As the summer comes to an end and I prepare to head back to school, I look back on how glad I am to have found the internship with Media Maison. While marketing has always been the direction I had wanted to go in, the addition of a social media tie-in made it more enticing as it provided a sense of familiarity and the chance to be constantly interactive. Moreover, it gave me the opportunity to develop skills and tailor my learning in a field that’s continually up and coming and prevalent.  Also, I feel that gaining knowledge of PR and customer relations will serve as a necessary bonus for future prospects.

Coming into the position, I was expecting a fairly simple transition given that I felt so in touch with social media considering that I essentially grew up with it. However, the depth and detail that goes into coordinating each effort was something that surprised me but that I greatly enjoyed learning about.  On the surface, the objectives seemed fairly straightforward. However, Anna was able to introduce me to tools, tricks, and resources that made the work much more effective and the content coming out of it better suited for particular clients. I see this as an essential facet in any professional field. It’s so important to understand your client and if you believe in who you’re working with, what you’re doing and want to have positive results, it can make it that much easier and rewarding to achieve.  

Lastly, being in an awesome office surrounded by people who were happy to work with each other made the environment that much more comfortable and instead of dreading coming into work, I always looked forward to it.

All in all, these things made the internship such a great experience. In about a week, I start my last year of college and while I’m excited to go back, I’ll miss the summer, this position and the people involved.  I’ve come out of it learning a lot and am looking forward to diving into the professional world upon graduating.

-Aaron

The Oatmeal has a history of getting their fans to support them with great results. Once again they are demonstrating the effects of having a strong fanbase who wants to help with a good cause.

Oatmeal creator, Matthew Inman, discovered through twitter that Wardenclyffe Tower, Nikola Tesla’s laboratory was going up for sale and that a group of people who intended to purchase it to preserve its meaning were struggling to come up with the funds. Meanwhile, another company was hoping to purchase it and apparently use the location as retail space. Instead, lovers of Tesla, particularly Inman, felt it would be better to use the landmark as a museum and a chance to educate those about the mark that Tesla left on the world.  

With the state of New York offering a matching grant of up to $850,000, Oatmeal fans would need to raise approximately that much to purchase the land. As of today, contributors have raised more than $400,000-not bad for a day and a half of fundraising.

Prior to getting attention from The Oatmeal, the campaign was having some trouble getting the off the ground. After the story was posted on Reddit, a website heavily responsible for generating page views for Inman’s site, the fundraising started to pick up tremendously. Not unlike his previous campaign, redditors were happy to help contribute towards something they were familiar with. As an indication of how much they love his content and character, support rolled out in large numbers. Those who were unable to contribute cash were encouraged to help with help in other ways, “You could donate some time. Go spread the word on other sites. Text the link to people. Tell folks at work.”, exemplifying the power of word of mouth in the day and age of social media. This prompted some redditors to reach out to  musicians, record labels, actors, and producers for help with funding. In a way, a domino effect of communication had rolled out with the movement developing more and more as people found different ways to contact potential helpers.

Perhaps more importantly,  Inman’s presence serves as a great example of trust and loyalty. With his previous campaign still lingering in users minds, fans are happy to help with something that is not only a great cause, but backed by someone they believe in. In addition to that, he has always been very involved with his followers, engaging with them through different platforms. Demonstrating the importance of connecting with your audience, Inman’s campaign shows that present commitment is a reflection of your past. The movement initially lacked direction and a voice before Inman and Reddit got involved but with their push, it is certainly on slate to reach its goal.  This goes to show how having the right face as the driving force behind your message can be a game-changer.

Read more about the ordeal here.

-Aaron

Earlier this week, Illinois became the second state to make it illegal for employers to request Facebook log-in information.  While you would expect a certain space between your online profiles and work environment, it is becoming quite prevalent that the two associate in some regard. This begins to beg the question however; is there a necessary separation of work and social media?

It’s always good to keep your private and professional life somewhat separate but with a good chunk of your information available online, it becomes difficult for the two to not seep into each other. Given that your profile is a basic summary of who you are, it seems fair that it would give an accurate representation of your character.  If a potential (or current) employer were to see you doing something compromising, it could reflect poorly on the company. What does this mean for monitoring your profile content though? Should you be extra cautious just so you can maintain a good image?

              

Essentially, yes. At the end of the day, this is a representation of who you are. And as our attachment to social media continues to grow, it’s going to be harder to distance yourself from your online persona. You could try living off the grid and consider a life void of Twitter and Facebook but unfortunately, that can hurt you as well. An article by Forbes states that those who choose not to use Facebook could be considered “suspicious”. Does not having a profile necessarily mean that you’re hiding something? Most likely not, but with how commonplace they have become, people wonder why those who choose to be left out, do so.  It seems strange to think this way since 7 or 8 years ago, none of us had Facebook accounts but as our connection to the internet grows, so does our online presence.  

-Aaron

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For tips on managing your personal brand, see this post by Anna O. 

In the world of up-to-the-minute news, it is difficult for social media users to separate themselves from constant coverage. Those following news outlets and friends are quick to come into contact with what’s current in the world.  Normally, this would be a great tool in keeping up to date with breaking stories, but with NBC broadcasting the London Olympics on a delay, users not located in the UK are finding themselves face-to-face with event outcomes before getting the chance to view them. While the network offers the option live stream the events through their website, many find the the service unreliable and a hassle to use. As a result, spectators are refraining from Twitter and doing their best to keep in the dark from all of the talk about the events until primetime when NBC airs them.

However, even some of those carefully avoiding their Twitter and Facebook updates, were spoiled by NBC’s mistake during the first few days of coverage. The channel aired a commercial promo for an interview with gold medal winner, Missy Franklin, minutes before the actual race was to be televised. This example in particular really pointed out to the spectators the issue with the delayed broadcast. Users took to Twitter to complain about this, exclaiming that the excitement and suspense of the event had been ruined.  NBC issued an apology for the incident, stating that it will “not happen again”.

This, in addition with a number of other guffaws made by the network led to the popular #NBCfail hashtag and it’s spreading as fans attached it to their tweets about their frustrations with the network’s actions.

While we value our association with social media and depend on it when necessary, this serves an example when we probably wish we weren’t so connected.

Have you been careful to avoid spoilers of the events?

-Aaron

With the development and evolution of modern technologies, we have seen new and innovative ways for companies to approach their targets. Viral campaigns have gotten particularly popular as a method to advertise to consumers without them necessarily feeling as though they are being advertised to. One example is Klondike’s “What Would You Do for a Klondike Bar?” video campaign spearheaded by comedian Andy Samberg. For this campaign, the company encouraged users to submit their own videos demonstrating their desire for the product and what they would do get a hold of one.

By pairing the campaign with a familiar face, putting a humorous twist on it, and giving their audience a chance to engage for a cash prize, participants were able to partake in something that they wanted to be a part of which led to the continuous growth and all-around awareness.  More importantly, the slogan is well-known and affiliated with the company and was able to remind  the previous generation of something that they may have forgotten. Additionally, given the new wave of comedians, risk-takers, and online personalities, they were able to explore the slogan in a way that was exciting and hadn’t been done before.

They also integrated the campaign with an episode of “My Name is Earl” and promoted it on The Tonight Show. While Jay Leno has a wider audience, I think it may have been more effective to appeal to the younger demographic of Conan O’Brien or Jimmy Kimmel’s audiences. That’s my only suggestion in this otherwise, very effective and brilliant campaign. Providing the fanbase with an opportunity to showcase their talents encourages a sense of creativity and makes them want  to partake.  Moreover, by giving the users power and  a voice, it develops a sense of loyalty and interest; something that many companies would hope to  provide for their customers.

What I was able to gather from this in terms of successful marketing was the importance of supplying the users with comfort and familiarity. Letting them participate in association with the comedic undertone inflamed their desire to create and research the videos. Furthermore, the addition of personalities that they are used to gives them the chance to associate comfortably. The entire campaign serves as a great lesson in regards to developing a connection with the customer that they can relate to which is sure to lead to effective growth and word of mouth; an essential facet of marketing.

-Aaron

In the age old power struggle of man v. woman, it’s never easy to pinpoint who has the official upper hand in most comparisons. But with ease and availability of web analytics and analysis, at least we can finally determine who is winning the battle of social media dominance.

The victor: Females, of course.

As highlighted in Mashable’s piece, women make nearly 99 million more visits per month than men, making them the dominant gender in social media, specifically on Facebook and Twitter. But men aren’t without their strengths. Males take the cake when it comes to LinkedIn, Reddit and Google+.

But why is there such a gap in the social media use of men and women, and why do they gravitate toward certain platforms?

There are more female bloggers, and blog readers, than male: This matters because bloggers are very active across all forms of social media and are twice as likely to share and comment on relevant content across Facebook and Twitter. Since they’re mostly women, it’s a no brainer that this would lead to an increased social media presence among women, especially moms, who make up 1/3 of online bloggers. The rise of Pinterest, where women make up 82% of users, has also been a boost to the online blogosphere allowing for more effective sharing.

Women are actually being social, men are looking for information: Women are more likely to comment and update their status several times during the day than men, but that doesn’t mean males are completely absent from social media. They just use it differently. With the domination of LinkedIn and Reddit, men are more aggregators of information and professional networking across social media than actual engagers. And with the most common Google+ user occupations being engineers and developers, traditionally male dominated fields, it’s no wonder Google+ has become a platform for males for professional information and sharing than actual personal networking.

The women may have won this round, but men are not that far behind when it comes to social media savvy. Professionally, as is seen with the undisputed champions of LinkedIn, males tend to be better with professional networking online while women are just better and more active on social media as a whole.

What else do you think contributes to women dominating social media over men?

Until next time! -Anna C

Facebook campaigns are another one of those tricky social media marketing tools that can either be a huge boost for your brand online, or be an utter disaster.

Last week, Walmart began a Facebook campaign to market Energy Sheets, the breath-strip like tongue sheets infused with caffeine, by promising to send rapper and Energy Sheets spokesperson, Pitbull, to the Walmart location that received the most ‘likes’ by July 15. The campaign, however, was quickly hijacked by way of Twitter, with the #ExilePitbull tag, with the aim of sending him to the most random and remote location: store #2711 in Kodiak Island, Alaska.

Within a couple of days the Kodiak locations page exploded with ‘likes,’ with over 70,000 as of today.  

While the campaign is not a complete fail, it has increased engagement on Walmart’s Facebook fan pages, it ultimately took the focus off of the product it was intended to promote, Energy Sheets.

It’s not always easy to gauge the online reaction to a social media marketing campaign. Sometimes it can have the effect you intended, and others it can take an unexpected turn. Here are two examples of a wildly successful campaign that met its intended goals, and one completely fail-tastic, social media campaign.

One Win:

• Heineken:  If there’s one thing that can be learned from successful social media marketing it’s that simplicity rules. Heineken, with the aim of attracting more ‘likes,” launched the One Like, One Balloon campaign in January. With each like, their office was filled with one more balloon. It was simple engagement with a visible result for the user that resulted in over thousands of new fans and engagement. Plus, who doesn’t like balloons?

One Loss:

• McDonald’s: In January McDonald’s launched the #McDStories Twitter campaign, encouraging users to share their fond memories of the brand and the Happy Meal as a child. This quickly took a turn for the worst, with tweeters sharing horror stories and bad experiences. Further proof that there’s no way to control conversation on the Web, but it’s important to have a contingency plan mapped out in case your campaign goes south.

In short, there’s no fool proof way to predict the effect that your social media campaign will have on engagement and online conversations. It’s important to have a clear view of your objectives. Whether it’s to promote a new product or simply to just gain more ‘likes’ and engagement, make sure you have your goals clearly outlined and a plan in place to deflect any negative outcomes.

You can also check out more examples of some of the most successful campaigns and those that tanked.

Until next time! –Anna C. 

First, I’d like to congratulate all of the recent college grads! From the words of Elle Woods from Legally Blonde, “We did it!”. Well, you did it and you should be proud of yourselves. After the graduation parties and gifts subside though you will soon find yourself looking for your first post-grad job in this thing we call the “real world”. 

Now, you’ve updated your résumé, written countless cover-letters, prepared your writing samples and have even landed a few interviews. Fantastic! Your future is looking bright already. There is just one thing you forgot.. that picture of you doing a keg-stand at your friend’s frat party that is your Facebook profile picture? Yeah, that one? It just lost you the opportunity at your dream PR job after your could-have-been Account Executive did a social search on your name.

The reality of the matter is that we live in a social world where conversations and photos that used to take place behind closed doors are now taking place on a public domain. It’s not a new issue. So why do stories of people losing their jobs because of social media regularly cycle through the news? I for one want to stop the madness! And, I’m going to help do so by giving you a crash course on what you should be doing to protect your personal brand while job-hunting so you don’t get “fired” before actually being hired.

Let’s start with the basics. Why are companies and employers even snooping through your social space to begin with? I mean they’re your personal accounts, right? I have some more not-so-breaking news for you. If you are looking for a career in public relations and marketing it’s important to recognize that companies hire firms, like Media Maison, to manage their image in the media and to the general public. Do you think a company is going to want to trust someone with clients’ reputations that can’t even manage their own? Definitely not. This fact becomes even more important if you are applying for a social media position.

For better or worse, this is the world we live in today and the reality is that many companies have found the same tools you enjoy helpful for their hiring processes. Also remember that these social media searches are usually not done by employers simply looking for a reason to not hire you, but instead as a way to look further into your past work, similar business connections and interests. It just so happens that if you are not monitoring your personal brand that your dirty laundry will be exposed during this process instead.

Here are my tips for you to clean it up, or better yet, keep your social accounts clean from the beginning.

1. Photos: When I’m posting photos I have a thought bubble that pops into my head, “If I don’t want my grandma to see this then I probably shouldn’t post it.” This works out for me pretty well considering my grandma really is on these social sites. You can bet she’s usually the first to comment on my latest photo album too. I’m not saying you can’t still party like you’re in college or take wild photos, but keep it for the weekends and keep them off your profiles. How about if one of your friends tags you in a photo when you aren’t in front of your computer? Simple. Keep your tagged photos private and you will never have to worry about any surprise tags. Finally, the profile photo. Nix the keg-stand and opt for a photo of you and your friend sans red solo cups. I’m not saying your profile photo has to be a picture of you in your Sunday’s best, but keep it classy.
2. Content: Whether on your Facebook, Twitter or blog, realize that if you post something onto a public domain, it’s public. So please, keep your rants, language, extreme opinions and topics to a moderate level. If you post something publicly, it can be used against you in the future and you dont want that. 
3. Honest credentials: It’s 2012, this topic shouldn’t even have to be discussed! Please be honest about your credentials. If you say you have over 7,000 Twitter followers and it turns out you have 70 and haven’t tweeted in 3 months, your cover will be blown pretty fast. Don’t make the employers hiring go on a goose chase to get to the bottom of where you really worked and what you really did in your position. We work in public relations, you can’t fool us and if it were professional to have “Secret-Research-Internet-Ninja” as part of our job-titles we would. 
4. Privacy settings: Once you have taken the above suggestions into account we can talk privacy settings. This is usually the first thing people run to when trying to keep their lives private, but I saved it for last and I’ll tell you why. There’s nothing wrong with keeping your social media accounts private, but if you do indeed have incriminating content why are you putting yourself in that position? Privacy settings are a great way to help keep your accounts private, but they shouldn’t be held onto as your final saving grace. Cleaning up your social accounts is about more than appealing to employers and other professionals. It’s about growing up. With the exception of Facebook, where I value higher privacy settings, I’m a firm believer in public social media accounts. I cannot tell you how many people I have been introduced to on LinkedIn or Twitter by networking that I might not have met elsewhere. 

So get out there, take my suggestions to clean it up and use common sense on your social accounts! 

Cheers! — Anna

It’s 2012 and in a few short months the world as we know it will come to an end. Well, at least according the Mayans and three-years’ worth of History Channel programming. The accounts of our impending doom have been around for a while, but what is fueling the ongoing conversation about the end of times? Look no further than your Twitter feed.

By now, we’ve all read about, re-read, Googled and come up with our own theories about the “Miami Zombie.” The story went viral, and within a couple of days, more strange accounts of person-biting-person incidents and crazed zombie-like behavior sprung up all over the country. There was the wig thief in Connecticut, another Miami man who tried to nom on an officer’s arm, a Louisiana man who bit off part of a his neighbor’s face and a New Jersey man who did something equally disturbing.

As we’ve all learned in the movies, this crazy, erratic, super-human chomping and flesh munching behavior is typical of your run-of-the-mill zombie.

But the Mayan’s centuries-old predictions and a few sketchy cases of “zombie-like” behavior, ultimately attributed to bath salts, is all we have to go on, right?

Oh, then there’s the plague.

But what makes these stories so interesting? It’s the proverbial man-bites-dog effect (biting reference coincidental). It’s just so strange, that we feel the need to share it with others. Within three days, the Miami zombie story on the Miami Herald’s site had over 2 million views. When a story like this explodes, it’s bound to spur more coverage of similar incidents. Mentions of the word “zombie” on Twitter went from an average 15,000 tweets a day to more than 80,000 mentions the day after the story broke.

The onslaught of “zombie” and human-on-human munching coverage afterward was a result of the virility of the original story. A story of man-bites-man garners over 2 million hits, so naturally we assume that similar reports will gain just as much coverage. Tweets, retweets and shares across all social media platforms keep the conversation alive. Retweets and favorites of the Oregon plague story on TIME’s Twitter feed almost matched the announcement of Obama’s new immigration policy, and, thee days later, is still one of the top Tweets regarding the story. It’s not that more apocalyptic events are happening more regularly, it’s just, as a whole, we eat this stuff up (pun intended).

So there’s no need to build that fall-out shelter just yet. But just in case all the hype turns out to be true, here’s a zombie survival guide for your reference. Good luck.

Until next time! -Anna C

A number of social media campaigns focus solely around Facebook and Twitter, but today’s social media climate is competitive — cookie cutter social media strategies don’t build brands. Keeping up with the competition means managing multiple platforms that showcase the brand’s personality. 

Still, as of late Facebook stands strong — platforms such as Pinterest are supplements, not substitutes. The transition to Facebook Timeline developed a new digital era for Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg continues re-define the ways we communicate, create, and connect. 

For just how long, though? The Associated Press and CNBC have the social media world wondering - is Facebook a fad? They studied the power platform and found that 46% of people project that Facebook’s popularity will not withstand the test of time. At what point will the digital age outgrow the first worldwide social media addiction? 

XOXO - Hannah