Tag: engagement

CONSUMER PR IS ALIVE AND WELL

Posted on March 11, 2021 by Lindsey Davies

Despite the challenges we continue to face, consumer PR is alive and well. It has changed and we have had to adapt, but there are still opportunities for brands to make an impact and to encourage sales.

For many consumer brands, the pandemic has meant that marketing activity, at least in part, has been put on hold. This could have been a sampling campaign, activation or trade event. Anything that relied upon direct engagement with people was impossible.

While this isn’t good news and isn’t what anyone wants to see, it doesn’t mean that these businesses have to grind to a complete halt. It just means that the way we communicate and interact with our customers and prospects needs to evolve.

Consumer PR is alive and well

Although many journalists are working from home, magazines are still being printed and shared online as content is being drafted and uploaded. Shoppers are still looking for recommendations and glossy features are providing ten of the best, must buys and seasonal stock.

For those brands that are not engaging with the media, don’t be surprised when you don’t appear. Having a consistent approach that keeps your products front of mind and relatable will deliver time and again.

Send your products out, encourage trial and give free samples in a safe way. Put your brand in the hands of those that want to write about it. Don’t leave anything to chance. Don’t assume that because you know your company inside and out that everyone else does.

Share your story and add some personality. Give a point of difference and explain what makes you unique and a better alternative to the competition. Find reasons for journalists to include your products and think of them as your biggest ambassadors – after all, that’s exactly what they could become.

The tactics you can use

We often talk about a PR toolkit of tactics that we have access to. It’s one of the best ways to describe how we can adapt our approach depending on the products, services and audiences we are focusing on.

No one size fits all when you work in PR and that is what keeps things interesting.

With consumer clients, we choose the approach that will work best for them based on their objectives. It’s fair to say that we have had to be more mindful of how we work but that doesn’t mean we haven’t made plans and put them into practice.

PR is about creativity and that relies on an ability to change your thinking from time to time. They say that where there is a will there is a way and, in our experience, it’s usually underpinned by hard work and a dedication to deliver results, whatever it takes.

Being aware of the tactics that you can use is just the start. For example, press releases, competitions, product reviews, sampling, partnerships, brand buddies, sponsorship… the list goes on. How you implement all of these needs to be carefully planned.

Having a schedule of activity that you can follow and measure will give you the insight you need to make changes. This will give you an active plan that you can adapt to meet with your needs and deliver the very best return on investment.

There are ways to cut through the competition

The consumer market has always been very competitive but there are ways to cut through. Sending out products that are packaged in a way that is representative of your brand is a good place to start. No one wants to receive a brown box with a product inside and no further theatre or engagement.

If you have a product that you feel is exciting and innovative then make sure what you send out reflects that. Have some fun. Push boundaries. Get people involved and ask for feedback. Be resourceful but remember that whatever you send will make an impression: good or bad.

While you can’t always control what people think, you can use consumer PR to manage the experience that they have with your brand. Make sure that the investment you make is worthwhile and that rather than send a box you give them a glimpse of the care and attention you have for your products.

Build a network of partners

Finding brands that have similar values isn’t always easy. Identifying products that complement what you have to offer and then coming up with an approach that meets the needs of both businesses takes time and work.

Like anything, you get out what you put in.

Start to build a network of partners that you know and trust. Start small and then build up to bigger and bolder campaigns. It may be that you find someone that really resonates, and that collaboration makes sense.

The alternative is that you try and test something and it doesn’t work, but at least you’ve given it a go. Trial and error is the only way you will find out, so it’s worth exploring at the very least.

Be creative and have fun

Most consumer brands will say that they are fun but behind closed doors they are just like any other company. Working hard to make ends meet and facing daily challenges head-on. This is no bad thing, it’s business.

If you want to be creative and have some fun, then this needs to start with the culture that you nurture from the bottom up. A simple and effective way of getting people together and to think differently is to invite everyone into planning sessions.

It might be that you are launching a new product or thinking about ideas for extending a range. Whatever it happens to be, allocate the time so that more people can get involved and excited. Build a plan that can be shaped, adapted and changed based on the feedback and the experiences of others.

Set aside a budget to secure results

No one wants to spend loads of money, but results require investment. Even the purchase, packaging and sending of products comes with a price tag, so there are few ways to avoid it. Bite the bullet and look at what you want to achieve. Work backwards and decide what’s necessity and what’s nice to have.

Once you have a list then create a plan. Look at the priorities against the objectives and get to work. Having a sound plan to follow will also give you something to measure against. The results will then provide insight into what does and does not work.

Change, adapt and amplify so that you end up with a schedule of activity that delivers results every time. Consumer PR is a process, it requires time, attention, focus and a desire to secure results. It’s not always easy but when you get the orders through the door because your audience knows and understands your brand it will all be worthwhile.

Working with professionals

If after reading this you would rather rely on professionals to manage your consumer PR, then please do contact us. We have worked with many brands over the years including Warburtons, KP Snacks, POM-BEAR and HARIBO. We have the experience, the insight and the creds to deliver a campaign or ongoing consumer press office to meet with your objectives. For further details, please visit: https://www.opencomms.co.uk

A BRAND WITH LITERALLY NO PERSONALITY

Posted on September 13, 2019 by Lindsey Davies

LinkedIn has become a platform of choice for me over the last year or so. I like the fact it knows what it wants to be and that it is a work in progress. Having met with some of the team, they acknowledge there is more to be done but that the functionality has been developed to benefit business.

There is no other platform that has taken ownership of becoming an online portfolio of CVs that gives businesses access to a global database of talent like LinkedIn – or certainly not that I have come across.

Company pages on LinkedIn

We manage the Company Pages for some of our clients and make sure to post a selection of news, articles and coverage. We also engage with other brands and businesses to keep the feeds interesting and informative.

As a business that never stops learning, we review other pages to see what companies are doing and what ‘tricks of the trade’ are working. Applying best practice, we can then make recommendations that we know add value.

Making contacts, or not!

This morning when I was reviewing my own LinkedIn feed, I came across an impressive ‘company’ page. It was visual, informative, punchy and had a tone of voice that appealed to me. The page was obviously updated regularly but what stood out as very strange was there was no contact.

I think the page had been set up as a person but should have been a company. So, to be clear, it said ‘Owner of widget business’ but the page was the brand, not the individual.

Inadvertently, I had come across a brand with literally no personality!

There were several reasons I found this odd, not least how had this person not realised that it was a mistake to remain nameless and how were people supposed to make contact?

LinkedIn is about connections and although company pages generate followers, it’s not the same thing.

The power of personality

I’m a big believer that ‘people buy people’ and this has worked in practice for us here at Open Communications. Many of our clients have been with us for years and we have worked with brand managers that come to us when they change company – one of the biggest compliments in our industry and not something we take for granted.

The truth is that personality is one of the very few things that a business has which is truly unique. Of course, companies can try to replicate the tone of voice, messaging and even visuals that a brand uses but it will never be the same.

There are always the values, story and culture that you can never quite replicate. Plus, most brands that try to be something they are not get caught out and it all goes horribly wrong. Authenticity may be a phrase that is overused, but it resonates with audiences.

Keeping it real

The lesson I learnt from this morning’s encounter was that I will make it my mission to ensure that every company director we work with takes full credit for their business on LinkedIn, giving those that want to make an introduction the opportunity to do so.

I will also explain the difference between a personal and company page so that they don’t make any mistakes that could cost them sales.

I can see no reason for having a ‘social’ channel and not being visible as a person. The whole thing really is quite baffling.

As a business that wants to attract customers, this really does need to be addressed and I hope that it is. The page deserves to get the attention that it is attracting but I expect that the leads it could convert are fewer than they should be for this very reason.

Social media is not a sales tool

Posted on March 30, 2017 by Lindsey Davies

With the continuing popularity of Facebook and the increasing appreciation of Twitter and LinkedIn as tools for business, people could be excused for thinking that these platforms should sit within the sales function of a business. After all, it’s a great way to ‘target’ an audience and to ‘push out’ information about a product or service.

However this is where many brands and businesses go wrong.

No one, and I mean no one, likes to be sold at. The world is full of marketing messages; just walking down the street and you will be greeted with a plethora of information, all carefully displayed on posters, banners, billboards and digital signage.

The truth is that we live in an era of over-abundance. The best campaigns will attract attention, not necessarily because of the copy that they use or even the imagery that they display, but often because they are simple and they are integrated; they are shared across several mediums, giving a consumer numerous opportunities to engage.

But what about those businesses that don’t have multi-million-pound budgets and those that have to make the most of every single penny? Many turn to social media as a quick fix and again, this is a mistake.

There are three mistakes that people make when they consider social media as a springboard to sales:

– Social media is free

– There are millions of people waiting to be sold at

– Once people like my page or follow me they will buy my product

As a PR agency we try to explain to people that if you treat social media platforms as a sales channel you will immediately turn your prospective customers off. It goes back to the age-old adage, ask not what people can do for you…

The idea of social media was to share insightful and interesting information with people, not to sell at them. There are ways that you can add value through a Facebook page, which may seem like selling, such as offering money off and promotional codes, but the truth is that you are giving something back.

With the rules that are in place with Facebook, which will limit your audience reach unless you put a budget behind paid for advertising, it can be difficult to reach the volume of people you may need to make a real difference to your business.

This doesn’t mean that Facebook should be dismissed when it comes to sharing news updates about products but it does mean that it becomes a very expensive medium if all you are going to do is to pay to share a picture.

There is a balance, and that is why when we work with clients we explain that putting a plan in place that is carefully thought out and considered, that follows themes that will keep people interested and that will encourage them to come back time and time again is a better approach than sending out the same advert or trying to be quirky and falling short of the mark.

People are increasingly time poor and with so much information on the internet they don’t want to spend time clicking to links, accessing other web pages or viewing long and meaningless video. They want content that is helpful, informative and if at all possible, funny. This is what makes is shareable.

Using an example from the real world to put this into context, how would you feel if you walked into a coffee shop and you met someone for the first time and they started the conversation by asking you what insurance you have or whether you wanted an ISA?

For most of us this would make us feel uneasy and it would be more than probable that the next time you bumped into this person you would try to avoid them.

The same can be said for a brand. If you start to ‘shout’ your messages at people then they are less likely to want to engage with you. As an alternative, try to ask their opinion; what are they looking for, what would make the customer experience better for them, what do they want to see from you in the future?

Building brand loyalty isn’t easy, in fact, it is a long-term strategy of most businesses but a starting point is remembering that it is about building relationships. Customers want to feel valued and special. They want to know that you care and that you have them in mind, not your sales targets.

The automotive sector is a good example of an industry that has evolved with the times. Many dealerships have recognised that people research online before they visit a showroom and so they offer as much information as they can online.

You will find videos and podcasts, images and testimonials from customers. At this point you will also find a button which will allow you to visit your nearest dealership for a test drive. What they have done is to give you all of the information you need – that you are searching for. They have then provided you with the option to book a test drive.

The process is driven by you (no pun intended) – not them, which makes it feel less forced. What happens when you get into the dealership is up to the sales team but rather than jump on you and offer a knock-down price, as was once the case, you increasingly find that showrooms look like coffee shops that could rival leading high street brands with their skinny lattes and chocolate topped mochas.

The point is that to use social media effectively it isn’t about selling, it’s about communicating. It’s about building profile. Once you have a strong brand presence you can then start to turn engagement into loyalty. The process is not simple, it is not quick but over time it often works.

If your marketing is planned, sustainable and does not rely on the misguided belief that if you put thousands of pounds behind a Facebook post that it will make you a millionaire, a social strategy could become a useful facet to your wider marketing activity.

PR is no dark art but a top hat can help

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Lindsey Davies

Agencies are well-versed in the dark arts of baffling people with science. Whether its metrics that determine an audience reach or a targeted consumer from the right demographic reading a social post, it can be nothing short of a headache when you can’t decipher the fluff from the facts.

PR has changed irrevocably over recent years and this has been a good and a bad thing. Positively, there are online platforms and channels to engage with and extend audience reach, plus opportunities to self-publish, which in turn negates the need for third party copy approval, but there are downsides too.

Agencies get giddy about analytics, and rightly so. We can use online measures to track engagement and to give clients real time feedback. We can also map how this can impact on shopper behaviour and purchasing occasions. What overcomplicates this process is the burning desire for agencies to then reposition ‘clicking the analytics button at the top of the page’ into something far more elaborate.

STOP! Hold it right there. Quit it.

We noticed this some time ago and sat through many-a-meeting where eye rolling became an involuntary twitch rather than a planned reaction. What’s so wrong with providing a client with the facts, keeping them simple and sharing results that you can all get excited about?

As a straight-talking PR agency, we don’t do ‘baffling with science’, we try at all costs to keep things simple so that we can prove to our clients that PR works and that it has a positive influence on their business. We strongly believe that comms and marketing should have a seat around every boardroom table and as such have to practice what we preach and that is why we used simple PR techniques to turn a Gala Dinner into a brand building exercise.

We don’t consider our industry to be a joke, far from it, but we do like to have fun where we can and that is why during the Gala Dinner and Variety Performance at the Theatre Royal Wakefield, we decided to add a little creative flair of our own.

As a sponsor, we were asked if there was anything we would like to do, such as offer a raffle prize. Following a chance encounter with the most impressive balloon expert I’ve ever met, we had a plan and 36 top hats!

Deciding to take this opportunity to explain to everyone in the room that PR is NOT a dark art and that you DON’T need magic wands to create campaigns that work, we had a simple postcard made. This explained that PR is still about managing reputation, arguably a brands biggest asset, and that it takes hard work but you will see results.

As an agency that develops monthly campaigns for clients, we know that a postcard isn’t going to have people jumping out of their seats in eager anticipation of what is written on the full-colour, 180gsm stock, matt coated flyer. We had to do something else to attract attention.

That’s where a top hat, a balloon and a raffle ticket came into play.

Building on our theme ‘Ta-da!’ we put a top hat on each table as a centre piece. We then arranged for a balloon shaped rabbit to sit in the hat. This wasn’t any old rabbit. Inside each tummy was a raffle ticket. All each table had to do was pop the tummy to get their ticket and claim their prize.

Suddenly our message that PR isn’t a dark art and nor is it magic was being shared by the whole room. It was great to see the engagement that we achieved as a result – and no, there were no fancy metrics, no analytical breakdown of the data, just lots of people wearing top hats and a crowd surfing balloon bunny! Job done.

The point to this article is two-fold; firstly, don’t believe everything you hear. PR is not a dark art, nor does it involve magic tricks but it can deliver results that will impact on your business. Secondly, if you’re going to do something, add some imagination. Tops hats and bunnies might not sound like the obvious tactics for a PR agency to use, but they worked for us.

#Isitok to integrate social and TV

Posted on September 6, 2016 by Lindsey Davies

I hadn’t realised just how used we all are to sharing our thoughts about certain TV programmes and documentaries with absolute strangers until we started to talk about it in the office recently.

I’ve never really considered how my consumption of media has changed as a result of social media, but after taking a step back I realise that actually, in some instances, I expect as much from my Twitter feed as a I do the programme that I’m watching.

Take the Last Leg for example. As well as being one of my all time favourite programmes it is a show that openly champions the use of social media to engage with a captive audience and share ‘real time’ opinions that then instigate further debate.

Using #Isitok the presenters integrate the use of Twitter into the show in order to collate responses from viewers. A series of questions will be asked and the hashtag means that people are able to respond and also engage with each other.

Some people aren’t so sure about the need to integrate social into programming and I can understand that view, after all if you’re watching a programme shouldn’t you be giving it your full attention or just sitting back to relax and enjoy?

I think there’s an element of both. I watch certain programmes without even considering social media, but then there are others that have me almost habitually grabbing for my iPhone.

In most instances it seems to be documentaries and programmes that have a human interest or some element of social psychology behind them that I find most interesting. I like to see what other people think and agree or contradict based on my own feelings.

Gogglebox is another great show when it comes to Twitter. There are always insightful comments, which are often about very serious situations, which despite being ‘out of date’ create engagement and debate online.

For me, social media and TV are perfect bedfellows and as someone who doesn’t spend a great deal of time in front of the box, when I do it’s great to know that there is a wider audience who are willing to compare and contrast views about the programme we are all watching.

So, #Isitok? Yes, I think it is. In fact, I’d be lost without it and if you don’t want to engage with people online while watching TV, the answer is simple – turn your phone off.

Ends.

Food for thought – are retailers missing the point?

Posted on January 16, 2015 by Lindsey Davies

Barely a day goes by without another news item or broadcast bulletin referring to a supermarket chain either announcing profit warnings, staff redundancies or commonly another price war. I’ve thought about this a lot recently and I can’t help but think that these retailers are missing the point.

Let me explain. I have been a fan of the discounters for some time – in fact years, as I used to manage the PR for Netto. It’s fair to say that the brand didn’t have the best reputation for quality but consumers at the time were misguided; the produce was fresh but we were less accepting of foreign imports.

Then we hit hard times when the recession took hold in 2008 and suddenly the car parks of discounters looked like a high end car showroom. People began to realise that actually you could rely on these stores for your weekly shop and save money.

I am a huge fan of the #Lidlsurprises campaign and can’t fault the PR team for the creative yet simple way that they have shared their message with the masses. The press event which invited journalists and celebrities to a champagne reception with all the glamour you would expect only to then reveal it was all produce from Lidl was inspired. Follow this up with the same concept for a Christmas advert, keeping the messaging simple… well, what can I say, a great example of PR done well.

Anyway, I digress, but the point is that these campaigns make sense to me. They are consistent, engaging, surprising and real. It’s not about money it’s about adding value, giving the consumer something they didn’t expect – like lobster at Christmas and a selection of high quality wines to match seasonal produce.

What I don’t understand is the ongoing bickering that comes with price wars. There is no doubt that consumers are price conscious but I can’t help thinking that retailers need to take a step back. Consumers want good value, not cheap produce. They want variety and provenance – a balance between every day and speciality.

What we get is bread for pennies and milk which costs less than water! Not only is this unnecessary but it’s become a playground fight, only the retailers seem not to have noticed that they have made the consumer a disinterested bystander.

PR is all about reputation, which should be built around values. All I can see from retailers at the moment is ever decreasing costs and a battle, which to all intense and purpose communicates that they are in fact not focusing on the consumer at all but instead on their competitors.

It’s like being back at school; he said this, so I did that…

What the retailers should be doing, in my humble opinion, is looking at how they can add value. Many of them have magazines now, which are great. They are helpful, interesting, well written and appealing to the demographic but what more could they do?

ASDA launched Mums Eye View, a YouTube channel which invites vloggers to share their thoughts on products stocked in the store. Great idea; captivating and interesting content that consumers can access and better still engage with and share.

So how come so few people know about it? Rather than attracting ASDA customers, the vloggers seem to be sharing their message with their own audience, which in most instances doesn’t fit the demographic profile of an ASDA shopper.

The retailer could have done more with this platform to integrate digital with ‘real life’ further extending the engagement. Having a shopper booth at larger outlets which asks customers to give two minute reviews of their favourite ‘must have’ items would be one suggestion but instead the platform seems to be a huddle of vloggers raising their profile and doing what they do best – talking to their audience.

And so, I come back round to taking a step back.

The marketing strategy of retailers needs to start with their values and evolve to the customer journey, making sure that every shopper has an experience online and in store that they can share positively with their friends and family.

Convenience is going to continue to drive the market, as people have less time and no longer commit to a weekly shop, but retailers need to think about brand loyalty. How will they get consumers through the door and most importantly encourage them to become regular visitors without relying entirely on price.

The other point to consider, which should be fundamental to any business with a conscience, is the suppliers. Retailers may feel that driving prices down has a positive impact on consumers but what about the suppliers, the reduction needs to come from somewhere and it certainly isn’t the stores.

These leading supermarkets need to stop and think. The impression they are giving is not positive. I don’t want a local farmer to go out of business because despite supplying the leading retailers the margins have been squeezed so tight he can’t make ends meet.

Provenance is still a trend and is something that consumers have come to expect but I find it interesting that ‘Farmer Smith’ from ‘a farm somewhere near you’ isn’t quoted on pack saying ‘I won’t have a holiday this year because once again you have demanded I lower my margin to meet with your demands, allowing you to offer my produce at 10p less than your competitor’.

Things need to change and until one of the leading supermarket chains stands back and becomes a value based brand with a real conscience the playground scrapping is simply going to continue.

OPEN CLEAN UP WITH ASTONISH(ING) WIN

Posted on November 21, 2014 by Lindsey Davies

Ok, we know the headline is a little cheesy but you can’t blame us with such exciting news to share. Believe me, corks would be popping if we were your typical champagne quaffing agency… but then we’d get nothing done, so we’ll keep it to a blog and a few cheeky team drinks.

So, back to business, we are really excited to announce that here at Open Communications we have added a further client to our extensive portfolio following our appointment as preferred lead PR and marketing communications agency for Astonish, the UK top ten cleaning brand.

We will be working with another local team, Statement, to devise and implement an annual communications and social media plan for the business focusing on engagement, reach and penetration into households throughout the country. Creative is well underway for a series of campaigns that will uplift activity throughout the next twelve months with the objective to raise the profile of the brand and reinforce its strong heritage and cruelty free credentials, along with its value for money and quality proposition.

We are always keen to share our news – it would be strange for a PR agency not to – and more so the feedback from our clients.

Head of Marketing for Astonish Cleaning Products, Katy Clark said: “We have big plans for Astonish over the next twelve months and beyond; as a result we wanted to work with agencies that would share our passion for our product range. We have some great news and exciting plans to share and we know that Open Comms and Statement will assist us in doing just that.”

Astonish is a successful, ambitious and growing brand. As a British manufacturer with a rich heritage we are very excited to be working with the team to meet with their objectives. Astonish is a great addition to our growing portfolio of clients that require a full PR programme of activity to cover consumer, trade, corporate and social media support. It’s great to see that once again our straight talking, realistic approach to the brief meant that we could hit the ground running and get to work.

Plans are underway for the launch of the first creative campaign for the brand, which will focus on its success to date and will rely on social media, managed content, corporate, consumer and trade PR activity. Watch this space, there is lots of exciting news to share from Astonish and we hope to do a sparkling job for them! Sorry, couldn’t resist.

COALFIELDS CALLS UPON OPEN FOR PR SUPPORT

Posted on July 14, 2014 by Lindsey Davies

The Coalfields Regeneration Trust, the organisation dedicated to providing support, guidance and funding for people living within former mining towns and villages, has appointed Open Communications as its preferred PR and marketing communications agency covering England.

Working closely with the team from England at the Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Open Communications is tasked with raising the profile of the organisation both within the communities and to a national audience, securing coverage in relevant regional, national and trade media and supporting with social media activity and marketing communications.

Following a trial period of three months, the Coalfields Regeneration Trust has already experienced the results that Open Communications can achieve when working as an extension of its team. Achieving an audience reach of more than 8 million with a recent story, the agency now looks forward to building on successes to date and its productive relationship with the charity.

Head of Social Investment at Coalfields Regeneration Trust, Andy Lock said: “We had been in need of effective PR support for some time and approached Open for an informal discussion as we had heard good things about them. It was clear from this meeting that their philosophy and no nonsense approach to PR matched our aspirations and objectives.

He adds: “Open has very quickly established itself as an extended part of the operation, getting to know us and what makes us tick and translating this into impactful PR which is delivering great results. Their insightful input has challenged our preconceptions about `what works’. We are always impressed with their hard working ethic and commitment to go the extra mile to get the job done.”

Director of Open Communications, Lindsey Davies said: “We always work with our clients as opposed to for them, this means that we can add extra value to the service we offer. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust is a fantastic organisation and we are very much looking forward to developing our relationship further as we continue to support them with PR, social media and marketing communications.”

Open Communications, the straight talking PR and marketing communications agency, was launched by Lindsey Davies and Emma Lupton in 2008. The business, which is RAR approved and was named as one of the Top Agencies outside of London, has since grown and is commissioned by a range of brands from family run businesses to multi-national household names.

Based at Nostell Priory Estate Yard, the agency now manages the PR and social media activity for companies including POM-BEAR, the teddy shaped snack brand; Paragon, the print and document management service provider; Xamax, the branded clothing specialist and HARIBO, the UK’s leading gums and jellies brand.

Social media policy, why bother?

Posted on January 14, 2014 by Lindsey Davies

It would be slightly strange as a PR agency if we put restrictions on the use of social media in our office. As we access so many tools including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube on a daily basis, the team would find it rather restricting if we put a cap on the time they were able to spend monitoring and updating these sites.

I don’t think our clients would be too happy either; knowing that although they rely on us to provide recommendations in relation to the management of their content online that we were limiting the time and sites that the team could access.

The same principle cannot be applied to other businesses however and that is why I feel it is so important that companies put in place a social media policy as opposed to blanket restrictions or bans, which limit or at worst refuse access to these tools during working hours.

Why not keep it simple and stop access altogether?

Many companies feel that if they stop people accessing the sites during working hours then the problem would be solved. Wrong.

All that will do is encourage people to use their phones, which will allow them to access the tools that they want to anyway, which in turn is likely to distract them for longer. This approach also sends out a clear message that as employees of the business they are not trusted.

How can you trust someone to support the running of your business yet not consider that they are able to make appropriate decisions when it comes to their use and access of social media tools? If you feel that you are unable to trust the team that you have around you to use these tools during allocated times or to reference the company appropriately then the problem isn’t with social media, it’s with staffing.

How could giving access to social tools possibly benefit my business?

Social media has become a recognised and valuable resource for people and if used correctly can be an asset to a business. The difference is how people choose to use the tools that they have access to. If for example, a person goes on Facebook to like the posts that their friends have put on their wall that is one thing but if they were to use Twitter to monitor thoughts on a given subject this could have a huge impact on a campaign or provide greater insight into an industry debate resulting in interesting content that could be shared with the wider team.

Many social tools are now used as search engines or for research purposes. They give great indication into sector specific activity and provide up to date announcements on industry topics and worldwide news.

Tools such as Twitter are also really useful when gaging general consensus on a given subject. Despite what some people may think Twitter isn’t all about reality TV shows, celebrity wannabes and sharing obscure hashtags with people you have never met.

Take the budget as an example. Many influential business people use twitter and it is a great resource for finding out people’s views quickly. With subjects like the budget you can determine what sectors will see the greatest impact of a given decision and how this could in turn affect your industry. You can also follow the media on Twitter, which provides you with a real time news feed that evolves throughout the day. You can’t pay for that kind of insight.

Social media isn’t relevant to my industry

We hear this a lot when we start to work with clients until we explain what tools can be used for. Again it isn’t all about sharing pictures on the beach. Some companies will not gain great value from Facebook and others can see no benefit in Twitter, so don’t use them – but don’t discard all other platforms in doing so.

LinkedIn is a growing and popular tool amongst serious business people and can lead to some very interesting connections that you would otherwise be unlikely to make.

With LinkedIn the basic principle is that you ‘link’ with others that you know or have done business with in the past. The idea was that you wouldn’t get illicit requests and that if someone wanted to connect with you who didn’t know you, then other contacts could forward an invitation.

What is great about LinkedIn is that it has groups, discussions, news updates and personal profiles. Better still you can use the platform to share your own news with your connections, in turn keeping them up to date with the changes in your business or career.

Sharing information on LinkedIn is a great way to drive traffic to your website and to share your updated content online using business pages. Not only can you provide people with an insight into your organisation but also position your business as a market leader.

So what about this social media policy?

Having a social media policy in place means that everyone knows where they stand. It is a guide that can be referred to and used to provide employees with the do’s and don’ts of social media for business.

Due to the nature of some businesses, such as those within the legal sector, it can be difficult to allow employees to update their social feeds with any information from their working day as confidentialities and cases could be called into question if they were to do so.

Mindfulness is something that needs to be spelt out in a world that is increasingly digital. Some people don’t realise that what they are tweeting or sharing has the capacity to go viral and that it could be sent to a recipient that it wasn’t originally intended for.

This is why a social media policy can be the difference between online media positively impacting on a business and a potential crisis situation, which could secure headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Ideally a social media policy should give some direction; it should let employees know if they are allowed to use their own Twitter of Facebook accounts for business and if they are required to add a line to their profile stating that their views are their own.

It should also give updates on any social media activity that is carried out for the business and what implications making unsubstantiated claims about the company online could have. As an example, would sharing confidential information be a sackable offence or constitute a warning?

Although social media can be a scary medium to consider, when you think that it is a global platform to share your musings with, if used correctly, it can lead to great things and can raise the profile of a business to a relevant and respected audience.

Here at Open Communications we work with our clients to create social media policies that fit with their business. Like many things, one size does not fit all when it comes to social media and although we advise our clients to be overly sensitive in the first stages, what this does is provide them with a starting point and something that they can use that will evolve over time.

It’s certainly not all bad news when you consider social media policies. Having a simple document in place can empower your team to share the best stories you have with a relevant and receptive audience. You may even find that someone in the team is particularly passionate about a given subject and that they would like to share their thoughts and generate a positive debate, which in turn positions the business as best in class.

Generating content online in this way and sharing it can be hugely powerful and when used correctly social media tools can and do bring great benefits to a brand and business but don’t leave it to chance. Work with an agency that can give you guidance and will take the time to work with you to create a policy that will suit you and your team.

One size doesn’t fit all

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Lindsey Davies

When you work in PR you quickly recognise that one size does not fit all when it comes to campaign planning. For a start the audience for every client will differ slightly – you can always use less defined targets such as men, women, geographical location or demographic but being more specific means that we are able to meet with the objectives set by the brands we work with.

What is also important is the medium that we choose to engage with. Not every campaign will rely on all channels and I’ve seen a few frightening examples recently where agencies have mismatched the campaign and the medium. Sometimes it’s best to do one thing really well than lots of things badly.

There is a strange attitude within the industry at the moment with some agencies believing that everything needs to be shared across social media channels and I simply don’t agree. There are some campaigns that sit better on radio, or within printed media – not everything has to feature on Facebook, twitter, Pinterest or YouTube to get results and engagement.

It seems to me that agencies are pitching social media as a sexy alternative to other mediums and rather than tailoring a campaign around a preferred medium, ideas are being shoe-horned to fit social channels.
I think it’s time that we all took a step back and went back to basics.

When we work with brands at Open Communications we look at the following; audience, media consumption, ideas, strongest recommendations. Ok, so it’s not brain surgery but if you use the same process you are likely to get a campaign that is fit for purpose and delivers a return on investment, which at the end of the day is what you pay an agency for!