Can it be said that digital is simply an ‘add on’ to a strategy or are brands looking at digital in the completely wrong way?

With any new media there is always concern and uneasiness regarding its use, but the growth of digital has now surpassed this child-like stage, where more brands are now choosing to allocate a larger percentage of their budgets towards the use of digital media over the use of traditional media than ever before. According to the Digital Media and Marketing Association “The outlook for the South African digital publishing industry is positive with excellent results being recorded in the first quarter of 2010.”

It can therefore no longer be said that digital is an ‘add on’ to a brand strategy due to its rapid growth over the last few years. Digital should be seen as a viable platform; just like that of television and newspapers and just like with any other platform the selection for a brand will ultimately depend on the overall objectives determined within the strategy. A brand should thus always utilise a media neutral approach.

If digital does however work for the brand there are various advantages of its use. Digital can be updated and changed whenever necessary, unlike that of traditional media, so if there is an issue with a website for example, it can be fixed almost immediately. Secondly, the concept of instant links back to the world of digital and directly correlates with the ideals of the new consumer who ultimately thrives on instant gratification.  Digital media is also much more measurable in terms of reporting, as information is more freely available and through Google analytics for example information is collected and organised almost immediately.

There are many other digital tools for tracking and measuring data and many can be utilised free of charge, making it a lower cost medium in terms of measuring. Lastly, digital is more focused on Return on Investment (ROI), however it is vital to ensure what the set criteria is in order to achieve that success. According to Ahmed and Tunnah, who are both involved in large corporate digital endeavours “If you don’t have clear criteria for success and a way to measure your progress against them, there’s no way you can be deemed to succeed.”

Conclusion

Digital should no longer be seen as an ‘add on’ to a strategy, because it has gone through a rapid growth over the last few years.  It should however be viewed as a platform, whereby it is selected so as to achieve specific objectives. A brand should never just push digital to fit into a specific message, as this will simply result in wasted time and limited results. Digital offers many advantages over the use of traditional media and therefore if it is determined that digital media is relevant in achieving the objectives, the desired goals must be identified so as to measure the brands overall success.                                                                   

  How does your brand operate?

Have you used digital as an ‘add on’?

Are you operating in a media neutral way?

Are traditional platforms dying and is digital taking over? Where is the money going? Which media channels are the best to invest in?

The answer is simple: Be available on the platforms that consumers want you to be available on. These days, that is just about everywhere.

When it comes to digital platforms, Yvonne Johnston recons that the consumer is making the choice to interact: “They are not just there, they choose to follow through and click on your banner”. Gordon Muller warns against this view by adding that consumers do not choose to see your banner or PPC advertisement, it is just there. They choose only when they click on that banner or start a conversation with you on Twitter, for example. So the ultimate goal would be to get that engagement from them and you can only do this if you understand their head space, explains Johnston. Digital platforms, specifically social media, provide marketers with the opportunity to understand this headspace better. We can see what consumers think about brands, and if it is negative, we can interact with them and attempt to change their mind and according to Johnston there is no better brand ambassador than a person that used to be negative about the brand and then changed their opinion.

This power of digital and social media has led to an increase of media spend going towards these platforms and ultimately a decrease on spend going towards above the line (ATL) media, says Jennifer Grace. She further stated that there is value in digital and this is proven by the statistics, but still digital should not be chosen over ATL media but instead be integrated. Donald Liphoko adds that this is why ATL is used to tell consumers where the conversation is; we use ATL to drive consumers to digital. He continues to say that digital is seen as more accountable than traditional media, although we do not know what the true value of a like or tweet is. Marketers are also still wary of using digital as the brand risk is high – “consumers can say what they want online”

In reality, consumers are already saying what they want online, whether your brand is listening and responding or not. Brands cannot afford not to be available on digital platforms if this is where their audience is and although there is risk involved, this can be managed and monitored. Grace also mentioned that although marketers are still wary of digital media, digital media also sees ATL as a threat, but instead should be tapping into it and integrating more. Muller agrees by stating that “We didn’t create TV agencies when we were first introduced to TV as a medium, so why do we have digital agencies? Digital should be integrated.”

Although integration seems to be the ideal, a member of the audience pointed out that “Digital is usually only used as afterthought, but actually requires upfront planning. In reality digital gets 2% of the planning but causes 120% of the headache, so most of the time it’s just cut out.” Muller added that although this is true it is similar to the example of your neighbour relieving himself on your lawn every morning – “It’s not your fault, but it is your problem.” He then continued to explain that the only way around this is through forward planning and not viewing ATL and digital as two separate campaigns.

In conclusion, there are three things to remember:

• The campaign allows you to communicate what you want to, but remember that the audience is always looking – you should be where they are looking and when they are looking.
• Be relevant, topical and funny – keep up with the times, change according to the audience and resonate with those who are looking to participate.
• Remember that every media decision should be logically explainable – the issue is no longer about where to communicate, but about how to communicate.

This is a summary of the information shared at the Journal of Marketing breakfast debate.

The panellists were:

• Jennifer Grace: Head of Media at Native
• Gordon Muller: GSM Quadrant
• Donald Liphoko: Director at The MediaShop
• Yvonne Johnston: Head of Marketing at the SABC

LinkedIn has introduced a new feature for companies to be able to engage directly with their followers and potential customers. Now this will encourage more interaction online from corporates and companies are able to update their status on their company page and share with their network.

How it works:

1. You post a status update to share information which could be anything from announcements, product releases, promotions, or just news articles straight from your Company Overview page.
2. Your status update is then posted directly to each of your followers’ homepages where they can comment, like or share your update with their entire network. (Companies will need to be very active and provide interesting and relevant updates to their followers to really reap the full benefits of this feature.)
3. You can also monitor engagement metrics of your posts to see what type of posts best work for your business goals and through this analysis you could optimize your conversations.

This feature could generate lucrative leads to companies that use it smartly and also acquire a loyal clientele.

You can learn more on how to set up your company page effectively to best benefit from this feature by studying the How-To Guide, for all the do’s and don’ts.

We attended the the JOM (Journal of Marketing) Breakfast Debate this morning (07:30 am – 09:00 am GMT +2) at the MichelAngelo in Sandton, hosted by Jeremy Maggs (@maggsonmedia), presented by Future Group and sponsored by Sappi and  ABSA bank, marketing debates supported by Remata. The focal subject of the event was Design and Packaging.

We had a great line-up of panelists to address us on Design and Packaging from various industries that are very influencial in the entire process. The panelists were as following: Gareth Pearson – CEO and Shareholder at BMI Reasearch, Andrew Human – CEO of The Loeries Awards, Adam Botha – Creative Director of Switch Branding and Design, Mariette Du Plessis – Partner at Adams & Adams, and Karen Saville – Client Service Director at Y&R (Johannesbburg).

Jeremy Maggs opened the discussion by sharing a few consumer behavior studies done which reveal that 70% of purchase decisions by the consumer are made in-store hence the importance of outstanding packaging which gives the consumer a different experience in their “mood of purchase moment”.

Gareth Pearson then took over taking us further into detail of “Consumer Insight” by adding how consumers are looking for value and convenience as the main factors influencing their purchase decision. And with the “Green” movement, now consumers are also environment conscious which affects the packaging of products.

The recycling process has quite a huge impact on logistics therefore added costs to the manufacturing of packages. Even though the Green movement has slowed down over the years, government regulations are being discussed to be put in place and the packaging industry will self-regulate through the Waste Management Bill.

Also social media has an impact on packaging, one example being the QR  codes on Doritos pack which pack design and product testing were done resulting from the impact of Waste Management Bill. But regardless of some of the limitations that affect design of packaging, we still come up on top for creativity and innovation in the world with the 2009 World Star Awards being testimony to that as South Africa won 9 awards, Japan 7, Norway 2 and Singapore 1. We must not downplay how creative we are.

Andrew Human then filled us in on how new and innovative packages create a different experience for the consumer. The Loeries Awards focus on the following quality of packaging trends: innovation and relevance to brand and audience. He then shared a few winning examples like, packaging by Bushmills and Cabriere.

It appeared that the most package conscious manufacturers are the Alcohol and Perfume industries. Well it has been researched and discovered that Alcohol and perfume purchases are highly driven by their packaging. Consumers almost exclusively purchase based on the packaging, which affects the pricing of the product.

Another example of great packaging is the Café Royale Tequila packaging – great innovation where South America meets Italy was the theme of the design.

Adam Botha talks sustainability of packaging design, the impact of CPA and the challenge to be creative taking all those parameters into consideration. As packaging is the final point of contact before the consumer makes a decision to purchase, it’s important for your product to stand out driven by creativity as the consumer notices what’s different.

A few techniques you can use is illustration to create a hand crafted, sustainable look. This can also help to curb the new rules of the CPA as The new CPA legislation is challenging creative minds to stay within the boundaries therefore limiting designers from being more innovative.

Karen Saville from Y&R shares with us their Pick ‘n Pay on Nicol project with us and all the design elements that went into the project including their target of their entire concept and how they brought that innovation to life with the help of the contractors they worked with. PnP brought global best practice, briefed architects and went away from the box format.

Y&R focused on making the store a sensory and comfortable experience for the visitors by being involved in every detail of the store. They used iconography rather than wording to achieve a more pleasant and interactive in-store experience for consumers which will make them spend more time in the store and make more purchases there.

Thyme on Nicol restaurant is seamlessly intergrated into PnP on Nicol whereas Good Food Studio is sexier and focused on ingredients. “the more pleasant and interactive you make your in-store experience, the more time people will spend in your store.” ~ Karen Saville.

With all the creativity and innovation needed in the design of your packaging, the companies who succeed at this face a lot of copy cats of competing products using the same theme of their creative to try to steal the loyal consumer purchases made based on the winning packaging.

Therefore it’s very important to register your creative to avoid such, as most companies do not register their creative which would cost them way less than a legal lawsuit against copy cats would cost them. Product creative counterfeiting is the biggest growing industry in the world!!!, and that’s where legal firms such as Adams & Adams come in.

Mariette du Plessis educated us on the legal and regulations side of the whole matter at hand. Any packaging can be protected if it can be graphically presented. She used the Jack Daniels packaging as an example of a very distinctive and subjective design. The Coke bottle is also a great example of trade marking.

Words like “pure” and “natural” cannot be used on packaging. “Original” can only be used if you are the first to launch such a product in that category.  Due to the CPA we need to design packaging to be more transparent and give the right and full information for the consumer. The package must not just only say “green” but the brand must be able to support by giving more information.

Conclusion:

Packaging design is a highly influencing factor in consumer purchase, therefore for product manufacturers, design innovation must be an informed business decision. Not just the design, but also the green and organic factors are now being considered by consumers in packaging.

Innovation in packaging is determined by budget as packaging can cost up to 45% of the overall product cost. Design registration is very important to protect your creative design from copy cats.

Insights for the day: Be interactive, responsible, sustainable, innovative and creative.

Social Media marketing and management of this event was done by saidWot and Virtuosa.

After reading an interesting press release by Gartner a market research firm, it has been noted that by 2013 the mobile phone will have overtaken the use of personal computers (PCs) worldwide for accessing the web, with over 1.8 billion smartphones and browser-enhanced cell phones in use. This is an astonishing prediction which will influence the ways in which brands communicate with consumers on a daily basis. Mobile apps have therefore gained in importance as consumers spend more time on their phones, making it clear that mobile phones have more power for the brand than ever before.

Interesting mobile facts for South Africa:

• 57 percent of South Africa only access the web through their mobile phone
• In South Africa cell phone banking is used by 28 percent of the total population whilst only 16 percent of the population utilise Internet banking
• In South Africa 65 percent of all smartphone owners use apps to improve their lives
• On average a user spends 9% more time using mobile apps over the use of the Internet
• Games and social networking apps combined are equal to 79 percent of consumers overall app usage time

The Mobile App
The trendy word in mobile today is the App. As consumers move into the notion of the super consumer, many feel the need to be in control of everything they see, view and interact with. Applications have thus gained a greater importance with apps for almost everything from fun apps (which may have no real use, like the infamous broken screen app) to business related apps which improve overall mobile operations speed and performance.

Mobile apps are creating more possibilities for the mobile phone, and brands like for example; LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter have taken advantage of this trend, by creating their own personalized apps. Mobile apps assist in brand integration and allow the consumer to stay connected whether it is off-line, online or though mobile and many brands will start developing apps as a way of communicating with consumers.

What is hAPPening in South Africa?
Vodacom has recently decided to create the brands own app store with over 140000 applications.  ”We think that this will drive the growth and innovation within an already thriving local South African mobile ecosystem,  ” they said.

MTN seems to have picked up on this new development and has announced that their own app store is “currently in the works,” with an apparent launch in less than six months time.

This trend has not only risen within mobile networks, as 5FM has created an app for BlackBerry which allows users to listen and stay connected to 5FM where ever they go, and FNB have launched both FNBConnect (used to locate ATM’s and has some of the VASP functionality) and the first South African integrated mobile banking application.

Conclusion
The growth of apps in South Africa and worldwide, continues to be on the increase and why not take advantage of it? Smartphones and browser-enhanced cell phones keep consumers connected 24/7 and it seems only obvious that to stay connected with the consumer is to talk to them where they already are.

Apps allow for greater consumer-brand interaction and consumers like to download different apps that make their lives easier. Apps may assist brands to break through endless ad clutter and to connect directly with their target markets. Who would have thought that smartphones and browser-enhanced cell phones would surpass the capabilities of the computer, but it seems that targeting of consumers on smartphone apps is the smart choice for brands today.

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who is currently worth $17.5 billion (just in case you weren’t aware), has recently added a few changes to Facebook. So before you start panicking and calling your children or grandkids for help, here are a few things you should know, just to help you out!

First of all let’s look at your newsfeed.

This has been made more efficient by removing both Top Stories (which showed the most popular topics) and Most Recent (which placed news in chronological order). The newsfeed now puts up one stream of all the stories relevant to the time they were posted, and according to Facebook “News Feed will act more like your own personal newspaper. You won’t have to worry about missing important stuff.”

Facebook has increased the character limit for status update s from 420 to an impressive 5,000 meaning that brands now have the chance to say more than ever before. There are also bigger pictures in your newsfeed and you can mark stories as top stories meaning that Facebook will automatically put similar stories at the top of your newsfeed.

What is the ‘Ticker?’

Ticker allows the user to link up with friends in real-time whereby you can see immediate updates and join in conversations at any time as the news feed seems to lag in terms of immediacy. The ticker has now created the ability for you to ‘listen in’ on conversations that were meant to be private with people you may not even know (i.e. friends of friends).

What are Smart Lists?

Smart Lists allow the user to create lists based on certain aspects of an individual’s profile for example your family, school, university and so on. Once an individual in the list updates their profile or posts a comment, the list will indicate the total number of new posts by that group of people.

What about my privacy?

It is important to note that through the addition of the ticker, it is now easier for people  to view pretty much everything you post, like or add. You can limit this by changing your privacy settings to “friends only” or “custom” lists. These settings can be accessed either through the privacy setting in the top right corner of your post or at the top right corner of your page. Remember that with the new Facebook, everything you do will be shared immediately to your newsfeed so be careful when authorising various apps, and make sure you understand and are aware of your privacy settings.

According to an article by Alexandra Reid “If you’re friends with a prospect on Facebook, what you’re watching, reading and listening to, and even what locations you check into, can impact their perception of you professionally and damage business relationships.”

An important aspect you should however take note of is secure browsing. According to Carl “By default, Facebook sends your access credentials in the clear, with no encryption whatsoever. Switching to HTTPS is important because a browser extension called Firesheep has made it especially easy for anyone sharing your open wireless network—at cafe or conference, for example—to sniff your credentials and freely access your account.”

In order to change this, it is important to go to your account settings, select the security setting and enable the secure browsing option.

What should brands be aware of?

With Facebook’s new social plugin it is now possible to drive additional traffic to your site. The social plugin is installed on the businesses website and must then be permitted access by a Facebook member. Each time a user visits the businesses website a notification (stating that the page has been read) can be returned back to Facebook whereby a post will be shared on the users’ wall, and newsfeed. This facility is available to developers via Open Graph

A new button referred to as the ‘Subscribe Button’ could also assist in benefitting brands and their engagement with consumers (followers). The subscribe button allows the individual to subscribe to updates by public figures of the brand, who can share posts for the individuals who have subscribed. Additionally the brand can subscribe to regular influential visitors assisting in mutual relations. The subscribe button shares similar resemblance to the follow button on Twitter and works in a similar way.

The Ticker can be used to a brands adavntage as long as a brand has a cohesive strategy whereby updates are placed thoughtfully and interaction with consumers is relevant. Brands need to create relevant, consistent and interesting stories so as to keep the user interested and willing to engage regularly with the brand.

Conclusion

According to SodaHead a public opinion forum, 86% of users are against the Facebook changes with many saying that Facebook is overloading the user with too much information from both the Newsfeed and Ticker, being compared to a kind of Twitter feed, but it’s important to remember that “We are its product, not its customers,” says Andrew Brown editor of Cif belief, with its customers actually being the advertisers.

The opening question that kick-started the course of conversation at this morning’s Journal of Marketing breakfast debate was: “You have to be on Social Media to be relevant. But can you monetise your involvement, and how do you link it with traditional platforms and manage the process?” – Jeremy Maggs –

So are we over-emphasising the need for social media? Herman Degener from Habari Group believes that if your brand is not on social media, you are missing out. “Your consumers are already there – you can talk to them, but do it in a strategic manner.” But where do we start?

1. Listen:

Before you set up your social media platforms, listen and research in order to find out where the best place is to set these up. Know where your consumers are; do they spend most of their day on Facebook or do they quickly check their Twitter feed at the red traffic light? Your social media strategy should start with an understanding of where consumers are talking about your brand. This may be difficult to determine with privacy policies in place, but on certain platforms, like Twitter, it is easy to search for your brand and to read what is being said about your brand.

Remember, consumers are not on social media to interact with brands, they want to interact with their friends, and this is who they will be speaking to about your brand. These consumers use your brand on a daily basis and interact with in at various touch points, meaning that they probably know your brand better than you do. Use this information to your advantage. Use feedback form consumers to improve business processes and customer service, to create new products and to improve the aspects of your brand that they deal with every day. So in short, there is no value in listening if you are not going to use the insights you gained from listening and push it back into your business with the goal of building a stronger brand.

2. Link your Social Media to other platforms:

What most brands are promising online is not translating to what they are delivering offline. It’s important that social media tie in with the rest of your business. Because people are spending lots of time on social media, it’s important to build a bridge between social and traditional media. How you interact on line will determine what you do in your traditional and offline media. It is no longer sufficient to say “follow us”. You should tell consumers, or even better, show them why they should follow you. Use traditional media to give consumers a reason to find and follow you on social media. People have their own impressions about a brand, whether the communication is online or offline, but if a brand is honest offline, it will work better online.

3. Engage

Carla Jones, form saidWot gives simple rules when it comes to engagement:  “Being on social media depends on your business goals. If you have nothing to say, don’t go on. If you have value to add and quality content, go for it.” Angus Robinson from Native added that social media is also not only about the platform – it’s also about networking and building communities of interest. People are passionate about the brand and will therefore follow it on specific social media platforms. This provides the opportunity to engage with them on a more personal level and in return reinforce their passion for the brand. Honesty is again mentioned as an important factor – Social media should not be used to try and fix bad products or services, it should be used to improve and interact. Brands should be honest about what they offer and not try and promote a wonderful product when in fact the consumers think the opposite.

4. Get them talking

It’s one thing to be on social media, and another to manage it correctly – it is important to always communicate in a manner that generates feedback. One way to do this is to follow the example of Woolworths who draws attention by using well-shot, professional images on their social media.

Social media should be used to get consumers talking about your brand. Herman Degener confirmed this: “positive or negative. If they can’t even talk about your brand, how are they going to buy it?” The problem here is that you cannot create a viral campaign – it can only become viral if the content is interesting and engaging. Suzanne Stokes, from MWEB explains this – social media is a form of word of mouth and brands should create content that is authentic and engaging in order to generate feedback from consumers to push back into the business. This creates trusts and loyalty as it leads to consumers becoming influencers. This is important as people listen to other people, rather than to brands.

So, is there a magic formula? Not exactly, but the best way to seed a conversation can be summarised as follows:

Value + Relevance + Engagement.

“Creativity is key to making a success out of any campaign”

– Xolisa Dyeshana -

These were the words that sparked the conversation at the Journal of Marketing breakfast debate on 30 July 2011, which lead to some interesting views on how Direct Marketing should be used. Direct marketing today is no longer about a junk pamphlet in your post box, it is about finding clever and attention grabbing ways to get the message across to a very specific group of people. According to Lynn Madley, CEO at Euro RSCG and one of the panellists at the debate, the shotgun approach does work in some cases, but targeted communication works much better. She also adds that brands should speak to consumers in a way that they want to be spoken to and Social Media plays a large role in this.

Today, traditional media is used in Direct Marketing to drive the audience to other platforms, like social media. Brands are warned to not be on social media for the sake of being on social media, but rather to have a well thought out strategy to work from. Because social media gives consumers the power to voice all their opinions, it’s better to just watch and respond if really necessary if your brand does not have the ability to provide quality content on a regular basis. On the other hand it is also important to remember that in this age, due to social networks, reputations are fragile. You need to know what is going on with your brand online and few brands can get away with not having a social media presence – brands need to engage on a personal level.

From a direct marketing point of view, what can be more personal and more direct than engaging on social media platforms? It provides the brand with the opportunity to become more than a brand – to become the consumers’ ‘buddy’. This will of course be strongly regulated by the new Consumer Protection Act (CPA), which defines direct marketing as a personal approach to directly or indirectly promote goods or services.

So, engaging directly and becoming the consumers’ buddy is important as we are no longer in the business of marketing, but in the business of engagement. And this again is important as the success of any direct marketing campaign can be measured by the interaction received from the audience.

That leaves one final question: Do consumers today, in this multi-tasking era, have the attention needed to participate in prolonged campaigns?

*A note of thanks to the panellists, whose wise comments contributed to this article.

Lynn Madley (CEO: Euro RSCG), Andrew Ambrogioni (CEO: Action Ambro’s) Danie Strachan (Senior Associate: Adams & Adams) Brian Mdluli (CEO: Direct Marketing Association of South Africa) and Xolisa Dyeshana (Creative Director and Partner: Joe Public)

LinkedIn is often ignored in most business social media marketing strategies as companies frequently mention Facebook and Twitter before bringing up the “professional networking platform”.

“As companies increase their social media marketing budgets to encompass almost 20% of their entire marketing budgets (in the US), and with online advertising comprising another 15% of marketing budgets (in the US), LinkedIn and other social media sites are vying for a potential third of marketing budgets over the next few years” - Neal Schaffer : ‘Social Media Today’.

LinkedIn Statistics:

LinkedIn has grown considerably to become one of the most important social networking sites. Stats indicate that:

• LinkedIn is the fastest professional networking site.
• LinkedIn now has 101 million members worldwide (LinkedIn Ad Platform: 2011 Stats).

The main difference of LinkedIn (from Facebook):

• It is a platform created as a closed and trusted networking site for business professionals.
• Its main targeted market is in the hearts and minds of the professional demographic.
• Compared to Facebook (described as the center of consumer culture for businesses), LinkedIn concentrates on establishing professional relationships between businesses.

Three main LinkedIn benefits (for your business):

With LinkedIn competing for the attention of businesses to include it as part of online strategy, they have number of nifty features that set them apart from other social networking sites.

• LinkedIn Company Pages

Competitors such as Facebook have recently upgraded their company/business page platform, and so has LinkedIn with the ‘enhanced’ company pages (announced November 1, 2010). These LinkedIn Company pages are more customizable (able to add Twitter feed, Office location map, add Blog feed & Careers tab) although not as extensive as FBML customisation from Facebook.

LinkedIn also allows users to “Recommend” company products and services (opposite of “Like” – on Facebook), add comments to the recommendations, and see who in their network made what company recommendations.

Example of well optimized LinkedIn company page below

• LinkedIn Groups

The LinkedIn Groups, compared to Facebook Groups for example; offer more significant engagement with the professional community as there is plenty of room for discussions, and sharing the discussions among industry leaders not like the small status update boxes on the Facebook groups platform.

LinkedIn Groups also have the ability to send daily and weekly digests which Facebook Pages lack. This therefore creates even more engagement from Group members.

However, the main problem with LinkedIn Groups is that they are a private world: Unless you were a member of that Group you couldn’t see inside it – although this may change soon with the talks of LinkedIn Groups being given the option to make them ‘public’ or ‘private’.

• LinkedIn Ads

LinkedIn has their own Pay-Per-Click advertising in 3 types: Banner Ads, Media Box Ads and Direct Ads.  Neal Schaffer from ‘Social Media Today’ states that we must always bear in mind that: “Facebook has companies and LinkedIn has professionals (professional demographic)” – so when targeting your ad audience it is important to consider this.

Other features to look at once you have created your company page on LinkedIn include the “Follow Us on LinkedIn” button and a host of Applications that may be added to your page (these will be discussed in our next blog post).

For more LinkedIn reading visit:

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/nealschaffer/252062/linkedin-vs-facebook-business-2011-battle-begins : [LinkedIn vs. Facebook for Business in 2011]

http://www.booleanblackbelt.com/2010/09/linkedin-demographics-and-visitor-statistics : [BooleanBlackBelt LinkedIn Stats]

http://www.slideshare.net/amover/linked-in-demographics-and-statistics-2011 : [LinkedIn Ad Platform: 2011 Stats]

The Journal of Marketing session titled “Decoding the art of Public Relations (PR)” was held at the Michelangelo Hotel on the 10th March.

The panelists for this debate included:

• Chris Vick (advisor to Minister Tokyo Sexwale)
• Rich Mkhondo (MTN Corp. Affairs)
• Dr Sarah Britten – Author and has worked with Kulula & SARS
• Peter Mann (CEO of Meropa)
• Jacqui O’Sullivan (GM of Sasol)
• Peter Bruce (Editor of Business Day)

There is growing reliance of Public Relations (PR) in the broader marketing mix and this discussion aims to understand why PR is still important for brands today. Jeremy Maggs lead the discussion and here is an overview of all the questions and answers from the session:

Is PR about engagement?

• Rich Mkhondo – There is a divide between PR and what companies want to inform their clients. The objective of PR is to build a bridge between that divide. Public Relations Practitioners are used as sounding boards for brands and there is skepticism from clients.

What is good PR Spin?

• Jacqui O’Sullivian – Bad PR characteristics give good PR a bad name, and they are characterized by poor communication, no PR objectives but good PR understands transparency.

“Spin is not the enemy, ‘bad’ spin is” – Jacqui O’Sullivan (General Manager of Sasol).

• Chris Vick – Spin must look at ethics and values rather than just aim to paint the brand in good light, therefore ‘integrity’ is key.

• Rich Mkhondo – In terms bad PR campaigns, the onus  should rest with companies/brands to tell the PR companies the truth before ‘spinning’ the story

How is digital shaping PR?

• Sarah Britten – It is interesting how the digital space is changing the print media for example Twitter as an avenue of WebPR.
• Peter Mann – There is a risk once a PR campaign is sent out from the news room as it can no longer be controlled and people are able to use Twitter and Facebook to share news.
• Jacqui O’Sullivian – We need to leverage of social media and the rest of the digital space (there needs to be a social media strategy in your PR campaign).
• Sarah Bitten – PR Practitioners have to watch, learn and engage with social media when it comes to PR campaigns

When does PR go wrong?

• Peter Bruce – Most PR is wasted because it hits the wrong targeted market. PR campaigns must be well structured. We need to have a good understanding of role players in the brand marketing mix.
• Chris Vick – PR campaigns go bad when we do not understand the objectives of PR campaigns and neglect to build relationships with the journalists that help you run the PR campaigns.

How do you develop a good PR ‘spin campaign’?

Jacqui O’Sullivian (GM of Sasol) answered with the following key points:

• Sit with right people (advertisers, PR practioners, marketing department) – get the key players to understand one goal & one vision.
• Shape the right message in no more than 5 characteristics.
• Do not be too corporate (or too informal) in communicating and remember who you are talking to – target market.
• Respond early to avoid bad reputation.

How do you develop a good online PR strategy?

• A good PR strategy must cover both : ‘traditional media avenues (newspapers) and new media channels (digital)’.

How is new media such as Twitter changing PR?

• Peter Bruce – Twitter is a very powerful tool for PR management in that it adds value to brands and also provides more regular engagement with the market.

Why do brands need PR strategies over just advertising?

• Chris Vick – No one wants to invest in one strategy and in addition, no one needs a PR strategy only when they are in trouble but rather all the time. There should be continuous brand reputation management.

• Jacqui O’Sullivan – It’s all about continuous PR reputation management to manage your brand on and offline.

How can small businesses do PR?

• Dr Sarah Britten – Small businesses may use the digital space (e.g. Twitter; Facebook) to manage their company PR and be able to readily communicate with the market.

Will social media take over PR – (the need for PR practitioners)?

• Social media space might not take over and surpass traditional PR but the social media space needs to be managed well as PR Practitioners have no control over this space.

Where is the PR industry going?

• PR is still relevant and still plays an important role in brand reputation management.
• PR will be heavily influenced by social media marketing moving forward and therefore PR strategies must continue to engage with it. We must aim to work with the social media space in order to leverage off it for effective PR strategies.
• PR remains an integral part of brand communication and in needs to become more strategic (effective reputation management).