#BringBackTheBees

 

Staying relevant in the ever changing world of social media is a challenge in its self; making it something interesting and worth the time of the consumers, all while following the 80/20 rule is an even bigger challenge.

Until recently, no one thought twice about the usage of honey in products such as Burt’s Bees products or Honey Nut Cheerio’s. Actress Lea Michele starred in their Instagram  video that launched the #BringBackTheBees campaign on March 8th 2016 where she encouraged people to participate in the social media campaign and purchase the limited edition lip balm. The Instagram video has had over 15k views and has stated the conversation on all of their social media channels.  The point of this campaign was to raise awareness for the dying bees. They asked their fans to drop the letter ‘B‘ from their posts on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #BringBackTheBees, with every post on social media they will plant 1,000 wildflowers in your name. Their goal is to plant one billion wildflowers and raise awareness on the limited number of honey bees in the world, all through social media and engaging their followers.

                                                  

In chapter 4 of Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect, it talks about social press and how brands are social influencers to their  consumers and fans, especially on social media. Two rules to follow on social media as told by the book are as follows: Number 1, follow, listen, and interact. The most important tool when using social media as a brand is it pay attention to what’s going on in the news/media and ride that wave all the way to social media success. Burt’s Bees did just that with this campaign, they researched, picked up on the trend, listened to their followers, and are now interacting using their campaign’s hashtag.

Rule number 2: be a good storyteller. Public relations is all about telling our clients stories, good or bad. We have to establish credibility, be personable, and create an impact. Burt’s Bees focused mostly on creating an impact in the bigger scheme of things: saving the dying bees and planting wildflowers to help with the problem, all while engaging their consumers on social media as well as selling their product. They created a limited edition lip balm which comes in three flavors: coconut and pear, pink grapefruit, and wild cherry. Every limited edition lip balm that is purchased, Burt’s Bees will plant 1,000 wildflowers.

Not only is Burt’s Bees getting involved with raising awareness for the bees, but also companies like Buzz Feed and nature conservatories are getting involved. This campaign, like many others,  demonstrate the power of social media and how engaging with the public and building those relationships is all apart of the wonderful world of public relations.  This is a prime example of a social media campaign done right while at the same time raising awareness for a good cause.

The Motor City: Here to Stay

When people not from the Mitten hear about Detroit, they often hear about the crime rate, the increasing amount of homeless, and the bankruptcy the city filed in 2013. But t young families and those just graduating from college, Detroit is the place to be. With homes and apartments at extremely affordable rates, and with all the new businesses claiming residency in the Motor City, those graduating with a degree in public relations in Michigan have a solid place to look for a job.  There are many opportunities for agency jobs as well as corporate and non-profit. In an article by the Wall Street Journal, Detroit has luxury homes which are ready to sell, perfect for young families and those entering the workforce, or those who have been in the workforce for a long time. All of this is great news for us in public relations due to how many public relations opportunities lie in the Motor City.

In the Renaissance Center, which is also known as the GM RenCen, is owned by General Motors and uses the center as their world headquarters. Within General Motors alone, there are numerous public relations opportunities, which is common for any worldwide company with a brand such as GM. The social media control room (pictured below) is located on the 18^th floor of the RenCen, where GM has staff 16 hours a day, 7 days a week who work strictly on monitoring their social media accounts. All of their brands along with all of their social accounts are constantly engaging and interacting with the consumer. Studying public relations gives us the edge in social as we learn how to effectively engage with consumers, businesses, other brands, and the general public. If you are considering the corporate life, consider the automotive industry!

Along with all of the corporate jobs in the Motor City, there is also opportunities for those who want to try out the agency life. Located in the RenCen, there are also public relations agencies such as the Franco Public Relations Group  and Truscott & Rossman. EMU’s Chapter of PRSSA had the pleasure of touring the Franco Agency on Friday (pictured below) and learned a lot about what a PR agency does for clients in Detroit and nationwide.

There are 12 other public relations agencies just in downtown Detroit which gives us as public relations students hope for an extremely fast paced job in our near future. Working in an agency will be high stress but completely worth every second. Detroit is not a city anyone should count out when beginning the job search, even if you aren’t in public relations, there are so many opportunities in Detroit. The city will continue to prosper if more people realize the beauty that lies in the heart of the Motor City.

If the multiple job opportunities and luxurious homes aren’t enough to bring you to the Motor City, don’t forget the Detroit Lions, Tigers, and Red Wings all call Detroit City home. There are also immaculate views of the Detroit River from many of the RenCen offices. If you aren’t lucky enough to have a view of the river from your desk, you can always take a stroll along the Detroit Riverwalk or head over to Belle Isle  to check out the aquarium or look at the gorgeous views of Canada.

Detroit has much to offer, so before you count it out, go explore the Motor City!

 

Staying calm in a high stress job

Photo of the Renaissance Center in Detroit MI which is a good description of the #CorporateLife in public relations.

To the general public, public relations practitioners are people who sit in an office and wait for a crisis to happen in which case they jump to the rescue and clean up the mess. Luckily, we have many other jobs to perform on a daily basis other than cleaning up a corporate disaster. Public relations is so much more than parties and press releases; there is a lot riding on how a company does PR and how we can tell a brands story by riding the media wave to keep our content relevant.

By studying public relations, we have a wide array of job opportunities that can be tailored to our specific strengths and weaknesses. We can write, plan events, we can work in corporate which means working on one client all day every day, or we can work in an agency, which means handling numerous clients in one day. We could manage social media for our client, we could deal directly with the media. We might work in investor relations, which is speaking with investors and stakeholders to the company. All of these are important aspects of PR and all are traits we should study and research to know the field and be effective practitioners.

The diversity of PR is what draws many people to the field; it gives you the opportunity to travel if that’s what you want to do, or it gives you the opportunity to stay put and work from home if that’s your calling. It’s flexible, yet demanding. Its high stress; yet rewarding. As you pursue a career in public relations, here are a few tips we should all reflect on to help with the stress of the job:

Know how to effectively research

This is number one on my list for a reason; RESEARCH IS IMPORTANT. I recently had a conversation with my mentor, I asked if he still researches as much now as he did when he was first starting off in PR, he said “you don’t ever get away from research, things are always changing and there is always research to be done.” He couldn’t be more spot on; making sure you have as much information on your client as possible is vital and always updating that information is even more important. Consume mass amounts of media to keep informed on what is happening. Keeping up on the trends is crucial to PR and research is key to keeping up.

Plan ahead; and be prepared for everything to change

Things move quickly in PR and we should always be prepared, but also be prepared to change everything you had planned. You can plan your day from 8am-6pm, by 8:15 things are going to be completely different. Being in PR means you learn to roll with the punches; being flexible and able to accommodate is key in PR.

Be an effective communicator 

Whether it’s online or in person, being able to tell a story is vital to public relations. As PR practitioners we are story tellers, we do this by social media, blogs, board meetings, presentations, pitch letters, press releases, and media interviews. Understand that strategy changes for each specific situation in PR and you probably won’t see the same situation twice.

 

McDonald’s Social Media Director Looks for The EXIT on Twitter

Sometimes brands use social media as a way to invite themselves into your life  when they are not at all welcome. We wouldn’t force someone to like us in real life, so why do we do this on social? This is the equivalent of meeting someone and inviting yourself to hangout with their family the same weekend. This is referred to as the Courtship of Social Media, in the book written by Gina Luttrell, Social Media: How to Engage, Share, and Connect. There is an effective way to engage with consumers without being invasive, as public relations practitioners we must find the balance and pursue the proper form of engagement.

Attaining followers is great, but we must also track how much engagement we receive on our social pages; you can purchase followers on Twitter, so having 50k followers could mean nothing if there is no engagement, obviously, the goal is positive engagement.  The important aspect to monitoring social media is by a few things:

• The conversation-what are people saying about you?
  • Good? Bad? Neutral?
  • The goal should be to get your customer ranting and raving about you.
• How many Twitter followers do you have? How many likes on Facebook?
• Who is engaged with your content?
  • Celebrities? Government? Consumers?
  • What is their Klout score?

Everyone has a hashtag, some are created by the company, and some are created by angry consumers. We can’t even enjoy an episode of our favorite show without seeing their hashtag on the bottom corner. Recently, an angry McDonalds customer received a cheeseless order of cheese sticks from a California restaurant (there is now a lawsuit regarding the missing cheese). He took to Twitter with the hashtag #WheresTheCheese. This sparked quite the conversation on Twitter, other angry customers started posting photos of their cheeseless sticks. Companies like TGI Friday’s and A&W took advantage of the situation and tweeted out from their accounts photos of cheese sticks saying they’ve “always had the cheese” and “cheese comes guaranteed in our products”. This is an example of a negative conversation happening on a company’s social media. This was not the first time a hashtag has backfired on McDonald’s, nor the first time a social media disaster has happened to other companies (a few of my favorites). In 2012, McDonald’s promoted a hashtag #McDStories which quickly turned into customers telling horrific stories about experiences after eating at McDonalds. After 2 hours, McDonald’s social media director pulled the hashtag and ended promoting it in Twitter’s newsfeed.  

Watching people fail on social media is extremely entertaining, but we should also give credit to those who do social media well. There are plenty of businesses out there who do social very well without being invasive or annoying.

Red Bull is my personal favorite for doing social well. They promote vivacious living, any and every sport you can think of, and rarely every self promote. They have 58.8k Twitter followers because those people want to follow them.

Old Spice is another brand who does social well. They engage will their followers as well as post daily with content that is not all self promoting. They have 225k Twitter followers and do well with engagement as well as current content for their channel.

Who doesn’t love Taco Bell? For some, it may be a guilty pleasure, or a late night snack no one knows about, either way, they engage with all 1.67 million of their followers and post content daily. They promote their new menu items as well as their other social channels such as snapchat but it is not over bearing and something that would get annoying. They RT a lot of their mentions which makes people want to tweet at them with the chance of it being seen by 1.67 million followers.