Persuasive Picks for the week of 12/14/09

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Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino: Social Media, FUN and ROI
Marketing Prof’s Community Manager, Beth Harte gives readers a look into social media efforts coming from the Las Vegas strip via her interview with Brandie Feuer, Director of Interactive Marketing for Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino.

9 Tips for Enriching Your Presentations With Social Media
Savvy business professionals looking to create more interactive and attention grabbing presentations will find value with Olivia Mitchell’s tips for engaging audiences with the most popular online social media platforms.

Is Social Media Privacy an Oxymoron?
Erik Qualman from SearchEngineWatch discusses the decision between maintaining personal and business presences on social media platforms. While not a new topic, it certainly warrants revisiting as privacy features on various sites continue to evolve.

10 Tips for Better Business Blogging
New Marketing Lab’s Colin Browning provides details on his 10 tips for better blogging that are part of the presentation he gave at IDC Insights. He includes his presentation materials via Slideshare as well.

Top 10 biggest social media stories of 2009
From Twitter to “Government 2.0,” Vator.tv’s Ronny Kerr chronicles some of the biggest acquisitions, valuations and emerging technologies throughout 2009.

Thank You For Supporting Our Virtual Clothing Drive for Rosie’s Place

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Thank you to everyone who supported our virtual clothing drive for Rosie’s Place in Boston. We received some generous monetary donations that we passed along today, and we were able to deliver about a dozen bags of clothing. We appreciate all the retweets and buzz – and hope that next time, we can turn even more of the awareness into action.

We were given a tour of Rosie’s – here’s our Whrrl story with more details on what Rosie’s Place does and who they help. Happy Holidays.

More stories at Rosie’s Place
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Persuasive Picks for the week of 12/07/09

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Cisco: Social Media Newest Playground for Cybercriminals
The rise in social media’s popularity is creating a whole new online playground for cyber-criminals. Highlights from Cisco’s latest security report on the subject are featured in this post from CNN Money.

Someone mocking you on Twitter? Here are 5 steps you can take to minimize the damage
The ability to create a Twitter account in order to impersonate someone else is trivial. It happens all the time to both celebrities and major brands. But, what if it happens to you? This PR Junkie post by Michael Sebastian on Ragan.com gives some advice on how to extinguish a Twitter antagonist.

What the Zhu Zhu Pet Issue Teaches Us About Crisis Communications
At first glance, this week’s news that one of the hottest Christmas presents of the year might contain small amounts of dangerous chemicals seems to be a potential PR nightmare. Joe Ciarallo from PRNewser explains how it was more like a test in crisis communications.

Social Middleware to Block Social Networking On-the-job!
Employees of Enterprise organizations who are still having a tough time obtaining social media “buy-in” might find themselves hitting a brick wall in 2010 with the invention of “social middleware.”

Why B2B publishers can no longer shun digital
Underscore Marketing President, Tom Hespos share his take on why B2B organizations can no longer avoid the digital space.

Persuasive Picks for the week of 11/30/09

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linkedinlogoTop 5 Tips to Increase your Social Capital on LinkedIn
While it might not get mainstream media attention like Twitter and Facebook do, LinkedIn is still a social networking giant. Sparxoo Senior Writer, Ethan Lyon shares a handful of tips for making the most of your efforts there.

A Wiki of Social Media Marketing Examples
Marketers looking for a plethora of social marketing examples should look no farther than Peter Kim’s Social Media Marketing Wiki. The site is constantly being updated by the community and is definitely worthy of a re-mention here in the picks!

How to Build a Social Media Campaign
Hilary JM Topper reminds us that “a successful social media program must be mindful of consumers’ interests” with this great guest post on BusinessWeek.com that includes sounds advice and an overview of Coca-Cola’s recent marketing efforts.

4 online brand gimmicks that failed
Bryan Maleszyk contributes to iMediaConnection with this post containing multiple examples of social campaigns that show how failure can often teach more than success.

Ford’s Got a Reason to Fiesta
Scott Monty recaps the success of Ford’s “Fiesta Movement” campaign that culminated with a grand tweet-up with Guinness Record potential. He also offers a glimpse of what’s next for Ford with the beginning of “Fiesta Movement Chapter 2.”

Thanks from PerkettPR

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Happy Thanksgiving! We hope you enjoy some time with good friends and family and remember all that you have to be thankful for. Inspired by the “thankful videos” posted on Facebook by our client, St. Louis Children’s Hospital, we, too, wanted to share what we are thankful for this year. Here are some of the personal and professional things that some of the staff at PerkettPR wanted to share – how about you?

  • The unbelievable real friendships that I’ve been able to build out of “internet” friendships
  • A great boss that keeps us on top of trends, ahead of the “next best thing” and always pushes us to do better and be better
  • Good health for myself, husband and kids and the extra wisdom to appreciate it
  • Feeling like I share actual office space with people because of the closeness I feel to my colleagues
  • Watching my kids grow and learn
  • Having a supportive and fun team to work with
  • To be working for an amazing organization, whose members impress me every day with their dedication and super-human efforts
  • For my wonderful family and that, someday, my daughter will sleep through the night
  • Good health and great friends
  • The opportunity to engage with co-workers and clients that are continually teaching me new things
  • My wonderful, impish, impulsive, clever 2 year old and the joy he brings to my life (despite the call from daycare that he bit another child)
  • My job, the fact that I get to work virtually, and most importantly the amazing people I’m fortunate enough to work with each day
  • Smart, engaged colleagues who push themselves daily to deliver results
  • The good health of the people I love
  • The daily laughs, good health, and endless support of my sisters, Mom, extended family, and good friends.
  • Working for a company (and with my rockstar co-workers)—that exude passion, creativity, and brilliance on a daily basis
  • My healthy family
  • My truly wonderful co-workers who bring new meaning to the phrase “team work”
  • Clients and team members with great personalities and contagious passion for what they do every day!
  • Having a roof over my head, food in my belly, wine in my glass, and the best family and friends in the world!
  • A healthy family
  • My job – and to have the ability to provide for my family when others are less fortunate
  • A tight group of friends and family and the ability to live closely, so I can hug them often
  • The chance to work with colleagues and clients who have a great sense of humor
  • A healthy family
  • The amazing community that has supported PerkettPR this year: clients, industry colleagues, loyal and amazing staff

Persuasive Picks for the week of 11/16/09 – Focus on Social Media Guidelines and Policies

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Hey B2B marketers: It’s okay to have fun!
Marketing strategist and author, David Meerman Scott reminds companies that B2B marketing still means communicating with people and doesn’t need to be boring.

What makes a blog successful?
Brazen Careerist, Penelope Trunk shares stories of blogging success straight from her own experiences.

Create social media guidelines to engage your customer
This post from Daniel Burrus on TechJournalSouth.com is one in a series containing advice on creating social media guidelines. This pick zeros in on the importance of establishing clear and consistent focus across the company.

A Call for Social Media Guidelines
The topic of social media guidelines continues with this post on PharmExec.com – recapping some of the biggest issues facing the health care industry as it attempts to engage in social media.

A Few Guidelines for Drafting Social Media Guidelines
This post from Chris Crum rounds out a trilogy of picks on social media guidelines and features video interviews with Wayne Sutton and Patrick O’Keefe.

Please Join Us – PerkettPR’s Virtual Clothing Drive to Benefit Rosie’s Place

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UPDATE 12-10-09

We are on our last few days of collecting clothing and donations for Rosie’s Place in Boston. If you live in or around Boston, we will pick up your clothing donations over the weekend or on Monday, December 14. Please contact us via the email below or Susan at 781.267.8849 to coordinate time and location. In a time where donating money can be difficult, please consider looking through your closet this weekend instead. That old sweater you haven’t worn for five years might not mean much to you, but can brighten 2010 for a woman in need.

If you would like to donate monetarily, please use our ChipIn button below. We’ll be delivering a check and clothing to Rosie’s on Monday, December 14.

Thank you!

2009 has unarguably been a year of many ups and downs, not only here in New England, but across the globe.  In Massachusetts alone, we have witnessed the unemployment rate rise as high as 9.3% (October 2009) and my guess is that we all know at least one person who has been laid off this past year or been adversely affected by the struggling economy.  As the holidays approach this year, I asked myself and my employees “What can we do as an organization to help others who are less fortunate than us?” We may gripe about changes we’ve faced, but focusing on others who are facing even more challenging times can help us to keep perspective.

The answer came to us quickly. We could utilize our “virtual” expertise to benefit a local organization – bonding together to focus on helping others whose lives have been far more challenging than anything we’ve had to face. And so, we are thrilled to announce the kick off of our first-ever “PerkettPR Virtual Clothing Drive.”

PerkettPR has teamed up with Rosie’s Place – a local Boston shelter for women — to help raise clothing donations in our first – of what we hope will be annual – virtual clothing drive. Since 1974, Rosie’s Place has been an oasis of hope and nourishment for poor and homeless women. The mission of Rosie’s Place is to help women maintain their dignity, seek opportunity and find security in their lives. Rosie’s Place has evolved from providing meals and shelter to providing permanent solutions through advocacy, education and affordable housing. And with your generous clothing donation, we hope to make the holidays a little warmer at Rosie’s Place.

How You Can Help – Boston and Beyond
Please help us to share the warmth by donating new or gently used/clean winter items for women. Items can include hats, gloves, scarves, twin-sized blankets, etc. Take a look through your closets at what you no longer wear, or grab an extra gift during your holiday shopping. It’s easy to do and will make a huge difference to a woman in need.

You can either send items to us via UPS, or collect items at your office and the PerkettPR team will come pick them up the week of December 7th (for Boston-area companies). Simply email rosies@perkettpr.com to indicate your desire to donate and to coordinate details with our staff (shipment or pickup).

An alternate way to donate
You may also make a non-deductible monetary donation via the ChipIn widget below as an alternative method of participating in our drive. Every dollar counts and is very appreciated!

How Generous is Your Company?
If we receive a positive response, PerkettPR will name one company as “Most Giving” and feature them on our blog this December. So gather your colleagues, put a box at the front desk or in the lobby and start piling up that winter warmth.

Thank you in advance for helping us to help others.

Happy Holidays,

The PerkettPR Team

Global Entrepreneurship Week – How Are You Helping Tomorrow’s Leaders?

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This week has been dubbed “Global Entrepreneurship Week” by the Kauffman Foundation, the world’s leading foundation for entrepreneurship, and Make Your Mark, the UK’s campaign to give young people the confidence, skills and ambition to make their ideas happen. Their goal is to connect young people everywhere through local, national and global activities designed to help them explore their potential as self-starters and innovators.

One of the things I’ve been most inspired by in social media lately is the ability to connect with and help out students in the PR field. This is much easier (for parties on both ends) than when I was in college. Back then, you had to be extremely aggressive and convince already-too-busy executives to sit down with you for an “informational interview.” There were not a lot of opportunities to connect with – or network with – industry professionals beyond this all-too-brief meeting (one where the executive was usually running late and/or had to leave early), and an occasional PRSSA conference. But today, I’ve been contacted directly by students and have been able to answer their questions on a less-intense but longer-term relationship basis – thanks to social media. I was a special guest, and have watched others participate in, #PRStudChat on Twitter. I have connected with students through Facebook and LinkedIn. They can see what I’m reading, who I connect with and what issues I care about, as well as read about our day-to-day work via our blog, Twitter accounts and more. It’s an exciting time and I am eager to watch the progress of tomorrow’s generation of PR professionals.

All that being said, there are four fundamental goals that the folks behind GEW are hoping to accomplish, including:

  • Inspire
  • Mentor
  • Connect
  • Engage

I think these are fantastic goals to live by every single day as  business leader – not just for tomorrow’s industry champions but to inspire today’s as well. I also think we’ve covered them pretty well in 2009 at PerkettPR, but can up the ante in 2010. I hope to inspire my staff to be happy and balanced while delivering amazing results,  mentor a new influx of PerkettPR employees, continue to connect with our community and expand our relationships in the business industry at large, and engage not only PerkettPR friends and new clients, but their constituents as well.

How will you help tomorrow’s leaders – both at your own company and beyond?

For learn more about Global Entrepreneurship Week, visit their very informative and interactive site. Here’s to tomorrow!

Persuasive Picks for the week of 11/09/09

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Coping With Social Media Burnout
Have you reached the point of social media burnout? For some, committing to and keeping up with, social media engagement can be overwhelming. CIO.com’s Kristin Burnham contributes this guest post on the topic to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Study: Social Media, Mobile Set to Impact Holidays in Big Way
Retailers might get a little extra business from social media communities this holiday season. Christopher Heine from Clickz.com cites some interesting facts from a recent study by Deloitte.

Your Social Media Content Must Be Valuable
Content might be king, but SearchEngineWatch.com’s Liana Evans reminds readers that quality outweighs quantity when it comes to maintaining your high search engine rank.

Companies Identify Major Business Benefits in Listening to Online Conversation
More great facts, stats and examples of the importance of paying attention to online conversations about your brand, courtesy of Aberdeen and CNN Money.

How Ford does Social Media
JD Lasica shares this great video interview featuring Scott Monty who heads up Social Media at Ford.

Can You Afford Not to Demand Excellence?

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I recently had a conversation with an industry colleague who works on the client side. During that conversation, which took place at a marketing conference, he shared with me his experience at a certain other interactive conference last year: “One awesome week-long party paid for by my company. No real business takes place in terms of ROI. I can’t wait to go back.”

burning-wasting-money-600Huh? With that mentality, no wonder marketing is often the first line item when companies are facing budget cuts.

But wait a minute – aren’t you responsible for ensuring excellence for your company across the board at all times? In this day and age of record unemployment, pay cuts, “turning out the lights,” and more work with less resources, can you afford this sort of mentality on your workforce? Do you have any idea what the marketing department does with its budget? Are you assessing and measuring and demanding excellence on a weekly basis?

More importantly, if you have a marketing department spending money on events, travel, conferences and tradeshows, are you really measuring the ROI of such efforts? Do you assess the cost of the show (in full) and what it yielded for results? Do you pay attention to who’s going, what they’re doing and the expected results? Do you compare these investments to other marketing activities? Can you afford not to have such checks and balances in place these days?

Mind you, this was no multi-billion dollar company – although even they, too, are being affected by this global recession. This was a start up in a precarious and competitive industry. In other words, that kind of irresponsible mentality (like #11 here) shouldn’t be difficult to spot. But if you’re not paying attention – and not demanding results from every investment – then it could be missed. And such ignorance could cost you not only money, but perhaps a future layoff or worse.

Take the time to assess all of your  marketing activities – not just SEO or PR or advertising – but the dollars spent on every activity online and off. Demand excellence in everything and set parameters for employees. Prioritize in advance – know which activities yield the best results and which could easily be diminished with minimal impact.

Can you draw a direct line to results or positive ROI for each  marketing activity? If not, can you afford not to demand excellence and results across the board? I didn’t think so.