Now Offering Social Media Management Packages
Raleighwood Media Group is pleased to offer a new service, designed with small business owners and c-suite executives in mind: monthly social media management packages (click the link to find out more, including pricing).
Is your time better utilized managing your business rather than posting to Twitter — although you know it’s something you need to do every day to remind your audience that you’re in business and ready to fulfill their wants and needs? Read what Fred’s Beds president Lisa Stansbury had to say about the month of posting we took off her hands recently:
The month of June was so hectic for me that I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to tweet much at all. Raleighwood Media Group provided me with quality content that was exactly what my customers needed to see. The content was much higher quality than what I normally produce myself. It was one less thing on my plate that allowed me to focus on other pressing matters. Social media is something that is easy to drop by the wayside when you have customers that need attention. You cannot make up for lost time. If you don’t send a message, no one receives a message. Raleighwood Media Group filled a much needed niche for me.
Social media management package begin at only $189/month and are scalable to fit your unique needs. Send us an email at Info@RaleighwoodMedia.com or call us at 919-229-9725 to get started today!
Submit Your Social Media Engagement Questions Before #BizExpo14 on Thursday, May 1st
Raleigh Chamber 2014 Business Expo
I’m excited to have been invited to lead one of the four need-to-know Show Day Social Media Seminars planned for the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce 2014 Business Expo coming up on Thursday, May 1, 2014 on behalf of my WRAL.com team!
The Expo itself takes place at the NC State Fairgrounds in the Jim Graham Building (free, ample parking!) from 9:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. The event is free for all to attend (but you can pre-register here), as well as the social media seminar sessions. Social media seminar sessions include: Where do I start?, ROI and Conversion, Engagement Strategy, and a panel on Success Stories. I’ll be leading the Engagement Strategy session that will cover topics such as:
Relearning how to talk with people (and not at them)
How conversation changes across platforms
How conversation is broadly evolving
Why people follow certain pages
What your audience expects
In addition to attending, I’m seeking your participation in one additional way – I’d love to know what questions you have that you’d like to have answered! Leave a comment here, email me, send me a tweet, or ask away on Facebook.
See you at #BizExpo14!
Cheers,
Lisa
New Facebook Feature: More Local Pages You Might Like
To be honest, this may not technically be new, but it is the first time I’ve seen this feature, personally. Facebook often rolls out new features and functionality in waves to different users, so I’m curious – has anyone else seen it, yet?
Facebook Feature – More Local Pages You Might Like
A few thoughts follow – as scattered as they might be:
- Anytime I see something “new” on social, I wonder, “what can we (marketers, publicists, online marketing people) do with this?”
- Can we do some positive PR and leave a nice comment on the wall of a new page we found and say “Hi, I’m here because Facebook thought I might like you since I liked (insert name of other local business here)!”
- Does that open the door to a nice note becoming a nasty-gram if that other business is actually a competitor? (We can’t really expect Facebook to NOT suggest direct competitors, can we?)
- Do we leave just leave it alone and hope Facebook doesn’t start suggesting that we like “Target” when we’ve just liked the neighborhood independent gift shop?
- This rogue thought still burns me up and I think of it every time I think “Facebook Marketing”: when is Facebook going to finally stop so heavily throttling how many people see page-created content? These are the Facebook users who have opted-in to liking the pages we heavily invest time and effort into promoting (you’re welcome, Facebook). Facebook is forcing us to buy “sponsored” visibility to improve the chances that more than 10% of page subscribers will see the posts we take the time, and have been trained to, create. {Read more about this on NewMediaRockStars.com, if you’re so inclined.}
Ending today and this post on a positive note: big “thank you” goes out to Kim Adamof for the referral that came my way today in need of public relations services!
Happy Mondaying,
Lisa
Join Me Tomorrow at Shop Local Raleigh’s First Seminar of the Year!
Join me tomorrow morning to kick-start your Spring marketing goals and hear from other local business owners and seasoned veterans who are using social media to support their marketing plans. The event, Free Social Media Seminar – Marketing for your Business: Facebook, Twitter, is the first for 2011 in a series of quarterly education events hosted by Shop Local Raleigh (part of the Greater Raleigh Merchants Association). ALL SLR & GRMA Members are invited.
We’ll talk about the idea of push versus pull marketing and some effective uses of social media for your business.
The free seminar will help you to understand:
Marketing and why it’s important for your business
Social Media 101
Email Marketing, Blogging & website and how they integrate
Top 10 Tips for Social Media Marketing 2011
Question/Answer panel including local business owners and veteran marketing professionals that use social media
And the best part? You’ll be able to hear me speak! (Just kidding about that being the best part. ;-)) Please do think well wishes for me though as today I’m fighting a nasty winter cold. Have no fear, I’ll be presenting tomorrow. Just please forgive if I sound a little raspy!
The event is from 9-11am on Wednesday, February 2, 2011 at 1 Maiden Lane – just off of Hillsborough Street.
RSVP to info@shoplocalraleigh.org today! Not a member, yet? That’s ok – come as our guest! But please still email to RSVP so we can have an accurate head count.
What’s ON Your Cup?
What’s in your cup may not matter as much as what’s written on your cup, with this great idea from Caribou Coffee. To be fair, I don’t believe they pioneered the idea, but I do love the customer engagement! Way better to use your customers words (with permission, of course) than a small array of old quotes, no?
Engage guests with memorable digital interactions.
When the company asked guests to submit comments about what they stay awake for, more than 15,000 people responded. Next year, Caribou plans to reissue its coffee cups with statements from those guests.
via: Marketing executive shares lessons from Caribou Coffee’s growth, growing pains – http://www.restaurant.org/nra_news_blog/2010/10/marketing-executive-shares-lessons-from-caribou-coffees-growth-growing-pains.cfm
image: http://www.diytrade.com/china/4/products/3075181/double_wall_paper_cup.html (PS – I’m not advocating importing your cups from China, I just like the picture.)
The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Link Shorteners
I posted this update to my twitter/facebook profiles this morning, but thought it was relevant enough for a blog post.
Pet Peeve: Email & other publications using shortened links. It’s fine for twitter, but otherwise, I want to know where you’re sending me.
Here are my views on using link shorteners/url shorteners in your marcoms (marketing communications).
The Good: URL shortening is used to reduce the number of characters in any web link – most commonly used to fit a link and its related commentary/description within Twitter’s 140 character limit. TweetDeck, a popular desktop Twitter application previews the link’s actual destination when clicked. TinyURL (a free url shortening service) offers a preview so you can decide whether to continue to the link’s destination or not (although it does require enabling and the use of cookies).
The Bad: Bit.ly, another popular link shortener, does not appear to have a prominent preview tool. From a professional standpoint, it does look appealing though because you can create an account and track the number of clicks your links get, etc.
The Ugly: The smart computer user needs to know where they are being directed on the internet! A lot of nasty viruses and malware are running around out there – and no one wants to deal with that.
While I appreciate the value of link shortening for twitter updates, I prefer not to see them on facebook, in emails, and even more so in online publications, blog posts, and articles. If not for the safety factor, there’s the other reason that when I’m reading real estate updates or marketing updates, I’ve probably already read the article on Realtor.org or Mashable.com that you are linking to. There’s no reason for me to click though to something I’ve already read!
So please – don’t waste my time or leave me exposed to security risks when you’re publishing links online 🙂
If anyone has any tips on best practices you’ve experienced for using and sharing web links using link shortening, please pass them along! I’d love to share them here.
More Changes Coming to Facebook
I guess I’m just getting old, but after seeing about 809374 changes to the facebook platform since I first started using it “way back in college”, I’m kind of over it. The changes that is! Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan, but it looks as if soon I will only be able to “like” facebook in the future, instead of being a fan.
Personally, I think there is a stronger connection between a brand and its customers with the usage of the term “fan” instead of “like”, but according to this recent article in the N&O, customers will soon no longer become a fan of your business, they will simply “like” it – just like the status updates of their friends. I believe that is oversimplifying things to a point of making them less relevant, but they didn’t ask for my opinion 😉
Nonetheless, those who hope to successfully attempt to manage their business (and brand) in an ever-changing online landscape should be aware of things like this. So be sure to read the entire article (it’s short – promise!): http://blogs.newsobserver.com/techjunkie/facebook-dumping-become-a-fan.
FYI for Bloggers and Brands
Unless you’ve been hiding from media headlines since October, there’s a good chance to heard something about how the FTC (Federal Trade Commission – whose job is to “(work) for consumers to prevent fraudulent, deceptive, and unfair business practices and to provide information to help spot, stop, and avoid them”) is changing how bloggers and brands can represent each other online.
To read the full news release from the FTC, visit http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm.
The changes actually affect all testimonial advertising, bloggers, AND celebrity endorsements. But let’s just assume you’re not a celebrity, or hiring a celebrity, for a moment 😉
So how does this affect you?
The short and sweet is that when a review is given with non-typical results, typical results must be clearly outlined. The other point is that the connection between the consumer and brand must be disclosed. ie: The posting blogger must disclose that he/she was contacted by the brand and what the terms were, if it’s a brand they’re personally representing, doing it for a family member, etc., etc.
And for Heaven’s sake, never create misleading content. It’s a big no-no in advertising and blogging crosses into that territory.
Of course, this blog post in no means constitute any sort of legal advice and you should always, ALWAYS read the rules for yourself and consult your own legal counsel if you have any questions about how to interpret any guidelines.
Visit http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm and look under “related items” to download the latest guidelines for endorsements. (These are always subject to updating and revisions, so I’m not posting a link to the current document – instead, I’m telling you where you can find the most recent version.)
Twitter for Businesses
This is a really great summary of just why Twitter CAN work for your business from the National Marine Manufacturers Association… that can really be applied to ANY industry.
You’ve heard the buzz about Twitter and, like many, are thinking it’s just another internet trend. Maybe. But, in the meantime, if you’re not using Twitter you’re missing an opportunity to manage your brand and communicate directly with the estimated 25 million people using Twitter worldwide. Most users are over the age of 25, meaning Twitter is not your teenager’s internet trend.
Instead of telling you how it can be your newest (and free) customer relations staff, let’s show you: Go here and type in your company or brand name. In real-time you receive a list of “tweets” or comments about your brand, from people within the 25 million-strong crowd. You can respond directly to complaints, quell rumors on the spot and address misconceptions about your product line. You can also reward loyal customers by sharing special offers.
Discover Boating and NMMA use Twitter to take the pulse of the news media (hundreds of reporters and producers use it to get story ideas and share what they’re working on) and understand consumers’ daily mood to determine the best way to communicate with them each day.
PS – You also shouldn’t “protect” your posts… unless you don’t want any followers. Good rule of thumb is that if you need to “protect” your posts or “go private” on your blogs… it probably shouldn’t be written on the internet TO BEGIN WITH.