It's Christmas Time..... Promote

It’ that time of year again when companies frantically try to wrap up sales, collect income and push statistics for the year end bonuses, expenses and overall revenue numbers. Although it is such an improtant time of year, consistently I have found companies to become slow and lazy around this time. They seem to be hard to reach and have developed a bad case of procrastination…. The line “We will look into this after the new year…” seems to come up all too frequently…

Now is the time to promote! Get the word out and get in front of your target market fast! Saving all of your money and not spending money is not a strategy! Your focus should be on how to get in front of your target market audience to stay on their radar and close deals like crazy before the end of the year. Your company, your people and the entire economy is dependent upon large amounts of production, sales and revenue around this time of year so my strong recommendation is for you to promote. Promote your brand, promote your company, promote your products and services, promote in order to get new reaches, new sales and new revenue before the year is out.

If you have been operating in lazy mode or procrastination mode, my advice is to knock it off, pull up the socks and get into action now! While you wait for next year… there are thousands of companies and people making it happen now….this year!

Happy Holidays!

-Robert Cornish

Let's Clarify the Goal....

While there are many talented, smart and creative people and firms out there for PR, Advertising and Marketing I have found that many have deviated off course from what the job truly is, what the goals really are and what the clients really need.

Creative ideas and bright ideas are absolutely vital however, they must push forward the end goal – sales and revenue. In this day and age this is not a nice thing to have, it’s a must. That sounds like a simple thing to say and a common and basic knowledge but I see examples everyday that are clearly off-course and not forwarding client goals.

Here’s an example:

A Facebook widget or video game – look, I like to have fun as much as the next guy and I am guilty of downloading a game or two on my iPhone for sure but here’s the thing… what is the clear goal for the Facebook Game? How are you measuring it? Are you getting reach, interest, sales? There were many many many bright ideas during the 1995-97 period for dot com companies and ideas that sounded cool which distracted millions from the actual goals of what a company must do – which is produce sales of their product or service and generate revenue. It’s not a negotiable point.

The job of any PR agency, marketing firm or advertising agency is simple – create an idea, execute a strategy and communicate with the clients target public audience in order to make the client known to them, create interest and generate actual reach that can be used to assist the sales team and further the company growth and revenue. That’s it! If you have been sold on something other than this, well then they probably are creative geniuses but they are not serving your best interest.

Now is the time to get back to basics while the shift of traditional media continues to become less effective and new media is the vital way to communicate with the massive audiecne that is online using the interest that is now intertwined into every aspect of their lives from laptops to iphones. We must focus on people, relationships, what they need and want and how to communciate with them, service them better and build, cultivate and nurture those relationships in order to generate long term clients.

If you focus on the audience and the clear goals of your company to drive sales and revenue your PR, Marketing or Advetrising efforts will be dramatically improved. Don’t lose sight of the goal. Every tweet should have the goal in mind. Every facebook post should reflect the goal. Every blog article, press release, banner ad, video, photo gallery etc should have the goal clearly in mind and being systematically executed.

-Robert Cornish

Richter10.2 Media Group

http://www.richter10point2.com

The Fundamental Change

Currently the marketing, PR and advertising world is experiencing one of the most dramatic evolutions over the past 100 – 200 years in what traditionally were “tried and true” methods.

I am not sure too many people and professionals fully understand this. I deal with many companies, CEO’s and CMO’s on a daily basis and across the board there seems to be some level of awkwardness and discomfort with the rapid changes.

Over the past 100 to 200 years there have been very workable and fundamental ideas related to how marketing, PR and advertising basically worked and reached a specific audience. There were specific rules and methods to execute strategies that had workable formulas such as positioning, how to write ad copy, how to grab attention via posters, billboards and TV commercials etc. Basic marketing fundamentals like what the typical percent of response will be from a marketing campaign via direct mail, etc.

While all these methodologies worked extremely well all the way up to close to now, unbelievably…. they no longer do. These methods and ideas have run their course and have essentially gone through the stages of infancy from the beginning idea to maturity to dated and now obsolete. It’s incredible to even think about and seasoned professionals clearly seem uncomfortable about it. Speaking to an experienced CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) who wants to still work off of, and hang on to, these old ideas can be rather frustrating as they try to apply something that is obsolete to a new way of thinking.

So what is relevant?

With New Media (social media, etc.) the way to communicate and engage an audience is different. It’s a conversation. It’s on-going and most of how the audience wants to be reached or is receptive to is being decided by the audience – not the marketing, advertising or PR firm. This is a very authentic and transparent approach. We aren’t trying to “spin” a story, we aren’t trying to scream a message and button at the audience to get a response and we aren’t trying to have the audience see a message 7-9 times so they will “act” So what are we trying to do?

We are focused on using new media tools (social media) as a platform to communicate with a specific target audience geared toward your company and use PR to build relations (relationships) with that target audience in order to spark conversations, increase word of mouth, generate buzz and result in interest and reach for the companies’ products or services via acceptance from that target audience.

We are authentically reaching out to get involved with the audience and make a company known to them to build awareness, brand loyalty and stay on the target audiences radar to in turn increase the sales and revenue.

I am sure you would agree that people are more inclined to do business with companies they:

Know
Like
Feel Comfortable With
Trust
Have a Relationship
Think this through for a second; think of a company you do business with or a person you do business with and then think about why? I am betting it’s because you know them or have a relationship with them or you personally like them or trust them. These ideas are the very essence of why new media (social media) is so powerful. It aligns with the basic way people buy and how sales typically occur.

Now I am not at all talking about spamming people on social media sites or being the “salesperson” that annoys everyone on Facebook! The idea here is to make it natural and in a PR way encompasses engagement, conversations, building new connections, making yourself known and ultimately building real relationships from a given target audience that is desirable to your company that will result in interest in reach for the company and therefore sales and revenue.

It’s not easy. It takes time and knowhow, but, when done correctly, it’s the most effective strategy you, or your company, could possibly apply in today’s market – just ask the audience!

The Fundamental Change

Currently the marketing, PR and advertising world is experiencing one of the most dramatic evolutions over the past 100 - 200 years in what traditionally were “tried and true” methods.

I am not sure too many people and professionals fully understand this. I deal with many companies, CEO’s and CMO’s on a daily basis and across the board there seems to be some level of awkwardness and discomfort with the rapid changes.

Over the past 100 to 200 years there have been very workable and fundamental ideas related to how marketing, PR and advertising basically worked and reached a specific audience. There were specific rules and methods to execute strategies that had workable formulas such as positioning, how to write ad copy, how to grab attention via posters, billboards and TV commercials etc. Basic marketing fundamentals like what the typical percent of response will be from a marketing campaign via direct mail, etc.

While all these methodologies worked extremely well all the way up to close to now, unbelievably.... they no longer do. These methods and ideas have run their course and have essentially gone through the stages of infancy from the beginning idea to maturity to dated and now obsolete. It’s incredible to even think about and seasoned professionals clearly seem uncomfortable about it. Speaking to an experienced CMO (Chief Marketing Officer) who wants to still work off of, and hang on to, these old ideas can be rather frustrating as they try to apply something that is obsolete to a new way of thinking.

So what is relevant?

With New Media (social media, etc.) the way to communicate and engage an audience is different. It’s a conversation. It’s on-going and most of how the audience wants to be reached or is receptive to is being decided by the audience - not the marketing, advertising or PR firm. This is a very authentic and transparent approach. We aren’t trying to “spin” a story, we aren’t trying to scream a message and button at the audience to get a response and we aren’t trying to have the audience see a message 7-9 times so they will “act” So what are we trying to do?

We are focused on using new media tools (social media) as a platform to communicate with a specific target audience geared toward your company and use PR to build relations (relationships) with that target audience in order to spark conversations, increase word of mouth, generate buzz and result in interest and reach for the companies’ products or services via acceptance from that target audience.

We are authentically reaching out to get involved with the audience and make a company known to them to build awareness, brand loyalty and stay on the target audiences radar to in turn increase the sales and revenue.

I am sure you would agree that people are more inclined to do business with companies they:

1. Know
2. Like
3. Feel Comfortable With
4. Trust
5. Have a Relationship

Think this through for a second; think of a company you do business with or a person you do business with and then think about why? I am betting it’s because you know them or have a relationship with them or you personally like them or trust them. These ideas are the very essence of why new media (social media) is so powerful. It aligns with the basic way people buy and how sales typically occur.

Now I am not at all talking about spamming people on social media sites or being the “salesperson” that annoys everyone on Facebook! The idea here is to make it natural and in a PR way encompasses engagement, conversations, building new connections, making yourself known and ultimately building real relationships from a given target audience that is desirable to your company that will result in interest in reach for the company and therefore sales and revenue.

It’s not easy. It takes time and knowhow, but, when done correctly, it’s the most effective strategy you, or your company, could possibly apply in today’s market - just ask the audience!

Which Social Media Sites Should I be On?

This is absolutely a personal decision and will vary depending on who you are and who you are trying to reach. For instance, a band and a stock broker could equally benefit from Social Media, but would use different sites and methods to do so.

The first key point in choosing which sites to use is deciding exactly what you want to share and who you want to share it with.

Next, you should think with comprehensive profiles and the four main types of content you will be sharing: video, photo, status messages and blog posts. Ideally, you would incorporate each of these regularly into your Social Media presence and plan to have a presence on at least one site that specializes in each. Following this, a simple yet extremely effective strategy would be to have a Facebook, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube and Twitter account, as well as a blog, in your Social Media Campaign.

Lastly, you have to know how much time you can allot to your Social Media efforts.

It is vital to plan the size of your Social Media presence according to what you can comfortably maintain. It is exponentially better to have some key sites always up-to-date than many that are outdated.

Although it is the case that sometimes updating your network can fall to the bottom of the to-do list, in order to be successful at all, you have to keep your profiles up-to-date. Therefore, it is a great idea to make Social Media part of your daily routine, just like checking your emails. If you can only allot 15 minutes each day, realize that 40 different profiles to update is not for you.

So, with a little research and following the three simple points above, you can choose the correct sites that will give you the greatest chance of success.

A Simple Guide to Using Social Media in Business

As you may have already figured out, I am a strong believer of social media in business. I use Twitter and Facebook and blogs every day in my job, and you can too. Here are a few tips and tools to getting yourself started in the social media world.

Social Media for Business Resources

http://courtspencer.wordpress.com/2009/07/22/twitter-is-time-well-spent-not-money-well-spent/ <-- Twitter is time well spent, not money.

http://enovapr2.wordpress.com/2009/07/14/its-the-law-2-0/<--Web 2 .0, social media guide.

http://blog.neoco.com/2009/07/22/a-z-of-social-media-this-is-actually-pretty-good/ <-- the A-Z of Social Media

http://jeffbullas.com/2009/07/22/5-steps-to-optimize-your-email-for-social-media/ <-- 5 steps to Optimize your email with Social Media

http://www.richter10point2.com/buildyourown <-- Build your own WebPR campaign!

http://www.whywebpr.com/alimagnano <-- My Social Media Press Kit

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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5 Perfect Snacks to Munch on During Your Workday

After a little research, I found the 5 perfect snacks for you to munch on during the workday, and to get you going. Because who doesn't get hungry while sitting at their desk all day? It’s inevitable. So you might as well be a little prepared! But these snacks, over other unhealthier snacks like chips and candy, will keep you alert and feeling great.

1)Hard – Boiled Eggs
Rich in protein and will help raise your energy level to get you going!

2)String Cheese
Tasty and easy to eat while you’re at work.

3)Yogurt or Cottage Cheese
Something about yogurt or cottage cheese is very filling, and its also good for you! You can get little to-go cups of either of these at the grocery store.

4)Animal Crackers
These little crackers are the solution to your sweet tooth, and are lower in calories than most other treats.

5)Mixed Nuts
Cashews, almonds, peanuts, walnuts, or all of them! Throw in some dried fruit and raisins to add a little something extra, and this can be munched on all day.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Get @BreakingNews via Twitter!

I recently discovered a Twitter account that discloses breaking news! I figured there must be something out there in the social media world similar to this but hadn’t discovered it until earlier today, and it’s definitely a tweeter I’ll be following.

I think this is very convenient, especially because nowadays with all the iPhones and SmartPhones that have been released and now are in the hands of pretty much every businessman or woman around the world, along with many other people, this news is easily available to people wherever they are.

News tidbits are simply tweeted by @BreakingNews and are available to any of their 860,357 followers.

Here is a recent tweet from @BreakingNews earlier today:

“Chris Brown, in a video on his official website, has for the first time publicly apologized for beating singer Rihanna in February.”

about 22 hours ago, from BNO Headquarters

This really contributes to the evolution of social/new media versus old media.


Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Statistics from President Obama’s Social Media Campaign

Internet Usage in United States

United States Population: 303,824,646
Internet Usage: 220,141,969
Growth from 2000-2008: 130.9%
Stats from Internet WorldStats (Census, Nielson)

Facebook
Obama: 2,379,102 supporters
McCain: 620,359 supporters
Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

MySpace
Obama: Friends: 833,161
McCain: Friends: 217,811
Obama has 380% more supporters than McCain

YouTube
Obama: 1792 videos uploaded since Nov 2006, Subscribers: 114,559 (uploads about 4 a day), Channel Views: 18,413,110
McCain: 329 videos uploaded since Feb 2007 (uploads about 2 a day), Subscribers: 28,419, Channel Views: 2,032,993
Obama has 403% more subscribers than McCainObama has 905% more viewers than McCain

Twitter
Obama: @barackobama has 112,474 followers
McCain: @JohnMcCain (is it real?) 4,603 followers
Obama has 240 times more followers in Twitter than McCain

It is clear that Obama has dominated social media activity. Enough said :)

Check out how to build your own Web PR campaign here.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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The Good Samaritan

I recently visited my hometown, Chicago, for a family wedding. While en route back to Tampa, I did the inexcusably, unbelievably silly thing of leaving my laptop on the plane.

Of course I had a sleepless night when I returned home and discovered that I didn’t have my laptop. Of course I called the Lost and Found departments of all three airports I had been to that day, only to discover they were all closed and I would need to call back in the morning.

The next morning I woke up dreading how I was going to tastefully inform my bosses that I wouldn’t be able to go into the office that day (no laptop = no work to do). After many internal debates, I decided to say it – plain and simple. My bosses were very understanding and wished me the best of luck on my laptop hunt.

However the stars aligned when I received a voicemail message at home from an American Airlines flight attendant named John Stewart letting me know that he had my laptop and would be keeping it safe until he heard from me. I immediately called him back and thanked him profusely! I asked what he wanted in return and he adamantly told me that he didn’t want anything, maybe just for me to something nice for someone else if the opportunity arose. I had my laptop shipped overnight, thanks to Mr. Stewart calling me when he had arrived to the UPS store to ask which shipping method I preferred. My computer arrived the next day and all was golden.

When all of the dust settled from this ordeal, I realized that there are a lot of WONDERFUL people out there in the world we live in. Despite the bad news we constantly hear about the failing economy, crime and terrorism, there is still much more good in people than bad.

I then asked myself, “What can I do to pay it forward?” Of course, I will be on the lookout next time I travel for stray laptops in need of their owners, but there is a bigger thing that I can offer: SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTISE. The company I work for, Richter10.2 Media Group, specializes in helping businesses expand using social media such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. If your business could use some help getting up and running in this new day and age of Web technology, then we’re your people.

We have lots of free tools, articles, blogs and links on the subject that can help demystify social media and how you can use it to expand your business.

To learn more click here.

Julia Jaquillard
Richter10.2 Media Group

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Highlight Your Company – What Is a Social Media Press Room?

So, I’m sure you have heard the buzz about the Social Media Press Kit, one of the newest and most advanced tools to maximize your business presence on the Web. Now there’s an even more comprehensive tool that works in conjunction with the Social Media Press Kit – the Social Media Press Room.

The Social Media Press Room is a dynamic information and resource center for companies, products and services. All of the vital information that relates to the company can be accessed here including press releases, blogs, videos, social media and new media pages, real time Twitter status updates, company bio and links to Social Media Press Kits within the company. This is a cutting-edge press room for the digital age, providing all of the information and resources anyone could want or need about a company and its products and services.

It is built directly into the company website with a simple navigation link to the full press room site. Use the Social Media Press Kits for individual sales agents or top executives in your company, and then have a Social Media Press Room representing your entire company for the maximum amount of Web and PR presence. The purpose of this tool is to fully highlight the company.

Get your target public's attention through all of the top social media sites on the web, with one main “room” linking to them all.

Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

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10 Ways to Wake-Up in the Morning and Get through Your Work Day!

You know the feeling. That alarm clock goes off, you press the snooze (even though you know that only means that you’ll have to make your shower five minutes shorter), rush out the door and hopefully make it to work on time. The feeling seems unavoidable. As well as after your lunch break at work, when the clock reads 2 pm and you know that you have a few more hours of work to do, but you just can’t help feeling lethargic and annoyed at the thought of having to stay awake.
So what do you do? I have found some simple ways to get you through your work day and arrive at work in the morning feeling fresh and awake.

1) Don’t Eat Dinner Right before Bed

If you have the munchies before bed, a good thing to have is a little bit of fruit or some tomato juice. Something light and fruity. You don’t want to eat an entire meal right before you go to bed because the digestion process takes awhile. Try and leave a few hours in between your last meal and your bedtime and see how you feel in the morning.

2) Leave the Curtains Cracked

Leaving the curtains a little bit open will let some natural light into your room in the morning, which will help you wake up. The natural light can be strong but soothing.

3) Wake Up To The Smell Of Coffee

Get a coffee machine that has a setting for automatic brewing. Set it for a few minutes before your alarm clock goes off and when you wake up you will have a refreshing and lovely smell of freshly ground coffee in your room. Get fresh coffee beans!

4) Stretch Every Extremity

Stretching your arms and fingers out for about 15 seconds right after you wake up will help more than you think. It will get your blood circulating again in your body and helps you feel more energetic.

5) Eat A High Energy Breakfast


You would be surprised how just skipping your first meal of the day affects your energy level. You need to eat breakfast to get your metabolism going and to tell your body you are awake and ready to start digesting food again and making energy for your body. You can drink a protein smoothie, or some complex carbohydrates like a bowl of oatmeal or whole grain cereal topped with some fruit and skim milk.

6) Eat Protein Throughout The Day

Eating protein with your lunch will give your energy levels a boost. Snacking on nuts will also give you more energy, because they are high in protein.

7) Listen To Some Good Music In The Car

Find some good music, and get together an assortment of CDs to play on your way to work in the morning. Turn up the volume. If the weather permits it, open the windows instead of turning on the AC. The fresh air will wake you up, with the sound of the music, and get you ready for the day.

8) Take A Break

Take a break from your work desk when you’ve been sitting for a long time. Walking around to get a little exercise gets your blood flowing and can make you feel refreshed.

9) Chew Sugar-Free Peppermint Gum

There is something about the strong flavor of peppermint that makes you feel refreshed.

10) Cold Water

Cold water is refreshing, especially when it gets hot outside. Keeping your self hydrated throughout the day, and starting with a cold glass of water in the morning, will keep you refreshed and awake. Drink a cold glass roughly every hour, and splash some on your face when you need it.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Social Media Tip of the Week #2 – What is Twitpic?

Recently, I found a really cool new Twitter tool that got me so excited I just had to write a blog about it! Twitpic. It’s how you Tweet pictures.

As you know, the thing about Twitter is that, unlike Facebook or Myspace, you can only have ONE picture, and that’s your default. How frustrating! Well, now with Twitpic, you have a whole album online that you can Tweet and share with other Tweeters.

Now, what kind of pictures would Tweeters most like to see tweeted? Breaking news, humorous ones and Twitpics by celebs were some of the top viewed. Like on-the-scene twitpics of a shuttle launch! (click here) Or the king of Twitter, Ashton Kutcher (@aplusk) tweeting his own photos, of course. (click here)

Now, you can start using Twitpic to expand your Twitter influence.

Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

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Photos of Social Media Press Kits!

To learn more, click here and view the site.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group

Social Media Tip of the Week #1 - What's the Best Type of Photo to Have on Twitter?

I’ve been doing some research and have found that if you want the most traffic to your Twitter site, you need a good, eye-catching photograph of yourself.

What type of photo is eye-catching enough that you will be looked at first over other Tweeters?

When you first register on Twitter, you are provided with an avatar. Everyone gets the same avatar. What is all-too-common is that Tweeters will leave that up instead of providing a real picture. The Tweeter is then a “faceless entity” on a huge Social Media Site and easily gets lost in the crowd.

Your image is the first thing people see when they decide to follow you – or to not follow you. It should be, ideally, a recent photo of YOU. It can be your brand’s logo, but if you are going to be the sole person using the account, then you should have a picture of yourself. Seeing a real picture of you gives others the feeling that they know you. Also, don’t change your photo too often – other users tend to see the image before the name, and you can get lost if you change your image too frequently.

So the moral of the story is - get other Tweeters to notice you by providing a fresh and recent picture of yourself.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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The World’s Most Dynamic Virtual Business Card

This is a Social Media Press Kit. It was created and designed by a top Web PR firm - Richter10.2 Media Group.

A Social Media Press Kit is a tool for maximizing your presence on the Web. With a cutting-edge image on the Web, you will find buzz, reach and interest being generated about your business.

A microsite that showcases you and your company to your target public audience, a Social Media Press Kit is the way for you to easily communicate with anyone, no matter their location.

Have you seen Skittles’ or Starbucks’ new Web campaigns? If not, take a look and see the value of a well-established Social Media campaign. If you have, then you would probably agree with me that Social Media is an integral part of expanding your business.

So, what IS this Social Media Press Kit? What does it look like? To find out, click here.

Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

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What is a Social Media Press Kit??

What is a Social Media Press Kit?? It is a tool that will help you expand your business and your presence on the web.

To find out more-watch this short video! By clicking here.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group

"Web 2.0" declared the one-millionth English word!

The English language can be beautiful yet complicated . Tricky to learn-yet popular worldwide , and it also has the most words out of any language.
Yesterday, the word “Web 2.0” was declared the one millionth defined English word by the Global Language Monitor.

Web 2.0: “the second generation of the World Wide Web in which content is user-generated and dynamic, and software is offered that mimics desktop programs”

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Win an iPhone via Twitter??

For 30 days, squarespace.com is giving away a 3G iPhone every day. The contest may be entered by anyone, and includes simply having a twitter account.

For the next 30 days, (actually, 28 now because the contest started on June 8^th) all you have to do is insert the hashtag "#squarespace" into one of your tweets, and one of those lucky winners will be chosen at random.

I'm sure it helps if you hashtag all your tweets in one day, and just keep tweeting "#squarespace, #squarspace, #squarespace." But the point of the contest is also for tweeters to get creative.

I see this whole thing as quite genius, really. Social Media is really taking on its reputation as a very popular marketing strategy, and is the way to gain presence on the web. Because-lets face it-if you’re reading this you most likely have a Twitter or a Facebook or a Myspace account. So using Social Media in Squarespaces’ new campaign to gain web presence is working-how could it not?

So if you don’t have a Twitter account, get one-pronto! And go get yourself an iPhone.

Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

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The Fine Line Between Social Media Brilliance and Faux Pas

The lines between business and social media are becoming more and more blurred every day. People are realizing more and more that while this was once simply a way for the younger generation to wile away too much time, it is in fact becoming a vital and exciting part of our society.

As many have no doubt mentioned elsewhere, social media is breaking down the last barriers to information for people all over the world. An example of this is an aircraft making an emergency landing in the Hudson and the masses knowing about it before mainstream media could blink. How? All thanks to twitter.

One aspect of this is the fact that people using social media want to interact. Through avatars or not, they pour out their opinions, creations, likes, dislikes and so on.

So, let's get this straight. In social media we have a pool of 100's of millions of people who are sorted by demographic and who tell the world what they want ? This is a marketers dream come true!!!

Not.

Time for a dose of reality. Like any community, social media sites have etiquette. When you see the opportunity social media presents you are of course right, but if you go bulling into the china shop without knowing what you're doing you will end up the pariah you deserve to be.

Spam has been the awful, barbed thorn in the side of everyone's email program and internet browser since...well, since this whole internet thing began. Pop-up adds and emails from $upersexxxiii666 about enhancing this and losing that are in the very least irritating. So are friend requests containing a pitch for your product. Get it?

I'm not saying that people haven't tried this in social media. Build profiles as fast as possible, get a few friends and pitch before they get wiped out, rinse and repeat. But, unless you want you and your business to be thought about in the same breath as our friend $upersexxxiii666, don't be that stupid.

There is no trick, no silver bullet. Just use social media as it is intended, on a personal level.

You can take advantage of this amazing opportunity. In fact, if you do it right your presence online will position you as a force in your field and get thousands of people in the know about who you are and what you do. That leads to business, it just does.

First thing is first, choose the sites you wish to be on. Then, what is your area of expertise? What can you offer? Be thinking about this as you start to send out genuine friend requests, letting people know who you are and that you can help if they have questions regarding ____. You really don't even have to go that far, though. Just think, how would you introduce yourself in usual conversation when meeting someone new?

If you work at this, you will build up a network of people who will now talk to you in a little more depth. Build these connections, post things that aren't just about your product, but that you find interesting. Foster the relationships you have in the networks you build and you will achieve social media greatness in no time!

Remember, social media is all about people. No one wants to receive a sales pitch they didn't sign up for from you. Become someone who is a known expert on your subject in the communities you join online, help people, comment, message and all the time be yourself and you will achieve organically more than you ever could if you were just using your pages strictly to market.

Don't be a spammer, take social media by the horns and make it your own!

Spencer Barnes
Director of Delivery
Richter10.2 Media Group
spence@richter10point2.com

Two Minute Sales Video

How do you maximize your presence on the web, thus increasing your business?

Find out here.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Donut Giveaway! Dunkins plan for their Social Media Campaign.

Mark your calendars, June 5th in officially National Donut Day!

Dunkin Donuts is celebrating with a giveaway "we will give every customer a free donut of their choice, with the purchase of any beverage, limit one per customer."

The store has also been conducting its first ever “Create Dunkins Next Donut Contest”.
With over 130,000 submissions, and Dunkin plans to announce the $12,000 winner on
National Donut Day.

While we’re at in, let me mention that Dunkin Donuts has huge presence on social media sites. (@dunkindonuts has about 23,000 followers) Some of these huge brands like Starbucks are also starting to find creative ways to tie offline brand experiences with online social media promotion. Starbucks is currently experimenting with an online/offline social media challenge.

Now with Dunkin Donuts and the Keep it Coolatta Sweepstakes , fans of the brand on Facebook (there’s over 800,000 of them) can post a photo of themselves with any Coolatta beverage to the Fan Page wall with the caption #CoolattaGiveaway, and they’ll be entered to win a daily giveaway through June 24. Dunkin’ Donuts will randomly select winners, award the prizes, and update their official profile with the winning image.

Social Media and coffee and baked-goods chains are really hitting it off this summer. Good thing that Dunkin Donut Giveaway rules “one per customer”, so you can’t go too crazy.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Twitter: Male-dominated Social Media

We all know that Twitter has grown in over the past year. It is now one of the top 3 social media networking sites in the world. Ill admit it, im addicted to updating status messages, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you were too.

In a suprising recent study that took place in May 2009 by the Harvard Business Review, the activities of a random sample of 300,000 Twitter users were closely watched. The results were unexpected.

It was found that an average man is almost twice more likely to follow another man than a woman.

Similarly, an average woman is 25% more likely to follow a man than a woman. Also, an average man is 40% more likely to be followed by another man than by a woman. These results cannot be explained by different tweeting activity - both men and women tweet at the same rate.

Looks like Twitter is a male-dominated social media networking site, and more women are just not much of “tweeters”.

Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

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Skittles tasting success with the latest Social Media experiment?

Skittles has relaunched their website so that it is essentially a Twitter search for the word "skittles".

Visitors to Skittles.com are now directed to the Twitter search result for the term “skittles” and invited to navigate their way about Skittles’ social web presence by using the flash navigation menu that overlays the page. (Their homepage is now a Facebook page.)

We have experienced a lot of controversy on the Skittles new Social Media campaign. Some think that the “colors of the rainbow” have experienced an epic fail on launching this new campaign but as reported by Marketing Pilgrim in a recent post, the Skittles web site traffic experienced a “1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.” Pretty impressive considering only one day had passed since Skittles launched this social media experiment, which was quite a risk.

A consideration that I am hearing a lot is that, what about the ordinary people that aren't as experienced with Social Media? And is Social Media really a way to represent a corporate website like Skittles?

Buying a piece of candy is an impulsive thing. You’re not buying a car or a house or something that you will need a lot of information on about the product and the price. Skittles is just a sweet, innocent and colorful candy, with a huge corporation. Do they really need an informative ad on their product? Not really. They are focusing on building their presence on the web, and Social Media has proved to be the way to do that. And are there really any regular web users who have never heard of social networking and the most common web apps?

I suspect not. So, after all, great work Skittles.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Is Twitter Addictive??

If you can answer “no” to this question then tell me your secret. You probably post several status updates a day because you are fantastically addicted to letting others know what you are up to or whats on your mind. We are all starving writers at heart as Tweeters and the mico-blog format that lets you express your thoughts in 140 characters-not words, characters-is somewhat challenging and extremely addicting.

Basically, what I wanted to say was... follow @richter102media.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
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Aston Kutcher: Top Twitter User and Master at Public Relations.

Ashton Kutcher is Twitters number one user (@aplusk) who has almost 2 million followers. Recently, the dedicated Ashton threatened to shut down his account if Twitter decided to partner in a reality TV series. Details about the show are scarce, but a statement from producers did say that "ordinary people" will be "put on the trail of celebrities in a competitive format."

So it seems like the Twitter show turned out to be a bad idea. Twitters are strongly protesting and as Kutcher wrote in a recent Twitter posting, "It's all fun and games until somebody gets stalked.”

Ashton definitely has Twitter in a headlock; no one wants to loose the top Twitter that sets the standards for Twitters all around; especially with almost 2 million followers and lots of updates on his new movie with behind the scence tweets.

Ashton demonstrates that setting good Public Relations on the web can be valuable.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com

Social Media will change your Business.

Now, if you haven’t realized that a large amount of the communications of our world are rapidly turning over to the Social Media sites on the web, then you must not have a Twitter account, which means that you need to get one, I suggest as fast as possible, to be blunt, if you care at all about the sanctity of your reputation.

The New York Times has even recently hired a full time Social Media editor (@NYT_JenPreston) – this is a breakthrough. Easily one of the largest magazines in the world is realizing that they need to focus on the Social Media side of things to stay in print and keep the interest of their readers.

How do you fit into all of this? Getting yourself hooked up on Social Media is a start. Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, and several more are sites that you should be actively participating in. You should have a corporate blogger typing away at articles, and maybe upload some pictures from a holiday office party so your clients can see the fun side of your company, and feel like they know who they are doing business with.

This is where we come in. Richter10.2 Media Group is a WebPR firm that deals in Social Media communications. We will make a campaign specially tailored for you and your company to really make it boom. The New York Times, The White House and many other companies across the globe are doing it-you can too

www.richter10point2.com

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com

Boston Police Department is on Twitter: We will let you know when the Zombies attack.

While most of us were taking the long weekend off in celebration of Memorial Day, social media kept on going. There was no shortage of breaking news, amazing stories, and incredibly useful social resources.

Well let’s see how Social Media sites are extremely useful for news and updates. So much that even the Boston Police Department is using Twitter to “tweet” about incidents on the streets of Boston. Other citizens can interact this way easily and be up to date. Officers can warn their Twitter followers about an intersection to avoid because of an accident. Roads closed for construction, traffic, arrests, etc.

Sometimes they also reply to reader questions. A short conversation between a concerned citizen and the Boston Police Department revealed just how dedicated the boys in blue can be, as they pledged to inform the world of any zombie attacks they come across.

Boston_Police: INJURED OFFICER: Officer from district 4 transported to Beth Israel Hospital, human bite to arm, suspect in custody.

Twitter user willcady used the opportunity to ask the police a burning question:

@Boston_Police if that was a zombie bite, would you tell us?

The police, answerd him:

@willcady Yes, absolutely

Look for your local police department on Twitter. You never know, it could come in handy.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com

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Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com

Starbucks uses Twitter in their online/offline Social Media Campaign

Since I’m on a roll with Starbucks and coffee, (I had my double cappuccino this morning with non-fat milk-see last blog), I thought I would research how Starbucks Coffee Company is using social media.

Starbucks already has a strong presence in social media. You can visit their Facebook, or if you are a Twitter fanatic you can find them there. Starbucks Twitter account has over 185,000 followers and the Facebook page has nearly 1.5 million fans.

Starbucks has recently launched “the biggest marketing effort it has undertaken,” according to the New York Times. The coffee company is displaying posters in major cities, and then challenging people to be the first to find and tweet a picture of their posters. Starbucks has other social media initiatives planned for this campaign. One is a contest for store employees to submit headlines for future ads and YouTube videos with coffee experts talking about Starbucks coffee. Starbucks’ social media presence gave it an advantage over competitors with gigantic ad budgets because its fans wanted to talk about it online. The idea for the Starbucks photo contest came from watching what people already do on Facebook and Twitter.

The reason for companies building this presence, I observed, is that social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are ways of reaching many of your clients and building a relationship with them-and that’s what we call PR. It’s the building of a relationship with the public. You want to engage in interesting topics with blogging and microblogging using sites like Twitter where you have to express an entire thought in only 140 characters.

The largest coffee company in the world seems to be catching on.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com

Starbucks Latte Abuse: Enough already!

We all know that hardly anyone can survive the workday without their morning coffee. For me and most of the people at the office, nine-thirty rolls around and it’s like clockwork that we get up and make our daily trip to Starbucks.

I was picking up a hazelnut cappuccino, not my normal order, but about once a week I decide to go all out and also added a cheese croissant on top of that. Anyways, I realized that I spend approximately $1,500.00 a year on coffee. That’s with only one cappuccino or latte a morning, if I add a cheese croissant one morning a week I end up spending an extra $200.00 a year. Now, some other people in the office are more dependent on the caffeine to get them going and end up having about three orders a day at Starbucks which winds up in them spending approximately $4,350.00 a year on coffee orders from Starbucks-cheese croissants not included.

There is also another point, and that is the calories that add up in these drinks. Weigh your options and keep in mind that a grande cappuccino with non-fat milk is only going to cost you 93 calories, compared to a grande latte with non-fat milk that is about 168 calories. Every pump of flavored syrup is 20 calories. So, by this point you may be thinking you will just go with an iced Tazo chai-think again. A grande iced Tazo chai with non-fat milk is going to be about 213 calories.

So, it’s not all bad, by cutting down to one order from Starbucks a day and being smart with your options, you can consume less than 100 calories and you can save.

The morale of this short story, and the real point of this all is: cut down on the caffeine, not only because it can be hazardous to your health, but also to your wallet.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.richter10point2.com

#Googlefail, get your news from Twitter!

So yesterday in the office everyone was freaking out because the Internet wasn’t working. It was lagging and nobodys email was going though, and basically driving us all crazy because 99% of what we do is on the Internet. There are probably about ten or fifteen active computers in the Office and they were all having problems. So we thought, it must be something wrong with the connection. We tried turning on and off the Internet connection, resetting it a few times, thinking that it would help, but no luck. So when someone finally got onto their Twitter account they saw that the trending topic of the day was #googlefail.

Now, if any of you are reading this and you arent already Twitter fanatics, you are really out of the loop. (get a Twitter account, pronto!) Instead of messing around on our computers all morning and turining on and off the connection and being totally in mystery as to why it was so hard for everyone to send an emial from our Gmail accounts, we could have eaisly figured it out just by looking on our Twitter accounts at the status updates. “#googlefail.”

So, basically Im saying that Twitter is apparently becoming a source of breaking news, or at least it’s going to tell you when somethings wrong with your Internet connection.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group

DREAM JOB: $70k to use Twitter and Facebook!

I was reading this article…http://mashable.com/2009/05/09/twitter-facebook-job/

And, honestly, I’m not really surprised. A county in Oregon wants to pay someone $60k-$70k a year for a job that requires using facebook and twitter. Seems a bit outrageous, but take a look.

Nowadays there are so many social media butterflies around that Facebook, Myspace and Twitter have become a huge part of promotion. It is the most efficient way of reaching more target public in less time.

The most expensive method of advertising in America today is through television commercials, averaging about $400,000.00. Now, promotion of your business through television is obviously going to reach many people around the nation who happen to be watching TV at the moment of your commercial, so I'm not necessarily against it. But promotion of your business through the Social Media tools available to all of your target public on the web, internationally, is guaranteed to get a lot of people in the know about who you are and what you do.

Linkedin is the most popular tool right now for business and networking, with Facebook up and coming right behind. It has been predicted that 2009 is going to be a huge year for business networking. So, makes sense, right? And all this great PR for you and your business for a fraction of the cost of a television commercial.

This doesn’t mean that advertising and public relations through Social Media has to cost $70k a year, but for Oregon, it does. Don’t be surprised when you get a friend requested by Multnomah County in Oregon or any of the other Counties around America that have started creating Social Media sites as a way to keep you up to date.

Ali Magnano
Director of PR
Richter10.2 Media Group
www.whywebpr.com

White House Embraces Social Media.

What is Social Media? Wikipedia defines it. “At its most basic sense, social media is a shift in how people discover, read and share news, information and content.”



With the success of Barack Obama’s campaign through the use of social media web tools to gain fund raising and support, the White House has officially launched pages on Facebook, Myspace and Twitter. This transition keeps web savvy citizens up to date on the latest news and information. You can probably imagine that Obama himself is too busy lately to keep up with his old Twitter account, so this new account is the perfect way for others in the White House to “tweet” on his behalf and keep people informed about what’s going on.



In their ways of “old habits and stale thinking”, as stated by Obama, they are fundamentally changing the way that they do business in the White House. I believe the plan is to build a new foundation for the 21st century and the way to go about it is by reforming the government so it is more efficient and more creative-through social media.



In a recent blog post titled WhiteHouse 2.0, the White House says,
“In addition to WhiteHouse.gov, you can now find us in a number of other spots on the Web: Facebook .com/WhiteHouse, Myspace.com/WhiteHouse and Twitter.com/WhiteHouse.”



As you can see, technology has profoundly impacted how and where we gain information. These sites like Myspace, and Facebook have become the ways of communication to one another. If you look, you can see the demographics continue to shift. Now more than half of the Myspace visitors are age 35 or older. New users pour onto these sites every day, not only to keep up the communication with their friends but also to get insight on what’s happening around the world.



It seems the White House has noticed that WhiteHouse.gov is an important part of the Administrators effort to reach the public quickly and effectively-but it isn’t the only way.




Ali Magnano

Director of PR

Richter10.2 Media Group

Barack Obama - Web PR Case Study

Close to 65% of the American population voted in this election, its highest turnout since the election of 1908. By all means, this election was profound in its results. Obama’s victory is deeply symbolic. Politics aside, whether you’re a Democrat, Republican, Independent or member of the Green Party, we cannot overlook the power of real world community relations combined with the reach and engagement of online social communities and networks.

Online tools such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter contributed to the netting of record-breaking campaign funding and the staggering galvanization of a younger generation of first-time voters who truly made an impact and a difference. The Obama campaign leveraged multiple technology platforms, social immersion strategies and good old fashioned door-to-door relationship building to engage constituents directly, raising an astounding $600 million in campaign contributions.

On Twitter, Barack Obama sent messages to convert prospective voters to action and subsequently extend reward for the result. This is extremely effective.


On Facebook, the Obama page boasted over three million fans compared to McCain’s 618,000.

In a text message sent to supporters on the eve of the election, he reaffirmed that they will be part of Presidency moving forward;

“We have a lot of work to do to get our country back on track, and I’ll be in touch soon about what comes next. I will listen to you, especially when we disagree…and to those Americans whose support I have yet to earn, I may not have won your vote tonight, but I hear your voices. I need your help. And I will be your president, too."

**Messages like the ones above that are focused on your target public telling them about your product or service offerings will deliver results for your company.

This isn’t just about broadcasting content through new channels or merely soliciting feedback, participating in popular networks or actively listening, it’s the ability to identify and internalize themes to precipitate change and earn support through action – not just words.

For the first time, the U.S. President can simultaneously cultivate communities where people create, discover, and share information online.

For example: Obama Web PR Campaign Scope

- Launch a social network at Change.gov and/or whitehouse.gov

- Create a citizen feedback and collaboration page at GetSatisfaction

- Solicit policy proposals that people can vote up or down on Change For Us.

- Open the blog to comments on Change.gov (with community moderation).

- Address the country on YouTube and all other video networks with updates, polls, and also address issues in between official State of the Union broadcasts.

- Capture behind-the-scenes footage of the inner workings of the White House and share across all video networks.

- Create a user-generated channel on Magnify.net that features content from constituents.

-Create an @obamacares or @whitehousecares account on Twitter and other micro-blogging communities to listen and respond directly within each network.

- Complement the Presidential radio show with a regular podcast or livecast on uStream.tv or BlogTalkRadio and also interact with the people online, in real time.

- Publish speeches and important policy documents on document networks such as Scribd and Docstoc to be shared and disseminated throughout blogs and personal social profile pages.

- Create a portable and evolving Obama Widget using a SproutBuilder.

This is how a President, or any politician or business for that matter, can authentically connect with the people formerly known as the audience - in the real world.

**People shouldn’t only have a voice during an election time; listening and responding should be an ongoing practice and process of any office.

Adam Rooke,
Director of Operations Canada
Richter10.2 Media Group
http://www.whywebpr.com/adamrooke