#SMCampaign

Social Media campaigns seem to be a rising trend. The first thing that comes to mind when I think of one is Dove. They have been great about promoting their most recent campaign via Twitter.

For quite awhile now Dove has been all about “Real Beauty.” Learning to love the body you have and the person you are. They originally launched the campaign in 2004 with the intention of redefining beauty. In the social mission for the Dove campaign it says:

 

The Real Truth About Beauty: A Global Report, Dove^® launched the Campaign for Real Beauty in 2004. The campaign started a global conversation about the need for a wider definition of beauty after the study proved the hypothesis that the definition of beauty had become limiting and unattainable. Among the study’s findings was the statistic that only 2% of women around the world would describe themselves as beautiful. Since 2004, Dove^® has employed various communications vehicles to challenge beauty stereotypes and invite women to join a discussion about beauty.

More recently however I have notice Dove becoming more and more prevalent on Social Media. I have had several friends share articles, pictures and videos promoted by Dove. I also really love the idea behind their campaign it goes back to what I talked about in my last blog. They are targeting females by hitting them where it counts. Body issues and beauty is a huge thing for women. By saying that its OK to be you is definitely going to get our attention and we are going to want to support you.

A recent video that I saw on Twitter really caught my attention.

I just watched it out of curiosity but then it really stuck with me. I ended up talking about it with me friends which then sparked a conversation.

 

Social Media campaigns don’t just have to be for products however, they can be for anything. You can also start one simply just by creating a hashtag and its more than likely to catch on. Going back to Dove, they have been using the hashtag #beautyis. Other popular hashtags  are the one associated with the Invisible Children #KONY2012, I remember that was how I learned about everything that was going on.

http://www.postano.com/blog/13-best-social-media-campaigns-of-2013

Some of the best Social Media campaigns from 2013: 

1. The Human Rights Campaign for marriage equality

I don’t think anyone could go through Facebook without seeing one of those equality pictures

 

2. The Dove Real Beauty sketches

See I told you they were great.

3. General Mills Hello Cereal lovers.

 

And so many more! I encourage you to check out that article to see them all.

 

Basically I think that Social Media campaigns are genius, they are up to date and travel fast. Let me know what you think!

 

Cheers,

Emma

Does Emotion Sell?

If a company sold to your emotions rather than your fashion taste would you buy it? Do you think people support companies more when they have an emotional connection to them?

There is a chance that marketing is changing. Companies are going to start tugging at your heart strings rather than forcing products down your throat. They will sell you an idea, something you can identify with. One example of this is United Colors of Benetton, they are a clothing company but by looking at their ads you can’t really tell.

Looking at some of their ads what is your reaction? I know I immediately think race and oppression, not once do I think clothes. Would you buy from a company like this or does it make you cringe and turn away. In my opinion the idea behind it is for you to identify with the issues they are standing for and then in return support their business.

Lets compare these ads to other big name clothing brands.

Abercrombie & Fitch. They are known for having rather scandalous advertising and I suppose in away this is similar to what United Colors of Benetton are doing, but really its not. I mean one company is making a statement about strong and controversial political topics while the other is selling sex. But hey, to each their own.

Another company that has tried selling emotion is Wren Studio. A few months ago they released a video to debut their new collection. The video was called “First Kiss” and it was a variety of complete strangers kissing for the very first time.

Just until a few days ago I had no idea that video was an ad for a clothing company, however I absolutely loved the video! I thought it was beautiful.

There have been several articles and blogs written about it arguing whether or not it was successful. Some saying that “It’s a beautiful short film that does absolutely nothing to sell clothes or leave any sort of brand impression for Wren,”  while other articles rave about its success. Business Insider said “Traffic to the Wren website is up 14,000%, and 96% of those visitors are new to the site. Sales in the online store are up over 13,600% compared to the week before First Kiss was released.”

So who do we believe? The people saying it was pointless but a beautiful video? Or the ones saying it was tremendously successful on all levels? I suppose it’s up to us individually to decide how we feel about the video and then go from there.

Whats your opinion? Is this a successful way of advertising a business? Does emotion sell?

Cheers,

Emma

The Ugly Truth on Social Media

The truth is Social Media can make or break you. Whether you are a college student, business tycoon or a national organization Social Media can help you out or tear you down.

Lets begin by talking about what Social Media can do for the college student. Being one myself I know that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are a big part of our everyday lives. As I talked about in my last post, the first thing I do in the morning is check my Social Media accounts. But I’m not here to talk about how often we use Social Media I am here to talk about what it can do for us. Lets rewind to last weekend when you decided it would be fun to have a friend take pictures of you doing a keg stand and then you of course had to upload them to Facebook for all of your friends to see. Now while it was super cool and all to see how many likes you got, what do you think a future employer is going to think when they stumble across that?

YIKES!!!

http://www.seykota.com/tt/workshops/default.html

 

Chances are you’re not going to get the job.

So now that we have brushed over how Social Media can hurt you, lets talk about how it can help you. First off get a LinkedIn! Its basically a professional Facebook. You can use it to find jobs and network with people. And what a great thing for a future employer to find while they are searching you on the web. It’s also smart to keep your personal Social Media sites well balanced between professional and fun. It’s OK to post about your fun day at the mall or how you are getting manicures with your friends, but don’t forget to post about the interesting article you just read or retweet something from PR Daily. Show the world how well rounded you are by following a variety of different things! You know you’re smart so let everyone else know too!

Enough about college students, lets chat a little bit about how organizations can really utilize Social Media.

I think that it’s safe to say that a lot of organizations aren’t using Social Media simply because they don’t know how. Simon Sanders stated in “Share This” that out of around 1,000 clients, brands, marketing, digital and PR agencies around 35% of them are either still experimenting with Social Media or aren’t doing it at all. Its time to hop on the bandwagon everybody! Social media is cool!

 

http://boldandfierce.com/the-social-media-phenomenon-a-discussion-with-my-husband/

Before you hop on the Social Media train let me share with you a few steps that found in “Share This.”

1. “Select your squad”
you need to determine who you are going to take with you while you embark on this journey. It can be your PR people (if you have them), the marketing department or even customer service. Really whoever you thing is going to rock at it.

2. “Choose a goal”
What are you going to use Social Media for? Reaching out to consumers? Promoting new products? Launching a campaign? When you are first starting out have just one or two goals so you don’t get overwhelmed.

3. “Start listening”
Listen to what your consumers are saying! People are going to reach out to you listen to them and respond! Engage in Twitter chats and other online conversations.

In my opinion one of the worst things an organization can do is not respond to consumers or delete negative feedback. The purpose of Social Media is to connect people and to share thoughts and ideas. You are going to make your company look bad if you only show positive feedback or never reply to consumers.

Let’s all pledge to use Social Media positively!

Cheers,

Emma

 

Is Social Media Becoming Too Popular?

Lets face it, Social Media is a huge part of your everyday life. I know for myself the first thing I do in the morning is check my various Social Media accounts. First I check out Facebook then move on to Twitter next I’ll hit up my Instagram and even see whats happening on Snapchat. 

I recently read in the book “Share This” about just how much Social media is taking over. There are literally sites for anything there are even virtual worlds. I have a few friends that are into World of Warcraft and I have seen them lose hours of their day on that site. 

So this all begs the question “Is Social Media Becoming Too Popular?”

I actually had a conversation with my dad today after we had discovered a women has created a printer that will print makeup for you completely taking away the need to go to a cosmetic store. After watching the video I told my Dad that I actually enjoy going to Ulta and Sephora because its something fun for me to do and a reason to get out of the house. I told him that with all of this technology we are creating I fear we are all going to become agoraphobics. 

What do you think are we all going to becoming so addicted to Social Media and technology that we never leave the house? Are we going to slowly start to get rid of human interaction all together?

I know I certainly hope not! Don’t get my wrong I love Social Media I mean I feel like I have a sort of obligation to like it being a member of the PR world. But we have to remember that there is a real world out there too! 

Social Media is huge and I use it daily to keep up to date on the latest trends, news and even to keep tabs on my friends. If there is news that you want to travel fast Social Media is definitely the route to take. 

On Monday I had the unfortunate experience of losing my best friend in a car accident. This was something the literally took over Social Media I couldn’t go on Facebook, Twitter or even Instagram without seeing a post about her.  It was a way for people to pay tribute to Chelsey through messages and pictures. Social Media has also been helpful for her family to keep everyone up to date on funeral arrangements. 

There were so many posts made in honor of Chelsey that it made it onto the news. 

So here is an example of when Social Media was a great thing. Personally I feel that Social Media has more positives than negatives. The only downfall I really see with it is that it is slowly consuming our lives. However if you look beyond that and see all the great it brings than it is super exciting to think about how much its growing!

Whats your opinion on social media? Is it becoming too popular or not popular enough? Are we letting it take up too much of our time are do we need to spend more time on it?

 

Cheers,

Emma 

@social media #changingPR

Today our world seems to almost completely revolve around social media. I know for myself I spend a large amount of time with my nose in my phone seeing what my friends are up to.

What does this mean for Public Relations? Is it good or bad? And what about the press release and all the old fashioned PR, does that mean that they’re on their way out? Well I sought out to answer these questions.

To my first question, this can mean great things for PR! When used correctly it can bring a whole new dimension to public relations. Through my search I found 7 ways social media is changing public relations. Research is now easier, PR professionals can use social media to find target markets, it can also be used for costumer service.

However with the good there is always the bad. Social media is hard to control and can also be time consuming. Consumers expect to have the comments replied to quickly. Timely two-way communication is key.

I watched a video produced by PRSA-LA that stated it all very well. One thing that was said that I really liked was “social media has brought the public back to public relations.”

There is still that popular question “is the press release dead?”  In many peoples opinion the answer is yes, some even go as far as saying that its a “worthless bother.” However there are still those that disagree, they believe that it is surviving! They even say that social media is making the press release even more important. Social media allows to the press release to be posted anywhere and seen by everyone.

In this interview they say it all.

Social media is on the move and its taking public relations with it. Its been said that social media is transforming PR, and in my opinion its for the better. Companies are now able to interact more easily with their clients and promote products on the go. Videos can be made viral on youtube in a matter of minutes, a new product can be launched through Twitter and in seconds the worlds knows.

There have been many successful campaigns done through social media. Companies can post videos on twitter and Facebook, and their consumers can interact and talk about it right on the web. I have seen many brands post about new products and ask for peoples opinion. Victoria’s Secret is always asking Facebook and Twitter friends to vote on a new bag or whatever there next up coming thing is.

As stated earlier Social media is great for Customer service, consumers can post right on the companies page or tweet at them and expect a response quickly. They know that they don’t have to wait on the phone forever hoping to find a human.

So like it your not public relations is changing, and we all need to change with it!

EMU PRSSA Speed Mentoring