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Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

Creating Your Personal Brand; It’s Not Just for Celebrities

By Laura Sieger, March 18, 2010 | Comments

Many people think that branding is just for companies or celebrities. But each of us has our own personal brand, whether we realize it or not.

The term “personal branding” was first mentioned in an article by Tom Peters http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html more than 10 years ago. By definition, personal branding is the process by which we market ourselves to others. It’s the complete package comprised of many parts – body language, posture, clothes, accessories, facial expression, communication skills, and reputation.

With the advent of social media, it’s easier than ever to build or damage your personal brand. Here are a few simple tips to discovering and creating your personal brand.

Discovering Your Brand

The first step in creating your personal brand is doing an in-depth analysis of you – this really isn’t as scary as it sounds. While some of us are self-aware (or think we are), others may struggle in this area. Here are a few questions to ask yourself or those close to you:

How do friends, family and co-workers typically describe you and what characteristics do they attribute to you – funny, honest, classy, professional, laid back, serious, creative?
Do those characteristics align with the image you hold of yourself? If not, why not?
How do you want people to describe you?
What do you need to do to achieve the image you want?

For example, if you want to be viewed as “classy,” does your appearance, actions and reputation support that claim? Personal branding really is about creating a niche for yourself and living it.

The key to developing a successful personal brand is authenticity and self-awareness. Be your real self, but make an even better impression.

Creating Your Brand

Once you’ve spent some time thinking about your personal brand, put it to paper. Write your own personal mission, vision and brand statement. Make sure you also set some specific goals and a plan for achieving them. Some basic tools for marketing your personal brand include:

Wardrobe/accessories
Blog/website
Social media profiles – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter
Resume/cover letter/references
Portfolio
Business Card and V Card
Personal presentation

There are many tips on how to successfully use each of these tools, but keep in mind the basics. Does your appearance in person and online through photos match your personal brand statement? Are you writing in a tone (funny, serious, sarcastic) that showcases who you are? For example, if you want to be viewed as professional and sophisticated, do you have pictures on your Facebook page that support that image or do you have photos and comments from a party you’d rather forget?

Get Started Today

Spend a few minutes thinking about your personal brand and how you want to be perceived. For more specific tips, check back at westmorelandflint.com in late April for a complete presentation on personal branding.

Posted in Flint Group, WestmorelandFlint | Comments

Tags: Brand, Flint Group, Personal Brand, Social Media, WestmorelandFlint

Do you believe in the power of social media? 65,000+ Chris Dewey fans do.

By Chris Hagen, March 17, 2010 | Comments

Deputy Chris Dewey, injured during the line of duty, is rallying thousands of Facebook fans.

This morning, there are more than 65,800 fans on the Facebook page, Extreme Makeover: Home Edition for Chris Dewey. The purpose of the group is to show support for Dewey, in hope that the popular television show will choose Chris Dewey’s nomination from its pool of deserving families and build a properly-equipped home for this Minnesota law officer who suffered a serious injury in the line of duty.

When I joined the group on Sunday, March 7th, more than 22,000 fans had already shown their support, and the site was only days old. Many of us have also logged on to another networking site, Caring Bridge, this past year to read the journal updates from his wife, Emily. It was a Caring Bridge post by Emily asking for advice that started the push – through Facebook – for the ABC network to choose this worthy family for a makeover build.

Flint has been part of several Extreme Makeover Projects, including the 2005 North Dakota Build for the Bliven family in Minot. Three million visits to the builder’s website were logged during the week of the build. We achieved that level of engagement and support through public relations efforts with radio, television and print media across North Dakota. Imagine if we would have had the depth of engagement tools that social media adds to the traditional public relations tactics of news advisories and press releases we used in 2005.

Social media is now part of the traditional media story. The Forum’s front page, above the fold, top story yesterday was entitled “Community rallies behind Deweys” and was all about the social media effort. Through the “friend to friend” connections possible with Facebook, fans have demonstrated support, posted notes of encouragement, and emailed the ABC network asking for them to choose Chris Dewey’s family for a makeover build. Though only days old, the group boasted 22,000 fans when I joined on a Sunday night, 35,000 the following Tuesday, and just passed 65,80o this morning.

The group added 15 more fans in the time it took to post this blog.

Check out the fans on the page for Chris Dewey. You’ll find grandmas, members of law enforcement, Midwesterners, teens. It demonstrates the potential of social media to strengthen our connections, reach out to a community with shared interests or values, and create or sustain relationships.

I’m a believer, and a fan. Are you?

Posted in Flint Communications, Flint Group | Comments

Tags: Facebook, Flint Communications, Flint Group, Public Relations, Social Media

The sea bass is sensational at Sarello’s.

By Kim Kemmer, February 25, 2010 | Comments

Not long ago, a few business associates of mine and I were out for dinner at a local restaurant. While we know the food at Sarello’s is consistently very good, I was looking a little advice for something other than a typical entree. After asking for the opinions of my tablemates, I consulted my Droid and my newly loaded app, Foursquare. I have to admit that I was not expecting the restaurant would be listed, much less that there would be any entries.

To my surprise, Heavy Table completed a check-in and posted an entry touting that visitors should try the sea bass. The Heavy Table is a Twin Cities-based magazine reviewing restaurants and bars in the Upper Midwest. Their review reads, “The tender and perfectly cooked sea bass is a top seller. It’s oven broiled with citrus buerre blanc and accompanied by wild rice and seasonal veggies.” Granted, this was a professional review, but there was also an entry from a recent ‘patron.’

This event provided a practical example of how a simple technology provided an augmented discovery that made my whole experience more pleasant. Foursquare promotes itself as “a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.” Foursquare is just one of several applications that can provide similar experiences. As the build out of technology advances, and additional apps are developed and introduced, the biggest challenge for brands is monitoring posts on the various sites.

And if you think that living in a medium sized Midwestern community will isolate you and your brand from the growth of consumer generated comments, just remember the sea bass is sensational in Sarello’s.

Posted in Flint Communications | Comments

Tags: Brand, Droid, Foursquare, friend-finder, local, restaurant, Social Media

Live from Vancouver

By Debbie Morrison, February 22, 2010 | Comments

LiveCity Yaletown

When the cauldron was lit and the games of the 2010 Olympics were declared open, HatlingFlint was there at the Opening Ceremony, tweeting live. And we weren’t alone. Turns out there were lots of tweeters inside BC Place, around Vancouver, and all over the world who were sharing their Olympic experiences from where they were at that moment. This may not seem that unusual, but looking back only four years ago to the last winter Olympics, social media was virtually unknown. Today, social media is playing a very big role in connecting fans with athletes, teams, countries, and the overall Olympic experience.

It is for this reason that the US Speedskating team has added two members of the HatlingFlint team to their Olympic delegation, for the sole purpose of managing their social media campaign. Many of the athletes such as Apolo Ohno, Allison Baver, Jordan Malone, and Katherine Reutter, just to name a few, were already veterans of social media, but for the team as a whole, it was new.

Members of the US Speedskating team skating in Vancouver

The purpose of this new social media campaign that is still in its infancy, is to bring the Olympic experience of the team to fans of Speedskating, and continue with a sustaining program after the Olympics are over. Despite the well-publicized sponsorship of Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert of the US Speedskating team, after the Olympics are over, his involvement will be complete, so the team continues to seek a new gold-level sponsor who will take the torch from Colbert. Having a sophisticated social media campaign in place will be attractive to any future sponsor, and can serve as an additional means by which to get this message out.

The primary components of the campaign include:
Facebook fan page – updated several times per day with photos, race updates, and of course, daily medal counts. Fans have also engaged by adding their own photos of them wearing their Colbert Nation caps, historic photos of Olympics from the past, and posting questions about where to get tickets to events.
Twitter – most popular are the live tweets from the venues as the races unfold. Even though some of the events are not broadcast or delayed, fans can choose to follow the action immediately. Two times per week, a trivia quiz keeps fans coming back to answer a question and go into a drawing for a cool prize.
YouTube – new videos are uploaded showing many different sides of athletes from competitions, practices, goofing around, and their opinion on brussel sprouts.
Blogs – daily monitoring allows us to comment on every blog that mentions Speedskating in some way; so far there have been over 100 blog posts to date and growing. Featured bloggers are added to the facebook page which helps give them even more exposure.

So take advantage of this new phenomenon and join in the fun. Engage with the US Speedskating team online and we’ll keep you up to date on every possible moment we can, now through the Olympics, and well into the future.

Posted in Flint Group, HatlingFlint | Comments

Tags: 2010, Colbert Nation, Facebook, Flint Group, HatlingFlint, LiveCity Yaletown, Olympics, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, St. Cloud, Twitter, US Speedskating, Vancouver, YouTube

5 Question Friday with Libby Issendorf, Digital Strategist with the Flint Group

By Andy Reierson, February 5, 2010 | Comments

I sit down with Libby Issendorf, Digital Strategist for the Flint Group, to discuss her past experience at Campbell Mithun and what brought her to Fargo. We’ll also talk about her social media work with the US Speedskating team, her upcoming trip to the Winter Olympics, and where businesses should start their social media efforts.

Posted in AadlandFlint, Flint Communications, Flint Group, Flint Interactive, HatlingFlint, SimmonsFlint, WestmorelandFlint | Comments

Tags: 5 Question Friday, digital strategy, Flint Group, Social Media, Social Media Strategy, US Speedskating

GF/EGF survey results: Business use of social media

By Elizabeth Hansen, February 1, 2010 | Comments

The results are in. Facebook is the #1 used social media platform for business leaders in Grand Forks/East Grand Forks. Number two, LinkedIn.

Our research partner, Prime Contact, conducted a survey with The Chamber of Grand Forks/East Grand Forks. Answers reveal that businesses use social media platforms for personal and business connections. See the detailed results.One of our social media strategists, Libby Issendorf, presented the survey results and her recommendations to a group of Chamber members last month. She’ll repeat that presentation with another group of members in March. (She’ll be in Vancouver, helping our client, the U.S. Speed Skating team, with social media during the Olympic Games!) The meeting space for these sessions can only hold a limited number of attendees, so we’ve summarized her presentation here:

Social media is important to business because it’s where people are.

Organizations must be in the right “media,” and this is it. Yet the messaging and interaction must capitalize on the “social” aspect. This isn’t TV, radio or even a website.

Social media is powerful word-of-mouth marketing.

Done well, social media allows businesses to solve customer service issues, collaborate, build brands and grow their customer base.

Social media works if you have a plan.

It’s tempting to create a Facebook page—just because you can. Slow down. First, answer some questions. What do you want to accomplish? Who is in charge of content? How will you tell people about it? How will you determine its success?

To get social media working for you, contact us.

More on social media

Read Libby’s resolutions
Libby’s social media resolutions are likely different than yours, yet her list may inspire you to dive in.

Crushing the Myth of B2B Social Media
The author of this blog, Jason Baer, is one of the most frequently cited social media experts. He also happens to be our business partner.

How do your customers use social media?
Use this tool to find out. Enter your customer demographic information and it breaks down typical social media usage by age and gender.

Posted in SimmonsFlint | Comments

Tags: SimmonsFlint, SimmonsFlint East Grand Forks, SimmonsFlint Grand Forks, SimmonsFlint Social Media, SimmonsFlint Social Media Strategy, Social Media, Social Media Strategy

Can social media help sell tickets?

By Elizabeth Hansen, January 27, 2010 | Comments

Social media can accomplish a lot. Solve customer service issues. Provide insights. Forge connections. Identify opportunities. And, we now know for certain, help sell tickets and definitely increase awareness.

In partnership with UND Fighting Sioux Athletics, SimmonsFlint and Flint Interactive developed and implemented a social media campaign to promote “Meltdown at The Ralph,” one night of UND basketball in key games at the majestic Ralph Engelstad Arena, usually reserved for UND hockey.

We created an online landing page, where we aimed all other platforms, including:

YouTube videos featuring players and coaches from the UND hoops teams, playing a little basketball on the hockey rink and checking out the arena (UND men’s hockey players were good sports in making cameo appearances)
Twitter updates
Facebook status updates and advertisements
Emails to UND alumni, students and other sports’ ticketholders
In-Arena Video Promos shown on the big screen during UND home hockey and basketball games
Traditional media, including print, radio and TV commercials, promos in game broadcasts, billboards and public relations

Winning numbers

Even though the UND teams didn’t win, the games attracted 4,354 fans, the largest crowd the two teams have ever played for in Grand Forks.

Other game stats:

960 students attended the game, also a new record and far above the average 144 students/game for basketball this season

Game revenue more than doubled the highest single game revenue this season

To discuss how social media fits your game plan, contact us.

Friend and Follow the Fighting Sioux
Twitter
Facebook

Posted in Flint Interactive, SimmonsFlint | Comments

Tags: athletics marketing, event marketing, Facebook, online media, radio advertising, SimmonsFlint, Social Media, tv advertising, Twitter, YouTube

Who is more helpful, the company or the customer?

By Josh Lysne, January 26, 2010 | Comments

About a week ago I booked a long overdue family vacation. We looked at several options from resorts to villas to cruises, and settled on a cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line. Needless to say, my 4 and 6 year olds were bouncing off the walls.

Last night I was thinking about the process we went through in booking our trip. Many queries started either on Google Maps, Cruise Reviews or Trip Advisor. From there, it was usually a brief stop on the website for the property, then right back to consumer reviews and photos on a third-party site. This happened over and over.

When we settled on the cruise, we wanted to look at the excursions the ship had to offer. We found ourselves off the NCL website and on to caribbeanportreviews.com to get what we really wanted, which was firsthand opinions of the excursions. My kids wanted to see every square inch of the ship, so we looked at pictures posted by past vacationers, again off the corporate site. NCL did provide some nice 360 view tools, but there were large parts of the ship missing.

I have seven different websites bookmarked, and when I put them all together, they answered most of the questions we had. It shouldn’t take that many sites to get the content I’m looking for. That just leads to a very poor customer experience. I know it is a big undertaking, but why wouldn’t NCL want to provide a one-stop platform for this information? Six of the seven sites (the seventh being ncl.com) I used to make my decision had information on all the major cruise lines. Do they really want potential customers reading about everything everyone else has to offer?

Are you providing what your customers want? Have you asked them what they want? Remember, if they are not getting the information they need from you, they are getting it from someplace else. Do you know where that is?

People are looking for authentic content when making buying decisions. You need to provide the opportunity for your customers to provide it. If you don’t have the capacity to maintain a sharing platform, you need to at least provide links out to sites that have this information, like Amazon reviews, Yelp, or Trip Advisor. Make it easy for your audience.

Question: Are reviews, tips and photos less credible when they are on a corporate website, even if they are not being sanitized? Do you trust them? Would you go to a third party site anyway? Tell me what you think.

Posted in AadlandFlint, Flint Communications, Flint Group, Flint Interactive, HatlingFlint, SimmonsFlint, WestmorelandFlint | Comments

Tags: customer experience, digital strategy, Flint Group, Social Media, Social Media Strategy

Posts Tagged ‘Social Media’

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