Helen gill cipr yl social media breakfast briefing on expert power july 2013

Social Media Breakfast Briefing: #ExpertPower

@helenmarygill, Founding Director of @engagecomms

10 July 2013

#ExpertPower

“Ability to influence other parties based on expertise and knowledge.”[Businessdictionary.com]

• Something that we as PR people have always been responsible for helping our clients and colleagues gain

Help your CEO to inspire1. Help them ‘be themselves better’2. Drive the mission and values3. Paint the future4. Be the eyes and ears5. Engage through conversations6. Be audience-centric7. Learn to listen ‘louder’8. Develop a point of view9. Teach your boss to tell stories10. The importance of signals11. Prepare properly for public platforms12. Learn, rehearse, review, improve

How has social media changed things?• It hasn’t really – the best practice principles

above are still the same• Social media is not a sales/advertising tool, it

is a relationship/influence tool• This is the ‘thought leadership’ part of PR• BUT we need to adapt what we do in terms of

media training/relations and speech coaching/writing to the digital age

The upside and the downside• We can now publish our own content so don’t

always need to go through the media and other intermediaries to have a say on something

BUT

• It is even harder to stand out and be memorable because there is so much content out there and people have to come and find you

So, how do we need to adapt?• Brands can gain influence using social media,

but they can’t gain #expertpower • People buy people and people want to engage

with real people online – they expect a ‘face’• Experts need to be bought in and trained to be

social media savvy - good communications skills are more important than ever

• Original content is king – you need to produce lots more of it!

The challenges• It is very difficult to manage reputation,

messaging and consistency when individuals are given responsibility for their own online profile

• There needs to be a culture/mindset of collaboration and openness for long term mutual benefit, which can be difficult in some sectors

• Some experts just won’t have the right personality for social media, which will make it very difficult to ‘teach’ in a genuine way

The opportunities• Technical experts who might find it difficult to get

up on a podium and talk at a conference or give a media interview may feel more comfortable behind the computer screen

• The speed and conciseness that social media demands forces you to translate expertise into the simplest possible terms

• ANYONE can gain influence using social media – your expert doesn’t need to be in a position of great power to gain #expertpower online

The role of PR in gaining #expertpower• Provide training, guidelines, templates and policies that

empower rather than restrict them• Help experts translate what they do into engaging language

and ghostwrite/create compelling multimedia content – blogs, tweets, videos etc

• Break things down into bitesize, shareable chunks• Coach them in online relationship building – LinkedIn

etiquette, responding to tweets etc• Proactively monitor online conversations/trends• Identify the people they need to get in front of then help

them to stay ‘front of mind’

#Personalbranding – just a buzzword?• No.• It’s not just for celebrities and

ego-maniacs!• And it doesn’t just have a role to

play in job hunting• They will only gain real influence online if they can

stand out – personal branding will allow your clients and colleagues to carve a niche for themselves and be memorable

• It is just making the most of what they already do

The corporate brand vs the personal brand

• Individuals hold all your brand’s #expertpower but that doesn’t mean that they should be ‘on message’

• You can have a range of different spokespeople with different specialisms/areas of expertise but they all need to be tied together somehow

• Give them brand guidelines which help maintain consistency of look/feel/tone/style

5 tips for giving your experts ‘the power’1. Tease out the ‘gems’ – technical people often

don’t know which bits of what they do is actually interesting to others

2. Get to know their personality and understand their tone of voice

3. Develop a personal brand strategy for them which is aligned with the corporate brand

4. Get their buy in – demonstrate the business case, show them real life examples and take them on the journey

5. Give them one-on-one, tailored coaching

Case study: Blacks Solicitors

Case study: Armstrong Watson

Task #1: Your expert’s power in a tweet• Used to be an ‘elevator pitch’, now it’s how can your

expert commentator get noticed in 140 characters• Come up with 140 characters for your expert that gets

across their ‘power’ and personality

Engage with us!

Follow @engagecomms @helenmarygillFind us on LinkedIn

www.engagecomms.co.uk/blogDownload the slides from slideshare.net