Public Relations Archives - Page 40 of 53

Blogger Relations

When I worked for Maclean’s magazine, we used to have story meetings to decide what got into the magazine and what didn’t. I can remember thinking that it was a shame that so many stories didn’t make it. It was just a space issue. These days, we’re still up against space issues and it is more competitive than ever in getting good stories told.

It is one of the reasons we started our Vancouver PR firm – to help our clients tell their stories in an authentic, engaging manner. Bloggers are a huge part of PR and I think that understanding how to work with bloggers is an important PR skill. Bloggers are different than journalists, but equally important. Just as we wouldn’t approach every journalist the same way, you shouldn’t generically approach bloggers either…

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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.

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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.

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The New York Times has an excellent in-depth article focused on crisis communications. For anyone in communications and PR, it’s worth a read. It’s long – 5,200 words – and it’s interesting. That The New York Times would produce an article this long says something about the importance and value of this topic and, of course, the flat out interest in it.

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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?

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