by Mary Kate Smither, Vollmer Public Relations Dallas
Yesterday afternoon, I participated in a conference call hosted by Peter Shankman (@skydiver) and Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan), two of the leading authorities in the world of social media. Shankman is best known as the founder of HARO, or Help a Reporter Out, a Web site that acts as a conduit between reporters and sources to create stories, and which also sponsored the conference call. HARO has been a great addition for PR people, helping us to connect more easily on a daily basis with reporters looking for specific resources for their stories. Brogan is a veteran blogger, entertaining speaker and president of New Marketing Labs, a new media marketing agency.
Throughout their discussion both shared case studies and anecdotes on ways that various brands had elevated themselves among target audiences and found ways to generate ROI using social media. For example, Shankman described how the Capitol Hotel, located in Little Rock, Ark., had increased visits from its target audiences by 20 percent over six weeks simply by using social media strategies.
While this is fascinating and we hear many success stories like this every day, I was most interested in what they felt were the fundamentals for success, something I believe that a lot of companies and organizations sometimes take for granted as they jump headfirst into social media. What both Brogan and Shankman mentioned repeatedly was the importance of people in building and maintaining effective social media efforts. I think that sometimes in today’s very online world we forget that the point of all of these sites – Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn and so on – is not to simply push out content, but to connect with people – real human beings.
A campaign begins and continues successfully by listening to your target audiences, asking and figuring out what they want and then giving it to them in the way that they like to see it and hear it. All of this is done with the goal of continually building a trust bank with your customers, investors, donors, employees or whomever you may be targeting.
Equally important was the idea of two-way interaction with target audiences. Both said that the benefit of social media is that people can feel like they’re participating. What I’ve always found fascinating about social media and what Brogan and Shankman emphasized for me again is the idea that what is old is never really old, it just might be evolving. The same ideas that we apply to more traditional communications, such as good customer service and interested interaction during phone or in-person discussions, are still true and have only been furthered in today’s online, day-to-day communications.
People still want to know that they’re being heard, they want to ask questions, they want answers and they want to provide companies with feedback that is acknowledged. They want to know who they’re buying from, and the people behind the companies and products they’re buying. Social media provides the best possibilities we’ve ever known for two-way conversations, as people are able to update, check in, ask questions, view videos, give opinions and find out information in mere seconds, while brands provide new and different connections to their organizations, people and inner workings that help customers feel cared about, excited and engaged for long-term brand loyalty.
For more information on how we can help you listen to your target audiences and meet their needs via social media, contact me @mksmither on Twitter, at marykate@vollmerpr.com or 972-488-4790.
No comments:
Post a Comment