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Monitoring Public Information is Not a Violation of Privacy
A storm is building. People are drawing lines. As of this writing, there are 35 states considering some form of digital privacy bills making it illegal to ask for social media passwords and usernames for purposes of gaining private...
Social Media, Censor or Educate? UVa Student Athlete Calls for Help
Cody Snyder is frustrated. A distance runner for the University of Virginia, he wrote a piece published in the CavalierDaily.com on what he calls the unfair restrictions put on student-athletes who use social media. He invoked the #FreeAthletes...
Twitter Is for Customer Service Whether You Like It or Not
Got Twitter? You’ve got a 24-7 customer service call line, whether you like it or not.The evolution of Twitter as a real-time channel leaves an expectation with your fans that you are present. You may think of Twitter as a broadcast channel, but...
"Social Works": A Social Media Treasure Chest [BOOK REVIEW]
When Michael Stoner’s new book Social Works arrived in the mail, I was anxious to dig in and read. I soon discovered that I would want to revisit this book regularly. What a treasure chest of information.In case you’re not familiar with mStoner,...
3 Reasons NCAA Tourney Social Media Is More Than Real-Time News
As college athletic departments prepare their social media strategy for the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this week, they know that keeping fans engaged is more than just real-time news via Twitter. Yesterday, Mashable published an infographic...
Surviving Student Athletes on Twitter: Part One
According to the latest social media user statistics from Pew Internet, the 18-29 age group is the largest on Twitter. Some studies suggest that over 85 percent of student-athletes have a public Twitter account and use it regularly. Couple that with...
Newsjacking and Fundraising Collide in College Athletics
We’ve seen some good examples of newsjacking in social media by brands: Mini cars and the horse meat scandal, Oreo and the Super Bowl blackout, Special K and the Oscars, Spirit Airlines Fiscal Cliff coupon promo, just to name a...
UC-Irvine Athletics Launches Social Media Command Center
I'm excited to announce that the UC-Irvine Department of Athletics has joined the ranks of the social media elite with their launch of Zot Com, a social media command center. The release below comes from Fumi Kimura, Assistant Director of Media...
Build Social Media Loyalty by Powering Up Reward Cards
How many business reward cards do you have in your wallet? Mine is bulging. Every restaurant and coffee shop has one. Most retailers have jumped on the reward points band wagon in some form. But how can you use those reward cards to build an army of...
University of Michigan's Catfishing of Its Own Athletes Under Scrutiny
The right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing? Or is it just a spin on the truth? When University of Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon went before a crowd on Friday and explained how the athletic department had hired a media...
Do We Need Social Media Education in Schools Now?
When I was a junior in high school, my U.S. History teacher was a former government archivist. His teaching style was as dry as unbuttered toast, and his teaching methods were challenging. Memorization. As long as you could recite every important...
How to Be Quick in a Crisis: Lesson for Delta from Enterprise Rent-A-Car
Why does it take so long? Delta Airlines recently found themselves eerily ready to play out the “United Breaks Guitars” nightmare again when they required prodding to replace an expensive guitar damaged in flight. According to an account in PR Daily...
Be Quick But Don’t Hurry in a Social Media Crisis
Legendary college basketball coach John Wooden won a record ten national championships. Those familiar with his coaching style remember his signature mantra, “be quick but don’t hurry.” Wooden’s contention is that hurry is an emotional state that...
Practice Safe Social in 2013!
As 2013 rolls in, I am reading all the best-of’s, trends-coming, and prediction articles with interest. Which have been your favorites so far?When I sat down to do project agency goals for 2013, I used a pretty unscientific process. First, I looked...
3 Key Google Analytics for a Successful Blog in 2013
When I set business goals, I always try and make them data-based. I believe I have pretty good instincts, but I trust data. Numbers give me direct feedback on the effectiveness of my tactics. So, when it comes to my blog, one of the places I...
Instagram and the Classic Non-Apology
Over the last few days, Instagram catapulted themselves to the top of the worst PR mistakes of 2012. Like a movie that comes out right before the Oscars, they are now top of mind with the bloggers and reporters that write about the worst PR mistakes...
Social Media Use is Soaring – Time to Reconsider Your 2013 Strategy [Report]
Nielsen’s social media report for the third quarter shows some amazing growth in the use of social media. The report indicates that two factors are driving the change: more people are using mobile phones and tablets to access the networks and the...
“Should Chiefs Play the Game” is Wrong Question
I was involved in an interesting conversation while sitting at an FCS playoff game Saturday afternoon. A Twitter user invited me to a four-way chat with a couple sports writers on whether the Kansas City Chiefs should play their game Sunday in the...
Mobile Phone Angst [Research]
A new report from Pew Internet on mobile phone use has some good news and bad news. Not marketing-wise, but lifestyle stuff. I see myself in some of this, and I think that is the most disturbing. A few stats that have me scratching my head...
A Social Media Christmas List
I had a great conversation with my niece the other day about sending a letter to Santa. She wasn’t sure how picky she should be with Jolly Old Saint Nick, fearing her greedy pleas might force him to bring her a lump of coal. The conversation got me...
