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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.

May 11
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Social Media was Made for Weather Reporting: How the Newsplex CBS-19 Weather Team Rocks Twitter

By Communications

A couple of guys I consider good friends watch the weather in Central Virginia and make sure everyone knows it. Brantley Ussery and Travis Koshko lead the meteorology pack in social media and on TV (in my opinion — also, in full disclosure, I worked with the Newsplex a few years ago to help develop a social media plan and provided some training). The Klout score the team has earned is a respectable 47 — but what’s great about it is how the team engages with the local audience, sharing behind the scenes glimpses (tweeting about music and sometimes bacon!) as well as being there to support the community when weather turns dangerous or unpredictable.

Here’s proof of the impact the meteorology team of the Newsplex has in the community. The following is a great promotional spot the station created following a bout of thunderstorms and tornado warnings. I love the way comments from the Twitter and Facebook community are featured throughout the spot. It demonstrates that the Newsplex understands the relationship between on-air talent and viewers who are also online blends back and forth seamlessly and simultaneously.

Here’s the spot — what do you think?



May 10
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5 Ways Nonprofits Can Use Twitter for Fundraising, Brand Awareness and Public Relations

By Public Relations, Social Media

I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for nonprofits my whole life. At an early age I tagged along, helping my parents volunteer at a JDRF camp for kids. I continued involvement in volunteering as an adult, serving on boards, raising funds and contributing to dozens of nonprofit organizations over the years.

I’m honored, today, to be available to people representing nonprofits at a national conference focusing on social media in Washington, D.C. Today is the Social Media Summit of the Center for Nonprofit Success. I’ll be talking specifically about Twitter and nonprofits in an intermediate session of the day-long conference; then for three hours I’ll be available for one-on-one mentoring sessions for conference attendees to learn more. It promises to be both an exhilarating and exhausting day!

So while I’m busy conducting some in-person time, I’m sharing here five ways nonprofits can use Twitter — and some of what I’ll be discussing in the session tomorrow.

  1. Establish a consistent, responsive presence for the organization, monitoring and interacting with followers interested in what the nonprofit has to share in tweets.
  2. Following other nonprofits to learn about what is trending, happening and being shared via Twitter.
  3. Find interesting content to read via links being shared (and pass them on by re-tweeting).
  4. Share links to information about your organization, to interest funders and future donors in the real stories behind your nonprofit.
  5. Provide regular tweets with timely news about your nonprofit and the community it serves.

We’ll also be talking about some of our favorite Twitter tools at today’s workshop. Come visit our Facebook page to find out what they are!

May 09
Love0

Tears at the Office: Missing Amber Morris

By Uncategorized

Amber MorrisI awoke this morning and learned, via Facebook, that a friend and former colleague at Standing Partnership passed away over the weekend. It’s not the ideal way to learn of the death of a friend, but with the way news travels and the speed of social platforms, it’s become more common to find out from Facebook first. Yes, it was sudden and unexpected and it is not an understatement to say that there are many people in St. Louis and Orlando, Fla. and elsewhere reeling from the shock.

Amber Morris was a fellow vice president at Standing, where I worked with her for more than five years. I remember when I interviewed with Amber for the job at Standing thinking how impressive she was and how pretty. (I also remember noticing her tiny diamond nose ring and thinking she must be the rebel of the office!)

I learned from Amber and loved being part of a team that included her. I watched her very capably tackle and manage big clients and dive into social media with a personal blog to help her learn from the inside out, what she could to inform clients about blogging and social networks. I liked to think of Amber as one of my “blog spawn” — yet another person I pushed into launching and enjoying the blogging life. Her posts about cooking and crafts are inspirational, but as a long-distance coworker, I especially liked learning about the animals Amber fostered (and sometimes adopted). The best, however, was learning about Amber finding the love of her life in Shane, someone she waited a long time to find. It was so good to know she’d found so much happiness with him.

Not only did I work with Amber, but her mom, Sharon, worked with us as well. Sharon isn’t just Amber’s mom, she’s been kind of the office mom. I am always delighted and cheered to hear her voice answer the phone when I call the St. Louis office. My heart just aches for Amber’s parents, her boyfriend Shane, and all of our colleagues and friends at Standing. I can’t imagine how they will endure the silence from Amber’s office and the hole left in the team, that empty chair at the table. I wish that I could be there now to give whatever comfort I could possibly impart. If you knew Amber, or any of my teammates at Standing, keep them all in your thoughts and prayers today and in the coming weeks. (If you’d like to leave a note of condolence for the team, you can do so at https://www.facebook.com/standingpartnership )

I find it ironic that one of Amber’s last blog posts for Standing Partnership was called Tears at the Office — and was about communications work done in the interest of unwanted pets. Amber was a total softie when it came to puppies and kittens. In fact, one of my first thoughts on learning of her death was how much her pets will miss her, as well. There are sure to be tears in the office today.

To readers of this blog — I’m sorry for the dramatic departure from the usual content, but sometimes life overtakes work and in these cases, there’s nothing to be done but honor the moment and share what’s foremost on my mind.

May 05
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Five Actions to Take on your Facebook Business Page Right Now

By Communications
  1. Grab your vanity URL by going to www.facebook.com/username (you must have 25+ fans to qualify) so your URL will look something like this: http://www.facebook.com/JaggersCommunications
  2. Go to Edit Page and Manage Permissions — at the bottom, choose Strong if you don’t want any profanity on your page, medium if you don’t mind a little, or none if you’re a member of the George Carlin club (link NSFW if you read it out loud).
  3. Go to Edit Page (again) and click on Featured. Manage the links to page you like that show up in the sidebar on YOUR page. (Consider featuring clients, partners, top customers, etc.)
  4. On the same section as #3, select a featured page owner or owners. This helps people see who the humans are behind your business to know with whom they’re interacting on the page.

  5. This is the badge for CHOAirport

    Back on Edit Page under Marketing, select create a badge and then, well, create a badge and put that on your website.

Stay tuned for future posts featuring more smart ideas for your Facebook Business page.

May 04
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The Difference One Can Make in Social Media: the Abolish Cancer Story

By Communications

In 2009, My friend Darah Bonham had a nugget of an idea — how could a platform like Twitter be used to connect people and make a difference? Could Twitter somehow be used to abolish cancer?

That idea took off with a feed began and updated by Darah in October of that year. www.twitter.com/abolishcancer is the first Twitter feed solely founded to generate donations to cancer-battling charities. It works by engaging sponsors who pledge to donate $1 for each new Twitter follower for the @abolishcancer feed on a given day. Celebrities and consumer brands have gotten into the act, re-tweeting to help generate followers (thus bumping up the pledge).

Darah recently announced his resignation from his day job to focus on Abolish Cancer as a full-time venture. He’ll be working to share the story of the organization, to continue to generate interest in the cause, sponsors and donations to help fight the battle against cancer.

I’m eager to see Darah succeed and hope you’ll lend your support by following and re-tweeting @abolishcancer

Visit http://www.abolishcancer.com/ to see more than 100 celebrities supporting the cause and to find out more about the organization.