How to Get Results from Social Media – Best Practices from Harvard Business Review

March 26th, 2012 Posted in Conferences, Course/Training, Media, Media Future, Media Tips, Mediacontact.ie News, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms No Comments

Published since 1922, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) is arguably the most influential business publication in the globe.

Its worldwide English-language circulation is 250,000, and there are 11 licensed editions of the magazine.

In the last 18 months the HBR has embarked on an impressive digital strategy to completely transform how it communicates with its audience.

In that time it has seen a 25 per cent growth in online subscriptions generating 7 million monthly page views. The HBR has also grown an impressive 650,000-plus Twitter followers and more than 340,000 Facebook fans, who it already polls about decisions such as which cover image to use.

This workshop will be hosted by the publisher of the Harvard Business Review, Josh Macht, and will give a unique insight into how you can learn from their digital experience.

We live in an age when everyone is tweeting, sharing, posting and talking about your content. This session will help you answer the question “What is it really worth?” and how can you plan it to be a success in your organization.

During this workshop, Josh will show you how to think strategically about social media and how to get you and your organisation focused on what truly matters when it comes to driving meaningful business growth through the web.

Highlights

* Cutting edge thinking and ideas from the Harvard Business Review
* Examples from HBR.org, which has grown its social media by more than 200 percent
* Methods for turning your audience into an army of marketers for you Framework for thinking strategically about your top social media priorities
* Understanding how to adapt your social media strategy given rapid innovation
* Ideas for tapping into your entire organisation for new product offerings
Speaker Profile
Joshua Macht is the Group publisher for the newly formed Harvard Business Review Group. In this role Macht oversees the commercial activities for Harvard Business Review’s magazine, website (HBR.org), and books. He also drives new product development across all three platforms, as well as emerging technologies, under the flagship Harvard Business Review brand. In his previous role as executive director of Harvard Business Digital, he led the dramatic growth of the company’s web efforts, including entirely new areas of the site focused on emerging leaders.

How to customise your social updates

March 6th, 2012 Posted in Media Tips, Online, Public Relations, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms No Comments

You’ve set up a Twitter and Facebook account for your brand. You’ve attracted a reasonable amount of followers and are regularly posting content to both. Happy days, right? Wrong. These days nearly all regular social media users are on both Facebook and Twitter (at the very least). So, beware of boring your much sought-after followers by posting the same thing on both channels. See below for some useful tips on how to differentiate ….

Length. One obvious difference to note is the 140 character restriction on Twitter. Research has shown that tweets between 120 and 130 characters have the highest click through rates (remember to leave room for links). Astonishingly, on Facebook the limit is even less; posts under 80 characters receive 27% more engagement. So remember, less is more.

Photos. Viewing photos on Facebook is easy and is often the first thing people will do when looking at your profile, so really there’s little restriction – just make sure your pictures are interesting for your audience. On Twitter, however, users must click a link to see your photo and will not be pleased if the snap that took ages to load wasn’t worth the wait. Make sure they’re exciting, relevant and self-explanatory.

Personal Engagement. The pace of Twitter is much faster than Facebook, so it’s important to reply to people in a timely manner. It’s more much conversational too – your ratio of personal responses to organic tweets should be 50:50. Facebook is more useful for open-ended questions and redirection.

Frequency. To maintain activity on Twitter you’ll need to tweet several times a day, but not excessively (i.e keep it to every hour or two rather than every 15 minutes). Make sure all your tweets are relevant, however, and not just tweeting for the sake of it. With Facebook, post around 3 – 5 times per day so you stay in user’s news feeds but aren’t crowding them.

Language. With Twitter, it’s not entirely necessary to write complete sentences (although it’s better if you can). Once the message is clear it’s okay to use symbols or abbreviations to meet the character limit. While the opposite is true for Facebook, it’s not a place for excessive posts either. Use links to redirect to blogs or other places where longer posts are acceptable.

Source: HubSpot

5 Top Tips for sharing your company’s news on Social Media

February 29th, 2012 Posted in Advertising, Facebook, Marketing, Media, MediaHQ, Mediacontact.ie News, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms No Comments

The social news revolution is presenting a very exciting opportunity for
organisations about how they influence what customers read about them on
social media sites.

We now consume a large proportion of our daily news on social channels.
According to Mashable an astonishing 75% of all
news in the USA is consumed through social channels
(http://mashable.com/2010/03/01/social-networks-source-news)

We started Mediahq.com in September 2011 to help businesses to
simultaneously share their stories with traditional journalists via emails,
and on social channels.

It has quadrupled our web traffic is just 4 months with hundreds of stories
receiving thousands of new eye balls through Twitter and Facebook.

But what makes a good story you might ask? Why is one a must read and
another as dull as ditch water?

Just yesterday the communications team at @Foroige, headed by @Jerome_Hughes
released “Phone APP Translates ‘Cork English’ into English!!” a story that
gained over 1000 views within hours of being published.

Thanks to Jerome’s journalistic instincts and the hard working Social Media
Research Team at Media HQ, the story also featured on the Rick O’ Shea show,
Spin SW, FYI on TV3 as well as a feature article on the popular Irish site
Joe.ie.

Here are five tips we’ve learned to to help you get more views for your
social news stories.

1. Make sure your story is Newsworthy!
No matter how much you format your text or edit your headline, be it
traditional or new media, if your public does not find the content
informative, interesting or useful you will not succeed.

2. Use a Headline that’s attractive and Twitter friendly
To use a long confusing title is shooting yourself in the foot before a
race. No matter how good your story is, you need to draw the reader in using
your title. It needs to be short and catchy enough to fit in a tweet and
needs to contain enough Keywords to be recognized by search engines.

3. Keep your Release short and to the point.
The attention of the average Internet reader is decreasing rapidly and we
must face the fact that most readers will not read a long post. Avoid
including additional info about your company as in a traditional Press
Release. Keep your story specific enough that even a skim-read is enough to
make people want to share it on social Media

4. Try and use humour
The most successful Social Media Releases are light-hearted as the reader
is encouraged to share with his/her friends or family. A serious,
disheartening story may well be read by your closest audience but it is
unlikely they will pass it on through their other networks.

5.Make sure you have a good idea!

Never underestimate the power of creativity. The Foroige story did well because it was something that the public hadn’t seen before and weren’t expecting. People will never share the same old, same old!

The new Twitter: what you need to know

December 14th, 2011 Posted in Online, Social Media, Social Network, Social Platforms, Twitter No Comments

Twitter got its first major upgrade last week, with a brand new look and a range of new features. Whether you love it, hate it, or still have to get used to it, you’ll no doubt be wondering what the hell is going on. Mashable have put together a handy guide …

What’s new?

The site has been reorganised so that everything fits into four categories: ‘Home’ is the first category – this is your old news feed, only better. You can now see media right in the tweets instead of the sidebar, and there’s also an option to ‘open’, where you can see replies and retweets. ‘Connect’ is next, and is where all your @replies and mentions will be, and is essentially the same as the @username tab before.

Next is ‘Discover’: This is where you can search for topics and hashtags, and will also identify stories and trends based on your connections, location and language. Finally, there’s ‘Me’: This is your Twitter profile, made bigger, neater and with more activity recorded. Your information now appears on the left instead of right.

Probably the most significant change is brand pages for companies. This allows for more functionality and interactions with followers and larger logos and extended taglines are also allowed. Opinion is divided with this, with talk of ’selling out’ and ‘copying Facebook’ among many users.

What’s gone?

It appears that iPhone users can no longer copy and paste from a tweet. The facility to translate tweets into other languages also seems to have disappeared, as well as options to mail, repost or save links to Instapaper and similar apps. Profile names are now emphasised rather than their handle. Reports have also emerged that the redesign makes it less easier to switch accounts.

User reaction

#newtwitter fast became a worldwide trending topic that will probably stay top of the list for a while yet and as always, the response is mixed. Interestingly many of the complaints are coming from mobile users, while desktop users seems to be full of praise. Overall it’s a much more user-friendly site that will likely entice many non-tweeters to join the flock.

Source: Mashable

Two workshops to to follow Social Media Masterclasses next week

September 14th, 2011 Posted in Facebook, Latest Trends, Online, Social Network, Social Platforms, Social Tools No Comments

We’ve just announced two new practical workshops that will run immediately after our ‘Build a Tribe Online’ and ‘Facebook for Business’ Masterclasses next week. These workshops will take place from 2pm -4pm next Monday and Wednesday after the initial Social Media Masterclasses have finished.

On Monday Ewan McIntosh (@ewanmcintosh) is going to do a workshop on design thinking and creative problem solving, and on Wednesday Katie Moffat (@katiemoffat) will host a social media surgery for 2 hours. Both workshops are limited to just 20 places due to the practical and interactive nature.

Both Ewan and Katie are the best in the business and this is a great opportunity to learn from them and receive their feedback.

Both workshops are only €49 per person and we’re expecting to fill them within a few hours, so call us or book online as soon as possible if you’re interested.

How to book your place
Call: 01 473 2050 and ask for Cathal
Online: www.mediacontact.ie/channelOne

Monday 19th September – Design Thinking Workshop with Ewan McIntosh
2PM – 4PM, Harold’s Cross Education Centre, Dublin 6w.
This workshop introduces you to the process of Design Thinking and takes you through the simple steps involved. It is focused on opening participants up to their own creative potential and the opportunities for creativity within their business, and as such will be highly interactive. The development of Creative ideas and boosting existing productivity will be the main topics of conversation here. You can read more about this course here

Wed 21st September – Social Media Surgery workshop with Katie Moffat.
2PM – 4PM, Harold’s Cross Education Centre, Dublin 6w.
This two-hour social media surgery workshop will deal with the specific social media challenges faced by participants. Each attendee will fill out a questionnaire in advance to identify the areas they would like to focus on. Moderator Katie Moffat will work through these issues, and workshop participants will learn through the solutions to each other’s problems. You can read more about this course here

Upcoming Social Media Masterclasses happening this September!

August 26th, 2011 Posted in Campaign, Conferences, Facebook, Media Tips, Social Network, Social Platforms, Social Tools No Comments

This September we are running two seperate 3-hour Social Media Masterclasses which will be happenining on the 19th and 21st September in Dublin.

These courses have been a huge success so far with over sixty different companies booked on each course already.

19^th September – How to build a tribe online – Using political marketing to grow followers for your business with Ewan McIntosh. Harold’s Cross Education Centre, Auditorium.

21^st September – Facebook for Business – How to get the most out of the world’s biggest social network with Katie Moffat. Harold’s Cross Education Centre, Auditorium.

Both courses are highly relevant at the moment and it’s a great opportunity to learn from two of the best trainers in the business.

Communications guru Ewan McIntosh co-directed the digital media campaign of the Scottish National Party (SNP) which lead to a majority win in the election earlier this year that, in theory, the voting system was set up to avoid.

Katie Moffat is an independent consultant who has worked in the PR and digital industries for over 15 years, she has extensive experience of devising and implementing integrated communications strategies for a wide range of clients across a variety of industries and sectors including agencies, B2C, B2B, arts and public sector.

You can book here or contact Cathal on 01 473 2050.

How to build a tribe online

From Barack Obama’s historic win in the 2008 American Presidential election to the recent stunning victory by the Scottish Nationalist Party, online marketing is playing an essential role in major political campaigns.

This two-hour masterclass will show you how to utilise the tools of any successful political campaign to build an online following for your business.

It will be given by communications guru Ewan McIntosh who co-directed the digital media campaign of the Scottish National Party (SNP) which lead to a majority win in the election earlier this year that, in theory, the voting system was set up to avoid.

Digital media is too often treated as being of service to other parts of a marketing machine, but McIntosh shows what happens when you make it a core piston of your campaign’s engine.

From the starting point of what digital media spaces are out there, to which ones work best for specific purposes and exploring how they fit with traditional media and marketing, by the end of this three hour masterclass you will have a clear next step for your organisation’s strategy for finding the people who want your product or service already, and reaching out to those who don’t know it yet.

This course will cover:

- Why every idea is a campaign and every campaign wants to become a movement
- The Seven Spaces of Digital Media
- Which spaces work best for different types of customer relationship
- The importance of finding a clear vision
- How to communicate vision through digital media
- Constructing an integrated strategy that empowers a tribe
- Matching the pace and rhythm of a campaign to go faster than any competitor could ever match
- Telling the story: the importance of narrative

- How “the digital person” can raise their profile and stop being of service to the rest of the organisation, and start being its core piston.

Facebook for Business

You may be one of the 500 million people that uses Facebook to keep in touch with their friends but do you know how to use it effectively for your business? If not then come along to this workshop which will cover the ‘what, why and how’ of successfully using Facebook for business.

From the basics of setting up a Facebook page, to building your community (friends) and through to the more advanced side of using apps and customising your page.

This course will cover

Setting up:

- Difference between a Facebook profile / a page / a group / event
- Setting up your Facebook page
- Getting a custom Facebook URL
- Getting started with content & updating the page
- Some important dos and don’ts
- Resource: who should run your Facebook page? how often should you update?

Developing your Facebook presence:

- Building your community (getting people to ‘like’ your page)
- Customising your page
- Using Facebook apps
- Integrating Facebook into your marketing strategy
- Case studies – which businesses are using Facebook successfully

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