As the father of 12- and 8-year-old daughters, most of my movie-going time these days is spent either watching something animated or the latest riveting flick featuring Justin Bieber or Katy Perry.
One of my favorite scenes of late is from the movie Up, when Dug, a likeable and seemingly smart talking dog is waxing poetic when, out of the blue, his entire being is suddenly consumed by, you guessed it, a squirrel.
It’s then impossible to get him refocused on his previous train of thought because he is completely consumed with this furry new thing that’s appeared in front of him.
My challenge to today’s communications’ professionals is to not become Dug.
TEMPER THE TOYS
With the seemingly constant onset of new communication channels and tools, it’s easy to become infatuated with the latest, shiniest things. Look, it’s Twitter. Wow, there’s Pinterest. Does anyone remember MySpace? It may be making a comeback, by the way.
It’s more important than ever to have a solid up-front strategy before jumping into tactical execution of any communications program. This certainly isn’t rocket science, but here are some quick reminders that are more important than ever with the increasing number of squirrels running around.
1. Identify your goals—from a business plan perspective. Is your campaign simply about increasing brand awareness or are you trying to more directly influence sales? Are you positioning a company for sale or are the owners in it for the long haul. Thousands of Facebook fans mean nothing if you’re trying to sell a product and those “likes” aren’t really influencing sales.
2. Know your most important audience and know where they get information and make decisions. Twitter is great for some brands, but completely useless for others because their audiences simply aren’t using that social tool. The same can be said for any channel—be it new or old media.
We represent clients in rural parts of the country, and often the most effective approach is to find a way to get on local radio or in the weekly community newspaper. We’ve even been known to host good, old-fashioned town-hall meetings and barbeques at local American Legion Halls.
3. Content is more important than ever. Regardless of the channel, producing content that is useful to your audiences has never been more important.
Put yourself in the shoes of your audience and determine if the content you’re creating is truly going to serve a need for them. Don’t worry about it being overly promotional for your brand. You’ll get the credit you deserve simply by being associated with something from which your key stakeholders derive value.
4. Stay up to date on the latest, but don’t allow the “squirrels” to distract you from the tried and true. Social media and mobile are certainly here to stay, but they’re often not the only solution. We all know the 25-year-old whose life revolves around one social media channel or another.
While their expertise, and that of other specialists, is incredibly important to our clients, it’s important to not let those experts drive the strategy entirely. Ensure the strategists in your organization can utilize the expertise from your channel experts and then determine the best ways to meaningfully connect with your most important audiences.
5. Measure, adjust, measure. The obvious beauty of many online channels is that there are a variety of ways to measure whether your efforts are generating results or not. Decide up front the metrics you’re going to use and measure their effectiveness. If something isn’t working, adjust.
ADD VALUE
Here’s what’s important: Seemingly everyday, there are new and effective ways to reach your audience. While it’s critical to be aware of the latest and greatest—i.e., the squirrels—and what they can do and can’t do, it’s also important to not be overly distracted by them and let them drive the strategy.
Know who your audiences are, how they’re making decisions and ways you can add value to that process.
In other words, be the dog that knows exactly where all of the squirrels are, but is smart enough to not let them completely infatuate you.
CONTACT:
Larry Holdren, APR, is a partner at Pure Brand Communications, a Denver-based PR firm. He is a member of Counselors Academy, a group of PR agency counselors within the Public Relations Society of America. He can be reached at [email protected].