I’m a news junky. Have been my whole life. Probably why I started out as a reporter and why I enjoy much of what I do today. It’s the story that matters and the impact that story has to bring people closer or pull them farther apart. Every story has the power to – at the very least – get the conversation started, and, hopefully, get people to take some action. The story that broke a decade ago is one that touched every human being, and one that is being remembered on this 10th anniversary with the dedication of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum taking place today on the very site in New York that has been known as “Ground Zero.”

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Crisis management in the face of social media requires a masterful and agile skillset.  Today’s crises (and their responses) play out in real-time, as do breaking news and opinion about the situation at hand.  Add to that the viral nature of social networks and the ability for a story to get around the world in mere minutes, and you’ve got a virtual powder keg of bad publicity threatening to explode in the hands of the organization at the center of the crisis.  Gone are the days when you can bury a story or get by with a simple “no comment.”  How your company reacts (or doesn’t) to a bad situation can sometimes make or break its future.

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More and more companies, both B2B and B2C, are integrating social media into their overall marketing mix because they have realized the incredible opportunities that exist across the social web.  The ability for real-time customer service, lead generation, brand and reputation management, sales opportunities…the list goes on.   Let’s go over a few reasons why your business should be using social media.  

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As we find ourselves very much in the midst of the social media craze, consumer pick-up rates are skyrocketing at exponential speeds. With the successes I’ve seen of many Fortune 100 (global) companies, there is no question to me that social is here to stay. It’s being strongly embraced by business and is simply too much a part of our daily lives for it to just drop off the face of the earth. (more…)

Congratulations!  You’ve just created a thought-provoking, awe-inspiring and call-to-action-laden piece of content.  ROI and back-pats, here we come.  But then you let it sit there.  Few people read it, nobody shares it and you’re the only one who tweets it.  What happened?  By rights, creating content that reaches the audiences we want to reach, grabs their attention and causes them to react in a positive way should be second nature for PR professionals and marketers; it’s what we’ve been trained do.  But the demand from news consumers for content that is truly useful, interesting and engaging is so great, and the need for it to be portable and customizable is so ever-present, our jobs are not always so easy.  (more…)

Over the past few years, working in the UK social media industry, I have attended many conferences and events. Content has varied widely with debatable levels of useful takeaways.  Brands like to share their ‘Do’s and Don’ts’ lists based on their experience with delegates desperately trying to find ideas that will work in their own companies. (more…)

Nobody ever said communications was easy.  Building great content, finding the right audiences to share it with, and having your messages resonate in a way that makes those audiences take notice and take action involves more than just luck and some clever copy.  Today, successful communications is about conversation and engagement with your customers and key stakeholders, and it’s about building strong relationships with those who can impact your brand and your business.  (more…)

Social media and public relations innovator, thinker and lecturer Todd Defren kicked off the Marketwire/HubSpot six-part webinar series, “How to Supercharge Your PR Program with Social Media.” Todd’s session on May 5, “PR: That Was Then, This Is Now,” was filled with tips and insights for PR pros who are serious about making social media part of their overall strategy, and it helped set the stage for the next five sessions of the series. Here are some highlights: (more…)

Branding is important.  The perceptions that customers have about a company, and its products and services, play a big part in how they make purchasing decisions.  Personas are important, too.  Social media has changed how brands are defined online and enabled companies to create more robust, almost lifelike, personalities.  Increased brand loyalty, customer acquisition and retention are high on the list of goals for marketers, and branding efforts, be they online or offline, and through digital, social and traditional channels, play a critical role in helping to achieve those goals.   (more…)

This year, despite the many weddings I’m a bridesmaid for, I couldn’t help but think about the upcoming royal nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton. The event, and everything leading up to it, has caused an international media frenzy, similar to the last royal wedding in 1981 when William’s parents (Charles and Diana) were wed. Back then, the public relied solely on traditional media: TV, radio, newspapers. Now, with the Internet, social media and smartphones, things have ramped up several notches. Audiences are much more engaged; the media is faster and more pervasive; and, companies are more aggressive, clever and informed to market to a captive audience. (more…)

I recently had the pleasure of attending and speaking at Mediabistro’s Socialize: Monetizing Social Media – EAST conference, held in New York. As part of the Sysomos team, I was there to present some use cases on what social media data can be used for, from a business perspective. Aside from the insight that we brought to the table, I also learned a great deal, particularly with regards to where social media is headed.  (more…)

More and more companies have set money aside in their 2011 budgets for social media, and social media press releases (SMPRs) are increasingly included in that mix. Many communications professionals are also beginning to send out social media press releases in place of more “traditional” releases, expecting their release to go viral and soar to the top of the Google results page. The outcome is an increasing number of disappointed PR professionals who misunderstand the role that an SMPR plays in the optimization and distribution of content. (more…)

I was interested to see the social media world from a different perspective – across the ocean at Social Media World Forum Europe (SMWF).  The surprising thing is, it doesn’t appear to be much different than the social media world in North America and I can probably surmise that it won’t be much different in Australia or Asia either. This global phenomenon, connecting individuals across continents, presents the same challenges and opportunities to companies regardless of geography or language. Packed with panels and presentations, the conference was a source of thought-provoking discussions, many of which strived to answer that one elusive question: (more…)

A couple of weeks ago at SXSWi, one of the more interesting sessions I attended was called “Social Capital: The Billion Dollar Future.” Social capital refers to a person’s or brand’s collective online presence and what it means to the people around them. The session was paneled by Bill Parkes (nFusion), Michael Spataro (Visible Technologies), Zach Hofer-Shall (Forrester Research) and Richard Margetic (Dell). (more…)

In the wake of the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan, its people, landscape and communities have been devastated beyond recognition. Many companies have also been severely affected, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. With this tragedy at the forefront of people’s minds, companies around the world are revisiting their own crisis plan and how it would be executed if the time comes. Communication is an extremely important aspect of any crisis plan, particularly with the advent of social media as a vehicle to deliver real-time messages.  And, today, more and more companies are utilizing social media to address crises, both large and small. (more…)

More and more social media conversations are taking place in Spanish all around the world. To illustrate this point, Social Media Spanish says that there are 13.5 million US Hispanics on Facebook. Of that amount:

• 4.2 million prefer communicating in Spanish
• 5.9 million of them prefer English on Facebook
• 3.4 million are using both languages

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I recently had the pleasure of being a panelist at two National Investor Relations Institute (NIRI) events centered around social media and investor relations, including a Seattle Chapter program on Disclosure and Best Practices and a Rocky Mountain Chapter program on Measuring, Monitoring and Evaluating Social Media. Both spoke to the increasing role that social media is playing in investor relations and indicated that it is a top-of-mind subject among investor relations officers (IROs). For instance, in a recent survey of NIRI Silicon Valley members, when asked which topics they would like an SEC attorney to address at a future event, nearly 50% said they wanted to know more about the intersection of social media and RegFD. (more…)

Most people these days know that websites and content should be optimized for search engine rankability, but what about your social media? Can social media be optimized to better help you reach your audience? Of course it can. (more…)

These days, effective communication is all about attraction, or pull – giving your audiences compelling reasons to visit your website, engage with your blog, and interact with your organization through social channels. When people reach out to you – and not the other way around – you’ve earned their attention and your brand credibility rises. (more…)

Based in Tempe, Arizona,  agencyside provides social media training for ad agencies. Bret Giles, president of the company, shares his insights, thoughts and advice. Marketwire was pleased to partner with agencyside for their annual conference, BOLO 2010, where we met and mingled with some truly fantastic folks in the digital realm. (more…)