42% of CEOs personally participate in social media = ASTUTE!

45% of CEOs believe social media “in not a relevant channel to reach stakeholders” = BANG HEAD AGAINST WALL

42% of CEOs believe WOM is an influential medium for their company’s reputation (second only to the WSJ) = ASTUTE!

26% of CEOs invest in market research for their PR activities = 74% of CEOs do NOT invest in market research for their PR activities = KEEP BANGING HEAD UNTIL SLOW TRICKLE OF BLOOD LEAVES YOUR NOSE

Returning to our initial finding, however, 67% of CEOs intend to increase the digital budgets of their PR teams in 2009.  This brings us to two interesting derivatives of the inevitable “Why?”

1.  Why would they increase their digital spending in times of an economic downturn?

2.  Why would the PR team be the department deserving of the additional digital dollars?

The first question is one I’ve been asked with increasing frequency as the economy takes on water… “Are you concerned about companies cutting their social media budgets?” I’m frequently asked.  Let me set the record straight here… NO.  I AM NOT.  Why?  For several reasons.

First, because social media is now widely accepted as the way of the future.  It’s not so much a question of IF anymore but rather WHEN a company will get involved in social media (heck - even a whopping 60% of the CEOs recognized that social media’s influence has increased in the past three years… So much for the “head under a rock” theory).

Second, because social media is without a doubt the MOST TRACKABLE communications channel available.  In times of economic downturn things like ad equivalencies, circs, reach, and their counterparts in sister disciplines pale quickly in the “what am I getting for my money” conversation.

Third, social media is CHEAP.  Yes, I said it.  It’s cheap!  For the vast majority of companies it’s still less than a couple percentage points of the overall marketing budget and yet THIS is where everyone’s attention is focused right now.

The latter half of the overarching question - “Why would the PR team be the department deserving of the additional digital dollars?” is answered by the CEOs’ thankfully astute recognition that social media is more effective for corporate reputation building than driving sales.  This bit deserves an entire post unto itself so I won’t go too deep down the rabbit hole here, but let’s quickly raise our glasses to this last recognition.

People don’t like to buy stuff in social media.  It doesn’t matter if your ad agency or your PR firm is running the campaign.  In fact, it’s probably better that your PR firm is running it because with your ad agency you might expect them to drive sales.  Social media is about branding, communication, reputation building and management, and all of the other wonderful things that ensure your company will continue to sell product despite the economic downturn, regardless of the newcomer to the market, and even when you have to cut back on your advertising budget.

Kudos to 67% of America’s CEOs for understanding this most critical component - your digital increase will not be wasted.

No on Prop 8 (in favor of gay marriage):

MySpace

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

In fact, the “No on Prop 8″ social media campaign more than tripled its counterpart “Yes on Prop 8″ in the number of people it reached in these same channels.

Yes on Prop 8 (against gay marriage):

MySpace

Facebook

YouTube

Twitter

Not only did “No in Prop 8″ reach three times more people, it leveraged the tools in a much more masterful way.  Look at Twitter, for instance.  While “Yes on 8″ used Twitter to distribute random and repetitive reminders to support their cause, “No on 8″ empowered thousands of volunteers to use the same Twitter feed.  Their Twitter feed was a-buzz with things like “We need more fliers at Rosecrans and PCH!” and “Yes on Prop 8 supporters rallying at location X, need volunteers here asap!”.  The tactic was effective and not only worked to canvas the state with grassroots-level support at critical locations, it drew online subscribers into the fray as they watched what was going on in the field…

Why then did “Yes on Prop 8″ succeed in California?  Because traditional PR - the ability to craft the message, still prevails in social media.  Gay marriage supporters focused their campaign on getting people to vote “No on Prop 8″.  Gay marriage opponents focused their campaign on getting people to “Protect marriage”.  Can anyone guess which of these messages resonates more strongly with the public?  This is a lesson that was first learned when “Pro-life” came out and caused a dramatic swing in support for the anti-abortion movement.  “Pro-choice” was quickly launched to counterbalance that movement, however.  For Proposition 8, the message was eventually shifted to “Vote no on descrimination” but by that point it was too little too late.

Perhaps the most important messaging lesson from this example, however, is the most often overlooked.  Proposition 8 was a referendum to overturn a current law that allows same sex couples to be married.  Why then was it named the “Gay Marriage” proposition?  Because somebody was savvy enough to understand the confusion that would be caused by asking people to vote No to overturning gay marriage…  Did you follow that?  Correctly worded, Proposition 8 was a referendum to BAN Gay Marriage.  Gay marriage was legal in California.  This was an Anti-Gay Marriage bill that was worded as a “Gay Marriage” bill.  The result?  Total confusion on whether voting “Yes” was in favor of or against gay marriage.  No matter which way your opinions tend, the messaging genius behind “Yes on Prop 8″ was a case study for all of us.

Everybody knows MySpace.com and Facebook.com.  Ever been to Facebook.cm or MySpace.cm?  Possibly… But I bet if you have been it wasn’t on purpose.  That didn’t stop companies like IMVU (an online avatar community) or ViralVideos.org from scooping up the domain names and linking them to trackable landing pages.  The concept?  People don’t always type what they mean to type.  With hundreds of millions of people visiting Facebook.com each month, how many of them might occassionally screw up and forget to type the “o”?  Probably a lot.  And because they are looking for Facebook or MySpace or any number of other similar websites, it makes sense that they would be interested in viral videos or online avatars… Right?

This tactic costs IMVU and ViralVideos.org roughly $10 a year - more if they choose to invest in advanced analytics or custom design for those landing pages.  The potential number of visitors who might be interested in their site’s content?  Who cares - it’s definitely more than $10 worth.

This is a great example of understanding your consumer - where he or she is doing online, what their interests are, and how their online behaviors impact your bottom line.  In fact, it’s a worthwhile exercise for any online marketer… Break your communications platform down by keyword.  Then discover where your audience is living online and predict how their behavior will impact your ability to reach them.  Creative outlets like this are a diamond in the rough for communicators who are constantly trying to break through a perpetually cluttered online environment.

Earlier this week I moderated a PRSA panel that included some really fantastic speakers who I’ve linked below. The panel was a little unusual in that we had 5 (!) panelists and an extra half hour to work with so we decided to deviate a little from the traditional panel format. Instead we led with a case study from each panelist on how their organization has leverage social media to achieve results. Once we’d established the brilliance of each panelist and the experience they offered we moved into Q&A. The panel was diverse and represented high level senior strategists from each organization which offered a really great experience to attendees (credit to Kristen Wareham from Yahoo! for putting the panel together).

Daryl McCullough, CEO of PainePR, led with a case study from how Pampers hosted a weekend-long blogger event at their headquarters in Ohio. The case study included a production-quality video complete with quotes from the brand and bloggers alike. Daryl’s key points were that

1) Social media should (or at least can) be treated as a new iteration of media relations. Bloggers are the new media and should be treated as such.

2) The event was a deviation from Pampers’ traditional strategy in that PainePR forced the brand to step outside their standard messaging which is feature-focused (tightest fit, most absorbent, etc.) and focus instead on humanizing the brand to core influencers who would convey that message downstream.

3) Bringing key influencers into the process helps everybody – Pampers got valuable feedback from key taste makers (boy is that a visual) among the diaper-buying Mommy and Daddy audience.

All great points and a good example of how traditional public relations expertise can prepare practitioners for block and tackle social media outreach. Extra credit goes to Daryl and his team for inspiring (and recognizing the value of) bloggers at the event to band together and create their own widget in support of the brand which was then passed downstream.

Ben Brosseau, Founder and CEO of BrosseauPR, followed Daryl’s presentation with a look at how social media can be used to celebritize a client. The example Ben used was Shauna Style (a name his agency came up with for the client), an eccentric and brash salon owner from Minneapolis who approached Ben’s firm with an explicit desire to be celebritized. Ben delivered the colorful case study by highlighting the website his firm created for Shauna as well as their use of online video. Key points from Ben’s presentation were:

1) Social media can celebritize just about anyone – a salon owner from Minneapolis?? Come on…

2) Online video channels like YouTube can be leveraged as targeted outreach tools to deliver content to key audiences, not just as viral hubs.

3) Once you have good content (Ben’s work got his client cast into a television show), mash it up and repurpose it to further drive results.

This was a great example of how solid interactive assets (an attractive website and viral videos in this case) can either highlight an undiscovered talent or perform the daunting task of “shining a sneaker”. Below is an excerpt from Split Ends – one of the several TV shows Ben’s firm booked Shauna onto… Extra points go to Ben and after watching this video you’ll understand why.

Chris Bechtel, VP of Product Development for iPressroom, followed Ben with a look at how brands across all categories can benefit from leveraging new technologies to segment and connect with their audiences. Chris focused on Whole Foods, an iPressroom client, and how they have leveraged new technologies to cut through the clutter and noise of a crowded social media space. Key points from Chris’ presentation were:

1) Help is out there. As much as you may be still trying to get your hands around social media for your organization there are now agencies and vendors that are wholly dedicated to managing this part of your business.

2) Analysis is key. It’s no longer good enough to just start a podcast for the heck of it – it’s important to analyze your audience first and measure your results after.

3) Social media represents a set of tools that can increase the effectiveness of your communications regardless of whether you are deploying a full fledged social media marketing campaign.

A great presentation and perspective from the only non-agency member of the panel. Chris’ perspective as a vendor who receives feedback from agencies and clients of all sizes and verticals trying to open new doors with social media was a welcomed step back from the tactical insights offered by the other panelists. In other words, in many instances Chris knows what you need to effectively integrate social media into your communications program whether you know it yet or not.

Craig Howe, Founder and CEO of RocketXL, was our fourth panelist. I was unfamiliar with Craig’s shop prior to the panel but must say that I was impressed (those who know me probably just raised an eyebrow… It doesn’t happen easily). Craig offered the side of social media that is often sadly missing from PR-sponsored social media events… Interactive web assets. His case study was the interactive campaign supporting the launch of Guitar Hero 3. This launch posed a familiar challenge for products or brands at the top of the dogpile – anyone who is anyone already knew Guitar Hero 3 was coming… How could they penetrate new audiences for customer acquisition rather than just marketing to the same people who were already going to buy the game anyway? Key points from Craig’s presentation were:

1) RocketXL developed a widgetized advergame (Whaaaa…??? Asks the seasoned PR guy who just got his Outlook sync’d with his Blackberry last week). This means they turned Guitar Hero 3 into an online video game that could be embedded on any blog or website anywhere.

2) They played coy. Craig’s shop leaked information to top gaming bloggers all around the world that SOMETHING was coming on the date the widget was supposed to launch. Nobody knew what was coming, however, and the anticipation heightened bloggers’ receptiveness to the campaign.

3) Measurement is king. Widgets are absurdly trackable assets. Craig reported more than 14,000 websites embedded the widget across dozens of countries and over 30 million consumer impressions.

A bangup case study, and an important one for the forum. Interactive web assets like advergames and widgets are no longer the sole domain of interactive agencies and basement coders. These are important messaging and promotional tools that PR firms need to grow more familiar with. One of the coolest parts of the campaign – and the real “hook” for bloggers, was that the game could be played on a laptop by turning your machine upside down and playing your laptop’s keyboard like a guitar… Sweeeeet. It is important to note in this case study that despite your initial intuition, turning Guitar Hero 3 into an online video game was NOT the obvious or easy approach. If players can get the game on 14,000 websites, why buy it for their console? It’s a challenge we often face – do we democratize our most popular products or force people to make the purchase? In this case Craig’s shop was able to fully capitalize on the campaign by attracting an entirely new and global customer base outside of the core gaming audience… Hat tip to RocketXL.

Our final panelist was Melinda Moore, VP of Consumer Tech for Allison & Partners. Melinda brought a unique perspective to the panel as not just the head of a consumer tech practice but as the lead on YouTube’s own PR team. I was hoping Melinda would take this opportunity to highlight how an actual social media destination is managing their own communications and she did not disappoint. Melinda highlighted a cause marketing initiative YouTube launched with Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas to petition the U.N. in the fight to end world poverty. Key points from Melinda’s case study:

1) YouTube rocks. Ok, you already knew that but it’s worth repeating. The challenge in this case was how to attract new and repeat visitors to YouTube in an age where videos of cats licking puppies just aren’t cutting it anymore. The cause marketing angle was good for the world but also good for bringing passionate consumers to YouTube.

2) User generated content is king ( I know I already said measurement is king so maybe they’re both senators)… But why the hell should Joe Consumer spend time doing it? The video included a call to action to insert yourself into a video in support of the cause and upload it to the campaign’s YouTube channel. Selected user generated videos would be mashed up and actually presented to the United Nations. Whoa.

3) Working with YouTube has its benefits. It’s expensive as can be to run a sponsored campaign on YouTube. If your client IS YouTube, I imagine the costs are lower, however. Personally I have a hard time justifying spending many hundreds of thousands of dollars to sponsor a YouTube campaign when you can do one for free. There is no denying that sponsored campaigns receive more attention, however, primarily thanks to the front page visibility.

Melinda’s presentation included some great points and wrapped our case studies on a high note. One of the things I was keen to point out in summarizing her presentation, however, is that even videos like her example, with a great message (who can disagree with solving world poverty?), celebrity support, and a once in a lifetime opportunity for content creators, find their comment sections riddled with negative commentary. This is life in social media. It’s nothing to be afraid of and more often than not your supporters will prove just as passionate as your detractors and will counter anything negative that is said. As a general rule I like to advise my clients that if we haven’t seen any “haters” in the comments section, our video was a failure (as it likely did not reach enough NEW customers or taste makers to justify its own cost).

The Q&A session went on to address many of the usual suspects like This all sounds B2C, what about B2B? and How do I know which bloggers are important? and the panelists parried their responses back and forth between themselves wonderfully. All in all it was an extremely productive morning and I was glad to see more of the leaders from agency-land in LA getting involved.

]]> http://blog.carryonpr.com/2008/10/18/new-media-tactics-and-trends-%e2%80%93-prsa-panel/feed/ http://blog.carryonpr.com/2008/07/24/social-media-is-not-about-conversation/ http://blog.carryonpr.com/2008/07/24/social-media-is-not-about-conversation/#comments Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:48:03 +0000 Paul Dyer http://blog.carryonpr.com/?p=76 We’ve all heard it time and again… Social Media is about conversation! Says the new guy in the room. Everyone nods in unison. It sounds mysterious and innovative. We’re not marketing to consumers, we’re having a conversation with them! However, conversations end with Goodbye. If that’s not how you want YOUR social media program to end, I suggest you chiggity-check yourself and get with the real program. Social media is about driving business results. Period.

What does that mean for the 87% of social media flacks out there clamoring social media is about conversation! as loud as their blog and panel seats will allow them? It means that if you’re considering hiring them… Don’t. Save your money. The business translation for this statement is I haven’t figured out how to drive business results through social media yet. This is probably because most social media experts are little more than well-versed social media consumers. Social media consumers partake in social channels on their own time, as part of their personal lives. In this regard, social media IS about conversation. This is personal social media. This is just like personal email. Personal email is about conversation. Company email is about driving business results. Likewise, company social media is also about driving business results.

Social media is a fantastic new business opportunity for companies. It can drive sales, awareness, messaging, recall, branding, and any number of other business objectives. It is also a fantastic new business opportunity for PR professionals who have a natural proclivity for the space. However, gone are the days when a company can be successful in social media simply by “doing it’. It’s no longer impressive to host a blog. In many instances and industries it’s expected. As the luster fades from doing social media for the sake of doing it, so does the impetus for companies to dedicate resources to it. Social media can no longer be about “just giving it a shot”. Much as its traditional counterparts, social media is now about driving business results.

So what role DOES conversation play? asks the new guy much more timidly now. Conversation is one of many means to achieving business results in social media. It cannot stand on its own, however. Conversations end with goodbye. If social media is to succeed in the corporate world, it must end with a “good buy”… Ok sorry, that was terrible. Point made, though. Before engaging in any social media campaign it is important to identify your target business objectives. At the end of the campaign if you have a lot of Facebook friends and almost as many unmet objectives, it’s time to retool. This is not personal social media for your company. It’s company social media for business results.

Social media is not a panacea to all your company’s or client’s PR problems.  I repeat, if you employ social media programs, do not expect all the cool kids to come running, embrace your brand and evangelize about you and your products to anyone that will listen.  Infusing social media ideas into your PR plans also cannot help you find your one true love, cannot cure cancer and cannot even help you save a bundle on your car insurance.

Just because social media is out there for the taking (and it’s generally cheap to implement), it doesn’t mean you need to take it.  While it’s easy to watch new movies or brands like Nike and Burger King gain incredible traction with MySpace or Facebook, lightning in a bottle is just that – something that can’t easily be replicated for any old campaign, program or event.  Too often, we hear our clients ask what we can do with blogs and Twitter and Facebook and a million other trendy names, but just as we counsel clients on when and how to send a press release or announcement, it is imperative to help our clients understand when – if at all — it’s right to go with social media programs.

When an organization is overzealous, ignores common sense and refuses to take a step back in order to take a real, hard look at the online landscape, the results are never good.  Putting a MySpace page up just for the sake of it is asinine and dangerous.  A boring page about a boring product or company is worse than nothing at all; the only result is scorn, vitriol, laughter and maybe even worse — zero return on investment.  A good example is The Los Angeles Times’ Twitter page – it’s been updated nearly 2,000 times with breaking news since the account was created.  Too bad it only has an audience of 98 followers.  And you wonder why they say print is dead.

The problem:  social media is really nothing more than a new venue to share news and communicate with key audiences.  This isn’t to say companies and organizations should avoid social media entirely.  To the contrary, there’s little doubt that social media will continue to integrate more and more into our daily consciousness.  From PR people to CEOs, it’s important to keep a vigilant eye on new developments. 

But it needs to be understood that the shotgun approach to social media – blasting everything in your arsenal against the wall and seeing what sticks – is simply not going to bear any PR fruits.  So the next time you’re in a meeting, brainstorm or casual conversation and someone starts bringing up all these brilliant ideas about how to use MySpace and Facebook, take a step back and ask if you have something new, unique and valuable to offer.  After all, you wouldn’t embarrass yourself, your company, or your client with a press release announcing you just scratched your butt.  Because social media can offer new frontiers, it doesn’t mean that butt scratching story is any fresher just because it’s distributed via brand-new Web 2.0 tools. 

There’s great promise in social media for the PR industry, but we need to embrace social media for what it is…and what it isn’t.

We talk a lot, both online and off.  Since an ostensible majority of this discourse in our “connected age” happens online, it follows that phrases from the “real” world slip onto web pages, into videos, vlogs, blogs, Twitters, emails, chats, forums, etc.  Words either remain static in syntax and spelling, like “long tail,” but take on different meaning, or they shift by a few characters to represent a different word entirely, like “phishing,” to convey a different meaning while still drawing on the semantic relationship with the original word (phishing is when cybercriminals “fish” for your information with legitimate looking emails or web pages).  However, my favorite morphology thus far has been the phrase “the Mullet Strategy,” let us explore:   

The phrase seems to have originated with Jonah Peretti, a founder of the Huffington Post who was quoted in a recent article by the New Yorker on the future of print news sources.   The article explains that, like the eponymous hairdo, the Mullet Strategy means, “Business up front, party in the back.”  You might be thinking “What does this have to do with cyberlinguistics and/or more importantly, with media in general?”  Well, Favored Reader, the article goes on to explain how the Mullet Strategy is deployed across the Internet, mostly as a categorization of Web 2.0 companies. In this case specifically, it refers to online news sources like the Huffington Post.  The article continues, “’User-generated content is all the rage, but most of it totally sucks,’ Peretti says. The mullet strategy invites users to ‘argue and vent on the secondary pages, but professional editors keep the front page looking sharp. The mullet strategy is here to stay, because the best way for Web companies to increase traffic is to let users have control, but the best way to sell advertising is a slick, pretty front page where corporate sponsors can admire their brands.’”  The Mullet Strategy then is the business up front of a well designed and tightly controlled home page and the party in back of the unpasteurized and messy bloggers/content providers.  

On another level, the Mullet Strategy represents the tension between traditional ad-rev driven media and emergent forms of social media (user-generated content like blogs, online videos, etc) that in most cases are still clamoring for ways to generate revenue. One must maintain the dignity and integrity of the appearance of the Home(page) to sell a house, despite the kegger raging in the basement.  It’s also no accident that the conceptual space symbolizing the informational backwaters and badlands of the Internet be mapped onto a coiffure, the Mullet, that itself is coded as jocular, and “underclass” (see: www.ratemymullet.com, www.mulletsgalore.com and numerous other humor sites dedicated to the do).  The term is therefore pre-loaded with significance, transferring the ridiculosity (what, I’m not allowed to make up words?) of the Mullet onto the online spaces that the “Mullet Strategy” attempts to describe. Basically, we have recreated the same social codes and mores online that we have offline – just on different people or concepts.  

It will be interesting to follow the trajectory of the term, from a linguistic standpoint, to see what new meanings and social codes the Mullet Strategy adopts.  However, I suspect that as media channels continue to integrate the still relatively “messy” user-generated content and Web 2.0 realms, the mullet will go on, uncut.  Companies across the board will continue to nervously pander to advertisers from the front while anxiously appealing the masses in the back.  Who knows though?  Maybe we will find a smooth and standard way to monetize the messiness and equalize UGC and traditional media, the business and the party.  We may have to move on to different styles of talking and styles of hair…Quick!  Someone figure out how a “Flock of Seagulls” cut is like social networking!  

Hulu.com is a new social video site that represents one of the first major steps toward offering network video content for free online. Hulu is currently only open to a small population of beta testers but should be launching to the public sometime later this year. Here we take a look at the future of both online and network video.

Overview:

Hulu is a joint venture between News Corp. (which also owns MySpace) and NBC Universal. It offers programming from partners Bravo, E! Entertainment, FX Networks, Sci Fi Network, Sundance Channel, USA Networks, and more. Popular network shows like SNL, Family Guy, Heroes, and Prison Break are all available for free through the site. Check out a complete list of current network partners and available shows here.

Initial Thoughts:

Our first reaction is (no pun intended) Bravo! Finally a good move from the big guys to enter the social video scene. Not only does Hulu make network programming available online, it enables users to share it via an embed code similar to YouTube. Want to embed your favorite episode of Family Guy on your MySpace page? You can. At least we expect you will be able to. Presently there are only 3 episodes available from Family Guy, all of which are from the most recent season. Whatever content is on Hulu CAN be embedded, however. What if you don’t want to embed an entire show on your profile? No problem, Hulu allows you to clip just your favorite scene straight out of the episode and embed away. Can we say it again? Bravo.

Walk Through:

For a quick walk through of the platform check out the below screencast:

When watching Hulu videos on a high speed connection they played flawlessly and immediately. When testing Hulu on a Sprint air card for broadband anywhere, however, it was never able to get past buffering. By comparison, a video on YouTube will play somewhat choppily right when you open it or else buffer rather quickly and then play seamlessly. I’m sure the higher resolution of Hulu videos (the full screen version looks great) makes for much heavier data streams. Regardless, given the backing behind the site I’m sure they will have any bandwidth problems ironed out before going live to the public.

To complete the review, here is an embedded clip from the popular Family Guy clips on Hulu… The Salesman/Peter interactions are always priceless:

To begin somewhat cheekily let’s dissect the term, “social media.” Sounds sort of like a combination of “society” and the “media.” In fact, it could very easily be reiterated as a combination of the “public” and the “media,” wouldn’t you say? Makes me wonder, had the industry simply coined the Web 2.0 phenomenon “Public Media” rather than “Social Media,” would this three-legged race between PR, marketing, and advertising even exist? Who would argue that a new iteration of the media (blogs, user reviews) and the public (social networking pages, user-generated content) was anything but public relations? Assigning an ad agency to manage your Public Media campaign would be like aiming to get a spot on the Today Show and deciding that a billboard en route to NBC studios was the best method of attaining it.

For a starting point let’s create a working definition for business’s role in social media. How about:

Fostering an organization’s ability to strategically listen to, appreciate, and respond to those persons whose mutually beneficial relationships with the organization are necessary if it is to achieve its missions and values.

If that works for you as a definition for a business’ place in social media then read no further. In actuality, that is the definition of public relations as set forth in Robert Heath’s Encyclopedia of Public Relations. You’ve got to admit it bears a strong resemblance to what most organizations ought to be striving for in social media. That said, it is true social media campaigns require skills commonly associated with advertising and marketing as well. Who then is best suited to take ownership of the campaign at large? Wikipedia defines the three practices as follows:

Advertising is a communication whose purpose is to inform potential customers about products and services and how to obtain and use them. Many advertisements are also designed to generate increased consumption of those products and services through the creation and reinforcement of brand image and brand loyalty.

Marketing is a societal process which discerns consumers’ wants, focusing on a product or service to fulfill those wants, attempting to mold the consumers toward the products or services offered. Marketers are tasked with creating consumer awareness of products or services through marketing techniques.

Public relations (PR) is the management of internal and external communication of an organization to create and maintain a positive image. Public relations involves popularizing successes, downplaying failures, announcing changes, and many other activities.

What makes social media interesting is that a successful campaign involves understanding consumers and molding them in a way that aligns with your product (marketing), managing communications to create and maintain a positive image (PR) and informing consumers about products or services (advertising). Likewise the skill sets associated with practitioners of each – research/demographics (marketing), communications/messaging (public relations), and creatives/collateral (advertising) are all valuable in the social media realm. Let’s look at what each practice contributes to a social media campaign.

Marketing: Understanding your audience and molding your consumer has historically been a complicated process. Traditional focus groups, surveys and research were time consuming, expensive, and had the potential to be entirely misleading if not handled expertly… That was of course before the web. These days web analytics can tell us exactly who is visiting a website, with what frequency, which pages are most popular, what the site’s overall demographic is, where else they go online, what keywords they search for, which brands they have an affinity for, how much time they spend online, etc. etc. etc. The available information is akin to Best Buy taking a three-page survey of every single person who entered their store, regardless of whether they made a purchase or not, and cutting up the data a dozen different ways. The marketer’s responsibility in defining the consumer and discerning his or her wants is significantly lessened thanks to technology.

Advertising: Designing creatives and collateral that are visually compelling will always be an important part of communications. In social media, that need is expanded because almost all aspects of a campaign require graphics, flash, and even video content. However, this is where the role of an advertiser is more a necessary evil than a central component of a social media campaign. Social media revolves around UGC – User Generated Content (all of it altruistically branded, compelling and extremely viral of course), which extends far beyond the company’s resources to create itself. Advertisers are limited to what I call BGC – Brand Generated Content. This content has its place, but at the end of the day it is still content that is created by the brand (be it by the company or its agency) and pushed in front of consumers just like traditional advertisements. Extremely well crafted ads can spawn spoof UGC content, but for the most part advertisements are a brief, self-serving announcement with little opportunity for interaction or sustainable engagement. This is exemplified in Wikipedia’s definition of advertising:, “…informing potential consumers about products and services,” is a pervasive mentality in advertising that allows little room for dialogue. If you haven’t seen the humorous YouTube video on “The Break Up” with advertising, check it out.

Public Relations: Managing communications to create and maintain a positive image – the hallmark of PR professionals, is the strategy on which all good social media campaigns are based. The influencers may have changed from journalists to bloggers or other social influencers, but the strategy is still to reach those influencers with a compelling message, have a dialogue, and foster a positive public image. The promise of social media is dialogue with consumers – the advertiser’s role neglects this promise and the marketer’s role is lessened thanks to technology. The PR practitioner’s role in crafting a message, building relationships with key influencers, and fostering a positive public image is the cornerstone of a successful social media campaign.

To come full circle, admittedly social media campaigns do require aspects of all three traditional practices. However, the strategy and campaign ownership needs to come from the public relations practitioner. Still not convinced because you have a great viral video created by your Ad agency? Fantastic! Give it a shot; try posting it to YouTube without creating any dialogue or developing a communications strategy. Next step? Cross your fingers. That’s about the best you can do. If you want to reap the rewards of true engagement with consumers you need to leverage that content as part of a properly conceived dialogue with relevant influencers. If you want to reach the end game of serving as a branded conduit for meaningful consumer-to-consumer dialogue that messaging strategy needs to be executed with perfection. Brand Generated Content is great as a starter log, but communications managed by PR professionals is the match that has to touch all corners of the wood pile before you can really get a fire going. For a list of other peoples’ position on the subject, check out the following:

http://buddingpublicrelations.blogspot.com/2007/08/advertising-and-pr-in-social-media.html

http://pr.typepad.com/pr_communications/2007/08/is-social-media.html

http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/blog/2007/11/13/social-media-pr-advertising-or-none-of-the-above/

http://getgood.typepad.com/getgood_strategic_marketi/2007/10/the-lines-they-.html

http://pop-pr.blogspot.com/2007/10/pr-will-lose-social-media-to.html

I recently read an article by Paul Holmes titled A Manifesto for the 21st Century Public Relations Firm where he very succinctly recapped the Internet revolution and the role of PR, advertising, etc.

His basic premise was that one discipline can never claim ownership of the online medium, but that public relations has failed so far to even make a case for its rightful leadership in developing strategies to help clients make the most of the medium.

The reason he called it “rightful leadership” was because the Internet is really and truly a public relations medium – all about information and education and it gave everyone the opportunity to earn attention. And if something smelled funny, you can call B.S and share your POV on the subject. And now, with the second generation of the Web (buzz word: Web 2.0) being all about community and sharing, I think we all in the industry are fiddling and tweaking and brainstorming and recommending and uncovering (little by little) authentic communication strategies.

With that said, Mr. Holmes’ theory that PR needs to take its rightful throne is truly inspiring, and should be for all of us in the industry, and to those PR students sitting in their PR classes.

How are we going do it? And how will the next generation help us?

I leave you with this thought.

I can’t wait for the day a 21-year old intern comes in for an interview without a single iota of “PR experience” on their resume. Instead, their sales pitch is, “Well, I do have 10 + years of firsthand experience developing UGC content and sharing it with friends, plus bookmarking stuff I like on my del.ic.ious page. I also like to share video and photos with all my friends from my mobile phone. Did I mention I have a personal blog where I review gadgets just for fun? I think it gets about one million views a week.”

You see, PR is not like sports, where a rookie stud can come in and hit 50 homeruns and become a leader right away. In PR, unfortunately maybe, there is a “climb the ranks” approach. But with social media becoming so important, I can almost see the day where the hotshot graduate shoots right up to the clean-up spot in the lineup because they can flat out rake (that’s baseball lingo for hit the ball well).

In fact, I think we are there now…