Part 3 of a 3-part series
Once a business has its content plan of
attack in place, the next step is driving those details out to the target
audience, in hopes that audience members will then drive it out further through
their own channels.
But how does a brand know where its
consumers are looking?
In his article, referenced in Part one of this series, Odden explains, “In the
same way marketers segment customer data to create profiles that reflect key
data about information discovery, consumption and what motivates action, so too
can PR professionals approach content creation.
“Time on social media and search engines
means being where the target audience is looking, whether it’s a buyer looking
for a solution or a journalist looking for statistics or a story source.”
The key, he says, is creating and
optimizing content that’s useful on “in demand” and relevant topics. “A big
part of optimizing performance is to be useful and make it easier for your target
audience to do what you want them to do.”
Odden believes any or all of the
following steps will help a brand’s cause:
- Social listening
- Social content creation
- Social engagement
- Social ads
- Grow networks on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and forums as necessary.
In the
article PR is the engine of content marketing (2014), Aspectus PR points out, the growth
and technical development of social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter
and LinkedIn has made it ever easier for people to connect with businesses and
develop ongoing relationships. “There is no point in simply throwing up an
article on a site and hoping for the best. Driving that article through social
media channels is what makes the difference between it being seen by a handful
of people and being picked up and passed on by tens of thousands.
“If you’ve got a great idea then you need to
get it out there through every channel and in every form available to you.”
Siân Gaskell, a writer with U.K. online
news publication, The Guardian, agrees that PR teams should embrace new
technological tools to ensure their content marketing succeeds across
multi-platforms.
“In today's multi-platform,
socially-dominated world, content marketing is here to stay,” Gaskell writes in
an article entitled, What content marketing means
for the PR industry (2014). “The PR
industry needs to ensure that they are not sidelined and retain that custodian
of content status by taking advantage of the tools and resources available.
Content is our bread and butter, but embracing new technology will only stand
us in good stead. Using the earned media from a PR campaign can help support
the attainment of a client's or brand's business objectives – whether that is
raising awareness, driving traffic to a site, generating sales of a product or
service or simply building brand loyalty via deeper engagement.
“The
savviest of PR teams are doing just this - using content marketing tools to
ensure that this output is made to work harder across multi-platforms.”
Building community
Martin Waxman, a Toronto-based
digital/social media/communications expert and executive vice of Thornley
Fallis, sums this up in an article entitled, OLD PR VERSUS NEW PR (2013), by saying, “…community management is the new PR.”
“If you think about traditional PR, it’s
been all about building and engaging a community (media) …Creating and alerting
them to stories that (hopefully) matter to them,” said Waxman, author of the
blog my PALETTE. “Community management is a natural evolution of PR with a few
key changes.”
According to Waxman, community management
is built on the following principles:
- Instead of focusing on one fairly homogenous community, PR experts now focus on many diverse ones.
- Instead of guarding relationships, they’ve become relationship builders and managers, able to recognize behavior, and what people want and need.
- Instead of pitching stories, they create stories that can be told across many platforms.
Digital PR do’s and don’ts
In his article, referenced earlier
in this report, Brendan Carter offers four guiding principles.
1. Don't underestimate owned media (content)
Or, as Carter puts it, “PR's importance
to a brand's owned content is growing thanks to content marketing.” In other
words, the more content is produced, the more opportunities there are to find
the right audience and share it – the very essence of PR.
“(PR) understands the brand's position in
the marketplace, where more thought-leadership is needed, and where the brand's
audience congregates to consume content,” he said.
2. Think like a publisher
When creating content that’s intended to
be shared with consumers, businesses need to put themselves inside the minds of
their clients. They need to ask themselves questions like, “Is this something I
would click on? Is this content I would share?” Similarly, PR departments and
agencies should think like their media counterparts in publishing – “What would
it take for me to run this story?”
“Just as consumers know a sales-pitch
when they see one, so do journalists and editors,” Carter said. “Switching
gears from self-serving press releases to pitching more compelling stories with
real insight and value for audiences can increase the success rate of your
placements, as well as building meaningful and lasting media relationships that
can be leveraged for future occasions.”
3. Push versus pull
The math is easy: owned media = push
marketing = intrusive; earned media = pull marketing = welcome.
“Pull marketing creates influence through
trusted content sources without the intrusion of the brand on the audience,”
Carter points out. “For this reason, amplifying earned media is effort
well-spent. Thanks to a number of content marketing tools and tactics, one
media story intended for a particular publisher can reach even more engaged audiences,
increasing the opportunity for organic amplification like sharing or an even
better media placement.”
4. Engagement matters
The following elements of a social media
release exemplify content marketing and set it apart from its distant cousin,
the traditional press release:
- They're often textual with a mix of multimedia assets that include hyperlinks to relevant content - not product pages or home pages
- Incorporate elements of design to help guide the reader's eye and make for a more pleasant reading experience
- They're primed for sharing, with embedded social sharing cues and buttons
Kenalty has
added a few tips of his own for good measure.
“We live in
a visual world – so give the world what it wants,” he said. “The more video,
imagery, clever captions and infographics you use to tell your story, the
better your chances of seeing your message spread like wild fire.”
Seeing is
believing – so don’t forget to keep an eye on your efforts, and compare them to
the efforts of others.
“Monitor the
conversations that are taking place with you, about you and around you,”
Kenalty said. “And be ready to jump in opportunistically. That goes back to
strategically planning your content. If you do it well, chances are you will
have a suitable pre-approved message for any conversation, no matter what turn
it takes. That in itself is great PR.”
This three-part series is accompanied by a slide deck, available on Slideshare.
