Young Pros host social media event at Hanson Dodge Creative

This week, the PRSA Young Pros were treated to a presentation on the 10 Principles of Good Content by Sarah Van Elzen, social media director at Hanson Dodge Creative. Sarah discussed what defines “good” content, provided industry relevant examples and showcased the top 10 principles every writer needs to know.

Sarah Van Elzen and event guests

More than 30 young and seasoned pros along with senior students from nearby universities filled the room and had an opportunity to network over wine and cheese plates. Attendees were encouraged to use the hashtag #PrinciplesOfGoodContent for a chance to win the book, Social PR Secrets by Lisa Buyer. (Sarah is quoted in the book on page six.) Patty Bloom, a reputation management assistant account executive from Charleston Orwig, won the book with this tweet. Sarah loved her sense of humor for using the wrong hashtag.

We grabbed five minutes with Sarah to ask a few follow up questions:

Q. For a client starting out in social media, is there a place they should absolutely be – whether it’s a blog, Facebook, etc?

A. It varies by client. I’d recommend a blog for nearly every brand because it will showcase long form brand voice, provide content for social platforms down the road and help optimize the client’s online presence from an SEO standpoint.

Q. Do you have a favorite platform right now?

A. Instagram

Q. What is the most challenging thing about working in an ever-changing industry?

A. Keeping up with the new trends

Q. What is the one key quality or characteristic that makes a social media person successful?

A. Organized

Q. What is the best piece of advice you can give to someone entering this field?

Be active…in professional social platforms.

Be professional…in all your content. 80% professional. 20% personal.

Be proactive…reach out to industry thought leaders and connect with people.

Be there…have an online profile and examples you can refer to quickly with a link.

Q. Is there anything in your own personal life that helps make you better at social media?

A. My job history growing up helped significantly. I worked as a server and had to handle customer service situations frequently. I also worked at a telemarketing company during college which helped with quick thinking and communication.

Q. You’ve worked with House of Harley-Davidson. What would you name your motorcycle gang?

A. Yogi Gangsters

Turning content into results, Sarah Van Elzen is responsible for leading the HDC social media practice. Her team engages audiences across a variety of platforms, focusing on campaign strategy, content development, community management and analytics. Sarah began her career in music marketing and then moved to sunny Florida for her ongoing endeavor in online PR and SEO. Sarah has managed social media strategies for clients since 2007, when Facebook launched brand pages and Twitter was just a few months old.

Through a variety of agency positions, Sarah’s experience encompasses web content strategy, SEO, online PR, social media strategy and relationship management.

Her client experience includes: fashion, CPG, technology, finance, tourism, real estate, law and health & beauty.

Sarah regularly practices yoga, bringing a sense of calm in and out of work.

Bottling lightning: How to build a winning campaign

The basic elements of winning at any sport are preparation, execution and a little bit of luck.

Turns out, those are largely the same components that go into a marketing, PR and social media campaign that capitalizes on sentiment around these successes. It’s how a brand can bottle lightning.

Bottling lightning: 1) Capturing something powerful and elusive and then being able to hold it and show it to the world. 2) Performing a rare feat. 3) A moment of creative brilliance.

At yesterday’s PRSA Southeastern Wisconsin luncheon, Jockey and Hanson Dodge explained how a huge amount of hard work and planning, a plan to follow through and a bit of serendipity raised the profile of their brands when opportunities presented themselves.

Jockey and Tim Tebow

Jockey's website campaign

Mo Moorman, public relations director for Jockey International, shared the wild ride that was Tim Tebow-mania, who the company sponsored starting when he was a relative unknown. But that changed suddenly and dramatically.

During the Broncos quarterback’s rise to stardom and playoff run, Jockey’s numbers included:

700 media placements with 500 million impressions
A Tebow ad that went viral and was covered by national media
14,000 new Facebook likes
More than 100,000 views on YouTube
A Twitter campaign that benefited from a topic that saw the most tweets-per-second in Twitter history.

Those a just a few statistics that translated to more than buzz. It resulted in 21,000 new customers opting in for marketing, the second most single-day visits to the site ever, and increase in key brand metrics, such as “Jockey is for someone like me.”

Wilson Sporting Goods

While phenomenons like Tebow don’t happen every day, some major events like the Super Bowl occur on a more predictable schedule. But they still require planning and coordination to take advantage of the buzz for the purpose of a specific brand.

Dave Racine, director of social media and PR at Hanson Dodge Creative, explained how Wilson told its story with the “More Win” campaign and behind-the-scenes mini documentaries of a small town football-making factory. This requires a more pro-active initiative than focusing on responding to a spontaneous event like Tebow-mania.

When no community exists, Racine explained, build one. And build one they did, through user-generated videos as well as media placements through the Wall Street Journal, CBS and others.

At the same time, they jumped at the chance to hitch their star to Derrick Wilson during his quest for NBA MVP. In the same way as their longer-term campaigns, media placements and community-based crowdsourcing helped raise the profile of the Wilson brand basketball.

Hanson Dodge Olympic Sponsorship

In another example at Hanson Dodge, Social Media Strategist Mike Wisniewski saw a quirky opportunity to sponsor a potential Olympic athlete with a temporary tattoo of their company on his arm. London Olympic Games hopefully Nick Symmonds was offering up the opportunity via an eBay auction.

There were many questions and unknowns — not to mention a ticking auction clock — but the agency decided to move quickly and decisively on the opportunity. As Hanson Dodge Partner and Director of Marketing Al Krueger shared, they won the auction, flew to Oregon to organized a press conference, and publicized the move via their website and social media.

To tell their larger story, Hanson Dodge positioned Symmonds on a new active lifestyle advisory board to complement their goals with all brands, beyond running. Results included their top three biggest website traffic days “by a long shot,” as well as major placements including Sports Illustrated and Runner’s World.

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One key takeaway from all three speakers is that “hard work goes hand-in-hand with opportunity.” You have to put in the hours and move quickly when an unexpected or high-caliber chance arises to move the needle. You don’t know when something similar will come along again.

How can you bottle lightning?

View the slides for the Jockey, Wilson and Symmonds presentations on Scribd.

— By Tim Cigelske

PRSA Young Pros Happy Hour: Replay Sports Bar

UPDATE: Hey PR Young Pros! Change of plans. Bradford is taking this Thursday off to let the beach recover from all the rain, so we’ve decided to switch things up.

The PRSA Young Pros Committee invites you to Replay Sports Bar on June 23, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. for a Young Pro Happy Hour.

Let’s play some foosball, shuffleboard, flip cup, or billiards insides, shielded from mother nature.

RSVP to our Facebook Event.

Happy Hour Specials are available all night.

Specials include:

$2 tap beers
$3 rail cocktails
Plus I’m pretty sure they have $2 Tall Boy PBRs all day, every day.

Hopefully, we can hit up the beach next month for a PRSA #YPHH.

Sorry for the change of plans.

Hey PR Young Pros! The PRSA Young Pros Committee invites you to Bradford Beach on June 23, 2011 at 6:00 p.m. for a Young Pro Happy Hour.

RSVP to our Facebook Event.

Stick your toes in the sand, breath the fresh air, play some beach volleyball, and relax with some tunes as the sun sets on Lake Michigan, while hanging out with other like-minded professionals.

Did I mention that they have a bonfire going with live music from the Marc Ballini Trio?

Starting at 6:30 p.m., the Marc Ballini Trio will perform until dusk. Three large bonfire pits available for public use. All you’ll need is your blanket on the sand.

Happy Hour Specials are available at the Tiki Hut from 5-7pm.

Specials include:

$10 – iced buckets of Corona or Pabst (4 cans / bucket)
$5 cocktails- Cuervo Margarita, Smirnoff & Lemonade, Bacardi Mojito, Jeremiah Weed & Lemonade
$3 Pabst

All that purchase a drink on the beach will receive a wristband good for one free drink at one of the following establishments following the musical performances on Thursday evenings: BelAir – BelAir Margarita or Hi Hat Garage – Pint of the Day.

Meet the Members: Shana Pawlowicz

Each month, on the PRSA Southeastern Wisconsin blog, we will feature one of the members of our fine organization. Get to know a little bit about who they are, why they joined and what they are most looking forward to about being a part of the PRSA SEW Chapter. And maybe a few random facts here and there.

This month, we are featuring Shana Pawlowicz!

Name – Shana Pawlowicz

Most of your experience falls in the in non-profit sector. What’s motivates you to work in that field? I have volunteered with several organizations now for over 7 years. While I am quite open to working in a variety of different markets within the creative field, I really do enjoy the sense of good I feel when not only I see all of my hard work pay off with a successful event, but also the joy from those in attendance who will directly or indirectly benefit from my hard work.

One of you recent positions was with ABCD and their event Date with a Plate that just happened last month. How’d the event go? The event went great! We had about 18 different stations from local restaurant groups who donated fabulous food for everyone to try. Our silent auction was also a big hit with over 100 items that help to raise over $26,000 for that section alone!

With many professional organizations available, what drew you to PRSA? In college I was a member of PRSSA and not only did I find the knowledge I received during that time rewarding but also the camaraderie of my peers who were also excited to start their careers. So I knew out of college that PRSA would certainly be a great place for me to belong and now that I have moved to Milwaukee and ready to establish my career and home here, I am very excited to be apart of the local chapter.

As a new member of the organization, what aspects are you most looking forward to (luncheons, newsletters, networking, young pros, awards)? Can I say all of it? haha. But really I am a very outgoing person and a person who loves challenges and learning daily. What’s great about this organization is that I am surrounded by individuals who feel the same way. PRSA offers so many opportunities to be able to continually learn and grow in this field, and I hope to continue to do so through PRSA.

What’s your favorite aspect of the Public Relations industry? (Media relations, special events, social media, crisis communication, community relations, ect.) And why? I feel so many of those areas tie together well that you can’t really choose one in order to do your job effectively. While I’m still looking currently for a full time home with a local company, I hope that in my future position I am able to tackle each of these areas. I think what is most intriguing to me right now however is social media, for the simple fact that it is changing at such a fast pace and is so cutting edge. Well that and the fact that I just (and finally) got an iphone to putz around on all my social media avenues with!

What’s your favorite blog that you follow? I’m a huge foodie! Everyone who really knows me knows the way to my heart is with a good meal. So as much as I hate to give this little hidden gem away I will, so that others may enjoy this amazing website and create scrumdiddlyumptious treats too. http://macaroniandcheesecake.blogspot.com/ Check it out…she’s a food genius!

Tell us something we don’t know about you? I am a former Miss Oshkosh with the Miss America Organization and during my year of service I made 82 volunteer appearances. During that time I was able to raise thousands of dollars and volunteer for various non-profits which includes: St. Baldricks Day, Children’s Miracle Network, American Cancer Society, Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, Children’s Hospital of Milwaukee and many others. And while I do get lots of flack from people about this, I am very proud of the accomplishments that have come from it and just goes to show, “You can never judge a book by its cover.”

Next time you see Shana at a luncheon, be sure to introduced yourself. Or you could connect with her on LinkedIn or Twitter.

– Andrew Wiech (@AndrewWiech)

Smartphone Smarty Pants: Helpful Apps for PR Professionals

On the first Friday of every month, the PRSA SEW Social Media Committee conducts an informal social media training at the Milwaukee Public Market at 8 a.m. This month Laura Stanelle of Emerald Isle Marketing + PR and Emily Lenard of Hanson Dodge Creative discussed helpful smartphone apps for PR professionals.

Coincidently, Mediabistro’s PRNewser published their second list of 10 must have apps for PR a day earlier so we were able to crib some helpful apps from them as well.

Organization apps:

Evernote: Awesome for notes, photos and voice memos. Keeps everything in one place and syncs up between devices.

Dropbox: Synchronizes documents and files across several devices, so you’re never without a file you need.

Instapaper: Saves articles and other content for reading later.

Local apps:

JSOnline: Local headlines at your fingertips; divided by section.

OnMilwaukee: A favorite website in an easily accessible app.

MKEBIZ: Business Journal of Greater Milwaukee divided by Latest News, Most Viewed and Most Emailed.

Reference apps:

Wikipedia: Helpful for quick reference on thousands of topics in encyclopedia entry form.

Google: For many the utility of Google is a no-brainer, but many people still haven’t added the Google mobile app to their arsenal of tools on the go.

Mashable: This is a great resource for all levels of PR, marketing, social media and communication professionals.

Others:

Recorder: Mediabistro’s PRNewser recommends this app to capture memos, interviews, and ideas on the go.

Dragon Dictation: Fingertips not moving as fast as your mind? Then this is the app for you. Talk into your phone and let Dragon Dictation put your verbal thoughts into words for a text or email.

Communication-Social Media:

WordPress: Another helpful app on the PRNewser list. This app enables blogging and comment moderating via a client’s WordPress blog/website.

Hootsuite/Tweetdeck: Monitor, engage and track individual post clicks and engagement of your clients’ online communities on many social networks at once.

Twitter: Even though apps like Hootsuite seem to get more press, we advise you not to count out the native Twitter app. Many find it easier to use—helping you get the message out more efficiently.

Others you’d like to add?

“Shut up and listen” and other words of wisdom

The “a-ha” moments were aplenty at last week’s PRSA monthly meeting, when Peter Shankman, HARO creator, social media wise man and guy you’d totally want to invite out for a beer took the floor to talk effective marketing in the digital age.

Though his presentation could inspire a hundred blog posts, what follows are four components of successful marketing worth remembering.

Transparency: Make a mistake? Admit it. Not rocket science, but an important thing to remember in business (and in life, too!). Being transparent creates trust and trust creates loyalty. Transparency is therefore the new, uh, black.
Relevance: If you want loyal customers, you’re going to have to give them what they want how they want it. Not sure what your customers want? Ask them. And remember: just because social media is the current “it” medium doesn’t mean it is right for you. Embrace the concepts social media presents, but not necessarily the social media brands themselves. No matter how cool social media is, revenue always trumps cool.
Brevity: The average attention span of 18-45 year olds is 2.6 seconds or 140 characters. What does this mean? One, it means that I’ve already lost a good chunk of you. Two, it means that now, more than ever, quality writing is paramount. (4 realz, LOL!) The message that is written the best is the one that will be read. Simple as that.
Be Top of Mind: Your business is about your customers. All of your marketing efforts – new or traditional – need to be rooted in basic customer relationship management.

According to Peter, we’re moving toward a world of one network where your information will be a part of you. He introduced many in the room to Pokens, social business cards that allow you to share social media information and cultivate relationships with a wave of the hand. Find out more here: www.poken.com.

Check out the video below for a short interview with Peter, and be sure to check out blog and connect with him on Twitter.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XAOdbnW-JY]

-Laura Stanelle, @laurastanelle

SEO and PR Working Together

Bill Finn of Finn Digital

At the last PRSA luncheon we had the great opportunity to hear from Bill Finn, founder and president of Finn Digital, LLC. He was incredibly engaging in explaining how SEO and PR are supposed to be the best of friends. Below is a Q&A with Bill about what PR professionals can do to enhance their SEO efforts.

Interview by Lynda Nicely.

PRSA: If organizations are starting from scratch on their SEO and PR efforts, what do you suggest be the first step for them take?

Bill Finn (BF): Understand your audience – it starts and ends there. Know what they’re searching on to find you. Then, align your keywords with your content, and determine what constitutes PR communication.

PRSA: How do you identify what keywords to use?

BF: Begin with the obvious: vertical market descriptors, product names, brand names. Then, use Google keyword tools to see how those fit into the larger landscape of what Google users are actually searching on. ‘Neighboring’ terms can provide ah-hah moments into more frequently searched keywords or relative keyword value.

PRSA: What are some of the tools in a PR pro’s arsenal that they may not be aware are there?

BF: At Finn Digital, we advocate the principle of “content-forward”. It advances the notion that the stories and value a PR pro needs to promote to the public already exist within the company entity. Real-life networking and investigative reporting within the corporation often yields surprisingly dynamic core messages and valuable stories.

PRSA: Clients and organizational management want measureable results. How would you suggest to measure ROI with SEO and PR initiatives?

BF: The greatest return is that PR impact can be measured at all, as easily as it is!

First, determine what online indicators represent value within the organization. If the indicators are user-action-driven, correlation with value return is more evident. If the goal is to drive awareness, for example, one measurable action might be viewing a video, subscribing to an RSS feed, clicking a ‘Learn More’ button, or sharing a particular article. SEO gets people to a website or online area. User experience design structures a given visit to a website, hopefully triggering action.

Both are indicators that can be benchmarked and continually monitored and adjusted to A/B test what factors influence your audience. Once an influencing factor is identified, that’s valuable in delivering more personal connections to your visitors and customers.

PRSA: People talk a lot about YouTube and videos going viral, how would you suggest using SEO for online video?

BF: Video produces dramatic results when it ‘goes viral’. However, ‘going viral’ means that the general internet public finds it appealing in some way (and sometimes, unintended ways).

Video can be tagged with keywords and linked back to your company or client website. Additionally, YouTube videos can contain link pop-ups at specific areas of content within a video.

One best practice is to embed your YouTube video directly in your website. The algorithms seem to treat this more valuably than if there’s simply a text link out to a YouTube video. All these links are ‘the juice’, that contributes to stronger search results for targeted keywords.

PRSA: Top 3 tips for pros to get the PR and SEO going hand in hand?

BF: Our top three items are 1) get a flip cam, interview thought leaders in your area of interest, and post to YouTube with relevant tags. 2) continually give away great (searched for) content on your blogs, podcasts and video. 3) Create a Facebook fan page and update with high interactivity items such as polls. Repurpose that content for your blog! Content and connectivity go hand-in-hand!

Be sure to check out Bill’s blog too. Lots of great information including video interviews of his chat with two Milwaukee journalists who are on the leading edge of social media. Alysha Schertz of the BizTimes of Milwaukee and Stan Miller of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel explain how they use social media in their reporting as well as what press releases stand out.

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