There’s no doubt about it; 2012 is going to be a year of great conversations with your customers, employees, investors and the media. You’ll create fantastic content and share it with the people who matter most to your company. You’ll provide them with the news and information they need to make informed decisions about buying your products and services, and you’ll build strong, long-lasting relationships with the people who can make your brand better and your business more successful. And you’ll do it all by being engaged.

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[This article was originally posted on Bulldog Reporter in its July 28, 2011 edition.]

Building relationships with target audiences is more possible than ever before—and far more essential. But we shouldn’t rely on a one-way push of marketing messages that we hope will find our audiences through traditional channels. And just tweeting occasionally or starting a Facebook page doesn’t mean we’re social media-savvy. Today, public relations is about more than key messages, focus groups and press releases; it’s about audience engagement. It’s about identifying key consumers and communities, listening to their likes and dislikes, and participating in conversations with the people who affect our bottom line — even when a transaction isn’t imminent.

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Congratulations!  You’ve just created a thought-provoking, awe-inspiring and call-to-action-laden piece of content.  ROI and back-pats, here we come.  But then you let it sit there.  Few people read it, nobody shares it and you’re the only one who tweets it.  What happened?  By rights, creating content that reaches the audiences we want to reach, grabs their attention and causes them to react in a positive way should be second nature for PR professionals and marketers; it’s what we’ve been trained do.  But the demand from news consumers for content that is truly useful, interesting and engaging is so great, and the need for it to be portable and customizable is so ever-present, our jobs are not always so easy.  (more…)

Nobody ever said communications was easy.  Building great content, finding the right audiences to share it with, and having your messages resonate in a way that makes those audiences take notice and take action involves more than just luck and some clever copy.  Today, successful communications is about conversation and engagement with your customers and key stakeholders, and it’s about building strong relationships with those who can impact your brand and your business.  (more…)