Social Media’s Hierarchy of Needs for Driving Engagement

Taking the first plunge into a strategic social media initiative can be complicated. Sure, it seems easy enough to tweet every once in a while. But it’s just as easy to become one of the millions of abandoned Twitter handles when you realize it’s a little more complicated than 140 characters.

A lot of organizations want to come out swinging, content-first. Content is important and can ultimately bring in leads and facilitate engagement when done correctly. But understanding the fundamental characteristics that make social media so valuable will lead to content that pays off.

Try using a step-by-step approach to master social-media strategy. Remember Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs from freshman psychology? It’s like that. Understand the base and you are prepared to take on the next step. By the time you reach the top, you are well on your way to a sound social media engagement strategy.

 

True Digital’s social media engagement hierarchy

 

True Digital’s social media engagement hierarchy starts with understanding how to interact on varying social media networks and finishes with creating, distributing and talking about meaningful content you created.

In the coming weeks, we will take an in-depth look at each of these steps. For now, here’s a quick overview:

Network Mechanics

This may be old hat for some, but all too often, we advice clients that automatic cross-posting between Facebook and Twitter is not ideal for either audience. This is one the many rules in the language of social media. How can you have meaningful conversations if you’re speaking different languages?

Conversation

Social media has created­­­ the opportunity for complete, unbridled two-way communication benefiting marketers and consumers. While Facebook and Twitter aren’t always the ideal sounding board we expect, there no reason we shouldn’t be encouraging conversation whenever possible and engaging users who reach out to us.

Frequency

You know the language and how to talk. Now, how often should you speak? Understanding when your audience wants to engage can be one of the most difficult steps in outlining your social media strategy – mostly, because it’s different for every audience and every brand. Then, you have to marry their expectations with your ability to provide fresh content.

Tone

Developing a tone that connects with your audience in social is an ongoing process and it certainly can’t be done before taken some time to listen to when and how they talk in social venues. You may have endless market research on your target audience, but all those charts and graphs are no substitute for real conversations with real people.

Content

By now, you know a lot about your social audience. While you may already have content you’ve been sharing, you should have a laundry list for new idea by the time you make it to this point. More importantly, your efforts to this point are likely reaping rewards. That means you should be ready to allocate more resources to social media, and original content is a great supplement for and new social media strategy initiatives.

Author: Tyler Norris [Google+]

A Beginner’s Guide to Repurposing Content for Social Media

We get a lot of questions about populating social media channels. Regularly posting fresh material across several channels can seem like a daunting task. Even with a good social media strategy in place, content creation takes time that a lot of markets don’t have.

 

That’s why we need to make sure we get the most out of everything we produce for social media. Enter the Beginner’s Guide to Repurposing Cotent. Repurposing content should be a part of any good social media strategy. Using minimal resources, you can turn one good piece of content into a handful of tangibles posted over a long period of time.  Click the infographic to see larger.

Repurposing content for social media is an easy way to boost your social meda strategy

Author: Tyler Norris [Google+]

What we’ve learned in a year about the REAL WORLD of PR

‘Tis the season to celebrate and we are not talking about the big fat man in the red suit. It’s hard to believe, but it’s been one year since Allison and I have graduated from Kent State, and the best part—we made it!

Though it’s great you’ll sleep better now knowing “we made it,” we do want to share the many lasting, wonderful lessons and skills we’ve learned over what seems like a “in-a-blink-of-an-eye” year with you.

Allison, take it away…

  1. Agency life: One thing I’ve learned working at True is that no day ever goes as planned. For those of you who know me, you know I’m super organized and have my days planned out. That being said, when you work at an agency, phone calls, impromptu meetings and the occasional laptop malfunction can definitely deter you from your schedule. It’s definitely a balancing act that you have to maintain.
  2. No two days are the same: People always ask me what a typical day is like for me. When I think about the answer, it’s difficult to explain because no two days ever follow the same routine. This may seem chaotic, but it keeps me on my toes and allows me to broaden my skillset every day.
  3. Stay connected: Now that I’m a year out of school, I find myself missing my time at Kent State University. That’s why it’s so important to stay connected with friends and professors-whether that be through email, a quick lunch or a coffee date. It’s just enough to keep you connected to your past and is a great way to continue networking.
  4. Don’t be afraid to speak up: I’ll admit: I’m never one to keep things to myself. But I realized during the early part of the year that I kept to myself during client meetings because I was afraid I’d be seen as “the young one.” It took a wake-up call from a co-worker who told me that I couldn’t think that way, and that I offer a fresh perspective and have a right to be heard. I began to bring up ideas to my clients and I’m now seen as a trusted advisor because of it. And that, is a great feeling.
  5. It’s OK to not know the right answer: Over the past year, I would secretly worry that a client, media contact or co-worker would ask me a question that I didn’t know the answer to. It’s taken me about a year, but I’ve finally been able to accept the fact that I don’t have all the answers. And better yet, I’m not expected to. The fact that I don’t know an answer, but am more than willing to figure it out is exactly how young professionals grow.

Switching gears over to Erin now…

  1. Every day is a different day: Our professors at Kent were not lying when they said the PR world is ever-changing every second of every day. At True, I have learned to embrace skills of all sorts—from creating content calendars to basic analytics knowledge—and be able to adapt to client needs and, mostly importantly, deliver on those requests.
  2. Know your client: Long story short, it is crucial to understand everything about your client, your client’s audience(s) and the opinion leaders within your client’s industry. The more you know, the more you can help your client. Plus, by immersing yourself into the pool of knowledge, you become that much more valuable to the team overall.
  3. MEDIA LISTS, EDITORIAL CALENDARS, MEDIA LISTS: Do I really need to elaborate? OK, maybe for a hot second. As mentioned before, take the time to understand your client and their industry. By doing so, this has helped me with compiling media lists and editorial calendars as well as pitching different story angles to media. I have learned that media relations is super important to any client and it’s a skill you have to develop one pitch at a time.
  4. Don’t be afraid to explore the Web: At True, we are encouraged to explore the Web. Why? By exploring and “playing with purpose” on the Web, I not only learn about new tools and programs, but I am ultimately helping my client become an early adopter of “the next big thing” in the digital world by bringing something new and valuable to the table.
  5. When in doubt, pick up the phone: Client service is huge in the PR world. I have always known creating rapport with colleagues is important; however, it makes all the difference in the world to pick up the phone, chat it out and create relationships that don’t involve the process of using a keyboard. This applies to not only clients, but media, co-workers and others you may meet along the way. After all, we are in the communications field.

It’s pretty blatant to see that even though we clinched out beloved diplomas a year ago, the learning has not stopped for us.  With that said, we cannot wait to see what the next year has in store for us and hope for nothing but A+ results. #TrueApproved

A Startup Went Viral, Why Haven’t You?

What happens when you have an idea that you know could be successful, but you just don’t have the cash for paid advertising?

Go viral.

Of course, that’s much easier said than done. The equation to what exactly makes online content viral has been under debate since the phenomenon began, with Gawker, TechCrunch, Social Media Today, Forbes, Mashable, Spin Sucks and countless others chiming in. With so many different analyses, how do we know what’s correct? Is there a correct answer? Let’s take a look at a specific brand example.

Dollar Shave Club, a new startup with few resources available to it, created a cheap viral video with almost five million views at this writing. It suddenly received thousands of orders, plus positive reviews and analyses like this. This article even claims the video and Dollar Shave Club are part of a new capitalism where startups can move forward with the help of social media.

Of course, Dollar Shave Club has other positive attributes as well. Its website is user-friendly, the product and how the service works are well-explained, it keeps an active social media presence, and it possesses a tagline that is easy to remember: “Shave Money. Shave Time.”

Does this mean a company can simply make a video and expect success from that? Of course not.  Dollar Shave Club is lucky that its video was one of the relative few to go viral. Nothing is ever viral until it suddenly goes viral. No one in public relations or marketing can control whether a video goes viral or not, even though plenty of people would probably like to!

The uncertain nature of going viral constitutes a risk. What if your brand spends a lot of money to create a professional video in the hopes it will go viral and it falls flat? What if your brand quickly slaps together a video and it suddenly gets viewed by millions within a few hours?

Of course, the Dollar Shave Club video is a case study to be celebrated. One video helped a company become an overnight success. That’s the power of social media and corporate social video, especially if your brand is lucky enough to go viral.

 

 

 

 

4 Rules to Keep Your Facebook Contest in the Clear

Look to your left. Now, look to your right. Odds are, one of those people has engaged in illegal Facebook contests. And most didn’t even know it.

Facebook has a strict set of rules for what you can and can’t do when it comes to giving stuff away. You can see the full terms and condition here. Since the social network eliminates so many boundaries between brand and audience, a lot of people start to look at it as the wild west of marketing. And while there’s been very little policing, the landscape is becoming more and more domesticated everyday. Facebook has been introducing major updates for brands and personal users almost weekly since the IPO. It’s only a matter of time before they bring the hammer down on back-alley like-and-win shams.

So here are a few basic rules to live by when it comes to creating or promoting a contest online. You will see a common theme among all. Facebook doesn’t want to be legally liable for your contest in any way, which is understandable. Haven’t they had enough legal trouble anyway?

 

Facebook Means Business

Facebook will shut down your page without warning if you are caught breaking any of these rules. Allow me to repeat myself (clears throat). Facebook will shut down your page without warning if you are caught breaking any of these rules.

If you think you are lucky enough to avoid the po-po, then by all means, break the rules. If your boss or client is prepared to hear you lost access to thousands of customers, then by all means, break the rules. Otherwise, you’d better toe the line.

 

Facebook Actions are Prohibited in Contests

Facebook actions are ingrained in our lives – they were present even before it existed. We’ve always liked and commented on things in our daily lives. When I was a kid, I liked the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and commented on their awesome karate moves to my friends. I do the same thing as an adult, expect it’s on Facebook – and possibly a little creepy.

The point is, Facebook owns the digital “like,” “comment” and “share” just like Nike owns the swoosh. Using Facebook actions (the like, comment or share) to qualify for a contest is like giving people a Nike paddle at an auction house. It looks like one brand is endorsing another. And Facebook doesn’t endorse anyone’s contest. To that point, terms and conditions also say you can’t notify a contest winner via Facebook message or comment.

 

Facebook has Authorized Vendors

Facebook contests are pretty trendy right now. A lot of brands don’t know why they want Facebook contests, but they’re sure they do. In reality, most contests on Facebook aren’t actually Facebook contests. They are simply contests promoted on Facebook. Entering and voting in contests mostly happens on brand websites or on third-party vendor’s websites. Some top third-party vendors include:

These vendors create apps or tabs for your Facebook page. The same way you access photos and fans on a page, you access other custom tabs. These tabs are actually other web pages, housed on separate servers. They are then replicated within a Facebook page. This is done through a programming technology called iframes, which makes a mirror of a page and put it somewhere else on the Internet. Hence, Facebook is released of liability because nothing related to your contest is housed on Facebook’s server.

You can make iframes do the same thing with a page on your website. Just make sure it’s sized to fit Facebook’s content area (810px wide).

 

Facebook Contests Must Adhere to Federal and State Laws

It’s not Facebook’s responsibility to make sure your contest is legal (remember, they haven’t endorsed it and therefore aren’t liable for your contest). However, you need terms, conditions and a privacy policy that release yourself from legal liability. Council of American Survey Research Organizations provides a nice overview on navigating these issues and what constitutes a sweepstakes versus a contest.

So, in short, your contest is fine as long as it’s not really a Facebook contest. It needs to be housed on a different server and can’t use any Facebook verbs to qualify a contestant.