How to integrate social media into PR campaigns

Agenda

• Introduction

• Social media platforms

– Blogs

– Twitter

– Social networks

– Video

– Widgets

– Forums

– Podcasts

• Developing social media strategy

• Reputation management

• Measurement & evaluation

My background

My background

My background

Brands

Agencies

My background

My background

Social media platforms

Blogs

Overview

• Matured - blogging has now matured

as a phenomenon to cross all

consumer interest areas

• Extensive - vibrant communities can

be found collecting around vast

ranges of topics

• Culture - blogger outreach carries

with it different expectancies in with it different expectancies in

regards to form of communications

than traditional media

Opportunity

• ‘Link etiquette’ of the blogging world encourages quick viral

dissemination of well-targeted stories and engaging content

• SEO - this ‘link etiquette’ is also responsible for blogs faring extremely well

in search returns – ranking highly in Google– As a result, blog posts can be extremely visible and influential

– Impacting consumer opinion

– Driving mainstream coverage

• Brand advocates - the highly focused nature of blogs – with bloggers • Brand advocates - the highly focused nature of blogs – with bloggers

becoming passionate opinion formers on very specific topics – offers

distinct opportunity to encourage strong advocates of a product or service

Overview

• What is a blog?

– Short for Web Log

– A publication

– A diary

– An information tool

• How many?

– Range between 50-70 million– Range between 50-70 million

– Relevance

Blog types

• National Publications– The London Paper, London Lite

• Professional– Londonist, Shiny Media

• Corporate– GM Fastlane

• ‘Hobby’• ‘Hobby’– A Welsh View, Lazy Laces, Eat Like a Girl

• Dormant– Blogs that haven’t been updated in months

• Link Farms– Blogs built specifically to up advertising revenues under the

guise of legitimacy

Blogging

• Why do people blog?

– Share information

– Create an online persona

– Establish credibility

– Gather information

– Network

– Catharsis

– Passion

Audience mapping

Blogging – Defining Success

• Traffic

• Comments

• Interaction

• Twitter Followers

• Inbound Links

• SEO

• Tone

• Quality

Scoring

BlogScore™ is Social Media Library’s unique rank system that provides

an easy measure of both a blog’s influence and its visibility in search

engines. A top score of 10 indicates a blog that is highly regarded by

other, relevant, influential sites; in addition to a high propensity to rank

well in search returns.

Consumer

B2B

Technology

Finance

Healthcare

Regional

Regional

Blogger outreach

Preparation

• It is vital to know who you’re pitching to. Specifically this includes:

� Reading the site’s about page

� Reading the last week or so of posts or news stories

� If possible, finding a specific, concrete example and URL that proves why the editor would be interested in writing about the campaign?campaign?

� If not a URL, the site should be very specific to your client/campaign

Digging Deeper

It’s essential that you ask yourself…

Are you going after an active blogger or a fair-weather blogger?

• If your blogger is very active online, chances are he or she has received a pitch before and will at least know the drill. If not, he or she may still be a good target, but you may have to not, he or she may still be a good target, but you may have to explain the process a little more in-depth.

Is the blogger is interacting only in the blogging community or if are they active elsewhere?

• Twitter? Facebook? Flickr? MySpace?

More Digging

How does the blogger interact online?

• Is he or she cynical or critical? Is he or she part of a community that is characteristically anti-PR?

Search for terms…

� Pitch

Public Relations� Public Relations

� PR

� Marketing

� Flack

� Your client or the client’s product

� Client competitors

Blog Pitching - Ethics

Transparency

• Honesty of Relationship: You say who you're speaking for

• Honesty of Identity: You never obscure your identity

Specifics

• No monetary exchanges• No monetary exchanges

• Commitment to represent blogger and client

• No dodgy dealings, bribery

• No pestering

• No anonymous posting or commenting

• No spamming

Step One: The Pre-pitch

What it does:

• Ensures that a blogger is interested in hearing from PR

Why it’s important:

• One disgruntled blogger has the power to tarnish the reputation of the agency and reputation of the agency and client with the click of a button

Step One: The Pre-pitch

Includes:

• Short introduction of who you are and what you do

• Opt-in clause of participation

• A hint of what might be in store

• Chance to be placed on a ‘Do Not Pitch’ list

Does not include:

• Press releases

• Hard sells

• Attachments

• Unsolicited advice or information

What it does:• Ensures that the blogger

understands your objectives and that you understand theirs

Why it’s important:• Each blogger is different -

some want to review products, some want Google juice, some

Step Two: Relationship Establishment

some want Google juice, some want advertising, some don’t know what they want… This gives us all a chance to start off on the same page.

What it does:

• Keeps an ongoing conversation with the blogger

Why it’s important:

• The blogger will be much more likely to take your other

Step Three: The Pitch & Maintenance

more likely to take your other pitches if they know you

What it includes:

• Knowing what’s going on in the blogger’s life

• Thinking before you pitch

• Short, to the point, correspondence

• Follow-up

Step Three: The Pitch & Maintenance

• Follow-up

• Personality

Case study - Beck’s Canvas

Case study - Beck’s Canvas

Key Outputs

• Over 120 pieces of online coverage

achieved

• 40,148,733 unique users

• £257,000 equivalent online media

value

• ROI – 9:1• ROI – 9:1

Blogger events

Overview

• Blogger events can be run in a very similar way to media events

• These can either be run in tandem with mainstream media events or

independently

• Successful blogger events tend to adopt very tailored methods of syncing

specific elements of an event to bloggers’ personal tastes

Opportunity

• With bloggers currently not invited

to a large number of events, they

offer a powerful means by which

to build strong relationships and

brand advocates

• Face-to-face time allows impact to

be made far beyond that possible

during normal email during normal email

communications

• Following blogger events,

bloggers frequently post detailed

and well-branded reviews and

posts

Case study - Panasonic

Case study – Panasonic

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