There are
lots of brands who are just starting to think about how they can use social
media to promote their brand or product. Many are paying big bucks for PR firms
to do it for them. But you really can do this yourself.
I recently attended a blogging event at Big 4
Bellarine. It was deemed a highly successful event by the 40 women who attended
and provided months of tweets and blog posts that would have reached tens of
thousands of readers and potential customers.
The event was run by Sophie Bone. I interviewed
Sophie to get the behind the scenes information on working with bloggers or
using social media to promote your business.
Q 1) What made you consider using social media and
bloggers as part of your promotional strategy?
Four things.
1.
Personal challenge (never used twitter)
2.
Intrigue (what is everybody doing on there!)
3.
Dogged determination (because someone told me I
couldn’t do it!)
4.
Apathy surrounding traditional methods of
advertising to Mums (randomly applying pink to anything you are pitching)
The concept evolved after hearing about a series of Blogger
events being held for the big brands in Melbourne. I enquired about involvement
but retracted my interest based on three factors:
The event was cost prohibitive given that the return
was questionable.
Me handing out a brochure and expecting a blog post
didn’t make sense.
I wanted the bloggers to come to my property and
experience the product.
From that point, I was more determined than ever, to
create the event myself without the aid of a PR agency – so I opened a Twitter
account.
Q 2) What was the most difficult part of organising
such a large event with bloggers without a PR agency?
It wasn’t really a very large event. 40 people is a
very manageable number to work with. It’s important to be able to reach
everybody and listen to their stories over the time you have with them. I
wouldn’t say it was difficult either because really, it was fabulous fun!
What I would say is, that it was an incredibly labour
intensive campaign because Twitter never sleeps (and neither do some Mum bloggers
it seems)! Because of the external influences that impact on their lives such
as children, school drop offs and professional pursuits, often the most
interactive time with Mum bloggers is from 8pm until verrrry late! Also,
such is the amount of information moving through that particular communication
channel, you need to very carefully plan how you will keep the dialogue going
over a fairly long lead time until the event.
For me, using a PR agency may have diluted the
relationship between the bloggers and I. It was very important for me, that it
was never considered a blatant ‘brand bullying’ exercise but rather an event
that sounded like fun, that ticked enough boxes (sleepover, massage, dinner,
drinks and a decent latte) for 40 women to extricate themselves from their
homes and children, to come to me!
Twitter, despite being limited to 140 characters,
really defines a personality very quickly if you are engaging with people
regularly. Like people you meet, strangers you sit at a dinner table with at a
dinner party, there are some that are definitely going to resonate more with
you because of:
•
Their turn of phrase
•
Their sense of humour
•
What they don’t say
•
How they present opinions
If you offload all of the above to a PR agency, there
is a very real possibility that it could create a discord between your
audience, you and thirdly, your brand voice. You need to be alongside
every detail, quip, whim and innuendo every minute of every day until the event
is over……….and not even then does the monitoring stop.
Q 3) Would you recommend other businesses get involved
with Social Media and blogger outreach?
Yes, if you are totally:
•
Focused on attention to minuscule detail
•
Committed to seeing through what you promise and
being open to change as you carefully monitor online conversations beyond your
control
•
On board the concept that bloggers are
professionals at what they do and that they don’t owe you anything
Q 4) What advice do you have for
other service related business for working within social media?
Research like a fiend!
Religiously monitor conversations outside of your
event to get a feel for 4 key things:
An appropriate tweet tone and a sense of humour (which
will be variable depending on which blogger you are conversing with) Bloggers
all have their own persona – shy, irreverent, bold, subtle.
Feedback on blogger events they are attending – this
dovetails nicely into the event you will run and enables you to avoid making
the same mistakes
Topics that cause friction / tension and why (listen
to how bloggers feel – they are not afraid to voice opinions and if they are
relevant to your event and how you will massage what you offer, then soak up
that information)
Don’t create an event, create an experience. Mine
focused on 4 elements:
Fun – the Great Race (flying foxes, changing babies
nappies blindfolded, kicking football goals in wigs, swimming amongst hundreds
of rubber duckies), teams, bloggers finding their team online, lollies, music
playlist predominantly 80s
Intrigue – sending a blindfold in the mail with a clue
relating to the Great Race, a map of the property with a massage appointment
card dangling from the unit it would be in
Surprise – heaters on, on return from dinner, delivery
of a midnight snack and water with a note, newspapers waiting on doorstep
before dawn
Elegance – beautiful stationery, flowers, very high
quality meat cuts and food ingredients, wax seals, use of letters in the post,
tea-lights
Stagger your contact / content – plan it across the 2
months in the lead up to the event.
Don’t be a pest!
Never saturate a particular channel of communication.
Use a number of them:
- Post – for the touchy feely, clues, treats
- Email – for important details – times, places,
addresses etc.
- Twitter – for chit chat and keeping up!
Follow relevant hashtags where many of your invitees
take part – always trying to gauge:
- Tolerances
- Opinions
- Humour
Be at the end of your @mentions pretty much at all
times in the lead up to the event: if the bloggers are talking to you then
respond, be conversant, be cheeky, be engaging.
Ask somebody for the heads up on Twitter
etiquette. There is a code of conduct (which I had no idea about) surrounding
Retweets (RT), Modified Tweets, (MT) and thanking people for the
honour. There is etiquette surrounding when you can buy into a
conversation between a group that you have not been @mentioned in on.
Be candid about:
- Lack of Twitter knowledge (when to retweet etc.)
- Mistakes you make (tweeting a DM)
- Butting in on a conversation
Be lavish, spare no detail and show unbridled
generosity. I am a firm believer in the simple strategy that “What comes
around, goes around”. Your generosity will come back to you. If you skimp on
it, then expect others’ generosity to be skeletal too.
Speak to someone who has done it! I would be happy to
talk with anyone who was thinking about doing it.
Q 5) During your presentation about Big 4 Bellarine
you shared some personal stories of your own life and answered questions openly
about the financials of the business. Considering the sharing of information is
usually the basis of a successful blog, will we be seeing 'Sophie Bone's Blog'
anytime soon?
Only days ago, I determinedly typed in Word Press and
set up an account. I called the blog “ilovebellarine’, wrote one post, pressed
publish, giggled and then haven’t returned. To be fair however, my background
was as an English teacher and then as a copywriter, so I do love words!
Maybe I’ll pop back there one day in secret and type a little story.
Big 4 Bellarine is on Facebook and Twitter
