Public Relations Princess

Twitter for Business: Can it really help?

As an avid Twitter user, I often get a quizzical look from people who don't use Twitter, when I try to explain how companies are using it to extend their brand and build their business. Having seen it with my own two eyes, I assure them that it can and does happen all the time. Sometimes I run out of the right words to explain and just give up.

One thing I know for sure...some companies really have no compelling reason to use Twitter. And that's ok. But for a vast majority of companies, Twitter presents a significant opportunity to present a brand presence in a unique and compelling way. If done properly, with respect paid to Twitter's culture and rules, companies like the Olde Main brewery can be noticed by hundreds of new customers.

Michael Stelzner over at Copyblogger has written a very thoughtful and significant piece on using Twitter for business. Give it a read and then answer this question: How will you evolve your communications strategy to include Twitter in 2009?

Social Media Trends for 2009

Trendspotting has done a great job wrangling some of social media's biggest names together to make the annual cattlecall of predictions. Some of them are fascinating, but most are simply the predictable, logical progression of what is already happening in the socialmediasphere.

Tell me what you think after reading the predictions, and have a safe, Happy New Year.

Social Media Influencers Predictions 2009 By Trendsspotting

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: social media)

Bad News on the Doorstep

When I was a kid, I loved the song "American Pie," by Don McLean. The phrase that I've always liked the best was, "Bad news on the doorstep, I couldn't take one more step." So today, when I read the news online (no longer on the doorstep), I couldn't help but think of those lines. Yesterday was a brutal day for jobs losses across the country, and it even hit my hometown. A few acquaintances and one good friend were among the casualties of the economy. 

   

It made me very thankful for my job and made me realize how interdependent we all are. I wonder if my grandkids will ever ask me, "Granny? What's a Chevy? And why did that man drive his 'Chevy to the levy'?"

Auto Company Bailout Public Relations

  Ford, GM and Chrysler have had their second pilgrimage to Washington D.C., proverbial hat in hand, asking Congress for a taxpayer-funded bailout for second time in as many weeks.

About a month ago, before the bailout talk began, I posted a tweet asking Ford Motor Company when they were going to build me a flex-fuel hybrid. Within a day, I was being followed on Twitter by none other than Scott Monty, Ford's social media guy. FordDriveGreen also started following me the same day.

When the auto bailout talks started and the auto company CEO's all showed up in Washington D.C. in their private corporate jets, people on Twitter were not keeping their opinions to themselves. Instead, they pretty much let Scott Monty how they felt. Me included.

At first, Scott defended the decision to arrive in corporate jets by citing Ford's proxy statement that all corporate executives are to use the corporate jet "for security reasons and to honor the exective's time." Whatever that means.

After they got some sense in them and arrived in hybrids two weeks later, Ford was tweeting a different tune, proudly announcing that CEO Mulally would be driving from Detroit to Washington.

The great thing about social media is that you can see people learning as they go along. In this case, the blogosphere and the Twitterverse responded to Scott and gave him crucial feedback, which he could then communicate back to the executives of Ford.