Get To The Grapes

Want to know where your customers are? Start looking online! The infographic below highlights the content developed each day online.  User-generated content is extremely powerful and something that companies should embrace and empower in their quest to reach their target audiences.  Here are a few highlights:

- 140 million tweets

- 1.5 billion pieces of Facebook content (status updates, likes, comments, photos, etc.)

- 1.6 million blog posts

- 2 million YouTube videos

- 5 million images uploaded to Flickr

Forbes magazine posed this question in a recent article and as a PR and social media agency, we’d like to share our expertise in  hopes of helping to guide you through the ever merging areas of social media and PR. First, just like in the “olden days,” you should contact the media through their contact method of choice. If you’re not sure, find out. If you don’t have a relationship with the media professional or can’t find out their contact method of choice, email is still a good bet.  However, the way we communicate has changed forever. Social media is now an integral part of our public relations programs and should be an integral part of yours as well.  The rule of thumb for contacting the media via social media is this:

Facebook: If you’re not already connected with a media professional on Facebook, don’t “friend” them only to turn around and pitch them.  It’s simply common courtesy.  Additionally, if you are “friends” on Facebook, but you notice they use Facebook primarily for personal use, don’t violate that space. Choose another form of communication.  If a reporter or editor uses Facebook professionally only, or mixes personal and business in that space, and you’re already connected to them, then a pitch is appropriate.

Twitter: Twitter is unique in that a lot of people–including media professionals–are on Twitter, but do not monitor the activity closely.  Therefore, the only time you would want to pitch via Twitter is if the media professional is an avid Twitter user, professionally speaking.  Once again, you need to know the media you’re pitching, know the format in which they prefer to be pitched, and monitor their social media presence to ensure your pitch is aligned with their interests, beats, etc.

LinkedIn: Given that this is a professional social media platform, it’s perfectly appropriate to pitch media professionals in this space. However, just like other social networks, if you’re going to pitch via LinkedIn, you want to be sure that the media professional you’re pitching is an active LinkedIn user.  If they have a profile, but only 25 connections, it’s probably not a format they’d prefer to be pitched through.

Ultimately, although the vehicles in which we pitch the media have changed, the way you approach the media has not.  Know the person, their beat, their interests and their publication, program or blog, and then pitch a great story! If you do that, you’re almost guaranteed success.  Happy pitching!

Valentine’s Day is one day a year that we make it a point to emphasize our affection for our loved ones in a special way.  But, have you ever wondered where it all started? Me too! So, instead of going to the library to research the subject, I found this very cool Valentine’s Day infographic. 

Did you know that this day of love started even back before 200 A.D.? Me neither.  The graphic above also uncovers some data on how much love costs us each year.  Like the fact that we spend $8.6 million a year on sparkling wine for the special day and buy 58 million pounds of chocolate for our sweeties.  Wow! That’s a lot of cocoa.  What about those Sweethearts^® that say “Be Mine”, “Hugs” or “Luv You”? 8 billion of those little pink and purple candies are sold each year, with a majority sold between January 1 and February 14.  If you’ll believe it, that’s enough conversation hearts to stretch from Rome to Italy, to Valentine, Arizona and back again 20 times! My goodness, that’s wild! Isn’t that crazy? I hope you’ve enjoyed learning the history of this special day in a fun, graphical way.  Don’t forget to share what you’ve learned with the ones you love.

That about sums up the Super Bowl ads for 2012! Although there weren’t any groundbreaking ads such as Apple’s 1984, there are a few that did stand out.  But for the most part, many of them tried too hard and simply fell flat.  For example, remember Cadillac’s “Green Hell?” Exactly. Neither do we.  And although Coke’s polar bears are cute, the ads lacked punch, a sound message and anything memorable.  And Jerry Seinfeld didn’t do much for the Microsoft brand a few years ago and didn’t do too much for Acura brand this year.  In fact, I had to do some homework to determine which product and brand the ad  was for – I’d simply forgotten.  And finally, let’s not forget GoDaddy.com.  Really? It’s so tired.  When they first used shock value and sex appeal to promote the brand it was fresh and fun, but now it lacks any level of true creativity.  Although I do have to hand it to them, when you think ‘domain’, you do think “godaddy.”

So, with companies spending up to $3.5 million dollars per spot, who got it right this year? Here are just a few highlights:

M&M’s: Loved the little guys moves! Simply cute and clever!

Sketchers: This ad was scored big because not only was it funny, it was memorable for the creative AND the brand. They did a great job focusing on the feet!

Doritos: They continue to entertain and while putting the brand front and center.

What makes the Super Bowl so unique for advertisers, is that a huge number of the viewers are actually watching for the commercials alone.  Most of the time advertisers simply hope you don’t fast forward through their spots, but during the Super Bowl, they are thrilled because people will actually hush the crowd to hear them.  Therefore, when you’re spending more than $116,000 per second for a commercial, you want to be sure that it is engaging, creative and memorable – both for the creative itself and the brand it’s promoting.  For a  recap of the ads, check out this video montage from ABC News.  Or go to Creativity-Online for a full video recap.

I am not usually one for jumping on the bandwagon of every new social media platform released.  In fact, there are some popular sites such as Foursquare that I personally have no need for.   I can update my friends on things going on in my life just fine on Facebook and for marketing and business updates LinkedIn and Twitter work great.  But Foursquare just plain creeps me out.  There are however, occasions when a new platform comes out that I go crazy over.  A few months back I discovered Spotify and music listening will never be the same for me.  Most recently, I discovered Pinterest which is down-right genius! For those that have not been introduced, Pinterest is a platform for sharing images that inspire you visually with ideas on organization, wedding planning, home décor, cooking, planning your child’s birthday party and the list goes on.  I can and have spent many hours perusing and pinning fabulous things to my personal boards.

So, how does this fabulous new tool apply to businesses? From my vantage point, if your product can be used to inspire women in any way, you have a place on Pinterest.  I can see a place for every type of business to share images from stylish brands to personal trainers, chefs, wedding planners, photographers, restaurants, hotels, authors etc.  So, how do you get started and what are some of the “rules” on Pinterest? I would like to share an article that will give you some tips to get started from Mashable, a fantastic group of social media thought leaders. The article, entitled, Pinterest for Brands: 5 Hot Tips will give you a great start to thinking about Pinterest from the vantage point of socially connecting consumers to your brand.  After reading this post you should have some great ideas on how your business can connect with women on the fabulous platform.