Author Archives: meghan Callaghan

Add a commentSocial Media Week in Review

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The world of social media news continues to twist and turn like a rollercoaster picking up speed. (Photo courtesy of Pinterest user Jennifer Moscoso)

The swirling world of social media news continues to twist and turn like a rollercoaster picking up speed. It’s exciting to see platforms grow, and see brands using them in smart ways. It will be interesting to see how Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram evolves over the months ahead. Meanwhile, brands using platforms in smart ways are seeing direct ROI – as shown by the survey that says Pinterest users are buying based on what they see on the platform. More on recent social media news below:

Facebook and Instagram

Facebook Buys Instagram – What does it mean for your brand?

Everyone has heard the big news. But how does it relate to our public relations and social media campaigns? In this Ragan’s PR Daily article, PR Pro Adam Vincenzi states, ““[The purchase is] confirmation of something that smart PR professionals have been aware of for some time now—photos are the most powerful format of content on the planet. To some, this might be old news, but static imagery (not videos, not text, not audio) is the easiest format for people to engage with…
“Take a look at your marketing and communications activities.
“Did you just get sign off for a company blog?
“Forget writing 750 word posts, only a handful of people will read them.
“Forget issuing 10 paragraph press releases, only the headline will be plastered all over Twitter.
“Instead, think imagery first.
“Not necessarily your own, but the library of shots your customers and stakeholders are taking on your behalf every single day.”

Pinterest

Have you purchased something that caught your eye on Pinterest? I know I have…more than once! A recent survey found that 21% of Pinterest users have purchased something they found on the site, showing the important ROI Pinterest carries for brands that use the platform in strategic ways. More on The Next Web.

YouTube

YouTube‘s Partner Program, previously opened only to producers of very popular content, is now open to all content creators from the 20 countries where the program is available. To become a YouTube Partner, you need to enable your YouTube account and successfully monetize at least one of your videos.

To read more, click through to the full Mashable article.

LinkedIn

Increase Company Engagement With LinkedIn Targeted Updates – According to The Next Web and  SproutSocial.com, this week LinkedIn rolled out two new features for marketers aimed at making the connections between businesses and followers more meaningful. In addition to the traditional Company Page follows, companies can now reach target audiences with specific messages. This allows targeted communication to specific groups without sending irrelevant messages to other follower – a strategic tool companies can use to interact with specific audiences moving forward.

Blogger Outreach

6 questions you should ask before running a contest with a blogger – On the blog Proper Propaganda, Jackson Wightman outlines some questions to ask yourself before beginning a blogger-focused contest. Do you outline this strategy before beginning a contest program? 

 

Add a commentSocial Media Week in Review

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Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinterest – with each week that passes more social media bloggers and marketers are writing about the best campaigns on this platform and the best ways to engage with users.

The phrase, “digital crack for women” hasn’t been overused at all yet, so I thought I would throw it in one more time. The network really is addicting and a great resource for lifestyle and consumer brands to build a personable or quirky presence with followers. Just look at Hubspot’s “Fun Orange Things” and “Things with Spots” boards. Additionally, Sprout Social is reporting that Pinterest is, “retaining and engaging its members as much as two to three times more efficiently than Twitter did at the same time in history.” But there are many other things going on in the world of social media this week, so if you can pry your eyes away from Pinterest for a few moments, here are a few other hot items to read about:

Facebook Shares Could Be Overvalued by First Day of Trading
Excitement is continuing to build for the morning Facebook rings the bell and officially becomes a publically traded company. According to ReadWriteWeb, “More than 1,000 people are now trading shares of Facebook on private markets, well above the 50 to 100 that most companies have ahead of their initial public offering… On private markets, Facebook was trading as high as $44 per share this month.”  More here: http://rww.to/AqIMd2

Do you think Facebook’s price is way overpriced? 

Facebook Faces Nationwide Class-Action Lawsuit
Despite the above popularity of its not-yet-public stock, Facebook is being accused of illegally tracking the Internet activity of its users after they logged off the social network. This is the first nationwide class lawsuit against Facebook. What are you thoughts on the current state of privacy within social networks? Do you assume that social networks have access to all of your information once you log in? http://rww.to/wYF8IT

Delightful Coca-Cola Valentine’s Campaign Gets Couples To Prove Their Love
Who doesn’t love a cheesy yet romantic social media stunt? Coke put together this heartwarming vending machine specifically designed for couples on Valentine’s Day in Istanbul. It’s all part of Coke’s “Open Happiness” campaign – guaranteed to make even the most grumpy viewer crack a smile. More at Simply Zesty’s blog:http://bit.ly/zuqF6p

How To Temporarily Silence All Those Annoying Twitterers At SXSW
Crushed you can’t attend SXSW this year? Mute the show buzz with a browser extension that not only blocks the #SXSW hashtag but all tweets from those attending the show! If you need this in your life, TechCrunch tells you more here: http://tcrn.ch/ygFltp

New App Integrates Facebook and Instagram Accounts
Finally, now Instagramers can upload their photos in a lump instead of one-off uploads with the new Instagram Interface Facebook App. Enjoy revisiting those old digital memories: http://bit.ly/yGpR9a

Want to continue the conversation on any of these stories? Tweet us @FinnPartners

 

Add a commentHotels.com Infographic Cited as Exemplary Work, According to Leading PR Publications

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Hi – I’m Meghan Callaghan and I work in the Consumer | Technology group in the New York office. I’m also one of the members of the hotels.com account team.

Biannually, hotels.com puts out hotel price information in their HPI (Hotel Price Index), a regular survey of hotel prices in major city destinations across the world.

Last March, Finn Partners decided to add an infographic (see the bottom of this post) to the already growing list of multi-media resources that supplement HPI survey data and worked with Randy Krum of InfoNewt to develop a visual which helped map complex data in an easy-to-read way. At the time of HPI, the infographic was shared around the web and showed the news release data in a quick, visual way.

Now, months later, Ragan’s PR Daily and the PR Newswire blog have both cited the HPI infographic as an exemplary use of an infographic, with Ragan’s PR Daily calling it a “beautiful example.”

In addition, PR Newswire’s Beyond PR Blog stated, “Hotels.com replaced lengthy lists of the top travel destinations by tapping into our natural visual associations and incorporating it into the graphic you see embedded in this post, and incorporating pricing data for each market.”

Finn Partners strives to help clients tell their stories in meaningful, multi-faceted ways. By supplementing news with infographics, videos and imagery, we aim for cross-platform promotion and increased visibility, a tactic that indeed works. In fact, according to a recent analysis of press releases by PR Newswire, the inclusion of multimedia assets significantly improves the number of views a message generates.

As always, we at Finn Partners are utilizing as many resources as possible for our clients to shine in the media!