Tips for Authentic Social Media Engagement
If you want your brand’s social media presence to be viewed as authentic, you need to know what your brand stands for and know what is important to your audience. Above all, you must always be honest. Here are three tips that will help your brand’s social media presence appear authentic. 1. Focus on the [...]
Software We Love: Prezi
Recently, we have been creating many presentations: for our present clients and to gain potential clients. We have found a software that we love and want to share it with you! We have been using Prezi, which is similar to Powerpoint but is much more visually appealing and interactive. We have found that our audiences [...]
Successful Pinterest Campaign by Kotex
Kotex, a feminine health and hygiene company, created a low-cost, highly-successful Pinterest campaign. This campaign gave Kotex 2,000 interactions between women and their friends and almost 695,000 impressions. Extremely impressive! Kotex searched through thousands of women’s Pinterest boards and found 50 women that engage in the social platform regularly and have active followers. Through …
Benefits of Facebook’s Timeline
The new Facebook timeline has caused a stir among Facebook users, especially users that are trying to build a brand for their business. Although it will take some getting used to, timeline has perks that are great for businesses. 1. Timeline encourages fresh and active content and conversation. Timeline now makes business pages look and [...]
Localizing an Internet-based Business
In many popular social media and marketing blogs, the controversy of targeting online versus targeting local is a trending topic. This is a problem many companies face, and the answer can be difficult to find. What do the majority of bloggers say the answer is? A blend of both online and local. Chris Brogan, President [...]
Path to #PR: Q&A with Amy Jones Schwinge; @PRSSA This month, we’re sharing experiences from all of our staff about their career paths in PR – and a few other fun things, too! Enjoy this Q&A with Amy Jones Schwinge . . . Tell us a little about yourself? Hometown? Family? I am a hometown girl; I was born and raised in Knoxville. [...]
Has @theTomatoHead Just Made 27,000 Maryville “Frenemies”? By Mary Beth West, APR Holy tofu and organic black beans, Batman – The Tomato Head is leaving Downtown Maryville! The announcement of The Tomato Head’s Maryville closure in favor of plans to build a West Knoxville location at the Gallery Shopping Center hit all-things-social last night, and, to say the least – the Maryville Tomato [...]
Path to #PR: Q&A with @marybethwest Kicking it off with Mary Beth West, we’re sharing experiences from all of our staff about their career paths in PR – and a few other fun things, too! Enjoy . . . What was your first job? What did you learn from it? Working in the shoe department of my hometown’s local department store. [...]
Joe Bogardus – Hats Off to a Great Career By Mary Beth West, APR Our team experienced the bittersweet newsflash this week that one of our own, Joe Bogardus, has decided to enjoy the rewards of retirement. And yes, we’re a little bit jealous! Our gratitude goes out to Joe for his nearly four years of service with MBWC, where he helped lead many [...]
#Crisis or #Controversy: #PR Steps for Managing Protests By Mary Beth West, APR In my early career, I worked in corporate communications for a highly successful company that managed private-sector prisons, jails and detention facilities for local, state and federal government agencies across the U.S. – and even some facilities internationally. The experience provided my first front-line experience with seeing just how complicated [...]
Those were Apple Co-founder Steve Wozniak’s words in likening the late Steve Jobs to such historic geniuses as Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare, this morning on the “Today” show.
Jobs wanted to make “a dent in the universe,” and for those of us here on Planet Earth, he did just that.
Speaking in those terms, while some people can see the forest for the trees, Jobs could see the universe for the galaxies. He operated on that scale.
For us, Steve Jobs will remain forever iconic not only for the vast swell of innovative technology he delivered to the global marketplace but also for the unique brand of entrepreneurship he embodied in his leadership.
There were many twists and turns in his career. From what has been documented about him, not everyone embraced his leadership style. So many of the true creative geniuses of our world face fierce criticism or rejection because of facets of their personalities that others find difficult, which also can be a part of what makes them great.
The world will sorely miss what would have been so much more future potential of Steve Jobs’ life, cut short by his illness. In the wake of the loss, we can still be inspired by what he accomplished, how he accomplished it and what he shared.
That was my bad attitude this past week as I started trying to set up my Google+ profile.
I know that this admission flies in the face of who/what I’m supposed to be as a marketing communications professional. When it comes to all things social media, I’m supposed to be early to the game and quick on the draw. But this week, I had to lay claim to my humanity.
Perhaps it was the timing. August 1 was the first day of school for my kids with all the associated chaos, we had several new-business pitches in play, and if I didn’t have enough perspiration issues already, it’s been about 100 degrees outside. Trying to figure out the Google+ social media interface and where everything fit in just wasn’t jiving for me.
And that’s part of the challenge Google+ may be up against as it continues its launch. Folks know Facebook. They know where the buttons are and what they do. It’s hard to change . . . or at least to give a stab at a new-kid-on-the-block social media presence that may seem like a mere duplication of what Facebook already does quite nicely, thank-you-very-much.
But not so fast. I’m going to have to give myself an “F” on attitude and remember that I had a similar perception of Facebook back when I was still milling around on MySpace four years ago and someone first sent me a FB friend request.
Que sera. It’s almost a new week, so I’ll start taking my own advice: don’t get overwhelmed with analysis-paralysis. Enjoy the process of discovering this new social media gizmo . . . it should be fun seeing where it leads.
We have been getting a lot of questions from clients about Google+, and our opinion is that it’s still too soon to tell how things will shake out with Google+ vs. Facebook. While Google certainly has the power behind it to challenge Facebook, you need to keep in mind that if Facebook were a country, it would be the fifth largest country in the world.
It’s clear that Google is capitalizing on some of Facebook’s weaknesses and has come to the table with a few really nice alternatives. However, it’s hard to believe Facebook isn’t also buried in the development process, brewing up some surprises of their own.
We’ve been testing Google+ a bit, and two things are attractive to us so far: Google+ Circles and Hangouts. Circles make it far easier to create a “circle of friends” than using a Twitter list or Facebook Friend List. Hangouts allows a camera switching feature as a great approach to video chat. The thing is, all of these features have to pick up steam. To be effective, a lot of people have to be using them, and it is too soon to tell if Facebook users will make the switch.
Our advice: stay focused on what you’re currently doing. Don’t let new features and functionality distract you. Remember, things come and go in the social media space. It is important to always have a strategy in place before big decisions are made. Oh, and, a sense of humor helps too, which is why we’re posting this infographic from Class Finders.
Hootsuite is a dashboard application for Twitter that allows you to go beyond the average Twitter activities.
Hootsuite allows you to spread messages to numerous social media networks, track statistics and easily explore results, collaborate with multiple contributors without loosing privacy, manage your Twitter account on the go with any mobile devise, and it internationalizes your account to make you feel comfortable with other languages.
However, a few weeks ago, Hootsuite introduced an application that social media gurus are raving about. It added a publisher function. This function allows you to schedule tweets for specific times throughout the day. It also lets you view your planned tweets for the next day, week, or month in a very organized way.
This new application will make it easier for us to market ourselves and our clients by allowing us to plan what we would like to share with our followers. The excuses of being too busy or forgetting to tweet are no longer viable with this new application that allows you to plan tweets in advance.
Chris Brogan’s article and video (below) on Hootsuite’s new application are very helpful in understanding how to use this new tool and how it can be beneficial.
This past month, our Interactive Springboard joint venture had the opportunity to create from scratch a new online media room for our client, Lumberjack Sports International.
The media room lives on the Lumberjack Feud website (created earlier by a different firm). The purpose of the media room is to create a designated spot for media to collect news and feature information, including graphics, for this timber sports-themed development opening soon in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
The media room helps make the media’s job easier by providing ready-made content to use as story background or even as-is for updates on new things coming to Pigeon Forge and Southeastern tourism.
The attraction is already being followed on social media by hundreds of people, and the development’s management team is smart not to leave media reporters out of the equation.
Social media links as well as the e-newsletter sign-up are all included in the media room to help reporters stay in real-time tune with news developments and announcements as they are posted.
If your company has a media relations program in place, then don’t forget the power of social media to create vital links with those contacts. An online media room is a terrific platform to help make those connections happen.
Twitter announced this past week new photo-sharing capabilities directly on their platform, without having to link through a third-party source.
We found this article on social media photo-sharing stats interesting, and it certainly speaks to the value of a visual experience tied to social media posts.
We’ve always advised our clients to seek out visual opportunities to tell their stories and to integrate those images in the social media space, such as:
Who their people are and what they actually do day-to-day in their jobs
Events that they participate in, whether trade/business, community or philanthropic in nature
Interesting places where the company finds itself doing business, interacting with customers and serving the community
What new products are just now on the shelf or coming off the assembly line
As image sharing capabilities expand, so will consumer desires and expectations of their favorite brands. Keep thinking of ways your organization can respond.
One of our favorites, Joe Jaffe, talks to radio show host and small business advocate, Jim Blasingame, about why small business is better at social media than big business, how to gain a competitive edge in connecting with customers, and how to connect with them on their terms or risk becoming irrelevant.
The Wall Street Journal published a very worthwhile section last week on Information Technology (IT) issues that the CEO, and everyone else for that matter, needs to know in this day to be functionally literate on technology matters vital to moving a business forward.
Included was a pretty darn intriguing list of fairly recent books covering “how businesses can harness technology to make the most of information.”
All of them are now on my summer reading list (to which my husband chuckles, since with my dawn-to-midnight schedule I read books about as fast as I can write one). But to the point, I recommend you check it out if you’re interested in brushing up on this subject matter, as most of us should.
One book on the list that caught my attention on the social media front was “The Mesh: Why the Future of Business Is Sharing,” by Lisa Gansky.
The WSJ sums it up by saying “This is an important book, in that Ms. Gansky helps us name an important trend that will shape our culture—and therefore our technology products—over the next several decades. She argues that the companies that will win will be the ones that enable sharing, via community participation and trust.”
Here-here! This is exactly the message Tori and I promote heavily to our clients, and it’s certainly the truth. Social network creation and management is all about sharing . . . finding things to share that are interesting and share-worthy, finding the right people to share with, etc.
And speaking of sharing, if you think this post will shed some light for others, share it as well! Happy reading.
Facebook’s new Deals feature is set to launch today in San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta and San Diego. This is a feature that will compete with Groupon, where users will be able to buy a “Deal” for a certain good or service at a major discount, typically half off its retail price, then redeem it later. Users will also be able to “Like” and “Share” Deals with friends.
Any Facebook user can sign up for Deals notifications on the feature’s landing page. Users in the five test cities will be able to see and use Deals today.
Check out this Mashable post for a first glimpse of how those offers will look and function.
In my “Part 1” post on the topic of hiring an intern to manage social media, I talked about the enthusiasm many students show for taking on social media management tasks for their internship employers . . . and employers’ equal enthusiasm for handing over the reins to someone (anyone!) who seems to know what they’re doing.
This case especially arises when the employer is a very small business or non-profit organization.
I also talked about the flip side to this approach: students getting in over their head and being unfairly placed in a position of accountability for a communications platform that can be – to put it mildly – a bit unmanageable in certain circumstances.
Danielle DuPree, a PRSSA student leader from Utica College, posted an interesting observation in response:
“In Web 2.0 where college students, in particular, PRSSA students are savvy social media users – we still require direction from employers and internship supervisors. Once the initial excitement of managing an online communication outlet settles, an effective strategy should be implemented on a daily or weekly basis with review from the supervisor. On-site supervisors do not have to play the “watch dog” role, but monitoring the clarity, tone and accuracy of online messages is helpful. When interns embark on an organizational lead role like a social media manager, supervisors should offer support and constructive feedback to create a healthier learning experience which also creates room for creativity and stronger reception from their audience.”
Well-said. Employers should not forget the role they need to undertake in providing a true learning experience. When it comes to social media in that regard, here are some tips:
Be collaborative. Don’t set interns adrift with a “go handle it” mandate and assume it’s just a permanent turnkey process. Students need the kind of feedback such as Danielle mentioned, along with a larger strategic understanding of why social media is a logical tool for communicating and building relationships with target audiences. Students need to understand the ultimate end-game and be able to keep that context in mind throughout the social media management process.
Provide a framework and ground rules. How often should blog, Facebook and/or Twitter posts be updated? What categories of content are routinely needed? What’s the appropriate “voice” that should be used on behalf of the company (i.e. highly formal / professional, or more informal / conversational)? What should the procedure be if a controversial post is made by a third party? These and many other practices should be addressed early in the process, with the employer thinking through and clearly communicating their needs and expectations to the intern.
Learn from the student. Any employer can be a better manager of their social media intern if they will take the time to learn some of the technical aspects of social media from the students themselves. It may involve just taking 15 minutes a week for a quick tutorial. The end result for the manager is a better concept of how social media tools operate – and how to manage the message, in turn.
