When studying business in college, I was often reminded of a popular quote from my high school English classes – what’s in a name? In business, particularly in marketing, the entire concept is often spelled out in the name. Take social publishing. A textbook definition would sound something like “publishing content in a way that encourages people to interact by giving feedback, allowing for the potential to build relationships through interaction”. When translating that, what social publishing is is a blog or a social media page that allows people to interact via liking, sharing, or commenting.
As the internet has become more and more a place for social interaction, social publishing has developed. Social publishing revolves around showing relevant content, where you post, and how often you post. While companies have been able to take advantage of the quick connection to their consumers, regular people have been able to use it as well. People have actually been able to make a living off of social publishing on various social media sites, the most popular being YouTube, where content creators have developed vlogs (video blogs) that they post daily. Social publishing has allowed there to be different niches of topics that people want content about and the younger generations have begun to prefer real people selling them products over spokespersons or celebrities.
Companies have been able to take advantage of this rising trend of social publishing by having the social media influencers review their products, giving it that real person review. Due to the almost immediate word of mouth aspect, this form of social publishing has become important to consider when marketing products. It has allowed them to reach target groups without having to do an entire campaign, but is also something to be aware of in case there are an bad reviews. This has opened up a new avenue for many, but not all, industries to reach consumers. The most popular segment of this is the makeup industry. It has also encouraged companies to put out better products because while some partnered influencers might have positively spun reviews, other influencers that aren’t partners would be more honest about the downfalls of a product. The scathing reviews some companies have had to deal with could have been avoided by putting more into their products.
Social publishing has become important due to the social aspect of it. When applying for jobs after college, I found that a lot of company websites have a blog page. These pages usually provide content on what is happening with the company as well as within their industry. Some have allowed for comment sections while others have not but they all provide informative content related to the company in some way. It has been helpful in learning more about where they fall in their industry. However, while the blogs are helpful, a more interesting aspect of social publishing is the social media application of it.
By taking advantage of social media sites, companies are creating stronger connections to their consumers. Some use it to address PR, some use it to help with marketing campaigns, and others just use it to give some face to their company. Wendy’s, for example, uses it for consumer interaction. They’ve been able to become a more relevant brand due to their Twitter page and how they’ve interacted with consumers and other brands. They’ve been able to outshine their competition because their bold tweets make them a topic of conversation. They even used a Twitter interaction with Chance the Rapper to announce the return of their spicy chicken nuggets – a very missed item from their menu since early 2017.
Having that direct connection to consumers is important. There are two ways to optimize it. Search engine optimization (SEO) and social media optimization (SMO). SEO is how a company can improve the likelihood of showing up near the top of any search results related to their content. They do this by looking at their content, their connections, and their usage of key words. SMO is similar but limited to social media. The goal is to increase the likelihood of making their content more visible, more likely to be interacted with, and more likely to be linked to by other users who found their content engaging. Both of these tactics help increase a company’s online reach.
If done properly, companies can benefit tremendously from social publishing. Social publishing gives them the chance to control the narrative. They get to express their company personality, quickly address controversy, and interact with consumers in ways they’ve never been able to before. However, it is important to note that if done incorrectly, social publishing can actually be detrimental. An example being a controversial tweet or not taking advantage of the connection to consumers to address concerns or bad publicity. No matter how it impacts them though, social publishing is a PR and marketing tactic that is important to understand becuause it is here to stay.
Morgan's Thoughts 