Archive for Facebook PR
Meet Spike & Otis
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A trend in social media is “brand humanization,” the concept of adding a bit of personality to an organization’s interaction with people. Who wants to engage in conversation with a logo or faceless institution? We want to do business with people!
At Sawmill we’re taking the concept a step further for the Maryland Transportation Authority. Meet Spike & Otis, a pair of spokesbirds who provide travel and safety tips for those planning to travel across the Chesapeake Bay this summer via the William Preston Lane Jr. Memorial Bay Bridge.
Spike & Otis will stick to social media, supplementing a traditional advertising and PR program. You can follow them and ask questions on Facebook – www.facebook.com/TheMDTA – and on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TheMDTA
Helping ‘Mother Made’ Helps Us All
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Our attraction to Mother Made was instant and compelling: helping single mothers to become entrepreneurs while also protecting our environment. The organization was created and is led by smart, creative, committed entrepreneurs — accessible, caring role models for the people they serve.
Their mission is to promote the financial independence and job training of low-income mothers/women in Baltimore by creating and selling products that reduce the impact of consumers on the environment.
We are looking forward to conducting social media workshops early next month — part of the job training curriculum the organization conducts for the women.
We eagerly anticipate lending our expertise in ways we hope will help the organization to grow, which in turn will help more single mothers in Baltimore to grow as well.
In the meantime, we hope our readers will also help by donating whatever is possible to help fund critical job training activities.
Facebook Friday: Can’t We Just Be Subscribers?
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The “subscribe” button is a new feature introduced this week by Facebook. Intended for those in the public eye who want to continue posting updates intended for their friends, the button allows them to share certain “public” content to a broader audience, soon to be known as subscribers.
It’s ideal for journalists, actors and other public figures who aren’t in a position to accept every friend request, but who still want to connect on Facebook. If you’re a member of the media, the “Facebook + Journalists” page has all the details, including a “Subscribe for Journalists Guide” PDF they posted today.
Facebook Friday: Try Occupational Targeting
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Although little has been written about it, Facebook allows you to target specific occupations when setting up an ad program. That’s right, if you want to reach marketing managers (or orthodontists or architects) with your message, there’s a way to do that using the “Precise Interests” selection. This Search Engine Watch blog post offers step-by-step instructions.
Facebook Friday: New Page Promotes ‘Facebook Journalism’
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Just last week, Facebook came out with a new page called “Journalists on Facebook” to share best practices for engaging with readers and encouraging them to view content.
The page has more than 45,000 “likes” in just over a week, and many of the tips are applicable/useful to the public relations community.
Why so much interest? Here’s what Facebook says: “Over the past year, we’ve worked with media organizations to help make their content more social and empower readers to experience news through their friends. Since we first launched these initiatives at the beginning of 2010, the average media organization has seen a greater than 300% increase in referral traffic from Facebook.”
Check it out, give it a like and see what all the buzz is about.
Facebook Friday: Learn About the Latest Changes Straight from the Source
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Facebook unveiled a series of changes to Facebook pages this week, answering the wishes of some Page Administrators while confusing others. Here’s a chance to learn what’s up, straight from the source, during a special video chat with their engineers on Wednesday. Here’s the announcement:
We introduced major improvements to Facebook Pages this month. These new features will help you manage communication, express yourself, and increase engagement. Learn more about the improvements during this exclusive sit-down with engineers who worked on the product and Facebook Pages experts. Tune in to Facebook Live (http://apps.facebook.com/facebooklive) at 2:30 PM ET on February 23.
Sawmill will tune in, so if you are a page admin with questions, let us know.
Facebook Friday: How to Combine Facebook Pages
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For today’s edition of Facebook Friday, we’re sharing a technique we came across via the LinkedIn “Facebook Users” group explaining how to combine Facebook pages. Based on the LinkedIn comments and the many thanks and re-tweets we received yesterday, this solves a big problem that many page admins seem to be facing.
To change the name of your Facebook page and merge it with another one someone started, this tip from creative digital firm Hathway, of San Luis Obispo, Calif. should help! Let us know if it works or if you have other tips to go along with this topic and we’ll be sure to share. Thanks, Hathway.
Facebook Friday: Is Facebook Email Headed Our Way?
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It’s Facebook Friday here at Sawmill, so isn’t it convenient that we’re hearing rumors today about a big Facebook announcement coming Monday.
If the investigative bloggers and re-tweeters are correct, we’ll soon have access to Facebook email addresses. What impact will a Facebook email service have on Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail and AOL? We’ll soon find out. For me, buzz@facebook.com has a nice ring to it!
Update: On Monday, Nov. 15, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg announced details of what he called a “modern messaging system” that combines all of your messages (text, SMS, email) into a single conversation history and “social in-box” that filters and presents only the messages you want to see from the people you want to hear from. You can read all the details on the Facebook blog.
Opportunities and Challenges of Social Media
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We were asked by a prospect to describe the opportunities and challenges of social media. Rather than write the latest book about it, we came up with these 10 points. What do you think? Did we miss anything?
Opportunities
Social media allows an organization to tell its story directly to audiences without having to go through the filter of the media;
The real value of social media – customer service – means the public can get answers to questions quickly and efficiently, potentially increasing a brand’s reputation;
Social media enables the sharing of video and photos – in addition to text – to provide a better story to a public that does not have time to read;
With mainstream media consumption decreasing as more people head to social media, establishing a presence enables an organization to reach people where and how they want to receive information;
As mobile devices and applications become even more popular, social media enables organizations to offer information where and when consumers want it.
Challenges
While “free” to set up, the cost of social media is in the manpower of monitoring and responding to questions/comments which can become time-consuming when done properly;
By definition, social media is two-way communication, so organizations not accustomed to listening to and responding to criticism sometimes have a difficult time accepting social media;
Opponents and critics have a ready-made venue for their complaints with social media, so monitoring and responding requires the expertise of someone trained to deal with crisis PR and communications;
Some organizations want a defined return on investment (ROI) for their use of social media, but such a measure is difficult to gauge;
With social media, complete control of the message is not in the hands of the organization as it is with one-way communications such as advertising.
