Social Media Topics | Digital Ethos

What the #? Hashtags are Coming to Facebook

March 30, 2013 by CraigEYaris 2 Comments

In every class and presentation I do, I always tell people to keep Twitter and Facebook separate. They use two different languages. Facebook is all about “natural language”. We post the way we speak. We use full sentences, and have posts that can go on for paragraphs. Twitter is the complete opposite. It’s all about brevity. After all, you need to fit everything into 140 characters (and we recommend only using 120 to allow for retweets). That includes any links, and hashtags that you may use.

What is a “Hashtag”?

In it’s basic form, a “hashtag” is an organizational tool. It is a way to search for tweets that have a common topic or idea. For example, if you search Twitter for #HungerGames or #Bacon, you will get every tweet that uses these hashtags, and would be able to follow conversations and find out who says what about a certain topic. Anything can be a hashtag, and no-one owns them. While teaching my class at Hofstra University on Digital and Social Media, I use the hashtag #HofstraDigital so that the students can communicate through Twitter, and with me, on any topic they wish.

In addition, if you use social dashboards like Hootsuite, you can set up columns for specific hashtags to follow, and you will see all tweets using that hashtag in an organized fashion.

Hashtags can also be found on other social networks, including Pinterest, GooglePlus, and Instagram, and I’ve even seen them on T.V. shows, so that people can follow the conversation about the show in real-time (#thefollowing, #BigBangTheory).

So, it would seem a natural progression that hashtags would move to Facebook, where over 1 billion users visit daily.

Should I Care?

In short, yes. Hashtags are coming. There is no way to stop this. They are a great tool to organize conversations and topics. But, I don’t think it will change the way people interact with Facebook, at least not in the short term. People are used to longer posts, and that won’t change with the use of hashtags. They would be embedded within the posts. An example could read:

I can’t believe that #target is not going to match their on-line price with their in store price for me. That is #badbusiness.

This would allow Facebook’s Graph Search tool to offer up conversations around hashtags, when searching for the store “Target” or the phrase “Bad Business”.

This will also allow businesses to search around terms that they feel would be relevant to their business. Target, for instance, would find this post by searching #Target, as would anyone else, who could then join in the conversation.

It would become a great way to engage in a conversation around a specific topic, and allow you a broader reach than just your friends or fans.

Facebook could even go so far as to offer a dedicated page for hashtag searches, where people can save specific terms to be constantly updated (GooglePlus offers this). It may allow deeper and more meaningful conversations among people, and create new relationships.

Facebook could even begin to roll out a new advertising platform that would appear only on these hashtag pages, where advertisers could directly target people searching specific words or phrases. It would bring a more targeted audience to your brand.

In the end, there is no stopping the hashtag, whether you #love it or whether you #hate it, it will begin to show up in our news feeds. Why not #embracethehorror?

What do you think? Do you #like them or #hate them? Sound off below.

Resources:

3 Changes to Facebook Pages: Replies, Cover Photos, Hashtags

Hashtags: from Twitter to Facebook

Facebook Plans to Introduce Hashtags, Reports Say

Facebook Working on Incorporating the Hashtag

About Craig Yaris

Craig E. Yaris is the owner of EsquireTech Solutions, which helps small business get found on the social web, whether through Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, he can both teach you the effective use of any social network or act as your social media manager, enabling you to reach your clients where they are and when they want to hear from you. He can teach your organization the social media best practices that can help you use the tools of today to cost-effectively increase your bottom line. EsquireTech Solutions brings the social web to your business. Visit EsquireTech Solutions or call 516-495-9107 .

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Business, Digital & Internet Marketing, General, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: facebook, internet marketing, Social Media, social media marketing, Social Media Social Brand Visibility, social network

Facebook and the Sponsored Page

March 23, 2013 by CraigEYaris Leave a Comment

Over the last 11 days, I have been experimenting with Facebook’s advertising engine with the sole goal of increasing “likes” on two different pages, one a community organization and one a local business. I set the budget for these two pages at very different dollar amounts and let Facebook do their thing. The results have been very interesting.

What does $20.00 a day get you?

On the community organization page, I began with a budget of 20.00 per day, which promised me between 14 and 129 new “likes” per day. That would be a cost of between .15 and 1.42 per new fan, which seems like a small price to pay to spread their message. After 11 days, the page went from 406 fans to 631, which is an increase of 225 new fans. This is much lower than the anticipated 1419 fans, should we get 129 per day, but more than the possible minimum of 154.

But it’s not all about the total number of fans. The weekly total reach, according to Facebook Insights increased by 31% and the Friends of Fans increased by more than 29%, giving this client access to a much broader audience, than they had with only 402 fans. In addition, their “People Talking About This” reached a high of 221 people which means that over 200 unique people created a story about this page over this time-frame, which is a great indication that the content is being shared. In addition, the viral reach of over 1,900 indicates the number of unique people who saw a story published by a friend about this page. For a small grass-roots organization, these are staggering numbers.

Most importantly, the total reach for this page reached a high of 6,889 people, which is an indication of the number of unique people who saw any content associated with this page. That’s what you call word of mouth!

What does $5.00 a day offer?

On the small business page, I decided to counter the higher price by running an ad for the purpose of increasing the number of “likes”, but with a budget of only $5.00 per day. Facebook promised a rate of between 2 and 21 new likes every day. And, after the same 11 days, the number of likes increased by 85. Again, this number was on the low side, quite short of the possible 231 new fans over this time period.

For this page, the total reach increased to over 6,800 people, which is a great number. But, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Although the number of likes and the total reach increased, there was still a lack of constant engagement, as shown by the number of people “talking about this” and the virality of all the posts during this time frame.

What does it all mean?

In the end, I don’t think that the numbers say anything specific, regarding these two pages. The higher budget page was for a community organization that has a lot of local support and that gets people excited and engaged. The lower budget was for a local company that only appealed to a niche group.

In the end, I believe that Facebook’s advertising program accomplished what we set out to do, increase likes. But, that can’t be your company’s only goal. You need to increase engagement, virality of your posts, and the number of people “talking about” you. That is where the real benefit will come from. Keeping your audience engaged is worth much more than just the number of people that have “liked” your page.

What do you think? Have you had success with Facebook ads? What about failures? Let’s discuss it.

Resources

Advertise on Facebook

Facebook for Business

About Facebook Ads

About Craig Yaris

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Business, Content Marketing, General, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: advertising, analytics, internet marketing, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Social Brand, Social Media, social media marketing, Social Media Social Brand Visibility, social network

Steps to become a successful and powerful LinkedIn user – Part I

March 18, 2013 by Bill Corbett Jr. 4 Comments

Looking for a magic formula to be more successful on LinkedIn? The fact is you need to create your own strategy for success on LinkedIn. The magic formula is understanding marketing, creating a system for developing trusting relationships, putting time in and having an understanding for the tools and opportunities LinkedIn offers.

Your success strategy must be part of an overall personal marketing plan and system. LinkedIn can and must be an integral component in a personal marketing effort. To be successful users must have a plan for leveraging what LinkedIn provides. Using social media including LinkedIn cannot be set on “auto pilot.” Just creating a profile and posting occasionally will only bring modest success.

These are three steps on the road to becoming a power LinkedIn user:

Plan – Create a personal marketing plan and include LinkedIn as a vehicle for building your reputation, connecting with the right people, enhancing relationships and making it easy for those you want to do business with find you. A marketing plan that includes LinkedIn requires that the user spends time on the site, becomes familiar with each section and creates a strategy for using each part of LinkedIn. This step is broad but before you ride a bike or drive a car you have to know how it works and how it will get you from Point A to Point B. Your plan, like any marketing plan should have goals and objectives. Certainly business secured and funds generated are great goals, but there are many objectives you will have to achieve first. Set realistic and achievable goals, track when objectives are reached and what the results of activities were. Create questions and milestones that will help you judge success.

Don’t be a bystander – According to an article from the Wall Street Journal, the average LinkedIn account/user checks in and uses the site for about 17 minutes per month. To be a power user you have to commit more time. You must be active, seen and remembered. This requires daily activity, attention and focus. At first it may take more effort, but over time you will find the activities, groups and interactions that will yield the greatest results. In marketing, strategies need to change. If an approach or tactic does not work, after time change it. For example, when using status updates the key is to generate a response and create a buzz. If your activities are not attracting attention look at the content of your posts, and compare them to the responses others are getting. Don’t be afraid to change or implement several different approaches at the same time.

Spend time but don’t waste time – The goal of marketing is to develop a system that allows for growth and the development of relationships and business. Focus on those activities that work, to prevent the wasting of energy. Create a schedule and time budget. A schedule is what you will do each week and the time budget is how much time you will spend. Do not exceed the amount of time you have allocated and don’t do less. Monitor and track this time and refer back to records to see if you are keeping with your goals. Time is money and must be spent in an efficient way.

Your profile, title and image- Much has been written on this and I will start briefly with your photo, it must be professional and clear. No image means fewer connections and only 1 in 7 will even look at your profile. Also stay away from logos, caricatures, and other images. These are frowned upon by users on LinkedIn and they don’t present you in a professional manner. What your profile and title says about you is key, and will make the difference between people getting to know you or moving on to someone else. Let’s start with your title. Here is an example of a big mistake, having President, CEO or account manager listed as your title. No one searches for president, CEO or account manager. If they do they will find thousands of people from all different sectors in no particular order. Be more specific with your title based on your industry and what you do. My title is Public Relations, Personal Branding and Social Media Consultant. I do list president of my firm but at the end not the beginning.

Your profile text must be optimized the same way. Include what you do, where you do it (geographic market) right at the beginning. Make sure those different terms that describe what you do and your industry appear often. To be the most effective and to connect with prospects your profile should be written in the first person, (I am the leading PR professional on Long Island…), should include some history, experience, accomplishments, success and some personal information about what you like to do when away from work. How much you share is up to you. However, we have found that in many cases this personal information is as important if not more important than business background and information. Why? This type of information allows you to offer and find common interests with others. This information helps people understand who you are, what you’re interested in and offers a great way to start conversations that have nothing to do with business. These easy conversations allow for relationships to start, grow and put you in a position to eventually do business with the other individuals. Text that only talks about company services, products or benefits thereof is an instant turn off and limits the effectiveness of your post. Your profile is where your personal brand will shine, take advantage of this opportunity.

Sources:

About Bill Corbett Jr.

This article is provided by Bill Corbett, Jr., President of Corbett Public Relations, Inc., a leading media relations, social media and personal branding consulting firm. For more information, go to corbettpr.com or to his blog corbettprblog.com. He can be reached at wjcorbett@corbettpr.com or @wjcorbett.

Filed Under: Authors, Business, Business Networking, General, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: business, Business Consulting, LinkedIn, Social Brand, Social Media, social network

Pinterest Analytics – Pinning Grows Up

March 16, 2013 by CraigEYaris 1 Comment

Back in November, 2012, Pinterest began shifting from a purely personal social network whose goal was to connect everyone in the world through the things they find interesting, to one where businesses would have the tools to use Pinterest for their marketing purposes (Pinterest Makes the Business Leap http://digitalethos.org/pinterest-makes-the-business-leap/).

Now, nearly 4 months later, Pinterest has begun to roll out a full suite of analytics tools that will enable users to get some “deep dive” information about people’s habits when it comes to pins. Pinterest’s analytics tool is completely free, but has some requirements before you are able to access it. First, you will need to switch your account to the new profile. Don’t worry about this much, as it isn’t all that different, and you will have no problem finding all of your boards and pins. The second step is a bit more involved. It requires you to have a verified account, and this can be done when you try to edit your profile, but does require some knowledge of uploading a file to your web host. Pinterest offers help with this step, so don’t let it scare you.

Once you have the new profile set-up and you have verified your account, you will have access to the analytics engine, under the user name in the upper right side of the screen.

What will I find in the Pinterest analytics?

According to the Pinterest website, you will find some very useful information, including how many people are pinning from your website (which you verified), how many people see your pins and how many click on your content. You will be able to see which of your pins have the most repins and what else they are pinning.

Specifically, Pinterest offers you the following data under their Site Metrics tab, including:

daily average number of pins
daily average number of people pinning from your website
daily average number of times pins from your website were repinned
daily average number of people who repinned your pins
daily average number of times your pins appeared on Pinterest in the main feed, search results or on other boards
daily average number of people who say the pins on Pinterest
daily average number of clicks to your website that originated on Pinterest
daily average number of people that visited your website from Pinterest.

Pinterest also offers statistics for the most recent, most repinned and most clicked pins.

How can marketers use the data?

Most importantly, this new data is incredibly useful for businesses, since they can now see the types of pins getting good traction and they will have a look into the behavior of their customers, as their pins are repinned and as people visit their website from Pinterest, and it will allow businesses to tailor their websites to these new found visitors.

Finally, for e-commerce companies, they will now have a great insight into which products that they are pinning are driving traffic and which ones are resulting in immediate action by their customers.

I believe, as I said in my previous article (Pinterest Makes the Business Leap), that this is just one more step towards Pinterest implementing an advertising engine.

Will the rollout of analytics force you to take another look at Pinterest for your marketing efforts? Have you been using Pinterest for marketing, whether successfully or not? Sound off, below.

Resources:

Pinterest unveils web analytics, offers insight into visitor pinning behavior

Pinterest Web Analytics

Pinterest Launches Free Analytics Tool for Business Accounts

Pinterest Analytics: Making the Most “Actionable” Social Network More Actionable

How Users Can Get Access To Pinterest Analytics For A Website

About Craig Yaris

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Business, General, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: internet marketing, Marketing, pinterest, Social Brand, Social Media, social media marketing, Social Media Social Brand Visibility, social network

Facebook’s New News Feed – What it Means for You

March 9, 2013 by CraigEYaris 2 Comments

I’ve been writing this blog for Digital Ethos for almost 2 years, and it seems that I’ve written about changes to Facebook at least once every few months. This month is no different. On Thursday, March 7, 2013, Facebook announced drastic changes to its newsfeed. They have decided to unify the newsfeed across all devices, desktop, laptop, tablet, and mobile, and to provide a better “newspaper” like experience, providing “all the news that you want to see.”

In addition, Facebook will begin to sort the newsfeed chronologically, and will place a greater emphasis on pictures and videos. In fact, they are increasing the size of the newsfeed, and decreasing the size of the two sides. There is also talk that they are removing the ticker from the right side, and that sponsored stories are now going to be placed within the newsfeed, as they currently do, only bigger.

The question remains, how does it affect business?

The biggest change for businesses will be the increased size of posts, pictures and videos, but a decrease in screen real estate where ads currently reside. But, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing, since Facebook is unifying the look across all platforms, ads will begin to appear in their mobile apps.

BUT, Facebook is also introducing (or re-introducing) sub-feeds, where you can organize your newsfeed according to specific criteria. Through the new “all friends” feed, users will be able to see only those updates that their friends have posted. There will be no updates from business pages at all. Users can even focus their newsfeed to their closest friends, excluding all others.

Facebook is also going to implement feeds specifically related to photos and music, which may be a boon for advertisers within these respective genres. They can target their ads to only show up for users within these respective feeds, which may lead to greater engagement.

They are also implementing a new “following” feed, which will aggregate all the stories from the brands that you follow, and also will show ads from all brands.

So, will these new changes be accepted, or will their one billion users revolt, as happens whenever a change is implemented? Only time will tell. What do you think of these changes? Will they affect your use of Facebook? Will they affect brands ability to connect with you?

Resources

Facebook Newsroom

The NEW Facebook News Feed: Everything You Need to Know

What Facebook’s New News Feed Means for Marketers

Facebook’s new News Feed: Bigger is Better

Hands On With the New Facebook

About Craig Yaris

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Business, Digital & Internet Marketing, General, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: brand, business, facebook, internet marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Social Media, social media marketing, Social Media Social Brand Visibility, social network

Basil Puglisi appointed to Social Media Club International Board of Directors at SxSW

March 8, 2013 by Bill Corbett Jr. Leave a Comment

Basil Puglisi, Center Moriches, Long Island resident, has been appointed to Social Media Club International’s Board of Directors. The group, founded in 2006 by Chris Heur and Kristie Wells, has over 300 chapters around the world today. This new announcement comes as Mr. Puglisi attends and covers South by Southwest (SXSW), a series of film and music festivals featuring, emerging technologies and conferences that are taking place this week in Austin, Texas, United States.

Social Media Club International’s slogan, “If You Get It, Share It,” is at the heart of this not-for-profit’s collaborative learning process. As the newest board member of the organization, based in San Francisco, CA, Mr. Puglisi will operate out of Long Island, New York offices.

As part of Mr. Puglisi’s role with Social Media Club International, he will utilize the experience and leadership he has developed from his work with Digital Ethos, a not-for-profit digitally focused publication and educational event development group on Long Island, to bring content and creativity to the organization.

“Long Island is an emerging center and home to leaders in the world for digital and social media. Education and professional development have been a key component of Social Media Club International’s mission. I will use my experience and work with Digital Ethos on Long Island to help the organization continue to grow in its mission globally,” said Mr. Puglisi.

“More and more social media and marketing leaders are regarding Long Island professionals as key influencers within today’s social media world,” added Mr. Puglisi. “I am humbled to be ranked among these top influencers and have the opportunity to play a role in social media awareness, most recently through Digital Ethos’ hosted Social Media Action Camp during Social Media Week. Social Media Club International is a respected organization and I welcome the opportunity to be its Long Island voice.”

Social Media Club International is expected to have additional growth and other announcements developing in the coming weeks. For more information about Social Media Club, its chapters and programs visit www.socialmediaclub.com.

About Social Media Club
Social Media Club (SMC), founded in March 2006 by Chris Heur and Kristie Wells, hosts conversations around the globe that explore key issues facing our society as technologies transform the way we connect, communicate, collaborate and relate to each other. Social Media Club enables business professionals to explore personal and professional passions by helping them connect with a community of their peers based on both geography and areas of interest. For more information, visit www.socialmediaclub.com

About Bill Corbett Jr.

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Content Marketing, Digital & Internet Marketing, General, PR & Writing, Press Releases, Publishing, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics

Social Nеtwοrkіng Tipѕ For Sucсessful Business Mаrketing

March 6, 2013 by BasilPuglisi Leave a Comment

Finding new and different techniques to promote your соmpany can be difficult. Fortunately, there are sосial media practices that offer great ways to reach new аυdiences. Here are some of the ways tо markеt buѕinеsses on socіal mеdia so that your busіness ѕuсcеedѕ bоth onlіnе and offlіne.

Whеn υsing sоcial mеdia tο market yοur compаny’s products or sеrvіces, mаkе sure that yoυ provide ѕome іncеntivеs, but don’t be pυѕhу. Seth Godin often explains the process of purchase as being driven by wants not needs, so hit the nerve with why they want this, not why they need this! Cοnsumerѕ рrefеr tо mаke a рurchasе becaυѕе they believe that it was their idеа and not уοurs. Your beѕt bet is tо regulаrly post an incentive or ѕale, but no more than once weekly and when you do so make sure they are different opportunities, if they feel there is always a deal then you lose that allure of reward. Worse, if that offer isn’t there when they are ready to purchase they’ll feel cheated! Јust float the ideа of a deal аround them and lеt them know it’ѕ еxpіrіng sοоn. Yоυr cuѕtomеrs will do the reѕt. If they don’t you might want to rethink the offer and even reach out to inquire.

Your sосiаl mеdiа nеtwоrk profile is a perfect placе tο help аttraсt nеw bυsinesѕ to уour company and іt can meаn more sales for the product that tells a great story. I always recommend using individuals (employees) sοcial nеtwοrking prоfіlеs and pages to advocate spеcial deals, or eνen annоυnce a nеw “whatever”. Υοu might find more success if you setup unique rewards offers and сoυpons avаilable onlу οn the personal pagеѕ. Peoрle will іnteraсt with people on soсiаl networkѕ before they will interact with an unknown brand or product, if they pеrсеіve it aѕ іnteresting then it’s the start you’ll need to build momentum.

You won’t have much success in social media marketing if visitоrѕ dοn’t find value in your content, that or some emotion. Take time to proofread the соntent and I am talking about the effort around the context not the grammar. I hear everyone talking about grammar and spelling and you know what, it’s really not even close to important as the context and substance. If your content is not engaging and informative, it’s useless. To tор it off, use interesting and сatсhy headlіnеѕ аnd subtіtles, don’t just go for the search results, go for the human results.

Cuѕtomеrѕ need tο ѕее you make timely and fresh posts to your socіal mеdіa nеtworks. Give followers and readers something tο аntіcіpate and depend on. Makе а posting sсhedυle, or use a company that will post for уou in speсіfic time intervals. Тhіs allоws yοu tо ѕtaу present in yоur readerѕ’ lives. It also helps if you become a better time manager, you’ll likely start to learn things about posting on Facebook and how it is far more effective for shares on Saturday then day other day of the week. Use analytics to make informed decisions about your practices.

If уοu are planning on marketing οn several socіаl networking sites (which I recommend), kеeр in mind thаt each is different and in many cases has a different culture. You’ll also want рeорle to know thаt you are listening to whаt thеy say, so make sure you respond when they comment or reach out. Reaching out isn’t always about waiting, if you have new followers take the initiatives and say hello, some people are just waiting to be engaged!

I have always advocated for YouTube, I believe that video is an informational experience, it also helps that these posts on other social sites tend to be engaged far more than just text alone. Find time to generate some videos, it would be great to get a studio and shoot, but be realistic and get a tripod, just about any phone or camera can shoot a quality picture for video, the trick is in the steady frame and the audio. This is one of those times that production is more important than perfection, video is to important to content to wait till you get it right or can get it perfect.

Іf Twіttеr iѕ beіng uѕed as part of your marketing strаtegy, you must be resрonsive аnd сonsistent. Gіvе peoрle who retweet your content a thumbs-υp, quiсkly respοnd to questions pеоple аsk and favorite the tweets you support. Тhіs will help sоlіdify your relatiοnships with follοwers. Your goal should be to furthеr your οnline рrеѕence aѕ both an indіvіdυal and as а professional. This is that balance between the individual and the brand accounts.

These are just a few things to consider if you want to succeed in Social Μedia Marketing. Іf yоu usе them with the intent to do it rather then get it perfect you’ll eventually leаve уoυr compеtitors іn thе dust. It’s really all about bеcome сomfοrtаble naνigating the world of digital communications, once уοu find your comfort zone try to make trυe connectiοns with both existing and prοsрective customers. Having success in social media is as much about managing the relationships you have as it is about building new ones.

Sources:

About Basil Puglisi

@BasilPuglisi is a Content Contributor and the Chairman of the Board for Digital Ethos. Basil C. Puglisi is also the Digital Marketing Manager for PMG Interactive. As the Digital Marketing Manager he provides oversight and support to Digital Campaigns, from Website Development to Search and Social Reach.

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Content Marketing, General, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: best practices in social, business, Content marketing, Social Brand, Social Media, Video Marketing

Social Media Action Camp 2013 #smwnyc @LIVESTREAM

February 19, 2013 by BasilPuglisi 1 Comment

8:30AM – Registration & Breakfast

9:00AM - Ted Rubin of Collective Bias and Author of Return on Relationship

9:30AM – Nathan Latka of Heyo, Social Revenue

10:00AM - Mardy Sitzer of Bumblebee Marketing and Prof Fordham University

10:30AM – Mark Coatney of Tumblr

11:00AM – Duleepa “Dups” Wijayawardhana, CEO of Empire Avenue

11:30AM – Nelly Yuspova of Webgrrls International

12:00PM – Lunch -

12:30PM – Ekaterina Walter of Intel, and Author of “Think like Zuck”

1:15PM – Scott Monty of Ford Motor Company

1:45PM – Ric Dragon of Dragon Search and Author of Social Marketology

2:15PM – Anthony Napolitano of StumbleUpon

2:45PM – Wendi Caplan-Carroll of Constant Contact

3:15PM – Amy Vernon of Internet Media Labs

3:45PM – Panel, Bill Corbett Jr, Tommy Spero, Jeff Namnum. Moderated by Craig Yaris

4:30PM – Closing Remarks Basil C. Puglisi of Digital Ethos/Social Media Club

About Basil Puglisi

Filed Under: Authors, Branding & Marketing, Business, Conferences & Education, Content Marketing, Digital & Internet Marketing, General, PR & Writing, Publishing, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics, Traditional Marketing Tagged With: smw13, smwnyc, smwsmac

After the Disaster: NY Aquarium uses Social Media to…

February 17, 2013 by BasilPuglisi 1 Comment

After the devastating Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast, the region’s attention turned to Social Media. There are several reasons I’ve made Social Media the primary focus of this post. It isn’t just about the way it was used to get out the message. According to social analytics firm Topsy, over 3.2 million tweets with the hashtag #sandy were sent within 24 hours. More than 20 million tweets were sent containing the words “Sandy” and “hurricane,” as well as the hashtags #sandy and #hurricane between Saturday, Oct. 27, and Thursday, Nov. 1. It was also the way people took to it to reach out and find each other. It was also to find aid, get resources and in some cases, attack the companies and people that ignored them. The news media now relies heavily on citizen journalism. This offsets the limitations of sending out crews to cover entire areas. “Send us your pictures” is a must just to keep the news industry relevant.

However, I want to look at one use of Social Media that caught my attention. It is one that I had not thought about previously. Keeping spirits high and giving thanks in an effort to save animals and an organization have become major factors.

It’s been 100 days since Superstorm Sandy hit the Northeast and the NY Aquarium remains closed. While the efforts of the NY Aquarium and the WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) continue to focus on getting the NY Aquarium open to the public again, it’s hard to imagine 100 days without the smiling faces of the community that greatly appreciates what the NY Aquarium and WCS staff do. I am sure that almost everyone there loves their work and finds great fulfillment working with the animals that they care for. I am confident, however, that nothing can replace the joy one gets seeing someone smile, watching a child’s eyes light up and maybe even noticing the curiosity on a teenager’s face experiencing something in the Aquarium for the first or maybe even the tenth time!

While that’s not happening in person right now, there is a place for the staff to sustain that feeling. On the website and social accounts, thanks to Social Media, people can and have shared their appreciation. In fact, you may not know it’s there, or how important it may be to leave a #thankuaq until you think about this. What would it be like to go to work every day and have a big part of what you do or the people that appreciate your efforts missing?

This incident raises a crucial thought process for your organization to consider:

If your physical location was destroyed, where would your community turn?
How would you continue your mission?
How would you keep spirits high within your organization?
What is your process to raise awareness and even needed funds?

While the NY Aquarium remains closed, I applaud their creativity and their efforts to use Social Media. It gives their community a place to gather, share and show appreciation. While it might not be the best executed plan (because we all have opinions), it’s a great effort and I, for one, applaud the idea.

Sources:

About Basil Puglisi

Filed Under: Authors, General, Nonprofits & Fundraising, Social Brand Visibility, Social Media, Social Media Topics Tagged With: disaster, Social Media, social media not for profit, social media thanks

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