In the current business environment, many brand managers treat three converging trends - Millennials as a purchasing group, the up-tiering of corporate responsibility (CR) and
the explosion of digital communications - separately, though ample opportunities exist to address these issues together in a unified plan. After all, if brands don't stay
relevant to new audiences (Millennials), or change rules of communication and customer expectations with regards to CR, a crisis could occur and derail the company's growth
strategies.
Millennials' Growing Influence
"Consumers are now prosumers who co-produce content and co-create brands to help create products and services or solve issues at an ownership level," says John H. Bell,
managing director/executive creative director, 360 degrees Digital Influence, Ogilvy PR.
The most notable prosumer group of content generators is that of the Millennials, or those born between 1980 and 2000. The older members of this generation, ages 18-24, are
entering the workforce in massive numbers and commanding significant purchasing power. Their influence over business and communications has grown alongside the increasing
dominance of digital platforms, toward which Millennials are particularly inclined. Moreover, they set the bar for CR significantly higher compared to previous generations.
"I think because Millennials have all these media tools at their fingertips, they feel empowered to make a difference," says Abbey Banks, membership director, Net Impact. The
combined power of these trends requires communications executives to take strategic steps to keeping their brands relevant. And, while many companies are not demonstrating the
ability to fully handle this new state of affairs, many of their employees - Millennials included - are beginning to work CR from within their organizations.
Take, for example, Brown-Forman, Accenture, Hitachi Consulting or IBM Business Consulting Service, where employees not in traditional CR roles still wanted to make a
difference. Individuals created "reduce, reuse, recycle" awareness programs, sustainability supply chain management practices, and 401k socially responsible investing programs
inside their companies.
Communications professionals can advance in the current business rat race by embracing such CR initiatives while harnessing the power of those Millennials within their
organizations, who, through digital channels, can influence public opinion as well as workplace or campus initiatives. They are more "public" and "conversational," broadcasting
likes and dislikes on products, people and issues to large audiences. They can spell trouble or success for a company's brand reputation and sales.
Digital Mapping & Measurement
More broadly, communications campaigns must now combine traditional and digital media (paid and earned) to form longer-term relationships and community-building components.
Bell says, "We must move away from trying to control the message to convening a conversation." That takes longer-term planning to map influencers and affinity groups beyond the
traditional campaign target audience.
To shape and executve a digital strategy with Millennials and CR in mind, Bell recommends asking and answering the following questions:
-
Influencer Audit: What influencers and devices affect your brand or issue?
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Conversion Map: What is the CGM saying about a topic? How do people find the conversation and topic?
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Search Visibility Plan: Have you developed a search visibility plan?
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Multimedia Visibility: Have you conducted a multimedia study about the intersection point stakeholders engage with your brand?
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Directory and Affiliate Program: What are the directories and networks?
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Engagement Strategy: How do you put all this together and a big idea into action?
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Mapping Plan: Have you mapped and continued to evolve the map?
Additionally, with digital communications plans or sub-plans, updated monitoring and measuring approaches are likewise needed (See sidebar.)
Success Stories
Successful organizations understand and exploit those capabilities that let them provide unique value to their customers. For example, Net Impact went live on August 30th with
its member-only social networking platform to advance the value of the network, one that includes a large Millennial segment. Within three weeks, 70 special interest groups
formed, with CR being the largest and most active.
Of course, there are significant business examples too. Bell cites Climate Change Response Conference in London, which invited bloggers from the green community to attend and
video-blog freely. They did and helped spread the word.
Moreover, brands that add CR as well as digital media into their plans relate easier to Millennials. As many as 44% of respondents in a survey by UK-based communications group
BT said they would discount an employer that had a bad reputation while nearly half said CR policies should be compulsory.
Experience is showing that brands live and die by digital communications, community building and CR activities. Whether it is listening to the chatter and tracking feedback, or
being more transparent in CR by using digital media, it is a part of the Millennial experience today.
Editor's Note: This article was written by Susan Nickbarg, principal of SVN Marketing. She can be reached at [email protected]. CONTACTS:
John Bell, [email protected];
Abbey Banks, [email protected]
| 4 Principles Of Digital Communications &
Engagement: Reaching And Measuring An Audience Of "Millenial" Influencers |
||
|---|---|---|
| PRINCIPLES | PAST | PRESENT SHIFT |
| Principle #1: Listening to Consumers |
Use of focus groups
and surveys to gain stakeholder input. |
Expands to monitor blogs,
message boards, social networks, and product review sites to learn what people are saying and feeling as determinants of influencers on the brand or issues affecting the brand. |
| Principle #2: Brand Engagement |
Use of traditional media
communications campaigns to deliver messages to audiences, generating hits or impressions. |
Expands to include interaction,
participation and time spent with a brand to build loyalty and advocacy through online, word of mouth and social media. |
| Principle #3: Brand Relationships |
Use of trusted third
parties. |
Expands to include "influencer
groups" and, in turn, create a more open, transparent dialogue. |
| Principle #4: Measuring Performance |
Measures campaign performance
by tracking the number of online and offline media impressions, advertising impressions and earned media brand mentions, as well as the open click rate of Internet media, and the mapping any associated rise in sales or awareness during or following the run date of a communications campaign. |
Digital communications
measurement is still evolving, but currently has expanded to include "reach metrics," such as the number of visitors to a Web site; "engagement metrics," such as the time spent on a blog or Web site; "awareness and lead generation metrics," such as visibility on Google page rankings; and "referral mentions and endorsement metrics," such as number of posts, comments or recommendations generated. |