Twitter: Your own personal PR

Twitter is so important as your own personal form of PR. Many people use twitter in a way that doesn’t maximise its potential by tweeting about everyday mundane things rather than tweeting about interesting content and linking to different content so that followers gain things from following them. To end this social media blog I am going to put this to the test by seeing how many followers I can gain in 24 hours by using twitter in the right way; linking to content, linking to this blog etc and see if it effects my followers on the blog. It will begin at 12pm tomorrow and end at 12pm Thursday. So get following and thank you for reading my blog!

https://twitter.com/#!/media_vic

How important is gamification?

Gamification is a huge social media trend for brands right now. It’s definitely something that has been identified in recent issues of FIR. Gamification is basically applying gaming techniques to PR, therefore many brands are releasing games as a promotional tool

Topshop

Topshop released a game called SCVNGR (scavenger). You had to download the game in the form of an app. Then there were different challenges to play for different prizes such a £50 to spend in store etc. there were also tasks inside the store to encourage footfall.

Lookbook

Lookbook is a site where people can upload pictures of their outfits. Lookbook hasn’t actually released a game for PR or promotion it’s used gaming techniques as part of the uniqueness of the website. The more that you like an outfit you are encouraged to ‘hype’ the look. The more hypes a look gets then the higher it gets featured on the homepage. The more hypes it receives then the average of ‘karma’ becomes higher which gives the user more exposure. So basically the reward of having a good outfit is social status.

Gamification is very important as it's a great PR tool simply because it's a really fun way of getting people involved in a brand.

Want to know more?

I recommend reading these articles:

5 Brands using gamification well

Gamification and the Fashion industry

For Immediate release

7^th May & 9^th May
For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report
For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report

Main Topics Discussed:
On the 7^th May co-host Shel Holtz reviewed Jane McGonigal’s “Reality is Broken,” which argues that the principles of game play can lead to better results than the routine approaches we take to problem-solving in the real world.  The 9th May was an interview with Grantoo co-founder and CEO Dimitri Sillam where they discussed student loan debt and how it effected students giving to charities.

Things I found interesting:
One of the answers to the problem discussed was gamification, creating some sort of game to get students enticed to interact with the charity and therefore encourage them to give. Obviously the whole review about 'Reality is Broken' was about gaming techniques and it was interesting to see how they delved into the power of gaming and how game designers have discovered what stimulates us. It shows just how important gaming techniques are and if they are applied to PR tools this is something that can be a real winner for promotion brands. Gamification is definitely an interesting PR tool that I want to explore, see what brands are doing it, and doing it successfully!

Companies using social media the RIGHT way

Listening to a recent FIR (03/05/12) about companies that have got social media wrong I decided look at the companies that managed to get it right!

Glamour – Pinterest
Glamour use Pinterest better than most companies that I’ve seen. They use their boards to show different elements of the magazine. Such as pinboards for inspiration for an up and coming photoshoot for the magazine. They also create pinboards for different trends. Doing this not only creates a personality for the magazine but it also invites the readers into the ‘behind-the-scenes’ inspiration that goes into the magazine and allows them to share these aspects with their readers.



Coca-Cola –Facebook
Coca-Cola’s facebook is so unique because they really maximise all the features of timeline. You can go right back to when Coke first began to find out information on the brand. They also interact with their fans through competitions, promotions and campaigns. Right now they are offering tickets to EURO 2012 if you get involved with their ‘Move to the beat’ campaign.

Uniqlo
Uniqlo is brand that is the king of social media for brands. Their social media history includes releasing a pinball game that allowed customers to win discounts and promotions as well as this it recently release a website called lucky counter that similar to groupon discounts the price the more that you tweet about it or share it. On top of all of this they were also one of the first retailers to release a mobile phone app in 2008. To find out more about their successes read this article and scroll to the bottom.

Overall, social media really is key to creating a good online personality and maximising the potential of a brand.

Want to know more?

I recommend to read these articles:

Companies Using Pinterest Right

Using Social Media Right

Social Media and a Successful Blog

Many bloggers will agree that social networking and social media is a huge part of their success. Recently one blogger tweeted that since she had not been promoting her blog on facebook her blog hits had halved in just one week. So how vital is social media to the successfulness of your blog?

WishWishWish

WishWishWish began in 2007. As an avid reader of her blog I have seen it grow over the years. She never promoted her blog on facebook, and she was a late user of Twitter. The way that her blog has gained success is through old social networking sites such as Livejournal which she regularly posted in communities such as What I Wore Today and The High Street. By doing this she gained followers who once she moved to her own blog platform followed her and were a vital part in spreading the word about her blog.

Nicola Claire
Nicola Claire’s blog is only a year old, but in a year she has managed to gain over a 1000 followers. Most of her promotion and followers came from a site called LookBook.nu where she regularly posted pictures of her outfits. She gained a following from that and many users wanted to find out more and therefore began to follow her blog. She also had a lot of interaction with other bloggers who in turn promoted her blog. I think making friends with other bloggers is a vital part to success as they will link back and more followers will be gained that way.

Both these bloggers now use twitter and facebook to continually promote their blogs, but it definitely is not something that they used as single tool to gain followers. It is definitely an amalgamation of different social media tools, and not always the obvious ones that you think of like twitter and facebook. I think the most important thing is identifying what social networking and media sites do the people that you want to read your blog use, and then start promoting your blog from there.

Want to know more?

I recommend to read these articles:

10 Easy Ways to Promote Your Blog

Successful Blog

Vlogging the new Blogging

So we all know what a huge phenonmenon blogging has been. Bloggers are practically celebrities (well in the fashion world!) Sitting on the front row of fashion shows, having articles written about them and being a major part of PR for brands. Well recently I came across a far more modern version of blogging that I believe is going to be even bigger and better than blogging, especially when used in conjuction with it. Its called Vlogging.

Now many of my favourite bloggers such as WishWishWish and Gem Fatale have used videos in conjunction with their blogs for tutorials and a different take on a post. But the job of a vlogger is to use only video and gain a community via sites such as YouTube and Vimeo. At first I did find it slightly cringey to watch, especially because many of the Vloggers aren’t trained on proper video etiquette, but it quickly became addictive and rather interesting! Vlogging can be about anything, but a lot of the Vloggers are comedians, but it's great to see fashion vlogging starting to make it big.

Just like blogging brands are now contacting vloggers to do sponsored videos about their brand. This can sometimes be even better than blogging posts as it's more than just pictures and vloggers can show people how to properly use the product, making it more likely that they will buy it.

So check it out! Vlogging! Below is a video of one of the Voggers I liked the best.

Want to find out more?

I recommend reading these articles:
Vlogging The Good The Bad
Pros and Cons of Vlogging
Teen Vloggers: Fashions New It Girls?

Pinterest

Sparked by one of the recent FIR, I’ve decided to find out more about Pinterest. Recently the first Pinterest user to be sponsored has been in the news and it’s made me want to know more about what draw people to ‘pinning’; Why use it for your own promotion and Why should companies use it?
So if you don’t know already, the whole concept of Pinterest is to create moodboards of photos. you easily categorize them and they can be about anything in general, but it’s basically an online pinboard that you can share with others.


One brilliant thing about Pinterest is firstly it’s a great way to flow traffic to a website or other social media links. What I think is really great about Pinterest is that it’s a great network to gain inspiration, and in that sense it is like no other social networking site. In a recent FIR(23/04/12) they mentioned the fact that Pinterest is losing users because once people have tried it out they have decided it isn't for them. But I don't think this is a threat for Pinterest as it is still in a growth faze.
Pinterest is a great source of PR. Recently one Pinterest user was sponsored by a company to pin live during a fashion event. Very similar to PR that bloggers create. It’s also great for companies to have a pinterest as it’s visually a unique way to communicate the personality of the company and another great way for brands to reach out to their customers.

That's it, I'm won over, I've already requested my invite to join the Pinterest community!

Want to know more?

As well as reading the linked content I recommend these articles:

Pinterest as a CV

Pinterest User Sponsored

Four unique ways to use Pinterest

Below are two videos, the first is a general talk about pinterest in the first 10 minutes. The second is exclusively as to why brands should create a Pinterest.

For Immediate Release

Over the course of this blog it's essential that I stay up to date with newest and most current social media trends and to help me do this I will be listening to the weekly podcast called For Immediate Release.
16th April
For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report

Main Topics discussed included:

• Update on Pinterest Report from last week
• A recap of Ragan’s International Public Relations and Social Media Summit in Amsterdam last week
• A discussion on whether Procter & Gamble made the right decision to block employee access to Pandora and Netflix
• Michael Netzley’s Asia Report focuses on the right amount of transparency and China’s political legitimacy crisis
• Dan York’s report includes Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and the photo service 500px
• Five ways to get the most out of your Google+ experience

Things I found Interesting

The one thing I found really interesting is the campaign that confused.com are doing using Pinterest. They have found out that 40% of women drive wearing heels! So to encourage better behavious they have launched a competition to win a pair of roll up ballet pumps and to be in for a chance of winning you have to pin a picture of you wearing your most outrageous shoes. I think this is really great as the company confused.com are using one the largest growing social networking sites to engage with their customers to do something very beneficial. What a great PR campaign, as it not only increases their profile but creates a good aura about the company.

I don't know too much about Pininterest but I will definitely be looking into further.

Google Plus VS Facebook Timeline

So I recently saw the new Google+ advert, and like many thought wait, is that not exactly the same as Facebook timeline? (I’ve put both adverts below so you can decide what you think!) I myself am an avid Facebook user, so the idea of going to a completely new social networking site (something I haven’t done since the days of MySpace!) seems like an alien concept to me. But being a curious person, and a social media geek I can’t help but find out what really makes Google plus a good social networking site.

This article '9 reasons to change to Google plus’ definitely helped my research. Better photo tagging, strong group chat features and better friend management are pros among many. But for me the winning feature of Google+ is the integration it has with other google features, such as news, maps, search etc. You could basically live your own ‘Google’ online life. I can imagine it being really easy, just using one platform for everything; videos, networking, searching, that part of it seems to make sense. But for me I enjoy the fact that everyone I know is on facebook and I think it would take many years for everyone to go to Google+ .

In terms of PR, I think that every company should be jumping on the Google+ bandwagon, it seems like the smartest thing to do and is a brilliant tool for market research due to the 'Google circles'. H&M is definitely one company that is using it the best, and they will no doubt be reaping the benefits from it. But for me despite the pros, I’m not completely convinced so I’ll stay a facebook fan for now. But what do you think? I’d love to hear your opinions!

Want to know more?
Read any of the linked content but I also reccomend these articles.
Google the new social network
Google vs Facebook
Is Google or Facebook better for business?

Twitter VS The Press

Twitter has been a huge issue for the press since it began. With twitter having grown in popularity so much in recent years it’s even more of an issue than it ever has been before. But really how credible is twitter? Is it really a repetable news source? And what impact is it having on the press?

Myself I check twitter more than I do online newspapers so I generally find out much of my news via twitter. I also tend not to follow newspapers as they tweet too much content that I’m not interested in. I do believe that twitter is taking over the press and is actually far more repatable then many newspapers for a couple of reasons:

-        Firstly many newspapers have an allegiance to certain political parties, so many of the stories can be bias, especially when it comes to election time.

-        Selective information is used in news stories. With twitter you follow exactly what is happening at certain events from people tweeting, therefore you can get a much more realistic picture.

Twitter is becoming more and more powerful and influential, such as actually bringing news stories to the forefront and in some cases reporting things before the press. This article exemplifies that perfectly claiming that the news of Whitney Houston’s death was release by two twitter users 27 minutes before the press.

It’s a tough time for the press right now without the internet and twitter posing such a huge pressure. But I agree with MelanieStills article when she concludes that it isn’t twitter versus the press it’s the press and twitter. Twitter links things to the press and is creating a two way road for the public to have an opinion on news stories.

Want to know more?

I definitely reccomend reading this article or any of the others I have linked to with the post.

The Future Of Fashion Blogging

Lately, blogging has taken a back seat for me. I haven't been blogging and I definitely haven't been reading as many blogs let alone discovering new ones regularly like I was doing before. But I did happen to stumble across this post by Fashion Rambler that really made me think about the future of fashion blogging. For those of you that haven't read it, he discusses the professionalism of blogging, the current state of the bloggersphere and what the future holds for blogging. But what are the pros and cons of fashion blogging? And who is currently doing it best?


Fashion Week is a really good example of the pros and cons of fashion blogging. With Global Fashion Weeks having come to a close, posts are popping up everywhere over the bloggersphere about peoples fashion week experiences, opinions on shows and what they wore. But really how rich is this content? I think it all depends on the individual e.g. what job they have and how long they been in the industry to make their content credible. Also naturally as creative people we focus mainly on the aesthetics and not so much on the content. I think there is definitely a lack of interesting content on fashion blogs that I am currently reading.


I personally have started to grow tired of the big and really popular blogs and am definitely more inclined to read blogs with not as much popularity. India Rose and My favourite company blog definitely has to be Topshop InsideOut.

India Rose

Personally the reasons that I love these blogs is for the following reasons:


India Rose

-        It’s authentic, not too many sponsored posts and it follows the pattern of her life and the things that are happening in it. You get the feeling that blogging is part of her life rather than being her life.

-        A good balance of posts. The posts are generally about fashion, music and herself. She does a couple of outfit posts every so often and intermittently puts in content about clothes that she loves or new designers that she’s found.

-        Her tone of writing is really good, it’s not condescending or patronising. It’s friendly and you feel like it’s a friend talking to you. It makes it much more credible  and interesting to read. With each post you get to know her better.

Lucy a Junior Buyer at Topshop

Topshop – Inside Out

-        The main reason I like this blog is for the content. You get an insight into the company with interviews with people of all different levels.

-        They give you backstage pictures and an insight into how their catwalk show is created.

-        Like India Rose, it has a friendly tone and gives Topshop a personality.

-        It’s always up to date with the newest social, fashion and beauty trends. They also speak to key people in the industry.

-        Overall you realise how much Topshop do behind the scenes. The blog allows you to become part of their world.

 It’s really difficult to tell what the future of fashion blogging will be but it has definitely taken a dip. I think both personal blogs and company blogs need to go back to the core of who they are and what they want to  get across from the blog and that will make the blog far more successful.