Insights for Leaders Navigating
Visibility, Credibility, and Growth.
From media strategy to reputation management, we explore the trends shaping public perception and share the approaches that drive measurable results for growing brands.
Last week, I had the opportunity to co-present with Lisa T. Oratz of Perkins Coie at Law Seminars International’s Social Media Law workshop. We were the final presenters of the day-long workshop focused on new legal issues arising from social media marketing. Lisa and I discussed the practical and legal considerations for businesses when engaging in social media in a session titled, “Social Media Marketing: Anticipating Legal and Public Relations Issues to Maximize Benefits and Minimize Risk.”
I started the presentation by sharing the approach Dairy Queen has taken with its social media marketing. Dairy Queen has successfully utilized multiple social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, podcasts and blogs to engage directly with its consumers.
Many companies such as Dairy Queen have started using social media to help accomplish their business objectives. However, not all of these organizations have involved their legal teams or proactively considered how they can mitigate some of the risks involved with using these new mediums.
Gartner analyst Adam Sarner, stated in an interview with CNET late last year that more than 50 percent of the Fortune 1000 companies that engage in social media campaigns will see those campaigns fail. Sarner went on to explain, “(Businesses) will rush to the community and try to connect, but essentially they don’t have a mutual purpose, and they’ll fail.”
Organizations should consider these best practices before taking the social media plunge:
Clarify the business objectives you are looking to accomplish
Determine your target audience and understand what constitutes value to that audience
Develop a social media plan and vet the plan with key stakeholders across the organization (legal, HR, PR, marketing, customer support, etc.)
Designate who will own the activity within your organization
Develop a social media policy and provide training to your staff
Consider developing a crisis communication plan
By taking a strategic approach to your social media activities, you will be better positioned to maximize the power and benefits of social media while minimizing the risks.
September typically means the end of summer, back to school and fall leaves. But it also means the start of the fall tradeshow season.
While tradeshows can often be a tiresome string of endless networking sessions, seminars, presentations and mixers, in the current economic climate, many companies are being more selective than ever when deciding which tradeshows to invest in.
We often get asked by our clients how they can make the most of attending a tradeshow. You’d be surprised that it doesn’t always involve sponsoring an event or purchasing a booth on the show floor. More often than not, simply attending a tradeshow with a clear objective and strategy can help your organization leverage the show as a platform to drive buzz and build relationships.
Whether you’re planning to attend CTIA, DEMO, AD:Tech or one of the many upcoming tradeshows, we can help. Send us an email at info@communiquepr.com to learn more.
A SWOT analysis is a tool utilized by many marketers and public relations professionals to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of a business project or campaign. We recently completed a SWOT analysis for a potential client to evaluate the company’s past public relations efforts and where we see room for improvement.
SWOT analyses provide a great groundwork for a successful business or PR plan. In order to capitalize on each element of the analysis, consider the following questions:
1. How can we employ and capitalize on each strength?
2. How can we improve each weakness?
3. How can we leverage and benefit from each opportunity?
4. How can we moderate and avoid each threat?
To learn more, feel free to send us an e-mail at info@communiquepr.com.
Yesterday, our client Attachmate announced it achieved the Compatible with MicrosoftÆ WindowsÆ 7 logo. Microsoft is planning to launch its much-hyped Windows 7 platform on October 22. As the first host connectivity vendor to secure this distinction, Attachmate can now offer its customers a seamless, easy-to-manage IT environment, robust desktop security features and enhanced end-user productivity.
In preparation for the launch, Attachmate launched a Windows 7 resource Web page to help customers determine which of the company’s solutions to deploy on the Windows 7 platform. For more information please visit the Attachmate Information Center for Windows 7 at www.attachmate.com/Products/win-7-info-ctr.htm.
It was such an honor and pleasure to speak to a sell-out crowd at the Puget Sound American Marketing Association (PSAMA) Luncheon last Wed., Sept. 9. My presentation entitled, “Twitterphoria: Adding Twitter Power to Your Marketing Mix, Today”, was well received with approximately 150 people in attendance.
According to one of the PSAMA board members, it was the second largest audience in the history of the PSAMA luncheons, which is a testament to the level of interest in learning about new digital technologies.
Before I delved into the heart of my presentation, I conducted a poll of the crowd to determine three things:
How many of the people in attendance had Twitter accounts?
How many of them were using Twitter daily?
How many had 100 followers or more?
The results were interesting. Of the 150 people in the room, I would say about half of them raised their hands to indicate that they had Twitter accounts.
When I asked those with accounts if they were using Twitter on a daily basis there was a small number of hands still up. This indicates to me that many folks hear about Twitter and want to engage, but have no idea how to use it or how they can immediately derive value from it.
With regard to my final question, how many people had 100 followers or more, I would say there were probably less than 20 hands raised. This really was not a surprise to me as my presentation was geared to the novice Twitter user. Nonetheless, after my session I did hear from a few of the power users that the case studies highlighting how companies such as Alaska Airlines, Dell, Dunkin Donuts, etc. are using Twitter today were helpful. My case studies focused on the following companies’ use of this new medium: Alaska Airlines Dell, Dunkin Donuts, Seattle Children’s PlayGarden, Starbucks, Whole Foods, etc.
If you’re interested in a copy of my PowerPoint presentation with talking points, e-mail me at jennifer@communiquepr.com and I’ll gladly share it with you. Or if you have an interesting case study or example of how your company has used Twitter, I would love to hear about it.
As the economic climate continues to affect print publications, it’s interesting to read about how newspapers and magazines are leveraging alternate revenue resources to stay afloat. A recent AdAge article highlights the current state of the magazine industry and provides insight on different revenue streams for the market. For example, magazines such as Men’s Health, Make The Atlantic and Fader are compensating for lost advertising dollars by leverage different mediums. We want to highlight some of their efforts:
Men’s Health – Most recently, the magazine has been publishing and selling “Eat This, Not That” books in bookstores. In addition, the publishers developed an iPhone app that allows people to purchase additional content as well as a Men’s Health Personal Trainer subscription site, which provides tips and articles on how to get the best results from exercising.
The Atlantic – The publication has diversified its revenue streams and activity. It now charges for events hosted by the publication.
As the economic climate continues to change, we expect many more magazines and newspapers will come up with creative ideas to increase revenue. To learn more about the changing media landscape read our past blog entitled, “Can Digital Portfolios Give Newspapers a Second Chance?“