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How to Avoid Social Media Posts
That Cause Brand Damage
Ensuring your online conversations are
relevant and valuable
Created by Mike Danielson
DIRECTOR - HEALTH & MEDICAL DIVISON
info@mediarelations.com
P 612.798.7200
F 612.798.7272
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Executive Summary
This year, marketers will spend an estimated $716 million on social media marketing. Social media’s
collaborative nature brings both unprecedented opportunities in terms of brand marketing and
moving the audience closer to making a purchase, but also significant challenges. Used incorrectly, social media marketing can damage a brand.
Social media is a
fundamental shift
in the way we
communicate.
Old-guard marketing gurus with their salesmanship mentalities, as well as fresh-out-of-college
apprentices, often fail to understand the frailty of social media marketing. In stark contrast with
the historically hyped-up and pushy way of approaching customers in the past, social media requires
a kid-glove approach.
It is helpful to understand the lessons of traditional media and to look at social media through the
same lens. When that is done, proper business etiquette for social media will become quite
clear.
The gatekeepers of traditional media outlets will not tolerate commercialized messages. There are
specific guidelines for creating social media posts that appeal to the audience. When building a
social media marketing plan, it would be wise for businesses to follow similar specifications that
media gatekeepers do. If you ambush your followers with self-serving or ill-suited posts, there is
a real risk they will turn their backs on you.
Branding opportunity and danger await you in social
media
With more than
74 percent of
Americans now
using social media,
businesses are
realizing that they
need to jump into
the conversations.
Social media is a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. Its immediacy and sheer size
provides businesses with a substantial marketing framework. Consequently, the surge in popularity of sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, as well as blogs, has sparked new interest and
urgency among companies rushing to develop content.
With more than 74 percent of Americans now using social media, businesses are realizing that
they need to jump into the conversations. Unlike paid ads, social media isn’t about talking at
customers. Rather, it’s about cultivating a dialogue so that you can create even more relevant
marketing messages.[1]
Because consumers are now part of the dialogue and not merely recipients of the messages, social
media’s collaborative nature brings both unprecedented opportunities and challenges. Dell reportedly made $3 million using Twitter, but it’s not just the technology companies capitalizing on
this emerging promotional channel. The chance for real-time feedback is attracting a variety of
industries, including big pharmaceutical companies, who want to engage their audience and listen
to what their consumers have to say.[2]
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The key to successful development of social media, just as in traditional media, is engaging and
persuasive content. Understanding your target markets and their issues means actively listening
and participating in their online discussions. Using social media in a purposeful way also means
posting content that is intended to influence people’s opinions of your company and its offerings.
Think of some of the world’s healthiest corporations. Most of them are heavily involved with social
media marketing. It’s not surprising that Starbucks, Dell and Amazon were among the top 100
brands most mentioned on Twitter.[3]
The key to successful
development of
social media, just
as in traditional
media, is engaging
and persuasive
content.
Every day, social media is deluged with content. There are 13 hours of video uploaded to YouTube,
for example, every minute of the day.[4] This information is not just “out there”— it is being viewed.
An incredible 77 percent of active Internet users read blogs.[5]
This year, marketers will spend an estimated $716 million on social media marketing. According
to a survey by b2bonline.com, 66 percent of e-mail marketers plan to integrate their e-mail promotions with social media strategies.[6]
Brand managers must practice proper social
media communication etiquette
The primary promotional channels are: Advertising, Personal Selling, Publicity and Sales Promotions. Social media falls under publicity. Historically, publicity is the least used and least understood
promotional channel. The reason for this is its uncontrollable nature. With the other channels —
Advertising, Personal Selling, and Sales Promotions — marketers dictate exactly what the communication will say.
The barriers to entry into the media used to be high. Costs and obstacles such as obtaining broadcasting licenses, purchasing printing presses, and paying for distribution allowed the established
media to retain a tight grip on the industry. As the Internet came on the scene that change quickly.
Anyone and everyone has become a publisher and broadcaster. In a sense, by their presence, it’s
the public that is dragging businesses into the publicity channel. Marketers need to follow the
herd and the herd is migrating into social media.
What does this mean to marketers and especially brand managers? It means they are moving into
somewhat unfamiliar branding territory. And while social media can become a remarkable branding opportunity, businesses need to be careful. Used incorrectly, social media marketing can do
more brand damage than good. This is why it is essential that a company’s brand manager be
primarily concerned with proper etiquette for social media communication. The brand manager
needs to be diligent in ascertaining that social media posts shape the brand exactly the way they
intend. Not an easy job considering both the newness and the uncontrollable nature of the
medium.
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A brand is the
definition that
consumers hold
in their minds of a
company and its
offerings.
For the purpose of this White Paper, let’s quickly examine the meaning of the word brand. The
term “brand” is used in many different ways. According to William M. Pride and O.C. Ferrell, coauthors of Marketing: Basic Concepts and Decisions, the term “brand” refers to a name, symbol,
design, or a combination of the four that identifies a seller’s products and differentiates them from
competitor’s products.[7] Surprisingly, most other marketing textbooks echo the same incorrect
definition.
A brand is not a name, term, symbol or design, and it is also not the company, product or service
they offer. A brand is the definition that consumers hold in their minds of a company and its offerings. The brand is shaped in two ways: first by what people are told and second by their personal experience with the company and its offerings. If a brand is thought of as a definition that
needs to be intentionally shaped, the influence social media can have on a brand becomes urgently apparent.
Communicating without offending
The casual atmosphere of social media is in stark contrast with the historically hyped-up and pushy
way businesses have approached customers in the past. Advertising and Personal Selling, two
primary and ubiquitous promotional channels, grew up using “in your face” sales tactics that served
businesses well for more than a century. But as the public adapts to new communication channels
and becomes increasingly resistant to old-school advertising methods, consumers are increasingly regarding any even remotely pushy tactics as outdated and offensive.
As businesses insert
themselves and
their offerings into
social media outlets
numerous things
can go wrong.
This “kid glove” approach to marketing can be counter to the personalities of top management,
including marketing directors. They live, breath and believe in their products with a passion that
isn’t always shared by the public. While their overly enthusiastic attitude is desirable when communicating within the context of the physical business and even traditional promotional channels,
it can be seen as abrasive and obnoxious in the world of social media.
As businesses insert themselves and their offerings into social media outlets numerous things can
go wrong. A common problem for many businesses today is old-guard marketing gurus with
salesmanship mentalities who don’t completely understand the frailness of social media. They
tend to overload their audience with sales-filled posts. Another equally brand-damaging problem
is to pass off the social media responsibility to novice, fresh-out-of-college apprentices. Because
the world of social media is accelerating at an incredible pace, old-guard marketers often incorrectly choose to put their trust in young folks rather than try to keep up with the social media
technology themselves. The problem with that is while these younger employees may have user
knowledge and a deep understand of how social media operates, they have little to no experience
in an area where the old guard are experts. Too often young people make the mistake of filling
posts with content that is useless in the scope of marketing and does nothing to move the audience closer to making a purchase.
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It helps to think like a member of the old media
A shortcut to understanding the marketing rules for the “new media” is to examine the marketing
rules for the “old media.” Whether a diehard salesman at heart or a recently graduated amateur, if
one can understand the lessons of traditional media and look at social media through the same
lens, proper business etiquette for social media will become quite clear. To counter the aggressive
promotional habits that have been engrained in the U.S. business culture, marketers need to adopt
a social media marketing strategy that is “heavy on the social and light on the pushy,” which in
marketing speak can be translated to “heavy on the problem and light on the solution.”
Social media
provides virtually
unlimited time and
space for posts.
Tackling social media with the “heavy on the problem and light on the solution” approach is the
exact opposite of the tactic used in traditional advertising. In traditional advertising, the product
or service is always approached from the “heavy on the solution and light on the problem” angle.
If a company only has a 30-second TV spot or a 1/8 page ad, this “heavy on the solution” approach
is the sole way to get its point across. These kinds of advertisements illustrate how their product
is the solution, but lack talk about the problem that requires that solution.
Social media provides virtually unlimited time and space for posts. The “heavy on the problem”
strategy is useful here because now the company can wrap relevant content about the problem
around how their product can alleviate it. In providing this knowledge, the company confirms its
position as an industry leader and drives its readers to trust it with their business.
Having generated tens of thousands of product news stories, Lonny Kocina, CEO and Owner of
Kocina Branding & Marketing Companies, understands perfectly the need for the “heavy on the
problem” approach in publicity and social media. For 20 years, our company has been turning sales
messages into high-power publicity stories for clients and their products. “We are challenged
every day with the nearly impossible task of balancing a company’s need to sell with the media’s
need to be non-commercial,” says Kocina. “‘Heavy on the problem and light on the solution’ is the
answer that leads to the thrill of turning advertising messages into news and information.”
The dreaded gatekeepers of the traditional media
Ask any of our publicists and they will tell you that the integrity of the mainstream media is protected by vigilant “gatekeepers.” These gatekeepers are known as editors, reporters, producers, or
anyone in the media responsible for what gets in as a “story” and what doesn’t.
A primary part of a gatekeeper’s job is to shield the station or publication from companies who
would abuse the journalistic integrity of their content and turn it into a venue of self-promotion.
The gatekeepers are always on guard and always on the lookout. It doesn’t matter if you are a
mom-and-pop business or a Fortune 500 CEO, no one messes with the integrity of the content,
and for good reason. Gatekeepers know that the audience will tolerate product promotion as an
ad or a commercial, but turn the content into a sales pitch and the audience will leave and never
come back. Simply put, traditional media outlets will not tolerate commercialized messages. That’s
a good lesson for social marketers to understand.
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This desire to keep business on a short leash leads to an interesting love/hate relationship between
the gatekeepers and companies. On one hand, it’s critical that the gatekeepers prevent the content
from becoming too commercial. On the other hand, they realize that businesses represent a deep
well of potential stories that directly affect their audiences. After all, companies are laser focused
on creating products and services that make people’s lives better in many ways including safer,
more fun, healthier, and richer to name just a few.
A primary part of a
gatekeeper’s job is
to shield the station
or publication from
companies who
would abuse the
journalistic integrity
of their content and
turn it into a venue
of self-promotion.
The gatekeepers’ solution is to set the bar high for businesses if they want to cross the wide black
line between advertising and content. They do this not because that’s what they want, but because
the audience that demands that ads be ads and stories be stories. Reporters and producers know
that not requiring advertisers to clear this bar would result in their audience leaving and the demise
of their outlet. Nothing inconsequential about that.
The importance of gatekeepers in social media
While some characteristics of social media channels are arguably different from the traditional
media, the public’s growing distaste for overly commercial messages remains the same.
When building a social media marketing plan, it would be wise for businesses to follow similar
specifications to those of media gatekeepers. When starting out in the social media, many businesses make the naïve mistake of frivolously posting whatever information they desire on their
blog or networking sites. Finally free of the media gatekeeper’s grasp, these unsuspecting businesses spam their audience with a mishmash of communications that include off-topic or pushy,
sales-heavy posts.
Unfortunately, these businesses are overdue in learning that audiences on social networking
outlets don’t appreciate being approached with advertisements and meaningless tidbits in which
they have no interest. After all, social media is a social platform: people who are using it are there
to be social. If businesses ignore this basic fact or refuse to abide by the social media mores (mores
strictly adhered to by the gatekeepers), the results can be disastrous and they may find out too
late what gatekeepers have known all along—that it is almost impossible to rebuild a fan base
once they have left you.
Posting completely unfiltered content is risky to a brand. Messages that haven’t been sieved
through any sort of gatekeeper are especially perilous because the public is becoming increasingly resistant to nervy sales pitches. If the public shuns ads in a newspaper and commercials on
the radio, why would they voluntarily subject themselves to the same tactics on Facebook, Twitter,
YouTube or a blog? If you ambush your followers with self-serving or ill-suited posts, there is a real
risk they will turn their backs on you. Once again, that is why the media won’t run any story content
that sounds remotely like an ad.
Even though with social media the hard-nosed editor is removed from the picture and now anyone
can reach the public through social media channels, it is imperative to keep this in mind: just
because there isn’t a gatekeeper in place doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be one.
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Different forms of social media gatekeepers
When putting together a social media marketing plan, a gatekeeper can take on one of three
forms. In ascending order of effectiveness, a gatekeeper can be 1. A set of guidelines, 2. A person,
and 3. Content that has already appeared in the media. Most companies will likely use a combination of all three.
Posting completely
unfiltered content
is risky to a brand.
Messages that
haven’t been sieved
through any sort
of gatekeeper are
especially perilous
because the public
is becoming
increasingly
resistant to nervy
sales pitches.
If a set of guidelines is acting as the gatekeeper, these guidelines should clearly illustrate what is
both acceptable and unacceptable for social media content. It is crucial that members of a business’
social media marketing team use traditional media standards to help define what is appropriate
and inappropriate content for blogs and posts. Sales messages should unfold naturally and be
woven seamlessly into rich and relevant content that is useful to the audience.
If the gatekeeper is a person, experienced experts from the traditional media industry make good
candidates. These experts such as publicists, reporters, editors and producers are conditioned to
subject content to the same standards as stories pitched to the press. Such an expert, experienced
in media placements, should be able to evaluate content posts and measure each message against
time-proven criteria.
The best way to make sure content is following the rules of traditional gatekeepers, and a method
we highly recommend, is to post content that has already passed through the media. When businesses post stories that have previously run in the media, the placements have already cleared
the bar that the media has set and therefore almost guarantees that the audience will find them
worthwhile and not view them as being “too salesy”. The media has pre-verified that this material
is worthy of the audience’s attention.
Using media placements as a gatekeeper has many benefits. Not only is the business getting
long-coveted traditional media coverage, it also extends the value of that coverage by re-purposing it as social media content. It’s conceivable that just one article or broadcast appearance could
be re-purposed into literally hundreds of different social media posts. Before social media came
to be, if a business got its product covered in the media there were only a few ways to get additional mileage out of the event such as framing the newspaper article and putting it up in the
lobby or reformatting it into a one-sheet for the sales staff. But for the most part, media placements
Using media
placements as a
gatekeeper has
many benefits.
were like shooting stars: brilliant and spectacular, but gone too fast. Now, social media provides
businesses with the opportunity to keep the spectacle going by re-posting and re-broadcasting
news stories (in ways that don’t infringe on copyright laws, of course) that favorably cover their
product. Print stories and videos can now be sliced, diced, written about and rewritten about
through links to blogs and other social media outlets with positive branding results.
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Guidelines for creating social media posts that appeal to
the audience
It is essential that
the post not sound
too commercial.
As we have pointed out, it is essential that the post not sound too commercial. The term “commercial” refers to anything that reminds the audience of an advertisement. Heather Champine,
Vice President of Publicity Production for Media Relations, Inc. uses her fifteen years of experience
placing stories in the media to provide this checklist for creating content that will interest the
audience and provide a platform for discussion and interaction. You can use this information as
you build a set of guidelines for your company’s posts or show them to whoever in your company
serves as the editor in charge of the “publish button.”
•
Does the content educate consumers about issues that are of interest to them and relate
to your product?
•
Does the content clearly illustrate a problem and offer a solution?
•
Is the content pertinent?
•
Does the information help improve the lives of the readers?
•
Have you included reputable statistics, studies or other research?
•
Did you weave your website strategically into the story so consumers know where to find
more information?
Did you weave
your website
strategically into the
story so consumers
know where to find
more information?
•
Did you resist the urge to mention purchase locations more than once?
•
Did you use everyday language that the audience understands?
•
Have you strategically included testimonials that illustrate how the product is part of the
“solution”?
•
Is your supporting information sourced from credible associations and universities?
•
Did you strategically mention of your competition?
•
Is your title appealing and straightforward so that people understand what they are
about to read and will want to know more?
•
Did you lead with the topic, not the company or product?
•
Have you quoted a credible spokesperson who is in the field relating to the story?
•
Did you include product information that supports the story?
•
Is your writing emotion-based so that it appeals to customers’ desires?
•
Do your words create a strong visual that will elicit the desired emotional connection to
the product?
•
Have you given your product a local market connection?
•
Have you linked your product to the season?
•
Have you associated your content and product with a timely national or local news
story?
Champine also provides a checklist of company-driven content that should be used with great
caution in social media posts. The following content mistakes will make what you have written
less attractive to the audience because it will be perceived as too heavily commercial:
•
The story includes frivolous hype about the company, product, or service.
•
The company name and product name are mentioned too frequently.
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Does the content
clearly illustrate a
problem and offer
a solution?
•
The story mentions special offers, coupons or discounts, or product pricing.
•
The story is accompanied by an unfamiliar company or industry logo.
•
Information is presented from only the company’s perspective.
•
There are no customer testimonials.
•
There are no additional sources to support claims.
•
There is no mention of the competition.
•
The title of the piece includes the company name or product.
•
The story leads with the company or product.
•
The spokesperson’s quotes sound like they came from a sales brochure.
•
The content frequently describes the product’s features and benefits.
•
The language and phrasing do not elicit emotion.
•
There are no visuals to support the information provided.
•
The visuals solely support the company or product.
•
The content blatantly tells customers to buy or use the product.
•
The story focuses on a product without putting it into a newsworthy context.
Meeting the needs of business
We’ve talked at length about how critical it is to meet the needs of the audience when using social
network marketing, but when businesses enter the mix, social media becomes a two-sided coin.
Businesses have to satisfy their needs of increased sales and profits, too.
The challenge of transforming advertising into content starts by identifying precisely the company
messages that need to be woven into the posts. Many companies have gone through the exercise
of developing full value propositions for their products. For those who may not be aware of a full
value proposition, it can be thought of as a laundry list of reasons people get value from a company’s offering. The list is prioritized and the top two, three or four value points are considered
primary and the others secondary. It’s the primary value points that need to be consistently communicated to entice potential buyers and build the brand definition. The larger the company and
the more products, obviously, the longer the primary value point list will be.
The challenge of
transforming
advertising into
content starts by
identifying precisely
the company
messages that
need to be woven
into the posts.
For example, in addition to the top value points we list for each one of the products and services
we offer, we have three general overarching value points for the company as a whole. They are:
•
We are experts at working with wide promotional channels that allow the full explanation of new and complex products.
•
We have a wide range of talented professionals who have a superior understanding for
marketing concepts.
•
We have the proven, demonstrated ability to tactically execute marketing projects.
If you would like to see how our company folds these and other primary value points in with audience-pleasing content, go to our blog for Kocina Branding & Marketing Companies (http://www.
publicity.com). Before each blog and social media post is registered, the writer must indicate using
codes from a spreadsheet which value point(s) the post supports. This assures that posts stay on
target with our business needs.
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There is no reason to use social media marketing if primary value points are not addressed within
the posts. Without value points, social media posts are inconsequential, irrelevant and create a
convoluted brand. Social media is meant to be social, of course, but endless content that doesn’t
focus on business needs is useless and harmful to the brand.
Lonny Kocina, the owner and CEO of our business, is well aware of the significance of value points
in social media content. “I want at least 80 percent of our posts to have a meaningful connection
to our value points,” he says. “Twenty percent of content can be just for fun, for making it social.
But 80 percent needs to be verifiably connected to our top value points. That’s not to say I want it
to sound commercial. Far from it. I’ve seen the selling power of news stories and I want to duplicate
that with social media.”
When you communicate on a social level with the public, there are hard-and-fast rules the public
demands that you follow. Break them either intentionally or unintentionally, and you run the risk
of the masses turning their backs on your brand. Stories that have already passed through traditional media gatekeepers are an ideal social media marketing resource for businesses because the
media has already verified the content’s value. Understanding this principle will give you a
distinct advantage over your competition.
[1] (Peppers & Rodgers Group n.d.)
[2] (Pharma Marketing n.d.)
[3] (Qualman n.d.)
[4] (Madden and Smith 2010)
[5] (Singer 2009)
[6] (Hosford 2009)
[7] (Pride and Ferrell)
On a personal note
When we look back over the last twenty years and think about how the companies we’ve
arranged publicity for could have capitalized on it had the Internet been in place, we feel a
palpable sense of missed opportunity. Ironically though, never before has the “old media”
been so valuable. Not only has it taught us lessons that help us understand the “new media,”
it now provides our clients with an endless stream of wonderful consumer-approved content
for their websites, blogs and social posts. It’s easy to kid ourselves and believe that the media
should fall all over us and the companies we represent. Balancing our enthusiasm for their
products and the media’s need to be non-commercial is a tough spot to be in, and we have
tremendous respect for the publicists who work with us. Anyone who has ever pitched story
ideas to the media knows what a tough job it is. Their honesty is often brutal and it hurts.
The most important lesson we’ve learned is to think about what the audience wants before
we think of our own needs. That has always translated to ‘heavy on the problem, light on
the solution’. That’s what gets ad messages turned into stories, news and information, and
that’s what creates the sales magic. We’re thrilled that our clients now have opportunities
to expand exponentially through social media what has long been a remarkable sales and
branding tool: Publicity.
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Kocina Branding & Marketing Companies is a team of talented professionals
whose sole purpose is to help you reach your customers and teach them to
buy your products. Our staff has a solid academic understanding of marketing
backed by more than 20 years of project execution. This enables us to coach
you through creating effective marketing strategies, as well as to effectively
execute the strategies that have been conceived.
350 W. Burnsville Parkway, Suite 350, Burnsville, MN 55337
612-798-7200 info@mediarelations.com www.kocinacompanies.com
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