THE GOAL

Simply creating buzz should not be the end goal for ramping up PR efforts. In the past, the end goal of public relations for brands may have been limited to raising brand awareness, but as the digital age has caused a  major shift in how we satisfy consumer appetites, the goal of public relations, as with most all marketing disciplines, has evolved into a focus on building brand loyalty and fostering brand ambassadorship — and this can’t be accomplished by sending out a press release and landing a few stories. To connect, consumers want to “know” their brands, and to know that their brands “know” and understand who they are as well.

When searching for a PR partner, the most important thing to know about prospective agencies is what tools they have in their toolbox that will fully-optimize your efforts to connect.  And beware, if they’re only speaking in terms of media relations and getting media coverage, it may generate some buzz, but may leave behind many opportunities to create deeper, lasting and more meaningful connections with your target audience. You want your consumer to not only buzz about you for a moment, but to fully engage with what your brand means for their life. Your prospective agency should understand and communicate this unprompted.

THE SEARCH

The search for a PR agency can be a daunting task. Depending on your organization, it can be as involved as putting out a Request for Proposal, or as simple as scrolling through your contacts for referrals. Let’s say you go the referral route, which is quite common. It may go something like this:

One colleague recommends Agency A, and says, “These guys got us a ton of media coverage for our [insert campaign -- product launch, store opening, new pricing model, etc.]. You should call them!”

Another colleague recommends you meet with Agency B, and tells you that they did all their social media marketing, set up an e-newsletter campaign for them, started tweeting for them and got thousands of new followers and 3,300 new “Likes” on Facebook.

Yet another colleague suggests you reach out to Agency C, and says,  ”I don’t know if these guys do PR, but they helped us get our website up to speed and SEO-friendly; now we’ve got all the right keywords, and a digital newsroom and a blog and we’re getting tons more traffic to our site.”

All of these options sound great―and the truth is, all of them are―but what you need to know is that they don’t have to be, and shouldn’t be, mutually exclusive of one another. A good PR firm designs strategies that deliver across all of these platforms to accomplish the goals of creating loyal consumers that tell their friends about your brand.

THE ANSWER

Today, digital public relations is public relations and it’s defined by a strategy that seamlessly incorporates traditional PR and media relations with social media and content marketing, which are all anchored by a good search program.  In digital PR, these elements are not executed in silos. In fact, it is critical that they work together in order to achieve the desired results. If your prospective PR partner is not integrating, than they haven’t fully optimized what PR can do for your brand.

And just because an agency does traditional PR, social media and adds links to your press releases doesn’t mean they’ve adopted a fully-integrated, holistic approach. When you listen closely to how capabilities are described, do they speak about each one independently of the other? If so, you’ll have a sense of any silos that might impede getting the most from your PR effort. Finally, there are few questions that you can ask that will help you determine if the agency is using an integrated approach:

• What is your philosophy on how to approach PR? Has, or how has, that philosophy evolved in the digital age?

• How are you integrating traditional PR with social media, content marketing and SEO? Provide examples of how you have executed this approach for a client.

• Does your team have the expertise in-house to carry out a fully-integrated approach, or are there strategic partners you work with to help execute certain elements?

• How are you currently integrating SEO best practices into your traditional PR efforts?

• How are your account teams structured and what role does each member play? The goal here is to find out if account teams include a good mix of contributors who specialize in each discipline, but work together on execution.

In time, it’s likely the “digital” will drop off of the moniker “digital PR.” It’s kind of like saying flat screen TV.  Do we really need to describe them as flat screen anymore? No, it’s just a TV.  And now, “digital PR” is just what PR is.

To learn more about how digital PR can boost your organization’s PR efforts, contact the Marketing Zen Group and we’ll connect you with a team of PR integration specialists that can help fully-optimize your target market outreach for greater brand loyalty and enthusiastic ambassadors.

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Our internships are unpaid, but highly-competitive and can be used for college credit. And we’re more than happy to provide letters of recommendations for your good work upon completion. And did we mention our internships are virtual? You’ll work from home….in your PJs if you’d like!

Content Writer & Community Engagement Intern  (SEO Dept.)

Are you a creative, resourceful, error-free writer? Are you able to work with a steep learning curve and take independent initiative? Are you eager to learn about the ever-evolving Search Engine Optimization (SEO) industry? Then you may be a fit for our content writer/community engagement internship. The intern will work under the supervision of the Search Engine Department, and tasks will include everything from content composition to digital relationship building. Although we do prefer previous internship experience or academic experiences in journalism, marketing, editing, and creative writing, it’s not required. If you crave a creative, challenging work environment, and know you can bring dependable work ethic and a collaborative personality to the MZ family, show us what you’ve got! Send a resume, cover letter and two writing samples to Kelsey@marketingzen.com.

Marketing Zen Web Content Internship (Summer 2013 Term)

Do you love to write? Does it make you cringe when you see someone slaughter a sentence using poor grammar? Do you have a knack for research?  If you are a writer who enjoys deadlines and can write on diverse subjects with ease, keep reading.

We’re looking for a virtual writing intern for the summer of 2013. You will help to produce web content for a diverse group of clients and assist with developing blog content, whitepapers, bios, newsletters and more. You’ll also work closely with the SEO and SMM teams to coordinate these efforts and learn the important role each element plays in our marketing strategy and planning.

To qualify, you must have a Bachelors degree (or working towards a degree) in Communications or Marketing,  excellent writing and research skills, experience writing various types of copy, be deadline driven and have the ability to produce quality content quickly.
We need someone who is available to work part-time (15 hours/week) for the summer term. If you believe that you are the right fit for this internship, PITCH us on why we should hire you. Send an email to Rilee at rilee@marketingzen.com with your resume and two relevant writing samples, along with a brief description of why you believe you are a good fit for this position.

Research and Admin Internship

Do you enjoy conducting research? Are you reliable, self-motivated and eager to learn? If so, you may be interested in applying for our research and administrative internship with MZ’s VP of client relations. Your role will be to conduct research and create documents, assist in developing marketing strategy for our clients as well as help to manage internal communication and organization workflow.

You definitely won’t be fetching coffee or dry cleaning, but rather working on real projects that matter and help our clients reach their digital marketing goals.

To qualify, you must be currently enrolled in college and classified at the sophomore level or higher. You must have demonstrated administrative skills, must possess excellent, intermediate level or better computer skills, strong analytical skills and be detail-oriented. Please submit resume and cover letter to info@marketingzen.com.

About us

The Marketing Zen Group is a full-service online marketing and digital PR firm dedicated to providing strategy and implementation services for businesses, organizations, and non-profits looking to fully leverage the Internet. With headquarters in Dallas, Texas, the Marketing Zen Group is a virtual, global company employing 30 people around the world.

As digital technology advances, and smarter, more sophisticated devices are at the finger tips of the average consumer, McKinsey and Company predicts four areas of demand that marketers will need to satisfy:

Now:   Consumers will want to interact anywhere at any time.

Can I: They will want to do truly new things as disparate kinds of information (from financial accounts to data on physical activity) are deployed more effectively in ways that create value for them.

For me:  They will expect all data stored about them to be targeted precisely to their needs or used to personalize what they experience.

Simply: They will expect all interactions to be easy.

To paint a picture of what this might look like, imagine a consumer purchases a monitoring device from a sporting goods store to help her keep track of miles ran and calories burned. She then is able to tap her device to her friend’s and access her friend’s information for data comparison and maybe a little friendly competition.  Now imagine that device shows her an offer for a free sports drink at the convenient store that’s near the end of her run route. That offer is redeemed when she taps it in the store. An additional offer might encourage her to share the link along with a pic of her with the sports drink to her Facebook page; the link would provide a free drink to any of her Facebook friends who clicked on it.

You can see in this rough illustration how the “Now”, the “Can I”, the “For me,” and the “Simple” demands are all met with highly-relevant messages that are seamlessly interwoven into the complete experience without the consumer having to take in or do any more or any less than she wants. Her personal choices are what drive the messaging she receives.

The ramifications of this on-demand marketing extend far beyond goals and  initiatives set forth by CMOs. This level of consumer engagement requires an intense level of collaboration across all fronts. Marketing and all of its supporting disciplines, must integrate its work with CRM functions of the organizations, CRM functions must coordinate with e-commerce, e-commerce with financial and legal and analytics — all areas that historically, have not necessarily had to maintain symbiotic relationships. In fact, traditional departmental roles and functions may need to be redefined altogether. And while there may be some time before entities outside of marketing have to prepare for the digital consumer at this level, for marketers this work starts right now.

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In case you missed the announcement, Facebook Partner Categories allow brands on the social network to get ads in front of targeted users based on their activity across the Web, through desktop and/or mobile, plus their offline purchases and tendencies. Previously, targeting was based on users’ Facebook activity. Moreover, all of this is powered by data provided by market research heavyweights Datalogix, Epsilon, Acxiom and Blue Kai.

Partner Categories are a gold mine for advertisers because it provides significantly more detail about where to place ads and the users they should target.  Advertisers who target more will have access to more information than those who target less, thus  increasing the opportunity to achieve higher ROI.

Most small businesses never have access to the kind of  budget-busting, yet invaluable market data that these Partner Categories provide. They can now create highly-relevant and efficient campaigns that reach the people that actually care about their product or service.

How it works

Partner categories divides users into one of 500 categories, like “Foodies”, “Fashionistas” or “Game Geeks”. They can be further segmented into categories such as,  ”Occupations” and “Lifestyle.” You can drill down even more to find out information like what kind of cars they drive and what kind of breakfast cereal they purchase.  Location-specific data enables you to then target desired geographic areas. What this all means is that efforts can be concentrated on the people that can relate and are the most open to your message. Additionally, companies don’t have to pay for the pricey data and then pay to develop the campaign on top of that.

Of course, certain segments and certain categories will be more popular. But small businesses won’t have to worry about bidding wars; they will be able to use their money on a different, less expensive category that will still be relevant and effective for their outreach.

The Bottom Line

The net of it is that the Facebook Partner categories will allow small businesses to further define and target their customers using data typically reserved for the big guys with the deep pockets. And for that, we have to say thank you to Facebook — the gift that keeps on giving to little fish swimming in big ponds.

And for the record, as with other targeting services on Facebook, users can always opt out of seeing ads from certain advertisers, or from getting any ads at all.

Need help figuring out how best to leverage Facebook Partner Categories to reach your target customers? Contact the Marketing Zen Group and we’ll get you connected with our team of savvy online marketers to get you going.

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Information Sources

Facebook  Launches  Partner  Categories

How to Target Facebook Ads Based on Purchase History, Lifestyles and More

Small Business Wins Big with Facebook’s New Targeting

You’re not alone. Many companies struggle to find the sweet spot in content creation. But if you listen closely, your audience is telling you what they want to hear. Deliver it, and you’ll see your online community start to take shape.

First understand what moves your audience

If you don’t have a deep understanding of who your audience is then you’ll have a difficult time figuring out what motivates them to act. Chances are you have a general idea of who your targets are, but  it’s important to drill down to their demographic characteristics as well as their psychographics. Know what their passions are and where their pain is, and start conversations around these drivers.

For example, if you run a kids taxi service for moms, take the time to consider what this group values (friends and family), what their fears may be (a child getting hurt or being harmed), what types of things makes them happy (girls’ night out or alone time), what makes their lives easier (easy, fast, healthy meals that the whole family actually enjoys). The answers to these questions will give you an idea of what type of content to provide — insightful personal or professional growth articles, child safety tips, around-the-town event calendars, special promotions at area day spas, recipes.  See how that works? You’re showing your audience that you “get” them and  empathy  goes a long way in gaining consumer loyalty.

Then make your content “share-alicous”

Once you’ve determined the kind of content that will appeal to your audience it’s important that you consider how short attention spans are in the world of social.  You have mere seconds to catch your targets’ attention, so make it short and make it sweet. Think “sound bites”, bullet points, short lists, images, short video, slides,  irresistible nuggets of truth, brilliant little informational take-aways.  We like to call this kind of content, “share-alicious” — you can digest it quickly and easily and it’s too good not to pass along.

Consider all the information that came across your own social feeds today. Of that information, think about what you, in turn, shared with your friends or network. What made you share it? Was it helpful to you in some way and you knew others in your network would benefit from it as well? Was it funny? Was it cautionary? Was it informative? And don’t forget SEO here. Remember your keywords when creating content. The more people that see your content, the more you’re likely to have join in your community.

And remember to be a person, not a machine

Perhaps one of the most important elements in building an online community is to act like a human being and not a robot that spits out information and posts it. Engage your audience. Respond to comments in a way that’s natural and conversational. As a general rule, you don’t want to be offensive or inappropriate, but certainly showcase your brand’s personality — considering that of your audience — and share updates as if you’re talking with a friend. Give them something they can connect with.

Focus not on all the things that you’d like to say about your product or service, but on what your audience deeply cares about. Then, take your applicable industry knowledge and share it with them. They will come to value and regularly seek out your expertise. And don’t be afraid to take risks. Offer views that may go against the grain, but set you apart from your competition.

It must be said that these practices have to be anchored by overall goals and comprehensive strategy and planning in order to experience full benefits.  And you will also need an execution team. The online community experts at the Marketing Zen Group can help. Contact us and we can get your community building started right away.

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A couple of weeks ago, Kelsey Lehnertz and Marketing Zen helped me and Powered by Search out with an awesome, practical post on which 3 tools SEO experts would use if they couldn’t use any other tool. Out of that one project this one flourished: SEO Poetry!

I pitched a couple of extremely excited friends and partners from other companies in the niche: Could you pretty please write me a Haiku or a Limerick about SEO?

Though I was excited about the idea (compliments of one of my colleagues, Marc Nashaat, thanks Marc!) I still hadn’t expected the great result. It was fun seeing the poems come in or who the poem-writing was delegated to and imagining how that process went; Hey, Powered by Search wants a Haiku! Who’s our company poet?

Laura Atkins bullied Steve Atkins into writing theirs; James Agate immediately went to Anthony Pensabene. Kelsey says she wrote Marketing Zen’s limerick but it’s too good not to have had editors!

And because of this excitement, before I let you get into reading through some awesome poetry from the likes of Mashable, Yoast and even our own Powered by Search’s poetry division, I pose to you, the reader, a challenge. I want to see your Haikus under the Twitter tag #SEOPoetry, and your Limericks on Google+ under #SEOPoetry as well!

Again I want to thank Kelsey Lehnertz and Marketing Zen for letting Powered by Search and I abuse the Zen of their website for this article. I especially want to thank all of the wonderful, creative people who sent me poetry knowing that I was going to expose it to the cold, uncaring warm hearts of all of you readers.

Without further ado, some poetry!

Tamar Weinberg, Mashable

SEO is a great little tool
You can get found online - it's cool.
 Once you are ranked
 You money is banked
And your competitors will come out being fools.

Jeremy Rivera, Raven Tools

Get On Google Plus
 Shares, and Plusses impact SERPs
  Not just for Geeks now

Thijs De Valk, Yoast

Ranking in Google is what you want
Your website number 1 just to flaunt
 More traffic from search
 Do you feel the urge
To be out of stock from demand

Kelsey Lehnertz, Marketing Zen

Authority inspires SEOs to stand tall.
Google spiders yearning to seamlessly crawl.
 Persistence, though valuable, may cause fatigue.
 Staying true to relevancy and human intrigue.
Alas, quality link building - Let's throw a ball!

Alessio Madeyski, alessiomadeyski.com

SEO is not dead
SEOs are alive and well
Complain less and do more
Use some magic and be strong.

Matthew Gratt, BuzzStream

Google is Fickle
 But I am like a ninja
  Search dominance soon

Tadeusz Szewczyk, OnReact

when building links
 remember the foundation
  are people

Viktar Khamianok, Link-Assistant

A man from the island of Cryse
Could not pay the AdWords price
 He tried SEO
 And his pizza - whoo-ho -
Now sells at 10 dollars per slice

Alexandra Shkalikova, WebMeUp

Don't cover your backs
 With one anchor - Penguin pecks
  Google birds are angry

Marc Nashaat, Powered by Search

Below the fold
 Away from eyes
  if this is you it's your demise

Steve Atkins, Word to the Wise

This SEO bard, rhapsodist
Jongleur, composer, lyricist
 Author, versifier,
 Writer and rimer
Also a poet. That's the gist.

Ian Lurie, Portent

A CEO named Frank was sad,
Profits were down and sales were bad.

The web site in wilderness languished,
The marketing team was anguished.

They needed a boost RIGHT NOW,
Or they were headed for a big boardroom row.

"SEO!" said one brilliant woman,
And soon the business was boomin'.

Their widgets they sold left and right,
Their ROI was flat outta sight!

So remember, everyone, don't panic.
Keep an eye on your traffic organic.

On visibility and relevance focus,
You'll see SEO ain't hocus pocus.

Anthony Pensabene, Skyrocket SEO

There was a young man from England
who dreamed of good link intention.
 He invoked his insight
 with posts epicly tight.
Now, clients’ sites optimized right.

I hope you’re inspired! Remember to add your own SEO Haikus on Twitter and Limericks on Google+ under the hashtag #SEOPoetry!

About the Author: I go by Troy “Fawkes” Boileau and I’m a SEO & Inbound Marketing Consultant at Powered by Search, a successful and quickly growing Toronto SEO agency. I enjoy meeting new people, content marketing and working on exciting projects. I would love to hear from you if you have any other fun ideas!

Each year, HubSpot releases an annual report on the state of inbound marketing.  Their findings are widely used by marketers around the world to set strategy, tweak methodologies and create new tactics.  HubSpot enlists the help of a broad marketing community to help gather insights and share the lessons they’ve learned. The research they have compiled in this year’s report — their 5th annual — uncovered several interesting and surprising facts about inbound marketing. Here are excerpts highlighting the ones we found most interesting:

Inbound marketing has achieved a majority market share

The majority of marketers have embraced inbound strategies. In 2013, 60% of companies have adopted some element of the inbound methodology into their overall strategy.

Amid rapid growth, some marketers still struggle to define “inbound marketing”

According to our survey results, the industry still suffers from some educational gaps. While the rapid growth we have witnessed to date is impressive – 60% of marketers have currently adopted inbound strategies – there is still room for growth, as an additional 19% of marketers are unsure whether to characterize their marketing activities as “inbound”.  As the industry matures, and more marketers become educated on the inbound methodology, we expect this confusion to abate.

Executives and sales functions not quite buying in to inbound marketing

While most marketers say they do inbound, when it comes to allocating resources, only 17% of sales teams and 11% of company executives lend their full support to inbound marketing efforts. To ensure inbound marketing’s long-term success, it needs to move beyond a marketing focused tactic and gain larger support and endorsement company-wide.

B2C companies are slightly more concerned with reaching the right customers than are B2B companies

This data makes sense in light of consumer-facing marketers’ keen customer emphasis, as B2C companies were 20% more likely to be customer-focused than their B2B counterparts. Reaching the right audience is a primary concern internationally. More than 23% of international respondents report this metric to be the top priority, followed by converting leads to customers and increasing lead volume, with 22% and 21% of the responses, respectively.

We are in the midst of a growth spurt

Inbound outpaces traditional lead generation in both lead production and spending: Forty-eight percent of marketers plan to increase their inbound marketing spending this year – the third year in a row that inbound budgets are increasing at or near a 50% pace. Executives lead this strong growth, as 53% of CEOs and CMOs increased their 2013 inbound marketing budgets.

(No surprise here!) Social media, SEO, and blogs rank as the top channels to watch in the coming years

Social media and SEO each contribute 14% of marketers’ total pipeline in 2013. According  to marketers, SEO and social media also lead in sales conversions, netting 15% and 13% above average conversion rates in 2013, respectively, while accounting for a combined 23% of all inbound budgets. An additional 21% of marketers report that social media has become more important to their company over the past six months.

If you have questions about how inbound marketing can help your company, contact the Marketing Zen Group and we’ll get you answers.

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Information Source:

HubSpot’s 2013 State of Inbound Marketing Report

Rock star content marketers are sponges

Content marketing is part science and part art. Crafting compelling marketing messages may be something we can learn in a classroom or on the job, but drawing from a number of sources, using varying mediums and curating that information so that it tells one compelling story requires an “eyes-wide-open” personality type.

Great content marketers are constantly soaking in information that impacts their story no matter the source. It could be a conversation overheard between moms at a soccer game, or it could even be the logo design they happened to notice on a sign while commuting to the office. The point is, rock star content marketers always work with open minds knowing that everything they absorb as they move through life has potential to become a part of their marketing strategy.

Rocks star content marketers “feel” a lot

If you study brands that are making the most of content marketing you can almost feel the rhythm in what they’re doing. Great content marketers are in step with their audience. They know — because they have the ability to see the world through the eyes of other people — what feels good, what feels right and when it feels good and right to their audience.

They understand the cadence with which their targets take in information. They “get” what message should hit first, second, then third. They also get what messages connect in 140 characters versus the ones that connect as a status update, image, video or blog post. And when those messages come together and are delivered, it’s like a good song — you don’t mean to start dancing, but you’re compelled to move.

Rock star content marketers think like artists, but with the sensibilities of a news reporter

Superior content marketers are visual. They understand the impact a great image can have on target audiences. They know that certain colors evoke certain feelings and they get that a beautiful design or layout that appeals to the eye are all elements that can be extremely persuasive. Many of them even approach their work as if they’re starting with a canvas and their job is to paint a picture that’s going to tell a great story. Their artistic approach, however, doesn’t stand alone.

Rock star content marketers, like news reporters, understand story angles.  Consumers are bombarded with a ton of information, good content marketers know how to hone the messages that reverberate, persuade and inspire their targets.

Want more information about how your company can use content marketing to better connect with your audience? Contact the Marketing Zen Group and we’ll get you connected with our team of rock star content marketers.

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Fast forward to yesterday. Breaking news alerts start popping up: Explosions heard near the Boston Marathon finish line. But initially, there’s not much more information available. And much like during 9/11 several news sites weren’t loading including Bostonglobe.com. Next stop: Twitter — arguably the best source for breaking news.

The dissemination of news through the media is a public service that we rely on to stay looped in to events impacting our lives and world. But advances in mobile technology coupled with myriad status sharing applications like Twitter have allowed an increasing number of individuals and maybe even your company’s social media manager to emerge as citizen journalists enabling us to get news real-time from an almost unlimited number of sources.  That said, since your company may find itself with a unique opportunity to share breaking news, it’s important to keep in mind some of the basic rules of journalism.

Focus on the Facts

Good reporters know how to focus on the facts. Remember, your tweet may be the first time one of your followers is hearing this news. Be careful not to sensationalize or cause unnecessary alarm. For example, in the early news reports of the Boston attack, many journalists avoided using specific terms such as “terrorism” and “bombs” until all the facts were in. Tweeting only what you know for sure about the situation will make you a credible source for followers who may not have any other access to the news you’re tweeting.

Share information responsibly

Don’t retweet or share erroneous or unverified information. To the best of your ability share only the news obtained from reliable sources. Retweeting the self-proclaimed “King of Crazee’s” graphic crime scene description is probably not what you want to share with your followers.

Write with respect

When tragedy strikes emotions run high. Extreme anger about the fact that some humans can be so heartless is a common feeling, as well as profound sadness at the loss of life or innocence or our sense of security. All of these emotions are justified, but they don’t give us license to use Twitter to disparage, incite hate or spread rumors. Respect those impacted directly or indirectly by not adding to the hurt with harmful words.

Find your voice

There’s nothing more therapeutic in difficult times than putting our thoughts and feelings into words, which is one of the reasons we love Twitter. It gives companies a voice and provides a forum to share any message you want with your audience. Think about that, and consider how your organization can use your 140 characters for good in a world where there’s lots of bad. When you combine social responsibility with the power of social media great things are bound to happen.

Want more information about how your company can use social media marketing to communicate your good corporate citizenship? We’re happy to help! Contact the Marketing Zen Group and we’ll get you pointed in the right direction.

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Twitter users turned McDonald’s hashtag into a bashtag, using it to promote their own stories about the fast-food giant — and those stories weren’t exactly the happy, endearing tales that the company had hoped for. Here are a few selected by London’s Daily Mail as among the best that appeared on the first day of the campaign:

• @JohnGarrett tweeted: So PETA and McDonald’s got into it today. I was surprised. I didn’t know there was real meat at McDonald’s. #McDStories
• @JKingArt: Lost 50 pounds in 6 months after I stopped working & eating at McDonald’s. #McDStories
• @SkipSullivan: One time I walked into a McDonald’s and I could smell Type 2 Diabetes floating in the air and I threw up. #McDStories

• @PCRM .@McDonalds drops pink goo–but no word on other additives or the high-fat foods themselves. #McDStories
• @Grist McDonald’s discovers social media can backfire when people hate you #McDStories

So many journalists and bloggers used the hashtag as a cautionary tale for readers that McDonald’s social media director Rick Wion issued a formal statement about a week after the hashtag first appeared. Here’s what Wion had to say:

“Last Thursday, we planned to use two different hashtags during a promoted trend – #meetthefarmers and #mcdstories.

“While #meetthefarmers was used for the majority of the day and successful in raising awareness of the Supplier Stories campaign, #mcdstories did not go as planned. We quickly pulled #mcdstories and it was promoted for less than two hours.

“Within an hour of pulling #McDStories the number of conversations about it fell off from a peak of 1600 to a few dozen. It is also important to keep those numbers in perspective. There were 72,788 mentions of McDonald’s overall that day so the traction of #McDStories was a tiny percentage (2%) of that.

“With all social media campaigns, we include contingency plans should the conversation not go as planned. The ability to change midstream helped this small blip from becoming something larger.”

The last paragraph in Wion’s statement is important. Having a contingency plan, and being able to quickly change direction, is critical to planning a social media strategy. Of course, having a social media strategy is critical to social media marketing success. Sadly though, some companies – even some large companies – get themselves into trouble simply because they start tweeting or posting to social media sites without a strategy.

Pay Attention to Avoid a Bashtag                                  

The first lesson that can be learned from what happened to McDonald’s is that companies don’t control social media. Social media users control social media. So if you have unhappy customers, they can easily turn any campaign on its head by turning your hashtag into a “bashtag”.

It is not surprising that companies that treat everyone well – employees, former employees, customers, competitors, vendors – avoid all kinds of social media problems from litigation to damage to their reputation while generating oceans of goodwill. Companies that embark on a social media marketing campaign designed solely to sell products, without giving thought to addressing actual customer service problems, tend to attract problems from vocal social media users.

The take-away lesson here is simple:  Pay attention to your followers, and become aware of their interests. What happened to McDonald’s was highly predictable to anyone outside the company. Who hasn’t told a story about a fast-food disaster or a pet peeve about customer service? Instead of asking people for generic “stories”, a better strategy might have been to ask people to share stories about employees who provided outstanding service, a memorable late-night snack with friends, or a happy family outing at the restaurant.

Putting the hashtag into context, and asking people for specific kinds of stories might have helped. Market research that identified problems and allowed marketing to use Twitter to focus on topics most likely to draw positive comments might have helped more, of course.

Social Media Policies Matter

The second lesson that can be learned from McDonald’s bad experience is that every company needs a social media policy. One thing that happened in the hours after the #McDStories hashtag was introduced is that some current and former McDonald’s employees used it to share their own gripes about bad bosses, working conditions, and even health and safety issues.

Companies that have clear and easy to understand social media policies that are communicated to every employee, from the new part-timer to the executive suite avoid a lot of social media problems. If you are in a regulated industry – as about a third of American businesses are – you are probably very aware of the alphabet soup of regulatory agencies that set rules for what you and your employees can and cannot say in social media, email, or other digital communications.

But even if you don’t fall under regulations like FINRA, FERPA or HIPAA, you’re subject to more general rules from the National Labor Relations Board and the Federal Trade Commission. So having a social media policy is the first step towards compliance – and training all employees in that policy is a big step towards social media success. Why?  Because it tells employees that you’re serious about social media, and shows them how they can become part of the process without fear that they’ll become part of a problem someday.

Planning for Success

Most importantly, whether you’re a multi-national corporation or a local business taking its first steps into social media, your social media marketing strategy needs to be built around a solid plan. The plan starts with plain-English objectives, outlines the strategies and tactics you will use to meet those objectives, and the measurement criteria or analytics you’ll use to measure your success.

If you need some help getting started with your social media and digital marketing plan, download our free online marketing plan for growth-oriented business. Or give us a call. We’re always happy to help.