Sunday, December 5, 2010

PR or Social Media-resistent? Ask yourself why


Social Media Servicing's PR firm and sister organization, Drechsler Communications, had a client approach us to ask about the value of social media. We knew they were a step behind in their PR and marketing thinking, but we had to give them a major ‘uh-oh’ on the impact-meter after our review:

• They produced mainly printed material containing no tracking capability and often fail to provide a clear call to action.

• They produce no blog or communication device, such as a newsletter.

• Their e-mail used an aol account, rather than their own URL.

• Their budget had no line item for social media.

• An intern did their social media efforts.

• Their website had not been updated in months.

• They did not take PR and marketing very seriously.

Our answer was to learn more about the client. Why were they so reticent to promote their business? It turned out that they had not had problems finding new business when the economy was doing well. While they were dedicating themselves to developing their core competencies, they neglected developing the company’s marketing and PR.

They now recognized that the company needed to perform these functions in order to survive. The idea intimidated them and their first instinct was to continue to behave just as they had always performed but harder. Our response was to give them a PR and marketing plan. This gave them the confidence they needed to know what tasks needed to be done and when and how they would be done.

This blog is reprinted by permission from our September blog, "Social media for the rest of us."

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