In this video, I walk you through all the nooks and crannies of my favorite new social media sharing and amplification platform called GaggleAMP.

I share the GaggleAMP dashboard from my very own Marketing Conversation gaggle and also share the gaggles I am a member of, including SobelMedia’s, Shel Holtz‘s FIR, and the official GaggleAMP gaggle.

I do my best to share all the features from a Gaggle Manager and Administrator perspective — but I mainly just feature the ones that I use every day, to the chagrin of Glenn Gaudet who keeps on trying to get me to use all the features (oh well).

But even so, I spend a lot of time showing you around just about everywhere, so if you’re curious what GaggleAMP is about, please check it out.

And if you would like to join my Gaggle, please do: http://gaggleamp.com/4+Xsxoj

Via Marketing Conversation via YouTube

Related articles

• Amplify your good message with GaggleAmp (socialmedia.biz)
• Amplify your good message with GaggleAmp (biznology.com)
• Free webinar on GaggleAmp set for January 31 (nevillehobson.com)
• Free webinar on FIR’s use of GaggleAmp set for January 31 (holtz.com)
• The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #639: February 20, 2012 (nevillehobson.com)
• Day 6: A Gaggle of Emotions (jackandjilly.org)
• Lessons from the Komen Controversy (socialmediatoday.com)
• Brian strikes back: No shortcut for the holy grail of PR (kristoferbjorkman.com)
• The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #636: January 30, 2012 (nevillehobson.com)
• The Hobson and Holtz Report – Podcast #635: January 23, 2012 (nevillehobson.com)

I am so honored and humbled that I have been included in this most prestigious top-25 amongst the most incredible PR bloggers.  Thank you PR Web for including me! Congrats to my fellow PR bloggers for all your hard work in 2011 and good luck in 2012! Check out PRWeb‘s Public Relations Blogs – 25 Essential PR Bloggers You Should Be Reading!

Keeping up with what’s new and interesting in public relations news is important – vital strategies, tips and trends are shared each day that can impact your business.  Whether you’re looking for best practices on press release distribution or simply how to take advantage of social media, these blogs will prove invaluable. To keep up with the hottest and highest quality content, below are 25 essential public relations blogs you should be reading:

PR Squared

PR Squared is a blog by Todd Defren, a principal at SHIFT Communications, which focuses on conversations about social media and marketing.

Brian Solis

Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, gives insights into the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media at his popular blog.

Peter Shankman

Peter Shankman’s blog looks at thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.

Dave Fleet

DaveFleet.com is about communications, public relations, marketing and social media, and the areas where those topics intersect.

Danny Brown

This blog by Danny Brown, co-founder of the SRM group, focuses on the use of social media, PR and marketing,

Conversation Communications

This blog by Arik Hansen, principal of ACH Communications, covers all things related to digital PR strategy and community building.

Social Media Explorer

A blog by Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer, covers public relations, social media, search marketing and many topics in between.

Chris Abraham

Chris Abraham, President and COO of Abraham Harrison LLC, writes this blog on developing news and updates in the world of public relations and social media.

PR in Your Pajamas

A blog about integrating using public relations and business coaching for results, Elena Verlee, tells how integrating these areas will lead to success for your business.

O‘Dwyer’s PR Blog

O’Dwyer’s blog covers PR, public affairs, marketing and the world of communications.

Online Marketing Blog

The Online Marketing blog maintained by the team at TopRank Online Marketing provides helpful information on areas such as SEO, social media marketing, business blogging and online PR.

Influential Marketing Blog

Rohit Bhargava maintains the Influential Markeitng Blog, a site that focuses on information and resources on creating compelling marketing, advertising and public relations strategies.

AimClear Blog

The aimClear blog is a resource for search engine marketing for advertising agency, in-house and public relations professionals.

A Take on Tech PR

A blog by Drew Benvie, managing director of 33 Digitial, that gives insights and information on tech public relations and how it can help you.

Media Culpa

Media Culpa is a blog about media and public relations – with a focus on social media – written by Swedish PR practitioner Hans Kullin.

Buzz Bin

The Buzz Bin provides a point of view on integrated communications, including PR, social media, interactive and general marketing topics.

Spin Sucks

Spin Sucks is the agency blog of Arment Dietrich and covers social media, online PR and all things in between.

PR Couture

PR Couture explores the ever-evolving role of public relations, marketing and social media in the fashion industry.

PRSA ComPRehension

PRSA ComPRehension is a blog on PR best practices from Public Relations Society of America members.

Beyond the Hype

Beyond the Hype conveys the opinions, insights and experiences in public relations and advertising from senior communications counselors at Lois Paul & Partners.

Adam Sherk

Adam Sherk is a Search and PR strategist, helping news and content sites with enterprise SEO and audience development, including social media marketing and other forms of online public relations.

Measurement Matters

Measurement Matters gives insights and information on the areas of public relations, social media and how media analysis and evaluation relates to them.

College Web Editor

College Web Editor is a helpful resource with information about the Web, marketing, and PR in higher education.

Deirdre Breakenridge

Deirdre discusses social networking, blogging, microblogging, podcasting, streaming video, RSS technology and how communications is changing the way that businesses need to think.

Journalistics

Journalistics is a blog dedicated to covering all topics at the intersection of public relations and journalism today.

Related articles

• Using Social Media for Public Relations [Lawrence Perry] (ecademy.com)
• Public Relations Resolutions for 2012 (prnewswire.com)
• PR/Social Media Predictions: Who Got it Right? (forbes.com)
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• The best of Beyond PR in 2011 (prnewswire.com)
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• Public Relations in southern Philippines this 2012 (d) (prworks.wordpress.com)
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• Social Media Statistics of the Day [infographic] (michaelhartzell.com)
• Social Media Marketing’s Purchasing Influence Greater in Emerging Markets (marketingpilgrim.com)
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• Building Your Social Media Team (ereleases.com)
• Capgemini’s 10 Game-changing technology shifts for 2012 (serve4impact.com)
• Want to Be a Good Social Media Marketer? Don’t Do This. (community.constantcontact.com)
• Social Media Marketing: How To Work Smarter In 2012 (channelship.ie)
• Social media is a competitive advantage for drug companies (worldofdtcmarketing.com)
• Hubspot: 18 Insightful 2012 Marketing Predictions From the Experts (shanecrombie.com)

Thank you very much to Market Wire, Sysomos, CommPRO.biz, and SmartWomanGuides.com for including me in their Top 10 Picks for the Leading Social Media Influencers of 2011 list:

• Top 10 Picks for the Leading Social Media Influencers of 2011 (slideshare.net)
• Understand the ROI of Social Media (dcincome.com)
• Who Are The Top 10 Women Social Media Influencers? (forbes.com)
• Social media is ruining our minds and we have the proof [Infographic] (inquisitr.com)
• 19 Huge Social Media Moments of 2011 (mashable.com)
• 21 Captivating Social Media Stats: How People Interact With Brands [INFOGRAPHIC] (hubspot.com)
• Heatmaps Reveal Where People Look on Social Media Sites [Research] (hubspot.com)
• Social media analytics tools – tested and rated (usefulsocialmedia.com)
• 5 healthcare social media tips that break the mold for pharma, med tech (medcitynews.com)
• What is the ROI on Social Media? You’re asking the wrong question! [Sam Borrett] (ecademy.com)

When it comes to your direct mail campaigns, you’ve probably over-farmed your land.

You’ve been emailing and snail mailing the same donors you have done for a decade. It is time to leave the land fallow and let the lists rest. You have probably responded to lower donations and attention by relinquishing too much power to your direct marketing firm and they have been much more aggressive than you’re comfortable with, sending out many more snail mail and email donation requests than ever before. You used to blame the economy for decreased giving but you’re starting to believe it has more to do with the fertility of the donor list than it does with the economic collapse of 2008–or a lot less than you’ve been led to believe. You realize that the nonprofit space is ever more competitive, but your brand is strong and respected and comes up well in Charity Navigator, so what gives?

Well, in agriculture, it is possible to over-farm your land. Indeed, it is probable, in a couple ways:

Ultimately, you need to do one or more of a couple things: allow the land to rest, either ceasing farming completely or throttling down substantially, though this is impossible if you’re tending only one plot of land; enrich the land you already have with better aeration, nutrition, and pesticides with the expectation that you will be able to increase your yield; rotate your crops within the land you already have with crops that tend to enrich the soil that has been depleted by your main crop, naturally returning your field to a cycle of fertility; or you can expand your fields, distributing your yield over a larger plot of land, reaching into a greater diversity of quality of land, essentially hedging your bets over land of varying quality, durability, fertility, and health, resulting in a more consistent crop that is less dependent on any particular geographic focal point.

What this means to fundraising messaging is that you can no longer beat the same drums and rally the same troops. Not only is the economy in the sort of slump that is putting 100-year-old charities into seizure but there is less barrier to starting a charity or foundation, there is less trust that a charity will deliver the goods to the issues they purport to support, and then there is the Internet, allowing anyone to initiate a financial call-to-action on their own, completely by-passing traditional charities. So, while there used to be a very strong field from which to harvest donations, each crop results in a much lower yield. Deafness to your message because of over-mailing is only one symptom of this “over-farming.” The deafness is caused by direct mail firms stepping up the seven touches to 11, hitting the same lists again and again, going back further historically, and also buying cold lists from other organizations for cold hard cash, all in an attempt to make quarterly forecasts and budgets. This has proven a dangerous game because these are all very short games and the outcome has been devastating: people are deleting your emails and throwing away–hopefully recycling–your physical mailings.

Ceasing farming completely or throttling down substantially: This is almost always impossible unless you’re sitting on a huge pile of foundation or grant cash. We at Abraham Harrison use email lists all the time and we never reach out more than three times to one recipient over the course of one campaign (one harvest) and then retire it until the next harvest. We sometimes go one step further by retiring some recipients if there haven’t been any recent conversions. Sometimes we allow that list to rest completely, not using it in any other campaigns, either, because the list had been completely over-used. This most often happens with tech blogs and parenting blogs (mommy bloggers, daddy bloggers, etc). Letting lists rest is not optional, it is essential. The only question is to whether you have more than one field in play or can increase the health and yield of your plot through some methods I will discuss below.

Enrich the land you already have with better aeration, nutrition, and pesticides: As an aside, I am trying to get back into shape. This doesn’t only require exercising and diet, it also requires cross-training. Your muscles quickly become accustomed to the same workout routine, the theory being that you need to constantly “surprise” your muscle groups with different challenges–to mix it up. It’s the same thing with messaging as well as farming. How has the state of the art progressed? Are there new pesticides or pest-resistant strains of crops you can use? Or fertilizers? Or farming methods?

Have you been feeding the earth as well as the crops? Well, at Abraham Harrison, we’re working towards the best relationship advice ever: give the gift your recipient wants rather than giving the gift you want to give. It can be tricky. What do the members want that you have not given them? It is a challenge to praise your donors for their generosity, their support, and their sacrifice–effusively–when you feel like they’re being selfish cheap bastards. Is that true? Are you offering tote bags when nobody wants totes anymore? Could you reward your donors in a more public way?

The Internet allows much smaller donors to be actively appreciated for their micro-donations. My favorite podcast, No Agenda, while not a charity, spends well over half-an-hour of its 150-minutes lavishing praise on the people who donate cash-money to support their Thursday and Sunday live show. If you donate more than $33, have a birthday, or do something that Adam Curry and John C Dvorak consider to be PR, you get a shout-out.

If you pay in a few hundred dollars on a single show, you become an official producer, and if you accrue $1,000 in donations over-time, you receive an 0n-air “Knighting.” And their zealous listeners, myself included, eat it up. While this isn’t possible for many charities (why not?), I experience push-back again and again from my past charity clients who are uncomfortable with thanking bloggers who have promoted their cause or furthered their message because “we don’t do these sorts of endorsements.”

The biggest enemy of hallowed and honored charities and foundations is their resistance to innovation and reinvention and their addiction to tradition. Why can’t you shake up your routine? Why can’t you do things a different way? Why can’t you lavish praise on the smallest of donors?

The Internet allows all of these things to be easily and readily tested. Go ahead and play? Go ahead and borrow, copy, and steal things that have worked for other organizations, and don’t be afraid to invest more in your lists than you expect to extract, allowing some good will and equity to be left over after harvest for the next.

Rotate your crops within the land you already have with crops that tend to enrich the soil: I touched on this above a little bit: give more than you get and switch it up. That said, there is more. It is important to not harp on the same thing in your messaging all the time. How hard are you plucking people’s heart strings, and are you plucking the same string over and over? Fear, guilt, and shame are very powerful motivators but they’re also such strong elixirs that they can kill their emotional receptors, pitching the recipient into hopelessness and retreat, “why do I even write these checks anymore? There’s no hope anyway and I am throwing good money after bad, what’s the use?” That is surely two steps too far, to the point where the earth seems salted, a wasteland! That’s a bad place to be and generally unrecoverable, as far as that donor goes.

We have been helping the Fresh Air Fund for years and we were under retainer to amplify their yearly requirements and goals. What we did for them, with regards to crop-rotation, was to break the year into seasonal requests: Winter donations request, Spring search for host families and camp counselors, Summer camp stories and experience-sharing, and Fall thank you campaigns. While only one of those seasons focused primarily on donations, since the Winter Holidays are traditionally the biggest gift-giving season, the other three were hybrid messages. The three other seasons lead with stories of urban children getting into the fresh air, into renewing and enriching Summer camp and host family experiences outside the city, lead with needs of hosts and counselors, and generous thank-yous to everyone involved. These lead messages are also followed closely with opportunity to give, to follow, to Like, and to connect.

While we did also have extensive field-expansion strategies going concurrently, as I will discuss below, the crop rotation messaging strategy allowed the Fresh Air Fund to convey much more than just a glimmer of hope, they were able to show, in black and white, the copious success of the program, the long-term relationships that were formed, the real-time joy and happiness that was the direct result of donations of time and talent. They supported the seasonal messaging with direct mail outreaches as well as daily updates shared via Social Media to their followers and friends on Facebook and Twitter.

So, in this case, crop-rotation includes rotating the message, rotating the recipient pool, as well as rotating the medium, from blogger outreach to direct email to direct snail mail, to Facebook and Twitter. In our case, we garnered over 1,800 earned-media-mentioned annually in support of their other efforts.

Expand your fields, distributing your yield over a larger plot of land: My uncle Jack used to own Oscar fish. These fish are omnivorous and are often fed small mice. They are also known to grow as large as their tank allows, though they will not outgrow their tank. That reminds me of many fundraising campaigns and the mindset of many charities and foundations. While they continue to do their best farming the lists and relationships they have, they’re often limited by what their lists are capable of producing in any particular economy or any particular news cycle, oftentimes ceding donations to the issue of the week.

In the case of the Fresh Air Fund, they were limited by a perceived relevance only to the Tri-State Area of the New York metropolitan area, the historical and logical region around Manhattan that traditionally supported the Fresh Air Fund with funds, families, camp counselors, and children. They also relied exclusively on the New York Times as a platform for development, a platform that is becoming less and less viable in the information age.

We decided that the mission, message and ministry of the Fresh Air Fund transcends New York and is compelling to not just the region but also the Nation and the world, and we were right. We started prospecting bloggers globally who were in the same vertical that the Fresh Air Fund historically had success with locally and that wrote in English. Compassion for children surely transcends the Hudson River, right? Why yes! We were able to drive conversation on behalf of the Fund internationally, rewarded again and again when bloggers would amplify their noble message, a message that has been a continued resource for inner-city youth since 1877.

Talk about expanding your field! If you can sing Olly Olly Oxen Free loudly enough to light up bloggers and blogs globally while also lighting up their associated Facebook and Twitter streams and reaching not only their readership, their followers, their friends, and their friends’ friends, you’re definitely taking a very bold and effective first step at bringing the powerful mission of your nonprofit, your foundation, you NGO, or your charity into entirely new and fresh land, raw and uncultivated but also not tough and over-farmed, either. You might have to start at zero with your seven+ touches toward giving, but you’re also not having to deal with insensitivity and deafness to message, either.

And that is to say nothing about the powerful effect that all that global conversation will do for your ranking on Google, Bing, and Yahoo! search, as well as search.twitter.com and on Facebook as well, where 800 million global denizens spend their working hours. The search benefits–the organic SEO–is beyond comprehension when it comes to the sort of due diligence that modern contributors go through before writing those checks any more. Oh, come on, you know it’s true–and why Charity Navigator scares you as much as Yelp! scares stores and restaurants to death.

None of this was even remotely possible before the efficiencies of the Internet. When dealing with Internet communications, you need to understand that this is a revolution and not an evolution. That it is now possible to easily, cheaply, and efficiently access a global market or a hyper-targeted market, reaching them right where they live and not in the hopes that they’ll open the Times on a particular date.

There are hundreds of millions of potential donors who have both never heard of you before or been emotionally abused by your incessant requests for money before. This is fresh meat!

And, while you’re cultivating these new recruits, you’ll be able to lean heavily on your oldest and main lists, allowing them some time to miss you, to rest, and to heal. To paraphrase Dan Hicks, how can they miss you when you don’t go away?

Via Biznology and Socialmedia.biz via Marketing Conversation

Related articles

• You’ve probably over-farmed your donors (biznology.com)
• How to Double Global Food Production by 2050 and Reduce Environmental Damage (obxcommonground.org)
• Integrated Aquaculture (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)
• 400,000 Farmers in Southern Africa Using ‘Fertilizer Trees’ to Dramatically Improve Food Security (scienceblog.com)
• Fertiliser tree systems can double agriculture yield in two thirds of cases in East Africa (nextbigfuture.com)
• Zero Budget Natural Farming (ZBNF) (pensci.wordpress.com)
• Trees ‘boost African crop yields’ (bbc.co.uk)

God bless Joe Hall of Marketing Pilgrim for addressing the conversation we’re having all the time with both our clients and our prospects: bottom line ROI on social media engagement and the natural client desire for contextual ad equivalency when it comes to investing in social media. The following is excerpted from Cup of Joe: Social Media ROI? Think Again Genius! — wherein Mr. Hall comes down on the side of “you can’t put a number on making friends and influencing people.  Let me know what you think:

You can’t measure relationships. You can’t put on paper the depth and complexity of the human experience with a brand. Sure you can track web traffic, click through rates, and even your follower/following ratio. But none of that explains real influence.

So then why do CEOs, CMOs, and even brand managers insist on this pointless discussion? Because, too many of us have been enchanted by the tools. Too many of us have been caught up in the hype and glory of amazing technology to recognize that social media marketing is essentially the same old ball game using different tools.

Think about it this way, when was the last time you attended a networking event or trade show and had your boss ask you, “so what was your ROI?”. I am willing to bet never, because those types of events aren’t there to act as advertising channels they are there many times to create relationships.

If you utilize offline social events as advertising channels, two things happen. 1) You don’t make any friends. 2) You don’t create any customers. This happens because instead of coming across as the cool girl or guy that everyone wants to do business with, you come across as the annoying jerk passing out postcard adverts. So why is it that some of us think that social media is any different?

Calculating ROI for advertising is easy because it is based on definite variables that can be measured. How do you measure the emotion from a positive exchange with a favorite brand on Twitter? How do you calculate the feelings of community in some forums? You can’t, and you aren’t supposed to.

What do I think?  Like I always say whenever I meet anyone or speak to anyone on the phone, Mr. Hall is right, however, what I learned from Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus is that you have to always be sure to give your client the gift he wants and not just the gift you want to give.

Your client is the one who is paying you so you need to find a way to offer whatever the ROI is that your client needs to prove to his boss and the board that spending money on you was indeed prudent and worthwhile — because, at least for us at Abraham Harrison, we’re always competing for budget with the contextual advertising team.

While what we do at Abraham Harrison is exactly what Joe is talking about — building brand, buzz, conversation, community, fellowship, relationship, reputation, recognition, attachment, and also touches towards the required seven touches — we still need to make sure they can also move some needles: traffic, visitors, email addresses, followers, friends, fans, donations, new business into the sales funnel, or more money — the ultimate ROI bottom line.

There is a huge requirement to compromise.  To gift the client based on their needs and then, through education, through experience, through general positive secondary effects — such as volume, tone, and sentiment of conversation — of buzz — and how that ubiquity of chatter can directly effect search ranking, reputation, search dominance, keyword dominance, and general increased trust of your client’s brand based on the general acceptance, quantity, and quality of brand focused conversation online.

Thanks, Mr. Joe Hall for your article Cup of Joe: Social Media ROI? Think Again Genius! — I am much obliged.  What do you all think?

Via Marketing Conversation

I got to meet Cece Salomon-Lee of PRMM a while ago but only finally got over my Bronchitis recently so I took the opportunity of being in the desert in some pretty light to do the interview — so, please visit Cece over at her blog and read PRMM Interview #16: Chris Abraham on PR and Social Media:

I met Chris Abraham, President of Abraham Harrison, while he was in a San Francisco late last year. While we were unable to record an interview at the time, I sent Chris some questions via email. Here are Chris’ video responses, as he shares his thoughts about his company, why they don’t consider themselves a PR agency, and what he would like to see in 2011.

Briefly, Chris is a leading expert in online public relations with a focus on blogger outreach, blogger engagement, and Internet reputation management. He can be reached on Twitter @chrisabraham.

If you are interested in submitting suggestions for future blog posts or would like to be a guest blogger, please contact me.

Via Marketing Conversation

Team Abraham Harrison and I join Olivier Blanchard in bidding adieu to the social media experts, social media gurus, and their band of merry ”curious little cult of personality” pranksters. The king is dead; long live the king:

Sometime between August of 2010 and January of 2011, something changed. Something tipped. Your momentum died. The pendulum started to swing back. More people started to see past the BS than fell for it. At long last, the ratio of savvy to gullible tipped in the favor of progress. And what became clear was that the damage you caused by concentrating your astounding ineptitude, supercharged egos and overpriced bad advice created a wealth of opportunity for those of us who care more about doing good work than in building our own “personal brands,” “content strategies” or affiliate networks. Those of us focused on making social media actually work for the business world rather than earning Fortune 500 bragging rights in the digital “consulting” space, if that is what you want to call it. The beauty of your scheme is that what you broke requires fixing now. That means an increasing amount of work for people with the skill to rebuild social media programs from scratch, and do it right.

This one paragraph does not do In praise of the A-List justice, so please go read it yourself. The only problem with the post is that it is nuanced and subtle and ironic and satirical and very snarky – so there is just about zero chance that the cadre of folks dressed down in the blog post with ever truly recognize themselves at all — so, alas, my friend Olivier, you’re doing a Shakespeare, which is to say that all the people who you’re mocking are joining you in mocking themselves without ever realizing it.

Here’s the hint: how psyched are you about SXSW?

However, assuming that your message is getting through, I agree that something shifted and I am excited about doing more business, offering more results, creating more value, and a time when all the wounds that all these social media a-listers inflicted heal and they’re willing to try again — and there, at the end, will be Mr. Blanchard, my agency, and me.

Bravo!

(Via Marketing Conversation)

Juan Perez of IDG asked me some questions about how Abraham Harrison is dealing with the bold, unexpected move, of changing CEOs from Eric Schmidt to Larry Page, in Computer World, in the article Will Page back Google’s enterprise unit?, and I offered my humble opinion:

Chris Abraham, president of the Abraham Harrison digital marketing and social media agency, is also confident in his company’s investment in Google Apps for Business. “If Google had brought in an outsider, there might be more of a concern, but the fact that it’s a co-founder taking the reins is reassuring,” he said in a phone interview.

I just wanted to let you all know that I will be speaking at the upcoming Mesh Marketing conference in Toronto, Canada, on 17 November. (Via Marketing Conversation)

I have a discount code for you use use when you sign up: MESH10off ** – I am very excited as I don’t do a lot of these and because I have never been to Toronto before. Those were the first two reasons but now that I know more about meshMarketing, I am just honored to be part of it all!

Last week I spent two days attending the 2010 North American Alterian Engaging Times Summit since I have been a legitimate crazy-nutso fan of their SM2 social media metrics and monitoring tool since it the tool was called Techrigy SM2.  I have also written testimonials, case studies, testimonial videos, and instructional videos about the product. Anyway, I never really posted about it but I was a little more receptive when Lauren Eichmann reached out to me with her press release.  So, here it is:

Alterian Survey Reveals Brands Undervalue Customer Service Objectives with Social Media

The Engaging Times Summit survey also indicates that 35 percent of marketers say it’s still ‘too early to tell’ about social media ROI.

Chicago, IL – 24 August 2010 – Alterian (LSE: ALN), the leader in customer engagement technology and solutions, today announced the results of its Engaging Times Summit survey on brand socialization, engagement strategy and social media ROI. Summit attendees comprised more than 400 senior-level marketing executives from major brands including Cisco, American Greetings Interactive, Dave and Busters, RAZOR and Western Union.

Results showed that when asked about the most important social media objectives, 24 percent reported that retaining existing customers is the central objective, 26 percent believe driving brand awareness is the most crucial aspect, and 30 percent are aiming for new customer acquisition. Less than one percent cited that the most important objective was to offer customer service.

“It’s surprising that brands are reporting that they don’t highly value deploying customer service in the social media channel,” said David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian. “Many are underutilizing this approach, as all brands need to be prepared to handle their customers’ complaints and act on them. While marketers may have different objectives than those working in the customer service department, it’s important to have a cross-channel strategy and integrate outreach to gain maximum exposure and positive chatter about your brand online.”

Despite a lack of emphasis on customer service objectives in social media, survey results showed that about 90 percent of marketers believe that cross-channel coordination is indeed vital in marketing campaigns. Similarly, a majority of 61 percent of marketers said their brand’s engagement with consumers occurs both online and offline, suggesting that engagement takes place on multiple platforms.

The State of Social Media Engagement
Based on survey results, marketers said they are increasingly viewing social media as a means for engagement as opposed to promotion. Three out of four respondents indicated their brand is either ‘somewhat’ or ‘extremely’ engaged in social media. Only 22 percent reported they are not very engaged, and three percent said they are not engaged at all.

Yet the survey showed that measuring ROI is still a challenge. Thirty-seven percent of respondents said they are not able to measure ROI when it comes to the socialization of their brand, and 42 percent reported to be only somewhat able to measure ROI.

While some marketers might be on the fence about ROI, the majority (57 percent) said they believe investing in social media has been a worthwhile investment for their brand.  Thirty-five percent claimed it’s still too early to tell, but not a single respondent reported that social media is not a worthwhile investment.

“There are tools available today that help marketers measure the influence of their social media investment, and consequently understand the ROI for their social media efforts,” said Connie Bensen, Alterian’s Director of Community Strategy. “It’s just a matter of identifying what you want to measure and tracking progress in a way that is appropriate for your brand.”

One in five marketers who attended the Summit are indeed measuring ROI in terms of brand socialization, a promising figure for the future of social media marketing. For more information about best practices, visit the Alterian web site for Bensen’s Social Media ROI whitepaper series.

About the Engaging Times Americas Summit
The annual event features thought leadership from some of the Americas’ leading brands, giving attendees the opportunity to learn how major organizations are extending and expanding their brand’s social and emotional connections in a cross-channel way (e-mail, direct mail, social media, web).  The Alterian Engaging Times Summit 2010 was held August 17 & 18 in Chicago and was attended by more than 400 marketers from around the country, including keynotes from Stan Rapp, co-founder of Rapp Collins and Don Peppers from Peppers & Rogers Group.

Other presenters included American Greetings Interactive, Walgreens, Edelman, Western Union, Razor, Mars, Acxiom, Bank of the West, Epsilon, Dave & Buster’s, Cisco, WOMMA, Harte-Hanks, Ogilvy, Peppers & Rogers, 1to1 Media, Covalent Marketing, and Forrester Research.

About Alterian
Alterian (LSE: ALN) enables organizations to create relevant, effective and engaging experiences with their customers and prospects through social, digital, and traditional marketing channels. Alterian’s Customer Engagement solutions are focused in four main areas: Social Media, Web Content Management, Email, and Campaign Management & Analytics.

Alterian technology is utilized either to address a specific marketing challenge or as part of an integrated marketing platform, with analytics and customer engagement with the individual at the heart of everything. Working alongside a rich ecosystem of partners, Alterian delivers its software as a service or on premise. For more information about Alterian visit www.alterian.com or the Alterian blog at www.engagingtimes.com.

There really are social media gurus and social media experts and my Chief Programmer Phillip Rhoades wrote up the best of their genius on his article The Best Of The 60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online — it is both an interesting article for who and what Phillip includes in the list as well as who and what he doesn’t include.  You can read the original article and full list here via Sam Rosen at Copyblogger.

The Best Of The 60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online

Sam Rosen and Copyblogger recently hosted a very short conference and had several thought leaders come up with 60 Ways to Increase Your Influence Online. Quite a few of the methods are sort of stock, cardboard, filler, but there are some gems. Here are a few that I really liked:

#3. Mike Volpe. “We share lots of things that most companies would keep internal. By sharing both the good and the bad, you build digital influence.” -@mvolpe

#11. Hugh MacLeod. “We use other people’s stuff or other people’s content to socialize. And your stuff’s either a social object or it’s not.” -@gapingvoid

#22. Shama Kabani. “Create [video] content around your area of expertise and then distribute, distribute with gusto!” -@shama

#24. Johnny B. Truant. “Defy convention where it’s appropriate. Only a few people dare to step outside. And people take notice of that.” -@johnnybtruant

#46. Brian Clark. “Learn to be a storyteller. Narrative — it’s what makes us human. Big media does it great. You have to as well.” -@copyblogger

#51. Shashi Bellamkonda. “Find out from your customers which social networks they are using, and be there for them at the moment they need you.” -@shashib

#52. Gretchen Rubin. “Self-expression is the new entertainment. Get people talking. I had success just asking, ‘What’s your comfort food?’” -@gretchenrubin

#59. Julien Smith. “Get someone else to take a look at what you have that you maybe take for granted and gives you an advantage over other people.” -@julien

Any that you particularly like? Any that you think they completely missed?

Our summer intern, Stephanie Raphael, put together quite a lovely article about the article Social Media Marketing- Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media by Liana “Li” Evans in the form of her opus A Must-Read Guide to Social Media Engagement — check it out!

A Must-Read Guide to Social Media Engagement

Social media is a new platform for communication, marketing, and advertisement. But the world of social media is much larger than most marketers are aware of. The growth and the power of online communities is changing the consumer market to be user-generated, with new ways for companies to actively engage their customer. When implemented correctly, social media marketing can be extremely beneficial.

Liana “Li” Evans is an expert in social media and search marketing and author of Social Media Marketing- Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media. In this brand new, ultimate how-to guide to social media, Li looks deeper into the social media realm and provides everything you need to know to develop (or improve) a successful social media strategy.

Li introduces the book with her insight on social media: “I believe that social media is changing the way that companies need to interact with both their audiences and customers by listening and directly engaging with them.”

Li has created an informative framework for social media marketing, including examples of notorious cases of social media success and failure, which made it a fun and interesting read. Below are some words of advice that I have summarized from Li’s book that are important when crafting a social media-marketing plan.

Understand Your Market
All companies are different; so keep in mind that your audience could be different from the audience of your competitors. A common mistake made when crafting a social media strategy for your company is not knowing your audience. It is so important to understand your market, because all of the effort put into crafting a plan and engaging in conversation will go to waste if you’re not reaching the right people. So often will companies attempt to reach out to customers via Twitter or Facebook because they are popular uses of social media. Li presented an example on page 153 about Pizza Hut’s announcement that they were hiring a “Twittern” to reach college students through Twitter. Their clever attempt to enter the social media world was not a successful one because they did not thoroughly research their market. Evidently, the majority of Pizza Hut customers (and college students) are more active on Facebook, not Twitter. So their “Twittern” would have been engaging with the wrong people. It is so important to know your target market and understand how they consume data. How do you learn about your target market? Research. Explore the social media world. Read the conversations that people are having. Guaranteed you will find your proper audience. There are so many online communities with people communicating and sharing information with one another. Join them!

Be Real
Bloggers and others that belong to these online communities are very passionate about whatever they are talking about. Of course they are talking about it during their free time and it is their hobby! They are willing to talk to just about anybody who joins. Mind you, it is very easy to join a conversation but also very easy to get kicked out. Don’t make it obvious that you are trying to market your product, expand your business, gain more Facebook friends, etc. Don’t jump right in and ask them to “like” you business page or follow you on Twitter. Approaching it this way is offensive and will easily get you shunned from the community. Instead, be real. Join the conversation and don’t say right away that you are working for a PR agency and here is a press release that you think everyone should post on his or her blog. This will take you nowhere.

Participate
The more active you are in online communities, the more they will trust you and not mistake you for some marketing robot. Be patient and build relationships to gain their trust. Because once they do, word-of-mouth marketing is a very powerful thing. Especially in a world where TV advertisements are ignored by fast-forwarding commercials, and people are now going on blogs and searches for ratings and customer reviews. People don’t like to be marketed to. They want the honest truth.

But be careful not to get carried away with disguising your marketing strategy. In chapter 23 called Be Transparent: Trust and Readership Must Be Earned, Li talks about the notorious case of Walmart fooling the public with its social media campaign. “Walmart and its PR company, Edelman, launched a blog called “Wal-Marting Across America,” which was suppose to tell the story of a couple who traveled across America in their RV staying in Walmart parking lots” (Li, 185). In reality, the two people were the sister of an Edelman employee and her boyfriend. Everyone found out about their attempt to trick the public as a part of their social media strategy.

Embrace the Negative
Companies are often reluctant to get involved in social media marketing because of the fear of negative talk and the inability to control what people are saying. Thinking that you can prevent negative things being said about your company by avoiding them is a huge mistake. Li states that “In today’s world of online reviews, blog posts, and picture sharing, the conversation about your company is still going on, whether or not you are actively involved” (Li, 67). People will talk about you with or without you there, so instead or avoiding, try participating and handling it with style. Here is an example of a conversation on Twitter that demonstrates how a company turned negative feedback into positive buzz (Li, 36).

Your company, like BrasseriePavil, can use instances like this for constructive criticism. Monitoring and engaging in the conversation gives you a chance to mend the situation and change someone’s negative opinion to a positive one! And if you still haven’t satisfied your customer, don’t be discouraged. Keep listening to them! By monitoring conversations you can gain a deeper understanding of your customers dissatisfaction and use it to brainstorm and create new ideas!

Embrace the Positive
Bloggers can be very helpful by promoting your brand and reinstating your bottom line. There exists social media “star” bloggers in every community with huge followings. If they were to write a positive post regarding your company, it would go a long way and will be seen by many others. Therefore, it is not a bad idea to come bearing gifts. Freebies, samples, coupons, you name it. It doesn’t hurt and it is a kind gesture, as long as you don’t expect something in return…immediately. To get the most appreciation and attention of a community, give when least expected. A simple gesture of kindness can go a long way. Li tells a sweet story about the company Freshbooks and one of its followers on Twitter. Rayonne Langdon, the marketing director, noticed that one of the company’s followers tweeted about being stood up on a first date. Rayanne tweeted back, “At Freshbooks, we’d never stand you up!” And there’s more. She proceeded to the follower’s blog, found her office address, and sent her a bouquet of flowers the next day. This created a long-lasting buzz for the company, and reminded customers that Freshbooks and Rayanne are sincere and good.

It is important to be liked in the social media world, because everyone now has a voice and their opinion can be heard. Each and every one of your consumers can potentially affect the bottom line of your company. But don’t let that discourage you. Any kind of engagement in social media is better than no engagement at all. In Social Media Marketing, Li describes the different types of social media (social news sites, social networking, social bookmarking, social sharing, social events, blogs, microblogging, wikis, or forums and message boards) and explains further how social media fits into the online marketing picture. Definitely a must read for anyone interested or already involved in social media marketing.

A belated welcome to all the folks who have landed here from elsewhere to see some awesome PR and Social Media blogging. I am pretty stoked to have been mentioned on PR Web’s:  Public Relations Blogs – 25 Essential PR Bloggers You Should Be Reading.

What this will shortly result in is a renewed commitment to blogging on new media, new technology, monitoring, metrics, innovation, marketing, social media, and digital PR.

Forgive me but I guess I have been doing way too much working as president of Abraham Harrison and not enough generous, thoughtful, and insightful analysis of what I know.

So, in the upcoming days and weeks, I will aspire to re-activate.  I am pretty motivated after spending a couple days with industry experts and marketing gurus at the North American Alterian Engaging Times Summit 2010 in Chicago over the last few days.

Public Relations Blogs – 25 Essential PR Bloggers You Should Be Reading

Keeping up with what’s new and interesting in public relations news is important – vital strategies, tips and trends are shared each day that can impact your business. Whether you’re looking for best practices on press release distribution or simply how to take advantage of social media, these blogs will prove invaluable. To keep up with the hottest and highest quality content, below are 25 essential public relations blogs you should be reading:

PR Squared — PR Squared is a blog by Todd Defren, a principal at SHIFT Communications, which focuses on conversations about social media and marketing.

Brian Solis — Brian Solis, Principal of FutureWorks, gives insights into the convergence of PR, Traditional Media and Social Media at his popular blog.

Peter Shankman — Peter Shankman’s blog looks at thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.

Dave Fleet — DaveFleet.com is about communications, public relations, marketing and social media, and the areas where those topics intersect.

Danny Brown — This blog by Danny Brown, co-founder of the SRM group, focuses on the use of social media, PR and marketing,

Conversation Communications — This blog by Arik Hansen, principal of ACH Communications, covers all things related to digital PR strategy and community building.

Social Media Explorer — A blog by Jason Falls, Social Media Explorer, covers public relations, social media, search marketing and many topics in between.

Chris Abraham — Chris Abraham, President and COO of Abraham Harrison LLC, writes this blog on developing news and updates in the world of public relations and social media.

PR in Your Pajamas — A blog about integrating using public relations and business coaching for results, Elena Veis, tells how integrating these areas will lead to success for your business.

O’Dwyer’s PR Blog — O’Dwyer’s blog covers PR, public affairs, marketing and the world of communications.

TopRank Online Marketing Blog — The Online Marketing blog maintained by the team at TopRank Online Marketing provides helpful information on areas such as SEO, social media marketing, business blogging and online PR.

Influential Marketing Blog — Rohit Bhargava maintains the Influential Markeitng Blog, a site that focuses on information and resources on creating compelling marketing, advertising and public relations strategies.

AimClear Blog — The aimClear blog is a resource for search engine marketing for advertising agency, in-house and public relations professionals.

A Take on Tech PR by Drew Benvie — A blog by Drew Benvie, managing director of 33 Digitial, that gives insights and information on tech public relations and how it can help you.

Media Culpa — Media Culpa is a blog about media and public relations – with a focus on social media – written by Swedish PR practitioner Hans Kullin.

The Buzz Bin — The Buzz Bin provides a point of view on integrated communications, including PR, social media, interactive and general marketing topics.

Spin Sucks — Spin Sucks is the agency blog of Arment Dietrich and covers social media, online PR and all things in between.

PR Couture — PR Couture explores the ever-evolving role of public relations, marketing and social media in the fashion industry.

PRSA ComPRehension — PRSA ComPRehension is a blog on PR best practices from Public Relations Society of America members.

Beyond the Hype — Beyond the Hype conveys the opinions, insights and experiences in public relations and advertising from senior communications counselors at Lois Paul & Partners.

Adam Sherk — Adam Sherk is a Search and PR strategist, helping news and content sites with enterprise SEO and audience development, including social media marketing and other forms of online public relations.

Measurement Matters — Measurement Matters gives insights and information on the areas of public relations, social media and how media analysis and evaluation relates to them.

College Web Editor — College Web Editor is a helpful resource with information about the Web, marketing, and PR in higher education.

Deirdre Breadenridge PR 2.0 Strategies — Deirdre discusses social networking, blogging, microblogging, podcasting, streaming video, RSS technology and how communications is changing the way that businesses need to think.

Journalistics — Journalistics is a blog dedicated to covering all topics at the intersection of public relations and journalism today.

Be sure to check out the original post.

Abraham Harrison was named a finalist in PR News’ PR Digital Awards in the Digital PR Campaign category for the work we’re doing in developing new communities through online outreach for The Fresh Air fund, via Marketing Conversation.

Digital PR Campaign

• Abraham Harrison LLC – Building Support in New Communities Through Online Outreach for The Fresh Air Fund
• The Clorox Company with Ketchum Public Relations – Clorox Introduces Bleach to a New Generation with Bleachable Moments
• The Coca-Cola Company – Expedition 206: 365 Days, 206 Countries, 1 Mission
• Discovery Communications – LIFE Digital Communications Campaign
• Entergy Communications – Digital Communications Promoting Grand Gulf Nuclear Station’s 25th Anniversary
• Fleishman-Hillard – Gatorade Super Bowl XLIV Campaign
• Hunter Public Relations – Hasbro Family Game Night
• JB Cumberland PR – Curious Chef: A Digital PR Success
• MS&L/Procter & Gamble – Tampax Pearl Outsmart Mother Nature PR Campaign
• National Association of Home Builders – Federal Home Buyer Tax Credit Public Awareness Campaign

Social and digital media have created a new and constantly evolving world of communication challenges and opportunities for every organization.

Advocacy has been transformed by social media and online advocacy services are essential in today’s climate where news, rumors, gossip, misinformation, and disinformation spread online as fast as electricity through the wire.

Our social media services offer online monitoring so that we can keep on top of what is being said about you, warn you when issues arise, and recommend a course of action appropriate to the level of danger to your interests and suitable to the culture of social media.

Additionally, our online advocacy team, currently operating in twelve languages and eleven countries can take what we discover online and reach out to the influencers and engage in social media communities that are already talking about you or are prime recipients of your message.

In addition to monitoring and engaging with online influencers, Abraham Harrison can help you develop and grow your branded social media presence on Twitter, Facebook, blogs — wherever you need to engage your natural allies, respond to information others are putting out there, and promote your brand, your issue, and your point of view.

Our services include creating, building, promoting, responding, and guarding your social media properties with around-the-clock support.

(Via Abraham Harrison and Marketing Conversation)

I just received this email from JetBlue in my INBOX just now.  I fly JetBlue sometimes and am on their mailing list (Via Marketing Conversation):

Dear CHRIS,

Oops, our bad. Yesterday some of our customers received an email with an incorrect first name. We’re truly sorry for the mix up and assure you we’re working hard to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your understanding and patience,

Dave Canty
Director of Loyalty Marketing

A hearty congratulations to Dave Canty, Director of Loyalty Marketing, at JetBlue for coming right out and asking a public forgiveness from not only those people who were the recipients of a bad email mail merge (it happens) but to do it in such a public way.

This sort of social media mea maxima culpa over the small things, I think, really help build the kind of engagement and trust that will really serve them were to anything more severe happen.  The way a company responds to the little things really speaks of how they handle the big things.

This, to me, was a noble and non-essential act.  It was classy.

I will be back in Arlington, VA, on the evening of 12 May and will work hard on recovering before the panel discussion I have been invited to, Social Media Marketing: How to Make It Work for You.  What I am excited about is the caliber of people I am on the panel with:

• Rob Pegoraro, Moderator, Washington Post
• Peter LaMotte, Executive VP-Marketing & Operations, GeniusRocket
• Adam Shake, Editor-in-Chief, Simple Earth Media

Please register and do come.  The registration fee is $15 in advance and $20 at door if you’re not a George Mason alumnus or $10/$15 if you are.

SOM Alumni Chapter presents a Social Media Marketing event. George Mason‘s School of Management Alumni Chapter presents a special networking and educational event

Social Media Marketing: How to Make It Work for You

Thursday, May 13
Schedule: 6 p.m. networking, 7 p.m. panel discussion
Setting: Room 329, 3401 Fairfax Drive, George Mason Arlington Campus

Registration fee: $15 advance / $20 at door Register here
Mason students: $10 advance / $15 at door Register here

All working professionals are trying to get a handle on social media, and how to make it work for them and their employers. This event will help you to make sense of social media and how you can best make use of it for your job…and your career.

You’ll network with other professionals who are interested in utilizing social media to communicate, market, and build community. Then you’ll hear from and interact with a panel of social media marketing experts. You’ll come away with a better understanding of how to make social media work for you.

Panelists will include

• Rob Pegoraro, Moderator, Washington Post
• Chris Abraham, President & COO, Abraham & Harrison
• Peter LaMotte, Executive VP-Marketing & Operations, GeniusRocket
• Adam Shake, Editor-in-Chief, Simple Earth Media

Your registration fee will entitle you to a drink ticket.

Venue: George Mason’s Arlington Campus, Original Bldg, Room 329
Date and Time: May 13, 2010 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM
Contact Person: Michael Gallagher, SOMAC Vice President of Events
Contact Email: somavpev@gmu.edu

Here’s yet another example of why one needs to pay attention to social media as well as be on social media — from the boss’ point of view for sure — and why your character is the sum of what you do and say every day.

Yes, even when you’ve just arrived home from the job you hate, get into your bunny slippers, make a cup of tea, and decide to open your heart and your venom onto Facebook.

Stupid is as stupid does and this woman was not long for that job anyway and the Universe was being merciful and helping her along towards her next opportunity, though I wouldn’t hire her!  Social Media and Facebook just allowed her to be easily stupid and simply careless.

Via Caveman Circus via Marketing Conversation

I asked my favorite Intern, Ellie Brown, to please take a stab a rewriting my current lame Twitter bio:

Original: Chris Abraham is a pioneer in online social networks and publishing with a natural facility for anticipating the next big thing

Here are Ellie’s suggestions — what do you think?  Which ones do you like?  Which one should I choose?

Chris Abraham is like the bread crumbs of social media.  Wherever he goes, you’ll want to follow.

Variation: Chris Abraham is the pied piper of social media.  Wherever he goes, you’ll want to follow. (however, pied piper led kids to their death, so I didn’t think this has the most positive of connotations)

Chris Abraham dreams in 140 characters.  His understanding of online social networking is unmatched, even in his sleep.

Chris Abraham’s only weakness is that he cares too much about social networking and successfully promoting your business online.

Chris Abraham is THE expert in new media, digital PR and online social networking; experiencing unparalleled success with his company Abraham Harrison, LLC.  He is also very humble.

I would also welcome your suggestions, variations, and help recreating my Twitter bio — and I think you in advance!

Last week, our intern, Ellie Brown, asked me if it would be OK to blog about her experience as an American University-credited intern at Abraham Harrison.  Of course! Of course!  Well, here it is, enjoy, My super fantastic internship:

Hi everyone!  My name is Ellie and I am here to share with you the trials and tribulations of my internship this semester with Abraham Harrison LLC.  I am a grad student getting my master’s in Public Communication and hope to someday be a a snarky public relations executive at a big company where I can boss interns around all day…just like Chris Abraham, president of Abraham Harrison.Actually, that couldn’t be further from the truth.  My internship so far has been anything but getting bossed around.  Abraham Harrison is a public relations company that engages in social media management, online grassroots & new media marketing, business intelligence, search engine services and online reputation clean-up.  Really, really cool stuff.

My responsibilities so far have been reading up on all the latest social media news and info, writing about it for the company blog Marketing Conversation, helping out with blogger outreach for International Medical Corps to raise money for Haiti, and whatever else comes up.  Oh and did I mention this was all done from the comfort of my own home (or the uncomfort of the AU library)?  That’s right, AH doesn’t have a physical office.  Everything we work on is done online and staff live all over the world.  It’s pretty great.

My introduction has been brief, but I hope you’ll check back every now and again to see what I’m up to.  More about blogger outreach next time…

Ellie Brown 9:35 am on February 1, 2010

Wow, that was great.  Uh oh, I surely hope we don’t screw everything up for all of the NYC, SF, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, and Boston agencies and firms that spend most of their time abusing their interns while making them go in Starbucks runs and all of that filing and photocopying and dry cleaning pick up and so forth.

Funny thing is, we had an Intern once, Lasse, who insisted we find him a proper job in a proper office, requiring him to wear proper shirts and slacks and shoes and — gasp — ties and jackets!  To each his own, I guess.

Via Marketing Conversation