Category: News

Last week, Citizen Relations won the Webby Award for the Best Social Impact Campaign for their work with Elimin8Hate, on the ReclaimYourName.dic campaign. To win this award, from those who honor the best of the Internet, is a huge moment of pride for the agency. 

In light of a rise in anti-Asian hate, Citizen developed the first custom dictionary plug-in of 8,000+ Asian names to remove the red underline non-Anglicized names get in word processing softwares in an effort to help Asians ‘reclaim their name.’

The impact of this campaign shines a light on all three of Citizen’s values to “Champion Equity”, “Set the Standard” and “Do What’s Right”. 

Just this week, the ReclaimYourName.dic campaign was shortlisted in the Public Service and Multicultural categories at Strategy Canada’s 101st Marketing Awards, alongside the global viral sensation Cheetle in Cheadle campaign in the Advertising and Digital categories. 

2023 has been an unprecedented year of wins and accolades for Citizens, including PRovoke Media’s Best Agencies To Work For win earlier in the month and multiple award wins from the Innovation SABRE awards (North America), The Applied Arts Awards, the Atomic Awards, the IABC Ovation Awards and The Clio Awards, along with shortlists (winners still to be announced) from the North America SABRE Awards, the PRCA Awards, the Canadian Event Awards, The One Show, The ADC Annual Awards, the PRWeek Global Awards and finally, Campaign Global PR Agency of the Year.

Never have consumers held brands to a higher standard. So to win their loyalty, brands have to raise the bar – they need to drive more action, greater change and equitable opportunities to get consumer’s votes and loyalty. Our PR experts, Teri Akahoshi, Senior Director in LA and Shona Wercholuk, Associate Director in Vancouver, share their thoughts below!  

1. Consumers Are People Not Targets

Consumers are more likely to support brands that represent them, advocate for their values and authentically serve their community. Win the hearts and minds of purpose-driven younger and more diverse consumers with effective programs that drive social impact and offer true, long-term solutions grounded in the brand’s purpose.

2. Be Authentic & Transparent

90% of consumers said they’re looking for authenticity when deciding what brands to support. (Source) To truly resonate and create loyalty with consumers requires authenticity. In addition to inclusive marketing initiatives that support society, brands need to look internally, supporting diversity, equity and inclusion within their workforce. Today’s consumers are extremely savvy, and this message starts from within an organization. It’s important to actually live what you say and steer clear from tokenism. 

3. Take Action & Accountability

Demonstrate your commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion in action first, then messaging. Audit your brand playbook and be intentional with the media publications, reporters, influencers, KOLs, and partners you bring onboard to ensure coverage, content and deliverables offer unique and authentic touchpoints, messaging and perspective for a more inclusive and diverse program.

In 2022 Citizen was named a Best Place to Work (PRWeek) and just a few weeks ago, the Best Agency to Work For (PRovoke Media) – these recognitions are especially meaningful to us as it reflects the special culture we work hard to create and maintain every day. We have multiple Citizens who have been with us for nearly 20 years and many who have “Boomeranged” back to us after realizing just how green the grass truly is at Citizen!

In part 1 of ‘From Novice to Now’, meet long-standing Citizens, Shannon Suggett, Josie Haynes and Aly Sturm who are sharing everything from their best moments to what keeps them going when times get tough.
 

Shannon Suggett – Executive Vice President, Orange County

Shannon Suggett  is a seasoned marketing and communications professional with 23 years of experience at Citizen. She has led successful campaigns for clients in diverse industries, including consumer packaged goods, healthcare, and spirits. Her expertise includes strategic planning, media, social engagement, partnerships, and crisis management. Shannon’s impressive client roster includes P&G brands, Toshiba, Verizon, and more. She is known for her strategic approach, creativity, and exceptional results-driven mindset, making her a trusted leader in the industry.

Citizen Relations: “Calm”, “Curious”, and “Confident” are words that have been used to describe you by your colleagues. When starting out 20 years ago, would you say you were the same way? What has changed or stayed the same in your approach to the work? 

Shannon Suggett: When I started my career, I was definitely curious. I sat in a cubicle surrounded by offices where a lot of action was always happening. I started to jot down phrases or acronyms I’d hear throughout the day and then do my own research to connect the dots. That curiosity has stayed with me throughout my career as I have pushed myself and my teams to think smarter and dream bigger.  When it comes to being calm, I often played it “cool under pressure” when I started out, but definitely have more tools now to keep things together when times get tense.  And I am confident in the ability of my teams, in the agency’s capabilities and my leadership to deliver the very best work and counsel, every day.

CR: It seems like you have seen and done a lot over the last 20 years, and all in one spot. Impressive! What keeps things interesting for you day to day and how has your relationship with Citizen grown over the decades? 

SS: I said this recently in the Global Town Hall and it’s true – I’m just as motivated and challenged today as I was when I showed up on day one. From tacos to burgers, pet food to X-ray machines, toothpaste to supplements, or whiskey, noodles and shopping malls, the variety of clients has kept me engaged and invigorated. My relationship with Citizen continues to grow every day, and my relationship with the people and the culture we have built is truly what has kept me here for so long. Citizen is a special place that I am proud to be a part of.

CR: Even though you have been at Citizen consistently for 20 years, you have certainly seen changes in the industry overall. What have some of those been like? 

SS: It’s been exciting to see PR become a must-have in the marketing mix, not just a nice to have. We still have to sell it, but showing brands the power of PR and how it can drive business results has definitely evolved. 

CR: And after taking a look back, let’s chat about the future. What are you most excited about for your upcoming years at Citizen? 

SS: Our continued growth, the expansion of new practice areas and being a small part of the journey of the Citizens around me has me energized and excited for all that’s ahead. Choosing to stay with one agency for your PR career isn’t for everyone – I get it – but for me, I wouldn’t change a thing.

Josie Haynes- Senior Vice President, Toronto  

Josie Haynes has more than 15 years of experience developing integrated communications campaigns for some of the world’s most iconic brands. She has a reputation for delivering insight-driven breakthrough campaigns that drive conversation and that lead to real business impact for her clients. Her work is not only recognized internally through new business wins and growing client mandates, but externally through countless industry awards.

CR: Tell us when you started at Citizen and what roles you have held while here. 

Josie Haynes: I started at Citizen (previously Optimum PR) as an intern in 2007. I was promoted to senior vice president in 2022 and I’ve held every role in between!

CR: Wow! It has been quite some time. Growing a career from an intern to an SVP at the same company isn’t too common in today’s workforce. What has made you stick around? 

JH: In my opinion, people change jobs when they stop being challenged, inspired or supported. And while I won’t pretend that things haven’t ebbed and flowed in these three areas over the past 15 years, I will say that whenever I started to get the itch to move, something happened that made me want to stick around longer to see how it played out.

Whether that was winning a new client that I wanted to work on, launching a new Citizen offering that I wanted to learn more about, or working with a new colleague or leader that made me feel valued, there always seems to be something happening at Citizen that keeps me excited to be part of what’s next.  

CR: Last year was definitely filled with lots of those exciting moments for you. You won over a dozen industry awards, 15 to be exact. Congrats! Which are you most proud of and why? 

JH: Last year, one of the campaigns we were successful in winning many different awards for our Ugly Truths Holiday Sweaters campaign in support of the Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA). 

The Ugly Truths Holiday Sweaters campaign was developed on the heels of an employee survey that found the majority of Citizens named mental health as a cause they cared deeply about. Knowing how important mental health is to our team, we put our strengths to work and developed a creative, earned-first campaign that would create a positive impact for those facing mental health challenges. 

The campaign was born out of the insight that while the holidays are widely considered a time of merriment and joy, for the one in two Canadians who suffer from anxiety, depression, or loneliness, it’s not the most wonderful time of the year. With media narratives focusing on more festive topics, the half of Canadians who experience the challenging realities of the season are left feeling alone. We needed to create space for a different conversation and used Canadian media and social influencers to give more time to the “ugly” side of the holiday season, so those suffering knew there’s support available.

Using our “ugly” sweaters as a trojan horse, we were able to see a 9% increase in Canadian conversation around mental health during the holidays when compared to the previous year. And while we partnered with CMHA on the campaign, the entire program was created, funded and produced by Citizen. We were so proud of the real, tangible impact we were able to make which is probably why winning the gold award for Business Impact in Healthcare at the Canadian Marketing Awards was the one I was most proud of.
 

CR: You’ve accomplished so much, but it seems like there is still so much fire left in you. What gets you the most excited when thinking about the future of the public relations industry at large? 

JH: The opportunity PR has to continue to grow its share of the marketing mix and take the lead seat at the IAT table. There’s a reason why people use PVRs, pay more for streaming services and press “skip ad” on YouTube. We don’t want to be talked at. If brands want to get our attention, they need to engage us in the conversation. As PR professionals, this isn’t “new news” – we’ve been doing this forever. But with brands seeing a decline in how effective traditional one-way advertising can be, they are looking to shift their dollars to two-way communications approaches. Advertising agencies are quickly trying to adapt their creative thinking to match, but the truth is PR agencies will always do it better and this is our time to shine.

We’re already seeing a shift in the agency model with PR agencies being asked to do more of the strategy and creative thinking work. I think this will just continue to happen more and more, opening up budgets and opportunities for PR to show what it’s really capable of – making true business impact.

Aly Sturm- Senior Vice President, New York City  

Aly Sturm has nearly 20 years of experience in corporate communications, consumer PR, and issues and crisis management, with a focus on food and beverage, health, CSR, and CPG industries. She currently leads the Duracell, Carrier and P&G Ventures Corporate Communications accounts. Prior to her current role, Aly was the Senior Manager of External Communications at Nestlé Waters North America for three years, where she oversaw issues and crisis communications, external corporate communications, and digital channels. 

CR: You are what we call here at Citizen a ‘boomerang’ meaning you were here, moved on, and then came back. How has your perspective of Citizen changed from your first stint to now?  

Aly Sturm: I’ve brought a new perspective with me as I’ve come back to Citizen – that of being a client. During my 3 year Citizen hiatus, I went in house, where I WAS the client. I have a whole new appreciation for the everyday internal pressures a client faces, making me a far more empathetic agency partner – trying to think ahead of what will make their life easier, how to answer questions before they have to ask, and sometimes most importantly – how to be a trusted shoulder to lean on.

CR: We couldn’t keep you away for long! Surely there was something so great that you really missed, right? 

AS: My coworkers! Citizen is my second family – I’m so incredibly lucky to have a group of colleagues that care so deeply for and about each other.

CR: Great Citizens are a constant in the organization, but how have you seen the agency grow since the first day you walked through the doors? 

AS: Citizen has only flourished year over year – we’re even more cohesive, strategic, creative and fun than we were when I left. Our client base is stronger and more diverse than ever. And, we’re leaning into expanding our offerings to make earned work even harder for our clients – through stronger creative, digital and integrated marketing.

CR: That’s great! So many expansions in the works. What are you most excited about for the future of Citizen? 

The plans we have in place for our clients this year are the strongest yet, and the teams are excited to dig in and get the work done. We’re also growing our client base at an impressive rate in all sectors. And, personally, I’m thrilled to be able to add more corporate communications clients and projects to our roster. I strongly believe that corporate comms and brand comms work better together – and more and more clients are seeing the potential that can bring. The future for Citizen is bright!

Being named as the “Best Agency to Work For” in 2023 in North America by PRovoke Media (Mid-Size category) brings a number of words to mind – proud, thrilled, excited, etc. However, this recognition really reflects the agency’s dedication and a whole lot of work from every Citizen to build a positive and inclusive workplace culture that empowers its employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

“We are so honored to receive this acknowledgment from PRovoke Media,” says Citizen’s CEO, Nick Cowling. “It’s another attribution to show our strategy and commitment to invest in employee growth and development.” Citizen Relations had a phenomenal year in 2022, achieving its best financial performance in history with +20% growth. 

The vibrant employee culture Citizens have come to love dates back to 2011 when the agency adopted its current name. Commitment to putting employees first shows up in every aspect of the organization and was reflected in the agency’s best-ever employee engagement survey score in 2022. With a focused approach to development, approachable leadership, work from anywhere policies, and meaningful work, Citizen continuously strives to create an environment that breeds collaboration and professional and personal growth. 

The agency’s approach to equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) also contributed to their award win, with a focus on identifying disparities in promotions, mentorships, and suppliers. Citizen holds regular global town hall meetings, encourages collaboration across offices, and has increased connections across offices through a range of global committees, COEs, and ERGs. With 40% of its staff being diverse, and its executive team comprising 50% women, 29% BIPOC, and 15% LGBTQIA+, Citizen Relations is proud to be making progress toward a more inclusive workplace.

According to feedback from the award survey, Citizen culture is described as “welcoming,” “supportive,” and “inclusive.” The people and leadership were cited as the best aspects of working for the agency, with one employee stating, “We have an amazing culture and family environment. I’m comfortable being myself and speaking up.”

The Best Agency to Work For win comes amongst an unprecedented list of accolades Citizen has already received in 2023, including multiple award wins from the Innovation SABRE awards (North America), The Applied Arts Awards, the Atomic Awards, the IABC Ovation Awards and The Clio Awards, along with shortlists (winners still to be announced) from the North America SABRE Awards, the PRCA Awards, the Canadian Event Awards, The One Show, The ADC Annual Awards, The Webby Awards, the PRWeek Global Awards and finally, Campaign Global PR Agency of the Year.

This is not another post challenging you to do more marketing via creators (people whose business is creating content as their own brand) or via others with influence like key opinion leaders or celebrities. I’ve been in this space for years and recognize marketing with creators is more complicated than doing it  yourself. Creators have to be sourced, vetted, contracted, briefed, reviewed, approved, amplified, measured, and paid. That list doesn’t phase my team – we have CREATOR in our titles – but I can’t fathom all the other tasks begging for your attention every day in marketing and communications.

Instead, this is a post challenging you to ask, “Do I really need to do any more influencer marketing? What is strategically missing from just using an AI service to generate a brand post about baseball, targeting that to baseball fans and shutting my laptop for the day?”

Specificity in an influencer marketing channel strategy is unlocking vastly different creators, different briefs to creators and different results.

1. You need reach

It’s the most popular answer to why a marketer needs influencer marketing so if that’s your answer, welcome to the club. Why then are there 9 more things worth reading? Because when you evaluate the ballpark organic influencer marketing creator cost of $10 per thousand followers and that content might be seen in your market by 30% of those thousand followers, this organic influencer marketing reach could cost 300% more than buying paid media. You’ll likely agree the reason thousands of brands pay that premium is because this reach fills another of your needs below.

2. You need engagement

A runner-up to reach in answer popularity. Partnering with most sizes of creators does have a higher average engagement rate than brand ads.so it’s completely understandable this is what you want from creators that you’re not getting from the AI baseball post. The caveat to discuss is that in influencer marketing studies from Meta, Nielsen Research and others, a 4% engagement rate versus 2% has no correlation to higher awareness or conversion from the other 96% of people. Engagement rate might be best as a proxy metric for one of the other 8 strategic needs creators can fill and not as the sole reason you worked late last night approving next month’s creators.

3. You need insight into diverse communities

You’re not 100% sure how your brand fits into the language and behavior of a unique and increasingly niche community. Someone who leads that community will translate for you into the spaces where that community thrives, some of which you’ve never heard of.

4. You need creativity

You need your communications to have a more memorable idea than competitors and creators can sing, chase trains, paint like a good boy and other creative magic.

5. You need credibility

Often referred to as the more vague authenticity, you need the audience to know someone has credibly vetted your product or service. Credibility can come in the form of expert credentials appropriate for your message or just a believable personality with less skin in the game than your marketing team. 

6. You need relatability

Also part of the infamous authenticity of creators. You want the audience to consider your product because they realistically or aspirationally relate to the persona and humanity of the creator.

7. You need efficiency

We produce brand assets for many of our agency’s clients with creators who don’t publish the assets to their followers. They know the platforms, they’re agile, they’re available at different experience levels in all time zones and millions of them are trying to grow their content creation business from a side-hustle to full-time.

8. You need off-page SEO

You need better backlinks from third parties and more mentions of your brand in the spaces your audience is searching. Creators aren’t just posting fun videos dancing on street corners, there are partners who can collaborate on blogs, discords, subreddits, 500 character tweets and other indexable assets to increase your digital footprint. 

9. You need web3 innovation

Roblox. Augmented Reality. NFTs. Creators are experimenting and learning every flavor of technology you want to test and learn.

10. You need attention

In a world of skippable digital ads, this might be the need added to reach that gets you the most return from creators. You need to earn the audience’s attention long enough to understand your message. Makes sense to partner with someone to humanize your message who’s trying to make a living by monitoring trends and persuading thousands of people to not scroll past.

11. You need ________

Stare at your audience insights and ROI long enough and you’ll get an 11th need for creators you’re not getting elsewhere. Probably something concerning legal or your boss’s kid wanting to meet a celebrity.

So despite all of the data showing the incremental value of influencer marketing organically and in paid advertising, growth might not be doing more of it. It might start with re-evaluating how it complements that fantastic baseball post. Once you do or if you would like to do so with a team to hit a home run, let’s chat at citizendigital@citizenrelations.com about how we can help.

I did say upfront that creator was in my title how did you think this was going to end 😎

Note: Special thanks to ChatGPT, a language model developed by OpenAI, for providing valuable assistance with some elements of this blog post. 

About The Author: 

Neil Mohan is the new SVP, Creator Marketing at Citizen Relations. He has held prior roles in creative technology adoption and creator marketing at Meta, Edelman and Ogilvy. Sign up for his upcoming LinkedIn Live here.

The future of the internet is here. With Web3 quickly incorporating elements such as blockchain technologies, decentralization, increased data security/privacy, and much more, some brands are struggling to keep up with the pace and ensure their plans include modern ways of thinking.

The Citizen digital team, dComm3, is staying ahead of the curve and already has insight into what is coming up next. From predicting the jobs coming up in this space to what social media channels may not make it to the end of the year, they’ve shared their expert insight here. Meet our team and their unique, provocative ways of thinking in this space.

Drop us a line at citizendigital@citizenrelations.com to chat more.

February is Black History Month (BHM) in North America. This year’s official theme,  Black Resistance, highlights how Black communities continue to resist systemic oppression in North America while taking action towards racial equity. 

At Citizen Relations, we provided $50 to each Citizen in North America to spend at a Black-owned business during BHM. Citizens were also able to access initiatives organized by Plus Company and the Black Employee Resource Group (BERG), including educational content focused on the impact of systemic racism in our communities, workshops on anti-Black racism, as well as opportunities for Black employees to connect on a variety of topics. 

We recognize that celebrating Black communities and anti-racism and racial equity work has to go beyond the month of February. We also acknowledge the role that communication agencies have played in perpetuating biases, stereotypes and racism. Lastly, we recognize the power we have to highlight stories and shape conversations that promote racial equity and anti-racism in our communities and create equitable and inclusive workplaces. 

We are committed to: 

• Increasing representation of equity-deserving communities in our workplace by addressing barriers and biases in our recruiting, interviewing, and onboarding processes as well as our work culture. 
• Utilizing an intersectional lens to foster an inclusive, accessible, and anti-racist workplace where all Citizens feel a sense of belonging. 
• Tracking and reporting on supplier diversity to ensure we support businesses owned by equity-deserving communities. 
• Embedding EDI and anti-racism lenses in our client work from ideation to implementation.
• Highlighting Indigenous, Black and other racialized influencers, creatives and business-owners in our work.

Search behaviors have seen unprecedented shifts in the past year. Zero click behaviors and voice search results are continuing to rise. Position 0 content is gaining importance to overall search rankings. Emerging search engines like TikTok and Instagram outpacing Google usage for younger audiences. We think search is the most important thing you should plus-up this year. Are you looking at new search approaches?

Have you looked at your backlink profile recently?

Off-page search and the rise of high-authority backlinks driving quality clicks to your brand website and other owned platforms is a great place to double down and boost your digital ecosystem design. Utilizing influencers and earned media outside of big social and leaning into enduring search optimized content formats like Reddit, forums (i.e. WikiHow, Quora), and YouTube can boost your authority and help you gain share of search.

Maybe it’s time to stop giving all the content to Meta, Google, Twitter, TikTok?

Organic and owned content is making a come-back and hosting your own community, forum, or blog is a great way to not only showcase your brand’s expertise. It not only allows you to build search authority and new entryways to your brand, but also puts you in control of a whole new ream of data about your audience, what they care about, and how they talk.

Are you speaking brand or are you speaking human? And was that written by a robot?

Understanding user intent and utilizing natural language processing (NLP) models can help you identify the white spaces in the search landscape for your brand. The move to develop content that speaks the language of the people and indexes for real search has been supercharged with open-source AI tools like GPT-3, now baked into automated content generation. 

At Citizen, we know how to meaningfully engage with our client’s owned and earned communities. We build organic content and linking strategies that drive a halo of highly optimized brand SOV.  We can leverage real-time data to help us mine for brand moments, become more relevant, better understand communities and improve a brand’s authority online across search, social, media, and influencer. 

Interested in how you can reapproach search this year? Reach out to us at citizendigital@citizenrelations.com to start the conversation. 

About The Author:

Cara is a seasoned marketing & technology professional and integrated strategist, with over 15 years of experience. She co-creates, packages, and operationalizes innovative and digital-first marketing capabilities and products.

Global communications agency expands digital services and significantly grows team to accelerate the impact of earned media

New York, N.Y. (February 1, 2023): Today, global communications agency, Citizen Relations, announced the expansion of its global digital capabilities. Boosting earned with the power of digital, their strengthened integrated service enables the agency to influence audiences more effectively, with more personalization, performance and dynamic content to better connect marketing, sales and data. 

“While Citizen has been providing social and digital communications services to its clients for years, we felt there was much more to be done,” said Nick Cowling, Citizen’s CEO. “We wanted to build an offering that would drive conversation surgically, bring our campaigns to life online in a truly connected fashion and deliver performance like never before –  our new digital team is doing just that.”  

Led by Crystalyn Stuart-Loayza, Citizen’s Chief Digital Officer, Citizen calls its new brand of digital “dComm3”, which brings together a growing team of 15+ technical experts across strategy, activation and intelligence, embedding digital across the way earned programs are built, executed and measured – ultimately bridging brands into what’s next in web 3.

“Our brand of digital communications challenges convention with innovative solutions in four key ways, “ says Stuart-Loayza. “To start, we’re building next-generation content performance and effectiveness models boosted with orchestrated tech and high automation for faster, more effective ways to communicate.  Secondly, we’re leading in off-page search, bridging Citizen’s conversation know-how with user intent to capture greater share of market and voice. We’re also leading the next generation of social with owned communities and a new breed of web-forward community engagement for more digital intimacy and value. Finally, we’re focused on evolving the influencer marketing landscape with entirely new models that bridge media buying, affiliate, social algorithm hacks and a new breed of creator collaborations for clients seeking solutions in this growing category of influence.”

dComm3 has already begun to seamlessly orchestrate modern solutions for Citizen clients, including Molson Coors, and is actively acquiring talent that bolsters the agency’s capability across the following categories:

Citizen’s evolution aims to digitally enable and empower its clients to achieve better communications results today,  test and learn from new collaborations/models and solutions and push the boundaries as the digital world rapidly changes. 

Citizen’s digital communications team (practicing dComm3) is led by: 

• Crystalyn Stuart-Loayza – Chief Digital Officer: Crystalyn is a passionate digital transformationalist with over 20 years of experience in digital marketing, focused on helping brands supercharge programs with digital. She’s been an early social media pioneer and leader in digital content and is currently a specialist in building interactive experiences. 
• Cara Peckens – SVP, Digital R&D and Technology: Cara is a seasoned marketing & technology professional and integrated strategist, with over 15 years of experience. She co-creates, packages, and operationalizes innovative and digital-first marketing capabilities and products. 
• Laura Brown – VP, Digital Strategy: Laura brings 15 years of experience in advertising and public relations agencies. She leads teams to develop digitally-led creative communications campaigns, channel plans, influencer marketing campaigns, paid media plans, community strategies and content development
• Daniel Sendecki – VP, Performance Content: Daniel is an award-winning print, digital and content strategist for B2B, B2C, and D2C brands. Bringing nearly 20 years of experience, Daniel has a proven history of establishing and supporting revenue and profitability through strategic content development.

To learn more about Citizen’s digital offerings, visit our digital page.

It’s 2023, and I still think about that Geocities website I made in the 90’s about Sailor Moon. (And before you ask, yes it did include fanfiction). With guestbooks, webrings, and Yahoo Chat in tow, I was able to find my people and geek out about our shared passions in our little dark corner of the internet. It was the best; I had community-driven destinations where I knew I could find exactly what I was looking for, and nothing else to distract me. 

All of a sudden in the mid-2000s, we were met with tools to not just connect with IRL friends and expand our niche online tribes, but literally anyone with an internet connection and enough know-how to create and utilize a social media account could broadcast whatever they wanted. This shift from 1-to-1 comms, to 1-to-few comms, to 1-to-many comms came on so quickly that we all picked up some bad communications habits along the way – both as humans and as marketers. And now, all this time later, I think we need to return back again to those good old days of organic community and content that the World Wide Web initially promised us, ironically enough to stay modern as how we find connection on the internet evolves. 

Here are three modern ways we’re thinking about organic social communications at Citizen in 2023 and beyond: 

New Platforms Without Ads Require New Ways to Outreach

How will you speak and be spoken to on emerging channels and communities?

In a more decentralized world of social media, where creators monetize goods directly and platforms don’t have stabilized ad models yet, organic dialogue is the only way for brands to join the community. To authentically engage in Web3 spaces, one might consider game builders, avatars, even XR builders to communicate on our brands’ behalf, but first and foremost as a community member rather than as an advertiser.  

Over-Reliance on Paid Has Limited Organic Narrative Building

How can you better integrate organic content into your production mix?

Brands have over-indexed on paid reliance and organic narrative building can be just the supplement to boost performance on investment. We’re all pros at developing and maintaining marketing funnels that drive action, but what about those organic communications funnels that drive affinity and word of mouth? In 2023, we’re reminding our clients about those who have already chosen to follow our brands in social media and build many awesome things to reinvigorate their brand love, wherever they may roam online. 

The Evolution of Search Requires Natural Language Organic Content 

How’s your owned content narrative?

Sometimes in PR, we work with clients who swear they don’t have any “new news” to share, which they’re concerned could impact their newsworthiness and search ranking. In order to own their share of search, brands need stronger, natural language-driven organically-built content. Specializing in organic search engine optimization in platforms like TikTok, Instagram, GiPHY and Pinterest where more Gen Z/Alpha audiences are seeking to discover is growing more and more important. As is building organic content and linking strategies that drive a halo of highly optimized brand share of voice. 

At Citizen, we help build, protect, and drive reputation and share of voice through innovative digital communications strategies that are forged with PR-know-how and are Web3 ready. And we want to know, Is your big bet for 2023 reinforcing your organic content strategy and production model? Reach out to us at citizendigital@citizenrelations.com to start the conversation. 

About The Author: 

Laura brings 15 years of experience in advertising and public relations agencies. She leads teams to develop digitally-led creative communications campaigns, channel plans, influencer marketing campaigns, paid media plans, community strategies and content development.