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By Ingrid Alvarez, on March 3rd, 2010
 Even with all the buzz around new media in the last couple years, there are still some major media sources like New York Magazine that only accept a hard copy press release. But how ’bout an excellent-looking digital marketing campaign for the presses? With trusted companies like PR Newswire offering services for multimedia new releases, are media sources becoming accustomed to more than just the text-only press release? With so many blogger journalists and social networkers out in cyberspace, I believe the shift in press policies is slow but sure.
While a multimedia new release alone will not guarantee a successful marketing campaign, let us recognize the shift towards a fine balance of both traditional media and new media for publicity. The combination of hard copy or text-only press releases and strategically programmed online content provides a symbiotic relationship of the old and the new. The latest driving force? “Vitches” and web analytics for public relations. A “vitch” is the hybrid of a video and a sales pitch, which can be as short as 60 and 90 seconds, or as long as 3 to 5 minutes, like the one Moped created for Ariane de Bonvoison last summer.
The Public Relations industry is turning attention to video and web analytics for one very simple reason – the results are measurable and it’s almost immediate. With a trail of well-crafted, search-optimized content leading up to your sale, the recipients of your multimedia news release can make a snap decision about your cause. Those striking visual cues from strategically chosen images and short, dynamic video pitches could in fact seal your press deal in under a minute. Ultimately, this will help you drive more traffic to your sale and help you meet your marketing goals. But remember, programming high quality content with the right web analytics, including descriptions, meta-data, alternate text and tags, first comes from market analysis and strategic planning. By asking your target audience the right questions, you can find out more about where your share of the market gets the latest stories, and appeal to their preferred media outlets.
You too can measure the results of who is reading your electronic press announcements. If you’re emailing a major magazine, which department is consistently opening your emails? Are they clicking through? For successful publicity in a new media world, specially tailored content and measuring the results are the name of the game. Public Relations still comes down to great relationships, so hold onto those traditional sensibilities, yet stay flexible and be aware of the preferences of each media outlet.
Do you have something to say about PR adapting to a digital world? Please share your thoughts and experiences by commenting below!
By Mo Isern, on February 25th, 2010
In an example of how the nonprofit sector and the broadcast world are collaborating to increase messaging exposure, tonight, American Idol plans to use the power of its international audience-reach to drive more support for relief efforts in Haiti.
The show will be dedicating its special results show to Haiti, featuring footage from last year’s winner Kris Allen’s trip to Haiti to see relief efforts firsthand, and is encouraging donations to the United Nations Foundation.
We’ve seen major networks and shows use their platforms as ways to increase support for past disasters like Katrina and the 2004 Tsunami, as well as increase awareness and bring attention to issues like climate change, voting and education.
In fact, Univision, the nation’s largest Spanish-language network, just announced its partnership with the White House, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to use its television and radio networks and its mobile and Internet platforms to boost academic achievement among Hispanics.
Last year, MTV was also working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in its Get Schooled initiative, to develop programming and multimedia tools both encouraging students to stay in school and shedding light on how governments can support students struggling to balance school, work and family commitments.
These are issues hundreds of thousands of NPOs and NGOs around the world tackle every day. The ability to get on the shoulders of a media enterprise reaching millions of people through digital content and multimedia platforms amplifies those efforts and renders priceless results.
While we’re talking results, don’t forget to consider the many potential ways we’ve listed to help relief efforts in Haiti via mobile donations.
And here are some tips the United Nations Foundation is offering to tonight’s American Idol audiences:
1. Throw a party and invite your friends. An AMERICAN IDOL watch party needs guests! Invite your friends, family and neighbors to watch the special results show, see video of Kris Allen’s trip with the UN Foundation, and learn more about how to get involved. Provide snacks, a comfortable place to watch the show, and add your own details to make the watch party your own.
2. Read up on our work. If your guests see us on AMERICAN IDOL, they may have questions about our organization, our history, and why it’s so important that they get involved. Be prepared to explain why you support the work of the UN Foundation and the United Nations to solve global problems.
3. Provide ways for your guests to make a difference immediately. After the UN Foundation is featured on AMERICAN IDOL, give your guests a way to take action immediately. Guests can text from their cell phones during the show to make a donation, but have a computer ready for them to contribute online if they want. Have paper and pen ready so that your guests can leave their email address and get more information about the UNFoundation after the event ends. And if any of your guests use Twitter, they can connect with people from across the country who are at other watch parties by using the #UNFIdol hash tag.
4. Remember – this is your chance to make a difference! A lot of the work we do – and the work you support – is serious. But it’s exciting to see the work highlighted in the living rooms of millions of people. Our community will grow, your friends will be excited, and everyone will be able to see some of the good you’ve helped bring to Haiti already. Use your event to enjoy the moment – have your friends over, watch the show, and end the night proud of what you’ve supported in the past. There’s still a lot of work to do, and it’s going to take a lot to get it done, but remember: this is your chance to make a difference. The time is now!
By Ingrid Alvarez, on February 17th, 2010
 Mobile users, meet Foursquare: Foursquare is a new social networking site for mobile users that encourages in-person interaction, based on user-generated tips and to-dos on what’s hot in the neighborhood near you. If Facebook, Meetup and Yelp took a roll in the hay, Foursquare would be their love-child. This new socially charged networking platform has now partnered with Bravo TV, after the network noticed the amount of traffic to real places affiliated with hit reality TV shows like The Real Housewives, Top Chef, Shear Genius and The Millionaire Matchmaker.
If you like social competition and hitting up the latest hot spots in your ‘hood, give those hyperactive thumbs a rest and simply “check-in” on Foursquare.com. Bravo, and other new partnerships like Zagat, offer badges and prizes to viewers who frequent locations tagged with their brands. If you dominate the scene at your favorite venue, you may even become a mayor on Foursquare!
The question is… how did our audience relationship with broadcast programming and in person socializing get to this point? This type of viewer / venue relationship (i.e. media-inspired users generating content via social game play) wasn’t always this way. So let’s rewind for a moment.
Before telecommunications, people traveled for miles just to say hello or get the latest news. Then, radio revolutionized communications and brought together families over audio shows and eventually on the phone. After the telephone, the moving image brought our attention to our TV sets and reformed the living room gathering. Now, videos aggregate from TV to Internet, while friends watch and share videos online. Watching TV online has become easier than ever, and mobile video streaming is getting more seamless.
If you can record your TV shows anytime and mobile Internet is on its way to satellite domination, where does that leave good old fashioned in-person socializing? On the go of course! While many TV shows already connect their audience to their websites or live on-air contests via text, the complex plot of “life on the go” continues to thicken with shorter attention spans for regular programming. Foursquare is a great example of an online vehicle bridging the gap between TV broadcasting audiences, mobile media and face-to-face socializing.
And it doesn’t stop there. According to Foursquare Co-Founder Dennis Crowley, its partnership with Bravo is just the first of several media deals to come. With an innovative move like this from Foursquare and Bravo, we can expect broadcast programming to continue creating new opportunities to keep their audiences captivated. The key? Bringing the same unique experiences from reality TV into real life — with social media, of course! Thankfully, this brings us back to the beginning, where we find ourselves traveling to meet and enjoy the good old fashioned in-person company of our friends and family.
By Ingrid Alvarez, on February 3rd, 2010
Good marketing boils down to great relationships with your clients, friends, colleagues and community. So why use Facebook if you’ve already established those great relationships? Well, let’s start with Facebook’s property value and its relationship to the robots, otherwise known as search engines.
According to Comscore, a trusted industry source for digital marketing intelligence, Facebook more than doubled its visitor ranking from December 2008 to December 2009. It is now ranked #4 property, up from #11 ranked property, which means that the site’s property value is measured in rank according to its number of visitors. Facebook is fourth in line behind Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google at number one.
Because of Facebook’s massive amount of constantly refreshed content, submitted every second by its millions of users worldwide, it has become one of the Internet’s most valued website property and every search engine’s perfect Valentine. Search engines most quickly match highly indexed keywords and produce search results by connecting with the most recently updated sites, links, articles, images and video. By collecting data and dispersing it with targeted advertising, Facebook already has major corporations, institutions, small businesses, entrepreneurs and non-profits alike jumping on board to secure their companies brand within the Facebook community.
If you haven’t yet transitioned onto Facebook as a business, keep in mind that trusted group pages and fan pages are attached to real people – so act like one! Make sure that your Facebook presence flourishes on those personal connections in order to leverage its greatest asset – interactivity. Even with Facebook’s sleek and simplistic layout, you’ll want to be sure to keep your brand consistent, including the choice of your user name, your company’s name, description, and by using quality graphics, images and video.
Start by building a network of strong followers among your immediate contacts, and provide links from your Facebook presence to your website, blog and other social media networks. Next, launch a targeted Facebook ad or host an in-person event and watch your community grow by enticing genuinely interested connections. And finally, as an ongoing rule, be consistent in your interaction, refresh your content often and increase your sales by connecting your Facebook to numerous e-commerce opportunities.
Relationship marketing with Facebook adds a new perspective to the relationship you have with your community. It might not happen overnight, but in the best case scenario, your neighbors and friends of friends will start finding you and become interested in sharing your content. Always remember that your greatest profit will rely on your most genuine connections – the person on the other side of the profile!
By Ingrid Alvarez, on January 20th, 2010
 Not far from U.S. shores, the unspeakable tragedy still unfolding from Haiti’s recent 7.0 earthquake on January 12, 2010, sends us one message – help Haiti now. This morning, the Haitian people experienced yet another aftershock, at 6.1 magnitude near Port-au-Prince. Before the January 12 earthquake struck, Haiti was the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, and most Haitians live on $2 a day or less. The greatest need in Haiti right now is money.
Even with the dragging economy, Americans have opened their hearts, wallets and cell phones. We have come together as a nation and responded with the latest trend in fundraising: mobile micro-donations. Disaster response organizations, as well as Haitian native and artist Wyclef Jean, have made it easy for mobile users to give money via text message. While it may be difficult to imagine the past and current struggles of the Haitian people, and the long road to recovery that this neighboring country faces, we CAN imagine another $5 or $10 added to our phone bills.
The Mobile Giving Foundation, the leading third-party fundraising network to cell phone carriers, reported to CRSwire that mobile donations increased by $6 million dollars last weekend, surpassing a total of $16 million on Sunday, January 17. As of yesterday, Tuesday, January 19, MSNBC reported that U.S. mobile giving to help Haiti has exceeded $27 million dollars.
Despite the costs of sending a text message, the immediate accessibility of giving $5 or $10 via text has been changing fundraising outreach dramatically for several years. Some wireless carriers are even waiving the costs and sending the donation right away. Although checks, cash and other online donation methods have seen larger sums from individual gifts, the sheer abundance of micro-donors are keeping mobile donations pouring in for Haiti.
Creating a mobile donation campaign of your own can take anywhere from 4-6 weeks, and may only be done through the Mobile Giving Foundation or mGive. These organizations serve as the official intermediary between the wireless industry and 250 million wireless users in the U.S. The marketing success of mobile donations is excellent for emotional and spontaneous giving. Imagine the impact that lies in your hands – your text message donation could bandage a wound, feed a child, or help a family find shelter. Mobile technology has truly revolutionized our ability to show compassion and reach out to people all over the world.
The struggle to recover and heal from this human disaster in Haiti still needs your help. View a list of organizations you can send your text RIGHT NOW. Please give. I just did.
By Mo Isern, on January 15th, 2010
At this week’s Business Development Institute event, “Social Integration – Harmonizing Social Channels into the Marketing, Communications & Service Platforms,” I was able to participate in some roundtable discussions and listen to several leading corporations present case studies regarding their use of social media.
Going into it I questioned whether or not I would gain any insight outside of the use of Facebook and Twitter. Us media folk aren’t fond of the 8 a.m. start time. Happily, I left with a great amount of new perspective and knowledge about the thought process behind leveraging social media tools, both on a ground level and at a macro level.
While there’s no way to truly communicate all of what I garnered, I thought I’d share a small summary of points made by each speaker. Each of them saw and made use of new opportunities to improve consumer engagement, incite customer loyalty and action, and propel their brand forward. I hope this helps flip a switch for you in some way, whether you work in media, corporate communications, non-profit fundraising or all of the above. And if you’re interested in hearing the case studies, BDI (#bdi) is providing a 2-part recording of the conference through Blog Talk Radio. Click here for Part 1. Click here for Part 2.
Again, these are my takeaways from each speaker, not to be confused with actual quotes they made. Here it is, from some of the biggest brands in the world.
Marketing 2.0: Harnessing the Cloud to Build a Sustainable Brand – Presented by Michael Mendenhall, CMO, HP
- Think about social media as amplified word of mouth, done on much a larger scale.
- Social media has turned interruptive marketing into engagement marketing.
- Social media enables brands to:
- listen to consumer insight which affects marketing,
- invite consumers to participate in research & development, helping to bring new products to market faster,
- invite consumers into social issue conversations, helping to build a more sustainable society.
Connecting Online and Offline With Social Media – Presented by: Joshua Karpf, Senior Manager, Digital Media Communications, PepsiCo
- Consider a vision of moving from online impressions to actual connections.
- Aim to spark sharing and drive participation and conversations.
- Use social media to help drive “earned media,“ or positive publicity that hasn’t been paid for.
The News Engine that Powers All of Your Social Media – Presented by: David Patton, Vice President, Editor in Chief, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide
- Thinking like a publisher means you put out good content, not just content.
- Each piece should provide a new opportunity to provide additional context to your company’s broader story, not rehash the same material.
- Content becomes a community-building tool, and good content begets more content.
- Think editorially, gathering all your content first and then strategically deciding what parts will further your story best (similarly to how during production, we shoot 8 hours of footage to edit it down to a 2 minute piece).
Social Media makes the grade at Harvard Business School – Presented by: Brian Kenny, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer, Harvard Business School
- Social media helps build new channels of communication with students, alumni and others, as well as generate buzz about the school.
- Technology is not the social aspect. People are.
- Students are given twitter handles and become Harvard ambassadors in a larger way.
- Losing some level of control over the brand is part of the game if you want to be part of it in an authentic way.
#NHL Tweetup – Presented by: Michael DiLorenzo, Director of Social Media Marketing and Strategy, National Hockey League
- Use social media as a social inducement; get your audience excited about your brand through things like trivia, giveaways and contests.
- Listen to your constituents for free ideas that will engage them and their circles of influence.
- Think about creating on-the-ground versions of your online engagements to connect to constituents more profoundly.
- Find media outlets that cover the social media beat and invite them to cover the real-life conversion of your social media effect, creating a longer shelf life for the event via online press for your brand.
Michelin Man Saves the Day: No Cape Required – Presented by: Lynn Mann, Director of External Communications, Michelin North America
- Brands with “mute” spokespeople (the Michelin Man in this case) can still find a voice through social media.
- Think about how to give more inaccessible people a way to communicate (i.e. C-level executives, behind-the-scenes decision makers, undercover critics and reviewers), giving constituents an authentic insight into the company without compromising identities.
- Being inauthentic in the use of social media will push consumers away.
Organizations use Social Media to Listen to Stakeholders and Respond – Presented by: Richard Pesce, Social Media & Digital Communications, Sprint Nextel
- Social media can move your relationship with your audience away from being transactional, occasional, impersonal and short-term, and more towards being passionate, constant, personal and loyal.
- If you wouldn’t ignore a customer calling you and complaining, why ignore them online where they have more power? Join the conversation.
- In approaching social media, stop – look – listen – and respond.
- Remain human, respectful and responsive.
Were you at the event? What were your takeaways? Did I miss something important? Tell me!
What are your most effective social media stories? What works or doesn’t work for you? Add your comments below! And feel free to write to me at maureen@mopedproductions.tv.
By Ingrid Alvarez, on January 7th, 2010
 Why do any of these trends matter to you?
Because you care about getting visitors to your site’s content and spreading the good word about your work.
Are you considering a re-evaluation of your digital marketing business strategy? The best time for a makeover is now.
Are you ready? Here goes:
1) Email Marketing Budgets To Increase. With over 200 million websites online today, the competition is fierce to get visitors over to your site now – and how. Recent trending studies show that the number one goal for website owners is to increase customer loyalty. Many of you may already be sending out mass email marketing campaigns and already sending your loyal customers to your latest online content. So, are you designing and producing top of the line emails, accurately measuring your success and building strategies off of your results? If not, get started with some affordable and notable leaders in email marketing management: Constant Contact, iContact, Vertical Response, Mail Chimp and MyEmma.
2) Web, Search & Ads Get More Visual. Its 2010 and we’ve all still got our real eyeballs, but perhaps they are more highly trained to react passively when we come across extraneous information on the web. The solution for marketers and advertisers? Everything gets more visual – meaning priority content is being converted to high quality images and has animation that moves. Yes, that means more Flash. Luckily for Flash lovers, developers have been working hard to script work-arounds to make Flash websites more search-friendly and less impenetrable for search engines. Plus, searching for content with applications like Cool Iris and Safari’s Top Sites makes for a visually enhanced gallery browsing search experience.
3) Socially Inspired Mobile Commerce. As consumers, we like talking about what we’re going to buy and what we’ve bought – and now, social media helps us do it a bit more quickly than before. With all its superior privacy settings, Facebook is a trusted network for sensitive information, which could lead to further developments in its ecommerce department. And social media trends aren’t slowing – in fact, Facebook ranked as the #1 visited site in the U.S. on Christmas Day 2009. If you have a handheld smartphone, you’ve probably already done the deed – making a purchase on it. Now be sure that your company’s online content is mobile-friendly AND if you haven’t already, embrace Facebook conversation for future ecommerce opportunities.
It’s true, there are so many more top 2010 trends to cover, but for our creative communicators, I hand-picked the top three high impact trends that could affect your current state of affairs.
Please share your thoughts and comment below!
By Mo Isern, on January 4th, 2010
Happy New Year, everyone! We hope you have returned to work today refreshed and ready for great things to happen in 2010.
As you may already know, we do a lot of work with charitable organizations. Together, we’ve become familiar with the growing number of ways charities can use social media and user-provided-content sites to get the most out of their visual messaging.
Some great news to report came to us from The Foundation Center’s Philanthropy News Digest, which we hope will inspire continued successes this year.
Detroit-Area Charities Seeking New Donors Via Social Media Sites
Hoping to tap new sources of giving, Detroit-area charities are cultivating potential donors through social media Web sites such as Twitter and Facebook, the Detroit News reports.
While giving decreased nationally by 2 percent in 2008, according to the Giving USA Foundation, online giving grew by 4 percent, due in part to charities becoming more savvy about building their Internet presence. As the 2009 holiday season comes to a close, some industry observers predict that Americans will have donated $4 billion during the final weeks of 2009, up from $3.1 billion last year. “The growth rate [of fundraising online] is not only increasing, it’s increasing at a faster rate every year,” said eTapestry CEO Jay Love.
Technological advances have enabled online giving to develop beyond “donate now” buttons on nonprofits’ Web sites, as organizations use more innovative approaches to build their donor base. For example, in addition to the traditional red kettles stationed outside grocery stores and shopping malls, the Salvation Army for Eastern Michigan collected donations through an online interactive game and a Facebook widget.
Similarly, Forgotten Harvest in Oak Park used Twitter to coax last-minute gifts of canned goods and money while recruiting volunteers during a two-week-long food drive. On a recent afternoon, as many as one hundred volunteers — about 20 percent of whom were recruited online — packaged 11,000 meals, said Forgotten Harvest chief development officer Russ Russell, who now posts every fundraiser on Twitter, the organization’s Facebook page, and his personal page. “Organizations that are moving forward without [using social media], they’re going to miss the boat,” said Russell.
Jun, Catherine. “Charities Tweet on Social Media.” Detroit News 12/28/09.
In the meantime, here are a few ways for you to get started in the world of social media, whether you’re a non-profit or a for-profit organization.
Establish video central. Set up your own free YouTube page. This can serve as a focus for all of your videos and makes it much easier for other groups and individuals to link to them.
Build a daily record. In addition to professionally produced shoots, consider budgeting for an inexpensive Flip camera to capture footage of your day-to-day efforts on a regular basis.
Spread the visual word. The sort of material you capture with a Flip works wonderfully when linked to Facebook status updates, Twitter messages, and the other online tools you use to keep your stakeholders engaged and up-to-date.
Involve people with images. Establish a Facebook Group and invite board members, staff, and volunteers to contribute photographs of your activities and events. Have them invite their friends and colleagues in turn to enjoy the pictures and join the group.
Expand the audience. Set up a Flickr page to make selected images—photos, video stills, even full-action videos—accessible to an even larger interactive viewership. Link to it from your website and mention it in all your online and print literature; let people know that your images are available to share and you’ll find news of your group’s work spreading in unexpected directions.
Direct the press. Let influential media outlets—from professional news organizations to issue-oriented websites and bloggers—know about the images you’re making available online. Many will be ideal for press use; they may even spark coverage directly.
As always, have fun, and keep us posted on the successes and challenges you face! Care to share what has worked for your organization? Please comment below!
By Ingrid Alvarez, on December 17th, 2009
 The holidays are here and we hope that you’ll be merrily on your way to a vacation soon. Taking a break from the buzz for a bit is always a great way to refresh your social mind, although it can be easy to fall behind on important updates when you’re away.
Whether you’re more likely to stay connected to your friends, family or work, keeping a mobile device gives you the freedom of choice while you’re out of town. With affordable services like Apple’s MobileMe for Mac and PC, all your email, contacts, calendars and devices can stay in sync during your time out of the office.>
Still searching for the perfect mobile smartphone? Check out Wired magazine’s extensive online reviews of the latest smartphones or review CNET’s Top 10 Best smartphones of 2009. Need an affordable travel-friendly laptop? HP’s mini laptops are selling direct from HP or get it for less if you’re already on AT&T.
Here are some great apps for staying connected and socially mobile:
Skype – for those priceless holiday video chats with loved ones half-way ’round the world.
LinkedIn – give and receive important updates within your professional network.
Facebook – keep up with the latest conversations and events from your friends and colleagues.
Twitter – read and contribute to the hottest trending topics on any platform.
Stay social this holiday season! Share your mobile media adventures and bring in the New Year with your network.
Happy 2010!
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