Privacy on the Digital Stage

This week’s theme focuses on Social Media privacy.  Sounds like an oxymoron, right (think “jumbo shrimp”)?  In order to stay current on events and news, network with friends and colleagues, or even hunt for a new job, it’s imperative to have at least one social media account.  

Using myself as reference, I have accounts for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and GooglePlus.  Managing all of these accounts is a task in itself, but there’s also the added stress of ensuring each account’s privacy settings meet Pentagon-like parameters without completely defeating the purpose of being social and fostering engagement.

We shouldn't let privacy concerns completely deter us from using social media, but we should ponder some points of caution when using these tools...

• Site Policy

•  As cumbersome as it may be, review the security policy of the tool you are using.   
• While not all tools opt to sell your information, the tool remains to be a repository of user generated information.   
• Understand how they will use your information and how long they will hold it.  Even deactivated accounts are still technically available and not deleted.

• Purpose of Tool 
• Decide how you want to utilize your social media tool. LinkedIn is typically used for job searching and Facebook for networking with friends.   
• Do you need more than one Facebook account – one for personal use and one for colleagues/acquaintances?   
• Remember, potential employers will Google you to see if you are good fit and those questionable photos and comments you posted to Facebook or Twitter may not reflect your best side.

• Choose Your Contacts Wisely 
• Do you really have 300 friends?  Evaluate who you connect with in these tools and how well you know them.  
•  By posting comments, photos and information to your wall, you could be sharing very personal details with people you aren’t familiar with.

• Be Careful What You Post 
• This ties back to the last two points - how much information is too much? 
• Posting personal details, vacation plans and checking in to locations opens you up to security and safety risks (Kleinberg, 2014). It’s like inviting thieves into your house while you’re not home.   
• Even information you think is private may not be so locked down.  For instance, you may not have your birthday displayed in your Facebook profile, but close friends sending you birthday wishes offer easy bait to phishers. 

• Set It, But Don’t Forget It 
•  While it’s important to set account settings for privacy, it’s equally as important to re-check your account settings from time to time to ensure said Pentagon-like parameters still exist. 
• Software updates for these tools are rolled out periodically which can alter settings.  Additionally several of these tools have been in the news recently for comprises to their privacy policy (Troni, 2012).

Don't let privacy concerns scare you away from using social media. There will always be phishing scams, thieves, etc., but you can set precautions to avoid falling victim to privacy issues. There are perks to using these tools too. 

Be aware. Be smart. Be Cautious.

References:

Kleinberg, Scott (January 30, 2014). Don’t Expose Yourself So Much on Social Media.  Chicago Tribune.  Retrieved from:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/life/ct-social-media-privacy-20140130,0,6538726.story 

Troni, Naomi (April 24, 2012). Social Media Privacy: A Contradiction in Terms?  Forbes Magazine.  Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/onmarketing/2012/04/24/social-media-privacy-a-contradiction-in-terms

"What is Privacy" image sourced from: http://blog.torrentprivacy.com/2012/10/privacy-in-social-media

"You Are What You Publish: Building Your Marketing and PR Plan"

With the continued growth of social media comes the need for organizations to build stronger Marketing and PR Plans to connect better with their consumers.  This raises several points of clarification for Marketers which include, but are not limited to:

• Defining the organization’s goals
• Identifying buyer personas and their profiles
• Importance of buyer personas and what are they saying about you
• Determining what you want your buyers to believe
• Developing content to reach your buyers
• Measuring success

 

Defining Goals:

Seems pretty simple and rudimentary, but step one includes meeting with team leaders to define what goals your business wishes to reach.  Is your goal to increase revenues, the number of Facebook Likes on your brand page or grow market share in your product category? Connecting with PR to understand their goals for the organization helps to align Marketing on what goals they should focus their attention for synergizing plans.

Buyer Personas:

Typically a specific target audience is defined and the marketing plan is geared to that target range.  In Chapter 11 Scott points out that “Building buyer personas is the first step and probably the single most important thing that you will do in creating your marketing and PR plan.”  (Scott, 2012, p.165)  He goes on to discuss that these personas should be segmented so that appropriate marketing efforts are effective in connecting with them.  Building profiles for each of these personas allows Marketers uncover the buyer’s background, their interests/habits/behaviors and provide insight into how they can develop a resolution to meet their needs.

Buyer Personas – Web Marketing / What Are They Saying About You:

Marketers can be guilty of using a one-size-fits-all approach in reaching their audience. By identifying and segmenting buyer personas we begin to understand how they become aware of your product or service and how they research your organization.  Having a generic brand website may not speak to them and it may not even be a resource they use to research your organization.  Take for instance, the Nikon / B&H example discussed in Chapter 4 – those consumers went straight to the blog to air concerns and issues (Scott, 2012).  We need to consider how these personas are researching your organization and what lingo and/or search terms they use when researching your organization.

What Do You Want Your Buyers to Believe?

                So now the dots are connecting…we’ve identified goals, personas and segments and what buyers are saying about your organization.  Next, we need continue our understanding of these buyers and determine what we want them to believe about our organization.  For example, does Volvo want to sell a car, safety or both?  Does Gatorade want to solve dehydration for athletes only, or do they want to solve for dehydration caused by overindulging in cocktails?  This segues into our next point…

Develop Content to Reach Buyers:

                Scott uses the example of creating a robust website for content development to reach buyers.  If the organization is successful in following the aforementioned steps so far, it is possible to still create one website that addresses various persona segments by integrating links, pages, forums and other tools to connect with each persona segment.  The same holds true for using specific social networking tools to reach persona segments based on how they seek out your organization (i.e. Facebook vs. Pinterest).

Measuring Success:

                This all ties back to the first step in determining your goals.  Did following these steps allow you to meet your goals? Scott recaps seven things organizations can measure, briefly described below:

1. Quantity of people participating in on-line efforts (i.e. Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers, Blog Subscribers). 
2. Quantity of people downloading your stuff (i.e. presentation decks, videos, podcasts) 
3. Frequency of bloggers writing about your organization.
4. Blogger content – what are they saying? 
5. Search – where does your organization appear (i.e. what phrases, search terms)?
6. Contact Volume – quantity of people engaging with you (i.e. contact us forms). 
7. Are you meeting your goals (typically ties back to financial goals)

REFERENCES:

Scott, David Meerman (2013-06-19). The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly. Wiley. Kindle Edition.

Twitter: Can it Match Facebook's Growth Trend?

For someone like me who doesn't quite appreciate the allure of Twitter, I found this WSJ article to be an interesting look into the usage and growth of Twitter users. At the end of the day, Facebook is still clearly the winner with total number of users and a growth spurt that no other social media tool has been able to match.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303874504579373140762757688?mod=dist_smartbrief

*Source: WSJ.com

Brand Advocacy 101: Influencing for Beginners

We've all been a brand advocate at some point or another, but how much influence do you really have on a brand's success?  Here Reebok discusses how they choose brand advocates and integrate them into their overall communication strategy.  Ben Cobb from Reebok does a great job of laying a very simple foundation of how they not only achieve consumer engagement, but how they reinforce emotional relationships with their brand.  

As he notes, it's not always about partnering with a celebrity, it's more about identifying authentic fans of the brand who have the power to influence consumers and drive that same passion for the brand.  

Several key take away points for effectively influencing covered in his presentation:
  

• Determine what and who you are trying to influence 
• Find the right partners 
• Activate them the right way

http://wordofmouth.org/blog/video-how-reebok-finds-the-right-brand-advocates

 Happy reading until we blog again...

Week 3 - The Strategic Communication Imperative

In a corporate climate where communications are multifaceted and roles are over-lapping within an organization, I agree that Argenti, Howell, and Beck’s characterization of communication as part of an organization’s overall strategy is key to the organization’s success.  The integration of roles should be considered when we think about developing communications because we sometimes need clarity on what messaging the various roles will be disseminating.  Gaining clarity such as this is beneficial and should come from leadership so that the organization is aligned on their overall goals and objectives.

Chapter 18 of Socialnomics covers a question top executives often ask, where and how “social media be structured within an organization?” (Qualman, 2012, p. 267).  While it’s impossible to provide a “one size fits all” strategy, there is an overarching theme in the various cases presented by Argenti, Howell, and Beck that the communications be clear, concise and honest. However, there is a fine balance with the level of control and balance senior leadership allows the organization to have with communicating and engaging with various levels inside and outside of the organization. The level of regulation the organization is required to follow will help provide guidance on how they should be communicating, at what level, to which audience and via the most appropriate channel of traditional and/or social media.  

With regards to how this characterization applies to Marketing, Advertising and IMC, there is a similar strategic planning process across all of these elements that Argenti, Howell, and Beck describes; one of which discusses selecting the appropriate target audience.  From there, any of these elements can determine how that target makes decisions so that they can best position their marketing strategy, harmonize communication and create synergies across the various media outlets and social media tools (Percy, 2012, p.439).  

A prime example of integrating a strategic communication plan with marketing elements is Dell’s strategy of encouraging employee sharing via blogs, inviting customers to join Michael Dell in Google+ hangouts for feedback, and crowdsourcing for insights from influential users (Breakenridge, 2008).

REFERENCES:

Breakenridge, D. (2012). Social Media and Public Relations Eight New Practices for the PR Professional.  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Pearson Education, Inc.

Percy, Larry (2008) Strategic Integrated Marketing Communications (Kindle Locations 439-441). Burlington, MA:  Elsevier, Inc. Kindle Edition

Qualman, Erik (2012-11-09). Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business (p. 267). Wiley. Kindle Edition.