Chapter 14. A PR 2.0 Plan

The PR 2.0 plan should bring the "Public" back into public relations. Your plan needs to get information directly to your customers so that you can help them make meaningful decisions and hopefully influence their behavior to begin using or maintain the usage of your product/service. When constructing your PR plan, or strategizing for your campaign, you need to proceed with a fine balance; that of traditional PR strategy and that of your new social media approach. You've already heard the perspectives of some of your influencers, the media such as Jeremy Caplan at TIME Magazine and Jeffrey Chu at Fast Company, who don't rely on social media from PR people, or the brands they represent, when researching or writing a story. Remember that you have the online consumer and professional audiences who want to receive, organize, and share your content in the many communities they belong.

The Best PR 2.0 Planning Approach

What's the best approach to a successful PR 2.0 plan? For now, keep traditional PR strategy in the back of your mind and open your frame of reference as to what is the right amount of social media to make your stakeholders feel content satisfied. The companies in this chapter all understand that proper PR 2.0 strategy and planning includes using social media applications that are

• An innovative means to drive business
• An effective way to communicate to employees, customers, prospects, other stakeholders with less expensive techniques
• An opportunity to increase the reach of your brand's messages
• An interactive forum to position your company and its executive team as thought leaders or your brand as a thought leadership company
• A chance to communicate with audiences in ways that were never possible in the past
• A means to hear firsthand customer comments, concerns, and insight into what influences their thinking and decision-making

Creative PR 2.0 Planning and Strategy

Today's companies are using PR 2.0 and social media to enhance communications to capture the attention of many different groups. They understand that social media sites (for example, MySpace and Facebook) and social networking are no longer for younger audiences. People of all ages and all professions are reading blogs, joining online communities, tagging articles, listening to podcasts, enjoying their RSS feeds, and have profiles on social networking sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. What's the best way to get started?

Adverb Media

I spoke with Scott Delea, President of Adverb Media, and was so impressed when he told me one of his PR 2.0 strategies. Adverb Media was a sponsor of the ad:tech conference in New York City in November 2007. Delea moderated a panel session at the conference called "Thriving in the New Digital Marketing Ecosystem," which had leading marketers in attendance with the latest thinking on how they can best leverage the Internet to stay ahead of the competition. The panel tackled this topic by hearing the perspectives of Glen Whiting, Executive Director of DigitalGrit, a leading digital agency; Gordon Henry, CMO at Yellow Book USA; Safa Raschtchy, Former Managing Director, Internet Media and Marketing, Piper Jaffray and Company; and Jodi Kahn, President, Digital Business, Reader's Digest Association, Inc. The session answered several interesting questions on the minds' of executives: How is the Internet changing the way a company communicates with its customers? What is an example of an innovative way you have seen a company engaging with prospects using Web 2.0? What role does consumer generated content and social networks play in effectively communicating or serving customers?

Certainly all these topics take more than a simple hour's worth of discussion.

Delea wanted to provide more than "the panel discussions, which are show up and throw up." In this type of forum, panelists present their PowerPoint slides and call it a day. The conversation shouldn't begin and end with the one-hour presentation. Delea thought it would be much more powerful and relevant if they leveraged Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate a dialogue before the event. His idea was to devote more time and create early interest in the topics by setting up a networking group on Facebook and by announcing the event on the social networking site prior to the panel session. "Interested parties would get to know the panel members, be able to view bios and ask questions they want answered even prior to the actual event," Delea explained. After the conclusion of the event, Delea wanted the discussion about Facebook to continue so that more interested parties become engaged in the marketing conversation. What a great idea! It costs next to nothing (with the exception of the time it takes for executives to participate). We also discussed how video-taping the ad:tech panel session could lead to video clips posted on Facebook. These clips could be shared by the group and provide firsthand insight from the experts on the topics.

Adverb Media is the parent company to a family of companies—Temel, DigitalGrit, and RelevantNoise—which are entrenched in new media and digital marketing solutions. As many organizations are contemplating to blog or not to blog, DigitalGrit's blog dates back to November 2004. It was developed as a part of the company's early PR 2.0 strategy. Now, DigitalGrit has employees on Twitter (www.twitter.com), the micro blog that gives play-by-play, up-to-the-minute actions of the person who is "Twittering." DigitalGrit also communicates to its audiences through RSS feeds, podcasts, and on-demand Webinars. When it comes to PR 2.0 and social media, Adverb Media and its family of companies is a group of companies to watch.

TOMY International

The use of the Internet as a means of creating strong product "buzz" and building awareness for products and services continues at a rapid pace as more marketers look to leverage active online communities to differentiate products and services. In today's world, many marketers will use online campaigns in advance of product launches and retail availability as a means of stimulating buzz and creating a demand for products or services as they become available.

One such example is an international campaign being coordinated by a leading U.S. public relations firm, Southard Communications, in partnership with its European partner Threepipe Communications on behalf of TOMY International,^[1] a leading marketer of toys and games.

Overview

Eternity II is a geometric puzzle solved by placing its 256 square pieces into a 16" x 16" grid. The pieces are bordered by colored patterns, each of which must be correctly aligned with its neighboring side to correctly fit into place. Unlike most puzzles, which only have one correct way of completing the final solution, there are thousands of ways Eternity II can be solved to win the $2 million prize.

Eternity II was developed by the original inventor of Eternity I, the well-known British publisher and former policy advisor to Margaret Thatcher and Lord Christopher Monckton. Eternity I was launched in Europe in 1999 and sold more than 500,000 puzzles worldwide becoming the fastest-selling puzzle ever. A Cambridge student successfully solved the puzzle in 18 months and was awarded the UK £1 million prize.

Contestants submit their possible solutions to the puzzle by registered mail. All submissions are time-stamped and sealed inside a safe until the first scrutiny date of December 31, 2008. If no correct solutions are opened, submissions for the following year would be kept until December 31, 2009, and lastly 2010. The first correct solution will win the prize of US $2 million.

For the first time, the puzzle has been made available to American consumers, distributed by TOMY USA. For this launch, the company is not engaging in any traditional print or outdoor advertising to support the product launch. Instead, TOMY is relying on the $2 million prize and viral, word-of-mouth promotion to duplicate the frenzied success it once had in Europe.

Opportunities

Some of the advantages of Eternity II lie in the marketability of the product and its incredible and unprecedented prize offering of $2 million. Never before has a game or puzzle been introduced in the U.S. with such a life-changing prize prospect. Consumer excitement around the game can be more easily aroused and sustained because of this very unique offering.

Another benefit of Eternity II is the wide appeal to a broad demographic of consumers who enjoy low-intensity puzzles or games. Grand-parents to college students, PhDs, blue-collar workers, and teenagers find the game appealing. Mainstream empty nester puzzle players will be motivated by the prize fund. Students 20–30 years old have time to play but no money. Mathematicians and other intellectuals will be stirred by the challenge of finding the solution. Eternity II's simplicity of play also makes it more attractive because the incredible prize is perceived as being a bit more attainable.

Because Eternity II is being rolled out internationally, the creators behind the puzzle did well to create a compelling and dynamic Web site to serve as the online headquarters for Eternity II. EternityII.com features an interactive demonstration of the puzzle and visually appealing graphics. There, enthusiasts can learn about the story behind the Eternity II and news updates. A real-time ticker is featured that counts down until the first solution scrutiny date of December 31, 2008, continually provoking players to return to the puzzle and keep trying for their own chance to win.

Finally, only 5,000 Eternity II puzzles have initially been made available in the U.S., exclusively at Toys "R" Us retail stores and ToysRUs.com during the product's launch period. This restricted availability of the puzzle, in turn, will help instigate a higher demand among consumers.

Challenges

Marketers of Eternity II are also faced with a number of challenges to achieving successful sales of the product in the U.S. Generally, American consumers are a more skeptical group and to achieve buy-in, TOMY will have to overcome the perceptions of an impossible prize, a puzzle that might be too difficult to finish, and a general distrust of a company claiming to offer $2 million for playing a game. The retail price for Eternity II is another obstacle. The game retails for $49.99, which is a price point much higher than American consumers are used to paying for a board game or jigsaw puzzle.

The Campaign

Recognizing the advantages and disadvantages of Eternity II in relation to the U.S. market, Southard Communications in partnership with Threepipe UK have implemented an online, social networking and viral marketing campaign that capitalizes on the opportunities presented by the puzzle while conquering the challenges to achieving a successful sell-in stateside.

Videos of the official unveiling of the puzzle at a toy industry conference and the worldwide launch were posted to YouTube.com and tagged with various keywords for engine searches. The videos, which feature the branded game and exciting footage of a Mr. Universe contender destroying the laptop that held the solution to the puzzle, have received more than 15,000 viewers and have been e-mailed between friends and colleagues a countless number of times.

The marketing team identified influential blogs that focus on puzzle gaming and started chatting to them about Eternity months before the game was launched. Teaser messages discussing the coming of a new puzzle with an unbelievable $2 million prize were posted, which inspired an ongoing online dialogue that has resulted in placement on about 5,000 blogs to date.

A Facebook site was developed early on with new content and news drip-fed to build excitement. Links to the EternityII.com Web site were offered in advance of its official launch and videos were posted. An online demo of the puzzle was created and e-mailed to thousands of people and international media, which linked back to the interactive Web site http://us.eternityii.com/. The game demo and countdown to the first scrutiny date was included with the easy ability to forward the game demo to friends.

Active discussion exists today about Eternity II on online groups and chat rooms, including Yahoo!. The Yahoo! group has almost 1,500 members. Chatter about Eternity II was monitored as much as possible, and responses are crafted by marketing team members when and where they can. The viral campaign has also included targeting a great deal of online sites to help with natural search-through engines and also to drive people to the online retailers. The online campaign has spawned software programs created by computer whizzes to help solve the puzzle. One example is a man from New Zealand who created a program and a Web site (www.eternity2.net) about Eternity II. In addition, International media covered the story extensively.

Finally, an online campaign targeting the Toys "R" Us customer database included a direct HTML e-mail with the game demo included and a "buy it now promotion" to encourage traffic to the stores and ToysRUs.com. The game was made available for presale on ToysRUs.com and sold 1,000 units before the product was officially launched.

Quality Technology Services

Quality Technology Services (QualityTech) currently positions itself as a full service technology infrastructure company providing Managed Services, Data Center Services, and Professional Services to business in the United States (www.qualitytech.com). The company, which is less than two years old, has built its business quickly through a series of acquisitions, including edeltacom and Globix, as well as securing several data center facilities across the country to increase its national footprint.

However, with every acquisition, and with continued company growth, QualityTech faces communication challenges. QualityTech must take the strengths from each acquired company, as well as the roots of a strong "Quality" brand, and meld them into one concise and cohesive message to the market; to convey its state-of-the-art services and facilities, and to present a strong, intelligent, and credible organization that provides World Class People, Processes and Facilities to the businesses it serves.

The main objectives of QualityTech's PR 2.0 thought leadership communications plan are to introduce a young, intelligent, world-class company to the market; to increase editorial coverage (and third-party endorsements) through trade journals, vertical media, and business publications; to engage in direct dialogue with customers and prospects to provide them with targeted information that presents QualityTech as a thought leadership company; and to convert sales leads into customers.

To achieve the company's 2.0 objectives, QualityTech's PR strategies consist of the following programs:

Media Relations. The media relations program includes several tried and true PR outreach strategies, including news release development and distribution to trade, business, newspapers, online and syndicated media, editorial calendar review and angle development (to pitch different editors on targeted stories), and a meet-the-media program at the grand opening for one of QualityTech's datacenter facilities. To accommodate those media influencers who are engaged in social media, both the traditional and the social media news release template will be available on QualityTech's Web site. Social media releases will have bulleted information with approved quotes from executives but will also provide video, RSS, social book marking, hyperlinks to other sources, and audio downloads to help the media and general audiences to quickly and easily gather and organize information.

Online Media Kit Development. QualityTech will set up an interactive newsroom that enables visitors to access video news style interviews with the company's executives, as well as testimonials from customers who are willing to discuss how QualityTech helped to solve their hosting challenges. The media kit will also include a full interactive slideshow or video of QualityTech data centers and information for download on its national facilities. Media kits will contain executive information (bio and photos). All executive and sales team members will have links to social networking profiles, including LinkedIn and Facebook. Members of the QualityTech sales team will also have bios that are linked to their forums and groups where they actively discuss hosting and managed services topics.

Blogging. A blog on the QualityTech Web site is an ideal way to engage customers and current prospects in dialogue to learn more about their concerns and business issues they face everyday with respect to outsourcing their hosting and managed service. Because marketing is one big conversation on the Internet, social media enables QualityTech to start a dialogue with prospects and/or clients on its own Web site. Blogging alone enables QualityTech to engage their customers and prospects in a discussion, and be privy to conversations between their customers. Blogging is a low-cost form of research for QualityTech—it's the greatest focus panel they could ever implement for only a fraction of the cost. By developing a blog, QualityTech will select interesting topics for discussion, including what keeps executive up at night. The company can key into the many issues that concern customers who are looking for a colocation, hosting, or a managed services company. These topics might include security, privacy, power, cooling, green datacenters, and so on.

Video Series. QualityTech's Web site was developed to display video and flash presentations in the large, open graphical area on the home page. It's important for customers, prospects, the media, and other influential audiences to see and learn first-hand about the company's state-of-the-art facilities and meet the intelligent team behind the QualityTech brand. Video can be shared and passed along to interested parties. Incorporating video into the framework of the Web site is a first phase step. A more advanced video platform would be an area of the QualityTech Web site called QualityTech Forum^[2], a place where all audiences would access an online repository of searchable multimedia, including detailed information on colocation, hosting, and managed services.

Podcasting. Podcasting enables QualityTech to capture the attention of those audiences who prefer to spend a minimal amount of time on their Web site and would rather download information to a handheld device to "listen on the run." A podcast series could provide highlights from speaking engagements, company meetings, or interviews on compelling topics such as the green movement in hosting, the future of hosted services, maximizing customer relationships with managed services, and so on. Podcasts can also be clips from any industry presentations from QualityTech's speaking engagement program. For QualityTech, podcasting is an effective way beyond blogging that provides an inauthentic company voice. As a social media tool, it enables the company to reach a highly mobile audience—customers and prospects who seek valuable content for listening on their own terms and at the time most convenient to them.

RSS Technology. RSS technology will be an easy means for QualityTech's online audiences to access news, updates, and valuable industry information. QualityTech will offer three feeds from its newsroom, company blog, and from the QualityTech Forum. These feeds are a great way to let audiences know that new information is available. A feed also enables customers, prospects, employees, analysts, media, and other influential parties to share the information with other audiences (through "e-mail a friend"). The RSS technology feeds are, of course, optional to users. Users will have to opt into the RSS feed to participate in the program. RSS feeds provide targeted communication to those interested parties, and will keep QualityTech's brand and expertise top of mind.

PR 2.0 Monitoring. Monitoring is one of the most important parts of the QualityTech plan, especially because there are so many concerns regarding PR 2.0 and the loss of control of communication. If a company is going to send out its messages to audiences, it needs to monitor and assess the level of positive and negative communication, as news is disseminated. With so many sophisticated monitoring services from Cision and Delahaye to PR Newswire's eWatch and MarketWire, QualityTech will be able to freely discuss topics on its blog and in news releases, and feel comfortable when audiences share the content. QualityTech will be able to listen closely to what's being said. Listening is the only way to take the proper actions. Positive information is confirmation that the PR 2.0 plan is a success and can be placed back into the company's research and service development cycle. Any negative talk on the Internet will be monitored for a period of time and then positive messaging will be developed to combat any harmful chatter.

The PR 2.0 portion of QualityTech's plan makes sense. Its audience, comprised of CIO, CTO, and technologically savvy professionals, is online and comfortable with Web 2.0 and for the most part, familiar with social media applications. Enabling audiences to organize and share information will ultimately result in more conversations with prospects and customers, greater visibility as information is shared, and credibility as an industry leader, with knowledgeable resources provided through social media applications. The end result—qualified leads turn into customers. QualityTech is on the right track. It might take a year or so to get their PR 2.0 plan completely launched and fully functional, but they are no different from a number of companies that are just getting their feet wet with social media and PR 2.0.

ASCO Power Technologies

ASCO Power Technologies (www.ascopower.com), a division of Emerson Electric, is a company best known for keeping the power "on." As a world leader in Automatic Transfer Switches and Power Systems, ASCO protects data and information and safeguards critical installations whether it's that of a healthcare facility or a financial institution.^[3]

The company recently began the development of ASCO Power University^[4], a completely new concept and area of its Web site. From a marketing perspective, the underlying motivation was to establish ASCO as a thought and innovation leader within their industry. To do this, the University is built with two main objectives. The first objective is to use the site as an educational portal for all external audiences, and the second objective is to educate ASCO Power Technologies' engineers (internally). Phase I of the initiative launched in early 2008.

ASCO Power University, through its use of social media applications, is a PR 2.0 communications concept. Users are able to search, organize, and share content. The site provides informational presentations from basic power to advanced power systems through Web streaming—video-on-demand (VOD) and RSS technology. This online repository of materials provides visitors not only a wealth of information but also the ability to view materials and then take a quiz to test their knowledge on the subject matter. Then, RSS feeds let engineers know when specific information of interest is available for their review. ASCO intends to focus on the external launch of this site for audiences including the media. The company wants to reach out to journalists to invite them to take advantage of the rich content on the site for research and story-building purposes.

According to Brian Phelan, Director of Marketing Services at ASCO Power Technologies, this type of social media application was long overdue. Phelan discussed his thoughts about ASCO's use of social media and how it would change the nature of their organizations' communications moving forward.

Q: Is ASCO Power University your company's first foray into social media?

A: No. We were the first company in our industry to develop multimedia interactive marketing tools to describe applications for our products, as well as educate engineers on our product features. In fact, in 2000, we won the prestigious Axiem award for "Absolute eXcellence in Electronic Media."

However, with respect to Web-based initiatives, yes. Unfortunately, we haven't put much energy and resources into our Web efforts to date. However, we've been encouraged in recent months by a steady increase in traffic to our site, Web sponsorship opportunities that are presenting themselves, and a stronger push by companies within our industry to take a more aggressive Web-based marketing strategy. Interestingly, for an industry that literally provides the resources to power the Web, as a whole we've lagged far behind the curve in terms of how best to utilize it. With ASCO Power University, we're helping to propel forward not only our own company, but also the entire industry.

Q: How do you think ASCO audiences will benefit from ASCO Power University?

A: We're not planning on ASCO Power University being an advertising vehicle. Although future segments might include "how to" topics for effective usage of ASCO products, the early content releases will be based on topics that engineers would be concerned with and could learn from. Many engineering universities simply have not offered courses in the basic fundamentals of power that build the foundation of our industry. At the same time, there are established engineers who have been in the industry for years, but haven't had the time or resources to keep up with the rapid changes that are part of electrical engineering.

We're building ASCO Power University to fill these gaps. Through an ongoing series of 30-minute content modules ranging across a variety of topics, we're going to be the premier learning center outside an accredited university where both new and established engineers can gather the information they need quickly and easily.

Q: What are the most useful tools for engineers or other groups on the site?

A: We'll be developing each instructional module with a mixture of video, Flash animation, and PowerPoint to maintain a high level of instructional and entertainment value. Ease of navigation and interactivity will also be inherent in all modules. Each learning module will be followed up by a quiz so that engineers can check their knowledge on a given topic, and feel confident that they have completed the learning module with a reasonable understanding of the material.

In addition, users will have access to information as to which quizzes they've taken and how well they did, plus the users are able to see which modules they have only partially seen so that they can revisit them at a later time. The convenience factor and self-testing capabilities will prove to be a tremendous benefit to our audience.

In the future, we might use this tool to begin a certification course with credits. This will take the entire University effort to a new level, helping to boost engineers' credentials and promote career advancement, while firmly establishing ASCO as a knowledge-based resource.

Q: Was there any resistance from upper management with respect to this initiative or any other social media efforts?

A: No. On the contrary, we have always maintained a cutting edge mentality in developing marketing initiatives for our industry. In fact, we received the Emerson Technology Award for our cutting edge marketing initiatives.

Q: Would you ever consider expanding ASCO Power University to include a blogging tool for ASCO to communicate directly with its audiences?

A: We are already considering this and plan to include blogging technology in future updates to the University. We've already discussed the possibility of having our call center in Manilla be responsible for moderating and controlling blog usage. Initially, our biggest concern regarding blogging was the fear that people posting comments would give wrong information on a topic. Worse yet was the danger of a competitor leaving negative comments about ASCO. However, once we gained a greater understanding of how blogs work, and realized that we can police and filter the comments before they get posted, we saw a clearer vision of the great benefits a blog would provide.

Q: Discuss your vision for ASCO Power University as an external educational portal

A: We anticipate that ASCO Power University will be focal point for seasoned engineers as well as recent graduates to gather information that will help them achieve greater understanding of important topics within the electrical power industry. By making content easy to find, enjoyable to review, and valuable in terms of its content, we expect that users will utilize the site and ongoing educational resources, while at the same time establishing in their minds that ASCO is a leader in its industry.

Moving Forward with Your PR 2.0 Planning

If you're looking to put the "public" back in public relations, venturing into direct-to-consumer communication through social media applications will not only jumpstart your communications, but also increase the reach of your marketing conversation. Some of your audiences will always rely on you for traditional communication, but for those audiences that are active online and want their information delivered in a 2.0 fashion, you need to focus on the following:

• Your campaign requires a fine balance between traditional PR and social media tactics to reach your audiences.
• People of all ages and all professions are reading blogs, joining online communities, tagging articles, listening to podcasts, enjoying their RSS feeds, and have set up profiles on social networking sites.
• Social media enables online consumers to gather, organize, and share information to make informed decisions and purchases.
• PR 2.0 and the use of social media applications provide an effective way to communicate to employees, customers, prospects, the media, analysts, bloggers, and other stakeholders with less expensive techniques.
• PR 2.0 enables you to hear firsthand customer comments, concerns, and insight into what influences their thinking and decision-making.
• Social media sites and social networking enable you to keep the marketing conversation going with the opportunity to increase the reach of your brand's messages.
• Brands adopt PR 2.0 and social media strategies at all different rates. As some companies are just beginning their foray into social media, other organizations are employing strategies that enable audiences to share content which leads to increased marketing/PR buzz.

Endnotes

1. The TOMY International case study was provided by Southard Communications, New York, New York, October 2007.

2. QualityTech Forum is a concept developed by PFS Marketwyse.

3. ASCO Power Technologies Web site Homepage is at www.ascopower.com.

4. PFS Marketwyse created ASCO University's software shell.