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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

Soulati-'TUDE!

Archives for November 2010

Before You Blog

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Blogging is a journey. I just read Chris Brogan’s blog post today about how he writes 4,000 words daily and inspires you “how to write three blogs a day.”

For 99.9% of us, that ain’t happening; nor is it necessary. A blog post a day is ideal, and for 50% of us that ain’t happening, either!! So what’s a blogger to do?

Before you blog for real, you need to take into consideration the following:

  • A blog does not stop needing attention. It’s a living, breathing communication channel that requires nurturing. That daily pressure can be a deal breaker for those who cave under that responsibility.
  • Understand that subscribers and numbers of comments don’t necessarily imply success. It’s true, we’re a numerical society and “followers” count, but look at quality over quantity. There are many people who read this blog and say so on Twitter and elsewhere, yet they don’t subscribe. (That’s OK. Methinks having more subscribers would put added pressure to write and post daily.)
  • Goal setting is what everyone says you need to do; I say it’s pretty much hogwash. In public relations, we write plans and proposals oriented to goals; do goals really drive action and execution? One would hope, but for a blog, I’m not so sure.
  • Setting strategy is more like it – who are you targeting and with what fodder? It’s important to know that at the outset, and it’s also important to know this can change six months in to the blogging experience.
  • Understanding voice and what that means is just shy of critical. You need to give yourself a good six months to tap your voice, earn the confidence to recognize what that is and to keep forging ahead. While voice is often illusive, always remember to whom you’re writing and with what content.
  • Writing, writing, writing. You ought to be able to burn a blog post in 60 minutes tops and that includes its writing, adding of links, posting, adding an image and publishing. There are posts that take longer, and these are usually research oriented.
  • Understanding the back end of a blog is absolutely the most critical factor in your blog’s success. I cannot undercut the importance of this. I have so many horror stories that to others are laughable, but as a non-IT person forced to grapple with software, servers, plug-ins and widgets, the learning curve is painful.
  • I recommend Dwight Maskew of Carbon Based Life who is more than helpful in re IT. I asked a tweep who she used for her blogs, and she recommended Dwight. You will not be disappointed.

Lastly, for today, blogging takes confidence (a favorite post I wrote awhile ago when I was in the blogging dumps). There are so many emotions that go in to blogging, they are hard to describe and share. Everyone’s journey is different; what matters is your perseverance to keep it alive.

How to Message Map

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Many people have been asking for more on this topic. I introduced message mapping , and as as result featured the complementary mind mapping via my new colleague Roy Grubb in Hong Kong . Roy was kind enough to share his mind mapping expertise at The   , my new blog targeting all things biz for small-to-medium businesses. (Stop on by there when you get a chance, would you?)

Yesterday, I facilitated a message mapping session, and I’ve been doing a bunch of them lately. I’ve done these for solo firms up to companies with thousands of employees.  A primary takeaway here is “size doesn’t matter;” all companies need message mapping, a messaging framework, messaging architecture, or whatever you name it.

What does matter is what a company is saying to its audiences. Today, it’s more critical than ever to ensure core messages are up to snuff because consumers, as we know, are in the drivers’ seats in this era of social CRM and social media marketing. Message mapping is your company’s song sheet consisting of the elevator pitch (everyone uses that and knows what that means).

Marketers who’ve never experienced my message mapping are unclear how the two exercises differ and why it’s necessary to “do the same thing twice.” I’ve had various heated discussions about why public relations messaging differs from the very internal marketing exercise with which many companies are more familiar. While marketers explore the nuance associated with brand, mission, vision, values, and storytelling, too, my work in public relations taps this with enhancements and extends it to the public sector.

What I glean from executives around a boardroom table are sound bites and simple descriptors to take the company outside to key audiences. These messages when approved are suitable for stakeholders, influencers, consumers, employees, the sales team, media, and others. While I said this messaging is more externally focused, we’ve had message maps done for sales teams and employee communications, too.

How to Message Map

By: Soulati Media, Inc.

Here is how works to facilitate and execute message mapping:

  • I develop a list of open-ended questions oriented to all aspects of a company’s operations, philosophy, business goals, competition, position in the marketplace, valuation, services, products, size, leadership, history, and so much more. This basic list of questions rarely changes.
  • What does change are the answers I get from around the table. Invariably, no one on the leadership team answers my questions the same way – everyone has their own idea, and this exercise builds consensus among executives who need to agree on the best way to describe their company.
  • It takes about three hours to get through the questions, and it’s intense. As a facilitator, I use large sticky notes and write all over them and affix them to the wall. As the session progresses, more copy gets added, we re-visit what’s been said, and sometimes a sound bite or two come out of the session.
  • During the experience, I listen intently. The juicy tidbits come directly from the horses’ mouths. Often, the company spokespeople have so many thoughts circling their brains, this exercise provides a needed release for ideation. What frequently comes is a tagline or domain name. I also can cull key word, obviously, the beginnings of website copy, and pounds of fruit to help anchor a business’s story.
  • All the content is typed into Word and bucketized by collection of theme. Once I compile the content under a header, I try and write a descriptor for that grouping of content so it all cascades.
  • A first draft of messages can take two weeks or more to develop. Like any intensive writing project, these messages do not come easy; it’s serious business. Once in the hands of the leadership team and the extended team who finally get to see what this is all about, all bets are off. This is where the work is; trying to garner consensus among 10+ people who each have a favorite word or disagree about how to describe a service offering, for example.
  • With edits from the company, various rewrites occur until everyone is comfortable. Then I put the approved copy into an actual map. I learned to use a PowerPoint template created 10 years ago; it works for me, and it also works for the companies I do it for. Other folks may have different systems, and that’s all fine and dandy. Once spokespeople understand and work with final map (always a work in progress), it becomes a handy cheat sheet for designated front-line executives to use.
  • Once the message map is approved, then I often do some training and role playing to ensure people are comfortable with the content, the messages and how to navigate the page.

In the past, I’ve had entire sales teams use my message maps to sell with, and executives have minimized these maps down to pocket size, laminated them and used them for interviews with media. The good news is message maps are working documents; nothing is set in stone, and it changes as the company grows.

Essentially, the main objective for a message map is to tell the company story. The messages on the map are meant to be thought starters and reminders for leadership about what to share and how to say it. It’s up to the spokespeople to add the “plus one” tidbit. (If you’ve ever had media training back in the day, the equation “answer + one” implies a core message with a brief additional statement.)

What form of messaging do you use? Please share!

Social Media is Not a Job

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My fellow tweep and colleague at The SMB Collective, Michelle Quillin, tagged me in a blog post of hers recently. That blog post and a series of others was oriented to social media as a vocation for an intern. In particular, the topic of the post I commented on addressed “what hard-hitting questions would you ask a social media intern?”

What gave me pause was not the questions but the “social media intern” piece. Social media is not a vocation in and of itself. There’s been a bunch of discussion on this very topic, and I’m in the camp of consensus over “social media skills come from expertise derived from public relations and/or marketing.”

I’d never hire an intern to do social media at the outset, and here’s why:

  • Those who are engaging in social media and doing it “well” should have ~two years under their belt. I know for a fact that interns/recent grads may be awesome at texting and Facebooking to friends, but will have little strategy expertise to complement that.
  • Social media skills go hand in hand with public relations and marketing. We in public relations boast heavy expertise on content development and the strategy that goes into that message creation. No intern has that skill set without years of experience.
  • Prior to launching any social media exercise, I step back with a company to ensure a messaging framework is developed, approved, current, and in use. I do message mapping, and I’ve written on this topic in the past here. Tweets, Facebook content and LinkedIn groups need to push messaging that align with corporate communications strategy.
  • Writing skills are rarely taught in school; you’re either gifted and teachable, or these skills come with years of nothing but writing all day. There’s a need for writers out here, and often young people suffer without that skill. Being clever on tweets and Facebook posts (not to mention blogging) is something that builds with time. Grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. are also musts; because the texting generation is upon us, the lack of quality control in these areas is palpable (I’ve seen it).
  • I appreciate the knowledge a young person brings in areas I haven’t mined i.e. new social media apps, widgets, plug ins, platforms, sites, etc. etc. While it’s good to know about additional channels to piece into a larger strategy, a seasoned practitioner must synch the elements into place.

Is there a recent graduate who knows PHP and WordPress or other content management systems for websites? Now that’s where I’d hire someone on the spot; follow the money, kids!

Bloggers Are Not Morons

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Time management is not in my favor of late. You’ve not heard from me here in awhile because I’m off to The SMB Collective, my new blogging adventure targeting all things small-to-medium business. If you head on over, you can see it’s a vibrant community of many voices and perspectives providing rich content for we SMBs. I’m loving how it’s coming together, but at the risk of ignoring you!

I will keep Soulati-TUDE! going and growing; it provides me a singular outlet for opinion and perspective on my calling — public relations. 

That calling was put into question last week on a late Thursday night when a commenter here called me a “moron” and questioned my parenting ability as well as a few other choice words. She, the 20-year-old, had found a blog post I wrote awhile ago, Shards of Glass Ad Not Cool, and decided that because she didn’t agree with my opinion she’d lambaste me with her questionable intelligence.

My reaction was one of dismay, and I immediately deleted the comment although I thought twice about it. While the blogosphere is supposed to spark healthy debate with opposing views, being attacked negatively is uncalled for.

My colleagues were supportive, and thanks to Michelle Quillin of New England Multimedia who suggested I should’ve kept the trashy attack live so she and all the other moms could support me and blast back. I guess everyone likes a good war of words, but you know what? I can’t waste my time with imbecility; nor do I wish my colleagues to do that either.

Thanks, too, to Jenn Whinnem who shared a site I had no idea existed, Spokeo. She reversed the email of the commenter recorded in my blog’s database to see how and where she engaged. It informed me of her age and showed the X-rated trashy sites she frequented. Enough said, eh?

I’ve seen other bloggers add policies about commenting to their pages, and this is certainly good fodder for why.