Patterson/Bach Communications, Inc.

As the creative director at Patterson/Bach, I normally use this forum to write about things such as how to write a great headline or great body copy. You know, creative stuff. But creativity goes far beyond writing and advertising, and as I scan the latest news on our economy—the good, bad and the ugly—it seems to me now is a good time for all of us to get creative about getting America’s economic engine revved up and cranking again. This, I believe, is something we can all do, not just writers or art directors or “creative people”, but anyone who has a stake in the economic well being of our nation.

Now more than ever, we need to think how our businesses–be it marketing or banking or construction or whatever–can help revitalize, say, our local economy. Perhaps we could form alliances with other businesses to promote each other to our individual client bases. For example, a marketing firm with a banking client might look for opportunities to introduce the bank’s services to its other clients, while the bank make its clients aware of the marketing firm’s services. Another thought is for businesses in different categories to join together and brainstorm economic development ideas. Say a bank, a construction firm and a marketing firm meet informally—over lunch or whatever—just to kick around some “What If?” ideas on local economic development. Getting groups of entrepreneurial minds together in this manner … well, it couldn’t hurt, could it?

This isn’t the time or space for a detailed manifesto on recharging the economy. My purpose is simply to suggest that business people of all walks and disciplines—not just “creative people”—can and should join together and think creatively about how to get our economy humming again. We have the brains. We have the creativity. And by harnessing these invaluable assets, we have the solutions.

Our public relations team frequently meets with clients to discuss social media initiatives and opportunities. We ask a variety of questions, including why clients want their organization to be on an online network, what they could achieve through an online presence, and how much of their resources are they willing to dedicate to this effort.

Clients’ answers to these questions are often surprising: from “…because our competition is,” to “…because we want to have a lot of followers and fans.” Many responses demonstrate a lack of understanding how social networking sites operate and the types of online communities that are available for their specific organizations. Clients also usually fail to incorporate their brand platform, mission, goals and core values into their answers; whereas, they rarely make this mistake with traditional media methods.

How would you measure success on a social networking site? The number one response we receive is that success should be measured by the amount of fans and followers an organization has. While it is possible to create programs that increase the number of followers/fans on FaceBook or Twitter and other networking sites, it’s not a solid, long-term strategy for the following reasons:

• When focusing on quantity, quality is lost. Concentrating on quality over quantity is critical to maintaining two-way dialogue. It’s difficult to maintain ongoing conversations when there are a multitude of different conversations occurring, all aimed at you.
• Inability to effectively listen to your audience. A key element of social media is sharing and listening. Proactively listening to feedback to hear what people say about your brand will allow your organization to create immediate resolutions to problems or criticisms. If your utilizing any social network, you should hear, read, listen, and respond to individuals; as well as implement change and organizational operating strategies when necessary.
• Short-term promotions should be incorporated into a long-term strategy. When the promotion ends, these fans often disappear too. Your social media activities should not be solely focused on short-term promotions. The focus should be on building long-term relationships that lead to loyal brand followers. Promotions can help build this concept, but should not be your only strategy. When you focus on your relationships, you will receive a greater response when you create a short-term promotion and call to action.
• Talk with me, not at me. If your followers/fans just wanted to hear you talk, they would visit your Web site, which is an online portal for your organization to do just that—talk only about itself for a never-ending period of time. Your web site doesn’t allow for real time, two-way dialogue. If customers didn’t want to provide you feedback, your Web site would be the most popular online presence.

Long-term social media plans should be well-developed strategies and tactics that support your organization’s goals. A goal on a social networking site shouldn’t be to have numerous supporters, because your organization will have a weak relationship with each individual. Build a great foundation so that it will grow, and when it does grow, people are having a really positive experience. If you implement social media correctly for fans 1 through 100, then you will have set a great precedent for the rest of your fans/followers.

Our clients’ social media programs focus on the strength of their relationships within online communities. When an organization is new to social media, our goal is to provide a good foundation that enables a business to commit to a long-term plan. If you need a partner to start or grow your social media efforts, contact me at Ashley (at) pat-bach (dot) com.