Two simple steps to online brand positioning
Posted in Advice on April 24, 2009
Yesterday I attended a seminar by the local PRSA and IABC chapters (I’m a member of both). Although the programming was about surviving in these difficult times, nearly all of the discussion focused on using social media to communicate.
It surprised me to hear so many questions about social media’s validity as a public relations tool. It surprised me even more to hear that some of Utah’s companies and government agencies are just starting to consider if and how they can use social media.
I made two simple suggestions that I’ll repeat here.
Step One
Remember when the Internet was born and the race was on to secure your dot-com name?
Well, the race is on (and has been for a couple years) to secure your company’s spot on the various social media platforms.
Each organization and brand should be sure they reserve their spot on at least a few social media platforms, including:
For instance, if I were Zions Bank, I would:
- create a fan page on Facebook
- reserve Twitter.com/ZionsBank
- reserve YouTube.com/ZionsBank
- reserve Flickr.com/photos/ZionsBank
I noticed there already was a Zions Bank channel on YouTube, created in Dec. 2006, but who knows if it was created by the bank or someone else.
There’s also a Zions Bank channel on Twitter . . . with no updates.
We’ll wait and watch for something to be published on the channels. That will give us a pretty good idea of who owns it.
Step Two
I’d be sure to set-up RSS feeds to monitor what people are saying about me online in various social media spaces.
If you’re still learning about RSS feeds:
- Search this blog
- Search on Google
- Checkout what Wikipedia has to say about it
There are some great services that provide online monitoring. They charge for the service, of course. But there are free ways to monitor as well.
Using my illustration above, if I were Zions Bank I would:
- Set-up free Google alerts for comments made about the bank
- Search Facebook for groups and comments related to the bank
- Search on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr
A simple search on Search.Twitter.com yields this result. Do you think there’s an opportunity for Zions Bank to respond to what’s being said about them on Twitter? Look at what Comcast has done with ComcastCares.
After searching for your brand, subscribe to the RSS feed displayed on the top right of Twitter’s search site. Then, in your RSS reader you can always receive the latest Twitter comments made about your company. There are other services for this as well. You can search online or on this blog for examples.
For a more detailed approach to listening, I recommend checking out the slides for a presentation I gave to the Las Vegas BYU Management Society in March. The presentation was titled 7 Steps to Free Internet Monitoring. The PDF slides are available in my online newsroom.
A third step I’d recommend is participating in the local Social Media Club chapter (membership is free). That organization provides an unmatched resource for all things related to social media — and I’m not just saying that because I’m the program director for the Salt Lake City chapter. The Social Media Club, in my daughter’s vernacular, is totally awesome and a much needed resource for every communication professional.
Of course, I’m happy to consult with any company — as I’ve done for several years now — about why and how they should be utilizing social media to monitor and manage their brand online.
