Dow Jones this morning invited public relations professionals to hear Kenth Kaerhoeg, group communications director of Coca-Cola Pacific Group; Damian Coory, Hong Kong managing director of Edelman; and Lars Voedisch, regional head for media intelligence at Dow Jones Asia-Pacific, voice their thoughts on PR’s relationship with social media.
Kaerhoeg, Coory and Voedisch stressed the need for brands to interact with audiences on social media platforms without micro-managing the message. According to Voedisch, every minor criticism of a brand won’t mean its demise, and he compared negative posts on websites to negative articles written in newspapers: sometimes it happens.
The message of the day: communications representatives must learn to listen to audiences on social media sites and engage them.
Inaction isn’t the answer in the digital age, Coory said, because “silence also sends a message”.
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- Damian Coory, saying that, in order for brands’ messages to sink in, audiences must hear it five times, from five places, from five people.
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- Kenth Kaerhoeg, noting that Coke gets 5,000 mentions on social media sites daily.
Diary