Lessons Learned From NATO’s Communications Team

When the rise of digital changed the communications landscape, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) had a problem. Like many other international organizations, their communications strategy wasn’t yet used to digital systems, and they had to make a number of changes to re-calibrate.

Steven Mehringer, NATO’s head of communication services, told us how they did it and what they learned along the way. Here are the top takeaways from his workshop at our social media summit..

1. Channel separation is a myth.

That a lot of people consume media differently across devices, platforms, and services is nothing new. You need only look to technologies like Netflix and HBO Go to see that computers are becoming televisions. At the same time, televisions are becoming our computers. Smart TVs, Google Chromecast, and Apple TV all make sure of that.

Social media has already changed publishing and digital across the board, not to mention its effect on things like email and instant messaging. The social layer that is now omnipresent over every aspect of digital will only become more important moving forward. This is true for brands, for media, and for governmental and international organizations as well.

2. Internal teams must integrate.

When it comes to storytelling for political and international organizations, there are a ton of moving parts involved. But that doesn’t mean each moving part should operate separately. They can’t.

Having isolated teams for specific channels is hurting us. You can’t have a social media team that’s isolated from your creative team or your content team or your traditional marketing team. Organizations need to integrate these teams so that they’re grouped by their common goal instead of by their day-to-day tasks. Further, all of the involved parties must be taught how to integrate and work with each other, even if it requires a lot of effort. In the end, it’s well worth the investment.

July 22, 2015July 22, 2015

FTC Social Media Endorsements Guidelines

Endorsements and reviews are big in social media, they can be effective decision making tools for consumers if they are truthful. the FTC published endorsement guidelines to help brands and businesses stay out of trouble

Suppose you meet someone who tells you about a great new product. She tells you it performs wonderfully and offers fantastic new features that nobody else has. Would that recommendation factor into your decision to buy the product? Probably.

Now suppose the person works for the company that sells the product – or has been paid by the company to tout the product. Would you want to know that when you’re evaluating the endorser’s glowing recommendation? You bet. That common-sense premise is at the heart of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) Endorsement Guides.

The Guides, at their core, reflect the basic truth-in-advertising principle that endorsements must be honest and not misleading. An endorsement must reflect the honest opinion of the endorser and can’t be used to make a claim that the product’s marketer couldn’t legally make. Continue reading “FTC Social Media Endorsements Guidelines”

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015

Hashtags: Useful or Nuisance?

We have all seen them, use them or been annoyed by them when abused, something I call hashtag vomit. Users who don’t understand hashtags tagging their post with so many irrelevant and annoying hashtags you just want to move on without reading the post.

It started on Twitter, Facebook unsuccessfully tried to incorporate them in posts, LinkedIn gave up on them, Instagram and Pinterest users swear by them but few actually understand their use and purpose.

By definition, A hashtag is a type of label used on social network and micro blogging platforms to make it easier for users to find messages with a specific theme or content. In short, hashtags are like keywords allowing readers to find content related to a subject and should be treated as such

Social media “gurus” have been promoting hashtags as essential to social media posts and content success, advising marketers to use hashtags as a critical element of any high-performing social media update without educating their clients and the public about the way to effectively use them

The result has been hashtag vomit, what mainstream search engines would classify as spam. We have seen updates and content with plethora of hashtags, some relevant most irrelevant for the sake of trying to maximize potential exposure.

The question has long been, do hashtags actually work?

The answer is yes and no, depending on your purpose

Twitter recently released a study focused on direct response ads, which are intended to drive a specific result, like an app install or a website visit, suggesting that when these ads included a hashtag or mentioned another account, they didn’t perform well

Continue reading “Hashtags: Useful or Nuisance?”

June 5, 2015June 5, 2015

Retailers Are Turning to Social Media For Market Research

Social media permeates every facets of business, from branding to marketing, sales, customer service and to often overlooked market research, product development and HR

Increasingly though, retailers and brands are turning to social media for market research.

Consumers have adopted social media in a massive way and, in spite of concerns for privacy, are sharing what they like, buy and want on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram to name the biggest ones. Continue reading “Retailers Are Turning to Social Media For Market Research”

April 10, 2015April 10, 2015

Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?

Is your website mobile friendly or not, if it is not, you will want to know about April 21st

We’ve all heard and laughed at Geico’s commercial “Do you know what day it is”, April 21st is not hump day but if your website is not responsive (aka friendly to mobile devices like smart phones, I pads and other tablets) it’s the day Google will start penalize your rankings Continue reading “Is Your Website Mobile Friendly?”

December 3, 2014December 3, 2014

Disclosure Is The Key

Recently an advertising agency learned a hard lesson about social media promotion: Disclosure is the key.

The FTC recently settled with Interpublic’s Deutsch LA advertising agency and Sony over claims the companies engaged in deceptive marketing during the launch of Sony’s hand held PlayStation Vita gaming console.

The lesson should not be lost on any marketer.

According to the complaint, one of the agency’s assistant account executives sent an email asking the agency’s staff to help promote the PlayStation Vita ad campaign by posting positive comments about the console on Twitter using the hashtag #gamechanger.

Deutsch LA employees posted tweets promoting PlayStation Vita without disclosing their connection to the agency or Sony.

According to the FTC these tweets were misleading because they didn’t reflect the views of actual consumers-users.

Agencies have to exercise a lot of caution when talking about a client’s work on social media, though best practices in that area aren’t always well codified, said David Berkowitz, chief marketing officer at digital agency MRY.

“This will be a wake-up call for agencies in terms of how they communicate work they have in market and what they encourage employees to do,” Mr. Berkowitz said.

It’s not the first time the FTC intervenes against agencies for deceptive marketing and it’s not likely to be the last and they will not stop at tweets.

The FTC is clear o that matter (and further clarified recently), marketers when they post on social media must disclose and consideration whether financial or in products and must disclose their connection to the agency, client or marketer.
What that means is that the poster must disclose if they work for the agency or the brand, they must disclosed if they have been paid or received free products or have received the service for free as a consideration to write and post about the product or service

In social media more than any other form of PR or advertising transparency is the key to keeping regulators at bay, to ensure brand integrity and to keep consumers trust.