360PR Blog

By Amanda Gonzalez

Celebrities, fashion, speeches, kitschy musical numbers and Betty White (of course!) made up the 62^nd Primetime Emmy Awards last night hosted by Jimmy Fallon.  Aside from the usual elements of the glitzy show, another component was present in a big way this year – social media.

This year there were more options than ever to watch and interact with the awards show.  NBC utilized Facebook, Twitter, Ustream, yfrog, NBC.com, AccessHollywood.com, and Emmys.com to allow fans to catch exclusive content of the show and promote a conversation.

Fans were encouraged to send their best tweet about presenters via a special NBC.com website or using the hashtag #imontheemmys and Jimmy Fallon would read select tweets to introduce the presenters in a new twist to the veteran show.

While this was an innovative way to engage the audience, especially younger viewers, the execution was a little off.  Tweets such as “Tina Fey: I’d hit that” left something to be desired.  Hats off to the Emmy’s though for sparking that conversation on the social media site especially since, as of this post, some of the top trending topics for Twitter still include “Emmy Awards,” “Emmys” and big winner “Modern Family.”

The Emmy Awards didn’t just stop at Twitter, though.  Celebrity super-fans were also encouraged to go to UStream.com beforehand to catch a live stream of the red carpet and also during the show for a live backstage stream of the green room, makeup room, press room and more.

If that wasn’t enough, true celebrity stalkers could get their new computer background from yfrog where the website posted pictures of those A-listers who stopped by the yfrog Photo Booth and Ryan Seacrest streamed pictures & video from the red carpet.  Check them out here.

All of this new interaction may have also contributed to a slight rise in viewership this year as the show drew in 13.5 million viewers compared to last year’s 13.47.

So did you watch the Emmys last night? Did you tweet, watch the live backstage stream or checkout your favorite celebs photos?  Did you like the social media twist this year?  Leave your comments and let us know!

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Events and Conferences, FaceBook, Internet, Social Media by Admin - No Comments →

By Vanessa MacAulay

This week Facebook began implementing changes to company pages/tabs. If you are a brand on Facebook, the changes will impact you in a couple ways. Here’s the scoop:

1) Limited Tab Space

With the new design, a company/brand’s profile picture is prominently featured in the left hand navigation at all times. This means 1/3 less space on all custom tabs.

Brands should make sure that your tabs will fit within the new design by signing into your Company’s page (Facebook will automatically give you a preview of the new size of any page you administer). If your current tabs do not fit, you may have to re-design the tabs to the new specs.

Facebook's Old Tab Design vs New Tab Design

2) Prominent Profile Pictures

More than ever the Company’s profile picture is prime Facebook real estate, as the left hand navigation will be viewable to fans, no matter what tab they are on.

Make the most of it! Jazz up your brand’s profile picture with more than just a logo. Create a contest like Babies R Us and Dunkin Donuts. Or try adding a lifestyle shot like Victoria’s Secret Pink or J.Crew.

Sample Brand Profile Photos on Facebook

Facebook is keeping us on our toes! What changes will you make to your brand’s Facebook page given the new design?

Filed under: FaceBook, Social Media by Admin - No Comments →

By Lindsay Durr

Last Friday 360PR stepped out of the office for the afternoon to participate in its annual summer outing. The office was abuzz the day before with speculation about the mystery outing. Guesses ranged from F1 Racing and Trapezing to umm… “dance lessons” (suggested by Mike Rush, of course!). We assembled in the conference room early Friday afternoon and learned that we would become the chefs du jour at Taranta restaurant in Boston’s North End. Yum!

In true 360 team fashion, we scoured the streets of the North End for fresh, local and organic ingredients and then set up shop at Taranta where executive chef and owner Jose Duarte and team helped us cook a delicious four-course lunch including Caprese salad, homemade ravioli, chicken and pork, and tiramisu. We made fresh mozzarella, rolled out handmade pasta, stuffed pork loin, and whipped fresh mascarpone for the delicious dessert!

All in all, the outing left us full of great food and even better memories! I’m already wondering what’s in store for 2011!

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A few of us from 360PR attended the BlogHer 2010 session entitled, “The FTC Guidelines: After A Year, Has Anything Changed?” The panel included BlogHer’s co-founder and CEO, Lisa Stone, marketer Susan Getgood, blogger Kimberly Coleman and Stacey Ferguson from the FTC who discussed whether the Guidelines have had any significant impact on how marketers and bloggers do business.
 
The FTC endorsement guidelines became final in December 2009, and Stacey Ferguson said, “The point of the guidelines is to ensure that there is no deception in advertising, and to provide transparency to consumers.” The FTC Guidelines are just that – they are guidelines, not laws. There are no fines for violating the FTC guidelines, but transparency is always best practice. The guidelines are intended to help consumers, endorsers and brands.
 
The main takeaway from the session for bloggers was to be absolutely sure they are always being transparent – their readers should understand their connection to the brand.

The panel encouraged bloggers to think about it more as valuing their relationship with their readers.  If a blogger is endorsing a brand, the endorsement should be natural, clear and organic.

The FTC guidelines intentionally don’t tell bloggers how to make their disclosure because they want it to be in the blogger’s voice. Some suggestions:

• The best disclosure is always within context of the post or Tweet rather than at the end of a post or using a hashtag on Twitter that might not be clear, for example #sp (I didn’t know what that stood for and most consumers probably don’t either! #sp = sponsored post).
• There are three rules of thumb: make the endorsement clear, make it prominent and make it unavoidable.

The main takeaway for the brands was that at the end of the day it’s the brand’s responsibility to be sure endorsers are properly disclosing. Brands need to make it clear what they expect from their endorsers, but the disclosure should be in the blogger’s voice so it feels natural.
 
There seems to be some confusion regarding guidelines for traditional media versus bloggers, however, traditional media has always had to follow the same guidelines! The difference is that it’s about audience understanding. It is generally understood by the audience that traditional media is receiving products to review for free.

There was also discussion about celebrities and folks from the audience were wondering if celebrities get a free pass. Kim Kardashian has tweeted that she is craving a Carl’s Jr. salad. Even though she does receive a hefty $10,000 per sponsored tweet, the FTC called Kim Kardashian after she tweeted about the Carl’s Jr. salad to ask if she was contracted to do those tweets. The answer was no. Celebrities are not getting a free pass.

Do you think anything has changed after one year?

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Events and Conferences, Social Media by Admin - 1 Comment →

Bloggers felt the embrace of brands who planned out involving and playful interactions for them at BlogHer10. There was every manner of entertainment at the show, from happy mascots and hi-energy dance floors, to coloring stations and full-on hair salons!

At this year’s event in particular, I was struck by how many bloggers were turned into brand “spokespeople” right in front of my very eyes through highly creative and video-worthy stunts and campaigns.

In a nutshell, putting bloggers on camera talking passionately about a particular topic led to a whole lot of third-party endorsements for brands. On the flip side, bloggers didn’t seem to mind their starring role in the brand videos; in fact they seemed to welcome the opportunity to be on camera, bringing to mind the possibility of a future BlogHer Reality TV series?

Please read my short letters to the brands to learn why they were the video stand-outs, extending their brand through video in the most distinctive ways.

Dear Walmart,

You are very bright.

I applaud your focus on selling products that sustain people and the environment, and I admire that you knew it would be the perfect theme for BlogHer. I like how you took a page from the Grammy’s playbook by inviting bloggers who are passionate about the quality of life on our planet to tweet their “bright” ideas for creating a sustainable future, and then feeding their tweets in real time on the giant video screen at your booth for everyone to see.

You were also genius to offer a professional video booth for bloggers to record their ideas and share them on your YouTube page and sustainability site. Having dozens of female bloggers raving about sustainability on your website is an endorsement that means way more than any paid advertising. But you already knew that. It also didn’t hurt that you had super knowledgeable folks staffing your exhibit – they were all brilliant.

Sincerely,

Cindy

Hello Jimmy Dean,

You brought a lot of sunshine to BlogHer.

Apart from the fact that I love sausage breakfast sandwiches, who wouldn’t love meeting the “hot” celebrity from your famous Jimmy Dean commercials? As if that weren’t enough, having the chance to star in a video with the “Sun” was a marketing move that really made me melt.

In the other part of your booth galaxy, I enjoyed talking to the friendly Hillshire Farms Chef who happily took the time to make me a custom, savory sandwich. She also gave me the 411 on the “Fresh Taste Challenge Sandwich Showdown” hosted by Padma Lakshmi that had 16 bloggers competing Top Chef-style to become the champion. The really great twist in my opinion was inviting three elementary school kids to judge the goods and decide the winners (they loved the sandwich ka-bob!). Talk about great content for the Hillshire Farms YouTube site, not to mention that the 16 bloggers have most likely already streamed the video on their own blogs.

All the best,

Cindy

Dearest Yahoo! Shine,

You inspire me.

It’s really good news that you are dedicated to offering online advice and information to women, and you were very clever to extend your “You. Reinvented” brand campaign to BlogHer10. After all, what’s more inspiring than stories of women who are reinventing their lives?

I was spell-bound by your fashion news-room set-up where you invited bloggers to share their “reinvention” stories on camera. I was so enamored with the idea, that I decided that I must reinvent myself in time to participate in your video show at BlogHer11.

Good for you for not only curating the blogger videos on Yahoo!, you also smartly gave embeddable videos to each of the participating bloggers so they could easily share on their blogs too. The idea that one woman’s voice on one lone blog may not change the world–but together, they wield quite a bit of power with other women is very classy.

As ever,

Cindy

P.S. I would be remiss to not offer a shout-out to the Tempur-Pedic folks for being cheeky and dressing up in pajamas, and also for jumping on the video content bandwagon with their “Ask Me” professional photography booth.

That’s a wrap.

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Consumer Marketing, Digital PR, Events and Conferences, Green Marketing, Internet, Marketing to Moms, Social Marketing, Social Media, YouTube by Admin - 2 Comments →

360PR is out in full force at BlogHer this weekend (#360PR  , #BlogHer10) , as are dozens of brands showing off their wares and services to attendees.  Are you at BlogHer? If so, we want to know which brand/s you think are doing the best job of breaking through. Visit our Facebook page throughout the weekend to cast your vote in our poll!

Filed under: 360 Public Relations, Blogger Relations, Events and Conferences, FaceBook, Social Media by EliciaBasoli - No Comments →

What girl doesn’t love to flaunt her latest outfit from a shopping spree? How about creating an online video dedicated to reviewing and showing off her new wardrobe and posting it to YouTube for all to see? Welcome to the world of Haul videos, which have taken the web by storm.

What’s the big deal? These videos are the ultimate form of word-of-mouth, with trend-setters sharing their thoughts about specific products and dishing on the latest sales & discounts at stores. It’s no surprise that major retailers such as JCPenney and Forever 21 want a piece of the action.

Some retailers have even sponsored videos by sending gift cards to Haulers, for example. Urban Outfitters took it a step further with a UO HAUL: SHOP & TELL contest for the chance to win gift cards to the store.

There are even blogs dedicated solely to finding the best Haul videos, such as HaulVideos.net.

This Haul video, which was sponsored by Forever 21, has received over 1.2 million views alone!

Do you think Haul videos have more of an influence over young women than fashion magazines and television?

Filed under: Consumer Marketing, Internet, Retail, Social Marketing, Social Media by Admin - 1 Comment →