Build To Minister

For many people who spend any significant time online, Facebook
is in the top 10 pages visited. And from Facebook, they watch
YouTube videos, read news articles, and find out about new products
and contests through the seemingly endless network that runs
throughout the world.

While Facebook is very much a personal thing — a place to
document the exploits of your kids or pets, vent about bad drivers
you encounter or share a news story — more and more, the social
network is becoming a place for companies to reach out directly to
their customers and potential customers.

Social media continues to serve as the great equalizer, said
Jeff Dubois, manager of Bradley Public Relations, the
student-operated public relations agency at Brigham Young
University. Where organizations once needed to send messages
through certain information gatekeepers, social media, including
mobile devices and the Internet for that matter, now allows
organizations to go straight to the people that matter most.

So how do businesses actually do that?

Enter Plaid Social Labs, a 2-year-old public relations boutique
with 12 employees in Provo that is looking at social media as a
mainstream way of reaching audiences. In fact, Facebook and YouTube
are the only style of campaigns they do.

Ricky Ray Butler is the co-founder and president of Plaid Social
Labs.

I realized that there is a demand in the advertising world for
people who understand YouTube and Facebook, Butler said in an
interview in a conference room of his Provo office.

Before opening Plaid Social Labs, he graduated from Brigham
Young University and was with Family Link and working with giant ad
agencies in New York and Chicago, and they needed someone who
understood the medium.

While Family Link provided a very entrepreneurial environment
and he was given a lot of freedom, he was only working with
Facebook.

I wanted to do all-out campaigns, not just in Facebook, but
including YouTube, Butler said. I wanted to bring an education to
the industry that it wasnt just about one viral video; its about
consistency and you can calculate the results.

So he, along with business partner Ryan Kell, created Plaid.
Kell develops apps and widgets for Facebook.

Plaid Social Labs works with so-called YouTube celebrities to
incorporate products into their steady stream of videos or do
product reviews that reach millions of dedicated followers.

YouTube celebrities are like Billy Mays and Britney Spears all
in one, Butler said, referring to the late OxyClean pitchman and
the pop princess.

Butler had a friend who was a relative of one of these YouTube
celebrities.

I went to their channel and recognized their audience, Butler
said. I had a thought: What if they promoted a product?

Hes wined and dined these mostly 20-somethings in Los Angeles
and elsewhere to build trusting working relationships.

I give them a lot of control, Butler said, referring to how
they incorporate the product into their work.

These people arent businessmen, he said. Theyre just
regular people. They see it as art before they see it as a
business.

Visit YouTube and search for some of Plaid Social Labss
clients: Travalo or Personal Microderm, and youll find a long list
of videos featuring reviews of these respective products by YouTube
celebrities, all with thousands of views.

Plaids goal is to create a lot of traffic on YouTube in order
to increase online sales or create a Facebook community.

Ubisoft, the makers of the Just Dance video game, is a Plaid
client. In just under a year, Plaids YouTube campaign generated
1.9 million fans.

So what does that mean?

To have over a million likes on Facebook means you have
potential clients who like you enough to keep in touch with you,
Butler said.

This is what DuBois, of BYU, was referring to when he said
companies are able to go directly to the client: Bypassing
traditional media, marketing and advertising channels doesnt
negate their importance, but it certainly allows companies to
engage consumers and establish key relationships like never
before.

He added: By now, its appropriate to say that
consumer-generated content and mass collaboration (blogs,
micro-blogs, social media sites, photo and video sharing, etc.) are
no longer trends, but the norm. They are now integral, powerful
tools that have fully infused the fabric of society, DuBois
said.

Facebook is a way to communicate directly with your customers.
It can be tricky to keep that audience engaged and interested,
without annoying them.

We create ways for people to have a good experience from their
Facebook page, Butler said.

For example, another client is Travalo, a traveling perfume
container. Its one of those handy little devices that solves a
widespread problem — at least for the perfume-wearing segment of
society.

Travalo makes your favorite perfume travel sized. It is an
airline-approved (3 ounces or less in your carry-on bag) container
that siphons perfume from large perfume bottles. Its the perfect
solution for travelers and those who just want to freshen up after
lunch without lugging the bottle around.

Travalo gives away a Facebook edition Travalo on its page
every single day. Dubbed The Daily Spray, Travalo (via Plaid
Social Labs) asks its audience various questions, and by answering
or commenting, they are entered into a drawing to win a
Travalo.

Some past Daily Sprays are If Mrs. Claus had a perfume named
after her, what would it be? or What are you doing to spread
Holiday Cheer this season?

It keeps fans engaged without always pushing a sale, Butler
said.

***

Different goals require different strategies.

While Travalo is going for a quantitative strategy, another
client, Intermountain Healthcare, is going for a qualitative
approach.

Intermountain Moms is a Facebook community of more than 5,000
moms and moms-to-be who are able to ask questions to fellow moms or
experts.

Craig Kartchner, director of marketing for Intermountain, said
there were two main goals of Intermountain Moms: To connect with
moms and moms-to-be and to serve as an expert, reliable and free
source.

The page has the question-and-answer feature, pre-crafted videos
on frequently asked questions and other functions such as find a
facility or announce your newborn via iPhone or Droid apps.

Intermountain Moms has been our most interactive Facebook page
ever, Kartchner said. Absolutely, its been successful.

The power of social media is to connect with people who are
otherwise not connected, he said. Its different than even a
clinical visit, because people are able to get more than the single
view of their doctor.

Its not a monologue, its a dialogue, he said.

Kartchner worked directly with Plaid Social Labs to decide on
the tools and execution, and they work together on videos, posts
and responses. Its really a collaborative relationship.

Intermountain Healthcare is also looking to branch out this
model into other groups, such as cancer survivors and sports
medicine.

Whatever we can do to connect with our patients and their
families, were going to do, Kartchner said.

Getting to this point, administratively, was a pretty easy sell,
Kartchner said. A little bit tougher was convincing the purse
string holders that it was worth diverting resources to this
project.

The most difficult part of the project, however, was on the
clinical side: Finding doctors who were willing to schedule time to
make the videos was difficult. But after a couple of months,
Kartchner said, doctors were seeing the value, and now theyre
calling him.

Butler sees this a lot.

If youre doing it the right way, after the big push, it should
grow organically, he said.

While these clients are all very different, the common thread is
that the content is relevant to their specific audiences. Videos
and other content needs to be designed specifically for the
medium.

***

Butler said he did some consulting work for a Fortune 500
company, and they wanted help with their YouTube channel. They
asked him why no one was watching their videos.

They had an entire YouTube channel full of traditional ad
spots.

It was bad content, Butler said. Its not the same as TV
advertising.

Dubois, of BYU, said one of the biggest industry changes in
recent years is the continued blurring of the lines that once
clearly separated traditional marketing, PR and advertising
functions.

While we continue to see numerous industry executives boldly
predict the fall of one industry and the meteoric rise of another,
I refuse to believe that one industry will ever completely control
the communications mix, Dubois said via email.

While marketing, PR and advertising remain similar in strategic
goal, they remain tactically different. As such, I firmly believe
that our collective voices will help define and reinforce brands
and what customers come to expect from the companies with which
they choose to do business.

Butler said Plaid is careful about who they take on as clients.
They want to make sure that their niche is going to work for the
product.

We usually want a product that will make people talk, he
said.

Once they take on a client, they do focus groups with both
target audiences and the YouTube celebrities themselves, to see
what they think and to come up with ideas. The whole process takes
about two months.

I see advertising being much more effective and calculated,
Butler said.