It’s no secret public relations professionals aim to create content that elicits an action, especially through social media channels. It’s called “social media” for a reason – we want people talking about, engaging with and sharing our client’s content and messages.

Nuffer, Smith, Tucker co-hosted the “Content Marketing Insider Secrets” webinar last Tuesday with Social Fresh, a social media education company, that discussed content creation in-depth. The webinar gave attendees a glimpse of the dialogue that will take place at the Social Fresh WEST conference in San Diego on September 27-28, and featured conference presenters Anna Lingeris of Hershey’s and Zena Weist of Expion along with NST President Bill Trumpfheller.

The lively discussion focused on the importance of knowing your brand’s voice, prepping your content with appropriate research, and being an engaging participant and curator. Here’s a recap of some key points:

• Content shouldn’t repeat your traditional ad copy. Figure out what voice will resonate with your target audiences and tailor it accordingly per social media platform.
• Identifying a focused brand voice helps all employees within your company understand social media goals and activity. It also makes it easier for people to participate.
• Listen and respond to the needs of your audience.
• Create content, but also let others’ (your audience) voices and opinions come through.
• Metrics and data are available – use statistics and data to create a plan, and see what’s resonating with your audience.
• Cross-pollenating content per platform can increase the shelf life of your campaign.
• You want people to trust your brand – engagement helps build trust.
• Listen first; talk later.
• Create content that your audience can easily share on and offline.
• Engaging content must have a personal relevance. Find out what matters to your audience and create content that sparks a discussion around those topics.
• The top three types of engaging content are: personal questions, loyalty questions and call-to-actions with photos or links.
• Figure out how to make a local tie to your audience for increased interaction.
• Content marketing research is critically important and should be a large part of the resource pie.
• What experience are you trying to deliver? Use this to drive content creation, but realize in the end it, your content may not be all brand focused.
• Don’t succumb to “shiny object syndrome” each time a new platform emerges. Do your research before diving in.

Did you join “Content Marketing Insider Secrets?” What were your takeaways?

What are you doing March 1, 2012? Joining the NST team at the San Diego Hall of Champions for the 2012 San Diego Social Media Symposium, of course!

After a sell-out event in 2011, we are excited to be again hosting the San Diego Social Media Symposium, a one-day event designed to bring together leaders in public relations, academia and the business community to talk about social media and how it is impacting our respective industries. Now in its third year, the San Diego Social Media Symposium is about more than social media tactics – it’s about social media strategy.  Check out the event website and be sure to get your tickets now to secure the early bird discount: http://sdsocialmediasymposium.com/

Plans for Aug. 24? We hope you join us at Proper Gastro Pub, where we will be hanging out on the Sports Deck from 5:30 – 8 p.m. for the first San Diego Wine Wednesday.  NST is hosting this event in conjunction with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (or WOMMA for short), and it will be an evening of networking and conversation centered around the role social media and word-of-mouth marketing plays in industries of all types and sizes.

As you may recall, NST hosts the San Diego Social Media Symposium, and we see Wine Wednesday as a way to continue the conversations that were started there.  What better way to do this than to discuss the latest social media and word-of-mouth marketing trends, technologies and concepts over tasty appetizers and wine at one of the coolest outdoor patios in San Diego?

Come prepared to chat about the all things social media and word of mouth. What’s working? What’s not? And, where is social media and word of mouth headed?

Wine Wednesday is free to attend, but registration is required. Plus, the first round of drinks and tasty appetizers are on us!  To register, visit www.sdwinewednesday.com.

We hope to see you there!

The San Diego Social Media Symposium is back! In partnership with San Diego State University’s Digital & Social Media Collaborative, we are hosting the second San Diego Social Media Symposium Friday, Jan. 28, 2011, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at SDSU’s Parma Payne Goodall Alumni Center. The 2011 Symposium is designed to help attendees learn to listen to the social media dialogue, engage audiences in conversations and energize their most loyal fans.

The one-day event will feature an amazing keynote speaker – Peter Shankman, a social media leader, author and founder of Help a Reporter Out – and panels on topics previous attendees told us are most important to them. Topics include:

• How to Identify and Energize Your Most Loyal Fans
• Beyond “Listening”: Using Social Media to Make Real Changes to Your Business
• Social Media Case Studies: What Worked, What Didn’t
• What’s Next in Social Media – From New Technologies to New Trends

The event will also feature a working lunch, providing attendees the opportunity to discuss and share ideas on a wide range of social media topics. Check out the day’s agenda.

Attendees who register by Dec. 31, 2010, will receive the early bird discount of $99 per person; starting Jan. 1, 2011, ticket prices will be $129 per person. PR Newswire and WestGlen are sponsoring the event.

You can also join the conversation about the symposium by using #sdsms. We hope to see you there!

A few weeks ago, Twitter announced it was redesigning the way we’d interact on its website, making it easier to use and allowing us to get “more out of Twitter in a lot less time.” (Check out Mashable’s play-by-play piece for more detail on the actual roll out).

Slowly, our staff has been granted access to the new format as it progressively rolls out to the more than 160 million Twitter users (I feel honored, Twitter, really, I do). Having had access to the redesigned look for a week or so now, I’ve found the new layout seems really familiar to some of the desktop and web-based applications that many of us in the office already use to monitor the social media space for our clients (CoTweet, HootSuite, TweetDeck, Seesmic, etc.). Side note rant: Can anyone tell me why these application developers are against having spaces in their application names? Yeesh, show the space bar some love!

Through the new design, which features a preview window on the right of the newsfeed, viewers can access additional information without leaving the current page (a huge bonus for those of us with a bit of a short attention span) among other functionality improvements. You can view more detailed information on a person’s profile, view a video or photo, or see a conversation between two users side by side.

Twitter's new preview pane allows users to see additional content without navigating away from Twitter.com

So, was this Twitter’s way of capturing back some of the audience that’s using been using these third-party applications? Absolutely (see San Diego’s own Jennifer VanGrove explore that theory in her Mashable post earlier this month)!

But the real kicker is the expanded content opportunities. Twitter has partnered with 18 separate content-providing sites – including Etsy, Flickr, Plixi, TwitPic, Twitvid,  Vimeo, Yfrog, and YouTube to name a few – that will allow this content to be viewed within the new preview pane without leaving Twitter.com, similar to the functions in most desktop and web-based interfaces.

Some of the best news? Unlike the recent Facebook overhaul, my initial exploration (post if you see differently) found the customized Twitter backgrounds we’ve created for our clients maintain their integrity within the new design.

WD-40 Company has trusted Nuffer, Smith, Tucker as its PR agency for more than 15 years.  When the company said it wanted to further position itself as a socially responsible business, establish WD-40® as a staple in the automotive aftermarket, and educate automotive end-users about the product’s many uses, NST went to work right away to help build the WD-40/SEMA Cares Camaro.  Partnering with leaders in the automotive world to build a custom vehicle that could travel the West Coast, turn heads and be auctioned off for a good cause, NST also utilized the build partners as credible aftermarket experts to promote the ways they use WD-40 in their shops.

Live Tweeting

Along with traditional PR outreach, which led to articles about the vehicle on AutoBlog, CarandDriver.com, the Huffington Post and the Detroit Examiner, NST also created a special tab on WD-40’s Facebook page that highlighted the program, and live tweeted from the Barrett-Jackson Classic Car Show and Auction to keep fans up to speed.  NST also worked with Cie Studios to create a virtual version of the vehicle that could be raced in Nitto 1320 Legends, an online racing game and social network.

Got results?  The WD-40/SEMA Cares Camaro sold at auction for $75,000, with all proceeds benefiting Childhelp® and The Victory Junction Gang® Camp children’s charities.  Following are some more results from the program:

Facebook Tab

Online Media Reach: 35,067,183 impressions
Broadcast Media Reach: 1,000,000 viewers
Print Media Circulation: 560,830 readers

Total Event Reach: 1,310,000 in-person visitors
Nitto 1320 Legends: 1,000,000 members
Twitter Buzz: 1,000 tweets about the vehicle

Congratulations to Matt Tachdjian, the winning bidder, and to all who made this a successful program!

The social media fervor is pushing people, brands, government and hosts of others on a frenetic pace to build cult-like followings.  The risk here is witnessing the failure of these purported stakeholder relationships when these followers look behind the curtain and find Oz is a crusty old man spewing nothing but false promises.

History is littered with companies failing to adapt quick enough as consumers and markets change, and not engaging with stakeholders in social media is the next black hole.  Social media, however, is but one means – albeit increasingly powerful and important – of building relationships with your audiences.  It’s another tool in your communication arsenal, and long before you even think of dipping your toe into the pool, re-examining your brand and how it plays out both offline and online is the second most crucial step.

The first is accepting that consumers are in charge and they’re expectations are on the rise.  They demand more choices – in products and services, where they shop and eat, and where they get their information. They engage in conversations about products and issues – hardly paying any attention to the old school, one-way message marketing tactics – and more often than not, those discussions don’t directly include you, me or any other brand.

Couple the power of consumer control with the realization of the dynamics of a changing marketplace with intense global competition, and brand strategies should become a more frequent priority for any company.  But, please, for the love of whomever you pray to, a brand is so much more than a logo or tagline.  A brand is your competitive advantage that differentiates you from your competition.  News flash: It’s how others perceive you, and you can leave it to them to shape your brand or proactively do it yourself.

Think of this about your brand well in advance of spending 30 seconds to create your Twitter account (what’s more, long before executing any marketing tactic, including the news release):

•    A brand must consistently deliver on expectations
•    At the core of a meaningful brand relationship is a compelling story and a memorable product experience that is attractive enough to repeat
•    A brand is more about what people say after you’ve left the room than what you say about yourself

Successful brands reflect character – who you are and what you stand for, and clarifying that character is paramount.  It’s the centerpiece of an authentic and transparent brand proposition.  Following that, look at your vision for success, scrutinize your markets and competitors; then identify your points of differentiation and build your brand proposition that is strategic and salient, authentic, transparent, and credible.

Ready?  Not quite.  Have you taken the time to listen to how your stakeholders perceive your brand now and how, or if, they’ll engage with you in the future?  When you’re ready to get this far, listen to them and, here’s the catch, fix your vulnerabilities – from operations to marketing – dip your toe into the pool and deliver value.

Related posts:

San Diego Social Media Symposium: It’s About Genuine Consumer Experiences

Social Media is About Staying Relevant

Message to Brands: Be Quiet and Listen

Jumping Into Social Media Without Strategy is Preparing for Doom

Social Media 101: Customer Satisfaction is Key

Take Action: 5 Reasons to Provide Customer Service Via Social Media

Considering a Blog? Some Favorite Quotes and an NST White Paper

Why Public Relations Should Drive Social Media

The changing media landscape.  We’re all grappling with it these days, from consumers looking for trusted sources of information to content producers (old school outlets to the bright shiny object outlets) to brands, marketers and the PR gang alike looking to engage consumers.

There isn’t a magic pill or bullet, other than the realization the game has changed and staying on the sidelines won’t just make benchwarmers of us, hoping for a call from the coach to rush the field and show our mettle – it will just make us obsolete.

“If you want to stay relevant, you need to be there,” said Rob Hopwood, Internet content producer and social media specialist at SignOnSanDiego, at our inaugural San Diego Social Media Symposium when talking about how The San Diego Union-Tribune is delving deeper into social media. (Full disclosure, The U-T and SignOn are a client.)

Being there, Hopwood points out, involves exploring the full gamut of social media tools at our disposal, not just throwing up a Facebook or Twitter page.  He, and just about every panelist, drove home the clear message that social media is more than the creation and execution of a couple hip, in-the-now shiny objects and more about investing the time in identifying where your consumers are in the social media spectrum and listening to what they’re saying and want from your brand.

And that’s precisely where most fail – not just in social media, but also in communicating and marketing to consumers, period.  Consumers have too powerful of a voice to be ignored, and the days of only spewing pre-fab messages to them are not waning, they’re dead.

Even old-school journalists are starting to do the same.  In frequent sidebars and small talk with consumer and industry reporters, we’re finding journalists are getting more deeply involved in social media.  They’re spending the time learning what their readers, viewers and listeners want from them, and taking that knowledge back to their editors and producers with compelling arguments on what stories to tell.  They’re using Web analytics to measure their traction, and they’re building their own individual brands while serving the over-arching brand of their employer.  They’re not waiting for their execs to figure out how to monetize the use of Web and social media content, but instead proving the value of these tools (and creating personal job security).  They’re being relevant by being there – listening, experimenting, learning.

The more often old-school journalists strap up in this new playing field, the more balance we’ll see in news reported in social media outlets, and that will only protect their relevancy.  SDSU Professor Tim Wulfemeyer, another panelist, quips that while bloggers and citizen journalists spout off with little verified information, the “legacy media” – as he calls it – will continue to have the wherewithal to vet and verify, even in the age of using social media to reach people.  He also notes that the new FTC guidelines on disclosure will even the playing field – “Like legacy media, social media is all about credibility,” he said.

And that credibility comes with listening to your audience and building a relevant experience that is meaningful to them.

For more insight from the symposium, read “It’s About Genuine Consumer Experiences,” check out the panelist videos and peruse the tweets.

In trying to describe word-of-mouth marketing and social media as a tool to achieve that means to clients, friends and family alike, I often use the 1970s Faberge shampoo commercial as an example – “they tell two friends, and so on . . .”

Besides giving away my age, people seem to understand the word-of-mouth concept of consumers delivering advice on products, brands or issues on to other consumers.  Back in the day, those peer-to-peer endorsements were shared over dinner, at the office water cooler or coffee pot, the front porch or Little League. When the Smiths down the corner thought the Italian bakery on Center Street was a slice of Italy, they told their two friends, and so on, and word spread gradually – days, weeks, maybe even months.  The same thing would happen when the Fitzgeralds felt they got the sham on their oil change at the local gas station.

What the Smiths and Fitzgeralds (I grew up in an old Irish neighborhood) shared was an experience, something they felt compelled to share with others – no other motivation than to give someone close to them some great advice and to forewarn.

Today, with the Internet and all its social media outlets, we’re talking a matter of hours and even minutes, and not just with the families in the row houses on your block.  An elated Mrs. Smith and PO’d Mr. Fitzgerald can reach entire communities locally and globally.  The bakery can sell out of cannolis overnight; the gas station can become vacant.

It’s precisely what John Moore, WOMMA’s chief evangelist, implored upon the audience at our inaugural San Diego Social Media Symposium: Give consumers a great experience, and they’ll share it with others.  Seems like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?  But how many brands or organizations realize that? And how many others make the effort to look deep inside at the experience they’re giving consumers?  Moreover, how many are willing to change when they discover the experience they thought they were providing wasn’t what consumers were receiving?

By experience, Moore points out, look at how Howard Schultz at Starbucks views it: It’s an emotional connection built on human connections, connecting with consumers who will drive future growth.  Moore also talks about Southwest Airlines and all its quirky behaviors from flight attendants to the pilots – and the no-fee baggage message is off the charts.  Consumers identify with it and share the experience with others.

Don’t buy the experience platform?  Here’s some valuable data from Moore:

•    76 percent of US consumers don’t believe companies are truthful in advertising.
•    78 percent (globally) trust recommendations from other consumers.

That notion alone should freak out every CEO and board chairman and force them into what Moore calls “Becoming a Talkable Brand” – the inside-out approach from which consumers talk about your brands, products, services in a genuine manner.  But don’t expect consumers to quickly and easily become your champion.  Spend time listening to them.  You may find you have to reinvent yourself on their terms.  When you do, you might discover you have evangelists creating the buzz you crave so much.

More to come this week on the symposium.  Meanwhile, download the tweets transcript (pdf) at http://bit.ly/SDSMStweets.

Update, Oct. 29, 2009: Check out the panelist videos and read “Social Media is About Staying Relevant” for more insight from the symposium.

Observations from the world’s largest fresh produce stand – PMA Fresh Summit:

Packed Floor
Reports from the floor indicate this year’s trade show was the association’s largest in its 60-year history with more than 20,000 attendees.  Some think it’s an indicator of an economy on the rebound, considering the expense for scores of marketers and sales folks to set up shop on the trade show floor.  Add to that the costs of the customer dinners, lunches and receptions, and from the looks of the morning hangovers (I’m fighting a combo sinus infection and allergy attack, so my consumption was a two-beer max), there were plenty of good times and cash flowing.

The prevailing theory, however, is consumers are turning to fresh produce more often in this economy – choosing to dine at home and forego family dinners out on the town.  Couple that with the national dialogue on health and swine flu scares, it’s more likely consumers are taking the bounty of fresh produce health benefits to their own kitchens and dinner tables.

Food Safety
Food safety was the dominant discussion on the floor and even outside the Anaheim Convention Center.  The fresh produce industry is well known for its very high self-regulation of an unregulated industry.  The challenge is our political administration is under the gun from various interest groups to establish standards and policies on an industry the administration has very little knowledge of.  What’s more, those on the floor say, it’s highly likely the administration will push down standards and policies with little regard for what the industry, grocery retailers and foodservice operators have done together to affect change.  Fortunately, leaders of the three channels have spent ample time in D.C. trying to bring our elected officials up to speed.

Social Media
Given all the talk and lightening-speed momentum in social media over the past year, it was astonishing to see what little (emphasis on minuscule) has taken hold in the fresh produce industry.  There were exorbitant amounts of discussions and displays about engaging with consumers, but you have to wonder if the industry is still grappling with what social media is and how it can bring consumer engagement to the next level – well beyond the product giveaways and numbers of friends/followers and the like.  The industry is missing a phenomenal opportunity in building true relationships and loyalty with consumers and in creating ROI for their customers.  It all hinges on strategy.

NST Cited in State of the Industry
Nuffer, Smith, Tucker’s Food Foresight trends anticipation collaboration with California Institute of Food and Agricultural Research at University of California, Davis was cited by PMA CEO Bryan Silbermann in his state-of-the-industry address Saturday morning. PMA is a long-time partner and client with NST. Earlier this year, the firm helped PMA design and facilitate a foodservice think tank with the National Restaurant Association and International Foodservice Distributors Association. The event, sponsored by Markon Cooperative, another NST client, brought together leaders from foodservice chains, distributor companies and produce suppliers together to identify collaborative opportunities for increasing produce usage at foodservice. The group put forth a plan to double usage of fresh produce in foodservice by 2020.

Great Food
I’m woefully inept when it comes to cooking with fresh produce.  The sights and smells of the fresh produce, and the amazing cooking demonstrations, kept me starving for hours on end.  Each year, I make a pledge to eat more produce, and today for lunch I had two burgers from the fast food joint down the street.  But I do have my sights set on making a mean stir fry this weekend.