This year's Interactive Strategies Conference (the IS Conference), hosted by the Houston Interactive Marketing Association, was nothing short of phenomenal. Similar to South by Southwest Interactive in Austin in terms of topic and speaker expertise, the IS Conference is where Houstonians go to get up to speed on all things interactive. Although all the presentations were filled with relevant, interesting and informative information, the presentation by renowned social media guru Giovanni Gallucci (Twitter handle @giovanni) was particularly applicable to Pierpont – in fact, we were happy to see that we have already employed many of the techniques he discussed during his session “Getting Big Media Access via Social Media”.
One of Giovanni’s key emphases was on integrating traditional public relations and social media to achieve big results for clients. Reaching audiences in both traditional and online media spheres can greatly expand awareness of a client’s message. We’re happy to say that Pierpont is already doing this. For example, we recently helped a client achieve a feature article in the Wall Street Journal. How? By first getting our client featured in one of the publication’s blogs. The blog post was not only reposted on numerous other blogs but was also made into a full-fledged print story. By employing an effective integration strategy between traditional and new media, we were able to get our client great exposure –in print and online – in a national, tier one publication.
Giovanni also stressed the importance of remaining active with all social media networks throughout the day – for example, actively commenting on blogs, or leaving a “breadcrumb” trail of comments throughout the day at various times. Spending 15 minutes, 3 times a day interacting online has far greater impact than cramming everything into one hour at the end of the day. Like traditional marketing and public relations, social media requires you to stay in front of your audience. One great pitch or one savvy campaign isn’t enough. One of Pierpont’s clients, a medium-sized player in the renewable energy sector, engaged in a blog-commentating strategy at our encouragement. By frequently providing insightful and thoughtful comments to some of the most influential blogs in the industry, the client stayed top-of-mind and showcased its thought-leadership, eventually attracting the attention of one of the highest U.S. federal energy officials. This interest led to a meeting to discuss developments in the renewable sector, generating significant media coverage. One blog post here or there, or a couple of tweets wasn’t enough – with social media, we had to fully engage with our core audience, just like we do with traditional media.
So what did we take away from Giovanni’s presentation? It’s simple -- social media tactics must be just as strategic as traditional strategies. Some marketers and public relations experts forget this and forge ahead with Tweeting and Friending without any plan in place. Before long, they’re left with a lot of wasted time and little or nothing to show for it. Applying some of the most tried and true methods from “old” media outreach to “new” media and integrating the two approaches can help you achieve tremendous results for your brand that will resonate throughout your target audiences.