conversational engagement<\/a> and crisis responding. Proactive is outreach to potential customers and talking to influencers, (micro, macro and celebrities).<\/span><\/p>\nIrrespective of which type of community engagement you are involved with, the objective of all Community Engagement is to create a human connection between the brand and the customer. <\/span>We exist in a world where the customer is social savvy and expects to interact with a brand to understand its policies on social, economic and environmental factors, as well as sort out any customer issues. And of course customers expect an answer within at least one hour of posting it! All communication must be genuine and authentic and use the audience\u2019s everyday language.<\/span><\/p>\nI agree that PR experts are able to respond to customers about some corporate issues, but providing customer support and being knowledgeable about the ins and outs of products and services doesn\u2019t seem to be an appropriate use of a PR person\u2019s time. Hence the need for Community Engagement and Outreach specialists who are trained and skilled in knowing how to respond appropriately and in a correct manner.<\/span><\/p>\nWorking together<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\nWith that in mind, I think that PR and Community Engagement specialists should work together to ensure consistent messaging across all digital channels. In fact, smart organisations are already doing this. Consumers needs to see consistent messaging and engagement (whatever communication channel they use), and organisations should be structured to ensure this happens. By encouraging Engagement Specialists to work with PR and Marketing, the right messages can be communicated out. Everyone should work together to agree the message and then the Engagement Specialist takes the messages and \u2018socialises\u2019 it. This means making it appropriate for the social channel, using everyday language that appeals to the audience and showing the right level of empathy, but talking in the corporate tone of voice. This all adds up to ensuring the response is not robotic or overly corporate-sounding and comes across as authentic and genuine.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThis is what an Engagement Specialist does every day, as they are at the heart of the community.\u00a0 And they are definitely not junior roles within an agency or organisation. The Engagement Specialists that work on our projects have sufficient training to ensure they understand the brand\u2019s\u00a0 tone of voice and can talk to the target audience. They have the same training as those on the telephone speaking to customers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nInfluencers<\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\nWhere Community Engagement and PR definitely overlap is in managing influencers. Traditionally a PR area, we\u2019re seeing this move more into Community Management, as brands encourage influencers to create their own content, showing what they really think and feel about a product or service. Again, the key is to for PR and Community Management to work together. PR could find these verify and vet these influencers to ensure they are suitable for the brand, and Community Management can monitor and track the virality of what the influencers are publishing, and the impact on the community of their content.<\/span><\/p>\nThere are plenty of brand communication activities that we all excel at, whether we work in PR, marketing, customer support or social. I believe we should leave the specialists to do what they know best instead of trying to be all things to all people. Let\u2019s stick to our core areas and work together, to deliver the best customer experience.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The role and responsibility for Community Management and who is best placed to service it has been a debate in the marketing industry for a while. When I read an article by Martin Waxman on the US site, Spin Sucks last week saying Community Management is a role for PR, I wanted to reply to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":12732,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n
Leave Community Engagement to specialists but with a role for PR - The Social Element USA<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n