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Two years ago, I took an amazing trip to Japan that filled me with inspiration, awe and relaxation. I was lucky enough to visit during cherry blossom season. This weekend, I haven’t been able to peel my eyes away from tsunami/earthquake coverage. It’s been interesting to see how relief efforts have stormed social and mobile networks. For example, Google launched a person finder, the Red Cross is promoting its popular texting donation option and TimeOut Tokyo is posting train schedule updates and other helpful tips to its Twitter feed.
Please consider donating. Here’s a post on seven ways to help, per Mashable.
P.S. For a number of reasons, the American Red Cross is a fantastic example of a nonprofit that leverages social media to make an impact. Check out the awesome Facebook campaign it launched recently about fire awareness.
This week, eyeballs everywhere have been glued to the weather on the tube as the nation prepared for Snowpocalypse 2011. Expected to impact multiple states and countless travelers, many turned to their smartphones to share tales of traveling woe. Even local news stations have been encouraging viewers to use hashtags to share details about their commutes.
Twitter has been earning credo as an effective tool for communicating during weather emergencies. When the NYC area got dumped on a little over a month ago, Newark's mayor @corybooker used twitter as a communication tool to dig out residents stranded by snow: http://tinyurl.com/33ap4ax
I also spotted quite a few check-ins to Snowpocalypse on foursquare last night and this morning. Safe travels!
Ugh. A brand I love is walking with its tail between its legs because of poor management of its brand presence on a social network. If you haven’t heard, Chipotle is in a bit of a mess over management of its Facebook like page. The skinny is that its social media team made a mountain out of a molehill for an issue that shouldn’t even have been an issue. Read more here.
This type of thing happens more than it should. Earlier this year, we saw Nestle get itself in a bind over management of its Facebook page. The solution? Training! Social media guidelines are a must for every organization.
At a loss for what to include in your organization’s social media policy? I listed some tips here in an earlier post.
As a college student, I benefitted quite a bit from professionals who took the time to network with me and share insights on their career paths, so I always enjoy participating in student events. A couple weeks ago, I attended the Greater Cleveland PRSA’s Student Day, an event I used to co-chair, and tonight I’ll be speaking to the PRSA chapter of John Carroll University about how social media is impacting media relations.
Today’s students have a huge opportunity to connect with and make an impression on professionals via social networking tools. With the job market more competitive than ever, here are a few tips for how to stand out among your peers and make a connection:
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Follow professionals you admire (or those working at an organization you’re interested in) on Twitter, but avoid making connections on Facebook or LinkedIn unless you’ve had an extensive conversation
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Post thoughtful comments on industry blogs and consider penning your own blog about something you’re passionate about (your topic doesn’t need to focus on your industry)
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Share interesting posts, articles and events with your network on Twitter, LinkedIn or your blog
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Consider asking a professional you admire to guest post on your blog (if the topic is relevant)
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Tweet with a hashtag at industry events and write a post about your impressions or a follow-up topic
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Share your Twitter handle and blog domain on your business card (make your own with perforated cardstock and an ink jet printer)
I’d love to hear what techniques have worked for you and any tips I left out!
Earlier this week, PBS ran a story about whether rewards-based social media campaigns will "stick." Blogger outreach programs and discounts for Twitter followers and Facebook "likers" are all the rage, but will fans remain loyal to a brand if a discount isn’t offered?
This story made me think about how although social media marketing is "new," it still employs many of the same principles of traditional communications. For example, isn’t the conundrum above just another example of evaluating couponing programs, but in a social media context?
Newsflash: social media isn’t new anymore. (Seriously, when my mom makes suggestions that I should update my Facebook profile pic, it becomes old.) According to a survey of CMOs, in 2010, 5.9 percent of marketing budgets was spent on social media. By 2015, this should explode to 17.7 percent. At some point, when the newness of connecting with brands over social channels will wear off and customers feel bombarded with commercial messages via social channels, we’ll need to find, yet again, new avenues to target them (and encourage them to become repeat customers).
I’m baaaack! I returned to work on Tuesday after a 12-week maternity leave, which explains why I haven’t posted in so long (I actually went into labor on the evening of my last post). The transition this week has been pretty smooth, and I’d like to think social networking has had quite a bit to do with it.
During my maternity leave, my baby and my iPhone were glued to my side at all times. When my son was snoozing or eating, I was constantly returning e-mails, reading blogs, texting, and checking and posting to Twitter and Facebook. It made me feel connected and more like my old self. I did not want to be left behind by my friends or co-workers! It also was fantastic to share pics of my little nugget and get words of encouragement from "real" and online friends.
The past three months have been busy ones for the major social media players. In case you were hibernating, here are highlights of what’s launched since August:
Patience is not one of my virtues. Yet, I waited a looooong time before finally breaking down and switching from Verizon to AT&T to nab an iPhone. I was really happy with Verizon’s service and was hesitant to switch to AT&T just for a phone because I remembered the horrendous reception and service I had when I used Cingular for a short stint about 10 years ago.
But, I really, really wanted an iPhone and I got tired of the Verizon teases that the phone was coming over to its network. First it was supposed to be June then September and right around when I switched, I heard January 2011. In addtion to being tired of waiting, I had heard negative things about Verizon phones that were supposed to be comparable to the iPhone, so I wasn’t willing to settle for iPhone sloppy seconds.
So, when I called an AT&T store the day after the iPhone hit retail stores and was told they’d hold a phone for me, I went for it. I’ve had the phone for just shy of six weeks, and I AM IN LOVE. However, AT&T’s reception has been enormously disappointing. I’ve dropped countless calls…in my house, with my mom-in-law, with my hubs, with clients, on conference calls. It’s embarrassing.
Here’s what’s interesting.
a) I’m using Facebook, Twitter, foursquare way more frequently than I ever used to because of the easy accessibility from my phone.
b) I’m texting more because of the embarrassing nature of dropping calls.
c) I’m using my home phone more to make local calls for the same reason as above (we also have AT&T for our home service.
d) I’m definitely switching back to Verizon when my contract’s up and they get the iPhone, but I’m not overly furious about the terrible reception because I love the actual phone so much.
e) My husband, who switched with me, has a crappy flip phone (which he requested) and none of the social media or music benefits of the iPhone, so he officially wants to kill me for making him use a crappy service for two years.
f) Yes, I’ve had a case on my phone since I bought it so it’s not an antenna issue.
I guess you can say the iPhone is making me more social, yet less talkative (particularly when I drop a call with my husband…yikes).
Yesterday during a D&E staff meeting, our digicom team led an exercise to help our firm think about the intersection of b2b with social media and crisis communications. We discussed as a group how BP might use social media channels to help it restore trust with its suppliers. Many of the ideas shared revolved around an issues management response crafted using a hybrid of traditional and digital channels. And, of course, we all agreed that priority #1 needs to be to stop the flow of oil. Before that happens, it will be impossible to restore trust.
Then this morning, I came across this article about how social media is shaping crisis PR. The article argues that crisis PR will be dead without the adoption of social media communications. While I agree that real-time news requires a strategic response in real-time, which often means that social media channels are the best fit, they can’t be the only communication channels used. For example, if no one knows your Facebook page/Twitter feed/fill-in-the-blank-here exists, it’s not going to get much traction, so social media communications still need to be aligned with traditional PR.
In the grander scheme of things, let’s hope the spill is contained for good.
Need help navigating your next step forward when it comes to social media? We hope our Social Media GPS tool can help.
We designed it to help companies identify a comfortable social media approach that will lead them to their ultimate destination, growing their business. For example, we’ve found that most organizations utilizing social media tools fall into three categories of usage – assessment, engagement or influence. (Read more on those categories here.) At the completion of the survey (11 questions), participants learn more about the category they fall into based on the questions they answered and receive some suggestions of next steps and how to measure impact. Give it a try and let us know what you think.
Given this week’s hubbub around Facebook privacy concerns, I thought it would be helpful to share some step-by-step tips on how to aggressively manage your privacy settings. As back story, there has been a flurry of protesting around Facebook Open Graph, which allows users to “like” items on other Web sites without logging into Facebook. Why is the concern? Some Facebook users don’t like how the site is spreading its tentacles throughout the Web and in return, is eliminating some privacy barriers for its users.
On a related note, I received a teleconference invite for how to use social media in collections. Seriously. This description made me immediately revisit my privacy settings:
“You will learn how you can use social media websites and new technology to maintain a good customer base, keep good paying customers on track, and find and collect from past due customers. Learn how these popular websites can improve your collections, what some of the most common mistakes are when using these websites and how you can avoid them.”
So without further adieu, click here for the best walk-through I’ve seen on how to manage your privacy settings. The setting suggestions given in the example are for extremely conservative privacy settings, so you might consider still opting in to have your friends post on your wall and to have your profile appear in search engine searches.
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