PR 20/20 Blog

Should You Hide Your Connections on LinkedIn?

By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Aug 31, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media
On LinkedIn, you have the option of hiding your Connection list or keeping it public. This leads some people to keep their Connections private for a variety of reasons, including a need for confidentiality, an unwillingness to make introductions and more.

However, one common reason — particularly popular among those in sales — is to protect business contact lists that may contain the names of clients, prospects and partners from competitors. You may think: “I have worked hard to create and nurture this contact list, why would I put it out on the Internet for anyone, including my competitors, to see and potentially use?”

Though these are certainly valid concerns, hiding your Connections on LinkedIn minimizes the opportunities available to you on the platform, and list protection can also be achieved by being strategic about whom you connect with. Below are several reasons why hiding your Connections may not be the best approach on LinkedIn.

One Goal of Social Media is to Create and Maintain Mutually Beneficial Relationships.

The key to being successful on social networks is to “create more value than you capture,” as Tim O’Reilly would say. On LinkedIn, part of being a giving participant involves connecting like-minded individuals through introductions. For this to be possible, your Connection list must be visible to those in your network.

In addition, hiding your Connections can be deemed as “unfriendly” in the community, as some people feel that you are not willing to fully open up, participate and help others. For example, see this LinkedIn Answers discussion on the topic.

Only Your Connections Can View Your Contact List – Not Everyone on LinkedIn.

Another aspect to keep in mind is that only those people you’ve connected with on the site can see your contacts. Since not everyone on LinkedIn has the same access levels to your profile information, you have some control over who can view your contact list without hiding it.

By only connecting with people with whom you have established relationships, you’ll have little reason to worry about your lists being pilfered. If someone you do not trust, like a competitor, wants to connect, simply choose to deny the request, and your list will still be protected. In addition, you can also disconnect with people should you decide you are no longer comfortable with them having access to your Connections.

Hiding Your Connections Does Not Guarantee Complete Protection.

Even if someone chooses to hide his or her Connections, users will still be able to see shared Connections that they have in common via LinkedIn search. Therefore, hiding your Connections does not guarantee they are completely private. If someone really wanted to discover your list, with a little digging, they likely could.

Your Thoughts?

For these reasons, consider keeping your Connections open, but be thoughtful about who you include in your personal network. If you're connecting to add value and nurture relationships, you get the benefits of helping those you trust and respect, without having to worry about who has access to your list of Connections.

However, we welcome your thoughts and experiences. Do you hide your Connections? Why or why not? What fears do you have about keeping your list public? What are the pros and cons of each angle? Please share your comments in the field below.

Image Credit: Chris Runoff

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

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
How the Cleveland Indians Engage Fans with Social Media

By Tracy DiMarino & Keith Moehring | Posted Aug 12, 2010 | 4 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing, Social Media
This summer, I was privileged to enjoy a Dollar Dog Day at the Cleveland Indians game in the Tribe Social Deck — the Indians all-new social media section at Progressive Field. Here, I had the opportunity to connect with fellow Clevelanders passionate about sports, their city and, of course, social media.

What I love most about the Tribe Social Deck is how it enhances online relationships by bringing people together face-to-face, and its unique ability to get people excited about, and talking about, the Indians brand.

Following is a Q&A with Rob Campbell, who handles the social media communications for the Cleveland Indians. His primary responsibilities include posting from the @tribetalk Twitter account and managing the Tribe Social Deck.

When did the Cleveland Indians first get started using social media?

The Indians have utilized social media for more than a year in conjunction with Major League Baseball Advanced Media. The club increased its social media presence this season, most notably with the all-new Tribe Social Deck.

Was it difficult to get upper management on board? If so, how did you convince them that it was worth a try?

Management is one of the driving factors in our social media presence, and the Indians social media initiatives received support from the executive level on down.

What did you do before jumping in as far as planning and strategy are concerned?

The Indians organization hired Phoenix-based digital consultants Digital Royalty to establish a baseline of social media best practices, aid in brainstorming and help in monitoring social media chatter surrounding the Indians brand. It was from this relationship with Digital Royalty that the idea for Tribe Social Deck was born.

How did you learn how to use social media for business?

Personally, I’ve learned to use social media for business by establishing and running several different accounts and campaigns for both my current and previous employer and in my free time.

What are your goals in using social media? How do you track or measure its effectiveness?

The Indians social media strategy is multi-faceted. In its current initial stage, we aim to establish a foothold in social media by interacting with fans that have already established themselves in the space. In essence, we want to join the conversation that is already taking place.

The Indians are then taking the conversation a step further with the development of our Tribe Social Deck, where we bring bloggers and social media users together to enjoy an Indians game and network with like-minded individuals. It has been an incredible experience to interact with fans, answer their questions, listen to their feedback and implement positive change if needed.

Can you explain the Tribe Social Deck and how this came about?

The Tribe Social Deck is the physical component of our social media presence. It affords attendees the opportunity to not only watch a game live, but also to network with members of their digital community. Often, it provides attendees the first time to shake hands with someone they had been conversing with for months online. It also allows fans to remain interactive by using the Wi-Fi in the Tribe Social Deck.

Involvement with the Tribe Social Deck initially was by invitation only, but we have launched an online application in conjunction with MLB Advanced Media to allow fans to request games.

The Indians participated in the MLB’s first ever “Twitter Battle” with the Chicago White Sox on May 26. Can you explain this promotion and the results you saw, as well as any other social-media specific promotions the Indians have implemented?

The Mascot Twitter Battle promotion was born out of a mutual partnership between the two clubs and Digital Royalty. The promotion saw the Cleveland Indians become a trending topic worldwide on Twitter.

The organization saw it as a great way to leverage Twitter to generate buzz around our matchup with the White Sox, in addition to helping raise money for cancer research.

For every tweet containing the hashtag #GoTribe, the Indians donated $1 to Stand Up to Cancer (@SU2C), up to $1,000. We fell short in the Twitter Battle with the final tally of 6,481 to 7,349, but were so overwhelmed by the response that we doubled the maximum contribution to the charity.

How many people on your team manage or work with the social media accounts? How do you divvy up tasks effectively?

The Cleveland Indians have continued to enhance our focus on social media as a critical element of the organization’s overall marketing strategy. The club has recently added a member of the PR department who solely focuses on developing social media strategy and working to implement that strategy in collaboration with the input of the PR and Marketing departments.

How do you decide what to share/post?

The PR Department approves the organization’s Twitter posts on varying levels. Day-to-day interaction with the fans is handled on an individual user basis, while overall communication initiatives require a more collaborative approach in terms of messaging and execution.

For more information on why the Cleveland Indians chose to implement the Tribe Social Deck, check out the video with Rob Campbell below, which was shot and edited by Keith Moehring who also had the opportunity to sit in the Tribe Social Deck.

Thanks to Rob Campbell and the Cleveland Indians for sharing their story.

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

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
Driven by Content Part 2: Content & Community [VIDEO]

By Christina Capadona-Schmitz | Posted Aug 3, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing
Social media has changed the way that businesses can communicate with customers, prospects, employees, media and other important audiences.

While many understand the benefits of producing captivating content pieces for their website and blog, without the community building activities and distribution channels of social media, the content will not travel far beyond the place it is published on the web.

In Part 2 of Driven by Content, PR 20/20 Inbound Marketing Manager Laurel Miltner discusses the role of social media and community building in content marketing.

Part 2: Content & Community

The State of Web Content

In modern times, you don’t have to be an editor or a professional writer to publish content; anyone with an Internet connection, and a blog platform or social media profile, can be a publisher.

This shift in publishing power has caused a flood of online information and content. To cut through the clutter, online publishers must produce quality content that speaks directly to target audiences, and have the ability to share content in the places where their audiences congregate online.

Enter Social Media

Social media has enabled businesses to reach audiences online, providing additional platforms for content to be consumed and shared beyond websites and blogs. On-page SEO only goes so far; it’s social networks that are your biggest asset in sharing content. Social media can help businesses differentiate themselves through content, build trust and nurture leads.

What’s the ROI?

The question many companies ask when considering getting started in social media is: What's the ROI? While it is possible for businesses to tie social media to financial goals, social media also has the potential to influence your brand awareness and can be a risk management tool for your company. And, in today’s social world, the better question is, what is the ROI of doing nothing, and letting the competition take the leadership position your organization seeks.

For questions or more information about content and community, you can reach Laurel direct at laurel@pr2020.com, or connect with her on Twitter at @laurelmackenzie.

Resources:

Here are some resources referenced in the video to learn more about social media and its role in content marketing:

2010 Forrester Report Summary Post: The ROI Of Social Media Marketing: More Than Dollars And Cents

Blogs:
Books:
Navigating the Driven by Content Series

Part 1: PR 20/20 Assistant Vice President Christina Capadona-Schmitz covers “What is Content Marketing?” and why it matters to today’s organizations (3:44).

Part 2: PR 20/20 Inbound Marketing Manager Laurel Miltner discusses online publishing and the idea of content & community, the role of social media in content marketing (8:55).

Part 3: Keith Moehring, who leads PR 20/20's search engine optimization efforts, talks about websites, content management systems, online publishing tools and how SEO can impact content marketing (8:42).

Part 4: PR 20/20 President Paul Roetzer shares the importance of your brand in content marketing, how content marketing is connected to PR and who you should trust to tell your story through content (7:06).

Part 5: PR 20/20 Content Services Manager Christy Barksdale ties it together, in planning your publishing strategy, giving your content legs on the web and furthering your leadership position through content curation (5:43).

Laurel Miltner is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter @laurelmackenzie, or connect on Facebook at Facebook.com/laurelmiltner.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
6-Step Corporate LinkedIn Strategy

By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jul 29, 2010 | 11 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing, Social Media
Through active LinkedIn participation, there are tremendous opportunities to improve your company’s reach and influence. In addition, LinkedIn can be an excellent outlet for lead generation.

Following is a six-step corporate LinkedIn Strategy that contains techniques and recommendations on how your business can effectively leverage LinkedIn to:
- Build brand awareness.
- Establish company representatives as industry experts.
- Connect with prospects, customers, vendor partners and peers.
- Drive leads and sales.
The Strategy assumes that your business already has a presence on LinkedIn — including a business profile that is linked to individual employee profiles — and that you are seeking ways to enhance your visibility on the site through ongoing monitoring and increased participation.

Step 1: Identify Buyer Personas and Conversations

In order to achieve the above objectives, it is important to identify the buyer personas with whom your company is looking to connect, and then determine if, and where, they are active on LinkedIn. Do some preliminary LinkedIn Answers and Group searches to see if your target audiences are active on LinkedIn prior to diving in. At this time, flag any relevant conversations or groups to share with your team. Note: It may be helpful to create an Excel document that lists potential groups with descriptions, links and notes to reference later.

Step 2: Benchmark Current Site Activity

By benchmarking your LinkedIn presence, you’ll be able to evaluate the success of your campaign on an ongoing basis. Consider tracking data such as referring traffic, employee connections and recommendations, and participation levels (i.e. how often employees are engaging in relevant conversations).

Step 3: Select Employees to Lead Participation

Designate a few employees to be internal LinkedIn champions. To be most effective, these individuals should be social-network savvy; knowledgeable about your products, services and brand messaging; and have a desire to engage with target audiences.

Participants should also have the time availability each week to respond to LinkedIn discussions and questions relating to their areas of expertise. Note: See Step 5 for tips on how to alleviate some of the time commitment required from individuals.

Step 4: Have Employees Optimize Their Profiles

Encourage your employees to optimize their profiles. Be sure that all individual profiles are completely filled out — including the Summary, Specialties and Job Position sections — with keyword-rich descriptions. Also, include links to Twitter profiles, as well as optimized links to your company website and blog, if applicable. See our blog post “Six Tips for Maximizing Your LinkedIn Profile” for some best practices.

Step 5: Set Up a Monitoring System

LinkedIn Answers and Groups provide the most opportunities to connect with prospects, customers, vendor partners and peers. For this reason, it’s important to monitor these sections on a regular basis, and contribute meaningfully to discussions.

When commenting, it is perfectly acceptable to share relevant blog posts and content pieces your company created. However, aim to be helpful and not overly self-promotional, and abide by group rules. To simplify the monitoring process, and alleviate the time commitment needed for each person, consider:
- Designating one person to monitor and distribute opportunities to other team members. This saves time since only one person is monitoring instead of multiple. The monitor can then email relevant commenting opportunities to team members based on each individual’s core competencies/expertise.
- Incorporating LinkedIn Answer searches into your RSS feed readers.
- Using a social-media monitoring tool, such as HubSpot, Radian6 or ScoutLabs.
- Having each person choose 3-5 groups that they will receive email updates for, and contribute to, on a regular basis.
Step 6: Participate & Engage in Conversations

On an ongoing basis, encourage employees to actively participate in priority groups and respond to relevant LinkedIn Answers queries. In addition, employees should update their LinkedIn statuses often. This increases their visibility on the site by ensuring that they appear more often on their connections’ home page feeds. Note: By integrating your Twitter account with LinkedIn, Tweets that contain #in will automatically be posted to your LinkedIn account.

Employees should also be encouraged to proactively request connections with business contacts, and to continuously work to nurture those relationships. Some tips include: passing along relevant content via status updates and individual messages, and connecting like-minded individuals when appropriate.

Your Thoughts?

In what ways have you leveraged LinkedIn to increase your visibility in the industry, connect with target audiences and generate leads?

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

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.

Photo Credit: Nan Palmero
Social Media for Attorneys

By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jun 3, 2010 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing, Social Media
Effective networking skills are crucial for attorneys looking to grow their practice. For years, lawyers have been visiting clients, attending trade association meetings, and wining and dining prospects, as a means to sustain clientele and attract new business.

Now, social media sites, such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook, are opening the door to a new array of networking opportunities that enhance these traditional methods. For example, social networking enables attorneys to:
- Connect with existing clients in a more personal way.
- Build stronger personal connections with colleagues and peers.
- Expand their business development network with prospects.
- Nurture referral sources.
- Build their personal brand and profile within the industry.
- Stay on top of legal industry trends, news and regulations.
- Monitor client industry news and trends.
- Learn from industry influentials/thought leaders.
The following is an overview of why attorneys should be using social media, as well as some best practices for doing so.

Why Social Media?

While social media provides a wealth of benefits for attorneys, some key ones are outlined below.

Benefit #1: Those attorneys that generate new business for their firms are more highly regarded, and thus more likely to be promoted. Social media can enhance your business development opportunities.

Attracting new business goes back to the importance of networking. The more people who know you and respect you, the more referrals you will receive. These, in turn, lead to more business for your firm, and a more successful career for yourself. In fact, according to LexBlog, “Lawyers in the top 10% of the profession spend a minimum of 3-5 hours each week on practice development,” otherwise known as meeting new people and networking with existing contacts.

Since more people are interacting online via social sites, you can expand your pool of potential new business opportunities, as well as extend the value of your practice-development initiatives, by connecting and engaging with prospective clients where they are already communicating. By establishing trust with these individuals and building your personal brand, you will remain top of mind, and your connections will be more likely to turn to you when they need an attorney - or when their friend/collegue/family member needs one.

Benefit #2: Potential clients are talking about legal issues online, enabling you to become a trusted resource by sharing helpful content.

People are using social networking sites to ask legal questions and recommend attorneys. See the following screenshots from Twitter as examples.

By sharing useful, helpful and relevant information with potential clients online, you can differentiate yourself in the market as a trusted resource. To do this, post articles, answer questions, provide updates on new laws and regulations, and be an active participant.

However, be careful not to violate any of your state’s professional rules of conduct (see below), and avoid giving legal advice. When communicating with people online, stick to the facts (news, regulations, etc.) and then point people to where they can find more information.

For some examples of how attorneys are using social media effectively, check out Mashable’s post, “How Lawyers are Using Social Media for Real Results.”

Benefit #3: Other legal professionals are communicating on these sites, allowing you to connect with peers and learn from each other.

Networking with peers helps you stay on top of industry trends and legal news, ultimately making you a better practitioner. There are ample opportunities online for attorneys to network with peers. Consider the following statistics:
- A LinkedIn group search for “attorney” generated 382 groups.
- On WeFollow.com, a site where Twitter users can designate which topics they are most interested in: 642 people tagged themselves as interested in “attorney," 16 in “attorneys,” 1,463 as “lawyer,” 44 as “lawyers” and 568 as “legal.”
- There are 6,377 legal professionals listed on LexTweet, a community of legal professionals using Twitter.
- There are 9,226 lawyer blogs in 74 subcategories, according to Blawgsearch.com.
- Roughly one-third of the “AmLaw 100” top law firms are on Twitter.
- In 2009, 86% of attorneys between the ages of 25 and 35, and 66% of those age 46 or older were using social networking sites.
In addition, establishing yourself as a thought leader and industry expert among your peers can enhance your credibility and visibility in the industry, as well as lead to other opportunities such as speaking engagements, and mentions in blogs and trade publications. As an active participant on these networks, you also won’t fall victim to social-media savvy competitors who could steal potential business away from you just by being present online.

Best Practices for Attorneys

Below are some best practices to consider as you get started in social media.

Remain ethical, and stay true to your state’s professional rules of conduct.

There are special rules that apply specifically to attorneys when it comes to social networking. For example, the “Specialties” section on LinkedIn could pose a risk for attorneys in regard to their State Bar regulations. Therefore, be sure to know how your state handles issues such as attorney advertising, recommendations and ex parte communications, and then adapt your participation accordingly. For a list of items to consider, check out “12 Social Media Ethics Issues for Lawyers,” which provides a very comprehensive overview.

Overall, just remember that the same rules (such as client confidentiality) apply to social networks as they do to traditional communication platforms.

Consider joining an industry online community.

In addition to active participation on general sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, you may find value in niche industry communities where other attorneys are gathering to share information, resources and advice. Communities worth looking into include: Counsel.Net, Legal OnRamp, Martindale Connected and JDSupra.

Focus your efforts on niche markets and your specialties.

People are often looking for a specific type of attorney (for example: a tax, bankruptcy or divorce attorney). Therefore, consider your specialities and the client needs relating to those, and then develop relevant, helpful content that speaks directly to those individuals.

Move communications offline when possible.

Face-to-face meetings can add additional credibility and personality to your personal brand. Therefore, when possible, meet your online contacts in person. For example, go to lunch, connect at industry events or organize a tweet-up.

Your Thoughts?
- How have you used social media to connect with your target audiences and grow your business?
- What tactics and best practices have resonated the most success?
- What challenges have you faced online?
Related Resources
Tracy DiMarino is an associate consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDiMarino.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.

Photo Credit: umjanedoan
PR 20/20 Pros Team up for Social Media Presentation April 23

By Christina Capadona-Schmitz | Posted Apr 22, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Media Room, Press Releases
PR 20/20 assistant vice president Christina Capadona-Schmitz, along with consultant and blog manager Laurel Miltner, will present “Demystifying Social Media," an introduction to using social networks for business, to the Painesville Area Chamber of Commerce, on April 23, 2010.

The presentation will share statistics and trends in online communications, and connect members with the tools and resources to begin integrating social media into their professional lives.

Event: “Demystifying Social Media” presentation for the Painesville Area Chamber of Commerce
Date: Friday, April 23, 2010 (Chamber's April meeting)
Time: 11:30 a.m – 1 p.m.
Location: California Imports Meeting Room, 1697 Mentor Ave. Painesville, Ohio
Website: www.painesvilleohchamber.org
Social Media for CEOs: It's NOT about the ROI

By Paul Roetzer | Posted Mar 31, 2010 | 6 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media
If you’re a marketing executive or agency trying to move your company or client into social media, there is a very good chance you have heard this question:

“What’s the ROI?”

In my opinion, the more important and relevant question is, “What is the cost of doing nothing?”

That was my message to the John Carroll University Entrepreneurs Association (JCUEA) last week when I presented, “Social Media for CEOs.”

The Approach

After completing an advance survey of the members to determine the presentation’s content and style, we took a three-phased approach to educating and convincing the audience the value of investing time and resources in social media:
1. What is Social Media?
2. Why Does it Matter to Your Business?
3. What Can You Do to Get Started?
What is Social Media?
- Consumer-generated content. We are all the media, the publishers.
- People trusting the opinions of their peers and collaborating online to help and support each other.
- Consumers choosing when and where to interact with brands, and tuning out traditional, outbound marketing.
- Social media is about listening, learning, building relationships and bringing value to the communities relevant to your organization.
- Social media is a lifetime commitment to connecting with your audiences (e.g. customers, prospects, peers, partners) in a more authentic and personal way.
- There are three phases: Monitor, Participate & Publish.
Social Media by The Numbers
- 15.2 billion core searches conducted in January 2010 (comScore, Inc.)
- U.S Internet users watched 32.4 billion videos in January 2010 (comScore, Inc.)
- More than 133,000,000 blogs have been indexed by Technorati since 2002
- More than 1 billion “tweets” estimated per month (Royal Pingdom)
- LinkedIn has more than 60 million members in 200+ countries and territories around the world (LinkedIn.com)
- More than 5 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each week on Facebook. And here are a few more stats from Facebook.com:
  - More than 60 million status updates daily
  - More than 1.5 million local businesses have active Pages
  - More than 20 million people become fans of Pages each day
  - Average user spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
  - More than 100 million active users access Facebook through their mobile devices
Why Does it Matter to Your Business?

Starting with The Facts:
- Social media should be an essential component of every organization’s integrated marketing strategy.
- It is irrelevant if you personally use or believe in the value. It’s what matters to your current and future customers, prospects, employees and partners.
- Social media presents an opportunity for company leaders to build strong personal brands that directly impact the organization’s brand and success.
Social Media Goals & Benefits
- Generate leads & build loyalty. I argue that these should be the fundamental goals of EVERY marketing dollar and activity. See the Inbound Marketing GamePlan for more on leads and loyalty.
- Create connections and build relationships.
- Manage your brand online.
- Establish professionals as experts, thought leaders and innovators.
- Grow smarter and faster than your competitors.
- Strengthen employee recruitment and retention.
- Reach and engage audiences, specifically younger demographics.
So What’s the ROI?
- More important question: What is the cost of doing nothing?
- It is NOT a direct ROI.
- But it is measurable.
  - Inbound links
  - Website visitors
  - Pageviews
  - Referring sites
  - Keyword rankings
  - Reach (followers, friends, fans)
  - Leads
  - Speaking opportunities
  - Engagement
What Can You Do to Get Started?

The key is to remember that a social media strategy on its own is useless. It must be part of an integrated marketing campaign that includes: brand marketing, Website, search marketing, content marketing and PR, as well as traditional strategies, such as sponsorships, and possibly advertising.

We presented an 8-step approach in the Inbound Marketing GamePlan, which outlines how and when to integrate social media:
- Step 1: Clearly define and differentiate your brand.
- Step 2: Design and deploy a content-driven Website.
- Step 3: Go beyond prospects, and consider the impact of your marketing efforts on all audiences.
- Step 4: Establish measurable and meaningful campaign objectives designed to achieve the primary goals of leads and loyalty.
- Step 5: Build an integrated campaign: brand, Website, search, social media, content and PR.
- Step 6: Establish dynamic budgets that can be easily shifted based on campaign performance and analytics.
- Step 7: Define campaign timelines with milestones, tasks and responsibilities.
- Step 8: Measure everything, and be willing to adapt and evolve.
THINK Content & Community

Social media boils down to doing three things very well: Monitoring, Participating and Publishing. Here’s the basics of getting started:
- MONITOR: Conduct social media searches of blogs, forums and social networks relevant to your company and expertise. Subscribe to RSS feeds & Google Alerts.
- PARTICIPATE: Become a part of the community.
  - Secure and build profiles on key social networks
  - Integrate social media activity into customer service, marketing and HR programs
- PUBLISH: Create a content marketing strategy and start publishing great multi-media content that’s highly relevant to your audiences.
Things to Consider
- Personal vs. professional participation
- HR issues
- Corporate social media policy
- Strength of your Website and brand
- Measurement
- Integration with your overall marketing strategy
- Time commitment
- Internal capabilities and capacity
- Regulatory issues
Your Thoughts?

What challenges have you run into integrating social media into your company or client? How have you overcome the obstacles, and turned them into opportunities?

Related Posts
Social Media for CEOs
View more presentations from Paul Roetzer.

Paul Roetzer is founder and president of PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. He can be found on Twitter @PaulRoetzer

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
Demanding Quality in a Flood of Fast-Food Content

By Laurel Miltner | Posted Mar 25, 2010 | 4 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing, Social Media
Ever since returning from South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) last week, my head has been spinning with new ideas. The conference offered an incredible venue to meet and connect with some of the brightest minds in business today, and to be among that crowd was both humbling and inspiring.

Somehow, amidst such high-level information, it was a very simply idea that stuck with me more than any other — one that I want to elaborate on and share. In a session entitled “The Revenge of Editorials,” led by Tim Meaney and Richard Ziade of Arc90, Meaney shared a concept that really hit home for me. To put it simply: Content on the Web is like the food industry.

Now, I admit that as someone who is passionate about both quality content and the slow food movement, this clearly struck a chord with me. However, I feel that this is a very important concept, and one that should not be taken lightly. The quality of content (and food) affects every single person in the world, whether you are creating and preparing it, or consuming and sharing it.

Creation & Preparation

Have you seen Food, Inc.? Read The Omnivore’s Dilemma or Fast Food Nation? Even if you haven’t, you likely have at least a basic understand of how much the creation and production of food has changed over the course of our existence. What was once a labor of love (and to be fair, necessity) has become an industrialized process, creating products of low quality as cheaply as possible. (Interesting fact: only 100 years ago, 38% of the American labor force was farmers, in the 1950s that number was 12.2%, and in the 1990s it dwindled to 2.6%. More people, larger labor force, more consumption, yet significantly less farmers.)

Such is the story of Web content. Though more and more people now have the ability to create content and make it available to the masses via the production capabilities offered by the Internet, those that take the time to carefully develop each piece with thought, insight, research and passion are few and far between.

With professional newsroom staff dwindling, even trained copywriters appear to be stretched too thin to compose the quality of news that average Americans used to sit down and take the time to appreciate over coffee at the breakfast table.

(Meany and Ziade touched on this point specifically in their session, through the example of the New York Times. With a 24-hour news cycle, the NYTimes staff thoroughly considered each and every story, where it would be placed in the paper and how everything would be laid out to create one perfect guide of the day’s most important information. Now, new stories are posted in real-time, which certainly brings us the latest, hottest news right now and serves our desire for immediacy, but there is a bit of a lost art there as well. It is a loss, at the core, of composition.)

Clearly, there is a serious difference between a burger from a fast food joint and one from a high-end restaurant. Obviously the quality of ingredients comes into play, but so does the process of preparation and care from the cook/chef. This is why you pay $1 for a burger off the value menu and $26 for “the best burger in America.” You pay for quality.

The same is true when developing content, whether you are paying for its preparation by an outsider or with your own time investment.

Sure, you could be a content farmer and develop off-the-cuff information at-need without much care, but the result is low-quality content that may get found and read (lots of people eat at fast food restaurants, and those restaurants make a lot of money), but likely isn’t anything that anyone will rave about. This kind of content will not make you stand out.

Or, you could use others’ quality information, summarize it and give your own twist to it through simple blog posts that won’t take you but an hour to create. This is content that I’d equate to a national, casual chain restaurant… people may visit, but half the time they’ll leave thinking “that sounded like it would be much better than it was.”

Or, you can challenge yourself to prepare the great stuff, the real deal. This type of content pulls together all of the quality information you’ve gleaned from others (the best quality ingredients), and adds in your own personality, insight and care to develop something new, exciting and worth people’s time. This is the stuff that people will want to read, and talk about — the stuff that will keep people coming back and bringing friends. This is my Greenhouse Tavern. (My favorite restaurant: focused on simple, farm-to-table food, locally owned and operated by a talented and passionate chef.)

Consumption & Sharing

On the flip side, with the vast amount of content available on the Web, how do readers know what information is trustworthy, valuable and worth their investment of time? I’d argue that inasmuch as it is the job of content creators to invest in developing quality content, it is also the responsibility of consumers to give such content the respect it deserves.

I feel the same about food, BTW — I try to shop at local farmers’ markets rather than larger chain grocery stores, buy whole foods instead of packaged goods, etc. You vote with your wallet, as the inspired idealist-businessman Gary Hirshberg likes to say. And on the Web, you vote with your time, your actions and most importantly, your links.

I firmly believe that those of us that are the most active on the social Web are the ones that are shaping the future of business. Not only because of our online business savvy, but also because we are the ones whose behavior is most easily tracked and accounted for by any organization we interact with online. These actions can have a great impact on how businesses operate in the future, because this data will be used to optimize ongoing operations. (Sorry non-marketers, maybe it’s a bit “Big Brother,” but it’s true.) Our actions will impact others, whether they are active on the Web or not.

That being said, I think it is our responsibility to devote the time to reading and sharing the highest quality content. When was the last time you read an eight-page editorial online (or in print), or spent more than five minutes reading a lengthier, thought-provoking blog post? Why not devote your valuable time to a piece that someone clearly put a great deal of thought into, rather than constantly scanning through your news feed and skimming a dozen mediocre articles?

Don’t fill your Twitter stream or Facebook profile with links to any article you read just to get something up. Instead, sift through the clutter and share only the best information with your followers. Become a source for quality content. Be a content curator.

Accountability

I challenge you (and myself) to from this day forward focus on quality over quantity, both when creating and developing content, and when consuming and sharing it with others. I bet that your network will thank you for it.

Laurel Miltner is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Laurel on Twitter @laurelmackenzie.

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.
What is Content Marketing?

By Christina Capadona-Schmitz | Posted Jan 22, 2010 | 3 Comment(s) | Filed in: Content Marketing
Content marketing is not a new concept, but is gaining new momentum in 2010. PR 20/20 introduced it as a core element of the Inbound Marketing GamePlan released Jan. 20 (click here to download the free PDF eBook) and recognized content marketing authority Joe Pulizzi believes that we've entered the Year of Content Marketing.

The concept has emerged in recent years due to a number of factors contributing to an increasingly competitive business environment, including: economic conditions, technological advances, focus on search engine rankings, the expansion of the social Web and the shrinking of traditional media.

Organizations no longer have to wait for the media to tell their story, and more than that, they are starting to see the publishing of relevant, link-worthy content as the great differentiator for their brands.

Today, content marketing services are a core part of integrated inbound marketing campaigns, and center on helping companies grow faster and smarter by outthinking, not outspending, the competition. Organizations that become their own publishers are realizing the power of generating leads, building brand loyalty and gaining new competitive advantages.

Content Marketing Defined

In early 2000, while working in the publishing industry, Pulizzi (@JuntaJoe) started using content marketing to describe a variety terms, including: custom publishing, custom media, customer media, customer publishing, member media, private media, branded content, corporate media, corporate publishing, corporate journalism and branded media.
Then in 2007, Pulizzi helped to refine the concept’s identity by recognizing the five main components (or phrases) that make content marketing what it is: editorial-based, marketing-backed, behavior-driven, multi-platform and targeted.
In 2008, marketing industry thought leaders joined the conversation and offered their thoughts:
- "Content Marketing is the Only Marketing Left"—Seth Godin, Junta42 Blog Post: "Content Marketing is the Only Marketing Left" and 10 New Marketing Lessons (January 2008)
- “Content marketing, in my definition, is the ability to produce useful and entertaining information that is worthwhile on its own, but that might also be useful towards a sale or subsequent action.”—Chris Brogan How Content Marketing Will Shake the Tree (August 2008)
In 2009, Pulizzi released the book “Get Content Get Customers-Turn Prospects into Buyers with Content Marketing" with co-author Newt Barrett, and the Content Marketing Playbook eBook with with Jonathan Kranz.
Pulizzi's defintion can be found on the Junta42 resources page.
- “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
- Or the Twitter-friendly version:“Content marketing is the creation and distribution of valuable, compelling content to attract, acquire and engage a target audience.”
Content Marketing Activities

As mentioned earlier, content marketing has become the great differentiator — a sustainable competitive advantage that enables businesses to separate themselves, while driving acquisition (leads) and retention (loyalty).

At its core, content marketing activities include the production and publishing of creative, compelling and relevant content, including, but not limited to:
- Articles
- Blogs
- Case studies
- Custom print magazines
- Desktop applications
- Digital magazines
- eBooks
- Email newsletters
- Microsites
- Mobile applications
- Press releases
- Print newsletters
- Photos
- Podcasts
- Videos
- Webinars
- White papers
- Wikis
Content + Community

Content marketing alone will not generate leads and loyalty, but it can help an organization enhance its positioning as a thought leader and innovator, connect with audiences in a more authentic and personal way, and directly impact its Website’s search engine rankings and traffic.

While many understand the benefits of investing in the production of captivating content pieces, without community building activities, established distribution channels, and the internal commitment to a long-term strategy, the content will not travel far beyond the place it is published on the Web.

By seeing content marketing as the lifeblood of an inbound marketing strategy, feeding off the strength of the brand, Website, social media and search marketing strategies, and pumping new life into traditional PR, advertising and marketing campaigns, marketers can monitor and track measurable results of their investments, and use this data to continually adjust strategies to meet the changing demands of their audiences.

While content marketing may not be a new idea, the way that marketers have begun to embrace it as a fundamental part of their 2010 plans is of great interest to our agency. Look for more on content marketing throughout the year, and please share your thoughts and resources, and what areas you’d like to learn more about.

Capadona-Schmitz is assistant vice president and consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. She can be found on Twitter @ChristinaCS.
Social Media in Regulated Industries: How to Participate

By Tracy DiMarino | Posted Jan 14, 2010 | 0 Comment(s) | Filed in: Social Media
(This is part 2 of a 2-part blog series on Social Media in Regulated Industries.)

Earlier this week, I outlined some of the restrictions that may hinder social media participation in regulated industries.

While these regulations may seem overwhelming, it is important to remember that they have been established with your target audiences’ best interests in mind. For example, restrictions exist to protect privacy, guarantee fair and accurate information, and keep individuals safe from misleading information.

Also, by not letting the regulations stand in the way, you can reach your target audiences where they are already communicating. According to a Nielsen Online study, cited by Jeremiah Owyang (@Jowyang), “time spent [on social networking sites] is growing at three times the overall Internet rate, accounting for almost 10% of all Internet time.”

By working closely with your legal department and establishing clear policies and procedures, it is possible to participate in social media, while staying compliant with industry regulations. Below are best practices and tips on how to do so.

Get Support From Upper-level Management

Without buy-in from upper-level management, your social media campaign is likely to go nowhere fast. Present executives with the benefits of social media, so that they fully understand the importance of active participation. Some benefits include: enhanced relationships with key audiences, increased brand awareness, larger reach, ability to gather customer feedback and improved customer service.

You’ll also want to show them how you’ll measure the effectiveness of social media in reaching your organizational objectives. Review analytics' data to track metrics such as: social media reach, blog subscribers, page rank, inbound links, keyword rankings, Website traffic, brand mentions, conversion rates, leads and sales. This data can be collected through a variety of free and paid tools, for example: Google Webmaster Tools, Google Analytics and HubSpot Inbound Marketing Software. By benchmarking data and then tracking changes, you’ll be able to see what strategies work for your organization, and determine your return on investment.

To see an example of how PR 20/20 measured the effectiveness of its Internet marketing activities, read: “Does Inbound Marketing Really Work?”

Educate Within Your Organization

Education is vital to the success of a social media campaign in a regulated industry. All members of your organization need to have a firm understanding of how social networking works, as well as the industry regulations that may affect what can and cannot be shared.

Note: Your legal team’s reservations about social media probably stem from a lack of understanding of how the tools work. For example, they might not be aware that it is okay to moderate and pre-approve comments, if a policy is posted. [Jason Falls (@JasonFalls), Leveraging Social Media in Regulated Industries]

Educate your legal team on how social tools work and what will be required for effective participation (i.e. regularly published content, quick approval timelines), and make employees aware of industry regulations and acceptable online behavior.

Establish Social Media Policies and Procedures

In order to avoid social media blunders, build a social media policy that establishes guidelines and processes for monitoring and participating on social media. This policy can be created as a stand-alone document or it can be incorporated into an existing communication policy. To ensure all industry regulations are met, get support from your legal department before finalizing.

According to Dave Fleet (@DaveFleet) in his article, “Social Media Policies for Your Company: Internal Policies,” the following areas should be addressed in your social media policy:
- Boundaries — Are employees actively encouraged to engage in conversations regarding the organization (may depend on organizational culture)?
- Transparency — Are employees required to identify themselves as employees when discussing the organization (likely: yes)?
- Confidentiality — May employees discuss confidential information (likely: no)?
- Financials — May employees discuss financial information (likely: no)?
- Consequences — Outline the consequences both for the company and the employee when someone says something ill advised.
- Work Use — Is social media use permitted during work hours (may differ depending on whether employees are encouraged to engage in conversations regarding the organization)?
In addition, you should discuss review timelines and procedures with your legal department — as almost all content published by the company will likely have to be pre-approved. Some items to consider include:
- What content needs pre-approval (all content, only content relating to promotions, etc.)?
- How should this content be submitted to legal for review? Who should it be sent to and in what format?
- How long is legal’s turnaround once content has been submitted for review? Note: Strive for short review timelines, as social media requires timely communication with audiences. According to Jason Falls, “There’s a good chance they [legal] will agree to a 24-48 hour response time on certain items for approval.”
- Can urgent content be pushed through the review process faster, if necessary?
There are more than 30 sample social media policies at “Social Media Policy Examples,” including those for Harvard Law School, the US Air Force, Dow Jones and Wells Fargo. While many of the companies are not in a regulated industry, they can still offer guidance when creating your policy.

Depending on your industry, you may also want to create a commenting policy for your social profiles. For example, in his article “Social Media: Risk Management Strategies for Financial Institutions,” attorney Andrew M. Baer (@baerbizlaw) recommends that financial institutions provide clear messaging on all social networking profiles, informing consumers that individual issues should be taken offline, as a means to protect secure data. Additionally, healthcare organizations might want a policy that deters people from sharing personal medical information.

Become Active, Engage Audiences & Have Fun

Publish relevant and link-worthy content, share content created by others, answer questions, offer advice and support, and, most importantly, have fun!

In doing so, you’ll be able to connect with customers, prospects and other target audiences in a personal and authentic way.

Thoughts?

So what do you think?
- Which companies in regulated industries are using social media effectively?
- What regulations have you faced? How did you overcome them?
- What does your social media policy look like?
Social Media in Regulated Industries Blog Series Links

Part 1 – Social Media in Regulated Industries: What You Are Up Against
Part 2 – Social Media in Regulated Industries: How to Participate

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

Subscribe to receive the PR 20/20 blog by email or RSS feed.

Photo Credits: Robert S. Donovan