SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS

Over the years social media has developed into a widespread world of its own. It has become an extremely valuable global market place for brands and as time has passed many more platforms have developed leaving a wide range of opportunities for brands/organisations to communicate with their stakeholders.

There are six main types of social media platforms the first being blogs which are primarily used to keep publics up to date on what a brand/organisation is doing. Blogs can either be self-hosted or part of an online blogging network such as blogger which has the added benefit of access to a pre-existing community. Blogs are arguably an essential aspect to PR practice in some sectors, for example fashion and beauty blogs have become extremely popular and many brands send products to bloggers in hope of gaining invaluable secondary recommendation through review.

Secondly there are micro-blogs, the most famous being Twitter which is used by a wide range of people globally on a daily, sometimes hourly basis to keep up-to-date with short-from news and content of the moment! Twitter is a great tool for listening to see what people are saying about a brand/organisation. It is also good for engaging with publics to build a brand as well as engagement in terms of customer services and directing people to the right communication channels rather than badmouthing about the issue on social media sites.

Thirdly there are social networks which are overlap features from other platforms for example one of the largest social networks is Facebook which includes aspects of micro-blogging in terms of ‘statuses’ and aspects from many other platforms for example internal messaging, discussion boards, groups, liking and blogging. Facebook is personal and has high levels of uptake across a great variety or publics globally thus it is a great platform for an over-arching social media presence. LinkedIn is another social network but is more about the ‘how to’ career based information sharing thus is particularly valuable to individual professionals and students but perhaps not best utilised by brands/organisations in terms of external communications. Nonetheless I do feel it can be useful for organisations to have a presence as it can be a convenient tool for aspects of internal communications and headhunting employees.

There are also other types of platforms which include social bookmarks, for example Stumble Upon, Digg and Pinterest, in which you can collect content which one finds useful or interesting. In my opinion Pinterest is about aspiration and is great for selling a brand story and image. However I do feel that this particular form of social media can be difficult for some organisations to utilise, yet Pinterest can be very valuable in certain sectors, for example in the fashion sector the use of Pinterest can allow for a brand to set themselves up as an opinion former in terms of what’s trending that particular season.

There are also video sharing sites are more for the ‘how to’, the most common being YouTube, which can be a great branding and broadcast tool. They are good for putting out content but there are also opportunities to increase engagement by asking stakeholders to submit videos. Video sharing sites can also be an invaluable tool for positioning brands/organisations as industry experts, for example Edelman do this very well by posting regular videos that position them as industry authority.

Finally there are image sharing sites which are mainly for things that are ‘in the moment’ just like Twitter but in a visual context. It can be used to encourage participation from stakeholders for example sharing photos from an event or using a product. This can be good in the beauty sector in terms of before and after images and general photos of publics using the products. One of the latest and most popular photo sharing sites is Instagram.

All in all each social media platform has differing opportunities for communications across a variety of sectors thus not all platforms are appropriate for all organisations. However I personally feel that to one of the main aspects of social media is generating traffic to raise brand awareness and engagement, therefore many organisations may see benefits from consistent, ethical and carefully planned content on the two most popular social networking sites of the time, currently Facebook and Twitter.

 

SOCIAL AND NEW MEDIA: ESSENTIAL TOOLS

A report by the PRSA, ‘Examining How Social and Emerging Media Have Been Used in Public Relations Between 2006 And 2012: A Longitudinal Analysis’, has shown that usage of new media in the US has increased year-on-year since 2006.

With print in decline will PR become a completely digitalised practice eventually? In fact, is everything going to become digitalised to the point that pen and paper is alien to whole generations?

Respondents to the studies surveys have stated that they “firmly believe these new media have enhanced public relations practice, especially as it pertains to external audiences” (Wright & Hinson, 2012). Further results also indicated that many public relations professionals believe that emerging media as well as social media, are continuously improving in terms of “…accuracy, credibility, honesty, trust and truth telling” (2012, p. 15). Furthermore they also think that these new media methods can serve a watchdog role for “...traditional news media, impacting corporate and organizational transparency and advocating a transparent and ethical culture” (2012, p. 15).

So, social media is said to be improving transparency and advocating an ethical environment between organisations and their stakeholders which is an essential aspect to modern day business. However social media also flags up a whole new set of ethical issues that need to be taken into consideration and addressed before the organisation begins its online community. For example, PR practitioners may face issues with transparency, deception, manipulation and tension between their own personal voice and the organisations voice.  All in all I feel that for social media to be a success it needs to be handled correctly by a small team of people with strict guidelines and clearing stages to assure everyone is on the same page with what they want to achieve from the social media platform/s.

Wright, D. K. & Hinson, M. D., 2012. Examining How Social and Emerging Media Have Been Used in Public Relations Between 2006 and 2012: A Longitudinal Analysis, s.l.: PRCA.

SOCIAL MEDIA: 5 CHALLENGES & 5 OPPORTUNITIES

Social media has grown and grown over the past 10 years and is having a bigger impact than ever on all communication practices. Social media has given the consumer a voice that can be heard globally thus many social media platforms are dominated by user generated content.

FIVE CHALLENGES…

1.       If you have an issue all your stakeholders across the globe can find out within a few seconds! Many years ago it was easier to conceal issues to one area.

2.       Local news is can now become Global news within minutes!

3.       It has never been so easy to organise a protest (those involved in the London riots were using social media to communicate).

4.       Messages directly from an organisation are less effective as people are looking more to secondary recommendation which in turn allows anyone to undermine the messages you’re putting out.

5.       Topics are constantly changing and organisations must keep up with such instant changes to avoid being caught out.

Not only has social media created new challenges for brand to overcome, it has also developed widespread opportunity for brands and further creativity within digital worlds in their communications.

FIVE OPPORTUNITIES…

1.       There are no costly barriers to distributing messages via social media. Anyone with access to the internet has the ability to reach a potentially global audience at often no cost but time!

2.       Just as it’s easier to organise protest, social media also gives a great platform for forming advocacy.

3.       Great way to communicate with publics, listen to current trends emerging and see what they want! This also can build respect and loyalty between an organisation/brand and its publics.

4.       Keeping tabs on social media platforms can allow for organisations to nip any issues in the bud and redirect complaints which could be extremely damaging to their reputation.

5.       Allows for much quicker and easier evaluation than traditional media.

Social media is empowering people around the Globe!

We’ve become more informed, more powerful, more fragmented and better connected!

Can you feel the power at your fingertips?

HMV, SOCIAL MEDIA AND RATHER DISGRUNTLED EMPLOYEES…

Things do go wrong on social media and it’s not easy to ignore! Yes you can delete posts at the click of a button but who’s to say that someone hasn’t already screen grabbed the information and sent in in a viral manner across the globe and back?

On January 31^st HMVs disgruntled employees gained control of the corporate twitter feed (@hmvtweets). Bosses frantically tried to gain back control of the twitter account but only succeeded once the damage was done. Some of the tweets were as follows:

“We’re tweeting live from HR where we’re all being fired. Exciting!! #hmvXFactorFiring”

Minutes later…

“There are over 60 of us being fired at once! Mass execution of loyal employees who love the brand”

Employees went on to post a further six tweets before bosses finally blocked their access to the account! All of the unofficial tweets were promptly removed from the feed but of course, not before screen grabs had gone viral!

It’s great to see the iconic British brand trying to fight the storm and survive administration but ‘XFactorFiring’ does not make you look good guys! Have a bit more time for your staff- even when you’re firing them! Actually, especially when you’re firing them!

Walking on eggshells….?