Congratulations to our client on the recent Shorty Awards. www.twittter.com/underthebar
We’ve been working together for three years and he was a finalist in the Sports Category, finishing just behind Lance Armstrong.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123435724633872715.html
Remember, at the end of the day, social media’s success is only determined and judged by the communities in which you participate–your friends, customers, peers, and others.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/17/twitter.surgery/index.html
Above is a great story from today’s CNN.com that spotlights a prime example of online communication and using technology to tell a story.
In the past it would have taken weeks to “publicize” this procedure (removal of a tumor without removing entire kidney); press release; calling reporters; etc etc.
They pretty much accomplished this on-the-fly and to most likely a much more targeted audience. Moreover, an additional outgrowth of this was all the traditional media that then wrote about it (as referenced in the CNN story above).
On a related note (speaking of online communication), I just came from Ohio last week in which we reviewed the past 24 months PR and marketing communication activities. In the last 18 months we moved 100 percent to online-only activities and increased site traffic, lead generation and sales by 39 percent.
For our other “longtail” online retailers, we seeing a tremendous amount of success as well.
Below is a great read on Twitter and a pretty solid example of what we’re finding with many of our middle market and even publicly-traded clients.
http://venturebeat.com/2008/12/15/twitter-has-made-dell-1-million-in-revenue/
Personally, I am not crazy about the term “social” media. The reason is because the term “social” often gets confused with just re-connecting with old high school pals or random updates on Facebook. Of course online media has a stong “push/pull” community/social aspect to it (and it should), but, if you really look at these new communication platforms, they are intended to help people do the exact same thing we have done since the beginning of time–share information. Any information. And, in any manner you choose. And, yes, social is a huge part.
All in all, social media has an endless amount of opportunities and a limitless amount of value. And at the end of the day, only the shared community users will judge a campaigns success–either they’ll engage and participate, or they’ll reject it and go elsewhere. Online communication isn’t about who’s right, who’s wrong, it’s about what works and what doesn’t for a given business, entitity, community or individual.
Today, these new technologies just make it easier, faster, and much, much more engaging. And while their first uses were for just for traditional social purposes (and they remain), forward thinking companies (such as Dell) have capitalized on these new mediums to help engage and communicate with customers, and, improve their bottome line. How can anyone question this “push” type of communication if a.) customers are engaged and participating, and b.) the company figured out how to make money from it? Should all campaigns be push? No, all campaigns should be whatever works.
Here is another good example of a “bottom line” driven use of Twitter….
http://twitter.com/SEC_Investor_Ed
The U.S. Securities and Exchange not too long ago started sharing news, legal updates, reporting changes and communicating policy here. Chairmain Cox says, “The faster and more effectively information can be analyzed, the better for investors.
When considering online strategies, no matter what venues you decide to pursue, just remember that “social media” doesn’t necessarily have to be “social.” It just has to be relevant to the manner in which you have chosen to use it. What I mean is, pick a rationale first (such as letting people know how your business is doing, new product offerings, earnings updates, sales offers, whatever) and then just makes sure that its content reflects that premise. Those interested will follow, those that aren’t won’t. Utilizling multiple platforms and numerous topics, you truly can deliver customized information and something for everyone.
Social responsibility extending beyond the office; helping do our part….
http://www.prlog.org/10158726-miracle-in-motown-feeding-5000-detroit-families.html
Thinking about how the agency business and service model will continue to evolve, Web 3.0 will bring tremendous opportunties for communicating, delivering and converting value prositions into revenue.
For those following where we are heading, and where communication will follow, here is a good story:
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/12/17/db.semanticweb/index.html
Team EliteFTS 2008 Holiday Tips
All proceeds go to Make-A-Wish Foundation®
Get inside advice from some of the world’s top personal trainers, coaches and strength athletes while benefiting the Make-A-Wish Foundation®. Team EliteFTS 2008 Holiday Tips contains 136 tips, 10 workout programs and one Circa-Max Bench Press Program to peak your bench before the new year. As always you will find our usual Elitefts humor scattered throughout the manual.
Of the 24 Team Elite FTS members who contributed to this publication, several have had their work published in national magazines.
Writers include:
Dave Tate—Founder of Elite Fitness Systems; renowned speaker and author and professional powerlifter
Mike Hanley—President of Hanley Strength Systems, LLC and Owner of The Training Studio in Morganville, NJ
Jim Wendler—Senior Editor and Sales Manager of Elite Fitness Systems
The Thinker—Parts Unknown, but a student of Soviet and Eastern Bloc training methodologies.
Alwyn Cosgrove—International Tae Kwon-Do champion; Renown personal trainer, writer and motivational, personal training and business speaker
Zach Even-Esh—Personal trainer and operator of Underground Strength Coach
Jim “Smitty” Smith—Strength Coach with the Diesel Crew
CJ Murphy—Owner and Head Instructor at Total Performance Sports
Shelby Starnes—Nutritionist at Troponin Nutrition
The Angry Coach—When someone is this angry, you learn not to ask questions
Brian Schwab—No. 1 ranked powerlifter at 148 pounds; WPO Lightweight Champion
Marc Bartley—Owner of Total Gym in South Carolina; One of the premier powerlifters at 275 pounds
Chad Aichs—WPO competitor in the super heavyweight division; Holds AWPC records in all three lifts and the WPO three-lift bench press record
Julia Ladewski—Sports performance coach and No. 1 ranked female powerlifter at 132 pounds
Matt Kroczaleski—One of the top powerlifters in the world at 220 pounds; 2006 WPO World Champion
Scott Yard—Top bench press and world record setting powerlifting competitor
Chris Clark—Super heavyweight division competitive powerlifter
Justin Harris—Owner of Tropinin Nutrition and the reigning Jr. USA Super Heavyweight Bodybuilding Champion.
Jeremy Frey—Head Strength and Conditioning Coach at the collegiate level; champion powerlifter
Scott Cartwright—Competitive powerlifter who has achieved Elite status in both the 275- and 308-pound weight classes
AJ Roberts—Director of Personal Training and Youth Fitness at a health club in Owensboro, Ky.; Ranked among the top powerlifters in the world in two weight classes.
Jason Ferruggia—Renowned strength and conditioning specialist in the New York/New Jersey area; has trained more than 700 athletes from over 90 different NCAA, NFL, NHL and MLB organizations
Rob Pilger—Known for producing winners and champions in several sports; people seeking fat loss and lean muscular gains have enjoyed much success with his methods
Mike Szudarek—Elite-level powerlifter in the 220-pound weight class; serves on the advisory board for the American Powerlifting Federation.
Click below to get your copy of the Team EliteFTS Holiday Tips Manual for only a $10 donation to the Make A Wish Foundation.
http://www.flexcart.com/members/elitefts/default.asp?m=PD&cid=114&pid=2930
Below is relevant business forum for marketing managers, owners or directors in the
sports training or health and fitness industries:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=1465777&trk=anet_ug_hm
Mike Szudarek…
Following is a great example from Vocus (a leader in on-demand software for public relations). In a nutshell, it summarizes perfectly our shared observation of today’s “press release.” These company “stories” are not just summaries that are sent to news reporters to help generate articles or media coverage… rather, they are effectively being used to bridge together media affairs messaging across entire sales channels, including online and direct touch point marketing. The press release is more powerful than ever (when used beyond the newsroom and in a direct medium that touches consumers directly, meshes with online SEO and complements overall marketing strategies).
——
The Changing Face of the Press Release
According to the Executive Summary of a study conducted by Fellows of the Society for New Communications Research and made possible by Vocus, the advent of new online communication channels, the goals, target audiences, and overall scope of press releases have transformed press releases themselves into a new communication tool used by public relations and marketing professionals alike.
The respondents’ top goals for online press releases indicated that the traditional goals of increasing an organization’s visibility and credibility and announcing news are now almost equally as important as new goals that include reaching customers directly, creating online content, and search engine optimization (SEO).
While PR professionals placed more importance on traditional goals such as announcing news and enhancing thought leadership, marketing professionals reported SEO and reaching consumers as important goals for their online press releases. Small business owners were concerned with using the release as a sales tool and reaching customers directly.
Both traditional media and new media emerged as the top two most important audiences respondents hoped to reach with their online press releases. Bloggers and new media followed traditional media in importance, but were a very close second, separated by only 0.28 points on a 1-5 scale.
In terms of target audiences for online press releases, significant differences emerged between marketing and public relations professionals. Although both marketing and public relations professionals reported more than average importance for reaching traditional media, consumers, and webmasters that will repurpose the release, PR professionals were consistently more interested than marketing professionals in reaching traditional media.
Marketing professionals were consistently more interested than PR practitioners in reaching new media or consumers directly. For example:
PR professionals rated the importance of reaching traditional media an average 4.53 on a 1-5 scale, which is significantly higher than marketing professionals’ rating of 3.82
Similarly, marketing professionals rated the importance of reaching webmasters with an average 3.49 on a 1-5 scale, which is significantly higher than PR practitioners’ rating of only 2.83
These results indicate that online press releases have been adopted as a communications tool by the marketing profession, says the report, but are being used very differently than they have traditionally been used by public relations professionals.
The most frequently mentioned criterion for evaluating the success of online press releases was:
The number of times the release has been republished on websites (79.6 percent)
The number of times the release has been viewed online (76.8 percent)
An article based on the release (75.4 percent)
Media interview requests as a result of the release (74.2 percent)
Interestingly, although marketing and public relations professionals seem to use online press releases differently, there were no statistically significant differences between the two in terms of the criteria they use for evaluating success. In fact, the evaluation criteria were homogenous across different size organizations and industry sectors as well. The only statistically significant difference identified young communication practitioners (under 30 years of age) as more interested than the other age groups in obtaining coverage on blogs and social media sites.
Open-ended responses to a different survey question indicate that higher level indicators such as “eyeballs” and “dollar value” are desired evaluation criteria of online press releases, but communication professionals do not know how to measure them, concludes the study.
Very few respondents indicated using social media release formats (26.3 percent) and even fewer reported adding video (12.8 percent) or audio (9 percent) enhancements. Of all multimedia elements, photos were the most popular, used in online press releases by 49.5 percent of respondents. Even more puzzling is that less than half of respondents (48.8 percent) link to their own press releases after they have been posted online.
The most frequently mentioned challenges of online press releases, grouped into categories according to the main themes, were:
Cutting through the clutter. This challenge speaks to the difficulty of getting a press release noticed in an information-rich environment.
Targeting and distribution. Respondents often find it difficult to identify and target the specific audience for their press releases.
Measurement. Accurate evaluation of online press release results to include not only message distribution and exposure, but also evidence of audience receipt and behavior change was another perceived challenge.
From Fred Marx…
Below is an interesting concept that takes traditional philanthropy and matches it with the accountability and transparency that today’s donors expect. And, it does so with the simplicity of the Web. This is definitely something we think will continue to grow
By Michael Layne
Just a few years ago, local and national residential builders were building
homes at a fast and furious pace. Outlying communities were fighting
development tooth and nail. We all know and are feeling the pain of the
housing bubble, and residential real estate development has come to a
grinding halt.
How rapidly things change.
We didn’t expect the double whammy that came with the very dramatic increase
in the price of fuel over the past year. In Spring, 2005 the price of gas
was averaging around about $2.25 per gallon for self-serve regular . At that
time, polls found that approximately half of Americans felt that gas at that
price was placing a hardship of their standard of living. Enter summer 2008.
Gas is hovering around $4.10 per gallon for self-serve regular and rising.
Those sport utility vehicles that were a must have - now claim $80 to $100
to fill a tank. At 12 to 18 miles per gallon, a daily roundtrip from an
outlining suburb to work now is a costly equation. We are all feeling the
hardship.
Going forward, how will this impact life as we know it in metropolitan
Detroit?
Clearly, the race to engineer the best hybrid technology is on. Will Detroit
become a leader in fuel efficiency? Why are some Japanese hybrids getting 40
miles per gallon when Detroit automakers are just now manufacturing a few
hybrid SUV’s? Perhaps consumer demand, not legislation, will dramatically
expedite the technology of fuel efficiency and the nature of Detroit’s auto
industry.
And that drive to work - will employers soon start to loose employees who
can no longer afford to commute from Brighton to Birmingham or from Dexter
to Detroit? Will light rail seem increasingly attractive and feasible? Those
Amtrak rail lines from Pontiac and Ann Arbor to downtown Detroit and
communities in between – will they soon be populated with commuters happily
tapping on their computers or reading the newspaper as they enjoy the ride?
What about SMART – our bus system? Can it be made to work as clean,
efficient and convenient transportation for all commuters, not just those
who can’t afford a car or are unable to drive?
As chip manufactures in Silicon Valley raced to increase the speed of
computing, will Detroit automakers lead the race to increase fuel
efficiency? That is what it is going to take to turn this state around. The
cost advantages of manufacturing in Mexico and Asia are rapidly being eroded
by the rising cost of fuel. Can we now regain some of our lost manufacturing
base with more realistic union contracts, the manufacture of vehicles that
are truly world class, bolstered by the cost benefits of local production by
an experienced and educated work force? Clearly, GM, Ford and Chrysler got
the message and are taking painful, decisive and needed steps to meet and,
hopefully exceed consumer expectations.
Not that many years ago we heard the first rumblings of a “global economy.”
At first I naively thought it meant that all of us in metro Detroit needed
to learn how to export. Yes, we do. But what I didn’t realize then, and I do
now, is that it meant we had to learn how to compete with manufacturers
paying unfathomably low wages to workers in China and India. The cost of
fuel now gives us some breathing room to realize some cost efficiencies in
manufacturing locally.
Is this crisis we find ourselves in today really an opportunity - a lesson
learned the hard way, but a lesson none-the-less? Whether the environment is
warming or not, clearly, we do need to conserve our resources - land, air
petroleum and water. We need to build safe, healthy, sustainable and
affordable communities that work for low income and affluent, young and old
alike.
Builders are going back to mixed use development, with stores on the first
floor and housing above. Boomers and their children are demanding a more
dense urban lifestyle with a sense of community complete with open spaces
and parks. That long commute will continue to look less and less attractive.
Pedestrian Greenways, a series of interconnecting paths, are reaching out
like tendrils and will, in the foreseeable future, crisscross throughout all
of southeast Michigan. We may even walk and bike more!
The world-wide automotive research and development hub that calls southeast
Michigan home may even spin off technologies that will not only make
transportation more efficient, but may have spin off uses that will benefit
all of mankind.
Let us hope.