Nov 12, 2011
The Dutch Village Farmer's Market
The Dutch Village Farmer's Market is located at 5030 Brown Station Road in Upper Marlboro, MD. Composed of 13 individual family owned businesses, the Dutch Village Farmer's Market takes pride in providing consumers with fresh produce, baked goods and natural products. The Market also provides a gift shop filled with Amish made crafts and furniture.
To ensure that the Market is using Facebook effectively and efficiently I would recommend the following:
1. To increase viewership, the Market must make Facebook visible on their main website. The Facebook logo should be visible on the company website’s homepage. When selected, the logo should direct users to the company’s Facebook page.
2. To encourage internet awareness and participation, the Market should offer free items through Facebook. Once directed to the company’s Facebook page, a user could select the “like” icon on Facebook to receive one free item at the Market (such as one chocolate covered strawberry or one scoop of ice cream etc.).
3. To increase consumer spending, users who frequent the Market (and the company homepage) could be randomly selected as the Fan of the Month. The Fan of the Month could be featured on the company Facebook page and also win one free meal at the Market’s Kountry Grill diner.
4. To inform users, information about the 13 businesses and photographs must be provided on the Facebook page.
I LOVE this market! The food is delicious and the people are so friendly. If you want to check it out, here's the link: www.dutchvillagemarket.com
Nov 11, 2011
Sexy, sustainable, and natural: health and beauty products from the Amazon Rainforest
Ladies and gentlemen I introduce to you, Naturally Amazonian. Naturally Amazonian (NA) is a very small company (< 10 employees) that produces a line of luxury health and beauty products including shampoo, conditioner, and body lotions. The product line fits a niche in the health and beauty realm with products made with natural sustainable ingredients.
The line uses exotic oils from the cupuassu and andiroba plants. These oils absorb more moisture than the typical lanolin ingredients found in many beauty products. It makes your skin soft and supple.
Take a peek at the company website at http://www.naturallyamazonian.com and their Facebook page of the same name.
In light of some very interesting and exotic ingredients, the promotion of their products is lacking. Social media could help create brand presence and community involvement. A good campaign delivered in local outlets (NJ & NYC) could improve their profits.
I was thinking about Foursquare as an interesting social media application. Naturally Amazonian could create a travelogue that covers the products from cradle to grave. Follow the ingredients from the beautiful rainforest to your local stores. Imagine pictures and stories about the people and places affected by this business, all tied into NA’s Facebook and website. Of course, this is just a nudge in the ribs, to create community interaction within the aforementioned applications. They need a following, loyal customers who want to see these beauty products at their local Macy’s.
So classmates, in the spirit of crowdsourcing, what content can draw people to these applications? Should I limit the valuable keywords to natural, sustainable, beauty, and exotic or are their other things that I am missing? Please feel free to comment.
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Nov 10, 2011
Who Owns Social Media?
This image pretty much nails it. Each silo within the communications industry is trying to convey the same message, yet their approaches represent the culture clashes that historically pit them against each other.
So, what happens when social media enters the picture? Uh-oh ...
Which industry is the rightful "owner?" Which discipline has the muscle to speak credibly about social media's short- and long-term value? In other words, which industry (and its army of agencies and consultancies) will nab the most dollars for social media engagements?
Each camp has its own arguments, but social media is new terrain, and there's still no clear-cut answer. There are merits for each, but when push comes to shove, I'd put my money on the PR pros for many of the same reasons that this op-ed explains
What's worth pointing out is that this was published in 2008, and the same arguments hold up just as well today as they did nearly three-and-a-half years ago.
Nov 9, 2011
The Crowdsourcing Experiment You'd Love To Try
First, what about the name? Would you leave PRF&P alone, or do you have something better? I would be partial to a cute mnemonic title that reflects what we are doing. Maybe Public Relations Exercises & Solutions Seminar (PRESS)? How about Public Relations Experiences, Strategies, and Tactics Involving Group Experiment (PRESTIGE)?
Nov 7, 2011
Keep it real!
When you think about it, social media platforms are using the same rules. This phenomenon has profoundly changed the way we are using Internet by engaging in multiple personal interactions. These interactions, created by millions of people being linked together, are numerous one-on-one conversations. Also, these discussions have a very caring and personal side. Indeed, every time you “have a talk” with someone on a social media sites, you are creating content that is genuine. Online platforms had opened communications and gave a gigantic power back to the audience; word-of-mouth has never been this puissant! As PR pros, we need to engage in it proactively and make people care about our voice. The thing is people don’t talk about things they don’t care about. So it is up to you to make them care, which means you have to care first.
For an organization, having an authentic voice and not sounding too corporate, specifically on these platforms, is essential. In order to do this, an organization must develop a voice that resonates with its audience. Understanding there values and opinions is an incredible asset that will help you sharpen every piece of content you produce.
In conclusion, just like this blog, we should try to keep it real. I would like to get your opinion on this matter and how easy/hard this can be. It is essential to fully understand the power to authentically speak up as both, a member of a specific audience and also as a PR pro.
Nov 6, 2011
Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth
Brittany Takes an Umbrella to her Career |