Posts Tagged ‘Facebook’

Pinterest for Travel and Tourism Promotion

Tuesday, April 30th, 2013

GUAM-pinterest-homePinterest can be a powerful and fun addition to your travel and tourism PR social networking program. For those of you not already on the bandwagon, Pinterest is a social networking platform that allows users to create virtual bulletin boards on which they can “pin” inspiring images or videos.

Followers can like your pins, effectively bookmarking them, or repin them to their own boards to share them with their own followers. Gorgeous travel shots are particularly suited to the Pinterest audience; the combination of images, video and descriptions can bring a place to life for its followers. It’s a visually rich way to create a buzz around any travel destination.

Create boards to highlight different areas of interest for vacationers: for example, Placemaking Group client, the Guam Visitors Bureau shares images about local culture, Guam’s stunning beaches, wedding ideas, sightseeing activities, and sports and golf, among other attractions specific to Guam.

Likewise, the Micronesian island of Kosrae (also a Placemaking Group client) posts about diving and snorkeling, the island’s natural beauty, its people, and getaways, including links to reviews for Kosrae hotels.

Both islands use a mixture of original content from the Visitors Bureau uploaded to Pinterest, and repinned content posted by other Pinterest fans of Guam and Kosrae. Being engaged by sharing images is part of what it’s all about. With that in mind, Pinterest posts can easily be shared across platforms, cross-promoting your posts via Facebook and Twitter.

GUAM-pinterest-chamorroGUAM-pinterest-sightseeing
Contact us if you’d like to talk about having The Placemaking Group spearhead your travel destination’s social networking strategy.

Related posts:

 

by Deirdre Spencer, Senior Designer The Placemaking Group

 

Want to Know Who Won the Election? Tweet it!

Tuesday, November 6th, 2012

How many notices have you gotten from Facebook and Twitter that your friends have voted today? And how excited are you that in the next few days you won’t have to read all the political posts from your friends?

As I’ve said a number of times in this blog, if you want something to go viral, it has to have a personal, heartfelt element. And politics most definitely has that!  I’m pretty sure I know how each of my friends has voted!

At this moment, I don’t have a clue who has won the election. But, the postings sure have been measured. Eric Sass tells us that the PEW research company has reported that 22% of voters have already told the world who they voted for on social media. In fact, 29% of voters ages 18-39 have announced their choice on a social networking site, compared with 19% of voters ages 50-64, and 14% of voters ages 65+. Read the whole post by Eric Sass.

I agree with him. As a participant, I’m sick of reading about this. But if I was running a campaign, I would be totally immersed in it!

Mashable has even more information if you want to just soak it up! To track the rate and volume of voting today, Mashable reports that Twitter has unveiled interactive online maps that record when and where users report they have voted. Read post. Their Twitter Political Index for the Swing States shows, what a surprise, that the states with the strongest votes for each candidate are also getting the most tweets. And overall Obama is getting the most tweets throughout the country.

Like I said, I have no idea who’s going to win yet, but there’s a lot to look at!

Five Facebook Apps for a More Effective Fan Page

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012

If your business has a promotional Facebook Fan Page, you’re probably already familiar with the Photos, Map, and Events apps that come standard with your Page, but did you know there’s a wide array of third-party Facebook apps offering additional functionality to choose from?

Adding an app or two can add excellent value to your Page, allowing your customers access to more information and ways to interact with your online presence.

Here are five of our favorites.

  1. Static HTML

    Gold Rush Days Facebook page

    Static HTML can add a beautiful custom page to your Facebook presence

    With this powerful app, an additional page can be completely customized using HTML code and images hosted on your own server. Use Static HTML to promote a sale or event, welcome your new fans, or provide your business’s story in a visually compelling way.

  2. Tweets to Pages

    Oakland City Center displays its popular Twitter feed with a Facebook app

    If your business has a lively Twitter account, Tweets to Pages offers your Facebook fans who aren’t on Twitter a way to see the valuable content you’ve been posting. This excellent app displays your latest tweets and promotes cross-traffic between your social networking presences.

  3. Coupons

    Reward your Facebook fans for loyalty by offering exclusive online coupons and promotions using a Coupons app. You can create Facebook fan-only coupons and limit your vouchers to one per fan. Coupons are a great reward for asking fans to share your Page with others.

  4. Email Newsletter Sign-up

    If your business has an email newsletter, increase your subscribers by adding an opt-in sign up form to your page. Vertical ResponseConstant ContactMailChimp, and Campaign Monitor all offer easy-to-use apps. If you use another service, Static HTML can also host a sign-up form.

  5. Pinterest

    Pinterest as seen on the McRoskey Mattress Facebook Page

    Share your curated boards and pins with your Facebook Fans who aren’t on Pinterest for a more dynamic page with this easy-to install appPinterest has proven itself to be a powerhouse at generating click-throughs to posted content, providing a boost to site traffic.

by Deirdre Spencer, Senior Designer

Next Stop: Fame. Learn More at Oakland Lunch & Learn

Monday, February 13th, 2012

Next stop for my Get Famous with Social Media presentation is at Oakland City Center’s 5-Star Worldwide Center, on Wednesday, February 15, from Noon to 1 p.m. The event is free and open to Oakland City Center tenants and others interested in learning how to get famous and build brand recognition. I’ll explain how to determine which social media tools are the best choice for your business and take a look at blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and others.  Read more here.

Get Social: “Play” Outside Your Web Site

Thursday, June 16th, 2011

Post your PPT presentations and other video content on your website and also on social media sites that, although not as widely used as Facebook and LinkedIn, already have a following. For maximum exposure sync your LinkedIn and Facebook accounts with these correlating sites as well. This will help to boost views and visibility.

slideshareSlideShare is one online resource that’s well done, well used and connected in the business marketing arena.

Your Social Media Strategy-Facebook and Twitter, you communicate differently with each.

Friday, August 27th, 2010

Catharine P. Taylor brought up a great question in her blog post in the Social Media Insider. Her question is one that we’ve talked about here on a number of occasions. The question is what kind of communication and with whom is appropriate in each form of Social Media? She points out that Twitter and Facebook have very different environments and she’s beginning to see that you communicate differently in each. Here are her observations…

  • “I guess that MG Siegler’s column yesterday on TechCrunch, asking whether Facebook should adopt a friend and a follower system, resonated with me because I’ve been thinking about the nature of my social networking relationships lately as well. I finally got around to decoupling my tweets from my status updates earlier this month — 15 seconds that I should have found in my schedule at least a year ago.
  • “The problem was that I was concerned my worlds were intermingling too much — more than I, or those in my Twitter and Facebook circles, wanted them to. I do a fair amount of outreach on Twitter for the various projects that constitute my living. My friends on Facebook, though originally made up largely of professional friends — because soccer Moms and college friends hadn’t yet discovered it — had turned more into a place where they ruled the day. And, though no offense is meant to my “professional” Facebook friends, having discussions about why the kids have yet another half day off from school seems much more in context on Facebook to me than ones debating the virtues of the iPhone 4.
  • “So, as Twitter and Facebook began to evolve, I began to grow uncomfortable with the spillover between the two. Did the professional crowd get tired of my 140-character laments about my almost daily trips to CVS? Did friends and family wonder why I would express any interest in recruiting them for a panel at the Social Media Insider Summit (plug!) or share a story about market share of the Android platform? Fortunately, everyone was too polite to write obnoxious stuff about my confused life on my wall, but still … it was high time that I tried to bring method to my social networking madness.”

That’s what each of us has to understand. There’s a different feel to the communication depending on where you are communicating. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter—they are each a different platform with a distinct atmosphere. On Facebook, you control (or at least you have more control) over who reads your posts, in Twitter everybody can read your posts.

Click here for her entire post.

Subzero does Facebook right.

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

I recently read a Facebook case study you might find interesting. The subject was the luxury kitchen appliance maker Sub-Zero and Wolf (same company) that are enjoying powerful results from a Facebook Page that has more than 90,000 fans since it was created in September of last year.

The company’s customer base is made up of older, affluent individuals. Its Facebook goal is not an immediate click-through sale but to focus on a smaller, exclusive audience and build passion for the product and the luxurious lifestyle Sub-Zero and Wolf customers enjoy.

Before Sub-Zero and Wolf developed its Facebook strategy, it studied Facebook’s demographics and found that users from 45-65 years of age make up about 20 percent of the social network’s population.

The company promotes its page through e-mails to customers encouraging them to join them on Facebook and Facebook ads targeted at their customers as well as their customers’ and customers’ Facebook fans. Once on Facebook, the company is finding these fans often click over to the main web sites after receiving information on new products, recipes and/or viewed or uploaded photos of Sub-Zero and Wolf kitchens.

What I find interesting is Sub-Zero and Wolf are finding new customers — not by jumping into social media but by following the basics:

  • Having clear goals and objectives
  • Doing the research to support those objectives
  • Implementing a sound strategy
  • Engaging in a conversation
  • Measuring the results

Thanks to Placemaking Group’s Sacramento PR  Vice President, Jan Burch for this post.

Cities use Facebook and Twitter.

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

How have local governments successfully used social networking tools to gain and keep support for their programs and keep citizens up to date? Sheila Samuelson, the Sustainable Community Coordinator at City of Dubuque, IA asked that question.         (more…)