Setting corporate strategy for social media is not straightforward. One thing that helps is to have a conceptual model to represent how you want to create value from any social media platform.
M&S seemed a bit slow in using buzz monitoring tools to track a huge Facebook group intent on changing their surcharge policy on bras for bigger busted women. The moral is that digital public relations is a necesssity, not an add-on.
As the mainstream economy needs new models of growth and innovation, so marketeers should adopt digital in a measured way.
There is a common dream (nightmare?) that many people have. You find yourself in a public place and then you realise you are naked. You panic and try and cover yourself or run away. Freudians have a field day with it.
I’ve realised that this is how many brand managers feel when contemplating social media or [...]
The vast majority of corporate websites, for example, have zero ‘personality’. Why should I engage with you rather than your equally knowledgeable competitor? Telling me about your passions would have more effect than changing the corporate typeface.
Juice Digital has created an online network of media, marketing and public relations professionals intent on staying up-to-date in Digital PR and creating best practice.
I remember being miffed when all these new so-called experts appeared. Oi! I was here first. Who are these bloody Tony Parsons and Julie Birchill – what do they know? Where were they when Nick Kent and Charles Shaar Murray were changing the face of music journalism?
I see a similar reaction from some of the early-adopters in digital marketing. A mild resentment towards the new kids on the block (not the band, that is). And a snootiness to old ‘new media’. A fashionable sneer at Facebook here, a condescending shake of the head at the Skittles experiment there. Now that’s only natural human behaviour but, if unrecognised, it can lead to tunnel vision.
The term ‘expert’ in social media is anomalous. Unless you have founded something like Facebook, confine yourself to being a master. However, Digital PR professionals increasingly need to become digitally literate. Ideas and content are still king but you need digital skillsets to maximise their effectiveness.
There’s no point to your online presence if no-one can engage with you. And there’s no point getting customer feedback if you don’t respond, quickly. Don’t be afraid of negative comments – they’re an opportunity to react, respond and turn a negative into a positive.
Someone recently asked the question “All these million searches for things….where did we used to go to get these answers?” When did you last pop into the library to do some research rather than Googling it? BG - before Google