There’s an old saying that “No Press is Bad Press”— I don’t think this is from a PR person because honestly, bad press is a PAIN. It adds additional effort to fixing the problem and long hours of figuring out how to attack the crisis. But, with social media enabling a message to travel far and wide, add comments that are sometimes not moderated, how do we look at bad “press” when it ends up driving awareness?

Here’s my example. Did everyone see the Joaquin Phoenix meltdown on David Letterman from last week? Basically, he shows up in an “altered state” completely out of his mind and David Letterman, trained with experience teases him, jokes with him in the most awkward late night interview I’ve ever seen. The buzz flew around the interwebs with the YouTube video seeing over 1.3 million views! I can only imagine what his publicist was doing at the time of the show. (Probably frantically running for the Classifieds or a shot of Jack Daniels.) Word around the web was “He was on drugs” “He’s crazy” “Lost his mind”—Did you also know that Joaquin Phoenix was on to promote a movie? Not many people I talked to did unless they watched from the beginning when Letterman introduced him.

So, let’s think about this from a PR stand point. The goal of having him on the show was to promote his new movie Two Brothers which by the way had a HUGE ad push. But, as he slowly turned into joke of the week and the video gained traction on YouTube and blogs, is the movie now getting attention or just Joaquin and his crazy ways?

When thinking about the initial PR plan for the movie, I’m sure the team did NOT take this into account. Social media can make or break a PR plan in my opinion. This in some ways could actually be a “breaker” vs “maker.” What started as a simple plan for marketing a unique movie, getting the star on Letterman to promote the movie has now expanded past that and into a deeper look to the actor and cast through social media playbacks of a crazy video. From the flip side, AdAge goes into it more here and how the movie is actually doing quite well despite the Letterman meltdown.

As many client requests come in to “please make this go viral”—you can’t. You can only hope that a video of your brand gets 1.3 million views. But, would you want it to take away from your initial goal? Would you want the end result to be a mistake video getting a ton of traffic but overshadowing the main message? I don’t think so.

What do you think?

So, today I started a Twitter meme. And it’s the #1 trending topic on Twitter. Is this like winning an Oscar in social media nerd land? No. (I’m shaking my head yes)

Anyway, I recapped how this all started on the Carrot blog. (My company blog) Check it out and be sure to share your #myfirstjob!

So, today I started a Twitter meme. And it’s the #1 trending topic on Twitter. Is this like winning an Oscar in social media nerd land? No. (I’m shaking my head yes)

Anyway, I recapped how this all started on the Carrot blog. (My company blog) Check it out and be sure to share your #myfirstjob!

You can thank the fact that today is National Pie Day for the witty subject line. But, it’s true. Pie is more than the filling and I doubt anyone can say that they eat pie for only the dry top layer. So, where am I going with this?

I’m linking social media and pie. Yes. It’s happening. Just like a pie, you need every ingredient to make it the best that it can be. The filling is what makes it, but you can’t leave out the crust or the
topping. In fact, to some people it’s not even a proper pie if you don’t put whip cream
on it. Same with a communications plan, you need all of the ingredients for it to work.

Social media is the filling. The really great stuff that you remember because it’s not bland, usually has some exciting element or “taste” to it and has a unique flavor. But, without other ingredients like traditional PR outreach, advertising and brand defense—you don’t have the full picture or in this case the full piece of the “pie.”

John Brandon from NetworkWorld wrote a great article questioning social media’s impact-particularly around the Obama campaign and it’s use of social media. He notes that while popular sites like Facebook, YouTube, etc… all of a lot of power—they’re not the end all of communication. Did it help the Obama campaign? TOTALLY. Was it the only reason? NO.

Social media needs to be part of the equation to help the overall plan. I have yet to see a campaign only done with social media. Those recommending that plan of action are not thinking correctly and it won’t work. Other elements need to be considered to ensure a result that benefits your brand.

John says, “For those trying to use social networks to actually influence thinking,
you have to remember that most people are only paying attention to them
in a sideways glance. None of these systems are game changers. Say you’re a PR firm trying to
get your product noticed. Social media helps. What actually gets the
product noticed, though, is old fashioned advertising, word of mouth,
and favorable reviews. It also has to be a good product.”

Part of this is true as you need to drive word of mouth, reviews, etc. to the actual social media part of the campaign, but in some cases the social media element of the campaign ARE those things. Posting something through Twitter is word of mouth marketing across the campaign to drive back to a Facebook application or a live stream interview with a top executive.

The important thing to take away here is that social media IS part of a bigger equation and an important one. As you do when baking a pie, you only use a certain amount of ingredients to result in a delicious dessert—think of it in the same way you plan your comms plan as well.

Everyone likes friends. Friends are there for you when you need them. Friends are there to talk to you, hang out with you, have good times with. Friends in the Web 2.0 world (ugh buzz word) can mean something completely different though. Friends on Facebook may mean something to one person and something completely different to another. Friends on Twitter? You have followers. You follow them back possibly. Are they your friend? Sure. Some of them are. Others? No way.

So what’s the big deal about having a bunch of friends online? From what we’ve seen,Web 2.0 friends are there to share your ideas with, retweet your tweets, post links to your blog and help create an online presence for you or your brand. When I saw this blog today about Burger King encouraging users on Facebook to ditch friends on Facebook to get a free Whopper, my first reaction was: WHAT?. Then I thought: BRILLIANT. Getting rid of friends is actually a positive thing these days.

There is too much noise out there on social networks. There is no reason to follow 5,000 people on Twitter or friend thousands on Facebook because honestly…you’re probably not going to listen to all that they’re saying so what’s the point? You need to listen to targeted people that supply content that you’re interested in. Then, you need to respond and interact. This builds your brand and adds value to the community. Brands should do the same and interact with their audience—not just the mass community. While this may not be the overall goal of the campaign, I’m interested to see the results. How easy is it for people to just clean up some people they’re not interested in hearing about anymore for a free burger? Then, when they realize how great it is to clear out some of the clutter, will they continue to do so for their personal benefit?

What do you think?

I’ve had some discussions lately about the changing landscape and the need for social media for brands as well as who is the “right person” for the job of managing the social media campaign. Is it the advertising agency? The PR agency? A whole new type of agency or specialist that has yet to emerge?

Andy Sernovitz, contributing writer for the Smart Blog on Social Media has a great take on this and who he think should be running the social media world: PR executives. As Andy says, “PR executives make the best social media executives. There is a similar mindset. Traditional media relations requires finding the right influencers, building trust, and sharing credible, relevant stories. Translating those actions to social media — replacing reporters with the bigger community — is exactly how to run a great social media program.”

In one way, I obviously agree with Andy. Yes, I am a PR person now working on social media campaigns so it’s definitely refreshing to see the industry encouraging PR to manage these new objectives. In my opinion, PR people have the upper hand when it comes to getting social media. We’re ahead of the game (disclosure: this is for some PR folks, obviously there are the strays that don’t do this well.) We follow (or try to follow) the rules that make social media successful. And we listen to what is going on around us.

We also fit into the overall scheme of social media methodology:

-Conversation- We have them all day every day. With reporters. Clients. You name it. It’s how we work. With social media, the key to a successful campaign is continuing the conversation. For us, it’s just an extension of what we do.

-Community- Like Andy says, we’re used to finding the right influencers and building a trust with them. We choose wisely who should hear the news and determine how best to announce an important newsworthy piece to the public. We create our own level of influencers within this community.

-Collaboration- We work together to form relationships. While many think that PR people just pitch out a story and hope for the best, many of the talented flacks actually take the time to feedback ideas with a reporter and collaborate on their needs to determine what story angle will work.

But, as social media has changed the way we think, the traditional PR agency will also need to adapt to the new ways of handling these social media requests. While PR may be the right man for the job right now, it’s also important for PR to include others to help get it done. From partnerships with other specialists to new technologies and advancements emerging everyday, the acceptance of all things changing will only help create successful outcomes and ensure social media success.

So there is my take. Will this change? Like everything else lately, of course. It will evolve. There’s an opportunity for many people to get involved in social media. What do you think???