Are you ready to move your PR strategy online? When Deborah Collins and Jacqueline Voci founded Soya Marketing in early 2008, it was because they saw a huge market shift was about to happen. Both founders had spent well over a decade helping companies around Vancouver build their brands, working with agencies like National PR and J. Walter Thompson, and for brands like Intrawest and Pivotal. Now, with the fast decline of traditional media and the trend toward online news, information and entertainment, Deborah and Jacqueline saw that companies needed a new kind of marketing agency to help them navigate the online landscape. For anyone out there who’s wondering what YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Google mean for their business – Soya Marketing can help you figure that out. Social media isn’t just for kids and technologists anymore. It’s going mainstream fast. In its first year in business Soya created a back-to-school campaign for Park Royal Shopping Centre, and designed a Facebook strategy for Opus Hotels that included the launch of its new restaurant and bar at Opus Montreal. Deborah advices, “The great thing about this new PR is that you’re no longer dependent on reporters to tell your story for you. The key to being successful online is to become a storyteller…to share what you know, to share what you do.” Soya defines its target market as mid-sized and large companies that want to decrease their dependency on old-school marketing tactics like media relations, print advertising and direct mail. “We love to work with people who are excited to innovate. This is a changing time in so many ways, and we believe that being part of that change is vital.”

*This article appeared in the Spring 2009 issue of the Forum For Women Entrepreneurs Magazine

The BC Medical Association, which represents BC’s doctors, recently selected Soya Marketing to develop a social media strategy. The goal of the strategy is to bring awareness to a hot-button issue in BC: the need for greater funding for addiction treatment.

Geraldine Vance is director of communications and public affairs for the association. She said, “The social media bandwagon is full of consultants and interested clients. Finding the people with real expertise and not just a passing knowledge or ability to use the buzz words is the challenge. We found the real goods when we decided to work with Soya.”

Soya Marketing takes a storytelling approach to social media. The agency’s founders, Deborah Collins and Jacqueline Voci ,each draw on their backgrounds working at some of Vancouver’s best-known agencies (like J. Walter Thompson and National PR) and some Vancouver-based brands (like Intrawest and Pivotal.)

Geraldine says, “Deborah and Jacqueline have a real understanding of this new world and how it can be used for PR purposes. They are solid PR practitioners of who do their homework.”

The BCMA is inviting people across BC to participate in a discussion on Facebook on the topic: ‘Is addiction a disease or a human failure?’ Let your voice be heard on this crucial issue.

If you live in Vancouver you probably noticed a surge in buff, international men and women roaming its fair streets – that is, of course, if you haven’t been hiding out under a nicely air-conditioned rock. The 2009 World Police & Fire Games, the world’s second largest sporting event, took the city by storm. Athletes from over 15 different countries including Sri Lanka, Greece, Iceland, South Africa, Philippines, Russia, and Trinidad & Tobago strutted their stuff right here on Vancouver’s home turf – an incredible feat in our recuperating global economy. This year, the Games posted a record number of participants with 10,577 athletes gracing over 60 events held at 40 plus venues across the Lower Mainland. Why the record-breaking figures? Some savvy Facebook marketing by Soya may have something to do with it.  Soya Marketing helped the 2009 World Police and Fire Games bring its brand alive online.

Need a lively example of how social media can build  real-life relationships? Look no further than the 2009 World Police and Fire Games Facebook page created in February which boasts over 4,150 fans joining in on the discussion from virtually every angle. The page take its aesthetic cues from the WPFG website with interactive content neatly boxed into different sections for quick and easy access. Fans can ask each other questions, comment and offer opinions, share likes and dislikes, and exchange rich content like photographs and video – all interactively and in real-time. Another interesting feature of Facebook marketing is that sharing in the WPFG experience is not limited to those physically in Vancouver; people around the world have joined in the fun and offered their support, contributing to the unfolding dialogue without missing a beat.

The significance of creating a Facebook community for the WPFG is that it translates directly into increased visibility, accessibility and connection.

For the WPFG, its first-ever foray into social media helped turn this into its biggest, most successful games ever.

Our client from Park Royal Shopping Centre, Cindy Papa, recently moved to gorgeous Kelowna. Prior to her move, Cindy led Park Royal’s marketing department for many years. Under her direction Park Royal was one of the first shopping centre’s in Canada to start using social media.

Here’s an interview with Cindy about the Park Royal strategy.

Q: Why did you start using social media as part of your marketing strategy at Park Royal?
A: We started to use social media to reach our back-to-school demographic. This is a difficult demographic to reach with traditional marketing. We are not moving away from traditional marketing – but we are adding social media into the mix. We want to see how the two work together.
Q: What would you say to someone who is hesitating to try social media marketing?
A: You can experiment with a whole new way to reach customers. We have not been working in social media for very long but the results we have seen to date are good. What you’re accomplishing is setting up dialogue and interactive communication. This is an excellent compliment to traditional media.

Q: Why did you choose Soya for your social media strategy?
A: Soya came recommended by our creative director. Upon meeting with Soya, I found them to be informed, respectful of our perspective and our position with our customers.

Q: What did you value most about working with Soya?
A: Very quick turnaround. They delivered on what they said they would and they were flexible to work with.

About Soya Marketing

Soya Marketing is a new kind of PR agency. Soya helps companies boost their brands on Google using social media story telling. Clients include: 2009 World Police & Fire Games, Blast Radius (a member of the Wunderman network), SmartDesign Group and the Dalai Lama Center for Peace & Education.

Dave Calder is the VP of Strategic Development for the Vancouver Aquarium. We consider him to be a leader on the social media scene. Dave has applied his background in broadcasting, storytelling and marketing to create a huge, global brand presence for the aquarium.

We asked Dave what advice he would give to companies that are questioning whether social media makes sense for their business.

Here’s how he responded: “First, I’d tell them that conversations about their company are happening all around them in the digital spaces, whether they chose to participate or not. Second, I’d say that they should worry less about the new jargon and technology and various latest hippest sites, and focus on developing a strong communications plan that embraces storytelling above all else. Once you do that you find the inclusion of social marketing elements easier to consider, simpler to prioritize and much more effective for your particular business.

Finally, I’d say I’m old enough to remember the boss who told me that all the time I was spending working on a computer (in 1985) was wasted because the machine did nothing of value. Then I remember being told that spending time with Datapac and forums and newsgroups was useless because not enough people had access to these tools. Later I was told that I was crazy to suggest email would be a form of communication people might embrace versus conventional mail … you get the idea … for me all social marketing represents is another array of extremely compelling and functional communications tools that when used properly allow your organization to connect to people in ways never before possible.”

Wise words. Thanks for your perspective, Dave.

Often when we meet with new people about Web PR, we get the question: ‘must I blog?’. Fair enough. When many people think of blogs, cats come to mind. You know what mean? People think about those blogs they’ve seen where people recount the life of their feline friend, the wacky escapes of their toddler, or their passion for drupal. Nothing is wrong with any of that mind you – but if you’re trying to figure out how blogs apply to your business, you will be puzzled.

We think of blogs completely differently. We think of a blog as a marketer’s best friend. Simply put, it’s the best way to communicate with the market super easy, and super fast. Did you land a new client? Did you launch a new product? Rather than spending weeks developing a news release and figuring out a strategy to pitch reporters, with a blog (and a social media distribution strategy), you can get your news immediately to way more people. You can get your news directly to the segment of the market you’re trying to reach. No more middlemen.

That’s why blogs are cool for business.

Is the business cocktail party dead? No, but business networking is definitely changing. A while back, Debbie and I had the great pleasure of presenting to an organization called YES (which stands for Young Executives for Success). They asked us to talk about how business networking has changed in the past couple of years, since the emergence of Twitter, Facebook and other social media tools. It was a cool topic, and a different lens for us since we typically discuss how social media changes PR, marketing and branding. Here’s a link to the Soya Marketing: La Geek, C’est Chic powerpoint presentation from that event. I hope you find it useful!

Attention business owners in and around Vancouver: you might just want to check out the Crave Business event this coming Monday, March 30, 2009. This is a chance to spend a day getting some new skills and insights for running a successful business. Soya is a sponsor. Our co-founder Deborah  Collins will be moderating the social networking panel and fellow co-founder Jacqueline Voci will be on the PR panel. Here’s the itineary.

We attended Crave’s Seattle event a couple of days ago. It was a smashing success and we met some wonderful people. We’ve gotta to get to Seattle more often – what a great city.

Your sit on your ass marketing tip of the week is….get on Twitter TODAY and secure your brand. Twitter has over 4.4 million people tweeting to date and is growing daily.  If you don’t secure your brand name, someone else will.

It might be time to rethink your press release strategy now that everyone is using the Web as a primary news source. Here are some ideas.