Column: What role should social media play in your marketing program?

Frank Williams

by Frank Williams

These days, social media marketing is the “in” thing.  Social media marketing “experts” are a dime a dozen, and everywhere you turn someone is saying that your business is doomed to the ash heap of history if you do not hire them to create your social media marketing program.

Study: Twitter use on the rise

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project, 13% of online adults now use Twitter — a significant increase from the 8% of online adults who identified themselves as Twitter users in November 2010.  95% of Twitter users own a mobile phone, and half of these users access the service on their handheld device.

SocialCrush launches nationwide tour in Wilmington; early bird registration ends May 3

WILMINGTON, N.C. — SocialCrush, which is described in a press release as “a collaboration of experienced thought leaders in the social media industry”, will kick off their new ‘social business’ national conference tour June 7-8 at the Wilmington Convention Center. According to the press release, “This national tour of hands-on instruction is in response to the tidal wave of businesses wanting to engage customers through social channels effectively.”

Holden Beach launches video contest to capture beach’s family-friendly atmosphere on film

HOLDEN BEACH, N.C. – If you have videos that depict Holden Beach’s quiet, family-friendly atmosphere, the Town of Holden Beach wants to hear from you.

The town is running a video contest now through Sept. 8.  Residents and visitors are asked to record their favorite Holden Beach moments, activities and scenes in videos that are four minutes or less in length.  The winner’s video will be featured on the Town of Holden Beach’s website (http://www.hbtownhall.com), Facebook page and YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/townofholdenbeach).  The winner will receive a small prize, which will be announced at a later date.

Pioneer Strategies’ president addresses South Brunswick Islands Rotary Club, discusses “Social Media 101″

Frank Williams

OCEAN ISLE BEACH, N.C. – Frank Williams, a Brunswick County native and president of Pioneer Strategies, Inc., addressed the South Brunswick Island Rotary Club on Friday, Jul. 23.  Williams, a charter member and president-elect of the Leland Area Rotary Club, discussed “Social Media 101.”

“Social media has become an increasingly important communication tool in the past few years,” said Williams.  “My talk covered several important facts about social media, some tips for using social media as a public relations tool, and a few social networking land mines people should avoid.”

Pioneer Strategies’ president speaks at N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ conference

Frank Williams

RALEIGH, N.C. – Frank Williams, president of Pioneer Strategies, Inc., facilitated a public relations workshop Monday at the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ inaugural conference in Raleigh.

“Public charter schools are an important and underrated piece of our state’s education puzzle,” says Williams.  “We are pleased to support the N.C. Alliance for Public Charter Schools’ inaugural conference by facilitating this workshop, which focused on communication tools and strategies to increase awareness and understanding of public charter schools in our state.”

Facebook’s New Features and Your Privacy

Frank Williams

Frank Williams

by Frank Williams

Social networking giant Facebook has released yet another series of new features.

Some of the changes are relatively minor — for example, rather than becoming a “fan” of a business’ page, users now simply click a button indicating that they “like” the page.  The outcome is basically the same:  people who “like” a page are connected to the page in the same way as those who previously became a “fan.”  Not a big deal.

Pioneer Strategies’ president to speak at Brunswick County College Small Business Center seminar on Apr. 7; Topic is “Leveraging the Internet to Promote Your Business”

LELAND, N.C. — Frank Williams, a Brunswick County native and president of Pioneer Strategies, Inc., will conduct a workshop on Leveraging the Internet to Promote Your Business for the Brunswick Community College (BCC) Small Business Center on Wed., Apr. 7.

There is no charge to attend the seminar, which begins at 7:30 a.m. at the BCC Leland Campus, located in the Leland Industrial Park on U.S. Highway 74/76.  Those interested in attending should call the BCC Small Business Center at 910-755-7380 to pre-register.

Survey Shows Most Employers Search Online for Information About Potential Creative Hires

A polished resume and portfolio aren’t the only tools advertising and marketing professionals need to land their next job. A new survey shows a sterling digital presence is important, too. Nearly three-quarters (72 percent) of advertising and marketing executives interviewed said they are likely to search for information about prospective hires online. Another 59 percent review job candidates’ LinkedIn profiles and 44 percent check out their Facebook pages.
The national study was developed by The Creative Group, a specialized staffing service providing creative, advertising, marketing and web professionals on a project basis, and conducted by an independent research firm. It is based on 250 telephone interviews — 125 with advertising executives randomly selected from the nation’s 2,000 largest advertising agencies and 125 with senior marketing executives randomly selected from the nation’s 2,000 largest companies.
Advertising and marketing executives were asked, “When evaluating potential advertising/marketing hires, are you likely to view the candidate’s … ?”
Their responses*:

Social Networks Evolving Into ‘Commercial Networks’ for Companies, Providing Access to New Pools of Talent Via Virtual Work

Social networks are morphing into “commercial networks” for businesses and will transform the world of work with the profitable opportunities they hold for both individuals and prospective employers, according to Manpower Inc. (NYSE:MAN) , a world leader in the employment services industry. Organizations can tap previously invisible and inaccessible pools of talent in the form of virtual workforces via the connective power of social media.

Fake Virus Alert Spreads Massively Across Facebook

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, has detected the massive propagation of a fake virus alert among Facebook users in the last 24 hours. According to the company, this is another attempt by cybercriminals to infect users with fake antivirus programs.

The fake warning is being distributed via email and users are forwarding it or publishing it on Facebook walls, further spreading the hoax. The text of the fake warning reads as follows:

Younger Americans Still Fueling Facebook

emarket facebook 2As Facebook reached 350 million users worldwide, its largest single source of growth was still the US, Reports EMarketer.com.

Inside Facebook reported that the US gain of more than 4.5 million monthly active Facebook users was the highest number of any country. Because of the large installed base of US Facebook users, it represented a 5% gain, compared with 10% growth in countries such as Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia.

VerticalResponse Releases New Social Media Features

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – VerticalResponse, Inc., www.verticalresponse.com today announced new social media sharing functionality within the VerticalResponse application which enables small business customers to easily share their email marketing content with popular social networks. The new social sharing feature allows customers to publish their emails to Twitter and Facebook, saving time and enabling to them get their message out to a wider audience. The new feature removes barriers to sharing content for those customers who are not already capitalizing on their social networks.

For Facebook users, virus could be this year’s Grinch

Main Street Biz: Main Street Biz encourages readers who use Facebook to be a bit more cautious when clicking on links and videos this Christmas season.  According to an article published on FOX News’ Web site, Internet users are being warned to watch out for a computer virus targeting popular social networking sites in the run up to Christmas.  The article cites reports that Facebook users are most at risk from a variant of the Koobface virus, which has been disguised as a festive greetings video hosted on a YouTube site.

The New Way to Meet People, Find Love and Have a Great Time Online

sparkle

Make New Friends

December 3, 2009 – The Sparkle social club will launch in mid-December 2009 and has been specially designed to make it easy for people to meet others with similar interests and join exciting groups where anything can happen. In the words of Andrew Hopwood, Sparkle’s Managing Director, “It’s a busy social club, it’s a lively chat forum, it’s a friendly coffee morning, it’s speed dating, it’s romance, it’s finding mates, it’s arranging events – it’s Sparkle!”