Articulon Insights

Snow Season No Longer Means Slow Season

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Not too long ago, the Monday before Thanksgiving till the Monday after New Year’s was considered the slow season. Office-centric businesses could clean-up files, organize the office and strategize about the coming year. Those have now gone the way of “Remember When” tales.

With all of the advances in technology, we are enjoying the benefits of a robust business development season. This makes for planning a busy new year. It also means that some of the important housekeeping tasks get forgotten. As my New Year’s resolution, here are three ideas I am going to try in order to stay more organized:

  1. Filing – It is so easy to rush from project to project, completing client-focused activities, and never properly putting away that which is completed. Cindy fondly reminisces of the days pre-computer everything and the power of well-maintained job jackets. My resolution is to file on the go when possible, or at least not leave each day until the filing is done.

  2. The Dreaded Time Sheets – Even harder is logging time and activity details as they happen. James at Articulon is king of getting this done, because he started doing it day one. I am going to try and follow his example and never leave each day before my time sheet is completed.

  3. Deleting – My e-mail inbox currently has 11,512 messages. Only a dozen or so need immediate action, and no more than 50 ever need to be touched again. I have sub-folders for each of my clients, vendors and internal contacts. Every quarter, I try to come in on a Saturday to clean it up. I go through and do bulk shifting to place all the emails where they belong. If I can apply the same discipline of Filing and Time Sheets to Deleting, I will have bought myself a whole Saturday away from the office and have a manageable inbox of to-dos.

 
These small steps may not completely eliminate the need for a slow season. However, I suspect they will go a long way to peace-of-mind year round. With clean up done, or at least quicker, we can focus the couple brief slow day on strategy and creatively thinking about our company the same way we think about our clients. I will let you know if these are resolutions that can stick.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

5 Ways to Promote Live Events Using Social Media – Social Times

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No matter what the city, there is always competition to have the best event and draw the largest crowd. The main challenge is to get the word out about your event … and to help the potential audience see the value in attending your event instead of another. Although there is a lot to be said about old-school marketing – flyers, ads, newsletters – social media is an excellent resource for spreading the word: create an event page, choose a specific hashtag, and promote it regularly on social media. And that’s just for starters!

Here are 5 unique ways to promote live events. Note: Some of these ideas can also be used for virtual events.

1. Hold a Contest. “Use a “Retweet to Win” campaign to giveaway tickets or passes,” suggests Shawna Tregunna, Founder and President of ReSoMe – Relevant Social Media. “This helps boost exposure and gets the buzz going, as well as establishes the event hashtag for everyone to follow! Do this early, so people are not waiting to see if they win to buy tickets. Promote the campaign to your newsletter/email list with the announcement of the tickets going on sale (or prices going up), post it on your social feeds, cover it in your blog. And, if you have some influencers and champions helping you promote the event through their social channels, offer them a giveaway or have them promote yours.”

“For anyone who hasn’t won, follow up with a tweet and ask if they’ll still be attending,” adds Rich DeMatteo, co-owner/Chief Social Rhino, Bad Rhino Social Media. “Feel free to offer a discount to anyone who enters. Something like this generates a great deal of discussion, especially when there’s already an online audience around the topic or event.”

2. Offer a Sneak Peek. “Give potential attendees real-time access to keynote speakers, panelists and other experts who will be at the event,” says Lee Price, Marketing Director, Reputation Capital Media. “Host a Google hangout or a Twitter chat (or a whole series of them) to give attendees an idea of who will be at the event and what they’ll learn.”

3. Go Visual. “Generate buzz by hinting at the headline act with a Vine video, featuring the keynote or demonstrating a new product,” suggests Laura Walker, Senior Marketing Manager for EventSpot from Constant Contact. “Create event-specific Pinterest boards that tell exciting, visual stories about past events and what attendees can look forward to seeing at the next one.”

4. Embrace Influencers and Reach out to Websites. “Invite influential bloggers/media to the event to cover it from their social media accounts,” says Amy Marshall, CSO, Fathom, Columbus Division. “Provide them with information before the event (event social media handles, hashtag, seating, contact person, messaging, times). Provide them special seating for the coverage. Greet them when they arrive. Provide them with interview access to the key event members.”

“Post your event to every free site within a 100 mile radius,” suggests Stephanie Ward, Red Lime Media, “and ask Meetup groups to make your event a meetup.”

5. Do a Countdown. “This isn’t a simple ‘Five days until the event’ status on Facebook,” explains Social Media Specialist James Williams, Articulon. “It’s more of a ‘hero shot’ that is a snippet of the event. … Make sure it is visual and graphically appealing. … And don’t overdo it. I started at 19 days out. At first I did every few days, then did every other day until I reached five days out and then did every day. It got massive involvement and kept the event at the front of people’s minds without spamming them with the same event details.”

The most important thing when promoting an event is to have a communication plan, suggests Christine Hawks, Director of Marketing and Client Relations with MRA Services.

“Think through each of your major event milestones (i.e. date and location announced, registration now open, keynote speaker confirmed) and sketch out a plan, in advance, that details the release date of the communication, subject, target audience and medium for delivering the content,” Hawks says. “You’ll have the best results if you plan a campaign that addresses all stages of the event cycle, not just a month or two preceding the start of your event.”

Feeling Social

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About two months ago, I saw that a reporter was going to be doing a story about social media and implementing it to help promote events. Having just come off my work with MoonRunners Saloon, I figured I would sit down while finishing up my morning coffee, and send a quick email of the top-three tactics I used. I sent it and forgot about it. This week I received an email from the reporter informing me that one of my tips had been picked up as a quote. It was an exciting day.Twitter

At the end, I’ve attached the original three tips I sent to the reporter for event promotion.

Click here to read about 5 Ways to Promote Live Events Using Social Media .

Ironically enough, the next day, I saw that the same writer was looking to do a quick blog on Halloween costume ideas using social media. Just days before, I had just so happened to dress up as twitter for a Halloween party I had attended. I wrote up a quick paragraph explaining what I did, attached a few pictures, and sent it off. The next day, I was sent another email saying that my quote had been used in the story.

Click here to read about Social Media Themed Costume Ideas.

I wish getting stories covered was always this easy!

 

1.  Tease the event: Don’t reveal every single detail about the
event, especially if there is already an established brand. People love
anticipation and it automatically makes the event seem cooler when there is
a “stay tuned” type of message to start.

2. Countdown: Once the event is announced, do a countdown. Make sure
it is visual and graphically appealing. This is NOT a simple “Five days until
the event” Facebook status. It is more a hero shot that is a
snippet of the event. Don’t overdo it. I started at 19 days out. At first, I
 posted one every few days. Then, I did every other day. When I reached five days out,
I did every day. It got massive involvement and kept the event at the
front of people’s minds without spamming them with the same event details.

3. It’s OK to be Melodramatic: I speak for this on a highly consumer
projects. It seems we were always told not to be super melodramatic growing
up, however this may be the time to break that rule. Use made up taglines.
Make the event sound like it’s going to be the best thing to ever happen.
People only know what they read, the better it sounds, the more they’ll want
to attend (and the better the event becomes). The more you hype it up via
social channels, the more viral it will become both on and off line.

Articulon Wins Gold at 2013 Sir Walter Raleigh Awards

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photoArticulon received a Gold Sir Walter Raleigh Award for work performed on behalf of Better Business Bureau serving Eastern North Carolina. The semi-annual “Secure Your ID” campaign was recognized in the Total Communications – Special Events category.

“We are honored to be recognized for exemplary client work by our peers in the industry,” said Cindy Stranad, APR, principal of Articulon.

The Sir Walter Raleigh Awards were presented by the Raleigh Public Relations Society to honor work by North Carolina communication professionals. This year’s entries were judged by professionals from an independent organization, Sacramento Public Relations Association. Entries were judged based on five criteria: objectives, method, results, creativity and budget.

As the agency of record for the Better Business Bureau serving Eastern North Carolina, Articulon has won a BMA Pro-Ad award, a Communicator Award, and three Sir Walter Raleigh Awards, including Best in Division. In total, the agency has earned more than 20 awards for client work, including recognition as a Top 25 PR Firm by Triangle Business Journal and a Pinnacle Business Award for Innovation and Community Service from the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce.

Top 10 Things Learned

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Check out my top ten memories and learning experiences from my first three months at Articulon.

JamesTop10

  1. Rosetta Stone Needed. There is PR lingo (within each agency) that is not taught in college. Whether it is client names, web data-bases, charities, organizations, publications, or a type of coffee, there needs to be a Rosetta Stone for the PR language!
  2. Prioritizing needs to become a priority. This may seem to be an obvious and an easy task, but it’s not. Especially in agency world, there are numerous things that need to be done at that exact moment. Now, multiply that by a dozen clients. Sometimes it can get interesting.
  3. I need a heater. Some Articulon team members (not naming names) like to keep the air conditioning at -100 degrees, others do not.
  4. Laugh at yourself. On the most stressful days, it is best to get up from my desk, walk around and talk about things apart from the PR world for a bit. It doesn’t take long for me to get refocused and reenergized.
  5. Work, and yes clients, can be a blast. MoonRunners Saloon Bar Rescue has been my biggest project to date. It is incredible to get to work with such an awesome group of people and spend time with a client that is scheduled to be on NATIONAL TV (no big deal). From developing creative, making up press kits, doing interviews, and having a wildly successful event, it was such a rewarding experience. Definitely one I will never forget.
  6. Coffee quality matters. Some days require coffee that is provided in the office. Some days require Starbucks or Jubala. There is a big difference.
  7. I don’t play on Facebook all day. A new found pet peeve is when people see that my title has “social media specialist” in it and without fail, I get “must be nice to play on Facebook all day.” I always want to reply, “Mark Zuckerberg plays on Facebook every day, and he seems to be doing alright.” Regardless, there is a rationale and plan for every single post, reply, picture, link, and event published in social media. If you haven’t read some of the research discovered in the past few years about social media’s value for companies, I suggest you do so sooner than later. Ok, sorry, rant over.
  8. Media recaps; you don’t have to like them, but they have to be done. Same goes for meeting and conference reports too. And time sheets, of course.
  9. Agency work is AMAZING. I don’t say that sarcastically one bit. It is nearly impossible for work to get bland when there is a constant opportunity for new business and projects. It seems that just when a week starts to become monotonous, some kind of new prospect or conversation gets me excited and motivated for the future.
  10. It’s the people. Out of my past three months at Articulon, my best memories have been with my favorite office buddies, Cindy, Mike, Lisa, and Kathy. Not only did they throw me a surprise party for my one month workiversary (chocolate cake included), but they have been amazing and patient teachers. It’s a great feeling knowing that I get to work alongside such experts.