filter by tag: Twitter

April 12, 2010 at 1:22 PM by Cone

As any 21^st century PR practitioner will tell you, social media communications has taken on a role of greater importance when developing a comprehensive communications plan for your organization. But remember, establishing a social media presence means opening yourself up to potential attacks, warranted or not, from consumers who want their voices to be heard. To prepare yourself for this eventuality, you must develop a sound social media strategy comprising a careful mix of fact finding, message creation and strategic communication.

 

The new reality of an always-online, hyper-connected world is that there has been a major shift in how we help companies communicate with consumers. Blogger engagement and Facebook and Twitter strategies are no longer “nice to haves.” They’re absolutes! Three years ago, our proactive efforts primarily involved developing comprehensive communications programs that helped clients demonstrate their business actions to a core group of loyal consumers. We were able to create focused programs and engagement tactics that could be shared with stakeholders and media by following a planned schedule. Although that process still underlies the foundation of any solid communications platform, today it is critical to supplement it with a strategic and deliberate social media communications plan with a broader consumer focus.

It is important to take your time when crafting your online and social media plan. The best communications plans are structured to be implemented in a moment’s notice. And when done poorly, they can seriously damage your reputation almost overnight. Years of solid thinking and reams of messaging can easily be overtaken by scrambled, reactive efforts - often against attacks waged by just a few individuals with limited knowledge on the topic they’re vilifying.

So, what to do, and what not to do? There are a few critical things that must happen, especially when dealing with a consumer crisis:

Do:

• Monitor, monitor, monitor. It’s not enough just to be there. You must know what’s happening in your social media space.
• Respond, respond, respond - and quickly. The vast majority of online attackers can be easily educated and quickly appeased, and in some cases, might even become surprising allies. Ignoring commentary is the quickest way to start a firestorm, and responding fast can literally stop it in its tracks.
• Have a few clear key messages to reference. Keep messages factual and as objective as possible. Engaging in an online attack is not the time to “market” to the attacker.
  

Don’t:

• Ignore the comments. You don’t have to respond to everything, but when you see an opportunity to set the record straight, do so, and fast.
• Respond with the same message over and over again. Online communication should be authentic and come from a personalized “voice.”
• Patronize or antagonize. Be polite and respectful, but remain strong and confident.
• Shut down your Facebook page or Twitter handle. That will move the conversation into forums you can’t easily control.
  

Online engagement is an exciting opportunity to have a person-to-person dialogue in real time. With a solid online and social media communications strategy in place, you will be prepared for anything that comes your way, and more often than not, will come out on top.

--Lisen Syp, Senior Account Supervisor

Tags: Twitter Facebook PR strategy bestpractices socialmedia crisis blogs

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March 12, 2010 at 2:37 PM by Mike

It's day one for the South by Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas, and I'm lucky enough to be on the ground here at the Austin Convention Center. The entire city is buzzing with geekery - you can't swing a 3-foot USB cable without smacking someone who's busy blogging, tweeting or generally acting engrossed in their laptop or iPhone. (author included)

 

 

So far, the big buzz has been around location-based applications and services like Foursquare and Gowalla - and the announcement that Twitter turned on its version of location-based status for all users. Add to that other services like SitBy.Us and Plancast, and it seems that everyone wants to know where you are and where you are going.

 

One's thing for sure - EVERYONE is using these tools here. The question will be if they can make the crossover to mainstream culture the way Twitter did in 2007. If there is a front runner right now, it's Foursquare, with all of the exposure it is getting lately. Gowalla is putting on the full court press here in Austin, though Will it be enough to command the attention of the digerati?

Tags: Twitter event socialmedia

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February 18, 2010 at 4:11 PM by Cici

There seems to be a trend emerging wherein agencies and clients use new media and Web analytics to catch each other sleeping. It started with the Zappos agency review in July in which one respondent, Ignited, tracked Zappos’ review of its submission and found the company had spent fewer than 15 seconds per page viewing only five of the 25 pages submitted. Right, wrong or otherwise – as usual both sides have their story – the point is that Zappos was “found out” thanks to Google Analytics.

 

And just yesterday, Marty St. George, senior vice president of marketing and commercial at JetBlue, tweeted the following:

We're pitching our advertising AOR. Curious on digital savvy....first test is how many of the agencies will find me on twitter. #sneaky
10:57 AM Feb 17th from UberTwitter

I would look at these examples as an eye opener for parties on both sides – you better be on top of new media or it’s likely to bite you in the “you-know-what.” The hashtag #sneaky at the end of JetBlue’s tweet gives me a sense of the spirit in which it was done. But, for Ignited, I think it was a legitimate test to see if there was any valuable return on its hours of time invested.

Some follow-up tweets from JetBlue indicate the sneak attack may not have been as fun as initially thought, but it was a great wake-up call to agencies on the types of metrics some clients are beginning to use. No longer should we just view new media as a way to communicate, but realize that they’re also a way to track us, like a bloodhound. Sarbanes-Oxley would be proud – you can run, but you can’t hide.

As someone involved in business development, these tactics initially make me question the authenticity of a relationship we might be about to embark upon. If the client and/or agency is setting up “tests” for us to fail or pass and we don’t even know we’re being tested, it seems sneaky (no hashtag needed) to me – the wrong way to lay the foundation of a trusting relationship. Shouldn’t the quality of our work, the quality of our strategies speak volumes? Isn’t that what they are hiring us for?

The JetBlue example also feels arrogant. But even if I “passed” the test, found the tweet and presumably were as smart as the client, I’d constantly have to wonder what next test was being administered. Would I start to think up some of my own tests to get the upper hand (even if I never told the other party)? Wow, this could get interesting…

Tags: Twitter Trust trend strategy partnership newmedia

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February 12, 2010 at 10:21 AM by Cone

Many watch the Olympics to see humans triumph over the greatest odds to achieve their Olympic dreams. And with the ubiquitous presence of social media in our society, no doubt many will follow these triumphs on their favorite new media channels. Or will they? Before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games even begin, there has been a cloud of confusion settling over the competition. Although it is predicted that more than 200 million plan to watch the games over the 17 day period, it seems they won’t have such luck online.

 

It turns out many Olympic athletes are confused as to whether they can share their experiences on blogs, Twitter or other social media sites. According to the International Olympic Committee, “athletes and other accredited people must keep their posts confined to their personal experiences… Only those persons accredited as media may act as journalists, reporters or in any other media capacity.” Athletes are also banned from blogging about sponsors or advertisers who aren’t official Olympic partners.

Poor communication about the dos and don’ts of blogging, and fear of breaking IOC rules, have left most athletes simply abandoning their blogs and Twitter pages. As such, the Committee has come under fire from many fans wanting to gain a first-hand perspective from their favorite athletes. Lindsey Vonn, one of America’s best chances to score a gold medal, told 35,000 Twitter fans she sadly has to refrain from tweeting until after the Games.

If the Committee had better communicated its guidelines prior to the Games, millions of people would have the opportunity to engage in the experiences and emotions athletes go through during this most elite athletic competition. Without a doubt, it would have added another meaningful layer of understanding about the extent of human endurance. After all, aren’t the Games just as much for the audience as they are for the athletes?

-- Jenn DeBarge Goonan, Senior Account Supervisor

Tags: Twitter socialmedia blogs

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November 30, 2009 at 3:43 PM by Cone

I spent Thanksgiving weekend at my parents' house and a good part of Friday going through box after box of toys – my task being to “keep what you want and bring it to your own house, because the rest is getting tossed.”

 

While millions of people hit the malls to take advantage of Black Friday sales, I sorted toys and reminiscedabout holidays past and gifts received. One fond memory was the Christmas moment when I unwrapped my Cabbage Patch Kid (Olivia Bebe, according to her adoption certificate). For anyone not a child of the 80s, that doll (complete with Xavier Robert’s own signature) was the hot item to receive – hotter than the Alf doll or Teddy Ruxpin, or more recently, Tamagachi and Tickle Me Elmo.

 

Image Credit: flickr

 

I can remember eavesdropping on all the parents sharing, or bragging, how they were able to acquire this amazingly scarce toy…via office bribes, black market research and getting in line at the store rumored to have a shipment coming in 14 hours in advance. They waited in the dark, in the cold, a cold sandwich for dinner, sleeping bag on the sidewalk. Only five dolls when they rushed the door of the stock room, they elbowed somebody’s grandmother out of the way and only got their doll because the person in front of them fell.

 

But, the purpose of this post is not to shed light on this (crazy?) waste of time, energy and resources, but to look back on a time that came well before the Internet became Santa’s toy shop.

 

Today, however, Black Friday might as well be medieval compared to Cyber Monday (the Monday following Thanksgiving during which online sales reach yearly highs). Diligent workers, refreshed from their long weekend breaks spend the day back in the office not catching up on emails but…you didn’t hear it from me…shopping. In fact, Forrester Research reports online retail is thriving, with 8 percent growth expected this holiday season.

 

Savvy PR pros have embraced new media with gusto, and it is critical that we understand the power that word of mouth from a trusted blogger has on subscribers and a well-designed and frequently updated Facebook fan page has within a social network community. Most recently, we’re seeing the immense growth of personalities and brands on Twitter – making me really eager to learn how Twitter will impact holiday sales this year.

 

Maybe in the future, December 1, 2009,will actually be looked upon as the first “Twitter Tuesday.” This year I’d imagineforward-thinking retailers will certainly welcome Twitter-generated mobs by tweeting their sales and the new shipments of the hottest gadgets in real time. If I were in retail sales, I’d dedicate a good amount of time tweeting about the availability of my product, my sales and the timing of new shipments. I’d think about doing Twitter-specific promotions and rewarding my followers for passing my tweets along to their own network. I’d also reward my online and in-store partners for using Twitter to promote my product.

 

My prediction is that Cyber Monday has paved the way for Twitter Tuesday. It’s fascinating to imagine how different it would have been for my mom and dad to find my coveted Olivia Bebe had their smartphones been capable of accessing real-time tweets from the local toy store. The question is, are we advancing through new ways to communicate, or are we making our day-to-day lives more mercenary and robotic by leveraging these tools? Will my kids ever have the experience of waiting in line or hoping against hope they’ll get that one special item on their wish list or is everything really just one click away?

 

--Lisen Connery Syp, Account Supervisor

Tags: Twitter wordofmouth socialmedia

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July 29, 2009 at 3:25 PM by Knowledge Leadership

1. Fierce competition: Rivals square off
2. All aTwitter: Brands find clever ways to use Twitter
3. Everywhere you want to be: Marketers going mobile
4. "Video killed the radio star": Marketers are turning to Web video
5. I hardly recognized myself: Brand revitalizations

 

Tags: branding campaigns advertising newmedia Twitter promotion PR marketing

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July 8, 2009 at 4:59 PM by Knowledge Leadership

Twitter. It’s revolutionary and paradigm-shifting. But, what exactly is it? It’s a little bit Facebook status update, a little bit AOL Instant Messager, a little bit LinkedIn and a little bit RSS feed. Ask a thousand different people what Twitter is, and you will get a thousand different answers.

 

 

For the family of 10-year-old Anand of Mongolia, Twitter was an answer to its prayers. After being severely burned by fireworks, Anand and his mom traveled thousands of miles from home to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO to seek treatment. The rest of his family couldn’t afford to make the trip, but what was already a trying time back in Mongolia was made a little easier through Twitter. From across the globe, the family followed along as hospital staff tweeted real-time updates from the operating room giving Anand’s family a way to stay connected from afar.

 

So, Twitter. Revolutionary, paradigm-shifting and making the world a smaller place. Maybe the genius of Twitter is that it truly can be all things to all people. For some, it’s a professional development tool, and for others it’s a news feed. But for Anand’s family it was a little piece of mind during a difficult ordeal.

 

How will you use Twitter today?

read more...

Tags: Twitter

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June 16, 2009 at 6:02 PM by Mike

When the US Department of State asks Twitter to delay an upgrade because of how Iranians may be affected by site downtime, you know that Twitter has officially crossed over from being “something on your to-do list” to an “absolute must-understand.”

 

Of course, the best way to learn is to experience it first-hand, but if you are uneasy about taking the plunge, here are some tips:

1. Listen first: You would not barge into a cocktail party and start spouting off about stuff no one wants to hear. By that same rationale, after creating an account, find some interesting people to follow. Listen. Learn. If you are representing your brand or organization, use Twitter’s search tool to see who is saying what about you.
2. Add value: Only people *very* far out in The Long Tail really care about your coffee habits. Once you’ve mastered listening, add to existing conversations with valuable insights, commentary, and questions.
3. Keep the conversation going: no one likes a know-it-all. Twitter is about increasing the collective wisdom through shared knowledge, challenging opinions, and forging relationships that otherwise would not have been created. Respect others’ rights to speak, disagree and share their own unique perspective. Respond when people reach out to you.
4. Share it: blogs, photos, videos, websites, news stories, other tweets… if you found it interesting, maybe someone else will too. Don’t go crazy sharing only your own material either. Vanity has no place on Twitter.
5. Use the tools: make Twitter more accessible with TweetDeck (you won’t have to go to Twitter.com), set up an account with TwitPic, enable SMS updates on your phone, or even better, install an iPhone Twitter App or Blackberry Twitter App.

And always remember - Don’t ever Tweet anything that could be harmful to you, your brand, your organization, its customers, your colleagues, etc. If you ever have to question whether you’re sharing too much information…you probably are.

Photo Credit: http://twitpic.com/7gtbu

Tags: Twitter socialmedia

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