Panelists prepare for a discussion on Facebook in Entertainment PR & Marketing
Just returned from my first Social Media Week Los Angeles event sponsored by PRSA-LA and Social Media Week. The panel, held at The Palen Center in Beverly Hills featured KTLA Tech Reporter Rich DeMuro as moderator and industry experts Kay Madati (Entertainment Strategy, Facebook), Eric Kuhn (Social Media Agent, United Talent Agency), Allyson Smith (Vice President, New Media, The Jim Henson Company) and Clinton Schaff (Vice President Digital & Interactive Media Group, Golin Harris).
The conversation centered on the continually evolving role of a publicist in our social media infused world. Though we are no longer able to so acutely control the message about an individual or a client that is being put out into the world, we are better able to connect with an audience in real time and with increased authenticity. Through social media outlets, brands can connect with real people and create advocates that will increase their earned social media by a spike in sharing with their friends.
Facebook’s Kay Madati advised that the average Facebook user sees only 20% of their friends news on their daily newsfeed. In order to best engage a brand’s fans on social media, it is essential that all content posted be engaging and compelling in order to make it into this small percentage that actually is viewed and, ideally, shared. For each individual brand, the type of content that will be most effective in nudging its way to the top of this every-shifting algorithm will vary. For some, it will be sharing their own exclusive brand-created content. While for some others it could be simply engaging in conversation with their fans on a relative trending topic of the day (ex. A television production company connecting with their fans about the results of last evening’s Emmy Awards). The Jim Henson Company’s Allyson Smith advised that all content be 80% entertainment and 20% marketing in order to allow fans to have a greater sense of comfort with connecting with the brand, rather than feeling like they are being subjected to spam.
With the introduction of Facebook’s subscribe button for public updates, making it easier than ever for fans to opt-in (or opt-0ut) of news, creating compelling content is more essential than ever before. Individuals now feel that they can not only directly connect with brands, but often times feel a sense of friendship and trust with that brand that can only be built through transparency and authenticity. Ask yourself this: Do you feel you have a better “insider” view to a brand (whether that be a company, product or personality) from following their social media? One example used was actor Vin Diesel, whose Facebook page currently boasts over 27 million fans. Not only does he regularly and directly interact with his page and the fans that frequent, but he is also connecting on a wide range of topics, as anyone would do in an open conversation with their real friends.
Though they may function differently in the technology of the Facebook platform, it is important for brands to think of fans as their friends. The question to ask is: What would the brand’s friends be interested in reading/interacting with?
