The role of social media in PR campaigns

Burberry social story

 

Social media impact on public relations practice has grown up rapidly and organizations started to see the importance of it.

Social media is important because:

• Improves creativity,
• Drives the media traffic, visits on company’s website, mentioning their names on social media channels helps for brand management and improves the reputation.
• Social media is forcing PRs to be more transparent and accountable. People have opinions, which are very powerful and influential. So sending the right, clear and understandable message can boost the popularity and reputation.
• Helps to build connections and improve relationships. Having contacts is a powerful tool, is about sharing knowledge and experience which can be useful in building up reputation and have a better idea how to reach people (The Drum, 2012).

The best example how social media is important and how it is beneficial to business is Burberry’s social media campaign.

Burberry introduces an innovative social media campaign which purpose was to reach their audiences and interact with them in a more personal way (Guardian, 2012). Burberry CEO, Amanda Ahrendts, says: "I grow up in the physical world and I speak English. The next generation grow up in digital world and they speak social" (Burberry social story, 2012). She explains that if the

organization wants to reach its publics, they have to speak the language their audiences speak. They chat with their customers online, they make it more personal, they gain understanding what their customers and employees want. According to Amanda "the most importantly it has been the greatest reunite of the culture of any platform we have ever put in place". Wherever the customers are in the world and if they speak about Burberry brand, they are able to hear and listen via social media. The video shown below explains Burberry social story and how social media is important for their brand development and building on stronger reputation.

Encouraging creativity in PR

“Hot brunette wanted for 2014!”

Gerald Abrahams decided to have an attention and to find a girlfriend in a completely different and creative way. On the 7^th of January, 2014 Mr Abrahams decided to fulfil his new year's resolution to find romance after he hit the streets with a sandwich board declaring: 'Hot brunette wanted for 2014'.

I saw this guy in Piccadilly Circus standing in the middle of the street with this huge sign and I thought that it is just a joke for the New Year. Later on, I found out the rest of the story. He told the Evening Standard: 'I just needed to do something different for 2014. I’ve had enough of internet dating and thought this would be something light-hearted that people might find amusing and bring a smile to their face.' In addition, Gerald told Absolute Radio that he didn’t enjoy “unproactive” internet dating, claiming “I felt I just needed to do something a bit more imaginative and get out there”. Unfortunately he didn’t reply to any of email he received. But he got a lot of attention from public, social and local media which wrote his story and spread it out.

This was one of the examples how to be creative and how to encourage people not to be alone, find their other half and be in love. This can be used by dating sites as an inspiration how to be different and creative.

As a result, his story was in Metro, Evening Standard, Daily Mail, The Telegraph. Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were full of comments and pictures of the guy and the board.

First Tweet Experience Hotel in the world

 

Social media is a very important tool for all the organisations, It helps to reach their target audience, spread the news and achieve the best results by involving more and more people. Unfortunately, people cannot live without social media even on their holidays!

 

The Sol Wave House hotel in Majorca, Magaluf has been dubbed the world's first Twitter hotel.
It has Twitter-themed rooms decked out in blue and white decor, to match the social network's iconic colour scheme, and holidaymakers can check-in, find out about events, order room service and get exclusive deals using dedicated hash tags. The hotel also has Twitter-themed parties and offers Twitter-themed drinks such as a blue mojito.

It really attracts attention because it is right next to the beach in a busy city Maguluf, which is called as a capital of parties. Luckily, this year I had an opportunity to visit this amazing country and the city which never sleeps. So it happened that I have visited this eye catching hotel which provides a high class entertainment any time of the day. Sol Wave House hotel provides an innovative and unique wave machine for you to try Flowboarding.

The services and facilities at the Sol Wave House hotel has 184 contemporary guest rooms, including exclusive #PartySuites, spacious dining areas (Byron's Restaurant, Banzai Bar, Pipe's Sport Bar, Lohis Bar and Lounge Area); 2 outdoor swimming pools overlooking the Mediterranean, a spectacular 2,640 m2 sun terrace with sunbeds and Balinese beds, an exclusive VIP zone, free social WIFI, Internet corner with 6 computers, shopping mall and parking.

I did not stay in this hotel, but outside environment is fantastic. It is a good idea for people who cannot live without social media but personally holiday has to be holiday and people has to communicate more face to face not sitting in their rooms with their smart phones!

 

Social media growth and impact

Taking advantage of horse meat scandal

Some months ago there was a massive scandal that biggest supermarkets' beef burgers and meals contain horse DNA. But one offering from Tesco's Value range had 29% horse meat. As a result, supermarket lost 300m pounds off its market value and lost good reputation and image from its customers.

 

Recently, media was releasing news stories about real horse meat burgers at London pubs. Evening Standard wrote: "The Three Compasses in Hackney began grilling 100 per cent horse meat burgers on Tuesday, while the Lord Nelson in Southwark introduced the dish a fortnight ago."

Owner Lauren Johns said: “All across Europe, horse is considered a high-quality meat. We thought it’d be nice for people to try it and realise it’s really nice if prepared and sourced properly.”

 

Surprisingly, chef Michael Brown at the Three Compasses said:"50 burgers sold out in hours on Tuesday night". This just show that it caught customers attention and interest is that really burgers with real horse meat. It was quite easy to get so much attention because everyone were shocked about the scandal in supermarkets. Firstly, it might be considered as done on purpose or as a joke to taste and compare Tesco beef burgers with real horse meat burgers in the pub. Secondly, it is risky to start selling horse meat because of the attitude of people about it. From ancient time horse is like a companion who helps to work in the fields. Even people from a Borough Market said "it had not been widely advertised because customers considered horses “companions” rather than dinner".

 

Tesco. I do nott think is appropriate to sell and eat horse meat, but in today's life and food variety you cannot be surprised anymore.

 

 

Social media revolution

Coca-Cola behind the scenes

One of the biggest brands Coca-Cola looks like it is trying to position themselves as a super brand that is doing everything right for their customers. Their CSR looks incredible, helping charities and supporting events such as Olympic games. Unfortunately, it seems that the giant brand is in trouble again.

Despite the fact that they released a ridiculous advert video about anti-obesity, now they failing to meet ethical standards, joining Mars and other companies. Evening Standard announce about an issue in February raised by Oxfam. It was said that "leading global brands are failing to ensure the well being of the workers who produce their products and are continuing to profit from a broken system they should be helping to fix".

 

The charity has compiled a Behind the Brands scorecard, which rates the "big 10" food companies in seven categories - the transparency of their supply chains and operations, how they ensure the rights of workers, how they protect women's rights, the management of water and land use, their policies to reduce the impacts of climate change and how they ensure the rights of the farmers who grow their ingredients.

 

The main issues were that companies do not have their own policies how they have to communicate with their suppliers. Also, there are no regulations and rules how eliminate discrimination against women throughout their supply chains. Besides, none of them has adequate policies to protect local communities from land and water grabs despite all of them sourcing commodities plagued by land rights violations, such as palm oil, soy and sugar.

 

After the matter was raised, Coca-Cola spokeswoman said that they are aware of Oxfam activities and trying to implement practises throughout their supply chains and support and build sustainable communities.

 

"We believe in creating economic opportunities for women and smallholder farmers as well as stewarding water and other natural resources within the more than 200 countries in which we operate".

 

At the end, they reached common ground with Oxfam, Coca-Cola spokeswoman said that "As part of The Coca-Cola Company's commitment to transparent, more sustainable and responsible business practises, we welcome a continuous dialogue with Oxfam that enables us to identify and address global challenges collaboratively."

 

So even the massive company is trying to position themselves and use good PR to attract more more customers they cannot hide the truth. Even the anti-obesity video shows that they are using persuasive message to convince their customers that the drink is good. On the other hand, as the Guardian journalist, Sally Peck, said: " The world’s most valuable brand thinks that you are naive. That isn’t at all true. 100 calories’ worth of spinach is your friend. 100 calories of Coca-Cola is little more than a guilty pleasure". So should we believe in everything what this big brand is saying?

The same thing about video and promise to Oxfam to improve and support their communities, will they do something? I guess no.