‘As communicators we deal with crisis all the time. If we do our jobs well, most people won’t know they ever happened.’- Victoria Harris, PR Newswire

Do you have a crisis communication plan in this social media age? Why? Well because bad things do happen from time to time. More so if you are operating a big business. Ask Kenya Airways (KQ) or Mumias Sugar Company (MSC).

Any brand that does not have a crisis communication team (plan) handy is planning to succumb to crisis hits. You would rather have a crisis communication team ready, without any incident; than be without and go through an incident that will drive you out of business. It happened to PanAm. Do you remember them?

Pan American Airline’s flight was destroyed by terrorists over Lockerbie. The company suffered a PR disaster when it emerged that warnings had been given about a bomb on the aircraft. The fact that PanAm received an average of four bomb warnings a day made no difference to the public perception. Shortly afterward, PanAm went out of business. Just like that.

However, this article isn’t so much about having a crisis communication plan: rather how do we plan for a crisis in this social media age? The idea here is integrating social media into your crisis communication plan. For reasons known: social media is the new media, and its reach has made companies more susceptible to potentially damaging situations.

In a research by Altimeter Group: ‘It has been more than 10 years since social media began to disrupt organizations. In that time, it has gone from being a “bright shiny object” that confounded business leaders, to becoming a widely adopted means of customer engagement.' This is where the people (customers ) who hold your brand's life are.

As much as social media has dissolved traditional boundaries, creating a sense of proximity between brands and consumers, it has also made companies more vulnerable. Considering that, we have over 1 billion facebook users and 400 million tweets sent per day: how can we afford not to integrate social media into our crisis communication plan?

The other day: we heard of how James Mwangi - CEO Equity Bank, allegedly sexually harassed Esther Passaris - founder of the adopt-a-light program. The article by Cyprian Nyakundi was validated by Esther’s own comment on the matter. I imagine, this ‘expose’ must have caught James Mwangi, unawares. Right? As much as its toll has not been felt, we all know it has left a crevice. Through social media, many heard about this. Even before the mainstream media picked it up. Back to the matter at hand.

For you to develop a strong crisis strategy, there are best practices that integrate social media into the traditional crisis communications framework that are essential. You need to know these 10 things in order to leverage social media to manage and even prevent crises:

1. Implement Policies to Address Potential Vulnerabilities

Have you noticed the way, employees don’t quite know when they should or shouldn’t comment on matters touching on the company? It is not their fault. Who wouldn’t want committed employees? But, this is tricky grounds.

In this age, there is a thin line between personal and professional lives. Once, this is not clear, chances are high of employees commenting on topics, which would otherwise result in irreparable damages. What to do? The team responsible for handling any crisis: should have clear policies, detailing what participants (social media) should do or not do in particular situations.

For instance: In the event a customer comments negatively about a product, let the social media manager, and or marketing director respond to the comment.

2. Use Social Media as a Tool for Crisis Monitoring

Where else if not on social media? If you would like to know what people are saying about your brand, go on social media and do the noble thing: listen. Armed with this knowledge, why not use social media to track issues that might affect your brand? Your social media team should man the social media space ready to fish any comment that might otherwise result in a full-blown catastrophe if left unattended.

3. Understand the Response-ability of Social Media

Gone are the days, when you only had to be close to traditional media to know your roof is on fire. Traditional media’s, inaccessibility, made it take longer for word to spread. Today, residents in Nairobi, in a matter of minutes, will know what is happening in Garissa. To imply that social media has significantly altered the rate at which information is exchanged and consumed. 

Social media has substantially reduced the window organizations have to respond in moments of crisis. On facebook, it might take 12 hours to respond to a crisis, while on twitter it is a matter of minutes. This new normal has to be factored in. Not only should you have people ready to act during normal working hours: but also after working hours – Mon-Fri: 9am-5pm.

4. Establish a Framework for Response

In a crisis communication, we have what we call, a war room. This is where; the crisis team goes in to put out the fire and come out either victorious and or the people who brought down an entire organization. You would not dream to be part of that team. At least when things pan out differently.

Regardless of the outcome: it is important that you have all passwords, gadgets accessible for such a time. You should well in advance, establish who will be your fighters in the “war room” as well as which individuals will be making decisions and communicating directives to teams tasked with responding to events on the ground. This team should be ready at all times: more so during this time.

5. Build a Social Media Crisis Toolkit

Make sure to include social media when preparing toolkits for your crisis response efforts. These include standardized, pre-approved templates for blog posts, tweets, and other social media platforms that are in harmony with the rest of the brand's response efforts.

6. Know Where to Respond

With the many channels, you must know where your constituents are. The idea is to make sure that your message reaches your constituents directly. This proves that you are willing to engage with your audiences, in the forums where they are. Do not stop there. Make sure that you include all other communication channels.

7. Prepare Your Employees in Advance

To be forewarned is to be fore-armed. As management, you want to maintain a consistent message across the company. From customer care to the c-suite, everyone should read from the same script.

8. Establish the Proper Tone

Remember when you were developing your strategy: there was that section of choosing a company tone: formal or informal? In the wake of a crisis, you must not let that restrict you in your responses. Make sure that in your message, you do not come out as insensitive just because you chose to an informal tone when responding to a crisis. Just remember to choose a tone depending on the context and situation at hand.

9. Hit the Automation Kill Switch

With the many social channels owned by a company, the use of software to manage these channels has been necessary. But in a crisis, all these software must be shut down. Everything needs to be brought under the care of the crisis communication team. The reason is, in the event that your release a post off topic, you might just be seen as insensitive and carefree of the needs of the customers and all affected parties.

10. Be Honest, Be Transparent

Ultimately, in all crisis honesty will help you go a long way. “There is no such thing as too much information. During a disaster or crisis, Twitter, and other social media can provide an instant view of conditions on the ground.” – The Guardian

Continued transparency and communication will help keep the public informed and updated throughout the duration of a crisis. Even sharing bad news in these moments will be appreciated for its honest and will help re-establish long-term trust once the crisis abates.

Improve Your Customer Service

I have been asking myself how best can we handle social customer service? So, I decided to do some research. Fortunately, I came across an article that shared useful insights on this burning topic. I will share it with you.

Prior to that, allow me to make an observation.

Many times I have logged in on Facebook, just to look around and see what's happening. Only to find comments that went months without so much as an acknowledgment. Those who did good, tried to respond in at least a day's time. Some went completely unresponded to.

This made it clear. The owners of these social assets don't know why they were set up (customer service and or lead generation)  and or they don't have someone on standby to man the assets. Creating a crack in their strategy, if they have one at all.

Nike's Social Customer Service

Yet the evidence is all over: consumers today want their grievances met pronto. A good example is Kenya Commercial Bank. A friend of mine had an issue with his account. All he did was tweet his concern, mentioning the bank's tweeter handle. In a matter of minutes, they had not only fixed the problem they responded.

My other friend had issues with his DSTv. He tweeted. They fixed it and you guessed it, responded in good time. Apart from it being clear that twitter is best suited for customer care, the two preceding cases show that social media is revolutionizing the way brands serve their customers. Then, why not raise the bar?

Forget the phone number, you like so much. Use your social media channels. Stop dismissing your customer's concerns. Have someone man your social channels 24/7 at least, with room for sleep: ready to respond to all grievances, however bad.

For according to a new report, from Conversocial, it’s time for businesses to be proactive and meet customers where they are.

Read the rest of this insightful article here.

Tips to Boost Your Facebook Page Performance

10 Step Plan to Boost Your Facebook Page Performance

Why are you not getting the traction you hoped you would by now? Yet, new and exciting marketing channels are here. In fact, they are up and running in your business? To find out why I encourage you to read on.

Before we dive in, I have an exercise for you. Stop reading this and visit your facebook page. What do you see? Any likes. Shares? Any encouraging metric to keep you going? If your answer is yes, keep doing what you are doing. If it's no, let's put a smile on your face too.

This post will point out what you need to do, to fix all these. Ready? Good.

1. Publish regularly

Have a plan (content strategy) to post on your site on a regular basis and in a frequency most comfortable to you. Don't overdo it. 

2. Be human

If you go in only to make sales, stop. Do something else. Make every post, appeal to the people who are waiting to like and share your content. Make them the focus and not you or your business.

‘Facebook pages fail when the posts focus on products instead of people.’ Says Kathi Kruse

3. Use the three-stage content approach

What are they? Entertain, educate and excite. Do not focus on educating and neglect the other two. Blend all three to get the best mix of content, which will eventually remove your facebook page from the gutters.

4. Be Authentic

Kathi Kruse, ‘People are looking for authentic brands—brands that communicate exactly who they are and what impact they want to have in their customers' lives.’

5. Understand your target audience

Go in and zoom in. The idea of mass marketing is losing its grip. Today, we go for specifics. Through a process of creating persona’s, you develop a picture of whom you consider your ideal target audience. If you have done this already, good for you. If not, try it out.

6. Conduct regular facebook page audits

Take time to review your page. Isolating what is working from what isn’t working. Then proceed to think about how to raise non-performing tactics and strengthen performing tactics.

‘A social media conversion review can help your page achieve your goals faster.’ Kathi Kruse.

7. Be Quick to Respond to Messages& Comments (Feedback)

How do you feel when you text someone and they a) reply after 2 days or b) never reply? It hurts. This is exactly how your fans are feeling. On this point, the golden rule applies. Treat others, as you would like to be treated.

This is key: Facebook is a communication channel, just like email and the telephone. Customer service via social media is hugely important, but if you do not have a process to monitor, listen, and respond to messages, you are dead in the water.

8. Define your goals

Are you a ship without a rudder? A traveller whose response to, ‘where are you going sir?’ is ‘I am just going.’ Write down what you want your facebook page to achieve when it has all been said and done. These goals lie in these three categories: attract, engage, and convert. From these, then you can specify the exact goal you wish to attain.

9. Launch facebook ads

Users thought facebook is free. In an article published by Ogilvy@social: Facebook Zero: Considering Life after the Demise of Organic Reach. it talks about the demise of the organic reach. Implying that in the near future getting organic likes would be an uphill task. Thus calling upon brands to start setting marketing budgets (facebook ads) going forward.

10. Monitor and evaluate performance (Analytics)

‘Facebook Insights is your best friend. It gives you all the metrics you need to judge how your page is doing. You can see which content got the most organic and paid interaction, what you did right, and what didn't work so well. Analysing results helps you deliver a better experience for fans, make better decisions on your content, and determine whether you've reached your goals.’ says Kathi Kruse.

A version of this article first appeared on the Kruse Control website.

                                      

It is always good to find someone with first-hand knowledge, to shed light on a given topic. And to also diversify my content, I sought the input of my colleagues in the field of Digital Marketing.

I tracked down Ricky Acheza, a digital marketing expert with 5 years’ experience working with local and international brands. He is the man responsible for building Internitup to be the largest higher education page on Facebook in East and Central Africa with a 25% organic engagement rate (Socialbakers, July 2014). Currently, he manages social media for Dudutech in Kenya and Rainforest Foods in the UK.

In short, Ricky knows how things work. Let us see what he has to say.

Actuate Digital (AD): Hello and thank you very much for taking the time to provide us with this interview Ricky. We will jump right in.

AD: What is your perception of Social Media in organizations in as far as its contribution to communication, marketing and or PR?

RA: With many people now on social media, and more joining every day, it is slowly becoming the easiest way for organisations and clients to interact. The near-instantaneous nature means that both parties get to send information and receive feedback faster than ever before.

AD: When using social media to push your organizational goals, in as far as communication, marketing or PR is concerned, what new 3 things have you learnt to date?

RA: They are:

• The number of followers does not matter, leads matter.
• In case of a crisis, transparency is key
• Teen talk is not for all brands

AD: What are the key secrets to a successful social media strategy?

• A good social media strategy should define the target customer and define a tone to address them
•  It should have the relevant KPIs clearly outlined.
• The purpose should be clearly defined. Be it brand awareness, lead generation etc.

AD: From your experience, do you think Kenyan C-Suite executives are warming up to the whole digital communications trends (social media)? Why?

RA: I think they are. I have come across companies that have existed in brick and mortar for decades but whose managers are trying to bring them online and social media. On a personal level, most of them have accounts on social media platforms giving an indication that they recognise it as a worthy medium to reach out to people.

AD: Tell us how you manage to execute your social media functions?

I use a lot of tools but my biggest three are a content calendar, Hootsuite and Google Alerts

Ricky’s Bio:

He is a Kenyan digital marketer with close to 5 years’ experience working with local and international brands. Having built Internitup to be the largest higher education page on Facebook in East and Central Africa with a 25% organic engagement rate (Socialbakers, July 2014), he now manages social media for Dudutech in Kenya and Rainforest Foods in the UK.

Jumpstarting Your Social Media Strategy

3 Tips To Jumpstart Your Social Media Strategy

42% of marketers say Facebook is critical or important to their business. - State of Inbound Marketing, 2012

It has been 6 months, with no results. Now, what?

Are you asking yourself this question, right about now? Find comfort knowing that you are not alone. We started well. As is the most important thing to do. Tweaking, however, is something we continuously do. For any strategy must lend itself to tweaking.

Many times, after we have launched our ‘air-tight’ strategies, we sit back and deploy tactic after tactic. With the hopes that when we wake up the next morning, we will be a step closer to our set objective.

More often than not, this is usually the case. But for you reading this, I have a feeling that things did not pan out as planned. It has been 6 months, but still, you have not given your client that 6,000 page likes you promised. Or, increased website traffic by 57% according to your statistics. Now, what? Well, read on.

Like any other good car, whose battery dies out when you least expect. You do not go on buying a new battery instantly. Unless of course, it is time. Otherwise, get your jumper cables and flag down oncoming vehicles. Do what is needed: jumpstart your strategy. Resuscitate it for another 6 months and be on the lookout.

According to Social Media Examiner: 83% of marketers indicate that social media is important for their business. Knowing this, you cannot afford not to jumpstart your strategy.

Here is how you go about it.

1. Do Your Research

This is where you need to spend the bulk of your time. Mostly, look at where you were. Where you are and where you needed to be, Better yet, where you need to be (objectives).

‘Look for communities, influencers, and discussions that relate to your brand, products, competitors, and industry. Look into how you could potentially target key audiences through different media. Do not just limit yourself to Facebook pages/groups and Twitter users. Look into bloggers in your industry (or outside your industry) that have an audience you want to reach.’ Andrew Krebs-Smith

The more you delve into research your will find gems hidden in online forums. These are all potential areas to generate content, seed content, find ambassadors, and get online placements. 

Look into your competitors, and industry at large: what is happening and what have they been doing that you aren’t. Answering these questions is a step closer to refining your strategy to achieve the set objective.

2. First, Build Relationships

Most of the times, we get it wrong. We set up social media page and handles with the sole intention of selling, selling…stop it. You might have pegged the whole strategy on selling your services and products. Adapting the grandiose mentality. Caring less, about the most important person in that fragile relationship-your target audience.

If this is you, revise that agenda. Go in, but do so with the idea that you will first before all else invest time and resources in building relationships. Reach out to other influencers; build relationships before asking them to use their digital properties to push your agenda going forward.

Once you build these relationships (influencers) when you go back to them and ask them to promote your campaign they will be happy to help. It is key to start by building relationships. You can achieve this by sharing valuable information at all times.

3. Create a Content Calendar

Content is what feeds the digital beast. In 2014, the infographics titled Data Never Sleeps 2.0: Facebook users share nearly 2.5 million pieces of content. Twitter users tweet nearly 300,000 times. YouTube users upload 72 hours of new video content. Try to wrap your brain around those figures. 2 years later, you expect this data to increase.

Begging the question: where is your content calendar? Better yet, show me your content strategy and I will show you a brand that is succeeding in the social realm.

Echoing Andrew Krebs-Smith sentiments, ‘There is nothing worse than a Facebook page or Twitter account that is filled entirely with self-promoting updates.’

Andrew Krebs-Smith adds, ‘It is not always easy to come up with awesome, engaging content every day, but tweeting another link to your website is not the answer. That is why it helps to create a weekly or monthly content calendar in advance to help you think strategically about what to post and when being sure to schedule promotional updates at a maximum of one time per week.’

Final Thoughts…

Is marketing and art or a science? Well, Seth Godin advises that we look at it as both an art and science. Because there comes a time when you are all into measuring ROI and other key statistics.

Some other times, you are keen to creatively formulate a stellar campaign. With the goal of driving traffic to your website, like never before. What we should know is, choose between the two hats wisely. Depending on the day, don one of the hats (science or art)  and get to work.

These tips allow for designing a social media strategy that leverages brand assets and social media tools to get your brand in front of the right people and ultimately, grow your business. Which is the ultimate ROI (Look at me wearing my science hat.)

Taking the advice of pioneers, to never stop learning, I came across something and someone who changed my thinking. If you ever find yourself online and or in a library, Google Seth Godin. Devour all that you can find written by him.

In reading his work, I learnt something about circles. Which I would like to share with you.

As we spend time on this earth, among other things, we are all looking to build circles. In fact, where I work, I have colleagues who I consider to be in the inner circle. You know them right? Those you can confide in when management behaves in a not so favourable manner. Well, that was all there was to it. Until, I read Seth’s post, titled 'The Big Drop-Off.'

A concept he explains as the natural state of affairs. ‘The Big Drop-Off is the huge decline that occurs between our enthusiasm and the tepid actions of the first circle.’ says Seth. How do we get here: I thought? Well, it is by marketers, advertisers, business owners, and people trying to quell their attention urge.

In the process of quelling this urge we build the first circle. This circle comprises of followers, friends, customers, subscribers, and everyone ready and willing to hear our pitch. ‘This is the group we (business owners, marketers) talk to about our new products, or new record, our upcoming big sale.’ explains Seth.

It does not stop there, does it? No. From this first circle, we want them to give us their undivided attention. Moreover, to continue being part of the growing list of followers, subscribers, likes, customers and loyal fans.

But, as we immerse ourselves in this circle, we forget the second circle. Which as the post explains, matters immensely. ‘The second circle is the set of people who hear about us from the first circle.’ Adds Seth.

The modus operandi is 'If they like our products and services, enough those in the first circle, they will actually use their time and energy to talk about it. They will tell two or more friends.' Moreover, if you are good, expect the second circle to tell the third circle. However, note this: the second circle comprises of people we do not even know. They are as a result of the first circle.

It is from this second circle that a third circle emerges. This third circle further consists of people we do not know. This is the golden goose that lays the golden egg. Where the awaited results lie. ‘It’s the third circle that makes you a hit, gets you elected, and tips your idea,’ says Seth.

What does this mean: as business owners and consultants (whoever you are) pay attention to the client you have, the first circle. Take your time and give them the best possible service and always tweak your services, ensuring that he gets the very best. From this, you will find them using their energy and time, actually going out of their own way to talk about you to others. From that, a second circle emerges. Then with a little more work, a third circle.

Knowing which circle matters most, you are better placed to deploy resources effectively. Go for the first circle. Do a bang up job and wait for stardom, if you are into that sort of thing. If not, wait for more clients to come knocking your office door.

Press release writing

There is a new phenomenon in the social realm, called the social press release. This phenomenon utilizes social media as a channel for distributing press releases. An idea, which we must say, is contributing positively to the practice of press release writing. Also, one that has ceased the digital tide.

But as much as the digital channels have boosted our content distribution, it is a separate issue for the writer to ensure that his press release, is seen. People post all types of content in the millions per day on social networks. 

The question then becomes, how do we get our press release seen and read?

Consider this: On 22^nd February 2015, Charity Maina was raped and killed in Moi University. In a bid to quell, the heated outburst of the student body - the Vice Chancellor Prof. Richard Mibey issued a press release in the dailies the following day.

Now, according to readers, apparently, that release had many grammatical errors. A clear indication that someone in the administration was in a hurry to correct a great wrong. Guess where I picked this information? The social media. 

However,whether it achieved its intended purpose or not, is an issue at large. Suppose they didn't, what could they have done to gain traction?

As we know, in order to get our press releases ‘heard’ we need to use all media available. Statistics indicate that 26.5% of the African population use the internet. Consider this percentage and the inadequate infrastructures that we have. Factoring in that we are on the path to actual development, this number will soar. This is an indication for us to prepare ourselves to capitalize on this space.

With that in mind, here are 5 ways you can make your press release get traction online. 

  

Write Clear Headlines

It never gets old. In all writing, headlines are your ticket to a reader’s time. If it stands out, then you have increased your chances of getting your reader’s attention. If not then we have to work on this. On that note, your heading needs to be 22 characters or less.

The Length

A press release is a document that tells a synopsis of your company and or newsworthy information in the company. Answering the question of who, what, when, why, where & how of a topic. This 5W’s and 1H make the body of the release as airtight as possible. Keeping the release two pages or less or 600 words or less is a key ingredient. According to Elizabeth Hillmann of Discovery Education says, ‘The length of the press release should be under 600 words or no more than two pages to make it the most effective, and will aid in optimization.’ Solid advice.

Keywords

What are these? According to Corry Janssen, Technopedia, He says, ‘A keyword, in the context of search engine optimization (SEO), is a particular word or phrase that describes the contents of a web page. Keywords are intended to act as shortcuts that sum up an entire page.’ With that in mind, Elizabeth's advice that we need to use at least we use two or three keywords throughout your headline, subhead, and first paragraph to ensure consistency of messaging and increased chances of search results.

Rich Media

The saying that a picture is worth more than 1000 words never gets old. However, if we could go back, something worth adding is a great picture is worth so much more than 1000 words. In writing that press release, using high-quality media-pictures, infographics, and video can help your releases rise to the top in search.

Logo

In concluding our strategy of conquering the online space, always make it a habit of incorporating your company logo in all your releases. This makes it easier to find your release if someone searches for your company or brand name; the images will come up. 

Knowing how to make our press releases ‘heard’ is our daily objective. Leveraging the online space is a step towards making this objective a possibility. Try it out and let me hear from you.