Monday, April 28, 2014

Motivational Monday: Let your success be your noise.


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Sunday, April 27, 2014

Job Seekers: Stop Hiding on Social Media


There is one trend in social media that has me utterly confused... using nicknames, omitting last names, or even using made up names on social media profiles.

When I've asked people about their choice to use fictional names on social media, majority cite their job search as the reasoning behind staying hidden. If you don't use your real name, the chances of being found and judged for your personal life by possible employers minimizes.

But if you use a fictional name, then employers can't find out how passionate you are about your future career and about your life!

In a world where there are hundreds (possibly even thousands) of qualified candidates all going after the same job, wouldn't you want to do everything possible to edge out the competition? Wouldn't you want to scream your qualifications, your experience, your skillset, and your passion from the rooftops? Wouldn't you want to get your name and your story in front of the people that matter by every means possible? How about hiring an advertising agency to plaster your resume on billboards?

Social media is your key to your dream career.
You are you own best spokesperson, salesperson, and advertising agency and social media is the best   way to get your name out there and land the job!

Don't get me wrong, there are  some people who have valid excuses for staying hidden like teachers. In high school, I found my student teacher's dating profile and let's just say a lot of people knew about it the following day at school. He definitely should have used a pen name. But overall for the majority of people, you don't want to be invisible.

You are suspicious in your absence.
In this day in age it is assumed that 99% of people have at least a Facebook account so when a perspective employer tries and looks you up and they come up empty-handed, suspicious run wild. 

What are you hiding?
Employers aren't stupid. Just as they assume you have a Facebook and maybe other social profiles, they also assume you have a life. They assume you go out on Fridays and you drink wine on Tuesdays. They're really not surprised you binge watch trashy TV and you like kitten videos.

What you are hiding is your personality and things that give your character and things that could make an employer want you as part of your team!

Don't hide.
An employer might find your profile and love that you're interested in cooking or golfing or find that you have incredible wit judging by your BitStrips. Even though these might sound like insignificant attributes to who you are, they could be the deciding factor over another person. Maybe the other guy seemed like a wet blanket but your profile showcased you as a more personable member of their team.

I recently received an email from someone working on a new project/start-up. His email said my Twitter and blog had been passed on to him by a colleague, who I don't know personally but have networked with in the past, and he thought I would make a great addition to their team. Even though this project has nothing to do with social media he said, "you have passion for whatever you're involved with and you're a damn good writer."

Don't hide who you are, but be smart.

Tips for Keeping Your Social Media Employer Friendly

1. Make Your Social Presence a Mix of Personal and Passion - Don't be afraid of social media and don't be afraid to be you. Be transparent and honest. You can still check-in at the bar and the mall, but don't forget to share relevant posts about your industry or something else you love. Use the 60:40 rule, 60 percent of personal nature with 40 percent being professional posts or curated posts. Curated posts can include news, opinion blogs you have an opinion on, local support, etc.

Use a public forum like Twitter or a blog to show your personality and your passion for something you love. This "something" doesn't even have to be something related to your desired career, it could be as simple as your love for home decorating, coin collecting, fried pickles, or dressing up and photographing your dog. Showing commitment to something like an idea or a hobby will show a perspective employer that you have desire and passion that you can easily transfer to the workplace.

2. Know, Understand, and Utilize Privacy Controls - This is probably one of the most important piece of having a successful and appropriate social presence. It is possible to be present without being an open book. This is especially important for Facebook. It is so difficult with the changes in the the News Feed to control what about you is available to the public. As hard as you might try, it is just as difficult to keep you mom from posting and tagging your in embarrassing baby photos as it is to keep your friend from posting that picture of you praying to the porcelian god last weekend. The best choice is to keep your entire timeline locked down to friends-only. The exception to this rule, however, is your current profile picture and your About section. Make sure these two elements make you shine and show your personality.

3. Control, Monitor, Damage Control - Your image is everything. Your image online can be your first impression to a perspective employer and it can make or break you before you even get a chance to open your mouth and talk to them face-to-face. Let your friends and family know that you're sensitive to what is posted of you and about you online. Ask them to respect your wishes and to check with you before posting. Then pay attention to what is being posted. Monitor yourself online, daily. Set up Google Alerts, a free service that will alert you if your name is used anywhere on the internet. When something unsavory is posted, take the necessary action to either have it taken down or your name removed from the post.

4. Be Active - Not only do you need to actively monitor and build your image but you should be using social platforms to network and meet others. Meet people already in your desired industry as well as others who are trying to get a foot in the door. Ask questions, get advice, and give advice. Be an active member of a professional community. Show your personality and your passion.

Bottom line: Stop hiding and put your best foot forward. If you're serious about your future career then you cannot deny the power of social media can hold for it.
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Thursday, April 24, 2014

Bitbelt Review

How many of you fitness tracker wearers have had your devices fall off? Have them come loose during normal wear or gotten snagged and pulled off? Maybe you've even lost your expensive tracker for good because it came off your wrist...

Thankfully, every time my tracker has come off I have either noticed immediately or was able to find it around the house. The more this happens the more I feel like my luck is about to run out and I will eventually lose it for good!


I recently was contacted by Bitbelt, a company started in 2013 during the rise in consumer wearable wrist fitness trackers such as the FitBit, that promises an answer to my prayers. The goal of Bitbelts is to protect you from losing their costly fitness trackers due to weak or flawed fasteners or from snagging and falling off. 

Bitbelt makes safety belts for in sizes for both Fitbit Flex and Force, Samsung Gear Fit, Vivofit, and the Disney Magic Bands.

Bitbelt wanted to send me some of their rubber safety belts to wear with my FitBit Flex to help ease my worries and to share my experience with my followers.

Today is my first day wearing the Bitbelt and so far so good.

First I slid the rubber Bitbelt on to the side of the band with the fastener before putting the band on.

Once the band is on, slide the Bitbelt up so that it securely holds both ends of your fitness band together. I have to admit, this part was a little tricky. 


The two materials don't slide well against each other and since you can only use one hand, it's a little difficult. However, I suppose this is a good thing. If it's hard to get on then it won't be easy to accidentally come off.


So now that my Fitbit is securely attached, I'm on my way to a week's worth of testing! Wish me luck!

I'll report back next week on my overall feelings!
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Saturday, April 19, 2014

Weekly Wrap Up: April 13 - 19

It's a short work week! Yippee!

Here's what you might have missed while you were too busy planning out a fabulous 4-day weekend!
  • Google Buys Drone Firm That Facebook Also Pursued - “Titan Aerospace and Google share a profound optimism about the potential for technology to improve the world," Google said in a statement. "It’s still early days, but atmospheric satellites could help bring internet access to millions of people, and help solve other problems, including disaster relief and environmental damage like deforestation."
  • What You Should Know About the HeartBleed SSL Security Bug - If you have an account on Yahoo mail, Gmail, Instagram, Netflix, or a variety of other websites, you may have been affected by the HeartBleed SSL security bug. HeartBleed just became public this past week, and is rapidly being addressed, but it represents an SSL security vulnerability that may have existed and been exploited by hackers for up to the last two years.
And some great things from some awesome bloggers!
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Monday, April 14, 2014

The Ultimate Survival Guide for Internal Communication Video

Here is another great resource that came out of Ragan Communication's annual Social Media for Public Relations and Corporate Communications conference that I attended earlier this month!

A UK-based research firm found that 93 percent of internal communications teams see video as an important tool.1 More than 54 percent of professionals said their employees now expect to see video inside the organization.1
Fill out the form to the right to receive a free copy of our “The Ultimate Survival Guide for Internal Comms Video.” It’s full of tips to help you get started shooting your first video.
In the guide, you’ll find out everything you need to get started producing videos including:
  • Camera, lighting and audio equipment
  • How you plan your videos
  • Production tips
  • Suggestions for sharing your video
Click here to download the free guide.
1http://www.hrcommunication.com/Main/Articles/Use_of_video_grows_in_internal_communications__6981.aspx
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Motivational Monday: Women with Vision


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Saturday, April 12, 2014

Weekly Wrap Up: April 6 - 12


Here's what you may have missed this week if you weren't paying attention:
  • Google to Launch Android TV - Google is close to debuting Android TV, an Android-powered platform that will compete directly with the Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku.
  • The Market Welcomed Tech IPOs Last Week, Even As Industry Giants Slipped - Last week was busy for tech companies on Wall Street, with GrubHub, Five9, and IMS Health going public on the same day, which all went well. On the other end of the stick, a number of young-ish, but already public technology companies took it on the nose including Facebook, Twitter, and Yelp.
  • Five-Year-Old Boy Discovers Microsoft Xbox One Security Flaw - Kristoffer Von Hassel, a 5 year old, discovered a security flaw with Microsoft's Xbox One that allowed him to log into his father's account.
  • Bing Is Here To Stay - Every couple of months, new rumors about Microsoft trying to sell off its Bing search engine pop up. However after last week’s Build developer conference, most are putting those rumors to rest. Bing is now a core part of Microsoft’s strategy, and there is no way it could sell Bing without disrupting many of the services it has recently built.
  • Big Changes Coming to Twitter Profiles - Moment by moment, your Twitter profile shows the world who you are. Starting today, it will be even easier (and, we think, more fun) to express yourself through a new and improved features including: Best Tweets, a Pinned Tweet, and Filtered Tweets.
  • With Carousel, Dropbox Wants To Handle ALL The Photos - Carousel is Dropbox’s new approach to organizing and sharing photos and videos, the company announced on Wednesday. Essentially, users capture images and clips that get stored in Dropbox, and then Carousel—an iOS and Android app—organizes them into events by time and location.
And here are some cool things from some other awesome bloggers:
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Tuesday, April 8, 2014

MediaSource: The PR & Marketer's Guide to Brand Journalism

Here is a great white paper that came out of Ragan Communication's 2nd Annual Social Media for Public Relations and Corporate Communications Conference last week!

From those of us that attended the conference know how important Brand Journalism is for companies.

In this summary Lisa Arledge Powell, MediaSource, has provided us with an excellent summary of what defines the practice of Brand Journalism, how it is essential to the success of modern organizational public relations and marketing and how to effectively leverage the practice to build brand value and maximize ROI.

Brand Journalism is one of the top trends in PR and marketing. Technologies such as digital TV, mobile internet and social media have transformed how consumers engage and evaluate credible, newsworthy content. The ability to understand and leverage Brand Journalism is critical to modern organizations that wish to build brand value and influence consumer choice to increase returns on marketing dollars spent.

For those who have interest in building and leveraging Brand Journalism, I highly recommend this white paper.

You can download The PR & Marketer's Guide to Brand Journalism for free, here.
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Monday, April 7, 2014

Motivational Monday: Failure is an Opportunity to Begin Again


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Saturday, April 5, 2014

#RaganDisney Day 2: Behind the Scenes

Here is a look at what is going on behind the scenes during Day One of Ragan Communication's Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference in Disney World.

For a behind the scenes look at Day 1, click here.










Also, I received a lot of recognition online for my award as the conference's Top Social Media Reporter:
And lastly, here is Candidio's wrap up video from the #RaganDisney Beach After Party:

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Friday, April 4, 2014

The Day I Won Top Social Media Reporter

On Thursday when Ragan Communications' Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications in Disney World kicked off Mark Ragan, CEO, announced there would be three awards given out at the end of the conference to acknowledge the top two social media reporters at the conference.

Challenge Accepted.

Before going into the conference it had been my intention to live tweet the event. But I wanted to be able to branch out and do more to make sure I was favored to win. 

Live social media coverage on Twitter has become my bread and butter. Back home in the automotive industry I get a lot of pats on the back about my timely coverage at industry events, tech shows, and conferences. This wasn't something that was necessarily in the job description and this wasn't something that I was taught in a formal setting. Live tweeting is just something that comes naturally to me.

So being already confident with my ability to drill down the presentations into 140 character "sound bites" that are tweetable in real time, I decided to add real-time blogging into the mix. The idea of writing comprehensive and useful blogs on each presentation at Ragan Disney that will have value to people that did not attend the conference seemed daunting. Ignoring the doubts in my head, I set a goal for myself to publish one blog within 10 minutes after each presentation. 

Sometimes I hold myself to much too high of standards.

And I did it. I live tweeted the presentations, speakers, and behind-the-scenes happenings and I accomplished my goal (except a few times when I really needed that 10 minute break between presentations to use the restroom and grab a chocolate brownie) to also live blog. On top of that I was also posting links to the blogs across the internet for cross promotion: Twitter, LinkedIn, and our Ragan Disney Facebook group.

At the conclusion of the final keynote, Mark Ragan took the stage and announced a huge handful of honorable mentions for their social media coverage. I was not listed. I started to sweat. He then named off the third place winner. I began to zone out doubting myself. Second place. Nope, okay, no big deal.

And then all my hard work paid off.

Mark started, "The last award goes to someone who not only live tweeted the conference but also managed to blog about the presentations almost simultaneously." and then he called my name.



He then went on to say some other nice things about my coverage but I honestly was too busy laughing, giving high fives to my new friends, and running back to get my phone so I could get a selfie with Mark. 


It wasn't about winning an iPad Mini.

Yes in addition to winning the title Top Social Media Reporter, I also won an iPad Mini. But I honestly could care less about winning the iPad Mini. (I mean, don't get me wrong, it's awesome!)

I feel like I have been doing this forever. Doing social media forever. At 14 years old I was the moderator of a book club on LiveJournal, my first community management role. Then I went to college and told my parents I wanted to study  social media, an industry that hardly existed let alone was taken seriously in the real-world. And I did it. I got my bachelors and I went to grad school--I studied social media formally. And now, more than 10 years later, I'm working in an industry that I love, doing what I love, and being acknowledged for it.

What means the most to me is the recognition.

Like I said, I get recognition from people I work with on a daily basis: friends, family, coworkers, and people in automotive. But to receive recognition from my peers, other social media professionals, is the greatest honor with this award. 

It's not that I need to feel validated that what I'm doing is good and that I'm on the right track but it does feel good to reaffirm that this is a valuable skill and that this continues to be a valuable asset in my field.

I just want to thank Mark Ragan for putting on such a great conference, all the people I've met over the last two days who have read my blogs, and to all my Twitter followers who could care less about social media that didn't unfollow me after a two day onslaught of #RaganDisney tweets.



Do what you love and do it well. 

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Challenges Implementing an Internal Enterprise Social Network

This morning Justin Fong, Vice President of Internal Communications for Teach For America, kicked off Day 2 of Ragan Communications' Social Media for PR and Corporate Communication Conference at Disney World speaking about creating an enterprise social network for internal communication. 

For Justin, it's hard to imagine how Teach For America (TFA) would function without it's internal network. It doesn't solve all of TFA's internal communications problems, but it is the best way to connect the organization's more than 2,000 staff members across nearly 50 regions. Most important, it gives everyone a voice, an essential ingredient of a great value. 

For companies that do not have a robust social internal network, Just answered many of the hard questions as well as gave a timeline on what to expect of implementation . 


What value does a social network bring to the workplace?
Robust internal communication in a social environment can stregthen the culture among your employees by offering transparancy and access among leadership, employees, and teams; as well as creating a fun and collaborative community across the enterprise.

How do you get there?
It is our jobs as communicators to create change by creating a revolution! Understand how the adoption process will work among your workplace and be persistent so it will succeed.

To be successful start by having that conversation with leadership to get their buy-in. After that start a soft launch pilot among your group and reach out to others you feel may be interested. 

Be that lonley dancer! It might just be you and a small group at first, but keep dancing and be persistant. Invest in your small group as super users, educating them and helping them to understand how to use the tool and grow the user base.

As your network grows, educate peopl. Show people what it is and how it is being used. Also offer them training on how they can use it to benefit them and the way their teams work.

Timeline of Progression with Internal Social Media

In the Beginning
Start with fun stuff like annoucements and the daily on-goings of the company and it's people. As you add value the culture will grow.

But what about governance? Who has time for governance when you're busy dancing?! Be watchful but allow the group to grow organically and make the network their own.

In the beginning at TFA, groups around topics like new mothers, cooking, and fittness were popular among employees. This helped employees networking on a different level and create a more engrained community.

The biggest challenge in the beginning will always be user education. A lot of people will be signing up but will be wondering why they are signing up. As a communicator and super user, you will need to help them to see the vision behidn it. 

The Dark Middle Passage
After you get things off the ground your internal network will hit a lull. Things start to slow down.

Try to break through and prove value to the users and to your employees who have still yet to join. Use your culture to drive content, but also strive for productivity. 

You early adapters will be challened by the fact that their  entire teams don't use the network, which makes team collaboration on the network difficult. 

There are a ton of groups with little activity. These groups have vision but no action. "Let's start a group about Ohio for all the people from Ohio!" But there isn't much to post about that.

But good news, the super users are still dancing! And these users have increased user expertise so start leveraging them to be advocates in their areas.

At this point there are still no formal community management (different from governance). There is no one on the network fill this position and there may not be anyone who has an idea on how to be content managers.

You biggest challenge will continue to be providing real value in the environment. Giving people a reason to go there, not to see it as a time suck.

You will also be challenged with the fact that not everyone is social. The 90:9:1 rule of social media applies to internal as well. That means only 1% of users are original creators of original content, 9% are contributors, and then 90% of users are just lurkers and don't offer anything constructive to the network.

In social media, only the top 10% of contributors generate 55% of the content.

Once Your Over the Dark Ages
Now that you're gaining momentum you'll be able to have dedicated community management users that will promotes best content practices and keeping everything organized and orderly.

You user base is continually growing and they find a lot of value in what is being posted and taking place on the network.

Along with this comes smarter users who understand the tools and how to use them properly.

The groups that people have been creating since day one are more productivity-minded and are more focused on on a vision with regular content and activity.

The biggest challenge at this point in time will be to incorporate more pockets of users (regional teams). As you continue to grow and branch out to your company's other locations, it will be difficult to span geographically and cultural divides.

Time Commitment
The community managers should spend about 10% of their time, with equates to roughly five to six hours a week. Not too much time when you're considering how much value is coming out of it.

NOTE: This was written live during the #RaganDisney conference. Please stop by later for a more robust edition.
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Thursday, April 3, 2014

#RaganDisney Day 1: Behind the Scenes

If there is one big thing we've learned today, especially from Thomas Smith the Social Media Director at Disney Parks, is that the behind the scenes looks is what interests audiences and ultimately sells your brand.

Here is a look at what is going on behind the scenes during Day One of Ragan Communication's Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference in Disney World:


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How Engaged Employees Affect Your Corporation


Employee communication historically has been based on mass media. Organizations needed to craft compelling communications that helped employees match their work to their business goals and commit to the brand. Much has changed in the last 10 years. Employee expectations have jumped, trust in leadership has been repeatedly challenged, social software has become routine, and employee engagement has fell to perilously low levels. Great articles and other content are still important, but they're no longer enough. Equally important to connect employees to the company is the awareness of what people do in their project teams, and line-leadership relationships. As communicators we need to re-engage our employees by tailoring our communications to fit the more social and Web 2.0 lifestyle of our employees. We have to humanize our brand and relate to them on their turf and on their terms.

Through their session during Ragan Communication's Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference in Disney World, Shel Holtz of Holtz Communicaton + Technology and Erin Grotts, Communications & External Relations Director at ConAgra Foods, spoke about what will happen for companies if they continue to disengage employees.

Engaged employees are commonly physiologically committed to their jobs, feel a profound connection to the company, are likely to be making positive contributions, work with passion, and make discretionary effort.

Not engaged employees lack motivation, are unlikely to make discretionary effort, and are essentially "checked out" of any tie to the company and their work. These people lack motivation and are ultimately just coming to work for a paycheck.

Actively disengaged employees are unproductive and are not just unhappy, they act out on their unhappiness. These people undermine what colleagues have accomplished and they actively try to spread negativity.

But why does engagement matter? There is a strong link between engagement levels, job performance, and market share growth. The correlation says high engagement will lead to higher employee productivity and lower turnover and therefor causing an operating income growth. Companies that communicate effectively are four times more likely to have engaged employees.

Communication and engagement in a corporation go hand-in-hand. Communicators that develop a strategy to transform the way they communicate with their employees will see improved interactions between employees and leadership, greater trust between employees and their leadership, greater understanding of the company, improved efficiency and better performance of employees due to being interested in their work, and enhanced gratification of employees by being publicly recognized.
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Living in an "Internet of Everything" World


His goal: to make you uncomfortable because being uncomfortable makes you learn.

Carlos Dominguez is a Senior Vice President at Cisco and a technology evangelist who motivates audiences worldwide through his unique perspective on how technology is changing how we communicate, collaborate, and especially how we work. During his keynote at Ragan's Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference in Disney World, Carlos gave a humorous, highly-animated presentation full of deep insight into how the right technologies and the right culture can create winning organizations. He draws from more than 20 years in the industry and a career spent in communications, he revealed how technology is changing the rules of business and explored strategies to avoid getting left behind. Carlos addressed many questions about collaboration including what motivates people to collaborate, how to establish rewards for collaborating, to how find the right experts both inside and outside your company, and how to keep people coming together both online and in person. Most importantly, he discussed what we, as a society, need to do to adapt to living in an "internet of everything" world--meaning a world that relies heavily on the internet for every aspect.

In order to live in this world, you need to do two things:

He wants you to see the world differently.
Change your perspective. 

He stressed how much the world is continually changing. Things that exist now didn't exist a short time ago in humanity's past.
  • 20 years ago there was no internet.
  • 10 years ago there were no social networks.
  • 10 years ago the Today Show was trying to figure out what the internet was and was trying to figure out a way to explain it


  • If you work in web programming, online marketing, mobile phone and app development, your jobs didn't exist 20 years ago.
This means my job didn't exist when I was born. This job hardly existed when I started college. No wonder my parents looked at me like I was insane when I first told them I wanted to go into social media. People were still trying to figure this stuff out but the world was going digital so fast!

It made people uncomfortable, so they learned and changed.

And now we live in a world where within the first few days of a child's life, there is over 40 gigs of data uploaded in its honor. That's pictures and posts and videos. Now the internet and all its stuff is ingrained into our lives from day one... literally.

Every industry is going through a reboot.

Traditional media has always been radio, television, and newspapers and now we're tuning in to podcasts, YouTube, and blogs. The world is changing because of the internet and because our society is becoming increasingly social.

Look at the music business. One day people were buying CDs and the next some guy started this newfangled thing for file sharing and everyone had music for free. Then 12 year old kids got sued for piracy. The world is crazy.

"If someday we all go to prison for illegally downloading music,
I only hope they split us by music genre." - Carlos Dominguez

Bottom line: Embrace change. Become adaptable.

 The more things change, the more susceptible we are of becoming uncomfortable and the greater opportunity we have to learn. So embrace it.
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How to be a Brilliant Digital Storyteller and Create a Sudden Urge to Act

A great story will inspire people to act.

How do you measure the impact of the placements you land? Page views of the press release? Media reach? What if it doesn't really matter? nIn the digital world you can tell stories that directly impact sales. (Bet your CFO would love to hear that!)

In Andrew Davis', bleeding-edge marketing futurist and author, keynote on Inspired PR at Ragan Communications' 2nd Annual Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference at Disney World he showed on consumer brands, non-profits, and event B2B companies exploit digital and social media to increase sales through inspired story telling.

And guess what? There is no one better positioned to improve the bottom line that you and your communications team!

Here are Andrew's to biggest hard-hitting words to live by:
  • Valuable Content increases demand for the products and services you sell.
  • Moments of Inspiration (MOI) increase demand for the products and services we sell.
These things inspire action!

Driving Demand with Great Stories

It's only appropriate that since we're here we talk about Disney and their amazing legacy of storytelling on and off the screen. Disney is a master of MOI. For example, think about how many Clown Fish and fish tank equipment Finding Nemo has sold. It's insane. 

Inspiring content can inspire you to purchase crap you  didn't know you need and didn't need before that inspiring content existed. 

How does being a storyteller increase demand?
First there is a Moment of Inspiration that triggers the initial consideration set in which the consumer goes into an active evaluation stage where they compare and contrast other brands and other options. Then comes the moment of purchase and this is your biggest opportunity to create move MOI which continues the loyalty loop. 

So how can you become a brilliant digital storyteller that creates a sudden urge to act among your customers?

Here are Andrew Davis' Four Secrets to Creating Moments of Inspiration:

1. Build Suspense
Suspense is anxiety about what will happen. Create a story that keeps people on the edge of their seats about what will happen or come next. Drama is anticipaton mingled with uncertainty.  Drama in a story can be used to create anticipation and drive demand for more. 

2. Foster Aspiration
Create content that will inspire people to be what they're not. What does your audience inspire to be? Create a story to help them. This will gain their trust and loyalty. 

3. Drive Empathy 
Make a commitmet and tell a story. Be emotionally invested in your product or service. Your consumers will then empathize with the characters in your story. Bring emotion to the table.

4. Harness Emotion
Emotion is what inspires the action. This is what traditoinal media has always done: Inspire people to take action on something they didn't know they felt strongly about. Make people buy things they don't need.

Focus on MOI rather than ROI.

NOTE: This was written live during the #RaganDisney conference. Please stop by later for a more robust edition.
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4 Ways for Corporate Social Media and Corporate Legal to Live Harmoniously Together

Everyone's heard the horror story about the company who has to send every single tweet through Legal. Communicators have also heard the tale of the Netflix CEO who posted material information to his Facebook page; Justine Sacco, the PR director, and her infamous tweet-heard-round-the-world and the Taco Bell employee who posted a photo of himself licking a stack of tacos. These news-making stories are of shared concern for the professionals who own social media in your organization, as well as for the legal and compliance teams. 

An overzealous approach can make it impossible to innovate and do great social media for business. Too lax and you're left open to an evolving array of liabilities. 

So how do you meet in the middle to protect your ability to innovate while protecting the business? With a great collaborative relationship.

This afternoon at Ragan's Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference at Disney World Robyn Itule, Social Media Manager for Insight Enterprises, shares her four real-world strategies to work with your Legal department while still allowing social media to thrive at your organization.


1. Learn Together
As a communicator, we know how the real world applies and is interpreted. But as a legal practitioner, your counsel knows how the law is applied and interpreted. ou both need one another to be innovative and compliant.

2. Take on Issues as a Team
There's two sides to every story. Tell it together. Tell it to your executives and to your employees. To be able to give the whole story and generate success you need both sides of the story.

3. Maintain an Open Door Policy
Don't just go to Legal when there is an issue. For questions and issues both big and small, keep talking. If they can trust you for the little things, then they can trust you for the big things.

4. Define Process and Reinforce Together
What the policy dictates and how the real world activates rarely look the same. Policy assumes statements like: Our company results were outstanding this quarter. Real world activity looks like this: WooHoo! Major quarterly bonus coming my way! The secret is to train your employees to the policy with real life examples, together as a team.

Legal can often times be the wet blanket when it comes to social media in the corporate world. But Robyn suggest to work with your Legal department to foster a good working relationship so you can easily work together without much fiction. Both sides have to be adaptable in order for this business to work.

So reach out and make friends!

NOTE: This was written live during the #RaganDisney conference. Please stop by later for a more robust edition.
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Overcoming 4 Obstacles to Create Effective Brand Journalism with Video

I know this happens to all of us corporate communications people, someone comes up to us and casually says "Let's make a video." Just like that. Like it's easy. Like it's just something simple you can throw together this afternoon.

But we all know, this is easier said than done.

Most communicators will agree that we all have the same obstactles standing in our way:
1. Time
2. Money
2. Technology
3. Creativity 


Dealing with Time Constraints
Clear some things off your place to make room for video, don't add video on top of it. Find something on your editorial calendar that would make more sense being visual and change the medium from written word to video. 

Another idea is to try something small. Try a quick take of raw footage like asking your employees a simple question and giving them 60 seconds to answer. 

Lastly, Rocky tells you to focus and do it right. This will help you in the end to save time editing and and keep you on track. 

How to Save Money
We can't have "shiny object syndrome" if you're looking to save money. The best of the best equiptment comes with a price tag. Look for a cheaper option and stick to it until it is impossible for you to complete the task then purchase something higher.

What type of investment should we put into these videos? There are three things to consider: speed, audience, and shelf life. You should manage the expectations of the requestor to make sure you're making the right decisions for the right instance. 

If this is a video that is going to just be posted on Facebook and after a few weeks it is going to fade into the shadows, then all you need is an iPhone video and a simple editor. But if you're creating a new corporate overview, you may want better equiptment and editing software and you may even want to contract it out for the best quality. 

Lastly, keep it simple! First pilot the program and see if you can get leadership and legal buy-in. Don't make it an investment without buy-in.

Dealing with Technology (or the lack thereof)
Just like with everything, it's important to be mobile. At some point you will need to go to where the news is happening. Make sure you're prepared for that. But there is also a need for an in-house studio with quality video, sound, and lighting. The studio set-up would be more for projects that are high quality and with ample time permitting.

Especially in the case of the studio, this may be a big investment and going along with saving money so it might be worth investigating whether or not outsourcing to a vendor. Vendors often time have world-class equiptment and software paired with the talent and skill your department may not have in house. 

How to get Creative
Walk the halls of your company and find stories. There's no need to create stories, there are good ones out there... you just have to find them! Put your reporter hat on and be a brand journalist. 

Having a hard time feeling creative? Get inspired by being a consumer of media by other creative souls. Try industry related books, case studies, and success stories from other companines' campaigns.

Lastly, remember to come up with cathy titles. This is something I need to remember for my blog...

As a part of the social media and digital communication world, we've been hearing for years that visual is the way to go but beyond pictures, visual is hard. Hopefully with these tips from Rocky we can all begin to produce better corporate video. 

NOTE: This was written live during the #RaganDisney conference. Please stop by later for a more robust edition.
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Three Tips for Starting "Safe" Corporate Social Media

This morning during Ragan Communication's Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference at Disney World, Steve Crescenzo, CEO of Crescenzo Communications, spoke about "safe" social media and how to put Web 2.0 tools to use in the corporate atmosphere without scaring executives or damaging your brand.


Leadership is terrified. 
Steve started with talking about how he's seen high-level executives peeing their pants in Armani suits when asked about social media involvement. He describes their inner-monologue as: Inmates taking over the asylum. But why are executives leery of social media? Steve says they're afraid for two reason: that bad things happening inside the company will make it to the outside world and that internal social media will hurt productivity and possibly the culture.

Despite their terror, us as communicators need to see social media as opportunities, conversations, collaboration, digital workplaces, great ideas, communities, productivity, and three-way communications and we need to keep pushing the issue among leadership.

These are his three tips for getting your corporate social media efforts off the ground:

1. Start with something easy and non-threatening.
Start small and take baby steps. Remember, slow and steady always wins the race! Choose topics that are non-threatening and less confrontational. These topics will have less of a chance for negative feedback and less of a chance for negative comments fueling angry discussions. Every positive baby step gets you one step closer to winning over leadership.

2. Publicize your wins!
When something great happens, brag about it. Be a social media spy in your organization and mine for content, pull it from the shadows and publicize it. Your leadership and employees don't always know something in newsworthy. Your role is to be an reporter for your organization. 

3. Get the important people involved.
These unfortunately are going to be the ones that will be resistant but you need executive buy-in for a successful social campaign. You will need to convince them and show them your successful starts and explain their value to the organization. On top of leadership buy-in, you need subject matter experts (SMEs) to help curate content. Be talent scouts. Find SMEs and find out who would be good writers for blogs or good on video. These people become your talent. Train them!

BONUS: Work with your leaders. Offer training.
Leadership 2.0 is about being transparent and more influential and more personal. Offer them training how to use a personal voice to tell a business relevant story and start a conversation.

Final advice is: Do less and do it better.
As your social media efforts get started, you need to prioritize your time and your tasks. You may not have time for everything so decide what is most important and give it your all!

What does success look like?
A highly engaged community with back and forth, two-way and three-way communication between the  organization and its employees and between employees about the organization.

NOTE: This was written live during the #RaganDisney conference. Please stop by later for a more robust edition.

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5 Keys to Brand Journalism and Audience Engagement

This morning at Ragan Communication's 2nd Annual Social Media for PR and Corporate Communications Conference at Disney World, Thomas Smith, Social Media Director at Disney Parks, spoke about how they use social media to create magical experiences.

Similar to Walt Disney's original idea for Disneyland, the Disney Parks social media program is driven by the simple notion that making guests happy is a key to success. Since launching the successful Walt Disney World Moms Panel, Disney Parks Blog and other channels, the program's strategy has revolved around listening, building relationships, creating, and sharing relevant stories and participating in online conversations.

As the man behind The Disney Parks Blog, Thomas shared with us a series of real Disney Parks success stories and shared examples of what keeps the company's most powerful social program moving forward and grabbing attention of people around the world. 


It all comes down to Brand Journalism. 
And using your social channels to amplify your message. Act as a news team. 

Now you're probably asking where you should start! Disney Parks is some big footsteps to walk in... but it's possible!

1. Create characters around your team members.
Not everyone can turn your employees into deep-dive characters like Disney does, but you can create subject matter experts (SMEs) out of your team members. Use these people to share your stories in a creative and personal way. 

2. Let people drive your social program. 
Your social program should revolved around your people. Feature your employees and your customers in your content. Share what they're doing and what matters to them because this is what will speak to your audience. His most bold (and true) statement was, "People connect to people, not to logos." Humanize your company!

3. Purposeful storytelling makes for remarkable experiences.
A good storyteller knows its audience. Creatively carve out stories and create experiences out of them for your audience. Often times the behind-the-scenes aspects of your business end up being what is most interesesting to your audience. And remember to be authentic, this is crucial to storying telling. Every aspect has to be right, down to the very last detail.

4. Train people to look at your mediums.
Create a schedule, an editorial calendar, then run your social program like a newsroom. Being able to rely on certain information at a certain time will help you to train people to seek your content. 

5. Crowdsource.
Use others to tell your story. Use your audience as brand advocates and invite them to share their story, which is your story, on your mediums. Use their imput to curate a news portal. While is is good practice to use others, do not rely on them solely. As a communicator, you will need still need to mine for stories and report out on them.

What does success look like?
Once you get off the ground running, your audience will tell you what works and what doesn't. They will start to dictate your content. Follow things they get the most likes, comments, and shares and do less of what gets the silent treatment from your audience. As your audiences' acception grows, so will your networks and the content that you deliver to them. Thomas says with Disney Parks Blog, they started with seven stories a week and now they are publishing seven or more stories a day! 

NOTE: This was written live during the #RaganDisney conference. Please stop by later for a more robust edition.

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