Supporting Epilepsy & Living with Seizures

Today’s post is not necessarily related to social media, but I am using the social media tools to help spread awareness about a very important cause, share my story, and let others know about a fundraiser event in Lansing, MI today.  The Epilepsy Foundation is an organization that I hold near & dear to my heart as someone who lives daily with epilepsy, and has experienced grand mal seizures throughout my lifetime. 

According to the Epilepsy Foundation of Michigan, approximately one out of 10 adults will experience one seizure during their lifetime.  Nationally, about 2.7 million people have some form of epilepsy. Thirty percent of them are children under the age of 18.  The Foundation strives to close the treatment gap between what is being done for people with epilepsy & what SHOULD be done, Improve how people with epilepsy are perceived, accepted and valued in society, and empower those living with epilepsy and their families.  Looking at the Foundations second goal, I can not say enough about how thankful that I am for my parents and family members.  After discovering that I had epilepsy, I was never made to feel like I had a “Disability” or that I was different or should be worrying all of the time.  When I experienced a seizure, my family was there to support me, they acted calmly, and gave me the time I needed to recuperate.  I wasn’t made fun of, told that I was weird, etc.           

First Seizure: I experienced my 1^st full blown recognized seizure sophomore year of high school, in the middle of a class project down in the high school library – in front of my class, and other classes full of students.  I remember waking to see people hovering over me and asking me all sorts of questions.  I was confused, disoriented & in a bit of a haze….not understanding what was happening.  Then, I truly woke up to see myself being wheeled into an ER and the frightened & worried faces of my parents.

My Scariest Seizure Experience:  One minute I was driving 75 mph south down the highway on my way to work from a friend’s, looking at the Uncle John’s Cider Mill billboard & thinking about BIGGBY coffee.  The next thing I remember is seeing a police officer coming towards me through one door of my vehicle, and a paramedic coming through my driver side door asking me questions….all while looking out the front window and seeing the highway lanes heading north….but I was in some sort of field –  and I knew.  I had another seizure.

Worst Seizure Experience: was the first time a seizure left me feeling sorry for myself, completely helpless, and worthless. This happened a few months ago when I realized that I had had a seizure while making breakfast before heading to church.  And all I can say is that I thank God that I had placed my son safely in an exer-saucer just within sight around the corner- or he may have been severely hurt, not to mention scared.  Now that I have a young son, living with epilepsy has become a bigger deal.

 This is why I am holding this fundraiser today & why the Epilepsy Foundation is so important…..they strive to keep people like me safe, help families like mine understand what it’s like to support someone with epilepsy, and they work towards ensuring that not another moment is lost to seizures! 

 

  

Join me at Kelly’s Downtown Pub & GRill in Lansing, MI 

www.epilepsyfoundation.org

State of the Union – A Nation of Connectivity

“We are a  nation of Google and Facebook” –President Obama 2011 State of the Union Address

Photo from Ryan Witt

As Mashable posted in “This Morning’s Top 3 Stories in Social Media and Business”, the buzz around social media sites and their ties to innovation, the economy and industry trends is not a surprise.  Being a social media professional myself, I was not surprised that President Obama classified Americans as being such a nation of connectivity. Listening to his State of the Union address, I had some moments of self reflection.  After all, before delving into the social media world I never classified myself as “connected” or “tech-savvy”.  I often laugh a little when someone asks me how I hear about certain news stories, or know about special promos, free events, and more taking place around the world and locally.  Twitter and Facebook, along with Google and other sites have become an integral part of my professional and personal life; drastically changing how I keep up to speed on the latest news or topics of conversation.

 When discussing my switch to social media marketing, I often find myself explaining to others that it just…well, happened.  My journey started with an MSU New Media Class.  And through my studies and experience I can only explain to people that it’s not that we Americans have undergone some huge change. We’ve just changed how we are doing it.  “It” meaning anything from conducting business, banking, talking, publishing, forming relationships, etc.  Precedence is still given to who you know, more so than what you know. This generation has just taken that up a notch and we are now managing who & what we know online through a variety of site and emerging web technologies. With social networking, news, business, etc. we can connect and get what we need – fast!

 Through these new mediums and future technologies that are only now emerging, the future is bright, and there is a lot we can do to drive our own messaging, bring about a new era of entrepreneurs, improve our economies and change the way we do business.  I’ll close with what may be the most popular quote from President Obama’s speech:  “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment.”

Photo from: http://www.examiner.com/political-buzz-in-national/pictures-from-president-obama-s-2011-state-of-the-union-address-picture

Driving Your Own Stories & Build a Better Community

Arrow pic. from Word ClipArt

In today’s world, everything is constantly changing.  And media is no exception to this rule. However, the importance or role of the “traditional” media has drastically changed over the past decade, especially when it comes to print.  In my local area in particular, the popularity of news sources such as the Lansing State Journal newspaper was a trusted and popular format some twenty years ago, however throughout the past years the subscription rate continues to decrease, staff has dwindled, and many more people turn towards online publications or quick email updates for their latest news updates.  In addition, more and more organizations are including live feeds of their most recent FB updates or Tweets, blogs, and “media room” on their websites

 Being of the younger and possibly more tech-savvy generation, I can say that I never read the Lansing State Journal newspaper anymore.  I will look at the City Pulse, or Lansing Noise from time to time, but overall I too have turned to online publications such as Capital Gains and online updates from various other providers to fill me in on the latest.  One main reason – the Lansing State Journal is no longer a trusted news source for me or many that I come in contact with.  This may be due to the fact that heir inability to provide good LOCAL coverage is astounding, and the percentage of negative topics compared to positive news stories in our community is quite frankly, only helping lead to the general negativity that surrounds our community.  I personally love the positive vibe that organizations such as LEAP, #Lovelansing, Accelerate Lansing, Capital Gains and countless others have brought to the Lansing community.  And these organizations and movements continue to work tirelessly to create a positive vision and movement for continuous improvements towards Lansing’s overall vitality.  But this couldn’t happen without all of them working collectively and linking via social media, professional networks, etc.  One thing that many of us have realized through the advent of social media platforms, is that we have the power to drive our own routes and create our own momentum.  No longer must we rely on media to share our story for us.  Yes, they can definitely help aid our endeavors-when they choose to cover the local stories- but we must take responsibility in building Lansing’s prosperity, instead of tearing it down! 

In summary, we can post our own news stories on our website, and then share the links on our social media pages or in monthly newsletters, e-blasts, blog postings and more.  All businesses that engage with their audience and want to keep them up to date on the latest should include a “Media Room” on their website.  I guarantee that it won’t be just the media will be looking at this for information on your organization.  So come on Greater Lansing…let’s drive our own news and let the media know what we really want to hear about!  #LoveLansing

Social Media Marketing and Valuable Content

With past research regarding effectively using social media and creating valuable content, etc. I stumbled across a vairety of blogs and helpful articles. And as some of you may have experienced,  being relatively new to delving into these social media waters, I am finding the more that I read, the more that I need to learn. 

In one of my favorite posts by Social Medai Examiner,  “How to Integrate Social Media with Traditional Media” , they discuss how many marketing professionals or businesses are asking the wrong question about How to  integrate social media into their traditional marketing efforts, instead of asking for a framework!  I found myself enthusiastically shaking my head when Mr. Martin compared consumers to bacteria stating “Just as bacteria can evolve and eventually grow resistant to antibiotics, so too can consumers grow resistant to current forms of marketing, including social media marketing”.  It’s a brilliant statement, and one that demonstrates the pitfalls that different marketing campaigns have fallen into when they just try to replicate a strategy or campaign that may have worked for someone else, but failed for them because it was no longer a new/different approach.  The discussion in this blog post will definitely be one that I revisit when developing marketing strategies.

Another great post that then me to a valuable content resource, was “How Content and Social Media Equal Marketing Success” where they interviewed Joe Pullizi regarding the importance of developing a content strategy before having a social media strategy, knowing your customers and where they are online.  All of the topics he pointed out seem so common sense, but yet I see it time and time again in my  experience in the professional marketing world, that all too often companies are so focused on selling themselves online (or other marketing mediums) that we forget we need to focus on having valuable content that really interests our customers.  This is something as I move forward in my career that I will repeatedly have to remind myself & others of, especially when it comes to writing valuable content  for websites, Facebook & twitter posts, etc.  Providing this valuable content using keywords nad information that actually speaks to our audience instead of speaking about ourselves,  will help create natural links an relationships, draw more consumers to our websites or social media outlets, and make us more successful businesses reputation wise and financially!

Choosing the Best Marketing Tool for Your Campaign

When viewing my Facebook updates this morning, I was once again faced with answering a question regarding what the best advertising methods were for a campaign.  However, what left me with my mouth hanging open and a feeling of disbelief was the fact that this question was posted by a local marketing and design firm that advises clients from around the State of Michigan. 

 Now this may well have been a strategically placed question, to see how different demographics responded.  However, for me this signaled that they may not be sure sure what our local economy would responded to, and needed some guidance.  I was pleased to see that someone had already answered with the answer of “it depends on your audience but social media is the best”.  However as I read this response I was automatically formulating a response of my own.  Determining the correct marketing mix for your product or service depends heavily on your audience, however it also hinges on a variety of other factors.  These other factors include the type of product or service that you are trying to market, as well as making sure you have the right balance of marketing tools and linking all of the tool boxes in your toolbox together.  After all, a nail may not be of much use if you don’t have a hammer to pound it in with, and without the nail, something is not being held together.

Image from Mike Volpe's Social Media is BS presentation http://www.hubspot.com/webinars/social-media-is-bs/

Mike Volpe’s presentation of “Why Social Media is Bullsh*t”  struck me as a daring thing to say until I viewed his entire presentation.  Mr. Volpe was not saying that social media shouldn’t be used as a marketing strategy.  Instead he was pointing out that nothing can exist in a vacuum.  In order for social media to succeed and “revolutionalize your business”, you need to make sure it connects with other inbound marketing tools such as SEO, blogs, the correct keywords, etc.  But to me the key message was that to create a successful marketing strategy, you need to link everything together.  Social media should only be one part of your strategy; integrated with the other possibly “traditional” forms of advertising.  And not only this, but it is imperative that all of your techniques need to link together and feed each other.  To summarize, have social networking sites direct people to your website, have your website tie to your company blog, have your printed pieces show your website or phone number, your business cards include web information as well as your Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube pages, etc.

2010 Online Marketing & Networking- A Personal Year in Review

 

Photo compliments of Word ClipArt

As many of you, I too had a year full of ups and downs.  But in this creative space, I would like to take time to reflect on my own personal views of discoveries, failings, and more related to online marketing in 2010.  Feel free to add your own favorites or #fail episodes.

 Highlight #1-New Media Course:  As many of you who may have discovered my blog or follow me online know, this past year I took a New Media course through Michigan State University. I now have my New Media Driver License which means I am certified in SEO, social media marketing & online strategy.  This was definitely one of the top highlights of my year (Well, next to having my 1^st child late last January) and even though I 4.0 the class and was featured as one of the top online strategists with national recognition on multiple social media-related posts, I still hesitate to use the word “expert”. I hesitate only because the digital world is constantly changing and without doing this as my full time job; I struggle to keep up with all of the latest tools and changes. But there are several of us out there in Greater Lansing & Michigan who now have the skills to help agencies and businesses with SEO and online marketing strategy. I highly recommend all marketing & PR students or professionals alike to consider taking MSU’s New Media class with Derek Mehraban.  It is a life changer and you will be better equipped to navigate the various online marketing & monitoring channels, etc.

 Highlight #2-Discovery of Animoto & other Video Sites:  We all are probably familiar with YouTube and Vimeo, for visually sharing our content with the world.  However this year, with the help of other social marketing professionals and my New Media class research, I discovered a wonderful program called Animoto.  This program is VERY inexpensive and turns your business or personal photos into wonderful short videos put to music.  Definitely check it out.  I know an associate of mine uses Animoto for everything from customizable wedding videos for her family, to promoting her small business.  I must also mention that there are some other video posting sites out there for true video that are on the heals of YouTube and Vimeo including VodPod and others.  A necessary component of any marketing mix is to include photos or video to share your message and it is much cheaper than TV. Also, the power of online video could greatly enhance your ability to visually show all of the services they offer, show customer and partner testimonials, and “how-to’s” I am pleased that so many local businesses in Michigan beginning to effectively utilize some of these resources.

Highlight #3: Social Media Monitoring:  As stated by Social Media Examiner blogger Brian Solis, to help your organization succeed you need to Engage or Die!  But if you are engaged with your audience online, you need to be monitoring your message and what is being said about your brand.  I recommend checking out Hootsuite, SocialMention.com, and of course Google Alerts  and Google AdWords for effectively monitoring and measuring your presence online.  Feel free to add others to the list of recommended tools

 Highlight #4: Social Media in your Marketing Mix: My current employer introduced Facebook & Twitter pages to their audience, as are many other businesses and groups in Greater Lansing and Michigan.  Congrats to everyone!  However in order to make these pages effective, you need to integrate them into your overall marketing mix and not just create these accounts for the sake of having them.  You need to feed your networks and share messages across the various mediums. Part of the recipe of success is the frequency of valuable content posts and  finding the right balance of online and offline messaging outlets to better leverage your networks. Once you post valuable content and put out links to this content on your websites you allow your messages to be shared by others who “like” or Retweet, etc. By linking them and forming connections through all of these networks, you can reach thousands of people, create new partnerships, and reach a broader audience then they were previously able to reach. By posting valuable content frequently and linking them across all of the online networks, organizations will again be pushed higher in SEO rankings and Google searches.

 Highlight #5:#Lovelansing & Hashtags Movements:  As a lifelong Lansing resident and a member of the many teams promoting all that Lansing, MI has to offer-I had to highlight the power of great hashtags!  The #Lovelansing hashtag movement continues to increase momentum and bring light to all the great things going on in our area.  The power of valuable hashtags is not to be underestimated in terms of spreading your message to a broader audience.

 

Failing #1: Facebook Re-Design: I hesitated to put this on the fail list, because Facebook is surpassing Google as the top website this year. However, the recent Facebook re-design caused a public outcry both locally and nationally.  I have read various blogs and tech reviews discussing the pro’s and cons of these changes, but as someone already strapped for time and resources for online marketing, the seemingly frequent changes in Facebook are both annoying & confusing and to me, feel unnecessary but as in all things, in time we will adjust and I know that Facebook made these changes for a reason.  Plus, with Facebook’s climb to the top, these changes are obviously not affecting their popularity rankings.

 Failing #2: Monitoring Your Online Presence:  This section was covered in the highlights but also needs to be covered in the failings for many Michigan companies/organizations. Not only is it important to have an online presence but it is essential to monitor your brand and respond in the correct mediums where your business/group is being talked about! My own company falls under the failing category, not because we don’t monitor what is being said about us, but we have had a history of not responding in the correct mediums to our audience. Many local companies need to improve in this respect, so get out there and don’t be so afraid of the transparency.  People are going to talk about your whether you participate or not, so be part of the discussion and show your community that you care enough to listen and respond-where the discussions are taking place! Don’t #fail!

 Failing #3: Web Content:  As pointed out by David Meerman Scott, so many organizations when looking at their marketing strategy need to look first at their websites.  Many of us use our websites as the main informational tool for communicating our message!  Lately all of our advertising and public outreach drives people to our website, so we want to make sure we are providing valuable content to our AUDIENCE and that we are found at the top of the search engine rankings.  I capitalized audience because as I evaluate various company, non-profit, and other websites, the common finding is that their websites contain a lot of gobbledygook or technical language that they may understand or use internally. However much of the language or information means nothing to their audience.  When developing or updating a website we must all take a step back and think about our potential users and what they will be looking for.  Only then can we move forward with producing valuable information and keywords that will help answer our users’ questions and drive more business to our website, (keywords are so important) and increase our SEO.

 Ok, so this concludes my review. I don’t want to be like many of our local print publications and only talk about the negative, so I will end here.  We can all acknowledge that there are missed opportunities out there that companies and local organizations are not taking advantage of.  Part of this may be due to fear and limitations on the executive end .or financial and resource constraints.  Regardless of the reason, I encourage everyone to take time and evaluate their online strategies, research tools that will work for you, or hire local individual talent and agencies to do that analysis and strategizing for you if needed.  In this day & age, my advice for the road ahead is to think broader and feed all networks.  Act more like a publisher & socializer in order to exceed in this new world of marketing. The best routes are the ones that you drive yourself!!

The Importance of Corporate Response to Negative PR

As an online media marketing professional, I have heard countless times from organizations, executives, and even others in the marketing and PR field, that they often question whether or not to respond to negative media attention that their company or community group may receive.  I was actually at a Christmas luncheon the other day and my fellow co-worker, the Marketing Director at our company, actually said that she thought we should have done nothing in response to some negative PR we recently received, and “Eventually it would all die off and go away!”

  I’ll admit, upon hearing this, I almost dropped my fork and it took a great deal of effort to not respond with an “Are you crazy?!?!” comment.  There were a few minutes of uncomfortable silence with everyone else around the table before we all resumed our previous discussions.  As pointed out by David Meerman Scott and many other SEO and online marketing experts, the new rules of marketing and PR that exist out there today make it so we no longer have to rely on newspapers or TV reporters to get our quotes right and hope that they capture our comments correctly.  We can respond ourselves.  And what we all need to remember in today’s connected world, is that the conversations are going to happen with or without you, so all organizations can benefit from participating in the discussions.  And in fact, when our company at first tried the “ignore-it-and-it-will-go-away” tactic, more stories continued to come out about it and the number of blogs dishing our management significantly grew.

 

It is important to note, is that if you are going to respond to negative publicity or online comments, blogs, etc. – it is in your best interest to respond in the same outlet where the conversation/article took place.  Many of you have probably seen by now the YouTube video created by Dave Carroll called “United Breaks Guitars”.  Instead of responding directly on the blogs and social media networks or commenting directly on the YouTube video that was created, United took a long time to respond and didn’t really deal with the issue.  If they responded, they may have chosen to respond via a public statement issued in a press release or in a newspaper or trade publication but none of those would have addressed issue properly. Plus, the growing fan base that the “United breaks Guitars” video created, would never see United’s response or apology to Mr. Carroll.   If a bad story starts in a blog post, do you just hope that no one picks up on it?  I don’t think so.  Don’t hide your head in the sand and hope your problems go away, because in today’s world, they won’t!  In fact, it’s more likely that the problem will continue, your negative story will be shared with others and the problems will snowball into bigger issues and more PR headaches.  You can’t afford to NOT participate and respond.  A direct response can definitely keep a bad situation from getting worse, and you are letting the community and your customers know that at least you have heard what they have to say and are acknowledging a problem. 

For more back-up ammo about the importance of responding to negative PR and a summary of how you should choose to participate in social media, view blogger Matt Singley’s article.

Social Media Campaign Ideas for the Holiday Season

Tis the season to be giving! http://mashable.com/2010/11/29/social-good-campaigns-holidays/ Thanks to Geoff Livingston & Mashable.com, today’s quick post involves some ideas of how to creatively use social media to give back! We are hosting a Greater Lansing Fundraiser in the new year , and you can bet social media will be part of that campaign

Using video to Increase Share-ability

Tying into SEOmoz’s Whiteboard Friday post for today, I would like to discuss share-ability, and how video can help improve your share-ability ranking.  While viewing the myriad of video sites available online, it’s a wonder that more businesses or organizations are not utilizing these effective tools. One common misconception that may account for the lack of viral video creation in an organization is the belief that it is difficult to produce and post. However there are new tools and video sites that make it increasingly easier for companies to regularly upload their own videos.

There is of course YouTube, which is an online video site that many of us are familiar with. But I encourage you to also check out the benefits of other sites including Vimeo which is a much cleaner site with easy to follow instructions and guidelines. Plus Vimeo offers the benefit of joining Vimeo Groups, searching by category, etc. There are also some up-and-coming social video sites like VodPod and PopScreen . While PopScreen claims at the top of their page to be “The new way to discover videos that are making headlines and the stories behind them” I personally preferred VodPod. With VodPod users can instantly type in a topic that they may be interested in, or as a company you can type in a topic to see what already exists. You can then link with these creators or join a group, and then create even better videos. Remember Derek Mehraban’s New Media advice “Imitate before you Innovate”.

As discussed in a recent great post on Mashable by Dan Greenberg, the most vital part of online video is probably getting people to share your video! If it’s not shared, what is the value? So what are great practices to improve your videos shareability ranking? First make sure your video has great content that does the following, so people will want to view the video. Online video postings can really help power desired consumer behaviors and grow their network.

Inform/Educate: Of course, a main component of video and possibly one of the main reasons for an organization using video is to share information about their product or service. Online video sites allow us to share information with our audience in a more engaging format. Brochures, news releases, and more traditional forms of sharing information are still important, but by mixing in video you can share information in a whole different way and it’s more likely to be shared with others!

Make Sure your Video Connects with the Audience Emotionally: Whether it instills humor, sparks a memory, or instills a strong feeling of empowerment, generating some tie to the audience’s emotions it important.

Connect with an Audiences Identity or Self Image: You want your video to connect with the watcher in terms of how they view themselves. Why else would someone feel compelled to share it? After all, isn’t the content that we share with others via Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, viewed as an expression of ourselves? If we share a video from an artist, doesn’t that show what type of music we enjoy? So if we share video content like this commuter video, doesn’t that too say something about who we are, our choices, or the experiences we identify with?

Video found at: http://www.youtube.com/cleancommute#p/a/u/2/2X-aDYWHx4g

Still not sure if online video will be beneficial to your organization? Research done by the Vizu Company showed the effectiveness of videos in driving purchasing intent. While conducting this research, it is also made clear that the use of valuable video content can increase brand recognition, engage audiences, form positive relations, all while generating measurable results! Use their research to help drive your argument that online video should be an important component of your marketing strategy. 

So, once you have chosen which online video sharing tool you would like to use, start creating, sharing, and communicating with your audience! If done correctly you should see some great results

Using Social Media to Provide Customer Service

 As a large corporate business, small business, or community non-profit organization there are many ways you can use the new online networking and monitoring tools.  Any SEO or digital marketing professional has been following the trends on integrating online marketing tools into our overall marketing strategy, but what about utilizing these tools into other long range business plans?

 As depicted in recent Social Media Examiner piece featuring Frank Eliason , customer service can be greatly enhanced through various social media outlets.  The social media outlets allow us to connect with our customers and those that are interested in our services, but we need to use these tools to have conversations with our clients, not just use them as a brand to speak at our potential customers. 

In order to use social media effectively as a way to provide customer service we need to actively listen to what people are saying about our business and monitor all of the online networks.  There are a multitude of online monitoring tools to help us do this, and we should engage with the clients with a personal, human voice in the same mediums that they are using and talking about us in!  After all, as Eliason points out, it’s all about the customer and their experience. And the weight that our customer’s voice carries has experienced significant growth over the years  I know when I was looking for my a crib, baby toys, and other furniture for the birth of my son, I was relying on the comments from other consumers and what they were saying about the products or services I was interested in!  I searched for reviews on websites, on social media sites, blogs, etc.

Customer service personnel, in addition to marketing professionals should be covering their sites or the calls that come in with complaints as well as online rating.  Otherwise use Pro plans on the monitoring sites such as Hootsuite or Google Analytics and designate Customer Service representatives to forward comments to so they can respond immediately!  Businesses owe it to their customers to respond quickly to these comments like customer service representatives normally would over the phone-and in return, the customers will have a better service experience and it will generate in positive results and hopefully increased revenue for your business.  We now have the power and tools to easily make the conversations personal, introduce ourselves in the networks and respond.  For a more intimate feel, engage in private direct messages or forums on Twitter, FB, and other sites if you are more comfortable with that. Or you can introducing “click to chat” links  to link and further the customer service experience outside of just the 140 character limits or public wall postings that exist in social media.

You need to take a seat at the table and participate; responding via the networks where your customers are already at.  The conversations and ratings are going to be there whether or not you choose to participate, so get engaged! 

Photo from Word Clip Art