A paid search campaign for Southern Delaware Tourism

Below is the first in a series of case studies that we wanted to share with those of you who read our blog. We think it’s a great opportunity to share examples of our work and capabilities. The case study below, for our client Southern Delaware Tourism, showcases our online media capabilities, specifically paid search campaigns.Read full post...

My goal: be a better blogger.

So I am beginning to get it—this whole social media thing. I threatened to quit Facebook earlier this year…but didn’t. It’s still too intriguing to me. And yes, it is fun to connect with old friends and business associates…even some distant relatives have touched base.

So here is my commitment to myself and my company and many acquaintances—I will become a better (meaning simply a more involved and more active) blogger in 2010. Alright, this is my promise to all of you…I’ll start thinking about why you read blogs and what’s important to you. Why did you stop here? Curious about the agency? Our work? Our clients? Our staff? Or are you really that interested in me? I doubt that it’s all about me. My posts will be about what would interest you…not just what interests me. And hopefully that keeps you coming back to read new content.

Domino's - an example of social media success

If you missed the first part, check it out here.

Now for the good: a coworker in our PR department had an experience in which FedEx missed a next-day delivery. She decided to voice her frustration by tweeting, “FedEx really expletive deleted on me today.” Within 30 minutes, she got a retweet from FedexAl asking if he could help. This small effort from FedEx customer service immediately turned her from disgruntled to impressed.

An even better example would be Domino’s Pizza.Read full post...

Sears - an example of social media failure.

Everyone seems to be buzzing about Social Networks and how to take advantage of them for marketing purposes. It is a great opportunity for companies to join a conversation that’s already taking place rather than trying to start a new one. As with any conversation, you have to listen. Imagine walking into a crowded party and just starting to talk about things that interest you without bothering to figure out the current topic of the conversation. How would people react?

Here is my step-by-step guide to getting into the social networking fray.

1. Plan: Before getting involved, ask yourself, “What are my business goals and how do I plan on measuring them?” Only then can you develop a plan to make social media a part of that success.
2. Listen: Begin monitoring the current conversations to find out if people are talking about you and what they’re saying.
3. Evaluate: Is there a prevailing positive or negative tone to the existing conversations?
4. Engage: Social networks can be a great opportunity for customer service, as you’ll see in the examples below.
5. Promote: The final—I repeat, final—step of playing in the social network sandbox is promotion of your goods or services. Once you are a part of the conversation, then you can start changing its direction.Read full post...

Applying strategy is critical to social media success.

99 ways to use Twitter?

There are plenty of articles on the Internet that outline the 17 ways to use Twitter or the 32 ways to use Facebook. If your approach to social media has been to start with these types of articles, you may be focusing too quickly on tactics without an appropriate social media strategy. Tactics without a strategy are particularly bad because they often end up being ineffective, hard to measure and mask real opportunities a more strategic version of the tactic may provide.

Because social media tools are so accessible and seemingly easy to use, a planning/strategy phase is often skipped, perhaps also in part because the realm of social media seems so complex. Because there is no clear place to begin, there is a tendency to start with tactics, a fatal mistake.

How to approach the problem

One technique for approaching a problem that seems complex is to break it down into a series of simpler problems. This is a great approach when it comes to the social media landscape. Instead of looking at a list of 50 ways to use Twitter, it makes more sense to look at a smaller list of ways to use social media in general.Read full post...

Soon, you can search within your circle of friends.

We can get overwhelmed sifting through blogs and online discussions. That’s why we turn to our social circle for recommendations. But our friends also have several social network accounts and each one has a lot of information. So how do we keep track of it all?

Don’t fret, fellow social butterflies: Google is developing Social Search. It enables users to add their networking profiles to a Google account and see search results filtered and prioritized based on their circle of friends. This means that we can turn to our social circle first when filtering results on the web. For instance, if I wanted to research restaurants in my area, results from my trusted social circle would appear more prominently in my search.

Click here for an overview of Google Social Search.

How much time are you spending online?

There was a very interesting study released by Harris Interactive showing that web users are online an average of 13 hours per week. This is a slight dip from the same observed period in 2008 where they saw average users online for 14 hours per week. The major change? In 2008, 43% of users were online at work. In 2009, that dipped to 40%.

Harris tracks use at home, at work and at what they list as “other location.” Online at Home and Online at Work have both seen Year-Over-Year growth since the study began in 1995, with this being the first year they have seen a dip for the Online at Work category. A simple explanation may be that there are fewer people at work this year then there were last year.Read full post...

Why online advertising is important for hospitals.

By: Kelly Hocutt and David Michaluk

Are you still reluctant to advertise your hospital on the web? Maybe you’re bound by tradition. Or maybe you think healthcare is too private for the web — and people seek information only from people they can trust. But research by OTX and Google shows that adding search and web advertising to your marketing mix is more than just helpful — it’s essential.

That’s right. Consumers are increasingly going online for hospital information. 41% go to the Internet before seeking advice from healthcare professionals or friends and relatives. When these information-seekers get to the Internet, 76% go to hospital websites, 62% to search engines and 56% to health websites. They’re using more than one destination — which means if you’re not using search engine ads and ad networks, you’re missing a sizable audience. If they don’t see you, you don’t exist.Read full post...

Putting social networking to work...literally.

Yammer is a simple way for employees to connect and share by posting messages. As more employees participate, it becomes a corporate social network, discussion board and knowledge base. Yammer is like a combination of Facebook and Twitter. Your company can create a profile that mimics the look of Facebook: picture, wall posts/messages, an information page, etc. Your company also has a “network.” And the Yammer is protected, permitting only people from your company to join by requiring your company’s domain (@yourcompany.com). The homepage resembles Twitter — members of your company can post messages about what they’re working on or post questions to coworkers.

But what happens when employees start spending more and more time chatting on Yammer? Will it be a time-waster? Or a morale-booster? Only time will tell.

Things have really changed in the online world.

I’ve become a big fan of the publication Mediaweek, despite the fact that I’ve never planned nor bought any media — ever. Yet, for some reason, I’m sent a copy of this magazine every week, so who am I not to read it? It’s funny how certain publications find their way to your mailbox. For example, I also look forward to my weekly dose of Modern Manicurist. There’s nothing quite like an article centered on the finer points of nail sculpture.

But getting back to Mediaweek, their recent “Best of the Decade” issue offers some interesting statistics about online-related trends over the last ten years. I love interesting statistics. (Perhaps Mediaweek realizes this and that’s why they’re sending me their magazine.) Here’s the first online fact: “Americans who said they used the Internet in 2000-01: 53%. Americans who use it today: 75%.” That’s three people out of every four. Not totally surprising. How about, “Total daily time Americans spent online in 2000: Less than 30 minutes. Time they spend on the web each day now: 4 hours.” No wonder we’re all so chunky! What were we doing with the extra 3? hours not spent online in 2000, power-walking? And perhaps the most astounding online statistic of all, “Number of text messages sent in 2005: 5.4 billion. Estimated number of text messages sent in 2008: 1+ trillion. That’s “trillion” with a “tr.”

Next up: I offer some hot tips on the do-it-yourself reverse French manicure.

Celebrating the holidays with silver and golds!

AB&C was honored with four gold awards and one silver in the 35th Annual JASPER Awards competition. Sponsored by the Jersey Shore Public Relations and Advertising Association (JSPRAA), the competition drew more than 265 entries.

Our work with St. Joseph’s Healthcare System Children’s Hospital in Paterson, NJ, won gold for outdoor billboard advertising, print poster material and print brochure, and silver for magazine advertising. We also received a gold award for newspaper advertising created for Underwood Memorial Hospital, Woodbury, NJ, highlighting maternity care.

It’s always great to be recognized with our clients for our combined creative efforts. We’re happy to share this good news with you.

Creating a new way to Twitter for your business.

The “Contributors” feature from your friends at Twitter, currently in beta testing, will enable your company to have multiple contributors to its Twitter feed. Each Tweet will include the writer’s byline. In addition, “Contributors” promises two different levels of access: Enhanced and Partial.

Enhanced Access will allow contributors to view the account dashboard and it may include data and analytics about your Twitter feed, followers, etc. Partial Access allows them to write Tweets but not see the entire dashboard. Other business-specific features are in development as Twitter makes a concerted effort to address business needs. How will this change the Twitter game? Watch and see for yourself.

Dashboards can help drive marketing strategy.

Looking for an easy way to gauge your client’s driving forces? Ask what’s on his or her dashboard.

Dashboards are a businessperson’s CliffsNotes®, condensing tomes of information into readily digestible nuggets. Where do overall profits stand? Any new leads from the northeast territory? Is maternity patient volume up? Dashboards provide a snapshot of the key metrics your client needs to succeed.

Which brings us, as usual, to marketing strategy. Knowing what’s on a client’s dashboard enables you to customize a plan that speaks to his or her exact needs and goals. And that’s a plan you can get some serious mileage from.

Changing the way they advertise.

Everyone wants to reach the top. Mountain climbers have always set their sights on conquering Mt. Everest. Baseball players have always aimed for the World Series. Big companies have always budgeted to advertise during the Super Bowl.

Until now. Pepsi is ending its 23-year run as an advertising staple during the most watched television event of the year. According to the Wall Street Journal, the soft-drink powerhouse is moving its advertising dollars online to kick off the “Pepsi Refresh Project” that will “award grant money for community projects proposed and selected by consumers, such as helping high-school students publish books to develop their writing skills.”Read full post...

Take a break for the holidays!

The holiday season may seem a little less jolly for some of us this year. Stress levels are high and there are plenty of reasons to feel a bit like a scrooge — lousy economy, job pressures, family needs, etc. It doesn’t help that we’re constantly receiving or sending electronic communications every minute of every day — emails, text messages, blogs, Twitter and Facebook, to name a few.

It’s a good time to remember to take a break. Unplug — and unwind — this holiday season. Here are some tips:

Get out. Take a walk. Take your children to the park.
Reconnect. Visit a friend. Call someone you haven’t seen for years.
Be a kid again. Grab a board game. Play tag or hide and seek with your children.
Be creative. Draw or paint a picture. Learn how to knit. Take up scrapbooking.
Be old-fashioned. Write a poem, a love letter or a thank-you note.
Learn something. Read a book, newspaper or magazine.
Give back. Donate food or clothing to those in need. Volunteer at a local nonprofit.
Test your culinary skills. Bake, grill, sauté, roast. Try a new recipe.
Dance to the music. Put on your favorite CD. Play an instrument. Go to a concert.

But most of all, enjoy yourself. And reconnect with family and friends. Happy holidays!