Social Media Public Relations and Advertising

SOCIAL MEDIA PR AND ADVERTISING

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Social Media Public Relations and Advertising

Hanna Suviha

University of Nicosia

MCOM-520

Spring 2015


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Abstract

Emergence of social media made companies and mass media to reconstruct

the way they used to communicate with audience. In my paper I will discuss

how it is important for organizations to establish strong relations through

social media channels. I will also discuss how to develop strategy for social

media communication with customers. My work is mainly based on Christer

Holloman's book "The Social Media MBA", although I overview other

authors' works as well. I also included Case Study of Dell Company which

illustrates how the organization can successfully manage its social media

relations with customers.


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Introduction

Social media is a collective term that describes the means of communicating

and engaging with people. It represents a shift from a broadcast mechanism

to a many-to-many model, rooted in a conversational format between authors

and peers within their social channels (Solis, Breakenridge; 2009). Social

Media is anything that uses the Internet to facilitate conversations.

Holloman (2012) remarks:

When someone mentions social media it wouldn’t be too much of a surprise

to think that Social Media is all about Facebook, Twitter and the like. Yes it’s

not. Social Media isn’t about the tools and the channels – the software or the

technology. It’s all about what people do with the technology, the software,

the tools and the channels: sharing pictures and video, writing product

reviews, collecting content, connecting with old friends, sharing with new

and collaborating in the workplace. (p.4)

It is certain that with the emergence of Social Media the way of

communication with main stakeholders strongly changed. Social media is

encouraging people to become more influential and it forces public relations

professionals to recognize and include new tools in their advertising and

marketing communications strategies. Nevertheless, marketers are still unsure

exactly how to adapt to social media. There are still relatively few experts

exist, even though there are many actively trying to understand the logic of

game.


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Social Media Public Relations and Advertising

Wright and Hinson in their research paper “How Blogs and Social Media are

Changing Public Relations and The Way It Is Practiced” (2008) discuss that

social media complement traditional news media, and that blogs and social

media influence coverage in traditional news media. It is also pointed by

Scott that: “differences between the “old” and “new” rules of press releases

are important. Nobody actually saw the old press releases except a few

reporters and editors, and the only way members of the general public would

learn about the content of a press release was if the media wrote a story about

it. While today’s “new” press releases focuses on information senders now

deliver directly to receivers in various target publics via the Web” (as cited in

Wright; Hinson, 2008). Wright and Hinson also remark that a lot of

corporations encourage corporate blogging by their employees. Although

they also notices that many organizations do not because they have fear of

employees putting negative information about the company or exchanging

confidential information. And in spite of it two-thirds of correspondents are

ready to take a risk because they believe that blogs and social media enhance

what happens in public relations.

Holloman in the book “The Social Media MBA” (2012) saying that

introducing social media into an organization usually means change. It can be

the change in the way everyone understands how the organization works. It

can be change in the ways people relate to and connect with others, inside and


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outside of the organization. Or it can be change in the roles and

responsibilities where what had seemed clear to everyone perhaps isn’t any

more (Holloman, 2012). For the organization, social media can be hugely

disruptive, challenging established orders, hierarchies and cultures. So what

Holloman recommends to put into organization’s strategy is: 1) to recognize

change, 2) eliminate Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD), 3) be where your

customers are, 4) listen and 5) permit.

Recognizing change means to take into consideration disruption to traditional

business models and the way people want to communicate and connect using

social media – the new tools of the web which people use for personal interest

or at work. We should consider changes in our social structures which easier

technology puts power in the hands of individuals and communities instead of

only organizations and institutions. Social media is changing how marketing

and communication works and how people want to connect with brands.

Eliminating FUD means to get rid of fears and doubts, so it will not hold

organization back from using social media tools. There is a common fear of

perceived security risks in allowing employees access to social media tools

and channels. It can be fear of releasing secret information or bringing a virus

into company’s network. Also there is uncertainty over the effects of losing

control, because of inability to control whether employee will say something

negative or not. And there is doubt over productivity.

Such approach in the workplace sees employer and employee in a partnership

where, though the establishment of trust and mutual respect over time, each


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partner recognizes the critical stake the other has in the organization’s success

and how enabling employees to engage with others online can measurably

support organization’s business goals.

A key component of the climate of trust is helping everyone understand what

the rules of engagement are – in essence, what’s permitted and what’s not

when employees reach out to other via social channels – as well as an

ongoing education framework where employees have access to formal and

informal learning opportunities to help them gain knowledge of and

confidence in the tools and the channels available to them.

Being where your customers are means that you should engage with

customers on their terms, not yours. Nowadays, the goal is to offer your

visitors content they will value – even if that content is at places other than

yours. Consumers want honesty, transparency and authenticity. For

companies, this means having open personality, one that reflects today’s new

consumer values. Therefore, the people in the company must be visible and

engaged with people outside the company, talking with customers in their

own genuine and individual voices. A clear consumer trend is wide rejection

of the concept of the corporate voice, where organization spoke and it was

never clear who was speaking. The companies who genuinely promote brand

plus individual will enjoy the most influence: wherever the customer prefers

to be.

Listening means monitoring necessary information about your customers.

First you should understand on what you want to focus: if you want to focus


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on reputation management or customer service; whether you want to get

feedback on your brand or you are looking to find conversations you can join

so your organization can get exposure in front of new audiences; would you

like to keep an eye on your competitors or you are planning prudently in the

eventuality of a crisis. Above all, you must know who in your organization

needs what information, and be able to get that information to those people,

on demand, when they need it. Such a role isn’t necessarily one for someone

with a communication background. It should be one with strong analytical

skills, since he should know how to handle the amount of data via technology

and tools.

Permitting means allowing your employees to use social media, although you

should make sure that you provided necessary educational training on how to

use it effectively. It is highly important to let your employees know what is in

company’s policies and which information they are allowed to give to the

wider audiences.

There is one more thing which requires higher attention – choice of social

media spokespeople. Not every traditional spokesperson has the right stuff to

leap into social channels and join the conversation. Social media communities

want to hear from a human being – not a press release. Someone who tells it

like it is. They want advice and information delivered honestly. It should be

people who are as comfortable with a blog comment as they are with a quick

tweet or creating a new thread in a forum. The best social media

spokesperson will have already built up a valid role in these communities. Or


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if they’re heading into new territory, have the time and aptitude to do this

properly. But not only comfort plays role. New social spokesperson need to

build relationship and also help connect the community to our brand. This is

where planning, calendar creation, connection with a business’ marketing and

communications function and on-going coaching become critical. Social

media spokesperson needs the authority to make decisions and comments in

real time. November 2010 Facebook Brand Interaction study (Beyond, 2010)

by company’s sister brand Beyond, says that there are the top two reasons for

following a brand on Facebook were to find offers and discounts and to

demonstrate love for products (as cited in Holloman, 2012). But love alone

isn’t enough to keep people from clicking. Twitter and Facebook need

programming, new content and interaction – fundamentally a unique reason

to keep someone coming back (Holloman, 2012). You should ensure your

best people will make their contribution into this process. For example, if the

conversation concern customer support, then it makes sense for customer

support people to prioritize online in parallel to their regular roles. If the

conversation can be classed as pre-sales, then look at those who manage this

function.


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Branded content

“Nobody has 30 seconds for a brand,

But everyone has 30 minutes for a good story” – Joe Pulizzi.

Future success in the field of social media will be dictated by one single

consideration – giving your fans something to talk about (Holloman, 2012).

In order to establish or extend brand identity and affinity you should think of

using branded content. The examples of branded content can be video related

(viral, episodic, reportorial), functional (mobile and web applications),

auditory (mixtapes, downloads), interactive, game-related, editorial and

anything else that might be used to engage and inspire a consumer base.

However it is important not to confuse branded content with product

placement. Branded content is a narrative creation – telling and spreading

stories, while product placement is an association, linkage and principles of

sponsorship.

Holloman (2012) recommends keeping in mind following practices when

designing content strategies:

“Be authentic – today’s digital consumers are both savvy and fickle. While

willing to engage with a brand, brand content has to pass the smell test.”

“Be up to date – a week is a lifetime, and can mean the difference between

1000 and 1000000 views. “


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“Create culture – if incapable of creating culture yourself, get behind an effort

to enable someone your fans appreciate.”

“Optimize your audience – the point of content is to encourage distribution.

The key here is achieving the “shareability” factor.”

“Measure, measure, measure – consistent measurement and tactical iteration

are vital to success.”

“Have fun with it – this process will undoubtedly be the most creative,

flexible and dynamic of all your marketing efforts. If you are not enjoying the

process, it’s doubtful any of your fans will either.”


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Dell Case Study

When speaking about social media marketing in most cases Dell computers

will be mentioned. Dell Inc. is an American multinational computer

technology company based in United States. It develops, sells, repairs and

supports computers and related product and services. Dell has annual

revenues of over $60 billion and approximately 100,000 employees across

180 countries. There is an average of 25, 000 conversations online everyday

about dell.

It would be fair to say that Dell Company was one of the earliest social media

adopters. They immersed themselves early and became an example of how a

large company could be a social business. It is important to know that over

24, 000 Dell employees have undergone social media training and some

3,000 of them have completed three training courses and become internally

certified to use social media on behalf of the company. In the spring 2010,

Dell launched its global Social Media Ground Control team to monitor,

measure and report on Dell Social Media activities. The Social Media

Listening Command Center tracks more than 25, 000 daily topic posts related

to Dell and mentions on Twitter (they do it in 11 languages). If there is a

negative conversation they have to involve and change index for a positive

one. They noticed the improvement in repeat purchase rates and that there are

higher purchase rate from customers who engage via social media

communities.


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In the beginning of 2015 Dell Inc. announced collaboration with Intel

Corporation on the latest social film titled "What Lives Inside". It is the

fourth installment of Intel’s “Inside Films” series that began in 2011 with

“Inside”, directed by D.J. Caruso. “Beauty Inside” came out in 2012, and

“The Power Inside” was released in 2013. Each film has a social component

like “What Lives Inside”.

The latest film is directed by Robert Stromberg (two-time Oscar-winner) and

has such Hollywood stars as Colin Hanks, J.K. Simmons and Catherine

O'hara. Simmons plays the absentee father of Taylor (C. Hanks) who dies. He

was a famous children’s puppeteer with his own kid’s TV-show and all the

world regrets of his death. On funerals Taylor discovers that magic world his

father created is real and he has chance to entrance this world. While the

journey Taylor realizes that whatever he makes on Dell tablet becomes real.

The 4 episodes series make viewer to empathize the main character. It

touches all emotions a good film should capture: sorrow, wonder, relief,

hope, happiness. And the movie really immerse person into created world.

Another good marketing move was that audience could participate in the

creation process of film by participating in the competition, where you could

send draft of monster creature which will be shown in the film. More than

6000 fans submitted their sketches.

The series “What lives Inside” is a good example of how branded content

should be created.


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Conclusion

This work aimed to show how emergence of social media is important for

organizations as it allows using new way of communication with audience. I

discussed the importance for organizations to establish strong relations

through social media channels and how to develop strategy for social media

communication. There are still relatively few studies on using social media

effectively. And the topic for future research can be maximizing effectiveness

of social media tools and trying to predict and prepare for future

transformations of social media. But one thing remains clear: social media is

not a passing trend - it is method allowing us to interact and share

information.


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References

Holloman, C. (2012). The Social Media MBA (p. 265). Chichester: A John

Wiley & Sons.

Solis, B., & Breakenridge, D. (2009). Putting the public back in public

relations: How social media is reinventing the aging business of PR. Upper

Saddle River, N.J.: FT Press.

Falls, J. (2011, September 13). WHY DELL IS STILL A GREAT CASE

STUDY. Retrieved March 20, 2015, from

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/why-dell-is-a-

great-case-study/

Dent, S. (2015, January 15). Dell and Intel want you to create monsters for

their next film. Retrieved March 20, 2015,

fromhttp://www.engadget.com/2015/01/15/dell-intel-what-lives-inside/

Inside films (12 Jan 2015) "What Lives Inside" A First Look (Video file).

Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WAZWm2k2w4

Livingston, G. (8 Dec 2011). "Dell Social Media Listening & Command

Center Tour - 11/8/2011". Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=qj59qQXN_KY

Anderle, M. (2015, March 15). 'What Lives Inside' film showcases Dell fans'

creativity - Power More. Retrieved May 10, 2015, from

https://powermore.dell.com/tech-culture/what-lives-inside-film-showcases-

dell-fans-creativity/

https://powermore.dell.com/tech-culture/what-lives-inside-film-showcases-dell-fans-creativity/

https://powermore.dell.com/tech-culture/what-lives-inside-film-showcases-dell-fans-creativity/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj59qQXN_KY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qj59qQXN_KY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WAZWm2k2w4

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/why-dell-is-a-great-case-study/

http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/social-media-marketing/why-dell-is-a-great-case-study/


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Press Releases. (2015, January 13). Retrieved May 14, 2015, from

http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/press-releases/2015-01-13-social-

film