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Social Listening Is Key To Engagement, Long-Term Business Growth

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ALT="Soulati Media blog post image on social listening with 2 toddlers talking on a string phone"

Social listening has risen to the top of the ladder as a critical component in program strategy for every business affected by COVID-19. Where before, you surfed social media and merely brushed against key conversations in your stream. Now, deeper dives into conversation provide the pulse of the conversation that not only builds awareness but also opportunity.

What Is Social Listening

What does social listening mean to you?

As social media engagement tightens up into niche groups and smaller streams, these “virtual dinner chats” provide meaningful conversation with a lot of emotion and feelings bared in more comfortable channels.

Perhaps you invite 10 people to join you in a video conference on Zoom, Skype, Whereby, Calendly, or other really cool app. You ask two questions, “So, how is everyone coping?” And “What are you putting in place to ensure you don’t collapse from stress?”

And, the floodgates open widely as people isolated in their self-quarantine want to share with others and feel the strength of community. During these conversations, your job as host is to find the pulse of the conversation. To help, you don your PR strategist hat, you determine how to address the problems with solutions.

Solving the issues surrounding COVID-19 seems particularly impossible. Therefore, building relationship and community solve the immediate issue of isolation. Within that relationship building, you invite everyone to chat about their business. What do they do on a normal business day? Ask about products and services they offer others on a normal business day? What tips can everyone offer that others can adopt?

Social Media Does Offer A Solution During Isolation

Social media, in my book, has always, always been about engagement and NEVER a one-way street. Frequently, many peeps lazily post on channels and rarely respond or share one-to-one. Connectivity with true humans softens the chaos and jagged edges of our own psyche.

And, if you don’t mind me asking, how is yours? Psychologically, COVID-19 wreaks great havoc on the psyche. Mine is suffering greatly with enormous stress as a self-employed business owner. I worry for my daughter working in a grocery store as a cashier. My thoughts go daily to my 80-year-old mother hoping she copes well through quarantine. Even more, shuttered businesses I used to frequent for my livelihood and clients with closed doors due to the pandemic contribute to my stress. That means I worry for the health of my business and ability to pay my bills and mortgage.

In conclusion, I am turning to social listening to see that I’m not alone in this global crisis. I am reaching out to connect with old friends and business peers. I am blogging more frequently and having fun designing Instagram posts on Canva for the first time. Will this help me bring in money to my dying business? Perhaps or perhaps not, but, no one said Rome was built in a day, right?

28 Ways To Approach Marketing Your Business In A Crisis Economy

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ALT="woman wearing face mask and caption, 28 Ways to Approach Marketing Your Business in a Crisis Economy via Soulati Media"

In business crisis communications planning is essential. Having an expert public relations professional on board (ahem) also helps. Your business ought to have a crisis plan on the shelf collecting dust, or rather, on a hard drive easily accessible.

Here’s the rub: no PR professional ever developed a crisis communications plan for a business to manage a global pandemic viral mutation that inhibits the function of the entire world. As a result of this near global shutdown, many businesses are slowing and shuttering temporarily.

Has your business implemented a remote workforce? Maybe employees equipped and ready to work at home will be productive, but guess what? The companies sending moms and dads home to work will see disrupted parents managing children also sent home from closed schools. That means disrupted childcare, more toilet paper (uhm, yes, empty store shelves of paper products!), more soup and grilled cheese lunches, more spats among the kids or the need to transport the kids to the playground all while trying to work and be present and positive during meetings.

Look, all is not lost. The COVID-19 virus, will flat line one day and is temporary. While the U.S. may not know the extent of the virus’s health in communities, there’s a good chance that it will wane within a time frame yet to be determined (how’s that for running around the mulberry bush?).

28 Ways Business Can Focus During A Crisis

There are things businesses can do during an economic crisis of this magnitude. Here are 28 ideas businesses can take advantage of time and put it to good use right now:

  1. Do NOT reduce your marketing budget during a crisis. This is an opportune time to initiate customer campaigns oriented to education and relationship-building.
  2. Strategize about public relations campaigns during a time frame about six-to-eight months ahead.
  3. Look at the conference and trade show schedule in your vertical market and plan to attend. Purchase a booth; run a customer prospecting campaign to meet people in person (once social distancing is no longer the norm).
  4. At that trade show in #3, ask your CEO or other thought leader to speak in a break-out session or sponsor a session for attendees (that you pay for).
  5. For the trade show in #3 (and other conferences you may attend), pull your exhibit booth out of the closet, dust it off and take a look at what needs refreshing. How are the colors, is the logo prominent, and what about the message?
  6. Hire a facilitator to do a Message Map with your leadership team. This is always an important exercise to bring the leadership team together to discuss the 5 Ws about your company. Focus especially on the Why of your existence. (Want to know more about message mapping? Give Soulati Media a shout, and we will share more.)
  7. Revisit your Mission, Vision, Values statements and ensure that your company is on track, working against each of these important foundational items your company follows.
  8. Going one step further, explore your business purpose. What drives you beyond revenue generation? What purpose do you have for being in existence? This is not something to answer in 10 minutes. Take some time to meet with the leadership team and mull it over.
  9. Your website needs TLC. When we’re busy, websites hit the back seat. If your company is feeling a pinch during this economic downturn with fewer customers then take a look at every single page of your website to see if you approve.
  10. While you’re at it, click on every link on each page and ensure it’s not broken.
  11. Check all images on your site for the proper ALT code. If you don’t know how to do any of those items, then call for assistance. There’s always something you can do to freshen your website during a down tick.
  12. Do you use landing pages for campaigns you’re running? How many? How are they functioning for you? Again, this is a very good time to review all digital assets to ensure proper function, content, images, and success metrics.
  13. B2B companies do very well with newsletters to customers and prospects. When a business slows, that’s when marketing upticks. There’s no time like the present to launch a newsletter or refresh an existing newsletter and communicate en masse to your customers.
  14. Don’t want to do a newsletter? Then let’s go with more email marketing! You can create a new campaign to celebrate the end of virus fears with a promotion to get customers back in sync with your business.
  15. Hire a photographer (and support the economy). Here’s why: you can retake all the head shots of the leadership team in your company; you can take high-resolution images of your company in action (and use these on social media and your website), and the images can be used in communications with customers.
  16. Do you have a high-performing video marketing program with a YouTube, Vimeo or Twitch channel? During a downtime develop one! The whole point of this is “there’s no time like the present” to focus on things you neglected because of a time crunch. Video is the future, and the data are staggering about just how many videos exist on each social media channel. Don’t get left in the cold!
  17. Develop your digital marketing strategy. Look at all the ways you can live stream, bring people into a community, do virtual meetings and conferences, bring all your assets to the web, open an e-commerce site, and so much more.
  18. Plan a webinar series. In #B2B marketing, webinars are a wonderful way to communicate with customers. It’s smart to have a series of webinars with three topics scheduled over the course of six weeks. One of the webinars can be your product team speaking about something new alongside the CEO talking about the vision for the future. The other two can be with customers on a panel speaking about a product or service. When you invite others to attend, you collect emails and use those emails to develop your list for email marketing and newsletters.
  19. Focus on business development. As everyone is in the same boat with the current business climate, now is an excellent time to revisit your strategy to earn more customers. This is where your entire marketing team needs to meet and discuss ways to earn new business.
  20. Go on a retreat. No business schedules a retreat when everyone is chaotically working. Now? What a perfect time to bring the leadership team and directors together to revisit #7 and #8 and also look at new growth opportunities in the future.
  21. Continue your efforts with social media, do not go on hiatus just because your business has gone virtual. As everyone stays closer to home, they will spend more time on the Interwebz surfing. There’s no question you can maintain conversation and engagement with your audience.
  22. Survey your employees. A downtime is excellent for a word from your employees. Building a Survey Monkey provides a perfect vehicle to gauge what employees think about the state of the business. Offer a gift card to the employee with a novel idea that you implement.
  23. Build a customer loyalty program. For frequent buyers of your products, implement a customer loyalty program with incentives that bring them back over and over again.
  24. Talk with your customers. When was the last time you picked up the phone and had a no-pressure conversation with a customer? This would not be a sales call but a call to deepen and strengthen relationship.
  25. Meet with a non-profit. Do you have a volunteer day where your employees leave work and volunteer for a day to work for a non-profit? What about adopting a non-profit every two months so that some of your company’s efforts, like pro bono work, go to a charity?
  26. Review all of the subscriptions your business pays for whether it’s periodicals, newspapers, apps, photography and turn off automatic renewals. How many automatic renewals exist at your business? Then only after they renew, you remember you signed up.
  27. Develop a new product or service. You can make a new product or service as an e-book or online course for prospects and even current customers to remind them that your services go deeper than just one layer.
  28. Clean your email box(!) and clean your desk, your closets and reduce, recycle, reuse!

I’m sure that after reviewing this list, you’ll think of many other things you can do during a downtime. While this situation is hugely unfortunate, consider it an opportunity. No one takes time under “normal” circumstances to do most of the above, so why not now?

TikTok Is Owned By China But Teens Don’t Care

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ALT="Marketing Charts TikTok Spend Increasing, Graphic for Marketing Expenditures"

Do you TikTok? Honestly, I tried to join in on the fuss, but I’m obviously not of the age group that watches stupid pet tricks on 15 second repetitive videos. Remember Vine? Yeah, that was short-lived, too, but TikTok may have more staying power with marketers now paying attention.

And, why do marketers suddenly care about TikTok? Because it’s all the rage with teens, exactly as the data say: early teens and even my 18-year-old daughter spend hours guffawing at the ridiculous simplicity of the stunts people pull to get a claim to fame.

I applaud Heidi Thorne for putting up a TikTok to promote her videos. She is reachable on Instagram and TikTok @HeidiThorne. I love this woman for putting herself out there to tell her story and marketing tips.

Back to business…

Marketing Charts says 1 in 3 agencies will increase spend on TikTok in 2020.

Is TikTok Worthy Of Your Time?

Granted, we can dissect every piece of data like this. The fact that an emerging channel like TikTok is making the grade enough to even chat about is noteworthy. Case in point, TikTok’s owner is ByteDance of China. That raises so many red flags about privacy, hacking and tracking of our teens that it’s something to think about.

This week, I attempted to find an international conference calling app to set up a meeting with China. In one year, the U.S. and China no longer communicate on conference calling tools like Skype, What’s App, Zoom, GoToMeeting, Free Conference, and many more. I found DingTone, but to get the app to work, you need to earn free points.

Further, the U.S. military seems to think that TikTok is a danger to armed forces. This is likely due to data collection from the video app accessible to the Chinese government. The Committe on Foreign Investment in the United States initiated a national security review of ByteDance in 2019. It cited concerns about TikTok in espionage, censorship and foreign influence, according to Slate.com.

I went to find Heidi Thorne’s handle for TikTok and noticed my comment about she being a TikTokker. She asked whether I was up there and what my handle was. I replied, “Well, what is the value of me talking to teens…on a platform owned by China?”

Heidi’s blog post on her foray into TikTok experimentation, references Vox, stating that in 2018, TikTok downloaded 1 billion times with 27 million U.S. users.

Ask About Marketing Value

And that, my friends, is the crux of the matter. When considering social media platforms in integrated marketing, look at the value each brings to that mix and audience reach. Determine whether your audience includes Gen Z, the teenagers, in this case, as that is the demographic of TikTok.

As with any social media, you need to be consistent with your content. If you don’t have content suitable for that audience, then you may just be talking to a wall.

So, what do you think? Does a social media app owned by a Chinese company bother you? Privacy concerns are rampant, and I know my email is on many breach lists by now. The bigger question: when will Americans feel threatened by damaging privacy attacks to make everyone take notice and then action?

Is Conflict Good Public Relations?

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ALT="Marc Veyrat, Restaurateur and Chef of La Maison des Bois"
Screenshot from www.marcveyrat.fr

Conflict is well, conflict, usually not a good thing. As public relations goes, conflict ranks as bad…except when it isn’t. Sound confusing? No problem; let me share a story about conflict that could be regarded as a PR ploy to grab some PR on the global stage, especially in my view as a PR professional.

Michelin Guide Causes Major Conflict For Restaurateur

Marc Veyrat, 69, chef/owner of La Maison des Bois in France, slammed a lawsuit at the Michelin Guide for reducing his restaurant’s three-star rating to two stars.

Mr. Veyrat’s attack on the Michelin Guide puts his feud front and center on public display.

His beef, which is probably a cuss word in Mr. Veyrat’s vocabulary since his cuisine is plant-based, centers around the lack of transparency by Michelin in sharing how stars are awarded or reversed.

To show just how much drama encompasses Michelin Guide ratings, Mr. Veyrat’s comment in a magazine (reprinted in the New York Times) surpasses any doubt he’s kidding.

“I feel like my parents died a second time,” said Mr. Veyrat to a magazine. “Can you imagine the shame I feel: I am the only chef in history to get a third star and then to lose it the next year.”

In Michelin’s defense, they say Mr. Veyrat’s “accusations are baseless.”

Most interesting, the downgrade to Mr. Veyrat’s business by Michelin did not affect La Maison des Bois. Its business actually increased 10 percent over last year. Mr. Veyrat mentioned “his anger stemmed mostly from his wounded pride.”

Understanding The Importance Of Michelin’s Stars

The Michelin Guide awards three stars to the most elite restaurants. In 2019, 27 restaurants received three stars and 84 received two stars. Quite a dichotomy, right?

Along with stars comes great prestige and pressure on the chefs to maintain their 3-star elite rating. When a star is removed, conflict obviously becomes the name of the game.

So, I’ll ask again: is conflict good PR?

Conflict As Public Relations

ALT="La Maison des Bois restaurant with alpine view"
Screenshot taken from www.marcveyrat.fr

Let’s take a look at the main fact of this story: Mr. Veyrat’s business increased 10% over last year!

Perhaps his lawsuit contributed to that and perhaps not. Seeing the “shame” Mr. Veyrat feels about his demotion from a three- star to two-star restaurant, his bark and lawsuit certainly contribute to this public relations debacle.

On the other hand, Michelin Guide offers no flinch about their decision to remove a star from La Maison des Bois. Their chief critics stand firmly by their decision, although no one really knows just how those decisions get made. The latter forms the groundwork for the lawsuit by Mr. Veyrat who will see his nemesis in court late November.

In thinking about restaurant public relations as a profession, communications pros must be diligent in their strategy. It takes consistency with events and news to attract and keep patrons. Add to that that arrogant chefs who may also own the restaurant, ahem, Mr. Veyrat, and challenges abound.

If there’s a lawsuit, this conflict brings the curious in droves. More people want to know what the big fuss is all about because people generally are nosy creatures.

Conflict Where There’s No Conflict

In my opinion, this story plants a big giggle on my face. It got the attention of the New York Times, and that’s certainly a huge achievement in media relations circles. Mr. Veyrat’s escapades feature in both print and digital editions of this global publication.

If you know media relations, we work hard to get our clients featured in the New York Times. Here comes a winy restaurateur filing a lawsuit over removal of a star, and voila (literally because he’s French), he lands a story about his shame. On the flip side, the New York Times published a photo with the article of Mr. Veyrat accepting his three stars last year from Michelin Guide. No ruckus there, eh?

So, conflict in this case is certainly good PR for this French restaurant with alpine views bordering Italy and Switzerland.

What do you think?

Customer Loyalty, Dollars Drive Airlines To Court Elite For Lounge Business

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ALT="Asian woman and Asian man eating food in airport lounge showing how airlines engaging in customer loyalty"
Customer loyalty for airlines begins in the airport lounge.

Customer loyalty is always top of mind, and that’s no different when it comes to air travel elite. Air travel, as an aside, is always a topic of exasperation. Many now sit in ever-increasingly smaller seats, pay for extra amenities like leg room and suffer crying children. Don’t get me wrong: I’m a mom of a former toddler who cried during entire flights many times.

There’s a first time for everything! Recently, I spent the night in the Philadelphia airport, an experience that I never wish to repeat!

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