partners?

There is a very interesting post on Ragan.com. They ask whether an intern at your organization could – and should – be charged with handling social media. That is a really good question, and one that sparked a great deal of discussion at our Vancouver PR agency.

AHA Take

This is a subject that I feel quite strongly about. I don’t think an intern should run your social media, but I do believe that interns and other junior staffers can – and should – participate in your social media initiatives. We often encourage clients to create reverse-mentoring opportunities where a junior or intern works with a more senior staffer and helps them to navigate the online world. This way, the junior person learns from the senior person and vice versa.

Even with a strong strategic communications plan that includes social media, for the most part, an intern or junior staffer doesn’t have the wisdom, experience or the training to manage your online communications. I think that sometimes we think “social media” and have visions of young “20-somethings” in our heads and we forget that social media is just another avenue of communication.

The Ragan piece puts forward a very solid point, one that we often discuss with clients. Would you let an intern speak to media or write your organization’s newsletter without guidance and supervision? Would you let this person be the voice of your organization in other platforms? If you wouldn’t, handing off social media to an intern just doesn’t make sense.

One of the key points that we discussed here at AHA is that there is a perception that social media is free and therefore, it often falls down the food chain of communications efforts. We, at AHA, disagree. Social media is one of the strongest communications tools that many organizations have today. It is crucial that how you participate in social media is seen as a key component of your overall communications strategy, not just some little exercise you hand off to an intern.

It is definitely an interesting debate.

We would love to know what you think.

In today’s AHA Flip Cam Friday video, Ruth talks about what to do if there are negative conversations about your organization on social media sites.