Taco’ing about Gen Z Era with Erika Prime
Erika Prime was the cup of coffee all PRSSAIC attendees needed for the third day of PRSSAIC. Not only does Prime have an impressive story, she is also an incredible speaker. She had all of us at the edge of our seats soaking everything in. Prime has been a leader on Taco Bell’s social team for five years and is a perfect example of an employee who loves her job and the company she represents. If it is not obvious by how highly she speaks of Taco Bell and her experience there, it should be evident in her bajá blast inspired hair. (See Instagram)
Prime began the session by sharing her unconventional path to public relations and how she started off wanting to be an artist. After discovering the art path was not for her, she asked herself, “What am I good at?” and her response, which is very relatable to many people in the communications field, was talking. She then changed her major to communications and earned her degree. However, it wasn’t until she was working as a waitress that she got her big break. She knew one of her customers was an employee at Taco Bell and she knew that it was a company and a brand she stood behind so she made sure to wait on them and do more than take their food order but also gave them her business card. This led to her successful career at Taco Bell beginning in their content creation department to running their entire social team. She has even found an outlet to express her passion for art, by designing many of Taco Bell’s merchandise. To this prime said, “sometimes your side hustle and your real job can marry each other, so don’t give up on your passions.”
Now that we have some background on how cool and inspiring Prime is let’s discuss her insights into social media and Gen Z. Prime stated, “we’re not competing with each other, we’re competing with culture.” When working in social media, it is important to not compare your company to the content others are sharing, but instead to try and stay relevant with the current culture. Sometimes this even means foreseeing what will become a hot topic and getting ahead of the game. Culture does not mean what meme is trending but what is happening with people and what they care about. As Prime said, “we have to know not only what’s going on with the internet, but with people. We’re in the business of people.” This quote follows a consistent theme that was echoed throughout the conference that reminded members that people are at the heart of our business.
Prime made sure to state that a company should not create content for everything that is relevant in social media but instead what makes sense for their company. For example, Taco Bell would not create content for national cupcake day but instead national taco day. It is also important for a brand to know which social platforms they should be present on and focus on those. “It’s really important for a brand to evaluate which channels they work well with.” A company only needs to be on the channels that make sense for their brand. Being on too many platforms can be exhausting and not on brand for a business.
The world of influencers was also brought up. Prime believes that influences or ambassadors for a company should only choose people that truly believe in their product and will authentically share their experience. She said her first question when vetting influencers is if they eat Taco Bell, if they don’t (for some crazy reason) they aren’t the right people to be promoting their brand. Prime has had the opportunity to work with many famous influencers, most notably, Jeffree Star.
Prime closed out her session with an exciting Q&A session that led members to stating their Taco Bell order before stating their question and with a final piece of advice, “all good ideas come from a piece of insight.” It is safe to say after this session our members left with insight into using social media in strategic ways and hungry for tacos.
About Sofia:
Sofia Anderson is a senior at GVSU studying advertising/public relations and Spanish. She is an Account Associate for GrandPR and is the VP of Professional Development for GVPRSSA. She currently works at Experience Grand Rapids as their Social Media Intern and is a volunteer at Bethany Christian Services Transitional Foster Care & Assessment center. She has an interest in tourism, fashion and corporate PR. In her spare time she enjoys watching Netflix, making-friendship bracelets and spending time with family and friends.