Hewlett-Packard is expanding into the social media sphere and targeting college-age consumers, who offer advice to their parents and grandparents on which notebooks, desktops, work stations and other entertainment equipment to buy. That’s part of a new PR campaign it’s launching, with help from Edelman. An article in this week’s issue of PR Week says HP is targeting social media because:… Read More
Social Media
Targeting teens? Use MySpace and Facebook equally
If you’re targeting teens with a message about your product, service, cause or issue, it’s a mistake to use only MySpace or only Facebook. MediaWeek says that according to a new report issued by Nielsen/NetRatings, U.S. Web users ages 12-17 who regularly visit both MySpace and Facebook spend more time on these sites than users who visit… Read More
Social media: How to measure your marketing efforts
Shel Holtz is moderating the afternoon brainstorming session at Ragan’s “Unconference” in Chicago and we’re talking about how to measure whether social media marketing efforts is effective. Some ideas we’re discussing: –Use social media to drive traffic to your website, then capture email addresses and start building an opt-in list of people who have given you… Read More
Social media ‘Unconference’ off to a fast start
I’m in Chicago, at Ragan Communications’ “Unconference,” the daylong brainstorming session just before the big two-day event, designed to help corporate PR people understand how to use social media. After the first hour, here are some quick notes in Q&A format. Q. What is social media? –Wikis (Editable HTML pages) –Blogs (Posts with commenting) –RSS feeds… Read More
Social media consumers must be fed—here’s how
I love Peter Baron’s article Learning to Feed Social Media Consumers because it’s chock full of examples on how to spread your message far beyond traditional media to social media sites like YouTube and Facebook. Unlike pitching traditional media, where you are reaching out with your message, using social media as part of your publicity campaign creates a “pull”… Read More
Writers, photographers: Check out Gather, social networking site
Writers, authors, photographers, bloggers and others now have their own social networking site at Gather.com. By using Gather, you “gather points” that you can eventually cash in or donate to a charity. Post and find all sorts of interesting articles on Gather using tags. Tags will also help you find people with your same interests. Learn more… Read More
Social networking sites: The 30 most useful
Having a difficult time understanding the dozens of social networking sites, how to use them in your publicity campaign, and which to use first? Check out this fabulous list, in order of importance, courtesy of Jane Copland at SEOmoz.org. She lists each site’s “pitch,” then gives you her take, pointing out the pros and cons of each… Read More
Author’s blog pulls 32,000 readers, two-book deal
He blogs about poems, and he started out with a pathetic 10 readers a day.Within two months, he had a two-book deal with a major publisher. It’s not easy to attract a lot of traffic—anybody who blogs knows that. Meet Greg Pincus, who used a system of viral marketing to create buzz for his blog, which he… Read More
Tag, I’m it–5 things you didn’t know about me
I’ve been tagged by blogger Denise Wakeman, half of The Blog Squad, in a fun Internet game of tag designed to introduce bloggers to each other and bring more traffic to our blogs. Everyone who’s tagged is asked to share five things about themselves that people don’t know, then tag five other bloggers. Here goes: 1. In 1970, I… Read More
How to write a social media press release
Blogger and PR pro Brian Solis has an interesting commentary about social media press releases and how they differ from the traditional press releases that litter the landscape. Social media press release are written specifically for blogs, digital stories, RSS feeds, wikis and other social networks that generate conversation online. Solis offers a tidy summary of the SMPRs and… Read More