Depth interview no.2: Mantra PR

Hot on the heels of my interview yesterday evening, I got through another interview with Marc of Mantra PR today (thanks again Marc). Mantra made it into Brand Republic earlier in the year when they launched Spider – a social media consultancy, so they were a great group to be speaking to.

Again a lot of the same themes came out around the role of relationship management in PR. Marc highlighted again the need for social media communication to be “open dialogue”. The movement from one-way towards discussion and conversation is probably the biggest change everyone so far has highlighted.

What we also discussed, which was great, was the role of influencers online. Marc had a very interesting take on this that I’d not previously thought of, but totally makes sense: the role of bloggers as being more akin to that of journalists in traditional media, where relationships are cultivated on a one-to-one basis. What this means is it’s a lot harder to identify who are the real influencers online, as there’s a much wider body of people who might have something to say about a company. There is a lot of research to do, and lots of relationships to manage. As Marc put it,

“we see every online audience as important as each becuase every single person online as a voice which could affect a company’s reputation.”

In terms of WOM, Marc felt this had to happen in an open way. Again this was about creating dialogue, and as Melanie also alluded to yesterday, the role of the PR is then to step back and let those messages spread on their own, without our involvement. There’s little control over this, and of course there’s a danger there will be messages generated that aren’t what you would want. But there’s also a chance of serendipity and your messages passing on to people and audiences you’d never have previously had access to.

So, end thoughts: treat bloggers like a journalist, and as individuals.

PLEASE help me out and fill in my survey!! Terrible response rate so far…

---