Stories by Seth Arenstein

When negative news, such as a recall or a possible E. coli outbreak, hits the headlines, how should brand communicators handle it? And since most PR News Pro readers are outside the food sector, let’s broaden the discussion: How should communicators react when negative items about their brand make news? We’ll use food as a jumping-off point. The tactics and strategies we’ll cover apply to most sectors.

In case you hadn’t realized, video is no longer a fad. It has become a fait accompli. As we’ve seen in this series, which has examined Shareablee data made available exclusively to PR News, consumer engagement with U.S. brands—B2C and B2B—on social media in Q1 2016 has grown year over year. Tremendous increases in consumer engagement with video posts have powered the bulk of the growth. Consumer engagement, or actions, is defined as the sum of retweets and likes. The same pattern seen with B2C and B2B ( PRN, July 11) holds true for nonprofits, the subject of this week’s Data Dive. In Q1 2016, U.S. nonprofits generated 5.3 million actions on Twitter, a 49% improvement compared with the same time last year. A 125% increase in engagement with video content on the platform was responsible for the growth. Actions rose 49%, from 3.56 million to 5.3 million.

There are myriad lessons for communicators related to transparency, monitoring the social conversation and when and whom to engage from two recent news items. The first item has the Republican Party being forced to shut down its live chat on YouTube July 18. The party had urged viewers to chat while it streamed its convention live on YouTube. The reason for the shut-down were anti-Semitic comments posted on the live chat as former Hawaii governor Linda Lingle was addressing the convention. The other involves the nasty messages sent via social to actor/comedian Leslie Jones, a co-star of Ghostbusters.

You hear it constantly when brand communicators discuss social media, particularly Facebook: “It’s all pay-to-play. Don’t kid yourself.” With that in mind, our Big 4 Social Media Summit next month in San Francisco will include a how-to clinic called “Pay-to-Play—Putting Paid Social to Work to Amplify Your Brand’s Messages.”

Did Disney do all it could from a PR perspective following the fatal gator attack on 2-year-old Lane Graves at its Disney World property? How about the Cincinnati Zoo’s handling of the incident where Zoo employees killed Harambe, a rare, 450-pound lowland gorilla, after a 3-year-old child fell into the animal’s moat? And don’t forget the Academy Awards and #OscarsSoWhite.

PR repeatedly counsels executives and brands to listen to the conversation on social media and elsewhere. It’s better when PR can set an example. FleishmanHillard provides one. There are myriad ways FH could have commemorated its 70th anniversary. To come up
with an acceptable option FH listened to its staff in 30 countries. “I heard from staff, particularly younger people, questions about whether or not the firm has a purpose beyond doing great client work…do we do something for society?” FH CEO/president John Saunders tells us.

It could describe nearly all the data sets we’ve been looking at recently. The 30 most-engaged U.S. brands on a social media platform turned out a bit less content than they had during a quarter the previous year, yet consumer interaction with the content rose. Once again, consumer engagement with mobile video drove that engagement. Filling in the blanks, this week’s Shareablee data, provided exclusively to PR News, examines consumer actions, or engagement, with U.S. B2B brands on Twitter. Actions are defined as the sum of consumer likes and retweets. Brands listed have significant B2B revenue, although some also have B2C businesses. Specifically in Q1 ’16 (Jan 1-March 31), total consumer actions with U.S. B2B brands on Twitter rose 31% compared to the same quarter in 2015. The increase occurred despite a 3% reduction in the number of tweets the brands produced. An increase in consumer engagement with U.S. B2B brands’ videos, up a gargantuan 240%, and more retweets, a 14% rise, fueled the growth in actions.

First and foremost, you have to understand your audience, says Chad Mitchell, Walmart’s senior director of digital communications. Not even a brand as big as Walmart can boil the ocean when it comes to audience. So you have to ask questions like, “Who wants to hear from us?” or “Who needs to hear from us?” and then build a content and channel strategy that’s tailor-made for your audience.

How many times has this happened to you? You’re watching live television or attending an event with family and friends and a CEO or some other public official says something you, as a PR pro, know could spell trouble for the brand that person is representing? Your friends notice you cringing. Should it be your CEO up there, before your friends even notice it, you’re heading to the office or ducking out to make or receive a phone call about what you just heard. It’s part of the job.

Twitter unveiled a mobile app, Twitter Engage, June 21 to ease and encourage posting videos to the platform. U.S. B2C brands barely need the help, according to data provided exclusively to PR News by Shareablee.