Social Media Strategy – Have One?

Right now, it seems that there is no shortage of “social media experts” out there. It’s so popular, I expect a new event to be added to the X Games… EXTREME TWITTERING or something like that.

Just kidding. I really do enjoy the X Games.

Anyway, regardless of if you have a social media expert on staff or not (if you don’t, just go on LinkedIn, there seem to be quite a few available these days), it’s not a bad idea to have a plan in place for your social media program.

A plan? What I’m referring to is having a basic idea of what you’re going to use your brand’s Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, etc., profile for.

There are a lot of options out there.  One option is to just spout about what’s going on with your brand.  Another option is to interact with fans/followers.  Have a conversation with your brand’s champions and challengers.  Or, you can selectively respond when the need arises, have the time or feel the situation warrants it.  That seems to be what Surfrider does.

Recently we made an announcement for project BLUE.  Because Surfrider is a beneficiary of project BLUE, they reposted the news on their Facebook site.  It turns out a fan on the Surfrider page doesn’t think the organization does enough and made a public comment about it. While some organizations just let these comments stew and go unanswered, the folks at Surfrider responded quickly and succinctly.

Nice job Surfrider.

Take a second to think about what you’re doing online, how you’re doing it and who is handling the execution. Make sure you have a program in place and people running it who can adequately respond to issues.  Honestly, I feel it’s unlikely that any organization will have enough staff to respond to, or even want to respond to, ever comment, challenge or kudo posted about them on the Internet.  However, you should make sure whoever monitoring your program is on it and has the maturity to make the right decisions, including when and how to respond.

Your social media presence is an online extension of your brand. It’s the sign people see as they pull into your parking lot. If someone sprayed graffiti on your sign, you’d try to clean it up, no?

(If someone did this on our building, we’d probably leave it

80 Percent of Good PR is Showing Up

The title of this post is somewhat of a joke, it does have some merit in terms of media relations.

I’d like to think the crew @ BBPR is excellent at what we do.  But despite the team here being game-changing PR pros incredibly lucky in love with our incredibly newsworthy clients so excellent, sometimes we score great media placements just by being responsive.

Disclaimer:  I can’t actually prove that PR is more effective than advertising, but it’s in my best interest to say that it is.

While I don’t necessarily agree with Woody Allen that 80 percent of success is showing up, I’m usually shocked when I hear from reporters that someone at a particular brand hasn’t gotten back to them about a story.  In the last two months I’ve heard three times from reporters/editors at widely distributed, national publications that brands were unresponsive to media requests.

I once read an interview (wish I could find the link) where a well-respected executive in the surf industry voiced his disappointment about how a certain men’s lifestyle magazine did a piece on surf fashion, using products made by non-surf manufacturers.  He was bummed about the magazine’s feature of brands that didn’t have authentic ties to surfing.  Rightfully so, but it may not have been the editor’s fault.  It could simply be that the other brands, while not first in surf, were great about returning the editor’s call.

Note: Done correctly (not just in terms of creative execution, but media buy as well), we do think that advertising and other marketing initiatives outside of PR are extremely important and relevant.  Watch for more on that later.

Differentiation – What Wend Magazine Could Show Other Brands

Sometimes simple is best in marketing.  While flipping through the latest issue of Wend, we came across this ad by Wend, for Wend.

Wend is an outdoor lifestyle focused magazine with a decidedly eco-slant.  Mountain biking, camping, kayaking, skateboarding, snow-shredding.  It’s in there.  While this ad doesn’t say what Wend covers, it does tell you what Wend isn’t… or what it feels other magazines are.

Why do we think this is cool?  Well, so many brands seem to have a difficult time, or simply don’t, tell the story of how they differ from their competitors.  This ad is simple and gives you a little food for thought when flipping through other mags on your coffee table or the doctor’s office.

Full disclosure:  We’re pretty friendly with the people @ Wend.  They don’t always run our clients, but more often than not, they at least return our emails.  While we’re at it, we’ll also disclose that we follow Wend on Twitter.  If you’re into Tweets, check out Wend’s feed @WendMagazine

Twitter & Marketing – Don’t Fool Yourself

If you haven’t been following the news, you’re probably unaware that Twitter is the greatest thing for marketers since SPAM.  Good.

Twitter is an incredibly useful tool to connect with an audience of (typically) passionate followers, make friends, solicit advice and in the spirit of one of the current buzzwords of the moment, engage.

There has been more than one “how to” article on using Twitter (here’s a good one), but this Tweet to pro skater Rob Dyrdek really got us thinking:

Don’t expect everyone on Twitter, especially celebrities, to get back to you.  As Twitter grows, much like MySpace, Facebook and offline fan clubs before them, one-on-one interaction is going to decrease.  The bandwidth required to respond to each person who Tweets @ a celebrity will be immense and it’s unlikely that they’ll keep up without hiring outside support, which will take away from that personal interaction people love on Twitter.

PR and The World of Action Sports – Quiksilver Leverages Clay Marzo & Asperger’s Syndrome

We touched on this a little bit already, but it’s worth bringing up again.

In the world of action sports PR, at least when it comes to surf, Quiksilver does a pretty impressive job.  Sure, when you’ve got Kelly Slater on your team, the placements come easy.  But Quik’s success with media goes beyond Slater and the regular t-shirt feature in XYZ Magazine.  They’ve got a solid communications team in place, not to mention some great online initiatives that position the brand as a media source and not just makers of fine t-shirts and skate-specific denim.

One example, the recent Clay Marzo coverage in both Outside and ESPN The Magazine (as well as online coverage by both, including a video piece by The Magazine).

For those that don’t follow surfing, Clay is ridiculously good.  While he hasn’t qualified for the ASP, it hasn’t kept him from receiving endemic/surf industry coverage and props from his peers.

Clay also has Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism.  It presents him with some challenges, but it also gives Quiksilver one more pitch point for the Clay Marzo story when dealing with non-endemic media.  Clay isn’t just a great surfer, he’s a great surfer with a challenge.   Is it opportunistic to highlight this challenge for media coverage?  Maybe, but the piece also draws greater attention to Asperger’s Syndrome and probably inspires/helps more than a few other kids with similar conditions and their families.  You can watch the video piece on ESPN here.

More than a few times we’ve gotten calls from potential clients looking for help with PR and asking “how much for a press release?”  We gently explain that while press releases are great PR tools, they’re not the end all.  They’re one piece of your kit, like a hammer in your toolbox.  The hammer can help you build something, but on it’s own, without wood, nails, etc., it’s not much use.  There’s a strategy to PR that goes beyond telling a magazine what hoodies are hot for Fall 2010.

The ability to go beyond the basic story is what separates a good PR strategy from an ok one.  Obvious product pitches aside, there’s almost always a back-story to leverage.  Perhaps it’s a company’s heritage in the space, or a product designer’s unique inspiration for a new piece of gear (Burton had a great piece last year comparing a binding to the Aeron chair).  The stories are out there and the media are willing to tell them if positioned the right way.

Quiksilver gets it.  Who else do you think is doing a good job?

Total disclosure:  We’ve worked with Quiksilver before on a few projects, but not recently and not on this pitch.