Expectations  –

The third leg are the expectations of what these tools will bring. As we noted in Part I, a PR plan’s success used to be measured largely by newspaper clips or TV news time. These days, with PR being so closely integrated with marketing and advertising, the bar has been raised on expectations – namely, for a business, sales generated.

This can be tricky, as sales via Social Media sites are still in the experimental stage. That said, it is being done, and the definition of return on investment (ROI) is being expanded.

As we noted earlier, Dell has earned at least $3 million via sales this year alone through one of its several Twitter sites. Even small businesses are using the sites to attract customers – mention Twitter or Facebook and get a discount, for example. One of the great attractions of the Social Media sites is that they are free to open and use – while there’s overhead in creative strategy and time spent posting messages, everything else is gravy. Green gravy.

At a recent seminar put on by Epiphanies, Inc. https://twitter.com/EpiphaniesInc, host Allen Voivod noted there are several ways to measure ROI in addition to outright sales:

1) Brand Management –  In case you missed it, a couple of now-former employees of Domino’s Pizza filmed themselves doing things like sticking food up their nose, and then posted the video on You Tube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYmFQjszaec The video spread like viral wildfire, but it took Domino’s several days to respond. The lesson was clear – for brand management and crisis communications, the Social Media sites are an immediate and constant way to see what people are saying about your product and brand – good or bad. There are several sites dedicated to this very idea –

http://www.twellow.com/ for example, allows people to search what’s being said about a particular topic. With Twitter now at more than 30 million subscribers and growing faster by the day, that’s a lot of conversation going on out there.

2) Website Traffic – With a simple analytics program, we can easily measure how much website traffic is being directed via Facebook, Twitter, or other sites.

3) Earned Media – Yes, clips still matter.

4) Customer Service – As we’ve seen, many businesses use the Social Media sites to directly engage consumers. If a customer is able to post a question about a product or service and get a reply within minutes, it can be more immediate and less costly than, say, operating a call center.

The key to all of these changes is that they’re related.

With Social Media making PR more of a dialogue with consumers, it’s increasingly important to integrate overall messaging strategies and tactics. And these, then, raise the bar on expectations – the Social Media tools are not just about being cool and hip, but about selling products and services.

Did you read this blog because you learned about it on Twitter? Drop us a line and let us know what you think: http://twitter.com/nlpartners

In this column, we’ll look at the second key – how marketers and PR gurus are integrating their messaging and tools.

Integration –

The idea of tailoring a PR message to a marketing and advertising plan isn’t new. What has changed is how it’s delivered, courtesy of Social Media.

More companies these days are disseminating their message through a variety of media. For example, a new spot will not only appear on television, but can be posted on Facebook and You Tube, linked back to each via Twitter, and so on.

Even some mega-companies, such as Nestle and Land Rover, have actually launched integrated ad campaigns on Twitter. http://www.marketingvox.com/nestle-puts-tweets-inside-ad-units-044341/

An NL client, Manchester Community College, has done exactly this, cross-selling its message on several Social Media sites. Similarly, another NL client, The Vermont Lottery Commission, uses Facebook and Twitter http://twitter.com/Vermont_Lottery to post updates on new products, winners, and promotions. The PR/Social Media messaging all falls in line with our advertising and marketing strategies and creative output. Another beauty of integration is that a lot of it can be done automatically.

For example, the Vermont Lottery’s RSS feed sends Powerball and Megabucks jackpot updates to its Facebook page, which automatically is sent to Twitter. In addition, whenever the Twitter site is updated, it automatically feeds updates to the Facebook page. These tools are still relatively new, and the VLC still issues press releases, but Social Media is increasingly becoming the go-to PR applications for spreading the word.

And, it works: a Vermont Lottery press release was recently posted on Twitter, picked up by a local news organization, which in turn posted it on their Twitter site – an instant two-fer. Even the fact that the Vermont Lottery is using the site made news: http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20090426/NEWS04/904260297

Earlier this Spring, NL contributed marketing, advertising and PR services to a concert to benefit Preble Street, a soup kitchen, food pantry, and shelter in Portland.

The campaign included traditional elements – press releases, a poster, website, t-shirt, and print ad – but also relied heavily on Social Media. Within 10 days, the Facebook page had over 200 “friends,” who continued to spread the word virally with their own contacts. Even since the event has passed, more people continue to sign onto the Facebook page for future events under the same brand.

Similarly, the Twitter account was used in a variety of ways – “Tweets” included updates on the concert itself, profiles of performers and business sponsors, and facts about Preble Street services – all done within the branding established by the marketing.

By any measure, the PR plan performed better than expected: the concert was featured in nearly a dozen print stories, on WCSH’s 207 program, 8 radio stations, three television news broadcasts the day of the event, and on several websites.  Whenever there was a PR “hit”, we immediately posted the link on Twitter to extend our reach. Again, like with Facebook, the concert’s Twitter account http://twitter.com/actsforchange continues to rack up followers.

At times, it can become mind-boggling to think of how fast Social Media sites have infiltrated our industry – which sites to use, which ones will last – all are relevant questions that will be answered in time. That said, being able to expand an integrated communications message is good for everyone, from the practitioner to the consumer. Plus, it’s just really cool stuff.

By the way, remember that if you read this blog because you learned about it from Twitter – send us a Tweet to let us know what you think. http://twitter.com/nlpartners

Next up – Expectations