Social media and your brand — A beginers guide

Yesterday afternoon I participated in my first webinar, which was put on by Cision. It was a pretty basic introduction to Social Media but I enjoyed it and learned some interesting things.  I created a summary to share some of the key messages that can be useful when trying to start up social media for your company/brand.

If you are not already monitoring social media, you are missing a lot of conversation and information that may have a significant impact on your brand and what it means to consumers.

Best Practices:

• Ask yourself – How does the target community consume news. Are they on Facebook? Twitter?
• Include your brand’s content in a mix of compelling external content. 1/3 – Personal brand content/promotion, 1/3 sharing other’s content, 1/3 engaging in conversation. These rules will ensure you won’t be branded as a spammer or robot.
• DO NOT ONLY POST YOUR OWN CONTENT OR PEOPLE WON’T PAY ATTENTION. Do NOT be purely self-promotional.
• Go where your audience is — don’t expect them to come to your site for information.
• In social media, there are usually people listening. The challenge is engaging them and interacting.
• People care about interacting with a person – don’t just be a brand name.

Starting a campaign:

1) Determine goal – don’t do it because everyone else is doing it. Establish as thought leader in the community, monitor mentions of the brand, develop relationships with media or riders.

2) Identify Target Community. It doesn’t have to be customers. Could be politicians, critics, media…

3) How should you engage – videos, responding, Blogging?

4) How will impact be measured?

Blogs:

• Interesting fact — 242 982 posts mentioning top 25 Fortune 500 companies in the last 30 days.

• Blogs have more of a “community” feel than traditional media.
• Can include live streaming.
• Podcasting can be streamed/linked from Blogs.
• People want to find information in a more organic way: Blogs, webinars, videos on Youtube, etc.
• Discussing metrics – in niche media, size doesn’t matter, find the “right people”
• Content can be fun.

Monitoring:

• Google Blog Search, Technorati, Twitter Search…
• Make sure only representative for your company responds. Potentialy very contradicting and unprofessional to give 2 different responses.
• Keywords: Don’t only search for your brand, look for point of need terms, competitors, etc…
• Identify 20-30 blogs of interest to your company and follow/link content to gain more followers.
• Transparency is key when dealing with negative feedback, engage your audience and show that you are listening

Tips:

• Google Blog Search: Inbound Links measures content sharing of blogs.
• Type link:theurlyouwanttomeasurecontentof in the search bar.
• Technorati: time filter available to find how many other blogs link to this Blog. Measures unique Blogposts, not every single name mention.

Twitter:

• Mr. Tweet sends you a monthly email with a list of people who have similar interests and posts as you, recommending to you people who you should follow.
• Friend people who share your interests so they push your content too.

Social News Sharing:

• Digg: Useful for finding/posting interesting content (photos, videos, articles, Blogposts, news releases). You can submit links and your own comments to the site and it logs them. Post interesting content pertaining to your brand, along with things that aren’t related to your company.
• Delicious: Same idea with a more sophisticated tagging system to organize content.
• Mixx: Bookmarking for the health care industry.
• Stumble Upon: Bookmarking client with an installable toolbar.
• Reddit: You can vote to make things more/less popular by rating content.

Women’s fitness boot camp kicks off in Thornhill just in time for the holidays.

 

News Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

September 23, 2008

Women’s fitness boot camp kicks off in Thornhill just in time for the holidays.

 

 

 

VAUGHAN, ONTARIO – Beginning October 1, 2008, Johnny Bootcamp offers women a fun, effective way to get in shape, with a 100 per cent satisfaction money-back guarantee.

 

With Halloween, Thanksgiving, Chanukah and Christmas coming up, it’s not uncommon for people to gain 10-15 pounds by New Years Day. Johnny Bootcamp is a program that will combat the inevitable holiday weight-gain. The 45 minute sessions run for four weeks, in which women can choose three days a week, or an all-you-can-train fitness fest. The camp is operated by Jonathan Grnak a Certified Fitness Professional.  

 

The program helps women get started with a fitness regime while teaching them which exercises will achieve desired results. Grnak says, “Women really enjoy fitness camps because they provide a jump start, with fast results.” Johnny Bootcamp offers a safe, supportive and fun work out environment for busy professionals or stay at home moms who have trouble maintaining a consistent fitness regimen. 

 

Just like ‘real’ boot camps, Johnny Bootcamp instils a discipline that will carry over into other areas of life. Grnak adds, “The coaching is 100% positive – I’m no drill sergeant. There is no yelling or negative motivation whatsoever. The consistency that is developed over the 4 weeks makes an amazing difference in your fitness level.” 

 

The camp includes a variety of exercises:  weight training, calisthenics, basic athletic conditioning, obstacle courses, flexibility training and more. According to Grnak, there will also be a variety of non-traditional exercises guaranteed to bring rapid results. Results campers can expect to achieve include a 3-5% reduction in body fat, 5-12 pounds weight loss, 1-3 inch reduction in the midsection and a 100% increase in confidence.

 

The camp offers the benefits of coaching from a personal trainer in an environment of camaraderie with others who share similar goals.  Each woman will work at her own pace and all levels of fitness are welcome. 

 

The first camp starts on October 1^st and comes with a 100% money back satisfaction guarantee.

 

More information is available at http://www.johnnybootcamp.com or by calling 647-280-5397.

 

-30-

 

Contact information:

Jonathan Grnak

jgrnak@rogers.com

647 280 5397

http://www.johnnybootcamp.com

Two days until The Dark Knight!!!

I have been waiting all year to see this movie and it is already SOLD OUT! I bought advanced tickets to go with a friend on opening night but he wanted the IMAX experience instead so I returned the tickets and tried to buy IMAX, unsuccessfully. Now I am stuck checking Craigslist every 20 minutes for new “For Sale” postings and refreshing the ticket sales website hoping that they will release another batch. How can I not see the most anticipated movie of the year on opening night!?!?!

 

The pre-publicity for The Dark Knight was crazy. My manager’s brother is a huge batman fan and had been Googling the film for the last year on a daily basis, trying to find out info about the filming and release.

One day he came across a website with the batman logo and a countdown. Intrigued, he book marked it and kept checking back every couple days to see what the timer was counting down to.

Finally, after months of waiting, the day arrived and he went back to check out the site. It now had a form in which you enter your email, address and phone number. Curious to see what it was all about, he entered his information. Nothing happened.

A couple weeks later a package arrived at his house and when he opened it he found stacks of the Gotham Times. On the first page of each identical newspaper was an advertisement directing him to go to a bakery in Toronto and it gave the address, date and time he should arrive.

He went to the bakery and was given another package. This time, the package contained a cake. It said to call a number written on the cake and eat it, so he did. Inside the cake was an evidence bag, complete with Gotham City Police printing, that contained a cell phone, a charger, a Joker playing card and a note with instructions to call the number only from that phone.

He called it and reached “rent-a-clown” and was told to keep the phone on him at all times for further instructions.

A couple weeks later he received a text with directions to an alley where he was instructed to go. He went to the destination and was met by a man he didn’t know.

It turns out about 200 to 300 people in the GTA experienced the same wild goose chase as him. It was all planned as an elaborate way to chose the first people who would get to screen the new batman movie in IMAX before anyone else.

 

I think that is a pretty incredible media stunt. It’s crazy! I don’t know if I would have followed all those clues and entered all my information or met some stranger in a dark alley but I love the idea. Everyone who hears the story will remember it and tell their friends. It is a great way to get the word out, stir interest and make a scene. An article about the stunt can be found here.

Unfortunately for me though, I know that the marketing and publicity for this movie was done incredibly and everyone who is anyone will be at that movie this Friday night. Just not me.

 

Get Satisfaction – May 29, 2008

I have been following two companies on getsatisfaction.com were Brightkite, an active company with several representatives, and Three Rings Design Inc., an inactive company with no representatives listed.

Brightkite has four employees listed that participate in the forum. Brady, Co-founder; Martin May, Founder; Tony, Web developer; and Lesley, Employee. The interaction between Martin May and users of the site was very consistent. He responded and conversed with them regularly and it seemed very natural and appreciated by users.  They put forth a very welcoming and encouraging message to users, as stated on their page “Brightkite has something to say to you. Yes, you! ‘We’re here to help!’” It was easy to find the representatives contact information because it is neatly organized at the side of the page near the top. Headings and contact links also help to make it easily accessible.

It was not easy to get in contact with anyone from Three Rings Design Inc., probably because there were no representatives of the company listed.  They do not seem to monitor or respond to user comments and were not reachable through this avenue. They would greatly benefit from having someone in charge of monitoring the page and responding to customer questions as they promised in their initial post.  Brightkite seemed to have much more flow in conversation than Three Rings Design Inc. and I feel that it was mainly because of their commitment to replying and being involved in the forum.

The site was easy to sign up for but it was not as simple or logical to navigate my way to personal options such as changing my password. I was unable to choose my own password to begin with and the random one that they assigned to me will be easily forgotten before I even finish this review. 

Getsatisfaciton.com would be useful for people who would like a forum to discuss their thoughts and concerns with representatives of the company and be able to communicate with each other.  The ease of navigating around the site would probably rate about eight out of 10 on my simplicity-meter.  People who are familiar with social media should have no trouble figuring out the features, but other users, like my mother, may have a hard time figuring out some of the gadgets and navigating around.

Best Practices for Online PR

According to the article “What Is Best Practice Public Relations” written by Robert A. Kelley, there are three key objectives involved when participating in “best practices”. He believes the most important goals include knowing how a target audience perceives the organization, who the tactics should be aimed at and what changes in perception and behaviours are desired.  Knowing this will allow you to set a goal and eventually measure its success.

I believe in following a bunch of best practices of my own. They are as follows:

1.       Be professional. Keep personal and professional life separate. By creating separate blogs or accounts on delicious or other social media sites, you can keep your private life hidden from co-workers and people who do not need to know everything you don’t want them to know.

 

2.       Make sure you talk about something that people care about. You don’t want people to say “so what?” Get to the point and be interesting.  An article on Echoditto about best practices blogging lists many important tips that can be very useful for bloggers. The three that I find most important are: 

           a)   Engage with other blogs and your own readers

           b)   Keep the material fresh and exciting

           c)   Give people a reason to return

3.       This brings me to my next point. Get involved and become known. Get your name out. By engaging in other people’s blogs and commenting and getting yourself known, you are becoming more credible in the PR community and more people will begin to follow you as well.

 

4.       Online reputation is very important. It is the first impression that you are making on a lot of people and it will carry over into potential offline personal and professional relationships.

Melanie McBride Online has an article entitled “Survey: Who am I this time? Identity and reputation online.”  The blog entry discusses the importance of online reputations. On July 1, 2008, McBride writes, “it may be time to do a little online identity makeover if you wish to be known for something other than your late night video production or emotional status update. Furthermore, the consequences of questionable content are different for well connected, influential power holders than they are for ordinary citizens.”

 

5.       Effective communication is VERY important. Sometime there are miscommunications when talking on the internet. Be sure you get the story straight and don’t make assumptions. People will jump to conclusions so be very clear and concise.

 

6.       Keep up with the newest trends. Don’t be out of the loop because you will miss a lot and fall behind others in the industry.

 

7.       Maintain healthy relationships. You will continue to interact with people you meet online again and again. The industry is smaller than you think. Be prepared to continue running into people online and offline.

 

8.       Don’t be two-faced. People will find out your motives eventually and it will look very bad on you. Online PR always has an e-paper-trail. This goes both ways. There is a recent trend of buying and selling fake accounts on sites such as Facebook or MySpace. Be careful. You never know who you are talking to. According to an article on Valleywag, fake, already cultivated profiles are being sold on eBay.  The article states that “An eBay seller going by the handle pseudopr415 is offering 10 Facebook profiles, each with a minimum of 200 friends, for sale in an eBay auction.” The seller explains in the auction that “Every single one of my profiles has at minimum 200 friends. I have aggregated the friends for each persona organically.”
Not only has he created fake names and personal information for these profiles, but he has also developed a persona with an interest on specific subjects/topics,
integrated that individual into communities/forums based on their interests, stimulated conversation inside communities/forums and interacted with others, established the persona inside the communities/forums and then added friends. Some examples of the characters he is selling are:

·         Samantha (age 19) – loves music, makes art, and enjoys the outdoors

·         John (age 35) – health purist, into yoga, active runner, amateur cyclists, and into healthy eating. 

·         Erik (age 29) – Big beer drinker, watches a ton of sports, likes sports cars, and likes to cook

·         Kristen (age 40) – Live at home mom, loves cooking for her family, wishes she had a new car, wants a vacation to the beach, and is really into gardening

  

9.       DO NOT blog or Seesmic video blog while drunk/intoxicated. Current or future employers are bound to see it. Lauren Cooper of Indiana University writes “With many more recruiters screening potential candidates through Internet searches, career counsellors are advising students to edit their online personas. Eighty-three percent of executive recruiters revealed they use search engines when making hiring decisions, according to a 2007 survey conducted by ExecuNet. Forty-three percent reported eliminating a candidate based on what they’ve found.”

 

10.   Last but definitely not least, don’t post anything that you want to keep private because once it is online, it is fair game and anyone can read or use it. This may be the most important because things you say online can come back far down the road to bite you in the ass and it probably will.  Howard Rheingold talks to Fred Turner about social media sites in a video blog here.   Turner says that it is very hard to leave these sites and take your material with you because you don’t know the entrapment that goes on from organizations such as MySpace and Facebook.  

     “It’s even more complicated if you look at a phenomenon like you being really locked into these places. And with that I mean basically it’s very hard to leave if you are there for a longer time. Imagine you are on MySpace and you are running a blog there, and you are uploading photos to Flickr for many years, you are on Facebook every day and have 500 friends. It’s very very hard to leave without leaving all this material, including your friends behind because these companies make it impossible to take this material with you. You cannot export it and this is the very core of the business plan of many of these companies.  So that I think makes it really a capture of community. So you are in a way, entrapped.”

 

Please feel free to add any of your own and let me know what you think.

Twitter: worthy of social worship, or worthless?

Twitter. The first time I heard of this application was when Maggie Fox, of Social Media Group, came in as a guest speaker for my CCPR program at Centennial College. I decided to create an account to see what it was all about. After only a few short minutes I became bored. No one I knew was on the site and it really didn’t interest me to read about the lives of people that I didn’t know.  I closed the page and didn’t give it another thought until second semester Online PR class.

Now that almost the whole class has an account I decided to give it another shot. I found that it is a great way to stay updated, not only on what people are doing every second of their lives, but on important information as well. Last week when no one knew what was going on with one of our online assignments, everyone was on Twitter trying to figure it out. It didn’t matter if people were at home, in the computer lab, or in the cafeteria. Everyone had this central place to go to and see if anyone else knew what was happening.

For those who have not used twitter, this YouTube video gives a pretty good overview.  

After getting the iPhone in April, I found an application for it that allows you to connect to twitter.  It takes the application one step further and allows you to read tweets of people who are geographically near you at that moment. I guess this could come in handy in some situations, like if you are in a flood and need to find someone nearby to canoe over to rescue you, or if you are at a convention and want to see if anyone else is as bored as you and checking out their twitter account. I still do not have enough experience with the program to determine if it is useful or totally useless, but I will keep trying.  What’s your take on Twitting?

I love my iPhone, but don’t love Rogers!

For my birthday this year I was given the lovely gift of an iPhone. I love it. I use it for everything; email, gps, weather reports, texting, picture taking, internet, twitter etc… It is the ultimate time waster. I can install various random programs, someone which are totally pointless such as the application that makes your phone vibrate like an electric shaver and displays the image of the side of the shaver so you can pretend to shave your face. Yah, thats something I really don’t need but at least I have the option if I want it!

Anyways, getting to the point. I am currently on contract with Rogers. I like their reception, their customer service most of the time, and their selection of phones. The only thing I do not love is their price plans. I often end up going WAAAAAAAYYYYY over my minutes even with a 700 daytime, unlimited evenings and weekends after 6, and free Rogers to Rogers calling. Their data plans are what really piss me off though. Telus has a plan for 15 dollars per month for unlimited data and email but Rogers has nothing nearly as reasonable. The most cost-effective plan that they can offer is a measly 2gb per month for an outrageous 60 dollars!!! That is barely enough data to load my emails.

They say that they may have more options once the iPhone comes to Canada in July but knowing Rogers, we will still be screwed over. 

Update: Now that the iPhone has been release in Canada, there are online petitions such as www.ruinediphone.com that allow rogers customers to voice their dissaproval with Roger’s lack of affordable options and show the need for competetive pricing with other companies in Canada and especially the US.

Facebook = Stalkbook

So I know we have been talking a lot about how social media, such as Facebook, is useful for networking, staying in touch, finding old friends, advertising, getting a message out and many other useful and time wasting gadgets.

Well, there is also a scary side to Facebook. The side that people know about but often don’t really do anything to protect themselves from. Once you put something on Facebook, it is public knowledge. Anyone can see it, read it, use it or pass on that information to anyone in the world. Many people put lots of information on their Facebook that can be harmful if the wrong person found it. Full names, birth dates, home address, phone number, email, photos, education and work information, and much more are available to anyone with an Internet access.

Recently, a friend of mine started receiving random text messages from someone who knew an awful lot about her and said it was coincidence. It turns out it was someone she went to high school with and hadn’t seen in years. He found her on Facebook, looked at her pictures and interests  and started contacting her acting like they had a lot in common to start conversation with him. He started sending her gifts in the mail such as expensive jewelery, autographed sports merchandise, spa package gift certificates and more… It is pretty creepy the stuff that people can find out about you from your facebook.

Here is a video that I thought was pretty funny, and accurate:

I can only offer a few small pointers to try to keep yourself safe from this kind of behaviour. If you are going to make a facebook account, put a minimal ammount of personal information on it as possible. Don’t put your address, phone number or anything that you don’t want the whole world knowing. If there is even one person that you don’t want seeing something, DO NOT POST IT! You can also set your preferences so that only certain groups of people can see your photos or your profile. It can be certain networks, groups of friends, or custom lists of individuals. Use this privacy feature and you will be able to screen some of the weirdos out. Social media can be a useful tool in an electronic age, but when it comes to putting your life on the internet, BE CAREFUL!