Your social strategy should be rooted in your communication strategy. Go back to those three to five messages that you decided to communicate to everybody, and go back to the persona so you know who you’re communicating to. That’s your safe place. If you feel like you’re being asked to post things that don’t fit into those communication strategies and personas, then you’re probably not on the right track and you should take a step back, look at everything, and then decide, okay are we…
Read MoreLinkedIn’s self-serve ad platform has been going through a few recent changes in the last six months. Earlier this year, company page managers and advertisers should have noticed design changes and even new tools such as conversion tracking and the ability to save target audiences. Just recently, three additional changes should have advertisers (that aren’t spending $25,000 a month) jumping for joy! Retargeting website traffic If you have a decent amount of quality traffic to your website, retargeting can be an expensive way to remind…
Read MoreIt’s been over 50 years since Marshall McLuhan famously stated, “The medium is the message,” kicking off countless arguments about whether that’s true. It’s my impression that as PR people, we have a bias toward the message. But technology’s rapid evolution, especially the past few years, has dramatically impacted how we communicate, tipping the scales toward the medium. Arguably the biggest example of this – the proliferation of mobile devices. Increase of mobile devices At first, smartphones were a secondary means for accessing the internet….
Read MoreMy affinity for live, streaming videos of baby animals began in 2013. It was a big year for babies. Bao Bao the Giant Panda debuted at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Lana, a cheetah at Richmond Metro Zoo, had a litter of five cubs. These live cams helped generate an awareness for the populations of these endangered species (and the zoos that care for them). Fast-forward to 2017 and the latest live-streamed animal phenomenon is April the Giraffe, the 15-year-old leggy lady at Animal…
Read MoreMillennials apparently have the same attention span as a…ooh, look at this cute video of cats dinging bells to get a treat! Adweek talked a bit about the longevity of live video viewing, and it looks like it’s here to stay – for now. In the article, Adweek mentions that Facebook users are 10x more likely to comment on a live video than on a static one. Not only is video important, but live in-the-moment video is what people are drawn to. I’m currently waiting…
Read MoreThere are two very important things that you should take some time and do before you pick up any communication strategy, whether it be earned, owned or paid. The first is figure out what you want to say. What are the three to five things that you want to say over and over again to cement those messages into the minds of your targets. And then the second thing is figure out who those targets are. You know, you think you know who they are,…
Read MoreThe right tone really needs to be something that is educational, something that shows your expertise. You really want to balance that against every bone in your body wanting to sell. People don’t really respond well to sales right off the bat. So what you want to do is educate them and again show your expertise as a way to start a relationship with them, and then look for opportunities to sell maybe a little bit further down the line. Whether it’s through specific offers…
Read MoreMeasurement and public relations haven’t always been the best bedfellows. Advertising value equivalency was long heralded as the go-to metric for media relations, only to be debunked later by PR scholars. Even when the impact of a positive news story could be measured, in terms of reputation building, for example, it always was difficult not to be outshone by marketing, who could more clearly make the connection between their efforts and sales – the ultimate objective for many executives and managers. We knew our work…
Read MoreOur work for Hilldrup has transformed over the years, and recently we’ve been able to fully implement an Earned, Owned, Paid strategy which includes pitching local and trade media, writing web content, managing social media profiles (Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook) and promoting content using social advertising. Gathering content for clients with operations in multiple cities often can be a challenge, and today, users on social media expect to see engaging content (video/photos) all the time. So when the opportunity to visit Charlottesville and Chapel Hill…
Read MoreWe zoomed through the inaugural year of Who’s Your Driver, a racing season-long driver education program sponsored by DRIVE SMART Virginia. Let’s take a pit stop to reflect on where we’ve been and, like all good drivers, take a look at where we’re heading. According to recent statistics, there is one group in particular that makes up most of the DUI convictions in the Commonwealth – 21-35 year-old men. To better educate this demographic about the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as the…
Read MoreToday’s a pretty big day here at THP. We actually just celebrated with cheap champagne and Nightingale Ice Cream Sandwiches (OMG, they are so good). Today we launched our first eBook, the EOP (earned, owned and paid) Playbook. It’s a culmination of two years of trial and error as we changed the main focus of our agency from “traditional PR” to one based on the evolution of media relations, social media and content marketing. If any or all of those practices interests you then you should download…
Read MoreOwning your story, which we covered in our previous post, is one thing. Telling it consistently month after month with a fresh and interesting perspective is another. Based on our experience, the reason most owned content strategies fail – or at least don’t reach their full potential – is because not enough resources and time were devoted to the many steps and dimensions that are part and parcel to an effective content strategy. Build the infrastructure A critical first step is identifying subject-matter experts (SMEs),…
Read More
