Dec 21
Love0

Businesses: Why I Won’t Be Your Friend on Facebook

By Communications

It happened again just a moment ago. A local restaurant sent me a friend request on Facebook. This, one of dozens I’ve ignored, put me right over the edge.

Friends celebrate your birthday. Friends check up on you when you’re sick. Friends call you and invite you to go out.

It’s one of my pet peeves, I guess, people deciding their business needs to be on Facebook but, because they haven’t taken the time to learn how to do it right, they’re setting up profiles and sending friend requests to everyone in the community.

I will “like” your Facebook page but I WILL NOT BE YOUR FRIEND (and let’s face it, you’re not going to be mine, either.)

You’re Doing it Wrong!

In case you’re one of these offenders, realize this: if you are using Facebook as the representative of a business (I mostly see restaurants doing this) then what you want to do is set up an official business page. You will do this from YOUR profile — the one you set up with your name as a human being.

Profiles are for humans.

Pages are for businesses.

If you’re accepting friend requests from businesses you’re not doing them any favors – they will be limited by having a Facebook profile instead of a page. So turn them down, and if you have an extra second or two, let them know that what they want is a PAGE, not a profile.

Dec 20
Love0

The Fish! Philosophy and a Book Giveaway

By Social Media

Fish!
A few jobs ago, I worked for a great company that was trying very hard to improve itself. While there, I was part of the management team and was introduced to a concept called the Fish! Philosophy.

I love Fish! and have tried to use the ideas and the training I received in every workplace I’ve had ever since. I always thought, if I ever have my own company, that’s what I’m going to use to keep my team and me focused and enjoying our work.

To celebrate a new beginning and the launch of Jaggers Communications, I want to share Fish! with you.

There are four principles of the Fish! Philosophy:

  1. Play
  2. Make Their Day
  3. Be Present
  4. Choose Your Attitude

It seems very simple but it takes effort to really put this philosophy into action. There’s a wonderful little book I’d like to share with you so you can consider taking Fish! to your workplace, too.

In the comments, tell me about something you’ve learned on the job that made a big difference in how you work.

On December 23, at midnight, the contest will end.  I will use a random number generator to choose one winner of the Fish! Philosophy book. (Winner will be announced December 24, 2010, Christmas Eve.)


Update:  Our winner (determined by random number generator based on comments below) is Soccer Mom! Congratulations!

Thank you to all of you for the comments and Merry Christmas!

Dec 17
Love0

Hallelujah: Social Media and the Church

By Social Media

Reverend J. shot me a note on Facebook, looking for advice on how his church should or could be using social media.  So we had an old-school conversation via telephone (whoa!) to discuss it. Churches that have adopted social media have found success and nothing made social media go more mainstream within faith-based organizations than when the Catholic church (perhaps the slowest-t0-change religion of all) endorsed the use of social media to communicate with others and those outside the church. In other words, when the Pope has a YouTube channel, it’s time to pay attention to social media across other denominations.

Rev. J had three main questions.

1. Should we be using Twitter? (with a side comment of, “I just don’t get Twitter.”)

2. What should we do first?

3. What about YouTube?

These are all good questions.  Now, the answers:

1. We did some research using Tweepz to determine how many active users were in the congregation’s small town. There weren’t many, but the search turned up a faith-based user and several users in an adjacent community. Given the low adoption of Twitter in the Rev’s community, I recommended he watch the conversation. It’s likely the Twitter community will grow, but creating an account and starting to follow the local conversation as well as looking for other faith-based organizations will, no doubt, lead to inspiration, helping the Rev. to “get” Twitter. If nothing else, Rev. J. should know that Twitter represents a huge opportunity to drive people to the church’s web-based content. And, I said, you never know when someone may be seeking prayers via a tweet.

2. There are 500 million active Facebook users. My estimate is that a good 70 percent of the congregation has a Facebook profile and of these, at least half are on Facebook daily. I’m not making these stats up. It’s good to go to the people, when you know where the people are. It’s also likely that church members will enjoy gathering online as much (more?) as they do gathering in the sanctuary. As a method of spreading the word virtually and growing the flock, Facebook is a winner, as often we find that friends have influential power over us. If one of my friends belongs to a church and is enthusiastically sharing the church’s content, inviting friends to events and generally making me aware of the church and its offerings AND if I happen to be seeking a church . . . I will certainly have my friend’s church in my field of vision.

3. Video is extremely important to consider as a marketing and PR tool. YouTube is the #2 search engine, second only to Google. Turns out, video is a cake walk for the church — music is a big part of the church’s services and events and is often recorded. Since video is easier than ever to capture and upload, the church has a real opportunity to share it’s musical ministry online. Sharing clips of services on YouTube (and then, across platforms including — and very importantly — on the church’s website “home base”) to introduce and invite people to visit and perhaps join the church is a great idea. Even if sharing the church’s musical ministry doesn’t bring in a single new member of the congregation, people may find what the church has to offer, right when they need it the most. And that’s part of a church’s mission, right?

Social media and ministry go together like nuns and comfortable shoes. Harness the power of social media to reach the people right where they are and without a doubt, your congregation will grow.

Dec 16
Love0

The Four-Step Framework for Nonprofits Thinking about Social Media

By Social Media

I spend a lot of my time coaching and teaching nonprofit organizations on how to use social media. It’s not that simple of a task to take on, and nonprofits should not take the plunge into the social web lightly. It is super important for nonprofits to take this seriously and start getting organized — the tools of social media are free and more effective than any other marketing or mass media tactics used by nonprofits in the past.

There is a simple four-step framework for organizations to think about and to use to guide the process of developing a plan to use social media.

1. Read. Watch. Listen.

There are multiple tools to monitor what’s being said on the social web, but the important thing is to identify your geographic community, the search terms to look and listen for, the bloggers, the news feeds, the Twitter users — and to create all these searches in easy-to-follow alerts and notifications so you can quickly and efficiently stay on top of what is important to your community and, what your community is saying about your organization as well. You’re going to be watching videos, reading blogs and news items, following Twitter users and overall, paying attention to the content created in and about your community.

2. Find and Connect to Your Community.

The definition of community is not limited to geography. Sometimes geography plays a role; sometimes it does not. Maybe your community is the people in Ohio who love Soft-Coated Wheaten Terriers. Maybe the community is comprised of only people who have a rare and particular kind of disease. No matter — a community is a group that has one or more interests in common. Find them by searching for them and inviting them to your network. Find them and follow their content. Find them by uploading the contacts you have already made professionally, as a student, as a family member and a community member into your social networking platforms (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and connect to the people who already have a presence in these social networks.

3. Interact with the Community.

Answer a question. Reply to a tweet or re-tweet something others will find of interest. Click that “like” button often. Leave comments on blogs and on Facebook. Share other people’s links often. Be helpful. And — when the opportunity presents itself for your community to get together in person — at a conference, a tweetup or just for a cup of coffee, go and put faces with names.

4. Produce Valuable Content.

Take photos and publish them. Blog. Tweet. Make a video and post it to YouTube. Create interesting and thoughtful content and share it with your community to help them, make them stronger, to bring them together (and on and on).

It’s a simple framework, but not a simple execution — but it may help your organization take the first step toward getting a handle on how to tackle social media for the community’s benefit.

Dec 14
Love0

Introducing Jaggers Communications

By Jaggers Communications News, Uncategorized

Yesterday, I shared news on my personal blog that makes the focus of this blog a bit more evident. You may have even noticed some changes around this site, such as the introduction of a new page and a new business name.

I’m very pleased to announce that beginning January 3, 2011, I will launch Jaggers Communications. I will be using my experience in agency and corporate communications work to help businesses and nonprofits reach their business goals through strategic marketing, content creation, public relations and social media.

The tag line in the logo says it all – the work provided by Jaggers Communications is strategic — there will always be a correlation between our clients’ business goals and the communications efforts we produce on their behalf. We’re social — as in, we use social networks, social media and social strategy as a vehicle to drive a campaign forward. Social will always be an element of an overall strategic communications plan — not the plan itself. Smart is not only about using our brains to support your business, it’s about developing goals that are specific, measurable, actionable, realistically high and time-bound. SMART. See?

There are four industry categories we will continue to serve: health care, education, tourism and manufacturing (especially of the green variety.)

I am indebted to the reputation management firm Standing Partnership, my employer for the past five years, for giving me the experience, the confidence and the blessing to go out on my own and continue as my mentors and friends.

I am eagerly anticipating the adventure that awaits and I look forward to working for, and collaborating with many new friends and established contacts.