LinkedIn: The Best Social Media Option

Across the Web, there are a handful of social media networks being used for various activities such as entertainment, networking and job opportunities. LinkedIn is worth your attention for these three reasons.

Networking: LinkedIn has become the most popular social media site for networking. In 2011, it has surpassed Twitter and Facebook, because it is the central place to build your business.

Usage: LinkedIn is used in every different level of business positions. For example, top-level executives use it for industry job networking, hiring and promoting their business. Middle management uses it for keeping in touch, industry networking and co-worker networking. Finally, entry-level positions generally use it for job search, co-worker networking and industry networking. If you are in a business, LinkedIn is a vital resource to develop your brand and search for potential future employers. 

Active Business Groups: No matter what your business is, there will be a group dedicated for your industry on LinkedIn. These groups will help to promote your business, build a list of contacts and increase your credibility in the industry.

As you can see, LinkedIn has made a huge impact on social media by providing professional networking, numerous job opportunities and establishing connections between businesses. 

Stay connected,

Mandy&Kelly

#bestappsforsuccess

Now that you have a basic understanding of how to tweet your way into the minds of an audience, it's time we find the sticks and rocks for your nest. (In Twitter-speak, that's when we successfully create a widespread presence on all our social networks.)

A number of people have created tools, called Twitter apps, to use twitter uniquely and  in conjunction with other websites. There are hundreds that exist, but we will share our top 5 apps to increase your fan base and develop a positive image among your followers.

1. Twitpic: Anyone will tell you that by far this is the most commonly used app. It  provides a platform for users to easily upload pictures to Twitter. Even citizen journalists often use this app to upload photos with stories that they are reporting on in real-time.
www.twitpic.com

2.Tweetdeck: A desktop app that lets you lets you manage multiple Twitter accounts from one place. It is an organizational tool that helps your filter tweets, schedule tweets and stay updated with all your followers. This is a very useful tool for public relations professionals to manage their many clients' accounts in a more structured manner.
www.tweetdeck.com

3. Twistori: This app gives you control of not only the present, but also the past. Twistori backs up all your previous tweets and allows you to organize them into a calender, such as  iCal or Google Calender. You can you archive an individual's tweets on a single calender, and also, a whole company's tweets too. For PR professionals this is a way to track growth and success and see the common trends at different points of a month or year.
www.twistori.com

4.  Monitter: Keeping track of specific keywords is an important job to better understand your publics and people in general. Monitter lets you search and watch several keywords at a time in a sleek columned layout with a pause button. It gives you the power to track topics in real time without the refresh button.
www.monitter.com

5. BubbleTweet: So, you've got pictures and your written words on Twitter, why not video? This app lets users record short videos and post them to their tweets in the form of a url. When users click the url, it takes them to the BubbleTweet website for them to view the video in a small bubble that pops up on the screen. This app is new and exclusive to Twitter. At the moment, you can only use it on your computer, but mobile uses are in progress.  
www.BubbleTweet.com

In conclusion, there are so many ways to use Twitter, and the applications discussed here may assist you and help boost the creative ways you reach out to followers.

Until next time, sweet tweets! 


- Kathryn and Allyson-

Mistakes Journalists Make

Common Mistakes among the Journalistic World

          As journalists, we are constantly checking social media, our phone and other devices in which we take part in. Our social life and professional life can sometimes be a blur. This is where we need to remember to be responsible and careful about the pictures and messages we post.

          Eleven percent of "sext" messages are accidentally sent to the wrong person, according to a British study. "Sexting" is the act of sending an X-rated message to another person over text messaging. While this is rarely ever a good idea, if done, this can easily be put in the wrong hands. Even if you send the message and delete it on your phone afterward, the information can end up on the Internet.

          Other activity that triggers a big no is checking out inappropriate information on the job. What you do at home is none of our business, however, even if you delete your history on the computer at work, you could possibly still be caught. 

"In a case from Australia, a government employee was terminated after he Googled the word "knockers" on his company laptop, at home. Being naive, that term seems rather innocuous to me, but it turns out that this has nothing to do with hardware for your front door. (Please don't google this word. I don't want any of my readers to get in trouble with their jobs.)

Despite the fact the man deleted his browser history, the computer he used, a work-provided laptop, had the program Spector360 installed. That programs takes "snapshots" of a user's Internet and desktop activity every 30 seconds.

Leave all "private" moments to your private computer. Just because your boss isn't standing over you doesn't mean he doesn't know what you're doing. Companies can and do monitor computer usage, not just usage on the company servers."  -cbsnews.com

      Yes, you should have a life beyond the desk. And yes, you should have a healthy relationship with your significant other. However, be aware of the effects that can occur through a simple click of a button. Think before you hit "send". Think before you post something inappropriate on a social media site and never forget the image of what could happen in the worse case scenario. 

Take time to ask yourself one simple question; How would my boss feel if he or she seen this?

Tia and Abigail

4 Easy Ways to Track Traffic from Pinterest

Pinterest is a fast growing social media site that brings people together across the country, using things they have in common.

1. Referral reports- Easiest way to track how many visits are coming to your site from Pinterest. Go to Traffic Sources > Sources > Referrals report.


2. Custom Reports-  Custom reports let you mash up just the specific information you want to see.

3. Dashboards- For tracking Pinterest, there are several key areas to monitor – daily visits from Pinterest, how many of those visits are from mobile devices, how long they stay and how many pages they look at, what’s your most popular content.

4. Multi-Channel Funnels- To get a more complete picture of how many conversions can be fully  attributed to Pinterest, we can look at the Multi-Channel Funnels reports in Google Analtyics. First, take a look at the Assisted Conversions report. SelectSource/Medium as the primary dimension, and filter for pinterest ). This will tell you how many times Pinterest assisted with a conversion (it wasn’t the last source before a conversion) and how many times it was the last source before a conversion.

Stay Analytical Murray State

Lindsey & Cory

#rightontarget

This upcoming summer, both of us (Kathryn and Allyson) are participating in internships at Porter Novelli, a global public relations firm known for its extensive work in social media. We will not be in the same office this summer, for I will be in New York City and Allyson will be in Washington D.C., but we will be sharing a lot of company procedures and tools along the way.

One tool we are most excited to learn about is called TrendingTarget. This was created by Porter Novelli to help gather information about what audiences care the most about in real-time. Using keywords from tweets and hash-tags,  TrendingTarget shows popular topics that people are tweeting about. This tool helps Porter Novelli get into their clients minds and further understand their wants and needs.

Porter Novelli has even made a video about this tool, describing it in more detail.
Click HERE to watch it!

As budding public relations practitioners, we hope to get experience using this tool first-hand this summer. We believe that TrendingTarget has the potential to become a leading analytic tool in social media marketing. Not only does it give you visuals of the statistics, but it also helps organize the actual tweets creating them.
This is only the beginning stage of TrendingTarget, but with time and revisions, it could become something used across the public relations spectrum.

What are your thoughts on TrendingTarget?




Until next time, sweet tweets!

-Kathryn and Allyson-

#tweetsin90secondsorless

Has Your Ticker Tocked? 

When tweeting, time is of the essence. You need to plan your tweets not around when it is convenient for you, but when your followers are most likely to read them. If your audience isn't there to see your message, it can easily get lost in the Twitterverse. According to Social Media Revolver, a message has up to 90 seconds before it can get lost below the fold, or in other words, off a single screen. 

Understanding what times your audience is available is key to increasing visibility and awareness. Research done by a company called KISSmetrics says that noon and 5 p.m. are the peak times to tweet. Noon is popular because Twitter users are sitting down for their lunch break and 5 p.m. because they are getting home from work ready to relax, unwind and retweet. 

Also, you must be aware of how much you are tweeting during those hours. Your followers don't want a clutter of messages that will fill their Twitter timeline, just a few powerful messages. KISSmetrics states that 1 to 4 messages is the perfect amount to keep your followers interested. 

But what days are best to tweet, you might ask? KISSmetrics shows within their info-graphic that people are most prominent on Twitter on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. Don't disregard your account on the other days of the week, but know that they will not get the same amount of feedback as you will on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Click here for an expanded view!

Until next time, sweet tweets! 

-Kathryn and Allyson- 

Avoid the Plague of Bad Content

Warning: this week's post topic is bad ... very, very bad.

A few weeks ago, Zach and I wrote about good content and how to create it. This week, we are compelled to discuss bad content - and how you can avoid it.

“Content is king” is a familiar saying for those of us in the communications field.  It's nothing we haven't heard before and yet it is truer than ever before. Good content is not only engaging and interesting but it is also intelligent.

After 10 years of upheaval, the public relations industry is still smack dab in the middle of re-inventing itself. It is no longer enough to tell people that your product is best. Consumers are so much smarter these days. They are through with advertising and PR campaigns that they find insulting. Today's publics demand reality. They want the real story.

Next Stop? Snoozeville

3 Quick Tips to Help Your Avoid Bad Content

•  Do not place search engine optimization above quality: Make sure you aren’t just stuffing a bunch of keywords in a blog or website and calling it content. Don't be boring, be engaging!

•  Follow the 4-second rule: People should know the purpose of your site/blog within four seconds of visiting it. If not, why would they stay there??

•  Keep it simple: Your status, tweet, web copy or blog post must have a clearly defined objective and be easy to navigate. Use fewer words and more powerful imagery.  It's that simple.

We look forward to discussing all the awesome stuff we’re learning this semester. Let's "engage" next week when Mr. Peacock plans to tickle your mind with some grammatical stylings!

Love in content,

-Austin and Zach 

Austin Wildmann

Zach Peacock

 

What You Need to Know About Twitter Insights

There's no denying it. Twitter has become one of the most popular tools in social media. More businesses are using Twitter to communicate and engage audiences than ever before. So, it's no surprise that Twitter has come up with its own way of measuring traffic called - Twitter Web Analytics. The application helps website owners understand the traffic they receive and their own web integration tools.

Twitter Analytics offer businesses three key benefits:

• An understanding of how much of your content is being shared across the Twitter network,
• The amount of traffic generated by Twitter to your Tweet Stream, and
• The effectiveness of your company's social (Twitter) plugins

Consider using these proven applications to measure your own virality on Twitter:

1. www.twitalyzer.com
2. www.microplaza.com
3.www.twist.com
4.www.twitturly.com
5.www.tweetstats.com
6.www.twitterfriends.com
7.www.thummitQuickrate.com
8.www.Tweeteffect.com

These and other popular tools may help you to discern whether or not Twitter is working for you!

Insightfully yours,
Cory & Lindsey

Are brands ruining Facebook?

According to the PR Firm C&M and TolunaQuick, more than 50% of users felt overwhelmed by the brands promoted on social media. More than 3,000 respondents participated in the survey. 


Findings included the following:

• 40 percent of respondents felt that brand promotions are too complex to enter;
• 20 percent felt incentives are not worth the effort;
• 75 percent said that one or two Facebook messages per day is too much to receive from a brand;
• Nearly 40 percent do not want to share brands interactions with friends
• 20 percent proactively post messages to brand pages.

So what does this mean for your brand?
Yes, over half of the users are sick of your brand and may think that all the effort companies put into branding is a waste of time on Facebook, however, there are some good news.

• 45 percent of people do choose to interact with brands on social media. While many may feel overwhelmed by the promotions and specials branding promotes, a large amount do give in.

• 80 percent will go to a brand on Facebook and "like" it. While a like is a simple click of a button  which may compliment a brand, friends of these users will see their current activity and possibly follow suit. 

• Nearly 50 percent check out a brands Facebook page to look for deals and other offers. Keep this in mind when updating special offers and new arrivals. 

          Even though 20 percent of respondents felt the time and effort companies put into their brands on social media was a waste, many have admitted to keeping up with some of the latest posts and "liking" more than not brands that they enjoy. With social media growing and the public more aware of trying to keep from getting sucked in, this business is only going to demand more creative tactics to engage consumers. What can your company do to make your brand snap, crackle and pop?


For more information, please click here


Tia and Abigail 

Facebook Timeline for Brands

v3im.com

          Facebook Timeline. Did you squirm or smirk when you read those words?  Love it or hate it, Timeline is here to stay (for now). Facebook’s recent switch to the new Timeline for brands is making waves and news.
          All those companies who spent thousands of dollars building the perfect welcome tab are kicking themselves.

         Sorry, it’s now time to spend all that money generating that perfect cover photo.

         Here are a few things brands need to know to perfectly embrace its new Timeline.

         Kevin Allen, a contributing writer at PR Daily offers this short list of steps you can take now:

1. Plan first for aesthetic changes
2. Tell the brand's story (or less sexy, the corporate history)
3. Know that how you interact with fans is changing
4. Prepare for the ways Timeline will affect your current tabs

For more information click here or go to PR Daily News!

Tia & Abigail

LinkedIn Essentials: Recommendations

One of the most important aspects of a great LinkedIn profile is recommendations. This shows future employers that influential peers, co-workers and clients have supported your work.

When asking for a recommendation, there are a few key steps to consider:

First, ask for recommendations from people who hold higher positions. For example, one from your CEO or manager is more beneficial than five recommendations from co-workers. You are considered more qualified when you have substantial recommendations.

After establishing some initial credibility, the best way to garner more recommendations is by actually writing them for others. If you write an honest recommendation, others will be inclined to return the favor for you.

Finally, every truly successful LinkedIn profile has at least 10 recommendations. This may take a few weeks; so, start now and stick with a regular schedule!

Following these simple steps can help you establish a real presence on LinkedIn. For more tips and tricks to improve your LinkedIn profile with recommendations, click Here!

Stay tuned for more about LinkedIn. 

- Mandy & Kelly

Reverbnation Can Lay the Foundation

As the top leading site of online artist promotion, Reverbnation.com is a great way to make a break into the music industry.

Reasons to use Reverbnation:

• It is a music-marketing platform used by over 2 million artists.
• It's Free!
• It is available to artists, artist managers, recording labels and venues.
Any artist wanting to build a reputation should be using Reverbnation right now. Users can create profiles and upload music for potential fans to enjoy. Streaming is quickly growing to be the fastest way to market a new artist or group.

Not only can music be uploaded but also biographies, press clippings, photos and show dates. All this info can  be publicized making it easier for fans to find out when an artist is coming to a city nearby.

Reverbnation.com is truly the leading social media site in the music industry today.

When trying to book “gigs” most booking managers at venues want and EPK or electronic press kit, which is basically a press kit in the electronic form. Reverbnation has a tool where EPKs can be sent out to the venue of your choosing.

It’s a trustworthy site that is revolutionizing the world of streaming music, fan to artist relationship managment, concert booking and promotion.

As an artist, it may worry you how people find you on Reverbnation. It’s easy to link your Reverbnation account to your Facebook and Twitter pages, so that updates to shows and new music become available in your Twitter and Facebook feeds. You can also find venues that are holding events, festivals or have openings for a specific date with the search tool. There are also contests you can enter and have displayed on your Facebook and Twitter pages that your fans can vote for.

The email marketing strategy can also be used. Fans who have previously subscribed to MySpace and Reverbnation pages are included in one list so an artist or manager can send a single email to hundreds of fans with one click. This is the most common way artists are sharing valuable information contests, festivals and new music.

Have you checked out one of 2012's free and easy-to-use tools yet? 

Peace out.

- Lauren and Brittany