Oh Twitter… receiving a suck notice , being told it has a stickiness problem. Are you really still useful to PR pros, if not just for helping us craft more weighty headlines in 140 characters? Besides the obvious observations for how a tweet helps PR pros pitch more effectively, one thing is definitely overlooked and it’s something I stumbled upon just today: the timehook. Continue reading
Tag Archives: twitter
Favoriting Tweets: The Easiest Way To Keep Up on All Your Social Media/PR News Reading
Time and time again, the simplicity of Twitter has been undermined. And simplicity is a beautiful thing when noise in social networks is never going to go away. Even stories in the news might be considered “noise” because, while trying to be relevant, they fail to catch on with the majority. Or maybe it’s the fact that people never see it, and a story, or blog post or forum discussion for that matter, never receives its proper due.
Enter the world of favoriting tweets on Twitter, the primary agent of how I keep up on what’s relevant, timely, and too good not to miss in terms of content. Favoriting, starring, or flagging articles is obviously nothing new, but it’s a must-do if you’re trying to stay abreast on everything important in the PR industry – especially if you have little time to get that juicy nugget of detail, and you’re following 1,000 PR and social media-savvy tweeps. Use it to your advantage! Continue reading
PR Pity Party
A few weeks back, I sent out an innocent tweet about a new poll that showed PR pros preferred using Facebook over Twitter. Fellow PRBC-er, Jeff Esposito, read me the riot act about how he was sick of PR people taking ourselves so seriously.
Here I will quote Mr. Esposito: “I am sick of the self-promotional BS spewed lately. Last I checked our job’s function was to make co’s look good.” I tried to rack my brain about what my link had to do with this topic. After a bit of back and forth, we discovered Jeff mixed up my tweet with someone else’s and now he owes me a drink.
Yet, in the confusion, he did make a point. Do PR pros have a tendency to throw a pity party for ourselves? Recently, CNBC called Public Relations the #2 most stressful job in America (obviously, they did not fact check the salary portion). When I heard this news, I was ready to pop open a bottle of tequila and wallow about how bad I have it, how difficult my job is, and so on. Continue reading
Using Twitter as a Pulse, Not a Firehose
In case you’re still not convinced about Twitter as a research tool, Twitter’s CEO, Jacky Dorsey, recently gave some wise advice at The Economist’s Ideas Economy: Innovation event:
It’s never been easier to start a company since Twitter exists. We get this instant pulse of what’s happening around any topic.
Let’s face it: Twitter is not for everyone. Not every company or every brand should have an official Twitter handle. I think we will all be happy if our toilet brush never says hello to us in 140 characters.
One thing is pretty universally true, though. With more than 450,000 people checking it out every day, there are bound to be people talking about your product or your core consumers talking about other products they love. Continue reading
You’re Doing It Wrong
You’re on Twitter, right?
Yeah, but guess what, lots of you are still doing it wrong. It’s not just a matter of being on Twitter but also of how you interact (assuming that is, that you interact), and what you send out to the world to make sure your digital footprint is as deep and defined as you’d like it to be.
Let’s face it, just like some other things (swimming and sparring have been used as examples recently) – you can know how to do it “by the book,” but until you feel water on your skin or a jab to the face working with the tools and on the platform isn’t the same beast at all.
So, to figure out if you’re actually doing it wrong, take this quickie quiz and see where you fall. You might be doing it wrong if… Continue reading
True Value of an Online Connection
As we all seek to understand social media and the digital space, more and more folks seem to be looking for the easy answer to the question, “what is an online fan, follower or connection worth?”
There have been some polarized theories and valuations, but it seems that the true answer is actually quite simple (though not easy): it depends.
While I could foresee a template or framework in the future, most of us are still trying to figure this out for ourselves. And the answers will vary widely, but figuring out what a fan or follower is worth to you shouldn’t be impossible. Continue reading
The Secrets to Success in Social Media
Did I lure you in with my snazzy headline? Yes? Okay great. Now I’m going to spend the first few sentences using buzz words so that you will keep reading my social media post. Then after you’ve gotten through the first couple of paragraphs, I’m going to provide you with these awesome bullet points packed with information that you already knew. Lastly, I will summarize the topic which pretty much has nothing to do with my headline that I created for SEO purposes.
Does this situation sound familiar? Every day my inbox and RSS feeds pile up with articles about social media. The articles seem to always be about the same topic but recycled, rehashed, rewritten – they are offering me nothing of value. If you are like me, you’ve probably about had it. Continue reading
#GettngSlizzerd
“Poppin bottles in the ice, like a blizzard
When we drink we do it right gettin slizzard
Sippin sizzurp in my ride, in my ride, like Three 6
Now I’m feelin so fly like a G6.”
-Like a G6, Far East Movement
I can only imagine this is the theme song of the week for the National Red Cross.
On February 15th, the @RedCross sent out an unusual tweet at 11:24PM with the hashtag #gettngslizzerd. No—there wasn’t a new emergency at hand although I’m pretty sure there are a few safety tips that the organization could offer to prepare the country for #gettngslizzerd. The only problem at hand was an accidental tweet that was meant to come from a staff member’s personal account. Continue reading
How Social Media Can Serve as a Free Focus Group
Years ago, when I met up with friends at the mall, brand ambassadors would ask us for fifteen minutes of our time in exchange for a movie voucher, food court ticket, or even sometimes a few dollars. All we had to do was complete a survey about a new product, commercial or service. At the time, I had no idea I was partaking in a version of a focus group.
Once college came around, I learned that participating in a focus group was the quickest, and sometimes fun, way of making money. So what is a focus group? It’s an opportunity for brands to hear feedback directly from the consumer about a product/service to then evaluate the product and possibly change it according to what was said.
Focus groups take time and money, and brands today are scarce on both. However, if brands listen to the conversation about its product/service via various social networks, they would be uncovering a huge resource, a free focus group. In my opinion, one of the most vital ways a company can enhance its product is by paying more attention to the negative feedback during these sessions.
Here are a few examples: Continue reading
The Sore Thumb of Social Media
One recent evening, I was listening to a talk radio station while driving home after a business trip.
(As an aside, did anyone else think they would never ever ever listen to talk radio when they were kids?)
I don’t recall the exact topic of conversation, but it was insignificant until the host’s last line: “You’ve gotta be careful. Twitter, Facebook, social media will hurt you.” At that point, I started making odd faces at my digital dial, because there was obviously a disconnect between the host and the actual concepts he was discussing.
You see, social media platforms like The Twitter (thank you, Betty White, for making that an acceptable phrase), The Facebook (thank you, Justin Timberlake, for reminding us why they dropped the “The”) and others are tools. Tools can’t hurt you unless you make them. Continue reading