Can’t Social Media and PR Just Get Along?

The following is a guest post by David Barkoe, traditional PR guy with some thoughts & questions for the rest of us:

As social media has grown into it’s position of prominence, many in the PR world have begun draw a line in the sand between social media and traditional media.

Social media is a special breed that has to be treated differently and PR firms have to market their social media skills separately from their traditional media relation’s skills.

My question is…. why?

Hasn’t social media (blogs, social networking sites, etc.) achieved such prominence and become so ubiquitous that social media is on the same side of the line as traditional media (newspapers, magazine, broadcast and radio)?

Doesn’t social media align itself perfectly with the classic definition of public relations (communicating with the public via the media)? It’s pretty safe to say that the public are powering the blogosphere.

Authenticity is the word most associated with social media. You have to be authentic when venturing into the blogosphere, whether you a citizen, a corporation, a PR firm or even an advertiser/marketer.

But what most people don’t realize is that the word most associated with traditional media is also Authenticity. The first rule of traditional PR is “don’t lie to reporters” and the second rule is “check your facts.” Essentially, in fewer words, that means be authentic.

So if social media is now so prominent and so reliant on authenticity, why not bring social media under the realm of public relations?

MacWorld Rumors Roundup

We’ve rounded up the freshest links to MacWorld rumors and truthiness, enjoy!

Finalizing iTunes deal with major music studios

iPhone roundup

Slingplayer mobile coming to iPod Touch

Netflix

Leaked Keynote?

Apple Facing High Expectations

Rabbits out of Steve’s Hat

Wired Claims Last Minute Update to MacBook Air

[data via Collective Intellect]

CES Buzz Tracked in Social Mediasphere

The folks over at Collective Intellect did again with their social media monitoring– tracking CES topics across social media (rumor is that their tracking MacWorld too) and offer great insight into the most buzzed about topics:

Vital vs Viral

The hype of viral video, viral applications, viral media and viral thisandthat was deafening in 2007.
A recent study by Deloitte & Touche confirmed consumer appetite for viral content with nearly 70% of all Internet users consuming UGC. Every brand is now chasing viral glory–to mostly dismal results because:

• Authenticity is difficult to replicate (especially for marketers)
• Brands are competing with their customers for attention
• Viral content is episodic
• Reach is not an accurate measure
• Hype or buzz (prospects) is not equal to word-of-mouth (customers)
• Viral is often cute and funny rather than the meaningful and utilitarian

VITAL must become the new viral in 2008.
Instead of viral content, which is episodic and largely untested, VITAL content is a commitment to building a sustainable relationship with users by sharing content authentically and consistently. VITAL content is part of every aspect of your marketing and communications.

Vital content is one-to-one. Vital content is measurable.
For anyone tired of the question, “can we create a viral video” instead of “how do we engage our audiences via social media,” here are a few tips on creating a vital content strategy.

• Begin by mapping your audience segmentation to actual online communities (a demographic is not a community on the Internet)
• Identify the mavens within each of these communities by influence, popularity and relevance
• Inventory and create shareable assets by speaking to community leaders—learn from your influencers
• Distribution (sharing) is equally and (counter-intuitively) as important as production.
• Tone can matter as much as content
• Measure campaigns by influence, not reach
• Don’t try to sell, try to share
• Keep hype and word-of-mouth in balance

The reality of social media is that you are ceding (or sharing) control of your brand, because your customers are not only consuming your media, but also making their own. Buzz from viral content is ephemeral, but word-of-mouth from VITAL content is sustainable.

Shut Up and Listen

A new Deloitte & Touche study offers insight into what many of us in the social media space already know: people don’t just consume media, they increasingly create and share their own:

Rise of the Personal Broadcaster

• 32% of consumers actually consider themselves to be a “broadcaster” of their own media
• 45% are creating personal content for others to see (up 11 points from our 1st edition)
• 54% are increasingly making their OWN entertainment (up 14 points from our 1st edition)
• 69% of consumers are watching/listening to content created by others (up 17 points from our 1st edition)

As consumers are increasingly in control of the media they consume- what, how, and when- communications strategies within social media must reflect the fact that consumers do not want to be influenced or sold to. They want to be engaged, and they want to be engaged authentically.

For brands, this data reflects an increasing need for greater intelligence on what is (or is not) being broadcast about them in the social mediasphere. Tracking and monitoring social media has become essential to brand strategy online; Collective Intellect, among others, provides in-depth analysis of topics across all social media. While tracking is important, the other critical part of the equation is executing against that intelligence in a meaningful, non-controlling way. Sometimes your best social media strategy is not coming up with the best, most virally-hyped idea, but rather its tapping into the wealth of insight that consumers so freely offer online. There is huge opportunity in social media to tap into consumer opinion, and in turn, improve your overall marketing, communication, and product development strategies– you just have to shut up and listen.

The New Old Lexicon

Lexicon is always tricky in emerging fields.

Last week I had three meetings with three companies seeking essentially the same service, but each used different terminology to ask for it.

The corporate communications person is interested in social PR.
The online marketer wants social media marketing.
The traditional marketer seeks buzz marketing.

What they all want is a way to engage their customers and influencers directly.  In each case our recommendation revolves around authentic one-to-one communication based on sharing original, compelling content.  Of course, everyone wants the campaign to be viral and measurable.

In truth we have been using the terms interchangeably, and mistakenly…

Social PR is its own field, in which conversations often substitute for placements, and the base for communication remains still informational, rather than content-driven.  It is less viral, and aimed at influencers, not individuals.

Social Media Marketing appears to be gaining traction with the inside-baseball Twitter crowd, but I have always felt a little uncomfortable coupling social media =  individuals publishing and sharing authentically with each other + marketing. The nomenclature feels a trifle exploitative.

Buzz marketing is flat-out-wrong in my estimation, because Buzz (prospects) is the yin to the yang of word-of-mouth (people that have sampled the experience, product).  If Buzz is out-of-whack to Word-of-Mouth, you have a potential crisis. And well, Buzz always seems a little insincere to me, whereas word-of-mouth is the single most important factor in the success of marketing.

Having started my first social-buzz-pr-word-of-mouth-online-thingamajig in 1993, I am properly wary of categories in general.  The main point is that any nomenclature that creates a distance from its traditional category is doomed to have a shelf-life. Ultimately, social media becomes media becomes marketing becomes PR becomes advertising.  Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.