Jun 17, 2008 in Public Relations
We’re at a time in the North America where many companies are re-calibrating their marketing programs to focus on value. This is common and is a good thing. Ideas get tired. Priorities shift. But during an economic slowdown, attention often shifts to cost control. Marketing and communication departments (and agencies) make a case for their business and organizations decide where they’re going to get the greatest value.
As a lead strategist at Fleishman-Hillard on the Digital side of our business, we are reinforcing the need for focus on the current communication climate and the future of the customers’ frame of reference. More people turn online for information and this is not changing any time soon. It will become more pronounced.
The worst thing a company can do today is stop communicating online or ignore their Web presence. When the economy returns to full-strength, it will be obvious which companies really value their role in their customers’ lives. A glut or “dark period” in online content and visibility may reflect poorly and have an impact on long-term reputation.
Stay in the game. Digital communications are cost-effective. They have a direct impact on corporate visibility and brand positioning. Consistent digital communications and a sustainable social media strategy will keep you top of mind and aligned with the future direction of marketing and communications.
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Mar 02, 2008 in Public Relations
Recently our team was conducting an online editorial outreach campaign for a food client. Food bloggers if you don’t know are a talented bunch. They write. They cook. They’re creative. And they only bite (pardon the pun) on something of interest. We never really know how a campaign is going to turn out but we know that anything we can do to get food bloggers closer to a product or culinary experience, the better chance we have of helping them further their interest in our clients and their products.
Our recent campaign hit s stumbling block though. It was slow out of the gates, which is pretty normal when you’re dealing with writers who take the time to research and delicately craft their content. We like this. In addition to a slow progression, our client issued a product recall (nothing major or life threatening) related to one of the items we were promoting. We immediately notified our contacts who had expressed interest in using the product. We wanted to ensure that they weren’t blind sided by any news they might come across. We also wanted to ensure that they had all of the information from our client and the FDA. As some of the stories we generated started to appear, at least one comment emerged citing the recall. Our contact (without any prodding) responded quickly and accurately with factual information.
This episode got us thinking, how do you measure the value of this type of transparency and accountability of a third party? Our campaign hit in tandem with news of the recall, but much of the social media content secured higher rank in search engines like Google and Yahoo. In fact, at the height of the recall news, the product reviews, recipes and contests associated with our campaign accounted for five of the top ten results on Google. Only one recall story made it through to the first page. The recall news is important public information, but it could affect consumer opinions of the product. This in essence meant that people searching the product name would come across more favorable “endorsements” and opinions on the product.
Our client could never have paid for this type of credibility through advertising. In this instance, a simple exercise in product promotion became a major achievement in brand protection. I think the real measure is that this was invaluable. There is no price tag you can place on this sort of success.
How would you measure something like this? What is the real value of social media placements? Some of the factors to be considered include:
- Prominent visibility on first page of product search results on Google and Yahoo
- 100% positive product reviews and third party endorsements
- A potential audience base of more than 1.5 million readers/viewers
- An average of 20 comments (again, largely positive or neutral) per blog placement
This becomes more of a “what if” scenario to showcase risk mitigation given the product recall situation, but what is the real value from a brand reputation perspective?
Technorati Tags: roi, social media measurement, seo, reputation management
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Dec 11, 2007 in Events, Social Media, Public Relations
I attended the first Social Media Breakfast in NYC this morning. Great bunch of people. Quote of the day from “Eric Reuters”: “Success breeds competition.” Here are some photos.
B.L. Ochman (with whom I had the pleasure of enjoying breakfast) has prepared a good summary: Don’t Give Up on Second Life, Eric Reuters Tells NY Social Media Breakfast. I also had a chance to reconnect with Heath Row who I hadn’t seen since his days with Fast Company at one of his early Company of Friends events in Toronto.
It was a great way to start the day. See more event photos on Flickr.
Technorati Tags: smbnyc, social media, social media breakfast, socialmediabreakfast
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