Magic Phone Lessons Learned

Last month, our team came up with what we thought would be a fun contest to help promote our client, Spirit Telecom, a telecommunications company based in Columbia, S.C. While you might not think of that as the most social media savvy of subjects, we’ve prided ourselves in our ability to come up with some really interesting ideas that have increased their visibility online.

For our latest promotion, we decided to take the idea of silly/fun hashtags (a way to categorize tweets on Twitter) that often pop up and turn that concept into a contest, as well. Since they’re a telecommunications company, we thought what if we asked people who they would call – past or present, living or dead – if they had a magic phone. We turned #magicphone into the hashtag.

A blog post on the company’s site noted that at two random times during a 24-hour period we would choose the person who had tweeted #magicphone closest to that time and award them a Kindle, thus, the contest.

Well, as you may or may not have seen, #magicphone really took off. However, after a staff post-mortem of the promotion and conversations with several Twitter buddies, we realize we may have created an unintended annoying side effect especially for locals in Charleston (where #magicphone got started): filling up your Twitter account with a lot of #magicphone posts.

So we wanted to issue a #magicphone apology on behalf of Step Ahead, Inc. We realize now that the way we chose to select the winner (by selecting a random time) encouraged people to spam #magicphone over and over in the hopes they would land on the right time. Creating a bunch of spammy repeating posts was certainly not our goal.

We wanted people, if they were interested, to tweet it once or twice, tag two others, and be done with it. But instead, lots of people just posted the same tweet over and over and over again. If you were following multiple people doing that, your Twitter account quickly filled up with #magicphone.

Sooo…. we’ve decided that for future promotions like this we’ll allow folks to enter once per day only via Twitter and hopefully reduce the spammy tweets so it’s a bit more manageable – and fun, like we intended. We’re all learning as we navigate the ever-changing world of social media and we feel like every time we do a promotion and tweak and refine, we’re helping our clients have the best social media presence they can have.

Overall, though, Magic Phone was a success, sending more than 4500 people to our client’s Web site and exposing them to their products. Heck, I even got Trista Sutter (oh come on, you know she was The Bachelorette!) to tweet it!

I hope that helps make up for our mistake, Charleston Twitterers. Please know we did not intend to be annoying and never want to aggravate our best Twitter buddies.

So if you see #magicphone again, don’t worry. Hopefully, you’ll only see it a couple of times and you can choose to participate or not without a disruption to your Twitter day.

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Working From Home

http://www2.counton2.com/cbd/lifestyles/my_news_2/article/my_news_2_working_from_home/108331/

Starting your own business and working at home means you can wear pajamas at the office, but it also presents a unique set of challenges. Holly Fisher, who works at home as an account executive with Step Ahead Inc. shares her tips.

Do You Like Dominos? Cooking up a new PR Campaign … and a New Pizza

So if you remember, Domino’s faced a big PR fiasco last year when two employees made a video of themselves doing unspeakable acts to a pizza before they delivered it to a customer. While they were lucky enough to learn about it from a blogger/friend (not because they were monitoring the Web, please note), they chose to sit on it instead of acting quickly, resulting in nearly 2 million views of the video on YouTube, major media coverage and a public backlash.

Well, Domino’s did respond, but a little too late to repair the damage done. They created a Twitter account to answer people’s questions and also put up a video of the CEO on YouTube apologizing for the incident, noting the employees had been fired and explaining that is not what goes on behind the doors of Domino’s.

Fast forward about 8 months later. Domino’s has taken a hard look at itself in light of what happened last year. They’ve decided to be honest about their failings and are trying to regain consumer confidence in their established brand.

So when you think of Domino’s pizza, do you think yuck or yum? Turns out most people think yuck J. Domino’s took a look at what people were saying about their pizza offline and online and heard things like “your crust tastes like cardboard” and “your sauce tastes like ketchup.” And what do you know, Domino’s actually listened!

They’ve put together a new campaign courtesy of the creative folks at Crispin, Porter + Bogusky (of Burger King’s “king” ads and other very innovative and different campaigns) called “The Pizza Turnaround”. The campaign acknowledges their criticism and shows how they’ve reacted: creating an entirely new pizza from scratch.

The Pizza Turnaround

They’ve put together two great little YouTube videos, one showing the company listening in to focus groups and coming up with a new pizza, and the second, my favorite, with the head chef showing up at the doors of some of the harsher focus group participants and inviting them to try the new pizza. Bold and real.

At the Door of Our Harshest Critics

I LOVE it! I wish I could get more companies to follow in their footsteps. They’ve turned a really negative incident with the employee video into a catalyst for change for the company. People can always identify with you when you acknowledge failings (we all have them) and try to fix them. I think this will be a turnaround for Domino’s … well, so long as the pizza is actually good. I haven’t tried it yet.

Oh, and by the way, I am one of the few people who genuinely liked Domino’s pizza the way it was . Yea ketchup sauce!

What do you think of Domino’s tactics? Smart or stupid?

Advanced social networking for travelers

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35149665/ns/travel-tips/

Got a travel problem?

Just tweet about your troubles, and the airline, car rental company or hotel will fix it. At least that’s the conventional wisdom. And while it’s true that travel companies are spending a lot of time online listening to their customers, they’re not necessarily paying attention to all of us.

“Travel companies pick and choose who to respond to in social media,” says social media expert Ryan Goff of the advertising firm MGH, Inc. “You better believe that a Web celebrity with 100,000 Twitter followers is going to catch a company’s attention over the casual Tweeter with only 10 friends.”

Even online, some travelers are more equal than others. Question is, how to become a somebody?

You should care, because even today, as social networking applications like Twitter and Facebook have come of age, being online can be the most effective shortcut to getting great customer service.

I see it every day on Twitter, as customers with questions are sent to the front of the line (sometimes literally) because they had a respectable social-media profile. Online travel agencies such as Orbitz have an entire team of employees dedicated to monitoring online chatter and helping customers.

I asked several social media experts about how to boost your online profile. Here’s what they told me:

1. Be interesting
Boring people don’t get a lot of followers. “Be engaging,” says Lyn Mettler, the founder of Step Ahead, Inc., which manages social media campaigns. “Don’t just talk, talk, talk about yourself all day long. Read what other people are posting and respond to them. Ask questions, answer questions. Truly interacting with people will help build your followers.”

2. Get a blog
One of the fastest ways to raise your online profile is to start blogging. “If you blog, that helps tremendously,” says Tim Massie, an adjunct professor of communication at Marist College. It helps if the subject matter is travel-related, but anyone with access to a credible blog is likely to come to the attention of a travel company faster than someone who doesn’t have one. Massie says being an active participant in online forums can help, too. “If you go the extra mile, posting photos, helping others understand the amenities of hotels, and providing insider information that a typical tourist would overlook, you will earn your reputation and be an influencer in the travel industry,” he says.

3. Join the conversation
“Post and tweet frequently about your experiences,” says Rick Gardinier, the chief digital officer for the advertising agency Brunner. “This will increase your relevancy and authoritativeness which in turn will boost your following.” How often? I try to tweet and post a few times a day, but you should be able to keep a respectable profile by publishing something a few times a week.

4. Offer good information
Building trust — and followers — takes time and work, according to experts. “Travelers can increase their social media influence by creating good content, consistently, for an extended amount of time,” says Chris Harrington, the technology director for the communications firm Luquire George Andrews. He says he’s likely to follow users who have positive things to say about the subject matter. “Negative comments can hurt the traveler’s social capital as much or more than the company in question,” he adds. That way, when you go negative — when something happens to you while you’re traveling that you need resolved — your followers will pay attention.

5. Check your motives
It matters where you’re coming from, say the pros. “Motivation behind using social media extensively will drive the behavior of travelers,” says Philippe Duverger, an assistant professor of marketing at Towson University. For example, if people think you’re trying to sell something, they may be less likely to include you in the network. Also, if you’re branded a “complainer” then that can be a turn-off. Being in it for all the right reasons is one way of attracting lots of followers and building your online credibility.

6. Speak up
The best way to get noticed by any company is to openly discuss your experiences. “If the company has an interest in social media as a marketing outlet, then they will be monitoring all conversation about them, both positive and negative,” says social media guru Dan Healy of Mason, Inc., in New Haven, Conn. Acknowledging an experience that you had on an airline, for example, on a public forum is important to the airline because it gives them insight about their customers, and the public’s opinion. Be sure to use proper shout-out etiquette by linking to the travel company’s blog (which is monitored by the company) or using their Twitter handle — @Jetblue or @Marriottintl — when you tweet about them.

7. Make a personal connection
Travelers tend to follow people they can relate to. “People trust contents from somebody they can identify with personally,” says Iis Tussyadiah, an assistant professor at Temple University’s school of tourism and hospitality management. Often, it’s as simple as posting a picture and a brief biography on your blog or Facebook profile. People are likely to read your tweets and posts when they feel they know you than when you’re a faceless, anonymous voice on the Internet.

Even if you only have a small number of followers, you can still make a difference. “The squeaky Twitterer still gets the grease,” says Dallas Lawrence, the chair of the digital and social media practice group at Levick Strategic Communications. “Like most travel related stories in the online space, companies have focused their efforts towards addressing critical commentary posted by dissatisfied customers who have posted damaging comment to the online space about a particular airline, hotel or travel provider.”

You’re probably wondering if these strategies can really work for you. They can. I’ve used them myself. (You can follow me on Twitter at @elliottdotorg, Facebook or on my blog.

Along the way, I’ve made some terrific friends – people I’ve never actually met, but that’s beside the point — and had lots of interesting conversations.

Next time you have a travel problem, you’ll be glad you did.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35149665/ns/travel-tips/

Memos & Distinctions

Step Ahead Inc. has received a Gold Award from the MarCom Awards, an international competition for marketing and communication professionals, for The Squeaky Clean blog, which it designed and maintains for Castle Keepers. Also, Step Ahead received a Commendation of Merit from the Society for New Communications Research for the Twitter Beach Bash it hosted for MyrtleBeachHotels.com.

http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/jan/25/25memosanddist/

January Social Media Star: Meghan Miller

The television news business is ever changing. The industry has gone from news on only three networks to 24-hour news channels to the reach and speed of the Internet and social media. Meghan Miller, the Web producer for WMBF News, the NBC affiliate in Myrtle Beach, saw the power and importance of social media in TV news early on, and has been using it ever since to keep a step ahead.

We picked Meghan as January’s social media star, because she’s on the front lines of journalism embracing all that social media can do for this industry. She “gets” it where so many media outlets continue to struggle.

Meghan started the WMBF Facebook page in August 2008 with only 10 fans, but has grown the page to over 10,000! Daily, she manages multiple social media accounts for WMBF, including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and, one you may not have heard about, Bubbletweet. Here is what Meghan had to say about social media:

What was the first social media technology you used?
Facebook. Over the years, it’s slowly become the No. 1 way I can keep a personal connection with my family and friends back in my hometown of York, Pa.

What is your favorite social media tool?
Definitely Twitter. Believe it or not, I was actually against getting a Twitter account, because I didn’t see the point in posting to the world what I was doing 24/7. Now it’s one of the first things I check on my Blackberry when I wake up – to see who’s doing what and what topics are making news in the Web world.

How have you used social media for your business/company and how has it benefited?
In all honesty, it’s one of the most important tools I use as both a journalist and as a Web producer. Social networking takes news to a whole new extreme – it allows us to see who’s doing what, what issues are important to our viewers, and really allows us to make those important connections with those who keep close tabs on our news product.

Our Facebook fan page has just exceeded 10,000 fans – many of which were gained in 2009. That’s an outlet where we can interact with our fans with a “Question of the Day” and post controversial news stories that we know will draw a response from the public. It also allows us to strengthen the push-pull from social networking sites to WMBFNews.com.

Twitter is another – I can’t tell you how many news stories we’ve broken because of Twitter and how many relationships we’ve built with legislators, community leaders, businesses and organizations because of the exchange of a few tweets. If we can’t pull any news stories off of Twitter, it at least helps us get our brains pumping to come up with new, fresh news content for our shows.
On the flip side, we can keep better track of our competition this way.

How have you seen TV news change since you started in the profession with regard to social media?
It has exploded! I can remember when we had 20 fans on our WMBF News Facebook Fan Page and 100 friends on our MySpace page. We’ve been nursing our social networking sites since we first launched in August 2008 and now depend on it for comments on controversial stories that really affect our viewers or our market drivers. Now, you’ll see a “Facebook Question of the Day” on each of our newscasts – and a big push to become a fan of WMBF News either on Twitter or Facebook.

What role do you see social media playing in TV news in the future?
I see it as a way to gather news stories, build the WMBF News brand, draw people into our product, interact with the community and share breaking news when it happens, as it happens.

How much time would you say you spend a day engaging social media?
Ha – it feels like 24 hours a day! It’s hard to gauge because my TweetDeck is always open, I’m always fiddling with UberTwitter on my phone when I’m away from my desk and always checking out Facebook. It’s a part of the job!

How do you incorporate it into your day so it’s not a time waster?
It’s hard! I make sure that when I’m at work – that’s what I’m on Twitter or Facebook for – just work. When I go on dinner break, am heading out to do a story or am on my own time, that’s when I hop on my personal Facebook and Twitter accounts.

What’s your best tip for using social media for business?
Use it as just another tool to better your product and your overall image. Don’t ignore the fact that your viewers or clients are interacting with you on a “virtual” level – it’s the perfect time to draw people in! Engage, interact and don’t ignore!

Is there a social media tool/technique that you think is underutilized that you would like people to know about?
This is where I plug BubbleTweet, I do believe! I think BubbleTweet is an AWESOME alternative to Tweets if you have a webcam. It’s been a cool way to take people behind the scenes during a newscast, break news stories on a more personal and visual level and to show people that the news is more than just TV.

Where can people find you online and via social media?
www.twitter.com/wmbfmegmiller
http://www.facebook.com/meghanmillerwmbf

What’s in store for Social Media in 2010

The new year will surely bring more advances in the world of technology. Social media sites like Twitter reached new heights in 2009, so what will 2010 bring? Lyn Mettler, discusses what’s in store for Social Media in 2010 with Tara Lynn.

On Down the Road: What’s in Store for Social Media in 2010

As we head into this new decade I can only hope it means social media will come into its hey day – that would be just glorious for a social media nerd like me. I could stop explaining why Twitter isn’t just about the minutia of my day and that no Facebook isn’t just a bunch of teenagers. Ah, but perhaps that is too much to dream of.

Instead, I thought I’d take a realistic look at what this social media nerd thinks is in store for us this year as it relates to business.

1) Real Time Web

Have you noticed tweets and Facebook posts now when you search on Google? That’s because the search giant is rolling out their new real time search features in which they have integrated tweets and public Facebook posts (so be careful what you set as public in your Facebook privacy settings).

What does that mean for business? A LOT! Guess what? Now whatever anyone posts about you just might show up when someone types in your name or a description of your product. That means you not only need to be on the defensive, monitoring what’s being said about you at all times so you can react, you also need to be on the offensive. That means a good quality Twitter account & Facebook page for your company with the right key words, consistently updated, quality content and good interaction. That ups the odds you’ll show up high in Google as well (maybe even above the person dissing you ).

A Twitter account we manage for a group of Myrtle Beach hotels recently showed up on page one of Google for the term “myrtle beach”. Do you have any idea what people pay to be there? A lot!

2) Localization

I recently read where CNN bought Outside.IN, a site that finds and reproduces local news, and sites like FourSquare.com, which is kind of like a city guide for your phone that connects you to your friends, are also becoming more popular. People want to find what’s relevant to them and a lot of time that means what’s local to them. Watch for more sites and tools to spring up that help people understand, sort and find what’s around them.

3) Geo-”stuff”

That leads me to geo “stuff” (sorry don’t know the proper words for all the geo stuff ). That’s certainly another way for people to pull in information that relates to where they are physically. Your iPhone knows where you are and offers results tailored to that location from movie times, to weather, to directions. Twitter may even add that feature, allowing businesses to “tweet” you or even text you with relevant coupons or ads for things nearby. Can you imagine walking by Starbucks and getting a coupon for $1 off your Frappucino on your phone. I’m all over that!

4) Third Party Review Sites Beyond Travel and Retail

The hospitality industry has started to live and die by sites like TripAdvisor and IGoYouGo as people weigh in on hotels and destinations and many people make their decisions based on these reviews. Retailers, like Amazon, who has really set themselves apart with their review system, are also used to this mode of operation. But now, people are reviewing stuff like their doctors, their plumbers, their hair stylists on sites like Yelp.

Watch out businesses. You’d better provide good customer service or trust me, someone will be talking about it online. Suzy not happy with her haircut? Bet she’s going to tell everyone somewhere online and the party responsible to boot. And things spread much more quickly online than they used to when co-workers chatted about it around the water cooler. Watch what’s being said about you and react when appropriate (ie offer Suzy a new “do” ).

5) Businesses “Get” Social Media

Ok, notice I said “get” not “embrace”. I don’t think we’re there yet. But here at my firm, we’re seeing a lot of people we’ve been telling about this stuff for several years finally come around and say “OK, you were right – help!” I think businesses will continue to realize that others are successfully using these tools for branding, PR and, what do you know, to actually make money! And they’ll decide they need to be there too.

Please, please, please though, don’t just farm it out to your IT person. Better your PR person, but they’re already swamped too and probably don’t have the time to do it properly. Either hire someone part time or full time to run your social media (who KNOWS what they’re doing – tough to find) or hire a firm (who KNOWS what they’re doing – also tough to find!) and let them manage it for you.

Those are my picks for the coming year.  What did I miss? What else is coming for social media? Please get in on the discussion. I want to know what I DON’T know about! Oh, and happy New Year!

Local PR and Social Media Firm honored with Two National Awards

Step Ahead Inc. has been recognized by two national organizations for its creative public relations and social media marketing work.

The Squeaky Clean blog, which Step Ahead designed and maintains for Castle Keepers, a Charleston-area cleaning company, recently received a Gold Award from the MarCom Awards, an international competition for marketing and communication professionals.

Additionally, the Society for New Communications Research recognized Step Ahead with a Commendation of Merit for the Twitter Beach Bash it hosted earlier this spring for MyrtleBeachHotels.com, a group of oceanfront hotels and condos in Myrtle Beach.

The Twitter Beach Bash was a two-hour event in which Twitter followers were invited to answer trivia questions via Twitter for a chance to win prizes at the Myrtle Beach resorts.

‘Effective January 1, 2009, Mount Pleasant resident, Jennifer Lennon will assume the position of Vice President, Development & Education for the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The Medal of Honor Foundation supports the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, which is headquartered on the U.S.S. Yorktown at Patriots Point, by raising funds to support the programs and goals of the Society.’

http://www.moultrienews.com/business/Business-Kudos-12-30

Lyn’s Viral Video Picks for 2009

As we close out 2009, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the silliest and most impactful viral videos of the year. Ranging from tragic to ridiculous, here are my picks for the year on my TwitterMoms.com blog post. I’d love to hear your favorites and what you think of mine!

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