Action, Attitude and Attention

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Measurement in PR for Social Media is of the utmost importance when developing social media programs. Without meaningful and informative measurements, objectives have little meaning. Instead of aiming for 1,000 new followers and calling it a success when the (weak) goal is reached. Using measurement and applying it to social media programs can make a world of difference, you can learn how to create action, attitude, and attention.

Action:

Using measurement can infuse your program with purpose, making the actions you take meaningful and valuable to the community and organization. Business objectives should be tied to the information derived from measurements.

Attitude:

Determining the attitude of those stakeholders to be reached by the social media program will help to ensure an active and involved social community built around the program. Using effective measurements will ensure that changes can be made and parts of the plan not working dropped or parts working well enhanced.

Attention:

The theme of this post is driving home to importance of measurement to effective social media programs, attention is the same. When forming plans gaining the attention of those groups targeted in the social community is key.

As Blanchard states in Social Media ROI, “Without adequate measurement practice in place, success, progress, and even failure, cannot be properly measured in either the short run or the long run…”

Content Strategy – Visualization

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Today’s post contains examples of using visualization in content as a way to get information and your brand/voice heard on the social web today. (All images taken from these company’s Twitter accounts).

PETA:

This infographic illustrates visual content by PETA to show followers alternative ways to feed the population.I feel it is a strong example in that the strategy, informing people of waste, is clearly communicated and shown.

DASH BURST:

This is a VERY long infographic on content creation and a value of visualization in creating content. It is strong in that it relates to this weeks subject of visualization and relates the importance to visual contents in getting your messages heard. It IS a little long though. But, I feel the style and subject matter are interesting and keep  you reading until the end.

CBC:

This last picture is from the CBC regarding hockey at the Winter Olympics in Sochi. In an attempt to peak the viewers interest in Olympic hockey, the graphic shows the teams that traditionally do well and who to watch. It is a little uninspiring visually, but the message is clear, “watch Olympic hockey on CBC.”

Location-Based Social Media and Implications for PR

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Foursquare and other geo-tagging social media apps present an opportunity for marketing to reach involved customers, promote brands and products, and expand the base of a company or product. Location-based services have yet to be proven to be a great tool for enabling a company to interact in two-way mutually beneficial communication with customers and stakeholders.

Foursquare, by its nature, is consumption driven; this meaning that using Foursquare as a means to promote and increase sales through marketing tactics makes sense, using it to communicate with customers may not. Twitter, by comparison, enables companies to interact with customers and Twitter users, its text-based nature enables dialogue to take place, and relationships to be formed. Location-based social media seem to be driven to increase brand awareness and loyalty of existing customers, while it does this well it seems to be lacking in the communications department. It is fairly limited in its ability to enable two-way communication and through the use of “mayors,” “promotions,” and “finding friends” it it lacks a certain dialog that a PR practitioner craves. That being said, these types of services DO enable the company to track useful statistics that can be of value to PR, but even more so to marketers.

QR Codes seem antiquated. When they first made their ubiquitous debut, being found on ads, magazines, and books they seemed to be a new way of transferring information directly and quickly to potential customers. Those days seem long gone. Years since QR Codes came out, they seem old. Re-downloading a QR reader and using it over the past couple days has shown it to not have aged well. Rarely do I see a QR code that I feel warrants taking out my phone, loading the app, and reading the code to gain information that is of little worth.

After using both these types of apps, location-based and the QR reader, I can say my biggest take-away is that while both are similar in that they can be used on the fly to gain information and promotions, Foursquare seems more modern and QR seems old and dated. QR could easily give way to a more versatile type of information app.  Foursquare has a niche that it serves well, has the market share, and provides users with a reason to continue using it.

Twitter and the Effectiveness of Promoted Accounts, Tweets, and Trends

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Promoted tweets, accounts, and trends, can be of tremendous value when considering the cost on return of using social media in a public relations and marketing capacity. That is to say, regardless of whether using this tactic or not, the ROI of social media has amazing potential when compared to traditional media.  Even more so, promoted tweets, accounts, and trends on Twitter have to potential to even further increases the reach and benefits of using social media as a cost effective means of reaching your stakeholders, potential, and prospective customers.

While promoted trends can be considered to be of high cost to a company/agency of a small size, the upfront cost may be offset by the benefits. They can run in the tens of thousands, but these promoted trends will be seen by a great many users. They will be located at the top of a user’s Trending list.  This ensures that a trend will gain traction and garner notice and traffic, since this trend is selected by the advertiser, it has the potential to jump-start topic and therefore increase traffic associated with a company, product, or event.

Promoted Tweets, on the other hand, are offered as a cost-per-engagement system. This means that advertisers or companies pay for clicks, retweets, and replies. More cost-effective than promoted trends, they have less overall potential for suddenly increasing notice. They may be best used to gain further followers aside from the core already following an account.

Promoted Accounts, similar to promoted tweets, are on a cost-per basis. Instead of a cost-per-engagement basis promoted accounts are cost-per-follow based. This means that in the ‘Who to Follow’ section on Twitter an account will appear. This had great potential to garner a larger following quicker. Since the program is cost-per this means that the more successful the promoted account is, the more expensive the cost will be.

Each of these different types of promotions for advertisers and companies offered by Twitter can have varying degrees of success, and the cost associated can also greatly vary. In terms of public relations, each has its benefits. Promoted Trends can potentially increase the volume of conversation on a given topic, relating to the company, brand, or a product. This can be useful in raising awareness, but can be expensive. Because of this the ROI must be carefully studied. Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts are more cost effective and since they are cost-per-follow/engagement based they provide the promoter, PR practitioner, or advertiser a safer route in terms of cost effectiveness. If the promoted tweet or account does not gain significant followers or engagement than the cost will be relatively little. On the other hand, if the promotion is a success than the cost will be higher but the return on investment will also be high, making this option more appealing.