My Virgin Ears

My Virgin Ears!

After months of not seeing a close colleague of mine I finally ran into her last week at the local coffee shop.  We started chit chatting as girls are known to do, she mentioned to me that she has been completing an unpaid internship for a PR firm in the city, and her employer told her this was a good way to get her “foot in the door”  UNPAID INTERNSHIP!!! REALLY!! MY VIRGIN EARS! The words kept swirling around in my head, as this is something I have never heard or done before.  I was beyond shocked to know a smart girl who obtained stellar grades throughout her post-secondary career was working for the price of nothing. Furthermore, I was baffled by the fact that her employer told her such rubbish! So to my fellow graduates who feel that an internship (especially unpaid) is the best way to get your “foot in the door”, please erase that thought in your head and take a big spoonful of reality!

If this is the route your are currently in or you are considering in note that it is far much better to accept no internship at all. As one of my mentors once told me: “money is a sign of respect” and you being someone who just graduated definitely deserves respect! DO NOT let your hard work, endless hours of studying and mostly your pride go out the door! You are worth something; you did not spend four years of your life to be a volunteer. You have talents and skills that can easily surpass others. Personally, I think any job (intern or not) where you are working in over 20 hours a week should be paid. My Virgin ears ring of outrage to this naive and degrading concept. Almost as if someone was ran over by a train!  I mean how convenient for organizations to hire "interns" under the guise of learning and hopefully establishing themselves within a company as a future employee, then pulling the rug out by not offering them a job and not paying them for hours of labor.

Why do employers feel hiring young adults and graduates to participate in free labor have right to bash them by treating them with such little to no disrespect? Do employers today feel that today’s graduates have nothing to bring to the table that has no value? If this is how they truly feel the last laugh is on them, little do these business executives and veterans realize that it’s young people and graduates who have been contributing towards society for the past few years, such as : Mark Zuckerberg who developed one today’s leading social network sites Facebook at the tender age of 23.  Matthew Mullenweg who developed the well known blog site Wordpress at the age of 25. Need I go on? There are so many young people under the age of 30 who have made a great impact towards the world, yet employers still feel that the forbidden idea of an “unpaid internship” should be something young adults should embrace.

The thing these “Savvy executives” are oblivious to notice is graduates today not only are educated with the latest education, trends and facts. They are also part of Gen Y, which means they are the generation of social network and technology. This stuff comes natural to them, so without any schooling at all they already have an advantage over some of the biggest CEO’s and business Savvy’s throughout the globe who had to go through the “adapting” stage and learn how to use a smart phone, tablet or the various social network sites that are now available. Yet with all the skills, education and natural smarts that graduates of today can provide, employers view them in a lower grade and in result pay them no fraction of what they are worth! 

Too many employers are cutting corners and creating 'internship' positions.  More needs to be done to protect these graduates. They have no one to go too when they are being treated unfairly, employees think they are too superior when they were once in the exact position once upon a time.  Little do they realize that a little respect can go a far way and produce abundances of opportunities towards the companies favor.

The impact social media has on the marketing industry

  The impact social media has on the marketing industry

The overall Marketing Industry is beginning to go through some striking and remarkable transitions, although some may consider social media an unorthodox approach to customer communication, while others feel that social media is nothing more than a passing fad. Some would argue that this is leading to a “down slope” for the overall industry. Although, business executives are finding quite the opposite result. The web is actually helping to enhance the efficiency of the how the industry communicates and puts forth tactics, strategies as well relating information to their customers and clients. The web and social media are making it easier for businesses to communicate to their target audience. Concurrently, where there was once a separation between marketing and public relations, the impact of the web has resulted in a merger between the two industries in result creating an overall greater impact.

Social media is the combination of advertising, public relations, marketing and sales. For example, if an international band comes to perform in town and you place ads throughout the subway and bus stops this is an example of advertising. If you hold a press release alerting the public and local media about the band’s performance, this would be an example of public relations. If you are able to create good rapport for the band this is a form of marketing. If you persuade your target audience on the great value they receiving from attending the concert this would be a form of sales. Social media is a combination of all of these methods, as it is the ultimate tool used to convey your content out there.  Placing an advertisement on Facebook or Pinterest is just or even more effective then placing your ads within subways and bus stops. We can alert target audience through twitter and even create a release through blogging. Social media has made creating a good rapport easy as you are able to allow your audience interact through social media contests, photos and comments making them feel a part of the marketing strategy.

Social Media is giving people the authorization to appoint and influence others. This impact of social media is forcing the overall public relations and marketing industry to be aware and include these tools empowering in their strategies when marketing or advertising. Social Media is becoming more and more influential, not only is it “switching the gear” for the way we communicate but it is becoming arousing for marketers globally. This switched has allowed the marketing industry to connect with their clients

With the powerful tool of social media, marketers are able to advertise and target the intended geographic or demographic, habits and psychographics. Through a simple tools we can advertise, We are able to add keywords and create blogs into a search engine that optimizes results. Social media sites are creating an upside for marketers as we are now able to connect and reach out to both existing and prospective clients, making it easy for us to target specified niches.  

Meet The Crew

                                                     Meet The Crew

Depending on your company’s goal and what you want to achieve will determine which social networking site suits your company.  Learning briefly about each network will allow you to determine which niche you would like to fit in to and how you would like to execute your social media campaign in order to reach your target audience at the maximum potential.

Twitter: The network is active and a buzz with links, conversation, self reflections, and just plain content. To inbound marketers, all of this content probably seems great -- but it also means it takes a lot of work to get your content to stand out in the crowd.

Facebook: how do companies fit into this social network that focuses so heavily on the human connection? Companies are  acting more like friends, and less like, well, companies. This means your updates should be friendlier, and show personality through photos and videos that make your brand seem more relatable. That's why we use Facebook to share things like important milestones in our company's life, just like you would with your friends and family!

Google +: When you post your content to Google+ you're making it more likely your company's content will rank well in Google's SERPs. That's because, much to the dismay of many other social networks, Google is considering factors such as +1's of content when deciding how high to rank a piece of content. Google also started to index and feature Google+ status updates, author names, and 'Add to Circles' buttons in search results, making your activity on Google+ even more important for a strong organic search presence.

Pinterest: Pinterest is easy to maintain and grow if you're more reliant on visuals than text in your industry. We do, however, recommend writing descriptions for every image you pin to provide further explanation for those looking to learn more about your pin. And before you go saying Pinterest is just for wedding planners  and artist’s remember that your visuals could include anything from photos, to graphs, to infographs! They key with Pinterest is, when someone clicks your image to see the source, you're directing them to your website so you can convert all that Pinterest traffic.

Linked-in: to target other businesses -- if that's your goal, of course. Use your content to provide solutions to business-related problems, and people will naturally share your content in an attempt to boost their own clout, not to mention click your content so you can generate more leads. Don't be afraid of posting white papers and reports here, either -- this is the type of content that typically performs quite well on LinkedIn.

YouTube: Use YouTube to tell important stories about your company, to entertain your audience, and even to educate them (maybe create your first webinar!) As with most visual content, sometimes it's easier to get your message across with something a bit more interactive.

Join Team Social Media

                                                               Join Team Social Media 

As powerful as this social media tool is, some are still not convinced of the great heights it is able to provide your overall business, and feel that it is nothing more than a passing fad. Many companies give social media a “trail run” and only use it on an occasional basis, not realising the importance and value it has towards the implementation of their organization.  Not engaging in Social media results not being able to interact or communicate, share and provide content. On a lower note, you are allowing to your competition to indulge and become the source of information for your audience. Using social media tools will able to you to enhance and build your brand and company image, as you will be able to connect with all sort of individuals virally.

Social media holds four primary functions: to monitor, respond, amplify, and lead consumer behavior in terms leading them towards making purchasing decisions towards your product, service or company. Being able to identify exactly how, when, and where social media influences consumers helps companies create marketing strategies and tactics that take advantage of social media’s unique ability to engage with customers. It also helps develop, launch, and demonstrate the financial impact of your company.

In short, today’s businesses can no longer treat social media as a side it’s much more than simply another form of paid marketing, and it demands more too: a clear framework to help  your business evaluate investments in it, a plan for building support infrastructure, and performance-management systems to help leaders smartly scale their social presence. Companies that have these three elements in place can create critical new brand assets (such as content from customers or insights from their feedback), open up new channels for interactions (Twitter-based customer service, Facebook news feeds), and completely reposition a brand through the way its employees interact with customers or other parties. By asking yourself these crucial questions will not only help vision where  your campaign stands on the social media spectrum, but also what your social aim is and how your company will gain the most out of using social media.

-          What Do I want for my company ?(Determine your goal  or objective for your social media campaign)

-          How will I gain customers and attention? (Using strategies and tactics generate what method you will use  to build your company’s social awareness, it could be simple as holding a “pin it to win it” contest on pinterest or perhaps just using keywords in your blog to generate traffic towards your site.)

-          -How can I gain from this campaign? (implement you may be able to use the contacts you have gained through social media to build your company’s success?)

-         - How can I Engage, participate and get on my customers “level” (Will you conduct a webinar?, figure out how exactly you can let your customers feel they are on your “level” by reaching your hand out to them.

-       -   How Can I Beat my Competition (Research and establish what makes your competition social media presence more outstanding then yours? What  differences and similarities do you and your company share? What makes you more unique and different from the competition? How will you make it known to your target audience?)

Answering these questions will help you understand your company on a social media aspect. You will now be able to execute your company’s message on a whole new level that will 

not only  help develop your over all company’s exposure, but will also allow you to interact with various people allowing them to share, post and covey your message. In result this will give you a wider exposure and build your company’s reputation to a higher horizon of success. 

Participate, Engage and Listen!

How customers react towards your campaign as well as receive feedback instantaneously. For example, if you’ve been a publicist for many years and you finally decide to write a book about public relations. Holding a webinar in which you discuss various PR topics will not only help promote your book, but will allow your audience to relate to you. Engaging in a webinar would also make your book an easier sell, as your audience has now witness your knowledge towards the Public Relations industry before purchasing the book.Another way we can look at this is through  Envisioning the web as a busy town where social media spots are used for individuals who join together to socialize, allows us to make sense of how marketers can utilize social media tools to its maximum potential, in order to gain success for their company or product.

Of course you can attend social gatherings and blab about how brilliant your company or product is, but will this make you popular? Probably not. It would be wiser to make friends and acquaintances that like conducting business with people they like.The same concept is applied in the world of social media.It is good to join and participate in advancing networking sites such as forums and blogs and social network sites i.e. (Twitter, Facebook) etc. but be aware to give more than you get. Do not overwhelm people with your product or company, be able to part take in other things that are going on in the sites that you are taking part in, such as: discussions, commenting on other material, participating in survey’s etc. this will allow other members to view you as a more approachable individual as you are not overwhelming or making them feel obligated to your business or product. As an entrepreneur you want to “reel in the bass and fish out the tuna.”

 This means start small simple conversation and take part in social activities in the sites you are involved in as I mentioned earlier, you can help build your personal reputation making yourself feel more approachable to people. Try to create a sense of comfort between you and, your audience this will allow an opening to be formed for you to “reel in the tuna” or in other words, discuss your business or product.  Conduct business as you would in a social setting, not as you would in a bank. Meaning, do not approach people by discussing purely your company or product, make sure you are embracing “small talk” as well.  People do not like to feel as if they are being corner attacked or overwhelmed by something. A little conversation will go a far way.

You will be able to create an opening for you to discuss your business product or company. I can guarantee you will slowly start to notice your valuable interactions will lead to more promising business opportunities.The opportunities that you come across to engage, participate and listen to others will not only allow you to exposure for your company, but will place your company on a high end of the social media spectrum. 

With technology and internet moving at such a vast pace, the concept of browsing the internet is slowly becoming no longer. Now companies are looking for the best way to stand out among their competitors by engaging with others and providing worth content. 

Ode To Social Media

  Ode to Social Media   

Social media is the alteration of content. It has the impact to allow individuals to alter from reading information to circulating information through sharing and creating content. In short, social media is simply anything that uses the internet to assist conversations and media. Individuals now are able to broadcast their ideas, opinions and expertise on a global spectrum. A person’s tone of voice can be as influential as iconic figures using the tool of social media. It all depends on how impactful your campaign is and what strategies and tactics you use to reach that point of definition.

With the growth and development of the Internet and the changes in the Internet Technology, particularly in the rise of the Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, and LinkedIn and many other sites, it has become crucial for companies to participate in social media.Companies today use social media sites such as: Facebook Fan Page accounts, Twitter accounts, LinkedIn accounts. These companies, big and small, use the social media as a tool to build awareness of their brand, consumer recognition, simply as a tool to market their products and services.

The use of the social media is considered as a deviation from the traditional forms of marketing.
  
In the past, marketing is done in terms of directly selling to the target audience particular products and services.  Business organizations spend handsome amount of money via television or print advertising just to attract the attention of their target consumers and convince them that their products and services are superior to their competitors
.

With the rise of the Internet Technology, the Internet has not only become a tool for searching information.  Rather, it has become a tool for sharing information and knowledge. Companies and consumers are now directly engaged in spreading information to like-minded individuals about products and services.  For example, consumers who have twitter can easily tweet about a particular product which is out on the market and discuss about its features.  Other consumers who share similar interest can comment, retweet and discuss their own experience with the particular brand.  Some consumers discuss these product features in blogs where they are able to discuss the product and use keywords  within their blog to optimize search results back to the company.

Companies utilize the power of the social media to market their products and services.  For example, a company is engaged in selling a particular type of shoes.These companies can share information about shoes on their blog and let consumers comment on these blog posts. They can visit blogs of other consumers which discuss about their favourite type of shoes, shoes in trend etc. and comment on these blog posts by sharing information.

The important word about social media marketing is that it is social. Companies now participate in the communication that is going on in the world wide web.  When used properly and diligently, small businesses can easily compete with bigger businesses.

 

That First Connection

                                                          That First Connection

Starting my career as a public relations specialist, I quickly learned one of the most important aspects of being a publicist was the importance of connection and building relationships. This is something they don’t teach you through your post-secondary education, but I assure you if this is the field you want to go into it will be a vital part of the job. In today’s society the concept of communicating and building relations with others goes beyond aiming to get the next “big client”. Once you have completed school and you are out in the “real world” you will quickly find that you will throw out all those extensive hours of theory out the door and your practical skills in terms of how you network with others, how to create the best pitch, how to make your PR firm stand out from the rest, will be questions that you will ask yourself on a daily basis. Don’t get me wrong education through theoretical studies is very beneficial but once coming out of school you will slowly start to find that you will be tested in various situations that are beyond what you have learned through a textbook.

Although, today with the great advantage of social media building relationships have been a lot simpler to create! No longer do we need to feel a sense of uneasiness when it comes to trying to connect with others within our field. You don’t have to necessarily pick up the phone or approach a publicist you may not know but whom you idol. Now you are able to easily use sites such a Linked-in, Twitter, Facebook, Google Circle and Blogs to connect with whomever it is you like. Having the advantage of all these social  network sites allows you to not feel any “build up” or  signs of nervousness when communicating with them, it will also help you to build your confidence as a  new PR person starting up to get a feel of where you see yourself fitting in. You may start your career out in the exciting world of fashion and lifestyles marketing and PR and as you grow into your career you may find that you want to try another aspect such as marketing for a tech or corporate company.

I highly recommend you do not hide behind social media, it is crucial that you step out behind that laptop or tablet at some point and connect with the individual in-person: not only are you able to get a feel of the person and see if you can relate to them, you are now able to get a sense of how your conversation flows that aura you feel around them (hopefully it’s a positive one) and also where do they fit in your career path or business. Talking  in –person will create a different atmosphere, as you are now able to analyze the individual in relations to their body and facial expression, tone of voice and so forth.

I know as you start out in your career this will be a little overwhelming at first, but remember you are the one who decided to embrace this wonder field of Public relations, so you must make this step as building relations and network is what majority of your career is based upon. Starting at the prime of your career will give you advantage down the road, you may find that completing this simple task of networking with other, will most likely grant you many rewards down the road in terms of your career opportunities, exposure to the industry as well as other various paths you may choose. Pulling these meaningful connections, in your favor will create an environment of connections that suits the needs of your constituents.