- Apr
- 18
Posted on April 18, 2010 by Nora DePalma
Great quote via Mashable, Brian Dresher, manager of social media and digital partnerships at USA TODAY, agrees that Twitter is an excellent source for journalists looking for leads. In fact, throughout 2009, he conducted bi-weekly training sessions with the paper’s journalists in order to teach them how best to use the microblogging site. “
I think the most vital [aspect of the] tool is the engagement with the audience,” he says. “To not participate in conversations that are taking place or to avoid monitoring trends is going to result in lost opportunities. [By keeping up with Twitter], journalists are able to take a trend they first spot on Twitter and the real-time Internet and continue to develop it in more detail.”
Read more via How Journalists are Using Social Media for Real Results.
- Apr
- 15
Posted on April 15, 2010 by Nora DePalma
Starting at left, moderator Beth Bond, editor of SoutheastGreen; Gretchen Miller, Vitrue ; Nora DePalma, O'Reilly/DePalma; Sean McCandless, Green Chamber member; and Candace McCaffrey, Cookerly PR
O’Reilly/DePalma principal Nora DePalma participated on a social media panel for members of the Green Chamber of the South last night. Nora’s Green Earth PR colleague, Nancy Rogers, took notes of the tips, the best of which are listed below:
Facebook
- Vitrue just finished a study that estimated 3.6 impressions for every fan on Facebook.
- Rate of posting depends on audience: there is no set schedule that works for all brands.
- Ask people to fan you; promote it on main website and other sales collateral.
- Audience skews female.
- Building products takeaway: Good consumer play; think female -oriented content.
Twitter
- Better to retweet and have public dialogues, rather than direct messaging. This helps build followers
- Engage in conversation by searching for topics related to the brand, and then answer questions or offer advice.
- Mention others 12x for every one mention of you.
- Audience skews male. Also a lot of journalists on Twitter.
- Building products takeaway: Most of our trade press is now on Twitter, along with a surprising number of professionals: plumbers, kitchen & bath designers, and builders. We almost think of Twitter as a b-2-b play.
Linked In
- Good place to search for journalists seeking experts
- Answering questions and posting good articles on the right forums can help establish thought leadership
- More corporate than other social media channels; more buttoned up and formal language.
- Audience skews male and c-suite.
- Building products takeaway: be very mindful of talking more about others than yourself. Some of the groups are very insightful to read for trend info.
You Tube
- Second largest search engine after Google.
- Small “flip” type video cameras are inexpensive and easy for newbies to shoot interviews, testimonials and do fast editing.
- Speed of editing and posting more is preferred over polished productions.
- Audience skews male.
- Building products takeaway: how-to videos and how-they-work videos do really well.
General Tips
- Tagging articles on Delicious, Digg and Stumble Upon helps get key messages out to influencers.
- Cross-promote all digital properties online and in press releases as warranted.
- Best starting point: a blog. Can even be your website (as O’Reilly/DePalma has done). Gives you an “anchor” for content that can be cross-promoted on Facebook, Twitter, etc.
- Plan for content and then repurpose it to keep costs and time commitment low.
- Just do it. Start with personal accounts and experiment.
The panel was well received, according to Ofra Tessler of the Green Chamber, “Both social media novices and experienced people said it was a great event, they learned a lot, it was interesting, interactive and inspired action. Everyone said they took quite a few new bits of information back and that it was well worth their time.
“One or two people said this was the best event they had been to on the topic. “
- Apr
- 13
Posted on April 13, 2010 by John OReilly
In early April, Uponor launched www.uponorpro.com, a Web site created especially for professionals in the radiant heating and cooling, PEX plumbing and fire sprinkler installation industries. The site features valuable information on training, industry news, marketing tools and videos, and even includes an online forum where visitors can correspond with Uponor technical experts and other industry professionals.
Go here to download the press release in Word, Text or PDF formats, download a hi-res image of the Web site, and gain access to other, related materials and information from Uponor.
- Apr
- 9
Posted on April 9, 2010 by John OReilly
Milwaukee Electric Tool Corporation has announced a new partnership with Uponor, a leading manufacturer and supplier of plumbing, fire sprinkler and radiant heating and cooling systems. Fueled by the common passion of delivering increased productivity to plumbing and heating professionals, the companies have aligned to develop a comprehensive solution for installing Uponor’s ProPEX® fitting system.
Through this partnership, Milwaukee® will now add M12™ and M18™ ProPEX® Expansion Tools to their growing line of products designed for the plumbing and heating trades. With Uponor’s continued support, the M12™ and M18™ ProPEX® Expansion Tools will launch later this year, offering features such as an auto-rotating head for accurate, one-handed expansion. The new tools will not only accelerate the speed in which users can install ProPEX® connections, they are also compatible with over 20 tools on their respective battery platforms.
For more information on this new alliance, please go visit the full media page here.
- Apr
- 1
Posted on April 1, 2010 by Nora DePalma
Architects using social media report greater visibility and interest from journalists and peers, according to this article from Architectural Record on architects and social media.
While few firms could point to their social media investment as leading directly to projects, other benefits have emerged, including low-cost networking, talent recruitment, and the ability to use tools such as WordPress to easily update websites. (The O’Reilly/DePalma website is built in WordPress for the very same reason.)
Arch Record cites the architecture firm HOK for being active in social media and using employee-generated content for an artfully designed blog. From there, HOK lists what it calls its HOK Network, links to all of its social media sites listed below:
Mike Plotnick, HOK’s media relations manager, told Arch Record that social media was working better than traditional public relations because their own internal talent was able to present the company directly just being a part of the dialogue about design and architecture.
Read the Arch Record story here.
