Altimeter Group's Brian Solis, considered one of the leaders in communications and social media strategies, says doing public relations through Facebook and Twitter has to be more than superficial.
read online:
10 steps to effectively use social media for PR, by Matt Wilson, www.ragan.com
Brian Solis, now with Altimeter Group, started in technology public relations in 1991. Over the next few years, everything turned upside down, he told an audience at a Ragan Communications conference at Cisco Systems' headquarters in San Jose, Calif.
The advent of "PR 2.0" and social media opened the door for what Solis called "true public relations," that is, companies speaking directly to customers. "Social media's impact on the organization is far greater than our view of it today," he said.
Companies think of social media much too narrowly, Solis said. More than 50 percent of social media is run through marketing departments, he said, but it has to go beyond divisions into "the complete socialization of a business."
"Before we can collaborate externally, we have to figure out how to collaborate within," Solis asserted. He listed 10 steps to reach that point:
1. You have to be a leader.
"It's not easy," Solis said. Office politics and culture will get in your way, but you have to keep at it. "You're going to have some very interesting conversations," he said. "You will all be dentists by the number of teeth you had to pull."
You have to persuade people to get closer to customers, Solis said. "We're looking at decades of organizations' doing the opposite," he said. Some companies use social media as a "superficial solution," simply placating customers without helping them with their problems, Solis said.
But you really have to improve the customer experience, he contended, because your audience is an "audience with an audience of audiences." That is, they have people who listen to them, too.
2. Assess roadblocks.
"It's going to start with the top," Solis said. It's up to you to develop an internal communications strategy to unify executives and your colleagues.
3. Align social media and business objectives.
The best way to get executives on board, Solis said, is to show how social media will help move the business ahead. "Social media must always be an enabler of something," he said. To get sponsorship, you have to sell social media as something that helps achieve a business priority.
4. Identify stakeholders.
Lots of your colleagues hate their jobs. They barely want to come to work at all, let alone engage people through social media. But that doesn't mean they can't be stakeholders or advocates. Giving colleagues a feeling of empowerment may help them engage with customers and co-workers, Solis said.
5. Empower employees with an integrated strategy.
Know what makes your company worth following, and make sure the employees who use social media on your behalf know, too. "Your team is going to need to know what to say," Solis said. You need more than just, "Follow us on Twitter" or "Like us on Facebook," he said. You should be helping people make decisions, and they're looking to experts rather than peers more than ever before.
6. Think like a customer.
"Let's stop writing for our executives," Solis said. Most people—about 70 percent—are on social media to connect with friends and family, though about 23 percent do follow brands. Why do they follow those brands? It's probably not the reason your boss thinks.
Most company executives believe people follow the brand on social media to find out about new products. But most people say they follow brands for deals and discounts, Solis pointed out. And customers will "break up" with brands that don't deliver value or clutter up their Facebook feeds with too many news releases.
7. Convey "oneness."
Social media users don't see silos. They see one brand. And they want that brand to speak in one voice. Your mission should be clear in every online profile and presence, Solis said. So ask yourself, "If our brand were a person, who would it be?"
8. Define a framework for listening and a workflow for responding.
You shouldn't have the same person responding to every question. You have to get things to people outside of marketing, Solis said, and make sure conversations "map perfectly to your organization."
"You do need an, 'if this, then this' plan of action," he said.
9. Identify your delegates.
CEOs often reject a social media effort because they see it as loss of control—but it's the opposite. You can gain a level of control over how people perceive you, Solis said, if you have the right people speaking on your behalf using voice guidelines.
10. Introduce meaningful and shareable experiences.
"You don't want somebody to just interact with you, you want people to interact with everybody they're connected to," Solis said. People are at the center of everything you do in social media, and you must enter their "trust zone" by showing them value.
"The future of business isn't created, it's co-created," he said.