Social Media Campaigns

Strategies for Public Relations and Marketing

Carolyn Mae Kim

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781317312871
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Negocios y empresa
• Subtopic: Relaciones públicas

Social media has ushered in a new era of communication between organizations and key stakeholders. This text guides readers through a four-step process of developing a robust social media campaign. Covering the latest industry standards and best practices to engage digital audiences through social listening, strategic design, creative engagement and evaluation, each chapter also includes expert insights from social media professionals. Focusing on principles rather than a specific platform, this is a text dedicated to developing social media competency that can adapt to any organization or environment.

Chapter 1
Social Influence

Understanding the Development, Value, and Role of Social Media for Organizations

Organizations are operating in a new, social paradigm. Brands can no longer expect to control, dictate, or push a conversation onto the public. Rather, they must engage with the public, creating a two-way, relevant conversation in order to thrive in today’s social world.

Social media has changed the fabric of society. With more mobile devices connected to the Internet than there are people in the world, the impact of social media is felt in every facet of culture (Bennett, 2013). In the world of public relations, marketing, and communication, it is more important than ever that professionals have a strategic understanding of how to utilize social media effectively. Having a purposeful design to social media has the potential to ignite powerful conversations among key stakeholders. As social media has developed as a platform, and organizations have matured in their approach to social media community engagement, the methodology to using social media as a platform also needs to change. While every organization, online community, and social media campaign will have its own unique flavor, there is, nevertheless, a unifying model that underlies social media campaigns, which fosters strategic engagement. This model provides a framework on which all the creative, individualized approaches to social relationships can take shape. Organizations that get the most success from social media campaigns, however, not only understand the process of a social media campaign but also the way social media should integrate into the entire organization’s ethos.

Social Organizational Culture

There is a significant difference between brands that infuse social strategies into the entire organization, and those that use them only in social media campaigns for communication purposes. Michael Brito (2014) differentiates these two concepts as a “social brand” versus a “social business strategy.” While a social brand uses social technologies to communicate with their key audiences, a social business strategy is a “documented plan of action that helps evolve and transform the thinking of an organization bridging internal and external social initiatives resulting in collaborative connections, a more social organization, and shared value for all stakeholders” (p. 44). Figure 1.1 illustrates what a historical approach to a business model looks like. Each department in the organization is separated by their individual roles, responsibilities, and objectives. While they all jointly support the success of the business, they individually specialize in only their specific purpose.

Figure 1.1 The Historical Business Model

Today’s business environment, however, is not a static process that can approach key stakeholders in a mechanized way with each department solely responsible for only their area. Departments can no longer function in a silo without interacting with each other to support the needs of key relationships. Publics expect brands to be holistic, connecting across multiple departments and with multiple people in order to provide the best solution for each stakeholder’s need. For example, if someone contacts the brand through Twitter about a concern with billing or with a product, it is important that the social media team communicates with the other department in order to get an answer and respond to the individual. Simply giving the phone number or email number of the other department to the person on Twitter, instead of providing the answer, gives the impression that interaction between departments does not occur. The message that is being sent, then, is that the business is not actually relational internally, but simply wants to give the impression that it is relational. Today’s social business is all about connecting and relating, both internally with others in the organization and externally with audiences and their needs. This model is illustrated in Figure 1.2, which shows how the various departments not only surround and support the vision of the brand, but also help each other. Social organizations are brands that recognize social interaction as a core approach to business rather than social media as a tool to accomplish business, and thus experience the power of authentic relationships with key stakeholders.

Figure 1.2 The Social Business Model

For a brand to be social requires an entire paradigm shift in business and structure. Jay Baer (2013) points out that organizations need to now operate in a “friend-of-mine awareness,” recognizing that, in today’s world, people do business with brands with which they have relationships. “Like never before in the history of business, our personal and commercial relationships are merging and entangling, line for line, pixel for pixel” (p. 27). He goes on to describe an approach that he has named “Youtility.”

Youtility is marketing upside down. Instead of marketing that’s needed by companies, Youtility is marketing that’s wanted by customers. Youtility is massively useful information, provided for free, that creates long-term trust and kinship between your company and customers. The difference between helping and selling is just two letters. But those two letters now make all the difference.

(p. 3)

In order to achieve this Youtility approach to an organization, Baer (2013) suggests that organizations have to recognize that publics want self-serve information, allowing them to get all the details they need whenever they are looking for them. In addition, they expect brands to operate with radical transparency, giving answers and information before they are asked for, and real-time relevancy, which utilizes technology and engagement to connect with key stakeholders in meaningful ways (p. 44). Essentially, the new paradigm of business in today’s social world is all about people. We need to go back to the basics, valuing and investing in relationships with people connected to our brand. For a brand to truly be social, therefore, people have to matter: at every level and in every decision. Social organizations do not just use social media as a tool to communicate. Social organizations operate in an entirely different framework than historical models—they operate in a social paradigm of business, placing people and their needs/desires/values front and center in business operations and decisions. Social media, then, should serve as an indicator of the relational priorities of the brand within the digital world, not as the only source of relational interaction that occurs within the organization.

The Crisis of Trust

People do business with organizations that they trust. . . with people that they trust. In a world with more competition than ever before, and thousands of options for people to choose from, relationship becomes the defining factor in business. Unfortunately, despite trust being the cornerstone for ongoing relationships with key stakeholders, there are countless examples of organizations that have defrauded and lied to the public. This broken trust and lack of transparency within business has led to a deep-seated distrust of organizations by the public. The Crisis of Trust can be defined as the developing belief that organizations are deceitful or inauthentic in their communication and relationship with the public. Rohit Bhargava (2012) identified this issue as the believability crisis. Bhargava traced the development of our “society of distrust” by exploring the role of propaganda, unethical marketing and public relations and the introduction of mass communication to overwhelm marketplaces with those who could pay the most to have the loudest voice. This method, ultimately, ended up treating people like commodities rather than valued relationships. With trust in all institutions at an all-time low, “people are less likely to trust anyone or anything” (p. 17). He suggests that when communication is humanized, focusing on individuals and relationships, three important elements are reintroduced: purpose, empowerment, and appreciation. The developing of this personal relationship through these three elements has the power to rebuild trust between brands and the public (p. 25). In conclusion, while brands today are operating in a time of deep mistrust by the public, due to the unethical and harmful practices that have come to light in the last several decades, social organizations are able to directly counter the believability crisis by building meaningful and authentic relationships with individuals. This commitment to relationships that provide value and are built on trust is the heart of the Social Principle.

The Social Principle

A key tenet of social media engagement is relationships. Social engagement is driven out of connection and community. When organizations enter the social environment, they must keep these facts in mind to be effective in social spaces. Social media is not just a tool—it is a tangible expression of an organizational commitment to trust and value in relationships that is the heart of the social principle. The social principle is simply this: the fluid nature of social media is designed for and sustained in relationship through two-way communication around topics of mutual interest that is user-initiated, -created, and -driven. When organizations realize that social media is not a publicity tool used to plaster information in front of users, but rather a dynamic communication platform to foster two-way relationships in an unscripted environment, they are positioned to truly ignite their social communities.

In order to fully explore the social media model in today’s organizational environment, it is helpful to understand how online communities developed. Equipped with an understanding of the background and history of how brand communities and organizations on social media have advanced, as well as what has led to developing relationships in social spaces, the full value of this book’s proposed social media model will take on much more meaning.

Expert Insight

Karen Freberg, Ph.D.

What do you think is one hallmark competency social media professionals need to succeed?

Writing is absolutely key. However, it’s not just about writing in one platform, but evolving your writing skills to fit the platforms as they change. Plus, we have to look at writing in different circumstances and timing. Social media is a real-time form of media, so we have to be able to write content effectively in a few hours to a few seconds.

What are some key considerations for brands on social media who want to be effective?

Planning and strategy are still at the heart of what makes brands successful on social media. You do not have to be on all platforms, but you want to be there to engage on the platforms where your audiences are located and communicating on. It’s about preparing for various situations and being creative yet strategic in how you approach each situation.

With the constantly changing landscape of social media, how can organizations stay relevant?

Social media is a living, breathing platform, and brands have to continue to educate themselves to be on top of the growing changes and shifts we are seeing in the field. Building a strong community of influencers and educators to help share knowledge and trends with each other is essential to stay ahead of the game as well.

Why do you think social media is so powerful in today’s culture?

Social media has allowed the individual user to bypass gatekeepers to formulate their own media channel. We are able to share content and connect with people in real-time and break down the traditional barriers of communication that have been around for decades. While there are lots of great opportunities that make social media powerful, we also have to consider the challenges it has raised and how it is a powerful, and sometimes dangerous, platform and community. It’s about understanding the balance of what makes social media powerful—the positives and the negatives.

What are some of the biggest challenges for brands when they build brand communities in social media?

I’d say trying to be something you are not. It’s about being true to your values and unique characteristics as a company and brand that is appealing to people. Audiences want brands who are authentic and transparent with their actions and communication. It’s not all about promotion and one-way communication, rather that it’s really about being active, engaged, and listening to be part of the dialogue. Social media is interactive, so if brands establish themselves on a particular platform, they have to be engaged and invested in formulating and developing the community. Also, brands have to recognize if they are on social media platforms, they are essentially on rented property (e.g. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat). We have to follow the rules, terms of service agreements, and changes that follow on the platform. Engaging on these platforms is one thing, but realize you have to have an integrated approach that balances shared/earned media along with owned and paid media.

What does it take for a brand to truly be social?

Social media is indeed a lifestyle, and a brand that embraces this throughout their company and among their employees is going to be successful. I have seen brands that are as engaged online as they are offline. This is one thing I do look for when it comes to strong social media communities and examples to share with my students in the classroom. It comes down to the time, effort, and investment digital and social media managers have put into the social landscape. I have to say there are several brands who excel in this arena like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, GM, Skype, and Under Armour. However, sports organizations and teams are ones who I look to as strong examples of embracing social media throughout the organization, community, and team. Teams like the Dallas Mavericks, Team USA, Golden State Warriors, USA FIFA Women’s World Cup team, XGames University of Nebraska, and Oklahoma Sooners are pretty exceptional in how they have embraced this.

How can social media teams work to minimize crisis or brand risk within social media?

Great question! I think it comes down to crisis prevention and planning. Social media is changing and we have to look at the potential good and challenging situations that can arise online. There are some situat...