Let’s talk Twitter for a second…

February 16, 2012

FACT: I tweet a lot.

FACT: Half is personal, half is professional.

FACT: I don’t know if all the content I post is actually worth reading…(I’d like to think so, but I know that is not the case).

Well…of all Twitterers EVER (well…only 21,000 to be exact) 25 percent don’t think content is worth reading according to researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

The three colleges surveyed Twitter users about how they perceive what they read in 140 characters. They created a website “Who Gives a Tweet?” and asked visitors to anonymously submit their tweets for feedback if they agreed to anonymously rate tweets of Twitter users they were following.

In late 2010 and early 2011, during a period of 19 days, slightly fewer than 1,500 visitors to the site rated nearly 44,000 tweets from the accounts of 21,000 Twitter users. To check out the stats and read some of the lessons for landing your tweet in the “worth reading” category, check out my post on the Borshoff blog. Do you agree with these nine lessons? Anything you’d add or remove? I think they nailed it!

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Posted by Jackie

Have you buzzfunneled?

January 30, 2012

In case you haven’t heard, Indianapolis is hosting Super Bowl XLVI!! To capture all the event action, Borshoff created buzzfunnel.me, a single, integrated social media site featuring event experiences from the fan perspective. We hope to connect people from around the world and offer them an inside look of Indianapolis and the big game!

The Borshoff crew has been going out in street teams to capture tons of video footage that has then funneled to the site. People can also upload their own videos to YouTube or Vimeo and tag with “buzzfunnel.” Tweets from @buzzfunnelme stream live to the site, as do tweets using the following hashtags: #SuperBowl, #SB46, #Social46 and #buzzfunnel.

To read more about buzzfunnel, check out this Borshoff blog or follow @buzzfunnelme on Twitter.

Oh yeah–and check out the SITE!

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Posted by Jackie

15 Twitter dos & don’ts

August 23, 2011

Five years ago, if you told me I’d be developing a Twitter ‘dos and don’ts’ list, I would have laughed in your face.

When Twitter first came out, I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. “What’s the point of a social media platform that is just a bunch of status updates?”

Little did I know the value behind the tool at the time. Now-a-days, I’m Borshoff’s Twitter Manager, a role I never thought I’d have, but welcomed with open arms.

Today, we posted my 15 Twitter dos & don’ts list to our blog. Check it out! What do you think of this etiquette? Anything you would add?

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Posted by Jackie

10 marketing mistakes to avoid on Twitter

July 26, 2011

I recently became Borshoff’s Twitter manager at work. That’s right…it’s a real role. Role of a lifetime! I’m one of the masterminds behind the tweets (secret is out!) What this means is, not only am I responsible for my day-to-day account work, but I now HAVE to monitor my TweetDeck (I know…rough) every day, throughout the day, for tweets, RTs, Mentions, DMs, lists and more. I love it. It’s a great job for a Twitter lover.

Today, the @Borshoff account tweeted a link to an article published online by The Miami Herald that is definitely worth sharing. The article is aimed toward small businesses and helping them avoid making common Twitter marketing mistakes that may have consequences. However, after I read through the tips, I thought, “This is great information even for the average Twitter user!” Maybe not everyone cares, but it definitely is a nice guide to refer to for some of the “dos and don’ts” of Twitter. In essence, it’s proper Twitter mannerisms.

The first five mistakes to avoid are:

  1. Not following properly
  2. Not using direct messages correctly
  3. Not thanking followers personally
  4. Not properly maximizing your free Twitter real estate
  5. Not keeping it real (huge!)

These are tips I will aim to avoid not only from the @Borshoff account, but from my own as well. (@jkoumpouras…follow me!)

Check out these five tips and the remaining 10 from the original article, HERE. Props to The Miami Herald for the great advice!

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Posted by Jackie

Dabbling in Deck.ly

February 10, 2011

Today was just like any normal day at Borshoff. I arrived at work, got my coffee, checked an over-flowing e-mail inbox, prepped for a client meeting, booted-up TweetDeck and communicated with my colleagues about different tweet ideas for the day. But then, IT HAPPENED.  A change in TweetDeck. Usually when sending a tweet, if you go over the 140 character limit the text turns red. This lets the typer know they are crazy for thinking that tweet would be less than 140 characters. Now they must revise (aka-shorten it up)!  But today,  the text box turned gray…

A learning experience for all! Check out my blog Dabbling in Deck.ly on Borshoff’s website. It explains everything!

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Posted by Jackie

Advice from a first-year PR pro: 5 personal New Year’s resolutions for 2011

January 3, 2011

Helloooooo 2011!

I welcome you with open arms. With a New Year comes New Year’s resolutions. Along with personal resolutions, this year I also created work-related public relations resolutions. You can read what my five PR resolutions are on Borshoff’s blog.  

Now you will know what my PR resolutions are…what are yours?

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Posted by Jackie

Social Media Lingo, part II

October 19, 2010

Continuing off last week’s blog, here are more social media terms to help young PR professionals communicate effectively about social media.

  • Search Engine Marketing (SEM) — A form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages. According to the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, SEM methods include: search engine optimization, paid placement, advertising and paid inclusion.
  • Search Engine Optimization (SEO) — The process of improving the volume and quality of traffic driven to a website from key word searches on Google and other search engines.
  • Social Bookmarking — A method for Internet users to store, search, organize and share Web pages with others. Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon are examples of social bookmarking sites.
  • Social Networking Sites — Large sites that host multiple communities comprised of people with profiles who have similar interests. These sites offer a place where people engage with one another online and share content. Example communities include:
    • Facebook — An online community for people to connect or reconnect with others. Enables people to share videos, pictures and information about themselves.
    • LinkedIn — A professional online community used to network with fellow professionals.
    • MySpace — A site where people can meet others with similar interests, creating online communities by sharing videos, photos and personal information.
  • Tag — A keyword or term associated and assigned to an item of content (i.e. blog post, video, photo, etc.). Usually added to an item of content to enhance search engine optimization and make it easier to organize and find. (Tags for my blog can be found beneath each post).
  • Twitter — A micro-blogging community where posts, also called Tweets, are 140 characters or less.
  • YouTube — An online site for uploading and discussing videos. Videos can also be embedded from YouTube onto other social media

Sources: ConverStations, The Buzz Bin and Wikispaces

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Posted by Jackie

Social media isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity

August 11, 2010

Want to know why?

Watch these videos.

Social Media Revolution 2

Did You Know 4.0

 

 

When people talk about social media, the impact doesn’t click right away. But when you watch videos, like the two above, you can’t help but attempt to fathom how it has changed our world.

I have seen similar videos and I am intrigued every time. As an account associate at Borshoff, a big part of my daily responsibility is social media. Not for my clients though—but for the Borshoff brand. Without-a-doubt, social media has impacted my life and the way I work and play. How is it that something so simple—a different way to communicate—could take the world by storm? Social media has allowed the human race to communicate about anything and everything: products, services, jobs, politics, love, food, news, education, answers and MUCH, much more. Like one of the videos mentioned, social media IS the biggest shift since the industrial revolution. You are telling me that 1 in every 8 marriages, started online?  AND… that online students outrank face-to-face interaction in the classroom? Incredible.

As a PR professional, social media isn’t a choice, it’s a necessity. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t engage in one form of social media or another. It’s what I do, it’s how I communicate, it’s how I research, promote, discuss, learn, share, converse… the list goes on and on! I can write a 45-page paper and cite 25 credible sources without ever leaving my computer (yes, I have done this). That may be scarier than the fact that social media has outranked pornography as the #1 Internet activity.

My friends and family (not in the PR world) often make fun of me for being a tweet geek. But little do they know the advantages and benefits of Twitter! It is a rare occasion for me to pick up the newspaper or turn on the news. Why should I when I receive immediate and breaking updates from local and national news stations on my TweetDeck? I find out news before my parents do (who would have thought THAT day would come).  Has social media impacted my life? Absolutely. And best of all,  it has allowed me to grow and develop as a professional.

Oh…and I think I can give Ang Chuang Yan a run for his money on the 160 character, 41.52-second text record. Just saying.

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Posted by Jackie

In some cases, it’s good to be a follower

May 27, 2010

Two years ago, I thought Twitter was the dumbest thing in the whole world. “Here we go again, just another social networking site for people to stalk others and creep around.  A site of constant status updates for people to know what you’re doing at all times. Boy, was I naive. 

Then out of the blue one day I thought to myself, “Well, you’re in PR, maybe check it out to see what all the fuss is about.” 

I haven’t stopped tweeting since—and here’s why:

Twitter keeps me “with the times”|   Twitter offers me a daily dose of current events.  Instant global news, scrolling through my TweetDeck application, provides a gratification I don’t receive from traditional news sources. Journalists are already writing news stories and updating their tweets simultaneously. 

Microblogging can be a company’s friend|   Regardless the industry, businesses are using the benefits of Twitter to increase awareness and communicate to audiences.  From hospitals to news media to restaurants, businesses are taking full advantage of microblogging. Twitter can enhance an organization’s PR strategy by facilitating endorsement and ability to reach target publics with ease. It also poses risks, but that’s a WHOLE other blog post, my friends.

Social media is not the new PR|   Through my professional experience, one thing is certain—though effective, microblogging is just one strategy of a larger PR campaign—it is not the only strategy. Effective public relations begins with planning, and integrates multiple strategies—media relations, crisis communications, internal com, research AND social media. 

Twitter is powerful. Not only is it a communication maximizer, it brands the individual. With that said, think before you tweet, add value, be interesting and transparent—all in 140 characters or less—and my friend, you’ve gained yourself a follower!

 Tweet on.

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Posted by Jackie

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