Virtual engagement proves to raise follower loyalty

Post by Erica Rodriguez

With the ever-shifting world of social media spinning below the feet of public relations students, it may be intimidating to delve into social media. Because of how new the use of Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare (and the list of sites goes on and on), the application of social media to garner clients page views and customers is on a trial and error basis. However, a few companies have risen above the competition when it comes to engaging customers and followers.

With companies such as Wal-Mart, Goodwill, TripAdvisor and Bank of America topping the list, a few commonalities stood out among the social media strategies stood out.

One point of success for all the companies and organizations mentioned was the use of virtual means to engage consumers across the nation. Goodwill held a virtual fashion show and online auction in September. With promotion done by a trusted blogger (The DC Goodwill Fashionista), both the Goodwill blog and Ebay store took off. After six weeks the blog averaged over 600 readers a week and retained more than 25 percent of its readers.

Another virtual engagement was done by Lion Brand Yarn, who used virtual knitting classes to build a community of knitter from across the world. The YarnCraft podcast was not only just posted to the blog, but also was available on iTunes and given out as a CD in stores for consumers not on the Internet. As a result, a passionate community of knitters was formed, the podcast has seen over 15,000 downloads in a month, the blog has tens of thousands of readers each month, and the customers have proved loyal. In a survey given to 30,000 consumers, those who interacted with the yarn brand through social media were 83 percent more likely to identify as "very brand loyal" than those who didn't interact via social media.

Jeep used video as well to reach out to consumers... through consumers. According to Organic Inc., 87 percent of consumers trust the opinion of friends over the opinion of critics. Jeep harnessed this idea and found 160,000 Flickr photos and 31,000 Youtube videos that were tagged as Jeep and created a community on the Jeep website. Consumers created the content. Results showed that potential buyers who browse the Jeep community have been proven twice as likely to compare specifications, 22 percent more likely to search inventory, twice as likely to schedule a test drive, and 31 percent more likely to request a quote, according to Organic Inc.'s portfolio.

Consumers want to feel like they are a part of the brand that they use everyday. What better way than to include a consumer in these virtual days, than through virtual media?

To read more social media case studies, check out this collection of studies and research papers.

PRSSA National Conference was incredible. Here's why.

Post by Matt Culbertson

There are two buzzwords to describe the 2010 PRSSA National Conference: networking and professional development — both hit on the career benefits of attending. I had high expectations, and even I was by surprised by the incredible atmosphere conference provided. And having the conference held in Washington, D.C.? Yep, this was a spectacular weekend.

For the record, these were a few of my expectations for conference. Among them: I wanted to meet some of the future PR leaders of America — I wasn’t disappointed.

A few people who stood out:

• Tony Bradley, a Newcastle, England-based PR executive who told me he regularly travels to the PRSA International Conference on his own dime. Why? A lot of reasons, including that he may meet up with a college student — who happens to be a future PR exec looking to expand to England — which would be a great business contact in 10 years.
• Simon Oh & Alex Priest: after randomly meeting, we mutually recognized each other from Twitter, which was hilarious — especially because I don’t think we ever tweeted each other before conference. (I met them on separate days.) To be fair, this same situation probably happened to me 10 times, but Simon and Alex stand out for how non-awkward the introductions were.
• Stephanie Takach, who basically gave me the Sparknotes version of the intersection of public relations and marketing. She also had some great stories from her work with Tylenol.
• Michelle Olson, my boss at Olson Communications, who I got to hang out with at a Bucca Di Beppo for our PRSSA Western District social. OK, so I get to see my boss three times a week, but it was fantastic to meet up with her and other Phoenix PRSA folks and exchange PR war stories.

If you’ll be a PR student next year, I can’t encourage you enough to attend conference. Any conference will have academic and professional benefits — getting a bunch of people from the same industry together in a conference setting is one of the best forms of groupthink. But the PRSSA National Conference is especially unique: there are 1,000 PR students from around the country, and it’s alongside the PRSA International Conference, which features some of the top professionals from around the country. So if you add in some of the brightest current minds in PR plus some of the brightest future minds, it’s a pretty unique experience.

I came away from conference with new ideas for our PRSSA chapter at Arizona State, as well as for my career path — including a lot of fresh enthusiasm and optimism for this industry. The professional development sessions were very nicely hosted and featured some of the best of the best. Props to the conference sponsors and organizers, including Ashley Wolos, who I met at the Chapter Presidents luncheon. Will I be back next year for the PRSA side of things? I’ll say almost certainly. (Note: David and Sam of David and Sam PR made a great case to our chapter about managing expectations.)

George Couch: October guest speaker

Post by Amy Fleishans

George Couch serves as the State Public Affairs Officer for the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. NRCS helps landowners, primarily farmers and ranchers, conserve their water, air, soil, wildlife habitat, and other natural resources. He spoke to ASU PRSSA at our October 26, 2010, meeting and talked about job opportunities for PR practitioners at the federal government, a career path many of us hadn’t considered. 

George gave members practical advice on how to get a job with the federal government and discussed pros and cons of working there.

The biggest tip George gave member was that all federal government jobs must be posted on USAJobs. The site is easy to navigate and currently has four PR positions open—a great resource for graduating seniors. To add a competitive edge to resumes, George identified the most important skills entry-level PR professionals can have to make themselves stand out against the competition. The list was long, but the skills he emphasized most were desktop publishing ( especially InDesign), journalistic interviewing skills and photography skills. (Look back to your editing class, JMC 301 and online media for these skills.)

In addition to great, reliable health benefits, George talked about other pros about working for the federal government. The potential for travel and the work/life balance employees enjoy are big perks. Currently, George is traveling to Washington D.C. on a regular basis to collaborate on a $2.3 million project to bring a new web content management system to NRCS.

Working for the public good and being part of an organization were other pros George discussed. The federal government’s work benefits everyone and it gives George a sense of community and allows him to help his fellow countrymen. Unlike at an agency, working on campaigns for the same organization everyday creates a better understanding of the organization.

"It's the federal government, it moves at its own pace," George said, talking about the biggest con in working in the federal government. He said sometimes it's difficult to push projects through the red tape. He also mentioned that other non-PR duties he is responsible for takes time away from his potential PR time, another negative. 

George also encouraged ASU PRSSA members to support the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR), a hot topic of debate at the national PRSA conference earlier this month. He likened it to the accounting industry’s CPA certification. “I hope we can get APR to that standard,” he said.