Hi there! My name is Lexie Liang. I am a passionate rookie in the public relations jungle. I love cars, PR and social media, especially the chemistry between the three of them. I use this blog to present my work, thoughts, and stories, hoping to show you my journey in the "jungle" and stir up a discussion that help you and me learn. My motto is: Learn as a rookie. Think like a pro. Please, join the adventure with me.
YouTube’s Promoted Videos Program claimed a success in hitting five million views this months. The program achieved this records in two years. I read about this on Mashable. As an assignment for New Media Drivers License Course, I chose a brand to express my thoughts on this promoted media.
Simplicity is the first impression I had on YouTube Promoted Videos. Three steps can make a promotion:
Upload/Choose your videos;
Write some descriptions;
Choose keywords.
However, I find it actually not that easy to buy a real promoted video for a brand.
Jeep is special. Among all the automotive brands I pay attention to, Jeep is the one with distinctive characters. “Tough”, “manly”, “extreme”, “fun”… People associate these concepts with Jeep naturally. And because of these characters, it is challenging and intriguing to monitor the brand. Here are my insights and suggestions for Jeep’s listening and monitoring strategy.
He has been globally recognized with many titles such as thought leader, futurist, published author, digital analyst, etc. However, I think the most important title for him is powerful blogger. Through blogging, he makes his voice heard by the world, finds resonance for his thoughts, and leads the trend in the era of Web2.0.
I’ve been reading Mr. Solis’ blog since this semester. I like his blog for several reasons:
1. Brian Solis is a brilliant visual thinker
There is one tiny detail that makes me really enjoy every post on Mr. Solis’ blog: pictures. Every post starts with a great picture. It can be comics, creative image, graphics, or simply a beautiful photo. These feature pictures have important functions more than decoration. They reflect the theme of the post and coordinate with post title, which helps grab attention from readers and drive them to continue the reading. For example, one of his latest posts is “Twitter Promoted to Ad Network”, with an image like below:
Don’t you want to know what’s in the article after seeing this picture?
As a blogging toddler, I think this is a simple but useful tip I learn to use in my blog. After the picture, of course, you still have to provide contents that are either interesting or insightful.
Besides eye-catching images, Brian Solis is also an expert at using graphics. He uses graphs to illustrate his research results, ideas, or opinions. I believe this is effective, especially in the area of new media. While we need to digest large amount of information and new trends, visual thinking really helps us learn faster and better. For blogging starters like me, we can visualize our thoughts via creating a graphic or simply borrowing a great one from experts like Brian Solis.
2. Brian Solis is an insightful digital marketer
Blogging tactics can make you popular, but it is your ideas that make you an “influencer”.
Brian Solis is one of those bloggers who provides insightful contents and influence the world. I think that’s the reason he qualifies as a powerful thought leader in social media. I learn a lot from reading his articles. More than giving facts and comments, he provides arguments and solutions. In “The Beginning of the End of Business as Usual”, he talks about the relationship between listening and engagement:
“Listening is only the beginning. Engagement is the beginning of the end of business as usual. Once we hear, truly hear our customers and the people who influence our decisions, effective engagement is inspired by the empathy that develops simply by being human.”
As a new media/public relations practitioner, I read Mr. Solis’ posts like a text book. I believe I can learn a lot from this expert on the leading edge. Some of his articles are relatively long with detailed guidelines, which are great learning materials for me. One post published in 2007 is a great example:
What makes Brian Solis world-known is his future-oriented creativity. His recent stroke of genius is “The Conversation Prism Version 3.0”, the updated social media panorama. He visualizes his ideas and analyzes the trends in the post. By following this blogger, I keep the pace with the fast changing new media world, and learn to look at the trending in the future.
Learning from the best – I believe I will benefit my future career from reading Brian Solis’ blog. I will:
Update myself with the newest trend in new media;
Learn strategies and tactics for digital marketing;
Earn the ability to think as an influencer.
One last story:
I noticed the older version of the Conversation Prism was highly recognized and spread on Sina Weibo (Micro-blogger in China). So I “retweet” the Version 3.0 to my Weibo account and shared it to three social media experts. Within 3 hours, I got 80+ retweets, 20+ comments and 30+ new followers. So far, this tweet has 123 retweets and 38 comments, as you can see below:
I take no credit for that, it’s the power of genius blogger, Brian Solis.
It took me only three seconds to decide my theme for this blog: “public relations + auto industry + social media =?” The three subjects are where my passion and curiosity is. However, it took me more than a while to decide what to write for my first post, because there are so many topics and questions I want to discuss through this blog with the whole world.
Perhaps I should start with a simple question: “Why do automobile brands need social media?” From an automotive engineering/PR student’s standing point, here are my answers:
All the auto brands are striving to survive in a horrifyingly competitive marketplace. They need to leverage every tool they can to amplify their voice.
The major products of this industry, cars, are highly complex. Selling cars involve assorted factors including technology, emotion, culture, etc. To achieve this, different channels for demonstration and visualization are needed.
Auto industry provides a variety of services in a purchase cycle which can last more than ten years. Auto brands have to build and maintain a good and long-term relationship with their customers.
All of the three features proved that automakers need social media. Social media helps auto brands:
To be heard
To be personalized
To be proactive and quickly reactive
To be credible and trustworthy
With the exponential growth of social networks, selling cars on Facebook and Twitter is no longer ridiculed. A recent survey done by ROI Research showed that 61% of the respondents discussed vehicles online, 49% follow car brands and dealers on Twitter, and 26% of them were “likely to make an automotive purchase…as a result of a recommendation someone posted on a social networking site”. (Resource: Social Car News)
Do automakers know this? Hope so.
One of my favorite social media books, The New Rules of Marketing & PR (by Daivd Meerman Scott), told a story about automakers at the very beginning of Chapter 1. At that time, the official sites of GM, Ford, and Chrysler looked like pure advertising and one-way messages to the author. “They were luring me in with one-way messages, not educating me about the companies’ products.” What about now?
With a curiosity, I examined seven auto brands in spring, 2010 (Three of them are from the Big Three). All of the seven brands built Facebook page and Twitter account. Surprisingly, however, only Ford identified some social media links on the homepage of its official site. Every brand is making efforts on social media, but how to make your efforts visible and accessible? It seems to be another story.
Only five months later, by now, 4 of 7 brands have identified some links on their official Web sites to their social media pages/sites. I think everyone is exploring, learning, and making progress in the era of Web2.0. And I, myself, can’t wait to start this journey.
“Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the earth with a lever.” – Archimedes
What Archimedes said two thousand years ago, can have a new interpretation today: “Give me an idea, and I shall amaze the world with social media.”
This is not metaphorically exaggerated. Social media is endowing every individual or organization with a magic power, with which you can let the world hear you, understand you, or even be crazy about you. For marketers and PR professionals, a new world is forming, in which social media makes the rule.
Go Viral: What Can Never Be Achieved before the New Era
Have you ever considered toss a Mentos candy into a bottle of Diet Coke? Fritz Grobe and Stephen Voltz did, and they presented the results through a video on YouTube. What happened next was just old news – more than four million views in only three weeks, hundreds of blog posts, mainstream media coverage, etc. It can be that simple but also that amazing in a world with social media. Like David Meerman Scott said in his book The New Rules of Marketing & PR: “One of the coolest things about the Web is that when an idea takes off, it can propel a brand or company to fame and fortune for free.” Viral marketing is the extreme but typical example of this thought.
Viral marketing is like a level in Archimedes’ hands, it enables individuals or small organizations to magnify their voice and compete with multi-billion dollar corporations. If used appropriately, it will be a shortcut to success. Two examples are employed to show how small business leverage viral marketing.
One is Boone Oakley, a small ad agency from North Carolina, uses videos to showcase their creativity. By using simple and hilarious cartoons, the agency differentiates itself with Madison Avenue companies. By utilizing YouTube, it creates an innovative company website with high interactivity with audience when at the same time showing their works. (See the video below.)
Another example is Blendtec, the blender manufacturer that creates a series of viral videos named “Will It Blend”. Before that, Blendtec was a faceless company. Its marketing director, George Wright, recognized the practice of “extreme blending” and applied it into Blendtec’s marketing strategy. IPad, IPhone, Guitar Hero III… The weird but genius way of showing products won 100 million views in total for Blendtec.
Both of the examples demonstrate the magic of viral marketing. While every business owner dreams of their websites going viral, “it is virtually impossible to guarantee that” (David Meerman Scott, The New Rules). Despite the extreme example, however, we can still do a better job by following the new rules of marketing & PR.
The New Rules: Contents Matter
Examining the new rules of marketing and PR in Scott’s book, I find one key issue that may guide us to success – content. In the era of Web2.0, it is all about contents.
Create great contents for your product/company
“You are what you publish.” – This is one of the most impressive remarks I found in the book. With Web and new media, we can reach our audience with the focused content tailored for them through the channel they prefer to use. Customized content fits the theory of Long Tail, and save people’s time to process information.
“People want authenticity, not spin.” “Instead of causing one-way interruption, marketing is about delivering content at just the precise moment your audience needs it.” Living in Information Explosion, useful and great contents will differentiate a person or an organization by being more efficient and helpful. That’s what we should offer to our audiences.
Send your contents directly to your audience
“PR is not about your boss seeing your company on TV. It’s about your buyers seeing your company on the Web.” “Blogs, podcasts, e-books, news releases and other forms of online content let organizations communicate directly with buyers in a form they appreciate.”
Obviously, social media increases the probability we can get our messages to our audiences because there are so many channels through which we can reach buyers directly. After all, our focus should be on customers more than media.
Use your content to drive people’s actions
“Companies must drive people into the purchasing process with great online content.” I believe this is one of the most innovative thoughts pointed out in the book. When designing website, we need to take visitors’ buying cycle into consideration. If we can provide customized information for buyers in different stages of buying cycle, it will drive them into action.
A perfect example would be our university, Michigan State University. On the official website of MSU, five target audiences are identified and offered with customized web content. Click the picture below to check our website
Again, content is important.
Though I haven’t earned a chance to practice the new rules, I do take The New Rules of Marketing & PR as a Bible for digital marketing, because who masters the rules plays best.
“Social Media Marketing Primer: How Blendtec Got Its Face On”
Lexie the Rookie 