The answer really goes back to your views on advertising and how you measure success. Does being the biggest make you the best? Or is there more to it?
Long before social media and the World Wide Web were so dominant, print media was a major component in many brands’ marketing budgets. And much like Super Bowl ads, an ad in a national publication, such as USA Today, would guarantee you a lot of eyeballs.
We hear from colleagues all the time that “advertising does nothing” for their brand. While we thoroughly disagree with that (usually it’s bad advertising that’s to blame, or the lack of time/energy/ability it takes to measure awareness and results), we understand where they’re coming from. They bought an ad, people supposedly saw it and nothing happened.
USA Today's circulation is roughly 3 million (http://www.usatoday.com/about/). That’s a lot of eyeballs.
From Forbes a few years ago:
How many times have you left your hotel room and even looked at the free paper left there?
We are not criticizing USA Today, but we’re bringing this up to set the stage for our point that metrics such as circulation maybe aren’t always as valuable as things such as engagement or particular demographic information.
In April we a financial client in the New York Times on some changes that were going to happen that would affect home buyers. Big news and a great piece. Did that correlate to more phone calls for the client? Hard to say, there wasn’t a real call to action there since the changes are months away. But people saw it, we’re sure of that. How many? No idea.
Back in January, the same client was also featured in a regional newspaper for another, a more consumer oriented story, in a newspaper about five times smaller than the New York Times. About two months later, a regional associate in that market received a phone call from a customer regarding a very large deal.
By no means are we saying we should never call the Times again to pitch a story, but it’s interesting to see what measurably moved the needle for the client. Keep“measurably” in mind.
Ok, back to Instagram. Should you buy followers? It really depends on your goals.
Eyeballs are nice, but eyeballs that care about your brand and are incentivized to act nicer.
Many marketing departments judge success based on impressions. Buying an ad in USA Today, while more expensive than a regional newspaper, will probably get you more impressions to show to the higher ups. That doesn’t necessarily correlate to actions, awareness and what most brands really want… sales.
However, we have to strongly recommend judging the success of a social media campaign strictly on the growth of followers alone. If that’s your criteria for judging success, then you’re driving down the wrong street.
What’s the best way to grow your presence on social media? Advertising can help you get fans (again, advertising works, if it’s the right kind), but above all, you need to have great content that people actually want to engage with and share with their network.
Public Relations (aka PR or really, media relations if you want to be truthful in what most PR people people do) is continually ranked as one of the most stressful career choices in the U.S. Why is that?
We can think of a few reasons, the majority of which stem from a lack of understanding by many in terms of what we as PR people do. Here's the main one:
The modern media relations pro is competing against more and more people for the attention of fewer journalists. Relationships and so-called "lists" help, but only somewhat. And unfortunately, those "lists" can be purchased, which leads more PR "pros" spamming journalists with off-base pitches that clog their inboxes and flood their voicemail systems. For example Susan Adams at Forbes has gone on record as saying:
The media landscape is constantly changing. What worked last year may not work next week. Even the online media world is changing. Some digital outlets will turn stories around in hours, some in months. We're also seeing that trade media, which typically did have the time and space for industry related announcements, are becoming overwhelmed.
Unfortunately, when it comes to brands spending on PR, it's hard to gauge the value of something that isn't guaranteed to work versus advertising, which at the least, you are guaranteed to see and/or feel (Note: We LOVE advertising, but the purchase of an ad doesn't guarantee anything other than the visibility of the ad itself."
On top of that, many of the brands we approach to partner with tell us they've had PR teams in the past, but they failed to deliver. Did they? Possibly. What we usually hear and see is that these PR teams showcase some really great case studies, but neglect to tell their clients that these results just don't happen overnight or for every client they work with.
So what's the solution?
We, as PR people, need to educate clients on not just the value of PR, but also how the PR world works. We can no more guarantee editorial coverage than you can guarantee a print ad will move the needle on your objective. As a whole, the PR industry has to do a better job explaining to clients the nature of what we do and how the media operates.
While the craft beer industry is thriving right now, many experts are saying it will soon become fairly saturated in a way similar to the dot-com/bubble burst we've seen in the technology industry. Regardless of if this is true or not, as more breweries open up in crowded craft beer markets (such as our home base of San Diego), marketing these beers is going to be a major key to their success. However, unlike the heavy lifters and heavy marketers at CrossFit, a lot of small to mid-sized breweries just don't seem to get it.
That said, we wanted to share our social media section from the B5 newsletter that includes some easy to follow tips to consider (and if you don't want our commentary, you can download it here).
Don't worry about Jimmy Fallon making fun of your brand. Appropriate hashtags are... well, appropriate! Feel free to throw a fun one in or one that yo want others to pass around, but for the most part, you should hashtag with words and phrases your potential consumers or current consumers are searching for.
This isn't a plug for Shirts On Tap, but it's incredibly important. However, rumor has it Saint Archer is killing it in apparel sales. Why aren't you?
See point 1 above.
You don't need to think that hard about this one. Would you click on a Twitter link that said "I just uploaded 34 photos to Facebook?"
We love to say "take the 'me' out of social media" because it's how all brands should operate online. A friendly bartender is engaging. They don't simply stare at you and wait for you to make the first move.
Again, you can download the full list here. We have a pretty extensive background working with brands that target particular lifestyles (including beer brands). Want to chat? Drop us a line!
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