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

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

1 Comment | Events, Marketing, Small Business Development | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jenn Lake

Blogging. Facebooking. Tweeting.

October 3, 2011

Sharyn

That’s right…we’re doing all of the above and then some! Over the past 2 years, our online brand has expanded, and just so you know, we’re not just blogging. You can find various DECO research and outreach centers promoting their brand through various social outlets. Go ahead, take a look and like or follow us!

 

Economic and Community Outreach

Center for GIS (CGIS)

Regional Economic Studies Institute (RESI)

TowsonGlobal

TU in the Community

University Economic Development Association (UEDA)

Coalition of Urban and Metropolitan Universities (CUMU)


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Posted by Sharyn Kuczka

Getting in the Integrated Marketing Game

September 15, 2010

Sharyn

In recent months, DECO began to offer a new and exciting set of services. The Integrated Marketing Team (IMT) was formed to provide comprehensive solutions for communications and media challenges. Social media strategy and web site analysis and development are the focus of the team.

Just last week, the IMT completed a project where tactics, management strategies, and website integration approaches for implementing a Social Media Marketing Strategy were provided to six start-up businesses. Months were spent analyzing the companies and their industries. In turn, the IMT was able to provide a comprehensive strategy that included:

  • An overview of the social media landscape and how Web 2.0 has impacted the way consumers and businesses interact with one another.

    Click here for a one page reference sheet about the IMT services.

  • Specific social media tools that will work most effectively for each company.  Management and measurement strategies were suggested to ensure that implementing these tools are both time efficient and quantifiable.
  • Website analysis that includes improvement recommendations on navigation and functionality.  Also, social media tool integration recommendations were provided.
  • Tactical outreach, blogging, and search engine optimization (SEO) strategies provided additional advice on how to implement the suggested social media approaches effectively.

  • A Tool Kit provided summaries of each of our favorite social media tools.  The summary includes costs, usefulness, key features, step-by-step guide to get started, and helpful resources.

If social media is a marketing avenue your company would like to explore, don’t hesitate to contact me (I am one of the Project Managers for the IMT) for the guidance your business needs to take a strategy and run with it!

Leave a Comment » | Business Analysis, Community Outreach, Entrepreneurship, News, Project Management, Small Business Development | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sharyn Kuczka

Facebook and What I Thought I‘d NEVER Do

March 16, 2010

 

Dawn

The only reason I joined Facebook was to see pictures of my friend’s new dog.  A year later I am addicted and not just to the games – okay I’ll admit I do have farms, restaurants and a mafia.  However, recently I have found that a social networking tool can actually be a learning experience.

The first thing I never thought I’d do in relation to Facebook is allow my son to have his own page.  He uses the dog’s name because I am too over protective to actually let him use his own (it wasn’t until very recently I actually let him post a picture of himself, instead of a Transformer).  He asks us if he can friend people, prior to “friending” them, and my husband and I can log on as him to just “see” what’s going on. So far so good!  He now talks to his Aunt in CA and friends in Florida way more than he used to, and he is learning boundaries of what is appropriate for “posting” and what needs to stay at home.   I was so pleased to hear him comment how “dumb” some of his friends’ posts sounded. This experience is helping me learn how to let my “little” boy have some freedom.  Yes, I do log in as him to keep a check, but hey, I am the Mom and were talking baby steps here (for me not him).

The second thing I never thought I would do is let people know about a death.  It does sound a little morbid and doubt Miss Manners would approve.  But when a friend recently passed away, I was able to let people know what had happened and when all arrangements had been finalized.  People I knew took my post and shared it with others that knew my friend, but who I didn’t know.  I was surprised at how many people were able to make it to the funeral home and funeral because of my Facebook posts.  Those that could not make it to the pay their respects in the usual way were able to write notes to her family on the Guest Book found on the funeral home’s website.  We also were able to grieve together, albeit via computer.   I would have preferred to share happy news, but with a few clicks of my keyboard, I was able to provide information many people would not have received until well after the fact, if at all, and allowed them to act, instead of being sad they did not know sooner.

Until now I thought of social networking as being “social”, sharing a joke, saying hello, or making an innocuous comment.  I have now found it to be a teaching tool and a way to share important information. Though generally my use of social networking is not work related, the way information spreads through this type of medium was astounding to me.  It also made realize how powerful and useful it could be, if done properly.  I’m not sure about other greater good opportunities for which social networking can be used. But after these latest experiences I feel social networking sites can have more productive uses than farms, restaurants and mafias. But I’m not giving them up!

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Posted by Dawn Bott

Got Social Media?

November 23, 2009

Sharyn

Last week I had the opportunity to return to one of my alma maters, University of Baltimore, to attend an event hosted by the Public Relations Society of America’s Maryland chapter. “10 Questions to Ask When Developing a Social Media Strategy” presented by Sean Carton of idfive was exactly the new information I was looking for. I’m eager to keep learning more and more about social media and how it can be used in a business capacity. What I liked about Sean’s presentation was that he spent a little time on the basics of social media and then he posed questions that really made me think and evaluate the strategy that we have in place for DECO. I was smiling and even laughing out loud throughout the presentation because Sean was able to share his 10 tips in a humorous, yet informative manner. Below I’ve highlighted a few of the questions he posed.

from fresherthan.com

Why chose social media?

Don’t think jumping on the bandwagon is a good enough answer. Just because everyone under 25 is doing it, make sure your organization is doing it for the right reason. You have to know your audience, or have a desire to build stronger relationships with that audience. Maybe you’re an organization that attracts a certain niche or you do something better than your competitors. We found that within our organization that offers services like economic analysis, it solutions, GIS consulting, business incubation, small business development and education, that we have a story to tell and we wanted to make sure the region was hearing about it.

Are you ready to give up control?

This is something that can be tricky. You can’t control what people say about your organization. And today, it’s easier and easier for people to say what they want in forums, twitter, blogs, and really anywhere. So don’t be scared of that, join the conversation. The whole point of social media is that it should be a two-way conversation. As Sean pointed out during his presentation, the truth can hurt, but it may be worth hearing.

How do you plan to get users to visit?

You can build it, but will they come? How will you spread the word? We’ve found that the content we create on our blog can help generate tidbits for our quarterly newsletter and twitter account. We’re asking university and business partners to help promote our blog and we’re sending relevant blog posts to clients hoping they will be enlightened or even share the information with other colleagues. Since the blog’s launch we have received more and more comments and also had our articles picked up internally at TU. You could say our approach is a little more on the grass roots side right now.

Who’s responsible for maintenance?

This is the tricky, but critical part of an organization’s social media strategy. At DECO we didn’t want to jump in head first and just hope the blog would work. We spent an entire summer talking with our team in DECO to find out who was interested in working with the blog, impressions of social media, and developing policies. We reviewed other blogs for what we liked and didn’t like, and then started building the framework. Since the launch, we formed a user group and meet monthly to talk about our posting schedule. This helps to keep all the contributors in the loop of the expectations. Editing and posting the articles then becomes a pretty easy task. It’s a good idea to make the maintenance part of someone’s job responsibilities so that it gets done. It’s also important to establish criteria of your social media, allow autonomy to your staff who oversees the social media and integrate it with all the forms of communication you are currently using.

Hearing this presentation gave me a few things to think about and I have a better idea of how to evaluate our social media strategy and make our presence stronger.

Click here to view the presentation

2 Comments | Business Analysis, Small Business Development | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Sharyn Kuczka

See you on Facebook!

October 5, 2009
Sharyn

Sharyn

Leaving a softball game this summer, “see you on Facebook” is what one of my teammates shouted to a few of us as we were heading to our cars after the last game. It’s really no surprise that keeping up with the comings and goings of friends is so easily, and enthusiastically, done on Facebook. On September 15 the Web site reached the 300 million active users headcount and of those active users, 50% of them are logging on daily to:

  • update their status (40 million status updates a day)
  • upload pictures (2 billion photos uploaded each month)
  • create an event (3 million new events are hosted each month)
  • join a group (there are 45 million groups to chose from)
  • become a fan (10 million people become fans every day)
  • or take a quiz or play games (my least favorite tools of Facebook!)

facebook_logoFacebook’s web site defines their site as “a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers”. Facebook is getting the job done. Check out these statistics:

  • 1 to 1 million – The ratio of Facebook engineers to users.
  • 65 million – the number of active users accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
  • 35+ – The fastest growing demographic.
  • 130 – The average number of friends.
  • 6 billion – The number of minutes spent on Facebook every day.
  • 65 – The number of translations available.
  • 70% – The percentage of Facebook users that reside outside the United States.

facebookpage

Here at Towson, Facebook allows faculty, staff, students, alums, and university friends to connect. The admissions department has a Facebook fan page where they have over 1,100 users sharing information and checking out the demographics of TU. It’s a great way to reach out to potential applicants and current students. Towson Arts & Culture, uses their fan page to promote performances, exhibits, films and lectures each year. Although this page is relatively new, it’s clear that this fan page will be very useful as the number of fans increase. They’ll be able to use the page to not only promote those performances, but spread the word about events to a broader audience by the click of a button. Even President Caret uses Facebook to make himself more accessible to students. For him, using Facebook is a way to “get a dialogue going.” He can address important campus issues, such as parking and off campus residents, and market the university.

If you’re not a Facebook user yet, now’s the time. You can use the site as minimally as you like, or be a true active user and log on everyday with loads of information to share to all of your adoring friends, or even fans. Maybe I’ll even see you on Facebook!

Leave a Comment » | Students, TU Faculty & Staff | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by Sharyn Kuczka

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