Posted by Lisa Cruz on Tue, Aug 31, 2010 @ 07:38 PM
I had the opportunity to sit and think about what has worked for me over the past 16 years when it comes to personal branding through public relations. And then I put together this presentation to use when addressing a group of local women in business. Do you have some personal keys to success that you have identified over the years? Let me know, I'd love to hear what has worked for you.
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Tue, Aug 03, 2010 @ 03:28 PM
"I'm so excited about what I'm learning today on social media I called my PR person over the break and told her we are getting started!" Now that's the kind of comment I like to hear during a presentation.
Last week I was in Maine to present social media at St. Joseph College for their health care symposium and this was the comment I heard from an attendee. I was thrilled with her reaction. But she also commented about one of my key take-aways from the presentation: Implementing social media at an organization takes continuous learning through education.
However, I'm not sure many organizations understand this when they decide to take the plunge.
Here are some things to keep in mind as your organization moves forward:
Your internal audience is critical to your social media engagment but they need to be kept up to speed through continuous learning. This could include social media overviews, technology updates and in-house workshops on how to set up a Facebook account and more.
On-going education can and should reach as many people as possible throughout your organization. If employees are your best ambassadors, why would you restrict learning to a select group? Social media is not just for the marketing folks. Remember, it's for anyone who has a voice, opinion and Internet access. Take it far, wide and deep!
You want to also accommodate the many different levels of social media understanding present throughout your organization to tailor the education. For example (and forgive me while I generalize), while the Millenials might have a firm grasp of the tools, they may still need guidance on how best to represent the organization online through communications. And while Baby Boomers understand the intricacies of communications they might be a bit more unsure of how to use the tools. One shoe size does not fit all.
Give ongoing education some serious consideration as you move forward. You might even find there are more benefits to providing ongoing education than you anticipated.
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Mon, Jul 12, 2010 @ 04:11 PM
You probably weren't expecting me to include AARP.org in my blog post about my recent column! But here it is. One of my social media tips in this week's column in The Post-Crescent includes not overlooking the baby boomers when it comes to social media.
Click here for the complete column: The Post-Crescent. Let me know what you think. I always welcome feedback.
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Fri, Jul 02, 2010 @ 11:40 AM
Red Shoes Speaks No. 33 Formspring.me from Lisa Cruz on Vimeo.
How does it work? What is it exactly? Why would you use it? Tommy and I talk about Formspring to answer these questions and more.
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Mon, Jun 21, 2010 @ 08:38 PM
About six weeks ago I received an email from Klout asking me if I was interested in receiving some free make up products from a big name brand. I was confused to say the least. I couldn't understand how they got my name and contact information until I remembered. I had voluntarily signed up on the Klout web site.
I remember seeing people post their tweets from the Klout web site. These tweets included a "Klout" score or rather showed what their ranking is when it comes to influence among their tweeps. While I was signing up to see what my influence was, Klout had another purpose. Klout's clients are companies or businesses who want to get their products or services in the hands of influential people online. There are a number of factors they review such as true reach, amplification, engagement and more. At my low Klout score of 41 out of a 100, I'm still a little stumped why they approached me but they did.
After I read through the first email from Klout, I decided to experiment and agreed to reviewing the CoverGirl products. After all, I do love my makeup! I also thought it would be interesting to see how Klout implements the process of soliciting reviews and subsequent policies requiring disclosures. I was pleasantly surprised.
Each email clearly stated that there were no expectations. I could simply enjoy the product and not say another word. Or, if I did talk about it I should include this link: http://cmp.ly/2 The tone of the emails was engaging, personal and lighthearted. I was definitely intrigued.
And of course I wrote a full review of the make up on my personal blog, you can read it here.
What do you think of their approach to product and service reviews? Does it make you uncomfortable? Do you think it's OK to do as long as people abide by full disclosure? Will the social media sphere accept or reject this approach? I look forward to your opinions.
In the meantime, I'll keep using my CoverGirl lip gloss and eye shadow. I'm a woman, I can't help it!
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Mon, Apr 26, 2010 @ 10:35 PM
A couple of weeks ago I tweeted that I was only going to use Bing as my search engine tool of choice for the next five days. As a result of my experiment, this blogpost will be short.
I did my best to break my Google habit but, wow, is that hard. Every gadget I own is set up to naturally access Google. Funny enough, I found myself Googling Bing to get to their homepage.
Available Wisconsin news was also very limited. Only news generated out of Milwaukee or the Journal-Sentinel came up in searches. I know for a fact we generate quite a bit more news from around the state so I was surpised at the lackluster search results.
Many in my social media circles had plenty of opinions as I set forth in my non-scientific experiment. The majority sang high praises for the map offerings. Which I admit are pretty cool. But, my life requires a bit more than beautiful maps. I need content at my fingertips--quick!
Another interesting thing that I became aware of during my five-day odyssey? Bing has no credibility. Because I don't hear anything about it since it launched, there's no social media chatter ... nothing. Which equates to little if any credibility and that lead me to doubting my search results. And then wanting to double check my searches with a comparison of Google's results.
Google searches are a great reminder that content is truly king when it comes to the Internet. Forget the imagery, bring on the content.
My observations are also a good lesson for any company: Don't forget the power of generating continuous buzz --especially when you are launching a new service or product. But you better have the product or service to back up the buzz.
Posted by redshoespr.com Admin on Thu, Apr 22, 2010 @ 07:10 AM
Guest Blog Post By: Shane Arman
I consider myself a multi-tasker, but I can also be easily distracted. These realizations became clear after I attended the
PR+SM Summit April 8 at Marquette University.
Having brought my laptop, I tweeted throughout the event and in the process learned how exciting participation in that dialogue can be. From my observations and conversations, here are my tips for successful live event tweeting:
1. Make your tweets relevant and understandable: Frame your tweets so that followers who aren’t at the event can still understand and benefit from your updates. This goes back to knowing your audience.
2. Diversify the type of updates: Don’t simply repeat everything a speaker is saying, word-for-word or constantly retweet. Instead, move the conversation forward by rephrasing what the speaker says or adding a fresh viewpoint. Remember that you want to spark a two-way dialogue, and unique viewpoints get people talking.
3. Avoid update overload: For your sake and your audiences’ don’t update every 30 seconds. Finding a balance can be difficult but if you stop actively listening to the speaker you should take a break. A few times throughout the PR+SM Summit, I found myself not listening and just browsing Twitter streams. I had to stop and remember why I came to the event in the first place.
4. Use correct formats: Include conference designated hashtags and try to find the speakers on Twitter and mention them in your updates. Speakers will appreciate the comments and it shows you made the extra effort to include them in the conversation.
5. Take time to decompress: After the event, spend time reviewing the hashtag stream and follow fellow attendees to start conversations and build relationships. Conferences often feature subject-matter experts as speakers, so take advantage of your first-hand insight by blogging or tweeting about their presentation.
With these tips on the table, it’s critically important to understand that you’re speaking to the audience and you are the audience. I had a chance to speak with Vice President of Communications at IBM Timothy Blair (keynote speaker at PR+SM Summit) about his thoughts on the backchannel, the live twitter conversation happening during his keynote.
Timothy seemed to have mixed feelings about the constant activity and he said it was sort of odd to look out and see many heads buried in their phones or laptops. He caught himself looking back at the conversation a few times, but said he lost his train of thought when he did. In any case, I’m sure he went back and looked at the Twitter conversations later.
What are your thoughts on monitoring the backchannel at conferences? Any tips for live event tweeting that I didn’t mention?
Shane Arman (armans84@uwosh.edu) is a senior at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh majoring in public relations and graduating in May. He maintains his own career development blog, on the PR path (http://ontheprpath.blogspot.com) and can be found on Twitter @ShaneArman.
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Wed, Apr 21, 2010 @ 09:10 AM
Tommy and I give some thought to how social media can play a role in communicating with loved ones when disaster strikes. Sitting at Red Shoes PR chatting it up we decided everyone needs to think beyond phones for communication needs.
Red Shoes Speaks No. 22 Social Media Role in Disaster Communications from Lisa Cruz on Vimeo.
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Tue, Apr 13, 2010 @ 09:35 PM
Do you change your avatars? Yes? No? If so, how often? At Red Shoes PR we often have this conversation as well as with others in and outside the industry.
I confess, I change my avatar frequently. It usually starts with Twitter about every month or two. From there, as I use the other social media tools, I update the avatars as I go along. By the time I finish the whole smattering of them, it's time to start over. But I am OK with this.
I know, I know. But what about branding you say? Whatever. Have you ever seen a celebrity's photo in person, then you see them in person and you realize they are using a photo that's about 15 to 20 years old and they no longer look anything like that? And what about real-time social media? Someone sees you on Twitter, Facebook, etc., and then meets you in person and you look absolutely nothing like your social media avatar???
Look, life changes. What looked OK a month or two ago, might not necessarily ring true today. My hair color changes frequently. During the winter I wear sweaters, during the summer I wear lighter colors. Sometimes, I want to look smart so I wear glasses. And then there's Halloween when for one day I looked (a little bit anyway) like Kate Gosselin.
I know it's confusing for others when I change it so frequently, especially on Twitter. But from my perspective I like when others change their avatars because I can see another "face" of their personality. The new photo catches my eye as I make the connection of the name, tweets and new look. In my head, through your comments, photos, and interactions, I am conjuring up who you are in "real life." It's like putting a puzzle together. So the more avatars I see of you, the more I am able to put the pieces together for a more complete picture.
But the funny thing is, no matter what I look like in my avatar, you can pretty much bet I'm wearing red shoes. So I get branding. But my changing avatar also reflects who I am and how I have chosen to represent myself through social media.
What do you think?
To change or not to change avatars ... that is the question.
"Changing Faces" Photo by Brenda Plonis via FlickR
Posted by Lisa Cruz on Thu, Mar 04, 2010 @ 07:56 PM
1. You think the copy you wrote for the Web content will work for a news release
2. People are talking about your company online and you just found out
3. Your competitors are kicking your booty with media coverage
4. Your company offers the best product or service ever, but no one knows about it ... or for that matter, knows about your company
5. When a prospect Googles your company, your competitor shows up at the top of the search
6. You are still faxing news releases
7. You can't figure out why the media isn't interested in your story idea
8. You have no idea how to engage online
9. During the interview with a business editor you cross your fingers and hope for the best
10. Even though your industry is taking a beating online, and in the media, you think it won't impact your sales
11. You think social media is for B2C companies
12. Your blog content focuses on how great your company/products/services are
13. You think because you are a "people person" you should be able to handle PR