The last time I wrote this was without the first 4 words in the title – that was in the beginning of October 2009. Four and a half months is hardly a period that can bring the ‘next stage’, but given that I’ve been meeting a LOT more clients (prospective and existing, for PR) in that period, I see a change. It would also be because I moved from a Part PR-Part SM role to a full time SM role, just to add context.
While the ‘door-opener’ and ‘one sane intelligent voice’ parts remain, what seem to have changed is the client’s level of awareness. Many of them are still largely clueless, but the ones that ask evolved questions inspired this post.
Earlier, my showpiece hook to get someone interested was to tell them what people are saying about their company/ brand in the online space. No extra information was required beyond that to get that first level buy-in. These days, perhaps due to extra noise in mainstream media about social media (unlike the CNN IBN slander that Nithin KD was subjected to – his excellent rant-trailer seems to be missing for some reason!) clients are asking the right questions. Like, ‘how is that comment important to me/ my business?’.
That was a second level hook, earlier – now it is being sought by a prospect during the first meeting.
I also found that in many cases, clients have done some level of preliminary research before meeting me. Using that as a base, they frame questions – it is perfect in a way, since it becomes easy for me to talk in a slightly evolved plane as against over-simplifying everything.
Unfortunately, there are pitfalls to this too. Like the prospect who dug up many user comments about their products across past several years and asked us to prepare a draft of responses for all of them. Some of the comments were 3 years old and buried even in a Google search – my task there was to explain the importance of prioritizing social media engagement based on some pertinent criteria.
The second question then is about why they should pay us so much (no, I’m not sharing anything more!) and not hire an intern to ‘start answering people’ (sic) online. Terrible question, I know, but for diplomacy and ego-massage’s sake, I usually return a ‘Excellent question!’ retort.
This is the part where I also get brutally frank and tell them to go ahead and employ an intern and try it out. I give them an example of my PR background where I encountered a client who said that a rival PR agency (which was pitching for the same business) offered to get them specific number of pieces in specific pages of specific newspapers and publications. Back then, I had told the corporate communications person to immediately sign that PR agency, if they can commit to those deliverables on paper – we are intermediaries and do not own publications. If the other PR agency thinks it owns part of those publications, it would be very beneficial to a client!
When they look alarmed, I tell them about the value strategy and consulting bring to this activity.
The point is, with increased awareness that most brands are monitoring the online space in some rudimentary or advanced manner (to a large extent), people online seem to have started to address the invisible, voiceless brand in the hope that such a call-out will egg the brand to respond. So, it’s not a question of whether a band is listening or not – it is a question of whether they will respond and when they will respond.
It’s almost like a filmy scene where a hero challenges a villain to come out and fight while the villain is hiding inside his house, and is fully aware of the ruckus the hero is causing on the road. (No brands are not villains – that was just an example!)
What brands want to know now is how to respond. There are several nuances here that are predominantly simple but require a detailed mapping out so that the process can be institutionalized over and above treating it as a one-off activity.
For instance, that intern question is countered with outlining a response strategy – who should we respond to, what kind of questions should we respond to, who should respond, what should be the content of such response, what should be the tone of our response, how should we respond – direct communication or public participation and so on. This…always, always works. And showcases the fact that hiring an intern is akin to getting the security guard of that company’s headquarters to handle queries from people on the highway outside the building.
From that perspective, I seem to be using my own post on real life equivalents of social media tools quite often, these days.
This post is, of course, based on personal experience – your observations and results may vary!