Presentation I showed to the PRSSA Clarion Chapter about how social media has changed PR from the job search to the job itself.
Free gift cards, anyone?
I am a huge fan of Giant Eagle. If you aren’t from the Western Pa. or surrounding areas, it’s a great local grocery store. Giant Eagle’s counterpart Market District is “more than a grocery store,” so when its social media person sent me a message asking if I’d get involved in a giveaway for them, I jumped at the chance! They currently have two locations in Pittsburgh: Shadyside and South Hills. This Friday, November 6 marks the grand opening of Market District’s Robinson store in Settlers Ridge. From what I hear, it’s amazing. So what better way to ring in the brand new, beautiful, and HUGE store than to score a free gift card?! I have eight $25 dollar gift cards to give away at my leisure. What am I getting in return? Nothing — just the joy of giving my Facebook friends and Twitter followers free stuff. And who doesn’t like free stuff? So how does one get one of these awesome gift cards? Keep reading.
Option #1: Facebook
Four of my Facebook friends will win a $25 Giant Eagle Market District gift card. All you have to do is “like” my Facebook post linking to this blog post and if you’re not already, become a fan of Market District. Next comes the hard part. On YOUR Facebook wall, you have to write a poem about why you love Market District with a minimum of four lines. It has to rhyme. You also have to link to Market District in your post somewhere. If you don’t know how to do this, click here. Some internet browsers are weird with it though so if it’s not working for you, let me know and you won’t have to link, just write the poem. Got it? GO!
Option #2: Twitter
The remaining four $25 Market District gift cards will go to my Twitter followers. If you aren’t following me already, do so. That’s step one. Step two is follow Market District. Now that that’s out of the way, tweet the following exactly as I have it:
@dferrari: @MarketDistrict Robinson opens 11/6: a dining, cooking & shopping destination like no other! http://bit.ly/2pJMr2 #MarketDistrict
That’s it! Easy enough, right? I will be selecting each winner (both Facebook and Twitter) at random. Retweet and re-post this as much as you’d like! Get your tweet and/or post in by Thursday, November 5 at MIDNIGHT EST. You can qualify through both Facebook and Twitter to increase your chances but you can only win once. Once I’ve selected winners (I’ll let you know some time Thursday) I will ask for your address so Market District can mail you the coupon. Questions? E-mail me at deannaf84@yahoo.com.
Good luck, friends! 🙂
My PodCamp Pittsburgh Presentation on #journchat
To view all photos, click the “view on slideshare” button on the bottom
[slideshare id=2184690&doc=journchatpodcamp-091010150505-phpapp02]
Hi my name is @dferrari
Hi my name is Deanna @dferrari.
Tomorrow, I’ll be attending my first PodCamp Pittsburgh, where I will meet 500 new social media friends. Sounds dorky, huh?
Actually, PodCamp is a community “UnConference,” run by people and for people who are social media enthusiasts. It’s an opportunity to learn and interact with others about emerging trends in technology, and will be a great learning experience.
In the mix of my 500 new friends will be people I actually know, i.e., I’ve met them in person. These will only be a couple of people, though. The remaining I will only know primarily through Twitter or Facebook. So I’ll walk in knowing a lot of people, right? Well, not actually. I know avatars, and I know Twitter IDs, but when it comes to the people I follow and who follow me, I wouldn’t know them if they walked past me on the street.
These social media conferences and unconferences are funny, really, in that you essentially have to re-learn who pe
ople are, since you know them solely based on a photo and 140-character phrases. It’s a cool concept to think people on Twitter are different when you meet them in person. It’s not that they’re fake online (although some may be), but it’s a completely different way of knowing someone. So tomorrow, I won’t be looking at faces, but name tags, to look for these familiar IDs. Taking it one step further, I think we should actually put our Twitter avatars on our name badges, to better recognize each other.
Am I overreacting, or do we need to “re-learn” our Twitter BFFs when we actually meet them?
To retweet or not to retweet – that is the question
We all know that Twitter is the hottest thing these days since Britney Spears shaved her head. You don’t have to tell us twice how valuable and important being in the social media space is for an individual, brand, or company.
We also all know that there are a lot of people out there getting it all wrong. We’ve seen it before – the guy who follows 26,000 people who just followed you that claims to be a “marketing guru” or “social media expert.” The DMs or tweets that say “Get 10,000 followers in three days if you click here!” Or even worse – the auto-DMs that say that very same thing.
The other day, I was perusing my Tweetdeck stream like I usually do, when a tweet caught my eye. Here goes:
Let’s take a moment to assess the situation. This guy, who follows 7,400 but is only followed back by 7,100, is an “internet marketing coach” and “social media consultant.” Those terms crack me up when all one needs to do to become a “social media consultant” is read everything Mashable has ever written.
But seriously, he will teach us EXACTLY what to say on Twitter? While I appreciate his enthusiasm to show others the way, it baffles me that people need to be taught what to say. Yes, there are things to learn when it comes to Twitter language and establishing your voice. There are even studies out there about what phrases and words statistically become retweeted more often than others. Fast Company just put something out the other day that was a good read. But to tell someone EXACTLY what to say takes away from the entire purpose of establishing one’s brand or voice in the social media space. You are no longer authentic and true; you are essentially a robot and just want more followers. You lose the value of staying true to yourself or your brand and tweet solely for the sake of tweeting.
So to all you “marketing gurus” and “Twitter specialists” out there: next time you position yourself in the marketplace to help people with social media, how about actually helping them and teaching them how to re-purpose their established voice for the land of Twitter and then let them take the reigns?