social media | My PRgative

Posts Tagged social media

Foursquare: Just what is this?

February 4, 2011 at 6:18 pm · Filed under communications, marketing, mobile technology, new media, social media, social media marketing, technology ·Tagged app, application, Foursquare, marketing, smart phone, social media, social networking

Thanks to Foursquare, finding new places to eat, shop, and do just about anything else has become easier to do.

Have you ever visited a new town and found yourself relying on guide books, information from friends and family, or other sources to find new and different places? Sometimes, you would get to a recommended spot and the experience would meet — or exceed — your expectations. Other times, though, the effort made in tracking down that new restaurant or museum left you disappointed.

For the past year, however, I’ve seen numerous posts on Facebook and Twitter from people using Foursquare. After watching and wondering, I decided to go ahead, jump in and check out this social media platform.

Let me share with you what I’ve learned. This location-based application is designed to allow you to look for new places to eat, shop or visit from any web-enabled smart phone. Foursquare also lets you utilize social networking through a variety of application-related activities.

When you launch it, you get relevant, location-based tips for nearby places to visit, eat, shop or otherwise socialize. Also, you can become friends with people you know and see what kinds of locations they are visiting, too.

Earn Rewards

You also have the option to “check-in” to locations via Foursquare, allowing you to share with others your location.

Checking in allows you to gain various kinds of rewards. The most basic is a point system, which gives you points based on a few different factors. One point is rewarded for each check-in throughout the day, which increases with each check-in (first check-in gets one point, second gets two, etc.) Five points are earned by checking into a new location for the first time, and an additional five points are awarded by creating a venue that is not currently listed on Foursquare.

Another reward is mayorships. You can become the “mayor” of a location by checking into that place more times than any other user in the past 60 days. Some businesses reward mayors of particular locations with special deals or free items.

Badges

The most popular rewards on Foursquare are virtual badges that show up on your profile as a result of performing some kind of action using the application. Some badges can be unlocked, or earned, for checking in a specific number of times at special locations, such as coffee shops, gyms, or playgrounds. Others recognize you when you’ve checked in at a specific number of unique venues.

There are two types of badges. The basic Foursquare badges are round in shape. Affiliate badges have a shield-like shape and are developed by businesses or organizations affiliated with Foursquare to reward users who visit specific locations or businesses frequently.

Additionally, users can earn special badges for certain holidays, voting, writing special messages when checking in to a location, or attending certain conferences or conventions.

Unlocking Foursquare badges has become so popular that people have sponsored events just to unlock them. “Swarm” parties have been organized among Foursquare users in order to unlock any of the four “Swarm” badges, which are awarded to users at a location when 50, 250, 500, or 1000 Foursquare users have checked into the same venue.

I recommend a couple of blogs that track developments by Foursquare:

http://aboutfoursquare.com

http://www.4squarebadges.com

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A campaign is now an ecosystem

July 1, 2009 at 8:24 pm · Filed under marketing, social media, word-of-mouth ·Tagged brand, buzz, campaigns, ecosystem, Houston Interactive Marketing Association, marketing, self-marketing, social media

Shifting strategy for marketing in this transformational and disruptive era

Marketers have lost it; they’re not in control anymore. Instead, it’s the customers/consumers (who can also be called influencers, advocates or detractors) running things now as they leverage social media, initiate the conversations about products and services and ultimately behave as self-marketers whose word-of-mouth is as valuable a currency as a dollar, peso or yen.

During a luncheon presented by the Houston Interactive Marketing Association, Scott Berg, director of digital strategy at HP, shared his perspective on the future of consumer and business marketing in an age where people are more connected than ever before by technology.

“If we keep focusing on and doing campaigns, business is going to suffer,” Berg said. “Consumers are taking initiative because they have so much control. It’s important to support and leverage this self-marketing.”

Berg said the typical model of digital marketing campaign management…

Discover – Find – Confirm/Validate – Transact – Support – Feedback/Share

must shift to a broader focus on customer ecosystem management:

Awareness – Consideration Preference – Purchase – Loyalty

The support and feedback/share segments of the campaign model have not been addressed well by marketing, Berg criticized, adding that measures of success have tended to focus on metrics related to how long a person spends with a brand (e.g. web page views, total time spent, interactions).

“We need to stop elongating the game,” he said. “Focus instead on how quickly and how well we fulfill needs.”

Berg also offered compelling comments on market segmenting as he admonished the need for another shift – away from “finding them” to “them finding you.” Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a critical strategy. Also, content such as video and white papers must be distributed beyond a web site to wherever customers are doing what they do.

Ultimately, Berg underscored that superior performance is what’s going to drive people to talk and generate that precious currency known as word-of-mouth. “This is where buzz comes in,” he said. “One customer comment on a Facebook page, for example, can generate a ton of email inquiries, tweets on Twitter and ongoing conversations across many platforms.”

LINKS

Houston Interactive Marketing Association – http://www.houstonima.org

Scott Berg – http://www.hp.com/blogs/thechangingfaceofmedia

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“May the (social media) force be with you.”

June 28, 2009 at 5:31 pm · Filed under Facebook, marketing communications, nonprofit, social media, word-of-mouth ·Tagged blogs, charity, Facebook, marketing communications, nonprofit, social media

Expert tips and tools for nonprofit marketing communications

Listen, get involved, give up control, be honest and think long term to successfully tap into people’s motivations to change the world, according to Ed Schipul, CEO at Schipul – The Web Marketing Company. Schipul recently headlined an IABC workshop for nonprofit marketing communicators in Houston.

See several presentations at http://www.slideshare.net/eschipul.

“Social media is not about you; it’s about people’s relationships with you,” he said, underscoring the effort it takes to generate conversations. “Don’t just talk about yourself. Ask questions, engage people and link. Most of all, be inspiring.”

He said strive to earn trust so people will want to spread your message. “Listen, inspire, engage and let go. Don’t spin the truth. Be open, honest and transparent in everything you say or do.”

Schipul highlighted how storytelling tools on the web such as blogs can be combined with the art of listening to tap into material, social and ideological motivations. Quoting Katya Andersen of the Network for Good, he underscored that “the message is not about the charity; it’s about why the messenger cares.”

He said your organization’s story will be told most effectively with four elements: the message, conflict, characters and plot.

As an example, he highlighted the Houston Zoo’s celebration of the life of Mac, the baby elephant (http://www.houstonzooblog.com). Through the blog, the contest to name the animal garnered more than 7500 entries. A birthday card contest and sales of thousands of elephant adoption packets resulted in huge social buy-in.

When the beloved baby elephant died unexpectedly, the blog was expanded as a forum that helped turn the tragic loss into something positive to help a community heal. People engaged in telling personal stories, posting pictures, sharing video and zookeeper chats.

Technical tips and tools
The title of your blog post is highly important for search engine optimization.

Content with pictures increases readability and conversion rates.

Use tags to highlight additional things relevant to your topic that may have been left off the main blog post.

Assign a category to your blog post; it affects rank.

Weave your audience into your story and engage their participation by embedding at least one widget within your post, such as:
• http://www.intensedebate.com
• http://www.chipin.com
• http://www.polleverywhere.com
• http://www.polldaddy.com

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Revitalizing employee communication with social media

June 4, 2009 at 3:22 pm · Filed under public relations, social media ·Tagged blog, corporate communication, employee communication, social media

Employees want fresh, candid and personally relevant information about their company.

At some companies, open rates for emails and intranet metrics such as unique visits, page views and time spent are declining.

Some tuned-out employees are using spam filters to block emails from corporate and HR. And why aren’t they going to the town hall style employee meetings? The information, they say, isn’t relevant.

What employees typically want is fresh, candid and personally relevant information about an organization with context relating to what’s going on in the world, to what customers tell them and to the work they do everyday. Most of all, employees want to control their communication experience by asking questions, adding comments, learning other employees’ perspectives and even creating their own news.

Social media can fit that bill. But at many companies, executives are resistant to the adoption of social media because of concerns that it will sap worker productivity.

Despite this reluctance, smart organizations are using social media to engage employees. The key to this engagement is not to tack social media tools onto the existing employee communications program. Instead, success requires reshaping communication so that social media becomes a core strategy that changes the role of employees from spectators to active participants.

Take the example of a friend of mine who’s responsible for global internal communications for a supply and trading business division within a global energy company. Internally, she has implemented a business blog for employees to more actively engage with leadership.

Her business case for the blog pointed out:

Employees want two-way communication.
They are spread out across the globe.
The technology would enhance the quality and effectiveness of communication across a generationally diverse audience.
Blogs are becoming valuable tools within business.

“Before I set up any meetings with leadership, I put together a plan on how the process would work, who would do what, when each person would blog and why we were going to blog,” she explained. “Basically, I put together a business case that showed how this one tool would be part of the overall tactical plan to achieve the goal of demystifying and promoting the business, both to the business employees and the company.”

How’s it working so far? In March, an employee communications survey captured high marks for the blog.

“I’ve been stressing that people should not look at the number of comments a post receives, but look at both the hits and unique views,” my friend said. “So while we are pleased with the interaction the blog is creating, we can prove that the bulk of the audience is at least reading the posts, and messages are being reinforced.”

What’s next? She tells me, “I’m looking forward to adding video to our site – a sort of “in their own words” type of communications tool.”

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Tapping online networks to raise funds

May 25, 2009 at 12:32 am · Filed under marketing, public relations, social media ·Tagged charity, Facebook, Flickr, nonprofits, social giving, social media, YouTube

One of my friends works for a charity that over the years has won supporters for its big annual college scholarship fundraiser event with e-mail blasts, brochures and personal calls to big donors.

But that’s soooo yesterday.

This year, the nonprofit group began posting event information to its new Facebook page. It also is tweeting on Twitter and uploading video to YouTube. Then, of course, the group also blogs and shares photos on Flickr.

The result? My friend (who’s an officer with the group) says registration for this year’s event is nearly triple what it was last year.

That’s the bottom-line promise of “social giving,” which uses online networks to raise awareness and, ultimately, money. Organizations with a cause are “friend-raising” on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and elsewhere to bolster that old-as-money objective: fund-raising.

Social giving exploits online networks, which offer exponential possibilities for building personal relationships. Once an organization makes a connection to an individual, that person can leverage his or her personal contacts – the old “friends of friends” gone viral. When campaigns also include interactive contests, creative video clips, and real-time information, donating money becomes less of an obligation and more of an experience.

Everybody saw the success of the Obama campaign — lots of small donations through online networks added up to big bucks for the candidate. Bo Bothe, president and chief creative officer at BrandExtract, says that nonprofits can replicate that success.

“In an economy where purse strings are triple-knotted, the strategy has particular appeal,” Bo said as he and I were chatting after he had just finished participating in a panel discussion at the recent Online Marketing Summit in Houston.

“It’s not a magic cure-all,” Bo remarked. “They’re wonderful tools. It’s just not automatic, that if you’re on social media, your fund-raising is going to go through the roof. Social giving at its best, however, can be the gift that keeps on giving. It has tentacles. You have so many more people you can reach. The status updates and tweets allow nonprofits to have “two-way conversations” with supporters.”

Clearly, the key is to reach out to people in the right way, establishing and understanding how social media fits into a specific nonprofit group’s goals and mission. While social media offer low-cost marketing options, they shouldn’t drain or distract nonprofits from doing the public good.

I think it’s possible for nonprofits to explore the potentials and pitfalls of social networks while working their connections. Post tweets and update Facebook fans about blog posts or public service announcements on YouTube.

A nonprofit that keeps that kind of cycle going will potentially reach people who might not otherwise be exposed to or engaged in the group’s cause.

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PR is about the conversation

May 24, 2009 at 11:50 pm · Filed under marketing, public relations, social media ·Tagged CRM, customers, media pitching, relationships, social media

I think it’s clear that digital marketing activities are converging the reality of putting the public back into public relations. While traditional media relations is intent on getting to know (hopefully) and pitching journalists and editors, the best success in doing that comes from writing for or sharing information that was interesting to the readers of those publications.

Odds improve when you write the story yourself. Whether the story is the piece of news in the press release or not, for it to go social, it needs to have certain elements built in to appeal to the ultimate audience – your customers or prospective customers. The degree to which it appeals to end users may also determine media pick up – traditional media and new media alike. But you need to retain the power over facilitating the conversation and testing the viability of the resulting marketing decisions.

For you to do this well, it doesn’t mean you create a public idea site. Let’s not confuse tools with intent and process. Some companies may feel comfortable out in the open, others may already have such a strong community of advisers that all they need to do is engage those relationships.

So where do you start?

1. Start with your product or service.
What do you need to do to make it a valuable use of your customers’ budgets and time? If you feel you need to improve it, but do not know where to begin, open up the communication lines with your customers. This is the same deal as the employee suggestion box. It cannot be just lip service, you’ll need to walk the talk. The main difference between old media and new media is the filter – with new media you have none. That can be really good, or really bad for you. You decide.

2. Integrate CRM with social to build long term relationships.
The fundamental shift between your CRM system and the social Web to build relationships is that CRM is really a process where you capture and manage customer information. The social Web allows you to act publicly on that information to benefit your customers as well and you by reflection. If you want to connect with end users, begin by not seeing them as something you can use at will. Broaden that definition to include how they can use your content to become smarter, do their job better, look good with their peers and boss alike, and connect with each other.

3. Educate your company on new media.
Don’t take for granted that just because everyone’s on Facebook they know how to put these tools to good use for business. Set up training classes for your authors and content owners to help them see the possibilities. Do that as part of the media training program you offer. Share information on how you talk about what you do, your stories, what you’ve published in traditional media, what resonates with your audience.

That kind of intelligence allows subject matter experts to build on existing conversations.

Teach people how to write for the Web and you’ll be able to publish more content that is of value to your customer community. It’s the old adage of teaching people how to fish. All those who are in customer-facing jobs should be empowered to assist customers wherever they choose to communicate with you.

4. Listen, test, adjust frequently.
Don’t wait until you have the perfect answer. Start testing small initiatives by integrating them to existing programs and keeping them modest. What you want to do is set up realistic objectives, communicate them to your team, and measure against them.

Keep listening for changes in behavior and adjust your tactics or strategies accordingly. This may feel a bit squeamish for those who are classically trained in marketing. They tend to have very specific ideas of what needs to be done. Yet, gone are the days of perfect mass marketing campaigns.

Today it’s more about micro interactions – personal, relevant, and meaningful exchanges of value. You capture someone’s attention when you stop thinking of them as eyeballs and start thinking in terms of exchange – and connection.

5. Know where your customers are and why they’re there.
You may think that having an ad on Facebook is a good idea, after all many of your customers are there. Before you go ahead and find a new way for them to ignore you or piss them off, do take the time to find out why they’re there, what they do. Digital and online media by its very nature feels more personal. People have come to expect interaction and exchange. Instead of ignoring you, like they did off line when you interrupted them last, they may tell you what they think about your ad and they may tell all their friends, too – on Twitter.

These are ideas you can take and try your own way. They scale, too. Thanks to technology and the social Web, a business any size can be what it wants to be. It kind of puts a whole new meaning to “be all you can be,” doesn’t it?

Follow me on http://www.twitter.com/FeliciaGriffin1

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