By John Whitcomb, Social Media Manager, Robin Leedy & Associates

At Robin Leedy & Associates, we are always reviewing the latest in social media/online tools for our clients, helping to assess what may be useful for a particular personal health (OTC) or beauty brand. Many new technologies and methods are emerging to help companies engage directly with their potential consumers…some will likely prove useful…others, just hype. Here are a few we have our eye on now:

Google Buzz

For businesses, Google Buzz is looking to become another social network – like Facebook and Twitter – where companies can find their customers (existing and new) and talk to them directly. One advantage to Buzz over the others is that since it has the Google powerhouse behind it, it will be indexed by the search engine and can help impact Google search results. One disadvantage is that in order to use the tool you have to be a Gmail subscriber, so it just means yet another email account to manage, etc. For a bit more info, you can check out this short demo of how the Buzz tool works:

Foursquare

This is a new, cool tool that uses “geotagging” to create local communities around stores, restaurants and other businesses. It works with a process called a “check-in,” which basically means the user is telling the system “I am at a certain location or I will be at a certain location.” The user is then able to search for other users (friends, colleagues, consumers) who have checked in at that location and read reviews and see comments from other users, or interact with them.

Each location /business receives a profile that can be updated with information and also show recent reviews from other users who have “checked-in.” This is obviously great for restaurants, stores and other permanent locations (e.g., Starbucks gives users who frequently check-in a badge labeled “Starbucks Barista” and offers them badge discounts and special offers at their locations), but clients doing special events, trade shows, etc. can use this technology for on-site communication to users in their temporary event market!

If you would like to discuss these new platforms or how to integrate them into your own marketing strategy, email us at jwhitcomb@robinleedyassociates.com or aomahoney@robinleedyassociates.com.

By Alyson O’Mahoney, EVP/Partner

I will admit it…I’m a Facebook junkie. However, I think because I approach this social network as both a marketer in the space (RL&A has created and continues to manage several successful Facebook pages for clients), and female/consumer/mom/wife/stalker, I find it so interesting to see what is going on in this space on both fronts. Yet, with all the cool ways you can use Facebook, what appeals to me about it as both a marketer and consumer is probably the simplest thing of all….how you can use it to build authenticity.

Since I’m using Facebook for our clients and I use it personally for connecting to friends/family/companies, I find that I’ve become a fan or friend of MANY brands, services, organizations, causes, etc., so I get lots of updates and shared content in my newsfeed on a daily basis. The ones that resonate most with me out of all of them are those that feel believable:

• Jillian Michaels, trainer on NBC’s The Biggest Loser (love that show), who I will swear on a stack of Bibles writes her own status updates (not her publicist or PR machine),
• Lady Gaga (who does her own Facebooking vs. her agent or record company)
• and, even, “the monkey” of our Anti Monkey Butt Powder page (www.facebook.com/antimonkeybutt).

There aren’t endless sales gimmicks posted to get you to buy Jillian’s latest fitness CD, or Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” on iTunes or cases of butt powder, but there are really voices communicating with fans of each of these brands, answering questions, reading comments, giving helpful info or just talking to you…like a friend….and isn’t that what Facebook started out to be?

It is hard to put an ROI on authenticity, but when it comes down to making choices in a cluttered consumer environment on Facebook (or at store shelves), I will listen to those brands who use their own voice (and, on occasion, plug their own products, but that’s okay, because they are my friend now…get it?).

So if you are thinking of doing a social media effort on Facebook, my advice to you is to be authentic, or, frankly, be quiet.

By Nicole Egan

With the growth of social media and digital communication, companies – whether they are actively participating or not — have to be attentive about their presence in cyberspace and become social media savvy in order to prevent a problem, or, address one.

Recently, some public incidents with social media made the “mainstream” news. Over President’s Day weekend, a passenger for Southwest Airlines was asked to leave a flight and buy a second seat because he was deemed “too large.” The passenger, who is a well known movie director, responded by angrily Tweeting about the situation and the company. Southwest Airlines addressed the problem on its blog and Twitter page, but the story made the headlines both on and offline.

Another example was Heinz, which suffered a brand hi-jack on Twitter. A man impersonated the brand on Twitter, created a Twitter page with a convincing handle (name), posted photos of the ketchup brand and tidbits about the company’s history, and linked to recipes on the company’s web site. He spoke positively about the brand in order to make it look like it was the brand’s voice.

After two weeks of tweeting, the man was contacted by Twitter that his twitter handle was in violation of trademark. Heinz had contacted Twitter about the impersonation, stating that they monitor the social media space and believe in transparency in social media. They believed that this twitter handle deceived their consumers, especially the Twitter followers, because he didn’t disclose that he wasn’t an official representative of Heinz.

Although, these incidents were negative for the companies, they were able to respond about the situations quickly. By utilizing the same tools, the companies were able to reach out to the same target audience who received these messages. This is an important lesson for any company about the power of social media. It’s important to monitor your company through every channel, whether it’s Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube, etc., and clear up any misconceptions or issues before it hurts the image of the company.

By Laura Giardina

When the new FTC rules were introduced in December 2009 regulating all bloggers and requiring them to disclose any products or services given in exchange for a blog post, we weren’t really too concerned. We actually embraced this level of transparency as a positive and very welcome contribution to social media practices. However, we were a bit worried that the new guidelines would dissuade bloggers from offering their services for product reviews.

With much delight we’re happy to say that since the FTC Guidelines were introduced, our relationships with bloggers keeps growing, enabling us to secure incredible, targeted product reviews for our clients with some of the most influential mom bloggers and vloggers – all with full disclosure. Because of our growing success since the new guidelines were introduced, I wasn’t surprised by the findings in a new survey of mom bloggers recently posted on MediaPost. According to the new survey of 130 influential mom bloggers, not much has changed since the new guidelines; they are still accepting the same number of sponsored product reviews and the number of brands or agencies pitching them sponsored product reviews has remained about the same, as well.

While we make every effort to follow the new guidelines, it’s amazing to us when we see social media campaigns and bloggers still tempting the system and not complying to the new rules; however, rest assured, the RL&A staff prides itself on following these guidelines and will not work with bloggers who are not willing to follow the new guidelines. But I have to say, as a PR executive who executes blogger outreach on a daily basis, I find there are very few bloggers who aren’t following the new guidelines, which is why I don’t think much has changed. Mom bloggers are excited to review products and can be a trusted resource for both the brands they review and their ever-growing audience of consumers.