Social Revolution

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We all know that having a Linkedin profile is essential for job seekers today. Every soon-to-be college grad has one and is networking like crazy as graduation nears. But what I realized recently is that Linkedin is so much more than an online resume.

Groups

One great way to leverage your networking is to join groups. Linkedin offers an amazing amount of groups that cater to your interests, career goals and desired future jobs.

See what groups the people who influence you are apart of, and join the conversation. Groups are a great way to see what people are talking about in your industry and get connected. Join a discussion and make some new connections in your desired career field.

Job Search

Linkedin has some of the best job listings I’ve come across. I love Mediabistro for job hunting, but I just discovered what a great resource Linkedin is for quality job postings. See your dream job? Well you may just be connected to someone who works at the company through Linkedin who could be that connection you need to get “in.”

For more great tips, read this article written by Linkedin insider Lindsey Pollak.

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We all want to get noticed on the social web, but with its popularity rising, it’s now more important than ever to share content that’s particularly compelling to the audience. In a sea of information being shared by the second, how can brands and businesses stay popular in the social world?

The key is to connect to your audience with information that will compel them to click thorough. Make sure your content is something the audience really is interested in and that the information you share will really add something to their life. No one wants to waste time, especially when the social conversation is getting louder than ever.

I just read an article on Fast Company by one of my favorite bloggers, Crosby Noricks, which highlighted some of the best ways to produce the most compelling content.

Here’s what I learned:

Listen to Your Customer – Listen to what people are talking about, search trending topics and write about what people want to hear and this will almost always guarantee that your article will be read. The social conversation is the leading place for conversation. Almost all conversation starts first on the social web, so scan there to see what you customers are talking about.

Put Your Customer First – Your calendar might be priority in your book, but not for your customers. See what’s on their agendas and cater to that. For example, if Coachella is an important event for your consumer, center your product and editorial calendar around the event, and it will instantly be more appealing to the customer on all platforms. Incorporate your social media promotions around the event, and let your customer engage in what they are passionate about and the brand at the same time.

Engage on All Social Platforms – When doing a photo shoot, post the behind-the-scenes photos to Instagram. Write a blog around the event and use Pinterest to pin related products and/or photos from the shoot. Utilizing all social platforms will increase customer involvement on all levels, and it’s really fun!

All ideas have been adapted from the article, “4 Ways To Create Brand Content People Actually Care About.”

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Social media has obviously taken the world by storm. A business not using this tool is just not positioning itself for success. But one industry that has really embraced this social revolution with fervor and excitement is the fashion industry. The industry understands the potential of social media as a business tool and has proven its success in so many ways.

There are many things that prove why fashion and social media are such a successful combination. First of all, it is an industry dominated by the photograph. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram and Pinterest revolve around short, compelling sentences and of course, a great image.

Secondly, fashionistas love to engage and be social. Whether it’s an event, a trend or a great read, fashion lovers love to talk about it. Trends weren’t born because everyone decided to keep the buzz to themselves.

Bloggers are huge brand influencers in fashion. They partner with brands to showcase the products with their own unique style. Bloggers are socially savvy individuals who all know how to use almost every popular social media platform, and do so on a daily basis. Social media is a fabulous way for bloggers to share their content with the world, and for brands to use this as fabulous PR promotion. It’s a win-win combination.

This is what Liz Walker, director of PR for fashion brand Tibi, has to say about the brand’s use of social media, “It’s a fun challenge to keep our fans and followers engaged. A few years ago we would plan for a feature to run in, let’s say, the July issue of a major magazine, now we want the feature on that magazine’s website tomorrow, or even announced on our own Twitter today.” (Source: PR Couture)

Fashion is something that people are excited to get involved in. So when fashion brands become social businesses, the products just sell themselves. Now that’s trendy. 

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I love social media for so many reasons, one of the biggest being the way it allows us to keep updated with news and happenings. I personally use Twitter and Facebook to get the majority of my news over reading the paper or watching TV. I actually rarely have time in my day to sit down and watch the news, and much prefer the on-the-go method of getting updated via my iPhone.

That being said, I often find myself feeling overwhelmed by the amount of information being posted per second on Twitter and Facebook, and feel like I can never catch up. There are so many great articles and content being delivered in such a short amount of time, it can be hard to stay on top of every piece of news you wish to see.

So, I’ve created a few tips (as much for me as for you) to help you organize the content and get the most out of your social media experience.

1. #Hashtags - Follow the hashtags on Twitter of things that you’re interested in or current themes. Save your searches and this way you can easily follow the hashtag to stay updated.

2. Lists – Create lists of influential people, news publications or companies you are interested in on Twitter. This way, similarly to a hashtag search, you can easily access your top interests.

3. Favorites – When I find a tweet I’m interested in or want to revisit, I “favorite” it on Twitter, that way, if I’m in a rush or know I’d like to read the link later, I can easily find it amidst the thousands of tweets on my stream from the day.

4. Trustworthy Sources – Find a few news publications that produce content that interests you. I personally love Mashable, as well as many daily style inspiration sites. Add them to your RSS feed or bookmark bar so that you can easily visit them on a regular basis. Then share the content that you love via Twitter and Facebook, to share with others.

5. Email – I like to sign up for newsletter subscriptions for websites that really interest me in case I wasn’t able to catch their latest tweets. Although daily emails that fill up your inbox can get quite annoying, if it’s content you don’t want to miss it’s really worth it. Media Bistro sends me my daily morning newsfeed and it’s a great way to see all the top headlines related to my industry in one quick look. 

I just received the latest Clever Girls Collective newsletter and was really inspired by its message. 

Last night Stefania Pomponi Butler, founder of the female-run social media agency Clever Girls Collective, came to speak to our social business class. As a past intern for the company, I already knew they were ahead of the game, paving a new path for powerful voices in an emerging industry. But it was so interesting to hear about how the company was built, straight from the source. I love to see how an ever-growing network of female bloggers are changing the way we do things. It’s about time. 

What caught my attention from this newsletter was the mention of a collaboration with Budweiser beers. Budweiser and women? Yes! Why? Because I’m sure most people question that combination, and Clever Girls wants to change exatly that.

Why not women and beer? Marketing has the power to create ideals that everyone follows without much question. The way beer is marketed is the reason women and men are depicted so stereotypically throughout history. So the thought of powerful, smart women changing this stereotype through blogging and social media is such a great idea! The 2012 woman is smart, fun, independent and innovative. And Clever Girls and its network of socially savvy marketers and bloggers are here to be the change we need to see in visual marketing.

What a great way to use today’s technology to change the old and keep getting better. 

Follow the social business class on twitter via hashtag #socialSJSU!

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After reading an article by Forbes about Pinterest marketing tips, shared by social media expert Michael Brito, it got me thinking about the power of this visual marketing tool. Whether the initial goals of this immensely popular new social media site were to generate a new platform for marketing or not, it’s definitely doing just that. Designed by savvy engineers in the innovation capital, Palo Alto, Pinterest is quickly becoming everyone’s favorite pastime. 

And for good reason! It’s visually stimulating and fun. As a photographer, I love a good photograph, and am always getting inspired by beautiful images I see here and there. Pinterest is great because it provides a place to collect all of your favorite inspiring images. But that’s not the only reason why the site is so popular, brands are quickly seeing its popularity and incorporating it into their business plans, just like Instagram. I personally follow so many of my favorite brands on Pinterest because I love the products and the images the brand generates. The key is pinning great images, if you don’t do this, you won’t succeed on Pinterest.

But why is this so important? Well, because when you follow a brand you love, and get inspired by ideas you “pin” on your “pinboards,” you as the customer are more likely to purchase a product from one of the brands you follow.

The images pinned also link back to the original source most of the time, so it makes it easy to locate ideas or products you like. 

I find myself running out to the store many a time to recreate an idea or outfit I found on Pinterest. It’s quite a genius product really, people love engaging on the site, and therefore so do smart, socially savvy brands. 

As mentioned below, here is Burch’s excerpt on her brand’s success due to social media and the emergence of the two-way conversation between brand and customer. It’s simple really, just interact with the people who love your product, thank them for their support and instantly you’ve secured a future customer. When a customer feels a human connection and has the opportunity to interact with the brand they love (hint: re-tweets!) it’s guaranteed to make them feel a closer relationship with the brand. This is the future of business, so we better start now. 

As I begin my research on my social media strategic plan, I turn to YouTube for some visual insight. I love the way a video can quickly and powerfully make an impact that the viewer can easily remember. For me, visuals really help the information click. I know social media’s impact is growing at rapid speeds and quickly dominating how almost the entire world functions (this is huge!). and I know that the social customer is one of a brand’s most valuable resources, but it’s nice to see the stats as presented in this video above.

This video also directly correlates with my group’s chosen brand, Tory Burch. We chose to analyze her social brand because she is an influential female entrepreneur, who has successfully created a two-way conversation between her brand and her customer through the use of social media. Bingo! She’s got it. 

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Chapter four of Smart Business, Social Business discusses companies that use social media as an effective marketing tool and the difference between personal and corporate social media accounts. This made me think about the brands and people that I enjoy following, and what it is that they do so well.

Some of my favorite follows are the people that of course share quality content, but also those that you feel like you really know. For example, brands that have chosen a specific individual to be the voice of its social media platform, are the most appealing to me. 

As discussed in class, this makes the brand so personable and interactive. DKNY PR Girl and Oscar PR Girl are great examples of this. Besides the fact that this would be an absolute dream job for me because it includes all the things I’m both good at and enjoy, here are a few things that I admire about these brands. 

• They are very responsive on twitter
• They blog
• They are well spoken
• They use engaging photographs
• They interact on Instagram and Pinterest in addition to Facebook, Twitter and blogging

Although they are both (somewhat) inconspicuous about their identity at times, I like that fact that one person is the main point of contact for all social media platforms.

This way, they’re successfully adding a personal element to social media and it makes the brand appear more reachable and human. When a customer has that connection to the brand, they will most definitely be more likely to also continuously purchase from this brand, and maintain a long-lasting relationship.

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As companies turn socially inclined for marketing and public relations, it’s also important for the company to focus on the internal social interaction. This means that employees connect with each other on a similar platform that they are using to engage with their customers. Wile Twitter and Facebook are an ideal communication channel for customer-employee interaction, there are other sites that focus on the internal employee discussions. 

Software such as Yammer allows employees from any area of a company to interact on a Facebook-like platform. It’s easy to use and understand because of the Facebook similarity and allows for a greater connection between company departments or allows for communication that might not be discussed when passing each other in the office. 

I used Yammer at one of my internships and found it to be a great means for communication. Especially for companies that do so much of their everyday operations online, a software such as Yammer (and many more) allow for this essential employee-employee communication process.