session 2: social media management & crisis communications
TRANSCRIPT
THE SOCIAL MEDIA CYCLE
Discover (where are many customers)
Observe (what do they talk about)
Join (how can I add value to conversation)
Spark (how can I get them talking about us)
Discovering the Conversation
• Who is my audience?
• When are they connecting (Facebook , Twitter, Google+, YouTube…)
• Starting point: It takes time but finding them is KEY to good Social Media planning e.g. blog search, twitter search, site analytics, and Social Media listening tools like Radian6
Observing
• What are they talking about? What matters to them?
• You need to know what they think: tweets, posts, Facebook.
• Know what they share: RTs, Facebook likes, video embeds, Pinterest shares
• What makes them take action (what motivates them): to make them subscribe, share, register, purchase
• Set up a daily routine: pick sites that give you overall review, listening, groups on linked-in
Joining
• Consider what you have heard then how to put it to work either through: content, biz operation, marketing, new offering or research.
• When you do start to talk, make absolute certain you have something of value to say. For example, give infographics, in-depth how to, hosting twitter chatter, Youtube interview/conversation; share something unique.
Sparking
• Knowing what makes your audience tick will help much in connection.
• People are motivated differently:
-Knowledge driven - Reward driven
-Ego driven -Passion driven
[Your audience will mostly be a combination of these people]
Social Media Audience:
• Evangelists: Regular sharers with strong audience. Discuss highly targeted topics with high volume audience.
• Influencers: Less targeted topics, high volume of audience.
• Chatter Boxes: Regular sharers with small audience.
• One-Timers: Share a single message, usually untargeted.
UNDERSTANDING MOTIVATORS
• Knowledge Motivated: 61% of people worldwide will share “interesting things”
• Ego Driven: unique things or to "let others know what I’m doing“/ define ourselves to others
• Passion: to support a cause, an organisation or a belief e.g. lost and found
• Reward: to get a coupon, enter a draw…
Social Campaign:• A social media campaign must have a message; a call to action; and
a message you want your audience to share.
• Get attention by using your Unique Value Proposition; this will differentiate and create brand salience.
Social Media without a hook is like an empty banner. Think about:
• What message you want to deliver (fix reputation, build a brand, drive action)
• What action you want to be taken (share content, create content, complete process) and
• What message you want shared (sentiment, experience, and example)
• What is your UVP (quality of service, experience, value, exclusivity).
Understanding what delivers impact
Blogs and articles
Social reviews
Search results
Social networks
Social sharing
Micro blogging
Context Increases Competition
for attention Increases
6 Qualities of VIRAL ideas:
• Embrace simplicity
• Deliver the unexpected (unique)
• Be concrete/clear (instead of fast, say 15Minutes)
• Carry credibility
• Tap into emotions
• Tell a story [eg. the Dettol Ad.]
What spreads:
• Jokes – 88%
• News – 56%
• Health – 32%
• Spiritual – 30%
• Games – 25%
• Hobbies- 24%
• Business/Money- 24%
• Sex [Sells but does not Spread] – 12%
Crisis Communication:
Crisis communication is a sub-specialty of the PR profession that is designed to protect and defend an individual, company, or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation.
Steps Of Crisis Communications[By Jonathan Bernstein]
PRE-CRISIS
1. Anticipate Crises
This will help you realize that some of the situations are preventable.
You can also begin to think about possible responses, about best-case/worst-case scenarios.
2. Identify Your Crisis Communications Team
3. Identify and Train Spokespersons
4. Establish Notification and Monitoring Systems
5. Identify and Know Your Stakeholders
6. Develop Holding Statements
"We will be supplying additional information when it is available and posting it on our website."
POST-CRISIS
7. Assess the Crisis Situation
8. Finalize and Adapt Key Messages
9. Post-Crisis Analysis
• The social media manager is the most likely person to see a PR crisis on the horizon due to the real-time nature of social media.
• There are three roles social and digital media play during a crisis: instigator, accelerant and extinguisher.
• We can use social media effectively before, during, and after a crisis to mitigate the damage, and in some cases actually eliminate the crisis.
14 Tips for Building Social Media Crisis Communications Plan:
1. Once a crisis breaks out on social media, identify your influencers, as they are most likely to impact the conversation.
2. Actively monitor your reputation and the activities of your protagonist(s) or advocate(s).
3. Avoid the information vacuum. Information spreads as soon as it’s available, regardless of its veracity. You can’t have a press conference every other hour; you have to release news in real time.
4. Develop a clear, effective and platform-appropriate message. Be where your crisis is happening. If something is happening on Twitter, respond via Twitter first before sending out a press release.
5. Own your brand in social media before someone else does. People are actively stalking and brand jacking. You should know not only your corporate entity’s brand, but all of your subsidiary brands.
6. A majority of journalists use Twitter for sources. Journalists are getting their news from Twitter in real-time before verifying the source of the story.
7. Make sure to include people, not logos, on your social media accounts. No one wants to engage with a logo, especially in a crisis. We want to talk and hear from someone.
8. Integration is key. It is critical to integrate your crisis communication plan across all channels.
9. Know what you are talking about. Once you lose the credibility it is really tough to get it back.
10. When you blow it, own up to it quickly.
11. When all else fails, don’t forget humor. When you have really gotten in too deep, the best way to recover is humor.
12. Integrate paid and earned media.
13. Have clear employee rules and training for social media engagement.
14. Don’t forget your secret weapon: your employees. They can be your most powerful allies online if you engage and arm them in time.
*****
COMMON SOCIAL MEDIA MISTAKES• Putting the Same Messages on Every Platform
• Prioritizing Quantity
• Posting in the Heat of the Moment [Kimaiyo, Sauti Sol]
• Not Making a Compelling Bio
• Using the Wrong Posting Frequency
Mistakes…
• Never Proofreading
• Using Too Much Automation
• Not Engaging
• Forgetting the Importance of Brevity
• Misusing Different Features: Photos, #, @
Qualities of a good Community Manager:• Content Creator: Copywriting, design,
positioning, creativity
• Marketing Analyst: Data analysis, curiosity, ability run scientific experiments and draw insights from data, data presentation
• News Junkie: Content curation, hungry for information, professional on-the-spot communication skills
• Customer Service Rep: Strong communication skills, adaptability, calm, desire to solve others' problems
• Community Facilitator: Resourcefulness, ability to connect people and stimulate discussion
• Funnel Marketing Manager: Funnel understanding, knowledge of content for each funnel stage, basic sales skills