Posts by Industry Expert:
- a cookie confessional (video of consumers discussing cookie or Double Tree experiences)
- swarm car (a Twitter contest for an office cookie party)
- and an online sweepstakes.
- Creativity is subjective, but sometimes you need to self-define. Find a niche and fill it.
- Having a second passion can help you be more creative.
- Creativity is a moment of grace.
- Accept that your first attempt may not work and give yourself the freedom to revise and try again.
- Creativity is about connecting the dots in a non-linear way.
- Keeping yourself busy keeps the creative juices flowing. Having different creative projects helps to create momentum.
- There is a big difference between having a creative idea and having an idea with a plan.
- Not all creative ideas break through the politics of decision making, so you need to share ideas with the right people. Then, get buy-in from the decision maker.
- Put on your thespian hat. Not every pitch works on everyone, so sometimes you need to act differently with different stakeholders.
- Say what you think, not what you think you are supposed to say.
- Look at using Facebook sponsored stories rather than ads.
- Give others referrals and ask them to call you in on business, so you can get good in-bound word-of-mouth business.
- Use multiple communications spokes to push out your messages. (Another reminder not to communicate on silos!)
- Keep social media responses conversational. In other words, talk to people.
- Educate and teach people how to communicate conversationally.
- Be able to admit that you are not good at everything, and then find people who do have a voice for social.
- Don’t forget to respond to people on social media and don’t be accusatory.
- Several items posted by SpeakerBox to The Sounding Board.
- 6 Questions All CMOs Need to Ask Themselves on Fast Company by Lisa Nirell
- Is the Press Release Dead by Marcia Moran on Modern DC Business
- On Storify, Cynthia de Lorenzi posted top tweets from the summit, and Cari Pierre included her insights along with her favorite tweets.
Experiment in Social Media by ‘Communicating the Experience’
September 25th, 2012
Flickr Image: Capital Communicator - 9/18/12 PRSA-NCC panel on Communicating the Experience featured Heather Freeman, Heather Freeman Media and Public Relations, moderator; Garrett Graff, editor-in-chief, Washingtonian; Amy McKeever, editor, Eater; Vanessa French, co-founder, Pivot Point Communications; and Carlisle Campbell, vice president, Ketchum.
The only way to succeed in social media is to experiment A LOT! One out of ten tries will be successful and two out of three will be somewhat successful, says Garrett Graff, editor-in-chief, Washingtonian. A panel at the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America on Sept. 18 confirms his statement. All the panelists look for ways to communicate the experience, especially in relation to food.
Carlisle Campbell, vice president, Ketchum, speaking about the Double Tree by Hilton Cookie CAREavan Across America campaign, a winner of the 2012 Thoth Awards, says they focused on three key ways to connect to the public via social media:
The swarm car originally left executives nervous, but eventually provided additional opportunities, such as when the Atlanta office of the Associated Press won and tweeted their happiness.
Tips for Experimenting in Social Media
Incorporate photos into the mix: With the implementation of the Facebook timeline, Vanessa French, co-founder, Pivot Point Communications, advocates using a lot of pictures. Speaking of pictures, everyone agreed “food porn” is irresistible to the consumer. People love to post pictures of food, so organizations should take the lead and upload photos to their media properties.
Leverage outreach to boost advocacy: French advocated outreach to local bloggers about events, which she finds can often lead to their posts being testimonials.
Know your audience: As with all campaigns, the key is to knowing what platforms your audience is using. In reviewing Facebook and Twitter, Graff comments Facebook is for following friends who are strangers and Twitter is for following strangers who are friends. French also says Facebook users do not like shortened links, unless they are coming from an established media company.
The panel considers Pinterest the new bright shiny tool, and brands need to evaluate it for usefulness for their campaigns. Graff says it is especially useful if you are targeting young women looking to get married, even if the wedding is not imminent. French commented on several non-profits, like the World Wildlife Federation, using it successfully. She also said many men are on Pinterst talking about technology.
Expand your communities: Amy McKeever, editor, EaterDC, says she stays in-touch with many smaller restaurants through Facebook and Twitter, and she finds Twitter to be a good way to gather news. She doesn’t post news to social media until it is posted to Eater, because her goal is to drive traffic to her site.
Align tactics with business goals and objectives: Campbell says the debate over creating a website versus a Facebook page is discussed in their office. Many of his younger colleagues advocate for the Facebook page. French says if you do choose a website, be sure to advocate for a blog, which will help with SEO.
QR codes and the next wave of social-technology… French says she pitches QR codes to clients, but they are often not in the final campaign. Graff feels we are at a low point for QR codes, right now. They are not easy to use, so he says a simple link works just as well. But, he thinks a more advanced QR code that is universal might be on the horizon.
How are you and your clients continuing to experiment with social media? What new trends do you see on the horizon? What tried-and-true tactics continue to work in the present? Please share your thoughts with BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers.
The Vision: Creating Content That Others Want to Share
August 10th, 2012
Visionaries define creativity in many different ways and how they motivate others to share their ideas often takes additional creativity. This was the topic of the D.C. chapter of She Says, an award-winning mentoring and networking organization for women in creative industries, during its kick-off event at Edelman DC.
The visionary panel included, Caryn Alagno, SVP, Edelman, Rachel Cothran, director of public relations, Corcoran Gallery of Art and College of Art + Design, Laura McDaniel, director of strategy, AKQA, Amy Sherman, director of digital marketing, Lifestyle Brands, Marriott International, and Holly Thomas, editor, Refinery 29. Most of the panel blog both professionally and personally and they have found a creative community around blogging. Thomas is also a visual artist who taught herself to draw by watching tutorials on YouTube.
Creativity ideas and insights:
Sometimes you have to take the pressure off and try something different. McDaniel suggested yoga. The panel touted the shower as a great place to do creative thinking.
How do you capture your creative ideas? Paper, online, apps, and documents were all mentioned. There didn’t seem to be a limit to the ideas. A favorite of BurrellesLuce’s Johna Burke is Evernote because she can use it from any of her many electronic devices, along with these 12 Mobile Apps to Boost Productivity.
What gets your creative juices flowing? How do you sell your creative ideas to others?
The G2 Show: Marketing Integration Needed Again
July 11th, 2012
The G2 show (aka authors Gini Dietrich and Geoff Livingston) is making the presentation rounds, landing in D.C. this June to promote integrated marketing campaigns. All the rage of the first tech bubble, marketing integration fell-out of vogue once the bubble burst. G2 says it’s time to break down the silos and work together, again.
Dietrich says the best way to make the integration work is to get CEO buy-in. In their book, Marketing in the Round, G2 suggests making the CEO’s job easy by providing messaging and scheduling both all-staff and in-person meetings.
Livingston and Dietrich realize discussion leads to ideas, so they gathered a panel of industry leaders: Alejandra Owens, AARP; Maddie Grant, SocialFish; Lisa Byrne, Pappas Group; and Kevin Fawley, Social Media Club D.C. This creative team recommends:
Are you marketing in the round or are you siloed? How can you help move your organization toward integration? Please share your ideas with the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers.
Digital Marketing Insights from the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit
May 8th, 2012Social media is boring, so let’s find a way to influence the physical world, says Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategyLabs, when highlighting his latest projects during the Mid-Atlantic Marketing Summit on April 20. The full-day event, sponsored by the Capitol Communicator and Potomac Tech Wire, was held at Gannett headquarters and included insights from marketing, communications, advertising and public relations experts.
With many folks overwhelmed by the number of social media platforms available, one panel attempted to put the social networkings into perspective. Moderated by Geoff Livingston, vice president of strategic partnerships at Razoo, the panelists looked at several options beyond Facebook and Twitter and shared what worked for their organizations. All the panelists encouraged participants to find out what platforms their core audience use.
Commenting on Google+ users, Kevin Dando, director of digital marketing and communications at PBS, says the site is just a place for men to talk about being on Google+. However, you shouldn’t discount Google+ because it will help your website’s page rank. Additionally, Google+ and YouTube are becoming closer and will soon have shared search. On the other side of the spectrum, Pinterest has mostly female users and can be very effective for visual campaigns.
PBS, like other TV networks, needs to be on GetGlue, a platform that allows users to check into TV shows and other entertainment media. Dando says shows with live Twitter events have ratings one percent higher than those without. He commented Tumblr doesn’t drive a lot of traffic, but it does have a lot of engagement.
The role of chief marketer has become chief storyteller, says Debra Lavoy, director of product marketing at OpenText. You should use the story to pull the team together and that content marketing should be renamed substance marketing.
If his marketing budget was increased, Vocus’s Jason Jue says he would wish for more storytellers. (Download this PR Storytelling tip sheet from BurrellesLuce). Speaking of storytellers, when I asked the Beyond Facebook and Twitter panel if they could review Storify, they said they were all fans, especially for events. At SXSW, they said they barely left a session before someone would post all the tweets from the event to a new Storify.
Examples of brands using marketing and social media for good and helping causes were also abundant. For example, Terry Macko, senior vice president of communications and marketing for the World Wildlife Fund, discussed WWLF teaming with Coke to raise awareness about the environment. Despite backlash and confusion over the white cans, the campaign raised over two million dollars.
The summit inspired several great blog posts, including:
The Changing World of Copyright Compliance
April 5th, 2012
Free speech, copyright and the Internet seem to collide, but that’s because they are all still evolving. Dr. Patricia Aufderheide, director of the Center for Social Media, American University, gave guidance on this very topic during the AWC-DC program on March 19. She used an example from the 1860s, when a German translation of Uncle Tom’s Cabin was not covered under copyright law, but now would be covered. At the time, one-third of the country spoke German.
You need to understand how “Fair Use” can be used correctly, says Dr. Aufderheide. If you are “adding value” to the information and using it in a new way, then you are most likely covered under the Fair Use Doctrine. Using the entire work without adding valuable information, would be considered an infringement on copyright. Generally, sourcing a portion of the information with a link back to the original document would be considered fair use, explains Dr. Aufderheide.
Many journalists say their use of information is covered under the First Amendment of the Constitution. What they need to understand is that First Amendment is a part of copyright law, says Dr. Aufderheide.
The protests over the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) lead to more awareness of copyrighted materials on the Internet. Dr. Aufderheide believes the best way to address the issue is to look at business practices. She thinks that blocking domain names, which will work against security, is not a viable answer. She also says businesses need to find a way to let people use copyrighted material legally.
Pinterest and Copyright
Pinterest is fast becoming this year’s social media sweatheart. (Understand Pinterest and Your Audience.) Many PR folks have asked if the social media site is violating copyright. The answer is maybe. In a recent Mashable story, The Copyright Question: How to Protect Yourself on Pinterest, the authors suggest that companies should only pin their own content and only include content they would include on their website. While Pinterest does not own “everything posted on the site […] posting other people’s pictures without permission could be problematic.”
Resources
BurrellesLuce has many free resources in the BurrellesLuce Resource Center to help the PR professional do their job even better and offers a turnkey copyright compliance program to help clients remain on the right side of copyright law.
