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Aug 19 2011

How a search engine works and ranks pages

August 19, 2011 – 9:29 am

By Jason Poulos

In my previous post, I highlighted a few reasons why SEO should be a part of your digital strategy. In case you missed it, Philadelphia SEO summed it up perfectly. Their response to my post was “Because it works!” Correct! SEO does work, and it should be a part of your digital strategy when building an online reputation.

Now that you’re on board the “SEO is awesome because it works” train, I wanted to explain some basic elements of SEO. Before we get too far down the road on how to optimize your site, let’s first understand how a search engine works.

Search Engine Basics

User browses to a search engine. User types in what they are looking for. User gets results. Simple right? But how does the search engine know what to place first and how to rank all those results? Here’s how they do it:

  1. Search engine crawls and indexes your site: Every search engine has a crawler. Google, Bing and Yahoo! all have some version of a web crawler (aka robot, bot or spider). This “crawler” is a piece of software that goes through your site (in a peaceful, non-disruptive manner), reads everything and then stores selected pieces of your site’s information in a data center. This stored information is then cataloged in a manner that the search engine can quickly return results when a user searches.
  2. Search engine delivers results: A user searches and upon hitting the submit button, the search engine goes through all that stored data and tries to serve up the most relevant info to the search query. A myriad of items go into ranking all those pages, but two of the biggest factors are relevancy and importance. Relevancy can be looked at this way; “is what was entered in the search box anywhere on your site?” If yes, (for this example) the search engine “stars” that page.

Ranking Factors

The engine then looks at all those “starred” pages and assess that pages importance, which can be interpreted as popularity. A popular page is one with high amounts of traffic and credible links to it. The engine evaluates the relevancy and popularity and then displays those pages for you in a list on your results page.

Both importance and relevancy have a ton of aspects associated with them and both get wrapped up in this giant algorithm that search engines use to evaluate and truly rank these pages.

No one truly knows the exact formula for getting those number one rankings, but over time search professionals have figured out the general elements that go into the ranking structure. Knowing what the search engine’s look for allows us to align a website’s structure and content with those ranking factors. As stated above, two of the most important factors to a strong ranking are keyword usage (what a search user types into the search engine) and links back to your site. Credible sites linking back to your content combined with a keyword rich site will yield strong results. For a full, in-depth and technical look at ranking, check out SEOmoz’s 2011 ranking factors.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jason Poulos | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)
Aug 18 2011

Brand Loyalty in a Recession—who’s Double Dipping?

August 18, 2011 – 2:00 pm

By Jason Stemm @NYCubsFan

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Private labels have prospered in the down economy. Store brands are popping up everywhere from drugstores to specialty stores. Most people are surprised to learn that the largest grocery brand in the country is Great Value, Walmart’s store brand. Incidentally, Walmart sells more food than the three largest grocery chains (Kroger, Safeway and Supervalu) combined. Most consumers select store brands for the lower price, however, some retailers like Trader Joe’s have managed to instill loyalty for their brand. For my 22 month old daughter, I can swap Stonyfield’s Banilla for Trader Joe’s Vanana without a blink of the eyes. If I tried to swap her Cheerios for Toasted Oats, we may have problems. Often times, stores don’t want you to know the company making their private label products, as it dilutes the strategy of customer loyalty. They want them to think these are products you can’t find anywhere else.

Big brands are battling for shelf space as room is made for the growing line of private label products. For major retailers like Walmart, it has become an opportunity to leverage improved pricing, expanded advertising support and in some cases, a new manufacturer for its own brand. Expect this to continue as Walmart sales have declined for the past nine quarters. Food, and especially fresh produce, has helped minimize these declines through strong growth. Other retailers have taken notice and turned to private labels to improve diminishing margins.

Most often, when you look beyond price, store brands have little to offer. Walmart has made a conscious effort to distinguish its store brand rather than trying to mimic name brands. When they can instill a belief in quality among consumers, they show shoppers they have nothing to lose and everything to save. What are supermarkets doing to instill this confidence? Here are four successful tactics I have seen:

Exclusive Items—Trader Joe’s has built its business on this, even if they are not the only place they can be found. The Fresh Market has also done a good job of this, by identifying up and coming specialty brands without national awareness or distribution that can help build a sense of premium exclusivity. Other chains like Meijer have established a subset of their private label brand that offers unique quality. Meijer Gold looks to deliver local, family-owned food products that are one-of-a-kind.

Price Specials—Store brands already have an advantage on price, but a modest discount tied into a multi-unit purchase can trigger a trial purchase and help customers get over their attachment to the name brand. This tactic should be used sparingly, so that consumers don’t become trained to only purchase when discounted. On a weekly basis, the store brand will win out on price.

Sampling—If you can’t pull customers from their brands on price alone, sampling product can lower the purchasing hurdle of quality concerns. In a Deloitte report, 80% of consumers believed that private label products were made by the same company as the brand name items. This is generally the case, with some exceptions. The benefit will extend beyond the product being sampled to other store brand products as customers gain confidence in it.clip_image003

Recipes—Package recipes have been a strategy for the largest brands for decades. It not only provides usage solutions for consumers, but a list of additional purchases. For store brands, this is an even greater advantage, directing them to other items you carry for incremental sales. This can even be utilized outside of store brands. When discounting chicken legs, provide a simple recipe with store brand seasoning, sauces and dressings to add to their list.

Brand loyalty is waning in the recession according to recent reports. Some categories see steeper declines than others. Some brands will do anything to be noticed, like Abercrombie & Fitch’s plea to the Jersey Shore cast to stop wearing its clothes. A successful store brand will offer unique products as well as those that mimic popular brands and offer value to their customers. The Deloitte study also showed that less than 1 in 3 brands are considered “must-haves” in most categories. This helps explain why most product and retail execs are so bullish on private labels even when the recession ends.

For retailers to enjoy this continued growth, store brands need to move out of the value category and be recognized as quality, reliable products. If they don’t work now to build their own brand loyalty, their brand-loving customers may begin to look elsewhere as the economy improves. Moves like the one by Meijer to develop its Gold line can go a long way in building that loyalty and casting a positive glow on its other private label items and the Meijer brand in general. It is a new era for store brands beyond the low cost mimics of crackers and soup, and one that I think is here to stay.

Photo:  StoreBrandsDecisions.com

ProlificLiving.com

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jason Stemm | Posted in Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Is PR the New Face of Journalism?

August 18, 2011 – 9:45 am

by April Sciacchitano (@aprilcs)

Newspapers have been through a cruel cycle. Newsrooms get cut, reporters do more with less and readers and advertisers focus on digital – repeat. The documentary Page One: Inside the New York Times does a great job telling us how 2009’s economic downturn shook the industry.

What it doesn’t cover is that new media isn’t finished with journalism. How will we pay for news when information is free?

As an equally affected party, PR has a role in reshaping news under a digital delivery model. The time of the PR fox versus the reporter hound is over – we all create news that goes directly to readers. Brands are covering their own beat, often exceptionally well.

You can call what PR does “creating content” and what reporters do “journalism” – but to the reader, it’s all news and information. Originating as a new media catch-all, the term “content” is for writers with overt bias, writers without credentials; bloggers, PR professionals, authorless articles posted on a site: The journalistically untrained.

But like it or not, the untrained are shaping opinion, framing topics and setting the agenda. Don’t forget, the Supreme Court has yet to decide who a journalist is. (Although the issue is bubbling up, beginning with bloggers’ shield laws in NJ Supreme Court).

As a result, it’s important for PR professionals to shake this perception and take on journalistic attributes. As newspapers become less prolific, what must brand-aligned communicators do to be maintain content integrity? 

Create a calling to exceptionalism.

Now that your story isn’t filtered through journalist’s eyes, we need to ask ourselves the tough questions: Could this be deceptive or misleading? Could it be confusing or misread?

Understand the high stakes.  

PR produced-content won’t go unchecked. If you’re deceptive and unvetted by a third party, the penalty can be big: Poor content will be called out in forums, by bloggers, on Facebook, and by a traditional news outlet. And more importantly, you’ll feel it at the cash register.

In this environment where every mistake lives online forever, it’s important to go above and beyond to indicate bias and disclaimers.

We’re doomed!

Kind of.  The way we read today is either evolving or becoming extinct.  The public will have to become its own watchdog, making the comment section potentially as meaningful as the news itself. Readers will have to work harder to get a balanced story. They’ll need to learn how to curate their news, become fact-checking good citizens and seek out opposing views. 

But some things won’t change. Major news sources will stay in the game and remain trusted news outlets. Truths and lies will be told, and we’ll talk about it, interpret it, call it into question. Just without a paper boy on the corner.

What PR needs to think about is a world where “content” and “news” are indistinguishable. It gives us a great deal of power- and responsibility goes right along with it.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By April Sciacchitano | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends | Comments (5)
Aug 16 2011

Brownouts on the Way?

August 16, 2011 – 8:24 am

by Mike Mulvihill

no-lighting-brownout

Great news! New EPA regulations coming down the pike will force many utilities to reduce emissions. The bad news? These same regs could cause us to lose as much as 7 percent of the nation’s electricity generation pretty quickly.

The E.P.A. estimates its rule on air toxins and mercury expected out in November will result in a loss of 10,000 megawatts — or almost 1 percent of the generating capacity in the United States. Electricity experts say that rule, combined with additional rules on coal ash and cooling water, will impact 48,000 megawatts to 80,000 megawatts, or 3.5 to 7 percent of U.S. generating capacity.

Short term, this could make many parts of the country more vulnerable to electricity shortages on the hottest days of the year – like any of the past several weeks for much of the country. Bringing brownouts and blackouts back into our summer vocabulary after years of absence.

But shortages are only in play if power generators opt to shutdown old coal-burning power plants before new capacity (likely cleaner burning natural gas plants) can come on line. Hundreds of these old plants could be kept on line and modified to meet the tougher emission regulations at a cost of up to $700 million per plant .

Whether it’s updating coal-fired plant or building natural gas powered plants, utilities will be spending lots of money on fossil fuel -fired power plants instead of investing in new age generation. Because alternative energy sources, most notably wind – which utilities have invested substantially in over recent years – don’t solve peak demand issues. For instance, wind is almost useless on hot, still days when air-conditioning drives up demand. In fact, the PJM grid counts a 100-megawatt wind farm as being worth only 13 megawatts on a peak summer day. While wind turbines can produce a lot of kilowatt hours, they do much of this production on windy winter nights.

So while new EPA regs are well-intentioned to reduce emissions, they will potentially cause electricity shortages and will definitely cause utilities to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in fossil fuel power plants. If this results in the oldest, dirtiest plants shutting down to be replaced by cleaner burning alternatives, then this is a positive move. But perhaps it would be better for the environment (the E in EPA) to drive this level of investment into green energy technology to develop better ways to store wind and solar energy for use when and where it is needed most. That would sound amazing like an agency acting upon a national energy policy rather than just a rules making regulatory body.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
Aug 15 2011

Mom Bloggers Get More Eyeballs than Some Newspapers: How to Market to Mom Bloggers?

August 15, 2011 – 8:35 am

By Priya Ramesh (@newpr)

mom-blogger-payMcDonald’s recently rolled out the healthier menu for kids program to spread the word about downsizing the french fry portions and adding apples to every kids’ meal. Besides the usual suspects, Facebook, Twitter and traditional outlets, they cleverly engaged the powerful influence of mom bloggers. Rick Wion, director of social media for McDonald’s, says “Mom bloggers are very networked and very linked-in. They spread information very, very quickly.” He also called them “key influencers” and made the statement that some mom bloggers get more eyeballs than city newspapers.

According to BSM Media, moms spend $2.1 trillion a year, and the 21st century mom doesn’t just buy diapers and cleaning supplies, but makes purchasing decisions on everything from cars to electronics. According to Mom Central Consulting, 96 percent of moms value the recommendations they find on mom blogs. So there you go, have you started engaging with mom bloggers to take your brand message online?

Here are two key things to keep in mind before you reach out to mom bloggers so you can be realistic about what to expect. Thanks to Wendy Piersall for these stats http://www.wendypiersall.com/mom-blog-statistics/

  • Mom bloggers are 21% more likely than the general blogging population to be approached by a brand. (Technorati)
  • Moms are picky about what brands they blog about – a whopping 77% of mom bloggers will only write about products or brands that they approve of. Another 14% will write about brands or products they boycott. (Technorati)

Keeping that in mind, let’s think beyond just pitching to mom bloggers and consider how you can engage them to be your brand advocates. These are some best practices that have worked for us at CRT/tanaka in trying to take our B2C clients to mom bloggers:

Invite mom bloggers early on in the planning stage versus the launch mode: A majority of marketers still treat mommy bloggers as a tactic versus a strategic partnership. Instead of introducing your finished product to the Mom Central and BlogHer networks, think about bringing them into your planning stages. You will be surprised how much they can offer in terms of product positioning, pricing and overall promotion strategy. I have personally seen the quality of product launches go up when we have our trusted mom bloggers involved in the initial planning stages versus just “pitching” them the product.

Don’t invite mom bloggers to the party if you are not willing to listen and change: From the Motrin moms to the P&G diaper snafu, mom bloggers are a force to reckon with online. They are the closest you can get to your consumers’ pulse point on a given product or message because of the valuable relationship they share with their millions of readers. Mom bloggers engage in daily conversations with your target audience hence know what works and doesn’t work when it comes to marketing to women. You got to respect that and leverage their knowledge and expertise in getting your messaging right. If your product marketing isn’t willing to shift focus or change tracks based on the feedback you receive from mom bloggers then my recommendation is not to invite them to the table. On the contrary if you are receptive to their feedback, you might also be that much closer to getting your messaging right.

Treat mom bloggers as trusted advisors and keep your communication channels always open with them: One area where brand marketers can be doing a better job is nurturing the relationships they took the time and energy to establish with mom bloggers. If you think having that initial kick off and a follow up meeting is enough to harness the power of mommy bloggers, you have missed out on the long term opportunity to frequently check-in with your trusted advisors. Make it a commitment to meet with them at-least twice a year. Wal-Mart was one of the first ones to invest in a mom blogger initiative. The Wal-Mart Stores’ Eleven Moms panel were initially engaged to weigh in on P&G, Coke and Campbell brands. Wal-Mart has now expanded its program to work closely with mom bloggers. I have had the pleasure of working with one of the eleven founding Wal-Mart mom bloggers, Jenn Fowler who blogs at  http://www.frugalupstate.com/about/ and every interaction with her for our client who is in the health and wellness space has been hugely valuable.

Familiarize yourself with what they are passionate about before approaching them: Yeah you have heard this time and again but this is so critical to having the right member on your mom blogger team. Investing some time upfront to research, understand and subscribe to their blogs goes a long way in bringing the right expertise to your brand. Do not approach a mom blogger who is a vegetarian and blogs about vegan food with your new chicken soup recipe. You get the point.

Keep the FTC Regulations in mind when working with mom bloggers: Under the FTC’s new rules, http://www.pcworld.com/article/173169/ftcs_new_rules_for_bloggers_a_quick_guide.html all bloggers MUST disclose any gifts and/or fee they are receiving to write about a brand/product. So if you get a nice review from a mommy blogger who is a member of your social media advisory board (receives a paid fee) or is someone you are getting ready to sponsor for a conference, it is your responsibility to ensure they have full disclosure about their relationship with you on their blog. The FTC guidelines are meant to keep the corporations in check so don’t be stressed out about working closely with mom bloggers as long as you have full disclosures in place.

A good place to start identifying and understading mom bloggers would be BlogHer (the largest online women’s network) and Mom Central. I have had the good fortune of interacting with Lisa Stone, CEO and founder of BlogHer and I can vouch for the wealth of expertise her army of women bloggers bring to marketers like us who spend millions of dollars in focus groups instead of just engaging with mom bloggers. Let’s get smart about leveraing the right “influentials” for that next new product and let’s engage the powerhouse of marketing, the mom bloggers to get it right!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Priya Ramesh | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
Aug 12 2011

Why should search engine optimization be a part of your digital strategy?

August 12, 2011 – 9:28 am

SEO-Tutorial-Search-Engine-Optimalization

By Jason Poulos

For me, it’s a simple question, but others might struggle when the above question is posed about search engine optimization (SEO).

If you want your website to be found through a search engine, your site needs to be optimized in a manner that search engines find friendly. From the content itself down to how the site is built, all factor into how well your site ranks in search engines. This process of tweaking a website to be more search friendly is called search engine optimization.

Years ago, simply having a web presence could yield high rankings in search, but those days are long gone. Today, being found through search is a much more extensive process. If you want to be found, having a web presence is important, but having an optimized website for search is even more critical.

If building an online reputation and driving traffic to your website is a priority, here are the most important reasons why to optimize when planning your digital strategy:

  • People use Search Engines
    If you use the Internet, you’ve probably used a search engine. More than 77 percent of mobile consumers use search engines to find information, and Google has about 3 billion daily searches. Optimizing your website will increase your chances of standing out from the crowd in the eyes of the search engines.
  • 1st Page Results
    Only about 10 percent of web users venture past the third page of their search results. An optimized site can help you raise your site to the first page of results.
  • SEO Works
    Assuming you follow the industries best practices and are not trying to trick the search engines, you will rank better. If managed correctly, and without any tomfoolery, your site will inevitably rank better than prior to optimization.
  • SEO is Measurable
    Using tools like Google Analytics, you can measure the success of an SEO campaign and measure pre-site optimization search traffic to that of post-site optimization. Reports of this nature can be a valuable tool for you to track the origin of search engine traffic, measure “conversion” (how these searches have converted into sales), and in turn, demonstrate the return on investment of an SEO campaign for your client. Compared to traditional methods such as direct mail or banner ads, if done properly, SEO will have a significantly higher ROI.
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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jason Poulos | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , | Comments (4)
Aug 11 2011

Google+: Where’s the Beef Wellington

August 11, 2011 – 2:00 pm

By Jason Stemm @NYCubsFan

clip_image002I’ve been on Google+ for over a month now. I was intrigued when people like Chris Brogan and Robert Scoble made the switch. As they quickly discovered, it offers great opportunities for sharing and discussion. I have found slower adoption in the food niche. Access is still limited, and many that are active on it now are in tech and social media, but as the network opens up and enhancements are made, the potential for foodies to connect is tremendous.

Already, people are using hangouts to conduct cooking schools. The limit to 10 participants is a downside. If that is expanded, or larger group sizes offered at a cost by Google, chefs, bloggers and food companies will have direct access and engagement with customers in their home. Imagine the potential for education and product introduction.

Lee Allison, an IT guy by day, has always had a passion for cooking. He enjoys the social aspect of not only eating, but also preparing a meal, and is starting to push those size limitations with his G+ Cooking School. He and Eric McKee started early, creating a simple calendar with meal themes. A shopping list is posted beforehand enabling people to cook along in their own kitchen, ask questions and share experiences and tips. After recent attention from the New York Times and Guy Kawasaki, he tried to accommodate additional participants through HangOutParty.com. It is a new, non-Google site that allowed another 15-17 people to watch along and chat through IM. No indication how many people it can handle, but there were some technical glitches as I watched them prepare gnocchi last night. To stay ahead of demand, they have launched The Social Skillet, with the first class on Hand-rolled Portobello Ravioli scheduled for Monday evening. For those that miss a class, videos are recorded and available online for playback.

I joined one hangout lead by Danielle Gould of Food + Tech Connect that included Mike Lee who is also using Hangouts to lead cooking classes, and a G+ developer leveraging the network to crowd source information as he develops a business model to connect local food producers with customers. This taps into one of the networks best features, the ability to discuss and collaborate. A simple technique I learned from one of my circles for setting up a poll is to pose the question and provide options in the reply. People can then use the +1 button to register their choice.

Food communicators are not yet prevalent on Google+, with low activity from established voices that only appear to have created an account. I believe there is the potential for that to change, but the jury is still out on Google+ and its potential in the long run. It is interesting that no one is in more people’s circles than Mark Zuckerberg. Perhaps he agrees with others who see Google+ as a greater threat to Skype than Facebook. Tom Anderson, everyone’s first friend on MySpace, is also widely followed and feels his creativity has been rejuvenated by the platform.

Right now, I am monitoring and learning the network. As access and features are expanded, I am excited to see where it is headed. When the critical mass is there, we will be ready to guide and establish our clients in the space. Whether hosting cooking hangouts from our in-house test kitchen, or taking advantage of features that are yet to be launched, we aren’t looking to just chase the next shiny object, but ensure we don’t miss the boat or are late to the hangout.

Photo from Simply Recipes

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jason Stemm | Posted in Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (3)

He May Be a Doc, But It’s My Foot!

August 11, 2011 – 9:06 am

By Debbie Myers

Oops Sign

If I’ve heard it once, I’ve heard it 25 times. “So, what are we operating on, Mrs. Myers?” Obligingly, I always answered, “My right foot,” but I’m really thinking “Please tell me you know.” From the insurance company, to the admissions clerk, the pre-op nurse, the anesthesiologist and, finally, the surgeon; the question was asked over and over again prior to the surgical repair of – yes – my right foot.

As annoying (and somewhat comical) the continuous questioning became, I consider myself among one of the lucky ones for having a system of providers committed to preventing wrong-site surgeries. The Joint Commission, a national group that accredits hospitals, issued a Universal Protocol for hospitals in 2003 which requires pre-procedure verification, site marking, and a time out for the surgical team to make sure all of their ducks are in a row. As added precaution, Medicare came along in 2008 and included wrong-site surgery in its list of “never events.” These are errors deemed so egregious that they should never occur, and Medicare will not pay providers if one takes place. With Medicare’s financial incentive and some basic, common sense check-listing, a patient should feel confident that wrong-site surgeries are a thing of the past. Right?

Sadly, this is not the case. In an article published this summer in Kaiser Health News, the author states that “some researchers and patient safety experts say the problem of wrong-site surgery has not improved and may be getting worse.” The article goes on to site issues such as physicians refusing to comply with timeouts, surgical team fears of speaking up, lack of real punishment by hospitals or the legal system and time pressures to conduct as many surgeries as possible. Yet, in cases where the rules are adhered to, wrong-site surgeries decrease.

The medical and healthcare professions have got to get its arms around the serious issue of medical errors. It’s an enormous team effort that requires everyone involved to participate, including the patient. As I prepared for my surgery, I knew I had responsibilities too to ensure my safety. Here’s a checklist I created for myself that you might find helpful:0105-doctor-visit_li

  1. Have someone with you at doctor appointments and the day of surgery – a family member or friend. Ask them to write everything down and to ask the questions you are forgetting to ask.
  2. If the doctor or healthcare professional does not ask the “So, what are we operating on?” question, ask it yourself. Help them with their own checklist.
  3. Make a list of every medication you take, and bring it with you to doctor appointments and to the hospital on surgery day. Make sure you know what medications to take the day of surgery and what, if any, should be taken and avoided after surgery. Don’t forget to include any supplements.
  4. Ask family members, physicians and nurses to wash their hands or use disposable gloves before touching you. Really, it’s OK to do that. Infections can kill you.
  5. Make sure your physician marks the site of your surgery. I am still trying to wash off the arrows and stars, but who cares. My doctor got it right! And, for that, I am grateful.
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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Debbie Myers | Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (1)
Aug 10 2011

Women in Wine: Drinking our Way to the Top

August 10, 2011 – 9:52 am

THE BOOZE BIN

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

winespillwoman Ten years ago, I landed my first gig in the wine industry at a small, but respected wine magazine. Coming out of an all-women’s college known for its influential alumnae (Gloria Steinem, Julie Child, Sylvia Plath, etc.), I don’t remember ever feeling intimidated by what I was told was a male-dominated field. If anything, it made me want it more. Ironically, I had chosen wine as my calling over another male-dominated field, having spent most of college pouring over weighty pre-med textbooks.

Over the next decade, I bounced from one side of the industry to the next, never really taking note until just now that every company I have ever worked for was run by men. The wine magazine, the chain of boutique wine shops, the wine communications agency, the wine events business, the winery and importer….all dudes at the reins. Even now, with a powerhouse female mentor as one of the heads of my agency, it remains a fact that the majority of our highest positions are held by men…and this is PR, an industry known for its strength in XX chromosomes.

Having grown up a feisty tomboy in a family with two older brothers, I never minded being one of the few ladies playing in the sandbox. My powerhouse mom probably had a lot to do with this, but also, I always felt I was following my passion and loved every minute of it. I only really thought of it this morning after reading a few interesting posts on the topic on Tom Wark’s Fermentation blog, winner of this year’s Wine Bloggers Conference best wine blog award.

womenforwinesense21birthdayAs Tom points out, this year marks the 21st birthday of Women for Wine Sense (WWS), the “premier worldwide grassroots organization for women interested in wine.” Founded in 1990, this educational and networking organization has helped educate and support women hoping to break into the wine industry through classes, events, tastings and annual scholarships. To celebrate the big year, this awesome organization is offering a discounted “Afficianado’s” membership for only $70 for two years.

Other young women wine lovers often ask me how to crack into the industry. A group like WWS is a great first step. I truly understand their desire to get in…I still love my job as much as I did a decade ago.

So, here is my advice for them. Learn (and taste) as much as you can, network your skirt off and don’t take no for an answer. In the words of my powerhouse (and wise) mother, if someone says no to you, just assume they misunderstood the question.

Cheers!

Photos courtesy of Women of Wine and Women for Wine Sense.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Pia Mara Finkell | Posted in The Booze Bin, Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (10)
Aug 8 2011

Stop being the “social media helpdesk” and cross-train your company to be social

August 8, 2011 – 12:28 pm

By Priya Ramesh (@newpr)

Don’t become the Social Media Helpdesk. Implement an enterprise-wide social strategy.

social-organization1

"An Ideal Social Organization" as described by Michael Brito, VP of Social Media, Edelman Digital

Online Reputation is everybody’s responsibility and even though the lead social strategist is responsible for maintaining an overall positive sentiment, it is also the responsibility of the social media lead to establish an enterprise-wide social framework where members from a cross functional team (HR, PR, Customer Service, Legal) are well versed with the basics of social engagement and are empowered to be brand evangelists. Recently, I was on a call with IBM’s program manager for social brand engagement, George Faulkner and something he said made perfect sense. George, Deirdre Breakenridge, Diane Gomez and I are on a PRSA International panel on “Identify, Implement and Train – Moving Beyong the Basic Social Media Policy” and during our planning call, George mentioned, “I only focus these days on empowering others at IBM to do social media.”

So what do we mean by implement an enterprise-wide social strategy? You could get started with the following first steps:

Establish a company-wide social media policy: Yeah, you will be surprised at the vast majority of companies that still don’t have a policy in place. At CRT/tanaka, we ensure that’s the first question we ask our clients, “Do you have a social media policy?” Here’s a social media policy template we share with our clients which can be further customized to meet your organizational needs. The social media policy helps to create a general framework and should be used more as an “Empowering” mechanism versus a “Controlling” process. By introducing a social media policy that outlines the do’s and don’ts of engaging online, you have taken the first step to educate and empower your staff.

Identify and establish SOCIAL SWAT members in different departments: Let’s face it, there are those that have an interest in “people”, “process” and more importantly like to “interact and help” and there are others who don’t want anything to do with “people’ and “interaction.” You want to stick to the former group who are your prime candidates for the Social SWAT team. Collaborate with department heads to identify Customer Service, HR, Marketing, PR, Legal staff who will also be natural fits to extend what they do offline to online channels. Social media is NOT just about technology and tools but MORE about people so find members within your organization who show signs of a good community manager.

Train your individual business units on the basics of social engagement: Every member in your SOCIAL SWAT team must know how to LISTEN on key networks like blogs, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn in certain cases. Train them to set up keyword alerts so they can receive real time mentions of your brand in their inbox. Real-time alerts help them RESPOND in a timely manner. Your goal should be train your individual business units to be able to carry out social media monitoring and engagement on their own without your supervision. Hence training on how to do a SOCIAL MEDIA AUDIT is also crucial.  

Invest in ONE unified monitoring and reporting platform: In order to maintain consistency in what your monitor and how you want to report your engagement metrics, I personally suggest you champion for ONE service provider that does a good job of reporting on your social activities. We at CRT/tanaka still think Radian6 is by far the best monitoring tool out there and trust me we have clients who range from B2B, B2C, non-profits and large associations at different levels of social media marketing. As a SWAT team, identify what reporting style makes the best sense for all individual business units and invest in  software that’s implemented company-wide to create a consistent style of measurement. There are other notable vendors like Alterian, Sysomos and Trucker that offer different levels of analytics and date depending on what you want to track and measure.

Create a communication flow between SOCIAL SWAT members to learn and improve:  Whether it’s a monthly meeting, a SharePoint site where you encourage them to post new information, a quarterly in-person brown bag lunch, you MUST establish an official channel to frequently communicate and make changes as necessary to stay on top of new trends and act as ONE brand effectively engaging online. The cumulative effect of all business units doing the right thing for your customers and addressing their needs in a timely manner makes a direct impact on your Online Reputation.

The steps above help you to get started on the knowledge transfer process and empower a cross functional team that knows how to engage online but the first step is for YOU to stop acting as your company’s social media helpdesk so are you ready?

Let us know if you need any primers on Twitter, Facebook and or best practices in blogging customized specifically for organizations in the B2B, hi-tech, B2C, healthcare space, I will be happy to share it with you. We can also be that third party voice that emphasizes on a company-wide social media policy and process and do a training for you, just let us know if you think your company is ready for one and we will be there. My email is pramesh@crt-tanaka.com.  

In the meantime, if you have any best practices on how you went about implementing a company-wide social media plan, please do enlighten us. Thank you!

Image courtesy: http://www.britopian.com/2010/08/23/the-ideal-social-organization/ 

 

 

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Priya Ramesh | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)