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April #HSEntChat: Social Media Learnings from the Sports Industry. Public Relations is about Buyers. Not Clip Books. In the early 2000s, I was vice president of marketing and PR for two publicly traded companies. Back in the day, I spent millions of my companies’ dollars and thousands of hours of my teams’ time trying to get mainstream media to pay attention to us. This was pre-social networking, pre-YouTube, pre-easy blogging. While we had a fledgling content strategy using an email newsletter, information rich site, and direct to consumer news releases, we didn’t have today’s real-time communications tools so we primarily generated attention using the old rules of public relations: Press releases and pitching journalists.

A decade ago we measured by how thick the spiral bound PR clip book was. This isn't the best approach today, yet many organizations are still working based on the old rules. The new world of public relations In an increasingly fragmented media landscape, the new rules of PR do work—really well. (Ironically, the better your online content, the more journalists will find you. Adelyn Biedenbach sur Twitter : "Post-End date in action on @Facebook's new features. No excuse for posts after events are over now! #SocialMediaWins. Tariq Ahmad sur Twitter : "COOL: #socialmedia vending machine accepts Instagram photos as payments. IHeartRadio Goes on College Tour With Instagram Vending Machine. IHeartRadio is touring the country with a T-shirt vending machine that accepts Instagram photos as payment. The marketing effort has racked up 5.7 million impressions—likes, shares, views—in the first week on the photo-sharing app, according to iHeartRadio.

The five-week campaign (which runs through Nov. 15) stops at 10 college campuses in the Midwest and South, including Arizona State University, the University of Texas and Florida State University. "It's a mobile-first generation that we wanted to engage with and typically you've got college students who are away at school, and iHeartRadio is a natural way for them to stay connected with their hometown radio station," said Chris Williams, svp of iHeartRadio programming. At each university, the iHeartRadio team sets up a vending machine that swaps Instagram photos for free merchandise. The company didn't say how many campaign photos have been uploaded so far. Check Out Snapchat's First Ad for 'Ouija' Movie. Snapchat's first sponsored message arrived today, and it was a video ad from Universal Pictures previewing its movie Ouija.

The ad was sent to users' "Recent Updates" feed where messages from friends typically appear. Snapchat said Friday that ads would be coming, and was frank about why: "We need to make money," the company said. It was unclear how many of the apps' estimated 100 million users received the sponsored snap from Universal. Users had the choice to click on the ad or not, "No biggie," as the company said in its recent blog post. It was a 20-second video trailer for Ouija that played when users pressed their screens as if they were viewing any other message. Everything You Need To Know About Google Primer. How many startups failed to take off solely due to marketing inexperience?

Numbers show that lack of market insight and wasted advertising budget make up for 11% of new business failure. In an attempt to decrease the skills gap between online marketing veterans and those just entering the business, Google launched Google Primer,—a new app that promises to teach you the ropes of online marketing in 5-minute lessons. What: A new iOS app from GoogleWhy: To teach digital marketing basics in a simple, efficient wayHow much: FreeWhere you can get it: App Store Here at Hootsuite, we address the digital skills gap with multiple resources available through Hootsuite University. Google is going for the mobile approach. “We realize that learning how to market your business for the first time can be difficult,” Google explains the rationale behind the app on Primer’s official site. Condensed, interactive lessons are aimed specifically at busy schedules of startups.

The Ultimate Guide To Social Media Contests, 15 Steps. The Ultimate Guide To Social Media Contests, 15 Steps It’s sometimes tricky, with social marketing, to separate your efforts from the “noise” of every other piece of content, news, and nonsense out there on the web. It is a challenge to establish and build meaningful relationships with your followers, with so much competing for their attention. That’s where social media contests come in. Contests are a great way to increase excitement and exposure of your company and brand socially while allowing you to crowdsource loads of content. If you plan on running a social media contest, use this timeline to successfully plan and execute the ultimate contest. Three Months Out You will not always have this much lead time before you create a contest. 1. Knowing your company’s goals and objectives will help you determine what type of contest to create and will enable you to evaluate success. 2.

Read more on the difference between a sweepstakes and contest here. You need to decide: 3. 4. Two Months Out 5. Baltimore Orioles Adam Jones tires of social media. Image uploaded by @Hootsuite_U. WCAG Overview. Introduction Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is developed through the W3C process in cooperation with individuals and organizations around the world, with a goal of providing a single shared standard for web content accessibility that meets the needs of individuals, organizations, and governments internationally. The WCAG documents explain how to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.

Web "content" generally refers to the information in a web page or web application, including: natural information such as text, images, and sounds code or markup that defines structure, presentation, etc. Who WCAG is for WCAG is primarily intended for: Web content developers (page authors, site designers, etc.) Related resources are intended to meet the needs of many different people, including policy makers, managers, researchers, and others. WCAG is a technical standard, not an introduction to accessibility. What is in WCAG 2.0 Technical document format Who develops WCAG. Off the Beaten Path: 6 Unusual Ways to Use Pinterest. Pinterest is no longer just about food, clothes, and weddings. We have learned in the past the potential for business on this social network is great, and many awesome brands are now using it to generate revenue and gain customer loyalty. While many still rely on the social scrapbooking service for these traditional uses, lots of other creative applications are emerging.

Did you know that Pinterest is also a great way to organize music? How about using Pinterest to find your lost pet, or report from a war zone? To Bust Criminals The days of seeing “Most Wanted” posters are behind us. To Reunite Families with Their Lost Pets On May 20th. 2013, Oklahoma was hit by some of the most destructive tornadoes in the area’s history. In hopes of reuniting animals with their owners, the Facebook page, Moore Oklahoma Tornado Lost and Found Animals, was created.

By having all the lost animal photos organized, it was easier for people to share the images and find the missing owners. To Organize Music. Is social media manager a stressful job? Is it worse if you’re a woman? | Lexi Rich, Marketing Maven. I have a saying hanging in my home office that says, “Look like a girl, act like a lady, think like a man, work like a boss.” Am I putting too much pressure on myself by adopting this motto?

Chapter 83, of Chris Brogan’s book, Social Media 101: Tactics and Tips to Develop Your Business Online, “How to Do More With Less Time,” made me a little anxious. If you’re self-employed, you’re on the job 24/7. Your career is your livelihood. But I don’t own my own company, and I still have to force myself to disengage from my job. Even on the weekends, I’m checking email and reading PR Daily and watching reruns of our client’s Undercover Boss episode on TV. So, my daily commute is my time to jam out to EDM, daydream and curse off bad drivers. I was reminded of an article I read earlier this week by actress Zosia Mamet, here. I didn’t know that most social media managers were female, as stated in Digiday’s “Confessions of Big Brand Managers,” but I can understand why.

Like this: Like Loading... What to Charge for Social Media Work (as a Freelancer or Consultant) Looking to make money from your social media skills? Check out my popular guides: How to Build a Part-Time Social Media Business and How to Create a Freakin’ Fabulous Social Media Strategy. With more companies and organizations looking to hire social media help, and more social-media-savvy young professionals recognizing that opportunity, the same question keeps landing in my inbox again and again: How much should you charge for social media consulting? Social media consultants charge rates across the board using a variety of fee structures – from $15/hour to thousands per project.

How do you know where you fit in? Here are a few tips for helping you figure out how to charge and what to charge next time an opportunity comes your way: What to Charge Per Hour Social media consultants charge anywhere from $15-$250+ an hour. Work Experience. This also applies to whether you’ve worked specifically in the social media field. Type of client. Location. What to Charge Per Project Got questions? Social Media Management | How Much Does Social Media Cost. It seems that most people in business are starting to realize that social media, though free, really doesn’t do much unless you put a lot into it.

Who has time to manage a facebook and twitter account, let alone set up a killer strategy? Here’s an interesting article that lays out some costs for social media. Prepare yourself – it’s not cheap. And don’t worry – I’m not in the social media game so I’m being very objective with these prices. Here’s a breakdown: Here’s the prices: Blog: Get a blog built starting from zero, including design, and having someone manage all your content and customer relationships (comments and emails, etc) - $1,000-$12,000 a month, median of $4K. Blog posts written on your behalf – $50-500 Blogging is one of the best ways to jack up your SEO efforts, so make sure you have someone who knows a ton about SEO. Twitter: Start from zero, have a page designed, post creation, actively finding new followers, managing messages – $1,000-$4,000 a month.

Facebook: The Bottom Line: Best April Fools Pranks of the Day. Today’s the day that many of us will forget to keep our guard up while friends, co-workers and even family prepare their next big pranks on each other. In recent years, brands have joined in on the fun, hoping to momentarily deceive followers and customers into believing their absurd and often hilarious new product or feature. They are often accompanied by press releases or video announcements that seem so real you’re unsure if you should believe it or not.

Here are some of the best pranks so from our favorite brands so far today. 1 » Introducing Auto Awesome Photobombs with David Hasselhoff » Google Want to take your selfies to the next level with an assist from David Hasselhoff? Now you can with the new Google+ Auto Awesome Photobombs. It’s a surefire way to make your photos more #Hoffsome. 3 » YouTube Announces Upcoming Viral Video Trends #newtrends » YouTube It seems like there’s no rhyme or reason to which videos go viral and which do not. The post April Fools! Connect: Authored by: Meet 2014′s Top 100 Community Managers on Twitter. Community Manager Appreciation Day (CMAD) 2014 is upon us! This year, in celebration of #CMAD2014 (yes, that’s the official hashtag!)

My Community Manager has teamed up with Hootsuite and a handful of other community-oriented companies to celebrate the all-stars who keep our social networks running smoothly. They’ve collectively organized 24 hours of live hangouts, to begin on January 27, 2014 beginning at 00:00 EST (05:00 GMT). They’ll also be announcing 8 unique awards to peer-nominated community managers across several different categories. Here at Little Bird, we think the inspiration behind CMAD is awesome! It’s all about practitioners celebrating their own—with results much like Little Bird finds by analyzing real human activities in context and the peer-to-peer relationships those activities build. For the second year in a row, we decided to put our Little Bird discovery engine to good use for CMAD, to further uncover and recognize the most connected community managers of today. HootSuite Acquires Social Analytics Leader UberVU.

McDonald's social media campaign to connect athletes and fans in Sochi. For anyone who's ever been inspired by an Olympic athlete, now's the chance to return the favor. Fans can wish their favorite athletes good luck at the Sochi Olympics through McDonald's "#Cheers to Sochi" campaign, which will kick off Thursday. The messages, sent via Twitter or posted on the campaign's website, will be displayed at the athletes village in Sochi, and athletes will be able to print out their favorites on ribbons that can be worn throughout the Games.

"In the previous Olympics I've attended, there was never a way for the fans that follow the Winter Olympics to really stay in touch or follow the participants. We're so drawn apart," said Shani Davis, a two-time gold medalist in speedskating who is helping promote #Cheers to Sochi. "To be able to tap into a multibillion-fan following, I think it's going to be amazing. " The Olympics have always been a big deal for McDonald's, a worldwide sponsor of the Games. That's what appeals most to Davis. Vine introduces Web Profiles. By Nick Cicero on Jan 03, 2014 With more than 40 Million users worldwide, Vine has exploded with a unique mobile-first audience. Today Vine introduces Web profiles bringing the 6-second viewing experience to the desktop. Web profiles come with a home feed allowing users to like, comment, and share videos just like on mobile. They also released a new mode for users to watch for an extended period of time, TV Mode.

TV Mode allows users to watch their Vine videos in fullscreen. How Food Brands are harvesting success from trending topics. The Tweets are alive, echoing trends from everywhere… Social listening is key to growing any social media following. One common recommendation to a start up or organization with their eyes set on exponential growth is to focus on trending topics, use current hashtags and join common conversations. I’ll shout out the obvious, worn out examples: Oreo, College Game Day, Stores jumping in with sales and responses ala natural disasters (ex: Urban Outfitter’s Sandy Sale via Business Insider) Many would recommend this to a start up or in growth of social media, when done correctly, small businesses can capitalize on trends in their community, sponsors can utilize buzz from their partnering sports teams or concerts/events. But is it possible for a brand to go too far? To try too hard to jump into a conversation or force their content into relevancy?

So many monumental events happened on Twitter this week that trended in the U.S., internationally, etc. See LA Times recap for more context. Tweets: Why Your Social Strategy Is Not One Size Fits All. Adelynlee. How To Use Data To Create A Fool-Proof Tweet Calendar. 7 Things Your Social Media Consultant Should Tell You. Six Questions to Ask a Social Media Consultant.