Sociology, not technology: Building your brand through old-fashioned listening
This post is by Kaukab Jhumra Smith, a contributing editor at SmartBrief.
Social media has completely up-ended traditional public relations, putting the power back into the hands of ordinary people, says Deirdre Breakenridge, co-author of the 2009 industry manual Putting the Public Back into Public Relations: How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR. Companies can now talk directly to their consumers, rather than through gatekeepers such as journalists — and those consumers can talk right back.
Breakenridge was in Washington recently for a conference keynote organized by the Public Relations Society of America. She said understanding how social networks operate is crucial to leveraging their power for your brand. It’s not about learning to use specific social media tools. It’s about understanding the psychology of their communities.
“Social communities are more about sociology than about technology,” Breakenridge said, offering the following tips for embracing the brave new world of PR 2.0.
- Don’t wake up one morning and decide to create a Facebook page. Think about a social media strategy. What kind of policies do you want in place before you jump in?
- Stop and listen in. “You have to listen, so you can learn, before you ever participate,” Breakenridge said. What people are saying about your brand? What gets them excited? Identify the tone of the discussions and any keywords associated with your brand. “When you start listening to your market, you become a better resource. Suddenly, you have one-on-one conversations,” she said. “So it can go one-to-many, so it can go many-to-many, and suddenly you have communities and you have engagement.”
- Widen your horizons. Go beyond sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp and LinkedIn — there are a lot of other micro- and macro-media sites out there that do similar things. Don’t ignore them. “Did you know you can go into any one of these social platforms and put in your keywords and see if people are specifically talking about your institution?” Breakenridge asked.
- Customize your content. If you don’t listen to your communities and adjust your story to their needs, “Guess what happens?” Breakenridge asked. “The lesson here is that it just ends up as noise. We work too hard to have that happen.”
- Channel consumer feedback to the right department. “As you get all this rich information and you’re dissecting and analyzing, you have to share that,” Breakenridge said. “It’s not just about the PR and marketing department.”
- Identify bloggers who are primary influencers for your industry. “They’re the influencers that are on the same level as a reporter in The Wall Street Journal or The New York Times,” Breakenridge said. “Sometimes they trump the credibility of the media.” Join their communities and establish a relationship, so that you can share news more effectively when the opportunity arises.
- Identify secondary influencers. These are the “magic middle,” a very targeted group of bloggers who may not appear to have as much clout as A-list bloggers, but who are very close to your subject and will invest themselves in following your story. “Media feeds off bloggers and bloggers feed off media. And it works out very well,” Breakenridge said.
- Allow all departments to represent the company. No single department, not even marketing and communications, controls social media, Breakenridge emphasized. Empower your entire workforce to shape your company’s social media presence, rather than anointing a few chosen employees to tweet or write posts.
Of course, do this with a communications plan and social media policies in place, she said –- but involving your entire staff is the best way to ensure an authentic dialogue between your company and its consumers.
What’s your social media strategy? What kind of policies do you want in place before you jump in?
Image credit, Sashkin, via Shutterstock
Posted by Sherrie Bakshi on May 17th, 2010 at 1:27 pm
Thanks for this post. Under your third bullet, you talk about widening your horizons and going beyond the popular social media sites. Can you elaborate? What other sites do you recommend organizations consider incorporating into their social media sites?
Posted by Lend an ear, grow your brand : Kaukab Jhumra Smith on May 17th, 2010 at 6:28 am
[...] For more on how old-fashioned listening should shape your social-media strategy, see my post today for the SmartBlog on Social Media. [...]
Posted by Tweets that mention Sociology, not technology: Building your brand through old-fashioned listening | SmartBlog On Social Media -- Topsy.com on May 17th, 2010 at 6:34 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SEO, SEM, Social , Sherrie Bakshi, youredgeonline, Ana Hoffman, Santi Chacon and others. Santi Chacon said: Sociology, not technology: Building your brand through old-fashioned listening: This post is by Kaukab Jhumra Smit… http://bit.ly/b8YLl1 [...]
Posted by jstanchak on May 17th, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Hey Sherrie — the advice in that post comes from a lecture by Deirdre Breakenridge. I can't speak for Deirdre, but I can weigh in with my own two cents on the subject.
The problem is that when people think of social-media marketing, they immediately think of the most popular social networks and assume that's where they need to be. To my mind, there are three things that need to be factored into which networks you establish a presence on:
– which networks your fans are already using
– what kind of connections you're hoping to make with your fans
– the level of resources you've got to invest in a social campaign
So the right mix of social networks can vary widely from one company to another. Tell us a little bit about your company and maybe we can make some suggestions.
Posted by Kaukab Jhumra Smith on May 17th, 2010 at 2:26 pm
Hi Sherrie,
Breakenridge displayed a pretty long list as an example of the kinds of micro- and macromedia sites you could also be listening to, and emphasized that you could hire a firm to do the listening if those got too overwhelming. I didn't get a chance to take down the entire list, but her book, "Putting the PR Back into Public Relations" names some micromedia sites on page 185 (with the caveat, of course, that things have probably changed since it was printed last year).
For text and file sharing:
Jaiku
Identi.ca
Tumblr
Twitxr
Plurk
For video and audio:
Seesmic
12Seconds
Utterz
Eyejot Kyte.tv
For aggregators and lifestreams:
Jaiku
Swurl
Friendfeed
For mobile phones:
Jott
Kwiry
Pinger
One way to find other micro- and macromedia sites is to go to the "share" button featured on most sites and visit all the different options. Those are likely to be among the most popular.
My recent post Lend an ear, grow your brand
Posted by Derek on May 17th, 2010 at 11:32 am
I think the last point, allowing all departments to represent the company, is a huge element, and one that quite a few businesses are struggling with. Bringing in some other viewpoints from employees to the social media conversations can really take engagement to the next level.
Thanks!
Posted by Alessandro on May 17th, 2010 at 11:16 pm
I speak from Brazil, I am in advertising and blogger. I can say that the advertising market here has faced difficulty in convincing customers that web 2.0 is more than the mastery of tools, but the realization that the online presence is reflected in the offline world. This post is excellent and very useful also for a beginner as the market of Brazil.
A hug,
Alessandro
My recent post dirty money
Posted by bdcheung on May 18th, 2010 at 4:09 pm
The basic idea here is that "social" isn't a website or a technology, it's a way of operating and interacting. Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are merely tools to facilitate social interaction. It's taking the cocktail party and giving it a URL and a fancy user interface. Approaching online social strategy any other way is a one-way ticket to failure.
My recent post Social Responsibility – Whose Is It?
Posted by rosiezaldatte on December 13th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Jesse,
I have blogged about the exact same points! So nice to see I'm not the only one. I hope that this is one place where businesses finally get it right. A new generation of business engagement, could it be true?
Rosie
Posted by Trina Hoefling on December 13th, 2010 at 9:22 pm
I'm an old timer in the virtual connection space, and it's wonderful to see the business – market engagement case made so elegantly and simply. I assist companies to build the virtual organizational community / team collaboration inside organizations. Because of that I was surprised at my clients resistance when moving the virtual connection conversation from virtual workforce management to the company's social media outreach strategy. You explain it beautifully. May want to quote you? Thanks, Jesse