Engage online influencers to establish positive brand presence

Digital communications have empowered stakeholders and caused a cosmic shift in how organizations now reach their target audiences. In order to keep your brand fresh and top of mind with today’s online consumers, it’s time to establish brand presence in online channels.

What does this mean for your company?

With the growing influence of social networking sites and consumer-generated content, companies would do well to figure out how to use them and let their primary stakeholders to speak for them. In a recent article in PR News, Shel Holtz, principal of Holtz Communication + Technology, cited powerful statistics about the influence of social media. “One percent of a community generates new content (think Wikipedia) and 10 percent of a community contributes to existing content (think bloggers),” Holtz said. “These are the new influencers. Learn to love them.”

The newest buzz phrase in online marketing is “engagement communication.” According to Holtz, there are eight critical rules that should be top of mind when planning your company’s PR and marketing strategy:

• Channels have fragmented.
  
• Sources of trust have shifted.
  
• Social media have arrived.
  
• The consumer is in control.
  
• Content creation and distribution has been democratized.
  
• You must reach the new influencers.
  
• Transparency is required.
  
• Engage in the conversation or fail to communicate.

Our take-away advice: Embrace the new “engagement communication” and court the new influencers. Otherwise you run the risk of being left behind in the race to capture top of mind position with your online audience.

Source: “Refrigerate After Opening: Extending Your Brand’s Digital Shelf Life, Shel Holtz, PR News, May 28, 2007
(PR News subscribers can access at www.prnews.com)