How important are your tweets? That is for Twitter to decide! One of the articles in our latest Digital Download discusses Twitter’s recent announcement that they are going to begin attaching value ratings to users’ tweets as none, low, medium and high.

According to Twitter, the new metadata will allow developers to sort through millions of tweets in their streaming API to help them find the conversations that are most useful to them.

Although Twitter did not say how they will actually determine each tweet’s value, it is likely the system will work the same way that “Top Tweets” currently appear in a Twitter search result. Basically, you can get your 140-characters-or-less as a ‘Top Tweet’ if you have a large following or if you manage to rack up a lot of retweets.

As we all know, some streams on Twitter have so much content and move so fast that it can be very hard to keep up. This new system may help brands find the most useful information – and the most influential individuals – in the often-overwhelming Twitter conversations. On the flip side, the new system could prevent great content from being seen if the user (or brand) is new to the ever-growing social platform.

What do you think? Do you find ‘value’ in Twitter’s new rating system?

Read more about Twitter’s new rating system in the latest 360Social Digital Download, a round-up of digital marketing news for brands.

• Twitter will now decide the ‘value’ of your tweets

  The value judgments will be assigned to the public metadata of tweeters’ posts, and used by Twitter’s streaming API to help developers more selectively curate massive amounts of status updates. More
• Social Fresh claims Facebook is turning into a mobile company

  According to Mark Zuckerberg, in 2013, Facebook is “going to get really good at building mobile-first experiences.” 680 million users access Facebook via mobile at least once a month. 157 million ONLY access Facebook via mobile (15% of the total user base). More
• Twitter launches Vine app – Facebook blocks its fan page

  Twitter has introduced a new video sharing service, Vine, that allows users to record and share brief looping videos up to six seconds in length. Upon its initial launch, Facebook made Vine’s unsearchable on its platform. Even at current date, it is not easy to get to the app’s fan page – and they only have 48 likes. More
• Mashable reports how in-app searches are taking searches away from Google
  Google accounts for two of every three searches done in the U.S., far and away the most of any core search engine. However, Mashable uncovers that more and more in-app searches are occurring on platforms like Facebook and Amazon. More
• Facebook admits critical bugs caused page reach to be misreported for months

  While trying to speed up its iOS and Android apps, Facebook accidentally stripped out too much data about news feed posts by Pages. This caused Page Insights to be misreported, leading admins to believe their posts reached fewer people than they actually did, in most cases. More

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Digital Digest, Digital PR, FaceBook, Interactive Marketing, Internet, Mobile Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media, Social Networking, Twitter, Uncategorized, YouTube by Kyle-Bishop - No Comments →

CHICAGO, Oct. 23, 2012 – Cracking the word-of-mom code is the Holy Grail for brands marketing to moms today.  But who’s more influential – the Facebook mom or the mom chatting up other moms at school drop-off?  According to The Mom Next Door:  How and Why Moms Make Recommendations, a new study released today at the M2Moms conference by The 360PR MomSquad® and Mom It Forward ®, 83% of moms make recommendations about brands in-person, compared to 53% of moms who make recommendations via social media.  The majority of moms (59%) rated in-person recommendations at the top of the scale for trustworthiness, while only 14% of moms rated recommendations via social media as “most trustworthy.”

According to the study, close to three-quarters of moms (71%) make recommendations about brands, products and services to other moms at least monthly, with half of moms (50%) making recommendations about brands daily.  “We call these moms the recommender-moms and it’s clear they’re looking to connect offline – though social media plays a role, too,” explained Laura Tomasetti, CEO at 360PR. “Brands need to get to know the mom recommenders in their sphere and balance online activity with high-touch opportunities to engage these uber-influencers.”

Gen Y Paving the Way Online
While the study demonstrates the power of in-person, it also found that online social networks are important microphones for Gen Y moms.  As compared to Gen X moms, Gen Y moms of 0 -3-year-olds are more comfortable relying on recommendations from moms in their online social networks.  They’re the heaviest users of newer social platforms, like Pinterest, Google+ and Instagram.

“Social media has an important role to play, especially with younger moms,” said Jyl Johnson Pattee, CEO of Mom It Forward. “Fifty-eight percent of moms use social media for more than one hour daily, with Gen Y moms indexing the highest.  Interestingly, Facebook and Twitter are popular across the board – with no generational differences among moms.”

The Power of the Mom Next Door
The study amplifies the role of ‘the mom next door’ in brand marketing today, finding that 93% of moms are influenced by other moms’ recommendations.   Moms surveyed said they interact with other moms most often at daycare/school drop-off (58%), at a friend’s house (54%) or other off-line get-together, such as meeting for coffee, working out or shopping (48%).  Moms of older kids (9+) indexed higher for at-work conversations with other moms, while moms of younger children (0-3) indexed higher for conversations online.

While special offers continue to be the top motivator of mom recommendations (61%), more than half of moms said they make recommendations because it’s fun (54%) and gives them a sense of pride (51%).  Moms said they rely on online reviews, including those by bloggers they read regularly, particularly for bigger purchases.

The full study results will be revealed at the M2Moms conference today and tomorrow in Chicago.  Study highlights are also available online at 360PR.com/momnextdoor.

Study Methodology
The Mom Next Door research by 360PR and Mom It Forward included interviews with more than 1,000 moms via a quantitative web-based survey of 964 U.S. moms of children ages 0-12 conducted in August 2012 by Lindberg International and a series of live events with 95 moms conducted September–October 2012, including in-home events in six regionally diverse markets and one online event.

The 360PR MomSquad is a national network of influencer-moms who imbue 360PR client campaigns with the latest insights to reaching and engaging today’s parents.  The 360PR MomSquad® is a service of 360 Public Relations, a premier consumer-focused, multi-media agency, recognized as Boutique Agency of the Year by The Holmes Report in 2011 and a 2012 PRWeek Agency of the Year Finalist.

Mom It Forward is a social media community and worldwide network dedicated to enhancing the lives of women, their families, and the communities in which they live. By partnering with various brands and organizations, Mom It Forward provides in-the-know information via a weekly #gno event. The #gno parties enable women to share and learn about a topic of interest from expert panelists, effectively creating a unique platform for real-time interaction with hundreds of participants.

SOURCE 360PR MomSquad

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Consumer Marketing, Media and Press, Parenting, Social Marketing by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →

Held in New York City last week at the Hard Rock Café in Times Square, Share.Like.Buy. Marketing + Millennials was a 2-day conference featuring over 20 speakers from influential companies and media brands including MTV, Krispy Kreme, Unilever, Huffington Post and Comedy Central.

80 million strong with a combined spending power of over $500 billion annually, U.S. Millennials, defined as males and females ages 16-34, are unquestionably a societal force.Increasingly, marketers are looking for effective ways to form relationships with millennials. 360PR Senior Account Executive Skye McIntyre attended the conference and shared some of her key takeaways:

Who Are Millennials

• Ages 16-34 – Gen Y (ages 23-34) & Gen Z (16-22), 80 million strong
• Digital Natives
• $500 billion in total spending power annually
• Preppies, Techies, Alternatives or Independents

What Do Millennials Care About

• Humor – Ranked higher than music, sports and personal style by both males & females
• Giving Back – More likely to purchase products supporting a cause vs. non-millennials
• Value, Deals & Rewards – “Shoptimizers” (thanks to Sprint Nextel’s Ben Vos for our new favorite buzz-term)
• Involvement – Want to serve as co-creators

How to Reach Millennials

• Appeal to their emotions – Emotions saturate decisions; people buy what they feel, not what they think
• Hone in on nostalgia & memories
• Allow them to feel good about themselves

Fun Facts about Millennials

• Consider Corona the “coolest” beer
• Use 3 different smartphone apps per shopping trip
• Think having a good job is the number one marker of personal happiness
• Shop for shoes online more than any other product

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Social Marketing by SkyeMcIntyre - 1 Comment →

Many brands have been leveraging social media as part of their communications strategy for several years now.  But our thinking about how to use social media has evolved tremendously, especially during the past 12 months.  And it’s not just the digital natives who get it.

The most senior-level marketers, with 20, 30, or more years in the business, see social media for its true potential – as a catalyst, more than a way to keep the conversation going.  Sure it’s that too, but the idea of putting social media first, ahead of other tried-and-true PR tools and strategies, is fairly new.

That changes everything – from how we think about solving a communications challenge to how we hire and staff a campaign.  For me, 2011 will be remembered as the year that social media went from a layer that gets added to a campaign – almost like frosting to a cake – to become a driving communications strategy, the means to the end.

Today a brainstorm starts with online communities.  We understand not just the power of fans, but how to effectively tap into them and how to measure.  This was evident in many of the high-caliber PRWeek award entries I helped judge earlier this month, and reinforced by an AYTM Marker Research study (December 2011) that found more consumers prefer to receive updates from brands via social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, instead of traditional media.

Importantly, social media is not a quick in-out strategy.  Deploy a video and, as Emeril says, BAM!  But a video does not a campaign make.  It can, however, be a compelling tool in a broader, integrated campaign.  And that’s what it’s really about, isn’t it?  The broader campaign platform and strategy:  from there, all else flows.  At 360, we think of it as our “full circle” approach.

But kicking off that campaign may not be your ‘typical’ big splash, physical event. More and more, social media comes first – with a reveal, some other special access, a video that gets passed, the simultaneous take-over of multiple channels, and more.  Heinz’s introduction of its new ketchup with balsamic vinegar is a great example of a brand leading with social media, in Heinz’s case tapping into its more than 800,000 Facebook fans to start the buzz about a new product.  We did something along those lines when revealing the new Disney Baby collection available at Target stores and fans responded enthusiastically, helping us spread the word.  There are countless success stories and more on the way.

What role will social media play for your brand in 2012?

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, PR Industry, Social Marketing, Social Media by LauraTomasetti - No Comments →

Some of the smartest minds in social media gathered recently at the Society of New Communications Research (SNCR) Symposium at Harvard for a discussion of the group’s latest research findings. This is my third year attending the event and it has been hugely interesting to see the progression of each of SNCR’s studies. A couple of trends really POPPED for me this year…

Surprisingly, corporations are still behind the curve with social media adoption. Nora Ganim Barnes (University of Massachusetts Dartmouth) found this in the Social Media Adoption Trends Among Inc. 500, Fortune 500, Higher Education and Charities study. While many of the world’s biggest brands have a presence on social media platforms, Fortune 500 and Inc. 500 companies are still behind Charities and Higher Education in their use of social media to communicate with stakeholders. The proof is in the pudding. Check this out:

What does this tell me? While many companies “get it”, there is still more work to do in educating consumer brands (our clients) on the value of social media in helping them to connect with their customers. With changing media consumption habits, the methods in which we communicate must also continue to evolve!

While corporations still have some catching up to do, media and journalists are using social media for their story-telling and reporting in a BIG way. In a separate session, Jen McClure and Don Middleberg presented the “3^rd Annual SNCR/Middleberg Survey of Media in the Wired World”. In this study, it was found that 90% of journalists say that their reliance on social media has increased significantly in the past year. 75% of journalists are using Facebook in generating content. 70% are using blogs. 69% are using Twitter. 54% are using online video. 53% are using Wikipedia. 31% use LinkedIn and 28% use citizen photos.

So, to those Fortune 500 / Inc. 500 corporations that have not yet adopted social media as a significant portion of their communications strategy, you might want to take another look at what the cool kids (i.e. influencers and journalists) are doing!

Thanks to SNCR for organizing yet another great Symposium, as well as for honoring 360PR’s work with the Ball brand National Can-It Forward Day campaign in the Excellence in New Communications Awards.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Boston, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Industry Organizations, Social Marketing, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - 1 Comment →