Exitlog | Leaving Impressions

PR needs to pay attention to Twitter. Social media has (is having) an impact on business and brand communications. What the value of this coverage is still up for debate… but there are a lot of people betting on the outcome.

Regardless of your opinion evidence shows that customers are looking to social media for insight and offers. For brands and businesses this is a growing opportunity. The more a topic trends the greater the impact it has on buzz and search results. Social media and search have become an important of tracking coverage success – an online column inches measure.

From O2 (o2ukofficial) responding to unhappy, wannabe iPhone 3G S upgraders to Dell in the US (DellOutlet) pushing refurbished PCs Twitter is has become a part of the customer communication mix.

PR companies are having to help manage this channel, often writing the 140 character editorial. This role we’ve been calling the Social Media Press Officer – a title that is good for buzzwording clients. This role can be an absorbing one. With the frequency of tweets responding on Twitter can take up a significant amount of time.

Nevertheless the Social Media Press Officer role (hold your breath army of recruitment consultants) is a transitional one. Once newspapers work out how they are going to make money from their content online the importance of social media will lessen. As with blogging, the excitement of early adopters and enthusiasts will give way as the professionals move in. You only have to look at The Guardian and BBC websites to see how blogging as been formalised, controlled and now virtually just another form of editorial.

So where does that leave PR and social media? Dating, for the time being. The relationship won’t last, at least not under the terms we’ve seeing now. Until the media matures and the newspapers change tact as PR professionals we’re going to have to get stuck in and start pimping coverage on Twitter.

Originally published on Creative Boom Manchester, 3 November 2009

Advertising, marketing, PR and especially websites are essentially about messaging, story-telling. They each try to create and communicate messages which resonate with the public. As our media diet has become more diverse, from Facebook to downloading our favourite TV (hopefully legally at a reasonable price), the story told becomes more important. How the message is delivered becomes just as significant as the message content.

As such web design needs be connected to the same messaging, and as important, as other media in the communication mix. The official site for the Watchmen film is good example of connected messaging. The website offers behind the scenes content, a terrific iPhone application, wallpapers and more – as well as links to further film tie-in sites. It is successful because the site understands the fans’ wants and caters accordingly. The messaging is delivered with clarity; and works as an extension of the film both before the release and after.

A website offers a chance to interject a level interaction, a two-way dialogue, that traditional advertising and PR does not offer. Whether through user-generated content, shared experiences, downloads or give-aways websites have a gravity unto themselves. Websites can be both the messenger and message.

The importance of connected messaging cannot be underestimated. Think about the bright red, swash lettered Coca-Cola can. Consumers the world over have definitive feelings about what Coke means to them. Feelings beyond sweet, sugar fuelled or the even real thing. As such they expect to the same messaging wherever they experience the brand – from football advertising hoarding to the 25cl cans themselves and even the various campaign websites. Visual similarity is not enough. The message must feel like Coca-Cola. Any less and it wouldn’t be Coke (maybe Pepsi, we’re not supporting favourites here, but the point is consistency).

Many promise an integrated approach but the result is often a series of loosely aligned activities. Consider campaign-based offers with such dubious calls to action, “go online and find out more”, only to find a cheap website wedged underneath. Go online and what?

When a brand is represented online it must actively engage the audience; and match the standard set by other media. It doesn’t matter if the product is the ubiquitous, white-headphoned MP3 player or an expensive pair of trainers. What matters is the message. The audience has an expectation, an understanding, and as web designers and developers we have to fulfil this hope. Any slip up in its public portrayal and the engagement is weakened. Shame about the website, shame about the product. Poor delivery can often ensure failure.

Websites have the ability to extend and improve relationships. They have become an important part of the media mix for customers and prospects alike. And with websites, connected messaging should be the central approach. Successful TV and radio ads don’t end half finished or with the camera booms exposed and production runner’s foot in shot. Websites shouldn’t be any less finished. Get the narrative right, align the functionality with the message and inter-connectedness.

Websites are dynamic and as such can extend the narrative, the storytelling in ways other media can’t be. How the audience interacts will be the measure of the message. Staying connected is one sure way of ensuring better success.

Originally published on the STAN website, 9 June 2009