PRBreakfastClub

I struggle with ROI in the social sphere, as I've talked about before. Google has taken a huge step forward this week in measuring the ROI of social media, as it announced the first concrete effort at valuing efforts in this arena. The three main reasons Google made this change (from the Analytics blog): Read the rest of this entry »

This year is off to a roaring start for independent communications/public relations firms, according to a new study by Worldcom Public Relations Group. The partner agencies of Worldcom forecast the hiring of new staff and are experiencing an increase in business and budgets.Worldcom Public Relations Group surveyed CEO’s from national and international partner agencies servicing clients ranging from small to mid-sized businesses to Fortune 50 companies. The survey indicates a high percentage of new business growth in the technology, consumer, healthcare, professional and financial service sectors. Read the rest of this entry »

About eight weeks ago a friend of mine asked our group if we wanted to train for a half-marathon. Without thinking I decided to jump in with a leap of faith. Just the thought of running for 2½ hrs seemed so daunting but I still began the journey with trepidation Whether we want to admit it or not, beginning social media is daunting, overwhelming and not lacking it’s own trepidations. Learning the many different types of social media...Twitter, Google+, Facebook, LinkedIn and all the others in between can be like learning another language, but you dive in anyway. Read the rest of this entry »

If done strategically and creatively, targeting influencers can have great business value, but is more for creating short-term buzz than sustainable growth. Targeting influencers should be done in conjunction with connecting with your advocates.

Advocates are not necessarily buying your product or service. As Simon Sinek notes in Start With Why:

“Though products may drive sales, they alone cannot create loyalty. In fact, a company can create loyalty among people who aren’t even customers.”

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Do you know the history of your company? Aside from the date it was founded, do you know when the important milestones occurred? If you don’t, use the new Facebook for Timeline feature to find out!

You company has a rich history and your clients (fans in Facebook lingo) most likely don’t know about all those great things you did in the past. This is an opportunity to politely brag about your past accomplishments and reiterate to your customers that you are around for the long haul.  Read the rest of this entry »

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I’ve seen a lot of changes happen when it comes to social media and public relations – how the two fit together, and where they fit within a company’s organizational structure, has changed over the years.  A few years ago, when I was agency-side, I witnessed firsthand the struggle between creative shops, interactive agencies, and public relations agencies to win social media accounts.

Since then, social media has grown exponentially.  In that growth and wide acceptance, it’s been carved into pieces – content, software and creative.

PR pros have won the content battle.  But creative resources from an in-house designer or creative team are essential.   Today’s social networks are becoming more and more visual and without the help of a great design team, your initiatives aren’t going to be as successful.   Read the rest of this entry »

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The headline of Julia Hood’s Feb. 16 column in PRWeek, “Don’t get Pinterest yet? It’s OK,” caused me to twinge slightly as soon as I read it. Not because I’m some social media snob who thinks that every PR pro must be an expert on every social network and emerging technology. Rather because it strikes me as odd that an editor at a publication that is supposed to champion the value and work of the PR industry would seemingly be communicating to the business community that it’s perfectly fine for PR pros not to “get” a social platform that is very much starting to impact clients. Read the rest of this entry »

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Much has been made of Google’s unified privacy policy that went into effect last week. In my Twitter feed, I saw the usual suspects; threats of dumping all Google products, enraged people shouting about how Google is out to take over the world, you know, a whole lot of this. Perhaps these people are unaware of how commerce on the Internet works. This is always a good reminder for us as PR pros, and for our clients. The number of companies that collect your data for their own marketing purposes or for their partners is astronomical. However, let’s rundown a few of the major names to put this in perspective: Read the rest of this entry »

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One of the most fascinating things about social media is how businesses are inventing new ways to capitalize on its potential to meet unique objectives they set relevant to their own verticals.

Few thought prior to the explosion of this medium that using it to connect with communities would permeate so quickly to virtually every corner of the world. However, as with most new communication platforms that have evolved over the last century, some are slow to adopt for a number of reasons – be it lack of education, lack of resources, lack of perceived relevance or simply plain old ignorance. Read the rest of this entry »

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I was recently graced with a review copy LIKE: Seven Rules and 10 Simple Steps for Social Media in Your Campaign by Kelly Groehler with Dave Ladd, Greg Swanholm, and Bass Zanjani.  The book is available as both an e-book, hardcopy and has presences on Facebook and Twitter.  The foreword is available as a free download at the bottom of this post.

This wonderful volume is different than a number of the other social media books out there, in a number of good ways. Read the rest of this entry »