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Effective Measurement

December 10, 2010 in Best Practices, Clients by Elyce Ventura

Wayne Morris, CEO of myDIALS, recaps PR focus areas for 2011 in a recent blog post. Excerpts from his post are below. A constant area of interest and growth for firms is of course social media but perhaps more importantly, measuring success of social media programs remains paramount. Mr. Morris offers opinions on which traditional and social metrics to track,  but he goes on to say that in order to truly measure the effectiveness of social media outreach, “we should go beyond looking within the community and determine the impact these initiatives are having on generating leads, opportunities and sales.” You can read his full post here to learn how to do so easily.

Excerpt: “A new survey by Vocus has some interesting results as to where PR professionals will be focusing in 2011.  Not surprisingly the highest growth is in social media where 69% of PR firms will focus more in 2011 and 80% say social media will be more important in 2011.  I also found it interesting that in the same survey 61% of PR firms will focus more on measuring results in 2011.  The raises the question of how to measure the effectiveness of social media outreach and what measurements are most meaningful. …”

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Social Media Guidelines

December 9, 2010 in Best Practices, Industry by Elyce Ventura

Successful social media programs take many forms, but a few companies have stood out with well publicized results. A look from Mashable at what worked well for these companies serves as a good tutorial as you build out your own social media strategies. One area of question that has come up fairly often in conversations with clients is how and when to restrict employee participation in social conversations. When employees are off duty and using their own computers or cellphones, what parameters should they follow as employees who are off the clock? The solution is a social media policy.

Peter Vogel, a Dallas attorney and Internet expert, says if your company doesn’t have a social media policy, it had better get one in a hurry. These guidelines help companies draw “foul lines” for employees conversing in the virtual world.

If you’re not sure where to start to create these guidelines, why not learn from the pros. Mashble reports that social media guidelines were a common thread among the companies it spoke with – and that making them publicly available on the web is a good practice for access and transparency. Read through a few of these examples to get your guideline goodness going: Intel , Dell, Coca-Cola, Best Buy, Cisco. Or, peruse a customizable template created by Info-Tech Research Group. If you’re still stumped or having a difficult time answering some tough questions from your executive team, this Q&A with SAS may help get you past those road bumps. Or, you can take the shortest distance between two points and work with Eastwick to create your guidelines, tune up your social media strategy, and get you on the path to measurable social media success. Whether you want to stand out in the crowd, listen more closely to customers, or drive downloads, we can help.

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Top Executives and Social Media

October 6, 2010 in Industry by Elyce Ventura

What is it that separates top tech execs that successfully utilize social technology, and those that don’t? Watch and learn in this WSJ.com video in which Altimeter Group founder and author Charlene Li talks with WSJ’s Kelsey Hubbard at the World Business Forum about the importance of social technology for top executives to communicate with their customer base. In Li’s opinion, Dell, Best Buy, Starbucks and others are doing an excellent job integrating social technologies. But the range of understanding and engagement of social media varies widely beyond that. In Li’s words, social media use is all over the place. Why? The big companies understand how to use the technologies strategically. Li suggests they have chosen to tie all social tool use back to the company’s strategic goals; if you can’t cite those strategic goals as a basis, CEOs wn’t care what social campaign ideas you have. You won’t be speaking their language. Other concerns stand between top executives and social media nirvana. Primarily she says comfort level should be addressed. Many people are still not comfortable sharing personal information, plus they are not totally on board with having a truly open conversation. Understandably, it can be disconcerting to hear both the good and bad from your customer base. But, that said, companies need to enable those conversations, or they will be left in the dust by competitors who do take the leap into the great social media yonder. Giving away some control is not a new situation for executives. Li made the interesting comment that CEOs are already skilled at understanding that they are not fully in control. He or she can only operate an organization if people choose to follow them; they can’t force them. Good managers realize that control is not what makes them good leaders. It’s inspiration that makes them so. Now let’s watch to see which company executives begin to apply that mindset more to the social realm.

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Chicago: Start-up Mecca?

September 30, 2010 in Industry by Elyce Ventura

 You know Chicago has Wrigley Field, Da Bears, a gorgeous lakefront. But did you know Groupon hailed from Chicago? Yelp? Paypal? I had the privilege of attending midVenturesLAUNCH earlier this week in Chicago, the largest start-up and innovation conference in the Midwest.  I may have just met a few of the next generation wow-startups that will have gotten their start in the Windy City. It felt like I was walking the halls of a mini-DEMO, with the same palpable energy and excitement. The conference gave opportunity to 25 start-up companies to compete and win over $150K. The companies spanned a wide range of offerings: from social web to business intelligence, from data center hosting to next gen video and audio software. Speaking to so many innovative entrepreneurs, and hearing the shared expertise from entrepreneurs and investors on panels gave me the sense that Chicago really has a growing potential for start-ups to put down roots and thrive. A post from AndroidTapp echoed that assessment, saying Chicago “…is no longer the fly over city when it comes to tech, startups and investment dollars available to eager entrepreneurs that need that bump to scale their company to the next level.”  Panelists and presenters shared insights on the pros and cons of working with incubators and accelerators – a segment gaining notoriety in Chicago – and shared lessons learned on company creation, funding and acquisition. Videos from the event are now available. Not convinced Chicago is the up and comer to watch? I highly recommend the panel on The Three Stages of Not Being Silicon Valley. A few highlights from the talk are below:

  • Tremendous domain expertise – make the technologies that make businesses run.
  • Rich in natural resources – top universities, great work ethic, birthplace of many great ideas. Human capital is here: founders of Yelp, YouTube, Paypal hailed from Chicago and moved to California as they built.
  • Big winner companies: Move over Austin (Dell, Texas Instruments), San Diego, (Qualcomm). Big winners reinvest in the city and for the first time ever we have big winners who are invested in the city, a la Groupon, arguably “the most successful entrepreneurs in the world,” starting 4 companies in the last 8 years that went IPO or are IPO material.
  • Tax relief: 12% tax rate in California vs. 3% in Chicago.
  • Cheerleaders: Companies are cheering, though press hasn’t shouted from the rooftops yet about the startup potential of this city ….but I’m sure they will soon. Give me a C!
  • Home base: There is a growing number of people who have had time away from Chicago but end up coming back – it’s a fantastic place to live and as support and collaboration continue to grow, it will be easier and easier to build your company and your life in our sweet home, Chicago.
  • Dollars: Angel investor and private equity capital abounds
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PR on the Upswing, Social Media to Thank?

August 25, 2010 in Industry by Elyce Ventura

PR on the Upswing, Social Media to Thank?

Public Relations firms are bouncing back from the 2009 industry downturn, and an Ad Age article suggests social media may deserve much of the credit for the speed.

The article quotes more agencies as seeing growth during the first half this year over last, and points to the changing needs of marketers as part of the reason. Three-quarters of the 59 agency CEOs and CFOs surveyed by the Council of PR firms reported growth in the first half of 2010 vs. 21% in 2009. A majority (81%) of those surveyed are also expecting growth in 2010 overall revenue. And 75% said the new-business pipeline is stronger than it was a year ago compared to 33.8% who said the same thing last year.

The article argues that PR is becoming more central to a company’s “overall branding strategy,” with digital tools moving public relations even further to the forefront of corporate necessity.

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