Don't Panic

I headed to London on the opening day of the G20 summit (and tried to avoid the protests) as I listened to how some of the country's leading PR experts and brands in the country use social media.

The event was held in the Barbican, a superb venue. Between speakers, I enjoyed wandering around, admiring the architecture and the beautiful conservatory, which was full of plants and had its own aviary. As a designer, I find the big concrete lump strangely inspirational. Add in a few helicopters and lot of police and protesters and the whole experience was invigorating (especially after ending up stuck between four police blockades).

And so to business. For those who are short on time and can't read all this article, I will make it easy for you by highlighting the key points. If they catch your attention, read on, where I expand the themes. If you have any questions on any of the topics, feel free to get in touch with me.

The speakers

Mark Borkowski, Founder of Borkowski Stuart Bruce, MD, Wolfstar Steven Davies, MD, 3w PR Craig Elder, Online Comms Editor for The Conservative Party Graham Goodkind, Chairman, Frank PR Marshall Manson, Digital Director, Edelman UK Mark Payne, Head of Press and PR, West Midlands Police Simon Wakeman, Head of MArketing, Medway Council Robin Wilson, Director of Digital PR and Social Media, McCann Erickson

Key features of the event

We were taken through the implementation of online tools and applications which can be easily used to communicate with your audience, focusing on Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, rich content and forums.

Case studies which showed how using these tools had created successful campaigns.

The strategies required to get the most from these tools and how to implement them on varying scales.

How to measure campaigns, find the relevance, understand the outcomes and importantly, how to link to return on investment.

My Interpretation

The speakers were, on the whole, early adopters of all these key online tactics and have successfully integrated what many people still see as “extras” into their standard marketing tool kit. Rather than looking at these things as NEW media, the best speakers identified that communicators and marketeers should look at social media as, at its simplest, just another channel of communication. Furthermore, there is evidence to support the claim that these channels were controllable, measurable and, if used wisely, highly effective.

No longer do brands have to speak through TV and print media to communicate with their audiences. The best case studies showed how, if organisations employ social media tactics that put them face-to-face with their customers, they can develop a far more personal relationship and become a trusted partner or source of information.

Many speakers added a warning note: if you commit to making these connections with your target audience, be prepared to take the rough with the smooth. Sooner or later you will meet someone who does not see things the way you do and/or your brand does and disagreements or even confrontations are possible. That being said, my own experience shows that even bad press from forum comments or blogs can be turned into an opportunity to speak to your customer and put things right. With your new, more life-like connection, you can talk to them, find out what is the matter and sort it out quickly.

A well-known example of this was what happened at DELL. Its profits plummeted after being repeatedly slated by a technical blogger whose opinion was highly respected in the technical community. After initially ignoring him and his blog, Dell realised the best way forward was to invite him in, listen to what he had to say and then deal with all the points he raised. The company immediately shot up in the estimation of the blogger's community and later profited from his now A* report of a company which was willing to really listen to its customers and act on their suggestions.

The word which really gets to the heart of the day is CONVERSATION. This is all the noise and chatter that good online marketing can create (and exists through the millions of users that converse with each other every day).

If you bring out a product, it is important to monitor all online channels. By really monitoring the tone, the subject and the frequency of people commenting on your product you can learn a huge amount. It not only gives you a better profile of your customer but you can also react much faster to any problems, questions or praise and improve the standing of your brand. Previously, focus groups, research and questionnaires were used to gather profiling information. Using these social media tools, the keen marketeer can now track and measure how the online community feels about a brand all the time, rather than taking a snapshot or series of snapshots and can therefore work on the same level as the customer - at the same time.

Measurement is vital. You have to be able to justify the time and effort required to do this work and to have these conversations. Measurement can be both a lot more simple than you think (but can also get very advanced indeed).

A great tip for any newcomers, made by Robin Wilson of McCann Erickson, was to start by using some free tools. These include HowSociable, Technorati, BoardTracker and Twitter (see the base of this story for some links). He also spoke about paid-for measurement tools such as Radian6 and Market Sentinel. The idea is you use these tools to monitor how many people are talking about your company, your product, your industry and any influencing subjects. You can then use any dashboard device like Goggle's and set up RSS feeds so all the information is displayed live on your screen and in one place. In other words, it's your brand's very own barometer of chatter.

A great deal of emphasis was placed on showing how integrating e-PR into traditional PR plans can make a difference to your work. Use it from the start and it will add value to your campaign, rather than take it way. I spoke to a lady from a council who asked me about how she could use these e-PR tactics in her role. Like most councils, some of the comments they get from the public are bound to be negative. It is inevitable that they will have to make unpopular decisions (or at least decisions which are unpopular to a section of the community) at some point. So how can she use e-PR and traditional PR methods to help her?

Here's an example. By integrating e-PR into a traditional PR plan she could constantly monitor conversations either covertly or overtly, giving her huge insight into what her community is saying. She could even ramp up research at times when she felt there are issues, or events needing special attention. By doing this, a press office can track conversations, blogs, discussion forums and keep abreast of the general mood. It can talk to people through their own uncensored channels and best of all, can issue traditional releases and comments into the media that strike a real chord with the public mood, making their messages more effective.

Other memorable examples included:

Mark Borkowski, who showed us how Wispa chocolate bars were relaunched with, well, just a whisper. No big ads, just hard work generating an online buzz. By the time of the actual launch, the story had already been picked up by the media who were then clamouring to be given information by the agency - instead of the other way round. There was no hard sell-in and all because SO MANY people were talking about it.

West Midlands Police, with their “PLODCASTS” and PCTV and use of Bluetooth localised broadcasts, (a device that, once set up, will message every phone with bluetooth enabled - they use this for marketing and also investigation of crime. For example, if there was a murder in a bar, they would leave the device there for three days, asking for information) showed that even the most seemingly institutionalised organisation can make use of these tried-and-tested communications tactics. The Force is even finding its feet with Twitter.

Frank PR delivered a series of good examples of day-to-day implementation of social media such as Lenny Henry and npower (lightbulb jokes), Nell McAndrew's naked Race for Life campaign and a great campaign for Brylcreem.

All in all, the main things I will take away from the day are that for all the terminology and buzz words, most of the examples involved a mix of writing, video, sound work, ads and digital work. In short, the best examples of work were integrated campaigns, where the planner and strategist had looked at all angles.

The most useful speakers of the day opened everyone's eyes to the importance of clients getting involved in the process and not standing back. Agencies are best-placed to look at things objectively and work out the strategy but in order for any campaign to work effectively, the client has to commit in terms of measuring conversations, talking to and listening to their market - and remembering to act fast, should any issues be raised. Most importantly, I feel a lot more confident in justifying development time and the costs associated with this sort of work. Anyone can track the ROI of a campaign and, using some of these tools, can now make sure any digital communications work undertaken is far more efficient and profitable for the client.

A big thank you to the Don't Panic team, the speakers and the people who I shared conversations with on the day.