360PR Blog

In 360PR’s 10th year, we are celebrating by sharing some of the things we’ve learned along the way in a “10 minutes with…” series featuring interviews with our practice leaders! Last time we chatted with SVP of our Healthy Living  practice, Victoria Renwick. Now we’ve sat down with Caroline Pierce, Account Director of our Parenting practice, to learn more about her and some of the trends she has spotted!

What were some of the hot topics buzzed about at this fall’s M2Moms conference?

What was really shocking to me is that only 4% of families fall into the U.S. Census definition of “traditional.”  Currently, 40% of all babies are born to single moms and nearly 2 Million children are being raised by same sex couples.  We no longer live in a world of 2.5 children and white picket fences.  These statistics are key for marketers when developing a plan to reach consumers.  It is important to consider all types of families.

You’re a relatively new mom – and a working mom to boot.  How should brands communicate with busy moms-on-the-go like you?

For me it is all about my iPhone!  I am always running around.  Sometimes by the time I sit at my desk in the morning I feel as though a full day has already passed!  At the end of the day when I get home the last thing I feel like doing is booting up my computer so it is important that brands have interfaces that I can view and interact with anywhere.  I also like the flexibility of viewing information on-the-go.  Sometimes the only time I have to myself is a few minutes in line at the grocery store or on my train ride to work!

 

What’s your favorite platform to communicate with other moms – Facebook, Twitter, texting, email?

For me it is all about Facebook.  Facebook allows me to communicate with my “friends” in a convenient and easy way.  I love getting comments on pictures I post of my family!  But beyond fellow moms, Facebook is my favorite way to communicate with brands.  Facebook brand pages are the prime way I receive information – from what’s new from a designers like Missoni or Versace to special offers from brands I “like.”.  I appreciate that I am able to control my level of interaction with brands on Facebook.  I can like a brand and their updates will show up in my newsfeed, I can visit brand pages, I can comment on brand posts or use an app.  And if a brand updates too much I ignore it.

Is there a dad factor, or are moms still responsible for doing it all?

There is definitely a dad factor in my house!  As a working mom, my husband and I are equally involved in decision making for our family – everything from choosing childcare to what toilet paper to buy!  It is definitely a team effort.  According to a recent survey shared at Marketing to Moms, 41% of moms report being the sole decision maker for their family purchases, but that means that 59% are not.  The traditional family roles are constantly evolving.  Dads are also taking to the blogosphere in record numbers. Dad blogs like The Busy Dad Blog and Frugal Dad have emerged as some of the top-read parenting blogs

Can you share one of your favorite campaigns aimed at parents – at 360 or otherwise?

Our Disney Baby client recently announced a partnership with the Million Moms Challenge, a movement aimed at raising awareness and money to support mothers in the developing world around issues that directly impact pregnancy, childbirth and children’s health.  This campaign really struck a chord with me.

The Million Moms Challenge campaign has virtually every element needed to mobilize moms including high-profile supporters, partners like Disney Baby, a contest with a fantastic prize – a trip to Australia for a photo shoot with renowned photographer Anne Geddes – national media reach through ABC News, and a very active social media presence on Twitter and Facebook.

Filed under: 10 Minutes With Our Practice Leaders, 360 Public Relations by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

Some of the smartest minds in social media gathered recently at the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) Symposium at Harvard for a discussion of the group’s latest research findings. This is my third year attending the event and it has been hugely interesting to see the progression of each of SNCR’s studies. A couple of trends really POPPED for me this year…

Surprisingly, corporations are still behind the curve with social media adoption. Nora Ganim Barnes (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) found this in the Social Media Adoption Trends Among Inc. 500, Fortune 500, Higher Education and Charities study. While many of the world’s biggest brands have a presence on social media platforms, Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies are still behind Charities and Higher Education in their use of social media to communicate with stakeholders. The proof is in the pudding. Check this out:

What does this tell me? While many companies “get it”, there is still more work to do in educating consumer brands (our clients) on the value of social media in helping them to connect with their customers. With changing media consumption habits, the methods in which we communicate must also continue to evolve!

While corporations still have some catching up to do, media and journalists are using social media for their story-telling and reporting in a BIG way. In a separate session, Jen McClure and Don Middleberg presented the “3^rd Annual SNCR/Middleberg Survey of Media in the Wired World”. In this study, it was found that 90% of journalists say that their reliance on social media has increased significantly in the past year. 75% of journalists are using Facebook in generating content. 70% are using blogs. 69% are using Twitter. 54% are using online video. 53% are using Wikipedia. 31% use LinkedIn and 28% use citizen photos.

So, to those Fortune 500 / Inc. 500 corporations that have not yet adopted social media as a significant portion of their communications strategy, you might want to take another look at what the cool kids (i.e. influencers and journalists) are doing!

Thanks to SNCR for organizing yet another great Symposium, as well as for honoring 360PR’s work with the Ball brand National Can-It Forward Day campaign in the Excellence in New Communications Awards.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 2 Comments →

By Rob Bratskeir

At last week’s Critical Issues Forum, Former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs boldly declared, “2012 will be the Twitter election,” adding that in today’s Washington, rapid response comes by the tweet, not the press release. 

Gibbs’s thought-provoking keynote address at the Council of Public Relations Firms’ annual meeting illustrated and interpreted social media’s immense power to mobilize communities.   While the Arab Spring may have been the world’s wake-up call to the medium’s massive reach and influence, Gibbs said the 2008 Obama campaign already understood that a shift in communication was underway, and that social media was the “connective tissue [that could] make the election of a man named Barack Hussein Obama possible.”  

The approach Gibbs’s team took starting in 2006 (decades ago in social media time) still serves as a social media strategy and deployment blueprint for not only political campaigns, but for consumer marketers today.  First, make people feel like they have a stake in the outcome, Gibbs explained, rewarding those who have declared interest with access to information first.  Next, be prepared to listen closely to the stories you get back – and not just the ones you want to hear.  Gibbs said that in aggregate, those stories tell a bigger tale – one that either validates your approach, or tells you how to adapt. Finally (and perhaps foremost) be transparent at every step.

Gibbs said that meeting these mandates requires tremendous time, energy and resources.   Looking around and seeing heads nod, I could see that point wasn’t lost on anyone representing the dozens of agencies represented in the room — many tweeting away as Gibbs spoke. 

As in any industry rapidly transformed by technology, Gibbs identified legacy issues as the biggest barriers to effectiveness, and urged communications professionals to abandon the control freak mentality that served us so well until only very recently.   “You have to acknowledge the reality that voters and consumers are now in control,” he said, stressing that engaging in a two-way dialogue, listening and responding are the new rules of the road. 

Gibbs exposed an essential paradox of splintered media, a revolution rooted in cable TV’s rise in the 1980s that is today fueled by social media’s ascent.  “There is more media, but it is harder to communicate,” Gibbs said, illustrating his point with a stunning metric. In 1980, 50 million Americans watched a national network newscast every night – essentially meaning that 50 million people got the same message, day in and day out.  Today that number stands at 21 million, while the U.S. population has grown by nearly 80 million.  In other words, it’s easier to get the word out, but infinitely tougher to get your point across.  

While Gibbs generally stuck to his native politics for narrative, he landed a point about corporate behavior and image management in the social media age that we as consumer marketers and communicators can ignore at our own peril.  “Products today are judged less on their products’ performance than on their parent companies’ reputations,” he said.  One needn’t look further than BP last year, or Netflix today, to understand.

Filed under: Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Interactive Marketing, Politics, Social Marketing, Social Media by Admin - No Comments →