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Top 20 Best Practices for Creating and Popularizing Content on the Social Web
Last Wednesday I attended Cision’s online Webinar “Creating Social Media Content” and I couldn’t have been more impressed by the presentation. I found that HRB is already practicing most of these strategies, but I also learned about some new online forums and tools that can take our brand and our clients’ brands to a whole new level on the Web.
Presented by two of today’s leading public relations professionals—Heidi Sullivan (@hksully), Vice President of Media Research for Cision, and Sarah Evans (@prsarahevans) of Sevans Strategy—the Webinar discussed social media strategies, tips and resources that companies should consider when promoting a brand or service.
In an effort to summarize what I’ve been learning from HRB, Webinars and other educational resources on the Web, I’ve created my own master list of the “Top 20 Best Practices for Creating and Popularizing Content on the Social Web.” The list includes social media strategies, tips and recommended resources for companies to consider when creating online content. Check it out and let me know your thoughts in the comments section or via my Twitter handle, @IowaHawkeyeMeg.
Top 20 Best Practices for Creating and Popularizing Content on the Social Web:
1 ) Every social media strategy needs to be well-planned. Ask these 4 questions before that first meeting with your coworkers and your clients:
- What’s your goal?
- Who will represent your brand on social media sites?
- When will you find time to produce content?
- How will you measure success?
2 ) Blog consistently and on a variety of topics. According to Cision’s research, there is a 2% to 4% increase in business for those companies that blog 2 to 4 times per week. The trick to write relevant and interesting posts and promote your content on a regular basis to grow your following.
3 ) When determining who should blog for your brand, choose employees that are passionate about your brand and industry. It’s counter-productive to make your employees blog if they’re not passionate about blogging, don’t keep up with news or can’t offer a fresh perspective.
4 ) Read, read, read! Knowledge is power and it’s to your advantage to stay on top of industry trends and news. Follow other bloggers’ RSS feeds in a Google Reader account and set aside 15 minutes a day to read your email subscriptions.
5 ) Be thoughtful when outsourcing your blog content. In some cases your employees are going to know your brand better than an outsider might. If you’re looking for a fresh perspective on a specific topic or Web trend, consider outsourcing the work to professionals or set up a guest blogging section on your Website to seek out knowledgeable professionals that can contribute to it. Check out the “Young Minds” guest blogging series that Lauren Fernandez of Radian6 created on her portfolio Website.
6 ) Think like a journalist! Journalists are always looking for new angles and stories to share with the world. Create headlines that are “catchy” and unique. Do your research ahead of time and make sure your blogs have no grammatical errors to avoid negative backlash in your blog’s comment section or on your page’s news feed.
7 ) Assess your goals and progress every week with Google Analytics or other social media measurement tools. Creating content for the social Web is useless if you’re not monitoring your engagement with your readers. Create a weekly Excel spreadsheet or report to present to your boss and clients to show how many fans/followers you add each week/month/year and which blogs are getting the most hits.
8 ) Create a blogroll in a sidebar list on your company or client’s main blog page. A blogroll is a list of other blogs that a blogger might recommend by providing links to them. Create a headline for the blogroll such as “Recommended Reading” and use keywords and other SEO tactics to separate and promote your blog categories.
9 ) Encourage the CEO, CMO and/or President of your company or your client’s company to contribute to blogs and engage with their audiences via social media. Learning about a company from their perspective is both critical and interesting to interns and established professionals alike. It reminds people that they’re engaging with other people (not a logo) and often provides audiences with relevant personal stories and anecdotes. To get inside the mind of HRB’s executives check out the blog pages of our CEO, Jim Thebeau and our President, Steve Erickson.
10 ) It isn’t just about blogs. Create a Twitter and Facebook account for your company and client and link to your employees’ personal accounts on these networks. Show your audience that every team member is vital to the success of your brand or campaign.
11 ) Be transparent. If you don’t hide anything from your audience they’ll be more likely to subscribe to your newsletter and follow you on social networks because they trust and appreciate your “words of wisdom.” Publish your social media policy and white papers on your Website and publicize company news and internal policy changes on your social media networks.
12 ) Listen and engage with your audience on a regular basis. If someone comments on your blog, tweet or post, respond to them right away. If other Web users see that you’re paying attention to your followers they’ll be more inclined to get involved in the conversation as well.
13 ) Acknowledge your audience. Every once in a while post a shout out to your followers, newsletter subscribers and potential customers by acknowledging how their support inspires your company and its employees to continue producing amazing content. They’ll appreciate the love and might even recommend your services to a business partner or networking contact.
14 ) The social media release (SMR) is the new press release. It’s no secret that traditional news methods are quickly being replaced by alternative news methods. The goal with the social media press release is to write for your audience AND the average Web user. Pitch to bloggers via a “Twitter pitch” or create a list of blog contacts that have been helpful in promoting a service or campaign for you in the past. As Heidi Sullivan and Sarah Evans mentioned in their presentation, “Inbound links are the currency of the blogosphere,” so make sure you’re building mutually-beneficial relationships. If a blogger picks up your social media release and repurposes the content on their blog, be sure to return the favor and mention their blog in your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn updates.
15 ) Create an “Interactive Newsroom” on your company Website. Include daily or weekly featured news, videos, blogs and photo images about your company. The example provided in the Cision Webinar was Toyota’s interactive newsroom. It features each of these things in addition to a section titled “Our Point of View” that’s written exclusively by Toyota employees and explores current issues in the automotive industry.
16 ) Keep up-to-date on educational news, language lessons, films, audio books, campus tours and more via Apple’s iTunes U. This service has been around since 2007 but I’ve never heard about it before this Webinar. Since checking it out I have to say that I’m very impressed by the content that Stanford University has put out there for use by students and average Web users. According to Wikipedia, iTunes U was “created to manage, distribute and control access to educational audio and video content and PDF files.” I agree with the Webinar hosts that this is a great resource for interns (and education industry clients) because it’s a free service that includes over 75,000 files for users’ upload or download purposes.
17 ) The rule of thirds: It’s not all about YOU. As my internship supervisor likes to remind me, nobody wakes up in the morning expecting to get an email from you. It’s important to realize the value in creating online content but equally necessary to know your limits. If you have a Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account, spend about 1/3 of your time posting information about your company, 1/3 of the time posting information about your clients and the remaining third of your time acknowledging others on the social Web (what the friendly Cision hosts referred to as “social karma”). Don’t walk around handing out your business card—instead, find out what your audiences’ and followers’ interests and jobs are. You should be entertaining your audiences but also engaging with your followers as these groups are collectively responsible for the success of your social media handle.
18 ) Aggregate! Create a “top 10 list” every once in a while to show your readers you’re paying attending to other writers in the blogosphere. After all, you’re not a robot!
19 ) Got a case of the “blogger blues?” Don’t fret! There will be days that you’re stuck and can’t find the words to write what’s really on your mind. (It happens to me all the time!) If you’re on deadline consult with your supervisor for new ideas or ask a coworker to switch blog days with you. It’s always better to wait and produce inspiring content rather than bore your readers.
20 ) Remember: Social media is a marathon, not a sprint! If you’re not seeing results in weekly analytic reports, try something new. There is no “correct way” to create and popularize content on the social Web but there are definitely promotional strategies that have grown companies and brands in huge ways. Dare to experiment!
Although this was only the second Webinar I’ve ever attended, I’m quickly learning that virtual tutorials are extremely useful resources. As an intern I always have questions and sometimes I find that my lack of knowledge about the media, the brand I’m representing or the audience(s) I’m reaching out to slows me down and prevents me from meeting deadlines. While this can sometimes be inevitable, I’ve realized that having solid research skills is critical in this industry—especially with the non-stop changes in progressive enhancement and the diversity of Web services offered today. I’m comforted by the fact that there are real people behind those usernames. I know if I continue to be proactive and seek out resources that help me master my shortcomings I can stay ahead of technology trends and promote HRB and its clients in unique and purposeful ways.
Megan Jasin
Public Relations Intern
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/meganjasin
Facing the truth: How Facebook and other social media impact public relations
I read an interesting study today addressing the impact of social media on the practice of public relations. Donald K. Wright, Ph.D., Professor of Public Relations/Director of Development for Boston University and Michelle D. Hinson, M.A., Institute for Public Relations, discovered that in 2009 the tide shifted to where public relations professionals agree more that social media has had a large impact on the practice.
According to the study, An Analysis of the Increasing Impact of Social and Other New Media on Public Relations Practice, 93% of the 2009 respondents spent part of their average workdays with some aspects of social media. In addition:
- 85% believe social media complement traditional news media.
- 92% think blogs and social media influence coverage in traditional news media.
- 88% believe blogs and social media have made communications more instantaneous.
- 72% agree or strongly believe social media has enhanced the practice of public relations.
The 574 respondents did say that they expect traditional media to be more honest and ethical. Fewer than half (41%) hold these same expectations for blogs and other social media.
Although we see companies slowly adopting and adapting to social media in this region, it has not impacted communications professionals as much as the east and west coast. There are also differences for business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies in the social media arena. B2C professionals will undoubtedly use it more readily.
So, what do you think? Has social media impacted your public relations efforts? If so, I’d like to know how.
Shelby Kraus
Vice President, Public Relations
Account Manager
Henry Russell Bruce is a strategic marketing and Internet marketing firm that uses research, brand-building, advertising, media buying and planning, design, public relations, Web design and strategies to help clients grow market share, generate new business, create brand loyalty and measure marketing results to build and support its clients' brands. HRB, founded in 1973, has offices in Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa. For more information, contact HRB.
Building an Effective Online Marketing Approach – Part Two
How many times have you heard a salesperson use one of these lame lines to “push” you closer to buying from them:
- “Shall we meet next Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon?”
- “Would you prefer to product one or product two?”
- “How about we get started next week?”
- “You’re the expert, so I know you understand why this is important.”
- “I’m not the expert on this, but the guy I work with is dynamite in this area.”
Study after study has shown these approaches are dying a rapid death and being replaced with transparency and inbound marketing. I’m not saying that there’s no need for sales in an organization, but I am saying the buyers of your product or service have gotten a lot smarter. The Internet (specifically social media) has increased transparency to a level where you can’t baffle everyone with BS. People still buy from people, but your next customers will likely know a lot more about you than what your aggressive sales person force feeds them. This is one reason why inbound marketing is the fastest growing segment in the marketing industry. Inbound marketing is when prospects seek out your company rather than the other way around.
In Building an Effective Online Marketing Approach – Part One, I talked about the importance of getting your Web site design ready to receive marketing. How you plan on marketing your Web site should be decided well before your site is even designed. In other words, are you ready to do some inbound marketing?
I have yet to find a company that couldn’t benefit from either a blog or news section as part of their Internet marketing strategy. In the natural progression of things, this is the next step. So what are you going to blog about? What should you include in your news section?
Rule #1 – Don’t do this:
Nobody really cares how cool you think your product or service is. They will judge that for themselves. Remember, the Internet has made business very transparent. People will be looking at your products or body of work to decide for themselves how “cool” you are.
It’s great your company won an award for this or that, but your future customers and clients care about how you can help them achieve their goals and objectives.
A wise man once told me, “The most boring person at the party is the one who spends the night talking about himself.” Give that a little thought… You just got an image of someone, right? Don’t be that person.
Rule #2 – Do this:
Educate and inform your audience about things they care about.
Regardless of what your company does, you are the experts. If you’re a law firm, then tell your audience about changes in the law and how it will affect them. If you’re a college or university, then tell your audience about the happenings on campus. If you’re an HR consulting firm, then tell people how the changes in health care will affect the business sector. The examples are endless. You have valuable information that can help people so share it. This simple act positions you as an expert who cares. Isn’t that the kind of organization you want to associate with?
So the decision is made. You’ve designed your new Web site and decided to start a news section or a blog. You’ve given it some thought and you have a general idea on how you can educate and inform your audience. Your next step will be to put a plan in place to ensure you are effectively delivering the content to your target audience.
As a side benefit, you know who to avoid at your next party…
Henry Russell Bruce is a strategic marketing and Internet marketing firm that uses research, brand-building, advertising, media buying and planning, design, public relations, Web design and strategies to help clients grow market share, generate new business, create brand loyalty and measure marketing results to build and support its clients' brands. HRB, founded in 1973, has offices in Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa. For more information, contact HRB.
Jeff McEachron
Senior Vice President
Director, Internet Operations
Follow me on Twitter @Jeff_McEachron
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmceachron
Building an Effective Online Marketing Approach – Part One
This is the first of a series of blog articles where I’ll write about what needs to be done to effectively market your business online using a systematic approach based on fundamentals we all know. My goal is to package this approach in a way that helps you build an effective online marketing approach that delivers results.
There has been so much written about social media marketing. It seems so many people think it’s the silver bullet that will take your business to the next level. It’s not. In order for social media marketing or any other online marketing to work effectively, it’s critical to think of the entire structure of your online marketing efforts. As with every structure, you need a strong foundation in order to be successful.
The foundation of your online marketing, is your Web site. More specifically, your Web site design. Is your Web site designed and built as an online brochure where you talk AT your customers and clients, or is it built in a way that will educate them and entice them to contact you? Take the HRB Web site for example. Our site isn’t overly flashy, and it doesn’t have a lot of text on most pages. People simply won’t read a Web page that is text heavy and image light.
Connect with HRB:
Instead of using a lot of text, we briefly explain most of our services and rely heavily on our portfolio section to show examples of our work. We rely on the HRB Blog as a means to educate our audience and provide insight into our expertise. Both of these serve to begin building a relationship with potential clients and hopefully building trust in our ability to help them. If people like our work and trust in our expertise, then we remain top of mind and are included in the conversation when they are in need of the services we offer.
If you look at our site, you’ll notice we have icons to our social media sites and an icon where people can subscribe to our blog. Another thing you’ll notice is the ability to subscribe to the HRB newsletter. In all of these cases, we are simply providing a way for our audience to receive information from us using the media of their choice. We’re not pushing our articles on people, but rather providing them with choices on how they prefer to receive our message.
On some of our blog articles, we provide an opportunity for people to download white papers that provide in-depth information on a topic. One example is our white paper titled “Learn how to avoid the 15 biggest marketing mistakes in 2010.” You can see an example of how we worked this white paper into our content in this article:
I’m Tired of Watching Companies Fail at Social Media Marketing
Finally, you’ll notice each page of our site has a link to Contact HRB. In the footer of the site, you see the addresses and phone numbers (mobile device compatible) for our locations in the Quad Cities and Cedar Rapids. Those are two items that virtually every Internet user has grown accustomed to. If you don’t deliver these elements, then you’ll quickly lose the user.
Hopefully it goes without saying that the HRB site is programmed to meet the very strict standards of the World Wide Web Consortium with search engine optimization built into the foundation and added to each new blog post and page built.
In summary, your Web site is your foundation. Be sure to offer multiple ways for your audience to engage you. Offer promotions and information that prompts the user to engage you further, or at least keeps you top of mind. Once this foundation is strong, you can begin some marketing efforts to test the effectiveness of your Web site design.
Related Services:
- Website Design Quad Cities
- Website Design Cedar Rapids
- Email Marketing
- Internet Marketing
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
Henry Russell Bruce is a full-service advertising agency and Internet marketing firm that focuses on branding, developing and executing marketing roadmaps, and growing companies.
Jeff McEachron
Senior Vice President
Director, Internet Operations
Follow me on Twitter @Jeff_McEachron
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jeffmceachron
PR Best Practices Set Good Example for Social Media Strategy
If businesses and marketing managers would approach social media the way public relations professionals approach developing a story and pitching it to editors, they would get a much better return on their investment.
So what do I mean by that? In marketing and advertising you can say whatever you want, however you want, because you’ve paid for the right to do so. In PR, you have to say what the editor wants to hear and ultimately what the reader or viewer wants to hear to get your message across. We use talking points and corporate speak, even though we try to limit that, so we’re not completely “pure.” But we are trying to tell a story and engage the reader in a thoughtful and helpful way. In social media, key messages, blatant boasting (even not-so-blatant boasting) are killers to the conversation.
And that’s what social media is really… a conversation.
No matter who we are, where we work, we all have agendas and topics we are passionate about. We all have opinions. So ultimately, we all have conversations we want to join. If you’ve already figured out why you should be involved with social media, the next step is creating a strategy. Think about the outcome and decide what types of questions you will need to ask yourselves to make that a reality. Some examples:
- What types of people would be interested in our conversation?
- Where are they at?
- What are they talking about?
- Is it appropriate for us to join that conversation and, if so, when?
- How do we provide value to the conversation?
- What is the best way to get their input into our product or service without offending?
Connect with HRB:
What PR and social media should attempt to do is earn trust. When credible and transparent you can do this. If you think about your social media tendencies and what keeps you following someone or removing them from your friends list, you can create a strategy that is right for your business…and not offensive to potential customers.
Shelby Kraus
Vice President, Public Relations
Account Manager
Henry Russell Bruce is a strategic marketing and Internet marketing firm that uses research, brand-building, advertising, media buying and planning, design, public relations, Web design and strategies to help clients grow market share, generate new business, create brand loyalty and measure marketing results to build and support its clients' brands. HRB, founded in 1973, has offices in Cedar Rapids and Davenport, Iowa. For more information, contact HRB.
