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The 3 Biggest Social Media Takeaways from Election 2012

By on November 14, 2012 in Public Relations, Social Media for Business

With the Presidential election shortly behind us, the media is already analyzing how this election has differed from those previously. Regardless of party politics, social media and the internet played a substantial role in the 2012 election—from viral sharing to a wider access of political content. Although some praise it and others curse it, the social media landscape no doubt will shape the way people view their candidates in the future. PRDaily.com sheds some light on the three biggest social media takeaways from the 2012 election:
1. Tumblr is a viable platform to activate a younger demographic.
Obama’s team was active on the microblogging platform, taking advantage of memes and celebrity endorsements—highly shareable social elements. A look at his Tumblr (barackobama.tumblr.com/) shows gifs, a Lady Gaga tweet, and a kitty cat graphic. Was Tumblr the reason Obama won and Romney, whose Tumblr wasn’t nearly as interesting, lost? Probably not. But it certainly leads us to our next point.

2. Strong, shareable content may be becoming as effective as advertising.
Just as with companies, politicians have to fight through a ton of noise to be heard in social. Battleground states were inundated by TV ads, and they became white noise, blending together and inspiring people only to resent the election.

However, a well-timed graphic, such as the Obama team’s response to Clint Eastwood’s Republican National Convention appearance, titled This Seat’s Taken, can break through this clutter. The proof is in the numbers: The Eastwood image drew 63,000 retweets and 25,000 favorites—and that’s just on Twitter.

For brands all times—corporate and political—it comes back to the content. Strong content is highly shareable and will take on a life of its own. Weak content becomes part of the noise.

3. We may never have another ho-hum election.
Check your Facebook News Feed from the last 24 hours. Look at the latest offerings from your friends on Instagram. And Twitter? Fuggedaboutit.

Political opinions used to be something you kept to yourself—one of the big three topic you’re supposed to avoid at a dinner party. If social media is the world’s daily dinner party, we’ve thrown that rule out the window. Perhaps you unfriended those whose opinions were, shall we say, a bit extreme. Maybe you were sick of it all by the end. But one thing is certain: The chatter was insanely contagious, and we may never escape it as social media appears here to stay.
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/13113.aspx

50% of Consumers Value a Brand’s Facebook Page More Than Its Website

By on September 27, 2012 in Facebook Pages & Campaigns, Public Relations, SEO, Social Media for Business, Website Design

It is apparent more than ever that social media plays an important role in society, even for businesses. A recent article by Mashable announced that 50% of consumers value a brand’s Facebook page more than its website. While websites are commonly created to drive traffic and entice online shoppers, it seems that consumers are also turning to a brand’s Facebook page for information as well.

Possible reasons for this statistic could be that Facebook pages often make a brand seem more reachable and personable. According to the study, 75% of participants feel more connected to a brand on Facebook. Also, Facebook offers businesses an outlet to showcase discounts that reach a large audience.  Mashable reports that as a result of liking a brand on Facebook, 77% have saved money.

Although stores may hang “50% off” and “Final Sale!” signs in their windows for those passing by to notice, the sales world is changing. While in-store sale signs may go unnoticed, with social media, sales as well as other information is available with an easily navigated click of the mouse.

http://mashable.com/2012/09/24/facebook-brand-page-value/

Social Media: The New Recruitment Frontier

By on November 4, 2011 in Career Talk, Public Relations, Social Media for Business

In an increasingly digital world, job recruiters are turning more to social media to find potential job candidates.  In an interview with Smart Blogs, Monica Pons, head of executive recruitment for NBCUniversal, discussed how vital social media is for NBCUniversal’s recruitment.  According to Pons, NBCUniversal uses their social media to engage with possible employees and ultimately draw them to their career websites.  NBCUniversal has posted videos of what is like to work at a particular business (such as Bravo) and has even gone as far as to tweet job openings.

They don’t only utilize their own personal social media tools, though.  Pons relayed a story of finding currently hired employees solely through a search on LinkedIn.  While Pons did not comment on whether or not NBCUniversal utilizes Facebook for recruitment, she did note that recruiters are using it more as a screening tool.

“We are witnessing the blurring of boundaries between professional and personal through social media,” Pons said.  “Potential candidates need to acknowledge this new branding of the self that social media generates and adapt their profiles to the new reality.”

To put it simply, if you’re applying for jobs consider who is viewing your Facebook page and move those bar crawl photos to a separate folder.

For the full interview with NBCUniversal’s Monica Pons visit: http://smartblogs.com/socialmedia/2011/10/31/social-media-powered-recruitment-how-nbcuniversal-builds-its-employerbrand-online/

Facebook + Skype = A Match Made in Social Media Heaven?

By on July 12, 2011 in Facebook Pages & Campaigns, Public Relations, Social Media for Business

Facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg announced that Facebook has partnered with Skype to enable video chatting in Facebook’s Chat platform.  Though this partnership of giants should not come as a huge surprise, it is still fun to ponder what this holds for the future of communication.  Facebook has over 750 million users and Skype is extremely popular for across the globe communicating via the Web and is even used by businesses to conduct meetings thousands of miles apart.  Is it possible that in a few short years all the social media utilized every day, from Facebook to Twitter to LinkedIn to FourSquare, could all join together into one super-site?  It certainly appears that way.  This would make life that much easier and that much more interconnected.

While it remains to be seen how well the Facebook-Skype merge works, and how much users take advantage of it, it’s sure to be a pretty popular addition to the Facebook platform.  One thing is for sure: Facebook seems to be on a quest to prove there’s nothing it cannot do.  Expect this newest merge to affect all areas that social media reaches: advertising, public relations, marketing, business, social interaction, etc.  It’s too early to tell exactly in what ways it will affect those areas, but it should make a pretty big splash.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-20077771-92/face-time-with-facebook-week-in-review/

5 Smart Social PR Campaigns to Learn From – Mashable.com

By on March 22, 2011 in Communications, PR for Businesses, Public Relations, Social Media for Business

Social media can be a great tool for brands trying to strengthen their image and grow their customer base.  Facebook pages and Twitter feeds can be effective, but innovation is what really sets one apart from the clutter. Mashable.com came out with a list of the Top 5 Smart Social PR Campaigns to Learn From that created real results for their clients.

  1. Rayovac—Early February brought record-setting snowstorms across the United States, which meant that millions of Americans would not be able to go into work and would likely be spending more time online at home. Rayovac, a battery company, took advantage of the increased online audience by starting the Twitter hashtag  “#snowballs”. Rayovac_Battery began throwing virtual snowballs at its followers, encouraging them to temporarily change their profile picture to a Rayovac widget and throw #snowballs at friends and family. The campaign was very successful, as @Rayovac_Battery followers increased by 30% and #rayovac became a top ten trending topic worldwide.
  2. Healthy Choice— To reach the large number of target Healthy Choice consumers engaged in social media, Healthy Choice created a progressive coupon on its facebook page. As more people “liked” the page, the discount on the coupon continued to increase, beginning at $.75 off and eventually reaching buy one get one free. In the two-week campaign, Health Choice grew its fan base from 6,800 to 60,000 and distributed more than 50,000 coupons.
  3. Breeders’ Cup—To increase falling interest in horse racing, the Breeders’ Cup PR team created a twitter handle for Zenyatta, an undefeated female horse who was known for thrilling come-from-behind wins, and a Breeders’ Cup YouTube channel featuring racing footage and fan videos. @Zenyatta tweeted her thoughts, race information and exclusive updates, gathering more than 1,300 followers within one month. 1,000 YouTube users subscribed to the Breeders’ Cup channel for a total of more than one million video views.
  4. BALSMAS Grand Resort Hotel—This hotel in New Hampshire wanted to move away from traditional advertising and instead have its story told through social media by a real resort guest. Through social media, the “InnBedded Resorter” campaign searched for a lucky person who would live at the 8,000 acre resort for 8 weeks and share his/her experiences through numerous social media channels. The first winner stayed at the hotel for July and August 2010 and the BALSMAS saw a 20% increase in booking that August as well as doubled website traffic.
  5. KFC Scholarship—Each year, KFC gives out 75 scholarships through the Colonel’s Scholars Program, but in order to differentiate its scholarship competition from the millions of essay contests available to students, KFC decided to award the $20,000 scholarship to a Twitter user with the most convincing tweet.  The campaign generated more than 1,000 media placements and tens of millions of impressions. More than 2,800 applicants tweeted for the scholarship via the hashtag #KFCScholar. The winning tweet belonged to Amanda Russell who won for her tweet, “Hey Colonel! Your scholarship’s the secret ingredient missing from my recipe for success! Got the grades, drive, just need cash!”

http://mashable.com/2011/03/08/social-pr-campaigns/

Twitterview: 5 Tips for Success

By on June 18, 2009 in PR for Businesses, Public Relations, Social Media for Business, Twitter for Business

Twitter is taking over; it’s more than just a passing fad. We know this by now. You might even be tired of hearing about it. But that doesn’t change the fact that communicators and PR pros should stay on the lookout for new, effective ways to use the service. Here’s a good example of an emerging Twitter trend from the June 2009 edition of the BurrellesLuce newsletter http://www.burrellesluce.com/newsletter/

Enjoy, and don’t forget to follow @paramountpr!

Twitterview: 5 Tips for Success

With Twitter’s mainstream acceptance in the world of business, many public relations professionals seek to use the service in a way that positively impacts their brand, products, and professional network.

As with other forms of social media, it’s no longer enough to simply state “what you are doing” or to only “follow” or “retweet” someone who shares similar interests. Rather, the focus has shifted to creating meaningful content on which to form strong ties.

It all boils down to developing a solid community. And PR folks, as well as other social media users, are finding Twitterviews effective tools in their community-building efforts.

Twitterviews: PR in 140 Characters
Interviews on Twitter have gained in popularity these last few months, due in no small part to the increasing use of social media by public officials. However, journalists have been using Twitterviews for quite some time, such as when they conduct celebrity interviews. And PR professionals have followed suit. There’s even a whole website devoted to this form of online interview: www.twitterviews.net

So what explains the growth of the Twitterview? The primary reason is that a Twitterview is conducted in real-time, which allows for active participation from the audience.

Whether you are the PR pro who is hosting the chat or the person helping your client organize and prep for one, how do you help ensure a successful Twitterview?

Five tips to get you started

  1. Make certain that a Twitterview matches your communication goals. Not all subjects or newsmakers are conducive for discussion on social media. Depending on your goals, it might just be better to do an in-person interview. For instance, if you or your client is being interviewed about a product recall, or speaking about changes in policies, a face-to-face interview could be the most effective way to convey your messages.
  2. Arrange to speak with the person beforehand. Whether you are the interviewer or the interviewee, you’ll want to agree on the topic, a date and time to hold the Twitterview, the platform, etc. This will help improve overall communication flow the day of the event and make for a more enjoyable Twitterview experience.
  3. Be prepared with “text bites.” Knowing the topic beforehand not only helps eliminate the chance of miscommunication, it gives you the opportunity to prepare strong text bites and short URLS to link to source material and examples. Remember: tweets are limited to 140 characters. When a question or response runs over, use the ellipsis (…) to indicate there is more to follow. Otherwise, the interviewer/interviewee might move on to the next question or respond before you’ve had a chance to finish your thought.
  4. Encourage people to follow and participate in the live interview. Social media is designed to engage your audience and foster a sense of community. You may want to reserve a #hashtag (a way of tagging similar tweets on Twitter by following the # symbol with a short word of your choice) so your audience can follow the interview in real-time, and also see all the other tweets pertaining to the event. So, for instance, if a journalist were going to interview your CEO, you might create a #hashtag that reads #ceointerview and then promote it when you announce the event. (To set up a hashtag, please visit hashtags.org )
  5. Publicize your Twitterview via social and traditional media. Tweet about the interview in advance, write about it on your blog, mention it on LinkedIn, or create an email blast to invite participants. In short, use your full array of PR skills to build an audience for the event.

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