Highlights from the Social PR Strategies Summit

Last week the Social PR Strategies Summit brought together leading experts in the PR and media industry to discuss how social media can be fully integrated into your communications strategy, measure its effectiveness and better your engagement with key stakeholders and the media. 

Here are some of the key points from the discussions: 

Sometimes it's best to keep it simple 

Dom Dwight, Head of Internal Comms Development and Brand Comms Manager for Bettys & Taylors of Harrogate, showed us that sometimes the simplest of ideas can be the best. 

As I'm sure you've noticed, social media sites have been awash with images people have taken of themselves whether to remember special moments or just for the sake of it. This has become so popular it even has it's own name - the selfie. 

So the clever folk at Yorkshire Tea saw an opportunity to take advantage of this trend and the time commuters have to kill on their journeys by simply adding the hashtag #teaonatrain to the paper cups that are used on East Coast Trains who sell Yorkshire Tea.

Low and behold Yorkshire Tea fans have begun to post pictures of themselves drinking a brew in their branded cups using the hashtag. 

Don't let a good idea go to waste

Building on the #teaonatrain campaign, Yorkshire Tea integrated this idea into their media relations activities. They invited bloggers, celebrities and members of the media for an exclusive afternoon tea on the Orient Express. 

Identify the issues which your audience care about

One of the main aims of Girlguiding is to give girls a voice. After conducting a survey with their members aged between 16 and 25, Girlguiding found that 88 per cent of respondents said they believe The Sun newspaper should end Page 3. As it was clear this issue overwhelmingly resonated with their members Girlguiding began to fully support the No More Page 3 campaign.

Not only does this demonstrate to their members and target audience that although they are an organisation which was founded over 100 years ago they are still in touch with current issues and can make a positive impact on society. It goes without saying that another huge benefit was the national media coverage they have received as a result of aligning themselves with the campaign.

Watch the video below for more info on the No More Page 3 campaign:

Make sure to monitor and measure

Both Andrew Smith, Co-Author of Share This Too and Richard Moynihan, Social Media and Community Manager of Metro UK, stressed the importance of monitoring social media to better understand your audience and measure the effectiveness of your activity. 

For the specific case of the Metro, they have chosen to measure the success of their content based on how many times it has been shared. This has been so deeply engrained into their strategy that when their journalists write articles it is created with the aim of being "shareable".

It was also interesting to hear how brands are monitoring social media. According to Craig Hepburn, Global Director of Digital and Social Media at Nokia, they have placed screens around the office in order to constantly monitor social media activity and respond to any potential issues which may arise.

Nicola Dodd, Head of PR and Social Media at Cancer Research UK echoed Hepburn's comments stating that they always monitor social media with scientists on hand to provide expert comment should any issues arise. 

Furthermore, Cancer Research UK model themselves in a similar way to a traditional newsroom, meeting once a week to discuss their content strategy as well as identifying key stories in the media or on social media to react to. 

How can the brand newsroom approach help?

Adam Cranfield, Head of Marketing at Mynewsdesk, demonstrated how the brand newsroom approach can help organisations to develop their communications strategies in order to manage all of their content, social media, news, multimedia assets and influencer outreach as well as deal with issues or crises should it arise. 

This allows brands to keep up with the real-time demands of social media and actively engage with their key stakeholders efficiently and effectively. 

Furthermore, the newsroom offers organisations a platform from which to quickly respond to real-time marketing opportunities and deal effectively and efficiently in a crisis.

Check out Edelman's SlideShare on the power of the creative newsroom and download our white paper on The Rise of the Brand Newsroom for more information.