All Posts By

Marijean

Marijean Oldham (Jaggers), a social media specialist and public relations professional, is president and CEO of Jaggers Communications LLC, a strategic communications firm based in Charlottesville, Va.

Sep 19
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Quick, you Qwikster, Get Your Custom URLs STAT

By Communications, Media, Public Relations

This has happened several times: a client has engaged me to work with Twitter to try to capture a username that is their business name, that someone else is using.

Guess what? This isn’t easy, nor is it always possible. (I have been successful, but there are no guarantees.)

So it’s funny to me when a major brand like Netflix forgets one of the critical items on the business startup checklist: securing the business’s Twitter handle. Thanks to my friend Jamey for passing on this priceless bit.

[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/BarlowBrewing/status/115788536669683713″]

 

From TechCrunch:

Movie delivery service Netflix has just announced that it is rebranding its DVD-by-mail service as Qwikster and that it will keep calling its streaming service Netflix. . . . Netflix, naively, has neglected to pin down the @Qwikster Twitter account before launch. The account is currently owned by somebody who chooses to best represent themselves as Elmo smoking a joint.

Whoa, boy. This gaffe is going to cost Netflix at the very least, some good weed.

Gentle reminder for businesses large and small — lock in your user names and custom URLs right now, today. Or someone else will.

While you’re at it – sign up for this Friday’s Twitter for Business workshop.

 Update: Netflix Abandons Qwikster

Sep 17
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Social Media Assignment #12: Add Featured Likes to Facebook Fan Page

By Communications

The first assumption I’m going to make in this post is that you are the administrator of a Facebook fan page for your business. If you dare to say, “why no, Mj, I have a profile for my business,” get out of here!

On the fan page for your business, you have the opportunity to showcase five businesses your business “likes.” This is a great way to feature clients, vendors, tenants and/or business partners. Let’s take a look!

I’m using the Jaggers Communications Facebook page as an example, to start. I make an effort to keep the five featured likes the pages of current clients. It helps my firm’s clients build their online presence and helps manage the brand of my business.

Here’s how to add featured likes to your page. Login to Facebook, go to your page and select edit page.  From the menu on the left, select Featured.

Now, if it turns out you have not made any other pages your page’s favorite  — or, to put it another way, used Facebook “as your page” and “liked” other pages from that page, you’ll need to do that so you have pages to feature!

Gosh, I know how ridiculous all of this reads . . . blame Zuckerberg, not me. I’m just an interpreter.

When you click on Edit Featured Likes, you can select the five pages you want to make sure appear in your sidebar consistently. If you don’t determine which five, then the featured pages that appear in your sidebar will rotate among the pages your page has liked.

Check among the pages listed the five you’d like to feature, hit save and you’re done! Congratulations — you have completed another Jaggers Communications Social Media Assignment. Go get a cookie.

Sep 16
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WTF? Friday: Why Fake it When You Can Have the Real Thing?

By Communications, Social Media

Today’s post is brought to you by Ken Mueller, the owner of Inkling Media, a Social Media and marketing company in Lancaster, PA.

You just can’t fake some things.WTF?

The other day I saw one of my friends post on Twitter:

NEWS FLASH: Fake tans don’t look real

And he’s right. You can spot a fake tan a mile away. A fake tan screams, “I’m vain and I was nowhere near the beach!”

Same with toupees.

Is it more embarrassing to go bald and show the world, or try to cover it up with a piece of “processed hair matter” that screams, “If I were bald you MIGHT look at me, but NOW you can’t take your eyes off of me and the monstrosity on my head, can you???”

Like any great marketing, they grab your attention, but for all the wrong reasons. People can see through fake. Fake might work for a while, but eventually you will be found out.

What does faking it look like in Social Media?

Claiming to be something you’re not – your credentials can be Googled, and what you say about yourself can be either confirmed or denied by those you have known over the years. And the more you share online, the more people can tell if you have no clue what you are talking about.

Claming to NOT be something you are – You’ve read the reviews on Yelp where you just know that the glowing review was written by the mother or spouse of the restaurant owner, or it might actually be an employee pretending to be a happy customer. On the other side, I’ve seen horrible reviews that just feel as if they were written by the competition. Don’t do it.

Astroturfing – This is when businesses create fake profiles of individuals who then comment on their blogs, Facebook pages, etc.. The idea is that you are “seeding” conversation, and making it look like you have a larger following than you do. This will bite you in the butt big time if you are ever caught…and odds are, you will be caught.

Don’t be stupid. You can try to fake things, but it’s very likely you’ll be found out, and the damage done can be pretty bad. Be real. Be who you are. By all means, filter yourself, but don’t try to give people the wrong impressions.

Sure we can beat the words “authenticity” and “transparency” to death, but they are incredibly important. It’s like signing up for a dating site and posting a picture of a beautiful man or woman, and claiming to be much younger than you are. That game only goes so far. Eventually you’ll have to go on a date and it will be obvious you’re lying.

Faking it never works. Well…almost never…

 

 

Sep 15
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Facebook Adds Smart Lists

By Communications

In the ever-changing world of Facebook, there’s an update visible this evening. Smart Lists look promising: Facebook is suggesting and sorting your friends into lists such as:

  • Close Friends
  • Family
  • (your high school)
  • (your city)

The Close Friends suggestions for me were pretty accurate as was Family. The high school suggestions were way off. I’m encouraged by this because I think this is a step in the right direction, taking the best of what Google+ tried to do with circles and making that functionality much simpler in Facebook. 

 

Sep 15
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Tweet, Meet, Eat and . . . History! Tweetup Friday, Sept. 16 at Noon

By Communications

A serious part of my Charlottesville cultural upbringing has been missing.

Confession: I have never been to The White Spot.

Upon learning this, my friend Coy Barefoot and I decided it was high time we meet for lunch and quickly turned our date into a full fledged tweetup, enhanced by a short, historical walking tour of The Corner at the University of Virginia.

Coy, an historian, wrote the book, The Corner: A History of Student Life at the University of Virginia.

Me? I just want a Gus Burger.

Join us! Friday, Sept. 16, 2011 at noon.

Eat, Meet, Tweet and History