So, with the social media movement in full swing, I decided to attend the recent 2011 Sydney Social Business Summit in a bid to broaden my knowledge of online media and pick up handy transferrable tips and tricks for Blue by Red PR clients. The summit, which took place in London, Singapore, Austin and Sydney, provided an opportunity for business professionals to hear from International thought leaders from Dachis Group, Virgin Blue, IBM Australia and Cisco System, on the topic of social media for businesses. Here are some of my learning’s which I’m already putting in to practice with a number of clients…
Social Media: The Facts!
The importance of social media is growing rapidly. With 10million people on Facebook in Australia (60% visit the site daily), businesses are becoming more and more aware of the benefits of being socially active online.
Social media is becoming a very strong mode of communication through its ability to shape social trends and create change by reaching out to consumers, key influencers and clients. Where traditional media is about watching, and digital media is about watching online, social media is about doing, creating, posting, shaping and discussing!
The rise of social media is a scary time for businesses as it means the implementation of a dreaded word…change! Businesses, whether they like it or not, are having to alter and update their strategies (both internally and externally), in order to adapt to this new, powerful tool in order for them to reap its true benefits.
The author of ‘The Power of Pull’, John Hagel III, offers the following advice to businesses exploring and implementing, social media: “We have to be willing to risk looking like we don’t know what we’re doing. We’ve got to wean ourselves from overdependence on the expertise we’ve laboured too hard to accumulate”. Put simply, Mr Hagel III is saying that businesses need to step out of their comfort zone and move away from ‘pushing and enforcing ideas on clients and consumers, to pulling, creating and seeking out new tools from which to gain connections, brand awareness and essentially…power!
Yet, with more than 30 billion pieces of brand/company exposure on Facebook per month, the question is….How can businesses and PR agencies get a piece of the cake?
The key to a successful media strategy lies in a company’s ability to identify, and attract, its target audience, as well as its skill in implementing its ideas and retaining its followers and fans. The following two social media campaigns are great examples of successful projects which reached out to their target audiences, effectively promoting ‘good hype’ around each initiative.
United Nations – 2010 Security Jam – http://www.securitydefenceagenda.org/
The 2010 Security Jam was launched in a bid to engage stakeholders from all walks of life to get fresh and realistic ideas about international security in the 21st century. With 3, 815 registered participants from 124 countries, the Security Jam was a global forum to debate the changing international security landscape.
The approach became a ‘worldwide debate’, which shaped strategic thinking in the EU and NATO, helping them to develop future policies and initiatives. The activity culminated in a report which provided ten security recommendations.
Within five days, the 2010 Security Jam gained:
- 4,000 participants
- 10,000 log-ins
- The involvement of 124 countries
Virgin Blue – 4320 L.A – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=As-3xu-YZOA
Virgin Blue ran a very successful social media competition (4320.LA.com) as a way to promote the airlines new international operations (Virgin Blue was previously only a domestic service). This particular social media strategy is a great example of the company’s social media mantra:
“Tell me and I’ll forget
Show me and I may remember
Involve me and I’ll understand”
The airline gave a fan, plus friends, the chance to fly to L.A and tweet every minute for 72 hours. The competition was launched as a response to customer insight which found that many Australians felt L.A was too far away.
The competition’s aim was to promote L.A as the ideal destination for a long weekend. By the winners tweeting every minute for 72 hours, it proved just how much you could do in such a short space of time, promoting the fact that travel to L.A was accessible, relatively cheap and did not require lots of holiday leave.
The competition gained lost of coverage in the press and built up their twitter following, providing Virgin Blue with the perfect platform from which to reach key customers and promote their new offering. Testament to Virgin Blue’s social media proficiency, their fanbase on Facebook currently stands at 37,573, while their twitter has 22, 624 followers.
So, now you know the importance of social media, how do you make it work for your business?
Here are some top tips for businesses to think about before boarding the social media train:
- Think about your client or businesses aims and what you hope to achieve.
- Make sure all twitter and Facebook updates are engaging followers and fans. If the information’s not worth forwarding on an email, don’t put it on Facebook! Remember, you want to create ‘good’ noise about your project or company, not negative reactions. Social media has the capacity to catapult your company, client or idea out to the world but please remember, not all news is good news. Once information’s out there on the net there little way to conceal it.
- Social media has to be an endorsed approach – be sure to talk your ideas through with your client to ensure they have confidence in your activity and recognise the benefits of social media for their company. Through continuing to involve your client you will also be able to ensure your messaging is sincere and sets the correct tone and content for the business.
- Earn attention for your brand. Social media (emails, twitter, Facebook) runs as an attention stream. E.g ‘I did this, I did that’. You want your brand/company to be talked about and to engage with people but remember that people are essentially using social media as a way to talk about their experiences and thoughts, rather that other people’s ideas and news, so always remember to reward followers and fans with incentives every now and again to show your appreciation for their support.
- Think about what your Facebook/twitter page is asking followers/fans to do. It’s very easy to get pulled into social media without asking yourself, or your client, what you hope to achieve. Be sure to identify early on what your goals are and how your will monitor your progress. e.g. through the number of website hits, product sales, interaction etc.
So, whether you tweet, post, blog or Flickr, don’t miss your stop, jump on the social media train…it’s moving fast! 🙂
Follow Blue by Red PR and Red PR on twitter and Facebook – we promise to keep you up to date with lots of exciting news, gossip and insight!
