PUBLIC RELATIONS 471 JANUARY 19, 2011

COMMUNITY RELATIONS CLIENT RESEARCH

There are five questions you should ask about your client before beginning community relations work?

What is the level of the client s credibility in that area? Have there been community complaints? If so, how have they been remedied? How has the organization conducted community relations work in the past? What changes in the community or political landscape impact relationships with the client? Is there a SWOT analysis on the community itself?

COMMUNITY RELATIONS AUDIENCE RESEARCH

There are three main groups under a community relations campaign umbrella

Media Mass Specializied

Community leaders Public officials Boards of education Religious leaders Union leaders Ethnic leaders Neighborhood leaders

Community Organizations Civic organizations Business organizations Service organizations Youth organizations Social organizations

COMMUNITY RELATIONS IMPACT OBJECTIVES

There are five impact objectives you can think about for a a community relations campaign

Community knowledge Favorable opinion Organizational support Feedback Employee participation

COMMUNITY RELATIONS OUTPUT OBJECTIVES

There are four output objectives that work well with community relations.

Distributing more publications. Be more responsive to community needs. Create new projects or forms of outreach. Meet more with leaders or stakeholders.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS PROGRAMMING

There are eight main formats to present community relations programming.

Open House/Tour Sponsorship of community events Advertising in local media Giving money to local causes/charities Participation in volunteer actvities Participation in community organizations Participation in government (run for City Council or serve on government committee Meeting with community leaders

COMMUNITY RELATIONS UNCONTROLLED MEDIA

Create ways to control uncontrolled media. Write press releases Submit photos/video/audio or offer opportunties for each of those tools. Create hashtags for your event on Twitter. Employee wins award.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS CONTROLLED MEDIA

Don t be afraid to open up the checkbook. Send newsletters to important stakeholders. Keep them in the loop about what you re doing. Create a speaker s bureau and get in front of civic groups. These groups struggle to find topics for their monthly meetings. Keep up to date with the event and news calendar on your website. Social media channels can help you accomplish all of these objectives.

COMMUNITY RELATIONS THREE THINGS I WISH I KNEW WHEN I LEFT OU Target opinion leaders. They provide structure and clout, which mazimizes the efficiency of your work. To create group influence (get an organization to support you) go out to that organization BEFORE you need something. Speaking, volunteering and participating in community efforts makes it much easier to promote future community efforts. Audience participation matters, even if that audience thinks you suck.

IF THERE IS ONE THING YOU REMEMBER FROM THIS PRESENTATION, WHAT IS IT?

Social media is a valuable tool in any marketing campaign. It is not the entire toolbox.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW There are five themes you or a client should be aware of before ever creating a social media presence: 1. This is a marathon, not a sprint.

For every Ted Williams viral bonanza, there are millions of Ed Williams videos nobody every sees. Social media is a long term investment.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW 2. Content is king.

Finding that content isn t easy. You will swing and miss. Once you find the kingworthy content, measured results aren t a matter of if, but when.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW 3. Be transparent

It s not the lie. It s the cover up. It s not a matter of if you get caught; it s when. How you apologize is almost as important as what you do wrong.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW 4. It s OK for people to think you suck.

It's been 5+ weeks since @aepohio cut branches down that were lying on our power lines. They still have not cleaned up our yard. Unreal. @marksubel Gosh Mark, drop me a note @ capratimiller@aep.com & I'll put you in touch with someone you can discuss the matter with. Just want to say thanks to @aepohio for quickly resolving our concern from last week. Very professional & courteous. Thanks @aepohio

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW 5. The biggest mistake you can make is not being there.

650 million people are going to be on Facebook. A new person joins LinkedIn every second. Twitter still sees triple digit growth.

SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH

How many people are searching for your product through Google?

How is your product seen on Twitter?

How is your product seen on Facebook?

How is your product seen on YouTube?

How much time can you devote?

30-60 minutes of Facebook. 1-2 hours on Twitter. As much time as it takes to write a good blog post.

BLOGGING AS A SOCIAL MEDIA FOUNDATION

Blogging is like a house or good mutual fund: it should grow in time.

Blogging offers reasons to post on Twitter and Facebook.

Blogs force you to stay fresh and relevant.

Blogging can make you an authority.

Blogging helps with SEO.

Link Building Internal Traffic

SOCIAL MEDIA CREATING A FAN BASE Have a good offline product

If you sell a bad product with terrible customer service, it doesn t matter how cool your Facebook page is. If you have a product people like and have loyalty towards, results will follow

Zappos shoes has 90,000 followers. Crocs have 232,000 followers. Nike has millions of followers.

SOCIAL MEDIA CREATING A FAN BASE

Start small. You have 10 friends. Your 10 friends probably have five friends interested in the same kind of item.

SOCIAL MEDIA CREATING A FAN BASE Follow bloggers relevant to the industry

www.technorati.com www.wordpress.com www.blogged.com Each of these bloggers will have a Twitter handle, a LinkedIn profile and a Facebook page. Follow those folks. Each of these bloggers will have a list of bloggers they like. Like those folks.

SOCIAL MEDIA CREATING A FANBASE How do you get followers on Twitter to follow you?

Follow people you re genuinely interested in. Chances are, they will follow you back. Follow people based on industry and area; they are more likely to follow you back.

www.wefollow.com www.twellow.com www.nearbytweets.com

Follow lists. Follow friends of friends. @reply as often as you tweet. This is a conversation.

SOCIAL MEDIA CREATING A FANBASE Get out, talk to people and make yourself an expert:

Answer questions on Yahoo answers Answer questions on Quora. Answer questions on LinkedIn. Answer questions on Twitter. Start commenting on influential blogs. Ask people if you can guest post on said blogs.

SOCIAL MEDIA CREATING A FAN BASE Integrate social media into overall marketing campaign.

Explain Facebook presence on website. Document social media presence in all current forms of outreach. Tell people why they should follow your page/handle.

SOCIAL MEDIA WHY SHOULD THEY FOLLOW US IN THE FIRST PLACE?

Contests Questions Poll questions/survey Coupons News

WHY ARE PEOPLE FUSSY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?

People will say bad things about me.

They already are. You have the ability to hear those concerns.

You have a power to remedy those situations.

WHY ARE PEOPLE FUSSY ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA?

People will say things that are too private.

You can create privacy guidelines because you respect people’s privacy.

You can move the conversation offline.

You have to monitor your page.

CREATING A SOCIAL MEDIA PLAN Develop a schedule to publish content. Make sure it’s realistic. Follow the map.

STUDY THE MAP. Plan Do Study Act