Is Your PR And Marketing Ready For The Metaverse?
Ronjini Joshua is the Founder and CEO of The Silver Telegram, Writer and Host of The PR Playbook Podcast and The Green Room Podcast.
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Most of us don’t remember when we became a part of the metaverse; some of us still don’t know we are in it. But the metaverse isn’t something we do; it’s the reality of the world we live in today. The real challenge is in understanding and embracing the ways we need to adapt to this new digital age in regard to how we communicate and do business.
That’s where public relations comes in. The growth of social media has made us increasingly aware of buzz terms like engagement, experience marketing and authenticity. And unless you were deeply into video games in the late ’90s and early 2000s, social media was the first steppingstone into the new digital age of the metaverse. To upgrade your organization’s communication program, it’s time to take the buzz terms that social media has made popular and re-imagine them into the way we communicate with stakeholders moving forward.
In this new immersive world, it is important to navigate the path that is most authentic to your brand. That is PR best practice, but just as you need to consider what is timely and relevant when pitching the news, brands must also consider this idea in their strategic communications approach. While the metaverse is still maturing, there are ways to work your PR toward this new development in online connection.
Comprehensive PR In The Metaverse
Take this opportunity as a way to develop an optimized customer experience. One benefit of embracing the ethos of the metaverse is that you have the opportunity to reuse the same message and reach your customer in multiple ways. In this scenario, less is more. Try fewer angles with increased breadth.
It may make sense to create campaign-based PR projects that have a multi-pronged approach to leveraging and reusing content extensively. For example, if you have developed a white paper on your area of expertise, how can you leverage a communication campaign with an interactive, social media experience? You may want to turn that white paper into a blog, a video, a webinar, an advertisement or even a series of TikToks. What are the calls to action for your different types of demographics and how are they consuming media? How are your digital marketing campaigns echoing the sentiments and direction of your high-level messaging? It may be visual, education-based, video, webinars, a game and so much more.
Developing Your Metaverse Strategy
Creating a strategy for communications in Web3 or the metaverse is similar to the way you would create one for your marketing and communications plan, only further expanded. That’s why I believe focusing on more comprehensive campaigns instead of throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks is a better approach in this digital age. In addition, your stakeholders want to see a deeper and richer Rolodex of content to prove your expertise.
Start by identifying your communication and business goals and look at your user journey with more depth and precision. What is it that the customer normally goes through in the decision-making process and how can you communicate with them in new and exciting ways that create dimension? I mean, after all, that’s what the metaverse is all about. It is about being everywhere all at once and in multiple formats.
You can’t be afraid to try new things. In times of recession and financial strain, it’s your loyal customers who are going to be your stronghold. That is even more reason to strengthen those bonds and show them that you have already bought into your brand—that you can bring more to the relationship without them having to discover something new in a time of uncertainty. You can build on the trust that your brand has created and double down on addressing more needs of your customers.
The Way Forward
Making your way in the metaverse does not need to be complicated. Start with content that you have championed before that works in a variety of formats. Similar to social media, it’s more about getting comfortable with the idea of new formats and the next generation of the internet than anything else.
There are simple ways you can integrate immersive experiences like video, AR filters and gaming into your existing collateral to make it more interactive. Now is the time to get ahead of the race and try something bold. I think you’ll soon see that it is yet another way to differentiate yourself from your competition and create a new experience.
So go ahead. How will you enter the metaverse?
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