There is a great blog post on Social Media Philippines that touches on the actions that will create a failure, when it comes to social media. It’s worth a read.
Last week I attended and participated in a presentation given by our friend and colleague Della Smith of Q Workshops. This presentation was focused on how you include social media in your overall communications strategy. What I like about this presentation is that it provides a roadmap of what you should do, as well as showcases what not to do. Della and I present a specialized workshop for organizations where we walk clients through developing or updating their communications plan to include social media. Our approach is always to work with our client to design a proactive plan that includes reactive components, blending traditional communications with social media.
I had a call with a potential client the other day that got me thinking. They are a national organization with their head office based in Vancouver and they are looking for a Vancouver-based PR agency. It’s always interesting to me what external perception is of AHA. During this conversation, I probed to uncover their needs, but also their concerns about a Vancouver PR agency handling campaigns and initiatives out east.
We’re a boutique agency, which really is just another way of saying we’re small. This potential client wanted to make sure that we felt comfortable dealing with media out east and that we understood the culture differences between Vancouver and Toronto. I grew up in downtown Toronto and spent the first half of my career there, so I was able to put that worry away quite easily. They were also surprised and impressed that we have a senior team member in Toronto. (Just for the record, we also have someone in Calgary too.)
For the most part, much of the national media is in Toronto. It is important to build strong relationships for our agency, and especially our clients, in the major markets across the country. Just because we’re a Vancouver PR agency shouldn’t – and doesn’t – limit us.
Now, the particular person I was speaking with had some other concerns that came up in our conversation, which I found interesting. Her organization had worked with a much larger agency in the past. The Vancouver PR agency had their head office in Toronto and they found that to be a bit of a challenge. It felt to her like she had two agencies on her account rather than it being a seamless blending of west and east coast skills and expertise. I don’t think this happens all the time, but it is one of the things that I believe makes AHA a good choice for some clients. When we have a campaign, there is always an AHA partner as the lead. Whether it’s a Vancouver, BC, or national outreach – either Paul or myself are actively involved.
Maybe it’s because we’re travellers here in the AHA office; we get around Canada, the U.S. and the world quite a bit. Toronto doesn’t seem so far away to me. And having the lovely and smart Lori on the ground there gives us an advantage, the same with having Kim in Calgary. We’re plugged in; we can see the big picture without ignoring the local angle.
We might be considered a Vancouver PR agency, but I see us more as a great Canadian PR agency.
Mat Wilcox of Wilcox Group announced yesterday that she is closing her shop. In the world of a Vancouver PR agency, that’s big news. There have been several iconic Vancouver PR agencies close over the past year, including our good friends at QUAY Strategies.
The women that began these agencies are smart and innovative and are moving on to different chapters of their lives. I think it is important for those of us who have learned from them, looked up to them and modeled ourselves after them in so many different ways to take a moment to acknowledge their contribution to PR in Vancouver.
They have changed perception of PR professionals from one of people who run events to one of being strategic partners that have earned a seat at the executive table. They have mentored and inspired many, many people in the world of PR and have made an indelible imprint on the PR industry in Canada.
There are many sides to what we do as PR people… one of the areas that has come out of social media is Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Don’t get me wrong, we are a Vancouver PR agency – not SEO specialists. We have taken the time to learn about SEO and how it relates to what we do for our clients, but theory and practice are two different things. We’re always trying to upgrade our knowledge and skill sets and with this in mind, we thought that we would try a small experiment with SEO. And we hope that you will indulge us.
AHA Creative Strategies is a Vancouver PR agency with clients throughout North America. Currently when you Google “AHA” or “AHA Creative” – you find us pretty easily. When you search Vancouver PR agency, we’re not in the first few links that you see and we would like to be. As a PR agency, we spend a great deal of time developing news releases, news briefs, web articles and other online content that are written with SEO in mind. For AHA, our outreach consists mainly with this blog and our AHA Twitter and Facebook accounts. So – how do we move ourselves up the Google and Bing search rankings under “Vancouver PR agency?”
There are many discussions online and, I am sure, in offices all over the world, about what BP is doing regarding its crisis communications. It has been a very hot topic in the AHA office as well.
One of the key points in our discussions is how much the world has changed because of social media. Technology and the online conversations happening all over the world mean that, as communicators, we have to evolve how we deal with an issue or a crisis.
There are many articles and blog posts out there about the crisis and people are weighing in with their opinions. Check Twitter and search BP or @BP or #oilspill and you can see how much information is out there, how many opinions are given and just what people are thinking.
An article in Ad Age discusses whether the firm doing BP’s crisis communications is doing it well. I think there have been a lot of mistakes made, not necessarily by the agency – but overall. Let me clearly say that unless you are behind those closed doors and a part of the strategy discussions, it’s hard to know why a strategy was developed or why certain decisions were made.
Time Magazine has a great piece on the crisis and it goes into why there is now a lack of trust between almost any stakeholder (which is really anyone who cares about the environment, the ocean, the fish and animals who live on Gulf Coast) and BP. Once you lose that credibility, it is almost impossible to get it back. And, whether it is all accurate or not, BP is getting slammed in traditional media and online (and I would bet at water coolers, in pubs and coffee shops around the world) for almost everything that they do. The thing is, right now, it doesn’t matter whether the information is accurate or not, it’s out there and perception is everything.
The Onion also has a good, in-your-face piece entitled Massive Flow of Bull Sh*t Continues to Gush From BP Headquarters.
This is a huge environmental crisis and one that people care deeply about. I have searched to find answers – and I can’t find them anywhere – for the most basic questions that everyone wants to know. Without answers to these basic questions, how do they expect to maintain any credibility?
How this could have happened?
Why there wasn’t an operational plan in place – one that they KNOW would work – to fix an oil leak if there was one?
As for the credibility and trust crisis facing BP, their reputation is severely damaged. Rumours that they are using Search Engine Optimization so that when you type in oil spill, you also get their side of the story haven’t been substantiated yet, but it’s something I would recommend to a client. The thing is, no matter how you get your information out, you have to have a credible story that shows your stakeholders that the crisis is important to you and that you are doing everything possible.
I don’t think that any tools or tactics, whether their traditional or social media-based, can do anything for an organization that isn’t ready to be transparent, admit their mistakes and do whatever it takes to make it right. Social media has changed everything because we can now share information globally in a matter of seconds. If the worst-case scenario happens, like it has in the Gulf oil disaster, it is only a matter of minutes before your organization will begin to lose credibility. Without the trust and support of your stakeholders, what do you have?
Last week I attended and participated in a presentation given by our friend and colleague Della Smith of Q Workshops. This presentation was focused on how you include social media in your overall communications strategy. What I like about this presentation is that it provides a roadmap of what you should do, as well as showcases what not to do. Della and I present a specialized workshop for organizations where we walk clients through developing or updating their communications plan to include social media. Our approach is always to work with our client to design a proactive plan that includes reactive components, blending traditional communications with social media.
