Panelist Ricky Choi, social media strategist for LivingSocial, reminded the audience, “Social media should be visual, personal and conversational.” He noted that social media will be a better marketing tool than email in three to five years and that social media engagement is the sum of interaction and content. Communicators should try to include context without being salesy.

The evolution of the media is happening, but questions remain regarding the best way to translate personal use to the big picture, Noyes reiterated. Choi suggested more education as one possible solution. Facebook is trying to educate younger users on how to be good digital citizens and understand that reputation is important. The social media giant is working with outside thought leaders to encourage people to use their privacy settings effectively.

Moderator Mike Schaffer, director of social media, iostudio, asked the panelists for brands who are using social media effectively. The panelists touted Dell, for its various social media identities and customer service, and Pepsi for its Refresh Project.  ABC anchor Diane Sawyer was praised for use of social media.

(Read the full Twitter Chat Transcript in the BurrellesLuce Resource Center)

Facebook Stats
To understand the full usefulness of Facebook communicators should consider these statistics:

• One out of every eight minutes spent online is spent on Facebook.
• The average Facebook user has 150 friends.
• The average user is connected to 80 groups.
• 25 percent of users’ time online is spent on social networks.
• Facebook grew 500 million users in two years.
• To translate Facebook to 70 languages it used crowd sourcing.
• The fastest growing Facebook audience is seniors.

A key question for accessing ROI: what’s the value of a follower or a fan? It was suggested you need to look at who your fans’ influence and what is the possible amplification.

Tips for Using Facebook Effectively
In general, there is a generation gap with social media. The youth embrace social media, but young professionals need business experience to harness its power effectively. Some best practices for Facebook:

• A one-line post will see increased engagement.
• Post a question or a call to action.
• Post one story idea a day to entice reporters.
• Photos and videos increase interaction.
• Start a conversation.

Choi suggested considering dividing your social media team into those who are responding to issues proactively and reactively. He also encouraged using a promoted hashtag for indexing.

Want more tips on how to effectively use Facebook in PR and marketing? Johna Burke, SVP BurrellesLuce, will be leading a workshop and speaking at the PR News Facebook Conference held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. on December 1, 2011.

Where do you think social media is headed in the future? How can communicators use it more efficiently?

Flickr Image: o5com

Privacy laws remain the same, even in electronic mediums. Many organizations think the rules might be different, but actually the same rules apply. This was a key point from the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC) September 13 professional development panel.  

The expert panel included:

• Brigitte Johnson, PRSA-NCC president and director of communications and executive editor at American Forest Foundation
• Randy Barrett, communications director, Center for Public Integrity
• Justin Brookman, director, Consumer Privacy Project, Center for Democracy & Technology
• Christian Olsen, vice president for the Digital and Social Media team at Levick Strategic Communications

All the panelists reminded the audience about the importance of being transparent regarding who you are representing when pitching online media.

Barrett commented on the concerns of media and journalists. Media outlets try to avoid the appearance of any kind of bias and ask their journalists to be careful of whom they “like” on Facebook. Journalists should also always identify themselves when on social media, verify all social media leads and remember social media posts are discoverable in court.

Always disclose who is behind a post, because transparency is key says Brookman. He recommended looking at why and how much secondary data you might be collecting and be sure to disclose how it will be used. You should try to avoid unnecessary collection. He used the example of mobile apps, which can often have access to all the data on the phone. Olsen agreed and commented on how he removed the Facebook app from his smartphone, because he thought Facebook went too far when his entire address book of phone numbers imported to his Facebook account.  

Public relations professionals have an obligation to counsel clients on how to be transparent in social media. Olsen encouraged the audience to understand the rules of the various platforms and said everyone needs to be monitoring what is being said through various tools, whether that be a free or paid tool(s).  But as good as tools might be, it’s important to have someone, who has an understanding of the industry as well as social media, reviewing the information.

PRSA-NCC president Johnson reviewed the code of ethics for several professional organizations and found they all had truth, honesty, and fairness as the basis for the codes. She commented that we are all guided by our ethics, first, so don’t ignore them. She encouraged all to work to stop the idea of being spin pros.

How do you counsel clients on privacy and transparency? Are their examples you can share with the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers?

To summarize the panel: location apps (e.g., Foursquare, Gowalla and Loopt) serve as another way to enhance a consumer or stakeholder’s experience and interaction with your company, brand, or client. 

Tara Dunion, Consumer Electronics Association, looks to enhance the attendee experience at the International Consumer Electronics Show each January by creating an official location page on Foursquare and aggregating all the social media coverage on the website. (And they even plan to add additional locations for 2011). She commented that many exhibitors have multiple locations available for check-in, which also buys-into the game aspect of Foursquare.

Danielle Brigida says, The National Wildlife Federation wants to get you outside enjoying nature, so they employ Whrrl and Foursquare to help people share their experiences with others.  Whrrl works well for their needs because it allows the user to upload a picture to help tell their story.

A recent story on Mashable by Dan Klamm highlighted how universities and colleges can use location-based tools to promote the school, foster school spirit, drive revenue and promote the community. One idea included offering special badges for exploring places on campus.

However, not all location-based tools are gaining momentum. When Facebook Places premiered, Foursquare had a record number of new sign-ins because it connects with the new Facebook app. A few weeks later, few people are using Facebook Places. Dan Frommer explored the possible reasons on Business Insider, commenting, “Only 2% of My Friends Are Using Facebook Places…”

After the panel ended, I enjoyed brainstorming with others on how they might use these tools to help their organizations. How could you add geo-location social media into your PR toolbox? What questions do you have about the tools? Please share your thoughts with me and the readers of BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas.

This CNN article suggests it is “anxiety” that keeps most of us from unplugging completely on vacation. I’ll admit I, just like “tech-loving kids and parents,” could not do it. I knew there would be emails sent only to me which I would then need to forward to others. I’m also a news junkie, and Twitter is one of my best news feeds.

But, I did try to limit my time on the “crackberry” and computer to a few minutes a day. Peter Bregman’s post The Mostly Unplugged Vacation for the Harvard Business Review shares many of my same feelings and strategies. His suggestion for those who can’t unplug completely: “Choose a specified time — and timeframe — each evening… Scheduling time sets clear expectations — for you, for the other people on your vacation, and for the people reaching you.”

Social media doesn’t have to be for work, so I decided to use Foursquare and Facebook to share my vacation with my friends. Since I was headed to see family and friends in North Dakota, I knew the locations would be quite different from the usual tourist spots others would be visiting. I really enjoyed the comments I received, especially after visiting the world’s largest Holstein Cow in New Salem, ND. (However, I was surprised no one responded, when I became the “mayor” of Wood Lake, ND.)  And, many people shared my pain as I was delayed, re-routed, and delayed again in my attempt to fly home.

The key to enjoying your vacation seems to be setting limits on your online interaction. Here are a few good posts on ways to manage your time:

• Five Reasons to Unplug Your Vacation by Annie Scott
• How to Manage Social Media (And Still Have a Life) by Caitie Hawley
• Tips for Unplugging While on Vacation by Michael Giuffrida

Are you unplugging on your vacation? What tips do you have for the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers?

Flickr Image: pshab

Earlier this week, my colleague Lauren Shapiro discussed Facebook: Expanding Your Reach Beyond Six Degrees. In this blog post, I’d like to elaborate upon the Facebook theme. Often with social media, we feel like we have to learn by trial and error. But it’s great when we can get some tips, and avoid the mistakes by learning from the challenges of others. I attended a National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC) professional development seminar this week, at which a panel presented some best practices and lessons learned in regards to their organization’s Facebook strategy.

Some Facebook Tips:

• A fan page is meant for businesses or organizations, and public figures; groups are for similar interests; causes are for cause campaigns; and profiles are for real people (not organizations).
• Your organization’s fan page name and description are both searchable, so include acronyms and nicknames in one or both. The name of your Facebook fan page cannot be changed without starting a new page and loosing all fans.
• Ask your employees to be fans. They are often your best advocates.
• Promote your events by creating a Facebook event and inviting all your friends and fans.
• Connect your blog(s) to your Facebook page and monitor how postings affect your page views.
• Be consistent with your organization’s messages on Facebook.
• Monitor conversations and look for trending topics.
• Facebook ads can be an effective way to gain additional fans and enforce your message.
• Facebook fans and friends are real people, so converse with them.
• Find someone to tell the story in the first person.
• Let pictures tell the story. Short, real, messy video works better than a professionally produced one. If these can come from your fans, all the better.
• Consider posting rules of engagement to let fans know what they can and cannot post. And how they can expect you to handle the situation should a post violate one of these rules.
• If you are having fun, your friends and fans will too!

For more on this program, including a list of the panelists, you can check-out my post on the Capitol Communicator.  Additional posts include:  a video blog entry by Amanda Miller Littlejon of Mopwater and Deborah Brody gives a recap on the Capital Buzz.

And for more tips on how to effectively use Facebook, check out the BurrellesLuce newsletter, Boosting Your Value From Facebook: Ten Tips For PR and Marketing Professionals.

How are using Facebook to reach your audiences? How are you incorporating Facebook into your overall media plan? Do you have any additional tips to share?

Flickr Image: Beverly & Pack

Last week I attended the PR News How-To Conference and PR People Awards, which were both sponsored by BurrellesLuce. And on Friday, Sally Falkow, social media strategist at Expansion+ and PR News Trainer of the Year, gave a presentation for PRSA-NCC.

Most of the speakers at these three events, although sometimes reviewing traditional PR tactics, often seemed to switch their focus to new social media tools.  

In this post, I’m focusing on one basic tactic that seemed to be common to all: the universal recommendation of listening first (and often) to find-out where your audience and advocates are talking. Simply stated, “You need to know where the community is congregating if you want to engage them.” Although it will seem daunting at first, a 360 overview using several tools, will help you know where to focus for continued monitoring evaluation.

Sam Ford, Peppercom, said listening is important for—

• Product research
• Customer service
• Solidifying/adapting messages
• Crisis preparation
• Outreach
• New business opportunities
• Target audiences

Falkow, at a separate event, seemed to expand upon this point by saying that, “Listening helps you with your plan by generating ideas and showing you what the community is interested in discussing.”

Wendy Harmon, American Red Cross, gave a great tip: Learn to tie in your PR campaigns to what the community is talking about. By monitoring the discussions, you can make your campaigns relevant.

Both Falkow and Anne Carelli, Coca-Cola, emphasized you should “fish where the fish are.” This means you should use listening to find communities, and then start conversing in them. You don’t need to go out and create a new community if one already exists. There are several examples of companies trying to create a new community, only to fail, because it is competing with an existing one.

Colin Moffett, Weber Shandwick, and Falkow both talked about using your listening tools to understand influencers. You need to do your homework and understand what a blogger is writing about before you engage them in a conversation. Bloggers are often pickier about how and when you communicate with them then are traditional reporters.

Lastly, as listening moves into monitoring, you should use it for media content analysis. Your analysis needs to be based on your campaign goals. Most of the speakers felt “favorability” or “sentiment” should be consistently illustrated in most measurement plans. Falkow and BurrellesLuce’s Johna Burke both emphasized doing human review of the sentiment, because a computer can not understand nuances or sarcasm.

The take away for these recent industry events: listening needs be a part of your strategy from beginning to end of your campaign.

What are your “how-to” tips? Do you have any listening tips?

Flickr Image: laurelpapworth.com and Gary Hayes

On Wednesday, I moderated a panel for the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA-NCC), in which we discussed how to incorporate social media into your PR strategy. The panelists were:

Susan E. Jacobsen, LUV2XLPR, @SusanEJacobsen
Michael Pranikoff, PR Newswire, @mpranikoff
Susan Cato, BIO, @scato
Mike Holden, ABCTE, @mikeholden

Each panelists discussed great tips and proven tactics for effective social media PR. Here are some highlights:

1. Set goals first, so you will know what you need to measure.
2. Listen, engage, measure, and then tweet, and do it again.
3. Content is king. If you don’t have great content, you won’t draw an audience.
4. Make your content easy to access, view, and use.
5. Leverage your current content and make it more social.
6. Remember social media needs to be social, so engage in a conversation and interact.
7. It’s great to find new audiences, but don’t forget your current clients.
8. Give people tools to make it easy to share your information.
9. Delicious, a social bookmarking site, is a highly underused tool. Check it out.

 How are you incorporating social media into your PR plan? Do you have tips for the BurrellesLuce Fresh Ideas readers?

I attended the National Capital Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA-NCC), #PRSA_NCC, seminar on “Tips Showing Value in 2009″ on Wednesday. Heathere Evans-Keenan, Keenan PR, moderated a panel, which included Steve Grant, NEA, Dave Groobert, Environics, and Lucien Salvant, National Association of Realtors. Here are some great tips from the panel:

• Get to know your boss, and understand what is valuable to him/her. Work with him/her to define value.
• Remember the definition of value is changing, so you need to take time to review and redefine.
• Take ownership of an important piece of the overall strategy, like messaging. Then review your coverage for how your messages are being used and perceived.
• Set measurable goals.
• Measure your outcomes not just the outputs.
• If your boss asks for a particular tactic, ask him/her why they feel they feel the organization need to use that tactic. This will help you understand the real motivation behind the request, which will help you advise on an overall strategy.
• Do PR for PR. Remind stakeholders what your department is doing to help the organization. One great idea was to do a road show, so everyone in the organization will be aware of the PR strategy.

How are you showing value in your organization? What tips can you share?