19 June 08
"Mommy bloggers" play a key online role for communicators
PRSA event shares the secrets of successful social media strategies.
Earlier this week, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) hosted a panel discussion from social media experts including:
- Stephanie Moritz, director of PR at ConAgra Foods;
- Dick Costolo, group project manager, Google, (former CEO of Feedburner);
- Cristina Lawrence, vice president of digital media at Fleishman-Hillard;
- Heather Oldani, director of US communications at McDonald's; and
- Eric Benderoff, technology reporter at the Chicago Tribune.
Show me the money
First up, answering a question about web 2.0 tools, Benderoff said: "There's confusion about how we can monetize social media." This tallies with the conversations we've been having on the Hub and on Melcrum's Communicators' Network recently about the difficulty of measuring the return on investment for social media tools.
While Benderoff's comment is certainly true, some of the other panelists explained how they've established some robust and profitable ways to make social media work for them and their companies or clients.
By spreading the word among mommy bloggers, a US$6000 2-week campaign reaped a $78,000 profit.
The great train campaign
For example, Oldani spoke of the success McDonald's has seen from using the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson (a.k.a. "Fergie") to engage moms in dialogue about what McDonald's stands for, via her Duchess Diaries blog hosted on clubmom.com.
Lawrence explained how Fleishman Hillard also ran a successful "Mommy blogging" campaign. It involved creating a buzz around a train set over the Christmas period for one of its clients.
By spreading the word (including a special promotional code in order to track the campaign's progress) about the collectible train set among mommy bloggers, and other specialist audiences, a US$6000 2-week campaign reaped a $78,000 profit.
McDonald's Station M site
Spurred on by the enthusiastic response to its Duchess Diaries project, McDonald's realized there was a larger opportunity it could explore both internally and externally for positive online discussion of its brand.
As a result, the company launched Station M, a password-protected social networking internet site (note, not intranet), which allows McDonald's "crew members" (employees) in the US and Canada to blog about the company, share photos and vote on company issues on this dedicated site. These activities, said Oldani, are all done by employees willingly accessing the site in their own time.
Other ideas McDonald's has introduced: "People can submit their own versions of the Big Mac single. We also have a Facebook page for fans of the Big Mac," Oldani said.
Sniffing out the fakers
When asked what are the best practices for blogging, Lawrence advised "First and foremost: transparency. People can smell BS."
Tip for blogging? First and foremost: transparency. People can smell BS.
Moritz agreed, and suggested that to encourage social media take-up within the organization you have to identify a champion internally. (In ConAgra's case, it's the chief marketing officer).
The company takes a "perpetual beta mentality" according to Moritz, and pilots a range of online marketing ideas and programs to help engage more effectively with its customers.
We'll all be twits soon enough
So how is social media changing the world we live and work in? "Twitter will be like having a cellphone," predicts Costolo. "It's a way of group communication with your 'social graph' in a non-intrusive way". It was also mentioned that twitter can be great free PR for your brand if you're using it in the right way.
Another prediction Costolo made was "In 2 years, most people will have a 'Commenter I.D' for leaving messages on blogs or other online sites." A commenter I.D. would mean a blog respondent, social networking site participant, online shopper and so on would choose, or be assigned, the same name to use across all of their online discussions or transactions.
“You’ll be able to sync comments across sites,” Costolo said.
Will pseudonyms disappear?
In response to Costolo's prediction about commenter I.Ds, Banderoff wrote on his Chicago Tribune blog:
"I respectfully disagreed, since a large percentage of commentators leave a pseudonym of sorts, particularly when posting an incendiary or indecent comment. Costolo agreed that was an issue but felt strongly such problems will be addressed."
This discussion poses questions for internal social networking and blog comments in terms of the future of employee privacy – if the commenter I.D. idea takes off, will employees' online actions be monitored more closely? Could it eventually result in more employee dismissals for abuse of online access during company time?
Or perhaps companies that currently allow anonymous comments on internal blogs (to encourage employees to pose questions or make comments without fear of reproach) will, in order to mimic external online "transparency", follow suit and ban or restrict anonymous posts?
Have your say
Got any predictions for the future of internal or external communications? How do you think your company will be using social media in the future, or do you think it's just a short-lived fad?
Have you used twitter successfully to market your brand? Or perhaps you've asked for the assistance of mommy bloggers in one of your advertising campaigns?
Tell us all about it on the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
How will tomorrow's employee behave?
Social media and PR: Big brands share their thoughts (Eric Benderoff's blog post about the event)
Release It! blog post on the event
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