January 28, 2010

foursquare, my new favorite game on the social media playground

I had a sad realization in the past few weeks…I’m slowly growing tired of twitter. It’s been four years since I became @chelbycat. It’ s been a great four years on twitter, but the shiny newness has worn off.  Enter foursquare. I signed up for an account earlier this morning, and I’m already addicted. It’s fresh and exciting and intrinsically intuitive to those of us used to being on twitter.

foursquare is a location-based mobile social network that allows users to “check in” at their favorite hangouts–restaurants, bars, stores, etc. Using an app for your mobile phone or sms, foursquare determines your location and posts the check in to your profile as well as to twitter and facebook. Each time you check in, you can offer a tip:  I’m @ Food Dudes - Thursday nights are the best dollar tacos in obx. It’s a little bit like Yelp meets twitter, in the sense that you are providing a tweet-sized review of an establishment. Once you’ve checked in, you can see who else is nearby. You can also use foursquare to see where your friends have checked in and keep track of places you’d like to visit.

Add to this the game aspect that each time you check in you earn points towards badges. I’ve earned my “Newbie” badge (so will you when you join and check in for the first time). If you check into a place more than anyone else, you become the Mayor (until someone else tops you).  The gang at foursquare knows just how to stroke an early adopter’s ego!

I’ve only checked in twice now (work and Starbucks) and already I  love it. I’ll post more as I get using and enjoying foursquare. For now, I’m already seeing tons of opportunity for marketing and public relations. I’ll be including foursquare my social media plans for clients. As the site explains, foursquare is a great way to run a customer loyalty program. By offering coupons and giveaways to your establishment’s Mayor, you encourage customers to check in and tell their friends what they like about your place. By encouraging customers to check in, you can get the equivalent of “word-of-mouth” exposure for your business. And, I can imagine as they monetize the site, there will be lots of room for advertising.

If you sign up, please friend me:  foursquare.com/user/chelbycat

Tags: foursquare, marketing, social media, Twitter, word of mouth, Yelp
Posted in Social networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, Web/Tech | No Comments »

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January 13, 2010

Studio Rio: how radio publicity is enhanced through social media

Last year, I helped Studio Rio, a women’s-only gym in Virginia Beach, Va. that offers pole dancing classes, enhance their marketing and public relations efforts. During that time, they developed a new Web site, established a blog and developed a Facebook, YouTube and Twitter presence.

This week, the local radio morning team at WNOR FM 99, Rumble and Shelley, started talking about pole dancing on the air. When Studio Rio heard they were mentioned, they quickly responded to invite the morning team in for a free private pole dancing class. The morning team took them up on the offer and had a blast. The morning show hosts shared their experience with listeners this morning and it was hilarious and entertaining. Studio Rio could not have asked for better publicity.

But it does get better. The morning team has uploaded a YouTube video of their pole dancing lesson as well as an audio clip of the radio bit that aired. That extends the reach of publicity far beyond listeners who happened to tune in to the radio this morning. 

The best part is that Studio Rio has been consistently communicating with its members and prospective members through online social media. Because Studio Rio actively engages with customers via Facebook, Twitter and text messaging, they were able alert customers instantly to tune in and listen. Then after the radio exposure, when the clips were posted online, Studio Rio used social media to share the links and get the word out even more. Congratulations to Studio Rio for getting some great publicity and for effectively using online social media to make the most of it.

Tags: Best Practices, facebook, publicity, social media, Studio Rio, Twitter, YouTube
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November 2, 2009

Getting started in the social media space with GumdropLane.com

Reina Communications is helping Gumdrop Lane step up its social media marketing efforts. Gumdrop Lane is an online children’s clothing boutique, somewhat new to the social space. Here are some tips I offered Gumdrop Lane to get social. Hope they help you as well. Also, please check out Gumpdrop Lane’s twitter and facebook pages as well as their new blog. Let us know what you think!

• People should tweet, not businesses. Twitter is about personal communication. Consumers know there is a person behind each business, and we want to see who they are. While you are representing a brand, tweet about personal experiences — those experiences are what make your business unique! Just make sure the people representing your business have fun personalities and you can trust them to represent your brand.
• Share information and promote interesting finds, even if it doesn’t directly relate to what you’re selling. You want to be an information resource for your customers. Read other blogs and seek information your customers would seek. If you see something that would be helpful for them, blog about it or retweet it without the expectation of sales in return. You’re building a relationship, and that’s a two-way street.
• Don’t underestimate the power of blogs. Good bloggers know their audiences and can recognize when your products or services are a good fit for their readers. Word-of-mouth advertising can be as effective as Google Adwords in gaining exposure for your business. Identify the influential bloggers in your market and use sites like Alexa to see what  kind traffic they get. Bloggers love hosting giveaways for your products, but if you have limited resources, you need to be sure you offer products to the most influential blogs first.

Tags: blogs, GumdropLane, marketing, social media, Twitter
Posted in Best Practices, PR Strategy, PR Tactics, Twitter, Web/Tech | No Comments »

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March 9, 2009

Twittles: Taste the social marketing rainbow

I’m loving the new Skittles Web site. Launched last week, it’s simply a rotating look at the live Skittles entries on social media sites, such as Flickr, Wikipedia and Twitter. It certainly generated a lot of buzz for Skittles in the last week on Twitter. With a completely user-generated website, Skittles gets kudos for learning how to relinquish control. Continue Reading…

Tags: best practice, Flickr, redesign, social media, Twitter, user-generated content, Wikipedia
Posted in Best Practices, PR Tactics, Web/Tech | No Comments »

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