By now it’s a mantra for PR executives and social media gurus everywhere. Listen…learn…engage. Certainly no quibbling here with that advice. But while you’re quietly, unobtrusively monitoring Facebook, Twitter, blogs and forums, there’s another strategy you should be thinking about and deploying: creating and sharing compelling content via digital platforms.
After all, what’s the reason for listening, learning and engaging if you’re not building up your brand and reputation through relevant content? But, says Russell Sparkman, president and CEO of FusionSpark Media, which produces content for smaller companies and nonprofits, a number of organizations he’s dealt with have little knowledge of leveraging content via social media and Web sites. “Based on what I’m seeing, people are only now just beginning to get it in terms of what quality content can mean to their need to reach out and attract an audience,” says Sparkman.
CONTENT DEEP DIVE
It’s a strategy that has worked for Kathleen Byars, marketing/communications director at Florida-based Dive Rite, which sells specialized SCUBA gear for advanced divers. “Content is critical. Three years ago we hadn’t thought the content piece through,” she says. “You’ve got to bring people to your site to learn about your brand.” And the way to do that? Compelling content, she says.
And, says Byars, it’s not just about content around its products. To the contrary, while DiveRite.com is clearly product driven, the digital PR/content synergy has changed the way the company communicates with the public. “In pointing people to our content, we’ve created a community,” says Byars.
And that community is fed content that it craves, including:
• Dive Rite TV—how-to videos linked to YouTube
• Diving adventures—written by expert divers from around the world
• A blog that provides updates on the latest gear and issues within the diving community
• A cave-diving historical timeline that positions Dive Rite as a pioneer of the activity
This community is, in essence, executing Dive Rite’s communications by itself. For example, there are several online dive forums through which Dive Rite’s news and content are often discussed—with no prompting from the company.
“Incredibly, once you plant this content ‘garden,’ it starts to bear fruit, and you watch as your community begins doing the marketing for you,” says Byars. “They announce new information to each other, support each other’s endeavors, give honest feedback and encourage camaraderie around our brand.”
The ultimate result? “We now hear people saying, ‘I’m a Dive Rite diver,’” says Byars.
To put Dive Rite’s content strategy into further context, for the past three years the company has spent very little on traditional advertising, and has done very little in terms of “traditional” PR outreach (press releases, etc). Yet, Dive Rite has recaptured its position as the pioneering manufacturer of technical dive gear, and has done this during a very deep recession.
ROCK-SOLID CONTENT
Meanwhile, another company of a very different ilk is also bucking the recession and a crisis of its own, in part because of PR’s emphasis on content. Prudential Financial, which has been weathering the economic crisis, uses content in its online newsroom as much for reputation as for the media and other stakeholders.
Because financial regulations still make direct social media outreach dicey, Prudential deploys a reverse approach, allowing its newsroom content to be picked up and distributed via a number of digital ways, including social media.
The content, which includes feature articles on key consumer issues, white papers, videos on community involvement and audio and video podcasts with key executives, was critical in getting Prudential through the roughest part of the crisis, says Bob DeFillippo, the company’s chief communications officer.
One key content commonality with Dive Rite’s approach: “It’s got to be genuine, and not commercially oriented,” says DeFillippo. “We’re not talking about how great our annuity products are—it’s the need to save for retirement instead.”
That approach has yielded impressive numbers of unique newsroom visitors: 13,083 in February and 12,341 in March.
How effective is the newsroom as a reputation builder? “We recently discovered the newsroom listed as a trusted source of information by Nielsen,” says Deborah Meany, Prudential’s VP of global communications.
Even with that stellar result, the PR team is not resting on its content laurels. Meany says an opinion section is now in the works, and a Prudential-branded online newspaper is not far behind.
BEST INVESTMENT
Want to concentrate more on your own content creation? Sparkman says to consider these points:
1. Anybody can publish, and that this provides unprecedented opportunities to build and engage with a community around a product, service or cause.
2. Realize that content isn’t just king—it’s gold. It’s an investment in an asset that will pay dividends in terms of brand awareness, lead generation, media attention and product sales over the long term.
3. For better content insight, Get Content, Get Customers by Joe Pulizzi, or Content Strategy for the Web by Kristina Halvorson, are good starting points. PRN
CONTACT:
Russell Sparkman, [email protected]; Kathleen Byars, [email protected]; Deborah Meany, [email protected].