The back-story:

Troy Library was about to close their doors for good, unless they could raise money. So, they requested a small tax increase from the community. Unfortunately for them, an anti-tax group opposed any funds going to the library, and overshadowed the issue with tax talk. The library needed to shift the conversation from taxes back to the library.

How they shifted the conversation is what I found thought-provoking and inspiring as a publicist. Often, we are constrained by small to nonexistent budgets for marketing ideas; as Troy Library shows, a creative idea doesn’t need to break the bank:

A few strategic reminders for publicists, courtesy of Troy Library:

1. Budget doesn’t indicate newsworthiness.  A good idea is, well, just that. Don’t underestimate the power of a grassroots campaign, a Facebook page, and a couple lawn signs.
2. Don’t let the opposition define you or your cause. Find a way to be heard above all the noise.
3. Take risks. Permission from the client on messaging is obvious and necessary. Provide an array of risky ideas to choose from.

“A vote against the library is like a vote to burn books.” At the end of the day, this message soared higher than any tax issue. Cheers to being creative!

The post Troy Library: thinking outside the book appeared first on Abbi Agency.

Social advertising is the hottest topic in advertising right now. Its impact is immense, and is forecasted to grow even more in the next 3-4 years. SalesForce reports that by 2017, the market will float around $11B worth of spending. That’s some serious advertising cash – and that’s in the U.S. alone.

This means it’s time for brands, both big and little, to strategize and capitalize on the power of social advertising. The customers are there; people are spending their time on social media, particularly on mobile (30% of the time spent on social media is on mobile, and those numbers continue to grow).

Ads are made for people AND created by people on social. As brands, we have the learn how to optimize what content is and can be created to deliver an effective message and call-to-action for our audiences. This sector of advertising is not aggressive like TV; it actually fits in with the way people absorb content on social media.

Facebook and Twitter have expanded their advertising options to suit budgets and goals. According to SalesForce and Social.com, here are the best ways to approach campaign creation and accomplishing your goals.

To begin: Determine your goals

The goals for social ads typically are:

1. Grow fans or followers
2. Distribute Content: videos, photos, items that live on the feeds of the network
3. Direct Response: e-commerce, app downloads, etc

But how do you set up your ads for success? Social has so many opportunities that making a choice can seem daunting. Here are some tips to set up your ads for success:

Content is king

Within social networks, you have access to a massive amount of data, charting your content’s effectiveness and how well it resonates with your audience. Promote and push the content that IS working. If you’ve got good content to push, then ultimately you’re a winner.

Look at the success of previous posts and promote the ones with a high amount of ‘likes’ or comments. Know that photos and videos work better than text-heavy posts, and focus on spending money to promote your original content, such as infographics, in-house videos, podcasts, etc.

A/B Test

Put your campaigns to the test. Assign funds to several ads and target groups in the beginning, and after one week or so, take a look at what is working.

Don’t go crazy; granular, but not too granular. Use any existing customer data you have to determine audiences and key demographics.

What is a good amount of ‘granular’?

If you have a light-up cooler similar to Coleman, targeting an audience that ‘likes’ Wal-Mart, camping, and is male would probably be ideal.

But if you have a durable, army-colored $200 cooler, targeting an audience that ‘likes’ Cabela’s, hunting, fishing, and are males over 30 would be ideal.

Lastly, if you have a fold-up cooler that weighs less than competitors, targeting an audience that ‘likes’ REI, hiking, and camping would be ideal.

Think about Placement

With Facebook, remember that the click through & engagement rate is 3x higher when you place an ad in the Newsfeed. Considering mobile use, our recommendation is to stick with the middle of page on Facebook; not to say other types of ads aren’t effective, though.

With Twitter, there is a higher engagement rate (greater than 3%) when you target ads specifically on mobile.

TIP: Video views don’t work well on mobile, but they work well on desktop. 

Target well

Choosing the appropriate ways your ad content is delivered to your audience is imperative. You have several options when targeting audiences and paying for their responses. A few of those include:

• CPC: Cost per Click (pay every time someone clicks on your ad)
• CPA: Cost per Action (only pay for the action you want to get, such as likes, and no other engagement)
• CPM: This is Facebook exclusive and you pay for impressions. Facebook will optimize your ad to show to the people who are most likely to help you meet your goal.

Twitter allows you to target on specific phone devices, desktops, laptops, and web on smartphones and tablets.

Thinking about what content you’re advertising and what kind of reaction you want from it is the most important aspect of targeting. When determining the audience, Facebook gives you a multitude of targeting and segmentation options, from demographics to custom interests, their pre-determined broad categories, lookalike audiences, and more. The two key factors to keep in mind when selecting audiences are:

• Keep them focused, but not too focused. Again, using any existing data you have in order to determine the most applicable audience for your promotion is a smart way to target.
• Test, test, test: Can’t stress it enough. The best way to find what works is to eliminate what doesn’t. Test different keywords, audiences/interests, and interaction options.

TIPS:

First time ad buyers: use the audience you already know is on social media and just target them in your first round of ads. If you know your customer base is females over 50 that live in Reno and love knitting, crafting, etc, then target only those to start with, and forget going after 20-somethings that have a much slimmer chance of interacting with your brand.

B2B: your potential clients and customers all work somewhere, right? Or a company you’re looking to set a meeting with has multiple employees that have Facebook profiles, correct? You can target by workplace and receive positive attention from the company’s personnel by sending them specific and applicable content through ads.

Use right metrics to measure success

Make sure you are collecting and analyzing your ad campaign data to see if it’s working for you.

The great thing with online advertising is you can track it in real time. No need to fork over $1,000 upfront and cross your fingers that it’s going to be successful. Because of this, monitoring is huge. You need to watch your ads daily and adjust as necessary to make sure your advertising campaign is successful. Each platform has its own advertising monitoring interface so you can keep track of the results on there. You’ll know if your advertising campaign is successful by creating your own metrics to measure by:

• Are you trying to drive online sales? Then you’d better make sure you are using ads that drive people off Facebook and Twitter and convert into off-site sales. If this is the case, measure how much money you are spending on the advertising campaign based on how much money you are making in sales. This will show you your ROI and you can decrease or increase your spending as necessary. If the ads are not generating any traffic, you might want to consider changing the copy or design of the ad.
• Are you trying to increase your fans or followers? The same goes for increasing your audience. How much is 1,000 fans worth to you? Put a price on it and follow the same methodology as #1.
• Are you attempting to make a video go viral? Make sure you’re using desktop options more than mobile.

The key is to experiment. The opportunity social provides is incredible, but your must have some time to invest in the process and understanding of social ads. The best part of social ads is that they can user generated, too! You get to pick what content works and who sees it when spending your money. That’s the new wave of advertising and it’s a process worth investigating and investing in.

Download our eBook here 

The post The State of Social Ads appeared first on Abbi Agency.

Do you ever have those days when you just aren’t feeling creative, and posting good content on Facebook seems harder than creating the cure for cancer?  Thanks to our newest client, your creativity can be restored. Post Planner is an app that helps you find content faster and easier, plus boost your reach on your Facebook pages. It can be your Facebook library and basecamp. So far, we’ve seen some pretty impressive engagement results. It’s priced to afford, and definitely worth checking out. We are excited to work with a social media app yet again and will keep everyone updated on the Post Planner success!

What’s Hot: Snapchat

Snapchat is one of the world’s hottest, most talked about, and most controversial apps on the market right now. Snapchat users can take photos, record videos, add text and drawings, and send them to a list of recipients. What separates it from traditional texting is the fact that users can choose how long the recipient can view the content for. Once that time has expired, it is automatically deleted from their phone. The controversy? The phenomenon of “sexting” now has its ideal solution. While the creators, four former Stanford students, argue that its intention is to put the fun back in communication, it only makes sense that the primary demographic of Snapchat users, between 13 years to 25 years of age, use it with alternative intentions. Now the app is under fire for its “deletion” methods. While tech writers and the founders are taking various sides on the issues, the simple fact is Snapchat is experiencing over three dozen images sent per second during peak hours. It’s a social platform that is impossible to ignore; if only to satisfy the clandestine photographer in all of us.

Toolbox: Instagram Tagging

It should come as no surprise that since being acquired by Facebook, the world’s most popular photo sharing app, Instagram, is slowly releasing features traditionally found on the Facebook platform. Instagram recently launched the ability to tag other Instagram users in your photos, just as you tag photos with other Facebook profiles on Facebook. They’ve made the feature “individual” to Instagram by branding it with the name “Photos of You”. Not to be confused with Facebook “tagging”, of course. Only the photographer can tag their photos with friends, places, and brands. “Photos of You” are currently private, but will go public starting May 16. It’s a great new marketing tool for brands looking to capitalize on their Instagram presence. We’ll see if Red Bull or Southwest launches a campaign first!

The post Trendspotters: May 2013 appeared first on Abbi Agency.

Specialize the press kit

Pull together a press kit together, specifically for this event, more than a day in advance. Many companies have an established press kit, but for a press trip there may be special releases, pictures, etc. you should include. My first experience was a ski resort press trip. To differentiate our press kit we added a weather report for the weekend and an individual itinerary for each participant. Many were treated to serene spa services while others traveled to a neighboring cross country skiing resort.

No preview stories? Try social media

One big mistake beginners make is getting caught up in planning the trip that they don’t pitch the story. This is especially important when planning a press trip for an event. Pre-coverage of an event is crucial for two reasons; 1) increase attendance 2)branding the client, and in turn impressing them. Some publications may not be able to do a preview story due to editorial calendars or publish timing; instead ask them to share pictures and details of the event on their social media sites.

Check out their Alexa ranking

It is easy to overlook niche bloggers and websites that reach your audience, but they can be very influential. Use a tool, like Vocus, to pull a list of writers to target and then you can check out their Alexa ranking- which will help you determine who is most influential. These tools help to justify spending money on airfare to your client.

Make it memorable

Most importantly, remember to have fun! From paying attention to the small details to picking up journalists at the airport in a bird suit, remember to keep the journalists entertained… after all this is somewhat of a vacation for them.

The post How to plan a press trip: tips and tricks appeared first on Abbi Agency.

Our profession is about helping our clients. Helping to garner media attention, to develop marketing strategy, and even to understand the ever-changing world of social media. And then there are those instances when our clients teach us a thing or two. These lessons don’t always pertain to our industry or their expertise, but are valuable as the latest PR Daily tool list or the latest and greatest new app.

I recently had the privilege of traveling to Denver, CO to take part in our client’s, Odyssey Teams, largest training solution session with DaVita HealthCare Partners.  As a result of this session, over 1,400 prosthetic hands were assembled to distribute to developing countries, and while this was inspiring, it’s what Odyssey Teams’ facilitator, Lain Hensley, said during the program that was ruminating in my brain on the plane ride home.

Odyssey Teams Food for Thought:

Think of an orange, when you squeeze it what comes out? Juice.

More often than not in the public relations industry we are being “squeezed”: by clients, by colleagues, by deadlines. The point of this analogy is to become aware of what is extracted from you when you are under pressure, or “squeezed.” What comes out of you when you’re squeezed? Is it productivity, kindness and support or negativity, blame and defeat?

In public relations it’s our job to know everything about our clients, but it’s important to remember that they can teach us things that cannot be found in a boiler plate or FAQ.  What have your clients taught you lately?

The post Client Lessons in Getting Squeezed appeared first on Abbi Agency.

Measuring eCommerce

If your client’s end goal is ecommerce, whatever efforts you’re doing on your website should be geared toward getting people to make purchases. So how do you measure this? Through the use of Google Analytics you can determine:

• How much money was made online
• Where those people who purchased things came from
• Where customers dropped off and decided not to buy anything

[Related: Google Analytics for PR]

Measuring a blog

If you’re running a blog on a platform that allows for email subscription, do it. RSS feeds are great and all, but email subscription is better. You’ll be provided with a list of all your email subscribers and they will get email notifications every time you blog. This is your audience. The more blog subscribers, the better. These are people who enjoy your content so much, they have decided to be notified every time you push out new content. That is way more valuable than a page view or site visit. An easy way to measure the success of a blog is how many people come to the site (you can use Google Analytics for this) versus how many people decided to subscribe (conversion!) within a month’s time.

Measuring a newsletter

Many people measure the success of a newsletter by open rate, thinking that as long as their email is being opened, it’s being read. True? Not necessarily. For example, I will often group a bunch of new messages together, mark them as read and never come back to them (usually emails from online stores that I’ve signed up to be on their mailing lists). So I’m completely skewing their numbers and never even looking at the email. You could also open it and close it immediately.

A better judge of email newsletter success is whether or not your content is being clicked. For example, you send out a newsletter that says 20 percent off bagels, click here. Then measure how many people click that button. Most email programs will list number of clicks for a campaign and you can also use Google Analytics for this. Or, if you’re promoting an event, include a link to the event RSVP page and track how many people RSVP after you send out your campaign.

[Related: How to Save Your Event if All Appears Lost]

Measuring social media

Engagement is just a fancy word that means whether or not people care about what you’re posting. Just because you have 10,000 fans on Facebook doesn’t mean you have a successful Facebook page. Just because you have 2,000 followers on Twitter, doesn’t mean people actually read the tweets you’re sending out. A better way to measure success on social media is how much and how often people are interacting with your content. This means liking, forwarding, sharing, commenting, Retweeting … etc. This can be found using third-party applications like Radian6 or the platform’s internal analytics.

[Related: Facebook 101: Simple Tips for the Beginner Admin]

[Related: Equipment for your Social Media Toolbox]

The post How to measure success online appeared first on Abbi Agency.

During my time here at The Abbi Agency I have spent a good deal of time looking for Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) for a couple of different clients.  You may ask why I was spending time on finding these opinion leaders.  The answer to that is because they can be used to provide important credibility to a client’s campaign.  Because they can be so important, I wanted to share some of the problems I encountered, the solutions to those problems, and my overall process of finding KOLs.

Understanding the Client

The first hurdle I encountered in my search was figuring out exactly who I was looking for.  The best way for me to leap this hurdle was to start my research with the client.  If I didn’t know whom I was working for, how could I know who has an opinion about them?  While looking through websites and social media associated with your client, be sure to note keywords, industry jargon, and other associated words that relate to the client and their KOLs.  This will help later in your search when trying to find creative search fields.

Tools

There are a variety of tools to find KOLs on the multitude of media platforms out there, news stations, publications, social media, blogs and so on.  Some of the invaluable free tools that I have used in my research are:

• Twellow: Searches influential twitter users by category

• Alltop: Searches blog post related to the search inquiry

• Klout: ranks people on their social media presence and how influential they are

• And of course GOOGLE: I would feel weird if I had to say what Google is!

These are just some of the tools that I used because they were helpful in finding the people I needed.  These tools are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding influential people.  Jason Falls, recognized social media influencer and blogger, has great list of tools here.

Finding Your Key words

One thing to remember on all of these search platforms is that slight changes in the language used in the search field can have a huge difference in what you get back in your results.  For example, I was searching for KOLs for Kickstarter and wasn’t finding many people talking about Kickstater specifically, but then I stepped back and thought about what Kickstarter is, a “crowd funding” site.  I then changed my search to “crowd funding” and found that the quality and quantity of my results greatly improved.  So, don’t be discouraged by poor search results, but instead rethink your strategy and work smarter not harder.

Organization

Once you have been researching and finding good sources, it should become easier to recognize valuable KOLs.  This is a good time to go back and organize your research into categories that will make it easier for your clients to process the information.  For example, in my Kickstarter research, I created categories like investors, bloggers, and entrepreneurs.

It can also be helpful to categorized KOLs in rank of importance.  Not all KOLs are going to be of equal importance.  Some may not have enough public presence to hold any substantial value and others might have poor credibility.  It doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be noted in your report, but they should be categorized appropriately.

For example I could have two categories for my Kickstarter bloggers: one of bloggers who blog on a regular basis about Kickstarter and one of bloggers that have blogged about Kickstarter at some point in time.

Keep in mind that the final product will allow you to gather the most applicable research efficiently for your client.  You will thank yourself for keeping the list organized, ranked and focused when it comes time to deliver your research to the client.

Through this whole process, remember who your client is and why they need this information.  Keeping that in mind will help you find the KOLs you are looking for and organize them appropriately.  All KOLs have some level of importance to clients so it’s important to find them all, and deliver them to your client in an organized fashion.
Photo credit

The post Key Opinion Leaders: Who are they and how do I find them? appeared first on Abbi Agency.

Here are some of my favorite tools for finding content, organizing and managing multiple social media accounts:

Post Planner

Post Planner is an app that works directly through Facebook. One of my favorite features is it provides you with quality content for a particular topic. Not only quality content, but TRENDING content! From hunting to heart disease, Post Planner has you covered. This app saves you time browsing the web for an article your audience will find value in reading. Post Planner can also help you come up with a clever status for a particular topic.  For the days I’m not feeling creative or am time pressed, Post Planner is my number-one stop. 

Scoop.it:

No one wants another tool that takes up more time than it is worth. Scoop.it has been just the opposite for me. It saves time and helps find quality content. It uses visuals to draw you to each article, similar to Pinterest. It is easy to use and lets your pick up to 15 topics you’re interested in. There is also a suggestion RSS feed you can scroll through and simply scoop the content you are interested in.

Bit.ly

Always, always shorten your URL’s with bit.ly. Bit.ly allows you to shorten, share and track the resulting usage of that URL. I use bit.ly when sharing a URL on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Bit.ly URL’s are more likely to get clicked on, and you can track your “bitemarks.”

Sprout Social

So the question is; isn’t there a smarter way to connect the above resources all together? That’s when Sprout Social comes in, a must have! Sprout Social is a social media manager that allows you to post content, queue content, track content and provide social analytics. The queue picks the optimum times to send your Tweets – the times they will get the most interaction. Sprout social provides great analytics including impressions, engagement, shares, demographics and influencers. You can set it up for all of your clients and work through one dashboard. The dashboard provides great charts for social media reporting and is super easy to use.

The post Equipment for your Social Media Toolbox appeared first on Abbi Agency.

Traditional PR and Digital intersect at a road we refer to as Blogger Ave. Blogger relations prove to be valuable for PR companies and their clients, creating real-life product advocates that consumers confidently trust in their endorsements. Among the hundreds of various blogger focuses on the Internet, one of the most popular remains the almighty “mommy blogger”.

Introducing a brand campaign requires a process of research, respect, communications, and in some cases, cash.

The Abbi Agency compiled a list of questions commonly asked to perfect media communications and sent them to 100 participators with optional anonymity via SurveyMonkey. The responses allowed us to determine best practices when coordinating efforts with mommy bloggers and how to best go about creating mutually beneficial relationships.

Do they even like us?

Overall, the response was positive. 93% are willing to work with PR people, and they all accept samples. Before you outline send outs and pitches, please note that 79% of the surveyed want you to pony up the cash in exchange for a post. That doesn’t mean they disregard honesty and integrity; many provided explanations which we expanded upon in the report .

Product, product, product.

Bloggers are real people, communicating with an audience on a very personable and relatable level. Their authenticity means they have to speak the truth; press releases and pitches can’t be pasted and published.

Of the surveyed, almost 78% want product for review every time to provide honest and transparent coverage. More than 67% want it to giveaway to their audience, which we’ve found to be highly beneficial. Giveaways often translate into multiple posts, social media interactions and mentions, and increased engagement with your brand. Win!

On the other hand, branded content wasn’t high on the wish list. Image galleries are a must, but bylined columns and top ten lists often hurt their Google rankings if on multiple blogs and don’t provide a unique experience for them and the brand.

Treat bloggers how you would like to be treated.

Surprisingly, most of the bloggers we surveyed have worked with multiple PR professionals- or at least, multiple PR professionals have tried to work with them.

An emphasized request of theirs was to be approached with respect. Their blogs are very important to them, but they are not full-time writers. They do not exist to provide another placement for the log. A few key takeaways:

1. Address them by name: No one likes to be called “Dear Blogger”.
2.  Read their blogs: If you’re pitching cinnamon bread to a gluten-free blogger, you are wasting everyone’s time.
3. They have lives: They are not at your beck-and-call and their posts take time just as traditional media placements do. Keep your requests minimal and focused to respect their time.
4. Provide a news hook: Mommy bloggers are smart. They like to write on trends, so providing a source for them to do so is beneficial.
5. Call-to-action: If they don’t know what you want them to do, you are simply wasting their time.

The Takeaway!

Big Lesson: Most mommy bloggers are willing to work with PR people. That open door is quite exciting for us! But there are ground rules, and as long as you are mindful of them, you can create a meaningful endeavor and have some great results to deliver to your client.

Each responder was given a comment box to freely contribute tips, insights, and requests for PR people. To close, here are some of the most common tips, and additional ones are included in the final report :

1. Don’t treat them like a number. They all are unique and have something to offer from the communities they “represent,” and it’s best to send them pitches with ideas or products that suit those communities.
2. Respond to emails in a timely manner.
3. Recognize bloggers don’t exist just to give you free advertising.
4. Promote the blogs’ social networks, share the posting, subscribe to their feeds, etc.
5. Send two samples of items, so they can try one and photograph the other.
6. Send visually pleasing emails and have immediate access to lots of images.
7. Track the different interests and communication styles of individual bloggers.

You can download and read the full report at www.theabbiagency.com/ebook.

The post The Mommy Blogger Survey appeared first on Abbi Agency.

We’ve covered crowdfunding in previous newsletters, and for those who watch the tech industry closely, names like Kickstarter and Indiegogo are no strangers to you. It makes sense – if you have a product or idea that appeals to the masses, don’t give up control just for funding; get the people who want it first to back you up.
We’re lucky enough to have our first Kickstarter venture with a client happening right now. Born in Las Vegas, LiddUp is the world’s first cooler with built-in LED lights. This cooler is fantastic because, let’s be honest…in the dark, the right brew is hard to find and headlamps are dorky. LiddUp is currently seeking pledges, and if you get in now at $79 or above, you will be among the first to receive a cooler right off the production line.

Pledge at http://kck.st/Y3uspT and by next summer, you’ll put all other Coleman’s to shame.

Tools: WHO I CHOOSE

Do you ever go on Yelp or Google Reviews looking for somewhere to eat, or the best dry cleaning in town, and the place only displays a 2-star rating, despite the fact most reviews give it 3 or 4 stars? Bad reviews kill, and for business owners, burying them in good reviews is a daunting task.
Enter WHOICHOOSE.COM – a site that only allows positive recommendations. While this may seem useless at first, the site aims to provide people with a ‘best of’ list from their friends and patrons who truly love an establishment. After signing up and browsing the site, we found that the idea is to “choose” places and share them with friends via Twitter and Facebook. Instead of updating your status looking for recommendations, you can head over to WHO I CHOOSE and get suggestions for anything from a restaurant to a dentist. It also offers a business model with “chooser” analytics, social media connections, and more.
We did notice that Las Vegas has a large number of entries already on the site, so if you’re a business owner in Vegas, it might be time to jump on board and get chosen!

What’s Hot: Tech Cocktail

Most tech news sites and blogs are full of politics. TechCrunch, Mashable, and Pando Daily are all scrutinized for being unfair in their coverage, breaking embargos, and “soft” content. Enter Tech Cocktail – a media company that offers tech news, entrepreneur tools, events for startups, and even a job posting section.

The most interesting aspect of Tech Cocktail’s model is that they not only cover the industry, but they spearhead events in cities all over the U.S., including Las Vegas, Chicago, Washington D.C., L.A., San Francisco, Austin, Boulder, etc. These events educate and connect professionals in the tech industry and provide valuable knowledge for startups to succeed. Founded by veteran tech industry guru and writer Frank Gruber, and featuring articles from savvy commentators like Jen Consalvo, Tech Cocktail is the go-to site for a community of driven people attempting to make a splash in the tech industry.

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