Tag Archives: social media

How to use online PR effectively to increase sales

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hands-1167619_1280The discipline of public relations (PR) is one of the most cost-effective forms of marketing.  PR is essentially managing the flow of information and news between a person or organization and its various publics such as customers, partners, employees, bloggers, journalists, and others.  There is a lot to like about PR, particularly when brands can tell their stories in far greater detail and at a fraction of the cost of a typical advertising campaign.

A well executed public relations program has many benefits—from an implied third party endorsement of a company to enhanced customer relationships and industry reputation.  The end result is an accelerated buying process, moving leads deeper and faster into the sales funnel towards conversion. Continue reading →

Privacy Matters: What You Need to Know

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Social Media PrivacyOne of the best ways to drive website traffic and begin the customer conversion process is via social media — often part of an integrated marketing program. Social media is an exciting digital channel that offers immediacy, scalability, reach, and customer insights which are not normally available with traditional media.  Similar to its other digital channel siblings, social media provides an abundance of visitor data for marketing analysis.

The formation of strong customer relationships is essential for business success, requiring marketing to understand not only customer demographics, but also data activity points such as online purchase data, browsing behavior, social media interactions, mobile device usage, and more.  At the same time, consumers want to be heard, recognized, and desire a more personalized experience when interacting with businesses.

A great amount of personal data must be collected for user personalization and to ensure the best possible experience for the customer across all touch points.  Social networks also need to collect as much personal information as possible, not only for optimal user experience, but also to sell more advertising. Continue reading →

34 Minutes of Darkness: Entergy New Orleans Scores Big in Social Media Crises Management

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img-Despite-partial-blackout-Super-Bowl-a-success-for-New-OrleansIt was just a month ago, almost to the day, when the Twitterverse exploded with news that the lights went out during the Super Bowl game.  231,500 Tweets per Minute (TPM) to be exact.  Okay, I admit the Beyoncé half-time show generated over 5 million Tweets, but Super Bowl XLVII will be remembered for its period of darkness, perhaps more so than the game itself.

Entergy New Orleans, the utility company powering the Superdome, quickly went into crises management mode. After all, they’ve had lots of communications experience powering the storm laden Gulf coast and southern states, and most notably having dealt with Hurricane Katrina which devastated New Orleans back in August, 2005.

Social media has changed crises communications forever.  The old way of assembling the crises team and calling in the PR firm to craft a corporate statement for a newswire service is so yesterday. You need to act swiftly, recognizing the hyper velocity and amplification of social networks!

Let’s look at the Entergy response to the crises which exhibits five key principles in crises management that are applicable to all companies:

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