Social Insights

My thoughts on social media & public relations

Have You Added Pinterest To Your 2012 Marketing Strategy?

Posted on December 30, 2011 by Anna Woodlock

When you think of Pinterest, what comes to mind? Do you think of cute clothes, great decorating ideas or that dream kitchen that probably costs more than your house? Most of us are using this social network as consumers while we should be thinking of Pinterest as a corporate marketing strategy instead. From October 2010 to October 2011 Pinterest grew from just 40,000 users to a whopping 3.2 million.

The New Social Network
Is your brand on Pinterest? If not, you’re missing out on valuable market share. The site takes the term “word of mouth marketing “to a whole new meaning. Pinterest‘s mission is to “connect everyone in the world through the ‘things’ they find interesting.” The day and age that we currently live in is overloaded with social networks that lead to social burnout. Perhaps Pinterest is a breath of fresh air that allows consumers to casually share everyday items in a brand new way.

Share Your Company’s Story
A lot of brands are using Pinterest to share more about their brand; a good example of that is Whole Foods. They’re not just sharing the produce available at Whole Foods, they’re sharing [images of] a healthy lifestyle. Smaller, local companies can also use this site to their advantage. For example, if you own a clothing boutique and are headed out to market in a few weeks, look at what women in your area are pinning to their boards. By doing some research, you’ll know exactly what type of clothing women in your area prefer. Plus, when the inventory comes in, you can pin your own photos and then share those pins with the same women you used for research purposes. If you sell merchandise on your website, Pinterest provides a direct link for customers to purchase these items online. This feature alone will bring you great website traffic!

While driving traffic is great, the true potential in Pinterest may be in its ability to impact purchases, which is why retailers like Etsy, Nordstrom, and Lands’ End have taken to developing a presence on, and strategy for, this new platform. Early in December, Lands’ End kicked off a holiday campaign and contest called “Pin it to Win it,” centered around Pinterest.

Car dealerships, comedians, interior designers & fitness trainers should all be utilizing this marketing medium.

Facebook Is Changing…Again.

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Anna Woodlock

Mark Zuckerberg displaying his new profile based on the Timeline function.

Yesterday at Facebook’s F8 Conference, Mark Zuckerberg announced a slew of changes that will be coming to Facebook soon. At the base of these changes is the Timeline, which will transform the social network as we know it. Zuckerberg described Timeline as “the story of your life.” Your personal Timeline will be displayed based on the following three items: 1) Your stories, 2) Your apps and 3) The way you’d like to express yourself.

Social networking has evolved tremendously in the past 5 years or so. Because of this natural progression, a shift is occurring in how social media impacts our online interactions. Facebook has reached over 800,000,000 users from all over the world and plans to continually evolve the platform. This means an emphasis will now be placed on apps and user engagement instead of simply encouraging users to sign up.

In the past our personal profiles have displayed content in chronological order based on when we made posts or updated information. But soon Facebook will resemble a scrapbook that highlights the most important and meaningful parts of our lives. So all those embarrassing pictures that have somehow disappeared into Facebook oblivion will magically appear again!

One useful function of Timeline is the yearly tabs. Every year that you’ve been on Facebook will be documented and will have a tab on the right-hand side of your profile. If you’d like to reminisce on what you were up to in 2007, you can click the 2007 tab and be transported back in time to the main events that happened during that year.

Users can also add applications from media companies and developers to their Timelines. (Hint: this will play a large role in the marketing of businesses.) If you’re an avid runner you can add the Nike+ GPS running app to your Timeline and it will document how many miles you ran this morning and where. If that’s a little too invasive for you, you can add the Netflix app that shows your friends what movies you’ve been watching lately. Be careful what apps you authorize, because by default, much of what you do on Facebook with apps will be shared automatically. Once you add an app to your Timeline, you don’t have to give it permission to add stuff to your feed.

What’s the benefit for marketers with Timeline?
Well restaurants, bands and authors will be the first to benefit. Apps that detail what book you’re reading or what you had for dinner will be rolling out first. Eventually there will be apps for consumers to share any activity in any industry. The takeaway here is that interacting with companies on Facebook will greatly change with Timeline. If you’re a small business who doesn’t have an app, no need to worry. Brands can still promote stories from any app about objects they own.

You can learn more about the new Facebook Timeline here.

Twitter [For Physicians] in 20 Minutes A Day

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Anna Woodlock

It is 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday morning and you already feel like you’ve run a marathon. The sad thing is you have four patients in the waiting room, several e-mails to answer and your phone hasn’t stopped ringing since you woke up!
If this routine sounds familiar, you’re probably a physician. You might be wondering how you can continue to manage this workload while making your mark in a new, untapped world of healthcare social media. There is hope! You can start by following some of my tips on how to utilize Twitter in less than 20 minutes a day.

SMS Alerts – To keep up with the conversation on Twitter, you can enable the text messaging setting on your cell phone. After logging onto your Twitter account and clicking the phone icon on a user’s profile page, you can set tweet notifications for that user. I wouldn’t recommend enabling this feature for every person you follow on Twitter but select 3-5 people that are sharing great content and start there.

You can also use the Twitter text messaging feature to communicate with others.
• To follow someone text FOLLOW username
• To unfollow someone text UNFOLLOW username
• To retweet a user’s latest tweet text RT username
• To send a direct message to someone text D username your-message

E-mail Alerts – Much like the text messaging feature, you can also have Twitter send you e-mail alerts. Twitter will send a notification when someone starts following you and the site can also e-mail you when someone sends you a direct message. By enabling these features you won’t waste your time searching Twitter for information. You can even reply directly from your e-mail account to a direct message you received.

TweetDeck – Are you looking to move beyond the basics? If so, try utilizing a third-party application like TweetDeck. With TweetDeck you can set-up search columns like “Pediatrics” or “My Kid Is Sick” to see what people are saying about a specific topic or phrase. This allows you to see what is being said and makes it easy for you to join the conversation! These search columns are a great way to filter out the “noise” on Twitter.

#MDChat – If you’ve already seen the benefit that Twitter has for physicians and you feel like investing more time into it, participate in the #MDChat Twitter chat. This online conversation occurs every Tuesday night at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Simply set-up a search column for #MDChat and you can stay up-to-date on what other physicians are saying, thinking and tweeting.

Hopefully these simple tools provide you convenient ways to stay in the conversation without loosing too much time.

Now, I think you’re patient in Exam Room 2 is ready to see you.

Five Things I Learned at the #SwedishRagan Conference

Posted on April 18, 2011 by Anna Woodlock

A photo I took of downtown Seattle from the Space Needle.

I spent last week in rainy and cold Seattle to attend “The Role of Social Media in Engaging Patients, Employees and the Media” hosted by Ragan Communications. It was great to be surrounded by pioneers in the field such as Dana Lewis (@danamlewis), Shel Holtz (@shelholtz), Matt Cyr (@mattcyr) and Wendy Sue Swanson (@SeattleMamaDoc) to name a few.
While there, I learned why the Emerald City is the coffee capital of the world; I was SO sleepy the whole trip! More importantly, I learned a few things and noticed a few trends emerging in healthcare social media.

HIPAA Is Not An Excuse – The phrase heard throughout the conference was “HIPAA can be violated on an elevator as easily as it can be on Facebook.” Do not let HIPAA hold you back from engaging in social media! The problem is not the medium where the violation happens, the problem is the employee. To prevent this, you must create an effective internal and external social media policy. Employees must know their boundaries.
Get Corporate and Physician Buy In – This is arguably the hardest task you’ll face with social media. Administrators and doctors in your organization will have to be involved and invested for your campaign to reach optimal results. What is the best way to do this? Numbers, numbers and more numbers! The Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project is a great place to start. You should also incorporate positive examples of social media into your conversation and/or presentation. To begin, look at what the American Red Cross is doing with social media.
Don’t Block Social Media Access At Work – I was a little surprised to learn how many organizations are blocking access to Facebook and Twitter for employees. A study done by The University of Melbourne shows that those who can surf the Internet at work are 9% more effective than those who can’t. And in case administrators forgot, most employees have smartphones and don’t need a work computer to access Facebook while on the clock.
Also keep in mind, you may have an employee who actually is passionate about your brand or organization. By limiting their access to social media you are denying your brand ambassador the ability to have a voice. Passionate employees are priceless.
Education Is Key – If you’re looking to create a truly successful social media marketing campaign, you must educate employees and get them involved. I learned that most hospitals rely on their company intranet to communicate social media policies, educate employees and provide a sounding board to express concerns. Healthcare organizations are also using internal blogs to communicate with employees about social media. Find what works for your organization and use it.
Videos Are King – When it comes to telling the story of your hospital, clinic or private practice, videos should be the backbone of your approach. It’s obvious that photos and videos gain a lot of traction in social media but the true power lies in the storytelling. Capturing videos of a groundbreaking procedure or of a cancer survivor’s story is extremely powerful. By doing so, you’re allowing others to tell the story for you.

It’s an exciting time to be involved in healthcare social media marketing! If you attended the conference, please share what you took away from the event.

Breaking Down The QR Code

Posted on February 10, 2011 by Anna Woodlock

Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) have been around for a while and are finally starting to become mainstream. This unique bar code instantly allows customers to learn more about a business by visiting a mobile version of the business’ website. These codes can also prompt e-mail or text messaging by providing contact information for the business.

How It Works:
After downloading a QR scanner application (I use AT&T Scanner for my iPhone) on your camera-enabled smart phone, scan the code. From there, you will be directed to a mobile website that provides more information about the specific product or service. These funny-looking squares have the ability to hold a lot of information and are very easy to use. So, why are QR codes becoming so popular? They are a great way for marketers to connect digital content to the consumer through a mobile device. And, according to IDC, smart phones are outselling PCs; so it seems this technology won’t be going anywhere for a while.

Best Buy Gets It:
While shopping at my local Best Buy store this weekend, I noticed they have created a QR code for every product in the store! When the store-wide QR codes were implemented in September 2010, Best Buy was the first national retailer to do so. It makes sense – by the time a consumer has reached their local store, chances are they’ve already researched the electronic(s) they are interested in. By allowing consumers to connect to mobile technology in the store, a purchase decision can be made faster. The consumer can read reviews and compare features, all while in the store.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/travelinlibrarian/5301073148/

Other Practical Uses:
Boarding Pass - Continental, Quantas, Delta and United are all using QR Codes as digital boarding passes. This cuts down on paper costs and improves efficiency when passengers are boarding.
Business Cards – Adding a code on your business card is a quick and easy way to share your contact information with others.
Google Places – When a business registers with Google Places, they receive a decal that includes a QR code to the company website. Once the company places the decal in a visible area, patrons can access relevant information such as operating hours or current specials.

What other practical uses do you see QR Codes having?

Not Your Grandma’s Way To Save

Posted on January 28, 2011 by Anna Woodlock

Photo Credit: www.economicsofinformation.com

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, by now you’ve heard of online coupon sites like Groupon or LivingSocial. Both companies let users sign up for daily discounts on one good or service in their city. Announced through the website, daily email, iPhone and Android app the deal is live for 24 hours and is available to anyone who clicks on it. These discounts are generally for 50 to 70 percent off local restaurants, hair salons, etc. So what makes this idea of discounts so popular? Group buying power.

Big Savings in Numbers
Groupon was developed out of a site called The Point. The idea behind The Point is to only ask people to act when it actually makes a difference. In other words, until a “tipping point” of people agree to participate in something, the effect will be minimal. In order to have a large impact, multiple people must come together. Clearly, group buying power is sweeping the country. It works by creating deals that are available to those users who signed up for the coupon service. Once enough people agree to buy the deal – SOLD!

Facts about Groupon:
Founded in 2008
Can be found in 300 markets and 35 countries
CEO is Andrew Mason
Discount offered when someone you invite gets their first Groupon
Twitter link: @Groupon
Facebook link: www.facebook.com/Groupon

Facts about Living Social:
Founded in 2007
Can be found in 170 markets and 10 countries
CEO is Tim O’Shaughnessy
Discount offered if three of your friends buy the same deal
Twitter link: @LivingSocial
Facebook link: www.facebook.com/LivingSocial

Money Talks
It doesn’t seem as if either of these companies, or the concept behind group buying, is going away anytime soon. In December of 2010, Amazon.com Inc. invested $175 million in LivingSocial. In November of 2010, Google reportedly tried to buy Groupon for $6 billion. After the deal between Groupon and Google fell through it’s been rumored that Google will move forward with Google Offers.

What’s In It For Small Business?
Businesses who decide to offer a product or service on these online saving sites, are charged a small cut of each sale. So, what’s in it for them? Offers like this are good for business because it has the potential to bring in hundreds of new customers! Since each community has its own daily deal, businesses are advertising and reaching out to people in their immediate area.

What Working With Interns Has Taught Me

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Anna Woodlock

Not much of what I’ve learned is anything Earth shattering but when I took my current position I was told I would be managing interns, something I’d never done before. Two years later, I’ve learned how important, creative and amazing interns can be!

Listen. Listen. Listen
When working with a previous intern of mine, Elizabeth Custy there were a few situations where she knew the answer, not me. In every situation I learned something from simply listening to her. It showed me that I didn’t need to direct the conversation all the time.
There were times when I would offer her my computer so she could show me a particular website and explain its significance. I learned it was important for my ears and eyes to be available to her, regardless of the topic. It’s important to remember that a relationship with an intern is intended to be mutually beneficial for both parties. They learn, you learn and everyone involved becomes better.

Ask Why & What
Why? Because communication is key when working with interns. Asking why is one of the best ways to make an intern (or anyone) think and grow. Interns don’t usually know all the details behind a project so asking them why they’ve done something presents the opportunity to explain.
Meeting with our departmental interns every morning before I got started on projects, gave me the opportunity to ask what they were doing that day. From this, they knew what I expected of them and I knew what they are working on.

You Are There To Teach, And Them To Learn
Paid or non paid, the intern is there because they want to learn. They are eager for someone to give them a little bit of freedom to create and explore. I was never afraid to show them my latest idea and ask if they had any suggestions on how to make it better. I was often surprised at what they came up with! In the end, I wanted to teach them the skills that would help them become creative, successful professionals.

Show Them The Ropes
We’ve all been there; bright eyed and eager to learn the secrets of the industry! I’ve learned by sharing resources, stylebooks, Twitter handles, RSS feeds and spreadsheets, the intern was able to see the inner workings of the “Real World.” These tools provide the knowledge needed to navigate the business world.

Damn, These Kids Are Good
I realize how exciting the future of public relations, marketing and social media is going to be with such capable minds entering the work force. To my previous interns Ashley, Stephanie and Elizabeth, thanks for all your help and inspiration!

I’d love to know what other young professionals have learned when working with interns. Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Photo Credit: magazine.metropublisher.com

How Social Media Can Cure Your Holiday Hangover!

Posted on December 15, 2010 by Anna Woodlock

In light of all the holiday parties that go on this time of the year, hangovers are bound to happen.

Did you know that social media can cure the nausea, headaches and sleepiness that comes with drinking? Yes, I (jokingly) put together a list of social media applications that can help you feel better after a night spent at the corporate holiday party.

Yelp: Nothing is better than a greasy hamburger to help you feel better after a night of drinking. Use Yelp to help you find your favorite burger joint or try a new restaurant after reading a few reviews on the popular local search Website. You’ll quickly be on your way to feeling better.

Need Advil? Yelp can also locate the closest CVS or Walgreens so you can stock up on pain relievers for your pounding headache.

Tweetdeck: After a night out do you feel like you literally can’t get out of bed? No worries, open the Tweetdeck application on your smart phone and you’ll immediately be connected. While you’re there, you might as well ask your Twitter followers if they have any tips for a hangover!

YouTube: Even YouTube has videos about curing a hangover! They might not do the trick but at least they will take your mind off of the pain for a few minutes. I found two separate videos that give detailed instructions.

How To Cure A Hangover (1)
How to Cure A Hangover (2)

Facebook: Wondering what happened last night? It never fails that someone will post the evidence on Facebook and tag you in the photos. Take a look and see why you really feel so bad!

Happy Holidays!

My Top 5 Social Media Stories of the Week

Posted on December 10, 2010 by Anna Woodlock

Anchors Aweigh – The US Navy’s Take On Social Media
I was surprised by the level of detail this 17-page document gives to those in the Navy. Most of the principals given can be applied to businesses and non-profits using social media!

Why The New York Times eliminated its social media editor position
Social Media Editor Jennifer Preston will return to reporting in January and leave her current position. Why? The Times is looking for integrate its print and digital operations.

The Weakest Link: What Wikileaks Has Taught Us About the Open Internet
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve definitely heard about Wikileaks. This article details what went down and how it will affect the public space.

8 Ways Your Newsroom Can Get More Out Of Facebook
This article is a great resource for newspapers and news stations looking to “spice up” their newsroom!

How Online Reading Habits Have Changed Over 2010
The way people consume media has changed. We now use mobile aps, Facebook and Twitter instead of RSS Feeds or traditional web sites. What tools do you use for online reading?