Category

Social Media

Feb 22
Love0

Truly Tasteless Tweets: The Hook Rides the Huguely Trial Trend

By Social Media

In the Twitterverse, the hashtag is used to assist users searching or following a particular topic. When there is breaking news or a popular conversation happening online, a particular hashtag might trend. In Charlottesville, and even nationally, the trial of a UVa student for the murder of a fellow UVa student has been trending with the hashtag of the accused’s last name: #Huguely.

In an appalling twist, a local newsweekly has decided to capitalize on the trend, tweeting the hashtag and connecting it to local restaurant features. A sampling of the offensive tweets appears below.

Brands much bigger than The Hook have tried this technique with disastrous results: Entenmann’s and Kenneth Cole have both tried “hashtag stuffing” making themselves look like complete asses. 

 

Interesting that The Hook is following suit.

What do you think of this practice?

 

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/readthehook/status/172392738942234625″]

 

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/readthehook/status/172394090284060672″]

 

[blackbirdpie url=”https://twitter.com/#!/readthehook/status/172402617123745792″]
Feb 21
Love0

How to Tweet like a Total Douchebag

By Social Media
  1. Disrespect the hashtag. Use it frequently and with no real purpose. Ignore the fact that hashtags exist to enable useful searches or to allow users to find one another. Nope. Just put a hashtag in front of every word you think makes you #awesome.
  2. Wear a suit and tie in your profile shot. Or, if you’re a woman, make sure it’s one of those Glamour shots from the mall. In any case, make sure it’s impossible to distinguish you from other douchebags when spotted on the street or in the airport. (You’re important so you’re flying around a lot, right?)
  3. Make sure you mention your clients/customers/people who are paying you the big bucks in as many tweets as possible. It makes you legit.
  4. Don’t ever forget to tell us what a killer workout you just had. You’re inspiring us!
  5. Even if you’re not a true celebrity, make sure your Twitter name begins with “the real;” you know; how else are we going to know it’s you, for sure?

Feb 14
Love0

Chipotle Commercial and Reputation Management

By Communications, Public Relations, Social Media

My friend Nick Sargent wrote about the Chipotle commercial that debuted during the Grammy awards.  The commercial is causing a lot of buzz among those interested in agribusiness, the local food movement and Chipotle fans in general.

It was appropriate to bring up and share during a discussion with a client whose work is at the center of the local and natural foods movement yesterday. We watched it together and shared some reactions. Someone commented, “Isn’t Chipotle owned by McDonald’s?”

McDonald’s, often villified (see Supersize Me) and taking it on the chin often, as the symbol of the entire fast food industry WAS in fact, the majority owner of Chipotle from 1998 to 2006 but it is no longer. 

Since, clearly people still associate the two (oughta work on that aspect of your reputation management, Chipotle), McDonald’s wisely chose this opportunity to release the news that they are phasing out “tiny cages for pigs,” the very image the television ad offers up.

 What do you think of the campaign?

 

 

 

Feb 07
Love0

Wahooptie: Rolling in the Social

By Social Media

What is a Wahooptie, you might ask, if you’re not from Charlottesville, have visited Charlottesville or otherwise have some tie to the University of Virginia. A Wahooptie is a cab; not just a cab, a taxi service, a line of limousines, a brightly colored fleet prepared to deliver you safely from point A to point B anywhere in Central Virginia.

This, is a Wahooptie:

Ummm Hmmm.

I’ve enjoyed Wahooptie interaction via Twitter and observed an active Facebook page (smart place to engage college students). But I was MOST impressed with the service’s presence on my wrist when I attended a recent concert at the Jefferson Theater.

Wahooptie sponsored the wristbands and included a QR code for a ride home in case concert attendees had too much to drink. This has my vote for most useful QR code placement (although I wonder how often it’s used.) I could envision a friend scanning another friend’s wristband and ushering them into a hot pink limousine, easily. Who doesn’t want a ride home in that kind of style?

What useful QR codes have you seen? 

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Feb 06
Love0

5 Ways to Protect your Social Media Investment

By Social Media

I hate it I see a client letting their online reputation go … it’s so obvious, too. The neglected blog, the missing updates, the long delay (or lack of) responses; it’s frustrating for those of us who really appreciate social interaction with brands we support.

A couple of weeks ago I used Twitter and Facebook to try to pin down the location of a food truck I like. SEVEN days later the person behind the Twitter account told me where the food truck was that day. Too bad it was a full week ago that I was interested.

If you’ve set up a presence for your business or, if you’re a sole proprietor, yourself in social media, here are five simple ways to make sure you’re protecting the investment of your time and the reputation of your brand:

  1. If you’ve “gone fishin'” leave a note behind or hand over the reigns to a trusted associate to manage the presence while you’re out.
  2. Create a schedule for yourself — and stick to it. If you can manage interaction three times a week (and mean it!) then get it done.
  3. Set alarms, calendar appointments, visits from the goon squad or your Uncle Vinnie — whatever works — just set an effective reminder to hold yourself accountable to maintaining your presence.
  4. Find a way to keep it personally rewarding — examine what you, personally get out of online interaction and focus on that element.
  5. Reward yourself! When you set goals that are realistically high but attainable, celebrate it when you achieve them. Go ahead. Buy yourself a little something, just for making it to the end of this very important blog post.