Public Relations

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2012 Social Media – The Ultimate Year of Share

posted by Public Relations

If we learned anything about social media in 2011, it’s that it is almost impossible to predict, but we figured we would try to anyway, just for fun. Check out what we think will happen with social media marketing in 2012:

Your friends will have more influence than ever
(Yes, we started off with an easy one.) We’ve already seen Facebook place a large amount of weight on the “share” button as it now appears on every wall post, and new analytics keep track of how many people share your brand with their friends.

In addition to that, the recent introduction of Google’s social search shows your friends’ likes, dislikes and overall commentary on almost anything you search. We saw this rise toward the end of last year and then receive a power boost at the start of 2012. This will only continue as marketers have determined that you are more likely to make a purchase based on a friend’s recommendation.
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The Pinterest of 2011 for the PR and Communications team

posted by Public Relations

Misty Fry, public relations and communications manager, “pins” the team faves of 2011.

Although the thunder::tech team spends much more time thinking forward than looking backward, the best part about writing a post to recap the year is seeing just how far the Public Relations and Communications team and the agency as a whole have come!

As Jason mentioned in his previous Account Services post, thunder::tech’s goal is to continue to live out these four guiding principles:

1. Create great work
2. Provide a high level of customer service
3. Lead and support innovation
4. Be an educational resource for clients

So, what better way to recap the great year than to review how the PR/Communications team achieved this in 2011? Here’s a quick look at some of our favorites.
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Latest social media updates (yes, there's more)

posted by Public Relations

So, we’ve learned in the past few months that when it rains, it pours regarding social media changes. Once one platform makes an announcement, you can almost guarantee that at least four more updates are coming around the corner. That being said, this social media update was inspired by news released by Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, YouTube AND Google+ in the last week. We know it’s a lot to try and stay on top of, so below is a Cliffs Notes version of the updates you should know about.

Facebook

Facebook was in the news multiple times recently. Just doing a quick Web search on Facebook news in the past two weeks will bring up more than 55,000 results. From its purchase of Gowalla to hiding important messages to the security flaw fiasco, the social networking giant has had its hands full. Somehow, in the midst of all of this, they’ve also had time to roll out a few updates:

Subscribe button available for websites

• A Facebook subscribe button can now be installed to any website, which is essentially a follow button. This way, a user can follow a company or brand without necessarily “liking” the page first. Once clicked, the updates will show up in that person’s news feed.

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Ask yourself if Google+ is right for your brand

posted by Public Relations

You’ve probably heard all the buzz about Google+ recently opening up its platform for businesses. Many “how to” guides have been circulating on setting up a brand page as well as articles on why you should “invest in Google+,” but there is one very important question you should ask before you decide to dive in: Does Google+ fit my business strategy?

How do you know if Google+ (or any new social media platform) is right for you and worth the time and investment? Ask yourself the below questions before getting started:

• What do I want to get from this new social media platform and how can I measure it?
• How do successful users make this social media platform effective and how can I utilize it?
• How does this new platform fit within my current marketing strategy and objectives?
• Can we devote the needed resources to engage in it properly?

If you have any doubts answering the above questions, you may want to hold off before jumping into a new social media adventure. Remember, Google+ is still growing and improving the platform, so you shouldn’t feel like you are missing out if you aren’t there right away.
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What does the new Facebook Timeline mean for brands?

posted by Public Relations

The new Facebook Timeline has been quite the buzz in the social media world since Mark Zuckerberg officially previewed the new functionality during the annual f8 conference on Sept. 22. Obviously this drastically changes how users view their personal profile, but in addition to that, Facebook is revamping how users are connected to each other. We can’t help but wonder, what will this mean for company pages? Here are a couple of our initial thoughts.

Deeper Insight
The new Facebook Timeline allows users to more easily navigate their lives, but for companies the biggest news is the fact that users can now do much more than simply “like” something. Now you can read a book, listen to a song, watch a movie and more. Not only that, Facebook knows exactly what books you’ve read, what songs you’ve listened to. This allows for more data mining and better insight into exactly what your customers will react to most. These actions will help brands interact with their customers on a deeper level, allowing them to target more niche markets. Hopefully these actions will somehow be incorporated into Facebook’s page analytics because this type of information is a marketer’s dream.

Rethink Strategy
With this new development, now more than ever it seems pretty obvious Facebook is focused on how users interact socially and not how they can bring brands and customers together. Really this is no big surprise. Facebook has been clear from the start what its intentions are, and giving companies better visibility just isn’t in the cards. The faster brands understand this, the quicker they are able to adapt to the Facebook changes and focus on how these new changes can actually benefit the customer experience.
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