Social PR - The New Age PR

The Indian PR landscape is continuously evolving and it's fascinating to see clients adapt to the

integration of our digital efforts. As a communications consultant we need to realize that today, majority of our audience is online and we need to think of different ways to reach out to them.

Digital media and technology has paved way for innovation and creativity in our communications approach and we should embrace these new media platforms and tools. This evolution has given birth to what we call today as 'Social PR.'

While the clients are realizing the value of communicating to the stakeholders in an integrated approach - bringing online and offline together, PR professionals in India still seem to be reticent to this change. Of course, change isn't easy and it takes a while to adapt and evolve with change but if we don't embrace this change "now", we might not be relevant in the industry for too long.

How is Social PR different from Traditional PR?

"The principles of good PR don't change. What makes Social PR different is that it uses technology to socialize our work." - @Shonali

Social PR goes beyond social media platforms and is about conversation, engagement, connection and collaboration with the community that matters to you/ your brand. It also means reaching out to the right community and audience through online news portals and blogs.

"Social PR is just a cool way to spice up PR to make it more efficient" - @IvaIgnjatovic

The new age PR/ Social PR is about identifying the right influencers to build a community of like minded people.

It's like creating a safety net for your brand

If you empower and educate the community, be honest and transparent with them, they will stand by you at all times. They can become a brand's biggest ambassadors and can help you reach where you want to be.

Everyone on social media is an influencer in some regard and it's imperative to listen and identify the real influencers for your brand. A real influencer doesn't necessarily need to have a huge social following, but should definitely resonate with the brand's message and should have a strong hold of the content and engagement with his/her community. 

Social PR content strategy is built keeping in mind not just the media but a larger set of stakeholders

In my opinion, content strategy for Social PR should be crafted in a way to spark conversations, not just with the media but with a larger audience and community. Social also gives the ability to re-purpose content which isn't usually the case in regular PR. Content for social can be targeted much more accurately as compared to that of regular PR.

To incorporate meaningful conversations on social, it is very important to listen to what your audience needs, wants and desires. Unless you learn to listen, it will be hard to crack the Social PR strategy.

With the rise in Social PR, a question that's often asked is whether there will be a fall in media relations. In my opinion, the role of media will still be very crucial and important to the overall PR strategy. However, the way media relations is conducted will change overtime.

Who is considered as media is also changing with the rise of influencers

A Social PR strategy will include targeting the influencers and media will be a sub-set of those influencers.

Given the changing dynamics of the communications landscape, it's important for communication professionals to understand that Social PR is just an extension of PR. To stay relevant in the industry and provide strategic communication counsel to the clients, we need to change our mindset, believe in the power of integrating marketing, embrace and accept this change with open arms.

What do you think?

Rise of Influencer Marketing

The increased presence of social media has given consumers a lot of power and it's becoming

increasingly difficult to distinguish who the real and ethical influencers are. With this power, there comes a need for marketeers to build an influencer marketing strategy.

What is Influencer Marketing?

Influncer marketing is the type of marketing that focuses on using experts or leaders in a specific domain to drive a brand's message to a larger audience.

According to a May 2015 study by Schlesinger Associates, 84% of global marketers expected to launch at least one influencer marketing campaign in the coming years, and 81% of those who had already done so reported they were happy with the results.

With this trend picking up, it's important to understand what makes someone an influencer considering everyone on social media is an influencer in some regard.

"The potential to influence can be zeroed down to three important pillars: Reach, Resonance and Relevance." - Tejas Krishna

When we talk about an influencer, most of us think of of it as a person with large number of followers on twitter or a huge fan following on social networks. That's a very myopic way of identifying an influencer.

Anyone with followers above a threshold, provided they are not bots, can claim to be an influencer today. I recently read a story in Mint, where a 17 year old boy with close to 23K followers on twitter, considers himself to be an online influencer. Brands pay him to tweet and reach out to a wider audience. Is that a right approach to influencer marketing?

In my opinion, *Absolutely NOT*

If a brand's target is to reach out to a wider audience through influencers who have a massive following on social networks, then they must target the people (including celebrities) who 'truly believe in brand's value and what it has to offer to its audience.'

In the above example, a teenager is making his pocket money just by tweeting. With multiple brands reaching out to him for their campaigns, makes him believe he is an online influencer. He isn't an expert in a specific domain, he doesn't believe in a particular brand but is ready to work for multiple brands at the same time to earn extra bucks! This example makes me believe that most brands are getting 'Influencer Marketing' wrong.

What makes for an ethical influencer?

• An influencer is someone who is an expert in a specific domain
• A huge follower base is indeed a plus for an influencer. However, the quality of the followers matters just as well. It's important to identify those who have grown their following organically over time 
• Massive follower base isn't a necessity to qualify as an influencer but what matters the most is content & engagement 

"A good sign when you've become an influencer is when that authority goes unquestioned and folks trust you automatically"- Hemant Gaule

It's often said that influencer marketing is paid for. While in most cases, influencer marketing is "assumed" to be paid for, it doesn't hold true for every campaign. However, it's important to be transparent and open about such an engagement.

"Brands are identifying ways where they can let influencers experience something great and not link it to money directly." - Tejas Krishna

That said, I do believe that it isn't necessary to always pay influencers to market a product/service. A lot depends on the kind of relationship you share with them. If brands develop strong relationships with its customers, then they can leverage those customers on social media as their biggest influencers.

But hey, what's more powerful? - voice of a customer or voice of an influencer
A cutsomer's voice goes a long way in making or breaking a brand! Your customer is the king BUT if an influencer has the power to change the decision of those customers, that makes an influencer's voice more powerful.

If you are looking to engage influencers for your brand, do take a note of the above points and use social media platforms to identify, engage, interact and build relationships with your influencers.

What do you think it takes to be an ethical influencer on social media? I'd love to know your views in the comment section below.

The Emerging World of Brand Journalism

The Internet has made brand publishing ubiquitous. Gone are the days when brands required an intermediary to reach their target audience. Now, they have the luxury of reaching out to their audience directly, through content storytelling.

Welcome to the emerging world of brand journalism

Brands are using digital publishing tools and social media to directly reach out to their audience. 

On January 11th this year, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms in India, Flipkart.com announced the news of their new co-founder on Twitter. As a PR professional or a reporter, we usually expect big announcements to unveil at a press conference/event BUT with digital media, things are changing.

Flipkart tweeted the news via their handle @FlipkartStories and uploaded the full story on stories.flipkart.com. The news of course spread like fire!

Flikpart now shares all their stories on the stories.flipkart.com.

This example reiterates the fact that:

• Brands want to own the narrative and want to be storytellers to reach out to their consumers/stakeholders directly
• Brands are looking for quick and effective ways of communicating with their target audience 
• There is no need for intermediaries to tell a brand's story - with brands sharing their own stories, they don't need reporters to reach out to the stakeholders. However, how 'authentic' the story is, cannot be judged 

Brand journalism and brand content have very different purpose and ethics. Journalists/reporters share authentic news with the public, however, a brand's content is always targeted at its consumers. The ultimate aim of a reporter is to'inform' the public and that of a brand is to 'sell.'

So while we say that the world of brand journalism is emerging, not sure if it will 'shake up' the media industry. That said, we might see a rise of brand editors in the near future. What do you think?

Are you a thought leader on social media?

Recently I hosted Jason LeDuc, Founder and President of Evil Genius Leadership Consultants, LLC,

an executive and leadership coaching firm on #SocialPowWow twitter chat . The one hour chat with him fueled a lot of questions and conversation around positioning oneself as a thought leader on social media.

While offline networking and communication with the industry peers can position oneself as a thought leader in the industry, social media is the vehicle for effective leadership online. Leaders have multiple audiences, from customers, employees to industry peers and social media helps reach them all.

In the words of Jason, "Social media is an incredible way to show the world about your leadership values and style."

To become a leader in your own community, start by helping existing communities

"Communities are made of people, so connecting existing communities is a great way to build a new one!" - Jason 

Engaging and building relationships with the existing community helps strengthen your own network. An interesting point that Jason pointed out during the chat was that often best results come from connecting two communities that don't know each other and social is built for that.

While having an online presence and engaging with communities on social platforms is a must to be seen as a thought leader, what's more important is to understand which networks should a leader be present at.

We can never define one platform where presence is a must to be visible as a thought leader. It depends on your goals and who you are trying to connect with.

Interestingly, during the chat, the community voted for Twitter and LinkedIn to be the most effective social networks for thought leaders. Twitter is great for real-time engagement, feedback and to build a community. LinkedIn is effective to network with the peers in the industry and engage with them via LinkedIn groups/ posts.

Platforms like Blab, can bring across personality and authenticity. However, it isn't mandatory to be on live streaming apps or on video networks to position yourself as a leader.

And to be a like-able leader, you got to be "Authentic."

"Likeability comes after lot of work. Approachability, Accessibility, Attitude to help, Humility & Updated content" - @falgunivasavada

In fact, those in the leadership position and active on social media come across as more friendly, transparent and accessible to the followers.

If you want to be seen as a thought leader, raise your social media profile

• Focus on your objective and reach out to your target audience via online forums / LinkedIn groups / Twitter/ Blogs
• Start small - like participating in Twitter chats and building connections 
• Engage with your audience with effective and useful content
• Always respond to questions and comments 
• Share your thoughts, learnings and opinions with the community
• Engage for social good. Support causes that are closer to your heart and associate with like minded groups - @1DigitaLife

"Leadership is about people and if we are not engaging, we are not really leading" - Jason

Our community gave a shout out to the leaders who engage, communicate and lead in the areas of HR/ Entrepreneurship/ Leadership/ Communications/ Travel: @richardbranson; @anandmahindra; @AshishJThakkar;@GautamGhosh @narendramodi; @BarackObama; @sureshpprabhu;@guykawasaki; @PrabirJha; @AbhijitBhaduri; @IndianYash; @JoyAndLife;@JLipowski; @Nicolette_; @TheTravelCamel;@Sihpromatum;@PRmomentIndia; @shonali

I'd love to know the thought leaders who have inspired you on social media. What is your like-ability quotient for a leader on social networks? Share your thoughts in the comment section below!

How To Use Online Networking For Business Development And Growth

Let me tell you a story of a hardworking entrepreneur named Paul, who was dedicated to grow a successful business. Day after day, Paul worked so hard giving the maximum, but getting no results,  and he became angry and frustrated. But Paul wasn't a quitter, and decided that he had to work harder. A long time ago he was told that a hard working person always reaps the reward. One day, Paul, feeling devastated and like a failure and not made to be an entrepreneur, decided to go for a walk to blow off some steam. That walk in the park changed everything, because he ran into his college friend Amy. She was the missing link, who connected him to other valuable links.

YOU HAVE TO WORK LIKE AN ANT, AND NETWORK LIKE A GRASSHOPPER

The story of the ants and the grasshopper shows two extrems - ants work hard they don’t have time for rest and leasure, grasshopper is having fun all the time, but in the winter he ends up hungry. The moral of the story for many is - be like an ant and not like a grasshopper; but because most of the time we too, have a tendency to go to extremes, we received that lesson only half way, forgetting that we are not forced to take it to the latter but rather learn and apply what works best for each and every one of us in a specific context.

Networking was always an intricate part of a business success, because business is all about people – and that includes new connections. What gets in a way of networking is that once we focus on our end goal, we forget everything else. The more we work the more we become detached from a social aspect of our business.

Nowadays we have social networks, which represent huge opportunities to meet new people. With a good strategy and targeted approach we can save time while maximizing our efforts and success rate. Usually, networking means «business communications», but these days networking doesn’t have to be tied directly to a business to get results.

Social media networking is not free – you pay for it upfront with your energy and your time. Energy can be restored, however time invested in networking must have some kind of ROI, something tangible that can help you move forward, grow, increase sales, generate more income or gaining any of the following examples:

- New point of view
- Different experience
- Learning new skill
- Increased awareness of your personal brand
- Increased awareness for your startup
- New important contacts
- New friendships
- Invitation to participate in a tweetchat, private linkedin group, blab, community, writing a blog post...
- Start an online brand community

What’s important is to think of your time as if it were a budget, and allocate certain amounts to communicate, connect, exchange opinions, LEARN from others, teach...

If we behave only as ants, we might end up in solitude, and no (wo)man is an island. To go further, grow and innovate, we have to collaborate.

STRATEGIC NETWORKING MUST INCLUDE RESPECTING OTHERS

Choosing our tactics, like whom we contact with and how, seems very calculated and unemotional – but that’s only half of the story. Once you’re done researching and shaping your networking strategy it’s time to focus on the people.People are not assets, numbers, stepping stones... people are made of emotions – dreams, passions, needs, wants.

In other words, your networking strategy might look like it’s focused solely on you and your

business, but it also needs to be focused on the people you’re going to reach. And if you’re not a «people person» your first step, before jumping in business networking, is to learn some people skills, so you can become more effective at it and also have more fun.

- Don’t fake it till you make it – people like genuineness, they have a way to instinctively sense fake.
- If you take, you must give back – show support and respect, be a connector.
- Be prepared to give more than you receive – some people might need more to open and collaborate.
- Invest your time and energy in quality not quantity – don’t be a victim of vanity, and pick those social networks which will best serve your goals.
- Test and try – not every plan and approach will work, prepare to adjust.
- Be curious not a stalker - the more you get to know a person the better relationship

The beauty of online networking is that you can find out peoples' interests in advance, so you can connect with those who share your interests, and discuss related topics. Who knows, you might even move beyond mutually supporting one another and establish a business collaboration. It happens all the time.

Remember: Networking IS a part of Business success – a part you must not skip and leave for a more convenient time. Business success IS about people – and how they respond to your service, your product, most importantly to YOU!

Disclaimer: The post has been written by Iva Ignjatovic, @IvaIgnjatovic who was a guest on #SocialPowWow Twitter chat to speak on this topic.

 

#SocialPowWow: A meeting ground for Communicators & Marketers

While most of my friends and family are on Facebook and “addicted” to this social network, I choose to meet and interact with new people on Twitter.

No, that doesn’t mean I don’t like my friends or family. ;)

The beauty about Twitter is that you don’t need to be “friends” with someone before you start interacting with them. And what’s better than e-meeting new people from across the globe and learning from their experiences?

Social media has paved the way for us to meet like-minded people from all over the world.

Last year, I started a Twitter chat called #SocialPowWow in order to have a meeting ground on Twitter for PR pros, marketers and startups from India and across the world.

Before I tell you more about it, I’d like to give a BIG shout out to the hosts of chats and the respective communities who helped me learn and increase knowledge over the years and yes, I have built strong relationships with them over time!

I was introduced to the world of Twitter chats by Shonali, and the first ever Twitter chat that I tuned in to was, of course, #MeasurePR. Since then there was no looking back. I enjoyed interacting with the community and learning more about the PR ecosystem and the importance of measurement in PR.

It always felt good to hear different perspectives from people across the globe; that pushed me to explore various other Twitter chats including #Bufferchat (Nicole Miller does a great job by going an extra mile for her community and making a connect with them), #Luv4social (Teri Kojetin & Carmella Lanni), #BizHeroes (I can’t thank Kelly Hungerford enough for guiding me), and #SEMRushChat (Olga Andrienko) which focuses on topics like communications, branding, digital marketing, analytics, and SEO.

How did these chats help me?

Regularly interacting with these communities helped me gain immense knowledge. While I learnt a lot in my day job at a PR agency, I learned even more via these chats. From design tools to understanding analytics, measurement and the changing face of PR in the digital era, the Twitterati have definitely been my guiding light.  

Birth of #SocialPowWow

It was last year in October that I decided to start a chat to build a community of PR pros, marketers, and entrepreneurs in India to discuss topics of mutual interests. From 0 to over 400 followers in five months, I enjoyed building a community of people who have similar interests.

Power is gained by sharing knowledge, not hoarding it.

Inviting experts from various parts of the world including India, and collaborating and connecting the community in India with experts from all over the world and vice versa has definitely been one hell of a roller coaster ride!

I have always believed in the power of community; there is just SO much you can do. You learn, exchange ideas, collaborate and build long lasting relationships, because it’s true that you connect only with like-minded people in this world.

So far, the topics we’ve covered include content marketing, digital marketing, marketing challenges for startups, analytics, storytelling, community management, the gap between PR and media, IMC, marketing trends for 2016, customer experience through analytics, the ethical side of social, and the future of video in India.

It’s been five months since I started the weekly chat and the response to the chat has been overwhelming. Within three months of starting the chat, it was rated among the 15 most popular digital marketing Twitter chats by Echovme. 

Ain’t that awesome?

So, if you’re reading this post, I really hope to see you at the next #SocialPowWow Twitter chat – we chat every Thursday, 11:30AM ET/ 9PM IST. Let’s get together and build a strong community of communications and marketing professionals!

This post was originally published on WUL. 

Customer Experience Driven By Social Media Intelligence

With internet & social media, customer experience has completely changed over time. It has brought brands closer and accessible to customers and vice versa enabling real time conversation. The always connected consumer immediately gets to know the good, the bad & the ugly about a brand. All thanks to social media, phew! 

"Advent of social technologies has led to shifting demographics, real time sharing & adding sheer dynamism to marketing." - Dinesh Kulchandra

Indians make use of various communication channels to talk about customer service experiences. 

Did you know? According to American Express Customer Service Barometer, Indians continue to be the most digital savvy with 71% utilizing social media to get a customer service response. 

Embrace digital platforms to deliver better customer experience 

Companies should embrace digital platforms to build personal connect with their audience. In the past, if a customer had bad experience with the product or company, there wasn't much they could do about it, but now they can tell the entire world about a poor experience they have had with the product/company. Internet has given consumers a powerful voice and they're not afraid to use it. 

 78% of online customers recommend a brand to friends & other contacts after a great customer experience - @helpscout 

Interestingly, it's said that customers who engage with companies over social media are more loyal - @Talkdesk 

Social media can be a blessing for businesses that use it well and a curse for those that don't. Today’s networked & omni-channel customers demand personalization and prompt response from the companies. When customers reach out to companies on social media, they expect a response:

• 15% in less than an hour
• 46% in 24 hours or less
• 14% in 48 hours or less
• 25% never

With social media playing an imperative role in delivering better customer service, analytics plays a HUGE role in understanding consumer behavior & personalize their brand journey to enhance their experience. 

Social analytics provide useful insights which can help make smarter and better decisions. It touches across multiple user generated interactions impacting customer experience. Smart companies use analytics to figure out deeper issues with their product or service and resolve them.

While social media lends itself to creating communities, social analytics helps with engaged communities. Customer experience driven by social media Intelligence helps in building highly engaged communities - @Gartner_inc 

To conclude, here's an interesting info graphic by @Talkdesk which highlights the best practices for boosting customer service on your phone and social media.