Month: February 2018

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Strategic Social Media Tips For Brands

By Kate Templeton

Social media has become a prominent and critical tool in the world of public relations. The online presence of a company can either make or break its reputation. When working in PR, it’s important to understand this powerful tool and how to find the most success while using strategic social media tactics. Here are a few tips for using social media to positively support a brand’s digital presence.

Use Hashtags Professionally.

Hashtags are a great tool to grow an online following and engage with users. There are specific social media tactics that are important when using hashtags. For some brands, using the same hashtag on every post creates consistency. This eventually can be seen as a slogan for the company, and all posts that accompany the hashtag are easy to find. Hashtags can also be used to gain traction and reach more users. Because they are easily searched, using relevant hashtags that appeal to the audience will help the brand expand.

Pay Attention to Your Audience.

Discovering what the audience cares about is a crucial step in creating an online brand. Public relations professionals have the opportunity to listen to the conversations their audiences are having on social media platforms. Responding to comments, questions and listening to critiques will help a brand find more success.

Consistency is Key.

When developing a strong social media presence, it is essential to pay attention to the full image the brand portrays online. Developing a consistent look and voice will help establish a solidified image throughout. The design and graphic elements should be similar to increase audience engagement and differentiate the brand from others.

Create a Strategy.

Not every social media platform is going to be beneficial for every brand. Organizations should only focus on social platforms that add value to their company. Create and implement a social media strategy that will meet the brands’ unique goals and objectives.

Analytics, Analytics, Analytics!

It’s one thing to post consistently on social media accounts, but it is another to actually grasp how the audience is responding. The use of analytics is necessary when evaluating the effectiveness of social media strategies. This can help companies reach the correct audiences that positively impact the brand. (Check out Sierra’s blog post last week for more insights on social media analytics)!

You will now be one step ahead when using social media to professionally maintain a client’s brand!

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What You Need to Know About Social Media Analytics

By Sierra Goodman

Social media analytics is a measuring tool that helps professionals monitor their digital audience and performance. Analytics allows them to see what strategies work and what strategies don’t in order to use the platforms as efficiently as possible. Reading and understanding these numbers can be a bit daunting and difficult to interpret. As rising PR professionals, social media analytics can bolster a resume and portfolio with quantifiable results. Here is what you need to know about social media analytics:

Reading SM Analytics

Filtering through all of the noise is the first step to categorize the information and understand what is and isn’t important. Facebook and Twitter provide free built-in analytics through the platform. If you are looking for deeper insights, you may want to consider “freemium” social media management applications such as Google Analytics, Meltwater, Hootsuite, and Buffer. Many employers use these programs to help clients run their social media accounts and set goals.

While these programs will do some of the legwork, running a social media audit by categorizing past post into themes (videos, links, photos, etc.) will help you determine which themes produce the best results. This, in turn, will help you figure out which content to invest more time and energy. For example, you discover that over the past three months, posts about new products receive significantly more likes and shares than events. This could help you and your organization pivot to create more content that your viewers like to see.

Reach VS. Engagement

Reach and engagement are often confused to mean the same thing. Reach refers to the number of people that have viewed your post while engagement is all the likes, shares and comments your post has received. Engagement may be oddly high at times — when this happens some investigation may be needed. Perhaps a post went viral or became popular for a reason. The high engagement will affect your data for about a month until it gets back to normal. This occurs because of Twitter, Facebook and Instagram’s algorithms that send posts with high engagement to the top of people’s feeds.

Boost Your Portfolio and Resume

It’s a competitive world out there and social media analytics can help boost your resume and portfolio with tangible results. Running the social media account for a club, organization, nonprofit, or even your own professional accounts will show employers your social media knowledge extends beyond personal use.

When you first start tracking analytics, be sure to record the number of followers and the average post engagement and reach. That way you can determine how you have increased followers, engagement and reach over time. It is one thing to say you “increased social media presence” but you offer more credibility if you can say that you increased followers by 25 percent and the average engagement by 30 percent over a six-month period. Plus, you can turn your results into an infographic to make your portfolio aesthetically pleasing.

If you want to learn more about social media analytics, sign up for Kelli Matthew’s strategic social media class at the SOJC.

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Advice to Prep for PRSSA’s Networking Event

By Kate Templeton

Do you need to practice networking? Or perhaps want to meet the students and teachers involved in the PR program? University of Oregon PRSSA is hosting a Speed Networking Event next Thursday, Feb. 15, at 6:00 p.m. in Allen 141 for a night of low-stake networking and refreshments. Local professionals, SOJC professors and students are all welcome to come. Below are a few tips to prepare you for this night of networking!

It’s All About Relationship Building

  • One of the most important parts of a networking event is to build connections. Make sure your exchanges are both fun and informative, and you are acting professionally. You want to make yourself memorable without talking too much about yourself. To build solid relationships at a networking event get to know whom you are talking to create a successful lasting impression.

Ask Thoughtful Questions

  • Come prepared with questions to start the conversation off. Make sure these questions are both interesting and helpful. At networking events you have a short time to talk to each professional, so it is crucial to pick questions wisely. Also listen to the replies of the people you meet and ask questions that build from what they are saying. This will help keep the conversation flowing naturally. Here are some sample questions you could ask: How did you get into this occupation? What skills have you found essential for success in this field? What do you do in a typical day at your job?

Follow-Up After

  • Ask the people you meet what the best way to contact them is. It is important to reach out within 48 hours after the event. This will show your interest and that you care about the conversations you had. Also, when reaching out try to reference something you talked about to remind them who you are and that you valued the discussion.

If you are interested in attending our Speed Networking Event, please RSVP with the link below. Hope to see you there! RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdE6CMDLpwaUYRJvfbMBOupt3nO1xo0RDzTK0bj-TkR2pR_bw/viewform

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A Crock-Pot Case Study: Cookin’ Up Controversy

By Sierra Goodman

SPOILER ALERT: Be aware, this post spoils details about season 2, episode 13 and 14 of “This Is Us.”

UPDATE: Milo Ventimiglia from “This Is Us” posted a video on Twitter telling people to “come together” for the Super Bowl as he scoops some chili from a Crock-Pot. The video then uses #CrockPotisInnocent. Will this calm angry fans/Crock-Pot owners?

The latest episode of the popular NBC television series “This Is Us” has “sparked” (pun intended) some controversy. In the episode titled “After the Super Bowl,” a beloved character presumably dies in a fire caused by a faulty Crock-Pot. As a result, fans of the show and their Crock-Pots went to Twitter to state their fear of the cooking appliance and declaration to throw it out with posts, pictures and videos.

Crock-Pot has long-running social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest. However, they missed Twitter, a key member of their social media presence. The lack of this social platform hindered their ability to address the issue in a timely manner. The company eventually made a Twitter account called @CrockPotCares. They demonstrated a strategic personable tone by addressing tweets about Crock-Pot safety standards and providing a place for consumers to reach out with questions. Showing empathy and using facts to correct misinformation has helped them swerve from the PR crisis. This does not mean they are in the clear — even with a large brand like Crock-Pot it takes time to gain followers.

A small number of followers equals a small amount of exposure for people to see their posts. They have gained 2,000 followers in the last week, but compared to KitchenAid’s 90K Twitter followers it is minuscule. Even with a lack of followers, they have considerably high engagement, receiving everything from 2-302 likes per post.  

The episode of “This Is Us” created problems for Crock-Pot and NBC as well. Crock-Pot can potentially sue NBC for trade libel, slander of goods, commercial disparagement, injurious falsehood, and disparagement of property. Crock-Pot released a statement that commented on the action they hope to see from NBC:

“Our hope is that the team at NBC’s ‘This Is Us’ will help us in spreading factual information regarding our product’s safety. While we know their primary mission is to entertain — something they have continued to excel in — we also feel they have a responsibility to inform”

The network itself has failed to respond; however, the show’s creator, Dan Fogelman, immediately responded to the Twitter outcry. Hopefully, the tweet from the creator, with a Twitter following of more than 40,000, can alleviate misunderstandings to help both Crock-Pot and NBC.

Although Crock-Pot has been responsive on Twitter, they have not been particularly responsive on their other well-established social media platforms. This is a bit confusing because their other social platforms have the most followers that will be able to view their potential response to the incident. Crock-Pot has also failed to make their official statement known to the general public. 

Considering these variables I suggest Crock-Pot address the issue on all social media platforms and post a news release to the press section of their website.