Social bookmarking and why you need it

Hi folks! How`re you doing? ;)

I feel so terrible for leaving you here, all alone, in this lonely Internet, without any new posts for a couple of days. That`s not that I have been procrastinating, in fact, I was doing the opposite - working as a tutor on the Freshers Week in the University of Glasgow. This was so much fun! :-) So great to be in the shoes of the 'university person' again. Oh, I just realised how much I miss my recently ended student days!!!

Anyway, you are probably hungry for some food for thought, don`t you? And I am going to give you some regarding the social bookmarking: what it is, why you need to know about it and how to do it. Enjoy!

1. Social bookmarking is...Well, in a non-digital word bookmarking is a process of putting something (card, piece of paper or a fancy silver bookmark) into the book to note your favourite pages or those that are importnat to you. In the digital word, information in the virtual space can be similarly organised through social bookmarking services. These are the online services where content is 'tagged' and shared in a way so the other people can find their way to what actual interests them. Hm...how can I make sound even simplier...well, most of us use Internet as a source of news: some of you are not necesserly keen to know what is happening in the financial sector, but rather stay updated with the recent technology innovations. Therefore, on social bookmarking website you can go and search directly for the information based on your preferences and using the 'keywords' (say: iPhone 5s, Apple, smartphones).

2. I need to know about social bookmarking services (SBS) because...There are three main reasons, I wouldsay, depending on who you are. (This sounds like a very phylosophical matter - knowing who we are and what we want in this life;-).

As an Internet user in general, you would use SBS because it is an easy and fast way to search for the information, especially if you want to track everything that is online regarding a particular issue. This may be also useful for you professional and studying purposes when you are researching a topic.

The important thing to mention here is that SBS do not actually contain materials (news, resources) per se, but links to those materials, so it kind of looks as a library catalogue or a huge list of references.
So, if you are a student, you would need to know abour SBS to save some time finding sources for your essays and projects.

Finally, if you are PR-person, you should think of SBS as a great tool for driving traffic to your press- and publised campaign materials by tagging them with the relevant key words. For instance, if you are performing a new product launch campaign and have the press release about this e.g. new fabulous fishing kit by FishWithUs you can save the link to this press release on the SBS. Adding the keywords such as 'fishing', 'fishing kit', 'outdoor activities' etc. you will make users who search for this keywords see your press release! Is not it great? Especially, if you think of it from the SEO point of view.

3. I like the idea, tell me how to start! So if you are fancy trying to 'socially bookmark' something, just register with one of the SBS I provide below and see which one you like the most. Finally, I guess for the PR-people it might be a great idea to try using all of them at once (does help to generate traffic).

- Twitter (are you surprised?). By hashtagging people and stuff in general you also bookmark and sort the information, so for the PR - tweeting about your event or product is a great alternative (compliment) to the traditional press release.

- StumbleUpon

- Reddit

- Delicious

- Digg 

- Scoop.it 

- Chime.in

P.S. I know this is not a full list - just those I had in mind. If you know more SBS - let me know. :) Have a great night! I will see (em...talk/write to) you soon!

P.P.S I just realised, another way to use SBS is to promote your blog!! Or my blog :) Feel free to try tagging some of my posts, I will be very grateful :) By the way, many thanks to +Eduardo De Sales for always reading me and commenting on my posts! 

Why your business should be on Google+

Good afternoon, my dear friends, readers and followers! Hi, Mom and Dad, I know you always read me! :)

Today I will share with you some up-to-date piece of knowledge regarding the use of social media channels for business purposes. So, I am sure all of you guys use Facebook and/or Twitter (Vk.com in post Soviet Union countries) as main online communication and connection tool. Obviously, businesses use these SNS for the marketing purposes. For instance, H&M Facebook page with its 16 million Likes can really be named 'encyclopedia example of the social media channels use for retail sector'. On the other hand, Instagram has also proved to be valuable network for fashion brands' online presence. I was always fond of the fashion it-girls like Mira Duma (429k Instagram followers) and how they personalise their businesses (Buro27.ru). Or, as another example, what do you think about Jobs movie promotion campaign? 15 seconds Instagram clips as an alternative to a traditional YouTube trailer looks smart and innovative! (Can you say so about the new iPhone(s)?)

A couple of years ago social media marketing was considered the biggest trend in the industry. I believe it still is important with all the efforts big brands invest into maintaining their SNS pages and even making CRM platforms out of them. One trend I have noticed while in the UK is the emphasise put on Google+ as a No.1 social network for businesses. So, have you heard of Google+?

Google+ is a relatively new SNS launched by Google (obviously) in 2011 and outnumbering Twitter users in just 2 years period! I have been using it for 3 months only, but  can already share with you some hints on why it is important to have your business 'google plused':

1. Search engine optimization  is the biggest concern. On the contrary to websites like YouTube or Facebook, whose content is quite restriced from SEO assessing, Google Plus represents the social network automatically indexed by Google Search. Just like any ther web page, content on the Google+ appears on search, can and does influence your page rank. Moreover, the high ranked information shared on this SNS stays in top search results for years. To compare, your awesomely popular Tweet will be lost in the Net within minutes. Interesting study published by MOZ suggests +1 action on Google+ (smth similar to Facebook`s Like) is 'more highly correlated with search rankings than any other factor. In fact, the correlation of Google +1s beat out other well known metrics including linking root domains, Facebook shares, and even keyword usage'.

2. The new old Authorship. I find my self producing Facebook masterpiece-posts, sharing genious 140 words on Twitter (occasionally) and writing this, hopefully interesting, blog ; clearly, I want the whole world to know who the author is. It is not like we live in the 100%-piracy-copyright infreengement-free world, you know. :) Anyway, Google Plus have introduced this new feature called Google Authorship which works in the following way. First, you should register your email as an author. Secondly, when you share your publications from other web sites (e.g. http://whatiknowishare.blogspot.com) on Google+ do not forget to mention your authorship. As the result, when somebody will google an article written by you, your profile photo from Google Plus will apear next to the search result. 

Again, it is important for search optimization, for promoting your content (as in 'more by Fabulous Author') and building personal brand. 

3. Google Timing+ my third favourite feature offered by G+. How do you know when your readers/customers/clients/fans are online? When should you send our your press release, Tweet latest rumors or post picture of the recently launched products? One way to go, is to read this study by Buddy Media naming the end of the week and weekends better time for online engagement. Thus, B2B Twitter  is more efficient on weekdays, whilst on B2C works best for Facebook on the weekends. You can find even more impressive data there, but another way to discovere the right timing is to go on Google+. Timing+ allows for automatic calculation of when your content gets the highest attention through +1 and re-posts. Therefore, you will always be smart in time managing your content. By the way, did you know that the best time for David Beckham to be active on G+ is Thursday between 20:00 and 21:00? Now, you know! 

There are so many more great features Google Plus has to offer, have fun trying out! 

'Wrecking' Hannah Montana Part 2

Hi guys!

I knew this was coming! Remember what I`ve told you about Miley Cyrus a couple of posts ago? Just today the girl released her new video 'Wrecking Ball' where she is nacked, rides the big steel ball, licks the thing and smashes everything with a baseball stick. I say 'weird'! What do you think?

In terms of marketing part of the whole event, the video aims on beating new record on Vevo (previous one was for the song 'We Can`t Stop'). By the time of me writing this post, this video already had more than 14 million view. Good luck with that!

By the way, did you know, that the outrageous VMA performance made Hannah Montana the most widely mentioned person on Twitter with 4.5 million mentions during the performance only?

Enjoy the video, tell me what you think about this new image of Milley and come back tomorrow for a really serious post! 

Press Release writing tips for Dummies and Gurus

Hi guys! How`ve you been? :)

I feel like the happiest person in the world today - I have moved to a new gorgeous flat, my mom has Birthday and I am becoming famous! :) For those who knows Russian, check this piece at Media Marketing Review.

Thanks again for reading me!

Ok, let`s do business now. Today I am going to share with you something that I have learnt about Press Releases. PR-gurus might find some of these tips pretty obvious or simple - just skip this part and go to the last paragraphs (this is where all the cool stuff will be). Enjoy!

1. Press release is like Masters dissertation - needs deadline and/or inspiration to be produces.
Moreover, I compare this two types of written materials, because they both have to be informative, logically structured, clear and useful (probably, 'critical analysis' and 'contribution to the field of knowledge' are two things which make dissertation more demanding). Thus, it does take time to decide what to write and how. The important point is that not every single piece of information is newsworthy should be sent to journalists. Traditionally, the list of newsworthy items include: events, products and services launches, awards, sales, celebrations, scandals etc. (hm...why would you want to be involved in scandal? Unless...you are Miley Syrus :).
However, even the worst story can be 'newsjacked' and you can always make a big story from nothing...well, almost nothing or make the big story huge! For instance, with this 'Yahoo changing logo' story, initially you would think of two stages for publicity 'we are going to change our logo'  and 'here is how we did it'. Yahoo managed to get 30 days long on-going buzz around the brand with proper Twitter campaign and involvement of every social media channel. People were looking forward, guessing, offering their variants of logo. It might be argued that the outcomes of the brand icon change are rather dissapointing, but the PR was great!

2. The 5 “W”s and an “H” is what makes press release work. These are the five question that must be answered in the first couple of sentences , so that it is clear what it all is about. Here is a check list for you:

• Who?  Is the story about
• What? This person/group of people/company etc. have done
• Where? Did he/she/it/they do it
• When? Did it happen
• Why? That is always a tricky question :) Why does everyone (target audience) needs to know this
• How? Details on the previous points.

3. Design for journalists and technology. Interestingly, the tricks of making journalists to actualy read and consider you story differ from country to country. Well, at least this is what I discovered in th UK. Back at home I was taught to always send releases as attachments in .doc format - it is convinient to edit the file, so your release (slightly changed) can be published as a news story within half an hour or so. On the contrary, in Glasgow I learnt that journalists are IT-geeks :) I mean, they always check emails on their smartphones or tablets. Thus, if press release is attached - chances to have it read decrease significantly. Every extra click (Save as - Rename - Open etc) costs extra time --> time is money --> look for your email in the Trash. To sum up, the safest way to go is to both insert press release into the body of the letter and attach it. However, you should never write stuff like 'Hi, I am from this PR agency, find our release attached'. Say no to impersonal, template emails without any specification of why you deserve attention!

4. It is all about the journalists. Yes, about 50% of the press release success depends on how you approach journalists. There is a lot of secrets to building sustainable relationships with press people and you can check them here. The most important idea to remember is that headline is a king - if it does not stand out from hundreds of other emails, your story will get lost. Secondly, every person loves attention. Show some knowledge of their previous articles, do not forget to complement and do not send press materials about 'new bar opening on the corner' to the person writing about health and medicine! 

I have found this two amazing Twitter accounts (@DearPR & @DearJournalist really helpful in this sense. These are the two pages  and Dear Journalist  (one for PR people and another one for journalists) full with great and witty tips on Do`s and Dont`s for those who wants to be be professional. 

Just to give you an idea, here is a tip for PR:

@DearPR: please don't send pitches that are pages long and aren't even on my beat.

@DearPR Morning media events should always have coffee available. Always.

@DearPR I'm not the boss of my colleagues, so stop asking if I can send someone down to attend the event in my place.

And these are for Journalists:

@DearJournalist

Funny how when more celebrities were added to the tip sheet you are suddenly available to attend the show.

@DearJournalist

Dear Journalist: What part of one giftbag per person can you not understand?

@DearJournalist

Dear Journalist: You misspelled the clients name. AGAIN!

I think this is hilarious and useful :)

5. One last tip. In this digital world there can be so many new ways of delivering the story without having a casual press release. The above mentioned Twitter is a great place for making news. Just Tweet what`s happening for your client and make it special. Like in that story with Susan Boyle and her new album. In a nutshell, her PR agent decided to make a special hashtag for the event, which did not look ok. See for your self - #susanalbumparty :)) Later on it was changed to #SusanBoylesAlbumParty, but I guess hashtag fail was a great PR trick on its own. 

Tell me what you think and may all your press releases be successful! :)

Miley Cyrus on image creation and reputation management

Hi people! :)

It`s been days...I know. Blame dissertation, flat hunting and weekend.:) I was going to share some serious stuff with you, but after this 'Miley Cyrus rocking the Internet with her VMA performance' situation I thought I should just tell you what I think...and I have like so many thoughts!:)

This morning I came across memes and articles on how this performance reached thousands of Tweets in one minute. My colleague shared with me a link with feminist perspective on what happened and a blog post on content marketing lessons to learn from this story. All of this was interesting, however, I thought of a different angle from which this Miley Cyrus thing can be used to provide some useful tips. There we go:

Reputation vs Image = Hannah Montana vs Miley Cyrus

I remember lecturers on the PR courses I attended a couple of years ago told as: image a photo - look that can be captured in one particular moment, so every person can have different images every day - hipster, punk, lady, glamorous and so on. Whilst the reputation is something consisting of many images, just like a photoalbum. Therefore, a person can be dressed differently and wear different make up, but all of this influence of the reputation in more long-term perspective. Similarly, brand and business may sell and produce various products and services, but all of this works towards the reputation they have in the eyes of the customers. Bad reputation is something that almost equals death to a business (or at least a noticeable crisis), so reputation has to be looked after.

In Miley-Cyrus-VMA-performance context, the image is something she created by producing those weird moves in her 'daring' outfit surrounded by rather creepy teddy bears or whatever it was. No, no I am not the one to judge, I am doing 'marketing approach' here, so let's just accept the whole performance and think of the message behind it. It was already written in one of the articles I referenced above, that one way to interpret this situation is as if it was meant to be 'a brave way to attract Twitter followers' and create social media buzz. In this sense, the performance was really successful. 

On the other hand, I (and assumingly a decent part of the audience) would describe that performance as a way to get rid of the lovely-cute-childish-innocent Hannah Montana character following her whatever Miley does. Well, and here is where the concepts of image and reputation come into play. Firstly, that is where all the negative comments arrive - people just do not understand what all of those moves have to do with the precious teenagers series pop star.

Secondly, You just cannot change the whole reputation by one image or in this case performance? Or..can you? Obviously you can, but only in a bad way. They say that customers and clients are not very likely to immediately express their loyalty and provide brands with trust credits, because it takes years to impress and make them fall in love with your products, but one 'bikini-sticked-out-tongue and supposed-to-be-sexy-moves' can totally ruin it for your business. I mean, it is not like you are going to shock your store visitors in this way or something, but say you decided to make a re-branding with completely different messages or started targeting a new audience, or launched a not so good product or simply argued on the phone with your frequent customer, and that is it. There is not so many ways to win the loyality back. Unfortunately...

To conclude, if Miley Cyrus wants to grow from Hannah to the more Gaga-like celebrity or follow  +badgalriri steps, one-performance image is not enough. Can`t wait to see what`s coming next. You rock it girl! :)

XoXo