Brand Builders: Liza Walton, President, Kreps Social

Brand Builders: Liza Walton, President, Kreps Social

2023-04-20T11:57:56-04:00April 20th, 2023|Brand Builders, Economy, Miami|

3 min read April 2022 — Making sure your brand’s social media presence is inclusive will set it up for success regardless of what’s happening around the world. In an interview with Invest:, Liza Walton, president of Kreps Social (formerly Miami Social Marketing), shared her journey from consulting to public relations, creating authentic content for a range of clients and the shift from traditional to social media. “It’s our job to help the client translate their big announcement for social media that will ultimately be fun and shareable, while staying true to the overall message and goals,” says Walton.

What inspired you to switch focus to the public relations arena?

Consulting was fun, but it kept me on the road as I was traveling five days a week. I would leave Miami at 7:00 a.m. every Monday morning and I would land at MIA at 5:00 p.m. every Friday. As you can imagine, that was a grueling schedule. I really wanted to be back in Miami full time. Back in 1999, Miami was an exciting place —as it is now! 

Miami was quickly becoming the preferred place for the Latin American dot-com start-ups to plant their flags and set up their headquarters. The internet as we know it was just getting started. It was a thrill for me to join the Technology Practice of Burson-Marsteller in Miami and help launch all these new “punto coms.” Latin America was catching up quickly to the U.S. and launching online auctions, news and online trading — all the services that made the internet the indispensable tool it is today. I wanted to use my background and communication skills to promote this new emerging platform for all users and how it was going to change everything, not only here in Miami and the United States, but also in Latin America.

How have you helped clients navigate an increasingly social media-driven environment, and have you noticed an uptick in crisis management?

It is so important to have a very focused communications and content strategy to avoid those types of things. Your social media presence should be inclusive and not tone deaf to crises happening around the world. It’s crucial to watch and listen to what people are talking about on social media and ensure you’re on the same wavelength as your audience, and the social media community as a whole; especially when you are planning and creating your content. For example, if a hurricane is heading our way, we need to be sensitive to the audience. You may have to change your focus to provide content that is reassuring and helpful. The Surfside tragedy is an example. We took the time to review the messaging for our real estate developer clients, and we made sure to work with our clients and their PR teams to disseminate messages that showed what steps were being taken to ensure everyone’s comfort and safety.   

Again, the best crisis management is to avoid the crisis from happening but being prepared with a very clear content strategy is essential. On top of that, you must ensure that your channels and means of communications are reviewed and approved by the principals of the organization. Ensuring you’re on the same page and everyone is clear is just as important as the strategy. Tuning into what your social media audience is talking about will make sure that your planned strategy and content will resonate in a positive way.

How do you make sure a brand or company is front and center for consumers?

The client’s staff is going to know the most about the company, better than anyone else. So, what the marketing team might have in mind, may not always be the reality on the ground, right? In addition, if our client is service focused, we look at creating authentic content that is customer facing and focused on the front line employees. For example, who’s the helpful woman who’s going to be checking you in at your beachside hotel? For our real estate clients, we often do a “meet the sales team” series. I’m a big believer that at the end of the day, people buy real estate from people versus a company. 

“Social media can help bridge that gap of what’s online and actually what the consumer experience is going to be” 

How do you develop human relationships in a digital world to ensure your clients receive the best exposure?

Increasingly, the first point of contact for a client is social media. For example, if someone from Chicago is looking to relocate to Miami, they may start with a Google search to get the lay of the land. Once Google picks that up, they might start seeing Miami real estate content on their Instagram and begin to see different places that they might be able to live. At that point, it is important to have strong and visually appealing content to get them to click on that post and check out the profile. Hopefully all the information is there — almost like a mini homepage. If your content is compelling enough and it resonates, they may comment or send that direct message. 

But, it’s paramount to actually respond back with an authentic personal message. Our job as social media community managers, not just strategists or content creators, is to be that bridge and ensure leads go to a person who will be responsive and helpful. It is important for us to have the commitment from the client that when we send them that lead, someone’s going to call that person. Real estate lends itself well to this process. I recently moderated a panel with real estate brokers who are successful in using their social media to drive leads and sales. The overall message was, “I’ve had repeat clients from social media and it is all about being responsive.” 

To summarize, a great PR and social media campaign should create compelling content with the goal of having someone interact and want to connect. It’s then up to us to catch that lead or catch that inquiry and then make sure that we send it to the client who is ready to have their experts on hand to continue that relationship off social media.

What do you see as the biggest challenge facing Public Relations as an industry, and how does that show up in your day to day? Are there any particular challenges you enjoy tackling?

When I started my company over 10 years ago, social media was almost an afterthought. I would be on general marketing calls and the last five minutes would be left for social. Now, we’re almost getting to the point where social media is driving PR. Given the challenges in publishing, everyone is focusing their efforts online. These changes in the traditional media landscape have cleared the way for social media. Brands now can tell their own story. One of the reasons I became frustrated with public relations and embraced social media was the lack of control in how your message is published. I’d work tirelessly on a pitch, get it out there, and oftentimes, when the story came out I often thought to myself: “No, that’s not the story nor the outcome we were hoping for.” We have a little more control in this space, and we can guide the message (from the client) a lot better through social media. 

Increasingly, we work hand in hand with our PR counterparts to create a holistic communications plan to make sure a big announcement hits the right audiences. PR is going to make sure that the coverage is there in traditional media, but we’re also in the room to figure out the engaging content that we will publish to create the “moment.” It’s our job to help the client translate their big announcement for social media that will ultimately be fun and shareable, while staying true to the overall message and goals.

For more information, please visit:

http://www.krepssocial.com/

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