Social: IRL Events in KC and Wichita

New from Social: IRL - Top social media links and resources, upcoming events in Wichita and Kansas City.

Exclusive discount code for our Kansas City workshop - IRLNEWS for $95 full day registration.
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Coming Events
No BS Social Media Marketing with Jason Falls
Wichita, KS, January 31
Limited registrations at just $35
Details and Registration  |  View Current Attendee List
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Rethinking Business in the age of the Social Consumer with "Conversation Agent" Valeria Maltoni
Kansas City, February 9
Regular registration $145, limited $95 registrations using discount code IRLNEWS
Details and Registration   |  View Current Attendee List

How to produce a social media news release

PR Daily Webinar
How to produce a social media news release
A webinar featuring Shel Holtz and Cassie Péan

Thursday, Dec. 8 • 2-3:45 p.m.

At the Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce

Melinda Arnold, Friends of the Zoo, and Claire Faucett, Springfield Area Chamber of Commerce, are hosting this webinar for southwest Missouri public relations professionals and students. Cost* is $10/person for professionals and $5/person for university students. (The actual cost of the webinar is $139 – so $10 is a BARGAIN!)

Are you producing social media news releases?

Did you know they get picked up more frequently than traditional releases?

Want a practical, introductory course on how to produce a social media news release?

Join us for this NEW PR Daily webinar airing on Thursday, December 8 at 2:00 p.m. Central with online communications expert Shel Holtz and PR Manager for Vocus, Cassie Péan.

This session is filled with step-by-step instructions to write an SMNR, tag content, add important files, distribute releases to social media outlets and more.

PR pros should use social media news releases far more than they do. Research from Realwire shows that reporters and editors like them and that they get picked up more frequently than traditional releases do.

Veteran communications consultant Shel Holtz and PR practitioner Cassie Péan explain the components of the SMNR and offer tips on how to get online reporters and bloggers to read and watch these releases.

For more details on the sessions with Shel and Cassie, please visit the webinar description online.

To attend the webinar, please email your RSPV to Melinda Arnold by noon, Wednesday, Dec. 7.

Attendance is not limited to SWMO PRSA members. Please forward this to coworkers, colleagues and friends who might be interested in attending.

* The per-person cost will reimburse Friends of the Zoo for the webinar registration. Any amount exceeding the registration price will be given to SWMO PRSA.

April 2011 Video Presentation

If you missed the April SWMO PRSA meeting, featuring three of our Joplin members, you can watch their presentation here in five segments. This is a test run, and we will hopefully continue to improve on how these are accessed. You can only watch this video if you have the direct link - it is not searchable from YouTube.

Part 1: http://youtu.be/bxOQNfK7OBA
Part 2: http://youtu.be/AzYft-5AcwE
Part 3: http://youtu.be/19Fe95uv3p0
Part 4: http://youtu.be/RRhjp7hUOZA
Part 5: http://youtu.be/D_HdePmowiQ

Mark your calendars for Feb. 8!

The Sarah Evans Social Marketing Boot Camp is just a few weeks away!


A couple of quick updates for you from Ben Smith, Social: IRL:

We created a Facebook Event for the boot camp. Please take a moment to RSVP as attending. It's a great way to connect with other attendees, and connecting with your fellow attendees to create a shared learning experience is something we really encourage. You can also use the Facebook event to invite others you think might be interested. You can find the event here: http://on.fb.me/SarahEvansSGF

We are pleased to welcome two new sponsors for the event - Klout and mBlast. Klout are internationally recognized as leaders in measuring online influence. mBlast recently launched a new product, mPact, a specialized tool for marketers. Both Klout and mBlast and major national names and bring some real national level focus to Springfield. You can learn more about each of these sponsors at: http://klout.com/ and http://www.mblast.com/mpact/.

Finally, if you are interested you can visit http://www.socialirl.com/ to view notes from the event I held earlier this week with Brian Solis and Jason Falls in Wichita KS. Included are links to blog posts from a number of attendees. These might give you an insight in to the type of event we create and the buzz we try to generate among attendees. You'll see from the posts those attendees wrote that they left with a lot of new knowledge they were anxious to go and apply. You'll also see the event attendees were very engaged with each other, including real time Twitter conversations during the event which continued well after the event and are still continuing now. Just the day of the event and following day, we tracked 1,446 Twitter updates about the event. We hope to see a similar engagement in Springfield. If you aren't on Twitter yet I'd encourage you to sign up and be part of the online conversation that takes place between attendees.

We have people traveling in to Springfield for the Sarah Evans event from all across the country. I look forward to seeing you there on Tuesday, February 8.

Just a reminder that information such as location, times, and agenda are available at: http://www.socialirl.com/sarah-evans-boot-camp/.

Engagement Matters

How many times have you heard, “the more you put into it, the more you get out of it?” Or maybe, “the more lines you have in the water, the more fish you catch?” Seems pretty basic, right? Well, it holds true for reaching your audience through social media too. How much return (ROI) you see with social media engagement depends on the depth and breadth of that engagement. This can be measured and quantified according to Jeremiah Owyang (@jowyang), Altimeter Group. Owyang was a keynote at PRSA’s Digital Impact Conference in NYC, May 6-7.

Check out www.engagementdb.com to see your company or organization’s brand stacks up to other “engaged” brands. To improve your ROI and “engage-o-meter,” Owyang says you have to focus on your Rings of Influence which include prospects, customers, employees and your overarching brand. None can be overlooked. To do so limits your ability to share and engage.

Here is a break-down of each ring and some tips on how to engage each ring. (from smallest reach ring of influence to largest):

Brand – enable your top execs and CEOs to speak on their own (ie: blog, twitter, etc.), BUT supply them with talking points, help, etc.

Employees – establish guidelines that encourage social media interaction, but protects both the brand AND the employee.

Customers – they are already talking about your brand, so develop an advocacy group to recognize and reward your top customers (Note: do not reward with cash, do not pay for positive word of mouth); and realize that criticisms can make your product better.

Prospects – this group includes those aware of your brand AND those unaware. Monitor what is being said about your brand. To engage prospects, go to where they “hang out” on the web and engage them there in conversation (not a sales pitch).

How do you quantify your social media engagement in numbers? I’m finding this to be essential in gaining the understanding and respect of top-level executives or those who just don’t understand this “new” way of communication. If you have some a budget, check out evolve23 http://bit.ly/bDqS4R , it has a truly comprehensive suite of social media analytic tools. At the Digital Impact Conference, Scot Wheeler with evolve24, discussed the ways they measure social media.

To simplify, Evolve24:
1) Weights scores of brand-specific sentiment, influence and reach (formerly known as circulation)
- Wheeler says each social media tool is given a reputation score and then they are added together as well.
2) Starts each day counting these things at zero
3) Then uses equity to add each day’s score to get a total reach

I use a much less in-depth system for calculating total social media reach at my workplace. My research is usually topic-specific. For example, I pick a story that I published out on a variety of social media sites, then I track how many times it was Tweeted, re-tweeted, posted on Facebook, blogs, etc. I consider my Twitter followers, Fanpage Likers and LinkedIn group members, blog subscribers to be among my “circulation” which I refer to as “direct reach.”

Each time my post is shared with others or re-tweeted, I consider this “indirect reach” because it was shared by another person, hence not directly. Direct reach has a lot more credibility than the indirect reach. I clearly make separate mention of those in my final report. To get my “total reach” I add both the direct and indirect reach. Also, aiding my efforts is a url tracker (bit.ly.com) to support my numbers. Contact me for a sample of what I’m talking about or to share what you are doing to track and measure your social media efforts. I’m happy to share and am always looking for ways to improve my qualitative research. Contact me at: Claire@springfieldchamber.com or @clairefaucett on Twitter.