Archive for 'Social Media'
So your company got a media hit. Big deal
Posted on 16. Mar, 2010 by Creatwood.
Well, it is a big deal, actually. Getting your company’s story in the news is always a good thing and can really have a positive impact on your business if done well. In order to make that positive impact much bigger, though, you’ll need to leverage that media hit, and that is where the PR process truly takes shape. Now it’s time to really emphasize results in your PR campaign.
Part of our job as PR consultants is to get you as much targeted exposure as possible. Actually, wait. That’s a really big part of our job, in fact. In order to do that, we first take a look at what kind of exposure you’re currently getting from your past media hits. Simple search engine queries will give you a pretty basic view of just how often your company’s name will pop up around the Net. From there, we can see the reach of the impact those media hits have drawn.
OK, so you have a new media hit. Now you can take that and run with it. Run where? There’s all sorts of places. Here are a few ideas for you:
1) Get social with your media – It’s a great big interactive world out there, and with social networks you can reach out to many different audiences — specifically the one you’re hoping to reach. Take your media coverage and post it on the proper networks. There are social networking tools you can use to actually track the interest in your link, which is a good way to determine how valuable it is for you.
2) Buy your rights – Most publications and stations will allow you to purchase the rights to the story online, so you can legally put it on your Web site and use it for promotional purposes. These reprints, as they’re known in the industry, are usually reasonably priced for local media publications, so it’s not a bad investment for your company’s reputation. Think of it like a trophy. Display it with pride. Use it in your collateral materials. But be certain you can make it visible on the Web.
3) Build relationships from the exposure - While the process of putting the story together is underway, make an effort to let the reporter see you as an expert on a particular subject and let it be known you are available for commentary in future stories. While it might not be the most measurable tactic, it will prove successful if the reporter automatically thinks of you to talk about a particular subject.
4) Transfer your momentum to new markets - Once you’ve received media coverage in your immediate area of business, perhaps now you can take that coverage and use it as an example for a similar story in a different market. While many reporters and editors will tell you they don’t do copy cat stories, they are most likely not telling the truth. As a former reporter, I would look to other markets and see what they were covering and if any of it had a local angle. Well, save the reporter some time and pitch the story with an angle specified to that particular market. More times than not you will get somewhere with them, but you can at least drum up attention for your efforts as well.
You have to realize your results, and also realize how to maximize those results to achieve the most coverage possible. The PR process can be very delicate with these kinds of results, but be certain you are doing everything you can to get the most out of your media campaign.
– DS
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Metrics to monitor in social media
Posted on 24. Feb, 2010 by Creatwood.
It’s always easier to explain the value in something when it’s quantifiable. Such is true for social media, especially when you are a PR firm building a social media policy for a client.
A recent story out of the online publication, Social Times, lists 10 different metrics a company should monitor when determining the ROI. The staggering statistic found in this article is that more than 80 percent of professionals don’t measure ROI for their company’s social media programs. This is something that must be done, especially when your clients come asking about all the cash they dropped on you to give them a good seat on the social media express.
The story initially lists the top three metrics found in a survey by Marketing Sherpa that companies typically use: 1) Visitors and sources of traffic; 2) Network size (followers, fans, members); and 3) Quantity of commentary about brand or product.
These metrics, while important, aren’t telling the whole story about a company’s social media impact. Check out the article in Social Times to learn up on how to track ROI for your client’s social media.
– DS –
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Social Networking can’t be left to amateurs
Posted on 12. Feb, 2010 by Creatwood.
Leaving your social media responsibilities up to the excited youth of today might not be the most effective way to utilize your networking. Of course, today’s teenagers are brought up with more knowledge of technology than those of the generations prior. These kids pick things up quicker and burn on to the next big thing, or so it would seem anyhow. But just because someone understands all this social media knowledge doesn’t mean they understand how to use it for effective marketing practices.
IT Business Edge’s Carl Weinschenk recently interview with social networking blogger Dan Hoang about what companies need to mindful of when hiring social media consultants.
Hoang mentions the companies should be keen to find a consultant with a strong business background, and one who has an understanding of how to utilize social media at a corporate level.
He also mentions the importance of having a social media policy. This is definitely true for all companies, large and small. Most employees today will have a personal Facebook page that links with their company, so it’s always a good idea to have a policy in place to guide employees and to set boundaries for what is considered acceptable networking.
This is definitely an interesting interview. Check more of the story here.
- DS -
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Facebook is often meant to showcase positive, but can also show the negative.=
Posted on 11. Feb, 2010 by Creatwood.
A recent story found in the Florida Times-Union by David Hunt discussed issues facing JEA and its customers over high utility bills, theft and a complaint about workers being too slow on the job. The former complaint springs from a widely publicized, and partially criticized, story from First Coast News that had camera crews follow JEA trucks around for several weeks to monitor actual work activity. The report conveyed an image crisis for JEA, showing JEA crews clocking in but not performing their duties of the job.
As a result of the story, there was plenty of public outcry over the coverage, but it wasn’t necessarily directed at JEA. Instead, First Coast news received a rash of criticism following the airing of the story on its Facebook page, with many viewers slamming the station saying they were to blame for the taunts and backlash JEA and its employees were receiving. Many people felt FCN was acting irresponsibly, and some even went as far as blaming the news station for JEA workers being attacked by dogs because of the report. While many organizations use Facebook to promote the work they do and interact with a constituency, it can also go the other way when that constituency uses the page to rub the company’s nose in something.
Times-Union Columnist Abel Harding touched on the issue and made an interesting point about local news coverage and how people expect it from local news sources, but complain about the results once the story airs.
Read up on the issue and share with me what you think about the ordeal, and also how a Facebook page is intended to showcase the positive aspects, but sometimes falls to your most outspoken critics.
– DS –
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Endangered social networking
Posted on 28. Aug, 2009 by Creatwood.
The world of social media that has become so integral to public relations professionals is under attack. Studies show that social media sites have had a 30 percent increase in hacking breaches since the beginning of the year. I’m sure we all can recall the recent Twitter outage that left so many feeling lost without constant status updates. What would we do if Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and MySpace were suddenly no more? How would we get our information to the public without these tools we have come to rely on?
Fortunately, there are ways to keep yourself and your networking accounts safe from hackers. We may not realize it, but many times, we actually give hackers the information they need to break into our accounts. Often times, social media users publicly display their birthdays, addresses and personal information on their accounts. How hard would it be to guess your password or security question with all of this information readily available? Even more disturbing is that once hackers can access your social media, they can often gain entry to e-mail and other password-secure accounts.
Social media designers have already begun implementing extra security precautions to ward off hackers. Facebook has included additional features, such as verification among network friends before you can publish a blog, additional password requests, and even software to ensure that you are not a computer programmed to enter sites. New users to Facebook now have to enter and re-enter passwords, verify e-mail addresses and decipher warped text during each step of the registration process.
Although it is quite cumbersome, isn’t the safety of Facebook and all its users worth it? There is still not much you can do to block a serious, spyware-savy hacker from accessing your accounts, but you can protect yourself by changing passwords frequently and making sure your personal information and photos are not available to just anyone on the Internet. Take these precautions and worry less about losing your electronic contact with society.