Steve Paganelli, DMO Strategist at TIG Global spoke at the North American Journeys Summit West last week. We caught up with him at the break and asked him some questions about his session and the case study he presented.

Steve explained how several of the regions in the US are collaborating to make their international online marketing more effective – specially since overseas travelers are often not aware of which states make a region.  He offered some great ideas for how states can work together to market an area that would be attractive to international visitors – like the Washington DC area,the New England States or the Northern Rockies.

I have started a series of PR Tip Sheets about social media and the trends I see developing in 2010.

The first one is about using Twitter.  These 10 Tips are for those getting started.

Download the Tip Sheet

It’s been a very busy social media week in LA.  On Tuesday I went to the North American Journeys Summit for DMOs (Destination Marketing Organizations.) On Thursday I went over to Hollywood  to speak at the Entertainment Publicists breakfast workshop on social media and then hared back to Pasadena for Social Media Club,  San Gabriel Valley.

One thing I’ve been hearing and reading this week is that while you might have been experimenting with social media in 2008, and those who were ahead of the curve were implementing it in 2009, it’s no longer a differentiator: social media is now an essential part of your marketing and PR mix.

Based on today’s ever-changing marketplace, companies can no longer rely on issuing information to the media in hopes that they share their stories with the public.  A recent prediction from Forrester Research is that within two years half of all US newspapers will have ceased production.

That does seem impossible.  But then again five years ago no one believed that the newspaper business would ever get into the state it is now.

To reach your audience now you have to start telling your stories directly, in multiple channels, and do it in a way that sparks positive conversations.  Simply establishing a presence in social media is no longer enough.

Another constant question I hear at events is  – What’s the value of social media?  What’s the ROI? There are conversations going on every day that could materially affect your business. You need to know what they are and where they take place.  And unless you participate in these conversations you have no hope of influencing the tone and content of the discussion.  Here are 3 case studies that show results.

What you should be thinking about is how to participate in conversations that shape perceptions about your company, brand, product or service.

I am moderating a panel on PR, social media and search at the OMS/SES event in San Diego next week. The panelists are:

Dana Todd, Newsforce

Rand Fishkin, SEO Moz

Lee Odden, TopRank Marketing

David Klein, Purpose Inc

The data they’ll  be presenting aligns perfectly with the need to get strategic in 2010 and incorporate these three disciplines – PR, social and search -  into your marketing mix.

See you there.

Image Credit:  Haiko on Flickr

Back in 2006 while I was working a paper with Rok Hrastnik we called the phenomenon of online buzz and reputation The Power of Voice.

Since then many companies have felt that power – positively and negatively.  Dell, Dominoes, Naked Pizza, Motrin, Blendtec to name just a few. Nestle has now joined the list.

Nestle is embarking on an emergency online PR campaign to restore its reputation amid sustained criticism on the internet, reports PR Week UK.  The reason?  Nestle continues to encounter vociferous online opposition on a range of issues, from traditional concerns about its formula milk, to newer attacks on its digital marketing efforts.  Some bloggers feel this is no more than putting lipstick on a pig.

PhD in Parenting took Nestle to task for the Family Blogger event they held back in September 09. While many mom and dad bloggers did accept the invitation to this event, there were some vociferous voices objecting to Nestle’s promotion of infant formula and their forays into social media.

One of the core factors of social media is that you no longer control the message.  Nestle created a Twitter hashtag for the event #nestlefamily.  Good thinking, you say?  Ah, beware bloggers with hashtags.  The voices speaking out against Nestle hijacked the conversation on Twitter and now many more people know about the controversy than did prior to the event.

And their formula is not the only problem they have:

Nestle says it is ‘the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness company’ and that it is committed to increasing the nutritional value of its products while improving the taste. The UK site is more explicit, claiming it’s ‘putting health and wellness at the heart of our business’.

Yet the BBC reports that a survey conducted by British Heart Foundation found that most mothers were hoodwinked by the nutrition table on products they bought for their children, naming Nestle’s Honey Shreddies as one culprit.  The product claims to be wholegrain and to “keep your heart healthy and maintain a healthy body”, but it contains more sugar [13.6g] than a ring doughnut [9.2g] in an average serving.

So now they are looking for an agency to guide them through this  PR debacle and the social media  morass.

Power Mom Jessica Gottlieb has a few tough words for Nestle and questions for publicists.

1. Do publicists help businesses shape a businesses marketing practices or simply react to what is out there?
2. When there is a thirty year boycott how does a PR firm address it?
3. Should a thirty year boycott even be addressed? Obviously Nestle makes plenty of money.
4. Is there ever a client you simply do not want?

These are my responses – also posted on Jessica’s blog.

1.  A publicist is not a PR Counselor or strategist.  A PR Strategist should absolutely be advising top management about policy and business practices, not just a reactive ‘fix’ for what is out there.

2. As you point out this 30-year boycott has not yet adversely affected Nestle. Up till  now their detractors have not had the means to make a major impact on Nestle’s sales. The Internet and the Mom and Dad blogger’s Power if Voice may well change that scenario. I’m guessing that is the case, if they are looking for social media help.

3.  Just as the tobacco industry was forced to address the reality of their product and contribute to anti smoking campaigns and medical costs for smokers, so should this issue be addressed.

4.  Yes there definitely clients I won’t work for.  We have a very public policy that  we don’t do PR for anything that is harmful to body, mind or spirit.  Would I work for Nestle?  That would depend on how they plan to address the issues.

I gather from the PR Week article that Nestle is interviewing large PR firms for this job.

I’d advise them to look very carefully at their social media expertise.

They’d probably do better with one of the 25 Women who Rock Social Media – if they are willing to do more than just put lipstick on the pig.

Image credit EmilyIt Flickr

The term ‘engagement‘ is popping up all over the place.

Using social media channels as a broadcast medium won’t get the result you’re after.   Engagement is the key to success.

According to the Alterian “Annual Survey 2009” report Are You Ready to Engage? the maturity of digital and social media requires integration of marketing strategies. Marketers must move from a focus on siloed campaigns to an emphasis on listening to, and communicating with, consumers.

“Engaging with customers is becoming paramount and the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don’t,” says David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian. “Marketers need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.”

A new report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council indicates that engagement is what drives brand loyalty and both customers and marketers agree that deeper engagement and personalized contact is what gets results.   Loyal consumers expect marketers to understand them better and deliver more relevant and valued offers.

The Marketer’s View

Most marketers (61 percent) believe that loyalty program participants are the best and most profitable customers, but that they’re falling down on extracting greater value from customer loyalists. When it comes to in-depth profiling of customers, the vast majority of marketers still only aggregate and analyze limited customer data sets.    73 percent collect basic demographics, but critical insights — such as advocacy rates (14 percent), brand loyalty and attachment (27 percent), personal preferences (31 percent), satisfaction levels (33 percent), and product preferences (38 percent) — are not being leveraged.

The Consumer’s View

According to eMarketer, consumers are demanding engagement, not just discounts.  And they want conversation, not messages.

58 percent are looking for compelling personal benefits and services, as well as more relevant offers or individualized deals. as a reward for their loyalty.  They want the information delivered through multiple channels in the most relevant, personal and customized way possible. (Do I hear RSS feeds?)

Customers are issuing a very clear warning to marketers. Give me relevant communications that reflect my history and connections to you, or I’ll go elsewhere.

Marketers are definitely looking for ways to connect with consumers. Check out this Google Trends graph for Engagement Strategies

A proven ability to engage an audience is also high on the list of desired attributes for companies hiring social media staff. “Let’s say you have a blog and you routinely get people to comment, and you have 5,000 followers on Twitter. That shows you know how to engage people,” says Knight Foundation’s Marc Fest, who is looking to fill an online community coordinator position.

Sadly, only 17% of the companies polled said that their staff is fully prepared for new media marketing and engaging with their customers.

If you’d like to learn more, Marketwire is hosting a webinar about engagement strategies February 11th.  I am presenting the webinar and my guest is Rebecca Lieb, VP of Econsultancy (US).  You can register here.

The 2010 Edelman Global Trust Barometer released today might motivate you to take another look at your 2010 PR and social media strategy.

For the first time trust and transparency rank as important to corporate reputation as the quality of products and services.  In fact, in the U.S. and in much of Western Europe, those two attributes rank higher than product quality—and far outrank financial returns.

“We’re seeing a vastly different set of factors driving reputation than we did 10 years ago<” says Richard Edelman. “Trust is now an essential line of business to be developed and delivered.”

The most credible voice for a company has shifted back to academics/experts or industry analysts. A ‘person like me’, which took top spot two years ago, dropped from 57 to 50 percent. The decline is even more marked in the U.S. (60 to 39 percent) and the U.K. (51 to 35 percent). CEOs, however,  are still in the bottom two in the list of trusted spokespeople in the U.S. and Germany.

The credibility of mainstream media, including television, newspapers, and radio, continues to wane.

In the U.S., the credibility of television news dropped 20-plus points in two years (from 43 points in 2008 to 20 points in 2010). In the U.K, radio news coverage dropped by 20 points in two years. In the BRIC countries, television news and newspapers declined by more than 15 points each in two years (to 40 and 30 percent, respectively.)

“More than ever, engagement needs to be tied to action and not just set to broadcast,” said David Brain, president and CEO Edelman Europe, Middle East and Africa. “This means cultivating a wide circle of spokespeople with substantial expertise and participating in conversations in real time.”

Join us for a webinar on engagement as a PR strategy Feb 11th at 10 am PST and 1pm EST.  Rebecca Lieb of Econsultancy will be my guest.

A new report from the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council report indicates that marketers under-value loyalty programs even as customers give the perks, discounts, deals and additional service opportunities high marks.

What makes a loyalty program successful? Both customers and marketers agree: deeper engagement and personalized contact drives loyalty, not mass blast communications and gimmicks.

The Marketer’s View

Most marketers (61 percent) believe that loyalty program participants are the best and most profitable customers. So it is not surprising that an almost equal number of respondents (65 percent) view customer loyalty program investments as a very essential, or a quite valuable part of the marketing mix. Where they fall down is in extracting greater value from customer loyalists. When it comes to in-depth profiling of customers, the vast majority of marketers still only aggregate and analyze limited customer data sets. 73 percent collect basic demographics and 68 percent track the location of members, but critical insights — such as advocacy rates (14 percent), brand loyalty and attachment (27 percent), personal preferences (31 percent), satisfaction levels (33 percent), and product preferences (38 percent) — are not being leveraged.

The Consumer’s View

Today’s consumer loyalist wants essential information delivered through multiple channels in the most relevant, personal and customized way possible.  More than half (58 percent) say they want more compelling personal benefits and services, as well as more relevant offers or individualized deals.

Customers are issuing a very clear warning to marketers: Give me relevant communications that reflect my history and connections to you, or I’ll go elsewhere with my business.

Smart marketers will respond by taking what they know about customer wants, preferences and behaviors and be more targeted, efficient and relevant in their messaging to improve response rates and increase customer gratification and purchase intent.

I caught up with Greg Jarboe at Search Engines Strategies in Chicago a few weeks ago and asked him what PR people should do in 2010.

Here is his advice: What used to work doesn’t work anymore and you need new skills.

1. Learn to optimize news content
2. Master social media
3. Learn to do video marketing – not VNRs, but really good story telling
4. Be real
5. Be credible
6. Be engaging

If you’d like to  learn more about these skills we’re holding a webinar on Feb 11 about online PR and Engagement. Register here.

It’s official – journalists rely on social media sources to find stories.  Traditional media may not be dead, but the best way to connect with them is online.

A national survey conducted by Cision and Don Bates of The George Washington University’s Master’s Degree Program in Strategic Public Relations found that an overwhelming majority of reporters and editors now depend on social media sources when researching their stories.

• 89%  turn to blogs
• 65% to social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn
• 52% to microblogging services such as Twitter
• 61% use Wikipedia

Do they believe everything they read? No, says the survey. Reporters and editors are acutely aware of the need to verify information they get from social media.

• 84% said social media sources were “slightly less” or “much less” reliable than traditional media
• 49% saying social media suffers from “lack of fact checking, verification and reporting standards

“Mainstream media have clearly hit a tipping point in their reliance on social media for their research and reporting,” said Heidi Sullivan, Vice President of Research for Cision “However, it’s also clear that while social media is supplementing the research done by journalists, it is not replacing editors’ and reporters’ reliance on primary sources, fact-checking and other traditional best practices in journalism.”

Where do they go for primary research?  PR people!

What are they looking for?

• 44% of editors and reporters surveyed said “interviews and access to sources and experts”
• 23% want “answers to questions and targeted information”
• 17% need “perspective, information in context, and background information”

PR Takeaways:

1. You no longer have a choice about being active on social media
2. Your news content must be available online
3. Learn to optimize your news content for search – use the free PRESSfeed toobar
4. Get your content into  social news sites and social networks
5. Use Twitter for media relations – MediaOnTwitter, MuckRack, JournalistTweets and Twellow
6. The social media press release, if done right, is your best tool:
7. -  Provide all the fact checking and research the reporters need
8. – Learn to use del.icio.us to make fact pages for a press release
9. -  Offer the quotes and access for interviews
10. - Add multimedia supporting content

And finally – upgrade your newsroom to a social media newsroom so that a journalist who runs across one piece of content on a blog or tweet can access all your social media content easily and quickly.

Although we’re bombarded with information about social media from all sides, and we do hear about successful programs, it seems that in  too many cases we’re still stumbling in the dark.  Almost half of the worst PR blunders of 2009 had an online component.

“The biggest lessons learned this year are in the social media sphere,” says Michael Fineman, president of San Francisco-based Fineman PR. Each year, Fineman PR publishes a list of the “Top 10 PR Blunders” of the year.

“There are at least four or five blunders directly related to working with the Internet—or not knowing how to work with the Internet,” Fineman says.

The two worst social media fiascoes  were:

United Breaks Guitars: although the end of the saga was played out online, it could have been avoided if United had handled the  problem promptly.  Not only was the video United Breaks Guitars seen by more than 3 million people in a week, the story caught the attention of mainstream media.  Ben Mutzabaugh of USA Today described Carroll’s success as demonstrating “just how quickly the Internet can help a disgruntled customer turn the tables on a company and its effort to manage its public image.” Views are now up to almost 7.5 million.

Dominoes Pizza: Again the company was way too slow to respond. This video had over one million views in just 48 hours. After two painful days, Domino’s finally reacted, launching its first corporate Twitter account and posting a public apology on YouTube.

Constant monitoring of social media, being prepared for an online crisis, fast reaction times and knowing how to respond should be paramount in 2010.

One of the predictions that came out of the report by  Stevens Gould Pincus on M&A activity in the PR industry is that there will be an increasing need for new media/interactive divisions in PR firms. The report also highights that training will be high on the list for 2010.

They predict that PR practitioners – whether agencies and in house -  who grow in this area will stay ahead of the competition.

Are you ready for 2010?

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