Donna's Promo Talk

I'm Thankful for Social Media on this Thanksgiving Eve

Well on this Thanksgiving Day Eve I am thankful for many, many things this year. But have to admit that at the moment I am really thankful for my husband who got me a new computer monitor today. Ever since last weekend my old monitor had been just shutting off on me. It seemed to happen when it went to screen saver. So I changed the settings and it seemed to help for awhile, but just continued to get worse.

My husband happened to be home since he took a few vacation days and was tired of my complaining. So he found a great deal on Craig's List and ran out to grab it before it was gone. Now I have this wonderful 24" LG monitor that is so much bigger than the little screen I got from Dell when I bought the computer 4 years ago. Plus the color is so much more vibrant. I just love it.

Which brings me to the realization that over this past year I have spent a great deal of time in my home office at this computer. I am incredibly thankful that social media is now such a big part of my life. I have learned so much while sitting at this computer just over the past year. Because of social media I have made local, national and global connections and have engaged in so many conversations. I have attended dozens of webinars, listened to many podcasts and viewed some great presentations on Slide Share. All of this education I received mostly for free.

I'll be speaking at PMA's Digital Marketing Summit: Have the new FTC guidelines affected you yet?

This is the beginning of a short work week for all us here in the states who will be celebrating the Thanksgiving Holiday this Thursday. But before I start being thankful and blogging about many of this year's holiday promotions I want to tell you about what I'm going to be up to next week.

I'm heading down to NYC to attend PMA's 2nd Annual Digital Marketing Summit which is taking place on December 3rd at Google's NY headquarters. It's going to be a full day of presentations and panel discussions all around the theme of Fast Forward 2011. I attended PMA's 1st Digital Marketing Summit which was held in September of 2008 in downtown NYC at the South Street Seaport and it was really great.

This year however I'm even more excited to attend because PMA has invited me to be a a speaker on one of the afternoon panels. This panel will be discussing the newly revised FTC endorsement guidelines and what they mean for advertising and marketing. I'll be joining Linda Goldstein, Esq., Partner, Manatt, Phelps, & Phillips LLP and Randall Rothenberg, President, Interactive Advertising Bureau as we try to debunk the myths and confusion surrounding the updated guidelines. I'll be representing the bloggers' perspective, so I welcome input and comments from any of my readers that I can share. Please feel free to comment here or send me an email. 

There is still time to register if you're interested in attending. The keynote speaker is Clara Shih, author of The Facebook Era: How social media is changing the marketing landscape. Clara's going to give us insights and examples of how brands are monetizing involvement in social media. Rob Fields from the PMA had a chance to interview Clara about her book and what she'll be talking about at the summit. You can listen to this six-minute interview here.

After Clara we'll be hearing from Ben Smith, Interactive Marketing Manager for Dunkin' Donuts who will share with us how they've tied social media to their business objectives and how the investment has paid off for them. Sean Hanrahan, head of ESPN’s Marketing Solutions Group, will then share examples of how they have leveraged mobile to help drive business growth for their advertising partners. Next we'll learn how a big brand like Pepsi is meeting that challenge of the changing media landscape that’s all about having consumers invite you into their private conversations. Then we'll round up the morning with a presentation from Tim Reis from Google, who will help us understand the growing significance of web analytics and search and how to help land on the top of the first page of search results.

Besides the panel that I'll be speaking on, the afternoon will also have other professionals who will offer new approaches to database mastery and help us with our CRM solutions as well those that will help us understand if we're getting the most out of mobile. Plus we'll touch upon retail loyalty programs and how digital has changed the playing field.

Of course the day wouldn't be complete without some networking opportunities. The day will close with a cocktail reception party from 5 - 7 pm. 

So check out the full agenda. It's a great line up. If you're planning on attending, please say hello. Again, would love to get some input on how the new FTC guidelines are affecting you or your clients. Let me know. I'll report back here what I learn as well as share what the others on the panel had to say. Thanks.

Ways to measure social media from David Berkowitz, 360i's Director of Emerging Media

Earlier today I fulfilled my guest-blogging role over at the Lip-sticking Blog and wrote a post about the great presentation that we had from David Berkowitz yesterday who visited us in Rochester, NY, for his first time. What I didn't share with the Lip-sticking audience was that I escorted David from the hotel to the breakfast event and then from there to the airport so he could head back to NYC. But before he left he wanted to experience a garbage plate from Nick Tahou's. I guess Rochester is still well-known for this cuisine. David told me today that after sharing his experience with his Facebook friends I definitely helped him "up his social currency". Here's a photo on David's garbage plate from Twitter and here's my post:

Yesterday I helped plan and execute a breakfast event for RAMA, our local Rochester chapter of the AMA (American Marketing Association). Our speaker was David Berkowitz who came to share his insights on ways to measure social media. This is a question that most marketers and business owners are asking since we are now seeing a phenomenal growth from those of all ages engaging online in some form of social media. Not a black and white, easy thing to deliver at this time, but as Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak, said last week when he spoke about ROI he defines it as "Results on Ignoring".

David is the Director of Emerging Media and Client Strategy at 360i, a digital marketing agency located in New York City.  In his role David spearheads emerging media strategy, including social media and mobile marketing, for 360i's clients. He’s a frequent speaker that’s been on the conference circuit this year, a columnist for MediaPost’s Social Media Insider , appears frequently in Advertising Age and he blogs consistently on MarketersStudio as well as the 360i's Digital Connections, where he just posted this yesterday "100 ways to measure social media".

SM2Day, Social Media Today, if you're just thinking about it you're way behind!

On Wednesday of this week I was honored to be a speaker as well as a guest at Rochester's first annual SM2Day, Social Media Today and Harvest Tomorrow conference. This was an event  hosted by Ana Roca Castro of Premier Social Media who started out building an online community called Family Eden and is now the principal of Premier Social Media. The event was centered around a visit from our keynote speaker, Chris Brogan, and expanded out from there to also include presentations from local social media professionals including the CMO of Kodak, Jeffrey Hayzlett who I've heard speak earlier this year and wrote about here in this post.

The afternoon consisted of a few panels which was a nice change up after lunch. I was part of the Corporate Blogging panel and ended up being the moderator of a great cross section of different bloggers. We had Jenny Cisney who is Chief Blogger and Social Media Manager for Kodak to talk about Kodak's blog, A Thousand Words and how she manages and schedules all the different bloggers. Then we got the agency perspective from John Marianetti who is Director of Digital Media Services at Martino Flynn and helps to manage the agency's very popular blog, Blip! (they have this post on the event) Then lastly, but not least, I was able to invite my blogging mentor, friend and founder of the Lip-sticking blog, Yvonne DiVita (see Yvonne's post on SM2Day where she talks about how she met someone at this event she's known online for sometime). Besides Lip-sticking, Yvonne also created and manages a pet blog called Scratchings and Sniffings which is sponsored by Purina as well as the Women Entrepreneur's blog for the Simon Graduate School of Business.

So we had some great discussions around why you should use a blog for business and the way it can become a cornerstone for integrating many different social media platforms. Beside our panel, there was some really great content shared from all the other great speakers. I was very proud to realize that Rochester has so many professionals that are doing some amazing things by integrating social media in their marketing efforts and well as for their client's. As Kevin Flynn from Martino Flynn said, "We're all marketers, so we first start with a plan." Jeff Hayzlett stated, "You need to move. If you're just thinking about social media, you're way behind".

We received a great case study example. Now I've been asked before by several CPA's and financial advisers to help educate them on social media, but most of them say that their companies restrict them from saying just about anything online. One woman even told me she couldn't even put the name of the firm she's currently employed by in her LinkedIn profile. 

This leads to Eric Majchrzak, marketing manager of Freed Maxick & Battaglia CPAs, one of Upstate NY’s Largest CPA firms. Beginning in 2005 Eric developed Freed Maxick’s inbound marketing system which utilized search engine optimization to generate hundreds of qualified leads which resulted in getting them listed on the first page of both Google's and Yahoo's search engine results page.  He has now integrated social media into the mix and is running different campaigns that you can find on LinkedIn, and in LinkedIn Groups, and on both their Facebook and Twitter pages. In total he expects the website, in conjunction with the social media sites, to bring in a total of $1.3 million this year in revenue. They are now the role model for any other CPA firm to follow.

However, I must admit that Chris Brogan was the real highlight of the day. He just spoke to us without any slides or support materials. I was trying to tweet as many of his great lines as I could. Here started out with a quote from David Ogilvy which was "The customer is not a moron, she's your wife" which built on the fact that it's all about relationships, even before social media was around. "Listening is the new black and good customer service is today's brown". He asked us to think about when the last time we, as a consumer, had a customer service representative make us feel smart. Not something that happens even rarely, is it? Then Chris went on to say that we're all looking to become humans again and putting more of our personal life into professional. The two worlds are truly blurring more and more each day.

Those of us at the event were all given a copy of Chris's new book, Trust Agents, which Ana ordered up a bunch for us. She confessed this was how she got Chris to come to Rochester. He was available during the lunch break to sign the books and I did get mine signed and a chance to chat briefly with him. Thanks Chris for visiting Rochester. It also was Jeff Hayzlett's birthday and Kelly Mullaney brought over a birthday cake lit with candles for him to blow out. I snapped this photo of it on my little Kodak digital camera.

A big thanks to Ana for organizing this event and bringing so many of us together under one roof for one day to talk about a topic we all seem so passionate about. We're all still blogging, tweeting, and talking about it even a few days after the event, so I hope the glow will last and that everyone that was there feels a little wiser now from each other.

Day Two at PMA's Marketing Law Conference: FTC "We have no intention of shutting down the blogosphere"

I'm continuing my coverage of PMA's Annual Promotional Marketing Law Conference, one of the most highly anticipated events in the industry. Last week while in Chicago at the event I wrote this post about day one of the conference which was pretty jam-packed with information. Most notably was the presentation from Facebook's Corporate Counsel, Suzie White, in which reviewed with us Facebook's new policy for running promotions on their platform that I defined as "hot off the press" since it was just posted on their website the night before. Here they are: www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php.

So today I'm writing about day two of the conference which I also shared on the Lip-sticking Blog since it's my guest blogger day there. During the morning we were treated to a session that was titled "The Eyes Have It: A Regulatory Regatta". This panel included James Kohm, Director, Div. of Enforcement for the FTC. He was the first one that really addressed the issue of the recently updated disclosure guidelines which were just touched upon in prior sessions. Mr. Kohm started out saying "We have no intention of shutting down the blogosphere. The idea that we'll go after every little blogger is not the driving factor behind these new endorsement guidelines." Well that was very reassuring to hear.

Live from Chicago, PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference

All 510 of us registered attendees of PMA's 2009 Promotion Marketing Law Conference experienced a very, very full day today at the Fairmont Hotel which is host to this year's event. This year's theme is "staying connected @ the speed of change" which is so appropriate being that some polices that we reviewed today were just announced yesterday and others are so new that they're not even officially in effect yet. Plus there's a number of other legal decisions still to be announced before the close of 2009.

The morning was kicked started by Linda Goldstein, Sweepstakes Diva herself, in which she reviewed many rules and regulations and made it fun and engaging with a theme she called the PMA Risk Assessor App. I could spend quite a bit of time reviewing what she said, but I just can't write that fast, so I'm going to wait till I get a copy of her presentation and review it at a later time.

In Chicago covering PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference

Well I arrived in Chicago earlier tonight and am currently writing this post from the Fairmont Hotel where I'll be attending PMA's Annual Marketing Law Conference for the next two days. I was lucky enough to arrive earlier than expected by flying stand-by on a USAir flight out of Charlotte to Chicago. I was in the very last aisle in the back of the plane, but made friends with the flight attendant who got me some free snacks from first class since I bought a beer. Can you believe they charge $7.00 for a Bud Lite? Anyhow, I wrote this post earlier today before I started my travels since today was my guest blogger day at the Lip-Sticking Blog. So here it is is.

Social Sweeps Promotion: RAMA & Friends Holiday Mixer Sweepstakes

I first used the term Social Sweeps in early 2008 when I wrote a post on this blog which was about interactive promotions combined with social media. Today I define Social Sweeps as any interactive promotion, such as a sweepstakes, contests, giveaways, or coupons that integrate with at least one social media platform to help create awareness and buzz.

I spoke about Social SweepsTM, interactive promotions that help to generate buzz, at the ROC Linked Live event this past week where I lead some roundtable conversations. Today I launched a Social Sweeps interactive promotion by utilizing a special promotions builder application developed by Wildfire Interactive, a company that I’ve partnered with.

The RAMA & Friends Holiday Mixer Sweepstakes is giving away 4 tickets for one lucky winner and 3 of their friends to attend their Holiday Party on Dec. 3rd at the Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. People can enter the sweepstakes on Facebook by visiting the RAMA (Rochester Chapter of the American Marketing Association) fan page: www.facebook.com/RAMA.Rochester.AMA. They will fill out the online entry form and if they’re not already a fan of RAMA the tool will invite them to become one. Once completed, they will then be prompted to invite 3 of their friends to also enter the sweepstakes. Those that are successful at recruiting three of their friends to enter will be eligible for the drawing.

The sweepstakes kicked off on October 30 and ends on November 20, 2009. RAMA will announce the winner on or about November 23.

This marketing initiative was developed as a way to ultimately increase RAMA’s membership. One of the objectives this year of the organization is to walk the talk and expand the use of social media to communicate events as well as all the membership benefits.

RAMA started a Facebook page last year and started out with 265 fans. Now not all of these “fans” are RAMA members since anyone can become a fan of a Facebook page. However by just becoming a fan the assumption is that they have an interest in RAMA. The goal now is to identify these fans, as well as continue to add new fans, so that they can be placed in the proper bucket of the database as either a member or a prospective member and then provide each with more relevant information. This should be a win-win for all.

Movie characters, "Sexy" themes most popular 2009 Halloween costumes & Hershey's Trick-or-Treat.com is a hit

It's been a busy week so far and it's already Wednesday, which means it was my day to guest blog day over at The Lip-sticking Blog. Yesterday I was busy preparing for the round table discussions that I had to lead at the ROC Linked LIve event which I wrote about in my last post here. Anyhow, here's today's Lip-sticking post:

Halloween is quickly approaching which happens to fall on a Saturday this year, so there definitely will be an increase in trick-or-treaters and in parties. So if you haven't gotten your costume, or your kid's costume yet, there's still time. According to shopping search engine, SortPrice.com, here are the most popular kid and adult costumes this year:

Most Popular 2009 Kids Halloween Costumes

• Transformers' Bumblebee
• Batman
• Buzz Lightyear
• Cinderella
• Harry Potter
• Hannah Montana
• Traditional Princess
• Bakugan
• Dora the Explorer
• Sponge Bob SquarePants

Most Popular 2009 Adult Halloween Costumes

• Vampire
• Sexy Nurse
• Michael Jackson
• Star Wars
• Sexy Santa

So with kids it's the movie and TV characters that dominate the top spots again as usual. For adults I guess there's not much of a surprise there either with sexy costumes being what most women seem to gravitate to. I thought maybe Sexy Santa was a costume for men to wear, but instead the link to photos of the costumes proved me wrong.

LinkedIn Live event expecting over 200 networkers to "Pay-it-Forward" & support local charity

Here in Rochester we're getting ready for our first LinkedIn LIVE Event that’s part of a new ROC LinkedAlot group that's been developed on the social networking site LinkedIn. It's taking place this Tuesday, Oct. 27 and updates from EOD Friday had it close to a sell-out with over 200 people from the greater Rochester area attending.

Well here's a little background on ROC LinkedAlot -- This is a Rochester-based group of online networked professionals that started out online interacting in a LinkedIn™ Group on the social networking site with plans to meet offline at six events a year. As with most networking events people usually show up to meet new people and reconnect with people they already know. However this group utilizes the “pay-it-forward” method in which they invest time in sharing connections and making introductions online prior to each event. Then between events the group can stay connected online and continue discussions, share news and job openings.