Takeaways from the PR Newswire Social Communications & Content Marketing Forum

Everywhere managing partner, Danica Kombol, along with Debbie Curtis-Magley, Public Relations Manager at UPS and Stephen Brown, Managing Director, Cohn & Wolfe, Atlanta, were featured on a panel today at the Social Communications & Content Marketing Leadership Forum presented by PR Newswire and the Business Development Institute.

The half-day conference featured case studies of best practices in content sharing, crowd sourcing, customer service and measuring success in social communications and content marketing.

Here are a few takeaways we wanted to share:

On Content:

User-generated content is something that brands are starting to see as very valuable. Crowd sourcing & user generated sharable content will soon be commonplace in the “traditional” marketing world. Danica Kombol mentioned case studies such as Burberry, Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany’s and reminded us that it’s important to note that you don’t have to be a large company to ask customers to submit their content.

On measuring success:

Brands should define social media goals. When a campaign ends compare your hard-data and see if it lines up. That’s how you define success. With traditional marketing you set goals, create tactics to reach those goals, and then measure success. What is so different online?

On Customer Service:

Deb Curtis-Magley reminded us that full transparency with all communications is important. Whoever is responding always signs the comment with their first name. In order to reach that comfort level you must train and empower your staff, know when to respond and when not to respond. Establishing trust with consumers is important. They will stand up for you when your brand has a set back.

Someone asked about handling negative comments on a brand Facebook page or blog. Danica Kombol recommended you state your guidelines visibly on your Facebook page or blog, that way it’s there to back you up if and when comments are vulgar or verbally offensive and need to be taken down.

The future of the press release?

Michael Pranikoff, Global Director, Emerging Media, PR Newswire spoke a little about how the press release is evolving: Use bullet points. Give a shareable shortened URL. Put compelling stats at the top. All tips that I plan to use.

Some Social Stats:

No Social Conference is complete without having a few social stats bandied about. Here are a few of our favorites:

• Preschool to primary school age moms spend 25% more time online. Stephen Brown pointed out that “moms” are not all the same. Given my experience with mom bloggers I completely agree!
• Only 78% customers trust peer recommendations on sites (even from strangers) while 14% trust advertisements.
• The “Average Tweeter” is a 32 year-old male making on average $91k a year.