Posts Tagged ‘social media’

PR Daily published a story this year from PR professional Lauren Fernandez on the 11 signs that someone works in public relations. (The story originally appeared on Fernandez’s blog.) The article unleashed a flood of comments that PR Daily compiled into a second story (“42 more signs you work in PR“).

Here are the first 22 signs – How many can you relate to? (And don’t lie! )

1. Your day starts and ends with a cup of coffee.

2. You can power-walk in 5-inch heels with your laptop bag while checking your BlackBerry.

3. Inside jokes with your colleagues will get you through the day — especially the insanely stressful ones.

4. You constantly engage in “PR is dead” and “the press release doesn’t have a place in business” arguments.

5. You are so used to putting the client first that you usually forget to eat lunch.

6. It’s detrimental to your health and workday when you forget your headphones.

7. You can toggle among a PowerPoint presentation, a press release, Twitter strategy and PSA outlines — all in an hour.

8. You recite billing codes in your sleep.

9. You preface Happy Hour with: “Sorry, I need to keep my phone on the table. I have to be connected to email and phone just in case.”

10. You know more about AP style than Microsoft Office. Because of this, you’re a regular in the IT department.

11. You proudly put “PR pro” in your Twitter bio, knowing it’s the one place you don’t have to explain your job.

12. Your speed-dials connect to the CEO, CFO, CIO, CRO and Arby’s.

13. Your BlackBerry sleeps with you every night. Your better half does not.

14. You no longer count calories — just your re-tweets.

15. You start to rock in your chair when you can’t catch a look at your BlackBerry over dinner.

16. “Relax” time is in the shower when you always seem to come up with the best PR pitches.

17. After your coffee, you spend 20 minutes deleting Google Alerts of clients, competitors and everything in between.

18. Your home number is on your office voicemail “just in case a reporter calls,” and non-PR people regularly express surprise that you’d let it out. You don’t understand why they even think that.

19. The first thing you do when you start your day is “communications triage,” and it often begins at home.

20. Your client wants to be on Oprah. Alternately, you are beyond grateful that this is Oprah’s final season — so you never have to hear a client say they want to be on Oprah again.

21. EVERYTHING in your life — from doing the laundry to playing a round of golf — is recorded in your mind in 15-minute billable increments.

22. You set three alarms to rise at 4 a.m. to make the early morning in-studio segment.

Sound like you? Standby for the remainder of the list – there’s more to come!

Do I matter? Does what I do matter? These are questions that many people probably ask themselves every day, both on a personal and professional level. If you’re working in the world of public relations and marketing, though, you may have reason to doubt the validity of your work, due to phrases such as “the press release is dead” and “PR is dead” being tossed around.

But as Doug Flora says, nothing could be further from the truth. In this article, “10 reasons PR matters,” he lists the following reasons why the importance of effective communications has never been more pronounced than in today’s integrated media environment.

1. In the social universe, messaging is key.
It isn’t enough to engage on social media, or have lots of “likes” and followers. If an organization isn’t communicating its key messages, then the social media effort is a waste of time. That’s where the professional communicators come in.

2. Reputation is a C-level concern.
Reputation is top of mind, even at the executive level, and especially at the biggest companies. We’re even seeing chief reputation officers being appointed. Good reputation management is good PR.

3. Crisis is chronic.
Recent history has shown us how crucial effective crisis management is. And in today’s fast-paced media landscape, an ultra-quick response with finely-tuned messaging is a must.

4. Visibility is a both an art and a science.
The rise of social media and SEO metrics have convinced some that brand visibility is solely a matter of numbers. However, good positioning is also the product of craftsmanship. We can’t forget that the quality and targeting of the message is of paramount importance.

5. Marketing people are not necessarily social media geniuses.
It’s popular to say that social media management is the domain of marketing. But social media is about communities and engagement, and the goal is to achieve earned influence. While PR has some work to do when it comes to mastering social media, it is still the best equipped to leverage the social message.

6. The media is alive and kicking.
The scenery has changed, but the media remains the primary influencer of public opinion. And while PR people have had to grow and adapt to keep up with the media’s new modus operandi, they are still the pros at this.

7. It’s the economy, stupid.
Many organizations, especially smaller ones, are on tighter budgets and don’t have as much to spend as they might like on integrated marketing. PR is the most cost-effective way to communicate to a broad audience. It’s just a matter of convincing this to clients and prospects.

8. Content and context
From blog posts to bylines to webinars to tweets, good content builds the face of the organization. PR should steer that ship because communicators know when, why and how best to send the message. Providing the right context gives content the chance to really flourish.

9. Values make your brand.
Especially in the era of the Global Village, an organization’s values are of utmost important to the public and make up a bigger portion of its brand strength than ever.

10. There is, in fact, a ROI.
But don’t just slap a dollar value on media placements and call it a day. Part of the challenge of communicating ROI is convincing the C-level that PR builds a reservoir of goodwill and that public confidence in a brand is the measure of that goodwill. Quantifying public confidence can be accomplished through a combination of surveys, media tone analysis, traditional ad values and circulation numbers, market penetration, brand buzz, etc.

So, say it with me: “I matter. What I do matters. PR matters.”

Still don’t think video is an essential part of the world of PR and marketing? Check out these statistics:

• More than 50% of all Internet bandwidth is used for video.
• Two billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.
• Thirty-three percent of mobile data is watching online videos.
• More video content is uploaded to YouTube in a 60-day period than the three major U.S. television networks created in 60 years.

And as public relations departments continue to take on more social media responsibilities, the creation and distribution of videos will become even more important. In his article, 10 reasons PR pros should use video, David Murdico discusses 10 key ways that video is being used by PR professionals to help brands, businesses,organizations and individuals tell their stories.

1. Pitches and press releases. Videos make pitches and press releases infinitely more interesting and engaging. Video gives journalists, bloggers and publications more content to share with their visitors.

2. Building trust and credibility with targeted groups. Video builds trust. Instead of reading a text quote from a company spokesperson, viewers are able to actually see that spokesperson speaking.

3. Raising brand awareness. Videos that offer something of value—such as cash, prizes or 15 minutes of fame — can spread like crazy and highlight a product’s involvement in a contest or promotion, raising awareness of the product and, by extension, the brand.

4. Product launches. Viral videos and branded entertainment are high-profile ways to announce new products or refresh old ones. Video gives PR teams a visual, entertaining and engaging tool around which to center campaigns.

5. Crisis management, shifting public opinion, corporate and CEO reputation management. In 2009, when two Domino’s Pizza employees made a video of themselves sticking cheese in their noses and messing around with customers’ sandwiches, the company was quick to respond with a video apology from Domino’s USA President, Patrick Doyle. Videos help reach large audiences and supply talking points for the media — both social and mainstream — to propel the video messages further.

6. Content development. Company newsletters, blogs, speeches and annual reports are being sprinkled with videos. PR teams don’t need to produce a viral video hit for every newsletter, but they can encourage key employees to create video content at events and parties.

7. Social media marketing. If social media is UPS, video is the package. If social media is the rocket launcher, video is the rocket. Video can be branded as heavily or as lightly as the creative and messaging dictate, and the larger story can be shared and developed via social media. Having a PR message go viral across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and other video sites and social outlets creates a new story that can then be pitched to, or organically picked up by, mainstream media outlets — enabling the message to reach TV, radio and print audiences as well.

8. Social and environmental responsibility. For brands, businesses and organizations, being socially and environmentally responsible can be a key way of differentiating themselves from their competitors. Video can bring the faces of individuals and positive actions of these companies to the forefront and help move brands closer to new and existing fans and customers.

9. Events. Although a single live event reaches only the people attending, social video enables PR teams to share the event with everyone. This increases the exposure of the event and of the brand, product, organization or personality.

10. Political campaigns. Politics is about persuading people to trust a candidate, motivating them to convince others that they should trust the candidate and getting everyone to vote for that candidate. Politicians are often recorded publicly for videos that can take on lives of their own — but funny, emotional or serious original video content can be produced and launched in order to manage the direction and spread of both positive and negative conversation.

It’s time to pick up your video camera, press record — and start exploring the possibilities!

A supermassive black hole: Twitter's big brother?

More than 70 percent of tweets on Twitter get no reaction from one’s followers.

Sysomos, a market research company that specializes in social media, examined 1.2 billion tweets posted over a two-month period and found that only 29 percent produced a reply or a retweet. Of those that did get a response, 19.3 percent were retweets and the rest replies. This means that of the 1.2 billion tweets Sysomos examined, only 72 million tweets — that’s 6 percent – were retweeted.

The study found that 92.4 percent of all retweets happen within the first hour of the original tweet being published, while an additional 1.63 percent of retweets take place in the second hour and 0.94 percent in the third hour. This means that if a tweet is not retweeted in the first hour, it’s not likely to be retweeted at all.

I continue to see the trailer for an upcoming movie based on the founding of the social networking website Facebook, called “The Social Network.” It is already earning huge buzz from the movie moguls of the world, making its way to the front of the Oscar pack. But is the movie based on fact — or is it purely fiction — or does it matter?

What makes a good movie? Drama, action, adventure, love? If you feel an emotion, from shedding a tear to a pulse-pounding adrenaline rush, does that make the movie a winner? And does distorting the facts matter to the audience when the entertainment value is high?

Wanting to understand more about the movie, I read several articles in anticipation of its October 1 release. One article says, “Any film about real people, real companies and public disputes are always going to come under some scrutiny. There will always be a ‘he said, she said’ no matter how documented the events appear to be. Therefore, it’s no surprise that one of fall’s most anticipated releases, The Social Network, is being criticized from its subject matter: the founders of Facebook.”

Many accounts detail that co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and former Facebook President Sean Parker are cast in a very negative light and that some of the scenes are completely untrue. Others say details in the movie are “horrifically unfair.” Zuckerberg is even quoted as saying, “Honestly, I wish that when people try to do journalism or write stuff about Facebook that they at least try to get it right. The movie is fiction.”

But is it? Who will ever know the truth? The movie’s producer, Scott Rudin, says the movie is about conflicting truths, as recalled by Mr. Zuckerberg and his associates, largely in a pair of court cases that ended in settlements. “There is no such thing as the truth,” he says.

Well, with a movie drawing up so much controversy — and one that seems to be packed with excitement, friendship, betrayal, drama, money and action — maybe it doesn’t really matter if the movie is based on the “truth.” Right now, Facebook is trying to ignore the release of the movie. However, “Facebook might be forced to deliver a forceful rebuttal once the film has its premiere, especially if it turn(s) out to be a hit,” says another insider. The truth will set you free — or will it?

If you haven’t at least heard of Facebook and Twitter, you have probably been living under a rock — or in denial. But as quickly as you get used to the ins and out of the most popular social media sites, more are on the rise. And these sites want to know where you are, where you’re going and where you’ve been.

Welcome to the location-based social networks, such as Foursquare — which I have previously discussed in another post. I tried out Foursquare — and I while I’m not super familiar with it, I can see the appeal. You “check in” to businesses and other locations in real time, and many places are now offering special perks for their most frequent visitor — called the “mayor” — and others who check in.

But what about Blippy? Customers can tell their friends about the products that they buy through this site, which links merchant accounts to broadcast members’ purchases to the world. Blippy lets you communicate about and share purchases with friends by syncing already existing e-commerce accounts to Blippy such as iTunes, Netflix, Woot, eBay and more.

And then you’ve got TagWhat, which takes a leap into the world of Augmented Reality (AR). It allows people to tag real-world locations and attach information, reviews, links, photos, videos, notes and so on to those particular spots, whether tied to their current location or not. Users can also follow other people and merge their respective ‘markers’ together in an effort to build a global network of augmented reality hotspots.

A little overwhelming, right? Well, maybe it’s best to start with a toe in the ever-changing social media pool instead of taking a flying leap headfirst. But whatever you do, start swimming!

I really can’t believe it’s 80 degrees outside in the middle of April. Things are starting to bloom, allergies are starting to annoy, and construction is everywhere. It’s also the time for a new crop of students to graduate college and enter the workforce. And when I found a very interesting blog post from the Council of Public Relations Firms dealing with new hires and tech-savvy Millennials, I was intrigued. (as I am considered one of those tech-savvy Millennials:)

Do you know into which generation you fall? According to most sources, the following applies:

Silent Generation [born 1928-1945]
Baby Boomer Generation [born 1946-1964]
Gen Xer [born 1965-1980]
Gen Yer/Millennial [born 1981 or after]

Millennials are known for being confident, self-expressive, liberal, upbeat and receptive to new ideas and ways of living. But they may not be as loyal to their employers and companies as past generations. This post brought up some great tips on how PR agencies can attract, and keep, their new talent, including offering career advancement opportunities and a greater focus on state-of-the-art technology and social media.

And just because I’m on Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter and send a mountainous number of texts and e-mails a day… I don’t know that that necessarily makes me tech-savvy:) — but I try!

Is change a good thing? Or maybe is TOO much change a good thing? I just listened to a Webinar about a change in our e-mail distribution system. And there have been several re-designs to the almighty Facebook, from an added newsfeed to a new layout to countless new applications. New blogs are started daily. The list of social media and social networking sites is seemingly endless and continues to grow.

How can you keep track of it all — and do you want to? As soon as you learn the ins and outs of one site or one blog or one technology, it seems a re-design is right around the corner or a new product is on the horizon. And then you have to re-learn something new all over again. Many users don’t like change, and as a product becomes more popular, users may grow ever more resistant to change.

An article in TIME said, “Perhaps what civilization needs is a NOT-SO-FAST button. In the aging population of the developed world, many people are already tired of trying to keep up with the latest cool new tech. The market for change could dry up, and lock-in might again become the norm.”

Try telling that to the 300,000 customers that purchased the new iPad on the very first day they went on sale. And you won’t hear that from the 500,000 users on Foursquare, which some label the “new Facebook.”

So I guess if you can’t beat em, join em — or get left behind in the flurry of new technology.

Indiana-based SteadyGRO has named Daniel Shinall as the company’s social media marketer. Shinall is responsible for the daily maintenance of the SteadyGRO Web site, the company’s activities on Facebook and Twitter and implementing SteadyGRO’s online marketing strategies.

Originally from Savannah, Ga., he served as an intern in the Information/Technology department at SteadyGRO’s parent company Syndicate Sales Inc. during the summer of 2009. Prior to joining SteadyGRO, he was a sales specialist at Circuit City in Savannah and a landscaper at Cottonwood Homebuilders in Richmond Hill, Ga. He graduated from Richmond Hill (Georgia) High School and is attending Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah.

SteadyGRO is an inert, sterile product that optimizes soilless plant growth. Used by home and greenhouse gardeners, professional gardeners and hydroponic growers and available in plugs, sheets, blocks and slabs, SteadyGRO helps growers maximize their results when growing food crops including cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, popular flowering plants, woody ornamentals, vines, ivy and more. SteadyGRO is eco-friendly and can be reduced from its original form to a mass of less than 11 percent or incinerated for bio-mass purposes. SteadyGRO is manufactured by Syndicate Sales Inc., a 60-year staple in the international floral industry that manufactures, imports and distributes more than 1,500 floral-related items in the U.S. and overseas.

Recently, Purdue University research concluded that SteadyGRO outperformed rockwool, a soilless product that has been a mainstay in the industry for decades. Overall, the study concluded, SteadyGRO H+ was the best-performing soilless growth medium in terms of average grams of fruit harvested per plant in tomatoes and cucumbers. SteadyGRO H+ produced 47 percent more cucumber in terms of fruit weight per plant than rockwool, according to the study, and both SteadyGRO and SteadyGRO H+ outperformed rockwool in promoting the growth of tomatoes by a 23 percent gain in harvested weight.

Like many companies, our fax machine has been pretty quiet lately.  No, it’s not dead.  It’s just not being used.  Email is our number one means of communication, along with cell phones, land-lines (yeah, still) and social media. 

And speaking of social media, this article’s headline by Sam Brace, special for Inside Tucson Business, states 2010: The Year Social Media Comes of Age for Businesses.  There are some interesting facts in the article.  Below is an excerpt.

– KRC Research, based in Washington, D.C., found that 88 percent of 200 executives of nonprofits it surveyed experimented with social media in 2009, and 85 percent plan to actively use it in their organizations this year. MarketingSherpa, a research firm specializing in tracking marketing efforts, reports that most industries are increasing their budgets for social media marketing in 2010.

Behind these increases is a booming population of new users of social media. Statistics show that 66 percent of global Internet users have visited social networks and that more have used these sites than traditional e-mail. Facebook grew to more than 300 million users in 2009. Twitter grew by 1,382 percent in February 2009. These sites are where people are gathering and there’s little to indicate they will leave for greener pastures in 2010. –

So here’s my question…will email be the next to die.  If you read this article by Dave Rosenberg at the CNET Blog Network, you might think we heading down that path.

Perhaps it’s too early to kill the fax machine (or email… how do you kill email?) with a baseball bat, as seen in the movie Office Space.  But I don’t think that day is too far away.