Six Essential Steps of Building a Digital Brand
Posted: 2/9/2010

Publication: The Firm Voice

Feb 25, 2009

With digital PR being among the top practice areas seeing growth in a slower economy, almost every agency wants to be perceived as digitally "savvy" among prospects and existing clients alike. But demonstrating your competence involves considerably more than mouthing the right buzzwords and Tweeting every five minutes.
Building a reputation for digital competence—and thereby snagging a bigger slice of the marketing budget—involves learning, listening and never losing sight of your client's goals, as opposed to jumping onto exciting new technologies for their own sake. So, how can you develop that expertise, and get the word out to d rive business once you have? We checked with your firm colleagues for their tips, techniques and tactics—here's the best of their advice:

1. Resist the temptation to jump right in—instead practice the "45-1 rule." Developing a reputation for being digitally savvy starts with education, says Jillian McDowell, co-chair of Carmichael Lynch Spong's social media practice group. "That includes reading case studies, staying on top of—and ahead of—the latest research and industry trends, and sharing relevant information with stakeholders within the organization. These are all activities which aid in building a strong internal knowledge base."

Sam Ford, director of customer insights for Peppercom, agrees: "If a firm wants to be a thought leader in the digital space, it has to show that it fundamentally understands the tenets of online culture," he says. "Most important on that list is ‘listening' more than you speak—and engaging in a conversation, not just broadcasting ideas."

To that, Coyne PR has a 45-1 rule. A staffer needs to spend at least 45 minutes getting to know a blogger before opening up a conversation, says Stacy Becker, a member of the "sPRocket team," the agency's internal think tank for social and digital media. "The most important thing you can do is listen," she reiterates.

Several of our experts stress this point: It's about the client and the message: "We have to be willing to participate in dialogue in the public sphere, without trying to make the conversation only about us," says Ford.

2. After monitoring and listening—experiment and engage. If learning is the first fundamental step the second one is "walking the walk" and utilizing digital strategies personally, professionally and for agency communications," says McDowell.

"Agencies can make a stronger case when trying to sell-in digital strategies if they can showcase the steps they've taken internally to become digitally competent and share what they learned along the way." The lessons learned will help you develop "strategic, client-specific digital strategies," she says.

At Coyne PR, everyone has blog or contributes to one, says Becker. In addition:

• 90% are involved in social networks
• 78% are on Facebook
• 93% are on LinkedIn
• 64% tweet on Twitter

Clients expect to hear those kinds of metrics or details pegged to a shop's social media engagement before signing. Beyond that, being involved also means cultivating relationships. Becker and her colleague, Mike Sazillo, are adamant on this point. Becker works with "mom bloggers" among others; Sazillo, with automotive bloggers. They've cultivated relationships in those sectors. They read the blogs. They know the people writing them. And they listen, to discover what the bloggers think, do and want, allowing them to customize content—and avoid For instance, one of Coyne's clients is General Mills. If a "mom blogger" has a child with a peanut allergy, it would be a big misstep to send a sample of a peanut product. The point: You can easily embarrass yourself and your client if you don't have a pitch that fits the blogger's niche, warn Becker and Sazillo. Every mistake, from typos to inapt pitches, can be widely publicized. (If you have any doubts, check out the bad pitch blog at http://badpitch.blogspot.com.) Web content can be forever.

3. Practice transparency—be authentic and ethical. Still, while you are developing rapport with bloggers or others in various social media channels, you need to remember: You're there to represent your client, says Sazillo. It's a matter of ethics. Ethics demand that you be transparent and authentic."

"The biggest mistake an agency could make when building a digital brand is to not be transparent or advise against transparent strategies," says Jillian Froehlich, co-chair (with McDowell) of Carmichael Lynch Spong's social media practice group. "The digital age is all about being authentic."

4. Remember: Trend watching ? being savvy."I think that some people mistake trend tracking for savvy," says Ford. Some agencies believe they can develop a forward-thinking digital reputation by telling clients about the latest trend rather than what makes sense for a particular brand. Too often, he says, strategy gets lost in the pursuit of the trend of the day; that does a disservice both to an agency's long-term reputation and to the client's efforts.
Simply having digital capabilities is not enough: The key is never to show how these tools makes sense for a client's business goals, to reach out to the needs and wants of their desired audience, he says.

Rob Amberg, vice president and general manager, Cushman/Amberg Communications, offers similar advice: "I think being digitally savvy means you have to not only understand what's out there, but have good ideas about how to make ideas work in the digital space. It's one thing to know Facebook demographics for a certain age group. It's another to have workable ideas in that space that show results. You don't have to be an implementer if you can show good strategic thinking."

The most common mistake Amberg sees is companies trying to be everywhere in the digital space. An agency will have a presence on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, a blog, a YouTube channel, etc., but they will have the same content each place. "It's better … to pick the most meaningful tools for the right audiences, and to focus on maintaining meaningful content," he says.

Ford agrees. "Platforms may rise and fall, like Friendster, and terms such as ‘viral' may fall out of favor, but many of the underlying principles of a smart online campaign stand the test of time."

5. Get the word out—communicate digital competency. You don't just want to be competent. You want to communicate competency. "Agencies can effectively communicate their digital competency by proactively sharing relevant digital trends with their clients—along with a point of view on how the information is pertinent to their brand," says Froehlich. That way, if clients receive questions internally about digital platforms, they know they have a resource. As for prospects, agencies can use digital tactics throughout the new business process—for example, sharing a video case study via a YouTube channel—again, showing they "walk the walk."

Amberg offers some tactics for communicating competency. "For existing clients, I think it has to be in the form of a face-to-face meeting. Invite them to your office for lunch and do a showcase presentation on the agency's capabilities as well as ideas you have for that particular client. Echoing a common theme among his fellow agency leaders, he says "A client will be more interested in listening if you make it about them."

For prospects, if they aren't active in the digital space now, "It makes zero sense to reach out to them that way," he says. One possible approach: Show them what their competition is doing and why it would benefit them to listen to your ideas. But whether you are dealing with clients or prospects, "at the end of the day, however good your capabilities are, they care only how it affects them." Amberg says.

6. Integrate, don't isolate—it's all still PR. At Coyne PR, the social/digital media function is part of the agency's broader PR effort. It's a mistake to separate the digital business from the rest of the agency, say Becker and Sazillo: Social media isn't a specialty—it's another media category.

Digital strategies aren't any different than traditional public relations ones. They should always connect to a client's communications and business objectives, agrees Froehlich. "As every dollar counts in today's economy, measurement standards should be proposed at the commencement of each project and revisited throughout the scope to consistently demonstrate ROI," she says.

Whether you are already deeply involved in digital media or are just getting started, move slowly and never forget your goal. Take the right amount of time to set your strategy and have a measurable objective, Amberg counsels. "Flashy creative may get you looks, but it won't keep clients long term," he says. "You can't do it halfway or it will be obvious you are only dabbling."

Sazillo agrees. "Start slow, do what you know, do what you feel comfortable with. Don't forget, it really is PR."