Welcome to PR + Social Media Summit at Marquette Blog

This blog is set up to report presentations and insights at the 3rd annual PR +Social Media Summit held at Marquette University, Oct. 11, 2011. It’s a one-day summit focused on the convergence of strategic communication and social media.  Contributors are students enrolled in the Public Relations Writing course, taught by Dr. Gee Ekachai.  The summit is organized by Hanson Dodge Creative, Diederich College of Communication, and Marquette Chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America.

Crisis Advice at the PRSM Summit

Headlines involving the bankruptcy of General Motors are old news, but the experience of GM’s social chief, Christopher Barger, generated innovative advice for this year’s PRSM summit attendees.  After the Chapter 11 filing became official, Barger had to figure out how to shift attention away from the financial business and toward GM’s audience.  The government loan from Obama was not going to pay back itself, so Barger formed a course of action to alter the public’s view of the company.  The strategies that Barger created were shared in the form of the following ten lessons:

Lesson #1: You are a publisher.  Yes, YOU! You are now competing with the very media you used to pitch as a PR professional or PR intern.  Not all stories have to be extravagant because the every day stories are essential for consistent public recognition.
Lesson #2: The social is more important than the media.  The messages produced on these social media sites are key for letting the public know what is going on in your company.  Discussing your own projections of going viral is a huge negative because there is no way of knowing.  Do not even think about going viral because telling a good story should be your only focus.
Lesson #3: Social media is a listening tool.  A PR team should always be a part of its targeted communities, so there needs to be an initiation for interaction developed through social media.  People need to interact with someone in your organization to make the communication social and not just another marketing tool.  Use your social media to listen to how people are reacting to your product, and be sure to have a quick response.
Lesson #4: Learn to accept out of control.  You are in control of whatever you create, so focus on your own work.
Lesson #5: Develop an offline element whenever possible because it adds dynamic.  A personal interaction can fill in the social media gaps.  Barger shared an interesting gap that exists on Facebook, as 57% of users hide brand content in their news feeds.  A vast amount of users are missing out on significant messages so make a goal to create an offline program for every online program developed.
Lesson #6: Focus on audience’s needs first while providing value, then worry about branding. When talking about developing the Chevy Volt, Barger mentioned that he focused on what the audience needed from GM.  After listening to what the audience wanted,  he fit that into what the company wanted to do.  What seems best for the company may not always be what the audience is looking for, so this is where forming connections with the audience enters in as a must for any company.
Lesson #7: It’s not about the numbers, it’s about the one-on-one connections.  Sometimes the larger communities seem to take precedence over the smaller ones, but the smaller communities matter just as much.  The easiest way to make an impact is to move it local.  Barger utilized this lesson when he brought a fleet of Buicks to Chicago.  Instead of calling a cab, locals were able to call in and use these Buicks for a ride.  The numbers proved this lesson a valuable one: more than 3,000 people participated in a six-week period.
Lesson #8: Think long-term, not initial interactions.  The company needs to form a relationship with the audience instead of letting the communication taper off.  Barger followed through with this idea by furthering a connection with attendees of the South by Southwest tech show in Austin as a part of GM’s social media campaign.  This kind of yearly opportunity lets a company continue to come back to a community and let this audience know that they are important.  It’s not about who you reach during a crisis, it’s about how you follow up with them.
Lesson #9: The social web is a huge customer service opportunity.  This does not mean that other areas of customer service need to be eliminated, but with the amount of people accessing the internet, there is no denying that online customer service is vital for a wider span of outreach to customers.  On Facebook, all users have the opportunity to write on the walls of different companies.  This leads to two possible outcomes: a compliment or a complaint.  Compliments become free marketing, but complaints are where the company needs to step in and respond.  The individual customer will appreciate the attempt to fix the problem while other visitors of the page can see that problems are answered, not ignored.  Additionally, do not forget to send the individual an e-mail to show that there is both a public attempt and personal attempt to fix the problem.
Lesson #10: You have to spread the virus.  Make sure that you actually teaching the rest of the team how to fish.  Communication with the social media team and even the top of your company keeps everyone informed and in sync with the company’s goals.

All of these lessons came from Barger’s direct experience with a conflict, which can be seen in the real world application examples he shared.  For PR students, these tips are invaluable considering a GM-sized crisis cannot be taught in a textbook; it has to come from exposure to this type of problem solving.  Thankfully, Barger took this crisis and turned it into an opportunity for the company to reinvent itself as well as an opportunity to share a unique lesson with others.

People expect you to own up when you make a mistake.  Acknowledge it.
Admit it.  It works wonders.

Want to find out more about Chris Barger? Click here for his personal blog and here for his blog on www.forbes.com. 

by Michelle Thompson (@M_ThompsonPR)

PRSM Summit: Awesome, Amazing, Scary, Exciting!

The PRSM Summit presented by Marquette University was an eye opening experience.

Although I wanted to leave after Augie Ray said he doesn’t like Forest Gump, I managed to stay. It could have been the huge crowd blocking the exits, the message this man was sharing, or the wise thinking… What would Forest do? Either way, I stayed and I am glad I did. Augie Ray’s presentation of A Glimpse Into the Future of Social Media was “awesome, amazing, scary, and exciting” to steal a quote directly from his speech on the future itself.

So let’s roll with that thought…

What was really awesome about this summit was the amount of people in one room to hear a lecture about social media, public relations, and the future. It reminds a PR student, like myself, that what we are learning and doing inside the classroom and out is important. It’s important knowledge, important to the industry, and important for the future. “The future of social media is not media… it’s business.” For this senior about to jump head first into the world of PR I cannot wait to see the profound changes ahead.

The amazing part of Augie Ray’s speech was the discussion of how much social media impacts our everyday lives and relationships. Our relationships with people are so much richer than social media can show. But then again it can bring many people together that may have lost contact. The future is radically transparent and serendipitous. There is genuine communication in the real world but social media is catching up.

New is scary. “Social media is not new. It’s a natural evolution of human communication.” I cannot agree more with this quote from Mr. Ray. Humans will adapt to new things, especially when it is something that helps them communicate with others quickly. I do not agree with his other statement, “It’s only creepy until it’s not.” His first example was a new service that lets people rent cars or rooms from other people, known as a sharing economy. Sure, right now it is scary and creepy but later… It will still be creepy!

“Social media is forcing transparency on companies.” Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare are not new to us anymore, but they are still creepy. People being able to see every part of your life: pictures, videos, thoughts, who you are friends with, where you work, where you are at all times! Come on, that’s creepy! Although, I do have these forms of social media, this is purely an evolution of my communication with other humans like you!

Exciting: The future of public relations and social media!

It was a very impressive summit and I wish I could have stayed for more than one presentation.

Christine Simmons (@chrstnesmmons)

Small shot from the PRSMsummit

Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Media

The social media movement remains in its infancy. As consumers become comfortable with these communication networks, marketers are beginning to enter. While many companies are finally entering the social media realm, they remain apprehensive. Social media advertisements, like every other form of advertising, invest time and money. Measuring the return on investments (ROI) from social media is difficult, if not impossible.

At the PR + Social Media Summit held at Marquette University, Sara Meaney (@SaraMeaney) attempted to quantify this question. Meaney dispelled the myth that social media metrics such as page likes, follows, retweets, etc. are an accurate indicator of ROI. While these measurements can provide insight on a presence in the social media world, they can hardly be the single object of measuring social media success. Marketers need to understand that all marketing efforts are linked. Social media presence compliments TV advertisements, and vice-versa.

Meaney explained there to be four main purposes of social media marketing: financial objectives, brand objectives, risk management and digital objectives. Financial objectives focus on increasing revenues while decreasing costs. Brand objectives measure consumer brand awareness, sentiment, and loyalty. Risk management allows for companies to reduce risk of exposure and increase response effectiveness. Digital objectives increase online product visibility to boost sales.

   All of the elements of social media marketing boil down to one thing, sales. Meaney discussed whether or not social media could be used to drive product sales. Meaney says that social media should not be solely relied on to generate sales. Social media provides another outlet to increase product awareness and analyze product reception, but should not be the only method of sales generation.

With Meaney discussing the purpose of social media, she made sure to note that companies should not discount the legitimacy of metrics. Metrics can give a strong measurements of products, but only tell a small part of the whole picture. The 10 most important metrics to identify and analyze are:

• Leads generated
• Website bounce rates
• Website behavior
• Growth of active network/engaged base
• Brand mentions
• Website visitors and sources of traffic
• Conversations
• Time spent engaging
• Engagement Ratio
• Sharing “people talking”

Sara Meany is a Partner and Vice President of PR and Social Media at Hanson Dodge Creative.

Follow me on Twitter @MUDrew_Halunen

475 years in a minute – How Marquette University uses social media to update its brand

The Brand: A Catholic, Jesuit University with a long history

The Goal: How to make a 475-year-old tradition relevant today

David Murphy and Matt Wessel, both from the Office of Marketing Communications at Marquette University, shared their thoughts and ideas behind the initiatives in place to update a valued tradition in Jesuit education to the rapidly changing world of digital communication.  Using new digital technologies in conjunction with emphasizing Marquette’s values, Marquette has the ability to bring intangible concepts to life.

With alumni, students, parents and prospective students, both regional and local, Marquette tries to leverage social media and new media.  When Marquette asked alumni to list three positive attributes about MU, the number one response was the Jesuit tradition.  The marketing team decided to create a video emphasizing a Jesuit education.  But how do you make it make sense?  Speak the audience’s language and capture who Marquette is – show that a Jesuit education empowers students to change the world.

Marquette is using social media to show a positive light.  For example, to show Marquette traditions through social media outlets, the university’s Flickr profile featured a slide show of the Tuesday night Mass targeted to alumni in order to relive the MU traditions.  Because of this social media initiative, a group of alumni gathered for an actual alumni Tuesday night Mass all promoted through Facebook.

Another example of how Marquette is leveraging new media is the yearly Christmas video and message.  The Marketing department creates this holiday video each year to be distributed through broadcast, social media and online.  Even though there is no viral component, it is enjoyable to watch and share socially.  This is an example of traditional and new media used together.

One final example of MU using social media would be through the inauguration of Father Pilarz.  The inauguration included a website, invites, brochures, videos and social media directed towards alumni, delegates and students.  Marquette also created a video for the special occasion that relates to Father Pizarz as he joins the Marquette Community.  Marquette leverages content and creative as much as possible.

Students recite Father Pilarz’s favorite poem 

Social Media has created many new avenues that have brought MU into new territories.  Marquette can now use these media to blast media and share results. Murphy and Wessel emphasize listening when social media offers opportunities.  Overall, they offered a simple list of tips they follow when incorporating new technologies and digital communication initiatives into a 475-year-old tradition of Jesuit excellence:

• Embrace the unfamiliar
• Speak the customers language
• Be the first to the market
• Build a sense of community
• Traditional and Social Media ping pong
• Have a message with emotion
• Quality over quantity
• If you’re small, play like you’re big…if you’re big, play like you’re small
• Don’t be afraid to crawl before you run

Written by Jordan Calgaro (@Jordan_Calgaro)

From Cirque du Soleil to American Eagle Outfitters

Presenter: Jessica Berlin 

Jessica Berlin is a social media strategist at American Eagle Outfitters (AE), with a background in public relations, marketing and social media in the entertainment and fashion retail industries. She is responsible for the social media marketing strategy, campaign development and execution for their three brands – American Eagle, Aerie and 77kids. Prior to her work with AE, she handled social media for Cirque du Soleil based in Las Vegas.

The preconception of social media is that it is relevant and useful for any and every industry. While this may be true, we fail to realize that not ALL forms of social media are fit for certain industries. This was the idea that Berlin’s presentation was focused on: a comparison of social media methods used between the entertainment and fashion retail industry. In comparison, Cirque du Soleil’s social media efforts were less aggressive and used fewer mediums than AE, who engaged in almost all forms of social media.

Cirque du Soleil concentrated most of their efforts on Facebook outreach and created a main page as well as individual pages for each of their shows. Berlin explained that Facebook pages allowed each show to have a personality and could incorporate small publicity tactics such as behind-the-scenes photos, interviews, etc. that fans would be interested to see. With its reputation for having eccentric and extravagant shows, it was hard to completely embody Cirque du Soleil through Facebook. However, the pages did the shows enough justice without revealing the magic of each show and, therefore, maintaining a blog was unnecessary.

Another aspect of social media that Cirque du Soleil focused on was blogger outreach. They segmented blogger outreach to travel, mommy, entertainment and local bloggers. The concept was simple: people listen to bloggers because they seem unassociated with the brand name and can thus be trusted. Many companies have come to realize that bloggers that talk about their product or event create more buzz and would probably garner more interest among the public as compared to the company promoting their own event, especially if that blogger is well-known in their respective communities.

Berlin shares the four rules of blogger outreach:

1. Research the blog beforehand
2. Make sure your pitch is Relevant to the blog/blogger
3. Be Respectful to the blogger
4. Be Real

As Berlin has come to realize through Cirque du Soleil’s outreach attempt, blog reviews are better at convincing the public to come to their shows than they are simply because people listen to their own people.

And that was an important lesson that Berlin also noted with American Eagle.

AE deals with a lot more channels of social media than Cirque du Soleil: Instagram, Pose, FourSquare, etc. AE takes a different approach on their social media though: user/customer-generated content. AE’s blog features “Tweets of the Week” and “Where Has Your AE Been?” in which customers submit photos of them sporting AE apparel in different parts of the world (a concept which I personally think is particularly awesome). The idea behind this is that people would rather much see their friends or people they can relate to wearing AE as compared to models: “Models are cool, but real people are real interesting,” said Berlin.

But, whatever the industry, a couple of rules still stand when it comes to connecting to the public via social media:

(1)  Plan your social media strategy to ensure your ensure information is shared quickly and easily. You will be competing with many other brands and what is great content if it is not accessible?

(2)  People come first while content comes second in the world of social media. Keep your focus on engaging with people rather than spending time on just posting up pieces.

(3)  Recognize and facilitate the power of friends sharing among friends. People are highly influenced by their peers and would much rather listen to their thoughts rather than the company.

Written by: Jillian Toyad (@jillygt)

How IBM Watson Beat Jeopardy

Watson, an artificial computer with the ability to recognize and answer questions in any natural language.  Watson, a computer that can out perform and beat Jeopardy. Watson, what does it have to do with public relations and social media? A LOT.

It is the ideas behind Watson that make him a good example of good PR. Watson’s creator, IBM, developed a marketing and communiaation strategy that made Watson so successful.  IBM followed three simple techniques:

1. Corporate Character
2. Making the World Work Better
3. Transparency.

It was these key three strategies that made Watson a household name. IBM’s corporate character was centered off applying science to business and society challenges. IBM makes the world work better by addressing real world problems, general public, and stake holders. IBM is transparent by engaging with their consumers from the beginning.  It was these three beliefs that go Watson to the top.

So how does this relate to practitioners? Easily. Step 1, Corporate Character: Be true to your character. This seemed to be the message throughout to it. Pick and image and stick to it. Pick and image that means something and has the ability to impact others. Make sure your social media follows this image, do not contradict. Step 2, Making the World Work Better: Connect to something bigger than your company. Connect to people’s interest and passions. Make them passionate about you by connecting with them. Finally Step 3: integrate from the beginning. Do not wait till the last months of a campaign to implement your character. That make it less credible. Jenny McTighe,   director of IBM Workforce Enablement, stated “We live in a transparent world”. Augie Ray, who spoke earlier in they day agreed. He said that privacy leads to distrust these days. In this day and age we must be open with our audiences. They want to know what we are doing and how it helps them. The more we tell them the more they trust in us. Having such an open relationship with our audience means our character has to match the messages we are sending them. Any contradictions will be spotted in an instance. If this happens then we loose our credibility.

So can an artificial computer teach PR practitioners?

What is, Yes.

 

-Briana King

Social Media Impact on Arts and Entertainment

Arts and Entertainment are two fields of interest for many folks who have ever had a positive moment in the theatre or on his or her television. Between a staged performance of ANYTHING GOES to American Idol, people all over the world are interested in knowing what is going on when. The segment of the 3rd Annual PR & Social Media Summit that I was able to enjoy was entitled, Social Media Impact on Arts and Entertainment: A Discussion. The gentlemen and brilliant woman who sat at the panel were, Greg Kot, music critic from the Chicago Tribune, Mary Louise Schumacher, art and architecture critic for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and Joshua Arter, advertising student from Marquette University.

Greg Kot, Mary Louise Schumacher, and Joshua Arter at the 2011 PR & Social Media Summit at Marquette University

Much of what was said at the Summit focused around the theory, If you’re not giving the customer what they want, they’re not going to be your customer for long. In one way or another, each of the three folks on the panel touched base on how social media could be the best thing for an organization if used wisely and efficiently, or it could be viewed completely as a trivial thing that a given organization should do.

If a given organization is in tune with the social media it has, the organization can reap the benefits of being increasingly more in tune with what the audience/listener is thinking. That being said, it was mentioned that Facebook is too much where as twitter allows for important information to be nice and condensed. This generation is very much about instant gratification, and twitter allows people to be satisfied. However, with Twitter the risk is run that orginazations or even people who badger information. Creating a help me/help you situation is the best way to work the social media playing field.

Many of these helpful hints in regards to properly and effectively working through the social media world can be found on Greg Kot’s as well as Mary Louise Schumacher.

Mary Louise Schumacher

Greg Kot working at the Chicago Tribune Office.