Measuring Twitter Engagment

I’ve discussed measurement all semester, and this time it’s about my Twitter account.

Promoting yourself or your brand on social can be very helpful. You can tell how effective your social media efforts are by measuring them, with tools like those that are provided on Hootsuite.

I did just that in order to see how successful my efforts are on Twitter.

Identify a firm, key influencers, a job and skills needed to be a successful candidate, do you feel more or less prepared to succeed after taking this class?

Although my followers on Twitter increased throughout the semester, especially in the last few days, I still would like to reach out to more public relations firms and key influencers. This class has set me up to use Twitter to my advantage, but I need to continue my activity on this platform.

How does your blog and the information you are sharing with others through social media is enhancing your online reputation – both personally and professionally.

The blog has been very helpful in not only enhancing, but also really creating my online reputation in a professional way. This blog has allowed me to show my knowledge of digital public relations in a way that attracts readers and does not bog them down with boring, textbook-like information.

What characteristics that have helped build your online reputation (ex. personality characteristics, information sharing behavior, engaging consistently and professionally with followers and others through social media).

My lighthearted and somewhat humorous tone has helped build my online reputation. When promoting my blog and other content across my social media accounts I try to keep my wording and calls to action short and sweet and conversational. I feel that this makes people feel comfortable with engaging with me. Also, when trying to get people to read blogs about something as tedious as digital public relations, it helps to lightening things up.

Which Hootsuite report did you choose to run? Discuss results.

To measure my social media presence, I focused on twitter and ran a Twitter summary report through Hootsuite.

I was pleased to see an increase in my follower growth. The somewhat large increase in

followers that happened at the end of November coincided with a few humorous tweets, which shows that my tactic of using humor and happiness when engaging with my followers does work.

What were your perceptions before and after this assignment in regards to online reputation management?

First, being able to measure and view my digital footprint has always been very interesting to me. I was especially curious about my digital footprint after this semester, as my Online and Digital PR class has made me more active on social media than I have ever been before. I am pleased to see that I have had a growth in followers. Seeing this growth makes me excited to continue my activity on Twitter to keep increasing my followers and presence on Twitter!

The importance and helpfulness of measuring social media presence and your digital footprint cannot be understated. It can tell you what tactics are working, which aren’t, and can be helpful for shaping your digital strategy.

By measuring my digital footprint and retaining the social media knowledge I have gained through my Online and Digital PR class, I will become more competitive professionally and can widen my reach on my personal accounts as well.

 

Connecting the App Challenge

A look at the Target App

Can Target get better? Yes, with the use of its app.

Why: We fulfill the needs and fuel the potential of our guests. That means making Target your preferred shopping destination in all channels by delivering outstanding value, continuous innovation, and exceptional experiences—consistently fulfilling our Expect More. Pay Less. ^® brand promise.

 

Key Demographics/ Psychographics:

• Median age of 40
• Median household income of approx. $64K
• Approximately 43% have children at home
• About 57% have completed college

 

Social Media Summary

Channel	Profile Name	URL	Audience
Facebook	Target	https://www.facebook.com/target?_rdr=p	23,051,671
Twitter	Target	https://twitter.com/target	1.7 million
LinkedIn	Target	https://www.linkedin.com/company/target	474,182
Pinterest	Target	https://www.pinterest.com/target/	341,800
YouTube	Target	https://www.youtube.com/user/Target	85,989
Instagram	target(lowercased on this platform)	https://www.instagram.com/target/	1 million
Vine	Target	https://vine.co/target	85,700

 

Channel	Website Icons	Website CTAs	App Icons	App CTAs
Facebook	Yes	Yes	No	No
Twitter	Yes	Yes	No	No
LinkedIn	Yes	Yes- to corporate site	No	No
Pinterest	Yes	Yes	No	No
YouTube	No	No	No	No
Instagram	Yes	Yes	No	No
Vine	Yes	No	No	No

 

• Unless I looked for their app in the app store or have been told by employees, I would not have known there was one based on their social media or website.

App Summary

The Target app includes a home page showing discounts and new products, a place to make a list, search box, a shopping cart, and a place to augment your account.

There is also a feature called Cartwheel. Cartwheel is a free savings program that allows you to save discounts and scan the barcode at checkout for savings from 5-50%. Cartwheel is also available as its own app.

 

The Cartwheel feature encourages repeat business, and therefore, customer loyalty. By offering discounts on everyday products and not having to join a program, people will be willing to shop at Target instead of comparable stores.

 

The app does not provide gamification opportunities. It is straight forward, which fits their audience of 40-year-old people, who typically are busy and look for good deals.

 

Calls to Action

There were only two noticeable CTAs present on the app.

• View the weekly ad
• View the Black Friday preview

There were offers for discounts on the home page of the app, but no legitimate calls to action.

Content Analysis

 The Target app is a native app. That design has some positive aspects:

• Because it is not running through a browser, the app runs quickly.
• It is optimized for specific screen sizes, which makes the user’s experience better.

 

The Target website is designed responsively. I found this to be especially nice when changing how I hold my phone, from landscape to portrait. Target’s website and app offer mainly the same things, the app is easier to navigate and shop on.

 

Secret Shopper Experience

I was pleased with my experience at Target and with their employees. I asked one employee about the app while I was shopping, and they concisely told me what it provides. At checkout, the cashier told me about the Cartwheel app without any prompting. If I was Target’s CMO or CDO I would be very happy with the employee responses. Their personal calls to action informed me of the different ways to engage with Target on my phone, and they highlighted what I would get out of in a way that caught my interest.

In the store, there were visual calls to action to download the regular app as well as the Cartwheel app.

 

Recommendation

 I recommend that Target advertise their app on their various social media platforms and website.

According to the Pew Research Center, just over 77% of people age 30-49 use social media. That age group includes Target’s main audience of 40-year-olds.

That is a large group of socially active people that could shop more easily through the Target app, thus increasing Target’s earnings.

 

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networking-usage-2005-2015/

Target should use CTAs on the home page of their website. This would be especially helpful if people were accessing the website on their phones and could use the app instead.

On social media, I recommend Target include information about their app on their home or about pages. Also, they should integrate CTAs for the app in their social media posts.

In order to appeal to their target audience, I would focus on Facebook as the main platform to market the app on.

 

 

Data Visualization

Infographics

Getting people to notice your content can be difficult. Getting them to remember your content or information can be even more difficult.

One way to help people consume and remember your content is to use infographics.

Here is an infographic which explains why data visualization is so helpful.

Data visualizations also make your content more attractive to your audience. Infographics or graphs grab people’s attention.

Data visualization also makes content easier to consume. In the fast paced world we live in, time is a hot commodity. If you can make your content easier to read, you may just win some readers that may have passed your content by.

Infographics can come in handy for any number of topics or tasks you are taking on.

There are great services like Piktochart and Canva, both of which offer free options that help you make any kind of infographics you want.

Get creative, it will pay off!

 

Data Source: http://info.shiftelearning.com/blog/bid/350326/Studies-Confirm-the-Power-of-Visuals-in-eLearning

Personal Social Media Audit

How Am I Doing on Social Media?

Why: I want to convey competence and relevance in the digital age as a public relations professional.

Goals and Tactics

Goal: Become a credible source for information and opinions on topics within the public relations field.

• Tactic: Increase social media presence by posting pertinent information about PR as well as appropriate personal posts
• Tactic: Interact with my audience when they comment or share my content
• Tactic: Build relationships with other public relations professionals or students on social media.

Goal: Build a personal brand that reflects adeptness and adaptability on social media platforms

• Tactic: Follow public relations brands and blogs.
• Tactic: Share quality content from brands I follow on my own social platforms.
• Tactic: Create my own content through posts and my blog.

Goal: Have varied public relations experiences to discuss during interviews

• Tactic: Exhibit and explain my varied social media presence in a professional manner.
• Tactic: Discuss various customer service like experiences I have been in and how they pertain to different public relations situations.

Goal: Hone my writing skills for different situations

• Tactic: Become proficient at blogging.
• Tactic: Have the correct tone for different topics.
• Tactic: Create powerful and concise social media messages.
• Tactic: Display strong professional writing.

Goal: Master the more elusive social media platform of SnapChat

• Tactic: Use SnapChat frequently to learn all of the possibilities its filters and features offer.
• Tactic: Watch the various SnapChat stories of other brands on the platform; note what they do well and do not do well.

Goal: Learn and display quick thinking and reactions in different situations.

• Tactic: Read various case studies to learn how different brands handle different situations.
• Tactic: Analyze case studies as well as every-day occurrences and decide how I would react if I was the PR professional in charge.

Reputation Audit

I do somewhat well on cross-channel promotion. I have social media icons on my blog. I share my blog on Facebook and Twitter. I have a call to action to in my Instagram biography to read my blog and my twitter handle so people can follow me. I also share my blog on LinkedIn.

SEO

            When searching my name in Google, the results were better than I thought they would be. The fourth result was my LinkedIn page. However, there are quite a few people with my name so I need to work on creating a larger Internet footprint so my name and profiles are found before other peoples are.

I previously did not have a Google Alert on my name. I have created a Google Alert to help me gauge how much I need to increase my efforts to make my information and profiles easier to find.

Blog Stats

When I first started my blog almost no one read it. My blog only had a few visitors during its first few weeks. It then slightly increased, because I harassed my family about reading it. Then I started syndicating my blog on my Twitter, personal Facebook and Facebook page. This made my viewership increase significantly. As of this weekend, I have had 34 views. One of my blogs was commented on, but thus far I have had no mentions of my blog.

Klout Score

            My Klout score is 43.43. Although that is somewhat low, it is a major increase from my score at the beginning of the semester, which was the base score of 10.

Key Performance Indicators

• Increase my Klout score by 12%, from 43.43 to 48.64.
• Increase my Facebook Page likes from 0 to 15.
• Increase my blog views from 30 to 45.

Templates and Social Media Strategy

While on social media do you ever think about how you would design a brand’s graphics if you were in charge?

As a public relations student, I do because I know social media will more than likely be an important facet of my job. I feel overwhelmed while just thinking theoretically about this, let alone having to do designing a brand’s graphics in real life.

But, something called templates for digital engagement has come along and saved me some anxiety.

To be exact, a template is a format for a document, used so the format does not have to be recreated each time it is used.

After reading that, your first thought probably is that templates save time.

Yes, that is true. Templates allow you to create a message quickly so the entire message creation process can go as quickly as possible.

Speed is especially important in a digital world, hence templates hold a special place in a social media strategist’s toolbox.

Templates also guard against possible mistakes that can happen when crafting messages.

A template will most likely have been thoroughly vetted and approved for use, and, therefore, is basically perfect. It is one less thing to worry about when making a new document to engage with your audience.

A huge part of digital strategy is making your brand known and recognizable. Templates help with that as well.

Creating a design that goes with your brand is the first step. Then, the more you use that branded template, the more people will recognize it and viola! People know your brand and you get a promotion for your genius template and message.

Although templates may seem like something large companies do, they can benefit any size company.

If you or the company you are a part of do not use them I hope you think about doing so after reading the helpful aspects of them.

Templates are a key player in the world of digital asset management, and help keep workflows running smoothly.

Digital Audit

The Sam’s Club approach to social media

Written in collaboration with lydiaclink.blogspot.com 

We conducted a social media audit of the Sam’s Club brand in class recently. We looked at the platforms they are active on, the content they post, and how they interact with their audiences.

Platforms

Sam’s Club is active on Twitter, Facebook, Google + and Instagram, and have inactive accounts on YouTube and Pinterest.

The brand posts three to four times a week on its active accounts but has not posted anything for several months on their inactive account.

Sam’s Club has a mobile app but only current members can use this app, so it does not engage with prospective consumers. We also don’t know if the app interacts with other platforms.

Content

Sam’s Club does an excellent job producing original content and cross-promoting it on their platforms.

For example, when they had samples of Sea Cuisine’s fish tacos, they posted an enticing picture in their posts, mentioning the brand @SeaCuisine on applicable platforms.

We did notice that Sam’s Club posted a video about tailgating gear on Facebook but not on YouTube. This seems like a missed opportunity of easy cross-promotion.

Interactions

Each Sam’s Club post has a call to action (CTA), encouraging their audiences to engage with the brand. Most of the CTAs are to visit local Sam’s Club locations and try samples or buy products.

Instead of responding to individual posts or tweets, Sam’s Club generally asks those with questions or concerns to directly message the brand so they can respond privately and with personal answers.

Sam’s Club maintains a very professional and concise tone on social media. They use short sentences to convey clear messages, although the brand does use hashtags on Instagram to keep content relevant in current discussions.

Impressions

While Sam’s Club does a great job cross-promoting their original content, we would encourage the brand to utilize a more personal touch, like hashtags and more public engagement with their audience.

Because Sam’s Club is a retailer and most of the brand’s posts are about products, we also think Pinterest would be an ideal platform for this brand to develop and be more active on.

Some Facts on Pew Research

Research for a Social Media Audit

When starting a public relations campaign research is an integral place to start. Nowadays in our social media crazy world, an audit of your client’s social media accounts is a key piece of research.

When doing a social media audit, you should look into the target audience’s demographics and psychographics. But when looking into those things, where do you get your information? Are all statistics you find trustworthy?

A great place to find a wide range of statistics for research is the Pew Research Center. You have probably heard of this place, but what exactly is it?

According to their website, http://www.pewresearch.org , they are a “nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world.”

The Pew Research Center covers many topics that include politics, public life and global attitudes and trends. They also have a section devoted to social trends that could be very helpful in a communications field like public relations.

When looking through their website, the things that stuck out as most important to me are that Pew is nonpartisan as well as nonprofit. That ensures that there is no incentive for them to skew their data to benefit any certain person or group. Their data can be trusted.

Pew has been a trusted source of research information for 25 years. Many news organizations use Pew data, including NPR and USA Today.

With those facts in mind, I know I would trust and look to Pew for information for many projects, including a social media audit.

The nerd in me may even come out and read some studies just for the heck of it.

Digital Biography

Hi! Nice to Meet You (Insert Firm Handshake Here)

While in college, I got the experience to be in on the ground floor of a program that makes a difference in people’s lives. I am part of a group that founded the Bayless Board within the Honors College at Texas Tech, through which we mentor at Bayless Elementary.

I also am the treasurer for the Bayless Board. Work experience is very important, but I feel more passionate about volunteer experience than work. Mentoring at Bayless has been the most rewarding volunteer experience I have ever had.

I am currently a junior at Texas Tech University and am pursuing a degree in public relations and minor in political science.

I currently babysit and have done so almost every day for the past three years. Being the person who is responsible for someone else’s children has made me realize it is an important job, and it has given me first-hand experience of time management and responsibility.

I am also currently interning in Congressman Randy Neugebauer’s office. I have learned how to interact with different people in situations that can be strenuous at times and how to serve those people in the most courteous manner possible.

I am interested in practicing public relations in the non-profit field when I graduate. Working for NPR is my dream job.

Going ‘Nuts’ for Digital Measurement

A Case Study of Social Media Measurement

Getting people excited about almonds seems about as easy as….getting people excited about almonds. As a public relations professional or agency, you will come upon tasks like that, just as Porter Novelli did last January.

The Almond Board of California came to them with the goal of getting more attention for almonds as a ‘healthy snack swap’ and to garner attention for National Almond Day, which is February 16 for those of you who don’t have it marked on your calendar.

The main strategy the agency focused on was creating shareable digital content. The tactic that worked for incorporation with the strategy was posting images along with healthy almond snack suggestions or recipes to Instagram every day during February.

That tactic was helpful not only to the agency but to the Almond Board of California because audience interaction on social media is easy to measure and report on. Also, in order to realize the success or failure of this campaign the agency could compare the likes or other interaction stemming from this campaign with their Instagram interaction during other times of the year.

What the Measurement Showed

The Instagram campaign was a great success.

• The pictures and accompanying text they posted averaged 29 likes,
  almost double the likes the Almond Board of California gets on other posts.
• Instagram followers increased 57.45%
• Overall engagement increased by 22%.
• The posts on social media led to a 10% increase in traffic to the Almonds.com website.

Those results were powerful findings Porter Novelli could bring to the CEO of the Almond Board of California. The social media campaign increased the brands reach and drew more people to their website. The social media campaign based on showing examples of different ways to snack with almonds executed the goal of gaining attention for almonds as a healthy, but delicious snack. And also, the increase in traffic to the Almond Board of California’s website undoubtedly increased people’s awareness of National Almond Day.

http://www.prweek.com/article/1343220/health-messaging-success-nutty-campaign

http://www.almonds.com/

DRM: Good in Theory

What You Need to Know about DRM

It’s a pretty basic notion that people should get paid for the work they produce. People’s content should not be reproduced without some kind of reimbursement right?

In the digital world, copyright laws are supposed to protect the producers of content, and make sure they get paid for their work. As you may expect, however, it can be very difficult for all digital works to be protected in the ever-expanding world of digital media.

DRM, or digital rights management, seemed like the solution for many people who felt that their copyrighted works were being taken advantage of. DRM is basically access control protection for copyrighted works. It keeps people from copying and redistributing digital material in an unauthorized manner.

On the surface that sounds like a good deal: enhanced digital protection so no one’s work gets taken advantage of.

But, what about when DRM technology prevent you from copying CDs or DVDs that you have lawfully purchased onto a portable media player? Or when DRM protections don’t allow you access work in the public domain? Also, you probably won’t be able to share books on many e-readers because of DRM technology on those devices.

As a student, the fair use doctrine- which allows limited use of copyrighted material without the consent of the copyright holder- protects me from copyright infringement if the material is used in an educational capacity. However, DRM technology still blocks me from reproducing certain content, regardless of its educational benefit.

Digital rights management technology can also allow companies to track consumers’ activity, something that many people are uncomfortable with.

I believe that digital works do need some kind of enhanced protection. It pains me to think about what would happen if digital works became so pirated that creative people no longer had the incentive to make them. But I do think that many DRM technology and policies should be refined so that consumers’ rights are not infringed upon either.