What We're Reading - Week of April 23, 2102

Klout, a tool that measures a company's influence on its social networks, is a platform we talk about a lot at GroundFloor Media, as we do see value in its influencer rankings as part of a comprehensive influencer evaluation program-just not the only tool. So we were excited to read more about the platform's new brand pages (called Brand Squads) and we will be eagerly watching the results and feedback as they roll out more pages in the coming weeks-right now only Red Bull has launched in beta form. The SmartBlog post below discusses how to deal with negative restaurant reviews online, but the post is really relevant to anyone who monitors what customers are saying about their product or service offering. We especially like the reminder to check what people are saying every day. It does take a little extra bandwidth, but by staying on top of conversations and online comments you give yourself a better chance to stay ahead of an impending crisis. Measurement/Influencers HubSpot Blog: Klout to launch brand pages: should marketers care? Earlier this week, Klout announced its own version of brand pages -- Brand "Squads." Klout calls these pages a "way of giving influencers a place to be recognized and have a direct impact on the brands they care about most." Engagement SmartBlog: How to respond to negative customer reviews The comments that customers leave on your review sites and social media pages are an opportunity to showcase the customer service your restaurant offers while gaining more loyal patrons. These reviews are important; 80% of people say they're influenced by others regarding where to eat and 31% of your customers are leaving those reviews. Be aware of what others are saying about your brand - restaurant or otherwise - and you'll build a loyal customer base. AMEX Open Forum: Fighting for the young consumer's attention Do you want to reach younger American consumers? The challenge is that they switch between their media options so rapidly and reaching them is harder than you might think. AMEX Open Forum: When to stop socializing and make the sale In the social media environment, we're all in danger of thinking too much about buzzwords like followers, engagement, re-tweets and likes. Sometimes we forget the important fundamentals, like actually facilitating the sale! Pinterest Ragan's: 3 must-have Pinterest tools Tools to help you schedule pins, find cool new content, see which pins your followers like best, and more. Facebook Ragan's: How to turn Facebook likes into tangible results The true value of social media is not about how many fans and followers you have, but what you do with them. Many tend to forget the "marketing" in social media marketing, and think social media success is just about posting content and getting as many likes as possible. It's not. Marketers need to go beyond just getting likes and create real engagement opportunities that keep their business top of mind with their customers. While an increased number of likes leads to a bigger audience, it's only the first step in deriving real value from your investment in social media. USA Today: More companies quit blogging, go with Facebook instead With the emergence of social media, more companies are replacing blogs with nimbler tools requiring less time and resources, such as Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. ~ GFM's Social Media team

Communicating Despite Language Barriers

I feel very fortunate to have just experienced South Africa, one of my new favorite places on earth. As secretary for the Public Relations Global Network (PRGN), I attended our semi-annual meeting in Cape Town. In addition to the meetings, I got to travel beforehand with the owners of Buchanan PR in Philly, HMA PR in Phoenix and DVL PR & Advertising in Nashville and their spouses. These agency owners, Anne Buchanan, Scott Hanson and John Van Mol, are all founding members of PRGN, which celebrated its 20^th anniversary while in Cape Town with a community service project (but that’s a topic for another blog post).

As communicators, we were naturally curious about the language and wanted to be able to have at least brief interactions with the locals in their native tongue as we traveled. We soon learned from the kind driver, Emanuel, who transported us to our safari in Pilanesberg National Park that there are 11 languages in South Africa (of which he spoke 9), and it all depends on where you are and where people are from as to which language to speak. Try mastering that in 10 days!

Anne Buchanan with our new friends Lynne and Sheila from Zimbawbe 

Emanuel was kind enough to help us get started… To say “hello” in Setsuana you say “dumela-maa” to a woman, “dumela-ra” to a man, “dumela-borra” to a group of men, and so on. You can see how this could get complicated quickly! He proceeded to teach us “hello” and “thank you” in Xhosa, Afrikaans and Zulu, too.

No matter how hard we tried, we seemed to pronounce things wrong and tell the waiter we were going on a stroll instead of saying thank you. Yet despite our difficulties pronouncing the languages, it never failed that the locals we interacted with truly appreciated our efforts, and we were able to communicate through gestures, facial expressions and some good old-fashioned English. And I cannot express to you how kind the people were. You could see it in their faces and feel it in their gestures, and I believe my traveling companions and I each left South Africa richer from the experience of communicating with the locals – or at least trying to!

Pinterest: A Few Good Resources and Food For Thought

It’s hard to believe that it has been three months since we wrote our first blog about Pinterest. Around the same time we launched our own GFM Pinterest page – and with more than 300 pins under our belt, we’re experiencing firsthand the social media craze that shows no signs of slowing down.

Although Pinterest is now the No. 3 social media platform (behind Facebook and Twitter), in the past few months there has been quite a bit of chatter about the potential intellectual property (IP) issues around pinners pinning content that is not their own – which is the basic purpose of Pinterest. This Washington Post interview with an IP attorney helps to cover the basics and offers some good insight.

In addition to potential legal issues, we’ve seen a number of articles discussing whether Pinterest is right for your business. In particular, this blog post from American Express OPEN Forum raises a great question for small businesses: with 27 percent of business owners struggling to keep their business afloat, is Pinterest worth their time?

While we do have a soft spot for Pinterest – which has inspired our staff on everything from dinner menus to travel plans and fashion trends – when it comes to Pinterest for brands it is important to think through the potential pitfalls before diving in head first. Some of our takeaways:

Better Homes and Gardens offers a "Pin It" icon
right above photos on its website: www.bhg.com.
Find them on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/bhg/

• When pinning – whenever you can, link to the original source and give credit in the pin if possible. For example, if you see a fabulous dress on a fashion blog you follow, try to click through to the actual source of the dress (like BananaRepublic.Gap.com) and pin from the retailer website, not the blog you saw it on first. 
• Many websites and blogs are adding “Pin It” share icons to posts, images and articles to make it easier to share their content. You can be relatively assured that if they’re making it easy to share their content, such as the example here from the Better Homes and Gardens website, they’re happy to share and hopeful you’ll pin it.
• Pinterest isn’t for everyone, but some brands and industries are finding creative ways to put it to use. Mashable, for one, has been reporting on a series of interesting uses including:
• For recruiting
• To share a fashion show “live” by pinning photos in real time
• As a crowdsourcing tool
• To raise public awareness about a real safety issue
• Finally, maintaining Pinterest – just like maintaining any social media platform – can be time consuming. Consider enlisting Pinerly or set aside time to carefully review your website’s Google Analytics, as an example, to help you determine if the time spent is worth the return. There are also studies about the best time of day to pin, which are helpful for allocating team bandwidth accordingly. 

- Carissa

What We’re Reading ~ Week of April 16, 2012

It doesn’t matter if you have the most robust social media and web plan around if you are not measuring traffic, referrals, social sharing and trends. The AMEX Open Forum blog offers a helpful review this week of three analytics dashboards, ranging in price from just $10/month up to $500/month for an extremely comprehensive and dynamic tool.

Other helpful reads this week include an overview of features every blog should have installed and readily available to its readers, and a Pinterest infographic with some helpful insight into the best times to pin content based on user behavior patterns.

Metrics

OpenForum: 3 slick analytics dashboards to monitor your business website
If you're running a company website without an analytics dashboard, you may as well be stumbling around in the dark. Building a sustainable web presence in any industry is all about understanding the needs of your users and tailoring your service to fit those needs. How can you do that if you don't even know what your users are looking at or how they got to your website?

Facebook

Mashable: Facebook ad engagement down 8% in U.S.
Engagement with Facebook ads in the U.S. dropped eight percent between the final quarter of 2011 and the first quarter of 2012.

Blogs

Ragan's Healthcare News: 7 features every successful blog should have
A prominent subscribe button, category pages, and a thank you page are just a few ways to encourage visitors to show your blog some love.

Pinterest

Ragan's Healthcare News: Best times to pin on Pinterest [INFOGRAPHIC]
Graphic provides tips for the best time of day and night to pin, and statistics on click thru rates based on the type of information shared.

Mashable: Brands on Pinterest: to $ or not to $. [STUDY]
Brands should be wary of attaching price tags to the products they pin on Pinterest, a new study from analytics startup Pinreach and Joshua Yang, a MBA candidate at Harvard Business School, indicates.

Social Media Policies/Training

QSR Web: Restaurants add multicultural training as minority populations grow
Although restaurants are in the headline, every company could benefit from reading this article about the importance of multicultural sensitivity training – particularly given the ability of social media to quickly spread negative situations.

~ GFM's Social Media team

Denver SXSW Download: Answers to Outstanding Audience Questions

We are extremely grateful for the support our colleagues, clients and peers showed us by attending GroundFloor Media’s Denver South by Southwest (SXSW) Download event on April 5. We were even more appreciative of the time, effort and dedication that our friends Lauren Preston of Qdoba Mexican Grill and Chris Clemens of CCT Advertising put into their presentations and event prep. GFM could not have done it without them!

A few questions went unanswered due to time constraints, but we didn’t want to pass up an opportunity to weigh in with our opinions. If you did not have a chance to ask a question, please don’t hesitate to email it to us (jlicko@groundfloormedia.com and aanderson@groundfloormedia.com).

Q.) In addition to trust and authenticity, what are the elements of building a community quickly?

Alexis’ take:

First, make sure that you are doing an audit of all your existing communications channels, on- and offline, to make sure you are taking advantage of all the areas where your audiences are already gathered. Do you have a newsletter database? Upcoming events? Volunteer, donor or board membership databases? All of those channels are ripe for cross-promoting your online community and encouraging them to join you on the new social platforms you build. Second, do not be afraid to experiment with paid awareness tools that complement your organic content. Targeted Facebook ads, for example, can provide a strong boost to community numbers when the message and call to action are both clear and compelling.

Jim’s take:

In addition to Alexis’ thoughts above, I would add that you have to be social if you want to excel in the social media space. Seek out thought leaders in your industry, known customers, employees, friends of your company, and vendors. Then engage with them on social platforms. Answer their questions, participate in their conversations, and ask them questions. Finally, set up search terms to discover who is talking about your products, your brand and your industry. Approach these audiences the same way – talk with them, not at them. It may take a little effort, but your community will grow faster than you think, and it will be an authentic group that is already engaged on some level with your brand and/or industry.

Q. What are examples of giving people an experience, involving followers/customers?

Alexis’ Take:

Instagrid, an emerging photo-sharing service that seeks to connect brands with influential Instagram users, created a unique user experience for Warby Parker glasses. Approximately 80 Instagram users in New York City with strong followers and an interest in fashion were invited to a #WarbyWalk through Central Park. They met with a brand representative, were encouraged to take photos of the glasses around the park and were asked to tag all photos with the hashtag #WarbyWalk. Not only did Warby create a fun experience, they deepened relationships with potential customers by merging an online platform with offline relationship building.

Jim’s take:

We mentioned the AmEx/Jay-Z #syncshow, which was a great online/offline experience mixed with offers and giveaways. In addition, I attended a SXSW session by Lomography where the presenter discussed how the brand taps into an existing and enthused photography community, and provides them with a venue to share photos, camera tips and development tips. They do a great job embracing social while also promoting their physical locations. Finally, both Alexis and I attended a session revolving around the AMC series Mad Men and its character’s parody Twitter handles. It is a great case study in taking something that exists offline, and providing an extension for the audience to further engage, ask questions, see plot lines play out beyond the show, and really, build an even more loyal community utilizing the 24/7 nature of social networks.

Q.) How do you convince your company they should send you to SXSW?

Alexis’ take:

Identify how social media and digital trends can positively impact your company, from the bottom line to employee relations, and develop a proposal that outlines how your attendance at SXSW will help in all of these key areas. Show executives how you will raise awareness for the company while on the ground in Austin, how attending SXSW may give you a leg up on competitors, and what steps you will take after SXSW to put best practices into action. Treat your SXSW plane ticket and badge as a proposal you have to win, and then follow through on your ideas!

Jim’s take:

Make a list of areas where your company should have a better understanding in the social space, or areas/topics that you’re currently struggling with (e.g., metrics). Then do your research on the past few years’ sessions that fit within those categories. Show your company’s decision makers what you expect to learn, and what your timeline is for implementing change or making progress after the show. SXSW is a conference that provides roughly 300 sessions per day for five days. I’ve searched and cannot find a conference for digital and social media efforts that provides more or better content, and with the same high-caliber speakers. Just be sure to sell it in early (September at the latest), get your badge, and find a hotel. They sell out quickly.

~Alexis & Jim

The Art of Story Telling

I recently had the pleasure of listening to a speaker, Rob Biesenbach, share his insights into story telling. And because I correctly answered his trivia question about an ‘80s movie set in Chicago “About Last Night,” I was awarded with his book, “Act Like You Mean Business – Essential Communication Lessons from Stage and Screen.”

Biesenbach has 20+ years of experience as a public relations executive, and he also happens to be professionally trained as an actor. Using his PR experience and acting talent, Biesenbach talked about how we can better connect with our audiences and communicate more persuasively and effectively by learning how to tell stories. He wasn’t suggesting that we make things up or stretch the truth; rather, he talked about, and his book goes into great detail, how by expressing ideas and messages visually, appealing to the audiences’ emotions, and framing our information in the form of a story, we can be more successful as communicators.

How to Find Stories
According to Biesenbach, a story, in the simplest terms, involves a character struggling to achieve a goal in the face of difficult odds or obstacles. So, how do you find great stories in your company or organization? Following are some questions to ask when you’re interviewing people in your organization to try to build a great story:
• What is it that you love about your job?
• What makes you jump out of bed in the morning?
• What do your kids think you do?
• What are you most proud of?
• What do you love to do outside of work?
• What are you passionate about?
• What keeps you up at night?
• What did you want to do when you grew up?
• Describe a challenge you’ve faced.

Most of us have trouble talking about ourselves, but when we’re asked the kinds of questions that I’ve listed above, the stories will flow. Every company or organization has great stories; these stories will be much more interesting and resonate more with the audience than simply using facts and data or the dreaded PowerPoint with slide after slide of bullets. And everything communicators write – case studies, speeches, news releases, bios – should be organized as a story. And in all great stories, less is more. Get straight to the action. Don't get bogged down in meaningless details (words) or you will lose your audience.

In a follow-up blog, I will cover more of Biesenbach’s book, including: tips for connecting with the audience, plainly speaking, and how to be a better listener.

~ Barb Jones

What We’re Reading ~ Week of April 9, 2012

Smartphone photography certainly dominated the social media news feeds this week with Facebook’s $1 billion dollar Instagram deal. In this week’s social media reading summary below, we enjoyed some strong real-world examples of both brands and cities (New York City at that) leveraging social media for photo sharing, consumer engagement and user-generated content creations.

Wednesday’s announcement of Google+ design enhancements also sparked significant chatter about the increased “white space” real estate and plenty of comparisons to the new cover photo feature, which is eerily similar to the new Facebook timeline look.

Finally, as Pinterest skyrockets through the social media ranks dozens of infographics about best practices are published on a daily basis. The two included below focus on how to pin for engagement and interesting recommendations for how educators can get into the Pinterest game to benefit students.

Facebook

Facebook Contest Finds 10 Best Shots of New York City
Mashable
The City of New York asked city dwellers to submit their best snapshots of the Big Apple in its first Facebook photo contest, #lovenyc. The photo contest is the first crowd sourced social media initiative from the recently launched NYC Government channels, which aggregate content from the city’s roughly 250 social media accounts. Rachel Sterne, City of New York chief digital officer and #lovenyc contest judge, hopes the contest will provide a template for what will be monthly digital initiatives designed to increase community engagement.

Twitter

15 Ways to Boost Your Tweets’ Click-Through Rate
Ragan’s
From content to context, hashtags to @replies and mentions, there are many methods to coax your audience into tapping that left mouse button.

Google+

Google+ Redesign: Here’s What’s New
Mashable
Google’s social network got a redesign on Wednesday that makes it more aestheticand easier to navigate.“It accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google,” Google Senior Vice President Vic Gundotra argued in a blog post announcing the redesign.

Pinterest

16 Ways Educators Can Use Pinterest [INFOGRAPHIC]
Mashable
The team at OnlineUniversities.com has put together the following infographic, which details how teachers can use Pinterest to organize lesson plans, distribute curricula, collaborate with other faculty, and even encourage student participation.

[Infographic] How to Get More Pins and Repins on Pinterest
The Social Media Scientist
This data should be useful for Pinterest users who’d like to get more repins on the images they’ve pinned, as well as content producers who want their content pinned and repinned more.

Photo Sharing

How to make the most out of Instagram
Nation’s Restaurant News
Use of the social-media photo application Instagram has been filtering into the restaurant business slowly over the past two years, but Facebook’s announcement this week of a $1 billion deal to buy the photo-sharing platform turned more heads.

Location-based

5 Ways to Market Your Brand with Location Based Networks
Mashable
Between the rise in location-based social networks, like Foursquare, and the mobile market’s meteoric growth, a new marketing avenue has opened up. Location-based marketing is a nascent frontier, and marketers are clamoring to take advantage of it.

~ GFM's Social Media team