Executive Summary
PR News Social Media Summit
October 5, 2015— Marriott Marquis, New York City
The Social Media Summit was sponsored by BurrellesLuce and Cision.
Social Media Analytics, Part 1: How to Determine Which Data to Pull and Analyze
Johna Burke, EVP, BurrellesLuce
- Always start with a goal in mind before you measure, it will make your programs more nimble.
- Be inclusive with your different business units, it’s important to keep them in mind.
- If there is a click or a like and nothing happens after, does it really matter? Make sure you’re measuring the right KPIs.
- If you aren’t taking a holistic approach and applying it back against the other channels than you’re missing something.
- Priority tiers can help you focus on the most important channels.
- Data first and output second. Make sure you’re putting good data into your reports; garbage in, garbage out.
- Avoid chart-porn. If it doesn’t provide insight then don’t use it.
Jennifer Sunshine, Digital Channel & Communications Leader, GE Power & Water
- Take the time to fully understand what you’re trying to achieve. There are social conversations already happening about your brand. Engage potential business leads by joining conversations.
- Focus on a small win to gain traction in your organization. Take leads offline by giving an email and talking one on one. Social listening can lead to sales leads and PR can lead the charge.
- Refine all the time. Don’t think the first time you create a stream of conversations it will be 100 percent correct.
Tim Baker, Director of Digital Marketing & Acquisition, Amazon
- Develop your measurement strategy from the start—but be prepared to adapt.
- Don’t fall for fluff metrics. Engagement metrics are comments, shares, actions (sales and click-throughs), time on site, page views, repeat visits, bounce rate. Vanity metrics are follows, impressions, 3rd party page views and 3rd party visits.
- Be careful when using dashboards. They can be easily digested by senior leadership, provide a quick overview of the “brand health,” and are time saving. The draw back is they often lack context and are useless unless they provide quick access to deeper analysis.
- “The great thing about fact-based decisions is that they overrule the hierarchy.” —Jeff Bezos.
- Social media data should be a complement to your advertising, PR and marketing efforts.
Social Media Analytics Part 2: How to Get Insights from Data and Apply It to Communications Strategies
Nicole Moreo, Director, Research and Insights, Peppercomm
- Data is meaningless without context. Your social media data should tie into the larger picture. Social media doesn’t exist in a vacuum—work with your internal teams and clients.
- Beware of vanity metrics. Not everything needs to be analyzed, so choose wisely and always ask: What is the business goal? What other marketing platforms are being used? How can your data support the PR team as a whole?
- Remember that a data point is not an insight. Provide context and prescriptive strategies around it.
- Make your numbers tell the story by putting human insights into the data. Quality not quantity is the only important metric.
Nadia Goodman, Social Media Editor, TED
- Be data informed, not data driven. Using data in the creative process while developing content is essential, but it can easily lead you to create meaningless content. Being data informed leaves room for the human part of content creation, which is crucial to truly great content.
- If you want loyal readers, data has to come second to your intuition.
- You’re your first reader. Listen to your gut and if a piece of content isn’t inspiring in you the desired emotion, it won’t work for the reader either.
- Put yourself in the reader’s shoes. Imagine how they would feel when reading your content, where they would be and at what time.
- Make an educated guess as to why a post did or didn’t work, and test that hypothesis. Focus on when and why your audience would want to engage with a post.
- Know the most-searched terms people use to find your site and generate content ideas based on those topics.
- Dig into comment threads for new content ideas.
Brian Weber, Corporate Director for Public Engagement, Bright House Networks
- Figure out what your data is telling you. Are you “socially listening?” Are you telling the right story internally? Are you in the right place? Testing different headlines and photos can provide great insight about your audience.
- Apply analysis of your competitors’ data to your communications strategy. Keep track of what they’re doing so you know whether to respond of take the high road.
- Use data to find influencers who matter to your brand and go to bat for them. Ask yourself: when they do something, do other influencers care? Use this to find the influencers who influencer the influencers.
Emerging Platforms: Periscope and Live Streaming’s Application for Brands
Erika Kauffman, Partner, General Manager & Executive Vice President, 5WPR
- Videos work: Consumers download an average of 206 videos per month and video content has greater emotional intensity and more shares.
- Live streaming has the ability to offer your audience exclusive, unique coverage and allows them to give instant feedback.
- The downside is that there is no filter—the mic is always hot. Since these apps primarily work on smartphones, the production quality is usually lacking.
- The idea brands for Periscope those with celebrity and influencer endorsements, news organizations, athletes and action/thrill brands.
- Financial services, housing and real estate brands and highly confidential brands might want to steer clear of the medium. Or carefully plan and deploy the platform, all the benefits are still there, there’s just a greater risk.
- Three questions to ask yourself if you’re considering Periscope: Who can execute and maintain it? What will it replace? How about delayed ROI?
- Have patience and do a trail with Periscope and see how it works for your brand.
Mallory Perkins, Senior Manager of Digital Strategy, Walmart
- Before you start your stream, establish scripts and story boards, get FAQ documents approved to respond to live comments and check the Internet connection, lighting and sound.
- During the broadcast, be sure to set the scene properly, if you decide to move, do it slowly and steadily, watch the engagement of the audience for cues and keep the audience engaged by posing questions.
- After the stream remember to download the video, capture the broadcast’s stats, review who joined and watch and critique your work.
- Create measurable goals for your streams.
- Try adding emojis to the headline of the stream to stand out, as long as it fits your brand.
Luncheon Keynote Presentation: Hidden Behavior Cues That Boost or Bust Credibility
Kare Anderson, Columnist, Forbes and Huffington Post; Author, “Mutuality Matters”
- Share warmth before competence in your communications.
- Shutting up sooner and shutting up more is the key to really deep listening.
- To become top of mind, offer the most helpful tips, in the most helpful way, at the most helpful time.
- Your message needs interestingness.
- All messages should apply to “AIR” formula. A: actionable. I: interesting. R: relevant.
- Actionable insights are the future of social media. Get specific sooner.
- Attach your motto to something familiar.
- Become more quotable. When you are more quotable, you extend your impact.
Social Media and Customer Service
Heidi Sullivan, Senior VP & Product Lead, Content & E-Commerce, Cision
- 92 percent of people say they trust recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising.
- Customers who encounter positive social customer care experiences are nearly 3 times more likely to recommend a brand.
- Keep your customer responses consistent, and remember that positive feedback requires a response too.
- Companies with a social care program experience a 7.5 percent year-over-year increase in customer retention.
- Measure your share of voice, sentiment improvements, retention/conversion and your own specific KPIs.
Emerging Platforms: Is Snapchat Right for Your Audience?
Kathy Baird, EVP, Strategy and Social, Social@Ogilvy
- Stay up-to-date on what brands and organizations are doing on Snapchat. Stay alert for new features and advertising products that benefit your business.
- Decide on goals and objectives at the start. Clearly define what you want to get out of Snapchat.
- Consider activities beyond sales: existing and prospective employee engagement, internal communication and live events.
- If you take the plunge, cross-promote across your social media presence on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
- Learn from doing and don’t be afraid to experiment.
- Snapchat isn’t about capturing the traditional Kodak moment. It’s about communicating with the full range of human emotion—not just what appears to be pretty or perfect.
- 71 percent of users are between 18 and 34 years old and the average worldwide age is 25.
- Create stories, give access to live events, deliver private content, offer contests/perks/promotions, let users go behind the curtain and partner with influencers.
Case Studies: Successful Cross-Platform Audience Campaigns
Marissa Pick, Director of Social Media, CFA Institute
- 59 percent of executives would rather watch video than read text.
- Photos and video on Facebook generate 53 percent more likes than the average post.
- 60 percent of 50-60 year olds are active on social media. The fastest growing demographic on Twitter is the 55-64 year age bracket.
- Start with the simple understanding that social media is a forum. So three simple rules will help you stand out: Be interesting, be interested and be experimental.
- Your audience is going to tell you what they like, either explicitly or through analytics.
- Engage with other influencers on the network and build and audience.
- Members of your community may be easier to reach on social media than in person.
Jennifer Brain-Mennes, Director of Media and Public Relations, Post Foods
- Content is king: consumers not only engage with content for hours on end, they share it, blog about it, link to it and tweet about it.
- Dedicated strategy and real-time content are needed to stay relevant and authentic with consumers.
- Use continuous monitoring and personalized fun responses with consumers that are talking about your brand.
- Leverage paid media to enhance the brand story and reach core audience in an authentic environment.
- Leverage influencers and use organic integration of their Twitter, Instagram and Facebook pages to drive engagement and authentic storytelling.
Joshua Nafman, Senior Director, Brand Marketing & Digital/Social/Content, Kind Snacks
- Integrate with other departments within your organization to broaden and scope of your efforts.
- Social media without paid media isn’t all that social, so be sure your amplifying your message with paid posts.
- Social media doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Don’t forget about other marketing tools and make sure you’re doing everything you can to maximize your message.
- Don’t over plan: Reaction is as important as action.
- Remember to use video so you can make the most of the Instagram Facebook, Twitter and Google algorithms that put value in video.
Rob Robinson, Senior Social Media Specialist, Nissan North America
- Always retarget your videos.
- Use cross platform engagement.
- Integrate your efforts on a single campaign to larger, more long-term campaigns.
- Make your call to action simple.
Emerging Platforms: Messaging Apps to Watch—and Maybe Use for Your Brands
Katrina Klier, Global Managing Director of Digital Marketing and Communications, Accenture & Anastasia Lopez, Vice President of Social Media, PadillaCRT
- Messaging apps have now overtaken social media networks in terms of average monthly users.
- The demographics skew younger, but not exclusively so. They represent a truly international audience, but users don’t have any long-term loyalties to any particular app. They tend to jump around to whatever platform their friends are using.
- With these apps its important to follow tech news so you can keep up-to-date with new features and platforms to fully understand your creative options.
- Don’t get overwhelmed: let the best apps rise to the top, focus on user numbers and demographic information, pilot then fail fast or scale fast.
- Use messaging apps for group challenges, games, exclusive access, broadcasting to a group and e-commerce.
- Know what your audience is expecting and how often they want to hear from you. Messaging apps are unforgiving: you have more room to experiment but once you’re deleted, you’re gone forever.