January 30, 2012
During a PR crisis it is important to capture the whole story while keeping your team up to date. Radian6′s summary dashboard allows you to set up customizable widgets helping you to report on negative brand conversations that are driving a crisis situation.
Watch the latest video and learn how to use the summary dashboard to report on negative detractors.
January 27, 2012
Once an organization has been alerted to a PR crisis, the next step for many will be to respond to detractors. Radian6′s customizable Engagement Console allows you to do just that across social media channels.
Catch the latest episode of Radian6 TV to find out how the Engagement Console can help your organization communicate openly during a rough patch.
January 26, 2012
Radian6 can come to the rescue in a time of crisis by alerting your organization to negative comments on social media as they occur.
Our engagement console allows you to interact on the social web and to communicate directly with clients through one easy to manoeuvre application. Tune into Radian6 TV to find out how to identify and cope during a PR crisis.
January 3, 2012
There’s never been a more exciting time to be involved with an agency. Whether you’re part of an advertising agency, a digital agency, or work for a public relations or market research firm, Radian6 has real-time solutions to help both you and your clients succeed in the social space.
November 10, 2011
Our platform allows agencies to increase client revenue two-fold: perform previous work more efficiently and add more value to existing deliverables. Create better results in less time with our easy-update reporting capabilities and Generate more profit from existing clients with add-on offerings that will solidify their business with your agency – arguably more important than scouring for new business.
Let us help you help your clients. Aside from free training and 24/5 support, your agency will also be assigned a dedicated account executive who can help you create strategies to succeed in social media. Our Professional Services team – can compliment your agency’s social media efforts by setting up a social listening station or creating customized reports that will help lighten your load.
The Radian6 Engagement Console streamlines social media listening, monitoring and engagement, making it a piece of cake to manage many customers at once. Create several stacks to simultaneously monitor multiple Twitter handles and your clients’ Facebook accounts all in one place.
Agencies are unique Radian6 customers – we understand you need time to research client brands and industries in order to effectively pitch to them. For that reason, we offer agencies free 7 day trial topic profiles. This allows agencies to tailor Radian6 demos to specific clients and get a better idea of how much volume the profile will pull in. We also offer social strategy advice, ebooks and case studies to help your agency sell the social vision to your clients.
Absolutely. Aren’t you curious to know what people are saying about you online? Simply create a separate Topic Profile to monitor mentions of your agency, your competitors and keep your ear to the ground on what’s going on in your industry. What you discover might change the way you market your agency or service your clients.
Have more questions about our platform? Check out our comprehensive FAQ here.
November 5, 2011
Social media crisis communications is an area of concern for any company, and needs to be a part of any enterprise social media strategy. Representatives of top brands shared best practices for social media crisis communications at BlogWorld LA, in the Calm Among the Chaos: Maintaining Brand Reputation During a Digital Crisis panel.
Panelists were Bridget Jewell from Mall of America, Jason Miller from P.F. Chang’s China Bistro and Justin Levy from Citrix Online, moderated by Tony Saucier from Olson. (Bridget, Justin and Jason are pictured.)
Here are 16 key takeaways from the conversation that can help guide your own social media crisis communications plan. (You can find more practical advice in the Radian6 Social Media Monitoring and Engagement Playbook.)
1. Admit fault, attack it head on and try to turn a negative into a positive as quickly as possible. Empower your teams to deal with customer issues quickly and bring them to resolution.
2. Build your community before you need it. If you have a community who trusts you already they will come to your aid if people make negative comments.
3. Incorporate face-to-face. If a customer makes a complaint or raises an issue and is still at the mall, Bridget will attempt to meet with them to assess and assist.
4. Include trained customer service representatives in your social media team. The Citrix Online team includes a customer service rep who understands the brand, the products and common support issues and knows how to respond, triage and escalate.
5. Know how and when to take the customer’s issue offline. For instance, don’t play out a long exchange on your Facebook page if you can move the discussion to email, the phone or private message. Your community will see that you responded and offered assistance, without watching the gory details.
6. Learn as much as you can about the customer when you reach out to respond. If you have information in your database about them, the products they use and their history, it will give you context that will frame the issue and your response. Integration between your social media monitoring and your customer relationship management (CRM) tool can make this easier.
7. Don’t be afraid to say, “I’m sorry.” It goes a long way, even if the issue is out of your control. If the customer is facing a difficult problem, they will appreciate your empathy even if the problem was not your fault.
8. Know who all the players are in your company who will be involved in a crisis. Make sure they know who you are and what you do so they will value your participation in a crisis.
9. Your messaging needs to be consistent across all channels, online and off. Bridget makes sure that everyone at Mall of America involved in communications, from the social media team to the call center to the security personnel, shares a consistent message in a crisis.
10. If you’re on the social media team, share positive feedback from your communities with your internal audiences, not just negative feedback. Show them the good that comes out of your social media interactions, not just the bad.
11. It’s okay to say that you don’t know the answer, or to refer customers to the right person in your organization.
12. Have a plan. Be proactive rather than reactive. Justin helped develop a communications plan around an acquisition Citrix made to ensure they knew how they would respond in a wide variety of possible situations. Make sure your plan includes specifics of how, when, where and who would communicate around potential issues. (Again, check out the Radian6 Social Media Monitoring and Engagement Playbook for examples.)
13. Keep your plan up-to-date. Every time you have a crisis situation, there will be new lessons learned.
14. Have a social media policy that maintains consistency of voice and message across your outlets. Jason pointed out this is especially important for a chain like P.F. Chang’s, or a company with multiple brands and multiple locations.
15. Listen to what your customers are saying. Use a social media monitoring platform to aggregate their comments. Use that data to improve your products, your operations and your customer service.
16. Make sure you have a social media monitoring and listening platform in place before a crisis or major event (good or bad) to ensure you can monitor and filter any comments in a crisis.
Have you integrated social media into your crisis communications? Do you have a plan in place?
David B. Thomas is Director of Community and Social Strategy at Radian6. He’s also a dad, a home cook, a music nerd and tech geek, and co-author of The Executive’s Guide to Enterprise Social Media Strategy: How Social Networks Are Radically Transforming Your Business. Follow him on Twitter at @davidbthomas.
August 13, 2011
There’s never been a more exciting time to be involved with an agency. Whether you’re part of an advertising agency, a digital agency, or work for a public relations or market research firm, Radian6 has real-time solutions to help both you and your clients succeed in the social space.
Conventional advertising like print and television allow for one-way messaging, but Radian6 gives creative agencies the chance to engage in back-and-forth communication. This social advertising approach not only helps put a human face on the corporation – making the brand more trustworthy and relatable – it also provides immediate feedback that aids in positioning successful promotions. Create viral marketing campaigns based on the voice of the customer and your brand’s advocates will help you advertise by spreading the word through social media.
Not all voices carry the same weight online – bloggers with many website visitors, for example, or Tweeter users with lots of followers, have more influence. PR agencies can benefit from Radian6 by discovering who these influencers are, then stay on top of how they’re shaping public perception. The real-time nature of social media serves as an early warning system and is the best defence against negative PR. Respond quickly in crisis management situations, protect brand reputation and provide constructive counsel to your clients by suggesting an outreach program that’s tailored to what people are saying online.
Radian6 helps market research agencies better understand shifting social landscapes as they relate to the companies you represent. Social media is ongoing and organic, forever changing. Use our platform to discover emerging trends, zero in on sentiment, and determine how things have changed over time. Gain valuable demographic and geographical information to learn more about who, what and where people are talking on the social web, then use these insights to suggest how your client can improve product and service offerings.
One of the challenges all types of agencies face is selling the value of social media to clients. How does your agency prove that online engagement efforts are transforming your clients’ businesses to be more profitable? The Radian6 platform provides measureable metrics that can confirm social media ROI. Tally comment count, inbound link count, likes, votes and more to better understand the big picture behind posts. Measure the effectiveness of online marketing with more precision by using compete.com data or web analytic integrations like Google Analytics, Webtrends and Omniture. Determine what topics are driving people to your website, and find out how much time people are spending there. Quantify leads and establish conversion points that prove your clients are getting return on their social media investment.
August 10, 2011
The “Age of Interruption” is over. Brand perception is no longer influenced only by advertising, public relations and corporate messaging. Brands are now a sum of the conversations about them. Those conversations are happening everywhere and now being shared across the social web. Traditional marketing has changed. Social Media has created new and exciting ways for brands to engage with consumers and build fans.
Are people talking about you online? Learn who is talking about your brand and what they are talking about. Discover how your brand, product or service is being perceived by your community online and identify advocates that can influence public sentiment about your company and products.
Understanding the health of your brand is easier than ever. Monitor public perception of your company and products on the social Web and understand the volume, overall sentiment, key demographics, influencers, and more. Look for trends, adjust your plans, and engage where you can make a difference.
Get a deeper understanding of what’s important to your customers, what is influencing their decisions and how they feel about your competitors. Stay ahead of emerging trends and get meaningful intelligence to guide decision-making and marketing planning.
Are your Marketing efforts generating the results you expected? Use social media monitoring to understand what is driving conversations and the “why” behind your social traffic, such as in-depth sentiment, demographics, likes and dislikes, and more. Adapt content and messaging based on campaign buzz and analytics.
Interested in hearing what people are saying about your brand? Click here to get started with Radian6.
August 7, 2011
It’s never pretty, but crisis management is a very real necessity for your brand and its external communication efforts. If there’s conversation around your brand discussing anything from negative press, to misinformation, or potential business threats, you should be prepared to not only listen in on customer conversations, but also to respond if necessary.
With Radian6, your public relations team will have the power to dig deeper into the conversations surrounding crisis situations, providing insight into your negative brand mentions – including what’s being said, who’s saying it, and whether or not the message is spreading.
To learn more about how social media monitoring can help in your next crisis situation, watch this video with Radian6 Product Managers Tom and Corey.
Now that you’ve learned the value of monitoring social media during a crisis, discover how interacting with your customers through the Radian6 Engagement Console can streamline your communication process, creating a complete audit of your conversation trail.
Interested in learning more about Radian6? Click here to get started with us now.
August 4, 2011
If you’ve ever wondered how to measure your social media and traditional public relations efforts, then you’ll want to get to know Katie Delahaye Paine – better known as KD Paine. Listed as one of the top 25 women that rock social media, KD Paine is the CEO and founder of KDPaine & Partners, LLC.
In the last two decades, she and her firm have listened to millions of conversations, analyzed thousands of articles, and asked hundreds of questions in order to help her clients better understand their relationships with their constituencies.
As if that weren’t impressive enough, Paine’s worked with some of the world’s most admired companies including Raytheon, Hewlett-Packard, and Southwest Airlines. Most recently, her endeavors have been focused on providing cost effective measurement programs for non-profits, small businesses, and government agencies.
Continuing this month’s conversation around the future of analytics and measurement, we sat down with PR and social media analytics expert, KD Paine, to get her point of view on the questions from this month’s eBook. Here’s what she had to say:
What are the most important platforms to be measuring and why?
Not to be flippant, but I don’t know. It entirely depends on your stakeholders and what you’re trying to accomplish. If you’re a politician, probably Twitter or YouTube. If I’m a tech company, possibly Google +. If I’m a university it would most likely be Facebook. But you need to ask your stakeholders and your target audiences, not the nearest “social media guru” or even the measurement queen. 
How do you measure success?
Measurement of Success requires six things:
1. An agreed upon goal that reflects the measurable difference to the organization you hope to make.
2. A defined audience or set of stakeholders upon which to make that difference. This will define the universe of content that you will measure.
3. An agreed upon benchmark, as in: I have moved this needle xx% compared to what? Ideally you would be comparing yourself to a competitor or a peer in your marketplace. At the very least, start with a defined point in time and measure forward at least 6 months to see if any change has taken place.
4. An agreed upon time frame. Success isn’t success unless you accomplish it by the deadline, as in “I will generate this many downloads by the end of the quarter.”
5. A metric or KPI that everyone agrees is meaningful. That metric should be based on what matters to the client and the marketplace, in other words, what actually moves the needle. It needs to be accurate, replicable, transparent and easily explainable.
6. A conclusion. Data without insight is just trivia. Unless there is a “so what” that goes after the number, all you are doing is presenting data. You need to draw a conclusion and make a recommendation, if you’re doing real measurement.
How do you evaluate behavior?
Behavior is measured by observation. Tracking web analytics is observing the actions that clients and potential clients are taking. Going into a store, a mall or an event and measuring the actions of people is another example of observational behavior measurement.
What do you think measurement’s current role is?
I think, unfortunately, that most measurement today is done to justify a job or a budget or a program. Far too many people see measurement as getting “the gold star” to put on their resume or their desk, rather than using it to continuously improve their results.
What do you think the biggest training issues are?
It’s a toss up. Not sure if its teaching PR people how to do math and statistical analysis or teaching data analysts how communications and PR works.
Where could education be improved?
Teach social media consistently and comprehensively throughout the curriculum. It is silly that PR, Journalism, IT and business schools are all teaching it slightly differently. It is silly to think that it only belongs in one. Years ago, IT was always a separate department. Now you have to know how to use a computer in order to get into school. Social media is the same. In the not too distant future, you will need to understand social media to get into the workforce, regardless if you’re in PR, customer service, research or product management.
What’s the best way to implement metrics?
Start with baby steps. Pick a specific project to measure to illustrate the benefits, then roll it out to the entire organization. Also start with something that is meaningful and will have some data. Don’t measure something that isn’t going to generate sufficient useable data.
Finally, can you share what you believe standardization might look like, i.e. KPIs or the method to build these KPIs?
I don’t think there will be standard KPIs, because the definition of “key performance” will always vary from company to company, program to program. What you will begin to see is standards for sentiment and visibility metrics. I also see standards coming for a definition of engagement and also for what is or is not a “qualified” mention.
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We’d like to thank KD Paine for sharing her thoughts with us today. If you’d like to answer some of the same questions, contribute to the discussion, and give us your point of view please do so at The Future of Analytics form.
Katie Delahaye Paine is the CEO and founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC, a New Hampshire- based research consultancy that provides measurement and accountability for corporations, non-profits and government agencies worldwide. She is also the author of the recently released “Measure What Matters.” You can find her writing online at Katie Paine’s Measurement Blog, on twitter at KDPaine and subscribe to her newsletter “The Measurement Standard.”
July 27, 2011
Do you love sharing links on Twitter? Content and link sharing on social sites has skyrocketed in recent years. According to a recent eMarketer report, “60% of all messages on social sites are links to published content.” On Twitter alone, this is almost 60 million links to published content everyday!
Undoubtedly, as Twitter matures we will understand who in our community shares quality content and who is essentially, spamming Twitter. If you are new to Twitter you may wonder how to get more followers. Well, this is a bit confusing because most Twitter spammers often have over 25,000 followers despite their lack of quality content. It may be an attractive option to setup automated twitter feeds for content, however I believe that Twitter spamming links isn’t a great long-term strategy.
Linking to Bad Content
Linking to content that was written by a ghost writer in 10 minutes isn’t providing anything for your followers. The term “fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me” can apply here because it may only take once for you to lose the trust of your followers. Half the battle is attracting your followers to actually click your link, you don’t want to mess it up by giving them content filled with fluff. Make your content exciting, emotional, and informational. Any less, may cause you to actually lose Twitter followers.
Linking to Crappy Looking Landing Pages
We all know this guy. The guy who shares his, “Make Money Now” landing pages on Twitter. This guy is usually great at getting people to click on his links with actionable questions, facts or strong opinions in the headlines. What does this do? It drives traffic short term, but cannibalizes his long term social media strategy. I know of at least 20 people I follow that push me to the same landing page with every link. Subsequently, I don’t click their links anymore, and unfollow the people who send me there.
Self Promotion
Every social media guru will tell you social media channels, especially Twitter, are not for blatant self promotion. Self promoting products or services on Twitter will cause you to lose your community, fast. Say for instance you are linking to product pages with a tagline “check this out.” It may work the first 50 times, but you will lose credibility as a thought leader in your space. You are “That Guy,” the one who isn’t afraid to give a sales pitch to the father of a girl you are dating.
Now I’m not saying that you can’t promote yourself, if you are tactical and PR savvy, you can word your tweets to actually give your followers something of value. For example a great way to cross promote would be, “Today’s a hot one here in sunny SoCal, check out our blog post on how to beat the heat.” You then would write a blog post which hints at one of your products helping beat the heat. Perfect? I think so.
There is definitely a fine line you must walk operating business on Twitter. To be completely safe, stay away from trying to “show off” your company. You can humanize your brand, give industry news, and chat with your community but please don’t try to sell me anything!
Radian6 adds: What do you think? Have you ever link baited anyone on Twitter? Or felt a backlash when you retweeted content that you didn’t actually read, and found out it was spam? Have you found that magic way to both self promote, yet provide compelling and interesting information to your followers? We would love your thoughts on this subject!
Matt Krautstrunk is a writer who specializes in startups and social media. A native of Chicago, he moved to California for a new experience in the world of search engine marketing. His work has appeared on Search Engine Journal, Smart Blogs, and Convince and Convert. He also delves into topics ranging from social media marketing to SMB consulting for Resource Nation; an online resource that provides advice on purchasing and outsourcing decisions for small business owners and entrepreneurs. You can find him on Twitter, and on LinkedIn.
Image Credit: Switched.com
July 11, 2011
Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer.
~Mark Twain
If you’ve ever stopped by any of my online imprints (Twitter, Facebook, my blog – RedheadWriting), it’s evident from the get-go that I have a certain affection for blue language. Grandmothers and god-fearing folk the world over blush and click away when they land in the Danger Zone, and occasionally the hate mail flows (more on that in a bit). When Radian6 reached out to me to pen a guest blog on the use of profanity on the interwebz, I knew two things right off the bat:
I was going to have a s**tload of fun writing this post.
and
My branding message was clear to those who watch me do whatever it is I do on any given day.
A simple glance at my Twitter bio will tell you what I do for a living – I work with companies to help them develop clear and distinct personalities. When companies meet me, they’ve usually stopped by my online presences and blog and either love what they see or want to run screaming – and that’s exactly what I want them to do. Love me, hate me…just don’t be indifferent. And whether you decide to use profanity in your online communications is a choice only you can make, but in this post, what I hope to do is show you how we can:
1) Talk about profanity without using it.
2) Explore reasonable considerations (and consequences) as you ponder the linguistic line in the sand.
3) Have tools to make better decisions about your brand’s personality, whether you’re an army of one or 1,000.
Know Who You Are
Strangely enough, I remember the day I dropped my first f-bomb on Twitter. I expected crickets. I watched the screen for a potential backlash. But the opposite happened: I got retweeted. Four times, even! I’ve never been one for saying things in conventional ways and what I’d inadvertently done is built an audience who appreciated my true vernacular.
No matter what the size of your brand, understanding who you are as you enter the social web is imperative. I’m frequently asked by clients whether I’m going to drop the f-bomb on their blogs, Facebook pages or in their Twitter streams. My answer? It depends. Does that fit who you are? Every brand has a personality. If we admit that from the get go, we understand why we don’t expect headlines about Berkshire Hathaway to mention the shizzle in your nizzle and on the contrary, why Slim Jims aren’t being hawked by an iconic Clorox mom.
This is, quite possibly, the most important consideration as you determine whether profanity has a place in your communication repertoire. Know who you are and know before you go. That makes the process of building your audience and understanding them a boatload easier.
Know Your Audience
It’s the part B of the equation: whom are you trying to reach? I’m looking for other upbeat, short-fused, irreverent souls like myself who are out to make a difference on this big blue sphere. If you ask yourself about your ideal audience (and honestly), the question of using profanity will pretty much answer itself. Brands looking to build community have to be a part of the community they wish to create. That means adopting a vernacular that those people will find familiar. And yes, sometimes that means dropping a word or two that others might find uncomfortable.
Embrace Offense
Words have incredible force, no matter how few letters they contain. I spoke at the onset about hate mail, something I’ve come to love and cherish. Here’s the bottom line: no matter whether you use profanity or not, people are going to take offense at something you have to say. What brands have to understand is that not everyone is their target customer and if you tick a few people off along the way, that’s okay!
There are few things in this world that have the ability to polarize an audience like politics and profanity. In your personal life, you have your views. Brands should have views and voices as well. Don’t be hypocritical – we think it’s jazzy when we hear bleeped-out lyrics slip through our car speakers as the latest pop ditty plays from the radio. In my opinion, radio stations do a half-baked job of walking that middle-of-the-road line: we all know what the lyrics are, and bleeping just makes them seem more taboo. I’m sure radio stations get more hate mail than anyone, but here’s where there’s a lesson to be learned: you’re never going to please everyone and there’s always the option to (gasp) change the channel.
The Consequences
A public relations colleague of mine has consequences down-pat. During media training with new clients, she talks about roadkill. You’re safe on the left shoulder…the right shoulder. Wander out into the middle of the road? You’re going to get killed. Successful brands pick a ditch to die in. This applies not just to the decision to use profanity in your communications, but to communications in general. Middle of the road voices fade into the ether while outspoken ones – ones with distinct personalities – shine brightly. Profanity is a character trait of a more comprehensive branding strategy, not a defining characteristic.
Sure, you might find some prospective audience members peeved about your choice of words. That’s fine – they’ll go elsewhere. But along with this exodus, you’ll find an influx of advocates who are picking up what you’re putting down. For brands that have to justify messaging to a larger internal audience, it goes back to personality. The voice you use online might not be how your CEO sounds in the boardroom, but if it’s true to the personality of your brand and product, no one is going to argue with the results that a powerful online presence can create.
Go Bleeping Be Something, Would You?
While profanity can be clever, using it as a tool to get to where you need a brand to go is even smarter. There will always be the people who want to tune you out. Heck, I’m irritated that every time I get to partake in an In-N-Out Burger delight, there’s a Bible verse on the bottom of their cups. And while that’s not profanity, I consider it pretty ballsy. Yet, it doesn’t keep me from going back for something I dig – and perhaps your decision (or not) to use profanity in your brand will ultimately attract the right audience – and deter those who will be better served elsewhere.
Radian6 adds: What do you think? Agree or disagree? Is there a place for periodic profanity in your brand’s online profile? Please leave your thoughts and comments below!
June 27, 2011
Ever have a really big secret to tell people? Like you and your partner are going to have a baby? You’ve managed to keep it quiet for a month and just as you are about to announce it to all your close friends and family, your next door neighbour who has a tendency to be a little “up in your business” starts spreading your secret all over town. Now, it’s really not that big of a deal because you were planning on telling people anyways, but you feel hurt and upset that you weren’t the one to spread the news. The announcement you had planned just seems pointless now and your entire timetable is completely thrown off.
No need to fret! Just like in life sometimes competitors can reveal things about you before you’re ready to tell people. So what do you do when people break the news before you’re ready?
Breathe
It seems cliche, but it’s true. The very first thing you need to do when you think intel about you has been exposed is to breathe. Nothing good ever came from reacting too soon to a situation without knowing all the facts. Just like if your Mom & Dad were standing gasping in front of you, you would take a moment and just breathe.
Assess
In that moment that you are thinking about what you are going to do, you need to have a full understanding of how much was exposed. Before you do anything else, assess the situation and figure out:
React
So you know the answers to the questions, you know what happened and you’ve taken a moment to think about it. Now, it’s time to react. With your parents you might start explaining how you are ready for this change in your life. With your competitors you may choose to send out a public press release to get ahead of the information that was released. Whatever your decision is, make sure you are basing it off your strategy and your assessment and not a rash quick decision.
Stick to the Plan
Remember how back when you started thinking about competitive intel that you sat down and made a strategy of how you would protect yourself against having your sensitive information exposed? Well now is the time to stick to that plan and also re-assess it. Looking at that plan and this particular situation, determine what went wrong. This is where you’ll learn important things like not speaking so loud to your partner that your neighbour can hear you say “Oh my god, it’s a girl!”. There’s always places we can improve our strategies so take the time to review and revise.
As long as you learn from the experience of having intel information exposed outwardly, you’re probably going to be okay. No one likes to be surprised by information they weren’t expecting to be talking about, but we can all deal with those situations if we take a few deep breathes and think it through.
What do you think about in these situations? Have you ever had to overcome a situation when your intel information was exposed? What did you do and how did you react? What did you learn from that experience?
March 23, 2011
Advertising and marketing, in some form or another, has been around for a very long time. In fact, the first newspaper advertisement, an announcement seeking a buyer for an estate in Oyster Bay, Long Island, was published in the Boston News-Letter back in 1704. I’m sure the folks at the helm of the Boston News-Letter never imagined a time when advertising would become as omnipresent as it is today.
So, on that note, we thought we would give you a very brief – and admittedly jumpy - history of some key events in its evolution:
1867 – James Walter Thompson buys Carlton & Smith from William J. Carlton, paying $500 for the business and $800 for the office furniture. He renames it after himself and moves into general magazine advertising. Later, he invents the position of account executive.
1911 – For the first time in its history, P&G pays an outside agency, J. Walter Thompson Co., to launch Crisco, its new vegetable shortening.
1929 – American Tobacco Co. spends $12.3 million to advertise Lucky Strikes, the most any company has ever spent on single-product advertising.
1947 – JWT becomes the first agency to surpass $100 million in billings.
1963 – “The Pepsi Generation” kicks off the cola wars.
1976 – The Supreme Court grants advertising First Amendment protection.
1981 – MTV debuts with frenetic video images that change the nature of commercials.
1993 – The Internet becomes a reality as 5 million users worldwide get online.
There’s no need to point out that that last one was a game changer. And from the 2000′s onward the brave new world of the internet fundamentally changed the way advertisers worked and what tools they used on the “get my product/service/company to the most eyeballs first – and keep it there!” playing field.
Which brings us to social media. Clearly, based on advertising’s long history, agencies and ad execs are extremely adaptable. Marketers and advertisers need to be at the forefront of what’s trending and what isn’t – and why. And they’ve been eager and early adopters of social media engagement and listening.
At Social 2011′s panel “The Evolution of the Agency”, we’re going to look at why social media, in all its forms, has become such a key element of agency strategy. Panelists Blake Cahill, Principal at Banyan Branch; David Armano, SVP, Social Business Planning & Integration at Edelman Digital; Jim Tobin, President of Ignite Social Media; Sean McDonald, Colony Master at Ants Eye View; and Slavisa Samardzija, Executive Vice President, Market Intelligence at Wunderman will be exploring how they use social strategies and integrated planning to reach key targets and deliver real value to their clients. How do agencies handle the unique challenges that social media brings on a global level? And what, if any, changes have to be made at the agency level itself, to integrate and successfully adopt social media strategies?
Social media has changed forever how we all do business. It has also changed the way customers view and respond to products and branding. It has, in some ways, made a smarter consumer, smarter than anyone back in 1704 could ever have imagined.
What do you think? Has social media impacted your work as a marketer, as a PR professional? Have you seen your clients change? And what does that mean to an agency? Has social media blurred the lines between traditional agencies? We appreciate your comments and questions.
Jim Tobin shares his views at http://www.ignitesocialmedia.com/blog/, David Armano shares his views over at http://darmano.typepad.com/ and Sean McDonald can be found sharing his views at http://www.antseyeview.com/blog/.
August 6, 2010
In the world of traditional agencies, brands rely on them for copy, press releases, statements, marketing to consumers and more. Rarely do we see a PR agency make a statement at a press conference or be quoted in a brand release; on the flip side, rarely do we have an advertising agency give final approval on brand positioning.
So, why has that changed in the social media space?
There have been proclaimed “turf wars” when it comes to who “owns social media.” Advertising, marketing and public relations agencies are all jousting each other to be proclaimed winner. For agencies to make social media work for their clients, they must utilize an integrated approach for planning and strategy.
Corporate and Agency Sectors present at the Integrated Social Strategy/Planning Table
While numerous agency sectors have a spot at the social media strategy and planning table, should they be the ones to execute the campaign? There are definitely two sides to the argument.
Transparency and trust are the two areas a brand should focus on when making the decision on execution. Once strategy and planning has taken place, decide who will respond, when they will respond, if it’s a collaborative effort between the agency and client, or if the execution falls solely onto either party.
Here are some best practices if a brand asks you as an agency to execute the social media campaign:
It is also up to you as the agency to provide education throughout the process, so that once the brand is comfortable, they can either collaborate on execution or handle.
A question that brands and agencies need to ask in the planning process is, “Do you think opinion and trust would be swayed if a consumer was talking to an agency hired, rather than the actual brand?”
If a brand executes the social media campaign, agencies can still be involved in the execution process. They can assist in wording responses, planning campaigns, assisting with what should be pushed out and providing education/advice.
What it comes down to is consumer trust and what they take at first impression face value. This will vary depending on goals, objectives and what overall strategy is.
What do you think? Should agencies execute campaigns or not? Let’s discuss.
June 23, 2010
We finally have it. A way for public relations professionals to not only prove qualitative metrics, but quantitative metrics as well. We chatted last week about basic reporting templates, which goes hand in hand with what you need to measure and best practices.
Social media has opened up a door for those in the PR world to prove value and worth to the C-Suite – when normally, it’s the first department to be cut when budgets are tight.
Traditionally, PR professionals focus on “impressions” which can be inaccurate when reporting to clients. Impressions are based on the opportunity to see, not the actual number of people who are reading and absorbing. Many use multipliers to define pass-along readership, but it varies by brand and agency. It’s dubious at best.
Brand and reputation are now up there with media relations since social has been on the scene. So how can you begin to break it down? Every agency and brand are specific to a few things: agency dynamic, brand objectives/goals and client expectations. There isn’t a magic button to tell you what to report in.
We now have online discussion, social media discussion and anything a consumer might say about your brand offline. The last one can be based on in-store promotions, WOM opinion or when experience is related. Makes it a bit tough, right?
There are four areas you can focus on, then make specific and applicable to your clients and/or brand through an analytics approach:
Presentation: What type of exposure has your content and message gained? Is it more so than competition?
Engagement: How are people interacting with the content? What platforms are they identifying with? Who is interacting?
Influencer: How has presentation and engagement altered perceptions and attitudes? Is it positive, negative or neutral? What’s the sentiment? What degree of influencer is this?
End Result: As a result of approach and campaign execution, what has your target demographic done? How did they respond?
What areas would you add? What questions would you focus on? What type of metrics is your C-Suite requesting? Let’s discuss in the comments section.
November 13, 2008
Global communications agency selects Radian6 to help drive social media strategy for international clients.
Washington, DC (PRWEB) November 13, 2008 — 360° Digital Influence – Ogilvy’s global social media and word of mouth practice – and Radian6 have successfully deployed Radian6 as the consumer generated media listening tool to all of the Digital Influence teams around the globe.
Radian6′s social media monitoring platform gathers real-time-as-discovered information from across the social web, including blogs, video sharing sites, boards and forums including LinkedIn Answers, and emerging media such as FriendFeed and Twitter.
360° Digital Influence provides strategy and execution of programs driven by social media and digital marketing to generate word of mouth for global brands. They are true social media strategists and practitioners. They needed a tool that made it easier to collect and sort conversations to create their client Conversation Maps and Influencer Audits.
“We need a day-to-day listening tool that looks across platforms and the social web, in multiple markets, sees the largest universe of consumer-generated content and conversations and lets our Digital Influence Strategists work fast,” says John Bell, Managing Director for Ogilvy’s 360° Digital Influence group. “We worked with Radian6 over the past year to deploy their tool to our complete global team. That’s the story – real implementation across the world.”
Ogilvy’s 360° Digital Influence and Radian6 will work together to refine the use and functionality of the tool in different markets throughout Asia, Europe and North America.
“A global social media strategy must include focused engagement strategies. Embracing user-generated content and evaluating the impact of key influencers is critical, and Ogilvy is a leader in this regard,” adds Marcel LeBrun, CEO of Radian6. “With Radian6′s user-generated influence and engagement metrics, the 360° Digital Influence Team can find, engage, and build relationships with those influencers. They can also deepen their understanding of what channels not only effectively deliver compelling messages, but how and why that delivery compels people to take an action.”
For businesses with global operations, Radian6 also supports nine international languages – including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, Korean, Japanese and Simple Chinese. In addition, platform users can filter results by language or by geographic region to segment and analyze results in all areas of the world.
“We have to understand how our clients are perceived and discussed by their customers in the marketplace,” explains Bell. “Our strategists can set up Radian6 quickly based on our clients’ keywords and lexicon. The snapshots we receive of what people are saying make it easier to apply our insight and execute strategic recommendations. Radian6 really helps our experienced strategists use social media to build our clients’ business.”
“We are delighted to have spent the last year working with the Ogilvy 360° Digital Influence team. They’ve been outstanding collaborators, providing us with invaluable insight about how the platform can be enhanced and adapted to meet changing market needs,” concludes LeBrun. “For the public relations industry to continue to evolve, it needs thought leaders like Ogilvy PR to share best practices and push the boundaries of what’s possible in social media. We’re excited that Radian6 is such an integral part of their practice.”
About Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide (Ogilvy PR) is a leading global marketing communications firm, with offices in more than 60 cities around the world. In its 27th year, Ogilvy PR provides strategic public relations counsel to a variety of clients across its consumer marketing, corporate, healthcare, technology, public affairs, social marketing and entertainment practices. The agency also offers biotechnology and government affairs expertise through its subsidiaries Feinstein Kean Healthcare and Ogilvy Government Relations, respectively. Ogilvy PR is part of the WPP Group, one of the world’s largest communications services organizations (NASDAQ: WPPGY, www.wpp.com). For more information, visit our Web site at www.ogilvypr.com.
About Radian6 Technologies
Radian6 provides the social media monitoring platform for marketing, communications and customer support professionals. The company’s flexible dashboard enables monitoring all forms of social media with results appearing in real-time as discovered. Various analysis widgets give users the ability to uncover the top influencers as well as which conversations are having an impact online. Visit www.radian6.com for more information.
For the Social Media Press Release version with video interviews with John Bell and David Alston click here.
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