And the Award Goes To…

Australian boy band Five Seconds of Summer recently won an award for “Best Fan Army” at the iHeart Music Awards. The award was not associated with any one of their songs, albums, concerts or music videos.  Instead, it was an award based on the group’s online social media engagement.

As I watched the band accept the award and thank their fans (with their Twitter moniker “@5sosFam” flashing across the screen), all I could think of was that somewhere out there was a PR pro doing a happy dance because they just helped the band win a music award.

A recent study conducted by Networked Insights found that a single tweet expressing the desire to see a film translated to the equivalent of $1,100 to $4,420 in additional box office revenue, depending upon how many weeks before the movie’s release the tweet is made.

Strategic PR employs a variety of tools to extend and expand awareness of a brand, product or person – from news releases to social media to media relations, but when was the last time you heard of a Golden Globe being awarded to an actor or director for the best original tweets or a J.D. Power award for best branded Facebook page for a car?

Social media and PR are not mutually exclusive. Engaging social media is a form of PR, and the more effective the social media engagement, the more personal and direct connection between the audience/consumer and the product idea or concept. While most older PR tools are unidirectional in promoting an idea or association with a brand, product or person, social media invites the intended audience to become an active participant in the dialogue, resulting in a multi-directional effort that can be self-perpetuating (for better or for worse). At its core, social media turns each of us into a PR powerhouse – through what we talk and post about on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and other social media outlets.

As the Networked Insights study demonstrates, this can translate to real, measurable dollar value, and the possibility that sometime in the future, the Oscars could include an award for “Best Movie Fan Following.”

— E.E. Wang, ewang@pondel.com