Baltimore Public Relations Council Presentation — Developing a Social Media Strategy

May 23, 2012

Jenn

Last week was a big week for me! I had my very first speaking engagement, and it was an amazing experience. I was lucky enough to be a panelist at the Baltimore Public Relations Council’s panel discussion, “Developing a Social Media Strategy that Works for Your Organization.” The other panelists included Dan Collins, Senior Director for Media Relations, Mercy Medical Center; and Colleen McKenna, Principal, Marketing + Sales Advisor, LinkedIn Trainer, Intero Advisory. It was great to meet my fellow panelists, and the attendees of the event.

I posted a video of my presentation at the end of this blog post, so I won’t spend time talking about my portion. Both of the other panelists prepared awesome presentations and left myself and all of the attendees with a lot of things to think about.

Biggest take-away from Dan’s presentation

    • Dan talked about Mercy Medical Center’s social media strategy, and explained that there are 7 basic steps for social media strategy. Be sure to determine your goals, do your research, create a digital rolodex of contacts, join the conversation, strengthen relationships, and measure results. Also, don’t forget to analyze, adapt, and improve your strategy as you go along.  Dan used this post on social media strategy to support his presentation.

Biggest take-away from Colleen’s presentation

    • Colleen mentioned a lot of valuable things about LinkedIn, and she delivered a great presentation! I found myself scribbling down notes most of the time she was speaking. My biggest take-away was to make sure that your profile sounds like you. You should use LinkedIn for your own personal brand, not as a sales pitch. Therefore, your LinkedIn profile should reflect your personality.
    • Okay, I just have to say something else that I learned from Colleen. She also pointed out that you have to optimize your LinkedIn profile with keywords, and include a photo. These things are essential!

And of course there was my presentation, which I put a lot of hard work and time into preparing. Feel free to check out my presentation on SlideShare! Here’s the video of my presentation that I promised:

Thanks again to the Baltimore Public Relations Council for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.

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Posted by Jenn Lake

Integrating Social Media Gaming and Online Gaming into Your Marketing Plan

May 7, 2012

Jenn

Are social media and online gaming the next step for your organization’s marketing plan? Could gaming help you to reach your target audience? While we know that social media gaming and online gaming are becoming increasingly popular, there are still a lot of unanswered questions in terms of its application for business. I was lucky enough to speak with Ben Walsh, CEO of Pure Bang Games, and find out his thoughts on gaming and its future in marketing.

1. Is social media/online gaming becoming part of organizational marketing plans?
“I believe so.  We are being contacted by more and more companies who want a game to engage their audiences with games or game-like features on their sites.  The Gartner Group predicts gamification will be a key trend that every CIO, IT planner and enterprise architect must be aware of as it relates to business.”

2. How is social media/online gaming changing the social media/Facebook/online experience?
“Gaming is the #2 activity on Facebook, with over 50% of Facebook’s 800M users logging in daily to play games. According to a 2010 study, 90% of American tweens are playing online games. Games are becoming a huge part of our online culture and I predict that they will be a driving force in social network innovation over the next 10 years.”

3. What are some of the benefits of social media/online gaming for companies and users?
“The #1 benefit of online gaming is that it is a powerful tool for engaging your audience.  With people spending less and less time watching TV or reading print, a lot of companies are looking to games to reach the audiences they used to find on those mediums… what they are finding is that branded experiences in games are more powerful than in any other medium known.  Users will interact with the brand longer, remember the brand longer, have greater loyalty, and actually share the brand with their friends (if the game is good).”

As you can see, there are a lot of great reasons to consider including a game as part of your organization’s marketing plan. Only the future will tell if these engaging games have staying power.

Interested in learning more about social media and online gaming? Check out the Pure Bang Games website.

Photo credit: jscreationzs

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Posted by Jenn Lake

Using Social Couponing as Part of Your Organization’s Marketing Plan

March 22, 2012

Jenn

Coupons have long been used by organizations to provide an  incentive for consumers to purchase their products or services.  However, when social couponing sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and Google Offers emerged, they completely transformed the world of couponing. As with any marketing tactic, social couponing is not for everyone. If you are considering using social couponing, consider these pros and cons:

Pros

  • Social integration with Facebook and Twitter
    The interactive component of these social couponing platforms (like Groupon and Living Social) is one of their most appealing features.  When one person views or purchases a coupon, he/she can share and comment on the coupon via social media outlets, thus allowing you to reach greater audiences.
  • Name Recognition
    Even if subscribers or audiences gained from sharing do not purchase your organization’s social coupon, they will see your name. This can help with brand awareness, recognition, and recall. This means that once potential customers see your brand, they become aware of it, recognize it when they see it, and can recall your brand when they have a need for your product or service.
  • Locality
    Almost all marketing plans have a target market. The process of selecting the target market of course involves geographic segmentation. Since Groupon, Living Social, and Google Offers are already segmented into major cities, this can help to eliminate the need for your organization to invest in geographic segmentation. This especially applies for local businesses because it allows consumers to see products and services that are easily accessible to them.

Cons

  • Product Trial
    Even after a consumer purchases a coupon and utilizes it for your product and service, this doesn’t mean that he/she will become a return customer. That is to say, the initial coupon may provide work for your organization, but there is no telling whether customers will come back after the product trial.
  • Lack of Capacity
    Before using social couponing as part of your marketing strategy, consider the potential response from the audience. If you have thousands of product inquiries at once, will your business be able to handle it? The media recently caught wind of the story of a small bakery in London who ended up selling a lot more than it thought possible. The owner provided such a deep discount that the orders poured in. In the end, the owner had to cut the Groupon off before the end of the deal, and hire additional workers to help produce the extra baked goods, which caused her to spend close to $20,000 in extra costs. This is a reminder to try to anticipate response, which can obviously be hard to do.

There’s been a lot of recent coverage of the leaders in social couponing.  Check out this recent article from the Washington Post on Living Social, which happens to be headquartered in nearby Washington D.C. Also, I found this 60 minutes segment on Groupon really eye-opening:

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Posted by Jenn Lake

Social Media Week: Reflecting on the Importance of Social Media in Your Company

February 13, 2012

Jenn

Do you know what today is? Of course, we all know it’s Monday, February 13th, and the day before Valentine’s Day, but what else? Today is the first day of Social Media Week, which is defined as “a week-long festival featuring independently curated (and mostly free) speakers, panels, workshops, events, and parties” that takes place in 12 of the world’s major cities. Even for those of us who do not live close to any of the 12 participating cities and cannot attend the events, we can still participate. How, you ask? In my opinion, the best way to participate is to reflect on how social media is performing as a part of your company’s marketing plan. This will allow you to see how you’ve used social media thus far, how it has helped you to achieve your goals, and you wish to use it in the future.

Here are some ideas for how you can reflect on social media:

1. Make a List of Components of Your Current Social Media Situation
Start by writing out how many followers you have, how many people you follow, how many likes you have, how many pages you like, how many re-tweets you have, how many shares you have, how many mentions you have, etc. This will help you to see how you measure up. Do you have as many followers, like, shares, etc. as you’d like to have? On a day to day basis, one can get wrapped up in the daily grind, and lose focus. This time of reflection is a good time to realize how social media is working for you.

2. Make a List of Social Media Successes
Let’s be honest, we all like to think about our successes. Be sure to make a note of your social media accomplishments. Did you get a re-tweet or mention from someone significant in your industry? Did you get a certain amount of followers or likes? Think carefully about what you’ve been doing, find your best practices, and stick to them.

3. Make a List of What You’d Like to do with Social Media
You’ve already looked at your situation and successes. Now it’s time to look at where you want to go with your social media. Do you want to gain followers, get more re-tweets and comments, and get more shares? Think about where you want your social media to go, and then think of ideas on how you can make it happen. For example, if your goal is to increase followers, you can start to add a Twitter icon and your Twitter handle to all of your printed marketing materials.

4. Write Several Measurable and Attainable Objectives
If I learned one thing as an Advertising/Marketing program graduate, it’s that all marketing and advertising plans must have measurable objectives. Since social media plans are part of marketing plans, they too need measurable objectives. Measurable objectives allow you to track your progress, and create accountability. When I say measurable, I mean you must use numbers or percentages to define what you would like to achieve by a certain date. An example of a measurable objective is: “To increase the number of Twitter followers by 200 by the December 2012.” Likewise, and example of an objective using a percentage would be, “To increase the number of Twitter followers by 20% by December 2012.”

I have already written several of my own reflections on how social media has been a large component of my career in marketing. I wrote about social media tips I learned at the 2011 PRSA Chesapeake Conference, and about how social media can assist with event marketing. Be sure to check out these posts for additional social media ideas!

Happy Social Media Week!

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Posted by Jenn Lake

Successful Social Media and E-Marketing for Business: How to Promote Your Organization’s Featured Projects

January 10, 2012

Jenn

First of all, you may be thinking to yourself, “What is a featured project?” A featured project is defined as an example of an organization’s work that demonstrates the quality and nature of the organization’s deliverables to potential clients. In other words, featured projects help your organization to communicate its value. Your organization can use the following social media and email marketing tools to get the eyes of the public onto its featured projects:

1.    Blog About It
Blogging may be the best way to get your featured project in front of your potential client’s eyes. Blogs are very visual. You can add pictures, videos, and links so that your potential clients can really get a visual grasp of featured projects. Blogging can allow the client to see the value in your product/service for themselves. Towson University’s Center for GIS recently wrote a blog post about a featured project, the “Maryland Stronger Together Map”.

Photo credit: Renjith Krishnan

2.    Tweet It
Twitter for business is often underestimated. Twitter can be a very powerful tool when used correctly. Be sure that you are following and @mentioning major players in your industry. If your tweets are relevant to Twitter audiences (e.g.  a featured project that ties in industry best practices),  they may be re-tweeted, resulting in increased exposure.

3.    Spotlight It
Lastly, you can leverage your company’s email newsletter to advertise your expertise.  Another idea is to put your featured project in the spotlight by including a link or graphic within company emails. This gives you the opportunity to show off part of your portfolio in a non-obtrusive way.

Anyone who works in sales or marketing knows that it’s essential to show potential clients the value of products and services. Featured projects can assist your organization in communicating value to potential clients, and the above mentioned social media tactics can help you to gain views on your featured projects.

One important tip to remember is to stay current, this means routinely swapping out your featured projects with more recent examples.

Interested in social media for business? Check out my previous post that includes tips for event marketing using social media.

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Posted by Jenn Lake

Social Media and Video Tips from the 2011 PRSA Chesapeake Conference

November 16, 2011

Jenn

If you noticed that the TUOutreach Facebook and Twitter accounts were quiet on Thursday November 3,  good observation! I am the social media manager around here, and I spent Thursday at the 2011 PRSA Chesapeake Conference, learning about social media and other marketing, public relations, and advertising media.

I could go into an in-depth discussion about my day, but I’d like to instead focus on a few of the sessions that I attended, and what I learned from them.

I started my day with a video presentation by Ed Beckett and Sharon Brown from University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). My top take-away ideas from this session:

1. If you don’t have a good space for video, you may be able to rent production space from a local public television station.
2. Try to include experts in your videos, this allows for strong content.
3. Be selective about who you interview on camera and make sure they’re comfortable on camera.
4. Take a thumb drive with you to video meetings so that you can collect photos, presentations, and other visuals to include in the video.
5. Be sure to have the visuals in your video complement the spoken words (for example, if you say “dog”, show a dog, and if you see a dog, say “dog”).
6. Use phrases like “you”, “as you can see here”, and “take a look at this” to draw audience attention.
7. Use your video in other outlets such as emails and social media to maximize efficiency.

After the video session, I sat in on a Twitter session presented by Governor O’Malley’s New Media Manager, Zoe Pagonis, as well as Lori Livingston, New Media Manager for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Some key take-aways from this session include:

1. Use presentation platforms like Prezi to switch it up from PowerPoint.
2. Use a hashtag so that the audience can tweet about your presentation.
3. Have a laptop on hand during the presentation so that the presenters can answer questions received via Twitter.
4. Integrate social media with other departments to maximize efficiency.
5. Include videos in press releases.
6. Use videos to personalize your message.
7. Use websites like Vimeo for paid and free background music for your videos.

While the conference had several sessions, these two stuck out as my favorites. As you can see, the sessions of the 2011 PRSA Chesapeake Conference left their audiences with some great take-aways. This event was a valuable experience, and I hope to return next year.

Logo for the 2011 PRSA Chesapeake Conference


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Posted by Jenn Lake

Education Meets the Workforce Strikes Again!

November 3, 2011

Jenn

Our most recent Education Meets the Workforce video focuses on Kristina Riera, a student intern for the Center for Applied IT (CAIT). Kristina manages all aspects of the banner advertising program on the State Department of Assessment and Taxation (SDAT) website. Kristina is a student in Towson University’s College of Business and Economics with concentrations in e-business and marketing.  This position gives her real world experience in these areas.  Watch the video to find out more about Kristina and her position at CAIT.

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Posted by Jenn Lake

5 Tips for Using Twitter, Facebook, and Blogs for Event Marketing

October 13, 2011

Jenn

1. Create a Facebook event page
A Facebook event page allows you to publish essential information about your event (time, location, etc.), and track who will be attending. This is a great place to post relevant articles and resources that will further engage the audience. It also gives the audience a place to make comments on the event and share the event with their Facebook friends. The sharing feature is essential because it allows your event to reach more potential attendees.

2. Connect with Guest Speakers or Event Sponsors
If your event features a notable guest speaker, be sure to mention him/her on social media. For example, you can mention the individual on Twitter or tag them on Facebook. You can also mention sponsors in the same way. Mentioning a notable speaker or sponsor on social media will associate them with your event, thus creating increased awareness and credibility. Blogs are also a great place to connect with guest speakers. For example, you can have a guest speaker do a guest blog post about your event.

3. Publish Event Updates on Social media
Social media can also be used to keep your audience up to date as the event approaches. For example, you may want to let your audience know about agenda changes, new sponsors, new speakers, or new attractions. You can also use social media to countdown to the event, and to let your audience know when the event is close to selling out.

4. Publicize Social Media URLs
Be sure to include Facebook, Twitter, and Blog URLs on all websites and/or print collateral that are used to market the event. This should result in increased traffic to your social media websites since the consistent appearance of social media icons and URL’s will remind the audience to connect with your event.  Be sure to create a hashtag and let your audience know about it through your marketing efforts. Hashtags allow the audience to follow conversations about your event if they search the hashtag on Twitter.

5. Use Social Media for Crowd Sourcing
You can also use Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to interact with the audience. For example, you can poll the audience by asking what they’d like to see at the event. This will allow you to hear the voice of your audience and to ultimately present content that is relevant to your audience, creating greater satisfaction with the event.

Check out how DECO is using social media!

Image Credit: fotographic1980

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Posted by Jenn Lake

VIDEO: Education Meets the Workforce – Student Interns Get Hands-on GIS Experience

October 11, 2011

Jenn

Our newest Education Meets the Workforce video features student interns from Towson University’s Center for GIS. The interns, Justin Mannion, James Parmeter, and Alex Stapleton, work closely together on data collection processes in connection with the Maryland Broadband Map project. The Maryland Broadband Map allows residential and business consumers to discover the high-speed Internet services and providers in their neighborhood, anywhere in Maryland.

Watch the video to learn more about how the interns are contributing to the Maryland Broadband Map Project and to other projects at CGIS.

1 Comment | Community Outreach, Economic Analysis, Education, IT, Mapping, Marketing, News, Students, Training, TU Faculty & Staff | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jenn Lake

Three Firefox Add-Ons a Designer Can’t Live Without

August 22, 2011

Jenn

Over the past 4 years I have completed web designs for various courses and professional projects. Additionally, one of my many tasks as Multimedia Coordinator here at DECO is web design.  As with any trade, web design has “tools of the trade” which simplify its processes. In my opinion, some of the most useful web design tools are Firefox Extensions/Add-Ons.

If you go to the Firefox Extensions/Add-Ons page you will find add-ons that you can use to save time and personalize your online experience. There are add-ons for shopping, games and entertainment, bookmarks, web development, and more. Out of all of the Firefox Add-Ons, the design-oriented ones are most useful to me. I regularly use the following:

1.    ColorZilla – Adds an eyedropper/color picker tool that can be used within the Firefox browser window.

Benefit to using this Add-On: It allows you to hover over various website elements (e.g. images or website backgrounds) with your cursor and then see the RGB or hexadecimal color code for the color for that element.

Alternative to using this Add-On: Take a screen shot of the website (Print Screen on Windows, Command + Shift + 3 on Mac), then open the screen shot in Photoshop. Use the Eyedropper tool to select the color, and then click the foreground color swatch in the color palette at the bottom of the toolbar which will bring up a window that displays RGB, CMYK, and hexadecimal color codes.

2.    Measure It- Adds a re-sizable ruler box that can be used within the Firefox browser window.

Benefit to using this Add-On: Space is precious in web design. In order to optimize space and create desired alignment, you must be able to design properly sized graphics. The MeasureIt tool allows you to drag a ruler box across the screen and tells you the size of the page area that you select in pixels.

Alternative to using this Add-On: Take a screen shot of the website (Print Screen on Windows, Command + Shift + 3 on Mac), then open the screen shot in Photoshop. Select “Window” in the toolbar at the top and click on the “Info” option. Then use the Rectangular Marquee tool to select the area that you’d like to measure. The dimensions of the selected area will appear in the “Info” window.

3.    Firebug – Displays the code used for various web elements.

Benefit to using this Add-On: It allows you to right click a web element and view the code for that particular element. This means that you no longer have to sift through thousands of lines of code just to find the code for one particular desired element.

Alternative to using this Add-On: Right click the web page, click “View Source Code” and then try to search for the element that you’d like to see the code for.

As you can see, Firefox Add-Ons allow you to save time, and can transform your Firefox browser into a comprehensive tool. With Firefox Add-Ons, you can do so much within your browser without having to open additional windows and programs.


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Posted by Jenn Lake

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