I’ve been gathering my thoughts, notes, interviews and articles and compiling them into a presentation for the Social media Congress Conference in Amsterdam on February 18^th.  My topic is the Value of Social Engagement for the 21^st Business.  As a part of my presentation, I thought it would be interesting to pull some of the findings from the Vocus PR Planning 2010 Survey and compare results between the United States and the United Kingdom.

One part of the survey asks an interesting question: “What is the SINGLE most important thing you, as a PR professional, will do differently in 2010 than you did in 2009?” What a great question.  It did not surprise me to see a high response rate of answers pointing to Social Media.  Here are a few of the responses as they pertained to Social Media from both the US (over 1,570 responses) and the UK (over 250 responses) to this open-ended question (courtesy of Vocus):

United States:

• Measure my social media timing against news cycles
• More cross-marketing collaboration
• Incorporate social networking into marketing plan
• Develop compelling multi-media content for distribution
• Combine the use of traditional media with social media, which we’re just starting to do.
• Rethink social media strategies
• The social media fire hose is too big with too much spam
• Coordinate more efficiently with the marketing departments, in order to fully utilize the limited resources of both areas
• Further integrate social marketing techniques and tools into our overall PR mix.
• Sell social media marketing services in conjunction with traditional PR services in order to maximize results
• Train others to know what I know about integrating traditional and new media.
• Learn to leverage the social media “spread” to our advantage for increasing awareness, donations and clients
• Focus much more on social media and experiment with ways it can help to meet our PR goals

United Kingdom:

• Change evaluation techniques to adapt to changing PR instruments (social media, etc.)
• Target audiences specifically (niche marketing) rather than blasting mass messages
• Be less traditional and more innovative
• Integrate online and social media
• Use social media such as Twitter and Facebook
• Increase social media awareness to clients
• Focus on social media brand building
• Integrate campaigns more solidly with social media
• Expand opportunities using video and social media
• We need to have a clear landscape of our agencies, as some practices are starting to be redundant
• Educate the organisation on the importance of engaging new media
• Embrace more fully the different platforms available to communicate with my public, especially social media networking

Although I agree with many of the responses, if you were to ask me the same question (of course I don’t have a single response), here are a few of my answers, with respect to social media:

• Build more social media policies (or update what’s currently in place)
• Continue to strengthen internal brand community with employees and engage employees in social media through recognition programs (not necessarily money or a gift, but something as simple as a “thank you” from an executive or supervisor for their social networking participation).
• Evaluate resources on a quarterly basis to make sure infrastructure can support social media monitoring and measurement requirements (whether in-house PR or agency).
• Review and discuss with employees how listening and engagement is a part of their job functions and assist with any challenges they may face as Research Librarians.
• Encourage more social media learning through webinars, seminars and conferences, both on and offline.

How would you answer the question?  Would your answer(s) be similar to some of the answers provided by the respondents of the Vocus survey? Or, would they be completely different?

I was very happy with the response to the statement:  In 2010, PR’s role in the marketing mix will (a) become more important, (b) stay the same or (c) become less important.  Approximately 64% of the survey participants stated that their roles will become more important, about 33% said that the role will stay the same and only 3% stated that PR’s role will be less involved in the marketing mix in 2010.

This clearly illustrates a positive outlook with respect to how professionals feel about their roles and responsibilities moving forward in 2010.  In my opinion, it appears that despite a tough year in 2009, in the eyes of the professional, the PR person’s role is more important now, and will be more integrated into the marketing mix.

To provide further details into the mindset of PR professionals, a follow-up question probed into what they believed their roles would be.  You can see the response chart below:

Click to enlarge

The Vocus summary of results stated that the “percentage of responses is much higher if we tallied this count by adding up those that ranked each function with a ranking of 6 to 10.”  Therefore, when identifying what roles closely related to the PR function (when adding up 6 to 10) the following ranked a response over 50%:

• Content Management
• Corporate Communications
• Strategic Communications
• Marketing Communications
• Social Media Communications
• Media Relations
• Public Relations

For me, it was no surprise that Strategic Communications, Corporate Communications and Public Relations ranked highly (above the 50% mark).  However, it’s interesting to note that there’s emphasis on new roles including Content Management, Social Media Communications and Marketing Communications (showing more integration between the PR and Marketing disciplines).  As a matter of fact, the second highest percentage appeared under the Marketing Communications category, with 24% of professionals ranking this area as a primary part of their jobs.

How do you see the public relations professional’s role in 2010 and moving forward in years to come?  Are you in agreement with these percentages? And, how do you see PR roles and responsibilities increasing?

Q: You and I met when I was a magazine editor, but now I work for a “boutique” PR agency serving high-tech agencies. How much emphasis should our agency be placing on developing podcasting or webcasting products for our clients?

A: There are a few factors to consider before building social media tools/resources for your clients.  First you should take a look at your customers, their respective markets and their external footprints.  Are webcasting and podcasting effective tools to use and if you create this type of content for your customers’, will their target public(s) use and share these resources? When you develop a content strategy it’s important to consider the type of content that is preferred by the people you want to reach, and always align your content strategy to the company’s business objectives.  You should always ask: What are we trying to accomplish by developing these specific types of social media tools?

After considering the external factors, then you should conduct an internal audit of the organization to see what resources internally can be relied upon to create podcasts or webcasts.  Will the company be able use its own resources or will it have to use an external service provider and what are the costs to hire an outside service?  It’s also really important to consider the time commitment of the executives/experts involved in creating the webcasts and podcasts. Will the executives or experts participating in an audio or video streaming series be available for live streaming or to record the sessions, and how much time will they commit to the program.  The external and internal considerations are key to determining the type of content strategy and what will be the most effective social media tools to use moving forward.

Q: I am alone in my PR efforts. We recently purchased Vocus/PR Web services. I just released my first release. I created the RSS availability but have not set up a Twitter page yet however, my question is; Is there a tool to sync all of the business/personal social sites to display a released blog?

A: If I understand the question correctly, it sounds as if you are looking for a tool that will allow you to sync or update all of your community sites simultaneously.  So for example, if you write a blog post and you want to share it on all of your networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc., then you can use a tool called Ping.fm.  Ping.fm is a resource that updates all of your communities, at the same time, saving you the time, energy and effort of posting separately in your networks.

Q: Our company has been using a few different types of social media for several months now but we have seen almost no ROI (limited sales from promo codes, limited site visits etc). How long should a company be experimenting before giving up?

A:  I don’t think that you should give up on social media outreach; you may have to adjust your listening/monitoring strategy.  Are you in the communities that have the people that you want to reach? Are you finding in-depth conversations on topics that relate directly to your brand?  After you listen, observe and identify the right community and understand the dynamics of the culture, then you can engage with the members.  When you begin your outreach, you may also want to position yourself as a helpful resource by engaging in conversations and then sharing information about promotions and other offers available.

It’s really important to make sure that you are in the right community at the onset and that the community members find value in the content that you are sharing. You may also want to identify certain new influencers/bloggers who would be interested in sharing your content because it has relevance to their community members.  I would go back to the Conversation Prism listening exercise that I mentioned during the Vocus webinar to see if you can find relevant conversations and people in specific networks through key word searches.  After you listen and observe, then you can move toward participation once again.

Also, make sure that you have the proper measurement in place to capture people who are interested in your offers either by directing them over to landing page to capture information or to a specific area of your website where it’s easy to take advantage of a promotion or similar offer.

If you have questions or answers to share on any of the topics posted above, it would be great to hear your feedback. Thanks!

Q: I teach PR at a college. I feel like I’m a horse-and-buggy expert teaching students how to drive cars! Some of the skills are the same, but others are so new, so changing, even as we speak! Of course, they need to know how to write a release, identify audiences, and set a strategy. What advice do you have for training the next generation of PR professionals?

A: This is such a great question because it hits right at the heart of the PR person’s new role.  I believe when training the next generation of PR professionals they will need to understand and embrace a new PR approach and how their roles and responsibilities will increase.

Through social media communications we have the ability to help our brands connect with so many different stakeholders in web communities, including customers.  The way that we tell our organization’s story is different and we can no longer use a traditional broadcast message; one-way communication and “the one story fits all” is not welcome in the social sphere. Now, we can show our brands how to target, humanize and customize their business stories for different communities and to reach new influencers. It’s also a big change from solely relying on mainstream media and the credible third party endorsement.  Although we will still rely on the media and build relationships with bloggers (our new influencers), it’s really important to also listen to consumers and to make direct connections with them.  By becoming a resource (whether it’s to answer your customers questions, provide them with tips or expertise, teach them how to properly use a product or to hear their gripes and work toward a solution) you build a stronger relationship.

As a result, PR people are looking at social media strategy through a different lens.  Yes, we are still conducting research, identifying our target publics, working on strategic communications and measuring results. However, we are also monitoring and tracking conversations and listening on behalf of the organization (becoming more of a customer service role). Suddenly, we are research librarian; listening closely and reporting back to our brands in order to fuse this information into our organizations.  Communications can’t work in a vacuum.   We need to share the knowledge with different departments to evaluate the information and to formulate the proper feedback and insight to the community (the brand’s participation or engagement).  As we listen and observe, we also become sociologists and cultural anthropologists. We’re studying the dynamics and interactions of community members, learning what matters to the people driving those communities and observing what is considered accepted behavior.

Our roles also increase when we create social media content, work in new technological environments, learn to integrate strategic communications with Web 2.0 and viral marketing and measure engagement and participation in new ways.  And, as we continue to focus on listening, we can become conversationalists, engaging in web communities and actually becoming the people we want to reach. As we learn more about participating and making connections that lead to strong and valuable relationships, we become better equipped to help our brands take the same approach.

The next generation of PR professionals has all of these new roles and responsibilities to look forward too, especially as PR takes a lead role in strategic social media communication.

Q: We have been under attack by a small group who have posted false and defamatory information on forums, blogs, etc. Should we respond directly via our website?

I always think you should take the time to get the correct information posted on your website or within a community to clear up any false or inaccurate information and you can also rely on the rest of your community to provide supportive communication on your behalf.

Sometimes, it’s a judgment call on how much effort you should invest into a group of people or an individual who is a deterrent detractor.  Every situation is unique and I would have to review the history to make a proper assessment.  However, not knowing your particular situation, as a general rule of thumb, if a customer or customers band together because they are unhappy and should their requests go unnoticed, they will often take it to the blogosphere. In this case, you should always reach out…perhaps outside of the social network, if you can contact them by telephone to move them back into your happy community once again.  If there is the opportunity to change someone’s opinion and return their opinion back to goodwill toward your organization, then it’s worth the time and resources.  However, in the case of the deterrent detractor, you should evaluate that person’s authority and credibility.  If this person is just providing entertainment value for those that listen for the sake of controversy, but not really influencing anyone, then they don’t require your time and attention (if you know they will never be a part of your camp again).

___________

I’ll be answering a few more questions in my next post and I hope that you will share your answers to these questions or any comments you may have.  And, if you participated in the Vocus Webinar: PR Planning Considerations for 2010 and you had a question that wasn’t answered, feel free to post it here on my blog for all of us to review and respond

The Webinar was carefully orchestrated by Vocus; first with a survey that went out to approximately 1,800 PR professionals regarding their planning practices for 2010 and then a Webinar to discuss the findings.  My role as a presenter was to share the survey results along with some best practices in PR planning. I found out very quickly that my presentation materials were very much in line with the expectations, challenges and thoughts of professionals regarding the state of our industry.

Most of the results the survey did not surprise me and after reviewing the results, I walked away with a sense of urgency and challenge, yet strong confidence that PR professionals were ready to play a major role in social media strategy and outreach for their brands in 2010.

My presentation focused on how you have to work several new strategies into your planning process including different approaches to monitoring and tracking technology, distribution/channel strategy (which social media platforms to reach important stakeholders), communications and content creation strategy, measurement strategy and an engagement strategy to evoke emotion/sentiment.  Here is the diagram I used to explained the planning process:

Some of the interesting survey findings that supported my discussion were the following:

• Approximately 50% of the survey participants stated that planning for PR programs and strategies in 2010 would be more difficult (I believe that this may be due to a limited amount of company resources, employee or organizational culture not wanting to participate in social media and a lack of management buy in to social media programs.)
• Approximately 42% surveyed stated that budgets would remain the same in 2010 (exhibiting a cautious optimism for the year ahead although 24% said that budgets would increase slightly).
• About 63% stated that their organizations would focus more on innovating effective processes.
• Approximately 51% of the survey participants believed that there would be more investment in new technology (however, if 42% believed that budgets would remain the same, then resources would have to shift from another area of the company in order to invest in technology).
• About 80% of the participants said their organizations would focus more on social media in 2010.
• Approximately 53% said that their organizations currently use social media monitoring.
• About 65% said that their organizations are currently using news monitoring.
• More than 50% described their Strategic Communications roles as a significant to a primary role within their organization.
• Over 50% described their Marketing Communications roles as a significant to primary role within their organizations.
• More than 50% described their Content Management roles as a significant to a primary role within their organizations.
• Brands still place a good deal of emphasis on traditional media, with 67% of the survey participants stating that their organization’s focus on traditional media relations will remain the same.
• Approximately 62% of the participants stated that their use of the press release would remain the same (It would be interesting to find out what’s the percentage of PR Professionals who will focus on Social Media Releases).

The Vocus Webinar on PR Planning Considerations provided very useful statistical information that PR people can use to better understand their planning challenges in 2010.  Do any of these statistics surprise you?  What do you think will be some of your biggest planning challenges in 2010?

Brian Solis and I discussed our book, Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.  We also participated in a chat session on how social media builds brand champions (both internally within your organization and externally in social networks).  Other sessions were how to build a Social Media Release, an integrated approach to emerging media and maximizing the value of your news from Twitter to Google.  The conference emphasized conversations and made its way to Twitter, via the #vocus hashtag. Among the hundreds of entries from the #vocus hashtag, these are just a few:

Vocus had a strong social media program in place and its outreach pre-conference included promotions with links to discounts for speakers to share in their networks.  Vocus sent out a news release through PRWeb and also developed a Social Media Release (SMR) with my agency, PFS Marketwyse.  We’re currently reviewing the results of the SMR, and will be reporting on the analytics soon.

The virtual event had one of the most impressive platforms that I’ve ever seen.  Created by On24, the virtual conference had the participants enter into the Plaza where a video automatically played, with the Vocus CMO, Bill Wagner, giving a welcome message.  Attendees could then enter into a Networking Café, a Resource Center to access documents/presentations or an Auditorium.  My favorite area and probably one of the most popular was the Networking Café.  In this area, attendees interacted in Group Chats and also Scheduled Chats.  My Scheduled Chat with Brian was very fast paced and we fielded a tremendous number of questions from interested participants.  There were definitely more questions than we had time to answer in our half hour chat session.

I guess if you’re going to have a social media conference, then you have to do it the right way.  Everything should be about social media, from the topics and promotion to the interactive environment and the ways people participate.  Vocus was very happy with its virtual event.  As a presenter, I’m still discussing conference topics and answering questions.  Now, that’s the true value of social media.  The conversations are only the beginning.  Relationships are formed, and moving forward there’s plenty of opportunity as a result.

There are some fantastic tools out there and I’ve named and commented on many from HARO and PitchEngine to Vocus and Radian6.  But, the other day I had a huge ‘AHAAAA’ moment when I saw a demonstration of Blog Outreach Pro.  Now, I had already been to the company’s website to learn about the platform and I read the one pager on all of the benefits the product provides. But, when you see the platform in action (I saw how it dealt with numerous campaigns simultaneously), watch how you can manage bloggers and digital influencers, get them involved in the platform and how they can connect with your clients, it becomes a must have product.

Blog Outreach Pro is exactly as it sounds, it’s a “Blog Outreach and Social Media Marketing toolkit for public relations firms and social media agencies – allowing them to consolidate resources, manage campaigns and provide real-time client reporting.  Blog Outreach Pro has been specifically designed to address the challenges and streamline the process of your social media marketing efforts.”

I especially liked how the platform provided three different views: The agency, client and blogger views.  Focusing on the agency view, some strong features and benefits include how you can:

• Customize the platform for any product, service or industry (I saw a demo on PR for musicians)
• Provides the outreach to your existing blogger contacts and tracks the communication
• Organizes your contacts which allows you to search and match them to client efforts
• Create a central location (a newsroom) with media assets, product information, and links to sharable social media
• Observe the behavior, likes and dislikes of bloggers as they interact on the platform with your client
• Allow your clients to view the activity: they can log into the platform and see which bloggers and digital media are being contacted and pinpoint who has shown interest, requested an interview or who has left an endorsement.
• See the PR team’s daily activities and see how progress is made each and every day on a campaign

These are only a few of the highlights.  There is also the ability to track and view over time the number of bloggers contacted, how many viewed assets in the newsroom or downloaded media and/or client information, watch the blogger’s behavior within the platform and the result of the interactions (in the form of an interview, comments, rating or an endorsement).

I will be beta testing Blog Outreach Pro over the next 60 days and I will continue to keep you posted on the features and capabilities of this platform.

Here are a few screen shots to help you visualize the product.  But remember, it’s the demo and the ability to see the platform in action that brings the product to life.

Newsroom can be customized with media assets:

Upload and search contacts:

Ratings and comments left by bloggers and digital media

Product profiles that are easy for bloggers to find:

All companies need to be prepared for social networking and community building or it just won’t work!  If you don’t plan for your community building effort, any steps you take will not provide a return on your investment and your employees tasked to implement and manage the effort will not reach their goals.  I usually focus on two big reasons why companies don’t get the most out of social media communications – they are not listening and they don’t know why they’re doing the program to begin with (no strategy or measurable objectives are set in place at the time of program launch).

However, today, I’m focusing on the third point that leads to anti-community building.  It’s a lack of infrastructure and technology to support the community building effort properly.  I realized a while ago in my own communications department that our efforts were somewhat disjointed.  The communications team was building and monitoring media relations programs and social networking programs with several different tools that were all too time consuming.  Managing five or 6 different programs produced an ineffective and unorganized way to handle the information that was coming into the department.

There are great software programs that allow you to complete many functions in one program, all in the same place, including:

• Conduct key word searches
• Find media contacts and influential bloggers
• Track news and conversations
• Develop news release and distribute them
• Create Social Media Releases (SMR)
• Report coverage and conversations

Dashboards are created by companies, such as Vocus, to consolidate all of your contact creation, outreach, monitoring and measurement requirements.  You can’t possibly expect your communications department to be efficient and productive, if you don’t have the right technology in place.  Of course, new programs and people to manage the information all require resources.  So, you may have to start slow and implement new technology and processes in several phases.

How are you updating your technology internally to accommodate social networking and community building responsibilities in your communications department?  What kind of programs are you using and what kind of resources are required to manage your programs?