The Potential of Pinterest

In a world of more than 800 million Facebook users, the one thing researchers and statisticians continue to “wow” marketers and communications professionals with is that photos and other images get the most likes, comments, shares and other interactions.

The world of Pinterest is now here to satisfy and entertain the visual learners among us. And since 80 percent of us can fit into this category, there is a huge opportunity to use this online scrapbooking tool to meet business goals.

I just joined this social media outlet yesterday after seeing so many others talk it up enough to convince me to give it a look.

And I immediately see how this can be a great opportunity for the creatives of the world;

5 skills to improve your PR in 2012

When December starts to roll into January the expected lists and ‘what to watch for’ blog posts come flying from all directions.

And I’ll add to the list if not for anything but for my own personal accountability.

As I start thinking about how the year just flew by, what I was able to accomplish and how I can make improvements in the new year.

In 2012, here are 5 skills to focus on improve on as a public relations professional.

Feeding the content beast

Creating content is hard. It takes a lot of thought and preparation to come up with ideas for a communications program, a blog or marketing collateral.

But in the profession I am in, coming up with ideas to educate consumers happens on a daily basis. It’s not easy though; especially when those ideas revolve around a topic that not everyone is necessarily interested in for their “light” reading.

That’s why working hard to create content for your buyers/readers is of the utmost importance if you want to gain any traction in the business you are working.

The following are some ways you can feed the content beast.

Censorship does not lead to sales

My mom used to always tell me “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all.” I’m sure we can all say that. But what if your mom is Chapstick and her idea of not saying anything at all is deleting your comments because you disagree with her posting what’s being called a sexist and objectifying advertisement?

The company has been deleting comments related to its latest ad where a woman’s butt is front and center as she hangs over a frantically torn apart couch searching for something – change, the remote control, possibly Chapstick?

The only clue you get is the graphically placed bar below the woman with the statement “Where do lost Chapsticks go? Be heard at Facebook.com/Chapstick.”

I guess “being heard” was really only being offered to people who like the brand.

Engaging citizens in social media doesn’t mean posting your news releases on Facebook

Government agencies still do not get social media. Well, most of them. They are still applying traditional media and PR tactics and it’s not really working.

I have been looking around at trying to find good examples of government using social media well and I’m having a tough time finding it.

My observations and research have lead me to believe that social networking sites are basically being used as a newsfeed and place to post things that are not news release worthy.

Nobody cares about the leftovers. They’re not going to engage with that. Government communications departments really need to be more creative with their delivery to citizens.

Earth to Facebook: Talk to your users

Facebook has a major communications problem on its hands. It regularly and consistently makes changes to its platform to the ire of its 800 million users.

Last week, Facebook launched a new news feed that automatically tells people what their top news is. The change is causing many people in my circles to threaten to cancel their Facebook accounts all together. And I’m sure they’re not alone.

And the changes, they keep a coming. Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg announced Facebook Timeline at a tech conference which will virtually change the users’ experiences for good.