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.

Mar 04
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Building the Business: How you can Help

By Communications

My friend Jennifer asked me a great non-social media question yesterday. She said, “What can I do to help?” She’s lovely and kind and just the sort of friend we should all have. We were talking about business, specifically my new business, which I just launched in January, 2011.

Business is going well and I’m busy, but I am looking for new clients and opportunities (so often we forget to let people know that we’re eager for more or new business — wouldn’t it be terrible if everyone assumed I was too busy to take on new work?)

Jennifer was genuinely interested in the kind of business I hope to gain, so I thought I’d share my answer with the broader audience of my social network.

First, to clarify (someone called me a publicist yesterday and I openly grimaced), Jaggers Communications helps businesses and nonprofits reach their business goals through strategic marketing, content creation, public relations and social media.

Experience is concentrated serving clients in:

  • Life sciences and other science-based business
  • Clean energy
  • Health care
  • Education (institutions and products/services that support learning)
  • Travel and tourism
  • Small to medium-sized business to consumer companies

I’m so appreciative to all the community members who have already helped with referrals and endorsements. As a “connector” it give me great pleasure to connect others to opportunities as well, so don’t ever hesitate to ask.

Mar 03
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The Four Hats Your Social Media Team Should be Wearing

By Social Media

When someone manages several job responsibilities, we often say that the person “wears a lot of hats.”

When social media became the responsibility of various people within companies, that was a hat that was added, for some, on top of a lot of other, already ill-fitting hats.

The idea, of course, is that we all each only have one head — how many hats can we wear, really?

In an ideal situation, you can parcel some of the social media activities out to several team members. I recommend four roles, contributed to by four individuals. I also strongly recommend cross-training or “switching hats” periodically so that each member of the team is well-versed in all the elements of a good social media plan.

The Four Hats of Social Media

  1. The first is the listening hat — no earflaps on this one. In this role, the team member is responsible for creating, maintaining and monitoring alerts and feeds that capture mention of the business or brand name, industry news and other related content. This person will spend about an hour a day scrolling through a feed reader, flagging mentions to share or follow up and thinking about trends in online conversation.
  2. The second hat is the connecting hat — I like to think of this hat as the sorting hat as in Harry Potter. For some people this role will come naturally; this is often the person who leaps at the chance to go to networking events and as soon as she has business cards, is reaching out to new acquaintances to connect with them and follow up online. This person keeps an eye on the social networks of the leaders in the organization and facilitates and encourages connections among community members.
  3. The third hat is not unlike those crazy things the Queen wears — real conversation starters. This is the engagement hat — and the role of the person wearing this getup is responsible for asking questions, making offers, responding, replying and generally keeping the community conversation rolling. 
  4. The fourth hat I picture as an old newsroom fedora with the press card displayed prominently in the brim. This is the publisher’s hat, the one responsible for gathering or creating content, for taking existing content, breaking it into bite-sized pieces and posting it on the Internet, representing the company, its services and its people.

Clearly smaller businesses or organizations will need to have one or two people wear all four hats — but the good news is that some can easily be worn simultaneously. It’s even possible to wear all four (I do, and man does my head get hot!) It’s important, though, if you do try to segment the activities, that a regular schedule of switching, or covering roles for one another occurs, so the entire team is comprehensively cross-trained.

How does your team manage multiple roles?

Mar 02
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Social Media Therapy: Keeping my Eye on the Zuckerberg Prize

By Social Media

If you follow me in all the various places online, you know that a) I hurt my back awhile ago b) I have been going to physical therapy to get better and c) the injury woke me up to the need to get in shape and follow a plan to do so.

The good news is that all I’m doing is working — really working. And even though it is sometimes painful or I don’t feel like it, the exercises, eating right and getting increasingly more active are going to have the results I desire.

I was propped up after a grueling session, with a heating pad on my knee and the issue of Time with Zuckerberg on the cover, thinking about physical therapy and social media.

There are many similarities between following a strategic digital communications plan and a self-improvement plan.

  1. You enter with your goals in mind. With my healthy-living plan I’m losing weight and strengthening my core so I get pressure off my arthritic knees and avoid injuring my back again. With social media, you should begin knowing that you want the work to result in establishing you as a thought leader in your industry, or in increased sales that help you make your business goals. It doesn’t matter what the goals are, as long as they’ve been defined.
  2. In social media as in exercise, you can’t just do it once here and there and expect results. You can’t binge exercise then sit on the couch for a month. It takes consistent effort and renewed challenges. My physical therapist will ask me how I feel and if I’m not groaning too much, will make me do another set of exercises. Challenge yourself — if you get used to doing one blog post a week, challenge yourself to crank out two.
  3. You can’t cheat. I know that if I eat that donut and don’t enter the points using my Weight Watchers tools, I still ate the donut, and if I do that too often, I’m not only not going to lose the weight, I’m going to gain weight. Since I really, really want to slim down, not just for summer, or my son’s upcoming wedding, but for life, then cheating becomes less attractive. You can’t cheat social media either — people try to hire someone else to do it for them, or sacrifice authenticity and engagement by relying too much on automated actions. To create lasting relationships, you’ve got to be there, and you’ve got to stick it out.

I’m paying attention to the techniques the physical therapists use to keep me motivated so I can apply them to clients struggling to stick with a social media plan. And as I stick to both my healthy living plan and my own social media pursuits, I will keep picturing myself (a fit and thin me) on a future cover of Time.

 

Mar 01
Love0

Jaggers Communications Announces 2011 Community Partner: Shenandoah National Park

By Jaggers Communications News

Jaggers Communications Announces 2011 Community Partner:  Shenandoah National Park
Firm will support 75th Anniversary Outreach

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (March 1, 2011) – Jaggers Communications, a strategic communications firm with a growing presence in Charlottesville, announces the Shenandoah National Park will be its local pro bono community partner for 2011.  The firm will develop an integrated social media and overall communications plan to support Shenandoah National Park’s 75th Anniversary year of celebrations and noteworthy events.

“We are delighted to have been selected as this year’s community partner,” said Martha Bogle, superintendent of Shenandoah National Park.  “With the help of Jaggers Communications’ expertise, we will generate more awareness of the Park and the many events and offerings during the 75th Anniversary Celebration year.”

Jaggers Communications provides a positive impact to the communities in which it has a presence by selecting a nonprofit organization to work with on a pro-bono basis each year. “We believe it is critical to give back to the communities where we live and work,” explained Marijean Jaggers, president and owner of the firm.  “Shenandoah National Park has so many great stories to tell and, as a cherished part of my own back yard, I’m honored to have a role in sharing those stories in our community during the celebrated 75th anniversary.”

About Shenandoah National Park

Shenandoah National Park encompasses part of the Blue Ridge Mountains in the state of Virginia and is  long and narrow, with the broad Shenandoah River and valley on the west side and the rolling hills of the Virginia Piedmont on the east. Although likely the most prominent feature of the Park is the scenic Skyline Drive, almost 40 percent of the 79,579 acres has been designated as wilderness and is protected as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Shenandoah National Park was dedicated on July 3, 1936 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Throughout 2011, Shenandoah celebrates its 75th Anniversary with events and special offerings. Learn more at www.celebrateshenandoah.org

About Jaggers Communications

Jaggers Communications applies experience to help businesses and nonprofits reach their business goals through strategic marketing, content creation, public relations and social media. Jaggers Communications provides organizations in the health care, education, manufacturing, travel and tourism industries with social media consulting, public relations support and reputation management strategy. The firm was founded in 2011 to serve businesses and nonprofits with a need for cost-effective, strategic communications with effective reach. www.jaggerscommunications.com

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