Articles Written By:

Kelsey Leavey

Over shoulder someone using laptop

What is Reddit?

ELI5, TIL, /s— don’t worry, these aren’t new slang terms teens are using to communicate with friends about how unfair their parents are being about a 10 p.m. curfew. IIRC they’re common abbreviations used on the social media platform Reddit. More to come on them in a minute… For the unfamiliar, Reddit is a social platform that refers to itself as the “front page of the internet,” a “community of millions of users engaging in the creation of content and the sharing of conversation across…

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Two Instagram updates you need to know right now

Ever feel like as soon as you finally get a handle on the latest and greatest in the social media world, one (or more) of the platforms just straight up laughs in your face? Same. Instagram just rolled out two new stickers for its Stories feature, and I’m not going to lie, for once I’m actually very excited about these new offerings. Instagram donation sticker for nonprofits If you work in the marketing department of a nonprofit that uses Instagram, your world is about to…

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What to Expect with Influencer Marketing

Social media influencer marketing has become an increasingly popular tactic, with influencer campaigns on Instagram increasing nearly 200 percent last year. If your organization is new to the world of influencer marketing, you might be wondering what kind of results you can expect, especially if you work for a B2C company. Influencer marketing is a vague term that can mean different things to different people, but for the purpose of this blog post, influencer marketing is the practice of sharing your product with influential individuals…

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Meet a Hodger: Evans Mandes

We’re rolling out a new series on the Gong Blog, and we couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the series than with an introduction to our newest Hodger, Evans Mandes. He joined the team at the end of 2018 and has hit the ground running. Chances are you haven’t met Evans yet, so to give you a head start, here’s a chance to get to know a little more about him. Tell us a little bit about yourself. I was born and…

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How the Changes to LinkedIn Company Pages Might Impact Your Social Strategy

Earlier this week, LinkedIn announced a few significant changes to Company Pages on its platform — which caused our ears to perk up a little bit. We’ve been using LinkedIn as a communications channel to tell our clients’ stories since Company Pages launched in 2010. Now, with big changes afoot, here’s the 30,000-foot view of the features that will be rolling out over the next few months and the impact they might have on your organization’s social strategy. User-friendly mobile experience for admins Admins can…

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Why social advertising?

Ensuring your content reaches the right people

Reaching the right people at the right time, with the right message is the pillar of a successful content marketing program. And with more organizations developing content these days, the competition to reach potential customers with tailored content is fierce. For many organizations, the challenge usually isn’t the creation of valuable content. The challenge is ensuring your content is breaking through the millions of pieces of content shared every minute. It used to be enough, for example, to share posts to your Facebook newsfeed or…

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How it feels to be this year’s PRSA Richmond Rising Star

Last night was a whirlwind to say the least. Whoever decided that the announcement of the Rising Star award should be the final one of the night is a sadist. The introvert inside of me was dying up on stage, looking at hundreds of people I respect and admire. But I am overjoyed – and extremely overwhelmed – by what an honor it is to be named this year’s Rising Star by PRSA Richmond. Some very impressive people have been recognized with this award, and…

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What Brands Should Know about the Facebook, Cambridge Analytica Crisis

What happened? Cambridge Analytica (CA) obtained personal data of about 87 million Facebook users without their consent with the hopes that they could use this data to develop psychographic profiles of those users. The data was collected a few years ago through a third-party app that had to be downloaded by a user, and the app was approved by Facebook (it was created by a university researcher who claimed it was for academic purposes). Those who downloaded the app unknowingly gave CA access to their…

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A five-minute primer on Pew Research’s latest social media use survey

Every year, for as long as I can remember (since 2005), Pew Research Center has released its annual report on social media usage. The organization recently released its report for 2018. No shock here, Facebook and YouTube are the juggernauts in the social media landscape with 68 percent of U.S. adults saying they use Facebook, and 73 percent using YouTube. One key question moving forward: how will the Cambridge Analytica scandal impact American’s use of Facebook if at all, or is the social network too…

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Yes, Facebook is changing — here’s how you can prepare

If you were on Twitter last night, two news stories likely took over your feed — (1) terribly insensitive (and racist remarks) made by some dude with a whole lotta power, and (2) collective panic from publishers and brands over an announcement by Facebook that changes to the algorithm are afoot. This blog post will focus on the latter. Facebook making changes to its algorithm is nothing new, but this announcement has many marketers up in arms in part because of how reliant many organizations…

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Reader and staff favorites from 2017

Say what you will about 2017, but on the business front, it was full steam ahead on all fronts. Across the board — in content marketing, media relations, social programs, even communications audits — we were busier than Hollywood publicists apologizing for their clients. For many of our clients, we are the champions of content — encouraging them to share their expertise with potential and existing customers. And we couldn’t do that (be those champions) if we didn’t practice what we preach. In 2017 we…

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Facebook messenger for businesses

Improving your customer journey using Facebook Messenger

Gone are the days where customer questions, complaints and commentary reach businesses via phone, email or even Twitter. Facebook Messenger for business has been around since 2015, but this year, both customers and brands have really started adopting the service in a big way. And who can blame them? We all have these little devices in our pockets that keep us connected 24/7. We might as well use them to make our lives a little easier, right? Messaging with businesses is not a passing trend…

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