With online media moving at warp speed these days, it’s incumbent upon PR managers and directors to get the most out of their digital teams.
Gemma Craven, executive VP and group director of Social@Ogilvy (New York), will tackle some of the remedies during the session, “Building, Motivating and Managing Your Digital Dream Team” at PR News’ Oct. 16 Digital PR Summit. Below is a primer on how communicators can make a digital dream team more of a reality.
> Always inspire: We look at digital and social marketing programs from other brands, but also cool uses of technology and platforms in other industries and different countries, something we call “reverse innovation.” Set up a speaker program and invite a range of thinkers to come in and speak to teams.
> Ensure creative freedom: Provide a place where digital strategists can flex their digital muscles and experiment with building tools and technologies. This might be with a client, on a piece of pro-bono work, a personal side project or even teaching a class outside of work. By stimulating thinking in this way, it will automatically seep into all client work and prove to your team the value of digital.
> Award responsibility to a digital team member to lead the work, rather than adding a digital executive at the end of the process. This will ensure programs are digital first, scalable and ideas based, rather than tactical. This also avoids the “press-the-magic-digital-button” problem that companies tend rely on, but never results in the best thinking.
Looking for more effective ways to improve your digital team? Register for PR News' October 16 Digital PR Summit, which will take place at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.
Follow: Matthew Schwartz: @mpsjourno1