PR 101

The key to social media success is building a community of like-minded people. If you are in business, what you want people to do is like and trust your company or your product. If you are an individual, you want the community’s members to like each other. In both cases, the key to building that community is giving people a reason to join and a reason to stay.

Let me use a non-internet example of how to build a community, how to keep it going, and how that builds a successful business. The example applies to social media. I will explain how in a bit. I am using this because it was my first experience with building a social community – although the internet was 20 years away at the time.

I grew up in a small town in upstate New York. (When I say upstate, I mean almost 200 miles north of New York City. Westchester County is not upstate). The two-century-old village of Ballston Lake had a population of about 900 people when I was there in the 1950s and 1960s. Most of the families, mine included, had lived there for generations. When I saw the play “Our Town” for the first time, I thought playwright Thornton Wilder had been spying on Ballston Lake.

This where I grew up - Ballston Lake, NY

The village had six businesses: Ketchum’s Hardware Store, Sauer’s Gas Station, a small restaurant/bar, Etchibelli’s Pizza Parlor, a barbershop and Fanning’s Market.  It is Fanning’s I want to talk about it because I worked there while I was in high school.  A retired Navy Chief Petty Officer- John Fanning – ran the store with his wife Florence. There were six other employees.

Like a lot of other communities at the time, the areas around the village were rapidly suburbanizing. General Electric operated one of the largest industrial plants in the world 10 miles down Route 50 in Schenectady. The state capital of Albany was 20 miles south on the newly constructed freeway known as the Northway because it went all way to Canada. These brought a lot of people into the area.

Following those new families were the chain grocery stores – stores seven or eight times the size of Fanning’s Market. Their prices were lower and they had a much larger selection. They advertised in the local newspapers, on radio, and on television. John Fanning didn’t do any of that.

Yet, Fanning’s Market thrived. Saturdays you could barely walk the aisles because the place was so full. It was almost as busy every other day.

So how did John Fanning beat his much larger, better-financed competition? He built a community around his store. We had hundreds of regular customers. We knew their names and their wants. Head butcher Leo Dion knew Mrs. Nelagar liked smaller lamb chops because she was a widow. I knew Mrs. Gibelius preferred three bags, even though her groceries would fit into two.

Customers loved that all our meat was cut to order. I do not remember us selling any prepackaged meat.

The store was also a place to come to find out what was going on in the community. When was the Town Board going to repave Eastside Drive? Or man, was that a big snowstorm yesterday. Dates were made there, parties arranged, and people comforted during tragedies.

John Fanning spent every day in that store talking to customers. He always knew what they liked and what they didn’t like.

He also did one other thing. He knew his market. The area I grew up in a area that is part of New York’s apple producing region. There were a number of orchards in the area that sold fruit and related items. John never tried to compete with them. He knew his community. He knew they wouldn’t like it if he tried to take on another community they cherished.

Of course, we all lived in the area, so we knew all about customers. John Fanning was a member of the Fire Department and a number of other organizations. He helped sponsor the annual Fire Department Clambake. He couldn’t get away from his customers, but then he didn’t want to. He knew the only way to keep that store successful was to know what people were saying and what they wanted.

It worked the other way. Every time a new customer came in, we would ask how they heard about us. We weren’t exactly on the main road. We were in the “downtown” of a small village. Inevitably, we heard that a neighbor had told them about how the store. John Fanning always made it a point to thank those people for coming. And to thank the neighbor who sent them. In fact, he thanked every customer who came through the double glass doors.

That, in a rather large nutshell, is social media. It is all about building community and giving that people a reason to trust you. If they trust you, they will do business with you. They will tell their friends to check your website or read your posts. You build trust by providing value and knowledge. John Fanning did that because he talked to his customers everyday. They trusted our products and service would be better than other places they could go – even though we cost more.

You can do the same in a virtual way by using social media tools. By blogging, podcasting, and posting videos on YouTube, you demonstrate value and knowledge to your readers. By reading and commenting on posts on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media you show interest and knowledge. In addition, by reading the comments on your blog and on social media sites, you know what people are thinking. By retweeting what others say on Twitter, you show you care what they think.

By doing that, you find out what your potential customers want and need. You will give them a reason to shop your store. You have given a reason to follow you.

Some notes for my readers: I am considering giving away five half hour social media, public relations or marketing consultations. That’s right, a free 30 minute discussion about something that will help your business. Doesn’t matter where in the world you are – Skype is a wonderful thing. If you are interested, please leave a comment.

Second, the second installment of our social media book club will be broadcast Wednesday, Sept. 30 at 8 pm CDT (GMT -6) on Blog Talk Radio. We are discussing part two of Australian social media expert Simon U. Ford’s book: Social Traffic: Marketing In A New Media Scape. Simon is my social media mentor. If you are interested in joining us, let me know. I will send you Parts One and Two of the book and the url for the first show and for this weeks show.

Third, if you are interested in an in-depth, intensive social media training course, follow this link to the Social Media Boomers website. That’s a social media group to which I belong. Follow the link there to Social Traffic Inc. and check the various social media training modules. This is a course created by Simon Ford. I am a graduate of this course. It is intense and not for those who just want to dabble in social media. But if you want to have your brain expanded and really learn social media, this is the course for you. It takes 10 weeks, and it will make you an expert.

The number and kind of social media applications keeps growing. Image courtesy of Share Media

In the seven months I have been writing this blog, I have had much to say about social media and its implications for traditional marketing and public relations. What I haven’t done is talk about using social media’s. So for my next several blogs, I am going to talk about applying social media to your business. It works for both – business-to-consumer and business-to-business.

I am not talking about using Facebook to find that long lost high school sweetheart (does your spouse know you are doing that?). Or tweeting all your friends that you just made a dynamite Denver omelet. There’s nothing wrong with doing that. But to me that’s like using a Porsche Carrera to pick up milk at the corner. You are not taking social media out of first gear.

My social media mentor, Simon U. Ford, calls social media the fifth communications revolution – coming after things such as the printing press and the telephone. As Ford explains, social media is not just sharing information, it is people working together – people collaborating, about people building a community. He also argues – and I agree – that it has completely changed the mediascape.

Here’s the definition of social media definition I use in client presentations: “Social media is a set of Internet tools that enable shared community experiences, both online and offline. It allows people and companies to tell stories, build communities, sell products, build market share or reach new audiences through the use of websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, blogs, podcasts, video podcasts (usually called Vlogs), photo sharing and wikis.”

Or put more simply: “social media is about building a collaborative community.” Yeah, I know I said that two paragraphs ago, but it needed to be said again.

The ultimate goal of social media is to bring people to your website. Once there, they can register for your event, buy your product, hire your company, recommend you, do anyone of thousand other things.

What social media does is give people reasons to go the website. Here’s the second key about using social media: you have to build trust. Think about it; are you friends with anyone you don’t trust? I don’t mean an acquaintance you have an occasional beer with. I mean someone who has demonstrated to you through his or her words and actions they are someone on which you can rely. The same thing applies to on-line communities – would you join an online community where you didn’t trust the other members? The trust could take many forms, although demonstrated expertise is always my top reason.

In social media, you attract people by demonstrating your expertise. You do that by blogging, tweeting and using other forms of social media. That’s just the first step. Once you do those things, other people have to endorse what you have done. They have to tweet about, link to it on their blogs and talk about it on their Facebook pages. I will talk about how to do that in other posts.

That is the part that many companies have problems – it means giving up control of their brand. Social media has done is turn the old equation upside down. Customers will search for the companies with which they want to deal. So, every company has to do everything it can to make sure it’s trusted.

When used properly, social media is a powerful set of tools that will outperform just about any other form of advertising or marketing. I think it is that effective. I have seen just how well it works for my clients. Check out either Sidewinder Cycles or Smart Barter USA. I have not worked with either of that long. But you can see the positive effects of social media on both their brands.

Before I go into this, I want to establish how I learned to use social media. I came to it three years ago when I created a series of podcasts for a client. They wanted to find a new way to reach employees. Email wasn’t working. The podcasts had over a 75 percent open rate, compared to the 15 percent rate for emails. I didn’t even know what I was doing was called social media. I just knew it worked.

For the next two years, I did everything I could to learn social media – which was then called Web 2.0. I read everything experts Brian Solis, Chris Brogan, Sarah Evans and other wrote.They are all very good and I learned a lot. I signed up for every social media application in existence and read their FAQs and instructions. I thought I was pretty good at it.

I didn’t know how much I had to learn until I stumbled across Ford. Ford owns a company called Eventslisted.com. He is a successful social media entrepreneur. That’s why I chose to him as a teacher. I mistrust trainers who have never actually done it themselves.

Prior to that, many people who tell me they can teach me social media in a day or a weekend have approached me. That to me is like some driving schools that say they will make you expert driver after one or two lessons. I suppose something like that happens for one in a million students. But most of us have to take the course from an expert instructor. We all need both classroom instruction and hands-on training. This is the kind of training that takes time and effort. If you don’t put in the time and put out the effort, you won’t learn much.

So, I went through Simon’s intensive 10-week social media training course. I learned how to use tools such as Twitter, Digg and YouTube. I learned a lot.

You can see how I applied what I learned by doing a couple of simple exercises:

• Google PR 101. This blog comes up in the third result.
• Google Jeff Cole, Milwaukee. I come as the first three results.
• Google Jeff Cole. I am the first result.
• If you Google my company – JJC Communications LLC – it comes up as the first four results.

I am not doing this to boast. I am writing this to prove a point. By the way, I still need to do some work. If you Google public relations and Milwaukee, I don’t come up for three pages. So, I am still learning.

Next week, we will discuss how to use some social media applications.

If you have any questions about social media, ask through a comment or email me. You can contact me through my company website: http://www.jjc-comunication.biz or email me at jjcole54@gmail.com.

NOTE TO MY READERS: If you are interested in a free, introductory course on social media, email me. Myself and five  other social media acolytes are doing the second round of a our Social Media Book Club on Blog Talk Radio We are giving away an EBook written by social media guru Simon U. Ford. Ford sold several thousand of the books for $47. However, we have permission to give it away for a limited time.We also will be holding a series of four virtual “book clubs” to go over the book. Between the book and the four of us, you will receive a comprehensive overview of social media. Because we want to provide the best possible training, there are only be 50 spots available for the book club. For more information, go to the Social Boomers site. The first show will be Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 8 pm CDT (GMT -6). The URL is bit.ly/Y253H.

If you would like a copy of the book, email jjcole54 at gmail.com. It is helpful to have.

Irina Sharma carried her passport everywhere during the first days of a public relations campaign for Durex condoms. The campaign had been planned and implemented by Sharma’s agency – the Dubai-based eKadaa PR. She was being cautious. It is possible that the Emirate of Dubai would decide she had crossed a line and would deport her. She wanted to be ready if she was hustled onto an airplane.

I had coffee with Sharma last week in the Milwaukee Hilton Hotel. I wanted to talk to her because I am convinced she, and public relations professionals like her, are the future of global public relations. Those of us who practice in the Western world – and think how we do things will work everywhere – should heed the lessons Sharma can teach us.

Sharma founded eKadaa PR in 2003. She went into public relations after a career in broadcasting. That broadcasting career included a stint as an intern with Howard Stern. eKadaa is a full-service public relations agency whose current clients include Lufthansa German Airlines, German National Tourist Board, Canon, National Geographic, Clinique, Crocs, Swarovski, Technogym and many more.

Sharma was in Milwaukee due to the efforts of Ann Knabe, an instructor in communications and public relations at the University of Wisconsin – Whitewater. Knabe is an accomplished public relations practitioner in her own right. When she is not teaching at Whitewater, she is a Lt. Col. in the U.S. Air Force Reserve where she handles public affairs. Knabe has served as a public affairs officer for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, for the war court at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and most recently in the Pentagon. She also holds the prestigious Accredited in Public Relations designation from the Public Relations Society of America.

Knabe met Sharma when she traveled to Dubai in May to study public relations there.

Irina Sharma (left) and Ann Knabe spoke to at the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater about global public relations.

Dubai’s diverse, international makeup is ideal for global business and is “absolutely open to the U.S. and its business and practices,” Knabe told the Milwaukee Business Journal. “To many Arabs, Americans come off as a culture of ‘know-it-alls. But continued efforts on education can help change that perception.”

Why do I think Sharma, and those like her, are the future of public relations? Because to use New York Times columnist Tom Friedman’s metaphor, the world is flat and getting flatter. Global communication and global business are now almost instantaneous.

But every country has different rules and mores that need to be respected. Campaigns have to be tailored to fit those rules. The problem is that in many societies, the rules are unwritten. These may be countries that have deep broadband penetration and whose residents wear Nikes, but there are still lines that cannot be crossed. You can complain about how unfair that is, or how backward the society may seem. Tough. It’s their playing field and they get to decide how the game is played.

“For instance, Saudis don’t feel comfortable talking to women,” Sharma explained. “In Dubai, I can wear a dress that exposes my shoulders. But, if I go 20 minutes away to Sharjah, I have to cover up.”

The Durex campaign was done without mentioning sex because that’s taboo in the local culture. Sharma explained at all times the cultural, traditional and religious values were respected. The campaign focused on HIV-AIDS prevention and education. I suspect that many Western account executives would insist on somehow including sex. The mantra for many is sex sells. From what I gather, mentioning sex in many cultures can get you deported. In some countries it can get you jailed.

The culture mores in the Middle East are very different than what most Westerners are used to. While Dubai is a cosmopolitan, international city of expatriates from all over the world, the United Arab Emirates is an Islamic country. Sharma knew she had to walk carefully along the mountain ridge in publicizing an item in such a culture.

“I wasn’t sure what the reaction would be,” Sharma said.

That Sharma was able to lead an English company along the ridge also without stumbling speaks to her abilities – and is a key point we in the West need to learn. The key to any public relations is knowing your audience. As I said, we in the West say we understand that. Too often, we look at the world and see ourselves. We think what works in Peoria will work Abu Dhabi or Kuala Lumpur or even Dublin. As Sharma will tell you, that isn’t so.

“You cannot just cut and paste a campaign,” Sharma explained.

The reason I think is that many Americans have problems understanding this is because we often suffer from the malady known as culturus blinderus. I am always amazed by Americans who don’t speak a second language (Spanish, in case you are wondering), don’t make an effort to learn the cultural mores of the area in which they are traveling ,and are mystified why when they ask for pepperoni in Italy, they get little peppers, instead of sausage (Quite tasty, actually).

Irina Sharma is the kind of public relations person who knows these things. (Well, I am not sure about the pepperoni thing. I didn’t ask) She is also the kind of public relations person that is going to eat an American agency’s lunch when it comes to doing business outside of North America. Perhaps inside North America too, when it comes to representing overseas companies in the United States.

Smart marketing U.S. marketing people should be watching and learning from Irina Sharma and those like her. She and those like her are the future of global public relations.

NOTE TO MY READERS: If you are interested in a free, introductory course on social media, email me. Myself and five  other social media acolytes are doing the second round of a our Social Media Book Club on Blog Talk Radio We are giving away an EBook written by social media guru Simon U. Ford. Ford sold several thousand of the books for $47. However, we have permission to give it away for a limited time.We also will be holding a series of four virtual “book clubs” to go over the book. Between the book and the four of us, you will receive a comprehensive overview of social media. Because we want to provide the best possible training, there are only be 50 spots available for the book club. For more information, go to the Social Boomers site. The first show will be Wednesday, Sept. 23 at 8 pm CDT (GMT -6). The URL is bit.ly/Y253H.

If you would like a copy of the book, email jjcole54 at gmail.com. It is helpful to have.