Holy Twitter!

We all know that if you want to stay connected online with friends or colleagues, the place to do it is through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs and other social media tools. But what about staying connected to your church? Or the Pope?

On March 14, the rumors were confirmed that a Facebook profile had been created in honor of the late Pope John Paul II. The Vatican launched JPII’s page as a part of their social media initiative to create an online presence for the Catholic Church. Now, another Pope has decided to create his own social media presence.

Yesterday, Pope Benedict XVI made history by becoming the first Pope to utilize Twitter by sending a tweet with his iPad to promote the Vatican’s new website. The tweet said “Dear Friends, I just launched News.va. Praised by our Lord Jesus Christ! With my prayers and blessings, Benedictus XVI”

Although Pope Benedict may be new to social media, the Catholic Church is not. With more than 40,000 followers and some 1,200 tweets, The Vatican’s Twitter account is thriving along with the launch of their new interactive website.

News.VA is a mothership of real-time information for the Catholic follower. It’s comprised of the latest news from The Vatican Radio (with plenty of social media sharing options for readers), a real-time Twitter feed, a Vatican Events page, a Facebook updates section and a YouTube video channel.

This past year, the Catholic Church has truly brought religion into the realm of social networking. With this “old school” institution embracing and understanding the importance of new media, it seems that online networking has no limits. If the Pope can tweet, well so can you! No more excuses…

Step Ahead Welcomes Two Summer Interns

We are pleased to introduce you all to our summer interns, Isabella and Katie. Here at Step Ahead we feel very lucky to have their help this summer and hope to teach them a great deal about social media and public relations!

Isabella first learned about Step Ahead Inc. through her Public Relations Writing course. Holly spoke to her class about social media and Isabella jumped at the chance to work with us (I mean, who wouldn’t? ). During her time with Step Ahead, she hopes to pick up some valuable PR and social media skills that will help her after she graduates. Isabella is going into her senior year at the College of Charleston.

Katie is a Communication Studies major at the University of Georgia who is taking a chance in the Holy City this summer. After utilizing social media to promote an event on campus, she realized that it was something she was passionate about because it works! Katie hopes to gain an applied understanding of public relations, social media and online marketing that she can utilize in her professional life.

Welcome ladies!

Social Media Day Charleston Take 2

It’s hard to deny that social media is taking over the way we live, the way we do business, and the way we connect. Last year, Mashable announced the first ever Social Media Day to celebrate “the revolution of media becoming social.” Mashable challenged the online community to host Meet-Up events in their cities. Word spread fast about the newly declared holiday, and more than 600 meet-ups in 93 countries were set up to honor the social technologies we love. This year, Social Media Day will be held Thursday, June 30.

Step Ahead is excited to announce our second annual Social Media Day Meet-up event to represent the city of Charleston. We had such a great time last year connecting with other social media enthusiasts that we just had to do it again! This year, we will be celebrating at Uno Mas, located at 880 Allbritton Boulevard in Mount Pleasant. Make sure to take advantage of these awesome deals: $2 domestics, $3 happyritas, ½ off Sangria, ½ off guacamole and a $4 appetizer menu! We’ll also be giving away goodies from the Dine With Sal group who owns Uno Mas.

Connect with your online community offline, and meet us at Uno Mas from 5:30-7:30 p.m. for margaritas and awesome networking opportunities. Be sure to RSVP via our Facebook event page. We look forward to celebrating with you at our second social media fiesta!

Step Ahead Part of Charleston’s Color Revolution

We are excited to be working with Eco Deco, a boutique paint store that opened this week in Mt. Pleasant. Dozens turned out for the showroom unveiling and to see how Eco Deco is different than other paint stores (think art gallery instead of wall of paint swatches).

Manufacturing eco-friendly and healthy paint, Eco Deco selected the Charleston area for its first U.S. showroom. Eco Deco is the American subsidy of RECA, which has been manufacturing healthy paint for 25 years and is one of the top 10 paint suppliers in France.

Eco Deco isn’t a paint store; it’s a color showroom with skilled designers available to answer questions and offer advice on selecting one of Eco Deco’s more than 2,000 trendy indoor and outdoor colors.

Look for a public grand opening celebration in mid-July. And if you’re planning any summer home improvement projects,  stop by and see what they have to offer.

Text Me…and You…and You Too

It’s Friday night and it’s time to find out what all of your friends are doing. Usually texting your entire social circle takes half the night, but now a new app quickly gaining popularity makes texting all of your friends a breeze.

GroupMe is a new app created for Blackberry, Android, iPhone and, shockingly, any phone that can receive text messages. It’s part of a new breed of apps called “group texting” that’s all the buzz in the social media/mobile world.

GroupMe is free and allows its users to basically turn their phone into a chatroom with their chosen groups. All you have to do is add your friends’ numbers, and when they accept, everyone in that group can respond to each other all in one text!

This application also has some special features available for Smartphones, such as location tagging, which can be helpful when you need to know where people are. Location tagging and the ability to call or text many people at one time make this app very useful during emergencies. In fact, GroupMe’s use skyrocketed 200% in Alabama during the recent tornadoes.

So next time you need to know where all of your friends are or just want to invite them to a party, use GroupMe and save yourself some time, and some texts.

Social Media News of the Week: May 30, 2011

In honor of this short week, I’m going to try and make this social media recap as short as possible! We’ve been offering Foursquare services to our clients for more than a year and it’s a good thing because location just keeps moving right along. But there are some things to watch out for when using Foursquare for marketing, and Mashable does a nice job of explaining the “do nots” of location-based marketing.

If you’ve ever had the “pleasure” of talking to me, you would pick up pretty quickly that I’m obsessed with the music industry and very interested in how bands can take advantage of social media. Well, D.C.-based band Bluebrain did social just right by releasing their newest album as a location-aware app. You have to check out this video to gain full appreciation!

If your company is on Twitter, then you need to take advantage of their new follow button and put it on your website now! Check out our home page to see an example of how it works (oh, and follow us on Twitter while you’re at it!). Have a great weekend everyone!