Dear promoted tweets, accounts and trends, are you worth it?

In assessing the potential value of Twitter “promoted tweets, accounts and trends” to a public relations program I started to think of some of the other paid tactics practitioners employ to get their messages to the masses.

PR practitioners will pay media wire services like Canada Newswire or Marketwire to distribute press releases to target media outlets.  The cost depends on the number of regions (provincial, national, international) to be distributed to and length of the release.  A social media release is extra (approximately $700 more).  A practitioner can opt to write matte stories and have them distributed by News Canada.  Then there are a number of ad and marketing initiatives like Advertorials, Google Adwords, Facebook ads and pages, YouTube channels and Twitter ads, to name a few.

Promoted tweets are tweets that can be targeted and customized to a specific audience geographically and/or to those with specific interests and demographics.  These tweets are pushed to the top of a user’s feed as well as a relevant search result. 

Promoted accounts are pushed to a target user’s “who to follow” list which allows a company or brand to build their online community.  

A promoted trend pushes a trending #hashtag or term to the top of a user’s trending topics list.  The concept of buying in to this is much like the aforementioned paid services discussed above, to optimize the medium to reach the best possible number of eyeballs that could potentially see your message. The value add of promoted tweets and accounts is that they are priced on a cost-per-engagement basis (anywhere from $0.80-$1.50 per click of every tweet, retweets are free and $2-4 for every click to follow the account).  

Promoted trends cost approximately $45,000 CDN but will be the only promoted trend for 24 hours. 

When you consider the cost of instant engagement, the potential for building an ongoing relationship with a large mass of people worldwide and bypassing the traditional media gatekeepers, there is no question of the value of these ads.  The ability to tell your story the way you want to tell it over time (through multiple promoted tweets), to see evidence of real time engagement in order to measure what people are resonating with and adjusting messages accordingly, building a community in which you can foster direct contact with your audience, to share exclusive information with, getting them to want to know more, to feel informed, valued and special through offerings or contests or to simply bring awareness to your cause, event or brand is simply immeasurable.

Still not convinced? 

Imagine the ability to incorporate these tactics to a crisis or issues management program.  A message or response to a crisis can instantly be pushed out to the public instantaneously.  Faster than calling up a reporter to write a story, writing a release and distributing it or producing an ad for print or broadcast.  A company can get their message out before anyone else can report their understanding of the issue or their take on it.  They can be their own voice telling the public what they are doing about the situation and when they have rectified the problem diminishing the potential harm to their company’s reputation.

Click on the image below to read how one company used promoted tweets to respond to a negative article about them in the New York Times.

If done correctly, these ads can create an ongoing mass conversation the media wouldn’t be able to ignore.  The media will take notice of a topic if the public is taking notice which in turn will empower them to want to join the conversation by covering the story and further keeping the conversation alive and increasing awareness even further.  The key is to have the personnel to keep the engagement with followers going and be able to respond quickly if a conversation does not go as planned.

The potential to reach more people in a meaningful way in a space they are readily accessing is pretty valuable when the need for impressions is so important and competition to maximize exposure and break through all the noise of today is so great. 

Foursquare, QR Codes, Google Goggles, oh my!

My single biggest learning from exploring Foursquare, QR Codes and Google Goggles is that they are being underutilized by brands and companies.  Companies aren't taking advantage of the promotional, sales and  customer loyalty opportunities these tools can offer. Furthermore, these social tools cannot be used solely by themselves to bring awareness to a campaign, company or brand. Their functions are not valuable as a stand alone tactic.  They have the most value when used in addition to existing campaigns on Facebook or Twitter. They need to be used to spread word of mouth so they must co-exist with other social media platforms in order to maximize how many people will read what people are saying about a particular company or brand.

When thinking of three examples of uses for these tools for public relations many of my ideas were marketing driven, used best for promotional purposes or in advertising. However, the following are three examples that I think would compliment any PR campaign:

Teasers

They can be used to act as a teaser to an event or a significant day. People can check-in to different venues to unlock an invite or scan a code or image of something inconspicuous to retrieve important information to an upcoming event. They can also be used on an invitation to an exclusive event to make it more intriguing and mysterious.

Competitions

There can be a contest to leave tips in different venues around the city or scan different QR Codes or images of a particular company, brand or product to win a giveaway.  

Corporate Reputation 

A company can be seen as an influencer in their community and culturally involved if they share tips when checked-in at different venues in their area or share images and interesting factoids of events and venues nearby. They can also encourage customers to leave tips when checked-in at their venue, create their own badge or provide a forum for customers to source information and ask questions of a company through the visual service tools.

What a company can't live without: An online reputation management program

I often read and learn about the various and newest online tools companies should implement in order to build relationships and engage with their customers. As described in, Social Media ROI and Demystifying social media, it's not enough to just implement these tools. What is important is to know how to use them and how its function is not a standalone initiative but should be incorporated in the business' goals and objectives and as an add-on to the other communications programs. This concept is by far the most important in successfully building a reputation online.  

Customers are going to talk, they are going to express their views, opinions and experiences and they are going to do it on a platform that will get other people's attention. People like nothing more than to share a positive or negative experience they've had with a brand or company with their friends and colleagues.  Word of mouth happens whether we like it or not and the way people are making their voices heard is through social media. Thus, companies cannot afford not to be where people are talking about them. Furthermore, to provide the platform where people can make their voices heard allows a company instant access to what is being said about them and the ability to control or mitigate a potentially negative outcry.  It also allows companies direct access to build meaningful relationships with their customers.

A tool can quickly lose momentum or popularity if companies don't use them correctly.  Foursquare and QR Codes will only be successful if users feel there is value in using them.  People will not follow a brand on Facebook or Twitter unless they are given a reason to.  It's not enough to want people to like your page or follow you on Twitter. What's key is that there is always a call to action to keep people engaged and able to share and comment with others. And for users who are like me and mainly use social media as a source of news and information rather than to engage, it is important for companies to keep an online activity current, relevant and ongoing.

I like using Foursquare because it's easy to use with just a quick click to check-in somewhere but mostly because it became a competition among my friends to steal mayorships away from them. However, I am less inclined to use it as often as I would like because it often holds little value to check-in to the same place many times when I get nothing out of it.  I may get bragging rights with my friends but I don't get acknowledgement from a company for being a valued customer.  O&B Canteen is the only place where I have checked in that would make it worth my while to strive for mayorship.

Steam Whistle has a great Facebook page. They are constantly asking for their fans to engage with them by responding to their posts or by allowing them to post their own pictures at various events or holidays.  They keep their content ongoing, current and relevant to calendar events.

I can't say whether me liking these companies on a social media level holds a purchasing power over me. I do know I look at these brands favourably which would probably not change if I heard something negative about them.

What companies or brands do you think are doing it right or wrong?