Let's give them something to talk about; how to use pr in an interactive way.

Friday, September 13, 2019

Whereas brands use to have all the power communicating the information concerning their brand, this made a 180 degree turn with the upcoming of social media. As stated in the article Brubaker and Wilson social media, in this case Facebook, provides brands a platform for engaging in two-way communication with its publics. Not only are brands able to share information top-down, but these channels are actively used by consumers to share their findings on products or services which makes it very interactive.

Engaging with your public.

The power and succes of the brand no longer only lies in de qualities of the product, but moreover in the way they handle their communication online. Platforms as Facebook are used by the consumers to share what they have learned, felt, seen and heard about a brand. As a result, brands are forced to devote a great deal of time and energy to keeping this as positive as possible. The way they handle complaints or interact with their public when they have questions can be of more value to your brand than an unique aspect of the product or service itself.

You can't just buy Brand Equity; you have to earn it.

If we trace this back to consumer behavior we see their previous experiences with the brand, the comparison with other brands and eventually the purchasing and recommending of the product to others. This brand knowledge can be distinguished in two categories, brand value and brand equity. The brand value is about the money a brand is worth, but even more interesting is the brand equity. Customer-based brand equity is often related to concepts as brand evaluation and brand activation or -motivation. But what role does public 
The combination of brand posts with visuals and text-based messages gives brand publics something to talk about and ultimately can lead to stronger relationships. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship-building efforts of the top 100 brands on Facebook by investigating the extent to which they utilize visual content and the level of engagement this visual content receives. Since the article by Brubaker and Wilson originated in 2018, I would like to involve a more evolving example of using visual content to drive engagement and build relations. 

Let's give them something to talk about.

Getting consumers involved and loyal to their brand is not something Apple has to struggle with, they take it a step further than using facebook or other social media platforms to gain their brand engagement and -relations. Last week was that time of the year again. As for the majority of the people this relates to the Christmas days, I am talking about the Apple September 2019 event. The event where Apple releases their new gadgets and this time they really outdone themselves with the introduction of seven new features in the Apple dynasty. 

Much can be said about the eccentric somewhat strange founder and CEO of Apple, but he still remains one of the main reasons Apple has become so successful. By using seven somewhat unconventional ways of "playing the media", be secretive, pick your favorites, punish those who don't cooperate, learn how to leak, plant disinformation, perfect your presentations, have something worth writing about. He brought Apple way further than interactive Facebook pages and visual content, should this be the golden recipe for every brand?

Brubaker, P., & Wilson, C. (2018). Let’s give them something to talk about: Global brands’ use of visual content to drive engagement and build relationships. Public Relations Review, 44(3), 342–352. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2018.04.010

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About the author: Marit is a 25 year old student based in Amsterdam. She is combining getting a masters degree with all other aspects that come with being a typical student in Amsterdam.