Everywhere Agency is a social media, content and influencer marketing firm. This is their content marketing blog posts archive.

How to build an effective social media strategy

How to Build an Effective Social Media Strategy

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One of the most common questions we get after mentioning that we work in social media marketing is, “So, you get to be on Facebook/Instagram/Twitter all day?” There’s a huge misconception that our jobs aren’t valid or strategic. To that notion I say: bah humbug. Social media strategy is critical to succeed as a brand – both online and offline – by connecting all of your overarching marketing initiatives.

To have a successful social media presence, you’ve got to do more than just post messages that seem important or interesting to you. We actually had a client who gave their whole department access to their Facebook page. Over a dozen people were posting all about their different campaigns and initiatives without rhyme or reason. Their VP of Marketing said the page looked like a “dog’s breakfast,” and he was right! Everything was just thrown in there without thinking about how the content related to their overarching marketing and social media goals, let alone without regard for Facebook’s algorithm. We came in and showed them the key factors to a purposeful and effective social media strategy. I’ll share the CliffsNotes with you here!

  1. Goals: What Are You Working Toward? – Building a social media strategy should start with figuring out what your goals are. Are you looking to increase sales, awareness, or site traffic? Different goals determine the different types of posts you put out there and the platforms you’re on. For instance, if you’re a B2B company that’s selling something rather utilitarian to upper-management-type folks, you should likely be focusing on LinkedIn. However, if you’re a consumer products division wanting to increase awareness and sales amongst millennials, Instagram or Snapchat is the place to be!
  2. Voice: Preach to the Choir – Social media is all about having a human voice. Consumers want to feel connected to the company, and a well-developed voice can help accomplish that and build loyalty. If your writing is mechanical or boring, no one will want to engage with you. Thus, we like to have brands define their persona. If your brand was a person and your copywriters had to embody and write like them, who would that be? A beverage company we worked with had a target audience of millennials. They chose Jennifer Lawrence as the persona for their social media voice because she’s irreverent and fun. A healthcare client chose Angelina Jolie because their practice was focused on beauty, health, and doing good in the world. Sometimes the social media voice of a brand is inspired by a hybrid of people. It could even emulate the CEO, as long as said CEO sounds human and personable, of course.
  3. 80/20: Learn to Weigh Priorities – No one wants to follow a page that is purely promotional. Think about it: who wants to subject themselves to more ads than necessary? People follow brands that give them something extra. Whether it’s a behind-the-scenes look at the company or education on the industry (what we like to call “thought leadership”), you’ve got to give your customer more than a sales message. We employ the 80/20 rule in our social media strategy builds– 80% of content is non-promotional, with 20% marketing/sales messages peppered in. Why? If your non-promotional content is engaging and appealing, it’ll make people more interested in your brand!
  4. Content Verticals: The Pillars of Strategy – So, remember when I said a “dog’s breakfast”? That’s what you get when you don’t build content verticals. In other words, you need to identify the types of content that you’ll be posting – without violating the 80/20 rule. For example, if you’re a fun food brand, your content verticals may be recipes, corny food jokes, food porn images, innovative industry/CPG news, food holidays (yes – every day is devoted to some kind of food. My favorite is National Ice Cream Day!), and then product placements.
  5. Quality Content: Werk It – This concept truly embodies the notion of “It’s more than just posting on Facebook.” Quality content necessitates writing that is on-brand and engaging, beautiful imagery that one would like even if they weren’t fans of your brand, and tactics that represent social media best practices, like appropriate usage of hashtags and tagging. You have no idea how many brands under-utilize or misinterpret best practices! The more relevant and creative the content is, the more people will like/comment on it, and the more potential consumers it will reach.
  6. Monitoring and Response: Being Everywhere – Over 40% of customers complaining on social media expect a response within an hour (Convince and Convert, 2015). For social inquiries that go unanswered by a brand, there’s a 15% churn rate in existing customers (Clarabridge, 2016). That’s why it’s critical to find the right monitoring tools and create an appropriate response process as a part of your social media strategy. On top of that, planning how to respond to a plethora of different inquiries ahead of time is critical to immediately answering questions, providing transparency, and not having to route responses through your PR and legal teams – which will definitely put you over that hour-long response timeframe. If you need some more tips on this, check out one of my previous blog posts, 5 Tips for Reputation Management.
  7. Tools: Make Your Life Easier – There are plenty of tools that can make your life easier on social. For instance, platforms like Hootsuite or Buffer, among others, allow you to schedule your social messages ahead of time, leaving you stress-free to complete other tasks in the day. There are also analytical tools both built into the social channels (think Facebook Insights or Twitter Analytics) or provided through third-party software that allow you to analyze your posts and figure out if the strategy you’ve devised is working. By doing A/B testing and comparing results from these resources, you can fine-tune your strategy over time to get the most return on your investment.

At Everywhere Agency, we combine all of these critical success factors and more into a strategic social media playbook that guides teams in their content creation and community management. Still feel like you have more to learn when it comes to conquering the beast of social media? Reach out to us, and we’ll find a way to help.

Micro-Influencers for Meaningful Results

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The newest trend in digital marketing is the use of influencers. Common perception is that an influencer is someone with millions of followers, but contrary to popular belief, an influencer can be someone with only a few hundred readers who are hyper-local and regularly engage with their content.

An often-overlooked group and potentially the key to leveraging influencers to your advantage is to use what’s called a micro-influencer. These influencers focus on different types of content specialties and reach target audiences of every thinkable niche. Micro-influencers have smaller followings but a much more relevant voice in their community. This tactic prioritizes quality over quantity – thus earning more valuable engagement, which will likely convert to sales.

According to Nielsen, a staggering 84% of consumers trust the recommendations of friends more than traditional advertising. In other words, they’re more likely to purchase what their favorite Instagram fashionista is wearing as opposed to Blake Lively. It’s a concept of relatability. Utilizing a group of carefully selected micro-influencers who strike a chord with your target demographic can – and often will – bring your brand more awareness than one post from a celebrity.

Ever wonder why influencer marketing campaigns work for others but not you? Maybe it’s a matter of your approach. Micro-influencer strategies aren’t one-size fits all – every campaign should be tailored to the specific goals of your brand.

When working with micro-influencers, the first trick is to think about the audience you want to reach. Do you need to get your brand in front of fitness fanatics in Columbus, Ohio? Working with health-oriented bloggers who have a substantial and loyal local following in that area is going to be your best bet.

Next, you need to be sure that the content they naturally create relates to the content you’d like to sponsor. Having a micro-influencer is only effective if their voice and perspective aligns with your brand. Choosing the right micro-influencer can help you achieve significant results AND connect you with genuine brand enthusiasts.

At Everywhere Agency, we are constantly running hyper-local campaigns for Macy’s. It’s our job to find influencers in specific locations to encourage their readers to attend in-store events. Depending on the event, we look for influencers who write content that relates to what’s going on and have a substantial amount of readers located close to each individual store. While a blogger with a huge nationwide audience seems attractive, they won’t reach the very niche, targeted demographic we are trying to hit.

Micro-influencers offer authenticity and a tailored approach for the brands that work with them. At a fraction of the cost, their engaged followers and unique perspectives make micro-influencers a dominant resource for marketers. These influencers are dedicated to their audiences and the content they put up on their blog. Nearly any brand can find a micro-influencer who aligns with their specific audience. Consumers today are craving a more authentic connection to brands – and you can give them that experience by collaborating with micro-influencers.

FTC Guidelines for Influencer Marketing

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There is a fair amount of panic these days about FTC guidelines, mostly driven by a handful of celebrities (like the Kardashians) who neglected to disclose the fact that they received financial compensation in exchange for social shares.

The FTC has even cracked down on major brands like Lord & Taylor for flagrantly defying the rules. To remind you, last year, the retailer paid 50 fashion influencers several thousand dollars each to post a picture, all wearing a flouncy paisley dress. It might have seemed random – but it wasn’t. They were compensated to post the picture, and as such, they should have let their followers know that this post was inspired by the love of money, rather than the love of paisley dresses.

Flouting of the rules gets negative media attention, including a recent front-page story in the New York Times, and causes major heartburn for legal teams at big brands – leaving them fretting over whether their influencer campaigns are compliant. So, how do you know if your influencer marketing team is following FTC Guidelines? Well, it helps if you understand both the ambiguities of said guidelines AND the explicit rules.

The philosophy behind the FTC guidelines is fairly straightforward. Any influencer who receives a product or compensation in exchange for a social share or blog post must disclose to their readers in a way that is clear, conspicuous, and unambiguous. Some marketers seem confused because there are no hard and fast rules. Mary K. Engle, the FTC’s associate director for advertising practices, explained to the New York Times, “We’re not prescriptive … but it has to be unambiguous.”

I understand the angst this causes rule-followers who want to have a hard and fast decree, so I’ll share a few more clues straight from the mouth of Mary Engle of the FTC, like this one: “The disclosure has to be placed in such a way that the consumer is not going to miss it.”

Imagine the average reader scrolling through his or her Facebook newsfeed. What will stop them dead in their tracks and clearly and unambiguously alert them that this post is sponsored by a brand? The word “ad” seems pretty obvious to me. Put a hashtag in front of it, and you’ve officially joined the ranks of paid influencers.

Some social media stars try to get fancy and use all sorts of catchphrases and clues as a workaround to the guidelines. Favorites include #spon, #collab, and #Co. Spon sounds like something a fish does, and collab makes me think you’re just super collaborative. Co? What does that mean? You’re starting a company?

Mary Engle seems to agree, “We’re seeing disclosures that are ambiguous, given the context of the culture of these platforms,” she said in PRWeek, “…#Ad and #sponsored is fine, but not #Spon and #Sp or #Collab or #co.” So, there you have it, straight out of the mouth of the FTC, #Spon, #Sp, #Collab, and #Co don’t make the grade.

Any agency or brand running influencer campaigns needs to be well versed in the guidelines. If they find them to be ambiguous, I suggest heading over to the nonprofit, Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA). WOMMA has been a devoted resource and the ethical guide to our industry since 2004. Here’s a link to their social media disclosure guidelines.

While the FTC may not provide a play-by-play for every scenario, it’s not that hard to stop and ask, “Is it clear? Is it unambiguous, and is the disclosure placed in such a way that the consumer is not going to miss it?”

Finally, when in doubt, always remember that #ad is ironclad!

Super Powers of Messaging Apps

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Social Media Messaging Apps appear to be a meek and mild application, but once you tap into their powers, they transform into the strong and mighty. Before you turn in your capes and discount this medium, listen up! Brands, big and small, are employing the power of messaging apps to reach its intended audience. This strategy has proven to be a critical resource, especially within the e-commerce realm that, with the slightest touch of a button, can almost telepathically relay key messaging to 100 percent of its audience within a few minutes, often resulting in higher conversion rates.

Why should brands venture into the somewhat unfamiliar abyss of messaging apps? That answer lies in the stats that suggest this approach can actually work in converting messages into sales. According to Pew Research Center:

  • Consumers between the ages of 17-31 spend more than three hours a day on their cell phones
  • 63 percent of consumers between the ages of 18-34 are active mobile users
  • 79 percent of all mobile users engage with brands via their devices

Aside from being ultra cool and innovative, messaging apps provide bold and fearless brands the tremendous opportunity of touching its core audience without being too salesy. Brands can seamlessly integrate key messages without in-app disruptions. It can also provide valuable content, encourage conversation and promote deals significant to its bottom line.

For brands wanting more personal online engagement that no foe can defeat, we’ve uncovered four premier messaging apps that allow these brands to connect with users in an organic way, no matter where they are:

  1. Facebook Messenger – With more than 900 million active users worldwide, this messenger reaches more than 44 percent of users between the ages of 18-34. As a result of the success of this app, the company is now having conversations about adding ads for higher conversion. Hyatt Hotels Corporation is a noted pioneer when it comes to using FB Messenger for customer service. It allows for real-time communication with its users, and will eventually evolve to allow its customers to book and share information securely.
  2. WhatsApp – 900 million individuals use this app monthly, with India, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa having the most active users. C&J Clark America, Inc. (“Clarks”) is known to target a more mature demographic and is using the app to pursue millennials. Its use of interactive chats and interactive documentary offer truly relatable content that’s attractive to its social media savvy sweet spot.
  3. WeChat – The amount of usage for this app is astounding! More than 650 million individuals use this app monthly worldwide, with China drawing more than 570 million individual users per day! The greatest asset of this app is that it allows ads, and is quite adaptable for brands wanting to discover new and clever ways of touting its benefits. Coca-Cola encouraged the “WeChat Lifestyle” by engaging users in Hong Kong to “take a break” from work via a follow of its account that’s replete with games and product offers.
  4. YikYak – The advantage of this app is that it allows the brand to control the conversation, and is location based, which allows its users to connect within their own community. The discussion threads are often pretty humorous, with pure and unrefined chatter. Chipotle garnered quite a few chuckles when the question was posed: “Want to break up with my ex, where should I do it?” The answer? “Chipotle, after you break up, she can sleep on a full stomach.” Ha!

The mighty heroes of the messenger app world have been revealed, and they are here to elevate brands to galactic status. Want to reach who you want? Want to reach 100 percent of the audience? Want to be read within a few minutes? Want a higher conversion rate? Tap on a messenger app to answer the call. After all, it’s truth, justice and the American way of apps!

Video Marketing Tips Marketers Should Know

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Creating social media posts with visuals is a must. Brand strategist are not looking to increase followers on Twitter and Facebook, they’re looking for engagement on their posts. If you want engagement, add videos. Video marketing for social media is effective and can be an inexpensive option.

Videos are increasingly becoming the focal point on many social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram now auto play, while Snapchat, a video messaging platform is growing in population. Don’t believe me? Entrepreneur.com states that in 2015, YouTube was the second largest search engine after Google. And according to a Cisco study, by 2017, videos will take up 69 percent of the internet. For marketers, that’s great news. According to this same study, that means that people who watch videos are 85 percent more likely to make a purchase. Sounds good, right?

Creating the right kind of video isn’t hard, however, there is something to keep in mind: social media isn’t about throwing content online, it should be strategic and well thought out. Here are four tips for building a strong video marketing strategy.

  1. Keep the videos short. Know that many users are watching the brand’s video on their mobile device. More than likely, they can’t turn up the volume and are quickly scrolling through their feed. The thumbnail, title and start of the video should “pop.” Keeping viewers’ attention for longer than two minutes is nearly impossible. Make the video short and powerful.
  1. No pushy brands allowed. According to the New York Times, consumers see more than 5,000 ads per day. Videos are a great way to break through the clutter if it’s not too “adsy.” Make the video personable and engaging. Allow it to speak to the viewer; make them happy or inspire them while incorporating key messaging. They may not remember what was said, but they will remember how you made them feel. Give them a great big dose of “the feels” to remember the brand!
  1. Be personable. Social media is about communication. We visit sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram to interact and engage with people, maybe even people we’ve never met. Being personable is important. If your video marketing efforts sound like a robot reading cue cards, people will run away…fast. Delete the pushy ads and salesy verbiage. Imagine your brand as a person. Who would it be? What would it sound like? How would it interact with its mom or best friend? Those are the types of questions you should ask as you brainstorm your video concept.
  1. Tell the (not any story, but THE) story. We are all storytellers and have some story we’d like to share. Video is the most powerful way to get the narrative across. Every video should have a beginning, middle and an end. Seems simple, right? Videos like “How To Highlight and Contour For Beginners” and “Single People Get Married for a Week” are two examples of completely different stories. However, at one point, both videos were trending and told a great story directed to a specific audience. While thinking of your story make it simple. Start with the title and break it down into three or four words. As you’re writing your video go back to those three or four words and make sure you’re in line with your end goal. “Highlight and Contour for Beginners,” “Single People Get Married,” those titles were thought out before the video was shot and you can tell by the way the story is told. It doesn’t matter if your story is sexy or not, it just has to have a clear beginning, middle and end.

The right video at the right time can push your brand to superstar status. One share can catapult a brand, making it a viral sensation. As a brand marketer, make sure you’re staying on top of the trends, and that you are creating content that positively push the buttons of your target audience. As video marketers, create videos that are short, not salesy, personable, and tell a story. With those four tips in mind you’ll quickly become an expert!

 

5 Fashionable Reasons to Give Influencer Marketing a Try

Five Fashionable Reasons to Give Influencer Marketing Campaigns a Try

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We predict that 2016 is going to be “the year” for influencer marketing campaigns.

After all, nearly one in four marketers rate influencer marketing as the fastest-growing online customer-acquisition method, and nearly 60 percent of marketers are planning on increasing their spend in this area (AdWeek, 2015). It seems that everywhere you look online, there’s another popular Viner, Instagrammer or blogger touting a brand’s wares. As fashionable as influencer marketing seems to be, some brand marketers are still leery. What’s the ROI? How can I justify the spend? We contend that influencer marketing campaigns are more than the “new black.” What follows are five solid reasons to add influencers to your next campaign:

  1. Consumers trust third party recommendations. The latest Nielsen report concludes that a whopping 84 percent of people trust word of mouth marketing over any other form of advertising. The best influencers are friends with their fans and followers, and can offer up word of mouth about your brand.
  1. Influencers bring their community. After all, an influencer was once just an everyday person. Somewhere along the way, they took to social media to share their passions, their occasional rants and their point of view on their favorite topics. Their followers are like-minded, appreciate the way they think, and actively seek their advice. When you engage an influencer, you are essentially engaging that influencer’s entire community on behalf of your brand.
  1. Consumers crave authenticity. Cohn & Wolfe’s excellent study on authenticity indicates that consumers want honesty more than anything from their brands. If you choose an influencer with a true passion for your brand, you can build rich, authentic stories that tell your brand’s core essence. Furthermore, when you give an influencer the freedom to share his or her own personal experience with your brand or product, you’re creating trustworthy, honest content.
  1. The spend does not have to break the bank. The good news is that there are a variety of ways to implement influencer marketing campaigns without emptying your wallet. It’s okay to experiment and try a campaign with a few influencers on a smaller scale. Maybe there is an aspect of your brand’s story that is complicated (something that people are always inquiring about) that could benefit from a longer blog post or video share. You can easily manage expectations on an influencer marketing program with fewer dollars. The resulting shares and blog posts are measureable, reportable stories that benefit the brand, and could also help your SEO. As with the early days of social media, sometimes you need to experiment and prove your case to get more budget dollars.
  1. Influencers are amplifiers. No matter what your marketing message or campaign is, there are content creators out there who are willing to amplify it in your next influencer marketing campaign. They may already be an aficionado of your brand. They are waiting for you to reach out to them and provide them with the marketing tools to tell your story. Of course, they’ll want to be compensated for their efforts, but that’s true for any major publishing platform. And, when it comes to compensation, it’s important to be transparent, and thank heavens the FTC has guidelines around this!

So yes, influencer marketing campaigns may be all the rage, but for good reason. Getting influencers to speak positively about your brand on their social channels is a powerful word-of-mouth message. If you want to add a feather to your marketing plan’s hat, you might want to try it on for size.

Influencer Marketing Campaigns – A Quasi “How To” Manual

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At our agency, we’ve been in the blogger relations business since we opened our doors six years ago. We live, breathe and drink influencer marketing, but I’m still uneasy with the notion of building a manual for “how to reach out to bloggers.” Not because I think we have some secret formula when it comes to influencer outreach; the challenge is that blogger relations is more about the relationship and less about the process. Relationships are built organically, over time. There’s no manual for building camaraderie and trust. That said, there are some basic guidelines I can offer up that may help demystify what we take into account when activating influencer marketing campaigns.

  1. Find a common denominator between your product or brand and the blogger. Far too often, we hear of brands sending out pitch emails to a huge list of bloggers often on BCC, with no personalization, fo an influencer marketing campaign. Spoiler alert: this tactic will not get you results. It will get you straight into the delete folder. Take time to read each blog you are pitching, see when and where the blogger may have written about a similar subject, and make the connection.
  2. Today’s “blogger” really is an “influencer”. Their influence extends far beyond their blog. We go beyond the blog to review their full suite of social channels and digital footprint. You may learn they have a different content strategy on Pinterest or Twitter than they do on their blog. When pitching, think about their entire eco-system of social activity and how your product or brand might be served on their social channels.
  3. A blogger has a name. It’s not “Dear Blogger” and certainly not “Dear Mommy Blogger.” Imagine how you’d respond if you got an email that read, “Dear PR Hack,” or, ‘Hey you, marketing maven.” I can’t imagine you’d respond positively, so don’t be surprised if your “Dear Blogger” email is met with no response. I wish I did not have to offer this advice in 2015, but I still do. Use the blogger’s actual name when reaching out to them, and yes, you can find their name in the “About” section of their site.
  4. Take the time between campaigns to listen. How do you do that? Go to a blogging conference, read a blog, follow an interesting blogger on Twitter, or even friend them on Facebook. Despite commonly held beliefs, most bloggers aren’t living in their basements, alone at their computer waiting for you to send them a pitch. They have lives, they write, they volunteer, they exercise, and they write some more. The truly great bloggers don’t do sponsored post after sponsored post. They have opinions and it’s worth getting to know something about them.
  5. Focus on the relations and less on the sponsorship part of the equation. Back when I was a PR professional, I had some good solid relationships with a few reporters. I’d take the time to chat with them even when I didn’t have a story to pitch. Those key relationships held me in good steed when I did have a story and no idea how to get it into the media. If the only time you reach out to a blogger is when you are selling, you’ll be sold up the river when you really need their help.

I know everyone out there really does want to crack the crack the “blogger relations” nut. I understand why! Bloggers are influential. They’ve built a platform and complimentary social channels where they share their message. Brands who can build a relationship with a blogger have the opportunity to create rich third party content and successful influencer marketing campaigns. Get the relationship piece right and then you’ll get real results.

How To Make Something Go Viral On Social Media (NOT)

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It’s 2015 and I still get asked that dreaded question posed to nearly every social media marketer. That question is, “Can you make this go viral?” My answer is always the same, “You can’t make something go viral any more than you can make a toddler eat spinach.” I always stress to think “shareable” instead of viral and to think long and hard about your goals. Ultimately, the thing to ponder is whether you are building an idea or campaign that people will share without prompting. Going viral is an almost hopeless aspiration, yet there are a few strategies marketers can consider to encourage the possibility.

Here are three questions to pose if you’re thinking you have that viral campaign. After you ask these, you may just think again.

  1. Is it about you or is it about them? If you want people to share your campaign, it cannot be about you. It has to be about them, the sharer. Think of the Ice Bucket Challenge. We all know that ALS had nothing to do with the origins of that campaign. What made that concept go viral was the fact that it was about the sharer. Crazy folks around the globe decided it would be funny to drop a bucket of ice on their head. The act became about their reaction to said ice and along the way ALS was occasionally mentioned.
  2. Is it memorable? Any thing you want to be shared on social media has to be easy to repeat, easy to remember, easy to spell. When the Everywhere Agency won the Guinness World Record for #BeatCancer, it was because those two words, Beat and Cancer, were easy to remember and words you could not forget or confuse. Clients often come to me with concepts that align with their marketing strategy, but unfortunately don’t have that easy, memorable, catchy hook. If there’s a chance it can get misconstrued, misspelled or misaligned, it likely will be.
  3. Is it inherently shareable? We all hopefully learned about sharing sometime after we emerged from the toddler period of existence… but think about what’s shareable in your life now. Funny ideas, gossip, and breaking news all fall under that category. Your brand manifesto or marketing campaign is not. Shareable is something you go out of your way to do and if your campaign does not have that easy click, send appeal of gossip, or a funny story, it won’t get shared.

There’s a video right now on YouTube, which is sponsored by the Card Store. It’s called #WorldsToughestJob and it features a dude interviewing potential job candidates for a job which requires candidates to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The potential job candidates are incredulous and frankly so are we as we watch. Who could expect anyone to be available, on your feet, ready to respond to any demand of your employer 365 days of the year, 7 days a week. The denouement comes when the dry interviewer reveals that the job in question is being a mom. Spoiler alert – you’ll need to get out your handkerchief at that point. The video has been viewed over 23M times (at the writing of this blog post) and it isn’t until the last 16 seconds of this 4-minute video that the brand is even mentioned.

That’s what I call shareable, er, viral.

everywhere intern amra

Social Media and Journalism: A Match Made in Story-telling Heaven

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When I first scored my internship at Everywhere, I assumed there was no way I could combine my journalistic abilities and the skills needed at a social media marketing firm. Without a doubt, I was mistaken.

For one, things are different here at Everywhere, you’re encouraged to share knowledge of your own while simultaneously absorbing everyone else’s, but in a good way. Simply put: you’re not expected to sit around looking pretty and making coffee runs. Though we do value our coffee, we have a great coffee machine right in the office and everyone is more than happy to make their own cup themselves.

It’s often around the coffee machine that we have conversations about how intertwined social media and journalism have become. Here are my three takeaways on the similarities between journalism and social media.

  1. Grammar is King (or Queen): To say that grammar is essential when writing a Facebook post or news article would be an understatement. Social media audiences expect the same level of professionalism from brands as they do their newspapers and news outlets. Just because it’s social media, doesn’t mean you can get away with rogue apostrophes or bizarre spellings of words. In fact, with the presence of social media, any grammatical blunders found are called out quickly and often publicly.
  1. Your Opinion Matters: At the end of any article, we usually see a “Comments” section where readers can sign into their desired social media account and voice their opinions. Similarly, domestic and international news articles are plastered on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Pew Research found that 3 in 10 adults get their news from Facebook. This number is sure to increase as Facebook has included a trending stream with relevant hashtags and trending topics on the right-hand side of the homepage.
  1. Limitations are Inevitable: Both news articles and social media platforms often battle with character/word limits. For example, Twitter’s 140-character rule is expected to be sufficient when answering the 5 W’s: who, what, when, where, and why. When the truth is, just the words “who, what, where, when and why” take up 27 of the 140 characters! Be it journalism or social media, being brief and being to the point are critical to delivering your message.

The truth is, journalism and social media have more in common than most people realize. It’s not just old media or new media; it’s just plain old media. As for me, I will continue to enjoy the best of both worlds here at Everywhere, with a delicious cup of coffee, of course.

Three Non-Profits Using Social Media in an “Out of the Box” Way

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You’d have to have been living under a rock to have missed the ALS ice bucket challenge that’s swept the web. A few months before the ALS challenge, women were posting photos of their bare faces, free of make-up and hashtagging #NoMakeUpSelfie. Believe it or not, these efforts weren’t even planned by non-profits. But, with some strategic placement and interjections from groups like the ALS Association and Cancer Research UK, the results have been millions raised for both organizations. What follows are three non-profits using social media in “out of the box” ways that deserve notice. Or I should say, more notice.

 

1. WATERisLIFE

True hashtag hijackers, Water is Life mastered the idea of taking something with a negative reputation and turning it into something for a greater good. #FirstWorldProblems, a trending hashtag, highlights issues that – only those far more fortunate than others – could even deem ‘problems’. For instance, “My in-flight movie was longer than my flight” is a typical first world problem. Water for Life hijacked this hashtag and created a video featuring third world kids and adults in their natural environments (in front of a hut, bathing in dirty water) reading typical #FirstWorldProblems aloud to show just how outrageous our issues truly are. The results? Donations that totaled over a million days worth of clean water to those in need! (1)

 

2. Cancer Research UK

The #NoMakeUpSelfie trend wasn’t started by Cancer Research UK, but when a bunch of women began posting pictures online of themselves without make-up and encouraging their friends to donate to the cause, the non-profit very wisely jumped on board. The charity sent out a tweet saying:

Cancer Research UK Tweet

The campaign isn’t ours but every £ helps #beatcancersooner.” The results? They raised $13.3 Million USD in six days! (2) Why is this my favorite campaign so far? The honesty of Cancer Research UK created a transparent and honest relationship with participants. Also, as a woman proud of her face and body as they are, make-up or not, a campaign promoting women to bare their natural beauty gets an A+ in my book!

 

3. ALS ASSOCIATION

It’s the biggest viral trend today and it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere any time soon. It’s the #IceBucket challenge. With this campaign, individuals have two options: pouring a bucket of ice cold water on themselves and making a small donation to the ALS Association, or making a much larger donation to the ALS Association but dodging the polar bear-esque plunge. Time limit? 24 hours! With the sharing capabilities of social media and the naturally occurring domino effect that comes with any contest that asks you to challenge others, the #IceBucket challenge has taken over social media. The results? $94.3 Million raised from July 29, 2014 to August 27, 2014. (3)

The use of social media for non-profits has proven to be successful time and time again. The results are in the numbers and as we all know, numbers don’t lie. One of the biggest draws for companies to use social media, is the rate at which a message can spread.

One thing is for sure, whether these non-profits raised money or not, they met their most important goal, awareness. When done right, the buzz around these non-profits and their purpose continues to rise with every share, post and call to action. The ice bucket challenge has not only raised millions of dollars, it has also proved a very important point. As Oscar Wilde once said, “There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.”

 

*Sources

(1) http://www.nonprofithub.org/social-media/the-top-4-nonprofit-social-media-campaigns-of-2013-and-what-you-can-learn/

(2) http://guardianlv.com/2014/08/ice-bucket-challenge-better-than-the-no-makeup-selfies/

(3) http://www.alsa.org/news/media/press-releases/ice-bucket-challenge-082714.html