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Jaggers Communications

Jul 21
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Social Media Assignment # 11: Find Your Top 5 Ambassadors on Klout

By Social Media

Stop and think for a minute: do you know who your best customers are? Do you know who the ambassadors are — the people who are most likely spreading positive word of mouth about you, your products and services?

You’ve been using Twitter for business for some time, and have established a following. If you’ve been engaging with the community, you have, no doubt, attracted people who support you and share what you tweet. Klout is a site that measures Twitter influence, but it has additional business benefit. It helps you identify who on Twitter is most influenced by your Twitter feed and to learn their potential for carrying that influence forward.

Let’s take the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport Twitter feed as an example. @CHOAirport uses its feed to provide airport news updates, special deals and other information. The account is managed by the executive director of the airport, Barbara Hutchinson. In addition, posts to the airport’s Facebook page, managed by my firm and an airport employee, update the Twitter feed as well.

If we look at the top five people the @CHOAirport account influences, we see some strong relationships emerge.

I see myself at the top, and I should hope so, since the airport is a client! Second is Jeff Uphoff, an airport commission member, pilot and frequent flier. Jeff is someone who helps spread airport news regularly. The third is the local news weather team. The airport has a partnership with The Newsplex and hosts a weathercam that looks out over the runway.

Relay Foods shares CHO’s philosophy of  supporting local business. Allison Linney is a local business owner who flies frequently, always flies CHO, and enjoys spreading the word on behalf of other Charlottesville businesses.

At a glance, you can see the Klout scores of each of these ambassadors. When the airport shares valuable information via Twitter, these people often retweet that information to their followers. The sharing and number of people reached grows exponentially. It’s fast, effective and measurable.

Do you know who the ambassadors for your business are right now? Has it changed, or could it change? What are you doing to reward and reciprocate with those who participate in your community?

Jun 13
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Businesses: Backing into Blogging

By Communications

It’s funny how businesses have thrown themselves into Twitter and Facebook interaction without backing up and considering blogging. Many of them have blogs that were once established but now, sadly neglected. To what do they link on these other platforms, if not ever their own valuable content? While I endorse the use of social networks to engage with and build a community, doing so without a blog is very odd.

Businesses need blogs for several reasons.

  1. A blog will create organic search engine optimization. Nothing is more valuable to a business than a website with frequently updated content as a method of activating the search engines and attracting customers to your business’ content.
  2. Blog content demonstrates thought leadership — if you can say all you have to say 140 characters at a time, be my guest, but most of us need a bit more room to demonstrate our wealth of knowledge on a particular topic.
  3. A blog creates an archive of information that represents your business. It’s common for a visitor to your website to spend time on several pages of content — give them a reason to stick around.
  4. Blogging helps create relationships between the business and its customers. When visitors read content by individuals in the business, they come to know those people and relationships form over time. Allow this to happen; it’s powerful stuff.
  5. Blogging helps businesses figure out who they are. Due to two-way conversation, invited feedback and discussion and often the process of writing and working things out with words, sometimes businesses have watershed moments and redefine their mission. It’s very cool to watch.

If your business has jumped into Twitter and Facebook based on peer pressure, but has skipped blogging entirely let me know. Why? And do you agree that it’s time to start blogging?

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!

Apr 15
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Facebook Business Page Boot Camp

By Communications

The last few weeks have had me teaching members of the business community in workshops and internal meetings how to use social media and specifically social networking as a method of building business relationships.

What has emerged most frequently is a demand for education and help with creating Facebook pages for business — and then, a plan and assistance with what to do with the page once it exists.

This need has led me to develop Facebook Business Boot Camp, a workshop for businesses who are new to Facebook, who need to learn about the platform and marketing uses from the ground up. Facebook has very specific guidelines for how businesses can offer promotions, run contests and communicate with fans. It’s important to understand these, and be in compliance as well as taking advantage of the potential to reach millions with your message on a site that attracts users for hours every week.

The first workshop will be May 5, 9am to 11am in Charlottesville.

Register today!