The Abbi Agency 2012 Media Placements
The Abbi Agency Table of Contents Title
Date
Publication
12/17/2012 12/16/2012 12/15/2012 12/3/2012 12/1/2012 11/16/2012 11/4/2012 10/28/2012 10/22/2012 10/21/2012 10/19/2012 10/7/2012 9/24/2012 9/10/2012 9/7/2012 8/31/2012 8/19/2012 8/14/2012
Northern Nevada Business Weekly Reno Gazette Journal Reno Gazette Journal Northern Nevada Business Weekly Blog Paws United States Senator Reno Gazette Journal Reno Gazette Journal Northern Nevada Business Weekly Northern Nevada Life Reno Gazette Journal Northern Nevada Life PR Daily NNBW Marketing Directo PR Daily Living Life In The Fast Lane PR Daily
8/13/2012
Think Different[ly]
8/13/2012 8/9/2012 8/9/2012 7/2/2012 7/1/2012 6/11/2012 6/1/2012 5/23/2012 4/18/2012 4/17/2012 4/11/2012 4/10/2012 4/9/2012 4/8/2012 3/30/2012 3/30/2012
NNBW newsreview.com newsreview.com Social Media Today Trendspotters The Abbi Agency FaceBook Trendspotters RGJ.com PR Daily Tenacious PR the CMO site Holistic Marketing Concepts ragan.com Holistic Marketing Concepts Word Press PR Daily
3/27/2012
SmartBlog on Social Media
3/21/2012
genConnect
3/20/2012
SmartBlog on Social Media
3/19/2012
SmartBlog on Social Media
3/13/2012
SmartBlog on Social Media
From #SXSW: What do your fans really want from you? From #SXSW: What food-truck owners can teach you about social media Live from #SXSW: What really makes a video go viral?
3/12/2012
SmartBlog on Social Media
Live from #SXSW: How to become a powerful visual storyteller
3/4/2012
KTVN 2 News
3/4/2012 3/12/2012 2/23/2012 2/20/2012
KOLO Trendspotters Ragan's PR Daily NNBW
Krystal Tingle, Amanda Horn, & Constance Aguilar Corporate Giving 2012 3 Promoted At The Abbi Agency Four Signs That It's Time To Call In A Social Media Guru Do You Have A Pinterest Account Certificate Of Senatorial Recognition Twenty Under 40 Twenty Under 40 How To Save Your Special Event When All Appears Lost Scene And Be Seen Twenty Under 40 Winners Reno Extra View Points Social Media Manager: I Was Banned From Facebook Sugar Bowl Hires Abbi Agency 10 Razones Para Odiar Los Social Media 10 Reasons I Hate Social Media 10 Mistakes And Lessons Learned From The PR World 10 Mistakes And Lessons Learned From The PR World 10 Reasons Why The Future Of The PR Industry Is Doomed! People: Constance Aguilar Best public relations firm: #1-The Abbi Agency Best public relations professional: #2- Abbi Whitaker Facebook And Bloggers: A Winning Combination The Abbi Agency The Abbi Agency FB Contest: Build Your Perfect Night The Abbi Agency June 2012 Abbi Agency Hires New Social Media Coordinator How To Pitch Bloggers Via Pinterest How To Pitch Bloggers Via Pinterest Be a Clown: Using Humor in B2B Marketing Canfest: A Case Study In Experimental Marketing Social media lessons from food truck owners Social Media Savvy With The Abbi Agency Blogs About: Lost Job Because Of Social Media I Was Fired For A Tweet From #SXSW: Are you catering to your audience's interest graph? SXSW 2012: Where Startups and Industry Titans Converge
Roaming Gnome Roaming Gnome Newsletter How innovative brands use spotify to their advantage Avoiding mistakes with social media
The Abbi Agency Table of Contents Date
Publication
2/20/2012 2/13/2012
NNBW NNBW
2/7/2012
SmartBlog on Social Media
1/10/2012
Mashable Social Media
1/2/2012
NNBW
Title The Abbi Agency Add In her own words: Abbi Whitaker of The Abbi Agency 5 ways social music tools can build brands and boost business 5 Ways Brands can Use Pinterest to Boost Consumer Engagement Abbi Holtom Whitaker President and Founder Abbi Public Realtions
Facebook has a ton of rules. At the PR agency where I work, we are constantly working to make sure our client’s Facebook pages stay in accordance with those rules. Outside of work, I’ve worked with an organization called “Sexual Futurist” to help grow its Facebook fans. One day, I’m logging on to Facebook and I see this:
Sexual Futurist is an organization that strives to create a community of people who can start intelligent conversations about sex. It is their theory that by breaking the stigma of talking about human sexuality, we will be able to solve many problems of society’s challenges, such as managing sex offenders, understanding sexual politics, and so on. I set up their page, and therefore am an administrator. The Facebook page supports the group’s mission of breaking the stigma. Sexual Futurist wanted to expand its reach and invite people who live in countries where sexual conversation is taboo to join them. Enter: Facebook advertising. I advised the group to use Facebook ads to reach its target demographic in countries all over the world: India, Pakistan, Brazil, etc. As a result, the Sexual Futurist page grew from a few hundred fans in 2011 to
nearly 15,000 fans 2012. Members of the group started noticing that out of 14,000 fans, Facebook was only showing the posts to maybe 1,000 to 3,000 of the fans. So they paid for Facebook posts, promoting them—for the small fee of $75—to their fans that they had already paid Facebook to obtain. Along the way, Sexual Futurist wrote a review of The New York Times bestseller “Sex at Dawn” by Christopher Ryan. The promoted post said: “Best. Human. Sexuality. Book. Ever. Join our book club!”
I’m not exactly sure what happened next. My best guess is that Facebook promoted this post to Sexual Futurist’s fans in Pakistan and to the friends of those fans (judging by the comments left on the post). Pakistan is comprised mostly of Muslims, who were offended by the cover of this book. It is likely that this offense led them to at least one of a few actions: complain, block, report the page. Regardless, the post drew the attention of Facebook officials. Facebook sent the notification saying that the Sexual Futurist page was to never again show up in the newsfeeds of the group’s own fans. As an administrator, I appealed this decision, because I didn’t see why the page should be banned if they were not breaking any of Facebook’s rules that I was aware of.
Facebook responded to my appeal with this:
Sexual Futurist has now been permanently banned from appearing in the fan newsfeeds. So even the people who signed up and said they wanted to see the content no longer will. These incidents highlights a flaw in the system: Facebook should never have shown the content to people who hadn’t opted in to see it (the fans). As a result of this approach, Sexual Futurist has shelled out quite a bit money to Facebook for a page of 15K fans—that is obsolete because no one will visit the page without seeing it in their newsfeeds. If you are a Facebook administrator, choose your spending carefully. Some items can become obsolete the next day, or in this case, the page can become obsolete.
Los internautas tienen una suerte de relación amor odio con los social media. Los aman porque son plataformas instantáneas, divertidas y creativas, pero a veces desatan en ellos un odio visceral difícil de apaciguar. Seguramente hay muchos motivos para amar los social media, pero también para odiarlos. Nicole Rose Dion enumera en PR Daily algunos de los segundos: 1. Los errores tipográficos y gramaticales Los social media son inmediatos. De hecho, su inmediatez es una de las principales razones de su éxito. Sin embargo, la rapidez se traduce a menudo también en errores tipográficos y gramaticales que son vistos por miles de personas y que generan reacciones que son de todo menos benevolentes. 2. Lo que publicas hoy se olvida mañana Los más perfeccionistas pueden invertir horas y horas en fabricar el post perfecto para Facebook. Con suerte, después tendrán éxito con su publicación, pero la fama no durará más allá de 24 horas. 3. Es difícil encontrar un equilibrio en la cantidad de contenido publicado Los entendidos en la materia dicen que no es bueno acribillar al usuario con excesivos posts en las redes sociales, pero esos mismos expertos aseguran que también es contraproducente publicar demasiado poco. ¿Cuál es la medida perfecta? Los social media son plataformas nuevas y sus reglas cambian de un día para otro. 4. Los social media son imprevisibles La imprevisibilidad es simultáneamente una de las grandes virtudes y uno de los grandes defectos de los social media. Una fórmula que genera para un usuario grandes resultados, se revela completamente inútil para otro. No hay soluciones que valgan para todos. 5. Las plataformas cambian constantemente Un usuario puede pasar horas intentando desentrañar el funcionamiento de las transcripciones en YouTube para a continuación descubrir que éstas han cambiado completamente. En los social media, los cambios se suceden a la velocidad del rayo. 6. Las quejas y comentarios negativos Los social media son plataformas abiertas en las que los usuarios pueden expresar sus quejas sin ningún tipo de cortapisa. De las quejas siempre puede aprenderse, pero ¿cuál es la mejor fórmula para responderlas? ¿Hay que mostrarse divertido? ¿Hay que limitarse a pedir disculpas? Cada queja es un mundo y requiere un tratamiento personalizo. No hay una fórmula estándar para responder a las quejas en los social media. 7. Un día estás arriba, otro día abajo Los social media padecen un síndrome similar al de la bolsa. Puedes tener un día excelente en Twitter y aumentar tu número de seguidores en 50, para darte cuenta el día después de que has perdido 70 followers. 8. Es complicado medir el ROI Las marcas con presencia en los social media necesitan números que justifiquen su inversión en estas plataformas, pero dar con ellas no es fácil en absoluto. En el caso de las marcas con tiendas online asociadas, calcular el ROI es relativamente sencillo, ¿pero cómo medir el retorno de la inversión de empresas no venden productos online ni generan leads a sus páginas web?
9. Los “tradicionalistas” contemplan con miedo los social media Las marcas más tradicionales desconfían de los social media por la dificultad para medir el ROI en estas plataformas. E incluso si dan su brazo a torcer y apuestan por las redes sociales, ponen múltiples piedras en el camino a los que les ayudan en su “conversión 2.0”. 10. No hay control En los social media, las marcas, y a veces también los usuarios individuales, sienten que tienen una falta de control sobre sus propios contenidos. Si alguien publica un comentario negativo en estas plataformas, no queda más remedio que aguantar el chaparrón de la mejor forma posible. No es posible borrarlo ni exigir a la plataforma en que el comentario ha sido publicado que lo elimine. La única opción posible es intentar responder y evitar que las críticas se desborden.
I have a love/hate relationship with social media. I love it because it’s instant, fun, and creative. A successful social media post that receives hundreds of “likes,” comments, and shares gives you such a great feeling. But I do it all day, every day. I do it at work, and I do it in my personal life. Because I’m immersed in it, occasionally there are things about it that make me want to throw staplers across the room. #socialmediaproblems Why do I sometimes hate social media? Oh, let me count the ways … 1. Typos/grammatical errors Social media is immediate; that’s why it works so well. Because of that, it’s easy to post something quickly from your phone without realizing you used the wrong “their.” When you return to your computer, you see the nasty comments from the grammar police. You’d never misspell something on a billboard that reaches 100,000 people, but a tweet certainly could reach that many people. We never think to put as much care and thought into a tweet as we do a billboard, because we don’t consider the weight of our 140-character post.
2. Here today, gone tomorrow Content comes and goes. This is why we have a hard time justifying spending an hour crafting the perfect Facebook post. It may get a lot of traction today, but give it 24 hours and it’s no longer getting any feedback at all. People have forgotten about it and are now playing Angry Birds. 3. Can’t post too much; can’t post too little It’s hard to know how much you’re supposed to post. If you and your client post something at the same time, you’re ridiculed. If you post too much, you’re blocked. If you don’t post enough, you’re unfollowed. What’s the perfect amount? No one really knows, because social media is relatively new and constantly changing. If a rule of thumb arises, that “rule” could become obsolete within days. 4. It’s unpredictable Social media is incredibly unpredictable. You could use the exact formula on one client and see amazing results, then use it on another and get no results. It comes down to human behavior and the everconfusing and secretive inner workings of the social platforms themselves. Which brings me to No. 5 … 5. Platforms change all the time You could spend all your working hours learning the intricacies of YouTube transcriptions, only to come into work one day to see they’ve completely changed the program. Suddenly your client is calling to ask what happened to their videos, and you’re left scratching your head. 6. Complaints/hate mail These are incredibly hard to deal with. Every client has a different philosophy on how to handle adverse responses. But what about you? Maybe you think all negative feedback (if legitimate) should be addressed on the social media page, while your client thinks it should be deleted immediately. If you’re going to respond, what do you say? Should you be funny? Should you be apologetic? There are so many variables that every situation requires a different approach, or at least a different conversation about what to do about it. 7. One day you’re up; the next you’re down I call it stock market syndrome. You could have an excellent day on Twitter. Come into work and see your Twitter followers went up by 50. Then you come in the next day, and you’re down 70. How does that happen so quickly? How can you receive a pat on the back from your client when all that work just disappeared? 8. Hard to prove ROI Prove to your client that what they’re paying you to do is delivering them monetary benefits is a
challenge. There are ways to do this for e-commerce clients, but what about ones who don’t sell anything or generate leads from their website? How do you justify that your spending 10 hours a week on their Facebook, Twitter, etc., is going to be worth the money they are paying you? 9. Traditionalists are afraid of it Many people tend to be afraid of social media because it’s hard to prove ROI, it’s easy to receive negative feedback, and so on. And that’s unfortunate when a client could benefit from a social media presence. Even if they agree to social media, they place extreme limits on what you’re allowed to post— which pulls the rug out from under your efforts. 10. Lack of control Clients don’t want to feel a loss of control over social media. If someone posts a negative tweet about your brand, there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t delete it; you can’t message Twitter and demand that it be taken down. All you can do is monitor, respond, and do your best to show you care.
Another story extracted from PR Daily written by Nicole Rose Dion, a social media coordinator and graphic designer at The Abbi Agency. When you're young and inexperienced, PR can be somewhat of an overwhelming adjustment. This is a list of ten mistakes and lessons Dion learned from being in the PR World. These lessons may be learned through experience, trial and error and the mistakes of others. MISTAKE: Not separating your regular life from your work. You shouldn't feel guilty about leaving work at work. You do not need to work all the time. If you do not give yourself downtime, you will more than likely experience a meltdown or fail to function to your best ability. You need to have a personal life to help you relax and refresh your mind. MISTAKE: You check your email on multiple devices. Checking emails on multiple devices, i.e. work computer, phone, home computer, etc. allows you to forget which emails you've already addressed and you can fail to respond to important ones. MISTAKE: Admitting to email mistakes. When you make a mistake, it's best not to draw attention to it. You never want to give your client or contact hard (written) evidence to use against you. MISTAKE: You make the client feel like they are not a priority. If a client asks for something, the answer should always be 'yes'. Afterward you can find a way to make it work, whether it means delegating or reprioritizing your workload. MISTAKE: You tried to help. No matter what your intentions, don't try to help in a situation when you don't have to. If a client or
journalist is having a crisis or complaining to your coworker about something and you think you can help, let it go. After they leave, ask someone if there's any way you can help. It's best to stay out of it and let your boss handle it to avoid any unwanted blame. MISTAKE: You pitched a journalist the day before an event. If you just found out about an event, don't bother trying to get media to come to it. It will irritate them that you waited until the last minute. It's better to pick up the phone and say, "Hey, I just found out about this event and I know it's last minute but can you attend? If not, no worries, just wanted to make sure you knew I didn't forget about you." Most likely they will not be able to go, but they'll appreciate the gesture. MISTAKE: You belittled the client. No matter what it is, always try to remain positive. If the client asks about using a particular photographer and you know that the photographer is terrible, instead of saying, "that photographer sucks," say something like, "You know, I think I know someone who would be a better fit for this..." MISTAKE: You didn't BCC people in a mass email. Always put contacts in the BCC field instead of the CC when sending mass emails. People don't want strangers to gain access to their email address. MISTAKE: You didn't put every meeting on the calendar. You missed a meeting. No matter how great your memory, put every meeting, phone call, webinar that you must attend on your calendar so you will receive alerts when things are coming up. You can even set alerts to notify you 24 hours in advance. MISTAKE: You sent your client your media list. This is a bad idea for two reason. One, your client may have someone internally start contacting those people, pushing you out of the job. Two, if you both end up contacting the media, the journalists may get irritated that you're doubling up. For the full article, click here.
When you’re young and inexperienced, being thrown into the PR world can be quite the adjustment. However, I’m a huge fan of channeling mistakes into a productive learning experience. I recently surveyed my coworkers and asked them about times when they experienced their worst “face palm” moments. The following is a culmination of 10 mistakes and lessons learned from being in the PR world. They don’t teach this stuff in school, it’s learned through experience, trial and error ,and now (hopefully) through learning from others peoples’ mistakes. 1. Life>work MISTAKE: You didn’t separate your regular life from your work. LESSON LEARNED: Don’t feel guilty about leaving work at work. You do not need to work all the time. You would go crazy, experience a meltdown, or fail to function as well at work if you don’t relax in your personal life. 2. #email
MISTAKE: You checked your email on multiple devices. LESSON LEARNED: When you check emails on multiple devices—work computer, phone, home computer, etc.—you forget which emails you’ve already addressed and end up not responding to important ones. 3. Wasn’t me MISTAKE: You admitted to a mistake in an email. LESSON LEARNED: When you make a mistake, it’s better to pick up the phone and discuss it. You never want to give your client or contact hard (written) evidence to use against you. 4. Whoops! MISTAKE: You made the client feel like they are not a priority. LESSON LEARNED: If a clients asks if you have time to do something, the answer should be yes. Afterward, find a way to make it work, whether that means delegating or reprioritizing your workload. 5. Just sayin’. MISTAKE: You tried to help. LESSON LEARNED: No matter what your intentions, don’t try to help in a situation when you don’t have to. If a client or journalist is having a meltdown or is complaining to your coworker about something and you think you can help, let it go. After they leave, ask someone you work with if there’s any way you can help. It’s best to stay out of it and let your boss handle it. 6. #Sins. MISTAKE: You pitched a journalist the day before an event. LESSON LEARNED: If you just found out about an event, don’t bother trying to get media to come to it. It will irritate them that you waited until the last minute. It’s better to pick up the phone and say, “Hey, (so and so), I just found out about this event, and I know it’s last minute but … can you attend? If not, no worries, just wanted to make sure you knew I didn’t forget about you.” Most likely they won’t be able to go, but they’ll appreciate the gesture. 7. My bad. MISTAKE: You belittled the client. LESSON LEARNED: No matter what it is, always try to remain positive. For example, if the client asks about using a particular photographer, and you know that photographer is terrible, instead of saying “that photographer sucks,” say something like, “You know, I think I know someone who would be a
better fit for this …” 8. Face palm. MISTAKE: You didn’t BCC people in a mass email. LESSON LEARNED: Always put contacts in the BCC field instead of CC when sending mass emails. People don’t want strangers to gain access to their email address. 9. Calendar. MISTAKE: You didn’t put every meeting on the calendar. LESSON LEARNED: You missed a meeting. No matter how great your memory, put every meeting, phone call, webinar that you must attend on your calendar so you will receive alerts when things are coming up. You can even set alerts to notify you 24 hours in advance. 10. Oh, sh*t. MISTAKE: You sent your client your media list. LESSON LEARNED: This is a bad idea for two reasons. One, your client may have someone internally start contacting those people, pushing you out of the job. Two, if you both end up contacting the media, the journalists may get irritated that you’re doubling up. Nicole Rose Dion is social media coordinator/graphic designer at The Abbi Agency. Follow Nicole on Twitter @nicolerosedion. A version of this story first appeared on The Abbi Agency blog.
I don’t usually read industry magazines or websites, but today I made an exception. I should know better. Two articles on Ragan’s PR Daily caught my attention. The first, by Nicole Rose Dion is called 10 mistakes and the lessons learned from the PR world. If you work in PR and this is how you run your client accounts then you need to go do something else. Some of Ms. Dion’s “mistakes”, (in addition to writing this article), include:
“… admitting [to a client] to a mistake in an email”. Nicole suggests talking to the client about it on the telephone because, “You never want to give your client or contact hard (written) evidence to use against you.”. If your client relationship is so fragile that you can’t own up to a mistake, and worry that by admitting it you give them ammunition to fire you down the line then you really shouldn’t be working with them.
Lesson learned: Honesty counts for everything in a client/agency relationship – on both sides. Owning up to a mistake and explaining how you’re going to fix it is, in my book, always preferable to having a ‘quiet chat’ that can be denied if necessary.
You tried to help. Nicole’s lesson learned is “No matter what your intentions, don’t try to help in a situation when you don’t have to.” She advocates you “let it go” if a journalist or client is “having a meltdown or is complaining to your coworker about something and you think you can help”. Either that, or letting your boss deal with the problem.
Lesson learned: Understanding the cause of the “meltdown” is critical. It’s the only way it can be resolved quickly and to the satisfaction of the client. It’s worth noting that my advice is actually to take steps to avoid the problem in the first place, but simply passing the buck to a colleague or boss won’t do anything for your long-term credibility with the client or journalist. I know my approach is old-fashioned, but it’s also effective.
You didn’t BCC people in a mass email.
Lesson learned: If you can’t work Outlook then you really shouldn’t be allowed near a computer let alone working in PR. HR failed if you can’t, and they let you!
You sent your client your media list. Nicole suggests this is a bad idea for two reasons. They might start contacting journalists, or you both might end up looking stupid if you contact the same person.
Lesson Learned: It’s about account management. If a client is contacting journalists rather than having you do it [after all, they're probably paying you to do it] then it suggests you’re not doing it right. If you are both calling journalists and can’t agree who calls who… you shouldn’t be managing PR accounts for clients. As for sharing media lists with clients, the list should be compiled and agreed with the client and reviewed on a regular basis to ensure that it remains relevant. More on clients and media lists in a future post… The second article that caught my eye today is called 7 Signs your PR efforts need a reboot by Dorothy Crenshaw, one of PR Week’s 100 Most Powerful Women. But, more about that later!!
Facebook and Bloggers: A Winning Combination July 2, 2012 Facebook promotions. Whether it’s a contest or a campaign, Facebook promotions are seen as the golden gate to a larger fan base, dedicated customers, and increased engagement. The grab and reward idea for brands for racking up fan numbers isn’t a poor one. Often time, it’s just not executed properly. Instead of a another “# of tips to make your contest work”, there’s a way to go about certain contests and campaigns that benefit more than just the brand and greatly increase the chances of valuable partnerships, brand ambassadors, and quality conversation and backlinks. How do you get access to all of these benefits, you ask? Simple. You use bloggers to drive your campaign. Here’s some insight on how exactly to do that:
Find the bloggers that best suit your goal. Are you giving away daily prizes with getting a massive increase of fans in mind? Showerhead company Oxygenics hosted a $50/day giveaway with Bed, Bath & Beyond gift cards. They wanted to target females, mainly moms, who love shopping and would be the likely ones in the house to choose the showerhead. By using giveaway blogs and Facebook pages, such as Suburban Coupon Mom, Sweeties Sweepstakes, and Freebie Junkie, Oxygenics was able to spread the word of their contest to that exact audience and went from 117 fans to just over 9,700 in 90 days. But if you’re conducting a campaign with a pet product company, then reach out to pet and pet product bloggers. Giving away a travel package to Chicago for a weekend? Use travel bloggers to promote your contest. Provide quality content. The best way to go about this is to offer the blogs niche content. Give those travel bloggers a post that includes ten reasons why Chicago is the best place to visit in the spring. That way they can pair their content with promoting the contest and everybody wins. Give bloggers an opportunity to participate. Bay area cookie company, Donsuemor, used National Dessert Month as an opportunity to reach out to the dessert blogger community and offer them free Donsuemor cookies in exchange for creating a one-of-a-kind recipe that would be featured on the Dessert a Day Facebook tab. They were able to fill up an entire month with custom recipes, photos, and interactions. Donsuemor’s fans, followers and website conversion rates increased. They were able to drive traffic from the Facebook and the bloggers posts to the website, which ultimately raised their conversion rate (meaning how many people came to the website and then bought something); how do you like that for ROI? Facebook page received 723 new likes and average amount of feedback was about 10-20 likes per post. They also have over
30 permanent backlinks spread across the Internet from the participating blogs. Not to mention a batch of quality photos for Instagr.am, Flickr, and Facebook. Consider a joined campaign. Many bloggers are looking to increase their networks, too. More Facebook fans, more subscribers, etc. If you have product, such as gift cards, showerheads, jewelry, etc, offer to conduct a join campaign with the blogger where they write about your product/company and the post offers readers a chance to win a prize for, say, commenting on the post and becoming a fan of both the blog’s and your brand’s Facebook pages. These are not hard to track, and it makes it so that everyone wins- the blogger, the participant, and you! Share the love. Give the bloggers public credit. Become their fan, tag them in your postings, Tweet to them; they will appreciate and reciprocate this action. Take time to specifically thank the people who they directed to your page. Oxygenics found that one particular blog sent more than 2,000 fans to the page, so they in turn have requested to purchase an ad on the blog knowing now its effectiveness. Use blog index sites to find outlets. Sites such as AllTop and Technorati give you a one-stop shop to find blogs based on subject and popularity. You can find quality blogs that focus on the subject you’re targeting, easily navigate to them, and be able to tell your boss their online rankings and value. Because we all have someone to answer to on the subject of social media marketing, right?
Bloggers are the ideal ambassadors. People read blogs. They trust bloggers, mainly because they see them as like-minded and honest people just like themselves. Don’t try to get a blogger to lie for you. It’s all about honesty and a mutually beneficial relationship. If the blogger likes what you have to offer, then you’ve got not only one fan, but all of their fans hooked. The last tip: respect bloggers. Do not spam them. Make sure you personalize emails so that they know they’re of value to you beyond just placements or links. They’re busy, hard working individuals. Make sure you treat them as such. Blog on, Facebook away, and reward to the fullest extent!
Bloggers are flocking to Pinterest, particularly those whose blogs include some element of photography or design. The social media site—which recently became the third most popular behind Facebook and Twitter—gives them another outlet to display their photos and provides the ability to interact with their fellow bloggers. There are a number of steps you can take to interact with these bloggers on Pinterest and get them to notice you (or your client). Follow them/follow their boards. On Pinterest, users share images by “pinning” them to a “pinboard,” which is basically an online bulletin board with images and captions. In that way, a “repin”—in which a user shares another person’s picture—is akin to a “like” on Facebook or “retweet” on Twitter. A number of bloggers will pin images from their own blogs as well as pictures from other people’s blogs. To see what sort of content they are pinning, follow all of their boards. When a person gets a new follower on Pinterest, they usually receive an email alerting them of it. This will get your name in front of them. But don’t just stop there, follow the pinners that they follow to learn what they’re sharing, too. Repin their pins.
Popular bloggers may not notice your name in their email right away, but if you keep repinning their pins, your name will consistently show up in their Pinterest feed and email box. The goal is to get them to see who you are and that you’ve been taking a genuine interest in their content before you pitch them. "Like" their pins and/or leave a comment. Here's another way to interact with their content. "Liking" their pins involves less commitment than actually repining something, plus it will show up in their Pinterest news feed. Commenting will get attract more attention than a “like,” because people tend to read the comments on pins before they share them. Tweet about their pins and share (and tag) them on Facebook. If a blogger is on Pinterest, they probably have a Facebook and Twitter page associated with their blog. Make sure that when you “like” one of their pins—or repin some content from their blog—that you post about it on Twitter or Facebook and give them proper recognition by tagging them. Maybe they don’t watch their Pinterest feed often, but they will keep an eye on their Twitter @replies and Facebook mentions. Email them and reference their Pinterest content. Finally, once you’ve spent some time getting to know this blogger and the types of things they like to pin/blog about, you can email them about your client. Make sure you mention that you have been following their pins and like their style. At this point, they should recognize that you’ve been following their social media efforts, something they will appreciate—especially if you actually read their blog and know what they like to read about. From there, help them see how your client would align nicely with their current blog/social media topics. Reference things they’ve posted and/or pinned for extra points. Nicole Rose Dion is social media coordinator/graphic designer at The Abbi Agency. Find them on Twitter @theabbiagency.
4/10/2012
4/8/2012
3/30/2012
Social media isn’t all fun and games. Mistakes committed online never go away, and you can’t do a thing about it. I learned this the hard way, when I was fired from handling my university’s student government social media. Here’s what happened—and the lessons you can learn from me. One day, the university police sent an email alert describing an incident that had happened near campus. Students were talking about it, and I wanted to be a part of that conversation as the voice of student government online. The organization had given me freedom to post tweets without first asking for approval. So, I sent a tweet commenting on the incident. An hour or so later my boss called and asked me to take it down. The next day, I was called in and let go. After dealing with the shock, I started to look into the legality of the matter. In hindsight, I should have realized that the university wouldn’t want the student government to talk about such matters on a public Twitter account. I felt I was just speaking to students and didn’t see the bigger picture and, as a result, failed to realize the gravity of the error.
Social media managers have a great deal of power and responsibilities. Their mistakes are often public and can lead to their termination or spark a social media firestorm for the company. How can an organization protect itself from social media disaster? Establish rules When someone starts working on your social media pages, they should be handed a packet of information. Include in this packet the company rules and the rules from all the platforms where your organization has a presence. For example, Facebook has pages of rules that, if violated, could get your page shut down. Make sure your employees know them. In your internal rules, include examples of what not to post and what will happen if these rules are broken, such as posts about current events/political bias, origin of videos/photos, and types of photos/videos that are unacceptable. Here are some more things to consider: • Decide who has permission to post on what pages and when. • Determine when and how often should they be posting. • Ask whether an approval process is necessary for social media posts. • Establish whether scheduling posts is OK. • Determine who responds to a complaint and how—and how fast—they respond. • Decide on a voice for your brand. Write a contract Create a contract for the social media manager and other relevant employees that covers privacy and confidentiality, including specifics on what employees can post to their personal and corporate social media accounts. Personal social media accounts can reflect upon the company adversely, so clarity is a must. This contract should be signed upon hiring and kept in the employee’s personal folder. It can be referred to in the event of an error. Develop a procedure for dealing with screw-ups internally If an employee does violate his or her contract, or does something that warrants action, there must be a procedure that includes dealing with the employee and, if necessary, the news media. Should the employee be notified immediately? Is there a warning system? These procedures need to be written into the company policy but must also be included in this packet so employees know their rights. Nicole Rose Dion is social media coordinator/graphic designer at The Abbi Agency. Find them on Twitter @theabbiagency.