We are loving the concept of ‘social reporting’ here at Digital Citizen.
Social reporting is where a brand engages someone to create content in real-time, that tells their brand story in different and interesting ways.
For example, they might:
- live-stream from a company event,
- tweet a public announcement by the CEO,
- interview an internal expert on a topical issue that has broken in the news that day,
- simply document what goes on behind the scenes of the organisation’s business.
Social reporting is about being agile, authentic and audience-focused, and over time the content produced should build upon a company’s narrative in the marketplace (as well as internally).
We see a real opportunity around social reporting for in-house PR and communications teams, whether they do it themselves internally or outsource it to a specialist team and then manage the process.
Social reporting is more than running a company’s social media accounts. It’s about taking people ‘behind the velvet rope’ of an organisation in an authentic way, and telling interesting micro-stories in using the myriad multimedia tools at our disposal.
Such a remit falls squarely with the PR and communications department, as they are the ones who best understand an organisation’s narrative and are adept at creating content quickly to meet the real-time demands of today’s connected marketplace.
Here’s a great example of social reporting that takes the viewing public behind the scenes of a real business.
It’s a weekly micro-documentary show called ‘The Journey’, produced by Michael (Mike) Stelzner and the team from Social Media Examiner.
In episode 1 (video above), Mike reveals what many will see as an impossible goal – he is on a mission to grow his company’s customer base by more than 62 per cent year over year. Viewers can watch as Mike inspires and mobilises his marketing team to take action.
Not only does featuring real people – as opposed to actors – resonate with viewers, but the lessons Mike and the team learn along the way are also beneficial for the audience.
Expect to see more of this type of content creation in the near future as brands twig to the fact people prefer unfiltered coverage of an organisation versus a highly polished corporate video that might look nice, but in reality says nothing.
Video will be the main tool used, but live streaming (a more extreme use of video in the eyes of some businesses), blogging, Twitter and Instagram – and Snapchat for some types of brands – plus audio apps such as Anchor, could all be expected to play a role.
Social reporting requires companies and organisations to adopt a real-time, content-first mindset.
Those brands that get this, and implement with enthusiasm, will be better placed to edge ahead of the competition in terms of the all-important attention stakes.
The key to successful social reporting is not letting perfection get in the way of getting it done.
Today’s communications environment is quicker as it’s ever been, and as a profession, we need to be able to adapt accordingly.
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