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#shaved llamaI aksed panelists Charmain Emerson, Jen Kirsch, Kirsten Walkom & Hannah Johnson weighed in at our last Social Media Ref.
Missed the event? Here’s a re-cap of some of the top tweets and pics.
Stay tuned for future Social Media Refs in 2013!
There’s an ongoing debate between social media practitioners and clients about the proposal process: When’s the best time to introduce tactics? Some professionals tell clients that strategy must come far before tactics. Clients, on the other hand, especially those new to the social realm, are mesmerized by tactics and social tools and want to know immediately how they will be used.
Strategy sums up a Utopian view of the campaign. It lets you place the big idea in a tidy box. The tactics, on the other hand, bring your ideas to life.
Think of it like gardening. At the outset, you need to clarify your goals. Are you gardening for food? Is it purely ornamental? Is your garden in full sun or mixed with shade? What do you want your garden to look like in a year? These are strategic considerations about objectives, research and plans. With a strategy in place, the tactical decisions, such as design, plant varieties, and how or when to enrich the soil, naturally fall into place.
We all want to win the business and get to the big client brainstorming session. When tactics precede strategy, however, you risk missing the campaign goal.
In the end, it’s a balancing act. Here are five tips that will help you manage your delivery of the all-important strategy, while keeping clients engaged.
1. Get to the Good Stuff
Present the strategy using sketches, photography, video and audio. Explain the big picture in as few words as possible and bring the strategy to life with examples that encourage creative conversation. It’s okay to mention tools, such as Facebook and Twitter, as clients want to hear tactical basics. Just be sure to present a clear rationale of how the tools fit your long-term goals.
2. Be Creative. Be Collaborative.
Create a collaborative activity. If your clients are savvy about the social space, take 15 minutes and have them put together a Pinterest board (tactic) in support of the big picture (strategy). By playing with the strategy, your client will understand its benefits and how it can engage a community.
3. Listen and Read Non-Verbal Behaviour
Pay attention to both verbal and non-verbal cues. Know, and acknowledge, when your audience is not enthusiastic. Ask yourself if the client’s feedback is right. Don’t try to sell an idea that isn’t getting a buy-in. It’s not a bad thing to hear constructive criticism. Think on your feet, and riff off the critique in a way that strengthens the strategy. When you’re responsive to client concerns, they’ll be more enthusiastic about the overall plan.
4. Seeing Is Believing
Do your research and prep in advance. Bookmark a handful of competitor sites or influencers to incorporate into your plan. Don’t assume that your clients have the 411 on the competitive social space. They will need to see good and bad examples from their peer group. Bookend your presentation with samples that reinforce how and why you think the approach will work for the brand.
5. Critique It
After your presentation, open up the floor and involve clients in an on-the-spot critique. Hand out sticky notes for clients to jot down their favorite tactic and the one that most concerns them. The conversation will help refine the strategy. You’ll leave with the client’s approval or time to adjust your proposal to meet expectations.
An approach that integrates strategy and tactics will ultimately save time, improve your client relationship and make the overall process more pleasant for everyone.
Smizing and tooching, huh?
Get past Tyra Banks’s nonsensical lingo about smiling eyes and butt posture, and you’ll see that America’s Next Top Model (ANTM)is providing some important pointers for successful PR and marketing. The CW Network’s flagship reality show is a prime example of a brand paying close attention to the fashion-and-modelling conversation in social media, and then finding entertaining ways to integrate that content into its message to reach new audiences.
Social platforms leave many brand and PR managers wondering: “Who controls the message?” We all know that it’s not enough to dictate a story to an audience. What’s often overlooked is that many of our most important and influential partners reside at the social media grassroots. Managing your brand conversation depends, in large part, on finding what’s emerging within your sector or audience and putting it to use.
ANTM is a case in point. The show is doing a great job of integrating social media, influencers, their personalities and points of view, and rich media to increase audience engagement. In a now predictable reality television formula, viewers participate in the competition by voting on social networks, a factor that determines if contestants stay or go home.
But ANTM is working hard to maintain its edge by expanding the television standard for engagement and threading audience commentary and content into every scene. The show’s out-with-the-old removal of its former fashion talking heads has made room for personalities (and their content) that have demonstrable influence in the fashion-and-modelling social realm.
The show’s most prominent social media acquisition is Filipino fashion blogger BryanBoy (aka Bryan Grey Yambao). Named one of the nine hottest Internet celebrities in 2007 by the New York Post, BryanBoy has been a fashion phenom since he started blogging six years ago, and his devotion to expensive handbags has made him a poster boy for luxury fashion houses. His 15,000 Facebookfollowers support his own growing celebrity, while his blog — with its news, product shout-outs and Fashion Week reports from around the world — has become a must-read for industry insiders and followers. As ANTM’s social media correspondent and commentator, he introduces viewer videos in his trademark flamboyant style. BryanBoy recently joined the ANTM judging panel — significantly adding to its hip factor.
ANTM clearly has its antennae tuned to lesser known fashion influencers and self-made up-and-comers. Following the viral success of his hilarious “totes amaze” YouTube parodies, P’Trique (a platinum-wigged, plus-size bearded guy named Patrick Pope) has been brought in as Tyra’s campy guest. In its most recent cycle, the show added social-media ready fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone (165,141 Twitter followers) and model Rob Evans (29,774 Twitter followers). Johnny Wujek (35,554 Twitter followers), the man behind Katy Perry’s over-the-top ensembles, assumes the role of creative consultant for photo shoots.
Emerging trends and personalities are helping ANTM stay current and relevant with its target audience, ages 18 to 34. In addition, the strategy gives the brand tremendous synergy with social media influencers who have large audiences of their own. Most important, however, by integrating these personalities and their content into its brand, ANTM is perfectly positioned to lead its community and to manage the fashion-and-modelling conversation.
Nice job. You could call it win-win. For Tyra and her fellow ANTM producers, it’s more likely they’re smizing and tooching all the way to the bank.
Great Infographic on why Gen Y (Millennials) will be running the Country by 2020 - from Mashable & UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
If you fashion yourself a budding social media wonk and are looking for people to follow and learn from on Twitter, you could do much worse than just to follow everyone on this list! Many of them will even follow you back and retweet your stuff… if it’s good. :) Thought it was worth sharing… seriously some great folks on this list… -TM
There is little data to support so-called influencer behavior in social marketing. Rather, the data suggest that content and ideas online spread through large numbers of people sharing with small groups.
Engaged social users come to platforms like Buzzfeed and StumbleUpon to discover content to...
If you are marketing an entertainment property you HAVE to have a presence on the top social networks (and, we would argue, the niche ones too), monitor conversations and get the word out in that space through influencers. As this chart proves.
laurenonizzle