So, when I came upon an op-ed today from Greg Galant, fellow DUMBO-ite talking about how Twitter “saved” public relations from PR—I was interested. (First off—PR didn’t need to be saved from itself, it needed time to adjust to the changes like everything else.) Greg goes on about how major brands have used Twitter to be the face and respond almost instantly to complaint, comments on questions using Twitter. He also focuses on how executives have delegated all communications tactics to PR people limiting their interaction. Fine. But he also notes that we should move away from PR interaction when it comes to social media communication (especially on Twitter) because “the voice of many corporations has lost its humanity.”

Don’t get me wrong—not ALL communication should be done via PR pro, but there is still an opportunity and need for this to be done in a right way. I still think you need SOMEONE to discuss a communications strategy when taking a first step into unknown territory. Otherwise, it could lack focus, direction…or mishaps. (Yes, Whole Foods I’m talking to you) While Twitter has worked for JetBlue, Comcast, Zappos—these executives were pretty tech savvy from the start. And, I’d be surprised if a comms person wasn’t brought into at least one of the earlier conversations. If not, props to them but it’s not the normal case. What about the executive that has never used Facebook, YouTube or Twitter but realizes that there is a need to be involved? Are you going to just say “Go have fun!” NO. You’re not.

Social media tools, while definitely a place that needs to be tried by the person can be a scary place to jump into. If you’re not sure of what is needed, bringing on the PR/comms team to help for the initial discussions can be extremely helpful. They’re the ones that have been watching this space for awhile and realize the importance of two way conversation, thus making it easier to walk through the step by step process. After a few months, the executive should be comfortable enough and under the realization of how to do it themselves. But, unless they’re ready to represent an entire organizations messaging via Twitter—hold off and work with someone.

You won’t be looked down upon. You’ll be looked at as someone who wants to get it right.

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Here’s my example. Did everyone see the Joaquin Phoenix meltdown on David Letterman from last week? Basically, he shows up in an “altered state” completely out of his mind and David Letterman, trained with experience teases him, jokes with him in the most awkward late night interview I’ve ever seen. The buzz flew around the interwebs with the YouTube video seeing over 1.3 million views! I can only imagine what his publicist was doing at the time of the show. (Probably frantically running for the Classifieds or a shot of Jack Daniels.) Word around the web was “He was on drugs” “He’s crazy” “Lost his mind”—Did you also know that Joaquin Phoenix was on to promote a movie? Not many people I talked to did unless they watched from the beginning when Letterman introduced him.

So, let’s think about this from a PR stand point. The goal of having him on the show was to promote his new movie Two Brothers which by the way had a HUGE ad push. But, as he slowly turned into joke of the week and the video gained traction on YouTube and blogs, is the movie now getting attention or just Joaquin and his crazy ways?

When thinking about the initial PR plan for the movie, I’m sure the team did NOT take this into account. Social media can make or break a PR plan in my opinion. This in some ways could actually be a “breaker” vs “maker.” What started as a simple plan for marketing a unique movie, getting the star on Letterman to promote the movie has now expanded past that and into a deeper look to the actor and cast through social media playbacks of a crazy video. From the flip side, AdAge goes into it more here and how the movie is actually doing quite well despite the Letterman meltdown.

As many client requests come in to “please make this go viral”—you can’t. You can only hope that a video of your brand gets 1.3 million views. But, would you want it to take away from your initial goal? Would you want the end result to be a mistake video getting a ton of traffic but overshadowing the main message? I don’t think so.

What do you think?

This article is copyright © 2012 

While many brands are scrambling to get online and in “social media” (we have the privilege of working with many of them–woot!) sometimes it’s good to just step back and cover the basics, do the little things first and then expand to something bigger based on event or launch timing, market need or announcement.

Last night The Grammys proved that the “little things” work with a simple social media campaign targeting Facebook and Twitter to update users in real time of red carpet photos and videos.

Twitter: @TheGRAMMYS provided the official live updates of performances and winners for those not watching or for those who want to comment. Not sure who was behind this (I DMed them, no comment back yet) but they were very timely and clear on what was going on.

*Twitter Bonuses: John Mayer live tweeted when he won his award and E! had Marc Malkin, Entertainment Columnist live tweeting about the show.

Facebook: The Recording Academy had a full page set to the Grammys including video interviews from the red carpet, performances and photos of all the fashion.

last.fm: The Grammys set up an event on last.fm with links to videos from the CBS Katie Couric interviews last week plus music streams of the nominees.

With awards show season half way through, online destination sites have proved to be the place to interact with other users real time. Past awards shows have been  spent glued to one TV screen and a phone texting the winners to friends. Now, they are glued to multiple TV or laptop screens filled with Boxee and TweetDeck updates waiting to comment on the performance before anyone else does, post a blog about the fashion of Miley Cyrus or reblog the Tumblr video commenting on M.I.A.’s possible pregnancy on stage during the show.

The future of television is changing as the days go by. Entertainment is changing before our eyes as the three screen revolution continues to add new elements to traditional modes of entertainment like an awards show. Gillian Reagan covered Living Room 2.0 in the NY Observer a few months back touching on this new move to the digital interaction in your living room. What’s next? Now that the Grammys live tweeted, it’s almost expected that The Oscars do the same. Will they? What about movie premieres? Once you give the community one thing, we’re going to expect it for the next. Marketers–prepare yourselves.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Photo Courtesy of The Bitten World.

You can thank the fact that today is National Pie Day for the witty subject line. But, it’s true. Pie is more than the filling and I doubt anyone can say that they eat pie for only the dry top layer. So, where am I going with this?

I’m linking social media and pie. Yes. It’s happening. Just like a pie, you need every ingredient to make it the best that it can be. The filling is what makes it, but you can’t leave out the crust or the
topping. In fact, to some people it’s not even a proper pie if you don’t put whip cream
on it. Same with a communications plan, you need all of the ingredients for it to work.

Social media is the filling. The really great stuff that you  remember because it’s not bland, usually has some exciting element or “taste” to it and has a unique flavor. But, without other ingredients like traditional PR outreach, advertising and brand defense—you don’t have the full picture or in this case the full piece of the “pie.”

John Brandon from NetworkWorld  wrote a great article questioning social media’s impact-particularly around the Obama campaign and it’s use of social media. He notes that while popular sites like Facebook, YouTube, etc… all of a lot of power—they’re not the end all of communication. Did it help the Obama campaign? TOTALLY. Was it the only reason? NO.

Social media needs to be part of the equation to help the overall plan. I have yet to see a campaign only done with social media. Those recommending that plan of action are not thinking correctly and it won’t work. Other elements need to be considered to ensure a result that benefits your brand.

John says, “For those trying to use social networks to actually influence thinking,
you have to remember that most people are only paying attention to them
in a sideways glance. None of these systems are game changers. Say you’re a PR firm trying to
get your product noticed. Social media helps. What actually gets the
product noticed, though, is old fashioned advertising, word of mouth,
and favorable reviews. It also has to be a good product.”

Part of this is true as you need to drive word of mouth, reviews, etc. to the actual social media part of the campaign, but in some cases the social media element of the campaign ARE those things. Posting something through Twitter is word of mouth marketing across the campaign to drive back to a Facebook application or a live stream interview with a top executive.

The important thing to take away here is that social media IS part of a bigger equation and an important one. As you do when baking a pie, you only use a certain amount of ingredients to result in a delicious dessert—think of it in the same way you plan your comms plan as well.

This article is copyright © 2012 

Andy Sernovitz, contributing writer for the Smart Blog on Social Media has a great take on this and who he think should be running the social media world: PR executives. As Andy says, “PR executives make the best social media executives. There is a similar mindset. Traditional media relations requires finding the right influencers, building trust, and sharing credible, relevant stories. Translating those actions to social media — replacing reporters with the bigger community — is exactly how to run a great social media program.”

In one way, I obviously agree with Andy. Yes, I am a PR person now working on social media campaigns so it’s definitely refreshing to see the industry encouraging PR to manage these new objectives. In my opinion, PR people have the upper hand when it comes to getting social media. We’re ahead of the game (disclosure: this is for some PR folks, obviously there are the strays that don’t do this well.) We follow (or try to follow) the rules that make social media successful. And we listen to what is going on around us.

We also fit into the overall scheme of social media methodology:

-Conversation- We have them all day every day. With reporters. Clients. You name it. It’s how we work. With social media, the key to a successful campaign is continuing the conversation. For us, it’s just an extension of what we do.

-Community- Like Andy says, we’re used to finding the right influencers and building a trust with them. We choose wisely who should hear the news and determine how best to announce an important newsworthy piece to the public. We create our own level of influencers within this community.

-Collaboration- We work together to form relationships. While many think that PR people just pitch out a story and hope for the best, many of the talented flacks actually take the time to feedback ideas with a reporter and collaborate on their needs to determine what story angle will work.

But, as social media has changed the way we think, the traditional PR agency will also need to adapt to the new ways of handling these social media requests. While PR may be the right man for the job right now, it’s also important for PR to include others to help get it done. From partnerships with other specialists to new technologies and advancements emerging everyday,  the acceptance of all things changing will only help create successful outcomes and ensure social media success.

So there is my take. Will this change? Like everything else lately, of course. It will evolve. There’s an opportunity for many people to get involved in social media. What do you think???

This article is copyright © 2012