Social media’s popularity among brands shows no signs of abating. Facebook and Twitter continue to grow as channels for reaching, engaging and conversing with consumers. But for alcohol brands entering the social space is fraught with difficulties. Why? Well the regulatory regime is increasingly challenging and advertisers are subject to a range of rules from CAP (the Committee of Advertising Practice) and the self-regulatory body the Portman Group.

Seal has just finished a major project for a client in this sector. What we’ve found is that current guidelines don’t provide the kind of detail brands need. And with social media the devil’s in the details. The ease with which you can enter these channels potentially blinds brands to some of the traps and limitations.

There are solutions and we’ve outlined these in a recent post. So before you dive into YouTube, Twitter or Facebook, read our thoughts on social media and how alcohol brands can comply with regulatory requirements.

In today’s rapidly converging world the most effective web strategies anticipate the needs of consumers and provide content to meet those needs – even before people know what to ask!

With the rise of the internet and social media in public relations, optimising press releases is key to gaining stronger online coverage and raising your profile via the internet.

With a clear understanding of target audiences and what motivates them, insightful, engaging content drives traction in the online world. We believe that PR professionals need to act like publishers, delivering clear, engaging content – you don’t want to just see where the mud sticks!

Hold on, what exactly is optimised PR I hear you ask? Optimising a press release for use on the internet means it is more likely to get picked up by the bloggers and websites you target and as a result raises your online profile.

This is increasingly important as more and more journalists use the internet for news stories and research into topics of interest. If your company is the first or second on Google ranking when a journalist or blogger searches within your industry, optimised PR is doing its job!

The optimised press release contains all relevant key search terms and phrases that people use to find you online and hyperlinks to drive traffic to your website. Any multi-media web content, such as blogs, videos and images, are also tagged with key phrases/terms. For this to work and get maximum impact it has to run in parallel and integrate with all of your other PR and marketing activity.

This brings benefits such as increased online visibility, higher Google ranking, wider exposure across the industry you work in and, therefore, more media coverage and a raised profile for your company.

The key is to know how to optimise for particular sites and ensure it will integrate into a wider communications strategy and PR plan.

This is where Seal can help. For more information on how optimised PR could work for you, call us on 0121 616 5800.

Our newest member of Seal is account manager Sam Webb who joined full-time in early February and hit the ground running with his fantastic client management skills, on the ball thinking and creative ideas!

However, Sam is no stranger to Seal having worked in the Birmingham office for a month as a freelance in summer 2011.

Sam cut his teeth in the media as a reporter for the Coventry Telegraph and after five years decided it was time for a change and moved into the PR industry. He has since worked at a number of Midlands agencies, with a flying return to journalism for a six month role as deputy editor for a global food industry news website before joining the ranks at Seal.

As a PR account manager, Sam has worked for many high profile clients including npower business, Siemens, The Heart of England Co-operative Society, international property developers The Cassidy Group and Halfords Autocentre.

Sam said: “It’s great to be back at Seal as I had a great time with the team and worked on some really interesting campaigns and clients the first time around. Seal has won some fantastic accounts recently and I’m delighted to be part of such a vibrant agency with such an exciting variety of work.”

Social media is a key aspect to this and UK brands already have guidelines from CAP and the industry self-regulatory body, the Portman Group. Social’s popularity with consumers presents a number of challenges for brand owners and a key component is preventing under age consumers from accessing such content.

Brand websites have long been covered by this but the scope extends to include social channels, blogs, email, MMS and Twitter. The Portman Group’s “Digital Marketing Guidelines” clearly stipulate that:

”Over 18 age confirmation details can be provided by third parties. However, the onus is on the drinks company to ensure that the third party has appropriate procedures in place to obtain this information.”

Restricting under-18s access to branded social networking content would seem like a simple element to deliver but the reality is that adherence requires some effort.

Facebook is an ideal channel for the sector because age controls are built into the brand page settings. The one issue to consider is geographical variations. A UK over -18 page is fine but if you have significant US traffic (and this data is easily obtainable) then consider a US page. The UK page can then be set-up to only be accessible to UK residents aged 18+ (and the US page, 21+).

YouTube is a more difficult channel to crack. As far as the ASA is concerned, it is within the scope of the respective codes. Setting up filters isn’t an easy process. The tools aren’t built into the standard channel settings though are available to commercial partners. This is an element that regulators should be pushing back to Google to address given the popularity of the site.

Twitter is even more vague. It’s terms of service contain a statement regarding binding contracts which is taken as a reference to over 18s (who in the US are the only people who can form a binding contract). Yet this is far too opaque for those registering. Who reads the terms and conditions anyway? A wordy legal statement is hardly a concrete solution to the issue. And why no age capture at registration?

For alcohol brands it means a presence here requires much greater care. The lack of age capture when registering means that brand messaging could be seen by under-18s. It also means that the size of this audience is an unknown. Research has always suggested that Twitter was popular with older consumers but recent data contradicts this.

Brand owners should consider using Twitter solely for corporate messaging as this offers some respite (as the code allows for corporate sites to avoid age verification, the same rationale could be used here if the messaging is trade/stakeholder focused). This is important because the code and the responsible marketing pact stipulate that advertising should only be shown on channels where 70% of the audience are over 18. Twitter is the big unknown.

The guidelines are clear and there is no excuse for non-compliance. Brand owners should avoid entering each new channel without considering their ability to control who sees their communications. Whilst ignorance is no defence if challenged, the regulators should also be pushing the site owners to ensure that minors are categorized and that advertisers can control whether these audiences are exposed to advertising and social messages. We’ve been through the process of reviewing all social channels for a drinks client. Our takeout? It’s complex, inconsistent and marketers must tread carefully.