Hypertext

Text 100’s CEO Aedhmar Hynes recently posted on the Arthur Page Society’s Page Turner blog about the topic of trust and its relevance to leadership of an organization.  It’s a good read and makes some interesting points about the role of trust in today’s business climate.  Check it out.

Mattel’s iconic Barbie doll has launched a new career as a videographer and being the savvy diva she is, turned to Foursquare and Twitter to promote it.

On July 20th while on her summer vacation Barbie launched a Video Girl Scavenger Hunt to promote her latest career as the multi-media Video Girl Barbie doll across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York and used her social media assets to promote it.

Let’s take a look at her assets and how they were used: (more…)

Last week, Facebook hosted an event at its headquarters in Palo Alto, California. Communications pros from around the Bay Area, including myself, converged not only to get a peek inside the Wonka Factory of social media (Did you know employees get their laundry done for free? Well, they do!), but to learn how Facebook can be effectively used for marketing and public relations.

The event highlighted the growing importance of Facebook as much more than a way to share the minutiae of our daily lives with our “friends.” Today, thousands of brands use Facebook Pages as a way to engage and interact with their “fans.”  Among some of the most successful company pages are Starbucks, Coca-Cola and Zynga’s Texas Hold’em Poker (currently the #1 page on Facebook).

The event was broken out into three presentations by Facebook staffers, including Randi Zuckerberg (sister of Mark), who handles marketing for the social networking powerhouse. Attendees picked up insight about how Facebook uses Facebook for PR; how to use ads more effectively; and, how to enhance streaming video via the Facebook platform.

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Building brands and earning customer loyalty in the age of social media – this will be the subject of a discussion panel hosted by Text 100 Germany, at the international media conference Medienwoche@IFA.
Focusing on the opportunities and challenges presented by online branding, the debate will cover such questions as: Is it possible to manage brand development and loyalty in Web 2.0? Do brands still hold any significance for people? Who do brands belong to? And how can they be protected?

Research has shown a positive correlation between the time a business invests in its online presence and its success. A study of the world’s 100 most valuable brands, carried out by Text 100 and Context Analytics, showed that a business’s media presence can be responsible for approximately a quarter of its value. The 2008 Interbrand Best Global Brands Report found that 27 percent of the differences between brand values could be attributed to media presence. Considering the explosive growth of social media in recent years, this percentage is likely to increase in the future.

But this growth has opened up new questions: Is it even possible to manage a business’s media presence and image? With consumers’ influence on brand image expanding thanks to their new role as prosumers, how much power do they now wield?
Democratization of the Web is changing the way people form opinions. In the past conversations and topics were restricted to a consumer’s social circle. These days conversations are available for everyone to see and opinions are exchanged at a global level. We trust recommendations from digital friends, experts and celebrities more than businesses.

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I always thought I wanted to be a television reporter. It all started when Amber Lee, an anchor for the Bay Area network KTVU, came to visit my elementary school in the early 1990’s, and explained the ins and outs of her job to us. It sounded like the perfect gig – combining writing with being on television – a glamorous lifestyle.

Fast-forward almost fifteen years, and that dream was still very much alive – I thought I was going to be the next Katie Couric (or San Francisco’s own Amber Lee) when I graduated high school. Sports reporter? Maybe. Weathergirl? Possibly. Public relations account executive? Unlikely. I traded sunny California for the harsh winters at Syracuse University (go Orange!) – based on the school’s strong broadcast journalism program.

At my first broadcast journalism class – my first foray into the world of mass media – my professor drilled into my mind that there is no such thing as being “just” a reporter anymore. A reporter is much more than that: a photographer, story-teller and editor. While chasing people down for an interview in 10 degree weather (with a negative wind chill of course), I learned this fact the hard way. For local stations I was writing, editing, panicking and begging.  While a lot has changed in my three years since graduating, including my profession, my professor was right about one thing: the idea of being “just” a reporter is dead.

After holding down multiple internships at various television stations throughout the country and graduating Syracuse, I landed as a newscast writer at San Francisco’s NBC affiliate, KNTV. Although the hours were less than pleasant (2:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. each day!), I learned that even my title as newscast writer was not 100% accurate. Aside from writing dozens of stories each morning, I would personally pick the video that would accompany each story, write headlines (I’m now the queen of alliteration) and write for KNTV’s up and coming interactive Website.

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I love infographics. I really do. What am I talking about ? Well, this is how wikipedia defines the word infographics (or data visualization)

Information graphics or infographics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge. These graphics  present complex information quickly and clearly, such as in signs, maps, journalism, technical writing, and education.

I like this idea of processing information to make it visually appealing and sexy, making people being more intelligent after digesting it. Yes indeed, infographics isn’t new … but has been constantly underestimated or underused by the PR industry, while it has exploded all over the Internet in the past 5 years, thanks to passionnate designers. And at the era of Social Media, infographics are having a second youth. Hereunder is a quick round-up, along with some recommendations to keep in mind for using infographics in the world of communication.

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Facebook and MOL sign micropayment partnership

Facebook and Malaysia-based MOL Global today announced a partnership that  will broaden the social network’s asia-wide payment options.

Using the MOL Points micropayment system, Facebook users will be able to purchase Facebook’s Facebook Credit through MOL’s online portals or pay through more than 540,000 physical, online and mobile channels in 73 countries worldwide.

According to the press release, “Facebook Credits enable users to buy and spend virtual currency in more than 150 applications on Facebook from many leading developers, eliminating the frustration of having to enter payment details separately for each application. Every month, more than 70 percent of Facebook members engage with applications on Facebook Platform.”

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