The San Francisco Zoo is making the world take notice of it through social media channels like Facebook, YouTube and, particularly, Twitter.
Instead of forcing corporate-speak Tweets about free days or a sale at the museum store, they’ve enlisted the help of their zookeepers to push out updates about what makes the zoo a great place – the animals themselves.
Wouldn’t you rather hear about what a baby penguin ate for breakfast versus an announcement about a new board of directors member? The zoo’s staff relies on Twitter primarily to get their message out, adding in podcasts and video as resources permit. Read more about their strategy here on Ragan Communication’s site.
In social media – in truth, in all your public relations messaging – stick to what you’re good at. What makes you, well, you? Why do your customers or supporters sign up to follow you or to shop at your store? It’s because you offer something they cannot get anywhere else.
So take a step back and think like a customer. What do they see the first time they interact with your organization? Why do they come back? Sometimes we’re so immersed in the corporate machinations we forget that we are interacting with living, breathing people, all of whom have a particular motivation in getting involved with us either online or in the “real” world.
In the case of the zoo, it helps that their product is fuzzy and cute (see their video below), but all organizations have that “baby gorilla” that they can use to pull on their customers’ heartstrings. What’s yours?
Cindy Harris
