• Find Time for Social Media: How To Map Out a Plan for the C-Suite

    By Jessica Donlon | Posted Jan 26, 2012 | 4 Comment(s) | Filed in: Business, Social Media

    PR2020-time-for-social-mediaExecutives can no longer ignore the power of social media. The social media policy is in place, the communications department is managing a corporate brand, employees are active, and now it’s time for the C-suite to get active! 

    The challenge for agencies and marketers has shifted from convincing your C-suite about the value of social media, to helping them find the time to make social media a natural part of the day. So many executives still “have trouble finding the time to tweet.”

    This post breaks down the time commitments needed to set up and maintain social media profiles, assuming a low-to-moderate level of activity, based on our client experience to date. Encourage the upgrade from social media lurker to active conversationalist with a strategic approach and the following roadmap.

    Present a Phased Approach

    The world of social media can seem overwhelming to someone who barely has time to squeeze in a decent lunch break, so break down entrance into the social world into more digestible pieces:

    1.  Foundational Activities: Includes the time needed to set up all accounts, monitoring tools, and alerts or notifications as needed.

    Note: For the most efficient use of everyone’s time, make sure your executive has access to needed social networks and platforms before diving in. Then, carve a good chunk of time (1-2 hours) for a meeting where the executive and your agency/marketing lead can physically run through foundational activities and account setups together.

     2.  Daily Activities: Includes checking-in for alerts and mentions, and responding as necessary; checking an RSS feed—like Netvibes or Google Reader—for a pulse on industry news; gradually building connections; and posting or scheduling a few industry-related updates and interactions with corporate accounts.

    3.  Weekly Activities: Includes posting company headlines or new content, article or blog comments, and answers to LinkedIn, Quora or Focus questions.

    Prioritize Networks & Set Expectations on Time Investment

    How active your executives would like to be, as well as the industry-fit, user base and potential return of each network, will help you focus social media activity. Offer consultation by prioritizing the following networks for your execs. Then help executives explore capabilities and opportunities of each.

    LinkedIn

    May be one of the best opportunities for professional connections, especially for B2B. Executives can take advantage of the network by responding to invitations and messages, as well as identifying and participating in related group discussions, Q&A, and keeping an updated status.

    • Set-Up Time Needed: 45-60 minutes
    • Ongoing Activity: 30-60 minutes/week (assumes answering one question per week, updating status when an article is relevant, and monitoring groups)

    Twitter

    Drive inbound traffic and create online community with this network. Make sure that executives post a few tweets before following others, gradually follow others so the ratio moves up on scale, and participate in conversations with industry influencers. 

    • Set-Up Time Needed: 15 minutes
    • Ongoing Activity: 60 minutes/week (assumes sharing articles after reading/commenting, and low levels of engagement with priority follows)

    Facebook

    If your brand has a page, make sure executives have a clean profile and are connected. Teach them how to use the network with a balanced professional and personal presence, mentioning other brands and industry articles, uploading pictures, etc.

    • Set-Up Time Needed: 15 minutes
    • Ongoing Activity: 30 minutes/week

    Google+

    Encourage executives—especially those who contribute to a corporate blog, so you can connect a rel=author tag—to set up a G+ account and take advantage of the platform’s capabilities to follow conversations, impact search, upload content without limitations and more.

    • Set-Up Time Needed: 15 minutes
    • Ongoing Activity: 30 minutes/week

    Blog Commenting

    Reading and responding to others’ blog posts is an effective strategy for connecting with target audiences, establishing thought leadership and increasing an organization’s visibility.

    • Set-Up Time Needed: Minimal
    • Ongoing Activity: 30-60 minutes/week (assumes commenting on 2-3 posts per week, and checking in on responses)

    Curated Networks (think Scoop.It or Delicious)

    Something executives may already be doing privately: saving relevant industry articles. If your executive is constantly reading the latest news, encourage him or her to go public with a stack or online magazine that can be linked to and shared with online communities.

    • Set-Up Time Needed: 15 minutes
    • Ongoing Activity: 15-30 minutes/week (install plug-ins so adding reads to curation sites becomes a natural reaction with minimal time commitment)

    Q&A Networks (think Quora or Focus)

    Connect with business experts over decision-making information via online communities geared toward Q&A, research and being a resource of information. These networks are also great for positioning executives and their organizations as thought leaders.

    • Set-Up Time Needed: 15-30 minutes
    • Ongoing Activity: 15-30 minutes/week (assumes answering one question per week)

    As Tim Gunn Says, Make It Work.

    How much time do you spend on social media each month, and how much do you think your C-suite expects to spend? Setting realistic expectations up front can help turn what may seem like a daunting task into a manageable reality.

    Share your thoughts or lessons learned in moving the C-suite to the social scene below. 

     

    Jessica Donlon is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Jessica on Twitter: @jessicadonlon.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • PR, Customer Service and Social Media Walk Into a Bar ...

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Jan 17, 2012 | 3 Comment(s) | Filed in: Crisis Communications, Public Relations, Social Media

    This is a variation of our standard Inbound Industry Report, taking a deep dive into one hot topic from the second week of 2012—the convergence of PR and customer service driven by social media. Stay tuned for an overview of last week's other big news: Google Search Plus Your World.

    cheers

    In the wake of the N-Control customer-service-turned-PR disaster, last week shined light on three more companies that faced PR issues driven by social media mishaps. Quick overviews: 

    As Gini Dietrich (@ginidietrich) pointed out, specifically in regard to the first two incidents above: “Neither one of these things are public relations issues. They both are culture, HR, and operations issues. But they both became public relations crisis because their customers now have this thing called social media at their disposal.” 

    And we can only expect to see more of this in the future.

    In fact, a recent report by customer care outsourcing provider Sitel found that:

    • Consumers—particularly those in Gen Y and beyond—demand customer service through social media. Fifteen percent of 16-24 year olds prefer the medium for customer service relations, and 7% of this demographic send social media complaints as the first step when facing a problem.
    • In addition, 57% of all consumers surveyed reported that when they have a problem, they first search for a solution online before reaching out directly to the brand for assistance.
    • Note: Data is based on a survey of more than 1,000 consumers in Great Britain, aged 16-64.

    Key Takeaway: Corporate social media savvy goes beyond marketing. Hold a social media forum, training session or workshop with key players in your organization across departments to discuss its impact on the entire business. Here are a few suggestions for your baseline corporate social media needs: 

    • Develop a social media policy with clearly defined rules, expectations and enforcement.
    • Use listening/monitoring tools to catch brand mentions, stay abreast of industry news and trends, and better understand your audience.
    • Define customer service policies and response times.
    • Develop a crisis communications/PR plan for social media.
    • Define ownership of the company voice through social media, including corporate accounts and employee representatives that can speak on the company’s behalf.
    • Don’t be robotic. While policies and procedures are necessary, remember that individual experiences are unique, and in some cases deviation from “the norm” is needed to make an impact or fix a sticky situation.

    For more on this topic:

    Remember that it’s not just about the brand or corporate accounts. In The Rise of the Profersonal, Andrew Hanelly (@hanelly) discusses responsibilities of using social media for modern professionals.

    My favorite quote: “When you use social media, you forfeit the right to truly be yourself with no holds barred. Holds are definitely barred ... If you have a job, all of your social media activity is both personal and professional. It’s profersonal. It’s the era we live in.”

    So, let us know what you think about the convergence of PR and customer service. Will it continue? Who should "own" which channels? Where does customer service stop and PR start, and vice versa? I'd love to continue this discussion in the comments below. 

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Online Community Management: A Guide for Type-A Marketers

    By Jessica Donlon | Posted Dec 6, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    Community Manager in the BackseatMarketers take on many roles: writer, researcher, listener, speaker, presenter, creator, connector, resolver, analyst, strategist and more. It’s a busy job, and staying on top of it all often requires a type-A, semi-control-freak personality.

    For marketers that take on the evolving role of online community manager, you may need to cool your jets just a little. While it’s critical that we work to provide the best environment possible for online communities, the role of community manager is more backseat than ever. Marketers need to rely on the community itself to ultimately take ownership and drive progress.

    In this post, we discuss qualities of effective community managers and tips for letting go of control.  

    Qualities of Effective Community Managers

    At the FutureM (@FutureMBoston) conference in Boston this fall, I had the chance to sit in on The Future of Communities—A Doubleheader. Its second panel session focused on the attributes of an excellent community manager.

    When polling the room for the qualities that make a good community manager, we were asked to fill in the statement: “A good community manager needs to have ______.” The following features came to mind:

    • Humor
    • Empathy
    • Authenticity and transparency
    • Responsiveness (but not so much that it quells conversations)
    • Restraint
    • Intelligence
    • Curiosity

    In Essential Skills of a Community Manager, Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) says, “the best community managers are like a good party host mixed with a fine restaurant host.” In other words: put your energy into the preparation, then enjoy the ride. An effective community manager has to have the long-term vision to foster the type of community that will be the brand’s voice for you. 

    How to Relinquish Control

    Successful communities are all about the conversations of its members. It takes a discerning eye to determine which conversations a community manager should flag, report, weigh in on, or try to take offline. Have a strategic process for this in place, share it with your community, and stick to it. 

    Finding your role as an overseer without controlling the conversation can be the difference between an empowered community and one that’s silenced by its manager.

    So, how do type-A marketers let go, and let conversations thrive? Consider the following tips from the FutureM panelists:

    1. Know you can’t do it all; put the right people in place to help. Cindy Meltzer (@cindymeltz), community and social media manager at Isis Parenting, learned to let others take control when she realized she needed to add a second Facebook page administrator. Protect your brand by having the right people and responsibilities in place.
    2. Pick your battles. Even when it’s a conversation that may shine unfavorably on your brand, Lauren Vargas (@vargasl), community management strategist for Aetna, recommends taking a leadership and strategist role to educate your community influencers and reinforce the behaviors that you want to exist. Don’t necessarily manage the community—manage your response. Embrace the heroes of the community’s story, those that share your brand’s story through their own experiences.
    3. Keep cool in the face of detractors. Heather Strout (@HeatherJStrout), director of community services at Farland Group, reminds us that many times, a detractor is not going to join your community unless they are passionate enough about your brand to turn it around. Keep this in mind when faced with community members who take away from the conversation or overall tone you’d prefer to set within your community. 

    Satisfy Your Inner Type-A Behind the Scenes 

    Letting go of visible community control doesn’t mean you lose it all … 

    Strout calls it the iceberg effect.* With community management, most of a marketer’s activity happens behind the scenes. Devote your skills to creating the perfect platform, inviting influencers, reacting to suggestions or feedback from the community, and continually analyzing the impact of the community—for your brand and your industry as a whole—and how to improve.

    Need more inspiration? Take a marketing lesson from the Grateful Dead, and let your community be your brand or cause’s voice. 

    What stories do you have of successful community management? What challenges are you facing?

    *Editor's Note: Per a tweet from Heather, the Iceberg Effect concept came to her via Jim Storer (@jimstorer) and Rachel Happe (@rhappe) at the Community Roundtable (@TheCR). Thanks for clarifying so we can give credit where it's due, Heather!

    Jessica Donlon is a consultant at PR 20/20. Connect with Jessica on Twitter @JessicaDonlon.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

    Related Post: How to Manage a LinkedIn Group

    Image Credit: srs0001

  • 2011 Midwest Social Media Summit: Social Trends and Takeaways

    By Jessica Donlon | Posted Nov 22, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    MWSMS

    Last week, Smart Business hosted its inaugural Midwest Social Media Summit (MWSMS), a full day focused on best practices for social media policies and initiatives for today’s businesses.

    We were impressed with the quality of speakers and the topics for marketers, including the role of content in social, creating value and response strategies. A few members of the PR 20/20 team attended, and compiled the following summary.

    MWSMS Marketing Takeaways

    What’s the role of content in social media? 

    Social media is propelled by quality content. Buyer-persona focused content fuels conversations, helps buyers overcome obstacles in the sales cycle, and helps communicate your brand’s messages in a valuable way.

    Find the best way for your customers to receive information; don't become pigeon-holed into the more mainstream networks like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. For example, content can be shared in private customer/vendor settings for better community engagement and technical support—like a custom, walled-garden network or private LinkedIn group—that’s social media too. 

    Other tips from keynote speakers:

    How does your company's social media activity create value?

    Each speaker mentioned the importance of personalization behind social media and content. The Faces of GM campaign is a good example of this. Other key takeaways:

    • Less branding and more personalization will yield more responsiveness from your audience. Be transparent, and genuine. —Dan Carbone, Idea Engine, Inc. (@ideaengineinc)
    • Humanize the company's brand. Be who you are (on social media), and do so respectfully. … If you're creating content that people want, they are going to consume it and share it. —Mary Henige (@maryhenige), General Motors
    • Social media is a direct pipeline to your fan base. Use it to create a deep, personal connection with your audience. —Curtis Danburg, Cleveland Indians (@Indians)
    • Stop telling the same stories as your competitors. What do you bring? What's your personality? —Joe Pulizzi

    What should organizations consider in their monitoring and response strategies?

    Social is an expected means of communication in today's digital world, and each company needs to develop a strategy on how they are going to tackle it. Often this starts with listening to the conversations already happening, and responding in an authentic, genuine way.

    As Henige explained, if someone takes the time to say, "I love you," they deserve your time to say that you love them back. If someone voices a complaint, respond in a timely, courteous manner. Additional insights include:

    • We (marketers) are moving from American football to European football. We're moving from a time of executing thought-out plays, with a clock that stops, to complete a campaign, to a real-time game that is literally changing around us as we play, with a clock that doesn't ever stop. —Jeffrey Rohrs (@jkrohrs), Exact Target  
    • Another great point from Rohrs: Digital natives do NOT equal digital strategists. He noted that organizations should turn to experienced digital marketers to build social strategies and campaigns. Just because the younger generation of professionals grew up digital, does not mean they are always prepared to develop high-level plans or programs, or step in as community managers for established brands.
    • Spend time just listening to what is going on. Can you answer the questions: Who is talking about our brand and the industry in general? What are they saying? … The first step is to identify where are our customers operating—where the parties are going on. Find those, and then add value and participate in them. —Alan Gaffney, Parker Hannifin Corporation (@ParkerHannifin) 

    Final Thoughts 

    There’s a lot happening in social, from the agency point of view to initiatives at larger corporations like GM and Parker. For backchannel conversation from the event, search Twitter for #MWSMS.

    What are the social trends you’re seeing within your organization and the industry?


    Jessica Donlon is a consultant at PR 20/20. Connect with Jessica on Twitter @JessicaDonlon.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

    Image: Curtis Danburg on stage talking about the Tribe's use of social media. 

  • Would You Follow Yourself on Twitter?

    By Laurel Miltner | Posted Aug 12, 2011 | 3 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    If you're using Twitter for business, and/or to build your personal brand, it's important to have a strategy. At the most basic level, you need to know:

    • Who you're trying to reach
    • What kind of content you plan to share
    • The person or brand you want to present
    • The goals and objectives you want to acheive
    • Metrics you'll use to measure success
    • How you'll allocate time to keep your account regularly updated

    It's also important to remember that your strategy shouldn't simply be developed early on and forgotten about. You need to revisit your Twitter activity on a regular basis, and make sure that you're sticking to what you've set out to do. Especially with a site that is heavily reliant on immediacy, it's easy to slip into bad habits, like eccessive public tweeting of personal communications, posting irrelevant updates, reading too much from others without providing much value yourself, or tweeting sub-par content just to keep your account fresh.

    twitter followers

    To avoid this, try the "Would I Follow Me?" test. It's simple:

    Go to your Twitter page (i.e. twitter.com/laurelmackenzie) and scan through your most recent 10-15 tweets. Ask yourself: 

    • How much of what I've posted is interesting or entertaining? 
    • Am I participating too much in private conversations or silly banter?
    • When was the last time I posted an update? Am I tweeting frequently enough? Too much?
    • Would I click on any of the links I've shared?
    It's also a good idea to periodically check in on your bio and photo. 

    • Are they up-to-date? 
    • Do you still look like the person in your photo? 
    • Is the bio still a good representation of the you that you want to present to the world? 
    If you aren't happy with what you see, then it's time to rethink how you're using Twitter, and what value you provide to your followers. Update your strategy if needed, or simply use what you found to refocus your efforts. If you wouldn't follow yourself on Twitter, why would you expect others to want to?

    Laurel Miltner is the assistant vice president at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter: @laurelmackenzie.

     

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

  • Are PR Week's Power 50 Influential Online?

    By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jul 28, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    Power RangersIn July, PR Week published its annual PR Power List (subscription required), recognizing the public relations and corporate communications professionals its staff deems the 50 most powerful in the industry.

    These are individuals who have the “ability to produce an effect with one’s actions and to induce third parties to act in response to them.”

    2011 PR Power List & Social Media

    Social media has transformed the way that we communicate and do business. Therefore, in 2008, we were a bit surprised that none of the Power List influentials were on Twitter, and that in 2010 less than half of them were.

    In the past year, however, these industry influentials have made some social strides online, but there is still a ways to go. For example, there are more people actively using Twitter effectively (up 14 percent from 2010), on LinkedIn (up six percent from 2010) and blogging (up 16 percent from 2010).

    Note: This year, PR Week increased its list to 50 individuals from 25; therefore, some of these improvements may be the result of a larger sample size.

    A breakdown of social activity is below.*

    • Nineteen of the Power 50 do not have Twitter profiles. Note: An additional 11 individuals may or may not have a profile; PR 20/20 couldn’t confirm their identities.  
    • Eleven individuals have Twitter accounts and use them effectively, meaning that they share interesting, relevant information and engage with their followers. 
    • Nine people have identifiable Twitter accounts, but do not use them as effectively as possible, meaning that they post infrequently, lack a bio or photo, or are overly self promotional.
    • Thirty-three individuals have LinkedIn profiles.
    • Eighteen contribute to either a corporate or personal blog.

    In evaluating social activity, we also discovered a core group of individuals at the lower end of the list who demonstrated effective social media use. In fact, out of the eleven individuals using Twitter effectively, seven of these ranked #44 or below. In addition, nine out of the eleven were new to the list in 2011. This could indicate that social media participation will play a larger role in the future when determining a person’s influence level.

    In addition, on the 2011 list, Twitter’s vice president of communications joined executives from Facebook and Google (both of whom were also included on the 2010 list), demonstrating the power of these online giants themselves.

    The Role of Social Media in Public Relations

    As we explained last year, we’re not questioning whether the non-active individuals are powerful—we know they are.

    However, with the steady growth of social networks, and the abundance of industry conversations taking place on these channels, we believe social media is a valid and important channel for sharing opinions and ideas, which will continue to gain influence in the future and enable individuals to achieve power in new ways. 

    Therefore, the inactives in the Power 50 miss opportunities to share their expertise, learn from others, exchange resources, discuss the future of the industry, and expand the services they offer their clients/companies.

    What do you think: Is social media participation important for executives to gain and maintain influence? How do you measure power in the PR industry? Share your thoughts below.

    * In July 2011, we conducted name searches on Google, Twitter and LinkedIn of the winners. If you think we missed you, please let us know below in the comments or connect with us on Twitter @pr2020.

    Tracy DiMarino is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

    Image Credit: Alvaro Felipe

  • The Voice Uses Social Media to Give a Voice to Its Audience

    By Jessica Donlon | Posted Jul 8, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    Last week, we watched as the NBC singing competition, The Voice, picked its first winner (spoiler alert!), Javier Colon from Team Adam. While I, and other fans of the new show, watched mostly for personal interest, the marketer in me couldn’t help but notice the way that the show incorporated social media unlike any other show I’ve seen.

    Josh Wolford (@joshgwolf) of WebProNews puts The Voice on the “cutting-edge” of social engagement. If you’re not a regular viewer, examples of the show’s social integration include:

    • LifeSupercharger#TheVoice hashtag featured on-screen through performances and other moments throughout the show to encourage conversation. Nicolle Yaaron, The Voice’s supervising producer, said that 70 percent of tweets about the show included #TheVoice hashtag (twice the industry average). During the few episodes I’d tried, it was impossible to keep up with the search column in TweetDeck. 
    • The show regularly cuts away from the stage to its “social media room,” where its social media and online correspondent, Alison Haislip (@alisonhaislip), keeps tabs on what’s trending via Twitter and asks contestants questions as they’re tweeted in real time.
    • A live Twitter news ticker runs across the bottom of the screen at times during the show, specifically during cuts to the social media room.
    • Fans can incorporate badges to social avatars, like this “Team Blake” badge featured online.
    • The show’s Facebook fan page has more than 300,000 followers after its first season.
    • Judges and contestants of the show each have a Facebook page and Twitter account, as well as blog and photo albums hosted on the show’s website, making it possible for fans to personally connect with each rising star. Dia Frampton’s page is an example.
    • Judge Christina Aguilera (@TheRealXtina) didn’t have a strong Twitter presence before the show, but through less than 50 tweets she gained nearly 500,000 followers (as of the end of June 2011).
    • The show incorporates iTunes, using song purchases as votes. Throughout the season, contestant music topped iTunes charts. At the finale the top two contestants, separated by only a two-percent difference in votes, ranked No. 1 and No. 2 (Dia then Javier, respectively) on iTunes the night before.
    • Votes were enabled through multiple platforms and applications, some of which could be integrated with social accounts via APIs. 

    Social Entertainment — A Growing Trend

    The June Technorati Business article by Emma Wells, Why Social Media Is Important to TV, digs into social entertainment — using Twitter, Facebook, and other social media to improve ratings and give viewers a “second screen” through which they can interact more personally with their favorite shows. Other example shows that integrated social or used it to drive ratings cited in the article include the Oscars, the Royal Wedding and the Super Bowl.

    The Voice: How a TV Show Became a 24/7 Social Media Conversation, from Mashable’s Lauren Drell, further explains the trend. According to Dell, television started out with scripted shows and sitcoms, moved to the growing trend of reality TV, and now engages viewers even more with real-time social interaction.

    Yaaron’s final quote in the article summarized the campaign:

    “The story of The Voice is not just an hour or two every week. It lives online all day and all week long, and it will continue all year long. This is a living, breathing entity, it’s not just show-based.”

    Great. How Do I Apply This to My Marketing Campaign?

    Social media activity is believed to have propelled ratings for The Voice.

    While your product or service may not have a television show to go along with it, think if your organization’s experiences with the people it cares most about could be a “living, breathing entity,” as Yaaron describes The Voice.

    The main idea is relative: your buyers can use social media to have a voice in your brand’s conversation. Establish, channel and encourage that conversation to extend the experiences they have and make an impact. To make the most of your audience’s time online, try the following:

    • Develop a clear hashtag for conversations; establish the community.
    • Monitor and engage in the conversation online. The Voice rewarded mentions by connecting questions directly to the contestants live on television. Can you connect your online audience with experts or talent within your organization?
    • Give access to inside information. The Voice used contestant blogs, video and images to put content in the hands of its audience. What do you have of value to share, and is it easily available?
    • Use multiple channels and strategic partnerships to improve reach and impact. Whether its iTunes and Sprint (used to cast votes on The Voice), or print publications, social networks, call centers or more, give your audience multiple ways to find you and engage in their preferred manner.

    The Voice was one example of the evolving trend to link TV (or other shared experiences) with social media. It connects your brand and fosters meaningful relationships with the audiences your organization cares about. Think of the point of sale, and how your brand experience can go beyond it to create an experience for your fans.  

    Did you watch The Voice or engage online? What did you think?

    What other examples of social entertainment have you seen, and what ideas do you have to incorporate into your own marketing campaigns?

    Jessica Donlon is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Connect with Jessica on Twitter @JessicaDonlon.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

    Image Source: LifeSupercharger

  • Quora Strategy for Marketers and PR Pros

    By Jessica Donlon | Posted Jul 6, 2011 | 1 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    Question MarkIn February, we published the blog post, Quora Strategy: The Incomplete Guide for Beginners. The post offered a basic plan for monitoring, responding and raising your profile among Quora’s ever-growing pool of questions and answers.

    Recently at TechCrunch Disrupt, Quora’s founder, Charlie Cheever (@ccheever), gave insight into the company’s business strategy—including how it has worked to attract quality content, how it measures success, and its business plan.

    “One of the goals we have for Quora is to have all types of people sharing all types of knowledge. I would imagine a world where I where I could come up with all the things I want to know and find them on Quora.”  — Charlie Cheever, Quora

    Quora’s Population

    Michael Sebastian (@msebastian) of Ragan’s PR Daily shared KISSmetrics’ infographics about Quora’s growth and processes, estimating that between January 2010 and January 2011, Quora’s growth was up 37,000 percent. It’s not surprising that many of the leading answers on Quora come from its early adopters and most active users—many of whom are tech-savvy business influencers.

    Bob Brown’s (@alphadoggs) Network World article examines whether Quora is the next social network that IT professionals in particular need to know. The topic of “technology,” for example, has more than 50,000 followers on the network and hundreds of questions.

    Quora for Your Clients

    Technology is just one example. Search Quora for yours or your client's industry to find relevant topics, follow tags and identify influencers. Unlike many other social networks, Mario Sundar (@mariosundar) argues that Quora isn’t about who you know, but what you know—putting a face on businesses and making Quora a vehicle to share inside knowledge from corporate leadership.

    How can we, as marketers and PR professionals, get the most out of Quora for our clients (and ourselves)? Following are a few suggestions:

    • Connect with industry bloggers and media. Follow similar topics, their questions and answers, and vote or participate when you can to get on their radars.
    • Follow popular topics among your buyer personas, continually tracking their interests so you can adjust your blog’s editorial calendar based on their interests. With the ability to share and post answers to your blog, use Quora to kill two birds with one stone.
    • Position company leaders as the experts they are. Encourage them to create profiles, and send relevant questions their way to facilitate participation. Though Quora’s population may not be that of the “big three” social networks, its SEO is strong, which can help get answers in front of those seeking expertise.
    • Pre-screen survey questions with Quora, to make adjustments and refine before taking them to the market.
    • Gain insight from passionate potential buyers to adjust your messaging, content and sales to their needs.  
    • Find out directly from media contacts how they want to be pitched. (Like Mashable, for example.)

    Just for Fun: Some of Quora’s Best Questions

    At TechCrunch Dispurt, Cheever noted some of the most visited questions on Quora, and I’ve compiled a few additional interesting questions below. Like other social networks, Quora grabs a pulse on a variety of topics that people care most about—including business, current events, pop culture and more — such as:

    From Cheever:

    A few more:

    Are you active on Quora? What results have you seen from the platform?

    Jessica Donlon is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Connect with Jessica on Twitter @JessicaDonlon or Quora. 

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

    Image Source: WingedWolf

  • LinkedIn Love: Recent Updates and Personal Branding Tips

    By Christina Capadona Schmitz | Posted Jun 23, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    From its May 2011 IPO, to its expanding user base and features, LinkedIn has received plenty of coverage highlighting its significance in the social media realm.

    But what's more important is how it can work for you. It’s much more than a resume site or magical rolodex. With more than two million Corporate Pages, content curation through LinkedIn Today, and new tools and services, it’s a great time to take a fresh look:

    • Build your personal or corporate brandLinkedIn Today.
    • Enhance your career building and recruiting.
    • Expand your networks.
    • Increase your business development and referrals.
    • Share and consume valuable content.
    • Position yourself as a thought leader and advisor.
    • Gain insight and intelligence from other participating members.
    • Enhance communications with peer groups and organizations.

    For serious professionals, LinkedIn offers serious opportunities for organizations, careers, and staying updated on news, trends and business moves. It’s especially valuable for those that see the benefits of social media, but feel that Facebook and Twitter just don’t mix with their daily work responsibilities.

    Useful LinkedIn Articles

    LinkedIn: How to up Your Game

    From enhancing your profile, to building connections and activating your presence, this article from Dave Reinhardt on The Next Web offers a great guide for maximizing participation on the site.

    Why LinkedIn Is The Most Important (And Underutilized) Social Network For Communications Professionals

    Chuck Hemann’s crush on LinkedIn is one to admire, and emulate. Check out a wealth of good tips and recommendations from the VP of Digital Analytics for Edelman Digital.

    How to use LinkedIn Today to Find Popular Content

    From writer Stephanie Sammons on Social Media Examiner: In a sea of business-related content and resources, LinkedIn Today puts your daily news in the context of your professional social network, helping bridge you to what other professionals are reading and sharing.

    SlideShare Deepens Ties With LinkedIn

    In a PC World article, Juan Carlos Perez discusses SlideShare, which has had a LinkedIn application since 2008, and has added a LinkedIn Share button to all of its presentations, documents and videos.

    LinkedIn To Launch Job Application Button

    Colleen Taylor reports on GigaOm about LinkedIn’s future plans to launch an “Apply with Linked” button for corporate websites, which would allow job candidates to submit their LinkedIn profiles as resumes.

    Does it Work For You?

    Personally, my love affair with LinkedIn started a few years back (member since 2006), and I haven’t even scratched the surface of its usage. I’ve always been attracted to the professional angle of social networking, perhaps in the same way I enjoy a shopping spree for office supplies, but I digress.

    As a fan, I think LinkedIn can change lives. But I'm interested in your thoughts.

    • How often do you visit the site?
    • Have you experienced any benefits?
    • If you don’t frequent the site or utilize the features, what are your biggest gripes or challenges?

    Let’s connect on LinkedIn, and you can also follow PR 20/20.

    Christina is vice president of PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. On Twitter: @ChristinaCS

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.


  • The Case for Social Media: Sources and Stats

    By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jun 10, 2011 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media

    Business ManSocial media has transformed the way that people communicate and gather information online. With more than two-thirds of U.S. Internet users regularly using a social network, individuals are more often turning to sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to ask questions, share resources, and research products and services. Consider the following usage statistics for popular social networking sites:

    With such high adoption rates, it’s obvious to see that the cost of not participating is high — even if you can’t always calculate an exact ROI from social media activities.

    Through active social media participation, your organization can connect with qualified consumers online when they are actively looking for what you offer.

    Build Brand Awareness and Preference

    Social media is a great tool to strengthen relationships with customers, prospects, partners, employees and job candidates — most of whom are active online. Differentiate your brand and set yourself apart from competitors by sharing industry news, trends and developments (without being overly promotional) relevant to buyer personas.

    In doing so, you will establish company representatives as industry experts, and your organization as an industry leader. Similar to content marketing, social media can also help you connect with and appeal to target audiences on an emotional, reciprocal level. This makes your organization more attractive to consumers, because people prefer dealing with other people rather than faceless brands.

    Improve Website Strength and Interaction

    As your content moves throughout social networks, it can drive inbound links and visits to your site — two important factors in determining its strength.

    Also, according to a ForeSee report, “visitors to websites influenced by social media are more loyal and satisfied customers, and they spend more than visitors who were not influenced by social media.”

    Boost Search Engine Rankings

    Social media must be a part of your search marketing strategy, as social metrics are included in both Google and Bing’s search algorithms. As search engines strive for more relevant results, social media provides real-time elements and enables personalization based on a searchers’ network. One example of this growing integration between search and social is Bing’s deep integration with Facebook Likes.

    Another benefit of search and social is that when consumers are exposed to both, their overall click-through rate on the search engine results page increases by 94 percent. This suggests that social media can drive brand awareness, as demonstrated in subsequent search behavior.

    For more information on how social media results are integrated into both Google and Bing, see Social Media’s Impact on Search.

    Give Your Content Legs

    On-page optimization only accounts for a small percentage of a website’s visibility in search engines; and therefore, it can only go so far in spreading your content.

    It’s the combination of content and community that really propels your blog posts, eBooks, videos and other self-published resources to be shared online. For example, more than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared each month on Facebook.

    Give your content legs by distributing it via social networks. If your content is strategic, buyer-persona focused and informative, others will share it with their networks — exposing it to people you may not have reached otherwise.

    Connect with Media and Bloggers

    Social media offers another outlet for your organization to forge relationships with key media, bloggers and analysts. According to the 2010 PRWeek/ PR Newswire Media Survey, 43 percent of journalists report having being pitched through social networks in 2010, compared to 31 percent in 2009.

    Through social media, you can take a personal approach to publicity, as it lets you connect with media representatives on a deeper level.

    For example, by actively monitoring reporters’ Tweets or Facebook shares, you can get to know more about them then just their beats. As a result, you can tailor your pitches to directly relate to their interests in real-time — thus improving your chances for success.

    Drive Leads and Sales

    A 2009 study from Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group shows that deep engagement with consumers through social media channels correlates to better financial performance. Of the 100 brands evaluated, those with the heaviest social media engagement grew company revenues by 18 percent from July 2008-July 2009, while the least engaged companies saw revenues sink six percent over the same time period.

    In addition, 2010 data from Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate suggests that individuals are more likely to buy from brands with which they are friends or followers on social networks. And, according to Unisfair, social media is the number-one emerging channel for lead generation for technology marketers.

    Your Thoughts?

    • How did you make the case for social media at your organization?
    • How has social media helped you reach your objectives?
    • What benefits has it brought your business?

    Tracy DiMarino is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.

    Stay updated: Subscribe to the PR 20/20 blog, check us out on Facebook or follow the team on Twitter.

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