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What I Learned About Advertising from the Superbowl

Image Courtesy of whatconsumesme.com

Once I finish watching all of the commercials I missed (yes I missed a few, but that is a small price to pay when you are cooking your own wings), I will be doing a post later this week highlighting what I found to be the best ad spots this year.

Because hey, everyone loves the commercials.

For now, here are a few things I learned about advertising thanks to the hilarity and excitement the Superbowl brings to us viewers:

It’s all about the timing. Getting the laughs that instill brand recognition is impossible without a top-notch editor.

Twitter is your friend. Using hashtags to guide and track conversation is proving to be a rising (and effective trend). Just don’t pull a McDonald’s.

When it comes to music, be creative. Last year, “We are Young” was introduced to millions thanks to the Superbowl. The somewhat indie song became mainstream, making the ad it was associated with (Chevy) that much more effective.

Sex doesn’t really sell anymore. Let’s be honest, the GoDaddy commercial this year was an abysmal failure. We are now in an age where sex only sells when it is coupled with a vague self-awareness (Mercedes-Benz).

Watch the game with a computer nearby. Oreo won the advertising Superbowl thanks to some quick, creative thinking. 

5 Ways to Build a Great Twitter

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The other day, I talked about why you need Twitter. Well, today I want to share some practical ways you can ignite (or reignite) your platform on the popular social network.

5. Update All Settings

Before you send out that first Tweet, you need to make sure that all of your settings are updated and customized to your liking. If it’s set to a high privacy setting, I recommend keeping it open unless you have a good reason not to.

Pick a good profile picture and header that best represents who you are. For most people, this means staying away from logos and looking like a human being. Why? Unless you are creating a Twitter for a business, you have no reason to make yourself look like something you’re not.

The best way to brand yourself is to brand yourself as what you actually are: a person. There are exceptions to this, of course, but for most of you, keep it personal.

Also, spend a good amount of time writing your bio. Too long, and people aren’t as likely to read it. Too short, and people won’t know enough about you. Be witty, but informational.

4. Start Following

Most people understand that the only way to find followers (when you’re starting out) is to go on follow binges. What most people don’t understand is that you have to be strategic about this.

First off, stay away from “Verified” users. These are your high-profile celebrities and captains of industry that don’t follow-back because, let’s face it, they have too many followers to follow-back.

Don’t just follow anyone. One of the best strategies I’ve used is to find high-profile users that are similar to me (so for social media management, I would pick Chris Brogan for example) and follow the people who follow them. Simple right?

This helps you in two ways: 1) You’re following people who are aligned to your interests, which is why a smart bio about who you are is really important. 2) These are people who actually do follow other people. In other words, you’re filtering out a lot of spam accounts and people who don’t normally follow others.

Lastly, I recommend you avoid following more than 100-200 people a day. Sure, you can do more than that, but it’s a lot easier to keep up with the people who follow-back, and this allows you time to thank them.

3. Start Unfollowing

Ratios are important. If your news feed is too cluttered, your Twitter experience will suffer. You’re going to want to engage with people who follow you back and normally engage with your content. Keep your ratio pretty tight.

Now, as I’ve said before on this blog, don’t unfollow the people who have actually followed you back. You followed them for a reason. You want them to be engaged with your Tweets, but they will most likely unfollow you in return if they discover your treachery.

There are great tools for unfollowing users that don’t follow back in bulk. My favorite is ManageFlitter, a free website that lets you fast select up to 100 users a day, making your follow/unfollow strategy easy to replicate each day.

2. Use HootSuite

Scheduling your Tweets should absolutely be a part of your strategy, especially since we are all way too busy to consistently Tweet every single day.

What I usually do is schedule 5-7 Tweets in the morning that will spread out through the day. These Tweets are typically articles and links that I find interesting enough to share.

For the rest, I just update like I normally would through mobile. These are usually Tweets about myself, retweets, and replies. To maintain variety, I go by the 70-20-10 rule, which you can check out here.

1. Show some love

The other day, I Tweeted that, “Retweets are currency. Spend them wisely.”

I basically meant that when you retweet someone, you are investing in their content. It helps them because you’re making their content that much more viral, but you are using up your own resources to share what they have to say (the more you retweet, the less value you assign to each retweet because it looks like you will share anything).

If you’re following great people on Twitter, then they will value your retweet or favorite for what it is: you taking the time to invest in their content.

This is how you build an engaging following. Finding out what to Tweet, while important, is not the beat-all to building an audience. You can Tweet something extremely profound, but only an audience that you have formed rapport with will actually see you standing out in their feed.

Yes, you need to use hashtags effectively. Yes, you need to pay attention to trending topics. Honestly, that all develops naturally as you get more experienced with Twitter.

What you need to really focus on is community-building. Show some love and watch it reciprocate. Be relevant, timely, and frugal. Use the methods above, and watch yourself become infatuated with my favorite social network.

Thanks for reading! You can subscribe to this blog by email via the prompt on the left sidebar. Otherwise, be sure to stay connected with me on Twitter (@JonNegroni). I’ll follow you back if you say something witty and awesome.

 

5 Reasons Why You Need Twitter

Image Courtesy of IFB

Twitter is my favorite social network at the moment, so expect this analysis to be pretty biased. Of course, that bias comes from the personal realization that Twitter can be one of your greatest assets for your career.

Unlocking the potential to Twitter is something I was challenged to do two years ago at the behest of one my PR mentors. She relayed that the medium is not just growing in size but also in engagement, and I would surely be left behind if I didn’t get the ball rolling by the time I moved into the professional world.

The question here is, “Why Twitter?” Well, there are many reasons, and I suspect that a good number of people who read this will have a personal Twitter profile stashed away somewhere with maybe a dozen Tweets or so that they have put out.

I am writing primarily to those people, who will hopefully take their profile out of the dustbin and begin unlocking their Twitter. Now is definitely the best time!

5. It’s where everyone is. 

It should be obvious to many that Twitter is hugely popular, especially among professionals and celebrities. It’s not just because it is now the third largest social network in terms of size. Twitter is rivaled by none with how open and ongoing it is.

What other social network has millions of people hinging on the brief words of a celebrity or opinion leader?

For you, this means that you have the opportunity to expand your connections to people that are relevant to you. I personally go out of my way to follow people who are just like me: new professionals in the public relations and social media world.

What that does is allow me to expand my base of connections and have a large following of people that actually want to read what I have to say. Unlike Facebook and LinkedIn, you are actually encouraged to connect with people you’ve never met, giving you the chance to build an audience on your own terms.

4. It’s where the conversation is.

Twitter is one of the most effective tools for staying up-to-date on news, whether they be general or pinpointed to your interests and career. Measuring opinion on trending topics is also extremely valuable for many professionals, especially in press release writing.

Another way to put it: Twitter is fantastic for listening and observing. Just make sure you are strategic in who or what you decide to follow.

3. It makes you a better writer. 

Habitually using 140 characters to share something valuable helps you develop a skill for saying a lot more in fewer words. This is an invaluable skill for almost anyone, even non-writers. This is because Twitter forces you to think before speaking.

2. It’s always challenging.

A great thing about Twitter is that there is always someone who is ahead of you in terms of follower-size and engagement (unless you’re Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber).

The fun of constantly striving for more and better results keeps you challenged and engaged. It’s probably what makes the medium so addicting, but that is absolutely a good thing.

Why?

Because you should never be done learning. You should never stop challenging yourself to do better. Twitter is a great platform for reminding yourself of that.

1. The potential is limitless.

Mastering Twitter takes hard work. No one I know personally has done it, but plenty people I know have unlocked at least some of its potential.

What that looks like: a Tweet from you, gone viral, can create a lasting impact on a huge audience. Something that you’ve said is being digested and respected by countless people.

Once you’ve unlocked Twitter, you have proven to yourself and the relevant people around you that you are, in fact, capable of cultivating a living, breathing community. You’ve gotten your name out there. Having that in your repertoire can help you accelerate your career in so many ways that it is tiresome just to think about it.

I Tweeted yesterday that, “There are no keys to success. Just doors.” Well, Twitter can create a lot of doors to success for you, and it’s yours for the taking.

So now the question is not, “Why Twitter?” It’s now “How do I unlock Twitter?” I’ll help you answer that question next time.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

10 Ways to Be Less Annoying on Social Media

Annoying Facebook Girl Meme

We all have those people on our Facebook or Twitter that annoy us to death with their irrelevant photos and emotional status updates. Truth is, we can all be pretty obnoxious once in a while.

While I’m not in the business of changing human behavior, I do believe there are a few habits we can all take to heart. Here are a few simple ways to be slightly less vexatious:

*Note, this list is based on the opinions of myself and 5 other people. Obviously, this is all subjective, so take this advice with a grain of salt.*

10. Keep it short (Facebook)

This isn’t a problem for Twitter, obviously, but just because a Facebook post can be forever long, doesn’t it mean it needs to be. A few words can have far more impact than paragraphs of them (we just don’t like to because it actually takes more effort to write less).

9. Post less (Facebook and Twitter)

People are easily annoyed. Seeing two statuses on the same page of 10 or 11 is annoying.  Exceptions are when you post photos and maybe do a quick status afterwards. Otherwise, you come off like you are talking to yourself, and no one finds that pleasant.

Twitter is a different beast. You can certainly get away with 3 tweets within a few minutes of each other, but when people see you taking up most of their feed, they will most likely unfollow you.

8. Be less Personal (Facebook and Twitter)

I don’t mind if someone posts the occasional passive-aggressive status update. If that helps you vent, by all means go for it. You cross irksome territory, however, when these posts come to be expected from you.

A good rule of thumb is to abstain from making your status or tweet personal, unless you’re actually writing on someone’s wall or tweeting at them. This is because constant emotional posts come off as desperation for attention.

If you’re looking for help or support, contact someone directly rather than broadcasting it.

7. Be varied (Facebook)

 Posting about the same thing all of the time wears on people. Just think about the frustration of seeing someone constantly posting photos of their kids.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with sharing your life with people, especially something exciting like marriage, a new baby, or even a new relationship. Just try to post other things as well. After all, too much of anything is unbearable.

This is also true for funny things you share. E-cards and statuses that have obviously been ripped off of other websites are fun every once in a while but get old fast.

6. Cut back on invites (Facebook)

If you really want someone to play a game or try an app you really love on Facebook, message them about it instead and talk about it. Blanket invites do nothing but bother people, and it makes me personally dislike whatever I’m being asked to try.

Event invites are similar. Be strategic about who you invite. Would they really want to go to this event? Yes, this is harder than just sending out 1000 invites all at once, but just think about how many annoying situations you are preventing when you take the extra minute to filter your invites.

5. Talk about yourself less (Twitter)

You can definitely get away with this on Facebook, but Twitter is very different. Follow the 70-20-10 rule:

70% of your tweets: sharing links, relevant info or retweeting.

20% of your tweets: starting real conversations and communicating with others.

10% of your tweets: talk about yourself.

4. Have a reason behind messaging someone (Facebook)

Please don’t message someone, “Hi.”

If you want to catch up, put some more effort into it. “Hey man/girl, we haven’t talked in a while! How’s your new job?”

3. Have a better reason behind DMing someone (Twitter)

I hate direct messages on Twitter. I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t even read them. This is because people only use them to sell something. “Go to my website for blah blah blah!” “Did you know your SEO is blah blah blah?”

Listen, if you really want people to discover something that is beneficial to them, be more creative. Mentions are a big step forward. “Hey @JonNegroni! Thanks for the follow. I checked out your site and it’s great. Hope you’ve liked mine as well!

See, that’ll actually get me to pay attention because you’re coming off as a human, not an annoying spam-bot.

2. Don’t unfollow people after they’ve followed you (Twitter)

Nothing is more annoying than when someone unfollows you after you’ve positively responded to their initial follow. It’s just rude. If you want to grow your Twitter base and maintain a good ratio, stick to unfollowing the people who’ve ignored you.

1. Don’t announce that you’re about to unfriend a lot of people (Facebook)

Some might disagree with this, but hear me out.

What you’re saying: “Soooo I cleaned up my friends list today! If you can see this, congrats on making the cut!”

What you’re really saying: “Be grateful we’re still friends. I can get rid of you like that.”

See, this can really come off as snobby when you announce to everyone on Facebook that they just won some arbitrary competition for your friendship that some of them might not even care about. You’re basically announcing that your friendship is pretty conditional, which may be true, but it’s not smart to just broadcast that.

If you’re going to make a cut to your friends list, keep it on the DL. It’s much classier, and the best part is you’re going to avoid hurting someone’s feelings accidentally.

Hope this list helped! While I may be frequently guilty of breaking the above standards, I am confident that we are a step closer to being less annoying online. Cheers.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person. You can also subscribe to this blog by clicking the “follow” button in the top-left corner.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

5 Social Media Rules to Live By

Image Courtesy of pavementspecials.blogspot.comThere are a lot of social media rules out there, but they really only cater to businesses, brands, and social media managers. What about writers, bloggers, and young professionals? Well, here are 5 rules that I think most new professionals can benefit from implementing.

Oh yes, keep in mind that I break these rules all of the time.

5. Show more love than you receive. Unless you’re a household name, your presence online is really just a numbers game. The more love you give out, the more people will reciprocate.

4. Use your own image as a profile. Your picture is the first thing people see when they look at your Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. It says a lot about you, probably more than you know. Not having one, or just using the default unfortunately makes others think that you’re lazy, or not confident enough to share what you look like with us. That might not be true, but it’s the cold truth of what people think. In some cases, your logo can be appropriate, like in WordPress, but for sites like Twitter and Linkedin, we want to follow people, not shadows.

3. Either be good at writing, or find someone who is. Your words are the second thing people see, even on YouTube. Good grammar and just plain wit in your writing goes a long way in establishing credibility and branding yourself. Do whatever it takes to learn good copy, proofread, and maybe even find someone who can help you.

2. Create content just as often as you share others’. I talked about this earlier in the week, and it still rings true, especially on Twitter. People don’t like following someone who only retweets. They want to read your tweets, hence they followed you. While it’s great to show love and share the work of others (while crediting them of course), it is just as effective to put your own ideas out there.

1. Be genuine by being simple. It’s pretty obvious that coming off as genuine and honest helps your personal brand, but many still miss the mark. This can be because they’re trying to do too many things at once. Simplicity is better. This is easy on Twitter, when you’re forced to keep tweets to a certain amount of characters, but it can be tricky when navigating other social media sites. Shoot for saying more in a sentence then you could in a paragraph. That’s what people respond to, because chances are, no one is taking the time to read your 1000 word essays on Facebook or LinkedIn.

Writing this, I couldn’t help but think of other helpful idioms, but the title says “5” and I’m sticking to it. If there is one last thing I can say, however, it’s that you need to take a break periodically. Social Media, like everything else in the world, follows a progressive rhythm. Taking days off and regrouping your thoughts is a beautiful way to perfect your own, social media rhythm.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

5 Reasons Why Social Media Won’t Kill PR

Image Courtesy of Fourthsource.com

I’ve often heard it said that social media and public relations are merging and becoming synonymous. “The New PR” if you will.  I typically hear this either from college students or professionals speaking out of context.

Indeed, social media has become integral to public relations, and for the better, improved it. One-way-communication by means of the press release and press conference is no longer the norm. We’ve found it easier to create and sustain relationships with our constituents by means of effective control over social media outlets.

That’s the danger, though, isn’t it? Classic PR seems to be fading into irrelevancy these days, at least in the eyes of those who operate outside of the profession, especially those in advertising in marketing. Peers of mine have often regarded PR as a shell of what it used to be, and public relations professionals becoming social media managers rather than directors.

Sure, I’m a social media manager, so I get that point to a degree, but the concept of public relations being overwhelmed by social media is nonsense, and here are 5 reasons why.

5. Social Media Managers are not Publicists

Facilitating online communities is completely different from so many other aspects of PR, especially publicizing  Yes, publicists get a bad rep, but that doesn’t change how good they can be at their jobs. They are just as essential as agents, and you can’t maintain the image of a prominent businessman, politician, or celebrity without a publicist.

4. Social Media only Addresses Consumers (for the most part)

There are some exceptions to the above statement, but for the most part, social media is focused on the interests of consumers and the general public. Social media does little to foster the relationships an entity may have with  the government, investors, employees, and especially the press. For many PR pros, this is a “duh” moment, for they constantly fixate on more than just social communication.

3. Social Media can be Difficult to Measure

In many cases, social media is not as easy to prove effective to the powers that be. When it comes to ROI and actually driving sales, social media can be difficult to build a foundation on because it is reactionary communication. It functions in the same way that word-of-mouth does for advertisers. We create the message and pick the channels, but we can’t always see the fruits.

There are ways around this, and I’m not saying that social media is not beneficial (quite the opposite actually). I’m saying that we are not yet at a place where social media can be dissected comprehensibly on a chart, and most PR pros don’t want to take the risk of building their ROI around social media impressions alone.

2. The World is Bigger than Social Media (Right Now)

So many of us live in cities and towns, so we forget that it’s a big world out there. Even within the states, we have to constantly remind ourselves that not everyone flocks to the internet as their source of reference. People still read newspapers and respond better to billboards than sponsored stories. It’s how the world works.

In time, millennials like myself will rely on “outdated” concepts such as (who knows?) cell phones and commercials. Social Media won’t kill PR because not everyone in your audience is using social media. Simple right?

1. Good Social Media Needs Good PR

Ideally, social media is about transparency, effective communication, and relationship-building. For PR pros, that sounds pretty familiar to what is essential about PR. Social Media is more than just a tool of PR, it is a product of it. The idea of instant, transparent communication being out there for the whole world to see is working for many people because many people rely on good PR.

It’s not just about the product. It’s the image and how the image is presented. Without the fundamentals and structure of high quality public relations, social media is just another bulletin board at your local coffee shop. With the right tools, however, it can affect more than just a handful of coffee drinkers.

The two subjects need each other. Be sure to watch how social media evolves in the coming years, and we’ll see just how the profession of PR changes with it. I am confident that both have a bright future.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me) 

Let’s Talk About Gun Control For a Minute

Arguing about Gun Control

I promised that I would comment on the politics of the recent Newton shooting after giving it a few days, mostly out of respect, but also out of necessity. It takes time to really think about these matters and form an intellectually honest opinion. Well here it is:

People really don’t understand gun control.

Before I get into this, however, let me just say that I don’t really think gun control is the grandiose solution to all of these mass killings. I really don’t. When we have people willing to go to such extremes to fuel their hatred for whatever is going on in their heads, I don’t think trying to keep the weapon out of their hands will solve the problem. It may only just prolong it.

I am so sick of this debate, mainly because it really isn’t that complicated. People on both sides absolutely refuse to have a conversation about this, and the only people really making sense right now are the left of center (of which there’s not many).

I scoured the opinions of my friends and colleagues relating to this, and there is a pretty solid consensus:

Those opposed to gun control are so because they are afraid guns are going to be completely banned.

Those for gun control think that we should just ban guns altogether.

Those actually willing to talk about this are saying we should, gee I don’t know, make it harder to get guns.

Admittedly, most liberals I’ve talked to about this say we should just ban guns outright. No handguns, rifles, you name it. This is nonsense. Not only does it violate an inherent freedom (whether you like it or not), it makes people unable to defend themselves during an emergency in their own home. Also, banning guns would be about as effective as banning marijuana. These all-purpose bans do nothing but create a violent, criminal underground and the problem only continues to get worse.

Most conservatives seem to think that guns should be carried by everybody. No laws. What??? How is that a reasonable solution? That would incite panic, and realistically, no one would do it because most people are not comfortable with owning guns, especially parents.

The conversation needs to be about banning assault rifles and high-capacity magazines (just like we do certain military weapons) and require background checks for owning a gun and maybe even requiring the NRA to charge people for safety courses in order to purchase a weapon.

The NRA doesn’t want this, even though they would benefit from selling these courses, mainly because they are petrified of losing their market, but let’s be honest. There will always be a market for guns, and regulation is necessary in order for us to permit having such dangerous tools available to the general public.

Can we please have a conversation about that?

Most people on the left and the right won’t. We don’t understand each other. We only care about being right and making the other person feel wrong.

Like what you read? Connect with me further via twitter @JonNegroni. I’ll follow back if you seem like a real person.

Don’t forget to check out THE JON REPORT every day, updated at 8am for a list of today’s main headlines as selected by my editorial team (me)