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Digital Marketing Strategy, PR and Messaging

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10 Tips for Social Media Moxie

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This is directed at you — the laggers who are likely NOT reading this blog among my colleagues (who shall remain nameless) who are creeping along outside the action like a voyeur.

I hit a wall this week with the umpteenth public relations and/or marketing peer not engaging in social media with the basics of basics – Twitter. Then there was a fabulous new company launch with a highly creative site from an old colleague with whom I was eager to tweet. Sadly, his last tweet was 20 days ago.

Are you engaging for real, people? C’mon, don’t kid yourself…we both know you’re not.

From a seriously real cross section of colleagues, peers, practitioners of all ages and experience ranges, who are experts in their own right with budding businesses, etc., the writing is on the wall. Marketing and public relations are NOT engaging in social media, and that’s a SAD state of affairs.

SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT GOING AWAY! SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT A TREND! (Yep, caps on purpose; felt better than boldface.)

I’m here to push you off your derrière and raise your bar. How can you ignore something so incredibly exciting for marketing public relations when clients and employers expect you to be the expert who leads them to social media opportunity?

I own a virtual public relations agency, Soulati Media, Inc.  I can’t find anyone yet (within the confines of my circular engagement) who knows more than me in social media. Why’s that? Because I’ve been busting my chops for the last three years to learn, engage, test, fail, test, and become knowledgeable. (See that “fail” word in there? Painfully, it has to happen to become learned, and then the doors swing open and shut more smoothly.)

This is not about blogging, either. It’s simply about carpe diem. There’s gold in them ‘thar hills, people, and if you don’t go mining, you’re never going to get your social media mojo.

Here are Jayme Soulati’s 10 Basic Social Media Engagement Tips:

1. Launch a Twitter account associated with business. Brand yourself as an expert, but first believe you are one.

2. Expect to fail (failure comes in many sizes) and embrace the pain as learning anything new. You will get through that episode (spoken from my own trial and error).

3. Re-launch the Facebook  account you closed down because you couldn’t handle connecting with high school alumni. Consider it a business venture and make it so with a fan page to fuel your business or expertise.

4. Adopt a mentor, but don’t suck them dry! Be respectful of their time and their own hard-earned pathway to knowledge.

5. Engage, people, really engage. That means post a comment on a blog with your perspective. Make yourself known to the blogger you’re reading who has no idea you exist. Communication is a two-way street.

6. Understand fear and get beyond it. Your fear may be lack of confidence in your own expertise. Get out of your own way, and just do it already.

7. Tackle one new thing every day. This is as easy as tweet five times. Follow five people. Post one comment on a new blog every day. RT someone’s blog post. Explore a new social media application everyone else is so you’re in the know, too.

8. Don’t get left behind! I’ve been tweeting for maybe 15 months now, and it’s the sole reason I’ve met the cool people who are now my new colleagues and friends. It saved me days of boredom through the dark winter because social media takes you to Bali, Singapore, Australia, and South America where peers there seek engagement, too.

9. Set a goal. While I’ve never written goals, they are in my head. Yesterday I had the same number of followers and following on Twitter, 1817. Because I compete, I want to get to 2000, but it’s getting tougher to create a Twitter stream that’s not littered with spammers, scammers, and salespeople.  So, I’ll go for quality over quantity. Don’t let the numbers fool you.

10. Ask for help. I don’t know what I don’t know, but I’m glad to help you get there, too. Post your little question down below, and we’ll journey.

Got social media? Please say “yes!”

Got Messaging, Singlehop?

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I’m catching up on reading, and never get ahead. The February 2010 issue of Website Magazine is now a mass of tear sheets with more blog fodder than I know what to do with.

The article, “Reliability in Hosting,” featured Chicago Web hosting provider Singlehop as “most reliable hosting company” for October 2009 by NetCraft’s monthly hosting rankings.

Here’s the quote from the SingleHop vice president of sales and marketing, “Being named as the most reliable Web hosting company by a trusted source like Netcraft confirms Singlehop’s tireless commitment to providing our customers with the best service possible,” said the man. “We finished an extensive upgrade of our network earlier this year with all-new Cisco switches, routers, and systems. That consistent investment in our services, along with our exceptionally dedicated employees, is what enables us to achieve this kind of 100 percent uptime reliability.”

Whew. What a mouth full of peanut butter and banana.

Gog messaging, Singlehop?

That quote was exactly half the story. Unfortunately, that quote came directly from a badly written press release that didn’t do Singlehop any favors. (Well, and it was published by Website Magazine, too. Sheesh.)

Do yourself a favor. Write messaging that tells audiences why they should care. Website Magazine offers a golden opportunity to sell to a specialty professional audience who need hosting services. Its readership is your next customer, Singlehop.

Singlehop wasted precious wordscape saying the same thing every other company does “tireless commitment to providing our customers with the best service possible.”

But, the second half of the quote has promise.

It speaks to an extensive upgrade, with all new brand-name switches, routers, and systems, employees who love their work, and a hosting service that NEVER breaks down.  (Hmm, sounds pretty expensive.)

Mind if I do a little rewrite with a more powerful resonation?

“The recognition by Netcraft is well deserved throughout Singlehop and reflects the dedicated teams who put our customers first with the promise of 100 percent uptime we maintain as our benchmark,” said Singlehop.

That shows pride in the product and the people without saying “We’re excited and honored to receive this award…” Everyone says that, too; yawn.

Got Messaging, KFC?

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from KFC.com Web site

A  fave ‘zine to get blog fodder is Advertising Age. The “Battered KFC Gives Itself Another Spin; Chain pushes ‘so good’ campaign, the fifth shift in ad direction in as many years” appears in May 24, 2010 issue.

While marketing and public relations blend nicely in the sandbox, public relations and advertising need to work a bit harder to effectuate sisterly love. Since KFC is obviously struggling and lamenting the success of rival Chick-fil-A (my all-time favorite chain along with Culvers), I wonder how the public relations team is reacting to these seismic internal shifts?

Got messaging, KFC?

Here are some of the negatively connoted words and my impressions from this article:

  • KFC has “been very impatient,” according to KFC executive VP-marketing and food innovation. (Hmm, I would NOT have developed such a soundbite for a spokesperson).
  • KFC is struggling at home, growing in Asia.
  • Waffling from fried to grilled and back has fostered confusion for KFC consumers.   
  • KFC same-store sales fell 4 percent in U.S. in 2009.
  • KFC new target audience is “socially connected people who are transgenerational.” (I’m glad the reporter, Emily Bryson York, helped define that as a teen on Facebook or her mother who reads blogs.)

On a toning scale of 1-5, I’d give this piece a one as lowest score. Too many negatives.

While public relations has an opportunity to help influence a buy decision, it cannot fix a story like this overnight. Hopefully, the public relations machine is reacting nimbly and pushing franchisee relations to help store owners grapple with a failing image among consumers locally.

Ever hit a mall where there’s a Chick-fil-A? The line is backed up 10 deep at lunchtime, except on Sundays when the other foodies have a chance to recoup lost revenue due to the ultra success of KFC’s rival.

Got Messaging?

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One of the widest differentials between marketing and public relations teams is messaging. Marketing launches campaigns with seriously involved step-by-step initiatives that involve a framework for branding, value proposition, and so much more. When complete, a company has a sense of its clothes, so to speak – what will we wear today to present ourselves in public? (Please weigh in marketers!)

In public relations, when launching a new relationship, service, product, or program strategy, we do messaging right up front as step one much like marketing. When conducting integrated marketing communications, the need for messaging by both marketing and public relations duels for attention. When public relations can’t get an opportunity to do its thing in re messaging, practitioners are left to dangle.

Messaging by PR is the voice of the company to its tiered audiences. Used to be message maps were created for media relations only. Now, I use a message map to help gather, hone and develop approved messages usually collected from the executive team in a facilitated meeting.

No one would believe executives answer questions about the company differently. One would think all company leaders are on the same page about the what, who, why, how much, and when. Not really. That’s the number-one reason messaging is important – disagreement among a company’s senior echelon and how to position external messaging.

Prior to launching program strategy, consider these suggestions to secure content for external messaging:

1. Get the senior team in a room and garner consensus about the 5 Ws + how.

2. Lacking the ability to corral the senior team, then the senior public relations team needs to draft suggested messages for delivering up the chain for approval. Sometimes seeing wording in print will get needed attention.

3. Tier two messages ought to complement a larger corporate message map – the approved song sheet for all spokespeople. When there’s a turn-key program being launched, ensure messaging is one of the foundational tactics executed.

4. Share the approved messaging with marketing teams; they will thank you as copywriters always need public relations driven content to tap.

5. Get in the habit early and often to ask “what shall we say, why does this matter, who are we speaking to, how much does it cost, when will it launch?”

No message is set in stone; adjust as you go, but never launch a program without some messaging guidelines to work with.

Blogging Remarkability

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Last evening, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a group chat in real time on Tweet Chat  captured by #SBT10. It was an esteemed bunch of experts from the Start Blogging Today  online course, in which I’ve recently enrolled.

The cadre of folks on board last night offered fabulous tips for bloggers concerned with traffic, finding a voice, consistency, partnerships, content, and more. I want to share what was pertinent to me and see if it resonates with you, too:

  • Bloggers need to be remarkable, said John Haydon, and Dr. MacNamara defined that as Seth Godin’s Purple Cow.
  • Play the edges, added John, and present content in a way that’s 1000% you.
  • Dr. MacNamara asked for unique content that has “your personality intertwined.” Readers want to connect with an authentic person.
  • Grant Griffiths, the ring leader, said to talk with your audience, give them answers to questions and solutions to problems.
  • Grant suggested bloggers should network with other bloggers you regard not as competitors but as potential partners in the future. Networking should be done with bloggers you can grow with and not just the “big boys.”
  • Grant mentioned bloggers should not stand in the crowd, but stand out from the crowd. Set yourself apart from others in your niche.
  • Bloggers should write content about their particular area of service or business and write about what they know and their expertise will show and you’ll get noticed.
  • A blogger will be sought out if s/he remains laser focused on the purpose of the blog, added Dr. MacNamara.
  • And, this point is particularly appealing – Grant suggested bloggers listen to their audience and give them what they want and not what you think they need.

It’s an intricate statement. What do you want, dear Friends?