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PR 101: SOCIAL MEDIA

BY FRANK BARRY

Non-profits continue to lead the way and explore how to use social media to do good in the world. And the creativity and inventiveness behind some of the recent social media-powered cause campaigns I’ve seen deserve recognition. Below are three social cause campaigns that will put a smile on your face.

1. 999 Bottles of DMD Research on The Wall

I recently wrote about Darius Weems and the Darius Goes West project on Mashable, but there’s more to be told about this incredible group of savvy social media users. They continue to impress with the ingenuity in coming up with new and inexpensive ways to raise money and awareness for Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).

In celebration of Darius’s 21st birthday, they created a social good campaign called “999 Bottles of DMD Research on the Wall” that allows anyone to “buy” Darius a “drink” to support the cause. According to the Darius Goes West team, “Darius doesn’t want any alcohol for his birthday. Instead, Darius wants to spend his special day helping scientists come up with a concoction that will slow the progression of DMD – the #1 genetic killer of children in the world – in young men his age.”

By using social media sites like Facebook () and Twitter (), the 999 Bottles of DMD Research on the Wall campaign was able to raise almost $15,000 online in a very short amount of time, with most gifts being less than $21. Make sure to check out the Drink Wall where you can see all those who have supported the cause and bought Darius a drink.

2. The Goslabi (a.k.a. Wasabi) Challenge

If you thought the 999 Bottles of DMD Research on the Wall campaign was creative, then you’ll really love the Goslabi Challenge, another innovative idea from the team at Darius Goes West. There’s one simple question driving this campaign: “If swallowing a spoonful of the flaming hot sushi spice known as wasabi could have an effect on a fatal disease, would you do it?” Interesting challenge, right? The campaign cleverly makes that absurd notion a reality by using spoonfuls of sinus-clearing wasabi to raise money.

The campaign is simple. First, sign up for the challenge and make sure to set a fundraising goal. If you’re not interested in accepting the challenge and swallowing a dose of wasabi, you can still participate by sponsoring a spoon. Second, go out and ask your friends, family and anyone else you know to help you reach your goal. Being that Facebook is such a key part of the Darius Goes West community, Darius and team made it simple to challenge your friends on Facebook. Third, once you’ve reached your goal, grab your video camera and prepare to eat one spoonful of wasabi. Finally, make sure to upload your video for everyone to enjoy.

You’ve got to hand it to this team of creative and passionate folks for their continued efforts to raise awareness and money for DMD, while simultaneously having a lot of fun.

3. Send a Valentine to a Survivor

Love146’s Send a Valentine to a Survivor campaign made hundreds of families smile last Valentine’s Day. The campaign goal was simple: mobilize the Love146 community via its members’ social media outposts (blogs, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube ()) to create personalized Valentine’s Day cards that would then be sent to the families of Round Home, a safe home for children in the Philippines who have been exploited in the sex trade.

In a matter of days, Love146 received hundreds of Valentine’s Day cards and raised a little money along the way. In fact, you can still give a gift online to support the cause. Make sure to check out the Flickr stream or the slideshow below to see all the creative and encouraging valentines.

Check out the resulting Flickr Slide show:

What social good campaigns have you participated in or seen that brought a smile to your face? Let us know in the comments.

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SOCIAL NETWORKING SURGE CREATES OPPORTUNITY

The program promotes the use of the “Advertising Option Icon” and accompanying language, to be displayed within or near online advertisements or on Web pages where data is collected and used for behavioral advertising. The Advertising Option Icon indicates a company’s use of online behavioral advertising and adherence to the Principles guiding the program. By clicking on it, consumers will be able to link to a clear disclosure statement regarding the company’s online behavioral advertising data collection and use practices as well as an easy-to-use opt-out option.

Starting now, companies collecting or using information for behavioral advertising are encouraged to visit www.AboutAds.info to acquire and begin displaying the Advertising Option Icon, signaling their utilization of behavioral advertising and adherence to the Principles. The launch of an industry-wide icon will enhance the efforts of the growing number of companies that are already using similar mechanisms to deliver enhanced notice to millions of consumers. Interested companies engaged in behavioral advertising can also register to participate in the easy-to-use consumer opt-out mechanism on the www.AboutAds.info site.

As business registration and use of the Advertising Option Icon expand, consumers will have an opportunity later this fall to visit www.AboutAds.info for information about online behavioral advertising and to conveniently opt-out of some or all participating companies’ online behavioral ads, if they choose. The cross-industry self-regulatory initiative spans the entire marketing-media ecosystem and is led by the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the American Advertising Federation (AAF), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), theDirect Marketing Association (DMA), and the Interactive Advertising Bureau(IAB). Collectively, these associations represent more than 5,000 leading U.S. corporations across the full spectrum of businesses that have shaped and participate in today’s transformed media landscape.

The associations are actively promoting adoption of the Principles by businesses across the entire online advertising ecosystem via a series of webinars. To build widespread awareness and understanding of the program among the business community and consumers, the associations will be conducting a national educational campaign.

When launched later this fall, the consumer opt-out platform will include the participation of the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI). In addition, the DMA has built the Principles into its existing self-regulatory Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice, which all DMA members are required to comply with as a condition of membership.

Starting in 2011, the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing marketplace trust through self-regulation, along with the DMA, will be responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance, as well as managing consumer complaint resolution. The CBBB and DMA expect to contract with the Better Advertising Project, (BAP), to provide its monitoring technology to report on companies’ adherence to the transparency and control provisions of the program.

“The advertising industry has a long history of strong, effective CBBB-administered self regulation of traditional media, and we look forward to applying these lessons to the dynamic new online advertising market. We also look forward to putting in place technology to monitor the marketplace and promote compliance with the program’s transparency and control principles,” said Lee Peeler, President and CEO of the National Advertising Review Council (NARC) and Executive Vice President, National Advertising Self-Regulation, Council of Better Business Bureaus.

“The Advertising Option Icon program launch builds on DMA’s long-standing commitment to consumer choice and its history of effective self-regulation across all marketing communications. As the marketing community seeks to provide consumers with more timely, relevant and customized advertising messages, the Advertising Option Icon will serve as a beacon of consumer choice and trust in the marketplace. We are committed to helping consumers understand that they have choices and exercise those choices regarding interest-based advertising, and will work diligently to foster compliance and accountability across the industry,” saidLarry Kimmel, CEO, DMA.

“Marketers, agencies and media companies need to talk to their audiences. They need to describe what they do, how they do it and the value it brings. Transparency and choice are essential in reinforcing that trust, and trust is a critical underpinning of growth—for the marketing and media industries as well as for the entire economy,” said Randall Rothenberg, President and CEO, IAB.

“As advertisers utilize the Internet to effectively market their brands, they recognize the need for consumer trust. The self-regulatory initiative launched today is an exceptional program that protects consumers’ privacy. Consumers now can exercise choice and control over the data used by marketers to create interest-based advertising. On behalf of the ANA’s 400 member companies that collectively invest more than $250 billion annually in marketing communications, we are proud to join with other leading media and marketing organizations to bring this comprehensive, ambitious program to the public,” said Bob Liodice, President and CEO, ANA.

“Our ability to deliver advertising messages to consumers that speak only to their interests must surely be one of the great benefits of the media revolution that we’re living through. We fully understand that this advance in targeting will be lost if the public comes to believe that we are not responsible stewards of the data on which it is built. That is why we are so proud to be one of the driving forces in the creation of the code of responsible conduct that we are launching today,” saidNancy Hill, President and CEO, 4As.

“For the world of online advertising and marketing to work and grow, consumers must trust it. And the way to earn and keep that trust is to give consumers clear disclosure, choices, and, most importantly, control about how their data is used online for the purposes of targeted advertising. The organizations collaborating on this initiative represent an unprecedented coalition in support of that principle, with a concrete program to put that principle into action online. The American Advertising Federation is proud to be joining the other leading media and marketing trade associations in giving consumers the online tools they deserve to control, as they see fit, the use of their data in the world of interest-based online advertising,” said James Edmund Datri, President and CEO, AAF.

“The NAI and its more than 50 members are pleased to contribute their experience in similar self-regulatory programs to this exciting cross-industry effort. We welcome the next stage of this initiative, as our members continue to roll out solutions that give consumers more information and choices around interest-based advertising. Several of our members have already launched icon-related advertising disclosures for hundreds of millions of advertisements, and we expect to see aggressive further deployments over coming months,” said Charles Curran, Executive Director of the Network Advertising Initiative.

“Some argue these measures are not enough. I have to admit, as marketing firm, we of course have benefited from the hyper-targeting evolution in online advertising. I think these new requirements are so obviously necessary. But if I’m going to be shown ads…they might as well be relevant,” said Michelle Kubot Director of Online Marketing at Slay & Associates.

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Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis Media Kit Now Available Online

First, you must determine your desired outcome.  Why does the website exist?  To make the most possible money ?  Be specific, but say it in just 15 words.  Most often this should be somehow tied to financial indicators.

Once you figure this out, you should have analytics set up for this specific purpose.

Behaviors

This is what most people think about as the definitely of “analytics.”  As you can see, this is just one of four categories to achieve useful analytics. Some of the most important behavior indicators in my opinion are: Clickstreams, Click Density and Internal & External Search Keywords & patterns.

These should be segmented as much as possible, to help notice differences and meet the different needs of different users.  For example, sampling by referral source.  Someone who types in the the exact URL could have different goals than someone who was directed from a specific ad.

You must take this data and make hypothesis‘ as to WHY things are happening.

Experience

The behavior data can never be more than a hypothesis.  To gather really motivations behind readers behavior, you have to talk/study them personally.  You can do this threw: survey/poll (emailed, on website, etc), multivariate testing of site organization/tools and by conducting actual research groups.

Competitor analysis

You should compare the data you collect to your data to both put your numbers in perspective and can provide inspiration for new innovations.  (After all, if you are gaining 20% more unique visitors, you would initially be happy.  But what if you look at competitors and they are growing at a level of 60-80%?  Maybe it is the industry that is growing and your company is actually falling behind!)

By:  Michelle

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IT’S CREEPY HOW MUCH ONLINE ADVERTISERS KNOW ABOUT ME

Recently, I contacted and called a few dozen daily newspaper editors and publishers around Missouri, asking them if they would like to meet with a client. Most accepted the meeting.

A few said no. One editor, however, was blunt is his refusal: “Any public interest group that can afford a large public relations firm can afford to advertise itself and its mission.”

It was the sweetest rejection in my PR career. And why? Because I don’t work for a large firm. In fact, Slay and Associates is small. But his assumption that I worked for a large firm was a huge compliment. My boss was pretty happy about it, too. It means that we are enjoying the best of both worlds: We have the capacity to turn out work that matches a large firm with massive resources, while employing the nimbleness and cost advantages of a small firm.

So how do we do it? How do we look so big, when we’re not?

It takes coordination, planning, cross-training and a working understanding of technology.

Why did that newspaper editor think we were a big firm?

Well, first, he saw the 11-page media kit sent to each editor and publisher. It wasn’t on slick paper with some fancy folder. It was sent in a digital Microsoft Word file, with our clients’ logo on each page. It looked nice, but it didn’t take a team of staffers, printers and graphic designers to put together.

The kit included a few articles written about my client. We keep and catalog an electronic copy of every article involving our clients, and use Nexis as a back up. So assembling those wasn’t time particularly time-consuming. I also put together a short question-and-answer section about the client. Those questions were devised weeks earlier, as we determined an overall strategy for educating the public about the organization.

Not a lot of extra work there. Just cut and paste.

I spent a lot of my time with web developers who put together the new web page for my client. We created a simple, but elegant and easy-to-navigate site. I’m hoping that anyone who went to the site thinks my clients spent tens of thousands of dollars on web designer to put it together. But that’s not the case.

The media kit did not include a link to our website. But our firm’s name was there. PR professionals have to assume that every press release, every media contact will be followed by a visit to your site by a journalist. And despite the protests of one media person, it’s better to look big and polished, than small and disorganized.

So my boss has done a smart thing. She has invested time and effort in designing our site. But that’s not enough. It has to be maintained well, too – constantly updated so the information is always fresh.  So one of the two full-time employees here at Slay sees to it that our site looks great all of the time. It’s imperative to have a dynamic, constantly updated website for any PR firm. And it’s a lot easier to have that if someone working for the firm can keep up with it.

So put it all together, and you have one editor complaining, while others came away impressed. I’m thinking that our big-firm look provided some credibility and helped get us in the door at some of the newspapers. Once inside, of course, that’s when our real work begins.

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NAUDI, ELSWICK JOIN SLAY AND ASSOCIATES MARKETING, PR TEAM

Visit www.twellow.com.

1. Sign up for an account (take advantage of the categories and be sure to link in all other social medias)
2. Use search to look for GOOD followers (i.e. if you’re a Nonprofit promoting music composition, search words like “composer”)
3. Look over the results.  They put them in order of followers, meaning the top results have the most people following them.(Therefore, if they follow you back, more people will be seeing your tweets…which is the whole point!).
4. Also be sure to search your city “St. Louis” or “Central West End”.  Look over the results to see if anyone/place local would be appropriate.
5. Lastly, be sure to search for media!  Definitely local and niche media and journalists!

Follow the same procedure for www.wefollow.com.

1. Add yourself with full info.
2. Search for relevant followers.

Find a perfect match for your organization and click their profile to see who they are following.

They have probably already done the relevant source searching for you so…follow all they follow that apply!

Send Twitter button out with emails.

In employee’s signature and definitely in any newsletter, membership communication.

Place your Twitter updates to automatically feed to your webpage.

Need help?! Just ask!!  There are PLENTY of options for this on all different platforms.  (See our’s on the right sidebar or in our Twitter Section).

Offer incentives to follow or create a ‘campaign’.

(i.e. “1,000 followers in 10 days!”).

Use and connect your other social medias.

(i.e. send a message to your Facebook Fan page Fans. Link your Tweets to your Facebook—there’s easy apps for this. ETC).

Learn (and use) the lingo:

@username (i.e. @SlayToday): When @username begins a Tweet, it is counted as a “reply”.  When @username appears somewhere else, it is a “mention”. Both can be viewed in the “replies” tab on your Twitter “home” page.

#topic: AKA “hashtag”, this is a way to group tweets by keyword.

D username (D SlayToday): A private (direct) tweet that do not appear in the public timeline.

Favorite: A “bookmarked” tweet. Consider your “favorites” as a reflection of you.

Follower: Someone who sees your tweets. Following is not automatically reciprocal (like it is with Facebook or LinkedIn).

RT or Retweet: Analogous to forwarding an email; re-sending a tweet sent by someone else. Courtesy: include the @username of the person who authored the tweet. Consider revising in your own words and then crediting the sender with via @username.

TweetUp: A real-world meeting of people who have connected via Twitter.

–Michelle Kubot

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OLD MEDIA ARE STILL RELEVANT

Primary research for solid domain/company names. You may have noticed that suggestions are provided as you are typing in a Google search bar.  For example, when starting to type “Healthy relationships” the suggestions include: characteristics, quiz, tips, activity, boundaries, worksheets, lesson plan, curriculum and quotes.  Domain names, or shall I say avaliable domain names, are very hard to find these days.  Using these Google suggestions can be a great way to find what people are searching AND where Google is directing them.  Search engine love domains with exact matching keywords, boosting SEO and therefore visibility.  So if your deciding on a domain, social media user name or even a name for a business be sure to get direct feedback from users–quick, easy and free.

Google suggestions can directly dictate content and provides keywords to use on your website and in tags. It is showing you exactly what people are wanting when they are searching for your keywords.  Go back to the example suggestions: characteristics, quiz, tips, activity, worksheets, lesson plan and quotes are blatantly telling our client these components are what need to be on the website.  Including, a list of characteristics and a quiz section will significantly help boost their SEO.  Users and search engines are both thankful for you providing the content you want–and you will be rewarded with higher ranking and more traffic.  Which we all know is leading to greater awareness and increased sales!

Take notice of Google results. Monitor where your page ranks frequently and take note of how your ranking changes over time.  Try to correlative these ranking changes to content, web design or SEO tactic changes.  Also check out the ‘competition’.  Search your keywords and click around.  What content do top-ranking websites have?  How is their website structured?  Evaluate these websites and take any tips you can!

–Michelle Kubot
Online Marketing Manager

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SEO WORDPRESS PLUGINS WE LOVE

Top Audio Pick: Audio player
I use this plugin to post any radio media hits.
Why I choose this one: I can easily customize the player’s color in the setting and the player has a nice high-tech look. See it in action on this In the News posting posting.

Top Video Pick: TubePress
Displays very attractive YouTube galleries in posts, pages and/or sidebar.  See an example of this plugin in action on a post about our client St. Louis Healthy Marriage Coalition’s broadcast media hits, TV segments and commercials.
Why I choose this one: Looks sleek and can display videos from multiple users (via playlists), meaning we could combine all client videos from their separate YouTube account, videos we have created for our clients or for ourself hosted on our own account, PR/marketing industry videos we like…the possibilities are endless.

If you decided it’s time to dive into the web world and need website development, design or consultative help, contact us today!

Next week: Top Social Media Plugins.

–Michelle Kubot
Online Marketing Manager

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SEO WORDPRESS PLUGINS WE LOVE

The Process
1. User sends text message with a dedicated keyword to your short number
2. They receive confirmation messages and must reply YES to complete the donation
3. The donation shows up on their next phone bill
4. Payment is remitted to your organization in (60-90 days) – note the serious lag time!

Summary of Key Findings

• Typically only small amounts ($1-$5 per donor).  However, this method can (and should) be done repeatedly–at various events and with multiple campaigns.  The amount raised depends on depth of our list and strength/reach of our campaign.  Over $35 million has been given to Haiti release through mobile fundraising!  Obviously a “results not typical” disclaimer is more than nessicary.
• Most text-donors are recruited online. Strong email and social media (specifically Facebook & Twitter) programs should be established prior to mobile fundraising and should be utilized throughout the length of the campaign–announcing, thanking, providing updates, etc, as well as creating a prominate text message sign-up page on the website.
• You have to have a list of phone numbers to go off of. An obvious, vital, yet oftern overlooked conponent.
• The annual dropout rate for text messaging lists is high.
• Texters can utilized outside fundraising  and have the benefit of responding to immediate requests. A recent study has found that mobile contacts respond to requests to make advocacy phone calls on behalf of a cause at a rate of 4.7 percent, nearly five times the response rate of people called to action via email.
• It is very complicated to get a Text based fundraising effort rolling. To own a “short code” directly, there is an upfront investment required of $1,000+ required, as well as agreements with the various mobile carriers and middlemen involved in the billing process, transaction fees, etc.
• Two companies currently offer solutions to nonprofit organizations: MGive.com and Mobil Commons.  But can often be out of budget (Mobil Commons – $500 per month & MGive – $900 for investment for 1 year).

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GET YOUR MESSAGE OUT TO THOSE WHO WILL LISTEN

Unless you’re a web developer with a knack for mind-numbing punishment, you’ve probably benefited from the collaborative attitude of today’s tech world.  When looking for a new or better feature on a website, you’ve discovered…there’s an app for that! (already created).

Slay & Associates–along with the likes of CNN, Dow Jones, NFL, People Magazine and about 295,108 others (as of 2/23)–uses the WordPress Application.

I wanted to take a series of blog posts to highlight some of the best WordPress Plugins that I have researched and continue use.  After all, these creators deserve recognition and will hopefully continue to release more and better technology.  Not to mention, that by by sharing my tedious research and allowing others to see these plugins in action, this series will undoubtedly help fellow WordPress users sort through the almost half a million plugins.

1.  I start the development of any and every website by downloading the All in One SEO Pack.

Quite obviously, this plugin helps with the search engine optimization of our website.  In the age of half a million online searches taking place daily in the U.S., anything that can help move a website link closer to the top with multiple keywords is a must-have resource!
Why I choose this one: Because it is very simple and easy.  See my blog on SEO to for tips on how to utilize this tool.

This plugin returns a list of related entries based on a unique algorithm to display with links at the bottom of your page.  There are options for stylizing, widgets and RSS feeds.  In the same way this plugin encourages search engines to browse around our website, it encourages users do the same.
Why I choose this one: Because it works!  The plugin is accurate, simpe and looks good.  Scroll down to the “Check out Related Posts:” section and see for yourself.

This plugin adds the necessary JavaScript code to enable Google’s Analytics.  Instead of tedious and potentially faulty copying, all I had to do was enter my UID on the settings page.
Why I choose this one: It is so much easier then doing this manually and the results have been flawless.  I can proudly say that our website traffic is up 165% from December 2009 to January 2010, with 66% of those being absolutely unique visitors!

If you decided it’s time to dive into the web world and need website development, design or consultative help, contact us today!

Be sure to come back for much “cooler” plugin reviews next week: Top Social Media Plugins. & Top Multi-Media Plugins

–Michelle Kubot
Online Marketing Manager

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BEST WORDPRESS AUDIO & VIDEO PLUGINS